#ahh xxc i love you

[veliseraptor]

Been ruminating on possible permutations of yi city again recently and honestly I think due to his guilt complex Xiao Xingchen might have an easier time 'forgiving' (put in quotes bc forgiveness as a concept is not always entirely applicable to xuexiao) Xue Yang for tricking him into killing Song Lan, compared to if Xue Yang just straight-up killed Song Lan himself. What are your thoughts on this?

oh hmmmm. been turning this one around in my head for a bit (since you sent this ask) and thinking, because I think...hm. I don't know that "forgive" is the word I'd use here, even in the loosest sense. I actually don't think that, when it comes to Xiao Xingchen's feelings about how he was tricked into killing Song Lan, he even ever processes to the point of feeling anything coherent about Xue Yang's role in it. I think he gets as far as "my beloved companion is dead" > "I'm responsible for his beloved companion's death" and never takes the extra step to "Xue Yang is responsible for me killing my beloved companion." which is what destroys him! or at least a big chunk of what does. not what Xue Yang did (or not just that) but what Xiao Xingchen did.

this is not to say I don't think Xiao Xingchen is very upset (understatement) by what Xue Yang has done, or that he doesn't recognize his culpability. just that I think in that moment Xiao Xingchen is much more preoccupied with his own culpability than anything else.

I do think that Xue Yang's responsibility for Song Lan's death is one of the highest hurdles to clear in any speculative scenario where things aren't immediately cut off by Xiao Xingchen's death, in terms of, like, any kind of continuing relationship between Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang that's not solely antagonistic. more even than the other murders, though I think Xiao Xingchen would feel a little bad about that. if Song Lan is conscious and independent I think that can mitigate some of the anger, but I don't think it erases it.

but I also think that Xiao Xingchen would not view Xue Yang's actions as a mitigating factor in his own guilt. for Xiao Xingchen, the fact that Xue Yang manipulated him into killing Song Lan by mistake vanishes in the enormity of the fact that he killed Song Lan. the argument that could be made that Xiao Xingchen was nothing more than Xue Yang's weapon, and as culpable as a weapon would be (the same argument Wei Wuxian makes about Wen Ning, actually), wouldn't mean anything to Xiao Xingchen in terms of absolution.

I don't think Song Lan would feel that way. but Xiao Xingchen would, and I don't know that there'd be any talking him out of it. possibly he could live with it, given compelling enough reasons to do so, but he would never forgive himself, or believe that he wasn't at fault.

so I guess...it's not so much that Xiao Xingchen forgives or doesn't forgive Xue Yang, it's that the blame he would place on Xue Yang about Song Lan's death is completely drowned by the blame he places on himself.

I think if it had just been a matter of the murdered villagers, that might not be the case. I think, with that knowledge, Xiao Xingchen would be more capable of separating out his own responsibility from Xue Yang's (though...still not great). But everything with Xiao Xingchen's Song Lan feelings, particularly his preexisting Song Lan guilt feelings, is so big and personal and cuts so deep that Xiao Xingchen can't make those distinctions anymore.

[wifiwuxians]

AAAAAAAAAA

Prompt for @wifiwuxians from @yicityaction ! The gangs all here ☀️🏖️🌴

[llycaons]

ep38 (3/3): fucked up dramatic irony time!!!!

so close so close!!

ahh! with just another centimeter he'd KNOW!

this shot is so gorgeous, I love it so much

you evil fuck!

and sl has to sit there while xy and xxc have this casual conversation about getting food, as if he doesn't exist or matter at all. just a puppet

and before he leaves, xy kicks sl into the dirt. god DAMMIT

and of course there's a-qing!!!! having seen everything!!!

god and xxc killed himself because of this. song lan isn't the only one we're going to see die

wwx so kind to her 🥺

GET HIM WWX!!!

the real power in this show is delivering incredible emotional stories, passionate and tragic and moving, full of complex and powerful relationships and characters, and then going back to a poorly edited zombie-fight with cheap props and awkward acting. like I can see why people think it's bad. it's not, but it could fool you

ohhh double meanings

literally everyone in the world going 'xxc HATES you' including xxc. what the fuck are xuexiao shippers DOING. yeah you know it's love when he kills himself because of your relationship. like there's no getting around that. 'aw xy makes xxc laugh' HE ALSO MADE HIM KILL HIMSELF. ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID. it's so satisfying to watch ppl say this in canon

I can't get too into it bc I get too mad but like wtf!!! also why do ppl ship xy w sl they had one swordfight and then they killed each other. there isn't even a relationship there they're just enemies and always have been

personal highlights:

ugh, a-qing my girl my girl <3 so smart and brave and bright. deserved the world

she and xxc have such a special precious bond. I wish they got better from the world

the chemistry between xxc and xy was insane tho gotta say. like they were flirting just like that. not going anywhere good, but very well-done

a-qing's 'answer my questions before I answer yours'

song lan staring at xxc and xy with all the heartbreak and fury he can muster. GREAT performance

xy was pretty funny for insulting sl's ability to insult him

cheetah-print robes. kind of a cunt move

the scene where sl tries to get xxc to touch his sword and realize his identity is INSANE. one of the most powerful and tragic scenes in the show. and so beautifully done, goddamn

HE IS DISGUSTED BY YOU TO THE CORE

[gloriousmonsters]

man of all the things that may or may not have happened in mdzs, one thing I really wish I saw a different take/s on is the assumption that jgy must have been behind xy winding up in a ditch when xxc found him. there’s never any actual evidence for it! we know jgy publicly broke up with him because xy was a huge symbol of The Shady Crap The Old Establishment Was Up To, but jgy personally promoted him and was friendly with him, and jgy generally shows a reluctance to hurt people he personally likes; it’s honestly not a stretch to guess that jgy might have just let him out the back door with a lunch bag and a ‘do come back when things calm down if you still want a job’ before loudly announcing that Xue Yang Is Not Cool Anymore We Don’t Like Him, Promise. xue yang even goes back to work for him after things go south in yi city, and while yeah you can make that work as a ‘no hard feelings for nearly having me killed it’s whatever’ i feel like it’s equally likely to guess that he went back because... jgy didn’t kick him out and have him beaten nearly to death 🤷‍♂️

the only source for ‘jgy tried to have him killed’ is.... wwx, who i love dearly but at least half the time when he’s like ‘ahh i see this is how it is’ i feel like we’re supposed to take it with a grain of salt because *gestures at entire novel about the unreliability of assumptions and personal bias and etc*. and he’s assuming this like 15 seconds after he’s met xue yang and before he’s met jgy (since the time or two they very very briefly crossed paths.... years ago) so I just don’t think his assessment of the situation is necessarily the right one.

and yes this might have to do with the fact that i will die on the hill of ‘xue yang and jgy genuinely liked each other’ and the primary thing I see cited in either people talking about them being antagonistic or in fics where jgy is xy’s Bad Boss is ‘well jgy tried to have him killed’. there are a number of things that people will repeat as if they’re definite canon facts and this is honestly one of the more minor ones but it still makes me want to scream. it’s yet another cause of ‘one guy assuming something’, it doesn’t have to be canon if you don’t want it to be

[lan-xichens]

Xiao Xingchen

Ahh thank you! :)

How I feel about this character

I don’t mind XXC but he’s not one of my favourite characters. He’s a good soul, and bad things happened to him, but I simply close my eyes to the Yi City arc...

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Song Lan! They are totally together in my head.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

A-Qing I suppose, because he doesn’t seem to have any other friends haha. What he should have done is take A-Qing with him and leave that absolute dead place, find a way of making money or find a temple to stay in and cultivate. And once he’s back on his feet, get back to night-hunting and protecting people in some way. I mean, why stay in Yi City...?

My unpopular opinion about this character

The only thing I can think of that would be unpopular is that I don’t really care about him! Yi City is an entirely different story shoved into it, and it just makes me sad. I do get why people love it though.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

Song Lan finding him and A-Qing in whatever temple they’d gone to and living happily ever after with them.

[stiltonbasket]

ahh i love your modern au ideas! i love your ideas for single dad xxc + a qing and our poor boy sl, and also there truly isn't enough xuanli and chengqing content :D

Thank you so much! Poor Boy SL is going to be reunited with his runaway baker boy pretty soon. XD

[yiling]

Untamed rewatch Episode 10

GREMLIN TIME GREMLIN TIME

-see the first time I watched this, I misread xingchen having tracked xue yang entirely and i thought xxc and xy had known each other for a While...like xue yang was his evil ex or something. that impression intensified when song lan was introduced. I still kind of stand by that interpretation lol, it’s funny 

-xue yang deeply fucking obnoxious but i love

-“let’s just watch” oh my god wwx. you could’ve pulled him off balance with that talisman way more than you did, you know. I know you’re getting your own personal martial artsmovie here, but come on dude

-this fight is really cool tho!! I love yi city gang!!!

-xxc’s tiny smile when he says “Zichen” just fuck me up

-“I happened to hunt nearby” uh huh, I’m sure song lan, you just HAPPENED to BE IN THE AREA...

-ahh everyone admires songxiao so much! lwj actually smiles the tiniest little bit when he says their titles, which is adorable, and wwx and jc are also clearly impressed. honestly I can imagine them all nursing secret dreams of being independent cultivators for a while after this

-one day I’ll write a very unfortunate wwx/xy ship manifesto and it’ll just be this scene

 -xue yang’s expression when wwx asks why he killed the Chang clan...chilling. there’s so much here that hits harder on a rewatch, wow.

-oh wwx calls him xiao-xiong, cute-I wonder what meng yao’s motivation is in asking songxiao to come back to the unclean realm with them - trying to secure advantages for his sect?

-I love wwx being like “oh you guys are just like me and lan zhan!!” like, the “young queer person just starting to figure themselves out sees themselves in older gay couple” vibe is so strong and like. I really do have a lot of feelings about it

-I also feel very deeply about this one-minute conversation wwx and xxc have. wwx wants so badly to know about his mom :( and xingchen is so kind about it. I think it’s interesting what his expression does when he mentions not being able to go back. he misses living on the mountain a little, I think. it’s amazing how much character he’s invested with for how little we ultimately see of him. -“don’t forget me xingchen!” hoo boy. 

-again, I originally interpreted those glances songxiao give each other as “that’s your creepy ex right?” “yeah, don’t worry about it, I’ll explain later”. amusing in hindsight.

-lwj gazing after xxc and sl as they leave, and the look he and wwx share...the sheer amount of Longing infused into this episode is...wow.

 -I think this meeting plants some seeds for lwj’s later choices, too. it clearly does for wwx, he’s very gung ho about the idea of working together based on likemindedness rather than blood, but lwj needs some more time to admit to himself that that’s what he wants. 

-hey is lwj smiling a little when they get to the unclean realm? I wonder if he’s spent a lot of time here with his brother

-cannot pay Any attention to what anyone is saying at the unclean realm cause I’m just watching xy’s stupid face

-ooh evil summer camp is coming up

-hey nmj calls him wangji, that’s cute and interesting. it’s clear he and lxc have known each other for a quite a while, so he probably is at least friendly with the younger Jade by association

-the first time we watched this scene with xy and nmj, my sister was, like, pretending to do xue yang’s internal monologue, which was mostly variants on “yes daddy” and I had to tell her to shut up because I was laughing so hard

-WHEN THEYRE TALKING ABOUT HOW NMJ VALUES MENG YAO, XUE YANG IS GIGGLING IN THE CORNER...DOES HE THINK THEY’RE BANGING

-xue yang and meng yao do a Lot of significant glancing at each other this episode. game recognize game. I wonder when meng yao decided that xy was an asset to him

-if the unclean realm had a decent HR department we could’ve avoided all this

-the xue yang-xue chonghai connection is stupid and does significant damage to xue yang as a character, the whole point of xy is that he’s got no background and no ancestry, he really is just some asshole who does what he wants

-oh hey it’s wen zhuliu

-okay but why does Netflix translate red blade master but no one else’s title

-the earnest shock and hurt on nmj’s face when meng yao kills the captain...ouch

-legit thought meng yao was gonna be killed at this part the first time I watched it 

-around here my mom asked if yanli was the only actual female character (this episode is a complete sausagefest) and I was like no...except...yeah...the women situation is so dire in this show, and like it’s partly from the source material, but still. it irritates me whenever I pay attention to it. 

-does wen chao call xy a tragic lad...what

-nhs pacing anxiously with his fan while his brother confronts meng yao...yikes

-my mom thought nmj and meng yao were actually brothers for some reason?

-“I don’t regret having met you, chifeng-zun” really rhymes with “if I could die by your hand it would be worth it”, huh. his expression, too

[lansizhuis]

Because chapter 77 is out and you said you wanted some distraction for it: please consider MDZS + Crazy Rich Asians (if this hasn't already been done)

i………….i haven’t read/watched crazy rich asians yet………………IM SORRY TO MY FELLOW ASIANS OTL but imma still try???

- obv the rich af guy (nick young??) is lwj and the lans “rule” the place and the partner (rachel??) is wwx

- can we make mxy as wwx’s bff here bc that dynamic is something i love haha

- the “mom who can’t accept this poor partner with no breeding” is the uncle, lqr (not really on the “poor” aspect more on the attitude of our resident chaotic bi) and the only one wwx had a good impression on was the elder brother - lxc (bc ofc no matter what au, lxc is the captain of the wangxian ship)

- they ride first class on the airplane under the “bichen suites” as they’re going to attend the wedding of a close family friend - SL who’s going to get married with his fiance XXC (listen i need more of sl/xxc and sl and lwj would make good friends lmao)

- there would be some people trying to undermine wwx ofc and lxc is the one who tries to comfort him but realizes that he didn’t really need to bc wwx doesn’t give a shit (THIS IS WWX - HE’S GONNA BE SHAMELESS NO MATTER WHERE HE IS hahaha)

- wwx bonds with both lxc and xxc here while dragging mxy as well and our chaotic cutsleeve is stressed (“i cant come to these “””brunches””” anymore!” “what? why?” “first, “””brunches””” are for rich af people and in case you still haven’t noticed i have a tiny pimple over here bc i cant afford derma rn” “wtf bro” “and second - you cant surround me with great looking people and expect me to function???” “hold your dick down jfc” “have you seen lan xichen’s eyelashes??? THAT BEAUTIFUL THING IS INSURED AND I CANT EVEN INSURE MY CREDIT” “hmm his eyelashes are indeed pretty” “and xiao xingchen?? one time he laughed and istg i saw birds flocking outside HE IS A DISNEY PRINCESS” “he’s gonna get married soon” “TELL THAT TO MY HORMONES”)

- anyhow since i need my yunmengjiang duo one way or another - let’s make wwx still be adopted by them and while the jiangs are rich af like the lans as well, the issue lies on wwx being a “nobody” as he’s adopted 

- jc and jyl are very protective of wwx when his relationship with lwj was made public - jyl was more on firm social grace as she shuts down his haters with a polite manner and jc is more on the “REPEAT WHAT YOU JUST SAID” type AND WE WILL HAVE THE THREE JIANG SIBLINGS WITH BONDING MOMENTS like sleeping on one bed as they ate junk food (“i cant believe it was lwj you were seeing” “me neither” “i think the both of you look good together, a-xian” “thank you a-jie~ ahh, now if only this little brother of mine can acknowledge that too” “stfu and pass the pringles” “im kinda worried im not going to be worthy of lan zhan though” *JC proceeds to stand on the bed and loom over WWX with a fierce scowl on his face* “HE should be worried of not being worthy of YOU!” *silence* “aww, so jiang cheng does love me hahaaha” “SHUT UP! AND PASS THE FKCN PRINGLES ALREADY!”)

THIS OBV HAS A HAPPY ENDING HAHAHAHAH

[kitsunesongs]

It ABSOLUTELY counts as flirting but also - Xiao Xingchen can't do it.

Shuanghua wavers and dips and drops frpm nerveless fingers as he turns, helpless, to Zichen.

"I can't," he says, voice shaky.

And that of course means that now he is arguing against Xue Yang being executed because of course he's not going to let someone else do the dirty work he can't do himself, and quite possibly goes to Xue Yang's cell when the Wen attack - and now I'm imagining how he'd get along with Meng Yao.

(Nie Asshole Guard: son of a whore!

XXC: ??? What's a whore?

SL: someone who has sex for money

XXC, to Meng Yao: ahh, so they don't like you because you're Jin Guangshan's son! Well that's not right you shouldn't judge the children by the sins of the father.

MY: *baffled*

NMJ: *grinning like a madman and absolutely planning to call Jin Guangshan a whore to his face*)

Basically I love you and that little snippet you wrote.

What do you think would have happened if Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan HAD accompanied everyone and Xue Yang to Qinghe? Apart from even more flirting towards Xingchen from Xue Yang that is!

Oh! Good question!

I honestly think that very little would change as such - Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan have made it very clear they have no interest in the politics of the clans, nor interfering with the sense of justice they’re handing Xue Yang over to.

But the sake of argument, how about:

~

”I have a last request!” Xue Yang said, unbelievably, Baxia still quivering less than an inch from his nose. The mad grin hadn't wavered for a moment.

”You don't get to make requests!” Nie Mingjue roared, slamming his fist down on the armrest.

”A prisoner, sentenced to death and at your mercy, and you won't even hear me out?” The tone could have been meek and injured if not for the mad lights dancing in Xue Yang's eyes. ”It's a reasonable one! I ask for Xiao Xingchen daozhang to be the one to kill me.”

Amid surprised gasps, Xiao Xingchen startled, looking shocked and very uncomfortable.

”I don't want to.”

He sounded as though he hadn't even meant to speak, words jumped out on their own accord. Xue Yang tittered, as though they were the best of friends, trading jokes.

”But Daozhang, didn't you lecture me so primly on the way here about the dao of act and consquence? You captured me and brought me to justice – those were your acts. Isn't carrying out the sentence the logical consequence? Or does the Bright Moon fear getting sullied by the unpleasant end result of his own actions?”

Xiao Xingchen looked at a loss for words, as though suddenly tossed into strange and unfamiliar waters. Xue Yang laughed nastily at him.

”You self-righteous cultivators, always so ready to talk, yet always so reluctant to get your own hands dirty! No wonder you can afford the luxury of wearing white. I guess someone like you need never worry about washing out the stains.”

Something set in Xiao Xingchen's jaw, and he slowly drew Shuanghua, though he still looked vastly uneasy. Xue Yang's expression softened strangely as the blade came to point at him, as though he had won the last small victory he'd set out to claim.

”Will I be your first, Daozhang?” he murmured, like the tenderest of lovers. ”You always remember your first. Let's get those lovely white teeth of yours bloodied.You'll never be able to forget me now.”

~

That... that counts as flirting, right?