#his fierce corpse that he was controlling completely

[morethanwonderful]

Out of all of Wei Wuxian's traits, one of the ones that fascinates me the most is how incredibly casual and chummy he is with corpses. All the other cultivators are a bit desensitized to the dead by nature of their profession, yes, but Wei Wuxian in particular treats the dead very much the same as he treats living people, and I think it's simultaneously one of his best and most concerning attributes.

On the good side, the way Wei Wuxian treats the dead is absolutely an extension of his overall goodness and empathy. He stands on the side of those that are looked down on, and nobody faces more discrimination that the dead. He treats the dead like people because they are people, and they deserve to have their voices heard. That's what Empathy's for, and that's why he revives Wen Ning to stand as witness to his own murder. Wen Ning is not a thing! And even when Wei Wuxian is raising armies of dead Wens to fight on his behalf, we get illustrations of him giving a helping hand to a weak old corpse that can't stand on its own.

Wei Wuxian is painted in very deliberate contrast to Xue Yang, who treats the dead as tools and deprives them of agency. His closeness with them is a symbol of his kindness.

However, beyond treating the dead decently and like people, there is a point where his chumminess with them starts to get unsettling, and that's the point where it becomes a reflection of his loneliness and trauma. In particular, I'm thinking of his cuddliness with the ghosts he uses to torture Wen Chao and the corpse girls he's hanging out with when he invites Lan Zhan to drink with him. Because treating the dead with respect is a very different thing from having a corpse lay in your lap as you stroke its hair. And fierce corpses by definition do not have personalities (with Wen Ning as the exception that proves the rule), so treating them as companions to socialize with is rather concerning behavior.

So why is he like this? Isolation and trauma!

It's easy to understate the trauma of Wei Wuxian's three months in the Burial Mound, especially given that we don't see them play out but do get details about so many other horrible moments. But those three months? They Fucked Him Up. In particular, beyond the trauma of the near death experience (or presumably many many near death experiences in a row), he spent the better part of three months without seeing a single other living human. People are not meant to do that.

So what is a person gonna do when he spends three months in Worse Solitary Confinement? And when that solitude is spent on Fierce Corpse Mountain? He's gonna get really weird about corpses. He's gonna turn into the kind of man that would let a murderous ghost he's controlling lay in his lap as he strokes her hair, because for an extended period of time, that is the closest thing to human contact he's had access to.

And later, post-sunshot-campaign, Wei Wuxian does regain access to living humans and society, but he's still incredibly isolated. Just about everyone besides his siblings and Lan Zhan hates and/or is scared of him by the time we hit the scene of him and the fierce corpse girls throwing flowers, so it's no wonder he's hanging out with dead people. He already picked up the habit of replacing company with corpses once, so of course he doesn't see anything wrong with it. Maybe they're there as bodyguards, maybe he's just extremely lonely and doesn't have any human companions to drink with him, or maybe (probably) it's a mix of both. But in any case, it's a pretty clear expression of a horrifying degree of both past and present isolation.

That's why, though he doesn't lose his respect for the dead or his desensitization to touching corpses, we never see him just Hanging Out With Mindless Ghosts in his second life. It's a substitute for real companionship, not a healthy behavior, but lack of company is no longer an issue he has after being resurrected.

He doesn't need an entourage of corpse girls, because this time, when he wants company, he's always got Lan Zhan.

[sleepy-salami]

ok I found this translation

...tbh "it wasn't an accident" is the vaguest thing she could possibly say and there's zero mention of Xue Yang or the Jins, so we're back to the poll

ok questions gang. novelverse specifically:

[wutheringskies]

The Lans and Nies have no right to check and intrude between whatever is going on between Wei Wuxian, the Wen remnants and the Jins. Yet, they somehow have enough rights to go and witness the deaths of Wen Qing and Wen Ning with their clan disciples. And why were these two being killed? Because Jin Zixuan died by the hands of Wen Ning in an ambush set forth by the Jins upon Wei Wuxian, who was invited to Koi Tower by the Jins! So, it's definitely the Jin's matter, yet now you guys can come!

And what ends up happening? Somehow, Wen Ning who is being supported by Hanguang-jun loses control and ... kills Lans and Nies? Not the Jins! In the Jin palace! In an event orchestrated by the Jins! Death by a fierce corpse that the Jins should have prepared for! A whole ass cultivation sect? And a fierce corpse can go and kill whoever it wants?

But great!

Because you guys didn't ever go and check what the matter at Burial Mounds actually was like, because not your problem! Now, it has become your problem and you're forced to take part in the oath ceremony to go raze the Burial Mounds, and then you know, to defend himself, Wei Wuxian comes! And somehow it's his fault for "slaughtering." As if you guys weren't going along with the flow, not even questioning for a second why the smart Yiling Laozu would kill the people who could have stood up for him? And then what? You guys were present at the Oath Ceremony so more of you ended up dying, and now you have to go and take part in the slaughter of 50 innocent men and women and old people!!

Just because you were in positions of power, yet chose inaction. You got completely played! Naive.

Now, that's not enough yet.

Now, there's only two people who could've saved Nie Mingjue - Wei Wuxian and Wen Qing. But they're both already gone! Perhaps if Lan Wangji wasn't in seclusion, he would've stood up against the slaughter of all those minor clans who "tried to assassinate sect leader Jin"! But he is!

Now, Lan Xichen would rather shrug off both of his sworn brothers showing utmost hostility towards each other and increasing amounts of killing intent as a misunderstanding. He would think, oh he's being so nice and nuanced, understanding how people have to sometimes do bad things to maintain peace :((

Like, Lan Xichen's whole identity is built over avoiding conflict. When it comes to good and evil, there is no third side. How can you preach righteousness if you're not willing to carry the burden of morality? Sympathy doesn't equate to righteousness. Perhaps, if be wasn't a sect leader, he'd be good. But when you're a sect leader, being good isn't enough! Your inaction amounts to hundreds of lives.

Wei Wuxian perhaps has the most blood on his hands yet he values even the life of some useless servant, or some half-dead grandmother. You're all letting entire clans die to maintain a peaceful environment and you're thinking you're being righteous. If you have doubts then check them out!

Why are Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji so fated?

Well, firstly they've seen how "ugly" the other can get. Lan Wangjj knows that Wei Wuxian can turn up the heavens for righteousness, that he'll gladly walk through hell, if he could he would even offer up his own pieces of flesh. Wei Wuxian knows Lan Wangji cannot pretend things are okay when they're not. He is stubborn to no end with what he believes to be right, is willing to bear each and every consequence. He'd rather do what he thinks is right and accept the punishment later, whatever that will be.

In the face of truth, you can't hide, and you can't be prejudiced.

Wei Wuxian was hurt so much by Wen Chao, thrown into the Burial Mounds yet he brought the same surnamed Wens into Burial Mounds willingly to protect them! How can Nie Mingjue simply act on his hatred? In your righteousness to kill all evil, you started killing without exceptions and became the evil himself!

And why does Lan Xichen not have anything to say about Xue Yang? "Er-ge... this is what father wants." But Jin Guangshan is also a sect leader! Lan Xichen is also a sect leader!

I wonder what Lan Xichen said to Wangji after his visit to the Burial Mounds.

"Xiongzhang, there isn't an army but a child, the elderly, the women."

"Wangji. I understand. But Wei-gongzi has really upset the orthodox society now. It is no longer about the Wens. His cultivation is evil, and he holds the Tiger Seal... he even brought back Wen Ning's consciousness... you believe you know him..."

And boom, tell that to Jin Guangyao and three days later, everyone knows about Wen Ning. Props to Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji for not holding grudges towards anyone and simply riding off to the sunset and even helping everyone who never tried to understand their true hearts.

Both of them are really blessed.

[westiec]

novel jyl didn't forgive wwx? i've only watched the drama and thought she did

Ohhhhh nonny, it's really sad. 😭

Here's the scene in the novel (EXR Translation, Ch. 78: Nightfall), just after Jiang Yanli has been slashed by a fierce corpse at Nightless City, and Wei Wuxian is facing the horrified realization that he does not, after all, have everything under control:

As [Jiang Cheng] spoke, he was about to pick up Jiang Yanli when she spoke up, “… A-Xian.” Wei Wuxian felt shivers go down his spine, “Shijie, I… I’m here.” Slowly, Jiang Yanli opened her dark eyes. Wei Wuxian felt fear rumble within him. Jiang Yanli managed, “… A-Xian. Before… why did you run away so fast… I didn’t even get the chance to look at you, or say something to you…” Hearing this, Wei Wuxian’s heart beat fast. He still didn’t dare look at Jiang Yanli’s face. Right then, the face was the same as Jin Zixuan’s back then, covered in dust and blood. He was even more scared to hear the words she was about to say. Jiang Yanli, “I’m… I’m here to tell you…” To tell him what? That it’s fine? That I don’t hate you? That everything is fine? That I don’t blame you for having killed Jin Zixuan? It was impossible. But she couldn’t say anything that was the opposite either. And so, she didn’t know what else she could say to Wei Wuxian, under such circumstances. It was just that she felt like she had to see this brother of hers once more. Jiang Yanli sighed, “A-Xian, you… you should stop first. Don’t, don’t…” Wei Wuxian hurried, “Yes, I’ll stop."

And he does! He picks up Chenqing and tries to stop the fierce corpses! They're finally listening! Aaaaand then someone comes from behind to stab Wei Wuxian, and Jiang Yanli summons the last of her strength to push him aside, taking the blow herself. 🥲🥲🥲

Sitting on the dirty ground, Wei Wuxian stared with disbelief at Jiang Yanli, whose head had already dipped, blood trickling ceaselessly from her neck. He was still waiting for her to speak, to give him his final judgment. Jiang Cheng was at a loss as well, arms still wrapped around his sister’s body. He hadn’t completely realized what happened yet. A moment later, finally, Wei Wuxian let out a bitter scream.

She dies without delivering either condemnation or forgiveness—and honestly... as much as it hurts, I think from a storytelling perspective, it's the perfect choice. What could she possibly have said? How would she have come to feel if they'd all lived? What would she have been able to work through and what would she have carried forever? We'll never know. She never got the chance. 💔

[dearmyloveleys]

@trade-of-fairies interesting that you also brought Hua Cheng and someone absorbing so much negative energy that they become demonic… to me, it sounds kinda like Wen Ning. I mean, at the same time, i also can sense that it probably is not the same…? Would you mind thinking aloud at me on this one, please?

—

Hello! Long essay ahead. I think it all boils down to the differing character type semantics of TGCF and MDZS as fiction in different genres.

So where does the difference between HC’s transformation into a Ghost/Demon and WN’s transformation into the Ghost General lie?

We need to understand that while there are similarities because both are written from baselines of Chinese fantasy stories, we cannot apply fantasy concepts for TGCF and MDZS interchangeably. Their types of xianxia differs: TGCF is a high level xianxia (Gods, ascension, wars, magic, Demon kings). Think in terms of Western media, sort of like like the Illiad and other Greek Mythology. In C-novel and C-drama realm, think Til The End of the Moon and Three Miles of Peach Blossoms.

MDZS is low level xianxia, with a bit of wuxia mixed into it (differing martial sects, with differing cultivation manuals and gongfu training). There is a larger focus on styles of mortal Dao cultivation and intersect politics. Think Mortal Instruments or even Avatar The Last Airbender (not so good examples because this genre is very unique to Chinese fiction). In C-novel and C-drama realm, think Mysterious Lotus Casebook and Blood of Youth.

Where these two books share similarities is that the in-world characters often separate “good” and “evil” as themes for characters. Anything involving “demons” or “demonic” are viewed as bad. HC = Demon King, bad. WN = Ghost General, bad. As mentioned previously, this is probably where everyone goes wrong and pins modao on WWX, because they are more familiar with mo compared to guidao, which he newly pioneers.

HC is so decisively a Demon/Ghost is because of the nature of his path of becoming one. In TGCF, it’s clearly stated that in order to become a Ghost King, one has to be the surviving ghost in the battle of Tonglu Mountain. This battle was written precisely for Ghosts/Demons only, which is also why it can be more directly inferred that HC is a Demon/Ghost. Also, as TGCF is more of a fantasy story rather than a cultivation sect based story like MDZS, the characters do not have their transformation, whether into Gods or Demons, from explicitly stated “sword path” or “demonic path”. It is never explicitly mentioned that HC is a Demon/Ghost because he “cultivated a demonic cultivation path/manual”, as what characters from MDZS are likely to say. We only know for sure that he is a Demon/Ghost because 1) everyone says he is the last Ghost King 2) He was victorious in the battle of Tonglu Mountain. Most importantly, he holds his own consciousness. This is usually the case for most Demons in a lot of higher level xianxia stories.

Comparatively, Wen Ning was almost always under WWX’s control as a fierce corpse, to reduce or increase his brutality in battle with Chenqing. He is unique because WWX precisely manages to save his consciousness and part of his original personality, compared to other fierce corpses.

Okay, to add on even more confusion (for me as well when I was reading the book), what we know about WN’s change into a fierce corpse is that according to WWX (feel free to correct me here):

1) WN wasn’t completely dead even though he was literally skewered by the Jins

2) The Zhaoyin Flag that they used to stab through him not only severely injured him, but also lured resentment and negative energy into him. WN was already susceptible to such negative forces, and now being so injured, his soul/spiritual consciousness/ghost was waaaaay more gone and likely to turn into a fierce corpse like other dead prisoners/soldiers.

Despite WN being unique and retaining his consciousness as a fierce corpse, he is at the end of the day, a product of WWX’s pioneered guidao as a cultivation manual/style. I doubt there’s a similar concept of guidao used in other novels/dramas to control fierce corpses, which makes WN all the more unique to guidao and MDZS.

When you’re looking at how both HC and WN transformed into “demonic” figures, yes they’re similar. It’s a commonly used character development device in all kinds of fiction; the good character turning dark. But at the end of the day, they’re different because of the nature of how they transformed, the book stating how they transformed, and the two different genres of Chinese fiction that they belong to. Guidao is unique to MDZS and Demons/Ghosts are unique to TGCF. If WN was written in the same genre of TGCF, perhaps we could term him under a product of modao. Semantics, semantics. Hope this helps! 🫡❤️

[weiying-lanzhan-fics]

With Surgical Precision by metisket

What a beautiful story told through WQ’s sarcastic, loving, and angry viewpoint. A wonderful journey indeed! ❤️

Quotes:

And so it comes to pass. Wen Chao and all of his guards are dead minutes after they leave Qishan Wen—Wen Qing takes care to make it look like fierce corpses did it. It’s so easy to kill people who don’t suspect you, it’s a little off-putting. A-Ning looks downright guilty. He’s such a good person. A good person who is going to live to be old this time, no matter what it takes.

There are only, say, five people in existence who could possibly mourn the loss of Wen Chao in any case, and three of them are already dead. Of course, pointing that out would only make A-Ning even more unhappy. He’s far too kind for the cultivation world.

Wen Qing did at least make the deaths painless. All of her executions so far have been relatively painless. As far as she’s concerned, none of this has been revenge—it’s been surgery.

————

“‘Can you transfer my golden core to somebody else, Wen Qing?’” she mocks, widening her eyes innocently. “‘I definitely have my undead army completely under control, Wen Qing.’ ‘I’m fine, Wen Qing, coughing blood like this is normal!’ Get used to it, Lan Wangji. He’s a ridiculous disaster, but he already thinks you’re wonderful, so you’re never going to be rid of him.”

And that was absolutely the correct thing to say, because seeing Lan Wangji flustered and embarrassed is common enough near Wei Wuxian, but seeing Wei Wuxian blush bright red is a once in a lifetime gift.

“I do not think he’s wonderful,” Wei Wuxian blusters unconvincingly.

T, 20k

Summary:

If Wen Qing had realized sooner that she wasn’t in the afterlife or hallucinating, but had actually traveled back in time, she’d have done things differently. There’d have been less murder, for one thing.

[satonthelotuspier]

At the first siege at the Burial Mounds, its Jiang Cheng, not Wei Wuxian, who died. It caused Wei Wuxian to completely lose control and there was slaughter on a scale not ever seen before, even at the height of the Sunshot Campaign.

The clans retreated, and Wei Wuxian was left in a sea of blood and the dead. And for a little while all he could do was wring his hands over Jiang Cheng's body, and panic, because he really never meant for anything to happen to these people that he loved. To this boy that he loved.

But this was fine.

It wasn't.

But he could fix it!

Of course he could.

He'd done it before.

He could bring Jiang Cheng back as a fierce corpse, just like he did with Wen Ning!

He carefully washed Jiang Cheng's body, and set him out in the demon slaughtering cave, and got to work.

Unfortunately, what he managed with Wen Ning was precisely because the boy had had such repressed and bottled up emotions; Jiang Cheng was very much the opposite, and had a habit of releasing his negative emotions in explosions of temper.

Much healthier overall than holding them in.

And it meant, that no matter how hard he tried, Wei Wuxian couldn't summon even a flicker of essence back to Jiang Cheng's lifeless body.

He tried, and tried, but there wasn't enough of Jiang Cheng left for him to grasp hold of. In the end, his shidi really was gone.

[sonicasura]

Like with the Fierce Deity Characterization Poll, I'll be providing some context for First's Residual Reincarnation Poll. This is long hence the cut.

For those who haven't read the Skyward Sword prequel, First is the Link where the Hero's Spirit originally came from. He was considered a traitor to his people for something he didn't do, a 'Will By the Gods' to strengthen his spirit. And his heroic spirit was 'blessed' to constant reincarnation by Hylia so double whammy when Demise threw his curse in.

This sudden reincarnation is spurred from his spirit being split in twain, everything that can be seen as heroic was torn away which left everything else behind. Wrath, loneliness, hatred, rebellion and such can become quite volatile without their missing half. These remains seek the stolen parts of First's soul thus follow each incarnation.

Reason? Companionship, let the truth of their origins come to light. I Am Thou and Thou Art I. The connection between First to his Hero's Spirit incarnations are linked to their very core. He knows where his missing half is at all times and seeks them out.

Those that follow Hylia or tries to enforce Destin will always attempt to repel First in whatever way they can. Most detrimental is telling the current incarnation of Link to view their missing half as a threat. Once they first meet is when the connection begins to solidify. First and his reincarnations shall start to feel each other's physical pain, if one gets hurt so does the missing half.

Their feelings soon follow, then memories, power, the opposite's visage and finally spiritual unity. It is how First's remaining soul can recover from the damage done to being split. To reclaim every lost piece as the two can never become one again unless the Goddess's spell is broken.

Now each residual incarnation has a key issue that needs help from their missing half to fully rectify. Something which can only be done as the form and deepen this lost bond. Link must take the role of First's moral guide.

Lamortmon, Loss of Control

The owl rabbit beast, Lamortmon, is a berserker whose primal instincts are in the forefront. Any negative view(not from Link) on this First iteration is a death sentence as he won't stop until the offender is dead or his missing half holds him back. (Fitting since Lamort means Death in French) He completely despises this because his restraint has been taken.

First is very protective of the Hero's Spirit akin to a mother bear. Absolutely ferocious if his Link shall be harmed by others. He can only focus on the Hero's Spirit wellbeing and has to be to taught to take others into account.

The current Link has to reteach the reincarnation control, that First can ignore how people view him as a monster. Show them he is more than a vicious beast and is a person like everyone else. Doing this grants the current Hero's Spirit incarnation the power of First's Storm Beast, wind element swords fueled by the user's emotions.

Scar of Vendread, Lack of Reasoning

Vengeful remains given life, Scar of Vendread, is First's original body twisted by wrath. He bears no reasoning as he will mercilessly torn apart or even DEVOUR any potential threat. First mainly feeds on the undead to repair any damage done to his body and even go after living creation if no corpse is available to him.

First acts like a servant to his current incarnation. Whatever Link wants him to do, he'll do it with no issue. However if something is detrimental to his incarnation's wellbeing, First won't follow any command and instead care for the Hero's Spirit. A quite awkward caretaker who doesn't remember how to care for others.

Link has to help First reclaim his morality. That there are ways to solve a problem without hurting others. He always has an option even in the worse moral situation possible. Doing this grants Link First's immense regeneration, to reclaim life and lost magic when on his last legs. A second chance.

Chien Pao, Lack of Concern

Broken blades engulfed in snow, Chien Pao, is First's hatred imbue to his broken original sword. A spirit driven by hatred that does what he wants without care for anyone else but his incarnation's wellbeing. His forceful aura makes everyone either retreat or face him with their defenses weakened.

First is a playful snowy feline who is quick to anger if outsiders interrupt him. He likes to frolick in snowfall or avalanches he creates for him and the current Link to merrily enjoy. First will begrudgingly behave himself for the sake of his missing half.

Link must teach him how his actions can affect others. To be responsible with such fearsome powers and when to use them. If Link accomplishes this then First's ice imbued blade is his alongside the ability to devastate opponents through the power of wrath.

Magnamalo, Loss of Morality

The barbarous beast that breathes hellfire, Magnamalo, is First's malice taken form. He voraciously feeds on the life force of others from animals, monsters, to even people if the latter garner his rage. First's hellfire can burn someone down to their souls and cut down them mercilessly.

He acts like a ferocious protector to his current incarnation. Only Link is given the beast's compassion from First while any 'companions' are ignored or threatened if they get too close. He shall be the Hero's Spirit blade to strike, rage to burn and shield to protect.

Link must teach First that he can trust others. To show their people out there who sees him as more than just a tool or monster. Doing so grants Link First's mastery of hellfire and wield as an extension of his being.

Myotismon, Lack of Compassion

The vampire king, Myotismon, an entity born from cruelty and hate First endured. He will inflict or brutal torture against those that get in his way. Draining blood and life force of those the vampire sees are below him.

Link is considered First's personal treasure. The only person who deserves his kindness, love and care. If Link doesn't want him to harm someone, then First will back down with little issue.

The Hero's Spirit must teach his missing half compassion once more. How everyone should be treated as an living being unless given the proper reason not to. Doing so grants Link First's vampiric power, to weave darkness and command the beasts of night such as bats, wolves, etc.

When delving into Linked Universe territory, First will accompany one of the Links as the Chain come together. His actions are much different around the group than with other people. First will equally share any compassion and care amongst them.

If one Link has an issue or there's a problem that drives a wedge in the group, First will immediately address it. Any turmoil to his fractured spirit isn't something he'll tolerate if he can do something about it. Just like with the Link he came, the residual reincarnation will form a connection amongst the rest of the Chain.

First's pain is equally divided amongst the group that it feels more like an itch. He can share one Link's feelings, emotions or even memories to the other if it can solve an issue amongst the group. But once the bond between the Chain and First is strong enough, the hero can finally retake his true form.

The hero's original personality returns as his spirit has fully recovered from the split. First will seek to break Hylia's spell and Demise's curse so this endless reincarnation of suffering can come to an end. That they can live in peace should their spirit naturally reincarnate as the hero's responsibility wouldn't thrust onto them if trouble emerges. An escape from a terrible fate.

That's all I have for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you later!

[admirableadmiranda]

I just watched mdzs q and so cute mini lan zhans and mini wei yings aaaaa they're so adorbsssss. One little snippet made me think a bit tho, that wei ying only experimented on wen ning to make sentinient ghosts (is that what u call it? or is it an alive corpse? wait how can u call a corpse alive?) Is wen ning the first alive corspe? Idr where I read this but xue yang I think had used the whole Yi city to experiment making alive corpse? and his first successful one is song lan? Maybe I'm remembering this incorrectly... is that canon? If that's the case It just made me think that wei ying really is a genius because he did it in one try while xue yang was eehhh.

I'm sorry for so much questions hahah.

They are very cute, aren't they?

So to answer your questions, Wen Ning is in fact an entirely different type of fierce corpse than all but Song Lan in the entirety of Modaozushi. To go on the shorthand, usually a fierce corpse is animated by improper burial or being extremely resentful in life. They are lacking parts of their souls that have passed on to the afterlife and proper burial or liberation frees the remainder of the soul so it can reincarnate properly. At first Wen Ning is basically this normal fierce corpse, given a little boost by Wei Wuxian's cultivation to get up and follow basic orders.

What Wei Wuxian does is pull parts of his soul back into his body. It's still a dead body, but now there's a living spirit in it and that makes it immensely more powerful and aware. Wen Ning is almost functionally immortal, more susceptible to tools meant to control the undead, but he can put himself back together, take blows casually that would stun or kill a living person and summon unfettered strength from the resentment circling in him. It takes a lot of experimenting and time, the resentment of the burial mounds and the intervention of Lan Wangji and even then I'm not totally sure how they managed to do it.

Xue Yang on the other hand kills hundreds of people attempting to recreate what Wei Wuxian took months to figure out. It seems to be an excuse to hurt people, given how much joy he takes in the process, and he's also going at it entirely backwards, poisoning living people with corpse powder and letting them get corrupted until they are stuck in a permanent sort of half life. Song Lan is an interesting case because Xue Yang threw corpse powder in his face, then killed him, so he awoke as close to Wen Ning as Xue Yang, who has no respect for the living or the dead, could get.

Wei Wuxian is indeed a genius while Xue Yang is genuinely smart and clever, but the biggest difference between them is not in their smarts, but in their treatment and understanding of people. Wei Wuxian is consistently kind and gentle to both the living and dead. He is able to cross both sides and work with the dead where others wouldn't because he always treats them like they were living, deserving of respect. Xue Yang has no respect for anyone living or dead and it is this that more than anything completely hampers him and prevents him from ever being able to recreate Wei Wuxian's success on anything more than total accident.

Just goes to show that how you treat people has more impact than it may look from the outside. Kindness opens far more doors than anger or greed ever will.

[grymmnox]

weekly fic recs #15

ok yeah i kinda forgot to do this on saturday. this time i didn't read like any oneshots surprisingly enough

fandoms: bungo stray dogs

ships: soukoku, fyozai, fyolai

Completed Fics

Because I'm not me without you; millelav - bungo stray dogs

mature | 8 chapters | 29.3k words | chuuya/dazai | READ TAGS

summary:

“So, you went to a pumpkin patch together, which you do every single year, with Chuuya.” Dazai nodded happily. Oda nodded back, speaking slowly to get the point across.

“Chuuya, the same Chuuya who told Ango to ‘go die’ when he complimented his ponytail, agreed to let you compare his hair to every pumpkin you saw, and then proceeded to pay for the one you found that matched, no questions asked. Then, he allowed an employee to say you two were a couple, and even accepted it in front of you. And now you are confused as to why he didn’t correct them.”

Dazai beamed at him and clapped his hands together.

“Exactly! Odasaku you’re always so smart! I knew you would get it!”

Oda just chuckled wryly as Ango pressed his fingers to his temple.

“So what’s the problem then?”, Oda shrugged.

Dazai and Chuuya have been best friends for ten years, attached to the hip even after all of this time. But, what will happen when Chuuya disrupts the precious balance of their friendship by not correcting an assumption that they are a couple? How will Dazai react?

hey look, the sky's falling apart; saffroncassis - bungo stray dogs

teen and up | 4 chapters | 24.8k words | chuuya/dazai, chuuya & oda, akutagawa & chuuya, chuuya & everyone

summary:

The facts are this: Chuuya is a compassionate person. He cares too much and too fiercely. He gets attached easily and is undyingly loyal to the people around him. He also happens to be the strongest ability user this side of Japan since the turn of the century.

At age 16, Chuuya defects from the Port Mafia and drags his partner with him not so much kicking and screaming as silently begrudging, and the rest follow suit in time.

kintsugi; saffroncassis - bungo stray dogs

teen and up | 7 chapters | 29.1k words | chuuya/dazai, dazai & Q, dazai & kouyou, atsushi & dazai

summary:

6 years after defecting from the Port Mafia with his partner, Dazai has many things on his mind: what to do about the freaky mind control kid who is now his orphan to take care of; how to defeat the Guild before they destroy Yokohama entirely, without any intel or plans yet; and… the prospect of marriage. With his boyfriend. Yeah, there’s a lot to figure out.

sequel to hey look, the sky’s falling apart

not yet corpses (still, we rot); itotypes - bungo stray dogs

mature | 10 chapters | 27.4k words | dazai/fyodor, dazai & fyodor | READ TAGS

summary:

"Let's take it from the top. Hi." He gives out his hand. "I'm Dazai Osamu."

Fyodor glances down at the hand, as though it's a trap. To be fair, it could be. But he likes traps. He likes unwinding them. So he grasps Dazai's hand and shakes it, once.

Or, Somewhere in the remote landscape of Meursault, Fyodor discovers that whatever is fundamentally “wrong” with him, is also “wrong” with Dazai Osamu. They proceed to destroy each other, to their heart’s content.

Three-fold Fate; devilrin - bungo stray dogs

not rated | 16 chapters | 60.3k words | chuuya/dazai, ango & dazai & oda, dazai & oda

summary:

Chuuya stands on the shore, his red hair a scar against the cool sea breeze. Behind him, there is a braid of smoke through a page-blank sky. Vaguely, Dazai can smell the stench of gasoline and engine oil of the motor boats about to head out to sea. It is a serene, grey sight: the sun is still a couple of minutes away from the horizon, and Dazai feels winter on the tip of his nose.

A boy. The sea. The lingering taste of violence in his tongue.

Dazai watches as November finds its home in the dawn reflected in Chuuya’s bright, blue eyes. He squeezes the fabric over his chest, not knowing when his hand had moved.

His heart is still beating.

~

At some point in the distant future, the final curtain falls over the biggest conflict the world has ever known. Fyodor dies, the Book is destroyed, and Yokohama knows peace for the first time in decades.

And then, the most curious lead lands on the desks of the ADA–– Nakahara Chuuya, the most feared of the Port Mafia executives, has officially turned in his resignation.

Naturally, Dazai thinks, as the other half of Soukoku, the only acceptable course of action would be to resign in solidarity.

[bogleech]

No but really (spoilers if you ever plan on reading or watching berserk. But also, enjoy some spoilers if you weren't going to and you still wondered what the storyline is) I'm not sure a manga or anime has ever had a more compellingly fleshed out villain.

Through the whole flashback arc you get such a well written dive into just how strongly this asshole is motivated by power and delusions of grandeur, but also just how fiercely he convinces himself it's for the greater good, how sincerely he believes it's on him to create an era of peace, and how expertly he can manipulate people into believing in him until they're also willing to die for his cause. That he doesn't care who he has to sacrifice if it means, in his mind, ending all war and suffering forever.

And you can see how all his men (and one woman) believe they have a mutual love and respect with him, and how well he not only hides that he views them as pawns, but SEETHES when they're better than him or wound his pride and vanity in any way.

Then the guy fucks up big time in a way that makes airtight sense to exactly the outlook he has demonstrated. He's finally a hero to the most powerful kingdoms, treated like a nobleman despite his "low blood," when a young princess falls in love with him; exactly his ticket to elevate from commoner to ruler someday.

But then he spars with guts, who finally beats him, and guts thinks he's impressed his beloved leader and friend and earned more respect but really the guy is SEETHING more than ever, almost mad with humiliation over it. And during that low he gets greedy and impatient and does an evil ass thing by taking advantage of the princess, trying to force the "romance" he only wants as a stepping stone to control.

Then he's caught and he's imprisoned and tortured for years. His guys still believe in and love him so much they stay together as hated, disgraced bandits until they can rescue him, thinking as soon as they do they'll have him back and pick up where they left off, but what they find is nearly a living corpse. His body is hacked up and scarred and mutilated to where he can't speak or even move much or feed himself. This guy who already saw himself as a god just completely shattered and broken, and the people who still worshiped him and risked their lives for him have NO idea that through all that time and all that torture, he blamed them for it, especially guts, and fucking hated them all, and now had the maddening humiliation of being carried by them like a baby.

He brings it all on himself and deserves punishment but the mind-breaking misery of what it all means *to him* is communicated so well by the narrative that there's nothing surprising about just how much more evil and rotten he gets. You're stuck with "yeah, these are the choices this very person would make in response to these very events." When he becomes almost literally the devil all you can think is well of course he does. Of course that's the guy who becomes almost literally the devil.

He's a perfect example of a villain whose heinousness is all the more horrifying for the consistency of its logic. YOU can't excuse his actions, but it's so crystal clear why *his* brain does, you know you could never talk him down or stop him; there's no reconciliation possible. You just have to kill him.

But, hold on, before you do that, this is a whooole other long story so you just gotta take my word for it, you really gotta take this fucking thing away from him first

:)

[winepresswrath]

Apparently there is a limit to how much you can just bloviate in the tags before tumblr will just refuse to accommodate you? That is very rude and also unconscionable.

[robininthelabyrinth]

How about that time the Jin recovered the Yiling Laozu's body and decided to practice inadvisible taxidermy?

“I thought they said Wei Wuxian had been ripped apart,” Xue Yang said, poking at the corpse of the person he would have once said, quite proudly, was his idol. “Disintegrated, like. Apparently not…?”

“We made sure to spread that rumor,” Jin Guangyao said pleasantly, but with the slightest hint of strain – it was all getting to him again. What ‘it’ was, Xue Yang didn’t know and didn’t much care; as far as he was concerned, as long as he had the freedom to do as he liked, nothing else mattered. Jin Guangyao’s fixation on things like status and familial acceptance and whatnot were completely alien to him. “As you can see, it’s false…pity we couldn’t preserve his life. The Yiling Patriarch himself would have been a very valuable tool.”

Xue Yang didn’t disagree with that, though he supposed self-preservation really ought to make him happy that Wei Wuxian was quite as obviously dead as he was. After all, if the Jin sect had Wei Wuxian as their pet demonic cultivator, they didn’t exactly need him now did they…?

Of course, self-preservation had never been his strong point.

“Can you do it?”

“Do what?” Xue Yang asked. He hadn’t been listening.

“Make him a conscious fierce corpse,” Jin Guangyao said, like it was easy, like Xue Yang hadn’t been trying already. Even with Wen Ning as an unwilling guide, it was incredibly complicated to even get enhanced fierce corpses – and even when Xue Yang could bring a fierce corpse back to consciousness, they usually weren’t that much more impressive than normal corpses, all of them stiff and unnatural, and of course all that whimpering and wailing that the resurrected spirits usually went in for. Either Wen Ning had been thoroughly abnormal in life and absolutely furious in death, or else there was something Xue Yang was missing.

To ask him to do it to Wei Wuxian now…

Well, he probably could. But should he?

That little whispering voice of self-preservation was piping up in the back of his head again.

…pity it had never been very strong.

“Yeah,” Xue Yang said, and grinned. “Yeah, I think I can.”

(“So, who is your mute friend?” Xiao Xingchen, blind as a bat, asked politely when Wei Wuxian somehow found his way out of the basement he’d been stored in and over to Xue Yang’s side six months after he’d been kicked out of Jinlin Tower. His tracking skills were freakishly good.

“Long story,” Xue Yang said, wishing Wei Wuxian, mute due to the control needles but still wickedly clever, had shown up sometime before he’d fallen in love. “Just…a very long story.”)

[inamindfarfaraway]

I love that it’s King more overtly than Luz the Collector has a special connection with, because of how much more they serve as a foil for King. They’re a foil for Luz too, but like:

King wanted power and control, but has learned (ironically as he’s discovered his nature as a Titan) that more important than that for its/his own sake is family and friends, having good connections with good people in your life and helping others. He’s grown up a lot - learned empathy, humility, selflessness and better emotional management. The Collector is an ancient, almighty, omnipotent being able to warp reality effortlessly. Because of this he’s never faced any challenges that have motivated them to change and remain stagnant in eternal selfish, careless immaturity, never sparing a thought to anyone else and treating everything as a game.

King wanted subjects who feared and worshipped him, armies to command, devotees to perform acts in his name. The Collector has a whole civilization built around worship of him and the destruction of his apparent enemies or prey the Titans, and inspires terror in the people of the Boiling Isles.

King longed to be a god, but got the life of a fairly ordinary kid, initially to his annoyance and insecurity. He tried to project a fierce, intimidating image and coveted positions of authority and symbols of status like crowns, was desperate to be taken seriously. Since the start of the show he embraces his childhood and ‘humanity’, wanting to be treated like an equal and no higher, treasuring his stuffed animals and small joys like simplistic puns and cuddles from a big sister - even in the face of actually being the young of a species revered like gods whose dead bodies are potent enough to spontaneously create life on continental scales and whose blood can open holes between dimensions. The Collector truly is a god and his level of power commands respect entirely in itself, but he has no grandeur or weight in his disposition and behaviour. They’re a child in mind and bearing alike, from when he’s petulant and demanding to ranting and sulking in bitter rage to his glee and excitement about new games and fast-formed, hot-burning affection toward his ‘friends’. They shun formality and take barely anything seriously, wearing a child’s playsuit.

King’s character has been and continues to be heavily shaped by a deep sense of loneliness and abandonment. He was born and started developing his personality completely alone except a seemingly non-sentient artificial guardian; vaguely remembers his father being present when he was incubating, but entering the world with no family; then after Eda took him in had no friends that we know of until Luz came along and his social skills were accordingly poor. Now he’s forced to reckon with being the last of his species and walking on his dead father’s decomposing corpse every day, mourning his people, their culture and the life he might have had with them. Between that and the species in question being Titans, his experience is fundamentally impossible for anyone else to relate to. And he leaned this through the merciless betrayal of a people he thought he belonged to! He’s consistently been afraid of his loved ones leaving him and this manifests as attention-seeking and clinginess, often literally holding onto people. The Collector is the only known member of his species to have ever existed. They feel total emotional detachment to all other life, but as harmful as they’re willing to be to others, it’s clear they’ve been hurting immensely themselves. He despises his lonely prison and will do anything to be free of it; so isolated is he there, he can’t even touch people. Thousands of years of that existence would break anyone’s sanity, but especially a child’s to whom attachments are a crucial part of development. It’s no wonder he constantly needs attention and, fun and games the sole medium of interaction and connection they understand, loyal ‘playmates’ to keep him happy and stimulated. They like King have a habit of invading people’s personal space and literally (or telekinetically) holding onto them, e.g. pulling King toward them at the end of “King’s Tide”. Betrayal, abandonment and loneliness are the worst feelings in the world for both the Collector and King, and ones they know all too well.

Finally, the kids have each had a single important relationship both prior to and during the show with a magically powerful adult: Eda and Belos. Eda rescued King from his isolation before she even realized he was of her intelligence, let alone a Titan many would kill to get ahold of, just out of the kindness of her heart, and raised him with love and dedication. She created a false narrative that he was more important in the greater scheme of things than she had reason to believe he was, but he was always indispensably important to her. When it became evident the lie wasn’t helping her son, she revealed the truth, took full responsibility and apologized for it. Eda respects him and puts his needs ahead of her own and he officially recognizes her as his mother. Belos meanwhile promised to free the Collector from his isolation to exploit his knowledge and magic and refused to follow through. He always understood how important the Collector was in the greater scheme of things, but created the false narrative that they were more important to him than they actually were. He revealed the truth when it became convenient for himself and disposed of him with no sympathy or remorse. When they held him accountable, in his shameless selfishness he outright denied having betrayed them. And although the Collector’s childlike psychology and lack of any love or discipline in his life mean he desperately needs a parental figure, Belos kept their relationship a business partnership and never felt anything toward him; so they, upon realizing his treachery and heartlessness, had no hesitation to blithely murder him.

The Collector is essentially what King would be with his pre-show personality and all his potential Titan power; and, equally importantly, no healthy relationships and a toxic relationship instead of healthy, loving family bonds and friendships!

[admirableadmiranda]

I’m pretty sure it comes back down to the division of souls and what pieces remain versus which ones go onto the next life, which makes it much more that Wei Wuxian was able to restore that.

@jiangwanyinscatmom explained to me that one of the Daoist concepts of the soul consists of ten parts, the three hun and the seven po (for legend of Zelda fans, I’m pretty sure it’s the exact same thing) and the hun is Yang oriented and goes on to the afterlife when someone dies, whereas the yin po lingers on earth and must be settled through proper treatment of the body, being buried within a certain amount of time and dying with few resentments in life to bind it there after death. The more resentments or the worst a body was treated after death, the more the po lingers on earth and must be dealt with in other ways, such as the liberate-suppress-eliminate triad. This is also part of what creates resentful energy in the world in general, all of this is yin energy that lingers after the Yang has passed on. Po souls are especially susceptible to corruption over time, born out of resentment for the living for having what they do not, which is what creates malevolent ghosts. This is relevant for why people wanted to know where Wei Wuxian’s ghost had gone when he died, and what’s really notable about him remaining a peaceful ghost for all of those 13 years that he was dead.

So when it comes to fierce corpses, most of them are going to be purely po or yin driven, the living part of their soul has passed on and this is what’s left over. It dwells on the regrets and grudges the person died with, and can only be settled by handling those regrets and grudges so that the po can feel satisfied and let go. With the Intrusion ghost, his po was easy to satiate, he wanted to find that lost jade necklace and return it as a genuine regret he had at death, but also he needed to punch the asshole in the face for all that he had done for him in order to let out that anger in his heart. Being liberated now, he could move on fully and become a full soul in his next life. However this doesn’t always work, as the larger a grudge you hold, the worse the resentment afterwards and it is possible to make a spirit or fierce corpse that cannot be liberated. This is where Nie Mingjue falls in on this scale, he’s too full of rage and resentment to have his spirit eased by anything now, he’s just walking around hunting anyone who’s living and anyone of Jin blood in particular, and has to at the end of the story be sealed away, or suppressed, in order to deal with his resentment because he’s just too far gone.

Most fierce corpses are just Po creatures wandering around being mad at things, but the problem with that is that they are made up of completely dead, stagnant energy and those bodies and spirits still decay with time too. Fierce corpses rot, specific grudges decay into just pure rage. In order for a body to be preserved and maintain its strength, you need that Yang energy back, you need a balance of some sort.

This is where Wen Ning and Song Lan come in. And this is what Wei Wuxian does that makes Wen Ning unique and scary.

Wen Ning is initially an ordinary fierce corpse, animated by his resentment towards the living and specifically the people in the Wen Prisoner camp who tortured him and others he knew to death, but it’s not really safely focused and he’ll slowly lose what little sense of himself as time passes on. Wei Wuxian is able to, at Wen Qing’s behest and with a lot of experimentation and Lan Wangji’s help, summon his hun back into his body and make Wen Ning in a sense, a living soul inside a dead body. Now his body is preserved, he can talk and interact with the world again, and he is his own person more or less, though since Wei Wuxian is the one who summoned him back, he is in a sense somewhat under Wei Wuxian’s control.

This is completely different from ordinary fierce corpses and it is somewhat terrifying if you are the sort of fool who would think that Wei Wuxian could just do that to anyone or teach others how to do it. Wen Ning is a man who feels no pain, who has some level of healing ability given that we know he breaks his arms multiple times but they never stop functioning as arms, can fight without tiring and has all the rational thinking of a living being to aim and hone these skills. As fierce corpses go, he truly is unique, and perhaps what is most scary is that he and Wei Wuxian fight in harmony as allies, rather than a puppet master and a puppet. Wen Ning is someone who has most all of the perks of being dead and being alive, and the downsides are things that many people would not mind as much as they might think.

Song Lan is like him in the end, but Xue Yang was never able to achieve what Wei Wuxian did as well, hence needing the needles to control him. As for how and why he could do it, he did have access to Wei Wuxian’s notes and plenty of time in order to try and recreate another corpse like Wen Ning for his own use, since as he told us, Wen Ning is too loyal to Wei Wuxian and even his needles couldn’t override that, but even his biggest success was still a failure in comparison to Wen Ning, who defeats him handily in Yi City after fighting hordes of lower level fierce corpses all night and protecting the juniors in the process.

So in answer to your question, he’s special because he has his consciousness and because it was restored by Wei Wuxian and he is not playing by the same rules as ordinary fierce corpses, especially since unlike all the rest of them, he also gets to choose when he’s done and return back to the cycle of reincarnation. He is a true act of necromancy and one who is as fine as someone could possibly be with his current situation, since he has been given a second chance at not just existing, but living.

Was Wen Ning so special as a corpse because he regained his consciousness, or was he special as a corpse because Wei Wuxian was able to return his consciousness?

[beholdthemem]

I've got some time before work, so let's see what episode 5 has in store. The visit from Lady Briarwood’s dead minions in 4 was arguably the scariest thing I've seen animated, so I'm already afraid.

Thoughts:

- "Oh man, being bad is so EXCITING!"

Sometimes Keyleth seems like she is living in a totally different genre than the rest of the party, and is still sort of adjusting. Like. Keyleth feels like somebody decided to take a Disney princess, put her in a Rated R For Gore, Nudity, And Sexual Situations tv show with the full expectations that she’d die horribly, and instead the princess decided “Well, when in Rome...” and taught herself to kill. How long did it take for her to learn how to swear?

- “...ooh. I don’t wanna know.”

“...”

“...no, that’s a lie, I absolutely wanna know! Tell me, what’s all this about?”

I completely understand why Vax keeps coming back to spend time with Gilmore, he is DELIGHTFUL.

- Is Vex the older twin? I feel like Vex is either the older twin, or THINKS she’s the older twin. Something about her interactions with Vax have this lovingly exasperated vibe of ‘Ah yes, my idiot little brother and his trusting-to-a-fault heart’ which is objectively hilarious because I think she’s the only person in the world Vax could be considered overly trusting in comparison to.

- “And here I thought you were practicing your resting bitch face.”

“Excuse me? My bitch face??”

I need to start making a list of Best Possible Things For Percy To Say In That Fancy Accent. I can HEAR the indignant quotation marks.

- Okay, I think I got it- Vax’s outlook is like. He lost a family before, but he’s gradually starting to feel like he’s found another in Vox Machina, and is looking to encourage that. Vex’s policy is that she lost a family before, is keeping fierce hold of what’s left of it, and has zero interest in adding new people to the remainder because she doesn’t trust them not to potentially fuck her/Vax/Trinket over, accidentally or otherwise. 

I wouldn’t have originally guessed her to be a control freak, but I think she is, a little? Just sort of in the sense that she went through something so traumatic and wildly out of her control early on that she cannot feel safe and comfortable unless she’s in charge of whatever situation she’s in.

- OH MY GOD, WAIT, THAT’S WHY SHE GETS ON WITH PERCY, BECAUSE HE’S THE SAME WAY. I’ve been trying to figure out why she just tolerates everybody besides Vax but seems genuinely invested in figuring Percy’s shit out, it’s because he’s the only one whose approach to life she understands, and she wants to give him the help with it that she didn’t get.

- CAN’T LADY BRIARWOOD JUST KEEP ASTHMATIC LITTLE PURSE DOGS LIKE EVERY OTHER RICH PERSON?!

- Scanlan I need you to understand that this is attached to a dog. You are frenching a dog right now. That is a new and unique low.

- “Come ON Percy, FASTER! HYAH!”

“This thing was not built for speed and DID YOU JUST ‘HYAH’ ME?!”

What is it about life or death situations that bring out the old married couple in these two? This feels like that scene from the Incredibles where Bob and Helen are arguing over the fastest route through traffic to get to the supervillain downtown.

- So the twins have a dad, and Daddy Issues to go with it. Hoo boy.

- Seeing what Whitestone’s become after hearing Percy describe the way he remembered it feels like another death.

- I knew we’d be coming back to the people the Briarwoods ‘invited for dinner’, but there was a moment there where I thought it was going to be what was left of the corpses of Percy’s family hanging from that tree, left up there as a constant reminder to the villagers of how easily Lord and Lady Briarwood can remove obstacles to what they want- and how much joy they get out of doing so. For your sake don’t be one. You’ll fail, and they’ll have fun making an example out of you for trying.