Widowed Empress in my story called “Dragon Empress”
thewink234 submitted:
South Asian female writing Japanese historical fantasy (very early drafts, so I haven’t fully decided on a specific time period, but I’m thinking around Meiji era). The setting is also during a (fictional) war between humans and monsters.
My question is if it would be offensive, inappropriate etc to provide the widowed Empress in my story the unofficial title of “Dragon Empress.” I’ve read the Trace your Logic link provided here, and the idea behind giving her this title (outside of wanting to give her qualities such as great strength, power, and courage) relates to how she is viewed both by her supporters and detractors respectively.
I’d looked into different sources and from my understanding (I could be way off the mark here) Japanese dragons could be either helpful or treacherous depending on the specific myth, so this title comes from how those on her side regard her with extreme amazement/respect and those against her (or who disagree with her) attribute her with the more frightening dragons. This is the case even if she is not specifically involved in the military.
Personality: she is hard, challenging, and strong. She has emotional depth to her (that she was never encouraged to show, but that I would explore—in other words, she’s not cold and nothing else). She empathizes with her loved ones and people but is struggling with the fatigue this long conflict has on her.
I appreciate any input you can provide.
Culturally consistent?
Just reminds me of the Dragon Emperor from Kung Fu Panda, lol.
“Dragon Emperor” also apparently is in a 2008 The Mummy franchise installment set in China? (Marika: It is very silly but stars Jet Li so I watched it)
Needless to say, it’s been used before, associated mostly with China in the popular consciousness, and will appear cliche from the get-go even if there is some thought put into the nickname’s origin.
(also, dragons have a heavy water/atmosphere association in Japan, and the imperial family very much a sun association, so it just doesn’t mesh to me)
~ Mod Rina
Something Rina and I have discussed is Japan already has epithets for monarchs, but not in the way you have chosen to do here. The eras of imperial reign are the epithets for each emperor/ empress. So, the current emperor, Naruhito, is the Reiwa emperor, or the “Fair Gentle” emperor. His father, Akihito, was the Heisei emperor, or “Advancing Peace.” The Showa emperor, Hirohito, had the epithet “Shining Peace.” Given the time period of the Showa era (1926-1989), you may note the painful irony there. In fact, I highly encourage you to read more on modern Japanese history in general if you wish to continue with the Meiji era, because if you can’t see the thread from Japanese emperors transitioning to becoming the official head of state in the Meiji era and the rise of Japanese fascism, that bugs me.
How useful is an epithet to the story?
In general, I think it makes more sense for a character to have an epithet if the epithet figures heavily into the plot: an end goal or the character’s destiny, but I don’t see an indication of that here. I think it also makes more sense to have her admirers and detractors describe their admiration/ derision for her in some other way. Consider:
If she has a deity or region she is associated with?
Does she have a parent or ancestor whose qualities she mirrors?
Does she have any unusual qualities or skills?
If you go back to the Warring States period, warlords (or daimyo) were often assigned epithets for their battle prowess. Takeda Shingen and Uesugi Kenshin were probably the most famous: known as the Tiger of Kai and the Dragon of Echigo, respectively, but that reflects the conflicting natures of tigers and dragons in E. Asian myth as well as their rivalry. However, warlords are not imperial entities, who, for much of Japanese history, were regarded as gods on earth, and emperors were largely kept out of national affairs until the Meiji Restoration.
Have we forgotten about Dowager Empress Cixi?
I’m also looking at your time period and wondering if you forgot about the Manchu dowager empress of the Ching dynasty in China (aka the Dragon Empress Cixi). Coincidentally, because the Ching dynasty and Meiji era overlap a good deal, I think anyone vaguely familiar with East Asian history is going to have difficulty separating associations between your character’s epithet and that of a real, historical figure. Do you necessarily need to worry people might assume you are conflating a famous Chinese figure with your Japanese coded fictional one? That’s up to you, but given Japan’s colonization of Manchuria, general “Japanese are to the Asia-Pacific what Nazis are to Europe” WWII chicanery, I’d say not the best look.
TLDR:
Maybe don’t give your Japanese-coded empress the epithet of Dragon Empress. If you must go the epithet route, I think taking a dive into East Asian Buddhist mythology and iconography and looking for specific, more obscure myths that fit your parameters is the better option.
Or maybe don’t make this character an empress. Maybe make her a female shogun/ daimyo or a figure crucial to supporting a shogun/ daimyo, someone more likely to be involved in the day-to-day workings of her domain. See Tensho-in, wife of Tokugawa Iesada and the history of the Ōoku at Edo Castle, both of which seem more applicable to type of character you describe. Ōoku: The Inner Chambers by Yoshinaga Fumi is a well-researched, imaginative, historical fantasy that makes good use of this setting.
Or maybe, don’t make her a ruler. Make her a leader who people rally around for the sake of a cause, because of her principles and her deeds.
is the world really such a terrible place? yesterday i asked if oat milk was extra and the barista said yes so i said ok just regular milk then and when she gave me my chai latte she whispered “i used oat milk ;)” doesnt that make u want to live another day?
here is my life philosophy: next week there might be someone ahead of you in line at the store who’s short a quarter and you have a quarter and you can give it to them. if you weren’t there, they’d have to put something back. the week after that you could be getting lunch and the waiter might ask if you want some pancakes someone else ordered and never picked up. you could find someone’s lost cat. you could watch someone’s bag while they go to the restroom. there are so many ways you are going to touch other people’s lives and they are going to touch yours and there’s no way to know when it’s going to happen. so you have to keep living!!! i wouldn’t want to die knowing that tomorrow the barista will give me free oat milk just to be nice.
When I was 11 years old - we went to Sea World for my birthday. This was to avoid the realization I had no friends, and no one to come to a birthday party and probably because someone gave my mother free tickets at work. It was kinda a shitty day despite being at a theme park full of cute animals. There was a new roller coaster there that had just opened so we decided to go on. I was nervous. I’d never been on a roller coaster.
A group of 6 college kids were ahead of us in line and started chatting with me. Full on just having a fun conversation with someone literally going through the beginning of a very awkward middle school period. I was so shocked they wanted to talk to me. I think my mom mentioned it was my birthday. They were very nice about it. When we got on the ride they told us to go ahead of them so we could sit at the front of the car since it held 8 people.
Now the ride (called Journey to Atlantis - I believe it is sadly no longer there) started with a slow ride of beautiful visuals of dolphins and oceans and computerized images of this imaginary Atlantis before going up the hill to the beginning of the coaster, where it paused for about 30 seconds, and then the ride started. The college kids must have known there would be a pause. Maybe they’d ridden it before I’m not sure.
But as we sat there on that peak, 6 people I’ve never known, and will never know again, sang a very very lonely 11 year old happy birthday. Loudly. And with gusto. They were happy and laughing and joyful. And it made me feel less alone in the world.
I am 29 years old this year, and I still remember them. I still remember that kindness. It is so important. It doesn’t go into a vacuum. It exists beside me in my daily life. And I love the idea that I have been that person to someone else too.
It’s stunningly lovely to be human when we’re kind to each other.
I wish rich people went back to keeping artists as pets. Like when you’re wealthy enough you pick a cool weirdo to do regular commissions for you, and if you really want to flex on your peers, you’ve got several.
And you visit them every once in a while like “hello, I’ve paid for your rent and your tools, have you worked on that commission giant oil painting of me getting sucked off by my political opponent, who is unfortunately still the mayor of this town, like I requested?”
And your favourite feral art person looks up - mouth full of gravel and completely surrounded by art-related trash like “no, but I designed a helicopter.”
And you’re like “that’s fucking lit, the mayor doesn’t have a helicopter. Please carry on as you have.”
COOL GAL ALERT!!! this is another hatchling from Sekkai, a mixture of forest and abyssal breeds. Me and @lopsidedlizard did the lines and colour respectively based on her official description! 💞
thought about this again. kind of amazing how we’re all just chasing ways to duplicate how this scene makes us feel, either in life or in art.
thinking about when mark told the story of how when they were shooting, he said to george, “darth vader has a musical theme, han, leia all have themes, do i have a theme song?” and george going “mark, the main theme is your theme song”
