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symphonyofsilence · 1 year

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does Jin Guangyao play a villainous role in Wei WuXian’s story? yes. but is he also the Narrative’s special boy? also, yes.

I don’t remember the post, but the fact that Wei Wuxian, and by extinction, the narrative sympathizes with Jin Guangyao has already been brought up. He draws a comparison between himself and JGY when the crowd suddenly turns against JGY in Lotus Pier and wants WWX to deal with him, and again when the other Sect Leaders led by Sect leader Yao assume that the Guanyin statue is made to resemble JGY himself ‘cause he’s a narcissist, and when people are saying nasty things about JGY in a tavern after his death.

but another way in which the narrative sympathizes with JGY is that every time JGY is shown doing a shitty thing, it’s immediately followed by him being shown in a situation in which he is a victim, or has done something good.

he paralyzes Qin Su after she finds out some horrible truths about him and hides her in the creepy room where WWX finds JGY’s sworn brother’s head? A chapter or an episode after that we see him being trash-talked and cast out by other Nie soldiers when they’re drinking the water he brought, while he’s doing thrice the work they’re doing. we see him cleaning the battlefields and helping the commoners after battles, we see him voluntarily do the work of the servants as a deputy general when they lack staff, and pour people tea, while they rudely clean their cups when they take it from his hands (which NMJ does nothing about), we see him loyally arguing with LXC that he can't leave NMJ for his father’s sect after all NMJ has done for him, and learn that he has saved LXC. CQL shows him in his Meng Yao Era more. We see him repeatedly receive scorn when all he gives others is curtsey and smiles, we see beforehand the Nie Captain be an absolute bitch to him so I'm sure nobody in the audience regretted his loss, but even then we immediately get that jumping in front of NMJ and taking a stab to the chest to save him, and the teary banishment scene that cancels the "guy is now officially a scheming murderer" out.

He's being a bitch to NMJ in the Nightless City? He kills Wen Ruohan & turns out that he has been bravely spying for the Sunshot campaign all this time and they owe him their victory. But even then, he apologizes to NMJ, kneels down, and surrenders himself.

He's protecting Xue Yang? You have him explaining to NMJ why he can't go against his father's wishes, and how he's scared of everything and everyone because he was never given the luxury of safety, status & power, so he can practice that power freely. In the end, NMJ offends his mother and kicks him down the stairs (which he's well aware is a trauma for JGY). Which honor-bound ancient man wouldn't have killed the man who disrespected his mother and kicked him down the stairs? What would have NMJ done had this been done to him? But even then, in the book, the narrative does even more to make JGY sympathetic, LXC comes to NMJ to calm him down, and he says that JGY's in a difficult situation right now. His stepmother beats him & his father doesn't listen to anything he says anymore. Otherwise, he wouldn't have talked back to NMJ. & after that, NMJ's qi deviation happens when he drops eaves on this conversation between LXC & JGY:

I mean if you've tried to murder him thrice, shoved him down the stairs, & called him a whoreson, taken any opportunity to scold him, & you don't like it when he talks back to you, at least let him talk behind your back. He's not even lying or being disrespectful or anything.

He retaliates against WWX & LWJ’s attack by showing WWX as a villain and the way he has killed NMJ comes to light? a few chapters later WWX is surprised that JGY hasn’t visited LXC to demand a search but to tell him that he has prevented everyone from searching the CR and thinks it’s best if LXC, whenever it’s convenient for him opens the doors of the CR so JGY can get this search over with and shut the other sects up. And reassures him that he won’t let LWJ’s reputation be tarnished in any way. (At the stairs of Jinlintai, JGY knew fully well that LWJ was doing what he was doing because he was in love with WWX, as we learn at the Guanyin temple, but he loudly suggested that LWJ is being deceived in front of the crowd to save LXC's brother reputation.) The Donghua even has a wartime flashback from a young Meng Yao saving LXC, feeding him, hiding him, washing his clothes, getting beaten up by the Wen soldiers to keep LXC safe, and even then bringing back food for him with a smile.

He takes everyone hostage, twice (his hostages are children the first time) and is at the peak of his villain moment? You have the whole Guanyin temple thing happening. (which, personally for me, was what really elevated him from an interesting character to my poor little mew mew in my eyes.)

When JGY kneels down, WWX feels uncomfortable. He feels embarrassed on his behalf:

the same effect of inducing pity & sympathy for him is achieved in the show by somber music swelling in this scene, reaction shots, slow-mo, and a wide-shot of everyone in the temple as JGY kneels down to make him look especially small, while almost 2/3 of the shot is of the candles of the Guyanin temple. in the exposition scene when LXC kneels down to hear JGY out, the statue of Guanyin is between them. THE LOCATION OF ALL OF JGY TRAGIC EXPOSITIONS IS A GYANYIN TEMPLE! The temple of the bodhisattva of mercy who is considered to be the physical embodiment of compassion!

And the sympathetic reaction shots when he talks about JGS continue throughout the scene.

then we learn that he had to marry Qin Su because she was already pregnant and he didn’t want QS & JRS to have his and his mother’s fate and that the reason they had to rush things through like this and conceive a child was that JGS might have further caused problems for their marriage because he really disliked his son. and that if a political fall-out happened between Jin & the Qin clan, JGY would get the burn of it. (still a shitty act, but you can’t help but understand where he’s coming from & pity him), he goes on about his father kicking him down the stairs of Jinlintai on his birthday while celebrating JZX’s birthday, we learn about his childhood in the brothel, about JGS saying that he could save Meng Shi but he didn’t ‘cause she would be too much trouble, and that their son wasn’t worth mentioning, we see JGY & SMS deep connection, the show gives us some very good Xiao Shushu & A-Ling moments, & even though it’s been always clear & is especially clear during the whole Guanyin temple scene, we see truly see the depth of love, respect, and loyalty JGY has toward LXC.

We see him in the Villainous Friends chapter telling Xue Yang that he can vandalize people's shops and restaurants for no reason, only under the condition that he doesn't wear the Jin uniform. But it's immediately followed by the mention of the bruise on his head given to him by his stepmother because she can't vent her anger on her cheating husband, who JGY has to retrieve from brothels every night to ensure his safe stay in Jinlintai for another day. We see him massacre the He sect, and right after that, he goes to retrieve his father from the brothel and hears those awful things and you can't help but sympathize with him.

Because what is really important is that you understand Jin Guangyao. There are about 14 chapters in the book and 4 episodes in the show of JGY explaining himself while crying on the floor because it's less about "Jiggy eVIL" & more about look what the society who turned his back on him & his mother when they needed their help, and sneered at them when they tried to improve their situation, and never forgave JGY for being born has done to this man to make him do such horrendous deeds. (And his sword's name is Hensheng. Meaning "hate to be born". They made him never forgive himself for being born either.)

So by saying that X & Y has happened to JGY, and so what he does is for self-preservation, nobody's JUSTIFYING his genocides, & nobody's denying that JGY had a choice in everything he did. Even if his other option was to accept his place, sit down, shut up, and suffer in silence, NOT murdering a whole sect that includes children by doing experiments on them is the better option. The point is that it's not the point. JGY's atrocities are only means in the story to tell the cautionary tale of a classist, cruel society. The things that JGY has gone through cannot be erased from the conversations because "JGY EvIl. Periodt." The Narrative doesn't want the reader to do that! It's specifically structured to put the reason JGY's got to this point on the forefront every time he does a crime. The fight with NMJ's fierce corpse ends as quickly as it begins. The Climax of the story is mostly JGY's monologues. 14 chapters of monologues cannot be dismissed as JGY gaslighting LXC & shedding crocodile tears.

in a story that has Wei WuXian as a protagonist, and literally starts with the monster the society has made of him through rumors and has this theme going on through the rest of the story, especially with JC, and baseless accusations are the first thing that happens when JGY's secrets are out in the Lotus Pier, and then ends with society making a monster out of JGY after his death through rumors when Sect Leader Yao speculates that the statue's face is modeled after JGY himself (which WWX especially comments on), and in the tavern when people made such crude remarks that even those who were participating in the conversation felt uncomfortable, I think it's clear what and who the real villain is.

MXTX could have written people talking about literally any real atrocity that JGY has done, but instead, they talk about what he hasn’t done and read the worst out of his every action in life.

And actually, with everything that JGY has been through, he’s not even the worst case that could come out of his situation. He did have good intentions. For all his genocides, unlike Xue Yang, he didn't actually want to see the world burn. He did help the innocent common folk. He helped them during the sunshot campaign, and with the watchtowers, he fought against systematic corruption, and he treated everyone with respect. He rescued LXC and QS. We don’t know how many others he has personally saved. It's that the means he had to use to have the power to help the poor was incredibly dirty because he was playing an unfair game that was especially designed against him. (I'm not saying helping the poor was his only objective when he tried to gain his father's approval and a secure place in Jinlintai for himself. Though it's sad that he had to fight for these things at all.) The best he could honorably do was be NMJ's deputy general, which didn't save him from being bullied and people cleaning the cups they took from his hands. He knew that if he tried to help the innocent without having the political power to do that, he would end up like WWX. But what he didn’t know was that he would end up like that if he, unlike WWX, played by the rules of the game and compromised his morals anyway. There was no winning for people like them.

Dismissing the good that JGY has done, the real desire he had for helping the poor, and what he’s been through cheapens the character, cheapening JGY’s character to a one-dimensional Marvel villain, and dismissing the commentary that he represents on society as a whole is a disservice to the story. And that’s a crime cause the story is great.

his fall from grace, the heinous acts he had to commit to find himself the slightest bits of safety, security, and respect wouldn’t be that much of a tragedy if he didn’t want to be good and do good for people.

Then there is JGY's death and the framing of it. Here is a wonderful analysis by @sapphicdalliances of why his death wasn't justice and that was the point, how he died because of an act he didn't commit, and here are great analysis by @thatswhatsushesaid & @crithir about how his death is described as a gut-wrenching horrible scene framed through his horrified nephew & ward's eyes, both in the book and in the show, how it didn't bring the Nie brothers any closure either, and how through the lenses of LXC and JL, and by JC’s & WWX’s reaction we see his death as a tragedy.

His death is because of a dishonorable trick. His last act in life, pushing LXC away is an act of love and of forgiveness. In the CQL before that, he pushes Jin Ling out of danger, too.

As said in the aforementioned posts, after it, we don't see a victorious Nie Huaisang or Wei WuXian. In fact, neither of them is victorious.

WWX, and by extension, the narrative blames NHS for his scheming & risking innocent lives. WWX is especially appalled by NHS' treatment of Meng Shi's body. He points out that JGY, being a big liar with a considerable criminal record, will be forever accused of lying, no matter what. While he immediately after brings JGY's last genuine act toward LXC as proof that JGY couldn't have been lying.

In the CQL, he straight-up calls NHS the devil with the coldest tone he's ever had towards NHS.

NHS for his part doesn't seem victorious either.

Dare I say he even looks like despite years of scheming he was not ready for it when JGY pushes Shuoyue deeper inside his own chest. (Who would he be acting for at that moment? Nobody's looking at him. And he’s sweating!)

And I think there's a "no, he didn't" in his last "I don't know." To LXC (at least in the show) when he's insistently asked whether JGY was going to attack LXC or not and he insistently answers "I don't know". It's a confirmation without confirmation.

And then in, IMHO, one of the most beautiful and nuanced scenes, NHS finds A-Yao's hat, in the book, he bends down, picks it up, and quietly goes away (and that's the last we see of Nie Huaisang), in the show he wipes off the dust on it, and his hand finally gets bloodied, literally & metaphorically despite trying his best to not do his dirty work himself. And we get a flashback of A-Yao's childhood that I always assumed we're seeing through NHS because maybe JGY had told him that story. Not only does the order of the scene, combined with NHS' deep in thought look seem like it but also NHS cleans JGY's hat when in that memory A-Yao's mom tells him that he needs to take good care of his hat.

And that scene is especially beautiful because the show went out of its way to show their close relationship pre-time skip. And we see NHS keep A-Yao's principal by cleaning his hat when JGY himself is too dead to do that. Even when the reason for his death is NHS himself. And by NHS getting his hands bloodied while cleaning the hat, and staring at it with a deep, nuanced look, that combination of care & hatred is shown in that scene.

I think he feels empty. He's spent years after years planning this thing. It was his only drive. Now it's over. And it wasn't a grand, victorious moment. It just...happened. and it was something that needed to happen, in his eyes.

And he did love his san-ge for a long, long time before the betrayal came to light for him. And then he hated him for a long, long time. But at that moment with JGY's bloodied hat in his hand? I think that's the moment when love and hatred have both run their passionate course and they've finally reached each other in the middle and collided and ran out of strength and intensity and separate, clear meaning and they just take their exhausted leave together, leaving only a trace behind.

And most prominently we see a devastated LXC and JL. We see Jin Ling's flashback of when his Xiao Shushu gave him his spiritual puppy. We see him being the only one who could cheer JL up when he was down for days.

We see JL choosing to keep loving him despite everything.

His loss is felt and the memory of his good deeds keeps coming back in JL's narrative:

The Narrative doesn't just sympathize with him. The Narrative mourns him.

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shu-of-the-wind · 9 months

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ling, the instant he and lan fan are separated for more than 20 minutes:

#he has NO SELF CONTROL #absolutely NONE #in the LEAST #@ ling yao why are you the way that you are!!!#ling yao #fma #this joke has probably been made before but idgaf #fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood #fullmetal alchemist

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mikaela-the-slut-expert · 4 months

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Tea Shop

Xie Lian x M!reader x Hua Cheng

Y'all I've been thinking for ages how to make a two person scene a three person scene. What am I supposed to do, make two brides??? So if you have any ideas come bless me with them. 🫵🙃

Previous part: God of Song's second ascension

_____________________________________________

After you guide Xie Lian carefully out of the heavens so that he doesn't kill himself by accident . It takes a day to get to a tea shop. It could've taken longer, like three days but you saved yourselves sometimes. Since you can actually have spiritual prowess. The only reason it wasn't any quicker is because Xie Lian demanded you to not overwork yourself and use too much mana.

Xie Lian has always looked simple enough with plain, white robes. You on the other hand have to take on an 'avatar' you don't need anyone noticing you either. So you also dawn white robes, but of course a veil stays on.

You and Xie Lian sit at a table in the corner of the tea shop and you sit across from him. The two of you look over the scroll Ling Wen has given you... it isn't very helpful, but that's alright.

Both yours and Xie Lian's attention is captured by a silver butterfly. It flies across both of you and out the window. When you turn your head your heart almost drops out of your throat. Xie Lian is surprised as well to see two men sitting by you. One sat by you and the other sat by Xie Lian. There's only so much room on these benches after all.

You grimace at their presence. It's not hard to read the spiritual energy from them, they're obvious officials. You glare at them, Xie Lian is much kinder, "Oh uh who are you guys..?"

"Fu Yao" the one by you replies.

"Nan Feng" the one by Xie Lian replies.

You've never side eyed someone so hard in your endless years of life. At the 'Fu Yao' person beside you.

Ling Wen transmits a message to the two of you that they're volunteer officials. You huff inwardly. There's no way anyone from the upper court would offer their deputies from the middle court to help them.

That's because they aren't from the middle court though.

"Well I thank you for your help" Xie Lian says, quickly accepting their new guests.

"Which highnesses sent you?" You ask with narrowed eyes. You know they aren't deputies. Who are you to stress Xie Lian out more though, he already looks horrified when the officials answer his question.

"The palace of Nan Yang"

"The palace of Xuan Zhen"

"..."

Your glare only grows sharper. You've no clue why Mu Qing out of all people would want to help. You also have no idea why he would sit next to you of all people.

"Oh did your generals send you?" Xie Lian asks with a mouthful of tea.

"They didn't know we were coming" they answered in unison.

Xie Lian ponders for a moment, but you're quick to make the two squirm. Just because you can.

"Two officials from the lower court shouldn't go off without permission no? The trouble surely isn't worth it." Your eyes crinkle, as you smile at the two.

Lower court used to be what's now called the middle court. It was changed when whiny officials started complaining it made them seem trivial compared to officials in the upper court. To them an apparent mark to their honor. To you a pathetic attempt to seem important.

"..."

Your smile widens under your veil when they don't answer. What are they going to say? Their lack of words don't stop Fu Yao from glaring at you or from making Nan Feng squirm in his spot.

Xie Lian ever so kindly saves them, "Well do you know who we are?"

"You're his royal highness the crown prince and he's general /n"

"You're the justice of the mortal realm, the center of the world"

Mu Qing does not regard you at all and rolls his eyes when he answers.

Xie Lian chokes on his tea, "Did he just roll his eyes?"

" He did, tell him to scram" you and Nan Feng say together.

"Any official who was available was welcome to help so who are you to tell me to scram?" Fu Yao sneered. Again his words are only pointed at Nan Feng, not you.

"Ah well more help is better than none right?" Xie Lian smiles.

You sigh and all four of you go over the scroll together.

**********************************************************

Eventually it begins to get dark and all of you will need to find a place to sleep. Long ago, Xie Lian and you would sleep in the streets or on the ground. You put a stop to that. After becoming a powerful enough ghost and god you entreated yourself to your own palace. Not in the heavens though, you chose for it to be in the ghost realm. This was a while before Crimson Rain took over ghost city

Your palace just happened to be in close proximity to it and eventually ghosts started inhabiting themselves. Now all three realms call your palace, "The city of the lost". It's rarely talked about because well it's "lost" not many people find it, your city also doesn't cause trouble. It's just kinda there.

That is where you would usually go though but now you have two more officials with you and you'll be damned if you bring Mu Qing into your city.

"Why don't we find a temple of Nan Yang? I'm sure there's one around." You say, standing next to Xie Lian.

The four of you do eventually find one, it's a little run down but it's good enough. Your attention is dragged away when you notice a girl praying. A girl praying in a temple of Nan Yang? Makes you want to give your heart out.

You can't resist your temptations when Xie Lian asks why the temple has so many women worshippers. It's unusual for a martial god's temple after all. While Nan Feng feels the need to block the question, Fu Yao indulges it.

"I know what you want to ask, you want to ask why there's so many female worshippers right?"

You hold the urge to cackle, and lean in close to Xie Lian's ear. You happily ignore the two officials's glares. You whisper to him, "Xie Lian many women worship Nan Yang's temple so in the future their man will have... Good assets" you giggle into his ear.

For a martial god it isn't normal for many women to pray in their temples. Xie Lian was an exception because he was more of a ' feminine god ' depicted with lotus flowers. You were an exception because of femininity and because you're the God of song. The arts, like dance, drawing, and song were more partaken by women than men. Most martial gods don't have femininity, so rare for women's prayers.

You stay close to Xie Lian's side as Fu Yao judges the poor girl to pieces, calling her ugly. Xie Lian sighs, "You can't talk about girls like that Fu Yao" but you can tell Xie Lian is thinking the same thing. You snicker placing a hand on your hip.

Xie Lian notices a slash in the girl's dress, he tries to offer her his outer robe so that she can cover herself but of course she freaks out. She moves to slap Xie Lian but why would you just stand there? You grab her wrist and throw her to the side. 'throw' is an overstatement it was truly a nudge.

Once Xie Lian tells her she has a slash in her dress she finally accepts his robe and then runs out of the Temple.

Now Xie Lian's undressed. Bandages over his chest, and neck can be seen now. Nan Feng and Fu Yao stare in quiet shock. You on the other stare in admiration. Xie Lian is undeniably beautiful. You chuckle softly and remove your outer robe, unlike Xie Lian you have an under robe on. You move it over Xie Lian's shoulders.

"Should've let her run out with the slash in her dress. It's just like you to give the clothes off your back, A-Lian" you hum softly. Xie Lian smiles in thanks and puts on your robe.

He does look very pretty especially in your clothes.

**********************************************************

The next day all four of you go back to the tea shop. You aren't paying attention to the conversation about Mount Yunjin. You'd much rather pay attention to Wèizhī. The two birds hop around on the table and chirp away.

You decided to bring them today, simply because they bring you peace of mind. Of course they aren't only birds they're much more than that. Anyone would know if they're close to you, and they've seen the earring hiding behind your long hair.

Right now they're birds though and you'd much rather chirp away with the Magpies then pretend to chat with the officials next to you.

It isn't until loud drums and a gathered crowd outside has all four of you going outside to check it out. A line of men outside carrying a sedan is what the crowd is gathered for. As for the last inside the sedan... She looks like her neck has been snapped. It proves so when a fake head rolls to yours and Xie Lian's feet.

"Ew" you sneer and quickly kick it away. You assume whatever these mortals are doing is connected with the Ghost Groom. You stand to the side however as Wèizhī perches on your shoulders.

"If I was a ghost groom I'd kill the entire group for sending such an ugly thing to me" Fu Yao comments in disgust and rolls his eyes

"Fu Yao you aren't talking like an immortal should." Xie Lian said. "And can you fix that eye-rolling habit of yours? Why don't you set a small target for yourself first and only roll five days or something like that?"

" Set it fifty times a day and it still won't be enough!" Nan Feng yells

"Leave Fu Yao alone, if he rolls them hard enough maybe they'll fall out on their own." You add, with a snicker.

You're interrupted by yelling, one of the men in the group yelling about how it's useless and that they should just charge into Mount Yunjin and dragging an ugly freak out. They all hoot in agreement.

"Ugly Freak? Shopkeeper what are they talking about?" Xie Lian asks

The tea master explains, "The ghost groom has such an ugly appearance that no woman loves it, so he wears bandages around his face. That is why he kidnaps brides."

"Just because his face is wrapped in bandages doesn't mean it's ugly. There's a possibility it's so beautiful that it doesn't want others to see it, so he covers it up" Fu Yao says.

When Fu Yao quickly glances at you, you ignore. This isn't about you and you know that Fu Yao is truly a prick. No need to make something out of nothing.

Your group's attention is caught when the same girl from yesterday begging them not to go do anything dangerous and a man bitching at her because she refused to join them.

You don't care about anyone's affairs unless it has something to do with Xie Lian. You perk in attention when the man pushes the girl roughly, Xie Lian ever so kindly catches her.

Xie Lian uses Rou'ye to smack down the man and then just as quickly hides back in Xie Lian's sleeve. You snicker softly at the slumped man in the dirt. The man is not happy though, he's having none of it. He brandishes his sword and yells that Xie Lian is using wicked magic.

Nan Feng uses his palm to snap a wooden pillar of the tea shop and the group of men run in fear. You side eye Nan Feng. You have mixed opinions on him, but even after so long... "You're still just a brute dummy. You're paying for that" you smile behind the veil and return to Xie Lian's side.

The four of you eventually head back to the temple. With newly acquired information from Ling Wen, you now know that you're going to need a fake bride. However you can't use any mortals since it's a wrath level ghost.

"Well if we can't use women we'll have to use men" said Fu Yao.

"What man is going to want to dress up as a bride?" Nan Feng sighs.

The two suddenly have the same idea and look over to you and Xie Lian.

"???"

"No." You glare.

**********************************************************

Nighttime, the temple of Nan Yang.

You watch as Xie Lian walks from the back in a brides dress, hair down and flowing. You sigh into your hand. It doesn't look like a bride at all

Nan Feng has a more extreme reaction, "Fuck!" He just can't stand to see Xie Lian in a brides dress, it's awful.

Fu Yao scans Xie Lian with a complicated look.

"Do you have something you wish to say?" He asked

Fu Yao nodded "if someone sent a woman like this to me..."

"you'd kill the whole town was it?" You snicker.

"No I'd kill the woman." Fu Yao replied frigidly.

Xie Lian smiles, "Then thank goodness I'm not the woman."

You hum, "A-Lian let me help you, obviously these two have and never will see a bride in their lives" you smile, "not unless it's each other..." You mutter the last part out.

"Excuse me..." The four of them look at the voice. It's the girl from earlier. She has a white robe in her hand and stands with trepidation. "I've washed these clothes to return them to you and thank you so much for yesterday and today"

You see Xie Lian smiles in response but suddenly remembers his attire.

"Are you... if you want I can help?" She asks, no longer shy.

"No miss you misunderstand this isn't a hobby of mine" Xie Lian laughs nervously.

You on the other hand are happy with this development. "Yes! Come help us."

And so that began Xie Lian's makeover. The girl has a sewing kit on her and helps Xie Lian fit into his dress. You do Xie Lian's hair - you do it all the time anyways - and together the two of you do Xie Lian's makeup. After you're finished with him, he looks like a proper bride and a damn good one too. If you weren't a ghost there would be a blush on your cheeks.

__________________________________________________

Guys. If anyone has actually read all of these parts I need y'all to tell me if Y/n is making sense. 😭 Like do we understand the background and his character? Do we understand the b i r d s?

Time gap between here and first glance

First Glance

#hualian #hualian x reader #tgcf headcanon #hua cheng x reader #tgcf #tgcf x male reader #tgcf hua cheng #hua cheng #mu qing #fu yao #nan feng #feng xin #xuan zhen #nan yang #tgcf xie lian #xie lian x reader #xie lian #tgcf hualian #mxtx tgcf

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least-carpet · 16 days

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Maybe a chengxian' meeting post-canon? Platonic or romantic, as you prefer

100 years later, I have given up and concussed Jiang Cheng in the name of love and yunmeng shuangjie reconciliation. You know, if it's not working, give it a smack!

This wasn’t precisely the way that he had imagined this reunion going, reflected Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng lay across his lap, blood smeared dark against his forehead, face illuminated by a streak of moonlight.

Not that he’d imagined seeing Jiang Cheng again. Well—not on purpose—sometimes it crossed his mind, when he saw Jin Ling out of the corner of his eye. Something about the posture was very like Jiang Cheng as a teenager, if a little more brash and impulsive. Jiang Cheng had always been more hesitant in public, aware of the eyes on him.

Anyway, it had occurred to him, mostly against his will, when he saw Jin Ling or he smelled the sword oil Jiang Cheng had favoured (still favoured?) or someone mentioned Lotus Pier. He’d flung it away each time for some future version of him to deal with. Now the future was here, and it sucked.

Wei Wuxian squinted at the ray of moonlight. At least they wouldn’t be suffocated. The section of the cave they were trapped in had at least one opening that went up to the outside world.

They had tracked a very strange yao back to the cave where it lived, him and Lan Zhan and the juniors, and crossed paths with a Jiang team led by Jiang Cheng himself following the same kind of yao. Unfortunately, it seemed that they lived in packs. The resulting fight had gone badly. An over-eager hit from Lan Jingyi had smashed one into the wall, and that had triggered a cave-in, and now Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian were alone in the dark together behind an enormous pile of rocks. On top of everything else, Jiang Cheng was unconscious, which Wei Wuxian really did not like.

The only thing he could think of to do was prop Jiang Cheng up in his lap and wait for him to come to. He didn’t know what Jiang Cheng would make of it when he woke up, but Wei Wuxian decided that he would cross that bridge when he came to it.

Jiang Cheng groaned and opened his eyes. “What happened?” he asked.

Wei Wuxian looked down at his face, and winced. Those pupils were not supposed to be different sizes.

“You took a hard hit to the head,” said Wei Wuxian, as cheerfully as he could. “Just stay still, will you? Rescue is on the way!”

He assumed, anyway. Lan Zhan wouldn’t just leave him here. He was very reliable like that.

“Rescue? Why the hell are we being rescued? What did we do this time?” complained Jiang Cheng. Something about his voice tugged at Wei Wuxian. It was less assertive that it usually was, tired, almost—whiny?

“You don’t remember?” said Wei Wuxian. This was bad. This was very bad. “There was a yao. Actually, there were quite a few yaos…”

Jiang Cheng let out a disapproving little huff. Distantly, Wei Wuxian noted that he had made no effort to get up from Wei Wuxian’s lap.

“If we’re late to dinner again, A-jie will be upset,” he mumbled.

Wei Wuxian froze. This was very bad indeed.

#if your shidi won't shidi just hit the reset button for his brain and see if that fixes it!#wei wuxian confronted with teenagememoriesonly!jiang cheng in pain: HOW DO I TORTURE THIS CAVE TO DEATH?#jiang cheng #wei wuxian #yunmeng shuangjie #chengxian #mdzs +#I wish you would write a fic ask game #ask game #my fanfic #least-carpet thoughts #that's your queue #asks

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victimsofyaoipoll · 10 months

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Round 1

Propaganda Under Cut

Kairi

kairi is the third protagonist of the kingdom hearts series and the third member of the destiny trio, alongside fan favorites sora and riku. sora/riku shippers HATE kairi, and will go out of their way to discount her at every turn. the hate for her ranges from typical "she's a boring bitch" to fans of soriku making five-hour long video essays reassuring their fellow shippers that the big bad kairi won't show up in the next installment – to quote one video, "she's in a box. she's on the shelf. four walls, no door." kairi is the greatest bogeyman the soriku fandom has ever known, to the point where most of said video essays and fanon meta posts focus not on why sora and riku should get together, but rather on why they don't like kairi.

Literally has a 100+ page Google doc fan theory writing her out of the narrative and putting all of her (few) canonical accomplishments onto half of the popular m/m ship (soriku). Don't even get me started on how her memory was completely written out of the canon plot of re:coded. KH is a nightmare to explain so dude trust me she is THE victim of yaoi

She is so fundamental to the plot and themes and narratives of game and yet it is near impossible to find anything about her thats not ship bashing pre-mlm with the other two characters. I dont even care if she ends up with one of the main characters i just want fans to see her as a cool character to love or like, anything other than “annoying comphet girl.” You can write your mlm but pleaae stop inventing comphet where it doesnt exist. She does not even get to spend time with sora ever?? Why does everyone see her as a threat and a thing to destroy?? Let her have friends so help me

Winry Rockbell

One of the most badass women you could hope to meet, competent, smart and sweet (and hot of course), canonically gets married to Edward Elric, and yet is put on the sidelines in order to ship him with his superior officer.

edward's love interest and later romantic partner. cast aside by the fandom cause you all hate woman in STEM

SHES AN ENGINEER/MECHANIC!!! she works on automail, delivered a baby in an emergency, and was both the strongest and most empathetic, kind character in FMA(B). and she often gets shunted off to the side so that Ed can be paired with Ling Yao and mischaracterised to be annoying and/or mean

#poll #round 1 #kairi #kairi kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts #winry rockbell #winry fma #fma #fullmetal alchimist brotherhood #fullmetal alchemist

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poorlittleyaoyao · 1 year

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Actually I find very fitting how women are treated in mdzs. Mdzs's world is homophobic, classicist and misogynistic. Imo Mdzs's world represents the worst of the real world, so I find very suitable that in a patriarch/misogyny society where reputation is what matter the most, women payed the consequences of men's choices. The fact that they have no agency makes their stories even more tragic (like Greek heroines) imo. I've read historical novels from a very youth age, so I am accustomed to this. (disclaimer : that doesn't mean that I am not frustrated with the narrative or our assholes as wwx wn etc... ). What makes me very upset is how fans treat mdzs's women! Wq is not a Mean Lesbian, who is just wwx's best friend. jyl is not just wwx's mom or, even worst, a badass kickass (she is ill! She can't cultivate! Madam yu would love to have a badass daughter, but she can't! She has a chronic illness!!! ). And madam yu reminds me so much of Medea but she doesn't have the same hype. These women are trapped two times : firstly by the narrative and then by fans and I find myself less tolerant towards the latter

When I saw this ask yesterday, my gut response to the comparison between Greek tragedies and MDZS was to be like "no!! it's not the same!!" But I couldn't immediately identify why I felt that way. All the works that have given me lasting brainworms are historical tragedies with mostly-male casts and moral complexity. Everything I vibe with can be traced in some way back to getting fixated on the Trojan War, MDZS/CQL included. So what's different? I have been pondering it ever since then. So thank you, anon, for making me think!

For me, I think what it comes down to is that the issues you mentioned--the classism, the homophobia, and the misogyny--aren't actually explored within the text itself. The in-universe homophobia primarily manifests itself as people saying slurs at Wangxian. There is no external pressure to enter into heterosexual unions and have children to ensure a line of succession (3/4 of the sect leaders are unmarried after the timeskip, after all), nor is there the internal conflict of unpacking internalized homophobia. Classism is examined more with JGY's whole deal, but when the only character pointing out the flaws in the status quo is the Crimes Man, it muddles the message somewhat.

As to the misogyny... with the notable exception of QS, none of the women in MDZS die for reasons that relate to in-universe inequality. YZY, A-Qing, WQ, and JYL all die making the active choice to protect someone or something. Taken individually, all of their deaths make sense. The problems is when you take them as a whole, and you realize that the mortality rate for women in the series is off the chain. Below is a list of all the named characters who show up for more than one scene in MDZS. Bolded characters live, struck-through characters die.

Wei Wuxian Jiang Yanli Jiang Cheng Yu Ziyuan Jiang Fengmian Wen Qing Lan Wangji Granny Wen Lan Xichen Wang Lingjiao Lan Qiren Madame Jin Lan Jingyi Qin Su Lan Sizhui Luo Qingyang Wen Ning A-Qing Wen Chao Wen Ruohan Wen Zhuliu Jin Zixuan Jin Ling Jin Guangshan Jin Zixun Jin Guangyao Nie Mingjue Nie Huaisang Xue Yang Xiao Xingchen Song Lan Su Minshan Ouyang Zizhen Sect Leader Ouyang Sect Leader Yao

That's bonkers! It's even worse if you don't count the dead characters who quote-unquote "deserved it" for murdering people, which changes the list to:

Wei Wuxian Jiang Yanli Jiang Cheng Yu Ziyuan Jiang Fengmian Wen Qing Lan Wangji Granny Wen Lan Xichen Madame Jin Lan Qiren Qin Su Lan Jingyi Luo Qingyang Lan Sizhui A-Qing Wen Ning Jin Zixuan Jin Ling Nie Mingjue Nie Huaisang Xiao Xingchen Song Lan Ouyang Zizhen Sect Leader Ouyang Sect Leader Yao

Again, the women's deaths each make sense individually, but as a trend, it's fucking wild, and that's what bothers me. There's no actual honest-to-god plot reason why the ratio has to be this way. Why can't Lan Qiren be a strict auntie? Why can't the juniors be a mixed-gender group? Additionally, there's the matter of how the deaths are treated. NMJ's death is the entire reason for the book; JZX's memory is invoked as much as JYL's. It's not that bad things happen to the women, it's that they're unnecessarily killed off at a disproportionate amount.

ALL THAT SAID. ALL THAT SAID!! You're absolutely right about fan treatment. One would think that these interesting women who don't get to take center stage in canon (and thus have a lot left to explore!) would be a GOLDMINE, but instead they're sanded down like you said. It must be ROUGH trying to find fic about JYL in particular, because so much of what she's tagged in is just her being WWX's Gentle Soup Sister in the background. Wangxian is far and away the biggest pairing WQ's tag--not just for MDZS, but for The Untamed, where she's a much bigger character! I sense that you're more charitable towards the canons than I am, anon, but at least the canons are honest about what they're about and aren't patting themselves on the back for their super progressive inclusion of a Mean Lesbian Friend or whatever.

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naehja · 8 days

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I have had this idea but i'll not write it so i leave it there for people who could be interested =)

Feel free to take it!

Jin Zixuan survives but he is severely hurt. He spent months in bed after his wounds so he misses so much things. After that, he recovers badly, he's always so so weak so yes, he let his brother take over. Meng Yao is so nice and so caring. What he doesn't know is that his dear brother poison him to keep him weak, to keep him fragile, influenceable.

Everytime he tries/wants to speak against something that JYG decided, he's suddently so tired…and his brother is so right.

His brother does a good job as sect leader so Jin Zixuan is happy to be just a father for his son. And a uncle for JGY's son as long that this boy was alive. He was devasted by his death. And tried to be there for his brother. After all family is there for that, right?

Jin Ling is very protective of his father and doesn't understand why he's so weak. His father so so strong before and his wound recovered. So why he's so weak?

"It's because of WWX, he curses your father" people said and still say. Because of course WWX is blamed for Zixuan "sickness"

There are 2 drugs. One who affect Jin Zixuan's health and spiritual power. So he stays weak and with a fragile health. The other drug is something who make the one who drink it vulnerable to the person who make the it. It was a potion forcing people to say the truth at first but JGY modified it to make his brother vulnerable to "his" words (weak to manipulation) Those drugs are called "medications" of course. And Jin Zixuan never questionned it, even if he couldn't.

Jin Zixuan tries to be a good brother for Mo Xuanyu. Mo Xuanyu was happy to have a so nice big brother and was very concerned by his health. The real reason of Mo Xuanyu banishment was that he understood that JYG was poisoning their brother to keep him weak and under control. JYG got rid of him with rumors about the young man being gay (which was true) and was trying to do a move on him/had feelings for him (which was false).

Jin Zixuan tried to speak on his favor but he was so tired…maybe…he refused to believe what JGY said about their brother. It was a mistake. It could only be a mistake!

JGY saidyes he didn't believed it too but it was so the best, sending their brother away would be the best because of the rumors. "He could have been hurt if he stayed brother"

Mo Xuanyu told NHS about the drugs in a letter but he also wanted to save his brother, he wanted to get revange on his family. So he did the sacrifice. He didn't ask for JGY's death because he knew that even wwx couldn't do that in few hours. But he left a letter for him, explaining everything about Jin Zixuan situation. He said that he had no proofs but that he had SEEN it. "Please be careful wei wuxian, my brother is a snake who kills people who go on his way! don't speak about it to anyone until you have proofs!"

And the story go on but with Jin Zixuan alive but under JGY's control, "drugged" for 13 years to be unable to speak again his brother. NHS being our favorite chessmaster, he managed to "kidnapp" Jin Zixuan at a point, like two or four months before wwx's return, and to give him the antidote + wean him off the drugs.

Of course, JGY blames WWX for the kidnapping as soon WWX is revealed to be in Mo Xuanyu's body . Jin Ling starts to have big doubts about his uncle after this moment. Because the dates...his father has been kidnapped BEFORE wwx's return, right?

It's at this moment, while they go to save the juniors, that WWX shows Mo Xuanyu's letter to Lan Zhan. He also tell it to all the sect leaders after the fight. It happens after everyone learns about that JGY married his half-sister.

Durin the events at the temple, Jin Zuxian returns (Shortly before NMJ's death body arrival) and can finally think clearly and freely for the first time in 13 years. His brother's word don't seem so logical anymore, he sees the lies. And he's angry, so angry, his golden core so strong for the first time in so much years. but his body is still weak.

And JGY said "you should have stayed under the drugs, i didn't want to kill you brother but you forces me to do it now" Except that JGY will not kill anyone, not anymore. Because the heros will win, of course.

Jin Zixuan is free and is now Jin sect leader while recovering. Jin Ling has to accept everything JGY did. Jiang Cheng has to accept to not have realised it. LXC has to accept what JGY did too, and has also to accept to have been used by him (did he give him the drugs to manipule him too?). NHS has had his revenge (but has had to live with the fact that his brother will never rest or have the chance to reincarnate). WWX and LZ are happy together.

WWX and Jin Zixuan reconciliation too (Jin Zixuan never believed that WWX killed his wife and never blamed him for his wounds).

#mdzs #mdzs fic #mdzs idea #jin zixuan #jin ling #wei wuxian #nie huaisang #jin family #Mo Xuanyu #lan zhan #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng

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sidecharactersdomatter · 2 months

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Thoughts I had during TGCF Season 1 the Recap!

Basically, I recap the First Season of TGCF with my reactions, before my Season 2 binge watch!

Ep 1

-Don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… don’t go out there… *Bride gets snatched* Okay, maybe you should’ve gone out there.

-Right after XL ascends, Lan Hai and Qing Tao then go, “Huh, Who is that?” Then everybody yells at them, “PRINCE XIE LIAN!”

-So much Property Damage…

-Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!

-Fu Yao, *Is sarcastic and rolls his eyes* Basically me: He’s just like me fr!!!

-Hehehehehehe Dick joke XD

-Sees Bride!XL: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I’m Sorry XD!

-Yeah right a few alterations, she totally fixed his make up calling it.

-*Sees Bridesmaids NF and FY like* W H E E E Z E XD XD XD XD

-So that’s how he was able to last longer than the previous bride

-Pass me the Aux cord! You better not be playing mainstream garbage! *Turns on One Flower and One Sword and vibes like there’s no tomorrow*!

-I now pronounce you both husband and husband! You may now kiss the gro- I mean, bride!

Ep 2

-Honey, He looks a little too good looking to be the Ghost groom

-That temple looks abandoned, and the animation camera for walking inside

-There’s the ugly mob

-Hehe Xie Lian’s aggressive kindness

-When the mob scooched away from Bride!Lian I freaking lost it XDXDXDXD

-And Nan Feng and Fu Yao inch away instead of defending him!

W H E E Z E!

-The fact they both agreed to not explain anything XD!

-Xiao Ying is a real friend

-And hurting the injured is a real low for the mob

-They have enraged the ghost groom

-KO! Flawless victory!

-Zombie brides!

Ep 3

-Didn’t know it a zombie apocalypse happened in Ancient Feudal China (I need to brush up on my history)

-Welp, now they’re grateful

-Wait a minute, he was an acrobat??? Xie Lian Pre 3 ascension life spinoff when??? (That’ll prolly never happen)

-Man here comes the Bride Pun count: 3

-Now that is an Azula level breakdown

-They are not merciful with the body count in this whole series

-Woah saved by literal divine intervention

-Geez, Pei Ming this is why we don’t Ghost our Exes, Pun Count: 4

-Man, Xuan Ji, maybe you should’ve heard of the phrase, “Plenty of Fish in the sea”

-The way Xie Lian blinked when he realized he was still in the wedding dress XD!

-Restoring faith in Ming Guang

-Oh no Trauma

Ep 4

-He’s so distraught he couldn’t follow

-The telepathic matrix, is basically the world’s first discord server

-Thank you Ling Wen

-Aw he likes Hua Cheng’s name!

-That explains the fall of Xianle and the Moldy Face Plague

-Let’s be honest, Bai Wuxiang is totally responsible for Covid-19

-Woah Hua Cheng has made his mark on Heaven

-Aww he thinks the Butterflies are beautiful!

-Honestly, smart move Mu Qing and Feng Xin

-Oh she is so burnt out

-Yeah, who was the Prince of Xianle anyway?

-WHY IS EVERYBODY’S EYELINER GAME SO ON POINT?!?!?!?!

Ep 5

-The way he blew off that maple leaf

-Oooh that subtle hinting later on and symbolism with Xie Lian

-The way he moved in closer *fangirls like no tomorrow*

-I freaking love the instrumental version of Hong Jue

-Is he touched starved? He is touch starved

-I love that when San Lang scared the Ghosts shitless they ended up running like no tomorrow, Ghost 1: Book it guys our lives depend on it! Ghost 2: But we’re already dead! Ghost 1: Well it’s just an expression!

-And there was only one bed. Oh my gods there was only one bed!!!

-Aw he caught him staring

-I believe you Ox cart man

-Heck with how popular TGCF is right now, Xie Lian would be worshipped today by fans like us

-His luck did rub off on you and you should take it all Xie Lian

-Welp time to go start the next arc

Ep 6

-Woah, that old man is traumatized

-Of course being a martial god, he has experience in combat. Have you seen him in a sword dual at Yinian bridge? (Subtle Phineas and Ferb quote)

-Yep called it, and the gong noise when the door opened!

-“How did we get out here in the middle of the ocean???”

-Awww look at San Lang’s emo hoodie!

-You know what’s better than one evil Daoist? Two evil Daoists!

-And he drank the whole thing like a boss

-Now Nan Feng’s acting like an NPC from a fantasy video game

-The woman in the teal cloak saw him

-He’s touched starved again!

-Best chemistry ever!

-And after Rouye grabs San Lang and Xie Lian says, “I didn’t mean San Lang”. Rouye goes: “Really? Ok!” And then lets him go, that’s just the hypothetical dialogue I’ve got for the silk band

Ep 7

-It’s official! Xie Lian is shorter than San Lang people!

-I’ve heard of a close knit unit but this is just insane!

-There’s so many people

-Ooooohhh That poor poor general

-SO MANY COBRAS!

-Oh no and 4’s an unlucky number in China

-He is sucking the venom out like a G! Get yourself a man like San Lang people!

-You know we’re all thinking what Xie Lian’s thinking about how he’s going to clean San Lang’s bloodied lips (I’ll let you share your answers in the comment section)

-And Fu Yao’s stuck with merchant sitting

-Really lovely desert travel music!

-Yeah he does know an awful lot

-Uh oh the woman in the black cloak spotted them

Ep 8

-Thank you San Lang for protecting your man like a champ!

-Ooooh cool more Ban Yue lore!

-Ooooh his poor, poor head

-And San Lang’s expression, is worried if he hurt him, but it worked!

-Yeah but our faces don’t stick out of the ground like a fresh tater!

-Aw no they’re gonna need sacrifices

-Zhao’s fight response kicked in

-Eeenie meanie meinie that kid (probably Kemo)

-“Sully not thine honor on innocent blood” That almost sounded like a bible quote…?

-Dude Xie Lian was royalty

-Trust fall! (You’ll see next ep peeps!)

-Oh and Xie Lian’s scream! Kind of needed more raw emotion though

Ep 9

-He’s gonna jump into the pit, he’s jumping into the pit, he jumped into the

-Xie Lian’s like: Well I am going down there, but I won’t go down alone!

-The pit’s entrance is sealed!

-Trust fall! TRUST FALL!

-He touched his throat!

-There’s your answer Xie Lian

-Dance fight! Dance fight!

-You’re just gonna excuse the mass murder San Lang committed in the pit?????

-Let me just find somewhere that isn’t covered in blood

-Oh yeah you’re grateful for San Lang carrying you

-The faces they made when he called them out for jumping into the pit XD Xie Lian’s eyes are wide and blank while San Lan has a cat face! XDXDXDXDXD

-She came down!

Ep 10

-She saw Xie Lian and San Lang

-So many fallen Ban Yue soldiers

-Hi Fu Yao

-I wasn’t kidding when I said Fu Yao isn’t great at crowd control

-Thank you Fu Yao

-She’s holding his hand and he’s patting her head my freaking heart!!!!

-Oh No! Vomit trigger warning for this episode people

-Xie Lian raised her more than her Yong’An father did (and to some extent her late mother)

-It was still a good choice after all Xie Lian

-Take it easy with the ‘Bad Cop’ routine Fu Yao

-Oh no a scorpion snake

-Well that’s bad

Ep 11

-Aiaigasa! It’s Aiaigasa again folks AAAAAHHH!!!!

-Scorpion tailed cobras why’d they have to be Scorpion tailed Cobras?!?!?!?!?

-That explains the sandstorm

-Ooooh Pei Xiu army backstory

-Ugh Classist general

-No Ban Yue!!!! She was so young!!! T - T

-Yeah where will Xie Lian go from here?

-Oooh Yizhen got name dropped too!

-Uncle Jiang is cured!

-And the way he’s running away from the duo XDXDXD!

-Here’s why Fu Yao left early, as they healed Uncle Jiang he contacted Nan Feng through the telepathic array and Fu Yao’s reason is: Come on, you know how horrifying his highness’ cooking can be. This is just my theory, and I’d love to hear your possible ones in the comments!

-And the way Hua Cheng moved in closer and just preferred to be called ‘San Lang’ my freaking heart!!!

Ep 12

-We are back in Puqi village folks

-I freaking love how Xie Lian says ‘The Crimson Rain Sought Flower’ Howard Wang’s voice could act as my new sleeping aid

-Oh yeah San Lang does treasure you dude

-Ban Yue deserves all the head pats!!!!

-Ban Yue, I think you should keep living despite all the mistakes you’ve made… other than that I also don’t know the answer like Xie Lian

-Aww Xie Lian will love him no matter if he’s hideous or a monster he really does have the best standards!

-Awwww He’s hot when he’s mad!

-Another Reason why Hualian works so well is that San Lang also Respects! Xie Lian’s! Boundaries (Yep still not getting involved with the Helluva Boss drama folks)

-It’s official! That looks like an engagement ring people!

-Dude pass me the Aux cord! Ya better not be playing mainstream garbage *Puts on Hong Jue at full blast and vibes like no tomorrow!*

-It’s like they’re running towards each other AAAAAHHH!!!

-Welp, see you guys later for Season 2!

Season 2! Here I come!!!!

#my post #My reaction #episode reaction #heaven official's blessing #tian guan ci fu #tgcf #season recap #Tgcf season 1 #xie lian #hua cheng #san lang #hualian #nan feng #fu yao #pei xiu #ban yue #ling wen

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qs63 · 1 year

Text

Roy and Riza vs defeated idealism.

Roy and Riza's journey in Fullmetal Alchemist is the struggle of the naive idealism of youth against the cynical realism of adulthood. At the core of their characters there is a tenet: that Alchemy — or rather power — should be used for the benefit of the people. Like many things in FMA there is an irony in this. This belief that's so crucial to their characters is something they inherited from someone who, in a way, represents the antithesis of this idea.

Berthold Hawkeye.

The Manga goes out of its way to tell us this is something Behold believed in and passed on to them. First when Roy uses it to justify why he joined the military, and then when Riza admits that she believed in her father's words.

The thing is that there is a dissonance between Berthold's teachings and his character's actions. Berthold is a recluse living away from the people his hoarded knowledge is supposed to help. Roy and Riza know this, and they call him out on it.

They both fervently believe in Berthold's teaching, and they don't understand why he's so adamantly against putting it to practice. When they join the military they don't do so to spite him, they do so because they believe in what he preaches, so much so that they want to prove his cynicism wrong.

The problem is that Berthold is right.

He's sooo freaking right.

Their government is corrupt. All that talk about protecting their people is pure propaganda. His cynicism is the pain of someone who was burned too much by the world's cruelty. Berthold is an idealist that has given up, much like Hohenheim before Trisha. He is someone that once wished to help people, and probably came to the same painful realization that Roy and Riza eventually had in Ishval. The path to hell can be paved with good intentions, and sometimes you're completely powerless to do anything about it.

Now, what makes Riza and Roy such great characters, is the fact that instead of falling into despair and secluding themselves like Berthold did, they decide to fight back and continue clawing at the world with their own — no longer so naive — idealism. They have seen where defeat leads to, and they refuse to walk that path.

My favorite example of Roy's acceptance of both Berthold's teaching, as well as his rejection of Berthold's character, is his conversation with Hughes in Ishval.

This conversation is such a beautiful call back to Berthold telling Roy that alchemists die when they cease to think. This is Roy doubling down, acknowledging that yes he was naive — the world is a much more complicated and painful place than he realized — but still he refuses to give up on the face of reality like Berthold did. Where Berthold accepted his fate, as a man who was already dead inside, Roy and Riza continue to struggle to survive.

Berthold might have taught Roy and Riza that power should be used for good, but his biggest lesson to them was perhaps serving as an example of what happens when you allow your dreams and hope to die.

Ps. This thematic of children following on their parent/mentor footsteps and surpassing them is constant on FMA. Winry being a mechanic like her grandma and deciding to be like her parents by forgiving Scar. Ed and Al becoming alchemist like Hohenheim, but also embracing their familiar bonds and continue to help people despite their trauma. Ling Yao becoming emperor and dismantling the infighting his father had promoted. Scar embracing his brother's alchemy and dream. It is then fitting that Roy and Riza also inherited something from Berthold and then surpassed him.

#roy mustang #riza hawkeye #Berthold Hawkeye #full metal alchemist #fma meta #meta #my work #character analysis

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veliseraptor · 11 months

Note

I'm interested in your thoughts about the different way the show vs the novel cuts the timeline, and specifically in terms of how Jin Guangyao is framed. With the show, we're first introduced to Meng Yao as a young man making heart eyes at Zewu-jun and there's a very slow build up of suspicion over time, which allows viewers to get to know and like him more at first before...*ahem*... putting the villain hat on him. In the novel on the other hand (assuming I'm remembering this correctly), we're basically presented with Jin Guangyao as the antagonist almost from the beginning, setting him up for the reader's suspicion and dislike. On the other hand, there's a much more nuanced portrayal of his crimes (e.g. he's not responsible for Every Bad Thing Ever like in Untamed) and the reasons behind them, and an even more clear parallel with WWX as the protagonist. What are your thoughts?

Ohhh this is a super interesting ask and I actually found it an interesting counter to the prevailing Jin Guangyao narrative about his framing in the drama, which holds that he is straightforwardly being painted as The Villain, and while I don't think that's incorrect I do think in some ways it overstates its point. however, I actually think that something specifically about narrative framing (as in, not taking any content changes in mind) here might, perhaps unintuitively, contribute to why the Jin Guangyao of the novel is a more sympathetic figure than The Untamed (tries to) make him.

(once again I came out of CQL like Jin Guangyao Made Many Valid Points, Was If Not Right At Least 75% Justified so like. I actually don't think The Untamed was as good at making Jin Guangyao a Straight Up Villain as it was trying to be. I have thoughts about Zhu Zanjin actively acting against script and how you can feel him pulling against the prevailing narrative and I have thoughts about how that actually interacts very nicely with the way Jin Guangyao in every version of the story is pulling against a prevailing narrative that wants to relegate him to the margins in one way or another. but that's a major sidebar.)

holy hell I wrote an essay so putting the rest of this under a read more.

The point is that I think there's a few things happening here - I will note, first of all, that I don't think we actually are introduced to Jin Guangyao as a villain in MDZS. I believe the first mentions we get of him are actually fairly positive. I went back and checked, and he's mentioned a couple times early on just to note his position as Chief Cultivator (in pretty neutral to positive terms), then identified as the person who gave Jin Ling Fairy, and a few other times including the explanation that he executed Xue Yang to "show that things were going to be different." Pretty shortly after that is the scene where Wei Wuxian finds the kids playing Sunshot Campaign to see how Jin Guangyao is portrayed there (because that's a solid proxy for perception more broadly) and it's pretty complimentary!

"In these types of games, the role of the now-grand-beyond-measure Chief Cultivator, Lianfang-zun, was naturally very popular. Though he had come from a background that most people found too embarrassing to even mention, it was for this very reason that they sighed in admiration over how he'd succeeded in climbing to the top of the cultivation world. [...] He fully deserved the title, and could even be considered a legend of his time. If Wei Wuxian had been playing this game, he also would have wanted to try being Jin Guangyao." (Dew, Part 5)

I do think that's worth remembering, that it's not an immediate jump into "Jin Guangyao bad"; it happens pretty fast but not immediately.

However, it is true that by the time we actually meet Jin Guangyao on page he is under pretty heavy suspicion, and pretty shortly after that is the Empathy sequence, which involves a lot of heavy judgment on Wei Wuxian's part (a very unbiased narrator! of course!) of Jin Guangyao's badness. though that's also the sequence that reveals Jin Guangyao's involvement in saving Lan Xichen, his maltreatment by cultivators in general and Nie Mingjue in particular. So it's...complicated.

But in general, this kind of arc (starting with a character who seems fishy/suspicious or even evil, gradually revealing later on the more sympathetic aspects and drawing a fuller, more nuanced picture of them that's very far from a blanket condemnation and also gets a lot of sympathy from the narrative) is very characteristic of MXTX. She does it all the time, in all three of her books, with pretty much all her antagonists.

(SPOILERS FOLLOW: Shen Qingqiu in SVSSS starts out as a lecherous scum villain who deserves his horrible death and ends as a decidedly tragic and fairly miserable figure that even his #1 hater feels pity for, Tianlang-jun in same is an all-powerful demon lord, terror of the cultivation world -- and he was wrongly accused because the Old Palace Master coveted Su Xiyan. Xue Yang is introduced as a mass murderer and closes as a hand clutching a treasured candy. Jun Wu in TGCF receives the bamboo hat after Xie Lian's beaten him in a truly remarkable gesture of compassion.

Wei Wuxian himself, who is introduced in the first lines of the novel as a terrible evil that has been defeated - this one gets quickly overturned but the fact that it begins there is still significant. I could keep going.)

and while I feel like that's led to some problems in the discourse (namely, people make up their mind about who Jin Guangyao is right off the bat and then dismiss anything that doesn't suit that initial assumption as either false or irrelevant), I also think it's a pretty compelling way to lay out her characters, and does some very interesting things in terms of...challenging the reader to be willing to overwrite some of those early assumptions, being willing to make that change in how they assess a character (or person). I mean, that's a big part of the plot of SVSSS, actually: many of the problems are caused by Shen Qingqiu's unwillingness or inability to see that Luo Binghe is not the character he knew him as from PIDW - that Luo Binghe has changed because of Shen Yuan's decisions. The misunderstandings after Luo Binghe's plunge into the Abyss stem, in a lot of ways, from Shen Qingqiu continuing to assume that Luo Binghe is thinking and acting exactly as his counterpart would, instead of looking at the person who is actually in front of him.

So too, I think the reader is meant to do those same kinds of reassessments in MDZS as character details are parceled out. Notably, the information about Sisi and the Guanyin Temple statue is only revealed after Jin Guangyao is already dead. Everything has already happened, so why put that information in the text? It's one more signpost that says you thought you knew everything but there's still more to complicate the picture and make this even more of a tragedy. You see the same thing with Jiang Cheng and the golden core reveal at the very end - everything has already happened, the great confrontation has already gone down, but here's one more thing. Maybe it doesn't change anything in terms of the narrative, but it's there, it's important.

Now, the problem comes, I think, when people are unwilling to flex on that initial unfavorable impression, and I feel like particularly right now in general a lot of people are unwilling to...change their minds? on things? or to admit they were wrong or maybe making a judgment prematurely? And most obviously this is an issue irl all over the place but I think it happens in fiction, too. The irony here is, of course, that it's replicating exactly how cultivation society in-text responds to Jin Guangyao, namely by taking one thing about him and deciding that says everything about him, regardless of what he does.

To turn to CQL, now...I'm going to be talking about narrative structure from an Anglophone perspective because that's what I know, and that's the part of fandom I primarily engage with, recognizing that what I'm going to say about story patterns may not hold true in Chinese literature; I've read too little of it to say.

I actually think it's interesting that I actually think, while CQL is on the face of it presenting a more sympathetic look at Jin Guangyao to begin with, by putting it in a linear order where the viewer more or less knows what's going on with him through the course of the whole story in chronological order is actually in some ways a villain edit in and of itself without the extra dumping of all the bad things ever being his fault. I say that because that's actually, as a narrative arc, a very familiar one in terms of the path it follows. "Innocent young man falls into villainy" is a classic villain creation trope - and while often it can make for a sympathetic villain it is very much a story that arcs from good > bad > dead.

When it's set up in that linear sort of way, aligned with that sort of familiar path, the reader (viewer) is almost set up to expect what comes; as soon as episode 10 rolls around and Jin Guangyao does something questionable, there's an easy and immediate jump to "oh, so he's going to be one of those" and from there everything he does must be, by the logic of that familiar story, part of that path. He can't get better from there; that's not how it works. He can have a redemptive moment before death, perhaps, but overall once that downward arc begins, the expectation isn't that it'll reverse, and it's a challenge to convince people not to view the rest of the character's story - and potentially back-read into their previous actions - in a suspicious light at best or an actively hostile one at worst.

(Interestingly, I have thoughts/feelings on the way that Wei Wuxian's arc interacts with that sort of story path, which is to say as I've talked about before Wei Wuxian's first life is classic villain origin story. "A smart, clever young man with a healthy dose of hubris acquires sinister powers, gradually gets more unstable and separated from society, and ultimately goes full villain" is the basic outline of Wei Wuxian's story before his resurrection, and that is, I want to emphasize, a villain story. Obviously it doesn't end up framed that way, but viewed from outside that's what it is. The fact that he's extricated from it and gets another chance doesn't actually unwrite that - it gives him another chance.)

So CQL!Jin Guangyao might start out as a more sympathetic-seeming figure than MDZS!Jin Guangyao does, but by virtue of the linearity of his arc on screen (following a familiar narrative path to an inevitable end), I think he's pre-set up to be intractably cast in the villain role, where MDZS!Jin Guangyao, because the reveals of information about him are non-linear, wobbles more. Because the reader doesn't have all the information it (potentially) forestalls making final judgment, or at least calls for a reexamination of judgment. That interrupted arc, with its side trips and detours and glimpses of another story in which Jin Guangyao could've been the protagonist (the brothel flashback occurs to me), makes it potentially a little less easy to mark Jin Guangyao in the villain box and keep him there for forty episodes.

I would say, in general, that the novel encourages a more sympathetic read of Jin Guangyao. But I do think what you've noted here is worth remembering: CQL doesn't present him as a villain or even as sketchy from the start, and the difference is clear in the form of two characters who project "I'm a bad person!" in every scene they're in from the beginning: Wen Ruohan, and to a lesser extent Jin Guangshan.

#conversating #flamingwell #jin guangyao #lise does meta #the sad queer cultivators show #thanks for giving me the opportunity to spend FAR too long writing this and looking up quotes and shit #much appreciated way to spend my afternoon #instead of working

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thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year

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happy true take tuesday 🎊 here is some stuff that is objectively true:

jin guangyao did the most good for the most people over the longest period of time in the jianghu. evidence:

his time embedded as a spy in wen ruohan's court allowed him to share crucial intelligence with lxc and nmj, and enabled him to maneuver himself into the perfect position to assassinate wrh--the war would not have been won without him;

see the sections of the text where the impact of the watchtower project is revealed to save the lives of common people who would not have been able to afford the protection of cultivators otherwise;

see wwx's own observations about the safety of the jianghu under jgy's tenure as chief cultivator, thus allowing the juniors the privilege of growing up in a peaceful and stable world;

see jin ling's observation that no one in the gentry would dare try to bribe a jin sect disciple while jgy was jin-zongzhu;

whether you think the relationship is romantic in canon is immaterial: lan xichen loved jin guangyao and is mourning his death, not the metaphorical death of his ~worldview~, while he is in seclusion. his feelings for jgy are not just about his sense of obligation, and there is absolutely no evidence in the text suggesting that he ever would have abandoned jgy--because he clearly does not do that even during the final guanyin temple confrontation. evidence:

lxc's worldview is actually pretty intact during and post-guanyin temple confrontation. @xiyao-feels provided one of the most thorough analyses I've read on this point over here, so I won't repeat or try to paraphrase what someone else has already illustrated so eloquently, you can go check it out for yourself;

see the literal years of their friendship that lxc spends calling jgy "a-yao," rather than "meng-gongzi" or "jin-gongzi," or "jin-zongzhu," or "lianfang-zun," or literally any other name/title combination that he could have reached for instead of the affectionate diminutive that indicates the level of emotional intimacy between them. if his feelings for jgy were rooted exclusively in a sense of debts owed, there are so many other forms of address for him to utilize instead;

lxc devotes literal years of his life to supporting jgy in both his efforts to reconcile with nmj (please miss me with the bad faith takes on this, I have already written about how four years is a long-ass time for nmj to spend un-murdered if jgy was always planning to off him for daddy) and in his efforts to distinguish himself as a competent member of the jin sect; the watchtower proposal was something they were working on together while jin guangshan was still jin sect leader, and jgy was risking a lot of his hard won political capital trying to push through an expensive plan that would not make money for jgs. give lxc some credit for god's sake, he's not an idiot, and he would not have supported this proposal if he thought it would do more harm than good;

in nearly every scene jgy and lxc share with each other, they actively gravitate towards each other or seek each other out, to the exclusion of other people around them because--and this may be a little complicated to unpack, so bear with me a moment--they just fucking like each other.

we know what lxc looks like when he has decided to turn his back on someone and isn't interested in what they have to say anymore: he does this to nhs post-guanyin temple when it becomes clear that nhs is going to provide him with neither clear answers nor closure. contrast this against his dogged determination to understand why jgy did the things he did, even when he is furious, even when he is devastated by what he hears. this is not the conduct of someone who has decided they are done with a relationship; this is someone determined to find a way through to the other side.

#mdzs meta #jin guangyao #lan xichen #he did crimes??? good for him 😌#flute solo 🎶#today we choose chaos

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shu-of-the-wind · 9 months

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ling just dropping something in his pov like "yeah I mean I don't think about it ever but I've also imagined Lan Fan as ascending empress since I was like, ten" and then doing this

#i swear #@ ling yao why are you the way that you are!!!#lingfan #sotb #anyway that happened and I'm still upset over it but it's fine i guess

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eleanorfenyxwrites · 2 months

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The Waves are Rising and Rising

|Beginning| |Previous|

Chapter 13

(Please mentally insert the "Uh-oh ____!" BDG meme edited to say "Uh-oh Jin Guangyao!", please and thank you.) Chapter 14 will post on Friday!

--//--

Jinlintai is a place that never truly sleeps, but in the weeks leading up to little Jin Ling’s hundred day celebration it seems to hum with constant activity, and Jin Guangyao sits relatively unobtrusively in the middle of all of it to make sure it all goes according to plan. The one saving grace in all of it is, unsurprisingly, the insane amount of qi from his dual (triple?) cultivation that keeps him going for even longer than Lan Xichen’s qi alone had.

He spends nearly two full weeks pain-free and feeling rested when he wakes even if he only sleeps for a few hours at a time, and when he can feel the influx of energy finally beginning to fade he nearly cries. Hardly the most embarrassing part of this whole… debacle, but he doesn’t exactly have the time to go through his perfect recall of every single thing he said and did whilst in the heat of the moment in order to be properly horrified by it.

(He might not have the time but, regardless, he cannot help the disjointed memories hitting him at random moments like assassins with incredible aim. Hurrying between the seamstresses and the pigeon coops and the kitchens and the captain of the guard’s quarters all before his presence is demanded by one of his cousins to attend to their afternoon meal is hardly the time to contemplate why in the heavens he thought it was acceptable to arch his back at such a deep angle and mutter filthy, private things about Lan Xichen in Nie Mingjue’s ear while Lan Xichen was sitting right there, watching and listening. And yet as he lifts the hems of his robes to avoid the worst of the muck around the coops whilst searching for Jin-furen’s favorite cat, he definitely spares a moment to visibly cringe away from how he must have looked — how he must have sounded [i.e. utterly ridiculous] — and he’s most definitely horrified by it whether the has the time to be or not.)

Of course in between the flashes of internal mortification and the days where he’s truly kept so busy it’s nearly better than having any moments to consider his own performance, he’s struck by bouts of yearning so intense that more than once he’s had to physically stop and lean for a moment against a wall. It feels like it should be fake, that sort of wanting that he does not have time for, but it hits him just the same, the absence of his sworn brothers like a missing limb. Jinlintai is just as hostile as ever, just as cold and cruel; nothing that happens to him within the confines of Jinlintai’s walls is a surprise anymore, and yet having known what it’s like to be… cherished, to be held and wanted and doted on even for a single night makes it all the harder to bear it when his own family throws whatever is at hand straight at his head, or spits for the thousandth time that he’s soiling their home simply by having been invited into it.

He’d even known that this would happen, he’d known that softening his heart for two men he doesn’t see nearly as often as he would like to would spell his own disaster, and he’d done it anyway. He’s losing control of himself in ways that are entirely unacceptable and jeopardising everything he had worked so hard to achieve. He’d been weak to ask for their last meeting, and he’d been weak to let Nie Mingjue continue to call him A-Yao, and weaker still to let Lan Xichen take him yet again after Nie Mingjue had come for the third time during their ‘punishment’ and had pleaded to be allowed to rest and watch instead.

He’d been so pathetic putting on a performance of pleasure for the both of them (and he hates that it hadn’t even been a performance, it had been his stupid heart clawing for any scrap of affection and finding not only scraps but an entire feast of it laid out for the taking and he’d taken it all simply because it was there without truly considering the consequences of what it would do to his peace of mind once they all returned to their duties).

“Ah… Lianfang-zun?”

“Yes?” Jin Guangyao turns to find the head gardener standing a polite distance away, wringing his hands.

“It seems that Jin-gongzi mistook the latest cuttings of flowers for the banquet hall as a gift for Jin-shao-furen and had them moved to their quarters as a… romantic gesture..”

Jin Guangyao holds in a soul-deep sigh with effort and smiles to hide his irritation. Of course Jin Zixuan would believe that the whole world revolves around his own little love affair (and of course his has been legitimized for too many reasons both fair and not for him to bother listing, unlike Jin Guangyao’s which must never be allowed to see the light of day and it’s not a love affair in the first place, he mustn’t think of it like that-) and because this is Jinlintai, and Jin Zixuan its heir, and Jin Ling his heir, whatever the esteemed Jin-gongzi wants for his sweet Jin-shao-furen, the darling little Lady of Jinlintai, then Jin Zixuan shall have.

“I will send for others to be delivered at once, it would hardly do to upset either of them so close to such an auspicious occasion,” Jin Guangyao replies smoothly, none of his roiling envy slipping past his iron-clad mask of polite servitude.

“Thank you, Lianfang-zun,” the gardener breathes and wisely takes his leave with an extra bow, secure in the knowledge that he won’t have to be the bearer of bad news to anyone but Jin Guangyao, whose feelings are likely believed to be nonexistent, let alone something worth worrying over.

Not that he would want something as ridiculous as an entire banquet hall’s worth of flowers for a romantic gesture, but some small part of him wonders if maybe Lan Xichen would like something like that. He’s unbearably romantic (now is not the time to remember their entire night alone together in vivid detail, though for some reason it is somehow preferable and much less horrifying than remembering letting Nie Mingjue pin him down and kiss him senseless while Lan Xichen fucked him and they spoke to each other much more intimately than they ever have before — no, he’s not thinking about it!) and it’s not as if anyone would ever think to offer such a competent, elegant, self-assured Sect Leader an over-the-top romantic gesture simply because he’d like it.

Perhaps that’s the sort of thing Jin Guangyao could do for him if their arrangement were allowed to be public. Or, rather, had he not stipulated from the very beginning that this arrangement of theirs remain strictly unromantic in every way shape and form for its entire duration. The headache of publicly courting a Great Sect Leader (let alone, possibly, two) aside, he had insisted that no feelings sneak their way into this arrangement. This is his fault, for wanting things that he can’t have, for wanting things that he’d explicitly and emphatically stated he didn’t want (couldn’t want) when they began.

He created this whole mess, really, when he sets the issue of Wen Qing suggesting dual cultivation aside, so he supposes he’d just better accept that and move on.

He has work to do anyway, and no amount of fantasizing about being wrapped up safely in his sworn brothers’ arms again, trading soft kisses and talking about nothing important until morning had lightened the gaps in the window shutter, is going to lighten his workload, nor make it any more bearable.

The final week of preparations passes in a mildly-surreal blur, with no lingering qi to take the edge of pain and exhaustion off of everything that gets piled onto his plate higher and higher, with nothing being removed to accommodate it all.

At least his sworn brothers are coming. He repeats the thought like a mantra as he finalizes menus, and as he checks to make sure Xue Yang has a fresh corpse to experiment on lest he get bored enough to emerge and cause an extremely unwanted scene, and as he reassures the gardener that all the replacement flowers have arrived, been accounted for, and successfully installed in the banquet hall. He directs the servants in their final decorative preparations, and when he finally steps away to enjoy the last few minutes of quiet before guests are expected to arrive he closes his eyes and tells himself that the only guests he truly cares about will be here soon enough, perhaps in mere minutes —

“A-Yao!”

Jin Guangyao turns, startled to find, of all people, Jin Zixuan hurrying towards him.

“There you are,” he says as his jog slows to a stop beside Jin Guangyao. “You know it was actually really hard to find you?”

Yes, Jin Guangyao thinks, perhaps a little uncharitably, because I’m actually busy.

He doesn’t say that, of course. “Apologies, xiongzhang, what can I do for you?”

“A-Li needs a word with you.”

Now?! Jin Guangyao thinks frantically, taking stock of all the other far more important things he still needs to get done before the celebrations start.

“Now?” he asks calmly, smiling.

“If you can,” Jin Zixuan says. Which Jin Guangyao knows is the slightly politer way of him saying yes, now. Jin Guangyao supposes he should be thankful that at least his brother is attempting politeness. It’s more than most of the rest of their family bothers with.

“I am, of course, always at Jin-shao-furen’s disposal.”

Strangely, the response makes Jin Zixuan wrinkle his nose, but he doesn’t address it, simply sweeping his arm up with an elegant billow of his sleeve to indicate the direction in which they should travel. “I’ll take you to her, she’s in the east gardens.”

As they set off in the indicated direction, Jin Guangyao reflects with a kind of distant amusement that if he liked his brother more, he might find it… cute, how comfortable — eager, even — he is being at his wife’s beck and call like this. Since their relationship is non-existent and awkward at best, and mutually (he assumes mutually, if the narrow-eyed looks Jin Zixuan had shot him during their brief crossover at the Cloud Recesses lectures were any indication) resentful at worst, he mostly is curious to see how long this marital infatuation lasts, and exactly how much Jin Zixuan turns out to take after their father.

So far, very little indeed, which is… curious.

Jin Zixuan walks a little ahead of him, setting the pace fast enough that Jin Guangyao, with his shorter legs (he’s a perfectly average height, thank you very much, it’s just his curse to be surrounded by stupid long-legged giants) has to hurry a little to keep up. Every now and then Jin Zixuan glances over his shoulder with a strange pinched expression that makes anxiety bubble in the pit of Jin Guangyao’s stomach.

Abruptly — so abruptly that Jin Guangyao almost walks smack into his back — Jin Zixuan stops and pivots on his heel. Jin Guangyao stares up at him and tries not to look quite as utterly bewildered as he feels.

“A-Yao,” Jin Zixuan says, shoulders stiff and voice devoid of inflection in a way that suggests rehearsal, “I wanted to- uh, we wanted to- you’ve been working very hard. On A-Ling’s hundred day celebration, and um. I’m sorry that muqin has been…” he swallows, gaze darting away then back to Jin Guangyao’s face, “well… muqin.”

When it becomes clear that Jin Zixuan has nothing more to say, Jin Guangyao says, “I see.”

He very definitely does not, but it is apparently enough to mollify Jin Zixuan, who gives a jerky nod then continues to lead Jin Guangyao onwards.

Just around the next corner is a bench, surrounded by beautiful flowers and appointed with luxurious silk drapes and cushions, and upon them sits Jiang Yanli with Jin Ling cradled in the crook of her arm. At her side stands Luo Qingyang. Both of their heads are bent, looking down at the baby — and both of them look up sharply at the sound of footsteps.

Jiang Yanli’s friendly face breaks into a wide, pleased smile (Jin Guangyao tells himself that it’s simply the maternal influence from a Yunmeng woman that softens his heart, and pushes the loneliness that he knows is lurking just below the surface deeper). Luo Qingyang stands up, stands to attention like the seasoned soldier she is, and fixes Jin Guangyao with a very particular kind of look; they haven’t interacted a great deal during his time in Lanling, and she’s never treated him with anything other than utmost politeness, but he’s nonetheless confident that she does not trust him. It makes sense, he supposes, that as someone who has been Jin Zixuan’s closest friend and aide for their whole lives, she might have a desire to protect such a guileless man from those so obviously more competent.

“Jin-shao-furen,” Jin Guangyao dips into a bow as he reaches the two women, “Luo-guniang. Good afternoon.”

“A-Yao,” Jiang Yanli says, infusing his name with apparently genuine warmth, “I assume A-Xuan has…?”

…Explained whatever the hell is going on here? No he has not. Jin Guangyao lets just a smidgeon of bemusement slip into his smile, and takes great delight in the way Jiang Yanli’s own smile turns somewhat exasperated in the direction of her husband. He does not miss the way Luo Qingyang lifts a hand to hide what is definitely a grin behind her sleeve.

“I see. Well, A-Yao, we wanted to thank you, for all the tremendous work you’ve put into A-Ling’s big day. You’ve been so diligent and conscientious, and I’m sure it will be an absolutely splendid event. And all of that whilst flying back and forth to Qinghe, helping Chifeng-zun with his health! A-Yao must be truly exhausted. Will you take a moment to sit with me and rest?”

Luo Qingyang seems to pick up on some unspoken cue, as after giving both Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan a nod, she sets off a little way down the path, and settles herself there like a sentry.

Like a lookout.

Oh.

Dazed, Jin Guangyao allows Jin Zixuan to usher him down onto the bench, before the man marches to the other end of the path to take up his own guard post. Jiang Yanli cheerfully instructs him on how he should hold his arms, and then — with no hesitation or reluctance — places Jin Ling, heir to the Lanling Jin, in Jin Guangyao’s hold.

Jin Guangyao’s mind feels curiously empty as his heart feels so treacherously full. He swallows down the rush of emotion as he gazes down at his nephew, who must be well used to being passed around from adult to adult by now, as he does little more than yawn and blink vaguely up at him. Jin Guangyao cannot decide if the baby is lighter or heavier than he expected. Jiang Yanli tucks some of the blankets that came unwrapped back around her son, then brushes his fat cheek with the back of her knuckles fondly.

“A-Ling,” she says softly, “this is your shushu.”

Something tightly wound in Jin Guangyao’s chest abruptly unravels and, to his mortification, he finds himself desperately blinking back tears.

Shushu. They want him to be part of this child’s family. There are people here in the middle of Jinlintai, the deadly viper pit, the place where he is almost universally degraded and treated like a servant, who- who actually-

“A-Yao, are you alright?” Jiang Yanli asks.

Jin Guangyao is saved from having to answer by the sound of Luo Qingyang’s voice calling out a greeting at a somewhat unnatural volume; a warning. He passes Jin Ling back into his mother’s arms quickly and jumps to his feet.

“Thank you,” he chokes out, bends at the waist in a rushed mess of a bow, then flees.

It takes even longer than it did after he was rejected from holding Jin Ling to regain his composure, and Jin Guangyao isn’t sure what that means, and isn’t sure that he cares. Thankfully, it is shortly afterwards that guests begin arriving for the banquet, and nothing forces him to pull himself together more effectively than having work to do. He greets people and directs servants and pours tea and manages refreshments and bows and bows and bows, and throughout it all, everything feels oddly distant, as if he is witnessing it through the thin veil of one of Lan Xichen’s translucent overrobes. His mind and body function on automatic, barely requiring his input, as his heart roils and tries desperately to process those few precious minutes in the gardens.

Jiang Yanli — and presumably Jin Zixuan — want Jin Guangyao to be part of Jin Ling’s family. They went out of their way, risking incurring the wrath of Jin-furen, to invite him to hold the baby. Where the rest of the family has shunned and humiliated him, they, utterly unexpectedly, made him feel wanted.

He's considered the possibility of it being some kind of elaborate… scheme. Of course he has. And it's certainly possible; perhaps they are playing some strange long game to try and undermine his place in the household by setting Jin-furen even more aggressively against him, but…

The more he thinks about it, the less that makes sense. For one thing, Jin Zixuan is simply not a scheming kind of person. For another, there's really nothing that he or Jiang Yanli could gain from turning this against him that they don’t already have.

Jin Guangyao greets more guests and ignores his tired, aching feet (he has noticed that the intensive infusions of Lan Xichen’s qi have, to his amazement and delight, actually slightly reduced his day-to-day pain even now that the most noticeable effects have worn off, but he's still a far cry from the physical capabilities of his sworn brothers), and tries not to cling too hard to that tiny sliver of kindness in the gardens as his father dismisses him from a conversation with two minor sect leaders with a careless wave of his hand, like he’s nothing — like he’s a servant.

Unfilial! A voice in his mind hisses, and it sounds like his mother. Meng Shi had been a kind and patient parent, but one of the very few times she'd raised her voice to him had been when, at age eight, after hours of being treated like dirt by the other women in the brothel, the reassurances that Jin Guangshan would return one day to save them simply had not been enough. He'd lost his temper, bellowing that if his stupid stinking father really loved them, he would have come to get them years ago!

How dare you speak that way about him! Do not be unfilial!

She'd apologised later, and soothed his tears, but the admonition had stayed with him like a brand on his skin. Unfilial was one of the worst things a son could be. He knew that.

But was expecting basic kindness and respect from his family unfilial?

The disquieting thoughts are thankfully interrupted by the moment he has been looking forward to all day: the arrival of the Lan contingent.

He'd been pleased to see the Nie arrive about midway through the first wave of guests — Nie Huaisang is always effusively happy to see him, and Nie Mingjue is actually surprisingly pleasant (Jin Guangyao allows himself just a few seconds to linger cringe-free in the memories of Nie Mingjue settling in beneath him, entirely naked and looking up at him like there was nothing that could steal his attention away from Jin Guangyao in his lap, and the way he can now spot a smile in his older sworn brother's eyes, even though his mouth barely moves during their typical, stiltedly polite greeting) — but as always, Lan Xichen's arrival eclipses all else.

Lan Xichen lifts him up out of his bow and his world briefly shrinks to a pinpoint of bright delight, which vanishes immediately like a bubble being popped when he hears his odious cousin's voice call out.

"Wei Wuxian! I need to speak with you."

Wei Wuxian had arrived with the Lan group, which is not a great surprise considering the amount of time he spends in Gusu nowadays even as oblivious to Lan Wangji’s affections as he apparently still is, though it does mean that, as Jin Zixun storms across the hall towards his target with clear hostile intent, he is blocked by a glowering wall of Hanguang-jun.

There's a sort of pleasing reflection here, with Lan Wangji shielding Wei Wuxian from Jin Zixun, the same way that Wei Wuxian had shielded Lan Wangji from Jin Zixun when he had stepped in to drink for him at the Phoenix Mountain hunt. Lan Xichen would definitely appreciate the poetic romance of it all, Jin Guangyao will have to make sure to mention it to him later.

It's easier to focus on that than the realisation that yet another of his meticulously planned events appears to be rapidly going to shit — before it can even properly begin!

"Uh," says Wei Wuxian, peering around Lan Wangji with a vaguely anxious smile, "who are you again?"

It is a very small consolation for Jin Guangyao to glance at Lan Xichen and see his own deep exasperation there in his sworn brother’s eyes.

"You-!" Jin Zixun blurts furiously — though he does not get much further, as Jiang Yanli sweeps over, Jin Ling in her arms. As it is her son's celebration, she has a certain amount of hosting authority, and she uses it to politely intervene.

"Jin-er-gongzi, A-Xian, is there a problem? Why don't we all take our seats and have some tea so we can talk about it?"

Jin Zixuan, never far from his wife's side nowadays, hurries across the hall to stand beside her and offer his tacit silent support. He's hardly threatening, and he does little more than loom, but his presence combined with Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen so close by does at least seem to discourage some of Jin Zixun’s hostility. He swallows, then rallies his anger again for a second attempt.

“I will not sit and drink with the man who has cursed me!”

Gasps echo around the hall as the chatter immediately dies down. In his peripheral vision, Jin Guangyao sees the way his father stiffens, and his grip tightens on his wine cup. Jin-furen looks like she’s mere seconds from vaulting the table in front of her to strangle her nephew.

“Tang-xiong,” Jin Guangyao says quickly, daring to press just the lightest of touches to his cousin’s arm, to try and guide him away, “I’m certain there must have been some misunderstanding here! How could Wei-gongzi have possibly cursed you? He’s been in Gusu these last few months, helping with the Wen prisoners.”

“And when I’ve not been in Gusu I’ve been in Yunmeng — Jiang Cheng can vouch for me!” Wei Wuxian flails out an arm to gesture expansively towards Jiang Wanyin, whose grip is getting perilously tight on his own wine cup. “Besides, I don’t even know who you are! Why would I curse you?”

Jin Zixun splutters, but his anger rallies again, in spite of all reason.

“Well- well- who else would have the face to cast such a heinous curse besides someone who has dabbled in dark tricks?”

Jin Zixuan finally decides to get properly involved, shaking his head in confusion. “What curse are you talking about, Zixun? You’ve not mentioned this before.” To his credit — in probably the most politically astute decision of his life — he tries to take their cousin by the elbow, as if to lead him away to somewhere more private. “Perhaps we can-”

“I’m talking about this curse!” Jin Zixun snarls, yanking his arm from Jin Zixuan’s grip and throwing open the front of his robes to bare his chest to the hall.

The skin is red and mottled with small dots, which upon closer examination prove to be holes that are swollen around the edges and oozing blood, like the flesh is being eaten away in tiny increments. It is, unmistakably, the Hundred Holes Curse.

The whole of Fragrance Hall erupts into loud cries of horror. Jin Zixuan recoils and instinctively pushes Jiang Yanli behind him, as if to protect her and Jin Ling from what is definitely not an infectious condition. Lan Wangji actually does the same with Wei Wuxian (and if the man doesn’t realise what’s going on between them from that move, then there’s no helping him). As always, Jin Guangyao’s eyes dart immediately over to his father, to try and gauge his reaction; did he know about this curse? Did he approve of this stunt — at Jin Ling’s hundred day celebration? Jin Guangshan’s expression is stony, and difficult to read, and that alone makes a pulse of fear run through Jin Guangyao’s system. His network of informants had discovered evidence of Jin Zixun being unwell, but Jin Guangyao had simply assumed that, as the doctors had not been alerted, it was just an embarrassing venereal disease and not looked further into it to avoid adding yet one more task to his to-do list — long enough now that it could probably reach the bottom of the stairs to Jinlintai. More fool him.

“Zixun!” Jin-furen barks, leaping to her feet. “What do you think you’re doing? Put that away!”

Wei Wuxian peers around the broad Lan shoulders currently shielding him. “That’s the Hundred Holes Curse! Whoever casts it gets the curse reflected back at them. Why would I curse myself if I don’t even remember who you are?”

"There seems like an easy way to solve this," Lan Xichen says, as even and reasonable as always. "If the curse reflects back on the one who casts it, then Wei-gongzi can prove that he was not the one who cast it by opening his robes and showing us."

Wei Wuxian’s reaction is… intriguing. The man characterised by his loudspoken arrogance actually cringes, and shrinks back behind Lan Wangji. "Ah… is that really necessary?" He asks weakly.

"A-Xian?" Prompts Jiang Yanli gently. "Would you mind? It would resolve this very quickly.”

Jiang Wanyin stands and (thankfully without destroying any of the crockery) steps over his table to approach the centre of the ruckus. “Come on, Wei Wuxian, just show him and we can get on with the party. This is supposed to be about A-Ling, not whatever weird drama is going on.”

“Ah- well, haha, I…”

“See!” Jin Zixun crows, “He’s stalling! Why would he not just prove it to us unless he was the one who did it?”

“Jin-er-gongzi, A-Xian has been far too busy working hard helping with the prisoners in Gusu and travelling back and forth to Yunmeng, he certainly has not had time to curse you,” Jiang Yanli says with incredibly uncharacteristic sharpness. It actually makes Jin Zixun shrink back a little (Jin Guangyao mentally adds particular hatred of Jin Zixun to his list of things he knows about Jiang Yanli, and re-evaluates his perception of her spine).

“Come on, what’s the big deal?” Jiang Wanyin thumps Wei Wuxian on the arm, “Just show him what he wants to see, alright? Then we can move on.”

Wei Wuxian swallows. His reluctance is utterly bizarre.

“I guess you were going to find out sooner or later,” Wei Wuxian says, laughing wetly. He grasps his lapels (why are his hands shaking?) and parts his robes.

His chest is bare of any curse. There are no holes, no tiny circular weeping wounds. He is absolved.

But there is a thick, poorly healed scar running down the centre of his abdomen, starting at his diaphragm and disappearing into the ‘v’ of his robes.

Jin Guangyao worked as Wen Ruohan’s torturer. He knows what kind of intense trauma would be required to form a scar like that, and it’s the kind of trauma people don’t usually walk away from. It’s too neat and straight to have been made in battle, and must have been stitched up very soon afterwards for him not to have just bled out immediately. Surgery, perhaps? Did Wei Wuxian have some kind of surgery that his siblings didn’t know about? But what kind of surgery would he be so incredibly reluctant to disclose? Ideas form and spin through his mind, and he carefully catalogs each one to be addressed at a slightly more opportune time.

Jiang Wanyin freezes as soon as the scar is revealed, and his hand seemingly unconsciously moves to cover the same area on his own body. His eyes are wide and glassy as he stares at his shixiong.

“What does that mean?” He croaks. “What the fuck does that mean? How did you get that?”

“A-Xian…” Jiang Yanli whispers shakily. Jin Zixuan quickly moves to lift the baby from her trembling arms so that she can take Wei Wuxian by the shoulders and look into his eyes.

“Can we just talk about it later?” Wei Wuxian pleads, voice cracking as he pulls his robes back closed. “Today is meant to be about A-Ling. Let’s just talk about it later.”

Whatever the Jiang siblings say in response to that is drowned out by Jin-furen’s shrill voice. “Now you’ve proven yourself an idiot, Zixun, can we move on with A-Ling’s celebration?”

With the scandalised whispers growing, along with Jin-furen’s outraged admonishments, Jin Zixun’s courage fails and he pulls his robes back together, looking hunted. His eyes dart towards Jin Guangshan anxiously—

So his father had sanctioned it. But to what end? And why hadn’t he shared these plans with him? Jin Guangshan is a smart man and it would have been very clear to him that this stunt wouldn’t work, so… has Jin Zixun fallen out of his favour and been deliberately humiliated? Or is this some sort of trial run for some future scheme? Jin Guangyao scrutinises his father’s face but can glean nothing helpful.

Shit. Shit. What's going on? And why has he not been told about it?

Jin Zixuan claps a fraternal sort of hand on Jin Zixun’s shoulder and (again, with a surprising amount of political astuteness) ushers him towards a servant, giving quiet but urgent instructions to get him to the doctor immediately. Jiang Wanyin and Jiang Yanli are reluctantly peeling away from Wei Wuxian, whilst Lan Wangji is staring at him with completely undisguised anguished longing. The rest of the hall seems to be settling (thank the gods and all of his venerated ancestors, another ruined social event might just finish him off at this point) and Jin Guangyao, satisfied that the altercation has been resolved for now, scurries off to direct the servants and bring in more wine — and makes a mental note to get someone to tail the Jiangs and find out exactly what Wei Wuxian has been hiding.

There are many traditions and ceremonies to be attended to on such an important day, marking the arrival of the new heir, the first son of a new generation. Jin Guangyao is kept just as busy as he expects, and braces himself to be called in by his father as soon as the guests separate for the afternoon break. Doubtless he will have a thousand recriminations and a fresh list of demands, and yet, Jin Guangshan leaves the hall, and Jin Guangyao lingers, waiting to be summoned, and…

Nothing. An hour passes, Jin Guangyao lets himself be talked into taking tea with Lan Xichen and the Nie brothers, and… still nothing. His father does not send for him.

Somehow, it’s more unnerving to not be facing his wrath. He feels on edge all afternoon, and it’s not at all helped by having Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue at such close proximity; being near them without being able to touch them makes him feel itchy under his skin, makes him feel twitchy and out of sorts. It’s not even a horny thing, it’s not sex he’s craving, it’s just… closeness. As impossible as it is under the current circumstances, he wants them everywhere. He wants their qi in his core again, humming under his skin. He wants Nie Mingjue’s arms squeezing him back into his body and Lan Xichen’s boundless affection barely held in check by his and Nie Mingjue’s teasing.

Honestly, it’s still mildly humiliating. These dual cultivation sessions are slowly eroding his self-control in an incredibly unhelpful way without seeming to offer him any day-to-day benefits to outweigh it, and it’s then made actively worse by the way Nie Huaisang cheerfully excuses himself shortly after his first cup of tea with the kind of smirk that makes it clear exactly what he believes is going to take place in his absence.

If they were quite literally anywhere else he might consider it, even outside of Qinghe (see again: eroded self-control). Instead, he and Lan Xichen play Song of Cleansing for Nie Mingjue. The musical cultivation technique is, of course, still more of a temporary preventative measure than a real solution, even after their successful dual cultivation still seems to have improved Nie Mingjue’s temperament in general; but the music works on his temperament too, soothing his jarred nerves and leaving him with unusual ease when he has to take his leave to get the hall ready for the evening meal.

And still his father does not call for him.

He’s probably just busy; probably he’s found someone young and pretty (and hopefully willing) to occupy his time with, and Jin Guangyao ignores the way the concept sends a shudder of unease down his spine because he has far too much to do. He sends servants to replace the wilting flowers, he has the tables reset for the dinner, he checks over every station at the kitchen to ensure all food preferences are accommodated for, and he’s back to the central pavilion in time to greet all of the guests returned from their afternoon rests. Jin Guangshan returns to the hall with the other guests and barely spares Jin Guangyao a glance, which he supposes is likely a good sign.

|NEXT|

#the untamed fanfic #3zun #The Waves are Rising and Rising #Jin Guangyao #Nie Mingjue #Lan Xichen

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