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Flowing asthetic in chinese xianxia and wuxia culture(novels, movies, dramas)

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Can I present to you a concept that I haven't thought much further on than the surface level? Here we go:

In the Land of the Tender scene in TGCF, Xie Lian could be a more developed version of the idea MXTX presented with Liu Qingge in the Succubus Extra i.e. bloodlust being a valid form of lust for sex pollen to rile up.

Thoughts?

I don't think it's necessarily like a 2.0 version of the svsss scene, but I do think that mxtx is tapping into a very interesting physiological thing with these scenes as 1) a viable solution to characters being unwillingly aphrodisiac'd, 2) how there's a lot of slippage between different types of uncontrolled urges, and 3) the inherent violence of stripping someone of their autonomy and the desperate things people will go through to regain it. The svsss scene covers the first two, but the tgcf scene covers all three.

Our bodies only have a set number of reactions to the multitude of emotions we feel, i.e. feeling terrified can give you the same pounding heartbeat as infatuation despite us considering them distinct emotions. For a lot of people, sexual lust feels very much so like blood lust, hence the merging of sexual and (hopefully un-acted upon) cannibalistic desires, particularly in its portrayal in popular media. What the third point adds to Xie Lian’s character that is missing from Liu Qingge is that 1) Xie Lian is intelligent enough to have figured this out on his own and 2) he’s disciplined enough to turn his aggressions onto himself rather than attacking the first person who appears before him. The thing he shares with Liu Qingge is that neither of them had lust or sex on their minds (at least at that point in his life for Xie Lian) 😂

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slip up

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🪷 白莲花

white lotus

Two ver.

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I am forever your most devoted believer

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Me: Xie Lian is not self-sacrificing. He does not have self-harming tendencies. He does not disregard his safety for shits and giggles. Stop showing me this.

Tumblr: Ok, then may we interest you in “Hua Cheng is self-sacrificing and disregards his safety for shits and giggles”?

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I’m only barely getting to chapt. 3, and “san-lang” doesn’t show up until chapt. 14, I’m finna tap out 😭😭😭

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Speaking only on the novel, I’d say that Lan Wangji is consistently likened to the moon, whereas Wei Wuxian, the “江/jiang” disciple is the one who grew up surrounded by water and carrying its legacy forward. Instant compatibility.

Flowing asthetic in chinese xianxia and wuxia culture(novels, movies, dramas)

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@illuminatedferret Ok so I did some more digging because I wanted to see where Xie Lian’s title was given in the story and ended up finding some interesting tidbits, but I also wanted to add another dimension to all this: (in lieu of being able to directly ask the author) I posit Xie Lian both is and isn’t named after his kingdom. Bear with me:

The “Xianle” of the kingdom and the “Xianle” of Xie Lian’s palace are both 仙乐. However, everywhere I’ve ever looked up the term except google translate, 仙乐 as a combo is always “Xianyue” (and even then, google translate will put “Xianle” in the English side but have “xianyue” under the characters as pronunciation). How the 乐 character is pronounced actually changes the definition. Pronounce it as “le” and it means “delight,” but pronounce it as “yue” and it means “music.” I think that Xie Lian’s kingdom was actually called “Xianyue” for heavenly music, but his title became “Xianle” for heaven’s delight. Xie Lian’s title was after all, on the surface, given because of how much he delighted the gods before his ascension, particularly when he played the Yueshen (god-pleasing) warrior. But beneath that, it would serve as a bitter reminder to Xie Lian of everything he had lost when his kingdom fell, as the spelling is exactly the same.

Anyways, this is just my two cents on the potential writing choice of these names, cause if there’s one thing I’ve learned very quickly about mxtx, it’s that she loves her wordplay.

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@illuminatedferret Ok so I did some more digging because I wanted to see where Xie Lian’s title was given in the story and ended up finding some interesting tidbits, but I also wanted to add another dimension to all this: (in lieu of being able to directly ask the author) I posit Xie Lian both is and isn’t named after his kingdom. Bear with me:

The “Xianle” of the kingdom and the “Xianle” of Xie Lian’s palace are both 仙乐. However, everywhere I’ve ever looked up the term except google translate, 仙乐 as a combo is always “Xianyue” (and even then, google translate will put “Xianle” in the English side but have “xianyue” under the characters as pronunciation). How the 乐 character is pronounced actually changes the definition. Pronounce it as “le” and it means “delight,” but pronounce it as “yue” and it means “music.” I think that Xie Lian’s kingdom was actually called “Xianyue” for heavenly music, but his title became “Xianle” for heaven’s delight. Xie Lian’s title was after all, on the surface, given because of how much he delighted the gods before his ascension, particularly when he played the Yueshen (god-pleasing) warrior. But beneath that, it would serve as a bitter reminder to Xie Lian of everything he had lost when his kingdom fell, as the spelling is exactly the same.

Anyways, this is just my two cents on the potential writing choice of these names, cause if there’s one thing I’ve learned very quickly about mxtx, it’s that she loves her wordplay.

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Interesting. Now i gotta see if anywhere in the novel actually claims that as his title and if jun wu uses others’ titles too. I also now have some questions for mxtx.

I'm afraid I don't understand names in tgcf, but why does Jun Wu call Xie Lian Xianle? It's not like Xianle is Xie Lian's name? I thought Xian Le was the place Xie Lian was from?

Idk, might be because there are so many gods with the same title that they sometimes refer to each other as their kingdoms to avoid confusion?

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I just read tgcf, and boy did Jun Wu give me the creeps. The way he was so manipulative to Xie Lian rly makes me wanna vomit. The part that gave me chills the most was when Xie Lian looked into the sword and realized who Jun Wu actually was and the other part where he kept on slamming Xie Lian's head just to get him to admit defeat, all the while speaking to nicely to him TwT. What were some of the moments of Jun Wu that you didn't like or maybe creeped you out?

It’s been so long since I fully read tgcf that I honestly can’t even remember a specific scene that fucked me up with Jun Wu. That may change as I read, but as of now, I just think of every single bad thing that happens in the story and wish a death for him more painful than that of his ocean’s worth of victims.

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That would mean giving up their aspirations to be fandom authorities and smugly dictate to people what we know about the story and are "allowed" to discuss.

Why is it that Wei Wuxian gets more hate for the slightest things he did, and then the most horrendous thing that happened in mdzs, the First Siege of the Burial Mounds, is brushed aside so easily?? I was entering the fandom to engage with it, and to my surprise, barely anyone talks about the First Siege, which is honestly rly disappointing.

A lot of the fandom didn't get into the book because of the story. They got into it because they loved the ooc fanart, incorrect quotes memes, and the cql gifsets they saw online and wanted to participate in that production. Attempting to discuss the book as more than just a meme upsets them, I guess, cause it reminds them that their own care and understanding of the book is as shallow as a kiddy pool.

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I think mxtx actually may have distilled Ling Wen’s pettiness into a fever-pitched bitchiness with these edits. Why is she bullying this man? 😭

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(I feel like I’ve def made this joke before, but in the interests of ignoring that failed tgcf liveblog, no I didn’t)

Me @ Ling Wen: Diversity win! The bitch lesbian trope isn’t a lesbian!

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Me @ Ling Wen: Diversity win! The bitch lesbian trope isn’t a lesbian!

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I'm afraid I don't understand names in tgcf, but why does Jun Wu call Xie Lian Xianle? It's not like Xianle is Xie Lian's name? I thought Xian Le was the place Xie Lian was from?

Idk, might be because there are so many gods with the same title that they sometimes refer to each other as their kingdoms to avoid confusion?