#but as much as I respect cql

[a-fire-that-isnt-burning]

welcome!

It came to my attention that I could pin a post! in my blog! so hello there, I'll just put whatever I want here

if you ever wanna talk to me about mdzs or svsss or genshin or anime or another fandom I've forgotten I'm in I am totally here! if you want me to give headcanons or if you wanna debate theories or whatever

I also have a bunch of recs but be warned: I am very picky so if you ask for something specific (like fix-it fics) (*shudders*) just know i might gently redirect you towards something else lol

also because I feel the need to put this here where everyone can see it: I reblog a bunch of ships that I DON'T SHIP but which have CUTE ART and it makes me ANGRY but *screams*

good art is good art dammit

same goes for art from random fandoms... sometimes it's just too pretty...

the point is that I am not a multi shipper and that sometimes I feel like an imposter for that lol

but anyways! I mostly post about stuff I like

so yeah :P thanks for stopping by!

[l-wandering-etranger]

oh and another take that I feel the mxtx- specifically mdzs fandom needs to hear is that none and i mean none of the characters have any set morality. this applies to their mindset, actions, feelings- the entire point is that you see where all the characters come from and recognise their actions. none of them are completely 100% good or bad. the point of the entire novel isn't to see and judge their actions. it's to see where they come from, what mindset requires those terrible or honourable actions. is it okay to call out a character on their actions? yes. but please for the love of mo xiang tong xiu remember what caused those actions and whether your call out is necessary instead of making posts like "character A was just trying his best and character B came and ruined everything that's why I hate character C". no. almost all the characters are shitty to some extent albeit in different categories. recognise that and you will appreciate mdzs even more.

[borealing]

oh my god. oh my god. so the death at nightless city. oh my god. the ive lost so much control I've tried so hard for so long everyone i love is dead or hates me ive given up so much its not worth it any more. oh my god. and lan zhan not stopping trying until the literal end im absolutely lost i need 3-5 business years to recover

[randomness-is-my-order]

something about wei wuxian and wen qing’s relationship is so profoundly heartening and i think it’s because, in that first life, they were each other’s confidants in the sense that they voluntarily allowed the other person to see them at their most vulnerable and trust the other to take care of them. wei wuxian trusted wen qing to carry out the golden core transfer and trusted her when he was helpless on that bed, his core cut out from him. and wen qing could think of no one else but wei wuxian to help her when she was in her most dire circumstances, trusting him to help her and her family out when no one else would.

“all that pride–all gone.”

at her lowest, wen qing went to wei wuxian and allowed him to see her that way. partly because her family was so much more important than a game of saving face and partly because if there was someone who would see her in such a state and not think ill of her and continue to respect her, it was wei wuxian. because he’s also been at his worst, circumstantially, and it was exactly in those days that their initial bond/friendship was forged.

there is alot of talk about debts when wwx and the wens are concerned but i think the way they helped each other transcends the obligation of debts. of course, you simply cannot overlook who was owed what, given the setting but it’s interesting that we have this passage to make us reflect on the true nature of wei wuxian and wen qing helping each other:

when wei wuxian had bid her farewell, carrying jiang cheng on his back, wen qing had told him this: “no matter how this war ends, we do not owe each other anything from now on. our debts are cleared.” her haughtiness was clear as day in his memory. but last night, she had clutched his hand in a death grip and almost dropped to her knees as she pleaded.

“wei wuxian…wei wuxian…wei-gongzi. please help me. i have no one else to turn to. you have to help me save a-ning! i really have no one else, i can only come to you!”

it’s the way that following wen qing’s refuge of wei wuxian and jiang cheng, there was a sentiment of: oh the wens did this to you and now we, also wens, have helped you just to compensate a little. let’s settle these debts and leave them behind. and this is despite wen qing clearly stating that the wen clan’s actions do NOT reflect her own and that she’s only ever saved lives, not taken any. and yet she declares “our” debts as cleared as if she had taken some accountability anyway. it’s part that and part her attempt to obscure what her actions towards wwx and jc truly were: an unconditional show of support and help. and wei wuxian knows this and it is only reasonable and honorable to still see the help as a debt owed later down the line.

and the same thing repeats itself when wen qing comes to wei wuxian and explicitly asks for help. there is a sense that this isn’t about some give-and-take or reciprocation of prior debts. it is simply a person reaching out to someone in their most desparate times, hoping their hand will be held. and wei wuxian does hold her hand and they remain each other’s staunch supporters through the rescue and the hellish survival in the burial mounds that follows.

wei wuxian trusts wen qing with his wounds and wen qing opens up her most loved ones to wei wuxian’s care. for two people who spent their lives looking after their loved ones, shouldering massive burdens and going through the destruction of their respective clans, their intrinsic understanding of each other makes their bond so special, so grounded. they both took massive risks to help each other out and they both did what was right over what was easy to extend that help to each other.

despite my fair share of problems with the cql, i appreciated that scene with wq and jc where wen qing made it clear that she couldn’t pursue anything with jiang cheng because he wouldn’t stand by her. he simply didn’t have the guts. and this is reflected in the novel canon, in the sense, that if debts owed are the metric to measure who could have helped wen qing, jiang cheng was also on the list and he was obligated to aid her as much as, if not more than wei wuxian (and i say this because the whole reason wwx ended up staying under wen qing’s extended care was because jc was injured. he would’ve left as soon as he was discovered had he been alone). and yet wen qing doesn’t ever approach jiang cheng. her only option is wei wuxian because she knows, deep down, that he would truly help her and go to greater lengths for her than any debts would warrant. that he would understand.

and thing is, despite being the outliers of their clans, they both (+wen ning) embodied their mottos. “attempt the impossible”/“knowingly do what you know you cannot do” for the jiangs and “every kindness should be returned” for the wens (very hilarious ik) and that is just one amongst the hundreds of commonalities they shared.

and all of this doesn’t even account for the fact that they basically died for each other. if this isn’t platonic love at its best, most brutal, most beautiful, then what is?

[poorlittleyaoyao]

it's an interesting thought, though i think zixun is genuinely too much his family's loyal lapdog. Total trust in his uncle, hypes up Zixuan whenever they're in a scene together, starts calling jgy "a-yao"(in the novel), is mentioned to respect his aunt even though she hates him, refers to Yanli as his SIL and promises to apologize to her on his knees after he's killed wwx. This is thematically why he has beef with Su She and Wen Ning kills him! Only one loyal dog can make it! Also his intense assholery and classism and arrogance but you know

This is in response to a post that I made about how Jin Zixun, not Jin Guangyao, is the one who had the most to gain by killing Jin Zixuan, and I have NO NOTES beyond that anon has made this clown of a man so endearing? Maybe he just needed to be born into a less-shitty family. Can you imagine if Jiang Cheng had a no thoughts-head empty hype man like this in his formative years? Not someone he was constantly comparing himself to, but someone with whom he was on more or less even footing who genuinely thought he was the COOLEST? Also, for CQL canon specifically, the combined eyebrow game of the two of them would be transcendent.

[accio-victuuri]

BOJUNYIXIAO’s Weibo Night 2024/2025 Part I 🔴🟡🟢

here we are again with the boys’ yearly same-event appearance. a tradition of sorts at this point that cpfs look forward to. It’s fun to clown and speculate on what is happening behind the scenes cause they most likely will not be in the same frame. if you wanna look back on last year’s events then go here.

i know i said this recap will be done by the end of the night but i thought about how it would be too long to read. also, this is a breather why we wait for them be onstage cause thus ceremony is too long. lol. the next post by end of day will focus more on candies that happened during the show.

I. Getting tickets and Rumors of them going

as with other wb nights, tickets can be achieved through fan voting. compared to last year that was competitive for cpfs, this one was more relaxed. or maybe fans weren’t that interested in attending. cause there was so little news if the boys will even attend the event initially. i wanna say it was a pretty good mix of fandoms on the list. for cpfs, it was the fansites dominating as usual.

by 1/8 in the morning, we saw that both of them have won awards in their respective works: Xiao Zhan for his song "wo me " as Favorite Music of the Year" & Wang Yibo for starring in the movie "formed police unit" for "Weibo's Favorite Movie of the Year"; his personal documentary "Exploring New Unknown" winning "Weibo's Favorite Variety Show of the Year". these are automatically posted by weibo via the respective accounts involved and people can see it in the voting site for the event. then in the afternoon, melons started coming out that they will be going. and this is further solidified by wb night’s teaser post that seem to allude to gg & wyb. so before announcing, wb night shares cards with statements on it. each card representing a celebrity. and here comes the hilarious part, their cards were posted side by side on 20:32 (p1). for yibo it’s a short one, i am here. which alludes to his new song. and for gg it’s smooth sailing and good health which is his wish for the new year.

then at 1/9, very early into it, the re-issued the card sets and this time the two were separated. your guess is as good as mine on why this was done. lol.

weibo night never shied away from the whole xz and wyb cp before when it was considered “acceptable”. here is an example of an actual post back in 2020 where they even used the GGDD nickname for them. at the time, it was okay cause they were the hottest “pair” with cql as a breakthrough drama. personally, i think weibo night was being very sneaky initially posting it that way. trying to drum up an audience but then so/os had to go ahead and be salty about it so it had to be split. i’m not gonna stop saying it, a reason why very little interaction is done between them — it’s partly to not upset their “fans”. it is what it is. solo fandoms in c-ent is serious business & something very understandable in an industry perspective.

but again, that’s just me and maybe cpfs reading too much into it. feel free to have your own interpretation.

II. The Official Announcement

On 1/9 at 11:30 yibo posted that he is attending the event. yibo-official also shared some reminders to not gather and disrupt public order when they go. A coincidence cause at the same time XZ posted about his Portrait magazine. which makes sense and may not be even about cpn but it’s still nice to get notifications from them on weibo 😂😂😂

Then at 15:54, XZ finally posted. XZS also came in and shared it with the reminder.

and so it was confirmed that they are both attending the ceremony. this day was also kinda busy for them cause wyb’s loewe campaign was also released and gg had his portrait magazine interview also out.

it’s safe to say that cpfs were pretty busy ^^

after that, later in the evening, their video messages were also published by weibo night. here is a combined video of that:

1/10, as expected, there was a lot of chatter on who will be attending — particularly the CPs who will be there. it is relevant in the sense that there are a couple of hot drama CPs that will be attending. but with all the polls from various blogs, the top vote is always BJYX. lol. so strong!

they are not a “CP” in that sense tho. they are real!

III. Pre Show

WYB started off pretty early by posting a teaser of his look for the night. some are saying it reminds them of what he wore for 11.11 night when XZ was also there.

There was also a video showing the seating arrangement. It appears that they only have 4 people separating them. tho it’s not a guarantee of anything but this is close! some don’t like the number assigned for yibo tho cause it’s row 2 seat 27. 227. ugh.

It doesn’t stop there tho!!!!!

there is a photothat the number was folded up so it won’t be visible. it was removed by staff (video). cpfs are crying over this cause it may have been requested to be removed by wyb due to the negative connotation. he also changed positions with LX. he really went that far! people are saying that it’s easy to change seats, so why did the number have to be torn apart? there is no need to do that. also, changing seats with LX means WYB will be away from the center so it does not benefit him. idk who gave that number to WYB, but he definitely won’t be used to bully XZ or start some bad rumor. he is truly a boss! he protects xz in ways like this. i cannot 😭😭😭😭😭

i love this comment about it: wyb is not only sitting in that position, he wants that number to disappear.

and oh, Tod’s is one of the major sponsor of Weibo Night. XZ’s ad is playing on the big screen of the venue. Will WYB see it? lol

IV. Red Carpet

WYB ( video )

I prefer this look from last year! Thom Browne is good for him. plus that cape and his hair 🫶🏼 i would have loved it if he participated with what they were doing in the carpet and did the interview, but weibo is trash so i guess it’s okay. lol.

red carpet photoshoot

XZ ( video )

red carpet photoshoot

RED! it’s his color! plus some sparkles. this one is a custom look from GUCCI. i’m kinda bummed out that he did a group red carpet. i think they are the guest of honors and weibo’s way of getting a top hot search. but he still shined! he was so tall!!!!!!!

i’m gonna put this candies here cause they seem to be “red carpet related”. but i’m really cackling over how we manage to put their outfits together as “marriage” outfits once more 😂😂😂😂 lol. cause xz is in red and wyb in black.

some are also curious about gg’s huge ass ring. 👀 ( it’s by boucheron tho )

and the hot search related to xz is whose groom is he but of course there is only one answer. it’s wyb. lol. please stop giving us ammunition to watch! y’all know cpfs are so ready today!

-END (ish) to be continued. ☺️

[zhoudadudugongjin]

actually I think i'd like mdzs/cql much more if the so-called "sticklers for propriety" lan sect of gusu actually wore their hair UP like respectable gentlemen instead of letting it fly loose like a gaggle of sluts

[tavina-writes]

CQL and Genre Intertextuality

I'm being bashed over the head with the "nhs's fan in CQL is made of xuantie/dark iron" thing again and @poorlittleyaoyao please understand that I am thinking of this constantly since you made that post talking about it because I'm just.

holding my head in my hands bc ye gods the cql show writers were genre savvy in ways that are hilarious but also make me feel like I've been hit upside the head with a waffle iron.

For those of us who are no longer damaged by the post or hadn't seen it (I don't actually know where it's gone bc the search feature doesn't work on this webbed site):

Xuantie/Dark Iron is a Jin Yong created metal that famously was used for the blade of the Dragon Slaying Sabre in the third novel of the Condor Trilogy, 倚天屠龍記/The Heavenly Sword and Dragon Saber.

The Heaven Reliant Sword 倚天劍 was created from Yang Guo and Xiao Longnv's Gentleman and Lady swords, whilst the Dragon Slaying Saber 屠龍刀 was created from Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-a-Loss's Dark Iron Sword.

Can we please all take a moment to appreciate how NHS's fan not his saber, NHS, from The Family With The Sabers, gets to shout about how his fan is made of xuantie. The most famous for being the metal that made up The Dragon Slaying Saber. His fan. Not his saber. his fan. dark iron. Dragon Slaying Saber. This is so funny I'm about to mcfucking lose it yet again while typing this.

Going back to Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-A-Loss (who appears in both Return of the Condor Heroes and Xiao Ao Jianghu) and his giant pet condor (sadly, only a ROCH feature) who might've been his one true soulmate for a second, this situation from episode 7, when the Yunmeng Siblings are leaving the Cloud Recesses:

Now, the subtitles here really DO NOT do this line justice because when I first saw it it took me FLAT THE FUCK OUT and I had to lie on the floor laughing for like, 80 seconds before I got my breath back.

Okay, what this line ACTUALLY says is "I am Dugu Qiubai (Grandmaster Dugu Seeking-A-Loss), what's wrong with seeking a match?"

Now, to understand this, we come to this backstory on Dugu Qiubai in XAJH:

“Senior master Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, who created this set of sword techniques, had a name ‘Seeking-A-Loss.’ He had been seeking a loss all his life and still couldn’t get one. Once the sword techniques were executed, he would become unmatched anywhere in the world. Why would he have to defend? If anyone could have forced him to draw his sword back and defend himself, the respectful master would have burst with joy and be delighted beyond measure.” Feng Qingyang said. “Dugu Seeking-A-Loss, Dugu Seeking-A-Loss,” Linghu Chong muttered as he imagined how the senior master had wandered about the Martial World, unmatched anywhere, with only his sword, and couldn’t even find a single one who was capable of forcing him into a defending stance. That was truly admirable.

from Chapter Ten of XAJH: Sword Training.

"If anyone could force him to draw his sword back to defend himself, the grandmaster would have burst with joy and be delighted beyond measure" DO YOU SEE WHY JC STARTED CALLING WWX SHAMELESS NOW. they're JUNIORS. WWX is calling himself "the greatest man of all, who'd sought the feeling of losing just ONCE being forced to defend himself just ONCE in a LIFETIME" and saying "LWJ might be my equal. my soulmate. the loss I was seeking my whole life."

All 15 years of it I'm sure, WWX.

I'm not going to get into finding martial arts manuals or a respected grandmaster who taught you incredible things in a cave bc 1) LHC and Feng Qingyang up there are sitting together, in a cave and LHC is being taught incredible things and 2) Duan Yu from Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils once found the magic finger lasers of ultra laser in a cave. In front of the statue of a goddess. (don't talk about the dancing goddess statue now, Tav. We don't have time for that in this post.)

Not kidding the intertextuality of CQL and how much it plays with and against the tropes of its genre, especially other wuxia tv adaptations as well as wuxia novels is insane. There's other ones I'm missing for certain and these were just the most funny to me, personally, but! just! oh my god! insane! insane! SO funny, so clever in so many ways

[acequinz]

I think about it often enough but specifically from the cql verse.

The way Wei Wuxian is loved by the disciples works so well is because while they clearly see that he's skilled and smart, they also find him annoying but still have a good amount of respect for him.

And it mainly shows off in the way that while Wei Wuxian does act kinda high and mighty there's literally no actual.... What the word for it? English is not my first language. He's not looking down on them, even when he's teasing and poking fun there is no underhanded disrespect towards the kids for doing dumb shit or not knowing stuff.

He's almost like one of them when he's teasing but will immediately switch to protectiveness if the moment needs it, he also seems to trust the kids fine to do their thing until he senses the trouble is more than they can handle even dictating them to call upon LWJ in situations he knows he won't be able to help.

The juniors are actively going through a whole- he's so annoying, I would trust him with my life- right alongside the readers.

And then I think about Lan Sizhui saying that he reminds them a lot to LWJ which brings me to the next line of thoughts

Which is LWJ joining in on the hunts and keeping a distance so they work on it on their own but also close enough to be able to step in to help and how much patience and gentle respect LWJ keeps with the disciples.

Like the only time we see him give an annoyed frown at a kid/disciple is when Jin Ling stabs WWX but that's fair enough (both LWJ and Jin Ling are fair from their perspectives)

[mxtxfanatic]

I'm not very active online socially, so I find your takes on the whole JC stans situation very helpful and interesting. It does a lot to contextualize what I see reading a lot of fanfiction, wherein I've found much MDZS fanfiction to be very divorced from the reality of the source material, both due to cultural insensitivity towards the Chinese source material, the CQL problem, and of course the ubiquitous JC apologia. I've been in equally, if not more, contentious fandoms before (the Sherlock fandom comes to mind) but, if I can be frank, to me the difference between those experiences and now is that MDZS is an actually good book! I feel like a lot of the fandom inclinations toward sanding down conflicts or exacerbating them, inventing personalities for background characters, turning all the characters into dolls and the setting into your dollhouse (which no one else may touch!) were codified for the current userbase in Superwholock, whether people realize or not. Those fandom instincts were helpful when working with source material that was shallow, inconsistent, and from the english-speaking world, but it did not equip fandom to deal with a book from a foreign culture that didn't need "fixing" for lack of a better term. It also reminds me a lot of early otaku culture in the USA, with the botched translations, weird cultural takes, and... odd characterization in fanfiction (why does Naruto need a harem???). Which, one may hope, could indicate that things will get better over time. That's just my spaghetti thrown at the wall, though.

I think it's a combination of both the quality of the book (Western fandoms are unused to having source materials with such tight storytelling where they don't have to fill in major parts of the plot with their own imaginations) and racism (Western fandoms feeling so entitled to Asian works while also not respecting their creators enough to even pretend to attempt to understand what the creators are trying to say, instead, choosing to fall back onto the orientalist "those Asians are just an enigma" stereotypes to justify superimposing their own ideas onto the text and calling it "basically the same thing").

I also believe that the sheer volume of unchallenging art that the Western world mass-produces, paired with disdain towards literary pursuits like critique and analysis, has led to a generation of "fans" who believe that the only "right" way to engage in your favorite media is to turn your brain off. "If you joined fandom to share quotes from the book and not just follow the 'incorrect-quotes-blog' and laugh at out-of-context excerpts, then what's your problem???" seems to be the consensus nowadays.

Here's to hoping one day people get over themselves and realize that just because their usual interests are careless drivel written to make money doesn't mean that everyone is writing trash stories they could care less about outside of how much money it makes them. Mxtx writes amazing stories, but you don't actually care about the story like you claim you do if everything you "love" about it can be easily just summarized in a recycled fandom trope meme.

[llycaons]

every few months I feel like making a post like 'physical weakness or disability isn't a character flaw to be fixed in fanon 😭 its not inherently feminist for women to simply punch good! making jyl a powerful fighter but affording her no inner life, opinions, personal goals, desires, or internal conflict is doing her a greater disservice than incorporating her physical weakness and her knowledge of her own status as aspects of a fully fleshed out character living in a particular setting and interacting with other characters.'

[symphonyofsilence]

I love Wangxian as much as the next guy, but my unpopular MDZS opinion is that both LWJ & WWX after the resurrection were really shitty brothers. Both to their own brothers and to each other's.

Like...JC just threw himself in front of WWX & his boyfriend & Jiggy's sword & took a stab to the chest just narrowly missing his heart, & Wei Wuxian DIDN'T EVEN ASK HIM HOW HE IS! I'm sure JC didn't want him to thank him, but totally ignoring that & forgetting about it is... you know, not fine. even LXC was more worried about his wound. After the temple, when everyone was talking to everyone else, & WWX thanked JC for giving Chenqing back to him, he doesn't even wait until JC's answer is fully out before he immediately turns back to look at LWJ!

Even JL who wasn't talking to JC at that moment saw that JC had something to say! But WWX not only didn't give him a chance to talk, but didn't even have any interest in what he had to say, and wouldn't listen to him just like all the other times when JC tried to talk to him (Repeatedly reminding WWX of his promise & even asking why didn't you go back to Lotus Pier). As you try to do, after you brother has returned from the dead, after causing his own death, your sister's and your brother-in-law's. WWX doesn't think that that's an issue that they need to talk about. Because it's unpleasant for him. While he is not the one who's owed an explanation or an apology. He's not the one who gets to decide if they're having this conversation or not. Let alone asking about JC's wound! WWX! just! Left! With! His boyfriend! & didn't look back! Not even after JC's public meltdown!

And and, what's worse, for both LWJ & WWX is this! Here is what happens when JC is trying to have a conversion with WWX about the non-consensual surgery WWX performed on him by mutilating himself on JC's behalf:

Why yes, he is injured, Hanguang-Jun! He's injured because he threw himself in front of WWX & you little fuck!

He does this once, and it causes JC's wound to open and start bleeding again, and then he goes to do it again!

It's a matter that seriously needs discussion, Hanguang-Jun. JC's world has turned upside down without him having a say in it or even being told about it for years, Hanguang-Jun. JC has every right to talk about it to the person responsible, Hanguang-Jun. It's a family matter, Hanguang-Jun.

And ffs What do you think WWX's brother wants to do to him?! After he took a stab to the chest for him?! He is wounded and his spiritual energy is sealed, what can he do? He's going through it right now in front of everyone. why would you humiliate him even more?! They're brothers! It's none of your business!

And WWX doesn't say anything! It's Jin Ling who must beg Hanguang-Jun to spare his uncle!

(I think they understood what a shitty move it was in the CQL, cause WWX at least lifts a hand to stop LWJ there. And LWJ doesn't actually push JC, opening his wound again, And then try to do it A SECOND TIME AFTER THAT!)

Like...Beating someone's family member in front of them is a very, very rude thing in general when they're themselves handling the situation very well. They were just having a family argument, and LWJ felt the need to beat JC. If you want to de-escalate a family argument, you do it the way JGY does. Or LSZ, A CHILD, de-escalates situations. While respecting both parties. Or else it just escalates even worse.

And this happened at the Jiang ancestral halls, too. WWX was the first to attack JC (which was totally within his brotherly rights when JC was being a little shit) and JC counter-attacked. JC's spiritual powers, unlike WWX's and LWJ's, hadn't returned yet. WWX totally got this. It wasn't their first time fighting. OK, LWJ deflected the first blow of Zidian. He didn't need to intervene further when WWX was beating JC in JC'S ancestral hall. WWX himself passed out when he realized wtf he was doing. (& bear in mind that hours ago, JC with his spiritual powers sealed, barely able to walk, picked his sword and was going to go back for WWX in the burial mounds, before he knew about the golden core thing)

Imagine your friend invites you to their home which they've ran away from when they were very young, their sibling that now owns the house lets you in even though you don't even say hi to them or acknowledge their existence there in anyway, & your friend invites you to somewhere you really have no business being in. IDK. Say, the master bedroom that's been locked ever since their parents' death. Your friend's sibling arrives there and they have an argument. You get offended in the crossfire but your friend leaps in to protect your honor, by beating the said sibling. The said sibling beats back. Can you imagine actually beating the sibling?! Trying to separate them, sure. But beating them?!

& others have talked in depth & better than I about how LXC just murdered the love of his life after some very shocking revelations & was 100% ready to die with him & was clearly going through it & LWJ just left with his boyfriend to fuck when LXC was the one who was there for him when HIS boyfriend died. Like..no LWJ didn't leave his brother after a few days. HE LEFT HIM THAT VERY MOMENT! DIDN'T EVEN GIVE HIM A HANDKERCHIEF OR A PAT ON THE SHOULDER!

And people have also talked better than I about how WWX didn't tell LXC about Sisi bc...he might have shown JGY mercy?

[mikkeneko]

ChengQing for the ask game!!

Ooh a fun one!

Ship It

What made you ship it? -CQL, mostly. I went into it having no idea that it was not canon to the books, and I wouldn't have guessed if someone hadn't told me, because I thought it made its thesis statement admirably. -Mostly what I really see in them is a pair of people both alike in dignity and dutifulness, seeing a potential kindred spirit and wanting deeper connection. I think that for both of them, there is enormous attraction to the prospect of being in a relationship with someone who will respect them.

What are your favorite things about the ship? -Mostly that I really enjoy how it both has and creates space in the world for things to be going on that aren't directly about Wei Wuxian. I mean, I like Wei Wuxian plenty, but -- how shall I say. In Scum Villain, the world revolves around Luo Binghe because it is literally written to do so. MDZS does not have the same constraint, so I like to see that the world continues to exist even when he's not onscreen, and that even the people who care about him very deeply also care about other things.

Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? -Not so much on the ship, but fandom-adjacently: I don't think I buy into the reads that Wen Qing is a lesbian. I think her palpable lack of interest in most of the men in her life (in the show) stems pretty directly from the fact that most of the men in her life are 1) related to her 2) explicitly her enemy or 3) both. The major exception to the above categories, of course, being Jiang Cheng, and I found myself sold by the amount of heterosexual yearning she projected in scenes with him.

Don’t/Ship It Ask Game

[least-carpet]

5, 7, 18, 20 for chengning (but feel free to ignore any you don't feel like answering)

Hi Pallas! I'm always down to talk about chengning!

5.) What do they need to better themselves as people first?

Haha, I actually think they need to get slightly worse in order to get together post-canon! Wen Ning has to give into his impulsiveness and Jiang Cheng some self-harming tendencies so they can have bad idea hatesex.

Alternately, I guess maybe they could night-hunt with their nephews for long enough that they chilled out and got to know each other. But I think that could take a really long time... and how much time will Jin Ling spend in the field, anyway, now that he's a sect leader? Bad idea hatesex is faster!

7.) Could they have piqued interest in one another without said circumstances?

If they hook up at all, that's totally in spite of their circumstances.

I do think there's a universe (maybe Wen Ruohan choked on a grape and ate it when Wen Ning was a kid?) where Wen Ning got absorbed into Wei Wuxian's wider social circle and then got to know Jiang Cheng that way. I think I've seen this approach in a couple of different modern!au fics, where Wen Ning has the time to get over his crush on Wei Wuxian and then discovers that he likes Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng strikes me as someone who doesn't necessarily like others easily, even as a teenager, and there's one adaptation (CQL) where the Wen sibling he notices is Wen Qing, not Wen Ning. He's someone who I think you need to hang around with for a minute before he warms up to you, plus Wen Ning is very shy. But also I think he'd be a sucker for someone genuinely extending him kindness, so if that happened...maybe!

18.) Do they love the real them or a mask? Both?

I think they hate each other for their mutual history, which is as close to emotional intimacy as either of them have gotten since both their respective sisters died. We make do!

More positively, I do think that starting from rock bottom is the only thing that might compel Wen Ning to be honest, since when he likes someone he doesn't seem to want to express any of his negative feelings around them... and I think he has many more of those than he'd like. And from honesty, sometimes you can get to actual emotional intimacy! Sometimes?

So if they do love each other, it's from a place of real, ugly honesty. One of the things that I find interesting about their dynamic is that Wen Ning is more honest with Jiang Cheng than he is with most other people. He's not, like, nice about it. But he's communicating! Which is more than Jiang Cheng is getting from basically anyone else (cough cough, Wei Wuxian)! Wen Ning gets someone he can be direct with and Jiang Cheng gets someone who isn't going to bother to lie to him. (As always, Jiang Cheng is very miserable.)

20.) What experience do they share only with each other?

Being the unwilling science experiments of Bad Idea Genius Team Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing. Looking at the other with Wei Wuxian and thinking, God, he loves him so much, look what he'll do on his behalf. You know, normal stuff!

[poorlittleyaoyao]

I am enjoying all of the thoughts. Here's a random scenario for you: Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue swap places. They have all of their original experiences up through the end of the Sunshot Campaign, but for whatever reason (mind-wiping? alternate-universe hopping? who knows) they don't waste any time trying to switch back. NMJ just has to Deal with being the newly-legitimized second son of the Jin, JGY just has to Deal with being a sect leader with the whole saber thing hanging over him. Who do you think would be most successful in their new role? Who would have the worst time?

Oooh, there was a poll awhile back posing this question (@qiu-yan was it one of yours?), and everyone responding had such solid reasoning for whatever choices they picked! Because neither of them is enjoying this.

For who is most successful, it's JGY, no contest. JGY doesn't have a background in saber cultivation, but he was born to manage and can handle logistics like a champ. In novel canon, he has field experience with the Nie that he can combine with day-to-day experience sect with the Jin; n CQL canon, he already has experience overseeing day-to-day sect business in the Unclean Realm itself. Easy! He'll just delegate all the saber stuff to someone more qualified! Meanwhile, NMJ does not have the skills set that JGY deploys in Jinlintai at allllllll. He doesn't have experience in negotiating with a superior (let alone a superior who doesn't respect him), he doesn't prioritize fine details, and he cannot (WILL not!) fawn. While JGY was learning customer service, NMJ studied the blade! He is AT BEST going to be too blunt and at worst going to throw hands.

For who is having the worst time, neither of them is doing great! From a physical standpoint, they'd both have a moment of "damn, you live like this?" as NMJ boggles at how long JGY's body takes to heal and JGY wonders how he hell NMJ built up so much resentment in his body. (A popular NMJ headcanon is that Baxia is a semi-sentient entity screaming at him 24/7 to fuel his bloodlust, and I do enjoy that, but it's also not actually in the text anywhere, so I am leaving that out. Ditto for JGY having lingering pain from injuries sustained in his fall.)

From a mental standpoint, if JGY is aware that NMJ is puttering around in his body, he is LOSING IT. It's his own personal "horse loose in a hospital" scenario. Not only might NMJ ruin all of JGY's standing within Jinlintai by being less-than-deferential, there are also THE SECRET CRIMES to consider. If this switch happens after JGY is entrenched as his father's fixer, NMJ could stumble upon the Jinlintai Murder Basement! He could reveal all of JGY's crimes! And even if he didn't, if JGS or whoever else deemed NMJ-in-JGY's body a nuisance, they might straight-up kill him rather than just dismissing him because JGY knows too much. After all, everyone saw what he did to his last two bosses! If QS and JRS exist, what about their safety? What about his legacy? What about his mother's wish? Any merit he achieves as NMJ will be credited to NMJ, not to him, and he would haaaaate thattttt.

Now, NMJ is also having a bad time, because not being accustomed to the kind of treatment JGY receives has made him ill-equipped to process it. Witnessing and being the recipient of so much injustice but not being able to do anything about it would be profoundly upsetting for him. He'd be even more upset if he found out about the crimes. His options for seeking justice are very limited! He could stab JGS and XY and then die himself, but even if he was successful, JGY's spirit would live on in NMJ's body to do who-knows-what. If QS and JRS exist, extended exposure to one or both of them could make him feel conflicted about all of the above, which would make him even MORE frustrated with the situation.

(Neither of them is bringing LXC into this.)

Bad times all around!

(Additional components of this scenario to consider: NMJ in JGY's body having to hang out with XY, and XY thinking his attempts to kill him are just fun enrichment. NHS figuring out something's up and (after assuring himself of NMJ's safety) using this as an opportunity to request soooo many budget items, pleeeeease san-ge? pleeease? SMS figuring out something's up because Lianfang-zun Would Not Fucking Say That and personally taking the initiative to get them to switch back. QS figuring out something's up because A-Yao Would Not Fucking Say That and also the specific way in which he is now refusing to sleep with her feels different.)

[accio-victuuri]

follow up clowning related to gg’s weibo post from here. a reminder first that i don’t think everything has to mean something and most of the time what they post is just plain and simple. we are clowns, so we will speculate but that doesn’t mean we have to find some candy for every content they post before we can enjoy & appreciate it. for example, we also think that the reason GG is doing these solar terms right now, while he is filming LoZ is in the synopsis of the drama, his character is the son of the “director of the Imperial Observatory of the Great Yong Kingdom” , that’s the english translation. but the key here in the original text is this word: 钦天监 [qīn tiān jiàn].

what is it? thank you to good old baidu for always having the answer:

Qin Tianjian is the signature of an official whose function is to observe celestial phenomena, calculate solar terms, and formulate calendars.

calculating solar terms. so that could be the connection he is hinting at that is somehow significant to the character he is playing. makes sense right?

this is not me washing anyone’s candy. i’m only laying out alternative explanations cause that’s how i do things. lol. the addition i have seen going around is kadian related and i’m not a kadian girlie so i was blocking it out when i first saw it. 😅😅😅

okay, now let’s go to the cpn. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

the post he made is his 1085th on weibo. oh what a good number, like a mashup between their birthdays. and the kadian that was used 191919. which means still still still. or you can concentrate on the repeated use of the number 999 ( In Chinese, nine is pronounced jiu, which also means “long lasting.” As the highest single digit, it represents the maximum level of mortal happiness, longevity, and good luck. A perfect ten is reserved for the gods. Case in point: in respect to the Heavens, the Forbidden City in Beijing has 9999.5 rooms, just short of a flawless 10,000. )

who is saying still too? forever with who? wang yibo. based on my first post about it, his use of that word 谷雨 that also came up in LTS lyrics.

another coincidence is that in the song itself, the word comes up in the 0:19 mark. 👀

commemorating the anniversary of when he followed yibo on weibo, 4/20/2018 so he posted on the eve of that day. maybe he is celebrating something else that only the two of them know and it’s not necessarily something as mundane as following a person on weibo. who knows. however, it’s on the bxg calendar so we are marking that down as a possible reason. 📝

i love this explanation tho, that goes back to that actual day years ago and what happened. it was the 5th day of filming CQL and they did not have scenes together, so why did he pay attention and followed him? he was filming the scene in the burial mounds, WWX was drunk and reminiscing about when he first met LWJ. WWX misses LWJ cause he is not there. Was XZ also missing WYB that time? to the point that he went to his weibo account and followed him?

it’s not a secret that XZ prefers it when WYB is there, not only to act with, but just there for him. plus this level of attachment on the 5th day of filming is not surprising when it comes to them.

finally, the imagery of the rain when it comes to them is one that holds some meaning. much like how we fixate on the stars and moon. photos below to show some of those relations to the rain. ☔️

and that lrlg conversation they had that went:

XZ: "I'm waiting for you"

WYB: "I'll come and have dinner with you when it rains”

XZ: "Tomorrow's meal"

WYB: "Then tomorrow"

before we end, i’ll add this quote that seems to fit the whole subject of rain:

"Because it rains so often, many important things in life seem to have happened in the rain. Those memories are now uncovered and still feel wet. Even if they dry, they are like a book soaked in water, with ripples on the paper that are difficult to calm down."

sources aside from the ones directly linked: one / two / three / four 💛