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fannish-karmiya · 3 years

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Is Wei Wuxian's Cultivation Actually Harmful to Him?

Throughout Wei Wuxian’s first life, he frequently argues with Lan Wangji over his cultivation. Lan Wangji believes that his cultivation will harm him and eventually destroy him, while Wei Wuxian insists that he has everything under control. Many readers take Lan Wangji’s warnings at face value, leading to the common fandom perception that demonic cultivation (more accurately, the ghost path) is inherently harmful to Wei Wuxian and that he should indeed give it up.

But does the text actually back that up, when we examine Wei Wuxian’s use of his cultivation? While Wei Wuxian does experience a few losses of control, I would argue that they are far more due to circumstances than anything else, and not a sign that the cultivating with resentful energy is inherently harmful to a cultivator’s body or that loss of control is an inevitable conclusion.

Preconceptions

Lan Wangji is the character who most often tries to tell Wei Wuxian that his cultivation is harmful. Immediately when Wei Wuxian returns from the Burial Mounds and meets Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji again while torturing Wen Chao, Lan Wangji expresses concern:

One against two, Lan WangJi still refused to back off. He gazed at Wei WuXian, “Wei Ying, for cultivating an evil path you would eventually have to pay. Throughout time, there has not been a single exception.”

Wei WuXian, “I can pay.”

Seeing how unconcerned he seemed to be, Lan WangJi lowered his voice, “The path would not only damage your body, but your heart as well.”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

Now, Wei Wuxian’s path (guidao, the ghost path) is brand new. He invented it, being the first person to ever successfully cultivate using yuanqi, or the resentful energy of dead humans. So why does Lan Wangji speak so assuredly of the harm it can cause?

The term ‘cultivating an evil path’ is telling. Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is a new path, but there are other dark paths of cultivation which exist. The Nie sect’s sabres are an example; they absorb the killing intent and evil energy of the yao and guai they kill, and over time their sabres become more and more powerful but also lead the wielder closer and closer to an inevitable qi deviation.

Of course, Lan Wangji is not aware of the Nie sect’s technique, which is a strictly kept secret, at this point. Nie Mingjue only seems to have told Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao because they were his sworn brothers. But there are surely other paths like this which are publicly known.

We know about other dark rituals which are not part of Wei Wuxian’s ghost path, after all, and ‘backlash’ is a frequent risk, either due to making the user vulnerable or failing to fulfil the contract one agreed to.

The body sacrificing ritual which Mo Xuanyu uses, for example, will cause backlash if you fail to keep up your end of the deal.

It was an ancient, forbidden technique. Compared to an array, it resembled a curse more. The caster of the array injures themselves by creating incisions on their body, and draws the array and writes the incantations using their own blood, finishing by sitting in the center of the array. They can then summon an extremely villainous ghoul and ask for it to complete their wish. The price to pay was to offer their body to the evil spirit, with their own soul returning back to Earth.

This was the forbidden technique opposite to stealing another’s body—offering one’s body.

[...]

The difficult part was that, as soon as the evil spirit has taken over the body of the caster, the contract is sealed by default. The evil spirit must grant their wish, or else the curse will cause a backlash. The spirit in possession of the body will be completely annihilated, never to be born again!

(Chapter 2, Exiled Rebels translation)

Interestingly, the harm here is to the ‘evil spirit’ if they fail to keep up their end of the contract. Well, also the caster who gives up his or her life in exchange. At any rate, this sort of thing seems to be a frequent risk of dark cultivation techniques. The paperman technique is also quite risky:

The good thing was that Wei WuXian had once learnt a certain technique of the dark arts—the paper metamorphosis.

Although it was indeed useful, it had a number of restrictions as well. Not only was the time strictly limited, the paperman must also return as it were, after it had been released. There mustn’t even be a single scratch on it. If, on its way, it was torn apart or broken in any way, the soul would receive the same degree of harm—from a year of unconsciousness to a whole lifetime of lunacy. Thus, one must be extremely careful.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

This seems to be a frequent concern with any dark technique, which probably is what led Lan Wangji to believe that Wei Wuxian’s new path would be similarly dangerous. It’s also very worth noting that he grew up in Gusu Lan, which is known for being even more judgmental towards dark cultivation than other sects.

He immediately seemed to realize, “Oh. I forgot. Your uncle Lan QiRen hates crooked people like me. You’re his proudest disciple, so of course you’re the same as him, haha. I refuse.”

Jiang Cheng stared at Lan WangJi, cautious, “Second Young Master Lan, all of us understand the Lan Sect’s ways.

[...]

Wei WuXian had been angered as well, “Lan WangJi! Do you really have to make this difficult at such a point in time? You want me to go to the Cloud Recesses for the GusuLan Sect’s confinement punishment? Who do you think you are, what do you think the GusuLan Sect is?! You really think that I won’t resist?!”

(Chapter 62, Exiled Rebels translation)

While many people speak negatively of Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, Lan Qiren is particularly virulent when Wei Wuxian first proposes the theory as a teen:

Everyone in the room was stunned. Lan QiRen sprang to his feet, “The essence of exorcising demons and annihilating ghosts is to liberate! You do not study the methods of liberation, and even think about increasing their energy of resentment! You reverse the natural order, and ignore ethics and morality!”

[...]

Another book came flying from Lan QiRen. He spoke harshly, “Then, let me ask you again! How do you make sure that the resentful energy only listens to you and does not harm others?”

Wei WuXian ducked while speaking, “I haven’t thought of it yet!”

Lan QiRen raged, “If you thought of it, the cultivation world would not allow your existence! Get out!”

(Chapter 14, Exiled Rebels translation)

Due to their father’s seclusion and their mother’s imprisonment, Lan Wangji and his brother were raised by Lan Qiren. With his uncle having such a black and white view of such matters, it’s understandable that Lan Wangji would absorb that and struggle to reconcile the Wei Wuxian he knows and loves with the man who is cultivating an ‘evil’ path.

With his own sect and family so negatively inclined towards Wei Wuxian’s cultivation, I think Lan Wangji was primed to see every behaviour of Wei Wuxian’s through this lens. Similarly, the audience hears the younger Lan Wangji repeat these warnings so many times that I think many readers wind up believing him, too.

Confirmation Bias

However, I think much of this is actually a case of confirmation bias. Lan Wangji is predisposed to see Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as harmful, and is actively looking for signs that it is; he winds up correlating all sorts of things to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation as a result.

He does so when he visits Wei Wuxian in Yunmeng:

Lan WangJi, “Last time, during the hunt on Phoenix Mountain, have you noticed certain signs?”

Wei WuXian, “What signs?”

Lan WangJi, “The loss of control.”

Wei WuXian, “You mean me almost getting into a fight with Jin ZiXuan? I think you got something wrong. I want to fight with Jin ZiXuan whenever I see him.”

(Chapter 71, Exiled Rebels translation)

Which is true! Wei Wuxian and Jin Zixuan just do not get on at all. And if we go back to Phoenix Mountain, it’s clear that this was a perfectly ordinary fight:

However, Jiang YanLi didn’t turn around. Jin ZiXuan was even more enraged. He caught up to her in just three strides and was about to grab her hand when a shadow suddenly flashed before his eyes. Before he could see who it was, he received a blow on his chest. Jin ZiXuan swung his sword across and backed away.

When he finally could see, he raged, “Wei WuXian, why is it you again?!”

Wei WuXian blocked Jiang YanLi behind him, raging as well, “I haven’t fucking said it yet—why is it you again?!”

Jin ZiXuan, “Attacking because of nothing have you gone mad?!”

Wei WuXian struck with his palm, “That’s exactly what I’m doing! What do you mean because of nothing? What are you doing trying to grab my shijie just because of how ashamed you are?!”

Jin ZiXuan dodged to the side and returned to him a sword attack, “If I don’t grab her should I let her walk randomly around the mountain alone?!”

(Chapter 70, Exiled Rebels translation)

Jin Zixuan is described as being ‘enraged’ and tries to grab Jiang Yanli. He’s clearly being very hotheaded here himself. What brother wouldn’t be enraged after this, especially given Jin Zixuan’s pattern of speaking of Jiang Yanli derisively?

Earlier, Lan Wangji had forcibly kissed Wei Wuxian while he was blindfolded, and yet he didn’t display any loss of control or temper problems then.

(I also think this ties into how people tend to judge Wei Wuxian more harshly due to his lower social class; he’s often no more brash and arrogant than his peers, but because he’s the son of a servant only he is judged for it. Look at Jin Zixuan pulling his sword on a man who no longer carries a sword! He isn’t criticised for that. But I digress.)

Lan Wangji also believes that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation is doing him spiritual harm, using evidence such as Wei Wuxian’s unwillingness to carry his sword or receive spiritual energy to help him heal:

Suddenly, he felt an itch at his throat. Blood began to rise up his chest. Trying to restrain it, Wei WuXian coughed a couple of times. Seeing that Lan WangJi was going to grab his hand again, Wei WuXian dodged, “What are you doing?”

Lan WangJi, “Your injuries.”

Wei WuXian, “No need. Why use spiritual energy for such a small wound? It’ll get better after some sitting around.”

Lan WangJi didn’t waste any words with him, grabbing for his hand again. At this point, two people came from outside of the cave. Wen Qing’s voice sounded, “Get better after some sitting around? Did you think I’m dead?”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

He observes this back when he visited the Burial Mounds in the day, and many years later tells Wen Ning that this was the conclusion he drew:

Wen Ning turned around. He couldn’t help but ask, “Young Master Lan, you don’t seem too surprised about this. Did you… Did you know about this as well?”

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

Working with incomplete information (since he doesn’t know that Wei Wuxian has no golden core, he instead assumes that he is being harmed spiritually by his cultivation) and a pre-existing bias against demonic cultivation, Lan Wangji viewed Wei Wuxian as someone who was bound to lose control at some point, and everything became evidence to prove what he already believed.

Loss of Control

However, I think it’s arguable that the instances where Wei Wuxian loses control are not an inevitability of his cultivation path. Instead, they occur in extremely dangerous combat situations where Wei Wuxian has no allies and is being besieged by hundreds or thousands of enemies.

I want to go over three instances where things go sideways for Wei Wuxian with his cultivation in his first life: Wen Ning’s awakening, the ambush at Qiongqi Path, and the battle at Nightless City.

Now, I wouldn’t even describe Wen Ning’s revival as a loss of control. Wei Wuxian had spent months trying to revive Wen Ning, and in the end he wound up waking up while Wei Wuxian was down in Yiling, not at the Burial Mounds to keep the situation under control. It’s like an unwatched pot boiling over.

Wei WuXian, “Didn’t I say not to touch the talismans on him?!”

Wen Qing didn’t even have the spare seconds to be surprised that Lan WangJi was here. She answered, “Nobody touched them! Not a single person went into the Cave! He tore them off on his own when he suddenly went on a rampage. Not only the ones on himself, he destroyed the restriction seals at the blood pool and the Cave as well! All of the fierce corpses in the blood pool got out. Wei WuXian, go save Granny and the others. They won’t be able to hold up much longer!!!”

(Chapter 75, Exiled Rebels translation)

Honestly, it’s hard to know based on this what caused Wen Ning to wake up or to return to consciousness. My suspicion is that Wei Wuxian’s efforts had worked, and he woke up with a lot of excess resentful energy he needed to work off; hence going to beat up all the other fierce corpses in the Blood Pool.

After this, Wei Wuxian takes measures to ensure that Wen Ning doesn’t lose consciousness again. For the next year until the ambush at Qiongqi Path, there are absolutely no incidents, and Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian go on night hunts together frequently.

Things only go wrong during the ambush.

Wei WuXian laughed coldly, “You’re seeking your own death!”

As he finished, Wen Ning raised his hand and tore off the red string that hung a talisman at his neck.

After the string snapped, his body wavered, and the muscles on his face began to twist. Marks that resembled black cracks crawled up his neck to his cheeks. He suddenly lifted his head, letting out a long, inhuman roar!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wen Ning wears a talisman which presumably suppresses his resentful energy, and which he must remove in order to fight at full strength. After Jin Zixuan shows up and completely fails to de-escalate the situation at all, Wen Ning kills him:

Wei WuXian was suppressing a blazing flame of hatred. His voice was cold, “Jin ZiXuan, move away right now. I won’t touch you, but you’re not going to provoke me either.”

Seeing that he still refused to yield, Jin ZiXuan suddenly lunged forward, as if trying to hold him down, “Why can’t you just back off for once?! A-Li is still…”

Just as he reached toward Wei WuXian, he heard a strange, heavy noise.

The noise was almost a bit too near. Jin ZiXuan paused in surprise. He looked down and finally saw the hand that pierced his chest.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

It’s pretty clear that Wen Ning saw Jin Zixuan lunging towards Wei Wuxian and interpreted him as a threat. As objective observers, we can see that this is actually quite understandable, if tragic, and realistically could have happened similarly in a mundane setting with no magic. But Wei Wuxian of course would start to feel doubt when something so terrible happens:

He was clearly controlling Wen Ning properly.

Even though he activated Wen Ning’s rampage mode, he should still be able to control him.

He’d clearly always been able to control him perfectly.

He didn’t want to kill Jin ZiXuan at all.

He never had the intention to kill Jin ZiXuan at all! It was just that moment. He didn’t know why, but all of a sudden he wasn’t able to control it… He had suddenly lost control!

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian had always been able to control Wen Ning perfectly before. Honestly, it’s not a surprise that his control was looser in a situation like this; he’s in the midst of an ambush where 300 people are trying to kill him! Realistically, Jin Zixuan bears some responsibility in his own death, too. When you’re trying to negotiate a ceasefire, you don’t fail to give the target of the attack any assurance of his safety and then lunge for him threateningly! Of course Wen Ning saw him as a threat and acted to defend Wei Wuxian.

Later, Wei Wuxian observes that during his ‘rampage’ state, Wen Ning draws his guidance from Wei Wuxian’s impressions of people:

Listening to him stutter as he apologized over and over again, all of a sudden, Wei WuXian felt extremely ridiculous.

It wasn’t Wen Ning’s fault at all.

It was his own fault.

When on a rampage, Wen Ning was nothing more than a weapon. The person who created the weapon was him. The things it listens to were his orders as well.

At that time, with all the tension and the killing intent on top of how Wei WuXian had never hesitated to show enmity toward Jin ZiXuan in front of Wen Ning, when he was unconscious, Wen Ning recognized Jin ZiXuan as an ‘enemy’ when he attacked, carrying out the order of ‘exterminate’ without a second thought.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I actually think that if Wen Ning had killed, say, Jin Zixun, Wei Wuxian would simply have seen it as a case of self-defence and accepted it as that. It’s the fact that Jin Zixuan is the husband of his foster sister (and the one person there he didn’t actually want dead) which turns this into such a tragedy.

The intensely stressful situation in the aftermath of Jin Zixuan’s death is the only time we ever see Wei Wuxian express doubt in his own abilities or regret choosing the ghost path:

With the child’s cries coming to his ears from afar and the scared siblings who were at a complete loss as to what to do in his eyes, Wei WuXian felt his heart sink lower into darkness. He asked himself, Just why have I been locking myself up on Burial Mound all these years? Why do I have to go through all this? Why did I choose to walk this path in the beginning? Why did I make myself like this? What do others see me as? Just what have I gained? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad? Have I gone mad?!

If only he didn’t choose this path in the beginning.

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I think that during this period, Wei Wuxian was under an immense amount of stress. He was the sole protector of 50 people who the world wanted dead, and he had to be strong and confident for them at all times. Only during his initial panic after Jin Zixuan’s death does that confident front break down and show us just how much the stress must have been wearing on him:

As he thought and thought about it, Wei WuXian suddenly broke into tears.

His voice was submerged in a deep helplessness, “… Can someone tell me… what I’m supposed to do now?”

(Chapter 76, Exiled Rebels translation)

I honestly think that if Wei Wuxian had had someone to lean on and share responsibility with during this time, it would have helped him so much.

In the past, there were only others who asked him what to do. Now, though, he was the one asking others what he should do, and nobody was able to give him an answer.

[...]

Wei WuXian raged, “You can shut the fuck up! It’s already pandemonium the way things are right now! You two can stop adding more trouble onto my platter. Give yourselves in my ass. Did I tell you to do this? Take it out!”

(Chapter 77, Exiled Rebels translation)

Later on, at Nightless City, Wei Wuxian’s loss of control is directly tied by the narrator to his worsening mental state:

The more Wei WuXian panicked, the less control he had. The corpse ignored his command and instead lifted the sword in its hand, slashing it down at Jiang YanLi!

Wei WuXian had lost it, dashing as he shouted, “Stop it, stop it, right now, stop it!”

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

He manages to calm himself down and get back under control:

Jiang YanLi sighed, “A-Xian, you… you should stop first. Don’t, don’t…”

Wei WuXian hurried, “Yes, I’ll stop.”

He took up Chenqing, placed it by his lips, and began to play. He only managed to steady his mind with great effort. This time, the corpses finally stopped ignoring his commands. One after another, strange gurgles echoed in their throats as if they were complaining. Slowly, they bent down.

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

Only when Jiang Yanli is killed by a cultivator aiming for Wei Wuxian does he decide, in his grief and rage, to put the Yinhufu together again:

Yet, no matter the criticism, the blame, Wei WuXian could no longer hear any of them. As if governed by another soul, he reached out and took two objects from within his sleeves. Before everyone’s eyes, he put them together. One half on top and the other below, the two objects snapped into one, letting out a resonating clang.

Wei WuXian placed it on his palm and raised it high into the air.

It was the Stygian Tiger Seal!

(Chapter 78, Exiled Rebels translation)

We know that after the Bloodbath of Nightless City, as this battle comes to be known, Lan Wangji takes Wei Wuxian back to Yiling. However, Wei Wuxian is in a very poor mental state (most likely due to stress, exhaustion, and trauma), and only regains awareness a few days later at the Burial Mounds.

This is when he decides that the Yinhufu is a weapon which he should never have created, and determines to destroy it.

After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal. Before he could completely destroy the other half, the siege at Luanzang Hill happened, and it had since then been beyond his capabilities.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

So Wei Wuxian was actually able to successfully destroy one half of the seal, and start work on the second, in the three months between Nightless City and the First Siege.

Toward his own creation, Wei WuXian was confident to say that even if the sect that got hold of it, made a temple for it, and offered it incense every single day, the remaining half of the Tiger Seal was just a piece of scrap iron. However, Lan WangJi told him something shocking—it appeared that Xue Yang could rebuild the other half of the seal!

Although Xue Yang was young, he was also quite clever, a bizarre eccentric. The LanlingJin Sect discovered that he could use the remaining half of the seal to roughly piece together the other half. Even though the recreated version wasn’t as powerful and couldn’t be used for as long, it could already result in terrible catastrophes.

(Chapter 30, Exiled Rebels translation)

I gather that the first half, he completely neutralised. The second half had not been fully drained of power when the First Siege happened. We never see the First Siege, but I think we can hazard a guess that once the Wens were massacred, Wei Wuxian knew that it was all over, and decided to destroy the second half of the Yinhufu so that no one there could get their hands on it. It is likely the backlash from improperly destroying/neutralising the Yinhufu which led to his corpses turning on him and ripping him apart.

Wei Wuxian does confirm that some sort of backlash killed him:

Wen Ning whispered, “Sect Leader Jiang, Jiang Cheng, brought a siege upon the Burial Mounds. And he killed you.”

Wei WuXian, “I’ll have to clarify this one. He didn’t kill me. I died from a backfire.”

(Chapter 43, Exiled Rebels translation)

“That’s merely hearsay. Although Jiang Cheng was one of the main forces, he did not give Wei WuXian the final blow. Because he cultivates the Demon Path, Wei WuXian’s powers had backfired and he was ripped to pieces.”

“Hahahaha… That’s karma! The ghost soldiers that he created are like unleashed dogs, biting everyone that they come across. It serves him right to be chewed to death!”

(Chapter 1, Exiled Rebels translation)

While the vast majority of information in the prologue is revealed later to be lies, Wei Wuxian does confirm this. Strictly, the ‘ghost soldiers’ were probably his fierce corpses. ‘Ghost’ or ‘Gui’ is used in Modao Zushi’s magic system as a catch-all phrase for dead humans, whether they’re actual ghosts (incorporeal spirits) or reanimated corpses. We know that Wei Wuxian was using huge numbers of fierce corpses to act as guards at the entrance to the Burial Mounds and protect the Wens, after all.

Wei Wuxian’s Second Life

So the risk of backlash is confirmed as a threat when using guidao and other dark cultivation techniques. However, it seems that they either have a clear contract which has to be fulfilled (like in the body sacrifice ritual), or a clearly defined risk which can be mitigated or prevented entirely through careful use.

It’s notable that Wei Wuxian is in control of his cultivation far more often than not, and in his second life we see absolutely no losses of control from him. This is probably down to a few things, one of them being greater experience. He also is no longer working alone; Lan Wangji is nearly always at his side or very nearby, which removes the intense stress of trying to fight against the entire world alone.

Honestly, I can’t even pull up any instances of Wei Wuxian struggling to control his cultivation in his second life or being even mildly harmed by it; there are absolutely none. We only ever see him dealing with mundane exhaustion, stress, and physical injuries.

He recovers very quickly from performing Empathy with Nie Mingjue:

Hearing this, Wei WuXian instantly pulled himself out!

He was still the thin paperman, stuck to the helmet that sealed Nie MingJue’s head. He had tugged loose the knot that tied the iron shells over Nie MingJue’s eyes, revealing a bloodshot eye, opened wide with anger.

[...]

There wasn’t much time left. He must return to his corporal body immediately!

Paperman WuXian flapped his sleeves, flying out as though he were a butterfly.

[...]

A while later, once his soul had returned successfully, Wei WuXian immediately took a deep breath. He raised his head, opened his eyes, and suddenly stood up. Yet, having not expected his body to still be disoriented, he felt dizzy and leaned forward. Seeing this, Lan WangJi caught him in his arms. Wei WuXian lifted his head once more, and the top of his head collided with Lan WangJi’s chin. With a thud, both of them grunted in pain. Wei WuXian rubbed his head with one hand and felt Lan WangJi’s chin with the other, “Ugh! I’m sorry. Lan Zhan, you alright?”

His chin having been stroked a couple of times, Lan WangJi lightly took Wei WuXian’s hand away before shaking his head. Wei WuXian tugged him, “Let’s go!”

(Chapter 50, Exiled Rebels translation)

After this, he is stabbed by Jin Ling and winds up spending four days unconscious in Cloud Recesses. I’ve seen it suggested that his short bout of hallucinating after he wakes up is due to harm from his cultivation, but I firmly disagree. He’d been unconscious for four days after being stabbed!

He immediately let go, almost wanting to roll away. His movement was so large that it hurt the wound at his stomach. He exclaimed an ‘ah’ as he scrunched his brows, finally remembering that he was still injured. Amid the stars before his eyes, Jing Ling, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YanLi, Jiang FengMian, Madam Yu… Many faces spun around in a large circle.

[...]

Only having ensured that his injuries were indeed fine did Lan WangJi finally let him go, “Four days.”

Jin Ling’s sword stabbed right through. The wound hadn’t been shallow at all. How it healed within four days without even leaving a scar behind meant that high level medicine of the GusuLan Sect had to have been necessary. Wei WuXian thanked him, mocking himself along the way, “I’ve reincarnated but somehow I’ve become even weaker. I couldn’t keep going after just a single stab.”

(Chapter 63, Exiled Rebels translation)

After being a bit muddled upon first waking up, he’s fine. He was also dreaming about his past while unconscious, which is why he’s described as seeing all these faces ‘amid the stars before his eyes’. The flashbacks in Refinement and Poisons-Evil are both framed as Wei Wuxian sleeping and dreaming about the past, and he’s thinking about them as a result; he’s not portrayed as actually hallucinating and thinking they’re really there.

Wei Wuxian is very drained by the events of the Second Siege and faints twice afterwards. However, it’s worth noting that during the Second Siege, he didn’t really use resentful energy (he couldn’t, as all the corpses there were under the control of the Yinhufu); he used talismans, which only require a small amount of spiritual energy.

Wei Wuxian even specifically states that Mo Xuanyu’s body is very weak, refusing to use Suibian before the Second Siege:

He wore it by his waist and didn’t seem like he was going to use it. Seeing how Lan WangJi looked at him, he fiddled with his hair and explained, “I haven’t used a sword in so many years. I’m not used to it.” As he spoke, he sighed again, “Alright. The real reason is that my current body is low in spiritual energy. Even if there’s a high level sword, it won’t be able to make the best use of it. And so, it’ll be up to HanGuang-Jun to protect the delicate man that I am.”

(Chapter 68, Exiled Rebels translation)

Wei Wuxian collapses due to exhaustion on the boat ride to Lotus Pier:

OuYang ZiZhen, “HanGuang-Jun, why did Senior Wei collapse?”

Lan WangJi, “Fatigue.”

Lan JingYi was amazed, “I thought that Senior Wei would never get tired!”

(Chapter 84, Exiled Rebels translation)

He collapses again during the fight at the Jiang ancestral hall:

Lan WangJi, “Wei Ying?!” His low voice rang within Wei WuXian’s ears, echoing endlessly.

Wei WuXian was starting doubt if something happened to his ears, “What’s wrong?”

He felt something streak down his face, but reached up only to retrieve a handful of scarlet. Accompanied by throbs of dizziness, blood continued to drip down his nose and his mouth, onto the ground.

[...]

Having come to the conclusion that Wei WuXian was only in a temporary state of unconsciousness due to extreme fatigue and anger, Lan WangJi finally tore his gaze away.

(Chapter 88, Exiled Rebels translation)

When he wakes up in Chapter 90, he feels unwell but recovers fairly quickly:

For a long while, he couldn’t figure out what was happening. Only when he saw the splatters of blood on Lan WangJi’s left sleeve, like a string of plum blossoms resting on snow, did he finally recall what happened before he passed out from anger. His expression twisted at once as he suddenly sat upright. Lan WangJi went to help him, but the ringing in Wei WuXian’s ears hadn’t stopped yet.

[...]

Lan WangJi knew that he wasn’t feeling well. Silent, he didn’t ask anything. He lay one hand on his back, sending him a warm thread of spiritual energy.

[...]

Looking around, Wei WuXian suddenly exclaimed, “I’m hungry.”

Lan WangJi looked up. Of course, Wei WuXian wasn’t hungry at all. He had just eaten three pies at the vendor in front of Lotus Pier’s gates. Lan WangJi only ate one, however, and it was the only thing he’d eaten in the past two days. The matter was on Wei WuXian’s mind.

(Chapter 90, Exiled Rebels translation)

The narrative again directly links it to exhaustion, not to anything more ominous than that:

In the fight at Burial Mound, Wei WuXian exerted too much energy and stamina. Both his mind and his body were strained for too long. A few hours earlier, Jiang Cheng angered him so much that he almost bled from his qiqiao.

He only recovered after a long time of rest. Although he didn’t feel too bad right now, if there was something he missed and he pushed himself all the way to Lanling, it was hard to tell whether or not an accident would happen at a critical moment. On top of that, he wasn’t the only one straining his mind and body in the past few days. Lan WangJi didn’t rest for a second either.

(Chapter 91, Exiled Rebels translation)

As said, there simply isn’t any proof, based on Wei Wuxian’s second life, that his cultivation is doing him harm, nor does he ever lose control of it.

This definitely indicates to me that Wei Wuxian’s losses of control in his first life were related to the circumstances and not an inevitable risk of his cultivation path.

In Conclusion

I actually suspect that Lan Wangji himself came to the same conclusion; he only ever gently warns Wei Wuxian to be careful when using dark techniques during his second life:

Lan WangJi let the paperman wriggle on his ribbon for some time. Just as he reached out to take it down, the paperman slid its way down as fast as it could. No matter intentionally or not, it bumped its head once against his lips.

Lan WangJi’s movements paused for a moment. Using two of his fingers, he finally caught it, “Do not fool around.”

Softly, the paperman rolled its body over his slender finger.

Lan WangJi, “You must be careful.”

The paperman nodded and flapped its wings. Clinging flat onto the ground, it climbed through the door slit and snuck out of the guest room.

(Chapter 47, Exiled Rebels translation)

He still does have some level of distaste for Wei Wuxian’s cultivation path, I would argue, due to the way he instantly latches onto the idea that Wei Wuxian would never have turned to the ghost path if not for his lost golden core:

“…” Lan WangJi managed, “I only knew that his spiritual powers were somehow impaired.”

But to think this was the truth.

Wen Ning, “If not because of this…”

If not because there really wasn’t a second path to walk on.

(Chapter 89, Exiled Rebels translation)

But the discussion of Wei Wuxian’s feelings on his cultivation is one for another day.

At any rate, I doubt that Lan Wangji is only holding back his feelings on the ghost path due to wanting to avoid any more fights with Wei Wuxian. After all, he spent 13 years mourning him. If he still believed that Wei Wuxian’s cultivation was going to eventually kill him, I doubt he would accept it so much more readily now.

I think the lesson he learnt, after looking back and thinking on the past a great deal, was indeed that Wei Wuxian would not have suffered such losses of control if he had had anyone to rely on in his past life. So now Lan Wangji always stands by his side and ensures that he will never reach such a state of desperation again.

#meta #mdzs #mdzs meta #demonic cultivation #fandom essay

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vvienne · 3 years

Text

XICHENG FIC RECS

hold my hands by Snooze (Chiruka)

Transplanting a core into a new person isn’t without repercussions. One year after the events at Guanyin Temple, Jiang Cheng found himself once again faced with the possibility of losing everything he had. Reconciling with his brother, learning to let Jin Ling go, and dealing with his blooming emotions toward the First Jade of Gusu — will Jiang Cheng accomplish what he wants before time runs out?

it all passes someday by screamlet

A week before the anniversary of Wei Wuxian’s death, there was a commotion outside Lan Wangji’s house.

Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji over the years.

The Unlikely Expression of Love by manamune

When everything has settled, when everyone else has moved on with their lives and their friends, Jiang Cheng has a realization which shouldn’t actually be a surprise:

He’s lonely.

Indigo, lavender, and violet (I don't wanna be red) by ohwhatevrewhatevr

It, in the pale colors of the late morning, is the closest to perfect Jiang Cheng will ever reach. He strokes Lan XiChen's hair and presses a light kiss to where his ribbon and hair meet. The sky is a pale blue, and the pastels of flowers and clouds are spread out through the window, a brilliant world waiting for them, them in the gentian house, safe from stronger breezes - there is the clutter of birds fluttering and chirping outside. It is a warm, perfect, spring morning.

Jiang Cheng and Lan XiChen have been together for an year. In which, no one ever really gets over things, Jiang Cheng has the misfortune of interacting with his brother, the juniors help out with the proposal, and there's a marriage.

Altitude by starknjarvis

When Jin Ling lures Jiang Cheng to the Cloud Recesses under false pretenses, he finds himself out of place among this new family Wei Wuxian has formed.

Lan Xichen, at least, seems pleased to have his company.

Perhaps there is still a chance for Jiang Cheng to make amends and move forward.

[Modao Zushi Online] GLITCH REPORT: My Brother Got Chased Down And %$@*$&@ By Gusu Dungeon Boss??? by oh_fudgecakes

Modao Zushi Online is a virtual reality MMORPG. Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are top ranking players in its new server, currently tied with their arch-nemesis from their previous server, Wen Chao. In an attempt to defeat him, they take on the Gusu Dungeon Boss, Zewu-jun, to win the reward of a legendary weapon. Ever the cheat, Wei Wuxian tries to take advantage of a glitch to defeat the seemingly undefeatable boss. It backfires. Jiang Cheng gets fucked by a boss monster.

He can't get enough.

Meanwhile, Lan Xichen, the unwitting staff member in charge of controlling Zewu-jun, absolutely did not sign up to be pulled into a secret virtual reality fling with a player. Mod Ji, who has to deal with Wei Wuxian's incessant glitch reporting of his brother's sex life, is long-suffering.

Mulberry by xxdz

Jiang Cheng grits his teeth and pushes harder. He feels like torn silk, the embroidery needle sinking in again and again and again; patiently, desperately, endlessly trying to make something beautiful out of something broken.

Jiang Cheng builds his sect, learns embroidery, and raises his nephew.

we can raise a little family by lanyon

“Well, brother,” says Wei Wuxian, leaning against the outside of Jiang Cheng’s chambers. “I had heard that you and Xichen went on a night hunt and came back with a baby, which is not the order I’d choose to do things in…”

In which Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen acquire a baby of unknown origin, and are the very last to know what it means.

Beyond the Impossible by Silverine

Summoned by Lan Qiren, Jiang Wanyin goes to the Cloud Recesses to drop his nephew Jin Ling, expecting to discuss relevant matters with his old master. Instead, he's asked to take with him no other than Sect Leader Lan himself, all the way back to Lotus Pier. If the reason why he accepted such an outrageous task is indeed a mystery, he's about to be surprised by how this entire trip, their encounters, and his warm company, suddenly feel fated.

Incrementally by xxdz

Jiang Cheng is trapped in a day on repeat where he begins by waking in Zewu Jun’s bed at dawn and ends by dying painfully at dusk.

It’s getting very irritating, and he has the sneaking suspicion that his chances to solve his own murder are rapidly running out. Soon, his death will be much more permanent.

All in all, worst birthday ever.

Audience of One by WinterDreams

“Then let an established star go first,” Lan Xichen interrupts again before Lan Wangji can give a stubborn reply. Both men twist toward Lan Xichen, and he smiles at Wei Wuxian’s tilted head. “If I publicly date a man for awhile first, your engagement shouldn’t receive as much backlash.”

Or, that AU where everyone is famous in some way or another, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have been dating in private for years, and Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng pretend to date publicly for their brothers' sake.

A Bit of Ruthlessness by jirluvien

When Jiang Cheng hears that Lan Xichen went into seclusion following Jin Guangyao’s death, it’s almost as if he can see the grabby hands of a restless ghost, reaching out for something to keep him company. For something warm and living and devastated. And as history has proved time and time again, the Lans are perfect victims when it comes to giving in to ghosts.Yeah, no. Not on Jiang Cheng’s fucking watch.A story about grief, determination, unexpected friendships, abandoned watchtowers, and letters. So many letters.

All Tied Up In You by Clearpearls

Yet again, the night had come to this:

Jiang Cheng on the floor, kneeling, Zidian wrapped around his wrists.

Alone.

Thank You, and I'm Sorry by Hamliet

Jin GuangYao might be dead, but his story is not. Taking advantage of the chaos he instigated, someone makes an attempt on the life of the young new leader of the Jin Sect. When Jiang Cheng takes Jin Ling to the Cloud Recesses to have him study while he attempts to work with Wei WuXian and his husband Lan WangJi to eliminate the threat, he encounters a mourning Lan XiChen, lovestruck teenagers, and a persistent corpse--and both pairs of brothers find themselves struggling to move on.

saturn's rings (don't be a heartbreaker) by iskendaris

Set after the seige of burial mounds, Yunmeng rebuilds as they hold the first Discussion Conference at Lotus Pier. Sometimes the night is a gift, a refuge for loneliness. "So stern, Sect Leader Jiang," Lan Xichen murmured, "So glacial... What will it take to melt that icy exterior? What can I say?"

"Nothing. There's nothing you can say or offer."

reciprocity by jukeboxhound

There’s a pause before Lan Xichen says, in a tone that’s a little more neutral, “I would like to paint on you.”

“…What?”

“Of course, if you say ‘yes’ but then change your mind at any point, for any reason, you need only say so and I will stop immediately,” he adds.

Well, silver lining: Jiang Cheng is feeling much more awake than he was a moment ago.

Talent Hunt Crew Finds Angry Guy Shouting On College Campus, Recruits Him For Vocal Projection Abilities by oh_fudgecakes

Jiang Cheng, resident Angry Guy and heir to a conglomerate empire, has never been the apple of his father’s eye. Quashed under the shadow of his brilliant brother, the music prodigy Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng sees his chance to turn things around when he is recruited by the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt. One problem: he can’t sing to save his goddamn life.

As he struggles to develop his nascent singing abilities, Jiang Cheng finds himself sucked into the whirlwind drama of reality TV, helped along by his adoring siblings, his irritable vocal coach Wen Qing, and strangely enough, the unfairly attractive host of the All-Stars Lan Talent Hunt, Lan Xichen. Somewhere in the glare of the stage lights and an unexpected first love, Jiang Cheng stumbles upon the thing he was searching for all along: the courage to dream — and to attempt the impossible.

Marginal Costs by ohwhatevrewhatevr

“You think you know what you want, Er-Ge,” A-Yao says. “But you should consider what you’re willing to give first,” he says wryly, taking Lan XiChen’s chess piece with slim, skilled fingers.

Lan XiChen looks up at A-Yao’s concentrated expression and the hint of contentment on his face that he is special enough to be allowed to see.

“It’s not just one decision, but the lead up to many more. One decision decides what else you’re going to have to pay, and each time you have to ask yourself, ignoring the sunk costs, if this time it’s worth it as well.”

When his sworn brother looks up at him with those clear, amber eyes, waiting, Lan XiChen feels the pull and gives in: he asks.

“Are you happy being in love?”

(First half is two sad sworn brothers talking, internally mourning how unfortunate their other sworn brother’s death was :/ and second half is when a mopey boy in blue meets an angsty boy in purple whilst chasing a demonic cultivator, and a lil bit of sexy dual cultivation happens.)

Somewhat Tender by theherocomplex

There is no defense against kindness; it has always undone him.

I didn't expect you to be lonely (too) by bettydice (BettyKnight)

Jiang Cheng's life is a mess, he's a mess, and he doesn't miss his brother at all. So when his sister gifts him ten sessions with a massage therapist, who turns out to be someone he was crushing on for a hot minute as a teenager and is still as hot as ever... yeah, that might as well happen. It won't have to mean anything.

This feels intimate to Jiang Cheng in a way that's probably very inappropriate and maybe even pathetic. Nobody touches him like this, right where he’s hurt the most. There's no one who handles him so gently, so carefully.

It's the gentleness that's his undoing, he thinks. He would be able to deal better with it if it was painful.

Life for Rent by yodasyoyo

“Yeah well. You’re not taking me seriously. This guy is my soulmate!”

“Soulmate.” Jiang Cheng rolls his eyes. “Whatever.”

“Just because you don’t believe in them—”

“I believe in them!” Jiang Cheng says. “I’ve never denied they exist.”

“Just last week you said that it was an evolutionary quirk that had been used by greetings card companies, movie makers, and corporations to exploit lonely and vulnerable people.”

“And I stand by it! That doesn’t mean that soulmates aren’t real. Just incredibly unlikely and probably pointless.

Or:

Xicheng vs Soulmates. Fight!

Halfway Around the World by theherocomplex

Normally, Jiang Cheng would be seething, jaw clenched tight, if someone sounded like that while they were talking, but — Lan Xichen has the trick of always making you feel like you're in on the joke, whatever the joke is. That you're laughing together.

Whelmed by yodasyoyo

For months now Jiang Cheng’s been idly fantasizing about how it would be if something were to come between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan. Mostly those daydreams have been simple enough — they break up (probably because Lan Zhan is boring or Wei Ying is annoying), Wei Ying is sad for a couple of days (Jiang Cheng’s willing to allow some space for feelings, he isn't a total monster), but then Wei Ying realizes he’s better off, he gets over it, and Jiang Cheng gets his brother back.

Unfortunately the fantasy version of events has only proven partially true, so far. They've broken up. Wei Ying has been sad.

Now weeks have passed, though — and Wei Ying is still sad, every. Single. Day.

It’s like Jiang Cheng's stuck in a looping GIF, and it’s driving him insane.

Or:

Jiang Cheng plots, Lan Huan pines, and, unfortunately for Lan Qiren, Wangxian are inevitable.

#xicheng #fic recs #mdzs #mdzs recs #jiang cheng #lan xichen #obvs these reflect my personal preferences etc etc

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tonyglowheart · 3 years

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I mean, even mxtx herself said that jc isn't an evil person. Deeply flawed for sure, but not bad. It's like any and all nuance is thrown to the wind in pursuit of the next "jc hot-take"

yeah exactly, and like the whole point of Jiang Cheng's story and reveal, as other people have said before, is that mxtx wants to play with your perception of your certainty on how you judged a character/person or a situation. It's a big theme in MDZS in general, the idea that like the "certain" reading or the most popular reading isn't always the "truest" reading, but that even a "true" reading is subject to personal perspective/context. And that, sometimes there is no "true" reading of a situation, because there's always going to be someone's context and truth that you miss, or are not able to reconcile against someone else's.

sidebar: MXTX literally does this with Wei Wuxian early on, she starts off by portraying Wei Wuxian in a way that he can be read as a typically "evil" villain character (e.g. when he mentioned going to Dafan Mtn to look for evil spirits, the more evil the better! <- paraphrased she might have used a softer word than "evil" but the point is that line is supposed to make you think you're reading a book where the MC is the "villain" of the story, until you learn more about the backstory/history and get more insight into his perspective)

I'm not saying that Jiang Cheng isn't a flawed character, because yeah, he very much is. But at the same time. Like the Jiang Cheng reveal is supposed to operate a bit more like a "Gift of the Magi" situation, as well as shedding light more on Jiang Cheng's perspective and adding context to how he's come across and how he has been shown to act/react. All of these do in fact have contextual influences on how Jiang Cheng is, imo, intended to be used in the narrative & as a narrative foil.

re: lack of nuance- that's something that's definitely frustrating me a lot recently in the tone of some posts I see in the tags lol. Even now with my recent posts, the reaction(s) I've seen seem to have boiled down to "we just want canon JC characterization; why are you using culture as an excuse for the bad shit he did lol," which like... fine maybe it's not a bad faith reading of what I said, maybe I didn't convey what I was trying to convey well enough, about there being nuances to analysis that I think are being omitted or ignored, some of which imo are culturally-influenced that people seem to discount in favor of an "objective imperative" kind of standard (which imo is generally not as "objective" or "contextless" as people think, they're just not seeing how their own contexts are still acting as a lens thru which they view things).

I don't think I took it to that extreme of "I'm using culture to excuse Jiang Cheng of wrongdoing," but then again does it matter what I think I was doing if the other party is perceiving their truth of the situation a certain way? The ideal is that one's intent can be reconciled with the other party's perception, and that both parties act in good faith to try to find that overlap in understanding, but I can't force other people to engage with me in good faith or be open to interrogating their own self-evident truths or things they've taken for granted which may serve to be examined. I'm fairly cognizant that I'm probably not going to be changing the minds of people who are already made up on this subject. Experience tells me that's not how arguments on the internet tend to play out, and if I do end up swaying anyone it's usually people who are watching as opposed to the people actively arguing with me on a given topic.

Anyway, I do think a lot of this arguments of "canon Jiang Cheng" are reductive in general, but also not the whole picture as far as canon goes if we do try to take that seriously or on face value. For example, what IS Jiang Cheng's "canon" characterization? The story isn't told largely from Jiang Cheng's perspective - whatever you come up with will still largely be based on outsider perspectives (each of whom have their own interpretations and agendas which color their views). So then, are you playing with Jiang Cheng's reputation vs characterization? If that's the case, that's fine, I can't control what other people do, but then to claim a moral high ground of having a "purer" or more "complete" or "true" reading because you eschew certain nuance points (which are also canonical) or take a more cynical reading of certain aspects of a text, comes across as arrogant and narrow to me. The opposite extreme of a thing isn't more correct than the extreme one is reacting to.

#asks answered #Anonymous #trying to come up with what to tag this for ppl who might want to filter it out lmao...#fandom negativity tag #mdzs #last random thought: lowkey I think some of the 'jiang cheng stans' that ppl say they're reacting against... may have been reacting against #a cycle of jiang cheng hate too lmao. it's been a hot second since I've been deeply in touch with the trends but I feel like some of the #bigger jc accounts on twitter for example that I remember were like. specifically pushing back against certain jc villain narratives as wel #I mean the whole cyclical thing in fandom is fairly common - this whole push & pull of 'prevailing' narratives #and as often happens we get to a point where people don't know or forget or are not aware of where certain things arise from #and so they assume it exists outside of context and to them it's 'ridiculous'#but I mean also as a general principle... who is it hurting for ppl to like a certain character. why should someone have to apologize for #liking a character just because you dislike them.#my ultimate thesis for fandom in general tends to be: there is no one sole arbiter of 'truth.' sometimes pervailing views hold certain #amounts of weight but nothing says that people HAVE to comply with those #like mxtx says: ultimately the point of fandom is to have fun. don't go overboard

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jiangwanyinscatmom · 3 years

Note

ultimately what pissess me off the most about JC is that he did all that to someone who he knew loved him and would never hurt him no matter what, he took advantage of that and was hurtful and hateful to WY's face on purpose meanwhile WY not only protected him physically but even protected his fucking image! at least LXC and XXC got catfished and only suffered at the end but WY had to watch someone he loved hurt him repeatedly without being able to do anything about it

I think for this reason it is hard for me to believe Jiang Cheng would reach out to reconcile, since ultimately, he doesn't regret what he had done to Wei Wuxian in terms of how he had protected and chose the Wens.

I'll use this as the sounding board in regards to MXTX villains and what I have been meaning to discuss about them. The major ones in her works (Shen Jiu, Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangyao, Qi Rong and Jun Wu) all follow a certain type of mentality, which is facing hardships similar to the protagonists but also expressing that due to this suffering, they are entitled to others sacrificing for them, owing them, or suffering equally or worse.

Jiang Cheng for example, thinks he is entitled for Wei Wuxian's forever guilt and he can never repay the pain Jiang Cheng was caused. He uses Jin Ling as one reason but it quickly devolves into "YOU promised to stay by ME" at the end when all is said and done, and this is also similar to the way Shen Jiu hated Yue Qingyue for not being able to fulfill his role in protecting him as children. Instead of growing past their trauma for their own well-being, they regress into something worse to perpetuate resentment due to being caught up in the hurts of the past as their excuse to lash out.

It moves past their original target of resentment, Wei Wuxian and Yue Qingyuan, to Lan Wangji and Luo Binghe. They cause physical suffering along with demeaning their targets in order to keep their facade of being powerful to themselves and for their own comfort against their self-esteem issues. They also do not themselves reach out to try to discover where the fallout laid in their misunderstandings leaving it to Wei Wuxian and Yue Qingyuan to try mending whatever slights, but the goals of this keep shifting.

This is very exasperated between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian from the start. It moves on from childhood small misconceptions (i.e) protecting Wei Wuxian from dogs in exchange for befriending Wei Wuxian, to progressively more taxing exchanges that keep Wei Wuxian as the one who is left to "fix" what Jiang Cheng hates or is against. Jiang Cheng gets progressively more hateful also to Wei Wuxian's target of affection that has no connection to Yunmeng Jiang, who Jiang Cheng assumed forever fealty to for life, when the original promise was that Wei Wuxian would support him whenever he had a difficult time and no one else would.

This is ironically alluded to when Wei Wuxian realizes later in story Lan Wangji is the one person to stay with him as he had told Jiang Cheng, who, had never expressed the same sentiment toward Wei Wuxian. It continued to be a one-sided promise where it only served Jiang Cheng with the assumption that Wei Wuxian did not want a life aside from his loyalty to the Jiangs.

Their love from the start was always one of unequal expectations and built upon false views of the other. As it was between Shen Jiu and Yue Qingyuan, who gave leeway to the other out of guilt until they no longer could (in Yue Qingyuan's it was literally because the person he knew was no longer there and the one who replaces him tries to free him from his guilt). Between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, one literally has died trying to protect the other out of secrecy to protect him from his own self-esteem issues and takes the stand to draw the line that his services have been fulfilled as much as they could be.

Jiang Cheng is not able to move on or understand that he needed to let his own pain go in order to make himself happy just as Shen Jiu did. They stifle themselves in their hate until it is unreasonable to all they come in contact with as they paint faults and misconceptions on others to avoid their own failures they had set on themselves through their own hateful actions.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #svsss #scumbag villain #mxtx villains are fascinating because of just how realistically mean they are to those they are supposed to care for #I'll write another part concerning Jin Guangyao and Jun Wu when I can

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franniebanana · 3 years

Text

CQL Rewatch - Ep 23

Seriously, how useless are these two right now? The puppets all dropped dead around them, yet none of them run up to help Wei Wuxian. I think we saw Lan Wangji running, but he just had dramatic close-up shots for the first few minutes as well. Like, stop looking dumbfounded and stop just providing facial reactions to things, and get up there! Act like you're in a war, gdi! They're reacting to seeing Wen Ruohan stabbed, which I chose not to cap for obvious reasons.

So even though I knew the story from the book, I still think this moment is pretty cool when they reveal that it's Jin Guangyao who has stabbed Wen Ruohan literally and figuratively in the back. The last time we saw him, poor Nie Mingjue was getting the crap beat out of him by Jin Guangyao, so seeing this here--like, ooh! Double-double-cross! Triple-cross!! It's fun to see a twist that doesn't make you groan! Because, of course, you want to root for Jin Guangyao because he's a bastard and has always been looked down on everyone. Now you see that he was not a villain at all, and he was actually helping the good guys by double-crossing Wen Ruohan! Of course, we know he really is a villain and all, but most of that really doesn't come until later in the story haha.

I do enjoy the light parallels here between Lan Xichen and his brother. We see both of them willing to give their best friends the benefit of the doubt and protect them from those who are less willing, let's say. And both of them are even willing to stand up to other people they know and trust. Nie Mingjue is one of Lan Xichen's closest friends, and we see Lan Wangji stand up to his own uncle. If you're looking at CQL without the romance angle (which, why would you?), this parallel is a bit more striking. You basically have two sets of bosom friends. Obviously one set crumbles at the end, but there are definitely a lot of parallels and comparisons to make. And sorry, for a show that couldn't have any gay characters, they sure made it seem like Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao had a thing for each other (even though neither of them is gay in the book, mind you). A weird sort of change--I don't even ship them, but their early scenes seemed very shippy. Maybe it's my American lens, I don't know.

But speaking of weird changes, allow me to go on a tangent. Wen Qing's role expansion doesn't bother me, not really. I kind of say it does, but it's not really the expansion that gets to me. It's the fact that she was going to be a love interest for Wei Wuxian that bothers me. Wei Wuxian is gay. He's gay. Lan Wangji is also gay--if not gayer. Her being a love interest for either one of them means they are no longer gay. Bi, maybe, but what that would have done was erase their canon sexuality. It would have also turned their relationship into that horribly tropey brothers-in-arms or whatever name you want to give it--basically JUST FRIENDS who want to defend each other's honor. You can certainly read CQL that way, but if you are, I don't think you're paying attention to Wang Yibo's performance at all. And if you're not paying attention to the second lead, then why are you watching this show at all? So, changing their sexuality changes the whole show (which already is so tropey, from what I understand) into something so derivative, I wouldn't even want to bother watching it. One of the things I think you take away from CQL is Lan Wangji's, frankly, undying love for Wei Wuxian. If he goes and has a fling with Wen Qing at any point, that cheapens his character dramatically in my opinion. Lots of people can say this better than me, and probably have, but I'm very grateful to those passionate fans (and to Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo) for helping to change the script from the original drafts, which were frankly no better than a junky harlequin romance, having Wen Qing passed around like a piece of meat, which is so far from her character in the novel, and definitely a disservice to her.

Not gonna lie, it's adorable to think that Jiang Yanli and Lan Wangji have been talking over the past few days, maybe having tea together, while Wei Wuxian is in a coma. I feel Lan Wangji was a very calming presence for Jiang Yanli, because she was probably very worried and fretful over Wei Wuxian. I like the idea of him playing the guqin for Wei Wuxian, and then having tea and a quiet chat with Jiang Yanli before leaving. Also very cute that Wei Wuxian is half-heartedly trying to badmouth Lan Wangji, by calling him boring and uninteresting, but he can't even get through the sentence without smiling to himself. Obviously he's loving the idea that Lan Wangji has been at his side every day, worrying over him and slowly doing his part to nurse him back to health.

I love his expression here: shock and relief and joy, all mixed together upon seeing that Wei Wuxian has woken up. Obviously he knew he'd wake up eventually, but he didn't expect it so soon and I don't think he expected his heart to be in his throat and to be so indescribably happy to see Wei Wuxian awake.

Wei Wuxian, of course, can't really meet his eyes, and Jiang Yanli makes a swift exit (she knows what's up--these boys need to talk). And Lan Wangji just has love in his eyes: Heart-guang Jun. I mean, imagine how he must be feeling right now. He had just gotten Wei Wuxian back from what seemed like certain death, finally reconciled, and then Wei Wuxian is in a coma! He must have been terrified of losing him again. It's probably all he can do right now to not hug Wei Wuxian.

I seriously love everything about this scene. I love the colors, the cinematography, the longing glances Wei Wuxian gives Lan Wangji, the way Lan Wangji quietly scolds him while still playing the guqin because he's a professional. But really, I just find this scene very pretty and moving and emotional. I enjoy seeing Lan Wangji getting to take care of him and even more that Wei Wuxian lets him and puts up with it. I think most of us are quick to retort a good old, "I'm fine" when asked how we are, but in this case, Wei Wuxian is not fine, and he has no ground to stand on if he's trying to prove that. It's hard for Wei Wuxian at this point, though, to really lean on anyone, even Lan Wangji who is his best friend. He certainly can't lean on Jiang Cheng for reasons I don't think I need to go into again. He kind of leans on Yanli, but at the same time, he can't (and doesn't wish to) burdon her either. Lan Wangji is really the one person he should be able to lean on and seek comfort from, but he feels awkward and uncomfortable, because of the dark spiritual energy and giving up the sword, and Lan Wangji's crusade to help him.

"Who is good and who is evil?" Wei Wuxian is struggling with a moral dilemma: is it right to round up the Wens and kill them/hold them captive? The Wens did horrible things, after all, and this is the reality of war. Of course, we've just seen Lan Xichen struggling with it as well. Why capture the women and children and elderly, who have nothing to do with the war? He's only met with the fact that it's not just the male cultivators who are dangerous. Still, his mind is only placated by the lie that the people will just be interrogated and sent to a labor camp--then cut to the blood on the floor. So Wei Wuxian is not only struggling with what the Jin Clan and other clans are doing, but he's also thinking about his own deeds--how many people did he kill? How many did he brutally murder in the name of revenge? Because of the things he's done, is he good or evil? Is good and evil so black and white? Does it just depend on whose lens you're viewing it through?

Lan Wangji looks at Wei Wuxian with all of this knowledge and doesn't know what to think. He's afraid of what Wei Wuxian has become, afraid he'll end up like Wen Ruohan--he's afraid of losing him entirely. But the situation is not black and white, and good and evil is not so easily defined. You can only know once you know that person's heart, and Wei Wuxian isn't really letting Lan Wangji in anymore. He's trying to convince him with his words, but that is simply not good enough.

I think if Lan Wangji hadn't stopped him here, Wei Wuxian would have played that flute and tried to end all of the Jin "hunting party" (sorry, that was a little dark). His emotions were already high after the conversation with Lan Wangji on the cliff, and we've already seen him feeling disturbed by how the Wens are being chased and rounded up. I, for one, wouldn't have complained if Jin Zixuan's cousin bit the dust earlier. I think his name is Jin Zixun. Is that it? See, even I don't remember him.

I love how even though they are far apart, this scene still feels very intimate. It's very moving, and the music and the cinematography help to cultivate that feeling. I like how Wei Wuxian perks up when he hears Lan Wangji pluck the first few notes, and Lan Wangji does the same when he hears the sound of Wei Wuxian's flute. I feel like they are spiritually connected here as they play this haunting duet. And I think it's a connection they haven't felt for a long time. There has been so much tension between them for so long, and this scene feels like a big sigh from both of them. While I still feel like there is tension present, there is a bit of a release here--at least, that's how I feel as a viewer.

Ah, yes, the awkward period where Jiang Cheng has become leader of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect, wants to control Wei Wuxian, but doesn't know how. He's new at this, so I can't blame him for being a bit awkward as he figures out what he's supposed to be doing. As a young man, he basically nagged Wei Wuxian for doing inappropriate things, but now when Wei Wuxian misbehaves, Jiang Cheng is in part responsible for that behavior. At some point or another, the two of them grew up. Wei Wuxian's misbehavior isn't precocious anymore--it's serious and it has consequences, and just as in Gusu, Jiang Cheng sees that those actions are a reflection of the Jiang Clan. Only now, they aren't just a reflection of the clan, they're also a reflection of Jiang Cheng, himself, and his leadership (or lack thereof).

And speaking of awkward...Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have some...unresolved...stuff to deal with. But God forbid they actually talk right now. How can they? They're at this stuffy banquet that neither one of them want to be at. I feel for them both. Wei Wuxian is hurt because he thinks Lan Wangji doesn't trust him. Lan Wangji feels terrible because he wants to help Wei Wuxian, but the latter won't really let him in and allow him to do so. I feel myself just on pins and needles during these scenes with all these glances, but at the same time, I love it because DRAMA and ANGST! And they're just so in love lolol.

Nie Mingjue has to be that guy that always wants a certain table. The waiter leads him over and says, "Is this table okay?" expecting the answer to be yes, but nope--not Nie Mingjue. He'll request a different table. XD

I love this little conversation--it's like they're both measuring each other up. I think they each have a healthy distrust of the other. Although Wei Wuxian has always been kind to Jin Guangyao, I don't think that discounts the whole demonic cultivation thing in his mind. He knows Wei Wuxian is smart and clever and, most importantly, capable. And as for Wei Wuxian, I don't think the ease in which Jin Guangyao manipulated Wen Ruohan is lost on him.Essentially the downfall of this great cultivator and enemy of all the other clans was due to one man: Jin Guangyao. I think Wei Wuxian is thinking the same thing I am: he's extremely clever, devious, and potentially dangerous if you get on his bad side. His rise to power within the Jin Clan is kind of amazing. His estranged father admits to Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen that Jin Guangyao is his son, his station has improved drastically in a short amount of time. He sure as hell is dangerous.

Jiang Yanli can hardly contain her excitement when Jin Guangshan brings up her former engagement to his son. Just kidding, of course. I'm kind of horrified for her that he's bringing this up now in front of all these people. It feels very much like he's pressuring not only her, but also his son to get engaged again. First of all, Jiang Fengmian and Jin Guangshan agreed at the time to let the children decide whether they wanted to get married or not. Second, if you're going to talk about this, at least do it in private! Third, this is not letting the kids decide. God, this would be humiliating! And I also totally expected Jiang Cheng to speak for his sister here, so I'm glad he didn't do that. It's really none of his business either.

Lol! The weird cutoff here! Who's speaking??? I don't know!!! I mean, obviously, it's Wei Wuxian, but it's like they don't expect us to recognize his voice hahahahaha.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | Or just check out the #CQL Rewatch hashtag

#wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #theuntameddaily #cql #the untamed #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #wen qing #jin guangyao #lan xichen #ep 23 #cql rewatch

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sleepyowlwrites · 3 years

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Sleepy’s Fic Masterlist (better late than never)

I realized I never made one of these and just sneakily wrote and published stuff on AO3 without announcing it, but having a masterlist is really useful even just for me, so I’m making one now.

Not every fic I’ve ever written or published is included here, as a few are either quite short or are not currently available to read (or I don’t really like them). All links lead to AO3 unless otherwise stated. Everything is neatly sorted with word counts, characters, summaries, etc. as well as any triggers.

Note: when I say something is unedited, I mean a full pass edit with revisions, parts added or rearranged, resulting in a more complete fic. I do a quick edit before I post to check for spelling/grammar errors, but hold off on a solid edit until later. And sometimes, later never comes. But I never post anything that I haven’t done a quick edit for.

Also, besides a mild flirtation here or there, everything I write is platonic (with a single exception).

Fandoms included in this list:

The Untamed

The Lost Tomb Franchise

The 100

Power Rangers

Chicago P.D.

K-Pop

The Untamed (Chinese historical drama, 50 episodes)

Blood Cultivation series (complete) - fantasy, angst, character study, OC, friendship, family, blood and action, happy ending Characters: Lan Sizhui, Jin Ling, Lan Jingyi, Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng, Lin Meili (OC) Summary: Lin Meili is a traveling cultivator with unusual methods who meets some non-judgmental Lans and ends up confiding in them about yet another devious Jin cultivator who is trying to commit murder. Triggers: mentions of child abuse/manipulation (vague and canon compliant-ish), blood, semi-necessary self-harm (triggering a curse)

Blood Cultivation (WC: 5304) complete/edited

Blood Energy (WC: 3944) complete/edited

Blood Enemy (WC: 7311) complete/edited

Blood Ties (WC: 8307) complete/edited

Blood Curse (WC: 6968) complete/unedited

where we planted a garden, did we grow a family? (WC 8421) complete/edited

I’ll tell you again to make you believe - sickfic, friendship, important conversations, platonic cuddling (WC: 4346 ) complete/edited Characters: Lan Jingyi, Lan Sizhui Summary: two best boys reassure each other of their worth and are just really good friends. Triggers: none

The Lost Tomb Franchise (Chinese adventure drama, multiple series)

The Sounds in Silence Series (incomplete) - friendship, hurt/comfort, enhanced/impaired senses, banter, introspection Series: The Lost Tomb Reboot Characters: Liu Sang, Zhang Qiling, Wu Xie, Wang Pangzi Summary: Liu Sang struggles to reconcile his own doubts with the offer of friendship given by his companions while having not the nicest time doing some tomb exploring. Triggers: anxiety, panic attacks, impaired hearing, fear/insecurity

Heartbeat (WC: 7924) complete/edited

Beating Hearts (WC: 10774) completed/being edited

Interlude (WC: 2220) incomplete/unedited

Power Rangers Franchise

Forest Secrets - character study, commentary, secrets, team dynamics, friendship, typical power rangers style battle (WC: 7107) complete/edited Series: Power Rangers Samurai Characters: Mike, Emily, Mia, Kevin, Jayden, Antonio, Thalia (OC) Summary: Mike stumble on yet another secret and the team’s habit of falling apart rather than growing together comes back. Triggers: none Note: this is a complete but unfinished story, as I wrote this much and never came back to it.

Chicago P.D.

Shots series - character study, action, crime, blood, friendship/partnership, very inaccurate policework, banter, hospitals, is this poking fun at the show and its writing? surely not Characters: Lexi (OC), Jay Halstead, Antonio Dawson, Adam Ruzek, Hank Voight, brief mentions of Trudy Platt, Kim Burgess, Kevin Atwater Summary: Lexi likes to play by her own rules in the space afforded her by her unique position of not really being a cop, but ends up entangled in the cases of the 21st anyway. Triggers: blood, guns, criminals, mentions of child assassin training, dumb/bad policework

Smoke and Sparks (WC: 3550) complete/unedited

Connections (WC: 2842) complete/unedited

Found Me Out (WC: 2482) complete/unedited

Calculated Risks (WC: 3739) complete/unedited

On My Terms (WC: 6733) complete/unedited

The 100

the name was: family - character study, introspection, AU, partnership, platonic friendship, found family, hurt/comfort (WC: 8892) complete/unedited Characters: Bellamy Blake, Sage (OC), Monty Green, Harper McIntyre Summary: Bellamy hadn’t meant to need anyone else, but here he was needing her all the same. Triggers: blood, animal attack, allusions to murder

BTS*

*NOTE: all of my real-person fics are about characters of my own creation, but then I borrow a couple of key traits from the real person they’re sharing the name of, so that I can write both in fandom and not really about real people, because writing my own characters is a lot more fun, but having a core to work off of is nice and easy. this has been a disclaimer? of a sort.

I have chosen to sort by date, latest to earliest, so from 11/2018 to 06/2016

Better Than Tears (sweeter than sleep) - slice of life, friendship, mental health issues, crying, deep conversations, emotional hurt/comfort, college AU (WC: 51,100) complete/edited (technically unfinished) Characters: Jungkook, Jimin, Taehyung, Yoongi, Hoseok Summary: Jungkook had always felt lost until Jimin came along to find him. Triggers: anxiety/panic attacks, mentions of blood, mentions of disordered eating, insomnia, loneliness, crying, depression

Bangtan Chats - chat fic, humor, crack, nonsense (all of these can still be found on my blog because I don’t feel like reposting all 270+ of them on a sideblog) (WC: 30,187) complete/edited Characters: all of BTS, guest starring Yuggyeom a couple times Summary: chats based off real events or entirely made up Triggers: none, I think

you talk too much (and say too little) - college AU, humor, friendship (WC: 2037) complete/edited Characters: Jimin, Jungkook, Taehyung, Yuggyeom Summary: Taehyung talks in his sleep. Triggers: none

it’s a big universe (but somehow I found my home with you) - space AU, friendship, surreal (WC: 13, 216) complete/unfinished/unedited Characters: Taehyung, Jungkook, Jimin, Yoongi. Summary: for as long as he can remember, Taehyung has been drifting around the universe, all alone. Triggers: existentialism?

please don’t laugh (but I know you will anyway) - friendship, humor (WC: 1190) complete/edited Characters: Jimin, Jungkook Summary: they are good friends. Triggers: none

closer than blood (stronger than time) - vague vampire AU, ward & guardian relationship (WC: 1497) (written for a prompt request) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Jimin Summary: Jimin is a Timeless and wants Jungkook to have friends. Triggers: none?

hold my hand (and I’ll keep you warm) - college AU, childhood friends, slice of life (WC: 2049) complete/edited Characters: Jimin, Taehyung, Jungkook Summary: Taehyung and Jimin have always held hands, until they didn’t. Triggers: none

Two Streets - modern AU, slice of life, opposite lives (WC: 5647) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Jimin, Namjoon Summary: Jungkook lives in the nice part of town. Jimin does not. Triggers: bullying/bruises, very not good or accurate anything

The Jimin Effect - dialogue fic, humor, group dynamics, crack (WC: 8993) complete/edited Characters: all of BTS Summary: everybody loves Jimin. that’s all. Triggers: none

you can have me (I’ll be your family) - college AU, broken family, new friends, gangs? (WC: 4784) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Taehyung, Seokjin (made-up Jungkook’s older brother) Summary: Jungkook’s brother is an ass and Taehyung is probably an angel. Triggers: fighting, blood, a stab wound, emotional manipulation, neglect

stars should always shine (so smile) - royalty AU, friendship (WC: 1350) complete/edited Characters: Yoongi, Taehyung, kid!Jungkook Summary: Yoongi just wants Taehyung to smile. Triggers: none?

just stay here (forever, if you want) - college AU, reluctant friendship, bullying (WC: 4872) complete/edited Characters: Yoongi, Taehyung, Seokjin (brief appearances of the others) Summary: Yoongi doesn’t let others sleep in his room but can’t turn Taehyung away. Triggers: mentions of bullying and bruises

teach me to talk (please don’t shup up) - college/coffee shop AU, reluctant friends, loner & chatty person (WC: 4397) complete/edited Characters: Yoongi, Jimin, Hoseok, Taehyung for a hot sec Summary: Yoongi likes being a loner but gets used to Hoseok talking. Triggers: none

I really mean it (that I don’t mean it) - college AU, dumb friends, the opposite game (WC: 1968) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Taehyung, Seokjin, Yoongi Summary: it’s opposite day and Jungkook struggles. Triggers: none

get me out (give me space) - high school AU, friendship (WC: 1557) complete/edited Characters: Taehyung, Jimin Summary: Jimin and Taehyung get locked in a closet. Triggers: claustrophobia though perhaps not super accurate, crying

I’ll take care of you (you don’t get a say) - college AU, strangers to friends (WC: 1800) complete/edited Characters: Seokjin, Yoongi, mentions of everyone else Summary: Seokjin is that guy who takes care of everybody. Triggers: none

the evolution of a friendship - canon compliant-ish, commentary, awkwards to friends, fluff, hurt/comfort, series (WC: 24, 499) complete/edited (I linked the series because this post is long) Characters: Jimin, Jungkook, Taehyung, everybody in smaller amounts Summary: Jungkook was awkward and then he grew up. Triggers: bad dreams, mild panic, crying

I’ll stop running (if you’ll hug me anyway) - college AU, friendship, sports/sports injury (WC: 2482) complete/edited Characters: Taehyung, Jimin, Hoseok Summary: Taehyung doesn’t want to stop running. Triggers: vague knee injury, fainting

talking is hard (I’ll just lurk by the mailbox) - neighbors AU, fluff (WC: 1230) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Jimin, Seokjin Summary: Jungkook is shy. Triggers: none

all the stars - modern AU, xReader, romance (WC: 1623) complete/edited Characters: Namjoon, You (the only time I’ve ever written xReader) Summary: you think Namjoon is in love. Triggers: none

Rain - career AU? sickfic, friendship, roommates (WC: 5525) complete/edited Characters: Yoongi, Jimin, mentions of Youngjae (from B.A.P) Summary: Jimin gets caught in the rain and Yoongi is a nice stranger in an elevator. Twice. Triggers: mention of vague anxiety about eating

You’re More Beautiful - photography AU, friendship, strangers to still strangers really, fluff (WC: 1898) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Jimin, Yoongi Summary: Jungkook came to photograph the scenery. Yoongi is nice scenery. Triggers: social anxiety

Marshmallow - high school AU, friendship, fluff (WC: 4991) complete/edited Characters: Jungkook, Jimin, Taehyung Summary: Jimin is as fluffy as a marshmallow and twice as sweet. Triggers: none

#writing #sleepy writing #fanfic masterpost #fanfic masterlist #fanfiction #ff: blood series #ff: character study #ff: shots #ff: kpop #writeblr #sleepy's compilations

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ibijau · 3 years

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How to Woo a Lan pt3 / on AO3

The issue with getting Nie Huaisang’s assistance in seducing Lan Sizhui was that Nie Huaisang wasn't an easy man to get a hold of. Except for conferences, or to go beg for help from his brother's sworn brothers, he rarely ever left the Unclean Realm. The second reason wasn't going to ever happen again, and Jin Ling wasn't in the mood to wait for both of them to attend the same conference.

That meant he had to invite Nie Huaisang to Jinlin Tai (an invitation he was almost sure would be refused) or invite himself to the Unclean Realm. He'd need a decent reason for that, or else the Nie wouldn't allow him inside their fortress, sect leader or not. He also needed an excuse to give the Jin elders and Jiang Cheng, who might not want him anywhere near Qinghe at the moment… but that part would be easy enough, when he had a lifetime of experience in dealing with overprotective relatives. He’d just say he had been invited by… well, not the Lan, that’d be too odd when he’d just been on a Night Hunt, but Ouyang Zizhen was always up for some mischief, and he was weak to a good love story.

Or a bad love story, for that matter, but Jin Ling knew his future romance with Lan Sizhui was definitely going to be a great one.

So he’d tell everyone he was going to meet up with Ouyang Zizhen for a made-up Night Hunt, and they’d head for Qinghe together, and… and it wouldn’t be difficult to dig up some official sounding business that he’d need to urgently check with sect leader Nie.

It would be easy.

It was easy.

Ouyang Zizhen loved the idea, especially since he’d had yet another argument with his father and wanted some space. That seemed to happen every other week, and Jin Ling suspected that his friend spent more time away from home than with his family. He suspected, also, that sect leader Ouyang wasn’t quite the tyrant that Zizhen made him out to be, but rather a grumpy old man who didn’t know how to deal with his emotions, much like Jiang Cheng.

The two of them, after meeting in the place they’d decided, headed for Qinghe together. Ouyang Zizhen stayed behind at an inn, so he wouldn’t get dragged into a bad situation in case sect leader Nie didn’t take too well to having his past affair with Lan Xichen thrown in his face. So it was alone that Jin Ling made his way to the high gates of the Unclean Realm, alone that he faced the guards standing at the entrance, alone that he announced he needed to urgently meet with Nie Huaisang on important business.

The guards, quite predictably, refused to let him in so easily. They insisted on being given details before bothering their sect leader, while Jin Ling absolutely refused to share any critical information with low ranking disciples. It was, quite frankly, a little insulting that people so low in importance could dare resist him in that manner, especially when Qinghe Nie hardly counted as a great sect anymore these days, but Jin Ling was starting to have some experience in dealing with obtuse underlings. He insisted, and insisted, and insisted some more until at long last the highest ranking of the guards gave in and sent someone to warn their sect leader he had a guest.

Jin Ling was allowed inside.

Not only was he allowed inside, but Qinghe Nie’s first disciple in person came in person to fetch him, and after he refused to talk to her about the business that brought him there, she promptly took him to see her sect leader. Everything was going according to plan. Jin Ling was starting to feel mildly nervous, especially as quite a few Nie disciples glared at the sight of an intruder wearing robes of gold… but that was to be expected. He’d known he wouldn’t be a welcome guest, and the Nie weren’t exactly warm people to begin with.

It came as something of a relief when Jin Ling realised that he wasn’t being led to the normal reception room to meet Nie Huaisang, but instead towards private quarters, most likely the sect leader’s office. It meant there would be no witness to their conversation. Then, just as quickly, Jin Ling panicked a little when he realised that meant he’d probably be alone with Nie Huaisang, a man who had every reason to despise him for being related by blood to his beloved brother’s murderer. It occurred to him that maybe this whole plan wasn’t the smartest thing he’d ever come up with, but at that point it was already too late: the door to Nie Huaisang’s office was being opened for him, revealing the man himself, sitting at his desk.

As he walked inside the room, Jin Ling thought there was something different about Nie Huaisang. Maybe it was just that he’d so rarely seen him in a state other than “drunk and making a scene” or “crying and making a scene” or even “just making a scene for no discernable reason”. Instead, Nie Huaisang looked calm and collected, a bit annoyed perhaps, but there was enough paperwork on his desk that the annoyance might not even have been caused by Jin Ling’s visit.

“Leave us alone,” Nie Huaisang ordered his first disciple, in a voice firmer than Jin Ling had ever heard from him. To the boy’s mild horror, the first disciple did leave immediately, closing the door behind her. “Well? What urgent business do you have to share with me?” Nie Huaisang asked, opening an elegant fan and using it to gesture that his guest was welcome to sit down.

Jin Ling took the invitation and knelt down on the other side of the desk. He realised, a little late, that he hadn’t really thought of something to say, having half expected he wouldn’t even making it this far. In the end, Jin Ling decided that the best way to deal with this situation was to be brief and to the point.

“I remember about your affair with Lan Xichen,” he announced. “And I want to talk to you about something regarding that.”

The fan in Nie Huaisang’s hand closed with a sharp sound, and for a brief moment the man glared at Jin Ling with such open hatred that Jin Ling shivered and unconsciously leaned backward. Then, just as quickly, Nie Huaisang’s expression turned so perfectly indifferent that Jin Ling might as well have imagined that brief moment of rage.

“So you remember that,” Nie Huaisang pleasantly mused, tapping his fan against his chin. “I suspected as much, but Lan Xichen seemed to believe you’d forgotten. He’s always been the hopeful sort. I must commend you for keeping that secret, Jin zongzhu,” he said, his smile turning sharper. “And for trying to blackmail me now. A very bold move certainly, though not exactly smart, I’m afraid. After all, you know what sort of things I’m capable of, and I doubt you told anyone you were coming here. I might well do something regrettable to protect Lan Xichen’s reputation.”

“Someone knows I’m here,” Jin Ling retorted, suddenly glad Ouyang Zizhen was waiting for him. “And anyway you’re not stupid enough to kill me. You know if there’s one thing that could make Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng reconcile it’s that, and if they’re working together they’d find out the truth for sure.”

Nie Huaisang’s smile became milder, yet somehow Jin Ling still felt half threatened. “You’re a smart boy. Smarter than I expected. Very well, I’ll listen to what you want, if only because I’m very bored lately.”

Jin Ling nodded, and took a deep breath.

“Right. I want you to help me court someone from Gusu Lan!” he said. “Because everyone else I could ask for advice is a damn idiot, and you at least had that fling with Lan Xichen, and I don’t know when the two of you broke up, but…”

Nie Huaisang chuckled somberly, reopening his fan and moving it in a lazy manner.

“Of course you know. You were there. Let this be a piece of advice for you, Jin zongzhu,” Nie Huaisang added with an innocent expression. “Don’t make your lover kill his best friend, no matter how just and deserved the death. It can put a strain on a relationship.”

Jin Ling gaped, and awkwardly stared at Nie Huaisang who placidly returned the stare. He had expected the break-up to have happened a while before all that business with Wei Wuxian’s return started. But if those two had been together, then…

“Why didn’t you get him to willingly help you avenge your brother, if he was still your lover?” Jin Ling asked.

“That’s none of your concern, Jin zongzhu,” Nie Huaisang snapped, before mellowing back into a pleasant, if insincere, smile. “So you have a thing for someone from Gusu Lan… I heard you’ve been very friendly to that loudmouth boy, what’s his name again?”

“It’s not Jingyi!” Jin Ling protested, offended at the very idea. “I have better taste than that!”

“Then my second guess is Lan Sizhui,” Nie Huaisang mused, his smile falling. “Hm… of course you’d have to make this complicated for yourself. It runs in your family, I’m starting to think. You Jin can’t ever do things the easy way."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Nie Huaisang’s fan stilled, and he glared at the boy.

"It means give up, Jin zongzhu,” he said coldly. “If I'm right about the object of your affections, he'll refuse you even if he likes you. Especially if he likes you,” Nie Huaisang corrected after a moment of consideration. “He was raised by Wangji, he'll be just as stupid. No, find yourself a nice girl who'll let you play under her skirts, marry her, have a few babies… love isn't worth it, my generation should have proved that."

“Well, my generation isn’t going to be stupid about it,” Jin Ling hotly retorted. “If I had problems, I would trust Lan Sizhui to understand, and to do the right thing about it, because he’s the best person in the world! I just… need to figure out how to let him know I like him, first. I’m making a bit of a mess with that so far.”

“Truly your father’s son,” Nie Huaisang muttered, appearing unimpressed.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

Nie Huaisang didn’t reply right away. Instead he resumed fanning himself and stared a long while at Jin Ling. So long, in fact, that it was becoming uncomfortable, and Jin Ling found himself wanting to shout at the other man for being a creep… but ultimately Nie Huaisang was his elder, and someone of equal rank, and Jin Ling was pretty sure shouting at another sect leader could get him in trouble if his uncle heard about it.

Then again, just being there at all would get him in trouble if Jiang Cheng heard about it.

“I don’t suppose people have told you all that much about your father, have they?” Nie Huaisang asked, something going softer in his face. “A good man. Not the smartest, terrible with people, but… yes, a good man. A kind man, even. Bit of a prick when he was a teenager, but we all were, and he grew out of it in time. We had good fun together, back in the days.”

Jin Ling stared right back, and nervously pinched the hem of his sleeve.

“I didn’t know you were his friend?”

In truth, he didn’t know a lot about his parents, aside from a few basic facts. Few people had actually known them well enough for that, and those few people hadn’t been very willing to talk. Even Jin Ling, capricious as he could be, had quickly figured out how unkind it would have been to ask Jiang Cheng too many questions about the family he’d lost. But if Nie Huaisang had known his parents too… well, Nie Huaisang didn’t deserve Jin Ling’s pity, did he?

Nie Huaisang shrugged, and looked away.

“Zixuan and I got along pretty well, but I’m not sure I would have called us friends.” He sighed, and turned silent for a moment, before a half smile crept on his lips. “Well, I might have, I’m just not sure he would have agreed. But I helped him write poetry to woo your mother, back then. Heavens know he needed the help. Lovely, wonderful man once you knew him, but he had a gift for always saying the worst thing possible, no matter how well he meant.”

“Everyone told me my father was a perfect young master,” Jin Ling protested, fidgeting harder with his sleeves while heat creeped up his face at the insult, however slight, “and that he was well liked everywhere he went!”

“Oh, they said that when he was alive as well,” Nie Huaisang said with a short laugh. “People always find something nice to say about rich young men. No, your father was a disaster, and it’s a miracle your mother ever gave him a second chance.”

“A second chance?” Jin Ling gasped. “What’s that supposed to mean? They were engaged from birth, and they fell in love over the course of that engagement, and then they got married, what second chances were there to be had?”

It was the story he’d always heard. Even Jiang Cheng hadn’t ever said differently, on those few occasions he’d agreed to talk about Jin Ling’s parents. Their story had been beautiful, and romantic, and…

And come to think of it, Jiang Cheng had always firmly been opposed to any efforts by the Jin sect to pick a fiancée for Jin Ling, insisting that it should wait until he was old enough to have his say in the matter. Jin Ling had thought it was just his uncle expecting him to be a confirmed bachelor as well, or guessing that he usually liked boys more than girls, or…

Nie Huaisang grimaced, and closed his fan so he could toy with it.

“So you really don’t know the whole story, hm? You should ask…” he trailed off, and frowned. “Ah. Well, I suppose there’s not really anyone you could ask, so that’s the problem. Guangyao’s dead, Wanyin can’t stand speaking about his sister… I’d suggest you turn to Wei Wuxian, but quite frankly he’d already ran off to the Burial Mounds for the truly fun parts of the story. Of course I could tell you about your father’s great effort to seduce your mother once he realised that she was, in fact, the best woman in the world, but… I don’t particularly feel like it,” Nie Huaisang admitted with a disdainful smirk. “Nor do I feel like getting involved with any of your family’s problems. So shoo, off you go,” he ordered, chasing Jin Ling away with a gesture. “You’ve come to make a request, I have refused it, now leave me alone.”

“But you have to help me!” Jin Ling protested. “If you don’t, I’ll have to ask Wei Wuxian! Do you want that to happen?”

“Or you could just give up,” Nie Huaisang retorted. “I’ve told you, even if he likes you, that boy won’t… It would be a bad idea.”

“And it wasn’t, when you got together with Lan Xichen?” Jin Ling asked, slamming his fist against the desk, earning an unimpressed glance from his fellow sect leader.

“Of course it was a dreadful idea,” Nie Huaisang replied. “It’s a choice I’ve regretted almost every day for the past few months. Every day since I’ve discovered what was done to my brother. And now, the man I loved is in seclusion because I kept secrets from him and turned him into a murderer, almost ruining his reputation. If I could go back to the past…” Nie Huaisang paused again, his face tightening. “I should never have become involved with him. Love is a mistake, Jin zongzhu. Look at me, look at your parents, what good did love ever do anyone?”

“My parents were happy, before things went bad,” Jin Ling retorted, getting annoyed by all the self-pitying happening before him. Maybe Nie Huaisang really was as pathetic as he’d seemed to be, in the end. How disappointing. “Jiujiu doesn’t talk much about them, but he always says that: they were happy. Even after my father died, my mother said she didn’t regret that she’d at least had a little time with him!”

Nie Huaisang blinked at him, his expression softening.

"They were happy," he said. "Your parents. Out of everyone I’ve met from our circles, they were… I remember when your father told me your mother had agreed to marry him. I've never seen a man happier than that, except for the year after when he told me that they were expecting a child."

"I want to be happy like that, too," Jin Ling said. "And I know if I could just convince Sizhui… and I'd make him happy too! I'd do anything to make him happy! I just… I'm not sure how, because he's so perfect, and I'm me!"

Nie Huaisang blinked a few times, and put his chin on his hand, resting his elbow on the table.

"Oh dear, you have it bad, uh ? Ah, you remind me of… well. Nevermind that. And I suppose I'm the last person who could blame you for falling for a Lan. You are really sure it has to be a Lan, and that Lan in particular?"

Jin Ling thought of Lan Sizhui, kind and strong and unwaveringly good, and nodded firmly.

"Yes. I love him, and I'll court him, with or without your help!"

Nie Huaisang grimaced, but this time it looked almost like a smile.

"I see. Well, I suppose someone needs to make sure you don't cause a diplomatic incident like your father almost did a few times. I'd like to go a few years without Lanling Jin causing any trouble, if that's not too much to ask. Fine. Fine! I'll help."

"You will?" Jin Ling gasped, trying to restrain a happy grin.

"Sure, why not. I'm bored enough," Nie Huaisang sighed. "Fine, let's just… Tell me about Lan Sizhui."

"But you know him already. Better than me, probably."

"Oh, without a doubt I know him better than you," Nie Huaisang agreed. "But I want to hear this from you. I have to figure out how serious you are about this. Yes, yes, very serious,” he said, raising his hand to stop Jin Ling from protesting. “I remember being fifteen, thanks, and I thought I’d die if he didn’t look my way for too long. But he was a few years older than me, and there’s a lot I didn’t understand at the time, so I want to see how much you understand.”

Jin Ling opened his mouth to answer, than closed it again as he realised what Nie Huaisang had just said.

“You were already in love with Lan Xichen at fifteen? How long…”

Nie Huaisang raised a hand again, a severe expression on his face.

“Let’s establish something right now,” he said. “I am helping you, out of pity toward you and because your father was, in fact, one of very few people I’ve ever considered a friend. Aside from this, I still consider you an annoying brat, and the grandson of the man who had my brother murdered. Just because I’m willing to help you doesn’t mean I intend to confide in you, least of all on the subject of Lan Xichen. In fact, I’d appreciate it if you never mentioned him again in my presence.”

Jin Ling grimaced, but nodded anyway. Nie Huaisang, however, wasn’t done.

“And let’s be clear on something else,” he said, slowly, as if to make sure Jin Ling wouldn’t miss a single word. “If you ever tell anything, to anyone, about his relationship with me, nobody, not even Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian, can save you from my wrath. I will not let anyone ruin Lan Xichen’s life, least of all another Jin. Do I make myself understood?”

Jin Ling shivered at the threat, which he felt to be a very serious one. Then, because he just didn’t know when to shut up, he said: “Oh. You still love him, don’t you?”

It was the wrong thing to say, and Nie Huaisang startled at the accusation, tensing like a wounded animal cornered by dogs. Of course it had been the wrong thing to say. Otherwise, Jin Ling wouldn’t have said it.

“I’ve just said I don’t want to confide in you,” Nie Huaisang hissed, but he couldn’t quite make himself feel scary again, and instead just looked again like the sad, pathetic man Jin Ling had known all his life.

“Have you told him that you still feel like that?” Jin Ling asked before he could stop himself. “Because I think you should. Maybe you can still mend this! I mean, if Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji got together, then anything in the world is possible. You should…”

“I should kick you out of my house and let you deal with your boyfriend alone,” Nie Huaisang snapped, his face redder than cinnabar. “Now tell me why you love that damn Lan kid, and stay out of my business.”

Jin Ling pinched his lips, annoyed that yet again, every adult around him was apparently determined to ruin their own life by refusing to just talk. First there had been his uncle with Wei Wuxian, now Nie Huaisang… Apparently, growing up made people stupid. Jin Ling could only hope he wouldn’t end up like that, too stubborn to do the right thing.

He was sure he wouldn’t, because Lan Sizhui wouldn’t let him.

Ultimately, though, Nie Huaisang’s private life really wasn’t his problem. So Jin Ling dropped the matter, and instead prepared himself to explain every little thing that made Lan Sizhui the most amazing person in the entire world.

#xisang #zhuiling #lingzhui #nie huaisang #jin ling #mdzs #jau writes #operation woo a lan

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amedetoiles · 4 years

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A meta rant about Yunmeng bros and reconciliation that nobody asked for: I was yelling about this yesterday in the replies with @goblinish but I’m still mad about it lol

I don’t understand the rhetoric that Wei Wuxian reconciling with Jiang Cheng and returning to Lotus Pier is them going back to the way things were and/or Wei Wuxian sacrificing again for Jiang Cheng’s sake or vice versa. That their relationship was toxic and should be left in the past. I’m sorry, but why?

There is a difference between having unhealthy trauma-induced coping mechanisms with internalized insecurities due to truly awful circumstances and genuinely wanting to hurt and treat each other like shit. There is a difference between letting go of toxic and purposefully manipulative relationships (i.e XY and XXC), and both of them choosing and wanting to be brothers again outside of the clusterfuck that is abusive parents, war, genocide, politics, and oh, death. Neither of them asked the other to sacrifice for them. Neither of them wanted that!

The problem was never about not having genuine love and deep loyalty to each other. They loved each other so much! That love is what drove each of them into making the ultimate sacrifices that they made. While their inability to communicate and express that love was certainly harmful, it doesn’t mean the emotion and relationship itself was unhealthy. That was never the problem.

I get that at the end of the novel Wei Wuxian frolics off into the sunset with his beloved, and they travel the world together chasing chaos and helping the poor, raising their son and their collection of adopted juniors. That’s beautiful! It’s romantic! They both absolutely deserve it! But Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji individually are much more than their love story. They have homes. They have families. People and traditions and worlds which have shaped who they are and who they came to be.

Wei Wuxian grew up in Lotus Pier. It built him. His sister and his brother were the first places where he learned the warmth of family, of love, of safety, of support. In perhaps one of his most heartbreaking admissions, he mutters under his breath and says he wants to go back to Lotus Pier even in his dreams. He is so terribly overjoyed when Jiang Cheng invites him into the throne room. To say that Wei Wuxian never felt like he belonged in Yunmeng Jiang or that he doesn’t want to come back is, in my opinion, an incorrect interpretation. When we have so many examples of all the ways in which he loved his family and his sect, and yes, the heartbreaking lengths which he was willing to go to in order to protect them. Sure, a lot of that was intermixed with unhealthy notions of duty and obligation, but it doesn’t erase the love. It doesn’t make it less real or less important to him and who he is.

I am not saying they don’t need time apart. They absolutely do. Wei Wuxian has a hell of a lot he needs to process, and I, for one, am immeasurably glad to see him wander off on his own at the drama’s ending. For the first time since he was fifteen-years-old, Wei Wuxian has a chance to breathe – to decide who he wants to be and what he wants this life, this second chance, to be. Jiang Cheng, too, needs to come to grips with everything that he has learned. He’s finally gotten the answer he has wanted for over two decades. It doesn’t fix everything, and there’s a whole new set of regrets now that he has to work through, but he can finally stop hating himself for trusting and loving his brother. He has lived like an open wound for 13/16 years, and he deserves a fucking nap, ok.

But why, why, should they not get to have each other back? Why should they continue on this stupid farce that they don’t miss each other instead of growing some goddamn balls and talking to each other? Why is the automatic happy ending Wei Wuxian marrying into Gusu Lan Sect and living for the rest of forever in Gusu as his home? He can have multiple homes! It’s a magical world where they have flying swords! They can fucking commute!

There’s no reason why these two shouldn’t get to have each other again. They deserve to learn, to grow, to heal and rebuild to something new, something better than what they had. It won’t be easy, but they should get to try! They should get to have it! They fucking deserve to have it! They want it even if they’re being stubborn Twin Idiots. (Plus, I think you are all underestimating the sheer power of our trouble magnet Jin Ling, courtesy name Jin Rulan, and the various ways in which he constantly throws himself into danger.) Jiang Yanli taught her two little brothers the meaning of love, of forgiveness, of compassion and of understanding. With everything that she imbued into them, how can these two not find their way back to each other?

A man can have his soulmate, his adopted son, his emotional support zombie, his nephew, his duckling juniors, and his little brother. A grape can have his sect, his chaotic disciples, his nephew, his nephew’s annoying friends, his adopted nephew, and his older brother. (This isn’t that post, but a chaotic gremlin, an angry grape, and a mastermind thespian can also rebuild their childhood friendship, just saying.) Happiness isn’t in a single direction.

tl;dr Wei Wuxian’s and Jiang Cheng’s happy endings include each other. Fight me.

#陈情令 #the untamed #mdzs #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #mdzs meta #!mine #!meta #long post #yunmeng shuangjie #i won't actually fight you but also i might #and regarding novel!wwx #look we all know he's 110% not attuned to his feelings about literally anything in his life #and there's a whole extra dedicated to him lecturing his nephew about all the ways jin ling should not hurt jc like he did #can we all agree that everyone in the novel is 100x more dumb and there's no way busybody wwx wouldn't want to have his lil bro back?#they're both bruised and feeling rejected and a thousand versions of guilty and they're mORONS but they love each other #it's been nearly two decades #so get it the fuck together and go fucking hug already

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lansplaining · 3 years

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not only it is it essential for me for my own emotional well-being to headcanon that wei wuxian and jiang cheng work out their shit post-canon, i have convinced myself that it makes sense thematically in the following ways:

- jin ling is at the center of any reconciliation effort in my mind, because there’s just such obvious symbolism there in his being yanli’s son, but also because jin ling’s own little arc is clearly (to me, anyway) that he is a gentle person who has been bullied by both his family and his sect into being outwardly harsh and defensive, but at bottom his instincts are kind: he’s protective of jiang cheng (but expresses it badly), he knows he’s been taught he needs to seek revenge and hate the people who have wronged him, but in the end he can’t (but doesn’t yet see that that’s a good thing). so give jiang cheng and wwx a dose of that “but what if it’s NOT inevitable to hold grudges” energy to kick things off and see what happens!!!

- because that’s the thing, right? they have been raised in a culture without forgiveness, basically. but the whole THING is that wwx has gotten a miraculous second chance at everything, and obviously jiang cheng on some level would resent that for a while (why does he always get EVERYTHING) but what if the promise of the juniors, this generation of peace that knows how to reconcile and forgive, actually gets to trickle upwards a little bit? just a little???? these guys are only 35 and they are cultivators they have a lot of their lives left you know????

- as that really good post i reblogged the other day said, at the end of canon, wwx feels like his debt is finally discharged. the obvious argument for this being the end of their relationship is that jiang cheng feels the same way: he has always resented wwx, and now that he’s burdened with a debt he can’t repay, he’ll just avoid him forever. i feel like this is proooobably an accurate reading of novel!jc in particular hoWEVER, my thematic argument IS: part of what wwx is learning is that he has been and can be cared for, that people make sacrifices for him because they love him, that in his second shot at life he doesn’t always have to stand alone. and i think an eventual reconciliation with jiang cheng fits really well into that. it was never about debt, stupid!! he is your brother!!

- which connects to the fact that jiang cheng knows he lost his core saving wwx, and chooses not to tell him. he has the ability to try and even the scores again, to rebalance the debt - “whatever, your core was just repayment for the fact that i saved you, so we’re actually even!”- and he doesn’t take it. jiang cheng cannot bear to lose to people. he cannot stand to seem lesser, he cannot leave any wound un-poked or argument unspoken. jiang cheng has a chance to argue that he is just as self-sacrificing and heroic as wei wuxian, and he does not take it. i guess you can read this as him finally realizing that his relationship with wwx is over and it’s not worth it, but it is such a departure from a fundamental and frequently-highlighted element of his character, it just feels too weird to me to be like “yes, he makes a huge and character-shifting decision but actually the relationship it relates to doesn’t change at all as a result”

- do i think on some level there is something so beautiful and painful about the ‘you can never go back home’ feeling of their relationship being permanently estranged? i mean yES BUT

#it comes back to jin ling in the end #if i thought they could go without ever seeing each other again then yeah sure #but they have this living connection who is so important to both of them #i think they'll just end up back in one another's orbits #yunmeng bros

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neuxue · 4 years

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The Untamed Episode 21: Execution Is Also A Love Language

If last episode ended with a conversation that felt like a swordfight, this one ends with a swordfight that feels like a conversation.

No words, but a moment of surprising honesty and trust and something almost like understanding, in an episode that otherwise focuses largely on the space between what is seen and what is unseen, known and unknown, true and performed and perceived.

These two continue their dance (we’ll get to that), and come to some kind of understanding, but so much of the rest of the episode is people very much not understanding what’s going on, and the consequences of the persona and reputation Wei Wuxian has crafted for himself.

Wei Wuxian is dealing with extreme trauma and an almost uncontrollable power by isolating himself and holding himself apart, while those who love him try to reach out to him and he deflects, again and again and again. (Until, finally, Lan Wangji draws on him and he doesn’t).

Because Wei Wuxian is Not Okay. And we’re reminded of that pretty much from the start (in case we somehow forgot), with a gesture that in a lot of ways sets the tone for the episode, at least in terms of how Wei Wuxian acts, reacts, and is perceived:

It is not unlike last episode, when he turns reflex into a graceful step away from Lan Wangji. Here it’s a little harder to hide, but he can’t let them know, and so after that one heartbeat in which everything could have been different, he smiles, laughs, shrugs it off, puts on the face of the Wei Wuxian they all expect to see.

“That Wei Wuxian started his show the second he returned,” Jiang Cheng says at one point to his sister, and I don’t think he even realises how right he is.

Because Wei Wuxian is very good at showing people what he wants them to see, and making them believe it, and now that becomes even more imperative, because the stakes are so much higher. Handle the pain, control the power, keep the secrets. You are hurt and you have been hurt and you are not as you were but you must not let them know.

And so, what they see:

Wei Wuxian, reticent and not entirely present during a dinner in his own honour, deflecting questions and then walking out midway through, against all sense of propriety.

Wei Wuxian, nowhere to be found when summoned to a meeting, for no discernible reason, only to appear midway through with a dramatic entrance and the bizarre statement that they don’t really need to worry about the Yin Iron, but he can’t elaborate further okay bye.

And, of course, over and over, Wei Wuxian without his sword. That glaring absence, the deviation from the norm that is hard to reconcile even with his reputation as unusual and irreverent, the step-too-far. Some ask gently, others derisively, but in the end almost everyone asks. And, again and again, falling back on the shield of persona he has crafted for himself, he smiles (it does not meet his eyes) and brushes it off (as if it doesn’t matter; as if, like his sword, it’s just… whatever) and says “I just don’t feel like it.”

Also okay before we move on to what they don’t see, I have to highlight my favourite of the many reactions to the various times Wei Wuxian says that, which is right after the gif above, when Lan Xichen (poor Zewu-jun, he’s trying) asks gently, in that war council, why he’s not carrying his sword:

If that is not the face of a man going ‘my man, my dude, please, I am doing my best but even I can’t spin that; you gotta give me something to work with here’, I don’t know what is.

Anyway, we’ll see more of Lan Xichen later but for now back to Wei Wuxian, and everything those around him don’t see, and don’t know.

What they don’t know is that his reaction at the dinner party is not unlike his flinch away from Nie Huaisang, Only in slow motion and constant. He’s surrounded by people, the centre of attention, and all he wants is to not be there, but it’s not like a gesture he can step away or lean away from. It’s the post-trauma instinct to withdraw, to isolate (because otherwise they’ll see and they’ll know and then it’s real and then he has to deal with it and face it himself and that, he cannot afford). To bury it deep instead, but even that takes focus, and everything else is secondary.

What they don’t know is that he has given up his golden core to save his brother and filled that void, clawing his way to survival in an unsurvivable hell, with a darkness he controls through the force of his will and the beauty of his music.

They don’t see (which is a shame, because it’s a Good Look) the cost of that power, and the constant fight to contain it, to master it. Those desperate sequences of something like and yet entirely unlike meditation, for there is no peace to be found, only necessity and the barest edge of control, a razor-thin line between him commanding it and it consuming him.

What they don’t see is that he is walking an impossible line, and what they don’t know is why. The sacrifice and the pain and the cost; and the fact that it must remain hidden is itself its own kind of cost because he is so very, very alone.

What they don’t know is that he doesn’t vanish before that meeting because he doesn’t care or because he’s irresponsible and unreliable, but because he has to get out, has to get away, away from anyone he could hurt because he can’t hold it in any longer.

(Of course, he doesn’t manage to escape collateral damage entirely, and how devastatingly ironic is it that it’s Wen Qing his music and power almost claim, in amongst the Wen prisoners. The one who helped him to become this, at his request. The only one who knows, except perhaps her brother).

What they don’t see is that Wei Wuxian is holding himself together by sheer force of will and even then it’s too much, all the time, all these eyes on him and there’s so much he has to conceal and so much he has to contain, and how much longer can he keep it up?

And so he performs, because he cannot let them get close, cannot let them guess. Instead he plays just enough to the image of who he was before that confirmation bias will do the rest, and they will not think to look further.

It’s like… imagine that Something Has Happened and you’re Not Okay, and you’re trying so hard to hide it, and to hold yourself together, and to go about your life that now feels like something seen through water or a dream. All these things that once seemed important and now can barely hold your attention long enough to preserve the illusion, but you have to preserve it because otherwise they’ll know.

But you are very, very good at pretending, or masking, or deflecting. You’ve done this before, and you’ve trained them all to see only what you want them to see. Trained them to see you as untouchable or unaffected, in one way or another.

Except there’s a cost to that: the agonising combination of being too good at hiding or pretending, having too unassailable an image (and too much pride to sabotage it), but beneath it you are shattering and you want nothing more than for someone to somehow know. And not just know but ask, and not just ask (because when asked you will not allow yourself to answer in truth) but to push past those walls. To see and to not be deflected away and yet to do so without breaking the mask-image-shield-reputation-persona-self that you cannot lose, because without it, who are you?

My point is that Wei Wuxian seems to be doing something very similar to this, only in his own particular way. He doesn’t quite hide everything completely (that’s more Lan Wangji’s style, which… actually also features in this episode but we’ll get to that), but he also doesn’t need to, because his reputation does it for him. Lets him brush things off and deflect and plays to a kind of confirmation bias: they see what they expect to see, and they interpret variations on that to… well. He trained them long ago to see the worst, back when ‘the worst’ meant only mischief. Now, he’s crossing just a few more lines, and the laughter has an edge, and where once they saw mischief now they see something more sinister. Now, there is a price (but he will pay it, and pay it, and pay it without question, if it keeps the others safe. He drew a target on himself for a reason and he will not erase it now).

But I do think he’s caught in this space of… I cannot let anyone know but also please let someone see.

And one of those who comes the closest is Jiang Yanli. Of course it is; she is the one who can still drag a true smile out of him, the one he will actually reach out to hug (though even that, carefully, and only after a breath to steel himself), the one who shows him over and over that she accepts him and loves him, even with all that has changed.

Jiang Yanli is beautiful in this episode, trying again and again to reach out to him but never quite demanding. Fearing for him but never quite judging. Seeing that he is clearly not okay… but reassuring him that the fact that he’s here is the most important thing, and he can take his time with the rest.

(Ow)

When he reflexively holds Chenqing (hey! The show title makes sense now!) between them, instead of demanding like all the others why he no longer carries a sword, she asks him about the flute. And gives him, subtly, her blessing by likening it to her mother’s Zidian—the implication being that it’s not so different from others who choose something other than a sword. She asks its name and lets him tell as much as he is able. Accepts, rather than pushing (and what if more of them could do that? What if the reaction from the rest of the world were something other than suspicion, because anything different is suspect; anything outside tradition is dangerous? Would it still end in slaughter and suicide on that burning cliff?)

But even Jiang Yanli pushes a little, just a little, because she’s trying so hard not to do anything that might hurt him but she’s also so afraid for him. “You’ve changed,” she says, quiet, concerned, careful. So desperate for him to let her in, so afraid he’s slipping away despite his promises. (And oh, those promises. That he’ll never disappear again. That the three of them will always be together. We know, too, something of where that ends).

And she sees him on that hillside, wreathed in black smoke, on his knees and fighting for control, playing the melody of a rockslide.

But when she asks, again so carefully, so gently… he lies to her, and she knows. But even then, even then she does not push him away, for she never will. He withdraws from her and she is terrified she is losing him but she will stand by him and ask for only as much as he can give and no more, and will support him in any way she can. So she asks Lan Wangji.

And oh, Lan Wangji.

Because it’s less in focus, but he does almost the same thing in this episode as Wei Wuxian, just, as always, in a slightly different way. (It’s worth remembering as well that for all that this episode focuses more on the aftermath of Wei Wuxian’s Worst Three Months Ever, Lan Wangji, too, has been through hell in the past several months. Just perhaps very slightly less literally. But, like Wei Wuxian, he lets almost none of it show).

He is almost silent throughout the episode, especially when anyone else is present. He stands unmoving and unmoved, apparently expressionless, apparently emotionless, apparently perfect, unquestioning, unyielding, distant.

But then we get that moment with Lan Xichen, where we see what no one else does: that Lan Wangji doubts. That he is, in his own way, as lost and desperate as Wei Wuxian. But, like Wei Wuxian, he cannot allow anyone else to see, because it runs so counter to the image he presents to them, the image they have given him and he has turned into armour and weapon. So all they see is the perfection, the silence, the untouchable ice and jade. But inside he’s in turmoil. Watching Wei Wuxian, afraid for him but unsure how to reach him, it’s so at odds with his whole worldview and he doesn’t know what to do about that, or how to reconcile it with everything he thought he knew.

And so he finally asks the one person he can show even a little of his uncertainty to—much like how Wei Wuxian can show just a little more of himself to Jiang Yanli, because she alone will understand, and not judge. Look at his face: the earnestness but also the need, there, for answers, because he’s trying but he’s also so very alone in this and he doesn’t know what to do.

(Netflix why must you change ‘xiongzhang’ to ‘Xichen’?)

And I love Lan Xichen in this scene, because he knows his brother, and he sees past what most would see as perfect stoicism, and tells him, in essence, that nothing is perfectly black and white. That there are no set, perfect rules; that we can judge others by ourselves, by their hearts and intentions. Like Jiang Yanli giving Wei Wuxian this implicit acceptance of Chenqing, Lan Xichen gives Lan Wangji this grace, this… trust, in a way. You can decide, he implies. It is not set in stone.

At which point we basically see Lan Wangji have an entire crisis of self in his own contained way. But this is his conflict, here: he sees far more of what Wei Wuxian is doing than most (I wonder how much he has figured out—that Wei Wuxian is controlling resentful energy as he once theorised in Gusu, certainly, but I wonder how close he has come to the truth of why), and fears for him, but I also think he’s desperately looking for a way not to condemn him; he wants to trust Wei Wuxian, and wants to believe there is a way for him to walk this path, and wants more than anything not to lose him, but for that, he has to question the strictures of his entire life.

Which brings us to this continued dance between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji, carrying on from last episode. It, too, plays initially with this idea of of seen and unseen, said and unsaid, known and unknown.

For the majority of the episode they circle each other, the dance continuing in glances, in moments, in the two of them looking past or through each other when they’re in the same room, but looking for each other when they’re not. And each catching these glimpses of the other when they believe no one is watching.

I just love the symmetry here: Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji each believing themselves alone with their instruments and their thoughts, while the other watches, unseen but seeing. Circling each other in this dance but not quite touching.

Also just Lan Wangji’s Extremely Dignified Pining:

(And that whole part where, after Wei Wuxian has dragged himself down from the hillside and back into some semblance of control and Lan Wangji has had an entire personal crisis in the space of about half an expression, we get that incredibly tense meeting where neither of them says anything and their siblings are just like ‘uh…rough breakup?’ Jiang Yanli and Lan Xichen are absolutely getting together for emergency matchmaking sessions over tea).

And then we come to the penultimate sequence of this dance, the culmination of this whole idea that what is seen is not always what is true: Wei Wuxian emerging into view, literally stepping from unseen to seen, when he thinks Lan Wangji has betrayed him. A classic misunderstanding, but so fitting for this episode that is in its way so focused on perception and reality.

He sees betrayal, when the truth is that two of the people who love him, two of the three-maybe-four-maybe-five (depending on how you count Lan Xichen and maybe Nie Huaisang) who care enough to try to look past the persona, who see that there is something wrong, are trying to help him.

But luckily, oh so luckily, there is enough trust there that when Jiang Yanli tells him the full story, he believes her. And understands, then, that Lan Wangji did not betray him. And based on how he runs after Lan Wangji, calling out “Lan Zhan” and sounding almost like his old self, I think he understands a little more than just that. That Lan Wangji is maybe not lost to him. There’s this heartbreaking look of hope in his face as he runs after the one he tried last episode to push away.

And so we come to the swordfight.

(Can I just say, first, that damn, Lan Wangji is beautiful when he fights. Graceful, deadly, precise).

In Yiling, they fought on Wei Wuxian’s terms, for all that Lan Wangji began it with that simple opening of “Wei Ying.” Words are Wei Wuxian’s weapon, after all, and he unleashed the first attack and led Lan Wangji in that cruel dance, ending it with a denial of everything they are to each other, with “who do you think you are?” held like a blade at Lan Wangji’s throat.

Now, it is Wei Wuxian who opens with “Lan Zhan,” and it is on Lan Wangji’s terms that they fight. Lan Wangji who attacks first, unstoppable, forcing Wei Wuxian back in an almost perfect inversion of their last fight. And this time it is Lan Wangji who has the upper hand; this time it ends with the point of a sword at Wei Wuxian’s throat.

“Answer me,” Lan Wangji demanded (pleaded) last episode, and Wei Wuxian simply danced away. Now, in a single (beautiful, graceful) move, Lan Wangji says enough. Says stop deflecting, says stop evading. Says we’re having this conversation now. (Says I know you’re there; come back to me).

Once, twice, thrice, Wei Wuxian parries. It is beautiful and economical, Lan Wangji pressing him with the sword the way he pressed him last episode with questions; Wei Wuxian still, blocking those blows on his flute, refusing to answer, looking for a way out.

But not this time. Before, he turned away and gave a coldly eloquent defence, formal and precise, cold and asking for judgement.

Now, he stands to receive it.

He doesn’t block. Doesn’t move. Doesn’t defend himself. He stands still, and lifts his head, and closes his eyes. Judge me, then, he does not say, and I will accept your verdict.

I do not think he knows what Lan Wangji will do.

I do not think, in that moment, he cares.

Or rather, I think he cares more than anything, but he does not wish for anything, because he has decided in this moment to put his life in Lan Wangji’s hands, because who better to hold it, to weigh it, to decide if he should keep it. He will accept the outcome, because this is the one person he trusts to deliver it. Lan Wangji draws like a demand, answer me, and Wei Wuxian stops fighting and at last responds with judge me.

He would let Lan Wangji kill him here, I think.

And there is a strange kind of honesty in that. An answer, of sorts, that he could not give in words. I will not run from you this time, it seems to say. I will not deflect. Instead he will stand as he is, as he has become, and asks (again, as I believe he almost did last episode), tell me, am I lost?

It’s also beautiful and incredibly fucking heartbreaking how opposite it is to his absolute determination to survive when Wen Chao cast him into the Burial Mounds to die.

Because I think... Wei Wuxian holds his own life rather lightly. Not a death-wish, quite, but the lives of those he loves will always weigh heavier on the scales. He will always throw himself on the pyre or the sword for them, will sacrifice without question. So it’s not about life or death, really; he’s not afraid to die (or at least not unwilling), and I think that was true in Yiling as well. So long as there is reason, or justification. But where Wen Chao was not worthy of judging him, of being his executioner… in his mind, Lan Wangji is. And so Wei Wuxian would die by his hand, if that is what Lan Wangji decides.

I think he very probably trusts Lan Wangji more than he trusts even himself, in that regard, for all his words about knowing himself last episode. He has made his choice, and he will live with it, but the judgement of it he will give to Lan Wangji, who has always seen.

And for Lan Wangji, it is a test of his own shifting understanding of the world, of right and wrong and love and trust. “How do you judge someone,” he asked his brother, and now he is being asked to pass sentence, and it is so closely balanced. The edge of a razor or the point of a sword, a breath either side to a fall.

But for all that it is a judgement, it is not black-and-white. It is, as Lan Xichen said, about intentions and heart and humanity, and Wei Wuxian stands defenceless before him, armour cast off at last and there is much Lan Wangji is no longer certain of, but not this: he will not hurt Wei Wuxian, will not put more pain in his eyes, will not turn away. Of course Lan Wangji will not kill him.

Instead he stops his sword right at the edge of Wei Wuxian’s life, a balance as fine as the line Wei Wuxian walks. Be careful, but also I trust you. An answer to Wei Wuxian’s unasked but echoing question: no, you are not lost.

There’s a whole conversation that happens between them in those brief but eloquent expressions, as Wei Wuxian opens his eyes to find the blade at his throat and yet his life unended; as he pauses for a moment as if to ask are you certain. As Wei Wuxian realises that Lan Wangji is not going to condemn him and Lan Wangji knows that Wei Wuxian would have let him.

Lan Wangji sheaths his sword then as if to say there, that’s settled and Wei Wuxian gives a self-deprecating laugh as if to offer an apology and somewhere to begin again and there is so much still unspoken between them but it is the beginning of understanding, of reconciliation, of letting some of those things hang in this newfound silence of acceptance and trust, touching only on the edges of them with their last exchange (you’ve improved and you haven’t), treading carefully around each other’s wounds.

Their last conversation was a denial of everything they are to each other. This is an affirmation. I know you, neither of them needs to say, and I see you, and I understand.

***

And for a complete non-sequitur… there’s one other thing from this episode that I probably wouldn’t even have thought anything of if I hadn’t been skipping through Episode 1 the other day to clip pieces for a random gifset, but that caught my attention in light of that.

Episode 1 (near the end, when a faceless figure tosses a lump of gold to the man who told stories of Wei Wuxian):

Episode 21:

I mean. Maybe it’s nothing? But there’s also that faceless figure behind the screen when those stories are being told, and I’m just. Intrigued.

(Next: Ep. 22) (Previous: Ep. 20)

#everything hurts forever: the show #the untamed #neuxue liveblogs the untamed

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ameliarating · 4 years

Note

Since you brought the topic of Untamed/Hogwats houses I have to ask: do you have opinions about how other Untamed characters would be sorted into the Hogwarts Houses? (because I love how you put XXC into Ravenclaw and SL into Hufflepuff and I want others too)

Absolutely! Here comes a nearly-but-not-quite comprehensive list!

So we have Xiao Xingchen, the Ravenclaw who acts like a Gryffindor. Xiao Xingchen is primarily driven by a need to understand things and find a higher truth. It's why he left the mountain to begin with. He was sure he was missing something, something wasn't right in that philosophy, because truth is found among people. It's why he travels. It's why he attaches himself to people.

But that manifests in very Gryffindor way, because he assumes (I'd like to think correctly) that the way to understand the world and universe is through compassion and helping people, which is why he found fault with staying on the mountain. How could that be the right thing to do, how could that be the truth, when it meant leaving people to suffer?

And then when he encounters people who lie, who are hypocritical, who serve themselves when claiming to serve others, he’s deeply frustrated. Since his view of the truth is that it is found in compassion, he has no patience for the structures that lie and keep people down (cough cough JGS). So he wants to change the world and make it better for everyone which makes him look like a Gryffindor, but at its base it comes from very Ravenclaw values.

He’s also the least nerdy Ravenclaw ever, is not at all into texts, and believes that truth, like the Dao, can never be really put into words, but only acted. Though he’d say that there is no truth apart from the Dao, and that to distinguish things, to separate them, is missing the point completely.

Then we have Song Lan, the Hufflepuff who acts like a Gryffindor. Unlike Xiao Xingchen, he's not driven by any grand goals. He's not interested in uncovering some new truth or in changing the world in any big way. He just sees people suffering around him and knows that's wrong and believes that the right thing to do is alleviate suffering in all the small ways he can.

Except that as a powerful cultivator, it's often actually not that small. He doesn't think he can change the world, he certainly doesn't think he has any major effect. (He actually agrees with Xue Yang that it nobody really can), and he was taught since childhood that it was better to follow a more passive path than to try to shape the world into a new image.

But he does believe it's his duty to help the people around him, to make little things more fair, to save lives, to lay suffering ghosts, all of that, because it will effect individuals and individuals matter. He wants to start a new sect with Xiao Xingchen not because he is disgusted with the politics of the sect world (he just doesn't care about it, he's not Xiao Xingchen who is ready to argue with full on sect leaders), but because it will help more people in the surrounding area and it sounds like the right thing to do

But because he's a powerful wandering cultivator, and because he's attached himself to Xiao Xingchen who does have more vision, he comes off as a Gryffindor. - just because the way he operates as a Hufflepuff ends up looking very Gryffindor.

He’s also a very nerdy Hufflepuff who is very much into studying the texts he’s been memorized since his childhood at the temple.

To continue on the Yi City theme, we have Xue Yang, another Ravenclaw. He’s just straight up curious about everything, and since he has no ambition, no desire to change the world, and no loyalty to others, his only real motivation (outside that sweet, sweet revenge) comes from that curiosity.

He wants to know how things work. He’ll spend years studying Yiling Laozu’s notes because they’re fascinating. He’ll teach himself cultivation. He’ll torture someone into revealing themself. He’ll mess with people to learn what their nightmares are and he’ll then he’ll make their nightmares come true, just to see what happens.

He’ll spend three years with his enemy just to learn who he is and what makes him tick. (At least that’s what he’s telling himself... stupid feelings got in their way a bit there.)

If there’s nothing more to learn, he’ll get bored. He needs stimulation. He’s creative. And beyond that, he doesn’t really care.

It’s actually interesting that, like Xiao Xingchen, he is fascinated by so much in the world and wants to learn and learn and learn. And that, like Song Lan, he doesn’t actually think anyone has the power to make a big difference in it.

Rounding off Yi City, we have A-Qing, a Slytherin. She’s goal oriented and protective of the people she decides are worth protecting, and pretty dismissive of everyone else. When we first meet her, her only goal is to get ahead herself. Then she adopts her daozhang (it goes both ways) and she would do anything to get them both ahead.

It’s just that Xiao Xingchen doesn’t really care about getting ahead, or having money, or running away from Xue Yang when he’s going to kill them, which is an issue because he’s become her goal and she won’t abandon him.

I think that if we’d gotten to know her longer, we would have found her to be a pretty ambitious person, but it’s possible that she might have turned out to be a Gryffindor instead. She was just a kid and ghosts don’t really change or evolve. Even in the showverse, where she’s not a ghost but someone living with a sort of slow acting corpse poisoning (??? it’s not clear), she remains frozen as who she was when we last saw her in Yi City.

Wei Wuxian - the Gryffindoriest Gryffindor ever, but if he’d lived in more peaceful times, he would have been, like Hermione, someone with very Ravenclaw tendencies, who uses curiosity and scholarship to change the world for the better. Honestly, not much more to say about him beyond that. He’s just. So Gryffindor.

Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang are both pure Slytherins. Jin Guangyao classically so. He’s ambitious, he wants power, he wants to protect what’s his, he’s cunning, and he’ll do just about anything to reach his goals. His eye is on the prize, and that prize is the sort of power that means he can live without shame, except that the more power he gets, the bigger the potential for shame gets too. Poor thing never rests.

Nie Huaisang is less classically a Slytherin, in that he’s not actually all that ambitious, but oh man, is he goal oriented. What he wants, he’ll get, even if that means people have to suffer, either if they’re in the way, or if their suffering is part of his plan itself.

Lan Xichen is a Hufflepuff. Like Song Lan, he is primarily motivated by helping people around them and alleviating their suffering. Even if a part of him wishes he could make drastic changes to the world and how it’s run, he doesn’t believe he has the means to do so, and if he tried, he’d only hurt his own ability to do anything at all, as well as others under his protection.

So instead of fighting the world, he moves within it, being quietly but unusually kind to others, using his position of power to lift people up and protect them, and doing what he can to make the lives of individuals that much better and easier. Sometimes it even works.

He’s trying. The world is set against him. He just doesn’t have the freedom to set himself against the world.

He’s hardworking and he’s loyal and he believes in giving people the benefit of the doubt when no one else will. He has a very clear sense of honor, and it’s all based on what is the right way to relate to others. Like Helga Hufflepuff, he opens his sect up to people others would reject.

Jiang Cheng and Wen Qing are both Slytherins, for similar reasons, but it comes out in different ways. They both believe that their primary loyalties must be to their own blood (Jiang Cheng more expansively to the entire Jiang sect, Wen Qing to her branch of the Wen Clan) and that as leaders, they have to do whatever they can to protect it, even if it means letting others fall by the side.

They don’t think of themselves of heroes. Jiang Cheng is bitter about that and Wen Qing accepts it more easily. They have their own protect and that’s all.

Jiang Cheng is more obviously a Slytherin in that he’s very ambitious (he’s been taught to be, by his mother, it’s unclear to me if he would have been so otherwise), he wants to be on top and be an incredible sect leader, though he won’t use all means at his disposal to get ahead. Like Jin Guangyao, he feels inadequate in second place. Unfortunately for Jiang Cheng, he’s never going to get higher than second place - and often not even that. Wen Qing is not so ambitious herself, and in more peaceful times, might have been more of a Hufflepuff.

Jiang Yanli is a Hufflepuff. She also wants to help the people around her without dreams of changing the world. She’ll alleviate the suffering of others one bowl of soup at a time. Whatever grand dreams she may have had, she’s set them aside for her to nurture Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng which is upsetting, but also, and I mean this very seriously, the people (often women) who spent history quietly feeding the heroes we read about should have made history.

It’s actually enough to be kind.

Nie Mingjue is a Gryffindor, I think? He has a very strong view of right and wrong, and it’s less driven by individuals and more about what the world should look like, even if it’s not what it looks like now. But that’s very hard for me to reconcile with his super-strong views against the Wens, but then again, I don’t want to be all “no-true-Gryffindor fallacy” and claim that real Gryffindors can’t be bloodthirsty to wipe out entire sects.

He, like Lan Xichen, has a very stark view of what it means to be honorable, but for him, honor has less to do with relating to the people around him and more to do with what sort of actions are ever appropriate to take.

Mianmian is either a Hufflepuff or what happens when a Gryffindor is so disempowered as to just give up. She cares very strongly about doing the right thing by others and by setting a good example in the world. She looses her patience with the hypocrisy of the sects but rather than try to tear them down or change things, she leaves and finds her own place to be honorable.

So my question is, is she driven by the needs of the individuals around her (a Hufflepuff), or is she more idealistic and thinks the world should and can be drastically different (a Gryffindor)? Gryffindors work best when they are given the means to change things. Mianmian never really had those.

Jin Zixuan is that kid who sits under the hat and the hat is all, hmmmm, I’m not sure, and he’s all put me where my family is, and the hat is like, really? you sure? not sure you’ll thrive there, and Jin Zixuan says, I’m positive, and then ends up in Slytherin and his father is proud of him, so what could go wrong?

(Jin Zixuan is Regulus Black)

Jin Guangshan is a Slytherin. I mean. Obviously.

Wen Ning is a Hufflepuff. I mean. Obviously.

Su She doesn’t make it to Hogwarts because he’s a Squib, and the evil he ends up enabling says as much about the ills of the magical world as it does about him.

Jin Zixun is a Dursley. I’m taking comments and criticisms on everything else on this post but this.

Lan Wangji ... ???

Like, I dunno! Sometimes I want to say Gryffindor. His early dream was to make the world a better place, at least in the show, I don’t remember in the novel. To protect the innocent and have a clean conscience. He goes where the chaos is. He protects people others overlook. He’s Huangang-jun.

But I suspect he, like Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen, is someone who acts like a Gryffindor but isn’t necessarily, and part of that is because his primary motivation is surrounding one person. Protect Wei Wuxian. From himself, from others, from the world. That’s not a very Gryffindory motivation. Gryffindors tend to have more expansive drives. They want to make more of an impact.

Is he a Slytherin? He’s willing to do just about anything in service of his goals. (His goals are Wei Wuxian.) And he has a narrow group of people that he has claimed as his own and wants to put ahead. (His people are Wei Wuxian and Lan Xichen.)

Is he a Hufflepuff? He is desperate to do right by people and be kind to them and figure out how to alleviate their suffering. (People are Wei Wuxian.)

I’m pretty sure he’s not a Ravenclaw, because while he’s scholarly and does want to learn and open his mind, I don’t think he’s driven by curiosity or a need to attain truth. But even with Ravenclaw, I’d be open to it. So. Yeah.

Soooo, that’s not everybody, obviously, and if people want my sorting thoughts on other characters, feel free to send them my way! But that’s a taste of what goes through my head.

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