#its just that sqx deserved to be a god more than others even though they weren't supposed to be

[airplanecrashingtowardstheground]

something that makes shi quingxuan's corrupted ascension to godhood more painful is that sqx was a good god.

beloved by their followers, kind, charitable, and was always trying to do good things. sqx was a genuinely good person, who stuck up for xie lian, and didn't automatically assume the worsts of hua cheng despite what other heavenly officials said.

shi qingxuan being a much better god than many of the others who earned or "deserved" their spots, makes their fate sadder to me

[hualianff]

To Fall, To Ascend (Is Human)

Haunted Past – Sophism, Isabella LeVan

XL was God’s favorite Angel who helped pioneer the new era where Angels were tasked with watching over humanity. No, XL never despised the humans, nor hated them for taking up all of God’s attention. If anything, XL followed in God’s footsteps, cherishing humans as creatures that deserved everything life had in store for them.

But if XL could wish for one thing, it would be to love as freely as humans are allowed—encouraged–to do. Angels were created out of God’s will, and God had not permitted his children to maintain close relationships of any sort. This meant the nature of Angel-to-Angel romantic relationships was entirely unexplored.

Up until XL had crossed paths with a messenger Angel who had just ascended from Earth.

They didn’t have names like humans gave themselves. XL could only refer to himself as “I” or “me,” and to others as “they” and “them.” God was seen as “Father,” and that one messenger Angel came to be known as “He” and “Him.”

Or simply: “The One.”

They talked more than what was appropriate for Angels who merely worked in the same area, but XL enjoyed those conversations just as much as the work XL did.

Perhaps even more.

When ample time was free of work, XL would invite Him to his own home, which was grand in scale because XL was God’s favorite child, after all. In exchange for a place to stay, He would tell stories of the mortal realm, where humans mingled in their insignificant manner, none the wiser to the influence of the entities above and their creator.

XL listened with eager fascination, and the messenger Angel’s eyes seemed to shine brighter than the rays that graced heaven’s skies.

Like a moth to a flame, XL was drawn in.

God noticed, of course. God had eyes everywhere, especially on his special children. When questioned about the time spent with the same, particular messenger Angel, XL brushed the concern away, reasserting his devotion to his one and only heavenly Father, and left it at that.

The next time XL saw The One, they’re both in the mortal realm, walking amongst humans as if that’s where they were meant to be all along. In that moment, XL felt something akin to a spark within his chest.

Time is relative depending on how you choose to spend it. What must have been one century seemed merely like the ebb and flow of the wind, traveling with no predetermined destination.

Limitless, but not timeless.

And on the day marking the hundredth year of their first encounter, XL—along with the others who followed his example of internalizing selfish desires and thus, abandoning their dedication towards humans—was cast out of heaven. No warning, no pre-amble, no chance to atone for his sins.

XL fell into the dark abyss while the open wounds on his back bled, and bled, and bled, all the way down to the depths of Hell.

If only he could have said goodbye to Him.

When XL fell from grace, the beginning of a seven-day-long thunderstorm took place. The skies were dark and gloomy, not a hint of sun peeking through, and the rain showers never ceased their downpour. Out of the four of the seven days, XL’s messenger Angel was in the mortal realm doing business. When that Angel ascended to the heavens to find God’s favorite had been thrown out of heaven, the messenger Angel rampaged like nothing anyone had seen before. Anguished screams pierced the air, and for the briefest second, the absolution of peace in the heavenly realm became uncertain.

To the human eye and ear, a couple of flashes of lightning and booming thunder was all it appeared to be; the messenger Angel challenged God directly in combat, enraged that His beloved had been unjustly rejected from the place he belonged in the most. No more than three thunder strikes later, the pouring rain eased up, and a mysterious glow lingered in the sky. It flickered briefly before burning out to oblivion.

Once again, God showed no mercy.

The fallen Angels, without their heavenly essence, became a different class of creatures by default. The demons were born just like every other creation, characterized by an innate evil that came with opposing God’s word in heaven. Angels who once completed their orders without a second thought, now monsters who felt the same emotions as humans and had the power to corrupt in the deadliest ways possible.

In the beginning, there were those who loved and those who hated, but they were all killers in the end.

The fallen angels became the original demons lurking in the realm of Hell, responsible for punishing humans who had sinned in the same ways they had. Souls that survived their punishment sentence were then converted into demons themselves to increase Hell’s numbers. These created secondary demons, turned by the original line of ex-Angels. And with this process, the realm of Hell began to grow.

Nothing compared to the beauty, structure, and peace up in the Heavenly realm. XL would know because he contributed to a major part of its establishment. During the first several decades in Hell, XL did not let his emotions consume him. Deep down, he knew that he had done the best that he could. His values would not change simply because he was no longer God’s favorite child.

XL loved humans, so much so that though he had learned of their fickle ways, he still yearned for their simpler life.

Most of all, the one thing that tethered XL to his sanity the most was His Angel. His beloved. They had been together for one hundred years, and XL wished he had one hundred more. But that was the greed inside him speaking.

Truthfully, XL didn’t know if he would see his messenger Angel again. It had been XL’s fault that he led Him down the path of temptation. If not rejected from heaven, would He really want to follow XL down to Hell’s ruins?

Could love somehow prevail to allow XL and His Angel to reunite?

One century passed, and XL scavenged as a lowly demon with very little power. Another century went by, and still, there was no sign of XL’s beloved. XL had patiently waited all this time, but he was not the same creature he was when first falling from heaven.

At the turn of the second century after his fall from grace, XL’s core began to rot. To wither. To warp. Slowly but surely, the corruption overtook his soul. For even the model Angel that he once was, XL could not repress the evilness inside. All the love XL once embodied turned into pure hatred and vengeance.

The time had come for Hell to have its first official ruler.

XL began collecting souls at a terrifying rate, torturing them in hopes of converting them into his subservient demons. Over the process of the next century, XL amassed over millions of disciples, and began conquering the territories of Hell.

326 years after his banishment, XL now bears the title the King of Hell. Other names he is known as including the Great Demon Lord, Satan, and Lucifer. Just like the pitiful God that he had once served, XL rules with a bloody-fist, no mercy or compassion left in his permanently damaged soul.

***

XL wakes up with a choked gasp, curling into a small ball as his lungs wrack with the need for oxygen. He heavily coughs into his pillow, body shuddering in pain, sweating profusely from...whatever nightmare he had been having.

It’s the same one, the third time this week.

When XL’s breathing finally evens out, he shifts onto his back, eyes boring up at the pitch-black ceiling. Blinking his eyes shut and squeezing them shut, XL tries to remember what he had dreamt of.

There were no stark images or familiar faces that stood out; just the deafening, monstrous shrieks of tortured figures, the unbearable heat of the–was it the sun? And the iron scent of blood in the air. The sensations had been vivid...almost too real.

Thinking about the nightmare proved to be too exerting when the throbbing in XL’s head increased ten-fold. Reaching over to his nightstand where a cup of water and a bottle of pills sat, XL robotically swallowed a few melatonin capsules with a huge gulp. He then settles back under the covers, in the comfort—and safety—of his own room.

Moving out of his and SQX’s apartment had been a tough decision. Perhaps the sudden change of environment sent XL’s body into a temporary shock, in need of time to adjust.

But it had been a necessary decision. Especially after XL was miraculously hired by a corporate business in desperate need of a custodian, with a more-than-decent pay, the desire to move into his own space was a no-brainer.

Now, if only XL could get a good night’s rest. He already needs his caffeine fixes throughout the day to properly function. When XL begins his new job next week, he’ll need all the energy he can get.

《II》

[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 -_-