#cql promots

[piosplayhouse]

I was originally skeptical of Gearous's art due to their questionable (to say the least) depiction of Little Apple, but after this most recent Pash cover I'm cautiously hoping that they may be the first official mdzs artist to actually show Wei Wuxian properly being an expert in horsemanship

#there isnt a SINGLE wwx promotional art where hes properly riding a horse #* manhua i set aside bc time constraints and probably pose tracing etc #but everything else hes either doing something questionable or doing something even worse than questionable #like not even on donkey while its running questionable #And cql hurts

[imma-bunni]

Modern Twin Jades ♡♡

Xichen’s design is based on the drawings of modern XiYao that my sister @bora-panda has done recently (plz go look they are so GOOD TTvTT)

#Really go look at her stuff because it's amazing! #shameless sibling promotion #myart #the untamed #twin jades of gusu #lwj #lxc #lan zhan fanart #cql fanart #the untamed fanart #hanguangjun #zewujun #mdzs #lan zhan #lan wangji

[avaantares]

So I finally finished that Cloud Recesses travel poster I started back in... uh... January. 😅 At least I'm finally getting some of these projects done?

It's on Redbubble now, and I'll have vinyl stickers (same size as the Ghost City ones) in my Etsy shop just as soon as they arrive -- which should be no later than September 7, if shipping estimates are to be believed.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #cql #chen qing ling #technically this is cql fanart because I based the design on the concept art but I don't think anyone cares which source it's from #cloud recesses #retro travel poster #shameless self promotion #antares versatile arts #ava's art

[leatherbookmark]

i was at the part where wwx discovers a female lan disciple and goes holy shit they exist!!! and the narration goes on to talk about how men and women are totally separated and it’s even forbidden for them to speak or touch directly and i had a little laugh thinking about lesbian ally #1 hgj

#the thing came from cql only people; with jyl and mm and other female disciples taking part in the lectures along with the dudes #but still. i'm afraid that if not for his mom little lz would think women are made up #there was a post abt how some environments promote the separation of the genders and it ends up with men thinking women are #completely separate creatures/vice versa and i thought it would be an interesting topic for fanfiction #yknow with how casual and less rule-bound ymj is and how gsl is its polar opposite #but then i remembered feminist equality paradise qhn and ahhhh it's not that interesting anymore #liveshrimping

[theshenanijiang]

I come bearing a new chapter in my incredibly self-indulgent found family fic in which Wei Wuxian gives in to founding his own sect. Now with bonus plot! (There is a plot now.. just saying.) Carried by Our Desolation - Chapter 13 - TheShenanijiang - 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù [Archive of Our Own]

#mdzs fanfic #promoting my own work here #cql fanfic #it's definitely canon divergent #there are cute kids and sassy kids

[accio-victuuri]

Let’s talk about LHK please!!! He is on my list of people I wanna talk to when it comes to ZZ/WYB relationship and that is still true today. His most recent direct mention when it comes to the boys was when he posted buying tickets for Hidden Blade. We don’t know if he is still in contact with ZZ/WYB but it’s not a secret that this trio had a good relationship back in CQL filming and promotion.

I wanna say that LHK has that calm aura in him that would be pleasing to our boys. He is also someone quiet and will not purposely try to get attention by using them. I’ve always had that sense with the CQL cast, they have protected the boys from day 1 to now.

11/5, it was going around that LHK shared a video and there was a fan who commented a series of photos of him with ZZ and WYB asking, “Brother, does this picture look familiar?” he said let me reply to you in 4 words (characters) 完好无损. I looked it up and as per baidu it means intact/complete/without damage.

This could be interpreted into different things ; maybe he is talking about that point in time of promoting cql wherein they had an intact relationship and it was all good times. or that, even till now, their relationship is the same and it’s all good. ofc cpfs interpreted this as him confirming that the relationship between zz and wyb is stable whether that is as friends or more. tho we actually already know this. it’s just nice to see people they are close with indirectly give us some information.

Next he posted again and someone commented: brother, if bjyx is true please wear blue in your next post. Well, he did wear blue in his post after. 👀 ( the caption on p2 is: Even the wind is gentle when you are close to me. May we all have a moment of God's care. )

It’s yet another coincidence. Or is it? Maybe he wears a lot of blue clothes cause he is really a Lan hahahahahaha and it had nothing to with the comment. Who knows. I also don’t advise to ask their co stars stuff like this even if the person is cpf friendly. It’s still kinda sus tho. The universe is once again screwing us over and giving us signs that lead to SZD 😂😂😂😂

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here i’m just clowning like i always do #LHK GE YOU ARE MY ONLY GE

[guidaozongshi]

CQL/Untamed in legal trouble

Looks like CQL/The Untamed is in some legal trouble regarding licensing with JJWXC ( Publisher of Mo Dao Zu Shi who holds the original rights along with the author)

JJWXC released a statement stating that CQL's license has expired since May 2021. It means that any games, merchandise or collaboration since then are unauthorised.

"All related promotions and sales are illegal. The author and JJWXC preserve the right to pursue the legal responsibilities. They recommended readers should stay vigilant"

It seems that until a few months ago CQL was flying under the radar for releasing merch and doing collaboration with games but JJWXC got to know about it recently and they would likely pursue a legal notice.

This also means that the CQL game is likely cancelled, which is why there was no news about it since a long time. It was also rumoured to be in trouble with the Donghua for "stealing designs" but I am unsure about this.

*Note : This is about the CQL franchise specifically, NOT Mo Dao Zu Shi which includes the Donghua, Manhua, Audio Drama and the Novel. The latter is completely fine and has no such issues.

#the untamed #cql #mo dao zu shi #mdzs

[thatswhatsushesaid]

this watershed moment between nie mingjue and meng yao is from cql, obviously, but imo it highlights the fundamental conflict between these two characters in all versions of the canon:

i am once again re-reading the entirety of the empathy flashback chapters because once i start, i just can't stop! there's just too much important information overflowing from this sequence of events! and considering this is the only lens through which we are able to look back at jin guangyao's past as meng yao--and considering how much that lens hates him at this point in canon--so much of what is presented to us as objective fact has to be examined more critically.

so, it bears repeating: all of this is nie mingjue's resentment-addled fierce corpse's recollection of events at least fourteen years in the past, communicated to the reader through two additional filters--empathy, and wei wuxian himself.

Meng Yao had probably carefully worked out how to avoid the vital areas. With both caution and composure, he pulled the sword out of his stomach, producing a string of small, bloody splashes, and pressed the wound—this was all he did to treat it. Nie MingJue, on the other hand, still remained in the posture that he used when trying to help Meng Yao. Half-kneeling with his head raised, their eyes met.

i mean. sure, i guess? this is related to an ask currently hanging out in my inbox that i haven't been able to answer yet (there are so many asks), but i think we really ought to consider just what a life-threatening gamble this was regardless. also painful! it is painful to stab yourself, and then to mash your hand against an open wound to stop the bleeding! why would anyone choose to do something like this unless they felt they had no other choice?

Nie MingJue didn’t say anything. Meng Yao didn’t say anything either. He sheathed his sword, bowed toward Nie MingJue, and sprinted away without looking back.

i've read a few posts criticizing meng yao in this moment either implying or flat out stating that if he can bow and sprint away, he clearly couldn't have been that injured. leaving aside that nie mingjue is perfectly capable of recognizing a serious injury when he sees one, wei wuxian also sees the blood splashing onto meng yao's body and clothes as he withdraws the sword from himself. so, he's hurt. he has seriously injured himself. that he still forces himself to bow before fleeing does seem significant to me. what else could he possibly have said? what would nie mingjue have wanted to hear him say anyway?

He had just acknowledged his mistake and agreed to receiving his punishment before feigning suicide and setting up a trap. Now, he was already long gone. It was probably Nie MingJue’s first time seeing such a shameless person, especially one that had just been the trusted aide whom he promoted himself.

i could live the rest of my life in this sentence (exaggeration. but only slightly), there is so much going on here--first, that wei wuxian feels confident enough in his understanding and interpretation of nie mingjue via empathy to presume that this is nie mingjue's first exposure to such 'shameless' behaviour, because let's be real, how can he possibly know that? like leaving aside the fact that he is the older brother of the jianghu's most dedicated and shameless drama queen, he's been a sect leader for years at this point. beyond that, he is a sect leader during a time of war. mingjue-xiong has seen some shit, ok? i think it is specifically because this supposed shamelessness comes from someone that he himself trusted and promoted, as wei wuxian next points out, that he is so furious.

this part is key, for me, because it emphasizes not the shamelessness (is it tho?) of meng yao's trickery, but that such trickery could be carried out by someone that nie mingjue himself had invested with such trust. he doesn't just feel betrayed by meng yao, though of course that is part of it. his pride has been injured. which makes sense, given the next part of the text:

For this, he flew into a terrible rage, being especially fierce during the Wen Sect’s battles. Even when Lan XiChen had the time to assist Langya, a few days later, his anger hadn’t died down one bit. As soon as he came, Lan XiChen laughed, “MingJue-xiong, what a temper you seem to be in. Where is Meng Yao? Why does he not come and douse your flames?”

i'm not sure i actually want to know what a 'terrible rage' from nie mingjue looks like given what we already know about his brutality on the battlefield. like... this is after he has decapitated wen ruohan's son, wen xu, and made a brutal display of his head and remains to send a message to qishan. meng yao's betrayal has triggered truly unprecedented levels of rage and fury from nie mingjue, something that was already escalating due to his focused cultivation with the sabre, but it results in a man who absolutely cannot handle hearing meng yao's name.

Nie MingJue, “Don’t mention such a person!”

see? (mingjue-xiong don't snap at lan xichen like that 🥺)

Without any exaggeration, he told Lan XiChen of how Meng Yao killed and planned to blame someone else, then feigned death and ran away. After he heard the story, Lan XiChen was also surprised, “How could this be? Maybe there was a misunderstanding?”

Nie MingJue, “I caught him right on the spot. What misunderstandings could there be?”

Lan XiChen thought for a moment, “Judging from his words, the person whom he killed had definitely done wrong. However, he should not have taken his life either. We are in harsh times, so it is quite difficult to determine who was at fault. I wonder where he is now.”

Nie MingJue spoke in a harsh tone, “He should hope that I don’t catch him. If I do, I’ll offer him as sacrifice to my saber!”

(where's a good theresalottounpackhere.gif when you need one)

first: "without any exaggeration" is doing quite a lot of narrative work! even if we accept that what nie mingjue recounts to lan xichen broadly conforms to what wei wuxian witnessed via empathy, what wei wuxian witnessed in the first place was still nie mingjue's recollection of the events as they transpired. wei wuxian did not witness these events himself with his own eyes. sure, i trust that nie mingjue is telling the truth when he shares this information with lan xichen, but he cannot be an objective source of information for wei wuxian--and i think it is significant that wei wuxian doesn't clock this.

second: i think this is why there is an understandable impulse to respond to lan xichen's circumspection with 'hey what the fuck??' when he says 'maybe there was a misunderstanding.' because we are right in the moment alongside wei wuxian, who does not recognize his own bias. and so we end up like, what do you mean, lan xichen! nie mingjue caught meng yao red-handed! wei wuxian-via-empathy told us so! how could we misunderstand any of this when wei wuxian confirmed for us that nie mingjue did not exaggerate any of his explanation?

but lan xichen's thoughtfulness and his instinct to pause, to seek out additional clarification and understanding, are perfectly rational responses given the circumstances, and ideally what he says is something any equally rational person would say in his position. two people he has invested with a great deal of his trust and esteem are at significantly crossed purposes, and he only has one half of the story. lan xichen obviously trusts that nie mingjue is telling him the truth as he recalls it; he just understands, as wei wuxian clearly cannot, that his understanding of this situation is incomplete until he hears the other half of the story from meng yao himself.

However, as though his words turned into a prophecy, during the next few years, it was almost as if Meng Yao had suddenly disappeared, as if he had sunk like a rock into the ocean. No trace of him was left.

Now, Nie MingJue loathed him in the same manner that he had once valued him. Whenever the name was mentioned, he put on an angered face, expressing things hard to explain in speech. When he was certain that no information could be found, he refused to discuss Meng Yao with another person ever again.

i'll wrap this post up shortly because i've already written much more than i initially intended, but i just want to highlight that literal years pass between their confrontation on the langya front and their bloody reunion in nightless city. that is a long time for nie mingjue to spend "loathing [Meng Yao] in the same manner that he had once valued him"--plenty of time for resentment brought on by his sabre cultivation technique to thoroughly sink its claws into his judgment, and his wounded pride.

#mdzs meta #jin guangyao #meng yao #nie mingjue #something i did not touch on in this post but that i really wanted to #is that while i don't disagree that nmj's judgment has been rattled #i don't think he himself wants to acknowledge that it has been rattled #i don't think he has the psychological bandwidth to handle doubting himself and what that doubt could mean for the war and for his sect #and so for me that rage and fury that follows the langya front encounter is a direct response to that doubt #in addition to having his pride injured #injured pride + doubting his judgment = angry murder sabre getting angrier and murder-y...er

[shanastoryteller]

Happy birthday ♥️♥️ Anything cql please!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5

Wei Wuxian has never considered how annoying breasts are before.

Mo Xuanyu isn't the most endowed woman he's ever seen, but she's far from the least, and binding them tight against his body as the servants have been doing must have been her preferred way to deal with them, but there has to be a better solution.

The bindings are uncomfortable and he hasn't even had to fight anyone yet.

Not that he thinks he'd be any good at it, in Mo Xuanyu's body.

Her golden core actually isn't bad, and beyond that it's such a bitter relief to be in a body with one again that he's not sure he'd care if it was. He wouldn't have promoted her to senior disciple with it, but he wouldn't have sent her home either. He can probably do something to improve it.

Of course, strengthening Mo Xuanyu's golden core is only half of the problem.

He knows a body that's used to hunger. He just doesn't understand why Mo Xuanyu's is like this. His borrowed body is too skinny, something that gets hidden under all the layers of robes but is obvious to him, and it surprises him perhaps more than it should. She's an illegitimate daughter, sure, but apparently palatable enough to be legitimized and used for a marriage alliance. He would have thought they fed her.

He lets out a deep breath, forcing out the anger he can feel building in his chest.

She wouldn't have sacrificed herself to summon him into her body if her life had been going well, after all.

#asks #anon #prompt answers #prompts are closed #untamed #okay i'm pretty much recovered from the plague now

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

I do not posts direct links for anything unless I have reblogged a post or it is from a mutual, so I will not post the original anon.

With that, yes, at one point CQL had been intended to be washed of queer content. The final production that was aired was due to fan intervention and the reason for why it was considered a "big deal" for the conventions of acceptable live actions that are aired for mainland China media. It would have been another standard washed adaption otherwise if not for the fans. It is common practice to completely remove, or, change the designated romance to GB and substitute the next major female as that plot line holder for acceptable media standards to make and turn a profit with the networks that license the original IP.

Regardless to say, the original intent was never to be "as gay as possible", it was done in reluctance after backlash from the very base it wanted to profit from and had been heavily criticized. To save face, they allowed reshoots and minor script changing to lean into the bros only idea, and the emphasis in original promotion for the idea of "more sibling oriented" as a plot point for Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli and Jiang Cheng. The het aspect was very loudly criticized during the filming that had passed standard CCP fare for serialization and, why there is a heavy cleaning spree of Chinese live action serialization for future BL IPs that now do not pass it for airing dates despite having finished filming.

There is nothing to praise for original het washing and the loops to make a profit using exploitations of the original queer work.

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql #the untamed

[lgbtlunaverse]

Could someone tell me where the interpretation that, in book canon, the promotion Nie Mingjue gives Meng Yao made Meng Yao's life worse than it was before, came from?

I have seen that claim made multiple times now and I've looked at the text over and over trying to see where the basis for it is and I. Can't find it? Don't get me wrong, it absolutely spells out that it does not and cannot fix everything for Meng Yao, but the idea that it was actively bad for him?

Lacking other evidence, I kind of have to assume that it comes from cql canon being sort of projected backwards onto book canon. In cql canon, meng yao is suffering active and explicit bullying and abuse from the captain while under the nie, and does so because the capain believes he has risen above his station via nmj's promotion of him. (In book canon this... isn't happening. It happens with the captain in Langya instead) However, in cql canon he has also been with the nie for years and is openly close to both Nie Mingjue and Nie Huasiang, whereas in book canon he has only been working with nie mingjue for a few months (though has, in that time, apparently become close enough to him for Lan Xichen to explicitly state Meng Yao is able to calm nmj down in ways no one else can? Ofc he does this... Right after that stops being true. But. Food for thought. Not what this post is about tho.) So, if you project the much more explicit abuse from the nie sect captain in cql back on novel jgy who has a presumably much less stable position in the sect overall you get... a meng yao for whom the promotion only means a bigger target on his back and virtually no protection from nmj, who we must assume he can't trust to talk to his about because he never mentions it. (This also explicitly violates book canon when it comes to meng yao's general behaviour, we'll talk about that in a sec)

And look. We all do frankencanon in this house. I get it. And for fanfiction that is very fun. But for a serious reading of the character, his situation, and the actions that lead from that this... doesn't make much sense, in my opinion.

So. Why is that? Why did I say this was out of character for the novel? Because Meng yao spoke up about the jin captain mistreating him. Multiple times! It's just that none of it mattered because no one cared to listen to him. This is a pretty important line for his character because it flatly shows that meng yao is not and has never seen murder as something trivial. He's not trigger happy. He will only do it if he sees no other way out that doesn't end in himself being seriously harmed. (Whether he's right or justified in these cases is not the point of this post.)

If anything remotely similar was happening in the Nie sect, he would have said so. Cql Meng Yao doesn't do this because cql Meng Yao is a different character, and also the plot wouldn't work if he did. Cql Nie Mingjue, by extension, comes off as a fundamentally less trustworthy figure in cql Meng Yao's life because apparently for whatever reason, he cannot be trusted with the information that the deputy he has already publicly defended is still being harassed, and doesn't notice even when it is really blatant. The assumtpion the audience is given is that, like a middle schooler getting the principal involved when being bullied, it would only make the harassment more viscious.

This... actually has a somewhat solid basis in the book. Because after nmj yells at the bullies in question Wei Wuxian says this.

And it is important to keep in mind that this is Wei Wuxian saying this. Not Meng Yao, not an omniscient narrator. Wei wuxian is drawing on his own experiences, likely from the Jiang family, to conclude that if someone is angry at you and thwarted by someone defending you, this generally does not make them less angry at you.

This is leaving out two crucial things, though.

Firstly, this worry isn't about the promotion at all.

The promotion hasn't even been brought up. In the novel it doesn't ctually happen immediately, it takes another few battles where meng yao continues to do his job well and nie mingjue continues praising him for him to eventually go "yeah, you deserve a raise."

This is another aspect that is being projected from cql canon onto book canon I presume, because it does happen quite quickly there, and it's a throwaway line in the books so it's easy to miss. I can't be mad about anyone forgetting the difference, but it is important to mention for this particular analysis.

Which is the second point: change in status

Wei Wuxian couldn't exactly change status within the Jiang family. (And if he could, that would just fuel rumours that he was jfm's bastard even more and make madam yu even angrier at him, etc etc.)

This isn't comparable to Meng Yao. The worry Wei Wuxian is talking about is explitly about Nie Mingjue's initial very loud defense of him. Before he has any idea Nie Mingjue is going to promote him.

Promoting him would likely decrease his chances of cultivators coming after him because now he was in a higher standing in the sect than they were. If applied to that earlier metaphor of middle school bullying it's like if the bullied kid suddenly got hired as a teacher. Which. Doesn't work with the metaphor at all. Touché. But what I am trying to say is that any payback they would have planned for him relied on the fact that they could make sure that Nie Mingjue wasn't going to be within very convenient earshot a second time, and as a random disciple Meng Yao couldn't just go complain to him every time.

But as his right hand man? Who spends most of his time working directly alongside him? Lmao. Good luck. Oh, sure, it is very likely that they feel offended a son of a whore has been raised in status above them, and many will continue to do so as jgy rises through cultivation society (in fact, Wei Wuxian's observations are absolutely on point for how Madam Jin will be treating jgy later on). But as we can also see from the way jgy is treated and how he treats others throughout the story: you can be upset all you want, but if that person is higher than you in status there's jack shit you can do about it.

If I am correct and Wei Wuxian is basing this on his experiences with the Jiang family, it makes sense why he'd miss this. Madam Yu gets to be way angrier at Jiang Fengmian as his wife than some random disciples can be at Nie Mingjue. Insulting Meng Yao, suggesting that he didn't deserve his promotion or that he earned it through less than proper means (you know who is mother is) is also an insult to Nie Mingjue and the way he chooses to run his sect. They can't do that.

Another thing I see brought up in this regard would be the tea scene. There may be no explicit harassment like in the show, but cultivators still don't respect him! The disrespect is just quieter and more subtle.

Tiny detail: these are actually not Nie cultivators

They're cultivators Lan Xichen is escorting with him, making a pitstop in heijan.

The book confirms this by basically outright stating that this is the first time they see his face, and recognize him as Jin Guangshan's bastard son.

Now, just because there is no proof that it happened doesn't mean it definitely never happened. Mdzs is a novel that often leaves stuff out or up to interpretation. Similar stuff to the tea situtation could very well be happening in the background. But I do think it is pretty significant that there is no mention whatsoever of Meng Yao having any negative treatment from Nie cultivators betwen him and Nie Mingjue meeting and him executing them while spying for Wen Ruohan, and the most we get is Wei Wuxian's personal speculation, after which he immediately goes to wax poetic about how surprised he is that Meng Yao and Nie Mingjue are getting along super well.

And, again, novel Meng Yao would have said something. He doesn't say anything about the tea scene. - Or? Does he? Notably 3zun have some very long in depth conversations that Wei Wuxian zones out from because he's busy thinking about Lan Zhan again. But let's not rely on what-ifs. Let's say that neither he nor Lan Xichen find it worth bringing up. Major reasons for that would be that a) these are not nie cultivators, nie mingjue wouldn't really have the authority to scold them. Especially because b) it's such a subtle offense it could easily be handwaved as coincidence. "They just always brush their cups clean like that!! It's wartime you know, and they were traveling! They're used to drinking from vessels that aren't thoroughly washed everytime! It's just a habit!" And would therefore not be worth reporting.

But anything worse than that? A "price tens or hundreds of times greater" like wwx mentions? He'd report it! I do understand that "well if it was happening why didn't he say something?" would, in real life, be victim blaming. This is not real life, and I am not talking about this in a matter of blame. If Meng Yao was being mistreated in the Nie and stayed silent about it, it would still not be his fault. I am talking about this in a manner of character consistency.

His admission of seeking help in the Jin sect shows that at that time and prior to it (a very good argument can be made that he loses faith in this idea) he believes that if he is being mistreated and someone with the authority to say something about it takes his side, things can improve. If Nie Mingjue standing up for him in Qinghe only made things worse, he would not have tried to ask for help in an even more hostile environment. You can call Meng Yao many things, but naïve isn't one of them.

Meng yao's later habit of completely isolating himself and lying to everyone around him comes from the fact that revealing his suffering would mean explaining several horrible things he's become complicit in and he does not feel safe admitting to that. But he's done nothing wrong here!

The reading where he says nothing would imply an either correct or incorrect belief in Meng Yao's eyes that Nie Mingjue did not much care for his wellbeing or safety. Oh sure he defended him once but doing so again multiple times would be such a bother. This also contradicts his later behaviour, where he banks solely on Nie Mingjue's protective instincts to seal his qi and escape during the confrontation in Langya. After having been caught murdering a man, he is still convinced Nie Mingjue will immediately try to help him when he is in serious danger.

And even if you very badly want to characterize Nie Mingjue as a blundering idiot who is apparently less trustworthy in Meng Yao's eyes than the jin cultivators who had already resoundly rejected him by the time he tries to ask for help with the langya captain. He doesn't say anything to Xichen either! Lan Xichen, who has explicitly and exhaustively been portrayed as kind and understanding to Meng Yao's circumstances and very willing to talk to Mingjue if Meng Yao wants something from him he doesn't otherwise think he'd get. The conversation Mingjue overhears where Meng Yao's new position in the Nie is explictly brought up would be kind of the perfect time to go "yeah I've been promoted but I'm not treated well by other soldiers" aaaand. Nothing. So unless you come to the conclusion that Meng Yao trusted the Jin he told about the captain's abuse more than Lan Xichen you kind of have to conclude that Meng Yao's treatment after his promotion improved significantly. And that even if people still disliked him they could not openly do anything about it because he was high enough in status for that to be socially inappropiate. Which is, explicitly, one of his main motivators over the entire course of the story: Avoiding mistreatment by getting high enough on the social ladder it doesn't matter what people think of him, they can't hurt him.

And I'm not sure how to reconcile that character journey with the idea that he would, at any point, have preferred to keep his head down and stay where he was. When he was so desperate to crawl his way out.

#the main tragedy of his character- of course- being that he keeps achieving that status and it is never enough #he achieves standing with the nie and the favor of a major sect leader and it's not enough for his father to even give him the time of day #he kills wrh amd becomes a war hero and gets acknowledged by his father!! #and all it gets him is nmj's constant distrust abuse at the hands of his stepmother and complicity in mass murder by his father's orders #he gets to the HIGHEST POSITION SOCIETY HAS. LITERAL CHIEF CULTIVATOR. And the moment he stumbles everyone turns on him immediately #like they were all just waiting for him to get low enough again that they could kick him further down #it's a rise-fall-rise-fall-rise-fall journey with every step up being a desperate fight and every tumble down being way too quick and easy #but! that rise still needs to be there!! for the story to work!! #the tragedy of qinghe for meng yao is how easily he loses nmj's fsvor. NOT that having it was bad in the first place #I understand that this reading is mainly done to put nmj in a bad light but I do genuinely think it does jgy a disservice #people more often apply this to him becoming jin guangyao which does in a lot of ways doom and trap him #and yes fuck jgs fuck that guy all the way to hell #but the key is that meng yao can't just get a happy ending by refusing power #he's not power hungry. what he wants is in fact reasonable- he's just willing to do a lot more than most to get it #'things would've been better if nmj didn't promote him/didn't send him to langya' #feels as reductive to me as the 'why can't he just be xichen's house boyfriend and join the lan instead' takes. #mdzs #meng yao #jin guangyao #mdzs meta #? sorta #feels too ranty to call meta #this is what i was talking about in my past post about how frustrating it is to base metas around disagreeing with others #makes analysis feel like discourse when that is NOT what i am trying to do #long post with long tags

[piosplayhouse]

I too watched the hbomberguy video and went straight to Twitter, whereupon I found that James Somerton had mentioned danmei in one of his videos and it made everyone mad, so I went looking and. yeah here's a full transcription of his just completely incorrect coverage of cql and mdzs from "Hollywood's (Gay) China Problem" so you don't have to watch it and give him views:

"The 2019 fantasy series The Untamed, featuring an unlikely bond between a man with magic powers and a stoic prince, started an online craze over the pair's implicit romance, but the show's promotion focused on its portrayal of Chinese traditional culture, a push consistent with Chinese communist party propaganda.

The show was... Queerbait-y. But the novel on which it was based [shows a picture of the fanmade cover for The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation made by fan translator team Exiled Rebels] certainly was not. That featured a very explicit love story between the two main characters, but was self-censored when adapted to meet the censorship guidelines of the Xi Jinping government. But it didn't matter. Like so much queerbaiting before, people saw through the weak veneer of heterosexuality. They "took the bait", so to speak. The series has accumulated a total of 9.5 billion views in China as of this summer, and had also received an international release via Netflix. It was described as a global phenomenon, taking off like no BL series before it, making its way all around Asia and with the Netflix deal, all across Europe and North America as well.

Tencent, the Chinese streaming platform it originated on, saw 2.6 million new subscribers to the service when it was released. And WeTV, an app that lets you watch BL content anywhere in the world, saw growth of 250% while the show was airing. In January of 2020, the cast members planned to embark on a multi-city, worldwide fan meeting tour. Cities included Bangkok, Singapore, Tokyo, Seoul, Macau, Kuala Lumpur, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York... But it was cancelled due to COVID-19.

Even the Chinese government has endorsed it. The overseas popularity of these romantic sword-wielding heroes is often highlighted in Chinese media coverage focusing on the massive overseas streaming numbers and its ability to build a growing appreciation of the charm of Chinese culture."

#hbomberguy #james somerton #cql #mdzs

[poorlittleyaoyao]

re: 3zun and jealousy, there is already something going on before 3zun even happens in both canons. I already hollered while I was reading the novel about how LXC’s refusal to tell NMJ how he knows MY under the conversation’s novel canon circumstances—pre-spying, with MY and NMJ still on good terms—is Deeply Weird. In CQL canon, meanwhile, MY has somehow not met LXC prior to Cloud Recesses, even though in drama canon MY has been at the Unclean Realm for awhile. This is substantially less weird than LXC’s cagey behavior in the novel—NMJ has at least informed LXC of MY’s existence as his assistant, even if the two haven’t interacted—but the fact that interaction hasn’t occurred is still at least a little bit weird unless LXC hasn’t visited the Unclean Realm at all since MY’s promotion. Much to think about in both canons!

#I honestly think JGY would be the least likely to get jealous in the traditional sense #he would be overly sensitive to someone favoring another person for sure! #you can’t get punted down the stairs by your dad without some rejection issues! #and in a practical sense he has always depended on being in favor with those who outrank him socially so of course it’d bleed over #but IMO his response wouldn’t be ‘I must reassert my claim’ or ‘I hate my competition’ #but to instead overcorrect and go ‘:) I will preemptively remove myself so I am in a better position than if I wait to be pushed aside :)’ #and then do some insane mental gymnastics to explain to himself why this is Better And More Advantageous Actually #is he communicating even a little bit? absolutely not

[avaantares]

Hey, I can post this now! I needle felted a companion for my (Lan Wangji-obsessed) friend's birthday, but didn't want to spoil the surprise by putting it up online before she received it.

This one is slightly under life-sized, but I'm thinking I may make some smaller ones to sell in my shop... What do you think, Tumblrsphere? Would mini Lan bunnies be marketable? I don't think I could sell many at this size, because I'd have to charge a lot to balance the time it takes to make them (this boi was felted to be as dense as a brick, which took literal weeks), but smaller ones might allow for a more attractive price point.

#cql #chen qing ling #the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #lan bunny #fan merch #shameless self promotion #antares versatile arts #ava's art

[stareastsea]

(20190710 - 20230710) Happy 4th anniversary of Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo visiting Sina building to promote CQL !!! 💚❤ - Part.4

Full Video Link :

#xiao zhan #wang yibo #yizhan #bjyx #bjyxszd #cql #the untamed #wei wuxian #lan wangji #sina corporation #happy 4th anniversary #artist interview #Youtube

[layzeal]

sometimes i wish that being gay media wasn't the main way people promoted mdzs/cql to others, solely because, at least to me, innocently watching it while thinking the gay aspect was just fandom shipping as the subtext became more and more pronounced until i was like "wait. WAIT. IT'S GAY???" was like. a big part of the first exposure bliss

#yes it is gay but there's something delicious about not being told it is and finding out by accident #modao #lace speaks