#nif fandom stuff

[fwoopersongs]

Thoughts on 【长喑 】Part 1/3

This is a response to the lovely @fateandloveentwined’s translation of the Xiao Jingyan fansong 长喑: LONG DARKNESS — CHÁNG ÀN 长喑 TRANSLATION

Fate, thank goodness you so sensibly divided this song into four eight parts (no idea why I thought it was four lolol). It helps to not have it too spread out, because there is always this temptation to ramble about every single detail, isn’t there? xD This way it’s easier to focus on the bigger picture.

// I’m splitting this in three to spread out my writing energy evenly. But also it’s okay right? We’re probably the only ones Like This about this song anyway HAHAAH.

About the title, I wonder if 长喑 can be read as a loud ringing war cry, or else the voice of a singing sword. 喑 is fairly frequently used for sobs, but I have also seen it as the scream of war horses (possibly one of Li Bai’s? I can’t find it again though and am too lazy for a more thorough search haha). Which ties in well with the themes and imagery of war, sorrow for the wronged, fighting back with everything you have, and firmly carrying on in spite of loss.

长剑��鞘冷锋芒 十三载意难忘 缓歌曼舞九重宫 朔风黄沙麾旗扬 手足血脉埋青冢 挚友良弓唯锈藏 岂能折腰屈膝没忠良

Xiao Jingyan being represented as the sheathed sword, that comes out undulled and deadly!!!!! It's such a vibe that I can hear the ringing. Through the past 13 years, that emotion and those feelings haven't been forgotten.

Love that you mention the context of that line from 长恨歌 being carefree and blissful early days! These melodies and dances in '九重宫' elevates the setting to such metaphorical heights. Just putting 九重 in there gives it a majestic, magnificent feeling. The highest peak, the noble palace, their idyllic days of youth, gone in bitterly cold winds blowing on battlefields.

The imagery in 朔风黄沙麾旗扬 | north wind / yellow sands / ensigns billowing, are such common representations for war. (An example from one of Li Shimin's more famous poems recounting the horror and tragedy of war, goes 寒沙连骑迹 朔吹断边声 | across cold sands, the cavalry’s trail; the north gale cuts off sound at the frontier, and afterwards, beginning to describe the victory 扬麾氛雾静 纪石功名立 | billowing standard, hazy fog, they quiet; steles bearing their merits and honors, are erected).

Just. That contrast is SO good!

THIS ‘brothers-in-arms and brothers in blood’ FOR 手足血脉 !!!!!!!!!!

Also, veryyyyy nice rhythm and rhyme in your translation on the third line. The ring of ‘long covered in grass’ versus ‘left only to rust’ is so lovely...

I wonder if the use of 青冢 - the verdant tomb - is deliberate - given previous imagery of the harsh northern winds and the sands. How eye catching, their burial mound rising above. Another imagery-metaphor handshake maybe?

And I couldn’t help but be drawn to the contrast 冷锋芒 cold-razor sharpness of the sword, and 唯锈藏 the rust on the bow, put away to gather dust. (Time to step up and reveal your talent and virtue Xiao Jingyan, for your friend and brother who was murdered, because he outlived his use and became an imagined threat… Yes, I went there with the puns. :P)

Were you thinking of 埋没 as in bury for 没忠良? I kind of read it as both having the loyal, true and good killed, but also forcing those left to bend their knee and submit, suppressing themselves. Can’t think of any way to express both layers, but burying them is definitely more in keeping with the theme of these two verses.

挑灯不眠千军帐 逐千里护家邦 玉壶冰心铁骨铮 扬眉冷看覆风浪 当时少年且横枪 凝尽碧血守四方 守国土河山定国安邦

The first line makes me so soft. So so so soft. In it, I see the fiery passion of Xin Qiji’s 破阵子:

醉里挑灯看剑 梦回吹角连营 Drunkenly, lifted a lamp to gaze upon the sword - dreamed back of when horns were blown throughout the army’s sprawling camp, 八百里分麾下炙 五十弦翻塞外声 meat and wine sent out to the men, singing strings and music played loud, here at the frontier: 沙场秋点兵 The battlefield in Autumn, a mustering of the troops.

I see a quiet, unyielding spirit and infinite care in Lu You’s 病起书怀:

病骨支离纱帽宽 孤臣万里客江干 Ailing bones so gaunt, the gauze hat grows loose; a lone official travels far, a guest by this river. 位卑未敢忘忧国 事定犹须待阖棺 In lowly post, daring not to forget concern for the country; even matters decided must be waited out to their ends. 天地神灵扶庙社 京华父老望和銮 Heaven and Earth, Gods and Deities, help our devout state; all the People hope for the war chariots’ ring. 出师一表通今古 夜半挑灯更细看 Northern Expeditions, the Memorial applies in times ancient, present; the night half-past, I lift a lamp, reading closely.

And you know, maybe the use of 家邦 is to maintain that ending -ang sound with 浪 | làng and 方 | fāng, but it just feels so much homier than 家国 somehow. Do you get that feeling?

挑灯不眠千军帐 逐千里护家邦 feels like someone who is so sincere. Leaders who care, people who care. We can see it in their actions.

In the next line, again with the contrasts - but this time so inspiring???? 玉壶冰心铁骨铮 An unchanging, pure heart cold and clear and untainted as ice. It sounds so sincere but somehow fragile. But no fear! He also has a spine of steel - 铮 like the sound of weapons ready to clash in battle.

OMG 扬眉冷看覆风浪 ‘head high, brows lifted, he coolly looks to the tempestuous, overturning storms’ THIS IS SO JINGYAN I LOVE IT. Just these two lines. It hurts that he is so disappointed. That it sometimes must feel like the corruption is everywhere, and the good must submit and hide or else be eventually ousted. It must taste like ashes… There is a fic I really like that asked in the narration, is there value in 风骨 / conviction? And Xiao Jingyan’s answer is: there is. And that’s just so very him.

I’ll indulge myself for the next bit and just say, I feel like the hint of 赤血长殷 Loyal Blood Runs Forever, the Mei Changsu character song (FAV!!!!) is stronger in this part. Things like: 

且横枪 vs 横长枪 换却离愁 ‘still danced their spears’ vs ‘parting woe traded for leveled spears’

凝尽碧血守四方 vs 倾余生风骨同守 ‘blood of the honourable, thoroughly consecrated, defends the four corners of their homeland’ vs ‘pouring the remainder of our lives and strength into protecting together’

守国土河山定国安邦 vs 守我山河家国依旧 ‘guarding rivers and hills to secure peace of the kingdom’s earth’ vs ‘guarding my kingdom, my home, as before’

They really are very similar people in some ways.

[renshengs]

hmm i do think that danmei and dangai (censored danmei cdrama adaptations) being many non-chinese fandom people's first impression of chinese media has given them some misconceptions about mainstream chinese media, and it shows in a way that i find very frustrating when seeing discussions about cdramas on here. dangai dramas aside, even if government censorship didn't exist, the chances of your favorite cdrama gay ship becoming canon is about as high as the chances of any of those iconic homoerotic male friendships in a western TV show becoming canon. which is to say: extremely low.

what i think is that internationally huge danmei fandoms like mdzs and tgcf and drama adaptations like cql and shl have really fucked with people's conceptualization of danmei, in that they're using it as this reference point when analyzing relationships in all other forms of cn media, including cdramas and chinese games, which then manifests into people making very bold, very dubious claims about "queercoding" because 2 characters from a random cdrama reminds them of the one or two danmeis they'd encountered that shaped their entire perception of chinese media. basically it's this meme:

many people here need to understand that cdramas and chinese films are obviously mainstream forms of fictional media in china, just like how the mcu or the doctor who franchise is mainstream in the US and UK, or like shonen is mainstream in japan. not to burst your bubble of happy ignorance, but homoromantic relationships such as qingming/boya from the ying yang master are—for lack of a better term—fujobait. they are fujobait. bromances, because those sell well and everyone knows it. popular ships like bakudeku were not actually made canon in mha because shonen is mainstream, and in most industries geared toward maximizing capital, having full-on gay people front and center is considered a monetarily risky move. which sucks, of course, but china is absolutely no different. i promise you that if the govt removed their censorship laws for TV broadcasts, your favorite gay ship from mysterious lotus casebook or the blood of youth or fangs of fortune still wouldn't be canon. they might be allowed a bit more intimacy due to the lack of restrictive filtering, but they are not going to be sucking face for the same reason that gojo and geto from jjk didn't suck face.

danmei is still widely considered niche and risky in china, and if you haven't seen the recent news, authors are still getting arrested for writing it. assuming that chinese fiction, mainstream chinese fiction in particular, operate like dangais where the two guys with the most gay tension would be made explicitly canon were the censors to be lifted, is frankly pretty ridiculous. dangai dramas are adapted from danmeis, which are stories centered on a gay romance and narratively depend on the two guys falling in love. non-dangai dramas are very much... not that, hence why people shouldn't watch them expecting a censored danmei and then forcing assumptions of "my ship would be canon if only it weren't for censorship" on them.

it's very clear when someone who knows absolutely nothing about the actual situation with danmei and queer existence and mainstream TV censorship in china is trying to push their, if i put it crudely, "boss baby meme" perspective onto cmedia. fandom is all about poking at interactions between your favorite characters and giggling and speculating, but i think lots of fandom people (many of them safe in the pockets of their more progressive areas) view govt censorship as this big abstract dam that, if broken, would result in the canonization of all their favorite ships, which is not only an incredibly naive belief but also one that shows how much they view TV censorship as more of a personal inconvenience that's preventing their favorite ships from kissing on screen instead of the looming, deep-rooted issue depriving mainland chinese people of creative freedom it actually is. with cmedia fandoms there's a specific widely popularized "they're so gay omg how did censorship not notice" gag when there's any perceived homoromantic undertones in a story that's both rather insensitive and also ignorant, and many dangai and cdrama fandoms in particular (donghua fans too, link click shippers i'm looking directly at you) could really use some more education and sensitivity regarding this.

i've been in danmei & cdrama fandom spaces for years and post-pandemic this kind of nonsense has definitely gotten worse, especially when you compare shipping discussions here to shipping discussions in cn fandoms. here every 2 seconds someone makes an off-color censorship joke about tgcf donghua and over on douyin they are straight up commenting under the nezha sequel announcement post if there's going to be an oubing kissing scene. granted i obviously cannot see or know everything going on in cn fandom spaces because they are incomprehensibly enormous, but in all the spaces i've been in i've never seen a single censorship joke from anyone. why do people here absolutely insist on making them?

anyway. fandom be normal about chinese media challenge!

[fateandloveentwined]

considers copying some 辞赋 because it's frankly sad how little I know before 600AD chinese literature.

brain goes: 天将岁雾，时有雨雪

omg what is that

omg it is the dying letter xiaoxiangshuileng wrote from mei changsu to xiao jingyan

how did that even get into my brain, omg alright I'll copy that first.

btw link if you haven't read it yet because you can't not have: https://web.archive.org/web/20190311032447/https://xiaoxiangshuileng.lofter.com/post/1d591213_1236f53b

wei wuxian and mei changsu have many classical chinese letters ending with 绝笔 and we can't not have read them all.

[luzzeagain]

Fandom ask game

(@thebansacredbanned tagged me)

1) How many works do you have on AO3?

31 (what, really? How?)

2) What's your total AO3 word count?

78,0008.

Gotta love the 8.

3) What fandoms do you write for?

Mostly Nirvana in Fire, at the moment, plus occasionally nonsense for whatever show I am currently watching (see Mysterious Lotus Casebook). Most of what I write never gets anywhere near AO3: it’s all in comments or email or, these days, group chat.

4) What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

The first two are co-written, and the third is not actually by me – and in all three cases, the writer/cowriter was someone with a much bigger fandom following than me, so claiming them feels rather like cheating. Which leaves

The Sorceror and the Demon ( NiF) – Fei Liu origin story The Appleby File (Yes Minister/Sherlock)  - Mycroft meets his Civil Service match Fledging (Crash Landing on You) – How does anybody survive the appalling standards of kdrama first aid?

Tactics in the field (NiF) Jingyan/MCS h/c. I’m not sure the likes are purely for the writing, here

Yalta (Cabin Pressure) The one with the otters.

5) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

Yes, unless it’s an anonymous exchange – not that I do exchanges, but I write treats. People have taken the trouble to comment! It’s polite to respond!

6) What is a fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

I don’t really do heavy-duty angst. Ask a tricky question is probably the angstiest overall, despite also being one of the shortest. A Meeting of Minds has a spectacularly angsty end-note, despite being mostly fluff. On the other hand, I once spent ages writing a scene that I thought was really edgy and angsty and was congratulated in comments on how funny it was. Not my forte, is what I'm saying here.

7) What's the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

I tend to write humour, so… most of them? A long-expected party is the only one I’ve ever done that set out with the MCS lives! premise, though, and ends that way, too.

8) Do you get hate on fics?

Not hate, as such, I’ve had a couple of comments where the discussion didn’t go in the direction I was expecting it to.

9) Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

No. The fade to black is a very very useful device. If I did, I’d spend all my time worrying about whether people accidentally had three hands and it would not be sexy at all. In veneno veritas is probably as close at it gets.

10) Do you write crossovers? What's the craziest one you've written?

All the characters in all the things I have ever read or seen live in a continuous extended universe where they are always running into each other. I like using fic to explore the absurd, and crossovers are a great way of doing that. The ‘Paddington in Jin Ling’ one is *probably* the craziest, though I’m also fond of ‘Lin Chen vs Vogon Poetry’. Neither of them are ever coming to AO3, though.

11) Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so, and I can’t think why anyone would.

12) Have you ever had a fic translated?

There’s a Russian translation of The Appleby File. Is Yes Prime Minister popular in Russia?

13) Have you ever co-written a fic before?

It is no coincidence that the only fics over about 3k are co-written. I write mostly to make my friends laugh (or occasionally scream),  and tend to run out of steam on my own.

14) What's your all-time favorite ship?

HMS Surprise, if Scarab is too small to count (Oh, all *right*, then) Jack Aubrey and Stephen Maturin, though I don’t write it, or even read much in the way of fic. It’s complicated and spiky and soft and there’s so much trust there, and it continues to change and grow over the entire series. I don’t really read for ships though. Your favourite ship’s unusual? Convince me. I can be convinced of most things.

15) What's a wip that you want to finish, but doubt you ever will?

The Cabin Pressure/Crash Landing on You ostrich heist one. There’s some good stuff in there. And a lot of ostriches.

16) What are your writing strengths? Editing – I’ve just corrected the spelling in the question. More seriously, in English language fandoms, I have a good ear for voice, but it’s a long time since I’ve written in any. I like to think I can do a killer closing line.

17) What are your writing weaknesses?

Starting anything. I am a world-class procrastinator. And I hate tag-wrangling, but who doesn't?

18) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic?

I wouldn’t, personally.

19) First fandom you wrote for?

There was a very bad James Bond serial I wrote for my brother when he was doing his GCSEs. I don't think I know anyone to tag, but feel free if you're interested!

[flyingkoalaandsloths]

I posted 5,415 times in 2022

That's 2,757 more posts than 2021!

100 posts created (2%)

5,315 posts reblogged (98%)

I tagged 4,944 of my posts in 2022

Only 9% of my posts had no tags

#black sails - 1,088 posts

#captain flint - 494 posts

#asoiaf - 468 posts

#commie tag - 402 posts

#pjo - 309 posts

#nirvana in fire - 285 posts

#john silver - 273 posts

#nico di angelo - 208 posts

#usa - 183 posts

#mei changsu - 157 posts

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

duolingo:

me who watched/read the untamed/MDZS: Finally, my time has come!

114 notes - Posted May 7, 2022

#4

Why you should watch Hikaru no Go (2020) Live Action

by me who just finished rewatching it for... idk 5th time now i guess... and I am having some emotions.

A very detailed and itemized review of the series is below. I would be happy if I convince one (1) person to watch this very underrated show.

What is it?

Also known as Qi hun, it is Chinese live action adaptation of Japanese manga Hikaru no Go by Yumi Hotta and Takeshi Obata

You might know Obata Sensei who also draw Death Note manga. So you know its manga already is awesome. There is also an anime adaptation.

It’s about board game Go and can be classified as sports manga/anime. Basically the plot is: a Go master haunts a boy and teaches him way of Go.

[The manga appears in the cdrama!]

See the full post

116 notes - Posted April 16, 2022

#3

everyone in pjo is like oh nico is so mysterious what a loner we will never understand him and then you cut to nico who is gay as fuck with an olympus sized crush on percy and too much love for his sisters

245 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#2

373 notes - Posted April 12, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

See the full post

557 notes - Posted April 2, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

[semirahrose]

(original post.)

— a Novel by Mei Changsu

[nanashi1869]

We took  汽水 (qìshuǐ - soda) in class and I couldn’t help it.

[tofufei]

helloo i haven't interacted much but here's a summary : really cool blog that I followed for nif content but stayed for interesting reblogs (and ofc nif)! which helped me a lot in navigating tumblr and finding more blogs to follow :)

hello!! I'm not blogging much about nif lately (or fandom in general?😅) though I have reblogged and tagged stuff if you ever want to go through it? no general nif tag bc I am chaotic like that but I do have tags for "lyb fanart" "lyb gifs" "lyb meta". I'm glad that you like the other random reblogs and that you've found more people to follow!!! I hope you have a nice time on this hellsite (affectionate)

[bladedweaponsandswishycoats]

NiF pre-watch knowledge!

Okay so I am probably finally going to watch Nirvana in Fire. So before I do, I shall do the usual (is it usual? I know some others have done it) list of What I Know So Far, on the basis of ambient cdrama fandom osmosis.

Note: I did read at some point a while ago that other 'fandom osmosis summary of NiF' but that person knew more than me and the stuff they said did not stick in my memory much. This summary is mostly from my friends' random comments + tumblr and twitter overlap. I look forward to being amused at how wrong I am, after.

So, what I know:

I do not actually know who the main characters are, though I am sure I've heard half a dozen names at least. The characters whose names I can remember are Mei Changsu, Mu Nihuang, and (?) Jingyan. As a result, most of the following points start with "somebody" because I do not know who.

Somebody has a birthday party. It goes very badly. I guess somebody, or maybe everybody, gets murdered? I have just seen people on the internet say "don't let Mei Changsu plan/come to your birthday party." I guess it must end up being a massacre, probably, and I guess his fault/plan? I am unclear whether he is the protagonist of the show or not. I kind of hope he is. If it is NOT him, I do not know who it is, since people mention him by name more than others.

There was fighting a long time ago and it is shown in flashbacks which include Zhang Zhehan, briefly, as somebody's younger self.

But most of the present story isn't really fighting, at least to judge from gifsets.

Somebody goes away? Is dead or thought dead? For a long time but then comes back for revenge. He has a bunch of secret identities.

And there's one person who likes him who knows who he is, maybe? Maybe also who helped him? I think things might be sad for the helper friend, but I am not sure.

Somebody is in prison for something and doesn't care about dying. Idk if it is the same as the above person who went away and came back, though. (This caught my attention because someone mentioned it in a meme or something and I am always on board for a character you cannot threaten because they're already planning to die.)

Revenge™

Yeti? Someone gets made into one magically or something? Except there's not really magic otherwise?

There is some kind of struggle for power, by some princes I guess. Possibly this involves trying to pull the jianghu powers into court affairs, but I'm not entirely sure (it was briefly mentioned in that wuxia context thread on twitter).

Some of my friends like Jingyan. I don't know who that is, but I recognize the name.

Mu Nihuang is a woman and might be a badass fighter. I only know this because I volunteered to beta a friend's fic which was about her. I have no idea if she is in more than like 2 minutes of it or not, though.

I do not know of any other specific women in it by name, but people have said they get treated better than in some of the other recent cdramas I've watched, ie not dying/fridging etc., so I assume there must be some more.

There is serious intense staring. I have seen gifs.

The costumes and sets are very good!! Some of this I have already noticed in gifs. Also I have heard it filmed at more places than Hengdian. Which means maybe there will be surprising new scenery! Also it had a big budget, I heard, so should be pretty.

There is a funeral at some point where the costume and ritual procedure were notably well-researched representations of (???) funerary rites, according to a post where Hunxi-guilai was talking enthusiastically about them and the show.

There is something / a relationship people say is gayyyy, although there is also a straight love interest maybe, but I know nothing about her. (But I am assuming that after SHL the degree of gay is going to be comparatively little so I will try not expect anything. That is probably true for all of media, tbh...)

In the latter episodes, everything is great until the last episode, and then it all goes terribly wrong. I would guess since people have said it is BE, there must be a massacre or something. But it is not the Bad Birthday, which happens somewhat(?) early in the show. However I also have a vague sense that the protagonist does accomplish his goal, somehow? I don't know if this means it's a pyrrhic victory or what, though.

A lot of people say it is the best show ever, but nobody ever really says why.

(I do not mind spoilers, so no worries if y'all put anything in the comments/tags.)

[circumference-pie]

Fic writer meme thing! Thanks for the tag, @intyalote​! I love mucking around with writing-adjacent introspection.

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

17

2. What is your total AO3 word count?

54,055

3. Top five fics by kudos

Connect with friends and the world around you (NiF, crack)

Rock, Burning Up in the Air (DCMK, Kogoro & Conan)

Every Heart Sings a Song (DCMK, ShinRan)

the dcmk shipyard (DCMK, various)

Two (Guardian, Shen Wei & Ye Zun)

4. Do you respond to comments, and why?

I love getting author responses on comments I send on fics, so I always try to respond to reader comments on mine! And I don’t get so much that it’s overwhelming, or anything.

I’ve gotten much more comfortable responding to comments over these past two (three???) years I’ve been writing fic. I used to freeze up so bad. In delight, but also for fear of saying the wrong thing/not adequately conveying my brain-explody appreciation. Now I just say whatever comes to mind. :D

5. What’s the fic you have written with the angstiest ending?

Days in the Sun for sure. And even that has a lovely, hopeful ending... unless you know canon. >:)

Oh, though “Messy,” the ShinShi short in the dcmk shipyard, has a pretty angsty beginning, middle, and end.

6. What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending?

Unambiguously happy? Probably Every Heart Sings a Song or its followup, Sensory Input.

I hadn’t realized how many of my fics were sort of in a not-quite-angst gray zone.

7. Do you write crossovers, if so what’s the craziest one you have done?

I’ve written one, a Chihayafuru x DCMK crossover. It’s not quite crazy, but with two sets of characters and canons it’s hard to decide where to focus.

8. Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Nope.

9. Do you write smut? If so what kind?

I have published about four lines of smut, but I’ve written a lot more for a WIP. It’s pretty vanilla M/F stuff.

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I don’t think so?

11. Have you ever had a fic translated?

Yep, the first part of touch (DCMK) is translated into Vietnamese here! The translator may or may not finish the rest.

12. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I haven’t collaborated on the actual writing, but I’ve had really involved conversations that deeply influenced the tone and direction of a fic. And some of my betas have been really involved, too.

13. All time favorite ship!

Maybe... RoyAi, from Fullmetal Alchemist? They’re certainly my oldest ship that I still ship. I just love the trust they have in each other.

14. What’s a WIP that you want to finish, but don’t think you will?

Ah, the faux-history paper on the events of Nirvana in Fire, unfortunately.

15. What are your writing strengths?

Derp? I used to really like writing dialogue, but now it doesn’t come so easily. At one point I would have said a lyrical writing style, but I’ve been consciously trying to write in a more grounded style. IDK, hahaha. I am a pro at using the thesaurus?

16. What are your writing weaknesses?

Plotting. Plotting. Plotting. How to rising action? What is conflict? The three-act story and Hero’s Journey are the banes of my writing existence. (I do like the brackets idea from Brandon Sanderson, though. That’s helped a lot.)

17. What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

I’m with @intyalote​ on this, unnecessary in the vast majority of cases. In non-dialogue, as well.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter, I think? Though I either didn’t publish them or took them down soon after.

19. Fave fic you have written?

Ooh, this is hard. I kind of have a love/hate relationship with allll of them. Maybe Days in the Sun and Every Heart Sings a Song*? Two of the longest.

I will tag @cortue​ and @privateeye-cj!

(* I have complicated feelings about Every Heart, because reading it now, I can see how badly I f’ed up the main character’s characterization. I did feel like her characterization was a struggle while I was writing, but it’s even more obvious to me now. But still. The fic contains some of my favorite lines.)

[crossdressingdeath]

okay like a lot of people cql is what introduced me to the series and i’m really grateful for that but after reading the novel/looking into the other adaptations i’m not sure i’ll ever be able to rewatch it dfgjjksjs bc like....in comparison to every other adaptation of mdzs, cql is a ham sandwich honestly....it’s just so stale lol. like putting that ending aside (that everyone seems to convince themselves is better that wx getting married. okay 🤨) there are just so many scenes that me me go ??????? now that i’ve looked into other content. a lot of it was censorship which is fully expected but even the donghua has done a better job at A LOT of stuff. that being said i’m glad that i watched cql before consuming any other mdzs media bc i probably wouldn’t have been able to finish out of disappointment lmfao

Yeah, CQL is like... It’s fine, I guess? Nice when you want something that you don’t really need to think all that hard about. But if you want something with real depth (and canon gays, can’t forget the canon gays) it’s... really not worth the time it’ll take to watch. And the fucking plot holes are so fucking bad, come on. Also yes re the confusion at “Yeah I know I said I’d stay with WWX forever but this job I never showed any interest in and am not in any way qualified for exists so I’m going to abandon him” being taken as a better ending than canon gay marriage. Honestly even with the gay subtext, I’d argue that fucking... Nirvana in Fire has better subtext? For one thing there isn’t massive over-reliance on swelling music and held gazes to signify Romance. And NiF isn’t even based on a danmei!

Personally I’m glad I didn’t start with CQL, because I suspect if I had I never would’ve gotten into MDZS. Like... it just didn’t grab me at all even when I did have a preexisting attachment to the characters and story, I doubt I would’ve bothered with the novel if I watched CQL first and saw the fandom insisting it was sooooooooooo much better.

[fateandloveentwined]

perhaps an index — the chinese side of fandom things

excuse this i'm a little bit of an organising person so here's an attempt to make things neater; [return to general intro]

current interests: NIF / 2ha / tgcf + mdzs / 第一仙师 / modern day fics here and there; i tend to prefer cnovels over cdramas bc i read faster than i watch shows coughs

marked 🍂 are stuff i'm highlighting <3

meta #

definitions, “etymology”, whatever comes my way

general meta

🍂wuxia, xianxia, and cultivation differences meta

🍂wuxia and confucianism

morality in wuxia and xianxia (rblg)

chinese and word choices

City C, University P -- the way modern chinese names places

the chinese "i love you"

creates #

on creations, translations, thought experiments and fic recs.

analyses # and stuff i made up

🍂antithetical couplets (multi)

chapter 275 (2ha)

🍂poetry lines befitting mcs and xjy (nif)

🍂Anle and Nirvana in Fire: what's so mesmerising about NIF's worldview (nif)

Zhou Zishu (tyk/woh; in chinese)

🍂5 notes on Xie Lian and maybe a note more (tgcf)

attempted translations #

⟶ song translations

from afar silver butterflies flutter like glistening orbs, dashed across the starry sky (tgcf donghua x one flower one sword)

isle of land - song translation (陆屿 from 内娱第一花瓶 audio drama)

🍂long darkness — cháng yīn 长喑 translation (nif — xiao jingyan)

⟶ amendments on the title of 长喑 cháng yīn // long darkness

⟶ (Thoughts on 【长喑 】Part 1/3) @ yj's super elaborate response post TT

⟶ excerpt translations

he knelt amidst, and kissed the earth. (panguan)

🍂chapter 60, fragmented souls (shangxian)

chapter 84, wildfires (shangxian)

lotus as the heart (nif — li chong fanfic)

recommendations #

Nirvana in Fire fic recs

🍂cnovel recs (in chinese)

wonky thoughts #

🍂number of unique chinese characters in a book

to all the fandoms I've loved before

fate's stuff #

miscellaneous stuff that i posted or commented on.

Very Subjective Comments on literary prose in danmei and cnovels

chinese webnovel favs/recs

⟶ xianxia-specific favs mentioned at bottom of this post

NIF vs. MLC vs. MDZS polls (on overall franchise, character, and worldview/themes)

🍂THE TEARS ep34 (woh)

interpretations realisations aka. headcanon analyses #

i tries to answer (essentially asks) #

other “non-selectively mine” tags that might interest one: #interpretations realisations (headcanon analyses), #chinese language, #chinese (on culture), #reads and books (current reads and book/tv series-related stuff).

link to kofi-coffee if you're so inclined.

[acesgroupchat]

For the ship meme: I'm rereading Call Down the Hawk right now, so I wanna say the raven cycle but, if you don't have as many ship feelings about them there is always Nirvana in Fire :D Oh, or Critical Role, in case someone already asked NiF

:D oh man oh man

I absolutely DO have ship feels about TRC, but since you mentioned Call Down the Hawk I'm going to do a CDTH-centric answer to this lol:

the ship i like bc i think it’s interesting: Gansey/Ronan. This is probably a product of coming into this fandom very late, but this to me feels like SUCH a fascinating road not taken, in that it brings out really different aspects of both of these characters and that's very fun to me

the ship i like bc i think it’s hot: Declan/Jordan. It wrecked my WHOLE SHOP when CDTH came out and it was revealed that Declan Lynch was secretly the poster boy for my very favorite flavor of fictional het dude this WHOLE TIME!!!, Service sub AND competence porn?? I was SO MAD! How DARE maggie make me love this cream-faced business boy??? RUDE!!!

the ship i like bc i think it’s fucked up: Ronan/Bryde. Is this a ship? I have no idea if this is even a ship but I'm sure someone could write some real fucked up stuff about it lol

the ship i like bc i think it’s hilarious: Declan/Adam. This one is absolutely @toast-the-unknowing's fault but I am here on this party boat, drink in hand, ready for chaos

Honorable Mention: Ronan/Adam. I like this one the same way I like vanilla ice cream. It's just GOOD. Just a straightforward good time with some fun interesting boys.

[mousieta]

The Rules: Post the names of all the files in your WIP folder, regardless of how non-descriptive or ridiculous. Anyone can send me an ask afterwards (or a comment in this post) with a title that most intrigues/ interests you, and I’ll post a little snippet of it or tell you something about it!

Thank you to the lovely @the-lunar-pull for tagging me!!!

Gonna go in order of most to least done and I dont have a folder as much as one giant scrivner file with random ideas (also I am a mess of fandoms right now) so:

WildKARD

 We Seek the Unseekable and We Speak the Unspeakable

Tie Me Up

Where the Heart Resides

Ride the Purple Lightning

Under the Cherry Blossoms

Toshiro and the Bear

The taste of revenge on your lips

NiF Canon

Brojobs and Butterflies Redux

Ask away!

and... i dunno if i even have any writer friends on here anymore...

If any of my followers see this and you write consider yourselves tagged and do the thing and tag me back pls pls pls because I want to read your stuff!!!!! (also I have a handful of newish followers and I want to get to know you better)

[watch-grok-brainrot]

I made a discord server!

https://discord.gg/mdzUhAn2

Basically at some point I said to myself I wanna stream NiF and I figured I'd make a discord server and boost it for better quality. So feel free to join me and use it to stream whatever you're doing at higher res/fps (e.g. for games or group watches). I tentatively put in categories for chats etc but who knows...

And I'll probably start my NiF watch tonight (7 or 8 central usa time) ...

And if that time is awful for you let me know and I might be willing to stream the show at another hour even if I end up afk. Lol.

Seriously I just want the untamed fandom to start making NiF stuff.... Feeeed me friends. Feeeeeeed me.

[rhysiana]

Tagged by @mylastbraincql!

Rules are to answer the questions and tag people you want to get to know better/catch up with!

Five songs you’ve been listening to on repeat recently: This is where I confess that I don’t seem to listen to music the way most people in fandom appear to, in that I hardly notice lyrics until I’ve heard a song a bunch of times, because I don’t *hear* things if there’s visual input anywhere near me, it just gets shunted directly to background noise. That said, here’s 5 things my random shuffle turned up while I was answering this:

King of Carrot Flowers Pt. One by Neutral Milk Hotel Indestructible by Robyn Not Ready to Make Nice (Live) by The Chicks Uzh Kak Po Mostu, Mostochiku by Andrey Vinogradov Tanglewood Tree by Seanan McGuire

Last Movie: Miracle, because apparently we got on a Kurt Russell sports movie theme accidentally? Before that it was The Battered Bastards of Baseball, the documentary about the independent baseball team Kurt Russell’s dad ran in Portland for a few years, which was really interesting.

Currently Watching: I’m most of the way through a rewatch of Nirvana in Fire, halfway through s2 of Virgin River for when I need something in English to stitch to, halfway through Carole & Tuesday (cute, good for knitting to), and we’ve been watching Nadiya Bakes while eating dinner. I’ll probably rewatch Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty after I finish NiF, but I also have a bunch of other stuff in my to-watch list on Viki...

Currently Reading: Calculated Risks by Seanan McGuire (physical book), rereading A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine because the sequel comes out tomorrow (ebook), and The Mask of Mirrors by M.A. Carrick (audiobook, which is going slowly because I keep getting distracted from listening, but it’s very good!)

Tagging: @srprincess, @cobrilee, @anodyneer, @yodas-yo-yo, @hmslusitania, and anyone else who sees this and wants to answer!