#cultivation sect politics

[wangxianficrecs]

💙 Lay my body down by tawaen

💙 Lay my body down

by tawaen

M, 48k, Wangxian

Summary: One of the fragments of Wei Wuxian's soul, splintered during the first siege of the Burial Mounds, uses the energy released by the Yin Tiger Tally and flees backwards through time to another moment where Wei Wuxian was close to death – after the fall of Lotus Pier, at the hands of Jiang Wanyin. Knowing how his first life will end, Wei Wuxian decides to hide his survival, and leave the cultivation world behind. Kay's comments: This story left me absolutely speechless, it was just so perfect! As if someone magically knew all my favourite things and wrote them into a story. It's got genius inventor Wei Wuxian, who becomes a rogue cultivator of sorts and finds his family with the Wens! It's got actual consequences from grave injuries that aren't magically healed! It's got Wen Qing being a good leader and the best sister! It's got Lan Wangji suffering the pain of loss much sooner and therefore learning his lesson sooner and holding on tight to Wei Wuxian when they meet again! It's got the sects getting what they have coming! And it's also incredibly well-written and I literally couldn't stop myself from reading it in one sitting. Excerpt: Wei Ying is too exhausted and in too much pain to deal with the rage, fear and grief. He is already overwhelmed with those feelings from the fall of Lotus Pier. He cannot process the memory or any of his emotions now. Right now, he needs to focus on healing as much as he can. The Wen will come for them soon. His golden core opened his airways and protected them while he was unconscious. He focuses the remainder of his spiritual energy on his back; he needs to stop the bleeding. He can't stay here, but he needs to be sure he won't loose too much blood or get infected through the open, weeping gashes on his back. He meditates as Jiang Cheng's breathing evens out, having finally burned through his rage and cried himself to sleep beside the broken, bloody body of his childhood companion. Once he is sure all the bleeding stopped, he slowly rolls himself into the water of the river next to them. When Jiang Cheng wakes, it will look like Wei Wuxian moved in his sleep – drowned and carried away by the river.

pov wei wuxian, canon divergence, time travel, time travel fix-it, somebody lives/not everybody dies, rogue cultivator wei wuxian, butterfly effect, no golden core transfer, no jiang cheng & wei wuxian reconciliation, not jiang cheng friendly, cultivation sect politics, demonic cultivation, sunshot campaign, wen remnants live, eventual lan wangji/wei wuxian, time travelling wei wuxian

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #Wangxian #MDZS #Kay's Favorite #Kay's Rec #February 2024 #Mature #medium fic 15k-49k #pov wei wuxian #canon divergence #time travel #time travel fix-it #somebody lives/not everybody dies #rogue cultivator wei wuxian #butterfly effect #no golden core transfer #no jiang cheng & wei wuxian reconciliation #not jiang cheng friendly #cultivation sect politics #demonic cultivation #sunshot campaign #wen remnants live #eventual lan wangji/wei wuxian #time travelling wei wuxian

[rejectedfables]

Given the way that Headshaker Huaisang goes to Jin Guangyao (and LXC) for solutions to so many of his problems, possibly/probably including struggles with running a sect, do you think maybe the Headshaker persona was as much a part of the revenge plot as it was a veil to hide behind? Like, oh you killed my brother, the head of the Nie sect? Fine. YOU run the sect then 🙃 It needs a leader and you killed him so now it's YOUR fucking problem, and I'm going to make it an incredibly annoying problem. Not a single cog will turn smoothly 🙃

#nie huaisang #Mdzs #mo dao zu shi #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the grandmaster of diabolism #mdzs meta #Nhs #And if he didn't ask for help with political things then just 'watch my sect fall apart because of what you did' I still a twisted knife #I don't GET Huaisang but no one can accuse me of not trying to #spoilers

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

additional work doodles on stolen printer paper ft. Jiang Cheng meeting various dog breeds

cuz I feel like it would be a hoot watching this guy react to the ecclectic variety of pooches the world has to offer

#little dogs? yes plz #large dogs like REALLY large dogs? he loves them! #let jiang cheng have dogs #he'll end up loving even the ridiculous looking ones #and give them all matching ridiculous frufru names #he'll bring one of his dogs with him to conferences #if he likes the sect hosting he'll bring one of the smaller and polite ones #if he DOESN'T then he'll roll up accompanied by a massive drooling beastie the size of small horse #u know one of those dogs whose panting is audible across a room? imagine one of them in the fucking high-ceiling echo chambers the jin like #to host dinners in cuz it flaunts their wealth and then trying to hold a discussion #“now on the issue of chief cultivator-” *PANT PANT PANT SCHLORP PANT PANT PANT* #corgi #basset hound #great dane #daschund #(imagine explaining the phrase 'weiner dog' to the grumpiest sect leader xD) #sheepdog #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #mdzs #fan art #the untamed #sketches

[travalerray]

ideally what I want from MDZS is an epic length series telling me the details of the Sunshot Campaign (HOW DID JC BUILD THAT SECT UP FROM THE GROUND) and everything that happened in the 13 year gap (JGY and his time being the Chief Cultivator is something that can be very personal actually)

okay maybe what I ideally do want is something that delves into the nitty gritty details of the politics and the war in mdzs because I keep crying everytime I have to comprehend the insane amount of things that Just Happen in canon

#mdzs #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zu shi #jiang cheng #jin guangyao #kk's rambles tag #where's that post that goes stanning jc and jgy is what happens when you get interested in the politics of mdzs #''yeah this guy just fucking raised a whole ass sect that was burnt to the ground in three months and ran around to search for his #shixiong. Yeah he managed to remake the sect into one of the four great sects'' HOW. TELL ME. I NEED THE POLITICAL INTRIGUE HERE #can you tell I was more interested in xiyao's watchtower discussion during the Empathy sequence and that my favorite extra is unsurprisingl #Villainous Friends

[cryptidafter]

Lan "I don't give a fuck about anyone or anything except my husband" Wangji...becomes the head of cultivation society?

I know censorship wouldn't allow LWJ and WWX to go have their post-temple tumble in the bushes but there had to be a better decision than that.

#cryptid’s thoughts #he's a worse choice than NHS lol #(sorry but if you expect me to believe either of them would care enough to want all that responsibility...I need some compelling evidence) #yes LWJ 'goes where the chaos is' but that's exactly why he would hate dealing with tedious meetings and politics #he does not care what the other sects do so long as it doesn't interrupt his sexy times with wwx lol #there's a reason LXC is sect leader even beyond him being the eldest #he handles the whole social niceties part a lot better than LWJ #(no I'm not suggesting he should be Chief Cultivator either he's been through ENOUGH. Let that man rest)

[labyrynth]

ok so your first problem was assuming mdzs is a story where Good People are Rewarded and Bad People are Punished.

your second problem was assuming that MXTX—who goes out of her way to showcase unresolved, tragic, undeserved endings in all of her works—would ever write a story with such a shallow notion of “deserving.”

the only reason wangxian makes it out unscathed is because they’re literally the protagonists. authorial intent and plot armor ensure their happy ending. that’s it.

#mdzs talk #moi #i mean it also helps that neither wwx nor lwj give a rats ass about the rest of the cultivation world #wwx had already fucked off and lwj was basically doing that too #that man has never given a single shit about politics and maintaining good relationships #like what does it say about you if even jiang cheng is a better politician than you. #mister ‘don’t talk to me before i’ve had my coffee. or after. just don’t fucking talk to me.’ #but yeah wangxian is like oh we helped to create a massive power vacuum and destabilized the entire cultivation world? #ahaha no way!🤪 hey actually can this wait? my husband and i wanna go fuck in the bushes 🥰 #like. lwj that’s YOUR brother that just lost his most significant emotional support of the last decade. #wwx that’s YOUR pseudo nephew whose parental figure you just got killed. #that’s YOUR pseudo nephew who now has to become sect leader at like 15. #but nah they wanna go bang on the side of the road #god forbid they try to clean up some of the gigantic mess they helped to make #and nobody try to argue ‘well but jgy!!’ buh buh buh nothing. jgy cleaned up after himself. #neither wwx nor lwj had ANY personal stake in seeing jgy dead. lwj SHOULD have had a personal stake in keeping him alive actually. #i still think it’s super shitty and hypocritical of lwj to defend wwx so strongly and yet try so hard to condemn jgy in PRIVATE #both wwx and lwj really showed their asses at guanyin ngl. obviously huaisang did too. #like yeah it’s noble and righteous or whatever but like. righteousness was not why lwj defended wwx before. #wangxian stans being self-righteous and hypocritical? with classist double standards? with black and white mentality? #wow! who would have ever guessed?

[stiltonbasket]

absolutely love the wrh raises wwx au! is there a reason that the sunshot campaign is happening so many years later than canon in this au? did wwx play any role in delaying the start of the war?

Yes! It's my personal headcanon that novel!Wen Ruohan only started the war because he realized that his own sons were nowhere near as talented as Wei Wuxian, Lan Xichen, Lan Wangji, etc; but in this verse, Wen Ruohan postponed the start of the war because he had Wei Wuxian.

As in canon, Wen Ruohan destabilized the Nie sect several years before Wangxian met by murdering Nie Mingjue's father, and Lan Xichen never stood out as a threat because he dropped out of the competitive cultivation circuit to raise Jingyi when he was only 23. Lan Wangji stopped attending tournaments the same year LXC did, so Wen Ruohan paid very little attention to the Lan sect until he stumbled across Jingyi night-hunting with Jin Ling about fifteen years later.

At that point, Wen Ruohan was reasonably confident that Wen Xu would be a decent successor; but Wen Xu and his wife had three daughters and refused to keep trying for a son, and Wen Chao had been unable to father any children despite having a wife and several mistresses. What was worse (to WRH) was that Wei Wuxian was unmarried—under Wen Ruohan's own orders—and had no heirs other than Sizhui, who was categorically incapable of fighting anything but fierce corpses/yaoguai because he was terrified of injuring or killing another person. As a result, Wen Ruohan finally attacked the Cloud Recesses when Sizhui was about 17.

#asks #wrh raises wwx au #mo dao zu shi #wen ruohan #reference #tldr; everyone spent the 20-ish years between the CR arc and the start of the war lying low #jfm was suspicious of wrh but could never be sure he was behind nmj's dad dying #so he kept jc out of the public eye and told him to underperform at public tournaments #lxc just felt awkward about competing with his peers after becoming a father #so he took over lqr's sect leader duties and decided to focus on healing cultivation/emergency night hunts #nmj was similarly focused on parenthood and didn't have much of a public presence in spite of being a sect leader #jzx just straight up did not like wrh and avoided him like the plague #and lwj was not about to talk to people outside his sect or get involved with politics if lxc wasn't going to force him #(which he wasn't going to do. forcing jingyi and jueying to survive on non-lethal amounts of chaos was hard enough for zewu-jun) #so wrh didn't realize how strong the other sects were until he finally met jingyi and jin ling

[staunchen]

so i was thinking about lan wangji and how he has this reputation of being righteous while also in my opinion acting like an asshole? like he acts very petty and is ready to pull his sword on people a lot and isn't really involved in politics even in a way that makes sense as a high ranking member of a sect? like the silencing spell on jin ling is uh. bad.

it's like lan wangji has scary dog privilege by virtue of his reputation and his brother and uncle who will wreck you if you do or say anything to/about him. except thats not right because theyre not scary dogs at all, they just protect him. it's like lan wangji is a scary dog and lan xichen and lan qiren smooth things over and stop him from doing something too awful and calm others down after lan wangji does something not too great. and i guess with the reputation for being righteous (second jade of lan) is enough to deter people from saying/doing things like "hey he's a dick" because dude that's hanguang-jun, what are you talking about???".

and the people he saves on night hunts or whatever are random civilians who don't interact with him enough to see him behave badly, and a cool and aloof powerful cultivator saving them gets a lot of leeway on account of being a famous powerful cultivator and also being someone who saved them from fierce corpses or spirits or healed their kid or grandparent or whatever. who cares if theyre quiet and kinda rude they saved their sister!!!!!

so when lan wangji is a dick to jin ling or fucks off from political stuff or is ready to pull his sword on jiang cheng in the jiang ancestral hall or whatever he's doing so with the reputation of hanguang-jun who saves people and also is supported by lan xichen (lan sect leader and brother) and lan qiren (former acting sect leader, uncle, teacher) and they are protective and dare i say overindulgent of lan wangji???? like bro you are a political figure whether you like it or not, your actions have effects on things besides your own direct personal circle. like the heir of gusu lan pulling a sword on sect leader jiang is fucking political incident whether or not theyre both being assholes or not. the adult heir of gusu lan using the lan silencing spell on the teenage heir of lanling jin is a political incident. not engaging with other sects politically, ever, says important things about your priorities and your influence both within the sect and without.

also like. what if something happened to gusu lan? like say lan xichen is injured, and lan qiren is also out of commission for some reason? that means lan wangji is acting sect leader. can you IMAGINE lan wangji as sect leader. imagine it. really visualize it. there's a lot of jokes about lan wangji being a petty bitch and people love it but imagine a petty bitch as a sect leader. the situation would blow up faster than lans get drunk on a glass of wine. like dude. so much stuff would be totally fucked.

anyway lan wangji as he is in mdzs would be a shit sect leader/chief cultivator/etc. he doesn't behave like he's intimately involved in the politics of his world (which he is) and may or may not have training in doing so - maybe he has training and just doesn't do it? which is also really bad, then he would know better and still not do it or help in any way.

#mdzs #meta #mdzs meta #yeah #it's rough #lan wangji #i mean dude is not diplomatic #could do a whole other thing on how lan qiren and lan xichen and nie mingjue are not great on not preparing lan wangji and nie huaisang #for political stuff #i deeply understand why #wanting to protect your younger loved on from shitty realities and keeping them safe and happy #but also they have responsibilities and they may/will fall on them eventually! #like nie huaisang will likely be sect leader someday! esp as nie mingjue's qi deviations get worse and worse post sunshot #i mean nie mingjue is aware and part of the whole thing is protecting him from their sect's damaging cultivation #and taking care of him #but it still isn't good for nie huaisang and nie sect as a whole #and in lan sect its like. lan wangji may not ever be sect leader but we've seen so much bullshit happen before and during sunshot especiall #and wanting to protect him esp after the shit in their childhood with their mom dying #but like. dude. you are doing your younger sibling/nephew/whatever no favors by not preparing them or teaching them what's up #they are in for a rude awakening because as we see with nie mingjue and nie huaisang you can't protect them forever #and people will make judgments and behave accordingly #sucks all around honestly

[onhoude]

Jiang Wanyin, Nie Huaisang, and Wei Wuxian teaming up (sworn brothers) would've been extraordinary. In canon it wouldn't work (it would also make an entirely different tale). For plenty reasons. For one, I think Jiang Wanyin would have too little insight to play along with their schemes, and Wei Wuxian too reckless to play things strategically/politically, but if we pretend the stars are aligned it would have been amazing.

More under the cut because I'm rambling. It all boils down to Nie Huaisang interacting with Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian more before Nie Mingjue's death and having a tight leash on them both while being pitiful and feigning as politically insignificant.

Jiang Wanyin is actually fine with creating some unrest in the cultivation world if he has another sect's (combative) reputable backing (which used to be Nie Mingjue, so his early presence would be part of the whole 'stars must align' deal). After all, he was also one of the main instigators for the Sunshot Campaign, as a gongzi who just lost his entire sect against largely hesitant sects.

Jiang Wanyin also rebuilt an entire sect and elevated it to a high position in his own generation, all while during a war. That said, he's respectable and efficient but lacks the influence, charisma and sway to be truly persuasive.

Nie Huaisang would garner information, offer what Jiang Wanyin lacks in cunning, and set things up for Jiang Wanyin to honourably settle things publically (or lets things be taken care of, less publically). His timid reputation would soften the fear people have of his other sworn brother, Wei Wuxian.

Now, Wei Wuxian (pre-death) is a powerhouse with or without Golden Core (the archery competition, for example) and intelligent, but unorthodox and brash. With Nie Huaisang placating him (and helping him stay out of trouble), Wei Wuxian might be more likely to leave things up to Jiang Wanyin (who, at this point, would have a greater chance of actually succeeding in back-stabbing cultivator land) while his presence alone suffices as a threat.

But not too much of a threat! After all, if the Head Shaker cries on Yiling Laozu's lap after only half a cup of wine, then he can't be entirely ruthless, shameful and without compassion. Especially if Wei Wuxian is as charismatic as he usually is towards Nie Huaisang in public, as well.

Sect Leader Nie Mingjue is also not to be messed with. Even though he openly dislikes Wei Wuxian (demonic cultivation is dishonourable), Nie Huaisang does like him, and at least his younger brother's meddling is pulling some weight politically. Additionally, Nie Mingjue respects Jiang Wanyin for his role during the Sunshot Campaign. If Wei Wuxian is still in good standing with Jiang Wanyin, then altogether it's good for the relationship between Qinghe Nie and Yunmeng Jiang (as well as Gusu Lan, though Jiang Wanyin and Wei Wuxian have yet to figure out that Wei Wuxian's antics have a beneficial effect on one Hanguang-jun and thus Sect Leader Lan Xichen - who is of course sworn brother of Nie Mingjue himself as well as Jin Guangyao).

And even if Nie Mingjue still dies (which he likely will, especially if the alliance between Qinghe Nie and Yunmeng Jiang stabilizes), that would only make Nie Huaisang (tragically) more driven. And he'd be less alone, having the support of brothers to get him through it.

Tensions would be so, so, so high because Jiang Wanyin (as the de facto leader) isn't technically politically powerful, but everyone has to concede to him a little anyway because of the sheer pressure the three hold.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #nie huaisang #jiang cheng #jiang wanyin #gusu trio #im pretending to understand cultivator politics #and of course jiang yanli's marriage into lanling jin #jin guangshan's greatest success was isolating wei wuxian the way he did #mdzs spoilers #minor sect head disciple: we're listening to this? #minor sect leader: points at the gleaming red eyes (with nie huaisang seemingly just happy to be there) behind sect leader jiang

[jasontoddiefor]

Is there a single (1) AU where all the sects are more or less hostile with each other? Gusu Lan cutting itself more off while Qishan Wen - and in this AU Lanling Jin too probably - taking over territories of smaller clans.

Rogue Cultivators having a bad rep because too often they’re actually spies and nobody likes a spy.

Just, you know, a world where something like the wangxian first meeting would probably still include sword fighting but more with the actual intention to do semi permanent harm.

#mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #listen I just think I deserve sect politics dialed up to 11 #ideas and aus

[wangxianficrecs]

💙 Stunted, Starving Juvenility by TomatenMark

💙 Stunted, Starving Juvenility

by TomatenMark (@tomatenmark5)

E, WIP, 686k, Wangxian

Summary: At sixteen Wei Wuxian is—through some strange twist of fate, or a nick in the layer between parallel universes, who knows—out of the blue confronted with that one incense burner dream one night. While his curious mind is left unable to stop poking at this new perspective on Lan Wangji, circumstances in the Cloud Recesses begin to change and Wei Wuxian is suddenly presented with life-altering opportunities. Maybe Gusu isn’t so bad after all? (Or alternatively: The fic where I get to give Wei Wuxian the academic scholarship he deserves while simultaneously getting him hitched early on.) Kay's comments: Honestly, if you haven't heard of this fic yet, then you've probably lived under a rock this past year, haven't you? It's definitely The Fic™ and has been for a while now and it's already been recommended a few times by followers already, but I need to give it a personal shout-out as well, because I adore this story. It's living rent-free in my brain and despite already having more than 600k words, I re-read it like every other month and never get tired of it. One of the highlights is definitely TomatenMark's incredible attention to detail. Something will get mentioned once in chapter five and ten chapters later it'll suddenly be a major plot point. I also really adore the numerous characters TomatenMark has added to the story, they are all working so beautifully in the story and I find myself caring for them very much! As for the plot, it's basically a Cloud Recesses canon-divergence where WangXian get together and get married during the lectures and it kickstarts a canon-divergence that looks much better than the original timeline while also staying true to the characters and not sugarcoating things. If you haven't already, you should definitely check this story out! Excerpt: “I regard Lan Zhan highly,” he tried to reassure and Lan Xichen interestedly hummed, prompting him to add, “If I ever make him unhappy in some way I’d be the first to beat myself up over it.” Lan Xichen nodded and twinkled at him but Wei Wuxian didn’t dare to relax. “You seem to be quite dedicated,” the other noted. “And Wangji seems to return the sentiment given how he returned without any protection from the storm when I was quite sure I had seen him leave with his coat that afternoon.” “Ah. Er, yeah, Lan Zhan was so kind as to lend it to me when it started to rain,” Wei Wuxian explained, feeling on edge from the other’s roundabout way of hinting at something Wei Wuxian wasn’t sure he was even knowingly hinting at. “However, I have noticed that your neck was quite bruised when you returned, Wei-gongzi,” Lan Xichen went on. Wei Wuxian’s head snapped up from where he had held it politely lowered before. Lan Xichen’s eyes were overflowing with mirth. He definitely knew what he was hinting at!! “I hope you two didn’t get into a fight?” the Lan sect heir innocently mused and Wei Wuxian felt his resolve break. “Zewu-jun, please don’t torture me like this,” he begged.

pov wei wuxian, canon divergence, cloud recesses study arc, sunshot campaign, getting together, falling in love, first time, first kiss, developing relationship, period-typical homophobia, kink exploration, fluff and angst, cultivation sect politics, genius wei wuxian, inventor wei wuxian, marriage, minor character death, scheming nie huaisang, burning of the cloud recesses, wei wuxian has a family, bad parent jiang fengmian, top lan wangji, bottom wei wuxian

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for this hard-working author if you like – or think others might like – this story.)

#Wangxian Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #MDZS #Kay's Rec #Kay's Favorite #WIP Rec Week #WIP #September 2023 #pov wei wuxian #canon divergence #cloud recesses study arc #sunshot campaign #getting together #falling in love #first kiss #developing relationship #fluff and angst #cultivation sect politics #genius wei wuxian #inventor wei wuxian #marriage #minor character death #scheming nie huaisang #burning of the cloud recesses #wei wuxian has a family #bad parent jiang fengmian #top lan wangji #bottom wei wuxian #TomatenMark

[backpackingspace]

once again I am on my it's hilarious that lan wangji is chief cultivator bs

#The untamed #lan wangji #Cheif cultivator lan wangji #This concept will never not be funny to me #This man has attended maybe 3.5 political events in his life #He walked out of half of those #He has zero interest in politics #He would happily murder 3/4s of the people he now needs to work with bc they were mean to his husband #Is he forcing righteousness onto the other sects now? Absolutely #Is he a good choice given that the last 3 have been mass murders? For sure #Is he going to be any good at this /actually have any interest in doing this? Fuck no #This man avoids 5 assassin attempts a day bc everybody hates him now #Bc doing the right thing often costs money and power and also admitting when you're wrong #Like I actually think he'd be good for this world in general #But also all the politics all the parties he has to attend now? #Hilarious #Everytime I remember that lan wangji is chief cultivator I think about my au where Jiang cheng is instead and I just #Have so many feelings about this

[leatherbookmark]

actually yknow what, yeah jgy’s relationship to the Atrocities he committed IS interesting! it’s just that people are so fucking annoying about them,

#like the tingshan he sect extermination? so fucking unnecessary #and like. 'i warned you over and over again' maybe that's exactly what he wanted to avoid! knowing that jgs would have no scruples ordering #a whole sect thrown to become xy's enrichment #he su was right! jgs Was after becoming wrh 2.0! but in such a situation literally nothing could have been done #even if jgy nobly and heroically refused... he'd die. jgs wouldn't even kick him out of the sect -- despite how powerful the jin sect is; #jgy with his knowledge of jgs's plans would be simply put a threat. he'd die and then he'd be dead and jgy really Really doesn't want to #be dead. therefore: gestures. #like... the sheer Difference between jzx -- beloved best dad and a wife guy but above all a human equivalent of a soggy french fry #what are his political opinions? what kind of a sect leader would he be? what does he think about his father's policies? WE JUST DON'T KNOW #he's perhaps the blandest of the great sects' young masters. he was born blindingly rich and privileged -- all that built on other sects #suffering in whatever meaning of this word; because i don't believe jgs was a benevolent ruler who gave to the poor with a generous hand #-- and he. either is unaware of dgaf. and then you have jgy who has/stands by and watches as people are fiercecorpsified alive #For Nothing. as in i assume there was Something with a jin cultivator -- from what he su says there Was something -- but it was obviously #just a situation artificially engineered for this exact purpose. it's actually fascinatin; the way it all works #because it's... almost 1:1 what the wen/wlj do. fabricate an excuse (wwx being mean to wc/one of the jiang shidis playing with a kite #that looks like the wen symbol) -> intervene -> extreme retaliation in case the offending sect doesn't agree with the intervention #though llj have perfected it because they didn't even 'intervene' as much as 'captured the whole fucking sect' #~60-70 people. this also makes the question of jrs's death so interesting because if you look at the steps above it all checks out! #except it feels a/ needlessly cruel and b/ too... smart? calculating? for someone who's decided to keep sisi alive out of sentiment #on top of that... the timing... it just Doesn't Fit for me! #but if you don't approach it from this angle it just really creates a whole neat vortex of 'hhhhhhholy fuck llj is SO unnecessarily cruel #and horrible and for what! for what!!!' #good luck a-ling!! good luck buddy. #good luck. #shut up shrimp

[lilnasxvevo]

I actually think Lan Jingyi would be such a good Gusu Lan sect leader. I think that if Lan Jingyi, Wen Sizhui, Ouyang Zizhen, and Jin Ling all end up as sect leaders at the same time, the cultivation world has a much better chance than it did before of not being so relentlessly shitty…especially if Nie Huaisang is still around and agrees to behave and work with them.

#i actually think that Lan Jingyi will volunteer to take over as Lan zongzhu while the twin jades are both still alive bc neither of them #actually want to do the job and mostly as a result of not wanting to be there they’re not…great at it? #(and also bc of their shared complete lack of political know how) #so Jingyi is like let me do it because I have so many ideas and they need to be HEARD #and if Ouyang Zizhen is the heir to his sect which like he miiiight be? i think he’s not too far away from taking over #i know cultivators can live a really long time but Ouyang-zongzhu’s gotta be old as fucking BALLS at this point #moreover I just really want Zizhen to be the heir because I think he’d be sooooo so good at it #i have no clue if you’re even allowed to be chief cultivator if you’re not the leader of one of the great sects but I think Zizhen would be #a really great chief cultivator too

[sunderwight]

Yue Qingyuan is a fun character because depending on what angle you look at him from, he is either surprisingly well-adjusted or surprisingly unhinged.

If you're looking at Yue Qingyuan, the composed, reasonable, ever-polite sect leader, you will probably be taken aback by how much of that is just smoke and mirrors. And not just like one layer, either, it's not simple like "beneath that smiling facade he's actually an ambitious asshole" or something, no, beneath the first layer of smoke and mirrors there is another one, and then another one, all piled up and twisted together over a core that is a terrified and starving child. He's like one of those old English pubs where the wood rot is so thorough that it's actually what's keeping the roof from collapsing.

But if you're looking at the former slave child who had to be the biggest, most responsible of a gang of neglected and traumatized urchins, who ran away to become a cultivator only to make a wrong choice that got his entire body and spirit taken apart and put back together again, only to lose the one relationship that mattered to him, then the fact that he's anything other than a weeping mess on the floor is genuinely impressive.

#svsss #scum villain's self saving system #yue qingyuan

[khattikeri]

one of my favorite things about mdzs is that for how heavily its plot involves politics of classism and misogyny... even the characters most directly impacted by it can't and don't free themselves from it. literally the closest exception is mianmian.

meng yao being the "son of a whore" wasn't some sort of commie awakening for him that led him to wanting everyone to be socially equal. he played the political game, climbed the ladders, sucked up to and backstabbed and murdered people, including other prostitutes who actually had nothing to do with how he and his mother were treated at the brothel he grew up in.

he put in so much extra excessive effort for even a fraction of the same respect that members of gentry cultivation clans got. and he did deserve to be treated more humanely! but he feeds into the exact same system that created him, leading to his own undoing.

his efforts were for a fragile upward mobility that was never going to hold up. he never surpassed his origins nor did he empower others in similar stations, because the society he lives in is not one that would accept that.

the second he got caught and all those crimes exposed, he was scapegoated to hell and back, replacing wei wuxian as society's terrible one-sidedly evil boogeyman overnight.

speaking of not-quite male gentry, i think it's interesting that wei wuxian explicitly doesn't try to climb the ladders in BOTH lives, knowing full well that anything he does will be punished just for the sheer fact that he is wei wuxian.

wei wuxian is scolded for giving intelligent and correct answers in school. lan wangji does the same and is praised.

wei wuxian occasionally lounges around with fellow disciples and is punished. jiang cheng does the same and mostly escapes.

wei wuxian refuses to carry his sword around in public (after losing his golden core, which nobody knows) and is scorned as an arrogant upstart. nie huaisang has been doing the EXACT SAME THING for YEARS and nobody bats an eye.

unlike jin guangyao, wei wuxian knew subconsciously from the start that his acceptance was superficial and that he could be cast out any time. when he was 10 and recently taken in by the jiangs, he canonically would not eat or use "too much" food and water because he thought they'd find him a nuisance for "wasting their things" and kick him back out.

now away from just the classism, yu ziyuan is a proud and strong noblewoman in a society that belittles and derides women for everything they do. her strong cultivation doesn't matter. she's victim to the vicious rumors of her husband loving another woman who is strong like her but apparently had a more likeable personality.

it doesn't matter even if jiang fengmian didn't cheat or that wei wuxian is wei changze's son with cangse sanren; yu ziyuan can't bear with the humiliation of herself (and by extension her children) not being "good enough". she's ridiculed for "failing" in that one duty as a wife, mother, and woman.

she lashes out and takes out that anger on everyone present for years, giving her children lasting trauma and also being a key element in how the jiang family and yunmeng jiang sect are effectively wiped out at the hands of the wen clan.

madam jin doesn't even have a name outside of the fact that she's married to jin guangshan. i don't even remember reading anything that indicates if she's a strong or weak cultivator, or what, which in itself proves that to most people, it doesn't matter. she's "just" a woman.

of course she's angry at her husband's affairs and all the bastard children they bring in. but she also can't do anything about them, so she lashes out at the few people she can: servants. non-cultivators, probably. those very same bastard children.

shoutout to meng yao getting shoved down a flight of stairs at age fourteen, because if madam jin tried that move against her husband instead, it would make her lose even more face, which as a noblewoman she'd never do.

and that's not getting into how jiang yanli is consistently sidelined for being physically weak.

that's not getting into how mianmian was actually a good cultivator, but was mocked by everyone around her for trying to stand up for wei wuxian when everyone was turning on him. how everyone scoffed at luo qingyang's words as "just some lovesick woman" who "obviously wants to marry or bed him since he saved her".

luo qingyang is the only one of these characters who HASN'T died. she didn't play society's games like jin guangyao. she didn't dig her heels in confidence of her own abilities like wei wuxian.

she didn't bitterly lash out like yu ziyuan and madam jin. she didn't gently accept it like jiang yanli.

she just LEFT.

she married an ordinary merchant and cultivates separately from mainstream cultivation society, and therein found her own peace and happiness.

mxtx doesn't bother with particularly class conscious or feminist vocabulary to hand-hold readers into understanding these disparities, but that choice highlights them & the deeply entrenched politics of their society even more. i really love it.

#keri chats #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #long post #mdzs spoilers #im novel only but still tagging. #the untamed #cql #yeah yeah everyone's written meta addressing this aspect of the story BUT I THINK ABOUT IT ALL THE TIMEEEEE #maybe i just don't get to read a ton of books often; esp not ones that mirror my own culture. but it's just so. soooooo. augh #the fact that the setting itself enables so much of the tragedy in mdzs... which is true of all tragedies but STILL... #this isn't even getting into qin su and the power imbalance w her and jgy post-reveal... man. #man. so much going on here. man #THIS POST IS MESSY AND BARELY EDITED BUT IF U READ IT. ILU