#how mu qing was treated was wrong but xie lian is literally the only person who DOESN'T treat him like garbage | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

pharahsgf · 1 year

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what's your take on mu qing and xie lian's friendship/feud? i've seen ppl call mq a piece of shit for what he did/the way he acts, and also ppl say that xl is an extremely privileged and selfish person for the way he reacted. personally the only takes that don't annoy me are ones that sit in the middle. they're both messy and dramatic with each other. best friends

oof it's been a little bit since i've thought about this for long but... i think the class imbalance, and xie lian's subsequent failure to respect + understand mu qing, is the root cause of the discord within their relationship, but this problem is greatly exacerbated by mu qing's personality and inability to communicate his grievances until it's too late. like. all of those people are right, xie lian really is privileged and often selfish in how he treats mu qing (especially in book 4 lmao g-d) but mu qing is also a piece of shit who will lie or make things worse for literally no reason (i'm saying this very fondly btw i love comrade mu qing. but he is such a bitch.)

imo you are completely right, they're both messy and they deserve each other. xie lian cares for mu qing but has no idea what the fuck he's doing or why he's mad 99% of the time and mu qing loves xie lian but doesn't want to admit it because he isn't even confident that they're actually friends. what is wrong with them ♡

#replies #anonymous #xl: i am the world's greatest detective. i will solve heaven's greatest mysteries w one glance or less. perceptiveness thy name is xie lian #also xl: idk why mu qing is so upset about the earring thing :/ it is a mystery

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puns-parce · 2 years

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YOOOO I just listened to Happier Than Ever for once (instead of just that one clip) and the ending of of it just makes me think of how Xie Lian and Hua Cheng wronged my favorite Xian Le trio. aka, Feng Xin, Mu Qing, and Qi Rong.

Side note - I do like Xie Lian's character and I like a lot of Hua Cheng's lines but this will be sorta critical and riddled with some headcanons and inferences since the book is obviously centered on the main characters and sometimes doesn't fully explain side characters' emotions and what not!

MQ and QR haters probably won't like this one but to explain-

You scared me to death but I'm wasting my breath / 'Cause you only listen to your fucking friends

I see this as all 3 of them. For Mu Qing and Feng Xin, it's obvious. They worry frequently about their friend because he's hanging around a ghost king who is...frankly, pretty unpredictable to others and capable of horrible, horrible things. with and without cause. and xie lian listens to HC more than them at this point, which obviously stings since they want to be his friends and try to help him as much as they can. For Qi Rong, I see it as him trying to hold Xie Lian accountable for leaving him behind and letting him die in Xian Le at the hands of...anyone really (which was ofc a scary experience for a young man) but he knows it's a waste. Xie Lian already doesn't like him and anything Hua Cheng says Xie Lian will generally trust and HC hates QR.

I don't relate to you no / 'Cause I'd never treat me this sh-tty / You made me hate this city

THIS i see as Qi Rong finally, as a ghost, coming to the realization that he finds no relation to his cousin anymore. Any closeness, any love is gone. Xie Lian abandoned him, kept him in the dark, berated him. He'd never do that to himself, much less to Xie Lian. And now? Now he doesn't even have his home - he hates Xian Le. It's a reminder of all he had and all he lost - it's a reminder of what his cousin did to him. Or, more accurately, what his cousin never cared enough to do for him.

And I don't talk sh-t about you on the internet / Never told anyone anything bad / 'Cause that sh-t's embarrassing, you were my everything / And all that you did was make me f-cking sad

First off the number of swear's in this is totally on brand for FX who swears when he gets worked up. Second off, it's so PERFECT. Hua Cheng essentially accuses Feng Xin of abandoning XL when XL told him to leave. FX was trying to be loyal, and he never talked bad about the crown prince. Sure, he might have had moments of frustration but he'd never talk bad about Xie Lian. Meanwhile, Xie Lian wallows and it begins to seem more like FX abandoned him - which wasn't the case. That's such a depressing thing to know when XL was his everything, he was ready to serve XL to the bitter end. Endlessly loyal to the prince, even if it hurt.

So don't waste time I don't have / Don't try to make me feel bad

Mu Qing, sure he wanted to be Xie Lian's friend. But if Xie Lian is going to keep let Hua Cheng spoon feed him any words and say it's the truth, then he's too busy. He's suffered too - Xie Lian is not the only one who was hurt. Mu Qing is too mature to keep being guilt tripped or have his time wasted by a person that values the opinion of someone that sees him as an irredeemable traitor over a centuries old mistake over the opinion of someone they claim is their close friend

I could talk about every time that you showed up on time / But I'd have an empty line / 'Cause you never did

Another Qi Rong part! I see this as young Rong'er literally waiting for Xie Lian to come visit or talk to him and growing more bitter as he realizes he just doesn't matter. And probably also young Rong'er being beaten, tortured, or killed in the downfall of Xian Le and waiting for his cousin to show up and save him. But he never does.

Never paid any mind to my mother or friends so I / Shut 'em all out for you 'cause I was a kid

Mu Qing's frustration as a human at sticking around to help Xie Lian and his family (longer than he should have tbh) when he could be taking care of his own blind mother, who was also likely impacted by the fall of Xian Le. He was endlessly patient with Xie Lian and so generous in giving his time to Xie Lian, but reflecting back on it he realizes how selfish the crown prince really was, creating that silent sense that he expected Mu Qing to stick around and help (even if he didn't mean to)

You ruined everything good / Always said you were misunderstood / Made all my moments your own

Feng Xin and Mu Qing reflecting on how Xie Lian more or less threw away the kingdom of Xian Le pretty much in an attempt to prove his philosophy correct and, while well intentioned, it was heavily warned against by many. And afterwards it seems like Xie Lian is so misunderstood, so hated by fate...when, in a way...he brought it upon himself. He had received warning from the Guoshi, from Mu Qing, from everyone but he still chose to go through with it out of youthful arrogance and stubbornness and dragged everyone down with him. He made their moments - their futures - his own. He dragged them down with him (but luckily Mu Qing had the guts to take his future, his moment back and Feng Xin was lucky enough to stay to a point where Xie Lian simply dismissed him) and took the path they were supposed to walk together, fracturing it in his attempts to change fate even when many told him it would only cause more harm than good

Just f-cking leave me alone

ever notice how most of the times qi rong has an appearance it's because hc or xl are seeking him out or dragging him along? sure he's troublesome but so is hc. but no one tries to challenge him or force him to change course or try to hurt him. and aside from the issue with xuan ji and him stealing the farmers from Rain Master, we don't really see a point in time where he...creates a large mess meant to hurt many? he just wants to function on his own, walk his own path. but hualian come and regularly f-ck sh-t up for him.

#qi rong #tgcf #mu qing #Feng xin #Xie lian #hua Cheng #in this essay I will-#anyways I do like Xie lian #but i feel like a lot of his mistakes or consequences of his actions aren't addressed as...being CONSEQUENCES of HIS ACTIONS #if that makes sense? like it feels more like ':( poor xie lian look at all his bad luck'#which yes he does have bad luck #but also he did mess up quite a bit and it's important that he did because characters need flaws!!#i just wish they were addressed more often for stuff other than xie lian suffering for a whole book or for comedic effect you know?#anyways fx mq and qr supremacy my favorite xian Le boys <3 #this has been in my drafts for a while. subtle fear of hitting publish but here we go

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lanchang · 3 years

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one of the things that pisses me off with the novels is how class inequality is handled w/ MQ,like yeah everyone treats him with suspicion,pity or as a weird exotic trinket and after a certain point he snaps and leaves,he literally has to pull himself by his bootstraps to get somewhere,now let's disregard all of that backstory and have people(HC and FX)mistreat him for the lols,like idk esp with HC it makes me uncomfortable how the narrative treats this whole thing(nonsensical rambling,sorry)

oh yeah it sucks like the broom thing is actually cruel everyone disregards his feelings and mocks him for something that was completely out of his control and i really do feel so bad for him like he really did work so hard and he does have a good heart and he just doesnt get the respect he deserves and has earned. unfortunately i think it makes a lot of sense that he is mistreated in that way. i have problems with the way tgcf handles certain aspects of its story, but for the most part not this one tbh. it is common for people from a poor background to be looked on like that, even when theyve been able to climb out of it (and not to discredit mu qing's hard work, but this pretty much only happens with the help of someone from a higher status. and thats unfair and it shouldnt be like that but it is often the case!!)

classism is real like that and the way its depicted with mu qing shows it pretty well imo even way back in the flashbacks like the other disciples at the palace who bully him for the cherry picking thing and pretty much just say "wow look at this guy taking food to feed his poor family" when there is LITERALLY nothing wrong with that in any way at all its not even like the cherries are off limits its just cherries. its not morally wrong it at all and its not against the rules but they just dont like him and they use the fact that he's a servant and poor against him. its not right!! but it does happen. and even 800 years later despite mu qing ascending he was still once a kid from a poor neighborhood and while maybe not everyone knows that anymore, it never stops being true.

its interesting to me that both he and hua cheng came from pretty similar backgrounds (although hc also had the whole being cursed thing etc. also i desperately wish his background in xianle and in the 800 years was expanded on more it BOGGLES my mind that mxtx just took those details about him out im like PUT IT BACK IN!!! i know this thing is xie lian's pov but come on pleasepleaseplease) but they have such an antagonistic relationship with each others. obviously a huge difference is the way they interact with xie lian its such an interesting contrast that hc just adores him completely while mq was actually his friend but also his servant so he had a much more complicated relationship with him (this is also why im more invested in the trio than i am in hua/lian, i love complexity and i dont find the simply devoted thing that compelling in the long run. there are still things about them that i think are impactful and i do relate to aspects of it, but to me personally it feels like an incomplete story) i dont much to say on that right now, its something i want to pay attention to in my reread because i do think its interesting. on the one hand sometimes people from similar backgrounds like that can stick together and understand each other. on the other hand sometimes they can judge each other harsher than anyone else because of how theyve internalized things also in general i think sometimes we can judge people who are similar to us quite a bit because we think we know better than them

this ended up being so long and i just dumped all my thoughts on you sorry!! 😅😅😅 this is part of the story i do find really interesting its part of why mu qing is such a fave of mine theres a lot going on and for all that he often says the wrong thing in the wrong way, he's much more aware of how the world works than the other two because he's lived it and hes right!! when he does leave he's right!! everything he says that they need to do to survive xl and fx end up doing after he leaves he was right!! and after 800 years he still gets everything thrown back in his face it isnt right!!! but i do unfortunately think that its very real </3

#HELP this took me half and hour to write why did i think i could do it quickly #but its about mq im so not immune to talking about him forever #ty for this ask btw i think this part of the story is really fascinating tbh #okay back to dilf fx mode <3 #ask #tgcf spoilers #long post

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