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jingyi-ma-boi · 6 months ago

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Yunmeng Twin Heroes' complicated dynamics

So, my tags in one of the last posts I reblogged got a little out of hand and were long enough to deserve their own post, cause, even if I was commenting on other people’s meta and headcannons I ended up 'writing' my own. If you click on the link, you'll see that @featherfur's post was all about the post-canon chengxian feels of seeing the changes in each other while not being able to directly participate in each other's lives. Go read that. It's a bit long, but it's worth it. The angst of seeing somebody you love(d) being so similar yet so different from what you remember, and thinking knowing that you do not get to be a part of their lives like you'd want to hits just right.

However, I don't think that level of 'deep yearning to be able to love each other like they once did' is everything there really is. To me, there’d be a point in post-canon where they do feel like that, but they would resent each other often and even feel something akin to hate as well whenever their feelings regarding everything that has happened in canon got too much to bear.

Now, you can go on reading what I think their emotional journey towards reconciliation would be like, or you can just skip to the end, where I’ve put a TLDR. You’ll get the general idea but if you want to dive into the complexity of their feelings, keep reading (please, I’d love for other people to read and discuss this with me, or give their thoughts at least T.T).

We all know how JC feels about everything WWX has done and how he blames him. For all that the fandom pegs him as someone who doesn’t know how to express his feelings other than through anger, he's actually pretty aware of them and lets himself experience them (although not in a healthy way, re: being angry most of the time). Meanwhile, WWX has always been incredibly detached from his emotions —that's why it takes him so long to realize he's been in love with LWJ since their teens— because 1) he's been raised to think that his value lies not on him as a person, but on him as a protector that has to right all his wrongs to everybody around him because of filial duty, life debts, and class differences; and 2) he doesn't think he deserves feeling them, as a result of that.

And although I'm all for the chengxian feels and the fluff of Yungmeng Jiang' bros reconciliation, (really, I love that trope) I don't see it happening organically.

Listen here, I'm talking from personal experience. You can feel enormous amounts of longing, missing the closeness you once had with someone who hurt you deeply, and resent that person at the same time. It seems obvious, but it’s the kind of obvious thing that needs to be reminded. In a situation like this, you can, and will, get bursts of anger at that person for everything they did and everything they didn't do. You hate yourself for missing them because you have all the right to be angry at them, and disapointed and sad, and you shouldn't be missing them nor contemplating the possibility of going back to how things were once. You can be glad to see that they are doing well in their new life and be jealous that it is not you who they're sharing all these new experiences with, while you're watching awkwardly from the sidelines, letting the guilt from the swarm of contradictory emotions eat at you, because at the end of the day it doesn't matter how you feel. What matters is the facts. What you did. What THEY DID.

I see JC going through a mix of less complicated emotions at first. After canon, where he scowls at WWX with anger at first, the underlying pain gains a new companion. A feeling of sadness that drives JC to avoid WWX in the same way that the latter’s pain and guilt drives him to avoid his shidi. WWX, on the other hand, would take the longest time to let himself feel more complex and contradictory emotions. He might even get stuck on that guilt and not let himself feel the anger, disappointment, and resentment towards JC that he has always buried deep inside if things at Cloud Recesses stay the same as ever and he and LWJ isolate themselves from everyone else while LXC withers away in his tormented seclusion.

(Here comes the important reminder that MDZS is full of parallelisms and as such, LWJ and LXC share the same complicated feelings that exist between the Yunmeng bros, even if the details of their relationships are different. I won't go further into the Twin Jades of Lan, cause they deserve their own post, but let it be known that their reconciliation is as unlikely as the Yunmeng Twin Heroes’. They’re totally related. Any advances in one of the pairs would positively reflect on the other and viceversa, that’s why it’s so difficult for them to avoid emotional stagnation.)

The key to WWX getting more in touch with his feelings would be in the changes brought forth by the juniors. LSZ and LJY would work through WWX's façade even better than LWJ does, cause WWX doesn't think them as biased. His two Lan ducklings would charge headlong into his emotional mess through gentle words (LZS) and earth-shattering remarks disguised as snark (LJY), and force help him through the mess of recognizing and sorting out those emotions.

Still, JC and WWX being aware of their feelings is not enough for them to solve things.

However, it might help them all to take a step forward and start acknowledging each other in a better manner. They’d go from having raw, more simple feelings preventing them to even wanting to hear each other’s name, to gradually being able to share the same space amicably. That doesn’t mean that looking at each other in the eyes or feeling each other’s gaze isn’t simply too much because it makes them spiral. This is the point where they’d yearn for this new, happier version of their brother, their emotions getting as complicated as I described at the beginning. But that's the most I can see them achieving on their own because they’re both so stubborn. They’re set in their own ways and it would take a huge external force for them to make the slightest changes (ie. golden-core transfer reveal and the little ducklings intervening to make WWX feel his feelings is what causes changes in their perspective).

Why do I feel like this? Am I allowed to feel this? How can I dare to want this when I can’t even forgive him? How could I ever forgive him? Would he ever forgive me? How is it possible that I still love him so much? Do I even deserve to have that with him after everything I did? And what about him? Am I ready to truly forgive him and trust him? Will I ever be? I can’t, I couldn’t even if I wanted to and it hurts SO MUCH! IT HURTS!

IT HURTS!ITHURTSITHURTSITHURTS IHATEHIMIHATEHIMIHATEHIM

WHYDIDHEDODTHAT!?!WHYDIDHEDOTHATTOME?! WHYDIDHENOTDOANYTHING?!

WHY DID HE LEAVE ME?!?!?

…

You see? After everything I’ve laid down, any of them could have this exact internal conflict anytime.

The thing is they are both more alike than they think. JL would see through their bullshit and be so frustrated with it all through the years. Already an adult and experienced sect leader, he’d understand but not completely, because he’d be the first to realize that nothing can compare to what they’ve gone through. And yet, he’d want them to talk and make up because he loves his maternal uncles so much. He won’t admit it to anyone, (LJY, LZS and OYZZ don’t need him to. it’s been years since WWX returned and JL’s already an open book to them), but he wants them to be happy around each other. To not feel so torn apart between them. He’d want an opportunity to have some semblance of the family that could’ve been and he will take any chance, as small as it might be, to achieve that.

Cue the junior-now-adult-quartet shenanigans. They’ve been seeing how every adult they love is miserable to some extent, and now that they’re adults too, they can and will do something about it. Cause hey, if they were able to bulldoze in and force WWX to actually feel his feelings, they can do this too! So now, their new goal is to get these two grown-ass adults to talk. Although technically, WWX is only a few years older, and a great deal more traumatized than them too. They’re aware of it. But they’d rather not think too much about it because they most definitely didn’t cry for hours on end after they got him to talk and started thinking about his life. And they most definitely didn’t attract attention when, weeks later, they finally grasped the scope of everything that their seniors had suffered when they had been even younger than they were at that moment.

LJY and OYZZ would be totally and completely over-invested in this. They’d scheme and help JL trace a plan for how and when to talk to each of them individually to subtly let them know how he felt. LSZ would use his power as heir and acting sect leader to stage the encounter among the three of them, securing LWJ’s reluctant approval after a great deal of convincing. And JL would trigger the conversation with a spontaneous outburst at his two uncles’ ridiculous yearning. They’d probably use a combination of WWX’s inventions and Lan techniques to lock them into a room, and force them to talk and have a truthful heart to heart, and they’d hope that after that, everything would be okay.

A LONG bout of silence later, they’d hear shouting and objects shattering and hitting the floor. They’d hear them fight, without sensing any spiritual or resentful energy of any kind, and LWJ would have to be stopped from dismantling the arrays and talismans in place just so he could go pounce on JC’s throat himself. The blows would soon be replaced with more silence, then soft murmurs. Sobbing. More yelling, and cracked voices. It’d be almost time for waking up the next morning when the arrays disappeared on their own. The doors opening to show the two brothers splayed on the floor next to each other, robes and hair disastrously askew. Holding their forearms over their eyes, barely covering the tear trails and reddened cheeks, their chests would be rising peacefully as they’d finally seem to sleep from exhaustion. LWJ’s eyes would get stuck on the way their fingertips touch ever so slightly. The ducklings don’t say a thing, but they’d totally stare too. JL would be the one to break the silence and tell everyone they should be going to sleep as well (and if LSZ and LJY see JL’s glassy eyes and a lone tear… no, they don’t).

Would that be it? Nope. Haven’t I said already it’s not easy? They’d have started talking and acknowledging that they both want the same thing, but it’s still not enough. They’d have to WORK for it. Hard. They would need to build a support system if they wanted to achieve the relationship they want to have. LWJ would have to start seeing JC as a person, and one that is able to give his Wei Ying the happiness he deserves, now that he’s at it. JC would have to start relying more on the other adults in his live. And it wouldn’t hurt WWX if he expanded his circle to include people other than his husband, his son, his son’s friends, and his undead cinnamon-roll of a friend.

In this way, they would be working on their respective issues to obtain each other’s forgiveness. They would face setbacks on more than one occasion, questioning whether it’s even worthwhile. This is the only way I see them regaining trust in each other.

The two of them mending their relationship without strong external factors would be OOC and unrealistic. It doesn’t matter if you’re going by MDZS or CQL canon. Although if we’re going by CQL canon, I don’t think they would ever go further than the ‘avoiding each other’ stage, and neither would any plot device help them do it. CQL WWX is very tame in the war-crime front and even though he’s just as ‘selflessly’ quick to put himself in harm’s way as in the novel, nobody can blame him for an attack that was clearly planned years before (most of the ‘facts’ stated on the novel turned out to be complete hearsay and/or senseless bullshit, this translates to CQL too even though if the censorship fucked a big part of this by drawing extreme caricatures of everyone). His misdeeds boil down to war crimes of varying moral weight, and not trusting people enough to include them in decisions they should’ve been included in, cause JZX and JYL’s deaths were caused by SMS.

And CQL JC is… not good. His decision to completely ignore the Wens even when he personally knew them and knew they had helped them repeatedly (first encounter in the Dafan Mountain and then, after the fall of Lotus Pier) meant he’s the only character to blatantly disregard a life debt, one he had to the Wen siblings. And on top of that, he still pulls the same shit that novel JC does after WWX returns, which makes him even worse.

Novel JC, on the other hand, took the right decision by not getting involved with the Wens. They were complete strangers, and he couldn’t risk the safety of the sect and the people of Yunmeng. He was powerless against the wishes and whims of the cultivational world cause that's how politics work. You’re forced to choose duty towards your people over your heart.

But let’s get back on track. I’ll make a full post on my view of JC as whole another time. The reason why it would be so complicated and they’d have to work so hard towards mending their relationship is that they would first have to realize that they cannot go back to how things were before. JC would need to recognize that WWX is not to blame for all his misfortunes and he’d have to apologize for all the fucked-up shit he does after WWX’s return. Psychologically torturing his 21-year-old brother with dogs while being a 34 year-old sect leader that has had 13 years to deal with his emotions was a dick-move of the highest category. And so it is the stunt he pulls right before the golden-core reveal at Lotus Pier. Yes, the golden-core transfer was sketchy but made complete sense. Yunmeng Jiang needed a leader and WWX was not fit for the role, not due to a lack of skills, but because it would’ve worked as badly as JGY given how the whole Jianghu cared only about birth status and nothing else.

This doesn’t mean that JC’s evil, WWX is the ultimate child-abuse victim, and that JC should never get close to WWX ever again (I’m looking at you, JC antis, though this whole post is also a call-out to JC apologists, cause he ain’t no innocent snowflake wronged by bad, evil /WWX/YLLZ). It simply means that JC has to claim responsibility. He also needs to see that just like WWX was abused, he and JYL were victims of the same abuse. They both need to come to terms with that fact and know that they had some sort of trauma-bond given that JC’s coping mechanism for enduring the abuse was reflecting that same abusive behavior on WWX. Yes, siblings who grow up abused often abuse each other as well, and/or end up enabling their abusers through a fawn response (this was JYL’s case).

TLDR; I love the idea of these two hot-heads making up and having strong feelings about each other. But the abuse they endured growing up, and the abyss it slowly carved up between them is something they both need to acknowledge and heal from before even considering the idea of mending their relationship. That, and the extend of the wounds they’ve inflicted on each other since WWX returned are things I don’t see them working on unless prompted by external forces. Their relationship is too complicated and nuanced for anything other than that being possible, which means that they wouldn't be able to forgive and trust each other unless some freaking major plot-event forced them to actually talk. That’s why I see their reconciliation as highly unlikely.

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viterbofangirllovestheuntamed · 2 years ago

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I posted 2,690 times in 2022

50 posts created (2%)

2,640 posts reblogged (98%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@autumnslantern

@featherfur

@wanyinxichen

@rhysiana

@drwcn

I tagged 2,690 of my posts in 2022

#jiang cheng - 985 posts

#wei wuxian - 780 posts

#fanart - 708 posts

#lan wangji - 419 posts

#meta post - 228 posts

#jin ling - 198 posts

#twin heroes of yunmeng - 174 posts

#poetry and song lyrics - 173 posts

#jin guangyao - 166 posts

#lan xichen - 157 posts

Longest Tag: 136 characters

#jl’s voice crying out his name has barely touched his ears and his heart’s already gearing up for war before his brain fully comprehends

My Top Posts in 2022:

Unruly

In the days following Baoshan Sanren's miracle, Jiang Cheng ponders this new core of his.

(read on AO3)

-----------------

Things were… different.

Not bad, per se, but different.

The new core Baoshan Sanren had placed in his dantian burned hot and bright. A little too hot. A little too bright. It stressed his meridians to the point where they grew sore and painful by the end of the day. To add to that, he was anxious and jittery all the time, as if his skin was crawling with suppressed energy.

His movements felt sharper, quicker, more hasty. It unnerved Jiang Cheng, who was used to trailing behind. His had always been a “slow but steady” sort of path, struggling to keep up with a grim and dogged determination. But now, potential seemed ready to burst out of him if he didn’t do something with it.

“Luckily”, the Wen-dogs had massacred only most of his people.

After a week of waiting for Wei Wuxian, he ran into a Jiang disciple in hiding. After that, Jiang Cheng had not so much as stopped to rest. Day and night he scoured the countryside, rescuing who he could and recruiting anyone willing. He trained and taught as they went, desperate to keep anyone within his care from dying.

His new core fueled him to impossible lengths… then, on the seventh day, dropped him like a stone. Completely spent, Jiang Cheng spent two days asleep, and awoke to a handful of frantic, panicking disciples and a Wen scouting party about to find them. They managed to escape– barely– and as they licked their wounds in the first available shelter they could find, Jiang Cheng pondered his new, strange state of affairs.

His behavior… it had been just like Wei Wuxian’s. Pushing himself through the impossible only to utterly collapse at the end of it. Accomplishing miracles, but by recklessly pouring himself out like water.

It made sense, he supposed. After all, Baoshan Sanren had been the teacher of Wei Wuxian’s mother. Maybe that was just how she taught her students, and how her students taught in turn. Or maybe it had been a physical trait he’d inherited from his mother; the heavens only knew how much Jiang Cheng had inherited from his own. Really, it was fairly logical that the core Baoshan Sanren had gifted him would be like the one Wei Wuxian had developed. Perhaps the Immortal had kept tabs on her disciple’s son and had fashioned a new core for him that would match his old one, not knowing that it was really Jiang Cheng who would be the recipient.

His stomach tightened. A new core. A core like Wei Wuxian’s. Potential like Wei Wuxian’s. What might he do, what impossibilities might he accomplish with an advantage like that?

It… it almost felt like cheating.

His molars ground together and his eyebrows lowered into a scowl. He was used to working hard for things. Sure, his hard work was rarely acknowledged, and that was infuriating. But the hard work itself… he’d never minded that. In fact, it often lent a sense of satisfaction to his accomplishments, small in comparison though they were. To have been given a new core that would allow him to leap over others just didn’t feel right.

Jiang Cheng’s gaze traveled over the frazzled and distraught people in his care. He saw their eyes frequently meet his with anxiety, and also saw the obvious worry fading somewhat as they confirmed that he was awake and aware. He noticed the dark circles under their eyes and the shakiness of their limbs.

A poisonous coil of self-castigation wrapped around his insides. How hard had they struggled to keep up with him as he’d pushed ahead of them, fueled by this new core of his? Not only that– he’d worried them, passing out like that. Unwilling or not, he had abandoned them as he sunk into that state of unconsciousness. These people were counting on him, depending on him to lead them and to care for them. They’d lost their homes, their families and loved ones. Their lives had crashed around their ears, and Jiang Cheng had rallied them all together only to leave them directionless and vulnerable as his body recovered.

His jaw clenched.

Never again.

His new core was unruly, uncontrollable, unfettered– just as Wei Wuxian was. And maybe Wei Wuxian could get away with that, but Jiang Cheng had been raised to be a leader. To take into consideration the needs of those who were his responsibility. He couldn’t afford a core that flashed with unimaginable power then died, like an explosive. He needed a core like a campfire, burning steady and reliable to combat the darkness.

Discipline, he reminded himself sternly. He settled into a light meditative state, careful to remain aware enough to attend to his people. He began to circulate his qi; wrestling it into steadiness, curbing its excesses, forcing it to ration out its power in favor of endurance.

The core fought him a bit, reacting as if these new methods were not only alien but anathema to its habits. But Jiang Cheng was stubborn– more stubborn than anyone alive, Wei Wuxian always teased. He would tame this core, retrain and remold it into what was needed.

Duty. Discipline. Determination. These were the things that Jiang Cheng was known for. These were the things his people needed, not flashy shows or miraculous displays. They were facing a marathon, not a sprint, and Jiang Cheng refused to let anyone else down.

All right, you, he inwardly addressed his unruly core.

Let’s begin.

168 notes - Posted July 16, 2022

Yunmeng Sibling Trio Love Languages

(NB: This evaluation will follow the CQL/The Untamed canon, as that is the version that I am familiar with.)

To recap, the Five Love Languages are as follows:

- Words of Affirmation - Acts of Service - Gifts - Quality Time - Physical Touch

I believe that all three Yunmeng Siblings have a primary love language that is distinct from the others, but evaluation is hard because of the A++ parenting of Yu “Tiger Mom from Hell” Ziyuan and Jiang “Ancient Chinese Mr. Bennett” Fengmian throughout the trio’s formative years at Lotus “Dysfunction Junction” Pier but I’M DOING MY BEST OKAY??? ANyhoo, here are my conclusions which very well might be incorrect!

Jiang Yanli - Acts of Service

I’ll start off with the easy one; it’s fairly self-explanatory. Yanli demonstrates her affection and care by cooking for others. She peels lotus seeds for Wei Wuxian in the middle of a tense family dinner. She is ultimately convinced of Jin Zixuan’s love for her when he plants a lotus garden for her with his own hands. She never leaves the bedside of an ailing loved one. Even her heart-to-heart talks with her brothers are delivered, not bestowed as heartening words, or gifted like trinkets, or provided like time. They are a response to a NEED she sees. (I adore Yanli, but sometimes I feel as if she too displays a slight favoritism towards Wei Wuxian over Jiang Cheng, and that is totally understandable if she was strongly shaken by his neediness as a starving orphan and his shaky position within the family. Such things would render Wei Wuxian as in a greater need of service than her privileged-heir-to-the-clan brother.)

Jiang Cheng - Physical Touch

Our boy just might be THE most messed up of the siblings, though he’s in a tight race. (Yay for him coming in first, for once?) And it really could go a lot of ways for him! He is CLEARLY starved for positive reinforcement (words of affirmation), works hard for his loved ones and/or those under his care (acts of service), and resents the attention Wei Wuxian gets from the distant Jiang Fengmian (quality time).

However, I keep coming back to the line “his own father had held him less than five times in his entire life.” (Or whatever the exact wording is.) Most of us probably don’t remember how often a parent held us; many of us were no doubt more concerned with squirming OUT of our parents’ arms so that we could go play. But there are more hints to this being Jiang Cheng’s love language than one line- a line from the novel, when here I am saying that I’m drawing from CQL canon!

To quote an earlier post of mine: Wei Wuxian is constantly draping himself over Jiang Cheng, shoving him with his shoulder, slinging an arm around him, even punching him and getting into physical scuffles. Jiang Cheng is constantly hearing his brother say “hey I love you hey I love you hey I love you!”, and with all of that unspoken evidence poured over him almost every waking moment of his life, the poison from his mother and the ice from his father just... doesn’t stick. Even when he’s frantic and beside himself with grief over his parents’ deaths, accusing Wei Wuxian of being the source of their misfortune, Jiang Cheng is still is grabbing him, shoving and shaking him, even choking him- still actively seeking physical touch to process his grief. It’s when Wei Wuxian starts to physically pull away and avoid physically engaging with Jiang Cheng (”What? You want to fight?!”) after the Core Transfer/Burial Mounds that Jiang Cheng starts to panic and doubt Wei Wuxian’s love for him, thinking that Wei Wuxian doesn’t give a fuck about him or their sect family anymore.

“But what about all the times he shoves Wei Wuxian away?” you ask. Well, even THAT is an indicator, thanks to Wang Zhuocheng’s stellar acting choices. Look closely the next time you watch; Jiang Cheng’s shove offs are less “don’t touch me” than “you don’t REALLY mean you love me, if you REALLY meant it you’d listen to me and/or not get me into trouble, don’t [love language] you love me if you don’t MEAN it...”

Despite near-constant threats, Jiang Cheng has never once lifted a hand against Jin Ling, because doing so to the person who is his sole reason for living would be a complete betrayal of how he loves. And of course, when Jiang Cheng hugs, he throws his entire body into it, clings like an octopus, and does. not. let. go.

Wei Wuxian - Words of Affirmation

This was the hardest one for me to decide, and I only did so when I came to the conclusion that our Problematic Fave actually only receives said affirmation when it is... wordless.

Bear with me here.

This is NOT the same thing as acts of service! Acts of service anticipates or responds to a NEED out of love. Words of affirmation are a message that one IS loved, is WORTHY of being loved. There is nothing that Wei Wuxian needs more of believes less than confirmation that he is loved. He has been admired often, as a prodigy often is, but that admiration is shallow and fickle. Madame Yu’s poisonous words not only tear him down, but her own son too... a son that resembles his mother so much that he shares that vice. Thankfully, Wei Wuxian learned early on that Jiang Cheng’s words are not how he communicates, and learned to read the message inside-- the message that screamed “I’m sorry” and “I didn’t mean it” and “I’m just scared for you” and “don’t abandon me.”

If one alters this love language title as “Messages of Affirmation”, the issue becomes much clearer, I think. Wei Wuxian knows all too well that words are cheap and often cruel. He craves that affirmation, that validation and celebration of his existence and intrinsic worth, but is often unable to process his own love language through speech alone. This is why Lan Wangji’s stand with him on the stairs of Koi Tower moved him to tears; it wasn’t an act of service, but a declaration that Wei Wuxian was worth trouble and damaged reputations. And of course, That Scene post-resurrection when Wei Wuxian is nursing Emperor's Smile outside the Jingshi as it starts to snow, and he's spiraling down remembering all these bad things and how little has changed and how everyone still hates him... and the sound of a guqin playing their song starts from inside. That beautiful, BEAUTIFUL moment of Lan Wangji silently saying "I love you, I'M glad that you're here, I think you're worthwhile"... but with music, not with actual words.

It’s worth noting that Wei Wuxian DOES still use and value words from the people he loves. It’s why he so easily showers compliments, and why he counsels Jin Ling to actually say “I’m sorry” and “thank you.”

I think, to be honest, Jiang Fengmian’s last words to him had much deeper resonance than one might realize because of this love language. His Jiang-shushu favors and spoils and praises him endlessly for years... only to have his final words to Wei Wuxian be an order that prioritizes his biological children’s safety (a.k.a. worth) over Wei Wuxian’s. The lengths to which Wei Wuxian goes, his icepick-through-Jiang-Cheng’s-heart words of “I did it to repay my debt to the Jiang”, are all a an echo of Wei Wuxian’s fear that if he does not honor Jiang-shushu’s last words then he was never really loved in the first place...

Thoughts? Disagreements? Reply or @ me; I’d love to hear it! <3

175 notes - Posted April 29, 2022

WOW.JPEG

An Actual Opinion That I Read With My Own Two Eyeballs: Jiang Cheng actually DID consent to the golden core transfer because he agreed to be blindfolded and ignorant as he followed Wei Wuxian’s directions. He has no right to blame Wei Wuxian when he found out what really went down and he was only concerned about himself anyway! Wei Wuxian was the one who REALLY didn’t give consent because he’d been gaslighted and abused by the Jiangs to the point that he mutilated himself because he felt it was his duty towards the heir and the clan that raised him.

>_<

Look, I’ll agree that Wei Wuxian was not in a sufficiently healthy headspace to properly emotionally consent to the transfer because of PTSD and very unhealthy feelings of guilt. I can give space for people to argue that the way YZY and JFM raised him completely crippled his ability to make healthy, non-self-sacrificing decisions.

But. My dude. Like. If you had a vital organ that was failing, and you’re really desperate, and someone you grew up alongside for most of your life-- a person known for doing impossible things and wrenching victory from the jaws of defeat time and time again-- says that his estranged aunt third removed is a famous doctor and has a new/ secret/ experimental method of regenerating the growth of said organ but she only does favors for family so you gotta do what they say no questions asked... and then you find out that your organ wasn’t healed but rather, like, harvested from a living person who lived the rest of their short life in agony because of the back-alley transplant... that does not qualify as consent because it was not the course of action you consented to.

Like, we won’t even get INTO the fact that, desperate or not, this is showing a literally insane amount of trust in the other dude and his insisted-upon story. We won’t even get INTO the issue of gullibility, shared history, and the possibility of being taken advantage of. We won’t even get in to bad faith arguments or the possibility that maybe one has a right to be a bit upset at finding out another person mutilated themselves and ruined their lives for your sake without asking you and then lied about it in ways that put both of you and your relationship at a disadvantage. This post is solely dedicated to this word “consent” that you keep using and the fact that it does not mean what you think it means.

308 notes - Posted February 3, 2022

jiang cheng loves his brother and like 85% of their shitty communication problems are in fact wwx’s fault but fandom is not ready for this conversation yet

I am literally beating back the urge to completely agree with you because Jiang Cheng is my precious baby boy and I love him and will defend him until the heat death of the universe BUT in an arduous effort to be fair, it's probably not 85%.

Maybe 75%.

Joking aside, there is in fact enough blame to go around. No matter what WWX-stans/JC-antis say, for every instance where JC is harsh and nasty, there is another one where WWX is maddeningly avoidant. For every instance where JC threatens violence, there is another one where WWX is deliberately provoking. In the novel, JC is more constantly short and violence-threatening, but then again, WWX is more obnoxious and deliberately troublesome. CQL gives us Wang Zhuocheng's wobbly lower lip and Xiao Zhan's natural heroic charisma to soften the characters, but even then, they clearly are used to relating to each other via squabbles and fights.

But I digress.

Perhaps everything was destined for tragedy no matter what, but I *am* sure that approximately 85% of the bad blood between the brothers could have been avoided if WWX had simply lied one more fucking time and made up a PERFECTLY BELIEVABLE LIE that he, too, had had his core crushed before being tossed in the Burial Mounds. JC already KNEW he'd been caught by the Wen; it would have been easy to believe- NAY, EXPECTED!- that such a thing might occur. And sure, JC would probably angst about "using up WWX's one chance to get a favor from Baoshan Sanren etc, etc..." but that sure as hell would have been easier issue for the two to weather.

As I've said before, the more fundamental problem is the very different personality types that WWX and JC are, specifically in how WWX unhealthily avoids any unplesantness whereas JC holds on to it obsessively. To repeat myself, the single biggest tragedy in their relationship-- YES even more than lack of communication-- is that WWX forgets everything but JC remembers everything. WWX is by nature an out of sight out of mind person whereas JC is a hold onto every single word action and interaction until the heat death of the universe person. WWX looks at JC and thinks he's not loved because JC won't forgive and forget, and JC looks at WWX and thinks he's not loved because WWX forgets every heartfelt thing he's ever said to him.

I have a perfectly normal amount of feelings about this and these two idiots.

328 notes - Posted August 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

dueling banjos but it’s Jin Guangyao and Jiang Cheng whipping out increasingly complex and researched reports and spreadsheets during a discussion conference

Lan Xichen is delighted ‘oh a-Yao, you’ve made a friend!’ Jin Guangyao has NOT made a friend. Jin Guangyao has made a BITTER MORTAL ENEMY and what’s more the feeling is extremely mutual

350 notes - Posted September 7, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #MOD'S STUFF

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