#NHS my beloved

[keyjamm]

Also, all he got from it? It was everything he *did not* want. He’s left entirely alone; depending on which canon you follow, he’s also left with more responsibility than he was ever supposed to have in the first place. This is a man who thrived with company and only wanted to paint fans and enjoy his birds, he lived for pleasure and he abhorred obligations.

This is a man who wanted to skip classes! To enjoy beautiful things! And when he grows up he constantly makes the choice to deny himself pleasure and indulgence for horror: the same man who likes songs and birds and finery sews his dead brother’s corpse back together, tempts a young man into killing himself in the most horrifically way possible, murders cats and risks the life of the children of his peers. And he works so hard at it he succeeds, and all he gets for it is the confirmation of his worst fears.

Not only his brother is still dead, he lost the little he still had. He wanted love and freedom, but spent a decade working towards an objective that cost him exactly this.

He lost all the friends and support he ever had, and now he’s going to be responsible for the entire cultivation world completely alone.

The thing that gets me the most about Nie Huaisang's quest for vengeance is that when it's finally accomplished, he just looks tired.

Like, Jin Guangyao is a practiced hand at appearing inoffensive and biding his time until the right moment to strike, but when he does, he's always got that satisfied smirk on his face. Just so smug and vicious and pleased that he brought them low and he is the victor.

Nie Huaisang just looks tired. Sad. Even in the moments leading up, he looks intent, maybe even angry, but not happy or pleased or excited.

It just kind of hammers home to me that this revenge plot is against his nature, and just how much grief he felt at not only Nie Mingjue's death, but the betrayal and hurt that Jin Guangyao did it, because they were friends.

[sleepretreat]

[catkindness]

another day another slay (and by slay she meant the picture of nhs being unhinged)

[tavina-writes]

I have been pondering the recent rash of "post canon NHS and LXC would never ever reconcile bc even if NHS wanted to have Er-ge back, LXC would never ever forgive him for [insert reason of choice here]" type of posts + the "do you think NHS thinks very hard about how much Da-ge would hate him for becoming [the way that he is now] by choosing to seek vengeance" type of posts, and I think fundamentally the reason these posts do not jive with me is that we have no indication, in the show or in the book that uh, NHS gives a shit about either of these things very much anymore?

The first type of post is predicated on the assumption that LXC's forgiveness or lack thereof some some sort of either extension of mercy (which NHS obviously does not deserve <- or so assumes the post) or some form of punishment (which is obviously the correct answer) but the last scene we get with NHS both in the book and the show make no indication that this is a thing he wants? Or cares about? Book NHS has *sauntered off* with his little hat trophy and Show NHS walks off screen after saying something along the lines of "What is my responsibility I won't shirk, what isn't my responsibility I won't care about." Now, arguably, show NHS is having a worse go of it emotionally, but shows no real inclination or interest in either apologies or making up and being friends again with LWJ, LXC, WWX, or other people. Book NHS seems pretty pleased with the outcome of the events as a whole?

The second type of post is predicated on the fact that NHS finds Da-ge's judgement a horrible burden to bear at this stage in the game, which! He might! But again especially in the book we get no indication that he has any fucks left to give about what Da-ge may or may not have wanted since Da-ge is dead. In both the show and the book, NHS went about revenge taking very specific and complicated actions with the desired result of JGY dying, but he certainly took the scenic route getting there, which, he didn't need to? As I've written about before, JGY didn't see him as a threat. If he wanted JGY dead he could've arranged to poison JGY's tea like, 10 years ago and had done with it instead of his complicated Rube Goldberg life ruining scheme. If he is still sickly anxious about how Da-ge might feel about the scheming and the trouble causing and the whole everything, that's certainly possible, but he must've decided it was worth it anyway regardless of that, and I don't know that it necessarily would've changed just because he got what he wanted at the end.

Overall, I think as a fandom we think a lot about like "will and should this relationship ever be repaired or similar to how it used to be?" and "does this character deserve/not deserve the forgiveness of people they've hurt or abandoned?" which can be interesting questions! I do feel like these are often taken as "is a character morally good (deserves to be forgiven) or morally bad (deserves to rot in hell forever never forgiven ever ever)" and based entirely on if Character is the meta writer's blorbo. Under this paradigm the concept of "Character did bad things to get exactly what they wanted and were happy about that and no relationships were ever repaired and the emotional detachment of people they used to care about no longer matters to them!" is uncomfortable.

It's just that for NHS I've increasingly come to the conclusion that canonically, I don't think NHS thinks he has anything to apologize for, nor is he super interested in being forgiven! He got what he wanted the way he wanted it to happen. Which is potentially supremely unsatisfying but I think is very sexy as a narrative concept.

[pelicanfangs]

NHS and SQQ would get along so well if you think about it long enough.

A neet turned xianxia mf meets the heir to a warrior clan who just wants to look pretty and do the ancient china equivalent of running a Tumblr? Amazing. Beautiful. No one wants this but me.

I think it’s so lame when people write Huaisang doing fan combat or whatever. Like why??? let him live his losergirl dreams.

[duohensheng]

Huaisang and Jin Guangyao dressed for pride parade and 🌈 just being happy? 🙏❤

hello anon! your prompt brought me joy. thank you!! they deserve it very badly (and I’ve always imagined they would absolutely bond over their mutual queerness in unsaid ways)

hence! I present you with: pride at Jin Lin Tai. listen. Lianfang-zun knows how to throw a party. I had so much fun with the details— and yes, I stand by the Sparks Amidst Snow dyed rainbow colours. since when does jgy do things by halves?

[myartsing]

Nie huaisang is my favourite babygirl <3

[only-by-the-stars]

more little NL vs NH thoughts because I can't stop playing NL again and apparently can't shut up about it (it is so important to me okay?)

-villager dialogue is just so much better in NL. I've heard people complain about the villagers not being mean anymore in that game like in older ones, and I have little opinion on that, but whew can I ever see the downgrade between NL and NH. the regular dialogue is so bland, and there's fewer options for when they have something to ask you for. in NH, it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? I had a fight with [other villager], can you deliver this gift? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this from me?/here's a random item (this always happens when I'm digging up clams and need empty pockets...) can you catch this bug/fish for me? (very rarely) want to play a treasure hunt game?

whereas with NL it's:

wanna come over/can I visit your house RIGHT NOW? wanna come over/can I visit your house later? can you take this gift to [other villager]? I'm trying to sell stuff, will you buy this/can I trade you for item in your pockets? can you catch this bug/fish for me? wanna play hide and seek? can you bury/dig up this time capsule for me? can you bring me a piece of fruit? I need to speak to [other villager] but can't leave my house, can you bring them here?

I'm probably forgetting something, but you can see the disparity anyway. regular dialogue was generally more interesting too. I also like that you had to bring a sick animal medicine for *three* days instead of just one, it felt like nursing a sick friend back to health instead of one and done and was more rewarding.

-speaking of more rewarding... SHOP UPGRADES, MY BELOVED <333 my file has T&T Emporium, and it is SO NICE, OMG. ;w; I loved the process of working towards the shop upgrades and seeing it become gradually bigger and with a better item selection. ALSO I MISS YOU, GRACIE. </3 the fact that NH has the nerve to try and sell me ridiculously expensive furniture without the GracieGrace brand attached, smh.

-it was the Bug Off today! if I'd realized, I would've prepared last night, but oh well. I still got to get a couple cute furniture pieces and I think I'll place first, so that was fun.

-doing item customization yourself is more convenient (because you can see what things will look like without using a guide) and faster, but... I actually still like using Cyrus? I know he's at the co-op on Harv's island if you shell out enough cash, but that's so expensive and his prices have gone up. customization kits aren't cheap either! in NL you paid less, and had to wait a half hour for an individual item to be ready, but I like that. I like going a bit slower. NL in general is slower and so much more relaxed and relaxing, I like walking at a normal pace and getting to soak in the atmosphere and music.

-as much as I appreciate getting to hear Blathers blather about the donated stuff, I also like the convenience of getting to look at the info in the museum itself without having to bring him another one. it's part of what makes going to the museum soothing, despite that there's no wow factor in the design of the exhibits.

-Main Street in general is just so nice to have, and it makes the actual town feel bigger. I do like being able to decorate outside, but... at the same time I like the simpler feel here and the PWPs that we had. and remodeling town hall and the train station was so neat!!! why can't we do that in NH???

-GOD I MISS THE LEGEND OF ZELDA ITEMS AND VILLAGERS SO MUCH.

-the music. again, the music. NL remains one of my favorite video game soundtracks ever. when it hit 7 PM last night and The Song started playing... oh man... ;w; will we ever have that level of music quality again?

-cannot stress enough how much I miss Tortimer Island. the minigames! the easy access to summer bugs and fishing! AAAAAHHHH

-I... forgot what the Aquarius Urn looked like in this game and now I'm annoyed all over again at the blandification of the Zodiac series in NH. IT WAS BLUE AND FILLED WITH WATER. I COULD'VE. IT WOULD'VE LOOKED SO GOOD AS PART OF MY ZORA-THEMED AREAS. AAARGH!!!

-odd little discrepancy, but why is it when you talk to Gulliver to try and wake him up in NH you have to put away any tool you're carrying, but not so in NL? weird.

-I like the hyacinths and windflowers, but I also miss the violets and carnations. the purple roses were also a LOT prettier in NL.

-also, for all that NH offers more freedom in some aspects, it really took a big step backwards in house customization??? you can't even GET a different exterior until you have ALL the rooms, and you have NO CONTROL over the room size??? and the exterior options are all SO BLAND. you could be way more creative and aesthetic in NL by choosing which rooms to have, how big they were, and you had way more and more interesting exterior options.

-sure were more events and generally things to do in NL. :< the only part of winter I liked was playing snowman bingo and trying to make the different snow people for various rewards! and they took THAT away too! there was more charm, too, I loved the coziness of the "small forested village" that I got in NL, and I prefer taking the train to flying everywhere, and the post office was so cool, and I liked the reliability of taking Dr. Shrunk fruit to learn new reactions. I really hope the next game is a return to form and not more of the same problems that still plague NH...

[unashamedly-enthusiastic]

I have to get my wisdom tooth out on Monday and I was so excited for the fancy drugs

It's just normal dentist drugs!? And normal ibuprofen for after?

Rude! Where are my perks? Where is my funny anesthesia story!?

[fortune-maiden]

Rewatching bits of the Untamed and LXC just randomly has a flute spell that snatches peoples swords

I love this show

[ohsweetflips]

once again the award for “technically not in my ranked list of favorite characters but by god do i think abt u a lot” goes to nie mingjue like. his grief. his rage. his resentment. him noticing meng yao in the sunshot campaign not bc of his fighting prowess but bc he is the only one who stays back to tend to the common people. the dichotomy of his black/white sense of righteousness vs the fact that he can be reasonable- and reasoned with. his death and the tragedy that he probably would have qi deviated anyway, but not that soon. speaking of his qi deviation, the way that completely accelerated his anger and the question of, if he wasn’t careening towards qi deviation, would things have gone differently. do u ever think abt how at some point he accepted that he was going to die and stopped caring abt saving himself and instead shifted gears to prepare nie huaisang for his death. bc i do!

[sleepretreat]

No one talk to me

[thatswhatsushesaid]

for that niche subset of mdzs enjoyers who dual wield jgy and nhs stanning, specializing in close combat da-ge salt and sangyao spice

I can’t be the only one, right?

…right? 🥺

[tavina-writes]

I have been recently thinking about NHS and JGY's relationship, especially as it pertains to how much they understand each other, and I'm pretty sure the conclusion I'm coming to is that JGY doesn't actually understand NHS at all except like, in vague superficiality?

This is not an argument about whether or not JGY cared about NHS (though he seems to have some pretty big blind spots on what is actually good for NHS or what he actually desires, which, again come back to not really understanding what makes NHS tick) because I don't think you can spend well over a decade cleaning up someone else's problems without caring for the person in question. But more like, the events of the Temple and the Discussion Conference prior to the Temple and indeed anything leading up to the Temple at all would not have occurred if JGY actually understood? NHS? at all?

Like, obviously NHS was concealing the truth and acting while he proceeded with his revenge scheme, JGY (who presumably had some amount of time to think about who could possibly want him dead/disgraced/fleeing off to Dongyin) doesn't even begin to suspect that the person who wrote the letter and arranged all of this might be NHS until LXC's already stabbed him.

That's a pretty big fucking blind spot considering the whole thing is being unearthed because of NMJ's murder corpse put together shenanigans. Like he knows to hide Chifeng-zun's head but not to suspect Chifeng-zun's brother???

Like I think this might go beyond "doesn't understand anything about this other person besides on a very superficial level" to "might genuinely have some pretty big MISconceptions about who this person is or what they're like."

[lanliingwang]

miss writing a-yao as the protagonist of a fanfic