#i never finished the tgcf ones sorry

[itscherryterry-again]

part 2 mdzs edition

+ translation

bringing back some bangers

+ eng translation

[mikaela-the-slut-expert]

Heyyy

I have been binge reading your blog and all the tgcf fanfics are *chef kiss* amazing

I was wondering if I could request hualian x m!reader where the reader has bad hand writing (hua Cheng who) and practice in secret and the practice is writing love letters for both of them but he never gave it to them out of embarrassment

but they stumbled on it accidentally

How would they react? Ans what would reader do once he finds out?

Sorry if it’s incoherent English is not my first language

Or if it’s too difficult you can ignore it

Thank you and have a nice day!🫶

Secret Love Letters!

HuaLian x M!reader

🪷 It's no secret you've got bad handwriting. Xie Lian and Hua Cheng both know.

🦊 This often leaves you and Hua Cheng to Xie Lian's mercy during calligraphy lessons.

🪷 Said lessons never go through because of Hua Cheng's pouring, or you two were able to distract Xie Lian with.... Other things.

🦊 You really do want to get better hand writing though, so you've been practicing in secret.

🪷 You often practice your hand writing by writing love letters for them. You never give them the letters though. You're far too embarrassed.

🦊 This often leads you to hide them away, in a box, stuffed away into the wardrobe.

🪷No one has found it yet so, you think it'll be okay.

🦊 You're practice isn't for nothing, your hand writing has gotten better.

🪷 You and Hua Cheng always try writing with your right hands so after giving up on your own private time you used your left hand just for shits and giggles

🦊 And it worked!

🪷 So now your hand writing is actually readable! You're very excited but you want to tell your lovers in a special way

🦊 however Everytime you write and finish a letter you look at it for far too long and thinks your hand writing is bad again.

🪷 Xie Lian and Hua Cheng have noticed you sneaking out of bed late in the night recently.

🦊 More like Hua Cheng. He doesn't need to sleep so he brought it to Xie Lian's attention when he noticed it was a pattern almost every night.

🪷 Xie Lian assure him, "It's probably nothing" and goes about his day.

🦊 It's cleaning day however and no matter how much hua Cheng insists Xie Lian doesn't need to clean, Xie Lian prefers to clean y'all's room anyways.

🪷 So when he's hands deep in the closet wondering how all this junk got in here, he finds a box.

🦊How pretty, but it's locked. Xie Lian brings it out and sets it on the floor. Him and Hua Cheng sit around it wondering where it came from.

🪷 Hua Cheng shrug, saying it can't be anyone else's beside in of y'all's so he breaks the lock and opens it with no struggle.

🦊Upon opening the box they find a stack of letters. The more Xie Lian looks at them, he recognizes it at your scribble.

🪷 The more letters Xie Lian and Hua Cheng go through, they can actually read them.

🦊You can write eligibly?!

🪷Xie Lian and Hua Cheng read through every single letter. All of them are different with endless words of sweet love.

🦊How sweet! How come you never told them?

🪷They don't get a chance to ask you. Amidst going through the letters, you enter the bedroom.

🦊 A pregnant pause, and long stares until you break it by darting over and grabbing the letters from their hands.

🪷 A blush dusts your cheeks and you hastily shive the letters back in the box. "What are you guys doing?! It's rude to go through people's things!"

🦊 You're embarrassed, so humiliated. You're sure they couldn't even read the letters you had written.

🪷 Suddenly Xie Lian is dragging you closer though, and holding your hands in his.

🦊 "We didn't know it was yours, but you don't have to be embarrassed" Xie Lian smiles gently.

🪷 Hua Cheng runs his fingers through your hair, "Since when did your hand writing get so good? You're leaving me behind in the dust, Qin Ai De"

🦊 You blush harder, "You... You could read them?"

🪷"Yes, they were very sweet" and suddenly your lovers are covering your face in kisses.

🦊 They have you write many things now.

🪷Xie Lian wills have you write letters for him, or recipes.

🦊Hua Cheng wants you to write him a new tattoo on his arm.

🪷 sometimes they don't need anything written, they just want to see your hand writing.

🦊You spoil them by agreeing to all their whims. So really it's your own fault🖤

[nyerus]

Hello! I'm really sorry to bother you with some stupid questions but I'm a little bit confused. Can you tell me about the TGCF revised version and what to expect from it? I made my research a little bit but I'm not sure I get the full picture. I just finished reading all the novels in official EN translation and it bugs me a little that I just got everything settled in my brain and now...smth will be changed in the revised version? What does it mean for canon?

I'm sorry it I make no sense, just a little bit disoriented. Thank you for answering in advance!

Hello Anon!

I totally understand how confusing it could be! I'll try to help clear it up, so no worries!

There are two main versions of TGCF now:

Original/Serialized

Revised

The original webnovel was released in a serialized manner, and this is the one all existing printed translations are based on. Including the official EN translation! This is also what the manhua and donghua are adapting. It was never released as a printed version in mainland China.

The revised version was released in early 2023, in mainland China only (thus far). It has significant changes here and there such as: removal of some minor characters, revision of certain characters' backstories, fleshing out of some inter-character relationships, expansion of existing Hualian-centric scenes, several additional scenes (mainly Hualian-centric), modification of some arcs/plots (e.g. the Bloody Banquet is quite different -- all the way from the lead-up to the ending -- though the broad strokes of it remain similar to the original). Plus just a lot of general streamlining! However, the overall structure of the story and the main plot remains the same.

The printed revised version that was released in China is also a censored edition (for obvious reasons). There is no publicly available uncensored edition available for us to read. That being said... the audio drama is actually working on the uncensored revised version (which they got from MXTX directly, it seems)!

The AD is absolutely fantastic, and if you're interested in checking out the revised version, I HIGHLY recommend it. It's easily my favorite adaptation, by far. This is an old guide on how to purchase + listen, but it still mostly works (you can purchase the entire season with google pay now too). Follow this for enabling EN subs (MTL). There are folks doing fanTLs, but those are not yet complete and still in the very early episodes as of now.

Additionally, there is a fan translation for a few select chapters from the printed revised version, done by Clearnoodle256. Though while yes, it's censored, the plot stuff and extra scenes are absolutely amazing. There's a lot of extra insight into Hualian especially, but also other characters like Lang Qianqiu! Check it out here!

If you'd like more information, I also made a twitter thread about the different versions, but it's similar to what I have already outlined here!

MXTX has said that both versions are just as "canonical" as each other, and fans are welcome to pick-and-choose aspects of both. Personally, I adore what I have seen and heard of the revised version thus far (though there are a few parts where I prefer the original ver). It doesn't feel like a whole new story, but more like seeing the same story with fresh eyes and getting a lot more details! It's very exciting to be able to somehow experience TGCF all over again! 💖

[sailor-peaches-----p]

Xie Lian

Xie Lian 9 pages later

I'M SORRY BUT WHY HAVE I NEVER SEEN SPOILERS FOR THIS???? WAS PREGNANT XIE LIAN NOT WORTH SPOILING??? I just finished reading vol 3 of tgcf and the shock from reading this scene almost made me die like why has no one told me Xie Lian has to pretend to be a pregnant lady???? 😭😭😭😭

[realbeijinger]

Another semi-coherent rant on climate change, the value of idealism, and TGCF (I finally finished!)

Well, I finished Tian Guan Ci Fu. And, oh man, if you read my last post, you’ll know that I was terrified that the entire novel would be a criticism of blind idealism. But I am SO glad I was wrong!!! Looking back on what I wrote before… it’s kind of hilarious how worried I was. I was so sure that I knew where it was going, was so busy preparing myself to be offended/emotionally crushed, that I wouldn’t even entertain the idea that maybe MXTX had a similar worldview to me all along.

In my defense, aside from the line, “Something like saving the common people… although foolish, it is brave,” everything seemed to point toward the idea that trying to do good is pointless. I mean, up until the moment when Xie Lian was lying with a sword in his chest on the streets of Yong’an, all of his efforts to do good had essentially been in vain. He hadn’t been able to help anyone.

And then, when the one guy stopped and gave Xie Lian his hat, I dunno, I just cried. It was so perfect! Like, ugh, damn you, MXTX! So sneaky… destroying us, just to bring us back later!! It was such a small, insignificant win, but it was exactly what Xie Lian (and I) needed. I love the line, “Just one person was enough!” Just one person doing something selfless. It’s enough to give us hope.   

It really resonates with me because I think a lot about how to maintain hope. In terms of the climate crisis, I feel like Xie Lian—completely powerless. I want to stop eating meat, use less plastic, spend more time on environmental activism, but honestly, what do any of these things matter? The meat industry is not going to change because I choose to stop consuming. Even my activism has a completely negligible effect—whether or not I join a protest or write a letter to my congressman will almost certainly not be the deciding factor for any climate legislation, no matter how much effort I put in.  

And yet, I still want to. I love the moment when Xie Lian chooses to get stabbed over and over rather than create a second plague of Human Face Disease, and White No-Face asks him in shock, “Why??”—as in, why would you ever do that? And Xie Lian responds: “I don’t have a reason—just because I want to! Even if I explained it to you… Useless trash like you wouldn’t understand.” This line is so great. Xie Lian can’t explain it to White No-Face, because, in truth, it isn’t entirely logical. It can’t be explained by reason. I want to do my measly, unimportant part to help the world… because I want to. Because it feels right. Because it’s my way of keeping my heart, of maintaining faith that there is some good in this world worth upholding. (As an aside, I love how the English title of the live action drama—which we may never get to see, God damn censorship!!!!—is called “Eternal Faith.” Of course it refers to Hua Cheng and Xie Lian’s faith in each other, but I think it also means having eternal faith in the value of doing good, despite centuries of experience that seem to show its pointlessness.)

As I talked about in my last post, if you zoom out far enough, nothing really seems to matter. Everything we love and care about will one day be gone. And yet, I believe we still have to act like it matters. This is the basic tenant of existentialism, and I think MXTX portrays this philosophical paradox really beautifully.

It’s funny, because I think MXTX has a lot of profound things to say, but in an interview I read, she warned against viewing her work too deeply, saying, “I am not a guru.” I get that she may not want the responsibility of giving people spiritual advice, but I do think she presents some really fascinating, really novel, philosophical ideas. So, sorry MXTX, but I’m about to analyze TGCF like it’s a piece of freakin scripture. Soo here we go…

The main theme she comes back to again and again is that fortune is limited, so the only way you can do good for others is by taking fortune from somebody else. Which leads the characters to a bunch of ethically impossible choices: the people of Yong’an and the people of Xianle can’t all be saved (Xie Lian must choose who to help), neither can the people of Wuyong and the surrounding kingdoms (Prince of Wuyong must choose), and Shi Wudu can’t save his brother from a tragic fate without taking fortune from an innocent person. When the characters try to avoid choosing, and try to “play God” by creating a “third path,” it just invites disaster.

But is this really true? Is fortune actually limited? It’s an idea that reminds me of Buddhism and Daoism, but also seems kind of revolutionary… (I like to think I know something about Chinese philosophy but it could certainly be a thing and I don’t know). I don’t believe in fate, but I do believe in limited resources, and the idea that nature tends toward balance. I think conceiving of it this way, as a pool of fortune, is really interesting.   

It reminds me of this Meme:

In other words, who is the protagonist and who is the villain is entirely based on perspective. And, according to the laws of nature, we all must survive by eating others, or causing others to starve (i.e. avoiding being eaten).

I tried to think if this is really true in all areas of life. I’m a teacher, and one of the ways I convince myself that I am doing good in the world is by helping my students—preparing them well for college so that they can get into good schools and follow their dreams. But then, is this just taking fortune from others? If I do prepare my students well, and as a result they all get into top universities, does that mean they are taking spots away from other students? Am I simply just helping “my own,” at the expense of others?

One place where I see this concept play out very clearly is with our modern, industrialized society. As I mentioned in my last post, we live in a world of abundance. Most of us have enough food to eat, live in houses with electricity and running water, and don’t worry about a whole host of diseases endured by our ancestors. It seems we have done what Xie Lian couldn’t—we have expanded the well of fortune for most of humanity.

But this fortune wasn’t spontaneously created. It was taken from other species. It was borrowed against our own future, when climate change will likely destroy this world of abundance we have created, causing untold suffering. In truth, when it comes to prosperity, there is no such thing as a free lunch.   

Even now, when we ought to be enjoying our fortune, most of us are not happy. We want other things. We take food, clothing, and shelter for granted, creating even bigger, more lofty demands—a bigger car, a better house, a machine that’s sole purpose is to make bread. In fact, it seems like whenever we make things “better,” the goalposts just move. I recently read a book called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals, which mentioned that with the advent of washing machines and vacuum cleaners, everyone assumed there would be more free time. Yet, the real outcome was that standards of cleanliness just changed. Suddenly, people expected you to wear fresh clothes every day and have a perfectly dust-free home, which meant spending just as much time cleaning as in the past.     

And according to psychologists, getting what we want doesn’t really make us happier. Instead, something like getting a promotion causes our happiness to spike, before it quickly returns to baseline. The psychologist Dan Gilbert writes that the purpose of our emotions is to act like a compass—to tell us which direction to go in. If you feel good, you can continue the way you are going. If you feel bad, you should probably turn—make a change. But if you get what you want and become permanently happy, your compass is now broken. It’s stuck in one direction and becomes useless.

All of this is very Buddhist, of course. Suffering is not caused by our external circumstances, but our desire to change them.

Like I said, I don’t necessarily believe in “fate” or “fortune.” But I believe this all points to something deeper that MXTX is getting at: which is that we cannot fundamentally make a better world, for the common people, or for anyone. This idea of “better” doesn’t really exist. The world is as it is. Trying to alter that is like playing God. And like Xie Lian says, “In this world, there are no true gods…”  

So, what do we do? How can we survive this absurdist tragedy of life? I don’t think we can just throw up our hands and not give a shit—that way lies depression and Jun Wu-style cruelty. We cannot lose our heart. But we also can’t try to fix everything.

One thing I find a bit difficult about MXTX is she is very clear about the impossible situations our characters find themselves in, but not really clear about the solution. She seems critical of the characters’ actions (I’m thinking also of Wei Wuxian here), but what exactly does she think they should have done? In other words, what is the point?

I spent a long time thinking about this. And I realized that Xie Lian was able to get back on his feet, find happiness and make peace with himself. How did he do this? Ultimately, I see Xie Lian’s solution as having three parts: self-sacrifice, gratitude, and purpose. Which all sounds very academic and maybe not that profound on an emotional level. But hear me out. Because, in the end, I think these choices are incredibly beautiful. They are the kind of thing that make me feel like reading TGCF was actually a spiritual experience, no matter what MXTX says. That makes me admire Xie Lian and want to follow him (like the God he is).

Okay so first: self-sacrifice. If fortune is limited, and the only way to make others’ lives better is to take fortune from someplace else, then there is really only one place you can take it from without hurting others—yourself.

So, part of Xie Lian’s solution is to take fortune from himself and give it to others. It’s why he asks for a cursed shackle that disperses his fortune, so that his fortune will naturally flow to those around him. It’s, of course, a very small thing. He is no longer playing God, or trying to “fix” the world on a grand scale. He is simply, in his own, quiet way, serving the common people.

My desire to give up meat and to spend more time on activism—these things feel like big sacrifices for me. And yet, they will have a very small impact on the greater situation in the world. They’re a drop in the ocean. I still want to do it, but it’s hard. It’s hard to care, or think that these things matter. Yet, this is the trade-off Xie Lian was willing to make. I really admire him for it.   

I believe self-sacrifice is actually a really important, beautiful thing, that our society has forgotten the value of. We are individualistic—obsessed with our own wants. As I mentioned previously, our expectations have risen, so we buy and buy and buy. We are unwilling to rein in our consumption. I know a lot of people baulk at lifestyle changes as a solution to the climate crisis, and I agree that putting pressure on individuals instead of governments or corporations is misguided. But, first of all, there simply aren’t enough resources on earth to sustain our current levels of consumption. And, second… I don’t think we can completely let individuals off the hook. What is society anyway, but a collection of individuals? If we are going to address this thing, it’s going to take a massive movement—bigger than the civil rights movement or the works’ rights movement or the women’s movement. It’s going to take millions of people worldwide getting out of their own heads, their own lives, and concerning themselves with the greater good. That requires immense sacrifice.

Which takes me to gratitude. In order to be willing to sacrifice, you have to appreciate what you already have.

People often talk about gratitude these days as a path to mental health. Instinctively, it sounds like an uplifting, positive thing. And it is… but it also entails having a relatively negative worldview. It means remembering all the horrible things that exist in this world which we are lucky enough to avoid on a daily basis. You stepped in some dog shit? Well, that sucks, but you could have stepped into an open manhole and broken your neck! So! That’s something to be grateful for.  

We are all so lucky. I’m sure everyone reading this has pains and traumas and challenges. This isn’t to diminish those, but, I hope, at least we all have at least one person to love. That’s all Hua Cheng had, and it’s what kept him going. Just one person was enough. And most of us, I hope, get to eat food every day, get to sleep in a bed, get to play video games or read novels or write poetry when we are sad. Not everyone gets those things.  

Xie Lian, of course, was the king of low expectations, because he knew his future was going to be bad. He had intentionally accepted bad luck for a lifetime. So, there was no point in hoping for things to get better.

I think this attitude is best shown by his interaction with the Venerable of Empty words. The Venerable of Empty Words feeds off people’s fears. But Xie Lian didn’t really have any. When the Venerable of Empty Words warned him that his hut will collapse in two months, his response is, “Two months? If it’s still standing in seven days, then it’ll be a real miracle.” Because his expectations are so low, he’s essentially immune to fear. I can’t help but think that if you could really think this way, it would be a kind of superpower. It reminds me of the famous quote by spiritual teacher Krishnamurti, “Do you know what my secret is? You see, I don’t mind what happens.”

And so Xie Lian is okay with everything. He can sleep anywhere, crash boulders on his chest for money, not eat for three days, regularly suffer corpse poisoning, and still be okay.

Which leads to my third point: purpose. Xie Lian is able to endure such hardship because his expectations are low, but also he knows all his suffering has a purpose. “If I am to become a God of misfortune, then so be it,” he says. “As long as I know deep down that I am not.” He is okay with being laughed at or avoided for his bad luck, because deep down he knows he is doing the right thing. People can withstand a great deal if they feel their suffering has meaning. In Man’s Search for Meaning, the psychiatrist Victor Frankl’s writes about the horrors of living through a concentration camp, and how over and over, it was creating purpose that allowed him, and others, to find motivation to survive. Which I think has an important lesson for self-sacrifice. People are willing to sacrifice a lot, if they feel their sacrifice has purpose.

I get it when MXTX says that she is not a guru, and maybe it’s a lot to ask of a danmei novel to take spiritual advice from it. The book wasn’t necessarily perfect, and I do have some critiques (which I was gonna add here, but this thing is already wayyy too long). But… I do think I found something really meaningful in this story—some inspiration. I want to follow Xie Lian’s example, and live with gratitude and acceptance, while keeping my faith in doing the right thing. In other words, WWXLD! (What Would Xie Lian Do?)

[emotionaldisaster909]

@shanzhuyuu sorry for replying like that, but I just wanted to put a

tgcf spoiler warning!!!

so

the question was

whether or not Jun Wu knew about Xie Lian’s whereabouts all those 800 years

because it would be unlikely that he’d be finished with Xie Lian after his second banishment

my answer isn’t gonna be much

because I honestly have no idea

But my own version is that he indeed didn’t know where he was, because he genuinely couldn’t find him

And as unlikely as this may sound

I think if he did find him

He would, one way of another, continue his quest of driving Xie Lian insane and turning him into himself

But story never mentions that he did

We have no reason thinking that Xie Lian’s misfortunes were his doing

It’s not his style, he’d do something batshit crazy that we would definitely see being referred to in Xie Lian’s memories

Which we didn’t

So I can only assume that all of Xie Lian’s remaining luck went into rendering him impossible for Jun Wu to find

Another thing about him never praying to Jun Wu

I actually really like thinking that he did at least in the coffin as Fang Xin, bereft of any other hope

But Jun Wu himself said that Xie Lian never reached out to him

So we can assume that coffin either was prayerproof or that Jun Wu did hear him but got sick satisfaction from his suffering and decided to leave him there to marinate

But who knows

What do you think?

-

upd.: yeah i’m dumb it’s actually said in the novel that Jun Wu DID observe him and made his life worse :")) thx @citronverveine !!!1

[one-flower-one-sword]

Hello! I’m new to your blog so it’s possible you may have shared similar thoughts. I recently finished the novel and just wanted to share some random thoughts. :-D Did you figure out Hua Cheng was Wu Ming before the novel revealed it? I was spoiled on this before reading and so saw the hints leading up to it. I don't know if I would have figured it out beforehand, but I just think it's interesting seeing some of the hints. One being when Hua Cheng and Xie Lian were running on the rooftops of the Heavenly Capital, trying to get to his guoshi. Xie Lian felt a sense of deja vu I think. And then Hua Cheng's reaction when Xie Lian made a joke about being stabbed and turned into mush. I just thought that was really good foreshadowing. _____

I’ve seen some of the jokes about Hua Cheng being a stalker and I have to say again just how not true that is and it’s not even something I want to joke about. Seeing how Jun Wu actually stalked him, tormented him and all the pain that caused Xie Lian. Hua Cheng never did, and would never do anything like that. This man has such a visceral reaction to any pain Xie Lian has that it would be, at this point, like going against his very nature to do so. He is so careful about not wanting to cause Xie Lian harm by his own actions ( and of course by others).

—--------------- I was reminded from a TGCF discussion thread how young Hua Cheng was during the time Xie Lian was the White Clothed Calamity. He was 16-17 or 17-18. After all the suffering he saw Xie Lian go through, of course he was ready to burn the world down for him. It’s completely understandable even if one doesn’t agree with it. And as soon as Xie Lian changed his mind, he put aside his own desire for revenge and helped Xie Lian stop it by sacrificing himself.

I once read a thread where a comment was made that Hua Cheng encouraged Xie Lian to commit genocide because he asked why wait 3 days to inflict the Human Face Disease and it bothered me because that just wasn’t the case. And I feel it kind of does a disserve to Hua Cheng - missing out on the fact he too had just witnessed his beloved stabbed to death. Ofc, he wanted revenge but he never let that desire override what Xie Lian ultimately wanted to do.

I remember a fanfic I read kind of addressed how back then Hua Cheng didn’t try to stop Xie Lian from doing something that would’ve hurt him mentally and emotionally. Hua Cheng said at present he would say something to Xie Lian if  something were to happen again. Although Hua Cheng didn’t deny he’d ultimately follow through if Xie Lian persisted, Xie LIan said he wouldn’t because he’d listen to Hua Cheng. I know it’s fanfic, but I thought that was the best way to surmise how things would play out because Hua Cheng at present wants Xie Lian to keep from being hurt in all ways, not just his body, but of course will ultimately follow whatever Xie Lian says.

I guess I just wanted to know, from your reading and thoughts on the characters, how do you think Hua Cheng would respond to Xie Lian if he was on the verge of doing something of that nature again? 

Sorry for the word vomit, happy to clarify anything that got too jumbled up! And if it's too much to answer, any thoughts you'd like to share about anything I mentioned is just fine. :) Thank you!

hi, thank you so much for your ask! I'm honestly still really humbled people want to know my tgcf opinions, I did not expect this much interest at all when I started posting.

I was also spoilered for Hua Cheng being Wu Ming, but yeah, the foreshadowing in this novel really is amazing! as with the Black Water arc, every time I reread the novel I spot another small bit of foreshadowing.

I also feel your frustration in regards to the "Hua Cheng is a stalker" thing, I'm continually baffled when it comes up in fandom - because like you said, it was Jun Wu who repeatedly displayed this kind of violating behavior towards Xie Lian, not Hua Cheng. I've mentioned it in previous meta posts, though I've not yet talked extensively about it. I have a longer post in the works though where I tackle several takes on hualian's relationship that seem popular in fandom yet I feel are directly contradicted by the text.

In regards to your last questions, I've also wondered about these kinds of what-ifs, though I think the point of this storyline was that Xie Lian ultimately did choose kindness and forgiveness, and also that he was only brought to this point after suffering through the trauma of incredibly brutal violation and torture and the loss of his parents through suicide. and in regards to Hua Cheng, like you said it needs to be kept in mind what witnessing Xie Lian be violated and tortured like this did to him as well. it's very obvious both from Hua Cheng's wrath against anyone and anything who causes Xie Lian pain - including Hua Cheng himself when he feels he's failed Xie Lian in some way - as well as his unflinching self-sacrifical protectiveness towards Xie Lian, how deeply he was traumatized by what he witnessed people do to Xie Lian. unfortunately i feel like the complexities of the whole situation often get flattened out or outright ignored in certain fandom circles in favor of takes like "and that's why hualian is a toxic relationship" and other such nonsense.

also like you said it's often a disservice to Hua Cheng in particular, who I've several times seen described as one-dimensional and "walking red flag of a person". honestly one of the reasons I've been focusing so much meta on him is because of how baffling and frankly annoying I find these kinds of takes.

I think I may have read that same fanfic btw! that conversation feels familiar :3 I don't remember all the details but it did make sense to me.

don't apologize for rambling btw, always feel free to send me your thoughts! I feel like this reply ended up also quite rambly, I hope my answers were at least somewhat satisfactory anyway. some of the things you touched upon I will definitely address with more detail in that longer post I mentioned on hualian's relationship that I've been working on.

[ruan566]

Am I the only one fed up with the constant comparison between mdzs and tgcf?

When I first found out about tgcf I checked the comments to see how it was recieved by the other readers and oh my Xian Le! The whole review section was filled with people saying that it wasn't on par with mdzs! Mdzs was the first danmei book I read (couldn't ever finish it I just can't read after the confession scene I did not like the romance part a lot) and while it isn't my favourite I liked the plot so I kept myself away from tian Guan ci fi. And then after 2 years I saw its donghua airing and I thought if a donghua was being made then surely it couldn't be that bad and that was when I actually fell in love with the masterpiece this book is. I wouldn't mind if people had any actual complaints about the book but just because it's theme are not similar to mdzs that's insane. It's like you hate a mango for not being an apple. I'd like to hear everyone's opinion since I've seen this happen for way toooo long and heard absolutely no one complain against it, so is it just me who finds it problematic?

(Sorry for the rant it's just been upon my chest too long.)

both the books are brilliant in themselves and have their own shortcomings. I've never been much of a fan of mdzs but it's plot it's characters and their motivations are brilliantly written is something I would never counter. Tgcf on the other hand is not so based on people's motivations rather their reactions. How they react in certain situations and what those reasons cause. As much as I am in love with tgcf it has its own shortcoming but the very reason I love tgcf is that even with those shortcomings it makes itself a very very enjoyable and through read.

Both the books may appear similar at surface but they have very very different themes. As I said previously mdzs is more on people's motivations to do what they must. It's like you have to do what you must to survive it raises questions such as if you did what you did to survive then can what you did really be condemned since that at that point of time was the only thing you could've done. So condemning that is not right.

While tgcf on the other hand is more based on the reactions people have with their own situations and then those reactions affect things. It raises questions as what is truly correct? How do you condemn someone when what they did was truly justified by their point of view during the time that decision took place. Do you punish them? But if they were not even aware of those matters then how can they be at fault? Being oblivious while cannot be a defense in law it's a huge set back in life.

(Sorry for the rant~ haha I swear there's something wrong with me just can't seem to stop typing about books once I start.)

(I posted this on reddit too but ....people just don't stop the comparison, in a very unhealthy way.....)

[raeygina-george]

Hello hello :D

I know that you recently finished link click...but I was wondering is there anything new you've been watching or reading? Or maybe a fandom you are slowly slipping into 👀?

hiiiiii :D

ooh okay so.... im trying to think... as you can probably tell, ive been liking alien stage a lot! i wasn't really into it when i first watched it bc i didn't understand it at all but now i really like it!!!

I did watch oshi no ko & snow white with the red hair recently, but i don't think ill ever participate in either fandom cuz neither of them left a big impression on me lol

what did leave a big impression on me was the game "in stars and time"! i was playing it nonstop til i finished it cause it was so good omg 😭😭

and yesterday night i heard about the enstars/link click collab so i played the game A Little and i went from playing normal mode to expert in one evening askfjskdkdk 😭😭😭 it's too soon to know if ill actually get into the game but i def wanna play it more now lol

im planning on watching tgcf soon hopefully!! and maybe yakuza's guide to babysitting since i never actually got past the first like 2 episodes lmao. ive been reading/watching a lot of things that have been on my list for a while so if you have any recs please toss them my way!!!

sorry if the answer was too long 😭 wby?

[illuminatedferret]

Hello! I hope you're having a lovely day!!

Well- here's a dumb thing that I've been thinking about for absolute ages, if you don't mind dumb asks? I'd be interested in what you think of a TGCF story where a cannon character (NOT HuaLian) reincarnates with slowly returning memories of their last life - wherein they eventually discover that they'd actually read a book about their current life! Except, they never actually finished the series - they've devoured decent chunks of fandom content, but they don't know what's Canon and what's fanon for the parts they never read. (Anything book 3 and beyond)

Here's the conundrum- I haven't finished reading TGCF yet because I want to model their knowledge based off mine, and sketch out what I *think* might happen in this stories plot... and then go back and read TGCF and look for ways this wouldn't work and would change, and build the *actual* plot of the story from there.

How dumb does this idea sound? Would you have any advice to give, or any ideas on big differences fanon has with canon? (Without actually mentioing what the truth actually is? ^^;;)

Feel free to ignore everything aside from the "I hope you're having a lovely day," part, if you want ^^;;

hello!! today has been good :) I hope yours has been good as well.

I don't think this is a dumb ask! It's an interesting premise! I think you are going to get stuck at some point where your story planning hits the point in canon that you've read to, but it's definitely a clever way to basically like, method-act the character's experience? Taking advantage of your own lack of knowledge is clever, yeah, I don't think this is dumb at all!

If you want my advice, I'll just spitball a bunch of questions I think you should ask yourself- what kind of person are you writing? Why didn't they finish TGCF? What sorts of fandom content were they looking at? Were they a fan of a particular character? How did that influence the sorts of TGCF fans they followed, and what biases did it give them? The fan media they were engaged with, was it biased towards or against any particular characters? Because any of those things could create a lot of misconceptions.

I was spitballing fanon vs canon with some friends, and I realized we should also probably acknowledge headcanons, and the sort of bridge it is between canon and fanon. They overlap a bit, but to me, headcanons are ideas that acknowledge canon vs. personal opinion, while fanon ignores or seeks to replace canon. That might also be a good area to explore- what's something they forgot was a headcanon? Did they perhaps hear two conflicting headcanons, and they don't know which one is the truth?

It's a little hard to say "Fanon is (X)" without in the process saying "Canon is (Y)". But here's some fanon I know of:

E-ming reopening wounds. I just learned this one, actually. There are a few fic that use this idea without any mention of it not being canon, RIP.

Xie Lian thinking his food is good.

Buff Xie Lian (I'm sorry I know it's popular don't yell at me)

Hua Cheng calling himself "lowly", "useless", or "unworthy"- this is also very common in fanfic.

Mu Qing's father was executed for (X). (you could easily make some headcanons there. It's just stating anything as fact that becomes fanon.)

[askew-d]

Hello...Have you watched Haikyuu movies? It's great....And we got lots of Kuroken moments and "that"one Kagehina moment.... So, as Kagehina shipper, have you ever ship Hinata or Kageyama with other character? For me, I have read Kageyama with Oikawa fic (I enjoy it but not really into that ship, all the time thinking of Iwaoi) and Hinata with Atsumu fic (one of my friend love that ship, wrote a fic and asked me to read them). And as much as they're all good, my otp will always be Kagehina. Like they were made for each other and it has to be them...

Do you also have other ships that you love from MDZS and TGCF? Sorry, if you asked me this, I have at least 8 ships in total from those two series, all of them are non canon (Xuexiao, Xiyao, Zhuiling, Beafleaf, Fengqing, Quanyin, Peihuang, Xuyue)....

Sorry for this random and long ask, hope you don't mind....

hello, anon!! sorry i am late for this, hope you understand. life has been crazy, haha. anyway, let us go: i did watch the haikyuu films and recently in was at the cinema with a friend watching the dumpster battle, let me tell you i was OVERJOYED!!! heavens, i could not control my anxiety. though my friend also likes the anime, she isnt as obsessed as me and didnt even finish the last season when we talked about watching the brand new release, so i had the OUTSTANDING experience of rewatching it with her so we could buy the tickets after!! i lost count of how many times i watched it and how many times i made other friends try it out (at some point, i recommended it to even one of my students during a totally unrelated discourse, hahahaha, hope he shares his opinions once this winter break finishes).

since i watched haikyuu about... five years ago? i must have rewatched some seasons more than ten times. its my comfort show! love every film also. about the ships, kagehina is my endgame, but i definitely love kuroken, iwaoi, bokuaka and sakuatsu (though i consume kagehina content much more). of course every ship is valid, i cannot judge anyone, however, i personally cant see hinata or kageyama with anyone else and do not read stories too focused on other relationships :) i can comprehend why fans see something with oikawa and kageyama, or even oikawa and hinata (considering their interaction in rio), but i do not settle with it in my heart. its just profiles and options, anyway! dont mind, dont mind.

i agree with you. for me, they are soulmates through and through. perfect for each other. one is the promise, the other is the anchor. they might be one of the couples i have seen anywhere that matches each other's vibe the best.

about mxtxt works, my favorite side ships are moshang and beefleaf. i can see the appeals in each one you mentioned, but i just never quite got interested to the point of reading about it, sorry!! some of them maybe its because they did not have a finale extra shot, or at least they were not as spoken/seen together as they were individually. for fengqing, though i like them as a side couple in hualian fanfics, i never quite got engaged in their story together, many times they just annoyed me (god, im scared of saying that and people coming at me, but there you go). but i know they have their values and some interactions i could almost forget my light, petty resentment for their actions and laugh along. beefleaf though? mobei-jun and his creator shang qinghua? heavens, i wanted to see more of them.

so, this is it! do not worry about asking whatever and whenever you want to ask. i love coming here to answer them when i have the time. thank you!! hope you can spot a nice sunset and take a relaxing shower today.

[eyes-of-mischief]

weekly fic recs | 55

prompt: fairy tale elements

fandoms: hq, mdzs, merlin, tgcf, yoi

hq

The Golden Chapel by Heronfem

(mature)

Arms and the man I sing,—not as of old The Mantuan bard his mighty verse unrolled, But in such humbler strains as may beseem Light changes rung on a fantastic theme.

Or, a Knight comes in search of the Golden Chapel to finish his quest. The Chapel's guardians and trial makers finish theirs as well.

mdzs

the sleeper's gift by iliacquer

(graphic depictions of violence)

“When you were a baby, I claimed your life and your death,” says Wei Ying. “Before your nineteenth birthday, you’ll prick your finger on something sharp and fall into a sleep like death. No mortal man or woman will be able to wake you. I’m sorry.”

He doesn't sound sorry.

Or: The fairytale retelling where Wei Wuxian is Maleficent and Lan Wangji is Sleeping Beauty.

Turn Left by kianspo

(mature)

“Make me so ugly that no one will ever want me,” he says. “Please.”

Or: Lan Wangji is kidnapped from the Lan Clan when he's still a small child. He retains no memories of his real identity, and only knows himself as a servant at Madam Ji's brothel. When the clients begin to look at him with interest, he finds someone to curse him and take away his true appearance, and with it any chance of ever finding his family.

(Not a brothel fic, that's only the starting point. A Wangxian story. A Twin Jades story.)

the rivers start to sing by fruitys

(mature)

Just when the sun has risen high enough to shine its weak rays through the little window, the man wakes up. Wei Wuxian is waiting for him, the iron cooking pan held tightly in one hand and Xiao Pingguo perched on his shoulder. Crows always look a little menacing, Wei Wuxian thinks — he hopes he cuts an intimidating figure now, with his crow and his cooking pan. He’s too skinny, not as strong as he used to be, and he doesn’t have a sword. But he has the Stygian Tiger Seal, tucked safely into one of his sleeves. He doesn’t need physical strength for that. Now he adjusts his grip on the pan. “Who are you?” he demands. The man blinks at him, runs his eyes up and down the length of Wei Wuxian’s body. They’re very pale, almost gold. “My name is Lan Wangji.”

Or: Wei Wuxian is locked in a tower. Lan Wangji finds him.

green sleeves growing cold by mistergoblin

Something flickers in dark eyes. A responding lick of flame. Lan Wangji cannot put a name to it — but it angers him, angers him as does the small satisfied curl to Wei Wuxian’s mouth, as does the shameless pout which replaces it.

Lan Wangji cannot understand him.

Lan Wangji cannot control him.

Lan Wangji is going to be driven mad.

(In which, to keep her son safe, Madam Lan creates a curse)

merlin

The Frog Prince by Clea2011

Canon era AU. A teenage Arthur is hit by a mutation spell intended for Uther. Unable to speak and hidden away by his father because of his appearance, Arthur is left lonely and isolated. A few years later Gaius takes on a new apprentice, someone who can understand Arthur and see through the enchantment. Someone with magic.

But breaking the spell was never going to be easy.

tgcf

Memento Vivere by IceEckos12

(mature) (graphic depictions of violence)

Though Jun Wu’s expression was drawn with sympathy, his eyes were apathetic as he watched Xie Lian thrash in the dirt. “What a monstrous thing you tried to do, Xianle,” he murmured, letting his hand drop to his side. “What a terrible, monstrous thing.”

In one universe, Xie Lian makes a request, and Jun Wu agrees.

In another universe, Jun Wu changes the terms.

The Bride Selection by trufflehargau

Xie Lian held up the flyer, and squinted at it through the eye-holes of his mask. Beneath the words ‘Join the Selection! Be the Ghost King’s Bride!’ the sweeping eaves rendered in wobbly black ink matched the silhouette of the building in the distance. Paradise Manor. The Ghost King’s home.

-

...The Princess and the Pea retelling? Set before the events of the novel. The Ghost King of Paradise Manor is selecting a bride. Xie Lian doesn't really know what he's doing there.

and at last, i've found my light by astrocosmos

For sixteen years, all that Xie Lian could see of the world was confined to the small windowsill of a forgotten tower—that is, until a lanky man with an eyepatch and a crooked smile came crashing right through it, disturbing the life of solitude he thought he had accepted long ago.

or; the tale of a lost prince and the one person who never stopped searching

yoi

perigee, apogee by seventhstar

Once upon a time, there was a thief who stole the prince of the moon.

hood & glove by Fahye, hawberries

"I don't mess with the fae," Otabek says.

"I'm not asking you to mess with them," JJ flat-out lies.

the dream that you wish will come true by seventhstar, sixthmoon (seventhstar) 

As the prince, whose isolation made even the single fiddle and informal dance of a party of servants overwhelming, observed them from the side of the room, a young man with dark eyes and dark hair approached him.

“Excuse me,” he said to the prince, his cheeks flushed from the wine. “Would you like to dance?”

The prince had danced without a partner for the whole of his short life.

“Oh,” the prince said. Within him a single bud began to bloom. “I would.”

A prince locked in a tower, a dancer without a partner...and a witch without love.

[mikaela-the-slut-expert]

( Sorry for any writing mistakes, I don't speak English! )

Hello, it's me again! How are you? I was reading some of your Tgcf stories and I had an idea! ✨

I would like to request an Fluff Imagine (?), where (m/n) is married to Xie Lian and Hua Cheng, and has extremely beautiful long white hair!

The three of them were strolling through the ghost kingdom and Hua Cheng sees a beautiful bouquet of roses. He thinks it would look really nice on our hair, since the red would stand out against the white.

(M/n) and Xie Lian were looking at some things in another stall, when Hua Cheng arrives with a beautiful bouquet of roses. When (m/n) asks "what is this?", Hua Cheng just responds: "secret".

When they get home, Hua Cheng asks Xie Lian to help him put the roses in our hair. And it's a really cute moment between the three of them! 💗💗

I hope you have a great day! And I wanted to say that I love your stories! 🗣️💗💗

Roses

HuaLian x M!reader

You, Xie Lian, and Hua Cheng have been married for a while.

It's a loving relationship

But if there was one thing they love most about your physical appearance it had to be your hair

Long, white, pretty locs. That reminded them of the snow.

They think it's gorgeous.

Xie Lian and Hua Cheng spend a lot of time playing, braiding and running their fingers through your hair.

They're like obsessed with it

Well while stroking through ghost city, you and Xie Lian are busy looking at a stall with jewelry in it.

Hua Cheng on the other hand is busy buying some beautiful red roses.

He thinks they'd look gorgeous in your hair.

And it's like putting a piece of him on you.

So when the three of you meet back up and start walking home you're staring at the bouquet in his hands

"What's that for San Lang?"

"You'll see it's a secret baobei"

And you do find out.

When you get home Hua Cheng sits you down on the bed and starts trimming the roses stems and placing them in your hair.

Xie Lian helps too, careful to remove the thorns so it doesn't prick you

Once they're finished your hair has many roses in them, and it does look good.

The dark red popping from your white hair.

Hua Cheng is never wrong and he knew you'd be a vision like this.

[nyerus]

So my friend just got into MDZS after finished TGCF, and you know what she said? She thinks that Xue Yang kinda remind her of Hua Cheng (like the reincarnated version), and Xue Yang/ Xiao Xing Chen relationship is, kinda like how Hua Cheng/ Xia Lian will be if things end up badly...And I never thought of that ever (eventhough I started TGCF since 2 years ago). What do you think? Do you agree? Can you the parallels of HC and XY characters? Sorry for this random ask....

Frankly, the only real similarities the Xue Yang has to Hua Cheng is like... potentially a similar color scheme. And that's it. Actually, probably not even that. Perhaps just people thinking "bad boy vibes" and "having an obsession" which is so general as to be completely useless, in my opinion! So many other characters have those things, in ways that are more similar to Hua Cheng and Xie Lian.

The comparison only really works if you completely remove everything about why Hua Cheng is the way he is, and decontextualize his relationship with Xie Lian. And I think the parallels between Xiao Xingchen and Xie Lian -- which are actually more substantial -- are doing the heavy lifting here. Them being similar in some ways allows for the extra slot of "guy who is obsessed with them."

It's hard to even really think of Xue Yang and Hua Cheng as polar opposites, actually. Because they really aren't -- they don't share a substantial axis to deviate from other than very superficial ones. Like, Hua Cheng is a reject of society because he wants to be, because he doesn't care about that society. He's not a bitter sociopath about it like Xue Yang. And meanwhile, Xue Yang makes pretty much all his own problems for himself. Hua Cheng would laugh at him.

I get why people make that comparison, though, and I don't blame them. There's something there, at least. But again, I think it just comes down to aesthetic (light + dark) and maybe related archetypes (kind naive person + unhinged guy) mostly, and then hammering away at the characters until they fit the molds.

I'm sorry if this is not the answer you wanted, anon! But I wanted to give my honest perspective haha.

[irrealisms]

jun wu or bwx for character asks? 👁️

starting off: hi yen if you're reading this it's got spoilers so pls skip this post ty <3 u can come back to it when u finish tgcf which at your current rate will be in like. a couple days lol

How I feel about this character

Im Normal About Him.

the ending is. perfect. the bamboo hat. it's never too late. when he's defeated he looks relieved. quoting myself from discord:

he cannot face being proven wrong, because it means he’s done terrible things and hurt people when he didn’t have to. he wants so badly to be proven wrong, because it means that maybe there’s good in the world and not just endless crushing pain and evil.

i have a lot of thoughts abt him & the tragedy of him & his entire ideology!!! i am sort of failing at condensing them but i have a lot of thoughts about him .

All the people I ship romantically with this character

hehe. xie lian (i am a sicko). i can also justify this to some extent--jun wu/bai wuxiang (i think mostly bai wuxiang, actually?) remarks positively on xie lian's appearance a notable amount, there's the "makes one ache, makes one excited" bit which i cannot read as anything other than Kind Of Weird And Horny, there's the thing where jun wu tests xie lian's virginity by making him bleed on jun wu's sword (i have another whole meta in my heart about swords as blatantly phallic in tgcf but i assume you do not need to be convinced of this lol)--but honestly i don't fully stand by it. this is a ship i have at least 80-90% because i am a sicko. i hope you can all understand

My non-romantic OTP for this character

ALSO xie lian. im complex. i contain multiple guys. the thing is that i have a beautiful google doc that consists of every time jun wu/bwx is analogized to a parent/teacher and xie lian is analogized to a child and it has . like. 30 quotes? somewhere around there? it's a lot! it's a lot. "i have decided that we are the same guy due to The Parallels but also i am going to enforce this and Make us the same guy by Molding You into Becoming Me" is an incredibly good dynamic whether it is slash or gen, and i do think the "weird forced adult-child relationship going on" reading is in fact more supported by the text than a shippy one. also when i'm not being a sicko about it there's also something deeply beautiful to me about their ending, about xie lian defeating jun wu but also showing him this moment of grace. and of course the Parallels which apply equally when it's slash vs gen. also you may have noticed that neither this question nor the last one do i bring up guoshi. this is bc idgaf about him. sorry mei nianqing . he exists i just Do Not Care

My unpopular opinion about this character

im gonna be so real i have no idea what is and is not popular wrt jun wu. what are the popular jun wu opinions.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

once again im kind of at the same place i am wrt mu qing of, like.... nothing, honestly? i am incredibly happy with what we got, i think it's beautifully written and the resolution is perfect, mxtx is a good writer and tgcf is a good book, no complaints

having a bit more of his backstory with mnq might be cool, i guess? we get the huge infodump but it's kind of just an infodump, it is just Pure Exposition, going into that a bit more / more naturally than "guoshi helpfully exposits for us" could be neat even tho i dont think its necessary. as mentioned i'm p much happy with what we got

(ask game, give me a character)

[neonscandal]

So excited to know that you also love Link Click...! I watched it first before JJK (I know, still kinda new in thw fandom), so Cheng Xiaoshi/ Lu Guang are special to me. And after 2nd season with that finale, wow, for me it feels like came out of a fanfic. So when I got to know Gojo/ Geto somehow they remind me of Cheng Xiaoshi/ Lu Guang, cause both couples are doomed by the narative....

And what do you think after you finished TGCF? Have you read the novels? Just so you know, it is worth it to collect the books. Their story is that good. Also when you finished it, most likely you'll also have some non-canon fav couples (I have 4 non canon fav couples from TGCF)....And have you watch MDZS or SVSSS?

Sorry for my rambling, MXTX is one of my favorite author ever and I like to talk about their works. (And now I'm still depressed with the latest JJK update and nervous with the BNHA update)......

OMG SEASON TWO FINALE OF LINK CLICK ABSOLUTELY SLAYED ME. Lu Guang, the enigma that you are. This whole time!? What a damn reveal! Just thinking about it, tbh, I'm gagged. I like to guess at things, obviously, but just never even fathomed.

I don't know if I'd mentioned that before RE: Gojo and Geto but same. It might be on an anime recommendation draft 😅 Like, sure, their character design is an obvious indication but it's really all the anguish bubbling just beneath the surface. And now I need to read all the source material because I'm not sure I can wait for them to animate (even though the animation is just 😘👌🏾

For background on my experience while watching TGCF, there are a lot of cultural/religious things that were completely out of my current realm of understanding re: ascension, conditions/relation of the supernatural beings discussed, etc. but I was still able to really enjoy it without and prompted curiosity to learn more before jumping into the novels. Like, having watched and read media informed by Japanese culture (and growing up on Inuyasha), you understand the idea of youkai, general types and their dispositions, even some religious aspects to practices by priestesses and even everyday people, etc. so it's a little easier to navigate. So getting into Chinese media of a certain time period where those beliefs and practices inform the story was a challenge but it also just kind of opens your eyes to how much you don't know which is exciting. I absolutely want to check out the books because I need to know Xie Lian's whole origin (including his 17th birthday and his parents backstory) and what transpired to have created the delicate soft spot San Lung has for him. I hadn't heard of SVSSS yet but MDZS is on my TBW and I'm wondering if watching it will help clarify my confusion from TGCF or if I should do some research ahead of time so I'm not as lost.

Never apologize, I love when people are inspired and passionate! Lol and makes the conversation I have with you guys feel less one sided (with my disproportionate essay responses haha). 💛 I'm sure I'll post when I start watching/reading any of the above so we can reconvene! I'm currently finishing up Stars Align and, from what I've gathered might need to add this to my TBR to get a satisfactory end to things, too. 😭

I've been running on an empty battery lately so Tumblr's really the only social media platform I've been consistently perusing and posting on (RIP to twitter, insta and tiktok, ig). The upside of this being that I see JJK and BNHA leaks less frequently so I'm out here living in ignorant bliss ✨ So if you're out in these virtual streets, be safe out there, anon!