#*holds mdzs up* i just think it's neat

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

For all the very self-sacrificial Wei Wuxian takes out there, I think they may actually fit Lan Wangji more?

…Before you disagree, there’s a big caveat to this – I don’t think these takes fit either of them well. But it’s interesting to compare their default responses to situations. Both want to help others – but whereas Wei Wuxian’s first instinct is to redirect (redirecting attacks to other targets, redirecting enemies’ attention to distract them, etc), Lan Wangji is much more direct in his protection*. And generally, that’s going to lead to putting yourself in harm’s way more often.

My favourite scene to demonstrate this is when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji (alongside Jin Zixuan) are protecting Mianmian in the Xuanwu cave. Wei Wuxian does this by redirecting Wen Chao’s attention to him, provoking him and causing him to step out of Wen Zhuliu’s range of protection. Meanwhile, Lan Wangji stands in front of her, blocking her from danger directly… despite being at a disadvantage and already injured!

Wen Chao was enraged, shouting, “How dare you! Kill them!” A few of the Wen Sect’s disciples unsheathed their swords, rushing toward Lan WangJi and Jin ZiXuan (...) the two boys were at a loss in terms of both weaponry and sheer numbers. Even more, after the past days of being constantly on the move, they were in quite a bad state, not to mention that Lan WangJi had been injured. They definitely wouldn’t be able to last long. Chapter 52, EXR translation

This is a scenario with high stakes (Mianmian’s life), but also with multiple solutions, meaning that their choices aren’t muddied by there only being one option. Yet we still see Lan Wangji directly defend – despite the fact that, if Wei Wuxian hadn’t intervened, he almost certainly would have died! And that’s true of another moment in the Xuanwu cave I never hear anyone talk about:

Before Wei WuXian could think of what to do next, his body tilted as somebody shoved him to the side. Lan WangJi had pushed him out of the way. With this opportunity, the jaws of the beast had closed, biting down on his leg. Wei WuXian’s right leg hurt from simply watching the scene. Lan WangJi’s face was still expressionless. He had only frowned slightly. Afterward, he was immediately dragged away! (...) Lan WangJi didn’t expect that [Wei Wuxian] could catch up even under such circumstances. He was utterly shocked. Chapter 53, EXR translation

Admittedly, this is a scenario with more limited options, which is why I mentioned Mianmian first. But his reaction stays consistent – directly blocking somebody from a threat with his own body. And again, he didn’t think Wei Wuxian could do anything to rescue him! He does not expect to survive, and we just… don’t talk about this???

(And note that when Wei Wuxian rescues him, he actually puts himself in less danger! Again, this is mainly due to the limited solutions – you can’t rescue someone who’s already bitten down on by blocking the mouth from biting down on them – but he’s still in a position where he does have the option to get out of the situation if he chooses (he’s not between the teeth! His hands are opening the teeth from the outside, his feet are on its shell, he can jump into the water at any time and does after Lan Wangji is safe. There is danger of the Xuanwu choosing to attack him, but his position on its own doesn’t put him in mortal peril, which is not the case for Lan Wangji here). So though it doesn’t give us that much insight into how he prefers to deal with situations, the dynamic is still interesting to consider with regard to how fanon!WWX is often treated.)

Now, maybe these examples are unfair. Maybe Lan Wangji here was very tired (he was), stressed (he was) and not thinking straight, and so he just didn’t think of other options that he would’ve chosen in normal circumstances. If that’s the case, it still supports my point – no matter his eventual course of action, his first thought/instinct is still to obstruct directly – but this isn’t just a pattern limited to this arc, and to such high-stakes situations. For example, look at his reaction when the Wens order the Lans to burn the Cloud Recesses (and though I’d be very surprised if Lan Wangji wasn’t stressed here too, he’s at least less tired).

Wei WuXian, “Is Lan Zhan’s leg related to this?” The disciple, “Of course. The first place that Wen Xu ordered them to burn down was the Library Pavilion. He declared that he’ll teach anyone who wasn’t willing to do it a lesson. Lan WangJi refused. He was attacked by Wen Xu’s people and they broke one of his legs.” - Chapter 52, EXR translation

I say this is low-stakes because actions won’t actually have that much of an impact – though there is danger, the Cloud Recesses are going to be burned down no matter what, so it’s not something you’re risking by not acting to prevent it. Yet Lan Wangji still chooses to directly oppose, to directly protect the pavilion as much as he can (even if that’s very little, and even if I do think the main factor here was actually his refusal to go against his principles and burn down the Cloud Recesses, not him trying to protect them. But that still leads to the same course of action: to act very directly). And again, that results in direct bodily harm to him**! 

But even in situations where he’s not stressed or under any pressure, we still see that direct protection is his default. Just look at the way he acts towards Wei Wuxian in the present day. One of his very first actions towards him (and pretty much the very first after finding out his identity!) is to block Jiang Cheng from hurting ‘Mo Xuanyu’ with Zidian – to quote EXR, “[Wei Wuxian] hadn’t been hit by the whip yet only because Lan WangJi acted as a barricade in front of him.” – and after that we often see him protecting Wei Wuxian from dogs, we see him let Wei Wuxian stand behind him when Jiang Cheng is angry at the Golden Core reveal (Chapter 102), we even see him protecting Wei Wuxian from things they both know he can face (Su She):

On the other hand, Lan WangJi gripped Bichen in one hand as he grabbed Wei WuXian’s waist with his other, pushing Wei WuXian behind him for better protection. In reality, Wei WuXian had no need for his protection, but he still leaned against his body with both comfort and compliance. Chapter 104, EXR

None of this leads to any harm of either of them, but it still holds true to the pattern of Lan Wangji protecting by physically putting himself between what he’s defending, and harm’s way. This response of his is extremely consistent! And it’s not just towards Wei Wuxian either – there’s a tiny moment in the Lotus Seed Pod extra which you could argue fits this pattern, where Lan Wangji chooses to physically hold the heavy roof of an abandoned shed to block the rain from reaching an injured man and a few other people, rather than trying something like using wood from the shed (including the four pieces of unattached wood propping the shed up) to build a temporary shelter for them until help arrives. The circumstances and therefore actions are slightly different, but the process leading to them is still the same – Lan Wangji still acts in the most direct way he can to protect the people from the rain, which does involve exerting himself even in a situation where there would probably be other ways to solve it (even if his Lan arm strength means he can hold the roof up without a problem). It’s not a deliberate choice to do whatever puts him in harm’s way the most, but directly using himself to protect people, whatever form that takes, is his main and default course of action.

The final thing I want to mention is that even Lan Wangji’s ‘big reveal’ moment – him being the one to take Wei Wuxian away from Nightless City, fighting 33 elders to protect him – calls back to this trait as well (MDZS is so well put together)! Once more, Lan Wangji is directly protecting, risking and suffering serious bodily harm as a result. Recovering took a few years!

…And yet. I never see anybody thinking Lan Wangji is self-sacrificial. I’d argue they’re right – but why? Why, when he puts himself in harm’s way more than Wei Wuxian does?

Maybe it’s because of something like this: ‘but he does this because he loves Wei Wuxian and doesn’t want to see him hurt, and protecting others is just part of his morals! It doesn’t point to any issue within him, he does have a stable sense of self and self-worth – at least there isn’t anything pointing to the opposite’.

Which, again, I’d argue is right.

But… does that really not apply to Wei Wuxian, too?

---

*And there are moments where they don’t act like this, especially for Wei Wuxian, but that’s generally in situations where there aren’t any other options which still lead to them accomplishing their goals. Protecting the Wens by… redirecting the Jianghu’s hatred towards other people? How would he do that? How would that help anything??

**It’s quite interesting to think of how Wei Wuxian would act in these situations, actually – both being forced to burn down the Cloud Recesses (or Lotus Pier, in this case), and in preventing (in this case) Lan Wangji from being eaten by a Xuanwu rushing towards him. The first, I’m not actually sure what exactly he would do (especially as nothing he can do will stop the burning) – I’m not sure he’d just go along with it, but I don’t see him just refusing to despite that not doing anything, either (especially since if he’s unharmed, he’ll be more able to protect his shidi and shimei if they’re in danger, since he’s a much more skilled cultivator/fighter than they are), at least not in the same way. Hearing people’s thoughts on that would be really interesting, actually!

As for the second – if there’s really no time to change anything about the head or its direction, he would probably do the same (with the only other option being letting Lan Wangji die). But if there was the smallest room to change something, I could definitely see him activating another fire talisman (to distract the Xuanwu and redirect its attention to the pillar of flame instead of Lan Wangji, even if just for a moment). And even if self sacrifice really needed to be an option, with no way out beside it, I think Wei Wuxian’s would take the form of redirecting the Xuanwu’s head towards him rather than directly blocking it from reaching Lan Wangji. When he does put himself in danger in canon, this is usually how he does it (see: him redirecting the corpses towards himself during the Second Siege, while Lan Wangji is protecting him and blocking them from reaching him… another nice example of their situational response!).

I do plan on writing a separate meta about Wei Wuxian’s tendency to redirect, though, so some of these points may be reiterated there.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

No Sharing.

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[jayktoralldaylong]

Two types of Autistic:

Baby Lan Wangji carrying a candle.

Lan Xichen: Lan Zhan, put that down, it'll hurt you.

Lan Zhan stares at Lan Xichen, then the candle. Gently sets it on the ground.

Lan Xichen, pats his head: Good boy Lan Zhan. ^_^

Yin Yu to baby Qi Ying when he sees him carrying a candle: Qi Ying put that down, you'll get burnt.

Quan Yizhen blinks slowly....tries to bite the fire!

Yin Yu: Qi Ying! O_o

Quan Yizhen gets burnt and cries. Yin Yu sighs and treats his burn.

Yin Yu: I told you not to touch that!

Yin Yu gives him hugs and pats. Quan Yizhen stops crying. Quan Yizhen learns that when he gets burnt his Shixiong will give him hugs and pats....... Quan Yizhen tries to eat fire again.

Yin Yu, horrified by this behaviour: Qi Ying! (TT)

Yin Yu, baffled as to why it's so hard to raise this kid when Lan Zhan is so well behaved.

Yin Yu, scolding: Qi Ying if you want hugs then just ask for them. You don't have to bite fire just for hugs. Ask and Shixiong will hug you.

Quan Yizhen, immediately with arms stretched: Shixiong hug me!

Yin Yu hugs him.

Quan Yizhen, excited!: Shixiong hug me!

Yin Yu hugs him more!

Quan Yizhen: Shixiong hug me! Shixiong hug me!

Quan Yizhen proceeds to shamelessly ask for hugs all day long and Yin Yu hugs him every time he asks. Lan Zhan sees this and gets jealous. He wishes he was brave enough to ask for hugs but he's an introvert.

Lan Zhan's fingers curl into himself. He grips robes and lowers his head down in a sulk. He doesn't want to show how disappointed he is. Lan Xichen walks by and notices his body posture.

Lan Xichen: Ah Wangji, would you like a hug? ^_^

Lan Wangji is shocked that he was immediately understood. An angel has appeared before him! He is still shy and looks away.

Lan Xichen, hugs him anyway!: A big hug from brother! ^_^

Lan Wangji feels inexplicable joy! (๑♡⌓♡๑)

[kulapti]

Bookbindings of Rare the man that’ll hold to faith by Fahye, July 2023.

Another set from the Renegade Bindery Tiny Books Bang! Text: Rare the man that’ll hold faith (MDZS wangxian Green Knight AU) by @fahye Typesetting: @teleportbooks

————- More info under the cut

Three similar versions of Rare the man that’ll hold to faith by Fahye, typeset by EHyde, bound by myself! Two of these bindings have endpapers of handmade marbled paper by Æthereal Press (thanks @aetherseer <3).

I was so excited to get this fantastic typeset, in which EHyde used a number of historical decorations from Klemscott Press on the title page and section dividers. I cannot get over all the cool decorative bits in this typeset you guys. Just look at that title page!! I had so much fun reading this fic in hard copy and giggling over all the little teeny leaves and fancy letters.

I chose to use one of the smaller decorative grape vine designs for the cover, since I have not had good luck using the cricut or hand-writing on title letters small enough for these spines. I think it looks pretty neat :D

Decisions were made: I like using small books to try out new techniques, and for these I tried out stitching in the endpapers. That was uhh not the greatest idea for something I intended to give away tbh, but I think the results still look alright. This endpaper style is extremely uncommon in recently published books, though one might find it in fancy editions of books made around a hundred years ago. I think it’s pretty cool and I like that it can subtly emphasize a handmande book being constructed differently from most of what bookstores can sell! I should have paid closer attention to matching my tapes and the lining of my covers. The gapping is a cosmetic problem more than a structural problem, and they should be quite sturdy, though I do wish I had been able to line these up better.

Materials: Laser printed text on archival paper, letter size folded sextodecimo; cotton thread and beeswax stitching with archival paper scrap for reinforcement; the case is scrabooking paper and bookcloth, archival PVA and bookboard, and metallic cover decoration made of heat-transfer vinyl. Endpapers are either archival scrapbooking paper or handmade marbled paper with some shimmery accents. Cotton scrap faux-endbands and unknown scrap ribbon for the bookmarks.

[florsial]

Hi hi! Something has been eating away at my brain and i think it’s your cup of tea so who do you relate the pureblood brother duos to in media or in history? For example famous brothers like cain and abel or the grimm brothers etc etc i would LOVE to know what you think

That’s all<3

Admittedly I don’t consume as much media with siblings as I actually do lol. I’m sorry 😭 (the Orestia has been on the back burner and I just can’t see anyone as Antigone)

Sirius and Regulus relationship might come off as controversial so if it’s not ur cup of tea dw I won’t make u drink it <3

Anyways, I see Regulus and Sirius as Hansel and Gretel. The way their relationship (taking account that I see Regulus as ftm), their relationship is heavily gendered with a power imbalance. The best way I can describe is this (curtesy of @deathnguts):

(Best thing I’ve seen all day actually)

Sirius is given the power over Regulus as the eldest son of a Chinese family in a culture where the son is the carry the family name and thus, preferred. He has to power to hurt or care for Regulus and I see it as he does both but can’t tell the difference/isn’t taught the difference until he meets James (which where Regulus gains the upper hand).

This is where Hansel and Gretel come in. Hansel in the story, like Sirius, takes charge, comforts, and leads and is the main reason why the siblings were able to get home the first two times. Then like Regulus, Gretel strikes last (shoving the witch in the oven). I find it a neat comparison, Sirius strikes first and then Regulus does (Sirius fights back against his parents and beliefs first and then Regulus turns his back on the Dark Lord last). And the two return home (afterlife).

At worst, I can see them as Helaena and Aegon Targaryen, not the marriage part obviously, just the overall dynamic of an annoying and rude older brother who still cares but just doesn’t know how and his younger and in-their-own-head sibling. (Cue scene of Aegon calling Helaena an “enduring mystery” in front of all the servants, it’s a sweet thing to call someone but he does it in a teasing/making fun manner). But I see it as it being when they are younger. I def think that the closer Sirius approaches running away, Regulus has a more emotional hold over him. Because Sirius feels terrible for their power imbalance and starts to view Regulus as equal while Regulus strictly adheres to the cultural values that they were brought up with.

That’s my version of them. The wider, more accepted version of them is basically Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian from mdzs copy and pasted onto a bunch of French white boys (NOT MY SIRIUS AND REGULUS) (/j)

And a funnier association if Tybalt (Regulus) and Sirius (Juliet). I won’t get into that but it’s meant to be funny I swear.

Not brothers but the Rosier twins. @/juniperpyre has once commented that my Rosier twins seem like a medical version of the twins from the Secret History, but I’ve never read that book. In fact, the Rosier twins were taken from Sam and Eric from the Lord of the Flies. Throughout the book, Sam and Eric experience a transition from Sam and Eric to “Samneric”, basically becoming one and that’s where my version of the Rosier twins from. (Plus med stuff)

Xeno and Lucius are who I associate with Cain and Abel. God (their parents) favor Abel (Xeno) over Cain (Lucius), Cain retaliates (Imprisons Luna and is a Death Eater/associated with a group who was willing to kill his family while he got away). Lucius is character I see as a calm facade with jealousy, envy, anger, dirty ambition, and perpetual hunger simmering under his skin and I think that contrasted with Xeno kinda makes them a neat parallel to Cain and Abel (if that makes sense?). Xeno is clearly favored (as the second son by his mother and as the carefree son by his father). And it’s also neat that Cain is older than Abel (Lucius is older than Xeno).

The Lestrange Brothers are their own mess and once again, I don’t know enough media to associated them with anyone.

[any-n-everything]

something about bingqiu/bingyuan

i read mdzs first, followed by svsss, and then tgcf

i like all of them but there was always something that bothered me about svsss and that was the main cp, bingqiu/bingyuan

because, when i read mdzs and tgcf, i could more or less understand why wangxian and hualian were couples. because despite their vastly different personalities, their core values more or less aligned with one another. and i think that's neat and i love them for it.

but bingqiu/bingyuan always confused me because i couldn't make sense of their core values/why were they attracted to each other. i mean. i guess we can take the "shallow reading" route and say that it's because shen yuan has always adored binghe-the-white-lotus-protagonist and luo binghe loved shen yuan because he consistently chose him(?). their relationship is complicated and kind of a mess but like it's theirs so im not gonna bother too much about it.

but maybe because i like over-analysing, i still want to confirm to myself if they have a shared "core value" like the other two mxtx couples.

which leads me to my theory that their core value is their shared sense of self-preservation.

it makes sense to me because, from the moment shen yuan woke up as "scum villain shen qingqiu", he was predominantly motivated by his desire to keep living. many of his actions can be explained by this. which makes shen yuan's decision to NOT push binghe into the abyss very much an act of love, because he was essentially sacrificing what he holds dear (his own life) for his disciple. this was all ruined by the system, of course, and shen yuan was forced to push binghe into the abyss. he then became a grieving widow master.

so shen yuan's following actions were very interesting because he was very much expecting luo binghe to come kill him, but also, he kind of didn't want to die? but luo binghe kind of also has a right to murder his traitorous self? so he concocted the mushroom body plan. this way, binghe can get his closure by murdering his scum master, and shen yuan can continue to live! win-win amirite?

SQH: why are you like this cucumber-bro

and we all know how well that plan went

anyways, i went off on a tangent, BUT BASICALLY. shen yuan has very strong self-preservation instincts, but specifically when luo binghe is out of the picture. around LBH he just has the self-preservation of a lemming.

now binghe is harder to analyse (for me) because the novel is mostly in shen yuan's pov and he's an Unreliable Narrator so i'll be mostly focusing on binghe's life events and actions.

which are basically:

he survived the cold waters of the luo river as a baby

he survived a poor childhood when his adoptive mother didn't

he survived until he reached cang qiong mountain sect

he survived shen qingqiu (version shen jiu) and the bullying of his martial siblings

he survived being pushed down into the abyss

basically, binghe is a survivor. no matter what happens, he has a very strong desire to survive and is, more often than not, willing to pay any cost. the cost he isn't willing to pay, however, is shen yuan.

off the top of my head an example would be how bingge (he-with-no-shen-yuan) took a harem of beauties so he could control xin mo but bingmei (he-with-shen-yuan) decided to just... cripple people's cultivation. they're kind of both equally bad (let us never forget that bingge is a rapist) but it seemed that bingmei did not want to be intimate with anyone because he had shen yuan in his heart. i dunno if this makes sense but what i'm getting at is that binghe was willing to pay other people's lives just so he didn't have to be intimate with anyone except shen yuan.

so there's something poetic about how shen yuan would pay his life for binghe and binghe would pay literally anything else except shen yuan (and i guess the things/people he cares about and are related to him).

and im really not here to discuss morality or anything but looking at bingqiu/bingyuan, i still get the feeling that, if shen yuan hadn't been born with "modern standards" and "modern sensibilities", he would be a little more callous and uncaring of other people's lives. because, at his core, he would prioritise his own life over other people's. like, you know, his husband.

that's not the shen yuan we got tho so oh well

[bytebun]

.

[sketchyscribbles]

I love one (1) himbo

[rynne]

Why doesn't WWX feel resentful the way he was treated if it were me I'd probably nuke the Jiang family bloodline

You know, this is something I actually appreciate very much about WWX as a character. Despite cultivating with resentful energy, he does not generally hold onto resentment himself. It's one of those neat ways he subverts expectations.

I do think this is a personality trait, but I also think that a lot of it stems from the statement of his mom's philosophy that he tells us in Chapter 113:

"My mom said you have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don't hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free."

Only when people don't hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free. Resentment is a weight, you know? Holding onto pain and hatred and grudges can be a real burden. WWX doesn't want to hold onto that pain. He wants to move forward and build a new life.

He touches on this in the Second Siege of the Burial Mounds, in Chapter 82.

(Screenshot this time, because I don't want to type all that out. XD)

Either you hold onto hatred or you move on. What else can you do? With the Jiangs, WWX wants to move on. He doesn't have to forgive them (though I imagine he does, at least for what they did to him as a kid), any more than Fang Mengchen had to forgive WWX, but as long as he holds onto resentment, he is not free.

One of MDZS's major themes is about ending abusive cycles of hatred and violence, because all they do is cause more pain and hatred. The Wens attack the other sects, who first fight back and then up the ante by retaliating against civilians. Jin Zixun's grudge against WWX starts a chain of events that ends in the bloodbath of Nightless City and the First Siege of the Burial Mounds. Resentment and hatred and grudges have this way of building on themselves and getting bigger.

JGY's resentment for the way his family treats him turns into violence, including attempting to kill a shitload of cultivators in the Second Siege of the Burial Mounds just because they might find out about his earlier murders. Su She's resentment and envy of the Lans in general and LWJ in particular lead him to become an accomplice.

Jin Ling is one of the story's biggest symbols of the benefits of letting go of resentment. He starts off hating WWX for the deaths of his parents, and his personality reflects the anger and violence he's been steeped in, down to his complete lack of true friends other than his dog. But over the course of the story, he meets WWX and learns the truth and starts to let go of his hatred. We last see Jin Ling a more thoughtful person, with friends, building a good relationship with WWX, and a happier, better person all around.

Based on his narration, I don't know how consciously WWX recognizes how terribly the Jiangs treated him. If he doesn't, I suspect it is specifically because he wants to hold onto the good things they did for him, not the bad, because if he dwells on the bad he will not feel free.

As he tells JC about the core in Chapter 103:

Wei WuXian, "Uh, I think it's best if you...also stop keeping it on your mind. I know you'll definitely always keep it on your mind, but, how should I say it..." He clenched Lan WangJi's hand, saying to Jiang Cheng, "Right now, I do really think...it's all in the past. It's been too long. There's no need to struggle with it any longer."

For WWX, I think this applies to the Jiangs' treatment of him as well. It's all in the past, it's been too long, and there's no need to struggle with it any longer. He's got his future holding his hand and he wants to move on. He wants to be free.

[vermillioncrown]

zhou le chapter: a rambling afterword

it's funny; throughout the cloud recesses arc people were wondering about the yin iron or not

i was wondering too

it was always nebulous on how to resolve it in a neat way. once i started thinking that zyx doesn't need to know how it resolves (i mean, they need to, but you know.) because a single person doesn't know the whole world.

we only know so much and we have to accept that, work with that to come together

so the decision was made to have zhou le go and explore a bit. expand on the world a little more.

tanzhou, with the damsel of annual blossoms, is southeast of lotus pier. this was the decision point for yin iron or not; otherwise things would have to be close enough that they could romp around qinghe, dafan mountain, etc etc

but that never made sense to me. dafan mountain should be close to lanling/gusu territory, because of the proximity to mo village.

so wen qing and her branch would have to be from a different place. i started looking up the areas surrounding yiling; it'd make sense for her to roam around if she was on the border of qishan and yunmeng, and to be involved in dusk mountain creek/yiling supervisory office, likely her family would be local to the area.

damsel of annual blossoms - it was such a coincidence that i noted in my background notes on notable side characters/families that the murong clan set up shop in the hunan province. and when i looked at the mdzs map, tanzhou is in the hunan province. there were so many murong daughters to choose from; why not add another? had to use my cute naming scheme, even if she's a douche

(the 'mongolian doctor' as slang for 'quack' killed me; i only heard it once, and the murong surname is of mongol origin. it fit too well)

(she was about to misgender lang erzhi, and zhou le stopped that shit)

i never wanted shuangfeng to feel like an 'addition', but more a wider perspective. the world is large, people live in it, and we are all complex but simple depending on the level of scope. so having zhou le doing his own thing, expanding on the murong, really figuring out the wen was of great importance.

the wen have to be complicated. mdzs is complicated. the original story is something that one could facetiously say "just kill x, y, z and that will solve everything". but x, y, and z are not lynchpins holding up the world, plots that drive the world; they are both agents and products of their environment. so a lot of brainpower, since ch 4, was spent figuring out what exactly was wrong with the wen.

(turns out, a lot)

onto zhou le himself: it's definitely a shining example that we as people don't need to know everything about each other.

his thoughts are blunt, unkind. one can call him arrogant, but he doesn't spend enough time thinking about himself in comparison to others for me to say so. he's intuitive, and overly so, and that lends to a very decisive attitude. it's black, or white. it does come off judgmental, and that fits with his sense of justice and morality. it's the reason that his master situ yuyan picked him up.

he does include himself in that judgement 'all are mundane until they ascend', but he doesn't need to deal with himself, he's too busy dealing with externalities.

it's also difficult to see whether he likes something, from his internal dialogue. the way he sees things... for those that get sensory overload, he's basically always on the brink of it. going through life cranky and trying to not lash out as a result. his thoughts must be processed quickly and decisively to put those sensations out of his mind asap. if he didn't have such a strong sense of self, the pro would be he'd be more 'compassionate' and willing to get close to others, but the con would be entanglement at the detriment of himself.

(he actually thinks wwx is funny and likes him, even if it's hard to tell.)

without the messy familial ties and drama between sects, shuangfeng ends up with people that are... more emotionally ?stable? or the people on shuangfeng don't grate on zhou le so much. he does get along with others, likes it when people are genuine. throughout the dbd chapters, he does have friends, he has juniors who respect him and aren't afraid to tease him. willing to work with others when he sees the merit (and willing to accept proof of it).

being out of shuangfeng is putting him in an uncomfortable situation, and he doesn't look good for it.

zyx grates on him (and god do they live rent-free in his head) because there are so many unconscious cues that something is off. zyx behaves, but it's such a deliberate etiquette (zyx is trying to be Corporate Polite™ out of consideration) that the calculative nature is very jarring. for as buck wild zyx's pov is, what they say is not even half of what they think, and not in a dishonest way. but it does leave others wondering what they value, where they stand, etc. which is why zhou le is always antagonizing them - it's almost like reassurance to see 'normal' behavior from zyx.

=

oh, side-note relating to an ask long ago on how meng yao would be treated on shuangfeng - no one would give a rat's ass that his mom was a prostitute. working girls work, and that's on that.

sex ed on the peaks is extensive (tang dynasty was rather sexually liberal), and the disciples are allowed to do as they please in a respectful manner that causes no harm to the sect, themselves, and others (in that order). better than making things 'forbidden' and being unable to regulate it.

[songofclarity]

Since there is no official height for WRH, how tall do you think he is? imo I'm 90% sure that NMJ is taller and being precise he's either a single cm shorter or taller than LXC. Also build-wise, do you think he's more bulky or slim?

So I just found out that NMJ is the tallest character in mdzs (191 cm) and I'm wondering do we know how tall WRH is? What if he's actually shorter than NMJ? Would NMJ tower over him all scowling and glaring and WRH would be like "how dare you look down on me like this? *Also why is this turning me on?* "

Hello to the same Anon because I reply too slow or to two different Anons who are on the same wavelength!

Nie MingJue is the tallest character in the series and there is absolutely no way I'm going to headcanon away his crown! Nie MingJue is 191 cm and everyone can look up to him, as they should~ And that includes Wen RuoHan!

This might be a boring answer, but I don’t think Wen RuoHan cares about height. I don’t think Nie MingJue being taller, whether by 1 cm or 10 cm, would bother him. There is a confidence about Wen RuoHan in what he says and does and doesn’t do that shows, to me, someone who is actually well adjusted to his body, his position, and his power.

Looking back at the saber incident, it’s important to note that Wen RuoHan’s beef wasn’t because Sect Leader Nie’s saber was sharper or bigger or better, his beef was because Sect Leader Nie was (reportedly) being an asshole about it. It was Sect Leader Nie (reportedly) turning it into a competition when it wasn’t one. Wen RuoHan was perfectly at peace with the world on his own, and never asked a question comparing his saber with others. Is his own saber not a fine saber? The answer is yes, it’s quite fine. And Nie MingJue in all his tall glory is also quite fine, and I think Wen RuoHan could appreciate Nie MingJue in multiple ways without having to feel intimidated or challenged by him.

Confidence is key!

Going on a tangent for a second, I like to consider the idea that Nie MingJue doesn't exactly feel the whole extent of his height. His fiery temperament, exacerbated by the saber spirit and a toxic sworn brotherhood arrangement, always gets the focus over his height, which is really only mentioned by Wei WuXian at the start of empathy but is never used to describe Nie MingJue looking down on people, physically or mentally. When Nie MingJue runs into the frightened woman and child in Hejian, he reigns in his aggression, but he's still very much towering over them.

We know that Nie MingJue was a teenager and old enough to go on night hunts when his father was injured, so I imagine him being 16 back then. Boys, on a whole, start puberty later than girls (so closer to 13) and might not hit their peak until as late as 20. So let's say Nie MingJue hadn't reached peak 191 cm yet and his father was still taller than him when bed bound. Then his father died, and in the ensuing years Nie MingJue shot up like a tree, but that doesn’t change how his father will ALWAYS be taller than him. (I headcanon both Nie brothers take more after their respective mothers’ side of the family in appearance and height than they do from their father’s. Nie MingJue is tall even amongst his uncles at 191 cm, Nie HuaiSang is short at 172 cm, and Sect Leader Nie was somewhere in between.)

I also imagine the situation around his father's death, how those six months showed the worst part of the Qinghe Nie saber cultivation and his father at his most monstrous, would have made Nie MingJue feel very small and helpless as a kid. It's no surprise he loathes and regrets that death the most into his adulthood. It's no surprise that once he steps into an adult role, he's always working and trying harder than everyone else to protect the peace and mitigate danger.

Nie MingJue's big dick energy comes from the heart. Combined with his height, he’s the biggest man around!

But I don't think Wen RuoHan is significantly shorter than Nie MingJue. I headcanon him being 185 cm at the shortest. That makes him shorter than Nie MingJue at 191 cm and Lan XiChen at 188 cm, but it’s the same height as Jiang Cheng. For comparison, Wen Ning is 183 cm vs Wen Yuan is 172 cm. Wen Yuan experienced some serious food difficulties during his early child (from about age 2 to 5) that could have negatively effected his growth, so he is likely an outlier. Wen Chao isn't given a height and there's no particular reference to him being short or tall, not even when Wei WuXian holds him hostage in the cave, so I imagine he's not too far off from Wei WuXian, who is 186 cm. So we're reasonably looking somewhere in the 180s cm for Wen RuoHan.

If Wen RuoHan doesn’t have to ask Nie MingJue to lean down to get what he wants and can just take it, even if he has to go up on his toes, height really is no issue~

Because the fun part about Wen RuoHan is that I do not think a taller person is going to phase him. At one point the world stands tall against him and he flexes quite well on his status where he doesn't even think he needs to lift a finger to end the Sunshot Campaign. This is a man who will slightly tilt up his chin, without even thinking about it, so he ends up looking down on the towering Nie MingJue.

I imagine the effect is quite alluring, but it would also be like being faced down by a predator and Nie MingJue isn’t used to being treated as prey~ Wen RuoHan is in for a fight if he wants to try taking him down though lol

As for Wen RuoHan’s build, I tend to go with in between bulky and slim. I think most of his strength comes from his spiritual energy. He's not packing the dreamy abs Nie MingJue has hiding under his robes that got even Wei WuXian drooling. But to get to such high cultivation, Wen RuoHan had to have done a lot of physical training, which I picture makes him muscular, but still not bulky. And he has enough muscle that he's not particularly slim, either, although I imagine him having quite graceful hands and a regal poise that give the impression of slender elegance. His calm and quiet confidence belies his strength, and the energy he gives off gives the impression that he’s the biggest man in the room. Sometimes impression really is everything.

So in one way or another, Wen RuoHan and Nie MingJue might each think the other is bigger or taller than him, and neither one is fazed by it, and I just think that’s neat!

[words-writ-in-starlight]

prompt: modern MDZS, Wen Qing berating someone as she does DIY bullet removal

Leverage AU, huh?  Sounds like you want to talk about a Leverage AU.  For this H/C ask meme!

“Everything was under control, Wen Qing,” Wei Wuxian says, smiling through clenched teeth.  There’s drying blood gluing his slacks to his skin and sweat beading on his forehead and throat, but his hands don’t tremble as he lowers himself into a chair.  He at least has the good grace to sit at the table, so that she’ll have somewhere to put her supplies.  She’s going to murder him anyway, but it’ll be much more convenient to kill him in a kitchen chair than on the couch.  Wen Qing likes her couch.  She intends to keep it blood-free.

“Clearly it was not,” Wen Qing half-snarls, and she snaps a hairtie around her bun to keep her hair out of her face as she glares down at him.  A quick rummage in her pockets produces several purple exam gloves, liberated from the hospital during a shift and forgotten.  “A-Ning, get me a towel from the kitchen, one of the flour sack ones, and a bowl of warm water, and the shears kit from the junk drawer.  Everyone else, figure yourselves out, I’m not running a daycare.”

A-Ning, who’s always been a good boy even if Wen Qing is taking pains not to know what he does with his time these days, vanishes like a cat into the kitchen.  Mianmian, who has sense, promptly knocks her knuckles against Wei Wuxian’s head and says, “Be good, Yuandao,” before she flops down onto the couch without regard for her regal evening gown and apparently goes to sleep.  Nie Huaisang, who knows when he’s no longer needed, picks his way across the room to Wen Qing’s only armchair, and folds himself up like an origami figure that looks very unlikely in his suit.  

Lan Wangji, who has never done anything convenient in his life, remains standing beside Wei Wuxian’s chair and blinks at Wen Qing.

Wen Qing has no idea why everyone pretends Lan Wangji is completely unreadable.  He couldn’t be clearer if he printed make me move, I dare you on his forehead.  He’s smeared with blood, all down one side from half-carrying Wei Wuxian to her doorstep, and he’s bruising up blue on one cheekbone, and there’s a table knife tucked into the pocket of his suit jacket, bent out of shape into makeshift brass knuckles.  Wen Qing doesn’t really feel like fighting the point just now.

“Fine,” she snaps, “just stay out of my way.  And you,” she adds, pointing at Wei Wuxian.  He cringes a little, because he’s smart.  “We’re going to have a talk.”

“Jiejie,” A-Ning says, reappearing with towels and trauma shears in hand.  She doesn’t twitch when her brother pads up behind her and lays the lot on the table.  Wen Qing is used to her brother drifting around like a ghost, and to his wide-eyed expression of trying to get on her good side.  “Don’t be mad at him.”

“I am very mad at him,” Wen Qing says.  “Bring me the water or I’ll be mad at you too.”  Wei Wuxian snorts out a breathless laugh, and Wen Qing grabs the trauma shears from her tidy pack of tools to shut him up.  “So,” she says, crouching down and briskly cutting up the seam of his pants toward his knee.  “What the fuck happened?”

“Got shot,” Wei Wuxian says, helpfully.

“I can see that,” Wen Qing says, and only barely resists the urge to give his leg a shove and see if that makes him focus up.  She cuts the extra fabric away, straight across the knee crease, and gives a light tug on the rest, just to check if she might be able to get it off immediately.  Wei Wuxian makes a breathy noise, like a swallowed gasp, and she absently touches his calf, a soothing gesture until the trembling eases.  “Can I get a little more detail?  Was it a cop?”

“No!  I’m--I’m just a hacker, people don’t shoot hackers,” Wei Wuxian says with completely false confidence.  “People shoot, I don’t know, cat burglars and hitters.  Lan Zhan’s been shot, right, Lan Zhan?”

“Clearly, people shoot hackers too,” Lan Wangji says flatly.  But then, because he’s weak, he adds, conciliatory, “But yes.  Five times.  It is my job.”

“My brother’s never been shot, right?”  Wen Qing raises her voice at the end, over the rush of water in the other room, and hears a squeak of alarm.

“Uh--that’s right, A-jie!”

“Because I would kill him,” Wen Qing tells Wei Wuxian matter-of-factly.  “And then I would kill his entire team that got him shot.  You understand that, right?”

“Yes, ma’am,” Nie Huaisang confirms from the armchair, because he might be a ruthless son of a bitch when he feels like it, a mastermind whose best game is poker and has the mask to prove it, but he’s also a well-trained younger brother and he’s never once had the guts to fuck with Wen Qing.  “Wen Ning has never been shot.”

“Good,” Wen Qing says forbiddingly.  “Because I don’t ask questions about what you get my brother into,” she continues to Wei Wuxian.  “Just like I didn’t ask questions about how my brother paid for my degree.  But that doesn’t mean you get to show up on my doorstep at eleven on a Saturday night with a bullet hole in your leg, and answer no questions.”

“That’s fair,” Mianmian says, without opening her eyes.  “You have to give her that one, Yuandao.”

A-Ning slips back into the room and puts a metal bowl of warm water on the floor next to Wen Qing’s knee, and then walks into the bathroom, because he’s a good boy and he knows what she’ll need before she can even ask for it.

“This is going to hurt,” she tells Wei Wuxian, quiet and serious.  "Keep talking, it’ll keep you awake.”

“You’re so mean to me,” he complains as she wrings out a cloth until it’s only damp.  “You won’t even let me pass out?  I got shot!  I got shot taking down the CEO of an oil company, by the way, you should--fuck!”

Wen Qing’s free hand locks around Wei Wuxian’s lower leg, a practiced grip to hold him in place as he startles at the pressure on the wound.  “Hold still, and it’ll be quicker.  Tell me about your latest idiot crusade, Wuxian.”

She soaks the blood-stiff cloth until it can be cut away and lets Wei Wuxian’s shaking voice wash over her, barely listening.  Something about an oil spill, and a family whose entire town was crippled when the fishing industry went belly up.  It’s all very idealistic.  It’s all very Wei Wuxian.  They got the guy on camera shooting a civilian, though, which is apparently just icing on Mianmian’s grifter cake of very illegal bank transfers and a burgeoning RICO case.

“Okay,” Wen Qing says, when she’s cut away the rest of Wei Wuxian’s pant leg and exposed the bullet wound--halfway up his outer thigh, blessedly clear of the artery, but clearly a very small caliber, the kind of thing a CEO might be able to get into a benefit without looking excessively paranoid.  Which brings her to...  “Well, this is going to suck a lot,” she says.

“It already sucks a lot,” Wei Wuxian says, and his laugh is a little hysterical.  “What in particular are you thinking about?”

“Next time,” Wen Qing says, carefully dipping her tweezers in rubbing alcohol, “get shot with a bigger gun.”

“Absolutely not.  What?  I’m not getting shot again, and definitely not with a bigger gun, what is wrong with you?”

“This bullet didn’t go all the way through,” Wen Qing says.  “So I’m going to have to take it out.  A-Ning, come here and hold a light.  Lan Wangji, hold him down.”

Wei Wuxian lets out a breath and it trembles, but for all his dramatics, he’s never been a coward.  Once, when Wen Qing was in undergrad and she and her brother were surviving the fallout of the Wen mob going to prison in droves and Wei Wuxian had just been kicked out of the Jiangs, he cut open his palm with a broken glass.  He sat on the floor and let Wen Qing pick shards out of his skin for twenty-five minutes, and joked and teased the entire time.

“Okay,” Wei Wuxian says.  “I’m ready.”

It’s a bad hour, as Wen Qing pulls the bullet from his thigh and then puts two stitches in the hole.  Wei Wuxian doesn’t scream, doesn’t cry, just takes shallow, shuddering breaths and doesn’t move.  Sometimes he even laughs, a ragged sound of apparently genuine amusement when A-Ning wonders aloud if Jiang Yanli is going to kill them before Wen Qing gets the chance, and a bark of vicious humor when Nie Huaisang reports that their target’s been arrested on more fraud charges than you could shake a stick at.

“We’re not telling A-Li,” Wei Wuxian says when Wen Qing finally tapes down gauze and collects her bloodied tools into the emptied water bowl.  “She’ll come look sad at me.”

Wen Qing summarily ignores him.  Instead, she looks at Lan Wangji, who looks nearly as shaken as Wei Wuxian.  He’s not holding him down anymore, but his hands are still resting on those stiff shoulders, a thumb smoothing over the skin at the nape of Wei Wuxian’s neck just above his collar.  Wei Wuxian’s head tips a little toward that side, resting lightly on Lan Wangji’s forearm without apparent concern for the blood on the hitter’s wrist.  Maybe Wei Wuxian’s, maybe whoever got to experience the pleasure of being punched by one of the Twin Jades.  

“Don’t let him do anything stupid,” Wen Qing tells Lan Wangji firmly.  "I can get him antibiotics--you are taking them, Wei Wuxian--but I’m not getting him painkillers, because the second he feels okay he’s going to get A-Ning to teach him to free climb a building or something, and A-Ning is going to do it because I raised him terribly, I guess.”

“Hey,” A-Ning says.

“Tell me I’m wrong.”

“I will keep Wei Ying from doing anything stupid,” Lan Wangji recites obediently, and goes up a few notches in Wen Qing’s estimation.

“We’ll get out of your hair, Qing-jie,” Wei Wuxian says, stirring like he’s going to get up, and Wen Qing stands and sighs and scowls, and peels off her gloves to make a neat little ball of latex in one palm, all the blood concealed inside.

“You can stay here,” she says.  “You can take A-Ning’s room and he’ll sleep on the couch.  Everyone else, you have to get out unless you want to sleep on the floor, though,” she adds, pointing to the two in her living room.

“I will stay,” Lan Wangji says.

“Yeah,” Wen Qing says, already distracted by the odds of being able to find a pharmacy open at this hour.  “A-Ning has a full, you’ll fit.”  Wei Wuxian makes a choking noise, which she ignores.  “I’m going out to get ahold of some meds for you.  Don’t do anything stupid, and lock up if anyone leaves.  A-Ning, don’t let this idiot leave.”

“I won’t, A-jie,” A-Ning says obediently, and Wen Qing stomps into her bedroom to change into something not speckled with blood.

[afabulousjello]

Time and time again I think about what sort of no doubt batshit mind gymnastics must have gone on in the writing room for a channel to pick up MDZS for a screen adaptation, and I can’t help but be immensely grateful that of all the “forbidden gay content” they picked this, where the love between the two main characters was so integral to the plot, it couldn’t be no homo-d out of existence. 

Their love literally carries the show, I’m not joking. Wwx’s selfless love for his family and people around him may start the overall plot, but it it Lwj’s unfaltering loyalty to Wwx that continues it and their unwavering devotion to each other that ends it on the overall happy tone it has. I cannot stress how cathartic it was to see this kind of enduring love on screen. 

And like sure they toned it down, we get to see no sappy hand-holding or explicit kissing, but the two characters end the story by each other’s side: neither dies, is jailed or further reprimand for their choice of standing by the other character... 

And I just think that’s neat!

[tanoraqui]

I really really prefer to read wwx's actions before his death as entirely *him* (him and his trauma lol), without any degrading/corrupting influence because demonic cultivation. but based on information from the author, even in the novel, him being so sadistic at the wens and then jzx's death and his loss of control at nightless city are all supposed to be because of dark-side style influence of the demonic cultivation. what's your take on wwx's.... culpability(?) i guess during that time?

all canons are sandboxes. sometimes, you look at the sandbox at the start of the day, maybe even at the start of the first day it’s been filled, and think, “damn, that organization if beautiful. I am going to play with this sand, but I am going o meticulously try to smooth it out like an absolutely weird person, because sometimes things that are fit together exactly as they came are incredibly satisfying”

and then sometimes you’re like, “wow, that sandbox is neat. There’s another, similar sandbox over there that’s a tv show, and another that’s an anime, so really we’ve clearly already abandoned the idea of one true perfect sandbox…I’m going to take handfuls, buckets, fill my entire shirt with sand from all of these sandboxes, and some other sandboxes that I just like, and use all the tropey plastic toys at my disposal to built my own, truly ideal sandbox, where nothing is inherently evil or corruptive ever - no power, no race of creatures, no artifact, no nothing - because that’s an annoying trope at pretty much all times. The exception is if there’s…sufficient worldbuilding to back it up, basically? Sufficient reason? And maybe MDZS does have that, honestly, and I just don’t get it because it’s kind of ambient cultural things that I don’t get because I’m not remotely Chinese. But, well, I don’t, so I’m going to be over here in my “all power is simply power; what matters is how you use it” sandbox, with a large corner devoted to “sometimes certain kinds of power are cast as Evil or Good because it benefits those in (ha) power” - which the story does support, over and over and over, in a way it really never sold me on demonic cultivation as inherently corruptive or even, like, unhealthy? Jesus christ did you SEE what these boys went through starting at like age 16? I’d want to burn down the world, too! 

FOR FUCK’S SAKE, Jin Guangyao is EXTREMELY EVIL without doing any demonic cultivation whatsoever - I mean, I guess he probably did at little at some point, experimentally, but it was clearly mostly Yue Xang. But continuously, continuously, in flashbacks and the present day all right through the climax where he has fucking three dozen bows and blades pointed at our heroes, people keep implying that he’s dirty, amoral, somehow inherently and permanently lesser because his mother was a prostitute. And every single time, he smiled a little more charmingly, and I winced sympathetically with his desire to just fucking. kill. them. all. That’s it! THAT’S THE EVIL! It’s the same reason Wei Wuxian snaps, overhearing the petty cultivators talking about how villainous the Yiling Patriarch is and how the whole world is turning against him for what was essentially a mistake, even though he holds himself 100% at fault, and he and 2 of the very few people left in the world that he loves have already paid for. That! Is! The! Evil! The petty disregard and eagerness to vilify and blame and denigrate…every time, every SINGLE time, it’s…hell, even Xue Yang…

Well, okay, Xue Yang had enough ego to regard one of his fingers worth the lives of an entire clan in price, so he might just have been a lost cause. But the first part of his villain story is still worth noting, this kid from the streets gets tricked and used by a random guy, basically, gets a beating and doesn’t even get the payment he was promised, and…then he proceeds to spend his life determinedly and devotedly indulging in Pratchett’s Cardinal Sin: thinking of people as things. More than absolutely anyone else (most of whom also do it quite a bit, though. Discrimination does require it; killing even moreso.) But he’s the 99% example that proves the rule, you know? He just never tried to be a hero before embracing the villainy the world wished to cast him in.

[butterflydm]

The Untamed Rewatch (ep 9)

Previous Episode | Index |  Next Episode

NHS is really cute in this episode, you guys. It’s also a really good episode for the building of the partnership between Wangxian.

I like the tense vibe that we pick up with, having the shadow-bird fly across the moon and only very briefly showing the puppet-people. That's a good editing choice.

Nie Huaisang does come across as relatively sheltered in these scenes with LWJ and WWX. Even though they're all roughly the same age, he comes across as younger. Or more in need of protection, anyway, which is a vibe that he uses to his benefit much later. He's not a fighter. He never becomes one — even when he's at his most desperate, we don't really see him directly using violence against others, instead tricking other people to use violence on his behalf. I don't think it's a moral issue one way or the other; I don't think indirect violence is more morally wrong because it's sneaky or whatnot. It's just an interesting character note. I also think it's interesting that when NHS is panicked, he calls out both WWX and LWJ using the more intimate nickname form — he says Wei-xiong and Lan-xiong. He doesn't usually use that with LWJ, I think? But he does in this scene.

I like the little fire & ice vibe we get with the… are they called 'spells' in cultivation? LWJ pushes them back and it looks cold, then WWX pens them in and the form he makes looks more like fire. LWJ and WWX are all for charging out and poor NHS is just so panicked over the idea. Oh, honey.

So, this next bit is a really big thing that CQL changed from the novel! Wen Qing uses a flute to control the puppets and make them leave (or, wait, since she's blowing in the end, is it a xiao? But it's so much smaller than the one we saw LXC use, so maybe it's another woodwind of some kind? help, I don’t know musical instruments). As I understand it, in the novel, WWX literally invented all of this stuff, while in the drama, he doesn't invent it but does refine it beyond what it has been before. I'll probably have more feelings about that, one way or the other, once I've read the novel. When I was watching through the series the first time, all this felt like it flowed pretty naturally from the plotline that the drama had set up with the Yin Metal. It is one of the things, though, that makes CQL kind of an alternate universe version of MDZS rather than a straight (ha!) adaptation. None of the other practitioners of demonic cultivation in the drama, though, show the same kind of… ah, elemental mastery that we see WWX show. He becomes almost a force of nature in himself, feels almost like an avatar of death, when he's embracing the power. And we don't get that vibe with any of the other characters we see who try to master demonic cultivation. Other people may have dabbled with demonic cultivation in the past, was the vibe the drama gave me, but only WWX mastered it in the end.

The girl doing windmills with her hands while holding the basket kinda cracks me up. Maybe it's partly because her clothes are so bright?

Jiang Cheng comes in to add some levity to the atmosphere. He's actually quite sweet, almost but not quite confessing how worried he was about his brother. He does have a very hard time being emotionally vulnerable, though that's a trial for a lot of characters in the story, but Jiang Cheng covers it up with anger rather than a smile like WWX does. Different coping methods for different personalities. Jiang Cheng gets very indignant when WWX immediately moves to deflect any blame away from LWJ and onto WWX instead.

I really like the scene with WWX, LWJ, Jiang Cheng, NHS, and Wen Qing, because there are several different agendas and levels of knowledge at play, all butting up against each other. WWX and LWJ work very well as a team here, supporting each other's moves while they try to figure out the best plan of action. We know from the previous episode that WWX is already considering himself and LWJ as partners on this trip, and they really do get to act like it here. They're the only two people who are on the same page; everyone else has their individual agendas but WWX and LWJ are working together and with the same knowledge set.

I don't have too much to say about this next bit, but I do love it. I think it looks quite nice, they look very pretty in the fog, and I love seeing WWX and LWJ back to back and there's a bit of cute banter. And both WWX and LWJ get to contribute to the goal.

Oh, is that A-Yuan? The timeline is pretty short in the drama, then!

NHS continues to find WWX's brashness charming while poor Jiang Cheng is just so over it all. Even in the midst of the silliness of the three bros, WWX is thinking of his mission and partnership with LWJ, as he does pretty clearly take advantage of the chicken hunt to give LWJ and himself a chance to question Wen Qing.

Partners! Partnership is one of my favorite ship dynamics — Fraser/RayK (due South), Clois (Superman) — complicated, dynamic partnerships with affection and bantering is one of my great weaknesses in fictional relationships (and for a man who talks as little as LWJ does, he holds his own against WWX). And they have a moment of silent communication at the end of the scene, because they've come to know each other that well already.

The question of how much loyalty you owe to the people who adopted you gets brought up here with Wen Qing and Wen Rouhan, and of course the question always applies to Wei Wuxian in these cases as well. Like WWX, Wen Qing possesses great talents that mean Wen Rouhan give her more latitude than perhaps he would otherwise (in her case, she's an extremely talented doctor) and that the younger of the blood siblings shows jealousy of because of that latitude. Both Wen Qing and WWX act impulsively to do the right thing, even when it goes against the interests of their own adopted family. 

They part ways with Wen Qing (and possibly NHS, though we don't see a goodbye scene with him. Maybe he's still chasing that chicken), with another of the layering of the bittersweet almost-romance between Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng.

And it's been a bit of travel, because WWX has changed clothes between scenes. LWJ and Jiang Cheng still look the same, but WWX was definitely in dark blue in the previous scene and now is definitely in black. There's some interesting non-verbal interplay here between LWJ and WWX that poor Jiang Cheng must helplessly watch — WWX drinks some wine, but immediately stops when LWJ walks away from him, grabs LWJ's shoulder ribbon, drops it when LWJ looks at him, then grabs his arm, and then drops that when LWJ looks at him again. Just major push-pull vibes.

Oh, there's Nie Huiasang! He's meeting up with Meng Yao here! We don't get any Meng Yao in this episode but I really do kinda miss him and his dimples.

I love WWX's technique here so much: "Hey, any weird deaths happen around here recently? We are such big fans of strange death!" I mean, it works, so more power to him, tbh.

The scene here with Lan Zhan feeling the effects of the Yin Metal (and, hey, they told Jiang Cheng about it! He's not surprised! So that's nice) and Wei Ying trying to calm him through it is a neat reversal of the dynamic we'll see more often in the future, with Lan Zhan trying to get through to Wei Ying. I like that; parallels and reversals are fun.

The scene of the three of them walking into the Chang home is very eerie and has a good, strong tragic vibe. So, we're getting Xue Yang in this next bit, and Xue Yang dresses in black. It makes me wonder if that's part of the reason they had WWX change clothes — in the previous episode, they wanted us to associate him with the Jiangs, and Jiang Fengmian in particular, but now they want us to be thinking of Xue Yang, maybe?

Hmm.

Next episode: Xue Yang! Xiao Xingchen! Song Lan!

Previous Episode | Index | Next Episode

[theuntamedproject]

The Beginning... [week 0]

Making a gingerbread MDZS universe. With science.

We're two A-level students from the UK who are huge fans of the work "Mo Dao Zu Shi" (MDZS) or "The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation".

Unlike other fans who perhaps write fanfiction or create FMVs/AMVs or rather create just your plain ol' fanart, we've decided to build a whole gingerbread village/world and we wanted to share it with you!

Getting Started

This idea initially came to us at around August time as we were making a bubble tea cake (which if you're interested, can be found here) and rewatching together the first few episodes of "The Untamed".

Initially, it was more of a fun Christmas project that we looked forward to do after submitting our respective university applications. Then, around the end of August, as Zara was thinking more about her Physics coursework, I thought that since she needed a project anyway, it could be beneficial to both us if we turned this into a big science project full of background research, initial proposals etc. Seemed convenient at the time but since this was too big of a project and that I was helping too she couldn't go through with it. Regardless, we went through with the idea anyway.

Although we have other individual commitments (namely university preparations and our own respective courseworks), we believe that we could actually go through with this project fully (as there is no strict deadline other than we start baking around Christmas time). Hence, we are able to fit super-curricular science research and reading outside of our lessons (albeit for fandom purposes)! This was a win-win for both extending our knowledge and also developing our research skills~  

Planning

Of course, we couldn't go into this without a solid plan. As mentioned previously, we are already very busy with applying to universities on top of studying four A-levels therefore we spent time during our break to create a Gantt chart.

Our milestones represent deadlines for when we need to have some things set up (for example, this website and also our other social media pages: Reddit and Instagram) otherwise, we've given ourselves realistic timeframes to finish certain tasks allocated. For organisation, we've set up a OneNote to collate our ideas, designs and notes.

Though, our organisation may change over the course of this (though very unlikely as we're both people who like to keep things neat and in order and OneNote very easily does just that).

The Project Going Forward

We plan to blog and share with you every step of the way including all the tidbits and findings that we stumble across regarding the gingerbread or MDZS research process. Thus, we will be posting every two weeks with updates with what's happened so far, what we've done and any changes to the plan.

(for example, if there was a tragic baking mishap)

As such, these blog posts will be written by me (Hannah) and Zara alternately so the writing style may change between posts (you could say it spices it up slightly haha because gingerbread... get used to this~).

We hope to be able to post the final paper and pictures of the final artefact at the end!

Current Work...

In terms of work to be done, I'm in charge of researching the chemical and physical properties of icing: what makes it sticky? what are the roles of different components/ingredients to make icing good for building and for decorating? how will being left in the open air affect its consistency and will it still hold?

On the other hand, Zara will be researching the structural properties of gingerbread and why it's a good material to build mini houses/buildings out of (because really, why is it a tradition that we make gingerbread houses?).

We hope that you will join us on our journey and learn a little thing or two about science, gingerbread or MDZS!

-Hannah