#it occurs to me that also jyl would probably bond more with lwj too

[veliseraptor]

AU where Yanli survives, and/or, she survives but Jiang Cheng gets killed instead (~~~disaster)

Oh boy. I decided to go with an AU where Yanli survives and Jiang Cheng doesn’t, because I’ve seen at least some of the former (have read a few!) and haven’t actually seen the latter. 

So, first off, absent Jiang Yanli’s death it is a little harder to imagine Wei Wuxian killing himself (since I think the one-two combo of her dying and Jiang Cheng blaming him for it is what really shoves him over the (in CQL, literal) edge) but I can see two ways clear to doing it anyway - one where he thinks Jiang Yanli is dead and knows Jiang Cheng is, or one where Jiang Yanli is crying over Jiang Cheng’s body and is not paying attention to Wei Wuxian such that he interprets, as you do, rejection in the face of this ultimate violation of their siblinghood. 

I realized as I wrote this that I don’t actually have to kill Wei Wuxian, but I think I kinda do - even if he survives Nightless City (as in the novel), the Siege of the Burial Mounds is still likely to go poorly even with Jiang Yanli there (no one’s going to listen to her), and even if he makes it out of that...he’s just very unlikely to continue to make it out alive, even if he weren’t imploding on every level already.

So anyway! Moving on from there, the number one consequence of this outcome is that the Jiang Sect? It’s gone. Like, for sure by the time Wei Wuxian resurrects, but probably well before then Jin Guangshan moves in and just kind of...absorbs it. And he can make it like he’s doing them a favor, he’s just protecting them with their lack of a sect leader, and it only makes sense since Jiang Yanli - the last remaining living member of the Jiang family - is his son’s widow...but everyone knows what he’s doing. No one has the ability to stop him, though. But this does throw the balance of power even further out of balance, making the Jin Sect by far the most powerful and wealthiest of the sects to an even greater extent (by dint of absorbing all the Jiang resources and having one fewer power to contend with). 

Jiang Yanli in this universe, meanwhile? Not happy. She’s been widowed, her brothers are both dead, she’s watching her former sect get swallowed up by the Jin Sect and she doubts Jin Guangshan’s motives are as nice as he’s acting like they are. I think this is a verse where Jiang Yanli does get very disillusioned with the world around her, with the people around her. 

All Jiang Yanli wanted was for her family to stay together, and she watched them fall apart. She would’ve sacrificed herself for either of her brothers, and they both wound up dead. I think there is an anger and a bitterness that develops in her that doesn’t ever in canon.

She channels a lot of energy into Jin Ling, to be sure. Into taking care of Jin Ling, into raising him to be the best man he can be, into countering the spoiling influences of the people around him. She pours...not all of her love, but a lot of it, into him. But she also has a lot of practice in getting willful children to behave. 

But you know who this might bring her closer to? Who she might end up growing closer with, a widow alone in Jinlintai with a new baby? Jin Guangyao, honestly. I can see Jiang Yanli striking up a relationship with Jin Guangyao - he’s smart, he’s earnest, he’s hard-working, Jin Zixuan seemed to like him, and he’s unfailingly polite. 

Meanwhile, Jiang Yanli is warm, generally kind, accepting of people as they are, would never insult him on the basis of his heritage, and absolutely lets him hold Jin Ling. 

Jin Guangyao likes this woman, it turns out. 

He doesn’t tell her the truth, of course, but she’s up there with Lan Xichen and Qin Su as far as people to whom he shows his best self. And this also means, I bet, that Jiang Yanli ends up friends with Qin Su.

Which also means, possibly, that instead of directly going to confront Jin Guangyao when she finds out the truth, Qin Su would seek out her friend, instead. 

But well before that - the other real ripple effect here is: if Wei Wuxian, resurrected, runs into Jin Ling and hears him mention his mother, and figures out (as he does in canon) who his mother is...there is no force on earth that would keep him from beelining directly for Jinlintai to see his shijie. 

Which really creates some problems as far as Nie Huaisang’s murder mystery goes, because Wei Wuxian crashing into the middle of Jinlintai screaming “SHIJIE!!!!!” is not exactly, uh, helpful in terms of bringing Jin Guangyao’s crimes to light.

(Also I am sad about Jiang Cheng being dead here. Someone bring that boy back as a fierce corpse already, or something.)

#stripedroseandsketchpads #conversating #five headcanons meme #this is SO late #but i had to mull this over for a while #the untamed #the sad queer cultivators show #jiang yanli #is mostly who this ended up being about #it occurs to me that also jyl would probably bond more with lwj too #though possibly they would be distanced by virtue of jgs efforts #and lwj's general isolation #but the mental image of them bonding is cute and would mitigate some of her loneliness