I... honestly don't get this design man
It feels kind of weirdly cliche? I don't think we ever see her with fans, or dancing for that matter, or with anything other than plain clothes fitting for an artisan... it just seems like a stereotypical depiction that doesn't fit how I, at least, think of the character.
I'd like to speak to this, in part because LM came to me first, asking about costuming. I summarized and slightly expanded on the first paragraph of Louder Than Words
Quote:
It was mid afternoon and hotter than hell when Lia Xin stumbled out of the desert and into the frontier town. Her dark, almond-shaped eyes focused almost blankly on her intended destination, being the large building with a brightly colored sign and many people around it. Her black hair was a shoulder-length tangled mess, dulled by the sun and nearly grey-brown from the sand and dust while her light skin was darkened by exposure and a layer of grime. Her clothes were not spared either: the loose-fitted black silk pants and single-breasted pale blue silk coat with its high, straight collar were fine pieces and would recover, but for the moment they were soiled to a uniform brown as befitted the wastelands of Jakkard.
LM's design, while not exactly what I had in mind (I was thinking more "
Martial Artist" or a top more similar to a
Cheongsam's upper half than the loose, flowing design) is within the parameters of what I described, and I don't think the cut of her clothing is one of Lia's attributes.
I'm pretty sure Keeper will know exactly what that means, but for those who haven't encountered the term, allow me to explain: When you're looking at art of Greek Mythology, which there's a ton of, it comes in all sorts of styles -- from throughout the greek period to the classical painters. So, while Zeus might always be a "Bearded old guy" sort of figure, how do you tell him apart from all the other entities that are generally bearded mature males, like Posiden, Midas, Cronos, or even potentially Heracles? Hell, if you don't have a lot of context (perhaps you're looking at a statue with no provenance?), how do you know it's not Odin? That's where Attributes come in -- they're sort of the fixed elements that tell you this character is this character and not just someone who looks similar. Zeus has his thunderbolt. Somewhere in most images of Zeus, it'll be there -- in his hand, at his belt, beside his chair, the point is he's got it, and nobody ELSE wields thunderbolts in Greek Myth, so if
this bearded old guy has a thunderbolt, he's Zeus. That's one of Zeus's possible attributes. Midas has an ass's ears, Posiden carries his trident, Heracles has the pelt of the Nemean Lion, Odin (if you can't even tell your piece is Greek- or Norse-depicting) is down one eye, usually covered with an eyepatch.
I don't necessarily object to the fans, but I do think that Keeper has a point in that this piece is missing an attribute for Lia Xin as opposed to "Generic Chinese Dancer" I'd personally suggest that Lia's main attribute ought to be her calligraphy brush -- it's how she communicates AND how she does magic, so she should probably always have it with/on her