what inspires your aesthetics / portrayal for ES Talon?
[Munday ask me anything | @bclcnce | still accepting]
In terms of my portrayal: some big inspirations for ES are Fallon Carrington in Dynasty (the Netflix reboot, not the original) and Blair Waldorf and Chuck Bass from Gossip Girl. They are all rich, powerful, and they know it. They take full advantage of it, and all are very much in command of their own sexualities.
They are complete bitches (or assholes), know it, and own it. But they also grow over the course of their respective shows.
Now that I think about it, he’s kind of like Altair at the start of AC1.
Another inspiration for him was Runyu from Ashes of Love. He was, at first, more of an aesthetics inspiration (both being powerful dragons who live in the heavens and have an affinity for water), but he ended up being a large part of why my Talon is the way he is now: they were both good natured at some point, betrayed and put down, until they wanted to destroy the heavens.
This became Talon’s story: abandoned in an estate, “betrayed” by a woman he barely remembers, and finally, cast out by Irelia. All the while, dealing with other immortals who vyed for his land and power and talked behind his back about the circumstances of his arrival to his position. He might have once been innocent and trusting, but as time passed, he became increasingly jaded with how he was treated.
Regarding his aesthetics: his aesthetics are largely pulled from wuxia/xianxia films as well as traditional Chinese culture. This was, I guess, more of a no-brainer, given his xianxia inspiration. It is also in part why writing ES is so meaningful to me - in writing him, I got to learn and get closer to my own past and culture. But this isn’t the post for that, haha.
In terms of modern AU, my inspiration for him was honestly… just trying to find a way to translate his canon story into something more realistic for a modern setting. I found that in Gossip Girl again - a disgraced it girl boy, thrown out of his family for his hook-ups, his drug-taking, his partying, and just generally not giving a damn about reputation or career (I guess… think Serena Van der Woodsen before the start of GG, although she was never an inspiration for him).
His modern aesthetics are a mix of aethetics from that upper-class lifestyle, and modern iterations of hanfu, as well as the sights and aesthetics (forgive the poor choice of words) of Hong Kong. I decided to make him a Hong Konger because, well… In part because I swear to god every character ever is either American or British and I just… There is a whole wide world out there… But also because I, too, am a Hong Konger, and it’s an excuse to go through the tag whenever I miss it.
(Also because it would make the most sense for Talon to be Chinese, given his xianxia origins, and it’s a nice opportunity to poke fun at myself for my inability to speak Mandarin).
I’m sorry this post ended up being so long, but I hope that was an interesting read, haha ^^;
