#literally every single arc in tgcf

[moondal514]

mxtx books are like come for the gay, stay for the wack fucked up platonic relationships that will make you cry

[mxtxfanatic]

Is this whole chapter just Jun Wu stirring up shit and tryna probe how Xie Lian feels about certain people to better tailor his plans? If so, fuck him

[bronanlynch]

experimenting with different ways of organizing this post. shout out to bullet point lists. anyway once again I watched more television than doing anything else

listening (podcast):

new Palisade: very fun as usual! I love the Blue Channel crew so much and I am constantly so worried for them

Great Gundam Project: still very fun to hear how little they know about what is to come. also they got to the episode where Char comes back with a bunch of cool underwater robots and 1) god I miss Char I wish I too were watching an arc of Gundam that has Char in it and 2) shout out to the Gogg & Z'Gok, two of my fave suits in all of Gundam

Media Club Plus: once again they have good thoughts about Hunter x Hunter, truly cannot wait to hear Jack's reaction to the Illumi reveal

listening (music): Dance Apocalyptic by Janelle Monae because I'm stealing songs from my old Beam Saber campaign playlist to make a Partizan/Palisade playlist and that's on both

reading:

Imperial Uncle: got to a twist about halfway through that I was fully not expecting but it was very fun, and the story in now drastically different than I thought it would be when I started but I am still enjoying it a lot

The Death I Gave Him: one of the most interesting questions to me in any Hamlet adaptation/retelling is what to do with Gertrude, what her role in the murder was, etc, and I'm enjoying the way this novel handles that. shout out to unethical science milfs

watching:

TGCF: regarding last week's episode, since we watched it after last week's wednedsaypost: on one hand, beef of beefleaf fame! my beloved! they looked extremely good! ("op they were chained up & disheveled" yeah exactly) on the other, the racism and also the transmisogyny. not that any of this was surprising because it's in the novel too, but it sure sucks to have racist caricatures and also to repeatedly treat the gender shifting & crossdressing as a joke and/or with disgust. regarding this week's episode: rip to Hua Cheng :/ sorry your crush burned your house down :/ I don't remember this arc super well because it was kinda overshadowed (for me) by having Ghost City and then the start of book 2 on either side of it, and as primarily a beefleaf & Mu Qing main I have priorities

Bakeoff: so the technical was a shitshow in a way that is 100% on the judges for not giving them enough time like. sorry that's what it means when every single person underbakes it. however. I literally laughed so hard I was in physical pain when everyone was presenting their horrible liquid puddings so who could say if it was bad or not

Hunter x Hunter: I do love where Killua's arc goes but I also really enjoy this early bit where he's just incredibly competent & terrifying and kicks everyone's ass without breaking a sweat. good for him, sorry about what led you to this point tho

Legend of the Galactic Heroes: other things happened in the episodes that I watched but I will be honest, most of it is wiped away by the preview for next episode showing me an incredibly major character death. um. aside from that. I do like the battle sequences, I love when a show is a couple of guys in a room going "I think this is the enemy's plan, here's what we're going to do about it" and then you see some different guys in a different room going "this is our plan, I hope this is how they react to it" and so on. also I like the narrator as kind of like. a historical accounting of the events, both because I like stories about the narrative construction of history and also because it means everything happens on very specific dates and I love having clear ideas of timelines

ZZ Gundam: finished ZZ! in general I enjoyed it (though I still prefer Zeta) and there are some really fun moments, especially with the Gundam Team, and I like Haman a lot as an antagonist. I didn't realize how close we were to the end until we had like 4 episodes left because the pacing is. kind of interesting. lot more "going to a place and fucking around for a while" than I expected, and sometimes it works better than other times. most of my ~critiques are things I already said last week (the misogyny, the ways in which the critiques of western military intervention in Africa & southwest Asia fall flat due to the white saviorism & none of it really getting a chance to be developed properly, etc) so I'm not gonna go into all that again, but I am going to just mention one of the wildest things which is that they refer to Dublin as "a city in what used to be Britain" which is. a loaded thing to say in 2023 let alone in the 1980s. lmao

I'm in Love with the Villainess: a fun yuri isekai about someone with a shitty job who gets transported into the world of her favorite otome game except instead of giving a shit about any of the male love interests she just wants to spend all her time with the female antagonist. it's very light and silly, and we're watching it as a short break before diving into more Gundam. I do love it when there are lesbians and little hints of class conflict simmering just under the surface

playing:

Ace Attorney 5: some mixed feelings about what I've gotten through this week. I love to see Edgeworth and I'm so compelled by Aura & Simon (individually and also as siblings), but I don't like how Trucy continues to be incredibly sidelined, and whenever they talk about the "dark age of the law" I kind of feel like. ok. look. it is just factually incorrect that it's only now that people cheat in court and only care about winning, and also the idea that overturning one (1) false conviction will fix the problems of the legal system is laughable. especially considering 1) everything about Von Karma 2) Edgeworth's entire backstory and 3) the fact that Phoenix spent the 7 year gap inventing a new legal system that everyone forgot about I guess. anyway. I do love Aura a lot though

Blades in the Dark: finally was able to run another session in my Blades campaign, in which the party. checks notes. performed a reverse bank heist. and also a normal bank heist. sometimes you have to break into a bank to leave something in a specific vault and you steal some other stuff along the way

making: finished building Miorine, so she is no longer a disembodied head and can now stand on the shelf with her wife. I'm not a huge fan of some the proportions/posing of the model, she has. like. woman in a comic book proportions that she doesn't have in the actual show (Imo the worst of it is her arched spine which you can't see here but I was surprised because Suletta has just. a normal spine)

drinking: Down East's cider donut-flavored cider because, once again, I love a seasonal fun little drink. this one's not as dry as the equivalent Citizens Cider I posted about a couple of weeks ago but Down East's stuff does tend to be a little sweeter in general. extremely good though, to be clear

writing: I added a section to my wip doc for my Nirvana in Fire exchange fic and copied over my giftee's prompts but I have not started on it and other than that I've done no writing. oops.

[musings-on-aching-flowers]

Hi.....if you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 favorite characters from TGCF? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the novel? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

Hi, you’re totally fine, thanks for asking!! Sorry it took me this long, it’s been a while since I’ve checked tumblr! 

My top 5 favourite characters from TGCF would have to be:

1. Xie Lian

To me, Xie Lian is such an interesting character, especially in his growth into who he is as a character during the events of books 1, 3 and 5. His story arc is extremely compelling, as we can witness how his life experiences have shaped him from his initial naivety, then to his flinty cynicism (which is honestly hard-won at that point) until finally we get his gentle compassion, like wood that has been sanded down.  He may not necessarily be the kindest, most compassionate person, and he’s made his fair share of mistakes and then some, but all those experiences in all those 800 years he’s been around have made him able to still view humanity as something worth saving. 

I also love the dichotomy of his nature; he is non-confrontational, but when he draws his sword his martial prowess is unmatched, he was born a prince but had a single-minded focus on cultivation, and so on. 

(Also STARember draws him devastatingly pretty in the manhua - how could you not love him?!)

2. Hua Cheng

I will confess that I am an incorrigible romantic, and I love Hua Cheng’s utmost devotion to Xie Lian. In all those years, his devotion is true, unwavering, and unconditional, and yet even with such dedication to his Dianxia that it literally tethers him to reality, he has managed to grow into himself and his own as a fully realised individual. He has found purpose other than the sole pursuit of Xie Lian, which I really admire about him. 

What Hua Cheng teaches us as well is how love can change you in such a positive way. His love for Dianxia pulled him from the brink time and again, and helped him keep moving forward even despite the immense pressure he received throughout his whole existence, especially in the early days what with being ‘cursed’.

3. Yin Yu (and 4. Quan Yizhen)

I really love these characters. The part where Xie Lian brutally murdered Yin Yu over his exceedingly average appearance just took me out, but I also think he’s a very realistic and relatable character: the Oikawa Tooru to Quan Yizhen’s Kageyama Tobio, if you will - because sometimes hard work alone can’t beat natural talent and drive. I also appreciate that he never had bad designs on Quan Yizhen - sure, he was jealous, but he didn’t want to actually hurt him, rather preferring to focus on himself and what he was doing, and the events that transpired to his banishment were more a result of bad luck and circumstance on his part. I like Quan Yizhen too, he means well and he’s sweet and he's utterly persistent about something when he wants to be, and I wanted to ruffle his curly hair every time he was in a scene.

5. Yushi Huang (Rain Master)

Every time Yushi Huang came into the scene I was overjoyed. I really like her ascension story, and I love the elegance and gentle grace with which she carries herself in every scene. I think it’s amazing that her role is so important in the Heavens that even Jun Wu wouldn’t dare to make a move against her, and I equally thought it was hilarious whenever Pei Ming would get embarrassed over having to be saved by her. What an icon.

...As for my favourite moments in the novels, I don’t think I could rank them but here are my top 5:

the scene in book 5 where Xie Lian and Hua Cheng kiss on the massive Dianxia statue ‘to exchange spiritual power’ and Feng Xin and Mu Qing are appalled, Quan Yizhen confused and Pei Ming goes ‘Ho ho’

the scene in book 5 where Jun Wu makes Xie Lian contact Hua Cheng to assure him that everything is alright in Heaven and the ensuing conversation has Xie Lian experiencing 800 years of embarrassment at once

the scene in book 3 where Xie Lian is dressed as a woman with a child-sized Hua Cheng running from the group of cultivators and he boards in a cannibalism hotel run by Qi Rong, with Jian Lan and Cuocuo chased by Mu Qing in disguise staying across the hall

all the scenes of the book 3 Brocade Immortal arc where Hua Cheng is bopping around disguised as Lang Ying, but especially when he gets revealed because Xie Lian tries to make him write something

the post canon scene where Xie Lian accidentally curses himself to be in extreme pain whenever he thinks of Hua Cheng but even still he refuses to be apart from him.

Thanks again for the lovely ask! I hope you have a good day :) <3

[blysse-and-blunder]

in lieu of a commonplace book

10:30 pm, sunday, nov 14, 2021

what's up gamers, it's been approx. two thousand years (actually a month) but i am alive, i am consuming media, and i am going to tell you about it under the cut. this is a long one!

reading please believe me when i say i had written out an extremely good and thoughtful take on mxtx's novel tiān guān cì fú (heaven official's blessing), specifically for you, @viciousmerlin, and that because i am somehow still very bad at this, i managed to delete the whole thing. very frustrating! anyway, loved it, took forever to finish it, the last quarter or so draaaagged which i do blame in part on the fact that it was being released serially at that part (and also that the slow burn had...slow burnt up to such a pitch by the cave of 1000 gods that any flashback or sideplot at that point was torturous); i know there was a whole secondary arc with some new characters and shit introduced but i have absolutely no memory of it apart from ruoye's incredibly sad backstory; still, we stan a plot that manages to introduce a rigid and completely impenetrable heavenly hierarchy and then deconstructs it, and there is at least one unwritten essay in me about face covering in this (masks! bandages! facial expressions that are or are not sincere! kisses?) and also probably ascent / descent/ leaping /falling/ flying/ leaps of faith and or love? we love to invert a rigid value system, xie lian actually is as worldly-wise and damaged as you think and it only made him kind but then, also, i did contract serious hua cheng brain rot after the whole 'teach him to roll dice properly' thing and it has yet to let up. the way xl just! starts trusting him with literally no reason and is never proven wrong! is very good to me, personally!

in my earlier draft of this post i listed a bunch of the things i was reading around the margins of trying to finish tgcf, and i will recreate it at a later date, but consider: i am tired.

watching finally gave the anya taylor joy emma a fair trial, having more or less forgiven it for not being the romola garai + johnny lee miller mini series. i will give atj this, she does a better job than i feared from all the promo material (wherein she only had a single facial expression-- in the film she has several!), but the best part of this film was a) the soundtrack b) bill fucking nighy c) miranda? the older i get, the more i feel for miss bates. i fucking loved elton and mrs. elton, they were absurd, i loved it. i knew i liked johnny flynn as a folk singer already, and thought he actually did a passable job as knightley, but they did him a disservice with the hair/sideburns combo, it covered most of his face and left his pouty lips as a weird focal point, which was distracting. there's an unwritten essay in me about the decision to associate certain scenes/classes with italianate / classical music, and others with trad music / raucous folk harmonies, without then having any real time spent around the classes who are implicated in those harmonies, but consider: i am tired.

also started watching succession and this Sure is a Show, but four episodes into s1 and i can usually pull the correct name for the correct roy- male and just want to watch sarah snook work. tom and greg are Way Too Much already but they are, individually and together, the kind of traffic accident you can't look away from. actually, i could apply that to roman too. the recny ball just happened, to give everyone context.

listening i've had the newest album by autoheart on infinite loop almost since it dropped a few weeks ago-- initially it wasn't doing a lot for me, not being punch (2013), but as i have listened more to the album as a whole, stuff has clicked. there are more bleeps and bloops, synths and bass lines, it almost hits an abba-esque place every once in a while, which of course means it slaps, and the lyricism and unexpected melodiousness (?) is all still there. the single i know that he loves me captures this pretty well:

(the religious trauma/gay devotion is certainly a big part of the video but also, if the 'he' in the lyrics is a certain ghost king who is there and gone but unquestioningly devoted, this becomes a hualian anthem and on this hill i will plant my flag) and that led me to consider the album more carefully. other stand-out tracks right now are:

into the woods (slow and easy tempo, shimmering sort of up-beat texture, the lyrics are Good but also Very Real, there's a repetition of 'i feel fine, i feel fine' which is a useful mantra lately)

perestroika (instrumental! incredible! cinematic! makes me feel like i'm standing on top of a mountain in a sunrise!)

time machine (the chorus is a good-sad that i don't necessarily relate to but don't not relate to, I forgive, you forget me, that's just how it has to be)

already gone (melodic! melancholy! i love the focus on little things about someone, the way the music itself builds. either a wangxian anthem or a hualian anthem depending on the hour, ugh the devotion is very much)

playing nothing really-- dnd resumes tomorrow!

making i need to...mend things and also put the garden/yard to bed for the winter and neither of those things is happening. i got halfway into the prep for a cooking project yesterday and just...put it on hold...when will my hands-on-project ability return from war...

working on spent much of the last month stressing about, and the majority of the last week actually drafting, the diss proposal which will ideally govern what i spend the next 2-5 years (please god more on the 2 side) of my life working on. so that's...a thing... i have also got a shitload of grading to still finalize, i did a first pass of my thoughts and then got so demoralized i had to fart around reading ridiculous fanfic for like 36-48 hours to recover. my eyeballs feel a bit scalded now but what can you do, just write in the comments section of an essay 'this is poorly written and it made me sad to read'?

[elencelebrindal]

If I'm not mistaken you've now read/watched the three mxtx works and WoH. How would you rank them following personal preference? Which main couple did you like the most? Favorite plot twists in all four?

Yep, I did. I still have to read Faraway Wanderers though. Can't wait to.

This came out to be quite a long post, so I'll put it under the read more thingy.

Now, how would I rank them?

I'll have Tian Guan Ci Fu at the top, no doubts. It's my absolute favorite among all these four, and will probably remain my favorite even after I finally get to read the huge thing that's 2ha. It's the perfect balance of a story with no characters left unexplained (except for the minor ones and RIP Hua Cheng's backstory, why did mxtx rob us so much), of characters being unique all in different ways, and of a romance that, while being absolutely the main focus of the novel, is not overwhelming. For me, an aro/ace person, the romance written in TGCF is so good that it made even me stupidly happy. I don't get such big smiles on my face while reading my own romantic content.

This is the ONLY novel I've ever read that doesn't have a single character I hate in it. Only one, maybe two at most, that I dislike. That's it. Everyone's good. Everyone.

Then I'll definitely have Word of Honor. Just like TGCF, it's a really good balance between an interesting story (I was literally squirming in my seat while impatiently waiting for things to be revealed, enjoying every second of it) and a subtle romance that was still obvious enough to make me wonder what the hell happened with censorship in this drama. Not that I'm complaining though.

Almost all the characters are incredibly good. They have depth to them, all the main ones have either a satisfying backstory or a beautifully crafted development.

And this is it for the ranking. I wrote way more than I should have, but oh well.

After that, it's a tie between Mo Dao Zu Shi and Scum Villain. I don't want to favor one over the other, because I genuinely like them the same. Scum Villain is really underrated, and while I understand it somewhat, it's really unfair.

MDZS (and The Untamed) has a story that draws you to it, especially if you (like me) have an obsession with all things dark and spooky and terrifying like the demonic cultivation in this, like the whole mystery they have to solve with body parts leading them to the solution. The drama, as good as it was, really didn't do justice to the spook factor of using dismembered parts of a corpse to move around.

SVSSS is straight up weird, literally an isekai but make it Chinese. I think the best part of it is Shen Yuan panicking and cussing everyone out every time something happens around him, though... I really loved the story and the way it played out. I especially liked how the novel kept mentioning Proud Immortal Demon Way and compared the events of that book to the events that were happening in that book's world.

But why do I prefer Word of Honor to them? Well, it's simple. There's some aspects of the romance that don't resonate well with me.

WangXian is a beautiful couple, and they deserve all the happiness in the world (they have a canonic son!!!!!!!!), but Wei WuXian's initial obliviousness made me really uncomfortable at times. Not because he didn't know Lan WangJi was in love with him (the fool! thank goodness for Guanyin Temple), but because he kept teasing Lan WangJi about it while the latter was drunk. I mean, I get it. If you don't know, you don't realize what you're doing. But as a person that easily suffers from people making fun of me behind my back... it kinds struck a nerve. I still love them to pieces, though, they're so good together.

BingQiu, well... this is a rollercoaster of a couple. Again, I absolutely love them together, but some parts come off almost as scenes where consent is thrown to the wind. As a reader you know Shen QingQiu is willing and in love (gods, they married each other, I'd be a fool to say the opposite), but there should be a limit to how many times a willing person should say "No" in such a novel. This is mostly me being my aro/ace self, though. I don't really understand what goes on in the world of intimacy between people because I (literally) don't give a fuck, so I'm probably reading too much where there's too little. Don't take this as me not liking BingQiu, I'm in love with them and I desperately need more content.

Favorite plot twists, eh? Okay, big SPOILER ALERT from here onwards. And I mean it. BIG. SPOILER. ALERT.

Now, which main couple did I like the most?

Hualian. I don't even need to think about it. Bonus point because they're both out of their minds and the extras show it.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. I never have smiles so big and goofy in front of anything else, not even my own stuff. Hualian genuinely makes me happy.

Stop reading if you haven't finished all four of these, please.

...

Okay, here I go.

WoH:

Wen KeXing faking his death and telling basically everyone but Zhou ZiShu.

The villain being Zhao Jing; I was actually fooled and thought the main bastard of the series was Gao Chong.

Episode 35, and I'm not saying anything else. Although, as soon as that son of a bitch put his hands on Cao Weining's face like that, I genuinely knew what was going to happen.

The hairpin being the key for the armory. That was so stunning I had to pause the episode for a second and take a walk around the house.

MDZS:

Jin GuangYao being the villain. And being an amazing villain, on top of that.

Nie Huaisang. Fuck's sake, that man fooled the entire fandom just like that. I don't think many people realized he was the one behind everything.

The golden core transplant reveal. I'm sure that more experienced readers and viewers (aka people that had read/watched a ton more cultivation world stuff) had hints of it, but when I watched The Untamed I never read/watched anything remotely close to this genre. It hit me like a brick and I sat in front of the screen in shock.

SVSSS:

Shang QingHua being Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky. It's such a silly thing, but it made me pause for a good five minutes. I wasn't expecting it in the slightest.

The whole thing with the Old Palace Master. The man belongs to the dumpster he never got thrown into.

Tianlang-Jun not actually being the villain. Poor demon, he just wanted to continue with the questionable hobby of reading porn and daydreaming about Shen QingQiu's relationships.

I think I had another one, but it's late and I'm probably forgetting it.

TGCF:

Oh boy, where do I belong? Ah yes, the entirety of book 4. Took me out on the spot.

Jun Wu being Bai WuXiang completely blew me away. That was probably the biggest plot twist in the history of plot twists.

Also, Ling Wen knowing, and her being the creator of the Brocade Immortal.

Fu Yao and Nan Feng being Feng Xin and Mu Qing. For some reason, even if it's kinda obvious when you take a good look at them, it never clicked before being revealed.

On the same note, Ming Yi being He Xuan, and the Earth Master being actually dead. What a ride that arc has been for me.

One of the most important details, however... I got it myself. The ring Hua Cheng gives to Xie Lian. I see so many people saying that they didn't expect the ring to be his ashes, but I did something I generally can't stop myself from doing. I guessed something tremendously important by accident, something I do with many many books so I can ruin the experience for myself. I was literally sitting down, taking a break from reading (I devoured TGCF in 3 days, I needed that break lol), and all of a sudden this goddamn revelation descend upon me like the holy spirit, completely out of the blue. I just sat up, looked at the screen, and went "the ring is is fucking ashes, isn't it?", and completely ruined the surprise for myself.

And this is it.

If there's more I forgot (probably) I don't know. For now, this is my answer. Way too long, as always.

[hualianisms]

Hi..... If you don't mind me asking (again), who are your top 5 favorite characters from TGCF novel? And why do you like them? Sorry if you've answered this question before.....Thanks so much....

hello im so sorry for answering this so late!! ive been busy with a lot of things and it took me a long time to figure out how to explain my thoughts on my fav characters. thanks for sending this ask, i love talking about tgcf characters and i don't mind at all!

my top 5 fav tgcf characters are:

xie lian & hua cheng (i refuse to choose)

feng xin

yin yu

ban yue

the explanation got extremely long so i put it below a readmore:

1) xie lian 

why do i love xie lian? god where do i even begin... from the start of book 1 i really liked him already bc he was so eccentric and funny in an endearing way, and compassionate and gentle. i love his kindness, his ideals, his dream to save the common people that was the reason for everything he did and that he never truly gave up on despite his disillusionment. i love his courage and his selflessness and how he is both incredibly gentle and incredibly fierce with a will of iron. i love his sharp wit and perceptiveness and his determination and his terrible cooking and nerdy love of swords and how easily and adorably flustered he gets by hua cheng and how fiercely protective he gets of hua cheng and i love his absolute refusal to give up on his ideals no matter what and would literally rather die than change who he is and above all, i love his heart.

it’s that heart that loved his people so deeply and believed so wholeheartedly in the inherent worth of the life of one commoner child that everyone else had believed was cursed and monstrous and worthless, that led him to save hong hong-er and attract jun wu’s attention and help that demon pass on to the next life and inadvertently attract jun wu’s wrath, that led him to attempt to help the people from yong’an in book 2 which indirectly ended with the collapse of xie lian’s own kingdom and xie lian’s own fall from grace. he was punished for that heart by the world, by jun wu, and he came so close to losing that inherent kindness that made him who he is, but still he clung stubbornly to it and fought with tooth and nail to retain his beliefs and his dream and his ideals. 

xie lian’s arc in books 2 and 4 were deeply moving and powerful and impactful for me and will stay with me for a long time - his disillusionment and pain and utter misery and becoming the worst version of himself but then returning to himself again because of one stranger’s kindness that he remembered and lived by for the rest of his long, immortal life. how he is so complex and incredibly human and has had the darkest of thoughts and is deeply flawed but still fights to rise above it and chooses to be better, chooses the kindness that in the end, even a hundred swords couldn’t bleed dry.  

1) hua cheng 

oh boy again where do i begin. firstly he is just so... mxtx really just set out to write the hottest and most devoted love interest ever and she absolutely succeeded. a supreme ghost king borne out of love, surrounded by imagery of crimson blood and flowers and ghostly butterflies... conceptually, crimson rain sought flower is just. so captivating. and hua cheng is also a character who goes through so much change and metamorphosis - we see so many sides of him, from hong hong-er to wu ming to xue yu tan hua to san lang. i love every side of him and i love all his traits, how he is calm and composed and clever and arrogant and confident and playful and spontaneous and teasing and fierce and determined and all-or-nothing and tender and devoted and loving.

hua cheng’s past is so heartbreaking to me, the fact that from the moment he was born he spent every single waking moment suffering, how much trauma and abuse he suffered yet blamed himself for it, hating himself for being “weak” and “ugly” in a way that is so deeply ingrained that we still see how strong his self loathing is 800 years later. i also deeply admire how all-or-nothing hua cheng is, how he set out to do everything he wanted to do - becoming supreme ghost king, becoming the strongest to protect his beloved, building a city on his own, teaching himself how to paint and carve, bending fate to his own will, defying the cursed fate he was condemned to at birth - and all with his own hands, through 800 years of painstaking effort. i have so much admiration for hua cheng and how much resolve and willpower he has, and the unimaginable strength of spirit it must have taken to go through even a fraction of the things he did and not simply collapse but instead triumph above them.

an integral part of hua cheng’s character is also his love for xie lian. i just think that the overwhelming, all-consuming, fierce depth and intensity of his love and devotion for xie lian is just so moving, powerful and romantic. the fact that he loves more intensely and fiercely and devotedly than any other character i've ever read about, despite the fact that he was starved of love all his life. the way his story is about religion and devotion and love and ache and desire and how all of those things intertwine...

3) feng xin

i adored him from the start bc he is so funny, i loved his dialogue and all the scenes he appeared in and i think all the little things about him are so endearing - how he cusses so much and is hotheaded and laughs at everything and hums off-key when he’s happy and has such strong emotional reactions which were actually pretty relatable (also i like himbos)... later on as they showed more of his past in book 2 and his relationship with xie lian, i was very moved by how loyal he was to xie lian, how besides hua cheng, feng xin was arguably the one who believed in and stayed by xie lian’s side the longest, even when their lives got so awful and hard. and at the same time feng xin was also trying to provide for jian lan too and treat her well… he is just someone who gives his all to his loved ones and does his best to do right by them, even at cost to himself, yet he does it in such a quiet way that could end up being overlooked or taken for granted. 

i also love that feng xin has strong principles of his own that he remains steadfast to. he was loyal to xie lian because xie lian was his best friend and prince, but also because he genuinely believed in the same things that xie lian stood for and admired and stood by him for that (which is also why he reacted so strongly to book 4 xie lian stealing and trying to punish a stranger for disrespect). feng xin is just so steadfast and dependable and honest and true on top of being extremely endearing and funny as all hell and i just adore him lots and think he’s pretty underrated.

4) yin yu 

i just love yin yu’s fanon character design and the moon imagery associated with him and i think that yin yu is a very funny character in a very endearing way (the running gag about his face being so plain xie lian thought it must be fake, and yin yu’s long-suffering exhaustion, and being something like hua cheng’s overworked burnt out secretary). but what hits me hardest about yin yu is that speech he gave right before he died in bk 5. "If I was already destined to be no one remarkable, then at the very least, I... wanted to be a kind and perfect person. But... I couldn't even do that." it was just something that felt very relatable and human to me - desiring to be someone and achieve great things yet being just Average no matter how much you try, and wanting to at least be kind and virtuous yet realising with shame and guilt that you've fallen short of even that. 

to me, yin yu's story was about the pain of mediocrity, of being un-special, un-chosen, of being Just Average, no matter how hard you work, how much you try. it's a very sympathizable situation to be in. despite several fans' love for him, yin yu was meant to represent the background character in a cast full of exceptional characters - easily forgettable and unnoticed, always outshone, always standing in someone's shadow. and that makes him one of the most relatable and painfully human, mortal characters in a cast full of flashy and outstanding immortals. most of us readers are likely yin yus instead of hua chengs or xie lians. 

another reason why yin yu is very human to me is his emotions of exhaustion, repression, envy, bitterness, resentment, guilt and self-loathing, and yet despite all his flaws and darker emotions, he still strives to live by his principles of kindness and avoid giving in to his jealousy of quan yizhen, which makes him admirable to me, and proves that he does ultimately have that kind heart that he wanted so badly to have and beat himself up for being unable to live up to.

5) ban yue 

i have a soft spot for ban yue because i think she’s a cute/endearing character and i really liked the bond she formed with xie lian who took her in, and was even so moved and impacted by him that she wanted to save the common people too, just like him, although she didn’t understand how to do it. i find her past sad, how she was bullied and shunned by others, yet it was very touching how “She remembered no one who beat her; but the ones who had saved her once, she remembered for a lifetime.” 

im so sorry this got so long!! thanks again for the ask, i enjoyed answering it <3

[danhoemei]

Hi....can I ask, MDZS questions: 5, 8, 9, and 12 ...And can I ask (if it's not too much bother), also no. 5, 8, 9, 13 (but it's for TGCF)? Thanks alot.....

Of course! Always happy to get asks 💚

MDZS (spoilers)

5. Moment you fell in love with the series?

Honestly hard to say, my love grew gradually as I went further in the chapters, firstly with the prologue’s foreshadowing of the grand events and tragic past but at the same time knowing that the main character is not gone (because I’m not that keen on true tragedies). Then, I got hooked already in the Mo household arc when wwx showed incredible wit and was constantly several steps ahead of everyone, playing them by their noses, I love puzzles and detective stories so the promise of a plot filled with mysteries excited me. But I think the strongest thing that truly and completely grabbed me by the heart and mercilessly threw me into the “obsessed” bag was the first interactions between wwx and lwj. The clear fondness and care of lwj made me CRAVE for their backstory, I wanted to understand what he was going through and what lead them both to their current place. I wanted to know all of that but also watch wwx realise lwj’s feelings, because I’m very into slow burn and oblivious pining lmao, so this instantly checked my most beloved tropes like it was nothing.

8. Scenes that made you cry?

It’s been a while so I may not remember all, but first and foremost - yi city. Specifically the finale of the flashbacks, when sl was killed then xxc’s soul shredded and a qing murdered by xy. That was the first instance I wept for this novel, and I think it was the second time I cried that year at all. I rarely cry, so I think the only other time (just teary tho) was during the flashback when jc and lwj finally found wwx who was torturing wen chao. Them confronting their broken brother and beloved, whose heart clearly withered after too much pain, the helplessness and despair, the regret... Me watching this character, who I grew fond of and genuinely craved happiness of, driven to madness after months of unimaginable hell was already painful enough, but watching all that from the perspective of his loved ones? Overkill.

That was during the first time I read mdzs, which was over 2 years ago. Idk if I got more emotional or what but when I recently reread the ending I teared up at jc’s unspoken feelings and regrets. And when I started watching cql not long ago I was moved by the scene of wangxian’s first meeting after the reincarnation 😭 idk if it was wuji or sth but a small sob-like sound escaped my mouth then I keysmashed to my friend not a second later lmao. That scene is just so beautiful and emotional when you have the whole picture and know what’s going on in their insides.... 😭

9. Scenes that made you laugh?

Lmaooo it’d prolly be easier to say which didn’t make me laugh. Mxtx’s humor hits just the right spots for me, so I think there aren’t many chapters which didn’t make me laugh. Most of these laughs are probably situational humor, like literally just a sentence of a cheeky summary or a thought etc. But if it’s about the whole scenes, let me think. Some with Apple The Stubborn Donkey, some at Mo household (like the first cheeky interaction between wwx and the servants in mxy’s room), every single scene of drunk lwj™ lmfao, a lot of scenes during the gusu studying period (wwx’s constant teasing of lwj, the wwx-jc-nhs trio shenanigans, wwx vs lq like during lectures etc.). Idk there are just so many I could go on and on, this novel is hilarious.

12. You can give a happy ending to Jian Cheng, Song Lan or Lan Xichen, who do you choose? (edit: I forgot this one xd)

I feared this question the most lmfaoooooooooo. As hard as it is.... I think song lan. I’m very sad for lan xichen and I love jc but both of them, even tho they lost a lot, still have people who love them and care for them and I believe with time they would be fine. Song lan? Damn he suffered so terribly much and he ended up as a walking corpse with his only reason to go on being the hope that the shredded soul of xxc mends in many years. How tragic is that. So yeah, if I could choose one of them then it’d be song lan, poor guy 😭

TGCF (spoilers)

5. Moment you fell in love with the series?

I think it was the ghost bridegroom arc. At that point there was some exposition already (even though still mostly confusing), and I already grew much fond of xie lian and his two ‘helpers’, bad at disguises and jarringly obvious but in a heartwarming way, generally all the characters which appeared even if just side-characters felt very real and that impressed me. Then the whole investigation and solving a mystery with elements of horror started happening which is just *chef’s kiss* exactly up my alley. But what finally put a leash on me and tied me to this novel in the most final way was san lang’s appearance and the interactions between him and xl 🥺 He fascinated me, and I loved his cheeky, eyes-only-for-mc, smart and teasing vibe, exactly my Type xd If I were to pick a specific scene then it was their meeting on the cart after which I remember I stopped putting this book down unless forced to. I am very much fond of this scene to this day.

8. Scenes that made you cry?

BOOK 4. Just. Book 4, you cursed little- Uhhh I think I cried at least 2 times there but at this point my memory of those events melted into a fest of pain and regrets, so I can’t state them clearly xd Possibly ruoye’s creation :’) and wu ming’s sacrifice :’’) and hc’s awakening at the shrine :’’’’’’’’) if you know what I mean. And maybe somewhere else too but idk anymore, it’s just all PAIN

The other instances were the tragic culmination of the venerable of empty words arc :’’) And this scene at the finale when hc gave all his energy to xl :’)

Damn this novel really squeezed my tears out huh

9. Scenes that made you laugh?

Similar to mdzs, this book is a mine of humor for me. Starting with xl’s ascension and all the shenanigans in heaven, mq and fx being themselves, hc’s cheeky comments towards these two like during banyue’s arc when they tried to test him, pei ming my hilarious beloved every scene with him is golden, quan yizhen being adorably derpy and yin yu running away from him and thwacking him with the shovel lmao, the ghost city in general, banyue & pei su cooking at mount tonglu arc. Gods, I love mxtx’s humor and the balance between laughs and pure agony. Incredible.

13. Headcanons?

Hmmm hx checking in on sqx and indirectly helping him out, and sqx slowly healing from his trauma. I like to imagine whether it’d be possible for sqx to ascend again, even tho I remember from the book that it sounded pretty much impossible. But with the heaven being in such a messy state and slowly rebuilt anew, with the need for new gods to fill in the spaces, and with how much sqx helped during the final fight, maaaaybe heaven would grant him this honour with time, make some exception for his crippled cultivation etc. Maybe he would spend some more years helping people as he did, his legend continued spreading, especially after people realised during finale that he was a god, so the story about this fallen god who now helps people in need makes him gather more and more followers until he ascends as the god of beggars, the sick, and the poor. I wonder if by that point he would consider himself worthy of that place and accept it, but if not then I think xl could persuade him that he can help more as a god than mortal. And so, he continues to grow and heal. Anyway, I haven’t thought this through too much, so just throwing random self-indulgent thoughts

(Ask game)

[baoshan-sanren]

The YinYang Master (2021) liveblog

okay so the city is where the people live and outside of the city is where the monsters live, got it

the yinyang bureau are the dudes who fight the monsters? sure

off the bat, chen kun (qingming) is accused of like killing a bunch of people in the bureau, no clue if he actually did it, but the person i assume to be the female interest does not believe a word of it (or does she)

anyway, he gets the fuck out of there, good for him

seven years later?

are these?

three raccoons in a trench coat? 

there are. there are three raccoons in a trench coat, each wielding a sharp and deadly weapon

it’s been ten minutes and this movie has got my attention

OH WE’RE GETTING CHEN KUN WHO FIGHTS WITH A FAN

AND DRINKS LIKE A FISH

AND HOPS AROUND WITH HIS HAIR LOOSE GOOD LORD

hello flying demon things I like your wings

here’s the female love interest again and uh

she’s

a bit terrifying now

whoever is dubbing her must’ve smoked two packs a day for ten years because holy hell that is some gravel

the flying demon thing stole some red gem that I assume is very important

SHE TOOK HIS ASS DOWN WITH ONE ARROW 

NOT TO BE A LESBIAN BUT OH MY GOD

okay these things aren’t raccoons, what the hell are they? are the weasels? I’m gonna call them weasels 

anyway I’ve had these weasels for 15 minutes but if anything happens to them

THEY ARE FERRETS 

A FERRET SWALLOWED THE RED GEM THING 

this is quickly getting out of hand you feel me?

OH MY GOOOOOD WHO IS THIS LADY VILLAIN NOW

can you imagine having to report to your boss like, I stole the thingy but then I was defeated by three ferrets 

I would die on the spot, like rip to this dude but I’m different

she has some kind of freezing ice power and I like it

now where are we

THERE ARE BADASS LADIES EVERYWHERE IN THIS GUYS

GUYS

I HAVE BEEN MISLED ABOUT THIS MOVIE

AND WHAT IS THIS LOOK? GOOD GOD

anyway, I’m not feeling too hot about this poor ferret’s prospects bc that red gem thing TALKS TO YOU and it sound pretty evil

ah shit, so the yinyang bureau is all like “those ferrets belong to qingming so he’s the one who did it, which means we were right to accuse him of trying to steal the red gem seven years ago”

no wonder this dude drinks, everyone’s out to get him

so the red gem is actually the snake? or like it was the snake? or is the soul of the snake?

this official-looking dude is just talking shit in front of this gravelly female chief of the bureau like he’s got a death wish

good, tell him to zip it

oh shit now we’re getting some past events and they are.... eventful

hm this cimu guy is getting a lot of screen time for a dead dude, perhaps he is not dead?

just now realizing the yinyang bureau boss lady is zhou xun I feel stupid

BOYA 

he’s in some deep shit for losing the tribute to a drunk dude and a bunch of ferrets in a trench coat 

and I have to say that’s a pretty valid thing to be in trouble for

"I fought with Qingming and he fled in defeat” *SNORT*

did this girl just

hit him with a really long cucumber?

w h a t  i s  h a p p e n i n g

her name is Shenle and I am now signing the adoption papers 

her and boya are going into the monster realm to find qingming and I can just sense a bunch of oncoming shenanigans 

I was right

i’m just now realizing that qingming intentionally left boya this spell so he can summon the bridge and come find him

what are you up to mister?

GUYS THIS MONSTER REALM 

THIS IS EXACTLY HOW I PICTURED GHOST CITY IN TGCF AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH

qingming just made boya his familiar and let me tell you

not nearly as romantic as it was in the dream of eternity

BUT FUNNY THO

qingming is kind of a dick too and I think I like him more

jghgjfkdghdks what is this little red monster thingy what is happening

idk what makes costume designers stuff chen kun in these high collar robes but I am here for this look

ACTION ACTION ACTION FIGHT

this is a lot of romance for me personally right now but

i’m fucking really digging the fact that both chen kun and zhou xun are like 

grown-ass adults and experienced actors

she’s even older than him by a couple of years I think so like

for a hetero romance this is basically the only kind I care to see

I KNEW CIMU WAS UP TO NO GOOD

oh maybe he’s dead actually? what is his DEAL

okay this lady isn’t listening to anything you’re saying like why even bother

this poor fucking ferret

OH NO 

NOT THE FERRET

okay this bitch can eat my entire asshole, fuck her and her righteous bullshit 

aaaand now we’re all getting drunk

chen kun shouldn’t be allowed to do anything ever seriously he’s too hot to exist I feel attacked 

hey asshole lady, do you think maybe now you can admit you were wrong and qingming was right?

now we’re all “I should’ve trusted you”

she’s literally going “when this is over, this bracelet will be yours again” I know there’s some magic thing happening w the bracelet but that’s an euphemism if I’ve ever heard one 

you just called him a monster to his face like 10 minutes ago

this lady’s got some balls

qingming you’re too nice, I would’ve made her work for it

OH WE GET TO MEET THE BAD GUY BOSS

hnggg this fight scene is just

I am watching this film for the plot

oh crap the asshole lady is dead already?

that was a short redemption arc

and the snow lady is dead too hmpf I actually liked her unhinged little laugh

I KNEW IT I KNEW IT I KNEW WHO THE BAD GUYS IS

i feel like the entire monster-fucking dark side of tumblr needs to get a load of this dude

where you going spider dude?

oh this is

not a good development 

okay I am definitely not vibing with boya being depicted as an absolute dumbass for 90% of this film like

you could take him out of the movie completely and not lose any of the plot which is... not good

STOP STOP I’M ALREADY DEAD

I have to say these special effects are a bit over the top but so visually satisfying omg

also like

making me actually invested in every single small character within a space of 2.5 hours is pretty impressive 

hngggg

i’m starting to think that the whole point of this movie is to showcase how hot chen kun is in any clothing with any hair under any circumstances 

oh so now that the bad guy is dead the asshole lady is alive again

which is kind of a cop-out but whatever 

“you promised to live and die by my side and never betray me” BIG WORDS FROM SOMEONE WHO BETRAYED HIM FIRST

ahh I get what he did now

that’s pretty cool

and kind of sad

I’m not crying kind of sad but that shit hurted

still, I do like this ending

although this whole thing would’ve been much better as a drama at least 30 episodes long I don’t feel like I wasted 2.5 hours

so yeah, I def rec this if you have time to kill

[nyerus]

His Royal Highness, the Crown Prince of XianLe -- Xie Lian

I wanted to do a little meta for Xie Lian to celebrate his birthday, about why he’s an incredible and unique character! One of my absolute faves. Happy Birthday Lianlian! ヽ(o´∀`)ﾉ♪♬

(Spoiler Warning!!!) (Also: massive length warning--get snacks!)

Xie Lian and The Hero’s Journey

One of the most interesting things about Xie Lian is that his personal arc starts near the end. Meaning that he is already nearly fully-realized by the time we meet him in book 1. He has only a few steps left in his classical Hero’s Journey, since TGCF starts in media res. A lot of his growth has been completed--which we witness more first-hand in books 2 and 4--so by the time we meet Xie Lian, he is already endured the most painful of his trials. It leaves him with the traits readers first pick up on: calm, confident, humble, and kind.

The main steps he has left to complete in his journey are the quintessential “atonement with the Father” and his “return home.” These stages of the Hero’s Journey are actually played somewhat straight in TGCF, and the former stage is actually the main plot of the novel. The stages are not meant to be literal, but metaphorical tools for literary analysis, as most books we read employ them in one way or another. TGCF does so as well, just out of order. So Xie Lian’s confrontation with Jun Wu (atonement), then getting his happy ending with Hua Cheng (return home) are the respective stages we see play out in the “present” narrative.

(However, he does have a “call to action stage” nestled within the present-time plotline. One can almost think of this as one Hero’s Journey nestled inside another.)

Xie Lian and The Heaven’s Will

The Heavens shook spectacularly when Xie Lian ascended. Each ascension, the Heavens greeted him with grandeur, even on what he considered his “fluke” of a second. And on his third ascension, the Heavens announced his return in a way that no one had ever seen before--by astonishing all its residents; bringing down the gilded palaces of other gods, and having the ancient clock sound off so fervently that it broke free of its hinges.

There is a lot of symbolism in this alone.

While Xie Lian’s narration (and the reactions of the other heavenly officials, including Ling Wen) paints his third ascension as a mix of comedic and tragic, we can interpret this scene differently. Xie Lian is the only one to have ascended thrice. He is the only one for whom the Heavens shook so powerfully. It isn’t because he’s a disgraced laughing stock--it’s because the Heaven know his true character, and his true strength.

(As an aside--see this post of mine about Heaven as an entity, separate from the Heavenly Capital and gods therein.)

It isn’t a big stretch to conclude that the Heavens show Xie Lian a particular amount of favoritism that it doesn’t to anyone else. One of the explanations for this could be that Xie Lian is the closest thing to the physical representation of the Heaven’s Will™.

This isn’t to say that Xie Lian is perfect. He isn’t, by any means. But he doesn’t have to be. Further thinking of the Heavens along the classic Taoist principles that TGCF draws from, the point is that Xie Lian tries. He works hard with what he has, embraces his fate and destiny, and makes the best of it as much as he can. Xie Lian himself doesn’t set out to be perfect. That is not his goal. His goal is to be a good person who is able to help people. He is morally upright, sincere, and humble. He seeks to maintain balance. These are treasured qualities.

Ultimately, he is human. He makes grievous mistakes, he makes bad decisions, and so on. But at the end of the day, Xie Lian lacks no conviction about his ideology. Even though he endured hell, and very nearly succumbed to darkness, there was always a part of him that held onto that notion that people were worth saving. Even at his worst, he still hesitated before causing harm. And when the man with the bamboo hat helped him--just a single gesture--it was enough for Xie Lian to rediscover that part of himself. His beliefs were re-affirmed, and he found the strength he needed to carry them.

The Heavens did not penalize Xie Lian for needing help. In fact, they rewarded him with ascension itself. When Xie Lian accepted his grief, he began to overcome it. He refused to fall into total despair--and while the actual nature of his second ascension are ambiguous, it’s probable that this is why he ascended. Not because he fought against Bai Wuxiang (because he wasn’t even the one to “win” that battle physically), but because he stood against him in the first place. Xie Lian’s grief, subsequent resolve, and decision to ultimately oppose everything Bai Wuxiang represented--THAT was his Heavenly Tribulation. And he passed with flying colors (much to Jun Wu’s intense fury).

[CONTINUED UNDER CUT DUE TO LENGTH.]

What it fundamentally comes down to, is that Xie Lian chooses to be compassionate. He does so even and especially in the face of adversity. Choosing to be kind when it is the hardest path of all is the mark of true courage and strength. It can’t be said it enough: Xie Lian very consciously makes the choice to do good even when it is hard for him. Even when he doesn’t want to. Because being a good and moral person doesn’t mean that you never have negative thoughts, and for sure Xie Lian gets frustrated and upse. It doesn’t mean you never make mistakes or never hurt people, because Xie Lian has done all those things before as well. After all, he is human, god or not. Things are not black-and-white, and never will be. But staying true to one’s ideals is what matters.

When Xie Lian made the decision to help Yong’An during the drought, for example, he knew it may be futile. He knew that he was breaking rules, going against what everyone else was saying. But he knew in his heart that it was the morally responsible thing to do. He is not the type of person to sit by quietly when there are people in need. He cannot see injustice and despair, and turn a blind eye to it. It also isn’t necessary (or even possible) for him to help literally everyone--as he learns the hard way. But doing what he can, where he can--that’s more than enough for Heaven to favor him. Because that’s the sign of someone who is genuinely compassionate and just.

So it’s no wonder that the Heavens favored him more than others. With a pure heart and strong sense of justice, while still being humble and patient--that’s all the Heavens need.

It’s even ironic that Xie Lian spoke out against the very “Heavens” themselves in book 2, at the height of his pride. But he was actually speaking out against the institution of heaven, and the overly-conservative beliefs that the gods (Heavenly Officials) held. Xie Lian has an extremely non-traditional view of looking at things.

His ideas go against the grain of what has been held true to the people of the world for centuries, but are actually in line with many modern philosophies--that one should not give much importance to idol worship, and instead focus on doing good deeds. That gods, being immortal ascended humans, should display the same humility and temperance; that they not hold themselves in higher regard or expect others to be subservient or fearful. This could very much be in line with what the Heaven’s will actually may be. Why the Heavens favor him so--because Xie Lian understands, in every sense, that gods are only human.

Xie Lian’s Character Growth

“I WON’T CHANGE! EVEN IF IT’S PAINFUL, I WON’T CHANGE. EVEN IF I DIE, I WON’T CHANGE. I WILL NEVER CHANGE!” (ch.239)

That’s the big thing about Xie Lian. It’s what sets him apart from many other characters. From the beginning to the end of his journey, his motivations and beliefs do not change. Only the nature of his motivations, and the basis of his beliefs change. That is to say, he believed that helping others was the right thing to do when he was 17 years old. 800 years later, he still feels this way. It’s just that he approaches the concept differently.

As a teenager, he was naive and coming from a place of high privilege. He was unable to understand the true plights of the common man, and his concepts of helping them--while still noble and morally just--were often somewhat patronizing. His heart was in the right place, but he was simply too young and too sheltered. He also fundamentally overestimated his own capability to help others, while underestimating the negative forces at play that would actively work against him. But 800 years later, Xie Lian has gone through hell and back. He knows better than anyone what it means to struggle, to suffer, to hope, to persevere. He still wants to help the common man, but now it comes from a place of understanding and humility. (The tragedy is, if he were allowed to grow up “normally,” he very much may have grown out of his naiveté and youthful arrogance anyway, after gaining more worldly experience. He was robbed of that chance.)

So Xie Lian chooses to be optimistic about life in general. He knows that he will get hurt by doing this. That people will take advantage of him. He knows, and yet, he continues to hold true to his principles. He neither asks nor expects people to thank him for it, or even understand him (as many people simply don’t). He does it because what other people think or even deserve is not his concern. It comes down to what he believes. That’s just the type of character he is--which is to say: fantastic.

TLDR; Xie Lian Best Boi!!!

[manggaetteokkie]

It's like my first week in the tgcf fandom and it'd be a crime if I don't read the source material but God is it long. I hate having ADHD (plus I'm not a native speaker), I can read like 1000 fanfics which are <6000 words but if I have to read one super long thing it's over. The last "book" (and longest) I've read is a 100k word fanfic, it was a huge challenge and it took me like 2 weeks reading literal hours each day. Tgcf is 1.2M words bro I'm gonna die. But I really wanna read it T.T

From last anon - hope I didn't sound annoying. It's just frustrating because I wanna join all the people who've read the novel, I watched the first 4 episodes and fell in love with the characters and setting it's just *chef's kiss*. I actually translate and write subtitles for anime in my language and TGCF is currently like the one series that I'm super excited to translate and feels like a walk in the park

Hey anon, first off, WELCOME TO THE TGCF FANDOM!!! I’m super happy that the donghua is getting more and more people into the fandom because by gods, it’s such an amazing story that I wish I could get everyone I know reading it (my weekly tgcf posts are also a way of me lowkey trying to spark some interest and get more people reading/watching it hehe) also, don’t worry, you’re not being annoying at all! I’m just very happy there’s another joining our ranks x) Also, thank you for doing god’s work and making subs for the donghua 💖💖 your work is more than appreciated ☺️💖

So... I’m actually a huuuuge reader, and the concept of “pacing” literally doesn’t exist to me. I start TGCF on a Friday night and finished it Sunday.

It literally took me two days to read 244 chapters + the extras.

Granted, I did barely sleep but... 🤷🏻‍♀️

So with that in mind, I may be biased but this novel is honestly one of my ultimate faves, one of the best things I’ve ever read. To be honest, I’d finished the author’s second novel that clocked in at 113 chapters, TGCF is literally more than double that so I was a bit worried by the size too. I had the PDF ready but I actually pushed off reading it for 2 weeks because I wasn’t sure if I was ever ready for it. But lemme tell you, when I started it, I never wanted to stop. It was a struggle between wanting to savour every single word, and wanting to rush ahead to learn what happens. MXTX (the author) has an amazing way of keeping the action constant and dragging you in with what happens next. There’s never a good enough place for you to pause safely, because she keeps it coming constantly.

That being said, honestly, my advice to you would be to not force yourself or be overly frustrated at your pace. Take breaks if you need to, sometimes life gets in the way too, so don’t pressure yourself too much. It doesn’t matter if it takes you months to finish, it doesn’t even matter if you ever finish (you can always stick to the donghua if it’s easier), all the matters is you want to read it to learn more. At the end of the day, any pace is a good pace x) And honestly, the donghua is likely only going to cover the first two arcs of the novel (which is roughly 29/244 chapters lol), so you have plenty of time to catch up and join the novel readers ;)

It’s honestly a beast to read but really, once you start, you’ll barely notice the length. MXTX has a way of getting you invested into every single character and plot she crafts, and the interactions between the main ship is honestly to die for. What you see up until episode 4 is really just the tip of the iceberg, there’s so much more to the story that it’s impossible to put into words without revealing everything. One tip I have for all readers is to absolutely avoid spoiling yourselves. Do not go on wikis, avoid digging deeper, just take your time and read on. The revelations hit harder if you go in without any idea of what’s going on.

[hamliet]

Reflections of Su XiYan in Scum Villain’s Female Characters

I did not realize it was MXTX ladies week until yesterday. :( So I want to do a post/meta on the amazing women in each novel (not without critique), so let’s start with MXTX’s first one!

Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System, which while it may have more obvious narrative flaws than TGCF or MDZS (it sets up some plot points it kinda drops later, whereas TGCF and MDZS pretty much maximize every single aspect of potential), I actually think is just as rich, clever, and coherent thematically as MXTX’s latter two novels.

The plot points that are dropped, though, are actually almost entirely related to the set up the female characters as deconstructing the idea that they were just things for Original!Luo BingHe to collect. While it does do this to an extent with Su XiYan, Ning YingYing, and Sha HuaLing, it kinda… dropped the arcs halfway through for Ning YingYing and Sha HuaLing, and sets up but never really begins Liu MingYan’s and Qin WanYue’s. 

Su XiYan’s arc, though, despite it taking place in the past and being told to us, is entirely about refuting the role the men in her life ascribe to her... and all of the other female characters--all members of Original!Luo BingHe’s harem--represent a part of her. You could get, like, really Oedipal if you wanted to, but I’d rather not beyond simply saying it’s a pattern in stories that is definitely present here. Aspects of her story and character are reflected in each of the women who are love interests in Proud Immortal Demon Way. 

Our first refutation of how men treat and categorize Su XiYan is through her foiling with Ning YingYing. 

Shen Yuan notes that Shen Jiu sexually harassed Ning YingYing:

the original Shen Qingqiu had designs on Ning Yingying... [he] had dirty thoughts towards his lively and well-behaved disciples. Several times he tried to lay hands on them and almost succeeded at that.

Which is what the Old Palace Master did to Su XiYan:

He turned to focus his stare on Luo Binghe’s quietly sleeping face... nThe Old Palace Master gazed at him for a long while then sighed: “When you close your eyes, you resemble her the most. And also when you’re being cold.”

His eyes traveled over Luo Binghe’s face greedily. If he still had hands, he would have reached out to fondle as well.

However, the Old Palace Master never got anywhere with Su XiYan, because she fell in love with someone else and thereby refutes the idea that she’s his tool. In the original, Ning YingYing is rescued by Luo BingHe in the original. In the novel, Ning YingYing’s arc is about her discovering self-sufficiency. She doesn’t need rescuing from Luo BingHe; she can rescue herself, as is shown when she leads Ming Fan and the other disciples into a fight to protect Shen QingQiu’s honor after his arrest. When someone slaps her, she slaps back, twice--but Shen QingQiu gives her the energy. I would have liked (and think her arc was heading towards) her to grow to be competent on her own as well. 

Next, Sha HuaLing.  

Sha HuaLing represents TianLang-Jun’s assumptions about Su XiYan: that she was a deceptive seductress who would betray him for her own desires. However, in reality, like Sha HuaLing does in Proud Immortal Demon Way, Su XiYan betrays her race (for her, humanity, for Sha HuaLing, demons) for love. 

Sha Hualing was a pure-blooded demon, cruel and ruthless, cunning and artful, but fell irrevocably for Luo Binghe. After getting together with Luo Binghe, don’t even speak about killing for him; she even dared to do an outrageous thing like betraying the demons for him. 

Su XiYan, however, was never given the chance to fight back. In the actual novel, Sha HuaLing does much the same (betrays the demons), but Luo BingHe does not love her and she knows it. I think this is a good ending place for Sha HuaLing, assigned to fight against her father in the final battle (which she does), but we’re told rather than shown her development and we’re not told what led to this decision, which is a shame. 

Sha HuaLing is perhaps most directly foiled both in Proud Immortal Demon Way and in SVSSS by Qin WanYue. 

Qin WanYue, much like Su XiYan, is considered the perfect disciple of the Huan Hua Palace. Regarding Su XiYan, it’s noted: 

“That woman had shocking talent, was intelligent and sensitive when making decisions, and she had the aura of a tyrant. The Old Palace Master loved and cared for this private disciple. He thought of her as a pearl that should be protected in his hands and trained her to be the next Palace Master of Huan Hua Palace. No matter where he went, he would bring Su Xiyan along with him. The importance that he placed in her was abnormal.”

Qin WanYue’s symbol is a pearl that lights the way.

Luo Binghe picked up Qin Wanyue’s Night Pearl that had fallen to the ground and raised it high, as though it were a beacon. It awakened those who had frozen in place.

Not to mention in the original novel Qin WanYue loses a child in a miscarriage caused by someone else (Sha HuaLing) much like Su XiYan almost lost Luo BingHe when pregnant with him. Qin WanYue clings to Luo BingHe after the loss of her sister as something who might be able to offer her happiness. She’s not much different than Luo BingHe growing up parents and clinging to ShiZun: she who lost her sister and then clings to the person who saved her. But in her case, Luo BingHe does not return her affection, and I really had hoped/ expected her arc to end with her finding her own path.

Qin WanYue is also tasked with an action beneath her (much like Sha HuaLing): taking care of the Little Palace Mistress, the Old Palace Master’s literal daughter and hence another foil to Su XiYan. Her defining trait is her pettiness and cruelty, the latter of which Su XiYan is also said to have been capable of, as she began spending time with TianLang-Jun in an attempt to bring him down.

However, the mistress isn’t really set up with the potential for an arc like Qin WanYue is. 

From time to time [Qin WanYue] would cast a teary glance at Luo Binghe, as if expecting something...

[Sha HuaLing:] “how many times have you failed to seduce the lord yet still refuse to leave? If you don’t leave that’s fine, but you’re incapable of looking after even a single person. Her cultivation isn’t even as high as yours. You’re her senior martial sister. You didn’t stop her early and didn’t stop her late. All you did was to let her make this unreasonable scene in front of the lord. Who are you putting on this pitiful and wronged appearance for?”

Qin WanYue isn’t weak at all, but she puts on a weak act for Luo BingHe, hoping to attract a rescuer like she needed back then. I initially expected her arc to end with her accepting her strength and moving on form Luo BingHe (and from the little palace mistress). I still think it should have. 

And then we have Qiu HaiTang, whom I don’t think is set up as much for development as the others despite having more backstory on her. 

Still, Qiu HaiTang she was a woman mistreated and shamed by what had happened with her fiance Shen Jiu--just like Su XiYan was shamed for what happened with TianLang-Jun. 

“That’s right, if she hadn’t been so ill-fated as to fall for Tianlang-Jun’s wiles, she would have had such a bright and promising future and be a person of great renown today.”

“I don’t care what fantastic rewards are promised to me━having an affair with a demon and getting knocked up with a monster child is just plain disgusting. This kind of merit, I wouldn’t accept even if it was served to me on a silver platter.”

“Su Xiyan was probably too ashamed to remain, and thus ran away from the sect master.”

The thing is, all these roles--perfect disciple with great potential, brave enough to betray everything for love, endearing and caring, mistreated--none of these really capture the complexity and beauty of who Su XiYan really was... which is represented in Liu MingYan, the noted female counterpart to Luo BingHe, the main female lead. Liu MingYan conceals her face, which is too beautiful to be seen. 

Liu MingYan, like Si XiYan, remains mysterious; Shen QingQiu never sees her face uncovered, and the audience never really gets a clue as to what is going on in her head besides the mention that she cares deeply for her brother. Again, this is something I think could have and should have been developed more; she has the set-up for an arc with her conflict with Sha HuaLing being dazzled by her beauty and with her loyalty to her sect and brother, but it doesn’t go anywhere. She said to be “the number one female lead!” after all, and I think it’s entirely possible for her to maintain her aura of mystery and still... have an arc. Su XiYan did, after all, and she was dead before the novel began.

In the end, no one really can define whom Su XiYan was exactly, because she’s dead. What ultimately mattered, what defined Su XiYan’s legacy, was her final choice to save her son (and yes, it’s fair to critique that it’s again about a man, but it’s her choice). That’s why the story, in its penultimate chapter, has Shen QingQiu telling Luo BingHe: 

“Su Xiyan risked her life to give birth to you... 

“If I were in her shoes, I would not hesitate to drink [the poison for a fetus] regardless of how lethal it is. Then, after escaping from the water prison, I would absorb it all into my own body. Regardless of how agonizing and horrifying the process is, regardless of the price to be paid, regardless of whether it would be a painful death, I would never let this child suffer any harm.

“This is how I see it. You can take it as just an interpretation because there is no one who can tell you what Su Xiyan was thinking before she breathed her last. But if she really saw you as a disgrace, she didn’t need to do anything more. She could have just lowered you into the Luo River, on the coldest days of the year, in a harsh and frozen landscape━how could you possibly survive?... she also need not use the last of her strength and energy to put you in a wooden basin and push you away to safety…… You don’t even need to wait for someone to save you at all since you would have already become a wandering soul who met his freezing end in Luo River.

He’s healed, and he no longer needs to try to recreate his mother figure in over a thousand beautiful women like he did in the past. He can heal. 

Imo, it would have been even more powerful if the women then stepped out of these roles more completely, and became their own people. But I really do like all four of the main women I discussed here, and someday I’ll write more for them. 

[thankyoumskobayashi]

I just misread an earlier part of TGCF (CH.~41-50) and it said that E-Ming was rumored to have been made with the blood of innocents. However, knowing Hua Cheng, I wouldn't be surprised if that scimitar was made with the blood of the cliquey martial and literature gods who made fun of Xie Lian (and were subsequently murdered simultaneously by the demon king Crimson Rain Sought Flower). Knowing now from recent chapters how many boundless oodles of power Hua Cheng has, only a sword made from the remains of gods themselves would be able to handle that much strength without shattering under the power of its master.

And from the perspectives of the rest of the gods in the heavens, the ones who died were "innocent" because these gods don't consider "making fun of Xie Lian" to be a criminal offence. However, a certain idiot prone to falling (both physically & metaphorically) DOES consider that a criminal offence, one for which he Can & Will mete out punishment.

I think it's cool how MXTX explores reframing narratives through misunderstandings, mindsets, and cultural paradigms. This one event can be analyzed from multiple characters' perspectives: "Crimson Rain Sought Flower challenged all the martial gods and all the literature gods to a contest. Everyone except Xie Lian's former assistants participated and all of them lost their lives as a result of being humiliated and reneging on the wager." Hua Cheng, the one setting the wager and doing the killing, probably saw it as dealing with useless trash. Those gods themselves must have seen it as injustice. The newer gods in the heavens don't know Hua Cheng's motives, so they consider him capricious and dangerous. They regard him with fear, and attempt to pass along that fear to Xie Lian, who hasn't been to the heavens for hundreds of years and therefore doesn't know any of the news or gossip.

It's also interesting to see Xie Lian's opinions grow as he meets Hua Cheng first, then listens to hearsay afterwards. He gets to know Hua Cheng, and sees him as a carefree, knowledgeable, generous person who likes to joke around. Then he is told that Hua Cheng is a capricious and dangerous person liable to turn on you at any moment. His motives are shrouded in mystery. However, these rumors end up slam-dunked in the garbage by Xie Lian because he sees Hua Cheng differently than the rest of the gods in the heavens. Hua Cheng is generous towards and protective of him, to the point of actually fighting well when he defended Xie Lian against Pei Su and the snakes. He fought seriously that time, according to Xie Lian, not allowing a single scratch to land on the Flower Crown Prince.

The play that was performed at the Lantern-counting festival which depicted the blossoming romance between Hua Cheng and Xie Lian probably baffled some, but perhaps some of the gods now believe that Hua Cheng and Xie Lian are in love. I just realized this play might have been written by Wind Master, who saw those two get stuck together with RuoYe during the sandstorm lol

Anyways, I forget where this was supposed to go, but maybe it doesn't have a point so I can write whatever I want. Hua Cheng could have future sight which is why he warned Xie Lian to avoid Wind, Earth & Water Masters, Ling Wen, and the rest of the Heavens for a time. He could be haunted by visions of Xie Lian getting falsely accused & slandered again. We already know this is the worst torment to him, he admitted it during the dice game which was a ploy to test if Earth Master was the Reverend of Empty Words. After this each paragraph is its own idea. They aren't always connected, except through my own convoluted train of thought.

Even though Hua Cheng set his Divine SkypeTM password to something super lovey dovey and/or horny I bet he can communicate telepathically with E-Ming.

After Xie Lian gave Hua Cheng his bamboo hat when they were planting rice, I bet Hua Cheng was hyped up on "he gave me his hat to show everyone that I'm his" energy. He was probably annoyed that these lowly mortals were harassing his love about the Demon King's relationship status and sauntered over to say "I'm already married." But he was silently adding after that, "in my heart...." 

After Hua Cheng denied that whole business about having a lover, Xie Lian smiled and told him, "you liar." Mind you, this is after that scene in the QianDang Temple where Xie Lian holds up the white flower that Hua Cheng once made a symbol for him, and asks "This is the flower you are pursuing, right?" Hua Cheng is under the impression that Xie Lian is aware of his romantic intentions towards him. So he goes, "yeah that thing about me having a lover is a lie. I just haven't won them over yet." Not realizing that Xie Lian is still hurt about the joking about marriage thing from the other day.

From Hua Cheng's perspective, that joke was only considered a joke to lessen (for him) the pain of not being immediately engaged to Xie Lian. He was probably trying to see if Xie Lian was into him or not, gauge how he was doing at winning his lifelong crush's affections. Since Xie Lian has been a depressed wanderer for literal centuries, the concept of getting married and having someone to live with must be something he fundamentally believed wasn't for him. Besides, there was that whole "being the laughingstock of the heavens" thing, so he probably internalized the idea that no one would ever want him.

Hubris was Xie Lian's tragic flaw, and for that he paid with his country, the existences of every place he loved, his family, his people, his temples, his reputation + corresponding godly powers, and most importantly, his confidence. He learned humility the hard way, and now hesitates to trust other people. These are mental health problems Hua Cheng can encourage him to overcome, but ultimately the hard work must be done by Xie Lian.

Another thing working against Hua Cheng is the fact that Xie Lian is so old. Hua Cheng is as well, probably around 790 years to Xie Lian's 800, but that is not what I mean by that. Xie Lian being so old means he's gotten used to meeting people, living with them for a while, and then moving on in life as he wanders away or they kick him out or something. He considers Hua Cheng's presence an unlikely yet welcome one, but doesn't expect him to stay in his life for very long. Unless this is addressed directly in words by Crimson Rain Sought Flower, I foresee Xie Lian continuing to act like Hua Cheng is an extended houseguest when the latter believes "I live here." Even if they do end up moving to another small shrine.

Speaking of shrines, Hua Cheng never promised Xie Lian to build him shrines but did anyway. In contrast, the humans who were saved by Xie Lian end up making empty promises of shrines and such. However, Hua Cheng not only built him a shrine, he made a huge fuckin' Sword Collection just to impress Xie Lian because of the one time he got lectured on swords by Xie Lian. I haven't reread that part recently but I know the gist of it was "swords don't seem like your thing so you should use a scimitar instead that'd work really well for you." Boom: 800 years later Hua Cheng wields a legendary scimitar, E-Ming. In the times when Xian Le was still around, Hua Cheng listened to Xie Lian on everything except "forget about me." Because that would have meant ignoring Xie Lian's earlier request, "make me your reason for living." If Hua Cheng had ignored that previous request, which was filled with genuine concern for his wellbeing, he would have had no reason to live and probably would've met a miserable end. But instead, he determined to follow Xie Lian to the godly realm - by becoming a god himself. Probably a martial god, too. He had to be exactly like his hero.

Speaking of being just like his hero, I have some thoughts on why Hua Cheng didn't accept Xie Lian's offer to live at the Palace. One might think it's primarily because Qi Rong would attempt to kill him again but I bet that was simply a minor extra reason. The main reason he didn't stay at the Palace was bc Xie Lian wasn't there most of the time, either due to Crown Princely duties or cultivation at the mountain temple. Hua Cheng, even as a kid, wanted Xie Lian to pay attention to him. Hearing "live for me" was probably as much of a lifeline because Xie Lian was paying attention to him at that critical moment, an equal reason I believe to the content of the message Xie Lian gave itself. "Being encouraged by someone you look up to is a wonderful feeling" is a message MXTX also put in MDZS, when Wei Wuxian encourages the Cloud Kids during the Yi City arc. And the timing of that encouragement holds just as much weight for Hua Cheng as having his hero give him a reason to keep living.

And that reason, as was evidenced by Hua Cheng's descent from godhood to becoming a Supreme Level Demon (I think they're the strongest/rarest type? There were 4 categories mentioned in the beginning. Below Supreme is Menace), is to become strong enough to protect the love of his life. The first thing Hua Cheng did once he crashed the Volcano Party to become the strongest Demon was challenging all the gods in the heavens to the wager and killing them once they lost and didn't uphold their ends of the bargain. He was full of the same wrath that Xie Lian was filled with during his second ascension- that time Xie Lian ascended to the heavens, started an all-out brawl in Jun Wu's courtroom, and then got kicked/demoted after like 5 mins. So people were making fun of Xie Lian after this event too, and Hua Cheng, filled with righteous anger that NO ONE in the so-called "just" heavens was standing up for the love of his life, decided to take matters into his own hands. (I think one of the two assistants in the beginning mentions Hua Cheng became a Demon Supreme after Xie Lian's second ascension and before his third ascension, but I just didn't remember it until now.)

If Hua Cheng was a meme, he'd be that "I've only known Xie Lian for 800 years, and if anything happened to him I'd kill everyone in the heavens and then Qi Rong."

Because he knows if something happens to HIM, Demon Lord Supreme, there will be a power vacuum and Xie Lian's safety won't be guaranteed. Ok so that's abt it. Sorry to everyone on mobile, I threw a readmore in there but you wouldn't know that as you have to scroll through all of this rambling.

[celairdes]

book 1 tgcf thoughts (as someone who hasn’t read danmei before!)

- im still kinda learning my way thru the terms of the genre but surprisingly i find most of them intuitive and easy to understand! the footnotes help a lot

- i absolutely did not expect this book to be so funny 😭 and the humor translates pretty well even across diff languages! my favorite part is probably the ju wang joke like the set up is so elaborate it just sends me HWBBEBDBF.

- this isn’t a negative take, but im still trying to wrap my head around how time scales in the book?? like duh theyre gods but idk 800 years feels sooo long and its my first time reading a book where the protag and main cast actually are around for that long of a timespan.

- the comedic timing is honestly incredible 😭 the way heavy events r broken up by funny chaotic scenes is well spaced out and it’s a good breather from everything

- xie lian is a really interesting (and funny) narrator!!! im so invested in him as a protagonist and their backstory. i think it’s an interesting choice for this specific part of his life to be how we’re introduced to him, and i somehow feel like i still dont know him at all despite him being the Literal Narrator. very good writing! we also know now that he can be a pretty unreliable narrator based on gilded banquet, so excited to see how that affects the books that focus on his backstory.

- to add, part of why xl is so interesting is because he is somehow involved with every single damn thing so far. banyue arc? yeah he gave some food to some kids. qi rong? thats his COUSIN. gilded banquet? he was somehow involved! crimson rain sought flower? idk what their history is but it’s there! he somehow has personal stakes in every arc.

- hua cheng [sobs]. i get the hype now about mxtx love interests because that is how you Write one! it’s kinda hilarious how xl describes him because he somehow is able to identify every nuance to hc but his romantic feelings for him 😭 which… understandable! i also would not assume a literal ghost king would be in love with him but my god is he obvious about it!!!

- hua cheng deserves a 2nd bullet point! the way he acts around xl, it’s giving quiet but unwavering devotion and i am so curious! to know why he’s like this!! the moments that stand out to me r the ones where he really lets his rage take over, because most of the time… xl is on the receiving end of the transgression. when hc nearly loses his shit @ qr for the statue… wow wow wow