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Which fanon tropes do you dislike the most in mdzs?

Any version of dumb/oblivious Wei Wuxian

Caveman Lan Wangji

“Jiang Cheng was right about everything.”

“Lan Xichen was right about everything.”

“Lan Qiren was right about anything.”

Any ship involving Jiang Cheng

The world revolves around Jiang Cheng and his feelings, no matter how wrong or abusive

All the juniors love Jiang Cheng

Jiang Yanli the master manipulator

Perpetual eye-roller Wen Qing that thinks that Wei Wuxian would be better off as Jiang Cheng’s punching bag

“Jin Guangyao was a victim.”

“Xue Yang was a victim.”

“Jin Zixuan was a victim.”

“Wei Wuxian caused all his own problems.”

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How does the black water arc fit into the tgcf themes Specifically the question the state preceptor ask “ if you could give 1 of 2 dehydrated people water and the other would die who would you give it to” this arc was confusing to me in what it was trying to say

Shi Wudu stole all of He Xuan’s “water” (fate) for Shi Qingxuan, which caused He Xuan and his entire family to die unjust deaths, instead of Shi Wudu either finding another way to help his brother as a god or sacrificing his own luck. The dilemma of the water problem is that you are expected to arbitrarily pick out who “deserves” to live from a set of people who neither are deserving of death to begin with, and most people will choose the more “valuable” person to save while passively accepting that 1) someone “must” die because the rules of the situation are “unchangeable,” and 2) they, themselves, are too valuable to sacrifice as denoted by their positioning as the bestower of water (just conveniently not enough to save everyone). Shi Wudu—along with Guoshi, Mu Qing, and Feng Xin—believed that in order for someone to survive, another “must” suffer or die, and that unfortunate person is decided by their proximity to a powerful person who would never choose to sacrifice themself. Shi Qingxuan had value to Shi Wudu. He Xuan did not. The Blackwater arc is the conclusion to choosing the “correct” answer to the dilemma: sacrifice someone.

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MXTX mains by ascending order of how much fun they'd have if their love interest shrank to pocket size:

6 Lan Wangji -- this poses a significant impediment to his sex life and also is nearly as stressful as wei ying running around in paper man form, but much less easily reversed.

5 Luo Binghe -- look, tiny shizun is cute, but the novelty is going to wear off quick and then what? this shizun has to fly up on a tiny sword to even pat Luo Binghe's head, his lap is not big enough for Binghe to lie on, it's just not sustainable.

4 Hua Cheng -- theoretically he's not against this it's just that xie lian would manage to be the most stressful unholy terror if he was mouse-sized, I think.

3 Shen Qingqiu -- actually he loves this, look at the itty-bitty binghe! but his ability to enjoy it is dampened by luo binghe's genuine and obvious misery with the situation. binghe worked so hard to get taller than shizun and now it's all ruined! again!

2 Xie Lian -- same as shen qingqiu actually he thinks smol san lang is very cute, and hua cheng is better at handling this development than luo binghe. unfortunately it does kind of remind them of when hua cheng was a helpless ghost light and xie lian was being tortured.

1 Wei Wuxian -- he's making lan zhan a tiny guqin.

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"Lans only love once" これよく見たので、例によってドラマのフレーズかと思っていた。それですらないファノンだったのか。

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Where on earth did the "Lans only love once" thing come from?

Good day, anon!

It's simply pure conjecture and... how do I put this, western fandom trying to make the clans into Harry Potter houses by making them seem like you are to have certain personality traits to be in them. And a very easy way to box concepts into.

Wei Wuxian is the only one to observe that for the asceticism's of the Lan Clan, it's founder had been a romantic by marrying his beloved first and foremost, and does so again when it comes to Qinghen-jun and Madam Lan's circumstances. We are not supposed to exactly know Lan Wangji's feelings either regarding Wei Wuxian much like Wei Wuxian had been unsure of his dedication being platonic or just as romantic/sexual as his own was until the end of plot where the pieces of his love finally come together.

But there is nothing that lends itself that their situation is overarching thing for ALL of the clan. I am not even going to act like Lan Xichen is included here because he is very much critical of this very concept and he was never in love at any point in his life yet. Lan Jingyi jokes that Wei Wuxian needed to be more dramatic about seperating from Lan Wangji in Yi City because he's a teenager that finds drama amusing and was disappointed he didn't get a show of some sort.

If anything Qinghen-jun and Lan Wangji are the clan's dirty secret as their "romance" wasn't standard Confucian practice proper. And if you look at what standard Confucian courting rites and practice is, it's not exactly very romantic either, and the Lan clan is very much by the book Confucian/Doaist practitioners in all manners of their lives.

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Many people seem to think Wei Wuxian ate committed cannibalism (ate corpses) in the Burial Mounds (first three months). Is it even plausible to begin with, though? I thought corpses were poisonous (since corpse poison was a thing in Yi City)? Or did he build an immune system to it?

Nah, walking corpses are definitely poisoned in mdzs, and all the corpses in the Burial Mounds would be tainted by the pervasive resentment. There’s no building an immunity to that, so Wei Wuxian definitely could not have been eating corpses during his 3-month stint. I think the cannibal!wwx fanon is so pervasive because 1) angst is popular and 2) it’s kinda easy to forget the corpse poisoning detail past the Yi City Arc when everything else hits the fan directly after lol

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Why is it that the western fandom doesn't get that Lan Jingyi doesn't like Jiang Cheng? The boy does nothing but antagonize him every chance he has and is clearly a Hanguang-jun fanboy at heart (and Lan Wangji also dislikes Jiang Cheng, so even more reason for Jingyi to dislike him if being a bad person wasn't enough). Worst of all, the ones that ship him with Lan Xichen try to frame Lan Jingyi as their son, like why? If anyone where to adopt him (if something where to happen to his current parental figure, whoever that is) it would be Wangxian (he is also their duckling at heart), if he wasn't a Lan who is always around Lan Wangji whenever Jiang Cheng is also around I am sure he would wip the poor boy 😭.

Idk, I feel like Lan Jingyi’s character got the bad end of the stick from early fandom days when people started to rehabilitate Jiang Cheng’s image and needed a convenient Lan mouthpiece to mirror what Lan Sizhui is to the story. Lan Jingyi is to jc stans what Lan Xichen is to jc stans: a Lan counterpart to challenge the ones that canonically love and are dedicated to Wei Wuxian. There’s also a small corner of yunmeng bro stans who are convinced that Lan Jingyi and Jiang Cheng “must” actually get along because there’s this pervasive idea in greater fandom that Lan Jingyi is just a Lan version of Wei Wuxian (they are literally nothing alike outside of being good people and obsessing over Hanguang-jun), and since Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng are on the fritz, Lan Jingyi can be a nice replacement toy for Jiang Cheng while keeping them all trapped in the same orbit since Wei Wuxian marries into the Lan Clan.

But at least now stans have moved on to “ljy is jc’s fan/son” instead of in early fandom where they had 30yo Jiang Cheng creeping on 15yo Lan Jingyi and this was meant to be taken as a serious, non-toxic, not grooming ship.

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OPのユーモアに脱帽しながら笑ってたが浅学にしてクラトスという神は知らなかった。シンフォニアのキャラとしか…

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this website’s easy watch. *dangles a bunch of greek gods like keys*

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𝓑𝓾𝓷𝓷𝔂~

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One day this fandom will have a reckoning on how it likes to blame Jin Xixuan's death on Wei Wuxian—whether by maliciousness or a "loss of control"—while ignoring the fact that Jin Zixuan died because he lunged at Wei Wuxian with a drawn sword because he was angry that Wei Wuxian told him that he doesn't trust him after he refused to tell Wei Wuxian whether or not he was a part of the ambush his cousin set up after Wei Wuxian told him to keep his distance from him after he told Wei Wuxian to stop defending himself against an ambush that he showed up to and was plainly told was put together to kill Wei Wuxian after he had already been bodily pushing Wei Wuxian around to protect his cousin. But all of that is supposed to be forgiven and forgotten because the reason he wanted Wei Wuxian to ignore all logic and put his life in danger was for Jiang Yanli's temporary happiness? Lol. Lmao even.

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This is a piece that I drew with Cheese (@ganen-cheese) for the Ten Ten Festival online event on Pictsquare. I drew the Wei Wuxian side and Cheese drew the Lan Wangji side and we worked together down the middle. Cheese also did most of the editing in post haha.

We tried not to leave any Wangxian plushies out (as of February, 2024) but there are so many we may have missed some. Please forgive us, Wangxian, if we missed any.

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why is there so much fanart of wei wuxian and lan wangji just hugging or kissing or being in some other way visibly In Love and then jiang cheng placed behind them about to hit them with zidian or saying a slur or whatever.. like what is the punchline to this other than "lol homophobia". i mean ik jiang cheng being violently homophobic is considered cute and hilarious by parts of the fanbase but in a world where gay people still actually get beat up and called slurs by homophobes, who is enjoying this. why do i keep seeing it.

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"he placed himself bodily between wei wuxian and yu ziyuan when she was whipping him"

When? All Jiang Cheng did was cling to her mother's leg as she finished whipping WWX and cry that Wang Lingjiao was lying and insinuate what father would think if you cut off WWX's dominant arm. At this time, no one cared about the truth of WLJ's statement, they were playing a game of whether or not to incapacitate one powerful soldier by the commander, and JC was completely unaware of this (WWX clearly understood the situation, saying that he was fine if his one arm could buy Jiang's safety). It's inevitable that a child cannot disobey a mother with a whip, but it's a lie that JC was beaten with his mother's whip instead of defending WWX.

Also, JC's core was erased as a result of his “failed attempt to play the hero without grasping his own abilities,” not because JC offered his own core as compensation and begged for WWX's life.

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because sometimes it's fun to explore a character's worst nightmare (probably) actually coming true:

fic where Jiang Cheng is a bastard

like, literally

so Yu Ziyuan marries Jiang Fengmian thanks to a political arrangement by their parents, and even though she has a huge crush on him she gets the strong impression that he doesn't like her, and she decides it must be because he's hung up on Cangse Sanren (and also because of her massive insecurities about not being a nice or "desirable" wife) but for this AU it's actually Wei Changze he's hung up on (because he's gay)

so from JFM's perspective his marriage to any woman is purely a matter of appeasing his family and producing heirs anyway, and though he liked and respected Cangse he's heartbroken that Wei Changze actually loves her and chose to be with her for-reals, rather than staying in Lotus Pier and having a secret love affair with JFM behind closed doors. in some universe JFM might have confided something of this to his prospective bride, in the interest of at least having a harmonious alliance if not an actual romance of any kind, but Yu ZIyuan isn't exactly the type to inspire confidence about these things. and to be fair, if JFM told her he was gay, she wouldn't react well

anyway, end result is that he doesn't explain or clarify anything, of course. JFM and YZY consummate their marriage and JFM sort of perfunctorily goes about his duties until it's confirmed that Yanli is on the way, and then he stops. mission accomplished, heir in situ, no more reason to force himself into hetero sex with the socially noxious woman his parents picked out! great work everybody hit the showers etc etc

Yu Ziyuan is, understandably, not thrilled about his conduct here so it doesn't do much for her growing unhappiness with her life and marriage. also she hates being the lady of a household, she just wants to fight shit and go on nighthunts, and she's not allowed to do that while pregnant so boy is she having a time of it (and so is everyone else because she is nothing if not willing to make her problems into everyone's problems). but at least she's got JFM's heir in her, right? at least that's something she can hold over that Cangse Sanren!

well of course Jiang Yanli is born and she's a girl, which is not ideal for sexist cultivation society, and she's also sickly, which is not ideal for ableist cultivation society either

so obviously, they have to try again

except that JFM was enjoying not having to perform those "marital duties" anymore and is reluctant to go back to them. which does excellent things for YZY's temperament too, so she yells and accuses him of cheating and not wanting her and makes a whole big public production of it, which of course feeds rumors that JFM really doesn't like her and also weakens her own position further because sexism and also YZY is not a likable person anyway. she's not popular in the household or sect. people still call her "Madam Yu" to her face, like you're not really "Madam Jiang" here, and there are whispers that it's her fault that Yanli came out sickly (baseless and cruel) and that she can't produce another child and that JFM's going to put her aside (somewhat more plausible)

JFM won't though, because he'd probably just have to marry another woman from Meishan Yu to fix the political fallout, which would be a lot of fuss to just break even. plus he does know that he is part of the problem here, and YZY has given him a child, so he's not actually all that bothered. he has cousins, he can adopt a more suitable heir if he needs to, or Yanli can marry a stronger cultivator into the family instead of marrying out (which breaks up that stupid betrothal with the Jin that he's not especially thrilled about)

but YZY is getting desperate here, so she convinces JFM to take to her bed at least one more time

it doesn't get her pregnant again though

so plan B, YZY finds one of JFM's more envious cousins and fucks him until it does take

this is equal parts actual pragmatism to get an heir, and Yu Ziyuan throwing oil onto the fire that is her marriage. part of her actually wants JFM to call her out or at least seem suspicious, because that would mean he actually gives a single fuck about what she does or who she does it with, even though having the whole thing come to light would pretty much ruin her. she has set herself up on a chair with a rope around her neck and a stool under her feet, waiting to see if Jiang Fengmian will either take her into his arms or kick the stool out from under her

but of course, he does neither

is he suspicious? yes. the dates don't align and some well-meaning servants have mentioned a few things to him. but he was already considering adopting one of his cousins to be his heir anyway, and this actually solves quite a few problems for him. if YZY wants to carry on with a lover who has Jiang blood, it's a win-win. she can give him plenty of heirs now, his own position will stabilize thanks to an abundance of them, and he doesn't have to fuck her!

of course it doesn't work out like that

his cousin is already suffering a crisis of conscience and backs off, and YZY doesn't take up with him again and wouldn't anyway (because it didn't work for accomplishing any of her secondary goals), and then she has Jiang Cheng and Jiang Fengmian just sort of benignly thanks her for the healthy "son" and makes nothing further of the matter. the Jiang sect tutors can handle the kid's upbringing, JFM doesn't feel especially paternal towards him but the kid's not going to want for anything either (materially, anyway) and this frees JFM and YZY both to go back to doing whatever (and whoever) they want in their free time

except

Yu Ziyuan is left in a state of perpetual frustration and anxiety about this, forever waiting for the other shoe to drop, and so she keeps trying to force it to drop. especially after Wei Wuxian turns up. she projects her own affair onto the poor kid, accusing JFM of liking him more than he likes Jiang Cheng (which in this AU is actually true, Jiang Fengmian has a lot of feelings about Wei Changze's son that he doesn't have about The Official Jiang Sect Heir who isn't even his real son), demanding to know if JFM has even heard the rumors (does he know what people whisper? about him? about Jiang Cheng? does he know?) like Yu Ziyuan is really not built for this political intrigue, shrewd strategic live-with-the-lies type stuff

for his own part, Jiang Fengmian is increasingly annoyed and put off by all of this. assuming the genre conventional standards are in play here, if he accused YZY of cuckolding him then he'd be within his rights to have her and Jiang Cheng executed. he wouldn't actually go that far of course, not only because he's been complicit in the whole thing but also because he's not that ruthless, but it's still on the table. and yet here is Yu Ziyuan, basically trying to... what? provoke him into divorcing her?

oh. well. maybe that is what she wants? what she's been trying to get with all of this? she wants him to disown Jiang Cheng and send her home in disgrace so that she can stop being his wife?

that actually would make more sense than what's really going on, in fact

but Jiang Fengmian still needs an heir and this kind of move would leave Jiang Cheng in limbo, and throw Yanli's parentage into question as well, plus it would make him the butt of a lot of jokes. so he just lets Yu Ziyuan basically move into a separate house and avoids her as much as possible, lets her do what she likes and waits for this to blow over

(it doesn't blow over)

then another problem becomes apparent. which is that Jiang Cheng is a concerning heir for the Jiang sect

the kid, understandably, takes after his mother. since she's the parent who actually spends time with him. but unfortunately a lot of that time is spent projecting all of her problems onto him. he's got a temper, he's wildly insecure, and surprisingly conservative and risk-averse. at administration and organization he's not that bad, he can at least do math, but his diplomacy skills leave a lot to be desired and do nothing to soften the blow of his mother's bad reputation. it's obvious that he desperately wants JFM's approval but JFM can't muster up much sentiment except vague disappointment for him. even as a cultivator he's just kind of average

the one benefit of marrying a powerful female cultivator with a strong will was supposed to be that she'd give him strong and talented heirs. but now he's got one daughter who can't cultivate and an adopted son who has inherited every single one of his mother's detrimental personality traits, who is actively the opposite of everything the sect is supposed to stand for, and now Jiang Fengmian is objectively worried that this kid will actually ruin his sect in the long run if/when he becomes sect leader. or at least that he won't be able to rally enough support from the internal factions to even peacefully claim the leadership role

maybe it'd be different if Jiang Cheng actually was his son, but since he's not, JFM can't help but think about the many other candidates in his family who would make more suitable heirs

and the main reason he doesn't take action, over time, is because it would still be bad for his own reputation to reveal the whole torrid controversy. at least with the way things are, nobody really wonders why his marriage with YZY isn't working out, and it's not JFM who takes the brunt of the criticism

but as time passes and Jiang Cheng gets older and YZY's miserable lashing out continues unabated, he finds himself thinking that he'd rather weather the storm of speculation about his prowess or orientation than continue to deal with this

finally, shit reaches a breaking point. something goes awry, another straw is piled onto the camel's back, and then there is a fight and finally Jiang Fengmian decides he's done living like this

so ten years later than anyone ever expected, he finally just kicks out the stool

Jiang Cheng isn't his son. congratulations, Yu Ziyuan, your wish (as JFM perceives it) is being granted. you get a divorce. you're free. go home to Meishan and live out the rest of your life however you please, and take the boy with you

of course this doesn't go over peacefully. YZY tells anyone who listens that JFM is impotent, JFM just kind of shrugs, Meishan Yu is stuck between being offended and being apologetic, but JC fails all the paternity tests so they're kind of forced to settle on the latter, which they also take out on Yu Ziyuan, but that's just the fallout among the adults

Jiang Cheng's entire world is uprooted. overnight he goes from being a sect heir to being a disgraced fatherless outcast. every fear or insecurity he ever had about his place in the world is abruptly validated

Jiang Yanli and Wei Wuxian are also upset, like up until now they have both strongly invested themselves in looking after Jiang Cheng, of supporting him as future sect leader and brother, and now that's all just... gone? and so is Jiang Cheng?

and it's extra difficult because Lotus Pier is more peaceful without Madam Yu storming in to pitch a fit once a month. but also the status quo has been totally changed around, Jiang Cheng is gone, and there are a lot of rumors and whispers and even speculation about Yanli's parentage too. the fact that some days it seems like life has improved just colors it all in this deep layer of guilt, because it's like someone wished to get rid of Yu Ziyuan and accidentally took Jiang Cheng out in the same blast. talking about it is taboo, too, so there are not a lot of chances to even sort out all the emotions involved. at one point Wei Wuxian tries to borrow a boat and go to Meishan, full of half-baked plots to somehow fix things, but he just gets caught and sent back

anyway, flash forward several years

the Lan lecture series begins

the Jiang send Yanli and Wei Wuxian to go mingle with the other young heirs and learn from Lan Qiren

and Meishan Yu sends... Jiang Yu Cheng

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Just finished the cover for 2024 MXTX Food Zine!

@mxtxfoodzine contains 55 recipes going along with art and fanfiction as well as a printable no-title version of the cover. Releasing this November.