#WUXIAN / headcanons & meta.

[lgbtlunaverse]

A slightly unhinged case for jin guangyao knowing about the core transfer while WWX was still alive

Ok. SO. In chapter 101, during guangyin temple, Jin Guangyao clearly knows about the golden core transfer. He uses it to bring Jiang Cheng off-kilter and stab him and simultaneously reveals to wwx that jc himself now knows about the golden core transfer.

I've always wondered exactly when he figured it out. The most obvious explanation is that he pieced it together after hearing about Jiang Cheng asking everyone to unsheathe suibian (also? jgy? how the fuck do you know that? You were already going to/at Guanyin temple at this point! Did you just have people listen in on rumours from Yunmeng and report back to you for that?? Did you tell your spy network where you were going? My whole kingdom for a retelling of this arc from the pov of these random jin disciples seeing their sect leader start spiralling. He's diggin up random tombs? Fleeing the country? And threatening the heir's life?? What was random Jin cultivator #6 thinking of this before Nie Mingjue turned him into minced meat?)

BUT.

The first time I read that line I was like "oh so he's known for a WHILE." I mean, the line "I've always found it peculiar [that wwx never took his sword anywhere]" does indicate he's been thinking about this for a while, but it doesn't have to mean he knew back then. So I absolutely can't say with certainty that my instinct was right. But I DO have some decent canon backing for how he might have potentially figured things out as early as before Wei Wuxian's death. Specifically, after the discussion scene that takens place when wei wuxian does his thing with the wens and dissapears.

Cause, see, Wen Chao would definitely have bragged about Wen Zhuliu crushing Jiang Cheng's core to his father. He killed the current sect leader, and then permanently disabled the only heir. He did it! the Jiang are gone! I bet he was very loud about it until, a few weeks later, Jiang Cheng suddenly strolls up to the battlefield, with Zidian on his finger, cultivation very much intact, looking for Wei Wuxian.

That must've been fucking baffling if you were Wen Chao and/or Wen Zhuliu and/or any other cultivator who was there and definitely saw Jiang Cheng's core get crushed. They must have assumed something went wrong, or he faked having his core destroyed, but we've never heard of something like that happening before, and they tortured him for hours! It wasn't a quick batle where Wen Zhuliu must have missed in haste, he would've noticed!

Now, by the time Meng yao arrives, wen zhuliu and wen chao are both long dead, but that kind of thing would at least still be a source of gossip among the other Wen. The only time the core melting hand ever failed!

It might be something that, say... a very careful spy with a perfect memory looking for information... might pick up on in his stay with the Wen, no?

So, Meng Yao has heard the rumour that sect leader Jiang got his core crushed but somehow managed to... still have a core.

Independantly of his, Wei Wuxian is being really weird and refusing to carry his sword. His primary concern there is wwx stirring shit up, he has no reason to believe these things are connected yet.

But then Wei Wuxian runs off with a bunch of Wen, and before he is cut off, Jiang Cheng tells everyone that after the siege on lotus pier, he and wei wuxian were helped by Wen Qing and Wen Ning! Jiang Cheng doesn't get to say how, which is good for jgy in this moment because he's trying to steer the conversation as such that no one gets mad at the Jin sect for all the war crimes, but even if his goal is for everyone else to forget Jiang Cheng said that, he'd remember it.

So... after the moment where jiang cheng, according to rumours that were contained to the wen, lost his core, he was helped by wen ning and wen qing, who is a really good doctor. And, in canon, had written theoretical proposals on core transfers before, just never experimented on them. Were these available for others among the Wen to read? Did jgy read them? We have no way of knowing. But if he did, he remembers them. Either way, he knows her reputation.

And Wei Wuxian disappeared right round that same moment, only to resurface with his demonic cultivation, at which point he never touched his sword again. Not even in the middle of a dangerous war. Not even when he was public enemy number one and it would do wonders for his reputation if he was seen cultivating the traditional path. When doing so would have made not just him but the 50 people he was shielding safer! if Jin guangyao was somehow in his position, he'd immediately do everything he could to counteract the narrative of beign a dangerous madman who'd left the straight path. Wei Wuxian has been in absolutely desperate situations and still refuses to pick up his sword...

The saying doesn't exist yet, but i'm sure someone like jgy, more competent than everyone around him, is intimately familair with at least the sentiment of "never ascribe to malice what is adequately explained by incompetence" He is helping spread the narrative of Wei Wuxian as a violent madman, sure, but does he believe it? If it makes no sense for wei wuxian, no longer a privileged young master but an outcast, to not pick up his sword again out of arrogancy, the most reliable explanation is that he... can't.

So Jiang Cheng, who got his core melted, got help from Wen Qing, an incredible doctor, after which he coud cultivate just fine but Wei Wuxian, no matter how desperate, never used traditional cultivation ever again...

Hm. interesting!

It's likely no one else in the jianghu outside of the wen even knew Jiang Cheng lost his core to begin with. And Jin Guangyao was never given wwx's excuse of Baoshan Sanren owing him a favor like Jiang Cheng was. He has all the puzzle pieces in front of him and... if anyone as gonna put them together, it'd be him.

And that's my unhinged case for why I believe Jin Guangyao knew Wei Wuxian didn't have a golden core anymore years before anyone else did. He just never told anyone, because why would he?

I think this adds a whole other level to his speech to Jiang Cheng about how everything could've worked out if he'd just trusted Wei Wuxian more and stood by his side. He saw it all play out in real time knowing there was more going on beneath the surface!

Now the really interesting question becomes: When did he figure out Jiang Cheng himself wasn't in on it? Did he piece it together immediately from remembering seeing jiang cheng berate wwx for not carrying a sword, a thing he should've known he couldn't do? Or was it not until later, maybe the fake yunmeng bros fallout, or the REAL fallout when Jiang Yanli died? Or was it still the news of Jiang Cheng going around and asking everyone to unsheathe subian that made him realize that oh my god this stupid bitch had no idea the whole time.

[acequinz]

Listen I hate the JFM and YZY but also I genuinely don't think Wei Wuxian would have in some way done better than he did in any other sect than he did in the Jiang sect.

This is not a count of emotions but I think even if he joined any other sect, he would have chosen to still defend the wen refugees and faced similar if not the same push from the other sects.

The fact that even Lan Wangji could not openly support WWX during it means, it's very likely that WWX would have still not received any support from the Lan sect as a whole, at worst he would have to defect or go into seclusion as punishment. And if he still is using demonic cultivation they will definitely reject him because the rules forbid it or whatever

By the end of sunshot NMJ was not good and he even got violent with NHS, so if WWX tries to still defend the Wens there's absolutely no way NMJ is forgiving that. Maybe might even try to kill WWX himself out of the Baxia enhanced rage because no one hated the wens like him.

Then come the Jins, Jin Guangshan wouldn't even be kind to his own son, so if he can't control Wei Wuxian, he would push the same maybe even more severe crimes onto him and have him executed unless of course JGY is able to come up with some scheme or convince WWX to buckle, which is both unlikely and almost impossible.

So yeah, Wei Wuxian is fucked because he would never conform to the unspoken unkind rules of the cultivation world.

(All these are of course still considering that WWX becomes a war hero, if he doesn't it's even more easier to immediately execute him with minor offences or as a secret wrh supporter or whatever )

[lunaticmeap]

Thinking about early on when Lan Wangji was trying to figure out if Wei Wuxian was back, and the idea that it took him a while to reconcile the Wei Wuxian that came back to life with the Wei Wuxian that died was because the one that died is nothing like the one that came back to life. And it is that overwhelming thought that almost brings him to his knees, because “Oh, it’s not just the man Iet die that came back, but it is also the boy that I first loved. He is not lost to me forever.”

[ask-mxtx-cast]

To Lan Qiren:

Greetings Master Lan. Now that your youngest nephew has gotten married, is there any particular brand of ear plug/noise cancelling headphones you'd recommend? I live next to an airport.

“He rarely gets sleep for obvious reasons.”

- Sam

[maria-taiwin]

Thinking about a angsty (just a bit) Wangxian modern!au scenario: Wei Wuxian just got a bad fever, and unfortunately he has no one at home with him to assist him (madame yu in this modern!au kicked him out of the jiang house, he lives in a small ramshackle apartment by himself). He already used to take care of himself, he got through much worse than a fever in his childhood, but still he misses so much being pampered by his shijie and the feeling he would never be alone anymore through these hard times, especially because it hasn't been that long since he's been kicked out.

He tries to endure the fever like it's nothing serious, he really does for hours but then it's like a nightmare and he just realized that the fridge is empty and he's getting weaker. He doesn't want to be a burden, never did, he hates that feeling but he's really tired and, fuck it, in a moment of impulse he decides to call Wen Qing: she is a friend AND a future doctor, which it's always useful. Yeah he'll have to bear her scolding about his unhealthy lifestyle but he really needs help in this moment so he is willing to endure.

The fever however is so bad that it causes him to hallucinate. He mistakes the number and he calls Lan Wangji by error. Believing the person beyond the phone is Wen Qing, he starts to whine about a bad illness that will kill him SOON if she doesn't go to his apartament, he urgently needs food and protein and how can a conscientious person just abandon him to his destiny, this is really bad, please have mercy, just think to the neighbors, etc etc. He exaggerates a bit but because he knows Wen Qing, she'll snort a bit but she will give up by her generous heart. When he blabbered though he didn’t realized that the person beyond the phone NEVER talked back. He's justified because the fever is really bad and didn’t pay attention and talked too much like usual. He ends the call.

After 10 minutes, not more, the bell rings. With difficulty he drags himself to open the door. He doesn't put on a show like at the phone, he just scratches his head in fake laughter, trying to play down the fever but still thanking the dear Wen Qing for the help. He doesn't realize that wen qing still doesn't speak at all, but his head is boiling so maybe it's for the best, he really couldn't stand to be scolded right now.

He just sits on the bed while "wen qing" prepares the dinner. He feels so relaxed, having someone taking care of him, feeding him, offering him a drink of water to take medicines, preparing him a delicious ginger tea (he's never been a fan of tea but this is really good) and handing him a blanket. A blanket with rabbits? It's really a warm feeling.

While he's overjoyed he also looks at "wen qing", who has her back to him and he is suddenly confused. Wen Qing's hair isn't that long (lan zhan is wearing a long braid), she's not that tall, her legs aren't that long, and she never wears blue and white... and what is this scent? Maybe the fever is giving him hallucinations? Suddenly she approaches, kneels in front of him, wei wuxian feels a hand approaching, not enough to touch his body but still its weight felt over the blanket and indirectly he feels its warmth. And then he hears a "wei ying".

Wei Wuxian freezes. What? Only one person calls him like that. Since his parents died, only one person has ever called him like that. But it's impossible right? Why would Lan Wangji, the icy and unapproachable jade of the school, being at home looking after him? As much as Wei Wuxian tried to be his friend, he was always ignored! Whenever he invited Lan wangji to do something or just called him, he only got a block of marble in response. He doesn't hold a grudge against him for that, indeed he considers Lan Wangji a very cool person, but still this is really impossible. And it would be too nice, having that cold and beautiful jade at his service, being all good for him. It's just a hallucination, of course.

He mumbles "ha ha why are you suddenly calling me wei ying ha ha ​​that's strange".

Just silence. He hears a sigh, and then suddenly he no longer feels that comfortable hand on the blanket.

He doesn't have time to complain because he suddenly feels a cool (not too cold, just the right temperature) cloth over his forehead. "Thanks" and puts his hand on top of "wen qing"'s.

He hears an arrest in her breath, that hand trembles a bit, but that uncertainty lasts only a few seconds. Then everything is comfortable. The bed, the extra blanket, his stomach deliciously full. Wei Wuxian is sleeping already but he thinks he's feeling a tight hand on his own. He imagines it's another person with him, not Wen Qing.

Of course after the recovery, he will just think that Wen Qing acted very strange, it was not like her at all. But he will thank her properly of course, because he never felt that safe from a very long time. And he will have to give her back the rabbit blanket, sadly.. because it is really cute and he got fond of it!

And of course he won't remember Lan Wangji at all. He'll think it was just an hallucination or a naive dream. And of course Lan wangji never dares to confess and he'll act like this never happened at school.

[rainydrawstuff]

G-guys, you know how Wangji injured 33 Lan seniors to protect Wei Ying at burial mounds??.......

............ 33 .....

[bluelightning41]

Have this free sketch I did too lol-

And yes I’m old and please tell me it’s still a thing

[astrerveur]

Lan Sizhui (Headcanon)

Sizhui is a very calm and cool headed person but the first time he saw you he was stunned.

Jingyi would tease him a lot about it.

"Just talk to him Sizhui!" He would poke his side repeatedly while the dutiful Lan would try his best to ignore him.

He would smile when you would be appreciated by Lan Qiren.

He couldn't find courage to walk up to you to start a conversation.

He noticed you while you sat  in the gardens reading a book and was in awe.

Lan Jingyi saw purposefully dragged him there.

"Childe (C/n)! Sizhui wanted to practice with you if its not a problem that is!" Jingyi would skip formalities and leave his friend with you.

"Oh.. Of course Childe Lan.." You would reply just as softly as he had expected you too.

A surprise it was for Sizhui when you had beat him.

"You're pretty good! Let's practice again some time..." You had smiled, leaning slightly to pat his head.

He was left with a red face as you walked back to pick your book.

He never expected you to act like you had with him.

He smiled "Childe (C/n)... Would you like to go to Caiyi town with me?" 

His question was uncertain and you smiled looking over your shoulder. "Of course.. See you later.. Sizhui." 

He had never been so thankful to Jingyi before.

[1plankbridge]

I have this theory that Jiang Cheng calls his older brother Wei Wuxian in general because it’s the name that he got given by the Jiang. (Hence a-Xian from both Jiang Fengmian & Jiang Yanli and on one occasion even Jiang Cheng!) but also maybe this is the only way they can have a version of their actual older/younger relationship even though Wei Wuxian never goes as far as a-Cheng. I think he might call him Jiang Wanyin when he’s scolding him after he insults Lan Wangji at Lotus Pier but that always registered to me as a YOU ARE IN TROUBLE YOUNG MAN - I suppose it could also be read as establishing formality.

BUT this also made me think how Madam Yu is the only member of his family who calls him Wei Ying. (Does Jiang Fengmian call him a-Ying when he’s saying goodbye to them on the boat, no longer even pretending to himself that Wei Wuxian counts as his son?). And people outside his family use it to belittle him.

How nice it must be to have this name his parents gave him used by Lan Wangji with the most love.

I also sometimes wonder if Madam Yu chose “Wuxian” for him and then never used it as a sign she didn’t think he’d earned it. No envies: a warning that was never needed. How ironic would that be? But Jiang Fengmian works too: a promise that Wei Wuxian decided to spend his whole life living up to. Because of course he did.

Ugh I love them so much. (Not Jiang Fengmian, he sucks. But everyone else. Even Madam Yu. Fight me.)

[mxtxfanatic]

Just wanna say for those of y’all who came into this fandom late: just a few years ago, speaking on Jiang Cheng with anything less than glowing praise used to bring so much harassment that “angry grape”-related tags had to be created to circumvent jc stans finding and subsequently dogpiling your posts. I’ve since seen this tagging convention appropriated by his stans to be an “affectionate” petname for his character. If you wrote a wangxian fic in which Jiang Cheng did not appear, your fics would get bombarded with stans flooding your comments with their own headcanons on why Jiang Cheng isn’t around but “this is how he’d react if he was” and “everyone loves him, they’re definitely thinking about him, rn” and “when is he supposed to show up, op???” If you read a wangxian fic and Jiang Cheng did appear, there was a 95% chance that you would have to slog through thousands of words of abuse apologia paired with every character (except maybe Lan Wangji, maybe) claiming that Wei Wuxian deserved to be abused and should just learn to handle it better because abuse is really love. It took me a year of reading purely (only, exclusively) wangxian fics to find a single fic that had both 1) canon Jiang Cheng and 2) did not twist the other characters into fanon iterations to justify canon Jiang Cheng’s abusive behavior. When more canon writers started appearing, their fics got flooded with negativity, claims that the fic wasn’t realistic because “jc isn’t like that,” and demands to change things. They started moderating their comment sections. Eventually, jc stan writers even stopped tagging Jiang Cheng in their fics despite writing him as a major character because people began to avoid reading fics if they knew from the tags that his character appeared.

The “canon jc” tag was created on tumblr because jc stans said that if we didn’t like being attacked for canon opinions we should “create our own tag.” It was not a tag that always existed. Nobody used it until my friends created it. And every few months after that, we’d get a new “flood the tag” campaign by jc stans pissed at the name until it died down… until twitter refugees arrived, bringing with them a new faction of jc stans. That jc appreciate week or whatever they call it that starts on Halloween? Created by jc stans in an attempt to flood out Wei Wuxian appreciation posts on his birthday by making sure that new Jiang Cheng content would dominate all the major tags on that day. I watched the creators brag about that.

One BIG fandom upset happened when a jc stan wrote a horribly mistagged rape and murder wangxian fic and had their friends promote it so that wangxian lovers would read the fic and be traumatized. They gloated about having "successfully baited people," then tried to delete their tweets admitting it when they got them in trouble. I was there for that, too, and I only dodged being triggered because I saved the fic to read for later instead of cracking it open immediately.

Some of y’all may see me around now, but I’ve been watching this fandom for much longer than I’ve been making posts, before even the friends and mutuals I know now even knew I existed (yes I was a lurker lol). I’ve seen the development of all this play out across tumblr, ao3, and twitter (despite my best efforts to avoid the twitter side, that’s how ubiquitous it was). That’s how inescapable it was. I saw so much shit go down that I already had a mile-wide blocklist before I made my first post, and even then, I still got hate commentary on some of my posts the moment I dipped my littlest toe into metas. I had anon off for like a year because I didn’t want to deal with any harassment, and the moment I turned it off, I started getting bait anons (though not as bad as the others I’ve seen, holy shit). When I started this blog, all I did was liveblog and reblog other people’s art and metas. I was so stressed entering this fandom because the shit I had seen off rip was absolutely disgusting. That’s why I have very intentional rules of engagement that I try to hold to for myself. I may never be the first to start the fight, but I damn sure will defend myself and my friends. I also will never run away from admitting my mistakes, but I will also never be bullied into treating someone’s personal fantasies as equal to the actual factual text.

This isn’t to say that fanon enjoyers don’t get harassment. Another big fandom scandal was that a popular fanfic writer obsessed with canon had been harassing other writers through a series of bot accounts into leaving the fandom. What a lot of people don’t bring up in their bid to paint canon enjoyers as particularly prone to “fandom bullying,” however, was that the “canon” they were obsessed with was tied almost exclusively to the canon wangxian’s top/bottom sexual dynamic. I’d read that person’s works before—enjoyed them, even, before the scandal happened. They wrote fanon into their fics in other ways. The fanon/canon divide isn’t the problem; entitlement to unanimous fandom praise and recognition is.

There’s nothing wrong with enjoying canon or fanon, nothing right or wrong or morally superior for either camp. But do me a favor: go into the main jiang cheng character tag right now, and count how often you see a post about Jiang Cheng that portrays him in a negative light. Not one that portrays him as an snarky asshole or a teacher’s pet or a helicopter parent or a crybaby who only wants to be loved, but one which shows him in all of his uncensored glory as a piece of shit antagonist. How often do you see fanart of Jiang Cheng that isn’t “best jiujiu” or “sad didi” or “badass sect leader”? How often do you see metas that don’t include some iteration of “everyone is just so mean about poor little jc who just didn’t have a choice in anything he ever did 😢”? Go to the main novel tag and do the same. Hell, go to the wangxian tag and see what you find while you’re at it. How many of those posts are viral compared to “look at jc with his dogs!” or “look, I made lxc and jc kiss!” Then tell me whether or not you believe that jc stans are being specifically targeted for some unique and undeserved persecution by the fandom at large.

[veliseraptor]

opinions on XY's wardrobe and hairstyles in CQL ? You don't have to answer this if you don't wanna

kind of love the fact that I have actually sort of written about this before. you talk about a character enough and you end up having written headcanons about all kinds of things

but at the risk of rewriting some things from that post - I think Xue Yang is, perhaps to the surprise of some people, pretty fastidious about his appearance. not necessarily in terms of, like, fitting in with society or the importance of presentation to perception, but just that he likes to look good! and some of that is about the hygiene aspect discussed in the linked post (being dressed in clean, nice clothes and having his hair styled right is a signal that he can afford to do those things, that he has enough resources to spare on more than the bare necessities; similar to his "I can have candy whenever I want" thing, it's not just about the thing itself but what the thing signifies), but some of it is just. a little bit of vanity. looking good feels good! and he gets to show off his hot self. (I don't think Xue Yang doubts that he does look good. some of this is positive feedback; some of it is just his defiant self-confidence.)

in a more meta sense, I love the contrast between what Xue Yang wears during the Yi City arc flashback and what he wears afterwards when we see him again, specifically the contrast between what he wears in the Yi City flashback and what he wears when he's in Xiao Xingchen cosplay.

the latter is so much more stripped down and sleek - it lacks the added bulk that the former gives him, particularly in the shoulders. some of that is the disguised as Xiao Xingchen, no doubt (though he still ends up in dark colors in CQL, as opposed to Xiao Xingchen's whites; I kind of wish they had put him in the white, even if I really like the way his existing outfit looks). some of it, though, makes me think of Xue Yang as diminished, as no longer putting off vibes of being bigger and more imposing than he is (which is what those shoulder pads do, and the volume of his robes in general). it's a Xue Yang who is in a lot of ways a stripped down shadow of himself. even compared to the sleeker look he has in his introduction (which also lacks the shoulder pads):

the present day Yi City clothes are simpler, plainer (lacking, for instance, the gold trim and decorative belt). I've written before about how Xue Yang at this point has hit an absolute desperation and is running out of steam - resurrected Wei Wuxian (and again I have to wonder if he even knows for sure that this is resurrected Wei Wuxian, or if he's just counting on it being) is his last ditch hope and I think even he knows it's a pretty thin one. potentially, you can see that in the style of the clothes he wears.

[kimboo-york]

A Short Treatise on Madam Yu

This is all about Madam Yu as represented in my fic The Bastards of Yunmeng, not canon!

Okay, first off, I need to make clear that I am not a Madam Yu respecter. I loathe the character, probably for very personal reasons. If Madam Yu is your babygirl, I’m sorry, this is not the meta for you.

WARNING: If you have not read up through chapter 11 of the fic, this meta is super spoilery!

This meta is not particularly spoilery for The Bastards of Yunmeng past chapter 11, but does have some information about characters that will become important later on. So, the usual warning about spoilers are in place here.

Read at your own risk, yada yada yada…

Importantly, nothing that happens in this story is meant to redeem Madam Yu. My personal headcanon is that she was a narcissist and unable to genuinely, selflessly love other people, and that is how I’ve written her here. She was in a very unhappy situation, but also she was simply not a good person overall, IMHO. It is interesting to consider if she was born that way or corrupted by circumstances, sure, but in the end, she was who she was. You can slap whatever diagnostic labels on her you want, I’m just saying she was toxic. Some people found that out later rather than sooner.

Honestly, I don’t know the specifics of how her affair with Wei Changze (and, very likely, Cangse Sanren) came about. What I DO know, however:

Jiang Fengman is sterile. She figured that out pretty quickly and took steps. This might be her villain origin story, actually; the only reason she was married off to him was to produce heirs, and so she had to do that no matter the risks. That Wei Changze was a cousin of Jiang Fengman’s and a strong cultivator in his own right made him a very attractive option, as any child of his would at least look like a Jiang.

Wei Changze is a complicated character in this story, but he’s also dead and cannot answer for himself. But here are a few important points: a) He did NOT cheat on his beloved wife. Not sure how that all went down, but it was consensual for all involved. I’m pretty sure Yanli was conceived before WCZ and CS officially got together, anyway. How Jiang Cheng happened, I’m not sure, but there was NO cheating. Well, aside from WCZ cuckolding JFM. I know this doesn’t paint Wei Changze in the best light, but what we know of Wei Wuxian is that he sometimes made outrageously dumb decisions with the best of intentions. (Maybe it’s genetic?) Personally I suspect he always disliked Jiang Fengman, though I’m not sure why. b) Also, I believe that when she was younger, before the bitterness and resentment took over, Madam Yu was very good at manipulating people (as many narcissists are). Yunmeng Jiang needed an heir and she was going to get it done. Anyway, I can’t say if Madam Yu seduced both CS and WCZ or convinced CS to share or what, but consent was given.

Madam Yu’s rage against Wei Ying had a lot more to do with her fear that a direct comparison to her son would reveal her secrets than with the rumors that he was JFM’s bastard.

I’m pretty sure that her feelings for Cangse Sanren were obsessive in nature, flipping from love to hate once she realized that CS well and truly had everything that she never would, including both WCZ and freedom. This definitely played into her hatred of WWX.

Why did she keep the letters? Because I’ve written her as a narcissist, and if there is one thing narcissists believe, it is that they are smarter than everyone around them and that rules don’t apply to them. She wanted to keep the letters, so she did. To be fair, they would never have been discovered if not for a freak lightning strike/fire in her quarters while she was away from Lotus Pier. Bad, bad luck.

I did toy with making Jiang Cheng’s father Wen Zhuliu, but I really wanted to bind the children closer together and I think that would have made JC feel isolated and left out instead. (I will maybe someday write the story of him being WZL’s son and inheriting his core-melting abilities, but that’s not this story.)

In Madam Yu’s favor, she offered to submit to her imprisonment and execution without a fight and make no attempts to escape if Jiang Fengman would at least let her children go free. He agreed, which is what led to their being immediately cast out rather than imprisoned. Would he have had them killed, eventually? I honestly don’t think so, but he might have sold them off or something.

Jiang Fengman offered Jinzhu and Yinzhu the option to return to Meishan in disgrace, but they declined and demanded to be executed along with their mistress as a point of pride. Yanli will find this out eventually, but it's not really important to the plot.

[alysha-storm6]

Oh I never connected that! But that definitely fits them! 🥹🥰

MDZS rereads are always fun cause you never know what you’ll notice next.

For example we know that Lan Wangji is pouty for some reason at the archery contest, where he’s refusing to actually speak to Wei Wuxian again and it ends in the forehead ribbon pulling.

But has anyone else ever noticed that after spending most of the lectures calling him Lan Zhan because Lan Wangji won’t answer him otherwise, here Wei Wuxian first tries to get his attention by calling him “Wangji-xiong”?

[maria-taiwin]

It's Lan Wangji's birthday (modern!au): he hasn't organized any party, he doesn't want, he never had it since his mom's death, he thinks he doesn't need it. What's the use for?

He just wants to stay alone at home like usual. Having dinner with brother and uncle. It's enough. Or at least he thinks it is.

But Wei Wuxian has other plans: he rushes to his room with a big balloon with a rabbit's shape and a big smile. It's his way of greeting him, cheering him up, because everyone - even this fuddy-duddy! - deserves to celebrate and have fun just for once.

Even if they stay at home, it's okay, let's just have fun and enjoy what we have. And Lan Wangji just stands there, still with the baloon in his hand, not speaking back, trying to process what is happening. He can't describe how he feels. When he feels too much, he's always speachless. But... he feels shaken as he didn't remember the last time he was like this for a long time. And he can't get mad at wwx for his surprise. He doesn't want to say it but he is incredibly glad.

The rabbit balloon is very welcomed.

[whumpbby]

Maybe it’s just me, but I’ve never used an anti tag before and I’m not sure why they’re so determined to protect that tag that they try and tell people off from using it wrong as opposed to just blocking and moving on. I’ve blocked most of them, a new one always seems to pop out of the woodwork every once in a while, but I can’t help but think it would be more fun to make content they like then bitch about content they don’t. They’re now saying the Jiujiuween event is meant to drown out WWX’s bday as if there won’t be a hundred other fan things going on on that day. They want to spam it and I’m so tired of people just not staying in their lane.

It's only ever about attention.

If they made their own tag, like 'bitching about jc' then people would block the tag and continue to use the app as usual.

But they need to be a pain in someone's ass, because if JC enjoyers don't get pissed and interact with them, then what other excuses do they have to keep writing their essays about how bad he is?? Writing for a group of like-minded antis doesn't have the same endorphin kick as being "right" against the "enemy". How will they feed their presecution complex if the worst people do is ignore them??

And, like, it's an actually an easy mechanism to grasp looking from the outside - kids do it all the time, being assholes for attention. And adults too - it's the Elderly Conservative Relative effect as I call itxD If no one mentions a controversial subject they have things to say about during a family meeting, goshdarnit, they will start the conversation themselves and keep it up until everyone else is uncomfortable and wants to leave! Someone will argue back at some point and, by god, they have their arguments locked and loaded!!

But at least they get attention and engagement! It's much easier to keep vomiting the same tired arguments and rewrite canon time and time again to support them. It so much easier to be performatively angry at fictional characters and to make up wild insinuations about strangers. It's the internet, after all.

It's easier than, say, making art or writing fic of some quality. Or even coming up with fun headcanons or ideas more interesting than "Lan Zhan and Wei Wuxian wuv each other so so so much!!!" repeated ad nausea, because their poor little conservative brains cannot step outside of the idea their OTP has to perfect and moral and good to be at all enjoyable. Hehe, sometimes they even have, gasp, sex!>.<

It's easier than writing actual researched meta that looks at all characters and multiple povs, takes cultural and medium tropes into consideration to provide an actual worthwhile critique.

When your main lense of interacting with a work of art is through hating it's integral parts, it's telling, imho.

That is to say, they are simple people. The modern equivalent to an evangelist shouting at the people at a street corner. Not interested in anyone's opinion but their own.

[belovedstill]

(temporary) tags page

main tags:

blog specific: AO3 (@/belovedstill) my writing (#my writing) past writing (#b tries to write <-- otome, yoi, spn, etc.) my things in general (#m) my posts (#shhh b) replies (#b replies) things for me (#things for me)

happy tags: to feel better (#to feel better) | funny posts (#:D)

misc: writing resources (#writing) prompts (#prompts) useful (resources) (#useful) mental health (#mental health) LGBTQ+ (#lgbt) how to (#how to) links (#links) random text posts (#some random thoughts)

blacklist: fandom wank (#fandom wank) cw blood (#cw blood) other common warnings: follow the pattern of 'cw' and tag

fandom tags:

scum villain's self-saving system

svsss tag (#svsss)

characters & ships: Shen Qingqiu (#sqq) Luo Binghe (#lbh) others (#svsss other) - posts with other untagged characters squad (#svsss squad) - posts with multiple characters bingqiu (#bingqiu) bingliushen (#bingliushen) jiuyuan (#jiuyuan) | shencest (#shencest) liushen (#liushen) moshang (#moshang) qijiu (#qijiu) other characters: follow the letter pattern, e.g. yqy, sj, sy, lqg, sqh, etc. other ships: try the official fandom shipname

svsss post type: art (#svsss art) fic (#svsss fic) headcanons (#svsss hc) meta (#svsss meta) meme (#svsss meme) - funny svsss posts in general misc (#svsss misc) video (#svsss video) donghua (#svsss donghua) manhua (#svsss manhua) novel (#svsss novel) official content (#svsss official)

svsss blacklist: svsss spoilers (#svsss spoilers) svsss nsfw (#svsss nsfw)

heaven official's blessing

tgcf tag (#tgcf)

characters & ships: Xie Lian (#xie lian) Hua Cheng (#hua cheng) others (#tgcf other) - posts with other untagged characters squad (#tgcf squad) - posts with multiple characters hualian (#hualian) fenglian (#fenglian) xianle trio (#xianle trio) other characters: try 'surname name' e.g. shi qingxuan, or name, e.g. ruoye, etc. other ships: try the official fandom shipname

tgcf post type: art (#tgcf art) fic (#tgcf fic) headcanons (#tgcf hc) meta (#tgcf meta) meme (#tgcf meme) - funny tgcf posts in general misc (#tgcf misc) video (#tgcf video) donghua (#tgcf donghua) manhua (#tgcf manhua) novel (#tgcf novel) official content (#tgcf official)

tgcf blacklist: tgcf spoilers (#tgcf spoilers) tgcf nsfw (#tgcf nsfw)

mo dao zu shi

mdzs tag (#mdzs) the untamed tag (#the untamed)

characters & ships: Wei Wuxian (#wwx) Lan Wangji (#lwj) others (#mdzs other) - posts with other untagged characters squad (#mdzs squad) - posts with multiple characters wangxian (#wangxian) xiyao (#xiyao) other characters: follow the letter pattern, e.g. lxc, my, jqy, lsz, etc. other ships: try the official fandom shipname

mdzs post type: art (#mdzs art) fic (#mdzs fic) headcanons (#mdzs hc) meta (#mdzs meta) meme (#mdzs meme) - funny mdzs posts in general misc (#mdzs misc) video (#mdzs video) donghua (#mdzs donghua) manhua (#mdzs manhua) novel (#mdzs novel) official content (#mdzs official) for the untamed posts: replace 'mdzs' with 'the untamed'

mdzs blacklist: mdzs spoilers (#mdzs spoilers) mdzs nsfw (#mdzs nsfw)

mxtx (all works and/or crossovers)

mxtx tag (#mxtx)

mxtx post type: crossover (#mxtx crossover) art (#mxtx art) fic (#mxtx fic) meme (#mxtx meme)

otome (mostly inactive) tags can be found here