I'm so used to Cassie's sizes of the books with 600-700 pages, so i need to adjust to 300 pages story pacing now ...

the first person narration has its pros & cons

And, I'm a little sad that I have so many

things and plot twists spoiled to me

⚜️ ...but it is what it is ⚜️

⚜️ and I'm fairly enjoying it ⚜️

👑❤️‍🔥🗡️

Reading through book one of svsss and I have to say if anything the fanfiction authors are *under* representing just how utterly in love with each other Bingqiu are from the *very* beginning.

They are so supportive of each other and keep getting distracted by how good looking the other is. Sqq called himself out for taking scenes for the female lead right after swooning at Binghe's determination. Then he promised to protect him in turn. He calls being around Binghe dangerous then immediately leaps to his defense and invites him into his home. Sqq calls himself lazy and cowardly but he is so brave and worked so hard to integrate into a new world.

He tries to remind himself he was given the villains role but can't bring himself to say a single mean thing to binghe. He knows he is lying to himself and trying to brainwash himself to prepare for the immortal alliance conference and can only manage to go through with it because he thinks Binghe will benefit by becoming stronger. Ahhh! This man.

Binghe is absolutely valid to be so devoted to him. And flirt so heavily (go Binghe!). They have so much chemistry- they're always pausing when they touch and blushing.

Also Shen Qingqiu *absolutely* gets jealous when he thinks Binghe is giving girls his attention. He gets agitated, he starts thinking back to pidw book plot points with those girls, he considers of how he would have rather read about monsters! Binghe go fight monsters instead!

Binghe hearing shizun call liu mingyan beautiful- goes to ride next to her to present a better picture; then leads her out of view so shizun won't be able to see her anymore. They really are the same!! No one said how much they were the same!!!

Guanyin temple thoughts (AKA nothing can stop a dramatic bisexual)- spoilers!

I'm reading the Guanyin temple scene in MDZS at the moment and LORD none of the media censoring Wangxian's gay relationship will ever be able to convey just how much Jin Guangyao got upstaged by them here-!!!

Especially comparing this whole fiasco with the one that went down in CQL, every few lines these 2 are doing SOMETHING really gay, usually also really funny because of the timing, while everyone else is paying attention to the plot. In CQL, this whole arc felt like a culmination to Jin Guangyao's and Lan Xichen's subliminally gay plotline more than anything, but the great thing about the novel is that Wei Wuxian especially just keeps stealing Jin Guangyao's thunder. First they have to deal with Wei Wuxian's obliviousness, then Wei Wuxian confesses, then Wangxian have their really sweet moment and spend every moment hereafter making their gayness known to all in a 5 mile radius (case in point: Wei Wuxian taunting Su She and making Lan Wangji laugh, Wangxian hugging and being super loud about it because of Wei Wuxian's trauma-induced cynophobia and then Wei Wuxian covering Lan Wangji's ears from the wrongly-played guqin)...and THEN Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian have THEIR moment while Jin Guangyao is discovering his mother's body is missing. Jin Guangyao's antagonism almost means nothing anymore.

Not to mention, Jin Guangyao is barely an antagonist for over half of this entire scenario. Even though he's keeping them all hostage, it's not like some of them have better things to be doing really (read: Wangxian and Nie Huaisang). All the catharsis they'd desperately needed for years, they're getting that here anyways. Jin Guangyao literally joins in on getting Wei Wuxian to realise his feelings, almost like it's a casual gossip sesh giving life advice to your (gay) sworn brother's son-in-law-to-be:

Wei WuXian glanced at him before turning to Lan XiChen, “It’s like this. I couldn’t sleep tonight and took a stroll outside the inn. I only came here accidentally. HanGuang-Jun’s in another room. He doesn’t know I went out.”

Jin GuangYao found this strange, “You two got two rooms?”

Wei WuXian, “Who told you we’d definitely get one room?

Jin GuangYao smiled, but said nothing. Wei WuXian, “Oh, I know.” Lan XiChen told him. Wei WuXian, “You two really do talk about anything and everything.”

This does NOT feel like a hostage situation- this just feels like a gathering of people who would be happier with extensive therapy. And...I have nothing useful to say really. I just think this is really funny. Especially when you consider how Wangxian's presence in the farce that was the Second Seige of the Burial Mounds (that legit just happened) derailed how THAT was supposed to go too, with Wei Wuxian solving the mystery of the gravedigger guy in live-time while Lan Wangji silenced anyone trying to argue with his bf.

Jin Guangyao and Su She are being sidelined hard in their own plot, and not just by the oriole to their mantis AKA mastermind Nie Huiasang. Even though they are supposed to be the main antagonists facing a climax, the real climax is the resolution of emotional conflict between the hostages they've taken. As for their fate, that was decided years ago when Jin Guangyao accelerated Nie Mingjue's death. The actual plot, interesting as it is, was barely ever in question because of the constant background presence of this mastermind, who's trapped Jin Guangyao exactly where he wanted to. There is no real defeating of the villain, because Jin Guangyao is made to be at his weakest in the temple, and his strongest before Wei Wuxian was even summoned back yet. It's so strange...it really sets in stone that in the novel MDZS, there is no real villain. There are people who learn from their mistakes, people who don't, and people who judge them as if they're any better. Nie Huiasang is Jin Guangyao's retribution for his continued crimes and Wei Wuxian is the person Jin Guangyao could've been if he stopped blaming others for said crimes...both of them, subtly or unsubtly, dominate his hostage attempt completely. Maybe that's what I'm really trying to say here. I do feel quite bad for Jin Guangyao though, having put his entire life into building up a reputation knocked over in 1 fell swoop, and having to watch his only true remaining friend lose trust in him in real time. All this additional conflict just further emphasises how Jin Guangyao's fall from grace has really already occurred.

Sidenote: Everyone becoming homophobic effective immediately after Wei Wuxian's ill-timed confession is also just really funny, they were so mad at his obliviousness like 2 seconds ago and now they're edging away from him (maybe to give them space, sure, but still)...Wei Wuxian, in all matters, is the epitome of "damned if you do, damned if you don't". Except for Jiang Cheng, in which case he's just straight-up damned (/lh).

Also the way they're yelling (it doesn't say they were yelling but I picture them yelling this) about hugging when Jiang Cheng shows up and while everyone else is like, "What's Sect Leader Jiang going to do? Will he beat Jin Guangyao? Will the plot advance?"

Wei WuXian, “Hug me!”

Lan WangJi, “I am hugging you!”

Wei WuXian, again, “Hug me tight!”

Lan WangJi, also, “I am hugging you tight!”

Managed to upstage not just Jin Guangyao but Jiang Cheng too, effortlessly, as Wei Wuxian always seems to :,) Take that, Jiang Cheng's pride! /lh

These guys have been separated for 13 years, ok? They deserve to have this.

ELLA AND CHAR ARE SO CUTE ALDKGKSJF

There's this scene in the Dawn of Yangchen where she's healing Kavik's frostbite. That idea is just so cool to me.

Just spent the last… 10-15 minutes in absolute tears over that last episode

So I was flipping through my Mandarin copy of Guardian (镇魂) to see how much I could actually read after my five months with Duolingo and related Mandarin reading resources (as it turns out: quite a bit! As long as the passages don’t contain over-technical language, or deal with the supernatural, I can read them well enough), and I decided to read one of my favourite passages, which happens to be the part where Shen Wei lugs an ailing Zhao Yunlan back to his apartment only to discover what an utter trainwreck of a bachelor the man is: 他第一次到赵云澜家里来，没来得及开灯，先让门口打开的雨伞绊了一下——龙城冬天雨水非常少，距离上一次降水，起码有大半个月的时间了，主人一定是懒得要长蘑菇了，居然还没收起来。 The thing is... my Mandarin is currently at the level where I can *read* most of the characters in a passage just fine, but I might not necessarily understand the entirety of said passage owing to character combinations/expressions I haven’t previously encountered, so I don’t know if I’m reading this right, but.... Is Priest actually saying that Zhao Yunlan is so bloody lazy that he’s about to sprout mushrooms (figuratively)??? I’m dying here.

pride and prejudice is getting better. uhm.

Camille in Sharp Objects is so… mean about the people of Wind Gap. Like okay fine with the gossipy housewives but she imagines that the youngest son of the Nashes will wind up desperate for sex and eating to cope and sit on gas station curb drinking and angry?? Ma’am that’s a little child?? Who is growing up in a probably poor household and his older sister just died? Your rich upbringing is showing I guess ???

the fact that i'm no longer the same age as the protagonists of novels and films i once connected to is so heartbreaking. there was a time when I looked forward to turning their age. i did. and i also outgrew them. i continue to age, but they don't; never will. the immortality of fiction is beautiful, but cruel.

I liked character of Roiben in TFOTA so I'm starting to read The Modern Faerie Tales...

well, first I'll read The Darkest part of the Forest... Those as I understand have connections to The Folk of the Air series

it's always so fascinating and heartbreaking when a character in a story is simultaneously idolized and abused. a chosen prophet destined for martyrdom. a child prodigy forced to grow up too fast. a powerful warrior raised as nothing but a weapon. there's just something so uniquely messed up about singing someone's praises whilst destroying them.

𝖠𝗋𝗍 𝖻𝗒 𝖠𝗇𝗇𝖺-𝖫𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺 𝖲𝗎𝗅𝗅𝗂𝗏𝖺𝗇 | 𝖨𝖦: 𝖺𝗇𝗇𝖺𝗅𝖺𝗎𝗋𝖺_𝖺𝗋𝗍

there should be more hours between 6 and 10pm. like even just two more hours. for my assorted hobbies & activities