#and i literally only ship hxs even

[lansplaining]

character negativity under cut

I just realised the same thing bothers me about (song)xuexiao and beefleaf, which is that for either ship to work, only one character’s pain can matter

if xiao xingchen’s feelings of loss and betrayal are taken seriously, there’s no way he can be seen to love xue yang. I mean, he literally kills himself over what xue yang did to him and made him do! but if you’re only thinking about how xue yang is a sad, abused child who deserved better and xxc is nothing more than a symbol of the life he should have had, then sure, cottagecore dreams forever (and poor song lan is just fully an accessory here, there is literally nothing to suggest he would ever like xy even to the extent xxc did when he was being lied to)

and similarly I think beefleaf of course were friends and the donghua’s got me feeling the vibes, but again you have to treat sqx as like, not a full person with a full emotional response to being manipulated and lied to for years! or having feelings about the fact that this person murdered his brother and then maybe tortured him! or the fact that in the moment he chose his brother over he xuan! if you’re only thinking about hx’s side of the story, and how he couldn’t kill sqx in the end, sure. something like love is happening, why not.

but in both cases, they just don’t actually work if you read them both ways

(this is shaped by the fact that like almost all of the content I see for both of these ships doesn’t seem to be interested in probing the fact that they’re super messed up, they’re just being cute and couple-y. obviously if you are leaning into the messed up-ness, this dynamic matters less)

#idk #tgcf spoilers ray do not click

[hualianff]

Fisherman HX

Fisherman HX who finds an injured creature tangled up in an abandoned net. Not only does HX recognize this creature as a merman, but also as the infamous sinker of numerous shady ships.

He decides to help this merman anyway, their wounds look quite severe.

HX: “how bad can he be-?”

HC: [weakly hisses and tries ripping HX’s hands off]

HX: “GAH”

Nevertheless, HC’s wounds are too many and too deep. And he can only defend himself so much while trapped in the net. Eventually, he lets HX pull him up into the boat. 

HX can’t believe he’s actually following through with this idiotic plan. He slowly unsheathes his trusty dagger, making sure the merman can see he means no bodily harm, just needs to begin cutting up the net. 

This merman can’t seem to understand HX’s words but still gives him the most judgmental looks. Especially when they’re back in HX’s cottage, the human attempting to apply ointment to the bleeding scratches on his back, and some gashes on his tail. 

However, the merman’s mobility seems to worsen over the next few hours. HX curses. There must have been poison involved. It would take him a couple days to properly identify it and concoct the appropriate cure. Because of the merman’s mild paralysis, HX literally has to tend to the merman’s whims. 

A week goes by. The two have established a somewhat friendly relationship. And as it turns out, HC can understand human tongue

HC: “you fuckin’ loser”

HX, getting whiplash: “exCUSE ME!?”

HX decides to bring HC on his next fishing trip. The merman’s condition has improved enough. Plus, if HC can communicate with him, he should be able to offer advice on how to catch more fish to sell in the next market. 

So here HX is, patiently waiting for the telling wiggling of his small nets below. HC is splayed out on the other end of the boat, chilling and ultimately making HX’s life harder.

It doesn’t get more exciting than this-

SPLASH!

A body shoots out of the water and yoinks HX overboard. The creature drags HX beneath the surface, constricting his limbs and going for his neck. 

A series of aggressive clicks echoes underwater. 

HX: [so this is how i die?]

One second, HX is being drowned by what is clearly another merman, the next moment he’s somehow back above the surface and gasping for air.

HC now insistently clicks at the other merman, who squawks then hisses as he brandishes HX’s limp body like a ragdoll. 

HX: “Whasss goin’ on?”

HC: “Shut up, don’t say anything.”

He chirps one last time to the other merman. 

***

HC beckons his mate closer, speaking in merman tongue. 

“Love, let the human go. He saved me.”

Floating next to the boat, XL bares his teeth, his expression one of disbelief. 

“Are you sure? I can still drown him if you want. He’s just a human,”  XL says, still half-strangling HX. 

Centuries ago, XL’s pod was brutally attacked by pirates. As an adventurous, young merman, XL had swam too close to the surface, consequently leading the pirates to his podmates. A few survived, but XL never forgets.

He will never let his vendetta against humans go.

Funny how things work out. 

While XL was born a merman, HC was turned by XL when they mated. This explains why HC knows human tongue and has a better understanding of human behavior. It also helps him sink even the most advanced ships.

XL and HC started off extremely hostile, HC a merchant who sailed the waters XL resided in. HC even has a scar from their first meeting, which he jokes that it’s a love bite or something. HC always wore tough clothing so XL’s jaws couldn’t pierce through. 

Feisty XL hadn’t hesitated to chomp HC multiple times.

Alas, the fates had plans for them. Over the course of five years, the merman and human fell deeply in love. HC had then offered his life for XL’s to have, and the decision to mate was made. 

The transformation process is a difficult one, and has a very low chance of survival. It involves dark ancient magic; a ritual consisting of feeding from human flesh for one week straight; then drowning until near death before being saved with a kiss from a merman.

When HC’s two legs took the form of a beautiful, massive, crimson and black tail, the pair had lovingly intertwined tails while wrapping their arms around each other. 

Many, many eras have come and went. XL taught HC the merman ways from how to swim at incredible speeds to how to avoid humans and the violence they bring. 

The mated pair have been together since, swimming beneath the ocean’s surface, inseparable. 

Now, XL has successfully stalked the human that took his mate. He doesn’t understand human tongue, and is prepared to slaughter this human and offer the flesh for HC to devour to recover. 

Fortunately, HC explains the situation, and HX’s life is spared. 

HC: “He’s honestly not that bad.”

XL: “...did you misbehave while you were with him?”

HC: “Not a single eating utensil left, water everywhere on his floors, and I managed to break his… he said teevee?”

XL, purring: “That’s my boy. ”

HX is still held in the feisty merman’s clutches. After a snickering string of clicks from the new merman, HX questions: “What is he saying?”

“Oh, he says thank you for helping me,” HC answers.

What XL actually said: “Why is his haircut so ugly?”

Soon enough, XL hoists himself up into HX’s boat. He deposits HX on the floor, then wiggles over to HC. 

“Missed you,” XL says, petting his mate’s hair. HC responds by nuzzling his forehead against XL’s. 

HX lays on his back, staring up at the sky. He now has two merman cuddling in his boat, and exactly zero fish have been caught.

“Why am I here?”

A few days later, XL approaches HX’s boat again and actually does offer human flesh for HC. HX gags and looks away as HC happily tears into the gory flesh.

***

w/ @no-one-says-hi

#tgcf #heaven official's blessing #hualian #hualian au #cerdrabbles #fisherman he xuan #merman hua cheng #merman xie lian #mermay #fluff #comedy

[yiling-patriarch-kinnie]

(Note that this is my OWN point if view on this topic and I'm not trying to start an argument on anything or start sth like the asses who started saying shit like: "XL is a groomer" and so on, I'm just trying to get my own POV out there.)

Can we just talk abt Shi Wudu for sec?

And not in a fun, fangirl/boy/enby obsessive way no no.

Like talk about this selfish controlling piece of shit for a second.

Shi Wudu's whole thing as we know it, is that he's the intimidating older brother of Shi Qingxuan who will protect him at all costs and kind of a really shitty water tyrant.

So the way I see it, is that even though he "loved" Shi Qingxuan (and no, I'm not using quotation marks because I think SWD doesn't love SQX, it's more complicated than that and I'll talk abt it later on) his main goal wasn't to /just/ protect SQX it was to CONTROL him.

For example, this type of behaviour where someone is trying to control someone else but is masquerading said behaviour as "caring" for the person presents itself in cases of shitty friends/relatives and mental health workers who instead of helping people who are struggling they put them in danger by:

Calling emergency numbers that are known to be abusive and/or involve the POLICE (which if you don't know, the police are shit at handling that stuff and SHOULDN'T be involved in it AT ALL)

Involuntary admission to a mental hospital/psychiatrist ward.

OR, threats of involuntary admission if the person doesn't "willingly" admit themselves in.

Those are definitely not all of the examples but enough of them to explain this common situation.

The main problem here is that people looking at similar situations from an outside perspective think it's "cute" that the person "cares" about the person that they're trying to control and going on saying "they'd better be safe than sorry" and "I'd wanna have someone help be safe in a similar situation" when they don't understand that the person is actually being quite abusive and manipulative.

Now, let's step away from SQX for a second and focus on how SWD treats other people.

One thing that I mentioned in the start is that he's basically the "Water Tyrant" which is a title he gained by basically making anyone who didn't pray for him have their ships sink which is obviously a horrible thing (SIDE NOTE: and guess what? When he does it, no one bats an eyes, when HX does it, society goes WOW (or they "boo" him I guess) ).

So we do know that he's definitely controlling and not a very good person, the only people he really gets along with are the two other members of the "Three Tumours" friend group they got going in which are Pei Ming and Ling Wen.

So basically, the other gods and even probably humans don't like him at all and think he's an ass (which is true, he is) and they see how much of a fucking tyrant he's being.

So how is it that they trust him not to try and hurt SQX?

Is it because they assume that since they're related by blood and grew up together that SWD couldn't have possibly ever been abusive? Do they not see how horrible of a person he is?

Like if you get any other shitty tyrant/dictator at least from another ficitonal show, let's say Kuvira.

Do you think she'd be a good mother or older sister? No, of course not.

We actually have proof that she wouldn't treat family well with how she just casted Bataar Jr. aside.

So it make sense, that a person who's by nature abusive and controlling, will also be harmful to their family and "loved ones".

Remember the scene from book five where SWD literally TIES up SQX to a bed and FORCES him to drink medicine against his will?

Or do you remember before that when SQX was losing his shit and SWD instead of trying to calm him down started dragging him against his will angrily to the carriage thingie or whatever the fuck they had that got them back to the heavens?

He didn't even realize how much of a disaster he caused and still claimed that he "won in the end".

You know why I think he said that?

Because it was never about protecting his little brother.

It was about controlling everyone and everything around him until he came on top as the "winner" who made others suffer at the expense of him only rising higher.

In conclusion, Shi Wudu is an abusive older brother and never truly cared about Shi Qingxuan. His "love" for his younger brother was not love, he just loved the idea of having someone to play the part of the "little helpless sibling" that he got to "protect".

#feel free to add what you want to this post #tgcf #tian guan ci fu #天官赐福 #hob #danmei #heaven official's blessing #shi qingxuan #shi wudu #wind master #water master #tgcf sqx #tgcf swd #swd #sqx

[fixaidea]

Yes thank you thank you thank you! I cannot Stand beefleaf as a ship i have no idea how people can declare them a cute uwu boyfriends situation after the black water arc. ‘Patiently indulging someone to further my goals and occasionally being awkward because this person is the reason my life was ruined and my whole family Died even if they’re only on the periphery of my revenge plans’ is Not the same as actually having a relationship or Wanting a relationship!!! The fandomization of SQX and he xuan’s characters just makes their whole dynamic worse for me and the ship is everywhere 🙃🙃🙃 people doing Anything to shoehorn them into a ‘grumpy one is soft for the sunshine one’ dynamic when that’s not Remotely what they’re actually like and ignores literally everything in canon. I spit blood searching nigh fruitlessly for he xuan content that doesn’t involve SQX and actually upholds HX’s characterization from the novel and it’s gotten infuriating at this point.

Yuppp, all of the above - and hoooo boy, Anon you have my sympathies. Having one character you like (or hell, both) be a part of THE fanon ship is A Pain. You're surrounded by an ocean of Content, it's everywhere, it's inescapable, it's in everything even if it isn't tagged and exactly none of it has anything to do with the actual character you love. (Yes, hello there Les Mis fandom, long time no see, how's the E/R situation?)

#tgcf #ius murmurandi

[vyragosa]

sorry for considering the humanity of hunters in identity v before monster fucking or treating them solely as monsters like people who call luchino a literal beast

#and i literally only ship hxs even

[ocdhuacheng]

like with hua cheng specifically shipping him with others is always cringe bc it literally doesnt make sense like it just contradicts his whole character 😭 and you can always tell the people who do this just hate xie lian or are horny cuz some of the ships don’t make sense at all.. like i’ve seen people ship him with pei ming or shi qingxuan. Come on

People will ship anything istg. Like I would never be able to ship him with anyone except for xie lian and if you’re shipping him with pm or sqx or mq I think you’re kinda stupid lol. like these ships aren’t Problematíque(tm) or whatever I don’t think but i still think they’re dumb and confusing and that ur brain has been rotted by shipping. The only characters I don’t get annoyed if he’s shipped with is he xuan and yin yu bc like at least they have an established connection to him but like sqx really? I kinda want to study you…… And even with hx and yy ur on thin ice bc it has to b precanon and can’t be one of those dumb cheating on xie lian scenarios and you do have to admit it’s still pretty ooc lol….. but yeah. Just my onion on that

#.txt #asks #anonymous

[moesmagickingdom]

hot fucking identity v takes AGAIN some of these r repeated from before

HxS ships arent toxic most relationships have a power imbalance its whether or not you exploit it for personal gain (the only really problematic ones are robbie paired with anyone)

pairings arent the biggest issue with idv/netease theres literal fucking racism in the game (andrews ancient ballad skin, fionas misfortune skin, kevins brave skin), one of the only black characters is heavily associated with monkeys

CHARACTERS LIKE ANDREW AND AESOP ARE ALLOWED TO HAVE SOFT SIDES. they are not one dimensional characters with a flat personality, theyre multifaceted, not to mention a lot of this game is SPECULATION and HEADCANONS. its even canon that andrew is only rude because he assumes everyone is out to exploit him for their gain or make fun of him

calling luca a rat and fiona a cockroach is insulting as fuck, but this is personally my opinion since i hc these two as POC

#idv #identity v

[touchmycoat]

Lev!anon: can i slip into your asks to scream for a bit about Maltese Falcon Job?? I mean, think about LQG saying he won't walk away, or ripping apart a zip tie, or counting down as he blazes his way through armed bad guys, or looking betrayed as HX gives himself up to save the team, and think about HX listening to the big bad telling his men to kill LQG and not be able to do a thing - can only trust that LQG will survive, and silently bleeding out. TELL ME YOU DON'T SCREAM ABOUT IT EVERY DAY!

YES YES YES YES YES OH LORD. in the post-First & Second David Job Leverage!AU universe, Sterling is totally Ling Wen, right? Ambitious and capable, but also a right bastard if she needs to be (remember when she was like "I'll be good" and ten minutes later she's escaping and XL's like "you lied to me??" and she was like "yeah?" lsdnfjlaskdfj, legendary). Man I'll have to dig up my notes on the Maltese Falcon job again but YEAH, HX APPARENTLY SELLING HIS TEAM OUT TO LW?? HX GETTING SHOT AND NOT SAYING ANYTHING ABOUT IT?????? AAAAAHHHH??????

(fic-wise, let's double the emotions by having, at the very beginning, maybe a scene of them wrapping up another job, and HX takes a (stupid) risk that results in LQG getting a little bit stabbed also in the stomach area. LQG's fine, but that kickstarts the "are you taking excessive risks because the power of taking down all these bad guys is getting to your head?"/"are you trying to keep too many balls up in the air?"/"are you taking unacceptable chances with the crew's well-being?" conversation, which is the theme that runs throughout the entire con of HX doing the Three Strikes Job and the Maltese Falcon Job. That way, at the very end, right before HX reveals that yeah, he did run a con on his own crew, but to save them, not betray them, he can sit there handcuffed alone to the pier with his own stomach wound and think about how they're even...)

bloody, growling, and angry LQG stomping through the ship with his murderous countdown, mmmmm....that's it. like, that's it.

(and imagine ksjdnkf HX sending a visitation request to LQG that the team first finds out about—LQG's like "why me specifically??" and SQQ's like "um, it's for a conjugal visit. Remember when you two had to get married?" "you mean when we had to get fake married??" "Listen Xuedi, I do my job right, and that means everything is as good as authentic. Go have your conjugal visit! and sneak a comm in to him." "How am I supposed to—shut your damn mouth, Luo Binghe, I wasn't asking you!"

once inside, LQG's pissed as hell. "I don't trust a man who runs a con on his own crew, He Xuan." "First you don't trust me because I'm risking the team, now you don't trust me because I took a risk myself. Make up your mind already." "The problem isn't who takes the risks, it's that you didn't stop even when it was unnecessary." "You want me to stop? Leave me in jail." "He Xuan!" "I don't know why you're acting so self-righteous about it, you're the worse hypocrite." "What the hell are you talking about?" "How many broken ribs do you have again?" "They're fractured, and that's my job." "Just like it's my job to know when to take the fall. To run the trolley over one person instead of four." "No, your job is to figure out how to get all five people free and then punish the person who tied them there in the first place! Even one loss is unacceptable." "Unless that one is you." "Shut up, I know how to get myself out." "...Do you know how to get someone else out? Good work, Liu Qingge. Somehow you've managed to knock some sense into me without a literal fist fight. For once." "Hmph, isn't that why you called for me in the first place?")

#leverage AU #baseball!LQG cracks me up #'i'll be here 'til the end that's my job'!LQG makes me shove my entire fist into my mouth #i do i do i do i scream about this EVERY fucking day TTTTTTTTTT #lqg #he xuan

[luukeskywalker]

do he xuan and hua cheng!!

GHOST KINGIES... BOYS..... BEST FRIENDS....

he xuan-

how do i feel about them: *GETS DOWN ON ONE KNEE* HE XUAN, THE GOTH FISH PRINCE OF MY MOST SECRET, TREASURED DREAMS, WILL YOU.... MARRY ME? GUT ME? LET ME PLAY WITH YOUR BONE FISH (SEXUAL INNUENDO INTENDED)? everything about him is fascinating and i love how fucking terrible he is. the perfect combination of an awful man and perfect aesthetics. god. wow. i'm so in love with him

all the people i ship romantically with them: shi qing xuan! though only after another couple hundred years. they have a lot to work through xoxo

my non-romantic OTP for them: hua cheng and he xuan are best friends and you simply cannot change my mind. they have sleepovers at paradise manor and paint each other's nails and he xuan cries about how much he regrets hurting sqx and hua cheng is like "lol not this again". meanwhile xie lian and shi qing xuan are on the other side of the manor getting into the world's most dangerous pillow fight (he xuan has no idea)

my unpopular opinion about them: all right this one seems to be unpopular which is really confusing to me, but uh. he xuan was definitely in the wrong for what he did?? like so was shi wu du but they both did bad things. i see so many people implying that shi wu du was unequivocally the bad guy in the situation but like. THEY BOTH WERE. and you can love them both without it being crazy hypocritical or anything. it was a horrible and complicated and horribly complicated situation, and at the end of the day the person who suffered the most from it was shi qing xuan. he has every right to never ever forgive he xuan for what happened. he has every right to be upset with his brother, too. but i see way too many fics where shi qing xuan decides that he xuan was completely in the right for everything he did. i've even seen a fic where sqx apologized for like, existing. im sorry but that's not romance, that's just convincing a traumatizes individual that their trauma, the terrible things that other people have done to them, is THEIR fault. it was never shi qing xuan's fault. don't make him forgive he xuan so easily.

(i promise i ship them lol...)

one thing i wish would happen with them: i really really do wish we had gotten an actual sqx/hx reunion. it's clear that sqx wants to speak to him again, but will he ever get that chance? i'm sure he doesn't need to speak to he xuan ever again, but i think it would be good for him... eventually!

NOW FOR THE GHOST REALM'S BIGGEST WHORE, HUA CHENG:

how do i feel about them: WHORE!! but i love him. i love how two-faced he is, i love how little he cares for people other than xie lian, i love how dedicated he is, i LOVE his fashion sense, and i love how cheeky he is. hua cheng you are not slick. i love it.

who i romantically ship them with: xie lian! he deserves all the kissies from gege ^u^

my non-romantic OTP for them: also he xuan lol... though i also think he and shi qing xuan would get along without all the lies like "your best friend-slash-boyfriend has been lying to you for the entire time you've known him" built up between them. and if we want to get cross-mxtx novels here, i'm calling it. hua cheng and wei wuxian would be best fucking friends. together they are smug and annoying enough to end whole worlds. this is why mxtx cannot write them together in the same room... they are too powerful

my unpopular opinion about them: once again this is weird to me but, i don't think we need that scene of hua cheng singing that song to xie lian. tgcf is an incredibly long story that is so tightly written, and everything connects so well. it's by no means a perfect novel (though it's definitely the best of her works BY FAR), but i just don't think that scene was necessary. though i guess i would prefer that scene over the entire plot line with cuocuo, which imo went literally nowhere but this ain't about hua cheng so that's that on that! anyways i think mxtx is a great author and she generally knows what to cut in order to keep her work flowing smoothly. it sucks that we don't get that moment but i like to imagine it happened anyways!

one thing i wish would happen with them: i know i've mentioned this but i really do want to see hua cheng interact more with sqx and hx, just, at different points of time. he has like two friends besides xie lian and they are both currently... in a rough patch. i really like the idea of him casually talking some sense into he xuan.

#crimsonrainseekingflower #ask #ask meme #hx #hc