Gloria ꨄ︎

16yo; ENTP. Rin defender till the day i die

[rebornautumn]

Not platonic, not romantic, not even familial, but whatever the FUCK Fang Runin and Chen Kitay had going on.

Because what do you MEANNNNN “Rin and Kitay were bonded in a way that he could never understand, and there was no world where Rin died and Kitay remained alive”

[ammapola]

This is Rinvenka propaganda.

Forget about mid Rinezha.

Join the bright side.

[chocostrawberryb]

Maturing is knowing that Venka went through all the character development Nezha didn't

She got past her presumption, Nezha just exempted rin (somewhat)

Chat, am I getting on the rinvenka brainrot?

[allthingswhumpyandangsty]

[chocostrawberryb]

Mitski'a "crack baby" is literally rin, at first altan came to mind but he always knew what he wanted no matter how much he denied it "you don't know what you want but you know that you need it bad"

Rin on the other hand, I saw so many people complain about how vague and weak her motivations seem after she gets into sinegard and secures her place there which yeah, her wants ARE vague bc she never had the chance to mull on them

"You know that you had it once and you know that you need it back" could apply to so many things

Whatever brief time she had on Speer, except it was war torn.

The stolen moments with kitay, venka, nezha, the cike, except they were all in the thoroughs of danger

Plus it wouldn't be that far off to assume she was an ACTUAL 'crack baby' all things considered

[lncomfortable]

The Dragon Republic is a comedy actually

[dcvina-claires]

everyone leave your favorite war criminal in the tags

[feellikeasadsong]

WHAT IS RIN AND JIANG EVEN ABOUT???

[saraespa]

I think Rin is pretty.

Like, I know there's all that talk about Rin being ugly in Nikan, and she even says that about herself, but I don't think so, and I can argue against it.

This whole story about Rin being ugly seems very racist/imperialistic to me, since Nikan hates the Speerly and doesn't even consider them human. Besides, they have dark skin, and the Nikan value fair, immaculate skin like porcelain. But when Altan was in Sinegard, everyone adored him and considered him very handsome, even though they were wary of him because he came from Speer.

And there's the way the Nikara people of the north treat those from the south, so it's clear that by that country's beauty standards and Rin's social class, she would be seen as ugly. However, there are some nuances to this. Because, even though Nezha teased her and said terrible things about her and her skin color, he never explicitly used the word "ugly" to refer to her, and later, Nezha admits that Rin is the most divine thing he has ever seen in his life. Yes, it has to do with their relationship with the Dragon and the Phoenix, but the Dragon doesn't tolerate ugliness; he feels repulsed by ugly people, so it doesn't make sense for Rin to be something divine to Nezha if she wasn't beautiful or attractive enough to the Dragon.

Even though it's implied and you have to read between the lines in the book, Rin is the daughter of Jiang and Hanelai, with Hanelai being Altan's aunt, making Rin his cousin. Jiang is described as handsome, even possessing a timeless beauty. I believe Hanelai is beautiful too, even though Jiang probably values things beyond beauty; at the end of the day, he's a nikara man, so it could be said that he was attracted to Hanelai's beauty. Besides, Altan was incredibly handsome. Do you agree with me that having two supposedly beautiful parents would mean they would conceive a beautiful child as well?

There are many factors we can discuss regarding Rin's beauty, mainly concerning the social/ethnic class she belongs to. No one has ever seen the offspring of a relationship between a Nikara and a Speerly, so it was obvious that Rin would be viewed with suspicion. And she hasn't had access to learning about how to take care of her appearance (and I think she doesn't care either), so it was obvious that at first glance she would appear inferior. And there's the fact that nobody said Rin was ugly throughout the entire trilogy (that I remember), they only stated the obvious: she could be considered ugly because she didn't meet Nikan's beauty standards. But we, as a society, know that not being the standard doesn't always automatically mean a person is ugly.

So, for me, Fang Runin must be beautiful, and I stand by that view. If she had grown up with her mother or had someone who cared about/encouraged Rin to take care of her appearance, she would indeed be considered an exotic beauty (which is a very racist term, but it would fit here). I don't believe Rin is ugly at all; I think Nikara society is prejudiced, and Rin was close to the elite, so she wouldn't be viewed favorably.

[rhythm-of-lesbianism]

hi. hi. thinking about how Rin and Kitay had never fought before even though they went to war college. they literally could not bear the thought of hurting each other even if it was for training. what the fuck. rebecca when i get you

their relationship is all about the tenderness. from sinegard to golyn niis to arlong to tikany to speer it's always about tenderness and kindness despite a world that refuses to be kind to them ever

[rhythm-of-lesbianism]

tbh i don’t think any fictional relationship occupies quite the same space in my mind as rin and kitay. toxic codependent best friends. magically soul bonded. she wants to protect him. she forgets that she is putting him through pain. he wants her to be good. he forces himself to be okay with so much that she does. they are both so, so angry and so, so scared. they’re just children. they’re generals. he’s a genius like the worlds never seen, she’s a shaman like the worlds never seen, they uprooted the world. he’s her anchor. up until the end they had never once fought physically, not once, not through years of training and military campaigns. not even in practice. she always knew her will was stronger than his. except was it? there was no world where rin died and kitay lived.

[silenab]

id LOVE to take it from there, its a double entendre and yehht its still paradoxical

[gratefulturbot]

i DON'T need them to kiss i need them to come to the sobering realisation that their souls are merged and no part of them is extricable from the other anymore

[mariyap]

someone once pointed out how sanctimonious and hypocritical Kitay was (could be; it was an analysis) and i’ve never been the same

[mariyap]

as Rin’s professional defenderrrrr, i come to defend when she yelled at Nezha for not wanting to use the Dragon for the war.

(p.s. this was originally a comment on a tiktok video that said “what was going through Rin’s head when she realized that Nezha hated using the Dragon because it made him a freak, despite the fact that he could give in to the immense power and help win.” with the song “are you man enough?” by @a_pineapple_that_reads)

——Spoilers for TDR & light spoilers for TBG——

I think Rin was mostly pissed at him because he thinks being a shaman is making him a freak, but being a shaman is all of Rin’s identity. She gets referred to as ‘Speerly’ before her own name, her other talents are overlooked because of her shamanism, and the only thing she knows of belonging through ancestry (since she never had an emotional connection with her own culture) is shamanism. So it’s more than just saying that he’s a freak or abomination, but her whole identity is and the only thing she knew of her ancestry is. In addition, being a shaman was the only thing that elevated Rin socially or politically and was chronically introduced as that, so her only point of view on shamanism in result is that it will give power. I guess one could argue she’s still deeply in the wrong because it wasn’t his choice, but technically it wasn’t Rin’s choice either. Nezha was more physically forced, but Rin was emotionally forced—especially the environmental factors that impacted her own character (being an orphan means lack of belonging, being poor means lack of given empathy and societal power, being a woman means expected standards of weakness) that made shamanism seem like the only efficient way out. Also i think both Nezha and Rin’s reaction to the shamanic powers have to do a lot with their individual characters: Nezha’s sacrifices are external (sacrificing Rin for the country, etc. this is most likely because he had lots to give away while growing up. His sacrifices are things he has or can give up/away.) and Rin’s sacrifices are internal (Sacrificing fertility/humanization for training, her mental wellbeing for power, and herself for the country betterment. this is most likely because all she had growing up was herself to give away.) Rin is such a complex character and i love how she’s written. FOREVER her defender

[mariyap]

Rin & Altan Relationship Analysis

this has been in my notes for months and i’ve been like handing it out in like 5 long messages on Tiktok so i decided i just ought to share this little analysis on here alr

(this analysis started as an argument against the possibility of romance in Rin & Altan’s relationship. sorry if it’s not the most articulate lol.)

—————— Spoilers on all 3 books ——————

Altan and Rin’s relationship was NOT romantic in any way, shape, or form.

Claim #1: Rin idolized Altan in a way that made her feel nervous around him, because he was this great hero. He was perfect. He was introduced as a person, darker skin than her, who was the smartest in the school and widely adored in a god-like way for all of Sinegard. That is what Rin wanted to be (her idealized image.. but that’s an analysis for another day). She wanted to be praised despite her upbringing, which is why she favored Irjah. All of Rin’s conflict mostly derives from her upbringing, not just as a woman, but as a dark skinned southerner. She was kicked out of Jun’s class because of her upbringing, wasn’t given any help that other students may have gotten, the kids her age was ignoring her or making fun of something she couldn’t control in hindsight, and nobody was any less than cruel to her. Altan was just like her, an outcast. An outcast where, no matter what, they will always be seen as less because of racism/colorism—yet, he was seen as great to everyone. He was her hero. Her idol. She loved the idea of him, the concept that she can still be something despite everything. She didn’t love him. Once the fictionalized image of him was broken down from his true self, she no longer loved or admired him in the same way because she truly never did because it was never him.

Evidence #1: “There was apparently no end of things about Rin to be mocked: her dark skin, her lack of status, her country accent. It was annoying, but Rin was able to brush the taunts off—until her classmates started snickering every time she talked.” - TPW

Evidence #2: “Since arriving in Sinegard, she’d come to learn what it was like to be presumed stupid because of the shade of her skin. It rankled her. She wondered if Altan suffered the same.” - TPW

Evidence #3: “… But Altan had been fighting then. Then, Altan had been a threat. He was not a threat now, only the tragic, glaring proof that her heroes inevitably let her down. Altan Trengsin was not invincible after all.” … “But here at the end, without a purpose and without a ruler, Altan Trengsin was broken. Rin’s fingers tensed, but then she trembled and pushed his limp form violently away from her.” — TPW pg 480

Counterargument #1: But she dreamed on kissing him multiple times.

Claim #2: Rin did not ‘dream’ of Altan kissing her because she wanted it, but rather because she didn’t want it. The fantasies of Altan kissing her came after his death, where Altan started haunting the plot. She was actively trying to break free on the hold and impact Altan had on her, because at that time she decided that Altan was a coward which was everything she didn’t want to be. Essentially, Altan had control over her and, based on the trauma and experiences Rin went through ever since she was born, Rin hates being controlled. Sex, intimacy, kissing was someone else controlling her. Ever since she was in Tikany, Rin was actively afraid of sex or marriage because it wasn’t a lovely thing for her as it is romanticized in many books; this is because she grew up in a highly patriarchal society where her only options as a woman was to be a wife, work slave, or whore. The entire time she was self harming herself to stay awake on days end, to keep herself awake and diligent for studying for the Keju that takes years to study averagely, what motivated her was the thought of a man being married to her and having sex with her. This is not ‘i hate men!’ silly thing, this is genuine fear of being nothing more than an object to be played around with. It was the fear that if she were to scream while he pinned her down, then nobody would help because, not only would he have the legal rights to do so, but because she was nothing but a lowly dark-skinned orphan girl who had been ‘blessed’ with the opportunity to be married away to a wealthy man. This is most likely a rooted fear from her foster parents. Auntie Fang constantly wanted Rin afraid of her, for that’s what power is. I assume—based on the dialogue and characterization from Auntie Fang given in the book—that Auntie Fang gave Rin this morbid mental image of what ‘love’ is: submission, fear, and violence. This is a common strategy used by abusive parents because Auntie Fang knew that Rin knew that Auntie Fang had the power to place her in circumstance, so Rin had to not act up. Instead of making Rin’s rooted fear Auntie Fang, it was sexual intimacy. On top of that, during the moments where Rin was having the image of Altan kissing her, it was post-war. This was after she saw the millions of raped bodies, after she heard Venka’s story, after she realized what war did to women—how even if women are not sent out in war, they’re bodies will still be used for it. That reenforced the thought that sexual involvement was a means to gain control over one another. An example of this being a big fear is the dream vs. nightmare scenario, where Daji shows Rin two different scenarios: one where she was belonging among other Speerlies in a world where the genocide never happened (One of Rin’s biggest desires is to belong—stemming from her being an orphan, poor, dark, Speerly), the other scenario was Altan kissing her. One of the scenes was a desire, one was a fear.

Evidence #3 (her not wanting the impact from Altan): “I wept for days, until I couldn’t breathe anymore, and then I tried to stop breathing, but every time, Enki brought me back to life, and then I hated myself because you said that I had to keep living, and I hated living because you’re the one who said I had to—” - TDR

Evidence #4: “This wasn’t about lust, this was about power. This was about possession. He wanted to dominate her just so that later he could crow that he had.” — TBG.

⬆️Side Analysis: When I first read this, I thought that’s what genuinely what Souji was trying to do, but you have to keep in mind that Rin is an unreliable narrator. While I do understand the perspective that Rin was correct, you can’t ignore the fact that that’s what Rin’s mind immediately came to. She didn’t think about the prospect that he might find her pretty, or how he might be attracted to her dominance (which i doubt, but for the sake of the argument), but rather that he was trying to assert power over her. She thinks sex is ridicule; it’s only a ploy for power gaining.

Evidence #5: “What was wrong with her? She’d started and ended wars. She’d buried a god. She’d incinerated a country. There wasn’t an entity on the planet that could face her in a fair fight and win. She was certain of her own strength; she’d sacrificed everything to make sure she never felt powerless again. So why was she so afraid?” — TBG

⬆️Side Analysis: Even if Souji was just using sex to place power over her at the time rather than genuinely wanting to have fun with her, she was still genuinely terrified by the insinuation of having sex with another man. She put the thought that he was trying to control her in her mind, and usually she was just burn the problem, but instead she was shaking.

Also, even before that, keep in mind what powered her to cram usually 12 years of studying into 2 years. What kept her motivated to study day and night to the point of self-harm? Keeping married to a man, and having sex with him. Sex is far from something romantic in her eyes.

Counterargument #2: Rin thought Altan was going to kiss her on their departure.

Claim #3: Love is what you think it is if it was never properly introduced. Going back on Auntie Fang feeding her ideas of what sexual relationships are and how Rin grew up in an unsafe environment, Rin never really knew true love. (Even without that idea, she never had a good example of what love is since she grew up in a family that neglected, exploited, and abused her.) She gets idolization, admiration, and etc mixed up with love because she doesn’t know how love truly feels. She mentions, right before Nezha stabs her in the back, that she haven’t had much experience in kissing but she supposes that would be the right time because that’s what the books said; therefore, all she knows of love is description in books she thought were all mindless fiction and the toxic environment she grew up in.

Extra elaborate: one gets introduced to it (love in this situation) in a certain way and now that’s what it means to them, even if it’s wrong. Even if love isn’t actually being abused or hurt, the victim thinks it that because that’s all they’re familiar with.

Side Claim #1: In the perfect world. This is a good example of how Altan and Rin’s relationship is supposed to be. In TDR, Rin is going to get married. In this world, things are perfect in a way that doesn’t make sense: Speer is alive, there is no war, Rin and Nezha are getting married. In the original world, Rin wouldn’t get married due to the trauma that subconsciously linked marriage to submission, but in this perfect would she wouldn’t be introduced to intimacy in the same way. She would understand what love is because there are examples. When Altan is talking to Rin, he mentions ‘father and mother’ instead of ‘your father and mother’ or ‘my father and mother’—this insinuates that Rin and Altan share the same parents/parental figures. In this perfect world, Rin and Altan are viewed as siblings, which is what Rin always wanted to he with him.

Claim #6: Rin wanted a sibling relationship with Altan. When she first found out that he was her kin, she compared him to a brother.

Evidence for that just incase u forgot: “Training with Altan was like training with an older brother. It was so bizarre for someone to tell her that they were the same—that his joints hyperextended like hers did, so she should turn out her foot in such a way. To have similarities with someone else, similarities that lay deep in their genes, was an overwhelmingly wonderful sensation. With Altan she felt as if she belonged—not just to the same division or army, but to something deeper and older…” tpw pg 270. (I will forever mourn how that Rin’s biggest desires was belonging.)

Claim #7: R.F Kuang mentioning that Altan was Rin’s cousin was not some weird mistake. It takes time for a book to be published: drafts, final, editing—I refuse to believe it was a hierarchical accident. In addition, I refuse to believe that R.F Kuang is into that incest shit. I personally believe that Kuang added that detail so the readers could look more into Rin and Altan’s relationship like I just did—look into it in a way that wouldn’t involve romance, because they aren’t romantic whatsoever.

[runin-reads]

More wholesome Poppy War Trilogy headcanons

Check my navigation (pinned post) for 1st headcanon post.

No war just vibes because I’m sad over the 3rd book. Canon divergence, let’s pretend nothing bad happens to them. Ever.

Venka grew up around boys (Nezha and Kitay) so she’d be secretly excited to befriend with Rin. She would insist on trying new clothes together, painting nails, anything that she didn’t do with the boys. Rin goes along with it because she likes seeing her happy!!

Rin, Nezha and Venka absentmindedly braid each other’s hair when relaxing together. Kitay always has short hair so Rin just runs a hand through it whilst he reads a book (or does taxes lol)

Nezha puts a hand on Rin’s lower back to gently move her out the way if he needs to pass by in a tight space

Nezha gives really good massages and head pats. Rin is often the receiver of these. He likes to tuck her hair behind her ear and pile food onto her plate. In return she gently traces his tattoo and scars.

Rin and Venka sneeze loudly. Nezha and Kitay sneeze quietly

Jiang never remembers the names of Rin’s friends. He often says “what’s the name of the guy you hang out with? You know, the one with freckles”

In another life Daji would be the hot rich single aunt that never goes to family reunions. Jiang is the crazy uncle that encourages the kids to rebel. Riga is the uncle the kids are afraid to approach because their parents warned them not to go near him

Vaisra would either be a lawyer or a politician in a modern au. He does the Asian dad stance in front of the tv and in the grocery store with his hands behind his back. He drinks tea religiously.

Rin is sexy but she sees herself as ugly because of her internalised colorism

Nezha the type of guy to correct other peoples posture, especially Kitay. I just know he’s hunched like Quasimodo when reading stuff

Venka’s eyeliner is so sharp it could kill a man

Ramsa would be a Leash Kid

Nezha, Venka and Kitay (he’s smart but he’s a rich kid at heart!) do not know what rent is

Jinzha the type to say “you’re ugly anyways” when his crush rejects him

Mingzha is the random kid that says “you got games on your phone?”

My intuition tells me Kitay’s older sister is hot even though she’s mentioned once and never again. If Rin met her she would spend a paragraph describing her attractiveness just like she did with Daji lol