Hes So Cute When He's Annoyed/mad

Commissioned illustration for an upcoming artist residency program—Gothe Residency of the Arts!

(Many thanks to Vincent for giving me the banger prompt of "dark academia androgynous person + Borzoi")

I've heard that Wukong has a heart of gold (literally), as well as iron lungs, and a metal spine from being in Lao Tzu's furnace and eating molten Copper from Guan Yin and was wondering if this is true.

Monkey states that in ch. 34:

When old Monkey caused great disturbance in the Celestial Palace five hundred years ago and was refined for forty-nine days in the eight trigram brazier of Laozi, the process in fact gave me a heart strong as gold and viscera hardy as silver, a bronze head and an iron back, fiery eyes and diamond pupils (Wu & Yu, 2012, vol. 2, p. 131).

The legend of his adamantine body predates the 1592 JTTW. For instance, Sun claims the following in the early-Ming zaju play:

I plundered Laozi’s gold Pill of Immortality, and have endured so many alchemical transformations that my muscles are brass, my bones iron, my eyes fire, my pupils gold, my asshole lead and my prick is pewter (Ning, 1986, p. 142). 

Another example comes from the 13th-century JTTW. He is referred to as the the “Bronze-Headed, Iron-Browed King of the Eighty-Four Thousand Monkeys of the Purple Cloud Grotto on the Mountain of Flowers and Fruits” (Wivell, 1994, p. 1182). And the story ends with the Tang Emperor Taizong enfeoffing him as the “Great Sage Steel Muscles and Iron Bones” (Wivell, 1994, p. 1207).

Sources:

Ning, C. Y. (1986). Comic Elements in the Xiyouji Zaju (UMI No. 8612591) [Doctoral Dissertation, University of Michigan]. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.

Wivell, C.S. (1994). The Story of How the Monk Tripitaka of the Great Country of T’ang Brought Back the Sūtras. In V. Mair (Ed.), The Columbia Anthology of Traditional Chinese Literature (pp. 1181-1207). New York: Columbia University Press.

Wu, C., & Yu, A. C. (2012). The Journey to the West (Vols. 1-4) (Rev. ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press.

au where Aang gets told he's the Avatar (and subsequently frozen) at 16 like he was supposed to.... I think it would change a lot honestly

Finding excuses 😔

AAAAAAAAA---!!!!

Sùsù reference

My baby girl I love her so much she means the world to me I would die a thousand deaths for her <3 <3 <3

been a little busy so i forgot to post these sooner, but i am so supremely happy with them i can't not share them: all my updated/new character references for art fight this year!

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