#mxtx was onto something with that one
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It's JGY's "performing the customer service persona in front of your own family" that really nails down the estranged-child-born-out-of-wedlock dynamic for me.
#mxtx was onto something with that one#her understanding of human relationship dynamics is spot on#jgy#mdzs#cql#jin sect
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MXTX Interview with Risa Wataya for Subaru Magazine P.5
Character's Allure
Risa: Among the cast, my favorites are the Nie brothers. Nie Huaissang and Nie Mingjue. As I read, I constantly prayed that Nie Shi (House Nie) would not fall.
Mo Xiang: Shocking! I have yet to see this kind of attitude toward the Nie brothers. In the place of Nie brothers, I deeply thank Risa! Nie Mingjue was created as a foil and reversed mirror image of the 'extremely socially adept' Jin Guangyao. Nie Mingjue is someone who would rather break but never bend. Jin Guangyao is someone who would rather bend but never break. One embodies unbendable justice. One is a cunning smooth operator. I thought about these two contrasting and contradicting kinds of characters and then created them (Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao). A cunning faker (*) like Jin Guangyao, once he meets a 'violent god' (**) Nie Mingjue would become absolutely powerless and can only flee. Their situation would be quite interesting should I continue to write it. Although for them, it definitely would not be a fun time.
(*: 狡猾 jiaohua: someone who is pretty/righteous on the outside but rotten inside, a faker, a pretty snake masquerading as a saint)
(**: 凶神恶煞 xioengshen esha: a powerful, brutal, violent god that is consumed by the slaying of evil so much he starts to do evil himself. Someone who should be good but is consumed by rage and violence and becomes no better than the evil he seeks to destroy)
Risa: Nie Huaissang is extremely smart. Nie Mingjue still acts even though his body has been split into multiple pieces. I absolutely love these brothers' opposing approaches to life.
Moxiang: The more the character personalities contrast with each other, the clearer their conflict and transformation is portrayed. It also makes the story even more compelling and exciting. Nie Huaissang was built on the foundation of Nie Mingjue as a character. They both use sabers as their weapons. Nie Mingjue is more or less straightforward inside and out. Nie Huaissang, on the other hand, looks weak and cowardly on the outside but is actually immensely insightful, patient, and crafty on the inside. The characters of Qinghe Nie Shi were actually complete quite early into the writing.
Risa: The characters of "Mo Dao Zu Shi" mature into different kinds of people depending on their relationship with their parents. In terms of lineage and family ties, what were your thoughts while writing?
Moxiang: I think the environment a person grows up in is a very important factor. The parent generation's joy and sorrow will create an increasingly greater impact on their children. Furthermore, children will inherit specific things from their parents. Only when you look at the profound yet incidental similarities between parents and children, you will see that family ties are something very real.
Risa: Some characters in the book had a very difficult childhood. Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang, and Wei Wuxian. One type of character experiences misfortune in their childhood and then grow to become bad people. One character, on the other hand, steadfastly holds onto his good heart no matter what. Both types exist in the same book.
Moxiang: To be honest, the character's childhood was the last thing I considered. My creative method starts with imagining the zenith of a character's life when they are shining brightly at the summit. Then I think about narrative developments leading to and from that moment, and then the character's childhood as the finishing touch. After that, I fill out details on their parent generation. The parents mostly act as supporting characters. Their designs are based on the main cast, to contrast or to complete.
For example, first, I think of what kind of person Wei Wuxian is. Then, I think of what kind of parents could have such a child. I base his parent's characters on his character.
Looking at it from within the story, it's that parents will inevitably influence their children. But from a structural writing standpoint, it's the children that influence the parents.
To be continued (We are about... half-way through the interview transcript)
Translator: Sythe / NPD Khanh
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Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than het romance? What makes them better? I did not mean anything negative, and I know everyone have their own like and dislike but I want to know your thoughts....
Also what do you think that made Asian MLM (BL manga/manhwa/manhua/ danmei) romances better than western MLM romances?
Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than het romance?
Because I had no choice for many years.
Because that choice was taken away from me by a homophobic, transphobic, queerphobic, acephobic society. So all the romances I read had to be heterosexual, all the romances I watched had to be heterosexual, all the romances I heard of had to be heterosexual.
Because I'm not heterosexual.
Because I never saw myself represented in any stories ever, for over about 20 years (queer stuff existed, but where I was situated in Perth, Western Australia, meant that I was not seeing it).
Because I was force-fed allonormative, heteronormative, heterosexual tropes, bullshit, toxicity, misogyny, patriarchal culture, rape culture and more, and because everyone assumed that was normal, which made me feel isolated, marginalised, alone, and bereft, and cut me out of knowing what a life could look like for myself, and made relationships harder, when you don't have the words or stories to latch onto.
People like me couldn't even be erased out of the media, we hardly existed in the media, and if we did, almost never under our real identities, and almost always having to pretend to be something we weren't, for many people who hated us, or wished we were dead, or simply didn't care about us at all.
So, when I finally got a choice, I made a choice.
And I do not want to read heterosexual content anymore, unless it's queer (like T4T). The only place I actually willingly consume heterosexual romantic content these days is like 80s and 90s and early 00s romantic comedies. It's the only thing I allow through my filter, because so many of them have a really strong bent of hurt/comfort in them, and it's rare to find movies that have this in general.
But yeah otherwise het is just not a thing I look for in fiction. Literally a squick. Literally reminds me of 20 years of oppression in the mass media. It's not inherently bad, it just wasn't good for me personally, to never have a choice.
So I made one :D And my life has been so much better for it. I'm never going back.
Also what do you think that made Asian MLM (BL manga/manhwa/manhua/ danmei) romances better than western MLM romances?
It's just better for me, anon! I find a lot of western published m/m (so not like m/m fanfiction which I still read) often feels stifled and too short for me, and the characterisation doesn't get as deep as I want it to get. I often can feel the rigidity of the novel structure on authors who are trying to rapid release, and the depth I'm looking for is rarely there. Sometimes that's what people want! Sometimes they don't know there's other options!
Sometimes that's true of some BL manga/manhua/manhwa etc. as well. Tbh it's probably true of a lot of it! Serial format doesn't always allow for depth either. But I find the visual format easier to read as well. If I reread western m/m it's almost always fanfiction. And tbh, I'm sure some amazing m/m was published last year, I just get tired of having to wade through it all to find something I like. It got to the point where I was reading like 60+ titles just to find one average read, and I gave up.
The recommendation systems for BL tend to be better and more on point for me, I find most people who recommend published m/m to me generally always miss the mark (which isn't their fault - I'm particular, there's a reason I write what I write - because I can't find it to read!!), but close friends like @morbidlizard who recommend BL to me almost always hit the mark!
I don't actually read much danmei, but mostly because I haven't had time to really sink my teeth into it. Aside from MXTX, I haven't explored much further.
But yeah, hope that helps! :D
#asks and answers#personal#can't even put inadvertent recs on this#honestly 'rapid release' was kind of the death of it being easy to find a lot of good#m/m fiction being published#it's still out there it's just way more 'needle in a haystack'-y than it used to be#also there's way more fandom tropes like hurt/comfort etc. in manhwa and manga in particular#so it speaks a language i prefer#like Define the Relationship has SO many moments of hurt/comfort#just over and over again#i find published novel-format m/m just really kind of misses the mark on this#and honestly i include my own stuff in that#the novel format isn't super friendly to it#compared to the serial format#i'm sure that's not true across the board#it's just true 'so far'
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Qi Rong, the Ghost King of Mirrors - Pt. 1
Before we begin, I must thank @diedikind who incited me to create this meta! They also write good TGCF metas as well, so if you have the time please check them out! Another thing to note is that I am writing this meta using mostly the unrevised version as my main source material. While I have read the Fangxin arc in the revised version and seen tidbits of the changes done to his character, I may not be aware of them all, so please keep that in mind. Also, don't be afraid to correct me if I accidentally got my facts wrong!
I’ve been thinking a lot about Qi Rong lately. In particular about his prince name, Xiao Jing (小镜). It roughly means “Little Mirror”/“Little King of Mirrors” (as @diedikind pointed out in the notes of this post) and frankly? There’s no better name MXTX could have chosen, because when you really look at him, you know that, both as a narrative device and as a character, “mirror” is very much what he is. He serves as a foil to a good number of characters, but also reflects a lot of traits from his environment and people around him, not to mention his habit of literally copying others. This is all reflected on how much Qi Rong tries to have his own identity, but because he’s stuck in an immature mentality, refusing to grow up, he ends ups stuck in a “child” role, making it impossible to truly have an identity of his own. This is even lampshaded by Hua Cheng in the aftermath of the mecha battle as Qi Rong is “dying”, when he notes that there’s nothing really noteworthy about him, despite Qi Rong always working towards standing out from the others.
There’s a lot to unpack about his mirror symbolism, so I cut it in parts. This one is going to focus on how he mirrors Xie Lian and the Kingdom of Xianle itself. This is also quite long, so don’t open “read more” unless you’re ready to read a big Qi Rong meta.
Qi Rong, Xie Lian and the Kingdom of Xianle
“I don’t need your help, not like this. Are you really avenging me? Or are you avenging yourself?” - Xie Lian, Chapter 26
The most obvious foil Qi Rong has is Xie Lian, the protagonist himself. His relationship with Xie Lian is by far the most important alongside Guzi, something that is made obvious with how obsessed Qi Rong is with him, a fixation that also mirrors Hua Cheng's and Jun Wu's (I will touch on this in on another part). The mirror symbolism already starts early on in his life, with him being immediately noted to be similar to Xie Lian when they’re children, and if I remember correctly his prince name was even given to him because of said similarity. Since childhood Qi Rong was already seen as nothing more than a “little mirror” of Xie Lian, and, after the lantern incident, Qi Rong himself (probably subconsciously) started to see himself as such too.
From there, Qi Rong starts to project his entire identity and psychological needs onto Xie Lian. He’s never been a very well liked figure since he arrived in the castle, but that doesn’t matter, because Xie Lian is. He’s not a very accomplished person, but that doesn’t matter, because Xie Lian is. He may not be a god, but that doesn’t matter, because Xie Lian is. Unfortunately, this is two-street: he also views Xie Lian as a “big mirror” of himself. Someone insults Xie Lian? That’s seen as a direct insult to him too, so he feels entitled to beat them up, even when that’s not what Xie Lian wants at all. This is likely the main reason on why he hurt Hong-er (alongside of what was probably jealousy too, but that’s for another analysis for another day), lampshaded by Xie Lian himself: he saw Hong-er changing the course the God-Pleasing Ceremony as a sign of bad luck and an insult to Xie Lian, and therefore an insult to himself too, ergo, he’s entitled to hurt him, or, using Xie Lian’s words, “avenge himself”.
Aside from himself, he also projects his dire need for a paternal figure onto Xie Lian too (this is better explained in this meta translated by @baiwu-jinji), viewing him as a source of power, safety and affection. In other words, everything Qi Rong wants to have and wants to be, he projects onto Xie Lian. That’s why Qi Rong was among the first to turn against Xie Lian after the walls fell: if Xie Lian fails, he’ll be viewed as a failure. If Xie Lian is a laughing stock, he’ll be viewed as one too. If Xie Lian couldn’t protect the kingdom (and by extension Qi Rong himself) from Yong’an, then that means he failed at the role he subconsciously put Xie Lian in: the role of a father. This is why his obsessive hatred towards Xie Lian is so singular, but, despite all that, Qi Rong deep down still craves his attention and understanding (another Jun Wu parallel - i will also touch on this in another part). He hates his “father”, but he still doesn’t give up that idea towards Xie Lian, even calling himself mockingly his “little brother”. This may be why MXTX made him force Xie Lian to take care of him and Guzi in the revised version instead of Xie Lian being the one forcing him to stay in Puqi shrine: no matter how much Qi Rong despises him, he still sees his cousin as his “caretaker” in a way. And this is just me theorizing now, but part of me thinks his lantern symbolism/aesthetic may be a way of mirroring the lantern incident, the moment that truly made him Xie Lian’s little distorted mirror.
We already went through Qi Rong’s point of view of their relationship, but the mirror symbolism doesn’t stop there. From both a narrative standpoint and Xie Lian’s point of view, Qi Rong serves as a little mirror of the Kingdom of Xianle itself. Being half-xianle and half-yong’an, he went through both worlds, and as much as Qi Rong denies his Yong’an half, he was just as shaped by his experiences there as when he was in the capital of Xianle. He’s been both the poor and abused kid from Yong’an (it was only in his first five years of life, but these years are very important in a person’s life), a scandal and sore thumb in his family tree, and he’s also been a privileged Xianle royal who abused his power to get what he wanted like so many other royals. Hell, Xie Lian himself tells us he probably became worse over the years by mirroring the King and the rowdy crowd he hung out with in his youth. This post made by @essekknits points out the fact that Qi Rong has always been mimicking and mirroring those around him, especially the ones he perceives as having power, without ever understanding the logic behind their actions, and this is something he keeps doing long after the fall of Xianle.
Even after death, he continues to haunt Yong’an, being responsible for the Gilded Massacre, an event that contributed to the decline of the kingdom, a literal and metaphorical ghost from a bygone era that nonetheless is still felt. This is why MXTX making the confrontation between Qi Rong, Xie Lian and Lang Qianqiu in the Mausoleum in the revised version, complete with the later two, viewed as “enemies” of Xianle, being severely weakened there while Qi Rong had made the place a lair for himself, is a change I actually like a lot. He’s the personification of Xianle who even after death continues haunting both Xie Lian and Yong’an.
This is why Xie Lian’s hatred for Qi Rong is very singular too: Qi Rong is a mirror of everything he hated about Xianle. He represents the cruel nobles who used their power for selfish reasons and the people who adored and revered him but constantly went against his wishes and then went on to betray and humiliate him once he couldn’t keep up with their expectations. Xie Lian was treated like an adult with responsibilities way beyond his age, being forced to grow up early, and Qi Rong putting him in a “fatherly” role encapsulates that. He often had to “parent” Qi Rong (something that ultimately failed) when no one else did despite being a child himself, just like how he became a god too early and had to attend to the needs of multiple people who put all their expectations on him. Even after Qi Rong's death, Xie Lian is still forced to clean up after his messes, from having to protect Lang Qianqiu from him, to having to seal him up after the Guilded Massacre, to ultimately ending up in a coffin for roughly 100 years because of his shenanigans. Even in the events of the current timeline Xie Lian was still forced to “parent” Qi Rong often when he was in Puqi Shrine.
(As a side note, one thing I found curious was Qi Rong begging for Xie Lian to save him as Hua Cheng was beating up in the mausoleum in the revised version, even wondering how Xie Lian could even let him in. It could be chalked up to pure entitlement and a complete lack of self-awareness on Qi Rong’s part (which it is), but I think it also illustrates very well the fact that, despite viewing Xie Lian as a failed parental figure, he still expects him to protect him like a father should. It can also represent the fact that, even after completely rejecting Xie Lian, he’s still somewhat viewed as the protector god of Xianle, despite being branded as a traitor.)
With this all being said, there’s one last thing Qi Rong mirrors with Xie Lian: his character journey. It’s not very noticeable at first, but it’s still there. Like Xie Lian, Qi Rong starts out as a prince who ends up falling from grace after his kingdom collapsed. In the same way Xie Lian is seen as the laughingstock of the heavens, Qi Rong is hated and viewed as a pure nuisance by most of the ghost realm. And while the circumstances are completely different, the thing that helped save Xie Lian in one of his lowest points, which was the genuine kindness of the Bamboo Hat man and his own kindness towards Hong-er/Hua Cheng, is also what made a better side of Qi Rong resurface: the genuine affection Guzi had towards him. Even in his worst moments, Guzi never gave up on Qi Rong, and I think this is what ultimately made him a bit better towards the end. (I will shut myself now about his relationship and mirror symbolism with Guzi because that’s for another part).
As pointed out in this post by @baiwu-jinji, something I think is worth talking about is that his relationship with Xie Lian is probably meant to mirror the obsessions of fans and antis towards celebrities. I may be wrong about this, but considering MXTX’s own experiences with these sorts of people, I have high doubts this wasn’t the intention, and she’s no stranger in writing characters with this sort of commentary (hello, Shen Yuan). This may be why he became more deranged in the revised version too. He’s probably meant to represent the kinds of fans who place all their self-worth and identity onto their favorite celebrities, acting as if they know them personally and attacking other people in their name (often against the celebrity’s wishes), sometimes even viewing them as quasi-parental figures in more extreme cases of parasocial relationships. These kinds of fans usually become enraged when the celebrities they love end up “falling from grace” in their eyes, and they usually go on to become the worst of haters, who keep on obsessing over said celebrity, but this time to bring them down, harass and humiliate them.
(As another side note, while I think Qi Rong is not a character made with love, I don’t think he’s meant to be a pure hate sink either. MXTX still went out of her way to humanize him enough, and she gave him a subtle character arc with Guzi, which I will talk about on another part of this meta. Hell, the mere fact that he has so many facets to talk about is a sign of good character crafting, and he’s not even a main character!)
#qi rong my beloved. i have so many thoughts about you#anyways. this is my first meta. i hope i was able to do him justice#tgcf#qi rong#xie lian#tgcf meta#heaven official's blessing
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i apologize in advance if this ask sounds kinda weird, but i'm kinda curious to hear your thoughts on how the narrative treats qi rong, mostly because i think interacting only with the eng version/fandom might take some context from his character. i've seen people complaining that some fans woobify him too much, others complaining that some people treat him as a pure hate-sink when he's more than that. while i do think he's a multi-layered character, i do sometimes get the feeling that mxtx did not go easy on him, with the revised version being even crazier than before (some even say he was given a bit of onesided incestuous subtext with xl, but i wonder if that interpretation isn't just the result of weirdly translated lines in eng). i think this might be because he strikes me as a meta personification of sorts for toxic fans who place their identity and self-worth on just one person they completely idolize, and when that person is shown to be imperfect they immediately turn against them, and we know mxtx has had experience with those kinds of people.
i do think he's largely meant to be seen as unsympathetic overall, though i think there's strong nuances with his character as well. since his childhood he always lacked something and never really had a well formed identity, his prince name being symbolic of his life. he projected himself onto xl in life, and he kept on absorving the worst traits of the people around his life without really understanding them in order to feel powerful and important, from the xianle nobles to the signature traits of the other calamities. he also strikes me as very... "little brother"-coded, in the sense that he keeps looking for any sort of recognition and seems unable to mature. even when he hates xl i think he still somewhat craves his attention, and qr only developed a bit when he was forced to let go of this role by accidentally becoming a father instead. i think it's also interesting that he started out a lot like his father, but ended up sharing the fate of his mother.
i do wonder how the cn fandom views him and if he's nearly as divisive as he is here. i'd also be pretty interested in seeing some meta about him from cn fans. again, it feels like some context is missing by not speaking the language the book was originally written in...
Hi! I think the narrative basically takes the same stance as Xie Lian in its attitude towards Qi Rong, which is the sort of "I can't love you but I don't want to hate you, the best I could give you is indifference". I agree that Qi Rong isn't meant to be lovable, but MXTX isn't dismissive of him as a character either - she devoted almost an entire chapter to Qi Rong's death, let him speak his mind, and gave him some form of closure.
Qi Rong having onesided incestuous subtext with XL (!!) in the revised version is...very interesting haha, I haven't read the revised version so I can't know (someone please tell me where to get the revised version ><). Although I want to speculate that even if there is some incestuous vibes, it's not truly sexual - it's probably libido directed the wrong way when you're lusting over someone else's identity, but not over that person per se. Qi Rong lusts over XL's identity in the sense that he wants to be XL - or rather he wants to be perfect, worshipped, all-powerful etc. (bit of digression, there's an underrated psychological thriller called Cracks starring Eva Green, if you watch it you'll know what I mean)
I don't have the impression that he's truly divisive in the Chinese fandom, but then I don't engage with the Chinese fandom that much so I could totally be wrong. And I don't think any context is missing for English readers either (except maybe the humour of QR's obscene language might be lost in translation?) because human nature is the same everywhere, and Qi Rong's distorted psyche is more a matter of human nature than cultural context.
As for Chinese fandom's view of QR, there's this great meta I translated and posted a few days ago, and I found some other opinion pieces about Qi Rong on Zhihu (Chinese equivalent of Reddit), as you'll see they're quite diverse.
A lot of Chinese readers say that what stands out most about Qi Rong is his comedic role in the story because his cursing and name-calling are really funny; a lot of people also mention being really touched by his self-sacrifice to save Guzi. I found this one post that has a similar view to yours, which is QR represents MXTX's toxic fans:
"I always felt it's the author admonishing her fans in an implicit way not to be as crazy as Qi Rong [...] My guess is that the author can't ask her fans outright not to act in this way because that would hurt people who support her but are immature, however she can't turn a blind eye to these people going around provoking more resentment, so she creates QR to remind her fans not to be like QR, or they'd appear as unlikable as QR to the public. But the author still feels symathy for thse fans, so she didn't depict their representation in the novel as totally incorrigible - QR retains some humanity and is a little adorable when he starts to care about people."
I also saw opinions about the narrative (or rather Xie Lian) not going easy on Qi Rong, like this one:
"Xie Lian is clearly a very good person but why is he so heartless to QR? He eventually treated QR as a joke and a burden, but QR was once a true follower of his. At first I thought XL was perfect and cares about everyone, but he never really cared for his cousin. When I read that XL felt neither joy nor sorrow when QR died saving Guzi, my heart chilled. If XL could forgive the masses who betrayed and reviled him, why can't he forgive his cousin who once followed him whole-heartedly?"
There're also people saying that Qi Rong's potential divisiveness is what makes him a great villain, like this post:
"What MXTX's well-received villains have in common is a tragic childhood and not being loved growing up, and they only have a soft spot for one person. Although these villains did horrible deeds and are unrepentant, they all reserve some kindness in their heart for the only person who's good to them. This contrast is striking and touching, yet most likely to cause controversy. Therefore, MXTX knows very clearly how to create a memorable villain, and I admire that."
Someone else says when they read about Qi Rong they "don't know whether to laugh or cry" (XL's signature emotion hehe). They add that "this is where MXTX is successful in writing a villain - you both hate and pity him; he's infuriating, but you don't really want to see him die either."
Another view is that since Qi Rong has no filter, he sometimes serves as the truth-telling voice. For example, when XL wanted to keep Lang Qianqiu in the dark about the truth of the Gilded Banquet Massacre, Qi Rong blurted out the truth.
There's also a question posted on Zhihu that asks why people like Qi Rong, and there're some interesting answers. There's one post that says "I find him attractive because he's depicted as alluringly ghostly in a lot of fan art like vampires in Twilight" haha
Another post says they like Qi Rong "because he's guilelessly wicked, while XL and Hua Cheng are hypocrites" emmmmm
Another one says they like Qi Rong because "being Xie Lian is exhausting, he's so wronged but he just endures it all, while Qi Rong just launches verbal assults whenever someone rubs him the wrong way, it's so cathartic. The most difficult thing in the world is to be a good person, because as soon as you do one thing wrong, everyone criticises you; but if you're a bad person, even if you did just one good thing, everyone praises you for it and shows you pity".
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This face. I'm going to talk about it. Spoilers below!
So my pathetic little meow meow looks kind of unhinged here. I've said that much already. But what exactly is he thinking in this moment?
From a storytelling perspective Heaven Official's Blessing doesn't really have a main villain by this point. Pei Ming is the closest thing to one since he caused and ignored the Bridegroom and he tried to sweep his deputy's crimes in Banyue under the rug. However while those things might make him a "bad" guy that isn't quite main villain of the story material since he hadn't really gone after our main character Xie Lian all that hard. Yeah, he tried to shift the focus onto Xie Lian hanging out with Crimson Rain, but it wasn't really personal. He wasn't trying to drag Xie Lian down since he also spoke in his defense and said that Xie Lian was probably just tricked. He just wanted to shift the focus off of his deputy but failed to. Still a dick move to Xie Lian, but at least it wasn't personal? 😅 Or at least it wasn't personal until the very end when he realized that he wasn't going to be able to save his deputy after all.
But from a storytelling perspective having Mu Qing make this expression puts him on the radar as potentially being the story's main villain. At this point all we know about Mu Qing is pretty negative? He used to be Xie Lian's servant but left/betrayed him to ascend to godhood. He clearly still remembered Xie Lian though Xie Lian didn't recognize him and he seemed miffed by that fact. In the books it is revealed that he hangs out in the communication array all day every day, supposedly because he is catty and loves gossip and he has no friends. He is shown to have beef with General Nan Yang, who forgave Xie Lian's absolutely massive debt out of the kindness of his heart and who in this very episode publicly sides himself with our main character when he is concerned about him getting hurt. The audience realizes that Feng Xin is actually a pretty good dude, and naturally we are suspicious of anyone who openly hates him as much as Mu Qing does. Then Mu Qing makes that face. At this point the audience can only assume that Mu Qing made that face because he is a huge asshole and hates Xie Lian. The main villain has to be either him or Pei Ming. Right? They both have personal beef with him, and figuring out which of them is going to be the main villain gives the audience something to think about. I think this is why MXTX decided to have him make this face. The story needs a main villain but she wasn't ready to reveal them just yet so she kind of pretended to throw us a bone to keep us interested.
Ignoring the overall story reasons and focusing on the in world reason that I think Mu Qing made this face: He is just vindictive. Not towards Xie Lian, but Yong'An. Xie Lian describes him as both petty and spiteful. Up until Mu Qing makes his friendship confession and tries to kill himself afterwards the audience doesn't really know any better of him. I've seen some people say that he made that face because he was glad that Xie Lian isn't as perfect as he thought, but I don't think that is the case at all. If you actually hated someone for being too perfect would you even /want/ to be their friend? Let alone be willing to throw yourself into a volcano for them? Nah. Most people try to avoid people that they hate, so Mu Qing wouldn't have even helped out during the Bridegroom arc, or if he did then he would've only done it to sabotage the mission (which he didn't).
But knowing how spiteful and petty Mu Qing is having him make this face upon hearing that the former crown prince of his kingdom massacred the royal family of their invaders? That makes perfect sense for his character. This scene reveals that deep in his heart he is glad that the Yong'an royal family "got what they deserved." They destroyed his home country and they set into motion the process of him losing his 2 best friends as well. Arguably they are the root cause of a lot of his suffering. As for the frown after he was done having his moment I think that the revelation of why/how Xie Lian did it kind of ruined his revenge fantasy. Xie Lian did kill the Yong'an king to protect the former people of Xianle, but he didn't go on the cool V for Vendetta campaign that Mu Qing had hoped for. Which maybe that is a problem too but at least you can see where he is coming from.
Ultimately I think Mu Qing had a very real and human reaction to the news, but it only makes sense with context. Otherwise he just seems like a crazy person. Like all I can think of when I see that face is that if Mu Qing was the one poisoned by the Land of the Tenders instead of Xie Lian he would've had the worst bloodlust ever known to mankind. He is still my little meow meow though.
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hello, hope you’re doing well :D!
i’ve been obsessing over all of your art and hcs of the mdzs older gen and i was wondering what your thought process of the names you chose for them were because they’re really cool!! like i was thinking how yixi’s name is probably referencing that she came from tibet or how qhj’s courtesy name is maybe referencing his position as heir then later sect leader, like him inheriting the responsibility of leading the lan clan, and maybe the night character is in reference to his quiet personality but also his future loneliness in seclusion? or maybe im just looking into it too deeply (Ｔ▽Ｔ)
hello hello!! i've been very busy, this new years is starting off with lots of farewells on my end & promises to see friends as they settle in to their lives, i hope you are well & i hope you've had a good holiday & will have a good year.
WAH you're too sweet 😭 i'm gonna be honest, a Lot of my thought process when Naming characters in general has been:
• "follow the naming process of mxtx," which means you can bet your butt i've been Carding through Tang Dynasty poetry for Months
• making Absolute Sure that None of the names i settle on are homonyms for anything with a double-meaning such as: modern swear words, innuendos, or just anything in general that would make them look like a clown
• do NOT be Airplane (Shang Qinghua) when naming characters- which in essence if you haven't read svsss means do Not give characters names that spell out the core of their origins. no "risen from the frozen river" names, "don't be too on-the-nose i'm Begging you do research" @ me
• do your absolute Best not to choose characters with a ridiculous amount of strokes Especially for given names (a rule i've struggled to actually live by)
• do your Best to not have too many overlapping characters that Canon names use
• sparingly looking at the tao te ching because i'm too scared of being culturally insensitive to nitpick a name from any pinyin i might come across
i won't claim ever to be a native chinese speaker: i have enjoyed the incentive to learn characters that are the building blocks to actual words that reading mxtx's works (& subsequently other cnovels) have given me, but it is not a culture i was raised in and it is not a language i read fluently. can't speak mandarin or cantonese or suzhounese or any other dialect and have been blessed with multiple friends who do and have done their best to help steer me in the right direction. all that being said, here's some dumb facts with the names:
• regarding the last-most point, i've picked ONE name from the tao te ching. i'm glad you enjoy Chengye/承夜's name but i've deliberated over it too long and have come to the conclusion that it Will be changed. taking inspiration from qiren's name, there needs to be a verb in there paired with something abstract but innately Human & i've found a passage in the tao that i Really liked that i feel alluded to my own characterization of him had the phrase Yǒuqíng/有情 which is Just as abstract and ridiculous as Chengye (which i cannot remember where i pulled that name from), but comes with the added bonus of being from the Adjustment of Controversies. to Have affections but understand where they should be going or how they should be distributed, to question why a person favors One thing over Another despite the inevitable conclusion that All of it is working towards an inevitability completely out of a person's control, it all feels just absolutely peachy to thrust that onto qingheng-jun when he couldn't in his lifetime maintain the favor between his family & his wife. plus Wangji's name being tao-derrivative made me feel i needed at least one of the prev gen in this boat with their successors. i've studied the tao in a scholarly setting Once for a semester, and Once more for a week or two on my own time so Please do Not take my word as any level of expertise i'm begging you.
• I Do remember when picking out a name for Qingheng-jun, coming across a name that in essence meant "Bear the Night" felt a little too on-the-nose. there was no double meaning though i tried applying one. he's a Leader, he's a Cultivator, it's Expected of him to bear this and bear it as if it weren't a burden. and the more i thought/think about it, the less it made sense especially when All cultivators are expected to soldier through the same conditions, yanno?
• Cangse-Sanren is the only girl i've headcanon'd so-far with a courtesy name! and i Really Really wanted it to be something to do with celestial bodies Exclusively because Xiao Xingchen has the Most celestial name on this show outside of Lan Xichen but he doesn't count in my head. i also wanted it to have Anything to do with the moon because Xiao Xingchen's name has a good chunk of sun radicals in there, but also Moonbeam is what you'd call a fairy and she's a fairy and i Will Never let that go. the most buckwild batshit fairy you've ever met but a mortal worthy of being a celestial being. her Surname means Wish, so go wishing on the moonbeams because her husband certainly did.
• Cangse-Sanren in my headcanons named herself. She was a whimsical child, she named herself something outlandish for her surname, & she was obsessed with the cowherd & weavergirl story as a child so she named herself Liu/浏 with the milky way in mind (here i go breaking my Not Too Many Strokes rule).
• tragically Yixi's name was more utilitarian than anything else. i needed something that worked in multiple languages based on my headcanons of origin & with the limited selection i had to work with, 益西 was by & far my favorite. plus the implications of her having value, of being benificial to some far-off location that was as far away from Gusu as you could possibly get, how could i Not see the poetry in that?
• Yixi has no surname. Yi is not her surname, her full name is Yixi. where i headcanon her From, surnames weren't particularly commonplace outside of nobility and i don't headcanon her family to be of major importance (though i believe they're relatively self-sustaining). She might be associated with a specific clan her family works under or for & that may come up in the future, but for now it's just Yixi until or unless you think of her as already a married Lan. jury's out on whether the Lan clan would've ever called her Madam Lan tho.
• confession: Bu Xin's name was directly inspired by Unchained Love's Bu Xin. different spelling but iirc it's completely a homonym. second confession: i have yet to finish watching Unchained Love please go Easy on me
#pspspspspsp come off anon so we can be hyper obsessed freaks Together#mdzs#qourmet: aga#asks#anon#long#if i think of more to add i'll rb
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what are your most recent fengqing headcanons 🥺
actually insane that this is a question i can answer instead of going "most recent, why do you think I've made more".
I think of these as more like "theories" or "this would be so cute ;0;" rather than "headcanons" because I like many different types of interpretations of them!! Like some of my thoughts are like "if you read it like this, you can get to here"and some of it is like "i think this is literally what mxtx means here". And some is "HEAR ME OUT, WHAT IF X? WOULDN'T THAT BE SO CUTE?!"
I don't mention it much, but Iike them being sworn brothers, too, and loving each other in a familial way. Which I think is the canon way they feel about one another. Because the big reveal is "they are friends and go on little adventures together all the time!" and there are a couple examples that refers to the three of them obliquely as brothers. I think that's just as sweet and satisfying as them making out and getting married forever
-I do think if one of them dated someone, the other would go insane, like be extremely protective and climbing in through the window in the middle of the date.
FX would lose his mind if MQ was seeing someone! Very loudly give his opinion, fucking FORBID it if it's someone he doesn't approve of (mq: wtf do you mean you "forbid it"?!!), freaking out like "mq has never been in a relationship, he'll get his heart broken" and very like "ARE YOU SURE??!! MQ YOUR CULTIVATION?! ;0;". 50000% mom mode.
MQ would also lose his shit if FX was seeing someone. Also "No. I forbid it." (fq: what do you mean you "forbid it"?!) and threatening the person like "if you break his heart I'll kill you. If you want to break up with him, you come to me and we'll do it in the least painful way possible. sign this contract in blood." mad dogging the person like:
Both very "WHAT ARE YOUR INTENTIONS?!!" and doing background checks. Ready to throw down at a moments notice, both so in the other's business.
(i think xl would be very involved, too. he seems like he'd be chill but he has this zone of like 'actually, i care a lot and will not be chill about this' that I think this situation would fall into. like when he freaks out if QR says something mean to HC? I think he'd choke someone out for those two.)
-mu qing designed fu yao to be elegant and refined. but once he gets in the shell, he's incapable of not making the :3c face and looking like "fufufufu"
i've never seen a more bitchass expression on a chibi before. he looks so smarmy, such a little shit. He thinks he looks aloof and refined and doesn't realize Fu Yao looks like a gremlin and supremely punchable.
-all that bullshit i said on that post about how they act when scared. I'm thinking about them hugging onto each other tightly when startled/scared a lot. I feel like in the donghua, we MIGHT see that happen during the chase scene...!!! pray for me.
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Well it seems like it’s time to throw another match into the Modaozushi fandom, let’s talk about the lionization of the farm dream and the denial of the Cloud Recesses when it comes to Wangxian’s ending!
So recently I’ve been seeing more and more meta that posits that Wangxian do not actually want to be involved in the cultivation world and would just leave it entirely to go live on a farm with limited to no contact with anyone. The ones I see most often particularly target the Lans, but it has been a growing opinion that apparently MXTX actually intended for them to leave the Jianghu and go off on their own.
To put it politely, I think this is a reading that blatantly ignores anything that Wei Wuxian says; disregards everything they don’t like about the ending and is basically used as a cudgel to ignore the themes of the books, being about second chances, not holding onto grudges and not condemning everyone because of their name. I have legitimately seen posts and opinions that say somehow Lan Wangji, Lan Sizhui and Lan Jingyi are the only possible good people in their clan ignoring that there are hundreds of people in it who are not Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren. If we can point out that the Wen clan is not a monolith and even those who were involved in the sense that they did not have the strength to stand up to their leader should not be condemned, then why are we doing it to every other clan?
There is no actual indication in canon that they really want to leave. It is an option, but it is one they do not take at any point as we are shown. Explicitly at the end of the book, they choose to go back. Why would MXTX write for the end of a solo book something that she never intended to happen? It baffles me that people completely ignore Wei Wuxian’s choice in the matter and decide that he doesn’t actually want that after a whole book of him growing to go after and get what he wants. The canon end of the book is Wei Wuxian deciding of his own accord that they should give the Lan clan a shot and going back there. He sets his conditions to which Lan Wangji agrees and they set off together. There is no farming or secluded house ever mentioned. That is because the intent of the farming dream is not the location, but who it is with.
Now I will cover the ignoring of the extras in the lionization of the farming dream, but first let’s go ahead and look at the first scene where Wei Wuxian mentions the farming dream itself.
It is in Chapter 67: Tenderness, although I will be pulling a lot from Chapter 66: Tenderness as well as the two are inextricably linked. I will be pulling from the ExR translation because as of writing, there is no other translation that I can find of this scene. For those who may not recall, they have just left the Cloud Recesses to discover why so many fierce corpses are going to the Burial Mounds, just Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji and Little Apple.
The entirety of Tenderness is probably one of the cutest sections ever. Wei Wuxian is both pretty clearly in love with Lan Wangji and really beginning to let himself indulge in it now. This is a very relevant detail. It starts with Wei Wuxian whining at Lan Wangji until he lifts him up and puts him on the donkey, feeling very pleased with himself for that. In fact, he has an ulterior motive for this, he wants Lan Wangji to re-enact something special with him:
Although he didn’t remember much of the things that had happened when he was young, there was one scene that had always been blurrily imprinted within his mind.
A narrow path, a little donkey, and three people. A man in black gently lifted a woman in white. He picked her up and placed her onto the donkey’s back. Then, he raised a small, small child way up high and put him on his shoulders.
He was the child, not yet the height of a person’s legs. Sitting on the shoulders of the man, he was suddenly very tall, very majestic. Sometimes he pulled the man’s hair, sometimes he rubbed his cheeks. He shouted things, swinging his legs about. The woman in white sat on the donkey’s back, her back swaying. Watching them, she seemed to smile. The man had always been quiet. He didn’t talk much. He only pushed him a bit higher, for him to be taller, steadier. One of his hands picked up the donkey’s rein. The three of them were squeezed onto the same narrow path, walking slowly forward.
It was one of the rare pieces of memory that he had.
Those were his dad and his mom.
Wei WuXian, “Lan Zhan, pick up the rein, won’t you?”
Lan WangJi, “Why?”
Lil’ Apple was quite clever. It wasn’t that it didn’t know to follow a person. Wei WuXian said again, “Give me some face and pick it up, won’t you?”
Although he still didn’t understand why Wei WuXian’s grin was so bright, Lan WangJi listened and picked up Lil’ Apple’s rein anyway, holding it in his hand.
Wei WuXian spoke to himself, “Hm. Now all that’s left is a little one.”
Lan WangJi, “What?”
Wei WuXian chuckled, “Nothing. Lan Zhan, you really are a good person.”
With this journey to Yiling, it was clear that their future was still unclear, even somewhat dangerous. Wei WuXian couldn’t get himself to feel nervous at all. Sitting on a donkey with Lan WangJi holding the rein, leading them down the path, his entire heart was fluttering, feeling as though he was walking on air.
So already we have it set up as to where Wei Wuxian’s mind is. He knows what he wants, he is deliberately imitating one of the few memories he has of his parents with Lan Wangji, with himself in his mother’s spot and Lan Wangji in his father’s. Wei Wuxian does not have a lot of good examples of how loving couples behave, but he is able to chase the traces of his parents in his memory and replicate that with the man he loves. Even though Lan Wangji does not yet know what Wei Wuxian is going for, the fact that he does this for Wei Wuxian makes him feel so happy that “his entire heart was fluttering, it was as if he was walking on air.”
I cannot overestimate the fact that this is the theme of Tenderness and all that is within. Wei Wuxian’s whole thought process right now is on what he wants with Lan Wangji, which is very relevant to the farm scene and how it’s actually presented in story. After that we have one of the scenes that’s most well known throughout the fandom. Wei Wuxian takes out his flute, starts playing Wangxian for Lan Wangji. He has now put together where he heard it and how Lan Wangji recognized him, and attempts to get Lan Wangji to tell him it’s name.
The flute had a limpid timbre. Lan WangJi’s footsteps hesitated slightly as Wei WuXian felt something inside of him suddenly light up.
He spoke, “Lan Zhan! Let me ask you, back then, under the Xuanwu cave in Dusk-Creek Mountain, the song that you sang me, what was its name?”
Lan WangJi looked at him, “Why do you suddenly remember to ask about this?”
Wei WuXian, “Just say it. What was its name? I think I might’ve guessed how you recognized me.”
On the night at Dafan Mountain, the tune that he somehow played was precisely the one, when he had been fevered under the Xuanwu cave in Dusk-Creek Mountain, Lan WangJi had hummed beside him!
Lan WangJi refused to say anything. Wei WuXian hurried him, “Say it, what song is it? Who composed it?”
Lan WangJi, “I did.”
Wei WuXian, “You composed it?!”
Lan WangJi, “Mn.”
Wei WuXian had thought that it was a secret song of the GusuLan Sect. Now that he knew, he was both surprised and overjoyed. What he was surprised about was quite obvious. What he was overjoyed about, though, he couldn’t really tell. He guessed, “If you really did recognize from just this, it must’ve meant that—this song, you’ve never let anyone else hear it?”
Lan WangJi, “Never.”
Wei WuXian was so happy that he kicked Lil’ Apple.
Amusingly as I’m rereading this chapter, I’m seeing where Wei Wuxian begins to think that Lan Wangji might be in love with him. Look at that reaction. The man is ecstatic at the revelation that no one but him has heard this song. He is so happy he kicks his poor donkey and nearly gets bucked off. A continuation of the theme of this particular chapter which I am going to rename “Wei Wuxian is really, really in love you guys.”
So they end up stopping in a farmhouse because Wei Wuxian is hungry, stealing some melons that Lan Wangji still leaves money on the table for, then almost get caught and end up lying in the hay with Wei Wuxian doing some hardcore flirting. Wen Ning scares the couple away and they reach Yiling where the plot begins to kick back in. But before that, we finally have the farm dream.
Now let’s talk about how the scene starts because that is very relevant to why they don’t at the end of the book and why they wouldn’t.
He sat on the donkey with his legs criss-crossed. He swayed as he pretended to be unconcerned, “Speaking of it, HanGuang-Jun, do you plan on ever retiring?”
Lan WangJi paused shortly, as though he was thinking for a moment. Wei WuXian struck the iron while it was still hot, “Have you thought of what to do after you retire?”
Lan WangJi gazed at him, “Not yet.”
Wei WuXian thought to himself, It’s perfect if you haven’t thought of anything yet! I’ll think for you.
So already the first relevant bit here is that Wei Wuxian is plotting their life of retirement. After they have quit cultivation for good. When they have no further plans for their life. Because what Wei Wuxian wants to do is tie Lan Wangji together with him in some way for life. Even if it’s not explicitly romantic yet (cause he’s still coming around to the idea), the real goal here isn’t what they are doing, it’s that he and Lan Wangji will be doing it together. Yes, later he ends up saying if they get bored, they can pretend they’re not retired and go nighthunting, but that is not so much of the point.
The point here is that he is drawing out a far future with Lan Wangji right by his side. What he is dreaming of is the thought of a long life with the two of them together.
He was going to find a place beautiful though sparsely populated and build a large house there. He could build one for Lan WangJi next to him as well. Everyday there’d be two dishes and a soup. Of course, it’d be best if Lan WangJi was the one who cooked, or else they had to eat the things he cooked. It’d be best if Lan WangJi was responsible for the account of their money as well. Before his eyes even appeared the scene of Lan WangJi wearing coarse cloth, patches at his chest and his knees, sitting expressionlessly at a handmade wooden table, counting coins one by one. After he finished counting, he grabbed a hoe and went out to work. And, on the other hand, he’d… he’d… he’d do what?
Wei WuXian thought seriously about what he’d be doing. People often said that to exchange for food one either plowed the fields or spun cloth. Now that somebody was plowing the fields, somebody had to spin the cloth as well. Just thinking of him crossing his knees and shaking his legs in front of a loom was enough for him to cringe. He’d rather grab the hoe. It’d be more suitable for Lan WangJi to spin cloth. In the day they’d fish and plow the fields, while at night they’d get their swords and go night-hunting for beasts and demons. If they got tired of it, they could pretend that they’d never retired and it’d be fine for them just to enter the world again. But, as he had thought, they were missing a small one…
Lan WangJi suddenly spoke up, “A small what?”
Wei WuXian, “Huh?” He suddenly realized that he had spoken the last sentence out. He immediately regained himself, “I meant, Lil’ Apple is missing a small friend.”
So the biggest thing here is that this is not exactly a solid fantasy. The farming only comes in when he starts considering what they would need to do to afford their big houses right next to each other. Even then when his thoughts do come around to it, they are less on the work and more on the Lan Wangji of it. Right to the point where he slams into the A-Yuan barrier in his head and hurts himself and all of us.
From there on the farming fantasy does not reappear again in the entire rest of the actual novel, and while I keep seeing people say that he’s tying it to his happiest times in the Burial Mounds, I think again the connection is less on farming and more on something else.
Wei Wuxian first connects riding on the donkey with Lan Wangji holding the reins to his dim memories of his parents, good memories that he treasures. The idea of being connected together by the reins on a donkey, a couple. This is a pretty clear connection.
I think when farming comes up again in relation to Lan Wangji it is less on the farming and more that the other time he really felt like he belonged in a group was living with the Wens on the Burial Mounds. He connects the feeling of family with the farming and then ties it in with Lan Wangji. He wants to have a family with Lan Wangji. In the end, the farming matters less than the Lan Wangji part. They could be doing just about anything. As long as Lan Wangji is there too.
Again, I am not joking. He does not bring up farming one other time in his thoughts or his words. You would think if MXTX were intending to say that they’re gonna leave and go live on a tiny farm rather than the ending she’s aiming for, it might be mentioned more often than never.
Now we’re onto the ending of the book and the extras, where the real sticking point is. Wangxian come through the trials of the Guanyin Temple Hostage Party, they confess their love, they elope and have wild sex under a bush because they’ve waited more than long enough, and we come to chapter 113, the last actual chapter of the book. There will be 13 chapters of extras, but this is what MXTX intends for the story to initially end on, the future that lies before Wangxian.
It’s not a farmhouse. It’s the Cloud Recesses. They’re going back to the Cloud Recesses. On Wei Wuxian’s suggestion, they are going to the Cloud Recesses.
I’ve seen people say that Wei Wuxian doesn’t actually want to go back, he only goes because he’s worried about Lan Wangji and decides to humor him by going to see his family, and isn’t that a sad way to look at the ending, that you humor your husband by allowing him to see his family rather than deciding to make a second start and try again because both of you are optimists and never gave up on the Lan sect.
Imagine thinking that Wei “I could let these people who have declared a siege on me for the second time die but instead I’m going to put my own life at risk to protect them” Wuxian and Lan “I have spent the last fifteen years of my life going everywhere, doing everything and teaching students how to do the same thing fully under the image of the Lan sect rather than leaving and wandering on my own” Wangji deciding that no, they’re going to be cynical assholes instead and refuse to interact with anyone who doesn’t match their exact moral standards and actions. Really. By that logic, they couldn’t be together either because they’ve both messed up in their own history with each other and others.
But I should set aside my salt on the misunderstanding of Wangxian and continue to talk about the ending specifically or otherwise this post will get even longer.
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. Wei WuXian was still talking, “Where are we going next? I haven’t had Emperor’s Smile in a long time. How about we go back to Gusu and first play around for a bit in Caiyi Town?”
Lan WangJi, “Sure.”
Wei WuXian, “It’s been so many years. The waterborn abyss there should be completely cleaned up, right? If your uncle can bear looking at me, then hide me along with those jars of wine in your room; if he can’t, then let’s go tour some other place. I heard SiZhui and the others are having loads of fun night-hunting with Wen Ning.
Lan WangJi, “Mn.”
Wei WuXian, “But I heard there’s a renewed version of the GusuLan Sect’s rules? Hey, is there even more room on that Wall of Rules in front of the mountain to your sect…”
A gentle breeze came, and both their robes rippled like spring water.
Wei Wuxian brings it up unprompted and runs off things that he wants to do first. They’re headed back to Cloud Recesses, but not in any sort of hurry. He sets a boundary for his continues in staying, a condition that is met because 4 of the 6 extras contain them being in the Cloud Recesses at one point and the other two set post canon both make mention of them either doing things specifically within the Cloud Recesses or using Lan clan resources while out traveling. Dreams Come True has them deciding to put the world’s ugliest turtle in the Lanshi where Lan Wangji teaches (a thing they would not do if they were there so rarely it would have no impact on them and there’s no mention of putting it in a cottage because Wei Wuxian suggests the Jingshi at first) and Intrusion features them staying in a house that is specifically for members of the Lan Clan to stay in while traveling.
(Lotus Pod Picking and Villainous Friends are excluded from the count because neither of them are post canon and one of them doesn’t even feature Wangxian in the slightest)
I will not cover every detail in the extras that shows that they are at worst using it as a regular home base and traveling everywhere going where the chaos is and more likely spending more time there than out on the road, but I will point out the one other time the farmhouse dream shows up.
Any guesses where it’s mentioned? Here’s a hint - it’s very relevant with the other half of the chapter that it’s in.
It’s in... Incense Burner One!!
Now there’s been a million and a half arguments on the second half of the Incense Burner and Lan Wangji’s dream that it unearths, but I rarely see the first one mentioned despite it being the core of the farmhouse headcanon. Wei Wuxian is digging around in the Lan Treasure Pavilion and finds an incense burner that seems to do nothing, but when they fall asleep, they wake up in a shared dream.
The first relevant part of this is that Wei Wuxian is in his old body, so it’s digging through their subconscious and looking for things to show the other. The second relevant part is that Wei Wuxian does not recognize the dream at first.
It’s a sweet dream, there definitely are some more details finalized in the sense that Wei Wuxian has been filling out this daydream. Lan Wangji is weaving, Wei Wuxian shows up and complains that the farming work is too hard and asks Lan Wangji to make him a dish with the fish he caught. The focus here is clearly on the They are Living Together and Lan Wangji is Taking Care of Him. It is also very innocent and Wei Wuxian mentions that he would always wake up before the dream could go anywhere racy in hilarious contrast to Lan Wangji’s dream.
“…” Lan WangJi stared at the two making casual conversation, “Your dream?”
Wei WuXian was laughing so hard he might suffer from an internal injury, “Pwahahahahahahahaha, uh, yes. For a certain period of time, for some reason, I keep on having these dreams. I’d dream that we retired to seclusion to the countryside. I go out to hunt and farm, while you stay at home to guard the house, weaving and cooking food for me. Oh right, you’re also in charge of my money and doing accounts for me. At night you even mend my clothes. Every time I dream about telling you to boil the bathwater so that we could bathe together at night, but every time we were about to take off our clothes I’d wake up. What a shame, hahahahahahahahahahaha…”
He didn’t at all feel embarrassed that such a dream was seen by Lan WangJi. Instead, he was quite pleased with himself. Seeing how giddy he was, Lan WangJi’s eyes grew soft, “One might as well.”
This dream of Wei WuXian’s was full of trivial odds and ends, like cooking, eating, feeding chicken, cutting firewood. As expected, when the bathwater had finished boiling, the dream halted abruptly.
I checked with @jiangwanyinscatmom and she informed me that in the original text, it is kept, not keep. There is a tense error in the sentence above and it should read “For a certain period of time, for some reason, I kept on having these dreams.”
The key thing that stands out to me here is “I kept.” That’s past tense. He’s not having them anymore. Why, I hear you ask, because when this whole extra is set in the Cloud Recesses and not on a farmhouse, does he no longer dream of it?
Because he has what he wants. He no longer dreams about the farmhouse was never the goal. He has what the dream was always about, a life with Lan Wangji. A life where he is happy.
He didn’t want to be isolated and cut off from the world. He’s been in that situation before. It sucked. He’s been an outsider for years, he’s been in a place where everything fell on his shoulders, why do people think he’d want to go back to it? The things that an isolated farmhouse life can offer are not the things what an orphaned outcast would want.
Lan Wangji offers him a life where he can be part of a clan again, where he can be part of a family. He offers him a life where there is always a safe place to go to, the Cloud Recesses are going nowhere. There are people there waiting for him to come back. He takes the juniors out on nighthunts from around the mountains of Gusu to all the way out in Lanling without Lan Wangji having to tag along. He goes into the treasure pavilion of the Lan on his own and has his own jade token that allows him to leave and enter as he pleases and spend money without hesitation.
He’s not bothered by what the Cloud Recesses has to offer him. Sure Lan Qiren is an ass and he does not like the food, but he can solve both of those problems easily by having loud sex and having Lan Wangji cook for him. He never is even wistful for the farmhouse dream, because what he has in his life now is plenty enough for him.
I’ve noticed a definite shift in the Modaozushi fandom when it comes to talking about Wangxian where they just ignore the extras now, pretending that the very things we see of their life don’t exist. Wei Wuxian can’t be happy there, clearly he’d be moping like a princess in a tower, nevermind that we have six post-canon extras where he is getting to teach the juniors, do whatever he pleases and the worst he deals with is one man fruitlessly throwing tantrums. Lan Wangji can’t still find value in his family and his teachings, nevermind that not only does he go to spend time with his brother in seclusion, but he is teaching the juniors how to follow his understanding of the Lan rules and righteousness and teaching in the Lanshi.
Dreams Come True is marked by seasonal cues as being nearly a year after Modaozushi by the lotuses having not blossomed yet when they are eating seeds on their way to Yunping. Almost a year later and they are still living there, with Wei Wuxian coming up with the plan to put the ugly turtle they’ve won in the Lanshi where future students will see it while Lan Wangji is teaching them. That is a plan to stay there.
But people act like they just left after the banquet extra and never went back. And it’s really soured me on the whole thing. It is a total ignoring of anything they don’t like in the book when it is so clear if you are reading the extras with one eye open that they are just fine with their life as it is now.
I used to like the idea of the farmhouse dream as a distant retirement. When they were done with cultivation and wanted to take their long, possibly even immortal lives out into the world to learn new things. I have three separate fics set in that ideal.
But the very fact that there are people confidentally stating that it was the actual intended end and that Wangxian could never be happy in the Cloud Recesses has killed that enjoyment. Because it’s not true. Every single extra continues to assert that they are living their best lives, doing the things they want to do, hand in hand with the other.
If you want to write cottagecore stuff with Wangxian, if you want to explore a peaceful quiet life for them, that’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with that. Fanfic is fanfic.
But don’t lie and pretend that it’s what MXTX meant all along when the themes of the dream itself and how their active life still gives them what they actually wanted in it were never about the farmhouse in the first place.
It was only ever a setting for what Wei Wuxian really wanted. A life with Lan Wangji.
#mdzs#modaozushi#mdzs meta#grandmaster of demonic cultivation#wangxian#lan wangji#lan zhan#wei wuxian#wei ying#the farmhouse dream#the cloud recesses#lan sect#lan clan#long post
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I saw such a bad take on Jiang Cheng's character and I can't stop thinking about how terrible it is. "Jiang Cheng did nothing wrong....couldn't have handled things better because of his situation..."...something something. Why is it so hard for people to accept what's written in canon. MXTX wanted JC to be seen as an antagonist, she wanted him to be a terrible person it's so obvious from all the parallels between him and WWX's characters...
A huge excuse when they try to paint him as a "sad, misunderstood uwu boy" is that he went through a lot and thought it was all wwx's fault. But so did Jiang Yanli, and she didn't have any of the reactions that Jiang Cheng did. SHE was the one who lost her husband, SHE also lost her parents the same way he did?
I also reread some scenes recently...and his homophobia is so apparent especially in the scene where lwj and wwx visit his parents' shrine. ALSO, his excuse for thinking their dating is that he saw them hug under that tree??? AND HE FOLLOWED THEM TO SEE WHAT THEY'D DO AFTERWARDS😭😭😭
I'm just confused about what excuse they have that makes it so easy to overlook all the shitty things about him💀
(oh, they also seem to hate...wangxian? Like actively believe those two are annoying and that they're bad people. Which is kind of sad, since they're the main pairing of a...ROMANCE NOVEL. So I feel pretty bad for them for having to read a whole book about two characters they don't like)
Just wanted to know your thoughts. JC is irredeemable in my eyes. He's not a bad guy but he is a very bad person. But maybe other people see something I don't😂
Somehow I missed this ask, but I found it right on time (after seeing some stan bullshit 🙄) . My thoughts on Jiang Cheng is that the book is very clear that he is a terrible leader, a terrible uncle, and a terrible brother (both martial and bio) who chose the path of his toxic, violent mother to pursue over his kind father. Anyone saying otherwise is not worth engaging.
People don’t see something you don’t about his character, anon; people are choosing to unsee the things in canon because they’ve imprinted on a character that only exists in fan art, fanfic, and “incorrect quotes” memes. The disconnect isn’t a misunderstanding of the story but people uninvested in the original story wanting to impose their own uninspired fandom tropes onto an already cohesive story, and I simply do not have the energy to deal with that level of denial anymore with this fandom.
#mdzs asks#anon#yeah sorry about the late response#i legit was not seeing this ask#but also on jc being redeemable:#he’s irredeemable *to me*#but I don’t think he’s necessarily made so in the text#if by ‘redeemble’ you mean he cane change at least some of his ways#like i believe he can probably canonically be better to jin ling#but he will never be a person who doesn’t believe in murdering and torturing people weaker than him to vent his anger#as long as he can get away with it#he and wwx will never be on good terms again#he will continue to have no other amicable relationships in his life outside of his nephew
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Hi! I wanted to ask you something that’s been bugging me for a while: I want to know who’s the oldest between wx, and, for a long time, I thought it was WWX, since he says that they met when they were 15 and it was spring (then, LWJ was the youngest because his birthday is on January) but I remembered that MXTX uses the chinese age with Jin Ling (the text says JL is 15, but he should be 13 chronologically) so I don’t know if it was used with wx too. I think the characters for occidental/oriental age are different but I know -10 of chinese🤔who do you think is the oldest? The thought of them actually meeting at 13-14 is funny, though xD
Hi Anon,
Well, I'd have to say LWJ is older than WWX, because WWX has called him 'WangJi-xiong' in the past, as well as 'Lan Er-Ge' and 'Lan Er-Gege' which are all used to address someone older than you. Unfortunately I don't speak or read much Chinese at all. But as far as I'm aware; Both Xiong and Ge/Gege mean 'older brother' - the latter is just less formal, more cute/flirty way of doing so.
I'm not sure if MXTX gave LWJ a birth date - I've only ever seen her attribute one to WWX in an interview 🤔
So I would have to assume LWJ is older, because of the honorifics WWX uses for him ☺️
I think if you do the math (which isn't my strong point mind! 🤣), WX are definitely 15/16 when they meet. WWX had been guarding his first kiss for 20 years, and that was 5 years after they first met. Also, they both have courtesy names. MXTX said she lowered this from the usual age of 20 to 15 to fit in with the story.
.
As for JL... * Scribbles down numbers like a mad scientist - akin to what I imagine WWX was like while inventing things in the Demon-Slaughtering Cave... *
At the start of the novel JC confirms JL is going to turn 15 that year - so he's a little younger. Since he said "15 this year" he might have only just turned 14 as well. So I think this adds up nearly, give or take a few months? The first siege at the Burial Mounds was "nearly three months later" after the Bloodbath of Nightless City. Since JL was just over a month old when JYL died, he'd be around 4 months at the time of WWXs demise. With us not knowing exactly when WWXs was reborn within the thirteenth year since his death - this could add up to the extra months, rounding everything off nicely to coincide with JL being 14 at the start of the novel.
You are right, the traditional Chinese method of counting a person's age is a little different. You're 1 at birth instead of being 0. It gets a little complicated after that, because they then add another year onto that age once the child reaches their first Luna New Year as well. So depending on what month you are born, you could be classed as 2 pretty early on! Even though you would be technically perhaps less than 1 by modern calculations. After your first Luna Year, your age is then calculated by the turn of each new Luna Year. So it will be a year in between thereafter, if that makes sense. But as far as I'm aware, MXTX did not use this method when giving her characters their ages. I think this might stem from people being a bit confused with JLs ages - but hopefully the above helps to clear this up a little.
Just to further support my musings! If MXTX had used the traditional Chinese method for everyone's age, A-Yuan would have been too young to act the way he did when the novel states he was "one or two" years old. Because he was able to walk, talk and play very competently - making me assume he was definitely older than if his age was being calculated the traditional way.
As for WX meeting when they are a little older, I'm rather glad to be honest! Especially considering some of the sexual tension and flirtatious behaviour at times over their youth 😂
Anyway! I hope I managed to answer your question Anon 🤗
Me trying to line up JLs age with WWX's resurrection... 🤣
#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#mdzs novel#wei wuxian#lan wangji#wangxian#jin ling#mdzs ages#anon ask#answered ask
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Is it weird for me to be worried about my latest hyperfixation/plot bunny?
Below the cut is an explaination.
Tl/dr: added a bunch of like pagan themes and my version of “western fantasy” and found family tropes and species bending to a Xianxia/Wuxia setting (MXTX triple fusion) and I’m worried people will find it problematic if I post it. All pagan stuff is also “weird” bc it’s my flavor of it and I add more bits when I write it for stories of any kind. Main guy mostly just acts as a dad and is always running around trying to avoid people who he doesn’t want to find him unless he needs to trade for certain things like fabric because everyone is suspicious of him and it gets worse when they learn he’s an “alternate type of cultivator” and actually foreign and stuff. Like, it’s HIM being assimilated and not the other way around even if he’s sharing like a couple crafts, what he grew up speaking and writing, some recipes and stuff you’d learn if you lived in the wilds and had an arborist-holistic doctor-type for a mom figure.
Edits: added more clarification, main concern is white savior and I’m doing as much as I can to avoid that bullshit but I’m still worried as fuck bc I don’t want to seem like an asshole or something.
Like, I tend to have phases for fandoms, sure, but I also have them for tropes/concepts I like to write.
So I’m in a MXTX/Danmei phase fandom wise, and I’m in a general “fix it before the shit can go south” phase, and now I’m layering on my paganism-in-everything phase once again and writing a “what if all MXTX novels are in the same world… and a very powerful druid-witch dude happens to stumble onto our favorite red-and-black boys and a (good number of) handful(s) of other fucked over kids… which activates his horrible, horrible dad instincts and he adopts every last one of them” thing.
It’s 3 chapters deep, has a bunch of random shit ranging from discussion of languages and their quirks, basic Irish lessons (bc teaching myself off and on for YEARS), pagan/wiccan shit (obviously), handicrafts, hunting, practical foraging and ultra-sustainable farming practices, how major religions stamp out smaller or “bad” ones…
It’s basically just what I write for my Og stuff but I’m not holding back at ALL and it’s MXTX. Main plot is MDZS but Binghe and Hua Cheng are the frustratingly ridiculous older brothers of the family that the dad-character is just sick and tired of listening to them pine and suspicious as hell about who they’re going after despite not wanting to even THINK about his boys being in romantic relationships with ANYONE.
Just… goofy happy but dramatic family shit and cute kids and teens bringing a shitload of foreign mythology and pagan culture and a hefty dash of my personal style of fantasy into the Xianxia/Wuxia world.
I just worry I might get flack for like destroying the culture and setting with… what I write about for the most part outside of like the vast majority of my fics.
Am I going nuts, or is this okay?
Edit for a clarification: I’m worried, as someone mentioned, of a white savior trope problem. I’m mainly trying to get out of that corner I seem to have driven myself in, but generally how it’s going so far is:
- cultivators are suspicious of foreign guy who’s apparently not just some weird merchant, this causes issues
- OC is more just trying to keep the kids he ends up running around with from doing stupid shit like pulling stupid stunts to be with people they declare their soul mates after like one brief interaction (and he fails a lot and gets all “I’m not mad I’m just disappointed. Now eat your dinner and go take a bath, you stink and are too thin again.”)
- major difference for whole setting is just some one off things here and there being introduced and made more common in a warped timeline (mostly just like fiber arts and some recipes and minor things that aren’t as obvious right off the bat like how ginkgo trees are in the same family as poison Ivy and stuff like that)
Generally the entire fic is just very done dad yelling at stupid teenagers for being stupid teenagers and having to dodge people who don’t like the weird wild man and judging him for not being able to read Chinese well and stuff.
Yet I’m still worried about white savior issues… because they’re an issue.
#ao3 writer#fanfic#au fanfiction#crossover#crack fic#mxtx fandom#mxtx svsss#mxtx tgcf#mxtx mdzs#mxtx fanfic#mxtx triple crossover#hualian#bingqui#wangxian#fanfic problems#tumblr polls#my polls#poll time#polls#i like to add pagan bullshit to anime and stuff ngl#paganism#wicca
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@mxtx-beloved
🏮🏵️⚔️
They walked into one of the establishments, red paper lamps decorating the entrance. There were plenty of people there already, drinking and eating, all caught up in their own worlds, not noticing the two cultivators that just walked in.
Wei Wuxian looked around the establishment, seeking something specific - when a young woman showed up, greeting them politely, a welcoming smile on her face.
"Welcome to our bar! Would you like a seat?"
Wei Wuxian put on a friendly face. "Yeah, sure! And something to drink! Something strong!"
The woman sat them down at a nearby table and promised to return shortly with some wine.
"Have you seen that flower symbol anywhere?" Wei Ying asked, softly, and Lan Zhan shook his head no. "I don't think that man lied to us about it, and I'm quite sure this is the place..." He sighed, running a hand through his hair. "where could it be..."
The waitress returned with a tray of several bottles of wine, placing one of them alongside two cups onto the table. One of her sleeves rode up just a bit, revealing a beautiful, orange flower tattoo. Both Wei Ying and Lan Zhan saw it, and though their glances had been discreet, the waitress had noticed her secret exposed.
"Let's not start a fight here." she began, her welcoming aura replaced with hostility. "Follow me to the back, we will cross swords there."
"Is there any point for a fight?" Wei Ying asked, pouring himself a cup of wine. "Do you believe yourself more skilled than Hanguang-Jun and his Bichen?"
The waitress did not reply. Instead, she took a seat at the table, "Fine. I surrender. What would you like to know?"
#mdzs#mo dao zu shi#wangxian#writing attempts#i hope you like this one!! i was a bit stumped as to what to write so i hope this is fine <3
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Saying this not as a provocation for discourse but instead just as a little snack for my translation fans to nibble on but interestingly enough I feel like mdzscql is the one fandom I've seen that really really gets the most attached to mistranslations, which is saying a lot because I've always been into very heavily foreign language fandoms that relied entirely on translation to get by. To be fair you could chalk a lot of it up to the inaccessibility of the original text, but I do find it weird that people tend to latch onto some very widespread mistranslations of things like the mxtx interviews without ever cross-checking with other translators or the source text.
This isn't 1:1 applicable with this situation because obviously it wasn't an entire book and was vastly more easily accessible, but I used to do some (bad) amateur fantranslation for a now-defunct Korean gatcha game with official English and Japanese translations, and whenever we'd edit the wiki for it, we would make it a point to cross-check details from the tbh kind of bad but still official Eng translation as closely as we could using what we could understand from rudimentary mtl on Korean and Japanese wikis and fan groups. If things checked boxes across the board, we could make some assumptions about the accuracy of things and judge accordingly what could be added. There was never a surefire assurance that we were getting 100% of the original text, but we tried our best to at least acknowledge the comparatively better documentation from people who actually spoke the source language, which is something that shockingly isn't as common in danmei as I would hope
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Get to know me - tagged by @wazzappp, ty! 💜
under the cut cause it's a longer tag game
Nickname: I don't have as many as I had when I was going by my birthname, but I like Z :) it's fun to be called a single letter. that's my part of the alphabet now.
Sign: libra sun / sag moon / libra rising. look I don't really put any stock in astrology - I'm just here for the vibes - but I do find it funny how I got assigned double libra at birth and can't make a fucking decision to save my life
Height: 152cm/4' 11"
The last thing I googled: 'xcode manually added framework support x86 and arm64'. it was a rough day at work
Amount of sleep: probs like 6 hours on average when I'm not going through a rougher patch of sleep issues. otherwise it varies from 3-8
Dream job: to have no job and dismantle capitalism ❤ nah but really in an ideal world where I could do whatever and study to do it. I would want to work with animals. mostly birds. I just wanna work at a bird sanctuary or do ethical/educational falconry or something. give me a job where I get to hang out with corvids every day and I think that would fix me.
Favorite song: hardest question of all time. right now? this:
youtube
Movie/Book that Summarises Me: 'summarises me' is a hard one. I don't tend to interact with media from a lens of relatability aside from latching onto specific characters. if it can be interpreted as 'summarises my tastes' there are a fair few things I can list out though!
the locked tomb - tamsyn muir
six of crows duology - leigh bardugo
priory of the orange tree - samantha shannon
the ballad of sir benfro - j.d. oswald (dragon high fantasy vibes that I've never seen replicated anywhere else, where a displaced dragon is the perspective character for a lot of the series)
the memoirs of lady trent - marie brennan (she's a victorian dragon naturalist in a world where dragons are on the cusp of becoming part and parcel of the ecosystem rather than myth. it's SO good)
the handmaiden
scream series
pacific rim
alien
deadass anything directed by edgar wright
Favorite instrument: I'm always gonna have a soft spot for percussion/drum kits because that's what I used to play. but purely on the basis of sound? probably bass guitars. their range is unmatched, they can be tuned up to drive a melody as well as the bassline, and the Crunchiness of good bass just fucks so severely.
Aesthetic: the word aesthetic really grinds my gears given its usage and tiktokification in recent years lmao so I'm not sure how to answer this one. if we're talking like, personal preference in style, it's... well, goth-lite? masc-leaning goth with an emphasis on ye olde genderfuckery
Favorite authors: tamsyn muir, samantha shannon, marie brennan, sarah waters, derek landy, mxtx
Random fun fact: uhhhhhh did you know that people with coeliac disease have a genetic mutation affecting the HLA (human leukocyte antigen) protein, which causes it to bind with gluten in the body, signalling to the T cells that gluten is a foreign body that needs to be attacked - but they end up attacking the gut itself instead, destroying parts of it? the human body is so fucking dumb fr. at least I get to joke that I'm a mutant
tagging anyone that made it this far <3 mwah
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Hello Nyerus and hope you're well. This question might be out of the blue. But it is something that has been bothering me for a long time. When Xie Lian was in the sedan and the child spirit sang the creepy lullaby. Xie Lian said:
“Ever since I sat onto the sedan, I’ve never stopped smiling.”
Were there a meaning behind those words?? Or am I just overthinking?
(And sorry if this question sounds very dumb😅)
Hi there Anon! I don't think that's a dumb question at all! In fact, it's actually something I never quite understood myself, haha.
There might be a little something lost in translation, but from what I always thought: Xie Lian mentions that the "lullaby" says that brides (in the sedan) should not smile, but only cry. Otherwise, a smiling bride will be kidnapped by the fabled "ghost groom." However, Xie Lian has been smiling (not crying) the entire time, thus if the ghost groom exists, he would for sure attack the sedan.
This is not untrue -- the sedan does get attacked right after. I also think the phrase is a little bit of fun foreshadowing/double entendre/easter egg! Because it is true that Xie Lian gets "kidnapped" by a "Ghost Groom" -- it's just not the entity they were expecting, haha! Instead, it's Hua Cheng. The child spirit's creepy little lullaby was inadvertently a bit of a prophecy!
MXTX often has fun little things like that interspersed throughout her works, so it definitely tracks as another one of those!
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