#imagine just how they would benefit from learning abt eachother

[jumjum-crafts]

Colin learns about boundaries

(Teachers who don't usually interact interacting part 2)

[zhuhongs]

Upon rereading tgcf, one of the biggest complaints I have is how lackluster all the extra chapters were. literally none of them were good and all contained rlly gross and harmful sentiments (like the amnesia one which.. yea.. or all the things implying xl should get pregnant for hc thus equating gay relationships with hetero ones and playing into the wife thing and just GOD I HATE MXTX) 

There were a lot of little plot points i wish that had been further elaborated on more in the extras as opposed to hualian being ... like that. I had enough. Like mdzs had actaully good extras (minus the incense burners) that were nice side stories that elaborated more on the characters. Like the hook one with the juniors was so cute and i loved seeing them grow more. Or the lotus pod extras omg.. im such a lotus pod extra stan. those were so cute and gave us a lot of good insight into just how lovestruck lwj was during the times when he didn’t see wwx. mxtx should've stuck to those sorta extras in tgcf but NOOO. SO I have a list of so many other more interesting things those chapters couldve been spent on like:

A resolution on He Xuan’s revenge and his character arc. Bc its implied He Xuan is still hanging out and watching over sqx and that taking revenge didn’t fully satisfy him bc ok.. yea shi wudu is dead but he xuans family will never come back. Now what does he have to live for?? i wish we couldve seen a look into his life during the entire ordeal. like a chapter from his perspective while he was posing as Ming Yi  and maybe a look at a conversation btw he xuan and the real ming yi or a chapter after SQX was banished to see what he’s doing now. Also what did he xuan owe hua cheng money for anyways?? Like ik not every little thing has to be explained but I Want to Know. PLEASE more goth boyfriend content now I just wanna see him :,((

a better resolution of yin yu and quan yizhens storyline. im still mad abt how that plot point was split btw books 3 and 5  when it was rlly out of place and  there were other more pressing plot matters and it just rlly deserved more time. Also i thought yin yu died!?!?!? but apparently one of the extras says he’s alive and man... i;m not reading any more of the extras to see that, give me a full yin yu and quan yizhen chapter.. fuck.

a day in the life of the guoshi fangxin or general hua PLEASE especially like one where hua cheng was SO CLOSE to meeting xie lian but had no clue that xie lian was there at the time but the two did smth that inadvertantly helped the other and they still were connected even though they hadnt met omg pls that’d be so nice. like imagine Hua cheng catching a glimpse of the guoshi in public in yong’an while he’s trying to follow some lead that points to xie lian or maybe following a lead to capture qi rong bc he said he knew qi rong was a part of the yong’an stuff and originally thought the guoshi was one of qi rongs pawns. like can you IMAGINE him getting so close. but at the last second he did smth small that impacted xie lian. like they bumped into eachother on the street or smth. god i’d go crazy

OR vice versa.. like a day in the life of the young ghost king hua cheng. Like again, one of my biggest issues was that hua cheng just knew everything and its never really explained how he got all of that info. like yes he’s been alive very long and has eyes and ppl working for him everywhere but like... how did he build that network?? I’d love to see a chapter of young ghost king hua cheng travelling around trying to learn as much as he can abt the world and how it can help bring him to xie lian. and the two maybe are in the same kingdom for a bit and they don’t meet exactly but hua cheng stops some fight or something and helps xie lian indirectly or maybe xie lian is performing on the street in some costume and hua cheng doesn’t recognize him and smiles and gives him a coin or smth. idk i’m just dying for any sorta extra chapter or fic like that. i’m honestly so tempted to write my own but i cant write

also!! we’ve seen how xie lian picks up people down on their luck near him and show them kindness (like banyue, lang ying, xiao ying, he tried to with san lang but we know how that ended lmao) so i’d love to see another little vignette of him doing that on his travels and how every person he meets teaches him smth about life and being a good person and idk, i just think it’d be rlly sweet. i love this facet of his character and feel like we didn’t see enough of it towards the end.

ALSO hua cheng only seems to respect one heavenly official besides xie lian and thats yushi huang.. i assume thats mostly bc she was the only one to help xie lian and let him use the rain master hat to bring water to yong’an. I was thinking maybe when he was a new supreme he had run into trouble and maybe was picked up by the rain master and helped him heal and in return he promised to help protect her village from harm in the future. Like i know a heavenly official wouldn’t cooperate with a ghost like that but yushi huang is different and doesn’t really care about the heavens so i think she would protect him if he could do something to benefit her village. ik this is kinda far fetched but when he first became a supreme I’m sure a bunch of ppl probably tried to mess with him and didn’t rlly believe him to be undefeatable bc he hadn’t proved himself yet also i doubt all his power came overnight. he had to learn how to use it once he escaped the kiln. and some group probably thought they could weaken him somehow. I’m thinking maybe a rlly well formed group of ghosts actually caught him off guard once and he had to retreat and was picked up by the rain master and stayed with her and learned from her a bit. i think it’d be a cool concept also i just rlly want more yushi huang content and i’m on their friendship agenda bc he rlly did seem to actually respect her when she first appeared and i think it’d be cool if the two had some history together.

Also idrc if this was addressed I couldve missed it But!! Did xie lian ever tell Hua cheng that the reason he got the curse shackles and was banished again in the first place wasnt bc jun wu wanted to punish him, but because he requested it. And specifically requested it bc he felt guilty abt letting wu ming take the human face disease and disperse for his sake. So he took the shackles and descended to atone for that?? Bc I dont recall hua cheng learning that bc his soul was already dispersed at that point so it didnt follow him and xie lian didnt say anything so uhhh... someone should tell hua cheng that. Like I dont think xie lian rlly said how much hua cheng meant to him and didnt show him he was loved in grand ways. Like xie lian did always care for bc in other ways but I think if hua cheng learned abt this on screen it wouldve been such a great moment and I'm rlly surprised mxtx didnt address this iirc!?!? Like imagine jun wu telling Hua cheng this in the kiln bc xie lian wouldnt say it himself. Imagine how cool that would be.

Also a small thing adding into the whole young ghost king Hua cheng stuff. Its implied and p much stated that hua cheng isnt his real name. That he likely doesnt have a real name bc his parents died? (It's not clear. I'm still mad at mxtx for not making his childhood clearer). So I'd like to see when and why hua cheng chose that name for himself. The new tgcf ending song kinda hints at its meaning with the lyrics "for you I'd fill a city of flowers" as xie lian is the flower wielding martial god so it's probably inspired by that. Also xie lian saved hua cheng from leaping off the city walls but I'd love to hear him say it bc the implication of his name didnt dawn on me for quite a bit and I dont know if everyone made the connection. Again I sure as hell didnt. So itd be cool to see a chapter that takes place in his past after just ascending as a supreme

Overall I rlly think tgcf had a lot more potential to be even better and a lot of that comes down to fleshing out the side characters and letting hualian have more of a storyline independent of one another. like i know the appeal and message of tgcf is that through love, people can overcome anything, but fuck man. i just wanna see what these two (mostly hua cheng) where like in the absence of each others presence. Part of what I really liked abt mdzs is that we got to see that longing develop btw wangxian when the two weren’t together and how they thought about each other and did things in thei others spirit bc they knew the other wouldve done the same thing. but whatever, mxtx was too consumed by her own unhealthy idea of what devotion and true love looks like but still. i rlly think the extras couldve helped the story be better rather than be fujoshi fuel that i try to bleach from my mind -_-

[squeak-4657]

Janus' playlist breakdown

I've seen a few people do this, so I wanted to give my personal takes on what the songs mean! Strap in, because this is Long.

Black hole sun- He is Sad. "The time is gone for honest men" "far too long for snakes" He wishes they could be honest but genuinely believes the world isn't good enough for that? The actual song is about depression so who knows

It seemed the better way- Lying seemed like the best option, but the person in the song sounds. Regretful? "I better hold my tongue, I better learn my place" Maybe resignation in being a "Villain" when he believes that lying was genuinely the right option and it's just too late to go back. 

Anywhere- This is just his Society speech, he truly believes that the world is awful and people can only ever believe that it's been good if they've been lied to. 

Talking at the same time- I think this is a bit about society and a bit about his relationships to the sides. More talk about protecting yourself and building yourself up but also..."She told me she would leave me, I ignored all the signs" "I know that you're leaving and there will be no next time" Oof. He sad. He's also probably tired of everyone seemingly just talking over eachother in discussions.

All the good girls go to hell- The song itself looks like it's about climate change so it's another Society song, but the line "Look at you, needing me" gave me SvSR vibes. Also the line "Once you get inside them, got friends but can't invite them" could be his thoughts on being accepted?

Denial- This is just SvS, he knows what Thomas is thinking and where he wants to go, but Thomas is in denial, he knows that the conversation isnt over but they're already "turning the lights off"

Trust in me- Hes a Villain, hes a snake who wants to be trusted 

Razzle Dazzle- He is DRAMATIC and SHOWY as a distraction from what he really is, or at least, what he believes he is.

When the chips are down- Again, Society, he believes that everyone is in it for themselves and if Thomas tries to be kind and trusting that he'll only be screwed over. Trust issues much? Its why he always pushes Thomas to look after only himself, he believes that they'll only get hurt if they don't. 

Mandy goes to med school- Yknow this one really is an odd one out. Its about someone giving illegal abortions. I think it's supposed to show his relationship with law. He's willing to break the law, and what he does can hurt you just as much as it helps you

I put a spell on you- He's a jazzy villian!! The snake Enticing you to sin lmao

Evil Night Together- This one gives me big Remus and him vibes, idk if any other side is down with an Evil Night Together, I could be wrong but it makes me think that they're friends who like to be cartoonishly evil together and I'm vibing with it 

Dont tell mama- Janus can have a little sexy. As a treat. Lmao jk, it's about hiding things from other people for your own benefit, ofc it's on here. I imagine that Thomas is Mama in this scenario, and since Janus can litterally shut up the others if Thomas doesn't want to know something, telling the rest not to tell fits.

You're a cad- Hes VERY SAD about Virgil leaving, He thinks that Virgil could never change and will always end up as 'bad' and that he's the only one who can see through him. He knows that he should let him go but he can't make himself do that."I'm a fish on your hook" "you're reckless with my heart" 

As far as I can see- He feels as though he isn't listened to, no one likes him being here and no one would care if he were calling for help. 

Criminal- He knows that he's done wrong, feels as though he is genuinely a bad person. However, he does want to redeem himself, for Thomas' sake, I imagine

Change- He's tired of protecting Thomas, when he feels like no one else "gives a damn". He knows that a change has to come, there isnt any avoiding it and he has to change too, he just doesn't completely know what the change is yet. This probably isn't anything, but I find it interesting that a song on Virgil and a song on Janus' playlists both mention something coming in the wind.

Devil in the details- The first lines seem to be a call out to Patton- telling Thomas to not rely on him too much. "I made amends in the general sense, but the devil's in the details" He isn't done making up for past deeds, again, he knows he needs to change but he doesnt really know how? Or he's tried and he doesn't feel like it's working. "I am the first one I decieve, if I can make myself believe then the rest is easy" is Janus lying to himself? Or does this refer to deceiving Thomas? As he is a part of him 

Come little children- He's a mysterious boy who believes life is Painful and believes that Thomas and/or the other sides needs him to get through it.

Into the unknown- Is he nostalgic? He probably thinks nostalgia is lying to yourself abt how good your memories are, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing.