You would be right if it was any other White tier cultivator. However we are told again and again that Shenhua is not like other Whites. She somehow had managed to incorporate her humanity in her path and that resulted in the twisted amalgamation we see now. I do believe that she does care for her child and this is also the minimal amount of trauma needed to CRX to do what she must. Which is to kill her mom. She understands that the path to revolution must make sacrifices but she also doesn't like it.
Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)
- Thread starter yrsillar
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- Original Users' Choice!
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Grant Me the Power and I Will Bring the World Revolution
Oh god, Shenhua and Lingqin are End Game Utena and Anthy
Well Shenhua doesn't need to do much in order to mess with the Mandate of Heaven conceptually. The process of overthrowing the current dynasty and then picking a fight with the Imperial Dragon over the demolition of the Empire as a political entity will completely wipe out Celestial Peaks as a geographical area and geomantic construct.
This will render a significant part of the Empire as we know it uninhabitable simply from the collateral, exacerbated if the various Sublime Ancestors have their say over this disaster, and what remains will almost certainly be physically impossible to reunite into a single polity.
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Shenhua destroys the heavens, and then rebels against the stars, because there is no off-button, only a ceaseless wheel to cleave through the old.
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wait I thought ling Qis core word was HEARTH and that everything that follows would be derived from that.
In my reading Shenhuas path was REVOLUTION=>TRUTH =>RENEWAL =>PROGRESS
I.e. Shenhua started a REVOLUTION, which based itself/focused on TRUTH(to counter the alternate dream reality of the Hui) which brought/necessitated RENEWAL which facilitated PROGRESS. The whole thing is a process strives to clarify and specify the scope and "reading" of the word REVOLUTION. Since we know that cultivation is basically doubling down on yourself over and over again this would make sense.
Otherwise the concept would read as she started out with PROGRESS, that focused on RENEWAL , which led to TRUTH which culminated in a REVOLUTION? To me at least the other Way is more logical.
This would mean that Ling Qi's Center would be HEARTH, and now she needs figure out what this means to her, which effects this will have on the once gathered around her hearth.
In other words. First you pick your Domain and then Way decides which unique slice of that Domain Concept is uniquely yours.
In my reading Shenhuas path was REVOLUTION=>TRUTH =>RENEWAL =>PROGRESS
I.e. Shenhua started a REVOLUTION, which based itself/focused on TRUTH(to counter the alternate dream reality of the Hui) which brought/necessitated RENEWAL which facilitated PROGRESS. The whole thing is a process strives to clarify and specify the scope and "reading" of the word REVOLUTION. Since we know that cultivation is basically doubling down on yourself over and over again this would make sense.
Otherwise the concept would read as she started out with PROGRESS, that focused on RENEWAL , which led to TRUTH which culminated in a REVOLUTION? To me at least the other Way is more logical.
This would mean that Ling Qi's Center would be HEARTH, and now she needs figure out what this means to her, which effects this will have on the once gathered around her hearth.
In other words. First you pick your Domain and then Way decides which unique slice of that Domain Concept is uniquely yours.
The stars are but dots in the formless chaos, and are only as defined as they are because the moon forces them to be. You can't rebel against something with no structure. Specially not if you just got done killing Time for being a part of the old regime and by extension banned causality as a reactionary element.
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Tasoli
Life is for Living
- Location
- Behind the Keyboard.
I was thinking Tianli would overthrow CRX in turn but that makes sense as well. Could be either or undecided in between.
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- E
Is this Shenhua referring to herself as heaven and being self-aware enough to know she's wrong? Or is she proclaiming her truth and trying to convince her daughter that the heaven (the natural order?) is wrong? In a "look at me, can't you see the natural order is crap" kind of way.
I'm not really clear on the metaphor here. It'd make sense for the heaven to be Shenhua, given her eyes are a portal to light and all that but I think it'd be the first time the phrase would be used to describe her.
Yo, figuring out aurora borealis should be top priority long term project now. Seems particularly effective against best mum.
BagFullOfLizards
Some bag, mostly lizards
- Location
- A bag
I know Shenhua believes she needs to be overthrown but now I really want to know what she would add to the world if she ascended. The old order could use some shaking up.
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- He/Him
If we look at her path up to now and what concepts she is currently embracing?
Top layer: POWER, COMMUNITY, and EXPRESSION
Inner layer: ISOLATION
But if I were to just pick four words that I thought Ling Qi truly embodied?
Top layer: ISOLATION, PROTECTION, and FAMILY
Inner layer: WANT
Ling Qi has been told Great Spirits can die, and the fact that Shenhua herself says she is unsustainable makes it possible her lack of restraint leads to a rather bright, but short lived change to the cosmic order. Well it might be less death, and more her lack of restraint makes her prone to always burning power on things involving interference in the World directly, which is costly for them to do.
This of course presumes she will ascend, and that isn't guaranteed as part of her Revolution involves being an existential threat to the CN civilization.
I don't think we fight Shenhua.
The obvious paragon persuade option is to convince her that she's done all she can in this world, and it's time for her to retire and go into closed door cultivation in order to ascend and bring her revolution to Heaven.
The real question is whether or not that's a good idea
The obvious paragon persuade option is to convince her that she's done all she can in this world, and it's time for her to retire and go into closed door cultivation in order to ascend and bring her revolution to Heaven.
The real question is whether or not that's a good idea
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I think CRX would have an aneurism at a moon rave and/or Liming would obliterate the whole thing..... Should we drag CRX to a moon party as well? Seems like she really needs some stress relief.
And I say that, who don't even like going to parties!
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Shenhua rebels against the idea that she can't rebel against something.
Anyways, I actually like Shenhua more as a character after this reveal, though she will almost definitely be a major antagonist in LQ's future. She's driven enough to chase lofty, impossible goals, and self-aware enough to understand her ultimate place in the grand tapestry of history.
I just don't see her as a bad guy at all, I tend to agree with her that Heaven maintains and perpetuates a system that grinds innocents like grist on a mill. It's incredibly bloody, chaotic and inefficient. I would love to hang out and exchange ideas with her, if her slightest attention doesn't deatomize me.
For me this is the preferred outcome. We convert her through magical girl tropes.😀
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zamin
The Watcher in the Dark
I bet the first Great Spirit Shenhua shanks after ascending is gonna be from the Hui family.
- Location
- San Ramon, CA
The specifics are a bit different, but this interlude reminded me a bit of this part of the webcomic Order of the Stick.
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- He/They
The idea that Shenhua's cultivation secret makes her more human than other Whites is a common claim, but do we have any evidence of it? I think that people often overestimate how much high-level cultivators lose their personalities, and then see her having a personality as a rarity. Maybe she's differently alien from them due to being younger and set in her own Way without the influence of an ancient clan tradition, but I don't think there's proof she's fundamentally different.
The thing that's always brought up is her relationship with Diao Linqin, but if she did at Prism I don't see why she couldn't at White. Certainly Sun Shao, the other White we have much insight into, acts like he can love people and generally seems to show the same level of agency. We know that Imperial cultivation involves stripping away 'human' things and becoming more like a spirit, but spirits themselves have personalities - for example, nobody would claim that Xin, Zeqing or Sixiang are automatons. They have an essence which they can't directly go against, but they have thoughts and feelings and can work against that essence indirectly. The same seems to be true of all the White and near-White cultivators we've seen.
The thing that's always brought up is her relationship with Diao Linqin, but if she did at Prism I don't see why she couldn't at White. Certainly Sun Shao, the other White we have much insight into, acts like he can love people and generally seems to show the same level of agency. We know that Imperial cultivation involves stripping away 'human' things and becoming more like a spirit, but spirits themselves have personalities - for example, nobody would claim that Xin, Zeqing or Sixiang are automatons. They have an essence which they can't directly go against, but they have thoughts and feelings and can work against that essence indirectly. The same seems to be true of all the White and near-White cultivators we've seen.
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- Leeds
If you think back to the Faceless sidestory Shenuai's ultimate plan seems to be successive generations 'overthrow' the previous one in less and less violent occasions. Tianli, might be meant to be part of that, however given that she'd have grown up in the current regime she wouldn't really be all that much 'better' than CRX.
Since I said this in discord I'll say it here. The Heaven is wrong bit is part of her 'come at me' speech to CRX. Shenhua climbed to heaven and took a throne, heaven is still wrong.
I continue to maintain it's something that people are basing entirely off An and Suzhen having similar Way related issues with love. I see that as purely a personal issue with their Ways, and not something actually inherent to Whites.
Shao after all has basically the opposite problem.
That's a really interesting clarification. I feel that CRX's Way, being peaceful, orderly and productive governance, is antithetical to her mother's idea of 'Progress'.
Maybe if and when CRX ascends, she'll write [PEACEFUL TRANSITION OF POWER] into the cosmos, to counteract her mom's tendency towards chaos.
DarkLight140
Credit to Team
- Location
- Lost in my thoughts
Most of this update is written in the second person, and I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be interpreting the parts of it where it breaks into third person as errors, or as some kind of artistically intentional effort to show that at those points Renxiang is massively dissociating and temporarily incapable of self-identifying with her own actions. Any available insight would be appreciated.