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What is Jamis insecure about?

Multiple things, one that he can't do anything right, and therefore isn't worthy of other people's company.

Two that he lost Remy's trust, and betrayed Remy.

What does Jamis want more than anything?

In his own words, he wants to be wanted and to be the first mate on the Gallant (Lucky for him those two things coincide). He wants Remy to trust him, and he wants nothing more than to be by his side forever. He considers leaving Remy's side to be the biggest mistake of his life.

What does Arno have that Jamis doesn't?

The thing that he wants most!!! Remy's trust, closeness, and admiration. Even if he doesn't fully get it, Jamis is extremely jealous that Arno has something he felt that he fucked up and lost.

Since Jamis puts a lot of self worth onto whether he seems needed and necessary or not (see his insecurities) he sees Arno as a threat to everything he wants most. Again, even if he doesn't realize. AND, to pour salt in the wound, Arno is a former PIRATE CAPTAIN that TRIED TO TAKE THEIR FAMILY'S SHIP ONCE, and Remy still trusts him more than Jamis. He is going to lash out because he feels like he's worth less than Arno in Remy's eyes. And it's so easy for his insecure mindset to jump from "You've lost your trust in me from the actions I took" to "You've lost your trust in me because I can't do anything right and fuck up everything." Which is a much bigger emotional reaction.

And, of course... because of the perceived lack of respect for Remy in the present conversation... but that last page hit everyone like a truck so.

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Jamis Dog Moments compilation post

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Hey remember how Noir is an anti-fascist from 1933

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shitpost dispatches from jinlintai - 'cleansing song but i play it minor key' edition

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assessing select MDZS ships by how many Jin Ling Uncles they add to the existing set

currently, the recognized set of Jin Ling Uncles seems to be as follows: [jiang cheng, jin guangyao, qin su (aunt), mo xuanyu, wei wuxian, lan wangji, lan xichen, nie mingjue, nie huaisang]

in recognizing an individual as a Jin Ling Uncle, the fandom appears to use the following set of rules:

Rule 1: the biological siblings or half-siblings of jin ling's mother and father are Jin Ling Uncles (or aunts).

Rule 2: an individual recognized by jin ling's mother or father as a sibling, regardless of legal status or biological relation, is a Jin Ling Uncle (or aunt).

Rule 3: the spouse of a recognized Jin Ling Uncle (or aunt) is a Jin Ling Uncle (or aunt).

Rule 4: the sworn siblings of a recognized Jin Ling Uncle (or aunt) are Jin Ling Uncles (or aunts).

Rule 5: the biological siblings or half-siblings of a recognized Jin Ling Uncle (or aunt) are Jin Ling Uncles (or aunts).

these 5 rules explain why all of the above listed individuals can be described as Jin Ling Uncles (and aunts):

Rule 1: jiang cheng jin guangyao, mo xuanyu, unknown number of jin guangshan's other bastards

Rule 2: wei wuxian

Rule 3: qin su, lan wangji

Rule 4: lan xichen, nie mingjue

Rule 5: lan wangji, nie huaisang

with these rules in mind, i shall now assess a select number of popular MDZS ships by how many Jin Ling Uncles (or aunts) said ship being consummated adds to the existing set of Jin Ling Uncles. for the sake of argument, let us consider "consummation" as used in the previous sentence to entail legally recognized marriage, on the same level as what wangxian achieves at the end of canon. affairs are not enough to make an individual a Jin Ling Uncle.

wangxian wang and xian are already Jin Ling Uncles, wei wuxian by virtue of being recognized by jiang yanli as a brother, and lan wangji by virtue of being the brother of the sworn brother of jin guangyao, jin zixuan's half-brother. uncles+0

xicheng xi and cheng are already Jin Ling Uncles, jiang cheng by virtue of being jiang yanli's brother, and lan xichen by virtue of being the sworn brother of jin guangyao. uncles+0

sangcheng sang and cheng are already Jin Ling Uncles, nie huaisang by virtue of being the brother of the sworn brother of jin guangyao. uncles+0

chengyao cheng and yao are already Jin Ling Uncles. however, chengyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su, meaning that Rule 3 no longer applies to her. uncles+0, aunts-1

xiyao xi and yao are already Jin Ling Uncles. however, xiyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su. uncles+0, aunts-1

nieyao nie and yao are already Jin Ling Uncles, nie mingjue by virtue of being jin guangyao's sworn brother. however, nieyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su. uncles+0, aunts-1

3zun the same reasoning given for xiyao and nieyao also applies here. uncles+0, aunts-1

nielan nie and lan are already Jin Ling Uncles. uncles+0

suyao su minshan is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jin guangyao would make him one by Rule 3. however, suyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su. uncles+1, aunts-1

susu su minshan is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle. if su minshan and qin su get married, that entails qin su divorcing jin guangyao, meaning that Rule 3 no longer applies to her. uncles+0, aunts-1

sangyao sang and yao are already Jin Ling Uncles. however, sangyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su. uncles+0, aunts-1

ruoyao wen ruohan is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with meng yao would make him one by Rule 3. however, ruoyao officially getting together entails that meng yao never married qin su. uncles+1, aunts-1

xueyao xue yang is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jin guangyao would make him one by Rule 3. however, xueyao officially getting together entails jin guangyao divorcing qin su. uncles+1, aunts-1

chengning wen ning is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jiang cheng would make him one by Rule 3. following wen ning's admission as a Jin Ling Uncle, by Rule 5, wen ning's sister wen qing becomes a Jin Ling Aunt as well. uncles+1, aunts+1

chengqing wen qing is currently not a Jin Ling Aunt, but officially getting together with jiang cheng would make her one by Rule 3. following wen qing's admission as a Jin Ling Uncle, by Rule 5, wen qing's brother wen ning becomes a Jin Ling Uncle as well. uncles+1, aunts+1

ningxian wen ning is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with wei wuxian would make him one by Rule 3. following wen ning's admission as a Jin Ling Uncle, by Rule 5, wen qing becomes a Jin Ling Aunt. while ningxian getting together entails wei wuxian divorcing lan wangji, lan wangji is still a Jin Ling Uncle by Rule 5. uncles+1, aunts+1

chengxian cheng and xian are already Jin Ling Uncles. while chengxian getting together entails wei wuxian divorcing lan wangji, lan wangji is still a Jin Ling Uncle by Rule 5. uncles+0

zhanchengxian zhan, cheng, and xian are all already Jin Ling Uncles. uncles+0

rencheng lan qiren is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jiang cheng would make him one by Rule 3. following lan qiren's admission as a Jin Ling Uncle, by Rule 5, lan qiren's brother qingheng-jun posthumously becomes a Jin Ling Uncle as well. following qingheng-jun's admission as a Jin Ling Uncle, by Rule 3, qingheng-jun's wife madam lan posthumously becomes a Jin Ling Aunt as well. uncles+2, aunts+1

chengyi lan jingyi is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jiang cheng would make him one by Rule 3. uncles+1

juniors swear brotherhood + subsequent chengyi lan jingyi is currently not a Jin Ling Uncle, but officially getting together with jiang cheng would make him one by Rule 3. if the juniors have all sworn brotherhood already, then all of the juniors become Jin Ling Uncles by Rule 4. uncles+4, jin ling becomes his own uncle.

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HEY YOU SHOULD GO READ TIGER TIGER

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shitpost dispatches from jinlintai - 'cleansing song but i play it minor key' edition

like and subscribe to this one’s youtube channel and don't forget to click the bell to receive notifications when new content is uploaded (: (: (:

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actually the funniest bitches in this fandom are the ppl who ship jgy with everyone. you know what. youre correct. the entire jianghu is just jgy's harem, every sect leader is psychosexually obsessed with him

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does a-yao is gay

Anon-gongzi this line of inquiry is MOST indecorous!!!! Surely you don't expect your humble sect leader to have ANY interest in spreading such SALACIOUS gossip regarding the personal affairs of the gentry!!!

why, what have you heard?

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jin guangyao vs jiang cheng's partner requirements

image is official art taken from the MDZS wiki

explanations:

naturally beautiful: yes

graceful and obedient: graceful, yes. obedient - to your face, yes...but if he really had to do something and you told him not to do it he would find a way to do it anyways.

hard-working and thrifty: yes

comes from a respected family: unfortunately is living with the "son of a whore" megadebuff

cultivation level not too high: yes

personality not too strong: appears this way to others but has also demonstrated a capacity for actual literal peacetime murder

not too talkative: can probably calibrate the perfect level of talkativeness for everyone

voice not too loud: can probably also calibrate the perfect speaking volume for everyone

must treat jin ling nicely: on one hand he helped raise jin ling and jin ling loves him. on the other hand he did take jin ling hostage at the guanyin temple. you win some you lose some i guess.

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但愿人长久 🌕

Happy mid-autumn everyone!

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Fanon likes to portray Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji as being jealous of each other because they fear wei wuxian will choose one of them over the other. Which is ignoring the fact that at least in novel canon Jiang Cheng did not even fucking know wangxian ever got along let alone that lwj was in love with wwx until at the very end of the story (in cql canon he does go through a wangxian phase early on and gets very confused by their "breakup" during wwx's sunshot era) and that Lan Wangji is mostly filled with loathing towards both himself and Jiang Cheng for 'abandoning' Wei Wuxian and not being able to save him.

It also ignores the much bigger point that both Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng are actually jealous of Wen Ning. And why wouldn't they be? That is who Wei Wuxian chose in his first life. He left the Jiang, told Lan Wangji to fuck off no he is not coming to gusu with you, and spent his days with his little-brother-shaped corpse bestie on his mountain in yiling. And then when he came back he immediately called him up the second he could string together more than two notes on a flute. Wen Ning is the real competition. (And he's winning)

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Nirvana in Fire Historical Parallels: The Warrior Princess

Hua Mulan/花木兰 is unquestionably the most famous woman warrior of ancient China. But how much of her legend actually happened is of debate, while there were many historical women generals who were more similar to Mu Nihuang in NiF. Here are a few of the most notable, in chronological order:

Fu Hao/妇好 (Hao is her family name; before the Qin Dynasty, family names for women were at the end, reversed from the current name order; Fu means married woman now, but could have referred to priestess then), the earliest woman military leader on record, lived during the Shang Dynasty and died in 1200 BCE. Because her time period predated paper, what we know about her came from oracle bone script and the hundreds of weapons in her tomb, which is a burial rite afforded only to generals. As consort to King Wu Ding/武丁, she led an army of 13,000 to many successful military campaigns against the Shang’s enemies. She was not only a general and high priestess, two of the most important roles in that time era, but also owned her own land, which was extremely unusual for feudal women. After her death, the king made many sacrifices at her tomb in hopes of receiving her spiritual guidance to defeat invading enemies.

Mother Lü/吕母 (name unknown, so she is referred to as a mother of the Lü family) lived during the Western Han Dynasty in Langya Commandery and was the first woman rebel leader in Chinese history. After her son was executed for not punishing peasants who could not pay their taxes, she aided peasants under hard times by giving away her considerable family wealth while plotting revenge on the government. During this time, a consort kin to the Emperor had seized the throne and started his own Xin Dynasty/新朝 (literally New Dynasty), enacting many radical socialist reforms such as land redistribution and abolishing the slave trade. A series of natural disasters and poor implementation of the new policies led to great unrest and suffering among the peasant class. Commoners united around Mother Lü, and three years later, in 17 CE, she amassed thousands of loyal followers and declared herself the leader of the rebellion. They took the city, and she beheaded the county magistrate who had killed her son, sacrificing his head on her son’s tomb. As news of her successful rebellion spread, thousands more joined her even as the government attempted to quash her forces. Though she died from illness a year later, many in her army joined the Chimei Army/赤眉军 (literally red brows), a key force in the eventual downfall of the Xin Dynasty.

The most similar to Nihuang is probably Lady Xian/冼夫人, who lived in the 500s CE and served the Liang (the Liang of NiF is very loosely based on this dynasty), Chen, and Sui Dynasties. She was the daughter of a chieftain of a clan of the Li/俚 people and demonstrated great leadership and political acumen from a young age (women in her family could inherit command). She favored diplomatic solutions over fighting as much as possible and was always loyal to the reign, putting down local rebellions and eliminating corruption. Nihuang’s title of commandery princess/郡主 was also one of her titles, and as thanks for her bringing many minority peoples under unified rule, the Sui emperor gave much of modern-day Hainan to her command, much like Nihuang. She lived to around 90 and was given a posthumous name by the emperor as a sign of great respect. Hundreds of temples in the south were built in her honor, where she was deified and remains worshipped today as the Saintly Mother of Lingnan/岭南圣母.

One of many statues of Lady Xian.

Princess Pingyang/平阳公主 (personal name unknown) was the third daughter of the founding emperor of the Tang Dynasty. Her father was an aristocrat who decided to seize the opportunity during the chaos of the failing Sui Dynasty to raise an army in 617 CE, and she decided to help her father ascend to power. With remarkable leadership and recruitment power, she quickly recruited several Jianghu volunteer armies under her wing. More and more people joined as her reputation spread, such that she had seventy thousand under her command by the end in what was known as the Woman’s Army/娘子军. Her forces registered several victories before rendezvousing with her father’s forces to take Chang’an, which would become the capital of the new dynasty. She was given the title of Princess Pingyang and higher honors than her sisters as a sign of her father’s gratitude for her help in starting his new dynasty.

After the coup of Chang’an, there was nothing in recorded history about her until her funeral. A rite officer had objected to burying her with military honors instead of a princess’s rites, but her father and emperor said she always fought at the vanguard of her army, so there was nothing wrong with full military honors. She is the only woman in recorded Chinese feudal history to be interred by soldiers.

Qin Liangyu/秦良玉 (1574-1648) was born to a civil bureaucrat in the late Ming Dynasty who believed in educating women, and she became skilled at riding, archery, and poetry. She looked up to Lady Xian and Princess Pingyang from a young age, and told her father that she would equal their accomplishments if she had military command (倘使女儿得掌兵柄，应不输平阳公主和冼夫人). She was married to a local county commissioner who often led armies to quash invasions from the neighboring Manchu Jin Dynasty, and he gave her command of part of his army. When he died in prison being falsely accused of wrongdoing, she assumed his role, as their son was still young. She defeated numerous Jin invasions across the country, and the Emperor gave her the title of Marquis in recognition of her actions in defending the homeland. She’s famous for being the only female general recorded alongside men in the official histories of her dynasty.

A portrait of Qin Liangyu.

So, what made these women leaders of armies while most women throughout Chinese history couldn’t even dream of such a thing? Fu Hao lived a very long time ago, well before the later Confucian system where wives are supposed to obey their husbands and serve at home. For the others, there are some common factors: growing up in a well-to-do family that educated daughters, demonstrated interest and skill in fighting and leadership, being around military power (true of a vast majority of male generals as well, of course), and some kind of unusual circumstance that gave them power, whether a husband or father allowing them to do so or an environment of unrest that gave them an opportunity.

The warrior princess trope exists for a reason: it’s the highborn daughters and wives of generals who are most likely to get the opportunity to command an army. And their stories are more well-known than, say, women like Chen Shuozhen/陈硕真, who came from destitute upbringings and called herself the emperor while leading a peasant rebellion that eventually failed. All history is biased, and contemporary Chinese history seems to favor those who quashed rebellions and promoted national unity.

Given these historical examples, it’s not so outlandish to imagine that Nihuang was educated by her father in the military arts from a young age, showed great fighting and leadership ability, and was then able to take command when he died during a crisis and while her brother Mu Qing was still too young. She is an exception in a field of men, as these historical women were. And like these women, she was very much still subjected to the expectations and boundaries of feudal women.

In some sense, show Nihuang is an ideal female Confucian role model. She is the perfect daughter and older sister who assumed the family mantle when there are no capable men, doing her duty under a corrupt regime for twelve years, with the implication that she will give up at least some of her responsibilities to Mu Qing when he’s ready. She is the perfect widow who never strayed from her arranged marriage pact. And she is the perfect potential wife who shed all of her commanding aura whenever she interacted with post-identity reveal Mei Changsu—she may question him but she will always listen to him, in the end. Her first scene is of a warrior princess soundly defeating men, and her last big scene is her telling Feiliu she wants to obey her Lin Shu-gege.

This is a far cry from book Nihuang, who moved on in those twelve years and found someone else to love. To be clear, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with characters displaying period-typical attitudes, and other female characters in canon, like Consort Jing, are compelling without being hidebound by tradition. Within the microcosm of NiF the show, the change to Nihuang’s character may only be due to the creators wanting to increase her screen time in a male-heavy show and add a tragic romance element that they felt the book lacked. But media doesn’t exist in a vacuum, and after some prominent examples of one-sided adaptation changes in recent years—The Rise of Phoenixes taking a book starring a strong female character and dramatically increasing the male character’s screen time for the actor to get top billing, Serenade of Peaceful Joy adapting a book centered around a princess’s futile rebellion against feudal expectations for women into a show about her loving daddy emperor trying to do the best for his daughter by keeping her in line, even Reset giving some of the main female character’s heroic moments in the book to the main male character in the show, to name a few—was Nihuang’s change from book to show a harbinger of the male-dominated Chinese television industry increasingly reshaping strong female characters into what they think women should be like?

This issue of media depictions affects historical women generals, as well. For various reasons, they haven’t gotten their big breaks in modern mainstream media, and the most famous Chinese female warriors remain Mulan and a few other very fictionalized characters who have had popular shows and movies made about their lives. A Qin Liangyu drama was supposed to be filmed a few years ago but never aired, and as typical of this era of Chinese media censorship, no one seems to know what happened to it.

With the lack of extant details for most of these military leaders, one can depict them as either true believers of Confucian values or as women who questioned and struggled against societal conventions. It isn’t hard to guess what’s more likely to be made today, with a slapped-on love story and plenty of screen time for the men to boot. If we can’t give a warrior princess a sword without always making her a dutiful daughter, wife, and patriot, perhaps we shouldn’t be telling her story to begin with.

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what if xiyao were in love and it was like fine actually and nobody was upset ever

[image is two sketchy drawings of lan xichen and jin guangyao. in the first, lan xichen nuzzles jin guangyao affectionately, his hands cradling jin guangyao’s face and his thumbs fitting against his dimples; jin guangyao gazes up, besotted, one hand playing idly with lan xichen’s headband. in the second, they are kissing, and lan xichen is taking off jin guangyao’s hat with one hand.]

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Sometimes I wonder what Jiang Cheng could've become if his parents didn't instill a mix of "crippling fear of failure" and "impossibly high standards" in him. Cuz like, his dad was holding him to the vague standard of being as good as wwx, his mom yelling at him whenever he goofed around like wwx, and then both of them expressed disappointment when he's less successful than wwx. The thing both of them seem to ignore though is that wwx got where he is entirely because he had the freedom to fuck around and find out- he trained tirelessly because he made training fun for himself, he was innovative as a cultivators because he experimented and persisted through failures, and he was able to act in line with the Jiang clan moto because his actions had less political pull than members of the main family. Jiang Cheng on the other hand- if he fucked around he got told to "stop stooping to the level of servants." If his achievements were lesser than wwx's, he got either dismissed by his dad or yelled at by his mom to try harder. And if he picked fights with the Wens, they'd have an excuse to destroy his clan. Like ya- no shit that'd create an adult who's terrified of failure.

The kite game serves as such a good metaphor/embodiment of this set back- with Jiang Cheng never being able to shoot as far as Wei Wuxian because he pulls back and shoots closer the second he misses.

And its sad too because he's shown to be pretty brilliant when he's in "fuck it, we ball" mode. Like, when he's not freezing up, he manages to pull off things like rebuilding his entire clan from the ground up, leading armies and taking back territories from the Wens, and I'm fairly sure he's the only character we see counter the Lan music cultivation techniques (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that last one. Also feel free to add any of the other cool shit he did that I'm blanking on at the moment, cuz I know I'm forgetting something).

That being said- even with his anxiety, he's still one of the top cultivators. Imagine what a force of nature he'd be if he could sustain "fuck it we ball" mode