#erha analysis

[black-rosarium]

(A little smth I put up on reddit too)

[This 'rant' is more focused on a lot of the official art we get for 2ha, but also on some fanarts. It is not a diss by any means for individual art styles.]

CHU WANNING IS NOT some pretty, petite, “fair and lovely,” basic, every-other-manhua/manhwa character. His appearance is not defined by being another tired ‘bottom’ archetype like in so many other media works.

This man has unique, defining features — and all of that gets completely washed away in so much artwork for the sake of a more stereotypical look.

And the same goes for Mo Ran, with the addition of — what, “White 2.0” Mo Ran?!

Taxian Jun was pale. Yes, he was muscular — but his sickness and deteriorated mind showed through both his characteristics and his appearance.

Mo Ran 2.0 was tanner. He was far more muscular than 0.5, and he was happier. You could see all of that in his appearance too.

And he had dimples. I don’t know why or how, but so many artworks just overlook that.

Chu Wanning was also muscular. Chu Fei was not — due to prolonged torture.

Both these characters had so many defining physical characteristics, and I feel like all of that just gets lost in so much Erha artwork.

And that.

Shit.

Pisses.

Me.

The.

Hell.

Off.

Character designs are another integral ingredient to my insane love and devotion for 2ha. AND IT KILLS ME when fan arts AND official arts get it so so wrong.

AND IM NOT TALKING ABOUT INDIVIDUAL ART STYLES DO NOT GET ME WRONG ON THIS.

I'm so grateful for the amazing dedication artists put in into their pieces, but as someone who's a raving lunatic who loves to get into the nitty girttys of this phenomenal piece of literature, it hurts.

That's actually a very crucial reason for why I DETEST the 2ha manhua, but another rant on that another time.

[nacrelysis]

lol if jiuge and chu wanning are both carved from divine wood...don't think about how huaizui said himself that jiuge was tied to chu wanning's own blood. don't think about the implications that chu wanning's experiences are felt by jiuge too.

don't think about how jiuge could feel chu wanning's golden core shattering during his battle with taxian-jun, the physical and mental torture eating away at his consciousness the longer he endured as chu-fei. don't think about jiuge watching chu wanning fall into more and more despair as he tears himself apart for a fragment of clue as to how to save mo ran.

don't think about how jiuge, made of pure divine wood, found itself feeling hatred at the way taxian-jun has abused its owner - a feeling that should be foreign, yet for the man made in all but the same flesh and blood, the person closest to what a brother could be to itself, jiuge learns to despise.

don't think about how jiuge must have felt chu wanning expend the last dregs of his life force to summon it for the final time in 0.5. don't think about how jiuge, being divine wood, might have had sentience - don't think about how it could have begged chu wanning to stop because it knew how it would end. don't think about how jiuge, tied to chu wanning's soul, could feel it slipping out of its grasp during the siege on taxue palace.

don't think about how jiuge felt chu wanning die while playing it for the final time. don't think about how jiuge watched taxian-jun berate, then break down, then finally bury chu wanning in the past lifetime.

how it must have hated taxian-jun for all he did - but, being akin to chu wanning, how jiuge must have hated itself more, for not being able to save the person closest to it.