Thread by @synonyms26

A thread on the flowers of #RenHeng #刃恒, the Lotus Sutra, and their theme of Heaven and Hell.

It has been long established that Blade’s flower is red spider lily and DH’s is the white lotus, as seen in their splash arts. However, they have a deeper connection than that.

Credit: me, @Lalodyslore, Tofu, and Zhenjie.
If you're on PC, I highly recommend you to go over the Blade trailer frame by frame as you read along the thread:
Keyboard shortcut is in pic.

1. First, we must take another look at the Blade trailer. At the start of the trailer, we see Blade among a field of white petals slowly closing his eyes before being dyed red.

2. The first half of the trailer is characterized by the flute BGM. The white petals here are likely white spider lilies due to the Lotus Sutra ref (explained later in the thread).

3. During the fight scene with the Cloudknights, we see something: a Red Spider Lily growing out of a Red Lotus as he hallucinated the knights as having red spider lilies (mara-ed).

4. Mid-trailer, we see Blade transitioning to YX, who is in a field of spider lilies. It’s easy to assume that they’re all red, but if you take a closer look, you will see that the spider lilies’ petals are actually teal turning red, not originally white.

5. YX originally had his eyes closed, but then he started to have flashbacks to DF shrouded in fire back at the Sedition, as DF slowly turned from green to red.

6. The DF flashback suddenly ended after DF turned back at YX. YX opened his eyes in Blade’s body as he was stabbed by illusion DH. This is when the Suona started in the BGM.

7. During his fight with DH, YX in Blade’s body now saw intermittent flashbacks to DF and DH shrouded in flame, with DF as green spider lilies and DH as red spider lilies.

8. At the end of the trailer, YX in Blade body now starts to close his eyes again, signifying his “death” and the Suona calmed down, giving space to the flute of Blade.
There are a few conclusions we can draw from this.

9. The first thing is that Blade is the personality represented by the flute (which incidentally had the HCQ theme and JL eyes in the first half), while YX was the crazy personality haunted by the DF flashback, DH visions, and represented by the Suona in the second half.

10. Previously, I thought that Blade was the Suona and YX the flute, but I realized that I was wrong when I paid attention to the eyes opening and close segment.

11. The progression of the trailer was Blade closed his eyes > flute, JL eyes, Shuhu eyes, HCQ theme > YX flashback with DF > YX opened his eyes in Blade body, Suona started > DH and DF again > YX closed his eyes, flute took over again.

12. So calm flute is Blade (no memory, JL’s eyes, gripping about XZ, white spider lily) and crazy Suona is YX (WITH memory of Sedition, red spider lily). From Blade story 1, Blade is likely the personality crafted by JL’s torture,

13. while YX is the monster inside obsessed with DF/DH, which is why he has the red spider lily.

14. The second thing is that DF was the red dragon as he turned from green to red, corroborated by Ling Jie’s second aria in Cloudcry Songbook: “When the dragon turns red, then the green pines shall shed.”

15. This is further corroborated by the name of the fucking spider lily, one of which is 龙爪花 Dragon Claw Flower. => The spider lilies that turned from teal to red that YX saw in the flashback is literally DF turning into the red dragon.

16. Red spider lily being 龙爪花 Dragon Claw Flower is also likely why YX has the red spider lily, cuz he is literally haunted by memories of DF/DH. It’s also further evidence to the theory that he has the Dragon Component that helped sustain his perfect immortality.

17. For more details on the Dragon Heart theory (though it’s more Arcanum Key theory nowadays) and why Blade likely has some Permanence in him, pls check out this thread for more details:

https://twitter.com/synonyms26/status/1734287072004038806?t=XKV453_1hA1igVfFU1BFzg&s=19

18. Now, let’s look at the Lotus Sutra, which is the single-most influential scripture in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, responsible for classical imageries like Buddha stepping on lotus flowers and the Medicine King 药王 Bhaiṣajyarāja (aka Yaoshi).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_Sut…

19. In the first chapter of the Buddhist Sutra, when the Buddha reached Enlightenment, 4 flowers fell from heaven: mandarava flowers, mahamandarava flowers, manjushaka flowers, and mahamanjushaka flowers. Together they are called the 4 flowers of heaven 天界四華.

21. CN:
EN: buddhaspace.org/dict/fk/data/%…
langnghiem.com/en/lotus-sutra…

22. Different Buddhist branches have different understanding of which flowers they were, but in Chinese Mahayana Buddhism, the popular belief is that they’re white spider lily (mandarava), white lotus (mahamandarava), red spider lily (manjushaka), and red lotus (mahamanjushaka).

23. Sources of the 4 flowers of heaven info and pic:


baike.baidu.hk/item/%E5%A4%A9…
moonlol.com/%E5%A4%A9%E7%9…
yllhj.beijing.gov.cn/ztxx/bjhx/hhzs…

24. The Red Spider Lily is considered the flower of the Yellow Spring of Hell. It represents separation, inability to forget the past, pain and sorrow, death, and the curse of lovers’ separation.

25. In one story, the Red Spider Lily was a pair of lovers. But they died and were cursed to become the leaf and the flower of the red spider lily. Because the red lily only has either flower or leaf, never both at the same time, it means that the lovers will never meet again.

26. However, in another story, the Buddha took pity on the red spider lily and took it across Yellow Spring in hell. But Buddha accidentally let the water of the river, which makes people forget their past lives, dripped onto the flowers, turning it into white spider lily.

27. The Buddha then planted the flowers on the shore, naming it the mandarava flowers, thinking it freed from the past memories and sorrow. Thus, the mandarava flowers denote the path to paradise/nirvana, freed from the past.

28. However, unbeknownst to the Buddha, the red color of the red spider lily had dripped into the river, turning the entire river red, so now everyone crossing it would hear the cries of sorrows of the red spider lily.

29. The Kṣitigarbha bodhisattva then threw into the river a seed, which instantly turned red again. The Kṣitigarbha bodhisattva then lamented that the red flower had been freed as the white lily, why did it choose again to be in hell and suffer in the sorrow of the past?

30. He then planted the red spider lily on the hell side of the shore, calling it the manjushaka - the guide to hell, in opposition to the white lily mandarava - the guide to paradise. Hence red spider lily is: “That paradise may be unreachable for me, savor it in my place.”

31. So looking back at the Blade trailer, we can start to better understand why Blade (flute) is the white lily and YX (Suona) the red lily. Blade has no memory of the past (amnesiac + JL’s torture + Shuhu), while YX is the monster inside obsessed with Dragon Claw Flower DF/DH.

32. So:
Blade = white spider lily (mandarava, forgetting the past), flute.
YX = red spider lily (manjushaka, obsessed with red spider lily DH/DF), Suona
Teal spider lily that turned red = green DF turning into red DH = red dragon with shedding green scales.

33. But what about the red lotus that created the red spider lily in Blade’s trailer? Who was the red lotus?

34. To answer that question, we must look back at DHIL trailer, which has 2 interesting frames here: a white lotus being turned red, and some red streaks (likely blood) dying the water red.

35. If you look closely at his attack animation in-game, you will also see that DHIL’s lotus is not pure white, it’s tinted with red and eye symbols.

36. In Buddhism, white lotus signifies purity, enlightenment, heaven, reincarnation, divinity rising from the mud of hell, which is the symbolism hoyo is going for in the splash art.
buddhistsymbols.org/lotusflowers.h…

37. However, DHIL’s actual lotus is not completely white, it’s tinted with red. Red lotus, in the Heart Sutra, is compassion for the mass, enlightenment, the HEART, or in Taoran’s words: “mortal frailty 凡人心窍”, which in CN is literally mortal 凡人 + heart orifice 心窍.

38. So basically DF was the red lotus as he succumbed to the mortal frailty, turning from pure white lotus/teal spider lily into the red spider lily (red dragon) as he made another red spider lily (YX).

39. Despite his molting, the current DH is still tainted by his past, as the white lotus is still tinted with red - the color of the past and the color of the Yellow Spring, tainted by the sorrow of the red spider lily.

40. In conclusion:
Blade = white spider lily (mandarava, forgetting the past, heaven), flute.
YX = red spider lily (manjushaka, obsessed with red spider lily DH/DF, hell), Suona

41. DF = teal spider lily/white lotus (mahamandarava, heaven) that turned red (mahamanjushaka, hell) as he fell from heaven to hell.
DH = reincarnated (white lotus, mahamandarava, heaven) that’s still tainted with the red sorrow of the past (mahamanjushaka, hell).

42. Fun fact: This is actually reflected in their Q in-game. You can see that the location of their Q is the same mountain range in the myriad trailer and the Sedition in DHIL trailer.

43. So there Q is actually the same location, likely the same delve in the Scalegorge where the Sedition happened and the place that Blade visits every year in his LC. It’s an actual place that he teleports people to in his Q, as seen by the portal in the Blade trailer and his LC

44. Just that Blade’s is the hellscape version of it, as denoted by his skill 地狱变 (turn into a hellscape), while DHIL is the “heaven” scape version of it.

@threadreaderapp unroll