i dont have the yelling app where people yell about their opinions (twt) but I remembered this app so I'm just gonna complain here
I HATE THE FACT THAT WEBTOON ADDED REELS OR VIDEOS OR WHATEVER. I am on webtoon to read COMICS. if I wanted videos I would BE ON THE VIDEO APPS. and also this stupid app is insanely greedy and screws over creators and yet it's still the only app that offers almost all their series accessible for free. with waiting. but still. other webcomic apps are mostly paid content so it's hard to find anything good to read and follow.
man. I just. miss when webtoon was so much better of a site/app. I swear every single new feature or UI update makes it worse
TIL the reason you don’t find much Lyme’s Disease in California is not because we don’t have Ticks, or Lyme Disease Vectors; but rather: because the Western Fence Lizard (if you live anywhere in California this is your regular Garden Variety Lizard) has adapted a passive immune response that makes their blood lethal to Lyme Disease Bacteria. Any Tick that feeds on one gets its gut cleansed of Lyme Disease as a side effect.
There is a new vaccine going into Phase 3 trials from Valneva and Pfizer as well as a monoclonal antibody-based prophylactic treatment being researched at UMass!
we have to make more women suffer in fiction but crucially not in a man pain way. we have to let women suffer in fiction the way men are always allowed to suffer in fiction. we need women who grieve their male love interests always dying horribly at the hands of the villain of the week the way male action heroes always do. we need women who suffer in ways other than "dying in childbirth" and "abusive male relative". we need women with interiority and depth of character having the worst time of their fucking lives.
woman that goes on revenge quest to avenge the death of her husband
woman that goes on a quest and nearly loses herself and her morality fighting through brutal life and death obstacles to rescue her husband from villains
women who grieve husband with "he made me softer and I'm not the same without him" and is now colder and crueler
I personally think the DNI should be replaced with a WNI (Will Not Interact), instead of trying to police who touches your public posts, it instead just gives a heads up of who you won’t be interacting with. Like, “Jsyk, if I see you in my notes you’re getting blocked and if you try to talk to me directly you’re not getting an answer, but I won’t go out of my way to scream at you for existing cuz I have a life”
the epidemic of grown adults playing tiktoks at full volume in public is rampant why are you acting like a 7 year old with their first ipad you have a mortgage
one guy was facetiming his sister, she was in Texas for work and I know this because they were yell-talking at each other. This went on for a few minutes so I got up, walked over and sat down in the chair next to him an asked if she was staying hygrated as I heard Texas can get really hot in the summer and that it looked like she has a bit of a sun burn.
The two of them were flabergasted. And the guy said "what are you doing???"
So I was like. "....well you included me in this call and I'm just worried about your sister."
He goes "Im having a PRIVATE conversation!"
So I goes "If it was private then how the hell do i know youre talking to your sister who is in texas on a business trip?"
Ultimately im not sure he really got the point but he lowered the volume because now he's worried about creeps like me listening to his conversations but at least he's behaving now even if he doesnt understand why
I literally did this to someone. She was listening to very very descriptive erotica on the beach at max volume. So I walked over, sat down next to her, and asked her to catch me up on the plot I'd missed. When she asked what the hell I was doing I said "oh I thought this was like a book club thing? Since you're playing it at full volume on a crowded beach?" She suddenly remembered she did in fact bring headphones and was willing to use them. She kept looking at me like I was a lunatic for the rest of the time she was there but it was probably the funniest thing I'd ever done
(From Jiaozi's Nezha doodle celebrating the 2.6 billion record on 2/2.) *In CN, it's common to say "my tendon pulled!" when you get a cramp in your limbs.
Translation:
Ao Bing: My leg cramped! [literal translation: My leg pulled (its) tendon!]
Fish Demon: NEZHA PULLED OUT THE THIRD PRINCE'S TENDONS!!!!!!!!
Literally the day after I published this post, new developments cropped up in the Nezha 2 fandom :D I thought it best to wait and see if anything ELSE could happen before updating this. Thankfully, I waited because things did happen. They sure did happen! So I'm popping in out of retirement (again) for one (1) day (again) to update this before the first fandom writeup becomes completely out of date. I appreciate all the interest given to the previous writeup and I'd feel bad for leaving it outdated for everyone that supported it! So here's part 2 to catch you up on what's happening deep in Nezha 2 fandom.
4-5 weeks in, and we have already have new shipping lore, shipping stat updates, and new fuel for the Ao Guang discourse battles. And it's somehow just as long as writeup part 1 🤣
Guangying shippers have apologized to everyone they harassed, acknowledged the error of their ways, and now get along well with fans of other ships...NOT. Click below to see updates on fandom lore, Ao Guang discourse, doubling down, conspiracy theories, drama in the Nezha cosplay world, and a total lack of self reflection from guangying fans ft. more images and links than last time
Obligatory disclaimers again:
This is NOT about the people who happened to watch the movie, the people who are just interested in box office stats, the people who really enjoyed the movie, or the people who just really admire Nezha. This will be about the fandom fandom, the truly invested, the brainrot (affectionate) in its purest unfiltered form. This is a post about brainrot for those also suffering from brainrot.
This is a collection of patterns mainly from lofter, but also from douyin, weibo, bilibili, and xhs. I don't know how to warn for some of the things mentioned here, so just a blanket note of caution- if you read on, you are prepared to see anything and everything. If you are OK with all this, then- let’s go!
PART 2 HERE WE GO:
Firstly, the general fandom is as creative as ever, and everything you can think of (and more!) has been written/drawn/discussed by somebody somewhere. I've seen Shiji Niang Niang bring Shen Xiaobao back to life, I've seen Ao Bing studying for the TOEFL, I've seen a Jane Eyre AU fanfic for Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao, I've seen Taiyi go on a diet, I've seen 1979 Nezha transmigrating into the 2019/2025 world, etc. etc.
The Lu Tong meme is also not even a meme anymore- lots of people seem to genuinely believe that randomly spamming any and all content featuring Lu Tong/He Tong with paragraphs of praise will result in them granting their wishes. So that's why you'll come across lots of comments with phrases like: "Lu Tong is the manliest of all men, the most powerful of all celestials, the strongest deer... please Master Lu Tong, grant me a raise from my boss."
Also, I didn't include these extremely cursed memes last time because I felt that they might cause people to die. BUT since everyone was strong enough to survive writeup part 1, I think you've proven yourselves strong enough to see these in writeup part 2--behold! Popular FAMILY GUY NEZHA edits:
These cursed images are popular enough that multiple people have made them their profile pics. That's not even the end of it...
Not only that, the fandom has also made "fusion" edits of the characters in the vein of the Nezha/Ao Bing fusion we saw in canon (as in, a Taiyi/Nezha fusion exists). If you wondered what things would be like if 1) Nezha possessed Ao Bing instead or 2) Shen Gongbao never stole the spirit pearl, wonder no further! Here is the answer:
Next, congratulations to lubao for completing the transformation from surprise crack ship to third most popular pairing in the fandom (4 and 5 probably go to Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao [longwangbao] or lutong/hetong [luhe] depending on the platform). Coincidentally, lubao is now no. 3 trending on weibo (Update: was no. 3 trending in March, no longer the case; dilong and oubing are the only ships remaining in the top 10), beating out dilong. Professional cosplayers are also doing lubao cosplays for clout (to 10K+ likes on bilibili and even 100K+ likes across douyin, etc.). They even have their own animatics now. -> Every individual (main) character and ship has plenty of animatics; if you want to see them, just add the word "手书" (hand book) after whatever subject you're searching for. EX. For oubing animatics, just search for 藕饼手书, and many many will come up.
The lubao lore has also expanded since Feb.:
In Nezha 1, Shen Gongbao told Ao Bing he can teach him how to hide his horns in public. Lu Tong, as a deer, should also have antlers (as shown by his demon/animal form), but doesn't! This clearly means that Shen Gongbao taught Lu Tong how to hide his antlers with the same method he offered for Ao Bing.
Fans noticed that Lu Tong's eyes are brown in deer form, but as a human, his eyes are green- specifically, the exact same shade of green as Shen Gongbao's. They believe it means Lu Tong purposely turned them green because he took inspiration from Shen Gongbao's appearance.
EDIT: I'm adding a correction to the above. Lu Tong's eyes are the same shade in deer form and human form. AKA inexplicably the same color as Shen Gongbao's.
They also noticed that in the post-credits, Wuliang and He Tong didn't seem to know where the underground prison was. Lu Tong guided them over. They believe this means Lu Tong was the one who brought Shen Gongbao into the prison and tied him up in the first place.
You can make the assumption that Shen Gongbao, Ao Bing, and Lu Tong all have the same hairstyle. Why? Because Shen Gongbao combed Ao Bing's hair (with the approval of Lu Tong's #2 enemy, Ao Guang), and he previously combed Lu Tong's hair. Out of love/obsession for him, Lu Tong has kept that same style. And now this is yet another thing Ao Bing STOLE from Lu Tong!
As of 3/9, Jiaozi put out this drawing of Shen Gongbao riding a leopard while acting as captain of the demon hunting team (to celebrate Nezha breaking the 14.6 billion record at the box office):
Since Lu Tong had that exact same pose, while also riding an animal from the same species, lubao fans took this to mean Lu Tong was again trying to copy everything Shen Gongbao did because he's just that obsessed with him.
As for fanon expansion, there is now a version of He Tong who is not only aware of Lu Tong's obsession, but also supports, abets, and contributes to his actions because she too felt abandoned by their shi shu. Now Shen Gongbao can never leave them again! Theirs forever! Too bad that pesky Ao Bing keeps getting in the way and doing annoying things like "saving his master" and "having morals."
And a little round of applause for Shen gonggong too for going from cartoon villain barely anyone cared about to earning the highest honor in fandom--becoming the resident whump angst pain machine. This was unofficial in the previous writeup, but now it's safe to call it official! You know his poor meow meow status is cemented when the average SGB-centric fsyy crossover is now, "Wuliang and his disciples torture the cultivation out of Shen Gongbao, seal his powers, and give him to King Zhou to do as he pleases. The royal court proceeds to treat him as some kind of party animal, all while using and abusing whatever's left of him-" (paragraph 1 of 100)
The average pre-canon story is also, "everyone except Taiyi tortures and mistreats Shen Gongbao at Yuxu Gong-" He's an alcoholic in these too, and he hates himself, and he's depressed and (insert any form of trauma here, he has it)- Someone said that they knew Shen gongong was doomed (by the fandom) the moment he showed up like That in the easter egg scene, and I think that person had the gift of prophecy.
Now for the main event! Dilong, Aobing Zhuan, and the reaction (or lack thereof) of Guangying shippers:
Yes, that's Jim from The Office. The above is a circulating meme made by disgruntled dilong shippers.
Translation:
If you look like this
("Nezha 2" Ao Guang) Your husband doesn't look like this
("The Sons of the Dragon" Ao Guang) Your husband looks like this
*The Sons of the Dragon is a nickname (derogatory) for Ao Bing Zhuan because detractors think it focuses on all of Ao Guang's sons except Ao Bing
I'm not too familiar with Aobing Zhuan itself, so if you or your loved ones know more about the storyline or drama, please feel free to tack onto this post with your own links, writeups, and/or input!
Dilong fans finally had Enough of the nonstop harassment and put together gigantic takedown posts on why Aobing Zhuan sucks, featuring citations, side by side images, and so on.
In addition to accusing the author of using Yinglong as a self insert, they also accused Yinglong of being a genderbent version of Ao Guang (as he used to be drawn in Dilong fanart back in 2019). They pointed out that the author modeled toddler Ao Bing after her own goddaughter instead of his image in the movie. Said author has also gone on record saying Ao Bing is the "least charming" of Ao Guang's sons. Aobing Zhuan gave Ao Bing a healthy number of friends as part of the supporting cast too; when readers asked how this is possible if his first and only friend is Nezha, the author said "The friends are dead, so they don't count!"
The receipts also tell us that even though Ao Guang (and his siblings) made Ao Bing's coat in canon, Aobing Zhuan credited that to Yinglong. His martial arts also came from Yinglong, even though everyone knows it came from Shen Gongbao. And it gets deeper-- as the story goes on, Ao Bing has less and less screentime and barely any "cool" moments. The story becomes completely about his older brothers (specifically his second eldest brother, Ao Yi), while all canon characters are ignored or shafted. It also goes wild with epic wars, battles, and subplots that the movie never even mentioned.
This leads to the fandom nicknaming Aobing Zhuan "OC Zhuan" (and yes, they are using OC the English way. This is not the Tale of Aobing, this is the Tale of Original Characters not even made by Jiaozi). Another nickname is "The Tale of Ying" not because Yinglong herself has that much screentime, but because ABZ fans have spent so long harassing literally everybody else in the fandom while using her as an icon and constantly saying "look, you've made yinglong sad" "how disgusting of you to split up such a loving couple" "you're not allowed to ship anything besides the canon couple" etc. etc.. while spamming fans of literally every other Ao Guang ship with pictures of Yinglong.
Even in non-shipping content involving Ao Guang and Ao Bing, they'll constantly talk about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother and how totally important she is to them + the story. Guangying shippers have also constantly used a mother's day screenshot (of the official Nezha account wishing Yinglong happy mother's day with an image of her and Ao Bing in ABZ) as proof that she's officially married to Ao Guang, and you are therefore NOT allowed to ship him with anyone else, including yourself. It turns out that screenshot doesn't exist- the Nezha weibo never posted it. Guangying shippers faked the image.
Someone even asked deepseek (or baidu?) who Yinglong is and it said, "Yinglong is Ao Guang's father!" (incorrect btw, but this is proof that yinglong has no mythological connection to Ao Guang anyway). Fans also noticed that Aobing Zhuan- despite having a physical publication- wasn't featured at all in Nezha 2 merchandise. Instead, there's a cute picture book featuring parts of little Ao Bing's childhood (with NONE of ABZ's events).
The book is called "Memories of the Three Realms" 《哪吒·三界往事》and contains little stories about the entire cast before the events of the movies. This book was promoted as part of Nezha 2's merchandise, so it's safe to consider it a direct tie-in with the franchise. Noticeably, Ao Bing's family in the book consists of only himself, his father, his master, his aunt, and uncles. No brothers, no mother.
So TLDR, Aobing Zhuan "fell apart" in the fandom's eyes because:
It directly defies canon ideas and events
Guangying shippers faked screenshots to make it look like the Nezha team acknowledged ABZ more than it actually did
The art style is "ugly" (imho, it's less that it's ugly and more that it's very off model when it comes to canon characters and just doesn't fit Nezha's art style)
ABZ constantly puts down Ao Bing/Ao Guang/Shen Gongbao in order to elevate its OCs
Ao Guang doesn't like Ao Bing very much in ABZ
The author doesn't care about Ao Bing and was only using his name for clout; the author exclusively only loves Ao Yi
Yinglong is the author's self insert and arguably a plagiarized version of dilong!Ao Guang. Ao Yi has also been accused of being a plagiarized design of dilong!Ao Guang. (imo, not so sure about how valid these particular accusations are because all three designs are commonplace throughout all xianxia art)
Ao Yi, Ao Jia, and Yinglong (Ao Bing's brothers and mother) are fanmade OCs and might not even have those same names if they appear or come up in the movies
ABZ attempted to make a love interest for Ao Bing, but backtracked after backlash from oubing fans
The Nezha team seems to want nothing to do with it
The takedown was brutal. The rest of the fandom, specifically the confused people who had no idea why other fans were going on and on about Ao Guang's wife (who does not appear in the films) and closet dilong shippers, went, "Hey, ABZ does suck!" Why did it take so long for them to notice it sucked? General consensus is that because the comic was not very good in the first place so nobody talked about it or noticed it. Now they notice because 1) guangying shippers shoved it in everyone's face 2) guangying shippers/ABZ fans bullied literally Everybody else in the fandom
Then overnight, the fandom turned on ABZ and all its OCs. Now it's considered #cringe to like Yinglong, Ao Yi, and Ao Jia. People regretted paying for the comics, people tried get it refunded, and people apologized to dilong fans for hating on them based on falsely believing they were "splitting" a canon couple (and not because idk, harassing strangers over cartoons is rude??).
Regardless, everyone who secretly enjoyed dilong now came out to openly enjoy it. Dilong rose to #3 trending on several platforms, and dilong shippers rejoiced for finally being vindicated after literally 5 years of harassment. I mean pretty offensive and terrible harassment (CW terminally online fandom harassment methods): mass reporting, being accused of being degenerates, being accused of being uNpAtriOtIC, being accused of TrEAson, being told they should have died in their mothers' wombs, getting doxxed and suicide baited. Multiple dilong authors and artists were bullied into deactivating. The harassment got especially bad after Nezha 2 came out, so-
The tables turning on Guangying shippers can only be divine karma at work. Now in videos of people bashing dilong shippers, you can see comments saying, "hey op you dropped your clown nose!" and "get with the times, OC Zhuan fell from grace." Unfortunately, this drama has led to collateral damage in the form of-
Drama in the cosplay world:
However, there are lots of big name cosplayers doing Yinglong and Guangying cosplays. These people spent Big Money on their costumes. Now they're being told that ABZ has "fallen apart" and Yinglong was just somebody else's OC this entire time. Yinglong cosplayers feel personally victimized and don't know what to do with their costumes now.
To add fuel to the fire, fans have been insulting Yinglong cosplayers in the comment sections of their videos. Ao Yi cosplayers are facing a similar dilemma. Which leads to-
Yinglong fans react + Dilong fan conspiracies:
You'd think this would lead to some self reflection on the part of Guangying fans or an apology to their victims or maybe some attempt to be on better behavior. But why do that when it's easier to double down and play victim!
ABZ fans and Guangying shippers now believe themselves to be the biggest victims in the fandom. They feel that the takedown was made in bad faith and several points don't even line up-- Yinglong doesn't resemble dilong!Ao Guang that much, Yinglong is not the author's literal self insert, the spinoff is still canon, Ao Guang loves his son very much in ABZ too and those calling him a cold father in ABZ are pulling panels out of context, etc. They think they shouldn't be judged just for enjoying a comic and multiple people have called on Jiaozi to step in and acknowledge the Drama. Indeed, they shouldn't be judged or harassed for liking Yinglong or ABZ.
But I'd feel more sorry for them if they didn't spend the past month bullying and lying to literally everybody in the fandom, ranging from spamming all Ao Bing content with guangying comments to threatening Ao Guang x anyone else shippers with physical violence. Even on the notes of the last writeup, we have firsthand accounts of their cyberbullying:
^This is the kind of thing guangying fans do on a regular basis. (I'm so sorry they harassed you over something so stupid! All 6 of them owe you a kowtow and apology.)
The Drama continues:
According to dilong fans, ABZ and guangying fans have gone quiet but not gone away. They've changed tactics and can now be spotted on random Ao Guang content commenting, "I wonder who Ao Guang's wife is! I'm so curious!" and on Ao Bing content saying, "Oh I bet Ao Bing misses his mother and brothers so much." This is allegedly an attempt to get new fans to ask them about Ao Guang's wife and Ao Bing's mother/brothers + an attempt to do damage control for ABZ now that it's uncool to mention it publicly. Personally, I think the dilong fans are right about this theory. Makes perfect sense to me, especially given everything else ABZ fans have done so far.
Next, tying back to the cosplay drama, dilong fans believe the people attacking Yinglong cosplayers are guangying fans masquerading as dilong fans. These guangying fans are hoping to harass enough people for something major to happen (conveniently taking the heat off of ABZ). Then the wider media will report on cosplayers being harassed by dilong fans, resulting in the wider public going "Nezha fangirls are so scary!" resulting in cancellation of Nezha ships (specifically dilong) altogther in a complete repeat of 227 (the date in which Xiao Zhan fans mass reported AO3 over a real person fic, resulting in the AO3 ban in China and the ensuing backlash that caused the absolutely most nightmarish time of poor Xiao Zhan's life). Is this there truth to this theory? I have no idea, but wilder things have happened.
And lastly, no, Fei Wo Si Cun (established web novelist that published a dilong mpreg fanfic on main, as mentioned in the previous writeup) has not acknowledged the Ao Guang discourse drama at all. Jiaozi and the rest of the Nezha team have also not said a peep despite guangying shippers' desperate attempts to reach them.
Update to add: there was ALSO some fight between solo!Nezha stans and solo!Ao Bing stans on weibo. It didn't have that big of an influence, but was certainly an Online event.
And that's the end of the ride for now. Nezha 2 is still playing in theaters. Nobody knows what will happen once it hits STREAMING :D after all, 命由我不由天!
BONUS update: Believe it or not, there's a part 3 now !?
ok. hi. I've been overthinking about this for days since I first read this post an entire week ago and I need to get this stuff off this chest or I will explode.
First of all, the context about me— I've read aobing zhuan. at first I tried reading an english translation which was incomplete- so I went to look for the og chinese version, which I could read maybe 60-70% of the Chinese and I had to constantly look up hanzi.
also, I grew up in the west. when nezha 2 came out, I was on bilibili, and some parts of weibo, but it was mostly looking at art or watching videos; I rarely read text posts or even comments closely bcuz it's hard for me to understand the Chinese. and obviously this also meant I never looked for any CN fanfic. I mostly just enjoyed oubing content as well as random funny or memey content.
anyway. with that said— I never saw all of this discourse. I never saw character hate, or ship hate. I had NO idea all of this was going on the whole time. and finding out that aobing zhuan, which I genuinely enjoyed at the time (more on that later; I did have points to dislike but overall I liked it) was so hated was bizarre to me. y'know now that I think about it it reminds me of when I first watched the star wars prequels I loved them because I loved Anakin and then I later found out everyone fvcking hated the prequels. and Anakin.
This is me this past week with Aobing Zhuan, and Ao Yi, who was my fav bcuz he's SO Pretty, and now apparently everyone just hates the whole thing and all the "OCs" in it???
the one thing I did remember disliking was that in the 2nd part (the manhua was separated into 3 parts) I kinda lost the plot and had barely any idea what was going on lmao. I thought that was cuz I couldn't fully understand the chinese but maybe it really was just super convoluted. it wasn't even about Ao Yi; we didn't even KNOW about Ao Jia yet, and it certainly was hardly about Ao Bing.
HOWEVER. the one thing that I DID love and mentally cemented as canon, was Ao Bing's brothers' backstories. I kinda wanna avoid spoilers (I do kinda recommend people go read it; like it doesn't take that long to binge and you can decide for yourself if it's good or bad instead of just hearing ppl claim it's bad). but anyway, they wrote it in such a way that got both his brothers out of the way to explain why they aren't in the movies. however it's set up so that they could totally come back at a later point. after finishing Nezha 2 I was really hopeful that the 3rd movie would have Ao Yi and Ao Jia because Nezha 2 introduced Jinzha and Muzha, albeit very briefly.
uhhh if anyone does want to know the actual backstory I might try to include it in a read more if I can figure out how to do that on tumblr.
but first, one more thing— I wanted to mention a movie detail that these posts have missed; I've seen people point out that apparently Ao Yi's dragon form IS in Nezha 2, wrapped on one of the posts; and apparently Ao Guang even helped protect him during that climax trapped in cauldron scene. The provided videos/images were pretty blurry so I can't be sure if they're just reaching but it did look like him from the manhua.
This, to me, makes me want to believe: it's possible that jiaozi/ the movie canon, will in fact take SOME of ABZ to be canon. Or at the very least, I DESPERATELY hope so— I hope he'll take Ao Yi and Ao Jia's backstory as canon, or at the very least the character designs themselves, and have them appear in the 3rd movie, PLEASE.
Not only does it make very little sense for Ao Bing to not have brothers at all because his WHOLE thing is that he's the 3rd son, and they kept that with Nezha being the 3rd son so why would they randomly make Ao Bing suddenly the only son?
I don't care as much about whether Ao Bing's mom (Yinglong) is canon or not, because it doesn't really affect much; also it's not like the three of them ever had a mom figure in the classic myths either. Dragons could reproduce asexually I guess, I dunno. Anyway, I'm just neutral about Yinglong overall; if she's canon, ok; if not, ok.
BUT AO YI AND AO JIA. I WILL TRY TO DESCRIBE THEM BELOW; and btw this stuff supposedly took place HUNDREDS of years before Ao Bing was even born so it could make total sense why his brothers aren't around and then appear in 3rd movie.
okay so keeping in mind I barely remember this and I may be misremembering and there's probably inaccuracies:
there was the war thing between the demons and the heaven people right??? so, Ao Jia liked humans and tried to help them. warm and sunny personality. Ao Yi used to be rather cold personality and was a strict general in the undersea armies or something. then something happened and the two of them fought over these differences and they tried to trick Ao Jia into?? something??? I forgot why lmao. but it went very wrong because of some… weird water currents area. anyway Ao Jia was BELIEVED to be dead but actually he was rescued by some woman who was upset about her baby brother getting killed (I think from heaven's soldiers??) so she forced Ao Jia to take on the identity of her little brother. oh right and also Ao Jia lost all his memories because of the injuries. also his longjiao (dragon horns) were cut off and taken by that girl. they also made him look completely different somehow so that he actually looked like that woman's little brother instead of blond and stuff.
anyway meanwhile Ao Yi supposedly had some sort of magic where he could go into other people's bodies (like… soul swapping or soul moving ability or something to do with souls). so he'd leave behind his dragon body which was stuck on the pillars like everyone else and he'd be the only one capable of moving about outside the dragon palace where all the dragons are stuck in. so he'd report back to his father about stuff. supposedly he also helped raise Ao Bing but since ppl say this contradicts with canon it could be taken out.
But anyway the important part is that apparently after moving between bodies too many times his soul was "too shattered" to wake up again so now he's just sleeping/unconscious in the body and "piecing together his soul" or something.
OH right back to Ao Jia. after a whole bunch of really convoluted events in ABZ, they find out that woman's little brother is actually not related to her at all and just amnesiac Ao Jia who's been forcibly disguised; but also they definitely confirm it's Ao Jia because only a pure dragon could uhh get past this barrier or something and/or Ao Guang recognized his scent and/or he bled golden blood or SOMETHING; blablah plot reasons prove he's really Ao Jia. so Ao Jia is like oh what I'm really Ao Jia?? wow; I should go traveling to find myself or whatever. so he leaves.
so apparently that's why both brothers are missing. one of them is out wandering???? and one of them is still unconscious because his soul shattered????? and neither of these actually contradict any of the movie canon SO PLEASE BRING THEM IN FOR THE 3RD MOVIE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE
Seeing a lot of new people show up in my notes with like "proship dni" or whatever so RENT LOWERING GUNSHOT: IM AN ADULT WHO DOES NOT CARE IF PEOPLE HAVE PROBLEMATIC SHIPS, IM OLD AND BELIEVE TABOO FICTION IS SAFE AND HEALTHY, IM AN OLD MAN WHO THINKS IT'S FINE TO HAVE SHIPS THAT WOULD BE BAD IN REAL LIFE, I BELIEVE IN TABOO KINKS AS HEALING PLACES, I DO NOT DO SHIP DISCOURSE, I THINK IT'S OKAY TO WRITE ABOUT BAD THINGS HAPPENING TO GOOD PEOPLE WITHOUT CONDEMNING IT IN THE NARRATIVE, I THINK IT'S OKAY TO GET OFF TO MAKE BELIEVE BAD THINGS!!! THANKS
‘don’t you want your favourite character to be happy???’ no? i want my favourite character to be interesting. i want me to be happy. which sometimes involves my favourite character being in exquisite agony
