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I don’t know if you’ve gotten one for him yet, but for the ask meme thing the often forgotten member of the group: Bai Longma

Omg thank you for remembering him and giving me a chance to talk about him

How I feel about this character:

I’m not sure how i got so invested in a character who maybe speaks like five lines in the entire book and is nearly never mentioned but welp!! That’s the power of being an exiled dragon prince I guess!!

He’s a prince! He’s a dragon! He was on death row and now he’s been exiled! He knows sword dancing! He’s probably immensely powerful but he does nearly nothing over the course of the journey, and I respect that choice! I love his concept so much... He doesn’t get much characterization in the book so it’s really anyone’s choice as to how he actually is.

I like the angle that he just prefers not to talk :) He’s a regal, dignified, maybe a bit uptight prince with a mean streak so it’d make sense that he’s ignoring the rest of the pilgrims because they’re not worth his time or something, but I think he genuinely isn’t much of a talker. I like to think the other disciples grow to realize he isn’t just ignoring them and that he’d rather show care through quality time and listening, and I like to think that he appreciates the other disciples allowing him that space and not forcing him to talk like the people at the palace might’ve. He’s more of a background presence, but I like to think he undergoes his own quiet character development alongside the rest of the gang, softening up and loosening up and whatnot. He grew up in a very rule-oriented environment as a prince, and he’s going through a lot on his own regarding dishonoring his family, the loss of his long hair on death row, the betrayal from Nine-Headed Insect, and so I think him seeing the others grow and be carefree would help him a lot more than the other disciples might realize. Make no mistake though. He’s still a hauty prince who’s been hating having to be the horse during this journey and he’ll still stick up his nose at Wukong throwing mudballs and stuff.

Also the pitfalls of being a gay artist who draws pretty men 👉👈 I think he’s cute

All the people I ship romantically with this character:

The power of identifying heavily with Sun Wukong and the power of thinking Longma is cute made me ship 龙空 for a bit... I don’t actively ship them, but I still have a soft spot for them as a concept. Super loud and crass tiny monkey and super quiet and regal giant dragon... Also I think they would’ve bonded during the journey cuz despite his hatred of the 弼马温 title, Wukong absolutely would’ve pampered Longma’s horse form and Longma, being a prince who’s been craving some sense of luxury after weeks on the road, would’ve loved it.

My non-romantic OTP for this character:

I’m sorry but this is gonna be my answer for each of the disciples fdjsksdksd Him and the rest of the disciples because found familyTM <3 Special shoutout to Wukong for the aforementioned horse pampering

Also small detail but- I don’t think he really goes by Ao Lie much after being sentenced to death row (unless someone from his family actually calls him that first). He feels like he’s dishonored the family too much to live up to the Ao name, so he tends to go by Bai Yulong. Xiao Bailong and Bai Longma are nicknames he only lets the other disciples call him. He also lets them call him Xiao Long Bao but will never admit it and will not hesitate to slap if they call him that in front of anyone outside of their group.

My unpopular opinion about this character:

Not an unpopular opinion as in people don’t like it, but unpopular as in people don’t really talk about it (I think I’ve brought this up in the JTTW server before though)- I don’t think he’s actually one of Tang Seng’s tudi FJDSKDSDK He was given the job to accompany Tang Seng as his horse, but he was never given a Buddhist name and he never had one of those 磕头拜师 moments like everyone else? Zhu Bajie is who everyone calls 二师兄 despite Longma joining the group before him so... I think he’s just on the journey. He doesn’t help the group unless he absolutely needs to because it wasn’t part of the job description. King shit honestly

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:

It wasn’t in the original canon text by Wu Cheng’en so I understand, but I wish more people ran with the palace scandal drama spin 1986 put on the Wansheng Princess and Nine-headed Bug arc. People take a lot of from 1986 anyways, and I know the graphic novel adaptation by Chen Weidong ran with the idea so I’d love to see the concept bleed into JTTW media in general. We don’t know much about Longma’s backstory so why not!! Palace scandal is such a fun direction to take with it!!

Ask game: Give me a character and I’ll tell you my thoughts! (JTTW and Chinese mythology only) :D