#also mdzs reference uwu

[themischievousfangirl]

BoYa sketch lmao

[featherfur]

It’s 2am and I’m thinking about how even war couldn’t kill off Huaisang’s brightness but the moment his brother died he killed it himself and set a fire instead that would burn everyone responsible and devour whoever got in his way

He proved himself a Nie without lifting a saber

God NMJ would hate the way his brother turned out, especially because it was for him and NHS knows that, knows that so well but he refuses to let NMJ be murdered and the killer go free

JGY took his world and NHS broke his down and tossed the shattered pieces at his feet before lighting them on fire

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

[1/?] Sorry for venting. I just saw some bad takes that gave me a lot of feelings. Personally, JC stresses me out every time he comes on screen, but I don't mind it when JC fans say fan-typical things like how they like JC because he wears purple, or is grumpy, or they think he's hot, or that they ship x*ch*ng because the cql actors have nice jawlines. They're harmless, fun takes, and while I don't agree with some of them, I see where they're coming from

Hello there anon, vent away as that is what my blog is open for as I love/hate on Jiang Cheng as he is in the plot, as well as all of my beef with what has been done to him for the EN side of the fanbase! I am more than fine listening and engaging with the unsavory "unpopular" discussions of his canon behavior and this goes for anyone of course that needs an open play area. I'll try to engage with what you have sent point by point as succinctly as I can.

[2/?] (some of these are obviously crack, and I am a fan of a few problematic faves). But then there are stans that just have to put other characters down to make JC look good. Like, I think some fans take their freedom of interpretation for granted because most of these takes aren't even labeled 'headcanon,' 'ooc,' or 'crack' anymore. Stans feel that their interpretations are valid, and while they are, valid =/= canon, and they're treating these takes as canon, which becomes popular fanon.

I enjoy Jiang Cheng for what he is, however as I had said it took me another reread to get to my stance of him being the negative mirror to Lan Wangji's positive and my comfort with that for the story once I realized what purpose he served. He is only insofar tragic in regards to his circumstances, but it does not absolve him for what he is at his core (no pun, but I can make a very nice metaphor that even with a piece of Wei Wuxian in him he is still forever unable and unwilling to stand by him equally all while stagnating where as Lan Wangji is able to flourish, grow and mature with nothing of import left from Wei Wuxian in a technical sense). As for ships, I am a little dirty Xicheng whore for fun and can say there is a sense of entertainment for me making it work with two people where one is wildly ignorant and the other wildly rabid. But that is outside of what is established as canon in the work and I always try to keep the two strictly separate due to the skew fanon perpetuates.

3/?] And now, it's not clear what part of the fanon references canon JC or the canon events of mdzs. JC is an asshole; I don't like him as a person, but I do think that he's a complex character motivated by many issues (sup, YeeZY), which makes him fascinating to explore. Unfortunately, erasing his culpability also removes his agency. JC should be allowed to be an asshole character who makes his own decisions even if they're the wrong ones. He has made his own tragedy by constantly casting Wei Wuxian as the villain of his life.

Now thanks to you I will be using YeeZY to forever and now to acknowledge Madam Yu (this is your fault for the new tag). From a standing from storytelling I agree that he is complex in the Jianghu for MDZS. Where in the usual political intrigue of Wuxia, he would be the mustache twirling villain that is outright unforgivable in narration, it is by favor of Wei Wuxian's narration that has an early steeping of empathy for him. And he is not meant to be seen as ultimately sympathetic, the work builds up his hate against Wei Wuxian who tries to rationalize it all several times until he is finally unable to. Jiang Cheng is the antithesis to Lan Wangji and the false bait to get attached to in Wei Wuxian's first life. I will make the note their meeting in Yiling is lukewarm between both as they exchange nothing really in terms of conversation and all pleasantries are left in terms of Jiang Yanli for Wei Wuxian. By this point Wei Wuxian has already switched his yearnings of platonically wanting a part of Jiang Cheng's life, to subconscious romantic inclinations about Lan Wangji and the perceived loss of being in the other's life.

The very point of Jiang Cheng as the deconstruction, is that he has no passion in life despite his apparent exploits because he put a shadow to hang over himself as an excuse to say others think he is not good enough. He has no deeper motivations than pure selfishness by the end of the work and is pure frivolity that he has built up losing the meaning of his sect as a tradition. He had his agency (more than anyone I might add in the work due to his social position) that he used to build his reputation as a passive rich sect leader that has little to do with civilian problems.

4/?] And I think a JC, somehow, that realizes that he did something wrong and is working hard to change for the better and gain self-actualization to become that UWU best jiujiu the stans want him to be, who is ready to talk (not yell at) with WWX, apologize to him, and create a better, healthier relationship with him is a much more powerful reconciliation and happy ending than 'everyone is wrong and mean and they all apologize to JC, which magically gets rid of all his issues'.

He is forced out of culpability in reconciliation because simply put, his audience do not like the reality that relationships fray and dissolve with no further resolution other than we as adults both need to move on for safety and good health. It is not acceptable in real life and fiction is allowed to place that also in it's thematic relationships. He has a small, small spark of recognition at the end of the main story, however he himself seems to choose to ignore it, as change is hard and he has never taken to that well as was foreshadowed with his dogs and the idea of sharing a space with Wei Wuxian. To write this is an awful lot of work into his psyche which is not a nice place, he is a terrible being and downplaying that to make a sugar sweet person does not work instantaneously. He is the one responsible for the entire fallout with Wei Wuxian and he hysterically realizes that even as he tries to continue to blame Wei Wuxian.

The issue that I have with his current stan culture, is that they already view him as something he is not. They play at bicycle with all of the other protagonists that have positive traits that they strip as they see fit; Good affirming loving to children adult Lan Wangji, Self-sacrificing ultimately did it all for love and care Wei Wuxian, Hard exterior but softened to who they consider an annoyance Wen Qing, Loyal as partners in their exploits on the field and always have each others back Wen Ning. They even take Jin Guangyao's persona of playing damsel and using that as a positive to soften up Jiang Cheng into something he has never been for anyone for ships.

[5/5] Also, making WWX/WN/LWJ apologize just makes them look better than JC. Like, stans supposedly love JC, so they ahouldn't be lazy and work hard to give him actual character development. Again, I'm sorry for spamming your ask. It just really baffles me about where they get these 'hot' takes (All I'm going to say is that JC was ungrateful, and WN had a reason verbally dismantle him).

They see this, but, they will spin it in any way to excuse Jiang Cheng due to the story itself showing that he was in the wrong to everyone he flung accusations at and his hate. No one but him is at fault for his spite as he had gotten his revenge on the ones that had ruined Lotus Pier and killed his parents. His own resentment pitted him against good and well meaning people that he refused to help as he mimicked his mother's words about raising their heads higher out of goodness instead of keeping low and staying self-centered. There is the underlying criticism of taking individual arrogance as self-care at the cost of others. Each point that Wen Ning makes is exactly what Jiang Cheng himself knows as he hated Wei Wuxian for being something he could not be or even wanted to be. Jiang Cheng wants kindness but does not understand that kindness to others needs to be selfless and accept the hurt that can come with that in life. He encompasses the fall from the path of buddhist lifestyle, "The Three Poisons" to Wangxian's "Without Envy" at the stories end.

[6/5] P.S. I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it. I think it would be interesting to see what force of nature would push him through a character development because throwing a therapist at him would result in a murder.

"I'm not saying I want reconciliation fics, but I just feel that if stans want JC to have a happy ending, then I think that he should actively work for it."

They do not think he has to work for it, they say his tragedy is enough, while heaping accusations against Wei Wuxian and saying his own are not enough to absolve him. Something Wei Wuxian has never denied and told all present they are allowed to forever hate him for what he had done in the past, but that they need to find a way to live in a life that is always moving on. He learned that grudges do nothing once they are absolved and it leaves you with hate with nothing else to do with it once that object is gone. In terms of reconciliation, I do not ever think that either want anything other than a distant peaceful out of each other's life set up. Jiang Cheng does not need Wei Wuxian in his life to be satisfied and never has since he used him as the handicap to hide behind to stay angry and miserable. Being without that fallback opens the world far more for him to change than him ever interacting like an old friend with Wei Wuxian ever again, if he ever had the guts to do that.

[crossdressingdeath]

I don’t know if it’s just me, but this anti-kink and “don’t touch my pure gay story uwu” mixed with purity culture rhetoric in the mdzs fandom reads as homophobic, and that’s coming from a bi woman. Gay people sleep with others, have sexual fantasies, behave improperly. Depicting that through characters doesn’t make mxtx a homophobe. I’d say the homophobes are these fans. Especially considering most yelling on tumblr aren’t even Asian let alone Chinese. (1)

And it’s really apparent to me that the online phrasing of “omg gay smex XD” that antis reference (that doesn’t really exist online anymore) just got replaced with the “my perfect, unproblematic gay sons who are Pure and Moral.” But these same people don’t realize that both of those are forms of homophobia, just on different spectrums. And they’re expecting a Chinese novel written for a Chinese audience to adhere to there western standards, which must be right bc cultural hegemony. Like, mdzs isn’t perfect but mxtx wrote a good story, clearly bc they’ve all read it. I just think maybe ppl should consider what informs their pov when they’re saying a censored, morally uncomplex, agency!ex free story is better than the one that enabled the show in the first place. Just reads as really xenophobic, racist, misogynistic, ethnocentric to me (2).

Sorry to bug you, but I meant agency!wwx free in the last message. I don’t think cql made wwx as culpable in his own downfall and the deaths of jyl and jzx is what I meant.

I mean, this isn’t exactly a topic I know a lot about, but... yeah. The whole Thing where people insist that MXTX writing a gay love story that isn’t completely ~pure~ makes her homophobic is kind of... yeah, it’s definitely A Thing! The whole “If your gay love story isn’t completely unproblematic you’re homophobic” bullshit that the internet thrives on is infuriating at best, and in a case like this where they’re saying Censorship Central is a better love story than the source material where they’re actually together, uh... I have to say, I find it interesting that the non-love-story with men as the faces of the team behind it is so often considered a superior love story to the actual love story which was written by a woman. And of course saying that MXTX, who wrote a gay love story in a country where that’s illegal, is homophobic while the CQL writers who, let’s face it, were almost certainly more focused on profiting off the fact that this is a danmei novel with fans who want that sort of content than any real attempt to buck censorship are just fine raises a few questions. And yeah, people are very obviously judging the story which was not written for a Western audience by Western standards, which is... yeah, to a certain extent you’re going to do that, but it is unfair to treat that failure to live up to the standards of a culture she doesn’t belong to and wasn’t writing for like it means MXTX is a horrible person because it doesn’t work like that.

(Also I have to say I always find it vaguely amusing when people say CQL is just the better story because CQL is basically plot holes held together by bits of novel canon.)

[uoongs]

[translation] MXTX Interview - TGCF questions

this is rlly for everyone to love hc more TT // split by general/book1, book 3 spoilers, and book 5 spoilers via headings (though all are minor spoilers imo, except for the one in bk 5?)

there’s another question that pertains to TGCF’s comments, which I found interesting but have left out for now because it’s very very long. it’s half translated, so maybe i’ll finish it later

CW: domestic violence, Q.21 suicidal thoughts

the mdzs parts were prev translated here by @bigbadredpanda

original interview here

reposts and translations OK, but pls give credit!! twt @/uooongs, tumblr @uoongs, ig @/duoj1ao

GENERAL / BOOK 1 REFERENCES

Q14. TGCF characters’ heights?

Xie Lian 178cm (but can perfectly seem like 180), Hua Chen 190 (first appearance as a cute fresh youth was 185cm), Jun Wu 191, Feng Xin 188, Mu Qing 188, Mo Shui 189, Shi Wudu 187, Shi Qinxuan 186 (woman form 176), Pei Ming 188, Ling Wen 180, Quan Yizhen 184 (but has a very tall presence), Yin Yu 186 (but miraculously no matter how tall he is it’s hard to notice this person).

PS: Yu Shi [rain master?]’s cow is 150 without standing up

Q17. What was XL doing after his second time getting banished to the human realm? What was HC doing? Why couldn’t he find XL? HC previously swore to not let XL know he’s protecting him, so why did he decide to meet XL again after 800 years?

XL tried doing other jobs, but all didn’t go too well, and would bring sadness/strife to others, so could only collect trash by himself.

HC was looking for him while also working on his skills + earning money, expanding his power, and worked hard to become the strongest dude!

Really, it was because XL’s luck was so terrible and stuck to him so closely that he couldn’t meet HC. Actually, many times they almost saw each other, like in Banyue, and also when XL was Fangxin head priest, but both times they just missed each other. Finally XL ascended by himself and CEO Hua couldn’t contain himself and rushed over.

T/N:

strongest dude: the word here used is “jiahuo” 家伙 which is an informal, sometimes affectionate way of calling someone, kind of like “brat” ? but without the parental figure tone

CEO Hua: 花总 “hua zong” the zong here is used as a suffix of respect, usually used for business partners/ ppl holding business positions

Q18. When they first met again, why did HC not let XL touch him?

Because he loved and respected him. He was scared he’d get too excited and do something wrong. Later, the reason was that sometimes if he thought he made a mistake, like not protecting Dianxia well, he would not let himself touch his idol. Even if he wanted to a lot, he wouldn’t let himself touch, because it’s his own punishment for himself.

Q19. What did XL like doing as a kid? Did he whine like a kid?

He liked going on swings, calligraphy, drawing, reading books most people wouldn’t read, building and knocking over golden toy block houses. Whined a lot, and would insist on sleeping with his parents. So when he stopped whining like that the king didn’t find him as cute.

T/N: the “whine” here is the best English equivalent as far as I know, but perhaps you’re more familiar with the term “aegyo”? lol. Original word is 撒娇 “sa jiao”

Q20. Where did HC’s name and San Lang come from?

Why Hua Cheng, only he himself would know, since names are based on intuition and he didn’t tell me anything. San Lang was firstly because he was actually the third child at home, secondly because he fell during the third lap during the Offering to the Gods parade, thirdly because BLABLABLABLA many reasons to guess. Being the third seme of the novels is also an interesting Easter egg, but that wasn’t the main reason. Just as why Lan Wangji is Lan Er-Gege, or why Qiu Chi is called Si Shao, one can find many fitting explanations in the novel.

T/N:

BLABLABLABLA is actually what appeared in MXTX’s response lol

Qiu Chi 秋迟 is the name of a character (not sure MC or ML) for her next novel, and Si Shao 四少 means fourth, or fourth child/youth ?

“Offering to the Gods ceremony” translation is taken from Sakhyulations translation! https://www.sakhyulations.com/novel/heaven-officials-blessing/chapter-1/ bless them uwu

Q22. Why did HC not have confidence in his looks?

Because he was always told he was ugly, a monster, etc as a kid, so there was a deep ���I’m ugly” impression of himself. Later he started suspecting that “maybe I’m kind of good looking”. But before the person he likes the most, he would still instinctively be self-deprecating, and sometimes will wonder if he’s an ugly person.

Q24. Why did XL give himself the surname “Hua”? 

Because he likes flowers, and used to be called the Flower Crown Martial God. Also, in the initial character sketch, when XL was banished he became a flower god, in charge of flowers’ blooming and wilting.

T/N: The word for “wilt”, amazingly, is 花谢 “hua xie” which is HC’s surname + XL’s surname (!!!). Also is the fake name XL used in Banyue, and the surname he gave to HC in the amnesia extra.

Q27. When will edits be made on TGCF?

Edits have already started, and when they’re done they will all be added with an announcement. Because it’s a long process, and because JJ has inconvenient limits on edits, Iwon’t know when. Not sure if it’ll be before or after the fourth novel. Also will depend on novel adaptations (of prev novels) and how the fourth book goes.

Q28. Will there be more extras for TGCF?

I’ve been wanting to write a human realm commoner storybook, a collection of short fairytales.

BOOK 3 SPOILERS

Q15. Where was Hualian’s first time? Does Hua Chen know that Xie Lian made the first move in kissing him in Qiandeng temple?

Huangji temple in Taicang mountain! HC didn’t know at first, but later Huahua teased it out + closely interrogated it out of XL.

Q16. What was the last mural and the lying down sculpture of XL in Wanshengku (hundred thousand-gods temple)?

It was that you know. That.

T/N: papapapapapa

Q21. Why did HC always have bandages on his face as a child? Why did he fall from the building? Why was he always getting bullied but still physically very strong/healthy?

He was always beaten up because his right eye is red. Others thought it was scary, and his face had a lot of scars that had to be covered;

One day he was beaten up so much that he wanted to kill himself, and also he’s a very bratty and petty kid, so when he heard there’s going to be a Offering to the Gods ceremony -- which if went wrong will bring strife to the whole country -- he especially chose that day to ruin the ceremony. As in, “if I’m unlucky and having a hard time, I want this entire country to die with me”. But he ended up climbing up there saw his wife and was shook, so he forgot to kill himself. But because he wanted to see more clearly, wanted to be closer so badly, he accidently fell off. 

He is just very tenaciously surviving! He’s strong like XL, won’t die even after getting beaten up hundreds of times, and forever will be able to hold onto a last breath and crawl back up again to return, against fate.

Q23. What did Mu Qing say when he drove HC away?

MQ just speaks like that...like, you brat are not even useful to Taizi Dianxia, you’ll only weigh him down, the army doesn’t need trash like you, don’t think you actually have talent! etc. Also because in the army the youths’ death rate is actually quite high, so MQ didn’t think he was doing anything wrong in driving HC away.

BOOK 5 SPOILERS

Q25. So is Shi Qinxuan a human now? Will his hands and leg ever recover? If he reincarnated, would he still have a hard life? Is Shi Wudu really gone? What did Mo Shui take the water master’s head for? What did he say to Shi Qinxuan on Moshui island at the end?

SQX is human. He can’t recover, and he doesn’t want to. Heavenly Officials won’t reincarnate. SWD is gone for good. The head was used for an oblation. He didn’t say anything in the end, because SQX was very out of it, so even if he said something SQX wouldn’t be able to understand.

T/N: To refer to SWD MXTX uses 15° (15 degrees) because phonetically it sounds like SWD’s name.

[insomnia-productions]

modern mdzs: tumblr styles

Wei WuXian:

basically gaud

WWX would be the biggest-gaudiest-patronuses of the mdzs world

Confusing, abstract posts that are both funny and vaguely ominous??

shitposting for days

“this is an uwu safe space”

But he also dispenses really good advice to his followers and genuinely makes them feel better about themselves

also he would 100% eat a whole-ass box of crayons on livestream

This is while he’s sharing a flat with Jiang Cheng in college so JC is just sat on the couch with him, staring into the void as his brother eats crayons

He tags JC in e v e r y t h i n g

*photo of a rock* this is you *anatomical drawing of a bird* ha you *description of lichen* you on mondays lmao

After he starts dating Lan WangJi, endless posts about how much he loves his bae

102% refers to LWJ as “bae” and “boo” exclusively

Posts beautiful drawings of LWJ

Isn’t as active in adulthood but still pops in to antagonize the kids once they get tumblr

Lan WangJi:

Gorgeous calligraphy

Has thousands of followers and 53% of them are WWX on different accounts (he keeps getting blocked)

Not a single reblog to be found

No text, no tags, nothing but photo posts with calligraphy and the occasional painting

Eventually branches out a little and posts audios of himself playing the guqin

“Jiang Cheng listen to this I can’t beLIEVE” “stfu Wei Ying it’s 3am get off tumblr”

When he starts dating WWX he posts a duet of them playing music together. It’s his first video and the first time he tags a post: ‘wangxian’

His followers connect the dots pretty quickly and there is mass hysteria

WWX reblogs it and now his fanbase is screaming too

Each of them gains several thousand followers that day

meanwhile jiang cheng is sitting with his much smaller list of followers watching this and internally screaming

Jiang Cheng:

Everything is purple

Tried to delete his account 13 years ago but couldn’t bring himself to

He didn’t even want to get tumblr in the first place but WWX talked him into it and then he got addicted

His username is sandu-shengshou and WWX teases him about it constantly

“Wow, so edgy~” “it’S CULTURALLY RELEVANT”

Started out as an anti-WWX blog

“this is an uwu free zone”

His header has been “wei ying sucks” since he was 12 and will remain that way until he dies

Eventually he started including general complaints about life along with his many complaints about WWX

Known for his sarcasm and saltiness

Has a infinitely long queue filled with posts about “that one asshole from maths” and “this douchecanoe I met at the supermarket today”

Individual tags dedicated to WWX and JZX (he always saves the most creative insults for WWX)

He barely uses his blog now but the queue is still going

From time to time he still adds to it

Has exactly 714 followers and 1/4 of them are porn bots

Now he mostly uses tumblr to stalk Jin Ling

Jin Ling:

Archery and horses

Picture a hybrid of Student Athlete and Horse Girl

idk i just think if jin ling ever met a horse he would love them

Half of his posts are chain arguments with JingYi

Posts tips on archery and sword fighting techniques

Reblogs other blogs’ advice and corrects everything that’s wrong with it

Gets blocked by all other archery blogs

Works part-time at a centre for horse riding lessons and posts stories about the horses there

He didn’t have any followers at first because the blogs that he corrected made a big fuss about him, but some curious people went to check him about and realized that he actually really knows his shit

Then they read his posts about horses and realized that he’s actually very sweet under the prickly and snobbish exterior, and now he’s got a fanbase

One time he accidentally reblogged from JC and then hid at JingYi’s house for three days out of pure embarrassment

He inherited a sword from his father’s family and named his blog after it

He knows that JC stalks his blog to keep tabs on him but he doesn’t say anything because sometimes people send him asks about how his advice really helped them and he lowkey wants JC to see that and be proud of him

Lan JingYi:

Reblogging memes, all day every day

You get to his blog, the icon is screaming seagull, the header is a collage of spongebob memes, the first post is related to the simpsons probably

A few wacky conspiracy theories sprinkled into the mix, no one can tell whether he really believes them

But if you scroll for a while, you’ll start to notice breaks in the pattern

Little aesthetic collages and edits made by JingYi himself

Stuff like the various seasons of Gusu, the mood of a night hunt with SiZhui, Jin Ling, and Zizhen, the atmosphere of Lotus Pier and Koi Tower and all the other sects he gets to visit

Aesthetic boards for his friends, his mentors - there’s even one for Lan Qiren and it’s full out mountains, calligraphy pens, grey clouds, and that lemon guy who says “uNAcEPTtABLe”

And if you look really, really closely, you’ll find that amongst the collages and the edits and even the memes… he’s managed to hide every. single. lan sect rule.

All 4000 of them. Hidden amongst memes, shitposts, and mood boards.

Lan Qiren finds out and doesn’t know whether to facepalm or be impressed

Ouyang ZiZhen:

Book reviews and recommendations

Header is an edit of books against a rainy window (JingYi made it for him)

Tags the other kids in all the most wholesome posts

People discover him from reblogs on the other kids’ blogs and then follow him because of his tags

ZiZhen is That Person who chats in the tags

Half of his posts are in the tags, almost like he’s shy to have all of it out on display

He gives recommendations for books based on specific seasons, moods, themes, etc

Someone sends him an ask one day to ask for a themed rec list and he screams, he’s buzzing about it for weeks, he goes all out and researches the shit out of his library to give the anon the best book list possible

After that he gets lots more asks and it makes him happy to provide other people with good books

Is a mutual with every single one of his followers and loves all of them

Lan SiZhui:

Everything is soft and blue

He was raised by WWX and later on by LWJ as well so the day he joined tumblr was a Historic Moment for the wangxian fanbase

There are bets down about whether he’ll be a shitposting blog like his Meme Dad or an art blog like his Mature Dad (or both??)

In the end he turns out to be an advice/suggestions blog

Every day he posts a wholesome suggestion and responds to anyone looking for advice

His followers: came for the wangxian lovechild stayed for the emotional healing

A lot of his advice asks are just JingYi and Jin Ling complaining about each other on anon

Sometimes he posts a short audio or video for a message he feels should be spoken

Now people keep requesting him to do asmr (JingYi laughs hysterically and tells him to do it) (he doesn’t)

Always promotes his friends’ blogs and encourages his followers to visit their blogs

His whole blog is just super wholesome and nice. WWX and LWJ are so proud.