I love your in-depth analyzations. Some of them have completedly changed my point of view of certain characters. By the way, I want to ask something about Xixi. During the 'twist his balls' scene, he is the first person out of the three boys to think that Momo a good person, even though he was directly injured by Momo earlier. This turns out to be true later on. How do you think that Xixi could pinpoint this?
Hey there! You are too kind, anon, gosh ~
I think one of the reasons is that XiXi is one of the more mature characters in the manhua. He doesn’t seem to have any kind of troubled past or old wounds, and he grew up in a healthy family, he’s very serious in contrast to somewhat childish and effervescent JY. So that’s why I think he may not be prone to making hasty assumptions about people. I’m fairly sure that he sees school delinquents for what they are: kids with some kinds of troubles that they are trying to resolve them with violence/rebellious behaviour.
What’s more, despite Momo all trying to act badass and tough, he really gets scared fairly easily. During that ball-twisting scene, he quickly back-pedalled instead of trying to fight or threaten XiXi and JY. He literally tried to buy his way out.
And we can see that Momo is also scared when He Tian tried to threaten him to stitch up his mouth, also during dreams sequence when classmates tried to bully him after “ass-shot”. I think XiXi might have caught a whiff that deep-down Mo is scared and is trying way too hard to appear badass so that others won’t hurt him. After all, it was XiXi who gets all like “eh? Are we really going to twist his balls?” and then “these two are scary”. To me, it says that Xixi has a big heart and doesn’t hold grudges, and he also doesn’t indulge in petty revenge.
On a side note, I kinda want to see him becoming friends with Momo after JY disappearance. The scene between them in the hospital is both awkward and endearing.
Whatever makes you say that, dear anon?
I’d say that right now Mo is confused and unsure about what’s he’s feeling, but he’s definitely beginning to become conscious of it and it scares him a bit, that’s why he’s so prone to yell that HT pisses him off.
For once, let me say that for Mo it’s practically impossible to quickly develop attraction and feelings for another person. Mo has been bullied since a very tender age and his natural response was to clam up inside of himself. It’s very human and very relatable, and quite typical for the victims of bullying. He has been ostracized. He has been used by people like She Li. Life has let him down and he’s grown weary and distrustful of those around him. More importantly, he learned how to cope by himself and not rely on (or need) anyone else.
To Mo, He Tian is one of those people, who are responsible for the shit happening to the underprivileged like himself. He believes that wealth leads to people abusing it in all the wrong ways. And, let’s be honest, He Tian’s behaviour, in the beginning, did fit this mould. We as readers know that He Tian genuinely wants to help him, but Mo doesn’t. For him, He Tian is just a popular spoiled brat, who bothers him just for the kicks, and Mo has no reason to believe that somebody like that would take a genuine interest in himself. That there’s kindness behind his actions - remember, Mo used to say that HT is fake? The reason for Momo’s disbelief is that he grew up with such a world view, and it’s not easy to shake it off. It’s not easy to overcome trust issues.
Luckily over time that belief started to waver. He Tian was probably the only person in his life who bothered to help him without asking anything in return. Who cared for him (even in a roundabout way). He Tian was ready to do some martyr-like shit for Mo. It didn’t go unnoticed, even if Mo may not fully realize why HT would go so far for a street kid.
If Momo hadn’t liked He Tian, he wouldn’t be constantly blushing at the slightest physical contact. It may be just a physical thing, but it’s definitely there. If Momo didn’t care about HT, he wouldn’t have rushed to his apartment, when HT sent him “bloodied” hand. When He Tian disappeared after sending him to the hospital, Momo wanted to know his whereabouts. Momo wouldn’t have been checking his phone all the time. If he didn’t care, he wouldn’t have held his hand, when HT was having a nightmare.
And lastly, let’s look at one of Mo’s dreams. He’s dreaming that he’s being bullied by a mob again until He Tian appears and saves him. Lots of people pay attention to the butt grab, but the truly important thing here is the fact that Momo actually cries in HT’s shoulder. I think that says more than anything that he actually sees He Tian as a source of his comfort. Would he see somebody he didn’t like this way? I think not.
Anyway, I don’t think Momo can rationalize his feelings right now. He definitely doesn’t dislike HT and he’s definitely getting physical reactions. He’s also quite a bit of tsundere and would deny it to the very end, and it would take plenty of time for him to come to terms with what’s he’s feeling.
Whoa, that’s a wall o’text again, srry.
Good evening. How did He Tian aware about Mo’s living place whereabout? p.s. eng isn’t my first language, I’m sorry
Hello Dear Anon, good evening to you and don’t worry, eng is also not my frist language! And my spelling suck so much, that it’s embarrassing for me to read my own posts after some time.
Are you asking how HT knows where Mo lives? I tried to recall it from memory and I am quite sure we don’t know this. It’s highly possibility that He Tian asked teachers (they probably wouldn’t mind, perfect and nice student vibes sometimes works well), Mo’s class president or Mo’s gang memebers.
That would be a nice scene, seeing HT asking gang with simply “Tell me where Mo Guan Shan live >:) “
About second question: that situation tells a lot about HT’s feelings, his fears and his priorities. We can assume he went directly from airport with his luggage to Mo’s home because he missed him that much. He had to see him immediately, regardless his physical and psychic bad state.
And now we are going to “just my thoughs” section: he was so tired that he could fell asleep standing on the staircase but he knew he won’t feel good without looking at Mo. He was also aware that he def will have nightmares after visiting places where his traumatic memories where hidden.. so he was too scaried to sleep alone. He was too scaried to return to his big empty and cold apartament, where scary nightmares, depressing thoughs and loneliness were waiting for him. When he is with Mo, he can forget about all that mental baggage on his shoulders, which he mostly carries alone. Most probably he is unaware about that, but he feels safe next to Mo, he gives him inner peace.
I think in that panel he realised this, and was really thankfull that Mo is here for him.
No todo el que se le acerca que no es de su clase ni de su barrio quiere robarla, ¿oyó?
Román, el vago que se volvió decente en una comisaría y le dió una lección a Marcela sobre discriminación y predisposiciones
Art by Gei (@tenber20)
I have no excuse for this other than it was 3am and I had a fever of 101 and hadn’t drawn in days.
The walrider: sees Miles after Billy is destroyed
The walrider:
just gunna stop working on this.
So yeah. As a predictable sort, I really like Erron Black from the new mortal kombat game. and i just sorta really want him to be fucked up under his mask. i’m using the excuse that the magic keeping him young uses Tarkata genetics or something and it’s slowly effecting him. i’m also using the excuse that he uses broken off tarkata blade in one of his fighting styles.
i’d imagine it’s something he tries to keep secret and ignore, but it’s probably weighing on his mind as more and more of his face is shredded by growing teeth. probably makes him take more jobs in outworld just because they ask less questions there about his face..
-Alyssa, The End of the Fucking World