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justanotherghostwriter · 1 year

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I posted 186 times in 2022

28 posts created (15%)

158 posts reblogged (85%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@zkbigbang

@lizanthium

@marijayne-writing

@x-rainflame-x

@derinthescarletpescatarian

I tagged 185 of my posts in 2022

Only 1% of my posts had no tags

#fanart - 41 posts

#zutara - 34 posts

#zk big bang 2022 - 17 posts

#flagging for later - 15 posts

#animorphs - 15 posts

#fullmetal alchemist - 15 posts

#avatar the last airbender - 10 posts

#ghostfic - 9 posts

#about me - 9 posts

#lizanthium's art - 9 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#he was just - as cassie says - the pillar. the one who took everybody's views and personalities and strengths and weaknesses and sorted out

My Top Posts in 2022:

Chapters: 1/7 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Lu Ten/Yue (Mentioned), Katara & Sokka (Avatar), Hakoda & Katara (Avatar), Druk & Zuko (Avatar), Lu Ten & Zuko, Toph Beifong & Zuko, Toph Beifong & Katara Characters: Zuko (Avatar), Katara (Avatar), Druk (Avatar), Toph Beifong, Agni Kai Triad (Avatar), Iroh (Avatar), Lu Ten, Yue (Avatar), Hakoda (Avatar), Sokka (Avatar), Suki (Avatar) Additional Tags: Zutara Week 2022 (Avatar), Zutara Week, Round Robin, Modern AU with Bending, MeetCute, Identity Reveal, Slight Mentions of Gang politics, The Order of the White Lotus (Avatar), Hurt Zuko (Avatar) Summary:

While taking a shortcut through a park near the old Lower Ring of Ba Sing Se, Katara runs into an interesting dog and the dog's interesting owner. For the next few days, they share a morning walk and surprisingly deep secrets with one another. Katara is a little disappointed when her new friend stops showing one morning, until she finds the dog, alone and lost, and is pulled into danger she never anticipated. Also unexpected is how she appears to be falling for somebody who should be a sworn enemy.

I'm very excited to introduce this project to you. This year, for @zutaraweek, I decided to try a Round Robin with any writers who were keen. We each picked at least one of the weekly prompts and, like an impromptu acting class, followed on the story from where the previous writer left off. It's been amazing getting to know the other writers and seeing how their unique perspectives, skills and passions mold and shape the story. @ekwolfwriter-blog, @the-badger-mole, @marijayne-writing, @ryu-slayer: thank you all for trying this out with me!

It's my privilege to kick us off with day one. Please stay tuned for the rest as the week progresses!

17 notes - Posted September 19, 2022

NORTH STARS: PART II

PART I IS HERE

It’s one of the best days of the year! Today is @lizanthium 's birthday, which means that today is the reason we all get blessed by her presence, her art, her brain and her existence in general. Happy birthday, my dear twin. I offer you the ending of a story I’ve given you a beginning to, so that you can infer all the middle bits with no effort on my part. ;P In all seriousness: you sparkle so well, and it’s always a privilege to have some of your light in my life in whatever form it comes in. Here is to many more years blessed with growth and quiet moments and creativity and good family and friends.

Without a word, Katara padded to her brother’s side and sat beside him on the edge of the ice walkway. Even through her parka, the ice was chilly, but she made herself ignore the sensation in order to sit very still and watch the horizon. Sokka sighed beside her, and Katara watched from the corner of her eye as he turned a very misshapen carving of an otter seal over and over in his gloved fingers.

“Are you going to do it?” she asked, after a moment, still innocently studying the horizon like her heart wasn’t in her throat at the possibilities of what that evening could bring. Both potential outcomes made her on edge, but the emotions behind the quickened pulse were as different as the way the river could twist.

“I don’t know,” Sokka all but whispered, glum. “I don’t… Our tribe is counting on me. Dad and Bato are counting on me.” He glanced around a little theatrically. “Aang being able to stay hidden for a while longer and just… goof off and be a kid… The very tentative end to a hundred years of war… I could screw that all up by stopping that wedding. For a woman I’ve known for only three months. Three months, Katara.”

There were a hundred things Katara wanted to say to him, but some of them were tainted with frustration and hurt, and Katara was learning to keep those inside until their blades were dulled a little bit. Not every battle had to be fought with blood and wounds. A lesson that still sometimes tasted bitter. But, with hands that were learning how to heal people with the gift that thrummed like blood and breath inside of her, Katara clasped Sokka’s hand. And squeezed. He squeezed back, and she remembered that he was only sixteen, and she dropped her head onto his shoulder.

For a long moment, they were both quiet. Katara’s thoughts were on the Fire Nation ships that had come into the Northern waters that morning, and the handful of people clad in red who had been allowed to descend the gangplanks into the Northern Water Tribe. And her thoughts were on her father and Bato and the other select men and women from the South who had arrived the day before. And then she thought to Chief Arnook, and the Northern Tribe’s council of Elders, and all the arguments that could be made of all they’d done wrong and right during the war and during this situation. Would they be ruining hard-earned peace between the Water Tribes and the world, and the beginning of better relations between Water Tribes with their plan? Possibly. Was said plan only going to fulfil the selfish whims of four teenagers? Also possible.

But just as possible was finding the long-lost Avatar in an iceberg three months after a hundred years of war had ended because there was suddenly the desperate, hopeful chance she could learn Waterbending, and she’d already been eagerly practising. Just as possible was the fact that Yue was right, and the Spirits had organised things to happen this way, and some things were just destiny, and the adults just had to… be helped to see it. Or, if she couldn’t get her head around being that important to the Spirits, then she could at least hope for the fact that they were unimportant enough for destiny to still flow around them, even if they altered the course just slightly. Just slightly enough for four unimportant teenagers to be a little bit selfish.

“Are you going to do something even if I don’t?” Sokka asked her, and Katara smiled, fondly, at how well her brother knew her.

“Yes,” she told him, only a tiny bit unsure of her answer even though she and Zuko had taken a large chunk of the three months they’d known each other to even become friends. Her heart was just… sure. “I really think it’s worth it to try.”

Sokka laughed, not unkindly, and pulled away from her a little, making Katara have to lift her head. Once she was sitting upright, Sokka pulled off his glove, jabbed his thumb to his chest and then painted an invisible mark on her forehead. She knew he was painting the Mark of the Brave, even though she hadn’t been through her ice dodging ceremony just yet. She rolled her eyes at him, but there was fondness in her for the brother who was braver than he thought he was, and was probably about to find that all out for himself.

“Give your hand here,” she instructed instead of turning things as sappy as she wanted to, and she began to heal all the little cuts the carving knife had left on him.

***

There was no good moment to interrupt a marriage ceremony, Katara learned that day. But Sokka, brilliant as he was at strategy, somehow managed to crash in at the moment that almost made the most sense. Or, perhaps it wasn’t planning at all. Perhaps the words had just burst out of him in giddy adrenalin as Yue and Zuko were instructed to stand beside one another in the presence of their gathered witnesses.

“I am Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe!” Sokka yelled, cutting across Elder Anik’s grand speech in a squeaky, breathless rush. It was so unexpected that even Katara jumped in surprise. “And I — I — I do not condone this match!”

The second bit, at least, came out a little bit stronger. Katara heard her father inhale sharply behind her, and she quickly bent the ice under his feet slick, causing him to suddenly slip and have to cling onto Bato, who almost fell at the sudden, crashing weight. She’d apologise later. Right now, Sokka needed to be able to say his piece. Her brother caught her eye, and she nodded, and he squared his shoulders and turned back to the Northern Water Tribe Elders and Fire Lord Iroh and the four Fire Sages he’d brought with him, all who were staring at Sokka with varying degrees of quiet surprise.

“Boy,” one of the Elders boomed. “You do not—”

“I have every right to object!” Sokka fired back at him, head thrown back proudly. “The North has violated one of the very oldest promises between the sister tribes, and I, son of the current chief of the Southern Water Tribe, will not be silent and allow it to go grossly unaddressed for another year.”

Yue’s eyes were transfixed on Sokka as she reached out and gripped Zuko’s hand. Zuko, on the other hand, was warily alternating his gaze between the five Fire Nation representatives, the Northern Elders and the Southern representatives, entire body tense as though ready to fight. She realised, with a twist in her heart, that he expected somebody to attack Sokka for his interruption, and he was getting ready to intervene. To protect, like nobody had done for him. Once again, she was sad that Ozai hadn’t come to the North Pole so that she had no chance to accidentally drown the man.

“Sokka,” Hakoda said, almost sharper than Katara had ever heard him.

Elder Oki cut across her father. “The South is not truly independent,” he sneered. “The title of chief that your father holds gives him as much power as one of us Elders. If that.”

Instead of cowing Sokka, this only made him stand taller and take a step closer to the Elders. “Exactly. The Southern Water Tribes, plural, were always meant to be under the leadership and protection of the North. Protection. Where were you in the last hundred years? Where were you in the raids that stole our Waterbenders from us? The ones that killed my mother?” Oki’s mouth snapped shut, whatever he was going to say evidently getting knocked out of him. “If any of the Water Tribes deserve compensation from the Fire Nation, it is us.” The Fire Lord’s eyebrow raised, and he tilted his head to the side, as though agreeing. “The North, our great ‘big sister’, the seat where our Chief resides, did not even offer us that reparation. They simply asked for a few delegates to come and watch the wedding. Without discussion. Without apology for years of silence.”

There was certainly silence in the hall as Sokka took a pause, his chest heaving slightly. The same emotions that were clearly thrumming through him were in Katara’s chest, heavy and achingly hot. Some instinct made her glance at Zuko to find that his wary tracking had stopped and he was, instead, watching her. Okay? he mouthed at her, and some of the tension in her chest left as she gave him a small smile and a little nod.

Sokka didn’t let them stew for too long. “There is only one way to make reparations between North and South. Only one way to repair the brotherhood that has been broken here for so long. And that is the promise that should have been ours over generations: the good faith, unity, and celebration of marriage. That is what I am demanding on behalf of my people.”

The silence shattered to murmurs that rippled at different decibels across the room, people leaning in to whisper to one another. Only Sokka, Katara, Zuko and Yue stood perfectly still and perfectly upright.

“Sokka, son,” Chief Arnook said, and his gentle tone couldn’t quite cover the grief there. Katara noticed he was pointedly not looking or speaking to her father at all. “I… I understand your hurt. But there has been a war treaty signed between —”

“The treaty was signed to honour unity and to step forward into peace with good faith,” Zuko interrupted, voice clear and usual awkwardness completely gone. He stared Arnook head on, and only the way his free hand trembled gave away how much speaking up was costing him. “If I were still to marry Princess Yue, knowing all this that has been brought to light, it would be a violation of the very thing the marriage is supposed to stand for.”

“Prince Zuko,” the Fire Lord said, and nobody in the room could miss how Zuko flinched instinctively. In the too-long pause that followed, Yue did what Katara longed to do but could not and placed a subtle hand on the small of Zuko’s back, rubbing small circles there to try and soothe him. The Fire Lord very briefly closed his eyes in what Katara thought might have been sorrow at his nephew’s reaction. “And Warrior Sokka. What is it that you would both suggest?” The Elders started murmuring louder, so the Fire Lord turned a mild gaze to Chief Arnook. “It would be worthwhile to hear them out, I think, Chief?” he asked, with a little bow.

Chief Arnook, lips pressed together into a very thin line, waved his hand in agreement and in offer for Sokka to continue. Zuko looked over at Sokka, who suddenly looked very unsure. Alarmed, Katara started mentally willing him to scrape it back together.

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19 notes - Posted May 13, 2022

While the Music Lasts (20333 words) by JustAnotherGhostwriter Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar), Aang & Toph Beifong & Katara & Sokka & Suki & Zuko, Hakoda & Katara & Sokka (Avatar)

@zutaramonth day 25: Modern AU

A retelling of ATLA Book three in a college classical band AU. With lots of past and present and hints of future Zutara. With an added playlist for your listening needs.

24 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

Chapters: 2/15 Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Katara/Zuko (Avatar)

Waiting in the courtyard after the messy, terrible Agni Kai against Azula, Katara and Zuko aren't sure what to expect next. When news does come, it's devastating: Aang has failed to stop Ozai. Run. Hide. We'll find you when it's safe.

They obey the order, fail to disobey the order, and find a little temporary space for a while, until they can rejoin what is left of the plan to stop the Phoenix King from destroying the world. And they wait.

And wait.

And learn that life has a way of carrying on even in the midst of war and failure. And then, as it always must, their past finally meets their present, and Katara and Zuko need to once again define what makes them who they are, and the roles they are willing to play in destiny.

28 notes - Posted January 30, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

NORTH STARS: PART I

PART II IS HERE.

I promise this won’t be very a long author’s note so, in summary: life really Got Real for a while there, and I lost the time to write at all. Most of the things I write and put out to the world mean something to me, but my current long project is weighty in a way that’s possibly also just a lot of self-pressure. Either way, I couldn’t leap right back into it after Februarch, and it’s Zutara Month, and my dearest and most beloved Northern Twin, @lizanthium, who deserves the best of the world, is not getting the best of the world right now.

Of course Liz’s SWT Zuko AU was the first thing I thought of when I saw today’s prompt. But I’ve already made a mess in that universe enough, so I decided to be Extra TM by writing her a “get well soon, I think you’re awesome so just keep being you, I believe in you so much” little thing set in an AU of her AU. If you’re new here: writing fic of fic is, horrifyingly and shamefully, like my signature anime attack move.

So here you go! I joked once about doing a Shakespearean/fairytale-Disney AU in which Zuko was set up in an arranged marriage with Yue, and then he and Yue fall head over heels in love (at first sight-ish, hence the Disney vibes) with both parts of the SWT delegation that come to celebrate their wedding. Cue the Shakespearean comedy and angst vibes as everybody tries to figure themselves out. So this isn’t, exactly, Southern Water Tribe Zuko. Yet. But I’ll submit it to the tag in a vain hope it makes the mark, somehow. Here are two planned beginning snippets of the AU for the worldbuilding feels, and then one scene that I didn’t plan to write but that needed to see the light of day because @barelyaware drew such hysterical and amazing fanart for it.

Liz, you’re so special. May this brighten your week at least a little. Thank you for your brain in which the SWT Zuko AU exists.

=========================================

“The way forward to find your own North Star is not to think or feel your way forward, but to dissolve the thoughts and feelings that are actually lies. You don’t have to learn your destiny — you already know it; you just have to unlearn the thoughts that blind you to what you know.” — Martha Beck.

She had always longed to be included in the war meetings her father and the tribe Elders held. Or, barring that stretch of custom, at least the serious meetings where tribe matters were discussed and decided. Yue was, after all, their princess, and one day to rule beside their chief. She had been brought up understanding and accepting that her husband would get her father’s title and responsibilities, but, as she grew older, she secretly looked at her father, ruling without her mother by his side, and wondered what would happen to her should the Spirits take the tribe’s next chief from them early. What if they had no son by that time, or had one, but he was too young? What would happen to the tribe if she did not know enough to keep them afloat until a new chief could come? Yue had never known how to broach such fears with her father, however, and so she had kept them to herself and to her prayers.

Now, finally sitting in a war meeting, Yue wished she had never longed for this moment to come and, in equal measure, wished that she had asked for it sooner. Her father’s face was as grave as a wall of black ice, but there was also a lack of his usual steadiness about him that frightened her beneath her own forced stillness and straight back. Yue couldn’t place where it appeared to be missing; was it in his shoulders or his hands or the way his eyes looked around the room? It occurred to her, with deep sadness, that perhaps it was she that was different; that the mirage that had hung around her father for so long had finally dissipated as they came to this moment, and she saw him as simply a man. Still wise and strong and worthy of all her love, but just a man.

Her husband would be just a man, too, she tried to remind herself, even as the Elders around her spoke about letting a monster into their midst. They were angry, distrustful, frightened, proud, and they had every right to be this way, but also no right at all. Yue understood that those two things could both be true, because she’d grown up learning to walk the line between two realities tugging in different directions. It both amused and alarmed her that these men she respected and loved and who protected her home did not seem to have a grasp on a truth that would be needed for the coming days. But she sat silent, and let the waves roll around her, waiting for the moment she would be heard if she spoke instead of trying to fight the tide that was stronger than her.

“We will have two men with Princess Yue at all times,” Elder Kiugak stated.

“Two is too few!” Elder Anik argued.

“If we place more around her, we will be telling the Fire Lord that we distrust his request for peace,” Elder Kiugak argued back.

“We do distrust him!” Elder Oki spoke up. “It is enough that we are agreeing to having an Ashmaker here in our city. The request to make peace by setting that thing as our one day chief is an insult that will anger the Spirits and the people we have laid to rest in this ground. It is enough that it has come to this! We cannot allow him to think that he will be treated with anything except the suspicion and disdain that his kind requires, even —”

“Thank you, Oki,” Arnook interrupted, loud but steady.

If Oki was allowed to continue, his rant would only grow like an avalanche. There was not a single person in the Northern Water Tribe who was happy about the terms of peace that they had arrived at with Fire Lord Iroh. But they also all knew that the war could not continue. As much as they’d walled themselves off and had managed to escape from Azulon’s ruthlessness, it was only a matter of time. And the rest of the world had burned. This was as much admitting defeat gracefully as it was atoning for the years they’d been wilfully blind to the suffering of those elsewhere. Or, at least, Yue hoped so.

“Perhaps,” Elder Anik interjected, giving Yue a side look full of pity, “we should ask the princess what would make her feel safe and work from that.”

“Yue?” her father asked her, nearly free of inflection.

Yue took a deep breath and raised her head higher and painted a small smile on her face. “If it will make you feel better, then please give me a guard. But I feel that none are necessary.” Protests shot up from every corner of the room, but Yue kept her gaze forward and her head high. When her father’s sweeping gaze landed on hers again, she continued, seizing her opportunity to speak. “We have few men as it is; we cannot afford having many simply standing around me, idle. Especially since Prince Zuko is coming alone, without any guards, friends or even servants.”

“Princess Yue —”

“Princess—”

“— a Firebender and —”

“—the Ashmaker—”

“Prince Zuko,” Yue said, firmly emphasising his title, “has given his word and his consent to this marriage and this treaty as Fire Lord Iroh has. Master Pakku. You trust the Fire Lord, do you not?”

There was the faintest smile on Pakku’s face; an almost approval. “I do, Princess.”

“And I trust Master Pakku’s judgement. I also trust the judgement of my Elders and of my Chief. I choose to trust that they would not have offered me in marriage to somebody whom they believed was a dishonourable liar only coming here to kill or destroy or colonise. Am I wrong?” Still with a face of innocence, Yue looked from face to face. All but Pakku’s eyes slid from hers. Pakku was definitely smirking faintly. “I did not think so, because I know of the love you have for me and for this tribe. And I know that your hearts are set on peace. And so I choose to give Prince Zuko the benefit of the doubt, because that is what I wish to start my engagement on. That is what I wish to be the foundation of my marriage and Prince Zuko’s rule over this tribe one day.”

There was a ring of silence. “Princess,” Oki finally blustered. “You have a good and kind heart, but the Ashm— the Fire Nation is a treacherous—” He stopped as he realised how close he was coming to slandering his chief, the Fire Lord and the intelligence of those who had combed through the wording of the treaty and had finally accepted the terms. “What happens if he harms you?”

“Then I will go for help,” Yue replied, giving him a soft, gentle smile. “And if he kills me, then there are repercussions you can take on the Fire Nation. And Hahn will become the next chief, as was the original intent before this treaty. Elders, death is not something you can keep at bay. We all know this. I know this deeply.” She fingered her Spirit-touched white hair. “And I choose to believe in the Spirits, in our people, in the reported love Fire Lord Iroh has for his nephew, and in the good intentions of people who are soon to be tied with ours forever. We agreed to embrace them as members of our tribe. Let us not be as dishonourable as we are accusing them of being.”

Yue let them talk and argue and complain and half-slither around things they didn’t want to say outright after that, content that she had had her peace. When the meeting finally ended, her father motioned for her to stay, and she did so until they were alone. They walked out the hall side-by-side in a heavy silence.

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32 notes - Posted April 5, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #Awww #Look at me loving my squad #I love that it's ATLA everywhere #and then my longest tag is me screaming about Jake Berenson #On brand #Nothing has changed #About Me #About My Writing

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sandumilfshou · 4 months

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still kind of insane to me that people talk shit about jiang cheng without fully understanding what he has been through so lets just understand what his mental state is like BEFORE canon begins:

born via a dysfunctional marriage to be the sect heir

father doesnt care for him, mother expects too much from him/everything he does is not enough

has his three dogs just kicked out randomly with no notice because of some kid he's never heard of by the father who never gave him love and/or attention

said father then favours this kid more than him, to the point that the entire world basically thinks that this kid is biologically your father's son as well, which causes even more family dysfunction

despite this still learns to love this kid as his unofficial brother

works his absolute hardest but is always second-best because his new shixiong is naturally talented

nobody appreciates the hard work he puts in at being second place despite the fact wwx literally doesnt work hard for it

masks his emotions with anger as a coping mechanism to minimise the amount of hurt he feels

ok great so now lets actually take all of the above and apply this mental wellbeing to canon events FROM HIS PERSPECTIVE (keep in mind this is literally what jc is seeing/experiencing because he DOESNT KNOW what the reader knows):

brother is off being the protagonist and getting in trouble and gets their sisters marriage ruined

comes home from a year away and then almost immediately has to go and be a hostage where brother continues his protagonist behaviour

gets trapped and nearly dies in a cave with a 400-year-old monster, is in charge of finding a way out and making sure everyone else escapes

brother and a guy who maybe hates him get stuck behind in the cave so now jiang cheng has to boost it home ON FOOT, without food, to get manpower to rescue them, which takes a minimum of a few days likely without any food or sleep

no appreciation or thanks for doing that since brother was more heroic and killed the 400-year-old monster

gets scolded by his father for being annoyed by this

parents immediately get into another fight about father loving wwx more than jc

because of the above shenanigans their sect is targeted next

tries to defend brother against being whipped to death and/or having his hand cut off by mother

witnesses his entire sect being burned and murdered

loses both his parents

decides to sacrifice himself to save his brother's life, instead of dying he is tortured and has his golden core melted

on top of his inferiority issues, the ONE THING he was expected to do was be the sect leader for the yunmeng jiang. the sect that no longer exists. he is now a sect leader with no sect and no golden core. no shit he wants to mcfuckin die

miraculously gets a new golden core but loses his brother

immediately plunged into a war and he's only like 17

spends 3 months trying to find his brother only for his brother to show up doing the Forbidden Magic and necromancy which is Super Disrespectful in their culture like holy shit what are you doing

brother refuses to use his sword in favour of the Forbidden Magics and kind of keeps undermining jc's orders as sect leader which makes jc look weak in front of all the other sect leaders when he's actively trying to rebuild their sect and be respected as a leader

fights a war for [handwaves] an amount of time, certainly a few years minimum, while watching his brother descend further into Unhealthy Behaviour but brother refuses to do anything or talk about it

ends up lowkey being a war hero

the other three great sects (of which there are now only four) swear brotherhood, leaving out ONLY ymj/jiang cheng, which, what the Fuck dude

is now a teenager who has lost his parents who now has to rebuild his sect from scratch with fuck all money, supplies, and support

brother, who promised to always be at his side helping, is not helping, and in fact is actively just getting drunk and being a nuisance and STILL REFUSING TO SAY WHY

entire cultivation world starts to turn on his brother who is now looking like a loose cannon bc he has Forbidden Magics that are Terrifyingly Powerful and also it has been proven that he does not give a fuck about jc's opinion since he's constantly doing whatever the fuck he wants

literally out of nowhere said brother decides to piss off everyone, start fights, and then KILL JIN GUARDS at a camp and MAKE OFF with like fifty people who are part of the family that he just fought a war against and were responsible for slaughtering his family/sect

go to the terrifying haunted mountain where wwx and the wen remnants are and sees that he's essentially starting a new family with a kid and crops, doesn't seem to care that jiang cheng is still trying to keep the ymj afloat and look like they have any strength

brother is still doing Forbidden Magic and refuses to explain why, and now says he'll secede from the ymj so his bad reputation doesn't reflect on jc like he HASNT BEEN DOING THAT THE WHOLE TIME

so now shixiong wants to just abandon jc completely after jc has lost his parents, had to rebuild everything from scratch, while ignoring the promise he's made their whole life? ok fuck you

jc also can't defend him in public because that would turn the ymj into a target and please keep in mind he is a teenager who was expected to do this ONE THING by his parents and he has poured his heart and soul and blood and tears into rebuilding the ymj and they are So Vulnerable Right Now

uhhh what the fuck suddenly wwx kills their sister's husband ?? bro what the FUCK?

everyone rallies to go and attack wwx for this and again jc literally cant do anything about it and refusing to go will just make everyone assume he's on wwx's side and their sect can't afford to be attacked rn

bro what the fuck now THEIR SISTER IS DEAD?????

oh even better now said brother is DEAD

jiang cheng literally has NO ONE LEFT. no friends. no family. no parents, no siblings, everyone he knew growing up is dead. its literally just him and his infant nephew, who by the way, is living with the sect who are the most powerful and also most likely to be super fucking shady so jc has to tread very carefully

so jc spends over a decade raising his nephew ALONE while trying to make ymj powerful and also hunting/killing demonic cultivators that now p much only exist bc his brother invented/popularised the technique

oh yeah and also this whole time the guy who maybe hated his brother is now like EVEN colder and more antagonistic towards jc like it was HIS FAULT that wwx is dead? get fucked lan wangji you didnt even like the guy (or if this is cql/untamed canon: you literally did nothing either so where do you get off on acting like you're better than jc)

over a decade passes and suddenly his dead brother is alive again and causing more problems and acting like the things he did were not major contributors towards jc's entire family and sect dying

More Political Drama Happens and jc has to manage it

suddenly its revealed that the guy he's been co-raising his nephew with is the major villain who caused the entire world to turn on wwx in the first place oh and also it turns out that the fucking miraculous core jc has IS HIS BROTHER'S, WHO NEVER SAID ANYTHING, AND THIS IS THE REASON HE STARTED THE FORBIDDEN MAGICS AND STOPPED HELPING AROUND THE SECT, but he didnt even BOTHER to tell jiang cheng about it

by the way did i mention this was done via an entirely unconsented experimental surgery

and now the brother of the doctor who did the unconsented experimental surgery is ?? mad at jiang cheng about it ???? like he was supposed to KNOW ABOUT THIS when wwx was KEEPING IT FROM HIM ON PURPOSE???

and now theyre all nearly dying in this dumbass temple - and the ONE family member jc still has is literally being threatened with a garotte

oh cool now jc's brother is saying forget the past let's just leave it all behind !!! as though THAT ISNT JC'S ENTIRE LIFE AND TRAUMA and the ONE THING he EVER wanted was for him, wwx, and jyl to be alive and happy, and now wwx is saying just forget it! like FUCK YOU???? does jc truly mean NOTHING???????

oh and now his brother is off gallivanting with the guy who hated him - who it turns out doesn't hate him - and now they're getting married

and jiang cheng is meant to just. pretend all of this never happened and live his life normally. while wwx is out there. being happy and married.

like... if you can read all of this and still treat jc like he's the bad guy, i'm sorry, but you have literally zero empathy. dude had it probably more rough than any of the other main ensemble cast, and i am including jgy in that, because jgy Made His Choices. jc literally just had to let things happen around him helplessly