#brutally murdering jiang cheng | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

ninjakk · 2 years

Text

Who were the ghosts that attacked Wen Chao and Wang LingJiao?

The torture and murder of WC and WLJ are some of the most gruesome scenes in MDZS. To me, they are particularly harrowing. Not only because of the implied violence and gore, but the heartbreaking revelation of WWXs mental state after escaping the Burial Mounds.

The contrast between WWX's sudden paled appearance and cold demeanor, against the vivacious and warm WWX we all know and love, always makes me incredibly emotional. Obviously this is because he has been through an extremely distressful experience and is tremendously traumatised. It's quite obvious his thirst for revenge is one of the things that kept him going during his time in the Burial Mounds. Which is why, when he finally emerges from the awful hellhole he was trapped in, his attacks are particularly brutal. I'm currently working on a post about WWX's trauma, which is taking me some time, as it's quite an emotional ride - so we won't go into that too much here. Instead, I want to take a look at something that stood out to me on my first read and even more so on a re-read.

When reading the scenes mentioned above, I noticed a few things with regards to the ghosts WWX used to torture and kill WC and WLJ. Personally, I think MXTX hints that the female and child ghosts used to attack WC and WLJ, have some form of connection to the two in some way.

Wen Chao cried sharply in pain. It sounded especially jarring in the empty courier station. Jiang Cheng asked, “Why is his voice so sharp?” Wei WuXian, “Of course it’d be with a certain thing gone.” Jiang Cheng was disgusted, “You’re the one who did it?” Wei WuXian, “It’s nasty if you think about it that way. Of course, I wasn’t the one who cut it off. It was bitten off when his woman went mad.”

Chapter 62 ExR

When I first read the above scene, I had a sudden realisation that WLJ couldn't possibly be the "woman" that WWX was referring to. Prior to WC being attacked, WLJ stuffed a broken stool leg down her throat, while under the influence of an unseen ghost - perhaps even possessed at that moment in time.

On the ground, Wang LingJiao had already picked up one leg of the stool, frantically stuffing it into her mouth, laughing as she did, “Fine, fine, I’ll eat it, I’ll eat it! Haha, I’ll eat it!” An entire chunk of the leg had been stuffed down by her!

Chapter 61

Not long after the above scene, JC and LWJ find her in the same horrific position with the stool leg firmly in her mouth.

The doors to Wen Chao’s room were wide open. Only one female corpse remained in the room. The corpse wore light clothes. Half of the leg of a stool had been stuffed down her throat. She had killed herself by forcing herself to swallow the stool leg into her stomach.

Chapter 61

With this in mind, it couldn't have been WLJ who attacked WC. She was already dead or dying while choking on the stool leg. You could argue that she might have taken it out of her mouth, after she had turned into a corpse that WWX could control to attack WC, swallowing the stool leg again once she had finished. But that doesn't really make much sense. MXTX purposefully drew attention to the fact the stool leg was still in her mouth when JC and LWJ found her. There is even a rather grotesque point where JC attempts to shove the stool leg into her mouth further, when he is kneeling by her corpse. This scene is used not only to emphasise JCs hatred and character, but to draw further attention to the stool leg still being in WLJs mouth. If this scene was purely to show JC's hunger for revenge, MXTX could have had JC slap her corpse - just as JC overheard WLJ state she wanted to slap Madam Yu's corpse after the massacre at Lotus Pier.

I have seen some people in the fandom claim that because of the above contradictions, WWX must be lying. As WLJ, "his woman" was already dead. As such, people insinuate WWX must have bitten off WCs private part himself! Which is ludicrous! He might not be acting himself at this moment in time due to the mass amount of trauma he's endured, but he's not going to do that! Especially if he has others under his control, that are so eager to attack WC in his place.

When WWX said "his woman", I think he was referring to the ghost woman in the room with them at that moment in time. Not WJL as some people assume, but the one who was currently there to torment and kill WC. To me, WWXs words pretty much confirm that he is using one of WCs dead mistresses to torture him to death.

As he spoke, the blue-faced woman crawled toward him using both her arms and her legs. When she had been fighting, her face was almost hideous, but now, with her dark face against Wei WuXian’s lap, she somehow seemed to be a charming concubine, obediently pleasing her master.

Chapter 62

The ghost is even described as a seemingly charming concubine, which could be a hint to her past relationship with WC. Given WCs character, and the fact we know he is a huge unscrupulous lech who treats women as objects - it's not much of a jump to assume this ghost was one of his many mistresses or a "sexual conquest" from the past.

Wen ZhuLiu grabbed the child’s head with his left hand, as though to put so much force on the small, cold head that it exploded. The blue-faced woman threw the bloodstained bandages on the ground and, like a four-limbed creature, she crawled to Wen ZhuLiu’s side almost instantly. A swing of her arm and there were ten lines of blood. The two dark beings, one large and one small, wrangled with him incessantly.

Chapter 62

Of course, there is also the ghost child. The two appear to be working together and the ghost woman seems protective of the child - as we can see from the above. I think this is insinuating that the child might be the ghost woman's offspring and possibly even WCs illegitimate child. It would make more sense then WWX having summoned a random ghost child. If the ghosts already had strong resentment towards the WC and WLJ, (especially if they caused their death in some way) it would also help strengthen WWXs attacks on them both.

A long-haired woman in red clothes, her face blue, fell heavily onto him. The dark face, bright red clothes, and black hair created a chilling contrast. Her fingers wrapped around the bandages around Wen Chao’s head and tore!

Chapter 62

The two scenes above are even somewhat reminiscent to the chapter where the corpses of the Mo family were working together to attack the ghost hand that killed them at the start of the novel. I think the parallels between this scene and the scene at Mo Village are quite deliberate and are intended to help suggest that something very similar is happening with the two unknown ghosts in the scenes in question.

Aside from being unable to defy Wei WuXian’s command, the family also loathed the creature that killed them, and let out their anger on the ghost hand.

...

The three corpses and the hand were in the middle of a tough battle, when Mo ZiYuan abruptly moved out of the way. His abdomen area was attacked by the hand, causing a few chunks of his intestines to spill out. As Madame Mo saw this, she screamed incessantly and shielded her son behind herself.

Chapter 5

Not only do we see a mother protecting her child, but we see WWX use the resentment they have towards the hand that killed them, in order to attack it. Which could be exactly what is happening in the chapters with the ghost woman and child.

Wei WuXian took his hand away after patting on the white ghoul child’s sparse-haired head. Holding what he had fed it in its mouth, it turned around and sat down. Hugging his leg, it chewed fiercely as it glowered at Wen ZhuLiu with cold, glistening eyes. What he was chewing were two human fingers. Needless to say—they must be Wen Chao’s fingers!

Chapter 62

Chewing on WCs fingers has a particularly gruesome, yet disturbingly poetic irony to it all if the theory of the ghost being his illegitimate child is true. The ghost child is literally biting the hand that (possibly) should have fed him!

There are a number of hints that could support the theory that WC and WLJ know the ghosts who are attacking them and that they might have had a hand in their demise. If we piece together the little hints that have been left for us, there seems to be an undercurrent of something more sinister being alluded to within the subtext.

She had been following Wen Chao for almost half a year. Half a year was the most time that Wen Chao could spend on a woman, from loving her to becoming tired of her. She had thought that she was different, that she was the one who could stay until the end. However, Wen Chao’s growing irritation during the past few days had told her already. She was no different from the other women.

Chapter 61

The above confirms that WC tires of his mistresses quite easily, usually within six months. From earlier chapters, the reader is already aware WC was married, but still openly flaunted his mistresses and promiscuity. Obviously I'm sure he usually just casts them aside rather than murdering them! Otherwise, there would be a pretty big body count from the sounds of it! But if we consider the fact WC usually tires of his latest conquest within six months, we can assume he dumped this particular mistress way before she'd given birth to the child, more than likely way before she even knew she was pregnant. Perhaps after giving birth she thought presenting him with his child would help her situation, similar to JGY and MXYs mothers holding out hope on JGS taking an interest in his illegitimate children. WC is a cold-hearted, self-centred, greasy, vain psychopath who doesn't care for anyone but himself. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for him to decide to get rid of a mistress and his illegitimate child, because it was an inconvenience to him.

Obviously all we can do is speculate, as there is no solid evidence in the text around the child being WCs. Though the child definitely has a mass amount of resentment towards him and seems connected to the ghost woman in some way - so it is definitely plausible. That being said, I do think we can see MXTX drawing a connection to the ghosts and the two being attacked if we look closely enough.

The chest held all of the valuables and weapons that she had managed to hoard during the half-year of staying by Wen Chao’s side. Valuables she could spend, weapons she could protect herself with. Although she didn’t want it to, the day had finally come.

Chapter 61

So we can see WLJ had a contingency plan for if or when WC got bored of her - as it's apparently something WC does often. She already had an idea that if WC lost interest in her, she would need to leave in a hurry. What is rather interesting from the above, is that WLJ had been stashing weapons away to protect herself with as well. Now I am aware that at present, the cultivation world is at the beginning of a war, so this could be overlooked as her trying to protect herself against the enemy, if all of her current privileges and protection were taken away. But the Wen sect really didn't take the war seriously until very recently, possibly even just in the past few days - as we can see from the below.

Everyone who stood on the Wen Sect’s side took the Sunshot Campaign as a joke. However, three months later, the circumstances didn’t turn out the way they expected them to at all!

Chapter 61

As such, I think WLJ hiding weapons is more of a means to protect herself against a more imminent threat - WC and those under his command, if he decides she is no longer of use to him. We have already witnessed how cold hearted and ruthless WC and WLJ are. They were quite ready to murder or seriously injure MianMian back in the cave of the Xuanwu of Slaughter - so killing and physically harming others isn't something out of character for either of them. I think the above scene shows the reader that WC might be accustomed to getting rid of mistresses who become troublesome, and that WJL knows this. WLJ may have even participated in such things to gain her current position by his side, after all she was particularly ruthless to poor MianMian, so she's definitely capable of such cruelty.

As we've seen, WLJ has an extremely jealous streak, which caused her to pick MianMian as the person to be hung up as bait for the Xuanwu of Slaughter. So it's not really much of a stretch to think WLJ might have had a hand in bumping off her rival and her poor child as well. It wouldn't be much of a surprise if she'd jealousy helped permanently get rid of a mistress who had given birth to WCs child and become too much trouble for him.

From a psychological point of view, looking at what happened to WLJ when she was attacked, we can see a number of things that could support the above even more so.

The woman’s features were all distorted, as though they had been smashed and then pieced together again. The two of her eyes were looking in different directions, the left upward and the right downward. Her entire face was hideously twisted. Wen Chao tried with much effort before he could finally manage to recognize her from her rather revealing robe. This was Wang LingJiao!

Chapter 61

The fact WLJ's face is hideously disfigured is very telling. Whoever attacked her, did so in a very distinctive way. They made her look hideous, they attacked her where it hurts her the most - her beauty. We know the ghost child from later scenes made an appearance in WLJs room, so it's safe to assume that the woman is nearby as well. If the ghost woman was a former mistress who WLJ had a hand in getting rid of, it's definitely something a scorned woman would do to get revenge. Making someone's face look horrifically deformed, sounds very personal to me.

Wang LingJiao staggered before kneeling down and collapsing onto the ground, as though she was kowtowing someone, mumbling, “… I’m sorry… I’m sorry… Let me go, let me go, let me go…”

Chapter 61

WJL is currently being controlled or manipulated by an unseen force. Earlier WJL put a talisman that unbeknownst to her, had been reversed and therefore attracted rather than repelled evil. She also admits that her cultivation is extremely low. With all of that in mind, it's possible that she was possessed by the ghost woman from later scenes, at that moment in time. WLJ is currently half mad and very frightened. She's talking to someone who only she can hear - again possibly alluding to her being possessed by the ghost woman. This makes her words very interesting. Most might assume she is saying sorry to WWX, but he's not actually made an appearance yet - he's outside watching and waiting. To me, WJL is apologising to the ghost woman. Because she's the one who is possessing her, and she is the one who WLJ might have wronged.

Chapter 61

Back to this grotesque scene again! It's quite apparent that the stool leg is suggestive of the scene we now know must follow. The above could even be seen as a metaphor for what happens to WC off page. As I've already explained above, I don't think MXTX intended for us to think WLJ attacked WC. The stool leg is very phallic and the horrendous act seems very personal once again. It's an extremely sexually violent act and not something I think WWX would be capable of thinking of himself. To me it's perhaps something a murdered or scorned mistress would do to her rival in order to exact extreme revenge. Perhaps even a previous mistress who WLJ had a hand in getting rid of, in order to appease WC.

There seems to be two viable options that I can theorise, as to how WWX acquired the two spirits we are later introduced to. One option is the talismans WWX had reversed all around the supervision office that WC and WLJ were occupying. As we know, reverse talismans attract ghosts and corpses within a certain area. So if the poor woman and child met their end nearby and were waiting around for vengeance, they would have been attracted to the area now the talismans were reversed. Or there is the slightly more sinister option that WWX actually met their ghosts along with many others, during his time in the Burial Mounds and brought them along with him when he left. I find the latter option quite interesting, because there is something that stood out to me in chapters 60 and 61, that could support this theory as well.

Wen Chao continued, “Burial Mound is right in Yiling. You Yunmeng people have probably heard of its name as well. It’s a mountain of corpses, an old battleground. If you find a spot wherever on the mountain and dig your shovel into it, you’ll be able to dig out a corpse. Any nameless corpses would be tossed here as well, wrapped in a mat only.”

Chapter 60

Wen Chao immediately refuted her, “It’s impossible even if he’s dead! The people who died in Burial Mound, all of their souls would be shackled there.

Chapter 61

WC seems to know just how convenient the Burial Mounds is if you want to get rid of someone, keeping their soul trapped there in the process. It certainly wouldn't surprise me if WC had used this place as a personal dumping ground for anyone that displeased him.

Apparently MXTX mentioned somewhere in her author's notes that certain things had to be edited or removed due to censorship issues. Perhaps she originally intended for WLJ to attack WC in the above scenes, but decided to rewrite it. Some claim this scene might have been censored and this is MXTX's attempt at working around it. But personally I think that if MXTX wanted to insinuate WLJ was "his woman" without showing such extreme sexual violence, she would have had the reader notice the stool leg was no longer in her mouth in later scenes. Allowing the reader to notice it was still in her mouth, not once but twice, seems very deliberate to me. With that in mind, I think that even if this was MXTX working around censorship, she most likely still intended for the ghost woman to be the one who committed the violent act and had to do so off page and hint as such instead. It definitely ties in with the rest of the evidence in the text and is even reminiscent of the first time we see WWX using his cultivation technique at the start of the novel. It also somewhat echoes his theorising at the Cloud Recesses, where he first talks about arousing resentful energy and using it as a weapon.

Personally I think once you accept WWX is talking about WCs "woman" being the ghost woman, there seems to be hints to an even darker subplot just under the surface. The fact WLJ has a contingency plan for if when WC tires of her and that the plan involves weapons to protect herself with, is in my opinion rather telling. The fact WWX is known for harnessing the resentful energy that an entity under his control has for others, as a way to enhance his attacks is also a compelling argument that strengthens the above theory as well. I certainly think this is a credible theory and even helps explain a part of the plot that some have found a little confusing, due to what may come across as inconsistencies in the chapters in question.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #mdzs novel #wei wuxian #wen chao #wang lingjiao #mdzs theories #mdzs meta #long post

425 notes · View notes

rynne · 1 year

Text

It’s very meaningful to me that MDZS is a story that says we still have agency after trauma.

Almost every single character has endured terrible, traumatic things. Some were mistreated as children, some have been tortured, some lost their homes and/or families during the war, almost all of them had to fight...except for a few of the juniors, the cast of MDZS have lived through a lot of very bad things.

And MXTX shows us so many different ways to respond to those terrible things -- as well as what kind of responses bring more lasting peace and happiness.

The antagonists are the people who hold onto the resentment and negativity of what happened to them. XY’s disproportionate revenge against the Changs and Baixue Temple, JGY’s decision that his rise to power justifies anything he might do in pursuit of that power, JC’s pursuit of anyone who “could be” WWX, all of the clans destroying the Wen even after the war...these people decided to return pain with worse pain. They’ve been hurt, so all they want to do is lash out.

And this lashing out ultimately hurts them more. XY’s cruelty drove the one person he cared for to suicide. JGY’s methods of gaining power came back to haunt him as Wangxian uncover his deeds. JC turns into an angry, bitter person whose own nephew describes him as “cold, severe, and gloomy for years and years on end. Not a single lenient or merciful word left Jiang Cheng’s mouth if he could help it, nor was he ever willing to offer charity and kindness“ (FYY, chapter 23); he is ultimately forced to realize the way he wronged WWX. The cultivation world, after having murdered the Wen remnants and disrespected their bodies, are confronted with a group of corpses willing to help WWX save their lives.

On the other hand, the people experiencing peace and happiness at the end of the story are those who decided to let go of their hatreds and resentments, no matter how justified the reason for that hatred. Mianmian was nearly strung up as bait for the Xuanwu at the hands of the Wen, facing torture and death in the process, but she is still able to argue in favor of the Wen remnants, and she ends the story happy as a rogue cultivator with a family of her own. Jin Ling was raised to hate WWX, but overcame that hatred and found friendship and family as he actually got to know WWX and the people who came with him. LWJ’s home was destroyed by the Wen, his father murdered, yet he is still able to raise Wen Yuan with loving care into an extraordinary young man. WWX, who also lost his home and loved ones to the Wens, still decided to save them, and further decided to save the clans even after they killed him, and he ends the story with a blissfully happy marriage and stable home.

MDZS doesn’t say that moving past resentment is easy. Jin Ling, conflicted after finding the mentor figure he cared for is the man he was raised to hate, stabs WWX and still has to find his own way forward. WWX, after returning from the Burial Mounds, enacts brutal revenge as Wen Chao, Wen Zhuliu, and Wang Lingjiao, as well as the rest of the Wen army. It is a struggle to move on after being hurt.

MDZS doesn’t say moving past resentment is easy, but it does say that it’s worth it. For the characters who find a way to move forward, to let their kindness define them more than their trauma, to decide that their whole lives don’t have to be about experiencing and dealing out pain...these characters find peace.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #because I'm tired of people using trauma as an excuse #the story doesn't excuse characters who hurt other people because they themselves are in pain #the story says that letting go of resentment is the right thing to do

209 notes · View notes

prince-liest · 10 months

Text

@dillislazii #op what do you think abt#xue yang#like. would he also be hunt or the web? 👁️

I Love Xue Yang Immensely So Thank You For Asking

(Also while I have you, consider checking out the longer response I gave to the Eye/Hunt reblog of my original post that’s going around cos I actually still think Jin Guangyao and Nie Huaisang are of the Web and it gives some insight into how I assigned them!)

I actually think Xue Yang would be a really clear-cut example of a follower of the Desolation!

I get the impression that in meta the Hunt is sometimes assigned to people who just, like. Have goals, especially goals they’re extremely determined to achieve (especially if that involves killing someone), but I think the Hunt is more specific than that. It’s stated in canon that not many humans are of the Hunt because it’s particularly a fear about becoming prey in a very literally animalistic way. It’s about the physical chase and about predation. It’s one of the fears that is considered most “primal” - Daisy Tonner hunts people, often in ways that result in police brutality, because she is a cop and it’s her job to chase them down. Nie Mingjue hunts and slaughters his enemies, and typically does so in a straightforward fashion because he believes in chasing down those who have done wrong - just like he sank his teeth into his perception of Jin Guangyao’s flaws and would not let go or let up about them. Jiang Cheng during Wei Wuxian’s dead era actively, publicly, and doggedly pursued and hunted anybody who practiced demon cultivation. Etc.

Xue Yang is a violent murderer! But his whole thing isn’t chasing, it’s causing suffering. His life has been characterized by pain and loss, and he places what happened to him on such a pedestal that nobody else’s pain matters unless it’s a source of catharsis for him. If he was of the Hunt, he would have hunted down Chang C’ian alone (or as it were his heir) and killed that person. Instead, he chooses to enact as much destruction and suffering as he possibly can and slaughters the entire clan. He relishes in the pain he has paid forward unto the world. Then he does the same to Baixue Temple.

Perhaps that indicates that he is of the Slaughter, then. But he didn’t massacre Baixue Temple because he loves randomly-directed murder or because he thinks they deserved it. He did it specifically to hurt Song Lan. And murder is not what he does to Xiao Xingchen.

Instead, Xue Yang spends years systematically planning to destroy Xiao Xingchen’s will to live in the most painful way possible. He targets Xiao Xingchen’s desire to help people, his belief in justice, and forces him to commit acts specifically because those acts would viscerally horrify Xiao Xingchen if he knew he was committing them. This backfires! He falls in love and regrets what he’s done - but it’s not entirely because he hurt Xiao Xingchen, but because he has to face the consequences of his own feelings! Xiao Xingchen kills himself, and Xue Yang wants him back! And before he trips down that particular rabbit hole, the things he tricks Xiao Xingchen are cruel, creative, and specifically designed to hurt Xiao Xingchen as much as possible. Expecially when Song Lan finally finds them.

He was hurt, brutally and permanently, when he was little. And he turned that around and decided to hurt everyone else he thought deserved it - or sometimes even for fun - even more brutally and even more permanently, for as long as he could, because he thinks that the world deserves to suffer. He is, as Jude Perry says, “A reckoning; a surging tide of destruction and pain.”

#mdzs #xue yang #magnus archives shenanigans #mdzs meta #meta #text posts #slightly sad that my response didn't really get scene but What Can Ya Do #tbh I didn't expect the original post to get any attention so this is neat anyway!#fun fact xue yang's story with xxc originally made me uncomfortable in the same way that listening to the desolation episodes did #and I was SO SURE I would hate him because he was so cruel #joke's on me he and jgy are my favorite characters #also tangentially i think you could definitely argue the slaughter for nmj as well rather than the hunt #esp bc that is definitely where baxia is pulling him #but one of the things that tipped me to the hunt for him #is how much he dogs jgy about his decisions and morality

49 notes · View notes

pharahsgf · 1 year

Text

idk man i feel like wen ning might be more mad about jiang cheng trying to murder him and his whole family and being involved in the brutal deaths of almost all his loved ones. like i feel like that's enough reason to be mean to someone

#cql #takes that are borderline incomprehensible

62 notes · View notes

mommy-daddy-issues-poll · 6 months

Text

Jiang Cheng & Jiang Yanli (Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed) Propaganda

Jiang Cheng (his sister was submitted without propaganda)

“Okay, so, this is a matter of perception and what actually happens. Daddy issues: this one's slightly more controversial, but he PERCIEVES that he gets less love from his father than his adoptive brother (he counts the times he's been held as a child [not many] and is very upset when his father makes him send his dogs away to make emotional space for said adoptive brother) and that his father is very harsh with him because he doesn't love him. Why does Jiang Cheng thing his father doesn't like or love him? Introduce the MOMMY ISSUES!!! His mother accuses his father of liking the adopted son more all the time and forgetting who his true flesh and blood is, causing a huge rift in the entire family. (She's jealous of a dead woman that, honestly, I don't think Jiang Cheng's dad ever had a shot with.) She constantly pits the boys against each other, sowing discord in the family and leaving her son Traumatized~! He IS loved by both his parents, but their toxicity towards each other definitely left him, the adopted son, and their poor daughter with different flavors of mommy and daddy issues. (Except the adopted son always knows in his heart who is actual parents are and says at one point that he does get tired of people forgetting that they, yk, existed and were in love with each other.)”

"Convinced that his dad loved their families ward more than him and said ward has to repeatedly comfort him about it. Mother is a huge bitch that propagates this idea. She only shows affection to him on screen before dying. Most of her time onscreen is her yelling at her husband about how she believes he hates Jiang Cheng because she birthed him. Child of parents that should've divorced."

“The Jiang family is a MESS and Jiang Cheng is very much a product of that. His father prefers his adopted son over him while his mother is abusive, controlling and blames Jiang Cheng for not being talented enough. As you can imagine, this man does not grow up well-adjusted at all.”

“his father AND his mother are critical of him so only SOME of his issues are getting their approval”

“Mommy is mad at Daddy for not loving her. Daddy hates conflict and ignores Mommy as much as possible. And ignores his son as much as possible, because he's so much like Mommy--high-strung, irritable, cautious, pragmatic. Daddy prefers the sunny, brilliant, careless, adventurous foster-brother instead. (Everyone loves/overlooks the needs of Nice Peace-making Older Sister. The three kids manage to grow up loving each other despite all this.) Mommy hates the foster-brother (who is (falsely) rumored to actually be Daddy's son) and needs Jiang Cheng to be better than him in every way. She needs Jiang Cheng to be the BEST. But he's not. He's pretty damned impressive in his own right, but he doesn't have Protagonist Energy. He has Secondary Character Energy. The parenting ranges from Tough Love to just your basic abuse. Anyway, Mommy and Daddy and nearly everyone else at home are brutally murdered. Jiang Cheng inherits his father's position and his mom's sexy magic purple lightning whip and rebuilds the family home and raises his orphaned nephew with a whole lot more love and a whole lot less abuse than he got himself. He cries a lot."

“man is the poster child for parent issues. he's the heir to a powerful sect, but his parents had an unhappy marriage and he had a wretched relationship with them before their violent deaths. his father jfm dislikes jc as a person because he thinks jc doesn't embody the clan motto and is too similar to his mother, a woman he resents having to marry. jfm favors jc's adopted brother because that boy's mom is the one he actually wanted to marry, and jc's mother knows it and takes it out on all of them. jc knows he is considered inferior by both of his parents and that he could never do enough to 'earn' their affection or approval, despite family love being his single most deeply desired wish. during a grug-induced hallucination, he just sees them all getting along and loving each other. but the murder of his parents cuts off any hope for reconciliation or healing between them, and he grows into a bitter, insecure, aggressive, violent, and jealous individual as a result. he ends the story utterly alone besides his young nephew, blacklisted by matchmakers and having pushed away his brother in misguided blame for the death of their sister”

“Insane Mommy AND Daddy issues (ignored and neglected by Dad in favour of his bestie's son, frequently berated by his extremely fierce and sharp-tongued Mom, perpetually in the centre of CONFLICT between parents, who then die traumatically).”

“Jiang Cheng’s parents need a divorce SO bad, but they can’t get one, and they both take it out on him. JC takes after his mother in a lot of ways, which makes his relationship with his father deeply strained. His dad loves him, but he doesn’t seem like him much sometimes. He’s very frequently disappointed in him, and he’s physically unaffectionate and distant, showing clear favoritism toward Jiang Cheng’s adopted brother. Meanwhile, his mother projects her own resentment toward her husband and the adopted-ish brother onto JC. She belittles him, constantly comparing him to the brother and saying he’s a failure of an heir for not being able to match someone who should be his subordinate/inferior.”

“tbf I think daddy/mommy issues run in the family considering who his nephew is, but Jiang Cheng is a big mess of daddy/mommy-related trauma shambling around and masquerading as a man”

“This guy's parents (father Jiang Fengmian & mother Yu Ziyuan) really gave him the worst inferiority complex. His father always dismissed him & heavily favors Jiang Cheng 's brother and his mother, jealous bc the brother is adopted and not her kid, is suoer hard on him and constantly telling him how much he sucks. Really fucks up his relationship with said brother in later parts of the show.”

“His dad has never hugged him and likes his adopted brother better than him to the point where people think the adopted brother is his dad's secret bastard child. His mom always compares him negatively to the adopted brother and says he'll never be good enough and that his dad hates him because he reminds his dad of her. His biggest dream is for his family to be happy and his parents to love him.”

“My man’s dad literally picked up another kid and made him get rid of his puppies. His mom was constantly complaining he wasn’t as good as the other kid and saying this is why his dad didn’t love him. And then they died horribly leaving him in charge of his clan.”

"Listen, this man's mother grabbed his arm (therefore making sure he stays within earshot) shows him to his father and says ""I know you don't love him and that he's a major disappointment, but he's still your son!"" to which I thought 'was it really necessary to say that in front of him????' But his father didn't even argue! He just said ""Wife, not now"" and walks off 'cause he's got better things to do than be in the same room with his family."

“so one jc's dad likes jc's childhood friend better than jc (jc has only been held by his dad less than five times). this is because jc is too much like his mother, who jc's dad was kind of forced to marry. jc's mom is constantly screaming at everybody and whipping people with her tazer whip. jc later inherits that same tazer whip. the nicest thing his parents do for him is die so that he can escape a total genocide of his martial arts sect.”

"- his dad and his mom do not get along well; they have a very chilly relationship

- his dad was rumored to have been in love with another woman, but she eloped with his dad’s best friend/servant instead, so his dad was left to marry his mom

- when he’s a kid, that other woman and her husband die, leaving behind an orphaned kid

- his dad basically ‘adopts’ that kid into their family. Jiang Cheng, who at this point can count the number of times he’s been held by his dad on one hand, immediately sees his dad walk in carrying this random other kid, with no hesitation.

- the kid (Wei Wuxian) is scared of dogs so Jiang Cheng’s dad forces Jiang Cheng to give his three dogs away

- Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng grow up, and Wei Wuxian ends up being better in almost everything. Jiang Cheng’s mom harshly scolds and criticizes Jiang Cheng for not measuring up and being as good

- Jiang Cheng’s dad behaves more affectionately and permissibly toward Wei Wuxian, doting on him to the extent that Jiang Cheng’s mom criticizes him for favoring him over his own son

- she tells Jiang Cheng that he will never be good enough for his dad because he reminds him of her; meanwhile, Wei Wuxian, the son of the woman he used to love, will always be above Jiang Cheng

- Wei Wuxian gets injured and trapped in a cave while Jiang Cheng runs home for a week straight, never stopping to rest while he tries to bring help. When Wei Wuxian is rescued, Jiang Cheng’s father praises Wei Wuxian for best exemplifying their clan’s motto. Jiang Cheng watches while receiving no praise for his own actions

- also Jiang Cheng watches his parents get murdered in front of him, which is also very traumatizing "

#propaganda #jiang cheng #jiang yanli #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #mommy daddy issues poll

10 notes · View notes

jiangwanyinscatmom · 1 year

Note

I just saw a post that was like "wn went off so hard on jc during the golden core reveal bc then he doesn't have to think about thr ethics of what wwx did to him in his sister's name" or smth. Like, i'd say wn was being so harsh bc jc was being an asshole in the first place. But it's not the first time i've seen people compare wq doing the golden core exchange and wwx turning wn into a fierce corpse as the same "mad scientist trying this out"-thing and arguing neither should've happened (specifically that wwx has low self-esteem for one and stopped wn from entering the cycle or reincarnation for the other) so i was wondering what your thoughts on it were

This is long... so hahahahah, sorry.

This is actually cherry picking as it doesn't take into the account that Wen Ning, did not want to die. He had enough hate against his death, because he was brutally murdered, he was becoming a fierce corpse/jiangshi. His death was already karmically wrong.

Wei Wuxian intervened enough with that transformation to be able to change the usual method of what a jiangshi should be. It wasn't a disruption to his reincarnation cycle as he still retained his actual soul (the Hun) as does Song Lan. Wei Wuxian yes, out of guilt, fought to keep Wen Ning as Wen Ning after his death, he had to fight for the Hun to stay over the malicious Po.

For Song Lan, the basics can only be guessed as to what his catalyst was, but I think, it wasn't rage against the way of his death that made him undead, but that he didn't want Xiao Xingchen to blame himself for killing Song Lan, as it was Xue Yang who mastered that. It is what makes them the outlier of fierce corpses like Nie Mingjue who is not alive in the sense of humanity and feeling and is running off the sheer rage of his Po only, his humanity was lost because it moved on. Wen Ning the person (as well as Song Lan (The Hun that makes the human part) did not move on.

The core transfer was also done out of guilt from Wen Qing for HER clan, having attacked Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng's lives, and Wen Ning having taken it upon himself to protect the two as a consequence. We are also told nothing is stopping Wen Ning from finally passing by the author, he can move on when he wants to and feels like it. He gets to choose when he wants to die unlike that first one. He is grateful to Wei Wuxian for keeping him as alive as much as is possible and why he is fucking grateful to him and ride or die for life to Wei Wuxian. Unlike Jiang Cheng who multiple times was protected by Wei Wuxian and still decided to off him because he is vile and selfish.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wei wuxian #wen ning #wen qing #it's nothing to do with self hate on WWX or WQ's part #they felt bad #and wanted to let someone have a second chance

43 notes · View notes

loosingmoreletters · 8 months

Note

TW- SA

Hey I'm sorry if your seeing this 2 times im not sure if it went in the first time cause the wifi wasn't working properly😭😭

Can you do a fic where wei ying was sa'ed by some wen soldiers before being thrown into the burial mounds set during the sunshot campaign. after he cones back as the yilling patriarch they captured one of the soldiers who sa'ed him and interrogate him,the soldeir makes comnent on wei ying and they(nie mingie,jiang cheng,jin ziuxunl,lan xichchen) find out and they confront him about ,but hes nonchalant about it.They also end up finding about his lost golden core.

Sry if its too uncomfortable❤ don't do it if it is💜

The prompt, if I wrote that all, would be more the 10k type of fic, but I hope you enjoy this scene! Also are you the anon who sent the other dark fic prompts??? My guy (gnc) I continue to be curious why you picked me of all people for them.

CW: derogatory language, mentioned past rape, WWX is dissociating pretty hard but the POV character doesn’t realize

Lan Xichen stared at the boy—the man his brother loved and found Wei Wuxian look at their captive like all the vile comments he was spewing were beneath his notice. He sounded bored of them, his expression not dissimilar to the one he used to wear at the Cloud Recesses, paying no attention to Lan Qiren’s lectures. This only seemed to enrage the Wen General more as he shouted, not stopping even when Jiang Wanyin demanded he ceased his lying. If not for the silencing talismans in the room, drawn by Wei Wuxian, quicker with his blood than anyone could procure ink, you’d be able to hear it at the other end of the camp.

Lan Xichen isn’t sure how to take control of the situation again. He’d gone because they needed someone to play Inquiry in case the prisoner died, Jiang Wanyin was there as the Jiang had long since staked claim on every Wen from Wen Chao’s posse, their blood was Yunmeng Jiang’s right to spill. Nie Mingjue could hardly be left out of the interrogation of such a high-ranking Wen soldier and excluding the Jin, even when Jin Zixuan looked like he might lose his breakfast any moment now, was a political nightmare waiting to happen.

And yet, the nightmare happened anyway, Wei Wuxian standing impassively as the soldier spoke of acts so depraved that Lan Xichen wished they were nothing but a taunt.

“Are you done?” Wei Wuxian interrupted finally.

He moved past his sect leader, hardly seemed to notice Jiang Wanyin at all, even when his martial brother reached for him. It was, Lan Xichen realized, as if none of them seemed to be there for Wei Wuxian. In the corner of the room, a shadow flashed red. It had to be one of Wei Wuxian’s brides, they never strayed far from their master, even when unseen. It should disturb Lan Xichen that even at the camps they surrounded by barriers, Wei Wuxian’s ghosts slipped in and out and yet—

“You’re nothing but Wen Chao’s whore, good for a quick fuck—”

The soldier hadn’t finished his sentence before the bride in red had her hand to his throat, bloody fingernails digging into his throat, squeezing it just hard enough to leave the man choking.

“I asked if you’re done,” Wei Wuxian repeated, his voice lacking all inflection. “Where are your troops stationed?”

“You—”

The bride in red squeezed harder before letting go of the man’s throat to pull his head back by his short hair. She grinned, teeth as sharp as blades, looking proud of herself, like a child endearing herself to her mother, waiting for Wei Wuxian’s benign approval of her actions.

The soldier spat at their feet. “You won’t be able to stop them, boy. You’ll be left begging again.”

Wei Wuxian tilted his head. “I didn’t beg then, I had no need to, unlike your Master when I tore him apart.”

Lan Xichen hadn’t been present for Wen Chao’s murder, but the stories following his execution hadn’t been kind. If even the least of the brutalities the soldier had tossed at them was true, it was understandable why Wei Wuxian would’ve lashed out so much at Wen Chao, if it was not just to avenge his sect, but also the hurt dealt to him personally.

“Besides,” Wei Wuxian continued, seemingly unbothered. “All Wen Chao did to me? Do you think the dead did any less? They repaid any hurt twice over and I told you what I’d do to you when I returned.”

And then, the soldier’s eyes widened. He wasn’t given the chance speak as the bride in red plunged her hand into his throat, effortlessly ripping it out. The solider choked, once, then drowned in his own blood.

“Be good and quiet now,” Wei Wuxian said, sounding faintly as if he were echoing another’s words. “Your screams are ruining my mood.”

The soldier’s corpse dropped to the ground and Wei Wuxian’s bride left it to return to her master’s side, handing off him like one would imagine a living bride, clinging to… not her husband. Someone she’d be less shy around. A sister perhaps, someone who might have understood.

“Wei Wuxian—”

Jiang Wanyin reached out, but when his hand touched Wei Wuxian’s shoulder, the other man pushed him away. His eyes widened and, though Lan Xichen hadn’t realized it before, it was as if a fog cleared in them. Wei Wuxian’s gaze drifted to the corpse he’d left behind and all neutrality of before washed away by pure horror. He took a step back, then another, a next one, and rushed from the room in a panic.

Jiang Wanyin didn’t even hesitate, chasing after his martial brother without another look at the slaughter behind him.

“Xichen?”

Lan Xichen tore himself from the empty hallway and faced Nie Mingjue. “I’ll play Inquiry,” Lan Xichen said and settled on interrogating the spirit. It hadn’t been torn apart, though had Wei Wuxian thought of it, perhaps he would’ve done it.

Out of respect for the Jiang Head Disciple, Lan Xichen never allowed himself to ask, is it true? All you did to Wei Wuxian?

It wasn’t for him to know.

#ask #anon #mdzs #mdzs fanfic #wei wuxian #first time using a community tag on tumblr

12 notes · View notes

lanjiangs · 2 years

Text

Had an idea after reading @cerusee's post on ways wwx could find out about jiang cheng’s sacrifice, specifically their first idea about lwj and jc being trapped in a cursed cave that plays out emotionally charged memories!

Jin Ling conspires to bring his uncles together and get them to actually talk to each other - things do not go to plan.

For one, Wei Wuxian brings Lan Wangji along with him, which means he has even less reason to go near Jiang Cheng, and Jiang Cheng is going to spend the whole time glaring at Lan Wangji and not looking at Wei Wuxian!

And secondly, they get themselves separated halfway through a cave, with Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian on one side of a very solid looking wall, and Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji on the other. Which means that even if JC and WWX were starting to look slightly less tense around each other, it doesn’t matter now because if Jiang Cheng doesn’t murder Wei Wuxian’s beloved husband, Wei Wuxian’s beloved husband is going to murder him!

Whilst Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian are desperately scrambling to come up with a way through this magically appearing wall, Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji are standing on the opposite side taking very deep breaths and exploring their options with as few words as possible.

It turns out the cave is enchanted and feeds off strong emotions, in order to reap the most distress it can, it taps into its victims brains and plays out some of their most emotional memories.

For Lan Wangji, it plays out his memory of fighting off his own clan members in order to save A-Yuan, followed by his brutal punishment.

Jiang Cheng has several emotions about seeing this, most of them different flavors of self hatred - the great Hanguang Jun proving yet again how worthy he is of Wei Wuxian’s love, how he knew all along that he was worth protecting.

Shortly after that, it is Jiang Cheng’s turn, and he and Lan Wangji find themselves standing in a rainy market in Yilling, watching a much younger Jiang Cheng give himself up to the Wen in order to save an oblivious Wei Wuxian, to where he is dragged off by them to be tortured and have his core ripped out.

As soon as it’s over Jiang Cheng is up in Lan Wangji’s face telling him in no uncertain terms that he will kill him if he ever breathes a word of it to Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji shoves him off and after a long while, Jiang Cheng pulls himself together and they go back to figuring out how to get out.

Lan Wangji would think nothing of what he had seen, except a sadness at how pale and drawn Wei Ying had looked in the vision, but for the fact that he knew it would make a huge difference for Wei Ying.

In the midst of this, Lan Wangji says “Wei Ying would want to know”. Jiang Cheng stops what he’s doing but does not turn around “What do you care?”

“About you, I do not. But Wei Ying…”

“You heard him yourself, he said to leave it in the past. He- I don’t owe him anything anymore. Let him believe what he’s always believed”

After that they work in silence, eventually working their way to freedom, and back to Jin Ling and Wei Wuxian.

After sealing up the cave to prevent anyone else falling into it’s trap, the two pairs go their separate ways with very short, tense goodbyes.

Lan Wangji does not mention what he saw for a long time, but he thinks about it often. It is not until one night, when Wei Wuxian, a little drunk (but safe and warm in their home), mentions his once-brother running back to Lotus Pier to retrieve his parents bodies, that Lan Wangji feels guilty enough that he nudges Wei Ying to sit up from where he’s sprawled over his lap.

“ Wei Ying..”

“Huh, Lan Zhan I was comf- what’s wrong?”

“Jiang Wanyin did not.”

“Didn’t what? What’s with that face, Lan Zhan, you’re making me nervous, ha.”

Lan Wangji takes a deep breath and takes Wei Ying’s hand to give himself a moment to think through his words, before looking back into his wide, worried eyes, “In the cave, it showed us his memories. Jiang Wanyin did not go back for his parents.”

He takes a moment to swallow down his anger towards the man in question, “He got captured to distract them from you.”

Wei Ying stares at him for a moment before smiling sadly and shaking his head.

Lan Wangji interrupts him as he opens his mouth to speak, “He did it deliberately, Wei Ying. I saw it.”

It takes some time for it to sink in, and when it does Wei Ying is so distressed that Lan Wangji almost regrets telling him. But after some time of Lan Wangji holding him and reminding him that Wei Ying does not owe Jiang Wanyin anything, that he did not even want him to know, and a few aborted attempts to leave and sprint his way to Yunmeng, he calms down enough for Lan Wangji to get him into bed, with the plan to leave for Yunmeng in the morning.

Lan Wangji says goodbye to Wei Ying in a town on the outskirts of Yunmeng, after flying him there, recognising that he needs to see his brother alone, but wanting to be close enough for his own peace of mind.

Wei Wuxian walks up to the gates of Lotus Pier with no plan and an emotional mixture of anger, sadness, regret and love fuelling his steps.

(Jin Ling’s plan did work…eventually!)

#alternative is where the cave also saps their spiritual power and the conversation is much less friendly #lwj and jc end up in a fist fight and its very fraught and a little sexy and they're big mad about it #doesnt change the ending tho #i have no idea how the converdation between jc and wwx will go but it brings them closer to reconcilliation!!!#yunmeng brothers #yunmeng brothers reconciliation #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #wei wuxian #if i as jiang cheng has wei ying tenderly wipe a tear away i would DIE on the spot it is so sweet #lan wangji #lan zhan #jin ling #breifly #mzdz #the untamed #cql #mine #post-canon

54 notes · View notes