#the trauma bond being used irks me bc that's not what trauma bond is BUT

[wei-meddling-wuxian]

tbh I'm used to the fandom since I like JC and I ship Chengxian lol

I'll elaborate with your tags:

#CQL’s adaptation changes make LWJ indispensable to that canon IMO#since they establish Wangxian as a relationship of mutual respect and fondness starting wayyy back in Cloud Recesses#and LWJ is the means through which they both find out about Lan Yi and the Yin Iron#but in the novel??? damn like. there really isn’t anything related to the main plot that you need LWJ for there#there’s no reason WWX can’t kill the turtle by himself#since LWJ doesn’t succeed in rescuing him from Burial Mounds 2.0 (and WWX doesn’t remember till later) that doesn’t impact the plot either#yes you need a Lan to help investigate the severed arm but you could just have LXC do it#LXC who had a personal stake in the mystery bc the corpse is one sworn brother and the murderer is the other!#yeesh the political plot being largely unrelated to the romance plot irked me bc it meant the political plot would be tossed aside#but it cuts both ways! if the political plot isn’t necessary for the romance then the romance isn’t necessary for the political plot!

I was so shocked that the yin iron wasn't a thing in the books bc there was so much that the cql did with it, including giving us more wgxn moments, and I liked the ship in the cql. But in the books, not only do they not have those bonding moments but they seem to be actively pushing away each other? Like wwx specifically says he wishes jc was there with him instead?

lxc and wwx is a guilty pleasure ship I have, with the scene where lxc reams wwx out for breaking his little bros heart before mentioning trauma (wwx can appreciate some protectiveness, especially when it's like jyl's and feels familiar)

what bothers me the most is the potential lwj had as a character and love interest! and it would have incorporated well into the political i.e.,(and I'm working on a meta about this) having lwj confront lxc about maybe doing something for the wens considering there's a child there and having the brothers contend with what needs to be done for the sect (lxc bc nmj called jc a wen sympathizer for just bringing up the idea) vs what's the right thing to do (lwj even if he has to admit how wwx is going about it is wrong) -that tension could carry over into other aspects of the politics, sect relationships and lwj's character development (it also showed that he tried to do something for wwx beyond just visiting him and asking him to come to gusulan with him and shows his righteousness was there from the beginning, that he was hanguang-jun before the rep <- character growth)

but alas,

mxtx could have made wgxn a lot better and way more compelling (i can admit it has good tropes and imagery but there was potential for so much more depth) and just...didn't

The lack of a meaningful relationship in the past for wangxian, has made me a chengxian shipper (imo that's why so much vitriol against jc)

oh my god anon. anon.

this genuinely never occurred to me before, because I am highly indifferent to shipping and forget that it is a life-or-death situation in other corners of fandom, and so I have been sitting here figuring that oh, they just hate JC because they have no reading or viewing comprehension and think he hates WWX

BUT I THINK YOU'RE RIGHT

BECAUSE JC IS A REMINDER OF WWX'S LIFE BEYOND LWJ

and the enmeshment and shared history the two of them have going on is something that LWJ does not and cannot share, because it happened already! it is written! it's done! whereas Wangxian's current shared story theoretically could include JC unless pains are taken to keep him out.

[onmyliteraturebullshitagain]

Hello hello!!

I just saw the asks thing and am curious about 18 and 19 if you fancy it 😊

I’ll be honest, I’ve listened to the podfics quite an extraordinary number of times now and still don’t know what the phrases are that you said you repeat!!

Ta 💜

Hello, friend! Thanks for this.

Ok, full disclosure, I screenshotted the meta asks but sort of cut off #18 and now I can't find the original post bc Tumblr is just like that. So here's my best guess:

18. Do you have alternate versions of your stories (plot lines you abandoned, AUs of your own work, different characterization)? Tell us about them.

So I may or may not have a 55 page document that's just stuff I've cut out of stories but wanted to keep somewhere still. 😋 Typically it's just that the scene didn't go the direction I wanted so I rewrote, or someone did something weird and out of character, or those choices would have taken the story or series in a different direction than I wanted. But if I liked the writing or idea, I also sort of like keeping it somewhere so I could possibly use it later.

Some of the most interesting (from a snoop back through the doc) in the Midwest series:

- one early on where Boomerang had to go to the emergency vet and Zuko sat and waited with Sokka and that was how Sokka realized he loved him/confessed his love. Obviously didn't work with "The Family Problem," but it was a cute idea that's getting repurposed in a later story :)

- a Christmas party where Azula bonded to a Lucky and Zuko actually let her take him home, but obviously Lucky and Dragon are a pair now and Azula has Cappuccino, so I liked that better; parts of the party did end up in "The Team Up" though

- a MUCH weirder and angstier version of "The Trip Home" where Zuko and Suki clashed and no one was having a good time and I was reminded not to write while in a bad depressive episode

So yeah, there are many, many different versions of things all over the place that I narrow down to just what ends up in the series.

19. Is there something you always find yourself repeating in your writing?

Ok, the biggest thing is I feel like I use the same words over and over for people in conversation and giving emotional reactions - glanced, smiled, snorted, nodded, looked, chuckled, etc. - and it irks me. Also slowly breaking my habit of using words like "again," and "just" and other dumb fillers like that.

I've also written so many stories that include a couple looking up at the stars and constellations for some reason. And dramatic love confessions via yelling. And people with emotional trauma who need to work on themselves. And I love ending stories with people cuddled up and cozy in bed, just being tender and good to each other. Haha.

I'm glad it's not so glaring to you as it is to me, but I'm also a near-compulsive reviser and editor who re-reads my stories over and over, constantly tweaking. So I'm very much my own worst critic with little things like that.

As always, this got super long but thanks for the ask! It was fun to explore!