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miyu-hyperfixates · 11 months

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MDZS's volume 5 arrived not long ago and I've finally found the time to re-read it. And while doing so, I was struck with something that I had never noticed before. I knew both facts separately but somehow never connected them, which is super weird because it's very obvious. Anyway I was reading the part about LXC telling WWX how LWJ got his whip scars.

So we all know about the whole injuring elders thing, right? How LXC and LQR asked 33 of them to help bring back LWJ and he ended hurting them all. Which makes it a situation where LWJ went up against 35 people to protect WWX but only 2 were left out?

Now does this 33 + 2 pattern sounds familiar? Maybe not in MDZS but in another work of MXTX... like TGCF? Where a certain Ghost King got his fearsome reputation for challenging 35 heavenly officials, 33 of which were utterly obliterated afterwards?

(By the way, I tried to recall if that specific pattern occurred in SVSSS, but nothing really jumped to mind. The only time I could see it happening thematically would be either SQQ's fake trial or if somehow LBH had, offscreen, tracked down all the demons presents during the CQ invasions' arc...)

So yeah I would *have* to re-read SVSSS to be completely certain, but for now let's just say that this a common pattern between only MDZS and TGCF.

Which still sort of struck me as odd, you know, because "If I had a nickel...." and all that, but it also made me wonder if there was a deeper or symbolic meaning to either the number 33 or 35. And so here's a fun fact.

Right, so leaving aside all the western and biblical symbolism of number 33, turns out (according to wikipedia) that the second level of heaven in Buddhism is named Trāyastriṃśa, meaning "of the 33 (gods)". It is apparently the highest level of heaven that still keep a physical connection to the rest of the world.

This article reflects the situation in both MDZS and TGCF so well that I find it kinda hard to believe that it wasn't intentional.

The devas are described as beings that despite being (or reaching) a higher status (Elders that are supposed to be respected within the sect due to seniority, the 33 heavenly officials ascending to divinity) but can't avoid being entangled in worldly affairs.

I think it is very interesting that the specific "worldly affair" mentioned is the conflict with the asuras, beings who used to be devas peers but were expelled and are perceived as malicious beings trying to go back.

Now the situation fit WWX to a T, because he used to be an 'esteemed' cultivator, the head disciple of one the Great Sect, an "hero" from the Sunshot Campaign and all that, but was then exiled from the cultivation world where he was rumored to raise an army in an attempt to conquer the Jianghu and was now even corrupting their precious LWJ. From the Elders (devas) point of view that's definitely asuras materials that needed intervening.

The analogy is two-fold in TGCF in the sense that there are actually two 'asuras': HC and XL.

The most obvious one is of course Hua Cheng, he ascended once (though decided to descent right after) making him the 33 gods' peer (although rather briefly) and is considered as a very dangerous threat to the godly realms. The 33 heavenly officials of course entangled themselves in worldly affairs there by accepting Hua Chang's challenge.

As for Xie Lian.... well... he was literally banished from the Heavenly court (twice) ... and not only did he really literally "plot to get his status" but he also managed to do it twice. So like... check, double-check and triple check on that one, I guess?

The heavenly official of course didn't really perceived him as a threat that needed to be deal with, but they did entangled themselves in worldly affairs and pettiness when they humiliated and bullied him back when he found that great cultivation spot full with potent spiritual energy.

By the way I just find it hilarious that the author of the wikipedia page added that tidbit about marriage quite apropos of nothing. Like yeah "those two types of divine beings are kinda perpetually in conflict with one another but don't worry marriage is still allowed though, because who doesn't need those types of star-crossed lovers amirite? *wink wink* " .... Though they probably added it because the Ruler of the Devas married the daughter of an asura's chief, but that info wasn't mentioned in the wiki page itself so yeah...

So yeah, I don't know if that was what MXTX was referencing with the 33 thing or maybe MXTX just liked that number. (Or if it’s just that 3 is considered a “bad” number in TGCF so double 3 is just doubling the badness factor, I dunno ) *shrug*

I couldn’t find anything on the number 35 though, so if you know anything about it (or if you feel like the significance of the number 33 might refer to something else) do feel free to share! I would love to discuss it!

Also my knowledge relies heavily on wikipedia pages (and we all know how reliable it is) so if something I said was wrong please feel free to correct me! :)

#mdzs #tgcf #hualian #wangxian #throwing mxtx thoughts into the void #connecting the dots of mxtx pattern #mxtx and number symbolism

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derlost · 1 year

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𝓡𝓾𝓵𝓮𝓼 ✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧

ੈ✩‧₊˚༺☆༻ੈ✩‧₊˚

୨⎯ ~ hello there! ~ ⎯୧ as you probably already know, i’m derlost. this is the revised and edited version of my rules list as of april 2024~

୨⎯ ~ fandoms i will write for ~ ⎯୧

✧･ﾟGenshin Impact

✧･ﾟHonkai Star Rail

✧･ﾟHeaven Official’s Blessing

✧･ﾟAcross The Spiderverse

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☆ basic dni criteria (racist, transphobic, homophobic, ableist, pedophilic, etc. this includes actively supporting creators that are any of the above!)

☆ under the age of sixteen or above the age of twenty five

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☆ ships of male characters from any aforementioned fandoms

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୨⎯ ~ OTHER *ೃ༄ ┈➤ ☆ if your request doesnt fall into either category, i dont mind if you ask it anyway. that being said however, by sending a question or story request, you agree and understand that i am allowed to confirm and/or deny any and all requests should they make me uncomfortable. additionally, please try not to ask unimportant/meaningless questions- i really enjoy interacting with my audience, but i also dont appreciate my time being wasted.

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nyerus · 2 years

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Hi. I want to ask what's your opinion about Mu Qing booting Hong-er from the army and Hua Cheng holding grudge for it?

Hi there Anon!

I think Mu Qing was right from booting him from the army, as from his point of view, that was better than letting a kid join and potentially die in war for no reason. However, from Hua Cheng's perspective, it makes perfect sense for him to hold a grudge. Especially because Hua Cheng has plenty of other reasons to dislike Mu Qing, and this is one of many things that add up.

Putting yourself in Hua Cheng's shoes: As a teenager, of course Hua Cheng would have been indignant at being booted due to his age. Take into account the fact that he never really had a childhood, and knew only survival and hardship. He didn't see himself as a child at all, even more so than other teens, and war was happening so where was he supposed to go anyway. Better to fight for someone he cared about.

He wanted to be in the army because it would have actually allowed him to stay by Xie Lian's side. Xie Lian already knew him and recognized him (at the time), thereby Hua Cheng could make himself useful. More over, it was not due to just wanting to be useful, or for blind hero-worship reasons (which is what Mu Qing assumed). Even as young Hong Hong-er, Hua Cheng didn't trust that the people close to Xie Lian, including his retainers, would remain with him no matter the circumstance. He felt no one had full conviction, and that their loyalty was conditional. This was during a time where tensions were high, war was ravaging the land, and distrust towards Xie Lian had already begun to sow in people. Hua Cheng felt that Xie Lian needed all the true allies he could get, and at the very least, Hua Cheng would never abandon or betray him. However, being tossed out of the army made it impossible for Hua Cheng to be close to him in any way.

In hindsight, the worst of what Hua Cheng feared did come to pass. Everyone turned against Xie Lian, and then later both of Xie Lian's retainers also left him. It's obvious for Hua Cheng to go on to think that if only he had been allowed to stay by Xie Lian's side all those years ago, then maybe things would have turned out differently. If Xie Lian had that one person on his side who unfailingly believed him when he thought he was going crazy (being manipulated by Bai Wuxiang) -- perhaps what happened to him later could have been prevented.

It was infuriating for Hua Cheng that he had been tossed out when he wanted so badly to stay, while those who tossed him out, ended up leaving.

Furthermore, there's what Mu Qing said to Hua Cheng back then. From MXTX's interview: "Brat you are not even useful to his highness, you'll only weigh him down, the army doesn't need trash like you, don't think you actually have talent" and so on. First of all, Hua Cheng has been hearing these types of insults his entire life, especially from his abusive family. These words are not going to sit well with him, and he is not the type to forget or forgive. More importantly, Hua Cheng finds it all ironic or hypocritical considering how things ended up playing out thereafter. From his view, those insults came from the same "mediocre, useless trash" who would go on to actually abandon His Highness, and even betray him for personal gain. Whether or not this is a fair assessment by Hua Cheng is irrelevant here, as his feelings are personal and based on his subjective judgement of Mu Qing's actions, and the outcomes.

This is the main reason as to why Hua Cheng holds that major grudge Mu Qing -- he sees him as someone who broke his promise to Xie Lian, and then betrayed him. Being booted out of the army stung after-the-fact. Add on top of this a bunch of other reasons like stuff from early and mid book 2, the fact that Mu Qing went on to encapsulate a lot of qualities that Hua Cheng dislikes in Heavenly Officials, etc. It really isn't hard to see all the reasons why there's animosity, but it’s also not just one specific thing/instance.

All that being said, I think it's interesting that Hua Cheng came to a truce of sorts with Feng Xing and Mu Qing, post-canon. He still doesn't really like them (nor does he really have to lol), but he seems disinterested in carrying on that grudge -- at least not in full capacity -- and is willing to work with them if need be.

#tgcf #anon #asks #meta

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disastermages · 2 years

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[read it on ao3]

Hua Cheng pulls at his wrists experimentally, but Ruoye holds his wrists tightly and squeezes while Xie Lian putters around the room. “Gege, is something wrong?” He can’t help but track Xie Lian’s movements with his eye, even as he sits back on his heels. Xie Lian had only asked Ruoye to bind Hua Cheng’s hands, but he hadn’t asked the strip of fabric to bind them behind Hua Cheng’s back.

White robes flutter as Xie Lian comes closer to kneel in front of Hua Cheng, his fingers pressing against Hua Cheng’s wrists, as if he worried that Ruoye had wrapped itself too tightly. “I was just thinking.” Xie Lian says softly, letting the tips of Hua Cheng’s fingers curl around his hands. There wasn’t much else for Hua Cheng to do, anyway.

“Thinking about what?” Hua Cheng could guess, but he doesn’t want to presume, not when he has Xie Lian kneeling right in front of him, close enough that Hua Cheng could press his forehead to the top of Xie Lian’s head if he dared.

Slowly, Xie Lian’s fingers work up Hua Cheng’s wrists and then his forearms before they reach his elbows and rest there. “Are you comfortable like this, San Lang? I could get a pillow for your knees, or I could lie on the bed and you could kneel there.” Xie Lian frets, and Hua Cheng feels himself smile.

“Gege shouldn’t be so worried about the sake of my knees,” Hua Cheng wants to tilt forward and press his cheek against Xie Lian’s, but instead, he allows himself to fiddle with the knot tying Xie Lian’s robes together, “to have you in my mouth is worth any discomfort.”

“San Lang!” Xie Lian’s cheeks color and Hua Cheng has to stifle his laughter. “To think you would still tease me like this.” Xie Lian sighs, but he doesn’t move away, “You’re sure you want to do this? You don’t have to, you know, there are always other things for us to do.”

“I want to make you feel good, Gege, if you’ll let me.” The words are genuine and Hua Cheng refuses to look away from Xie Lian’s face, even as Xie Lian’s hands come to frame his face, his thumbs resting at the corners of Hua Cheng’s mouth.

“San Lang always makes me feel good.”

The chance to respond doesn’t come before Xie Lian kisses him, soft and gentle at first, but deepening in such a way that has Hua Cheng leaning forward and pushing Xie Lian back. His arms pull and fight against Ruoye with the want to put his hand between Xie Lian’s head and the floor, cushioning him from any possible discomfort, but Xie Lian pushes back against him, his hands squeezing Hua Cheng’s shoulders.

“San Lang, you’re distracting me,” Xie Lian’s voice is breathless as he stands, one hand braced against Hua Cheng’s shoulder and the other petting his unbound hair. Hua Cheng leans into the touch like a cat, content to let Xie Lian pet him for as long as he likes, but nervous energy still burns at Xie Lian’s fingertips. “Should I just… What should I do, San Lang?”

“I’ll have difficulty undressing Gege like this,” Hua Cheng says, raising his bound wrists with a smile. This had been Xie Lian’s idea, after all, Hua Cheng had just been more than content with following along with it. “Though I could suck you off through your clothes, if Gege prefers.”

Hua Cheng had meant to tease and make Xie Lian blush again, but Xie Lian doesn’t take the bait, he only reaches for his own belt, easing the knot out. “No, you’re right, San Lang, I didn’t consider that I’d make things difficult for you.” Arguments bubble up in Hua Cheng’s throat, but Xie Lian is quick enough to dismiss them as he leans down and kisses Hua Cheng again, their tongues sliding against each other’s while Xie Lian slips his robes off his shoulders and onto the floor, until he stands in nothing but the last layer of his undergarments.

“Gege,” Hua Cheng breathes out slowly as Xie Lian straightens, his thumbs hooking into the waistband of the pants and pushing them down, revealing even more of himself, knowing full well how it makes Hua Cheng’s mouth water. “You’re beautiful.”

For a moment, Xie Lian’s shoulders and his cheeks both darken with such brazen praise, and he looks away, his hands twitching where they hang at his sides. Hua Cheng wants to kiss those hands, knuckle by knuckle and finger by finger.

Xie Lian shuffles forward slowly, his hand resting against the top of Hua Cheng’s head again, his nails scratching lightly at Hua Cheng’s scalp. “San Lang? Are you ready?” Xie Lian’s voice drops lower, his other hand moving to hold his own cock to Hua Cheng’s lips, but Hua Cheng noses the hand away. Xie Lian is already half hard, Hua Cheng wants to do the rest of the work himself.

As badly as he wants to, Hua Cheng doesn’t take all of Xie Lian into his mouth to start with. He forces himself to start with kitten licks, his nose pressing against the soft, dark curls at the base of Xie Lian’s cock before he works his way up to the tip of him. There, Hua Cheng looks up at Xie Lian through his eyelashes, and only then does Hua Cheng let his mouth close around Xie Lian.

If Hua Cheng had use of his hands, he would already have them wrapped around Xie Lian’s hips, keeping him impossibly close. For a moment, Hua Cheng mourns and fights his bindings again, but it’s no use, Xie Lian had given Ruoye specific instructions.

“San- San Lang,” Xie Lian groans as Hua Cheng takes him to the base, only to swallow around him, his tongue pressed against the underside of his cock. If he had to breathe, Hua Cheng knows his eye would be watering and his lungs would be screaming for air by now, but they aren’t, and Hua Cheng sucks hard again, his tongue squirming where Xie Lian has it pinned.

He wants to ask if Xie Lian likes it, but his bound hands have already wrapped around one of Xie Lian’s knees, his fingers aching to hold Xie Lian by both of his thighs. Hua Cheng’s jaw loosens suddenly, letting drool drip down as he drags his tongue down Xie Lian’s cock, until the tip of his tongue slides through precome.

Hua Cheng could sink down onto Xie Lian’s cock again, but he sucks on the base alone, instead, even as Xie Lian’s hand tightens in his hair. He could pull on it if he wanted to, he could even yank it hard enough to pull Hua Cheng off of his cock entirely, Hua Cheng would let him. His own cock aches and twitches with interest in Hua Cheng’s pants, but he doesn’t dare reach for it, he hasn’t been given permission.

“San Lang, you’re doing so well.” Xie Lian sighs, one hand covering his mouth. Hua Cheng wants more, though, he wants to hear Xie Lian moan for him, he wants to feel Xie Lian jerk against him, so he runs the broad, flat of his tongue over Xie Lian’s balls, a groan of his own passing through his chest.

“Does Gege like it when I do it like this?” Hua Cheng makes a show of following one vein in particular with his tongue as he returns to Xie Lian’s cock, his hands creeping further up Xie Lian’s thigh. He’s rewarded with a moan that makes it past the barrier of Xie Lian’s hand. “Will Dianxia not let this San Lang hear him properly?”

Normally, Hua Cheng would have gently pried Xie Lian’s hand away from his mouth by now, he still could, if he dared to use his hands when he’d been disallowed, but he doesn’t. He only waits for Xie Lian to speak, his tongue licking a dripping path of precome clean before he takes Xie Lian halfway into his mouth and no further.

“Don’t- Don’t tease me now, San Lang.” Hua Cheng watches with rapt attention as Xie Lian’s hand drops away from his mouth and buries itself in his hair, holding it back as Hua Cheng begins to bob his head, the pace just slow enough to make Xie Lian impatient.

“Can you forgive me this once, Gege?” Hua Cheng asks innocently, though not without swirling his tongue over Xie Lian’s cockhead, spreading saliva and precome alike. He expects some kind of response, a light reprimand, but it never comes. What does come, is a long shuddering sigh and the slightest tug at his hair, so Hua Cheng repeats what he’d already done, he swirls his tongue over the head of Xie Lian’s cock before he sucks on him again, harder than before, hard enough to make Xie Lian’s hips snap forward.

Abruptly, Ruoye releases Hua Cheng’s hands, and Hua Cheng takes it as permission to press his hands against both of Xie Lian’s thighs, creeping ever higher until Hua Cheng drags his nails down the length of them, all the way to Xie Lian’s knees and then back up again.

Hua Cheng gets no warning before Xie Lian comes, the taste of him spreading across Hua Cheng’s tongue. “San Lang, I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to-” Wordlessly, Hua Cheng swallows Xie Lian’s come and stands up slowly before he wraps one arm around Xie Lian’s waist and raises the other hand to Xie Lian’s cheek.

“Did this San Lang make Gege feel good?” Hua Cheng asks, pressing himself tight against Xie Lian. No answer comes for a few moments, but finally, Xie Lian nods against Hua Cheng’s chest, heat burning off a dark blush on his cheeks.

“Then this San Lang is satisfied.”

#tgcf #tgcf fic #hualian #hua cheng #xie lian #everybody be cool ok #this is my first tgcf fic so i hope its okay

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veliseraptor · 2 years

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What are your top 5 favorite moments from all of MXTX works (MDZS, TGCF, SVSSS)?

oh god anon you're really giving me the hard ones here aren't you. I had to make just like an...all favorite moments list and then narrow them down for this, and let me tell you it was a challenge and I sort of ended up giving up and leaving the eight that I was stuck on.

it’s my meme I can cheat if I want to

this list unfortunately neglects SVSSS because I know it least out of the three and so my memory for favorite specific moments just isn't quite as good, almost was tempted to wait until I finish my next proper reread to answer this but considering I'm planning on that being the ~official translations~ that would be, uh, a while

1. I think I mentioned this in my favorite TGCF moments a while back but still true: the confession scene in the Cave of Ten-Thousand Gods. Just...Hua Cheng, who has been this bastion of confidence bordering on arrogance, having just had his centuries long obsessive devotion exposed in possibly the most embarrassing way possible, to the person he’s been carefully, uh, managing himself around as far as the boundaries of their relationship...and being so certain that rejection is going to come, braced for it.

And Xie Lian’s...gentleness, but also just the sweetness of this moment, the way that it is a release for them both, and it’s just. I die. Also I bet Xie Lian gives great hugs. It’s those martial god arms.

2. End of Black Water Arc. “I want to die.” “Dream on.” anyway the entirety of Black Water Arc was one of those things where I was reading the climax for the first time like “holy shit holy shit holy shit I’m being personally attacked” and oh boy does it just get better on reread, but that last confrontation is...yeah, that gets me. In a big and almost sort of painful way.

“It’s messy and awful and painful and bloody” describes a surprising minority of moments on this list but the ones it does describe are truly choice, and this is like. Probably in my top three MXTX moments. (Don’t ask me to tell you the top three, we’ll both regret it.)

3. F-f-friends. Everything about the Xianle Trio is a gift to me personally, their dynamic is just so good, and Mu Qing specifically is very much Mine in several specific ways but this scene in particular...I am so used to giving, etc. etc. Mu Qing just. Pulling his own teeth to admit that he admires and respects Xie Lian and wants to be friends with him. I get emotional about it and I just love that it’s a thing that happens. I have a lot of Feelings about Mu Qing’s relationship with Xie Lian specifically and this scene gets at a lot of them, and by that I mean “shoots them in the chest.”

4. Defeat of Jun Wu. I mean, I wrote recently about how I didn’t expect myself to come out of TGCF with Jun Wu feelings and I really didn’t have them up until, like, the last fight scene and then out of left field there they were! Surprise!

But I think the most important thing about this scene and why it sticks with me is the way that it’s...look, I’m a sucker for victories that aren’t just “we won the bad guy lost party for days.” And that’s very much the opposite of the thrust of Jun Wu’s defeat, which closes with Xie Lian returning the gesture of the bamboo hat in a way that makes me want to spontaneously combust.

Grace in victory! Protagonists showing kindness and mercy to their antagonists, and the narrative letting it happen without needing the villain to ‘deserve’ their final punishment (death) by rejecting it! Honestly I hope Jun Wu has a nice nap and wakes up feeling better, I think he could use the sleep.

And on the other end of things - Xie Lian finally shaking off the last of his shackles, figuratively and literally. Prouda you, buddy.

5. Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang's last fight and what comes after. Look, you didn’t think you were getting out of here without some Yi City stuff, did you? Because you aren’t. The boys are fightinggggg and it’s going to end very badly but I do love reading about a relationship going down in spectacular flames. Particularly when it involves really awful unrealized self-sabotage and at least one death.

Look, I’m being flippant here but it’s very upsetting and very sad and also while I’m a slut for Yi City fix-its for these two I probably wouldn’t be as far gone as I am if it weren’t for the fact that it ended horribly first.

6. Reappearance of Wei Wuxian post-Burial Mounds. Like, I love the CQL rendition of this scene, but the MDZS version is...so good??? because it’s so awful. Wei Wuxian just rolling on in with an entourage of corpses and creative torture methods. He’s traumatized! He’s at least a little bit dead! He has new mysterious powers that are going to utterly destroy him!

He’s sort of at peak Evil and it’s very sexy of him. You’re doing great sweetie.

7. (Dead) Wens at the Burial Mounds. Possibly the thing I’m saddest to lose in adaptation, because it’s so good. Between Granny Wen greeting Sizhui, to the bowing to Wei Wuxian, to Wen Ning getting to see his family one more time...it’s hurty and also beautiful and also very “the kindnesses you do will come back to you, even if they also cost you and it doesn’t seem like they ever will.”

8. The Villainous Friends extra. It’s just...so good. Tailor made for me in a lot of ways, and I will never be over so many things about it. Very brief Song Lan/Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen interaction! Xue Yang just being his delightful self at a time in his life when he is thriving! Jin Guangyao and Xue Yang’s weird as shit relationship in particular! The dynamic they have with each other is so choice and I’m never going to be over it and I’m just sorry there isn’t more like this in the main text. If this isn’t in the officially published version I am going to riot.

#lise memes #top five meme #i've been trying to write this for days ffs #the sad queer cultivators show #maybe i should actually make myself a novel specific tag that's not just for my liveread #dysfunctional gods and ghost kinks

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puns-parce · 2 years

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im sorry im nowhere near finishing the writing or drawing aspect of that "beside this cherry tree" thing but i wrote this scene last night and it broke me trying to reread it it's not great but fhakfhakfns just qi rong praying to mu qing before Mu Qing's even ascended because he has so much faith in him. qi rong kissing mu Qing's name. qi rong wanting him to come back.

anyways it's below the cut if you want to see my attempts at writing

Contains: implied qiqing, and a passing mention of beheading and torture

"Prince Xiao Jing has come, let's get out of here! Prince Xiao Jing is here!" someone from outside called in a low voice. Based on everyone's reaction, it was more like they had warned that the devil was arriving. Everyone within the temple fled, and, not long after, Feng Xin and Xie Lian heard a soft jingling as a young man made his way into the temple, a glass gem lamp in his hands. He was dressed in a lavish brocade and cape, and when he lifted his head his face quite resembled Xie Lian. The only exception was his eyes, which were much more sharp about the edges with thin, high eyebrows that provided the young man with a resting face of condescension. It was none other than Qi Rong.

Xie Lian almost smiled to himself, seeing that Qi Rong had outwardly matured and gained an undeniable air of nobility, though Feng Xin was less pleased. It wasn't surprising, given that he was usually cleaning up Qi Rong's messes. Qi Rong held the lantern to his forehead and prostrated solemnly, his relaxed expression making him appear even more like his older cousin, though the lamp cast ominous shadows over his features. As he finished paying his respects, the pair groaned as his old habits seemed to resurface and he began whining.

"This is the five hundredth lantern I've offered. I've been your most loyal believer, the first to support you and the most devoted. When will you come see me? You left and I've only had one dream where you came to me, and even worse you took my only friend. No one else here wants to talk to me, and you continue to ignore my pleas. The heavens truly do make gods high and mighty and cold...." His voice dissipated towards the end, whines turning into hoarse whispers. He flicked his finger against the lamp and hung his head, though not with the same annoying air as he did when he would pout as a child. Instead, it was quite a pitiful scene, like a man that had lost the will to go on. "But I'll keep praying. I know you're not like the others, you're just busy. That's all, that's why you don't visit..."

He rose to his feet and reached for a brush so he could begin writing on the lantern. Xie Lian looked to Feng Xin and with a simple head shake from the other, he waved the thought away. He had hardly considered it anyways, seeing as Qi Rong often brought him headaches and disobeying the heavens to see him would only double the headaches. In any case, he couldn't say that what he felt at that moment had even reached sympathy, only locking itself at pity.

However, that pity turned to appreciation as he watched how properly and beautifully Qi Rong wrote, those high eyebrows coming low as he frowned in concentration. Feng Xin snorted as he read the lantern, wondering if it was a mistake.

Keep our kingdom safe, bless us with prosperity, and please bring Mu Qing back home

Xie Lian was relieved that it wasn't something asking for a bully to be beheaded or tortured in a gruesome manner, but seeing such a prayer made his head throb. "Why is he wishing for Mu Qing's downfall? Ah, and here I hoped he had changed, though I suppose now it's quite good that Mu Qing isn't here..."

Stuck in reminiscing about Qi Rong's growing up, Xie Lian didn't see the way those hands shook, almost dropping the brush and the lamp. Qi Rong pressed his forehead to the clean side of the lamp, knelt to the floor, and closed his eyes once more. Truly a bit unusual.

"I am your first, last, and most devoted believer, so please come back...," he whispered, his words and respects no longer remaining inside his own head. Xie Lian snapped out of his reminiscing just in time to hear, though he felt quite awkward as those words were clearly meant for a different person. Qi Rong's hands shivered as he offered that light, though not before he pressed a soft kiss to the lamp. More specifically, the last part of his prayer. The prince then backed away to leave, wiping at his damp cheeks.

#qi rong #tgcf #mu qing #qiqing #Feng xin #xie lian

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inhumanescreeching · 3 years

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tgcf headcanons i have if i were ever to make a modern au about them because lets be honest here why would i need these if they were either canon gods or canon ghosts smh:

- aurorian (fluid between alignments) non-binary xie lian! he knows his galactian alignments and he taught the whole enby group about it so now they align with the stars (also very fitting considering he's a freakin god and a freakin ball of sunshine) xie lian has no preference, for both pronouns and sexual/romantic interests and yes this is me saying and projecting she/he/they pansexual panromantic xie lian because i can

- hua cheng is a singularian enby fight me, he just does not care and will reject all ties to alignments lmao he loved this label when xie lian introduced them to the galactian alignment system so that's that. he/they but he's exactly the type to joke about just not referring to him at all he actually means it lol this person's too far gone for xie lian to actually care about labels but i feel like he's omnisexual and at least biromantic

- feng xin had the Biggest Crisis known to man having grown up very . conflicted but he can admit he's bisexual w a preference for women, biromantic too. as for gender, he's experimenting with like a lot of things so he's not really ready to commit to a label yet. loves being referred to by they/them but he/him and she/her work fine too

- mu qing is galaxian non-binary, so a combination of lunarian (feminine aligned), solarian (masculine aligned) and stellarian (neutral aligned) just because. any pronoun works just fine for them! they also don't really like the hassle of finding labels so they just go by "queer" both out of pettiness to claim the word back and as a reassurance during pride parades that they are one with the rainbow lmao

- ling wen is genderfluid, did you expect anything else? mainly uses they/them but their pronouns can change depending on what they currently feel so always! ask! first! ling wen is also asexual and demiromantic because i said so

- pei ming is a playboy, it's canon but i think he just likes playing people periodt. drop the boy tag, he's non-binary solarian aligned because he likes to be likened to the sun, and his energy is just immaculate. he/they polyamorous pansexual pei ming!!!

- pei su is stellarian non-binary with they/them pronouns (yes they were there when xie lian gave a galactian alignment lecture) so they're neutral aligned! they are demisexual and panromantic!!!!

- ban yue is trans mtf nebularian non-binary (so a combination of lunarian and stellarian) who uses she/they pronouns. be nice to her please she is my child- she's graysexual and omniromantic with a preference for fellow enby beans

- shi qingxuan experiences genderflux both in canon and my headcanons. i like to think she's trans ftm who experiences girlflux, and she mostly goes by she/her especially during flux but again! always ask first. she's greysexual and omniromantic and i would like her hand in marriage please heavenly officials let me marry her

- he xuan is agender, you cannot change my mind. they also don't feel much attachment to pronouns so any works fine with them. oh and he xuan is demisexual and grayromantic i have decided

- okay so hear me out, qi rong is spacilian non-binary so xe is xenine aligned and uses xe/xem/xyr pronouns. xe is also ace aro and yes xe is annoying but xe kinda grew on me lol so that's why xe's here

- yu shi huang is asexual panromantic with she/they pronouns and yes i love her i would marry her too if given the chance. she is, you guessed it, lunarian (feminine aligned) non-binary! her steed is singularian non-binary like hua cheng heh

- idk why but i think shi wudu is cishet (maybe it was from that time he chided qingxuan to change back to her other form) but i also think he's bisexual so im gonna settle on gay and homophobic (unironically so)

did i miss someone important? and no idc about jun wu pls don't mention that bastard ever

yes these are all just headcanons and all of these are set in a modern time and xie lian being non-binary and knowing all about the galactian alignment system is a headcanon i will always , always cradle close to my heart also just imagine most of these gods and ghosts being non-binary conforming and instead aligning themselves with heavenly bodies like?? i HAVE a point with this don't i?

anyways feel free to hit me up if we share the same headcanons tho i do think that's highly unlikely lol plus i was thinking about making this for mdzs but how tf am i gonna do that when there are clans upon clans of characters rip my poor brain like i do have hcs but compiling them is such a bitch so i settled for this chaotic bunch instead

i feel like i definitely missed someone but oh well yolo ig

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curiosity-killed · 3 years

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hua cheng, the accidental person

okay this is for @bodhimcbodeface because i can’t shut up and make this concise enough for discord. spoilers ahead yeehaw

this is...not comprehensive. i’ve written 11 tgcf fics and am generally a bit fixated on Hua Cheng as a character so. there’s definitely things missing but i tried to hit the main points that i thought of while writing? also obviously this is just my interpretation! i do not expect anyone else to be like “ah yes curio the sage is so correct i have changed my thinking on this” like go live your life with your own versions of hua cheng! this is just the hill upon which i have firmly planted myself and from which i refuse to be budged. as u do.

anyway, LONG explanation of my very niche and very uh self-indulgent, not-necessarily-support-by-canon hua cheng apologism LMAO

tl;dr: (this is really Too Long i’m sorry) I think Hua Cheng reluctantly becomes a person during his 800 years of searching, starting from a point where he views Xie Lian not as a person but as an immutable god and focus of devotion and developing into a person who doesn’t really acknowledge that he’s a person because realizing that you want to live and do things for yourself is scary and overwhelming at times, and he ultimately falls in love with Xie Lian during the novel itself as he recognizes and is in wonder of the humanity of Xie Lian instead of his divinity or absolute judgment.

POINT 1: Hua Cheng doesn’t actually fall in love with Xie Lian till the ox cart

but curio! you say, “my beloved!” he calls him his beloved! and the land of tender!!

shhh. IMO Hua Cheng is more Wuming than Hua Cheng for those 800 years. By which I mean, for most of that time he’s, at his heart, a nameless soldier trying to find and serve his crown prince/general/god. He still views Xie Lian as this perfect and immaculate figure—a sculpture, a painting, a work of art that is untouchable and immutable. And he’s utterly and wholly devoted to that figure but devotion is not the same as love

So Hua Cheng is searching and trying to serve Dianxia all these years and then His Royal Highness finally ascends and is a god again and Hua Cheng shows up in all his glory to give this power and strength and wealth to serve him and—

and he’s met not by a powerful and reckless martial god or an unstoppable calamity but by a young man dressed in bridal robes who lets Hua Cheng lead him up a darkened mountain, who doesn’t lash out with spiritual energy or a sword but instead, only eventually, with the cursed bandage he was carrying back in the darkest part of his life.

and i think that throws hua cheng. like he’s had this image of his god all these years, this divine painting made over and over and over again—and he carries that belief and devotion with him, but there’s a crack in the sculpture and the stone is starting to flake off to reveal a human underneath it

so he puts on an approachable, malleable, unassuming skin and finds xie lian collecting scraps and being a lil awkward, a lil bumbling, generous and kind — and i think hua cheng, after 800 years of knowing everything, having everything — I think he looks at this discovery with wonder

Bc tbc this does not mean Hua Cheng views them as equals. For him it’s like, dianxia has even more to him, is even more than I knew. He’s seen Xie Lian as the flower crowned martial god in all his glory and as the white-clothed calamity in all his horror — and now here he is, wonderful, multitudinous, and human

Meanwhile I don’t think Hua Cheng even views himself as a person really, much less a human.

also i mean. the internet & allo ppl prove time and time again that you don’t need love for horniness so. land of tender’s right out as proof on that

POINT 2: The Live For Me thing

so obviously and undeniably, using one person as a reason for living is....not healthy. Not going to argue that. but my take on it personally is that, when Hua Cheng’s a kid who really, actively wants to die and sees no reason for living, Xie Lian gives him a reason to keep going. he doesn’t have to live for himself—that’s too much, that’s too big of an ask—but he’s been given a command and purpose by the one person who’s been kind to him/whom he respects. it’s a little like... “My life has no meaning but my cat needs me to feed him and clean his litterbox and so I need to keep getting up and taking care of him even if I don’t see a larger intrinsic purpose to my life.”

and i think like...it’s easy to forget that for all of books 2 & 4, Hua Cheng is young. He doesn’t live past 18—he’s still like...a kid. And that’s not to say that teenagers/young adults can’t make moral and rational decisions but I’m going to be honest, when I was that age I contemplated joining the Air Force because of tuition assistance and the snazzy uniform despite the fact that I was a vocal pacifist and repeatedly got into arguments with teachers about school rules and conservative politics. It’s not like. The Most Rational and Mature Age, lbr.

so Wuming is absolutely capable of looking at what Xie Lian is doing and being like “hey maybe war crimes aren’t a great idea” but he is young and traumatized and the one person he believes in, the one person who gave him a reason to keep going, is deadset on this task which tbh I don’t think either of them (or...necessarily...the society in which they live) views as war crimes in the modern sense (which isn’t to say that we as readers should view it any more lightly bc i think the narrative directly and firmly contradicts that idea) but as revenge, as an eye-for-an-eye. so, bad, but character-wise, I think it’s more nuanced than we sometimes consider

anyway back to the fixation on xie lian. i stand by the assertion that in those 800 years, hua cheng wasn’t exclusively focused on xie lian. like was finding and serving him his top priority? oh god yes. undeniably. there is no other version of this story. BUT eight hundred years is like....a lot of time. and i think in that time he started doing things for himself, even if under the guise of serving xie lian. hua cheng is curious and adventurous—he clearly likes to learn even if he plays it off as nbd—and i think he starts to realize that about himself in those centuries even if he doesn’t allow himself to acknowledge or consider it.

POINT 3: Mt. Tong’lu in General

“okay, sure but what about the thousands of sculptures and murals of xie lian, curio. what the fuck about them.”

Yeah. FINE. okay we will DEAL with this. dealing with this is the entire reason i wrote “(like i do) in the tall grass.”

disclaimer: this is probably not supported by canon! i also. Do Not care. My Ghost King Now.

so I have two general avenues I take with this:

going back to the devotion > love — when Hua Cheng reaches MTL, he’s seen xie lian beaten and cast down. what do gods need to survive? worship! we see throughout how important divine statues/portraits/etc. are throughout canon. in this interpretation, the cave is a concentration of all that worship in an effort to support and serve xie lian and hua cheng doesn’t view himself like...as part of it. the sculptures could have been carved by any hand so long as they are xie lian and the worship and devotion that goes into their making can support and bolster him.

my personal favorite version: amNESIA IN THE CAVES —okay i don’t have the text pulled up rn but y’know how Guoshi says Hua Cheng was almost dispersed, in terrible condition, etc., when he reached Mt. Tong’lu. so if baby boy is in terrible condition, barely hanging on, etc., then my immediate favorite option is that he doesn’t, at that time, have even the...uh threadbare sense of self he did in life/as Wuming and is running on only a vague and urgent sense of Something driving him—something he has to do, someone he has to serve—and in that case, the paintings and sculptures are part of his trying to piece together and process his memories as he can grasp them and figuring out who he is/what his purpose is. Is this canonical? PROBABLY NOT. and yet here i am. firmly planted on this hill

Also w/ MTL I think a thing that’s often skated over is the mortals, creation of E’ming, and his ascension. Which is important from a meta lens of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian vs Jun Wu but that’s not the point of this rambling monstrosity and i’m trying not to get too distracted. ANYWAY I think this is one of those times when Hua Cheng does something that he would probably excuse as like “well His Highness would’ve wanted me to” or “His Highness wouldn’t have been willing to sacrifice the mortals” because Xie Lian is still largely his moral compass—but it also is a peek at the complexity Hua Cheng doesn’t acknowledge within himself.

uh i got distracted anyway and no longer know what point i was making here. Hua Cheng Ascension Important....maybe i will remember this at some other point...

POINT 4: Live For Me (Revisited)

I sort of got distracted writing that point but anyway coming back to it now: I maintain that although Hua Cheng’s primary pursuit is protecting and serving Xie Lian he also does develop/realize his Accidental Personhood throughout his 800 years. this includes a lot of things, as previously stated, that are under the guise of serving Xie Lian (I’d put learning the Banyue tongue, finding out about the Gilded Banquet, collecting swords, beating the 33 officials etc., in this category) and things that maybe could be but...are not really (e.g., his friendship alliance with He Xuan, Paradise Manor* in general, the Gambling Den, learning the Wuyong tongue, bullying Qi Rong*, bullying FengQing*, playing with gold foil palaces, etc.)

(*these are ones that like...could be said to be for Xie Lian and I think he might say are for Xie Lian but also have a personal element that is just for him.

Like yes Paradise Manor is a lavish and well-stocked residence fit for a god or crown prince...but it’s also a luxurious and extravagant collection of all the things he couldn’t have in life. it’s like giving a kid a credit card with no limit and letting them run wild through uh. Fuck. A Fancy Department Store.

And sure Qi Rong was awful and turned on Xie Lian in pretty damning ways, but I also genuinely think part of Hua Cheng’s grudge with him is from the childhood abuse and from just...hatred that Qi Rong is around and looks like Xie Lian and gets to be there when Hua Cheng can’t find Xie Lian (which is about Xie Lian but for Hua Cheng).

Similarly with FengQing, sure a lot of his hate is for them abandoning Xie Lian—but he doesn’t even know till Book 3 when they abandoned him, and consider how much more he hates Mu Qing, the guy he blames for kicking him out of the army, etc. Some of it is totally “in service” to Xie Lian but some of it is because Hua Cheng carries a grudge like a goddamn pro and finds catharsis in beating the shit out of immortals who bounce back and can’t stop tripping over themselves and onto his blade.)

#hua cheng #tgcf #tgcf meta #long post #i'm sorry i cannot be concise or clear with my thoughts :<#this is why i write fic #bc i can just mash these interpretations through prose and then they turn out more clearly #....i think #i hope anyway bc this sure as fuck isn't that clear

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hualianff · 3 years

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T.F.T.A (I.H.) II 《I》

William’s Theme — Sophism

The company that hired XL is called Paradise Deals Enterprise, a corporate business that provides stock investment services. It’s a fairly new company that has impressive success rates. Furthermore, customer reviews are more than ecstatic about their results.

Two months prior, XL had been looking for a new job after being let go from his truck-driving position. He restarted the process of posting his updated resume to a job-searching website. Skills XL excelled at included customer service, cleaning, and physical labor. While he also enjoyed calligraphy, martial arts, and photography, XL came to find those were not strengths companies would hire him for.

Which makes it all the more surprising how XL was hired only one month after being released from his previous job, and by a prosperous business no less. A man named Yin Yu reached out to XL through email, introducing himself as the associate manager to one of the CEOs, offering the job with no interview process needed. After looking over the descriptions of cleaning and completing simple tasks for company employees, then seeing the salary, XL emailed a positive response back within twelve hours.

SQX rejoiced with XL about the job acquisition, and they went out to a nice dinner to celebrate with XL’s two other close friends, MQ and FX. While they were skeptical at first, they couldn’t help but be satisfied that XL’s luck had changed for the better in job hunting.

Now, XL wakes up to his alarm blaring its usual obnoxious beep beep beep, the clock displaying that it is 5 a.m. XL slowly opens his eyes, not quite having gone back to sleep after the nightmare that shook him three hours earlier. With a deep breath in and out, XL reaches over to bop the alarm off. He rolls out of bed and stretches with a tiny mewl.

One hour until his shift begins.

XL leaves his apartment thirty minutes later, wearing the company outfit shipped to him a few days ago: dark gray pants and shirt, subtle enough to blend in and confirm that XL does indeed work at Paradise Deals. Using his out-dated phone for directions, XL begins walking towards his destination. Luckily, XL found a reasonably priced apartment that’s close to the downtown area, and in ten minutes, he’s scanning the tall buildings in search of the investment company.

After five more minutes of walking, XL doesn’t have to look hard to find the tallest building on the block, with dark maroon bricks and enormous tinted windows. XL’s jaw drops open in astonishment. When he looks back at his phone, he sees the word “headquarters” after Paradise Deals Entertainment.

Ah, they must have relocated their headquarters to a city as big-scale as Shanghai to maximize customer engagement and business deals.

XL enters through one of the numerous revolving doors. He approaches the desk, informing the receptionist that he is the new custodian. She asks for his license and a few more questions about his application before nodding with approval. XL smiles for his company identification card and is told to wait to be shown around the building.

At first glance, XL looks around to see many people walk in and out of Paradise Deals. Suddenly, the five revolving doors—in addition to two automatic and stagnant doors—make sense. Additionally, there are eight elevator doors, four on either side, where the constant stream of people continues. Just from the outside view, XL could guess there were no less than thirty floors.

The people walking around ranged from sleek businessmen to others dressed in outlandish outfits, almost hippie-looking. XL spots a woman carrying an instrument on her back, another man in an athletic tracksuit, and a couple in wedding attire.

They were an odd sort of people, XL thought. But then again, many considered him to be odd. Besides, what constituted who was odd and who was ordinary anyways? The people walking out of the elevators all wore expressions of pure joy and satisfaction, so who is XL to judge them by their appearances?

A massive clock shows it is 6 a.m., right on the dot. A man dressed in a simple black suit steps out of the elevators from the right side, heading towards XL. If it weren’t for XL’s hypersensitive observant skills developed with the tough jobs he’s done in the past, the man wouldn’t be noticeable at all, with how briskly and silently he moves.

“Hello, you must be Xie Lian,” the man greets. XL nods. The other man holds out a hand. “I am Yin Yu. We exchanged a few emails regarding your employment. I am very grateful you accepted our position.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, Mr. Yu,” XL says with a kind smile, briefly shaking YY’s hand. “I’m grateful you reached out in the first place.”

“Wonderful. Allow me to bring you to your work area.”

With that said, YY gestures for XL to follow him into an elevator on the left side, explaining a few housekeeping things about the first floor before they head on up.

As they’re riding up in the elevator, YY explains that XL is not responsible for cleaning all the floors.

“That would be quite outrageous, wouldn’t it?” YY comments off-handedly, checking his phone for a quick second.

“Regardless, the pay is abnormally high for custodian services, don’t you think?” XL questions, adjusting the collar of his shirt. His hand gravitates to his nameplate, tapping the cool metal with a sense of pride. “I’m sure I could be very efficient during the fifteen-hour shift.”

YY’s eyebrows furrow at that, which XL doesn’t catch as he looks at all the levels. There are forty levels in total, sectioned off into four distinct categories by color: jade green, royal blue, maple-red, and pearl white.

“In that case, you will only be in charge of Mr. He Xuan’s territory. This includes floors 11-20,” YY explains, the elevator arriving on the twentieth floor. “I’ll escort you to his office so he can provide more specific instructions on how to manage his domain.”

“Sounds good,” XL proclaims, exiting the elevator with a bounce in his step. YY leads XL down a long, single corridor with numerous doors on both sides, the symbol of a fish painted on each door. The color of the carpeted floor is the same as the elevator levels, royal blue–endlessly rich like the ocean.

Perhaps he will be vacuuming the length of the corridor? Wiping down the doors and polishing the knobs? As he passes a few paintings of random faces and sea creatures, XL ponders if he shall dust too?

It appears YY is leading XL down to the large set of doors at the end of the hall. Before they make it to Mr. He Xuan’s office, XL rushes up to tap YY on the shoulder.

“If I may ask, what are these rooms? Will I be cleaning inside them as well?” XL asks, a bit hesitant. YY stops in his tracks, pocketing his phone and giving XL a wary look.

“You will not be required to clean them. The employees take care of that on their own,” YY speaks slowly, seriously. “Never go inside unless you are specifically requested to.”

When XL vigorously nods in understanding, YY whirls around and continues walking. When they arrive at the set of doors, YY rings the intercom on the side of the wall.

“Black Water, your helper is here,” YY says while looking at the upper left corner of the hallway. XL figures there must be a camera that captures who is on the outside of the door. Without thinking about it, XL enthusiastically waves to the camera, a warm smile etched into his face.

There’s an awkward moment of silence, and XL pauses his hand mid-wave, wondering if he is being too much. But according to the quirk in YY’s lips, the other man didn’t seem to think so.

A muffled voice croaks through the intercom.

“He may enter.”

《III》

#tgcf #heaven offical's blessing #hualian #hualian au #xie lian #hua cheng #yin yu #he xuan #TBC #paradise deals enterprise offers the best deals trust me #yay xie lian has a job #employee of the month yes i'm aware this is his first day #cerdrabbles #tian guan ci fu #I am once again asking you to read the webtoon purple hyacinth

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its-miichan · 4 years

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Why HC is a poorly written character

I will probably delete this tbh.... Look, I know I hate on TGCF a lot, but I actually really enjoyed the book and I respect MXTX for putting so much effort and work into it. It’s just that I find people like me to be underrepresented and want to be the one that starts the “unpopular opinion” movement sort of thing because diversified opinions are lit. I don’t mean any offense to anyone who loves TGCF or the character of Hua Cheng, and definitely no disrespect to MXTX, so please take everything in this as the incoherent rants of an overly stressed out teenager. Now let’s get on into my TGCF/Hua Cheng criticisms

I’ve seen tons of people love HC, but no matter how I tried, I still hated him. So I decided to go all out and point out all his flaws as a character. I will be making multiple comparisons to Bingge and the Yiling Patriarch because they are very similar in personality, but I like them far better. Obviously, this is my personal opinion, so it’s completely fine that you disagree with me. Feel free to attack me in the comments below and feel free to hate me to oblivion as well. Anyways, without further ado, let’s get into it.

Why HC is the worst character in 4 long points:

He doesn’t have a shred of consideration or respect for people not named Xie Lian

He is a static and underdeveloped character

His character arc is very lacking

He is an overpowered Mary Sue (it’s almost as if he’s an unkillable protagonist that has a special power of dropping the IQs of all cannon fodders around him to 40 whenever he walks into the room)

Let’s start on point 1, he has no consideration for anyone but XL and is very obnoxious:

Honestly, why is XL fine with what he does? XL’s whole thing is about love, compassion, and righteousness, but then HC is here insulting people, calling them trash, and still flirting while people are legit trying to fight for their lives and he’s just fine with it? Yes, HC is the only person who has listened to him in a long time, but he’s here breaking XL’s morals and all he does is call him out mildly? HC is literally putting other people’s LIVES in danger doing what he does (black water arc), and yet XL is still fine with him?

HC just is more morally black than he is morally gray. His obnoxiousness to other people is so mildly played off that it’s infuriating, and he needs a serious humbling. Nobody has made him able to drop his arrogance and make him stop being annoying, and it’s just so frustrating to see this terrible character be able to do whatever he wants. (and his backstory, though tragic, does not excuse this) With WWX and LBH, they get what was coming to them. LBH is looked down upon and attacked for his arrogance and obnoxiousness and even at the end of the series is still seen as an enemy by CQ peak. WWX’s pride and belief that he could always do the impossible becomes his fatal flaw that ultimately gets him killed as his reckless arrogance gets him too many enemies HC is wildly arrogant and provocative and the narrative lets him get away with it because he is so OP, no one can do anything about it.

Despite MXTX trying to make him seem morally gray, the moments where he does something good aren’t on screen and feels forced. It felt, to me, like MXTX was trying to make him a good person when she realized he was a jerk. We get this whole self-indulgent thing about how nobody cared about HC so apparently the world owes him and he is justified to be a terrible person and laugh while people are literally dying. A character like him can be handled well (Taxian-Jun, Bingge, the Yiling Patriarch), but his handling was just such a miss for me. At some points his apathy to other people didn’t feel like part of his character, but just a way for MXTX to advance the plot. If he had just stepped in and done something, a lot of plot points would’ve been solved so much more quickly, and the book wouldn’t drag on as long as it did.

Point two is that he is shallow as heck and doesn’t get any onscreen character development. LBH and WWX have also had an arc in their story where they are arrogant and need a humbling, but it isn’t annoying because we get to see how they become this way. We get to be attached to them before they develop their twisted personalities and we get to see how they grow and develop from that period in time. With HC, he just starts out this way and we are forced to accept it, and his personality doesn’t develop at all. Speaking of personality, he really barely has one. What even are his motives?He just walks around with XL and is dragged into adventures that he really doesn’t care about and does nothing while he’s on these adventures. Everything he does is about XL and he has barely ever done something out of his own agenda. We never even get to see how HC’s love for XL came to this point, we are just forced to accept it. Yes, XL did save HC as a child, but does that necessarily warrant 800 years of complete devotion and 3 deaths? We’ve seen similar stories with kind people adopting children or something of the sort, but we never see those children fall in love with the person or die for them three times. It feels like XL got some cheaply earned loyalty. Some development between XL and HC prior to his death would’ve been nice.

Again, with LBH and WWX, they have their own thoroughly developed motives and backstories that contribute to the way they act in a natural way. With LBH it’s that he thought his parents had abandoned him as a child, so he thought that he was unwanted and would do anything so that he wouldn’t be abandoned by SQQ. With WWX, he would’ve been dead if it weren’t for the Jiangs which is why he feels that his life is worthless and would throw his life out the window to protect others. With HC, his backstory somewhat explains his behavior but at the same time...not really? There’s such a drastic and inexplicable leap from his personality as a child and his personality now that it’s just weird. (how did he go from that awkwardly silent kid in book 2 to this suddenly super charismatic and chatty teen that we meet in book 1???) For example, why is he so good at flirting? He has essentially been alone for 800 years yet he is still good at flirting? Yes, he is supposedly “insecure” because of his backstory, but this insecurity barely ever manifests, and people in the story never deliberately use it against him (like how LBH’s backstory was used against him or how WWX’s heritage from a servant was used against him) and most of the time he is the exact opposite of being insecure, he is arrogant.

His backstory doesn’t explain his motive for doing things, which is why when he does something good, it doesn’t feel earned. Why did he save the people trapped in Tonglu? We don’t know because the book didn’t care enough to tell us.

Point three is that his character arc is just handled in an atrocious way. Can you really count it as a character arc though? If you can then that would just be the flattest character arc I’ve ever seen. Again, we get to see LBH and WWX grow and develop in the course of the story, changing with their experiences and becoming better people. Bingge is a terrible person, but SV ends with LBH finding redemption from most people and sealing away Xin Mo for the sake of the world and his shizun. WWX is significantly humbled after his first death and ends the story significantly more responsible and considers the consequences of things before charging headfirst into them.

But HC doesn’t have development like that. Throughout the entirety of the story, his character doesn’t grow one bit. When we first meet him in book 1, his personality is no different than way later in book 5. There is no growth or change in his way of thinking, relationships, or world view. Yes, you could say that his character development happened during the period where he went from a child to who he is now, but much of that is off screen and is therefore less...coherent. For example the flirting, which I mentioned in the last point, but also things like suddenly becoming arrogant as hell, despite supposedly being “insecure” or becoming as “mischievous” as he is today. What little character development we have comes off as superficial and very forced.

Point four is that he is an insufferable Mary Sue in serious need of a nerf. Or rather to quote peerless cucumber “Every single person, when in front of the protagonist, would act like his aura of “awesomeness” had devoured their intelligence”. I don’t understand why people don’t like the term “Mary Sue” to be applied to an international work because as someone who is Chinese and is familiar with the pop culture, I can assure you, the term Mary Sue is definitely used in Chinese culture. People say that HC isn’t a Mary Sue because he has no friends, but the amount of friends a character has does not affect whether they are a Mary Sue or not. Wikipedia defines a Mary Sue as: “...a generic name for any fictional character who is so competent or perfect that this appears unrealistic for the world's settings, even in the context of the fictional setting.”

It doesn’t mention the amount of friends, only how competent and/or perfect the character is presented to be. Key word: appears.

Google defines a Mary Sue as: “a type of...character who is depicted as unrealistically lacking in flaws or weaknesses.”

So, what are HC’s flaws and/or weaknesses? His “insecurity”? Yes, that could potentially be a flaw, but is it ever used against him in the story so that it is something that isn’t just there for the sake of “cute romance”? No. Yes, he does have a spot of spiritual weakness in his left eye, but that is only used against him ONCE, and it really doesn’t even advance the plot or affect him. Yes, he doesn’t have friends, but does that bother him? No. Does that affect him negatively? No.

He has a lack of flaws but has so, so many strengths. Personality wise, he is supposedly the most charming, charismatic, and funny person ever. He is extremely handsome and rich, along with his seemingly never ending array of OP powers and abilities that are never foreshadowed or mentioned at all. We know that his butterflies can attack and defend, but they can also be used as recording devices and go COMPLETELY unnoticed even in a court full of powerful gods? Was this ever mentioned before he just pulled it out of nowhere? And HC can also suddenly pull out the red string out of nowhere with no foreshadowing. How did he get the red string? We don’t know and the story doesn’t care. In fact, the red string doesn’t even do much and is just there for the sake of being “romantic.” Also, apparently he can pull out his umbrella and fly and deflect everything and is also powerful enough to break the cursed shackles? Why? (other than because he has the undefeatable protagonist’s golden halo and suffers from a serious case of main character-itis) He is so overpowered that it’s a joke at this point, and because he is so overpowered, the story lacks any sort of narrative stakes and makes everyone else look like a joke. Why worry about what happens next when you know HC will pull something from nowhere to steamroll through whatever problem XL is facing?

Look, with LBH, there is a blatantly obvious nerf to him, and that is that Xin Mo can corrupt him to the point where he virtually goes insane and destroys both himself and others in the process. With WWX, he is essentially useless without corpses or something resentful in the vicinity to control. Additionally, him being overpowered feels more natural than HC because no matter how overpowered he is, he still falls to the schemes of one Jin GuangYao. With HC, there is no such thing. Yes, he does die, but he comes back every time and the plot armor is so thick that all the tension and suspense in the story is completely destroyed.

In short, I think that HC is a terrible character. I find him to be shallow, annoying, and poorly written. It felt as if MXTX tried to make him perfect, and that really bugged me so much. I’ll probably be making a rant on XL next. Again, this is my opinion and none of this is objective fact, and if you agree with me, fine, and if you disagree, great! However, be sure to stay respectful to everyone in the comments as well as MXTX. As always, feel free to attack me in the comments.

#tgcf #tianguancifu #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #mxtx critical #hob #xielian huacheng mxtx modaozushi

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vyther16 · 4 years

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count to seventeen and close your eyes

Whumptober 2020 Theme 1: let’s hang out sometime; prompt 2: shackled (loosely)

More specific CW: a small child stabs a guy with the help of his father, pov character gets stabbed a lot, graphic depictions of violence, torture, body horror, major character death, White No-Face’s general creepiness, it’s That Scene from book four except Worse, minor dissociation

Glossary for ppl like my mom who have no idea what any of this is -Xie Lian/dianxia/gege -- the guy getting stabbed a bunch; he’s a disgraced god and the former Crown Prince of XianLe, a fallen kingdom -San Lang/Hua Cheng-- he is a ghost, and is the ghost flame; he’s in love with Xie Lian -White No-Face-- he is also a ghost, and he wears a white half smiling-half crying mask; he’s pretty creepy even when not in strange nightmare territory. -Human face disease-- a disease reminiscent of the chicken pox, but instead of red bumps, it is human faces, and it is deadly if not cured, but there is only one cure *cue croods dun dun dun sound effect* -A’die-- dad, informal -(xiao-)baobei-- (little) treasure; a nickname for small children -Dianxia-- your highness

The first half of this is a nightmare, which becomes progressively more obvious as it goes on, so strange body horror stuff is not editing errors. It is not a rewrite of the temple scene in book four; it is a nightmare about that scene. (though, to be fair, i only went through and edited for grammar, not narrative consistency or flow.)

—start—

Xie Lian sits in the decrepit shrine, avoiding looking at the toppled statue, even though it looks nothing like him.

Slowly, more people arrive. The scene feels familiar, the way dreams are familiar.

He blinks, and the room is full of people, farmers and families and merchants and performers. A little boy waves at him from the doorway. Xie Lian waves back, but his hand is caught by a freezing grip.

“Hello, dianxia,” White No-Face says from behind him. Xie Lian freezes.

There’s a crash outside the temple, followed by moaning. A ghost flame appears above White No-Face’s head. White No-Face catches it easily as he guides Xie Lian to the altar in front of the toppled statue. Xie Lian wants to struggle, but he can’t.

White No-Face speaks to the crowd as he ties Xie Lian to the altar. Xie Lian doesn’t come to his senses until it’s too late for him to struggle free. His breaths are coming too fast, short and panicky. White No-Face strokes a hand across his cheek in a gesture that is meant to be comforting, but it only serves to heighten Xie Lian’s fear.

White No-Face continues speaking to the crowd, telling them all about the Human Face Disease. “The cure is murder,” White No-Face says. Xie Lian’s panic grows again.

“Who are we supposed to kill!” a merchant shouts.

White No-Face tilts his head. Xie Lian can only see the smiling part of his mask from this angle. “After seeing dianxia’ s face, I should think it would be obvious who to kill.” Xie Lian gets the sense that White No-Face is smiling under his mask.

The little ghost fire caught in White No-Face’s hands flickers angrily, flashing between red and silver. Xie Lian realizes it wants to kill anyone who even considers what White No-Face is implying.

“Oh right!” a farmer cries. “He’s a god! He’ll come back!”

The crowd shoves forward eagerly. A family of three pushes their way to the front. “Our xiao-baobei has a face already! We should go first.”

The little boy from earlier takes up the sword White No-Face offers him. “ Dianxia will be okay, right a’die ?” he asks, struggling with the weight of the black blade.

“Of course, baobei ,” the father says, placing his hands over his son’s. Together, they stab into Xie Lian’s chest, through his heart.

It hurts.

More people take up the sword, stabbing through his heart and neck equally. White No-Face continues stroking his face through the whole thing, in a mockery of comfort.

“I tell you the truth,” a merchant says, stepping forward to take the sword. “There were rumors that he knew the cure long before XianLe fell. All those deaths from the Human Face Disease would be considered his fault.”

The crowd considers this. “Of course it would have to be his fault,” a performer calls.

The rest of the crowd agrees.

I didn’t want to turn my entire people into murderers, Xie Lian tries to say. The sword slices into his throat again.

It hurts.

White No-Face pauses in his caressing of Xie Lian’s face to say, “oh, but dianxia . They don’t really blame you.” White No-Face’s head turns, so that Xie Lian can only see the smiling half of the ghost’s mask. “You’re just convenient.”

Xie Lian can’t reply, his throat too mangled to speak. He’s not sure how he’s even able to hear right now; his ears are drenched in his blood. He can’t feel his legs, or his arms, or anything beyond pain.

It hurts.

The sword slides into his chest again.

It hurts.

Xie Lian’s eyes lock onto the little ghost fire trapped in White No-Face’s hands. It never told Xie Lian its name, but he knows it anyway.

Why does he know its name?

The flame flickers silver.

The sword slides in and out of his stomach. Another death.

It hurts.

San Lang, he tries to say. San Lang. San Lang, save me.

All that comes out is a garbled sound, muffled by the blood clotted in his mouth. He can’t breathe.

It hurts.

White No-Face laughs. “ Dianxia , your San Lang can’t save you.”

Xie Lian watches in horror as White No-Face reaches down with one hand. When did he get another hand? San Lang is still cupped in two of them. White No-Face’s mask has gotten bigger.

White No-Face trails a finger along Xie Lian’s face, dragging the tip through the blood and tears drying there. “So messy,” he chides. “Now, where’s your necklace.”

If Xie Lian’s heart hadn’t been stabbed through already, it would have stopped at those words.

No! He tries to shout. San Lang’s flame flickers silver again.

It hurts.

“Ah, here we are.” White No-Face’s mask is even bigger now. Another hand closes around the ring looped around Xie Lian’s neck. “I’ll take that.”

White No-Face gives the chain a single sharp tug, and it snaps. Xie Lian struggles to move, to do something to take it back, to take it out of White No-Face’s hands.

It hurts.

White No-Face tuts. “Now now, dianxia . You can’t go moving just yet. You’re injured.” He holds up the broken chain, fist closed around the ring. “Now, let’s see. This is a very pretty trinket. It would be such a shame if it were to… fall.” The chain slips through White No-Face’s fingers. Xie Lian watches it fall with growing horror, trying to move to catch it.

He can’t, tied too tightly. The sword slides in again.

It hurts.

There’s a distant crash.

It hurts.

The ghost flame in White No-Face’s hands flickers silver one last time, then explodes into silver butterflies.

Xie Lian tries to scream.

“Now it’s just us, Dianxia,” White No-Face says sweetly, palm still cradling Xie Lian’s face like a parent would to a child. “We’ll have so much fun together.” The hands that were holding San Lang have disappeared.

Xie Lian watches the last butterfly flicker out of existence and sobs.

The sword slides in again.

It hurts.

Xie Lian jerks awake in the quiet of Puqi Shrine, muffling a scream on his fist. His other hand scrabbles at his chest, searching for wounds that aren’t there, until it finds San Lang’s ashes looped around his neck. He closes his hand around the ring, hunching in on himself, and shudders, holding back sobs.

He wants San Lang here, but San Lang is in Ghost City right now, dealing with the new Supreme that’s risen up. Xie Lian can handle nightmares without bothering San Lang; he’s been doing it for over eight centuries now.

His fingers close around the dice anyway, and before he’s consciously aware of it, he’s already walked through the doors into Hua Cheng’s receiving hall.

Xie Lian is wearing a simple white outer robe; it had been cold recently, so he’d taken to sleeping with both an inner and an outer layer. He’s holding his bamboo hat in his hand, and he looks conspicuously out-of-place among the more grotesque fashions of the ghosts and ghouls watching Hua Cheng converse with the new supreme.

Hua Cheng’s eyes snap away from the supreme when Xie Lian appears, and Xie Lian regrets coming, because this was silly, he can deal with nightmares on his own, and San Lang is clearly busy, but then San Lang is right next to him and the citizens of Ghost City are grumbling but leaving, and one of San Lang’s servants is leading the Supreme to a guest room and Xie Lian is wrapped into a hug.

“Dianxia, gege, what’s wrong?” San Lang murmurs into his hair, and all Xie Lian can do in response is clutch San Lang closer, pressing his face into San Lang’s maple-red tunic, and let out the sobs he’s been holding in since he woke up.

San Lang holds him tightly, humming a song into Xie Lian’s hair. Xie Lian lets San Lang’s song wash over him, washing away the taint his nightmare left on him.

Xie Lian comes to himself in Hua Cheng’s private chambers, curled up on San Lang’s lap while San Lang cards his fingers through Xie Lian’s hair. San Lang is humming quietly.

Xie Lian shifts to sit up, and San Lang’s arms tighten momentarily before releasing him. “Is gege alright now?” San Lang asks, gentle.

Xie Lian hums in acquiesce, pressing a kiss to San Lang’s cheek, before gingerly moving off of San Lang’s lap to sit next to him. “I’m sorry for disturbing San Lang’s meeting,” he murmurs. “I know it was important.”

Hua Cheng huffs. “Not nearly as important as dianxia.”

Xie Lian buries his face back into San Lang’s shoulder to hide the redness of his cheeks. “San Lang is too good to me, truly,” he protests.

“Nonsense. Gege deserves everything good, and more,” San Lang declares. “Nothing this San Lang does could be too good for gege.”

— fin —

Author Notes

Title is from the My Chemical Romance song S/C/A/R/E/C/R/O/W, which is *technically* a post-apocalyptic lullaby set last year. *Looks outside.* Well, they weren't too far off. if you look at the lyrics closely, it fits v well with hualian and also it's one of my fav my chem songs and i am but a humble emo. Also, i just really like that line in the song bc it's so odd and strangely comforting.

I toyed with using the phrase "It hurts" bc I used said phrase eleven (11) times in the nightmare portion of this fic. I counted. (With the find and replace function on google docs bc i'm lazy) Make of that what you will.

the Ao3 link is on the reblog to my main

Personal-ish notes that are skippable past here (TL:DR is VOTE, goddammit, for my USA peeps.)

Anyway, this note is brought to you by me ignoring my parents "discussing" black lives matter. I swear to god, I can't wait until I can move out because guess whose parents are probably going to be voting for trump again this year. I am Not Pleased. In fact, I'm pissed, bc I am a queer white girl in a small white town, and right now, I'm not as disproportionately affected by trump as some people, but there are people who will not survive another trump term. there are people who didn't survive this trump term. anyway, repeating the tldr bc its important. tldr is VOTE, goddammit, and I swear, if you support trump in any way, you might as well just leave.

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mousehole5000 · 3 years

Text

tgcf chapters 107 - 120 this is one where i give some Opinions. i do overall like hualian a lot but i have some quibbles

wait why am i still taking screenshots? i can copy/paste again afskldfjasad

It really was hard to tell whether people would feel happy after watching such performances. However, in truth, slaughter and the sight of blood did create excitement in people. Whether or not there was fear, after the initial shock was over, a rush of adrenaline would be produced in the heart- me watching horror movies

“Shi Qingxuan said. “Then, Your Highness, Crimson Rain Sought Flower! I order you to—to immediately strip each other’s clothing!” - djslkadjlsd WHY DID HE SPECIFICALLY SAY THEY HAD TO STRIP EACH OTHER THISALSKDJ is this a normal thing is it a wingman attempt what is happening

“I’ll tell you what it is,” he said softly. “To watch with your own eyes your beloved be trampled and ridiculed, yet be unable to do anything. That’s the worst suffering in the world.” ... “Ming Yi asked, “What’s the biggest regret of your life?”- when truth or dare gets a bit too real

On the side, Hua Cheng was still only observing, and was already bored to the point where he’d changed back into his red robes. Then he changed to black robes again. Then to white robes. Almost every time Xie Lian looked back, he would be donning a different appearance, and with every new look there were different hairstyles, and different accessories, and different boots, and so on; sometimes playful, sometimes elegant, sometimes deadly, sometimes glamourous. Xie Lian was growing dizzy from all the colours and kept looking back, unable to look away. - THIS ISNT THE TIME HUA CHENG. YOURE PRIMPING. THE WINDMASTER HAS BEEN KIDNAPPED AND YOURE PRIMPING

obsessed with xie lian not being able to figure out to use the windmaster’s fan and just. using it to SMACK

also windmaster??? whats going on??? :( i know some things from spoilers like who is not to be trusted but i really have no clue whats happening rn

anyways back to puqi shrine lets check on those kids also can we PLEASE get some funds for this restoration smh. hua cheng and xie lian doing mundane hard labor together to fulfill prayers.... :pleading:

jailbreak in the heavens 2: dig a tunnel

Sure enough, the moment Ming Yi put pressure on his shovel, a hole opened up before them. With the shovel raised, he burrowed crazily ahead while Shi Qingxuan, in the middle, cheered him on crazily. As the only non-crazy person, Xie Lian brought up the rear. That treasured shovel of the Earth Master was indeed magical, and with only a few strokes, a new tunnel of over ten meters was dug. - anybody remember mulch diggums from the artemis fowl series? this is much more dignified than that but i think this is only the second time ive read a character just starting digging a tunnel as a plot point

okay so much is going on i wish i hadnt spoiled who certain characters actually are for myself but i have no one to blame but me for a) not blacklisting spoilers at all and b) just having a little freefall through the tags. oh well. anyway heavenly college admissions scandal except way worse. the corruption extends to the heavens and the windmaster is having a very bad day

i guess we’re having a high seas adventure now?

im gonna keep it real im getting tired of how often we get told how handsome hua cheng is. i know its all xie lian’s pov and while im not terribly familiar with it i know what genre we’re working with and im assuming thats pretty typical. its something i dont much care for in general and idk maybe it sounds better in the original but ngl its starting to make me roll my eyes. love you goth king but god okay we get it.

i guess what i will say about hualian so far is that overall i like them and i like how they interact in general they have a lot of nice moments and they just genuinely seem to like each other which is really nice to see EXCEPT for when it actually comes to things that could be romantic or sexual which is a shame bc i dont think it has to be like this. again disclaimer that im only reading a translation and dont know everything might not have all the knowledge necessary to accurately criticize etc etc and im assuming a lot of this is expected from the genre (disclaimer to this disclaimer that i cant say that for sure its just based on things ive picked up about the bl genre over the years) but idk like xie lian was so distressed after their underwater kiss scene. it was kind of uncomfortable to read and maybe im being unfair i know his cultivation is based around abstinence or whatever but idk i dont care for it. and that scene alone doesnt have to be a bad thing like idk i guess its his first kiss ever (?) and it would make sense if he feels weird about it but i just have my doubts thats going to be addressed or resolved in a satisfying way. also im like. dude everyone is like centuries old. xie lian’s been on earth for 800 years. has he really never met or heard of a gay person during all this time? maybe he hasnt idk what he got up to yet maybe that’s actually a thing. also same thing with the reactions from the immortals to xie lian in a dress and characters like the windmaster like again you’re all centuries old and its not uncommon to be able to just completely change gender presentation. why are you all weird about a man wearing a woman’s dress? i just feel like that shouldnt be a big deal to these characters idk

also again not going to lie part of this that im not really a big fan of reading romance in general. yes i am reading this book. yes i do read and write a lot of fanfic that includes or centers romance. im multifaceted. but really what im talking about is the like physical side of it and descriptions im extremely picky about it. ill give an example. early on in the torture pit (or whatever it was called i cant remember lol) when xie lian kind of accidentally felt up hua cheng in the dark when he was being carried. i dont think thats a bad thing to have happen between the two romantic leads i think thats fine and good to include that early but i just did not enjoy reading it when it happened idk maybe it was the wording and i do think that moments like these work better in a visual medium. ive definitely read het romance that reads like this and i wasnt a fan of that either lol same with fanfic i get tired when writers go on and on about how hot one characters finds another character. this isnt a huge criticism of it like i said im picky but again like with the way that hua cheng is described it just makes me roll my eyes sorry kings

okay back to the reading. this whole saving the fishermen thing feels like a big set up for something narrative-wise. hua cheng specifically insisted on coming and i know one of the characters involved ends up dying im wondering if thats now it would be a good time tbh if things get just a bit too unfortunate during this heavenly calamity... and the brothers are notably not having a harmonious time... also tho it feels very likely we’ll just have another Hualian Moment (tm)

In such a situation, Pei Ming still acted the same. In the evening, when they rescued a few fishermen girls, so scared their eyes were blurry from tears, he held them in his embrace and soothed them with a gentle voice; a true show of honeyed romance, affectionate and charming. - pei ming please get pickled again.

also its funny that hua cheng is just kinda hanging out and everyone else just has to deal with it

Looking down from above, the entire area was painted in a terrifying black. It was easy to see the collision between the two different-coloured currents. Their fierce battle was what formed this enormous whirlpool. As the eye swallowed the ship whole, the two currents of water separated. However, the battle was far from over. Like two venomous vipers, they continued to snap at each other. Each collision was followed by a mountain of angry waves. - this pretty dope ngl. also love our wind and earth masters just chilling on a shovel i dig it. hehe

Yet, other than discovering Hua Cheng had a fine body, there were no other finds. Xie Lian was at his wit’s end and started to worry. - okay see this one’s funny im just also irritated bc im like WE KNOW!!! WE GET IT HE’S HOT AND XIE LIAN THINKS HE’S HOT OKAY GOT IT

okay kiss #2 again its not the kisses themselves its xie lian’s reaction it just bothers me idk im not saying i need him to be super into it and completely unconflicted about it rn but he’s just so freaked out about it and idk i just dont really like it just feels weird i dont care for that aspect of it. also dude hua cheng is a ghost and he did this exact same thing for you before just chill. i wish instead of xie lian literally running away while screaming that hes sorry he was just like “oh haha youre fine thats cool im gonna go look around the woods i dont feel weird about this at all haha” like idk its kind of funny but when its literally our two romantic leads i just feel like its confusing like it kind of makes me feel like they shouldnt be together if one of them freaks out this much again considering the fact that they are both CENTURIES old. i know i know xie lian is an 800 year old virgin but. he hasn’t been like this about anything else so yeah idk like it still could have been awkward and funny i just dont think it needed to be so :/ that being said it was funny that xie lian was then internally like “oh i did it wrong? perhaps i should ask him for more.. instructions....” if that actually happens i might like it bc it would complete this little watery theme

Before he finished, he immediately remembered. Coffin wood. There were trees here everywhere; and a deceased? There was one right before his eyes. Sure enough, Hua Cheng smiled. “Won’t it be fine once I lie inside? - love that hua cheng just sat on the fact that he can turn anything into a coffin. that would have been really useful information earlier but no he just waited until everyone but xie lian was gone afjaklsdjf

also i do think that oblivious xie lian thinking “wow whoever it is that hua cheng fancies is an idiot for not liking him back theyre totally taking him for granted :/” is kind of funny and sweet. actually the whole conversation they have at the campfire is good and im bookmarking it to think about later

“...You on top and me on the bottom,” Xie Lian replied. “Isn’t top and bottom the same?” Hua Cheng asked. - okay im sorry but. mood whenever theres discourse about top/bottom dynamics for a ship im just like jesus christ i dont care. tbh i rarely read fanfiction if its just sexual and ngl if i see a fic specifically tag characters as top or bottom i wont read it lmfao. especially when people have really strong opinions about this stuff when theres nothing canonical to back it up like headcanon all you want but whenever i see people argue about it im just like no offense but go work out your own sexual issues and dynamics instead of arguing with strangers on the internet about who’s a top and who’s a bottom. sorry to be mean but just thats how i feel lol

this was mostly a ramble with a few excerpts but im getting sleepy im going to TRY to take a break from this for like a day but we’ll see how that goes i do very much want to know what happens. anyway if you read this whole thing hiiiiii sorry for subjecting you to my opinions on top/bottom discourse

#minors dni #reading this is weird its like wow this is pretty great actually im having a blast #and then there's these moments that are like...... hmmmm.#idk they havent been awful i just think theyre :/#still funny tho ill give it that #tgcf liveblog

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mcheang · 4 years

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ELOD episode 22 review

I like this episode. Despite Feng Jiu’s sadness, there were many elements I liked.

Dong Hua wakes up, feeling the remnants of sadness. While he decides not to see his mortal scroll, he does muse over the tear he shed.

Feng Jiu leaves Qingti in Lord Xie Guchou’s care. He tells her Dong Hua has returned.

Lian Song visits Dong Hua, then Si Ming. When Lian Song gets too curious, Si Ming warns that if he gets in trouble, so could a certain someone (FJ) who is Cheng Yu’s best friend. Lian Song stops asking questions. But he is momentarily curious if Cheng Yu’s best friend is a man, until Si Ming explains the best friend was Dong Hua’s love trial.

Feng Jiu returns to Qingqiu. She is greeted by Cheng Yu and Jingwei. Then she goes and greets Bai Qian and Ali. Bai Qian notes that Feng Jiu is sad and in mourning. She tells Feng Jiu she should bear in mind that she is now an empress and should not act so willfully. Bai Qian tells Feng Jiu the Bai Clan will always have each other’s back. Bai Qian and the fox queen then ask Ali to cheer Feng Jiu up.

Lord Nie is hesitant about giving the jade to Miao Luo, but he can’t use it. He just has to trust she won’t betray him. Anyway, it will take a while for Miao Luo to absorb the jade.

Xiao Yan manages to recover Jiheng’s sad memories. She thanks him but leaves to go to Fanyin Valley and recuperate. Plus, she wasn’t interested in him wooing her. Xiao Yan is upset and decides to pummel Lord Nie for taking advantage of Jiheng’s amnesia. Lord Nie responds that Xiao Yan should let him go since he also saved Jiheng.

Lian Song pursues Cheng Yu, asking her to help him with the Mille flower festival. Both times end to his embarrassment. 1) she breaks his fan 2) she dumps water on him. Lian Song tells the guard witnesses to spread the word, only in such a manner that it seems like Cheng Yu is interested in him.

Feng Jiu and Ali go to a festival in disguise. There Feng Jiu garners romantic interest from a boy she saved, and a visiting mountain deity. Ali also ends up revealing her identity, ruining their fun early.

What I like

Cheng Yu and Jingwei meeting Feng Jiu as she returns home. Their joy at seeing her is so touching.

Bai Qian. I was a fan of Liu Yifei’s BQ than Yang Mi’s partly because the former had so much regality and fire while the latter kept retreating and even bowed to her horrid mother in law. This version we see a sharper Bai Qian who not only reminds Feng Jiu of her duties, but still cares for her niece.

Ali - this is my fav version of Ali. His depression at having to cross dress is hilarious, and ironic considering the actor is an actress. He also confidently claims to be the closest to Feng Jiu. I would have thought it would be Bai Qian. But he senses she is trapped in the woes of love. So smart!

Seeing how the Qingqiu folk respect their queen.

Dong Hua musing over the tear. Xuanren must have really loved Feng Jiu deeply.

Cheng Yu breaking Lian Song’s fan and dunking him in water is even funnier since there are witnesses. That’s what you get for being pushy and trying to announce to the world you are a couple when you are not.

What I dislike

I understand why Jiheng left Xiao Yan, but saying goodbye in such a brief letter. That’s cold hearted, especially when he had searched so hard for her and tried to heal her many times.

#elod episode review #eternal love pillow book #eternal love of dream #三生三世枕上书

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hamliet · 5 years

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He Xuan, Shi Wu Du, and Shi Qing Xuan: Three Mirrors

So yeah how about that chapter 124.

What a mess. And by that I mean it’s like excellent writing, but the circumstances are such a mess and it’s so tragic because it did not have to be that way.

Shi Wu Du and He Xuan parallel each other quite a bit, and of course, Shi Wu Du and his brother Shi Qing Xuan foil each other, as do He Xuan and Shi Qing Xuan. The entire arc explores a lot of themes like love and its limits, family, power and control, etc. by foiling these three characters. And they’re all kind of summed up in that final confrontation between Shi Wu Du and He Xuan, which reveals both of their fatal flaws are the same: they lack empathy and try to control that which is close to them. But instead of condemning them or writing them off as shallow, the narrative shows us that the reason both of them do these things is because of love.

“EVERYTHING I HAVE TODAY, I FOUGHT FOR MYSELF. I WILL FIGHT FOR WHAT I DON’T HAVE. I WILL CHANGE FATE I DON’T POSSESS. MY FATE IS UP TO ME AND NOT THE HEAVENS!”

These are some of Shi Wu Du’s final words. But Shi Wu Du’s best quality--his refusal to capitulate to a cruel fate, or to leave those he loves at a cruel fate’s mercy either--is also his fatal flaw. Because he hasn’t just been about controlling his own fate: he’s extended that control to the fate of others in Shi Qing Xuan, the brother he adores, and He Xuan, a random person who just happened to have the wrong name at the wrong time.

Where Si Qing Xuan is concerned, of course it’s understandable, even justifiable in some sense. He loves his brother and was fearful of the Reverend of Empty Words’s curse on his baby brother. To save him, he switched his fate with He Xuan’s and allowed Shi Qing Xuan to ascend without having earned it, and then kept the truth from Shi Qing Xuan. But by robbing and erasing He Xuan’s work to control his own fate, he shows a privilege He Xuan never had, and shows that in controlling his own fate, he doesn’t mind changing others’. Not to mention he ties Shi Qing Xuan up when he discovers the truth, forcing him to drink the black liquid.

In their final confrontation, Shi Wu Du refuses to consider He Xuan’s first option of giving Shi Qing Xuan a terrible fate, and tells his brother that he has to kill him instead. He doesn’t take Shi Qing Xuan’s wishes into account, because it’s not just about who will die; it means traumatizing his brother.

Shi Qing Xuan however, wasn’t as despairing as he was, and said hurriedly, “Ge! Ge! Let’s, let’s choose the first option. The first one.”

A moment later, Shi Wu Du calmed down. “No. I choose the second one.”

“...” Shi Qing Xuan was dumbfounded, “Why the second option? Can we not both live? Ge, I can’t do it, I really can’t.”

Shi Wu Du said furiously, “QUIET! Don’t you understand? To have me lose everything and watch you become a grimey creature, you think I can do it?! Why don’t I just go ahead and die from madness!” ...

Shi Qing Xuan was so horrified he couldn’t keep a hold of it in his hands, dropping it a number of times on the ground. “Nevermind, ge, nevermind! Didn't you tell me yourself? Everyone only cares for themselves in this world, why would anyone take care of us? Haven’t we always taken cared of each other? Don’t give this thing to me, DON’T GIVE IT TO ME!”

Shi Wu Du shouted, “QING XUAN! Don’t be so immature!”

But of course, Shi Wu Du is in part playing He Xuan. Shi Qing Xuan would never kill him, and finally decides to strangle his brother so that they will both die, forcing He Xuan to intervene.

Shi Wu Du gritted through his blood-covered teeth, “Qing Xuan! I can’t leave you alone like this! If I die there’s no way you’ll be able to survive in this world, so you might as well come with me!” ...

Shi Qing Xuan broke down, “...Ge ge, I beg you I beg you, please stop talking, please shut up. Help…”

However, Shi Wu Du’s smug arrogance was undaunted, “Qing Xuan, ge ge will go ahead first. I will wait for you down below. Hahahahaha…”

Considering those are his last lines, it’s fair to say he may indeed have planned on them both dying. But again, he’s repeating the same exact flaw that got them into this situation in the first place: assuming he knows what is best for Shi Qing Xuan, when really what Shi Qing Xuan wants is just for his brother to be okay--he was more than okay with giving up his heavenly official status, for example, as long as it was going to be okay. Shi Wu Du’s inability to understand this is heartbreaking.

But even though Shi Wu Du could not understand this about his brother, his deep love for his brother parallels He Xuan’s tragic love for his family as well. As he even notes before he dies:

He used those broken arms that were bleeding profusely to tug He Xuan’s collar, “Because I see the you right now who is so filled with rage, so filled with suffering, so filled with hate, yet you are still powerless in bringing your family back. You’re still nothing more than a ghost in the gutters of the shadows. BE AS MAD AS YOU WANT, THEY’RE LONG GONE! But me, and my brother, we’ve lived for so long, and we’ve been heavenly officials for hundreds of years, so even if he can’t be one any longer, even he can’t live anymore, he still profited. I’M STILL THE VICTOR SO I FEEL EVEN BETTER THAN YOU! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA…”

Again, this ties into the idea of privilege--no matter what He Xuan does now, he will never have his family back. And as such Shi Wu Du cannot fully understand the pain He Xuan is in, having lost his family and his rightful place in the heavens. But in pursuing controlling his own fate via revenge, He Xuan demonstrates the same flaw of Shi Wu Du’s: he tramples on the fates of others.

Shi Qing Xuan was completely innocent. Shi Wu Du treated He Xuan as just a tool to help his brother; He Xuan treated Shi Qing Xuan as a tool to help him get to Shi Qing Xuan’s brother. And yet it’s implied that not all of He Xuan’s feelings for Shi Qing Xuan were bitter--he knew Shi Qing Xuan was a good person, and gave him chances to denounce his brother’s actions.

He Xuan whipped around and started pacing back and forth within the hall of Nether Water Manor, growling, “I’ve given you chances!”

Shi Qing Xuan shut his eyes, clenching his fists. Xie Lian recalled that excessively furious “Fine. Very well!” back at the town of Fu Gu, and that scene of ‘Ming Yi’ blocking Shi Qing Xuan’s path to follow Pei Ming in going to the East Sea.

Only, every time, Shi Qing Xuan had chosen to help Shi Wu Du.

He whispered, “...I’m sorry.”

He Xuan stopped. He demanded, “And what good is your apology?”

That row of four urns were placed squarely in front of Shi Qing Xuan, as if they too were jeering at his feather light sorry, drilling misery into his heart, scorching his innards, like everything he said would be seen through. Shi Qing Xuan begged, “...I know it’s futile, but I…”

And again:

Before he finished his sentence, He Xuan placed his hand over his head and gripped his hair. Shi Qing Xuan’s soul was going to leave his body, the iron chains banged and clanged against the wall madly, “MING-XIONG! MING-XIONG! I’M SORRY, I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY I’M SORRY! WE’RE THE ONES WHO SINNED! WE’RE THE ONES WHO ARE WRONG. IT’S MY FAULT! MY BROTHER ONLY DID WHAT HE DID BECAUSE OF ME. MY BROTHER’S GONE MAD, HE’S CRAZY CAN’T YOU SEE! I… YOU… YOU…”

He wanted to beg, to pray for mercy, but his pleas wouldn’t leave his lips, and he could only use his eyes to kowtow. He Xuan watched him, and in a fleeting moment, he seemed to have remembered something. He calmed and stopped.

Seeing this, it was like there was a thread of hope, and Shi Qing Xuan let out a breath of relief, tears finally rolling down. But before he could speak, he heard He Xuan’s cruel voice rang, “You’ve called the wrong person.”

And this gets to Shi Qing Xuan’s greatest strength and also, like the others’, his biggest flaw: his love for his loved ones. And it reveals something of what He Xuan was thinking: you don’t know who I am. He was never Ming-Xiong, but He Xuan, and the whole refusal to acknowledge his identity and what he had done to earn his ascension was cruelly ignored by Shi Wu Du.

Because part of what He Xuan wanted was to have someone know him, acknowledge him as mattering. He transformed himself into a female form around Shi Qing Xuan because Shi Qing Xuan asked him to, clearly wanting to get close to Shi Qing Xuan, to the point when Shi Qing Xuan insisted he was his best friend. But even in the end, Shi Wu Du tells him everything he’s done does not matter, that it’s all futile.

On the topic of Shi Qing Xuan and his love for his family and friends paralleling both his brother’s love for him and He Xuan’s own mourning for his beloved family, it presents an interesting conflict that again gets at this core desire to be acknowledged for who he is in He Xuan. Because what exactly was he expecting by giving Shi Qing Xuan chances? Would He Xuan have denounced his family, the family he claims to be so moved by, had they done something similar? Considering that he’s not really motivated by righteousness, I doubt it. So why was he holding Shi Qing Xuan to an higher standard? Because he’s a god? Or because it was really about himself in the end? Or more likely, a combination of the two? Did he just want to know what kind of person Shi Qing Xuan was, and by extent Shi Wu Du? Did he want something better to exist?

If he wanted to know what kind of people they were, he should have looked in the mirror, because he is very much the same as both of them. And by killing a part of himself and breaking another part of himself in the person who truly loved him and thought of him as his best friend and whom he clearly, to an extent, cared for as well, he’s unlikely to find that his bitter fate has changed very much.

Anyways off to cry again.

#tgcf #tgcf meta #tgcf 124 #shi wu du #shi qing xuan #ming yi #he xuan #beefleaf #shuangxuan #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #heaven official's blessing meta

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peerless-soshi · 5 years

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I know that you're FengQing shipper and that domestic meme would be ridiculous with them, so pretty please xD

Send me a ღ and I’ll fill this out about a ship

I want to sincerely thank you, Anon, for a golden opportunity that is writing for this ship

Who’s the first to wake up in the morning: Both. They both open their eyes at exactly the same time just to fight over bathroom/pillows/whatever later on

Who’s the one to make breakfast: Mu Qing. As a kid born in a poorer family, he’s more used to basic everyday duties like cooking without setting their kitchen on fire. And this way he can curse Feng Xin for being a good for nothing young lord. What’s more, with Mu Qing’s grumpy personality he loves to criticize every meal Fang Xin makes, no matter how it tasted like.

Who’s the one to serve the other breakfast in bed: Feng Xin. If Mu Qing manages to wake up early, he just complains above Feng Xin’s head. When Feng Xin wakes up first, in return he throws buns at sleeping Mu Qing

Who would suggest a quickie in the morning before work: Feng Xin, because Mu Qing is a freaking growler and if you don’t work on his mood as the suns rises, he is going to complain all day long

Who suggests they both ditch work to lay around all day: Nobody. If one wants to stay in bed, it means they are weak and there is NO WEAK MAN IN THIS HOUSEHOLD

Who chooses the movies: They both choose their own movies and criticize the choice of the other one, even though their movies are very similar. In the end they just argue and watch what’s on TV. Sometimes Mu Qing agrees to Feng Xin’s choices so he can look for every plot hole and demonstrate how bad is Feng Xin’s taste

Who initiates kissing during the moving, thus distracting the other from the movie all together: Once again, Feng Xin. Because once Mu Qing finds a reason to complain, you need to close his month or he won’t stop till morning

Who orders lunch: Feng Xin orders lunch. Mu Qing rolls his eyes. Feng Xin orders lunch aggressively asking “WHAT THE FUCKING PROBLEM IS AND WHAT HE DOESN’T LIKE NOW”. The annoying thing is that Mu Qing always has a reasonable reason but Feng Xin is not letting up anyway

Who steals food from the other’s plate without asking: Feng Xin, because Mu Qing proudly eats without a word and Feng Xin checks if there’s something wrong with food or if this grimace is Mu Qing’s neutral expression

Who curls up next to the other and falls asleep due to a full tummy: It’s a very Feng Xin thing to do - casual and allowing to drool on Mu Qing

Who distracts the other from trying to work at home: Feng Xin, just because he is louder and Mu Qing is sensitive so you know, Feng Xin distracts him even when he doesn’t try to

Who asks to go get ice cream like a five year old: Feng Xin, because Feng Xin is actually a kid who would drag Mu Qing with more force than needed, and Mu Qing is a mom repeating “WE HAVE FOOD AT HOME YOU DICKHEAD”

Who takes pictures of their partner eating ice cream: Feng Xin. “Look at your ugly face. You look like a moron”. We all know Mu Qing is too serious for Feng Xin’s shit until he hears it and shows he’s actually on the same level

Who makes a sexual joke about the dripping ice cream on their partner’s face: Remember how Xie Lian said that Feng Xin laughed at every joke and Mu Qing never laughed? Obviously it would be Lord Big Dick God

Who cooks dinner: Once again, Mu Qing claiming that Feng Xin can’t do anything when Feng Xin tells him to fuck off

Who cleans up the kitchen afterwards: Mu Qing, who complains that he needs to clean but doesn’t let anyone clean as he considers everyone irresponsible. They would do it wrong.

Who stays up until 2 reading: Mu Qing, always studying to never feel left behind. And turning the light on so Feng Xin can’t sleep

Who stares at their partner while their sleeping: Mu Qing, in revenge for ice cream. “I recorded your fucking snoring”

Who kisses their partner while they sleep: Both, because in the end of the day if they do something, they never do it half-assed. And relationship is a serious thing - the kid you fight with is the one you love the most

#fengqing #asks #heaven official's blessing #thank you! :)

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dreamingsushi · 4 years

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The Untamed - Episode 8

Wen Chao pays a visit late at night to Lan Xichen (I haven’t said it yet, but I really like the character for Xi in his name, even though it’s such a pain to write because of the many strokes). He tries to provoke him a little bit, but he won’t budge. Until Wen Chao threatens a little to do something to Lan Zhan. Only then, Xichen flinches a little bit, even if he tried not to. Wen Chao did hit the mark.

Wuxian left his friends with only a sentence written on a paper, not saying where he went. Jiang Cheng is really upset and wants to fetch him back, but both his dad and his sister convinces him not to. They leave to travel back home.

Wuxian really did go to follow Lan Zhan. I can’t tell if Lan Zhan is happy or unhappy, but at least he doesn’t chase away Wuxian, even though he must regret it, especially when Wuxian ties him to himself so Lan Zhan would wait for him. They are followed by Wen Chao and Wen Qing. Wen Ning somehow disappeared somewhere. I like that character, I am wondering what is that disease he has and am really hasty to know a little bit more. Anyways.

When Wuxian and Lan Zhan get into town, they bump into Nie Huaisang. He was supposed to go back home, but it seems he didn’t and he is very surprised to see Wuxian and Lan Zhan together. And probably scared to be punished again.

At Lian Hua Wu, Jiang Cheng sneaks out, probably to find Wuxian. Is it just me or the people who care the most about Wuxian are the ones who complain the most about him? Anyways, Yanli notices and tells him to be extra careful on his journey.

Wuxian, Lan Zhan and Huaisang get to the place where the Stygian Iron fragment was too late: Wen Chao already got it. For some reason, they explain about the fragment to Huaisang. He’s so useless, it’s putting him in danger for no reason. He wishes for Wuxian and Lan Zhan to send him back together to Qing He, but they don’t really include him in their group. Well, Wuxian doesn’t seem to want to share Lan Zhan with anyone else. On the way, they notice that Cai Niao, the smoke bird that belongs to Wen Chao, was spying on them: there is no time to lose.

Ohhhh! We are back to the beginning of the drama. But. Just in place, not in time. Wen Chao refuses to go and help Xie Yang into retrieving the fragments and is decided to steal the piece that Lan Zhan holds onto. So to do that, he wants to trap them. They will have to go through Mount Dashan, the birth place of Wen Qing. His trap is really simple, he breaks the seal that was holding the dancing statue. That’s so evil.

In a small guesthouse, Jiang Cheng bumps into Wen Qing. She annoys him on purpose and pretends to stir a fight with him: she wants to warn him that Wuxian is in danger on the Dashan mountain, but she can’t openly do it. Jiang Cheng doesn’t waste time and leaves quickly.

The trio arrives to the village near the dancing goddess temple. As they are looking for a place to stay at night, they meet an old granny that seems a little crazy. She takes them to the temple and some man tell them to sleep there if they are looking for a shelter. In the middle of the night, Huaisang wakes up yelling because of a nightmare: the statue made him uneasy from the start. Not long after that, the statue wakes up and Lan Zhan and Wuxian fight it together until they manage to seal her again back into her place.

Then, the near village is invaded by zombie people. Oh oh... I don’t like it. Is it Wen Chao’s doing with the fragment he collected? There’s not enough left of that episode for me to know right away, I am pretty sure... More cliffhangers, never enough of them. So the zombie people manages to open the doors to the temple, they are clearly outnumbered and both Lan Zhan and Wuxian know they can’t count on Huaisang’s help. It’s actually funny how Wuxian and Lan Zhan have so much connection and don’t even need to talk to know what the other is going to do while they blatantly ignore Huaisang.

In this episode, we see the relationship between Lan Zhan and Wuxian deepen a little bit. In Chinese we would say they have moqi (默契) which basically means that they have such a great connection that they don’t need to talk, it’s as if they knew each other so well that words are unnecessary between the two of them. I think they make a very complementary pair, like they were meant to work together, alongside of each other.

One other thing I really appreciate from this episode, it’s that it’s sending us back to the beginning of the drama. It’s explaining a little bit what happened. Before, Wuxian mentioned that he and Zhan Lan had trouble to seal back the dancing statue. Now we can understand what it means. And I can understand some of the brief flashbacks he has and it makes me guess things. Like, the zombies look a lot like Wen Ning when he first appeared in the beginning of the drama which makes me wonder, did he receive the influence of the Stygian Iron too?

To be completely honest, when I started watching the first episode, I didn’t expect to enjoy myself so much. I thought it would be funny because everything was so exaggerated, but actually it super well thought and so far the plot holds itself very well, it’s super coherent with itself, which I really enjoy. So many dramas often are so intricate that it becomes completely incoherent or boring because it’s to redundant. I know I am not that far in the series, considering there are still forty something episodes left, but I have a good feeling. Let’s hope I am not wrong! But seeing the comments of people re-watching once again, I guess I am probably right.

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