#queen jiang

[darkflierazura]

A round up of sketches and some basic ideas for characters of varying importance

Minor or Extremely Minor

[darkflierazura]

3 more characters join the ever growing roster Part one

Design notes For Ji Fa, I think i got brain poisoned while working on those other birds I had to draw because he ended up with a bird motif. Bird sword, bird brother, bird bow, bird armor. IDK. He wears a lot pf white because white= west (traditional directional color). Why I didn't go with a tiger motif, I'm not sure, I think i just liked the bird idea more.

In the novel, Ji Fa is an extremely bland kinda naive ruler who is overly concerned with the ethics of the relationship between Lord and vassal. So my depiction of him is probably the farthest I'm straying from the novel and more into headcanon/adaptation territory. I do think the novel has some interesting bones though. In the novel he's unskilled in running a military campaign and leaves all matters to Jiang Ziya. He's also left in the dark until the last possible second a ton, such as the whole punitive expedition. . . I think those could be something interesting to tug on.

Princess Longji is a really cool character, shame she's not in more of the novel. Unfortunately like Deng Chanyu she's forced into a "because fate says so" marriage of inconvenience.

I've depicted her with two treasures, Four Seas bottle and Two Dragons sword. She's later deified as the Red Phoenix star, so I went with that type of coloring.

Poor, poor Yin Jiao. When I first read the novel, I was really hoping he'd join the Zhou army even though I knew he wasn't going to. His life is kind of one tragedy after another until he dies a pitiful death. Even in his daoist attire, I tried to include elements of royal clothing. It's my impression that he could never throw aside the worldly connection, and it's kind of what doomed him. His design also starts leaning more into my thoughts on adaptational changes.

The most interesting thing to note about his design might be his swords. The implication here is that he's had one as a child, and the other he picks up later. Eventually the Martial King ends up with the bird sword. (id probably draw Guang Chenzi with his own paired swords since in this adaptation he never gives them to his student.)

the final pic is an expansion of a specific Au idea- the Yin brothers accompany their masters to Xiqi during the 10 formations arc. I think it would be good to add to the tragedy. Even if new friendships form, the Yin brothers cannot escape their fates.

I finally got around to making the height chart a little more official. I think it's funny the only person I ended up making taller than YJ (*only untransformed person) is his immortal goddess cousin.

[darkfalcon-z]

Go, Concubine Huang! Go!

I think she has had a lot of pent up anger towards the low-life king and Daji since the brutal death of Queen Jiang. So her beating up Daji is cathartic. I fear she will die soon though.

edit:

edit ii (spoiler): ...and she’s dead.

[darkfalcon-z]

Queen Jiang better be getting godhood and super good position in Heaven as well for all this bullshit she’d been through.

[darkfalcon-z]

that is an interesting bit of an information in regard how the court and justice system worked.

those ministers get it

The plot is actually quite obvious and it would failed if the King was actually capable of rational thought.

The proceeding probably reflect Ming Dynasty customs rather than those of the Shang Dynasty.

edit:

she does not even have a motive.

So the Concubine Huang is like: dude, she’s innocent

and the dumb king is like conflicted for a fraction of the second, but then Daki is like... you get the picture

yeah, the fact that she is the only one mentioned specifically only makes it even clearer that she’s being framed

[darkfalcon-z]

Even Daki is: “ yo! your ministers and the queen is right. You should clean up your act and I’m a bad influence”

I mean she says this to manipulate the king further, but still.

(I don’t think having lot’s of sex was in any major part in relation to moral failings of any king and it’s unfair reductionism that obscures actual problems, but here the king is an irresponsible ruler and a tyrant while Daki is actually a demon, who overtook a body of an innocent young girl, and is only egging him on).