INTERVIEW: Daughter of a Thousand Faces’ Velinxi on Mothers, Fathers, Daughters, and Everything in Between

People love stories with angst, so it’s no surprise why they love Daughter of a Thousand Faces, and why this webcomic is not only an Eisner nominee but a USA Today Bestseller.

After being branded a disappointment and the unwanted daughter of a traitor, Yuhua is desperate for her life to change. She hasn’t done anything wrong; she deserves to be happy! To her surprise and horror, she gets her wish when she unwittingly becomes the disciple of an eight hundred year old demon named Chu Tian after accidentally freeing him from his prison. With a blood pact connecting the two where one cannot live without the other, Yuhua and Chu Tian must now find a way to work together… without killing each other.

Redbeanime spoke to Velinxi about Daughter of a Thousand Faces through an email interview where she spoke about how she came up with the story, who her biggest supporter is, and how Daughter of a Thousand Faces changed from the initial draft to the beloved story today.

REDBEANIME: What inspired you to tell this specific story? What is it about the xianxia genre that draws you in?

VELINXI: Many things! I feel like my stories are always an amalgamation of everything I like, my experiences, my influences—everything. I’ve always loved complicated stories about father-daughter relationships, and I love fantasy, martial art, and the power of friendship (for good or evil).

Xianxia appeals to me greatly not just because of the beauty it naturally comes with— the vibrant colors, the flowing robes, swords, hairstyles, landscapes. I also love the codes of chivalry, the magic systems, and the idea that anybody can become something more. Many of these stem from Taoism and Chinese culture/beliefs, which just adds a layer of richness and depth. And come on, who doesn’t love beautiful people with long hair and swords?

REDBEANIME: What gave you the courage to pursue your dream of making comics/art? Who has been your biggest supporter?

VELINXI: My mother, who is my biggest supporter! She has always been the one who encouraged me to pursue art, even during a time when it was widely considered “unprofitable.” We didn’t know about the powers of social media and freelancing, she just saw that I had an interest and knack for art and did everything she could to encourage that passion. Also, perhaps she also had a fear that with my subpar grades, art was the only way I could get anywhere in life…

REDBEANIME: In your Author’s Note, you revealed how different Daughter of a Thousand Faces was from when you first conceived the story. Why was Yuhua and Chu Tian’s story more compelling for you to focus on?

VELINXI: Yes, it always comes back to one of my favorite tropes, the found family father-daughter dynamic… I love romances, but I find that the genre can be a little saturated with that being its main dynamic. As much as I love romantasy, I wasn’t sure I could bring anything new to the table if I gave it a shot.

With Chu Tian and Yuhua, writing their story came so much more naturally to me. I don’t want an easily earned camaraderie or smooth relationship between them. I want them to hurt and be hurt. When things get easy, it gets boring for me quickly. Having there be a push and pull with them makes the story feel more fresh in my opinion, both for me and other readers that might enjoy this same dynamic as me. I think this specific flavor of angst and shaky trust shines more in season 2, which actually includes some of the first ideas I drafted for the two of them.

REDBEANIME: It seems like Chu Tian and Yuhua weren’t originally meant to be master and disciple in your first draft. What is it about the master/disciple relationship that makes it such an interesting relationship to explore?

VELINXI: It was a vague idea of a princess and a demon at first! But yes, the master/disciple relationship shaped up rather quickly. In Xianxia and Wuxia, the master/disciple relationship is almost always integral to how a main character is shaped (assuming they were raised in a sect). Yet unless it’s a romance between the two, I feel like the master or the disciple is relegated to a side character or a plot device. It’s such an important dynamic that sometimes it feels like it supersedes blood family dynamics; there’s a lot to explore there. The teacher has so much power over their ward, and also so much responsibility. Thousands of different things could happen, for good or for bad—the master is shaping the disciple in their image, after all. And then what happens when the student becomes cherished or strong enough that the dynamic begins to reverse? 

So many possibilities. And it all once again boils down to my favorite found family dynamic.

REDBEANIME: I felt like I was reading part comic and part novel because there were sections that dove into first-person POV and had the typical narrative flow that we normally saw in books. What was the idea behind this hybrid style?

VELINXI: It was entirely experimental at first. The idea was to have DOTF be more of an illustrated novel/storybook experience when I first pitched the idea. It shifted to be a more typical webtoon format, but the first person POV stayed in some parts to dive into Yuhua’s headspace.

REDBEANIME: What was your favorite part of the creative process for Daughter of a Thousand Faces?

VELINXI: Designing clothes for Yuhua! She’s my favorite dress up doll. I love flowing robes, but I also love cute dresses. Her style combines the two into something youthful, for now at least.

REDBEANIME: Which character did you see the most of yourself in?

VELINXI: At first, I thought perhaps Shen Yuhua, but now it’s probably Leng Feng. I’m kind of a reckless person that gets heated pretty easily. However, he also has a sense of emotional balance when others have a crisis, and a sense of empathy. I kind of find myself often picking up the pieces of others, or de-escalating things. We like to be there for our friends, even when they’re not always there to return the favor.

Thinking about this now, I think I gave a lot of myself to Leng Feng… which might be why he’s the one who fades the most into the background out of the main four in both seasons, haha!

REDBEANIME: Yuhua’s identity as a daughter is important in DOTF—her being the ostracized daughter of a traitor, her being the disappointment of a daughter of the immortal Chaoyang Palace Master, and now, in some ways, a sort-of daughter to Chu Tian. “Daughter” is also the title of the webcomic. Why was it important for you to, one, change your protagonist in the original draft to a girl, and two, make her a daughter of such complex layers?

VELINXI: Girlhood is such a difficult thing to write. It’s not universal, everyone’s experiences growing up is just far too different. And yet, there’s still a sense of familiarity when we see stories about daughters. Daughters probably know what it’s like to be the emotional punching bag, know that the world isn’t especially safe for them, nor made for them. Daughters probably know their mothers only want what’s best for them, but still hate them a little for that. 

DOTF started after I finished “growing up,” I suppose. I was beginning to realize there were so many complicated and indescribable feelings I had about specifically being a girl that I wasn’t really seeing in the male-centered media I love (and still love!) to consume. There’s a lot of specific, tampered-down rage that boils over, a lot of self-hatred, some internalized misogyny. DOTF and Yuhua aren’t perfect or universal examples of girlhood, but I still wanted to give a fantastical spin to some of my own complicated feelings on what it means to grow up as a daughter. I hope that others can see it for what it is, daughter or not, and at least understand just a little of it.