#jc can rot in hell

[mxtxfanatic]

I think the first few mdzs chapters made me believe 'jc and wwx are literal adopted siblings'. Ppl reccing mdzs on my tl referred to them as such too and the fantl I read (one of the earlier ExR versions) said in prologue something like 'it was his sect leader and adopted brother, jiang cheng, who killed him'. Afterwards when wwx overheard ppl discussing wwx and jc's relationship it cemented my belief. Wwx was taken in by jc's parents so voila they're brothers.

It was my first time reading cn novel as a westerner so I had no idea that sect siblings, martial brothers and sisters are very different things from actual 'siblings'

As I was finishing the novel I had some doubts but it was later, upon my reread once I was more educated that I changed my opinion. I now view them more as a young master&servant of sorts relationship and/or slightly unequal little toxic friendship. Further underlined that none of the Jiang parents actually considered wwx their child in any sense of the word. A "foster ward" would be the most familial word I'd use if pressed.

That is not to say their relationship wouldn't feel incredibly sibling-like for some people who grew up in similar relationships and applied hefty dose of projection.

However back then it used to be bad to say you don't think of them as siblings on tumblr bc it meant you think adoptive siblings aren't real siblings or you're somehow against wangxian and think wwx and jyl or jc should kiss and that's a crime (yeah idk either weird times) XD

Welp, glad I missed all those times cause 😬 The person who was reccing mdzs on my dash were tryna save me from myself by only posting fanart of wangxian and A-Yuan, and I still squandered their goodwill by trusting the wiki smh.

[gravitywonagain]

Ok, but the whole Wen Qing sacrificial Au is like one big clusterfuck. And Wei Wuxian wouldn't know shit about the functions of his own new body. And what if the eyes of the body change color as a reaction to the new soul inhibiting it. He would have monthly bleedings! He would have to deal with cramps and fuck! He would understand so much more about his Shijie and Madame Yu!

Also correlating with the homecoming gift, what if she found a way to package her knowledge as a gift and Wei Wuxian now understands so much better why Wen Qing was so pissed about his disregard for his own health all the time. And he starts to connect that knowledge and know-how to develop his talismans and cultivation further!

How would Lan Wangji react to see the Wen doctor again, only for her to paralyze him after a fight with a monster where Lan Wangji just was not at his best, and actually check him over as if it was the most normal thing to do. What if Wei Wuxian went on and found a way to heal the scars on Lan Zhan's back to a degree where it's not visible anymore unless you know to search for it.

And he would get suibian back as soon as possible and fly with it. He would have his sword back. And if people ask he would just flippantly say that it only responds to people Wei Wuxian trusts and held dear to his heart.

Ah, sorry about my rambling, I have brain rot about this thing now. And I had a WIP where I was leaning on the aspect that Wei Wuxian was the son of a servant and had servant skills as well... You make me more work ^^'

yessss i love the rambling!!! i see the next one, too!!! sorry it took me a minute there was brain fog and then wife birthday daytripping and then many sleeps and now we're here

i am now a little bit obsessed with the idea of wq somehow passing on her vast amounts of medical cultivation knowledge to wwx. or at least imparting enough of it that he can do nonsense wwx innovation shit. something something the formation and structure of her core is built around the use of certain skills and techniques and this might have happened with mxy too but all of his previous knowledge was based off of wwx's own.................. yeah. fascinating. fun. i love it.

also the idea of wwx actually trying to pull of just being wq -- at least in public because there's no way he gets away with that around lwj -- is patently hilarious to me. but also! who knows her better than wwx and wn anyway? who else could possibly pull that off if not them? also i do love the shenanigans that ensue in a good identity porn fic.

okay so if i'm being very honest, half the reason for this au even popping up in my head is that i, like @jasontoddiefor, love a good genderswapped resurrection fic specifically because all of the nonsense that comes with having a uterus. (and also the idea of wangxian biological babies, like hell yes, their breeding kink dreams can become a reality, but also only if they try hard enough because actual conception can be fucking difficult!) and yes, after the years of malnutrition and general anxiety of living under threat finally starts to recede, wwx gets to deal with a whole new set of problems! lucky boy.

as for lan yuan, i feel like he might be grateful to see his qing-jie's face again, even though he's forgotten it, but would then mourn her presence and his xian-gege's face. it would be rough for him. moreso than with mxy because wq's face mixed with wwx's mannerisms might actually trigger some more memories earlier? idk, what do you think?

ALSO. i can't get over lwj figuring out how to marry wq without arousing the suspicion of the entire cultivation world. like this is early in my head. this happens just a few years after wwx dies. so a lot of The Nonsense hasn't happened yet. he gets out of seclusion and then immediately goes for the next worst person imaginable? the escaped but somehow not dead last daughter of the wen? lqr would have a fit. lxc would be confused as hell. jc would be furious and hurt and so even more furious. nhs would, probably, figure it out pretty quickly, as would jgy, and now the race is on. like this would be such a political nightmare and i'm living for it!!

[the-firebird69]

It is not math body's very hospitals. Where did people die they die in the hospital and sometimes they're not buried and they say it too died in the hospital and the max have been doing their disappearing acts there tons of them and it's recently proven there's a lot of these projects that you could just jump right out the door go grab yourself a few max from.

Have a heart for yourself too give me some money get this stupid greedy idiot off me who gives a **** what he thinks he's done he's a bleeding heart and he thinks he's stealing money and he thinks he's stealing by people's money he's a **** moron he's not a hero he's got Max money and he doesn't care cause he's demented. To monitoring kitty hitter his wife dancing but he doesn't no she doesn't get it either these people are stupid. What they've done is revealed it because they are picking on me taking my stuff taking my money anyways I found out they're taking a lot of it and now giving me enough to live on i'm subsistence A so they're getting screwed by me and can't even tell this so **** dumb they're stupid OKI read up the max using them I started a war with a foreigner's using them cause I told the match to get the **** dirt bag off me and they won't they keep jamming them down my throat. Now talk about your lasers and **** I suppose there's more stuff I should talk about just to get like a an orange what are you going to do at the end come on Chris we need a magic trick because you suck wow trump tried that for 40 years. Twenty four

Twenty four

Zues Hera

We're gonna have to turn on you idiots in the bunker like everybody wants because you're just sitting there pushing this stupid **** **** everywhere that's riding on everybody and doing nothing so not only is it super supportive lifting and smoothing but you have all that without a member i'm not dead you **** idiot that was ATV poking in terrific thanks for that how can we tell surround by rodents so let's get him the hell outta here they need to go take a break. I mean they got your whole master plan out there aren't they done. That was him and I think they're done I think they need to go do something else he's right they suck so damn bad i'm gonna get back at these stupid pieces of ****.

hulk hogan

He's still around all and they fooled these people then they started talking about where they might have gone and they asked our friend he said I said it before and you're **** dumb. Their bodies are all over the hospital to keep people from talking about it and they have him talking about it'cause he hates the hospital I'll tell you what we have to burn a whole bunch in this area every night and Mac Daddy you should know it's the same number. Or a same percent for what they're doing

Or a same percent for what they're doingpreston

It's just discipline the old way and we have to do it. Been doing everyone has to calm down and this guy needs the money this person next door is a mean evil **** **** ****. It's always been mean to their family because he's a loser and the family's not. Is jealous of the money and he messed it all up for what the Max wanted and he can't figure it out yet the guy is dumb thinks he's AI boy we have to get those two off his property. We have to get both of them out of there she's divorced she goes over there still and gets kicked out occasionally and raises cane bothers our friend I mean she's a **** and a **** idiot. He's right JC and Mary know about these Giants if they're not their kids which they could be for Christ's sake they could be there very kids that the max say Harley Davidson was named after. They look like strange clowns so come on think about it. They mutated and they went into their slumber mutated. I don't know they have answers about the spheres and the design and the weaknesses of the sphere which are inside of Saturn is that important to anybody you just let this **** useless **** let him rot away let's stopping you max from trying to grab him nothing **** comments they make. You can probably fly off with him they would know for a day or two. Terrible.

mac dddy

You know you're probably right these people are such **** we need to do something over there and try and pull them out I mean nothing really heats up and stays there and they start being this huge **** to everybody and just sitting there in their freaking face. These people are waiting for him to fall over I don't think he's ever going to fall over you people die all the time it's hilarious but it's really really mean. He's being really mean to you people and I could care less he should you're your jerks. Smell the smoke from the fires when you're dying out there every day it's all over the your hands it's on the doorknobs and everything kills a lot of these dumb bugs which bite everywhere we have to stop them and he's right this nonsense has to stop we have to try and get him some money so we can see it and how many times does someone have to say it. This guy is going to ruin society and we can't afford that I don't know how to explain this we do not want this jerk here anymore either what is in the damn way says maybe devices so that's pretty much all the guy would have left and people can't get into his stashes and caches that fast they must be rigged and I'll be damned but I think you're right he's holding people up with the money in the stashes and caches and devices and all these stupid **** threats that seem Petty is doing it all over the world and everybody has to pitch in we have to do something and stop him and he says it's really really really hard listening to people your cops and your paramilitary cops and your military and you're letting them be the judges but okay it works so what do you think you can do you're out there and they're trying to kick your **** they're trying to fire missiles at you the Pseudo Empire fires I mean they obviously need to be crippled you knock the crutch out while they're in California as a theory and see what the hell they do and what they can do i'd like to see that what I noticed is they've been talking a lot they go around in Bluff all the time it's like nine Bluffs out of 10. Kids right we gonna start we gotta figure out what the hell it is

Kids right we gonna start we gotta figure out what the hell it isam

mac proper

we do this too. and true they blulff a lot talk a lot and big we nail them see how big they really are. we know their size but power levels.

Thor Freya

We need to get these people office we don't need to be ranting and raving and yelling and screaming that's what seems right trump you should see how stupid you looked at the debate you didn't answer one question with any answer. You like this huge fake person a charlatan. And Biden was right on they took a day everybody's looking up the facts and our son and daughter backed it up. And you are getting nailed everywhere. Covid 19 thing came up that you started it you got sick yourself and you're getting nailed when did they find your mental health history after Jen left. that would be great and he said it to them and they pulled it out he was saying it over and over in the mental hospital she left what are we gonna do and you told the staff I want him arrested and they said for what I said you can't hear what you're saying what is he saying that's illegal in your book so they heard him saying it and they said what are you saying she's everything in this and they figured out that he's wrong about something. He is telling people and he is threatening her and getting them hurt and getting his dupes hurt and keeps his AI boy and this is gonna be a long long drawn out idiot show the incinerator sprayed over there poop. He says when they expire. Doesn't know anything he doesn't know how to program. Says you know what it's right over there you can jump in and he says I better probably do that. Later on he's bothering her he got nailed fill them for the drugs what you need to do is wrap him up like a mummy casket and bring the conquered over and over and you'll see why. And they did it once and he got out barely. Who's this it's us

Who's this it's us

Thor Freya

Olympus

[sssrha]

transcription of slides under the cut:

[SLIDE 1] the vibes ao3’s top 9 mdzs ships give me (a really stupid thing i made on a lazy saturday)

[SLIDE 2] wangxian: the wholesome canon relationship (with a hint of spice)

ok maybe calling the union between a demonic cultivator and a secret sex fiend “wholesome” isnt exactly accurate…but that’s where the “hint of spice” comes in

other than that tho? i remember seeing a meme somewhere about wangxian and sangcheng and wangxian was described as “domestic gays with a house and a white picket fence and two kids” and honestly? yes 

not that they cant be freaky. id say their particular brand of freakiness is vaguely surrealist suburban horror. make of that what you will

[SLIDE 3] xicheng: either its “pair the spares” or just about trauma

their dynamic is 500% “karen/enabling husband” but like in a good way

objectively the best-dressed couple you will ever meet. like seriously why are you even trying? theyve got you beat

jc would own a flower shop and punch you in the face for saying a single bad thing about his flowers. lxc would own a tattoo parlor and hand you a lollipop and tell you how proud he is of you for not crying while he gave you a tattoo

they dont strike me as a “every evening we relax and watch the sunset” type of relationship B U T every other week they go stargazing with a detailed map of the night sky

[SLIDE 4] xiyao: either a) the angst of betraying/being betrayed or b) the angst of killing/being killed

high society gays. they would both unironically wear tuxedos to a mcdonalds. lxc would see it as a fun couples thing and jgy would do it to assert his dominance

i swear they would be among the smiliest of the major couples. only one of them would give you a happy smile

dont mess with them. no like dont mess with any of the couples but so far jgy is the first one who would make your life living hell and keep you around long enough to suffer the consequences

[SLIDE 5] sangcheng: being simultaneously over- and underestimated

i saw a meme about sangcheng and wangxian where sangcheng was described as something along the lines of “wine aunt and vodka uncle” and honestly? yes

they’re both human disasters. nhs would have various splotches of color on his clothes and you cant tell if it was intentional or if theyre actually stains. jc is very neat and organized but will have a mental breakdown at the slightest inconvenience

sometimes they just sit down across from each other and. cry. its how they bond

idk why it popped into my head but they’re both ace Because I Said So

[SLIDE 6] xuexiao: cute domesticity but also murder

i refuse to believe that xy is anything but unhinged in every universe. whether or not thats a good thing is up to you

xy could and would murder you in your sleep and not feel bad about it until xxc told him off. even then he might still decide it was worth it

xxc doesnt exactly know about The Murder Stuff(TM) but he knows some shit is off but he trusts xy enough to not comment on it

they would meet and hook up in a bar and mutually decide that they may as well stay together for the rest of their lives the next morning

[SLIDE 7] xuanli: the token straights (but also? theyre really cute???)

i did not expect them to be as cute as they were but here i am

anyway jyl has jzxuan wrapped around her little finger and shes just too nice to use that to her advantage

if jyl asked jzxuan for some chocolate jzxuan would just buy her the entire hershey company and forget to give her an actual chocolate bar and jyl is too sweet to actually say anything about it

they would definitely have like 20 children. theyd fucking love being parents. the moment having another child became dangerous theyd start adopting left and right. theyre rich they can afford it and their hearts are big enough for all their kids so why would they not?

[SLIDE 8] songxiao: childhood friends to lovers AND perfect power couple

i know they have more nuance than this but i cant help but think of them as The Perfect Couple(TM)

not shipping-wise!! i mean like. theyre both law-abiding citizens. their house looks like a model house. theyre dressed super neat and handsomely. they both know cpr and first aid and one of them is a lawyer and the other is an award winning writer. idk who is who but yk.

they are who people call to deal with problems instead of the police and they delight in that fact. that is what i mean by them being The Perfect Couple(TM)

[SLIDE 9] chengxian: disasters through and through

uhh i am going to be spending the entirety of this slide ignoring the fact that i personally consider them siblings

they would live in a dingy studio apartment in the heart of a city and theyd both never be home

theyre both super fucking rich but theyd never have any money on hand so dont be surprised if they just starve out on the street one day because theyre just that stupid

they collectively have the self esteem of rotting cabbage but theyre keeping themselves and each other alive purely out of spite and sheer force of will

[SLIDES 10] nielan: childhood friends to lovers AND himbo power couple

psst heres a secret: neither of them are actually himbos

H O W E V E R they both 500% pretend they are. they intentionally act as stupid as possible just for the fun of it

the best part is when they stop acting stupid when something important happens. crouching-moron-hidden-badass at its finest

also the older brother energy is overflowing. it does not matter who you are or how old you are. if you meet them then youre going to walk away with two new big brothers

[SLIDES 11] the end (unless i gather the willpower to make a part 2)

[crossdressingdeath]

Is it bizarre to me that I think the plotline of Jiang Cheng "falling in love" with Wen Qing could have been an interesting if the writers wrote Jiang Cheng as having a lustful obsession with Wen Qing and viewing her more like a sex object rather than a person with desires and boundaries. Sure, it would be somewhat OOC for Jiang Cheng but at least it builds up his character. However the writers really missed out on an opportunity to make Jiang Cheng more despicable 😬

Oh, absolutely. I mean... I'd argue JC does see WQ as an object, either a sex object or just a doll to position as the perfect wife (he sure as hell doesn't give a shit about her, given he apparently didn't realize that the woman he "loves" would die rather than betray her family by saving just herself and leaving them to rot including the guy who only got involved in the whole affair because of her; yeah, no way WQ missed that JC was happy to leave his "brother" to die along with her elderly family, her brother and her four year old cousin and I don't doubt that played a part in her deciding that she was not going to take his offer), but at the same time the writers clearly wanted us to feel bad for him when she wasn't okay with taking that role. Basically they weren't prepared to go all the way in either direction; they didn't make his feelings for her genuine or have him actually try to help her for her sake, but they also weren't willing to go all in and acknowledge how fucked up his "marry me or I'll leave you to die" offer/threat was. So we're stuck with this weird in-between thing where the writing and cinematography and soundtrack are all screaming that we're supposed to feel bad for this guy who literally just told a woman that if she didn't marry him he'd LEAVE HER TO DIE and that he'd leave her ENTIRE FAMILY to die either way. It's not even phrased as "I can offer you the protection of being Madam Jiang but otherwise I can't do anything"! Which is probably for the best because the last time someone in his power needed his help he just straight up betrayed them, but still.

Also like. JC? Treating a person like an object and not someone with desires and boundaries? I wouldn't call that OOC. Honestly the concept of him genuinely loving WQ enough to offer to help her at the risk of inconveniencing himself is more OOC.

[spockandawe]

Hi....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.

It’s absolutely no problem at all!! I don’t think I’ve been asked this before, but hey, I also have zero object permanence, so it keeps things fresh and new. And it’s interesting to see how my answers change over time! Lemme see, I think I’m going to go in reverse order, because I feel like then I’ll be doing the worst agonizing up front.

TGCF

Fifth favorite: YIN. YU. I know that he’s a minor character and him even making it onto the list is pretty solid performance, but I do feel guilty that he isn’t higher than this. He came out of nowhere in my first reading and punched me in the stomach with emotions. I find his sections so hard to read, and I was DEVASTATED when he died and BEYOND stoked to find out he was still alive in the extras. His story hurts so much! I am weak against characters who have relatively modest goals and still see them snatched away (see also: my next entry) and have to struggle on. I wish wish wish I had a way to see more of how he made his peace with things after being thrown out of heaven, and the nature of the (distant) relationship with Hua Cheng and what happens with Quan Yizhen now that he died in his arms, and still came back anyways, my god!

.

Fourth favorite:  He Xuannnnnn. I have a hard time articulating particulars, but. I love him a lot. I love a character with a grudge, with a deep, painful grudge, where the grudge is hurting him almost as much as it’s hurting the people around him, and setting the grudge aside would also hurt, and then what has any of this been for-- I've used this metaphor for other characters, but I don’t care if I’m overusing it, because I love it. He feels like a character caught in a thorn bush, where simply being there... hurts, but trying to escape or move in any ways is going to hurt worse, and there’s no path forward that doesn’t involve pain. And like... I don’t love the way he hurt Shi Qingxuan (who didn’t quite make this list adfasgdafsd I’M SORRY) but I wouldn’t have liked to see him swallow back down all that pain and set aside everything that happened to his family and fiancee either! I’m always, always soft for characters who have no good path forward and who grit their teeth and set out anyways.

.

Third favorite: MU QING!!!!!!!!!! I have done... extensive screaming about him. And I love him veryvery much. I can already tell that this list is going to have a lot of mean boys on it, and like... no regrets. Especially since this is one of my FAVORITE flavors, an unapologetic mean boy who is rarely (but sometimes!) soft for the people around him, and who regularly tries to do decently by people, but who consistently gets shat upon and misunderstood and accused of acting in bad faith. I screamed when he and Xie Lian finally got to talk their friendship out in the book. I also screamed when I realized how immediately after Xie Lian’s return he started looking out for him again, and how sincerely, despite his horrible attitude about it. I still want to write more fic for him so badly. I love him so much.

.

Second favorite: Xie Lian! What a good boy! The best boy! He’s so sweet and gentle, but also the best fightboy this world has ever seen, and also so gently snarky with the people he loves! I just... really love me some traumatized characters who have trouble recognizing that they can be Loved, and I’m not going to write this whole essay right now, but I think in some ways, he’s the most... passive about his romance, out of all the leads? Shen Qingqiu is aggressively oblivious, but Xie Lian kind of gently shrugs off the idea that he might be Hua Cheng’s special someone, until he finally gets hit with the cluestick. I generally shy away from the idea of a character “earning” love, but he’s maybe the mxtx character who moves me most with ‘you deserve to be loved’

.

Most favorite: Hua Cheng. HUA CHENG. Oh my god, gotta love this boy. Gotta love this devotion. I love a mean boy who is soft for one person, and he EMBODIES it. I mean, I love Shen Jiu, but he barely manages to do the soft thing at all, while Hua Cheng is over here like ‘if I could only be the stone beneath your feet--’ It’s hard to talk about him separately from Xie Lian, because they’re a unit in my head more than just about any other characters on this list are. I don’t want to get this list to get out of control, so I’m not going to scream for too long, but... I could just watch him go forever. I want to write him forever, and that’s a huge aspect of what draws me to some characters.

MDZS

Oh god, I think I lied, I think this book is going to be hardest. Making these choices is AGONIZING.

Fifth favorite: .....Lan Wangji. Oh god, I feel bad about how low he is. But this story is just packed SO full of wonderful characters, and I’m already consumed with guilt over all the characters who aren’t going to make it. I don’t love them less! But my love for characters in this particular story is very evenly distributed. And I think that Wang Yibo’s acting is possibly scoring points with me that the book might not have earned all by itself. Microexpressions and subtle body language add SO MUCH to a character with such flat affect, and I would be drawn to such a closed-off character anyways, but it really helps. And I love, like... the combined subtlety and intensity of his relationships. It’s not that subtle once you know what to look for, and the brother/sworn brother network makes for varying degrees of how much other characters understand of the things he chooses not to explicitly express, and it gives a really interesting character to the way he interacts with the people around him. Also, love me a man with intense separation anxiety.

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Fourth favorite: Jiang Yanli? I think it has to be Jiang Yanli, but these rankings are hard. So. I just talked about how much I enjoy the flat affect and closed off nature of Lan Wangji? Well, guess what, I also love it when m’girl is just very GENUINELY AND OPENLY an absolute sweetheart of a person, and I love the contrast between her genuinely kind nature and the uncomfortable pressure that her family’s dynamics put on her to start parenting at a very young age. It’s not necessarily a happy situation, but she adores her brothers so much and they adore her so much! And it’s... a very understated element of the story, but after her parents died, her baby brothers went off to war, and one wreaked havoc as a straightforward commander and one of them disappeared for months and returned as a creepy-ass zombie puppeteer. And she STILL dotes on them like before, despite knowing what they’re capable of. Like, yes, Wei Wuxian just raised an army of corpses and forced a man to eat himself, but I shall still boop him on the nose and feed him Soup. How can I not adore energy like that?

.

Third favorite: Wei Wuxian, I think. I do adore him a lot. He gives me some of the same vibes that make me ache most with Xie Lian, where he is trying his best, and is struggling to hold on in the face of lots of suffering, and I find it really interesting that when the suffering peaked, Xie Lian was forced go on because he couldn’t die, while Wei Wuxian... expired. That line about ‘he thought that no matter how large the world was, there was still no place for him’ always sticks with me, and hurts me deeply. Xie Lian had most of his personal attachments stripped away, and was left to wander on his own, while Wei Wuxian still had a number of strong connections left, but abruptly exited life. And that informs their respective trauma so interestingly! The way Wei Wuxian bounces between high energy chaos and drained exhaustion is really fascinating to me, and was the thread that held me attached to the book through a very confusing beginning. And I’m still very drawn to how intensely he loves, whether it’s Xiao Zhan’s fantastic acting, or it’s him busting out with how much he wants Lan Wangji in the middle of the Guanyin Temple scene. He’s a fantastic character, honestly, I don’t think such a convoluted book would have held together very well without a protagonist this strong.

.

Second favorite: Xue Yang :X Look, he’s a good boy and I love him. Who among us hasn’t done a few mass murders that we are completely unrepentant about, but that we would really like to keep hidden from our current boyfriend, actually? Anyways, as always, love me an angry boy who makes terrible decisions for understandable reasons. And I do love a character who is consumed by agonized ragrets (see my next entry), but I DO also love me a character who has no regrets at all and doesn’t even have much interest in trying to justify himself to anyone else around him. Just look at that confidence! Look at him go!!

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Most favorite: Jiang... Cheng....... I knew he and Xue Yang were going to be at the top, but those were the only parts of this list that were easy. I mean. Love a self-sabotaging angryboy who is also super super sad and keeps hurting himself in his own confusion. And while I love the romantic thread in all of the mxtx books, the agonized family thread in mdzs is one of my favorite parts, and something that I don’t really see echoed in any of the other stories. I need ten million jc+wwx reconciliations, at LEAST. He’s so sad! And so angry! And I want to see him becoming less of that thing, and for Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian to demonstrate very firmly how much they love him, because they do. I am invested in his happiness in a way that goes far and beyond any of the other non-main characters, haha

SVSSS

Fifth favorite: Tianlang-jun. I think? Oh god, but moshang. THIS IS REALLY HARD, I HATE THIS ;-; But especially since writing my fic, Tianlang-jun has really won me over. And like, he already hurt me good in the novel, just thinking about how he was an innocent young guy, just! Trying to have a girlfriend! And instead got trapped in sensory deprivation, body-rotting-hell for twenty years, when he didn’t do anything wrong!!! He suffered, so much! And I live for his intensely strained relationship with Luo Binghe, because it’s! Perfectly understandable and painful, from both of their perspectives! And he wants to hate humans so badly, but in the end, when he’s told that Su Xiyan never betrayed him, he starts helplessly asking the people around him, ‘really? is it really true?’ and then in the end he loses the only family member he has left who cares about him, and it’s just! Everything is terrible! I have a su xiyan au brewing in my head because I can’t stand it! Someone just give this man a loving partner!!!

.

Fourth favorite: Shen Qingqiu. But... moshang??? Goddammit. Anyways, this dumbass. I find him so endearing, in his dumbassery. I sometimes get a bit frustrated with Wei Wuxian for being oblivious, and Shen Qingqiu is just asking for me to react the same way, but I... don’t, for the most part? Because he thinks he has good information, and he’s slow to react to a changing playing field, and I still haven’t read another transmigration novel that strikes the same balance of hypercompetence and intense incompetence :ppp It’s a funny book, and he’s a funny character! And I really vibe with him, in most parts of the story, which covers a pretty darn wide emotional spectrum. Plus, the running internal commentary is choice.

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Third favorite: Liu Qingge. Look, I’m a woman of simple needs, and sometimes I just need a high-quality fightboy who clearly cares deeply and is absolute garbage at expressing his emotions. I can’t articulate it much better than that. I absolutely howl at the succubus extra, when Shen Qingqiu is talking to Madam Meiyin about his future partner, and Liu Qingge is like ‘oh my god, sHE IS CLEARLY DESCRIBING ME’ and Shen Qingqiu is like ‘haha, liu-shidi, i thought you thought this was stuupidddddddd’. They’re both so dumb. I love them so much. But stupidity plus war god fighting energy has a narrow lead over stupidity and internal commentary track.

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Second favorite: SHEN JIU. GOD. I’m still arguing with myself over whether he should go first, but Luo Binghe hurts me consistently through the whole entire story, so I think he wins. Shen Jiu just stabs me in the heart at strategic moments. This is it. My ideal mean boy who is soft for one (1) person, and who BOTH does unconscionable things for terrible reasons (someone just. give him a pile of girls to teach, it will be much more pleasant for everyone involved), and who ALSO gets blamed for things he didn’t do even when he tries to act in good faith. It is the best of all painful worlds. And even at the end, when he has a powerful person who wants desperately to protect him, he still tries his hardest to shove that person away, to keep him safe. I’ve got like four aus where he gets to live. I’m so invested in this character, I love him so much.

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Most favorite: Luo Binghe. He was.... made for me............ Like, the overwhelming amounts of childhood angst were baked in by Shang Qinghua, but the in-story pain and suffering is PRECISELY my jam. I love a character with separation anxiety! I love a character with massive anxieties over being unwanted! Over nobody ever, EVER just choosing him! I love a character struggling with the idea that the person he loves most in the world thinks that he’s intrinsically Disgusting! I love the kind of stubborn determination that leads him to preserve a corpse for five years, desperately hoping for a way to revive it, constantly cooking fresh food, in case, in case he someday wakes up. The way Hua Cheng loves is overpowering, but he’s had time to like... learn to be mellow when he needs to be. Luo Binghe doesn’t have a chill bone in his body, and if he’s acting chill, it’s probably because he’s done some mental math and decided that being more clingy right now will probably get him pushed away harder. I love the combination of manipulative tendencies and a very, very genuine fear of rejection and being unwanted. There is nothing I don’t love about Luo Binghe, including his worst decisions. I love him so so much.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Okay so today i learned that the take "it was morally wrong of WWX to give JC his core without his consent" exists, and I'm honestly curious to see how you feel about that 👀👀👀

Ehhh... excuse me, but.. what? Haha did you really have to hurt me like that? I was perfectly fine not knowing that such thing existed. I’ve aready reached my limit of stupidity this week lmao. Is it some anti-wwx squad?? Pls tell me, it doesn’t actually exist, bc I’ve already lost my faith in humanity as it is.

Well, my take on this is.. JC whole life was revolving around developing his core, increasing the level of his cultivation powers, becoming the clan leader and outbesting WWX.

The truth is, without the core he would literally slowly rot for the rest of his life. His cultivation skills were pretty basic (he was mad about it and was jealous of WWX getting the attention, hell, even his mom was mad about WWX being better at things than her son), but without them he’d be a big fat nothing and that would’ve killed him. WWX knew that and Wen Qing also knew that. That was the main reason she agreed to this, bc she liked WWX and knew that he couldn’t bare to lose another family member, cause he was like a brother to him. They both knew that JC life would basically end without the golden core and he would be like an empty shell, cause he simply couldn’t go on without it.

And the moment he lost it, he was so blinded, he didn’t even think about the fact how even such miracle of “returning his core” suddently appeared. He didn’t even check the if it’s possible or questioned it. I don’t think he’s stupid really. There’s no way deep down he didn’t feel that it was hella weird that somehow he was magically saved pretty easily. But he went with it anyway, bc he didn’t care about the consequences or questioned if they’d be any. Like did he think it was a magical lottery “bring your old broken iphone and we’ll exchange it for the last model”? I mean, he was so caught up in his ass, he didn’t even think for a moment that it was too damn easy and too damn lucky?? Also like WWX’s lie wasn’t even that good.

And like sorry we didn’t ask for your consent and “forced” our golden core on you, but we just couldn’t let you die. We’re morally wrong like that xD. We also didn’t have much time to babysit a vegetable, some were also grieving at this moment, but who cares, of course, the strong ones will be fine, right?

WWX really genuinely didn’t want for him to find out the truth like.. ever. So that mister could shine in his glory, meanwhile constantly shitting on him. So god forbid some fuckers say smth about him being in the wrong in this situation tbh.

Also I laughed a lot about the fact that JC really thought that he suddently became “oh so talented” out of the blue. Like dude, you were so freaking average, then you “get your core back” and you’re this powerul cultivator... 1+1=5?? I’m.. facepalm seriously.  

The moment Wen Ning told JC how much of an idiot he is, was a blessing for me really, oh, the satisfaction I felt in that maoment. It might just be my favorite moment along with the Wangxian confession. Cause I was like “finally, bitch, finally”, go run around with WWX sword like an idiot now xD I’m sorry like but really, that’s how I felt, I was tired of his bs. Dude’s jealousy blinded him so much, he really would rather watch WWX being stumped on, than stand up for him. That’s such a disgrace seriously.

But I seriously think there’s a possibility that some tiny part of JC knew that this was fishy, but he just blocked it. He wanted the core back so bad, he didn’t care how honestly, if he did, he’d ask questions, but he didn’t. I’m like.. I get it, yeah, but like if someone knocked on your door and be like “here’s your 1 milllion $”, would you seriously be like “yeah, sounds legit, thanks”?? 

Does he not know that saying “free cheese can only be found inside a trap”? Like his pride was rightfully hurt for eternity and he will be reminded of it each time he uses it, but he 100% himself thinks that “it’s better than without the core”.

Anyways... “without consent”... I’m just... you freaking kidding, right? What else? The age difference between Lan Wangji and  Mo XuanYu ‘s body is too huge? Anyone abusive maybe? WWX and LWJ are trash bc they’re too powerful and they don’t deseve to be born this way? I’m.. I’m gonna die istg

[janet-snakeholt]

If you haven’t already, go watch Warrior Nun

There’s gonna be spoilers, so don’t read below the cut, but seriously go watch it. It’s so good. It has great diversity, bad ass women of color, an almost all female cast and there’s definitely some (a lot of) queer characters hinted at which I hope to see more of if there’s a season 2 (kind of SPOILER no confirmed queer characters, but those of you who watched it know...). Also, even if there are nuns and it’s heavily centered around catholic themes, I didn’t find it preachy (I’d say it’s in a grey area a lot of the times, like there’s good or bad people and in between who believe and some others who don’t), but it’s just my opinion  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

So again, spoiler warning.

(almost) EVERYBODY (mostly the girls) IN THIS SHOW DESERVES A HUG 

First of all, I really loved the story overall (except maybe a few things, but it’s expected when you watch something). I loved how the characters were really different from one another, how you can see their motivations and they have all distinct personalities. 

Ava : She’s been hurt a lot, both physically and mentally (and emotionally) and it shows. I’ve seen people call her annoying and while some of her decisions might be dumb, homegirl was seven, SEVEN (7), when she got in the accident and she was tetraplegic most of her life. She doesn’t know how to navigate the world, even if she read and watched TV (which is not the same as experiencing the world first hand, obviously). So she will make mistakes, and honestly, what 19 year old girl who woke up from the dead wouldn’t? All discourse aside, Ava is totally bi and you will pry that from my cold dead hands. Beatrice and her had a lot of chemistry and I hope they will explore that if we get more seasons. Also, I love how she learned to lift a finger just to flip off sister Frances #the little victories. And I love her callouts to the church for being sexist.

Mary : One of my faves (like most of them tbh). It’s obvious Shannon and her were girlfriends, no one can convince me otherwise (she kissed Shannon’s jawline when she was dying ffs). She’s a fucking bad ass, takes no shit form anyone but is a big softie deep down (like when she’s in the small town where her and Ava went, you know the one). I hope she gets closure regarding Shannon’s death because she certainly deserves it.

Beatrice : I WOULD DIE FOR HER (for all of them, but still). She’s so smart and I love her so much. Her Joan of Arc mask(?) is such a look™, although it seems a little impractical. She’s a fucking BAD. ASS. That scene in Arq-Tech is fucking epic. She’s totally gay and also she has an obvious crush on Ava (that awkward hug she gave Ava in the 3rd episode and that tender look they exchanged when Ava was training to pass through the wall, plus the face graze). I knew she was gay when she told Ava how she became a nun, how her conservative parents sent her to catholic boarding school, parents who are in politics and care about appearances. It became undeniable when she read the story about the gay Warrior Nun and how she was crying and telling Ava that she didn’t get it, as usual. 

Lilith : Gone too soon, glad that we have her back. I didn’t like her at first, but now I really hope she’ll be okay. To have the expectations of your entire family and a lot of ancesters is A LOT, so I can imagine she might freak out a little when her “destiny” is about to be accomplished, just to be taken from under her nose (by someone as unprepared as Ava). She was really focused on that destiny, but it will be interesting to see where she goes from now on. Especially with the powers she got from coming back from Hell.

Camila : She’s baby and we don’t deserve her. The first time I watched it, I didn’t notice, but the mission where Shannon was killed was HER FIRST MISSION. She’s apparently a tech genius and I love how she was like fuck it when the others were thrown out from the Cat’s Cradle. This girl is impatient (she cannot stay still), she wants to kick ass, take names and shoot with her crossbow. I really hope we see more of her in future seasons.

Mother Superion : I wouldn’t say I love her, but I think we can definitely understand her motivations. She was rejected by the Halo, so I think that’s why she doesn’t want to upset the chain of command, so that she isn’t cast aside again, that and she doesn’t want to be hurt. I would love to see more about her backstory (like how did she get her scar).

I doubt we will more of JC’s gang in future seasons, but I love that the show had a little bit of casual trans representation with Chanel. I really liked her, she was really hot and seemed really nice.

I wanna add that, to me, Ava looks like a mix between Alicia Viakander, Emilia Clarke and Ellen Page and I’m here for it.

Also, Vincent can rot along with Duretti (and Adriel, ofc). I liked him, but I don’t know how he can redeem himself, if he can (I don’t think he should be redeemed).

I’m really curious about what happened to Jillian’s son after going into the portal. Also, what’s gonna happen to Jillian? And I hope the casualties are minimal on the girl’s side, but I doubt there will be none. At least one of the girls will be injured, but I hope none will die (their number would be too low if one died, but idk, anything could happen). But I really wish they’re all relatively okay. 

I’m also curious to know what Adriel really is and where he comes from, if we ever do find out.

Beware that there might be typos in this review, but I need to go to bed and I simply do not care enough to look. Also, my grammar is never perfect in english (because I haven’t had a single english class in years and I’m better now, and my school papers are all in french, so).

[trensu]

Episode 49: The One with Too Much JGY and Not Enough Wangxian

Very little wangxiantics in this episode, guys, there’s like, VERY LITTLE wangxiantics

The fact that the show is bringing us down to breadcrumbs again is Homophobic 

But let’s get through this!

blah blah blah jgy acts all pathetic blah blah blah lxc engages jgy in a convo blah blah

lwj has to go in and be like, bro, please, don't talk to him

and wwx is like, yeah, you literally just told jc not to talk to him, follow your own advice dude 

lxc is like, hm, you make a good point...i shall continue talking to jgy regardless

jgy continues with his pity party speech and i continue not to care

BUT THEN LXC KNEELS DOWN TO SPEAK WITH JGY MORE INTIMATELY????

WTF LXC STOP THAT RIGHT NOW

lwj is like BRO

lxc is like I KNOW WHAT I'M DOING BRO

and i'm like DO YOU THO?

now he's going to question jgy and counting on him answering truthfully??

WHAT HAS HE DONE TO MAKE YOU THINK HE'LL DO ANYTHING BUT LIE, ZEWU JUN??

so we get a much less entertaining Q&A session accompanied by jgy's flashbacks 

(can we go back to lwj's drunken Q&A sesh? I’d much rather question drunk!lwj than sober!jgy)

the only point i had any actual sympathy was when jgy brings up qin su and her mom bc qin su and her mother deserved better

Ooh, lxc is getting super judgy about jgy killing jgs

This is where you draw the line, lxc?? c’mon.

i mean, judge him for how he did it, sure

there was no need to involve all those innocent women in the murder

but really, killing jgs was the only good act of public service jgy did

give credit where it's due, pal.

HELL YEAH IT'S BITCH-SLAP JGY TIME AGAIN

LOL EVEN WWX AND LWJ LOOK SURPRISED THAT LXC DID THAT

oh noooo lxc is asking about jzx and oh, wwx is PISSED

Wwx grabs the front of jgy's robes and hauls him up and yells in his face “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO? SAY IT!”

cue flashback scene to jgy tricking jzx 

AND NOW MY BRATTY SON IS YANKING THE FRONT OF JGY'S ROBES SCREAMING WHY? WHY? TELL ME WHY DID YOU HAVE TO DO IT??

HIS VOICE IS ALL CRACKED AND HOARSE AND HE'S CRYING 

I WANT TO WRAP HIM UP IN BLANKETS AND COZY THINGS AND PROTECT HIM FROM ALL THE BAD THINGS IN THE WORLD

jl collapses to his knees and my beautiful sunshine boy falls to his side and scoops him into his arms 

BC WWX LOVES HIS BRATTY NEPHEW AND GOD DAMN IT, JL DESERVES HUGS AND AFFECTION

oh jgy was about to touch jl's face and i was like DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE I WILL CUT THAT HAND OFF YOU

but then he pulled away bc i am very fearsome actually wwx was glaring at him 

and ofc jgy can't have people being sympathetic to anyone NOT him so he's like, what about me, huh? you never ask why I personally had to suffer!

Cue another flashback in which JGS IS A FUCKING DOUCHEBAG 

I HOPE HE ROTS IN ANCIENT FANTASY CHINA HELL

HALF OF THE PROBLEMS WERE A RESULT OF HIM NOT BEING ABLE TO KEEP IT IN HIS FUCKING PANTS

ROBES

WHATEVER

ugh i hate jgy too

he's essentially telling jin ling that oh, i killed your father bc your grandfather was scum of the earth

AS IF JZX AND JL DESERVED TO SUFFER FOR JGS'S SINS

FUCK YOU JGY

suddenly jgy takes my bratty son hostage!!

wwx shouts "JIN LING" as he jerks towards his only nephew

BUT IT'S TOO LATE, jgy already has that garrote AROUND JL'S NECK

WIPE THAT SMUG SMIRK OFF YOUR FACE SU SHE

I WILL END YOU

god i need to stop threatening people, i have no ability to back it up

lol jc is like WWX YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO TAKE ALL HIS WEAPONS AWAY!!

and wwx is like I DID! 

siblings always find time to bicker, even in dire situations

lwj tells them that jgy hid the garrote inside his body 

bc lwj is smart and observant

but ewwww, the idea of yanking that gold string out of a vein squicks the hell out of me

yuckyuckyuck it makes my skin crawl

jgy tightens the string around my bratty son's neck and everyone freaks out, obvs 

oh jc loves his nephew so much! he's all like, if you need a hostage take me instead and leave jin ling alone!!

JC IS A GREAT UNCLE, JC LOVES HIS FAMILY SO MUCH, JC DESERVES TO RECONCILE WITH HIS BROTHER AND HAVE A LOVING HAPPY FAMILY

jgy is like, nah bc of Reasons

then my sunshine boy is like, hey aren't you forgetting smth jgy? what about your loyal lackey here?

but ss is an idiot and is like, don't worry about me boss!

and jgy is all, cool thx lackey

now lxc and jgy do some more chitchat i don't care about

suddenly there is ominous knocking on the doors AND A WILD LAN SIZHUI APPEARS!!!

He got chucked into the temple like the football lol

NOW WEN NING IS HERE! HE’S COVERED WITH RESENTFUL ENERGY, CARRYING BAXIA LIKE A BADASS

Dude, for real, wn looks so cool here

letting the tip of the saber scrape ominously against the stone ground and walking with slow measured steps

and baxia is freaking glowing

nhs calls him "brother" but i'm pretty sure he knows it's not nmj and just said it to freak jgy out

wwx ofc recognizes wen ning

AHHHHHH WWX IS DOING HIS EERIE WHISTLE AGAIN, I LOVE IT WHEN HE DOES THAT

SO COOL, WWX, SO COOL!!

his brow is all furrowed when he sees wn is not reacting and he starts to whistle more earnestly

wwx: what's happening? why is wn not listening to me? could it be...?

cut to lwj, looking all serious bc hey, this is actually a serious situation 

lwj: he is possessed by the blade spirit

wn roars and vaults over the distance between him and jgy with baxia raised high and it looks freaking AWESOME

lol we get a quick shot here of nhs panicking and ducking behind su she

jgy lets go of the gold string around jl's neck to flee from wn which gives wwx an opening

Wwx dives forward and wraps himself around jin ling

Then he twirls them to the side away from incoming baxia and crashes them both to the ground where they're safe

as this is happening, lwj sees his opening and draws bichen

we get a quick moment where wwx and jc are both fussing over jl, it’s super sweet!

AND THEN WE GET A SHOT OF JGY'S DISEMBODIED ARM 

THE CAMERA STARTS TO TILT UPWARDS 

WE SEE THE HEM OF LWJ'S PRISTINE WHITE ROBES FRAMED BY BICHEN 

BICHEN HAS RIVULETS OF BLOOD STREAMING DOWN THE BLADE

THE CAMERA CONTINUES TO TILT UPWARD UNTIL WE SEE LWJ STANDING TALL, FACE GRIM AND SERIOUS AND JUST OVERALL HOLDING HIMSELF IN AN IMPOSING BADASS WAY

wwx is looking at him like HOLY SHIT LWJ

Which is a totally reasonable reaction bc holy shit lwj

HA, now jgy only has one arm

I may not be able to follow up on my threats but it is gratifying to see lwj follow through for me lololol

gross, ss is all begging for medicine to help jgy

stfu ss, nobody likes either of you two

wn's blow struck the ground and cracked it before so now he's back up doing his steady creepy walk to finish what he was going to do

lwj's brow furrows and he sits himself down, cross-legged and summons his guqin

lol i love how he summons his instrument tbh

he just wooshes his flowy sleeves and his guqin glitters into existence

it looks very Magical Girl and i appreciate that

someone needs to draw lwj in a Magical Girl outfit IMMEDIATELY

lxc gets his flute out and our lan bros do a duet to chill out the angry sword spirit

LOL WEN NING JUST STEPS ON JGY'S CHOPPED OFF ARM

DO IT AGAIN WN 😆😆😆

let me just say, i'm really enjoying watching jgy and ss cower away from the oncoming wen ning

but oh noo! jl calls out for his evil uncle and draws wn's attention and wn tries to attack him

i guess baxia senses jgy's blood on jl's robes or smth? Idk, doesn’t matter

wwx tries to do some sort of spell to stop wn but it doesn't work and in a fit of panic he yells out “WEN QIONGLIN!”

thankfully this snaps wn out of it enough that he stops baxia like, one inch from my bratty son's face

the lan bros are still doing their Magic Music thing and wn is trying to reign in baxia but baxia's pissed off so everyone’s struggling 

wwx starts his whistling again and it's rattling Plot Device 3

lxc tries to stop wwx but lwj shakes his head at his brother like no, back off

wwx turns to look at lwj, lwj meets his eyes and gives him a single solemn nod

AND WWX SMILES AT HIM BC HIS SOULMATE BELIEVES IN HIS ABILITIES AND TRUSTS HIM!!!

this is the first legit proper wangxiantic moment in the whole episode, what the heck

GIVE ME MORE WANGXIAN AND LESS JGY, PLZ & THX

jc: wei wuxian!!

wwx turns to see his brother and jc FLINGS THE DEMON FLUTE AT WWX bc apparently he's been carrying chenqing around THIS WHOLE TIME??

wwx nods to him (and omg jc is helping him, this is good, this is a step in the right direction!!) and brings chenqing to his lips

we get a shot of lwj staring at wwx as wwx starts to play 

and the background music starts to get SUPER INTENSE and EXCITING as wwx plays

CHENQING STARTS TO OOZE THAT SMOKY RESENTFUL MAGIC STUFF

we get a shot of JC watching wwx play and this is the softest we've seen him look at his brother since he came back from the dead

he's looking at him like it's finally hitting him that wwx is back, his big brother is alive and here and protecting him and jin ling bc that's what family is supposed to do

AND IF I CAN’T HAVE WANGXIANTICS, I WILL ACCEPT YUNMENG BROS TIME AS RECOMPENSE

oooh, Plot Device 3 starts to zoom around and we get a fun bit of camera work so it seems like we're seeing everything from Plot Device 3's perspective

which is kind of adorable for some reason???

it's just zipping along and it sees wwx and wwx guides its attention to where wn is struggling to control baxia

wwx starts to walk, getting both baxia and Plot Device 3 to follow him further into the temple

lwj sees this happening and whooshes away his guqin and follows bc he's always going to follow wwx obvs

WWX IS SO AWESOME, I LOVE WATCHING HIM WORK

EVERYBODY IS STARING AT HIM IN AWE AS THEY SHOULD BE BC MY SUNSHINE BOY IS SKILLED AS HECK

he manages to get baxia into the coffin with nmj before he starts coughing up blood 

But before we can freak out about that, nhs scream in the background 

so everyone runs to check out what's happening there

nhs is all SS WHY'D YOU TRY TO KILL ME OMG MY LEG IS ALL CUT UP NOW, EVERYTHING IS AWFUL, HELP HELP

and ss is like BUT I DIDN'T, HE'S LYING!!!

lol baxia just leaps out of the coffin buries itself in ss's chest

AND THAT’S IT FOR SU SHE

good fucking riddance

But also baxia is nmj's saber

DID IT HEAR NHS AND BE LIKE, NO I CAN'T LET MY MASTER'S BELOVED LITTLE BROTHER GET HURT BY THIS USELESS NOBODY???

BAXIAAAAAA

WHAT A GOOD SABER YOU ARE *CRIES*

wwx starts up his demon flute again even tho baxia seems much more chill now that it has finally killed someone 

But let's watch wwx be a badass on the flute anyway

look at my sunshine boy go! 

look at him corral all that resentful energy!

love my sunshine boy

baxia is finally subdued and wwx lays it and Plot Device 3 in the coffin with nmj

he covers the coffin using some of his wicked awesome red magic stuff

but it's taking a lot out of him i guess bc he stumbles back and lwj is right there to catch him 

bc they're soulmates and they love each other 

aND GOD THE WAY THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER HERE

JUST, UGH

EVERY TIME THEY LOOK AT EACH OTHER MY HEART GETS PALPITATIONS

And this is the only other wangxiantic moment in this episode, wtf show

cut to the next scene, everyone's patching up wounds and whatever

lol we can hear nhs whining like a baby bc omg it hurts it hurts, lxc be more gentle

and lxc is like, chill bro it's just a stab wound

nhs is like JUST a stab wound?? r u kidding me, i'm DYING!!

Which is exactly how i would react to a stab wound lol

now lxc is with jgy and he's like jgy if you do ONE more bad thing, i will definitely finally punish you mercilessly

then he starts checking out his armless shoulder bc lxc really is too good and not all that bright apparently

lol when wwx sees lxc tending to jgy's wounds and his face is like ugh i can't believe this guy

AND THIS IS WHEN WE GET THAT AMAZING AWESOME SHOT OF NHS'S FACE GOING ALL SERIOUS AND, LIKE, VENOMOUS

WE ONLY SEE PART OF HIS FACE, THE OTHER PART COVERED BY LXC'S OUT OF FOCUS FACE

AND NHS GLOWERS AT JGY

oh, my poor sunshine boy is wincing and holding a cloth to his STILL SLUGGISHLY BLEEDING NECK WOUND

SOMEBODY GIVE MY SUNSHINE BOY MEDICINE 

TAKE WHATEVER LXC GAVE TO JGY AND GIVE IT TO MY SUNSHINE BOY STAT

lsz is watching him very intently bc he's figuring out some things about himself and wwx that LWJ DIDN'T HAVE THE GOOD GRACE TO EXPLAIN TO EITHER OF THEM YET

lwj ofc has got his eyes glued on wwx bc, i mean, what else is there worth looking at in the Temple of Doom?

And i guess this counts as a wangxiantic too bc lsz is basically wangxian’s love child anyway!

lxc has the gall to ask nhs to hand him the medicine bottle to tend to FUCKING JGY'S (AKA HIS BIG BROTHER’S MURDERER) WOUNDS

GOD JUST LET JGY BLEED OUT AND DIE ALREADY

nhs is like sure! grabs the medicine bottle and hides it in his robes 

he makes a whole show out of rooting around in his robes to ‘find’ it and lxc goes to him to grab it or whatever so his back is turned to jgy

AND NHS, THAT CLEVER CLEVER BOY, USES THIS CHANCE

he makes a show of looking over lxc's shoulder and shouts LXC LOOK OUT!!

lxc grabs his sword and whirls around and stabs it right into jgy

and nhs is all stuttery and nervously saying how omg he saw jgy reach behind him and he thought he was gonna do something awful so he panicked

Then jgy finally sees nhs AND THAT'S WHERE THE EPISODE ENDS

So another episode with way too much plot stuff, yuck

I mean, we only got 3 actual wangxian moments?? 

What is that about, huh? THAT’S NOT EVERY GAY RIGHTS OF YOU, SHOW!

The next episode is THE LAST and we’re definitely getting wangxiantics there and i will definitely cry about it

Return to Masterpost

[amethystshipper]

I was scrolling through my dash, as one does, and saw .gifs of the scene where the juniors are defending WWX to Sect leader Yao, and I was just smiling and thinking “ah, the kids are all right this time, it will be better”. And then I realized that ... the kids were all right the previous generation, too? And it would have been so easy to see them band together, especially after everything?

Hear me out. In essence, there’s no difference between the juniors and the ... OG juniors. (We need a name for them. Is there a name for that generation??? Cause we have the parents, and we have the juniors, what are WWX&co named??? Whatever, I’m sticking with OG juniors.) Each of these groups went through shitty situations, the OGs arguably through worse with the war and all. But before the war, we have 2 major bonding moments: the Cloud Recesses classes, and the Wen indoctrination. What if they actually bonded together, and their relationships were more flushed out? (Keep in mind I only saw the live-action drama, so that’s what I’m basing everything on.)

So, Cloud Recesses. You have the Jiangs, and then NSH, LWJ, WN and WQ added to the group, more or less willingly. JZX is still being a little bitch, but whatever, he’s there too, along with MianMian, who is arguably his biggest contribution. I will admit, there are ... levels ... of closeness. But you have the three gremlins getting together, and LWJ pulled in (again, levels), you have star-struck WN and tough WQ (who, need I remind you, took care of JYL at least once, which I bet the latter will not forget). You have LQR spitting blood because the boy is definitely his mother’s son, but LXC smiling indulgently, seeing his little brother finally make friends. (And LQR will remember that CSR was mischief made human form, and her son definitely follows in her footsteps, but both of them wanted always to help and not destroy, so there is definitely something wrong with the accusations that WWX wants to take over the world. And LXC will remember the Wen boy who stayed behind to save one of their own, and the Wei boy who dived in to help them both, and will not believe the grim tales of the fierce Ghost General and the Yiling Patriarch.)

After CR, WWX/LWJ/JC/NHS have their little murder adventure, with a WQ cameo.  LWJ is added to the gremlin dynamic and sure, he might not feel like he fits in at first, but WWX cannot seem to stay away from him, and he suffers in silence with JC while WWX is being an idiot and risking his life, omg, stop that, get down you demented cat, and then finds that there’s a certain bond little brothers with big brothers larger-than-life have, and maybe having two more friends is. Acceptable. They’re all supposed to be 15-16 at this point, teenage boys that started this adventure fully confident, at least on the outside. And then Xue Yang happens. And this is, I think, one of the biggest turning point for these four. Because, to a certain degree, all of them rely on rules. Their own, if nothing else. And here is a guy who just ... wants to see the world burn. He kills with no remorse, admits it gleefully, and is just awful in so many ways. This is their first brush with how brutal the outside world is, when they start to doubt themselves and their convictions. But then! XXC and SL appear, and it’s a breath of fresh air! Because there are terrible people and worse situations, but as long as they hold fast in their beliefs and work together and trust eachother, they can beat them!

So they go to the Unclean Realm, and they meet Daddy NMJ. And he’s been watching them approach, and he sees his little brother laughing with the boy in black, he sees him cackling while the one in purple is swinging his fists around; he sees him share a smile with Xichen’s little brother while the other two are laughing so hard they’re bent over so far they’re almost falling to the ground. And he doesn’t show it, because the Red Blade Master is gruff, and tough, and mighty, but in his heart he’s already adopted these kids who include his baby brother in their circle with so much ease, it’s hard to imagine him on the outside. (And in the future, when people are yelling about WWX’s darkness, this is the image he will have in his head: four boys being innocent and happy and his, how dare you try to touch them?!)

Cloud Recesses burns. LXC is nowhere. And then. The biggest paradigm shift - the indoctrination. Everyone arrives in Nightless City. The three OG gremlins watch LWJ back to his jade statue default, they lose their swords, they are on the same side with JZX and WWX/JC don’t know which one of these frustrates them more. It should be the looming war. It’s probably the JZX part. Now, I assume they spend at least a few weeks there, I don’t remember if it’s mentioned. But WWX always tried to get in front, to catch WC’s attention. (Because he’s the disposable one, right? High enough in status that WC is satisfied when he gets to punish him, but not a sect heir, not someone who will bring down a whole sect if he dies. Little does he know.) So don’t tell me that the others don’t rally around him. (Discreetly of course. They learn fast that he just gets more protective if others are hurt because of him.) There’s nothing stronger than a common enemy, and the Wens and WC, specifically, are definitely that. So they watch, and they remember WWX being beaten, whipped, humiliated, all so that others will not be. Not to mention that one night that he doesn’t tell even JC about, because it would crush his little brother to know he couldn’t keep his promise. They remember him staying behind so that they have a chance to escape the murder turtle. (And after the war, when the adults will try to damn WWX for being too arrogant and too prideful, the OG juniors will remember the kid who stood up to the Wen clan and has the scars to prove it, and all to protect them. Where was Jin Guangshan? Where was Sect leader Yao?)

Lotus pier burns. WWX disappears. JC and LWJ look for him for 3 months. And then. And then he comes back. And he burns the Sun to the ground, using dark cultivation and corpses and no sword, and everything that they were taught not to do, ever. And he succeeds where everyone else fails.

Afterwards, when the dust settles but not really, when life comes back to normal but not quite, when things become too boring apparently, the young ones see their elders muttering. And gossip. And look a bit too much at WWX, too closely. But this was a generation forged in the fires of war. They were not like their parents, who had time to figure out their shit and then go to battle, no. They were kids when it all started. There are no more kids amongst them now.

So when the minor sect leaders, subtly encouraged by JGS and JGY, talk about the “young” LC being a leader at such a young age with honeyed words that hide rot, NMJ and LXC rise to his defense. Both of them became sect leaders at young ages, both of them know how hard it is. LQR rises as well and the older ones expect him to be on their side, but they forget LQR got entrusted with a clan and 2 children that he was not supposed to have, so he will never demean another who was in an even worse position, but rose to the occasion despite everything that happened. The Lans promote knowledge and learning above all, and many people can learn a lot from Sandu Shengshou, wouldn’t you agree Sect leader Yao?

When the Jin sect complains about the Stygian Tiger Seal, rumors begin to spread from behind hand painted fans that they are after the artifacts of other sects. After all, does WWX not belong to YungmengJiang? Therefore, do his creations not belong to the sect as well? Who’s to say they won’t go after the treasures of the other sects next?

When JYL destroys Jin Zixun at Phoenix Mountain, JZX steps up to the plate and stands behind his fiancee. WWX is obviously her little brother that she cares deeply about, he will be his future brother-in-law, and honestly Zixun where were you even during the war?? You have demands now because?? Go shoot some arrows and chill. (JC is just standing there with crossed arms, looking at Jin Zixun without blinking, keeping a tight grip over Zidian who is the definition of  “lemme at him!!!” Jiejie doesn’t like it when he slices and dices people, although she’s not leaving much for him to chew on. It’s the most fun he’s had in years.)

When JGY sweetly suggest that there might be a viper poised to strike them in the back, NHS innocently asks “but San-Ge, didn’t your blow to WRH’s back help us win the war?” (NMJ has never loved his brother more than when he roasts JGY. Really, he could cry with pride. Here, A-Sang, there’s that fan you wanted. I ordered new birdcages to be build back home, you can have all the birds you want. Training is ... postponed.)

When news about the labor camps and the slaughtered Wens are revealed, many stay silent. A few of them cheer. But there are also a few that remember a boy willing to save someone from drowning, willing to risk his life to save the dead bodies of two parents. They remember the best doctor of their generation helping them heal, and rest, and save their loved ones. They remember that they are not the only children who were taken by this war, that they were not the only ones forced to make awful choices that haunt their dreams. They remember that it’s easy to stand back, but yet there was always one who stood up for the others, who would stand up for them, so how can they not stand with him now when he most need it?

WWX is not alone. The YungmengJiang clan is not alone. These kids went through hell and back in the past couple of years, and they will be damned if they will let another rise in WRH’s place. This ends now.

[watch-grok-brainrot]

hey, i hope you have/had a great day!! i don't engage with any ships were wangxian is with another person, both not lwj/other person wwx/other person and wangxian/other person. it just... doesn't feel right? it makes me pretty uncomfortable tbh (mxy himself makes me uncomfortable too and idk why). chengxian for other reasons too, like my dislike for jc plays a role in that. xiyao is fine in modern aus? the same with nmj/jgy. xuexiao is really..... nope. normally i just dislike ships with jc? i just can't see him in a relationship but if they come up in fics that's fine. which one is your favorite sect and in which one would want you to live in? your favorite one doesn't have to be the one you'd want to live in. i think i'd like to live in gusu with the lans bcs it seems kind of relaxing? though i wouldn't have anything against the jiang Sect either! i gotta admit that sect leader yao is entertaining but i still dislike him, the same with sect leader ouyang. jgs can rot in hell for all i care. idk if jiang fengmian qualifies as an unpopular character but i kind of liked him. lan qiren had his moments, for both of them it mostly is how authors portray them in fics. my favorite characters are definitely lwj and wwx, wq and jyl are also in my top 5 and nhs and lxc share a place with wn. xxc gets a mention too bcs i love him. - ❄🐇

i might be ok with wangxian + others... but idk. i don’t read that many fics... got any fics you love, snowbunny, that i should check out?

favorite sect and where i want to live are probably the same: lotus pier when wwx was growing up. sounds fun. i like water. i like the aesthetics. and i dislike too many rules. i’m a decently strong swimmer so i’d fit right in. and lotus pods and roots are DELICIOUS. 

hahha. jfm is kinda unpopular. i get it from a western perspective. but he’s not an uncommon father type, imo. 

[jessicamilagros]

but jc started the rumour about rachel being trans just because I guess her adam's apple is bigger? So jc should just keep his mouth shut then no one will say bad things about him but he thinks cause he's short and gay he can get away with anything

or nobody should say ignorant things about anybody? 

one person being transphobic doesn’t absolve another person from saying something homophobic.

don’t get it twisted though, jc can rot in hell.

[whetstonefires]

Yeah like! Absolutely Wei Wuxian needed to do that, and the fact that he needed to create that boundary for himself after everything would be enough cause.

But also literally Jiang Cheng cannot ever recover if Wei Wuxian tries to lead a reconciliation between them.

Like. Seriously Jiang Cheng is very fucked up. He's legitimately traumatized, like nobody should say Jiang Cheng did not go through the traumas, and he spent the entire time Wei Wuxian was dead keeping his own wounds open and festering and basically going through a 'how to make sure every traumatic experience you have ever had causes you individual PTSD symptoms' checklist.

He had no support system other than his own desperate need to not have been in the wrong and his knowledge that he sure wasn't the hero of his own story.

(And a baby. Who he didn't even have any legal claim to, really, because this is a strong patriarchy.)

And a certain amount of what's wrong with Jiang Cheng can be legitimately categorized as Wei Wuxian's fault, for repeatedly cutting into Jiang Cheng's personal agency in the name of caring for him!

Which is exactly why Wei Wuxian trying to carry a rapprochement, in addition to the obvious ways it's very unfair to him, would actually demonstrate his not having learned anything from the genuine mistakes he made that contributed to the implosion of their relationship, and accepting it would harm Jiang Cheng.

I think they do have to work out something eventually because. Their society literally is not large enough for them to avoid one another forever. Which means it can't be a clean break, really, unless Wei Wuxian actually does peace on the cultivation world for good or something.

Which means they can't actually leave it hanging forever without it starting to rot again, especially on Jiang Cheng's end.

But if they're going to get anywhere meaningful Jiang Cheng definitely has to initiate it. And he has to have managed to grow and unstick and do some recovery and processing first.

The thing I always get frustrated about with these takes, besides yeah fans forcing it in ways that would seriously derail the healing process, is when I see this treated as a binary scenario.

Where the legitimacy of Wei Wuxian saying he is done putting anything into this relationship depends on the relationship always having been worthless.

On Jiang Cheng never having deserved any of the devotion he ultimately squandered by thinking he'd already lost it, on the relationship having been fundamentally poisoned and confining and unfulfilling and doomed and not good enough, and something that should have been repudiated sooner, and so forth.

And like. I don't think that's an interesting or useful reading of the tragic backstory here? Wwx, jc, and jyl all ultimately made things worse with the ways they loved so hard they were willing to die of it, and the ways loving each other didn't help them communicate usefully in the least, but I think the whole narrative becomes vastly more boring if you conclude that any love that winds up hurting terribly or being betrayed wasn't real, wasn't worth anything, or didn't matter.

(You could actually argue that's the thesis Jiang Cheng spent thirteen extremely psychologically damaging years trying to sell himself on.)

Like. Wangxian are cute as hell but I hope none of us are pretending they aren't kinda fucked up. The thesis 'relationships need to not be fucked up to be important' does not belong here. We are taking the warts. Narratively they are a feature.

And yet the idea that the only alternative is that if the love mattered, once, they have to put it back? And it should be easy if they can just forgive each other?

As though they haven't torn enormous bleeding scars in one another's psyches? As though Wei Wuxian's recovery process hasn't required letting go of his dependency on Jiang Cheng and Jiang Cheng's isn't going to require centering a lot less of his identity on Wei Wuxian?

Also bad! Terrible!

Wei Wuxian was well within his right to cut off Jiang Cheng at the end of the novel and I will forever think it was the healthiest and best option for both of them

[the-firebird69]

War of the Worlds - Pods Emerge

This is what people are running from and we've seen entire armies move out of their way and let them pass and granted the the armies were pretty big like four Italians that's about 20 million people with tanks 165 ft and moving out of the way for this size are they just be dead and the machines leave and they're conserving energy and they're going after stuff right now they are heading towards Ohio State and they want people are there people were dumb enough that they ran to it and they want the secrets of JC and they're willing to fight for it to say and they're going down below shortly after to see what they can find and they want people to hell out of there and they're doing it all over the world at about 3,000 locations and it's Jason and they mean business nobody else is looking that perfectly

Thor Freya

Olympus

Zeus and let me see this is important and people are not paying attention yet Hera this is what's chasing the animals out of the woods and they're terrified you haven't seen one yet or experience it my guess is that it is a menacing looking machine that could be a monster or a combination that it is aiming directly at you we're having the periods that it has the appearance that it is and if it's hunting you and also capturing and mulching people and disintegrating them in horrible ways I haven't seen much action in my life it's kind of lackluster but I have seen people being abused and taken away against her will and some people being very hurt my violent Acts and a lot of war films but how much is usually harm people is up close and even with rays I guess it would be equally as unnerving but with a machine like this and the tripod that sucks people up and it tentacles you don't know what your fate will be at all and there's a myriad of things that can happen and people are afraid of being dissected and questioned and tortured because they see people getting captured some people think they just mulches you so for some reason the psychological effect is very deep as opposed to some massively terrifying monsters and I think it's the kidnapping portion and the mulching and the explosion of lots of blood

Zues Hera

They do that and spread it all over the land it's a form of fire protection that's not true it's like an accelerant but that's not why they're doing it and to attract bugs it's not true either it rots things and that's what they're doing they're trying to destroy your place where you are and we can't let him do it and their heinous now and they're pretty much gone

Thor Freya

Olympus

[buildarocketboys]

there’s no one in my coffin, there’s nothing in my grave

Soooooo after actually being proofread  by my lovely gf, here’s the jcs in the flesh au you’ve totally all been waiting for! :P Nah, but I hope y’all enjoy it, it’s 6000+ words, which is the most I’ve ever posted for jcs eeeek! But I really enjoyed writing it and there’s something for everyone because all the characters are in there!

Here on ao3

@judasisgayriot @superomnes @afaintcloudyhaze @belongtohufflepuff @littlerebellion @dont-call-me-algernon (if I’ve forgotten anyone I’m sorry, I forget who’s active and who isn’t lol) oh also @thealpacalypse you might be interested too?

On the third day, Jesus rose from the grave.

But he wasn't the only one.

Judas didn't know where he was, let alone who he was. He was barely cognisant of anything, except that he was hungry. Starving, in fact...

Some leftover memory from his life, or newly awakened instinct led him to the nearest inhabited place.

Afterwards, he would almost miss these moments without true consciousness or conscience. Almost.

If not for what happened next.

The girl, Judas would realise later, during a particularly intense flashback, was one who had come to many of their protests. She was friends with Peter. Another person he could no longer meet in the eye.

She also smelled delicious, and Judas was starving. It happened in a moment - he approached her, she sensed him, turned, screamed, before her screaming was cut off by the sound of crunching and ripping and tearing, blood pouring out of her head as Judas gouged his way to the delicious brain beneath her skull.

He tasted it, and it was manna from heaven for all of two seconds, and then something punctured his skin and he knew no more.

"Anyway, he's in here." These were the first words Judas heard as he slowly regained consciousness, in both senses of the word, accompanied by the creaking of a door opening. Someone tutted to the left of him. "That door needs oiling," said the voice.

"Get Jeremy to do it," said another, bored-sounding voice.

"I will, but I don't want people to hear that anything is going on down here. We're taking enough risks doing this as it is." And yes, Judas thought he recognised that voice, though who belonged to, he couldn't say...

"We're safe here, I'm sure of it," said the other, deeper voice, sounding ever so slightly less bored, and perhaps a touch of whatever passed for reassuring. "Now, stop fussing, Annas." If Judas had been able to, he would have gasped. Of course. Fucking Annas. He somehow had the bad luck not only not to be dead, but also to be in the presence of Annas and, presumably, Caiaphas. Or perhaps he was dead, and in hell, and they had followed him down to torment him further. After all, surely the Devil himself had enough to be getting on with, without having to torture Judas himself. Much better to leave it to the lackeys.

"Annas, darling...really?" said (presumably) Caiaphas. "Him? Is this some side of sentimentality coming out that I wasn't warned of previously to marrying you?"

Judas, eyes still closed, could nevertheless practically hear the glare Annas gave his husband. He almost snorted at the idea of Annas showing any kind of sentimentality, especially involving him.

"Hardly. He was just...convenient." Judas did snort then. "Oh good, you're awake," Annas said.

Judas forced his eyes open to slits, just so he could glare up at the man. "Unfortunately," he tried to spit, but it came out cracked and broken. "Where am I?" he asked hoarsely.

"Never mind that, at the moment," said Caiaphas, smoothly. "Just tell Annas...does this hurt?"

Caiaphas pulled a switch, and Judas yelled.  

Jesus left the treatment centre on a Sunday, 6 months to the day after he had risen again. Before he left, he examined himself in the mirror. He had contacts and cover up mousse to hide the worst of his rotting, dead self, but there was nothing he could do to cover up the scars on his back from the lashes, or those on his hands from the nails. Those were with him forever, the rest of eternity it seemed. Some messiah, he thought in disgust.

Mary was as lovely as ever, and pleased to see him, through the tears in her eyes. She hugged him immediately. Peter, who had come with her, stood awkwardly to the side, not meeting Jesus's eyes - Jesus supposed he still felt guilty about denying him. Well, there was no more need for that. They had all done things that they regretted, shouldn't have done, him as much as anyone else, since he had come back. He pushed down the wave of self-hatred that roiled up in him and hugged Peter, kissing him on each cheek.

"Peter, good to see you," he said, and meant it. Peter looked up, surprised. He looked tired, almost dead tired, deep black circles under his eyes. Jesus supposed the past few months must have taken their toll on all of them.

"Let's go home," he said, looking at both of them for agreement. Instead they avoided his gaze.

"There isn't really...home...anymore," said Mary, after a very pregnant pause.

"But the Twelve? Simon? Everyone? They're OK?"

Peter shook his head. "The camp...we were out in the open, mate. No real way to protect ourselves, and nobody would help us. It was carnage." He took a deep breath, and the haunted look in his eyes suddenly made a lot more sense. "We're what's left."

Mary had tears in her eyes. "We don't even know what happened to Simon. He went off one night, with Jess, to get supplies. We-we found Jess's body," she said, with a quick glance at Peter, who swallowed, "but we don't know what happened to Simon. We tried looking for him, we never found a body so we were holding out hope but...he never came back. He's gone."

Jesus was just trying to process this. "But...what have you been doing? Where have you been living?" Where are you taking me back to? He wanted to say, but he didn't want to sound ungrateful.

"Well," said Mary, attempting to smile. "Joseph survived, you'll be pleased to hear. He'd have come to collect you, but he's rather...involved in the resistance movement at the moment. We've had to build from the ground back up," she explained, "but we wanted you to have something to come back to."

They had reached the door to the outside world. Jesus nodded attempting a smile, before Peter pushed the door open and sunlight hit his eyes.

They wouldn't let Judas go at first. After all, he had nowhere to go back to, and Annas didn't trust him to keep up his neurotryptaline injections up on his own. He was probably right, Judas thought. But God, he would rather be dead than spend another day in this place. He supposed that was kind of the point.

Then, one day, somebody came for Judas.

"There's someone here for me?" Judas repeated in shock as Annas told him this.

"That's what I said, isn't it?" said Annas irritably. This living in close proximity hadn't improved their relationship in the slightest. "And you'd better come quickly, because he's making a racket, and I've already got a headache."

Annas waited impatiently while Judas put in his contacts, then dragged him out of the room before he could start applying his cover up mousse.

"Hey!" said Judas.

"Oh come on, he already knows what you are."

Judas just scowled at the floor.

They reached the foyer and Judas felt shock slam into him as he saw a familiar leather jacket, now even more weathered and beaten up, familiar anarchy symbols shaved into his hair..."Simon?" Judas said, astonished.

"If you don't take me to him right the fuck now, I'm gonna fucking blow this place to smithereens, and don't think I fucking can't," Simon was saying.

"Simon!" Judas exclaimed, and then swallowed. What if Simon wasn't even here for him? Or what if he had just come here to yell at him, or kick his head in? As Simon turned to the sound of his voice, Judas wished he could reach out and take the sound back, turn round and trudge back to his room, spend the rest of his days in that hospital bed, annoying Annas until the man finally snapped and killed him, or he finally found a way to end it himself.

Then he was assaulted with an armful of Simon, and he lost his train of thought.

"Judas!" Simon shouted, and damn, Judas had forgotten how enthusiastic he could be. He drew back to look at Judas properly. "You have no fucking idea how absolutely pissed off I am at you, but there'll be time for that later. You have to come with me."

"And who says that we'll let him leave with you?" came Caiaphas's voice from behind him and Judas closed his eyes and squeezed the tip of his nose, willing himself not to break something.

"You can't stop him leaving with me, you fucking fascist," said Simon, and Judas almost smiled for the first time in over a year.

"We can if we don't think you're prepared to take care of him," said Annas, and Judas could hear the double meaning.

"Sure I'm prepared to 'take care of him'," said Simon, making quotation marks in the air. "Neurotryptaline daily, right? Got it."

Judas heard Annas sigh heavily behind him, and actually laughed. "What," he said, turning to look at Annas out of the corner of his eye, "don't tell me you're actually going to miss me."

"Hardly, darling. Just the sunshine and light that you bring to my daily life."

Judas rolled his eyes. "Come on, Simon," he said quickly, before they could change their minds and stop him, or have Simon arrested or something, "let's get out of here."

Simon nodded and headed towards the door, kicking it open just for the hell of it. Judas could almost see Annas wince.

Joseph was as pleased to see him as he ever was, but he wore the same haunted look as Peter under his eyes. They stared at each other for nearly a full minute.

Then Joseph said, "Son," in a broken voice, and that was all it took for Jesus to fall into his arms, sobbing.

"Dad," he choked into Joseph's shoulder, because he may have had a heavenly fucking father, but Joseph had always been his dad. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I didn't mean for all this to happen. I didn't think this was how it would happen."

Joseph stroked his hair and hushed him. "Shh," he said soothingly, clumsy big fingers running through Jesus's hair, pulling a bit in the most comforting way. Joseph had always been the one he ran to when he needed comforting - his mother he went to for advice, but when all he could do was sob, it was Joseph's shirt that got soaked. "It's not your fault. How could you have known?"

"I should have listened to Judas," Jesus said. "He was right. I've just led us all to misery." He paused, feeling the room still. "Where is he?"

The silence remained.

"Where is he?!" Jesus shouted.

"He killed himself," said Joseph heavily. "Just before you died, son."

Jesus felt the bottom drop out of his world. This was all his fault. "And mother?" he asked hoarsely. Joseph just shook his head, dropping heavily down onto the sofa and burying his face in his hands. Jesus turned in horror to Mary and Peter for confirmation.

"Like we said," said Mary softly, looking desperately sorry, "we're the only ones left."

Jesus stumbled blindly towards the door and pushed it open, half-falling up the stairs and pushing his way into his childhood bedroom, slamming and locking the door behind him. He threw himself onto his bed, sobbing so hard he could hardly breathe.

Sometimes, when you'd lost everything, it was all you could do.

Back with Simon, Judas was learning much the same thing, although he found he could hardly bring himself to care. He was too busy feeling sorry for himself, for still being alive. His body couldn't have done the decent thing and just died, could it?

"I knew you were around," said Simon. "I saw you kill Jess." The words shook Judas out of his reverie.

The flashback hit then, a painful one, and he buried his face in his hands, trying to hide from the memory burned so clearly into his eyelids. When he surfaced, he found Simon's hand on his arm, face close to his, looking worried. Judas shook him off angrily. "Flashback," said Judas, dismissively. "God, Simon, I'm so sorry. I-I can't make any excuses for it. Sure, I was a zombie, but- you know as well as anyone how vindictive and vicious I could be, even when I was alive."

"Yeah, but you had your reasons. Not that I'm not still fucking angry at you for betraying all of us. But you weren't in your right mind."

Judas let out a harsh bark of laughter. "What, when I killed Jess, or when I killed Jesus?" After all, the acts were equal in his mind.

"Both," said Simon simply. "Seriously, man, you've had a shitty fucking life, it's no wonder you're not exactly the most mentally healthy of people."

Judas snorted, pressing his fingers to his forehead, trying to massage the stress headache that was coming on all too quickly.

"But you're my friend," said Simon, "and I'm pretty fucking low on them at the moment, what with zombies having killed most of them."

"I'm sorry, Simon," Judas said, genuinely.

"I'm pretty sure Peter and Mary are alive, though," Simon went on obliviously. "Which is why I'm planning on finding them."

Judas heaved a sigh. Ever the optimist. "What makes you so sure? Simon, I hate to be the one to say it, but they're probably dead."

"Maybe," said Simon. "But I was out on a supply run with Jess when the rising happened, and someone took you down, but then there were a bunch of others surrounding me, and I had to run for it, and when the air had cleared and I went back, the camp had been cleared. They went somewhere else, I'm sure of it."

"Even if that's true, we have no idea where they are, Simon. How are we ever going to find them?"

Simon grinned and pulled a printed sheet of paper from his pocket; Judas got the feeling he had been waiting the whole conversation to pull it out. Judas could make out the words" "RESISTANCE", "FIGHT" and "RIGHTS" on it at a glance. It did look promising, although surely any remaining members of the Twelve wouldn't be the only revolutionary movement in this brave new world.

He pointed this out to Simon, who said, "Ah, but nobody else would be using my special blend of chemicals to print it - look, smell it." Simon shoved the leaflet in his face and Judas breathed in the slightly acrid smell. "Not only did I make damn good leaflets - this one's good but it's not a patch on my ROME LIES one, I gotta say, no offence to Peter - but I made sure you could always use them as a weapon - just light them up and they'll explode!"

"Fucking hell Simon, and how many of those were around camp all the time? Getting crushed on the floor? Blowing around? In a space where there was usually a campfire? Anyone could have got hurt! Did anyone else even know about this?"

"Only Peter," said Simon, "and stop complaining."

"I'm not complaining," grumbled Judas. "I'm being the sensible one."

"Complaining," said Simon, sticking his tongue out at Judas. "Anyway, you haven't even asked if I know where to find this resistance."

Judas rolled his eyes. "Fine, I'll bite. Where do we find this resistance?"

Simon tapped his nose. "Follow me, pal."

They let Jesus sleep it off, knowing there was nothing they could do to make it better, making sure he was comfortable with enough blankets.

In the morning, Joseph knocked tentatively on his door and entered when Jesus muttered a drowsy-sounding "Come in."

"Oh, dad," he said, tearing up as soon as he saw Joseph.

"Son," said Joseph in a choked voice, immediately coming to sit next to his son on the bed. Jesus rested his head on Joseph's shoulder.

"I am so, so sorry about mother," he said, rubbing his face comfortingly against Joseph's shoulder. "So sorry." He struggled to look up at Joseph and saw his tears reflected back at him in Joseph's own eyes.

"Me too, son," said Joseph. "But it's not your fault. And small blessing, but, she died near the start of the Rising, so she didn't have to witness too much of the horror."

Jesus nodded. Joseph had always been a stable, steady presence in his life, but to lose Jesus and then Mary within a matter of days? Weeks? Must surely have knocked him for six. He said as much to Joseph.

"Aye, son, but," he shrugged. "What can you do? Carry on, that's all."

Jesus nodded. "And look how much you've done," he said, proudly. "Mary said you were pretty much heading the resistance movement.”

"She may be giving me a little too much credit," said Joseph, with a smile. "But I try my best. Why should the government and authorities use the Rising as a reason to further oppress and divide us? Pitting living people against the Risen to achieve their own ends?" Joseph gave a little self-deprecating shake of his head at the unusually long speech. "It's not right."

"Right on, dad," said Jesus, in awe.

They were silent for a few minutes. Then Joseph tentatively patted Jesus on the back and said, "I'm sorry about Judas, son."

Jesus remained silent. He wasn't ready to talk about Judas and he wasn't sure he ever would be. He had so many feelings surrounding him that he felt unable to express, even more so now he was dead and gone, and he didn't think anyone else really understood the magnitude of them. He knew Joseph had some idea though, perhaps more than anyone else. He nodded. "Thanks," he managed.

Joseph nodded, understanding. "Anytime, son. Anyway, I've got to go and get some things done, you can come with me if you like?"

"No thanks, dad," said Jesus, feeling tired at the mere thought.

"No worries. If you need anything, Peter or Mary will be downstairs."

Jesus nodded, attempting a smile, and started to lie down again.

Being alive and the son of God and fated to sacrifice himself for mankind had always been a heavy burden. But being alive again, like this? That burden seemed even heavier, somehow. He would sleep a little while.

It took two days to get from the squat Simon had brought him to after leaving the treatment centre to the supposed headquarters of the resistance.

On the first night, when they had bedded down, Judas opened his rucksack properly for the first time since leaving.

In the front pocket was a box filled with several blister packs of tablets, accompanied by a note, in Annas's writing.

"Hey kid,

Had Kristof knock up some antidepressants so they would work on someone of your physiology, as is now. Yes, he's also a chemist in addition to his many other skills and occupations, aren't we just the luckiest to have him? Anyway, don't want you dying out there, if only because you're pretty much my/our greatest achievement, and stopping you from topping yourself seems like a step in the right direction. So take them please, as instructed.

Gods, I feel like a dad sneaking sweets into his kid's lunchbox. Remind me never to get attached to a subject again.

Our number is in your phone, so don't hesitate to call if/when you run out. Now I feel even more like a dad.

Fuck off and try not to break the law, Judas"

Judas snorted when he read it and showed it to Simon. They both had a good laugh at the note.

"Not gonna lie, I'd kind of love to meet this Kristof guy. I feel like we'd have a lot to talk about," Simon said. Judas snorted again. "Are you gonna take them?" Simon asked, referring to the antidepressants.

"Are you kidding me? They've probably got tracking devices in. Or they'll kill me on the spot."

Simon laughed in agreement. "Still, maybe it could be a good idea to...try something..."

Judas rolled his eyes. "Honestly, Simon, I'm not gonna top myself again."

Simon looked at him dubiously, but then shrugged. "Your life, man," he said, and their day continued.

True to his word, Judas didn't take any of the pills. However, he did slip the packet, along with the carefully folded note, into his backpack along with the rest of his belongings, when they left their camp the next morning.

They reached the house where the Resistance was supposedly housed the following morning. Simon strode to the front door, confident of his reception (despite Judas's warnings, mostly unheeded, that as the alleged headquarters of the Resistance they would surely have some kind of password or security, rather than just opening the door to anyone), but Judas hung back, worried that he would not be received well by his former friends, even once they were aware of his identity. He had betrayed Jesus and caused his death, he had literally killed Peter's best friend...surely they would kick him out and tell him they never wanted to see him again?

There was the sound of footsteps walking to the front door, then silence as someone presumably looked through a peephole...then the fumbling of locks and bolts, and then Peter had launched himself into Simon's arms and they were hugging joyfully. Judas turned to go, but at that moment Simon apparently decided to look over his shoulder and call his name.

Judas winced and turned back, to find Peter staring at him in disbelief.

"Hi," he said lamely.

"You're alive," said Peter.

"Yep," said Judas, did jazz hands as a kind of 'ta-dah' gesture, then wondered what the fuck he was doing.

"You killed Jess," he said, his face contorting in anger and confusion - probably at what the fuck Judas was even doing back here.

"Yes," said Judas, because he couldn't deny it. "I'm sorry."

"You're sorry? You're sorry? Is that all you can say?" It was lucky that Simon chose that moment to tighten his grip on Peter, who struggled to get free and get his hands in Judas. "Let me go, Si!" Peter yelled.

Simon just held on until Peter went limp in his arms, stroking his hair and whispering in his ear. Judas felt oddly lonely looking at them - that closeness, that intimacy, was something he had never had. Eventually he caught Simon's words. "Let's save that for later, hmm?" and Peter nodded in response and started to lead Simon inside.

"I'll just go, shall I?" asked Judas.

Both Peter and Simon turned. "No, what the fuck?" said Simon. Even Peter looked confused. "Come in and we'll figure this out."

"I don't want to be where I'm not wanted," muttered Judas, although he found himself wavering.

His resolve disappeared completely when Peter said, "oh just come inside, Judas." Judas jogged to catch up with them and stepped inside the house. "And close the door behind you," Peter added. He turned back to lock it all up again once Judas had pulled it shut. "You can't leave before you've seen...well...never mind. But you'll see." Peter very nearly grinned.

"What?" asked both Simon and Judas in unison.

"Never you mind," said Peter, cheekily. "Mary, Joseph, we've got visitors!" he called through the house.

Mary was the first out into the hallway to greet them. She screamed when she saw Simon and immediately engulfed him in a hug, drawing back to kiss both his cheeks. Judas tried to hang back again, awkward, so it came as a surprise when Mary, having finished with Simon, launched herself onto Judas to hug him as well.

"You're both alive!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe it!"

"Well, half alive in my case," said Judas. Mary grinned at him.

"Well, I know somebody else who's half-alive who'll be extremely pleased to see you," she said, turning to Joseph, who was just coming up the hallway behind her, shaking Simon's hand delightedly. She raised her eyebrow at him pointedly.

Joseph glanced at Judas. "Oh, yes, uh, he's just upstairs, he didn't fancy coming out to meet any visitors, but, uh...he'll probably want to see you two," he said, winking at Judas.

A smile of dawning realisation was slowly spreading on Simon's face, but Judas was at a loss. Who could be-? Then it hit him. But no, surely not. He wouldn't believe it. He couldn't. Not until he was presented with the evidence of his own eyes.

Joseph had gone to get him, and despite himself, Judas's heart was racing. It couldn't be him, could it? Surely Jesus wouldn't have risen a monster like him. The only other option would be for him to truly have risen, the Messiah and the Son of God bullshit proven, and even after the Rising that was still so unlikely that Judas dismissed it out of hand.

Judas glanced around at all of them, eyes flicking from Mary to Peter to Simon to Joseph’s retreating back. “Is he-?” he started to say, but bit off the question at its root, angry and embarrassed at himself for even hoping.

Jesus closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep when he heard Joseph’s footsteps outside his door, and buried his face in his pillow when Joseph entered his room all the same.

“Jesus,” said his dad gently, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Jesus couldn’t bear such tenderness, not when he was still grieving, hurting, not when Joseph was so clearly still grieving himself. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Joseph poke his tongue out the side of his mouth and lick his lips, the way he did when he was trying to figure out how to word something. “You need to come,” he said eventually.

Jesus nearly burrowed into the bedclothes further, nearly let out a petulant ‘why?’ or worse, screamed at his dad just to go away and leave him alone, all of them just leave him alone. But there was a firmness in Joseph’s voice, one that Jesus had rarely heard but that demanded he follow. And why not? He had had enough of leading, of being the one to command. Why not be the follower for once?

These were his thoughts, as he heaved himself out of bed, lurched down the corridor after Joseph, still unused to the way his body worked now. Joseph kept glancing at him, and Jesus wanted to ask what it was, what Joseph was leading him to, why it was so important. He even met Joseph’s gaze and held it, silently asking the obvious. Joseph held the eye contact for only a moment, before shaking his head and continuing on. “You’ll see,” he said.

When he saw Judas, every other thought was knocked out of his head. His eyes locked on Judas, and he could see nothing else, not the hallway or the front door or his friends gathered around them.

They stumbled towards each other, almost running in their haste.

Then Judas was there in front of him, looking at him like he couldn't believe it, like he really was the Messiah, and Jesus couldn't bear it, not that, not now; he took in his waxy skin and the scars around his neck and the way he was looking at him and Jesus couldn't stand Judas looking at him like that for one moment longer.

So he slapped him in the face.

Judas looked at him open-mouthed for a second, then bowed his head. “I suppose I deserved that.”

Jesus resisted the urge to slap him again. “Fuck you,” he spat instead, and he could feel the others’s eyes on him, feel them staring, and he felt itchy with it. He couldn’t do this here, now, with everyone watching and listening and hearing.

Judas nodded and looked at him wide-eyed. Then something in him seemed to break and he wilted. “Fuck, I- we can’t do this here. Look, maybe it’s best if I just go, Jesus.”

Whatever his feelings towards Judas were at this moment, the last thing Jesus wanted Judas to do was leave. “No- don’t-” he said, reaching a hand out to Judas, who flinched at the contact. Jesus closed his eyes, took deep breaths, trying to calm his suddenly racing heart. “Please,” he said, looking imploringly at Judas, and Judas stared at him a moment, confusion in his expression, before nodding.

It was only then he noticed that Judas was shaking. He glanced around at the others, not meeting anyone’s gaze. Simon was there, he noticed, alive, but he could hardly bring himself to care about him in this moment. He could only care about Judas. It had always been Judas he cared about the most, if he was truly honest with himself. Whether it was burning anger or joy, lighter than air, he had always felt the most when Judas was around. He had always been more human when Judas was around. “Will you let us have the lounge, please?” he said to the others.

They all nodded or murmured their agreement, and went in various directions to give them their privacy, as Jesus led Judas to the main living room. Once there, Judas slumped down on the sofa, exhausted, while Jesus paced the room, suddenly so full of energy he was fit to burst. He had so many questions he didn’t know where to start, so much to say and so much he wanted, needed to hear from Judas as well.

“What the hell happened?” he asked, thinking it was as good a place as any to start. He kicked the side of the sofa  at the other end of the room in frustration. Then he noticed Judas hadn’t answered him. He turned to see Judas curled into himself on the sofa, sobbing into his hands. He probably hadn’t even heard what Jesus had said.

Jesus crumpled, and sank down onto the sofa next to Judas, his best and oldest friend, his betrayer, the man he loved. He rested his head on this same man’s shoulder, cautiously.

“I love you,” Judas blurted out suddenly. It wasn’t the right moment, probably, but when had it ever been, for them? “I’m sorry, I know you have a lot of shouting to do at me, and God knows, I’m still fucking angry about it all as well, but I never actually fucking told you when were both alive- well,” he said, face curving into a bitter smile, “more alive. Properly alive. Not like this.”

Jesus matched Judas’s bitter grin with one of his own. Then he sighed. “I love you too. Fuck, Judas, I love you so fucking much, and I never even told you. I thought it was obvious but,” he let out a little snort of laughter, “obviously not.”

Judas turned to look at him in shock. “Really?” And how could he not have known? But then, Jesus thought, of course he hadn’t known. This man, who had always seen himself as so small, so inconsequential, so unimportant...how could he ever have realised how big he was to Jesus, how important, how vital?

“I never told you. I should have told you. I-I’m sorry,” he said, and Judas’s arm went cautiously around his shoulders, the first physical contact Judas had initiated.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” said Judas, stroking his back soothingly, and Jesus could feel himself calming down, letting go just slightly - yes, tears were still falling from his eyes, but they went unheeded now, and they were comforting, healing, rather than painful.

“Something else always got in the way. Something else always seemed more important.” Judas started to speak, but Jesus held a finger up, pleading with Judas to let him finish. “And it was important,” he said. “But nothing is more important to me than you, understand, Judas? Nothing.”

Judas hugged him properly then, although perhaps it would have been more accurate to say he fell on him, weeping, and Jesus held him tightly.

“I loved you for so long,” murmured Judas into his shoulder. “I never thought I had a hope of you ever feeling the same way back.”

Jesus just held on tighter, trying to find the will to speak through the lump in his throat. “Well, have hope,” he said, and it came out just a little teasing, and Judas laughed. And Jesus laughed too, but then he remembered that Judas had killed himself, killed himself because he couldn’t bear to live with what he had done to Jesus, and he was overwhelmed with sobs again.

They clung to each other a while, before Judas drew back and said seriously, “I’m sorry. For everything.”

“For betraying me?” Judas nodded. “For killing yourself?” Another nod. “I’m so angry about that,” said Jesus. “More than the betrayal, which was supposed to happen anyway. It just- if it hadn’t been for whatever twist of fate brought us both back, I’d have lost you forever.” He tilted Judas’s chin up to look at him. “I thought I had. And I’ve not been able to bear it, the past few days. I’ve barely left that room, barely left my bed, barely stopped crying. And I know it’s not fair for me to blame you, for doing that to yourself,” he said, eyeing the rope scars around Judas’s neck but not quite daring to touch them, make them real, “because I know you were depressed, are depressed, have been for as long as I’ve known you, and I know I didn’t exactly help,” he silenced Judas again as he made to interrupt Jesus, “but I can’t help being angry at you for that, a bit.”

Judas nodded. “That’s fair. Although for the record, I’m still fucking mad as hell that you somehow felt like you had to go off on one and get yourself killed, just so you could what? Prove a point? Come back from the dead, prove yourself the Messiah, the son of God? Well, one out of three I guess, you’re back from the dead, but so am I and so is every other inhuman brain-eating monster that rose that bloody night.” The venom in his voice was more than Judas had intended, but Jesus had started it, and damn, he was really feeling it now. He loved this man with every scrap of his wasted soul (if he even had a soul, if he even believed in such thing as souls), but he had been so bloody wrong, in every single way, and they had both sacrificed so much for it.

Jesus sighed. “You’re not a monster, Judas,” he said, tiredly. He could barely find the strength to counter Judas’s other points, but arguing with him came so naturally that he couldn’t stop himself contradicting him on that one point, at least.

“No, I am, I am,” said Judas, bitterly. “You might not be, you might still be a bloody saint even underneath those contacts and all that cover up mousse, but I fucking killed people, Jesus. I killed people even before I became this, I killed you through my own hubris and anger and fear and fucking jealousy, and I came back and you know what the first thing I did was? Kill someone else. You might not be a monster, but I sure as hell am.”

Jesus snorted. “You think you’re special? You think I’m some kind of saint, when I rose from the dead exactly like you did, hurt and killed people exactly like you did, exactly like a thousand other Risen did that night and for countless nights after? If you’re a monster, Judas, then so am I.”

Judas looked up at him calculatingly for a second, then just let out a huff. Jesus sagged in relief.

There came a knock at the door. Both of them jumped, before Joseph’s head peered its way round the doorframe. “I’m sorry to bother you kids, but you’ve been in here quite a while. You want some food? I’m making burgers!”

Judas let out a strangled sound that Jesus was sure was almost a laugh.

“No,” he said, while Judas sniggered beside him. “No thanks, dad, we don’t eat, remember?”

“Oh,” said Joseph, looking put out for a second. “Oh yeah. Sorry, son. You carry on.” He exited, and Jesus grinned at Judas’s sniggers, which were now turning into full-on chokes and pants of laughter.

“You’re like me,” said Jesus softly, after the laughter had faded. “I’m like you. Don’t you see?”

Judas looked at him softly, and nodded. Then, as if only just remembering, he exclaimed, “Simon! Simon’s back, and alive! You haven’t seen Simon yet! I’ve been monopolising your time, and-”

Jesus stopped him with a finger on Judas’s lips, and Judas went cross-eyed to stare at it, then to flick his eyes back to Jesus’s, intensely vulnerable. Jesus felt the rough, chapped skin of Judas’s lips against his finger, and smiled, calm as only a man who knew exactly what he needed to do next could be.

“I’ll go and see Simon,” Jesus said, smiling, lighter than he’d felt in...perhaps all his life. “To be honest, I’m sure he appreciated the time to catch up with Peter and Mary. But there’s one thing I have to do first.”

“What’s that?” asked Judas, voice barely above a whisper.

Jesus kissed him.

[crossdressingdeath]

I've seen the killing of the Wen remnants talked about as 'that was common/accepted for the time period(s)', with the novel examples of the Chang Cian clan and the clan JGY killed for "killing" Rusong. Both are seen as bad for different reasons though, Even XXC think XY could have had revenge/justice he thinks it should have ended with the man responsible. 1/? Wens

Another person objected to it being a genocide because they said modern genocides are rarely if ever preceded by violence on the part of the victims, and that itsusual on an ethnic or religious minority etc. What else would you call it though? It is the extermination of any and all people with the name Wen and blood ties, there are two known survivors and one is a zombie. The other may never be able to safely reveal his heritage. 2/? Wens

It's fiction and in no way do I want to diminish what real life victims of genocide experience! I just don't know what else it would be? And, even if it was a Thing, that doesn't make it okay? It's fantasy, not a historical novel. It's written with modern opinions included. WWX is at the least implied to be right to stand by these people and finds the extermination wrong. 3/? Wens

If the Jiangs or Lans had been completely wiped out, that would have obviously been wrong. There's times to look at the novel with history in mind and times when history was wrong and MXTX seems to be saying that but not everyone is listening. 4/4 Wens

Yes. When people say it wasn’t genocide I always want to ask “Okay, so what would you call the complete destruction of an entire clan with the only survivors being either undead or an actual child who only survived because he got lucky?” because... if it wasn’t genocide what the hell was it? To use the Merriam-Webster definition, genocide is “the deliberate and systematic destruction of a racial, political, or cultural group”, with several other definitions adding in religious and national groups to that. I don’t see a single fucking word about what that group was or was not doing before they were wiped out, because that doesn’t matter! There is no situation where an entire cultural group is guilty of crimes that deserve death! There was at least one child among the Wen remnants; there were certainly children among the Wens who didn’t get rescued by WWX. The sects wiped out an entire clan down to the youngest child with the sole exception of A-Yuan, who would’ve died if LWJ hadn’t found him. WN’s inclusion in the “survivors” category is somewhat confusing because they did in fact kill him, he just got better, so let’s call that... one and a half survivors? Of a sect large enough to have the rest of the cultivation world thoroughly under its thumb. Yeah, I’d call that genocide. That is the word the English language has for what the sects did to the Wens.

And re mass murder as an acceptable vengeance... Yeah, two of the three biggest villains in the novel did a thing, that definitely means it’s acceptable in the setting as a whole. And remember, XY should’ve been executed for it. He only wasn’t because JGS thought he would be useful, and not executing him royally pissed off at least one other sect badly enough that JGS ended up having NMJ assassinated before he could cause more trouble over it. And I imagine when JGY wiped out the sect that “killed” Rusong (which, reminder, the actual reason for was because they disagreed with his planned watchtowers; JGY’s actual reasoning had nothing to do with vengeance! Especially given... y’know, at the absolute minimum he orchestrated Rusong’s death, if he didn’t wring the kid’s neck himself) a good part of his argument was that it was an attack on the Chief Cultivator; revenge alone likely wouldn’t have been sufficient. Not to mention whichever clan he wiped out was significantly smaller than the Wens, which doesn’t make it less horrific, but... there’s a fair chance that that clan was wiped out in a single attack with any survivors brought back to stand trial and then executed. With the Wens they set up fucking camps. Oh, and let’s not forget! Everyone other than the Jins and Jiangs thought the Wen remnants were an actual force prepared to attack. JGS and JC actively hid the truth from their allies; at least, that’s my theory given the whole “even though this is a setting where not giving someone a proper burial can lead to them rising from the grave to seek revenge even without the ‘brutally slaughtered civilians’ bit the Wens’ bodies were thrown into a pool of blood to rot and the two sects that are never confirmed to have known that they were fighting civilians are explicitly reserve troops with the sects that definitely did know leading the charge” thing. Clearly the people who knew the Wen remnants were civilians were concerned that their allies wouldn’t join them in the attack if they knew the truth, which suggests this sort of “mass slaughter of a decently sized civilian population due to their family” thing isn’t exactly regular and permissible. So basically what happened to the Wens was genocide and should not be waved off as “okay in the setting” when of the two other people who did it one explicitly should have been executed for it and the other was the insanely cunning and manipulative Chief Cultivator, most powerful man in the cultivation world.