#even lqg!!! who is DEAD

[thegoldenavenger]

Okay............ I am now a subscriber to the "Shang qinghua wrote pidw and since everything LOVES shen qingqiu in pidw including his self insert Gary stu protagonist AND his own love interest mirrors shen qingqiu (AND cucumber bro; one one hand mistreated and cold, left to survive on his own, with a lucky meeting creating an unlikely misunderstood ally at once incredibly loyal and unable to be trusted and on the other hand a noble/well-to-do son, isolated from family and connections except through niche interactions, incredibly dense and/or prone to misunderstanding social interaction)

AND since cucumber loves all the bits of pidw that airplane actually wanted to write originally (the beasts, the character depth, the plot threads) and also Shang qinghua's beloved son— therefore: cucumberplane" mindset

It is really uhh really something that everyone in pidw turns to shen qingqiu like a sunflower, even when Luo binghe is also right there... it's really something that shen qingqiu falls over himself to be immersed in pdiw's flora and fauna.

it's really something that cucumber died thinking about the wasted potential of airplane's magnus opus and airplane died reading cucumber's review and comparing him to a wife

Ugh. UGH I can't believe I'm having emotions about this.

[bonelessicecream]

I think the tragedy of Liu Qingge as a character is that he has a sort of narrative homelessness.

Shang Qinghua, Shen Qingqiu, Luo Binghe— all of them have roles to play in the story. A place to belong to, consistent with their abilities and expectations. Even Yue Qingyuan, otherwise LQG's foil, has his place in watching over a Shen Jiu who is already gone. This is consistent with his abilities and characterization; YQY has always been the type of character who struggles to act when it truly matters, who stands back and lets time flow before him until every opportunity passes him by.

But Liu Qingge? His original role is to be *dead*. Him being alive, and therefore him acting, undermines and overturns any and all aspects of his original role.

And so, despite how hard he tries, the narrative does not open up a place for him. The indomitable force of the Plot marches on— no matter how hard he tries to save SQQ, he cannot go up against either protagonist and expect to win. In a way, he is forced to live as if dead-- all the strength and stubbornness of his character cannot move the mountain known as destiny.

So on one hand, Shen Qingqiu saved him in the Lingxi Caves. On another... what does it mean to live, barred from the path of action? Unable to leave any marks against the unmoving wall of destiny?

[kabukipopink]

People who think LBH is bad at sex and that SQQ does it more than once with him out of pity or guilt have failed to realize that SQQ (SY) is an unreliable narrator.

If SQQ does not want to do something, only death will motivate him, and maybe not even then. He would've rather died than being used as a pawn to hurt LBH.

SY's favorite wife of LBH was the only one not to really have a sex scene, let alone may not have had sex with LBH in the original PIDW.

In those sex scenes, SQQ's actions do not line up with his words. He is easily embarrassed and used to putting up a facade or a wall. He loves the pathetic act and tears LBH puts on.

LBH, by the end, accepted that he can't force people, including SQQ, to stay with him. He lets SQQ go because he loves him and wants him to be happy and to be in the world. SQQ had accepted himself and his feelings towards LBH.

SY has always been in love and weird about LBH. He read a whole novel series he hated the direction of the plot, and all the repetitive story beats because he wanted more LBH. He fell in love with this fictional man before he knew he was.

He always says that the women are pretty and are what any guy would like, but always is more descriptive with how the men look and always how they don't come close to LBH.

SQQ, the character may be older than LBH, but SY is a lot closer in age, with the dead for 5 yrs gap. His mistakes are based on his age, lack of experience, and failure to see the other people around him beyond who they were in the book. When he finally accepts and realizes they are thinking feeling not on script people, do you see a shift in his actions and behavior. He changes into a more authentic version of himself.

We see the action of denying LBH is respected in the extras, much to SQQ's disappointment. It's a game for him in the end. Several times, characters state his actions and words are contradictory and confusing.

All this is to say he likes his sex life. LBH IS inexperienced, and that's realistic, but he does make SQQ happy and does satisfy SQQ. Do you think after months or years every 3 days, he'd still suck at it. SQQ was thrilled at LBH wanting to marry him and is more than willing to try out new things that LBH brings up. SY(SQQ) is a complicated person, but most of all, a weirdo whose narration requires you to look between the lines time after time.

He wondered about what LQG's bullied face would look like. He has a thing for pathetic and capable men. He even stops his assault on SQH(airplane) when he whines and begs/pleads. It's like his thing man.

[fairsweetlonging]

Okay but Mocking bird demon SY (has shapeshifting powers) pretending to be SQQ to help LBH. No system, SJ lives, just SY will not let his protagonist be miserable. He optionally also wife beams LQG who is extremely confused and horny as to why SQQ is playing hot and cold with him

i LOVE that idea oh my goodneeees!!! all the shen yuan bird aus are a GIFT that keeps on GIVING!!

as a bird he can easily live on mount cang qiong and get around unnoticed, because what peak lord or disciple is going to look twice at a small, grey silver bird? it allows him to stay close to luo binghe and help him in every way he can, from giving him food he carries in his little talons or beak, singing to him when he's down, keeping him company in the forest, to making silly mimic sounds to make him laugh.

i looked up a little about mockingbirds and apparently they're extremely territorial when raising hatchlings and their nest (attacking even cats, hawks and humans), which is perfect because luo binghe is (definitely!) a helpless hatchling in need of protecting, i mean, technically his wings haven't even properly grown in yet, he can't fly! so cue ming fang and other bullies getting relentlessly attacked when they try to come near binghe.

and then the shapeshifting: from what i've gathered, mockingbirds sing regularely at night, so i can imagine shen yuan waiting until nightfall and shen jiu goes to bed when he makes his move. he dons the master's form, goes to the woodshed, and takes binghe out to train in the forest with a real manual. of course, binghe is immediately enamoured with the man shen qingqiu becomes when night falls, maybe he even starts to think it's a "werewolf" thing where he changes when the moon comes up, because there isn't really any explanation to why the soft words, gentle touches and kind eyes turn into sneers, violence and glares as soon as the sun is up!

bc he does have the protagonist halo, and even in canon binghe knew something was up, i think he figures it out eventually when he starts alluding to certain events that never happened but that his "shizun" plays along with. also the bird has the exact same way of petting his head/ruffling his hair as his night-shizun does. one and one equals two, after all.

and liu qingge yeeeessss!! if in this au shen yuan saved him in the caves as well, he's probably getting such a headache from the complete 180s shen qingqiu keeps making!! one moment everything is great, shen qingqiu is tending to his wounds with such gentleness and a kind smile, and when liu qingge runs into him at night (when shen qingqiu always looks kind of... hurried, for some reason, almost a little nervous), they share a smile and a laugh and one time shen qingqiu even hugged him; but then when liu qingge tries to sit next to him at the meetings suddenly he's getting snarled at, called a dumb dirty beast and to sit elsewhere?? hello??? never mind getting invited into the bamboo house, or shen qingqiu accepting his (dead animal) gifts.

i also think it'd be so really funny if shen yuan ended up not caring about continuation errors or consistent character behavior, and just goes all out on the OCC by being kind to everyone in shen qingqiu's form; flirting with liu qingge, cuddling with yue qingyuan, spoiling luo binghe rotten, gifting mu qingfang all kinds of rare herbs that he can find easily in his demon bird form, and generally being a moon-saint that everyone comes to realize isn't actually shen qingqiu, but since he's doing good for the community and not harming anyone, they kind of just..... leave it. the peak lords have a meeting about it (sans shen jiu of course), and they decide the night-qingqiu can stay.

tho i do think yue qingyuan would ask shen yuan to don a different form.

also also, shen yuan getting up to all kinds of mischief by mimicking other peak lords' voices: calling to disciples with their shizun's voice, watching them get all confused because no one's there?? or making shang qinghua go around in circles because he keeps saying "this way, shang qinghua, hurry up!" in an angry liu qingge voice. and also making shen jiu open the door to no one when he mimics yue qingyuan's voice. there's a LOT he can do with it🤭

[coolshadowtwins]

SVSSS fanfic that I will never write-

LBH post canon accidently goes back in time. How? I don’t know, it isn’t important. If I had to pick a stupid reason, then in PIDW had a storyline where LBH went back in time to a wife’s past to like… learn more about her? To help her in the trauma? IDK but what I do know is that Peerless Cucumber would have ranged for hours about Airplane adding in the concept of time travel and then doing nothing else’s with it.

And guess who the subject of the wife plot is now??? That’s right- SQQ. Except the wife plot took the body and not the soul, and now Binghe is back during SJ’s disciple days.

LBH somehow, as the main character, manages to convince the peak lords of the time that he’s of Qing Jing! He is, really! He really laid on the charm here.

Previous Sect leader: I don’t know if I believe you, but since you look like such a polite young man-

LBH gets escorted away to a room by the head disciple. And who is the head disciple of the sect leader peak??? It’s Yue Qi, sad and depressed and lifeless because LBH managed to find himself in the period of time where YQY thinks SJ is dead!

LBH: I want to meet my young Shizun. Shen Qingqiu- Shen Jiu I think now?

YQY: …. Xiao Jiu is dead?

LBH: Maybe in the future for like five years but not right now!! He’s my super awesome Shizun! …. Do you want to drop everything to go look for him?

YQY: Oh boy, do I!!!

So the two bounce from the sect with no warning, looking Shen Jiu. Luckily, now knowing that he is alive and didn’t die in the fire, it’s pretty easy to follow the line of gossip that follows WY and SJ. And of course, the entire time, LBH is praising his Shizun.

Now, he hasn’t said that he was married to his Shizun. He didn’t want to spoil that just yet! He’ll reveal that to his younger Shizun himself when they find him. But until then, he can still tell YQY how awesome his Shizun is, and how nice, and how close he was to SQH and LQG and even to YQY himself! (That last one was a bit of a fib, of course. SQQ was always a little uncomfortable around the sect leader. But YQY was eating all of this up, being so happy that his childhood friend was so happy and well liked, and well…. It was only a small fib)

They finally catches up with them, and quickly dealing with the other guy, YQY and SJ have a nice reunion, having both think the other was dead! And of course, it was incredibly clear that YQY had been looking for SJ this whole time, which does wonders for his abandonment issues. SJ may yell at YQY for leaving the sect so suddenly and risking everything just for him, but on the inside, he is bursting for joy, trust me.

LBH is not bursting for joy. Like, at all. He had been so excited to see his Shizun but young and now that he’s here…. Something inside of him and screaming that this wasn’t his Shizun.

He had no reason to believe that. This was very clearly SQQ at 14~. But of course, he’s the 200 IQ protagonist and figures it out quickly that his wonderful Shizun/husband took over his body when LBH was 14 and that this was his shitty Shizun that made his early years in the sect awful.

He’s fully ok with that. If his husband needs to possess another man to be with him, than who is LBH to judge? Only the best body for him! The problem is, of course, that he has spent the entire trip over ranting to YQY about how good of a teacher SQQ was to him, and now YQY is excitedly telling everything he said to SJ. LBH can’t just…. Back track now! That would be weird, and if they think that someone will possess SJ later, then what if his husband never shows up??

So he goes along with it. It isn’t hard- he doesn’t hate SJ, not like PIDW him would. He was only under him for three years~ and a lot of what happened to him was still being justified in his head. So it’s just… whatever, to him at that point. He confirms what YQY had been saying, spins a charismatic lie to the sect about why they left and how GREAT SJ will be as a disciple in the future, and then he leaves. Just, fades away in front of everyone.

And now this is SJ’s life. He thinks he’s a good Shizun in the future, even if he can’t stand kids. He think that he becomes friends with SQH and LQG, which is oddly hard to do?? LQG angrily wants to fight him every time he sees him, which is super annoying, and SJ is 88% sure that SQH is talking to demons but, you know. If another version of him managed to become their friend without future knowledge, then he has to do it now! He has a head start on the race here, no way is he losing it!

He does become friends with them, and is still incredibly close to YQY as they grow up. He’s still… him, but his major heart demons- the abandonment by his Qi-Ge and being unsafe even in the sect- aren’t there anymore. He even manages to be an ok Shizun to a young LBH, somehow. He’s pretty sure that he’s sucking at that, btw, because the little brat gets on his nerves when they are in the same room for more than five minutes, but he’s being mostly polite! He had to wonder what the other version of him did to get such a glowing review from the future version of his disciple, because it has to be more than this.

Ironically, because I think it’s funny, this is the timeline that our LBH finds himself back in. The time travel was always meant to be a stable one timeline kinda thing, so anything he changed in the past affected the future. I imagine in PIDW that LBG didn’t do much of anything but maybe comfort his future wife, for Airplane’s fear of making a confusing paradox for himself. But this Binghe? Oh no, he did so much!

Because he saved SJ some heart demons, and helped him make friends despite his trauma, he’s not as prone to Qi divinations! Which means that he didn’t have a fatal one when LBH was 14! Which means when LBH gets back to his time after all of that, he takes one look at his ‘Shizun’ and knows that this isn’t his husband. Which means that his husband never possessed SJ!

He’s horrified, and spends a whole day moping around the peak, trying to think of ways to fix this. He has just gotten himself worked up to go and do something drastic when NYY finds him.

NYY: There you are!! Shen-Shidi has been looking for you all day!

LBH: H-huh?

NYY: Why are you moping around, huh? Did you and Shen-Shidi have a fight? Don’t worry! He’s your husband, I know he’ll forgive you-!

LBH: WHAT.

And that’s how he learns that while he isn’t married to his Shizun in this timeline, he is married to his Shixiong, Shen Yuan! Shen Yuan, who got shoved in Willy nilly when the system realized that SJ wasn’t going to die when he was supposed to.

There’s probably some sequel where LBH has to fake that he has memories of what happened in this timeline, which I imagine is somewhat close to Svsss? The system was still running around, even if a major player has changed. And LBH would just be so bad at faking it in front of two people and two people only- SJ and SY.

SY: Binghe, don’t you remember our first date? :)

LBH: …It wasn’t the water prison!

SY: ….that statement is correct but also the wrong answer.

And

SJ: Beast, you’re not coming to this Immortal Convenance. Don’t you remember meber what happened last time?

LBH: …. You didn’t push me into the endless abyss?

SJ:… That statement is wrong and I was also going for the HHP tag alongs you obtained.

[holy--milk]

seeing this post and particularly the notes kinda reminded me of how the larger MXTX fandom sometimes tends to see all MXTX tops as like. basically one character in different skins? and while it's true that the three of them basically fit the same general archetype (which i'd probably call something like "overpowered sexy dom + service top + trophy husband"), i think that's still a pretty big mischaracterisation.

so like if we take the situation of "i need to chose between saving my husband and someone else who's important to me", here are what i think would be the biggest differences in approach between the three:

luo binghe: LBH straight up doesn't understand that it's supposed to be a difficult moral dilemma. of course he saves shizun, why would he even hesitate? he's fine with sacrificing someone important to SQQ (like YQY, LQG and even NYY) as long as it means SQQ gets to live, even if SQQ gets upset and leaves him as a result. the only other alternative that could perhaps make it a bit difficult for him would be his adoptive mother, but she's conveniently already dead at this point.

hua cheng: similarly to LBH, it wouldn't be a difficult choice for him since he doesn't really have anyone he cares about to the extent he cares about XL, HOWEVER. he does care about what XL would think about someone else being sacrificed for his sake, especially if it's someone XL personally cares about (and, inconveniently, XL cares a lot about a lot of people). he would obviously still choose XL, but he would probably take extra steps to hide the fact that there was a sacrifice if at all possible.

lan wangji: the only one out of the three who may even see it as a Choice to be made to begin with, since he's also the only one out of the three who still has his family and non-husband related responsibilities he cares about to some extent. it's an easy choice if WWX is pitted against someone he already dislikes (like JGY, SMS, JC and like 80% of the cultivation world), doesn't have a personal relationship with (like WN or, say, mianmian) or someone who would willingly sacrifice themselves out of love for either of them (like LXC or JYL). but if it's LSZ, someone who he both personally cares about AND has the duty to protect as his student? and who he knows WWX cares about as well? i don't think the answer would be quite as obvious to him as it is to the other two, from the purely emotional standpoint.

although to make it a bit more convenient for him, WWX is canonically a genius who may just be able to come up with a creative solution and save everyone. so saving him first is also justified from a pragmatic standpoint.

[archerdepartures116]

Just thought I'd throw some ideas out.

SY and SQH get turned into cats.

Since they've got cat brains their inhibitions are all gone, so kitty SY is cuddling with LQQ and rubbing against everyone, especially his disciples. He bats his paws at people who get too close to his disciples.

While kitty SY loves LQQ, kitty SQH wants him dead. All his frustration from LQQ not turning in his paperwork is coming out in his cat form.

I also just have this image of kitty SY on LQQ shoulders while he trains his disciples. They are all staring but LQQ doesn't even acknowledge it.

Also, kitty SQH hiding himself in MJ's fluffy coat and yowling and hissing at demons that get too close to MJ. He's no longer pretending to be cowardly he's just an angry little kitty now.

I can imagine SY batting SQH's head and it breaking out in a all out brawl but no one steps in to separate them cause their eyes would get clawed out (LQG tried once and came out looking like he challenged a meat grinder)

multiple of MBJ's advisors have claw marks all over their faces meanwhile MBJ is languidly stroking the cat on his lap as he holds court lol

[tossawary]

I'm enjoying this "Yue Qingyuan sent Shang Qinghua to go spy on Luo Binghe after Shen Qingqiu's death" AU, because I love it when background characters have their own goals and business, are fighting with each other, and are doing wild shit on purpose. Even if you're doing an AU (as per canon to our knowledge) where Shang Qinghua is not a double agent - and is just fleeing to the Demon Realm because he was found out as a traitor and/or decided that it was time to dip because the protagonist and Cang Qiong Mountain Sect are now in semi-open conflict - the question remains for exploration:

Why did Yue Qingyuan not go to Huan Hua Palace and try to kick Luo Binghe's ass to get Shen Qingqiu's body back?

It's suggested at several points that Tianlang-Jun at the height of his power was stronger than Luo Binghe, and Yue Qingyuan was part of the team that helped to seal Tianlang-Jun. Shen Yuan suggests that the original Luo Binghe had to bait Yue Qingyuan into a death trap of ten thousand arrows because Bing-ge (even with the Xin Mo Sword at this point) didn't want to face Yue Qingyuan head-on. (I think Bing-ge sent SQQ's legs to YQY or something.) Yue Qingyuan is willing to draw Xuan Su for SQQ and Liu Qingge is willing to help (although LQG might be mad that YQY let SQQ go to the Water Prison at all). YQY versus LBH is not a totally unbalanced fight.

It's possible that Yue Qingyuan didn't go fight because he kind of shut down due to grief. Shen Qingqiu has changed in recent years and died in a very sudden, very shocking, very confusing way. YQY also has a sect to look after and maybe he can't fully justify going out and escalating the conflict over a dead body (as opposed to a live hostage), and possibly get himself killed, when he's maybe hoping that Cang Qiong and Huan Hua can settle this without further death. The other peak lords all must have opinions on this and are probably pulling him in all sorts of directions. By Liu Qingge's account, Yue Qingyuan probably knows that Shen Qingqiu intentionally died for Luo Binghe and he knows that SQQ loved his disciple, so maybe he wants to respect SQQ's sacrifice and affection by not trying to kill Luo Binghe. When Luo Binghe invades Cang Qiong for SQQ's body (and Shen Yuan), Yue Qingyuan has to dangerously abort cultivation in the Ling Xi Caves to come face him, so it's possible that YQY had decided 5 years in that peaceful resolution was impossible and was gearing up to fight Luo Binghe, only to be a victim of bad timing (Liu Qingge's unexpected success in body retrieval).

It could be a combination of these reasonings! People do things for lots of different reasons and this is an emotionally charged situation which puts Yue Qingyuan in a complicated political position.

So, yeah, it could also be that Mu Qingfang came back from his kidnapping saying, "Luo Binghe was repairing Shen Qingqiu's body, trying to summon his soul, and was researching resurrection techniques when I was there," and Yue Qingyuan decided to just... sit back and see where that went. If Liu Qingge (who is probably NOT happy that YQY isn't throwing down already) succeeds in retrieving the body, fine, that's good enough, but if Luo Binghe succeeds in bringing Shen Qingqiu back...? Well, that's also good, isn't it? Yue Qingyuan can outsource the "go mad with grief and engage in crimes against the natural order" to someone else here.

I mean, I really don't think that Yue Qingyuan was actively PLANNING for Luo Binghe to resurrect Shen Qingqiu. That seems a little too wicked and scheming to be his main motivation here. But I do think he might have been... vaguely aware of this potential consequence of his inaction, this possible side effect of his paralyzing grief causing him to be hands-off about the situation and/or his cautious approach to peace negotiations, and I really don't think that he minds that Tianlang-Jun and Zhuzhi-Lang succeeded in bringing Shen Qingqiu back. (I do think he kind of wishes that the Shen Jiu who remembers him had come back instead, though.)

[larothoughts]

anti-ship adjacent ships: liujiu and qijiu

so there's this weird thing that's happening in svsss of all fandoms that reminds me a lot of voltron's klance and sheith fiasco AKA the formation of what i like to call anti-ship adjacent ships

basically, when someone's favorite ship is more indicative of them being an anti-shipper of another ship.

i've had to start excluding liujiu in my ao3 searches because more often than not, the fics that come up are yqy-bashing and what?? this is svsss, right? mxtx's trashiest, most problematic, harem-bicycle-shen-yuan svsss? what is this moral outrage doing in my degenerate danmei fic space, and why are you mischaracterizing yqy just to make an excuse to hate on him??

i've had a few thoughts on the rising dichotomy of shen jiu sympathizers both validating sj's bad behavior and hating yqy for enabling the same behavior. and then shipping him with lqg because liujiu is 'less toxic.' As an old lady fanfic reader who's trawled through all the godforsaken dead dove ships of the old livejournal kink_meme, i'm writing these out because making sense of things helps me cope and i am too old for this shit

(this is actually more 'why anti-qijiu' word vomit than liujiu specific--it just so happens that so many liujiu fics are bizarrely anti-qijiu.)

narrative reasons for anti-yqy liujiu fic:

aka why an author finds it easier for the plot to bash qi-ge

accepting either romantic or platonic qijiu means trying to fix qijiu. this is hard. yqy and sj already have a proven history of failure, while sj and lqg (aka author's ideal white-knight love interest) would be the perfect do-over. making yqy a clear abusive villain sj must cut off ties with 'for his mental health' solves the problem without having to fix things. it frees the author to write what they thought qi-ge should have done to 'save shen jiu right.'

on the same note, liujiu have nearly no canon crumbs. the author can write them however they want without being constrained by their canon relationship.

why lqg over other possible ships? other than yqy, lqg is one of the few characters with any sort of previous relationship with sj. lqg is canonically hot, has strong (even if negative) feelings towards sj, and has no textual or subtextual canon ship (beyond a one-sided crush on shen yuan, with lbh getting in his way lol.) he is also the same generation as sj and thus avoids any age gap squicks like with sj's other ship partners (looking at you tlj)

yqy is the only person in cang qiong with higher authority than shen jiu. while other peak lords are antagonistic, all are ranked lower and can't get in liujiu's way the same way as yqy can as a sect leader. not even the old palace master has the same power because he's the head of a different sect. so if you really want to write a villain abusing their (implicit) power over shen jiu, yqy is the only one that fits the bill.

lbh, as sj's disciple, does not fit the same abuse of power trope even if he becomes an op demon lord. as for bingjiu, lbh's brand of diabolical stalkerish yandere is so over-the-top it's hard to equate him to any real relationship. it's easier to twist yqy's passivity to villainy because it's closer to reasonable human behavior.

if one is coming from the tgcf fandom, yue qingyuan is the closest junwu-adjacent character in terms of personality and rank (on the surface.) so it's easy to transfer any junwu hate to yqy by giving him all of junwu's worst traits and making him 'junwu-lite'

same thing as above but with mdzs and the lan xichen hate for his inaction regarding his own little meowmeow (jgy).

personal author-reasons for anti-yqy liujiu fic:

aka when the character himself doesn't matter

let's get a silly one out of the way: maybe the author only headcanons top shen jiu and most qijiu has sj being a bottom. lqg gives off better hot twinky bottom energy than submissive-but-still-tops yqy. this does not explain the anti-shipping though.

less silly: an author is projecting either themselves or other people in their real life onto their fic, and changing the character's personalities to match their real life projected counterparts (even if ooc). sj is a clear abuse-survivor insert, which shoe-horns other characters into roles that real people in the author's lives have. i think yqy is often seen as the insert for someone who 'could have helped but didn't.' there are many valid reasons why someone would be more mad at the person who averted their gaze rather than their actual abuser, but that doesn't change the fact that qijiu's relationship in canon is so much more complicated.

(it's easier to hate enablers instead of abusers, because hating abusers and inviting confrontation is dangerous. most of the time, enablers won't hurt you directly. they are the safer person to hate.)

an author thinks they could have saved sj better, that qi-ge had more than enough time to fix things and his failure not to do so must be punished by taking away his sj-simp-card and throwing him into the villain bin. this is similar to the phenomenon where an author hates the wife of canon anime couples b/c the author could clearly wife him better. and then writes a fic bashing said wife.

an author sees a messy relationship and equates messy with abusive. in reality many relationships can be messy but not abusive, messy but still fixable, but due to their personal experiences they see any attempt to do so as toxic. in this scenario yqy is often the abuser-insert and his ooc characterization takes after the author's own abuser.

specifically in fics where lqg has the personality of a cardboard cut-out: using liujiu to tell others they are still pro-ship, when in reality they dislike qijiu for their own reasons (and can't help but write it in their fic). it really reminds me of middle school lol like kids trying to find their identity by hating another identity. the whole 'ew pink is overrated, i hate preps which means i must be a nerdy rebel' and then two years later you realize you're not a nerdy rebel after all, you just based your entire identity on what you thought was the opposite of what you hated.

why i try not to read anti-qijiu liujiu fics:

aka write whatever you want, but sometimes i have to choose not to read

authors can write whatever they want. we're all doing this for free, so it's expected that a lot of fanfic have venting and some self-imposing onto a fictional character. i don't expect authors to NOT put themselves in their fic in some way. at the same time, however, i hope authors are self-aware enough to not bash another character just because that character reminds them of someone irl.

aka i get uncomfortable when i read a fic that has an author's obvious real-person insert. i'm not reading svsss fic anymore, i'm reading the author's version of punishing their abuser using fiction. i love transformative media that adds onto the canon! i love different interpretations even! but i'm here to read svsss? where are the svsss characters??

i'm not into character-bashing in general. i think the point of svsss and all of bingqiu's misunderstandings is the fact that good/evil is not a binary. sy spent the whole series fearing the 'evil' binghe despite the fact that post-abyss binghe was a complex person, causing a chain reaction of disaster. hell, shen jiu is the king of gray characters! he is a scum villain, evil and misunderstood, to be a sj-fan means to understand that no one is entirely good or evil. so it's even more cognitively dissonant when a pro-sj fic is so categorically anti-qijiu, as this often paints sj as good/misunderstood and yqy as bad.

(the only character-bashing i don't care about is the old palace master mxtx clearly wrote him to be bashed so throw him in a fire)

i don't mind liujiu actually, i think the dynamic has potential (see all the sj harem fic i've read lol) but qi-ge is such a big part of sj's character that vilifying/getting rid of him does sj a disservice too? sj has a shit ton of bad coping mechanisms, these aren't going to be magically fixed if yqy gets his limbs chopped off as 'just punishment' (??) for not stopping sj from abusing his own students (????)

in conclusion

there is no point to this rambling, and you don't need to agree with me on anything. these are just thoughts i had when trying to figure out why anti-ship adjacent ships even exist. the moral outrage is giving me war flashbacks of anti-sheith klance fans using their age gap as justification for their own ship, rather than liking klance for... being klance.

(I briefly considered going over all liujiu vs qijiu morality arguments, but if you're an sj fan i feel like morality arguments are pointless. he is an angry feral scum kitten who hits kids, no sj-fan has the moral high ground here.)

it's always unfortunate to see so much anti-shipping spilling into fandom, since by default most of us are living in the fringe minority anyway. further dividing us is just going to sink the whole ocean ala the death of livejournal and chinese ban on ao3. there's no point in ships if there ain't an ocean to sail in! aren't we all here because we are fans of these stories???

bonus

to make up for what must feel like a huge anti liujiu wall of text, here are some of my general thoughts on how their relationship would work. i'm more familiar with sj so most of these are from his pov.

while sj often has schemes upon schemes upon schemes, when it comes to anger/criticism/negativity, he's scathingly honest. lqg, a fellow honest asshole, is often on the same wavelength. once misunderstandings are cleared up and lqg realizes sj will do whatever it takes to protect big bro yqy (and thus the sect), they're able to work together as a ruthless team against cang qiong's enemies.

let's also assume fixing sj's emotional issues stops him from the worst of his scumminess aka whipping his disciples half to death.

teamwork -> enemies to lovers -> only one bed trope???

sj needs someone who will overtly believe in his goodness, and lqg, once he realizes the mistakes in his assumptions, is a loyal wall of support. unlike qi-ge who must always play diplomat, lqg blazes over all social cues. who cares if this looks bad on cang qiong, he'll throw down with anyone if his boo is insulted.

lqg is upfront and honest. there are no hidden plots for sj to be paranoid about in lqg, he's a Good Man through-and-through. if lqg has problems, he'll tell him. if he needs to apologize and sj tells him why, he'll do so. and if sj asks him a question, he'll always do his best to answer.

while lqg knows sj has trauma and a dark past, he will never truly understand what it was like. and that's exactly what sj wants. he likes how lqg knows him more as he is now in the present vs. someone who has lived through the same past. being with him is a reminder that he is now a powerful peak lord, not the starving street rat he once was.

for lqg, sj is like a complex puzzle box. an enigma so outside of his understanding of how the world works, he can't help but be drawn to it. he used to equate scheming with evil, but once he realizes much of sj's scheming was for the good of the sect, he lets himself be impressed by sj's intelligence. the fact that sj became a peak lord from nothing shows a certain type of strength-- and lqg has always appreciated strength.

a big roadblock in their relationship was sj's antagonism towards yqy (their sect leader whom lqg respects.) once qijiu reconcile (or sj stops being so disrespectful to yqy in public) lqg is better able to see him as an ally vs. an enemy.

sj rewards this loyalty by taking care of lqg's hidden enemies, because straightforward brutes are especially susceptible to devious snakes like that. sj would know. whether or not he tells lqg can go either way. he tells lqg if only to stop lqg from hearing it elsewhere and assuming the worst; or he doesn't tell lqg because he knows lqg trusts him and confusing his mind with schemes would just make him grumpy for not understanding.

...even if he's cute when he's grumpy.

[dancingaura925]

Ok but like as much as we ship LBG/SJ or LQG/SJ, I feel like we have to get Ming Fan *somewhere* in there so hear me out:

Luo Binghe/Ming Fan Enemies-to-Lovers where MF has an existential crisis along the way

So maybe it starts out where Ming Fan is bullying Luo Binghe as one does in the original PIDW when Luo Binghe asks the question: "Why do you hate me so much?"

And Ming Fan is going to answer!!! But for some reason, when he's about to start saying the usual schtick (you're a beast, untalented, have your eye on NYY, etc), for some reason, he can't get that out. If anything, wouldn't MF be a beast for doing all of this? No, he's obviously just carrying out Shizun's orders! Thoughts are swirling around his head, but whatever the case is, Luo Binghe isn't scurrying up those hateful emotions anymore.

So to the surprise of everyone, he just looks at Luo Binghe, turns around, and leaves.

His lackeys obviously don't know what's going on, so they try to follow, only to be shaken off (aka yelled at) to leave him alone. So they do, and Ming Fan does the unthinkable and starts thinking. Why does he hate Luo Binghe so much? Why did he spend countless of hours on this one boy instead of doing something useful and standing out to his Shizun by actually cultivating?

And when Shizun finally punishes Luo Binghe for some inane reason (he... hasn't really noticed the inconsistencies in punishments until now), he hesitates in handing the whip to Shizun. He glances at Luo Binghe to see the fear in his eyes die down to a dull hue, which bubbles up something unpleasant in Ming Fan. He eventually gets the whip when Shizun threatens to whip him as well, but he excuses himself to go outside. Why does he hate him? Why did that dying light hurt him so?

Ming Fan feels like he's on the verge of something, so while he does so, as the days pass by, people claim he's lost his soul, only wandering around and cultivating. Even Luo Binghe notices something is really off when not only he finds medicine in the wooden shed later on, he accidentally bumps into Ming Fan, and instead of getting yelled at and hit, Ming Fan just looks at him with dead eyes (just like back then) and walks away!!! What the hell!

And when someone else tries to take up the mantle of Binghe's main bully, Ming Fan yells at them!! Tells them to knock it off!

By now, the entire peak knows something is off, to the point where Shizun himself is looking down at Ming Fan, kneeling in the Bamboo Hut, and telling him to focus and actually be productive.

But Ming Fan, deep inside, is being productive and basically therapying himself, because surprise surprise, he's got the classic case of jealousy and self-worthlessness! It's pretty obvious now that he thinks about it - I mean, combine being the second son to a merchant family who is always outshined by his older and younger brother and the fact that his newfound worth and status on QJP is solely being upheld by his martial and intellectual abilities and is now being threatened by Luo Binghe, who is also!! possibly taking away the one person he knows will always be on his side!! (Head canon)

And when the person he is trying to please to be worth something is not happy with Luo BInghe, of course he's going to follow, trying to sabotage his shidi with the false hope that it'll slow him down, not by much, but by enough.

...Yeah, MF is not having a good time.

Flash forward to a few years later, the two of them have a rocky relationship. The bullying has gotten down (mostly because everyone knows that you can't really beat Luo Binghe anymore (gee, I wonder why, maybe because there's less sabotaging from the main cannon fodder)), and Ming Fan is living vicariously through Luo Binghe.

And maybe, just maybe, he falls a little bit for him. Unimaginable, Ming Fan knows that, but... Luo Binghe shines so bright that you forget that you were never worthy of that light in the first place. And despite all that dirt thrown on him, he just continues to shine. He's breathtaking, and his wife beam is not to be underestimated.

Ming Fan looks forward to seeing Luo Binghe (besides being an absolute TSUNDERE in his own mind), and even more so in the Immortal Alliance Conference. But when Luo Binghe falls... what now? What does Ming Fan do now?

In any case, as we the readers know, Luo Binghe comes back, and when Ming Fan finds out, Luo Binghe has already invited a Cang Qiong cultivator into the Huan Hua Palace and vice versa as an... exchange program. Through a series of twists and turns, Ming Fan's the one being chosen, and he ends up going.

Thus enter a series of misunderstandings, pure shenanigans, a closet or two, and by the end of it all, the two have therapied each other into a relationship. (Ming Fan doesn't really know how that happened) (Luo Binghe has some idea since he was interested in how this confusing shixiong broke the mold that everyone else seemed to follow)

So we can conclude that Luo Binghe really does have a shixiong/shizun kink. Thank you for coming to my tedtalk.

[optimisticmosquito]

Imagine a liujiu AU where LQG returns from the dead to save SJ from the water prison:

SJ has been placed in the water prison to be tortured by LBH. The whole trial had been a disaster, but that wasn't particularly surprising. A deep part within him still stung from how none of his martial siblings had even been there to try and defend him.

No one is coming for him, that was simply a fact. LBH had removed his legs a few day earlier and had him write that cursed blood letter, but the joke is on him. YQY wont come back for him. Not after he told him not to return. He had set the man free, there was no reason for him to associate with trash like SJ any longer.

He hears steps come closer, most likely LBH coming back to gloat at him, and maybe to torture him some more. Perhaps he was going to remove SJs arms next.

Looking up he becomes momentarily stunned. He must be hallucinating, maybe the pain and loneliness of his acid filled cave has finally driven him to insanity.

In front of him is a man that should be long dead, the Bai Zhan war god, Liu Qingge. The man he was unable to save in those caves so many years ago.

But is it really him? SJ doesnt think he's ever seen LQG wear that expression towards him. Or, maybe once, during his last moments.

It's a pained and devastated expression. It is compassionate, something that would have made SJ bristle when the brute was still alive. It was many, many words left unsaid.

"Am I dead?" SJ asks with a hoarse throat.

"No." LQG answers bluntly.

Death hasn't changed the man, it is maddeningly amusing in a way. SJ lets out an huff "Then why are you here?".

"I'm here to take you back home" LQG answers with all the seriousness of his old living self.

Against his will, SJ feels his lip wobble, "I have no home, I brought this on myself." .

"Maybe you did." LQG says, "but you did not kill me. I won't let them use my death to falsely imprison you."

Ah, of course. SJ manages a wry smile "So you are here to defend your honor then?".

"No," comes the immediate answer. LQG bends down and hesitates a moment before he places his hand on the side of SJs head. His thumb hovering uncertainly above the skin under his removed eye, before softly brushing the dried blood from cheek.

He swallowed thickly, voice filled with emotions SJ couldn't even pretend he understood. "You tried to save me, more than once. You were never a lazy young master, despite everything I accused you of. And you never went down to the brothels to.. to do that.".

How could he know all that?

LQG took a deep breath, closing his eyes to gather himself. "It seems like I've always misunderstood you shixiong, let me make it up to you now."

SJ must truly have gone insane, question is, what part of his demented mind wanted LQG of all people to see the truth of him?

"Do whatever you want" he answers with apathy. None of this was real anyways, he'll probably wake up in a moment to an empty cell. The memory of LQG will have left him as easily as everyone else have.

Closing his eyes, he thinks he hears a soft "I'm so sorry" before exhaustion claims him. He should get some rest before that beast shows himself again.

Next that follows is LQG taking SJ out of water prison. LBH tries to stop them but YQY gets in his way him. LBH knows he can't beat him in direct combat, that's why he wanted to lure him into the trap in the first place. Seething with rage, he has to let them leave with his shizun.

At CQM, LQG meets up with the rest of their martial siblings, who are understandably shocked to see him. After extensive testing for possession, even taking out Hong Jing, they finally believe he has returned to the living. He talks with the other peak lords, telling them how SJ never tried to kill him in the lingxi caves.

Rather, it was LQG who almost killled him in a fit of deviation induced madness. LQG tells them how he had momentarily regained his sanity and saw how badly he had hurt SJ, who was begging him to come back to himself. And who didn't look far away from a deviation of his own.

He had known at that moment he'd end up killing the man if he slipped back under. So he did the only thing he could, he stopped himself from doing something unforgivable.

After all, the mountain losing only one peak lord was better than losing two. And even with their complicated history, LQG did not want to hurt SJ.

LQG then explains how he had spent many years as a ghost. Watching how SJ was accused of his murder, and how his little sister had suffered by the loss. Seeing how his death had deepened the cracks between the peak lords.

He saw the trial where SJ was accused of many things, including his death. He saw the demon torture SJ and take his legs.

At that moment of utter helplessness, he had been approached by an entity calling itself the System. It asked him if he had any regrets he wanted to mend, and what he was willing to do to return back to life. He accepted the deal and woke up shortly thereafter.

That was how he arrived at QDP at the same moment YQY went outside, eyes wild with desparation and fear.

YQY told him about SQQ and about the box and the blood letter LBH had sent him. Together they were able to form a plan to get him back.

LMY had been so shocked upon seeing him again, and upon hearing all that she had thought of her shibo was wrong, that she didn't refuse him when he asked her to take him to SQQ.

All the while YQY, instead of rushing in head first, asked for an official meeting between himself and LBH to distract the other man. Something he had barely managed without drawing his sword and killing the demon.

LQG and YQY manages to convince the other peak lords to agree to protect SJ. LQG then helps SJ recover, helps him get prostheses and to train up his strenght again.

He also helps SJ bridge the chasm between himself and the other peak lords. And makes sure they become a (somewhat) united front against the new demon emperor.

He constantly tells SJ he will not allow LBH to get his hands on him again. And slowly the former rivalry grows into something else as they learn to know and trust each other.

LBH on the other hand becomes increasingly desperate in his attempts to get SJ back into his claws. But with SQQ, YQY and LQG all protecting the sect, not even LBH can do anything against them.

[koipalm]

HI YES HELLO HI HI HIHI HIHIHIHIHI. HI. SORRY, I'M TRYING TO PROCESS. YOUR. SY ASSISTANT AU. Hey. Hi. I'm in love with it. I'm in love with your au. I keep thinking of the hijinks that Shen Yuan gets into with the other peak lords. I'm sorry, but I'm going to ramble about it - if anything, it's all your fault for making such a brilliant AU. Shoot me down if I'm wrong about any headcanons I'm making about it, but teeheeheeehehehehehee. Okay, so first, thinking about Xian Shu peak. Because Shen Yuan is so irrevocably fruity that, when other guys could be being creepy over the girls upon the peak, Shen Yuan is just trying to stay upright and not pass out because of the ✨gay thoughts✨ that stop him from sleeping. The girls could even find him sweet in the way you see a dishevelled rat and go "awww!", whereas Qi Qingqi just occasionally nudges him with her foot to make sure he isn't dead. Next, next, Liu Mingyuan. The chaotic shipper herself. She sees Shen Yuan glancing at Liu Qingge occasionally and just cracks her knuckles like, "oh, this is is going to make a great book series" and, in typical fashion, starts writing everything. She, at one point, writes Shen Qingqiu as a love rival, which is something that Shang Qinghua holds over poor Shen Yuan's head forever. Liu Mingyuan is the kind of gal that has locked Shen Yuan and Liu Qingge in close quarters together just so she can make new writing about it later. Liu Qingge, who sees this pathetic blob of a man sometimes dragging himself around the different peaks (usually in spirit but, on a couple of very strange occasions, literally), has no idea where Shen Yuan came from. So, after asking his sister, he decides to ask the man himself - in what he thinks is a very normal fashion. Shen Yuan, however, sees Liu Qingge (terrifying Peak Lord of Bai Zhan) storming towards him and promptly cornering him, and just passes out. Hands down. After this, he is utterly baffled. When Mu Qingfang asks (read: scolds) about it during what can be described as a supply drop, Liu Qingge is treated to a lecture that is basically "Shen Yuan is like a little mouse whose heart will give out at any moment because he doesn't take care of himself." Liu Qingge listens and hears "Shen Qingqiu bad." It's not like he's actually trying to steal Shen Yuan in any sense of the word, he just likes the little mouse not looking ready to pass out (he would definitely force a cup of tea into the man before he lets him leave, because he's helping right? Toootally.) I did say I would ramble...I did say I would- (Sorry, I just love love love it)

thank u so much for liking it!! im actually really blown away that this many people like the au it was very simple when i thought abt it <3

& unfortunately (& i probably should have specified earlier my bad lol) shen yuan has a lot of fraught relationships with the other cang qiong cultivators! most won't say it to his face but plenty think he's putting on an act or scheming with sqq and because of how close he and sqq work he can't escape sqq's reputation in the sect. a lot of the disciples from xian shu peak actively despise him for working under sqq, while qi qingqi herself is suspicious but mostly ambivalent. liu mingyan is reserved because she eventually sees lqg and sy get along fine, and she would have a lot of fun with his stupid humor. lqg is ALSO mostly ambivalent to him bc of sqq but they grow closer together due to proximity. his whole confusion on sqq and sy's relationship would have to be a completely new post lawl

that being said shen yuan is actually fairly close to mu qingfang in a coworkers way in that mqf actively worries after his health but he's mostly unwilling to interfere in sy and sqq's relationship due to fear of retaliation. all in all i find it really fun to take the popular views on shen yuan and his relationships and make them more complicated SORRYY my bad i just think its really interesting ^^ it's not to say that he won't ever have friends its just that i think cang qiong mountain has a whole host of problems they should address and im having fun with it HAHA

[naehja]

Imagine if the OOC lock stayed.

Shen Yuan has to he must find ways to help Luo Binghe, while staying In character. It's really hard.

For the manual, he lies, pretending that he wants to see LBH's manual and say "the one you have is wrong. Probably a bad joke of someone from another peak" and say "i don't want people saying that i give fake manual to my disciple when it's not my fault" literally throwing the manual in LBH's hands.

When he faces Liu Qingge in the caves, he's sure that the system will stop him from saving him, will maybe force him to kill him but no.

He let him save LQG.

[Congratulation User!!]

"wait it means that he didn't kill Liu Qingge in the canon?"

[no he tried to save him and fails]

"why he didn't tell it then?"

[he thought that nobody would believe him anyway]

He still saves LBH during the demons invasion and is surprised to not have penalty or OOC warnings.

[saving his student is the minimum for a peak lord, User :/]

He can't spoil LBH or let him live in his caban (but manage to bring him back to sleep with the other disciples)

[OOC Shen Qingqiu wouldn't sleep near of another man! Even a disciple!]

He can't accept food from LBH, except the first. But with penalty.

[OOC -100]

"ho shut up Shen Qingqiu wouldn't waste food, right?"

[…fair]

And for the other disciples.

[OOC, Ming Fan is the first disciple, Shen Qingqiu wouldn't change that to name Luo Binghe]

"And Yingying, i hope i'll not be forced to…"

[ewww User! You're the one who is disgusting! Shen jiu treated her as a daugther!]

"wait it already two accusations who are wrongs"

[It has never been showed that they were right User! The accusations were made by Luo Binghe who hated him, his followers, the old palace master and the girl from the Qiu family.]

"And now, you'll way that the accusations to have kill the Qiu family who freed him from his slave statut was wrong and that they were not nice with him?"

[….]

"They treated him badly, right? -_-"

[Would you want to unlock Shen Jiu's full backstory for 5000 points?]

"i don't have enought point system"

[you have 5010 points user]

"EXACTLY"

When the first sex scene with Binghe is about to happen.

[ALERT ALERT ALERT!! SHEN JIU WOULD RATHER DIE THAT HAVE SEX WITH A MAN]

"What?"

[ALLLEEEERRRRTTT! SHEN JIU IS DISGUSTED BY SEX. HE WOULD NOT HAVE EMOTIONALLY RECOVER FROM THAT (again) AND WOULD NEVER FORGIVE THAT NEITHER]

"WHAT?"

[HAAAAAAAAA oOo OOC OOC OOC -All the point you still have except one]

"wait…hat do you mean by again?"

[you didn't want to unlock his backstoy. Have you changed your mind?]

"i don't have enough points! è_é"

Later

[OOC warning, SQQ would never interact with a man who has forced him. He would rather try to STAB him. And would castrate him like he did with his former master Qiu from when he was a slave]

"Binghe has not forced me…"

[-_-]

[-500….except you can't lost any more point. Dammit]

[I know your a luo binghe's fanboy user but please open your eyes. This whole scene made me deeply uncomfortable! And i'm sure i'm not the only one! Shen Jiu would be TRAUMATIZED by the event!]

"HEY!"

"…."

"WAIT YOU SAID SQQ DID WHAT?"

Later

[OOC SQQ wouldn't fall in love with LBH. Wouldn't marry him and have sex with him again. He rather die! What didn't you understand in "he's disgusted and afraid by sex and is afraid of men?"]

"but i want.."

[OOC OOC OOC]

[Penatly -10000]

"i have not enough point, i'm in the negative now!"

So Shen Yuan is forced to reject Luo Binghe, pretending feeling like a father for him at best.

[OOC…]

"Ho shut up, let me find a good excuse to reject him at least"

[-_- ok i let you that]

"....Can't i return in my old world like if i wasn't dead? If i'm not authorized to do anything ooc?"

Prompt that i'll never write so feel free to take it if you feel inspired =)

[higuchisora]

The idea of characters from other stories winding up in SVSSS has been stuck in my head for a while but I'm not gonna write abt it lmao so here's what's been rattling around in the ole noggin:

Toph:

Toph would be a genuine menace

Specifically on poor Liu Qingge, who hasn't the slightest clue how he wound up with yet another student

Earthbending should not be possible here. Earthbending is NOT possible here.

Toph invents earthbending here.

In fact, she only gets stronger. Because the cultivation aspects of the world means she's got even more qi and knows more about how to use it beyond earthbending.

She can now use qi itself to "see" (sensing others' qi, using it to sense movement, etc.) Not just earthbending

Lqg wants nothing to do with any more disciples. Especially not ones as annoying as yang yixuan

He gets a gremlin even more annoying than yang yixuan

He lies awake at night, regretting saving her life that one time on a hunt and kickstarting her path of being a Problem

Specifically, he saves her life one night while she's out trying to remaster earthbending, inspiring her to become a cultivator

She runs away from her noble family and their arranged marriage and stifling life that they've planned out for her and heads straight to Cang Qiong's Bai Zhan peak the first chance she gets

Refuses to take no for an answer, thus growing to become lqg's #1 menace

He both blesses and curses the day she was born

Lqg would sooner die than admit she's basically his other baby sister/daughter figure

Will outright refuse to fly on her sword When asked how she'll get around, the earth goddamn MOVES UNDER HER FEET and she causes several earthquake/mole monster sightings with these shenanigans

Is banned from this move

Begins to tunnel underground instead

She could arguably fly on her sword just fine, sensing the qi around her to navigate and shit, but it's harder and definitely uncomfortable and brings back bad memories of that one time in the volcano with Aang and Sokka

Luo Binghe wants her dead

She probably never gets strong enough to 1v1 him and win but she's definitely strong enough to become a genuine challenge

Especially when she reinvents metalbending

Rides for her shizun ong

Would probably fight lbh for lqg's honor after the SQQ corpse situation (he did not ask her to do this)

Aang:

The angel of Qing Jing peak fr

Or that monastery but we don't hear enough about them tbh

Has legitimately no idea how he got here, maybe too scared to question it actually

Like, did he really fuck up and end up getting ripped out of the avatar cycle orrrr????

Decides some things are better left unknown

The only struggle he really has is not being bald anymore

Honestly???? Might still shave his head and just stick to a wig

Would inevitably get caught or ALMOST caught and eventually gets used to growing it out (would probably become the inventor of extensions or wig glue though lmao)

Would make the spoiled qing jing disciples better just by being around them tbh

Star student probably, would be a menace in a cute way

One of the few men allowed on Xian Shu (for visits/messages)

Would probably befriend demons ngl

Loves flying on his sword

Prefers his staff though, and eventually figures out how to make/get someone to make one for him

No one knows how he does the air scooter. They are scared.

No one asks about the tattoos either.

Or how he's controlling all these fucking elements.

He doesn't have an avatar state anymore, but that doesn't seem to stop him from being wildly more dangerous than anyone expected

Possibly unlocks permanent cultivation-blocking? Like sealing off your core

Demons don't take note

Until he learns how to do the same for demonic cores

Exorcist Aang

Possibly becomes a rogue/wandering cultivator

Wandering rogue exorcist Aang????

He's either a god descended upon the earth or a heavenly demon in disguise, according to critics

He thinks it's all silly

Until he meditates too hard and communes with a god or something who tells him they may or may not have bargained to snatch his corner of the avatars soul for a reason

Uh oh

Sokka:

Does not know how he managed to get spiritual energy or cultivate

Actively chooses not to think too much about it

The head disciple of An Ding 😭

Absolutely salty about it

Shang Qinghua is endlessly grateful though

Does not know what to make of the long hair thing; probably tries to keep his hair in a half-pony still, as an ode to the water tribe

I've seen some fics where Qiong Ding is headcannoned as the bureaucratic peak; in this case, he might be able to sweet talk his way in if fate and Yue Qingyuan is kind enough

Either way he's grateful he gets to do sword stuff again

Especially now that he can FLY on them?!

He hasn't completely forgotten his skills, so he's got a whole different style no one's seen before and it's Weirdly Good Actually

He finally works his cultivation up enough to get his personal sword

Then he finally gets to summon his and he cries

It's space sword

No one knows what the fuck to make of this weird ass sword but he doesn't care, it's his and he loves it

Known as the best ever manager of An Ding peak

Katara:

Would have one (1) argument with her brother and march up to Xian Shu

Frequent visitor of Qing Jing and Qian Cao

Mu Qingfang mourns every day that she didn't choose the medicine peak

Katara maintains that she's too ready to beat some ass to ever be a full doctor and vow to do no harm

Never quite learns to be comfy with a sword but can still handle her own

During the demon invasion on Cang Qiong (assuming she's there at the time), she bloodbends Hualing right off the mountain

The demons do NOT stick around

The cultivators are too scared to ask her what the fuck that was but they're nicer to her than before

The xian shu peak gains a fearsome reputation of possibly teaching blood magic

No One gets how she does the waterbending stuff. Outsiders assume it's some Xian Shu ancient secret technique. Or she's related to Mobei Jun. Real members know Kataras just Like This.

Keeps the hair loopies. No matter what people say.

Wears a blue necklace similar to her mother's heirloom; a gift from her shizun probably

Genuinely enjoys the sisterhood on Xian Shu. It reminds her of the better days of her home, before the southern raiders came back

Zuko:

Could've chosen from several peaks, but chooses Bai Zhan

Something about the bamboo on Qing Jing reminds him of his uncle though, so he likes to visit. But not for too long. It hurts.

Isn't really bothered by the long hair thing; while cutting hair isn't forbidden in the fire nation, long hair is common practice, especially for nobles

Keeps the standard topknot until Toph calls it ugly

And then he remembers toph cannot see his topknot

Starts doing ponytails anyway

Also a star student of Bai Zhan, especially after he busts out the firebending forms

Yet another nuisance for poor lqg

He and Toph are the only two that can keep up with each other

Known as the Twin Stars of Bai Zhan

Aka the Twin Headaches of Liu Qingge

Has a small red birthmark near his eye, on the side that used to be burned

The fact that there isn't a massive burn is mildly uncomfortable to him at first. Doesn't feel like himself

Again, No One knows how all these kids with weird qi abilities are coming from

They're beginning to suspect they're all part demon

Neither he nor Toph ever defeat the demon heritage allegations

Especially not with the way they fight. And allegedly have a Past that no one else knows about

Would also fight Binghe for his Shizuns honor

Weirdly chill for Bai Zhan actually

Has probably made leaps and bounds from his avatar hunting days already

Most expect him to have gone to a quieter peak, it's baffling

Until he beats the shit outta somebody

And then goes back to being gentle and chill and forgiving

He wonders if uncle Iroh is watching over him here too

He can only hope his uncle is still proud of him, wherever he might be

Lqg isn't his uncle, but he's still a kind presence that Zuko looks up to a little, even if the guy is a little too punchy

Thus takes it upon himself to ride or die for him

One of the few dual wielders around

His curved blades are also a source of curiosity for the others

But he's good with them so no one complains

In a bingliushen situation, Zuko, Toph, and YYX are feral protective gremlins that somehow make things better AND worse for the development of the bingliushen courtship process lmao

I'll probably make more at some point but that's all for now. If someone wants to make a fic of these PLEASE let me know, link me I'm desperate

[torchstelechos]

I was asked to post this, and I just want to say, SY probably had a horrible life before he transmigrated. Looking at it from an objective stand point before the transmigration, he was a rich boy who stayed inside all day to read a revenge porn story for the revenge portion only. He specifically states one of the reasons he likes Binghe is because of his decisive killing and revenge, he also states that he was screaming for harsher punishments to those that bullied or abused Binghe in the comments. It’s implied that he got into university but it never mentioned his classes or his choice of study. After he transmigrated he got rid of his name almost instantly, chose to take up the sects responsibilities and cared for them as a family within months, and he never once grieved for the family he left behind.

I think he was bullied to the point of being depressed and suicidal. SY was markedly calm (emotional calm, just for you Zy) when he woke up after dying, every single time. The only time he ever shows upset when he is revived is when LQG says Binghe is dead. He made sure to punish those who bullied others, and cunningly made LQG punish his disciples when they bullied Binghe. He was reading a revenge porn series that focused on the revenge of a student who was bullied and abused by his classmates and teachers. SY has never been good at admitting his own feelings to others or himself, and when he is mourning Binghe he says hes alright and gets confused when others say he is hysterical. SY has the classic marks of someone who had a horrible life before ending up in another world, and even then, I think SY is suppose to mirror Binghe and SJ who were both abused by others.

Come on now yall, our boy has a fucked up life and the only time he was happy was with his new family members. PIDW was his surrogate avenger, but the world he entered was his salvation and happiness. Don’t put him down as a one note dimensional character backstory in fanfics, please.

[emkaii]

in a random thought (more like this plot bunny has been living in my head rent free since this "what if" fic started and now i cant stop myself from sharing it after so many months? years? idek)

thank you to @feynites for the wonderful fic above that i continue to go back re-reading again and again

(also tagging @wangxianficrecs even though im not sure they share scum villain fics *sobs*)

! tw: death !

WHAT IF SCENARIO

og!sj dies the night of yqy & lqg wedding because of heartbreak? (because real heartbreak can literally kill in this fanfic universe) just, like, he dies. that's it. no shen yuan to transmigrate in his body as replacement.

so, og!sj was in seclusion punishment during that night right? and he was only allowed outside to attend the wedding itself. (am i right? or if not, meh)

so shen jiu dies in his bedroom, alone. lbh tries to enter his room to help him prepare for the wedding but doesn't get an answer (bc og!sj is ded), so lbh leaves bc he's obviously afraid of entering the room without og!sj's permission in fear of punishment.

the wedding is completed without sj arriving and everyone just assumes that he's bitter about the whole thing and doesn't attend as a show of rebellion.

also, since he's in secluded punishment and the servants doesn't like him, no one approaches or even tries to enter his room. lbh tries to tell the upper servants that it has been almost a full night & day that og!sj hasn't responded to anything outside his room, but of course, they don't listen to him.

so, he tries to directly report to yqy. who at this point is feeling disappointed? relieved? (even he himself doesn't know) that sj did not cause any problems to his new wedding. so, he goes to check on sj.

he tries to ask permission to enter the room, no answer.

tries to lengthen sj's punishment if he continues to be stubborn, no answer.

tries to threaten that he will break the door, no answer.

yqy gets nervous. something doesn't feel right.

sj is not the type to stay quiet.

he forcefully opens the door.

and he finds sj looking peacefully asleep.

but there's something wrong in the picture. sj was too quiet. too still.

yqy realizes that he can't hear sj breathing. he can't see any movement. at all.

he flies to sj's bedside.

tries to take his wrist to check his condition, and whole body-flinches at the cold skin. sj's body was stiff. and as a highly accomplished cultivator, yqy knows the state of a dead body more than a few hours after death.

he whispers, "a-jiu?"

sj' body would look peaceful in death, if not for the dried tear tracks in his face.

(I don't know how to describe/write it but i want yqy's reaction to be utter devastation, something similar or worse than his reaction in this fanfic's og novel when sj died in the original timeline)

minutes or hours later (yqy doesn't know, doesn't know or aware of his surroundings anymore), after mqf arrives and checks the situation after a frantic lbh tells lqg about sj and lqg flies to have mqf at their estate, mqf states:

"his body showed signs of grief sickness. in this case, his lungs decided to stop taking in air, his mind decided to stop all functions of his body, and his heart just decided to stop beating. i can say that it occurred around 24 hours ago."

24 hours ago.

24 hours ago was when sj tried to convince yqy not to proceed with the wedding for his new husband.

24 hours ago was when sj tried to tell yqy that he'd rather die than let yqy have a second husband.

yqy ignored him.

and now a-jiu is dead.

"A-Jiu couldn’t survive his husband marrying another man. That person died the day Yue Qingyuan married Liu Qingge"

AND THIS IS THE LINE FROM THE ORIGINAL FIC THAT INSPIRED THIS PLOT BUNNY.

i really do sometimes love making myself cry with my thoughts and ideas. now im sharing these to the world. and now i want to re-read, for the 8th? 9th? time, this whole wonderful series.