#then he must let go of jc in every way

[mxtxfanatic]

Who Killed Wei Wuxian? the Politics of Culpability in MDZS

The title is kind of a misnomer because we know how Wei Wuxian died and we know who is responsible, so let's get those quotes out the way:

“To be honest though, if it weren’t for young Chief Jiang’s knowledge of the Yiling Laozu’s weaknesses, the siege of the Burial Mounds might not have succeeded. Don’t forget what kinds of things Wei Wuxian has at his disposal. Don’t you remember when he annihilated more than 3,000 high level cultivators?”

—Chapt. 1: Rebirth, fanyiyi

[Wei Wuxian] “I have to clarify this. [Jiang Cheng] didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.”

—Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

Wei Wuxian died from the backlash of attempting to destroy the second yin tiger tally while the first siege of the Burial Mounds took place. Jiang Cheng and the rest of the cultivation world is directly responsible for his death, thus are to blame. However, this meta isn't about who we are "meant to" blame for Wei Wuxian's death but about the conversation that the novel has about culpability. Contrary to the bad faith engagement that happens around this topic within the fandom, mxtx actually brings up this culpability problem many times in the novel:

After a moment of silence, Wei Wuxian said, “What else have you heard?” “Jiang Cheng, Clan Chief Jiang, brought people to encircle and besiege the Burial Mounds. He killed you, sir.” “I have to clarify this. He didn’t kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.” Wen Ning finally lifted his eyes and looked at him directly. “But, Clan Chief Jiang, he clearly—" “It’s impossible for someone to walk on a lonely, single-log bridge safely and soundly for an entire lifetime. It couldn’t be helped.” Wen Ning seemed to want to sigh, though he had no breath to sigh with.

—Chapt. 43: Beauty I, fanyiyi

Wen Qing waited quietly for him to finish cursing, “And so, you see? There’s no use. With the way things are, the identity of the one who placed the curse of Hundred Holes is no longer important. What’s important is the fact that the hundreds of people at Qiongqi path and... Jin ZiXuan were indeed killed by A-Ning.” Wei WuXian, “... But, but...” But what? He himself didn’t even know what to put after ‘but’. He couldn’t think of a reason to give, an excuse to use. He spoke, “... But even then, I should be the one going. I was the one who made the corpses kill the people. Why would the knife go instead of the murderer?”

—Chapt. 77: Nightfall, exr

Wen Ning says that Jiang Cheng is to blame for Wei Wuxian's death while Wei Wuxian says that it was an inevitability that could only be blamed on the circumstances rather than any individual. The Wen siblings say that Wen Ning is the one who killed Jin Zixuan, but Wei Wuxian argues that he is the one who turned Wen Ning into a weapon, thus absolving Wen Ning of the crime and placing it solely on Wei Wuxian's shoulders as the weapon's wielder. Who's side does the novel take? Well to answer that, let's take a look at another character who has caused many deaths throughout the novel: Jin Guangyao:

Jin GuangYao saw through the worries in his eyes instantly, and became so enraged that he actually started to laugh, “Lan XiChen! All my life, I’ve lied to countless people and have destroyed countless more. Just as you’ve said, murdering my father, my brother, my wife, my son, my master, my friends—There’s not a single sin left in this world that I haven’t committed!”

—Chapt. 108: Concealment Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

Of all the characters Jin Guangyao lists, he personally, with his own hands, verifiably killed two. Jin Guangshan was raped to death. Qin Su committed suicide. Jin Zixuan was killed in the Qionqi Path ambush. The details of Jin Rusong's death are unknown. Jin Guangyao didn't even personally kill any of the clans the Jin used as experiments nor did he murder the sex workers with his own hands. Only Wen Ruohan and Nie Mingjue were directly killed by Jin Guangyao—the former by being literally stabbed in the back and the latter through poisoning—so why does Jin Guangyao claim responsibility? It's because he planned these death. Without his direct manipulations and explicit intention to kill, none of those characters would have died as they did. Thus, despite not taking a knife to each of them individually, the blood of all of these characters is on Jin Guangyao's hands.

Here's another example:

It had taken the Four Great Sects three full months of recuperation, reorganization and planning before they’d finally become ready to take seize upon Burial Mound in retaliation; at last “exterminating” the last remnants of the Wen Sect along with the deranged Yiling Patriarch himself.

—Chapt. 108: Concealment Part 2, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

Around 3,000 cultivators gathered to kill 50 individuals. Logically, there is no way that 3,000 people literally had a direct hand in killing a few dozen people. However, they all came with the explicit intent to massacre, and they all take pride and credit in having participated in the first siege. Even though not nobody took turns personally smashing Granny Wen's head in, they are each still culpable for her and the other Wen remnants' deaths.

But what about the people who were "only following orders" (the Nuremberg defense, for people who haven't yet released how many of villain stan defenses sound like Nazi arguments) or "didn't mean" their actions? Should they be blamed just for being followers of bad people, whether be it because they genuinely believed in the mastermind's lies or wanted to personally benefit from the chaos? Should they be considered blameless for murderous intent that makes a victim of the "wrong" person? Mdzs addresses that, too:

One of them shouted from afar, “Wei... Wei Ying! If you’re really that strong, why don’t you go find those sect leaders participating in the pledge conference? What could you prove by picking on us low-level cultivators with no power to fight back?” Wei WuXian let out another short whistle. The cultivator who shouted felt as a hand suddenly tugged him down. He fell off the city gate, breaking both of his legs, and began to scream. Amid the wails, Wei WuXian’s expression didn’t change at all, “Low-level cultivators? Do I have to tolerate you, just because you’re low-level cultivators? If you dared say those things, you had to dare shoulder the consequences. If you knew that you were insignificant pieces of scum as filthy as ants, how come you didn’t know to think before you speak?!”

—Chapt. 77: Nightfall, exr

Wei WuXian could tell the arrow tip was originally aiming for his heart, his vital region. Yet, because the archer wasn’t skilled, the force of the arrow tip dwindled by midair to have missed the heart and shot into the ribcage. Everyone around the person who shot the arrow had eyes wide open, staring with shock and even fear at the disciple who had done such a thing. Wei WuXian looked up. Darkness veiled his face. He pulled out the arrow and tossed it back hard. With a wail, the young cultivator who snuck an attack at him was hit right in the chest with the arrow he tossed back! A boy next to him threw himself on top of him, “Brother! Brother!” The sect’s array was immediately thrown into chaos. The sect leader pointed at Wei WuXian with one shaking finger, “You... You... You are so cruel!” With his right hand, Wei WuXian unhurriedly pressed the wound at his chest, temporarily ceasing the blood flow. His voice was indifferent, “What does cruel mean? If he dared shoot the arrow at me when I was off guard, he should’ve known what would be facing him if he failed. They call me the cultivator of the crooked path, anyways, so you can’t possibly count on me to be generous and not bother with him, can you?”

...

Wei WuXian was pushed onto the ground again by the force. The next time he looked up, he saw the gleaming blade of a sword pierce through her throat. The boy holding the sword was the young cultivator who cried over the disciple who had shot the arrow. He was still crying, eyes covered in tears, “You thief! This is for my brother!” Sitting on the dirty ground, Wei WuXian stared with disbelief at Jiang YanLi, whose head had already dipped, blood trickling ceaselessly from her neck. ... The boy finally realized that he killed the wrong person. He pulled out the sword, along with a series of bloody spurts. With fright, he staggered back, mumbling, “... I-It wasn’t me, it wasn’t... I was going to kill Wei WuXian, I was going to avenge my brother... She was the one who threw herself over on her own!”

—Chapt. 78: Nightfall, exr

The cultivators both at Nightless City and those who didn't go choose to provoke Wei Wuxian based on the slander spread by the cultivation clan leaders. Those at Nightless City are gathered specifically to pledge to kill him. However, the moment Wei Wuxian turns his sights on them, then it's "But we're just baby 🥺 why not pick on someone your own size?" Wei Wuxian's response is masterful in that he calls them out for what they are: opportunistic cowards who prey on the weak but fear the strong. They wanted to attack him without consequences, but the moment consequences happened, they wanted to shift responsibility. The clan of the boy who attempted to kill Wei Wuxian is the same, as well as that boy's brother who killed Jiang Yanli. You chose to be here, you chose to participate, so just as you wanted to share in the spoils, you must also share in the responsibility, whether you were able to achieve your goal or not.

Now with all of this context in mind, let's circle back to Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian's convos: who are the killers? In the case of the first siege, the answer is Jiang Cheng... as well as the rest of the cultivation world. While the responsibility may vary in degrees (Jiang Cheng owed a debt to the Wen siblings and Wei Wuxian that the other participants did not), it is still a shared one. In the case of the Qionqi Path ambush, Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, too, share and accept responsibility despite only one person getting their hands dirty while the other person (subconsciously) gave the orders. Wei Wuxian may have turned Wen Ning into a fierce corpse, but Wen Ning had the consciousness to refuse and chose not to in service of defending the man who saved his family.

Finally, I want to leave on this note: while Jiang Cheng is to blame for Wei Wuxian's death, Wei Wuxian, himself, does not wish to place that blame on his former shidi. One reason is that he acknowledges that his murder was a forgone conclusion—something anyone would have plotted towards, anyways, with or without Jiang Cheng's willing intervention—the moment the cultivation world turned on him as an enemy, and two, because of this:

Suddenly, [Jiang Cheng] said, “I’m sorry.” Wei WuXian froze, then said, “......You don’t have to say sorry.” After everything that had happened between them, it was impossible to tell who was the one most at fault.

—Chapt. 103: A Hatred for Life Part 6, boat-full-of-lotus-pods

There is so much bad blood between these two that to weigh their transgressions against each other—particularly in the wake of the golden core transfer reveal—would be petty and diminish them both as people. Wei Wuxian gave up his golden core for the man who later willingly and gleefully plotted his murder, but Jiang Cheng lost his only friend, his sister, and his reputation over all of those jealousy-clouded decisions. In a way, this entanglement made them both lose, so the best answer is to cut the loss and move on (Wei Wuxian's approach) rather than trying to forcefully maintain the connection of tangled debts at the threat of facing even bigger losses (Jiang Cheng's approach until the climax). There's nothing to be gained from trying to hold Jiang Cheng accountable for his crimes against Wei Wuxian, so it's best to simply let sleeping dogs lie and for Wei Wuxian to continue to live his life happily no longer tied in any way to the man who led to his death.

[greeneyed-thestral]

I MET MICHAEL SHEEN. 16/03/24, National Theatre

So, if you've read my post about booking tickets to see Michael, you know all about my what-ifs. But the day was finally here.

I arrived at the National Theatre, followed all the Nye signs and here's the Olivier Theatre. I made my sister buy me the show's programme, hoping I would be able to get it signed.

I find my seat, I'm not in the centre but the stage still feels very close and you can see everything (amphitheatres are always the best).

Lights out. The audience is in religious silence. Can't believe I'm actually here, this is happening.

[skip this part in smaller font, if you want to avoid spoilers] In the words of Staged, he really loses himself in his roles. First of all, it's great to hear him speak in a Welsh accent.

But then we also see him turning back into a child, and you can totally believe he's young and innocent again. His stutter feels so real, his struggle and sadness too. The entire ensamble is great during the classroom scene, where they all help Nye against their bullying teacher (using those big canes to make him look scary really works). Hearing young Nye confessing that at times he thinks he 'shouldn't exist' because of who he is was a gut punch; Michael's delivery of that whole part is incredible, in that moment he really becomes a little boy that allows himself to feel vulnerable and says something dark to a friend. The way he jumps while saying "I can visualise and enunciate!" made me wanna jump too, he was ready to give up and then he found the solution through books, it's the joy and relief you feel when you realise that there is another way and your life is not over.

Now, I've watched musicals all my life and let me tell you that man is meant to be in one. He opened his mouth and all I could see was someone that had been waiting a long time for the occasion to show his talent, truly showstopping. He was so free and happy and confident, singing and dancing spectacularly. I couldn't stop smiling and giggling, we all clapped.

It's clear he means every word he says, and when he points and shouts his political arguments at the audience, those who feel called out must be shaking; I thought 'This is how people in Ancient Greece must have felt everytime they went to the theatre'. His Nye is inspiring, passionate, someone you'd want to follow, he stands up for what he believes in and lets nothing get in his way.

We get to watch him flirt, on all fours, waggling his 'tail'; everytime we think we've seen all he's capable of, he does something like this and surprises us.

But most of all, we see him being scared, first of having to do something, and then of not being able to do enough for all of us. At one point everyone has requests for Nye and I was expecting him to shout "Heal yourselves!" like Jesus in JCS, it totally conveyed what it must have been like to be in his role at the time, overwhelmed with daunting responsibilities.

In general, I appreciated the fact that it wasn't a linear biography, they chose life moments that have universal situations everyone can relate too, like they do in bio-musicals. I loved the staging. The colour palette is so recognisable; the curtains and the beds are used in many different ways so everything is explored at its full potential.

He is on stage basically all the time for more than two hours (sometimes twice a day, can you imagine?). Also barefoot and in his pajamas from start to finish, he looks like a teddy bear you just want to hug and protect.

He bows, looks at Nye's achievements, then leaves the stage.

Standing ovation, applause. I go back to the theatre lobby, I was supposed to wait for my sister, but she's late. Meanwhile, a fan asks me how to get to the Stage Door. I start too fear that I'm going to miss my chance if I keep waiting inside, so I decide to go on my own. After no more than 5 minutes, he's outside with us. Forget Nye, I am living my fever dream. He has just finished his second show of the day and yet he's smiling and listening to each and every one, signing and taking pictures. I know many have said this, but he really is an angel.

My sister arrives, and as soon as I'm sure she has the camera ready, I make my way to him. The two girls next to me who were speaking to him needed a pen and I lent them my sharpie, so I got my chance to look generous in front of him.

And suddently it was my turn. This is as much as my scrambled mind allows me to remember: I tell him I'm Francesca and I'm from Italy, he asks me how long I am going to stay, I confess that I had arrived that morning and just to see him, that I would be leaving already the following morning. I can't even focus while he's signing my programme, I just want to find the right words. I manage to say how I enjoyed seeing his passion, all these different sides of him and how watching him sing and dance has been the highlight of my evening. We take a picture together, I feel his hand on my shoulder and I realise my arm is around the waist of this person I love. I had to thank him again, telling him that he only deserves good things and that we are so lucky to have him. He wishes me a safe trip home, and I melt. I leave and I can't stop trembling. On my way back to the hotel I hold on tight to my signed programme and the sharpie that was in his hands just moments earlier. Only later I will realise that he's also written 'Ciao!', 'love' and 'X', without me asking for it or anything! Seeing him act live was a big gift already, but what followed outside was beyond my dreams. I can't look at the photos without blushing, the way he looks at me in the video and then also strokes my arm for a moment, I mean pinch me now.

The more I think about it, the more I can't believe it happened.

I want to thank everyone that under my first post pushed me and encouraged me to see the pros of doing this, I share this beautiful moment of my life with all of you. <3

[sforzesco]

ANTONY cry 'havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war

earlier in my script (which is not Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar), Antony refers to Dolabella as one of his ‘dogs of war’ when talking to Cassius (which IS a reference to Shakespeare’s JC), and it comes back around after Cicero writes to Cassius and informs him of Trebonius’ fate

While these things were taking place at Rome, Cassius and Brutus were collecting troops and money, and Trebonius, governor of the province of Asia, was fortifying his towns for them. [...] Trebonius, who was captured in bed, told his captors to lead the way to Dolabella, saying that he was willing to follow them. One of the centurions answered him facetiously, "Go where you please, but you must leave your head behind here, for we are ordered to bring your head, not yourself." With these words the centurion immediately cut off his head, and early in the morning Dolabella ordered it to be displayed on the praetor's chair where Trebonius was accustomed to transact public business. Since Trebonius had participated in the murder of Caesar by detaining Antony in conversation at the door of the Senate-house while the others killed him, the soldiers and camp-followers fell upon the rest of his body with fury and treated it with every kind of indignity. They rolled his head from one to another in sport along the city pavements like a ball till it was completely crushed. This was the first of the murderers who received the meed of his crime, and thus vengeance overtook him.

App. Civil Wars III. 26

For Dolabella is in Syria, and, as you have foreseen in your prophetic soul and have foretold, Cassius will crush him while they are on their way. For Dolabella has had the gates of Antioch shut in his face and got a good beating in trying to storm it. Not trusting in any other city, he has betaken himself to Laodicea, on the sea-coast of Syria. There I hope he will speedily pay the penalty of his crime: for he has no place of refuge, nor will he much longer be able there to stand out against an army as large as that of Cassius. I even hope that Dolabella has by this time been overpowered and crushed.

Cic. Fam. 12.14

Place then before your eyes, O conscript fathers, that spectacle, miserable indeed, and tearful, but still indispensable to rouse your minds properly: the nocturnal attack upon the most beautiful city in Asia; the irruption of armed men into Trebonius’s house, when that unhappy man saw the swords of the robbers before he heard what was the matter; the entrance of Dolabella, raging,—his ill-omened voice, and infamous countenance,—the chains, the scourges, the rack, the armourer who was both torturer and executioner; all which they say that the unhappy Trebonius endured with great fortitude. A great praise, and in my opinion indeed the greatest of all, for it is the part of a wise man to resolve beforehand that whatever can happen to a brave man is to be endured with patience if it should happen.

Cicero, Philippic 11

Philippi and Perusia, Ronald Syme

ko-fi⭐ bsky ⭐ pixiv ⭐ pillowfort ⭐ cohost ⭐ cara.app

[joanna-lannister]

I promised I would make a masterlist of all my favorite JC fanfictions, so here you go. Those fics aren't sorted out by Canon or AU, they are just a mix of what I loved over the years.

How My Story Ends by Millie55 Cersei and her army arrive in Winterfell to aide in the battle against the Night King. Or Cersei and Jaime reunite in Winterfell.

Casablanca by LordStannisTheGodDamnMannis666 Tywin extends Jaime’s business trip abroad at short notice with express instructions to fly directly to the next country. Jaime however rather likes the idea of a detour, and he knows the perfect person to join him. Aka As long as he gets there by Monday morning it doesn’t really matter what he does in the meantime, does it?

They Want to Make Me Their Queen by Millie55 Cersei has lost everything except 2 things: Jaime, and her Kingdom.

Until Death Do Us Part by LordStannisTheGodDamnMannis666 A new law is passed in parliament that changes Jaime and Cersei's lives for good, allowing them the opportunities, freedom, and happiness that they once could only dare to hope for.

my blood alone remains by houselannister The Austrian Princess is barely fourteen when she leaves her homeland for France. She speaks very little French, and is wilful, stubborn and capricious. She leaves Vienna with an escort of two thousand men, loyal Austrian soldiers.

The Ribbon by Magnolie Cersei is shipped off to France by their mother to part her from Jaime. But there is no without each other for them, only together.

Oh come all ye faithful by Magnolie Jaime and Cersei have their own ways and excuses to escape the boring Christmas Parties and even if they have to stay... there is always a way to spice things up.

therefore each to other bound by copacet Having escaped Stark custody, Jaime returns to King's Landing during the Battle of the Blackwater—thus solving some of his family's problems while also creating several new ones.

of love and beauty by liesmyth “We’re lions.” Jaime’s hand clasped around her own. “Let them all choke on it.”

The Price of Love by nightingalesighs Cersei studies her sleeping twin’s face one night trying to pinpoint when Jaime’s feature’s had changed. When his hair had started going grey and what caused the wrinkles on his familiar face.

She's always been afraid of storms by vwoolf Cersei's afraid of storms and seeks out her brother's company.

you gave away what you never really had, and now your purse is empty, I can see why you're sad by houselannister It's been five years since Jaime left London. Now Tywin is dead, and business is business. Cersei flies to Paris to get what's hers.

foreshore by lutece Still, the lions linger—perhaps they are dead across the sea, but in Pentos they have flourished with their cub.

The Better Cure by corrielle After being unhorsed by Loras Tyrell on Prince Joffrey's name day, Jaime visits Cersei to soothe his wounded pride.

perihelion by houselannister London, 2020 - After Tywin Lannister's death, Jaime and Tyrion uncover their father's most precious secret: a hidden sister. Money and power intersect with family and obsession.

Prophecies & Promises by spinsterclaire When the 18-year old Lannister twins find themselves locked out of their father's townhome, they visit an old acquaintance to escape the Manhattan blizzard. There, they must confront their fears about keeping promises, accepting fate, and bringing new life into the world.

Study Me, Study You by LordStannisTheGodDamnMannis666 Jaime needs help with his homework, and who better to help than Cersei?

Take My Hand, The Night Grows Ever Colder by LordStannisTheGodDamnMannis666 Across the Narrow Sea, in a stone house on the shore of Pentos, Cersei Lannister dreams of her children.

The Loneliest Girl in Town by Millie55 Cersei fears she may have lost Jaime for good - every last piece of him.

Quiet. by frozenpapers Tywin interrupts Cersei and Jaime.

Hush. by frozenpapers A phone call interrupts Cersei and Jaime.

[symphonyofsilence]

I love Wangxian as much as the next guy, but my unpopular MDZS opinion is that both LWJ & WWX after the resurrection were really shitty brothers. Both to their own brothers and to each other's.

Like...JC just threw himself in front of WWX & his boyfriend & Jiggy's sword & took a stab to the chest just narrowly missing his heart, & Wei Wuxian DIDN'T EVEN ASK HIM HOW HE IS! I'm sure JC didn't want him to thank him, but totally ignoring that & forgetting about it is... you know, not fine. even LXC was more worried about his wound. After the temple, when everyone was talking to everyone else, & WWX thanked JC for giving Chenqing back to him, he doesn't even wait until JC's answer is fully out before he immediately turns back to look at LWJ!

Even JL who wasn't talking to JC at that moment saw that JC had something to say! But WWX not only didn't give him a chance to talk, but didn't even have any interest in what he had to say, and wouldn't listen to him just like all the other times when JC tried to talk to him (Repeatedly reminding WWX of his promise & even asking why didn't you go back to Lotus Pier). As you try to do, after you brother has returned from the dead, after causing his own death, your sister's and your brother-in-law's. WWX doesn't think that that's an issue that they need to talk about. Because it's unpleasant for him. While he is not the one who's owed an explanation or an apology. He's not the one who gets to decide if they're having this conversation or not. Let alone asking about JC's wound! WWX! just! Left! With! His boyfriend! & didn't look back! Not even after JC's public meltdown!

And and, what's worse, for both LWJ & WWX is this! Here is what happens when JC is trying to have a conversion with WWX about the non-consensual surgery WWX performed on him by mutilating himself on JC's behalf:

Why yes, he is injured, Hanguang-Jun! He's injured because he threw himself in front of WWX & you little fuck!

He does this once, and it causes JC's wound to open and start bleeding again, and then he goes to do it again!

It's a matter that seriously needs discussion, Hanguang-Jun. JC's world has turned upside down without him having a say in it or even being told about it for years, Hanguang-Jun. JC has every right to talk about it to the person responsible, Hanguang-Jun. It's a family matter, Hanguang-Jun.

And ffs What do you think WWX's brother wants to do to him?! After he took a stab to the chest for him?! He is wounded and his spiritual energy is sealed, what can he do? He's going through it right now in front of everyone. why would you humiliate him even more?! They're brothers! It's none of your business!

And WWX doesn't say anything! It's Jin Ling who must beg Hanguang-Jun to spare his uncle!

(I think they understood what a shitty move it was in the CQL, cause WWX at least lifts a hand to stop LWJ there. And LWJ doesn't actually push JC, opening his wound again, And then try to do it A SECOND TIME AFTER THAT!)

Like...Beating someone's family member in front of them is a very, very rude thing in general when they're themselves handling the situation very well. They were just having a family argument, and LWJ felt the need to beat JC. If you want to de-escalate a family argument, you do it the way JGY does. Or LSZ, A CHILD, de-escalates situations. While respecting both parties. Or else it just escalates even worse.

And this happened at the Jiang ancestral halls, too. WWX was the first to attack JC (which was totally within his brotherly rights when JC was being a little shit) and JC counter-attacked. JC's spiritual powers, unlike WWX's and LWJ's, hadn't returned yet. WWX totally got this. It wasn't their first time fighting. OK, LWJ deflected the first blow of Zidian. He didn't need to intervene further when WWX was beating JC in JC'S ancestral hall. WWX himself passed out when he realized wtf he was doing. (& bear in mind that hours ago, JC with his spiritual powers sealed, barely able to walk, picked his sword and was going to go back for WWX in the burial mounds, before he knew about the golden core thing)

Imagine your friend invites you to their home which they've ran away from when they were very young, their sibling that now owns the house lets you in even though you don't even say hi to them or acknowledge their existence there in anyway, & your friend invites you to somewhere you really have no business being in. IDK. Say, the master bedroom that's been locked ever since their parents' death. Your friend's sibling arrives there and they have an argument. You get offended in the crossfire but your friend leaps in to protect your honor, by beating the said sibling. The said sibling beats back. Can you imagine actually beating the sibling?! Trying to separate them, sure. But beating them?!

& others have talked in depth & better than I about how LXC just murdered the love of his life after some very shocking revelations & was 100% ready to die with him & was clearly going through it & LWJ just left with his boyfriend to fuck when LXC was the one who was there for him when HIS boyfriend died. Like..no LWJ didn't leave his brother after a few days. HE LEFT HIM THAT VERY MOMENT! DIDN'T EVEN GIVE HIM A HANDKERCHIEF OR A PAT ON THE SHOULDER!

And people have also talked better than I about how WWX didn't tell LXC about Sisi bc...he might have shown JGY mercy?

[spriteofmushrooms]

What would be wwx reaction if he ended up in an universe where jc and jyl didn't exist or maybe wwx killed them (rumors has it)?? 🤔

Gradually, Jiang Cheng grows aware. Pain throbs through him with every pulse, highlighting every point at which the cables bind him. He steadies his breath, listening. To his left, someone is humming poorly as they shuffle objects around. Paper, perhaps?

"Do you think I don't know how you breathe?"

Jiang Cheng freezes, then lifts his chin and opens his eyes. Lightning arcs from his neck down his spine, and his breath hitches from the pain. "Who are you?" he rasps.

The stranger is young with the air of a cultivator. He's draped in black, grey, and red without any insignias; so he's either in disguise or a rogue. He's not wearing a sword, but a black dizi with a red tassel is stuck haphazardly in his belt. His eyes are red, but his expression is sweet, curious, and full of mirth.

"So it's true? Aiya, Jiang Cheng, this one is your humble shixiong, Wei Wuxian." He bows elegantly.

While Wei Wuxian's eyes are downcast, Jiang Cheng flexes his wrists against the immortal binding cables behind his back. Unfortunately, even Yu Ziyuan would find the knots satisfactory. As the stranger rises, Jiang Cheng stills.

"I am da-shixiong," Jiang Cheng offers cautiously.

"Oh, here, sure," Wei Wuxian says, flicking his hands as if batting that away. "What a sad little world you have. No me, no Baoshan Sanren."

"Baoshan Sanren gave her life to protect--"

Wei Wuxian scoffs. "That old woman was bored."

Anger rose within Jiang Cheng. Whoever the fuck this asshole was, he could go die. "My apologies for the lackluster surroundings. Feel free to leave at any time."

"Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng, you're so cute. If I leave, you know it will be with you."

"Your sad delusions aren't my problem," Jiang Cheng hisses. "If you think you're the first person to decide we're more than we are, you're mistaken. I don't fucking know you. I don't want to."

The air around Wei Wuxian shifts. He smiles. "But I know you, a-Cheng. I know everything that shaped you, and I'm sorry it took me so long to realize that we belong together. Really, I am. But I won't ever let you out of my sight again."

Jiang Cheng closes his eyes. He needs information. "Again?"

Wei Wuxian chuckles. "Will Sandu Shengshou pester the truth out of me now? Interrogate away. Yes, again. My Jiang Cheng got himself killed."

"How did he die?"

Wei Wuxian tugs on the end of his ribbon. Although it's gentle, every slight jerk lances through Jiang Cheng. "Is that really what you want to know?"

Jiang Cheng looks into Wei Wuxian's eyes. "Did you kill him?" he asks, voice flat.

"What a mean thing to say," Wei Wuxian says. "Shidi, no one will marry you if you stay like this."

"Who's my shixiong? You couldn't have been a good one since your shidi died."

Wei Wuxian slowly wraps the purple ribbons around his hand. As the tension increases, Jiang Cheng must lean closer. He ends up with his chin in one of Wei Wuxian's hands while the other wraps around his guan. "You should consider your position before you speak to me," Wei Wuxian says, brushing a thumb over his lips even as he pulls up on the guan. Jiang Cheng gasps. "Maybe you're not my Jiang Cheng, but I can make you him. It won't be that hard; you're both such brats. All we need is time..."

As he speaks, his expression grows distant. His touches grow gentler.

"You're hurting me."

Wei Wuxian's gaze fixes on him again. "I know. But bear it for me, alright? It's going to hurt a lot, but it's the only way."

It's not as though Jiang Cheng has a choice. He nods.

"Good boy," Wei Wuxian murmurs as he drops the ribbons and walks back to the table. He picks up a long stick that's difficult to make out in the gloom and begins whistling. As he returns, Jiang Cheng straightens, eyes wide.

The Jiang discipline whip.

"He never let me see all of the scars, but let's play it by ear."

[wittytrixter]

Oiya, I don't get this thing with the pro/anti Jiang Cheng camps right now. It's very annoying, and it takes away from real discourse about the manner in which his character chose to move through the world. Must we do it?

Well, I'm not gonna.

I'm halfway through my million and second reading, and I am again stuck on how his perspective/narrative stole everything he loved from himself. Jiang Cheng serves many purposes, but I feel his primary purpose is to establish what happens to people who never question repression.

Poor JC went through it at home, and that's where his story of repression began, as acknowledgment in his house was dangerous. No, Madam Yu wasn't going to beat him about it, but she definitely threw his feelings at him constantly. This dynamic prevented him from returning the Twin Prides promise and prevented him from seeing WWX as an equal-- forever he had that boy on a pedestal or on the floor.

Had Yunmeng not fallen, I can see JC returning the promise and the pair becoming sworn brothers.

Even so, the Lotus Pier house of cards was going to fall one way or another. Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian (anger and ignorance) fed him too much poison (jealousy). Let's imagine Wen Chao never came back for them, and that Lotus Pier's hostile takeover happened on the Wen timeliness (let's be real, that was their original timeline and that's why they took disciples as hostages to begin with, but who am I?). We're going to refer to these cards as "elephants" for now, because they're fucking enormous issues that just get ignored. Forever.

Madam Yu was wrong in her treatment of her kids. JYL and JC were often mistreated by her. Obviously, also WWX, but we're only a quarter counting him as her child. Elephant #1.

But she was right about JFMs refusal to deal with the Wen clan. 100% right, in fact. Not preparing to stand up against them ensured that Lotus Puer would fall. Elephant #2.

Equally, and this is kinda backward talk, but she was right about JFMs lack of decision about WWX's status in their family. Leaving him an unacknowledged, almost child in their family attracted classist ire from the outside world for both children and put her daughter in an awkward position, too (see phoenix mountain). JFM absolutely had the power to resolve this! He could, at any point, have acknowledged some clan or family status that was permanent and protective for all parties. WWX could have been made a guest cultivator or provided with the same status as a cousin (easier, guys) or emphatically erased Wei Changze's status as a servant, but he didn't. He just whined when it was mentioned. Elephant #3.

We can see the trouble wwx's unidentified status creates for Madam Yu in the Wen confrontation scene: servants should act like servants. Even Madam Yu is unable to identify his status. It has never been spoken. And then, asked to maim a child she's raised, she displaced all that vitriol on the kid (who never asked to be her child and never asked to be taken in by the Jiangs). This lack of clarity limits Madam Yus options to protect wwx, and then her parting words for him? Unforgiveable. Her rage, left unchecked beyond JFM saying "Wife" angrily every so often, is elephant #4.

These dynamics undermine the Jiangs standing in the larger cultivation world, and are left unchecked and undressed (Cloud Recesses arc), and yet JFM refuses to not send WWX on these events, and mounts no defense for him when he makes a splash and interacts naturally with his peers. Also, he can double go to hell for his parting words to WWX because at least Madam Yu didn't shower him with insincere affection and then abandon him at the last moment. Elephant 5.

Further, there is constant comparison between wwx and JC inside of and outside of Lotus Pier. Old news-- elephant 6. No one stands up for JC, aside from wwx, which is infuriating, if you're Jiang Cheng. Honestly.

This dynamic is evident from the beginning, but we see early on that Jiang Cheng's natural reaction is initially rejection and then, left to his own devices, rejoining. The Lotus Pier attack interrupted this process. OK, I know, this is long. If you're still here, I appreciate you. Only Jiang Yanli acknowledges WWX's relational status in the family, and only she mounts any defense of him or his actions. Ever. Jiang Cheng was never taught how to do it or why it's important to do so, aside from one reprimanding comment after WWX nearly died in a cave. Elephant 7.

But--and here comes the point--all these elephants are different forms of repression, squashing JCs ability to recognize the importance of this relationship in his life and pressing every bit of the healthy support contained there into the mud.

So... can we stop expecting Jiang Cheng to have relationship skills that have advanced in a manner that doesn't match his experience? Yes, he had opportunity to grow in the 13 intervening years, but who genuinely grows in isolation? Why would Jiang Cheng trust the world enough to make relationships with other people that pose any challenge to his self-image?

Jiang Cheng is a well written character. Let's fangirl/fanboy/fanthem the genius of the person who committed him to paper so effectively instead of engaging in the behavior he exists to caution us against.

[androdetective]

Don't harass anyone just block

This isn't something I wouldn't make without reason. I'm sure a lot of people must of noticed these out of place posts in the 31 minutos tag

Spinergy-69 posted in the main 31 minutos tag, except this was a post directed against a post of the person in the screenshot.

"Things that make me laugh? Having debated a thousand years ago a public post tagged "Tulio Triviño" in which I thought I was going to be able to debate at ease with another fan, fighting arguments for the mere fun of doing it, and after 437268573 days he still quotes someone who commented a list of things for which he didn't think the same. I really am unforgettable. 🚬 Don't worry, I'm all about talking things face to face, instead of sending childish indirects like this specimen, but the times l've tried to talk it out in the posts he devotes to me, he cries even louder the baby, so that's all that's left and my last reference to it, Peace"

Below it is an image of that person's post (who will be called "A") he was responding to, it reads:

"Every time I see a white humanization of Tulio (even more if he is blonde/has streaked hair like the puppet) it takes years off my life. HE LOOKS HORRIBLE LIKE THAT THEY TOOK AWAY HIS MELANIN!!!

(don't take this post so seriously I don't want whiners to come and try to "debate" like when I said that Tulio was canonically fat)"

he also wrote tags that said "#bonus points if they make Bodoque more brown than him #it seems classist to me #the rich guy has to be white and the other more brown because he doesn't have as much money"

User Spinergy drew a box around the last sentence that says, "No one, absolutely no one draws him more brown because of that"

In the second image, Spinergy again posts in the 31 minutos tag a post directed against A. A has told Spinergy many times not to interact with him, and Spinergy has continued to ignore that. It says:

"I want to cancel (person's @) for giving me the spectacular HC that Juan Carlos Bodoque would be brown for being exposed to the most extreme weather conditions, being an off-road reporter. Between the Chilean desert and the Chilean arctic he would have a tan color worth appreciating. Assuming that fans have related skin tone to monetary acquisition, is in fact, the most classist thought I have read in a long time, cancel (he calls A a snake)"

I will add that in the comments of this post, he speaks with his friend and it says this:

"I accept the cancelation, I am enemy #1 of a JC with PERFECTLY WHITE skin, how would he not have sun spots, a constant tan or noticeable burns considering he even let himself be buried under sand?

-And what a great episode it was, holy shit... Totally cinematic.

-Besides, we already have someone with milky skin and another with pure, porcelain-white skin. Let the adventurer express his savagery in his skin, let the tan be a mark of life rather than a social stigma"

I don't have to explain why that's colorist language. Attributing savagery and the wild with tan/brown skin is very bad. It's ironic he's called A discriminatory when he's fine with this.

After those two posts, A responds with this:

"I seriously have to clarify that in my previous post that when I said that it seems classist to me that Tulio is always made white and Juan Carlos brown, I don't mean that EVERY such humanization is classist in itself, but because classism mixed with racism/colorism in LATAM is something very present???

Yes, each person may have a reason for why Bodoque is brown (whether it's because of work, being born that way or just because one likes it) but I simply mentioned that because people sometimes mess up with it unintentionally. It just can't be that I said in the post not to take it so seriously, and a few hours later, I found out that they took it seriously. He then accuses me of being a classist for making a connection??? what a laugh.

I was referring to the fact that rich people always have to be made white, almost as if tulio for being a spoiled rich guy has to be white even though the same series shows that he is not, he looks like Pedro Peirano (his voice actor) who's not white. I didn't accuse the headcanon of brown bodoque as something bad nor did I say that I think it is bad in itself wtf is up with people."

A then writes in the tags "#well what do I expect from the guy that I asked to NOT INTERACT with me and he keeps on doing it to defame me"

This seems reasonable enough. Spinergy then decides to comment.

"Lalala~ we saw you. Im happy I took that screenshot,

-"Discriminatory" is when I complain about stereotypes that can seep into what you do whether in a good way or not. And what if you get yourself a job instead of being obsessed with me, fan????

-I hadn't responded to any of the indirects you left publically for me, but I'm fed up with you, all day long looking for attention, leave me alone. Pretending someone pays attention to you won't make you turn history on its head. The one with the childish and not at all brave indirects, is you, it's not my style. Just stop crying, you're too big for that.

-"all day looking for attention" man I only mentioned you in ONE post. Besides I had blocked you, SUPPOSEDLY you shouldn't be able to see my posts. Anyways, you never responding was a lie, you literally dedicated two whole posts trashing me because why not.

-If you didn't bump into me you wouldn't make posts using the show's hashtag to get my friends attention or mine. You're too old to be fighting with people my age. It'd be better if you go pay taxes or do something really productive. I've thought about blocking you and never seeing you in my life, that's why I mentioned you in a post.

-You have severe mythomania. You invent bullshit to bash anyone who disagrees with you. This wasn't my words but I was told you were a lot like "Hitler" and I agree. Wrapping it up, it's easier to catch a liar than a thief, so it will be for you, everyone has to pay for their mistakes eventually. Peace out and really block this time, I don't block. That's for pussys."

Completely immature and so unnecessarily mean for an adult to speak like this to a minor. A minor who has said many times he doesn't want him to interact with him. This is just bully behavior.

The thing that started Spinergy to harass A was this post

"Tulio should be drawn chubby more often... It bothers me a bit that whenever he's humanized, it isn't taken into account that he's canonically chubby. I'd like to see that reflected in fanart more 😔"

Things then go downhill in the comments

"He's not fat, it's just that as a television personality he's held to strict and unattainable standards, so even though he's known to be on a diet, it's hard for him to meet those standards.

-They still call him fat, dude. If he calls himself fat, then he is fat.

-Of course they're going to tell him that, tulio lives in a way that is very much dependent on his appearance, if you want to screw a tv figure, telling him like that is the most effective way to ruin his day. The camera will make you gain between 5 and 8 kilos. If your weight is normal, you still have to lose another 5 more to look thin on tv. Maybe he's fat for tv, but he's still average.

-Dude what do I care. I'm just saying it because it pisses me off that they always make him a stick 😭 Is it so hard for a little guy to say that he wants to see tulio fat or

-Hmmn, frustration over a conversation as to what we've seen canon and what we haven't? hahaha, what

-You are unbearable, "Ay Tulio can't be fat because *insert dumb reason*" Dude, what does it affect you that I see tulio fat? does it bother you that much?

-Hahaha, I didn't even get upset. It was you who started screaming about your own personal frustrations. at least my "dumb reasons" have much more logic than your zero frustration tolerance. You are fighting like I insulted your own belly, control yourself like an adult.

-"Control yourself as an adult" I'm a minor, dude, it looks like you didn't see my post that mentions it lol. Tulio is not in his 20s, it makes all the sense in the world that he is fat or has SOME belly, in the fourth season MINIMUM he starts his 40s, besides it was YOU who came with the " he's not fat because TV stars aren't" story.

-Besides, it makes me laugh at how you talk so much about the canon and make Juan Carlos a redhead or Tulio with striped hair when they are respectively blonde and black-haired. It's like... bruh

"Believe me, my love, it shows that you're a minor, haha. In any case, that's not what I said, and you know that very well. And yes, I know Tulio is in his 40s in the last season, which is not synonymous with being fat.

-I don't understand why you write in such a fucking disgusting know-it-all way but hey. A man in his 40's would be letting himself loose (getting old), and besides Tulio is not into working out, it would make sense for him to have a belly. Tulio getting screwed by being fat would look good with his character and would speak to how much, despite pretending to love himself, hates his looks and does everything to his physical appearance and does everything to change it +

-(Continued) There are episodes that mainly revolve around or focus on Tulio being seen as fat. It WOULD make sense that he would be. Now I ask: what is your reason for COMING to my post complaining "ay he's not fat" and then screaming when you started the whole thing.

-I came to say my opinion because that's what you leave public posts for, so that the rest of the fandom can give our personal opinion, and that's what I did. And when I commented normally you jumped in with "dude what do I care" a way that, according to me, contain zero respect. So check the comments back, I'm just telling you that I don't think alike, and that's why I said you have zero frustration tolerance, since you won't admit to being told "no".

-If you wanted so much respect you could have simply said "I like the way you see the subject but I think that this (insert your reasoning) is better" not come to say "ummm he is not fat because I say so" and then call me a crybaby and then treat me as less and act superior. I came with all the desire in the world to share what I believe and you had to come and say that it isn't true because it does not make sense.

-Who gets to say I think it's a good idea when it's not? It doesn't seem so to me, and that's why I came to debate in a healthy way, in any case, that you need me to say something like that denotes your insecurity in front of the subject. And no, just because you use diminutives like "ganitas", it won't change the fact that you jumped to defend yourself when no one parroted nothing."

-The way you said it it sounded more like "he's not fat because I said so" rather than "I don't believe he's fat".

-By giving arguments like the world of television, cameras, diets, the immeasurable unreal pressure on media figures, I am not saying "because I say so", on the contrary, rather it is something similar to: Look, I have these cards that could be possible clues. Try not to be so delicate when someone comes to comment on another of your posts casually.

-You know what? If you weren't so nasty I would have listened to you, treating me as lesser simply for getting mad at you, some of your arguments might be interesting, but suuure it was very difficult to tell me something to my face instead of calling me "delicate" or "frustrated", no of course not /sarc

-To your face? Haha, I'm telling you to your face that you got frustrated for no reason, that you got into a fight when I only came to debate a topic I'm passionate about, and that you have tolerance of a little girl, to your face.

-Not the misgendering 💀💀💀 You've whined at me enough, if you like the block button so much then eat it whole

-It was "No tolerance", my phone betrays me with its auto-correct. And do what you want, you reaffirm my theory that you have no tolerance"

Spinergy is acting rude and like a child. Over something as petty as a sock monkey being fat. It's one thing if he's just a rude person but it's another to act like a bully to a minor. A minor who he knows he makes uncomfortable. It's his responsibility to be the mature one and not go after a kid. It'd be so much easier to ignore A and continue living. He just wants to antagonize someone younger than him for no reason.

Here Spinergy ignores A's boundaries and argues

"Why is that? Because I told you some time ago that I thought differently? different?

-For being annoying and ignorant, and for trying to play the "intellectual," you make me seriously uncomfortable, and I don't want you here. End of.

-Bah, I only commented with my point of view because by making a public post, you are indirectly inviting others to participate, but then you started crying for nothing. If you don't want people to come and comment on a topic you put on the table, I insist, tag it, block and problem solved.

-I blocked you in fact, but for whatever reason, you can still comment. Don't act like you "came to give your opinion" far from it, you told me that Tulio being fat didn't make sense because of "TV standards" which don't apply to male newshosts, and then when I told you "what do I care" you started to bawl like I killed your family.

-Sure what do I know, I have friends who have told me how muuuch you like to bother people on other social medias, all agree that you are extremely unpleasant to deal with, clearly the one who is wrong is me not you, because you're an angel, right? /Sarc

-No, no, I love debating, it's my favorite national sport. The one who cried here is the one who, curiously, blocked me and got offended. I could talk or debate all my life. It's obvious who is itching to fight.

-In fact I wouldn't have had a problem with it being your opinion (which you just used to make yourself look better at the last minute), what was disgusting to me was the way you started to act superior out of nowhere, first telling me "to act like an adult", and when I told you I wasn't you mocked me saying "I knew you were a minor". Oh but I'm the crybaby for saying "what do I care" XD????

-But how did they recognize me? And on what other social media? Bullshit. Although the very idea of being considered as such makes me laugh hahahaha. Anyway, I don't get offended by anything, nothing at all, so if I seemed offended, it was a misunderstanding, so you can lower your weapons.

-On Facebook, I've literally been told that you used to roleplay as Bodoque and bully because one person did a Juanin voice with your little friends, besides many people saw the conversation and it made them cringe with your way of imposing yourself as if you were Jesus Christ.

P.S if you weren't offended you wouldn't have started with your bullshit comments that I'm "frustrated" ;)

-No, no, as I said, I don't get offended by anything, I insult my friends worse hahaha, it's the truth. Maybe both, you and I, interpreted that the other was frustrated wrongly. And yes I have a Juan Carlos account, it's the most popular on Facebook, but it's roleplay. I never go out of character. It is clearly a compliment to its existence. I never comment as a user there, so the mockery of which you speak was in character, laughing as Bodoque and Tulio.

-I'm still fed up with you, so please don't interact with my account anymore. I don't want you here.

-Anyway, you didn't consider possible excessive exaltation, or possible misinterpretation on your part, as if you couldn't be wrong in a debate. Many points can lead a person to argue, in your case. In mine, I only came to comment about Guaripolo, for another, blockk.

-I already told you that I had blocked you. Just that for some reason I don't know, you can still interact with my posts. That's why I told you to stop doing it."

At this point, he could've simply apologized and respected his wishes. Why be so disrespectful towards someone who hasn't done anything harmful. Not only that but he also confirmed that account A mentioned. If Spinergy is comfortable enough acting like this then I don't have high hopes for what he's done on facebook.

A wants Spinergy to not interact with him not only because of that, but also because Spinergy's account is technically 18+. He has posted nsfw art before. As an owner of an adult blog, he needs to state that it is one. Even if the blog has a little nsfw.

While he did appropriately tag that post as nsfw, he also maintagged it as 31 minutos. The 31 minutos tumblr community has a lot of minor fans, with the chance of them possibly seeing it. It wasn't put under the mature label either.

I don't have much closing words except to stop being mean, stop interacting with minors with an account you've posted nsfw to (alongside suggestive themes), and to act like an adult.

Block him and don't harass anyone here. Don't mention names of anyone involved, the main focus is Spinergy.

I'll finish off with words from A

"Spinergy should block me too if he's tired of me. Because I'm sick of feeling insecure about posting things and him seeing it"

[truly-morgan]

[AA cross-over, JC moves to the US, befriend Edgeworth]

Jiang Cheng + Miles Edgeworth | Mo Dao Zu Shi Cross-over Ace Attorney + Modern AU 30-05-2022

[#mdzs #AceAttorney cross-over, #jiangcheng #milesedgeworth, modern sett.]

Jiang Cheng hadn't been surprised when he was basically shipped to America.

"We are expanding our company, I need someone to look over it in America" his father had said.

He knew very well this was all so he wouldn't be close to him all while not angering him too much his wife as he wasn't kicking him out.

But it was alright, he could roll with it, he would show them.

and with that Jiang Cheng had started to work even harder than before, ready to prove what he could do. He was pretty satisfied that the result he had were better than what anyone else had expected at first.

all this was achieved by him never really taking a break, working hard nearly every day without much care for his health.

All this to his assistant exasperation. The man had known him even before he started working at his father's company, caring about the younger man. This lead him to force him to take a break once everything was more stable and no one could really argue about the incredible job he did.

this is how Jiang Cheng ended up forced on a vacation for a weekend, driving himself to some kind of somewhat isolated retreat spa or something like this, he didn't really follow what his assistant said as he was only thinking about the work he would be missing out on ("the tickets are already bought! You have no choice but to go" he was told).

"Maybe some calm will help me" he had sighed at some point on his way there.

He did raise a brow when he saw a car speeding in the opposite direction, wondering why anyone would drive so fast away from somewhere that was meant to make you relax.

"Gumshoe, I swear your pay will be revised in the next evaluation" he heard mumbled as he got out of his car, finding a man on the side typing on his phone.

"Everything's good sir?" Jiang Cheng asked, unsure if he should really intervene with the angry-looking man.

"I am trying to call the man who dare call himself my friend, but I have no signal" the man sighed in frustration, "May I ask if you might have any?" he politely asked while joining him.

Jiang Cheng did take a look at his own phone, offering a sorry smile to the man. "No signal either" he replied, "I see I am not the only one being forced here".

The man looked a bit surprised by his word, before letting another frustrated sigh leave him. "Dare I assume it is also because you are 'working too much'?" the stranger asked.

This made Jiang Cheng chuckle a little, still a bit frustrated about it too. "Yes".

There was a silence afterwards, making Jiang Cheng a bit awkward, unsure of what to do from here. He was relieved when the man decided to extend a hand towards him, presenting himself "I am Miles Edgeworth, prosecutor".

Jiang Cheng was a little surprised. He had heard about the man more than once before, although not always presented in a good light. He did suppose it changed a bit in recent times.

"Jiang Cheng, COO of the Jiang Corp. branch in America" he said next.

Some recognition seemed to also pass on to the other man's face. He was still not used to people vaguely knowing who he was.

"Why don't we head inside?" suggested Jiang Cheng, "If we are to be stuck here, might as well settle down and have some tea".

Edgeworth seemed to think about it, before another sigh left him, this time looking resigned to stay here. "I suppose it couldn't do too much damage to take the weekend off" he admitted.

Like this they went inside, taking care of their reservation ("It must be fate, our rooms are next to each other" Jiang Cheng had joked a little when they were given their keys).

It was already getting late on a Friday night and so they decided to have dinner together. "I am sure having some company will make this trip a little bit better" Edgeworth commented.

And it did make the weekend pass by more quickly and in a less boring (and lonely) way than he first thought it would be. He dared to assume it was the same for the lawyer.

He never expected to connect so easily with the man, both borderline workaholics.

sure the treatments at the spa helped him relax, but having someone to talk about (or sometimes bitch about) work was nice and surprisingly therapeutic. He felt like he couldn't really do this with his assistant since he was still trying to keep a vague impression of professionalism between them.

After their little forced vacation, they decided to keep in contact, meeting only now and then at first, usually to have tea or dinner.

but soon their little rendez-vous became more frequent. It was their own little way to have a day away from work (before being forced to have one again) where they could talk about work without it technically really being work.

Edgeworth would complain about his cases and how bad the investigation would have gone while drinking his tea, sometimes exasperated despite something in him not complaining that justice had been done right.

"You complain about him quite a lot, but you seem to like him just as much" Jiang Cheng teased him after yet another trial where he was up against Wright. This did earn him a scoff.

"You don't see me mentioning you also enjoying a certain young master's visit more than you would let shown" the man had argued back, which man Jiang Cheng roll his eyes, not without a small smile on his lips.

Sometimes they'd be joined by Jiang Cheng's nephew as he came to visit him with his parents. The boy had been shy at first towards the other serious-looking man, but had slowly warmed up to him despite not understanding what he would say, his jiujiu needing to play translator for them.

"I sadly never learned Chinese" Edgeworth admitted with a small smile, "maybe it could be something I should pick up one day"

"I could help you if you ever need someone's help" Jiang Cheng offered with a laugh, a little a-ling also giggling with him despite not understanding what was happening before going back to his drawing.

They enjoyed sharing a good cup of tea every Saturday, talking and sometimes just sitting in silence, enjoying the time spent together. Maybe the reason they met wasn't one they enjoyed, but they weren't so mad to have find a good friend at the same time.

====

(I ran out of ideas here but maybe one day I'll pick up this cross-over, I dunno why, I just feel like I wanna see more of these two workaholic sarcastic men together)

Original

[tbgkaru-woh]

Our taste in characters is similar :') My fav unpopular character is probably Wen Zhuliu..... I just think he's very neat and they could have done so much more with his character. I like Jiang Yanli too but I guess shes more on the popular side, but she doesnt get enough individual love for who she is alone - usually just in connection to her brothers or JZX. For the popular characters I adore JC and NHS. I like shipping them together too because they give off such wine aunt energy and I'm obsessed w that. And I think their sexual chemistry would just be off the charts.

oh i LOVED wen zhuliu and wen chao too! every time wc was on the screen i had a blast, the actor enjoyed being a villain so much and in donghua wc is just such a pathetic brat. and wen zhuliu? hot hot nanny, the gloves and his loyalty were doing things to me i think jiang yanli must be my least favorite character not only in mdzs, but in like.. everything :') i see what she was suppossed to be but neither part was delivered in a satisfying way (ESPECIALLY her visuals like what's going on, why is she more beautiful than the jin girls and we're suppossed to believe that people talk down to her) and people praise her to high heaven while shitting on jzx so i have a bias :'D chengsang/sangcheng is wonderful, i loved loved loved them during the gusu lan days, nhs was exactly what jc needed to let go a bit and i like how it turned them into this goofy duo. but in the present, i was never able to see them as endgame so i only indulge in them a little :')

[kuronekonerochan]

Wen Ning is proof that not even death will rid you of the cringe experience of being uncomfortably in the vicinity of couples who go way too hard on the PDA.

I mean the boat isn't even the worst bc at least it was immediately after having the satisfaction of going ballistic delivering a reality check on Jiang Cheng. But the chicken thing? Worse than being next to a lovey dovey couple is being next to a lovey dovey drunk making an absolute fool of himself. The second hand embarrassment...

(unrelated meta here but while I love Jiang Cheng and the whole WWX-JC dynamic is complex and mostly super tragic, I think that while the book and show are pretty straightforward about JC's hatred of Wen Ning, it doesn't really explore the reverse. I mean Wen Ning has every reason to hate JC. After all he and his sister risked to safely hide JC after the Lotus Pier attack, after all that he in specific risked to retrieve the bodies of JC's parents, and in one iteration after JC even gave a love gift to his sister... After all that and JC did nothing to help him or his sister back when they needed it after WWX released them from the Jins and they became refugees. We get the young political leader with a destroyed sect and no power trying to not incur in the hostility of the other sects but still... ungrateful son of a bitch. If it wasn't for the guilt over killing JC's brother in law and making his nephew an orphan I think he would have been much more hostile towards JC and rightfully so. My point is that for all that WN is a cinnamon roll, it must have given him some measure of satisfaction to blast JC and make him miserable, not just for the way he treated WWX, but for himself and his family. He is way too kind and shy to confront JC with his own personal grievances, especially with Jin ZC's murder between them and how sorry he is. He is also the type who will overcome shyness to defend a friend but never to stand up for himself. Still I think it's an interesting point that no matter what regrets and pain JC may have with how things went down with WWX, one thing every media makes crystal clear with no nuance to it is how JC let his hatred of the Wens completely overlook how much he owes to Wen Ning and his sister. There is never a hint of remorse or consideration about them, not in the past arc , nor at the end. And while after Jin ZC's death and after learning about the non consensual core surgery he does have valid reasons to resent them, when they were refugees with WWX he already resented them and couldn't care less about what happened to them... which at least at that point in time makes him an ungrateful son of a bitch. Going only by the book one can make the case that WWX was half mad at that point and as such an unreliable narrator and since we don't get JC's pov of course when talking to WWX, his main priority would be trying to get his brother safely back and undo his pariah status while also looking out for the wellbeing of his own sect. Therefore, anything he may have thought about WN and WC then is simply not in the book. However the book did make an exception to show how and why JC let himself be captured instead of WWX, so if he had at any point made plans of his own to help the Wens in any way before it all went to hell, it could have been included in the book. As such it is much more plausible that Jiang Cheng was indeed adamant in completely disregarding the Wens and all that they did for him)

I was wholly unprepared for the experience of watching the untamed in 2023. I’ve seen the gifs! I’ve read some character analysis! I vaguely knew the plot but I did not expect a.) the show to be a lot more tragic and nuanced and funny than what I thought possible and I cannot stress this enough b.) for Wen Ning to also be there on that damn boat

[rottingcheng]

ZhanCheng Day 5: Treacle

Prompt: LZ and JC secret relationship and gets sneaky when they're alone 😌. Suggested by Eruri. ao3 link. Slight NSFW

"What a bunch of loons, am I right?" Jiang Cheng grins. He's slightly breathless from running to the kitchen in order to avoid his family stirring up any more trouble with him and Lan Wangji. Flushed.

Wangji thinks Jiang Cheng's beautiful like this, the way his sharp brows are slightly drawn and a bit of colour lightly dusts his cheeks. The way his shoulders heave and a lock of hair falls from its place tucked behind his ear. The pink of his lips wrapped in a rare toothy smile.

He'd told Wangji last winter, under the cover of darkness and a fluffy blue quilt, that he hated his smile when it showed his teeth – someone had told him it looked weird when he was a child and he never quite forgot it.

It's these tiny shames of the world that Wangji mourns daily. How his lover absorbs every word others say, lets them seep deeper than Wangji can reach with his lips. He wishes Jiang Cheng can see himself through his eyes right now, the pleasure that rings in them with the sight of a handsome happy man with the prettiest smile.

Unable to contain the overwhelming satisfaction with such a sight, Wangji steps forward in the tiny kitchen and captures that perfect smile in his with a warm, candy kiss. Pecking at the man's lips after, Wangji tells him: "What lucky loons, to have spent their lives with you."

Jiang Cheng snorts. He always gets awkward whenever Wangji says something sweet, starts staring at the ceiling and laughing nervously, deflecting it as if he didn't know where to hold sweetness in his hands.

"Hah! We're all laced with misfortune, actually, the lot of us. Just one after the other...ha..."

If only he could know his hands are sweetness themselves. If only he could know his body is sweetness. If only he could know his heart is treacle, and Wangji is drowning in it; the luckiest loon of all, perhaps.

He kisses his lover's lips again. "Shall I put some of my luck in you then, Jiang Cheng?"

Jiang Cheng’s eyes grow wide. His face flushes pink. Oh, he's even prettier like this. Sweet, nervous thing, trembling in Wangji's wanting hands.

"D-don't say dirty things when my family's in the room next door..."

He's averting his eyes again, so Wangji takes the opportunity to slip a hand around his waist and push him against the kitchen counter.

"I meant nothing dirty, A-Cheng. Were you thinking something dirty?"

The way that Adam's apple bobs forces a soft growl from Wangji's throat, and Jiang Cheng seems to shiver with it.

"Don't be a bastard," Jiang Cheng chastises, though Wangji knows the threat carries as much strength as two matchsticks tied together. He gently presses his cheek against Jiang Cheng's, the hands on his waist moving him side to side so they're both swaying from foot to foot; a little dance as he teases more.

"I could get on my knees and suck you right here. Your family are so focused on Cluedo they won't look for us until you've climaxed at least twice."

Wangji had never been the type to talk so dirty. Jiang Cheng brings it out of him somehow, with his rose-tinted skin and sweet stutters, breaking from the usual stern air he tries so hard to carry. It's always so satisfying, seeing Jiang Cheng act so strictly towards his students and knowing how quickly the man crumbles before a few naughty words; before his own desire.

"You're so bad, Lan Wangji. Who taught you such obscenities, huh?"

The question quickly devolves into a cut-off moan when Wangji kisses Jiang Cheng's neck, trailing the kisses up his lifting jaw.

"No one," he breathes into hot-flushed skin. "You simply inspire such obscenities to spring from me, Jiang Cheng. You must be the dirtiest one of all, filling a pure Lan heart with such lust and desire." Jiang Cheng's aborted breaths only spur Wangji on. The moaning of his name coming after makes him go nearly feral.

His hands slide under his lover's thighs and lifts him onto the counter. There's a little wince of surprise and Jiang Cheng's arms are wrapping around Wangji's shoulders for purchase.

"Wangji," he says sternly, still breathless, still turning Wangji on. "We are not fucking in my parents' kitchen right now."

A few more kisses along his lover's jaw and Wangji meets his lips again, brushing their noses against each other.

"How about in thirty minutes?" he asks, and Jiang Cheng slaps him on the shoulder with a toothy grin.

There are footsteps, and Yanli's head pops out from the doorframe. Her eyes scan the two of them, and she smiles a smile very familiar to Wangji, making him feel at home.

"Watcha lovebirds up to?" she says, lilting her words.

Wangji leans his head against Jiang Cheng's.

"Nothing much, jie. Just admiring your didi's lovely smile."

Written for Milk's 30 Days of ZhanCheng! Ao3 Collection.

[the-firebird69]

Mad Max: Fury Road - Official Main Trailer [HD]

There's a lot going on and the sun is trying to figure things out in daughter and Brad is saying You should hit it right now our son's not able to see them and they haven't gotten close to him but it says if I've seen one in the gym I'm gonna hit it good it's like what Brad did he knew it attract attention and and our son said it's really weird'cause it attracts attention 'cause he did it and they had to do it but it's working  you're up to something down there and it's like Australia I'm gonna 6 foot 4 and he said no way and they had this huge fight with a mac proper a sound one and now it's finally out. It's what people have always wanted and it may be headed up by JC and Mary. Now a lot of people think that. Within the process of trying to figure out how much radiation will be here is now trying to figure out what the hell they're doing it looks very odd and they're running around and it will and it will be after and it's not true there's some very large on the West Coast and lot of people think that's what it's about and Lucy Trump trying to kill himself so they pretty much figured out it is true and he fails and Brad survives and more or less tells on him. Oops and he says that and we think it is Did some of the first few opened up and Max and Africans are not at the islands what they're looking at them. So there's a lot of people talking about we think it's early on and we mean it too it's early on and it is not at the end of his bunker run but the very large are encapsulated and he probably won't make any things there is often but still he would be pushed only by losing and it's not happening and he plans on hitting the armies as they show up topside to destroy all the aces so something must go wrong and It is true and our son says I'm not forcing you to stay alive or commit suicide it's the max and he said that it's their program to have you all do this and I'm not I'm not doing that either it is driving you to a suicide and I'm not really helping to stop it but so he says I sort of get something you're not trying to hit me but they are sort of and it's horrible let's leave it at that so he says yeah and there's not just you having that feeling and I'm young so getting cancer and things like that and I'm poor so it's different and it's similar and he started to frown and said ohh I started get it now... Goes back and he tells people I didn't understand is like a child and doesn't have any money to put new arms on and they'll probably grab him and hold him a real hostage and they start saying are you really that stupid and he says yeah I guess so he seems really smart and dangerous and I can't touch him and stuff and since you're just dinging the living **** out of him and they said what the hell got into you he said I'm really on desk door and he said I'm not really trying to do it they're running you down and picking you up and trying to get you to commit suicide and stopping you and he said this he's trying to stop me sometimes and it's not a big deal instead I'm trying to stop them and I'm trying to get rid of myself when I don't feel like going on and he keeps saying I can't make that decision so he he told them with his crew that's a western guy I don't think I can keep doing this but I have to because what they're doing to him and me and there's other people like you here and you're not stars of the show it's just as bad or worse and I found out from him that usually is quite awful and I said You're in situations very bad but you're kind of baniacal and you kind of like it but we hate it. And they can't we can't stand it we have to sit And they can't we can't stand it we have to sit here and wait every minute of every day and we might die. Never lived this way for thousands of years and he said I'm real sorry about that they're doing it to me too and they sat down and talked for awhile. Then you probably should get some healing while you're at it and they said salt and they started to try and heal and he felt better and they're all doing it finally they said this we can't stand what they're doing to him and we think they're wrong and our son says they are wrong but they've been doing what they're doing for a long long time including the abuse. And they have been in charge so we have to try and somehow cool our jets and do things secretly so they started smiling and said we're gonna try and do that so they went ahead and felt a lot better and started telling people. And to read the code and to understand what they're doing and that's the turning point and what a weird time and place He started to figure out a lot of things and then he lost it again for real but other people were taught and he says I don't wanna lose it but I can't help it since you can look back on it and see them trying and driving and building knowing that you did it a lot of it a lot of it with hundreds of years of that industrious behavior he started shouting I can't do it now slows down speeds up again and it's pretty much going to be gone but he told people what was happening they wrote her a letter and said you can't and said you can't stand it anymore and you gotta get out of it one way or the other and more. It's a famous letter says I don't really wanna write it but he said that I've done all this work and it's defeating them and an and he's having trouble with me

Thor Freya

 it is  a very famous letter. It goes around the world because she read it and she's standing up and you can see it through the paper and she is saying I don't want anyone to ever see this. So our son crept in and said oops I should have turned that machine off this started laughing and said you can't see it can't you and I said no others can it's just meant for you. I told him that all this work you've done is working and to look and watch them driving around making stuff to defend themselves and to fight them and he said he can't do it and he couldn't stop. She turns around and says I don't step to the portal and knock you out and he said that to her no he said he's gonna try so since then what would you say. And she got that and so things went along OK and she went nuts and got sick and left but they did a lot of work and they're young and they're energetic they went through it everyday and the level of torture just went up through the roof and passed it and they're trying to do it to her son not yet they're screwing around with it and our son keeps saying You're screwing around with me so I'm fighting like they did and I fought alongside them and I know what I'm doing and they started saying this today we're giving him a lot of fuel..... And finally they started to back off a little and spare their plan in their timing they said and it kinda is it's a little late but not like a bunch of morons they had a bunch of stupid max running around here and they still do. Some of them got up and started fighting the Morlock and will be fine.

Nuada Arrianna

Olympous

[randomleafoflove]

While I’m supposed to be studying for law school entrance exams, I keep getting ideas for an other MDZS SI/OC story, this time as a Jin.

Jin Xushào is Jin Zixuan’s twin sister (give JZX some close sibling bonds!). Since the yellow/gold is already there, she adds black and makes bees her personal motif. At first it’s ridiculed (bees visiting flowers symbolism would be more appropriate for JGS), until she proves that the previously thought feng-wang (bee-king) was actually feng-niangniang (bee-queen).

Since LanlingJin is, without a doubt, the most dangerous place for a young woman (I don’t doubt that the disciples very much followed JGS’s example in how to treat women), she very much attempts to arrange a marriage for herself to either NMJ or LXC (since JZX is betrothed to JYL, there’s no need to entertain the thought of marrying JC, and like hell would she marry a Wen, and she can’t be sure any of the young masters of the smaller sects under Jin aegis isn’t her half-brother, like Qin Su).

Here’s the first rough draft of the beginning.

I looked around Yiling, my nose scrunched in slight disgust.

It wasn't even that the village was dirty, exactly. It just wasn't what I was used to in Jinlintai.

The places I was allowed in Jinlintai were never anything less than sparkling, and Yiling was showing some wear and tear.

Why the Wen sect insisted the sect leaders' bring their families for the barrier renewal, I'll never understand, or why grandfather brought me and my brother along at all. We were six, it's not like we were going to be of help with the barrier renewal.

We weren't the only kids there, of course. All the major sects had brought their young heirs, from the fourteen-year-old Wen Xu to the four-year-old Nie Huaisang. It was like the most uncomfortable family reunion: meeting all those second- or third cousins that your parents expect you to get along with and then remember.

Let me give you some advice: do not leave your spoiled little brats under the supervision of just their nannies, who have already been browbeaten into submission by their little monster charges.

The elder boys had immediately started goading each other into demonstrating feats of strength, but given that the Wen was at least a few years older, he had won every challenge thus far, annoying the Nie. The younger Wen had immediately identified the younger Nie as a prime target and had started poking the four-year-old. My brother and the Jiang heir had gotten into and argument right away, which the older Lan and the older Jiang tried to mediate, and the younger Lan had become so overwhelmed that he'd resorted to biting anyone but his brother who came within biting distance.

I would have been surprised if the cacophony was not heard all the way back in Lanling.

I had walked out of what I'd dubbed the ”kiddie courtyard”, my nanny and my guard following behind. They would not reduce me to acting like a little barbarian, I'd vowed to myself.

Instead, I'd demanded to see Yiling, the first place other than Lanling that I'd visited.

And there wasn't much to it.

The residents had obviously tried their best. It wasn't like they had hundreds of cultivators visiting them all that often, spending their money whenever they stepped outside the large, barely maintained but usually abandoned estate* on the skirts of the town. Yiling wasn't a place with a thriving tourism, nor did they really have anything in particular to sell, so they must try to milk us cultivators for all that we have while we're here.

We stopped by one of the toy vendors to look at the rattle drums (A-Hòu would be insufferable if I came back without something for him). The vendor engaged my nanny in conversation, intuiting that while I'd have to like the toys, she was the one in control of the money.

Bored, I kicked the unseasonably early snow. This was a game I'd gotten lost in during my first childhood, if it can be called that. Pack the snow together with your feet, then stomp on it, and repeat ad nauseam.

I managed to scrape a respectable amount of trampled, wet snow when I caught movement from the alley behind the vendor.

It was a child dressed in rags, doing what I'd done, and laughing as he stomped on his own snow mound.

The child had no shoes.

His feet were red, but not bleeding.

That he was still alive, when it was just past freezing, and capable of playing... his potential as a cultivator must've been immense.

The quick calculations that went through my mind weren't really suitable for a child my age, but that's what you get for sticking a too smart child to a place like Jinlintai.

I made my way over to the child. ”Aren't you cold?”

The child looked startled, but then smiled. It was... it could not be a real smile, but I had trouble identifying what made it fake. ”Yes, but A-Ying can ignore it!”

”Does A-Ying like being cold?” I asked, frowning.

”No, silly! Who likes being cold? A-Ying said A-Ying can ignore it! Just breathe like-” he took a deep breath and probably did some cultivation, and let the air whoosh out of his lungs. ”-like that! Then you're all warm again! Mama taught A-Ying!” He grinned proudly.

”Where is your mama? Or baba?” I had to ascertain he was alone.

A-Ying shrugged. ”They left for a  night hunt a long time ago and didn't come back. The lady at the inn kicked me out not long after.”

“Do you want to come home with me? I live all the way in Lanling. You could join my sect and be a cultivator,” I offered. Not the most eloquent offer I'll admit, but for a street rat? It'd do.

A-Ying thought about it for a moment. “Would I have food? And shoes?”

“Mn. Yes. And new clothes.” I went over what “pro-work” talking points I remembered. “My Lady mother would probably also say dignity in proper work, but since you're so little still, I think we can waive that.”

“I can work!” A-Ying stomped his foot indignantly. “I'll be the best worker you've ever seen!”

Inwardly, my smile widened. Hook, line and sinker. “We'll see,” I soothed. “What's you're name?”

“Wei Ying!”

“Do you know the characters?”

Wei Ying shook his head. “Nuh huh. Baba was teaching me, I think, but I can't remember.”

“That's okay,” I comforted him. “Then you'll be Yīng, as in sleet.” I held out my arm for the heavy, wet snow to land on. “This kind of snow is the best to play with.” And the easiest to mold. “I'll have to think about the last name. Or we could ask around if the inn lady knew the characters.”

[memory-lane-and-back-again]

I personally feel this is a woeful misinterpretation of Jiang Cheng’s character. Only in the final scene when we as the audience learn of Jiang Cheng’s sacrifice does he truly let go of the debt between them. This one side debt of resentment Jiang cheng has been holding onto for really long

To explain this further, he doesn’t tell Wei Wuxian as a matter of pride; he can’t be better than Wei Wuxian in any other way but at least he can be the more morally upstanding and noble cultivator. Whenever we seen Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in their past, JC nearly always takes a chance to berate wwx for his ‘misbehaviour’ and act more mature. The most notable example off the top of my head is the lotus pier extra where wwx is flirting with the girls on the pier and jc decides not to join in because, among other reasons, it’s silly.

It makes wwx’s ‘fall’ to demonic cultivation even more notable bc jc suddenly becomes this hero whose whole family is taken away tragically by the scoundrel they treated like family. The fact that there are tales about how it is jc who finished of the yiling laozu emphasise the poetic justice and morally upstanding position jc takes within the in-world inaccurate narrative—the one we hear right at the beginning that we discover to be false the more we read.

In my opinion part of the reason jc react to poorly to the golden core reveal is because jc’s great sacrifice is suddenly overshadowed (again) by wwx’s even greater sacrfice. Wwx outlines his reason for not saying anything about what he did, bc jc is too competitive, which is reaffirmed to be correct when jc’s first gripe with wwx’s golden core reveal is ‘you must think you’re so righteous and noble…’ because it not only neutralises but decimates every ‘noble action’ jiang cheng took after that. He didn’t defeat a demonic cultivator who destroyed the sect that raise him, he destroyed the martial brother who sacrificed his golden core for him and turned to utilising resentment as a way to win the war.

Think about it: if you suddenly learnt that the person you grew up with as almost family that had betrayed you unforgivable actually hadn’t betrayed you but hid the truth of their sacrifice, why would your first reaction be to mock the righteousness of it? It speaks to the incredible insecurity jc has of not living up to the yunmeng jiang motto of achieving the impossible—which, again, wwx does by transplanting his golden core. At this stage, jc is not Over the debt he perceives wwx to owe his family because ultimately he is classist and percieves wwx as lesser.

Jc actively holding wwx accountable for his family’s destruction for Years (which wwx realistically could not have helped) as well as the sacrifice of his golden core over him for just as long reflects how wwx is percieved even then as ‘other’ he is not a part of the yunmeng jiang family that just had their sect destroyed, he is the reason why; he is not a brother worth sacrificing for, he is a servant who should now be honour bound to jc for this great and noble sacrifice.

Certainly, jiang cheng does get over this and come for (well jin ling really) them in the temple (im counting wwx because I regard him bringing chengching as an apology and olive branch), but his initial scorn at righteousness forground where his priorities lie: in still trying to be better than wwx.

Their relationship is complex, but due to the discordant way wwx is integrated into the yunmeng jiang household: recieving the affection from jfm of a son jc can naver hope to be; the responsibilities of a servant instead of an heir from jfm; the love of a sister from jyl; the scorn of a misbehaving out of line servant from yzy, jc’s own perception of wwx is very clouded (not to speak of wwx’s perception of himself). He is a brother when it is convenient to jc (twin prides of yunmeng) and a servant when he needs to feel like he is in control (you needs to be carrying your sword).

There is a reason why, despite jc’s fearsome rep for destroying demonic cultivators, he doesn’t destroy wwx the first chance he get when lwj isn’t there. He talks—brashly and threateningly but it is not the expected picture of sandue shenshong whose foul temper sparks zidian. There’s a reason he hold onto chengqing for so long… jc and the relationship he has with wwx is so, so complex.

On one hand, he does care about him; on the other, wwx is the easiest person to blame for his father disinterest, his mother’s disappointment, his sister’s split affection and death. Wwx is the walking mirror that shines all jc’s insecurities right back in his face and for the record that’s not wwx’s fault, he cannot help but be that impressive and he tries not to take away from jc’s own prowess by, in many ways, being jc’s number one suppprter but he doesn’t do that by making himself smaller. Significantly their dynamic is revealed under duress when jfm order wwx to protect his son and then jc winds up strangling wwx and yelling about how it is his fault. These interactions are key to unveiling the core of their relationship and where it lies in the social hierarchy because he is a protector and not a part of the family to bw protected, an outlet for frustration and not a family member to find solidarity with. (I also tenuously suspect jfm’s order is why jc chooses to get captured; to show he is just as capable of protecting wwx. Yes brotherly love in part, but not just brotherly love.)

Does jiang cheng move on? Yes, at the very end. Coming back to chenching, when jc hands it over, he relinquishes his hold of the idea that wwx is morally inferior to him and lets wwx neutralise the threat of nmj and jgy. This is further enforced by the fact that he doesnt his jin ling—-he raises his hand but the hit never lands.

I personally feel that calling jc a self sacrificing martyr from start to end oversimplifies his character majorly because it doesn’t account for his childhood pressure to be the best because he is the heir. Social heirarchy plays such a significant role in mdzs which is why there are signifant character with backgrounds like wwx who do different things and all die in the end (jgy and mzy and xy) as it reflects how those of lower status and regard, bastards, orphans, servants, will always be punished and suffer over the rich, irrespective of how heinous their crimes or intentions. Jiang cheng likewise reflects the opposite side of society where he feels the pressure to remain superior and how he suffers in his childhood reflects how this is harmful (I like to think of a gun: it shoots a bullet but it still recoils, one way does infinitely more damage but it still makes holding the gun a heavy burden to deal with).

His martyrdom isn’t for purely selfless reasons, it’s laced with his feelings of inferiority that he displaces onto wwx. He does love him, yes, but he cannot see that through the social prejudice and years of hatred until the very end of the book when he lets go of his anger and (in a very Freudian way if i do say so myself) some of the violence he shares with him mother. Jiang cheng is a beautiful character precisely because he has a character arc of change and what little we see of him shows us his growth.

Jiang Cheng never brought up his own sacrifice because he didn't want Wei Wuxian to feel indebted to him again, not because it would make his own sacrifice obsolete.

He wanted to let him go so he could be free to live with Lan Wangji and maybe to hopefully even start afresh again.

Jin Ling, who knows his uncle well, even acknowledges that he wanted to say something to Wei Wuxian when the pair left.

Jiang Cheng is a selfless person for this reason. He knew how much it would destroy Wei Wuxian if he told him what really happened.

He never held his sacrifice over him in that moment. He never held it over him in the core reveal scene. And he never held it over him even when their tensions first started when Wei Wuxian decided to protect the Wen and left him for a sect that tried to destroy his own.

Jiang Cheng kept that secret to himself because he understood Wei Wuxian and ultimately because he loves him. He doesn't want Wei Wuxian to owe him anything, and he doesn't want him to feel indebted to him. All he wanted was his bro back. And even then, he let Wei Wuxian go in the end because he saw that that was what he wanted.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both decided to move on in the end so they can grow into better people. The JC antis in this tag, who keep bringing up the same discourse, should do the same thing. They might feel relief if they do. 🥰

[sticksstonesbonespoems]

The first record I ever bought I found in the cut out bin at the JC Penney on Henry street in Muskegon. It was on the Apple Record label. It was Let It Be. It was $1.99. I was twelve at the time. I had to hide it when I got home because my stepfather could be volatile. He could get very angry when anyone spent money. So I squirreled it away and listened to it when he was not home.

I was extremely lonely. My mother had married and moved us to a new city. Her new husband was very possessive and did not like her to spend time with me. My younger brother was taken under the wing of our new stepbrother. I was the odd one out. I was awkward and full of adolescent angst.

The Beatles’ music became a refuge for me.

I don’t like writing this post. I don’t like going back to this place. I guess the take-away is that beautiful things can come to you in awful times. The Beatles were a beautiful thing for me. Abbey Road can soothe my soul like no other album. My beautiful child, Emma, listened to the music as she grew. Her love for their music has grown, I think, beyond my own. Seeing her joy in Liverpool will last me a hundred lifetimes.

And in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make. Lennon/McCartney

All I Need Is To Look Through You

Was I so Unwise?

Tell me the answer

Help me understand

Here am I

Sitting all on my own

Nothing I can say will let me know

I must be sure from the very start, if I should trust in you.

Don’t hurt my pride.

Even if you tell me that you were telling lies

Please be sincere.

If you’re thinking of me the same old way

We’ll say our goodbyes

I hope you see you’re not the same

You ain’t gonna make it anyone, any how.

I know you regret every single day

We all wanna change your head

It may show that I thought I knew you

If you stick around, don’t let me break you

All I need is love

And love isn’t in your eyes.

Emma Chapin 2015