#i might have to do JGY fanart

[anotherdescentintomadness]

I just had a long convo with my girlfriend about how Jin GuangYao is actually *not* evil, but just as grey as every other character in this damn story that I can’t stop thinking about. And the character as portrayed by Zhu Zanjin? MASTERFUL. I mean….

I have so much more empathy for JGY and his circumstances/choices than the first time I watched it. And most of that is due to @thatswhatsushesaid and their tireless defense of YaoYao. ❤️

Listen, Past Me watching CQL for the first time: every single character in this story makes questionable decisions and JGY’s aren’t worse than anyone else’s. No one is all right or all wrong here. And that’s what makes it so nuanced and layered and beautiful. Buckle up, Past Me, this show is going to change your life.

Hi there, I love your JGY-centered content and read it voraciously. I finished CQL for the fourth time today (watched with my mom this time, who firmly declares that she will consider all MM relationships in this show “brothers in arms” 🙄💀) and I must say, I cried my eyes out yet again at Baby JGY with his mama and the hat. The first time I watched it, I hated JGY, but that Baby JGY flashback tugged at my heart a little. I followed your account to get a new perspective on JGY, and I love hearing your takes on everything. It’s given me just what I needed to see things in a different light. About to finish a 5th watch with my dad and as of now, I think the saddest stories in this overarching narrative are XXC/SL and JGY/LXC. Anyway, thank you for your thoughtful content and the care and time you put into your answers, posts, and shares. I love your blog. Thanks again!

waaaahhhhh man I need you to know that I have been Going Thru It recently for a number of reasons, and this ask in my inbox just made my day. maybe my whole month. I'm so, so, so glad that my unhinged keymashing about our special little guy has helped to change your opinion about jin guangyao, and I absolutely agree with you re: xxc/sl and xiyao (naturally of course). the tragedy is so visceral and that's what makes revisiting their stories over and over again so compelling.

argh I'm all misty-eyed and emotional now!! tl;dr thank you for this very lovely comment!!

[anbessette]

Hi! I wanted to tell you that recently I came across Simmer (and the whole simmer-verse) and O.M.G. It's so good!!! First of all, thank you for the chubby!JGY💘 I didn't even hope I would find something like that (bc the fandom tends to see him as very thin) but you saved me xD

But most of all I admire just how good it is written! It literally taught me a lot of things about this kink that I didn't know about, like the fact that this kink can be non-sexual and I'm actually not doomed to life without it if my partner happens to not have it in a usual way😅 Simmerverse really helped me realise many new things! And also these fics made me like NMJ and NieYao because previously I only have seen them being toxic in fanfics, but after Simmer I started to understand Mingjue's personality and his feelings/trauma about Meng Yao's betrayal QwQ

Anyways, that's it, I really loved your writing and am going to read your other fics♥️

Also I wanted to ask is it okay if I draw fanart and visualise some scenes? And also I'm curious if you had the donghua, CQL or some other designs in mind writing Simmerverse? (because I wasn't sure how exactly to imagine JGY's clothing xdd)

Sorry for the long ask😅

Hi! Thank you for the lovely ask - the Simmerverse has a special place in my heart, it's always so nice to hear that it meant something to a reader.

You're very welcome for the chubby!JGY content 😁 When I first started out with Simmer I thought it might be just me and one anon on the kinkmeme who'd enjoy seeing him reimagined like that, because yeah, his portrayal in fandom often puts a lot of emphasis on him being thin. Not that there's anything wrong with that - it can be cute, I'm definitely not immune to the appeal of "A-Yao small 🥹" - but it's very different to how I wrote him in Simmer. That might be part of why I did it, honestly. I have a contrary streak a mile wide, so when I saw all those fics cooing over JGY being so tiny and cute I went: OK, but what if he wasn't tiny? Would we still think he was precious, lovable and desirable if he gained weight? Does fitting perfectly in his partner's arms necessarily mean being small? I'm gonna write him getting fat and coo over how cute that is, he'd look good with a tummy. I was (and still am) delighted by how many readers liked it too!

Thank you for all your kind words! I'm glad my fic gave you so much to think about, and especially proud that I won you over to liking NieYao and NMJ. I came to the ship from the opposite direction - I was sad about NMJ and wanted him to be loved instead of murdered, so I dove into fics about NieYao reconciling and ended up loving and sympathising with JGY too. Hearing that my writing made someone who didn't like NMJ before start to sympathise with him feels like closing the loop, and maybe also like I've won some kind of fandom medal.

You can absolutely draw fanart of my stuff, I'd love that!! Tag me or send a link if you do, so I can scream with joy and reblog it 🥰 I was picturing the CQL version of JGY, but you're welcome to take liberties with his outfits or draw inspiration from other versions if that works better for your art.

[murfpersonalblog]

🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

CQL/MDZS Edition

1) the character everyone gets wrong: Jiang Cheng might be the most polarizing character of all IMO. But I don't think people get him "WRONG," so much as we tend to fall on either side of the discussion: either more or less critical of his inactions/overreactions. Personally, I am less inclined to forgive a lot of JC's BS, but!!! I also blame his parents' godawful child-rearing for him being so emotionally constipated.

2) a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom: Canonically, LWJ never bottomed a day in his life, and I rebuke any heresy refuting this god-given evidence, amen.

3) screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr: That one poll where people actually voted to behead WWX and marry Xue Yang had me like WHOMST???? Like, I understand marrying JGY, but XY?! O_O

4) what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person? I haven't blocked anyone in the CQL/MDZS fandom (yet)

5) worst discord server and why: I don't use discord. I wish they'd change the layout, it's a jumbled mess IMO.

6) which ship fans are the most annoying? I don't read anything but WangXian and 3zun fics, so I don't really get annoyed by other ships

7) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? See #1. I'm actually hating JC LESS because of how the fandom acts--I used to spit on that man's name, LOL. XD

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about: Look, is it 13 years or 16 years y'all, cuz I am CONFUSED.

9) worst part of canon: the fact that Jin Guangshan ever existed.

10) worst part of fanon: the racism. Y'all out here really doing the most, huh?

11) number of fandom-related words you've filtered: I only filter out Bottomji; I did NOT sign up for this; hasn't WWX suffered enough?

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them: Does Nie Mingjue count as unpopular? I guess, in WX-centric fics he might be?

13) worst blorboficiation: Xue Yang. Don't get me wrong, he deserves a hug, but he's done way too much heinousness out of pure spite & wickedness for me to sit here uwu-ing him. (Even if he is hella pretty.)

14) that one thing you see in fics all the time: wangxian 😍

15) that one thing you see in fanart all the time: wangxian 😍

16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc): ONLY shipping LXC with either NMJ or JGY, when he deserves BOTH of them gosh darnit. It's Venerated TRIAD Feels!

17) there should be more of this type of fic/art: there's plenty of 3zun, but I want MOAR

18) it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on... The fact that LWJ has the arm-strength of Hercules himself--people never talk about how physically inhumanly STRONG he was! Like...he lifted WEIGHTS. O_O

19) you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like... Jin Zixuan

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring: every time Sect Leader Yao speaks.

21) part of canon you think is overhyped: The Incense Burner chapter. Like sure, all the smutty smut-smut, but I don't like sex pollen type tropes.

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores: LWJ being a literal TODDLER when drunk. It's the most adorable thing on the planet, but people usually just have LWJ pass out and wake up the next day, without showing how his repressed childlike/immature tendencies come out when he's inebriated.

23) ship you've unwillingly come around to: Lan Sizhui with Lan Jingyi. I see them more as brothers, and I ship LJY with Ouyang Zizhen more. But I get it--having LSZ w/ Jin Ling would be LXC w/ JGY all over again, in terms of who would marry in/out; while having LSZ w/ LJY stay together in Gusu is much neater, logistically.

24) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: See #10.

25) common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing: that LWJ bottoms. He doesn't. End of discussion! 😤 And Happy Hanguang-June!!! XD

[littlesmartart]

DRAWTOBER #25 - half cloak & half dagger by @fahye

Jin Guangyao lifts his head and smiles. "I'm considering a problem."

"Can I be of any assistance with it?"

He drops a kiss on Lan Xichen's chest. With the nail of one finger he lightly traces the characters for irony on Lan Xichen's side. "Not this one, er-ge."

listen... I do not know a single xiyao shipper who doesn’t use this fic as at least REFERENCE for their thoughts on a happier AU JGY. not getting rid of his ruthlessness, just expanding the circle of people he’s willing to be ruthless to protect? Yanli absolutely being a soft spot for him? his working friendships with Mianmian and Huaisang? him being lowkey judgemental about WWX and Huaisang’s choice in men? him gently protesting the idea of marrying Xichen because he needs something to DO all the time and Cloud Recesses is far too efficient? his constant desire to shake Xichen by the shoulders and yell “don’t you just want to go apeshit, er-ge???” it’s all so good and fits together so WELL, and I’m sure other people have said it more eloquently than me. I’ve actually made other fanart for this fic before, too.

it might seem weird to have chosen this scene to draw for this fic, but it is at least partly because a good portion of the fic is based around xiyao having sex, and I do try to keep my drawtobers sfw. but also this scene was the first time I started actually considering the incredible power of Yanli’s big sister energy irt JGY, and so many parts of it have helped form my thoughts about their potential relationship - “trying to fight intimacy with Jiang Yanli, once she has decided to love you, is like trying to punch the mist” and “the day he calls her saosao is the day she wins”, particularly. 

[wutheringskies]

It is, of course, true that if the people around you are inherently good, then the nature, intensity or frequency of any villain's bloodthirst-activated time would diminish.

However, the point I want to express is that:

MDZS is a fictional world. The characters aren't real people who live in extremely diverse settings or go through an indefinite timeline. The story is finite, that is, it ends.

Characters like Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, Jiang Yanli, Wen Ning, Wen Qing, Mianmian, Junior Quartet, Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are simply good-natured people. It doesn't matter what circumstances you put them through, or what sort of tortures, backlash, or failure they face. The main character was nurtured in a semi-hostile environment with a less than favourable background and intensive trauma and came out... good-hearted. Thus, removing such and such aspects of these characters would be venturing into the OOC category. Jiang Yanli lost her husband yet still made the instinctual decision to save Wei Ying. All of the above mentioned characters have such traits.

On the other hand, characters like Wen Ruohan, Jin Guangsham, Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang, Su She, Jin Zixun, Jiang Cheng, Sect Leader Yao, Wen Zhuliu, Madam Yu, Wang Lingjiao, Lan Qiren are antagonists (in different measures); they oppose the major themes of the book, and the protagonist in the fulfilment of their righteous goals for reasons that are blown out of proportion, are unjustifiable, are out of their self-gain.

So to make Wen Ruohan someone who doesn't enjoy true power and torturing people, or to make Jin Guangyao care more about the "worthless lives" he is claiming to further his own career, or to make Jiang Cheng someone who is not inherently insecure to a fatal degree, or to make Lan Qiren violate his rules (or follow them, properly), or to make Xue Yang intolerable of the slightest insult or injury and just cruel - is also OOC.

Now for the sake of fanfiction and fanarts, we are well in our reason to draw onto negative traits of good characters and positive traits of bad characters to make an interesting story. However, it shouldn't be understood as canon.

I'm sure some, specially western fans, might disagree with my categorizing characters as inherently good or bad; but i feel those familiar with Asian literature would understand why I refuse to be dubious about a certain character's morality. In Western media, complex characters are those who are in the "greys" but MDZS has a more direct theme, "No matter how good you are individually, if the system is against you in an immoral world, your actions would be looked at as foolish, naive, heretic."

The point is, in the MDZS framework, even if Xue Yang grew as the second jade of Lan, he would serve as an antagonist and even if Wei Wuxian grew as second young master Wen, he would be kind - or if he grew up as JGY.

As for kindness and compassion, there will always be moments in each character's lives where they do not have people to help them; where they are indeed going through a very dark period of their life; it is important to wonder if they would retain the effects of the kindness or if they would instead perpetuate the cycle of cruelty.

Another thing I would like to add is that MDZS does a great job of making it's "villains" tragic; so you can understand why they did what they did (except for Su She, he's so lame honestly and I can't excuse Madam Yu) but again, these are supposed to be explanations, not excuses. Xue Yang had no right to murder Song Lan's entire sect and Song Lan had every right to revenge. Wen Chao had no right to annihilate the Jiangs, crush JC's core and torture and throw Wei Wuxian into the Burial Mounds and Wei Wuxian had every right to revenge.

Anyway these are just my thoughts! Of course, everyone can interpret a work as they wish. I simply like understanding canon themes and drawing my understanding from those to really appreciate where the author was going with this work.

I think in MDZS there is a fair share of nurture as well as nature. if Xue Yang lived similarly to WWX and didn't lose a finger he would still kill dogs, hunt and hound them and deeply resent and wish to take revenge on/or slaughter the Jiangs; that is his nature to think of himself as more important than the others; the nurture part comes in with the fact that if he had people like Xiao Xingchen earlier in his life; just like he stopped "night hunting walking corpses" he wouldn't have acted out on those impulses; however you cannot deny that being favoured by the jins, he did have stability; he chose to abuse it. he put xiao xingchen giving him chocolates and showing him kindness as of more stable of a state (which is right) yet the moment he is pushed up in a corner, he reverts back to his NATURE. and in his nature, he hurts others to protect himself. if others did x to him he can kill not only the person who did it but also everybody else who is close to that person, who didn't deserve to die. yet, he won't see HIS actions as crimes. won't regret them. thus, Wei Wuxian says, "if you had to kill someone, you should've executed yourself" because some characters have a strong moral code and fail to adhere (nie mingjue, lan xichen), some's adherence to their moral code makes them fail (wei wuxian, xiao xingchen), some do not have a moral code (jin guangsham), some are willing to push it aside for revenge (nie huaisang) and some twist around their watching frames to justify their immoral behavior (Jiang Cheng, xue yang, Jin Guangyao)

[hellchilde]

ah i really want to do something spooky and halloweeny with my writing this year, since i'm back to writing fanfic

i have a couple of interesting ideas, but neither of them have plots, they're just aesthetics

idea one is that locked tomb crossover because i'm absolutely ravenous to see wwx in ninth house paint and jgy going feral eating his cav's soul and getting a golden arm. but again, that's not a plot, that's just some cool images

idea two has a little more traction. i really want werewolves, like really toothy bloody gruesome werewolves. it started out with wen ning and song lan, like maybe as a side effect of becoming fierce corpses. then i thought about adding xiao xingchen because i'm too sad to let him remain dead in something that's canon adjacent, and xxc would have so much fun being a toothy chaotic werewolf mess. and he should be able to eat some people. as a a treat.

probably going to futz around with idea two. idea one would be better as fanart, and i am no fanartist. might be a good commission, though. i'll consider that

[inknose]

mdzs read diary part IV, the end

It’s inspiring how much self care wwx is gonna finally get now that his husband will go along with whatever he does, so he’s gotta look out for lwj’s well being if not his own. that is emphatically the STUFF

dragging my hands down I face as I read this, after all these chapters of getting up close and personal with ghouls bleeding from every orifice, slaying ancient beasts, rebelling against the entire cultivation world, the two of them are absolutely paralyzed by middle school crush sleepover math

chicken

he actually drew kissy doodles .... he....

IDK I THINK I JUST DOCUMENTED THIS PART CUZ I WAS STILL SCREAMING you cant expect me to have very useful things to say at this point

this is torture you are both so mushy you are so GONE

This part really stood out to me, it’s an attitude I feel like wwx implies with his inner narration a few times but most clearly says here: he’s not one for allowing himself to exaggerate how bad his circumstances are/could be even a little bit - he’s already lived through some extreme low points and found a way to keep going, so he never makes sweeping statements about what he couldn’t live without (Inner JingYi: you’re supposed to say you’d be lost without him here!!!) Instead he seems to accept as a given that being alive doesn’t guarantee him any pleasantness or joy at all, and as a result his feelings toward being in TRUE LOVE are surprisingly pragmatic, but also colored with such gratitude. There are a lot of things in the novel that struck me, like this, as being just a little to the left of familiar tropes/sentiments, and were more touching for it. Whether it be the influence of culture difference as opposed to what I’m used to reading in most western romance stories, or MXTX’s unique outlook, or a combination of both, it was really refreshing and made me pause over it. Not “I can’t imagine living without you” but “I could be living without you, but instead I get to be with you and I think that’s the best thing that could happen.”

ADJFDKFJ THE UST BEING SO STRONG THAT EVEN THE VILLAIN COMMENTS ON IT IN THE MIDDLE OF EXECUTING HIS EVIL PLANS IS ONE OF THOSE THINGS THAT WILL NEVER FAIL TO MAKE ME LAUGH MY ASS OFF. hes like god damn! here I thought I had problems

it was at this moment that I realized we were doing this Now... I’m still recovering. What a scene. I am so glad I saw the most incredible fanart soon afterwards, bc the fact that someone has already drawn a perfect comic of this part means I don’t have to

I love you so much, you are so annoying, you are perfect... I like how he’s been experiencing openly requited love for all of ten minutes but he’s already figured out how to weaponize it to piss people off

doing!!! his!!! job!!!!!

ahh... it’s a really good story. JGY is a great character. One of the most interesting differences for me between drama watching vs. novel reading experience is that without an actor to bat his vulnerable doe eyes at you and smile faintly with his cute dimples, the book does not go much out of its way to try to lull the reader into a false sense of security around him or *endear* him to you the way the show does. But just by seeing events through wei wuxian’s POV, its still enough to evoke pity or understanding towards him. The overall impression is a bit more detached though, there’s less emphasis on the spectacle of how he could manipulate everyone closest to him and more of a general feeling of resigned tragedy that everyones the worst on this bitch of an earth.

I CANNOT DEAL WITH YOU FOR EVEN ONE MORE SECOND!!!!

I clearly paused to take note of less and less parts at the end & the extras due to: a) too excited to reach the end b) too spicy to photograph and c) too sleepy cuz I kept reading in the middle of the night. but I absolutely took the time for Bro We Are Teens appreciation corner:

I’d absolutely read 40 more extra chapters of their monster-of-the-week field trip antics.

god... poor Jin Ling now basically has to deal with divorced parents that talk shit about each other to him whenever he is saying with one of them. except they are both his uncles. just a disasterhood of all uncles from start to finish. AUUUGH wei wuxian and jiang cheng have fucked me up completely, I dream of them reconciling but I also REFUSE to believe it would ever be easy. let me know if theres a fanfic that absolutely tortures you for decades before they hug

HAHAHA oh no this man ain’t making it to immortality thats for damn sure. HE’S JUST GONNA TRY AS HARD AS HE CAN HIS WHOLE LIFE NOT TO LOOK AT HIM BUT THEYRE *MARRIED* SDLKFJSF ohhhh it’s too funny, like... the mundane domestic family drama IN the fantastical swords and sorcery setting is what really ratchets up these things from amusing to fucking hilarious I think

aaaa the end... final random thoughts? No not final, I would like to please keep discussing at length and exhaustively, all the time please - CQL has gotta be one of the best TV adaptations I’ve seen. ANY adaptation of anything would be lucky to be so good!! reading the novel has just made me appreciate it even more.

- I don’t think I can do justice to what I find most fascinating about comparing the two versions briefly, to do that I need to get drunk and ramble at my friends for hours but... the condensed version is something like this. Really all the significant differences between the two versions (besides the ones which can be attributed to censorship and therefore aren’t worth discussing) are a side effect of the structure of how the story is told - there’s barely anything changed arbitrarily. Aside from having a cold opening, the drama sticks to a very linear version of the story, and I think for a TV show or film, that’s probably the best way to do it. We see everything, we get shocked and tricked and betrayed and surprised along with the characters, we feel the biggest impact at the climactic scenes having experienced all the build-up. The novel on the other hand is not only much more non-linear in WHEN we learn bits and pieces of information, but that information is also obfuscated under wei wuxian’s multiple layers of Unreliable Narratoritis, which are as follows: 1) difficulty remembering things because of personality/avoiding painful memories/actual memory loss, 2) No Homo Goggles still on, and 3) a wry sense of humor that makes the reader unsure of how much they can trust his attitude toward things, especially near the beginning. The experience of reading is a puzzle the reader has to mentally piece together through all of the above listed camouflage, and the puzzle itself is a three-sided mystery: One - How Bad of a guy was Wei WuXian really, and how exactly did all the bad stuff in his life go down; Two - wangxian epic pride & prejudice gambits; Three - political murder mystery. (I love stories like this btw... though I fully admit I’m glad I watched first this time bc it might have taken me a long time to tackle otherwise.) Because of this, where the drama wants to pull you in and submerge you in all the most potent emotional parts, the novel in direct contrast deliberately side-steps around these things and asks that you hurt yourself by filling in the blanks. In fact the more intense emotions and painful memories involved, whether it be his relationship with jiang yanli, his DEATH, the darkest days of war times etc, the more the novel evasively withholds details. I actually really like both styles of storytelling but each one is obviously way better suited to its medium. ANYWAY.... THATS BASICALLY WHERE MY BRAINS AT WHILE IM READING GAY SWORD WIZARD BOOKS

- The extras are so saturated with domestic married bliss that it’s a good thing I stopped taking pictures because I’d just take a picture of every page. this is too much for me to take... I did jump the gun a few times and read a few fanfics while I was still mid-read of the book (I tried to hold out but alas I am mortal) and at one point after finishing I was like “wow what fic was it in where lwj says something cute and wwx kisses him in public but they’re in the corner of the restaurant so no one really sees... OH NO WAIT that was actually in there.” and ... and that’s the LEAST OF IT... *stares into the distance* theyre married wow

- I ofc couldn’t help but see a few vague blogs beforehand so honestly I was braced for something like, wildly ooc for the sake of porn to happen in the extras... I definitely appreciate how the incense burner porn interludes could be uhhh a lot for many people and not my personal cup of tea in terms of smut however [here follows the words of a poisonous frog who has dwelt her whole life in the rainforests of BL] the concept is also surprisingly SWEET SDFLKJF like wwx sees lan wangji’s darkest mixed-up violent teenage fantasies and he’s just like aww babe you had a crush on me!! just... good for them

- I swear I’m not gonna rehash every cute married thing they do but wei wuxian grading papers in the tub........................rEALLY GOT ME

- I want to Draw - ok thats enough if I keep going I’ll just write “wei wuxian grading papers in the tub” seven more times probably

[vespertineflora]

I know this is technically a twitter thing, but idk how to cultivate my twitter experience, so I’m doing it here haha, gonna catch up on the first ten days for funsies bc i don’t have any inspiration to write at the moment.

~~~

Day 1: First impression on XiYao. TBH I didn’t SHIP this at first? I was very heavily focused on wangxian with less attention on other characters. At first, I leaned a little more heavily towards nielan (because it seemed a little less manipulative hahaha), and got VERY caught up in xiyao a few weeks later haha.

Day 2: What made you ship XiYao? “YOU TWO GOT TWO ROOMS?” < that line in the novel is what really SPARKED it for me actually. Like, it’s such a small line with DEEP implications. The only way jgy would know this is if lxc told him! Jgy asks this question SUDDENLY, he’s clearly invested in the situation or why would he ask this in the MIDDLE of his villain antics? The only conclusion to draw is that this isn’t something he was JUST told about, that lxc has probably been talking to jgy about his little brother’s crush on wwx for AGES now!!!! And that’s so intimate!!!! Like clearly lxc felt like he could really talk to jgy about anything, and jgy was clearly interested in things lxc cared about!! And that’s what really started me down the xiyao path xD 

Day 3: Favorite XiYao scene. I mean, do I need to say that HAND scene in cql? That’s too obvious. Instead, I’ll go with a novel scene: I love the bits we get of lxc and jgy in the nmj empathy flashbacks. Jgy hiding behind lxc and lxc protecting him????? ADORABLE.

Day 4: Favorite XiYao Headcanon. FAVORITE???? Favorte g-rated headcanon: Lan Xichen was a very doting uncle to Jin Rusong, he loved him so very much ;n; Favorite x-rated headcanon: Lan Xichen massively enjoys taking a submissive role in bed. It’s not ALL the time, and he does take initiative at times, but like???? This is a man who hangs back from being decisive or taking a stand for fear of disturbing the peace, and regrets many of his own choices because of this! The idea of passing over control to someone he trusts implicitly to make decisions for his benefit would be a MASSIVE relief and comfort for him!!!! 

Day 5: In what material do you prefer XiYao most?  Oof, for as much as i LOVE the xiyao in The Untamed (bless zzj and lhk, they did that for US), I have to go novel. The details we get on Jgy’s tragic background and the fact that he never actually targeted wwx is a great set up for him that I think makes him a more sympathetic character.

Day 6: Thoughts on XiYao's ending TRAGIC. SO VERY SAD. Based on an accumulation of both novel and drama, we have a STABBING, we have jgy’s “I NEVER THOUGHT OF HURTING YOU,” we have jgy slowly leading lxc towards their joined death and lxc’s ACCEPTANCE of that, before jgy SUDDENLY PUSHES LXC TO SAFETY. my heart can’t take it it’s so sad.

Day 7: Recommend a song/playlist for XiYao Josef Salvat - Til I Found You featuring a line that goes “In a jungle like this, you can’t ever know if you’re lion or lamb or both--you are whatever gets you through” and this bridge/chorus:  I've spent my life wandering through the wilderness Playing whatever role I had to play Crumbling under the weights of expectation Doomed to watch my youth slip on its way...

Day 8: Recommend your favorite XiYao fanart. It’s hard to pick a SINGLE fave but god, if I must it’s this gorgeous piece (who also did the most soul-healing 3zun piece). Honorable mentions: xiyao smooching, this tender look, and bunnies.

Day 10: Who do you like more? Jgy or Lxc? WHY WOULD U MAKE ME PICK ;o; I love them both so much it’s hard to choose one over the otherrrrrrrrr, but ultimately I might have to choose lan xichen because he is my sweet, kind-hearted son who deserved love and happiness and he had to outlive both his sworn brothers and it hurts my heart

[thatswhatsushesaid]

So I'm ngl I followed you because my partner really likes jiggy and I am trying desperately to like. Care more about him and enjoy him because of this. I didn't read through the whole post about life debts and nmj (who for the record I think is an asshole, but an interesting one, given his complete inability to see in shades of grey morality), but I did read the reblog you added comparing some of jiggy's actions to wwx's, which I actually found really interesting. Since wwx is my poor little meow meow, I'm wondering if approaching jiggy through the lens of their similarities etc might help nudge my brain more into liking him, so I was curious if you had any recommendations for like, good meta posts or gifsets or fics that get into this more?

I suspect that part of my problem is the novel is just my least favorite adaptation even though I dislike a lot of the plot changes that cql and the donghua did, because it's hard for me to read through, but I can overcome that. Probably.

hi hello!! I know we have chatted a bit already via messages, but I am so, so, so happy any time someone expresses any interest in developing a more comprehensive understanding of jgy's character.

user meta

in terms of linking you to specific bits of meta about parallels between jgy and wwx, it might be easier for me to just direct you to specific users who have written extensively on narrative parallels in mdzs in general: @xiyao-feels has written meta based on several close readings of the text and often highlights the importance of where jgy-specific events are situated, and this often includes callbacks to things that wwx has done, too. if you're keen on deep dives into what makes jgy tick and text-based explanations for why he does the things he does (and why his options are extremely limited), you should also check out @fincalinde's meta. fincalinde and xiyao-feels both ground their analysis of jgy (and xiyao lol but you don't have to read the xiyao meta if you aren't keen on it) in what we're presented in the text, so if you're worried about reading analysis that relies too much upon 'fanon,' that won't be a concern here. @confusion-and-more is another user who writes similar text-based meta along similar lines.

fan media

I tend not to look for good parallels in gifsets, but this one by @henshengs probably draws the most powerful, bittersweet parallels between wangxian, xiyao, and the relationship between lan wangji and lan xichen's parents. it's from the donghua rather than the drama, idk if you have a preference on that front.

the fic series it's worth it every time by @fincalinde (roquen on AO3) is by far the best series imo for digging into jgy's core motivations for doing the things that he does, and it also has the benefit of hewing extremely close to events as they unfold in canon. again, it's xiyao, which may not be your thing, but imo understanding the xiyao dynamic is pretty crucial to understanding jgy, too.

...okay!! I think this is a good place to get started? I will see what else I can dig up for you, and like I said, I have a few other bits of meta in my drafts atm that are focused specifically on wwx-jgy parallels and comparisons, so once I finish and publish those, I'll ping you about it. 👍

edit: ooh, editing my post to add a link to these two pieces of wangxian and xiyao fanart by @hawberries which are intended to be viewed side by side for maximum heartbreak.