#myatb spoiles

[axolotldramas]

Meet you at the blossom ep 11 thoughts

Su Yin and Xiaobao's platonic relationship was one of my favorite parts of the show. He can be a little toxic too, as a treat

Cliffs are the real enemy of this story

"Xiaobao are you worried about me? 😍" I was also worried about him. Thank the heavens Jinbao is gay

Hey! You can't threaten Xiaobao, Que Siming! Only Huanien can do that

"Can he compare to Huaien?" I screamed

"Why does everyone want to go back to the past" Su Yin and Huaien have more in common than they think. Neither wants to give Xiaobao space to make his own decisions

Huaien holding Xiaobao while he was in pain is everything to me!!

Stop it with the kites you creppy old man. Somebody kill him already-- Thank you!

BLACK ROBES HUAIEN I'VE BEEING WAITING FOR YOU

Li Gongxiang is better at taming Saoyu than Su Yin, there I said it

I missed Xiaoyu so much

Nobody asked Tongen what she wanted all this death and pain and no one ever asked her!

Something so fucked up about "thank you for bringing Xiaobao's future bride who is also his sister and your cousin"

"The tighter I held onto you, the quicker I lost you" AHHHH 💔

[theoncomingchaos]

How MYATB fits the Gothic genre

WARNING: BOOK SPOILERS

Alright, first off, I know the author was not intending to write a Gothic romance, but it seriously fits the genre so well and I need to talk about it.

Here are the main elements of Gothic horror

Supernatural elements

Omens, nightmares, or curses

Unnerving Atmosphere

Gothic Hero

Gothic Villain

Romance

Emotional Distress

Mystery

Power Imbalance

Here is how MYATB fits the criteria.

Supernatural elements primarily come from the cultivation, the magic poison and flowers etc.

We see Huai'en having nightmares about the cliff pretty frequently, and the poison acts like a curse where the cold weather brings him pain. Particularly, the curses in Gothic horror often connect to the past. This can be ancient or recent, and this curse connects to Xiaobao's personal past.

In this story the weather is the main source of unnerving atmosphere. Winter brings physical, torturous pain, and if it rains at all during the several days it takes to perform the cure, then Xiaobao will basically be doomed.

A Gothic hero usually has some big flaw and struggles against some kind of temptation. For Xiaobao, his flaw is that he was spoiled, weak, and naive. He has never known pain, any time he had a slight inconvenience he could cry out and someone would immediately help him. So, learning to see the world as it is, take responsibility for himself, and fight through pain to do what he knows is right is a huge part of his journey. The temptation he struggles with is desire (lust/love). We see this in him proposing to multiple girls in one night and his frequent patronage to brothels, we see this in the way he throws himself onto Huai'en, and we see this in the way he struggles between his continued desire for Huai'en vs. all the hurt, guilt, and red flags.

A Gothic villain usually encapsulates the temptation that the hero has. They are often powerful, beautiful, and seemingly able to work outside of ordinary societal restrictions without fear or restriction. In a Gothic romance- this can be the/a love interest such as in Phantom of the Opera, True Blood, Interview with the Vampire or Jane Eyre. In love, they are often obsessive and controlling, they are liars (from omission or directly), and often have a dangerous side and/or secret. Huai'en is a powerful cultivator, he keeps his identity a secret for good reason, and he is canonically extremely beautiful. Especially in the book, he is a clear symbol of Xiaobao's weakness: he is both beautiful and lustful which early series naive Xiaobao would have thought was all that mattered in being the perfect partner. Although we know most of his worst traits come from his abusive upbringing and his youth, Huai'en absolutely fits the elements. He is obsessed with Xiaobao and extremely possessive. Xiaobao is the only thing he has ever wanted in his life and he is absolutely willing to take Xiaobao away against his will to keep him. His plotting where he attempted to protect the Jin family often included lies of omission because he was trying to control the situation himself. In both the book and series, he shows his violent side both on the battlefield and in bed. The difference here is that unlike many others in this genre, Huai'en is allowed to change and grow for the better and the narrative rewards this change. Eventually, he becomes more selfless in his love.

The romance is obvious. What is beautiful here is that the way they grow is not only perfect for their individual characterization, but it also makes them more suitable for each other. Xiaobao becomes someone who can be an equal partner for Huai'en, and Huai'en becomes someone who can genuinely love Xiaobao.

Both Huai'en and Xiaobao experience extreme emotional distress throughout the story. Xiaobao has to deal with losing his home and the guilt he has over hurting his family and endangering his friends. He has emotional distress over loving Huai'en and wanting to hate him for everything he has done. Huai'en has emotional distress from first discovering desire and his obsessive need for more love and closeness, the abuse and continued pressures of his adopted father, and then trying to get back with Xiaobao while being constantly rejected and pushed away.

The mystery comes primarily from the courtly intrigue. What did the Jin family do? What happened to Huai'en's mother? Who is his father?

The power imbalance between Xiaobao and Huai'en is obvious. Huai'en can and often DOES do whatever he wants to Xiaobao even against his will and Xiaobao can't do anything about it. Xiaobao originally thought he had the power via his money (and when he thought Huai'en was a woman) and coming to terms with not being the one in power in a relationship for the first time in his life is a big blow for him in the book. Xiaobao does gain power in the relationship, but physical power and even social status both leave Huai'en far above. Huai'en may leave behind his family name, but he is still the emperor's son, and the emperor still favors him as such. In the book, even Yuzhan still protects him within limits.

Anyway, looking through the lens of a different genre can bring some new perspective to a story and because I am a fan of Gothic literature, it just makes me love this story even more to see the connections. The book has some stuff that makes it VERY hard to read sometimes, and there are some moments that make you realize the author probably needs a bit more time to cook, but there is a lot of really nicely done narrative beauty in the bones of the story. I'm so happy to see how the series has taken these bones and elevated it. I really hope they stick the landing.

[dangermousie]

I was thinking why I spent the bulk of My Stand In wanting to strangle Ming and never did warm up to him from beginning to end and I genuinely love Huaien in MYATB and a small part of it is any emotion Huaien feels is directed solely for/at XB unlike Ming's obsession with boring Tong

BUT

That's not really it. It's because my reaction to behaviors/characters is setting-dependent. And my atittudes on them are strongly dependent on whether it's a period or modern setting.

I have a very different attitude to actions of a period era killer brought up in a feudal society where human life has no value and killing of a whole clan for kicks is a matter of course, and who's been brought up in a fucked up rebel/imperial family with nonstop abuse and a spoiled modern day dude.

I will accept a hell of a lot more murder/dubcon/noncon/unhingedness/red flag/you name it in a period setting. Because it just fits.

It's sort of like Fei Wo Si Cun novel adaptations - MLs of Goodbye My Princess, Siege in Fog and Too Late to Love You do some truly unhinged stuff but I can understand it more because they are a period royal or a 1930s warlord. The one ML in her adaptations I can't stand is the ML of Sealed With a Kiss. I hated his blackmailing/abusing/rapist self but in watching I realized if that story was set in eg the Wei Dynasty, I'd put up with his "daughter of people I want revenge on must pay for their wrongdoing so I force her to be my mistress and humiliate her and threaten her to give her to my friends and oh I am also married" shenanigans a lot better. I mean, I can't say he'd be a love's young dream under any circumstances but then neither is the murderous rapist ML of GMP and while I can't say I root for him, he is a mesmerizing character, tragic as much as repelling - a shark in a tank full of other sharks.

Like - the sole time Boys Over Flowers' ML's actions made sense was in Gong which basically transposed the whole thing into the Qing Dynasty.

Or think of Meatbun's CFC, which I ended up loathing. I'd still have issues with how the last third blew up the themes set up in the first 2/3, but MC's actions would be less repellent to me if it was a period setting.

It can all be summed up as - if a modern man murders people on the reg, believes women are inferior to men while married to ten of them at once, and owns slaves, he should be in jail for life. If he's a 10th century dude, he's just average warrior dude.

Ming is a modern dude, a spoiled kid of a rich family who's never lived in an extreme, death is a second away and the whole world is like this, society. I have different standards for him than a period dude.