#anyway Angry Potato Jiang Cheng

[misanthropiczombie]

My God I am actually going to SCHEDULE A POST just to make sure Rhi doesn't see this for a long while because it's a scene best experienced fresh

Follower’s favourite scenes: Lan wangji stopping Jiang Cheng at Lotus Pier for @tashiruya-meiji

[danmei-confessions]

As ever in this fandom some people are coming from CQL, where NMJ tries to kill JGY 1) when he thinks he was actually actively working for the Wen and 2) after JGY deliberately poisoned him in a way designed to provoke uncontrollable rage and maybe psychosis.

Beyond that at I think NMJ gets cut slack for two reasons: the first being that yes, he is sick, and even in the novel it's somewhat ambiguous when exactly JGY starts poisoning him. When he strikes out at Huaisang thinking he's JGY, for example, he's definitely under the influence of JGY's evil music. Personally I do think if you try to poison someone in a way that is designed to make them so mad they die you forfeit your right to complain when that backfires on you.

The second reason I think people cut him slack is that NMJ's beef with JGY is about how he thinks JGY is doing serious bad shit and lying to him about it when JGY is in fact doing serious bad shit and lying to NMJ about it. Aside from the big ticket items NMJ knows about or knows something about (Xue Yang, the clan he has XY wipe out in villainous friends, the Wen torture palace spy adventures) there's smaller stuff (NMJ clocks instantly that JGY is actively lying about WWX's behaviour to Jiang Cheng, for example). NMJ is angry about something many people perceive as reasonable (being constantly lied to) and suspicious about something that he is correct about (JGY doing assorted bad shit).

NMJ is determined to uphold (his idea of) justice. That's why XXC goes to him, and that's why He Su asks JGY if he doesn't fear NMJ discovering that he's massacring his whole clan without reason. Protecting people from the kind of stuff JGY does is important to him even when it's not JGY. That's a big part of why he goes to war with Wen Ruohan, and why Meng Yao is able to impress him by caring for civilians, and why he is enough of a thorn in JGS's side that he tells JGY to kill him. There is a big divide in fandom between people who see the root of their conflict as NMJ being unreasonable about the position JGY is in and people who are the root of their conflict as them having fundamentally different values, but I think for people who are sympathetic to Mingjue's position the staircase fight is about whether JGY is in fact justified in throwing other people's lives away if it ensures his own safety and power. "To achieve great things, one must make sacrifices/Then why don’t you sacrifice yourself? Are you more distinguished than them? Are you different from them?/ Yes. Of course I'm different." So Mingjue is perceived (by me, at least) as having a reasonable concern about the harm JGY may do to other people while also being incapacitated enough by his saber sickness for that to be a mitigating if not exculpatory factor in how he chooses to deal with it. Additionally, because he knows JGY lies often and is a good enough liar to fool him, he can never actually sit down with JGY and have an honest conversation about what he's done or might choose to do in the future, and he can't know when JGY is being sincere with him (see murder attempt #2). He thinks JGY is a danger to the general public and he feels obligated to help mitigate that danger both because he's JGY's sworn brother and because he thinks protecting people is his job more generally. But tbh I don't think killing NMJ ranks high on most people's lists of JGY's crimes, anyway. He was in a spot, NMJ is a big boy, I think it's fair for A-Sang to take his shot for Dage but he does so much worse shit to so many more people killing one guy feels like small potatoes.

.

[needtherapy]

the road in leaves no step had trodden black

“You don’t smile much anymore. You used to smile more.”

“Not much to smile about these days, is there?”

Jiang Cheng gets a little therapy session from Wen Ning, learns to plant potatoes, and decides he's not giving up on something he wants. 

Read more Kristina Writes Tiny Stories or Skadiseven Stories on AO3

The title is from Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken” and the story was written for Jiang Cheng’s birthday and, more importantly, @wangxianbunnydoodles​‘s birthday!

Jiang Cheng wonders if it’s irony that a dead man is so intent on digging in the dirt, hoping to bring forth new life, or just a strange coincidence. He can never remember the difference.

Irony, he decides, as the dead man carefully buries a row of eyes, one per mound, evenly spaced in neat rows. He wonders if this will even work, if life can come from death, if...

“Jiang-zongzhu, can I help you?”

The gentle voice startles Jiang Cheng from his morbid thoughts. In all the times he’s visited Burial Mounds, Wen Ning has never spoken to him. He supposes that’s his own fault. When has he ever invited conversation? Or, if he’s more honest, when hasn’t he discouraged it?

“Or...would you like to help me? Have you ever planted potatoes?”

No, Jiang Cheng thinks, he has never planted potatoes, and he’s not exactly enthusiastic to try right now, but Wen Ning is handing him a circle of potato with a small sprout, and he takes it without thinking.

“You put it in the ground about this deep, eye facing the sky,” Wen Ning shows him with a little chuckle. “And then you bury it under the dirt, but you have to make a little mound and pat it down.”

It would be rude not to plant the potato he’s holding, and when it’s safely underground, ready to do whatever it is potatoes do, Jiang Cheng looks at his fingernails. He’s a man of the water, and his fingernails are never dirty. But he doesn’t have time to think about it, because Wen Ning is beaming at him and holding out another piece of potato. Much to his consternation, Wen Ning has proven to have all the menace of a kitten and all the enthusiasm of a puppy, and it’s impossible not to smile back. Maybe he doesn’t do it right, though, because Wen Ning’s eyebrows draw together, and he looks concerned.

He doesn’t say anything, just gestures to Jiang Cheng with the potato-eye piece.

Well, what the hell, he may as well, Jiang Cheng thinks. He’s already dirty just being here. He kneels down and follows Wen Ning's directions, taking the second piece of potato and the third without saying anything at all.

He plants six more tiny eyes in tiny sockets of mud before Wen Ning says anything else.

“You don’t smile much anymore. You used to smile more.”

“Not much to smile about these days, is there?”

Wen Ning’s mouth flicks sideways sadly. “No. Not much.”

Jiang Cheng remembers that he’s talking to a man who has recently been deceased, exiled, hunted, and also lost nearly his entire family, so perhaps he knows something of sorrow. Jiang Cheng doesn’t feel guilty, not exactly, but he does feel...something. Something niggling and uncomfortable.

“But there are some things, aren’t there?” Wen Ning goes on, and Jiang Cheng stares at him as a smile turns up the corners of Wen Ning’s mouth. “I have my sister and you have yours. We both have a great friend—kind of like a brother—in Wei-gongzi. I have family to care for and you have a nephew on the way. Someone saved my life, in a way, and someone saved yours.”

Jiang Cheng laughs, despite himself. “Wen-gongzi, is that a joke? Yes, yes, you’re right, my thanks is long overdue. Thank you for saving my life.”

He makes an approximation of a deep bow, even though he is still kneeling in a potato patch. It comes out more like giving obeisance, which is, possibly, more appropriate anyway.

Wen Ning bobs his head, still smiling. “I’m glad you’ve used it well, Jiang-zongzhu.”

Has he? He’s helped his own sect recover, and he’s told himself that nothing else matters, but the truth is, he doesn’t want to help anyone else right now. It never works, and no one else even needs him, so why bother? Yanli managed to get herself married without his help. Wei Wuxian is determined to do whatever this is without his help. He’s been supportive! Sort of. But...maybe...maybe he hasn’t been a great brother. Fine, especially not to Wei Wuxian. Sure, he comes to visit this vile place sometimes, but he doesn’t know why. It’s stupid. He repudiated Wei Wuxian publicly; it’s dangerous to keep visiting. And he hates it, every inch of it, not because it’s ugly—which it is—but because Wei Wuxian chose it. He doesn’t understand why Wei Wuxian stays, why any of them stay, why Wen Qi…

“Why are you here?”

The question bursts out in an angry snap and Wen Ning looks puzzled.

“I’m planting potatoes. Wei-gongzi likes them better than turnips.”

Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. “I mean, why are you here? Here in Burial Mounds? Why did he save you? Why is it more important...”

He breaks off and looks away, angrily jabbing potato pieces into the ground until he realizes he’s doing it wrong, and Wen Ning is following his progress, adjusting the pieces and reburying them. Jiang Cheng slows down. It occurs to him that maybe they can’t afford to waste even a single piece. Gods, he can be an asshole sometimes.

“Sorry,” he mumbles, and Wen Ning stops, rests his dirty hands on his knees and looks at Jiang Cheng with that wide-eyed innocent look he’s always had. In other people, it would make Jiang Cheng suspicious, but in Wen Ning, he thinks it’s exactly what it looks like. Even with the darker-than-they-should-be eyes, the whiter-than-it-should-be skin and the creepier-than-necessary black veins, Wen Ning still strikes Jiang Cheng as somehow unsullied by the world, as though the burdens the world has handed him were tokens he could accept and carry without breaking.

“When I was a boy, I trusted my sister. More than anyone. More than my parents. You know, it’s because she never lies, and parents do lie. Not to be mean or anything, just...because they’re adults, so they don’t think it counts. But a-jie never lies.”

“Ha!” Jiang Cheng huffs. “My brother lies all the time. I usually don’t even know why. He could just tell the truth.”

Wen Ning tips his head, a preternaturally agile tilt. “A-jie did lie to me, though. She said she would always protect me, and look what happened. She said she would take care of me, and we live in a graveyard. She said everything would be okay, and...it isn’t. I probably shouldn’t trust her anymore.”

“That’s not fair! Things happened. You know they did!”

Jiang Cheng is incensed. Maybe he’s not...maybe he doesn’t… He snorts irritably, collecting his thoughts. Maybe there’s nothing between them, but he knows Wen-guniang is honorable, and she has done everything to save her people, even to share their fate. She didn’t have to, but it was the right thing to do, and she chose it knowing she had other options, selfish options, as he is well aware. Whatever she’s done, it’s always been to protect the people she loves, even if it didn’t always seem like it at the time. If she lied to her brother, it was to save him, over and over again. She always had a reason! How could Wen Ning say he doesn’t trust her?

...oh.

His head whips around to glare at Wen Ning, but Wen Ning just smiles at him, that sweet, guileless smile, and goes back to planting potatoes. Jiang Cheng takes a handful with a huff, and they work in silence for a little longer.

“A-Cheng! What are you doing here?”

Wei Wuxian’s sunniest, happiest voice makes Jiang Cheng smile instinctively, and he doesn’t wipe it from his face like he usually does these days.

“Saving your life, apparently. I heard you were going to be forced to eat turnips,” Jiang Cheng whispers the word in mock horror, and immensely enjoys the surprise, suspicion, delight, and hope that cycle over his brother’s face in rapid succession.

“Oh? Uh...thank you.”

Wei Wuxian smiles tentatively at him, and rather than focusing on the fact that usually, these days, Wei Wuxian’s smiles are tight and wary, and that usually, these days, they fight with more rancor than teasing, and that usually, these days, Jiang Cheng never touches him if he can help it, Jiang Cheng pulls Wei Wuxian into a hug, a real hug, fitting together they way they always have, and he doesn’t let go until Wei Wuxian hugs him back. He’s too thin, Jiang Cheng thinks. Next time he visits, he’ll bring soup.

“A-Ning, what...what the hell is going on?” Wen Qing whispers to her brother, watching Wei Wuxian and his brother laugh and cry and hug like they’ve never seen each other before, and Wen Ning shrugs.

“A-jie, how could I know? We were just planting potatoes. Jiang-zongzhu must really like potatoes.”

Wen Qing looks suspiciously at her brother, but Wen Ning just smiles at her, that sweet, guileless smile everyone else thinks is innocent but which Wen Qing knows is always, always a precursor to Wen Ning getting his way. He trots away, probably off to find a-Yuan, and she sighs. Whatever it is this time, she hopes it doesn’t disrupt the planting schedule. They have mouths to feed.

She glances back at Jiang Ch...Jiang-zongzhu—you don't get to call him Jiang Cheng anymore, a mean voice reminds her—and to her surprise, he meets her eyes over Wei Wuxian’s back, a smile she’s never seen on his lips. It looks like...determination. Her stomach flops alarmingly, a betrayal of all her good sense. No, she thinks. That smile? That smile looks like the future calling, and it’s absolutely terrifying.

“A-Ning, get back here immediately!” she yells, heading in the direction he ran away. “What did you say?”

[thewickling]

Winding Moonrise - 9 to 1

“No fun,” Wei Wuxian whines, staring at Lan Wangji’s sleeping profile. Exactly at nine, the little chatter he managed to coax out of Lan Wangji stopped. Poking the suspiciously smooth cheek, he is surprised to find it hot rather than the chilling touch of ice that Lan Wangji carved from.

Rolling to his side, he stares at the ceiling. Like how the Lan residence falls and rises at five and nine like clockwork, he can’t sleep a wink before one. If anyone asked, he would blame his career. After you can’t hunt what goes bump in the night without being awake at night.

Jiang Cheng would call bullshit on that if he heard this thought of Wei Wuxian’s. Long before either of them were allowed to train, Wei Wuxian already had his habit ingrained in his soul. 

‘Who cares? It’s not like anyone does anything important before nine’ had always been Wei Wuxian’s reply. That was true — for university and adulthood but from k to 12…

“Wei Ying,” Jiang Cheng bellowed. Kicking the mattress, he slung Wei Wuxian’s pack over his shoulder. He stomped again punctuating his phrase. “Wake up.”

Wei Wuxian grumbled. Rubbing his side, he wrapped his blankets protectively around his organs and returned back into slumbers sweet and tempting embrace. Whoever set school to start before ten was a sadist.

Rolling his eyes, he grabbed the duvet with both hands and yanked. The tension built up from Wei Wuxian’s resistance was futile. He wretched the blanket, dragging Wei Wuxian out with it. 

Thump. 

The chill of the ground seeped into his bones but Wei Wuxian wiggled back into a warm spot for more rest.

“A-Cheng,” Jiang Yanli said from the door, “The driver is here and mom is…”

She didn’t need to say the rest of the warning. With a heavy sigh, he handed his and Wei Wuxian’s bags to Jiang Yanli. Tearing the blanket away, he tossed his older brother over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

The trio rushed down stairs before the Jiang family matriarch could lecture them into submission. In the back of the car, Jiang Cheng gestured for the driver to pull up the window. Jiang Yanli helpful passed over Wei Wuxian’s clothes.

Wei Wuxian cracked half a eye, sparing only enough consciousness to sit upright. His brain swam with lingering dreams. Jiang Cheng’s shouts rang in his ears.

He remained awake just long enough to see his jie cover her eyes as Jiang Cheng ripped his shirt off. He mumbled, “Be gentle. No wonder no girl wants you.”

“Oi!” he smacked the seat beside Wei Wuxian’s head. With begrudgingly practiced hands, he dressed Wei Wuxian in the back of a car as their jie coaxed him to be kinder.

Wei Wuxian always woke part way through the second period with a sparse breakfast hidden in his desk. Whispering his appreciation to his perpetual deskmate, brother, and best friend, he snuck in a meal behind his textbooks. 

That was their morning routine til the day Jiang Yanli headed for university then it repeated with just two until university. 

Wei Wuxian smiles. Rubbing his face, he wonders if Jiang Cheng remembers their past this fondly. His mouth flattens out. 

Rolling over, he thinks, How strange. I would have never imagined going to sleep beside Lan Zhan. 

It wasn’t as if he tried. Every time he invited Lan Wangji to hang out during their college days, if the event lasted overnight, he was always politely declined. Well, he was eventually politely declined. Originally…

“Lan Wangji!” he shouted down the hall.Cupping his hands over his mouth, he shot off. “Lan-ge! Ji-ge! Lan Zhan!”

The fellow first year froze. He turned ever so slowly. His voice carried like the hint of frost in a winter morning’s breeze.“Excessive noise is prohibited within the dorms.”

Bouncing over, he complained, “What? You didn’t respond when I called you.”

Lan Wangji’s expression could not be called angry rather his aura was like a cold front. It sent most people indoors and towards fire. Yet Wei Wuxian could never help himself and always ran towards the frosty teen.

“Anyway, now that I have Lan Zhan’s attention, Jiang Cheng, Nie Huaisang, and some of us are going heading to a resort for the break.” As he spoke, he crept closer and closer to Lan Wangji. Slinging his arm over Lan Wangji’s neck, he continued, “Come with us! We have two rooms, four beds. We’ll stay two nights and play for three days.”

Wei Wuxian fumbled in the air. The absence of a body to rest his weight on put him off balance. Righting himself, he stared at Lan Wangji walking away.

His figure slowed. Shaking his head ever so slightly, he rejected Wei Wuxian reluctantly as if his manners kept from being as standoffish as he wished. He marched off immediately after.

Wei Wuxian chuckled into his sleeve. That was perhaps the nicest reaction he gained from Lan Wangji in the month that they knew each other. At this rate, they should be good friends by the time next semester ends.  

Twisting, he stretches out like a cat that hasn’t played enough. He flexes muscles, trying to rid himself of his excessive energy. He drums on his thigh, pondering what he can do while Lan Wangji sleeps. 

“Stay still,” Lan Wangji orders. The words rise from his lips with strange clarity for a man who is still asleep as if the pack’s rules have ceased to just be guiding principles but rather have been written into his very being.

Poking the ice-like cheek, Wei Wuxian taunts, “How will you punish me if I don’t?”

To make a point, Wei Wuxian shifts. He throws his leg over Lan Wangji’s, punches his arm toward the wall, and pokes the supple cheek again. 

Smack. 

Lan Wangji’s hand is a snare and Wei Wuxian’s is the prey that landed in it. He tugs Wei Wuxian closer, pinning the misbehaving limbs under his own. 

The world spins. Wei Wuxian’s brain flashes with confusion. The world moves too quickly for even reflex to kick in. He finds himself atop Lan Wangji who has readjusted so that he is back to his proper sleeping posture except rather than resting his arms at his sides, his arms lock Wei Wuxian in place.

“Lan Zhan. When were you so domineering?” he asks. He wiggles and squirms but every movement just encourages Lan Wangji to hold him more tightly. After several minutes  of pointless struggling, he whines, “How can you have a good dream after being so cruel?”

He freezes when he notices his words seem to be true.

Lan Wangji’s expression is carved like a doll’s from his phoenix eyes, to his straight bridge, to the slight curve of his lips that is absent when he is awake. The delicateness of his features remind Wei Wuxian of porcelain yet it is set against sharp cheeks and a strong jaw that create an overall effect that is hard to describe. It hovers between pretty and handsome in a way that would make models envious.

You'd be number one if you smiled more, Wei Wuxian thinks. In their group of young masters, it was only Lan Wangji’s cold demeanor that kept from number one. He adds, You wouldn’t look like you’re always in mourning. 

[winepresswrath]

Shared golden core au: maybe the meeting with the tea and the dog goes differently. wei wuxian manages to get away from jiang Cheng while tricking him into having the golden core. So Jiang cheng is following him with jin ling out of principle and because he wants to smack him so he has his golden core back. So Jiang cheng ends up with the juniors in yi city.

I don’t think you get the tea and the dog scene if Jiang Cheng knows about the core sacrifice- it changes his perception of his brother’s choices a lot, so I don’t think he’s ever quite as angry or betrayed or determined to make the point that he can be a hurtful jerk too (your brother knows, Jiang Cheng. this was not actually a point in question). I think that fight is really more explicitly about Wei Wuxian being a reckless asshole who didn’t come home and won’t tell Jiang Cheng what happened vs. Wei Wuxian’s stance that Jiang Cheng is both an asshole who wouldn’t listen anyway and that there’s no explanation that could excuse what happened so he’s not even going to try, he knows there’s no place for him at Lotus Pier after what he’s done. I do think Jiang Cheng could easily wind up chasing everyone to Yi city so that he can continue his game of spiritual hot potato/i reject your stupid sacrifice go fuck yourself but I assume he was trying to do that anyways because Jin Ling definitely did not have permission to go on that field trip.

[seekingthestars]

sarah watches the untamed: liveblogging adventures, part twenty eight episode 48

(aka: time to start her day off with a little more evil meng yao)

ahhhaha episode 48 on part 28! anyway hello and welcome to the one and only ‘sarah-just-woke-up-good-morning’ edition of liveblog adventures, let’s see if i’m more or less loopy in the mornings

episode 48:

jiang cheng is so angry and hurt and frustrated and ;;;

he made wuxian cry :(

wuxian looking REAL mad when jc starts saying the stuff about the wen clan, SAME BUDDY

jc just SCREAMING “shouldn’t i hate you?!” ;nnnn;

okay this entire sequence of jc crying and wx apologizing then jc apologizing and wx telling him to let it go and wiping his tear like just shoot me in the heART OH GOD ;AAAAAAA; i just want the brothers to be happy, i’m ;;;;;;;;;;

poor huaisang still just stuck where he was thrown like a sack of potatoes lol i hope that was at least kinda a comfortable position since he had to be like that forEVER

OH WAIT HE’S AWAKE!

oh crap what’s going on with those monk guys in the back o.o

what happened to guangyao’s hand???

Huaisang’s face is my face XD

guangyao that face omg what is in the box

WAIT IT’S MINGJUE (with head reattached) O.O

ducky ;;;;;;;;

xichen getting and looking that angry and yelling at guangyao is......kinda hot..........he’s just normally so calm and composed jfiowafe

wei “look dude if I had been the one to set him up, he would’ve gotten more than one arm hurt lol” wuxian, so sassy always, it is a blessing

okay but what WAS supposed to be in the box and who the heck swapped it

that little glance between wuxian and wangji fjweiaofa cute

HUNDRED HOLES. SU SHE WAS THE ONE WHO CURSED THE UPPITY JIN? AHHHHHHHH

I love Wangji’s quick “yup, betrayers won’t be tolerated” response, he’s just like “god, shut up.”

“just for that little mistake, you could never forgive me!” UHHHHHH EXCUSE ME? IT WASN’T A “““LITTLE MISTAKE””” go away su she, for real

su she is deranged 

mad props to zzj bc meng yao just slowly coming completely unraveled and gradually dropping his usual smooth, calculating voice to yell at wuxian in that rough voice with that sharp look is mildly terrifying, he’s such a good villain

 “Jin Guangyao, how vicious you are.” is such a freaking accurate line omg i legitimately feel so bad for the actual members of my squish list, they shared the space with him for so long I’M SORRY I DIDN’T KNOW

poor huaisang looks so sick ;;;;;; wanna squish him, i’m so sorry bb ;;

oh CRAP

w h i s t l i n g

Xichen pulling the sword on Meng Yao :O

i love wangji being a badass, he’s just so good i love him

HE HAD AN AMULET hidden up his sleeve bc giant sleeves are good for hiding things

dang that was the fastest turnaround, xichen just had to say two words and meng yao crumbles 

TWO LEFT. I CAN’T BELIVE ONLY TWO LEFT. i’m ;~~~~~~~;

[chickie-empress-kie]

I know this has gone cold for what like......A month? Two? Forgive my snail's pace brain haha.

For context that was a crack tag I wrote at 3am, not that I don't love him for all intents and purposes. But now you've got me thinking real hard.

Now I haven't written any jc x oc fanfic *shoves zhenya in locker*........or any that I plan to publish anyway. But from an analytical perspective, I agree with this sooooo much.

Post-WWX's death, Jiang Cheng was a disaster. Even through his hatred, part of him was aware there was no one else there who would remember the Jiangs like he did. Everyone that could possibly remember them were gone, leaving him to carry the weight of what they once were. The good, the bad and everything else in between were his to bear alone. He didn't have a choice except holding onto the pain it brought.

His anger at wwx was partially because of his hatred and partially because he wasn't ready to face what laid behind that anger. The anger somewhat protected him from having to feel the pain. Not just to keep them alive, but to keep himself going. He used wwx as something to tunnel his fury at, so he didn't have to think of what he'd lost.

It was easier to blame than to sit down and think about it, especially with his emotional maturity. He'd rather chop his arm off. (THANKS FOR THAT, JFM)

WWX returning brought him some solace, that he doesn't have to carry them alone, that he has someone he could reminisce with (Even if the likelihood of it is bleak, SOMEONE existed at the very least). But it also brought him more baggage to bear, adding onto the weight that he held up with brute force and the power of anger.

When he lost the main subject of his fury, like the rug being pulled out from under his feet, it made him stumble. A major reason for his anger turned out to be a lie, and though he's still angry, the anger is accompanied by guilt and self-blame. Now it eats away at his strength to hold the burden on his shoulders.

Which was why it was good that the burden wasn't his to bear alone now, or he would, quite literally, be crushed flat by it. The wounds he kept open were slowly healing.

I hardly think he would really be able to move on and have a wife prior to WWX's return. Post-canon him is definitely easier to help.

With his coping mechanisms, he'd have to be handled like a hot potato and a newborn at the same time. Because the negativity he festered in for years quite literally welded into his skin, growing infected. Taking them off is tantamount to ripping off the scab from the wounds healing after so long. But its required, or the infection would spread until it completely consumed him because he no longer had pure rage to function on.

For a wife, she'd have to be someone who wouldn't tire of or be daunted by having to take the emotional baggage off one by one, toeing the thin line that could either heal him or send him spiraling. Not to fix him, just to help him lay it down and perhaps one day be able to function without having to second-guess himself for everything he did.

I'm no way nearly as patient as I should be to deal with that. But my point was, I want to try. I don't wanna fix him. I'll love him for being a mess. But he doesn't have to be alone in bearing the pain. Almost the entirety of the road he walked alone, but I'd want him to know that he didn't have to do it that way anymore. The burden was his, but he'd have someone wipe the sweat from his eyes.

That's also part of the reason why I like the drama's subtle implication of Wen Qing being suitable for him, because she's a character who walks on the same wavelength.

She's a lot like him, both having lost everything and constantly shouldering other's expectations and criticism. In a sense, they mirror each other as people with similar experiences and psychological influences, but grew to have wildly different temperaments because of circumstances.

She still had people who could remember with her and share the burden, unlike Jiang Cheng who was completely alone in a burning pit of tragedy. She grew up a survivor with the roughness callousing her till she became used to it, he grew up a survivor with the roughness digging into the same wounds after having it heal a bit.

But she knows what it's like. She could connect to that feeling of loss and coming to a dead end, and that understanding would help her know where to begin, and how she could do reduce the sting as much as she could.

(Tl;Dr He needs to marry a fucking therapist. Just let me get meself a master's degree and we'll be good to go.)

I might reboot the old fic now that I've done so much in depth thinking into what kinda wife he could have lmao =_= But that's left for posterity.

jiang cheng is a funny character because i fully support either liking him or not liking him, but i see so many takes (especially when he shows up in a supporting role in fic) that seem completely unhinged until i pin down which of what i consider the fundamental facts of his character are just not being applied at all.

it’s like:

1) this is not a mentally well guy, especially after Plot starts happening, and he spends the entire story getting less okay. the only time we ever see any improvement happen in jiang cheng is when wei wuxian piths himself getting the guy out of his suicidal phase, causing many more problems going forward but fixing that one. jiang cheng is not okay and it’s all downhill.

2) he cares so fucking much. like you can write a jiang cheng who is a deeply selfish bastard and you have an excellent textual basis, but it’s not because he doesn’t care about other people, at least the ones that are his; that’s a different kind of problem than the one he has.

he would in fact be less of a problem a lot of the time if he cared less, because he does not have the emotional management tools to be useful about it. also the narrative is conspiring against him but like.

(there are a lot of ways to be selfish and jiang cheng and lan wangji are actually remarkably similar in the basic type of selfish impulses they have. they just have very different childhoods and values shaping how they act about it. and then lan wangji manages to become a mostly functional adult, while jiang cheng is generously an electrified pile of bad coping mechanisms. he’s functioning! but like. at what cost.)

3) jiang cheng is dutiful. even the most selfish jiang cheng is someone who perceives and values himself in terms of his function and obligation; he and wei wuxian have different personalities and worldviews, and for that matter expectations placed on them, but they both learned that lesson, presumably together.

4) sort of an extension of 1 and to a lesser extent 2, Jiang Cheng is emotionally insecure as a base state. his parents made some major errors, at least half of which should have been avoidable except they would have had to deal with their own shit first.

it’s not out of the question, in a different lifetime where he didn’t get several years of compounded irresolvable traumas as his coming-of-age present and then left alone to stew in pain and denial for over a decade, for him to have learned to handle it better and even mostly get over it! that could have happened! it just didn’t.

to an extent he’s insecure about different things as a grown man than he was as a boy, life experience makes a difference. he’s built confidence about some things and become absolutely shattered about others. but he’s a person who is easy to wound, in all kinds of complicated identity-related ways, especially by Wei Wuxian specifically, and his kneejerk response to that is to lash out in reply, whether the wounding was intentional or not.

the fact that Wei Wuxian spent most of their lives giving every evidence of being completely immune to being harmed by this reaction masked its toxicity until things got real ugly real fast.

jiang cheng absolutely has the capacity to not do this! it’s a deeply rooted bad habit, not actually a fundamental of his character. but it requires self-awareness, will, and (if he’s going to keep it up) a lot of practice. it’s not the kind of thing that just goes away on its own, even with a bunch of alterations in context.

i don’t have like a closing argument here i just keep finding that takes on jiang cheng that don’t work for me, whether generous or condemnatory, always seem to disagree with me on one of these main points.

[yibo-wang]

Do you really like Jiang Cheng (the untamed) as a character? I just feel like, he never gave any regard/reasonable doubt to wuxian ever unless his own honor had been brought to question. He never stood up for him, didn’t try to understand him. All I saw was a character that found himself incompetent against wuxian and let his jealousy guide his reasoning for pushing wuxian away. Like yeah, wuxian choose the wen people... After he gave him an ultimatum? I don’t know, maybe I’m too critical?

no lie my emotions concerning jiang cheng were very mixed throughout the series. during my first watch I had to often stop when jc and wwx had fights after the yiling patriarch storyline started to make myself understand what jc's thought process behind his actions, so I didn't hate him unjustly.

let's start from the beginning of their relationship, ie when they're kids because this is the latest ep I rewatched.

wwx is brought by jiang fengmian and immediately upon his arrival jc has his dogs taken away which according to yanli are 'the apple of his eyes' and that's why he was sad but she explains it was jc who was worried about wwx and asked yanli to find him in the first place.

His ‘you shouldn’t have played hero then and shouldn’t have cared for that hot potato, you should’ve just come with me and you’d be safe’ after the wangxian cave scene, he says this out of anger at which his father scolds him about but it’s misinterpreted by him but wwx understands that what his brother said was out of concern for him.

“it is he(jiang cheng) who advised me to ask you to give the courtesy name to the baby”

we know that jc has always been an bad tempered person. that he speaks without a thought when he's angry and is prone to lash out but then he always comes to regret it later like in the above two situations but that doesnt mean he doesnt love his brother.

one of my favourite line is,

alot of things jc says and does have got to do with madam yu and her pinning jc and wwx against eachother.  she worries (and lashes out at her son and husband) and sees the way jf differentiates  between jc and wwx, which is basically rubbing it in on her biggest insecurity just like how jf preferred wwx’s mom over her and so comes her horrible parenting style.

This line is so small but it so imp to jiang cheng’s character. He tries not to balantly show that he cares about wwx that’s why a lot of people disregard his feelings.

(Gonna blame jf here too, for not showing jiang cheng enough love for the sake that he's going  to become the future sect leader like dude show your kid some love)

jc’s despite being the younger sibling, he has to act like the older one because

forget love, jc doesnt even think his father likes him

This also leads to jc feeling like he was wwx’s shadow. wwx is better at fighting, he's smart and and he's all around someone who understands what the jiang clan and their principles  stands for and intentionally or unintentionally follows them, leading to everyone praising him.

Like how, when he heard that the only reason jc became a famous clan leader was because of wwx victory at sunshot campaign.

1) wwx is very childish

2) jc is the future clan leader so he needs to act this way (which is the reason he's always scolding wwx despite the fact that he wants to join him in his pranks and just be a 16 yr old sometimes like how they’re were messing around at cloud recesses while going home) am I projecting here? maybe I am, but these are my feelings on jc lol).

Even though it’s shown that jc worries about their clans reputation because of wwx like when they're going to cloud recesses the first time "pupils from all famous clans will come, don’t let other look down upon us", he knows that everyone and he himself always seems to love wwx anyway

because the thing is jc isn’t jealous of his brother. he, (like @gaysarawat said in his tags) honest to god just wants to be his equal, he wants wwx to see him as his equal and not just protect him as his younger brother (I don’t wanna delve on how wwx character was about protecting jc because he thought he owed his life to the jian family because jf adopted him from the streets and with the constant reminders by madam yu that jc is to be their future clan leader so he has to protect him).

again, jc worries about wwx, he just has a weird way of showing it. weird being, he can’t show that he's being soft when it comes to him and my take is that it’s he can’t be seen showing any feelings and that comes with the fact that he's the future clan leader and that they have to be dignified (like how he says to wwx that playing with rabbits isn’t an upright gentleman thing to do’)

but then a few seconds later

(lwj who, in short, jc thinks is replacing the place wwx has in his heart for jc. oh my sweet dumb child, jc)

jc worries about his brother a lot, his initial reaction when wwx is hurt after the cave scene is of worry and you can see it on his face and the way he holds his shoulder. But then he sees he’s being soft, he immediately changes his tone and hits wwx on his chest and expresses his emotions by cloaking them in anger.

Right after that, wwx asks about lwj another topic jc is sour about and jc literally says that everyone got injured lwj isn’t special. like dude zx and I didn’t stop for a second to come and save you and you’re still going about lwj who’s already left you here.  

I didn't know it would get this long, but imma just touch in lightly on the ultimatum part first (I think you mean the scene in the cave before their fight),

its that wwx tells him to cut him off from the clan after jc says "wwx you don’t understand the situation at hand, if you persist in defending them, I wont be able to protect you"

Which according to me is more in the sense that I can't protect you since all four clans are opposing the wens right now and since you're sheltering them they're out for your blood too so just come home with me and let me keep you safe for once.

It's not that jc isn’t at fault, what he doesn’t realise is that if they did stick together they could've actually made the situation better but he was young and influenced by all the elder clans which led them to drift apart so much.

Despite cutting off wwx, they only have a staged fight for the protection of jian clan, and jc doesn't cut ties with him himself.

The point im trying to make is that jc isn’t like wwx and that’s what we’ve been shown and what jc sees as well.

Unlike wwx who’s ready to stand against the world to protect the wen clan, leaving behind everything,  jiang cheng doesn’t understand it. He doesn’t understand how wwx can leave his family for a bunch of unknown people and that too wen clan (who were the reason why lotus pier was destroyed, why his parents died). jc does love people but he loves them differently. He isn’t going to give up his life for just about anyone, he isn’t that self-sacrificing person wwx is. that is why he doesn’t understand why wwx stayed behind in the cave for lwj either. but he does love wwx and would sacrifice himseld for him like when we find out in ep 50 that jc willingly lets the wen soldiers find him so that wwx can be safe, he is literally willing to die for wwx when he makes that choice.

Post wwx death, it’s shown it wasn’t only lwj who searches for wwx but also jc. he’s the one who keeps his flute awaiting his explanation. If we look at jc, he lost his family, his clan and everyone is a matter of hours, he then loses his brother in law (despite what he feels for him, then his sister and finally his brother to demonic cultivation and finally to death. he hasn’t had an easy childhood or upbringing with his parents constantly fighting and his father considering him second to his brother.

the ‘take care’ at the end of of the series is what makes my heart hurt so much because he still loves his brother so much and what i wouldn’t do to get these two to hug it out. 

Jiang cheng isn’t your typical hero character, his actions are shown to be influenced by his surrounding and upbringing which makes him human and i love him for that.

Anyway this is basically just aamna's feelings on jiang cheng because he deserves to be protected and loved.