#only wwx gets all the bad rep

[zushiisamess]

Sometimes I think about who would win in a “densest mxtx protagonist” competition, because honestly I think there aren’t enough 3rd place podiums for them all 😭

choose your fighter!

Contestants:

Xie—had a 3 hour long make out session with him and refuses to believe either of them are in love for 2 more volumes—Lian.

Shen—my disciple is not a homosexual, he just got a boner when I hugged him and preserved my body for five years even after I threw him into literal hell—Yuan

Wei—i slept with the guy and it was the best night of my life, but lmao we’ll laugh about this “bro accident” in 10 years, amirite?—Wuxian

[fubuwu]

Fuck it. Since I'm being spat on and tarnished by jc antis I'm unashamedly doing call out posts as they have harassed me on all my posts and got their little friends to gang up on me. Starting with this "lovely" person

Calling me an abuse apologist just because I said that madame yu had tough love methods..... I was in no way excusing her abuse towards wwx with that FYI. Wwx wasnt even mentioned in the og post.... Never once denied she was abusive in the post either (in fact i ackowledged her abuse numerous times in the post and how her children act around her. But apparently you willfully missed that part). I said she had tough love methods towards her children. NOT WWX. Wwx was not her child or have you forgotten that? She has a tough love attitude in the sense that she toughens up her kids, expects no nonsense, wants them to strive to do better, get on with it, stiff upper lip attitude etc. This does not mean it's a good parenting tactic.

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Using tough love to describe her parenting technique isn't a compliment. Apparently some of you don't know what it means because tough love, whilst there is love and good intentions behind the actions, it can also have unintended bad consequences on your children and is not a form of love you should expose your child to if you want them to become normal, emotionally stable people.

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It can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms and suppressing emotions amongst other things I won't go into. I was in no way complimenting her. It was a critique. That should have been obvious. But in your words, ig some of you don't have reading comprehension.

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To accuse me of something so extreme as excusing abuse over a FICTIONAL CHARACTER and trying to get all your friends to agree and jump on my posts because I never explicitly made the above points obvious is what a bully would do. You know nothing about me and decided to make such allegations over a single post. I will not stand for this bullying.

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YOU should be ashamed of your behavior. I've seen your other posts and how you talk about and to REAL PEOPLE.

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You acting all morally superior whilst attacking me and many others like this makes you an abusive person FYI. And I won't sit there and take it from you or your friends.

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Moving on to specimen number two

This person has been spamming my notifications jumping on EVERY post, being disrespectful and pretty much accusing me, an ace person, for being ignorant about MY OWN IDENTITY and using ace stereotypes just because I surmised that jc could be ace due to his lack of interest in romance.

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Echoing the words used by another user in the thread, but denying that such ace persons exist is acephobic in itself. I'm an ace person who isnt interested in relationships outside anything that is close, platonic but meaningful. Many others in the jc fandom say the same thing which is why they see themselves in him. A large portion of the jc fandom are actually ace in fact and we love to see him used in ace rep posts. We're already made to feel like freaks, so to have that thrown in my face is very hurtful. Above all twisting my words and making out I said every ace person hates romance is very disingenuous. I NEVER once said that in the post. I wont have my character attacked and lied about like that.

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Also, once again TWISTING my words, implying I was pissed off about the incel claims when it was so obvious that I was merely asking out of curiosity where these claims come from?? Because it was never implied in the canon text. There was no anger or malice behind my questions. It was all open discussion. I can see now that this was mental gymnastics at play here to justify your hcs that you know are not canon and use it as an excuse to attack my posts with your friends, all because you were proven wrong. You lashed out on what was an otherwise polite discussion. That behavior is all entirely on you.

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Ive only ever been respectful in my posts and they were never done to provoke arguments or hate on others opinions. So to wake up and be accused of all sorts over a fictional character is very hurtful and just shows how terribly low your side of the fandom has to stoop just to prove a point and hate on jc.

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Im not tolerating it and these blatant LIES any longer. I hope other jc antis read these posts and see how nasty you all are. And if anyone thinks this sort of treatment is okay, then you need to look inwardly and step away from the computer. I'm done here.

[admirableadmiranda]

Hi! I have an perhaps silly question!

I am currently reading volume 4 & 5 of the official translation. Up till now, I didn't have that many problems with it (mostly because it's been years since I read the fan one and since I don't speak Chinese and English isn't my first language the only thing I noticed at first was that it... read ? Better if that makes sense? It was easier at least.

But I have. Concerns. Does Wei Wuxian truly say fuck (or whatever equivalent there is in swear words) all the time? Because I noticed it in vol 4 and now I keep seeing it! I know he's supposed to be pretty informal, but that + the way he speaks sometimes ("I know I've got a bad rep" ??? "What are you doing on my turf"???) keep taking me out of the story xD idk if it's because I took a break in my rereading and got used to fics modifying his speech patterns... but given that when I'm writing mdzs fics I usually make sure to... idk adapt the speech patterns so they're not too modern sounding? Am I overthinking this? Should I let wwx say fuck all the time?? XD

Hope this doesn't bother you and thank you in advance for your answer!!

Hi! Hello again! How’s it going?

So full disclosure I have not read the official translation in full yet, but uhh… yeah I’ve seen more than enough of Suika’s prose to know that there’s something off about the way she translates WWX that just eliminates an important element of his character.

For what you’re saying between ExR and Suika’s translations with Suika being easier to read, I get that. ExR has a lot of trouble with tenses and plenty of times they use a word that’s not quite what they actually want it to mean, so it takes more work to read what they intend to say over what the text says, but Suika’s text only really is improved by being cleaned up, @kimalysong and @jiangwanyinscatmom have a lot of posts on text either vastly altered from the intent or lines just flat out missing, if you’re curious about going down the rabbit hole of the official translation.

Now WWX does swear on occasion, especially when he’s younger and using the rougher Yunmeng dialect, but the other lines you’ve quoted tend to have Suika’s usual problem of making lower class characters speak roughly and often with southern accents regardless of how they sound in Chinese or with consideration to the character at hand. Wei Wuxian has an incredible grasp of language and literally switches linguistic registers depending on who he’s talking to and what the situation is and given some of his lines that I’ve seen in the official translation compared to stuff in exr or that my friend has translated for me, it seems like Suika has flattened all of that out in favor of her usual style of handling lower class characters.

I think you’re noticing it because it’s at odds with everyone else’s translations and grasp of WWX. While ExR has its own troubles with grammar at times, you can still see the strength in his language usage, to say nothing of Fanyiyi and Taming Wangxian’s translations which are much more solid on that front(@mxtxfanatic has posts comparing the language uses between exr, Fanyiyi and Taming Wangxian if you’re curious) and really lay out a well spoken character who can adjust his speech as needed (and drop the occasional precision fuck strike when needed).

I am not impressed by Suika’s way of translating characters speech especially as it pertains to Wei Wuxian, and I think you’re right to say that it feels weird. Don’t follow her style of speech, continue to write a WWX who absolutely understands the tangled web of a world he lives in and adjusts his language for the person at hand consistently.

[mxtxfanatic]

That’s not what you said, though. You said that none of the characters have a set morality and invoked mxtx’s name to enforce this statement. You were wrong about that, because mxtx herself says that her characters have moral alignments and that wangxian are the two characters she wants people to strive to be like. Saying that wwx is wrong for using the ghost path because he lives in a culture that “very well values the dead” ignores the fact that the story itself negates your conclusion. Wei Wuxian is one of the few characters that treats the dead respectfully, and likewise we are told of a myriad of ways that the cultivation world doesn’t respect the dead: least of all when they choose to destroy walking corpses and ghosts because it’s easier to destroy souls than try to save them and most of all when they throw the bodies of the Wen remnants into the blood pool.

The cultivation world did not kill wwx because “they feared for their lives.” They killed him because they hated being shown up by a “son of a servant,” and their leaders were greedy for power (jgs), filled with resentment (nmj and jc), or absolutely indifferent to human suffering in the face of mob mentality (lxc). You are not meant to look at the greater cultivation world and go “huh, I see where they’re coming from,” you’re supposed to look at them and go “yikes, this is why you need to have your own morality rather than depending on the approval of others’ to decide what actions you ‘should’ take.” Just because they are the “default setting” doesn’t mean that we are supposed to take them at face value or view them as a neutral party. In fact, in every mxtx novel and most of the other cultivation novels I’ve read by other authors, the “righteous sects” are the bad guys! It’s such a common theme that books I’ve read satirizing the genre will do so by making the cultivation world into mostly good people.

As for jc: he didn’t try to help the Wen remnants because be was filled with resentment and feels like the people he blames for his life falling apart should die. When jc gets jealous that jfm offered wwx the most lukewarm praise for killing the xuanwu of slaughter, jc responds by saying that wwx should’ve left lwj and jzx to die. Jfm swiftly admonishes him for that, so jc decides to stand with his mom when she storms into the verbally abuse wwx and jfm. After the fall of lotus pier, he tries to strangle wwx to death, and the narration quite clearly states that he knows that neither wwx nor the people he rescued in the cave were to blame for the massacre cause the Wen were always going to come. Wwx was simply their excuse. When jc shows up to the burial mounds, he immediately tries to kill wen ning upon seeing his prone body, then says that he doesn’t care about fulfilling his life debts to Wen Ning and Wen Qing. Then, he led the siege that killed wwx and the Wen remnants. It is said explicitly that his participation was key to allowing them to slip past the security on the mountain! This isn’t an “oopsie;” this isn’t a “he feared the others would turn on him.” Lxc didn’t go to the siege at all, he just sent his uncle to rep him and nobody says anything about it. Nobody would have cared if jc hadn’t gone!

And to make it clear that jc standing up for wwx wouldn’t have ended poorly for jc or the jiang, jgy explicitly says it at guanyin temple. “Wow jc, if only you’d protected the shixiong that had done so much for you in life, you wouldn’t be in this position to be embarrassed so much rn. We were only able to do what we did because everyone could see you have an inferiority complex when it comes to him, so it was easy to just exploit that and get you to abandon him.” Wwx was a one-man army, and the cultivation world wouldn’t even turn on the Wen Clan pre-ssc until the Wen actively invaded all the other greater clans (minus the Jin), so where tf would they have gained the courage to go up against the man that decimated the army that was bigger than all of their armies put together? No, jc’s resentment is what led to his decision-making, not strategic planning, and none of this is secret knowledge or subtext when mxtx writes this out plainly.

oh and another take that I feel the mxtx- specifically mdzs fandom needs to hear is that none and i mean none of the characters have any set morality. this applies to their mindset, actions, feelings- the entire point is that you see where all the characters come from and recognise their actions. none of them are completely 100% good or bad. the point of the entire novel isn't to see and judge their actions. it's to see where they come from, what mindset requires those terrible or honourable actions. is it okay to call out a character on their actions? yes. but please for the love of mo xiang tong xiu remember what caused those actions and whether your call out is necessary instead of making posts like "character A was just trying his best and character B came and ruined everything that's why I hate character C". no. almost all the characters are shitty to some extent albeit in different categories. recognise that and you will appreciate mdzs even more.

[plan-d-to-i]

i never understood why ppl excuse jc’s inaction with the wens and everything that came after on “miscommunication”. Like what is there to miscommunicate? It doesn’t take a genius much less a sect leader to look at the situation and think “oh this isn’t gonna go well”. jc knew more than anyone the situation golden core reveal or not. He knew wn and wq saved him and wwx and knew the wen remnants were a bunch of old ppl and a child. Where is the miscommunication🤨? wwx did not have to go around announcing that ppl were against him like it’s so clear to even non cultivators. jc stans love to do mental gymnastics to avoid admitting the fact that jc is just a selfish and spineless asshole. sorry this is kinda long but i just wanted to rant 😅

haha rant away xx

On one hand jc is a political mastermind clan leader with an uncanny ability to read the room 🌝, on the other hand he can't figure out that isolating WWX, leaving him no recourse to protect the Wens other than defecting and taking the entire burden on his shoulders, staging a violent duel with him to cut all ties and calling him the enemy of the entire cultivation world would be detrimental to his safety k. The only people inane enough to believe these kinds of arguments are ... other jc stans...

"Why do you care what kind of end they meet? A dead end it is, then—what does it have to do with you?!”

Wei WuXian finally lost his temper, “Jiang Cheng! What- What do you think you’re talking about?! Take it back—don’t make me give you a thrashing! Don’t forget. Who was the one that helped us burn Uncle Jiang’s and Madam Yu’s corpses? Who returned to us the ashes that are in Lotus Pier right now? And who took us in when we were chased after by Wen Chao?!”

Jiang Cheng, “I’m the one who fucking wants to give you a thrashing! Yes, they helped us before, but why in the world don’t you understand that right now any remnant of the Wen Sect is a target of criticism!

there you have it. jc in a nutshell: They helped us, but there's nothing in it for me if I help them right now.

His "if you protect them I won't protect you" isn't a statement on ,ability it's a threat. It's not that jc can't protect him, ppl don't seem to get it. YunmengJiang Clan is fine at this point. LOTUS PIER NEVER HAD TO BE REBUILT BECAUSE IT WAS NOT BURNED DOWN. The Cloud Recesses were burned down. jc just doesn't intend to admit to the cultivation world he's only alive and kicking thanks to some Wens and he's pissed off WWX is not obeying him and making him look bad by doing the difficult, morally correct thing. He's already been stewing that WWX got credit for his immense show of force during the war. This happens all the time where instead of a talented servant, soldier, general etc being rewarded for their talent the dude in power sees them as a threat to his position/rep and nerfs them (or yk ...kills them).

Honestly ppl will really b like : "Wen Ning best boy 🥺 and then defend this:

Jiang Cheng exploded, “Just what are you being so stubborn about? If you can’t do it then move over—I’ll do it!”

Wei WuXian gripped him even tighter, his fingers as tight as iron, “Jiang WanYin!”

WWX made it perfectly clear why he was defecting. To fully protect the reputation of YunmengJiang. jc understood. There's absolutely no miscommunication:

Wei WuXian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei WuXian does, it’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect.”

Jiang Cheng, “… All for the Wen Sect…? Wei WuXian, do you have a savior complex? Is it that you’ll die if you don’t stand up for someone and stir up some trouble?”

Wei WuXian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the YunmengJiang Sect in the future.”

As for "oh wwx should've just told him about the core transfer and thrown that in his face that would've totally changed jc's attitude 🥺". First of all we see jc's attitude when the core is revealed. Was it helpful ?! LMAO. Jc is incapable of understanding true altruism and principles. In his mind everything honorable & heroic WWX does from helping in the Xuanwu cave to helping the Wens, to giving him his core it's bc he's showing off what a hero he is.

“Wei WuXian, you’re such a great, selfless person. You did the best things possible, and you swallowed all the suffering and didn’t let anyone know. What a touching story. I should kneel down and cry in gratitude, shouldn’t I?”

Secondly jc already knew he only back his core thanks to WWX. It's not like he found Baoshan Sanren by himself and told her he was YZY's son 🌝 Just like he knew he only survived and got back his parents's bodies thanks to WN & WQ. He just doesn't care. Ppl are out there trying to reinvent logic to excuse jc's behavior instead of just accepting the simple, obvious fact that he's just "a selfish and spineless asshole", as you so aptly put it 💯.

[ocdhuacheng]

Hey, so can I ask about the thought process (idk words but anyway) behind why you headcanoned Hua Cheng as having OCD cuz I'm very interested? :0

KSJDNKSJDFN sorry it took so long to reply to this I promise I wasn’t ignoring you I was just overwhelmed this week and then after I actually sat down to write out my very long answer I accidentally unplugged my computer and I LOST IT ALL so sorry but this version Is going to be rather incoherent and missing stuff probably bc its pretty much just copied and pasted from one of my discord rambles/previous posts bc I don’t have the energy or memory to rewrite everything how I had it before.. but ive kept u waiting long enough so. Yeah. Sorry.

Also if I sound salty at all its not anything directed at you im just pissed at myself for writing like >3k words all in tumblr like a fool and not backing it up then accidentally yanking on my computer cord like RIGHT as I was going to post it. But I promise im actually very happy getting asks like these even if it takes me a long time to respond ;_;

So anyway basically the tldr version is that I have ocd and I love rubbing my terrible little projection paws all over my favorite characters, but also I do genuinely think that what we are shown of hua chengs personality and actions does naturally lead to the headcanon that he has ocd (and ocpd), kind of like how it seems very clear to me that wwx has adhd and lwj is autistic.

Longer version under cut bc. Well. Sorry in advance lol

So. To start off. my ocd got suuuuuper bad in my second year of college, like to the point where my parents and psychologist was considering putting me in a hospital, so i know how awful ocd can get. and because of that ive always been kinda annoyed that all the ocd """""rep""""" in media is just comedic relief kinda stereotypical clean-freak perfectionist haha look at this weirdo sort of thing. like I was barely functional I couldn’t do basic tasks the majority of the time. ironically, my room was extremely dirty and messy despite my main obsession being about contamination. so yeah not all ocd manifests as the spotless perfect room perfect closet perfect desk or whatever the fuck. sometimes its the opposite. I also got put on academic probation bc I failed all but one of my classes (the one I passed was an art class. Lowkey think that class was the only thing keeping me out of a psych ward that quarter. lol. But anyway. That’s a different conversation) BUT ANYWAY it was all around Awful. Like idk it makes me feel kind of stupid for being such a mess before my medications when everyone just sees ocd as a joke or something. like for example, i loove death the kid soul eater, and hes a good character to make fun of urself after you’ve been medicated for ocd, but i wouldnt exactly call him good rep lmao. But after that relapse episode, I kind of really really really desperately needed a character/story to relate to about it but yippee! there are approximately zero (0) canon ocd characters that aren’t comedic relief! but anyway, i know hua cheng isnt canonically ocd but i was actually able to project on him alot from what we got of his personality (and i do gotta say, sorry but despite my attachment to him i dont actually think hes written all that well, but thats another rant), and its part of the reason why i love him so much bc hes like, definitely my biggest projecttion in this regard. so anyway

i mean theres no argument that his personality and actions are very. obsessive, and rather unhealthy to a degree, especially when he was younger, not so much as he matured over literally 800 years lol but he still has some hella issues. so like, [gestures to all of him] with how he chose xie lian as. HIS PERSON, and proceeded to revolve his entire personality and life around him is obvi v obsessive, i think its very obsessive compulsive personality disorder, which is slightly different than just ocd, one difference being (besides ocd being an anxiety disorder and ocpd being a personality disorder.) in that with ocpd, you dont really think theres anything wrong with how obsessive or compulsive you are, while with ocd it causes a lot of distress. (i havent been formally diagnosed with ocpd, but i do think i definitely at the very least have tendencies in that direction too. Like with certain things i know what im doing/thinking is irrational and it upsets me, but with others im just like. why cant other people see this the way i do? why cant they just understand why this is important? like I just get so! Angry! all the time! with people or in general when things aren’t how I want them to be. I get so judgemental even when other people cant possibly know how specific my standards are like I know its bad and I know it makes me act like a bitch and im sorry) anyway……….. sorry about the tangent but back to hua cheng. he is never distressed by how much he fixates on xie lian, the only thing that distresses him is his own percieved shortcomings with how he cannot serve xie lian the way he wants to. im not sure im explaining this well but i do definitely think hua cheng has ocpd as well. his fixation on xie lian actively prevents him forming meaningful relationships with other people, and even causes a lot of antagonism between him and others (especially fxmq). he just doesnt think anyone else is worthy of his attention. which is obviously, very unhealthy and kind of sad. (i do like to think he grows out of this a bit like with yin yu and he xuan, even if he doesnt want to admit it. AND YUSHI HUANG, bc i am also a ysh/hc brotp propaganda machine as well, and well because she was the only one that was willing to help xie lian during the war too. gay lesbian solidarity mwah <3)

so this ocpd thing.. i believe it extends to things like how the temple in ghost city, or paradise manor, is set up, he'd be classic perfectionist for the layout of it all, probably gave yin yu a lot of grief over it every single time he changed his mind and decided to burn it to the ground or redecorate it because it didnt seem good enough anymore for the hypothetical day when he can bring xie lian there. i dont like to think hua cheng treated yin yu badly on purpose, i dont like thinking hes cruel to him for the sake of being cruel like ive seen some people imply or outright suggest, i mean yin yu is obviously overworked but i think part of that is just hua cheng is so perfectionist about certain things (how the temples and manors look, how theyre run, anything that can be used for or by xie lian in the future) and he just doesnt see that its become a large burden on yin yu because he thinks this kind of stuff is just the rational thing to do, and that everyone should put as much thought into these things as he does. and if he doesnt feel like he can get things to be set up the way he wants it to be it becomes. catastrophic lol

so thats more of the pure ocpd side, though there is a lot of overlap between ocpd and ocd obvi

one thing about ocd is like. its all about wanting to be in control of every tiny part of your life. like for me when certain things are out of my control it freaks me out so much that it basically disables me. Its why I hate planes so much despite cars being statistically much more dangerous. Because if something happens in a car I at least have some semblance of control over how I can escape the situation. In a plane youre just. Fucked. (sorry to all pilots its nothing personal I think youre braver than I will ever be but its basically impossible for me to trust you (and the engineers and inspectors) with my life like that) anyway, i despise ambiguity of any kind and i hate not knowing things or having concrete answers to any questions or worries i have. like. i couldnt decide on a hypothetical grad school because i was weighing the possibilities down to like, ridiculous perceived probability percentages of how likely a natural disaster were to occur in the area, and how dangerous said natural disasters could be, etc. (well. i didnt have to worry about any of that in the end bc i got rejected from literally every school i applied to LMAO RIP but anyway.) so you get the gist. its all just very irrational, and time consuming, and ridiculous to try to gain control of every single possible path your life can take. AND I HATE IT. that was kinda yet another tangent but, to apply this concept to hua cheng. one thing that i find super funny about him is how he always has his nose in everyones personal business like hes such a fucking gossip girl its hilarious. like jokes aside its obvi helpful as a ghost king to know whats going on in the 3 realms, but i think he takes his info gathering up to 11 like he definitely has these control issues about having to know about everything thats going on at all times, having to be on top of everyones business so he cant be caught off guard by anything. over those 800 years of sending his butterflies out recording things he was primarily looking for xie lian, but hes also just kind of. snooping. lmfao. Because If He Doesnt Know Whats Going On Everywhere He Will Die. (again)

and well. with his butterflies to help him, it does work, i mean. hes always on top of things hes always got a plan, hes always the one that people are going to in the book if theyre in trouble. He seems so put together but the things he cant get information on completely eat him alive sometimes. cant let others know that tho, bc hes Cool(TM), hes Chill(TM). cant let anyone know there are things that, god forbid, hes IGNORANT of. embarrassing. tch.

his hoarding im a little ? about because i dont exactly remember the details of it but i do know he has a ridiculous amount of like trinkets and weapons and magical items and stuff in paradise manor, but i also know he doesnt really care if they get destroyed or not, which is kind of strange but i do what i want and im making him a hoarder bc im somewhat of a hoarder and i love projecting. though now that i think about it. like if i have a big pile of something that i dont want to get rid of, but someone else does it for me without asking or something happens to it like yeah i get angry but sometimes i also just get kind of relieved……….. idk.

so now about intrusive thoughts, i bet he has suuper disturbing ones. Like we  know how he was debating slaughtering those humans on mt tonglu but ended up not because xie lian would have saved them. obviously that was already a stressful unusual situation but like i dont think that kind of thing gets any better even when hes just like. chilling. he gets visions of himself burning ghost city to the ground or attacking humans or destroying his own ashes or otherwise causing harm to others, like yin yu. like he pretends he doesnt care about yin yu and he xuan and stuff but i do think hes fond of them, but he tries to keep his distance because 1) hes dumb and 2) he gets really freaked out by these violent thoughts he has about them. the worst is, when he finally meets xie lian again he gets these thoughts about him too and it takes literally everything he has not to like. throw himself into a volcano, or something.

and its already been established his self image isnt. great. which is a kind way of saying it. he thinks hes worthless and ugly, esp if he does even the slightest thing wrong. I mean I definitely think hes better by the current timeline of the book, but it still reads as a kind of precarious thing to me? Like he wants to be a companion to xie lian instead of just a servant like wu ming, but even after 800 years he still feels this inferiority and disregard for himself u know? If im explaining in an okay way? and body dysmorphia is also something that can be ocd related. OH and i forgot to say this before but ocd/ocpd can also sometimes be a way that ptsd can manifest and id definitely say with all that he was said to have gone through as a child he has ptsd, leading to, well, exacerbated ocd symptoms, among other things. his body dysmorphia is obviously something he internalized (for 800 years!!!) from when he was a child, and i can imagine him absolutely agonizing for centuries over his san lang form, because it was supposed to be his most perfect form, he needed to make it perfect, and he never felt like he could

similarly, for the cleanliness side of ocd that i feel is kind of stereotypical? at least how its portrayed in most media, hua cheng has been show a couple times not wanting to get things (or xie lian) dirty. he was very poor and dirty as a child so now he has the connection of being dirty = being miserable, and this is taken to the extreme when he becomes a supreme bc now hes rich and able to be clean and any dirt or blood on him or something/someone he cares about (’cant let you down the ground is dirty’; shielding the flower, etc) is like. an attack on this power he has now ? iykwim

anyway sorry this is long and rambly. if you actually read it all… respect……. Also ignore those parts where I might get a little too personal :^) like idk if it is but I feel like I might regret some of this in the morning. honks. Anywayyyy as you can see im completely normal about hua cheng im saaaaaauuuuur normal and well adjusted and I just think hes neat oky byeee jumps out my window

[gloriousmonsters]

character ask game 💚🤍🖤 - so uh, talk to us about Lan Sizhui? 😁😏

one aspect about them i love

Honestly I did not spend that much brainspace on LSZ before writing trust me as though I were your enemy, which is a very *cough* specific and premise-based take on his character, so... speaking from my brief newfound interest in the character, I love the untapped potential of his character? Most of what we see is very surface level--not to say his kindness and proactive Good-Boy-ness isn't genuine if it's not backed by the correct impulses, I think on one hand he genuinely values being considerate and careful and kind (and him being the only Lan junior who tries speaking gently to 'Mo Xuanyu' when he's just acting deliberately 'crazy' still gives me feelings. i, like wwx, have the 'such a nice kid! how tf did the Lan sect spit HIM out?' reaction 😂)

...but on the other hand, 'Lan' Sizhui has no real choice but to be a Good Kid. He's kind of adopted into the Lan family, but his main point of adoption is Lan Wangji, and it happened during the years LWJ was thoroughly destroying all of his Good Boy rep within (parts of, at least) the sect--something I thought about but didn't manage to work thoroughly into the fic was that LSZ probably deals with a lot of spillover dislike by, say, the 33 elders that were severely wounded by LWJ. And then there's all the shit he'd just barely remember... In conclusion, LSZ pretty probably grew up with the impression that Something Bad happened when he was a kid but nobody will talk about it, and dealt with feeling like he was on Thin Fucking Ice with a significant portion of the Lan elders without knowing why. Perfect recipe for a kid to repress any 'bad' feeling or behavior he might ever have!

So... what's under that surface? Especially when he starts learning about the truth of everything that happened at the end of canon, and learns where he actually came from?

Fun to think about.

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

I am not familiar enough w how people usually characterize him to really speak on this...

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

something that I did decide on during writing is that while he's not disliked by many people in the younger generations, he really doesn't have any friends except for Lan Jingyi. He doesn't get close to people easily, so it takes someone as enthusiastic and bad at reading subtlety as Jingyi to hang in there and earn the position :P

one character i love seeing them interact with

Tbh I'm not immune, his interactions with WWX and LWJ when he's a little kid hit me right in the heart. It's especially adorable in CQL, when he's sitting in LWJ's lap and you can see LWJ getting baby fever in realtime. They may not be the best guardian-ish figures, but his connection to both of them is still obviously important to him, and seeing the beginnings of it is still painfully sweet.

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Honestly there's a lot I wish here! I'd like to see something of him traveling with Wen Ning (I've heard there's a movie, but also that it sucks, and based on Fatal Journey i believe it); I'd like to have seen more one-on-one interaction with LWJ when he's older, instead of always just being part of the Group of Juniors. After writing this fic, I'm also wishing that he'd ever really interacted with SMS, lol.

one headcanon i have that involves them and one other character

Separate from any fics i may or may not be writing < <.... I think he had a good, if not at all close, relationship with Jin Guangyao, and looked up to him a little bit (lsz: wow you're repressing EVERYTHING and you're doing it so well i wanna be you when i grow up). He felt a little guilty about it because while LWJ never said anything specific, he didn't seem to like Lianfang-zun much, but whenever LSZ saw him (at conferences and meetings in Jinlintai, or during JGY's frequent visits to the Lan sect) JGY was always super nice and friendly, and jokes aside was modeling a type of poised strength that was very different from LWJ's uncaring-of-social-consequences conduct that LSZ, to say the least, did not feel like he was capable of.

(jgy, on his end, is having a 'wow what a nice kid how tf is he someone adopted by that rude boy lwj' moment)

[crossdressingdeath]

I don't understand this idea of JC as some sort of wonderful sect leader. He keeps making the worst possible decisions - driving away and killing the powerhouse that is WWX, persecuting demonic cultivators but never actually doing anything about the ones that are a real danger (Xue Yang), his murder habit gives the Jiang sect a bad rep and makes them hard to approach for non-cultivators. WWX describes Lotus Pier under JC as tattered. Even if JC had to restore LP by himself, that's his own fault.

JC literally threw away a human nuke because a guy known to be unreliable said he was rude one time despite the guy known for being unfailingly honest saying he was wrong, is the thing. I cannot overstate how stupid a decision that was! He had an undefeatable human nuke and all he would have had to do to keep him was not throw him to the wolves. One of his first acts as sect leader was to completely ignore all the evidence he had and could have easily used to get WWX off the hook for killing the Jin guards (which, reminder, was pretty much all WWX had done at the point where JC declared him a traitor) in favour of calling WWX an enemy of the sects and letting him die, in the process throwing away his only advantage among the sects. And yeah, when we see him post-resurrection it’s made clear that his reputation is terrible and no one likes him, and while Lotus Pier is shiny and fancy it’s lost everything that gave it heart. JC completely destroyed everything his sect stood for with his own hands, and that is entirely his doing. As is the fact that he had to do it alone (...except for how he didn’t, he had an entire sect, if he didn’t listen to them that’s his problem), because he drove off the one person who would’ve stood by him to the end.

[nyerus]

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

Thank you so much for asking! I would love to! (Apologies for the delay, and also for how long this is lol....)

TGCF

1.) Xie Lian: I could write forever about why I love him, but XL is just a really great character who subverted my expectations. He's gentle and compassionate, but also funny and snarky on the inside. His character arc is the classic hero's journey but told out of order. So we meet him when he's already wise and world-weary, then get to see what he was like before, and how he finishes his journey later on. He's extremely inspiring, to show that our choices and our actions are what make us, and ultimately no one can take those from us.

2.) Hua Cheng: This is no surprise! I also just adore HC for being a very intense character! He's completely devoted to XL and that zealotry is very unique in a character. He's 100%, not 50, not 75. While he has a lot of relateable aspects, this part of him is utterly fantastical, on the level only myth and fable can achieve--which tracks. After all, he isnt a Ghost King for nothing. In the story, he is the embodiment of the purest devotion, no strings attached.

3.) He Xuan: I actually like him for the same reasons as HC! He too is a walking fable, only instead of devotion, he represents vengence. (They're actually like foils of each other, which is quite neat.) I really adore his arc, and how murky his whole character is. It tells a cautionary tale of how sometimes, our worst enemy--the one who makes us most miserable--is often ourselves. SWD wronged him greviously, but HX's obsession with vengence ultimately prevented him from getting the peace and recompense he wanted in the end. Absolutely stellar storytelling.

4.) Mei Nianqing: While I often question his motives and methods, he is still a really good character. Caught between wanting to be a mentor and protector to XL, but still loving (platonically or romantically, that's up to you) JW. He's the only father figure in XL's life that actually took him seriously, even if he did have to come around to it. But ultimately, he was proud of who XL became even before he ascended. He was just terrified of XL drawing the attention of the one man he shouldn't--and did. However his belief in superstition and fear of Hong Hong-er also makes sense, even if it's sad. MNQ is also just a quirky and fun dude lol.

5.) Mu Qing: I really like how complicated and murky MQ's is in terms of his inner turmoil. I'm somewhat similar to him in the way he thinks, and it's real work not to make things worse for myself by expecting the worse. His background makes him naturally suspicious of... basically everyone, all the time, and it's honestly understandable. Ultimately, he does understand that you can't make assumptions about people's intentions by projecting your own insecurities onto them--which I think is something everyone can relate to. I really like his subtle journey of self-realization and self-forgiveness, and he ends up far better for it.

MDZS

1.) Lan Wangji: I love the fact that LWJ was just so ready to Night Hunt himself to death upon the loss of his beloved. As you can tell, I really like complicated characters who have extreme traits, haha! That being said, I just also really like his stoicism and reliability.

2.) Wei Wuxian: Naturally, it's hard not to love WWX! He decided "yeah maybe the ends do justify the means" and went for it. To us, he is the hero. To the regular people of the world? Whose ancestors were dug up and disturbed to be used by the Yiling Laozu? His blackened reputation is not without cause! (Like... JGY literally has done more positive and helpful things for regular people than Wangxian, but those metas already exist lol.) Once again, his gray morality is what makes him so damn good, and can be debated at length!

3.) Jiang Cheng: JC gets a bad rep, but oh boy he doesn't make things easy for himself at all. However if I was in his position, I probably would be much worse off. He lost EVERYTHING, and still trudged on because there were people who depended on him. His hatred of the Wens also makes sense in the context that... that's often how humans react to and process extreme trauma. We find something to blame and *waves at literally every major conflict since the dawn of time.* (His rumored torture of innocent people due to that is reprehensible, of course, but given that MDZS is a book about how rumors can make or break someone's life... we should take that line with a grain of skepticism, much like all other hearsay.) He's not typically the type of character I like, but I found him really interesting to read.

4.) Jiang Yanli: I really love JYL, who decided to be the emotional backbone of her family from the time she was a child. It was an undue and extremely heavy burden to bear, but she did all of it without complaint. That's strength. I think many elder siblings can relate to her having to step up and be the third parent, when the actual adults fail at it.

5.) Wen Qing: I really like her arc in the novel, where she makes some of the hardest decisions anyone will ever have to make, over and over and over again. I don't typically love very "rough" characters, but she has ever right to be that way (and it makes sense for her character, and isn't just a tacked-on character trait like hair color or eye color in a CC), and honestly I want to marry her very seriously.

SVSSS

1.) Luo Binghe: Probably the most misunderstood main character of all of MXTX's works. LBH is neither truly a crybaby nor is he a ruthless maniac. He's right in the middle, in the valley of misanthropy. And yet, he knows just how to use his charisma to get his way. Cunning and devious, intelligent and ruthless. Meanwhile, he craves love and intimacy--something he could only ever dream of.

2.) Shen Qingqiu (Shen Yuan): Extremely refreshing to see an transmigrator know how to handle transmigration almost flawlessly. (Me reading/watching other works with this trope and wanting to tear my hair out at the protags = me sympathizing on a personal level with SQQ.) This also proves to be SQQ's fatal flaw!! His knowledge of the novel is both a boon and a obstacle to him, and prevents him from understanding the other characters as people until he lets go of his pre-conceived notions. And of course, his snarky as heck inner dialogue is amazing.

3.) Liu Qingge: I don't actually even know why I love LQG as much as I do. He's just neat.

4.) Tianlang-Jun: Honestly same goes for TLJ. He's just great though, and I have a blast reading about him. He wanted to see the good in humanity, and ultimately comes around after writing them off.

5.) Yue Qingyuan: He's a fascinating character. Harmless on the outside, but a quagmire on the inside. His love for Shen Jiu was quite... problematic, in that he saught forgiveness from SJ, without actually ever taking the time to understand him or to make amends. Patronizing and judgemental, yet willing to let SJ get away with literally anything because of his own unresolved turmoil, etc etc. Fascinating.

[scaredysap]

Do you think part of the Jiang Sect's reputation for not helping comes from the early days after the war? Since reputation is such a powerful thing and it seems to become fixed pretty quickly in people's minds I tend to think that straight after the war Jiang Cheng didn't have the disciples to spare for any but the worst of night hunts (especially with his head disciple constantly awol) and then by the time they did have the strength people had stopped asking.

I can also imagine that the older sect leaders from smaller surrounding sects might have pushed back against being ordered around by the teen sect leader of a nearly decimated clan, so Jiang Cheng might not have had the same support to lean on as his dad did.

I'm not sure, mostly because none of it is ever specified. However, I don't think the years just after the war were entirely to blame. On the contrary I think initially the Jiang sect might have been riding on the noble ideal of having been rebuilt from nothing; such a story would definitely be one that the common people would eat up and spread around, telling of how heroic the young sect leader was. Of course, JGS and other such sharks wouldn't want the Jiang sect to get too bold but they focused mostly on ruining the reputation between them and WWX to weaken both. And after the siege of Burial Mounds, Jiang Cheng would be regarded as the hero who avenged his family and rid the world of the terrible Yiling Laozu.

Because of all that, I'm more inclined to believe that the reputation of the Jiang sect got worse over the following 13 years. We know that Jiang Cheng becomes more and more angry because of what happened and even more fiercely protective of his own people (so Jiang sect and Jin Ling).

He also starts hunting down stray demonic cultivators and maybe even tortures them to get them to confess. It seems that some of the fear comes from Jiang disciples themselves (this is implied when WWX and LWJ visit Yunping), perhaps those who joined later and have little context for JC's behaviour. Either way, if even the disciples are scared, that would definitely not endear JC to the common people.

The thing with JC's running of the sect is that it doesn't seem like he's having any more trouble with having few men or resources. He and JL had no trouble putting up 400 spiritual nets for a single night hunt, which is said to be a crazy expense. This is why I said in the tags that JC might be following the Jin's example, since we know for a fact due to the novel extras that the Jin were very picky when it came to responding to requests of aid even under JGY's rule.

And furthermore, still in that passage in Yunping, the way it's worded (at least in the English translation, so take this with a grain of salt) makes it seem like such a vast territory being under one single sect is not exactly the norm. JC doesn't seem to delegate any work to others (again, protecting his own territory from outsiders and perceived threats, maybe) so of course he can't get to all the hauntings in the area. Is this him literally not having the time? Is this him choosing which requests to answer depending on how profitable they are? Who knows!

But there is his jibe at LWJ early in the novel, when JC mocks him for truly "being where the chaos is". It almost seems like JC is still convinced LWJ either wants to show off or finds his answering every request for help... disingenuous or maybe even naive. This exchange makes me lean more towards JC specifically choosing to only intervene when things get truly dire as a form of... I'm trying so hard to avoid saying he turns his nose up and doesn't deem the lower requests something that he should concern himself with. But that's how it feels!

It is undeniable that JC is a very prideful person. He tends to think that he needs to elevate himself to not get trampled by the other big sects, which is why he's always more worried about doing what is proper/advantageous as opposed to WWX's doing what is righteous. Perhaps he considers answering any request that a rogue cultivator could handle something that would make his great sect look humble and thus refuses to do so.

In the end, I can't give you any firm answer.

tl;dr: Jiang Sect was in a tough spot after the war but I think the bad rep came later due to JC's attitude and tendency to only concern himself with other great sects instead of what the common people might think.

[mistakenvilliany]

Episode 6

Ah Episode 6! As I watch these beginning ones again, I am just struck with how lost I was still in my first time through. I didn't know names, I didn't have context, l was just absorbing as much as I could while enjoying watching my babies struggle with themselves and each other. Now, I can see the build up of everything we're headed into, and how this period really becomes the "idyllic youth" for both (or all, really) of them. If everyone was able to at the end to sit down with one another they'd probably start off with "hey, do you remember that time in the Cloud Recesses..."

Anyway on to the more detailed thoughts:

• Nie Huaisang sneaking around after curfew with peanuts is not suspicious at all, nope

• Okay, I have to say it - these are not the cool kids in school, I don't know that there are ANY cool kids at this school, but these are nerds. Blocking the light with robes and a weak ass talisman, and waxing poetic about the flavor! of! the! wine! The cool kids cringed

• I love that Wei Wuxian's first instinct is always to embarrass his little brother, and poor Nie Huaisang asked the question so he deserves to be shoved around between them.

• My baby barges in, unannounced and is immediately "why didn't I get invited?" and "you are all getting punished, right now"

• My other baby "We did good today! Have a drink with me!" And that is a cutsleeve reference, you can't deny it. So basically, Lan Wangji kicks his way through the door and Wei Wuxian's immediate reaction is "I want to climb that like a tree!"

• Then as the others run away and by baby is immobilized by the talisman, WWX closes him in, and has him do shots, well one anyway and is somehow still surprised when that goes badly. My other baby can be so dumb.

• Let's put him to bed, try to help with proper positioning of accessories and then get into depressing conversations. That's Wei Wuxian's game, and it sucks. But then it works? I mean, he does wake up in that bed. (I know, I know)

• I love that Lan Qiren has seen Wei Wuxian multiple times and punished him almost all of them, and it's only now when Lan Xichen talks about him that he's like "who is this kid?" and then "Crap there's another one."

• Lan Xichen must think that stories about Cangse Sanren are the funniest thing ever, he didn't even try not to react. Who told him that story? Or is it just kinda written down in the logs, "visiting disciple Cange Sanren punished for the offense of shaving the beard of Lan Qiren without his consent"

• Lan Xichen "Wei Wuxian is great! Brings life to the place" Disciple "WWX got drunk last night on the forbidden alcohol" Lan Xichen "See? Such youthful exuberance" Disciple "Lan Wangji was found with him" Lan Xichen 😳 *shocked Pikachu noises*

• Lan Wangji races to the pavillion to get punished, and I know that we're supposed to be thinking it's because of the drinking, and disobeying the rules, but he's really there because he had impure thoughts about a boy and is hoping to have some sense knocked into him

• Punishment with my other baby is kinda hard. I have lots of feelings and not really funny thoughts about what punishment means to ADHD kids, and abused kids, and the complexity of being both, and I could probably write an essay (based only on personal and family experience), but it doesn't really fit here. Ask me about it later

• Lan Xichen: "you just got my brother in trouble, why don't you go join him for a bath? Nothing could go wrong with that, experience tells me this" 😉

• I really wish that someone would have sat Wei Wuxian down and told him stories of his parents, my baby doesn't know anything and doesn't know how he fits anywhere. Just knowing more about them would have put him on such a healthier path seeing as he would be able to take pride that he exists, that he is theirs, and that it means something special to be their son

• Hearing Wei Wuxian call his name Lan Wangji immediately thinks "I am not clothed enough to deal with this bane of my existence, I might display a *reaction* and now I must smother my feelings and ignore him"

• Lan Wangji does not get enough credit for being reckless, here he is, in a cave that he didn't have any clue existed, so let's just walk straight up to the instrument on the pedestal! I looks like it's so old! What have I found here, it's amazing! And oh shit it's attacking Wei Ying! What am I going to do? Yes, using my sacred headband and tying him to me is reasonable, it's only so he doesn't get killed. That is against the rules after all.

• This is the official first use of inquiry in the show, and it seems like it's a mystical connection with the spirit world/plane of existence. And we know from later that they go ahead and teach this method to kids. I wonder if any spirits get super frustrated like when you're on hold forever and then the rep you finally get can't even help you, or sometimes even understand the problem. Even if I just wanted something mundane, I would totally turn into a resentful spirit if I had to deal that

• Let's see, five soon-to-be great clans and four pieces of Yin Iron? Yeah, that makes sense

• Lan Qiren to Lan Xichen: "this is not like Wangji" Lan Xichen: "what are you really concerned about?" Lan Qiren: "a storm is coming" WTF! I already said that Lans suck at communication, but damn, you just could have said that you think they might have eloped

• I wish I understood better the illness that plagues Jiang Yanli, cause mostly it seems that they went "and she shall be weak for plot related reasons we refuse to justify" Jiang Yanli is my treasure, and I will not have her treated this way by the writers.

• Wei Wuxian is so damn excited to meet Lan Yi, it's so cute!

• Lan Wangji to Lan Yi: "forgive me, but aren't you dead?"

• So for our introduction to Yin Iron we find out several important things: 1) the clans had no idea how bad an idea of creating a taboo was. Forbidden knowledge always works out great for everyone 2) Yin Iron is not to be fucked with, and some idiot went and corrupted it about a thousand years ago and no one can undo it. 3) Baoshan Sanren and Lan Yi were together, and the mirror image of Wangxian 4) bunnies can live for hundreds of years if they wear headbands

[tobiasbotte]

Okay, I've got a weird itch, and I'm wondering if my dear netizens can help me scratch it. This is a fic rec request post. Also kind of a praise post? Skip to the end to see the request, because I go off on a bit of a tangent.

I've been…really getting into The Untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi fanfics lately? Like, seriously, been doing a deep dive every since I finished the live action drama because holy shit that was something beautiful. And I gotta say, my favorite kinds of fics right now in this fandom are the full blown, novel length, ensemble cast ones. You know, the ones where all the right ones live, or even our favorite bad guys get redemption arcs, and almost everyone is paired off by the end. I'm a sucker for that shit. It's beautiful.

This does not negate the fact that the show (I'm working up the courage to read the actual novel that started this all - I've started, now I just need to take the plunge) is beautiful in its own right. I adore that WWX and LWJ got their happy ending. I also adore these fics.

I digress.

When I first dove into the fandom, I loved LWJ/WWX & LSZ interactions as a family. Then I fell down the WWX & JC reconciliation hell hole and I have not climbed back out, nor do I wish to! It’s amazing. But now, I've noticed that the fics that have Meng Yao|Gin Guangyao as the fulcrum are the most fascinating. Everything revolves around him, most of the time, and while I adore WWX as my favorite tortured soul and his epic pining romance with LWJ and his family dynamic with LSZ and JC, these giant fics with JGY at the center are like. Epic odysseys. It's amazing. 

And, you know, off topic of this post - which is supposed to be a cry for recs, please help - it really makes me want to write one, but first off, I know next to nothing about wuxia/xianxia style stories (though with the amount of media I've been consuming, and the cultural rabbit holes I've fallen down in on Google this past month alone, I daresay I could definitely make a good run at it), and second, just the whole psychological aspect of it for all of those characters - I pride myself on being able to read a room, especially with what I do for a living, but holy shit do these fics do a deep dive.

By the way, I speak of two specific fic authors who write the most epic JGY-fulcrum fics that I've seen so far: @mercyandmagic and @hamliet. If either of you guys see this, my respect to you as writers is through the roof. Seriously, it's mind boggling. The dissection of JGY's character, his desire for acceptance, his desperate will to live no matter what - it's beautiful. Not to mention the viewpoints of literally every other character in their fics?! And the head-hopping is amazing - not something I usually see. (Apparently this is common in Chinese fic writing, or so I’ve read somewhere? But it’s not disconcerting at all, at least not how these two do it. I kind of want to try that style...)

Lord, I don't even remember where I'm going with this. If any of my readers follow me on here, you know I'm mostly a Yu Yu Hakusho writer (let's forget the other secret account I had back in high school; I burned that, I believe). I write novella length stuff at best (of fan fiction. My original works are…massive, to say the least, which I'm proud of.). But I've never been in a fandom (and I'm in a lot of fandoms; my bookmark count on AO3 can attest to that holy shit I have a problem) that has produced such epic works that it has moved me to sway from my usual fic writing habits of safety, of topics that I'm familiar with. Seriously, I "know" wuxia/xianxia stuff now (I've been going back to my nerd roots lately and tearing through K- and C-dramas - with my mother, no less! - and absorbing a lot of cool shit. It's so fun.), but I don't know it, you know what I mean? I can explain to my mother the significance of joss sticks, paper money being burned for the dead, wedding red and mourning white, the wedding games people have to play to retrieve their spouses, cultivation culture, etc., but I'd never try to write about it because - let's face it! I'm scared. Which is funny. I'm not Japanese (I’m black/Filipino/white), but I actually grew up being fascinated by the culture thanks to my dad - our family's original weeb - and so I'm not too terrified to write fics about animes because, you know, I'm kind of familiar with it.

Chinese-based fics though? Alien to me. And it's not that I'm scared of offending anyone - I'm glad that the majority of fan culture that I have personally interacted with is nice. It's a shame that a lot of the nasty stuff gets the spotlight, gives fandom culture a bad rep, but I know that most of you guys - I'm speak of you readers/writers - are chill people who wanna vibe with the fandoms in peace.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I guess I'm just making excuses to not write MDZS fics by claiming that I don't want to contribute because I don't want to do the genre its in any injustice. The real reason I don't want to write it is because I don't think I'd be able to have a good grasp on the mental aspect of any of the characters! Weird. Writing fanfiction has never scared me before. I know it's because I'm comparing myself to these other awesome writers, not just the two I've listed, but all the writers of the amazing MDZS fics I've been reading, but who doesn’t compare themselves to someone else? It’s destructive. At least I’m aware of what I’m doing-

Holy shit this post is long I need to stop what was the point.

The point...

The point was - a request! So far, those are the only two writers I've come across who do those epic ensemble/fulcrum/happy ending for all/everyone is paired off fics in this fandom. Obviously I've barely made a dent in all the material that's out there, but I figured I'd save myself some time and ask if anyone in the MDZS fandom could recommend any other fics that do this.

Bonus points if it includes Qin Su/Wen Ning or Su She/Jin Zixun (like, seriously, I would have never in a million years expected to have liked the latter pairing, but when I've seen it logically laid out on how to rectify them, it fucking works?!). If not that, then my second favorite type of fics are the WWX & JC brotherly reconciliation fics with lots of gross sobbing. I adore the relationship between these two and I just want them to be a family again, please. There's a lot more of these works than the former, and I'm slowly working my way through them, but if you find some that I should absolutely read right now, lemme know.

[thevagueambition]

Tonks, Lan Xichen and my darling boy Bossuet, please sir :3

I shall provide! :P thanks for asking!

Tonks

Sexuality Headcanon: Mostly she's just vibing but she tends to date girls. Not super concerned with labeling anything, but will casually refer to herself as gay.

Gender Headcanon: A vague hand gesture followed by a shrug. She prefers a butch aesthetic and her bio would say "any pronouns"

A ship I have with said character: I don't super ship her with anyone tbh

A BROTP I have with said character: Mad-Eye as her mentor is super funny to me and she herself makes a good gay mentor for Ginny lol. I also want to see her make friends with Sirius and Remus

A NOTP I have with said character: Not as notp as some notps I have but due to the history of their relationship being used to crush gay readings of either character involved, Tonks/Remus. I really respect when people write that as very queer in and of itself but on a personal level I can't really get over 1) the intent it was likely written with 2) the way it's written in canon.

A random headcanon: She's involved with 90s zine culture

General Opinion over said character: I am extremely fond of her. Along with Remus, she's the most queercoded character in HP.

Lan Xichen (I probably have some unpopular opinions here lol)

Sexuality Headcanon: hmm so this is complicated by the psudo-historical context because... I see LXC as someone whose primary concern (or at least one of them) is living up to the ideal of a man of his status as defined by his society and I think what the setting is emulating is a society where a marriage to a woman is part of that and romantic sentiments aren't really considered abnormal in male-male friendships. And I see him as someone who is satisfied within that system. So if being "straight" is having a sexuality that is not at odds with societal norms, that is what I see him as. True, he doesn't show much interest in women, but frankly homosocial relationships were often the most emotionally significant relationships people had in heavily gender stratified societies like all of MDZS and particularly the Cloud Recess is, regardless of the presence of any sexual attraction. Idk. Like I genuinely feel like I'd need to read a great deal more about sexuality in the period of Chinese history MDZS draws its inspiration from to give an actual answer lol

Gender Headcanon: He seems pretty normatively cis male and indeed concerned with living up to his duties as a highborn man specifically.

A ship I have with said character: I somewhat ship him with Jin Guangyao but only along the lines of "acceptable" romantic sentiments because personally i really prefer that LWJ's homosexuality is uniquely transgressive within his immediate surroundings. if you see WWX as gay, which I think makes as much sense as seeing him as bi, then ofc once they get together it's not unique in that WWX is also being openly gay, but what I mean is the ways in which eg LWJ openly declares his love for WWX to LXC in the backstory, doesn't mind people assuming he's fucking Mo Xuanyu, etc

A BROTP I have with said character: Jin Guangyao as well, LWJ ofc (the literal bro B) )

A NOTP I have with said character: I REALLY don't want to see him with WWX lol

A random headcanon: In some ways he acted as LWJs parent due to the situation with their parents. Their uncle stepped in to do a lot or parenting, yes, but I think LXC is the type of older sibling who has a very parental relation to their younger sibling due to elements of how they grew up combined with general personality

General Opinion over said character: He's really great. The absolute gap moe of how calm he usually is contrasted with his reaction to the JGY reveal.... fantastic. Also every time he teases LWJ is so valid lol. Truly he is great Older Brother Rep lol

Bossuet

Sexuality Headcanon: Bisexual in the exact manner a lot of historical men who have sex with men were lol

Gender Headcanon: Cis male, albeit complicated by his sexuality, as it always would have been at the time

A ship I have with said character: Both Joly/Bossuet on their own and power triad Joly/Bossuet/Musichetta

A BROTP I have with said character: Bossuet and Grantaire have such great canon interactions! They're clearly close and imo Bossuet is one of the few people Grantaire sometimes listens to because Bossuet bothering to argue with him in Back Room of the Café Musain is exactly because they're good enough friends that he feels he can say it and should be the one to do so, as well that he has some experience of sometimes halting Grantaire in his Grantaire-ing

A NOTP I have with said character: Hmm nothing comes to mind really

A random headcanon: In some ways he's who Grantaire could be if he wasn't so deep in a pit of mental illness and self pity and Bossuet's aware of that to some extent, understands that who Grantaire is is not that far from who he could be if he lost his belief in Progress and didn't have Joly. IMO Bossuet is incredibly observant, particularly emotionally.

General Opinion over said character: Imagine acidentially giving up your spot at uni to another student because you got so annoyed with the professor that you began trolling him but it backfired and then telling this to the guy who you gave up your spot for but in a way where you frame it as if you did it completely intentionally and indeed you're thankful to him because now you don't have to go to law school all because you don't want him to feel bad about it and also it's funnier Bossuet Is That Dude

Honestly, he's one of my absolute favourites

[mintgator]

MDZS fic ideas

Things I’d love to see in Mo Doa Zu Shi fanfiction. These are my notes for things I have told myself I am not allowed to write. I’ve read...so many fics for this fandom, like most of the archive, and I’m sad that I’m pretty much at the point of rereading/waiting for updates. These ideas have been swimming around in my head that I have no time to write, so PLEASE someone take them and gimme some new words to read, I beg you.  Of course, end goal should be wangxian in some way, because otherwise WHAT IS THE POINT, but I don’t have time to write these, so...here you go. Please let me know if you use them. I wanna read these, but I don’t have time to write them, so maybe someone else will want to.

*Time Travel AU in which WWX goes back and for some reason tells Madame Yu all the bullshit that’s gonna happen, so they team up and fix all the things. I just...really want Mama Yu to like WWX thanks. And dear god, LET JC BE HAPPY! I need so much more resolution on that front. Even the book did not satisfy me. I WANT MY BOYS TO GET ALONG! And I want Mama Yu to not be awful and abusive to WWX! I mean she had reasons for being salty but uh that is NOT good justification for the shit she pulled with WWX. Also, hell, let Jiang Fengmian get his core melted and have Madame Yu run the sect. WE NEED FEMALE REP.

*Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze live so WWX gets to grow up with his parents. He meets LWJ as a rogue cultivator or something idk. This would make a fun oneshot.

*LWJ’s mother lives! Honestly, I just want happy Lan-fam. Can I get that please? Just how much would it change the dynamic of the story if LWJ’s father led the sect properly and his mother wasn’t locked away in a goddamn building and actually got to spend more time with her kids? I am forever salty that we’ll never know why Mama Lan killed her hubby’s teacher or w/e. Somebody GIVE ME SOME REASONING.

*WWX gets taken in and claimed as heir by Wen Ruohan...and WWX doesn’t learn that their ways are wrong until he’s at least a teen (perhaps when sent to train at the Cloud Recesses?) and realizes how the other Sects really feel about them. Give him some convoluted morals that he has to unlearn. Make Wen Xu and Wen Chao hate him for being chosen over them. Change Wei Wuxian/Wei Ying into Wen Ying/Wen Wuxian and have it be a secret that he’s not actually a Wen. Have WWX actually not want the Wen Sect destroyed because despite how messed up its people are, not all of them are bad--mostly just those in power (it still baffles me that the other clans just DESTROYED an entire sect, like I know the Wens burned Lotus Pier but DAMN that’s cold!) Even some kind of variation where WWX influences Wen Ruohan and his children’s evil mindset would be really interesting. Otherwise, can you imagine WWX with Chenqing on the Wen side? Ouch. Also, this sticks WWX with Wen Ning and Wen Qing early on and I LOVE THEM, so there’s that.

*WWX doesn’t come back after his first death, and LWJ achieves immortality because he’s stubbornly still looking/waiting for WWX. Two centuries pass (we’re going to ignore any technological advancements and replace them with cultivation advancements or something) and LWJ ends up befriending a nice lady cultivator who falls for him, and even though he only considers her a friend, he agrees to marry her. They have 1 very stubborn gay daughter (only from consummation sex which brings up a boatload of other problems) who somehow stumbles across a reborn!WWX with all his memories--daughter is hella bitter that her father clearly does not return her mother’s affections and that he is apparently pining for someone who is so long dead that people don’t actually remember his name (ie - people remember Yiling Laozu but not that his name was Wei Wuxian). But without knowing who he is, the daughter ends up liking WWX until she finds out the truth about who he is and drama ensues. Can you tell I’ve wanted to write this one so badly? I mean I could just about draft an outline, but I HAVE TO FOCUS ON MY ORIGINAL NOVEL I’M SORRY.

*Time Travel AU in which Yanli alone gets a do-over with all the future knowledge and fixes everything just by being her amazing self. I feel like she’d be a really keen manipulator.

*The story from NHS’s pov. I wanna read all his manipulations and him putting them into place. Is there anything like this out there? Because oh my GOD I wanna know what’s going through his head sometimes. I really, really do!

*Jiang Cheng/Wen Ning - AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO THINKS THIS WOULD BE AN ENTERTAINING SHIP? Just...I sort of tolerate the JC/LXC and JC/NHS pairings because they’re commonly used, but honestly, I’m not crazy about either one. However, WN is such a sweetheart and JC is such a hothead and there is so much opportunity for drama there. Also, in some cases depending on timeline...WN is, yunno, a corpse--a fixable thing if you weave in WWX’s involvement and make him and JC get along again. GIVE ME THAT. Like I don’t read much other than wangxian focused fic, but I would read the hell out of this (also you could easily balance those two pairings).

*Somewhere in the waiting gap, LWJ is given three tasks by a deity of some sort who promises to bring WWX back if he completes him...but these tasks have to UTTERLY go against LWJ’s character and completely destroy his reputation as Hanguang Jun. Honestly, this could go cracky or painfully dark.

*No idea how, but Mo Xuanyu manages to bring WWX back fully in-tact and they both get to live. WWX of course takes MXY under his wing, and together they avoid the notice of even LWJ for a lot longer than WWX did in canon. I would love to see them figuring out the whole JGY plot in the background and LWJ tailing them around just a little too late to the party each time a major event goes down until finding out in some kind of dramatic finale that WWX has been back for a while. I have yet to see characterization for MXY that I really like. Most people make him either ridiculously whiny or so much like WWX that they may as well be the same character. :/ So, uh, maybe a different approach? I mean MXY is allowed some complaints, he’s had a rough time of things, but come ON.

*Lan Wanji never finds Wen Yuan and poor widdle Shizui manages to survive into adolescence living on his own in the burial mounds...accompanied by the fragmented ghost of his Xian-gege who very slowly is pieced back together by A-Yuan, who has sort of naturally started using demonic cultivation and somehow develops a heroic reputation as a rogue cultivator. Why? Because he’s Shizui, and Shizui is SO PURE OK? Maybe he has a fascination with LWJ, even though his memories of Rich Gege are kind of fuzzy. Shizui matchmakes his two ridiculous dads. Oh and inquiry doesn’t work on WWX cuz his soul is shrouded by the resentful energy in the burial mounds.

*The Wen clan burns the Cloud Recesses to the ground around the same time WWX has lost his parents, but LWJ somehow escapes. Reportedly, everyone in GusuLan is now dead, but he somehow ends up in the same town as WWX. They meet and bond immediately. Maybe LWJ saves WWX from the dogs. Anyway, JFM never finds WWX, so he and LWJ grow up together in poverty, eventually teaching themselves cultivation and night hunting, until their fame grows so much that they catch the attention of the Wen clan (or something). Have them ridiculously dedicated to each other, already in love and thinking of themselves as cultivation partners. I want their bond to straight-up shock people. LET THEM BE SHAMELESS. LWJ would have to have a fake name and wear something other than white.

*LWJ and WWX figure out their relationship stuff a lot sooner and end up building a proper sect in the burial mounds. I want LWJ wearing WWX’s colors. I want demonic cultivation to work hand-in-hand with regular cultivation. I want them to find artifacts or books or something in the burial mounds indicating a civilization used to be there that also studied demonic cultivation, or maybe they actually find some long forgotten god/dess of demonic cultivation who empowers them in exchange for worship.

*LWJ was not whipped for protecting WWX, he was imprisoned for life, not in GusuLan, but in some godforsaken prison that is so intense no one in the clans really likes to talk about it. I want him flung into some hellprison with ghosts and demons, where only his cultivation keeps him alive (and relatively sane) for that decade-ish gap until WWX’s fragmented ghost somehow finds him. Of course, WWX realizes LWJ loves him, which triggers in WWX a want to finally come back to life. He finds a way back to the living world and rains hell upon the people who decided it was a good idea to imprison LWJ until someone finally tells him how to get to the prison. He frees LWJ and helps him recover while all the JGY stuff is going on the background. Wangxian returns to the cultivation world in time to stop that catastrophe. (Before LWJ is imprisoned, he makes LXC promise to take care of A-Yuan of course!)

*WWX gets flung into the burial mounds and embraces demonic cultivation, but realizes he has somehow bound himself to the awful place and can’t leave. Over time, he lures stragglers and refugees to the mounds, where he welcomes them to stay and live safely. Outside, the Sunshot Campaign is a failure and what remains of the sects bow in subservience to the Wen clan. Inflicted with some permanent disabilities from the war and left to run GusuLan now that his brother and uncle are dead (sorry Xichen), Lan Wanji never gets the chance to go looking for WWX. Thirteen years pass and WWX has absorbed so much resentful energy from the burial mounds that he is practically a part of it. Finally, he is able to leave, but the world he finds is much different from the one he remembers, and his health fades fast when he is outside of the mounds. Somehow, WWX figures out that demonic cultivation doesn’t damage the body/soul/temperament if somehow counterbalanced properly with a golden core--and since he doesn’t have one, he and LWJ do a soulbond thing so that their cores (WWX: demonic and LWJ: golden) balance each other. Then he can take on the Wens.

I could literally whip out ideas nonstop, but these are the big ones that have been just...beating on the walls of skull trying to get out. Of course, they don’t always account for everything, so more thought is needed. Anyway, if you write any of these, please let me know so I can read them, and of course a shoutout would be nice. c: My username on ao3 is the same as here. Enjoy~!

[tinydemondragon]

So @ergege mentioned a beach episode of mdzs and it spawned this whole au. take, take it from me before I write another fic.... blease... im b e g g i n g

wwx and lwj are competitive surfers, repping dif teams of course

a lot of people think they have this super intense rival

and they do

kinda

at least on the waves

(dont @ me i have put zero research in this and i live in the midwest)

(if i did the fic thing, i’d actually research it, obvi)

okay but while they both try to win their competitions, they’re friends?

they used to not be, wwx teasing lwj and lwj doesn’t know how to handle it

but they work on it

they become friends and get closer

now you may be wondering, where is my boi jiang cheng?

no worries, he’s here

he happens to be a lifeguard on the beach

this will be important (?) later, but for know that’s what you gots to know

so back to wangxian

get ready for

angst :)

so wwx is practicing one day, jyl chilling on the beach and jc keeping watch

and wwx is pretty far out, further than normal

but that isn’t really a bad thing per se

well

until wwx goes under

and it isn’t abnormal, not really, happens all the time

but then

then

wwx doesn’t come up

and jc waits, thinking it’s whatever, nbd

but he still isn’t coming up

and jc panics, rushing to him

jc gets him up and out of the water in record time

wen qing, a medic student who had been chilling with jyl rushes over

they get his heart beating

the water out of his lungs

but

wwx doesn’t wake up

he’s in a coma for 13 months

things are hard

lwj nearly quits, not wanting to return to the sport that they had together

(it’s only through the convincing of his brother, lxc, that lwj starts again. that he gets hope that wwx will wake up, will surf again)

(lqr can’t coach him anymore, refuses, so lxc retires and becomes lwj coach in the mean time)

jc struggles

he thinks its his fault

if he had gotten there faster, if he had been better, if if if

(it takes a long time for him to come to terms with everything, he’s so angry for so long)

(and he’s always been quick to anger but it’s different when it’s all directed at yourself)

(he lashes out at everyone, his friends, his family, everyone, but at himself the most)

(it’s jyl who pulls him out of it, who yells and cries and tells him to stop that it isn’t his fault)

(and he’s still angry, of course he is, but he’s working on it)

(the arrival of his nephew helps, he has to start getting his ass in gear)

jyl is devestated

but she doesn’t let it show

(it’s hard for a while, of course it is, but she smiles and pretends its okay)

(her brother isn’t dead, he isn’t, and she smiles and says it’s just going to be a little longer)

(just a little longer)

(but she goes home to her best friends, jzx, her queer platonic life partner and father to her kid, and wq, who’s her best friend and maybe something more)

(and she cries and cries and cries, clinging to them for dear life)

(but she never loses hope, refuses to)

and it’s so hard for so long

but wwx wakes up

okay wow, this got super long uhhhhh there may be a part two one day, or maybe this’ll turn into a full blow fic who knows, depends on the reception of this lol

[plan-d-to-i]

Hi!! about this

"Going into history, Lan Yi was a female clan leader in the Gusu Lan Clan, but also was a ruthless person who used the chord assassination technique to kill political dissidents. BSSR left society entirely to run her sect." Do you know if it's true? I don't remember much about Lan Yi, which chapter says it?

Thanks for being a reliable source! Much appreciated!

(link)

Hm, We hear about Lan Yi in the the Xuanwu cave:

“Lan WangJi retrieved the chord. The bowstring broke with a sharp cry through the air.

Wei WuXian, “Chord Assassination?”

Chord Assassination was one of the techniques unique to the GusuLan Sect. It was created by and passed down from the granddaughter of the sect’s founder, Lan An—the third sect leader, Lan Yi. Lan Yi was also the only female sect leader of the Lan Sect, cultivating with the guqin. Her guqin had seven strings that could be joined and dismantled within moments. The seven strings were arranged from the most slender to the thickest. One moment she’d be playing noble melodies over them with her soft, fair fingers, and one moment later they’d be able to cut through flesh and bone as though cutting through mud, transformed into lethal weapons within her hands. Lan Yi created Chord Assassination originally to assassinate dissidents, which was why she was often criticized. The GusuLan Sect was also quite ambivalent on its comments of such a sect leader. Undeniably, though, Chord Assassination was one of the most powerful, most versatile fighting techniques of the GusuLan Sect.” (Chapter 55)

And then WWX mentions her again when he’s trying to give jiang cheng the ill fated Two Prides pep talk: 

Wei WuXian, “So what if there’s the motto?! Do you have to follow it just because it’s a motto? Look at the rules of the GusuLan Sect—there are over three thousand. If people followed every single one of them, would they even be alive at this point?”

He hopped off the fence, “And, who said that being a sect leader means that you have to go along with the style of the sect? There have been so many sect leaders in the YunmengJiang Sect, I don’t believe at all that everyone was the same. Even the GusuLan Sect had an outlier like Lan Yi, but who would deny her position and her abilities? When talking about the famous cultivators of the Lan Sect, who could skip over her? Who could skip over her Chord Assassination technique?”

but idk quite where op was going w this-

Bc it's understood from that previous passage about Lan Yi that whilst the Lan Clan appreciated how her technique was powerful, they weren't particularly thrilled w the way she implemented it bc it wasn't exactly in line w their teachings... (not bc she was a woMan). Meaning being ruthless actually worked against her rep it wasn't some savvy diplomatic choice... Also It's bad to expect YanLi to be anything more than ~soup & I want to get married girl~, but it's apparently also bad she wasn't expected to be more than ~soup and I want to get married girl~? She should've been forced to learn to fight like NHS? Madam Yu isn't an asshole because she has to be an asshole to be taken seriously, she's an asshole bc she's an asshole... And she's spoken of "pretty badly" because she's known to be an asshole. And BSSR withdrew bc it sounds like she didn't vibe w shift from sect to clan /merit to blood ties and didn't want to deal w the disputes of the world

"All remotely famous cultivators began to establish their own clans, except the distinguished Baoshan Sanren, who chose to return to her native mountains and enter seclusion. "/"She told her disciples, ‘If you are going to leave the mountain, then there’s no need for you to come back. Don’t bring the disputes of the outside world into the mountain.’

LXC is a Clan Leader and nice guy because he's a nice guy lol. jiang cheng is a Clan Leader and an asshole. WRH was a cruel megalomaniac. JGY has to ruthlessly backstab his way to power. Not every single life choice the female characters make is because the evil patriarchy. There are other powerful forces at play like social status, wealth, cultivation ability and character. So that thread is just all over the place again trying to establish number 1 victim status for someone... bc apparently that's the goal always.