#and his priority was sqq’s happiness

[mxtxfanatic]

You know what? I can see the argument that Yue Qingyuan doesn’t receive real closure with Shen Yuan replacing Shen Jiu as Shen Qingqiu and thinking that it’s just a qi deviation that wiped sqq’s memories and personality, but honestly after reading all this history, it makes me read the main story ending in a different light.

Like, all yqy wanted was for shen jiu to be able to let go of the resentment built from his abuse and (assumed) abandonment. And maybe he didn’t want that by means of sqq “losing his memories” and couldn’t accept this at first, but I feel like at the end, he truly has come to the realization that he enjoys sqq happy and free more—even without his memories—than a sqq perpetually tortured by shen jiu’s past and as unwilling to let go of that hatred as his memories were unwilling to let go of him. This is his closure.

[starchbean]

Imagining what would have happened if, after breaking SQQ out of the Water Prison, GYX had gone to immediately square up with Binghe.

At first LBH thinks GYX is attacking him because he found out he's a demon, and is all too happy to put GYX in the ground - but over the course of the fight, he hears GYX say things like "No matter what he did to you, nobody deserves what YOU did to him!"

And LBH, ever so snidely, asks what in the fuck he ever did to SQQ

And GYX explodes with anger, telling him how he thought things happened between them in the Water Prison...

And Binghe... is confused and pissed. Xin Mo tells him that GYX is only saying these horrible things because it's what GYX secretly wanted to do to his Shizun! He should END him! He screams that he would never, EVER do that to his beloved Shizun! That GYX shouldn't interfere with the two of them, you pervert!"

This attitude causes GYX to falter enough to create a big opening--is LBH actually telling the truth, or-?"

And yet even when GYX lies defeated and bleeding out at LBH feet, he's still defending Shizun, still smiling with that disgustingly righteous face when he believes he's going to be killed, and--

The alert talismans go off. The breach of the Water Prison has been discovered. LBH knocks GYX unconscious and drags him to the healers, claiming that he pulled him from the fray still hanging on to life.

GYX might be full of shit, but he could be useful. Anyone who goes so hard for Shizun's sake can't be all bad. Right now protecting Shizun is the priority to focus on. Maybe if LBH can just get some sense through that thick skull of his, they can work together. If not, he beat him once, and he can beat him again.

[ultfreakme]

Danmei ask, what are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite moments from MDZS? Also, can I ask why you love those 3 (JC, WWX , XXC)?

(Riki, I'm so glad when found out you also love Jiang Cheng. You must know how many haters on his character in tumblr and twitter. Like, I was blocked 4 times by MDZS lover blog, when they knew I love Jiang Cheng.)

I love reading your MDZS/ SVSSS crossover, they're so in character.....And yes, SQQ must love Sukuna and Jogo if he ever read JJK...

Thanks for the ask Anon!!

Top 7 moments:

When we find out the Jiang Cheng sacrificed himself to the Wens to save Wei Wuxian. It was dropped so casually and I had to backtrack and go "wait, wait, WAIT! DISCUSS IT PLEASE!!"

The juniors in the Yi City arc, they were so adorable, I loved reading them putting on a brave face and investigating.

Wei Wuxian murdering the crap out of Wen Chao with his sexy undead ladies. Him and Jiang Cheng together torturing him while Lan Wangji was sent out and it's like, LWJ is confused, shocked, and horrified.

The scene where Wei Wuxian's roasting Jin Guangshan at the conference post-war and everyone's scandalized. I love it when Wei Wuxian gets bitchy.

Jiang Cheng's intro scene in the donghua where he emerges from the shadows of that tree, pushing aside the leaves. That's so hot of him.

Wei Wuxian covered in blood in the second siege of Burial Mounds and Lan Wangji is defending him. That scene's so cool and romantic in all its iterations. The donghua went above and beyond and made it seem like a wedding.

Jiang Cheng giving Zidian to Jin Ling ;_; It hurts me. It's so much worse knowing that MXTX was planning on killing Jin Ling soon after to really hurt Jiang Cheng.

Reasons I like:

Jiang Cheng-

He's so complicated! You can't immediately look at him and say he's the good guy or the bad guy. I personally think he leans more towards the good guy category.

He's the perfect opposite of Wei Wuxian, he's not a genius cultivator like wwx, he had to work for every bit of progress he made. He started off simply wanting to keep his family together and at peace, but the war happened and his priorities shifted. He's duty-bound, he's always fighting and scraping to be recognized but no one ever does. He wanted so bad to help wwx, but duty made it so that he was forced to pick between his sect and wwx. Forever chained, closed off.

He's jealous and vicious and so, so angry. I get it, I understand the worst parts of him and relate to it.

Wei Wuxian-

Again, super complicated as a person. Wronged at every turn. He wanted to do good and protect people, and for that he kept sacrificing himself over and over again with little value given to himself as a person. He's got his sharp edges and cruelty too, and I feel like people often forget that Wei Wuxian's traumas and his lack of self-appreciation and value on himself show in ugly and vicious ways.

His story obviously shows a key message of MDZS, which is that when people sacrifice themselves thinking that they're protecting their loved one, they only hurt them in another way. I understood his desire to do good, protect people, but there's no one to stand at his side. The loneliness and fear that comes with fucking up so bad that no one even tries to hear you out, no one's listening no matter how loud you shout.

Xiao Xingchen:

He's like Wei Wuxian but 100% times worse and more self-sacrificial. Too trusting, too good, and everyone kept taking advantage of that without bothering to guide him or be honest with him. Like legit, no one told him what they were truly thinking.

I love that xxc wants to be a good person, i hate that he was ruined for it. God I really wanted him to have a happy ending because he's just, he's so NICE. In a world filled with betrayal and deceit, xxc wanted to spread goodness. And yet.

AAHHHHHH

I think these characters made me see the point of MDZS in a very clear way, or in a way that impacted me most. So they're my faves.

Being a Jiang Cheng liker is a struggle! I was getting into MDZS even before the donghua started airing, like around 2018 and back then Jiang Cheng hate was so bad. I kept waiting year after year for the hate to go down but it just got worse the more popular MDZS got. The misunderstandings built up too. I got black and got into a million arguments too ;_; We have to stick together!!!

i have so many thoughts about Jiang Cheng specifically because, okay I read and watched everything about 3 years ago, so I don't remember much other than my fav, so I'm always thinking about everything he did.

nbsdhfb SQQ's monster-loving ass would go gaga for Sukuna. Four armed man wrecking people??? Yes sir! (side note; big tall powerful man who is called king who is only nice to his close servant and confidante???? SQH come get your boy!)

[greenpanda-djg]

Airplane/Binghe Mobei/Cucumber Parralell

Just ignore me OR add if you're like me and just love the parralells/ships and everything that is peoples headcannon that Airplane based LBH on himself and likes ice cold beautys like mobei and cucumber etc.

SO

How is LGH and SQQ the same as Airplane/cucumber?

Okay, so your a writer you pour your heart and soul into writing something you genuinly liked and then when you show that to the world you get attacked by criticism. As an artist/writer not everyone will like your work so the scene where LBH in the tea ceremony is happy then gets dunked on. SQQ could represent the haters/his anti fans that no matter how much LBH TRIES its NEVER good enough for your harshest critic. And JUST LIKE antis and weirdos online who trash on peoples works that they poured their heart and soul into is usually projection! That the antis online are probably miserable [or like SY who read PIDW but completely missed the tones and made a ton of assumptions which lead to his downfall in the world]

I'm not sure if its a headcannon or fact that sqq vitriol was based on most of Cucumbers animosity towards PIDW.

And most have noticed how Shang Qinghua always wears a pleasent smile, acts pitiful on purpose, takes advantage of others and looks down on them pretty much too faced but is suprisingly strong has some similarities to LBH. And his dynamic with Mobei-Jun someone who hites Shang QInghua [Which to demons is a sign of affection JUST like how SQQ hits Binghe with his fan its endearment like a wife slapping her husbands shoulder]

How Mobei-Jun is the damsel in distress JUST like Sqq and both need rescuing by their pitiful husbands! and also how Mobei-Jun is always annoyed at SQH but then gets pissy when Shang Qinghua tries to leave same as Shen Qingqiu who is hot and cold then cries when LBH leaves him in the mausoleom-

Okay I'm saying that its the same ship in different FONTS.

Also one last thing is how funny how Shen Yuan is a typical online weirdo who cares more for a fictional character version and has more empathy for this cute white lotus whose had a troubling life.

Meanwhile theres SQH who ALSO had an awful upbringing how his shixiongs literally shoved SQH in front of a freaken DEMON who was the great Mobei-Jun and expected a small disciple to take him on may as well have sacrificed him! How he had his own system and tried to help SY when he could and yet it was never good enough the weird anti parasocial dynamic where SY would rather care for SQH fictional counterpart than the real thing thats right in front of him since most people online hold fictional characters with more priority than real people

ps. YES SQQ does care for SQH he let him lay low in the bamboo house and fed him Binghes food just like his relationship with Binghe and Mobei SQQ is hot and cold he will literally slap you and say he hates you one moment then wifebeams gives you food the next and tuck you into bed I'm just saying he can be BOTH or his journey through the story is that SQQ follows scripts. He's a pretender and thinks its a story the characters and people in this world and just that fiction. So it would make sense that he has this distance with even SQH and by finally treating the world as real by taking LBH emotions seriously and that his words do have an impact and can HURT him shows that he also applies this behaviour to everyone around him including SQH.

Anything else you guys want to add feel free.

[zestys-world]

I see you write MXTX fics! Do you have any plans for a fic in SVSSS?

Oh boy anon do I. I've decided not to write for svsss until I do a reread and also decided to finish at least one of my priority wips before my svsss reread. In the meantime I'm happy to talk about some of them.

There's one Pygmalion and Galatea Moshang fic I DID publish but then I realised I rushed it so I deleted it. One day it will be back up and properly finished... one day...

Telepathic Liu Qingge whose powers were never mentioned in pidw. He's extremely confused by what Shen Qingqiu is on about. This means Liu Qingge knows exactly why Shen Qingqiu saved him and is really salty about SQQ not letting him save his goddamn life. I also have a less serious version where LQG pretends to also be a transmigrator. SQH knows damn well LQG is lying his ass off (horribly may I add) but SQQ just keeps coming up with bizzare leaps in logic to make sense of it. "Shidi doesn't know what a TV is because he was raised by the Amish!" type thing.

SY transmigrates into a magical apple tree on qing jing peak that LBH uses as a comfort spot. He doesn't stay a tree the whole fic but... yes the majority of it he is a tree. SQH gets hit by an apple and decides to rip off Isaac Newton at one point.

I have a lot more but I don't remember them atm. I looked through my notes app and found some things I jotted down while sleep deprived (I barely remember these):

Sy transmigrates into lbh and finds out she is trans (+ trans mentor sqq liking her more) and she takes the place of a recently deceased ning yingying

Weird pollen thing makes someone think everyone around them is a cat

Og sqq x og sqh

I think at one point I had a truly bizzare fic idea where sqh falsely claims to be sqq's baby daddy at the immortal alliance conference and this gives lbh so much psychic damage he steps back and falls into the abyss by accident (it's the second worst thing that happened to him that day). I think it was inspired by mourning geckos that don't need males to breed and despite it can lay eggs with unique genetics (don't quote me on this I'm far from an expert). I THINK the flower I made up just made a baby clone of sqq? I don't remember everything.

[opal-apples]

AND ANOTHER THING. (sorry)

we the audience (and more importantly sqq) know that binghe is capable of Great Amounts Of Hate And Destruction. one of the things that makes him interesting to me is to see how he changed because of his more gentle upbringing in the sv-verse. binghe always has the potential to go full Ruler Of All Realms, Lord of Demons, but his priorities have shifted to wanting a cottage with the man he loves instead of destroying the world.

his choices, though obscured by sqq's sqq-isms, are centered around being with sqq and making him happy. and bc he has accessed to World Destroying Technology yes he does take that route but the goal isn't revenge its love!!! it's extraordinarily twisted and traumatized and irrational and angry, but Binghe's motivation in sv is love and that's why I love him

[greentrickster]

@lemonsnapples Would that mean not wanting to have sex with SQQ as much anymore? The extras say they do it once every three days and SQQ can't keep track of how many rounds they go through a night. Sorry I don't quite understand asexuality so I was curious. But if that's the case I'm sure SQQ will be happier on the surface at the least about having less sex ha ha ha

Okay, for starters, good on you for asking! For seconds, I'm not ace myself, this is secondhand info, so take everything I say with a grain of salt. From my (outsider) understanding, asexuality is basically not experiencing sexual attraction to other people regardless of gender. From there it can get more complicated, hence why asexuality is frequently described as a spectrum. There are aces who don't experience sexual attraction but still enjoy sex just fine if they decide to have it, aces who would rather not participate in the act itself but don't mind/enjoy hearing or reading about it, aces who are sex repulsed and would be perfectly happy to never interact with the topic ever again please and thank-you, and about as many more variations as their are people who identify as ace.

So, short answer that potentially fits to canon: Binghe could absolutely be an asexual who doesn't experience general sexual attraction, but is absolutely down to get frisky with SQQ/SY whenever. (Having limited or low sexual attraction is also sometimes referred to as being a gray asexual, or graysexual). It's absolutely possible to be asexual and still have a sex drive.

More complicated answer that could be fun to explore in a fic: Just because you are a certain sexuality doesn't mean you know you are, or the terminology for it. I'm aromantic, and I was fully convinced that the reason I'd never been interested in dating was because I didn't have time/didn't consider it a priority until I was about 27/28 and finally learned the term 'aromantic.' Upon which I had a little surprised pikachu lightbulb moment.

The reason Bingge has all that power, all those wives, all that treasure and sex, is because those are all the things that we're told as people - and especially as men - that we're supposed to want in life. They're also often used as benchmarks for success depending on how much of each you have and are getting. However, as Airplane has said, none of these are things that Bingge actually wants for himself, his story was meant to be an exploration of the cycles of abuse, the hollowness of revenge, and how Bingge has everything except what he actually wants (press F for Airplane's lost outline). Given that it's easy to use sex as a stand-in for emotional and platonic physical closeness (and that sex is often over-romanticized in regards to being the sign of having ultimate physical and emotional closeness with another person), it's easy to see why someone like Bingge would start seeking it early on, given that he's emotionally starved and also likely touch-starved and sex ed in his world is abysmal. Then he gets Xin Mo, a sword that literally requires blood and sex to stop it from destroying the user, and which traps Bingge in a truly toxic relationship with even the concept of sex, because now it's something he has to do regularly, whether he wants to or not. It's reducing something that should be a baseline pleasant experience for both parties to a chore for him, which absolutely yikes. There's an interesting potential analysis and character exploration there.

And even Bingmei, with the world he's in and his wonderful, emotionally-intelligent Shizun who knows all things and definitely isn't hetero-normative-minded to the most hilarious possible extent, is pretty unlikely to have even encountered the concepts of being asexual or aromantic. Having a lot of sex doesn't negate the potential for a character or person to be asexual. Having a lot of sex doesn't necessarily mean the person's enjoying having a lot of sex either - they could be doing it to make their partner happy, for financial reasons (which, no shame there), because they've been told that they should be enjoying this (and possibly are scared of what it might say about them if they aren't so they never admit to it), or because - like me and my potential first date - they could be waiting for that magic moment where they suddenly become interested/start enjoying this and are just going through the motions until then.

And, to be brutally honest here... sexuality's also just a really interesting topic. There are so many ways to express and embody it, it's such a personal aspect of the self, and three people who seem to have similar experiences on the surface level could have three completely different sexual identities based on how they perceive themselves and interact with their inclinations and the world around them. And that's so cool, isn't that so cool, it's so cool! And a setting like SVSSS, where sex is such a key part of the very fabric of the world, makes such a fantastically interesting place to explore this topic, and I think it would be especially interesting to explore the experience of being ace or demi-sexual in a world like this, where sex pollen is real and wants to ruin your day.

And that's not even factoring in Mr. Shen "So far in the closet I found Narnia" Yuan, and how this would affect him and his relationship with Binghe and his own sexual and romantic exploration and identity. Because it would really force him to examine just how much he does/doesn't enjoy having sex with his husband, and there's a whole slew of outcomes that could be explored!

And that's just what my aromantic bisexual self can think of! I'd love to hear how someone who's actually asexual would potentially like to see this situation played out or handled. Sexuality headcanons are generally pretty minor parts of any given story beyond 'who's romancing/having sex with who,' but in a setting like SVSSS they're such an integral part of the world it automatically makes it a really fun, interesting place to have a story that's literally nothing but a character exploring their own romantic and sexual orientations, and I think that's fantastic!

(quietly staring into the middle distance thinking about how, while all the spicy fanfic is very fun, it would probably be most thematically logical if Luo Binghe was somewhere on the asexual spectrum, since the PIDW story is about him having all this stuff - power and treasure and women - that he doesn't actually want and which doesn't make him happy, and it would be really fitting if he actually didn't really want all that sex either, he just thought he was supposed to want it, same as he was supposed to want all the other stuff)

(this is not to shame/call out/complain about anyone writing spicy SVSSS fic involving Binghe, please continue, this is me going, "hmmm, don't think I've seen this option explored, that could be interesting")

[nyoomerr]

Before the investigation in Jinlan City, Shen Qingqiu is hit by a curse that forces him to speak his mind. Unfortunately, this means that the first thing he does when he sees Luo Binghe for the first time in three years is to tell Luo Binghe that he's grown up to be really quite pretty. Luo Binghe, not sure what's going on but absolutely enjoying the ride, abandons all his plans immediately. He has new priorities now, including but not limited to: - get his Shizun to call him 'pretty' again - steal his Shizun away from his (probably in existence) harem - ???

⭐ bingqiu ⭐ sqq hit by a truth curse at jinlan city ⭐ canon divergence, light angst, happy ending ⭐ 8k, oneshot

[baiwu-jinji]

@parlerenfleurs asked:

In SVSSS what do you think is Yue Qingyuan's take on Shen Qingqiu's change of personality? And how come he's so chill and supportive of Bingqiu at the end?

I've seen a lot of thoughts on this but I'm still intrigued by this myself. I do think his priority is to see Shen Qingqiu happy, and since he's happy with Binghe that's what he'll support, but yeah.

Hi! I think it’s mentioned in the extras that the lords of the Twelve Peaks had a meeting about Shen Qingqiu’s personality change where they decided that SQQ must’ve had a qi deviation and lost his memory. And when asked by Qi Qingqi, Yue Qingyuan is shown to have an ambivalent attitude about this:

他认真地道：“虽然他现在这样也���好……只是，能想起来，还是想起来得更好。”

Translation: he said seriously: “although he’s very good as he is now…but, if he could remember (the past), then it’d be better if he could remember.”

The translation I did of Yue Qingyuan’s line is pretty literal so you can see from the pause in his speech and the way he repeats himself that he’s pretty torn about this. Shen Qingqiu with Shen Yuan’s personality is better for everyone and better for Shen Qingqiu himself too; but if the old Shen Qingqiu is gone, that means the past that bound Yue Qingyuan and Shen Qingqiu together is gone too. No matter how toxic and painful their childhood bond turned out to be, Shen Qingqiu is first and foremost Yue Qingyuan’s little brother, then his colleague. If the past died for Shen Qingqiu then there’ll be no way for Yue Qingyuan to ever make it up to Shen Qingqiu and to ease his own guilt. So Yue Qingyuan would like to see Shen Qingqiu’s memories restored even if it means Shen Qingqiu turning back into the viper that he was.

As you said, Yue Qingyuan just wants to see Shen Qingqiu happy so he’s very supportive of Bingqiu. He’s always been indulgent towards Shen Qingqiu to a fault because he feels like he owes Shen Qinqiu so much that he’s not in a position to ask anything of Shen Qingqiu.  And I think it’s not just Yue Qingyuan, Cang Qiong Mountain as a whole is pretty protective and defensive of their own. Liu Qingge and Qi Qingqi are obviously not happy about Bingqiu but they tolerated it because they care about Shen Qingqiu’s well-being.

[spockandawe]

For the writing meme, 3 + 18?

18. Do any of your stories have alternative versions? (plotlines that you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterisations?) Tell us about them.

SO. This feels a little like cheating, because it’s not all necessarily my work, but first, The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System is prodding me in the au place real good, but then, feynite’s entire svsss everything got me so much worse, especially I Wish You Were My Husband and feynite’s aus and side stories for that verse. My biggest priorities have been 1) bingliushen, and 2) But Shen Jiu Tho, and @applechime and I cannot stop riffing on this silly setting. We have about four or five distinct aus of our own at this point, and it Just Keeps Happening. I’m working on writing two of these aus, but these things keep branching, especially since svsss has alternate universe crossover events written right into the original plot, and I’ll never be able to write everything

(i can cross over diet bingge with bingmei and bingge both, if i’m careful with my timing, but what about a timeline where our binghe is able to save bingge’s sha yuan and gege, and what if there’s a timeline where our binghe figures out that in bingmei’s universe, shizun was weird and nice because a-yuan was in shizun’s body, and oh god if i want to write babies happening at what point in the timeline does that go, and--) (it’s a logistical nightmare, but so FUN)

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Hoo boy. So. Another au. Would be svsss proper, a universe where the Liu siblings were flipped around. Instead of Bai Zhan Peak Lord Liu Qingge, we’ve got Bai Zhan Peak Lord Liu Mingyan. And I love Liu Qingge to pieces, but he did not put any skill points into social graces, and Shen Jiu is a touchy, brittle boy, and finds men lowkey triggering to begin with, and what if instead of becoming vicious enemies with Liu Qingge, he was able to become vague frenemies with Peak Lord Liu Mingyan instead. What if she was able to fill the [big sister figure] space in his life the way Qiu Haitang used to do.

And what I would really, really, really love to do. It would take so much time and work and development, and maybe some alcohol as well, because it’s not like Shen Jiu is very interested in opening himself up to anyone to begin with. But I’d love to get a scene that really captures the same energy as Wei Wuxian and Jiang Yanli after Jiang Cheng’s core gets destroyed, where he curls up in her lap and cries, but.... with Shen Jiu flavor, which makes it so much harder to execute.

It would be so, so hard wrangling things around to a point where him opening up in that way felt at all plausible, but just imagine!!! I desperately want Shen Jiu to find security and/or friendship, and outside of somehow fixing things with Yue Qingyuan (which is also good, but IWYWMH is a great example of how sour things can go if his only person is yue qingyuan), it’s kind of depressing to realize that this is probably the easiest shortcut from Shen Jiu to happiness, considering how much work it would still need XD Alternately, I would also be into a qi deviation a la Luo Binghe or Hua Cheng that left Shen Jiu child sized, but that flavor of vulnerability would also be hard and also wouldn’t be the same

(and again, with branching aus, two possible timelines: imagine a universe where non-transmigrator-sqq is able to save liu mingyan from qi deviation in lingxi cave, and doesn’t panic so badly he accidentally fucks it up and kills her. and then, imagine a universe where he does panic and fuck up... and kills his only friend, and imagine the nasty gossip afterwards about how shen qingqiu is such a deceitful scumbag, I mean, look at how often he visits brothels and look at how beautiful liu mingyan was, i bet he made an advance down her in the caves and she turned him down, and that’s why he killed her)

[ben-wisehart]

Y'all I have spent DAYS thinking about this and about the compatibility between bingqiu's personalities and all I've done is come to the conclusion that I genuinely have no idea what the hell makes two people personalities compatible in the first place

People say stuff like "birds of a feather flock together", but that's obviously not the case for everyone. Two people can have really similar personalities and on paper seem like they'd be perfect for each other, but still rub each other the wrong way (sometimes BECAUSE of their similarities). People also say that opposites attract, but that doesn't always work in practice. An introvert and an extrovert might seem like a good match in theory, because the extrovert can help bring the introvert out of their shell and the introvert can help the extrovert to slow down, but for every relationship like the one I've just described, isn't there another where the outgoing one gets sad because their partner doesn't like to come with them to social events, or the introvert because their partner isn't always happy staying home with them? Sometimes you need somebody that is like you.

What I mean is that any two personalities can be compatible on paper and disastrous in practice. And likewise, you can have a couple that seems like they'd be terrible for each other but they work. Like, I don't know what makes wangxian's personalities compatible. I don't know what makes hualian or any other pairing I've ever shipped compatible, personality wise. To use wangxian as an example (because I've actually finished mdzs and can't yet say the same for tgcf), like, okay. WWX is playful and outgoing while LWJ is stern and serious. They're clearly an example of an introvert/extrovert pairing that works. But they also didn't work for a long time. They spent most of the novel's flashbacks in conflict with each other (maybe not directly on opposite sides of a battle, but they're certainly clashing). It isn't until the present day that they become like two peas in a pod.

But their personalities don't fundamentally change over the course of the novel. They've gained experience, certainly, and they've worked out their priorities. LWJ has loosened up a lot, but they're still the same people at their core. I. I don't. I honestly don't know...what a personality actually is? I understand what it is that people mean when they talk about it, but if you asked me to describe it I'd say it's...a pattern of behaviours? And behaviours are just things you do. I don't think WangXian bonded over their personalities, necessarily. They're good for each other because they're two people with similar values, but even that wasn't enough at first. Like Bingqiu, their lives were rife with misunderstandings and incorrect assumptions about the other. WWX literally believed that LWJ hated him. LWJ believed WWX knew of his feelings and had already rejected him. It wasn't until they were able to clear the air of everything that they were able to move forward with their relationship.

But I started this post thinking about Bingqiu and what makes them compatible, personality wise. What even are their personalities? I stated in the last post the reasons why I think this is difficult to unpack; Binghe has built so much of his identity around loving SQQ and SQQ has been unable to act as his personality would normally dictate during many significant moments in their relationship. But in general, Binghe is loyal and hardworking, so he needs somebody that is equally loyal and who challenges him. Binghe is also emotional and needy, so he needs somebody who is attentive and caring. SQQ ticks all these boxes. SQQ, for his part, is self-conscious and hesitant to act on his feelings, so he needs somebody that will push him just enough that he can't hide, but also would never judge him. SQQ is doting—he likes doting on Binghe. He openly says in chapter 81 that needy Binghe is his type. SQQ is also, bless him, kind of spoilt. He likes being pampered, which is perfect for Binghe, who loves cooking for him and taking care of him.

I honestly do think their personalities are compatible - it's a weird relationship to an outside viewer, but it works for them and that's the main thing. But as I've said before and will reiterate here, the thing that makes their relationship good is the fact that they're willing to put in the work of actually building one.

TL;DR: I honestly don't what personalities are and I suspect that they're just our way of describing patterns of behaviour and thought that are far more complicated than I'll ever be able to describe, but I think the thing that makes relationships function in the long term isn't personalities, it's mutual understanding and communication and commitment, so regardless of whether Bingqiu's personalities are compatible or not (I think they are but that's neither here nor there) I think they're gonna be just fine. Send post

1/? Thank you so much for your detailed and fast meta-response! You’re truly amazing and gave me more answers than I expected. The thing I’m getting at is, MXTX presumably writes her ships the way that they’re supposed to be the one and only for each other. She even makes them stay virgins till they can be with their partners. And while I absolutely do believe in making soulmates I also believe that there are people who are much more compatible than others.

Following on from this. More Bingqiu ramblings under the cut

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