#please talk to me about MDZS

[ganen-cheese]

hello !! just wanted to ask what MDZS talks about !! i initially started following u for 19days, but, seeing this new drawings made me interested to the series :)where could i watch it? love all your drawings, keep up the good work !!

(´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)!!!! My savior Anon!!!! (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I’LL TELL YOU ALLLLLLL ABOUT MDZS come, come sit next to Cheese *pats bench*

MDZS basically has two timelines in the narrative!

One is before the main character Wei Wuxian dies. And another is after Wei Wuxian comes back from the dead.

The story starts with the main character, Wei Wuxian’s death, and how 13 years he remained dead until his soul was summoned back to another person’s body by force in a sacrificial ritual by that person wishing for revenge, hoping Wei Wuxian’s “evil” soul would take revenge on his behalf.

Wei Wuxian is “infamous” for using/founding the “demonic” path for cultivation (hence, the title “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” - though in the novel, the word “demonic” cultivation is a misconception by the people). Basically he was infamous for turning to the resentful energy of ghosts and raising an army of the dead and making them fight people, instead of using swords and music while using your own energy (called “golden core”) like every other cultivator (Wei Wuxian also used music, but he used it to harness resentful energy to command the dead). He was properly an amazing and a very promising young cultivator of the bright conventional path before. But somewhere, he stopped that and started using the “demonic” path throwing away his “bright future”. He became known as the “feared” “Yiling Patriarch” (Yiling is the place where Wei Wuxian based himself after some events, where people associated Wei Wuxian and the demonic path, and also actually where Wei Wuxian developed the ghost cultivation).

The past timeline follows Wei Wuxian’s past in his original body, how he grew up, his past and relationships with the other characters and how he came to be known as the “Yiling Patriarch”, until his death. It is shown little by little as the present timeline goes on. Though because it’s shown from Wei Wuxian’s point of view, and Wei Wuxian was too traumatized to remember how he died or some events leading up to it, some details are blurred as it gets near his death. Then some events are revealed by other characters 🥺

The present timeline follows Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji (the guy with the forehead ribbon who he grew up with also before his death), looking for all the pieces of a corpse, which started from a murderous arm (basically the body pieces are trying to piece itself back together too so the arm would attach itself to a living host to see if it’s the original torso- if it’s not, then it will tear itself from the body and move onto the next living body, leaving the host dead), and trying to find out who this murderous corpse is to try to calm it down.

In the way, they meet people from the past, some who recognized Wei Wuxian’s soul to be in this new body, and tries to capture him again, some new people, and some people who grew up since being babies when Wei Wuxian was still alive who doesn’t know at first that it’s Wei Wuxian, or who didn’t remember at first their time with Wei Wuxian…. Wei Wuxian tries to escape from Lan Wangji at first, afraid to get recognized lol but Lan Wangji doesn’t let him go. 🥺

Any more and it might be spoiler so I’ll stop here for now 👀

Hehe hmm 🤔 I hope it summarized it enough 🤔 I’m trying not to reveal too much 🤔 it’s really fun to follow the story as it goes on 🥹❤️❤️ and you just see the love, trust and respect Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have/develops for each other 🥹❤️ and WHAT AN AMAZING HUMAN WEI WUXIAN AND LAN WANGJI ARE. That’s all. I love them SOOOO MUCH! ❤️❤️

Oh and I must warn you, the final volume has a lot of R-18 scenes. The novel itself is NC-17. So you must be of age to read it! 👍 and if you don’t like those kinds of things, please be warned!

You can buy the books in several languages 🥹 The original is a novel by the way! Then the novels are adapted into drama CDs, comics, animation and live action. There was a fan translation in English somewhere on the web. It’s licensed now though but yeah 👀

The English volumes are on-going in translation. I read it in Japanese because Japanese volumes are complete.

LINK

You can watch the animation until Season 2 on Netflix in my country (Japan), but I am not sure for other countries 🥹. Season 3 with subtitles is scheduled to come out in my country soon. If you can understand Chinese maybe you can watch the original Chinese without waiting! In my country, the live action is available on Hulu with subtitle.

I listen to the Drama CD in Japanese using the MiMi APP and physical CD I bought from Amazon and Animate. Can listen to some of the Chinese Drama CD here too. I bought the manhua volumes in Chinese through the Taiwanese publisher’s website and on Amazon. Volume 4 will be released soon. 🥹 I am not sure until where they are planning to serialize in manhua because of censorship, but I think they finished the main plot recently 🥹. The manhua author releases the uncensored (R-18/kiss scenes) panels on their Twitter. Please make sure you’re an adult to view it. The handle is maotuanxjj.

Yeah, I can only say these things but..!!! 🥹🥹🥹🥹

I highly recommend reading the novel for the whole experience without censorship at first 🥺💖 Then listen to drama CD/read the manhua/watch the animation/live action 🥺. Hehe. Some things are changed or removed in animation/drama, so I really recommend reading it first to avoid some confusion and to get WangXian uncensored 🥹 then watching them after 🥺 hehe…. But of course it’s just my personal thoughts, a lot people read the novel after watching the animation!!! 💖💖💖 whatever gets you hooked 😳🤲

*gets kicked away*

(´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

Pls pls (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`) let’s read it

I’ll give you the book (´༎ຶོρ༎ຶོ`)

*gets kicked away again*

[ge]

if u like comedic/action cnovels/knovels about found family, read return of the mount hua sect⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️⬇️

[sonik-kun]

Funny how most of the merch, concept art, and official art often show case JC and JL together.. And how consistently in the story, the two each come to eachother's defence, willing to give all they've got for eachother and yet antis will still sit there and say "Yep. JC is an abuser." Really?? 🤨🤨

As someone else pointed out on here it really isn't that deep.

MXTX often punishes such characters accordingly and rightfully so. JC wasn't because he wasn't an abuser. He got his happy-ish ending with JL. The two were willing to stand up for each other in a world full of snakes.

Also, the reasoning behind that anti logic is mostly because he, and I quote, "often threatens to break JL's legs on numerous occasions.." Okay, who hasn't done that to their younger siblings, nieces, and nephews when they act up?? It literally doesn't mean anything. And JL clearly isn't too bothered by the empty threats either, giving all the back chat he gives JC without fear of repercussions. JC would never have given such lip back to his mother like that, please 😩✋️

If MXTX wanted to tar him as some abuser, she would have. But she didn't. And that's the canon text for you, babes. 💅

So turn your attention to the real abusers in the story and write about them instead of projecting all their crimes onto one character you happen to dislike because he was mean to the mc >:(.

Okay, thank youuuu xoxoxo

[raindrops-on-concrete]

are there crossover fics of Wangxian and Fengqing interracting? because I think the disaster gays should meet, it'd be funny

[pieridae-art]

Adding onto my pet au, here’s my contribution to mxtxtober this year for the animal prompt!

NHS has a shrike

JC has a rock

WWX has an African grey parrot (her name is Regrets)

LWJ has a rabbit (of course)

I’m still coming up with names for the rest of the pets, please add any suggestions in the tags I’d love to see them!!

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

not really an ask but MY SIBLING DREW YOUR FAIRY FANART!!!!!!!!!

we both love her

AAAA IT’S FAIRY!!!!!

[lady-of-the-spirit]

Suffering from a condition known as "I like the main character but I also really really like this other side character and I want to see more of them please mention them more I need to see my blorbo again-"

[flightlessdevotee]

Meditating

(click for better quality)

[fierrochase-falafel]

Can we just appreciate how good the background music of CQL is? I see almost no appreciation posts about this but gods if it isn't some of the best instrumentals I have heard...shoutouts to Ren Sheng Ruo Zhi Ru Chu Jian and Bu Hui for being by absolute favourites off the background music album (consolation going to An Xi here)!

Lin Hai as a composer too, I-- cannot stress how much appreciation he deserves. For his other works too, not just this album, but this album also works just so well for the show itself, for the strange combinations of emotions they make you feel. :)))

[labyrynth]

look. as much as i support fic writers doing their thing and writing whatever they want. it’s important that there still be some resemblance to the original characters. like if you didn’t have the names, you should still generally be able to tell who’s who—characters’ personalities and histories should be enough to give us an idea

so like. as an example. consider a completely hypothetical mdzs modern AU.

it’s about a single father working multiple jobs to make ends meet…after struggling financially for quite some time…who is subjected to a fair amount of classism and abuse…and still works harder than all the others without a single complaint…despite having seemingly wealthy family…(including a brother who gives well meaning lip service about caring but ultimately doesn’t offer any kind of substantial help)…who initially rejects a wealthy prospective romantic partner out of pride, because he doesn’t want to be seen as a gold digger or a charity case…

…where a fair amount of narrative tension stems from a cheating, absentee father who had zero qualms abandoning his kid to near-poverty…who hid the true extent of his wealth because he never had any intention of sharing what wasn’t absolutely required…who accuses others of being gold diggers or trying to sleep their way to a better position…who also appears to regularly mistreat staff, among other classist habits…who goes out of his way to be cruel, and is generally an all around scumbag…

this is clearly describing two very specific mdzs characters, right?

based on canon, the context surrounding them and the interactions they have with others give us enough information to tell who these characters are—

—lan xichen and jin guangyao, of course. OBVIOUSLY.

[a-tian]

I’m about to block the jc AND canon jc tags at this point 💀

[shanastoryteller]

happy birthday! 🌻🌻🌻 mdzs identity porn or dealer’s choice please :)

When Shawn is twelve years old, he goes out to ride his bike before dinner and never comes back.

It’s not the first time Shawn’s stayed out later than he was supposed to, so Madeline sighs and puts dinner in the oven and goes searching, figures the walk will at least be an opportunity to snap some photos with her new camera. But as she walks block after block and there’s no sign of her son, she becomes even more concerned.

One hour crawls to two. She returns home to phone the Gusters, but they say Shawn isn’t there, that Gus hasn’t seen him since yesterday. Heart in her throat, she dials the station.

“Hi Honey,” Henry says, distracted. “I told you I was working late-”

“I can’t find Shawn,” she says.

There’s a one tense beat of silence then he snaps, “What are you talking about?”

“He went out on his bike and he didn’t come back for dinner and I didn’t see him anywhere and he’s not with Gus,” she says and she can hear the tears in her voice. “Henry.”

“Karen and I are taking a cruiser out to look for him,” he says, voice suddenly all business. “You stay at home and call dispatch if he comes home, alright?”

“Alright,” she whispers, “what if-”

“Maddie,” he interrupts, voice firm and unyielding and still not enough to hide his fear. “This is Shawn. I’m sure he just got caught up in something. Everything is going to be fine.”

~

“You can’t just take him!” she says, eyes wild in a way they hadn’t been while he helped her unload groceries. “He’s not like the practice people, someone will notice he’s missing!”

“Yes,” says the old man, with a sturdy, implacable face that’s somehow so much unsettling than her mania. “That is unfortunate. We’ll have to move. But you shouldn’t have invited him inside.”

“Just let him go,” she insists. “We have to move anyway. Just tie him up and pack everything and we’ll be long gone by the time he wriggles free. He doesn’t know anything.”

He sighs. “Darling. He noticed the blood.”

“No, he didn’t,” she says, then looks to him. “Did you?”

Shawn shakes his head, the gag in his mouth preventing him from talking, which is unfortunate, because he’s better at lying when he’s speaking.

He had noticed the blood, faint as it was against the wall, and the scuff marks, and he was planning on getting out of there and going straight to his dad and telling him that he thinks he knows what’s really happening to the beach bums that have washed up on shore, and it’s got nothing to do with too much alcohol and high tide.

She would have let him leave. He was almost out the door when the old guy showed up.

“He’s a clever boy, I’ll give him that,” he says, offhand. “It’s unfortunate.”

He opens into a drawer and pulls out a knife. Shawn tugs even harder at his bonds, but they don’t give an inch.

“No!” She steps in front of him, arms wide. “I like him! He’s nice, and good, and you can’t play with him. I won’t let you.”

Anger wild enough to make Shawn flinch away steals across his face before he folds it back under his veneer of civility. “Very well, darling. You can have a playmate. But if he can’t be controlled, he must be disposed of. Understand?”

“Yes, Daddy,” she says, shifting to completely block him from Shawn’s view – and Shawn from his, which he thinks may have been her goal. “Thank you. We’ll be good.”

“You better be,” he says sternly. “Don’t make me regret this, Yang.”

[lazycranberrydoodles]

its prosecutor jiang wanyin!!!! oh fuck!!! / gifs + au rambling below the cut / follow for more mdzs x aa crossover stuff :3

all the gifs i made (poses traced off franziska):

hes so similar to franziska when you think about it. theyre both deeply insecure tsundere adoptive younger sibling of successful main characters. who carry whips. something something edgeworth choosing death and wwx actually dying also

his share code is HWFEFF if you wanna use him in a trial! you can't share backgrounds but heres the scenery from the donghua i used.

the easiest way to put custom stuff into objection.lol is to send it in discord and then use the link from opening it in your browser :)

a whole lot of AU stuff

the art im making is for if mdzs was an ace attorney game, playing from WWX's POV to solve various mysteries/cases over the course of the plot. so this scene would be from turnabout goddess, which would loosely cover the dafan mountain mystery.

cases include:

Turnabout Revenge (Mo Manor, quick introductory first case)

Turnabout Goddess (Dafan mountain, the good times flashback)

Turnabout Saber (the man-eating castle (omg hiii nhs))

The Blind Turnabout (Yi City arc)

Turnabout Deviation (the Koi Tower conference, Empathy on NMJ ala turnabout memories or beginnings. opening cutscene is his qi deviation)

The Blood-Soaked Turnabout (second Burial Mounds siege, flashbacks: Xuanwu, Sunshot, YLLZ, Nightless City massacre)

Turnabout Lotus Seeds (testimony about JGY, tree scene, golden core reveal, bathtub scene. opening cutscene could be JGS' death but that would make it canon rather than ambiguous)

Turnabout Confession (Guanyin temple)

the problem with splitting novel!mdzs into turnabouts is that flashbacks are a huge chunk of the book but they don't have mysteries/ cases to solve so they've gotta be lumped together with present day stuff. imo? many of the flashbacks would likely have to be abridged so they could be retold ala DL-6, SL-9, or the fourth grade incident, where characters talk about it over some pieces of art. this is really difficult when theres a metric ton of unspoken, complex, and signifcant history between every character lmao

there's not as much of a problem with the cql timeline but i have not finished it. so.

the opening cutscenes in ace attorney always show the murder and/or the murderer plotting. the first cutscene of the game would be MXY summoning WWX, muttering about getting revenge on his family (it would also be good for him to mention the yllz being dead because that's how the novel starts.) cut to WWX's POV as he wakes up covered in blood and the investigation segment begins.

for investigations of monsters (goddess, saber, etc) the cutscene would be a scene of some poor throwaway cultivator getting their shit wrecked.

it would be cool to make a breakdown for JGY but again I need to review that scene cause I don't know who I'd base him on. maybe Vasquez or Dahlia.

tell me your thoughts!! i'm working off of a mdzs summary/ skimming the novel because i don't remember it too well so if i get anything wrong please yell at me

Jin Ling's sprites & Nie Huaisang's sprites / masterpost

[factsilike]

Really tired of constantly seeing posts declaring that everyone in MXTX novels is complicated and 'morally grey' and that's what makes her works wonderfully written, and that everyone else who doesn't see that is stupid, or is 'demonising' characters and bashing them for rightfully criticising their shitty, very much unjustified actions.

And ironically it seems so simplistic to just declare that, because yes her stories are wonderfully written and complex, but not for that reason. You're clearly not reading her works and only spouting what you think her stories say. There are many morally grey characters in morally complex stories out there, but MDZS IS NOT ONE OF THEM.

NONE OF THE MAIN CHARACTERS (i.e protagonists and their male leads except for LBH maybe) ARE MORALLY GREY OR MORALLY COMPLEX.

THEY ARE ALL MORALLY RIGHTEOUS.

Just take a closer look at their actions compared to the actions of literally everyone else around them, it's not that hard to see.

Not to mention that MXTX herself literally says that WWX and LWJ are both morally ideal and that ahe hopes her readers can be like them, but people seem to have no respect for the word of authors in the name of their self projection onto the characters being contradicted nowadays 😒

(also saw someone dismissively say that HC may think that the world revolves around XL or whatever, but others don't and they're right??

First of all, did you even read the novel? HC made his judgement based on how others treated him versus how XL did when he was a CHILD. And how XL continues to treat others to this day. He is well within his rights to think the world of XL, especially since XL suffered more than every other person and still doesn't succumb to evil, despite having every right to do so, miles more than others. He all but regards XL as his moral compass, because he's proof that truly good people do exist in this world, and not ONE other person in the novel is shown to be as good as him.)

One of the reasons why I really don't like the Xianle Trio is this; neither FX nor MQ seem to regard XL as his own person with his own agency, who is capable of making his own decisions initially as HC does, and only near the end of the novel do they let up a bit when their asses had to be saved by XL multiple times. (especially considering what fools they made of themselves in that spiderweb cave lmao)

Both of them try to enforce XL ALL THE TIME ("Your Highness don't do this or don't do that or don't say this or don't go there or don't talk to him"), as if XL has not survived perfectly well on his own without them FOR 800 YEARS.

The difference between them and HC is clearly spelled out when FC asks HC about why he is not stopping XL, and HC replies that while he may not agree with some of XL's decisions, he would never force him to do what he thinks is correct, something both MQ and FX are CONSTANTLY shown to try to do.

Like please. Xianle Trio who? More like suffering XL and his pair of nuisances who think themselves to be his babysitters. And most of the time he's the one babysitting them.

Another thing that irks me is that their frequent arguments are often played off for laughs, but XL is truly a saint, because if my friends were constantly bickering over petty things all throughout our dangerous journey and giving me nothing but headaches, especially in survival situations, I'd given them the boot a long time ago.

[robsterskellington]

This is different from what I'd usually ask, it's just a new interest of mine lol. So, my cousin and co-writer, got me into a certain series which got me invested in other things, so I'd like to ask:

If you'd like to say why, please feel free!

Mini ramble about my own interest under read more lol

(Minor spoiler for the Heaven Official's Blessing donghua)

Okay, so my cousin gets me interested in stuff by talking about them, because due to personal issues, I have problems taking recommendations from people. He needed to show someone something that made him laugh, and I was the first one who came to mind as he knew that even without context, it would make me laugh:

It was a clip of Qi Rong in the English dub shouting: "I should've hunted down those rent boy fucks and chopped off their nasty, diseased twat spears!!"

From that clip alone, I ended up watching the entire dubbed donghua and reading all eight novels within 4 months. I was absolutely in love the entire time. Recently, I binge watched the donghua and read volume one of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, and again, I'm in love. I haven't started reading or watching The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System just yet, but I do have volume one and intend to read it as soon as I've finished MDZS.

The characters are all interesting in their own ways, and I honestly just feel happy to be motivated enough to read again. Ever have that feeling where you want to read but just can't be bothered? I read volumes four and five of TGCF on my days off from work, a full novel one day and the other the next. I just didn't want to put the books down, and I was glad that my cousin could talk to me about it and I could completely understand.

Anyway, I'll shut up now haha. Thanks for those who read!

[wangxian-the-zhijis]

This is CQL only as I haven’t read the novel or watched the donghua. I REPEAT: THIS IS CQL ONLY.

Hi! So it’s been established here that lwj did A LOT of significant things that the story chose not to show.

Written in that post is: Lan Wangji saved A-Yuan and Wen Qing and that’s why he was late at the Battle in Nevernight.

There are a few more things that I want to say:

Lan Wangji spoke up for the Wens. He openly expressed that the Wens should not be executed.

For those who are saying that Lan Wangji is just as useless as anyone who did nothing for the Wens, then stop. Because HE DID something. You could argue that he didn’t do enough. But what else do you want him to do? Battle the Jins himself and lose his life? Point is, if you check the deleted scenes, Lan Wangji, in fact, DID battle the Jins (even the Lans!!!) in order to save Wen Qing’s life. He’s so much better than those who literally did nothing and let the Jins do as they please.

This was already stated in the linked post above but I’m still gonna put it here: Lan Wangji saved A-Yuan BEFORE Wei Wuxian died. Not after.

When he saw A-Yuan, he didn’t have the arm injury he got from the Battle in Nevernight. When he was defending the Burial Mounds, you can see the blood on his right arm, which indicates the presence of the injury he got from the Battle in Nevernight. So this means that he saved A-Yuan before he got his arm injury— before the war— before Wei Wuxian died. So for those who’s saying that Lan Wangji only redeemed himself after Wei Wuxian’s resurrection, you’re wrong. He has always been on Wei Wuxian’s side since day one.

I’ve seen people say that Lan Wangji probably didn’t have any contribution during A-Yuan’s growth since he was recovering. Wow, idk where they got that from. They must know better than A-Yuan then?

A-Yuan openly expressed that he adores Lan Wangji. When he and Wen Ning reunited, he kept talking about Lan Wangji. A-Yuan himself said that Lan Wangji is his father/brother figure, which means that HE IS a big part of A-Yuan growing up. Look, just because the director didn’t show it, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. Who says that a man can’t show love and affection to a child just because he’s injured?

Lan Wangji leaving Wei Wuxian at the end wasn’t uncharacteristic. He doesn’t deserve the hate he gets because of that.

Y’all hated Lan Wangji for leaving Wei Wuxian in the end. It’s probably censorship, I agree. But for me, it wasn’t uncharacteristic. I wish you all to stop being WangXian-centered for a while and think of what just happened. Lan Xichen is currently experiencing a very devastating heartbreak. I think the reason why Lan Wangji couldn’t leave with Wei Wuxian was because he wanted to take care of his brother. Y’all hated MDZS Lan Wangji for leaving Lan Xichen just like that when he’s experiencing what Lan Wangji experienced 13/16 years ago but now that CQL Lan Wangji prioritized Lan Xichen, y’all still hated him? Whatever Lan Wangji does, he always gets hated, doesn’t he?

Lan Wangji is very dedicated to Wei Wuxian but let’s not forget that he still has a life outside Wei Wuxian. The reason why he was able to let Wei Wuxian go on his own was because Wei Wuxian’s life wasn’t in immediate danger anymore. He wasn’t a target anymore since the entire world probably heard of the news already that Wei Wuxian was actually innocent. Lan Wangji had to take care of his brother. He had to take up the role of being the sect leader. And he became the Chief Cultivator, which majority of you think is uncharacteristic. I don’t really have a say about him being the Chief Cultivator but please stop limiting Lan Wangji to what you’ve seen him capable of doing. He is surely capable of growth.

FOR THE LAST TIME: THIS IS CQL ONLY.