#lots of Lans in this one hah | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

jiangwanyinscatmom · 2 years

Note

fellow jc stan!! i feel like there was so much potential in chengxian bc they both cared for each other a lot. the person you loved the most hurting you n betraying you the most, but the love and genuine care is still there and with communication it's possible for it to bloom into something beautiful. imagine if chengxian were allowed that ending too where they're given a chance to know and SEE just HOW much they BOTH care for eachother and settle their differences.

Well then... I suppose I'll take these as my starting point of why Jiang Cheng did not care enough for their friendship to last, so here we go,

Jiang Cheng's capacity for love is not enough nor is it healthy for the people he is supposed to love, it does not make him commendable and is the vice around someone's neck that Wei Wuxian speaks of. When someone reaches out to comfort him, he makes it worse for himself because he views it as pity only. He does not know how to express affection or receive it.

They did communicate finally about it, this is what happened when it was revealed and Jiang Cheng confronted the truth like this:

Jiang Cheng covered his wound with one hand, his voice chilly, “Wei Wuxian, you’re such a wonderful, selfless person. You did the unimaginable, and you swallowed all that suffering letting no one know. What a touching story. I should kneel down and cry in gratitude now, shouldn't I?"

Hearing that mocking voice that lacked any courtesy, Lan Wangji's face turned icy. Jin Ling saw the displeased look and immediately stood in front of Jiang Cheng, terrified that Lan WangJi would kill him in one strike, “Jiujiu!"

Wei Wuxian's expression twisted too. He never expected Jiang Cheng to want to welcome him after he found out the truth, but he didn’t think his tone would be the same as ever, either. After a moment of silence, he replied, voice hushed, “I never asked you to thank me.”

Jiang Cheng let out a hah, “Of course. Giving without ever gaining or expecting in return. How commendable, Unlike me, of course. That's why my father said you were always the one who understood the Jiang Sect’s motto and did things the Jiang way, when he was still alive.”

Wei Wuxian couldn’t keep listening to him any longer, interrupting him, “Enough.”

Jiang Cheng’s voice turned hard, “What do you mean, enough? It’s enough when you say it is? You always know everything! You’re better than me at everything! Whether it be talent or cultivation or spirituality or personality, you always knew everything while I was always behind—then what am I?!?!”

He suddenly reached out, as if to seize Wei Wuxian's collar. Lan Wangji grabbed Wei WuXian’s shoulder with one hand, placing Wei Wuxian behind him, and with his other hand he forcefully pushed away Jiang Cheng’s hand. Rage could be seen hidden within his eyes. Although his push held no spiritual energy, it was still powerful in force. The wound at Jiang Cheng’s chest ripped apart again. Blood surged.

Jin Ling cried, “Jijui, your wound! HanGuang-Jun, spare some mercy!”

However, Lan Wangji's i’s voice was cold, “Jiang Wanyin, spare some virtue!”

This is not him lamenting over what Wei Wuxian sacrificed for Jiang Cheng. He is mocking it because he is that angry that because of this he can not continue to act like Wei Wuxian gave nothing to the Yunmeng Jiang he owes it to Wei Wuxian that he has his life.

He hates that he does owe Wei Wuxian the courtesy of finally having to give merit to Wei Wuxian. He is jealous as always, that Wei Wuxian chose to he kind when he gains nothing. He doesn't understand doing that sort of will without a pay back. It is exactly the same as the way he could not agree with Jiang Fengmian about leaving their allies to die because it would make things harder on him personally, morality wasn't a thing he was worried about and agreed with Yu Ziyuan that them dying would have been easier.

“Wei Wuxian, who was the one who broke his promise and betrayed the Jiang Sect first? Tell me. Who said I’d be the sect leader and you’d be my subordinate, that you’d help me your whole life, that so long as the Gusu Lan Sect had its Two Jades, the Yunmeng Jiang Sect would have its Two Prides, that you’d never betray me or betray the Jiang Sect—who was the one that said this?! I’m asking you—who was the one that said all of this?! Did you eat all your fucking words?!”

He got more agitated as he ranted on, “And in the end? You go and protect outsiders, haha! The Wen Sect’s people, even. How much of their rice did you eat?! Defecting with such conviction! What did you take our sect to be?! You always do the greatest feats, yet every time you make it worse, it’s involuntary! Forced! With some unspeakable grievances! Grievances?! You told me nothing, you played me for a fool!!!

“Just how much do you owe the Jiang Sect? Am I not supposed to hate you? Can I not hate you?! Why is it that now it’s like I’m supposed to have been the one who wronged you?! Why do I have to feel like I’m playing the fucking clown all these years?! What am I? Do I also need to be blinded by all your dazzling splendor?! Am I not supposed to hate you?!”

In all if this, he does admit, not once, did he actually think of the toils it had on Wei Wuxian. Why would he? He has learned not to think deeply on why, Wei Wuxian is always a nuisance that has made Jiang Cheng's life harder, he does not think in terms of outside of what it does to him. He still puts it in terms of what Wei Wuxian owed to the life Yunmeng Jiang had given to him. And, with the core giving, Wei Wuxian quiet literally, handed that life back to Jiang Cheng. He has been paid back ten-fold in his very black and white thinking. Emotions be damned, as he was taught.

Jiang Cheng was crying. Tears poured from his eyes as he forced through his teeth, “… Why… Why didn’t you tell me?!”

Jiang Cheng clenched his fist, like he wanted to hit someone, like he wanted to hit himself. In the end, he still slammed it onto the ground. He should’ve been able to loathe Wei Wuxian without a care. But right now, the golden core revolving within him took away all that confidence.

Why didn't you tell me so I don't have to be the fool and be the actual antagonist for you. Wei Wuxian hiding it actually ruins Jiang Cheng's act of saving face, he was commended on that, all while for thirteen years he was a literal joke for ruining Wei Wuxian because Wei Wuxian was too kind to destroy Jiang Cheng's fragile ego. He is made, finally, to feel guilt about the horrors and cruelty he has flung at Wei Wuxian, who kept silent about it because Jiang Cheng is a brat.

In none of this, is love spoken of or hinted at. It is cowed in the terms of owed debts that Jiang Cheng used against Wei Wuxian. And for Wei Wuxian he mentions as well the promise of protection he made to the Jiang couple.

Jiang Cheng shook his head, burying his face deep into his palms. A second later, he suddenly burst out with a laugh. His muffled voice mocked, “It’s been this long, and I still need you to say sorry to me. What a fragile person I am.”

I still need you to shoulder the blames I put on you so I do not have to see myself as in the wrong for my thinking, in other words. It was never about love, it was about scapegoats. He is made to see that he is not infallible and his facade of being so hurt by Wei Wuxian blows up in his face.

If he told Wei Wuxian what he did, of course Wei Wuxian would "pay it back". There is no love at that point when it is going through the motions of weighing life debt. And Jiang Cheng in a single moment of clarity, breaks that cycle between them for the better.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #canon jiang cheng #don't ruin his single moment of being unselfish finally #for a reconciliation that is built on debt #it could never be anything but that between these two #it's too ingrained to be anything else #and neither respect the other for who they are

80 notes · View notes

tonyglowheart · 4 years

Text

My thoughts/analysis on Hanguang-Jun aren’t as involved as the one for Zewu-Jun, because I do think Hanguang-Jun is a bit more... straight-forward? as far as figuring out what it means. What I wanted to talk about more was, like, connotations, specifically the English connotations vs the Chinese ones. I am not talking about literary allusions because I don’t know enough of Chinese classical canon to speak on that, and I’m pretty sure other people have done so already.

I think the common English translation for it is “Light Bearing Lord,” yes? What I want to focus on here is the “Bearing” aspect. Because... I have also... seen ppl go “ah, light bearing lord, bearer of light, lucifer. ergo, Lan Wangji is similar to Lucifer” which.. I have salt about because not everything is about Christian mythology and Christian-adjacent stuff, Janice, god. But that’s... a whole other gnarled web of stuff. Anyway. Onto the breakdown.

I believe that “bearing” has a certain kind of meaning/physical translation in English, yes? I think it brings more to mind the action of, say, holding in one’s arms, as one might an armful of gifts or other sundries, or a small animal perhaps (say, a puppy or a bear cub (hah)). “Light-bearing” might bring to mind the image of someone holding a lantern. Anyway the point I’m trying to make here, it’s an external bearing, and yes the bearer is bearing said thing (in this case) light with them, but it’s an external light.

The han (含) in Hanguang-Jun, on the other hand, is more commonly used, imo, in the context of like.. holding in one’s mouth. (bear with me). I.e. if I encountered the character in the wild, with no other context, I would assume they’re talking about holding something in one’s mouth, such as like... a cough drop, or other kind of hard candy, or even something you maybe are trying to hide. That’s a more “layperson” usage of the term, imo, like a usage you’re likely to encounter, as a layperson (source: me as a layperson who sometimes encounters Chinese). But along that vein, it also has meaning of “contain, include”; “keep” (imo as in, keep inside; an example given is 含泪, which the dictionary gives as “tearfully” or “with tears in one’s eyes” but I think morphographically more resembles “holding back tears” as far as understanding the word construction goes); “nurse, cherish, harbor.” I.e., if what I’m trying to get at isn’t clear, it’s an internal kind of “bearing.” Depending on usage and context, it can also mean to permeate, and even endure (in the sense that if something is permeated with something, then that something endures).

So it’s not so much that Hanguang-Jun is “just” a “bringer” of light, nor is the emphasis on the fact that he brings light, but the fact that he is permeated with light. I.e. that it’s something inherent to him. Which in the context of Lan Wangji’s character, says a lot about him as a person, his character, and his reputation.

Hanguang-Jun doesn’t just “bear” light or “bring” it; he holds/is permeated with light, as an intrinsic facet of his being.

#roz speaks #mdzs in translation #cql in translation #imaginaryelle

403 notes · View notes

aiyexayen · 3 years

Note

re: that "I'll live for you post" - WHERE'S THE ESSAY

this post? [innocent face]

alright, alright, JUST TWIST MY ARM WHY DON'T YOU, just force me to talk more about my boys!

4.9k word essay under the cut

Wei Wuxian

Let us take a look at Wei Wuxian first. Wei Wuxian has no problems throwing himself in-between the people he loves and danger, or even certain death. Hell, sometimes he just throws himself into it for fun and profit!

To some extent, putting yourself in danger to help others and being willing to die is something of a cultivator thing in general, a hero thing in general, right? And Wei Wuxian is a prodigy, exceptionally strong and clever, so he has more reason than most to be a little cavalier. But most of the point of training so hard as a cultivator and getting strong and aligning yourself with a sect is kind of so you can be in real danger of dying as little as possible, one would presume.

So we're going to set aside the danger-as-a-profession thing for now, because I think it's only tangentially related.

The real point is, Wei Wuxian is sacrificial to a fault. If there is a problem, he decides he's the one who needs to fix it. And his first go-to solution is to throw himself at it, to give up anything of himself if it's viable. As clever as he is, if he finds a workable solution that involves his own sacrifice, he doesn't stop to look for anything else.

Some of it is pride--not wanting to admit he needs help from anyone else, and the shame of being seen as weak.

Some of it is arrogance--a very natural kind given his competence, the presumption that he knows best in a given situation (neurodivergent arrogance walking hand-in-hand with self-esteem issues is always a fun time).

Some of it is appropriate--ranging from his own moral imperative to protect the weak and do what's right to his understanding of his place in culture and in his own sect and relationships.

Some of it is a natural bent toward caretaking, "fixing," and heroics--someone has to do it, so it's going to be Wei Wuxian. He won't hesitate to take initiative in any other area of life, and this is no exception.

And some of it, yes, is a lack of value placed in his own life--between a more youthful, dramatic perspective on 'I would die for you/for this cause' taking priority in his worldview, and some genuine self-esteem issues. Issues largely stemming from his uncertain place in the world growing up and his uncertain relationship with parental/guardian/master and other familial figures, all stewing under the surface and brought to light sharply when the world went to shit and choices were made and he lost or seemed to have lost everything from his reputation to his home to his extant support structures. The paranoia and voices in his head (the ptsd and resentful-energy-as-ptsd-metaphor both) only drove that home.

Basically, Wei Wuxian was already trending in some unfortunate directions but his circumstances and the people surrounding him kept him grounded, and the events of the story as it unfolded really pushed him all in. No one thing or one person--even Wei Wuxian himself--is really to blame for that, which is the beauty of the story really.

I also think Wei Wuxian started to buy into some of his own stories at his lowest points--the things he said or came up with, lies he told publicly, justifications he made for his choices once the heat of the moment and the panic was over. Justifications he made to himself and to others. He purposefully led people to believe much that was incorrect about him and his character and his status, to which the response was distaste and horror, and even though he planned it that way in order to push everyone away I really think he started to believe it himself. Depression and trauma are just really fun times.

I'm getting a bit off-topic.

The point remains, Wei Wuxian is extremely sacrificial. He comes by much of it naturally, and not nearly all of it is bad or melodrama or angst or even unhealthy or problematic. It's one of his good qualities, too, and it's one of the ways he knows how to love.

All of the threads weaving together to make Wei Wuxian and the situations he finds himself sacrificing things in are all true, but it also really comes down to love. He loved Jiang Cheng enough to sacrifice his everything and risk his life doing so. He loved his sect enough he was willing to sacrifice his right hand. He loved his sect enough to sacrifice his very ties to it. He loved Lan Zhan enough to sacrifice their friendship. He loved Jin Ling enough to sacrifice himself to the curse he got in the Nie tombs. (And more!)

Wei Wuxian loved, and so he sacrificed. Thus, the initial post.

Jiang Cheng

Let's switch gears for a moment and talk about my darling Jiang Wanyin.

Ah, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Cheng. Taking the initiative and sacrificing at the drop of a hat and so forth are not really characteristics of Jiang Cheng's the same way they are for Wei Wuxian.

And yet, is he not also a disciple of Yunmeng Jiang; is he not also a young hero? Has he not pride, and the incentive to do good?

Does he not also see love as sacrifice?

Zi Zhizhu was his mother. The woman who sacrificed to get Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian to safety. The woman who killed herself and crawled across the ground to hold her husband's hand in death.

You think she wasn't Like That the whole time? You think Jiang Cheng picked up nothing of such behaviours from her, even before that day?

Hah.

Besides which, there's absolutely an underlying theme of Jiang Cheng trying to be like Wei Wuxian for much of their lives.

Partially just...Wei Wuxian, strong and clever and popular shige, always manages to get credit and glory and good stories and good favour, exemplary of the Jiang motto--the one Jiang Cheng's own name is tied to. They were supposed to be shuangjie, besides. How could he not want to be like him at least a bit? If nothing else, it's a little brother's curse.

And partially this is also due to Jiang Cheng's parents and that whole Situation.

It was complicated for so many reasons, and absolutely left Jiang Cheng feeling inferior to Wei Wuxian. As though he needed to be more like Wei Wuxian, to emulate him, in order to be worthy of his title and station and inheritance, something that turned out to be categorically untrue in the end. There are many kinds of leaders, and many kinds of strengths.

As an aside, I personally think that's something Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan knew, themselves, as adults and leaders and political figures in their own rights. Adults often don't realise or think about how the things they say can influence children's entire worldviews and senses of self (why, no, I don't speak from experience, why would you ask such a thing ahaha).

Jiang-zongzhu and Zi Zhizhu got a lot of their own relationship difficulties and misunderstandings and conflicts and conflicting attempts to want the best for their children (and ward) tangled up in everything. I think if they'd ever been able to speak plainly, if they could manifest into the Ancestral Hall and speak to Jiang Cheng, they would say so.

Just as Jiang Cheng would have cause to be horrified by much of what Wei Wuxian believed about himself, I think Jiang Cheng's parents would have cause to be horrified by much of what Jiang Cheng believed. (I mean, and Wei Wuxian, probably.)

Anyway.

Jiang Cheng has plenty of reasons to aspire to those same ideals of sacrifice. And it's not just aspirations, either--we see him follow through.

He walked outside from that inn, saw Wei Wuxian in danger, and made a decision in the space of a single breath--a decision with full understanding, too. He knew he was giving up his entire life for Wei Wuxian's. He said goodbye in his head.

I would argue (and I'm sure I've said this before somewhere too) that his sacrifice was the purest example of this in the entire story.

Perhaps some of it is that many of Wei Wuxian's sacrifices are premeditated and just about all of them have alternative solutions that don't involve him just diving in and giving pieces of himself up.

That isn't to say that Wei Wuxian wouldn't see a sword aimed at Jiang Cheng and take the blow himself. But we never see him do that, exactly. As much as Jiang Cheng has internalised this ideal of Wei Wuxian's, he both encounters fewer of these situations and has other problem-solving tactics in his repertoire.

The way Jiang Cheng hates himself doesn't lead him to think of himself as disposable. I could get into a (very amateur) discussion of negative schemas formed in childhood and their various similarities and differences, and the different ways Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian's brains appear to work (Jiang Cheng sees himself as inferior, while Wei Wuxian willfully dehumanises himself in other ways), but basically, it's simply a different set of psychological issues.

But! When he is faced with the choice, Jiang Cheng absolutely dies for the ones he loves.

He loves his sect and his family, and he internalises love as sacrifice, and when it comes down to an extreme moment he chooses to die for them.

And then he doesn't die.

And then the war happens.

Jiang Cheng's Growth

There are a lot of reasons for Jiang Cheng to grow in this area, and I think it starts with inheriting the sect.

(This leads to excellent thoughts about What If Wei Wuxian Had Somehow Become Sect Leader but that's an au for another day.)

If sect heir was a position full of responsibility and reputation management, how much more so is zongzhu? Jiang Cheng is suddenly responsible for all these people. Whether he's good enough or not doesn't even matter. The job is there and it's inescapable and he's the only one there to do it.

I'm absolutely sure he still has all kinds of inferiority shit he's dealing with by post-timeskip and he only just gets to touch on some pieces of resolution by the end of the story, with the one person still in the world who would even know anything about the life that gave it to him.

Jiang Cheng has been responsible for people before, in small ways--night hunts and such, I'm sure, and he was certainly in charge of the Yunmeng Jiang disciples who went to Cloud Recesses. But being at the top of that hierarchy entirely is such a different matter, and he did so at a very young age and in a very fraught time.

The fact that he had to deal with all this new responsibility and duty to people more than his family and to causes greater than the first people in need he encounters is a huge perspective shift. Especially as a sect with nothing to give and no wiggle room where it comes not only to basic resources post-war, but to things like reputation and political standing. This is, of course, a huge facet to the conflict between him and Wei Wuxian (and the Wen remnants) at that point in the story.

But on a personal level it also speaks to the sacrifice thing. If Jiang Cheng sacrifices his life, he is not just sacrificing his own life anymore.

When he gave up his life for Wei Wuxian, he had not yet inherited. His parents were only barely gone. There was nothing to inherit. There was no surety of there ever being something to inherit ever again. Everything else was already gone. It was only the three of them, barely surviving, running for their lives. It was only him and Wei Wuxian in a street, and one of them had to die.

But once he inherits? He's a commander. He's a leader. He has all the knowledge and all the networking connections. He has the reputation. He has the social standing. He might still have a long way to go in developing his skills, but he has a natural leadership ability and he does have training appropriate to his station.

What happens if he personally sacrifices his life? What happens to all of that? What happens to everyone depending on him?

That's not very satisfying, very epic-worthy. That's not very dramatic or romantic. It's gradual, and messy, that kind of change and realisation. Becoming that kind of person. Making choices based in that reality. Deciding that you do not belong to yourself.

And I think it really comes to a head when his siblings die.

I think it comes to a head personally. Not just in his role as Jiang-zongzhu. We don't see Jiang Cheng choose not to die, in as many words. But we certainly see him choose to live.

Or, perhaps, we see the evidence of that choice.

Jiang Cheng could have faded away. He could have started delegating all his responsibilities, gotten help from other sects, trained up a replacement. He could have made such things necessary by getting more and more reclusive. He could have pulled a Qingheng-Jun.

Hell, with a-jie gone already, he could have just said fuck this and followed Wei Wuxian off that cliff, and if you don't think he wonders about that sometimes--at least at first--then we have very different interpretations of Jiang Cheng as a person.

And no, none of those are sacrifice. But at some point, he still chose to do the opposite.

He chose every day to live for his sect, to keep growing it into something powerful and secure. He took that vow that he made and he fucking stuck to it.

And he chose to live for Jin Ling.

I don't half wonder if that was a bigger driving force at first than anything else.

Jiang Cheng could absolutely have left Jin Ling to be raised by his Jin family in the absence of his parents and fucked off to hide away in Yunmeng and had nothing to do with him. He could have done a lot of things, let himself develop in a lot of ways, unhealthy ways.

But he so very clearly did not.

Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng have a close relationship. Jin Ling defers to Jiang Cheng, is answerable to him on night hunts and beyond them. It's never questioned why he's basically just in the Yunmeng Jiang party by himself. Yunmeng Jiang disciples answer to Jin Ling in turn, follow his orders without question in the absence of their zongzhu. It's a Yunmeng Jiang disciple who hands Xianzi off to Jin Ling outside the Guanyin Temple in Yunping, and Jiang Cheng is intimately familiar with Xianzi's commands and is apparently a trusted person to give them (which, we find out, Jin Guangyao is not.)

As much as Jiang Cheng is not good at saying what he means, and especially after everything he's been through his softer bits have grown harder and harder carapace around them, Jin Ling never seems to misunderstand what Jiang Cheng means. They snipe at each other and snark and bitch and roll their eyes and so clearly love each other.

Jiang Cheng's love for Jin Ling shines brightly the second you know how to interpret Jiang Cheng, and Jin Ling absolutely does. Jin Ling's trust in Jiang Cheng is incredible.

Jin Ling is practically Yunmeng Jiang's heir, and practically Jiang Cheng's son.

That sort of thing doesn't just happen, because you're related or whatever. In fact, the story goes out of its way to present blood relations not being close, especially father figures.

Which means from a young age, Jin Ling knew Jiang Cheng's love. Jiang Cheng, struggling young zongzhu of a struggling newly-rebuilt sect, who just lost everything, barely more than a kid himself, figured out he needed to not only stay alive, but needed to live for Jin Ling.

He needed to teach him everything, needed to figure out how to be the best of his own father and mother, and the best of Jin Ling's father and mother, and live up to every lost bit of love Jin Ling should have had, and try, and try, no matter how unworthy or unfit or inferior he felt. No matter how much he fucked up and didn't know. No matter how much grief he was dealing with. No matter how many people hated him and how few friends he had. No matter how much there was to do. No matter how overwhelming the endless tide of days, of forever in front of him felt, horrible and empty of everyone that had come before. Jiang Cheng still chose to live.

He carved out that new life because of love. He didn't die for anyone, and he didn't die for anyone's memory. He lived.

"I never thought I'd be worth the work it would take to piece myself together," but he did, for his sect, his disciples, his family's legacy, his siblings' memories, and Jin Ling.

And, as a bonus knife, the things we see him chide Jin Ling the most for? Are specifically things Wei Wuxian would have done, and even things he would have done in following him. Grandstanding, not asking for help when needed, wandering off alone, making unnecessary sacrifices.

Wei Wuxian's Growth

That brings us to Wei Wuxian coming back. And, well, the boy still has a long way to go. He goes through a lot of kinds of growth post-timeskip. And I think this is one of them.

For one, he's already fucking died once.

Honestly, almost ironically, that death wasn't even fully a sacrifice. Perhaps in some ways it was, in some ways he internalised that it was. But regardless, after all his sacrificing, he finally died. And, much like Jiang Cheng's sacrifice, it didn't stick. He woke back up. Albeit 16 years later.

Now, he wasn't keen on dying, or he maybe would have just gone back. But that doesn't mean he'd suddenly decided to live for anyone rather than die for them.

And, indeed, we still see that side of him come back with him in full force. He starts off by deciding he will just live this new life without Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan altogether.

I think, for Wei Wuxian, this matter of sacrifice ends up being tied into a lot of other pieces of his growth--none of it happens independently of each other.

First, he is shown and told that he is wanted. That's the first thing. He cannot simply go on without inconveniencing/endangering/roping anyone else into his shit because his ties to other people don't work in only one direction. He is wanted.

Lan Zhan wants to be at his side, has not forgotten him, and loves him unwaveringly. That is a huge first step, right there at the beginning, when Lan Zhan grabs his hand, and they make eye contact, and by the time Lan Zhan turns to look away Wei Wuxian is grabbing his hand back desperately and that pretty much says everything it needs to right there.

The idea that Wei Wuxian can act at all without having any negative affect on anyone tied to him is something we see even outside the concept of sacrifice--how many times before his death, even before his defection, do we see him say things like "you can insult me, but don't involve the Yunmeng Jiang sect" like. Like. Wei Wuxian please. That's not how this works. That's not how any of this works.

So I think him realising that other people will willingly be tied to him and there's nothing he can do about it, that his actions affect the people who care about him all the time, is something he still has to learn/relearn even after everything that happened leading up to his death. I think, in particular, Wei Wuxian realising that it's not just his mistakes and fuckups that affect people, but his intentional actions, too. Like sacrifices. Even if they're at his own expense. Because people care and that's okay and good.

Lan Zhan drives that home with things like noticing that Wei Wuxian has transferred Jin Ling's curse to his own leg, and then insisting on carrying him.

Lan Zhan notices. Lan Zhan cares. This act of sacrifice does not end with Wei Wuxian suffering. It has cascading effects, even something this small. It is, perhaps, more effective a lesson on a small scale with fewer complexities woven in, than it would be on the larger scale issues he dealt with before his death.

This idea that his sacrifices affect people beyond him is carried through the rest of the story, too, from the way everyone seems to fret about him after the Burial Mounds and Lan Sizhui runs to hold him, down to the fact that he has to answer for how his sacrifice of his golden core to Jiang Cheng affects Jiang Cheng. Both the absence of his own golden core being a catalyst for a lot of other shit, and finding out about the core transfer actually fucking Jiang Cheng up. Which, it turns out, Wei Wuxian kind of knew would happen, he just thought he could get away with not dealing with it if he kept the secret better.

Wei Wuxian can't escape his sacrifices and his actions having an effect on those around him, the ones who care and the ones he cares about, or even the object of his sacrifice, and he really does have to have that hammered home.

He also deals with growth related to his pride and arrogance. He learns how to be weak, he learns how to have alternate forms of strength, he learns how to let others in, and let others stand with him.

Most of this is related to Lan Zhan, and I've already covered it at least somewhat in another meta, but it relates back to this, because those are two driving forces behind his sacrificial nature.

If Wei Wuxian is allowed to be weak, is allowed to hesitate, is allowed to go to others for help, is allowed to look for alternative solutions, that sets a better precedent for cutting down on the habitual self-sacrifice tendencies.

Additionally, he learns that others can and will stand with him in his sacrifices, when they are necessary.

Look at the way he pushes Lan Zhan away on the steps of Jinlintai, but Lan Zhan steps back toward him, and draws his sword, and declares his love before heaven and earth, saying in as many words that Wei Wuxian need not walk his path alone, and they fight together.

And the next time Wei Wuxian goes to sacrifice? In the Burial Mounds? He doesn't even think twice before volunteering Lan Zhan to stand with him. His entire plan revolves around the idea that Lan Zhan will stand with him--without even consulting Lan Zhan--and in doing so, they may be able to prevent Wei Wuxian from actually sacrificing his life.

Already we see him internalising a lot of that growth. He doesn't need to grandstand or prove himself; he doesn't care what everyone there thinks of him, and for the ones he does care about he is secure in their regard for him. He doesn't first attempt to sacrifice himself and be bait to draw the fierce corpses away while everyone including Lan Zhan runs off. He doesn't have to be convinced to accept Lan Zhan as part of his plan. He doesn't have to have Lan Zhan simply stay behind and then deal with the addition of him later.

Compare, if you will, the Xuanwu cave. Wei Wuxian absolutely expected everyone else to leave while he drew its attention, and Lan Zhan staying was not part of his original plan. Yes, later on they attacked the Xuanwu together, but that was different entirely. At first, he was just being bait to get everyone else to safety.

In the Burial Mounds? He's already worked Lan Zhan having his back into his plans.

It's still a sacrifice, but he's come a really long way about it.

So now that we've mitigated some of the sacrificial tendencies, modulated their effects on his choices, we come down to the "live for you instead of die for you" issue.

My positing that Wei Wuxian has reached this point by the end of the story has a lot more to do with having seen the patterns of his growth, watching the way he interacted with Jiang Cheng regarding the issue of the golden core transfer being revealed, watching the way he interacted with Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan in general evolve, and watching him allow himself to have more and more attachments by the end of the story. And getting the overall vibe that living is now important, and there are things to live for in this world now that he's back in it.

However, if I had to narrow it down to one moment to exemplify this, I would point to the moment where he's caught around the neck by Jin Guangyao.

Wei Wuxian absolutely knows that if Lan Zhan sheathes Bichen, they're all fucked. Lan Zhan could easily take everyone here who would fight him, but not if he sheathes his sword and seals his spiritual power. And at this point it's increasingly likely that if they let themselves be captured they're simply not going to make it out alive. None of them. No matter what Jin Guangyao says.

Lan Zhan's best chance for survival and Jin Guangyao's best chance at being brought to justice/captured are one and the same in this moment--Lan Zhan keeping his sword, and either taking Jin Guangyao down himself or escaping to go fetch the assembled sect leaders and such at Lotus Pier.

Wei Wuxian knows this. It's why he begs Lan Zhan to be okay with his death and to do this Right Thing anyway.

Lan Zhan is not, and does not.

I don't think Wei Wuxian is surprised by this, to be fair.

But he could have ensured it would happen. He could have ensured that Jin Guangyao would go down. He could have ensured, more importantly, that Lan Zhan lived. He could have prevented Lan Zhan from sheathing Bichen to begin with.

He could have sacrificed himself.

It would have been incredibly easy at that point. All he had to do was fight back instead of hold still. Jin Guangyao was not bluffing, probably, though he just as surely knew if Wei Wuxian died then he was next, he counted on everyone wanting Wei Wuxian alive more than they wanted him dead. So if Wei Wuxian had tried to fight back or escape, he would have died.

Jin Guangyao would have been shocked, very very briefly. The resulting chaos would have seen everyone in custody who needed to be. Perfect.

And, you know, Lan Zhan would have been once more Wei-Ying-less.

Wei Wuxian very notably does not make this sacrifice. Even if it means they get captured. Even if it means they likely die together instead of only one of them dying. Even if that math is terrible on the surface of it.

He doesn't make Lan Zhan watch him die again. He doesn't presume that his loss means nothing. He doesn't presume that his life is not worth it, that his sacrifice is worth it.

Wei Wuxian actively chooses to live. He chooses to live for Lan Zhan. For the chance that they will both find a way out, and if they don't, then they are together in this and that matters more.

And he keeps making that choice. At no point in the confrontation with Jin Guangyao, for all those hours and hours and hours of back and forth and monologuing in that damned temple, does Wei Wuxian try to grandstand or throw himself sacrificially into the mix in any way. He is always working with everyone there to whatever extent possible, to the ends that everyone (including people he cedes the political superiority to) decides upon. He releases ownership of the situation, of needing to fix the situation, of needing to fix the situation by giving himself up.

I've been writing this so long I'm starting to lose the threads of my own thoughts, but yeah.

By the end, I think Wei Wuxian learns a lot and grows a lot and finally hits the point that Jiang Cheng hit years and years prior.

"I never thought I'd be worth the work it would take to piece myself together," but he was confronted with the idea of it again and again until it had to stick, and so he did. For Lan Zhan, for Lan Sizhui, for Jin Ling, for the other juniors.

I do think there will always be some element of self-sacrifice to Wei Wuxian's character that remain unchanged. He is a caretaker and a fixer at the heart of him. He is a big brother and I think maturity has only expanded that trait. He's also notably not a leader, and to some extent he does belong to himself both more and less than he ever could before his death.

But that doesn't have to be a bad thing. And it doesn't negate him embracing the idea of living for the ones he loves, getting better for the ones he loves, and letting them keep him in their lives.

I'd like to think that this piece of character growth is another significant thing in favour of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng being able to forge not just a healthy relationship but a healthier relationship post-canon than they may have ever had before, or at least in a very long time.

#you would not believe how long this took to write out #why am i like this #my meta #unedited #the untamed #the untamed meta #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #wei ying #wei wuxian #sacrifice #i may or may not be accepting constructive criticism at this time #this whole thing was probably terribly redundant but i'm too lazy to reread it and edit

81 notes · View notes

lansizhuis · 3 years

Note

Hi.....If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite MXTX characters (top 5 from each novel)? And why? I'm sorry if you've answered this question before.

hi! biggest apologies on a super late reply (i only logged back in rn whelp) —

and ahh fav?? hmm i think 5 from each is a lot bc while i do like almost all the chars, it takes quite a big thing for me to consider them as a “fav” so i’ll just give my top 5 overall haha

5. SHEN QINGQIU (svss): there’s something about his ability to compartmentalize and yet still have empathy that i love. it’s also how he learned from his past mistakes and continued on to be better (a journey he shares very well w/ LBH) that made me love his character.

4. LAN JINGYI (mdzs): my sunshine, my son, my favorite coined term of “the most un-lan lan in the history of lans” — imma give an abridged version and it’s basically how he stays true to himself no matter what and the idealism that still sticks w/ is fascinating to see if it’ll hold up once he grows older. (i made a gush post about him before lemme dig that up and reblog hah)

3. XIE LIAN (tgcf): ohgoood there’s something about characters who were so high up and then fell so damn low but managed to pick themselves up that speaks to my core?? it was so nice to witness his story from the idealisms of his youth, how time & experience made him realized how everyone is but a speck in the wide universe, and how he coped w/ what he can control whilst not losing who he is along the way.

2. WEI WUXIAN (mdzs): my og faaav!! i absolutely love shameless mcs that are confident af and very capable on a specific thing but a mess on everything else aka that fits him perfectly. it’s mostly about his resilience (from an orphan, losing his home multiple times, decorated as the big bad villain, etc) and how his kindness was there at his core that he won’t let injustice pass but without the annoying idealism of typical shounen protags. he really deserved that second chance. /sobs

1. SHI WUDU (tgcf): and ofc the man, the myth, the legend in my eyes haha i believe i also made a post gushing why exactly i love him but abridged version here — he was an extremely fascinating character!!! was what he did to he xuan wrong? yes! would a lot of us have done the same thing to save the one we love, the one we consider our world, the one we raised? also, interestingly, yes! [incoherent screams] i have so much to say about him but hhhnnggg lemme just slide the character exploration fic i have of him as a summary lmao

#answers #thank you so much for this amazing q!!!#thanad-zid

42 notes · View notes

hunxi-guilai · 4 years

Text

space, skin, muscle, bone: extra commentary

okay so I’ve received such a wealth of wonderful responses to this fic, which is wild because I wasn’t sure for a while if I was even going to post it

and of course, because I am Like This As A Person, there are a lot of thoughts I had kicking around backstage (so to speak) while writing this fic, so I figured I’d make a post about them if anyone’s interested in, uh, reading even more about it?

A truly baffling amount of self-indulgent nerding-out below the cut:

the title(s)

Well first of all, this fic was almost titled “the rite of movement” because Hozier’s “Movement” was exceedingly appropriate for this fic, but I fought off the urge for two days and I’m glad I won.

for the record, I love Hozier and his music dearly, but his songs are vastly overrepresented in a lot of contemporary choreography and I just couldn’t get past the instinctive cringe element there

I’m actually really happy with the title I came up with in the end, which I explained briefly at the beginning of the fic:

the title is a reference to a conceptualization of the four levels of contact improvisation: negative space (moving in the spaces left by your partner), skin (skin-to-skin contact), muscle/flesh (deeper pressure, light application of force), and bone (weightsharing)

since to me, the levels of contact improv perfectly parallel Wei Wuxian’s side of the story. The levels of contact improv are also levels of trust, as you work from not touching your partner at all to giving them your entire bodyweight, which, um — (gestures vaguely at emotional arcs).

Once I figured out the title of the fic, I tried to work the concepts in on a word-choice level as well:

Wei Wuxian’s relationship to Lan Wangji starts out in negative space. He is aware of him, but only from a distance:

Wei Wuxian is aware of Lan Wangji, in the way that most people are aware of the moon—as a presence luminous, beautiful, and unreachable.

(also — hah — space)

And later, when Wei Wuxian talks to Nie Huaisang and realizes that he’s been four degrees of separation from Lan Wangji this entire time, we find out that the two of them have been in orbit around each other, and now are finally meeting.

Then there’s skin — just the lightest touch. The skin level of contact improv isn’t supposed to carry any intent or direction behind it; it’s really just that: contact. As a result, the first time Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji meet in person (and argue for forty-five minutes), we get this moment:

As he passes Wei Wuxian’s phone back to him, their fingers brush, and Wei Wuxian feels a thrill race up his spine despite his resolution to stay cool.

The muscle/flesh level of contact improvisation carries just enough force that you can, say, guide your partner’s arm or shape their body. For me, this felt like the push-pull relationship present in their text threads, as they guide each other’s thoughts, shape each other’s understanding of the show/characters.

Finally, bone is the level where you have to completely trust your contact improv partner, giving them most if not all of your bodyweight. The idea is, if they weren’t there, you’d fall.

There's a lot of beautiful weightsharing in the choreography of the act two pas de deux (you can watch an abridged/modified version here if you, understandably, aren’t ready to welcome a two-hour contemporary ballet into your life at this particular moment), but textually, the wink-wink-nudge-nudge line I slipped in was this one at the very end of Wei Wuxian’s chapter, when he figures out that he’s been in love with his co-star this entire time:

How could he have missed this, now that this truth is singing its way through the very marrow of his bones?

MEANWHILE WITH LAN WANGJI’S CHAPTER:

“beauty, love, (the absence of) tragedy” was the runner-up for fic title; I considered making these two chapters separate works in the same series, but I personally don’t think either story is complete without the other half, so I kept it one work with two chapters.

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian have this text exchange in the first chapter of the story, where Lan Wangji writes:

Lan Wangji: That’s all ballet is.

Beauty.

Love.

Tragedy.

If I’m dancing a gay love story, I don’t want it to be doomed.

and to me, that was the heart of Lan Wangji’s journey in this fic — he has to grapple with the ripple effects of an unspoken heartbreak in the nebulous past, and the way that it burns him still, resulting in his subsequent wariness and tendency to keep others at a distance. Lan Wangji’s emotional arc, then, revolved around building a new relationship of intimacy and trust and respect and admiration and eventually, love. His performance of the Swan/Stranger is, in a sense, a reclamation of all the hurt that past heartbreak did to him, and it all comes back when wangxian finally (FINALLY) kiss:

It’s beauty, it’s love, it’s motion and synchronicity; it’s freedom, it’s flight, and the absence of tragedy.

cannot believe that I had to kick wangxian from City Center all the way to Lincoln Center to get them to kiss oh my god

character trivia

I didn’t extensively plot out most of the biographical details of this fic — especially when it came to backstory, I wanted to leave as much of it ambiguous as possible — but here are some things I did have in mind and would like you all to know:

Nie Huaisang gets started on stage management because he stage manages Wei Wuxian’s shows in high school

when the two of them go to school in NYC, Nie Huaisang goes to NYU Tisch for stage management and Wei Wuxian to Juilliard for performance

Nie Huaisang is, in fact, stealthily matchmaking wangxian in the background of this fic. it’s not his fault Wei Wuxian is just that oblivious

Wei Wuxian’s dance background is modeled vaguely off of Scott Ambler’s, who didn’t start dancing until he was 19 but then proceeded to go to Rambert (casual) and eventually originate the role of the Prince

Xiao Xingchen also has a dance background but decided he liked baking more

Xiao Xingchen works at Nie Mingjue’s cafe

Lan Xichen is responsible for the increased foliage in Nie Mingjue’s cafe

Song Lan works some ridiculously high-powered job downtown

Song Lan also wears a leather jacket and has a motorcycle. This isn’t relevant to anything at all, I just decided that the world needed Song Lan in a leather jacket on a motorcycle

at some point after the events of the fic, wangxian go on a date in Fort Tryon Park where they wander through the Met Cloisters, giggle in the gardens, and generally hold hands like the besotted nuisances they are

consulted reading

Some folks have asked about the articles Lan Wangji references, so here they are, plus some others that were bopping around in the back of my head but didn’t directly quote:

“The Queering of Swan Lake” by Kent G. Drummond

“‘Glitz and Glamour,’ or Atomic Rearrangment: What do Dance Audiences Want?” by Dee Reynolds

“Closets Full of Dances: Modern Dance’s Performance of Masculinity and Sexuality” by Susan Leigh Foster

”The Ballerina’s Phallic Pointe” by Susan Leigh Foster

“Queer Swans: Those Fabulous Avians in the Swan Lakes of the Ballets Trockaderos and Matthew Bourne” by Susanne Juhasz

So many of the conversations and analysis that wangxian engage in about Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake come directly out of my conversations I’ve had with friends about this ballet. You know who you are. This couldn’t have happened without you.

inspirations

Gosh, I owe the existence of this fic to so many others that I’ve read before and showed me that it was, like, possible to write a modern dance/theater/performance AU. Primarily:

through a window softly by @impossibletruths (CQL)

You Dance Dreams by lady_ragnell (Les Mis)

BE by tothewillofthepeople (Les Mis)

I bet Nureyev never had to deal with this shit. by cobweb_diamond (Inception)

This isn’t a reading list, by any means — I just feel the need to cite my sources and pay my respects to the giants who came before.

WHEW, okay, glad I got all that off my chest! If you’re still reading this, my goodness, I’m flattered and flabbergasted that you haven’t fallen off the ride yet.

Much love <3

#perhaps I will finally know peace #MB Swan Lake AU #this fic truly came out of nowhere and ended up being one of the most personal things I've ever written #so hearing back from people how much they enjoyed it #really means a lot <3

229 notes · View notes

vermillioncrown · 3 years

Note

(I asked the question but I don't actually read a lot of AUs except if they have SIs.) ...ZYX in a daemon AU of MDZS?

little soul critters, etiquette on interacting with them, all that jazz? i don’t really have the source material down and read one (1) fanfic (Daemonic Cultivation by CaptainJojo), of which i’ll be borrowing their daemons bc the work has already been done hah (daemons named after their weapons)

zyx technically is an adult. while people aren’t stagnant, adults are much more stable in their sense of self. it baffles her family (adding to the inherent ‘wrongness’ they sense about her) that from birth, her daemon has never changes from its form as a large cat. kitten.

it only grows into a larger cat as she also grows older. (no one else recognizes it given the the lack of contemporary knowledge, but she can tell from a previous life’s constant perusal of cat videos that this... thing, her soul?, is a giant maine coon.) of course it fits. she’s been teased her entire first life that she was a prissy, capricious cat.

like a cat, zyx is affectionate and unconcerned with boundaries around those she trusts. wary around strangers. independent. natural curiosity and engagement towards the world. superficially, enjoys water, lounging around, warm sunbeams, and the simple pleasures. vocal.

what she wants and what she must be have never been more at odds, with the existence of a daemon.

having her soul and truth bared like that does not jive with zyx at all. she spent most of her adult life hiding behind ostensible openness, until the other party thinks a little harder and realizes they’ve learned nothing at all. with her soul on view at all times, any pretense she puts forth seems useless. people know when she doesn’t like them. when she’s uncomfortable with them. her daemon just watches with unblinking eyes, never making a sound, refusing to let anything more be revealed to the world. (daemons are usually opposite gender of their person, right? ugh. fuck. another reason to never speak)

most things still end up like in dbd, except the ‘offness’ from zyx is much more apparent from how they interact with their daemon compared to the norm. the lan brothers are much more upset by the debacle of their first meeting (hulang the giant cat slinks around them defensively and warily, wanting to be as far from them and their daemons as possible despite the lack of any negativity from the lan daemons)

jzx’s daemon and hulang settled on a non-aggression pact as their humans blundered through the start of friendship. and at hulang’s lack of ill (or any) intent towards jzx, the pheasant suihua settles into a comfortable bird loaf in hulang’s vicinity. over the course of the week, the distance between bird and cat loaf shrinks even as the two daemons put up the pretense of ignoring each other.

at the cloud recesses, after zyx overhears wwx’s careless comments on the first day, hulang refuses to be seen by wwx or his daemon. wwx’s daemon suibian still shifts as it is settling, but no matter suibian’s cheery friendliness hulang will hunker down in a corner, aclove, or somewhere and just stare suibian down silently. zyx takes to walking quickly through the grounds, sticking to the paths where hulang can dart away in the foliage. at least one of them can hide.

probably be easier to make friends with lwj. can’t really misinterpret a tiny bunny bichen willingly parting from her human to approach another person’s daemon. in the reference fanfic, most of gusu lan has feline daemons. lwj would be experienced enough with pseudo-feline body language that he has a small boost to interacting with zyx via looking at hulang.

there’s stuff. too much stuff. tldr: zyx would be much less ‘friendlier’ (even moreso than currently) because it perpetually feels like she’s naked against her will. or even if she manages to get herself trained enough to put up the pretense of letting her daemon interact with others, it would still be very aloof (like willing to get close and interact, but never willing to touch or communicate more than a few words). but you can’t hold yourself in like that and never relax. the eventual meltdown would be quite explosive. hulang, if pushed too far, will lash out.

#zyx au's #mdzyx #dbd what if #it would def change character dynamics a lot #zyx would hate the fact that it feels like the choice to be herself has been taken away with this soul nakedness 24/7 #getting zyx to a state where hulang is willing to loaf or roll or say a whole sentence is an unspoken competition on shuangfeng #Anonymous #inquiry #yeah the daemon is my cat but bigger #wouldn't ever write this - the interpersonal relations in mdzs are already complicated enough #just borrowing trouble for myself at that point

46 notes · View notes

besanii · 4 years

Note

DH prompt, maybe: after seeing the fire festival, I kinda wanna see the first time LWJ ever managed to fluster WWX? I imagine WWX (and all of their mutual friends) would be absolutely gobsmacked about it after three centuries. Thank you so much for everything you do for us—DH is the absolute highlight of my day and never fails to make me smile. Smugji is a blessing on this Earth XD

Extra 12: Prize | previous parts here

“A-Cheng, A-Xian, good luck!” Jiang Yanli calls from where she’s standing with the rest of the spectators. “And be careful!”

Wei Wuxian waves back at her enthusiastically with his sword aloft, jumping up and down amidst the line-up of competitors in today’s tournament. A red competitor’s headband is tied across his forehead, the ends draping down the length of his back, and he’s swapped out his usual loose, flowing robes for a more form-fitted ones in black and red. He likes these robes, likes the way they look on him, and how easily he can move around in them.

Beside him, Jiang Cheng is also waving at his sister, albeit in a more dignified manner, inching as far away from Wei Wuxian as possible.

“Can you calm down?” he hisses, barely restraining the urge to kick him. “I’m embarrassed just standing next to you.”

“Heh, don’t be so prudish, Jiang Cheng, you’re not even sixty thousand,” Wei Wuxian says. “You’re acting as old as Lan-laotouzi.”

He dances away from Jiang Cheng’s attempted swipe at his head with a laugh, only for a pair of hands to grab him by the shoulders.

“Oops, sorry,” he says, turning around to see who it is. “I didn’t mean to—oh, hey Lan Zhan.”

Lan Wangji looks down at him, bemused, his hands still on Wei Wuxian’s shoulders so he has to crane his neck to look at him over his shoulder.

He’s dressed in white, as always, with a white headband, but like Wei Wuxian has swapped his usual flowing robes for ones that allow more freedom of movement. The shortened hem shows off his unfairly long legs, and the sleeveless outer robe his muscular torso and arms, which suddenly reminds Wei Wuxian of their current position. He twists himself around to face Lan Wangji, breaking free of the hold on his shoulders at the same time, and beams at him.

“Hi, Lan Zhan!” he says. “Ready to lose?”

Jiang Cheng snorts under his breath, but Lan Wangji only raises an eyebrow.

“You believe you’ll win?” He sounds almost curious.

Hah! Little does he know, Wei Wuxian is the best at these games. Undisputed champion in Qing Qiu and Lotus Pier. He grins.

“Wanna bet?” he asks, and waggles eyebrows suggestively. “Loser has to grant the winner one wish.”

Lan Wangji considers this for a moment, expression thoughtful.

“What sort of wish?” he asks.

Wei Wuxian grins confidently. “Anything! As long as it’s within the loser’s power to grant, of course. Don’t worry, I won’t ask you for anything that goes against the laws of the Nine Heavens.”

“Alright,” Lan Wangji agrees finally.

To his credit, Lan Wangji doesn’t look concerned in the slightest. That will change really soon, Wei Wuxian thinks smugly. Once they get into the arena, he won’t know what hit him. He raises his sword in both hands and bows with exaggerated formality.

“Then please go easy on me, Lan-er-dianxia,” he says.

When the gong sounds, all twelve competitors fly up and position themselves on top of the pillars of ice dotting the arena. Wei Wuxian winks at Jiang Cheng from where he’s perched on top of one of the shorter pillars as they draw their swords and wait for the signal to begin. He looks around for Lan Wangji and spots him close by, Bichen’s blade glinting in the sunlight.

Typical Lan Zhan to choose the tallest vantage point. All the better to look down on us from on high.

Not that it matters. Wei Wuxian has a way to deal with him. He might as well start thinking about what embarrassing thing he can get Lan Wangji to do after this is over.

“Rules are simple,” the referee is saying. “Remove the headband from your fellow competitors’ heads. You may use swords, talismans, and spells, as long as it does not endanger the lives of your fellow competitors. You must remain in human form throughout the competition. The last one with their headband still on will be declared the winner.”

Easy. He rolls out his shoulders and neck and bounces a few times on the balls of his feet to loosen up his joints.

As soon as the gong sounds again, he whips out an amplification talisman and torches the pillars surrounding him, melting them enough so that the competitors perched on top of them come crashing down as they crumble. Wei Wuxian darts forward while they get their bearings and undoes their headbands quickly on his way past them. He grins, three headbands in his grasp.

Across the other side of the arena, Jiang Cheng is plucking the headband from another competitor whose lower body has been completely frozen onto the pillar to prevent them from moving. He looks over at Wei Wuxian and raises Sandu in challenge.

With his fire trick used, Wei Wuxian starts jumping between pillars, quick and sure-footed. He trades parries and punches, dodges the occasional fireball—because of course the other competitors would follow suit and favour fire in an arena of ice—all the while keeping an eye out for Lan Wangji. He doesn’t want to knock him out too early in the competition.

Half an incense stick’s worth of time later, there’s just him, Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji left in the arena. He has four headbands, five including his own, Jiang Cheng three, and Lan Wangji four. The ice pillars around them are in various states of collapse, making their footing rather precarious, but they pay it little mind as they size each other up from different corners of the arena.

“Hey Lan Zhan,” he calls, waving his collection of headbands in the air and flashing him a cheeky grin. “Remember our bet! You better prepare yourself, cos I’m not gonna let you off that easy!”

“You talk too much,” Jiang Cheng snorts, and takes into the air.

“Says you!” Wei Wuxian draws a quick sigil in the air and fires it in his direction; it catches Jiang Cheng’s ankle, wrapping around it like a piece of string. “Gotcha!”

He yanks on his end of the spell and the talisman amplifies the force, sending Jiang Cheng crashing into the arena below with an undignified shout. The string shortens as he reels it in like a fishing line while he hops forward to meet it halfway, grinning down at a dishevelled Jiang Cheng covered in snow.

“Thank you,” he says glibly, reaching down and plucking the purple headband from around his head. Jiang Cheng grins.

“No,” he says. “Thank you.”

He grabs hold of Wei Wuxian’s outstretched hand, holding him in place just as a flash of blue skims the side of his head. A moment later, his own red headband flutters down past his nose, piling around his neck. Jiang Cheng releases him with a whoop and flops back on the ground with a satisfied grunt. Wei Wuxian is frozen in place, staring at neat cut through the side of his headband.

What the fuck just happened?

He nearly jumps out of his skin when a pair of hands appear on either side of his head. He whips around to see Lan Wangji standing much too close for comfort, his fingers brushing Wei Wuxian’s neck.

“Wha-What are you doing?” he asks, voice oddly high-pitched, heart racing. His skin feels like it’s on fire where Lan Wangji’s fingers have made contact, and the heat spreads to his ears and neck.

Lan Wangji lifts the headband carefully from around his neck and holds it up in front of him, an strange, unsettling glint in his amber eyes.

“I win,” he says calmly.

Wei Wuxian forces himself to laugh, but it comes out louder than he’d intended, and a lot more hysterical. He hears Jiang Cheng snort; Lan Wangji’s lips twitch.

“Congratulations!” Wei Wuxian says. “Well done! Haha, yes, uh—I can’t believe you and Jiang Cheng teamed up against me—”

He breaks off with a breathy squeak when Lan Wangji steps even closer and he can feel the heat radiating from his body. It may be just his imagination, or a trick of the light, or maybe Wei Wuxian’s vision growing fuzzy around the edges, but Lan Wangji’s eyes have darkened to almost a molten gold as he holds his gaze. It’s suddenly really, really hard to breathe.

He squeezes his eyes shut as Lan Wangji leans in—his body doesn’t seem to be able to do move at all, did Lan Wangji use a freezing spell on him?—and he braces himself for—for something. Except...there’s nothing more than a light tug on his scalp, and then his hair comes tumbling over his shoulders.

“What...?”

He opens his eyes to see a familiar length of red ribbon in Lan Wangji’s hand, along with the red headband, and a look of immense satisfaction in Lan Wangji’s eyes.

“My prize,” he tells him. “As promised.”

And then he turns on his heel and flies out of the arena, leaving Wei Wuxian standing there, flummoxed and speechless, as Jiang Cheng wheezes with laughter on the ground.

// buy me a ko-fi //

#mdzs #wangxian #double happiness verse #雙喜臨門 #my writing #fox prince!wwx #dragon!lwj #the first appearance of our beloved Smugji #WWX has neat little tricks up his sleeve #but LWJ is just a powerhouse #and he bulldozes through everything #also this is like the scene in Pillow Book when they're competing in the Bi Niao Tribe #Bi Yi* Niao #except they're just competing because #idk if there's another prize #WWX should know better than to bet with Smugji lbr #hey nonny nonny #asks

435 notes · View notes

just-absolutely-super · 6 months

Note

OP au crack

Dex: so you can handle the spice Lan, but can you handle the sweetness?

Dex slams a bowl with different types of candy on the table

Lan: hah! Easy, I love candy

Dex: oh really?

Later

Hub: what are you two doing now?

Lan: hey Hub!

Dex: we're testing to see how Lan handles sweet flavor. It's more difficult than you think

Mega: seriously?

Lan: Hub, I know you love sweets, but some of this stuff is almost too much. It makes me nauseous

Mega: it can't be that bad?

Hub tastes one of the super sweet candies

Mega: oh!

Dex: it's like Lan said, it's incredibly sweet. Almost too much

Mega: no, no! This is good!

Dex: huh? You don't feel nauseated?

Mega: no, this is delicious

Lan: should have known you wouldn't think this wasn't too much.

Dex: ..... You two are weird

Dex: So Lan loves spice but can't handle anything too sweet, and Hub loves sweets and can't handle anything too spicy...

Lan: Yep

Mega: Guess so

Dex: For twins, you two can have some major contradictions!

Lan: We get that a lot

#anon #responses #mmbn hc land #crack edition

0 notes

rynne · 3 years

Note

Hi, if you don't mind me asking who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (canon or non-canon)? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hah, that's a lot! I'll just go by the ones I got really fannish about, because I do ship a lot of couples. XD

In roughly chronological order starting about twenty years ago:

Remus/Sirius (Harry Potter)

Kenshin/Kaoru (Rurouni Kenshin)

Cloud/Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII -- my only real enemyship)

Mulder/Scully (The X-Files)

Josh/Donna (The West Wing)

Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade (Star Wars Extended Universe -- though in Star Wars my favorite relationship isn't romantic, it's Luke-Darth Vader father-son)

The Doctor/Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

Kirk/Spock (Star Trek)

Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski (Teen Wolf)

Steve/Tony (Marvel)

Warden/Alistair, Inquisitor/Cullen, and Inquisitor/Solas (Dragon Age)

Crowley/Aziraphale (Good Omens)

Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji (MDZS)

There are also a lot of other things I've shipped over the years, but these were probably the big ones for me. Some of them I've written fanfic for, but for all of them I read a lot of it, and sometimes go back even when I have a new hyperfixation.

#about me #me and my ships #anon #asks

5 notes · View notes

naw-naw-honeyimgood · 3 years

Text

ChengQing (lmao never realized that was their fucking ship name)

so pros of (Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing):

one of the few possible het ships available to mdzs fans like there are all of five named female characters and this is the only one not in an established het pairing. and like sure ive seen yanli w/ someone else a couple times but you CANT put her with JIANG CHENG and i cant say ive ever seen mianmian in a serious relationship in fics with anyone besides either her canon hubby or a chick (usually yanli, wen qing herself, or even sometimes both lmao).

it’s basically written itself in cql!! he has a very obv and clear crush on her, even gives her a comb and offers to help her! she seems interested but the way the storyline went it was simply not meant to be :’(

you get to pair off jiang cheng!! ngl once u finish mdzs its kinda sad for everyone not wangxian (in their generation/above) cuz theyre the only one that get a happy ending. Everyone else is forever alone / depressed / bitter or a combination thereof. so it’s nice to see jiang cheng getting a happy ending!

he... gets... kids...? like ngl as a childless person that is happy to stay that way thats not exactly a pro in my eyes but you might look at his relationship w/ jin ling and say “he’s a great father! he deserves to be a father!” which okay good news! wen qing can bear children!

Now. Cons.

for one thing the fact that you have a lack of options doesnt exactly mean every possible het pairing can have good chemistry even if you change circumstances enough. there comes to a point where certain pairings can only be really viable if one or both of them are ooc.

lets be honest im willing to bet that AT LEAST 80% of the reason cql introduced this ship was because they were not allowed to make the wangxian pair explicitly Together (and i dont even mean anything specifically sexual), and they needed SOME SORT of romance to feature in the story. xuanli doesnt count because theyre an established background ship, the jiang parents dont count as romance, we aint talkin about the villain relationships, and lbr, mianmian already had a lot more signif in cql than mdzs. so it makes sense that they took the arguably most important male chara besides wangxian and made him have a crush on the most important female character that wasnt his SISTER.

what im trying to say is that cql pulled that pairing out of a hat. if you look at canon at ALL i highly doubt there would ever have been feelings, just as there never were. we dont quite know the age dif but we know that wen qing was the older sister and wen ning might have been a bit younger? than the boys? cannot quite remember but we dont know if she was only a year or two older or if it was like. mingjue and huaisang. we dont know! and i canNOT see jiang cheng going for an older chick. also their personalities would clash So Much. she has older sis vibes and not the gentle kind like yanli. she snaps at wen ning’s mumbling and stuff a good couple times- you think she’d tolerate jiang cheng’s emotional immaturity? hah.

this also kinda segues into my main point of: as depressing as it is that jiang cheng is forever alone unless you pair him off... he would honestly put whoever you pair him off with through hell. he’s not nice. so many jiang cheng stans like to argue that he’s a traumatized kid that was raised to channel his emotions through anger (and raises bitterness under his skin like an ugly puppy) but inside he has a heart of gold, and they’re... not exactly wrong! i mean- literally every younger chara is traumatized in some way. but... that doesn’t really... excuse the shit he’s pulled? as much as jiang cheng stans like to forget: jin guangyao was RIGHT when he said that jiang cheng’s insecurities got wei ying killed. his CLOSEST ALLY.

tying back to wen qing we have their actual CANON interactions (or lack thereof). wen qing didn’t exactly protect wei ying and jiang cheng out of the goodness of her heart when lotus pier fell: she was protecting wen ning (her BROTHER) from the repercussions of his own actions by saving wei ying (and Jiang Cheng ig idk he was just there bUT YOUNG MASTER WEI-)

not QUITE sure why she agreed to doing the golden core transfer (maybe scientific curiousity? i mean she had an unproven medical theory and here was a volunteer) but it def wasnt For Jiang Cheng.

and then the next time she saw him? do you guys remember the next time she saw him? it’ was when jiang cheng came up to the burial mounds to kill wen ning’s corpse and tell wei ying to turn over the wens.

KEEP IN MIND that jiang cheng KNOWS wen ning and qing SAVED HIS FUCKING ASS after lotus pier (not How but he KNOWS THIS) and yet he still tells wei ying to hand them over.

he makes wei ying choose between what amounts to the cultivation world and his morals.

that does not a good healthy relationship make. also again their personalities would clash like so bad. i love wen qing way more but you have to admit her personality is super similar to madame yu’s. and we already agreed that jiang cheng was traumatized as a kid. im not saying fengmian didnt have a hand in it but you gotta admit a good amount was madam yu and her insecurites and accusations she piled on her son. and you wanna pair him up romantically with someone who won’t take his shit and smile? will call him out? HAH.

im not saying this because i think jiang cheng should be with a softer personalitied (guy) like lan xichen or wen ning or huaisang because god knows those pairings have their own issues. im just saying that in canon-verse all i can ship whole-heartedly is jiang cheng / therapy, but since there is not therapy in canon-verse, or even if there WAS then there’s no way he’d admit to needing it, then yeah he can stay single for all his bitter life. better that than making jiang parent relationship 2.0 like fuck.

(this of course means that in modern aus where he DOES get therapy i am Open)

also real quick but jiang cheng was NOT a good parent to jin ling and i will not take constructive criticism like sure he was better than the jiang parents and the lan parents but that is SUCH a low fuckin bar and it’s a fact that in chapter 9 jin ling literally thinks “if I can’t slice off her head with this blow, I will die here- death it is then!!” (taken gratefully from the exiled rebels scanlation) and that is NOT a healthy-minded child.

the only healthy minded children is like. jingyi. and probably sizhui. although i am not here for the way the lan sect raise children but sometimes you have to take what you can get.

also i want you to look me in the eye and tell me that wen qing could and would do anything besides throw down with someone that so much as looked at her brother wrong

because jiang cheng apparently decided to lay the blame for jin zixuan’s death at wen ning’s feet (which is incredibly ironic considering he blames wei ying for yanli’s death??? like i feel like he could stand to use his brain cells a bit more??) and repeatedly tried to kill him.

#anyway this has been my ted talk #i dunno im just getting kinda tired of a certain writer and their idealized world but eh #it happens a lot too and damn cql certainly made wen qing more waif-ey #i didnt and do not want to get into the implied xianqing either do not start #im just saying that jiang cheng has a lot of flaws that people like to ignore a lot #this is true for many other charas too tbf #jiang cheng #not the angel you like to think he is #wen qing #not exactly the forgiving type #like i said tho they do work well together in modern aus with therapy available #and also tbf this isnt exactly my only issue with this author's fic(s) either lmao but hey #jiang cheng the prat #always ranks p high in my grievances #esp considering its a post-canon fix-it type so jiang cheng still did All That #also in any case this author seems determined to pair off like everyone into mostly het ships #mdzs #this is not for jiang cheng stans lmao #sorry ive been awake for like mayn hours and just got some difficul news and had Thoughts

10 notes · View notes

ellayuki · 3 years

Text

03.11.20

The Untamed / MDZS / CQL / Nie Mingjue POV / Nie Huaisang / (implied) XiSang

"You used to be better at hiding that huge crush of yours," Nie Mingjue says, entering his brother's day room just in time to see him turning slightly green while looking at his breakfast. Hah, serves the brat right for getting so drunk at last night's banquet.

Nie Huaisang raises his head slightly, and the look in his eyes is apprehensive. "What are you talking about, Dage?" he asks, and even his voice sounds like he might just puke, for a variety of reasons.

Mingjue steps close to the low table and takes a seat opposite his brother. He pours himself a cup of Huaisang's morning tea before he answers. "You were composing sonnets, as I recall," he says, watching his brother's reaction. He sees the exact moment Huaisang's shoulders freeze and gather up around his ears. He continues, because he has Elder Brother Privileges, and one of them is to tease relentlessly (as rare an occurrence as it might be). "In front of the entire contingent, might I add."

Huaisang blinks up at him, eyes wide and terrified. "I did no such thing." It almost sounds like a whine.

Mingjue laughs, because oh, he very much did. "Poor Xichen. I've never seen him quite so flustered." Which, also true. It takes a lot to ruffle Lan Xichen's feathers, even more so to make the man publicly break that perfectly calm demeanor. It was absolutely hilarious to watch, honestly. Mingjue is a little bit proud of his little brother, even if the brat was drunk off his ass.

Huaisang groans, and buries his face, now blazing red, into his hands. Even his ears are red. "I am never showing my face in public again," he laments, and what can Nie Mingjue do but laugh?

"You'll be there at this afternoon's hunt," he tells his brother as he stands up, and ignores the pained "Dage" he gets as an answer. "You'll be there, Huaisang, end of discussion."

He doesn't wait to hear his brother's wailing reply.

#The Untamed #MDZS #Nie Mingjue #Nie Huaisang #XiSang #CQL #by moi #fic #my fic #daily2020 #UntamedFics

57 notes · View notes

myfriendsarerealidiots · 4 years

Text

Comparing Adaptations

‘Kay so I went on one of my whims again and did something stupid. Couple weeks or so ago, I wasn’t really in the mood to watch anime so I opened up Netflix and watched a Cdrama that I wanted to watch for a while now.

That Cdrama was ‘The Untamed’ which, prior to me watching it and doing said whim, I thought was just your typical historic Cdrama. Oh boy I was wrong. As I was watching it, I was thinking to myself, “This show’s really selling itself off as BL.” Which, I found out after finishing it was because it is BL. Hah...and that was just the start of it.

As I was doing my ‘Post-show research,’ I found out that it was based of a novel, called ‘Mo Dao Zu Shi’or as translated by the people on the internet as ‘Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.’ Said novel had 2 more adaptations along with ‘The Untamed’ which were a manhua and a donghua. So me being me, I decided to watch the donghua adaptation and read both the og novel and manhua.

So how I went through this was...

The Untamed (2019)

The Donghua aka Anime I guess

The Manhua which I read while having class (such a responsible student aren’t I)

The original novel

All hail this person who has too much free time on her hands.

Anyways, as it says on the tin, I’ll be comparing the 4 adaptations/versions of the story and see what changes between them as well as the pros and cons. (Wow I sound so professional)

Some background of myself just to avoid confusion

I am not a mega hardcore Fujoshi. I don’t really enjoy reading smut, nor am I old enough to do so bear that in mind

I have 7 years worth of Chinese lessons under my belt which means I barely understand a thing and that I can get some of the jokes like how Wei Ying’s sword is called ‘Sui Bien’ and it’s funnier to hear in Chinese. In other words, compared to like actual Chinese people who live in China, I pretty much have the knowledge of a 10 year old.

The versions of the Manhua and Novel that I read were translated in English so somethings might have been lost in translation.

I have a bit of a goldfish brain so forgive me if I wrote something wrong or forgot the name of a certain character, most likely I will look it up to correct it but if I don’t...well sorry.

I am writing my opinions on each version as I finish them, so if they don’t link up to the original that’s the reasoning behind it.

All of these are my opinions and thoughts on the story. You are not entitled to follow them if you disagree. I personally believe that everyone has a voice of their own and they should use it. (Even though I don’t half of the time.)

Slight Spoiler Warning

I will be breaking down some of the scenes and characters for my comparisons so please keep that in mind.

The Untamed (2019)

As this was my first exposure to the story, I didn’t know what to expect. I loved everything about it except for the fact that literally half of the show was spent in the past, building context for what was happening in the present.

The characters were lovable and all had distict personalities, especially Wei Ying and Lan Zhan which I guess makes sense since they’re the main characters (their actors are also cute and have good chemistry.) Speaking of characters, Yanli has a more forward role in the story here compared to the other versions. The way certain characters were introduced was different too. Since it’s live action, it’s also harder to show things like extreme blushing and such so it makes Lan Zhan look very stoic and way more unexpressive here than in the other versions.

The soundtrack is nice to listen to, especially with the 2 mains singing the theme song together it’s so cute and gives it another meaning in itself. Although, I do wonder how that poor bamboo flute Wei Ying made in like 2 mins plays decent sounding music. Chen Qing(is this the name of it?), the flute he uses after his trip to the Burial Grounds has the same sound quality as that bamboo flute which is just, “how???”

They took out most of the extreme BL!!! I feel like that is the biggest difference between this version and all the rest. I know they did that to appeal to more people but it does remove some of the context to things. That doesn’t mean the moments that were kept in weren’t cute though. It did make the pair look more plantonic than romantic.

As for the story itself, as a story on its own, it’s nice, as an adaptation that’s where the line gets blurry but it leans more towards the good side. They did indeed change some things, made them work better with the medium than if they didn’t.

An example I can place is the mask. Where the other versions used white make up with oddly placed red circles around the eyes, this one used a mask instead. I agree with the choice they made, seeing as they removed the fact that Mo Xuanyu was homosexual and so the make up wouldn’t make sense. It also looks nicer than what I imagined what could’ve happened with they kept with the make up. They do make a reference to this in the show when Jin Ling and Wei Ying have a conversation in Carp Tower. “You’ve seen my face right?” “How do I know? Your face is always caked in make up or covered by that mask.”

Another issue I had which I’ll touch on later was the first episode—I had no idea what was going on for those 40 minutes of screentime.

Donghua

As of writing this post, season 3 of this has yet to come out.

My first reaction to this was “Man, the animation’s pretty, and they made Wei Ying look scarier.” Watching stuff at 12 in the morning isn’t the best thing but that’s what I do.

Anywho, this version made Wei Ying really attracted to going down the path of ‘evil’ compared to the other versions. I don’t really understand why they made this change...but they did so we have to deal with that. And his eyes glow red!! It makes him look scary and cool at the same time. I love it!!

The transitions between certain events were a bit weird to say the least. For example, at the end of episode 2/3 Wei Ying gets forcibly dragged into the Cloud Recesses and the episode ends there. By the next episode, we’re 16/23/13 however many years in the past. This makes it really confusing for someone who hasn’t watched or read any other version of the story. It definitely made me confused and I already finished one.

While ‘The Untamed’ told us everything in one long flashback, the donghua broke it up into small chunks placed whenever information was needed. I don’t think that was a good idea, but then I also think it was a better decision than what they did for the Cdrama. As I watched this adaptation, I found myself confused from time to time because what happened in the prior episode didn’t always match what happened in the current episode like I mentioned earlier.

As for the artstyle, personally, I think some of the characters look similar minus the hair. However, I do like the little ways they made Lan Zhan express his feelings towards Wei Ying.

Speaking of which, when I first saw them together in this version in the forest near the Goddess Temple, I had to do a bit of a double take because of the height difference which wasn’t so evident in ‘The Untamed’. I soon found out that Lan Zhan was taller than Wei Ying before and after he gets reincarnated(?) Prior, it was just a small gap of 2cm which later turned to 6cm after possessing Mo Xuanyu.

I didn’t notice their height gaps while watching ‘The Untamed’ because Wei Ying’s actor, Xiao Zhan, is taller than Lan Zhan’s actor, Wang Yi Bo by about 2 inches which is like 5 cm? and so they had to do some weird thing with platforms to make Xiao Zhan look shorter in comparison.

Soundtrack wise, I personally think that ‘The Untamed’ was better in that sense. Where it had an amazing souding flute, this one had minor earrape in a nutshell.

This version made itself, in my eyes look more like a historical fighting anime as opposed to the BL vibes I was getting from ‘The Untamed’ and the other versions. They added a lot of action scenes and made the mystery more interesting for me. Along with this, the overall look and feel of this made it seem like it came from a completely different source material.

Manhua

Small FYI, as of writing this post the Manhua is at 147 Chapters.

(I should’ve kept up the trend and got a screenshot from that scene in the Manhua but I didn’t so here we are with gay rabbits.)

As your local internet friend who reads more manga than normal books nowadays, I enjoyed reading the manhua and finished it in a couple days.

Compared to the first 2 versions here, these last 2 are both things that you have to read to get through, albeit one has pictures and one doesn’t.

While normally, one would read silently, I like listening to music while I do. And seeing as the OST of ‘The Untamed’ sounds really nice, I listened to it while reading both the manhua and novel when I could.

This one brought out the BL elements that were missing from the first 2. They gave Wei Ying and Lan Zhan a lot of kissing or just straight up affectionate scenes which I think ties in with the general theming of the original novel more.

As this one is probably the closest of the adaptations to the original, it’s the least confusing to read, although that might’ve been influenced by my experiencing the story for the third time at this point. I say that, however, there were many story elements that weren’t present in either one prior to this.

Examples this can be seen with their collecting of body parts that belonged to the former Nie Sect Leader. In ‘The Untamed’ they find the sword spirit which guides them through the rest of the story. In the Donghua adaptation, they get the arm, but also get the head of the the Jin with the hundred holes curse which was an original addition. Here, they get the arm from Mo Manor, find the other one then find the torso and so on before finding the head in Jin GuangYao’s possession.

The flashbacks in this version were also executed really well, in my opinion, as it doesn’t feel super confusing while reading it and it gives just enough information to help the events unfold. It also gives us a chance to see how much of an ass(sorry) Wei Ying was when he was the Yiling Patriach from his own perspective as well as give us a moment of WangXian in the middle of all that chaos.

Novel

Here’s a picture of gay rabbits for everyone.

At this point, I was switching between the novel and the Manhua to read whichever one I wanted at any given time which might have blurred my sense of what belonged in each one so I’ll try my best to make sure.

Since this one is the original source material, it was clear from the get go that this will be the one with the least confusing version of events and the most amount of detail.

I was surprised on how close the manhua and ‘The Untamed’ was to the novel. Although, the former condensed the mystery to fit within the timeframe while the latter hasn’t finished just yet.

Personally, I like this author, and will probably read more of her works further down the line. Even though the version I read was in english, I still could feel the meaning behind certain aspects which I think shows her skill as an author.

The novel clearly shows the mischief that goes through Wei Ying’s head and their gradual (I say gradual but I think Lan Zhan just snapped) change of attitudes towards each other.

Arc One- Mo Manor

Past here I’ll break down the first arc of each one because I think all of them did it in relatively different ways. Be warned for spoilers if you haven’t watched or read all of them.

The Untamed (2019)

Out of all of these versions, this one definitely had me scratching my head in confusion the most even after watching it a second time once I finished the entire show.

As the only version that had the curse issued at the start as a moving factor of the story as well as the Yin Iron which was specifically made for this version, it didn’t explain enough at the start.

There were many things I could say were wrong about this beginning, from starting at a flashback to not properly introducing us to our characters but the biggest problem in my mind was the lack of explanation at the present.

Like I mentioned, starting at a flashback is a terrible idea as it gives the viewer high expectations only for it to be crushed the second it ends. Here, it shows a small portion of the battle at the Nightless City without much context then it quickly changes to 16 years later with a seemingly random group of people.

Another issue is the amount of useless characters who were introduced. In the other versions, there were only 2 Lan disciples who were given names and were introduced properly while here there were more than I want to count. Add to that the one telling stories about the YiLing Patriarch and the weird guy walking around with a flag, and you got yourself total confusion.

Donghua

This one was slightly less confusing to watch. As it starts with a clip of Wei Ying commanding corpses which matches the overall feel of the donghua. The rumors that he died stretched over the time skip and we meet this version of Mo Xuanyu who is caked with make up, whether or not he was a cut-sleeve (gay) in this version, I forgot.

It fully explains the curse and instead of having a couple of Lan disciples just standing there watching, we get to focus on the 2 important ones, Lan Sizhui and Lan JiYing. It gives us a slightly deeper insight into Wei Ying’s mind, as he states ‘you got the wrong one,’ just after being reincarnated, indicating that he isn’t as vicious as painted by the first few minutes of the show. Like the other versions, they also show how he considers the cons of using his demonic abilities and that Sizhui would probably tell on him to Lan Zhan, meaning that Sizhui was a keen, observant young man.

Manhua and the Novel

As for the introductions, these two were very similar. Both have the rumors of the Yiling Patriarch across the screen as we get further down the story and meet our main character.

It gets the details from the Donghua adaptation and mixes it with more information to create a more detailed account of what was happening, also making this Wei Ying seem smarter compared to his counterparts in other versions. He also hesitates more on showing his abilities, knowing that he’s going to be caught if he does.

Final Thoughts

As of writing this, I’m only halfway through the novel but it covers the portion until where the manhua is currently at. I would finish reading it before posting this but it would take too long and probably make this post even longer than it currently is, which isn’t such a good idea. If I had much more patience and effort I would really like to break down each arc and their differences from one another but I can’t be bothered right now. (Sorry)

I can safely say that in terms of adaptations, ‘The Untamed’ is relatively close to the novel, albeit a very condensed version. As flashback filled as it is, it wasn’t very confusing to watch past the first two episodes.

The Donghua adaptation takes several liberties, going more of an action oriented route instead of the calmer more, I wouldn’t say love but character oriented novel.

The manhua is definitely the closest to the novel, so if you really don’t want to read a lot of words, and I mean a lot of words, then go ahead and read it.

What else do I have to say...if you’re new to the story, welcome, if you’re a veteran who’s been here longer than me, sorry for taking up space on your feed. And congrats for making it to the end.

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #manhua #donghua #cdrama #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wei ying #lan zhan #fujoshi #comparisons #mdzs #wangxian #yiling patriarch #yiling lao zu #hanguang jun

48 notes · View notes

ouyangzizhensdad · 3 years

Note

19 & 25 for salty ask (￣ε￣＠)

What is the one thing you hate most about your fandom?

I don’t know if I can pinpoint one thing that I hate the most (except perhaps the easy answer of, like, the fact that people cannot keep CQL stuff out of the MDZS tags).

I guess that one of them would that like people take the “there does not exist a True Reading/a Single Interpretation to a text” to the dumb extreme of like “anything goes because I just need to say that that’s how I see it 🙃 and all of our readings are all equally Valid”. Please, you still need to be able to justify and support that reading beyond “well that’s just how I prefer to think about this/that’s My Interpretation 🙃” if you want to have any credibility when you say that these readings hold as much water as readings/interpretations for which we are presented arguments supported by what can be found in the text or meta-textual engagements with the text. I couldn’t just show up to the fandom and be like “Zidian is an allegory for the fall from grace and MDZS is rooted in christian ideology, actually” with nothing to support that wild thesis and just expect people to be like “well, I guess we all have different readings of the text, uh, how valid of you.”

But honestly I am Boo Boo the Fool to expect otherwise....

How would you end MDZS/Would you change the ending of MDZS?

That’s a good question because MDZS is such a beast of a book that it’s quite hard to tie it all off and chose what note to end it on. I guess as well that with the extras we have technically “two endings” in the sense of what the novel ends on and what the last extra ends on. And, uh, I’ll probably need to unpack both so let’s get into it (only I would turn a salty ask into meta)

Last chapter: “Wangxian part III”

So after meeting MianMian, Wangxian continue to travel to a small town in their efforts to go where the chaos is. WWX is playing footsie under the table at the wine shop, holding onto LWJ’s ribbon. In contrast to this domestic scene, suddenly:

One of the few sitting at the table gloated, “I knew Jin Guangyao had to plummet sooner or later with the things he did! I’ve been waiting for this day for so long, and now he’s finally exposed, hah! One’s deeds will be paid, one way or another—what goes around always comes around!”

The last chapter directly references the prologue, which is something I personally adore in writing, this idea of taking your story full-circle. The difference, this time, is that the villain to be despised as entertainment is not longer WWX, but JGY (I could have done without WWX explicitly telling us so in the text because it is pretty clear however I also know readers miss the most obvious cues so maybe that hand-holding is deserved).

Aside from gossip about JGY, the sects, and the sealing ceremony of the coffin containing NMJ and JGY, there is a moment where an unnamed youth raises a point about the yin hufu.

Suddenly, he heard a young man’s voice, “Then is the Yin hufu really inside the coffin?”

A cloud of silence fell over the wine shop. A moment later, someone answered, “Who knows? Perhaps. What could Jin Guangyao have done with the Yin hufu except for carrying it on him?”

“But there’s no way of telling. Didn’t they say the hufu has become just a piece of scrap iron? There’s no use for it anymore.”

The boy sat alone at a table, holding a sword in his arms, “Is the coffin really firm enough? What would happen if someone wants to see if the Yin hufu is inside or not?”

Immediately, someone raised his voice, “Who’d dare?”

“QingheNieShi, GusuLanShi, and YunmengJiangShi all sent people to guard the cemetery. Who in the world would have the guts to do it?”

Everyone expressed their agreement. The boy didn’t speak up again. He took the teacup from his table and sipped, as though he gave up on his idea. Yet, his eyes hadn’t changed at all.

Wei Wuxian had seen those types of eyes on many faces. And he knew that this definitely wouldn’t be the last time he saw them.

This continues the idea that the cycle that brought about the issues and conflicts in the cultivation world that fueled the story of the novel are not likely to disappear, and that once again it is likely that the “common wisdom” of public opinion will accelerate or allow such troubles to brew.

After they leave the wine shop, LWJ and WWX share a more domestic moment. Amongst others, they discuss the song Wangxian. Through parallel imagery, the novel also reaffirms that LWJ and WWX have become a family by mirroring one of WWX’s few memories of his parents (”Listening to his nonsense, Lan Wangji only grasped the reins of Lil’ Donkey with Wei Wuxian on it and clenched the thin rope in his palm, continuing on their way."). As well, WWX suggests they go back to the CR with a casually comment about missing tianzi xiao which is in reality prompted by the fact that he knew LWJ would be worried about his xiongzhang and shufu since one of the man in the wine shop said that LXC had looked terrible during the sealing ceremony and another commented “What would you expect? In the coffin were his two sworn brothers, while his sect’s juniors kept on running around with a fierce corpse—they even need its assistance on night-hunts! No wonder he’s in secluded cultivation so often. If Lan Wangji still doesn’t go back, I bet Lan Qiren’s gonna start cursing…”. This shows how Wangxian are taking care of one another in their own way, which is very cute.

WWX also provides an in-universe explanation for his bad memory:

Wei Wuxian knew that ‘for once’ referred to how his memory was good for once. He couldn’t help but smile, “Don’t always be so angry about it. It was my fault in the past, alright? Besides, my terrible memory should be accredited to my mom.”

Wei Wuxian propped his arm on Lil’ Apple’s head, spinning Chenqing in his hand, “My mom said you have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free.”

And then we get the final lines of the novel:

Facing the wind, Wei Wuxian squinted at Lan Wangji’s silhouette. As he criss-crossed his legs, he shockingly found that he could somehow manage to balance himself in such an odd position on the back of Lil’ Apple.

It was only something trivial, yet he looked as if he just discovered a new and interesting occurrence. He couldn’t hold himself back from sharing this with Lan Wangji, calling, “Lan Zhan, look at me, look at me now!”

Just like before, Wei Wuxian called his name with a grin, and he looked over as well.

From then on, he could never move his eyes away again.

I am overall pretty satisfied with this ending, although I wish the last few lines had a stronger thematic resonance, but hey, it is still a romance novel at the heart of it so it also makes sense that it finishes that way. I am sure that there is a case that could be made about how the ending could have been stronger or more impactful, but I do think that it is a perfectly competent one. There are of course more things that could be discussed about how the novel ties in a lot of plot threads, but it is interesting to me to focus on what MXTX decided to show in the ultimate chapter of the novel.

Last extra: “Dream come true”

This extra is basically the equivalent of a book adding another chapter after “and they lived happily ever after” in order to show you what that happily ever after could look like for these characters. If the novel had only had the tone of this extra, it would have gotten boring pretty fast. But as it is, as an extra, it is just this little delightful piece of fluff that also gives us more backstory about WWX’s infatuation with LWJ during his first life. It is sweet to the point of cavities, but hey nothing wrong with an indulgent fanfic being stapled at the back of a story. It’s my favourite extra and I love how the audio drama gave life to it.

“Be honest about whether or not you thought about me in the same way.” In a solemn tone, he spoke, “Rejecting me like that so coldly every single time—it really made me lose face, don’t you know?”

Lan Wangji, “You can try, now, to see if I would reject you over anything.”

The sentence so suddenly struck his heart. Wei Wuxian choked, yet Lan Wangji was still as calm as ever, as though he didn’t at all realize what he just said. Wei Wuxian put his hand to his forehead, “You… Hanguang-Jun, let’s make a deal. Please warn me before you say something so romantic, or else I won’t be able to take it.”

Lan Wangji nodded, “Okay.”

Wei Wuxian, “Lan Zhan—what a person you are!”

Tens of thousands of words were left unspoken, in exchange for endless laughter and hugs.

Well that wasn’t very salty, but 🤷‍♂️

Salty asks

#salty asks #anon ask #mdzs #wangxian #Anonymous #long post

31 notes · View notes