#about my Thoughts on some of the things that go on in dmbj fandom

[lunanoc]

dare i say…..1, 6, 8, and 17 for the ask meme?

ohh please do, i have so many opinions about dmbj. that being said, obligatory disclaimer, all of these are very much my subjective opinions, not fact. fandom discourse ahead, you’ve been warned

for the ‘choose violence ask game’:

1. the character everyone gets wrong

if i had to be completely honest, my hot take would be that technically a distressingly large portion of the vocal dmbj fandom gets pretty much all the characters wrong to the point it’s actually kind of concerning, but if i had to choose one character in particular, it’d have to be xiaoge.

and look. i understand that a number of people have only watched the dramas and aren’t particularly inclined to read the books because of the time commitment that comes with so much material to get through, and that’s fair. but it’s very telling when someone only goes off of the dramas to shape their characterizations (and even then, i could have a hotter take that the dramas, exceptions aside, all have the broad strokes of the characters down with only details that change, so there’s really no excuse) because in the books, xiaoge is repeatedly described as being indifferent and very much disinterested and untouched by what goes on around him. xiaoge choosing to invest himself in something or someone is very much something noteworthy coming from him. and it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have emotions, but it does mean he’s a very nuanced character to explore when it comes to them and how they’re displayed.

it’s incredibly frustrating to see how many people, often times for the sake of a trope or a ship dynamic, make him one dimensional. either he’s a cold, almost brutal s*x predator, or he’s a tortured angsty soul that’s meek and emotionally vulnerable the moment he trusts someone enough, or he’s dramatically waxing poetic in his head about his feelings for X Y or Z, or possibly worst of all, he’s a mindless one-fit-for-all doll that caters to whatever ship he’s been placed in.

it’s not like i’m the authority on characterization, everyone has their biases, myself included, but the key to understanding xiaoge is to remember that he’s an old soul, disconnected from the world and people around him both through his particular circumstances and through the way he’s been consistently dehumanized practically since he was a baby. his sense of self is in shambles, and only begins a slow (re)construction through his slow-growing friendship with wu xie and pangzi. of course he has his doubts and fears—the whole evolution from ‘i have no connection to this world’ to ‘my one connection to this world is you’ doesn’t come out of nowhere—but those doubts aren’t expressed in conventional ways, just like any love or affection he might feel will never be thought of or expressed in grandiose or over the top ways. a lot of the things he feels just are, and it doesn’t make them less true or complex just because xiaoge isn’t one to overanalyze things and accepts and is secure in them so long as he’s been made aware of them. he’s also assertive in his judgment of things in general. i could go on and honestly i’m not sure i’m even touching the tip of the iceberg as far as fandom treatment of xiaoge goes but just. yeah.

6. which ship fans are the most annoying

this. is a very loaded question with a very loaded answer. i keep feeling like i need to make disclaimers before i say things like “if you like this it’s fine” because yes it absolutely is. i’m not telling anyone a ship is bad. but if i have to point fingers, there’s a group of people who happen to be very into particular ships with whom i’ve had. less than great interactions. so this isn’t a judgment of the ships so much as it’s a reflection of my experiences with a lot of people who happen to be vocal about liking them.

and in my time in the dmbj fandom, no group of people has been more aggravating to me than ls shippers and lc character shippers in general. and tbh i can extend that to the people who make shipping every possible character combination under the sun their entire personality. again it’s fine if you like any of these things. but that i’ve personally experienced, too many of these people manage to often offer the unholy combination of being extremely pushy about their preferences even when someone politely expresses they’re not into them, and having the worst takes imaginable on any given character they claim to like. it’s to the point where while i initially had no particularly strong feelings about ls as a character, i genuinely do not like him now and do not want to hear about him in general. and tbh by extension i’m not the biggest fan of lc and his characters just because i unfortunately associate him with these people and their behavior. you can imagine how much i enjoy the fact that these are also the group of people who’ve effectively silently bullied a number of other people out of fandom spaces enough that they’re now the face of the dmbj fandom on a number of platforms.

8. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

once again this could apply to so many things. but i think the one thing that gets me the most is the very widespread opinion that dmbj as a canon is inconsistent and full of plot holes and makes no sense. i’ve had people tell me that dmbj canon doesn’t exist because the canon is so incoherent and incohesive, and that the fandom likes it that way because it’s more fun. and that’s just a preference for fanon over canon that’s being justified by passing it off as a fact for some reason.

it’s fine to have preferences, but i draw the line at intentional misinformation. and once again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it’s telling of people having largely engaged with the dramas over the books, because the books, while imperfect and sometimes leaving things unanswered (and even then that’s becoming a moot point seeing as npss is tying up a lot of those loose ends in the more recent arc of the story that predictably over half of the fandom is unaware of because it hasn’t been adapted), very rarely end up having major discrepancies. the books, which sorry to say are very much the definitive canon, are actually very cohesive both for plot and characters, and the loose ends, while frustrating, are never to the detriment of the plot. nothing is openly contradictory, or rarely. and with such an extensive source material that doesn’t hand you answers on a gold platter, it also requires some close reading of seemingly innocuous details that become relevant down the line, which can get complicated given the sheer amount of information.

so while it’s not necessarily easy, no dmbj is not full of ‘pits haha’. people only think that because a) they’ve only watched the dramas which are an absolute mess and b) it makes them feel justified in considering dmbj like some free-for-all chinese tomb raiding themed dnd game they can remix ad infinitum, when i honestly don’t understand why that even needs justification. you can enjoy fanon without dunking on both the canon and the people who enjoy engaging with it idk.

17. there should be more of this type of fic/art

this is honestly a great question and i had to think about it for a bit, so i’m going to offer two (ish) options. the first kind of general one is i wish there were more book-centric fics instead of drama-centric ones, because while i enjoy the shows for different reasons, i love the books and the specific vibe they have, and just overall i prefer them by a fair margin. i’d specifically love fic about anything post restart but that’s a pipe dream tbh.

the second is i wish there were more gen fics about the main characters? i know there are a number of gen fics out there, but a lot of them tend to include or focus on minor characters i don’t particularly care for, and so much of the fic involving the iron triangle specifically tends to either be shippy, or even when it’s gen is still flirting a very close line to shippy that’s gen only in name and hinges on the fact it doesn’t include s*x or kissing or explicit mentions of relationship status. but i want the gen fic where it’s just wu xie and pangzi goofing off over a beer, the gen fic where it’s just pangzi trying to get a rise out of xiaoge by telling him ridiculous dirty jokes as they clean xilaimian’s kitchen while xiaoge stays impassive and eventually wu xie comes back from wherever he was and digs at pangzi for it. i want the gen fic where it’s just wu xie and xiaoge on a walk in the mountains, no talking, just enjoying each other’s presence and the peace the silence brings.

special mention to i would also like for ship fics that include one pair in the iron triangle to not write off the other member for very obvious reasons. like shipping pangxie and conveniently taking xiaoge out of the picture by writing him off as ace (which is a hc i vibe with but not when it’s a poor excuse for excluding him). or like shipping pingxie and just not including pangzi in situations where he very much would be. romance and friendship are different types of relationships but both are as valuable and can and should coexist without invalidating each other.

[qilingxiong]

Fic authors self rec! When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers (except me because obvs I have done it). Spread the self-love ❤

ahhhh thank you for this!! i haven't thought about some of these fics in quite a while, so it was fun to have reason go through them 💜

1. didn't want us to burn out (mdzs) - my chengxuan manifesto that i wrote over an absolute blur of ten days, a few years back. i consider it an important step forward in the development of my writing style and broadening the kinds of emotions i could write, and i'm proud of it as the representative tent i managed to pitch on this particular rarepair hill. it's also the longest fic i've managed to write since 2019 😭 but it's alright, i'm forgiving myself for that

2. write me willing, write me well (hamlet) - the singular fandom anomaly on my ao3 page! wrote this one in a day while putting off writing an actual paper on hamlet for class, and it was incredibly fun, especially writing in this character voice. it's also the only more epistolary-based fic i've attempted writing (or, well, it's centered around journal entries, whatever that counts for). this one is absolutely outside what i'm more known for writing, but i have such a soft spot for it

3. hold the word to its best (mdzs) - a short fic about immortal!jiang cheng, but it was a concept i'd been turning over in my head for a while by that point, and i liked the execution. this one apparently stuck with a lot of other people too, and that warms my heart, i won't lie <333

4. The War Is Over (And We Are Beginning) (mdzs) - the fic with the most traffic out of the ones i wrote for mdzs. i think it was the second fic i completed after returning to fic writing from a forced hiatus, due to some unpleasant events. i hadn't been sure then if i'd ever write fanfic again, but i did!! if i could revisit this fic there are things i would change now, but it represents something important for me, and i'm still happy with this as a jiang cheng and jin ling character study

5. all that you rely on, all that you can fake (dmbj) - i had so many big plans for dmbj fics before brainrot carried me to other places, but i really do like this short piece that i managed to complete, and huaxie is still such a fascinating character dynamic to me

thanks again for this ask!!!

[forerussake]

Twenty questions for fic writers

I was tagged by the wonderful @elenothar! Thankssss❤️

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

45

2. What's your total AO3 word count?

456.761

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've written for a bunch of fandoms over the years. Currently I'm most active in Guardian and adjacent fandoms, but I think I could and would still write for pretty much everything I've written for in the past. So the full list would be Guardian, the Silmarillion, QZGS, MDZS/CQL, YYM, the Rebel, DMBJ, and some RPF :D

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Counting the promises as yet unbroken (165)

A ballad of burning lungs and bated breath (125)

A hand within a hand (holding light) (120)

Kaleidoscope (114)

Crowded full of parting's feeling (99)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

I try to always respond to comments, bc i myself really like it when an author responds to my comments, so I would be a hypocrite not to do it myself. But also I kind of enjoy that interaction. Especially if ppl have commented on specific lines or on the themes. Sometimes commenters have insights about my fics that even I didn't have myself while writing, and I like to let them know their thoughts were appreciated :)

6. What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

Well, I am an angst writer, but I often try to make the endings of my fics at least a bit hopeful :/// I think the angstiest ending to a finished fic would have to go to either Crowded full of parting's feeling, which ends with LXC being (for the first time in his life) truly and utterly alone. Kind of a bummer. Or perhaps the easy part, which ends with ZYL crying himself to sleep on the kitchen floor.

7. What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

As I said, I try to make my endings hopeful, if not truly happy, but there are a few true happy endings to my fics! I think my RPF pieces tend to be the happiest bc I am slightly less likely to put these guys through the wringer the way I do with my truly fictional blorbos. I think the happiest however is homecoming, which ends with WJX finally coming out as trans and being her best and truest self.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

Not yet??? Hopefully it stays that way! I do write RPF though, so I'm very ready for one of the crazy antis to one day drop into my inbox calling me all sorts of nasty things for *looks at writing scribbled on hand* having the audacity to put characters in fictional situations that don't hurt the real ppl that inspired these characters in any way??? yeah :PPP

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

Occasionally, when the muse strikes! But my ace brain finds it quite difficult. My mind tends to trail off and scatter all over the place when I get to the actual smut, and I have a hard time reeling it back in. As a result my smutty fics often get needlessly long xD and they also get a little kinky bc my brain tries to come up with ways to stay engaged in its own writing xD I like testing the limits of how poetic I can be about smut scenes.

10. Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

Almost never. I rarely enjoy reading them unless they are very well done, so I don't generally think of writing them. The only consistent exception to this rule is all the weilan derivative fics! I love those very much, even if I don't always know the characters. So i've written one of those myself: no shame in having loved, a crossover between the Rebel and Detective L, which takes Luo Fei's perspective at snapshots in the Rebel canon, reflecting on everything that Lin Nansheng learns, loses, and cannot seem to stop giving away. It's a sad one, but with a slightly hopeful ending :)

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Not that I know of? I don't think I'm big enough in any fandom for anyone to consider stealing my work.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Nope, but I have had one podficced :D

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I have not. On the one hand I think I'd love to try one day, but I'm also very particular about certain things and I fear I might get antsy. I love brainstorming about fic though! Some of my best ideas have come from talking to people.

14. What's your all-time favorite ship?

Uhm Weilan I think? I'm not really in fandom for the shipping.

15. What's a wip you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

ohh hard one. I have three, if I may:

And miles to go (before I sleep): it's a story that's still very dear to me, but it's been so long since I started it that I think I'd need to rewrite the whole thing, bc I've gotten better at writing in the meantime and the style of any new chapter wouldn't match the first ones.

First gradually, and then all at once: I wrote all of this in a single week, and then uni got in the way, and then my hyperfixation on YYM ended and since then the fic's been stuck in unfortunate limbo :(((( I really want to finish it but I need the muse to guide me

Tryptich: not yet posted, but fully planned. It's one of the toughest, angstiest, most cathartic fic plots I have ever come up with, and I really want to write it because it is such a meaningful story about mental health and loss and recovery, but it's also YYM fandom, and as established above I need to regain that hyperfixation for this to move anywhere :(((( or just have a lot of free time on my hands where I can write both the guardian fic stuck in my brain and this.

16. What are your writing strengths?

uuhm, I think atmosphere/scene setting, structure, and character study/reflection.

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

dialogue tags (bane of my existence). I also think my work can sometimes drag on, I use too many words sometimes. Also I feel like I can be kind of a one trick pony xD I repeat a lot of similar lines and dramatic build-up between stories.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

Can be great when other ppl do it. If it's a language I can read a little bit that's nice , otherwise including a translation at the bottom helps. I'd definitely never write dialogue in a language I'm not fluent in. That being said, I do pay a lot of attention to what language my characters are 'actually' speaking, even if I present their dialogue to my readers in English. For example if would write a phrase like "he pauses to breathe between all three syllables" (which sucks as a line, but bear with me), in an English-language fic where the characters would canonically be speaking Mandarin Chinese, then I would make sure the line that character said would actually contain 3 syllables in both English and Chinese. I do a lot of that kind of reasoning in my head. "If this line, reflecting on dialogue spoken in Y language, was transposed directly into language X that the characters are really supposed to be speaking, would the line still work like this?" if the answer there is no, then I will either change the line, or change the English dialogue until I have something that reflects what I imagine the characters would say in their native language in the way I need!

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Tolkien!

20. Favorite fic you've written?

HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO CHOOSE??? it's probably either a hand within a hand (holding light) or kaleidoscope.

Thanks again, this was fun!!!

tagging: @pangzi @programmedradly @lunarriviera @lucientelrunya @mjsakurea @lynne-monstr @dual-domination @aredhel-of-doylkien @thedaughterofshadows if you want to :)

[eirenical]

OK, so I’ve been thinking a bit about how I fell into c dramas lately.  Because I can’t seem to make the timeline make sense in my head.  And after much research this afternoon, I think I’ve finally figured out why: the pandemic really has just entirely fucked with my perception of time.  O_o;;;

I keep thinking that I just got into DMBJ like... “last year.”  It FEELS like it should have been last year.  But after that one WiP Title meme response, I was abruptly reminded that I was just getting into HeiPing almost exactly a year ago... and that was at LEAST a year after first getting into DMBJ.  So I did some looking.

I reblogged my first TLTR posts in mid-late July OF 2020.  Definitely NOT a year ago.  XD  And I caved and got an iQIYI subscription around the end of July/beginning of August of 2020 to watch it.  So it’s been like... 2 1/2 YEARS, not ONE year.  OTZ

Thanks pandemic... everything that happened around when you started was “a year ago” I GUESS???

Then I got curious about when I first got into c-dramas, because in my head that was “a couple of years ago” but CLEARLY IT WAS NOT.

My first tagged The Untamed post was from November of 2019.

...............REALLY.

I’m almost certain I started watching that in the summer of 2019.  But either way, it was only a YEAR (or less???) from my first forays into c dramas to landing in the DMBJ pit?

No WONDER my mental timeline construct on that one is so fucked up.  I was so sure I was in TUD fandom for longer than a year before branching out into Guardian and I was sure I was in Guardian for at least a year before stumbling into DMBJ but CLEARLY THAT COULD NOT HAVE BEEN THE CASE????

OMG, I am so confused.  O_o;;;

I was writing (and posting) Legacies Lost up until the first full semester of lockdown began, which would have been Fall of 2020.  And I don’t THINK I was in Guardian fandom before that?  Maybe I overlapped more than I thought?

...my first Guardian post was May of 2020, but I’d clearly been watching for at least a little while by the time I reblogged that post.

I am SO fucking confused, you guys.  I REALLY THOUGHT I was in c drama fandoms for much much longer before landing in DMBJ.  HOW IS THAT SO CRUNCHED AND CONDENSED???

Ooooooooooh.  OK, I see.  I forgot that the summer of 2019 was Rocketman summer.  And I was definitely NOT yet in c drama fandoms at the time.  But now I remember that a friend was putting The Untamed on my dash for at LEAST 6 months to a year before I started watching it.  That might be why it seemed like it was longer.  And I guess I really must have overlapped more between Guardian and TUD than I thought I had.  The tipping point to me posting more Guardian stuff was in June of 2020 and it was a month after that that I fell into DMBJ.

WOW.

Sorry guys; probably no one cares, but this is weirding me out a little.  XD  All this time I really thought I was in Guardian fandom for way longer than DMBJ but APPARENTLY NOT???  I’m so confused.  XD

OK.  I’m gonna go... toddle off and think about other things now.  XD

[puppy-phum]

8 Shows to Get to Know Me

thank you for tagging me josi @wanderlust-in-my-soul​​ ♥ am always happy to talk about shows that are important to me~

(tried to write these down in order from oldest to newest! meaning: when they came into my life and changed me)

I. Merlin (2008-2012)

one of the first shows i ever watched from a streaming site (aka illegally online haha), tho i did start watching it while it was airing on our tv. i adore the atmosphere, the world, the characters, and the whole journey throughout all five seasons. it feels whole. the fandom here is also amazing, even if i mostly watch it from afar ♥

II. Theory of Love (2019)

am not really sure when exactly i watched this for the first time, but i have vague memories of the last ep or the special ep only having just aired. it was one of my first introductions to bls - to good and more thoughtful bls - and i loved it with my whole chest. after rewatching it a year ago, i can still say it’s one of those shows that has rearranged something permanently in me. 

III. Sense8 (2015-2018)

the show that feels like it was made for me. it’s just so full of things i love: fantasy, mysteries, action, character bonds, found family, love, acceptance, understanding, and even psychological themes. i love each of the characters very dearly and enjoyed all of their relationships with each other. i also loved what this show did with intimacy, both the emotional and physical kind, by showing how it can be a source of great comfort. 

IV. The Untamed (2019)

my first ever cdrama that opened up a whole new world for me. it became one of my first ever big hyperfixations, one of my great loves. it let me dive into the world of other cdramas and so even more great shows. and it brought me to many new things and ppl here on tumblr after leading me into editing and so to the mdzs network ♥

V. The Lost Tomb 2 / Explore With The Note (2019)

i cannot really pack dmbj into only one show bc each of the adaptations has given me something to chew on, but tlt2 is always my baby. it is the show that made me love pingxie, the show that made me insane about their story, and the show i would die for. it gave me serious brainrot for such a long time, and even if it’s not the best one of the adaptations, it’s still very, very dear to me.

VI. You’re My Glory (2021) 

i never thought a romance show would get to me but this one did in so many ways. it taught me some precious lessons and i think it changed how i see accomplishments, dreams, and working hard to reach personal goals. it gave me hope and strength, and it just made me believe in love that is comfortable and adjusts to your needs. 

VII. Bad Buddy (2021)

the show that changed me about a year ago. the show that somehow opened up a lock inside of me, that allowed me to feel new things, that comforted me and understood me. idk if any bl can ever feel as much home as bb does. little did i know that when i started watching this silly bl during the christmas it was still airing, it would consume me, heart and soul, and then lead me here, wrapped up in this bl world. 

VIII. Vice Versa (2022)

if there’s one show to define me right now, to define me for the past year, it’s vice versa. it’s everything to me in every sense. it’s a show i go to when i want to cry, or smile, or feel warm, or happy, or sad, or delighted, or comforted, or loved. it’s a show that feels like a hug, a show that heals me in all the ways i need to be healed. it means so much to me. and it doesn’t hurt that it’s still one of the most beautiful bls i’ve ever seen ♥ (i could write essays of vv, tho at the same time it feels like the jane austen quote, “if i loved you less, i might be able to talk about it more”)

some honorary mentions: 

The Long Ballad (2021), Not Me (2021), My Country: The New Age (2019), The Blood of Youth (2022), and 3 Will Be Free (2019)

tagging: @leonpob​ @stormyoceans​ @dimpledpran​ @hils79​ @psychic-waffles​ @ardentlytess​ @oswlld​ @sanoreo​ ♥

[sunriseverse]

For the ask meme: 9, 10, 12, 17, 28, 33, 40

thanks for the ask!

9. How do you find new fic to read?

honestly i just open whatever tag i want to read and backread from whatever's the newest. i do filter out certain things (length, completion, some archive warnings), but other than that, i don't do much else, just go from there. this is, as you can imagine, harder in smaller fandoms, and sometimes i feel a bit like a rat searching for crumbs.

10. How do you decide what to write?

usually what i write is either 1. prompted (rarer these days now that i'm not Known as a prompt writer), or 2. based on ideas i toss around with my friends. talking concepts through with people helps solidify my thoughts and portrayals—i'm not very good at forming cohesive narratives on my own, without anyone to bounce them off of.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

hmmm, i can think of a lot i used to be neutral towards, but now i hate or dislike strongly, but not much the other way around...................maybe non-linear narratives? i used to find them annoying, but since i started writing them for sunrise and realised how useful they are, they've grown on me.

17. What highly specific AU do you want to read or write even though you might be the only person to appreciate it?

pacific rim or his dark materials fusions always get me. i think these are a bit more common, though (pacrim has its own fusion tag, even), so i guess my most obscure and highly-specific au would be a dmbj-zmyx fusion/crossover—dmbj could definitely work as a door world, but both fandoms have a really small english fanbase, so i'm not sure the overlap between them, and likely, i would be the only one who wanted to read it.

28. Does anyone read your fics before you post them? If so, who?

i don't tend to let people read the entire completed fic before it's posted, but i do send my friends excerpts! poor @lungache has to listen to me both ramble about my concepts and toss my horrid little sneak peeks at them, and @lucientelrunya gets the same treatment, and i greatly appreciate both of them for it.

33. If you write chaptered fics, what’s your ideal chapter length to write? Is it different from your ideal chapter length to read?

the ideal chapter length is whatever gets the job done, but if i'm writing a multichapter fic, then whatever length the first chapter is is the bare minimum for all following ones. i've written fics that had 1k chapters, and i've written fics that have 5k chapters—it really just depends on how much i'm covering per chapter. (also, my chapters these days tend to be longer just because i love description and emotion, and refuse to be concise.) for preferred reading length, usually anything 1k+ is good for me, and i'm not too picky—i'm willing to read 2k chapters, or 30k chapters.

40. Do you tend to reread fics or are you a one-and-done kind of person?

depends entirely on what i'm feeling. i haven't reread most of my bookmarks, but if i'm in desperate straits (have been through a tag and read everything i'm willing to already), i'll go back and reread things.

[nemainofthewater]

Tag propaganda part 4 - write in candidates edition under the cut:

DMBJ

by @lacommunarde

by @unforth

#this is sand sea 'xinyangdao zero-lactose milk' erasure#it gets a little hallmark movie with a mob boss tenderly feeding another mob boss's minion#someone brings it up in an inspiring speech after nearly dying of snake bite as an example of how to persevere through life's difficulties#the obscure monastery in the badlands which takes a week for a supply train to travel to HAS XINYANGDAO ZERO-LACTOSE MILK on the table#also it's good to give your girlfriend to show you care#daomu biji#dmbj#if dmbj wins no other poll *it has to be this one*#honour is at stake by @thelaithlyworm

#cdrama poll#propaganda#the surprise condom ad for wilderness purposes is also very relevant#vote dmbj! by @thelaithlyworm

#dmbj#daomu biji#grave robbers' chronicles#wu xie#pangzi#the who the hell is wu xie fandom is back again by @bladedweaponsandswishycoats

#lt2 has a lot of product placement as a flirty thing which is over the top but not always *funny*#truly the most thai bl tomb show#I learned how to make gifs in resolve for this because the lighting in tombs is always bad#where by learned I mean opened up some menus it was easy (from a place of already knowing some stuff about dvr)#anyways idk what I'm voting here#I love wolong nuts#and I haven't seen a lot of these shows#dmbj#kinda by @inimitablereel

#that’s a good suggestion#but i’m going eith the milk cartons (it was milk right?? it’s been a hot minute sonce i watched that) in sha hai ajshshshj#usually product placement just makes me roll my eyes a little#but sha hai made me laugh my ass off#*serious hospital scene where we discuss serious things* ‘oh here’s milk do you want some?’ by @forerussake

#also for The Lost Tomb 2 - I'd swear it was a MASERATI ad by @lasenbyphoenix

#that last gif is sending me I forgot he made that face. pangzi what#also fun fact when I first watched I literally did not realize those were actually condoms#I thought it was a specific 'keep your phone dry' product and was like haha looks like a condom#sigh#dmbj by @silver-grasp

#tlt2#dmbj#gos bless the tlt2 condom ad#pangxie by @psychic-waffles

#lost tomb#god second favorite and best season by @chirpybirdy

SVSSS

by @inknpaperlove

#scumbag system's period pad product placement#SQQ being a feminist through and through by @travalerray

#no no no you forgot scumbag system and tampons#*pads whoops by @glitterygolem

#ahshwjshqjsh#but svsss wasnt product placement it was an external ad#still hilarious#WOLONG NUTS THO LMAOOOO by @somtimes-me

#THE SCUM VILLAIN PAD COMMERCIAL MAKES ME LOSE IT by @waitineedaname

#svsss#aslkdjjfhalksjdhlf by @qiu-yan

#SVSSS#Pad Commercial Is Iconic by @absolmon

#i was about to say this is scum villain pad ad erasure by @ruusverd-fandom-blog

#I can’t ever forget the mdzs coca cola ad bc it was the first time I had seen product placement like that by @bifrosted-flakes

#the scum villain pads hands down#svsss#polls by @minnichan

#this is svsss sanitary pads erasure#cdrama poll by @woolasaur

#the pad commercial for svsss 100% omfg#i was dying when i saw it 😂😂😂#poll by @thebeingofeverything

Kinnporsche

by @sodapop000

by @damiemontclair

Other

by @libraryofjoy

#it's a niche show#but go princess go's stage play#about condoms lives in my heart#as the weirdest product placement#course the show itself is a weird thing in its entirety#like the korean remake doesn't even hit#with how weird the show was#just in costumes alone by @1ebilcat

The camera pans, the scene changes. The dashing protagonist smiles at the moon and whips out...

A bag of nuts? With a brand name clearly labelled?

Or perhaps the comic relief characters swarm the leads, talking enthusiastically about how amazing this stomach medicine is.

Or how about yoghurt being featured more often than would be expected.

Maybe there’s an awkward cut to actors in full costume walking out and expounding on how great a product is.

...was that a PIZZA HUT in the background?

Shout out to Legend of Shen Li - I don't know whether or not the ice pops were a product placement, but they should have been!

Also not a cdrama but shoutout to this product placement filled video on Douyin- truly impressive!

Write-ins, propaganda, and images are welcome!

[daydreamorama]

Fic Writer Interview

Thank you @lucientelrunya for tagging me

name/nicknames: daydreamorama everywhere, feel free to use any diminutives

fandoms: Mostly DMBJ, but I'll read any fanfic relevant to my interests, if there was more Heroes content I'd probably still be there too

two shots?: Not really. I tend to write one larger thing with multiple one shots spun off it, then some random unrelated one shots.

most popular multi-chapter fic: (also my most popular (as determined by kudos) would be my very first fic Ships And Sand (I have a small sequel I hope to focus on when my current wip is done :D )

actual worst part of writing: When you've fully daydreamed a scene and you got it just perfect, but you don't have a writing thing handy, and by the time you do you forget the perfect line of dialogue/transition thing. (followed closely by when you thought you had a scene completely written out and you go to edit it and realized you stopped mid conversation)

how do you choose your titles: Seeing the title box and then throwing in the first thing that pops into my mind. Hopefully a pun.

do you outline?: Not at all. I usually just get random scenes inserted in my brain and when I write them things happen. Sometimes later scenes mean rewriting earlier scenes, so I always have the beginning/middle/end written before posting the first chapter. (if I outline my brain considers the story already written and then I can't write it :sob:)

ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?: so many. I have a Xiao Hua/Xiuxiu/Hei Xiazi (qpr/romantic) fic but I just can't figure out the voices of Xiao Hua and Xiuxiu (and Hei Xiazi, but I fixed that in the rarepair exchange)

callouts @ me: when you wake up in the middle of the night with an idea, do not think you'll remember it in the morning. You never do.

best writing traits: character emotions. I really like to immerse myself in what a character is feeling, and I want the reader to know what that emotion is with no room for doubt or interpretation.

spicy tangential opinion: I don't actually mind when cannon ace characters are written as not ace in fanfic. Mostly because I find most cannon ace rep a 'blink and you'll miss it' and if you're not ace you probably relate to the character in a different way. Fanfiction is all about exploring and having fun and the majority of people tag on a03 very well so I can avoid anything I don't want to read. (also straight characters are written as gay all the time so :shrug:) (though I do love all ace interpretations cannon or headcannon and wish there was more)

[foxofninetales]

(Amazing header image by @ traineecryptid)

Terminal Ballistics by fox_of_nine_tales

Fandom: DMBJ | The Grave Robber’s Chronicles and related fandoms

Relationship: Hei Xiazi/Xie Yuchen

Rating: Teen

Tags:  Canon Compliant, Angst, Introspection, Established Relationship, Relationship Negotiation, Missing Scene 

Summary:

After everything is over – after they meet beside an empty grave and leave it behind them, after Chuchu has used her new voice to scream in delight as she flings herself at Hei Xiazi, after Hei Xiazi has told her that he liked the whistle better, that if he’d known she wasn’t going to stop talking he’d have changed his mind, after all the things that Hei Xiazi says that mean pain, and guilt, and relief…

After all that, Xiao Hua enters his bedroom and finds Hei Xiazi waiting there.

Author’s commentary: 

So confession - as usual, this wasn’t the first fic I set out to write for the exchange.  Apparently this is just how I do exchanges: spend weeks writing one fic, panic with a week or two to spare, and write something completely different.  (Hopefully the other fic will see the light of day at some point. *eyes the half-finished fics from all the previous exchanges dubiously*)  But @highpriestessofjogan​ ​‘s prompt about Xiao Hua and Chuchu during Reboot kept niggling at me, because... I’d been wondering that, too, ever since I’d finished that show.  Obviously what we thought we saw wasn’t really what happened, but if there was a bait and switch, then... did someone else go in her place?  If so, who?  And then I watched Ultimate Note and saw Xiao Hua pretending to be Xiuxiu and it all fell into place, and worked so well to explain so many things. Not my usual sort of fic at all, but I really enjoyed writing it for my recipient.  This may be the first and last time I ever use the Canon Compliant tag, so enjoy it while you can.  ;)

Read it on AO3

[lunanoc]

Tibetan Sea Flower (藏海花) Drama Review or Why I Think It’s a Laundry List of Crimes Actually

Because somebody had to do it

So the Tibetan Sea Flower (or 藏海花, or Adventure Behind The Bronze Door) drama, meant to be adapting the Tibetan Sea Flower novel, first sequel following the main eight volumes of Daomu Biji, has been out for a while now, and I finally got around to actually finishing it. And I have Many Things to say about it

That I can tell, a lot of people in the English-speaking part of the fandom have praised it for various reasons, and while I’m glad there are people who enjoyed it, I’m not one of those people, so for the sake of variety of opinion I thought I’d share my thoughts about it. I could honestly write an essay because that’s how many crimes this drama committed in my opinion, but no one wants to read All That so this is going to be an attempt at a highlight reel

TLDR; Tibetan Sea Flower is firmly at the bottom of my list of DMBJ adaptations with Lost Tomb 2.5. It’s only slightly above that because unlike Lost Tomb 2.5, Tibetan Sea Flower has a few redeeming qualities at least

First off, some things I did enjoy, or if not enjoy, that I can appreciate in a “there was a vision” sense

My favorite part of this drama was the first 4 or 5 episodes, and the choice to start with the tail end of volume 8 of the main story was a smart decision in that it gave a lot more emotional impact leading into ZHH proper. The start of the drama is fast-paced without feeling rushed, and while my opinion on the ZHH drama isn’t entirely based off of doing a one-to-one comparison with the book (mostly because adaptations inevitably change things to adapt to a new medium so they can’t and shouldn’t be one-to-one copies), the fact it followed the book to a T was a touch I appreciated. The cinematography, directing, and music for the most part are also a strong point this drama has going for it. I can also appreciate that the PingXie married vibes were off the charts to the point where every single time someone said “you’re the patriarch’s chosen one/friend” they might as well have been calling Wu Xie ‘Zhang furen’ it would have been the same thing. The addition of Ten Years Later (and the Fishing King extra which isn’t really an extra anymore since it’s been published as part of Ten Years Later) is also a decision I can appreciate in theory, and from a storytelling perspective makes for a fulfilling and thematically relevant ending. Chen Minghao as Pangzi also almost single-handedly carried the entire drama, iconic, thank you for your service king

Now that that’s out of the way, I can get into the meat and entire point of this post, that is some of the multiple crimes the ZHH drama committed because trust there are Many

I think the fact it started out so strong to me is what makes the rest of it worse. I’m not even sure if I can actually coherently explain the extent of the psychic damage this drama gave me by the time I finished it. There are sometimes significant differences between the drama and the book, which is something I expected because it’s an adaptation, and departures from the source material aren’t necessarily a bad thing. So it’s not that it’s different from the book that’s fundamentally a problem for me. What is a problem, however, is when an adaptation decides to make choices that fundamentally compromise the integrity of both the characters and the overarching plot. I don’t tend to expect anything from DMBJ adaptations, mostly because in general their quality varies, and they’re the main source of the misconception that DMBJ canon is a mess of inconsistencies and lack of cohesion when the original source material is by opposition generally both consistent and cohesive. The ZHH drama is one of those drama adaptations that decided to take the equivalent of a sledgehammer to everything from characterization and lore to any hope of cohesion between it and either the other drama adaptations or the books

The Zhang family lore takes the biggest hit. The casual obliteration of it is probably my biggest beef with this drama, and I can already hear people saying “but it’s not obliterated if it’s thematically adjacent, it doesn’t have to copy the book!. Now listen. It can be thematically relevant and not need to copy the book without creating completely unnecessary plot contradictions with the rest of the story, and as far as the Zhang family lore reworks are concerned, some of them aren’t even thematically appropriate, and sometimes are done in a way that’s?? Honestly baffling to me. Zhang Nian’s entire arc and existence is one of those, because he manages to make himself and the entire subplot that stems from him completely irrelevant by episode 20 where the drama just goes “...so anyway!”

There’s also the choice of having the tianshou (or the heavenly gift) be some sort of bug poison/disease that’s implied to be the only thing holding the Zhang family back from being “free” and living a normal life, and so from the moment Xiaoge decides to take on the mantle of Zhang Qiling for his own personal reasons (which is another issue I have), he alone bears the weight of the heavenly gift, and the rest of the family either disperses into living perfectly normal lives, or is at a bit of a loss as to what to do, which while this last bit is true to some extent for the overseas branch in the books, it stems from circumstances forcing them rather than a goal they wanted to achieve. I’m going to be very generous in blaming this change on censorship, but this alone, surface level as it is, is already contradicting the Zhang family’s most important thematic relevance in the story beyond the lore itself: the fact that they’re meant to be a family led astray by their own hubris and isolationist elitism, eventually switching gears from re: Queen’s Banquet an ancient people likely cursed by primordial entities beyond human understanding into becoming Other and seeking a cure for that, to a widespread and powerful clan pulling the strings of an entire empire for centuries upon centuries seeking a way to achieve true immortality

In the books, the Zhang family’s downfall is their own hubris that blinds them to their own failings to the point that eventually they lead themselves to being wiped out entirely by the Wang family, at least as far as the main branch is concerned. In the ZHH drama, their downfall isn’t even a downfall so much as it’s like they decided to retire and are having post-retirement depression. Zhang Nian is a pawn for the Wang clan, and in that sense he’s “relevant”, but his story is long-winded at best and undermines the impact and importance of the Wang family itself that ends up becoming a barely relevant footnote much like Sand Sea itself

The only thing I’m willing to believe is that Xiaoge either suffers from a more powerful version of the tianshou or is the only Zhang family member at present that suffers from it, mostly because we have no other living members of the main family alive to know if the tianshou ever became a burden Zhang Qiling alone carried for the rest of the clan. I’d be here forever if I started getting into how the ZHH drama somehow managed to lowkey retcon the Zhang family lore that was hinted at at the end of Queen’s Banquet, but it’s impressive how it managed to do even that. By the time it reached this point in episode 31 I was honestly just head in hands

Characterization issues in this drama also exist, and the three characters who suffer from it the most are probably Zhang Haike, and to a certain extent both Xiaoge and Wu Xie. Zhang Haike’s character is changed to the extent he might as well be a different character altogether so I won’t bother going into detail or I’ll be here for a while (TLDR; more or less erasing the fact he wears Wu Xie’s face permanently erases the somewhat antagonistic and overall complicated relationship he has with Wu Xie), but Xiaoge and Wu Xie have smaller changes that create contradictions down the line

Despite the drama mostly (but not entirely) disproving that Xiaoge specifically chose Wu Xie to carry on the task of tending to the tibetan sea flowers, it doesn’t discard the possibility entirely, which creates a number of problems, namely the fact that Xiaoge’s entire reasoning for going behind the bronze door in Wu Xie’s place and pushing him away the whole way up Changbai Mountain was to try and push Wu Xie out of tomb robbing and conspiracies altogether. Xiaoge sets up contingencies to help Wu Xie if he reaches specific points of no return, but going behind the bronze door is essentially Xiaoge doing the exact opposite of choosing Wu Xie to do a task, he’s aggressively unchoosing him. He also doesn’t ever relegate his duties as Zhang Qiling to other people

The same goes for the reasoning behind Xiaoge becoming Zhang Qiling being a deliberate move to help him find out who his parents are. This I can’t entirely discredit simply because the Three Days of Silence extra (the story of Xiaoge meeting Baima) gives no specific timeline or indication of his reason for going to the Jila temple besides that he was looking for a woman but he didn’t know who she was, and ZHH the book itself never talks about the circumstances behind Xiaoge becoming Zhang Qiling. The early main books place emphasis on Xiaoge’s driving force being discovering his identity and by extension his place in the world, so it’s not impossible to consider that might have been the case when he was a child as well. This is mostly vibes and not so objective, but the vibes are different, and to me Xiaoge becoming Zhang Qiling carries something more akin to a lamb offered as a sacrifice that accepts the role it’s been given, coupled with stepping up to a duty the Zhang family had essentially abandoned by that point, as opposed to doing it for strictly personal reasons. The same goes for the entire reasoning behind the tianshou wanting to kill Zhang Haike’s wife and taking control of Xiaoge to do so, because there’s irony in making Xiaoge, historically the least traditionalist Zhang alive outside of his actual duties as Zhang Qiling, Zhang family traditionalist number one via tianshou as if tianshou ever cared about the Zhang family’s isolationist politics or other earthly forms of power or symbols

Wu Xie is more complicated in that part of the problem for me is that I don’t particularly like Zhang Luyi as Wu Xie. Or in general as an actor. I’m aware this is a personal preference, but a lot of the more emotional moments were lost on me because to me he simply wasn’t conveying whatever emotion was meant to be conveyed convincingly. The biggest issue I have with Wu Xie’s portrayal outside of that is the subtle erasure of his character development. Reducing the Wang family’s relevance and impact cheapens their importance in the overarching story, which in turn cheapens the Sand Sea plan and its extreme difficulty, and the heavy personal cost of it for Wu Xie, which takes shape in the changes to the origin of his self-harm scars. Again, changing things from the book is fine, but when it alters what I consider to be a fundamental element in a character, it becomes a problem

The ZHH drama makes a point of showing that the first two scars that Wu Xie gives himself stem from what’s basically survivor’s guilt. He failed to protect the Zhang family, like he failed to prevent a situation that forced the Yinshaluo (I’m not sure that’s the name of the tribe considering all the place names in this drama are fake) warrior to sacrifice himself to stop the storm. Wu Xie punishes himself because he feels he failed, because he felt like he could have and should have done better. There are elements of that in the reasoning behind his scars in the Sand Sea book where their origin is explained, but the fundamental difference is that ZHH drama Wu Xie’s actions and reasoning come from a place where survivor’s guilt aside, he’s not objectively to blame for situations beyond his control, and in that sense, he’s “morally good”. Sand Sea book Wu Xie’s actions and reasoning come from the perspective of a man who deliberately orchestrated events in which he manipulated various people into becoming his pawns on a very high risk chessboard. Each scar represents a bad choice of move of the pawn that resulted in the death of his chosen sacrifice, so the element of failure is there, but the difference lies in the fact that contrary to the ZHH drama where he fails to save people, in the book, the people behind the scars are his victims that he willingly led to their deaths. He punishes himself because it’s his way of tolerating the intolerable from himself. Wu Xie’s amorality for the greater good in Sand Sea is such an important facet of his character, and by shifting the origin of those scars, it takes away from that element that the ZHH drama doesn’t hint at at all, or barely

There’s so many more things I could get into about this drama, like how paralleling Wu Xie and Xiaoge as being similar feels like a fundamental misunderstanding of their characters because them being different is the entire point. It’s doubly ironic when NPSS said recently that the entire point is that they’re entirely different people who only after the ten years have passed meet in the middle where their trajectories truly parallel each other: one of a man who went from a god to a man, and one of a man who went from man to god. I could talk about how Mama Bear Pangzi is a carry-over from the Reboot drama that doesn’t accurately reflect either what Pangzi is like in the books or how his dynamic with Wu Xie functions in them. I could talk about how despite there being good intentions in adding those scenes, shoving in as many impactful moments from the main story and Ten Years Later + Fishing King as they possibly could ended up feeling like boxes were being ticked off a list and it took away from their impact to the point some of those moments felt off or bland. It didn’t help that whether it was a directing issue or a filming issue (not an acting issue because Zhang Kangle was overall a good interpretation of Xiaoge), Xiaoge had practically no actual chemistry with either Wu Xie or Pangzi. I could talk about this drama’s pacing issues where it yo-yoed between going fast then excruciatingly slow. I could talk about the irony of an adaptation managing to both take a sledgehammer to the source material in a way that’s honestly criminal, yet ironically also being one the least newcomer friendly DMBJ adaptations

It’s safe to say I won’t be watching the ZHH drama again. This post exists mostly for the purpose of expounding on why I didn’t like this drama despite its strong start instead of just saying “it was bad”

[s1utspeare]

Writing Tag Game

Once again, @hils79 is coming through and giving me reasons to live every day. I love u hilsy :')

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

18 lol

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

209,037

3. Top five fics by kudos

A Swiftly Tilting Planet - 228

i wish that you would love me - 133

cause it's easier to bury my head in the sand sometimes - 131

the play's the thing - 114

falling backwards, falling backwards - 103

4. Do you respond to comments, and why?

I like to!! Partially because I love talking about my work with people, and I love seeing what they've gotten out of it, and partially because i'm always so excited when people comment so it's like "!!!!!!!!"

5. What’s the fic you have written with the angstiest ending?

uhhhhh wow idk. ummmm the first fic i ever published, way back in like, 2012, was a Major Character Death ending... Precursor in the Trollhunters fandom is fairly bittersweet... idk most people like angst with a happy ending (including me) so I try not to end things on a down note. There's enough of that in the world. for recent fics, I guess falling backwards, falling backwards OH WAIT SHIT i completely forgot about can't be bothered by the teachers. nevermind, THAT one is the angstiest

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

the play's the thing! that one was just very cute and very fluffy so of course it had a happy ending ^.^

7. Do you write crossovers, if so what’s the craziest one you have done?

I've only ever done crossovers as crack fic, but i was.............. uh definitely very weird in middle school so there's some out there.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Not really lol. There were a couple of critiques on some things back on ff.net, but they weren't even really hate, just things that I was like >:/ about bc i was like. twelve.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I didn't, and I never thought I would, but then I started writing smut for like, my professional job, and idk I just think it's really interesting??? it's something i haven't ever really tried so when I'm looking for a way to stretch my writing muscles and experiment I do some smut lol. I'm actually really proud of my chen pi/er-ye/yatou smut and i'm not entirely sure why??? probably just bc I wrote it which means i'm growing as a writer asighafjalfjg. who would've thought.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nope! I'm not sure if that's bc I've never been in a big-enough fandom, or if everyone I've ever come across is just really nice! My style is also pretty distinctive, so that could be a turn away from stealing lol

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

I don't think so! That would be so cool though!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

Back on ffnet, yeah. They were all very 2012. And bad.

13. All time favorite ship!

I DON'T KNOOOOWWWWWW like my favorite ship (Wangxian) i haven't written yet, but my favorite ship to write has probably been Iron Threesome (have i even actually written them???? outside of pingpangsangxie?? i can't remember. Anyway).

14.What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you will?

I have no idea? Like, I have every intention of finishing every WIP I have started rn... if it's not something I'm completely into, I just don't start it lmao. I want them all to be DONE but i don't have TIME lol. Uhhhh there's a dmbj kpop au that i have outlined but probably won't ever write bc there's a lot more plot than I think I have the patience to put into a piece that's essentially just "zhang rishan angst modern au"

15. What are your writing strengths?

Uhhhhhhhhh language use, probably. @xcziel said something recently about how my writing reads like it's lined in gold (and I nearly cried about it), and I definitely write as though things are going to be read aloud, so I like to pay attention to how rhythm and sounds and sentences flow. Also DIALOGGGUUUEEE see this is all because i'm a playwright alsidghasdfkjas

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

i go too fast :/ i feel like if i took some more time on things i could really up the quality of some of it but i get too excited and just want to get it OUT so i end up making tiny mistakes and then have to do more work correcting them, but if i had just been slightly more patient I could have avoided it in the first place lol

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I think that you should stick to languages you're fluent in, unless you have a professional translator. I also don't believe in making words in other (real) languages italicized, because that sort of emphasizes the "otherness" of a different language, and that's not a good thing. THAT BEING SAID i fucking love making up languages; I don't have any fully developed ones, but all of my fantasy worlds usually have made-up swear words lmao

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Percy Jackson adsighasdljalsdfjad. That was a while ago.

19. Fave fic you have written?

OOOoohhhhh, shit. Uh. I don't know if I have favorites, I just have things that I'm proud of for like, each fic? Like I really like At the Beginning of the End of the World because that one was written in second person, which was a fun challenge, as well as for a fandom that I'm not in (Deltarune) because it was a charity commission request, so I had to do a lot of research and stuff to figure out what was going on there. A Swiftly Tilting Planet is super fun and super interesting to me, and I'm really excited for the rest of the trilogy that I have planned, but there's also a LOT of stuff I kind of wish I could change about that one (mainly because I've read it over like 78 times and found all the small mistakes lmao). I'm also super proud of i wish that you would love me because i think I really doubled-down on the language strengths in that one, and the amount of people that fic resonated with is very important to me, because I'm one of them. So there's a lot of different things that I like about each fic I've written, and I like them all!

THIS WAS SO FUN THANK YOU HILSY i'm gonna tag @daydreamorama, @mejomonster, @jockvillagersonly, @bookjoyworm, and @pissmeoffanddie, as well as anyone who would like to TAG STEAL >:)

[forerussake]

rules: post the names of all the files in your wip folder regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. let people send you an ask with the title that most intrigues them and then post a little snippet of it or tell them something about it! and then tag as many people as you have wips.

i was tagged by the wonderful @thedaughterofshadows tnx!!! <3

i’m tagging: @aredhel-of-doylkien @scaredysap @psychic-waffles @phantomhydeoftheopera @youngks-smile @cute-rocks @stupid-lemon-eater @pangzi @enjaami @omaenanimonoda @lynne-monstr @morifiinwe @elenothar if you feel like it. idk if yall all write xD

unfortunately mine is also going to be very boring, bc the file names of my WIP files are generally just the fandom name + character name + WIP or sth along those lines. also my WIP files (several ones for different fandoms) sadly contain many things I started such a long time ago that i do not think I will ever go back to them, for the simple reason that my writing has evolved and the styles would not fit together anymore, but here goes nothing :D putting it under a read more bc it got long...

1. DMBJ gnc Wu Xie fic : pretty much what it says on the tin. post-tltr wu xie exploring some gender stuff he wasn’t ready for before

2. Cheng Xinyan fic : Guardian, obviously. This one is set after the scene where sw gets soaked kneeling in the rain to get the annoying doctor to fix zyl’s eyes. sw goes to see his old uni buddy afterwards bc he needs some tlc. the whole thing is an exploration of their relationship and shared history, as well as sw’s emotional state in the present. 

3. Guardian fic - A hand within a hand (holding light) : i’m working on chapter 6 atm. fic is an exploration of various oc povs of sw throughout the guardian timeline. the current chapter follows my oc chen anjing, who is a dixingren single mother living in haixing with her young son, who both have a history with hei pao shi that takes a lot of effort to get past. 

4. Student Shen Wei fic : this one might get scrapped bc the intended plot is very similar to what i ended up doing in chapter 4 of the fic above this one, only with prof. Zhou in place of my oc :/

5. MDZS murder mystery : i have every intention of getting to this one one day but damn if it isn’t too complicated for me. it’s a murder mystery fic surrounding the death of a young boy in a village on the border between lanling and qinghe. lan xichen, jiang cheng and a bunch of ocs set out to solve the murder, and in the process they unearth a bunch of lxc’s old trauma he thought he’d worked through. the whole thing is told in flashback, from the post-canon perspective of nie huaisang who is the only one still alive who knows what actually happened those days and what lxc and jc did not manage to figure out.

6. SHL modern au : a ballet/dancer au of word of honour. not much to say about it honestly.

7. Immovable rock x desert dust fic : QZGS fic also known as the immovable rock amnesia fic. tells a story about a weird forest, an eldritch being with immense power, and the avatars who get caught in the web of fate.

8. Life Extinguisher fic : QZGS fic, about what would happen if someone devised a weapon that could fry LE’s mechanical box in battle. so basically LE getting electrocuted. great fun xD

9. Vaccaria x Troubling rain fic : an exploration of vaccaria’s power as the magician and the reason he wears his eyepatch. (hint: there’s chaos in his soul that only good pk can calm)

10. Shishen bond fic : YYM-DOE fic, explores the nature of the shishen bond, and what it actually entails to give a spirit guardian an order, especially one they do not want to follow. set post-canon, focuses on snow hound’s recovery after the serpent battle.

11. Tryptich WIP : YYM-DOE fic, also known as the Metaphorical Serpent Modern AU. it’s a modern au centred around killing stone. the basic premise is that the serpent of the movie is not a real entity but rather a metaphor for our personal demons. it’s a very heavy story about the mental health of all its characters that loosely follows canon, in which qingming is not a yin yang master but a psychiatrist, and the shishen are not qingming’s spirit guardians but his patients.

12. YYM fanfic - what’s in a name? : fic exploring the meaning behind the various shishen’s names.

13. LotR the disadvantages of kingship : Thranduil takes up the crown after his father’s death, in the middle of a raging war. this one is so old, it’s probably the first fic i ever started writing, because it literally came to me in a dream when i was 13, and it never got finished. bc i was 13.

14. the time before time : a Silm fanfic that chronicles (pun intended) the time before time. from the birth of the ainur in the timeless halls up until the creation of arda. probably the second fic i ever tried to write. didn’t go anywhere even though i had like 11 chapters planned.

15. Feanor wip : about fëanor’s mental state after the burning of the ships

16. ecthelion wip : about the crossing of the ice, the founding of gondolin, and how ecthelion became the lord of the fountain.

17. And miles to go (before i sleep) : fic about finarfin’s return. i would love to finish this bc it was important to me, but i cannot say for sure i ever will.

18. celebrimbor wip : about celebrimbor disowning (i guess) his father after doriath.

19. fingolfin wip : from the start of dagor bragollach until his duel with and death at the hands of morgoth, told from both his and fingon’s perspective.

[t-eyla]

8 and 13 for the fanfic ask?

8) How often do people catch onto your little details?

I can't actually say! People sometimes notice stuff I want them to notice and sometimes they don't xD There's always things in my fic that people don't notice, but I could write two pages of meta on most sentences in any of my fics, so … people not noticing everything is very normal! With longfic, I also used to only post it when I was done writing, and at that point, the reactions don't feel as immediate anymore, because I wrote the stuff I'm posting weeks, sometimes months ago.

Honestly, most of the time I'm just curious to see what people DO notice. It's kind of like determining a cat's favorite food, you put out a bunch of stuff and see which bowl the cat goes for xD So if a reader notices detail 1 but not detail 2, I don't feel sad about detail 2 going ignored, I just file detail 1 away as something that caught people's attention.

I do sometimes fret about people not noticing plot stuff when they don't comment on it -- in my current fic, for example, because it's a case fic, I'm doing a lot of dropping hints between the lines (because straight up exposition just isn't very interesting to read or write) and then, when nobody comments on something I thought was hinting at kind of a big thing, I'm like BUT DID YOU NOTICE IT??? But then, people will catch on when the detail becomes a plot point, so even noticing that stuff isn't essential.

In conclusion, I guess the answer is "sometimes"!

Do you have a favorite character to write for?

Overall? That would be "the crossest man in Scotland" Jamie MacDonald (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZLkvzJGfJA). Warning for lots of offensive language and offensive everything in that clip, also really badly rendered video. Writing Jamie is entertaining and satisfying and just the right level of challenging. I haven't done it in a long time because the heart wants what the heart wants and I fell out of that fandom, but I do sometimes wistfully think back to being able to open a Word doc and just write a flood of Jamie MacDonald obscenities.

In DMBJ, it's a toss-up between Pangzi and Xiaoge. Pangzi is easy to write because he's fairly normal, he processes things in a narartive-friendly way, and he's got some spice to his mental commentary so it's easy to keep the narrative voice interesting. Xiaoge is less narartive-friendly, but I love writing him because the way his brain works is very soothing. He's very good at dismissing things he deems unimportant, so you spend very little time on irrelevant tangents and there's little deliberation or what-ifs or questioning of priorities. His POV is clean and pragmatic and very detailed -- he's a great observer and will produce endless paragraphs of introspective analysis on stuff, so when that's needed, his point of view is incredibly useful. (Unlike Wu Xie, who is the exact opposite of that; he'll spend six paragraphs thinking about architecture while having a gun to his head, sob.) I guess Pangzi is my go-to when I'm trying to move things along, and I go for Xiaoge when I need to zoom in on all the details and look at things up close. Wu Xie I use when I want the reader to feel confused and distrustful of the narrator xD.

[merinnan]

Hi! I'm very new to the DMBJ fandom and completely lost about what to watch or read first. I've watched about 9 episodes of Reunion, fell in love with the characters and started reading fic. I've read the first novel and watched a couple episodes of LT1. But I see complaints about some of the shows and don't know whether to keep watching chronologically or skip around for the best Iron Triangle content. And should I plan to read all the books? Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you!

Hi， and welcome!

DMBJ can seem a bit daunting and confusing at first just because there's so much of it, it jumps all over the place, and all the canons are muddled together.

On the other hand, part of what makes DMBJ so delightful is that there's so much of it, it jumps all over the place, and all the canons are muddled toghether.

It basically means that you really can just jump in wherever, and watch/read in whatever you like, and you will get the important stuff (and find your favourite details). And then when you go back and reread/rewatch stuff after you've read/watched more, you will pick up on a whole heap of new things you hadn't before.

I would absolutely recommend reading all the books (and unless you can read Chinese, I am so sorry that the terrible official English translations are all we've got for the first half of the main series, but it is worth it to get the story, and once you get to the fan translations those are MUCH better, I promise).

Whether you want to read them before watching the shows, after watching the shows, or in between watching them is up to you. You will get a lot of details in the books that you won't in the shows - and there are also some fantastic books and extras that haven't yet been adapted into show format (Zang Hai Hua and Southern Archives immediately jump to mind). You can definitely jump around with reading the books, too - I read Sha Hai and Zang Hai Hua before I finished reading the main series, and didn't have any problems keeping up with what was going on (although it helped that I knew how the main series ended before I read them).

Like with all TV adaptations of books, the dramas have made quite a few plot changes, so it's definitely worth both reading the books and watching the shows.

The dramas, ah... The dramas are definitely not all created equal. Some of them are significantly better than others, but they're all a lot of fun to watch. (I'm told that even 2.5 has some redeeming features, although that one I have yet to watch for myself due to a lack of time and some of the less than great things I've heard about it). Everyone has their favourite drama, and opinions on most of them vary wildly from person to person in the fandom - what can be one person's favourite one is one that someone else absolutely hates. So, yes, you'll hear complaints about all of the shows, to be honest, because every show has some part of the fandom that dislikes it. Some of these complaints are objectively valid (the longer shows absolutely suffer from some annoying and boring filler in order to pad out the runtime, for instance, and DMBJ as a whole has a problem with fridging female characters), while a lot of them are pretty subjective and come down to the person's personal likes and dislikes.

I like all the shows that I've seen, although I definitely have my favourites, and all of them have both their good points and their bad points. Even with my favourite (Reunion) there were parts of it that I just straight up don't like and will fast forward through on rewatches (and yet I know people who love those self-same parts, but who will fast-forward through parts that I really liked). Which is really just a long-winded way of saying that you're not going to know which of the shows you like better than others (and which parts of those shows you do or don't like) without watching them for yourself.

As for what order to watch the shows in, that entirely comes down to personal preference: do you WANT to watch them chronologically, or do you want to watch the best Iron Triangle stuff first and come back to check out the other shows later? Both of these are completely valid choices and neither is more confusing than the other. You can always change your mind if you start watching one way and decide that that isn't working for you, and switch to the other way.

If you want to go for best Iron Triangle content first, I would suggest either finishing off Reunion, then going back to watch Ultimate Note and Tomb of the Sea (there's a lot less Iron Triangle and pingxie content in it compared to the others, but what's there is really amazing), and then watching TLT1, TLT2, and the donghua, or watching Ultimate Note, then finishing off Reunion, then Tomb of the Sea, TLT1, TLT2, and the donghua. Then 2.5 to finish off the main story shows.

If you want to watch chronologically, it's TLT1, TLT2, TLT2.5, donghua (although the donghua could go before 2.5 or even before 2, since it covers one of the books that 2 covers), Ultimate Note, Tomb of the Sea, Reunion.

As I said above, though, if you want to skip around, there isn't a problem with doing that. If you get partway through one of them and really don't want to keep watching it, you can skip on to the next show without a problem, you'll easily pick up all the important stuff anyway (especially once you start Ultimate Note, which has a 'previously on' type recap at the start of the first episode to quickly bring you up to speed on the major plot points that take place before it).

The Mystic Nine (the Republican-era prequel) you can really watch whenever/wherever you want, since about the only impact it has on the other shows is that it's the show that introduces Zhang Rishan (who later appears in Sha Hai and Ultimate Note), and there's a few references to it here and there in later shows.

Time Raiders, the 2016 movie, is completely standalone to everything. It's best described as a steampunk-ish AU of DMBJ. It's absolutely hilarious and I love it, but it really has nothing to do with the main canon.

There's also several spin-off movies and short series for Tomb of the Sea and Reunion, but I'd really advise that you watch the shows first. The spin-offs have nothing to do with the main plot, and the characters in them really won't mean anything to you without having watched the shows, since they feature side characters from those shows.

Have you found any of the DMBJ Discords yet? There's a few of us around. If you haven't and would like to join, let me know and I'll shoot you some invite links!

Hope some of this helps, and enjoy watching/reading/falling into these pits with us!

[puppy-phum]

Atlas: Enneagram + DMBJ Characters (1/?) ↳ Type Five: Wu Xie

"I finally feel the universe expand – it’s hidden in heartbeats, exhales, and in the hope of open hands." x

@creatorsevents Recreate Your Creation: My old Enneagram + The Untamed -series x

it's been a while since i thought about the enneagram types or listened to sleeping at last. my old series was, however, how i got into editing on this site. i have come a long way since then, editing and fandom wise, and it felt only natural to return to this series for this event. i doubt tho that i will be able to finish all of these edits before it ends (i can leave the tag off later on not to bother the event blog heh)

i am not an expert when it comes to the enneagram types (who even is) but i've always been interested in various types of personality quizzes. sleeping at last's music and the songs about the various types gave me another level of interest. now i wish to apply this love and fondness of the enneagrams and these songs to my newly found (if you can call it that when it's already been over a year) fandom and the characters of daomu biji. i am starting with wu xie as he's the protagonist. here are my thoughts on why he is type five:

"Fives are alert, insightful, and curious. They are able to concentrate and focus on developing complex ideas and skills. Independent, innovative, and inventive, they can also become preoccupied with their thoughts and imaginary constructs. They become detached, yet high-strung and intense."

this is the introduction to type five on the site am using (which i've linked as a source to this post) which seemed like the closest fit to wu xie. assigning these types is always a struggle, and with wu xie, i also considered type two and saw some of the other types in him too. all ppl are complex and no type fits anyone perfectly, so let's just say that wu xie is part type two and most likely has a wing in six (named "the problem-solver"). five is dominant in him however, as fives revolve around the thought of competence and being useful/capable which seemed like driving forces behind wu xie's character. he is also just very thirsty for knowledge which we all love about him (what a nerd).

otherwise, for the good and bad in this type, i looked at the different levels of development (nine different levels). all the types have stages of growth which show their worst and their best qualities. level two says:

"[Fives] observe everything with extraordinary perceptiveness and insight. Most mentally alert, curious, searching intelligence: nothing escapes their notice. Foresight and prediction. Able to concentrate: become engrossed in what has caught their attention."

i think this shows in wu xie during the reboot era when he has grown into himself in the best ways, tho many of the positive traits of fives (being keen to knowledge, wishing to figure out how things work, seeking answers, coming up with plans and different options as well as resourcefulness and insight) are visible during his younger years too. i just think he has cutivated himself more when older, after going through many difficulties.

of the average levels, i felt that level six fit the best:

"[Fives] begin to take an antagonistic stance toward anything which would interfere with their inner world and personal vision. Become provocative and abrasive, with intentionally extreme and radical views. Cynical and argumentative."

and then at his worst wu xie has been on level eight during his sand sea years:

"[Fives] get obsessed yet frightened by their threatening ideas, becoming horrified, delirious, and prey to gross distortions and phobias."

wu xie is very keen to obsessions, overthinking, and self-blame. it is his sense of guilt that often drives him forward and he regrets many things in his life. fives are also said to be keen to isolating themselves which often happens when wu xie doubts his own competence. the worst case is when xiaoge leaves for ten years and wu xie starts his insane mission alone to make sure that xiaoge doesn't have to do this duty again (aka he doubts his ability to fight against forces that harm his friends which leads into self punishment). another example could be xiaoge's memory loss and how wu xie retreats into solving the mystery alone instead of staying beside pangzi and xiaoge at the hospital. he regards it safer to do what he still thinks he's good at instead of wallowing in the feeling of uselessness.

as i see type two traits in wu xie too tho, i think his main instinct is to seek out ppl and connect with them instead of isolating himself inside his own head. type two traits also show in his kindness and forgiveness towards others. with his wing in six, he also brings in his tendency to pull ppl closer, value loyalty, and provide a home for everyone. he is a beacon for others and enjoys this feeling of purpose.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

honestly you're one of the rare ones who didn't lie about reading the dmbj og books bc after seeing some ppls tweets there are way too much of 'its bc i've read the book i hate it' and then they proceed to describe the thing they hated that was in the book and i just start laughing. anyways same about the 'restart'. like hell i'd exchange what zu yilong and huang junjie did for what was happening in there and it all ending with wu xie rapidly aging and going bald no thank you

I just think that this is the kind of a rare fandom, where whether you are a fan of the books or not, it doesn't matter unless you're making sense and consistent with what you're saying, bc the novels are a hot mess tbh. Like even if you're a huge fan of the books for some reason, there had to be places where u were like "well that was... strange" lol

So like it weirds me out when ppl keep agressively yelling ooc and he'd never do that, if that's what he did in the novel. you mean like "ooc compared to what this character is in your head?" but thats not ooc lmao

For me it's just the overall feeling I guess, like if I'm watching and it feels right or it feels.. well, not. Chemistry plays a huge role too.

Like the only Qilings I love are Yuliang & Junjie, but whoever came up with the "Yuliang is the closest to the book Qiling version" is hella wrong and lying, you can check it yourself. But I can't consider the fact that they're so much softer and more gone on Wu Xie as a flaw, although some aparently do xD

Same as I personally can't accept the Wu Xie's "don't worry about him" line in the new one, but know for sure that there was tons of moments in the books like and I quote here Wu Xie literally going "knowing how skilled Xiao Ge was I wasn't worried about him at all, so I just watched him as he ran, distracting the creature". Like I'd rather have SOP version of Wu Xie being hella scared even when XiaoGe just jumps down stuff and running to check on him first out of everyone else after bomb explodes. But thats not whats happening in the novels, so it's technically ooc haha

Those who read also know that like "I'll notice if you disappear" 'I'm a man with no past and no future' scene in UN that was done so touchingly and romantically.. well, to say that it didn't carry as much emotion in the book is to say nothing lol. It just wasn't the vibe UN went with.

And why would I even want the Reboot book reunion going "why are u here?" of nothingness, if I can have what these idiots did with their heart eyes and "you're here, I'm okay now" and everything?

I mean, if you want the book version, fine by me, but like blaming people who wanted by novel #...12orsmth for them to pass some stages and get the warmth we got in UN and SOP is insane.

I mean, just the fact that in the Restart book Wu Xie had an internal thought that next time they see each other they might not even know how to behave with each other and that for him he's just a random person he passes by in his long life just almost made me close the damn thing lolz

yeah, about him basically dying at the end.. also no thanks. stupid me prefers them living together and Qiling hating Wu Xie being hungry birdy and going to buy him food xD

"going bald" lmaaaaaao it said it'll grow back its ok

I honestly considered myself an extra Xiao Ge fan, until I saw some ppl's reviews and opinions and thought "omg lmao some just go straight overboard with everything", esp considering canon.

I was straight up laughing at that one comment "all he does in this part is looking lovingly at Wu Xie and protects him". I was like damn, so many of my faves are cancelled like that... I mean, you're watching HOB anime and like "my god it's such a bad representation of the Hua Cheng character, all he does is stares at Xie Lian and protects him" lol (I'm sorry but this 11 episodes are NOT the part of the book that tells his story and who he is, but this in fact doesn't mean that they "reduced him to a tool" lmao). Meanwhile some DMBJ books Wu Xie goes "I knew he was hired by the 2nd uncle just to keep us safe". LMAO SO WHAT? this is not making him a tool, that's just what he does, it doesn't make his FULL CHARACTER, just bc he does that.

Like seriously, it sounds as insane as someone splitting MDZS in 3 parts, watching the last one, then the first one and saying like "you know in the last part all that LZ does is stares lovingly at WWX and protects him, he was much more complex and flawed in part 1". Like wth lol... ITS THE SAME FUCKING CHARACTER.

Also I saw one UN review that was positive, but just went that Xiao Ge in that part felt more like humane or smth, bc "at some point he even grew a scruff". I was just sitting there like... out of all the things in this series that made him humane, why mention the scruff? Like since when it's a thing...? I mean just bc Shen Wei or Lan Zhan look perfect all the time that somehow means they don't have feelings or less human beings? I do not get.

So all these tantrums of "ISTG IF THEY EVER SHOW QILING JUST PROTECTING THEM... I'M GONNA BLEW UP" and the same one saying that they're the book fans, I'm like "how didn't u blow up during several books already?" lolz

I like love reading so many different opinions, when it comes to this fandom, bc it's so fascinating, but some arguments just don't go together well haha

And I'm a huge fan of UN, but like.. some go a bit TOO extra about it and their arguments just don't stick sometimes, bc they're trying again with the "it's the less-est ooc from books", but it wasn't as much it, as the fact that it just had soul in it, which sometimes in my opinion actually completely lacked in the og novels.

Anyways, as an extra Qiling's fan myself, I can tell that some are going waaay overboard with stuff.