ROTS

yes, i'm a "drawer" <18

[subject0214]

This can't be coincidence. I think they place them together in official arts because they work together. From how they act in dreamout it seems like Jae likes to tease her and show off in her presence but he still respects her. It's like she is the queen and he is the knight serving her but only when he wants to. He doesn't act as mindless puppet. That means there is mutual agreement in their cooperation.

btw. does this ship already exist because it seems interesting

[skiesrrotting]

please stay

[subject0214]

i've stopped moth to flame mv at right moment

and oh damn this looks so cool

[marichild]

Li Tianxi: A (Disorganized, Messy) Rant on How She's An Eternal Victim of Misogyny, and Is Not An Equal To Anyone In Her Life Ever. Not Even Her Brother.

ok listen i don't even know how much sense this makes because im exhausted and spent five hours stuck in a hospital but i have been burning with the need to say: do you ever, in kavi @blackwaves's words, think about li tianxi and just feel so upset.

truly i think that reducing the twins to "tragedy" is a disservice to them. because yes, they're a horrible awful terrible tragedy from start to the rapidly incoming finish. they're twins, siblings, tied together since birth, but not once have they been a team nor have they ever been a united unit. tianchen killed their father and tianxi was a tool in it — they did not kill him together. they never killed anyone together. tianchen did the dirty work and shielded xiaoxi's eyes and kept everything from her and used her as a tool. he loves her more than anything and he wanted to keep her safe. he does. he still loves her and is furious and heartbroken. but he is a product of the home he was raised in the way xiaoxi in that: he's acting on learned violence and what he's learned is what is like to be a man.

he hated his father and maybe he's glad that his father is gone and suffered so much while he was alive but you can't tell me you haven't seen the similarities there. xiaoxi and liu lan were shrunk and kept quiet and refused to pry. willful ignorance. while tianchen and li fan did all the work. the difference is that li fan willingly and knowingly abused his wife out of petty jealousy while tianchen genuinely believes he's doing a good thing by keeping xiaoxi in the dark! he loves her more than anything and he's using her as a tool and he's patriarchy-ing her and he's the only person xiaoxi had left in this world!

the fact that they do not have equal agency is such an important part of their dynamic. he's not a good big brother but he is to xiaoxi in many ways because he's the only one who's ever been kind to her and loved her when it wasn't her mother. her mother told her to never speak of it again when she was scared and afraid her parents would separate and she's old enough to know that her father hurts her mother on a near-daily basis and she stopped speaking forever and never learned how to start again until the last possible moment!

like — it's tragic and heartbreaking, how she chooses to stop speaking. because when you're left out and your eyes and ears are covered up by the same person who protects you from it all and never tells you anything and you getting in the way only causes trouble you learn to stay out of the way and shut the fuck up and fold yourself, shrink yourself, until you're not an inconvenience anymore. and even then it's not enough because why does nobody listen even when you're quiet and listening to them? why are you still being ignored when you're quiet and out of the way? why are your feelings never considered? why does no one ever ask?

tianchen tells himself he's fighting for her. that he's protecting her. but they're never ever ever a unit or a team because xiaoxi is the tool that he uses to commit that violence and not once does he ask her how she feels about it. they're not on equal ground because what she wants, what she thinks, is never factored into anything he does. can you imagine, being xiaoxi, giving up her power for tianchen because he and qian jin made an agreement without once asking if she even wants to do it?

do you ever think about what it must be like to be xiaoxi and being adopted by the man who picked them up the night her brother killed both their parents, whether accidentally or not, and then that man is just like her father in less violent ways but just as demeaning — she's the mute, she's the girl who's just the tool her brother will use. her brother will never ask for her opinion on anything just because she smiles through her tears and pretends she's okay with it and qian jin will never consider her anything more than the fun extension that came with his new murder-weapon-slash-projection-toy functionally useful only for keeping tianchen in line and making their plots easier. and she still feels an odd sense of gratefulness to him — why wouldn't she? he doesn't consider her a real person but he took her in anyway, didn't he? and your brother doesn't ask what you want and plays along with qian jin and you go along with it because what you want is not relevant here. i just. augh. xiaoxi makes me so so upset forever.

liu xiao is the exact opposite of anything xiaoxi ever wanted for the both of them, because she just wanted to go home and not wake up feeling like she's smaller than the whole world. the opposite of what is objectively right for them, because what is liu xiao telling tianchen? to be more like a hunter. to pick out targets. to kill. to grab what he wants. and when is xiaoxi ever factored into this? we don't talk about the possible theories of him intending for xiaoxi to die because they're so nebulous and personally eye believe it would make the angst so much more delicious and painful and also aughhhh xiaochen you make me insane i miss them have no real proof as of right now beyond like. prometheus' pv. but regardless: in tianchen's pursuit of doing what liu xiao wanted — and it's ambiguous but i'm leaning towards a yes on whether he ordered tianchen to kill his brother, liu min — xiaoxi was the tool. she was the metaphorical shield tianchen used in his miserably painful and bloody life. it's against literally the one (1) thing she asked of him.

the point being — tianchen will tell himself it's about protecting her because he loves her but she's the excuse he uses to perpetrate the violence and unleash the anger and spill blood and reenacts the violence he learned from his father as he rages at the world for his unfair and harsh life.

and it is so, so deeply unfair and harsh. this is what you call cycles of abuse: this is what happens when children never learn any better and grow up to become the products of the worst of their childhoods. this is what happens when there's no one to protect them the way they deserve. what happens when there's no one to teach them any better. it ends like this: his sister is the tool he uses.

and he is keeping his sister from knowing anything. using his sister's agency to meet his own ends. they didn't kill anyone together; they watched their mother die together. it's so gendered, and intentionally so. link click very purposely draws gender roles into naked view through these stories and just...how do you ignore all of that and just mark them down as the tragedy of the pink twins?

he never listened to her until she died in front of him. they didn't kill anybody together much less their father because she didn't know what was happening until it was over and they watched their mother die together and was immediately thrust into shadow afterwards. li tianxi is a tragedy from start to finish, even after death, even as the (metaphorical or not) ghost she will be as season 3 begins to air. he never listened to her until she died and even then what does he proceed to do? reject the one thing she asked of him and go with liu xiao. he loves her and he's horrible to her. do you understand that? do you understand that he loves her and he's a horrible older brother?

he chooses violence again. she's his excuse for exacting revenge. again. and again. even in death.

this is why i honestly believe that it's impossible to illustrate the tragedy of the pink twins without touching upon the patriarchy-ing and misogyny and the liu xiao and qian jin of it all. she's been denied of agency her whole life and isn't granted that even in death. god. xiaoxi. she makes me so upset.

[skiesrrotting]

[kaydeeonehundred]

[one-selective-motherfucker]

Bridon Jae Lee showing off all his careers

[skiesrrotting]

hunt

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

You ever rewatch a scene and realize it's the moment your fave just doomed herself? The moment LTX volunteered herself to help save Lu Guang, she cemented herself as a traitor in Qian Jin's eyes.

It's worse still, because this is one of the first self-informed choices Li Tianxi has made in presumably a long time. This isn't her brother asking her to sleep, or her running away in tears and panic after seeing Chen Bin's last thoughts, or even Qiao Ling prompting her to share information. LTX made a deliberate choice not just to go with them, but to offer her ability to help. She didn't even think about it that long.

I'd love to know what was going through her head here.

The thing is, LTX is terrified of violence, and most of what she does prior to this is try to mentally and emotionally shield herself from hurt at all costs. Her choosing to put herself into an unsafe situation is actually a pretty impressive show of bravery, considering her usual reactions are to freeze up or escape into her fairy tale dream. Maybe she trusted the people she'd met enough that she thought it wouldn't get that dangerous and she'd be safe? (If so... oof.) Maybe she didn't even comprehend it could get that dangerous. After all, she was supposed to be safe in the car the whole time. Or maybe her own safety wasn't something she considered here, more concerned with other priorities. Maybe, now that she'd effectively woken up, she couldn't just go back to sleep again.

Immediately prior to her deciding to come along is Qian Jin insisting that the person to accompany Cheng Xiaoshi to the hostage exchange would be QL, and of course, she agrees without even a hint of hesitation. Is it for QL's sake then, to help her? Is it because she doesn't want to be separated from the one person who took the time to listen to her story? Is it because QL is being brave and LTX is trying to be as well?

But then shortly before that was the scene where she uses her ability on a photo of Lu Guang to ascertain his whereabouts, only to witness and feel him being tortured by her own brother. LTX has been asleep this whole time and therefore shielded from her brother's cruelty. Not only is this the first time she's clearly seen just how warped and vindictive he's become, she's quite literally experiencing it from the perspective of the victim. Almost certainly, LTX would've wanted to stop her brother from hurting anyone else. That's not the good brother she remembers. Does she want to remind him of that? The ending of episode 11, where she calls out to him for the first time in years, would heavily imply that. She wants to go home. Why has he strayed so far? Can't he be good again so they can be happy together?

And yet, the plan was never initially going to involve LTX facing LTC at all. She was supposed to stay in the car before Xiao Ma wound up finding them. Was it some sense of culpability then? Was helping them a way to make up for her own feelings of guilt surrounding her mother and Chen Bin?

We also can't overlook LG's memories here either. LTX, at the very least, would've seen and felt LG's grief in the moment CXS was killed, since this is a confirmed memory she passed on to QL during the ability transfer. Yet another action she chooses to take is somewhat overlooked, but in the tunnels, she actually pushes her brother away from grabbing Cheng Xiaoshi then tries to communicate to him to stop what he's doing. While it's undoubtedly based mostly in the pain of seeing her brother do hurtful things, I do have to wonder if part of it wasn't spurred by what she'd just seen and heard of CXS. That's QL's little brother that she loves, that's the person whose loss she just saw from the perspective of LG, who would do anything for him. He's their family. Please, won't her brother stop; can't he see he's destroying families now, just like theirs?

It's all conjecture what she was actually thinking since the show doesn't dwell on it, though it's likely some combination of the points above. It's clear, though, that she had more reasons to help them than not, which is probably why she didn't hesitate either. It's just horribly tragic when you think that the plan they came up with technically did not hinge on her ability - she was just monitoring to make sure things went well. She didn't have to go. If she hadn't volunteered herself here, if she had waited in the police station, she probably wouldn't have died that night.

But... at what cost, right? At least this was a choice she made of her own volition, even if she couldn't have known the consequences.

[syncogon]

tbh it's hard not to feel frustrated when you compare the amount of pre-debut promotional screentime wang qing got vs the amount of pre-debut promo that liu xiao, xia fei, vein, and now jae lee all got

[boppuy]

TW blood ig I really have problems with color rendition Decaying winter oc or something

[skiesrrotting]

hmmm

[silinnnn]

decaying winter ocs…with my moots and and @jrjeremy is part of this too!!! my stupid brother stupid

I honestly pretty proud of the one above, it turned out what i imagined

I only liked the background than the characters here…but it’s still fine i guess

[skiesrrotting]

[fangirlinginleatherboots]

things i did that forced me to be a better artist:

used a reference for everything

thinner line art (you think thats thin? go thinner….)

sketch, then do a cleaner sketch, THEN start finalizing

THUMBNAILS

color research, picking a set palette or light/dark for each work

you like that pose? redo it one more time

USE A DAMN REFERENCE

do not rely on stylization as an excuse for anatomy

draw the goddamn background you coward

just draw the hand- a bad hand is better than a hidden hand

the rule of thirds WORKS

take a considerable break between sketch and lines/paint

know that art takes longer as you get better at it

draw the seams on clothes

stop aiming for accuracy and focus on fluidity and motion, accuracy will come with practice of those two concepts

just…do the chiaroscuro. just DO IT. no excuses it always works

stop making excuses, make yourself an art schedule/set weekly(or daily) art goals and just DO IT.

[zenkovva]

“draw the goddamn background you coward“

[skiesrrotting]

[jellyfishyness]

Another Cheng Xiaoshi drawingggg.