#nezha thoughts

[sillysoliloquyshits]

I watched a few movie reviews on Nezha 2 and one of them on two white guys (iirc) doing a podcast on their surface thoughts on the movie kinda threw me off as one of them said 'one thing that was off-putting to me was a lot of onscreen crying' or something like that. Which is super off-putting to me actually.

I mean what do you mean? Your little brother or mother or wife just died in front of your eyes what do you mean you should not cry and it's not a natural response? Ao Bing cried into his dad at the start as he felt so awful for letting his dad down and his buddy nearly died if he didn't intervene. Ne Zha cried so hard when he saw his parents again because he really thought they were gone. Both kids are three years old for the love of God. And Shen Gong Bao is a literal family man he has a soft spot for his little brother of course when he died trying to escape he had to cry so much and to be honest, I've watched videos of how the animation team spent a long time animating and planning the crying scene for him to ensure it's perfect. The creative team has spent so long to ensure every detail to actually ensure the whole story and every shot and scene will have a lasting emotional impact to touch the audience.

And another thing that's also respectable is how the team and the story in general is very committed to fleshing out the characters and ensuring they are all very relevant to the plot and have their own personal stories in a sequel, which is not often seen nowadays given how hard it is to make a better sequel (but that's another story and post I digress, but anyway-)

What I'm trying to say is that we all need more stories of boys openly crying. The only other movies off the top of my head I can think that has boys openly crying are maybe Coco, or Luca and maybe HTTYD, and I feel Nezha 2 has done a great job in showing the different sides of healthy masculinity, in how it's okay for boys to ugly cry and for dads to be tough on the exterior while also being very caring and gentle to their own sons, and for close brotherhood bonds being a soft side of characters. And it also dispels a stereotype in how Asians are often stoic and not as emotional as westerners, as while a lot of Chinese and Asians are quite stoic, there are plenty of people who see themselves in Ao Bing and Ne Zha and etc.

And I also saw a post earlier on how Ne Zha and Ao Bing defy societal rules and societal expectations respectively, with Ao Bing doing so by being outwardly feminine in looks and being elegant while precise and aggressive in his attacks and still being able to be confident in his self, while Ne Zha has been insecure in his own looks until the end. And personally I feel the movie is a great place for kids and boys especially to learn that masculinity can be anything they can define, like how one can be more confident like Ao Bing even when he's not traditionally masculine, while knowing it's okay to be insecure and that they can overcome judgements in society.

And with their friendship and loyalty to each other (and possibly *cough* *gay* *it's ok if you don't ship them*), it also teaches boys that male friendships can be very close knit where they can be vulnerable to one another, like how Nezha soon learnt to be vulnerable around Ao Bing and how Ao Bing learnt to follow his heart through Ne Zha's influence. Boys can learn from one another and become emotionally stronger together like it's not just a girls thing yay-

So yeah this is another long ramble but tldr again:

Nezha 2 is a fantastic movie on healthy masculinity and we need more movies like this for boys especially to learn that expressing strong emotions are very healthy and essential in being a person. And we need to punch toxic masculinity to death the way Lu Tong and He Tong did at the end to the bald bitch so-

[sillysoliloquyshits]

Things we don't really talk about much on Ne Zha 2 (and the first movie:

1. Ne Zha may seem very impulsive once his temper is on fire, but he can be very focused and clear minded on his responsibilities and loyalties no matter what, as shown when he could've just let Ao Bing die out of vengeance for his dad, but he still rushed to beat Lady Shi up so he can get Ao Bing's problem done for and so he can focus on enacting revenge on Ao Guang

2. In that similar vein it could be interpreted that Ne Zha was taking a gamble in destroying his body to free himself from the curse in the cauldron (instead of following his mom in death), since he may have taken Ao Guang's words that the Samadhi fire in the cauldron is compatible with his own seriously, so even despite the raging grief and agony he still tried his hardest to free himself so he can free his dad and Ao Bing and everyone later

3. Ao Bing learns as quickly as Ne Zha (who literally mastered shapeshifting without his master's help very quickly) and while it's not shown when exactly Ao Bing too learnt shapeshifting, it's clear that with their special spiritual power status they just learn new and difficult skills fast

4. Lady Yin and Li Jing really share a powerful bond where even if Lady Yin spent her last moments with Ne Zha, it's very understandable that she still loves her husband too even without having a chance to say goodbye, and if you're a couple who already gave birth to three outstanding godly children, pretty sure you already knew what your wife was thinking and Li Jing let his wife spend her last moments with her son as he knows all along Ne Zha is her top priority and that's okay, it's called selfless love in unspoken communication

5. Also it must be said that Li Jing does subconsciously listen to his wife, as in the first movie he was persuaded to let Tai Yi Zhen Ren try to kill Ne Zha at birth until his wife came to protect him, and Li Jing was persuaded that no matter what Ne Zha is still his son, and when at the end of the first movie Ne Zha said his only regret with his dad is never having a chance to play Jianzi with him, which broke him as he realised he should've listened to Lady Yin in spending more time to make Ne Zha happy before his death, instead of strictly training him, so yeah Li Jing totally knows what listen to your wife means

7. That being said what's more heartbreaking is that the reason why Lady Yin was the one that threw the oblivion pill away from Ne Zha instead of Li Jing was because he himself couldn't make the choice in choosing his wife or his son and his wife chose for him, which just makes his grief even worse, like when I rewatched the movie I just felt so freaking awful for Li Jing haiz-

8. Ao Guang has ended up being a lonelier figure, with his siblings all betraying him and now having to let his son go with his crush best buddy forever has made his journey as a king more alone than ever, but it's not without logic as he may have figured that with Ne Zha already willing to do so much for Ao Bing, they might as well stick together to ensure Ao Bing's safety, since the Loong/dragon clan being somewhat refugees and hunted down by the heavenly court would bode ill for Ao Bing so yeah

9. I might be delulu but I saw one of the calligraphy ink posters of Lady Yin and someone saw a purple pill floating below her face and at her hair which could foreshadow her fate, but when I watched a second time I saw that bead again at her hair tie when there was a closeup of her face in sending Ne Zha away so if the creative team really hid her foreshadowed fate in her literal hair tie I'm gonna-

10. While Tai Yi is kinda nerfed for continuity reasons (where hundreds of his cultivation years are gone just to protect Ne Zha and Ao Bing's souls), we can't deny that he still has the most integrity out of all the immortals, along with Ne Zha's parents, so yeah hopefully that will be continued for Tai Yi as he's ironically the model of what a cultivator should be like despite his lower levels of power compared to other immortals, as he still has a conscience (and is forced to be a babysitter for both Ne Zha and Ao Bing as usual lol)

11. It's also ironic that while the actual humans and humans-turned-immortals are the truly righteous ones with a conscience and not as discriminatory, it's those immortals who were once spirits who project their prejudices and hatred for their own spirit status on themselves and deepen the divide between spirits/demons and humans and the hypocrisy that comes with it, which really gives a dark reflection on how harmful internalised racism can be

12. One instance I realised was that when Shen Zheng Dao was training his disciples by the waterfall he blamed his students on how their cultivation paths are harder was solely because of their spirit birth, which when internalised sounds harsh as one doesn't really choose their birth and it also hints to the planting of seeds of internalised hatred for their own true nature and thinking that things will change for the better when you're more capable of 'not looking like a spirit/looking human' and cultivation, which really worsens the suppressing of the self in cultivation

13. Shen Gong Bao is a very ambitious character who does misdeeds to get to the top, but at least it's shown that he does work a lot harder than most for his own success, just that he snapped and decided to try and cheat his way through with stealing the Heavenly Pearl then, but at least he doesn't cheat all the way since he didn't really take the heavenly pills to help either, so it's a nuanced take on how as an antagonistic figure Shen Gong Bao doesn't always rely on his trickery

14. With all that what exactly is the purpose of cultivating? And with Li Jing and Lady Yin naively thinking cultivating is all about helping more people and accumulating merits, does that mean with their human nature that so many wished to be born as, does that mean the humans are the ones that are more sheltered from brutal realities spirits have to face in cultivating? When did such a divide start back then?

15. Some people have guessed that it's unfair that He Tong with her powers is only working to serve Wu Liang around instead of doing hunter duties like Lu Tong, and this is either a nudge to gender roles in work, where females no matter how skilled are forced to do more subservient roles, or simply because with He Tong's powers she works better as a defence while Lu Tong's archer skills is much more suitable for attacking

16. Iirc, Ao Run sort of looked like she was holding back when she was fighting Ne Zha and Ao Bing even though she's very swift in her own way, and according to BTS art and sketches of the second movie, the team had thought of how Ao Run favoured Ao Bing as her nephew, so even if she has sided with the villain, she still secretly can't beat to hurt her beloved nephew either even if Ao Bing would regard her as his enemy from now on

17. Ao Run and her other two brothers serve as a dark mirror of what happens when rebellious idealism at youth withers to cruel compliance to reality, and the director has said that Ao Run was once like Ne Zha and Ao Bing, but thousands of years of imprisonment has caused them to side the bad guys they once vowed to fight against out of self preservation, which is understandable, whereas Shen Gong Bao shows us a figure who probably once did that and still tried to fight against the bad guys after having snapped, so it goes to show that with youth and less experience, the young ones will inevitably feel invincible against anything life throws at them, the real question is whether they (Ne Zha and Ao Bing) could still persist on their core ideals and morals

18. Sometimes it's also got to do with one's nature and status as well, since Ne Zha and Ao Bing may be able to do their rebellions against heaven differently with their greater innate power compared to most characters, which pits them in a better position to survive anything the antagonists throw at them, so yeah sometimes when it comes to rebelling against the system, it's not just your morals your own innate abilities are a huge factor in determining whether you prefer to die trying or to prioritise your own self preservation

Some of these ideas are my own thoughts and some of them I heard from other people either on Tumblr or on Rednote but yeah! Super long sorry again-

[sillysoliloquyshits]

You know the feeling where older Ne Zha is just so handsome to look it but at first you just can't bear to look at him because you're too shy or anything despite wanting to look at a photo of him?

Well the psychological whiplash is very normal for a lot of people. Because when you spent the first two hours seeing a booger cute kid and suddenly he just had a growth spurt/glow up by like 12 years and has an immaculate manicure and hand shape and face pattern and an incredible face shape with his dad's eyes and the rest of his face resembling his mom's with high cheekbones (if I'm not wrong), of course you're gonna feel like you're on a chokehold. Like dude's vocabulary even increased when he's older. We're all Ao Bing at the last five to ten minutes of the movie 💀💀

(And for some who may be confused, the Qian Kun Ring kind of stunts Ne Zha's growth as he looked like a kid since his first year and stayed that way, so if we saw Ao Bing in his first year he could have been in a similar height as Ne Zha as a kid. The Qian Kun Ring around the neck helps mostly suppress his demonic aura and putting it as a bracelet helps for semblance of control to ensure he doesn't lose his consciousness, though that slowly became not the case for the second movie which I'll talk about in another post. But anyway, I have agreed with some people on how Ne Zha still kept the Qian Kun Ring around his neck so as to not give off as much demonic energy and cause more trouble for his family, and to maybe continue being a small kid for his mom. But perhaps in the first movie he may have been subconsciously scared of his true form? And then decided to just screw it in the second.)

[sillysoliloquyshits]

This may be obvious but one thing we don't often talk about between Ne Zha and Ao Bing is the fact that they mutually wished they weren't what they are, as Ao Bing felt awful for Shen Gong Bao's mistake and was guilty at first for being the Heavenly Pearl instead of Ne Zha, while Ne Zha wished he wasn't the Demon Orb so he wouldn't have this much innate force and power and uncontrollable temperaments that he knows burdens his family a lot.

And yet their friendship is so important in affirming both of them that they can truly kick the toy as hard as they wish with each other and they are truly enough and perfect just the way they are around each other. Both Ne Zha and Ao Bing are literally two halves from the Chaotic Essence and are the only equals for each other and hence truly understand each other in a way where they're both no longer insecure or too much for each other. It's like when they're separated they become much lonelier without the completing and wholesome presence of the other.

So yeah they're soulmates, whether platonic or romantic or spiritual etc etc, that has to be the baseline we agree on.

[sillysoliloquyshits]

Okay so while some do miss the younger Ne Zha for his cute crudeness, there are some reasons (in a literary sense) to why he would likely continue to be (cough hot) in his teenage/adult form:

(spoilers for Ne Zha 2) (TW: mentions of suicide)

1. Loss of innocence

After so much that happened, and especially seeing his mom die in front of him, the awful scene of him shredding out of his flesh is a painful visual of how dark reality and grief have killed his innocence and nothing will be the same after. As if his childlike self has died with his mom and childhood is over. (Some have said that perhaps Ne Zha didn't think so far and just wanted to destroy his own flesh and join his mom in death which makes reconstruction of the body something that naturally happened so yeah very dark-)

2. Emotional maturity (and rebelling)

Lady Yin's last words profoundly impacted how Ne Zha viewed himself, as previously with him trying to suppress his demonic nature and wishing he weren't the demon pill, now he has internalized on how he shouldn't deny himself any longer and be caught in his own insecurities, so as he said in the last few scenes, he's no longer going to hide either way. Ne Zha also realised the oppressive societal nature of labels and knows that just because he's exploding with demonic energy shouldn't dictate him as totally evil, so continuing in his adult form is a rebellion against what heaven tries to dictate him in the future, in which he's much more confident in his skin moving forward.

3. Almost nothing to lose

So the Qian Kun Ring around his neck was used to suppress Ne Zha's demonic nature since he wasn't supposed to be the reincarnated demonic pill, but now his spiritual identity is exposed, no point hiding it anyway, go all out in rebelling. It's a clear sign that Ne Zha has much more control over his fate and identity when he doesn't have anything to hide or lose.

4. Carrying on his parents' legacies/memories

It's my own theory but seeing that as a teenage form Ne Zha really resembles his mom much more and has his dad's eyes, perhaps subconsciously he really wanted to carry on his mother's memory now that he likely won't see her again, and keep living on as his parents wanted him to since the first movie. And with him becoming more mature and serious comes a more nuanced grasp on his own masculinity since Ne Zha has become more gentle and less scared of vulnerability (around a certain someone), so maybe it's also his way to carry on his mother's gentleness to him moving forward.

5. A kind of spiritual purgatory

The transformation is practically a baptism in fire, where the cauldron Samadhi flames were said to be the same flames Ne Zha innately emits. And with Samadhi in Buddhism meaning a state of intense concentration through meditation to help liberate oneself spiritually (which explains why everyone had to be in meditating position to ensure they're not easily turned into divine pills), it's under the cauldron's flames that Ne Zha also became symbolically liberated from his old fears and constraints and returned to his own original spiritual self (albeit demonic but in a good way). With newfound inner clarity and focus from controlling the reconstruction of his self and physical body, it could explain why Ne Zha was much more sane even without the Qian Kun Ring and even had much more control over it without reading any spells. Therefore with maintaining his teenage form, Ne Zha also learnt to become more honest in his spiritual state and sense of self unlike other spirits who hide behind their glamorous humanoid forms often.

Tldr again: the kid has grown up, yeah, but don't worry he likely hasn't changed much as people did realise Ne Zha in teenage form also pouts quite a bit like he used to so that's one thing that's cute 🥺🥺

[sillysoliloquyshits]

After Ne Zha 2 blew up the world and mostly blew up in China first, and with me also having rednote/xiaohongshu I've realised these things:

1. I was so scared I would be the only one to sense something between Ne Zha and Ao Bing and by God so many China people ship them and there's tons of fanart there 😭😭 while china is huge and of course there will be lots of gays there too but damn man it didn't sink in until I saw so many fanarts and cosplays

2. Some people also shipped them since the first movie, with one the artists having drawn a kind of fancomic of both of them based off only the first movie, and yeah lots of fancomics are also drawn in China apparently

3. Cosplaying is a huge thing with some going out on the streets with character makeup and features but wearing casual clothes, and some cosplayers so hardcore they would spend 20 hours getting exquisite long Ao Run claw nails and a few taking actual underwater pictures and videos of Ne Zha and Ao Bing like the dedication is next level-

4. Most mind-blowing is that a lot of people in china love the movie so much I think the average rewatches for them are like 4 or 5 times, with some Malaysian Chinese saying they watched the movie six times in nine days and a few commenters saying they watched the movie a total of 11 or even 18 times like 🔥🔥😳😳 I think mostly because a lot of people try different exclusive cinemas like not just IMAX but also those called cinity iirc in their country, so spending lots of money for more high-end projection and colour is very worth it but how China people are so rich they can afford to watch the movie five times- 😭😭😭😩😩😩

5. They have their own strict rules of shipping and also their own meme stickers in their posts and even if they may voice out to say 'naw man they're both 3 years old I can't', so far I haven't seen anything like a ship war so thank God it's not so violent on rednote's end to the point of death threats, and a few have talked it out on the comments to say it's okay to ship or not ship since it's very open in interpretation so yay quite a healthy fandom so far as far as I've observed

But it's through having rednote and being involved in a mostly-china side of fandom, that I realised I had a few subconscious preconceived notions on how China engages in fandom activities, since it's not until something this big did I realise that of course there are gays and cosplayers in China and they all go big. Not all of them are just muggers in studying and working and all about hard work and submission. Because China people obviously have a life and will have their own ways of expressing their passions, and they're not that different from us anyway in some or most ways. Lots of people, especially young people in China, are all just as passionate and rebellious and artistic as us, which obviously explains why the movie resonates so much to them as it does to us.

But tldr: I'm very happy to get to know the fun and fandom side of China through the monumental success of Ne Zha and realise that fandom is a universal thing for us to learn about the cultures of one another, and it's beautiful. Hope more of these awesome successes and cross-cultural exchanges will become more of a norm in the future so we can all have a fun time together.

[sillysoliloquyshits]

Just occured to me that Ao Bing's dragon form is gonna be seen more often as he becomes more of a mode of transportation since he's very helpful anyway (and the flying pig is gone and being on a dragon helps ferry lots of people together). But what bums me is that it's not gonna be just funny in how Ao Bing's likely gonna get backaches from carrying everyone together (and Ne Zha feeling the most guilty and likely admonishing his own master for wanting to ride on Ao Bing as he's lazy to fly himself), this could be where we see Ne Zha's considerate side as he starts caring for Ao Bing more and getting everyone fly by themselves lol-

[sillysoliloquyshits]

I really really need to get this out of my chest now but before I even watched Ne Zha 2 I had a feeling that the reason why it's exploding is because so many people resonate with the messages of the movie and by God it obviously did. I did talk about healthy masculinity and all but what I feel the movie really resonates more strongly is this:

Resisting against evil will always win.

(More Ne Zha 2 spoilers and believe me when I say Lu Tong's many arrows remind me of missiles and drone attacks by God it was terrifying seeing and hearing them at first)

But while it's a movie of all ages mainly targeted to kids, Ne Zha 2 is extremely relevant in reflecting this current hunger-games world where the working class marmots are like innocents dragged into ICE camps because they don't fit the green card standard, spirits who still side the green card assholes because out of survival and hypocrisy with internalized racism, and the petrifying censorships and arrests we face that reduce our numbers in resistance. Maybe it's just me overthinking the parallels but come on, China won't know much about American struggles but maybe it's fate that Ne Zha 2 really came at the right time to remind us what's most important in this time. We are surrounded by too many Wuliangs in the world.

When I first watched the movie I really felt that moment to my bones when all the sea creature spirits and Ao Guang and Li Jing gathered their strength to push Ne Zha and Ao Bing up to break the cooking cauldron. The strong collectivism is very symbolic of China's collectivism and teamwork in times of hardship which makes them a more unified country, and suffice to say maybe this was what the creative team really felt when they put their soul in animating and voicing and playing the music for this movie, to break their cauldron of limits and burst into the box office realm for China.

But as a Pro-Palestinian myself, I see this not just as a loose reference as China vs America's and the western oppression, of we see the enemy as US and other f@scist/zi0nist oppressors. The trappings of the cauldron to anyone who resits or doesn't obey by the oppressors' rule really remind me of the Palestinian resistance and so many other resistance movements in the world, like the LGBTQIA+ resistance and Black people and Latin Americans and Indigenous peoples and Asian Americans (BIPOC in general) in US and around the world, and the Lebanese and the Ukrainians and Sudanese and South Sudanese and Yemeni and Haitian and DRC people and Ugyhers and so many more-

The director Jiao Zi once said that he believes there is a rebellious and righteous Ne Zha in all of us, and he's right. This world is dystopian already and it's very normal to be overwhelmed and melt in the pressure, but the movie still provides us the hope we all need for our freedoms. And it's not just refreshing, it's extremely invigorating to the soul. (That's why people keep coming back to cinemas to watch-)

If we keep at it despite the heat, the cauldron will break. The Wuliangs of the world will have their skulls and stupid ass green cards cracked under our kicks. I've also recently read somewhere that fascism relies on forced compliance, and whether you're out protesting or quietly doing something to help out of self preservation, as long as you're focused on our common enemy and don't back down, our efforts will come to fruition somehow. The Wuliangs obviously can't fall immediately, but we can keep kicking cracks.

Tldr: if you see the breaking cauldron as a symbol of china starting to win US and the west, might as well see it as a strong symbol of resistance against worsening oppression in the world.

No one is free until everyone is free.