Thank You @runawaymun For This Inspired Idea

People I met for a few moments that live in my head forever.

Ok, Childe as a wuxia/xianxia trope. It's honestly a bit embarrassing how well this fits.

(blame @a-yarn-of-purple-prose for this post and if anyone here is a wuxia fan feel free to correct me, I'm new to the genre)

Wuxia is a Chinese martial arts fantasy genre you are all familiar with. An adjacent genre is called xianxia, "immortal heroes", it ramps all the fantasy elements up to eleven and skews tropes a bit (we'll get back to that).

A common trope is some kind of unorthodox school/sect or technique, allowing to achieve greater power without the usual decades of training. It could be straight-out evil or just revolving around chaos.

Such a martial school is usually called an evil/demonic sect (sect is more like a clan in that setting, not the modern concept of sect) and their techniques tend to drive practitioners to insanity. Either because they are inherently corrupting or because getting too much power without growing as a person is really not the best thing for your mental health. They are also often cast from hp points.

And then there's the archetype of a demonic sect heir. The best pupil or simply someone who has inherited a lost art. Proud, always greedy for more strength, often noble in some weird way.

*points to our calamity of a boy*

Common elements of such stories include:

Falling into some weird realm or meeting a weird person who teaches the hero a Forbidden Technique

Learning a technique too quickly through some sort of magic/alchemy/memory manipulation

Some people are so singular in their pursuit they become insane (走火入魔)

Ambition bad, loyalty and family good

Conflicting loyalties, generally a conflict between a chosen path and personal weaknesses/attachments (could be both ego and familal love, and this is more of a xianxia trope)

Fits like a horoscope so far but wait.

There's a very interesting case of Korean murim genre (their version of wuxia) where sects are less varied (I recommend this post for a basic introduction) and we get three paths:

Justice/Righteous/Orthodox/Light — theoretically they keep the Evil Faction at bay, and protect innocent people, but usually are corrupt to the core

Evil/Unorthodox/Dark — these try gaining as much power as possible and attempt ruling the whole world

Demonic Cult — usually dont take part in evil and justice battles, follow their own code of conduct based on their religion, value strength above all else.

(I'm sure there's a similar distinction in wuxia too, I just can't find it in the deluge of lore)

"Demonic" is closer to "pagan" or "heathen" than Christian idea of demonic here, their beliefs are often based on Zoroastrianism and worshipping a sacred flame. Do you remember all the Persian themes used for Khaenri'ah? And Surtalogi being the flame on Surtr's sword in Norse mythology. I also had the impression that Genshin gnostic references are based on the Zoroastrian-flavoured branch of Gnosticism.

In murim the trope of demonic sect heir is called "heavenly demon" (I believe, a more correct translation would be "supreme heathen"), they are utterly badass, live for the glory of battle, seem more like forces of nature and follow a very strict honour code often conflicting with normal human ethics.

(do I need to spell it out)

TvTropes also says this about Korean stories:

(do I need to spell it out pt.2)

I'm not sure why a Chinese studio would focus on the Korean version of this trope but I'm sure something like this exists in China as well or maybe there's a popular manhwa that inspired authors.

Xianxia extends the fantastic element further, focusing on Taoist concepts and practices and adding all kinds of magical realms (celestial, demonic, etc) and magical beings and making immortality achievable. I still need to read more about it but if I understand that right, demonic heir trope turns into a demon prince in this case. An actual visitor from the demon realm or a practitioner who achieved immortality through dubious means.

These are fae-coded in a way very similar to Childe and have a certain nonchalance towards things most humans would consider traumatic. They are simply not bothered by them, having a different set of morals or faring from a realm that is much worse.

Our boy isn't that (he's still very much human) but he's aesthetically coded like one, same as Scaramouche is yokai-coded, despite not being a yokai.

So. When people say Childe's arc is a reference to Journey to the West, it's not entirely untrue, JttW is the classic of xianxia genre and Childe does belong to the same genre. He, however, is not Sun Wukong but a different, darker trope.

This also explains why he has that "shonen anime protag but not quite" vibe. Shonen was heavily influenced by wuxia but this trope never quite made it to anime or maybe never became popular enough. It's not a deconstruction, it's a different story. Or perhaps a deconstruction of that different story.

happy birthday my baby boy 🤭✨

This is so wholesome

Oh Ive been waiting to ask (but mostly just ramble tbh) how do you think Andrew would react to a flirt reader in the graveyard pre manor who writes poems for him since he's their muse, I think he would be very moved but also extremely shy and kind of lost on how to react.

They geniunly see a unique type of beauty in him and honestly who WOULDNT, because when youre looking for inspiration and something catches your eyes, theres no stopping. With his red eyes similar to roses or rubies, his skin as pale and shiny as the moon above the skies that sometimes wants to shy away behind coouds just like him, his blonde hair resembeling the ones in the paintings of angels and so on.... They would love to smother him in compliments since the poems never stop coming to him and they get more creative every single time, finding a new detail about him but also disclosing information about them, to let Andrew know that their feelings are sincere and hopefully reciprocated....

Andrew my love I am coming for you

Ngl i love that pls show him body worship!

I love the idea of falling in love in the most unlikely of places or times. In this case, the classic how Morticia and Gomez met lol both going to funeral.

Andrew, from wht i learned is like five layers deep in ground trying to protect himself from the world. He probably thinks this is just another attempt to mock him or berate him.

It will take time but also he is wondering why you hangout at the graveyard. Always at a funerals, you are very strange yet instead of being closed off or hateful, you are /you/. A strange you, a you who keeps their head up despite the whispers or the attempts to outcast you.

The next time he sees you, you at a grave he buried not to long ago, month or two ago. Wiping the grave, cleaning it as you talk to whoever is buried there. Fresh flowers. They call you strange but he is learning you pay respect to the dead. This belief of "those who pass on truly die when they are forgotten" is what you tell him. Andrew stands by claiming he is just supervising, it not safe here all alone.

Slowly, there is a bond between you both. He still gets flustered when you flirt or compliment him. The letters you sent are hidden in the floorboards to be read again over and over when alone. He can smell the perfume/cologne on those letters.

what if the abyss order made memes to wish death on archons like we do for modern day war criminals? (ft memes by me and @twoswords)

Finally debuting my telemachus design 🙏

Little Wolf basically :

my taste in crossover ship is ivan x fem!childe

I've gotta eat this pop tart fast

so I don’t fall aslee