#also i cried a little bc i thought about lian too much for too long

[kanonavi]

hello tumblr user kanonavi who is 1/3rd of the reason i started rereading tgcf. i have come to collect my personal apology for the emotional damages inflicted upon me for the past 5 days. and i have also come with THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS (mostly feelings)

- icb i put off this reread so long hualian are so romance. theyre jsut Romance......... absolutely floored by every throwaway bit of dialogue they had....... in shambles forever....,

- sqx arc was not as painful as the first few times i read it bc i now stand with my cancelled wife (he xuan) I STILL LOVE SQX AND THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING GOOD. BUT HX WAS REAL FOR ALL OF THAT. i love revenge

- i wanna know your thoughts on ling wen bc u mentioned having mixed feelings on her but i loved her so bad all the way to the end so im curious ljdkdjf

- i am not immune to backstory arc pt2. read it last last (?) night at like 3am and cried myself to sleep its just so gutting every timeeeeeee.... the hc plot that builds in that arc is ofc one of my favorites in the entire novel though :')

- the chapter w the cave of statues took me like 2+ hours to get through because i was feeling so insane abt it

i feel bad dropping this block of text in ur askbox sorry. will leave it there for now LOL

Omg hiiiii tumblr user stardust-make-a-wish welcome back from the yaoi cocaine pit :3 I know you're here to collect emotional damages, but I must make it known that I'm not even remotely sorry <3

Also you should feel bad for yourself instead of for me because I can only respond to huge blocks of text with even bigger blocks of text, so (TGCF Spoilers Ahead) and also I am so sorry lmaooooo

UGH you're so right that hualian is the most romance forever they are just so *clenches fists and sobs*....... They're always there for each other and they're so in love and they've been through so much and I just want them to be able to rest because it's what they deserve.

I will never once say that Hu Xuan wasn't justified in everything he did cuz like. Shi Wudu had it coming what a piece of shit. But at the same time Qingxuan is my wife and I will not tolerate my wife being harmed. So like revenge slay yes but also I am still cancelling He Xuan and spraying him with the water bottle (even though he is already very very damp).

Yesyesyes Ling Wen. So my thought about Ling Wen is that she kinda girlbossed a little too close to the sun, but at the same time you look at her circumstances both past and present and have to understand why she did all of that. It already would have been hard enough for her to gain any kind of recognition as a woman, much less in the Heavenly Court, so her ruthlessness is completely understandable. But at the same time, I don't really think the Brocade Immortal deserved what she did to him nor was taking Bai Wuxiang's side in the final conflict a real cool thing of her to do. I can't fully be a hater though because her own thoughts about everything are clearly so nuanced (See: The final convo she had with Xie Lian about the Brocade Immortal, which I am still thinking so incredibly hard about to this day).

I think that Ling Wen is interesting in the same way that I find other characters like Mu Qing, He Xuan, and Yin Yu interesting. It's in the sense that even if I don't really agree with all of the actions that they took, it's very easy to look at them and come to an understanding of why they did what they did. And I have varying degrees of like for all of the characters I just listed, but that doesn't change the fact that they're all Compelling. So it's almost like a begrudging respect that I feel for Ling Wen, if I were to boil it down into simple terms.

aaaaaaaaaa The Horrors(tm) :sob: Even though I could talk about Xie Lian's arc through that part of his backstory for a million years, you're so right that Hua Cheng's arc through it is also so interesting to watch. It really goes to prove that Hua Cheng is different from everyone else in Xie Lian's life up until this point, because yes there's the very obvious throughline of Hua Cheng wanting to protect Xie Lian (rather than expecting his protection), but even more importantly that feeling never changes even when Xie Lian has his mini corruption arc.

Like, Hua Cheng fell in love with the pure and virtuous Crown Prince of Xianle but not for that quality. Instead of being ashamed and looking at Xie Lian with scorn when he was like "What if I kill everyone actually" Hua Cheng is like "Then let me be your sword". There's the element of not wanting Xie Lian to dirty himself that Hua Cheng carries for the entire story but the point is in that he is not a voice who would tell Xie Lian to stop having those thoughts if it's truly what he wants (Unlike what his parents or Feng Xin and Mu Qing would probably say).

I'm going to write an essay about their character dynamic one day istg I am chewing through the drywall

The cave statues chapter......... *passes away*. Like on one hand that chapter is so funny because yes Hua Cheng is just an absolute certified freak (POV my roommate telling me earlier on in my reading that HC is a porn addict and me being like "pssht noooo" but then getting to this chapter several months later and being like "O h.") but on the other hand THE CONFESSION??????? Like. All I can do is gesture wildly at the storyboard animatic that someone made of that scene on YouTube while absolutely fucking sobbing. There is a reason why the cover of volume 6 felt somehow more intimate than the cover of volume 4 where they're literally making out.

Anyway I'm patting Hua Cheng on the head like It's okay buddy Xie Lian loves you because you're a certified freak, he's seen too much of this world to be weirded out even a little bit. Which is why those two are perfect for each other <3

I'm glad you had so much fun on your reread, have fun with the brainworms :3

#navi answers #stardust-make-a-wish #Once again I am so sorry for my ability to Talk lmao

[nightwingthebooty]

Since I’ve become known on here for making lists here’s a list of comic panels that make me so horrifically and inconsolably upset that I wanna rip my own face off

(fair warning a lot of these involve child death because this is dc we’re talking about)

1. Dick comes back from a mission in space and finds out that Jason died

The New Titans #55

2. Bruce promises a dying Steph that he will ensure the baby she gave up “will never want for anything”

Batman: War Games (2005) Act 3 #8

3. This specific artist’s version of Bruce holding Jason’s body

(I can’t find the source no matter how hard I look I’m so sorry)

4. Bruce hugs Damian’s torn Robin uniform to his chest shortly after Damian died

Batman and Robin (2011) #18

5. Roy wonders if Lian’s last words were “daddy help”

Justice League: The Rise of Arsenal #1

6. Also, Roy saying “love you, Lian” when he thinks he’s about to die

The Flash 2021 Annual vol 1 #1

7. Donna snaps her zombified baby’s neck

Blackest Night: Titans

8. Barbara gets frustrated with Cass’s inability to read and calls her stupid

Batgirl (2000) #54

9. Bruce beats the Joker while yelling Jason’s name

Batman: Knightfall vol 1

10. Alfred promises 8 year old Bruce that he’ll teach him how to use a rapier “like Zorro” if he agrees to go to his parents’ funeral

Batman: Curse of the White Knight #7

#bruce wayne #dick grayson #jason todd #damian wayne #cassandra cain #stephanie brown #barbara gordon #roy harper #lian harper #donna troy #alfred pennyworth #op #i am once again begging for you all to not let this flop bc I worked vv hard on it 👉🏻👈🏻 #also i cried a little bc i thought about lian too much for too long

[mousehole5000]

more tgcf chapters 143-173 lets goooooo

PEI MING BOO HISS except actually okay he’s mostly funny i think but still boo hiss

“hey who’s this guy who’s really pissed at you?” “oh thats my sword. i broke it.” alright then!

i think i need to go back and reread the banyue pass arc bc im still confused as to whats going on with banyue and pei su

“Banyue dropped from the sky with two pots raised. Without a word, she plummeted with the mouths of the pots facing down, trapping and detaining the shocked Ming’guang and the roaring Ke Mo within.” - THATS MY GIRL

“It must be known that, to heavenly officials, it certainly was more than natural for kingdoms of the mortal realm to fight and annihilate one another; the acts of these plays progressing on endlessly. But when it came their own turn, it was often hard to let things go. If one must stand in the same court as the one who annihilated their own kingdom, and that man cavorted in the heavens, exceedingly flashy, then it must be vexing.” - hmmmm!!

“I’ve spoken too many words in this lifetime. What are you referring to?” - okay to be fair thats a mood

okay its nice to get some pei ming backstory and its funny that he and xie lian are bonding but also still whenever pei ming interacts with a female character my hackles rise like a cat lol

“Xie Lian watched as Banyue thought really hard before cheerfully pulling out a few long, wine-red scorpion-snakes, and putting them into the bubbling pot.” - THATS MY GIRL

“Although “smell” was something colourless and formless, the instant Banyue removed the pot cover, it was as if some mysterious physical object had twisted all the air around the mouth of that pot. The group stared at the sight within the pot for a long time. Their pupils reflected an endless, bottomless darkness; like it could pull them into the abyss. No words could describe the sentiment expressed within their eyes. A moment later, Xie Lian patted Banyue’s shoulder and gave a thumbs-up.” - like father-figure like daughter-figure. amazing.

“However, what if one day mortals discovered something completely new that ran faster than horses? Then, when this new invention overtook horses, worshippers of this heavenly official who controlled horses would inevitably decrease. Such heavenly officials, flashing by like shooting stars, made up the majority of the heavens.” - obsessed with this, genuinely. life and change. worship and its purpose. my religious studies diploma on my wall is screaming at me rn. ALSO i am once again thinking about celebrities

“...” It was only then that Pei Ming seemed to notice, and started to contemplate this question. A moment later, he answered, “A habit. In a dark, creepy place like this, isn’t it normal to hold women in your arms, to comfort them and calm their fears?” “I’m sorry, but I wasn’t scared,” Banyue said.” - BANYUE I LOVE YOU. I MISSED YOU SO MUCH. god this takes me back to every college party i ever went to

LING WEN BACKSTORY????? shoeseller chosen for godhood bc she wrote a political essay and got arrested...... and now she’s face to face with the official who appointed her..... do go on.....

“Ling Wen laughed out loud, seeming to be enraged, and her voice dropped. “Very well! You said I couldn’t reach that high. Then, might I ask you: had the prominence of the Palace of Jing Wen at its peak ever reached even the knees of my Palace of Ling Wen??” - GET HIM!!!! BOO HISS JING WEN

“Compared to you, I’m not that bad,” Ling Wen said. “You’d personally order me to stay in the Palace of Jing Wen until midnight, then turn around and say I shamelessly hang around ‘til late to harass you. Words murder without form; I was much nicer responding with blatant violence.” - ling wen im love you..... also this bit... feels Real

BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN BLOOD RAIN!! FLOWER PETALS TRANSFORMATION!!! see hua cheng? look as how cool it can be when you leave the story for a little while!! bc then you get to return and make an entrance!!

“Not only can you bring forth bloody rain, you can also make flowers shower. I didn’t know that. How fun!” - cute!! and in that moment we were all xie lian

“Everyone was stunned by his deed, and Ling Wen arduously gave him a thumbs-up. ”Ol’ Pei, what a man!” Pei Ming gritted his teeth. “WELCOME!” - aww three two tumors buddies!!

okay yin yu is here and xie lian did the equivalent of asking someone when the baby is due only to find out theyre not pregnant at all. then rong guang taunts yin yu and no one says anything. i do love the amount of awkward moments in this book tbh sometimes there are no words.

“All around was sand and mud crushing at him, exceedingly suffocating. The sand and mud was also moving endlessly; the feeling was like he was swallowed into the stomach of a giant monster, and that monster had also eaten a bunch of other things besides him, tumbling everything in its stomach, trying to digest” - ooooh creepy!!! the red string thing... is cute.... also xie lian being able to see hua cheng’s butterfly vision by looking directly into his eye is kinda cool. and obviously homoerotic.

“Are lower-ranked heavenly officials below other people?” Quan Yizhen asked. “No,” Yin Yu replied. Were they not? It was obvious that he himself didn’t believe in his own words, and Quan Yizhen also noticed. A good while later, he said bluntly, “I don’t like it here.” Yin Yu said nothing.” - im having emotions. and then yin yu also saying he doesnt like it there either.... also idk how this scene is going to play out but as much as im enjoying quan yizhen being an icon i can also possibly see how yin yu could eventually get to the point of “i am tired of being nice. i do just want to go apeshit” even if he really cares about qyz. it happens </3

“Indeed,” Hua Cheng said. “Half a year later when Quan Yizhen actually ascends, he won’t find it so funny anymore.” “Can we watch that part too?” Xie Lian asked. “We can. Hold on,” Hua Cheng replied.” - quan yizhen king of taking things literally. also why did this turn into hualian having a movie night

jian yu seems like the kind of asshole who would purposely give someone regular soda when they specifically asked for diet soda. god yin yu is really having a bad day i really feel for him in the whole situation with the brocade immortal

awww okay at least jian yu tried to take responsibility. im still mad at him tho that was objectively a terrible idea. god this whole situation sucked :(

“Rocks and earth crushed at them from all around, forcing their bodies to press tightly against one another, their faces brushing, their ears warm. Although it wasn’t the right time, a thought flashed through Xie Lian’s mind: “‘To die buried together’ doesn’t feel so bad.” - okay... im kind of emotional.... gay people....

okay obviously these murals and the prince of wuyong have some connection (im guessing pretty direct) to xie lian and are important but everytime they start analyzing one i feel like im back in art history class fhadskfhskjdhf not that thats a bad thing!! i liked art history a lot tbh

“Don’t worry, they’re not human,” Hua Cheng said. “It’s precisely because they’re not human that we have to worry, alright….” Xie Lian thought.” - goth ghost bf problems

xie lian: well, there is one person i trust more than anyone else, someone who’s first in my mind hua cheng, oblivious: oh :/ xie lian, also oblivious: what? hua cheng: you shouldnt trust so easily its dangerous xie lian: oh. haha. yeah. well. wanna,,, know who it is? hua cheng: its :) fine :) it :) doesnt :) matter :) but of course you can tell me if you want to gege xie lian, internally: well now ive made it weird hua cheng, 5 minutes later: actually i need you to tell me. right now. its totally for your security me: gay people smh

“As they suspected, he had been captured by Qi Rong. Although no one was bound by ropes, there were balls of greasily green ghost fires hovering over every one of their heads.” - completely off track but anybody else remember the great green globs of greasy grimy gopher guts song

“Could there actually come a day when Qi Rong was embarrassed that someone might see the manner in which he ate? Before Xuan Ji entered, she put Guzi down. Guzi, ta-ta-ta, ran in, rushing straight to Qi Rong’s side. But when he saw him, he pointed his finger. He cried, “Dad is eating bad things in secret again!” “I’m not!” Qi Rong retaliated.” SCREAM IS QI RONG LEARNING THE POWER OF LOVE NOOOO also god that poor man whose body he has im starting to doubt if he’ll ever be free jimmy novak flashbacks

everytime we get another ghost king power somewhere someone should be writing hua cheng the cyborg bf in a high tech futuristic au i think thats the only other potential setting that could truly capture this wild ride

“In truth, throughout history, there was no man in the world who didn’t love bragging. A breeze could blow the handkerchief of a brothel girl into a man’s hand, and he would turn around and say the most beautiful of renowned escorts had fallen in love with him; holding shoes and wiping benches for the emperor’s mistress’s uncle’s grandson’s cousin’s mistress would for sure become him being an important administrator at the residence of royal relatives, raising his status. Thus, men who didn’t brag were a rare species.” - SCREAM this is going in my favorite tgcf quotes folder god... mxtx come here let me shake your hand

read the story of rain master yushi huang’s ascension. why am i crying. also this bit im crying again me with my stuffed animals “Thus, while Yushi Huang was cultivating at the Temple of Yulong, every time when she went to seek water and passed that door, she would rub the head of that ox. The door knocker soaked in her essence of life, and when the Rain Master ascended, the ox ascended with her.”

okay thats enough for now i have 7 more chapters to book 4!!! woo!!!

#tgcf liveblog #bedtime now but im excited to be moving on #mouse mumbles

[disownedbytiime]

I’ll write my opinions in the order the novels came out (even though I read them the other way around). It’s a mess and honestly I’m forgetting a lot of things I want to say.

SV/SSS:

It’s the shortest of the three stories, yet it doesn’t feel like you’re robbed of stuff. Mostly everything gets resolved. The plot is interesting and the characters are two dimensional (as opposed to the original novel). One of the complaints about the original novel written by Airplane [...] is that the villains are dumb and don’t have depth, they just are evil. But thanks to plot filling, you’re able to see that they in fact are all complicated and you can’t even manage to hate the original scum villain or protagonist.

The extras are my favorite of the three novels. Since the novel by itself doesn’t focus on other characters too much, they get some character development in them. It would have been nice if they were included in the main story, but I can see why they aren’t. The story would deviate and then with so many extra plots you’d get lost, so I think they work great as extras.

Romance wise is okay. You’ll see Luo Bing//He’s feelings since almost the beginning but as for Shen Qing//Qiu.... it’s not too obvious. I mean you can definitely see when he starts worrying about him and when he accepts the other’s love, but because he is a tsundere it can be a bit hard to believe he’s actually in love with him (a lot of times it looks more like he just loves him as a disciple.) So while the romance is there since early on, it’s not too overbearing and you can definitely overlook it on one side. Also let’s not talk about how it can definitely be problematic (master-disciple, a forceful top with anger issues, etc), but overall I do like the ship. Also this is the only novel that has a second canon ship, isn’t it? That’s nice.

MD/ZS:

The plot captivated me immediately when I read the synopsis, yet I felt it didn’t live up to its name. I felt like it was too much of a simplistic plot, and it’s so early when you find out who’s the boss and the reasons, I kept thinking it was too easy and there was going to be a twist. And.... it was definitely too easy, there’s not even a final confrontation or anything. And sure, there is a twist that I loved so much, but it was only in passing. It was like just explained as; ‘oh wait, isn’t this what happened?’ So it left me a bit disappointed. Also.... it had a lot of flashbacks, like half of the story were flashbacks and the other half was in the present. It could be fine, but it just happened whenever and sometimes there were even flashbacks in the flashbacks so I think it was a bit messy.

What I did love a lot about it is the main topic of “not everything is white and black” because if you think about it there was no character that solely did evil things, they all had reasons (not to say they were justified of course). The side characters were more developed than in the previous novel too. Also ngl the SiZhui story plot is what basically made the story for me.

The extras were okay, but they feel like all of them are just about the main couple having sex, which I guess it’s okay for some people but they disappointed me slightly.

Romance wise, I think this is the one with the least romance. The three novels are told by the ‘bottoms’ and the three of them are quite oblivious at first, yet you can infer the ‘tops’ are super dedicated to them. But because of Lan Wang//Ji personality you barely see he’s in love with him until it’s basically spelt out. I guess this is more the fault of an unreliable narrator, but in this case I felt the romance was barely there. In the other two stories the romance is basically part of the main plot, yet here is more on the side, more like a support (which is nothing bad! It’s nice that it wasn’t thrown in your face all the time), so that’s the reason why I felt like the sex scenes were kinda needed here, to make up for the lacking romance.

TG/CF:

In general this is my favorite novel for many reasons. At first it seems like it doesn’t have a plot in concrete and it’s just Xie L/ian going around resolving cases, so I can see why people say it’s just “filler”, but in my case that’s one of the reasons why I love it. It starts slow but little by little the world unravels, you’re able to see how heaven and the ghost realm works, how heavenly officials can be corrupt too and how ghosts can do good deeds. Same as in the other two, not everything is black and white. Since it’s a long novel you’re able to learn a lot about side characters and see their reasonings and everything. Honestly there’s no character I don’t like, they’re all complex. (The other two novels have certain characters that are a bit hard to like). Also while it’s long and has many side plots it never feels like a drag, yet you can definitely get a bit lost with so many things going out. The reason why it doesn’t feel like an arc starts and then ends and another starts is because not everything gets resolved right away, and while that helps the story to keep cohesion sometimes you end up forgetting what was the issue in the first place or overlook certain things. This book has a lot of flashbacks too but in this case I thought they were better presented. I remember that when I was in book 2 I realized the whole book was going to be flashbacks and I felt a bit disappointed and tried to read faster so I could go back to the present, but by the end of the book I didn’t even care about that, I was too immersed in the story that it didn’t feel like a whole book had passed. (Plus both book 2 and 4 are actually short). Out of the three novels I cried the most with this one, yet the three are tragic enough.

The relationship between the characters (barring the main couple bc that comes later) is also really nice and complex. Honestly all these characters are so well developed.

The extras are good too, but it’s a shame there are so little, however I understand. Since the story is already long and basically includes the backstories of many characters there’s not much that could be added, and it was cute to see the main couple being a couple. However wouldn’t it have been nice to have a side story about SQX and his current fate?? Let me dream

Romance wise, oh boy. One of the first things I read about this novel was that people kept saying that ‘Hua//Lian invented love’ and it’s definitely not an overreaction. The romance is amazing. It’s there since they met and I’m sure there’s no scene where Hua Ch//eng is not flirting with Xie L//ian. Of course because it’s from XL’s pov it’s not super obvious, but then you realize that everybody else sees it like this. In any case, the whole novel is oozing with flirting and cute scenes but it’s not overbearing. This is the only novel to not include sex scenes and, while I would have welcomed them, the story definitely doesn’t need them. It’s so obvious the main characters are in love even before their first kiss. (Though okay, XL realizes he likes HC while they’re making out.) anyway!!! While I read a lot of romance and I love shipping, I’m super picky with it too. I hate romance when it comes out of nothing and it’s thrown in your face and when it’s super forced, but here??? Not at all. Here I love it so so so much. HC’s devotion really makes this story.

In conclusion, I loved the three novels for different reasons though I do have favorites. I recommend them 100%. Watching/reading the other adaptations is nice too, but the novels are superior.

#yes I definitely missed many points but this got too long and my mind is a mess when trying to talk about things I love #cn rambling/