#I'd also love to see Qin Miaoyu and Bian Yanmei form a support group for competent jianghu underlings

[hunxi-after-hours]

hunxi my friend hunxi DYING to know what you thought of 《无双》 and the way it elevated what 《千秋》 thought of women who ran rampant in the jianghu. it is so very dear to my heart. also do you think that they'll live past yang guang's reign are they pigheaded enough 😂😞🤔

ANON and here I thought no one noticed my sneaky updates to my to-read list/currently-reading post but you caught me, I might've read 《无双》 over the past few weeks, I just haven't gotten around to uploading a few Choice Quotes from my phone yet

but YES, let's talk about who runs the world jianghu in 《无双》!

I think one thing that really struck me reading 《无双》 was that only five years had gone by since the events of 《千秋》, but all under heaven has changed so much. I mean, obviously there's the new Sui Dynasty in power but like... the shape of the jianghu has shifted and I don't recognize anyone in it anymore. okay fine I'll admit it, I miss 《千秋》 a lot okay

I think the exponential increase in female characters in 《无双》 is, wildly, directly caused by 《千秋》 itself, and I'm not just referring to the fact that Bai Rong was a hit with the readers (to the point where many readers were shipping qiaorong rather than yanshen and Meng Xishi was like "thank you all for your support for Bai Rong, however this is a danmei novel, so don't get too attached to that ship" for which I will never stop laughing, have you ever seen the central ship in a novel get upstaged by a het ship take that sao lao Yan—), but also to the fact that, well, the events of 《千秋》 resulted in a lot of toxic men getting wiped out of the jianghu, and I'm sure Bai Rong's ensuing leadership of Hehuan Zong can only carve out a better place for women in the jianghu regardless of their origins or cultivation paths

but I also think the shift in the setting from 《千秋》 to 《无双》, from jianghu to courtly politics, is also quite significant — "behind every powerful man is an even more powerful woman" suddenly becomes very applicable here because there are now more families involved with the central thread of the plot, particularly royal ones. and so we have ambassadorial figures like Jin Lian, conspiratorial figures like Bing Xian and Qin Miaoyu, and the (gestures frantically) everything of the women of the Yang/Yuwen family, which got messy rip ladies Yuwen

if the archetypal figure of the jianghu is 云游侠客, the wandering xia hero, free of obligation or family ties or roots in a singular place, then the archetypal figure of courtly politics may well be the scheming of spymasters and strategists, and there's nothing to say that the person hiding their knowing smile behind a demure sip of tea can only be of one gender or another, and so we see the emergence of so many more lovingly crafted female characters in 《无双》, particularly well-connected ones who grow up with an awareness and a deftness for leaning on their relationships, just so, to effect the change that will further their personal agendas in these opening years of a new dynasty

ALSO. also. can we talk about the fact that Meng Xishi strongly implied trans Qiao Xian because I swear my jaw dropped when I read that. the exchange between her and Zhangsun Puti... iconic:

(paraphrased for comedic effect and because I can't be bothered to look it up asdlkafjs) Zhangsun Puti: wait, are you male or female? Qiao Xian: (side-eyes him) aren't you a Buddhist monk? Shouldn't you understand that gender is but a manifestation of the material illusions of the profane world, and doesn't actually matter in the eyes of the Buddha? Zhangsun Puti: damn, you right, forget I asked

anyway. (gestures) love everything going on with her, yes I do realize she does at some point betray Cui Buqu, no that does not reduce my love one bit