#THAT is why nmj’s body is desecrated

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i think it bears repeating (again) that nie mingjue was a clear and present danger to jin guangyao’s life, every day, from the date of their confrontation in the scorching sun palace to the moment of his qi deviation over four years later. four years, where every single minute that jin guangyao spent in nie mingjue’s company, he was taking his life into his own hands, and they both knew it. lan xichen knew it. completely uninvolved third parties who were witnesses to nie ningjue’s increasingly unhinged and violent behaviour knew it.

nie huaisang may have been compelled by filial piety to avenge his brother’s murder, but let’s not pretend that jin guangyao killed nie mingjue just because daddy said jump. because if he hadn’t killed nie mingjue first, it was only a matter of time before nie mingjue killed him.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 35 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3) 

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Perfect Date, Continued

Lan Wangji begins his day pondering an ancient philosophical question: If your crush happens to sleep over on your first date, whether in your bed or just crashing on the couch, and he doesn’t leave in the morning, are you still on your first date? Or is it your second date? He would ask Lan Xichen but the one time he asked Lan Xichen “is there a Lan rule book for dating,” Lan Xichen said “there are no set rules in this world” and wandered off to go fuck his ex’s ex. 

Either way, Lan Wangji is pretty sure it’s important to show an in interest in your date’s hobbies. Wei Wuxian’s favorite hobby is desecrating burial places, so Lan Wangji takes him back to the Nie tomb to see what sort of fun they can have there. 

This time their stroll through the woods isn’t spoiled by any irritating dogs or nephews. 

Dig

When they arrive, they find Nie Huaisang directing a team of dudes to close up the wall where they previously rescued Jin Ling. 

It’s good that these guys aren’t using any mortar, since Lan Wangji wants to fuck up this wall with his sword. 

He strikes the wall and it collapses towards him, not away, because he’s been watching Three-Body and has decided physics isn’t real. 

(More after the cut!)

Inside the wall are these three objects, put there by a props crew that has decided anatomy isn’t real. Nie Huaisang isn’t too happy about the digging, and Wei Wuxian puts an arm around him in a friendly manner to console him.  

Lan Wangji notices this and immediately summons Wei Wuxian to his side, handing him Bichen and telling him to dig, in a totally hot unnecessary display of possessive dominance. 

Velociraptor mode unlocked

Wei Wuxian’s not complaining, mind you.  

Wise Production Decisions

While Wei Wuxian examines these ostensibly human skeletons to determine how their bones are able to stay assembled without any connective tissue, let’s take a moment to contemplate one of the major changes between Mo Dao Zu Shi, the book, and Chen Qing Ling, the show. 

In the novel, donghua, and manga, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian road-trip together not in pursuit of a sword spirit, but to collect chunks of Nie Mingjue’s dismembered corpse. Eventually it’s all put together again for the big showdown in the temple. 

I read an interview a while back--sorry, can’t source it at the moment--where the producer of CQL said that the reason for the change wasn’t because of censorship or the difficulty of painting swirly stuff to hide NMJ’s junk, it was because they tried various ways to do the body-part thing and “we couldn’t find a way to make it beautiful.” Considering these skeletons, and the demon hand from episode one, and the animatronic dog, let’s all thank our lucky stars that the Department of Questionable Practical Effects was not tasked with creating a walking-dead Nie Mingjue. 

Sabermetrics

Having sufficiently fondled the skeletons, Wei Wuxian wants to move on to fondling the Nie sabers, and so he asks Nie Huaisang to let them open all the sarcophagi. Nie Huaisang wants to say no, but Lan Wangji, who is in charge of this date, bows at him until he has to say yes. 

Lan Wangji’s status and reputation are so strong that Nie Huaisang can’t make a saving throw against this request, even though he’s a clan leader and Lan Wangji isn’t.

This is why it’s extra-romantic that Lan Wangji later risks his reputation in front of everybody for Wei Wuxian’s sake. 

After opening all of the coffins up they determine that there is one saber missing. Gosh, which saber might that be? It doesn’t come to Nie Huaisang or Wei Wuxian’s mind, but Lan Wangji intones “Baxia,” and Wei Wuxian helpfully reminds us that Baxia was Nie Mingjue’s sword.  

Lan Wangji might not be a people person, but he remembers every sword he’s ever met, much in the way I imagine Wang Yibo remembers every dog he’s ever met.

Qi Deviation

Nie Huaisang tells them about Nie Mingjue’s literally explosive qi deviation, in which he bled from his face and from several squibs stuck to his chest, followed by more exploding squibs that just produced smoke without any extra bleeding.  

To explain a bit, in the most lay of layperson’s terms, your qi is the energy in your body, which circulates through your meridians and, through cultivation and/or traditional medicine practices, can be directed and improved. Qi that is out of balance is bad, and can cause illness and squib explosions.

Or possibly he’s just gassy

As Nie Huaisang tells it, this just up and happened, but he actually knows why and how it happened, and who did it.

Second Date

After that cheery little outing, Lan Wangji figures that by now they’re definitely on their second date, so he takes Wei Wuxian into town for dinner.

As they enter downtown Qinghe, Wei Wuxian briefly touches his arm, causing Lan Wangji to immediately clock that he’s hiding an injury/curse.  

So busted. 

Wei Wuxian attempts to distract Lan Wangji  from his questions by making provocative curse-measuring gestures, and then offering to strip so Lan Wangji can check him it out. 

This is where Wei Wuxian discovers that he can’t beat Lan Wangji at gay chicken any more. 

Next, Wei Wuxian does this adorable walking-backwards thing, which is impractical but lets him look at Lan Wangji while he’s talking. He is just as smitten as Lan Wangji is, although he’s clearly got no idea what to do about it. 

They talk over some of the details of their detective work, and then Wei Wuxian tries, once again, to get Lan Wangji to tell him how he recognized him. Once again, he’s unsuccessful, as Lan Wangji tells him it’s “getting late” and heads to an inn, despite the clear daylight all over the place.

Memory Care

He’s chosen a place for dinner that they went to together, way back when they were young, because he’s heard that going to familiar places is is a good way to help your loved one who is struggling with memory impairment. 

They ignore their food in favor of pounding liquor (WWX) and tea (LWJ), while they openly eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table. 

The conversation at the next table is all about the exact thing that happened the last time they were at this inn, which leads to Lan Wangji filling Wei Wuxian in on the (apparent) fates of Xue Yang, Song Lan, and Xiao Xingchen. 

By the time he remembers that trauma-dumping is best saved for a third or fourth date, he’s already telling Wei Wuxian about how the last survivor of the Chang Clan was found dead of lingchi, and that the cuts were made by Xiao Xingchen’s sword.

Realizing he’s made a tactical error in eviscerating Wei Wuxian’s happy memory of his sect uncle, Lan Wangji has to find a way to rescue this date from the cliff it’s heading over kind of like the cliff Wei Wuxian previously headed over. So he grabs Wei Wuxian’s drink and knocks it back all in one go. 

This delights Wei Wuxian, so the evening is back on track. 

[ge]

tbh the original theories of the body being wwx's old body sounds soooooo cool like I get why they had to go with nmj's body in the end bit auh the horror. witness to the desecration of your own body. disconnected but still viscerally involved. whole and dismembered, new and old (head in hands)

GOD I KNOWWW AHHHH im such a huuuuuge fan of this type of body horror, theres just something about reincarnation/transmigration/etc stories specifically that have this sort of intrinsically deep rooted unnerving disquiet about the dichotomy of the body and self, where unfortunately the psychological horror aspect never truly gets expanded on but man, the foundation is all there.....

[fincalinde]

nie huaisang and/or nie mingjue for the ask meme 🧋

Bold! Very bold. Standard disclaimer that I'm aware not everyone is aiming for canon consistency in their fan content, but I find it disheartening that there is so little content produced where the end result is canon consistent. When I express frustrations it is in relation to trends and not specific fics or individuals.

Nie Huaisang

a song that reminds me of them

I honestly don't have any songs that remind me of him, beyond the very weak connection of the results of the impact he has on other characters. He's not a character with much interiority, so nothing really clicked for me in that regard.

what they smell like

I imagine he smells pretty good since he likes to dress well and wear jewellery and that implies he's relatively fastidious. I am guessing he probably smells like clean human in the early part of his life, and then maybe once he's clan leader he has more scope to have whatever incenses he wants floating through the Unclean Realm so then he might smell of those. And obviously there's various hair oils—he's got his signature look with his rings and his fan so it's possible he has a signature hair oil. But maybe it would be declassé to wear so much hair oil that everyone else can smell it and you'd only be able to tell up close and personal oh my god why have I written this many words about how NHS smells

an otp

There's certainly no one in the cast he makes sense with. My personal feeling is that he's really not the type of person who's ever going to work effectively in any kind of partnership, so I don't see him ever being in a relationship that would be a healthy and successful one. I imagine he does marry postcanon though - now is the time to sire heirs and keep the Nie on top.

a notp

The idea of NHS with JGY is particularly distasteful to me.

favorite platonic/familial relationships

Personally, I think the collective dynamic of the Venerated Triad isn't complete without NHS as the unofficial fourth member. LWJ, as is typical, opts out and doesn't give LXC the courtesy of referring to his sworn brothers with fraternal address (not that LXC minds, ilhsm). NHS however is all in on this bonus brother scheme. Not only does he address LXC and JGY as er-ge and san-ge, but he actually treats them like big brothers. He's pleased to see LXC, he's even more pleased to see JGY (omg presents), and it's quite nice that JGY in particular is trying to make up for NMJ's weaknesses in this area. That's not to say that JGY is correct to not make any demands of NHS at all, but he's certainly attempting to be a moderating influence and it's just all really interesting to me.

Of course once NMJ is dead, there's presumably not much time before his corpse first escapes its tomb and NHS concludes there was foul play. So we can't read too much into the way NHS runs back and forth to JGY and LXC, in the sense that obviously a large part of this is an act. But it's still interesting, and I think a lot of people forget that the narration says NHS is bothering LXC at the Cloud Recesses just as often as he's flinging himself on san-ge for fuss and support. This could become its own very long post, so I'll stop here.

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with

Obviously there are numerous 'headcanons' I disagree with, but to pick one of the most irritating ones, I really dislike this recurring theme I see of NHS showing his hand either postcanon or in divergences. This is a man who never broke character in all of canon—why on earth is he suddenly monologuing at length about his grievances in front of [insert characters here]? Canonically, all he does is obliquely confirm to WWX that he was behind setting the arm on the Mo family, manipulating MXY, killing the cats and luring the juniors, desecrating MS' body etc. But it's all implied and he does not ever relinquish plausible deniability.

It really makes no sense to me to think that NHS would drop his act postcanon, either in the canon scenario of dead JGY, or in a divergence scenario where JGY survives. As infuriating as it would be for him if JGY escaped, he's going to redouble his efforts rather than sabotage himself by confirming WWX's suspicions to literally anyone. He's held it together thus far even when it looked like his plan might go awry, and there's no reason to think he can't continue to hold it together through any further plans and/or confrontations.

NHS' greatest weapon is his ability to not break character, and we already know he doesn't break character in victory. So, a setback as basic as JGY surviving would just not be enough for him to relinquish his modus operandi. I really think he'd be privately furious and distressed, but would continue to disguise that and simply attempt to regroup. (Although, as I have also said before - in a divergence where JGY knows NHS is his enemy, NHS is toast. JGY outclasses NHS on every level and the only advantage NHS has is JGY's profound belief in his harmlessness. Once that is gone, it's game over.)

the position they sleep in

I've never really thought about this but I bet when he was little he would crawl into NMJ's bed and proceed to keep him awake all night by fidgeting.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in

Maybe one day I'll confirm how he fits in to my ATLA AU and write that. I do know where he is and what he's doing.

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn

I can't say I've ever paid much attention, but I definitely find the wardrobe of CQL NHS to be disappointingly bland and unmemorable, so maybe just his default official artwork outfit? Seems like it fits the canonical brief of being sharp and fashionable with bonus fan.

—

Nie Mingjue

a song that reminds me of them

Definitely Running Deep by Delara.

Looking deep inside my thoughts And reflected shit I thought I could control But I'm paralysed and terrified And it's killing me but maybe that is fine

what they smell like

Human being + something a little bit metallic.

an otp

He's canonically ace as in no interest in relationships or sex, so none. As a side note I do think it's interesting that he doesn't marry and father children - I assume before the war he thinks he'll have more time, and afterwards he realises time is too short for him to raise and train his own children. But there's just a whisper in there of the classic NMJ 'do as I say not as I do' approach, because it's still a choice he's made that was influenced by his own preferences rather than solely his duty as clan leader.

a notp

I cannot think of any ship I dislike more than Nieyao. If I get into this it will become a dissertation, so we'll just leave it there. Suffice to say:

Physical abuse and mortal terror are not things that interest me when I'm shipping.

I am not in the habit of ignoring canonical character dynamics for my own convenience.

favorite platonic/familial relationships

Perhaps weirdly, I really enjoy NMJ and LXC because of the layers. I really like that the affection between them is genuine but that they just do not get each other and you can see throughout the flashbacks the way their relationship is eroding. And it's not drastic, dramatic erosion like NMJ and JGY, but instead the kind of sad recognisable drifting apart of two people who became friends in their youth because they're from similar backgrounds and have unique and heavy responsibilities—but those similarities are just not enough the older they get, and the more time passes the more apparent it becomes that they have fundamentally different outlooks on life.

I like that NMJ refuses to engage with LXC's basic point about context mattering, yet before he's fully in the grip of the sabre spirit maxing out his worst instincts, he's still capable of being moved by human sympathy when it's LXC making the argument. I like that LXC is the only person NMJ is ever visibly pleased to see. I really believe NMJ cares deeply about LXC, his only actual friend.

And, conversely, I also really like that NMJ is able to see that LXC has a closer bond and rapport with JGY and is frustrated by that. I don't know that I'd go all in on the theory that he's jealous of how close LXC and JGY are as a primary motivation as that's a bit too basic, but I do think that feeling of exclusion is one of the many factors swimming around in the murky depths of the dynamic of their sworn brotherhood.

Finally, I just love the contrast between LXC's relatively clear-eyed view of JGY, where he has a very good understanding of who JGY is and what he's all about even if he's not aware of all the lengths JGY ultimately has to go to, with his absolute obliviousness to who NMJ really is. NMJ is literally trying to stab JGY to death in public and only LXC's intervention prevents murder and yet another inter-clan war, and LXC is still like oh dear, Da-ge really is under a lot of stress. LXC is drifting further and further from NMJ (see the excellent meta from @xiyao-feels for a breakdown of this). Yet he still thinks of NMJ as being at heart the youthful clan leader he first befriended, rather than the current worst self incarnation whose negative qualities have been turned up to the max and who is a lethal ticking time bomb, a danger to everyone around him.

a headcanon that is popular in the fandom but that i disagree with

As always, do not get me started. I am absolutely baffled as to where cuddly wuddly giant teddy gym bunny biker Etsy crafter in touch with his fee-fees all bark and no bite NMJ comes from, because he certainly does not feature in canon. I'll stand by this for both MDZS and CQL. I've probably spilt enough ink on MDZS NMJ and we are given very detailed insight into his state of mind so that's a lot easier to reference, but it's worth noting that CQL NMJ is just as profoundly hypocritical and violent and it's vital to incorporate that into his character. Writing only his superficial righteousness, his love for NHS and his affection for LXC is really not enough. It annoys me when aspects of characters are excised in order to sanitise them for what appears to be mainly shipping purposes.

the position they sleep in

I think maybe it varies but he doesn't move much in the night unless he has nightmares. Which no one knows about because he always sleeps alone.

a crossover au i’d love to see them in

I also know what this guy is doing in my ATLA AU, and I'm super boring and not a huge fan of genuine crossovers—usually I prefer mashups where the characters of one canon are integrated into the setting of another without aping the original plot. I think it's really important to retain his arc of a) losing himself to all his worst qualities, and b) acknowledging that he's choosing to lose himself and handling it badly, but also it's not much of a choice when he can't opt out of the system he's in. I'm thinking maybe an X-Men AU where he has some kind of power that causes sabre-spirit-type degeneration and violence? It would need some kinks worked out of it but might be a decent shout.

my favorite outfit they’ve ever worn

Obviously his best look is when WWX is flicking his naked disembodied torso. Iconic.

[mxtxfanatic]

Thanks for answering my ask.....if you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from MDZS? And why do you love them? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the novel? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

Hello again! Alright, so mdzs list this time!

Favorite Characters:

Wei Wuxian: he’s smart, quick on his feet, a genius in his field, charming, a good person, innocent in love, strong in his morals, willing to fight for what he believes in and what is right even if it makes him enemy to all, has faith in himself, doesn’t shrink away from his emotions, unwilling to delude himself to reality even if it looks bleak, etc etc; he is literally the perfect protagonist in every single way

Lan Wangji: perfect compliment to wwx; they match each other so well in most of the things I listed for wwx but replace the “charming” with “takes no shit” and we got a winner

3, 4, and 5 (in no particular order). Wen Qing, Jiang Yanli, and a-Qing: I know people like to call mxtx misogynistic because “she kills off women!” and “they’re not main characters!” but I would argue that 1) that’s dumb because most of the characters we are introduced to in mdzs are already dead and 2) mxtx writes her female characters as people rather than props. I was enamored with these characters at their every appearance, however short, because they felt so real and expressive. I could get personality and motives, tell what they’d like and what would piss them off, come to enjoy them so much that I felt pain knowing they were already gone. This is the skill of mxtx’s writing.

Favorite Scenes!

Drunken shenanigans #2 where wangxian play the “catch me, kiss me” game, then wwx kisses him on the lips and lwj promptly knocks himself the fuck out lmao

Drunken shenanigans #3/bath tub sex (I feel like this is pretty self-explanatory)

Incense Burner dream #1 where wwx shows lwj his first-life daydreams of retiring to a remote farm together and it’s so innocent, only for lwj’s graphic teenage sex dream to also be revealed; also the actual sex scene

When wwx and lwj put nmj’s body back together sans the head, both of them tell lxc the likely murder of his sword brother is jgy, and lxc says that he is willing to vouch that jgy would never do such a thing… then the chapter immediately ends and the next starts with us seeing that jgy did, in fact, do such a thing and soooooo much worse right in lxc’s face LOL

Second Siege of the Burial Mounds, which between wwx telling the cultivation world that he will NOT bear their resentment as if he’s guilty for having acted against them, the Wen remnants choosing to rescue the people who killed them simply because of their gratefulness to wwx for trying to save them once, the reveal to the CHILDREN how corrupt their parents actually are to have gleefully killed a bunch of defenseless people before desecrating their bodies and lying about it, and how the adults who said they were justified to kill wwx and the wen remnants are the ones shamed by the end? There’s just so many winners in this part

[robininthelabyrinth]

In that AU where LXC pretends to be LWJ and discovers NMJ's head, what if he went on a quest to put the body of his old friend together and along the way accidentally ran into NHS who's on the same mission. And they realize the other knows! (And... crying?)

AU of Two-Faced (does not take place in the same universe)

-

Untamed verse

“You knew,” Lan Xichen said, numb with shock.

Nie Huaisang said nothing.

Lan Xichen had expected tears, to be perfectly honest. Nie Huaisang cried at a particularly strong gust of wind, it seemed, overwhelmed by the responsibilities of being Sect Leader while being, quite frankly, as useless as he was. He was always popping over to ask for advice on decisions he had to make, to try to eel out of paperwork or decisions, to complain about how mean people were being to him…

He wasn’t crying now.

He didn’t have any expression at all, in fact, despite Lan Xichen have broken such earth-shaking, heart-shattering news – about what he’d found in Jin Guangyao’s trophy room, the mutilation of Nie Mingjue’s body, of their oath as sworn brothers, of Nie Huaisang’s own beloved brother –

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang said. “I knew. Did you?”

“What?” Lan Xichen said, not understanding at first – and then understanding all too well. “No! Huaisang, no, never – you couldn’t – you can’t possibly think that I would agree to be involved in desecrating my own sworn brother’s body?”

“I wasn’t asking if you were involved in the desecration,” Nie Huaisang said, and his voice was flat and steady and not anything like the head-shaker that Lan Xichen had grown accustomed to these past few years. “I was asking if you were involved in the murder.”

Lan Xichen’s heart lurched.

“Murder?” he whispered. “But – but da-ge died of a qi deviation –”

“An induced qi deviation,” Nie Huaisang said. “Triggered by the application, for months, of a certain piece of music that was said to calm and correct the body’s qi, but which instead acted as a spiritual poison, wearing down defenses and aggravating the underlying problem –”

“Impossible,” Lan Xichen said. “That’s impossible, it must be. The Song of Clarity is meant to heal –”

“And yet, when I played the version san-ge taught me for da-ge, he always got so much worse,” Nie Huaisang said, and there was the slightest hint of emotion in in him now: his hands were shaking, fingers white where he held onto the fan in his hands too tightly. “Probably because I was trying my hardest with it, rather than trying to remain unnoticed.”

Lan Xichen was glad that he was already sitting down, because he knew his knees would not have supported him. Nausea roiled in his belly. “You’re certain, then.”

“By coincidence, I came across a copy of the correct music for the Song of Clarity,” Nie Huaisang said, his voice dull and lifeless again. “It is not the same as what I learned – and you know the one thing that I’d never have risked with laziness was da-ge’s health. Did san-ge alter it, or did you?”

“I wouldn’t,” Lan Xichen said. “Huaisang – I would never have done such a thing. I loved da-ge, you know that –”

“I thought san-ge did, too.” Nie Huaisang’s eyes were boring holes into Lan Xichen’s skull. “And yet I also remember which one you sided with, every time they fought.”

Lan Xichen flinched. That, he supposed, answered his question as to why Nie Huaisang had said nothing, why he had let him continue to be friends with the man who murdered his friend, his brother – he didn’t think he’d be believed.

Maybe he even thought he would be betrayed.

Maybe he would have been right. If Nie Huaisang had come to him with claims that he’d thought were absurd, farfetched, paranoid, then he would definitely not have hesitated to ask for Jin Guangyao’s thoughts on the matter…

Lan Xichen tasted bile in his mouth. It was not the first time today and not, he thought grimly, likely to be the last.

A thought suddenly struck him, and he suddenly felt cold.

“Were you – pretending? All this time?” he asked. “You made yourself useless to avoid him –”

“No, I actually am pretty much good-for-nothing,” Nie Huaisang said, and for the first time in the whole conversation there was something human in his eyes, a touch of self-effacing humor. “It makes it easier.”

“Easier?”

“It’d be much easier for san-ge to get rid of me,” Nie Huaisang said, and what was truly brutal was in how casually he said it, as if it were obvious. “But as long as I’m weak and dependent on him, he won’t, and he won’t notice as I gather the evidence to destroy him.”

“Evidence,” Lan Xichen said. “What evidence? What have you found?”

What do we do next? He wanted to ask, and he was aware of the irony of asking that of the person he’d spent nearly a decade treating like a baby because he always asked him that question. How their roles had been reversed!

Nie Huaisang studied him for a long moment, then smiled faintly. “Well, er-ge, if you’re sure you want to get involved…”

“I’m sure,” Lan Xichen said. He’d helped cause this; it was his duty to help fix it.

“Don’t regret it later.”

“I won’t,” he said, even though he was pretty sure he would.

[crossdressingdeath]

I'm sorry but all these recent it was okay for NMJ to lash out because he was "poisoned by rage" takes are really irritating to me. It reminds me of all the times people excuse JC lashing out at WWX or torturing people cause he's just so traumatized and angry. If NMJ felt his temper rising, as an adult and sect leader, he should have left the room, not attack JGY or destroy NHS's property. As for attacking JGY, it doesn't matter if he was guilty or suspicious, if NMJ had killed JGY without evidence, JGS would have destroyed the Nie sect regardless of how he felt about his son. Also I don't condone NMJ's death, it was clearly an assassination and power grab, but I don't think it is as simple as to be 100% due to the collection of turmoil. After all if NMJs cultivation didn't need medical intervention to be viable, it would have been much harder to kill him, or at least his death would been a lot more suspicious. Speaking of his cultivation, the Nies cultivate their sabers with the resentful energy of beasts, which sounds an awful lot like WWX's cultivation, and what was it that LWJ said, it harms the temperament. Also according to JGY, NMJ is only interested in his cultivation, to the exclusion of all other hobbies. Given how dangerous his cultivation method is and NMJ's extreme dedication to it, his worsened temperament should have been a clue to him that something was seriously wrong. I feel like at that point he should have stopped his cultivation to assess his condition instead of putting out his very busy sworn brothers to play for him personally, or at least paid the Lan sect for some vetted dedicated healers. I'm sorry if this sounds like NMJ hate but I'm tired of all the stories where the Nie sect is perfectly righteous and does nothing wrong and is against WWX for his demonic cultivation when they have been doing something very similar for centuries, including desecration of the dead to keep their sabers from going on murder sprees. As well as all the stories where the issues of the Nie sect are trivialized to "minor qi deviation issue" or "little saber tomb problem". Also, with this in mind I can see how it would have been easy for LXC to be turned against NMJ when he just saw the same thing happen with LWJ and WWX just a couple of years prior.

Okay, no. No, absolutely not. NMJ isn’t just lashing out! This is not the same as JC at all! He is literally being driven mad with uncontrollable rage. He couldn’t just leave the room or whatever and he wasn’t capable of thinking ahead to the consequences of attacking JGY, because again, driven mad by uncontrollable rage. The only thing poisoning JC was his mother’s worldview and his own entitlement; there is an actual cultivational spell being worked on NMJ to make him incapable of controlling himself. That is not his fault and not something he could just stop by walking away or taking some deep breaths. Don’t compare a man being literally driven insane by rage that he cannot control or prevent by someone who is supposed to be helping him and who he is trusting to a guy spending over a decade murdering people because he thinks his wealth and power give him the right to, because they are not the same at all. And as for “he should have realised something was wrong”... he did. That’s why he agreed to let LXC and JGY play for him, and there’s no real mention of him doing any serious cultivation after that point. He was trying to fix it! It’s hardly his fault that the person he thought was providing treatment was actually in the process of killing him. Also note the word “agreed” there; both LXC and JGY offered. They wanted to play for him. Saying he was putting them out is suggesting an unwillingness that is not there in canon. Also you know what? I’d say the collection of turmoil was 100% responsible for his death, because if JGY hadn’t been using it Clarity would’ve worked. This isn’t NMJ falling because of a flaw in his cultivation technique, this is JGY poisoning his medicine. Also uh... “If his cultivation method didn’t need medical intervention to be viable he’d be a lot harder to kill” is a) not necessarily true (plenty of Nie disciples manage to go their whole lives without being murdered and plenty of people who don’t use the Nie method are killed far more easily than NMJ is; also it took someone who NMJ trusted completely vouching for him to give JGY the opportunity to use the Nie cultivation method against him, I wouldn’t call that easy) and b) smacks just a bit of victim-blaming, if you don’t mind me saying. It’s no more his fault that JGY used a pre-existing weak spot to kill him than it is WWX’s that the sects used his demonic cultivation to target him. Also “according to JGY” NMJ only cares about his cultivation? According to the guy who has good reason to want people to think that NMJ’s rapidly approaching qi deviation is entirely due to his cultivation? I suspect that JGY may not be being entirely honest, there.

The Nie sect is not perfectly righteous. They’re not supposed to be, no one in MDZS is perfectly righteous! However, I would like to point out that “locking the bodies of people given to the sect by legal means in order to prevent bloodthirsty sabres that cannot be destroyed or otherwise sealed” is not the same as “digging up graves and raising the dead for use in combat” and it’s not all that strange that NMJ would be okay with one and not the other. Is he hypocritical? A little, sure. But it also makes sense. Also, y’know. tradition and all. The Nie method is fine because they’ve been doing it so long. Also the Nie method involves considerably fewer undead armies? There is a bit of a difference.

Basically, there are people who insist that NMJ is entirely faultless and righteous and has never done anything wrong in his life, and those people are incorrect. However, any suggestion that he didn’t try to fix his impending qi deviation or that he was forcing his friends to support him or anything of that sort is equally incorrect.

[watch-grok-brainrot]

Jin Guangyao's Violation of 忠孝仁义

So I had written about WWX and his strong sense of 忠孝仁义 last week. While I was writing it, I kept on thinking about JGY and how he managed to violate all of these virtues. I wanted to go into this characterization of him because I find it so interesting how opposite he is to WWX in the decisions he made. (Warning: i’m not nice to JGY here so if you don’t want him dragged, don’t read?)

忠- loyalty, devotion, fidelity (usually for country or monarch)

(Can I take a moment to talk about how much I LOVE THIS SHOT?! The blood of WRH on the camera lens, WRH falling over, the sudden shift to brightness that mirrors the scene in ep 50 where JGY obscures the sun in his bow (picture above the read more cut)! I can’t get over how much I LOVE the lighting and the way WRH collapses, making way for JGY to become the new sun. Foreshadowing much CQL Crew?!)

This one might be a stretch depending on how you read JGY. I fully believe he went to work for Wen Ruohan as Wen Zhuliu did -- seeking someone who will value his skills. However, WZL died for WRH and JGY just bided his time. (Note: While we know very little about Wen Zhuliu, we know he was at least 忠 and 义. He died for WRH and Wen Chao and refused to let WC desecrate Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan’s bodies. For that, I have to give him respect. He, despite everything, still had that jianghu sense of 义. Also, the man can count. And knows what a golden core feels like.)

So we know JGY gave Lan Xichen the maps, but he also lured them to Nightless City where the puppets were waiting. Had WWX not brought out the Stygian Tiger Amulet, would JGY have murdered WRH? Or would he have stayed in the shadows forever? As a viewer I have no idea what JGY is thinking, what he’s doing, or what he’s hoping for. He hides so well his intentions that there is debate about if he really was helping with the Sunshot Campaign or not! That isn’t something you can say about someone with loyalty. 

What upsets me further is that Nie Mingjie, having been JGY’s superior officer, sees JGY more clearly than LXC can. NMJ has seen JGY murder and has seen the level of self-serving vindictiveness JGY is capable of. In the case of the Sunshot Campaign, this self-serving attitude made JGY become a double agent uncommitted to either side. Too bad NMJ could not convince LXC of JGY’s duplicity. I’m gonna blame those dimples. 

The fact that we do not know JGY’s intent really shows his lack of 忠. If You Stand For Nothing, JGY, What Will You Fall For? (Answer: Himself and that is not 忠)

孝 - filial piety (deference to your lineage)

So for 孝, you’re supposed to respect your parents, honor your parents, and defer to your parents. What are you not supposed to do? Kill you father. That’s what.

So this should’ve been a really short section because that’s pretty cut and dry. But I want to look at what JGY says to JGS when JGY brings in Sisi and the other women. 

(He’s so creepy in this picture! *shudders*)

“父亲,我给你找来了你最爱的女人. 有很多个. 你高兴吗?”

“Father, I have brought you your favorite -- women. There are many. Are you happy?”

(Translation note: you can translate the line as your favorite women or your favorite -- women. I chose to translate it as the latter due to the context.)

First of all, the tone. JGY’s voice is breathy. I can almost hear a smile. He has zero moral qualms about this. He addresses his father as father, not dad or anything close. But he does acknowledge that relationship. And then he says he’s brought JGS’s favorite. There’s a slight emphasis on the favorite there. And it’s creepy. JGY adds the next line and goose bumps start to form on my skin. He knows his father’s sins and he’s punishing his father with it. Why are you doing this JGY?! And at the end, when it asks “Are you happy?” his voice is so sinister I want to scream. JGY clearly knows what he’s doing. He knows exactly what it means to be 孝 and chooses to make a mockery of 孝, to make a mockery of his father, and to kill his father. 

And then, after he watches JGS die, he tells Sisi and the other women to continue -- to desecrate JGS’s body. This is about as un-孝 as one can get! Remember, WWX and JC were willing to die to get JFM and YZY’s bodies back so they could be cremated and honored. The difference here is night and day! Yes, JGY was very good to his mother, including building a Guanyin Statue in her likeness and sparing Sisi who was a friend of his mother’s, but I cannot get over how much of an abomination he was toward JGS (even if JGS deserved an awful death).

仁 - benevolence, humanity, love of man

JGY has no 仁. Does JGY love anyone other than himself? Maybe his mom. (He might have some 仁 towards Su Sh*t She but that’s only suggested by the last couple of episodes.) That’s really it. He might have loved Jin Ling as his nephew. He might have loved LXC for LXC’s kindness and brotherhood. He might have loved Qin Su as whatever relationship he thinks they had. But when push comes to shove, JGY has zero benevolence towards anyone. He’s willing to kill Qin Su, take Jin Ling hostage, and take LXC hostage. (He also has no 义 but that’s the next section!)

And there’s ep 23. When LXC, JGS, and NMJ were discussing what to do with the Wens,  JGY suggested the Wens be imprisoned at QiongQi Path. Since WRH had ordered the slaughter of multiple clans, including the Jiangs at Lotus Pier, doing the same to him would not be considered unreasonable. Ruthless, yes, but a good show of might and order. This acceptance of murder is due to the concept of 诛九族. 诛九族 (zhū jiǔ zú) is one of the most severe punishments in ancient China. The character breakdown makes it fairly self explanatory:

诛 - to execute, kill, put to death

九 - nine

族 - family, clan,ethnic group, or tribe

诛九族 condemns you and your entire family to death (Depending on the source, some say it’s you + 8 types of relatives. Some say it’s everyone related to you from 4 generations above to 4 generations below).

By suggesting the Wen remnants be imprisoned and not slaughtered, JGY presented himself as 仁. However, by turning around and slaughtering the people per JGS’s wishes, JGY knowingly chose the immoral path where blood flowed like rivers. 

(Also! The way this shot pans down makes me think about how JGY is descending into a hell of his own making...)

义-  righteousness and code of brotherhood

Good god, 义. I have so many feelings about 义. Let’s start with some history because CONTEXT is so important. So when you ask a chinese person on the street to give you an example of 义, I’m willing to bet one of the most common answers you will get is 桃园结义 (tao yuan jie yi, or peach garden/grove establishment of brotherhood). This is THE story of fraternal love between non-blood related men. 

So quick and dirty synopsis of 桃园结义 and the three kingdoms story (I actually haven’t read it and it’s been a while since I actually tried to figure out the plot… so hopefully this is all correct!). Three men (刘备、关羽、张飞/ Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei) met on the streets, fought each other, became besties, and decided to start a rebellion. They took over one third of the country with the oldest (刘备) being the monarch and the other two working at his side (a little Yunmeng bros feel there, right? You’ll be the leader, I’ll be your right hand man). And they died for each other. 关羽 was the first to go. To seek revenge, 张飞 worked his men to the rebellion. Two of 张飞’s subordinates ultimately decapitated him while he was sleeping and brought it to their enemy. 张飞’s head and body are buried in two different cities in China (doesn’t this make you think of NMJ’s fate? Because it did when I was thinking about this and I wanted to cry. Also, 张飞 started out as a butcher. SERIOUSLY CQL/MDZS, can we pretend to be SUBTLE!?). 刘备 continued seeking revenge. Prior to 关羽’s death, the three kingdoms were in semi-equilibrium where the two smaller ones were allied against the larger. However, 关羽 being killed by their kinda-ally destroyed the delicate balance between the three kingdoms. 刘备 could’ve tried to make peace but he wasn’t going to let his sworn brother’s murder go unavenged. They all died in the end but with honor and brotherhood intact. 刘备 and 张飞’s determination to avenge 关羽’s death epitomizes the virtue of 义. They are willing to die for eachother. 

In CQL the parallelism to the 桃园结义 imagery is obvious to anyone who has a cultural background that screams Romance of Three Kingdoms at you. Let’s take a look, ok?  

A quick Google image search yields these images (I couldn’t choose): 

You know what they look like? This (from ep 40): 

You know what 桃园结义 looks like when mainland China made a live action? This: 

And you know what that reminds me of in CQL (ep 23)? 

Are you freaking out now about the visual parallels? Ok. Good. Because we’re moving onto a tiny bit of text comparison because i’m excited and i can. 

Per Romance of Three Kingdoms (note: historically inspired novel, not history), 刘备、关羽、张飞 swore the following oath: 

“念刘备、关羽、张飞，

Hope that Liu Bei, Guan Yu, Zhang Fei

虽然异姓，既结为兄弟，

Even though we have different last names,since we have sworn to be brothers

则同心协力，救困扶危；

Then let us unite our hearts and efforts towards helping the needy

上报国家，下安黎庶。

Repaying our country, bringing peace to the people.

不求同年同月同日生，

We do not ask to be born on the same day of the same month of the same year

只愿同年同月同日死。

But hope to die on the same day of the same month of the same year

皇天后土，实鉴此心，

Heaven and earth, verify our hearts

背义忘恩，天人共戮！”

If we turn our backs to righteousness and forget charity, may we be slaughtered by all. 

Now, let’s look at the oath said by the 3zun:

“神明在上。

Brilliant gods above, 

今日我兄弟三人在此立下重誓，

Today, we three brothers swear a solemn oath here 

上报仙门，下安黎庶 ， 

To repay our cultivation sects, To bring peace to the people.

天地同证，如有异心，

Heaven and earth be our witnesses. If we become disloyal, 

千夫所指，天人共怒”

May a thousand men point their fingers at us and may we be incite the anger of all

Even some of the wording is verbatim. The parts I bolded are what I was excited by since they’re either parallel or verbatim. 

The first set of lines: 上报国家，下安黎庶 and 上报仙门，下安黎庶 . (Remember when I guessed in my WWX post that since there are no countries, the cultivation sects are the target of 忠? This is my proof that I was right!) My hubris aside, this is the part of their oath where they swear to be both 忠 and 仁 together. The wording is verbatim except for the part that doesn’t apply to the CQL universe! 

The second set of lines: 天人共戮 vs 天人共怒. The sentence/phrase format and message is identical-- betray this oath and incur wrath.  (I can’t help but headcanon NMJ wanted to say 天人共戮 because it’s so much more metal but JGY was like, that’s really severe and convinced LXC to side with him to get it changed.)

Even the structure of the oaths are similar. Both oaths start with an introduction (we are three who want to be brothers), both oaths ask the heaven and earth to see them (Heaven and earth, verify our hearts & heaven and earth be our witnesses), and both oaths call upon the wrath of the people for vindication in case of betrayal. The CQL version is an abridged version of the three kingdoms oath and the writers set that up along with all the imagery because they want us to be constantly thinking about the three kingdoms bros and their amazing “even after death we’re still brothers” sense of 义.  They want us to compare JGY’s 义 with that 义 and find JGY lacking. 

The obvious betrayal of 义 is NMJ’s death.  Not only is JGY the cause of NMJ’s death, he butchers (i’m cringing at my own pun... but it’s so accurate) NMJ’s body so that NMJ’s spirit cannot rest. 

But, to me, what JGY does to LXC is betrayal on par with what he does to NMJ (and not dissimilar to what Xue Yang does to Xiao Xingchen). As we went over in the section about 仁, JGY says one thing so that LXC suggest JGY handles the matter. When everyone leaves, JGY does the un-仁 thing, essentially with LXC’s blessing. JGY kills NMJ but he does it by asking LXC to teach him how to play guqin. LXC becomes an unknowing accomplice (like XXC who becomes the killer of tongueless victims of corpse poison). 

So remember in my WWX post how I said WWX took on what he perceived as JC’s debts so JC doesn’t end up 不仁不义? JGY says one thing and does another in front of LXC. He knows LXC cares deeply about being righteous and kind. He knows LXC wants to do good. And he leads LXC down a path of self doubt and regret. LXC ends up teaching JGY the techniques that kill NMJ. LXC lets JGY handle the Wen remnants. Thus, unlike WWX who tries to absolve JC, JGY intentionally puts LXC into the position of 不仁不义. 

Can WWX and JGY be more diametrically opposed (foes)?

[paradife-loft]

Hi! I absolutely love the meta about NMJ's Empathy memories being unreliable, and it's got me wondering about how his qi deviation and death actually went. Since LXC says he saw the qi deviation (and Fatal Journey says it was in public), what's your take on how JGY got NMJ into his secret room so he and Xue Yang could use the Tiger Seal (and eventually kill him)? Fatal Journey has the Nie sect holding a funeral for him, so presumably NHS had /soneone's/ body to bury, but then in The Untamed LXC later says something like he 'hasn't heard from' NMJ in years and had feared the worst, so things... don't seem to add up? What do you think?

Aaah, okay, so: first off, I’m incredibly sorry it’s taken me so long to answer this, and I nonetheless  very much appreciate your interest in my opinions here <3 If you’re still hanging around/following me/reading my blog, anon, idk how obvious it’s been that I’ve… not been having the best few months brain-wise, but that’s basically all I can offer as an excuse for why this reply is coming so late. Thank you for your patience!

So, okay, I think I’m going to try and tackle this question from a couple different angles. First of all, I think it’s worth looking at the material provided in the contained story of the 50 episodes of The Untamed on its own, to see what that suggests, before bringing in outside or supplemental sources, which is what for this purpose I’d consider spin-off movies, details in other versions of the broader MDZS story material, etc. to be. Also, I want to note upfront that while I do tend to incorporate different details and versions of events from both CQL and MDZS into my personal headcanon, what I write in my fic, etc. because I think they tend to provide interesting possibilities, elaborations, and what-ifs for a broader composite MDZS-adaptation-universe – for the purposes of this post, I’m going to stick to material from The Untamed and Fatal Journey only. Mostly, my reason for that is that there’s a few logistically distinct details of how the qi deviation happens in MDZS compared to CQL – one being, it happens at Qinghe rather than Lanling – that I believe affect the timeline of what Jin Guangyao is doing with Nie Mingjue’s corpse in the first place.

Alright so, in The Untamed alone, the evidence such as we have includes: the Empathy sequence involving the qi deviation in episode 41, and Lan Xichen’s statement in episode 39 recounting that he saw it happen himself at Jinlintai, and that after hearing nothing from/about Nie Mingjue since, he’s been “mentally prepared” - presumably, for the news that he’s dead. What I’m inclined to take from those two pieces of information, is essentially a story like this: NMJ qi deviates, very publically, and at some point while this is happening, he makes a break for it and leaves Jinlintai, and whatever presumably messy trail he leaves in the process ends up going cold for anyone trying to follow, with no NMJ around to be seen. With various factors at Jinlintai invested in retrieving him for attempting to turn him into a controllable fierce corpse, it’s pretty easy to imagine that, besides whatever above-board search party tried to follow him, there would also have been another party closely watching his movements for an opportune moment to slip in and scoop him up to bring him back to the secret treasure room for fierce corpse experimentation – hence why the trail would’ve gone cold.

Now, the actual scene showing the qi deviation itself doesn’t include multiple elements I’m positing or including here – specifically, the presence of a bunch of third parties actually witnessing it, LXC included, and then also the idea that NMJ ever left that one landing at the top of the stairs during the qi deviation at all. But, since we see in other parts of the Empathy sequence that the events shown can be… a bit more impressionistic than accurate; and furthermore since it seems reasonable to posit that the memories of the time when he has a literal break with reality might be even less literally reliable than the rest of them – I think those aspects can be reasonably explained away as that scene portraying more of what the qi deviation felt like from the inside, than what an outside observer would’ve seen. Nie Mingjue’s focus is Jin Guangyao, so Jin Guangyao is all he sees – up until Nie Huaisang breaks through that monomaniacal focus and is seen, finally, as himself.

(If you particularly want to pull out some feelings, I might even suggest the idea that finally seeing a distraught NHS was the thing that pulled NMJ sufficiently out of his rage to be lucid enough to flee – and that he booked it in part because he was terrified and ashamed to possibly hurt his younger brother, whether physically or emotionally by letting him see NMJ in such an awful state.

So then, aside from that: the question of what we see in Fatal Journey. I’ve actually been trying to find an answer about what kinds of mourning customs would be followed or even possible if a family didn’t actually have their loved one’s body on hand to bury, but thusfar my internet searching hasn’t really gotten me any useful information one way or another – if anyone reading has an idea or some good sources to point me to, I’d love to hear them! Everything I’ve read so far seems to very tightly marry the performance of appropriate rites and the presence of a body together.

That said, looking back through the actual funeral scene in Fatal Journey, I also wasn’t able to notice the presence of a coffin anywhere in the set, either? We see a memorial tablet, set up in the front of the throne room at Qinghe, and what looks like a brief shot of some offerings, and NHS stoking the fire, but in the couple brief scenes of the inside of the hall, I don’t think there was a coffin set up there? (Or, for that matter, out in the courtyard which we get a longer look at, either.) Compared to what I at least assume is a coffin with Jin Zixuan’s body inside during the mourning scene in episode 32, I feel like it’s reasonable to guess that, even with Fatal Journey included, whatever mourning rites took place at Qinghe after NMJ’s death, they may simply have not involved a body or a burial at all.

- And actually, now that I’m thinking about it, taking Fatal Journey into consideration overall suggests that it might ultimately be the norm at Qinghe to hold mourning rites without a body present – because per the lore additions in the movie, the Nie sect leaders go down to die on their own at the bottom of the saber tomb, and it sure doesn’t look like anybody had been going down there to retrieve them once they did? So, I don’t know, maybe there’s some sort of symbolic burial of something associated with the sect leader as a Nie custom, to keep things looking a bit more normal and less “we build a tomb for these resentment-filled blade spirits that eat our sect leader’s sanity”, and that’s also what ended up being done for Nie Mingjue?  But, yeah, there’s no real confirmation happening even in the movie that NHS was able to come back with a body to bury, so I don’t think that necessarily contradicts the idea that NMJ could have gone missing during his qi deviation and never been properly recovered for a 100% confirmed death.

(That said, I personally don’t tend to incorporate, oh, most of the specific events or points of lore from Fatal Journey into my own readings on various elements of the story? Like, quite frankly, I don’t really like the movie that much, and I think it opens up a lot more unnecessary character and worldbuilding questions without doing a good job of integrating them back into the rest of The Untamed’s continuity (er, such as it exists XD). So I don’t necessarily have an opinion on whether “the Nie sect generally doesn’t do bodily burials of is clan leaders” is an idea anyone should pick up for The Untamed canon; merely that if you do take the events of Fatal Journey as canon, it certainly seems like it could be a possibility.)

(And again, big, big big disclaimer here that, e.g. if holding any kind of mourning rites without a body present is actually super Not Done, then what I’m saying with this part might be totally moot, and then well…. who knows, there’s plenty of speculation that could be used to cover that gap up – maybe “they never found the body” wasn’t actually widespread knowledge, but rather just information LXC had special access to due to the relationships he had with the people involved? – and some set of people depending on your preferences conspired to get another body to stand in for NMJ’s to allow them to hold a funeral? ….Which honestly sounds incredibly sketchy to me on its own, but considering all the other professionally Yikes-style desecrations of bodies that happen in this story…. who knows? I’m really just tossing out ideas here at this point, not saying I necessarily endorse any of them outside of “I think this could potentially work in some way without being out of character for anybody”.)

Anyway… I hope that answers your question, anon, and is otherwise interesting for everyone else reading? Thank you for the ask, and apologies again for taking so long to respond! <3

[eyeslikefoxglove]

Episode 19 - Yiling Laozu mode activated & BAMF!Lan WangJi avenging his husband

Hiiii! It’s Saturday and I’m pumped! Sorry it’s been radio silence for the whole week, I tried to do this on Monday, but I’ve been going driving with my parents the whole week bc I finally got my own car (or rather, they got me a car) and ya girl hasn’t driven for the last six years, so I needed some practice. Also, I pouted at my mum to get me a bunch of music albums in physical format for said car... and turns out it doesn’t have a CD reader lol. In other news, gardening has the upside of giving me a healthy sun glow, instead of my usual Vulcan pallor (I’m quite light and olive, I’m pretty much green-ish) and before anyone freaks tf out about sun tanning and skin cancer: I have a sun allergy, I don’t go anywhere without SPF 50 and I don’t sunbathe.

Ok, two things: one, WWX is looking rough, I mean, expected after such major surgery. Two, thank god someone finally decided to disguise his clothes.

Aaaaaand it did fuck all for him. Cool cool cool.

JC’s dream/hallucination is fucking me up ok? Ok.

MY BB! 10/10 this is what he’d see if he looked in the Mirror of Erised, it’s breaking my heart.

FUCK OFF SUBCONSCIOUS, LET HIM HAVE ONE HAPPY DREAM.

He’s so happy! I know it’s a complicated issue but I’m also glad he had this moment of relief and happiness in all this mess.

Again WC missed the memo about how antagonistic WWX can be. His brother has a golden core again and his sister is safe, I’m pretty sure at this time he couldn’t give less of a fuck if he lives or dies and he’s reached peak pain tolerance with the core transfer so not even torture will work; exactly what leverage does WC think he has on WWX for the interrogation?

WC: I’ll ask WZL to crush his core first.

Me: *uncontrollable cackling*

Slow clap for our boy for activating YLLZ (I’m going to start shortening Yiling Patriarch to this) mode while really fucked up. I really love this creepy af side of WWX and considering this is pre-Burial Mounds I think it is safe to say he’s always had it in him, just you know, amped up to 11 after the Trauma and the demonic cultivation.

Anyway, go forth and mindfuck them all my child.

...that branding iron is not hot, why it is smoking?

JC: *wearing a hat and plain robes to hide*

Also JC: *Zidian and his very distinctive guan on full display*

Ok I don’t have any way to elaborate on it, but I’m pretty sure of two things:

1. The Burial Mounds is An Entity.

2. WWX is not fully alive anymore.

3. (This is a bonus, I don’t want to think what he ate for three months in a mountain full of corpses. Ok? Ok)

WN BB WHAT DID THEY DO TO YOU. HE’S SO GOOD AND SO BRAVE I CAN’T.

This is creepy creepy.

So when WWX starts hearing LWJ’s voice among all the screaming is this LWJ already playing Inquiry (if I remember he did play inquiry when he found out Lotus Pier had burned) or him just being WWX’s anchor to sanity?

Oh hey, that’s a rib cage.

And thus YLLZ was born.

This is one of my favourite scenes and I’m pumped. I’ve also seen it set to a Targaryen music theme and it is even more fucking epic. I kept expecting LWJ to go dracarys on their asses. Also, he’s literally a husband on a revenge mission right here, fucking fight me if you disagree (don’t fight me, I’m baby). Btw as always the cinematography *chef’s kiss* Just assume I’m screaming like a fan girl all throughout this.

Now he’s a widower on a revenge mission (or so he thinks)

PSA: don’t be like JiaoJiao, take your makeup off before going to sleep.

(Ok, tiiiiiny bit of pity for JiaoJiao here, she’s fucking terrified and WC is being an asshole about it. I mean, it’s what everyone expected but holy shit what a douchebag)

Ohhhh sad WuJi on a cello still breaking my heart.

Ok but let me delve into my own hc here. JC is being so very soft when talking to LWJ, it kind of makes me wonder how many sleepless nights these two ended up talking about WWX in their search and just trying to reassure each other that he was alive. There is absolutely no bitterness when he says he thought WWX had taken off to be with LWJ in LanLing too, so that, plus the fact that the Lan disciples give Suibian to LWJ really makes me think JC knows and is on board with LWJ’s feelings for WWX. There’s absolutely no way he’d let him touch his, afahk deceased, brother’s sword if he still thought LWJ hated WWX.

I just need these two sad beans to be friends ok?

Just imagine:

LWJ: Wei Ying is so... *longing look, Bichen grip*

JC: *lightbulb goes off* oooohhh. Ok, now I see, you want to marry the dumbass!

LWJ: *freaked out look*

JC: No, no. It’s fine, once we find the idiot he’s all yours.

That’s a lot of bodies. Also, of course Dumb Jin Cousin (I know he’s Jin ZiXun but shortening it sounds too much like Jin Zixuan, so no. Also the reason why I call Jin Zixuan Peacock all the time) doesn’t mind animals desecrating corpses.

I don’t know if I’ve said it but I so much prefer CQL!Peacock to MDZS!Peacock. Just look at the character development of him making his own people collect the corpses of their enemies and be respectful to them.

Also, oooff, Shijie saying that anywhere they travel the only thing to see is corpses covering the ground hit me hard.

Some of my Yunmeng sibs are together again and I’m smiling like an idiot (also, JC looks like he gives amazing hugs).

Nvm JC realising LWJ is into his baby brother, I’m pretty sure the Peacock thinks LWJ just became a widower.

Again, NMJ is a cool dude, but he needs to take a fucking chill pill before he bursts a blood vessel and ends up with a haemorrhagic stroke of out sheer anger- induced HBP.

But also, if he didn’t agree to give these two the Yiling assignment out of sheer big brother instinct I’ll eat one of my textbooks.

Look at him asking after his crush and getting all worried when he realises no one knows where he is.

These two, crying over their baby brother just break my heart. I just want to blanket and kittens them.

We are getting murdery in here!

Thanks for reading!

[crossdressingdeath]

And that’s another thing that I find weird about the way fandom seem to think about vengeance, like people seem to think that vengeance is acceptable and a general good and doesn’t make someone morally grey or bad, but at the same time, characters shouldn’t enjoy it too much or hurt the person they avenge themselves on because this would make them bad? And… that’s the whole purpose of vengeance? Make people who hurt you suffer greatly in return? And derive great satisfaction from this fact?1/4

This is really all that there is to vengeance, it’s not some act of cosmic justice or any justice at all; like the whole reason so many people are bent on seeking vengeance in MDZS is that there is no actual system of justice where people will be held accountable for their crimes, and instead, it’s a free for all of personal grudges and people seeking redress for their grievances with their own bloodied hands. To give a concrete example, I have seen many people take NHS to task for (probably)2/4

desecrating JGY’s mother body as a payback for NMJ’s body, but no one seems shocked that NHS more or less planned for JGY to get stabbed to death. Like the latter is way worse just by the fact that someone died, and yet no one criticizes NHS for wanting JGY dead and all people talk about is the former because apparently planning to kill people is justifiable, but treating them with extreme prejudice is not and 3/4

way worse somehow? There is really something that I don't understand about how fandom judge morality here. 4/4

I mean, the setting of MDZS does have some sort of justice system; people are surprised and angry when XY is allowed to live and even go free after his little act of mass-murder, so clearly there was an expectation of justice being done, meaning there is some sort of justice system even if it’s only “take the person to whoever has power in the area and let them sort it out”. The trouble is it’s the sort of justice system that doesn’t apply to the rich and powerful, so there’s no recourse other than vengeance when a high-ranking member of the great sects does something to wrong you. Vengeance is definitely A Thing That Happens, but it’s not the only path someone can take if they have more power than the person they’re avenging themselves upon.

With NHS in particular, I think why people treat desecrating MS’s body as worse than actually plotting JGY’s death is a combination of a) desecrating bodies being a big fucking deal and b) MS being an innocent in the whole affair, so I can sort of get it? It’s sort of a “You want revenge on JGY for killing your brother that’s fine, but JGY’s mother never did anything to you, leave her alone”. Like how XXC and SL were more horrified by the extent of XY’s revenge than the revenge itself, because only one member of the clan he wiped out had actually wronged him. So I think it’s about who’s being targeted by the revenge more than the act of getting revenge itself. WWX is happy to avenge himself and his sect against WC and WRH, but WQ and WN’s people weren’t involved and so getting revenge against them would be wrong, for example. Vengeance isn’t exactly what you could call a moral act, but vengeance against the people who have actually wronged you is considerably more moral than vengeance against anyone related to the people who have actually wronged you.