yunmeng-jiang

[yunmeng-jiang]

Heyo! Your art is so cool! I saw this really cool drawing of someone holding a knife at someone else’s back. There’s so much emotion packed into it. I was wondering if this was from one of your comics or if it’s fanart? Either way I’d love to read whichever story it came from! I hope you have a good day!

Do you mean this one? It’s fanart of characters from Heaven Official’s Blessing!! The books specifically, but there’s a beautifully animated show on Netflix if you’d like to try it out before committing to 3000+ pages haha

What I drew isn’t really a scene that exists in the series, but I guess more my interpretation of my favorite character, Mu Qing. He’s described throughout as selfishly motivated and untrustworthy, never knowing what he’s thinking or where his allegiances lie. But as you progress through the story you learn more about him through his actions, though they can usually be interpreted as selfish or selfless, depending on where you’re standing (or what you’re motivated to believe). The drawing is sorta playing on that concept; depending on how you look at it he can either be about to protect the other man, or stab him in the back.

[yunmeng-jiang]

man if i had more braincells i would post something really compelling and insightful about the lan family and how the culture of repression facilitates sexual abuse instead of combating it but rn im just getting more and more upset that this fucking show keeps getting discussed as a fun gay shipping show instead of as a collection of the most fucked up and complicated family relationships you could possibly write without depicting actual straight-up incest

[yunmeng-jiang]

I don't have productive thoughts abt her but I'm rotating her in my mind. CONCEPT: Imagine if you will a noblewoman from a small cultivation sect. She is perhaps about 20. She is the second daughter in her household and her older sister married well to the heir of a more prestigious noble family of a slightly larger Lan client sect. But she's going bigger. She is going to marry Zewu-jun Lan Xichen himself. She doesn't give a single damn that he hasn't been seen in public since the Lianfang-zun incident. She doesn't give a single damn that he is a mentally ill, probably-gay shut-in war vet twice her age. This is about the political prospects of being Lan-furen. Every sitcom episode she has a new scheme to win the attention and hand of Lan-zongzhu and every sitcom episode she is foiled by variably wacky and improbable circumstances

[yunmeng-jiang]

"b-b-but what about all those innocent demonic cultivators (not an oxymoron) that jiang cheng totally tortured and killed????" - me when i blindly believed in the public rumors when reading the "don't blindly believe in public rumors" book

[yunmeng-jiang]

also does anyone have recs for Feng Xin focused fics that aren't fengqing? i need more of this guy i'm going crazy

[yunmeng-jiang]

tbh in any modern au of tgcf i think it's near impossible to get even a slightly similar version of the characters from the original? like they've been through such extremely specific trauma and just general life circumstances that you really can't replicate in a modern setting. even as a very basic example, Feng Xin's whole existence in the way-back backstory - where is a 17-year-old breaking his own arm to atone for stopping the cousin of his liege lord from committing vehicular manslaughter going to fit in to your college roommate au?? it just doesn't work

[yunmeng-jiang]

xue yang + wolf pupy

[yunmeng-jiang]

during the confrontation at the guanyin temple in yunping, moments before lan xichen's blade enters jin guangyao's chest, a god stops time. as time is stopped, the god tells jin guangyao that, since the god personally favors him, the god will grant jin guangyao a miracle: it will spirit him safely away from this site and to his destination in dongying, thus preserving jin guangyao's life.

however, there is a cost: in order to fuel this magic, meng shi's soul must be destroyed. currently, meng shi's soul is passing ordinarily through the cycle of reincarnation, just like any other soul; however, if jin guangyao accepts this miracle, then meng shi's soul will be removed from the cycle of reincarnation and obliterated completely.

no other soul will suffice. for this miracle to work, the sacrificed soul must be meng shi's soul.

so jin guangyao's choices are:

accept the miracle: jin guangyao lives, meng shi's soul is permanently annihilated.

refuse the miracle: jin guangyao dies, meng shi's soul continues to move through the cycle of reincarnation as is normal for all human souls.

[yunmeng-jiang]

Liking a character who sucks is silly because yeah I hate him and yeah I want people to bully him and say mean things but if you say the Wrong mean thing I'm going to get defensive

[yunmeng-jiang]

“Isn’t it funny. I’m enjoying my hatred so much more than I ever enjoyed love. Love is temperamental. Tiring. It makes demands. Love uses you, changes its mind. But hatred, now, that’s something you can use. Sculpt. Wield. It’s hard, or soft, however you need it. Love humiliates you, but Hatred cradles you.” ― Janet Fitch, White Oleander

[yunmeng-jiang]

Everything else notwithstanding, I firmly think that SJ's rage towards YQY - regardless of how you feel about the degree to which he acted out towards him - was reasonable given that he believes (with justification given the little info he has) that his one childhood friend, who knew very well the vicious abuse he was experiencing, just fucked off to live the good life he found and left him to suffer. Like completely separate from anything else, I don't see how hating someone who to your knowledge abandoned you to die, even if they're sorry/guilty once they saw you survived, is wrongheaded or misguided. I honestly saw their whole relationship as emblematic of the prominent themes of miscommunication in SVSSS, on YQY's side due to a mixture of feeling like he's sparing the other party and his own trauma. A direct parallel (and later a foil) to SY and LBH at the abyss.

[yunmeng-jiang]

some of you have never had your notp be the most popular ship in the fandom and it shows

[yunmeng-jiang]

Sangcheng 🤝 Xicheng

There's a meaningful parallelism here that could be really compelling by putting these guys against each other narratively but nobody gives a fuck because they just think they look nice married so 99.9% of posts about this pairing are completely insufferable

[yunmeng-jiang]

[yunmeng-jiang]

The thing is that so many people see a guy like Lan Xichen and they see the diplomacy and duty and “indecisiveness” and passivity and people pleasing and prioritizing of peace and harmony and they just assume that will be the case forever. They don’t seem to consider what happens when a guy like that hits rock bottom. Frankly, you would be hard pressed to find a more selfish and willful motherfucker than a Guy Like That who hits rock bottom and flips the switch.

[yunmeng-jiang]

kid Jin Ling & puppy Fairy playing in the rain :3