#my favourite jzx moment is

[fincalinde]

I’m so glad I got to read bring your flood to me right before leaving for work! in particular I really appreciated the bits where lxc was keenly aware of the injustice in how jgs treated jgy – particularly the part where jgy talks abt how he’s being allowed to plan the banquet and lxc thinks “has jzx ever planned any event in his entire life”

omg thank you! I love JZX, but the difference in how he and JGY are treated is stark. LXC really is the only one who treats JGY as an equal, not just in the sense of treating him like the war hero and deserving member of the gentry he actually is, but also in the sense of involving himself in aspects of JGY's life that are foisted on him by virtue of the prejudice against him. JGY is the one who plans the hunt at Phoenix Mountain and is both taken for granted and treated as an easy target by disgruntled attendees—and LXC doesn't hesitate to decline participation in the hunt in order to help JGY with event management duties that really should be beneath both of them. JZX might be too good to plan events, but Zewu-jun ain't and he is on the case. Plus it's a precursor to Xiyao Conferences Inc. once JGY is clan leader, so this is a thread that runs through the entire length of their relationship and it's a pleasure to see.

[truly-morgan]

[JZX coming home to his wife after a party (18+)]

XuanLi | Mo Dao Zu Shi Modern AU + Sub/Dom dynamic 12-02-2022

[#xuanli modern nsfw-ish]

Jin Zixuan who has to attend one of his father's parties and is just wanting to go back home. It's all people linked to Jin Corp in some way, be it shareholders, partners or people interested in the company.

It's also mostly all older men like his father.

Jzx has never been good with social gatherings, not when he was younger, and not today either. It seems even worse when his wife is not by his side tonight, since it's a "man-only party".

He can't wait to go home partly because he doesn't know how to deal with the old men who keep commenting on his married life, making inappropriate hypotheses about them.

Truly he was never good with them, not when he was young and still not interested in his fiance, Even less now that he was married.

They kept talking about him as if he was someone very manly and dominant, who already had a mistress like the many his father had.

As if he could have anyone else than his wife!!

But he did not respond to any of them, keeping to the facade he had created over the years. Looking disinterested and giving short and vague answers was usually enough o drive some away because he "was no fun".

The night was going by way too slowly for him and he made his escape when the people left were all a bit too drunk and now around his father. He was not needed anymore and just wanted to go home.

He went out, calling for his driver. The ride was quiet, but this was all he needed after being at such a noisy place for so long. Still feeling tense from the prolonged unwanted social interaction. The alcohol in him not helping at all.

Yet, all this built-up stress quickly melted away once he got home and was greeted by jyl.

He followed along when he was dragged to the living room, jyl making him sit nearly on her, hugging him close to her, helping him relax. "How was it?" She asked.

"Tiring, and it's always the same ild1men coming to me to see if I am finally following in my father's steps" he replied, jyl understanding what he meant due to jzx having already complained about it before. She had also witnessed how they could be.

"They even asked if I had already found a mistress," he snorted "as if cheating was such a prideful thing to do and brag about".

There was a moment of silence as he simply leaned on his wife, letting her pat his hair.

"They even asked me if I was being dominant in bed like him" he added, a mocking chuckle escaping his lips.

"Did they?" Jyl asked with a rather amused tone, "yet you are a very dominant man" she chuckled.

This made jzx chuckle quietly against her, shaking his head at her remark.

"I am sure their idea of dominant sucks too" he ended up saying after their little fit of chuckles.

🔞

jyl then shifted around a little bit, bringing her husband's legs over her lap, keeping him close to her.

"Then should we show them what a good dom is?" she asked, hands gently going from his hair to his neck, caressing his skin.

"To have you all tied up on a chair, exposed to everyone in the room, taking your favourite toy just for me while you moan sweetly~" she started.

"Or maybe I could have you parade around while wearing your prettiest lingerie? I am sure they will find you more pretty than any woman they had, my A-Xuan is the prettiest after all" she continued, smiling when she felt him shift around a bit, his breath starting to be heavy.

"I would also take that pretty chair of yours at the end of the table, sitting in it while you kneel between my legs, using that pretty and skillful mouth of yours to pleasure me until I've had enough. Of course, I would bind your arm behind you so you cannot touch yourself unless you beg correctly for it".

jyl couldn't help her chuckle when she noticed the tent that had created itself in her husband's tailored pants, teasing the erection through the clothing.

"look at you, getting so excited at the idea of all these people seeing how cute of a submissive you are for your beautiful wife, I am sure no one would see you as the dominant man in bed they think you are"

jzx couldn't help the moan that escaped his mouth when she teased him, bucking his hips up a little bit.

All her idea were only riling him up, craving for her touch. It would be terrifying to do for real (although if jyl was here he could probably do it), but the idea was still pretty exciting. so many eyes on him seeing how much of a good boy he was for his perfect wife.

"Why don't you go and put on your pretty outfit for me?" jyl whispered against his eyes, smirking when she felt him shiver in her arms, nodding obediently.

He managed to get out of her embrace, his erection now even more visible to her.

jzx made his way to their room, changing out of his formal wear to find the leather harness he has, enjoying the feeling of it hugging him around his torso and waist. He found some pretty underwear to match it.

He was patiently waiting for his wife, erection tenting his pretty underwear. He looked up the moment he heard the door open, eye curious on the box jyl was holding.

"look at you, so eagerly waiting for me~" she teased, walking over and gently stroking his chest.

her eyes landed on his nipples, looking pleased "You even wore the pretty jewel I gave you" she noticed, looking up when she didn't receive a comment on it.

"I... I was already wearing them" jzx said, blushing.

this surprised her, yet made her smile even more. What better than to hear her husband was wearing piercings while at a formal event? This made her really happy. "What a naught boy you are, wearing such lewd thing at your father's party" she commented, enjoying the shiver she felt under her fingers. "your nipple must be sensitive after rubbing against your dress shirt all night, it's a surprised no one noticed them" she smirk, "Let me kiss them better".

all jzx could do was moan and whimper at her kissing and sucking at his nipples, making them even more sensitive than they already were from the night of rubbing. It's only made him harder, hand gripping at himself to not touch himself.

When jyl had enough of teasing his nipple and kissing his chest she instead went to kiss him, making him bend over a little to do so.

"I have a surprise for you" she whispered against his lips, clearly catching his full attention again. She took the box again, opening it to reveal a new collar.

It was a leather one with a golden trip accent to it. what caught his attention though was the tag.

It was a golden dog tag with his name on it. this made him blush even more. They had other collars, but somehow this one was really special.

It was /his/ collar with /his/ name on it.

something in him was even more pleased when he noticed the lotus emblem of the jiang family carved on the other side of the other side of the tag. The symbol his wife very much still used.

This meant one thing: he was /hers/.

He bent down again without being asked to, letting her fasten the collar around his neck, a spark of excitement passing him when he felt the tag touch his skin.

"This looks perfect on you" she commented, making him even more excited about wearing it.

He was then gently dragged towards the bed after she hooked a finger on the ring holding the tag, smiling at him. "Now, why don't you show me how much of a good boy you are?".

====

that's it >:3 I love my xuanli dynamic, but it's even better if we have femdom!jyl and sub!jzx, this man will do anything for his wife and will love it

also here are some references pic of the accessory I had in mind, if anyone is curious

ofc, make the piercing gold since it jzx 😌 

[reference picture for what he's wearing]

with this kind of collar, but add some golden details to the thinner leather parts (maybe I could doddle it later when I am home 👀)

[entering the collar idea + maybe the fanart I did]

Original

[pocketfulofrecs]

This week’s Author Spotlight is here! And our author in the spotlight is glitteringmoonlight! We really love this author and it seems like many of our friends do as well. We’ve both been recommended "on restitution" so many times! A testament of how good glitteringmoonlight is. If there was a list of authors to read as a newcomer, we think she would be on it for sure.

She has published 222k+ words on MDZS on ao3 in 12 works. You can find her @glitteringmoonlight on Tumblr.

Her fics:

Dreams of You (Are All I Have Left) - [teen | 2.7k | the 13 years]

love at every s(word f)ight - [teen | 3.2k | established relationship fluff]

one of our own - [general | 7.7k | 5 times the Lans defended WWX]

pay no attention to what’s behind the curtain - [teen | 7.4k | emperor!LWJ and concubine!WWX]

this version of our story - [general | 3.4k | Lan Sizhui learns about the Wens]

no smoke without fire - [teen | 12k | outsider pov about the Yiling Patriarch]

watch what we’ll become - [teen | 59k | arranged marriage between WWX and JZX - but still wangxian]

looking through a window - [teen | 5.4k | modern au online learning outsider pov]

pitfalls of greed (our post) - [teen | 3.3k | Yiling Laozu WWX]

our lives, never ours - [teen | 7.9k | hunger games au]

on restitution - [mature | 98k | WWX doesn’t die at the siege and is kept prisoner by JC - the rest of canon still happens]

this world (what I make of it) - [teen | 17k | wip | avatar au]

Dee’s favourite: I’m honestly torn? I love pitfalls of greed. It is one of the first fics I read. BAMF WWX is my jam. Looking through a window is a great fic too! There’s something so charming about outsider POV getting a glimpse of lovely Wangxian domesticity. The descriptions of LWJ and WWX are so enchanting here. I would highly recommend them.

Ju’s favourite: This was hard to choose, but “on restitution” has a big place in my heart. I was so afraid of reading it while the author was Anonymous, because the synopsis is so sad/angsty. The moment I saw who the writer was I started reading and just couldn’t put it down. And it is just so good!!! The first chapter is really angsty and it hurts a lot, but then the rest of the fic comes and it’s way less angsty than I expected. WWX is full of life, wangxian is absolutely glorious, and soft, and romantic, and sexy, and they tease and trust each other. The juniors are also there, and we get Wei Yuan for once! They are all so in character and it makes me so happy. Mostly WWX pov, but I cannot forget to mention Jingyi’s pov. I just couldn’t stop laughing at his chapter. Cannot rec this one enough.

The Interview:

Q. When did you start writing fics? Did you have fandoms before this one?

A. I used to write for Percy Jackson and Harry Potter in the early 2010s (under a different name), though not very prolifically, but that tapered off fairly quickly. Apart from a few unpublished fic drafts for Lord of the Rings and Leverage, I only really got back into fic writing after I rewatched Avatar: The Last Airbender in 2020.

Q. What made you start writing for MDZS?

A. Wangxian! What drew me to the source material was the fact that I found Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji utterly fascinating as individual characters, but it was how much I loved their relationship dynamic that got me thinking about writing fic. There was also something about the plot and themes of MDZS itself that I found very compelling, and that made me even more interested in exploring it in fic. I didn’t realize it would lead to me writing so many fics in this fandom, but I’m certainly not complaining!

Q. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

A. That’s a really hard question to answer because I love different fics for different reasons, and at any given time, the fic I’m working on at the moment is usually my favourite. Among my finished fics, I particularly love on restitution, because of the way I got to portray Wangxian (and how many sweet, fluffy interactions I managed to fit into it, which… might seem like an odd reason given the premise, summary, and tags) and no smoke without fire, because it contains so many tropes I love— Wei Wuxian being a genius inventor, Wei Wuxian and the Wen remnants as found family, kids loving Wei Wuxian… the list goes on.

Q. What’s your favourite type of fics to read?

A. It depends on the day, really. Sometimes I love a good plot-heavy fic and other times I just want tender domestic fluff. But when it comes to MDZS, I do have a soft spot for fics of the ‘Wei Wuxian protection squad’ variety and fics that heavily feature the Wen siblings and Wei Wuxian’s relationship.

Q. What’s your favourite comment? Or type of comment?

A. Any comment at all! It’s always amazing to know that someone liked my fic(s) enough to let me know! (Though it’s a special kind of thrill to see the same person comment on multiple of my fics, because it tells me that they liked my writing enough to check out what else I’ve written)

Q. What is your favorite trope to read and/or write?

A. Established relationship and all the subtropes that encompasses! I love the familiarity, the casual intimacy, the comfort in each other’s presence… I could go on and on. I also love a good outsider POV (as evidenced by how many of them I’ve written), and as a natural consequence, established relationship from outsider POV.

Q. Do you have any advice for new authors?

A. Write what you want to read. I’ve found that it’s a lot more enjoyable to write something that you personally like, and editing feels a lot less tedious when you enjoy what you’re proofreading. Also, there’s a good chance you’ll connect with other people who enjoy the same things you do!

Q. What do you think is the most important element in writing? Plot, characterization, relationship?

A. They’re all important, but characterization drives everything else, I feel. The characters— and the way they react to situations and to each other— influence how the plot progresses and the relationships develop, so characterization is an essential part of writing.

~

Check out their stories on ao3 and remember…

Comments and kudos feed the author’s soul.

[pharahsgf]

hate cql fix-its that have the golden core reveal happen early/wwx telling the jiangs that then has a domino effect of fixing every wrong that happens thereby implying that everything bad that happens was wwx's fault for not telling ppl he doesn't have a core. and then the way people rewrite the cool shit wwx does so that other characters do it but ~better and ~smarter like it's somehow less offensive and more effective when it's not wwx. like him crashing the banquet to ask about the wens or when he told jgs off for trying to marry off jyl to jzx like iconic wwx moments that no one else has the range for. also just like pretending that the issue was SOLELY that no one had the context to understand wwx's behavior and not also that he was deliberately sabotaged by the sects and his own brother. like i will not argue that having context for his behavior would have helped lwj, jyl, and possibly some other characters to understand and protect him better or at least sympathize w him but you can't tell me it'd make much of a difference to the cultivation world as a whole, or to jc as soon as the public's perception of wwx and wwx's morals began to clash with jc's position. imo concealing the lost gc was most impactful on his close personal relationships like i think in the end the cultivation world would have come to look at him the same way as an evil unnatural heretic who should shut up, stay down, and play nice in the face of the sects' immorality. which isn't smth jc ever disagreed with btw like why do ppl think jc would suddenly back wwx as his super powerful necromancer second when jc already HAD that option and kicked wwx out anyway. add to that the pressure the other sects would add to get rid of the useless cultivator without a core who relies on evil tricks and jc would turn on wwx twice as fast.

omg, my least favourite genre of mdzs fic. the sects opposed wei wuxian because he was powerful and uncontrollable, because he insulted them, because he aligned himself with outsiders. revealing his corelessness wouldn't suddenly have made him a misunderstood hero, just an easier target; providing a motive for his use of demonic cultivation doesn't make it any less dangerous & the revelation that resentful energy can elevate a non-cultivator above a cultivator's level would present a genuine political threat to the sects' power. you mentioned it already but it would not erase the other grievances the sects have with him and just cement him as even more unnatural.

also. i do have to mention that while a lot of these aus seem to care a great deal about letting jiang cheng save the day and be a good brother, most of them just make him look... way worse. jiang cheng jumping to wei wuxian's defense the moment he realises wei wuxian gave him his core means that jiang cheng was always able to support wei wuxian, but didn't think he deserved it enough. and if wei wuxian explaining himself to the sects would earn their support and acceptance, he owes his canonical death to jiang cheng, who effectively isolated him from the cultivation world by lying to him and lying about him to the sects.

for wei wuxian, at that time, a golden core reveal is a huge gamble that for all he knows won't net him much more than shock and pity, and choosing to use his status as a shield was the safest play. he is not self-sabotaging or stupid for refusing to put himself and those under his protection at risk.

[paradife-loft]

For the reverse unpopular opinions meme, Zixuan! (Or if you'd rather my maximum gremlin brain option—Jin Guangshan?)

nooooo not maximum gremlin brain! 🤣🤣🤣

but ok, Jin Zixuan -

I do at this point find his hopeless dumbass behaviour during early CQL pretty endearing, honestly. like, genuine snob moments aside (*sniffs* “this tea is stale”), it’s pretty easy for me to read a lot of what he does as - growing up in a pretty fucked environment interpersonally-speaking, and reacting to circumstances he doesn’t quite know how to deal with by... resorting to situationally-understandable maladaptive responses, just like everyone else in the story. and like for the majority of the cast, my emotional response to that is positive! kinda wanna wrap him in a blanket. and then cuff him over the head for being a dumbass.

one of my favourite things with him actually, is how we see some of the post-Sunshot miscommunications between him and JYL playing out? in part because it seems like a partial microcosm of the culture clash between Yunmeng Jiang and Lanling Jin. we get charming conversations like these:

JZX: “so would you like to come to the Phoenix Mountain hunt as my guest?”

JYL: *hopeful expression; maybe boy I like actually likes me back??*

JZX: “...my mother wanted me to extend you an invitation, ofc” [translation: giving both of us some face for falling back on Proper Established Social Relationships Between Our Parents if you don’t actually like me as a person]

JYL: *hears “this invitation actually has nothing to do with how I feel about you and is just for politeness bc my mom likes you* “oh :( yeah I guess”

 - and yeah just, the way he repeatedly shoots himself in the foot by reading everything through the five-layers-of-plausible-deniability method of communicating that they tend to have going on at Jinlintai. (has he picked up any other decent politically-useful skills from this environment? nope! but he sure has figured out how to tie himself in knots not saying what he means. good job sir XD)

oh, and also - the other big thing that I appreciate about him, on a more serious level than just being entertained by his particular flavor of dysfunction, is the implication via Soup Drama that he is aware of the problem of higher-ranked people stealing the work and achievements of lower-ranked people within the Jin army during Sunshot, and at least in theory cares enough about this being a bad thing to do that he’ll take action over it? like, I’ve gestured in this direction before, but. it’s certainly not some sort of proactive attempt to weed out corruption in the ranks or anything; he’s just not the sort of person (at this point?) to do that! but I think it does speak to... a capacity that’s there, at least, to recognise injustice and not stand for it in the right circumstances, which in a better world could perhaps have been nurtured and leveraged into a force for some amount of good by having the relevant people around him. (do I mean a nice fantasy universe where JGY has a stable and valued and trusted position as his brother’s right hand? I mean, yeah. would this particular version of changing things for the better in the manner of pulling teeth accomplish more or less than his canonical achievements? I don’t know, honestly. it’s just a lot of hypotheticals.) - the point being, positive character growth, particularly in the area of recognising a type of systemic injustice? it’s a small thing, but I do appreciate it, particularly when he is by and large so narrow in his focus on what he’s actively interested in doing.

(I have.... a lot of headcanon about what JZX’s subjective experiences and the circumstances of his life were like, ftr, that are all pretty much coming out of a general interest in reading characters fairly sympathetically wherever possible. and what can I say, in the context of this particular story, I don’t find his particular sins of continual inaction where he might have made a big difference if he were more active, to be worthy of emotionally tossing out the baby and bathwater both. other folks’ mileage is justified in varying.)

--

Jin Guangshan......

well, okay. it is true that his experienced manipulation of all the younger sect leaders after the Sunshot campaign is quite a skillful and delightful thing to see, in the part of my brain that likes to do nothing but amorally watch a bunch of political intrigue for its own sake and munch on popcorn.

and that is all I am going to say there 😂

[sneakydraws]

Well, here it is - a lengthy explanation of each card in my mdzs major arcana deck and what I meant to convey/what i would have changed in retrospect/what alternatives i considered! It’s a bit messy and my typing style is lazy but hopefully it will be an interesting read to some of you :)

And so you don’t say I didn’t warn you - jiang cheng’s section (11 justice) is absurdly long lmao

0 the fool  I elaborated on this in the post itself but yeah basically jin ling is kind of representative of all the damage and trauma caused by the past, and there’s a kind of danger there of him falling victim to the same vices as the older characters and repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating the cycle of war and misery (the cycle that we already see with how the jin sect became the new wen sect, and later with how jgy became the new wwx) and he has a lot of room to grow! He grows so much over the course of the novel, comes to realise the complexities of the past and gets a harsh life lesson in how nothing is as black and white as it seems. But ill save talking about his progress for the end, for now whats important is that he has room to grow and also a dog. I don’t really have a justification for the sun, i mostly just thought it looked sick? It made its way to the next card as well, where it makes a bit more sense, but then i realised it was a dumb motif to include 1 the magician I still very much like wwx for the role, and that illustration would have probably had him raising a corpse on his left and pointing threateningly to the sun on his right. I considered including the table as well, with some mdzs relevant items replacing the card suits. Anyway, like i said wwx got a few cards to himself already so i went with the alternative wq design, since i think she fits the card as well. Both she and wwx are highly skilled people, extremely driven once they set their mind to something. The card to me symbolises the creative mind as well as a general drive for action, which fits them both - wwx was famously a prolific inventor, and wq came up with a previously unheard of surgery, after all. This card strays pretty far from the rider-waite deck design, largely because i was still figuring out how i wanted to approach this series, but you can still see the influence. 2 the high priestess I was actually going to skip this card at first because I couldn’t think of a fitting character, but once i considered a qings character post death, it all fit pretty well. She was already a highly intuitive person in life, and in sharing her memories with wwx she is, in a way, relaying a kind of secret knowledge. Anyway she’s one of my fav characters so im glad i got a chance to include her. The coffins could be interpreted to be xxc and sl or xxc and xy 3 the empress Theres other mother figures in mdzs who got to be mothers for a longer time, but jyl definitely embodies the positive aspects of this card the best. She’s nurturing, kind, emotionally supportive, she already mothered wwx and jc quite a bit when she was young. Plus i liked that the rw card had both water and flowers, making an easy lotus connection. In retrospect the stars look kind of out of place and i should have replaced them with something more relevant... Also, i should have had her hold a lotus seed pod instead of a flower, haha 4 the emperor Like i said I considered jc for the role but hoching bullied me into admitting that nmj was better… they’re both more of an inverted emperor than an upright one but then again theres hardly any character in mdzs who would fit upright emperor so. Jgs was also considered but he’s even uglier than nmj so i couldn’t bear to draw him 5 the hierophant It was pointed out to me that lqr would have fit this card better and the truth if that statement haunts me to this day. Unfortunately I have no space in my brain for lqr so lxc got the role instead. My main reason was his role during the wen destruction of gusu lan, when he ran away with the contents of the library - this is why there’s bookshelves behind him. The keys, take, from the rider-waite deck, are meant to represent the gusu pendants that allow you to enter 6 the lovers Im sure many people would have chosen wangxian here but I uhh don’t really care abt wangxian personally? And also their love story is so convoluted that jyl and jzx seem idyllic by comparison lol. Also i didnt really have an idea for who to put in the angel’s place for wangxian… mme jin certainly did not get these two together in the end but undeniably she and mme yu did initially give them a chance to fall for each other so. Thats something i guess. Anyway the trees became their sects’ flowers and the mountain became the burial grounds - an omen of their tragic fate, basically 7 the chariot There might have been other characters who fit this card better but i couldn’t really think of another card for lwj and i thought it would be weird to not include him… anyway i don’t really care for current timeline lwj BUT i do like that he was clearly influenced by wwx to walk his own path in life based on his moral convictions rather than follow his sect’s rules blindly. The chariot is to me a card of self control, self determination and focused action, so it seemed fitting. The composition felt kind of empty without the actual chariot so i padded it out with the guqin, the cloud recess in the bg (it doesn’t look great but i tried to replicate the drama design….) and the bunnies which conveniently fit the colour scheme of the sphinxes in the rider-waite design 8 strength Like i said before, my interpretation of this card is more… morally ambiguous than the quote unquote official meaning, so i thought about manipulative or duplicitous characters more than kind characters whose strength is expressed through gentleness (though i did consider jyl briefly for the latter interpretation). As such, i considered both jgy and nhs, but ended up going with jgy largely because i couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put the nie sect’s beast as the lion. 9 the hermit My thoughts immediately went to bssr lol. It may be an overly literal interpretation but whatever, i like it just fine. And i like that i managed to echo the rider-waite silhouette in the mountain and the tree (and even in bssr herself) 10 wheel of fortune God i love the parallels between these 2… this card to me is about how you cant trust your current situation, good or bad, to last forever, and these 2 embody that perfectly imo. Wwx went from son of a well off servant and a powerful cultivator, to street rat orphan, to adopted son of sect leader jiang, to double orphan, to MIA, to terrifying but admired warrior, to terrifying and despised traitor, to dead, to, at the very end, suddenly respected and trusted again. The dishonesty and cheapness of whatever the public’s current opinion of him is is portrayed beautifully as far as im concerned. And jgy of course claws his way up to power only to instantaneously become public enemy number one, to the point that he’s probably blamed for stuff there’s no reason to believe he had a hand in. Wei wuxian’s silent astonishment at how quickly the cultivation world turns against jgy and towards him again is a delicious moment of thematic resonance.  11 justice I settled on this card for jc after he got booted from the emperor seat but i do think it fits, in a somewhat convoluted way. I turned both the sword and the scales into visual representations of the golden core transfer (can you tell im obsessed with it). According to biddy tarot, the justice card is partly about searching for the truth, and the scene where jc finds out about the transfer is of course a big deal. I was also very influenced by the reversed meaning again - which is about being reluctant or unwilling to face or accept the consequences of your actions. I feel on an intuitive level that this fits jc but I’m not sure how well i can explain it - it’s something about how he’s a little too comfortable scapegoating wwx for things that were also, if much less so, influenced by his actions, and also something about the way he keeps wwx at an arm’s length emotionally but still leans on him and accepts his support when he really needs it, and somewhat hypocritically expects wwx to put the needs of him and the jiang sect before the needs of others. And also something about the core exchange is the consequence and proof of wwx’s deep - terrifyingly deep, even - love and care for him, which is something jc doesn’t seem to let himself acknowledge. Maybe even something about how you could argue that the way all of the jiangs acted around wwx - jfm’s favouritism that left him with the feeling of a debt he needs to repay, mme yus insistence that he be a servant more than a brother to jc, prepared to give his life for jc, and jc’s own unwillingness - or inability, he was a child after all - to clearly acknowledge wwx as an equal to himself, enabling wwx’s self sacrificial and protective tendencies - that all of this was what caused wwx’s complete and unquestioning willingness to do whatever it took to protect jc, and therefore paved the way to the golden core transfer. And i don’t mean this to be scapegoating jc - especially considering how young he was when this all went down, it wouldn’t be fair to expect this level of emotional perceptiveness, awareness and maturity of him - but i think adult jc has to grapple with the fact that the chain of cause and effect was not as simple as wwx fucking everyone’s lives up to be a martyr, and that both jc and his parents had a role in that story as well. I don’t even necessarily think this is something that jc only realised in the current timeline - i think it’s something he felt on some level this whole time, and it probably led to a lot of feelings of guilt - but the suibian reveal definitely puts it in sharp focus, and i think he’s now better equipped to handle this introspection than he was as a recently orphaned, traumatised teenager, lol. ANYWAY the window with the fabric is both a nod to the rider-waite design and a reference to the destruction of lanling - i actually did some basic ass research for this, and it seems that in ancient china fabric would indeed be hanged in a window if the normally used paper was damaged. The design of the window, as well as the very idea to use it to imply the reconstruction of lanling, was taken from this great piece of jc angst by my pal moroll1! Oh yeah also the covered window kind of works as a denial of forgiveness for jc because it’s like a halo but covered up... Also I completely forgot to put a blindfold over his eyes which would be perfectttt because blind justice and the core exchange......... ok moving on 12 the hanged man I always have issues with this card because i cant find a satisfactory summary of what it’s really about. Best i can tell it symbolises a need to hit pause, surrender or let go of something… ive also seen it tied to sacrifice? So mo xuanyu doesn’t fit perfectly, but sacrifice is definitely there in a surface level reading kind of way, and the idea that you have to surrender or let go in order to achieve your goal does fit the whole deal of getting revenge but giving up your life in exchange and not being there to see it 13 death This is probably one of my favourite cards, definitely not because I have huge issues with change or anything…. I see this card as signalling the necessity of change or putting an end to something / leaving something in the past in order to start anew? At first i considered putting past wwx, mxy and current wwx here as a kind of transformation and one cycle flowing into the next... But firstly, I’d already used mxy in the very previous card, so putting him in again would feel like overkill, and secondly, the longer I thought about it the less convinced I was that this would even fit with the card’s meaning? Because coming back from the dead doesn’t like... trigger an internal transformation within wwx or anything? Anyway, fun fact: the design I ended up going with was actually originally intended for judgement! I thought I was being very clever with the whole “figure plays an instrument and the dead rise” parallel, but apparently I’d just completely forgotten that the judgement card had a completely different composition... Truly I was boo boo the fool... But yeah anyway at the end of the day I figured the design would kind of work for death as well, with Wen Ning and the theme of transformation, (since in his case coming back as a fierce corpse does actually mark a certain transformation in behaviour) and Wei Wuxian’s protection of the Wen people essentially signifying an attempt to break the cycle of oppression if that makes any sense? Like, wwx is trying to revolutionise the way the world works a bit, if you catch my drift 14 temperance  The centrist card! Again this is probably going off track from the “official” interpretation, but to me this card has a certain “don’t commit fully; do everything in moderation; don’t take either side” flavour to it that i personally find infuriating irl and that i very much assign to lxc. It’s entirely possible that I’m misinterpreting his character because i didn’t really pay him (and the 3zun in general) much mind while reading, but hell, I’m allowed to pick favourites and choose who i want to interpret deeply vs shallowly. Again, i wish id chosen lqr for hierophant because its so annoying for a character i don’t care about to get two cards…. But oh well 15 the devil My alternative idea for this was jgy as the devil and lxc plus nmj as the figures, but since all three had been featured already (multiple times, even!) i figured I’d go with xy instead, especially since he’s among my faves lol. I think the devil signifies something along the lines of unhealthy attachment, obsession or addiction, which isn’t 100% accurate in the case of xxc and a-qing, but if i stretch it a bit to cover toxic relationships in general, and especially manipulation or negative influence, i don’t think it’s half bad. My main struggle here was to choose who amongst the xxc/sl/aq trio to choose for the human figures. 16 the tower Arguably jin zixuans death and the following massacre of nightless city were the final and most direct reason for the siege of burial mounds, and the tiger seal is good shorthand for wwx’s loss of control over his powers, which led to the deaths of jzx and jyl. When reimagining major arcana i like to feature some kind of building in this card (spoilers for a possible future project but in my rose of versailles major arcana set the tower is bastille) and even if it’s not a tower, the image of wwx looming over the gathered crowd from atop a rooftop is so good i couldn’t resist 17 the star Struggled with this one - considered both jin ling and lsz for it, as symbolising a hope for the future, but that was kind of covered by the world so it wouldn’t make sense to include here as well... As usual when I struggle with interpreting a card (as opposed to understanding it but struggling with matching a character to it, like with death or moon) I went to biddy tarot and read all the details about its meaning. What i got was that this card signifies an incoming period of introspection and inner peace following a time of turmoil, as well as a general moving on into a new, better phase of one’s life or finding new meaning and purpose. The figure also suggests someone vulnerable, but possessing a keen sense of intuition as well as a good degree of practicality and common sense. Given all those, I settled for mianmian because IM LOVE HER..... I also kind of see her as a prelude to the “just one person is enough” theme present in tgcf!! And i think her decision to abandon her sect because she saw the toxicity and corruption in it is a very inspiring action - even if it didn’t make a large visible impact, i think the appearance of her and her idyllic family at the very end of the novel - paralleling and mirroring wangxian - implies that at the end of the day, it was a meaningful one 18 the moon Another card i ALWAYS fuxking struggle with - this time less because i can’t grasp its meaning and more because I can never find a character that fits it well. I usually get fixated on the “dreams and subconscious” part, but if i lean more on the “disguise, deceit, anxiety and fear” part, i eventually figured the whole yi city arc wouldn’t be a bad fit. I say the entire arc because it really does encompass all those themes if you include both the past and the present - xue yang’s disguise, his tricks with the villagers, a-qing’s lies and even xxc’s reluctance to talk about his past as well as xue yang pretending to be xxc all fit the disguise and deceit angle, and the general mystery and creepiness of the current timeline yi city work well with the anxiety and fear - the mist, the slow uncovering of the past, even a-qing being revealed to be an ally after scaring the shit out of the protags. I definitely struggled with including all the elements and characters, and even moreso with making them vaguely fit the rider-waite composition, but i think it ended up okay ish. OH and i completely forgot to draw mist swirling around them :( 19 the sun I was considering mianmian’s family for this one, but since I used her for star, I ended up with wwx and his parents instead. Once again I’m reinterpreting the card a bit - normally I think it symbolises incoming times of pure happiness and abundance, as well as a connection with the inner child, but I gave it more of a nostalgic or sentimental twist - wwx looking back at the brief glimpse of his happy childhood. 20 judgement another card that i struggle to interpret a bit... Here i actually used the tgcf tarot zine as a reference! In it judgement is summarised as “rebirth, following duty, absolution” SO i figured that nhs, mxy and wwx all together would fit pretty neatly... wwx achieving (public) absolution through clearing his own name after being reborn, and nhs sort of calling on wwx to expose jgy’s crimes... It’s a bit messy but not bad I think! 21 the world This ties very closely to my read on mdzs as a story - which is that it’s, at the end of the day, largely about cycles, and about how hard it is to break them, but how we gotta keep trying and have hope anyway. Or maybe more precisely, that the people directly involved with and influenced by the trauma of the past might not be able to get over said trauma and that the hope for healing from it will be shouldered by the new generation. Or something like that… Basically what i mean is that jc and wwx and lwj and lxc and nhs and jgy and all these people who were in the thick of the sunshot campaign and the siege are so profoundly affected by it that it genuinely feels by the end of the story like there is little hope for them to ever truly overcome that trauma and build a better future without repeating the same old mistakes - but there is a glimmer of hope in the new generation, specifically in jl and lsz. And it’s a bit paradoxical, because they have also been directly impacted by the past tragedies - lsz having his entire clan wiped out after wwx failed to protect them, jl losing both his parents to wwx’s mistakes - but despite that loss, and despite coming from arguably the two opposing sides of the past conflicts, they are both, in the end, capable of moving past that tragedy, of recognising the complicated nature of those conflicts (jl’s moment of clarity at the end is both heartbreaking and hopeful) and forging friendships between clans in the process. I honestly think that the extra where jl is struggling to assert his authority as sect leader, to treat his subjects well and to cooperate with other sects in a truly amicable way is the single hopeful ending note for the larger themes of the novel - it allows us to imagine that maybe these kids can learn from the mistakes of their elders rather than getting sucked in by resentment at those mistakes, and actually build a brighter future for the cultivation world. And sidenote, this is also why i have a soft spot for jin ling and lan sizhui as a ship... speaking of which their poses were directly referenced from the lovers card ehehe

Looking back, I’d like to add some symbol of jin ling’s trauma so that it mirrors baby wen yuan in the tree stump... maybe his father’s sword? 

[yea-baiyi]

gonna make a tags list for this blog for my own reference:

(updated 07/03/2023)

shows, books and characters generally tagged with abbreviations, chinese name preferred (so shl rather than woh, cql over the untamed). unless it’s a 2 syllable chinese name then USUALLY i tag in full (wuxi, xiao zhan, etc). ship name usually in full.

my art and my edits will generally be tagged as such

- meta stuff: general meta posts, including mine! sometimes i just go off in the tags idk - art stuff, gif stuff, art ref

- funnies, faves

- fic prompt

specific fandom tags

cql:

- big cql meta - all posts that cover or are reference for the giant all encompassing cql meta that exists in my head, pretty much just my personal cql meta tag

- heart eyes hanguang jun - lwj love

- wwx beloved girlie - when wwx is so fucking Gender

- happy hanguang june / july

- baby lwj - he’s a baby ok i hoard posts of teenage lwj and i cry

- adhd wwx / cradles gently - look i will project my adhd self full force onto wwx and nobody can stop me

- autistic lwj - i’m working on a detailed analysis on this one so current posts are mostly for my own reference!

- jl’s skywalker moment - reference tag for my cql fic

- lxc loves his didi - look the one thing i love abt lxc with no reservations is how much he loves his didi

- lan jingyi is my favourite character - bc he is

- jiang cheng stannery - this is a pro-jiang cheng zone

- yunmeng heroes/trio - i love pain!!!

- i can’t believe i have to stan jzx - jzx meta..... 

tgcf:

- xianxia jesus - xie lian tag

- my hyperfixation demon - hua cheng tag

- tgcf reread/rereading tgcf- all my notes n ramblings while rereading tgcf

- hua cheng is the normal one in this relationship - yelling abt hualian

- old men au - lmao

- homeric hyperfixation haze - posts on mxtx and greek mythology

- flop byron demon xuan - he xuan tag

- yelling is a love language - fengqing tag

- hx has beef and sqx is leaf - beefleaf tag

other:

- qiye screaming - qiye is phenomenal i still can not shut the fuck up about it

- best character ever created - ye baiyi obviously

- man of the soft baby eyes - for my zhang zhehan obsession

- my favourite little man - dongfang qingcang tag

[crossdressingdeath]

Phoenix Mountain serves a purpose for so many things that it’s once of my favourite moments in the novel. It told us about the soup incident and that JZX will stand up for a servant, but while good intentions he only knew one side which was good foreshadowing for his death. Good intentions but not understanding the full picture. We see how much WWX loved JYL and she loved him and they make it clear it’s a familial bond and they always stood up for the other.

We get JC showing up after the conflict happens and only hears people talking about how arrogant and disrespectful WWX had just been acting and JC takes their word for it. Maybe he doesn’t fully believe them but he lets their words influence him way too easily.

We even get a privilege aspect to it, right after we find out while WWX took a third of the prey, JGY doesn’t reveal until after everyones scatted that NMJ had killed over of the prey and LWJ takes note of it. So while everyone got on WWX’s case of taking a third, no one dared to say anything about NMJ and if we say they didn’t know, JGY still didn’t bring it up until everyone was gone and LXC even laughs saying that’s how NMJ is. So while NMJ gets a pass, WWX gets the brunt of it. Not that LXC was one of the people going after WWX, but it shows how no one went “well that’s how he is” and laugh it off for WWX like for NMJ.

There’s no much that happens in this flashback and I love it, I always pick up new details I missed whenever I reread it.

Yeah, Phoenix Mountain has so much going for it! It’s great! It does a good job of summing up WWX’s position, too; he’s got JYL’s support and (although he doesn’t know it) LWJ’s love, but the rest of the world will target him even if he’s not doing anything different from what they’re doing and JC will side with the people telling lies about him despite the fact that there’s no reason for him to believe them.

You know, I didn’t even really notice the fact that NMJ basically does the same fucking thing WWX did but JGY doesn’t even mention it until everyone’s gone and everyone who does hear that NMJ also took a solid third of the prey just... laughs it off. It’s only a problem because it’s an inconvenience that JGY has to overcome, which is easy enough to do just by increasing the size of the hunting grounds; what can you do about it, NMJ’s just like that, we can hardly stop him from being a badass! But when WWX does the same thing, just using the demonic cultivation that the sects praised all throughout the war instead of a sword, he’s arrogant, it’s improper, how dare he “cheat” like that. JYL is the only person to call them out on the fact that WWX didn’t break any rules or do anything wrong, just used all the tools at his disposal; they didn’t complain about NMJ going all out with his sword and killing everything he could, so from a purely objective standpoint there is no reason for them to complain about WWX using demonic cultivation. Of course, the real reason is that they think WWX is too powerful; reading deeper, the real real reason is that... WWX is, as far as the sects are concerned, a commoner. He’s reaching above his station. The mere son of a servant has no right to embarrass the sects so thoroughly. It’s fine for NMJ to take a third of the prey, he’s a sect leader, but WWX? WWX is nobody. None of these high fancy nobles want to face the fact that this nobody son of a servant is stronger than any of them, and in fact probably stronger than most of them put together. 

And since WWX is the power behind the Jiang sect and less power behind the Jiang sect makes it easier for JGS to shove his boot down JC’s throat (no, I am not done with the ��JC is a Jin bootlicker” comments and I likely never will be), that makes him a target even beyond him being the son of a servant. It’s not just the sects making a point of targeting him in particular, the Jins are also push for him to be seen as a target. Note that JGY deliberately waits for everyone to leave before saying that NMJ did pretty much the same thing WWX did; anyone who might have gotten as upset about NMJ as they did about WWX is gone when NMJ’s actions come up. The whole targeting of WWX is actually fairly brilliant on the part of the Jins; they combine JC’s blatant disregard for and unwillingness to defend his brother with societal beliefs on people climbing up the social ladder into what is essentially the perfect storm; all they needed was the opportunity to unleash it, which WWX and to a certain extent WQ unwittingly give them when she goes to him for help with the Wens. It’s... horrible and evil, but brilliant.

[theyilinglaozus]

Oh yes, JC and WWX are a very well written sibling relationship, just like all the others! Each one is different, and that's what makes them unique, I don't think I've ever seen a series with such well written, and well developing, relationships! Even though it is very heartbreaking, indeed, and I'm still sad that JC and WWX didn't get to reconcile in the end... although that was plausible. "What am I supposed to do? Say thank you, and then sorry?" sums it up p well -✨

as JC cannot change the past anymore, he now knows that WWX was not the one mainly responsible for all the terrible things but after all that happened I understand that there is no reconciliation, even though it does break my heart. The friendships between WN and WWX/NHS and WWX are some of my favourites as well! Especially NHS and WWX, they're just so innocent in the beginning and seeing how time changes them is very interesting. My fav sibling dynamic to explore is NHS and NMJ, though! -✨

It's very interesting how different they are, and obviously NHS loved NMJ a great deal, while NMJ was rather strict to him... I'm also not ashamed of saying I love modern AUs where they're best bros. One of my favourite modern AU things, though, is platonic 3zun and WWX/NHS//JYL/JZX all coexisting and 3zun being excited brothers about everything. Now, do you enjoy reading modern AUs? And what's your favourite fanfic plot/trope, no matter if set in canon or AU? -✨

Ugh, the variation and depth to all the sibling and friend relationships in MDZS are just 👏 so 👏 good! It really makes it difficult to pick favourites sometimes, doesn’t it? I adore Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng and knew from the get go they were my favourite siblings, but then you have their interactions with Yanli too who is, best older sister right there alongside Wen Qing. I have a bit of a weakness for well written sibling bonds, so finding so many in the series without expecting it? Honestly, it just made me love the series all the more 💖

I absolutely agree with you! Half the heartache of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng’s lack of reconciliation is just ... where do you even begin, really? All either of them ever wanted to do was protect the other, and look what happened. There’s a lot of anger and resentment (on Jiang Cheng’s part at least) there, but also a lot of yearning and sadness. Because they love each other so dearly and both want to be brothers again, but they’re older now and know that sometimes, you just can’t return to the way things were 💔

I actually sort of see the end of the drama as rather hopeful for their relationship, though. Because the important thing (at least on Wei Wuxian’s part) has been talked about, and even if Jiang Cheng is still struggling with the golden core reveal, it’s the step forward they needed. Jin Ling knows the two of them want to talk and sort things out but are too stubborn to do so ... but I wouldn’t be surprised if Jin Ling ends up bringing them together somehow. He is, after all, their sisters’ son for all he seems to mirror Jiang Cheng. Jin Ling has her caring side and the stubborn side to likely lock them in a room together until they talked things through 😂

The Nie brothers are so interesting! They care so much (enough that Nie Huaisang came up with the ultimate revenge plan. Honestly, what a king 👑). Have you had a chance to watch Fatal Journey with them at all? It’s high up on my to watch list, and it looks so intriguing! To be honest I think Huaisang is just an incredible character anyway. His brother is a little strict, yes, but it feels like tough love to me. Mingjue knows what Huaisang is really capable of and what potential he has, even with the facade Huaisang puts up for the rest of the world. 

Oh, I love reading modern AU’s 😍 Since we’ve shared fic recs before CC, here are a few good ones I’ve read recently: Martial Claims by yeolinski, I’ll have you and you’ll have me by sundiscus and These Things Stay the Same by notevenyou.

As for tropes ... oh, wow. It sort of depends on the pairing and the story. I’ve read a lot of fic set in settings that I never thought I’d like half as much as I do, and a lot of the time it’s down to how good the writing is! As clique as it sounds, I do enjoy a good coffee shop or college au from time to time. But I also really enjoy things like ‘meeting in a bookstore’ or ‘flowershop au’s’. I think my favourite tropes are sort of getting together, mutual pining, miscommunication and a lot of fluff and comfort smut is always welcome too, but sometimes it’s not necessary if the story doesn’t feel it needs it, you know? 

At the moment, I have found that I am yearning for a good ice skating!wangxian fic. I think that’s due to a mix of me thinking it would be perfect for them, watching this ice skating performance too many times for it to be regarded as healthy, desperately missing watching ice skating on the telly, the announcement for more Yuri on Ice a while back, and it just being winter time 😅 (Plus like ... wangxian ice skating to songs Lan Wangji writes and creates for Wei Wuxian them? Perfect!)

I have found that for wangxian (since that’s the Untamed ship I read the most) that I prefer modern AU’s for the getting together, and canon more for established relationships / exploring already existing character connections. Not saying it doesn’t switch out between the two ever, but I just seem to gravitate to that more. 

I know you mentioned before you often write darker fic, but do you have any specific tropes you enjoy reading or writing more than others?

Oh! And while I remember and we’re on the topic of fic, if you enjoy the Nie brothers, I also recommend the fic The Light that Fails to Dim by glowingreverie. It includes a Wei Wuxian that is found and adopted by the Nie sect, Nie brothers (there are three of them with Wei Ying included!), Wei Wuxian still having connections to the Jiang clang, and is honestly just such an unusual yet interesting take on things that I think you’d really enjoy it! 💖

[thegreymoon]

Salty Ask list: 9. Most disliked arc? Why?, 20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?, and 27. Least shippable character? The saltier the better!!!

Thank you for the ask, anon!! 💜💜

OK, I will answer both 9 and 10 (because the most disliked arc is no. 10 😅) I have already answered some of these earlier, so I will copy/paste those, if that’s OK! 

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

For Merlin:

Agravaine. He’s just the worst. So greasy and sleazy and just, yuck. Yuck, overall. He’s not even one of those characters one can love to hate, like, for example, Uther, who is also simply the worst, but who will preoccupy you in ways you never saw coming! When it comes to Agravaine, everything about him was so thoroughly hateful, frustrating and unenjoyable, the highlight of the entire season was finally watching him go splat against the wall! The second most hated is that girlfriend of Gwaine’s at the very end that was plying him for information. That entire sequence is just so mind-numbingly infuriating, I can’t even think of it without getting angry. It almost ruined Gwaine for me entirely.

For The Untamed:

Oh, finally an easy one!! 😂😂 Wen Chao, Wang Lingjiao and Wen Zhuliu are in a tight race for the first place here and who is winning depends entirely on who I’m looking at in that precise moment! Of course, Wen Ruohan and Wen Xu can get into the hate bucket too, but they were so bland and boring, they cannot really compare. Jin Guangshan is also the worst, I can’t stand him. The only reason I hate the Wens more is that Jin Guangshan is actually a competent villain on a higher scale of villainy than the previous lot. Jin Zixun is also awful, a ridiculously unredeemable character on every front and Su She can also have an honourable mention.

10. Most disliked arc? Why?

For Merlin: 

Oooh! There are so many!! But I think the ones that I rant about the most often are those related to Gwen! Everything about Gwencelot makes me rage! I dislike him and how he treated her and just do not see this epic ~love~ there, at least not on his part, yet they kept bringing him back to mess up her life over and over again. 

Mind you, I am not the biggest fan of Arthur in this context either, he was a terrible boyfriend (though a somewhat better husband because Merlin picked up the slack), even though Arwen >>> Gwencelot by miles and miles. I hated how he would break up with her every five minutes over nonsense and then come crawling back. I hated how she always immediately forgave him, all grateful and relieved, and I always felt like she didn’t really have a choice because the power imbalance between them was staggering. Plus, the fact that she was the one who nursed Uther in his last months after everything he had done to her, and that Arthur had let it happen, infuriates me to no end. 

My loathing for that whole cheating arc is infinite. I hate how the writers could not make up their minds about what they wanted to do with her. On the one hand, they were such cowards in their attempts to keep her ideologically pure, they had already sacrificed a lot of her quirkiness and character to suit Arthur’s needs and wants and to make him look good, so they were reluctant to have her actually cheat because it would undermine him. I don’t understand why they even had to have that entire arc if they were so afraid to go there. She was supposed to be under mind-control, and then they pointed out that the spell works by bringing suppressed emotions to the forefront! Why was that necessary? I mean, you can’t have it both ways! Either do it and own it, or just leave it alone! It would have been so easy to have her choose Lancelot and develop a proper romance there, and then to have Lancelot die, and Gwen fall in love with Arthur afterwards, as he supports her while she grieves. But, no, they had to take this cheap shot at her and humiliate her and have her cleaning pigsties just so that Arthur can angst about it for a few episodes. I am forever mad. 

I also dislike the whole evil!Gwen arc (though a part of me did enjoy watching her go apeshit after quietly swallowing so much injustice throughout the entire five seasons of this show). I feel like they were intentionally undermining the character and her entire relationship with Arthur. The whole cheating nonsense so late into season 4 had already done so much damage, then they went and pulled this poorly-thought-out crap in the second half of season 5, when emotions were already running high and nobody was in the mood to be forgiving of someone trying at and almost succeeding in killing Arthur, who was so much more beloved among the viewers than her. Just imagine how much better spent that time would have been if they had... oh, I don’t know, developed Mordred more and given him a proper reason to turn against Arthur! 

Ugh 😒

For The Untamed: 

I dislike the whole Yanli/JZX romance. I don’t know what he’s like in the novel and the other adaptations, but he gets on my very last nerve in the drama and I never actually saw him do anything meaningful to redeem himself for all the crap he pulled and all the humiliation he piled on to her. I also don’t like the whole Yin Iron nonsense. It just doesn’t tie in properly and the plot holes and inconsistencies it leaves behind are gaping and huge (but, happily, nobody is watching this for the Yin Iron plot 😆). There had to have been better things to do there, especially since it is something that does not exist in the source material. The worst parts of the drama for me somehow always tie back to the Yin Iron. 

20. What is the purest ship in the fandom?

For Merlin:

Hmmm… when it comes to the most popular ones, I think none of them, because they all get complicated and dark to some degree. But on a platonic level, when it comes to friendships, I would go with Merwen, Merlance and Merwaine. Merlin and Gwen are delightful together, but I have a hard time shipping them romantically without Arthur, there is just no path forward for me there that does not involve him too, and that tips the dynamic into something much more complicated (but still happy for all three of them because I am so not down for jealousy and competition between Merlin and Gwen, Arthur has two hands and he can damn well use them). 

I also think that Lancelot’s love for Merlin was pure, but I just don’t ship it at all and think that there was never anything there except for friendship (I can see Arlance going sexual, though). The same goes for Gwaine, I think that he loved Merlin unconditionally, and as far as friendship goes, it is pure, but if I ship them sexually, then all purity goes out of the window, not just as far as the sex is concerned (because the sex they would be having would be positively filthy) but also because I just can’t imagine a universe in which Merlin does not love and desire Arthur more. The angst, the pain and the darkness are off the charts.

As for the less popular ones, I think the purest is Percival/Elyan regardless of whether you see it as romantic or platonic. There is just so much mutual love, admiration and respect between them! No angst, no lies, no triangles, no drama, just taking care of and supporting each other and living in domestic bliss.

For The Untamed:

WangXian, no contest. They fell in love as kids and continued to love each other for the rest of their lives, even beyond death. The way they love each other is so absolute and so selfless! They both respect and admire the other, they are so supportive and accepting of each other, quirks, flaws and all, and they kind of set the gold standard as far as relationships go!

27. Least shippable character?

For Merlin: 

Eh... this is a tough one. I actually had to step away from this question and think about it and I didn’t come up with anything because the entire main and recurring cast is very shippable. There are, however, characters that aren’t shipped as much as they could be (Elyan, baby, you deserve better 😢), and then there are also characters that result in unsavory ships that are best left unmentioned (but because these are salty asks, I am going to mention them anyway). 

The first one that came to my mind was Gaius, but he is actually very shippable because there is no rule that says you have to ship him in the canon timeline. He has a serious canon het love interest, and a crack one as well. Also, let’s not forget Uther. I’ve seen the fandom float this one as a crack ship, but it is actually very serious and plausible. There is so much complicated history there, decades of it, and definitely a deep, albeit toxic relationship that can absolutely be (and likely even was) sexual. If I was less busy and more inclined to get anon hate, I would totally be open to writing it myself.

I have seen a lot of people list Uther as an answer here, but Uther is very, very shippable! Anthony Head is handsome and charismatic, and he has so much presence as Uther, he could have chemistry with drywall if the script called for it. Again, there is no rule stating that a ship should be wholesome and happy, so let me go over the most obvious ones. When it comes to m/m ships, I already mentioned Gaius, plus I definitely felt it whenever the neighbouring kings came over to visit Camelot (my personal favourite was Lord Godwyn). Uther also has three canon het ships (why, yes, I am counting the troll), most notably Ygraine and Viivienne, and he is 100% shippable with Nimueh (though I prefer Nimueh with Ygraine). Last but not least, there is Morgana. It is squicky incest, yes, but it is also very obvious, if you have the inclination to go there. My jaw was on the floor on my first watch when he confessed that she was his actual biological daughter, because up until then, I totally thought that things would get sexual between them in canon. 

Agravaine is also an obvious (I would even go as far as to say a semi-canon) ship for Morgana. Do I hate it? Yes. Do I think she slept with him to get him to deliver her Arthur’s head? Again, absolutely, yes. Even Kilgharrah is very shippable and he is a giant firebreathing lizard (obviously, laws of physics require transmorphing him into something smaller and (hopefully) human-shaped for the p0rn). 

For The Untamed: 

Jin Zixun and Jin Zixuan. I am forever mad Jin Zixuan (somehow) ends up having sex in canon anyway. My first thought for this was Wen Chao, but no, he is absolutely shippable. Like I said, the ship does not have to be nice, and Wen Chao is very nasty, but also very sexual (plus, there is always Wen Zhuliu).

The one character that I personally am the least inclined to ship is Wen Ning because he is so childlike and it feels like he never mentally developed into an adult. 

Salty Asks

[adhd-wifi]

So uh, someone sent me an ask about my opinions of the different adaptations of mdzs (and cql) but I accidentally deleted it. Anon pls forgive me. 

Anyways here’s the answer under a cut so I don’t spam anyone with my opinions (unless you wanna know I guess in which case thanks???) Warning: I got a little more into this than I probably should have. 

I’m just gonna do them in bullet points it’s just easier. At least while I’m on desktop lol.

The novel

It’s a really great read overall. I love the details and the comedic aspect of the story and characters really shines in the novel. However I can’t say all too much because I’m still actually struggling to finish reading it. 

The reason for this is because I actually...hate reading Chinese-To-English novels. Not saying the English fan-translation is bad, and in fact I think Exiled Rebels Scans did an amazing job with it (there are some nitpicks, but eh, they’re providing free content with no compensation they deserve all the praise regardless). I just hate it because, as a Chinese person, you tend to notice all the things that are lost in translation or things that just CAN’T be translated properly. I’m currently reading the Chinese version, but my Chinese reading isn’t great so it’s taking a while. 

The animation

My personal favourite, but mostly because I’m biased towards animation in general LMAO. It was also my starting point into the franchise. My friend, who I hadn’t seen in 10 months at that point, came to my house and made me watch the first two episodes. I finished the anime at like 6am from that same night. Safe to say I had fallen into hell. 

The only things I didn’t like about the anime was the fact that it was clearly rushed, which is why I’m okay with season 3 coming out in 2021, and the fact that I’m PRETTY SURE the censorships hit it and we’re not gonna be getting any on-screen gay. I mean the only scene that displayed this was the scene where WWX pretended to be attracted to LWJ to get JC off his back, but that scene was played off as him flirting with EVERYTHING on the basis that he was insane, but gay. So yeah, I’m not expecting gay but eh. 

Unpopular opinion, but anime!WWX has my favourite WWX voice. I love the audio drama/CQL voice, but I just love the playful notes of anime!WWX’s voice. 

The anime also amps the dramatic flair of literally everything up to 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. As much as I love the other adaptations, you can’t really beat the anime in terms of it being the drama queen of the adaptations. I love it. Also, it was therapeutic to see Wen Chao torn to shreds and beheaded the way it was done in the anime. 

The manhua

The manhua actually has my favourite art style of the adaptations, I like it even more so than the anime. Also props to them for making teen!WWX look different from Mo XuanYu (seriously, help me I’m a confused dumbass okay)

I’m...not a fan of the pacing. The pacing of the manhua for like the first few arcs was just so rushed and confusing, and because of the more comedic nature of the manhua as a whole, sometimes the seriousness of the scene just falls flat (e.g. the Mo Manor scene with the fierce corpses, it was so...dull). Then Yi City comes along and that arc alone seemed to last like 62 years. While I like the characters, I’m not a major fan of the arc itself, so I was mildly peeved. Oh well. 

The audio drama

To be fair, I’ve only heard like 3 episodes and several snippets of the audio drama. Mostly because I can’t find it. (I’m aware SuiBianSubs have it shared on their discord, but I’m scared of giant servers so I’m holding off on that unless I really can’t find it anywhere else.)

That being said, I really like the audio drama so far. I really, really like WWX’s voice actor here, and you can tell he’s really going ham with it while he was more restricted to match Xian Zhan in CQL. 

Anyways the audio drama version of WangXian is the best one don’t @ me.

The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling (Warning: LONG)

Hhhhhh oh CQL, CQL, where do I even start with you?

See, I didn’t like the first one-third of the drama, and took like a month watching those bits, but then basically after WWX became the Yiling Patriarch I got really into it and basically finished like 30+ episodes in 3 days. 

I still don’t like several of the changes, and I’m not a fan of some of the directing decisions, because some of them just made little to no sense. I especially hated the fact that WWX wasn’t the founder of demonic cultivation, and instead it was some rando who was probably Xue Yang’s greatX12 grandfather. 

All that being said, I actually like the character writing THE MOST out of all the adaptions. Every single (named/significant) character was expanded upon, and it gave basically everyone more depth as characters (except I guess Wen RuoHan and Wen Xu, but no one likes them in CQL anyway so who cares). 

Basically, every character just felt so much more alive, and I’m not just saying that because it’s live people on screen. It’s that the actors really did wonderfully, bringing out the characters so vividly, and giving them more depth and building on their relationships. The little moments here and there, like JZX planting lotus plants for JYL There are some moments I’m just EH on (such as the changing of the moral scale for some *cough*MOST*cough* characters), but for the most part, I just found it so much easier to relate and feel for them. And as someone who doesn’t typically like watching live dramas (again, I just prefer anime), that meant a lot to me as a member of the audience.

I especially like how they handled Mianmian, I was EH at first to see her as a member of the Jin Sect, but in the end I really liked that. I mean, who can’t love a bitch who renounces her sect colours right in front of the then-most powerful man in the cultivation world? Also, the soup scene with JZX and JYL, I really liked that it was Mianmian who defended her instead of some nameless, faceless servant girl. It gave her more character, and built nicely on her relationship with JZX as his subordinate. Mianmian in MDZS was great, but she felt little more than a plot device to me. In CQL, she was actually a character, and thus made her actions more significant.

Listen I just have a lot of feelings for Mianmian considering she was the only named female character to survive the series and I have salt about that but I still like her so I’m glad CQL made it easier for me to like her

Welp I’m done rambling. If you didn’t get bored halfway and made it all the way down here, thanks for you time lol. I hope this was entertaining. :D Also, anon I hope you’re reading this. ^^;

[pharahsgf]

"fucked up that he never defends himself" it truly is bc you know it's bc he does blame himself and you know jc knows that and is just taking advantage of it. plus the fact that whenever wwx actually does literally just defend himself, terrible shit happens and no one listens. I also think that's why that moment where jyl stands up for him so powerful and tells me that if she had known everything she would have spoken out for him. she dropped everything to run to him at nightless city just to talk to him. but jzx and jc didn't want her involved and wwx didn't want to hurt her by opening up so :/

brooo i think about that scene constantly, ep25 really is my favourite episode just for that moment alone... the way wei wuxian's defenses and attempts to disengage are ignored over and over until he just stops trying and submits to being exactly what they want him to be... only for jiang yanli to go "actually a-xian did nothing wrong, you guys all suck, apologise to him now or i'm declaring war on u" WHO ELSE COULD EVER. MY QUEEN MY CHILD MY EVERYTHING

i will forever be mad jiang yanli didn't get to find out what was really going on so she could give jin gu*ngsh*n and his ilk a verbal smackdown on xianxian's behalf like g-d intended. misogyny really is ruining my life

[lwjstiletto]

wangxian au where lwj is a popular hand model and wwx is an independent jewellery maker [Part 1]

[Twitter thread version]

wwx is a go-getter kind of guy. he likes pretty things and pretty people. so his job is a win-win in that he makes pretty things for pretty people— well mostly

lately all his brain has churned out is designs that only the very nice old ladies in his neighbourhood indulgently buy from him

he’s grateful for it but nevertheless it’s been disheartening looking for the elusive muse for his next project

jiang cheng only sighs whenever he mentions this and rants about how if wwx just LISTENED to him and actually put effort into commercialising his bestsellers instead of hyperfocusing on one body part/gem/technique and hopping from one product to the next; and in general just making his business a chaotic mess where clients couldn’t guess what he would put out next, that he would have a better shot

but ofc wwx sighs even more at this and just goes ‘but jiang cheng~’

what kind of argument even is that? but jc lets it go bc wwx supplies him with endless half-finished projects that are complicated-looking enough to give his students a good challenge when drawing still life

so anyways, wwx is still making old lady jewellery and being generally pitiful when he stumbles across an intriguing article on twitter

—•—

lwj on the other hand has been fastening and unfastening his cufflinks for an hour straight. that’s pretty much status quo for hand models who have to spend hours on end either doing repetitive gestures or holding completely still

lwj doesn’t mind though, he has always had steady hands and dextrous fingers, practically an advertiser’s ‘wet dream’ as his agent, nhs, puts it

said agent pulls him aside when it’s finally time for his break. nhs looks harried, which isn’t out of the ordinary, but he’s also not meeting lwj’s eyes which sets of alarm bells in his head

“okay before i tell you,” nhs starts without prompting, “promise not to fire me.”

lwj doesn’t narrow his eyes, but the twitch of his eyebrow is close enough, “i will be fair.”

“that’s not a-“ nhs sighs, “good enough i guess. do you remember that photoshoot you did with da-ge a few months back?”

lwj nods. how could he forget? it had been... an experience for sure. it was a photoshoot for a book cover for a popular teen novel

and while lwj didn’t meet fellow hand models often, he had come across other ‘parts models’ as they were called

spending the better part of two days caressing nmj’s abs was... by far not the most unpleasant job he’d had as a hand model

nhs holds out a copy of the novel for him to see. the cover they used is from the second half of the photoshoot where they took a few wider shots

lwj sees nothing wrong with it. it’s a standard cover, if a bit lewd due to all the... ab touching. in fact the entire cover is just nmj’s abs and wide shoulders

lwj doesn’t think his hands serve any other purpose than obstructing the view in the poorest attempt to keep it pg. still he fails to see the problem

nhs wrings his hands together, “there was a blog post about it. do you know anyone named su she?”

lwj thinks for a moment, then vaguely recalls the name with a sinking realisation

—•—

wwx is still thinking about the article when jin zixuan comes to drop jin ling off at his apartment. unprompted, wwx asks him, “do you think i could sell feet pics?”

he can see jzx’s soul leave his body as he drops jin ling’s overnight bag on the pavement. wwx’s favourite new hobby is dropping these bombs on jzx and watching him dissociate from reality as he tries to answer wwx’s insane questions with logic

being a father has changed him. a few years ago he would have just slammed the nearest door in wwx’s face

“why... do you want to sell feet pics? is your business not going well?” jzx asks, and actually looks concerned. well, now wwx feels bad

“my business is just fine.” wwx says grumpily

“really? jiang cheng and yanli seem to think otherwise.”

“you eavesdropped on them didn’t you?”

jzx is entirely unashamed, “i’m just concerned.”

“again, my business is fine!”

“you know if you ever needed money-“

wwx turns jzx around and pushes him towards his car, “don’t you have things to do? get jin ling out of the car seat, it’s getting late.”

since the peacock has acquired immunity to his teasing by straight up being ~nice~ to him, it’s only fair that wwx sends jin ling back with so many new toys that they will take up at least a whole corner in his unnecessarily gigantic home

—•—

lwj meets his brother for iced tea at a cafe near huaisang’s office. lwj does not like iced tea but has deliberately kept this from his brother because lxc loves it and has made it his personal mission to try every iced tea flavour he can get his hands on

it is also the easiest way to lure his brother out of his busy schedule. lwj knows lxc would take time to meet him anyway, but he wants lxc to indulge in something he likes once in a while

“wangji, you seem restless.” lxc says, concerned

lwj takes a tentative sip of his black currant iced tea. it’s abhorrent

“do you remember su she?” lwj asks

lxc, “the one from your cello class?”

lwj nods

“the one who broke his string and his bow in the same day?” lxc asks, almost looking amused

lwj winces, “yes.”

“did he ever come back to the class after that?” lxc asks

lwj shakes his head, then taps the glass with a gloved finger

“has he been bothering you again?” lxc asks seriously, “if he has-“

“it’s-“ lwj sighs, “complicated.”

before lxc can make assumptions, lwj unlocks his phone and shows it to lxc

lxc reads silently for a minute or two, then his eyes widen. “he posted this on the novel’s discussion forum?”

lwj nods

“how did he even-“ lxc says, then pauses in thought, “is it because of the cello class?”

“mn, perhaps.” lwj says, “he saw the book cover i did with huaisang’s brother. he is a fan of the novel.”

“so he went and researched the models who were on the cover?” lxc frowns, “how did he even find that?”

“my name is public information.” lwj says, “it would certainly be hard to find, but it is available nonetheless.”

“are you going to be okay?” lxc asks.

“i am worried it will impact your reputation. my job is not... conventional.” lwj doesn’t meet his brother’s gaze

“wangji, that is the least of my concerns. you did not want to do conventional modelling by choice.” lxc says

he isn’t wrong, lwj hadn’t wanted to have his face photographed, it had never appealed to him. no matter how many compliments he received on his looks

his popularity started and ended within the advertising circle and nhs never offered him jobs he didn’t want. putting a face to his popular hand modelling career was not an ideal situation

especially since it had reached a lot of the novel’s fans who’d begun discussing him on other social media platforms

“i will handle this.” lxc says, “this is not right. you especially drew up contracts with advertisers to avoid this situation.”

“brother-“ lwj starts

“he should not have posted pictures of you.” lxc isn’t even drinking his iced tea, lwj notes

“it is already out. there is not much we can do.” lwj says reasonably

lxc doesn’t quite seethe but he doesn’t touch his iced coffee again

—•—

wwx finally admits to himself that he may be experiencing a slump. he hasn’t touched his tools in two months and his work bench has acquired a thick layer of dust on which jin ling drew a frowny face with his fingers then immediately tried to lick them

and what does one do when lacking motivation? harrass his brother in his cushy office at the university of course

to his credit, jc lets him prace around and poke at his things for a solid ten seconds before snapping at him. which means he and jyl must actually be worried about him

“wei wuxian” jc says through clenched teeth when wwx has pushed the paperweight on his desk to the very edge, trying to see how far jc would let him take it

ah, so not worried enough to break into his house at night, wwx notes

“so, do you think i could sell foot pics?” wwx uses his favourite new icebreaker

jc puts his head in his hands like wwx put the worlds’ weight on his shoulders. if he listens closely, he’s sure he can hear a repetition of ‘why why why why’ in jc’s head

“why...” jc forces himself to say

wwx shurgs with a grin, “i read an article about it. apparently a lot of people are into feet.”

“into... feet...” jc says

“yeah like they get off-“

jc holds up a hand to stop him, “i get it. did you come all the way across the city to ask me this?”

“yes and no.” wwx says, “i wanted to ask if you could draw me some.”

“some... feet...?” jc is going to kick him out soon, wwx can feel it

wwx places his chin in both his hands and tries to look pitiful, “isn’t it better than me buying foot pics? think of how that would reflect on you if anyone found out.”

jc feels a headache coming on, “please tell me you’re using them as reference to design anklets or something.”

wwx laughs, “of course! what did you think?”

jc glares at him, “i will ban you from campus.”

wwx bothers him a bit more and then gets thrown out more gently than he has come to expect from jc, still not sure if jc will actually fulfill his request

and maybe it’s because his luck has been down for too long that life took pity and decided to throw something good at him, he turns the corner to see one of the most beautiful men he has laid his eyes on

his attention is focused on the folder in his hands, and it’s late enough that there are no students milling the corridors. this is probably why the aforementioned beautiful, stunning, abolutely breathtaki- man manages to walk straight into wwx

several things happen at once. wwx sees it coming unlike the other person, so he reaches out to steady him. turns out there isn’t much need of that because the man gets his bearings back alarmingly fast for someone caught by surprise

the folder in his hands does not have similar balance though, and falls to the floor, splattering it’s contents halfway across the hallway

the man looks... well neutral, but the speed at which he drops to his knees lets wwx know that it’s not something he wants wwx to see

which, of course has the opposite effect. when wwx looks down to see the photographs that have not yet been put back into the folder- he is left speechless for once

the immediate and most obvious explanation is that this guy is an art student who is using these pictures as reference... but of course wwx’s first thought is Oh mY gOd this guy has a hand fetish because his talk with jc is still fresh in his head

once that thought is in his head, wwx notices a number of things in quick sequence

this dude looks uncharacteristically nervous for an innocent art student, and he’s wearing GLOVES like a CRIMINAL who’s STEALING pictures of those pretty hands from an art class for his own pleasure

art students don’t wear gloves, especially not in the middle of summer! and no one can possibly require that many pictures for just one body part

satisfied with his reasonable conclusion, wwx opens his mouth to accuse the man only to realise that he is upright once again with all his stolen pictures securely in his folder

“are you stealing those?” wwx asks straightforwardly

the man actually does seem to be caught off-guard for longer than two seconds this time

then he proceeds to walk past wwx

“hey wait!” wwx blocks his path again, “i get it, you know? we all have needs and i’m totally not judging you for it. but there are sites for this stuff.”

the man finally looks at him, and wow he’s even more attractive than wwx first thought and his eyes are so pretty and- he walks past wwx again

wwx, yet again, catches up to him and decides that walking beside him is more effective. “good quality photography like that is usually quite expensive you know?”

the man continues to ignore him so wwx grabs the folder in his hands and gives it a good yank

“what are you doing?” the man finally speaks. even his voice is nice. wwx is sure people would send him hand pics for free if he asked

“returning this to the rightful owner.” wwx holds the folder out of his reach

the man takes a deep breath, then pulls at one of his satin gloves- SATIN, how did wwx not notice that- and holds his beautiful hand up to wwx’s face

wwx’s brain immediately short circuits as he thinks ‘maybe ~I~ am the one with a hand fetish’ because that’s... one pretty hand

one... familiar hand. the same even tone, smooth skin and long, elegant fingers with perfectly manicured nails...

while he stands there, gaping like a fish, the man snatches the folder out of his hand and starts walking away with quicker strides

by the time wwx’s brain reboots and the realisation finally sinks in- he has finally found the muse he has been looking for- the man is already gone

—•—

lwj admits that he is... slightly stressed out, and is definitely showing enough signs of it that nhs has caught on

“you went to visit wen qing yesterday.” it’s not a question so lwj doesn’t answer. “did you perhaps run into an old acquaintance?”

lwj shakes his head, “it is not what you think.”

this sparks curiosity in nhs which is a toss up between better and worse than the implication that lwj’s stress stems from accidentally meeting su she at the university

“did you run into a fan?” nhs asks and it’s actually a reasonable concern since lwj wants to avoid even being /known/ at all costs

lwj shakes his head. he trusts nhs which isn’t as surprising now as it had been to him years ago when he had agreed to give nhs free reign over the work he chose for lwj

“somebody from the university knows of my identity.” lwj says finally.

nhs seems to think it over, “it was inevitable. even after taking down the blog post, people are still curious about you.”

lwj wants to tell him that it’s actually his fault but he stays silent as nhs continues his train of thought.

“you’re exciting because people have seen you without actually seeing you. you’ve worked with big brands and celebrities and it normally wouldn’t spark interest-

- but unfortunately for you, you are attractive. it will die down after a while, we just have to ride it out for now.” nhs concludes.

lwj nods, feeling reassured. nhs is usually right about these things, which is why lwj regards him so highly

he has a video shoot for some fancy kitchen installation company after that, and he tries not to think about the man who accused him of stealing his own pictures while he very slowly chops a mango on the surely unsanitary granite counter

he’s working with a photographer he knows well, one of the best in his line of work. song lan has a good eye for what would look enticing in an advert and doesn’t make him do weird, suggestive things like kneading dough in slow motion. lwj suppresses a shudder at the thought

after cutting enough magoes to feed ten people, the shoot finally wraps up and one of the PAs on the set holds out a basin for him to wash his hands in

the warm water is soothing to his aching fingers and he lets his hands soak but not for longer than a few seconds to prevent his skin from pruning. he then rubs the special concoction that is his version of the best moisturiser and puts his hands in soft cotton gloves

song lan comes to greet him after and expresses his sympathies about his pictures making rounds on the internet

lwj’s eyes widen ever so slightly, “you know of it?”

“my boyfriend is a fan.” he says with a fond shake of his head, “otherwise i’d have no idea.”

luckily before lwj can start to panic, nhs trots up to them and the conversation ends there as he’s dragged to his next shoot

—•—

“for the last time, i don’t know your ‘guy with pretty hands’.” jc says, exasperated. “what’s with you and body parts nowadays? if it’s a kink thing.. please rethink your life.”

wwx sighs. he knew going to jc was useless, but at least it confirmed his suspicion that the guy isn’t an art student

however, that makes the task of finding him and then begging him to model wwx’s jewellery harder. because yes, wwx has spent the last five days cooped up in his workshop making complex hand chains

now if he only had more than a memory to draw inspiration from...

it’s frustrating. wwx should have at least asked for his name and number. how can he be this stupid?

“very easily.” is jc’s reply to this

“jiang chengggg.” wwx whines, “i have to find him or my creativity will die a horrible death.”

jc looks like he is ageing before his eyes. “if i ask around the staff will you promise to only come to my office during emergencies? you’re freaking my students out.”

“yes!” wwx agrees enthusiastically, then frowns. “freaking them out? i’m so nice to everyone!”

“you tried to get at least five of my students to draw your pretty boy from description.” jc deadpans, “they think he’s a criminal.”

“a criminal after my heart, aha!” wwx says with finger guns.. and gets thrown out by jc for his efforts. it’s less gentle this time

a few days later, jc calls him, “apparently ‘his identity needs to be protected’. is he actually a criminal?”

“he was wearing gloves...” wwx mutters, “i’m kidding! not about the gloves, but i don’t think he’s a criminal.”

jc makes a doubtful noise on the other end. “well, whatever. so yeah, anyway, i can’t get wen qing to tell me anything. you can come bully her yourself if you dare to.”

“why does it have to be wen qing?” wwx groans, “she’ll roast me on low flame before she tells me anything. why couldn’t it be wen ning— wait. wen ning probably knows him too. jiang cheng i’m a genius!”

jc hangs up on him but it doesn’t dampen his spirits at all. he’s so close to finding him.

—•—

shoots where he has to hold objects for an extended period of time are already unkind to his muscles, but holding objects with /postures/ is even worse. his fingers are so stiff after his seven hour shoot with swarovski that when one of the assistants on set hands him a cup of warm tea, it slips right through his grip and shatters on the ground unceremoniously

everyone freezes, and then start to buzz around him, asking if he is feeling unwell or if he needs to sit down. because lwj never drops /anything/. it’s in his job description NOT to drop anything

god, lwj hates jewellery shoots the most

nhs hears about this, ofc. lwj suspects he can be at multiple places at a time. so lwj is neatly packed into a SUV and sent away to get a relaxing massage and manicure

lwj would usually put up a fight but his muscles have been aching for days and nhs has theatened to text his brother at least three times this week. he doesn’t want to risk a fourth

wen ning, the meek but kind masseuse greets him with a bow, “lan er-gongzi, are you well?”

lwj nods, and is about to ask about wn as well when he hears the door of the masseuse parlour bang open behind him

“you!” comes a shout and lwj turns around, alarmed

the man who accused him of stealing his own pictures is standing there, pointing a finger at him

“if i was unclear the last time, i did not steal those photographs.” lwj says

the man seems stunned for two seconds, then frowns. “steal.. i know that you didn’t steal them.”

lwj nods, then starts to walk further into the parlour- except for the hand that grips and brings him to a stop. lwj would usually rip his hand away, but the slight pressure sends pain shooting up his arm

and lwj definitely didn’t realise how stiff his muscles were until then. he must have made a noise, a mixture between surprise and a wince, because the man lets go immediately

“are you okay?” he asks, looking alarmed

lwj closes his eyes to compose himself

“wei-gongzi, what are you doing here?” lwj hears wen ning ask

“i came to find him.” the man replies

lwj’s eyes open in shock. find him? does he know of lwj’s identity? is he a fan of the novel? this has gotten way bigger than either lwj or nhs predicted if people are actively seeking him out

“i think you have misunderstood.” lwj says, projecting a calm exterior even though he’s feeling a little cornered. cornered.. by a single person... what has his life come to?

but today it’s one person, next... he doesn’t even want to think about it. he has never wanted to be in the public light and does not want the /crowd/ and god forbid- the /noise/ that comes with it

he had gotten comfortable in the happy equilibrium of popularity and anonymity- the only thing which had lured him into accepting this job and has kept him in it thus far

... and it seems to be crumbling right before his eyes

“what? no i haven’t. i wouldn’t forget your face.” the man says, “hey stop running away-“

but lwj is already walking past him to exit the massage parlour. he needs to call someone. nhs most probably. or a cab.

the other man is speedy though, and blocks him right at the door, extending his arms and legs to cover the width of the opening as if lwj was thinking of sneaking around him. (he was, but that’s not the point)

“okay maybe i’ve come across as creepier than expected.” the man says, “but i swear i just want your hands!”

[wen ning shakes his head furiously in the background]

the panic lwj feels must be enough to be showing on his usually blank face, because the man backtracks

“i mean- no- that came off as even creepier oh my god. i’m not a serial killer, i promise.”

[wen ning makes a big X over his head with his arms]

the man takes a deep breath and actually seems to think before speaking this time, “hi, my name is wei ying. i’m a jeweller by profession. what’s your name?”

“move aside.” lwj says.

“do you promise not to run and actually hear me out? because it was so hard to track you down, god, it took me a week!”

[wn texting nhs: pls come and save lwj i think he’s about to faint]

“a week...” lwj says, “you tracked me down for a week?”

“no! i mean yes but not in a stalker way!” wwx seems to be having a mini meltdown, “you know just nice good ol’ asking around about the cute guy i saw at the uni... not... stalking...”

luckily lwj’s phone begins to ring, cutting wwx off. [wen ning is very thankful for this. he doesn’t think having the police here would be good for business]

“brother.” lwj says, still a little strung up

“wangji, i’m almost there.”

“what?”

“huaisang told me you were ill,” lxc says, “and i was in the area so i told him i’d take you to the doctor.”

lwj turns to give wen ning a scathing look. “he exaggerated. i’m fine. you don’t have to come here.”

lwj doesn’t think his brother will take the fact that he has acquired a stalker well

“i’m outside.” lxc says

lwj resists the urge to sigh. he’s going to strangle everyone in this room, then himself

“i’ll be there in a minute then.” lwj says.

“i’m making my way to the parlour.” lxc says, disregarding him completely

“brother i can walk.” lwj says calmly. murder is on his mind.

lxc hangs up on him. lwj actually sighs this time.

“if you don’t want my brother to report you, you need to move aside.” lwj says to wwx.

wwx opens his mouth as if he wants to continue to dig himself into a hole, but then moves aside degectedly

then he removes a business card from his wallet and puts it in lwj’s shirt pocket.

“you can look me up, i’m not lying. i really am a jeweller and i’d like to work with you.” he says

before lwj can protest, lxc is already at the entrance, carrying what looks like half the pharmacy in a paperbag

“wangji.” he greets, and then pauses to nod politely at the other men, “let’s go.”

lwj follows him silently

—•—

wen ning sighs and flips the sign on the door to ‘closed’ resigning to the fact that wwx will remain a permanent fixture on his floor for a while

“so you thought he was a creepy thief and now he thinks you’re a creepy stalker?” wn asks.

wwx, who has told him all of this between groans, groans again.

“do you... want a free massage?” wn offers

“yes.”

lwj fights the urge to touch his shirt pocket while in the car with lxc.

“you need to go to the hospital wangji, you don’t look well.” lxc insists

“i will eat every medicine in that bag if you drop me off at huaisang’s office.” lwj replies

lxc looks alarmed, “you’ll definitely need to go to the hospital then.”

“i will eat every medicine in that bag if you /don’t/ drop me off at huaisang’s office.” lwj amends, neatly closing all the loopholes

“at least let me come with you.” lxc says in his last ditch attempt to find out exactly what has left his brother so rattled

“i will eat-“

“fine okay. i just worry about you, you know? you never tell me when something is bothering you anymore.” lxc says

“if it is important, i will tell you.” lwj says. he doesn’t want lxc to worry but also doesn’t want to lie.

lxc nods, accepting this, then turns the car around

—•—

“wei wuxian.” nhs raises an eyebrow at the card lwj has placed on his table. “this is the man who has been stalking you?”

lwj nods.

“are you certain?” nhs asks, looking conflicted.

lwj gives him a look.

“okay, okay! just making sure!” nhs says, raising his palms in defence.

“you know of him.” lwj states.

“well,” nhs says, “he didn’t lie to you, he really is a jeweller. he is very elusive though. he tends to drop these groundbreaking collections every fall and then disappears.”

lwj tries to align the man he met today with this talented, cryptic jeweller persona. if they really are the same person, then perhaps unhinged genius fits him better.

“if he’s serious about working with you...” nhs gets a gleam in his eyes that lwj doesn’t like. this is /not/ how he pictured this conversation going. he’s slowly but surely developing a migrane

“look, i’m never going to force you to do anything.” nhs says, “but will you let me speak to him first? i want to know if this he’s the real deal of if we need a restraining order.”

restraining order. this is escalating way past lwj’s mental capacity at the moment.

nhs seems to see that, “you need to go home and rest. i’ll have a masseuse meet you there. let me handle this.”

he says it with such firm conviction that lwj has no choice but to trust him, so he nods.

[Part 2] [Part 3]

[fmamanga]

top 5 fav wwx moments

oh god okokokokok not RLLY in this order jst the order i thought of them

1. this is actually one of my favourite scenes in the entirety of mdzs, but its when he gets back to the burial mounds after hes accidentally killed jzx and hes like numb and scared and completely 100% lost and is says this to wen qing and wen ning “what should i do...? can someone tell me?” like i just. LOVE this scene so badly and its so sad :(

2. the scene in the untamed in like the last episode i think when lsz finally remembers him and lsz is saying things wwx taught him/told him as a kid and wwx is like “stop lying! you rotten boy!” and theyre just messing around i love tht...i love family

3. i do really love his confession to lwj...

4. when he returns after being missing for like 3 months or whatever it was and plays a sick flute solo and kills wen chao

5. “wei wuxian!” “lan wangji.” / “come back to gusu with me” “who do you think you are?”

[tatselk]

The Untamed (陈情令) Review: Ep 24

!!! SPOILERS AHEAD !!!

Previous episode review: 1 and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16,17, 18,19, 20, 21, 22, 23. 

Oh damn, the entire exchange about reviving the engagement between JZX and JYL was just... oozing with awkwardness. Like there was the direct awkwardness between JZX and JYL because they are the parties who are actually involved. And then there was the indirect awkwardness with WWX “showing up” JC by basically speaking for him. AND THEN there was the consequential awkwardness with JGS when JYL rejected the offer to revive the engagement. 

Not that it is non-canon or at all surprising, but I gotta say that I kinda hate how JGS seems to treat JGY like a servant. :(

JGY, why you gotta do this?! Why you gotta bring up/hint at the link between WWX, XY, the Yintie and the Yinhufu to JGS??? 

The Jiang siblings’ return to Lotus Pier was, uhh, a little underwhelming to be honest. But the bit whereby JC used zidian to destroy the Wen emblem on the roof of the main hall at Lotus Pier added a nice dramatic touch to it. 

D-did we essentially just watch the (subtle) Ancient Chinese Fantasy version of the teenage drama trope, "You are grounded and that’s final! You aren't allowed to see that punk again!" when LQR refused LWJ permission to access the restricted section of the Lan sect library (to find books which can help with calming/cleansing WWX's soul) and kept LWJ at the Cloud Recesses by making him organise the Lan sect rules??? XD

Loved that exchange between WWX and LXC in which LXC essentially tried to act as (the grounded) LWJ's emissary in convincing WWX to return to Gusu with him so that they can help WWX calm/cleanse his soul and enable him to return to the path of the sword. WWX's response to this was probably one of his most subtly heartbreaking lines in the live-action, "I believe you, but I don't want to." It wasn’t just about the words but also the mingled sense of bitterness/resignation in how that line was delivered. :(:(:(

... The Twin Heroes’ relationship is really starting to fall apart, isn’t it? It was especially difficult to watch the part whereby WWX told JC to stay away when he didn’t want JC to figure out what was really going on with him and JC thinking that WWX was trying to pick a fight. I know there were some fluffy/reconciliatory moments between them near the end of the episode but the cracks have already started to show...

Holy shit, I can’t believe the live-action actually went there and had that bit whereby WWX asked JYL about why would someone like someone else (as in like-like someone) and confessing sheepishly that he liked someone but not THAT much. Not that the conversation really went anywhere but the mere fact that those lines were put in was just iuewaqdxhufyek. :)

My favourite part of this episode was how LWJ disregarded LQR's instructions and broke into the restricted section of the Lan sect library anyway. Especially when one of the Lan sect disciples who found that the library had been broken into told the other disciple who was there, "You can’t tell Hanguang-jun about this, alright?" Ah, the things one does for love. ;)

Overall: 8/10. This is essentially just a filler episode between the Sunshot Campaign and the Jins' Hunt/Conference. But I really enjoyed seeing how all the non-canon interactions helped to flesh out the characters so I had to give this episode plus points for that. 

[theyilinglaozus]

I think that 60s movie is the one by Roman Polanski? That's basically the thing the musical is based on, but I've yet to watch it. About JZX - the awkwardness is INCREDIBLY relatable, and I agree that he's the best out of the Jin bunch. Like yeah, he may have been arrogant but at least he didn't KILL HIS OWN FATHER and countless others or r*ped anybody. He's just socially awkward and very cute, and he's actually the character I never thought I'd like! -✨

I also have to say that I dislike JGY more than I initially thought. When he was still Meng Yao I found him kind of creepy and never was too fond of him (dimples are never a good sign tbh), then when he killed the other guy my dislike kind of intensified, especially when he tried to talk himself out of it but was obviously and blantantly lying. And post resurrection - I think it's obvious why I hated him even more, isn't it?😂 -✨

The Nightmare Before Christmas is actually one of my favourite movies! I'm sorry if the answer is obvious in your previous answer, but have you watched it? This is Halloween is my #1 spooky song every year, and it always brings back good memories. But back to MDZS, I'm really curious as to what's your opinion on Meng Yao/JGY, it's always very interesting to hear other people's thoughts about him since he seems to be incredibly polarizing, at least that's what I experience. Have a good night! -✨

Jin Zixuan’s only crime is that he didn’t know how to handle his crush / love emotions as a teenager and young adult, and I’m sorry but if we need to take him to fandom!court for the crime of ‘being a hot mess’, then we also need to interrogate Lan Wangji for the same crimes. So what if they sometimes lashed out (... even if it was ... both because of Wei Wuxian’s pestering) They both just! Fell in love so hard that they didn’t know what to do with their sudden feelings! That’s just ... relatable honestly 🤧 

I actually really wonder what Jin Zixuan would have been like as a sect leader had he lived long enough to become one. Because I feel that he’d probably be really good in the position. Like, a calm mediator when matters needed resolving, but with an edge there in him should he need to fight. Plus he would have had Mianmian and Yanli by his side, likely Jiang Cheng and Yunmeng through the tie of brother-in-law and marriage. Maybe even Wei Wuxian, depending on what happened with those he was looking over / if he ever returned to Yunmeng / became part of Gusu Lan through marriage himself / stayed as patriarch of Yiling to any younger or cultivators that went rogue from other clans (especially if after the truth came out about what JZX’s father was doing by torturing them...). Ah, so much we could have had 😔 

Ah, Jin Guangyao. 

His character was ... an adventure for me honestly 😅 At first when he turned up I was a bit like Xichen, in that I felt sorry for him and hated that people kept putting him down for being born of a prostitute. For me it was one of those ‘and what of it?’ moments. That wavered a bit when he murdered the first guy, but I didn’t really expect much at that point? It wasn’t until he came back with his hat that my opinion changed. I remember when he turned up wearing it my first thought was ‘that is a stupid hat. A villain hat. A hat for villains. Oh god he’s a villain isn’t he?’

I absolutely hate how his actions hurt and killed so many characters I liked 😢 Obviously the way everything got turned onto Wei Wuxian since he was the easiest scapegoat at the time is the worst, and I think it was around the time after the fight with the Wen’s that I started disliking Jin Guangyao. I also didn’t like that he killed his own son...

I don’t think I fully hated him though. I have a weird way of finding a sympathetic view in the ‘evil’ characters (I get yelled at all the time for being too sympathetic over characters like Loki and Vader and Sephiroth and I’m like ‘but LOOK’) 😂 I hated his actions, but then I think the beauty of MDZS in general is how there’s so much grey in the world she’s created. I think a lot of his actions are down to a) the shitty father again and b) the society constantly pushing him down for something he had no control over, which of course things like who you were born from were big things historically. So while I think ‘ugh, murder boy did too much murder we did not give you a permit to do that’ I can also see how he likely was slowly cracking over the years.

What I will say though, are thank goodness for the true secret heroes, Nie Huaisang and Mo Xuanyu! (And Mo Xuanyu deserved better than the treatment he got. Let him and Wei Wuxian live so they can be besties! 😭)

... Few! Apparently I have more feelings for the Jin’s than I thought I did!

As for your question on the Nightmare Before Christmas CC, I have watched it! 😊 There’s always a debate in my house of when the perfect time to start watching it is: Halloween or Christmas! I absolutely love it. My favourite song is ‘What’s This?’, it always makes me happy when I hear that one playing, haha! 

Have a lovely evening and weekend CC! 💖