#i love it when everyone gets protective over shen yuan

[fairsweetlonging]

pixie!shen yuan au where he transmigrates into a cute little forest pixie, with pretty gossamer wings that sparkle like stars, a voice that tinkles like tiny silver bells, and long dark hair that he braids while wearing flowers as sunhats!!

he lives in a hollow tree on cang qiong, enjoying the rivers and groves and rocky cliff faces. his little house is filled with all kinds of trinkets, a lot of which he's stolen found from the sect, like buttons and beads and scraps of silk, needles as swords and fancy tea leaves from pots left out by kitchen windows. he quite likes his little life, the only downside is that he can't really read books this way, because even though he sneaks into the libraries at night and his wings are a source of light, most books are way too heavy and he's worried his (faint but present) spiritual energy will be detected.

he watches the disciples train on different peaks, soaking in all the new lore and details that airplane put way too little time and energy into. he's there before the plot, so binghe hasn't arrived yet and he can take his sweet time making a plan to ensure binghe won't destroy the mountain.

one day, though, the rare time he ventures out into qing jing peak, he gets distracted by an open window to the bamboo house. he knows it's stupid, but this might be the only chance he has to take a look inside the villain's lair, it's something he needs to know if he wants to help binghe in the future, and so he goes inside and takes a look around—

and promply gets trapped inside a mason jar.

oops.

shen qingqiu's face looks at him from the other side of the glass, still menacingly beautiful even with the slight distortion. worst-case scenarios flash through his head; crushed into pixie jam, experimentation, harvested for parts, stalled out like a fancy ornament on the shelf... but it's none of that.

"sneaking around my peak, entering my home, naughty little thing," shen qingqiu huffs, "were you not taught manners?"

he leaves the jar on the desk for a bit, chiding shen yuan but then—opens the jar? and lets him out? he tells shen yuan not to sneak into his house anymore and then just... continues with his paperwork. shen qingqiu's cruelty is limited to humans, it seems, and not animals or tiny fairies.

so of course shen yuan comes back.

he doesn't want to push it and risk shen qingqiu crushing him like a fly, but he enjoys hanging around the house and watching the qing jing disciples train and play music. ning yingying is already there, so it can't be much longer before binghe arrives. shen qingqiu is surprisingly kind to her compared to the other disciples, who he regularly drives to tears. the man notices him and tries to shoo him off, but ofc it doesn't work. after some time shen qingqiu keeps casually looking around to find him and shen yuan is proud to be getting on the man's nerves.

at some point liu qingge comes by, stomping hard enough to make the leaves shen yuan uses as a hammock shake. since it's the bai zhan war god shen yuan is excited to see him (liu qingge is often on missions, and shen yuan avoids bai zhan out of a healthy precaution of aggressive teens with swords), so he comes closer. the two peak lords hold the stupidest argument known to man that shen yuan only half listens to, fascinated by the sword liu qingge carries. but then liu qingge suddenly jerks his arm and shen yuan spooks, shooting up.

liu qingge sees something flying at his face and reacts like anyone would—he swats at it. hard.

when shen yuan hits the ground he can feel his wings get crushed under him; for a few seconds he's terrified liu qingge will stomp on him and scrambles to get away, only to get grabbed and scooped up into the air. he wildly kicks his legs and hits his tiny little fists on the hands that hold him, little voice jingling like crazy, but then shen qingqiu raises his voice and snarls at liu qingge.

"you idiot! watch where you wave those big paws of yours, brute! look what you did, you could have killed him!!"

then shen qingqiu turns around and goes into his bamboo house, kicking the door shut. he takes shen yuan to his bedroom, putting him on a soft handkerchief as he looks over his little wings and mutters vicious things to himself about "slaughter-happy idiots". shen yuan is too stunned to respond and just sits there as the scum villain fusses over him. his wings aren't really hurt, just a little squished, it's fine! shen qingqiu then lectures him for being reckless and coming so close to a brute like liu qingge.

after that they sort of become... friendly? shen yuan sets out to be the most mischievous little pixie he can be, but somehow it only works in his favor; he steals little things from shen qingqiu's home (not that he can carry much more than a button or brush), flutters in circles around the man's head, dips his little boots in ink and then walks on paperwork, etc. but shen qingqiu doesn't seem bothered by any of it. if anything, he leaves trinkets for shen yuan to take, offers his hand as a perch to sit on, and makes a tiny brush for shen yuan to use instead.

shen qingqiu gains a little friend and life gets a little calmer on qing jing peak. when binghe comes, shen yuan manages to distract shen qingqiu enough that the tea dumping never happens, and binghe is shooed off after the ceremony. binghe still isn't treated right and still has to sleep in the woodshed, but shen yuan secretly helps him and acts like a little night light in the dark, so binghe gets quite attached.

meanwhile liu qingge is regretful of having slammed a pixie out of midair and must prove his honor, thus begins the habit of dropping off gifts at shen qingqiu's doorstep (also because his sister freaked out a little, apparently hurting fairies is bad luck and he might have cursed himself for eternity? anyway).

this display causes yue qingyuan to show up too with the biggest wettest puppy eyes because he heard xiao jiu has a new friend who now lives in his house? shen qingqiu kicks them all out.

this has already gone on so long so the last thing i want to add is shen yuan eventually manages to cultivate a human form, and with a little effort he can even keep his wings! and of course this makes it worse, because that sweet little pixie is now a beautiful man who wife beams everyone in a three mile radius and doesn't even notice it.

shen qingqiu and luo binghe unexpectedly bond over beating suitors away.

[allpiesforourown]

Breaking my silence I pretend I don't care about onegaverse but there is one idea I really like and that's early bloomer/late bloomer. Like imagine shen yuan and binghe are childhood best friends right. They're kids and boom Luo Binghe turns out to be an alpha. He's the first person their age to present and he's like ohhh whats shen yuan gonna be?? I need to know if i have to kill people for daring to even glance at shen yuans neck. Years go by and shen yuan remains a beta but binghe doesn't care, he still loves yuan-ge, everyone is just confused why binghe isn't dating any pretty omegas and just hangs out with his beta friend. Then almost a decade after that, shen yuan is like wow I had my heat WAY WAY late that's crazy everyone else found out they were omegas when they were in like school and I've already moved out of my parents place. and binghe is foaming at the mouth because holy shit now he can fuck yuan ge without actually killing him. Unfortunately the only thing keeping people from going to war over shen yuan was all the alphas thinking "God I REALLY wish he wasn't a beta I'm so in love with him but he'd actually get health problems from relentless rut dick" and then they all fond out shem yuans on the market? Shen Yuan would need to go into hiding for his own protection

[endlessburningdarkness]

Hello, it's the anon that wrote that long essay about how I thought a Shen Yuan identity reveal would go. The ask was already too long, so there were some things that I didn't add.

When I mentioned a political crisis, I meant war. Cang Qiong wants Shen Jiu's body back, but Luo Binghe (who is deep in denial about the state of his relationship at this point) refuses. Cang Qiong decides to go to war for their martial brother's body, and then other sects join in as a way to save face and regain the people's faith in the cultivation world. Basically, it turns into a Xianxia version of the Trojan War.

The thing about war is that it matures you, and Luo Binghe, who now has a full-blown war in his hands with cultivators with far more years of experience and no Xin Mo, finds himself with no other choice but to mature. This strains his relationship with Shen Yuan further because he dismisses the entire thing at first. He insists that everything is going to be okay, that he has full faith in Luo Binghe's capabilities to win and protect him. SY doesn't take it seriously until his forced to when the demons start losing ground. So when he tries to finally start helping, it doesn't really help anything. Having knowledge is one thing, but using it in a competently effective way in a war is an entirely different thing.

The longer the war goes on, the more Luo Binghe realizes that he does have more people who care about him other than Shen Yuan. That his people are fighting for him because he asked them too. That his people are dying in a war over a selfish man who doesn't give a shit about them. He matures and starts to realize that being a ruler is more than simply being the strongest and having everyone bend the knee to him. He realizes that his in charge of actual lives and what befalls them.

The breaking point comes when Shen Yuan tells Luo Binghe to regain Xin Mo. It's like being spat in the face because it shows LBH that all SY cares about is what's convenient for himself. Xin Mo's effects made LBH a danger to him, so it had to go. But now that his life was in danger, it was time to get it back and to hell with how it affects his husband. Luo Binghe doesn't want it back because all it did was bring out the worst in him, and Shen Yuan insistsance on getting it back is like saying he doesn't care about him only what he could provide.

So, in the end, Luo Binghe decides to let go and do what is right for his people. Shen Jiu's body is returned, and Shen Yuan is expelled. Shen Yuan is dead for the third and final time. But before he fades away, he finds himself face to face with the system, whose been silent this entire time.

And it's Shen Jiu. It's always been Shen Jiu from beginning to end. Who orchestrated it all, from Shen Yuan/Airplane's transmigration to even Bingge crossing over to SVSSS. All for the sake of revenge. On the cultivation world who condemned him on rumors and heresy only (who are now disgraced and regarded as laughing stocks) , on his sect who scorned and abandoned him without a second thought (who are left with no choice but to disband, also in disgrace, after the war), and on Luo Binghe for killing his Qi-Ge (with one version finding himself completely alone with his duty to his people as the only thing keeping him going, and another forever tormented by a lie of what he can never have). Shen Yuan and Airplane get dragged into it out of petty spite, and because they were the perfect choices to play their parts and get everyone attached. So when Shen Jiu pulls the rug under everyone's feet, it would have the desired effect. Shen Jiu's final words as Shen Yuan fades are, "This was my revenge. The best curse I could cast upon them and on this world was my absence."

wow

this is ABSOLUTE FIRE! 🔥🔥🔥

can you pretty please write this into a fic so we can read and enjoy shen jiu being a badass getting his revenge, plus i would love to see luo bingmei mature. this is such a cool concept, please write it! or share more of it... but really it would be an AMAZING fic.

[platinumrosetail]

Yandere Bingqiu x fem reader.

The fem reader is a girl who transmits the same as Shen Qingqiu. She is in the body of the main female villain, who is the crazy lover of the original Shen Qingqiu. The fem reader and the other reincarnated must take care of Luo Binghe and change his unpleasant destiny. (I hope you accept it).

Oooh interesting also my first svsss/pidw request! and so soon too! I’ll try my best! Also sorry for the long wait 😅 been a bit busy and such lately.

Warning: noob author, female reader, yandere characters, and others.

Character: Lou binghe, shen yuan.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You’re the sister of the author of the ‘proud immortal demon way’ books which you wished wasn’t just fan service and had the plot your brother originally wanted, though sadly you can’t always get what you want as he needed the money that the papapa scenes gave home when he makes them. You decided to help him with it by making a more plot aligned au for it to help him get what he wanted and since it was an ‘au’ he can still make money on the actual book though sadly not for what he actually wanted to write.

You had fun writing it and helping him get his story that he wanted to make out there, even if it meant not getting payed for it like he wanted but it’ll do for now at least, plus he knows that you were wanting to write stories too so it’s good practice though he hopes that it won’t have you end up having to write any papapa scenes unless necessary.

While writing you would get comments from the one only hater of pidw; peerless cucumber, he comments on how he’s glad that the world building is explored more on this rather than the ‘original’ you show your brother which makes him happy that someone likes the one with plot instead of everyone liking the one with basically all papapa scenes at every corner.

One thing that you hate; more jokingly hate than actual hate, that he based the villains lover after you mostly with how you react to your husbandos that you have from anime and shows. He even based the villain on some of the villains that you like from your shows and anime as well, though he did have to up it a notch since the character was the villain’s lover and therefore a villainess though less than the actual villain. (I didn’t know what kind of crazy you wanted the character to reincarnate into so I did this, hope that’s alright 😅)

What you weren’t thinking about was reincarnated into your brother’s book as the same character that was based off of you. You of course have to have something preventing you from being your normal self as this ‘system’ that is with you makes you being the character as if you be ooc then you’ll be terminated because of it until you earn enough b points to free you from the ooc feature.

Shockingly enough you found out you weren’t the only one that reincarnated; your brother reincarnated as shang qinghua, and your online buddy, peerless cucumber, reincarnated as the villain so with the help of them you all avoided death from the protagonist and his ally.

You even fell in love with shen yuan; who was the one that reincarnated as shen qingqiu and also known as peerless cucumber, you also fell in love with Lou binghe; which kinda shocks you considering you didn’t before your reincarnation so everything was turning out great! It was all good until things started getting weird. Shen yuan and Lou binghe both started acting weird lately and being clingy, trying to make sure you don’t go out as you usually did and if you do it’s usually with one or both of them not even a guard plus you can protect yourself if needed and they know that so them doing this is weird to you. What you didn’t know was that they both were turning obsessed over you and nothing would stop them not even you.

(A/n: hope yall liked it!! 😁 I tried my best with what I was given and I think I did pretty good especially since I never actually read the novel or comic yet and only read au ideas and such. Anyway I believe that’s it so hope yall have a wonderful day/evening/night!!)

[baixue-temple]

I know I've only poked around the fandom for like.. A MINUTE but I have a thought as I go through meta and fanfic stuff, I keep bumping into interpretations bouncing between "Shen Yuan is a nasty little gremlin of a man just like the original Shen Qingqiu" to "he's a very nice person deep down unlike the original goods" but for me I'm kinda feeling like...

They're not the same person on a literal level. But they are also kinda the same guy, in a way in which they are running much more parallel than I think is given credit, in ways that makes SY much more fleshed out than The Nice One and SQQ flattened down to The Mean One.

Mostly I'm thinking of someone's video essay that touched briefly on Nature Vs Nurture themes in the show, and while they were talking about in reference to Binghe's arc, it made me sit back and think instead about how SQQ and SY could arguably fall under the same debate despite being more definitively separate entities than PIDW Binghe and SVSSS Binghe are.

Just off the top of my head:

They're both are very academic in their interests/skillsets, but SQQ's issues have twisted his perception so that his interests are instead standards of measurement against his worthiness as a peak lord (or just a person in general) vs SY's interests seem to come more calmly, given that he could binge read novels and more-or-less seamlessly fit into the scholar peak. Both display tendencies to defend their skills/interests from perceived or even imagined criticism...

...But both are ironically also pretty damn critical of others around them! The key difference that Shen Yuan is typically more internal about it once he transmigrates because now he doesn't have a keyboard between him and his targets unless SQH is around vs Shen Qingqiu is has truly just lost his ability to give a fuck, using his words as much as a shield as a weapon against perceived threats aka everyone and everything.

The level of self-deception that these two engage in re: their self-worth and how much they mean to others needs to be studied in a petri dish.

Both have a Specific Person that is critically important to their place in the world that come with complicated feelings of love, anger, self-worth, trust issues, etc. This really clicked for me when SY is taken to the fake bamboo house after being caught by Binghe. Whether or not Binghe's intentions are good, all SY is feeling is anger and tells him to leave him alone. He trusted this person! And what did he get? Captivity. So he lashes out verbally to keep him at arm's length because that trust has been damaged. Wait why does this sound familiar--

Furthermore, they are both pretty good examples of personalities where protectiveness of that Person can bleed into being domineering. SY doesn't realize he's done this to Binghe until nearly the end of the novel, where SQQ learns it early to survive and never unlearns it especially in regards to YQY. Both of them have big ol trust issues, have learned that they have little control over the world around them, enough so that they feel the need to control even their closest allies around them -- because they feel that if they don't, they cannot be safe.

Both tend to get misinterpreted -- and then react to it almost as polar opposites. Shen Qingqiu's more minor misdeeds or even attempted good deeds get taken negatively because of his personality, and he realizes this but gives up. Where Shen Yuan's actions often get received more positively than he originally intends or even wants, especially at the start of the story when he's primarily only thinking about his own hide, and there's lots of times where this goes completely over his head.

All in all, I think I'm finding more that I appreciate things that take this into consideration. That SY and SQQ are very much mirrors of each other's flaws and strengths. It's also just a sort of sad irony that SY starts the story hating SQQ so much but gradually becomes more forgiving of him as he learns more about the man and himself -- especially when you take into the factor that Shen Qingqiu... also hated Shen Qingqiu.

[dark-elf-writes]

Question, would the peak lords know fellow immortal cultivator Baoshan Sanren?

(Also Wei Wuxian begging to go to the Cloud Recess lectures bc Lan Zhan will be there and he was invited and it’ll totally help him learn. Yes he knows there pretty much nothing he can’t learn here but it’s about the environment! Learning about the outside world!)

I me a they probably know of her, and could maybe get a message to her but with how she cut herself off from the outside world it would take something Big for them to try and break her seclusion. (Then again if Wei Wuxian gets so lost not even Luo Binghe can find him all bets are off the table for how far everyone will go to find him)

NEBDBSBD

“Isn’t the whole point to learn about the people and not so much the cultivation?” A-Ying whines where he is sprawled over Shen Qingqiu’s legs, pouting as he has been for the last twenty minutes. “How am I supposed to understand how to work with other sects if I never meet them? It would be damaging to inter sect relations in the long run!”

It would be a good argument if Shen Qingqiu didn’t know his son. Wei Ying had long since picked up his baba’s talent for manipulation, though he preferred a method more reliant on childish pouting and whining than Binghe’s tears. Not that he wouldn’t let those silver eyes get a bit too bright if it meant getting what he wanted, but that was typically a last resort.

And one that made Shen Qingqiu fold like wet paper every time.

Now however he merely sighed as he set aside the book he was reading and nudged at A-Ying until his son was sitting up again, reaching for a nearby comb to fix the mess he had made of his hair from all his rolling and pouting.

“And Lan Wangji will be there,” He said, hiding his smile in A-Ying’s hair as his son let out a strangled yell.

“A-die!” A-Ying whined, rocking his head back into his hands far enough that Shen Qingqiu can catch his pout. “You’re supposed to be the nice one that doesn’t tease me.”

“You and I both know that is a lie, Ying-er.”

His son’s pout broke into a bright smile. “Yeah. It is.”

Shen Qingqiu swatted at him until he looked straight again and set about fixing his ponytail. “GusuLan has… complicated relations with demons.”

A hum, low and thoughtful. “Everywhere has complicated relations with demons, A-die. But that won’t change unless they’re given something that challenges what they think they know.”

Too smart for his own good. Too like Binghe.

Too like Shen Yuan, if he was being totally honest.

“And your Lan Wangji will be there,” He couldn’t help but tease again, tugging at a lock of hair as he gathered it into place. He could see a blush creeping down his son’s neck.

“I don’t want him to forget me, a-die.”

A huff of laughter spilled from his lips even as he tied A-Ying’s ponytail. He tipped his son’s head back to press a kiss to the top of his head. “That, at least, I can promise will never happen. The two of you did trash a stall if I remember correctly.”

Wei Wuxian pressed back into him like a cat, even as a pout formed on his lips again. “He started it. I was trying to be friendly. It’s not my fault that he’s fun to mess with.”

Ah young love.

“I will let you go to gusu. If,” he stressed before A-Ying could rush off, “you convince your baba to agree as well.”

Wei Ying beamed at him, already knowing, as Shen Qingqiu did, that Binghe would never refuse when he had already given his permission. “You’re the best, a-die!” He was gone a moment later in a flash of black and red and a bright laugh that hung in the air long after he was gone.

Shen Qingqiu hid a smile behind his sleeve and began planning the protection charms he could put on the fan he would gift his son before he left.

[notacatdown]

Idk how close this adaptation is since I haven't read it

Ep 1,3-4,6-8 are as close as we get to the novel. The drama shows many scenes from the novel like Mu Sheng wiping MiaoMiao's smeared lipstick with his thumb, her complimenting his hair ribbon and him responding that beautiful things are poisonous, the 5-in-a-row, him stealing and destroying Liu Fuyi's protective sachet (in ep9), etc.

In the novel, that was his third attempt in trying to get her to accept his gift. Partially, he wants to express his thanks because she taught him 5-in-a-row, but he's so awkward about it. His first attempt at making a protective sachet looks terrible, but he keeps at it! The other part is that he has a one-side competition going on with Liu Fuyi. A competition that Liu Fuyi (who is a himbo in the novel) is blissfully unaware.

After that, I would say the screenwriter takes very loose inspiration of varying degrees from the novel's storylines from time to time.

"Honestly a good bit of the last two episodes felt kinda contrived to me in a way that maybe was explained better in the novel?"

The last two episodes felt like they were trying to catch all the balls that had been thrown up during the drama, and to the last moment, they were still throwing up new balls.

The novel's final story arc is a satisfying conclusion to the characters' story arcs. Miaomiao and Mu Sheng's love story and their maturity over the course of the novel because of their romantic and platonic relationships, Miaomiao's resistance and triumph against the system and the original plot, Mu Sheng and Mu Yao finding peace and letting the past go, Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi's final exchange of what it means to be a hero, etc.

Like Miaomiao being like "oh only the author can change the ending and also this was his debut novel he wrote when he was young and sad."

Yes, and the worst part for me is that it Fu Zhou has no love for his creation. Its only value to him is that it shows the start of his 10-year infatuation for Miaomiao. I wish we got to see that something he created in his darkest moment has merit to him.

Which is a pity because because originally Miaomiao's feelings about Catching Demon's novel is similar to Shen Yuan's feelings for Proud Immortal Demon Way.

"And Zi Qi feels like a separate character in a way that Lin Yu doesn't, so him suddenly having been Fu Zhou the whole time (without knowing it?) kinda feels like it undermines Zi Qi's emotional arc?"

Agree, this excerpt from the douban post words it better than I can why ep 32 didn't feel enjoyable.

"The screenwriter depicts a monster-catching world that makes people feel real, a world where Miaomiao sacrifices everything to change the ending, and now the future of the whole world is concentrated on Fuzhou's mood index, which is even more outrageous than "You only lost a leg, but I lost love."

This is also the reason why I am particularly disgusted with the screenwriter. She magnified the joys and sorrows of a disabled child who grew up in an unhappy family to the extent that it can affect the fate of a world, and then deterred everyone from paying attention to Fu Zhou's mental health and physical health."

- from https://www.douban.com/group/topic/321883210/?_spm_id=MTcwNDIyMzk4&_i=3915673511L4cl,6297378511L4cl

"I'm just not sure it worked for me... I was attached to the character Mu Ziqi, who had his own identity struggles and learned to let people in, was working on accepting his heritage, and fell in love with Miaomiao along the way!...I definitely got the self insert vibes, they make sense to me, I just didn't like the way the reveal kinda retroactively changed the perception of Ziqi's character. I wanted to like it, it just left me feeling kind of cheated out of what I personally was emotionally invested in."

Exactly! I felt like I went to a steak restaurant, and in the last dish, they said surprise, we've been serving you fake meat since the beginning! It isn't clever. It's betraying the trust of the audience.

Beyond the feeling of cheating the audience, the explanation that they can't kiss because he wrote this novel as a middle school student felt unnecessarily convoluted, and creates a Schrodinger's cat situation.

Is he Mu Sheng, the self-insert he wrote when he was in middle school and wanted to destroy this fictional world, or is he Fu Zhou, an adult that writes healing novels. If we say he's Fu Zhou all along, then its very extreme he would kill Miaomiao without hesitation in ep 2 or kidnap the marquis and was about to kill him before Miaomiao appeared. I think most people, who grew up in peaceful societies, wouldn't so easily take that step, even in their dream.

I would have prefer they met in high school, Miaomiao reads his story, they dream, and then there's no reason they can't kiss.

In the novel, Mu Sheng comes close to killing Miaomiao a few times, but Miaomiao talks her way out of it. Those moments are a way to show Miaomiao's intelligence and her growing understanding of Mu Sheng. It builds up her confidence in herself and him. She doesn't blindly believe that demons are good. She knows that Mu Sheng isn't dangerous to her because of those early experiences.

Ep 2 was hilarious, and I wouldn't mind this change if the drama had kept the game element. But once the drama takes itself seriously and says retroactively that Mu Sheng is Fu Zhou from the start, then Mu Sheng's behavior and mental state is troubling. He kidnaps the marquis and comes close to killing him.

If a book character does this, its fun to watch, but not an adult from the real world. If Miaomiao and Fu Zhou are teenagers, its easier to accept that his emotions are volatile and he makes bad decisions.

And that he chokes Miaomiao in ep 31 when he's under the Demon Queen's control. That's messed up. Not every drama adaptation needs a choking scene! This is suppose to be his dream. For him to do this when he's close to waking up and should have more control over the direction of the dream feels wrong.

I think the drama went too far with its changes. And Miaomiao, you're so brave and saintly for falling in love with someone that's killed you multiple times.

---

"Then there's a new set of identity issues suddenly? A new person who always liked Miaomiao? And it just kinda gets accepted right away?"

I argue that it doesn't get accepted. After Fu Zhou confesses his feelings,

---

^ Click CC to see the English subtitles.

I've watched several fan-made alternative endings, and this one is my favorite so far. Maybe you'll like it? I'm pretending the drama stopped at ep 31.

The video has almost everything I wanted to see in Love Game in Eastern Fantasy's ending:

Miaomiao is one of the two protagonists again. Clearly shows that she's responsible for the change in the ending

The amoral system that only cares about achieving its goal

Miaomiao's defiance and triumph against the system

A simpler, more satisfying ending with no new problem and/narrative introduced in the last episode. Defeat the Resentful Woman, and everyone lives happily ever after =).

That the Resentful Woman wasn't one-shot. She's the final boss!

That Mu Sheng, Mu Yao, and Liu Fuyi are real people, not storybook characters that cease to exist

(Original Douyin Title: Miaomiao x Mu Sheng's Multiverse. Inspired by Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022 film)

From https://www.douyin.com/video/7446825604005023026)

LGIEF Ep 31-32

So I finished watching Love Game in Eastern Fantasy... definitely still trying to process the last two episodes.

I feel like all that had a potential to be very interesting? I'm just not sure it hit right for me.

The time travel thing? They were like "let's go back to the beginning together" and then they were just right before he died and magically knew how to make things actually work this time? It happened so fast it kinda gave me whiplash. Honestly a good bit of the last two episodes felt kinda contrived to me in a way that maybe was explained better in the novel? Idk how close this adaptation is since I haven't read it

The author thing? I love some good meta involving the author, but it felt like both Miaomiao and Zi Qi just kinda suddenly knew things? Like Miaomiao being like "oh only the author can change the ending and also this was his debut novel he wrote when he was young and sad." I don't mind the show not telling us things right away (I loved the revelation that she knew what she was giving up when she accepted the power) or skipping the actual conversations with the System or what not, it just felt like it came out of no where, honestly.

And Zi Qi feels like a separate character in a way that Lin Yu doesn't, so him suddenly having been Fu Zhou the whole time (without knowing it?) kinda feels like it undermines Zi Qi's emotional arc? I do like the way both young Zi Qi and young Fu Zhou had to live restrained lives, it feels thematically resonant

It felt kinda odd too that Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi didn't have any presence at the ending when Cui Cui and his grandfather do? And I hope Miaomiao fully remembers her "dream" now that she has met her author

Idk, I really like most of the show, but I'm going to have to rotate the ending around in my brain for a while, I think. I don't hate it, but I'm just still stuck on ?????? so I'm reserving my final opinion. Maybe it will grow on me! Or maybe I'll just hang out pre-Catastrophe of the Heavens when they've defeated the Resentful Woman and everything is fine and everyone (except Cui Cui's grandfather) is together

[fairsweetlonging]

have been in a qijiu/qiyuan mood lately, and i was thinking about an au where shen yuan, upon transmigrating, actually loses his memories. he wakes up and has no idea who he is, where he is, who the man at his bedside is. not a clue. the only thing he has is his muscle memory, his sharp recognition senses (he's experiencing a lot of déjà-vu), and blurry fractions of memories that he can't quite make out.

thing is, the memories of both shen yuan and shen jiu aren't actually gone, they start to intermingle, to mix up, a little sister in princess pajamas beside an older brother wearing dirty rags, a bright screen that displays mountain peaks and glittering caves. he's kind and generous the way someone who has never had to worry about food or money is, but he gets vicious and defensive when someone gets too close. sometimes he says cruel things and doesn't even understand why himself.

neither identity fits anymore, both names right and wrong at the same time. it's just... shen qingqiu.

and while everyone else might adjust to this just fine, yue qingyuan does not. because that is shen jiu, but it isn't, but it has to be, but not always. he gets flashes of his childhood friend when shen qingqiu gets viciously defensive over nothing, when he scowls and scoffs and rolls his eyes when he thinks people can't see, but then he smiles, and laughs, and tilts his head in a way that is completely foreign. he likes beasts. shen jiu never liked beasts. but he loves tanghulu, like shen jiu. sweet sugary things. the first time xiao jiu cuddles up into his hug, he cries.

the way he sometimes clings to yue qingyuan when he has a bad day can't be him, but then he says "qi-ge" exactly like shen jiu would and damn near snarls at anyone who gets too close, and he's aggressively possessive the way he was when they were kids. but then he pulls away and apologizes, like shen jiu would never do.

and he never demands anything, scrubbed clean from roughness and filth and selfish want, will act perfect and smiling and pleasant, never burdensome. like he's completely forgotten where he came from, what he was. like the pampered nobleman's son who could afford to be kind. the only time his old self comes fully back up is when he feels threatened or scared or angry, like a trauma response that kicks in to protect himself. and then yue qingyuan starts to wonder if maybe it is. maybe the shen jiu he knows was only ever fear and self-preservation, and the one he is now is a shen jiu without the chains and shackles and scars.

yue qingyuan doesn't know if he's happy for him, if it's for better or for worse. he does know that he feels protective and responsible for this new version xiao jiu has become.

meanwhile shen qingqiu, even when he regains enough of his memories to realize he was once a different person, doesn't know who he is anymore. both, maybe. or neither. he feels bad for taking away yue qingyuan's friend, but in his heart he can't help but think qi-ge is his brother, and no one else's. when he manages the peak he feels like he's taking credit for another's accomplishments, but he remembers suffering for it, he remembers what it took to get there.

[allpiesforourown]

I wanna know more info of the Binggeyuan roomates au. If he knew SY since they were kids what led him to rapid dating. If not, how did they meet/fall in love. How long until Bingge realizes he’s gay? How long until Shen Yuan realizes? So many possibilities

Okay so first it was an admiration thing.. you know how when you're kids the first person in the friend group to start dating is considered the coolest one? Binghe desperately wants shen yuans approval so hes like "I have to get a girlfriend so Yuan ge will think I'm cool!!"

After that it kind of becomes about making shen yuan jealous. Binghe introduces shen yuan to super hot girls hoping shen yuan will pout and say he's jealous of someone taking binghe away from him :((( it never happens though, shen yuan is completely supportive of his relationships

It's kind of insufferable for binghe because whenever he sees shen yuan talking to someone else, he gets super angry and can't calm down until he drags shen yuan away from them. Him going through girlfriends is his way of saying "see i can find other people too" in a childish attempt to even out the playing field but it never happens, shen yuan just pats his head and says he hopes this time binghe finds the one

So eventually he realizes it's a lost cause and gives up on dating. By the time they move in together binghe realizes he's way in over his head. All of a sudden he's seeing his favourite person in the world 24/7. Shen Yuan adorably half awake in the morning eating binghes food. Shen yuan cuddling binghe on the couch while he yaps through a movie about all the references and lore. Shen yuan walking out their bath in just a towel.

Binghe has a few wet dreams about his friend (!???) and he's like okay I'm just horny. My brain is sexualizing my sweet darling yuan ge because he's the only person I see all day. I have to get a girlfriend. And then he's back to being a fuckboy because he's basically using his girlfriends as a distraction

I think shen yuan getting too close to another man would definitely be the catalyst for binghe finally realizing his feelings. When shen yuan gets close to a woman, binghe can just seduce her and steal her away. What's he supposed to do when yuan ge is suddenly spending so much time with a guy?? Binghe could try to fuck him but if he had to date a man he'd rather date shen yuan- he's not gonna think about that.

Binghe is NOT going to think about how dating shen yuan would solve all his problems. How he'd never have to worry about yuan ge finding a wife and moving out. He'd get to kiss and hold shen yuan and lay his claim in front of everyone. He'd get to be the person who takes care of him forever...

Binghe tries (and fails) to assure himself he's just being protective of his frail friend until some guy actually tries to make a move on shen yuan and binghe snaps and pounces

[thesummerstorms]

Rev’s Favorite MXTX Fics (1/2)

Heaven Official’s Blessing

’Til our compass stands still by edenwolfie

After getting lost in Ghost City, Xie Lian bargains away years of servitude to the Gambler’s Den to help a man in need. He dons the robes of a worker and hides his face and life behind an enchanted mask, protecting himself from the city's denizens. Xie Lian finds an unexpected home in Ghost City before he ever sees the lord of it, the infamous Hua Cheng. When he finally does, something about himself seems to catch the attention of the Ghost King, slowly striking up an unusual friendship. Xie Lian must figure out how to navigate his burgeoning feelings, how to keep his identity to himself, and how to get over a ghost so clearly in love with someone else.

the ghost king's bride by arahir

Ghosts won't stop giving Xie Lian flowers, Hua Cheng won't stop teasing, and Xie Lian is out here doing his best, man.

Aren't Alright by Boomchick

It’s been over a week since Xie Lian checked in which, for Mu Qing, is about the longest silence since the one that lasted 800 years. He should probably be glad for the quiet, but instead…

Instead he calls in Feng Xin’s help, and goes to see what’s wrong.

He should have expected this, honestly.

Feng Xin and Mu Qing arrive at the house on Mt. Taicang to find Xie Lian 8 years old both in body and mind. The main problem? Xie Lian isn’t the only one who’s 8 years old. What are two gods to do with a Hong Hong-er?

Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System:

I Wish You Were My Husband by Feynite

AU based on The Dreamer in the Spring Boudoir (familiarity with that story's not required).

Wherein Shen Yuan transmigrates into a harem intrigues romance novel (gay edition), Yue Qingyuan really fucks up, Liu Qingge is not suitable for his job, and no one even remotely sees Luo Binghe coming.

Metagaming by esama

[Self-Saving System Activated! You will be now returned to your original starting position.]

Shen Qingqiu dies and gets a second chance and decides to try a different approach.

Character Optimisation by esama

[Bonus mission, "Me, Myself and I" is now available. Would you like to activate the mission?]

Shen Qingqiu tries to sort himself out. Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge try to help.

pure white and snow-bright by AMereDream

The first time you are used by old hands but a new soul, it is out of pure curiosity. One hand on your scabbard, one hand on your hilt, and a soft gasp of delight at the sight of your beauty. You preen. You are a beautiful thing, and you know it.

The second time you are used by old hands but a new soul, you kill a man.

(Or, you are Xiu Ya. Perhaps that is not what you were in the past, but it is what you are now.)

Sit With Your Soul by Tossawary

The original Shen Qingqiu suffers a severe deviation that unsettles his daemon, transforming them into a childish and inconstant creature, too curious and without any memories of the life that has made him so bitter. His soul is now unrecognizable to him and everyone can see his humiliation.

Shen Yuan isn't exactly happy to have transmigrated into Proud Immortal Demon Way at all, much less as this doomed scum villain's daemon.

A His Dark Materials Fusion AU.

when at first i learned to speak (i used all my words to fight) by xfrinz

Xiao Jiu doesn't know where he is, but he doesn't need to know where he is to not trust it. The only person that Xiao Jiu trusts is Qi-ge.

//

AKA: Another Shen Qingqiu De-Aging Fic

You came to me through the green of a forest by namio

...I woke, and the low moon’s glimmer on a rafter Seemed to be your face, still floating in the air.

A gentle laugh, inky reeds upon a white fan. This is a figure he will never see again, Liu Qingge realizes.

The Many Trials and Tribulations of Ming Fan by The Feels Whale

Ming Fan just wants to get through ONE supervised night hunt without this happening.

Or: the one where Shen Qingqiu continues to be attractive to people who aren’t Luo Binghe and Liu Qingge. It's a problem.

---

“Da-shixiong.” Ning-shimei’s groan was barely audible to anyone who didn’t have a cultivator’s enhanced senses. To him and the rest of their assembled siblings, though, it rang out like a bell. The only one who didn’t notice was Shizun. He was up ahead and deep in conversation with the Lord who’d summoned them to investigate a series of local disappearances.

“I saw,” Ming Fan sighed. “Eyes front. Everyone knows their roles.”

Frankly, he’d been braced for this moment since he’d asked around about the family hosting them for the duration of this investigation. He’d discovered that they had two marriage-aged daughters in the household, neither of whom were engaged.

Help! My Boss is a Bitch. by x_los

Shen Yuan was born to be Reviewer 2. Decades after his marriage, Empress Shen Qingqiu is living his best life at the entire demonic civil service's expense.

Grasping a Kite with Broken String by yamabuki_kana (cygnisor)

Despite how hard Shen Qingqiu tries to hide it, everyone knows how he mourns for Luo Binghe's loss in the Immortal Alliance Conference.

Liu Qingge tries to help him.

Tongfang by The Feels Whale

Shen Yuan is reincarnated as a cannon fodder character and eventual murder victim in one of the whodunnit arcs in Proud Immortal Demon Way. Things escalate quickly.

Or: that one where young Luo Binghe’s career goal is ‘Bride’.

[ineffectualdemon]

Okay now I'm awake I can explain:

Shen Yuan and Characters he parallels:

Ning YingYing: I already did a whole post about it but when Shen Yuan enters the world he is kinda naive and spoiled and sheltered. He also has her tendency of getting kidnapped or blindly walking into trouble.

I mean he flat out complains about getting scenarios meant for Ning YingYing. And I think at the beginning his excitement and obsession with Luo Binghe is kinda shallow. He is obsessed at this point because he's the protagonist not because he's Binghe.

But as the narrative moves in he finds his purpose and happiness in teaching and matures and finds steel and strength in his kindness. Just like Ning YingYing does under his tutelage.

They also got over their superficial feelings for Binghe by the time Shen Qingqiu self detonates

Where they differ is how.

Shen Qingqiu in embracing Luo Binghe because even though he is still scared of him in that moment he doesn't care. It's not a superficial attachment to a fictional protagonist. His Binghe is hurting and he wants to make it stop. He doesn't really process or realise the depth of his feelings until his resurrection as Plant Shen but it's certainly not shallow

Ning YingYing on the other hand with both great empathy and understanding and steel and strength tells Luo Binghe off and rejects him as her Shidi. She is empathetic that something happened between him and their Shizun but she cannot forgive his role in the destruction of Shen Qingqiu. She is very mature in this moment. More than most of the others around her

Yue Qingyuan: again I already did a post about this but Shen Yuan sees all the wrongs Luo Binghe does and does not care. This is his Binghe. His Binghe who lose his innocence because of him.

Like Yue Qingyuan he left his loved one in hell, betrayed him, mourned for him while he was living, suffered for him, and was/is willing to die for him. And he can never explain why he committed such a betrayal

The difference is Yue Qingyuan didn't know Shen Jiu was alive when he mourned and couldn't bridge the gap and show Shen Jiu that he still cared. Their lack of communication couldn't be overcome due to intense trauma on both sides. And Shen Jiu lashed out at everything around him and Yue Qingyuan closed himself off more and more. Hiding under a false smile and being unable to move until it was too late.

Shen Qingqiu had the Jade necklace, a link he could use to facilitate the conversation. Something Yue Qingyuan lacked.

Su Xiyan: A righteous cultivator whose relationship with a heavenly demon becomes everyone's business. Who the Old Palace Master targets. Whose story is twisted to be a helpless martyr, tainted and destroyed by an evil demon. When in reality she fell in love with someone who loved her completely in return.

It's easy to see the parallels and that's without mentioning Su Xiyan protecting Binghe with her own life, something Shen Qingqiu does repeatedly. In fact he makes this comparison himself at Maigu Ridge when he tells Luo Binghe if he had been Su Xiyan he would have absorbed the poison meant for Binghe and died so he could live.

And then he proceeds to do that exact thing, using his body to take in the poison of Xin Mo so Binghe can live.

Only this time the system shows mercy.

Mobei Jun: this one is harder to explain. The clearest way I can say is they both hide their thoughts behind masks, and have poor communication, and think everyone is on the same wavelength as them. Shen Qingqiu thinks his view is the correct view and the one that everyone sees until he's forced to face the reality of the situation and realises how badly he got Binghe wrong.

The same is true for Mobei about Shang Qinghua.

In fact you could blame both these errors on cultural differences and also class differences. For all the difference of their upbringing they are both born into privilege and wealth. Their starting point blinds them to the truth of the struggles and resentment from their loved interests. They can see it but they don't understand it. They don't understand the emotional weight of poverty like Luo Binghe and Shang Qinghua do.

Mobei and Shen Qingqiu make assumptions and those assumptions blow up in their faces. But, they also learn from them and make amends

Reflections of Shen Yuan:

Shen Jiu: the cruel master Vs the kind one. They are similar in their thin faces and myopic viewpoint and I would say their unreliable narration of the world. I would also argue that neither cares very much for themselves and both deal with deep depression

The differences though are easy. Shen Jiu lashes out at the world. He is a monster on the inside and he's going to act like it. If he had to suffer so does everyone else. Why should anyone else get to be happy and fulfilled? It's not ever his fault, it's everyone else's and yes he deserves it but so does everyone else

Shen Yuan punishes himself. He takes his pain out in his reckless disregard for his life. He deserves his suffering somehow but no one else should be in real pain. The only time he felt like lashing out was online and at Shang Qinghua and even then he pulls his punches. His insults if they go on long enough start to reveal praise. Shen Qingqiu is kind but cannot see how his kindness affects those around him because he does not see his own worth.

The Old Palace Master: the Groomer vs the Righteous Teacher

The Old Palace Master was trying to groom Su Xiyan and would have tried with Binghe. He is gross and cruel and greedy and grasping and controlling. Shen Yuan as Shen Qingqiu was none of those things. He wasn't even aware of Luo Binghe's feelings until after Luo Binghe had been in the abyss for 2 years and he had been dead for 5 years!

He had no intention of dating Binghe when he was his disciple.

They are as different as night and day but narrative reflections

Shang Qinghua: the writer vs the reader

Shang Qinghua is considerably more cynical and jaded than Shen Qingqiu and also less able to change things. He's too close to Binghe. Understands him too well. He is insular and only cares about himself and his King (and later Shen Qingqiu a bit)

He is closed off

Shen Yuan blooms as Shen Qingqiu. He cares about so many people. He changes so much because of that care. It's suggested he was insular in his last life but he has so much love to give. He's so open to it. He blossoms so easily and gives so much.

Shang Qinghua is a hoarder. He hoards his love and his trust and his care and doesn't open up because in his experience that leads to pain.

Characters Luo Binghe has parallels with:

Shen Jiu: started with nothing but pain and abuse and feeling like a monster on the inside. Hurt and distrustful. But Binghe still yearned for love and Shen Jiu had given up.

They look up to and are obsessed with a person who is both lover and father. Someone too kind but who retracts that kindness when they need it most and who they struggle to trust in the future because they never explain their betrayal properly.

Only Binghe gets proof. Proof that Shen Qingqiu cares and will continue to care and put him first and forgives even without explanation. By the time Shen Jiu is able to do that it's too late. Yue Qingyuan is gone and his bed of thorns has been made by his own hands.

Bingqiu is Qijiu if they didn't fail

Tianlang Jun: it's the desire to live a simple life of contentment but being saddled with an empire. Of falling in love with but being reviled and attacked for it. For loving and trusting and feeling like that trust was broken too deeply.

To hate love because of the pain it causes but yearning for it anyway

To want to reject his heritage and adopt humanity totally but it being forever out of his grasp

Like father like son

Shang Qinghua: your protagonist is not you but every other sinks a bit of their soul into their main character.

Binghe has Shang Qinghua's doubt and cynicism. They came from poverty. They hoard. They hoard money. They hoard power. They hoard love and affection and attention. SVSSS Binghe is especially like Airplane Shang Qinghua because they put all their love and affection and trust into one person and they guard that jealously.

They are also liars and manipulative because they will do what is needed to survive.

Zhuzhi Lang: it's the devotion. The willingness to sacrifice everything for the one person who made you feel like you had worth. The one person who made you feel like a person. Zhuzhi Lang willingly throws himself onto a sword for Tianlang Jun. Binghe gives Xin Mo for Shen Qingqiu.

But it's also their desire to kill whoever seems to have wronged them the slightest amount.

Zhuzhi Lang is Binghe's devotion and destruction brought up to 11.

Reflections of Luo Binghe:

Gongyi Xiao: the good wholesome boy is what Binghe wanted to be. What he tries to be, and what he fails at being. It's not that Binghe is incapable of goodness. But he's not this pure centered boy. He's a troubled and hurt and mentally unstable man. He hates Gongyi Xiao because he thinks that because he tried to be like that and failed that Shen Qingqiu would prefer the true "white lotus"

But Shen Qingqiu always knew what his white lotus was capable of and loved him anyway.

The Little Palace Mistress: the spoiled sadist who delights in harm and is grasping and greedy and throws away her childhood sweetheart the moment something better comes around.

She is everything Binghe isn't but what people think he is

Liu Qingge: the war god. White vs Black. They love and they love differently. Liu Qingge can admit when he's defeated. Can admit when he can't win. He'll keep trying but he knows his limits and accepts the outcome.

He says when Shen Qingqiu detonates that he can't beat Binghe and accepts that. He still tries to bring back Shen Qingqiu for five years but he is calm in accepting when he can't win.

He knows at the end of the book that he can't win Shen Qingqiu's heart. His objections to Binghe aren't that he wants Shen Qingqiu to leave him and choose Liu Qingge. It's concern for Shen Qingqiu's safety.

When has Luo Binghe ever been able to accept a defeat? To know his limits? To be calm in recognising a defeat even if he will keep trying?

Liu Qingge is control where Binghe is raw power and chaos. That's why they make such good rivals

And of course - Luo Bing-ge:

I don't even have to explain this one. Just go read the extra where they clash.

Characters that Shen Yuan has parallels with:

Ning YingYing

Yue Qingyuan

Su Xiyan

Mobei Jun

Characters that are reflections of Shen Yuan:

Shen Jiu

The Old Palace Master

Shang Qinghua

Characters Luo Binghe has parallels with:

Shen Jiu

Tianlang Jun

Shang Qinghua

Zhuzhi Lang

Characters that are Reflections of Luo Binghe:

Gongyi Xiao

The Little Palace Mistress

Liu Qingge

Luo Bing-ge

When I'm more awake I'll give reasons

[hey-hamlet]

SVSSS AU Idea: Rogue System

AKA: “The guy who didn’t like musicals” AU

shen twins au, a rouge system shows up to get the plot back on track by Force, taking over people, jumping from person to person, because if they control everyone, then the plot has to carry on, just as it was written.

the system prays upon the wants of their hosts, uses that to infect and control them. it’s why Shen Yuan lasts so long without any sort of halo - he doesn’t want anything, other than the general ‘i’d rather not die or suffer if its all the same to you’. 

LBH is his downfall - he falls in love with him, and thats how the system gets him.

ill give you three possible endings - end 2 is canon but all of them are fun in their own ways.

luo binghe is also taken over, the whole world left to act out the rest of the story like dolls and, when the novel ends, the system vanishes and everyone involved with the plot just. stops living.

luo binghe is protected by the protagonist halo, uses his bullshit dream powers and destroys both the rouge system and the two other systems for good measure. this is that happy end

luo binghe is protected from the system by the protagonist halo but, because of its nature as a meta-narrative force, he can't affect it, leaving him all alone, knowing everyone he knows are stuck as passengers in their own bodies, only able to interact with them in dreams

Extras:

Not Your Seed is Shen Jiu @ Yue Qingyuan because Why does it hurt to love you? Why am I in pain? Why does it hurt to know you? You'll let me down again If I turned my insides out, would you even know that I was there? is just too perfect.

Show Stopping Number is Shang Qinghua cracking under the stress and joining the rouge system because if he can convince himself its just a story, he doesn’t need to be scared anymore. 

Inevitable - because Luo Binghe stumbling on the ruins of Huanhua palace, seeing his Shizun standing tall and undefeated, wrapping him in an extatic hug, only to hear a crooning “Binghe, I’m sorry - you lost” is such a good mental image

[admirableadmiranda]

Thank you so much for your wonderful answers....🤩

First of all, sorry if I'm bothering you with my ask, please ignore it if you don't want to answer it.....It's just that you are the second person from all of the people that I ask (and from other people's asks, that I found) that loved SVSSS more than TGCF....And it's very interesting....

If you don't mind me asking (again), can I ask, who are your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from SVSSS? And why? And what are your top 5 fav moments from the novel? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks.....

That is very interesting. I'm sure there's a few others like me, SVSSS definitely has its fans and it and TGCF are very tonally different.

Oooh now I get to remember everyone! That'll be fun!

1.) Shen Qingqiu/Shen Yuan/Shizun. Hands down my favorite. He's so sassy and witty and I feel like he'd be a blast to talk to after he got the ranting about PIDW out of his system. He's charming and funny and I don't get why people aren't charmed by him too and would prefer his original body's host over him. He's just such a sweetie once you get past the tsun-tsun.

2.) Zhuzhi-lang. Snakey-boy! I enjoyed him and his loyalty every time he popped up. I always feel sad when many characters that are loyal to the first person that was kind to them show up because usually it's used to show them how that trust was misled and abused. But with him it isn't really so much. Both Shizun and Tianlang-jun are kind to him and don't abuse him (much). I hope he has a happily ever after with more kind people in his life.

3.) Luo Binghe. Our little white lotus who manages to avoid blackening by falling for his teacher. I love his struggles, I love the person he grows up to be, I love that he has his eyes fixed forwards and does not look away or give up on what he wants. I am also kind of a sucker for characters who would rather die with their lover than live on alone. Yes, it's very tragic, but sometimes you just want a good tragedy and he would be the hero of the best tragedy. Thank god for the system, amiright?

4.) Ning Yingying. I don't know why she's so high up, but I love this sweet girl with a spunky core that comes out as the story changes a hell of a lot. She doesn't have a lot of screentime or heavy character, but she makes me smile and laugh and I like her development into being a cool shijie in her sect and growing up to be helpful and wiser than she would have been in the original story. She's just fun.

5.) Liu Qingge. I didn't adore him at first, but I'm warming up to him a lot on my reread. There's just something about beautiful man who can and will fuck up your day because you insulted someone they care about that's very appealing. As well as he's easily one of the most determined characters in the book, which is saying something! I'm looking forwards to seeing him more as I reread.

As for my top favorite moments...even though it's shorter than MDZS and especially TGCF, I bet I can find five moments I really love pretty easily.

1.) Shizun's first time mixing his energies with Binghe to stop him from losing control and the fallout from that. It's a very dramatic turning point. It shows how far he would actually go when pushed, gives Binghe a very dramatic understanding of his Shizun that he did not have (even if it's very painful) and fundamentally alters the story in a way that cannot be understated. Literally everyone in the story is fundamentally changed by that action. His students grow up, his martial siblings are united, his white lotus is never the same after that moment and even the enemies are caught off guard by such an act. It is literally world turning and I cannot overstate how much I love moments like that. No one is unaffected.

2.) The whole mausoleum chase. At this point we know how much Binghe cares for and what he would do to protect Shizun, but here we see it the other way around. Binghe is in no state to fight his way through, they are vastly outmatched by an enemy they cannot hope to win against but the absolute last thing he would do is leave Binghe behind. It is Shizun's second act of ardent devotion, by the end of it, he is battered and bruised and wounded and at the end of his rope, but he will not let Binghe be hurt or left behind. And of course we have a coffin scene, which is just lovely.

3.) Papapa to save the world. I'm sure by now you've noticed a trend in my favorite moments...A third great act of love and this one unlike the others is not guided by desperation in the same way. Binghe is in a bad state, but they are alone, they are not being chased or hunted by anyone else in the moment. He just wants to help the man he can admit to himself that he's fallen in love with in the only way that he can think of, stop him from being controlled by this sword any longer. It isn't a pleasant scene for them, but I don't get the feeling that he regrets what he's doing at all, only that the inner romantic in him didn't think this is how everything would go down. If this is what will help him save Binghe, he will do it. And it works, after a fashion anyway.

4.) The deep dream record extra. It's sad, wistful, a little funny and full of Shizun just adoring Binghe and being sad for what he missed and what he went through, and then ends with him initiating intimacy of his own accord. A shorter moment than the rest of them, but I like how it shows that they are continuing to build a relationship that makes them happy.

5.) Bing-mei and Bing-ge's climactic showdown! The price, one Shizun- who will win this fight of evenly matched jealous men? It's just tons of fun and I enjoy Binghe getting to let loose and beat up someone for daring to try and hurt his Shizun for once with no consequences.

Thank you so much for the asks! I hope you've enjoyed my ramblings. Feel free to drop more if you wish. My inbox is always open.

[wangxiandecoded]

Episode 7 (& Wangxian Meta)

Previous Episode | Next Episode

(Spoilers for the whole show ahead!)

The Chosen Ones

Lan Zhan, if this scene foreshadows anything, it’s that he’s certainly going to become a part of your domestic affair.

There is something powerful about the first and only female Lan clan leader giving them her blessing and saying it was destiny that they found their way to her just as she’s about to fade into oblivion. Wangxian are the archetypal Chosen Ones who have been entrusted with keeping the Yin Iron safe. And if this was yet another straight adventure story that delivers poetic justice, we would expect it to conclude with these two people ending up together - and that’s what The Untamed does in a roundabout way with our heroes.

Nothing to see here. Just two guys tripping over each other because the sacred string of fate pulled them towards each other.

Lan Zhan, I’ll Be Your Secret Keeper!

This episode is full of instances where Wei Ying refuses to tell other characters what really happened in the cave, then turns around to look at Lan Zhan with a proud look that screams, “I’m so good at keeping secrets, aren’t I? We are soulmates! Come on, validate me, Lan Zhan!”

The expression on Lan Qiren’s face when Wei Ying calls Lan Zhan his confidant/soulmate. No words are needed. 

The Yin Iron Secret™ is obviously bringing them closer and they begin to share loaded glances that convey everything they wish to say without actually having to. Thus begins the process of everyone third wheeling Wangxian.

Jiang Cheng thinks Wei Ying should move into the Cloud Recesses since he’s hanging out with Lan Zhan all the time. Lan Zhan hears that and appears to be a tad bit disappointed Wei Ying might never actually do that since their lifestyles are leagues apart. It’s tough being Wei Wuxian sometimes.

The Lantern That Started Everything

We are here, folks! The moment that started it all, the scene that defined Wangxian’s story. Once again, Wangxian are framed in contrast with the two straight couples. 

Lan Zhan and Wei Ying are standing together and look at each other while making their wish, just like Yanli x Jin Zixuan, and Jiang Cheng x Wen Qing.

Lan Zhan says he is used to doing it alone and Wei Ying comments old habits can be changed, which just points to the latter’s impact on the former’s life.

Wei Ying has another accomplishment to cross off his list : Finally made Lan Zhan smile today!

Mian Mian asks Yanli why she didn’t make the lantern together with Jin Zixuan, as praying together is a custom followed by couples that are to be married. And that tells you everything you need to know about Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s relationship.   

The first of many times that Lan Zhan rushes in to hold Wei Ying back.

Lan Zhan for a second believed Wei Ying finally learnt his lessons and crossed over to the lawful good side.. but come on, you love him precisely because he would never do that. And those ants are cute.

Jiang Fengmian proposes to cancel the troth between the clans to marry Yanli and Jin Zixuan. It is worth mentioning that Jiang clan’s approach to marriage is to never force their kids into a lifelong relationship they are not sure they want as they believe in “following one’s nature”. When even straight relationships are progressive and value happiness above all else, what is to stop the show from selling us a central gay romance that ends happily? Absolutely nothing.

We’ve now seen both the protagonists reject the romantic idea of spending their life with a woman. 

Missing Lan Zhan Hours Now Open

Wei Ying pouting like.. What do you mean we have to leave already? Lan Zhan literally just started acknowledging me as his soulmate. 

Oh no, Lan Zhan.. Why aren’t you including your soulmate on the super secret plan™?!

Wei Ying’s reason for wanting to say goodbye to only Lan Zhan out of all the disciples is, “Why can’t I admire his talents? You’re all losers who can’t fight me and he is my Match (Made In Heaven), I desire for an equivalence (and a meaningful union between souls.)”

The camera moves from the Yunmeng siblings squabbling to Lan Zhan observing them from a distance. Zewu Jun joins him and comments that after Wei Ying’s departure, Yun Shen will be silent once more. Lan Zhan’s face falls a little, understandably because he was getting more than used to Wei Ying’s chaotic presence in his life.

Zewu Jun is worried if Lan Zhan will be alright on his journey alone and raises the idea if he should tell Wei Ying about his quest. But Lan Zhan, our beloved idiot, still needs that extra push to come to terms with his feelings and realize Wei Ying will instantly drop everything for a lifetime by his side if he were to only say the word.

Rabbits Symbolise The Chinese Gay God

Even before the fandom taught me that the Chinese god of homosexuality is literally The Rabbit God, so the inclusion of rabbits is gloriously queer subtext, I could gather that they symbolised Wangxian’s feelings for each other. They both talk to the rabbits when the other is not there, Wei Ying paints a rabbit lantern for them to wish together, Lan Zhan raised Ah Yuan among these rabbits because they reminded him of Wei Ying and after 16 years, Lan Zhan drunkenly admits he likes rabbits (the equivalent of saying he’s always liked Wei Ying), they buy the rabbit lantern together and finally come back to find these rabbits in Cloud Recesses. The rabbits are a part of the Wangxian family.

The reappearance of the rabbits when Lan Zhan and Wei Ying’s dynamics have changed 16 years later is very telling. Their relationship by then has survived death and the miraculous return from death; it’s gone through the whole cycle of the promise of love, the pain of loss, the joy of redemption. The rabbits bring their life full circle to denote the certainty and comfort in the fact that they have each other after the trials and tribulations their romance has withstood. Wei Ying even says he isn’t scared of what happens anymore in that scene. There is nothing that can separate our heroes after this, they just have to brave whatever comes together.

And then there’s this promo picture and scene from a later episode where two rabbits are kissing.

This is how The Untamed screamed gay rights : “We’re not saying the heroes are gay, but the Yunshen rabbits are definitely gay and no one can do anything about it!” Only, the rabbits are such a huge part of this love story. 

Wangxian’s Promise of Love and Honor

When they make the wish together, Lan Zhan looks at Wei Ying with a kind of awe and reverence like, how did I not recognize him from the moment we met? He eyes the pouch containing the Yin metal and realizes they are both more alike than he thought, that this guy is possibly and most definitely his soulmate. This is an important stage in their relationship.

When he hears Wei Ying wish that he wants to eliminate evil and protect the weak in exchange for a life without anything weighing down their hearts - I think it is at this point he begins to see him as more of a life partner with whom he can share everything, than just a friend. Because Wei Ying’s impact on Lan Zhan’s life is so profound it alters his being, tilts his axis and expands his perspective. Wei Ying brought with him a free-spirited, flexible measurement of morality and an ardent quest for truth that no 3000 rules of the Lan clan had ever laid down. He realizes the rules he grew up on are right but Wei Ying, with all his moral complexity, can also be right. Wei Ying’s companionship introduced Lan Zhan to a fluid perception of right and wrong that he found perfectly acceptable. This shows Lan Zhan and Wei Ying belong to the new generation that is here to reform the broken system built by their ancestors. In this moment, by choosing to view him as his unequivocal soulmate, by acknowledging their paths are to be forever intertwined, Lan Zhan liberates his mind from the monochromatic perception of life he was brought up on. By making this wish together, Lan Zhan trusts Wei Ying to always do the right thing from now on and trusts the both of them to lead a life that they are proud of.

He doesn’t know right now that staying committed to this wish is going to demand everything from them in the future, but he does know that Wei Ying is the greatest person he has ever met and the first one who is so compatible with him. And that is a revelation to Lan Zhan because there are easily a million things that set them apart. All the same, he sees his own core values reflected in his soulmate. He decides it couldn’t be the worst thing in this world to stand by Wei Ying’s side especially when he’s doing the most honorable thing they both know to be true. This common ground means something to Lan Zhan, even if we don’t hear him admit that. Because here is Wei Ying telling him he doesn’t need to be alone anymore even though he’s used to it. That he doesn’t have to go through any of it alone as long as he is there: fight for justice, vanquish evil, or even simply go through everyday life. Lan Zhan’s face in this scene is understandably the face of a man who is falling in love.

The promise they make to each other on this cliff was in a way, a promise to follow their own path that ended up operating above the constraints of and reinvented the cultivation world’s jurisdiction. There are going to be many forces trying to convince them it's not the right way, but the path they share, which is both the literal path of justice and their love for each other (they are synonymous, after all) is the one they courageously forge and painfully commit to when their world is unable to go on existing with the faulty principles it was founded on. That is why their romance survives every obstacle in the end. It is founded on a love that runs so deep it recognizes and respects the other in the many lifetimes spent serving their just cause. Their love, and the extents it goes to in order to thrive, is the answer to all the troubles that ail their world. And it all began with this lantern. 

This is why The Untamed is the gay drama and Wangxian are the gay warriors the universe has been waiting for. It staged gay romance in a realm ruled by gentry and the supernatural, giving us equal parts of gore as there is swashbuckling, gut-wrenching drama. Literally never been done before.

In conclusion, Episode 7 deepens the bond between our heroes and sets up the main struggle in their romance as we wait to see what will become of the wish they made together. But one thing is clear : They are bound together forever, not just by their love for each other but also by their common cause. That is why the road they walk on can never be different. It will forever be the single plank road they will always find their way back to.

[wangxianficrecs]

❤️Demonic Cultivator's Blessing, or: Curse of the Bunny Gods by FayJay

❤️ Demonic Cultivator's Blessing, or: Curse of the Bunny Gods

by FayJay

E, 25k, wangxian, sangcheng

Summary:  Written for the Reverse Big Bang Challenge, to illustrate the beautiful art work below, by Saph0000 (qr-sa on tumblr).

Her prompt was to write something about WWX and LWJ ascending to become deities; I took the liberty of slightly crossing over MDZS with Heaven Official's Blessing for the worldbuilding, and set myself the goal of bringing a smile to the faces of Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen.

So: a story in which the newly-ascended bunny gods set out to give Jiang Cheng's love life a boost, and find a way of cheering up Lan Xichen along the way.

My comments:  Ah, me, this was just as thoroughly delightful for the second read! Great story that focuses on our newly promoted gods trying to find Jiang Cheng someone to make him less lonely (since Jin Ling made a prayer). Wwx throws women at him left and right, and of course, JC just fucks it up over and over. (Except the one older woman who "takes him in hand" and expands his world, just as a freebie. POV everyone, basically, from gods to letter-writing Juniors to JC himself.

Excerpt 1:  “Lan Zhan, the bunnies are experts in papapa. Experts. This is why there are so many of them. Although admittedly some of them can’t make baby bunnies together, no matter how enthusiastically they try, because they don’t have the right equipment - but none of them are sad lonely bachelors, Lan Zhan! We don’t need to protect their virgin ears.”

Excerpt 2:  “That’s what I said. And people are worshipping A Yuan’s dads as the Bunny God of Cut-sleeves now.”

Jin Ling spits his entire mouthful of wine all over his robe. Wen Ning pounds him earnestly on the back, and Jin Ling is so distracted that he forgets that he and Wen Ning are sworn enemies. (He forgets this a lot around the Lan Sect Juniors, to be honest, and only remembers when he’s around his Uncle Jiang Cheng.)

“They what?” he says. “The village women were praying to them for loyal husbands before!”

“Well...they may still be doing that? But now so are the village men. They’ve started praying to them as Tu Er Shen.”

“A Yuan?!”

Lan Sizhui shrugs apologetically. “Apparently this is a thing that has happened. You know how people get confused about things, and gossip spreads easily?”

“But...they are martial gods!” protests Jin Ling. “Great fighters! They didn’t just ascend because of...papapa!”

Lan Sizhui bites his lip. He is trying not to smile; Jin Ling looks so outraged on behalf of Lan Sizhui’s fathers.

“Not just because of that, certainly,” he agrees. “They defeated a mighty dragon! But...they also did an awful lot of, um, dual cultivation, Jin Ling, in order to help Wei Ying develop the golden core in that body.” Jin Ling stares, and Lan Sizhui blushes. “I mean. An awful, awful lot.”

“It was very...educational,” says Lan Jingyi, with a somewhat harrowed look. He swallows. “Hanguang-Jun is clearly…uh...very thorough. And Wei Wuxian clearly has...great stamina. And lung capacity.”

“So loud,” says Wen Ning, shaking his head sadly.

“For many hours,” agrees Lan Jangyi.

“Every day,” they both say at once, looking pained.

“They were building Wei Wuxian’s golden core,” Lan Sizhui repeats, his blush deepening. “They had to make up for lost time.”

Lan Jingyi rolls his eyes. “Don’t tell me they were just doing all that papapa to develop Wei Wuxian’s golden core, Lan Sizhui. They did it in the library. And the cold spring. And on night hunts. And up a tree, that time. I don’t want to even think about it.”

“But…” Jin Ling’s eyes dart around the circle, but even the Ghost General is nodding. “...up a tree?”

“The bunnies are an apt symbol for many reasons,” says Lan Sizhui, in a stifled voice. “So it makes sense, really, that cut-sleeves are praying to them now.”

gods and goddesses au, ascension, romcom, matchmaking, genderflip, genderswap, pregnancy, chinese rabbit god, the god of gays, busybody wei wuxian, lonely jiang cheng, granting prayers, god wei wuxian, god lan wangji, male wei wuxian, female wei wuxian, he can switch back and forth, top jiang cheng, bottoming from the top, bottom nie huaisang, implied switching, sangcheng, humor, favorite, @okoyeleiaantiope

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for this author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

[spockandawe]

So, my heart keeps circling and circling back to The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, and I was idly prodding at why that is, even more than the other mxtx stories, and then I thought to myself, ‘why not ramble into the internet abyss instead of just in your own head?’ And so here we are.

I love this story so much, seriously. It was maybe the most difficult of the three novels for me to begin, because the translation editing is definitely rougher than mdzs and tgcf, and I think the story itself assumes that readers are kind of familiar with transmigration concepts (teal deer, person from real world reads novel, involuntarily is pulled into novel, often(?) as one of the established characters, lives out the-novel-plot-but-different).

But once I got past like, that first chapter? MAN. I was so hooked. 

I think the first thing that really stands out to me is that Binghe as a love interest is...I’m not sure I want to say he’s more “flawed” than the other mxtx love interests, but that’s the best word I’m finding right now. The wangxian ship is mostly in tune with each other in the present, despite a few lingering misunderstandings. And the hualian ship, like, hua cheng rolls up like ‘heyy what up i would do anything you asked of me’ and xie lian was like ‘you. i like you a lottle.’ and their in-book development is mostly about bringing xie lian up to speed on the depth of their history together.

But Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe! The original canon Binghe is specifically a blackened hero, who is casually cruel and manipulative, and has collected up a massive harem of pretty ladies to be his wives and concubines. Pretty much the last straw in that blackening is that his abusive teacher (who he still desperately wanted the approval of) found out he was half demon (also news to luo binghe) and kicked him into the abyss where he had a miserable few years having his demon blood awakened. Later, he came back to the human realm, much stronger and angrier than when he left, and his morally questionable adventures involved de-limbing his old teacher, cutting out his tongue, and keeping him alive for years.

Shen Yuan is a modern-day human bean who has been hate-reading the webnovel of this story, where he can see a lot of interesting potential in the story, but is massively frustrated by the things the author has chosen to do with it. It is a Significant shock to his system when he wakes up inside the story, in the body of Shen Qingqiu. After Luo Binghe has already been his student for some time. Also, there’s a System that’s policing whether or not he acts in-character as Shen Qingqiu, and he’s going to get punished if his points drop below a certain threshold. He gets more freedom to act as the story progresses, but at first he has to do things like argue with the System about why he should be allowed to give medicine to Luo Binghe after he gets beat up (it will shame their sect if outsiders see him with a bruised face). And on the one hand, he’s trying DESPERATELY to avoid a future where he gets mutilated and tortured by his student, but... he is absolutely a massive softy who takes no time at all to start ADORING this kid and being super proud of everything he does. He won’t admit that, even in his own pov, and he has a very, very reserved external manner, but he’s so soft on the inside.

(ps why did using fans as conversational props stop being a thing. maybe sometimes i don’t WANT my face hanging out in public, maybe sometimes it’s extra fun to hide your expression.)

And this makes for a fascinating dynamic, because this new Shen Qingqiu 1) adores Luo Binghe, 2) is terrified of Luo Binghe.

At first, when Luo Binghe is still a teenager, it’s easier to land on the side of just adoring him. The original canon character was a sweet, sweet kid all on his own. And Luo Binghe is still an extremely good boy when this novel starts, even though he’s being mistreated by his teacher and most of his fellow disciples. But when Shen Qingqiu starts giving him support and positive reinforcement, oh my god, he BLOOMS. 

But Shen Qingqiu is from outside the novel, and he knows where this is headed eventually. And at the point where the original character shoved Luo Binghe into the abyss for a couple years of misery, the new Shen Qingqiu thinks he’s in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation, and... reluctantly does the same thing.

So here’s the trouble. Luo Binghe is... needy. He’s a needy, needy boy. He loves very hard and cares about his people (person) a lot, but he is also clingy as heck, jealous, and has MASSIVE abandonment issues. Getting this treatment from his favorite person in the entire universe is... not ideal. Having it happen when he’s just found out he’s half demon is even less ideal, especially when the framing makes it look like he’s being rejected because of What He Is, not something he has any power to change. And it ties back into to his oldest, most painful insecurities. His name literally means ‘lowered into the icy river’, because that’s what his birth mother did with him. 

So when he comes back to the human realm, he’s not as blackened as he was in canon, and doesn’t have a grudge of the same magnitude as the original Luo Binghe. But the person he loves most in the world hurt him very, very badly, and he :) has :) some :) questions :))))))))))))))

And this is the point where every time Luo Binghe breathes, Shen Qingqiu goes WAUGHHHH

Which is so TASTY, honestly! And the escalation of hurt and mistrust is such a delicious feedback loop! I love a good supportive relationship, but I live for two people who care about each other inadvertently inflicting massive wounds on each other’s hearts.

I don’t want to go into describing the later parts of the plot, because that seems like such a waste, but I feel like transmigration stories are the MOST tasty if having prior knowledge of a novel’s plot makes the leads act as dumbasses in all kinds of new and exciting ways. Which definitely, definitely applies here.

And there are all kinds of DELICIOUS side relationships, which weren’t there in the original canon, and that Shen Qingqiu accidentally discovers/uncovers while he’s fumbling around trying to dodge his canon fate. Like, early in the book, Shen Qingqiu is supposed to kill one of his peers in the sect. The guy was suffering from a qi deviation and the original Shen Qingqiu was like ‘look, he was out of control, and I didn’t want to kill him, but it was him or me.’ Everyone was skeptical, but they didn’t have any evidence to contradict him. This character was the brother of one of Luo Binghe’s eventual wives, so it was pretty much just another bonus reason to hate his shizun once he turned against him.

The new Shen Qingqiu is like ‘okay, so this Liu Qingge is supposed to be strong. Maybe if I save his life he’ll protect me from Luo Binghe?’ And it changes SO MUCH! And Shen Qingqiu is SO DUMB! He’s like ‘wow, liu qingge really hates me, huh.’ And Liu Qingge is like ‘WHY ARE YOU BEING NICE. IT’S WEIRD. ARE YOU REALLY STILL YOURSELF?’ And then later there are spoilery developments, but there’s this act of devotion that moves me so much. (five years!!!!!!!!!!)

And I don’t want to undersell the intense emotions these characters are so frequently feeling in this story, but they are also. so dumb. so frequently, frequently dumb. and I live for it.

Like, I just got past the part in the novel where Shen Qingqiu sees Luo Binghe and Liu Mingyan having their first conversation. Liu Mingyan is a legendary beauty (so beautiful she wears a veil, because otherwise her beauty is just too distracting) and eventually becomes one of Luo Binghe’s favorite wives. So Shen Qingqiu (who hates the original novel, but also sure has a lot of passion for it and remembers a lot of the details, considering how much he theoretically hates it) is like ‘OH, HOT DAMN. MY OTP’S FIRST CONVERSATION. I WANNA SEE HOW THIS GOES.’

And what happens is that Luo Binghe gets so massively jealous. We get a bit of his pov, where almost all of his thoughts are ‘WHY IS SHIZUN STILL LOOKING AT HER?? IT’S NOT LIKE YOU CAN SEE MUCH PAST THE VEIL ANYWAYS. AND ANYWAYS, I’M PRETTIER???????????????’ And finally Luo Binghe goes off out of sight with her so shizun can’t watch her anymore, and Shen Qingqiu is like ‘ah.... alas....... of course the protagonist and his lady get privacy for such an important scene..............’

They are so dumb, guys. They care so much, and they ache so much over each other, and they are so dumb. And the supporting cast isn’t much smarter. Even the smart ones have the dumb ones inflicted on them.

In the extras, at one point demon king Luo Binghe is addressing his main retainers, and he’s like ‘if... hypothetically..... two people’s hearts were out of alignment with each other........ how would u fix that.......... hypothetically..............’ And his poor retainers are like

But I really, really think that the protagonist being afraid of the love interest is a really key point for me, personally. And then it’s extra my favorite, because of 1) him having a good fucking reason to be afraid, and 2) his love interest having no goddamn clue. It makes for such a good blend of humor and sincere pathos. I’m weak to dumbasses-in-love as a dynamic, but it can be hard to have something so lighthearted while also working in painful emotional depths. The premise for this story is hard to replicate, and I’m kind of drawing a blank on anything that I’ve read that measures up to it, and the plot REALLY makes the use of some incredible foundations.

Anyways, thank you for coming to my ted talk, this book is ridiculous and i love it, and it’s also the shortest and most linear of mxtx’s books, and i highly recommend it to everyone.