#I just want to yell with someone about MDZS and the ideasI have

[featherfur]

One of the best things for me as a writer to shove in an OC into the Jiang sect and give her a back story that involves being close to Yanli but NOT with her brothers (maids like Madam Yu had) is that I now not only get the raw agonizing angst of the OC herself hating herself for not saving Yanli, but also Jiang Cheng’s vitriol anger at her not dying with/for Yanli and instead after her death moving back to the Jiang sect to protect *him* (her sister protecting Jin Ling) and none of it actually directly affects the story line beyond one or two moments because Yanli was both not really involved in the direct lines but also because they only serve Yanli. Not the Jiang sect, not Jiang Fengmian or Madam Yu, theyre here to protect Yanli, and when they fail they separate one to serve Jiang Cheng one to serve Jin Ling.

So I get to torture both the OC head disciple and Jiang Cheng because Jiang Cheng knows she should have died instead of his sister BUT Yanli ordered her maids to stay behind and they don’t have morals they have orders so they couldn’t just disobey and they thought she’d be safe with Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian and so he hates her but he also doesn’t because she’s now part of his sect and she’s the only one he can trust to be 100% loyal because they’re raised to follow their master/mistress without hesitation. He knows how Yinzhu and Jinzhu were and he knows if OC says she won’t betray him that she won’t. So he trusts her but he hates her for it but she’s also one of the last remnants of Home and it hurts.

And by 13-16 years later that basically equates to them finally forming what anyone else would call a friendship but they call a series of debt repayments and trauma inducing meetings with that one advisor who insists they should get married but their ace asses are running in the opposite direction.

So I get to play around with the Jiang Sect without overly changing any sort of plot or characterization but I do get to write a scene thats just

Jin Ling: Are you in love with my uncle?

Head disciple: Only when Sect Leader Yao is trying to marry me to one of his sons

Jin Ling: what does that even mean??

Jiang Cheng: I thought it was pretty clear

Jin Ling:??? I wanted dating advice but now I just wanna go home