#in cql all the wens go except a-yuan but in the novel it's just the wen sibs

[winepresswrath]

Which moment of "Wen Ning lost it" did you have in mind when you made the poll? About Jin Zixuan or Jiang Cheng? Which version of "lost it" are we talking about?

At some point after he goes to Carp Tower to turn himself in with Wen Qing he snaps and kills a bunch of people. JGS uses it as an excuse to attack the burial mounds after previously promising that so long as Wen Qing and Wen Ning turn themselves in he'd leave them alone.

[wangxianficrecs]

Fic Finder

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1.  Hi, I'm looking for an Untamed fic, maybe you'll be able to help. It's a canon divergence AU in which WWX doesn't lose his core, Jiang Fengmian lives and it's implied that his core was transferred to JC (heavily implied; JFM retires as the Sect Leader after that). This is absolutely not the most important part of this fic but it's a paragraph that I've got stuck in my head and now I'm searching for the rest @_@ Thanks in advance! ~ @otemporaetmores

FOUND! by @notsobabblespace, who was reminded of  I’m aching and I know you are too by edenwolfie (part 3 in series, M, 23k, wangxian)

FOUND!  by @jim-is-spocks-thyla, who suggests ❤️ to arrive late is better than not to arrive at all by Moominmammashandbag (M, 35k, wangxian) [ETA:  Oops, not this one.  JFM has no core, but he didn’t give it to JC]

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2.  Hi Mojo! I’m in need of you/your followers help in finding a fic that I read a little while ago. It was a fic where Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi lived together in Cloud Recesses and their children were Sizhui and an OOC that was younger than him. I remember SiZhui faced a lot of criticism for not being the chief cultivator’s real child? And they were happy he had a younger sibling that would be sect leader in the future because he was blood. Come to think of it, this is probably an ABO fic too. Thanks for your time 💜

FOUND! @andidontmeanto believes this is Blue Blood by PotterheadAvengerDemigod (T, 91k, wangxian, my post)

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3.  Aksks it's like 3 am but I just remembered a fic and I can't find it?? I'd really, really appreciate your help. It was a wangxian fic, maybe a oneshot idk, and lwj was kind of a nerd and wwx a badboy? So basically lwj has a massive crush on him and dresses up like wwx etc. (i think he even got an undercut) and after a party they sleep with each other at lwj's place?

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4.  i’m looking for a fic set in the where lwj’s mother killed his father? i don’t think that was a main plot point but it did show up in his backstory - any idea what this might be? ~ @thehype

FOUND!  @rentslirott thinks this could be ❤️the best of you by sysrae (E, 42k, wangxian, my post)

FOUND!  @castaways-logbook offers  The Right to Care by travelingneuritis (E, 39k, wangxian, WIP)

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5.  ... same as #6 ...

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6.  Hello friend, sorry for the inconvenience but I wanted to see if you could please find me a fic that I lost but I only remember more or less the final part, it goes more or less like this, lan zhan and wei ying are kidnapped by jin guangyao and lock them up if not I'm wrong in some cells next to lan xichen after the fights jin guangyao dies but lan xichen did know how bad jin guangyao had done and he didn't care and then to get revenge he wants to kill wei ying but lan zhan kills him and sizhui gets scared It was more or less like that, please help me ~ @isa0123lol

FOUND!  by @wangxiansfics who says that tragically it’s no longer available, but @dulachodladh found it on WaybackMachine here: Thread and Needle by haysel (M, 86k, wangxian)

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7.  Hi, Mojo! I'm glad that you're back but I hope you enjoyed your time off tumblr! Can you and/or your followers help me find a fic? I think the summary was talking about wwx and somehow they were asking mingjue for help since he's the only one who can help. The summary was in italics and it's a dialogue from some guy? And a shorter summary below. Sadly this is the only thing I can remember but I hope you can still help me

FOUND!  @alwayswenning suggests love, in fire and blood by cicer (E, 360k, wangxian, has it’s own fanfic here, I just finished this last night!, my bookmark)

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8.  Sorry to bombard you as soon as you're back, but this one's driving me crazy--a modern AU where they met online. WWX thinks LWJ is an old man from how he talks. I don't remember much except the excerpt made it seem like he still was amused by/enjoyed talking to him, and Wen Qing was telling him it was a bad idea and to stop. It's not How to Fall In Love With a Catfish, tho that one is brilliant! (Also any top notch identity porn would be great) Hope your break was restful, you deserve it! Thanks

Here’s my #identity porn tag, but I’m not sure about this exact story.

I'm the anon for #8 on the fic finder. Though I'm excited to read it, the suggested fic isn't the one I was looking for. I swear I thought I saw it on here around a month ago or slightly more, but searches have failed me.

FOUND!  Rating: General Audiences by Mishaa (T, 18k, wangxian WIP) -  mysterious author LWJ (speculated to be an old man because of his formality) and infamous artist WWX paired up for an Untamed Big Bang (in an AU where JGY was the series’ antiheroic protagonist; this fic was written before the release of CQL.)

FOUND?  could you be looking for  Something Real by Latios (G, 5k, wangxian, my post) - wwx thinks lwj is an old man, but there’s no WQ.  There are many pictures of bunnies.

SIMILAR! @emilysidhe thought of ID Bro Saga by Bowandtie (T, 39k, wangxian)

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9.  Hey, how are you? Could you help me please? I've read 3 fanfics once, but I can't find them anymore. 1 - Nanny Problem, Wei is going to be the babysitter of A-Yuan, he is an omega and Lan is an alpha. 2 - Doctor Perfect, Yibo is an omega nurse and Xiao is an alpha doctor. 3 - The Baby of my Omega, Yibo is omega and Xiao is alpha, both of them are bodyguards, but Yibo has to protect Xiao in the beginning. I think they were at ao3, but I really can't find them. Can you help me please? Thank you!! ~ @weallmad

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10.  Hi! Im happy you’re back. I hope you had a good break. I missed your recommendations, but at the same time i got a break from fics and actually studied to my tests haha.  [Ah!  I’m glad to hear your time was spent productively!]  I’m looking for a fic like Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground. In the fic im looking for wangxian slowly lose their senses instead of all of them at once. Like they lose their hearing, then touch, sight etc, They can’t see each other or hear each other. I’m sorry i can’t explain very well.

FOUND?  Could you be thinking of  ❤️shadows in the sun rise by Yuu_chi (E, 25k, wangxian)?  Only lwj losese his senses one by one in this one, though.

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11.  heyyy im trying to find this fic where wwx died the first time he was thrown in to the burial mounds then 10 years later he gets resurrected or something. I can't find it on AO3 and it's been bugging me for days. Thank you!

FOUND!  Well, @moku-youbi offers both of these as possibilities:

Did I Not Explain Why the Sunset Turns Red? by 3988Akasha (E, 100k, wangxian)

we're starting at the end by Miss_Enthusiasimal (M, 95k, wangxian)

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12.  Hi I am looking for a fic where wwx is a witch (/mage?) in a world where magic is being persecuted (especially in Gusu) except for Yunmeng/Lanling I think but they're still frowned upon nonetheless. Then after accidentally hurting Shijie, wwx runs away, and ends up hiding in Gusu pretending to be a servant to lwj (lwj is a prince, lxc is the emperor) but lwj actually knows of his identity and tries not-so-discreetly to protect him from being caught. Thanks!

FOUND! by @bibliobasilisk who gives us Witchfinder by misbehavingvigilante (E, 86k, wangxian)

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13.  Hi! Firstly, I'm glad to see you're back, and I hope your break was a good one! I'm trying to find a LWJ/WWX story that I had planned to read and ending up losing before I could. It was set in the immediate aftermath of the 33 lashes, LWJ is in the Jingshi recovering when a healer(?) discovers he's pregnant (by WWX). It may have been a/b/o verse, but I'm not 100% on that. Part of the story was a flashback to when WWX was still alive. Thank you!

FOUND!  by nonny themself.  It’s Unexpected Surprise by Glucose_Gremlin (E, 4k, wangxian)

SIMILAR! @mondelgel suggests my heart is kept as pure as ice in a jade vase/一片冰心在玉壶 by Daledesu (M, 21k, wangxian, WIP)

SIMILAR! from @impending-cuttlefish:  something new, something white, something blue by ariskamalt (E, 140k, wangxian, WIP)

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14.  I'm trying to find this one fic where Jin Ling finds this diary that Wei Ying wrote as the Yiling Patriarch that basically reveals everything, including the golden core reveal and it even has training tips that helps Jon Ling improve. When Wei Ying comes back, he tries everything to keep him there because he is THE best uncle now. I need to find it because it is a N E E D.

FOUND? by @theladypeartree who says, “The Truth (Untold) is jl reading jyl's journals, not wwx's though. And mordant is jl returning wwx's journals that he found, not grew up with. Neither fit #14 properly, but I seriously could not find anything closer after two solid days of searching. Good luck!“

The Truth (Untold) by anxiouswreck0_0 (g, 3k, wangxian, jin ling & wei wuxian)

or this one on ffn:

mordant by tennisnotensai (M, 18k, wangxian, here’s the link for mobile)

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15.  I have heard tell of a Sizhui/Jingyi fic where the boys end up going to Wangxian for advice about how to be intimate. Can you help me find it?

FOUND!  @manaika-chan says this one is On Advisement by LaMachina17 (M, 19k, wangxian, zhuiling, chengyi)

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16.  nm

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17.  Hi! Sorry, do you happen to know that nsfw fic where wwx is still studying in the cloud recesses and he’s reading a novel (im not sure if it was from nhs) that features a cultivator couple and there’s a scene in the book where the woman was pegging her husband? Basically wwx got curious about this and tried fingering himself. I remember he was hiding in the back mountains and then lwj eventually caught him

FOUND?  Could you be thinking of  Deep in the Woods by malkinmalkout (E, 5k, wangxian, my post)?

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18.  Ahhh I'm going crazy trying to think of a fic that I've read where Lan Zhan killed Wen Chao in a locker room and nie huaisang stood guard outside the door! Then lan zhan went to lan huan and said I killed someone and he said did they deserve it? Then it's fine. And I can't remember the name of the fic! Have you heard of it? ~ @uchihaautumn

FOUND! @artemisisdiana offers So Full Of Love (Wouldn't Know Where to Start) by witchupbitch (M, 54k, wangxian, WIP)

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19.  Hi, I was wondering if you could help me find a fic. I read it a while ago and I don't really remember all the details but it was a modern au where Lan Wangji was a police officer in this small town and Wei Wuxian comes back after years, having left the town due to some stuff. Thank you in advance.

Btw love your blog. I live for your fic recs.  [Thank you!]

FOUND?  Could you be looking for medium blues by dark_and_terrible (E,193k,  wangxian)?  It appears to be taken down atm, but it might come back (it’s done it before).

FOUND! by @grannyweatherwaxshat who offers When a Bird Flies, It Leaves Feathers by Bem_Kofi (not rated, 75k, wangxian)

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20.  Hi mojo!! First of all I luv your blog Thank you so much for all those ficrecs.  [You’re welcome!]  Actually I’m looking for a fic I read months ago. I probably found the fic from your blog. But I can’t seem to find it now 😢 it was a modern au wangxian fic (inspired by call me by ur name?) wwx was like 5 years older than lwj. (And lwj was like 16?) Wwx lives in another city but he spent around a year in cloud recesses with lwj in the past. And wwx yanli and jc visits cloud recesses again and wangxian gets 2gether

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[My ko-fi.]

[untamed-sun]

MDZS vs Untamed Plot Differences

Now that I’ve written (a grand total of two) fanfic for MDZS, I wanted to sound out some of my thoughts on the plot differences. Or rather, some of the struggles I have with deciding which parts to use with which. I’m not entirely sure what I’ll write, but it will probably have spoilers if you haven’t finished at least one of these stories.

The problem is that the plot differences are interconnected. For example, if I have Jiang Yanli end up with Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng after the fall of Lotus Pier (something I had considered because I really liked her conversation with Wei Wuxian, where he admitted feeling responsible for what happened) then I have to consider how to remove her from the situation before Wei Wuxian gives Jiang Cheng his golden core. 

In the CQL they did this by handing her over to Song Lan. But in the novel, Song Lan (and Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang) all appeared after Wei Wuxian’s death. Which means I would either have to include the CQL timeline for Song Lan, Xiao Xingchen, and Xue Yang or find some alternative way of leaving Jiang Yanli behind.

Something similar happens with Wei Wuxian’s death. On the one hand, I really really like the novel version of the second siege at the Burial Mound. It makes more sense, plot-wise, to have them all become truly desperate before Wei Wuxian draws a lure flag on himself in order to draw away the puppets. The blood corpses of the Wen Remnants are powerful, and make it more believable that Wen Ning would realize Lan Sizhui is Wen Yuan. The novel version also really develops some of the ongoing novel themes regarding blame, forgiveness, etc. 

But.. the novel plotline also seems strange to me. We get it in bits and pieces, and if I understand what happened correctly we have the following:

Wen Qing and Wen Ning turn themselves in.

Wei Wuxian goes to Nightless City, it turns into a bloodbath.

Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian leave, and hides him in a cave somewhere.

Wei Wuxian tells him to go away, Lan elders come... Lan Wangji fights with the elders and ultimately winds up back at Cloud Recesses where he is severely punished.

Wei Wuxian winds up back at the Burial Mounds, and although I’m fuzzy on where all the stuff happened with Lan Wangji (to be fair, the novel is narrated from Wei Wuxian and he pretty much forgot all that, so... shrugs), it apparently took three months after Nightless City for the sects to gather enough strength to attack (i.e. the first siege at the Burial Mound). That’s where the remaining Wen are killed, Wei Wuxian destroys the Stygian Tiger Amulet and dies in the backlash. Oh, and Wen Yuan is hidden by a tree, where Lan Wangji finds him (after hearing about Wei Wuxian’s death and rushing over).

Three months? Three months, where we don’t really know what Wei Wuxian was thinking or feeling. It seems sort of stupid that they all just sat around on the Burial Mound waiting for the siege? And the whole bit with the cave, and telling Lan Wangji to go away, and the elders... I’m not really clear on it, probably because Wei Wuxian isn’t. It just doesn’t really make sense to me?

The CQL version has it’s own problems, though. It’s weird how Wen Qing and Wen Ning make a big deal about sacrificing themselves, and tell Wei Wuxian he’ll be taken care of by the others for the three days her needles knock him out... and yet they all just... leave? To die?

On the one hand, it makes Nightless City even more understandable. Wei Wuxian feels he’s truly lost everything. His brother and sister, all of Lotus Pier, being at his sister’s wedding... and now all the people he’d made those sacrifices for are dead, and he thinks everyone hates him.

I still prefer the death-by-backlash (Wei Wuxian isn’t really suicidal in the novel, despite being seriously messed up. Unless he knew the backlash would kill him?) and in one fic I basically decided he could tell the backlash was coming, and chose to fall of the cliff as a way to let it happen away from everyone, but whatever. 

It condenses the plotline and makes it cleaner, neater, but the CQL version doesn’t have that moment where Lan Wangji protects a Wei Wuxian who is telling him to ‘Get Lost’ (the CQL explanation for Lan Wangji’s punishment, where a grieving Wangji fights off anyone trying to get close to Wei Wuxian’s den seems... a bit odd given Wei Wuxian is already dead, but people do weird things when grieving so I’m not saying it’s completely wrong. I’m not quite sure where finding Wen Yuan fits in this timeline... he did it before Wei Wuxian died at Nightless City?). 

Deciding which version of Wei Wuxian’s death to use therefore depends on what you want to have happen in the second siege, as well as the relationship you develop between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. 

I touched on this already, but the Yi City Arc is another place where you really have to know what you want in your fic. In the novel, Wei Wuxian never got to  meet Xiao Xingchen. It’s sort of poetically tragic? Xiao Xingchen trained with Baoshen Sanren, same as Wei Wuxian’s mother. I gather that sort of relationship is a big deal (based on how Wei Wuxian acted in CQL when they met, and various other things) so it’s kind of sad that they never did? Also, Xue Yang had an easier time pretending to be Xiao Xingchen because Wei Wuxian had never met him... so you didn’t need that whole face mask trick Xue Yang did in CQL.

I rather liked their interaction in the CQL timeline, but if you adopt that then you probably have to adopt the Yin Iron plot. That, or come up with some justification for why Wei Wuxian and gang were there at the time.

It also messes with the novel timeline a bit, since in the novel Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find yet another missing piece of Nie Mingjue’s corpse at the former Chang Sect residence. 

These are the sorts of problems I run into when trying to piece together the bits I like of the different plotlines.

Like - I like some of the scenes in the CQL. They develop the characters in greater detail and some of them are really, really cute. But then you generally have to adopt other aspects that I find less compelling. I find the Yin Iron plot a bit... deficient. (They make a big deal about how terrible Yin Iron is, and how uncontrollable it is... and then they just destroy all the pieces off screen, except for the Stygian Tiger Amulet? And it takes away from the whole ‘inventing an entirely new cultivatation style’ to make the Wen use Yin Iron like that. It takes a story that really tries to deal in nuance and grey areas, and makes it more black and white. I could go on, but you get the gist.) 

I also find the whole ‘locate missing pieces of Nie Mingjue’s corpse, which then are assembled together and go after Jin Guangyao at the Temple’ a better plot then ‘go to the Nie ancestral hall just to realize the sword spirit you’re dealing with is actually Nie Mingjue’s saber spirit, then find the headless corpse of Nie Mingjue at Coffin City... and fight the saber spirit as it first possesses Wen Ning and then just floats into the coffin where Nie Mingjue’s corpse lies’ 

All of which is a rambling and complicated way of saying that there are some things I like and things I dislike about both storylines and that trying to weave together the parts I like is challenging.

I do recommend reading/watching both, though. :)

[january-summers]

So I came into the fandom from The Untamed/CQL (the live action drama), so I don’t know if this is accurate to any version of MDZS universe, but apparently Wei Ying maybe ate corpses in order to not starve to death in the burial mounds? And then steeped himself in resentful energy to exact retribution on the douchebag sect, before kind sorta losing his shit and massacring a shit ton of people?

Now I’m not saying it’s The reason, but just so you know: cannibalism isn’t only frowned on because it is ethically bad, but because it leads to shit getting funky in the brain, so you know... maybe don’t mix cannibalism and demonic cultivation if you don’t want to go crazy and murder rampage?

So just to clarify real quick: when I say I came into the fandom from CQL I mean The Untamed was my first exposure the MDZS fandom in any capacity, and I have seen the Untamed twice all the way through, since then I've made it about halfway through the available donghua, and I'm in chapter 60 of the manhua. I HAVE NOT however, read the novel. (except for one chapter I'll mention in just a sec.)

When I say “apparently he maybe did the thing” I mean I had no idea if there was any supporting novel based text evidence, (thankfully I've been told the answer is no, the boy has suffered enough) BUT: I actually heard the “Wei Ying resorted to cannibalism to survive the mounds” thing a couple times in fics, but it was usually tacked on to an 'angst list' like a throw away fact so I was never sure if it was fanon or canon, but considering what I know of the Incense Burner chapter (the only chapter I've read from the novel because some asshole told me it was a cute married couple WangXian fluff piece (it was not, YKINMK)) the author is not above horrific character treatment so it wasn't outside of the realm of possibility.

If false: awesome, one less horror for Wei Ying to have to deal with in his already terrible life.

If true: consider the angst:

V This angst V

-

Wei Ying punches the ground as the crows circle above him just out of reach, taunting him. He's so tired and worn and sore, but he can't rest. The 'inhabitants' of the Burial Mounds are making his trek difficult, the mere energy of the place is fighting him every step of the way. He's getting better at controlling the resentful energy every time he tries, but it still fights him.

Inedia is almost impossible without his core, using resentful energy to do it is... not going well for him. He's hungry and thirsty, but nothing grows in the Burial Mounds that isn't already poison or rotting. The few tiny pools he's managed to find are... best not to think about unless he's forcing the questionable liquid down. The only readily available source of 'safe' food is the crows, and he can't fucking catch them! They're harder to catch than the pheasants he used to hunt... or maybe they're not, maybe he's just that much weaker now... without his...

There's a corpse on the ground, a few pieces of flesh still clinging to the body, the crows had fled him before they could finish. His stomach aches at the sight even as his mind recoils. He's been here too long, the edge of the Burial Mounds never seemed to draw any closer. Maybe it had always been further than he thought, maybe he'd been walking in circles.

If he doesn't eat soon he'll die for real, then there will be no chance of him escaping this place, of getting retribution for his sect, his family...

He doesn't want to die refuses to die, he'd sworn he'd come back he'd even said he'd do it as an inhuman monster and make the Wen Sect pay for what they'd done.

What were morals to a Demonic Cultivator any way?

He forces the meat down, cracks to bones to suck the marrow as the crows scream above him. Something in the miasma of the Burial Mounds' resentful energy seems to laugh gleefully as he throws away a piece of his humanity for vengeance.

The Resentful energy seems to answer his call a little more readily afterwards.

-

His revenge is not yet complete, but he has his shijie and shidi back. maybe he can keep that promise this time His shijie made him soup, the bowl is warm in his hands, the smell is familiar and comforting.

Until the flavour hits his tongue.

"Pork," she tells him, and it is he knows it is, but somehow it tastes like his sin.

-

His people are starving, A-Yuan is starving, there isn't enough food. He's managed to pull enough resentful energy from the gardens so that the food will grow un-rotten, but there still isn't enough. Even when he manages to cleanse the area enough for the fruit to grow without poison, even when he brings home small animals that have begun to make their cautious way to the area.

Wei Ying sees to his people's needs first, makes sure A-Yuan has his fill as best he can even when it leaves his own plate empty.

Wei Ying wanders out into the Burial Mounds to follow a circling flock of crows, just like he had on his long walk out the first time.

-

“Come back to Gusu with me.”

Yes, Help me, Save me, I'm scared of what I'm becoming. A thousand things are lost under the weight of what he's done, beyond the people he's killed in revenge, beyond the dangerous cultivation he's created, there are sins that weigh heavily, things that can't be forgiven, can never be spoken of. He doesn't deserve saving.

“Get lost."

-

Lan Wanji plays until his fingers bleed, keeps playing until they're too numb to play the notes correctly.

Inquiry, yes, always unanswered by the only one he wants to hear from, but Clarity as well.

If he had played for Wei Ying, if he had stayed with him instead, would he have been strong enough to save him? Would he have been enough to temper the resentful energy Wei Ying filled himself with? If he...

Lan Zhan directs spiritual energy to his fingers to heal them, cleaning Wangji's string and board of his blood.

He plays again the next day and the next and the next...

[three--rings]

tonyglowheart replied to your post “The Untamed Rewatch Eps 28-33 + 2”

the point re: raised in a culture that doesn't teach men they can't cry, tbh I'm not really sure that's the case. Now granted, I grew up in the US, so Asian-American culture might not be the exact same as what happens in Asia, but lowkey I get the sense from what my parents say sometimes that there IS the idea of "men don't cry." Now, I don't know how much of this is cultural at large and how much is just my parents' family. The point I do think might mitigate this tho is

I thiiink from what I know of funereal practices, it's expected and lauded to cry then? whereas I feel like in the US it's more like "men don't cry, period." I think for CQL tho, it might be more down to the target audience/genre. Of course, they made CQL more general-audience, but it still originates in danmei, which is more targeted towards a female audience. So maybe that's why? WWX does cry a lot more in CQL than he does in the novel, though, for whatever that means

So I really have no room to talk because my knowledge of Chinese culture is limited to like this fandom and random other bits of media, so literally what do I know.  And my knowledge of Asian-American culture, though part of my family is Taiwanese, is very Americanized.  However there definitely seems to be a very big difference in the attitudes towards masculinity, including this seeming greater acceptance of men crying and showing emotion.  Whatever issues there are around masculinity they seem to definitely be DIFFERENT from American toxic masculinity.  Still granted that the audience is female and all, the show seems to be quite mainstream.  Whereas in US culture even things aimed at women seem to often be some of the biggest enforcers of the rugged masculine tough guy stereotype.  I don’t know, it’s one of the things that really fascinates me and which I enjoy about being in international fandoms is taking an outsider peek into different societies and noting differences and similarities.  But I come from a social scientist background, so naturally...

and yeah the rest of the Wens... is an inconsistency. The way I kind of figure it to try to make sense is... they.. went down the mountain with Wen Ning & Wen Qing for moral support...? but didn't go all the way to Nightless City? bc we only see WQ & WN walking up there. I guess they went back and captured the rest of the Wens and murdered them, which might be why A-Yuan was left, since they were expecting to come back...?? except that doesn't make sense either lol...

Actually, no, the Wens DO go to Nightless City with WQ and WN in CQL.  They are at the base of the stairs when those two climb them and turn themselves in.  Which makes NO SENSE ACTUALLY, because part of the reason Wen Qing and Wen Ning are willing to turn themselves in for a death sentence is to protect the rest of their clan and WWX. They don’t make it clear in CQL but the burial mounds protect them from attack and that’s why WWX has to stay there to keep them all from being killed.  They are offered the deal that if those two turn themselves in, that’s the end of it.  So I guess the idea is that all the Wens left and went for moral support?  But then WN became violent (supposedly), killed some Jins and so they were all killed.  That last part is hurried past in CQL but the story put out by the Jins is that WN went nuts and killed a bunch of Jins when he turned himself in so that’s why they have to hunt down the rest of the Wens and WWX.  Of course all the witnesses to that are dead or lying (JGY).  I assume JGY and JGS took the opportunity to kill off some inconvenient family or sect members?  

ANYWAY, yeah it just bothers me because it’s a sloppy way to hurry through that resolution that doesn’t hold up to logic.  It’s the kind of thing that is annoying to serious fans and probably not noticed by most casual fans, except Mr. Rings totally pointed it out.  But it does support why WWX would be ready to jump off the cliff because he’s failed at protecting anyone by that point and just ruined his entire life and gotten a bunch of his loved ones killed and damn he has it fucking rough.  I can’t stop thinking of that “Then God said let’s not give this bitch a break” meme over his picture.

[helendamnationx]

I’m just gonna answer some, because they’re very thought-provoking!

// General //

1. The Lan Sect, which may be an unpopular answer. It has its issues but I feel like the structure would be good for me. The narritive condemns rigidity in following the rules without considering nuance, but still shows discipline and being upright and considered in one’s actions to be good things.

2. 1. Lan Wangji.   2. it gets harder to choose from here. Xue Yang?   3. fffff it’s like a ten-way tie... but also Wen Ning

3. Yes. But if pressed I would probably say novel, with heavy chunks of CQL.

// Ships // 

1. Wangxian! The way they understand each other, when no-one else does. The way they choose each other. The way that, when they’re together, they get to just be Wei Ying and Lan Zhan, not Hanguang-Jun and the YiLing Patriarch.

2. I won’t read a fic if XiCheng is a side pairing. IDK, I don’t really care for side-pairings anyway tbh. If you’re not going to develop a pairing I’m not already invested in I just find it annoying.

3. XueXiao. Most of the major ones.

4. 💖💖💖

5. Xue Yang & a-Qing. Daozhang’s two mostly feral cats.

// Characters //

5. Favourite junior is Sizhui. When he was kind to “Mo Xuanyu”? That’s when I knew I was going to like the show. Which. Y’all know what the first episode is like.

6. Lan: Wangji, Jiang: YanLi, Jin: Guangyao, Wen: Ning, Nie: Huaisang

// Story //

1. Bring Baoshan Sanren into the mix in a real way. Let her get her hands dirty - MAKE her get her hands dirty.

3. Wen Qing... but kill Wen Ning. Narritively you really can’t have both, sadly, (except in fixits), but Wen Qing surviving her fierce corpse baby brother’s second death? Wen Qing who only has Wei Wuxian left in the world, and then, miraculously, a-Yuan? Wen Qing confronting Jiang Cheng? Give. Give it to me.

// Fic //

1. Yep! My Ao3 is here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HelenDamnation

2. I have some Wangxian, some XueXiao, one wip that’s focussed on a WWX/JGY brotp.

4. I prefer canon-verse or canon aus

5. You’ll all have read it, surely, but Ariaste’s Strictly Ballroom remains my favourite Wangxian fic, for having probably the best Lan Wangji characterisation in the fandom, and for making me ache with how beautiful it is. Also everything else by Ariaste, and also their published works.

Ok! I would also like to @doomhamster​ with general 4, ships 6, characters 5, and story 1.

Get to know me: MDZS Edition

Now with a part 2!! :)

// General //

If you had to join a sect, which would you join?

Your three favorite characters?

Manhua, donghua, novel, live-action, or audio drama?

List your favorite sects, in order.

How long have you been in the fandom?

// Ships //

What’s your OTP?

What’s your NOTP? Or any other ship you hate?

Other ships you like?

Thoughts on Wangxian? 🤔

Platonic OTPs/BROTPs? Rarepairs? OT3+s?

Describe a ship in five words.

// Characters //

If you could date any character from MDZS, who would you pick?

If you had to kill a character, who would you kill?

Favorite character & why?

Least favorite character & why?

Favorite character of the juniors? [don’t forget OYZZ]

Favorite character from each main sect (secondary is optional)?

// Story //

If you could make one major story change, what change would you make? Why?

Which character would you bring back to life?

You can bring one character back to life, but you must pick someone else to die in their place. Would you do it? How would this affect the story?

// Fic //

Do you write fic for MDZS? If so, what’s your ao3/wattpad/ff.net? [self-promo]

What characters/ships do you mostly write for?

Favorite tropes & which characters?

AUs or canon-verse?

Recommend a fanfic!! Can be yours or someone else’s.

@ a friend, answer them yourself, or send an ask w/ category & number!!

[sapphicdalliances]

Hi, fellow MXTX rarepair fan! My enthused thanks for being here!

I’m a simple bitch with simple tastes; here is a general summary of my preferences, and ship-specific notes can be found further down!

I very much enjoy:

Romance – anything up to and including plotless shippy drivel

Short fics, or even collections of tiny fics

Long fics too, so I guess what I mean is, don’t feel pressured either way

Comedic tones, slice-of-life, lighthearted fun, any amount of improbable romcom contrivances

Am also very much on board with more tragic tropes, though I prefer a happy or at least bittersweet ending, unless you’re following the very sad events of canon.

I’m a big fan of AUs; I especially love modern AUs for all MXTX media, whether mundane, urban fantasy, or modern-with-cultivation!

Additional examples of AUs I enjoy would be any canon divergence, romcom, fantasy/fairytale, gender change, or remix/crossover AUs you feel inspired to explore!

Specific tropes I love:

Outsider/third character POV of the main couple

Exes getting back together

Friends-with-benefits-with-feelings/did a bad job keeping it casual

Oblique declarations of love/saying i love you without saying i love you

Acts of service; provision and caretaking as love

Aggressive matchmaking by an enthused friend and/or matchmaker fell in love

Arranged marriage/fake marriage/fake dating

Epistolary fic

Regrettably I do also love the sex pollen - A/B/O - fantasy hermaphroditism venn diagram of indulgent nonsense.

I’m not super into:

First person narration

Soulmate or organised crime AUs

In general, please avoid:

Character death or serious/permanent injury (non-canonical)

Animal abuse or death

Infidelity

Hopeless or downer endings (apart from the events of canon)

Ship specific prompts:

SVSSS

Su Xiyan/Tianlang-Jun - all-powerful demon lords of darkness who just wanna get wifed are valid and i support them. any snapshot of what their silly adventures in pre-canon would be great, i adore the fact that su xiyan is just canonically tianlang-jun’s sugar mama; a canon divergence where she stays alive and they make a few feeble attempts to re-parent luo binghe before accepting that their son just really wants to be an orphan and fucking off to become rogue cultivator patrons of the arts would be a lot of fun also.

Gongyi Xiao/Zhuzhi-Lang - this one isn’t in the taglist (sorry, i missed the nom period!) but i figure i’d throw it up here just in case. i think they are both great boys and it’s a shame they didn’t get along in canon. any crumb of content would be savoured with relish! a canon divergence where they end up with a grudging mutual respect, or a modern AU where they are just two earnest dudes trying to keep shen yuan out of trouble, or really just about anything else would be delightful. zzl showing gyx his pet snakes.

Ming Fan/Ning Yingying - also not in the taglist, just rolling the dice, but it’s very sweet that shen yuan gave them both room to become a bit more mature and thoughtful, and I always think a cute domestic-y partnership with a flustered but earnest ming fan and an affectionate, indulgent, clearly-being-groomed-for-the-peak-lord-position ning yingying would be nice!

MDZS/CQL

im not very insistent on which media you follow. my usual preference is “the novel events and timeline, but they do all look like the actors, except they have the donghua hair, and also all the chengqing stuff is there” so go with faith on this one.

Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing - see this post. i would be happy with canonverse and all its tragedies, but a slightly less death-y AU would also be lovely. also, A/B/O with alpha wen qing and omega jiang cheng is an indulgence of mine that really doesn’t make sense anywhere except in my heart, and perhaps in yours!

Jin Ling/Lan Jingyi/Lan Sizhui/Ouyang Zizhen - the coffinshop quartet! I am okay with them all just being teen best friends, or being teen best friends who kiss. a scenario i can see is Jingyi frantically trying to figure out how best to matchmake his three best friends and accidentally tripping them all into polyamory. my favourite iteration of this will always be “they are a quartet, they all love and kiss each other equally” but if your muse is leading you toward one particular pair or trio enclosed within, i absolutely won’t object!

Jiang Cheng/Jin Guangyao - see this post. my favourite flavour of chengyao is when it’s not quite what they actually want for a happy ending, but is still structurally important to their lives in the moment, but i do ALSO love it when they become de facto domestic partners and end up having sex about it.

TGCF

Bai Jing/Ling Wen - ling wen did nothing wrong and she WAS effectively using girl power when she convinced her lover to take his own life to hasten the end of a war, as well as when she stole a hugely powerful ghostly artifact and threw the heavenly court into chaos, and actually she should have committed MORE larceny and succeeded in her goal to re-forge her ex-boyfriend a body in the crucible of mt tonglu. i love bai jing, the number one king himbo in all of fantasy ancient china, rounding out the trio of men who are like “if my beloved orders me to take my own life do NOT prosecute them, that is on me and they caught ME slipping”. they were in love! they still are in love! (of course, i understand that the tag in the set is an ampersand, so if you’d prefer to keep it all platonic, that’s totally fine with me too!) content that’s set before/during bai jing’s death would be fun; something one-sided about ling wen’s thoughts during bai jing’s robehood; or an AU where he’s alive and kicking and just loving anything that raises ling wen up would all be great.

Lang Qianqiu/Qi Rong - i am fascinated by this ship, and simply can think of zero objections. i don’t have a lot of smart thoughts about them but i do love that they’re now de facto raising guzi together. postcanon or AU stuff would probably work out best for these two fools. i think qi rong deserves to be bullied a little bit.

Ban Yue/Pei Su - one last ship that’s not in the tagset, but i’ll throw it at the wall just in case it sticks. I just think they’re two sweet kiddos who are best friends (and/or in love) and also true love is stored in the snakes.

[cinnamonandpancakes]

Thinkin about the Yi City Crew (as you do) and idk, I think the tragedy (in CQL) for LWJ in particular is seeing these cultivators who he took notice of (he knew their names! when they met! he doesn’t like people this is very unusual!) reduced to this terrible fate where one’s soul is shattered and the other is a living corpse doomed to walk the earth forever and how that mirrors him so completely.

WWX’s soul was presumed lost! He was left to uphold their promise together and raise their son alone! Song Zichen doesn’t even have a son! He just has a bag holding the shattered remnants of the man he was going to spend his life with, who he cruelly pushed away and spent the rest of his life trying to find and make amends and then had to watch kill himself as he realised he’d killed his dearest friend (soulmate). Idk it’s Tragic in a different way to the MDZS Yi City.

There IS something incredibly tragic about WWX missing meeting his shishu and being the reason for his demise due to his demonic cultivation but the tragedy there is of Missed Connection. The CQL tragedy is of connection brutally ripped away and that just gets me more, especially in relation to LWJ whose whole life is filled with these connections that are brutally severed, beginning with his parents and then continuing through almost everyone he’s ever cared about or admired.

In the book I liked the Yi City arc, don’t get me wrong, I love Xue Yang as a villain and it’s a great lil section but I think having that point of connection beforehand where the reader already knows the people involved makes it that more emotionally impactful. After all, let’s be real, Yi City is mainly a plot vessel to explain how Empathy works so it doesn’t need to be explained later with Nie Mingjue’s head with a lil bit of angst sprinkled on top.

Also! WRT WWX, Xiao Xingchen isn’t just a name! He opens that coffin and it’s someone he knew! Someone he respected and whose opinion he cared about! Someone to whom he’d expressed a wish to emulate! There’s a particularly angsty blend of CQL and MDZS where WWX is still the First Demonic Cultivator but he knew Xiao Xingchen before his death and he’s slapped in the face with the knowledge that if he hadn’t messed with this cultivation then his shishu whom he greatly admired would probably still be alive, another on the list of people he cares about whose deaths he indirectly caused.

I think there’s a blend of canons that I think I’d like best where the Yin Iron arc doesn’t happen, but Wen Qing and Jiang Yanli and Wen Ning still go to the lectures and WWX and LWJ still go nighthunting together after the lectures and they still meet XXC and SZC out doing their thing, baby faced and wide eyed and they all express their wish to leave politics behind to just help people. (The don’t fight Xue Yang because I think it’s funny when he’s Baby)

Then they get called back to go to the Wen Cultivation Conference and they thrash everyone at archery because power couple (ribbon shenanigans are more along the lines of WWX trips and pulls it off and LWJ goes bright red and freezes, it’s v awkward) [[JC sees WQ at the competition and does the best he’s ever done]].

Then the Wens do their ‘we’re banning nighthunting’ and CR burns and Indoctrination happens. Xuanwu cave, LWJ bites WWX as in MDZS because that’s hilarious. Lotus Pier as in CQL except Yanli is sent to Meishan because fuck Lanling. WWX becomes CorpseMan a la MDZS because all the giggling female corpses is Gross but also like such a Look, WWX accepts help a la CQL because I like the vibe of LWJ trying and failing to bring his crush back from the clutches of Evil.

Idk if I’d keep the Shooting at Wens thing from the pheonix mountain hunt? on one hand it demonstrates how everyone is scared of the Jins now (and that scene where wwx shoots 5 arrows is hot) but on the other I don’t that no one would speak up?? and I don’t think the Jins would want to be Conspicuously Evil so soon??? Blindfold yes, no kiss tho because I found the ‘LWJ punches trees when angry’ aspect of it annoying and I’d rather have a heartfelt talk about being soulmates (could have a sexy scene of LWJ walking up and taking off the blindfold and declaring WWX doesn’t need to prove himself to Jin Zixun)[[maybe an almost kiss before yanli appears]]

Qiongqi path: Wen Rescue as in CQL because that shit hurted but Wen Ning would Definitely Be Dead a la MDZS. Burial Mounds Life happens. [[JC refuses the comb from Wen Qing ‘what use would I have for it?’ he says]] There is no second flute, WWX lost control and Jin Zixuan is dead at his hand and his hand alone. Wen Qing and Wen Ning go to turn themselves in alone. [[Wen Qing leaves the comb in a tree stump where later a small boy will shelter as his home is destroyed around him]] WWX loses control at Nightless City, JYL dies, WWX jumps off a cliff. LWJ, wounded and heartbroken, takes his stand at the Burial Mounds, trying to protect WWX’s people after hiding A-Yuan in Cloud Recesses [[A-Yuan has the comb, years later Jiang Cheng will find him reminiscing and will have to leave the room to cry angry tears]] LWJ is incapacitated and punished. The Wen Remnants are killed and thrown into the Blood Pool.

16 years pass. 16 long years.

Mo Xuanyu summons back a Wei Wuxian who wanted to die but one who hoped against hope the Wen Remnants hadn’t been murdered after his death. A Wei Wuxian who regretted letting himself die without making sure they were safe. (A Wei Wuxian who had to find out he had failed when he arrived in the Burial Mounds to rescue the juniors). [[A Wei Wuxian that looks like Wei Wuxian and Mo Xuanyu combined]] In this canon they find body parts, a la MDZS. They share inn rooms with the knowledge of what they had meant to each other and how in the end it hadn’t meant a thing. They go to Yi City and find a boy, barely older than the juniors, playing house with the bodies of their friends, the ones they wanted to be like. WWX is reminded of all he put LWJ through when he jumped off that cliff. It is no wonder LWJ drinks that night.

Koi Tower happens, right? Idk it’s got to happen at some point. Probably CQL canon if only because I know that one better? I don’t think there’s much difference between the two for this bit.

At the second siege of the Burial Mounds the bodies in the blood pool come to their rescue. Wei Wuxian is horrified. ‘How could you let them do that!’ LWJ stays silent. (‘What else could warrant 33 lashes of the discipline whip’ he will whisper later, drunk off a single cup of wine.) ‘The honourable Hanguang-Jun was in seclusion after you died.’ Jiang Wanyin will say in his best sneer. Lan Qiren says nothing. (’I tried, I tried but it wasn’t enough’)

After the Burial Mounds they return to Lotus Pier. The revelations happen. [[Jiang Wanyin is horrified for more reasons than Wei Wuxian realises. No wonder Wen Qing could not accept his help after what she had done to him]]

Guanyin Temple bores me for the most part, JGY is allowed to monologue for far too long. I like the idea of them confessing at the most awkward time but at the same time it drags out JGY’s monologue even longer and that shit took like 4 episodes in CQL and it Dragged. I skimmed most of those chapters in the novel. JGY and NMJ’s body end up in a coffin trapped under a statue in the image of JGY’s dead mother. Probably have the iconic novel line where JGY is like ‘I hold LWJ’s life in my hands’ or w/e because that’s kinda hot. [[WWX comments to LWJ about how in the ancestral hall they’ve already done most of their bows, LWJ short circuits, JC asks if WWX would like his wedding planning books from when they were kids, WWX short circuits because ‘you KEPT THEM???’ ‘yeah dumbass, you’re still my brother even if I hate you!’]]

There’s that cute scene in CQL where WWX touches LSZ’s ribbon and they hug and cry, keeping that. LWJ and WWX kiss because I Said So and then also have sex because the UST is killing me (but not in front of LSZ, after he’s gone off to travel with Uncle Ning) They handfast but LWJ has to go be interim sect leader while convincing his brother to come out of seclusion and wwx decides to go try and set his demons to rest. LXC demands to be allowed to plan Wangji’s wedding as a stipulation of starting to return from seclusion. Wangji wisely does not mention they already consider themselves married.

[[Wen Qing is found in the cells of Jinlintai. JC tells her that he forgives her. She tells him she still can’t marry him, she has broken her oath as a healer. He lets her go.]]

[[2 years later she turns up in Yunmeng with her brother and her nephew in tow and suggests he join them on their latest night hunt. It’s not love, but he’s beginning to realise he can move on from her. Jin Rulan is disconcerted to find his uncle smiling the next time he visits.]]

[[For some reason, Sect Leader Yao is appointed Chief Cultivator. Everyone is appalled but a surprising amount gets done in order to avoid letting him talk too long.]]