Currently very hyperfixated on To Be Hero X (donghua). this will probably last until september and possibly beyond. forever apparently! this is now 80% a to be hero x blog.
technically he doesnt have the multiple styles thing in this au but i also started doing it in the top left style and then realized i do not have the skill level to make it look good for the other parts so...whoops...
"—I guess this new emperor will be a lot different from Zero, huh?"
"—bah, what do I care about the 'circus'? After these past years they must've all gotten rusty! It won't change a damn thing."
In the Dawnfall Empire's capital, the circus was all anyone could talk about, much to a certain man's chagrin.
Dressed in what was halfway to a jester's costume—bells included—Lin Ling drooped, his painted sign covered in acrobats, jumping tigers, and goofy clowns now falling to the ground with a sad thump. Maybe, he thought wryly, he should've asked Miss J to be made into a clown himself. He both looked and felt like one now; he'd fit right in.
'Why are they talking about the 'circus' while totally ignoring me?!' After his favorite escape artist—his anchor and inspiration during his pooper scooper days—had been promoted to the highest tier of the Treeman Troupe, Lin Ling had taken on extra work (on top of still scooping the trick ponies' poop) just to be able to attend her first performance in her new role. To give his (financial) support, for once, instead of watching for free from the sidelines.
However…nobody was paying attention to him, no matter how loudly he shouted that "Treeman Troupe circus has returned!" or how much the bells around his neck jingled irritatingly. He was pretty sure he could strip down and dance in his underwear without anybody sparing him a glance.
'If you can't beat them…' Lin Ling muttered internally, ditching his brightly painted sign where it lay pathetically and joining the crowd.
They were surrounding a stage where a person stood dressed in the official robes of F.O.M.O., the premier news network (amongst other things) of the empire. They were reading off a piece of parchment and gesturing to a large poster, which Lin Ling could really care less about—hey, nobody cared about his poster that he had painstakingly made himself.
In fact, after just a few minutes listening to the droning F.O.M.O. messenger, he wasn't really finding much to care about at all here. From what he could glean, it had to do with the new, mysterious emperor and Lin Ling had never been the type to think about anything more than whether he'd be able to afford dinner. He had been working his pooper scooper job since he was a kid, and traveling with the Treeman Troupe meant it was hard just to struggle his way to moderate literacy, let alone understand the twisted world of politics.
Reasonably, he knew that politics still affected his life in ways he couldn't fathom, but…
'…As if any bigshot emperor is ever gonna be convinced to do anything that'll make my life any better.' Since he had no say in politics as one of the guys on the bottom, Lin Ling didn't see how caring or not caring about it made a difference.
He worked with the circus to afford his bread—couldn't blame him for being a bit apathetic to the bigger things.
Well, 'bigger' relatively speaking, anyway.
'Wonder if I could sneak one of these stupid bells away and melt it down into a ring…no, that wouldn't be very romantic, would it?'
Sure, Lin Ling was a simple man, but even he didn't want to spend all his years working and then die alone. Of course, the person he loved wasn't anywhere close to his reach and he wasn't far gone enough yet to embarrass himself by acting as if it were otherwise, but couldn't a man dream?
'The horse stables don't make that bad of a wedding venue…I think…'
Laughing sardonically at himself, Lin Ling made to leave. He couldn't do his advertising job with everyone so occupied with the news about the emperor, so he supposed he could try to ask for other jobs…or fight for extra poop scooping shifts…
Or rather, he was going to leave, when something the F.O.M.O. messenger said caught his attention.
"—with that, we are now opening the applications for the emperor's consort to anyone of appropriate status and age!"
A cold weight seemed to drop from the sky, knocking all of Lin Ling's thoughts from his head on its way down to settling hard at the bottom of his gut.
'I…I have a bad feeling about this…' They were holding some sort of open competition for the right to marry the new emperor? What did "appropriate status and age" even mean? God, Lin Ling hoped the new emperor was an old fart and was looking for some equally old crone…
Because if not…Lin Ling was almost certain he could kiss all his dreams of seeing Moon perform again goodbye.
And upon seeing the blond manager of the troupe, Miss J, amongst the first to go register with the messenger, Lin Ling knew his premonition had come true.
And so, it was with a heavy heart that Lin Ling returned to his somehow more dismal than usual quarters, sighing to himself.
'If only we could swap places…' Not that he thought that'd ever be possible, but at least then Moon could continue to shine on stage. And he wouldn't have to suffer heartbreak—maybe just a marriage of convenience.
Little did he know, his wish would come true—just, not exactly in the way he expected.
Because, as it turned out, it wasn't Moon who had been signed up for the competition. And with the convenient empty role that the real competitor had left, well…
Lin Ling just so happened to need another job to see Moon's new show anyway. If that job just so happened to be Moon's co-lead in said show…all the more convenient, wasn't it?
Hey, maybe he could finally save up money for a ring.
~~~
HIIIIIII!!!! NEW AU NEW AU NEW--
okay, so um, idk if anyone has already done this but anyway, was reading some marriage competition au fics (for hades game) and got INSPIRED. came up with this au so long ago but then procrastinated... just a bit... like, 8 months approximately. Will be following up with some black and white comics and probably more writing if i can manage it. Definitely a few character design "refs" (idk how those are supposed to work actually)
that being said, although i've got a fair bit of worldbuilding and plot thought out my memories of the show and characterization is ASS. so feel free to ask about any characters in the au (cannot promise i have thoughts on more than the top 10 + ceos + a few past Xs though) and to give suggestions!
Anyway, some basic details about the world/au below the cut!
Right, so to start, the world--think of every medieval (?) fantasy manhwa ever, anachronisms included, and that's basically it. Please ignore the outfits that do NOT match lmfao. It's for ~style~
So! As you may have guessed, this is an au where X is the new emperor. The "circus" everyone is referring to (much to Lin Ling's confusion) is the council of powers outside of the royals. This includes Treeman Troupe's leadership, MG (the empire's main mining company & armor/weapon supplier; mining because...Rock...), FOMO (the continent's main news organization + connections to academia), and the Dosanian Peacekeepers that are based in Dosania aka Queen and Bowa's nation. The presence of the "circus" in the Dawnfall Empire was suppressed by the tyrant king Zero due to his powers (this being why they earned the nickname "circus"). That is, until he suddenly abdicated and claimed X was his last (very) distant relative and heir to the throne.
Speaking of powers! As said, this is a fantasy setting. However, magic is for the most part unheard of in Dawnfall. The emperor holds pretty much all the magic. At least, the kind that only requires the person to use. Magical technology such as weapons and the like have been created. Other nations also have their own forms of power. Dosania, for instance, has legions of pegasi (because I wanted to see Queen on a flying horse). Ah Sheng/the Johnnies have magical beast stuff I haven't fully fleshed out yet. Dragon Boy is basically living in scandinavia from like, 1.5k years ago; think Beowulf basically. He has probably fought a dragon, or maybe rode one, or descended from one? Don't know yet. DJ Shindig (used to) live in a nation that focused on the theatrical arts and channeled magic through it, until the nation was absorbed by Zero. Like, the pretty stereotypes of elves and fairies basically.
Anyway, with the "circus" back, they are seeking to control the new emperor by forcing him to choose a spouse and ofc each faction is gonna push for their own candidates ^-^ Candidates are pretty much just the top 10 (excluding cyan, luo li, and ahu pretty much; also! I have something special planned for ghostblade hehe) though with some other minor heroes and maybe even villains mixed in
(and no, this strategy absolutely did not go wrong with Zero, why would you even suggest that?)
A note on characterization (again): this is pretty much the equivalent of X when he just got his powers so keep that in mind.
(potential spoilers?)
of course, this is brought on by the outro revealed today in Episode 2. For some reason, they decided to associate feathers with X:
now, something about this didn't sit right with me. it seemed a little off for being just a metaphor, so i did some digging. Call me a True Love Recipe viewer because I have been Enlightened. I believe Li Haoling is trying to foreshadow a huge twist about X's real nature, right under our noses.
HEAR ME OUT: X = BIRDS.
X is linked to the specifically white birds more than we think. first off, obviously he's white. Next off:
In X's character PV (with subtitles), A coworker says "I believe... he's omnipotent!" very interesting choice of words. X also is described as knowing the truth of this world i think (don't quote me on this i can't remember where this is from). he is heavily implied to break the 4th wall and be aware of a lot of things in some way. if he was in the birds, he would have access to every hero in the city, therefore having more awareness and information. Information is very important to X it seems, because of his chess associations (a game where both players have complete information).
let's analyze the trailer:
it starts with my husband leaving his chair. where is he going? hmm very sus... CUT TO THE BIRDS. they fly past a bunch of other heroes, such as E-Soul's billboard and what seems to be Loli's home. implying exactly what I said earlier, that the birds are able to study the other top 10 heroes, even having access to their homes since they can fly and look through windows.
Also, someone with L&B Johnny's keychain and what seems to be a power line. Li Haoling and the TBHX team have already proven they are very in tune with pop culture, seeing how the humor is well-preserved even in english localization. it's not absurd to think that they would know about the birds and powerline connection. powerlines also connect the city, like how the intro/ outro with X and his birds are the commonality between every episode/hero pov in TBHX.
This close up of a bird as well. animation details are very intentional, and TBHX has a high budget. why is the bird looking at us, the viewer? who else looks at us - that's right, X. almost like he can see what this bird sees. it's followed by using the bird as a transition as X steps forwards.
I believe that X is able to somehow gather information through the birds such as by using them as cameras like government drones or by seeing through their eyes/controlling them. white birds such as these could be common in the TBHX world; they could just be regular pigeons that nobody would question, or perhaps the existence of Heroes like Nice just make doves a common sight.
Speaking of Nice: that is where we have seen the white birds in canon. But... Lin Ling has yet to have anything about white birds mentioned to him. Nobody is telling him he can summon birds. If X is the one linked to the birds instead, then he would have been granted a front-row seat to LL witnessing Nice's death and everything after. Nice is the one hero who is least likely to question white birds following him around since he has this angelic perfect persona. Maybe he even just figures it's a side effect of his powers.
BUT IT GOES DEEPER.
We hear X's snap when the art style changes in episode 2. so far it seems the 2d style is reserved for "protagonist moments" for lack of a better word. LOOK WHERE THEY ARE. IN THE SKY. Who else can be in the sky? BIRDS. X is probably helping Lin Ling out, because Miss J just told him he can't fight someone as strong as Wreck yet.
You could argue that X and birds are only linked in the outro, and technically every character is somewhat associated with the birds there. But... this isn't the first time X has been with white birds. where else have we seen white birds? that's right, THE INTRO OF THE SHOW.
AND GUESS WHAT?
X throws a bunch of cards that turn into white birds, that then proceed to FLY INTO HIM AND TRIGGER HIS TRANSFORMATION.
aka, THE BIRDS ARE HIM.
Moving on to something very important: WHY would X be the birds. what reason does he have to creep on everybody in the city? I'll tell you.
As we know, the main looming event of the plot is the Hero Tournament. But...what do we know about X so far as a person?
he's been #1 for pretty long (2 years)
he "came out of nowhere"
he's REALLY OP.
as for what he's said directly, pretty much just one line in the trailers:
this checks out for both being a corporate slave and also heroism. X wants to step away from the throne.
Being a hero isn't always good. for Moon it was basically hell as we are now seeing. A key X trait is that he is incredibly strong. If Nice, Rank 10, is plausibly under threat from terrorists to where the public doesn't question it much, how do the rest of the top 10 scale? The tournament is a farce and the entire series is X trying to pick out who is the best successor for the next X.
One of the major themes of TBHX also seems to be "freedom". it's literally a lyric in the opening, INERTIA: "I've got to believe / that I am free / so no hesitation". The first two episodes reinforce this, with Nice and Moon's struggles. What else is associated with freedom? BIRDS.
One more point: Nice and X have a lot of parallels to the point it feels like Director Li Haoling is trying to bait us towards something (I suggest the idea that Nice will win the tournament). in the picture above: Nice looks... kind of... BIRDLIKE, wouldn't you say?? plus his weird chestpiece having wings on it. If X is the Bird Guy then this would be Nice-X parallel number five million.
thusly I speak my truth and I rest my case. Thoughts?
I would like to suggest a different goal that X might have in mind: destroying the hero system altogether.
When he snaps here, he makes the Hero Tower - the most visible symbol of the regulation of heroes - disappear. Everything is in full color - heroes can finally embody the truths and ideals that pushed them to be heroes in the first place, without the lies and capitalistic farces that run the industry.
With Nice, doves could be taken to represent purity, but they could also mean new beginnings and hope. The picture we have of the hero world is very bleak at the moment...
But there's hope that heroes will begin anew, in the full light of the sun, not the spotlight. Could this be Lin Ling clutching the feather? I'm sure we're going in a direction where he'll realize just how fucked up the system is, so maybe the Nice and X parallels are alluding to them being foils of each other regarding the subject of heroism. Naive and deluded L0. Knowing and plotting X. Yet they're both idealistic about what heroes should be (maybe).
L0 being shown as himself instead of as Nice (besides the white lock of hair) is further support for this, I think. In a world where heroes won't have to lie, he won't have to pretend to be a dead man, an eternal brand.
We don't see another bird for the rest of the ED, only feathers. With the system gone, with no need for X's schemes to reveal the truth, perhaps...
No hero will have to sit on that oppressive throne ever again.
This is such a cool idea! ngl I was in this feverish bird-themed trance when I typed up that theory - It was originally intended to be just a shitpost. but the more I went into it the more I do think that X and birds are a thing somehow! I love this interpretation and I think it makes wayyy more sense than my proposal. I'm glad other people saw the birds and thought they were weird.
anyways, idk if I can really call it a joke anymore.
do you see what I see. tell me why there are a indeed a LOT of X-bird associations...
+ the power line thing was entirely crack and non-serious but he actually does already have multiple instances of being shown with powerlines. in this case they are forming an "X" above his head...?
EDIT: HEY I ACCIDENTALLY DELETED THE ORIGINAL POST IM SORRY. BUT ITS STILL HERE I GUESS? is there a way to undelete posts 😭
ages past episode 24 - what do we really know about X as a person; I overanalyze X for too many words
so I posted some art a while ago with the tag 'x has issues: an essay' and here is part of the essay bc i want to write about him more. ever since this wonderful guy showed up for his first real conversations in episode 21 and then 24, i've been wanting to pick his brain apart and rotate it like a rotisserie chicken. I have a ton of rambling to do about X and why I think he needs therapy.
To keep this focused this post will be about Smile, mostly his first convo we see with him in episode 21. I'm also trying to focus on extrapolating from canon information (?) if that makes sense ? if you asked me how i'd characterize X in a fanfiction I'd go deeper than this. I feel like most of this is pretty surface level.
side tangents will look like this. Also, I will be sticking this in the place of "episode 24" in my tbhx masterpost because.. yeah i never got around to making an episode 24 thoughts post and by now its too late to put my genuine reactions right after it so an x themed post is close enough I think
I also want to talk about the theme of loneliness in To Be Hero X. TBHX asks us, what does it take to be a hero? Throughout each character's arc, their circumstances are all different, but they all have to navigate the obstacle of loneliness - of being alone, of losing the people in your life and trying to find them again. Most of them start lonely and end lonely, the exceptions being the DOS heroes who stick together, and possibly Ghostblade as he's at least in a better position than he was.
This is immediately consistent with X's appearance. He insists that he likes being alone, and acts distant with Smile ("why are you here?") although clearly he trusts him with his identity and gets drunk with him. After Smile dies, he's truly alone*, with his next closest relationship probably being with...Ahu. dang.
*unless nine and tarot girl are still around. or other characters we have yet to see
X interacts with one other hero, being Nice. Nice dies soon after he encounters him. in fact, it almost seems like X put him there on the roof because of the sound cue?? anyways, now that Nice is BACK, somehow, there's going to be some kind of further weird interaction between them in season two.
Smile obviously doesn't buy that X is not lonely, but what I find more interesting is that this loneliness seems to be the common basis of their relationship, and that they have two different understandings about loneliness. X sees Smile as a very different kind of person to himself, being extroverted, jovial and optimistic. Smile seeks out companionship when he's alone, and is very aware of the love in his life like when he talks about his daughter. He also keeps up a hero persona, but he lets it down quickly:
Ah, yes Smile. what a conspicuous thing to say to a guy with no wife, no kids, and no warm bed. Smile at least feels that he has a lot in common with X because they both feel alone. Smile DOES on paper have these things, and to top it off he smiles through it all. X, insisting on loneliness, thinks Smile can't possibly be like him. Hence, I believe this is why X responds: "I don't believe you."
I now headcanon that X cries himself to sleep at night and that's why he wears a facemask so nobody can see /hj
X sees heroism as an enduring act of work for the entirety of it's duration. He thinks of Smile as a genuine person, which is at odds with keeping up a smile you don't mean constantly. X himself smiles as part of his work, his hero persona, but even then he isn't able to do it constantly. X isn't the type who feels he is able to smile when he doesn't feel good. IMO I think from what we've seen we can confidently say that he is performing in his hero form rather than forcibly altering his personality via powers, especially in episode 22. However, I think it's possible that although his personality doesn't vanish it might be easier to maintain a certain way via trust? like the people believe he's too cool and such so he is?
OK but then Smile Dies!
I speculate that perhaps X is distant from other people in an effort to keep himself and others safe, and that this has been the case for a while - perhaps since whatever happened with NINE and company, which is a whole other can of worms. Why is Smile the exception? I would say it's because Smile has proved himself incredibly resilient, sticking around in the top ten for over forty years. There's a sense of safety in being around them. They're also genuinely a heroic person who X can trust as an ally. It's REALLY unlucky that the moment X let someone get close enough for him to take for granted, they got doomed.
In this scene in the CN sub, he actually yells "什么情况?" which means "what's going on" or "what's the problem?" I assume the subtitles localize to "where is he" to make it more obvious that he's going to go deal with dragon boy. also, what he says to nice is more along the lines of "just a little later and you would have been gone." (gone, as in 没了）
A detail I haven't seen a lot of people talk about that I wanna see more is exactly why and how X knows where he has to be, and why he isn't there sooner. It's not Smile's fault that he's dead of course, but I would like to point out that if it weren't for Smile offering human connection via copious amounts of alcohol X probably would have got there fast enough to save Smile since he spent some time puking (poor guy). X clearly has some kind of outside knowledge telling him that something is going on, but it's not perfect. He doesn't know the nature of the situation, only that it's happening, and urgent. Maybe this impulse was in response to Nice's situation instead of Smile's, since we know all the main characters are intertwined with X's destiny or something.
How does Smile's death affect X's character? For one, he definitely takes heroism more seriously. we don't hear a single inkling about "fate" and all that baloney until after this, making me think it's possible that X didn't press too hard into the Commission's corruption and the nature of trust and godhood until it took his friend from him. The X of before was content to just let someone be X. By the time he decided otherwise, the Commission was already after him. Before his death, X hadn't developed in a lot of ways as a character into the person we see in the season finale, and after the finale he's still got a long way to go.
After Smile is gone, it's also much more obvious just how empty his apartment is. the decor is all abstract - we don't see any keepsakes like in Luo Li's room. he avoids his coworkers and clocks out at the earliest possible moment so he can be... reading news about himself by the dimmest lamp I've ever seen and otherwise just eating takeout in the dark. This man performs for an invisible audience.
Also I could be delusional but just like Smile, X asks Ahu for his "reason for coming". again, distancing himself from connection.
Ahu accuses, "you're afraid of becoming a demon, surely," and Ahu STRIKES A NERVE. X just straight up denies this but he knows EXACTLY what Ahu means- the corruption of a hero by fear. Ahu means this in the godlike Zero sense, but X is remembering Smile as his basis - the person who, despite outwards differences, shares the similarity of loneliness. I think this is a pretty reasonable fear to have personally.
he could also be thinking of that one scary tarot lady looking person with many arms from inertia 2 outro
one final bit for this post - this is mostly kind of crack, but I do want to talk about X and alcohol/caffeine consumption. I really wonder if his use of substances or even just constant drinking of energy drinks is actually going to be a Thing...? if so, that's another consequence we can trace to Smile because he didn't use to drink alone, probably.
ive been keeping things a lot more sketchy recently and I kinda like it
it's frustrating sometimes but also freeing not needing to worry about polishing things too much. might try doing this kind of art for artfight more this yr so I can get more attacks out?
i really like the wings on the top one and i think in general there's significant improvement from the old refs!
liking a ship but disliking the distinct set of stock fanon that they have been assigned is like one of those punishments dante came up with when he wrote the worldbuilding for hell in inferno
XFC buckets cuz uhh... I'm kinda burnt out and this was funnier in my head. Also I headcanon XFC has been around since like 1AC and they change their mascot every time theres a new X.
