#and then i finally get around to reading mdzs and it blows my expectations out of the fucking water holy actual shit

[mewtwo24]

You know reading vol 5 of mdzs before all the rest (don't ask me why I'm a clown and there were Circumstances) has to be the craziest experience of my life. Because it took all of ten minutes of wwx talking to literally hit me so hard in the gut I had to sit down and listen to really loud music for a while to calm down.

Who needs therapy when mxtx is alive and writing, I guess????? 🤡

Can't wait to get to the actual tragic parts I just know I'm gonna be that "help" frog phone meme

#mdzs #i was really out here thinking svsss would be my fave bc of lbh #and then i finally get around to reading mdzs and it blows my expectations out of the fucking water holy actual shit #and i just had this feeling the first time i read parts of it like 'oh. this series is going to kill me. im not coming back from this.' #and here i am booboo the fool getting my clown ass make-up on #idk how to explain it like i just fucking LOVE mxtx's takes on arrogance #that wwx is constantly being perceived as a show off and an incorrigible flirt and a know it all #how wwx cant always help the ways he acts out the desperation that has embedded itself into his very bones #how wwx only ever wanted to do the right thing and that having been so much of his downfall #how his worth and talent would always be eclipsed by virtue of his circumstances #how he's above needing recognition at his core but at the same time longs for an ounce of good will and positive recognition -> #how human he is despite his brilliance. how he never gets it no matter how hard he tries to be worthy. #like to me wwx is emblematic of what it means to be poor/an immigrant in high places #always villified always alien always wrong always unwelcome #no matter how clever or capable or kind youll always be an eyesore because you don't 'act right'. not 'one of them.' you never will be. #i just...the way he just wanted it all to be over by the end. the way he didnt even want to come back to life. that he was sick of it all. #im rattling the bars of my cage i love him I LOVE HIM i love him #i understand you lan wangji (and i love lwj too) #and even lan wangji too like. the way so many of their issues in the beginning stems from that self-same problem #how lwj couldn't live with his out of control feelings how he too couldn't quite lay down his pride #how lwj was also trapped by the expectations of his clan in his own way how so much of their separation was a form of penance #that the calamity of wwx's loss forced him to reconsider everything he thought he knew about himself and his life #how he was left with nothing but regret. how when wwx returns--lwj refuses to leave anything to chance this time #he refuses to let wwx be alone anymore--refuses to let him hurt himself for the sake of others refuses to just let it all happen #even if it means overstepping a boundary or propriety it doesn't matter--as long as wwx stays with him. pride be damned #god i just can't i just can't do it im biting im ripping things apart GOD #will also say the jokes about lwj being like. 'strict moral compass or BUST.' and then wwx literally committing like 17 felonies in the bg #while lwj is like 'crimes? what crimes. nothing to see here.' NEVER stops being funny. like i was pissing myself laughing #i know its a known trope but by god are they hilarious about it #also. lan qiren how many times do your nephews have to go catatonic for you to stop with the catholic guilt and repression

[hamliet]

Trapped in MDZS: The Juniors and Reconciling the Past and  Future

Or, a meta series in which I want to know the answer to this question: why does almost every arc ends with everyone trapped in some kind of place, be it a cave, a house of the living dead, or even worse, the Cloud Recesses and their 4,000 rules?

Part 1 was about WangXian and their relationship, and you can read it here. In this part I want to discuss the three juniors and their particular relevance when it comes to this motif of being trapped. Society as it currently functions in MDZS’s world is largely the trap. The juniors represent the future of society and thereby also hope for a better future, and redemption for the current failures of society. Lan JingYi, Jin Ling, and Lan SiZhui are clearly parallels to the main character trio of Wei WuXian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan WangJi, but without the pitfalls that have so hurt them--yet.

In most of the arcs’ major climaxes, the juniors (or a specific junior) are directly targeted. I wrote a lengthy meta already about the symbolism involved in the Dafan Mountain sequence here. In short, Jin Ling is trapped by his uncle’s expectations and literally ensnares random people whom he decides don’t matter because they get in the way of his goals, and then almost dies trying to prove himself to his uncle when he should’ve run away from the dancing goddess.

But he’s saved by the two people he hates most: Wei WuXian, and Wen Ning, the latter of whom broke away from thirteen years of imprisonment to come and help Wei WuXian.

The next arc involving the juniors is the QingHe Nie Sect arc, which climaxes in Jin Ling being trapped in a castle that they refer to as a “man eating” castle, but of course turns out to be the QingHee Nie Sect’s ancestral burial ground. It’s symbolic of how Jin Ling, the child of Wei WuXian and Jiang Cheng’s dead beloved sister, and thus a symbol of both the future of the sect world and the past, is about to be suffocated by the expectations of the dead (the past). Even Jiang Cheng is forcing expectations on him, as seen in how when Jin Ling wakes, his first concern isn’t “oh no I almost died” but “oh no I’m late to meet my uncle.” Jiang Cheng is trapped by the expectations of the past as well, as seen in how he worries more about catching Wei WuXian and Wen Ning than Jin Ling, who again just almost died yet again.

But unlike Dafan Mountain, we see Jin Ling learning this time, and he sets Wei WuXian free, manipulating the events of the past (lying about seeing Wen Ning) to distract his uncle. Jin Ling, the son of the two people Wei WuXian wronged the most, helps him, showing that he can reconcile with what has happened--but not without honesty, as later on in Koi Tower Jin Ling will stab Wei WuXian at first when he realizes who he is, before later stopping hating him. To move on from the past, things can’t remain buried and hidden; they have to be acknowledged. This principle is literally what the entire story starts with, as Nie MingJue’s body needs to be found and properly put back together and buried, and in the process all sorts of secrets emerge.

In Yi City, Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi have to save the juniors, and they all wind up trapped in a house with the dead who do not realize they are dead--again, symbolic very obviously of society.

“The old lady is a living corpse.”

The boys looked at one another. Lan SiZhui asked, “What is a living corpse?”

Wei WuXian, “From head to toe, everything seems to say that they’re a corpse, but the person is actually living. That’s what a living corpse is...”

Wei WuXian, “Some living corpses may not know that they’re already dead.“

But again, they’re still notably people, in contrast to the actual dolls Wei WuXian uses to fight the living corpses. And yet even though they’re people, they don’t realize they are dolls just as much as the dolls Wei WuXian’s created to fight them. Society’s corruption is also contagious, as symbolized in the corpse powder, which poisons many of the juniors and aims to turn all of them into living corpses (society’s dead puppets) too--but thankfully Wei WuXian is able to cure them.

The juniors are then captured and tied up in the Burial Mounds’ cave, where they are, along with Wei WuXian and Lan WangJi, the only ones who don’t lose their spiritual powers and thereby are able to fight the swarm of corpses aiming to kill them all in the caves. In the adults’ attempts to rescue them, they kill the past (the dead) but in doing so, they lose all their powers. The juniors have to save them from the first wave, and save them by working with Wen Ning and Wei WuXian, whom they all hate.

Lan SiZhui, Lan JingYi, and a few others charged with their swords, “General Ghost! We can come help you!”

Sect Leader OuYang could neither stop his son nor stand up, bellowing, “ZiZhen, come back!”

OuYang ZiZhen brandished his sword fiercely as he turned around, “Don’t worry, Dad! I’ll protect you!”

But the past will also save them, as I said in my previous meta. And of course, Nie HuaiSang is not-so-ironically the one to predict it after the first wave of corpses is successfully beaten back (and before an unbeatable second wave will come):

Nie HuaiSang seemed so ecstatic that he was about to cry, “Thank Heavens, these corpses are finally all killed! Seems like we managed to escape death this time—our ancestors really are protecting us, aren’t they?”

This time SiZhui is confronted with his past in the form of the corpses of his family--who are Wens, though he does not remember this. And the love from the past saves SiZhui and by extent all of the juniors and the (ungrateful) present society as well.

After those Wen Sect’s remnants on Burial Mound back then were killed by the people partaking in the siege, the fifty corpses were all thrown into the blood pool!

Suddenly, Jin Ling shouted, “Watch out!”

A bloody lump of a red figure landed before him. Holding his sword, Lan SiZhui walked a few steps back. The blood corpse rose slowly.

The corpse was abnormally small and bent-over. It seemed that somebody had smashed a hole into its skull. Its white hair was sparse, sticking tattered to its forehead after being soaked by the bloody water. Along with its rotting flesh, it was extremely repulsive. Anyone who saw it felt uncomfortable. After it crawled up, limping, it slowly walked toward Lan SiZhui. All of the juniors trembled with fear, immediately gathering over here.

With the increase in people, the blood corpse grew cautious, growling with its throat. The boys seemed as if they faced a significant enemy, yet Lan SiZhui hurried to stop them, “Do not move!”

Although he himself was a bit nervous as well, for some unknown reason, he didn’t feel scared.

If the scrawny corpse had eyeballs, it must be staring at him. Tilting its head, it even stretched out an arm, its hand slowly moving toward Lan SiZhui as though it wanted to touch him...

Wen Ning threw off a number of corpses. His body trembling, he shouted at the corpse, “Is it you?!”

And of course, when Jin Ling is taken hostage in the GuanYin Temple, Wen Ning saves him and Jiang Cheng, who pushes Jin Ling behind him, from certain death by taking a blow for them. The man they tried so hard to hate for what he did outside of his control, who had his entire family murdered by Jiang Cheng and others and who himself was murdered for his family name, sacrifices himself to save them. Because Wen Ning is one of the wisest characters, who understands the value of the future and the value of the past. It’s fitting his arc ends with him and SiZhui going to bury the ashes of their people, and then with him supervising night hunts for the Lan juniors and Jin Ling.

#mdzs meta #mao dao zu shi #jin ling #lan suzhui #wen yuan #lan jingyi #wei wuxian #wen ning #grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[grandmasterofwangxiancultivation]

MDZS ch.111 pt.2

this chapter is long and emotionally heavy, so i’m splitting this thing where i scream and you laugh at me in two, wangxian needs SPACE, so i’ll give them all tumblr HERE WE GO-

EDIT: they are talking about the “thank you” thing and this finally TERMINATES EVERY TRACE OF DISTANCE THERE MAY STILL BE BETWEEN THEM

NOW SEX, PLS

EDIT 2:

Wei WuXian grinned, “Sure, then let’s talk more about some other things, like…”

His voice lowered as he gestured with his hand for Lan WangJi to approach him, as if he was going to whisper something to him. Lan WangJi approached as expected. Yet, Wei WuXian reached out his right hand, lifted Lan WangJi’s chin, and bent down to press his lips onto Lan WangJi’s.

Only after a long time did Wei WuXian part the tiniest bit. Eyelashes brushing against each other’s, he whispered, “How is it?”

Lan WangJi, “…”

OMG SMOOTH WWX, SO SMU-SMOOTH 

SAY BYE BYE TO YOUR ASS-

EDIT 3: HE BROKE LWJ AGAIN

EDIT 4:

Before he could finish, Lan WangJi wrapped his hand around his neck. With rough motions, he pressed Wei WuXian’s head down, and the two started kissing again.

THAT’S HOW YOU DO IT. YOU TAKE HUSBAND AND... YOU TAKE HUSBAND

EDIT 5:

As he wished, Wei WuXian was pinned onto the ground and smooched for a long while. Suddenly, he exclaimed, “Wait, wait!”

Lan WangJi, “What?”

Wei WuXian squinted, “I suddenly have a feeling…”

*trembles, fingers crossed*

Woods, bushes, grass, forceful motions, intertwined tongues. It felt like deja vu. He thought for a while. It felt more familiar the more he thought about it. He concluded that he had to ask the question, and tried, “The hunt at Phoenix Mountain, the time I covered my eyes, Lan Zhan, you…?”

YES YES YES YES FINALLY THIS FINALLY!!!!!! LOOK, WWX USING HIS CLEVER BRAIN TO THINK ABOUT HIS OWN HAPPINESS

He didn’t finish asking. Lan WangJi didn’t answer either, but his fingers twitched slightly. The moment Wei WuXian felt something was off about his expression, he propped his upper body up with his elbow and pressed his ear onto his chest. As expected, he heard thundering throbs.

OMG SO SWEET ASKJFPAJFPEK HE KNOWS LWJ’S HEART WILL ALWAYS BE SINCERE ABOUT THINGS LIKE THIS AND HE KNEW TO CHECK HIS HEARTBEAT GUYS THIS IS TOO MUCH WHAT WILL I DO FOR THE REST OF THE CHAPTER

EDIT 6:

Wei WuXian, “You’ve had dirty thoughts about me ever since then?”

“…” Lan WangJi’s voice sounded muffled, “I, back then, knew I was wrong. Very wrong.”

NERVOUS LWJ IS MY NEW OXYGEN

Seeing how low Lan WangJi’s head was buried, almost as if he was reflecting upon his mistakes again, Wei WuXian scratched his chin, “Alright, stop struggling so much. Well, I’m beyond happy that you kissed me so early. It was my first kiss, after all. Congratulations, HanGuang-Jun.”

Lan WangJi suddenly looked at him, “First kiss?”

I’M STRUGGLING SO MUCH THROUGH THIS CHAPTER HOW CAN I READ IT WITHOUT WASTING MINUTES GIGGLING AND CRYING AND ADMIRING THE BEAUTY OF JUST SOME SIMPLE SENTENCES?!?!?!?!?!

EDIT 7:

His laughter was too loud, too unbridled. Finally out of patience, Lan WangJi pressed him onto the ground. Abandoning Lil’ Apple on the spot, the two rolled behind a shrub.

*trembles* hell yeah go lwj!!! aaah, i can already feel heaven descend on me!!

EDIT 8: 

As he kissed the firm abdomen and ventured down, a few thin strands of hair slid off his shoulders and teased at the dangerous area along with his soft, thin breaths. Lan WangJi seemed like he couldn’t take it any longer. He reached to grab Wei WuXian’s shoulder, but Wei WuXian caught his wrist instead, “Don’t move, I told you already. I’ll do it.”

*hyperventilation* IS HE GONNA BLOW HIM OH OMG-

EDIT 9:

He pulled off his hair tie to refasten his somewhat disheveled hair before bending down again. Lan WangJi realized what he wanted to do. With a slightly unsettled expression, he lowered his voice, “No.”

Wei WuXian, “Yes.” He gently took Lan WangJi into his lips.

[...] Wei WuXian moved his hand away and started to slowly suck on it. Lan WangJi, “You…”

Soon he was no longer able to say anything.

THIS IS

SO FUCKING SEXY, ASSERTIVE WWX IS MY NEW KINK (and lwj’s, i bet)

EDIT 10: lwj is so ready to snap omg 

EDIT 11: “I swallowed it.”

lwj’s mind: ............................................................. shit wow how his mouth did-

EDIT 12: 

Stripped to the waist, he put his arms around Lan WangJi’s shoulders, kissing the corners of his lips and the lids of his eyes, “Good boy, don’t be scared. Next time, when it’s your turn to taste mine, you’ll need to perform as good as this, understood?”

[...] Wei WuXian kissed him again, “Lan Zhan, I love you so much.”

Lan WangJi turned to him slowly.

Wei WuXian didn’t know if it was an illusion or not, but there seemed to be a layer of red over his eyes.

OH BOY OH BOY WWX DO YOU EVER CARE ABOUT YOUR BUTT

*theyaresofuckingperfectomg*

EDIT 13:

He thought he hadn’t had enough yet, adding, “Let’s forever be like this from now on, yeah?”

Suddenly, Lan WangJi flipped him over and forced him down onto the grass.

*takes a deep breath* TOLD YOU-

EDIT 14: you’re telling me it won’t go like this

wwx: are you sure it works like this?

lwj: don’t worry, i made research

EDIT 15:

Lan WangJi, “… Does it hurt?”

Arms clinging to him, Wei WuXian couldn’t help from shivering, holding back tears, “Yes, it’s my first time—of course it hurts.”

With this, he felt Lan WangJi grow harder within his body.

*screams incoherently*

EDIT 16: wwx is such a fucking tease, lwj unable to restrain himself, i love them!!!!

EDIT 17: of course, OF COURSE WE GET LWJ’S SIDE OF THE STORY NOW, AMIDST SMUT AND FLUFF. OF COURSE. 

*cries and sobs and goes hugging everybody*

On the way back to the GusuLan Sect, Lan WangJi bought a jar of ‘Emperor’s Smile’ from Caiyi Town.

The wine was fragrant. And mellow. It was clearly not of the pungent kind, yet his throat burned the moment it went down, on fire from his eyes all the way to his heart.

He didn’t like the taste, but he felt he understood why that person liked it.

i can feel my heart breaking into milions and milions of pieces. wow. wow it hurts so much! 

he went looking for a flute while drunk, OKAY CAN WE TONE DOWN THE ANGST I THINK MY HEART IS SERIOUSLY-

He couldn’t find it no matter what, when all of a sudden, he saw the iron rods that had been sealed away after being confiscated from the QishanWen Sect.

After he sobered up, a scar the same as the brand mark Wei WuXian received in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter appeared over his chest as well.

*shuts up, lays down and stares at nothing*

EDIT 18: aaaand they’re back being sexy

EDIT 19: okay okay OKAY-

EDIT 20: OH WOW

EDIT 21: OMG LWJ IS SO WILD AND WWX IS REALLY, REALLY, REALLY ENJOYING HIMSELF

EDIT 22: WWX FUELING LWJ ON PURPOSE- B L E S S 

EDIT 23: OKAY SO HERE WE HAVE

wwx: that thing about having sex everyday, pretty please forget it

lwj: no

wwx: what you never turned me down before!

lwj thinks: *that’s because i turn you on*

lwj says: no *and smiles*

wwx.exe has stopped working due to mr. pure perfection smashing on him from inside and above

EDIT 24:

He gripped the grass with both hands, shouting hoarsely, “Then four days, how about once every four days? If not four days then three works too!”

At last, Lan WangJi concluded with resonating determination, “Everyday means everyday.”

EVERYDAY MEANS EVERYDAY 

I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS MOMENT NOW LET’S READ CHAPTER 112 NOW OR ELSE I’LL IMPLODE BADLY

#the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the founder of evil magic #the founder of diabolism #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs novel #mdzs fangirling mode #mdzs ch.111

[professorjjong]

 me rambling about mdzs (the novel) bc it’s literally six am my body woke me up at 4 am for the sole purpose of finishing it and i finished it and then started reading the post script but it was like my heart was wylie coyote it wasn’t until a few minutes after i’d finished it that i realized i was destroyed

good book

sdkfjesiofhdcklwjfioe ok wei wuxian carries like the first fourth of the book. there’s so many fucking characters and names like wtf was going on. it wasn’t made clear what wei wuxian was doing or why--and tbh i don’t think it ever really is, his intentions. like, where was he planning to go after mo village? what was he planning on doing? when he leaves cloud recesses with lan wangji, why does he stay with him at all--why not just run the fuck off? he didn’t know, at this point, that lan wangji knew who he was so why would he risk it? the one thing that was made clear about wei wuxian’s intentions after he had been brought back to life were that he did not want to be recognized, so why would he stick around with lwj? 

for that first fourth, wei wuxian didn’t hesitate in where he was going or why or whatever he was just, going and doing things for no good reason and i didn’t know why and it was frustrating, following around a character who doesn’t seem to have any idea what he wants and also doesn’t even hesitate to think about it. but ugghhh he’s such an interesting character. his past, only teased, seemed super interesting and had created a man who interacted with his surroundings in a comedic and almost flippant way. it made the fantasy elements, buttload of information about cultivation and its sects and enemies as well as the sheer number of characters less intimidating--yes, because it probably wasn’t until almost halfway through that I was able to figure everything out, but i had wwx to hold onto. he’s a suuuuper strong character and was so, so fun to read about i miss him :( 

lwj truly didn’t do anything for me until near the very end when the events following the siege at the nightless city were revealed. i didn’t dislike him as a character, i thought he was fine--but i didn’t think he was as good of a foil to wwx as he could have been. i mean, they’re clearly meant to be foils--one is dressed in black and the other in white. u don’t even need to know anything else aside from that information to know that they’re foils. but i don’t think lwj was a strong enough presence to really “oppose” wwx for most of the novel. honestly, he didn’t even feel present for the first, what, 3/4? it wasn’t until wwx really started developing and even acting out on his feelings that lwj stepped into prominence. the emphasis of the novel, its focus, had shifted along with wwx’s toward lwj. compared to wwx, lwj is almost colorless as a character. yes hahahahahahha more color differences between them but i think, in order for characters to really function as foils, they need to be on equal footing, if only in the framing of the novel. but they weren’t. even during the flashbacks, there was an unevenness to it. at times, lwj felt almost like an afterthought. i remember myself thinking, ‘oh, lwj is there too.’ which yeah, he is quiet, but he’s there. his presence was not always made clear, and, since wwx is such a bright beacon and such an overwhelming chaotic presence, don’t you think lwj should have been a bigger presence to properly be his foil? it’s not until the very end, truly, that the two of them are able to bounce off of each other in a very fun and dynamic way--but, again, the veryyyyyy end. like, the last two chapters very end. 

aside from the plot hole i brought up in the first paragraph, there are some others, big and small. won’t bother to list them--but, and i mean maybe it’s in the additional chapters that i haven’t read yet, super upset we didn’t get to see the actual siege on burial mound. that moment would have been so fucking tense and cool and also would have just answered questions--like, was he killed as a backlash of his own power or was it jiang cheng or someone else who delivered the final blow? wtf was he thinking about as it was happening??? pls?? pls??? i want to know???

ok wait i do need to bring this up like WTF i cannot believe they did not explain wtf happend when wwx was on burial mound for three months and where the fuckkkkkkkkkkkk he learned about the dark magic. there was some throwaway line about a book and i’m just?? u expect me to believe there was jsut some crazy ass book like sitting on a tree stump among a bunch of dead-ass bodies, just waiting for someone to find it? Like seriously?? seriously?? even if there was such a fucking book who the fuck wrote it and why did they put it on the mountain and why did wwx decide that he needed to reclaim his power through it? why did he decide to use music, like the lan sect? why a flute? i have so many fucking questions!! AUTHOR!! AUTHOR!!!! PLEASE WHAT THE FUCK!!! 

also ok this isn’t a “plot hole” but a... theme... hole. a theme hole. i don’t fucking know but the book does a really good job throughout of bringing up mob mentality and other social behaviors when someone becomes the “enemy” of the group. they do this first with wwx and painstakingly set up how much of it is fabrications or exaggerations or bandwagoning, etc. and even why this happened--the people were still hurt by what had happened with the wen sect and, fearful of another force building up its power, it was easy for them to focus their animosity on wwx (the fact that it was him and the remaining wen clan didn’t help either, obvs). so, we’re sympathetic toward wwx because, not only have we been following him for the first half of this novel (by the time we go far enough into the past to learn about what happened when and after he became the yiling patriarch) and because we know his true intentions are pure. he’s a good guy at the end of the day. yeah he did some really, really bad shit during the war and was using a “twisted” ability, but he was trying to help people (also this book clearly has the message that revenge =  good which is,, interesting? i have certainly never read a book before that justifies revenge. usually, the morale is that revenge is never quite nice. see the count of monte cristo (the book, obviously). so, in the moral universe set up in this book, wasn’t wwx totally justified in his actions, however terrible, against the wen sect bc they destroyed the jiang sect? not saying i think that way, just that i think the story expects us to think that way). so, our set up to rumors and badmouthing by people is that it’s wrong, right? and that the other person doesn’t deserve it, no matter what they may have done? it just leads to more and more lies and should be stopped, right? we didn’t like it happening to wwx, who was also frustrated by it both in flashbacks and in the present, so, when it happens to the villain..... it’s okay? our protagonists dont’ have to rise up to defend him, even if he did do wrong? wwx just thinks ‘well, at leeas they weren’t this shitty to me’ and that’s fuckKING IT?? REALLY??

like this is the second ot last scene of the entire fucking story and that’s the fucking note it ends on? there’s nothing else?? no other perspective on responding to mob mentality that we’re going to get?? didn’t wwx die bc of mob mentality and, rather than trying to clean up his perception, he just maintained his behavior and quietly accepted being called evil???? doesn’t that mean it’s bad??? but they just?? let it happen??? again???  that’s the note?? author??? author??? is it all ok that people talk this way even when it leads to people getting killed??? author??? author?????????????? 

i think i got enough of my feelings out now to go read the additional chapters. peace

#rose says stuff #spoilers obvs