#it's actually lxc who brings up a him first lol

[jaimebluesq]

I'm very interested in several but especially sangcheng coup

This was another idea I'd had for the SangCheng minibang that I started to write and decided would end up too long for the bang (and considering my current word count will come to just under 50k, I wonder if it would have been fine lol). I do like it and think it might be fun to finish one day!

But the idea of the fic is a canon-divergence set shortly after Nie Mingjue's death. The Nie sect is a very martial sect, and NHS was hit very hard by his brother's death, and several Nie cousins get together and decide NHS will not make a good sect leader. They plan a coup, starting with NHS leaving the Unclean Realm to go into town escorted by a disciple loyal to the rebels, who will lead him to a place where an assassin waits.

The assassination attempt fails - NHS may be a shit fighter but he can get away and hide like nobody's business! But then there are people trying to find him, meanwhile the Unclean Realm has closed itself to outsiders while the rebels decide who among them will lead Qinghe Nie. Word spreads to the other sects of what happened and LXC and JGY go out to search for NHS, both worried about him, and they send word to Yunmeng Jiang.

JC gets the news and is in shock, has so many conflicting emotions because he and NHS haven't seen each other much since the war, but this was his friend once, and this isn't *right*. He tries to keep apprised of the search efforts, but no NHS in sight. He remembers their days in Gusu and remembers one drunken night, NHS telling him about a place he likes to go to to get away from everyone, including his brother, and on a whim, JC grabs Sandu and leaves to go there. He arrives just in time because a group of mercenaries (several had been hired by QHN, mundanes rather than cultivators, because they figured NHS wouldn't give them much of a fight) were about to find NHS and he fights them off, then brings him to Yunmeng with him.

After that there are a few directions it might go, I have a general idea, but will decide when I get to writing more of it. I *do* have the first scene written, however :D

~~~

“So, are we all in agreement?”

“I wish there was another way-”

“There isn't, not if we want to preserve our sect's way of life.”

“I know. I just don't like it.”

“None of us do. We've all watched Nie-gongzi grow up under our noses. We don't bear him any ill will, but we've also seen him avoid saber training at every turn, watched him duck out of any and every responsibility, and since Nie Mingjue's death, he's been absolutely useless to anyone.”

“He's grieving.”

“Aren't we all? And yet there is still a sect to run, training to manage, trade deals to sign. How much longer can we wait for our sect to have a real leader in the Unclean Realm?”

“Have we figured out yet what we're going to do about Lanling, Gusu, and Yunmeng? The smaller sects will keep their opinions to themselves, but the larger ones...”

“I don't think Yunmeng will be an issue – Jiang-zongzhu's kept to himself since the Yiling Laozu's death, barely interacts with the other sects except when it comes to trade negotiations and cultivation conferences – and his nephew. Jin-zongzhu is taken care of – we have a man in Lanling that, the moment word arrives of Qinghe's change in leadership, will speak to him on our behalf.”

“But Lianfang-zun-”

“Has no influence over his father. As long as Lanling profits, Jin Guangshan won't care who's in charge.”

“And Zewu-Jun? He won't be appeased with money or trade promises.”

“Zewu-Jun folds when offered alcohol at a banquet, do you really think he has enough conviction to stand against us?”

“Nie Mingjue would hate us for what we're planning.”

“Nie Mingjue is <i>gone</i>, as is his father, and every other leader we've had. How many have we lost in the last twenty, thirty years? We go through leaders like Jin-zongzhu goes through whores. Maybe replacing the main line will help us actually keep a sect leader alive for more than a decade.”

“So... we're really going to do this.”

“Does anyone have any doubts left? We can't afford to hesitate. The moment we start this, there's no going back.”

“I'm in – for Qinghe Nie.”

“As am I.”

“My brother and I are both on board.”

“I'm in, but my sister won't like this one bit.”

“Well, if our assassin does their job right, it won't be traced to us. Your sister and any other loyalists will be none the wiser.”

“And if the assassin fails?”

“Then we lock down the Unclean Realm until we've established order and a new sect leader emerges.”

“May whoever of us is strongest earn victory over the rest, and may Qinghe prosper under their leadership.”

“Either way, when Nie Huaisang leaves this fortress tomorrow, he won't be coming back...”

~*~*~*~

#sangcheng #my wips #coup in qinghe

[aschenn]

Seeking advice

#the untamed #theuntamededit #fytheuntamed #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #lan xichen #jiang yanli #mygif #cqlgif #a bunch of quick observations concerning lwj and lxc's conversation #in the original cql subs lwj does not talk about a him #he talks about a person #gender neutral #it's actually lxc who brings up a him first lol #also in the novel lwj is the one saying wwx #might be unwilling to go #not lxc #we love siblings who know everything #on wwx and jyl's side nothing to say #only pure fluff and love there #cry #i'm not a fan of this kind of format but it should still be readable or so i hope gvhbjn

[gloriousmonsters]

I'm you're still doing the ask meme can we hear about Blorbo from your shows? Tragic lack of good Su Minshan content in this fandom.

one aspect about them i love

absolute king for disrupting the entire plot with an unrelated personal grudge. the beauty of the Hundred Holes Curse being revealed, WWX being like 'why did you do that? I've never done anything to you, hell I've never even met you before to my knowledge' and SMS just being like 'yeah because not everything is about you, I cursed jzx for personal reasons, dumbass' lives on in my heart.

(also cherished of my heart in that scene: the exchange where LXC is like 'why do you dislike Wangji :(' and SMS is like 'wHy Do i DiSLikE LaN wANgJi do I need a fucking permit to not like Lan Wangji? HE'S AN ASSHOLE')

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

so i just spent most of the day ranting about some particularly egregious things 😂 because in my perusal of the sms tag on here and ao3 and my occasional forays to twitter i have seen about every possible bad take known to man. On a general level I just want people to comprehend that he's a complex character who's clearly, like jgy and xy, meant to be a mix of villainous and sympathetic, and not Flat Joke Villain #9. I would just like people to acknowledge he has aspects at all, lol.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Moling loves him. I like to write it as a merchantile-heavy city that never had a comfortable relationship with the 'we are above earthly things' Great Sect nearest to them, and didn't have any smaller sect in the area, so when one of their own came back and set up a new sect instead of staying at that stuck-up Lan sect a lot of people were into it. Also in the bent of 'things from the earlier draft aren't true unless i like them', I generally keep as canon the detail that sms did well during the Sunshot campaign (look, he was almost suicidally depressed during that time and life loves giving him exactly what he doesn't want atm. him actually winning some shit by trying to throw himself into unwinnable fights feels like exactly the black comedy his teen years were made of) and hc that it was close enough to Moling that a lot of people are impressed by that as well. not to mention he has connections to the Jin, which bring more money into town! Absolute local legend. Only flaw is that he keeps turning down suggestions of marriage, but we can live with that.

essentially, you know how the Moling Su disciples start fighting with the Lan disciples in that one scene about 'WELL, MAYBE HE'S GREAT ACTUALLY, COULD YOU START A SECT'? the whole city of Moling is Like That.

one character i love seeing them interact with

...jin guangyao. i mean, can i put anyone else. when i type 'e' into my browser bar it defeatedly directs me to Untamed Episode 26 because I have rewatched jgy and sms' first meeting for the seratonin so many times. It's just so good to see JGY being polite and considerate to him, and sms first reacting with shock and then Insane Levels of Devotion (I usually talk book version more, but shout out to Feng Cong for nailing this facial progression in CQL, watching him as SMS going from distress to confusion to more confusion to slowly dawning joy is so good.) And the later Moments Indicating Long-Held Intimacy between them are. Really something, I think about SMS taking the bottle out of JGY's hand because JGY is struggling with it and giving him the medicine, and JGY giving him the medicine packet later (shoutout to CQL for turning that into a whole period-romance-level hand focus moment), not to mention sms bandaging his shoulder with strips from his own robes, d a i l y.

writing this, I love how much of their intimacy is based in wounds and the care thereof? jgy receives a loooot of casual and not-so casual violence in the narrative and rarely receives any sort of care for it (the only other person who tends his wounds onscreen is uh... lxc, who immediately follows it up by stabbing him) so sms' attentiveness to his physical damage and pain, and clear familiarity with is almost a shocking level of care and intimacy. just. jin guangyao gets his arm cut off and su minshan screams. jgy is out of medicine because, presumably, he gave the last of it to sms just a few minutes ago. i'm on to something here. or possibly just having a breakdown. give me a minute.

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

I put wishing for more sms-xy interaction on xy's question, so for this one I'll put that (book canon) I'd kill to see him run into mianmian again. CQL canon, I wouldn't have minded a few more scenes with LXC or LQR back in the day.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

more CQL flavor, but him and lan wangi actually got along well (?) for a little while when they were kids. literally all it consisted of was that they silently worked in the library around the same time and one time sms passed him an inkstone, but they're both people that feel the concept of Parallel Play Work Counts As Social Interaction in their souls. this only contributes to sms being even more pissed at lwj for not getting over his whole betrayal moment, and lwj being more angry about sms failing morally, and also some people being very confused about how intensely both of them treat their Grudge™ despite apparently? never speaking? you weren't actually friends or anything right? (lwj: he passed me an inkstone wwx: is that slang for something i don't know or-- sms: i passed him something once! we had a silent understanding! xy: you are completely insane)

#su she #su minshan #replies #character meme #and you're right there's a severe blorbo content deficit in this fandom #the headcanon's mainly just a funny one bc i had 'i have so many i know can't focus on any or pick one' problems sldifjds

[besanii]

love the paper thin verse!! the angst is delicious. would love to see more XiXian, maybe a moment where lxc realizes he might have caught feelings?

[ following this ]

There is no pomp, no circumstance, no ceremony nor celebration. All anyone knows is that one day Wei Wuxian is held in guarded custody at the Imperial palace, and the next he is leaving the Emperor's chambers a consort clad in Gusu blue, with Imperial jewels in his hair.

Scandalous, some murmur. Seducing the Emperor so brazenly.

Betrayal, say others. To trample over Hanguang-wang's affection so soon after his death.

Only Lan Xichen knows how bitterly Wei Wuxian had wept when the news had arrived, how his legs had given out from beneath him and he had crumpled to the floor like a puppet without its strings. How he had curled in on himself with a broken cry before lashing out at anyone who dared to approach; how he had to be restrained, bound and gagged like an animal to his bed so he could not injure himself or others in his grief. 

It was partly pity, perhaps, and guilt that moved Lan Xichen to make the offer. Lan Wangji is—was—his brother, his most loyal and steadfast subject amongst the treachery of the court, who had died without hesitation to protect the Empire and Lan Xichen. And Wei Wuxian was the only person Lan Wangji had loved as much as the Empire. It would only be right for Lan Xichen to honour his brother’s sacrifice by saving the one he loved.

"Let me help you," he'd said.

Wei Wuxian had looked at him through lifeless eyes.

"Why?"

"For Wangji, if nothing else," he'd answered honestly, and sees something flicker across his face. "Wangji would want you to be safe."

After a long moment, Wei Wuxian had nodded and Lan Xichen drew up the decree almost immediately, conferring upon him the title of xuanyi. Propagator of Deportment. Wei Wuxian had snorted at the irony when he first heard it.

"It is a little on the nose, perhaps," Lan Xichen had admitted.

Wei Wuxian had shaken his head and offered him a wavering, watery smile as he bends his knees for the first time.

"Your concubine thanks Huangshang for his generosity."

--

He isn't too sure what he had expected of Wei Wuxian as a consort. What he had known about him as a person stemmed almost entirely from a handful of short conversations and watching him with Lan Wangji—as such, he had half-expected to be kept busy with constant chatter and attempts at flouting the constrictive etiquette of the inner palace.

But the Wei Wuxian he gets, the Wei Wuxian after Lan Wangji's death—Wei Wuxian the consort—is a model of propriety. He smiles politely and offers pleasant, unoffending conversation, presenting to the world every bit of the good breeding that has been instilled in him since birth. He charms the other consorts into friendships and earns the respect of his servants almost immediately with his good humour and generous hand. Even Lan Qiren, the notoriously strict and conservative Imperial Tutor, cannot find fault in his behaviour.

But there are brief moments when the smiles slip just a fraction and his eyes grow unfocused; a tremble appears in the corner of his mouth and in his long fingers. In those moments, brief as they are, Lan Xichen thinks he can see the depth of his grief, and something twinges deep inside his chest—in pity, perhaps, or sympathy. Guilt.

So he does his best to make him happy: he gifts him an antique flute, carved of the finest jade by the greatest artisan over three hundred years ago, and allows him to play with the court musicians; he brings him books and tools and paper, and offers him unlimited access to the Imperial libraries. He is aware these are poor substitutes for what he could have had, that he can never give Wei Wuxian what he truly desires. But Wei Wuxian brightens a little with each gift, each new little sliver of freedom, and it eases the ache in Lan Xichen's heart.

It is only right, he tells himself. I am only doing right by Wangji by taking care of him.

“Huangshang, may your concubine speak bluntly?” his Empress murmurs one night as she pours him tea. He picks up the teacup.

"Qiongyue, you are my wife,” he reminds her with a smile. “When we are alone, you may forgo the formalities and speak your mind.”

Nie Qiongyue inclines her head.

“Then, Fujun, Qiongyue will speak freely.” She folds her hands together and sets them on the table in front of her. “Is Fujun truly doing this for Wangji’s sake, or because you want Wei Wuxian to be happy—with you?”

--

“Huangshang,” Eunuch Wang murmurs from his place at Lan Xichen’s elbow. “Will we be joining Wei-xuanyi and Hanguang-wang in the pavilion?”

He watches from afar as Lan Wangji approaches the pavilion, sees the outline of Wei Wuxian’s profile as he turns and makes his way to the stairs. From this distance, he cannot hear what they are saying, or even make out their faces with much clarity, but he already has a fairly good idea.

His fingers brush against the pendant hanging from his belt. The wood is smooth and polished, carved into the shape of a dragon amidst the flowing cloud insignia of the Imperial family.

A gift, Huangshang. A token of your concubine’s devotion.

Up ahead, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji have moved further into the pavilion and appear to be deep in conversation; they stand several feet apart with Wei Wuxian’s retinue around them. To any other person, they would appear as little more than cordial acquaintances. 

Lan Xichen exhales through his nose; he tells himself it is not out of relief.

“No,” he decides. “We will return to the Imperial study.”

Eunuch Wang and the rest of his retinue bow.

“Yes, Huangshang.”

--

Translations

Fujun (夫君) - old-fashioned/archaic form of “husband”

--

buy me a ko-fi!

more paper-thin fic | verse

--

Notes

Nie Qiongyue is the OC I used in shattered mirrors for LXC’s Empress, because why create a new one OC when I have a perfectly good one to use right there?

(hey, imagine if this was like...an AU of SM if WWX had not left for Yunmeng and the war was actually with Dongying and not Qishan. food for thought.)

Anyway, I said I didn’t know where I’m going with this but here you go anyway ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’m thinking we just keep this to feelings and angst and leave out the plotty stuff this time lol...I’m saving my plot juices to finish off SM for now.

#my writing #mdzs #wangxian #xixian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan xichen #paper thin fic #薄命 #王爺機 x 妃子羡 #皇帝曦 x 妃子羡 #consort!wwx #emperor!lxc #duke!lwj #lan wangji x wei wuxian #lan xichen x wei wuxian #🔪🔪 #harem au #imperial au

[bewareof12metersfrogs]

Warning: long rant. Probably messed up grammar. Not LXC-friendly.

So Pinterest gave me this:

And I was like

Ah yes, Lan Xichen.

I mean, I love that guy, but oh gosh that man is BLIND. Like, man's so blind Xue Yang could use him to slaughter people.

(I'm so sorry for that joke)

I really loved him when I first read the book, esp pre-Nightless City, but then I read it for the second (and third) time and that love turned into "uhh, I guess I kinda like him?"

I mean, in Sunshot Campaign arc, NMJ just got freaking tortured. He just got beaten, made to watch his men die, and his former deputy "betrayed" him -- and then LXC was just like, "oh da-ge CALM down, this is all part of OUR plan, A-Yao's our spy lol put Baxia away don't shout at him smh"

Why didn't LXC say to NMJ that the whole thing had been orchestrated? Okay, I get it, maybe he couldn't risk JGY getting caught, but couldn't he just tell NMJ, "hey, this is the plan. You're gonna get caught at Yangquan by WRH and our spy will take care of the rest of it" ? I'm pretty sure NMJ was angrier about his men getting slaughtered than himself getting beaten. NMJ is kinda like WWX; they were both idiots, but they cared about their people. Pretty sure he cared more about his men than himself. If he knew about the "plan", he'd most likely bring the disciples who were ready to die.

THEN LXC just went to NMJ like, "Hey let's be sworn brothers!". Xichen, dude, his wounds aren't even healed. I mean, it's a bit insensitive right?? I think it is. The whole sworn-brotherhood-right-after-shunshot-campaign thing still bothers me. To me, it seems like no one cared about NMJ. I mean, he was the leader of SC, people used his skills, his men, his everything, and then he was just, like, casted aside?? Pretty sure man's got PTSD. Also, qi deviation. Oh gosh I forgot about qi deviation.

Anyway, yeah, LXC was blind throughout the novel. I won't talk about the scene where Wangxian tried to tell him that A-Yao = bad, but I will talk about the scene where NHS decided to "use" his er-ge to kill his san-ge. Was it intentional? Perhaps. Was NHS lying? Maybe. Was it bad? Absolutely. Was it expected? Of course.

Let's put ourselves in NHS' shoes for a second. Your big bro, who is also the one who raised you and the only family you have left, died. People are quacking "oh it's the Nie curse, and isn't it such a tragedy?" BUT NO! One day you be minding your own business and then BAM you found out that da-ge'd been murdered and mutilated AND betrayed. So you started scheming for like a decade. Everything was going great, as great as a 10 years revenge plan could ever be. You just gotta wait for a few more hours, you just gotta listen to your nemesis' retelling his sad background story, you just gotta endure the pain of seeing your dead big bro wrecking havoc, and you'd have your revenge.

Then of course your er-ge, your big bro's best friend, gotta help your big bro's killer. He just gotta treat his wounds, huh? Pretty sure NHS was unstable. He was desperate and maybe even full of wrath. I understand that, at least, the same way I understand that maybe LXC tried to treat JGY's wounds because he still saw him as his brother -- he didn't want to lose another brother. But how about NHS? He was watching the man whom he thought was his brother treating the man who betrayed and murdered his actual brother. NHS was being a dick, yeah, but it was expected.

Think about this for a second. NMJ's corpse was still right there (and gosh, NHS had to sew his big bro's corpse by himself). NHS was RIGHT there, and LXC had the audacity to tend to JGY's wounds after the man himself admitted to his crimes. I think it's understandable if NHS felt at least insulted.

Also, he was perhaps sick of people not thinking that his big brother was as important as other people, that he was also a human being instead of just a war machine or even a mere tool that can be casted aside whenever they want to. Why did his brother have to die because of other people's greed and selfish decisions? Why did he have to lose the only family he had left forever and why did he have to just sit back and accept it?

Most importantly, LXC had been too blind for more than a decade too long.

Also, the bit about "You're Wangji's only mistake":

Bruh.

If WWX is LWJ's only mistake, then (trusting) LXC is NMJ's only mistake. I mean, sure, WWX is as dumb and oblivious as a rock, but can you really blame him?? HE WAS TRYING TO KEEP HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY, AND THE WEN REMNANTS ALIVE, DUDE'S GOT NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT FKING ROMANCE.

Sorry, I got carried away.

Anyway, are we just gonna ignore the fact that LWJ had been acting like he hated WWX since, like, the first time they met?? I mean, I really love LWJ, but his only mistake is his communication skills (or lack thereof).

But LWJ never gave up on WWX. He learned to express himself way better. Man's got dedication and he's not afraid to learn. I really love that about him.

Also, I understand that LXC was angry because LWJ took beatings to protect WWX, but I don't think he had the right to blame WWX for that. Yes, I know WWX did plenty of things wrong; he was extremely reckless and untrusting, but he never asked LWJ to protect him. LWJ did everything voluntarily. Ffs Xichen WWX didn't even know that LWJ did that. You know why? CAUSE HE WAS FKING DYING THAT'S WHY.

TLDR: LWJ was a grown ass man.

Okay. So, do I hate LXC? No. But do I find him flawed? Yes. But that's why I like MXTX's characters, including WRH, JGY, and LXC (the only exception are perhaps JGS and MXY's fam, and I think we all know why). They all have flaws. For me, LXC is too naive and blind, JGY is too power-hungry and selfish, and NMJ is too stubborn and unyielding. NHS? Well, he's a lot of things. He's manipulative, unsympathetic, and IMO he's got a problem with obsession too. He and JGY are alike, in my opinion. The main difference is their goals: JGY seeks power, NHS seeks revenge.

Everyone has flaws. LWJ and WWX have flaws too; they're EXTREMELY flawed. Heck, even our lord and saviour Shijie also has flaws, as much as it hurts me to type that.

Then why do I get so worked up about LXC's flaws? Honestly I don't really know. Maybe it's because I'm tired of (almost) the entirety of fandom treating him like a god, maybe because I'm tired of people who treat NHS like the devil himself, or maybe because I'm disappointed in him. I mean, JGY's our main villain, but I still love him so much. Heck, I love him even more than I love LXC. Bruh, nowadays I even like WRH more. At least that guy is downright evil and he looks cool while doing whatever evil things WRH does (I'm talking about the novel and donghua mmkay).

Anyway, this is the end of my rant. I apologise if I'm offending you, this is just something that's been bothering me since the first time I re-read MDZS. This whole thing is like a plot bunny but instead of a "plot", the bunny is shaped like a "rant". This is a rant bunny. I need to get this outta my head. I've edited this thing like four times already because I keep finding errors and stuffs. I also added like two new paragraphs.

I'm sad now.

#mdzs #meta #i guess? #anyway #rant #why do i write this anyway? #lan xichen #nie mingjue #jin guangyao #nie huaisang #wei wuxian #lan wangji #the toxic relationship that we call #venerated triad #3zun #i'm so so so sorry #for those who stan lan xichen #i'm extremely sorry #fellas is it bad if i want dage to be happy #asking for a friend #honestly i just want all of them to be happy #including JGY of course #and excluding jin guangstd

[robininthelabyrinth]

Hi!! I really loved your NMJ/WWX/LWJ ficlets!!! I'm very into this ship now lol I literally can't get the idea out of mind!! I keep think about LXC finding out NMJ is also into LWJ and going " Da-ge WTF" :D

part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4 - aka Pastime (with good company)

Lan Xichen had heard no word from Yiling since Lan Wangji had gone.

It was – distressing. If only he’d known…

He had, though, hadn’t he? Back when they’d all been at the Cloud Recesses together, long ago before it’d been burnt, his brother had always been so fond of Wei Wuxian, even if he’d always denied it. His expression had brightened whenever he’d seen the other boy, his eyes always on him, his attention always drawn to him…

Lan Xichen had thought it was a crush. 

A silly little thing, fleeting: he vaguely remembered one time, when Lan Wangji had been only six years old, he’d asked, in that adorable serious fashion of his, if he could marry Nie Mingjue when he was older. He’d already known not to bring up issues of marriage to their father or uncle, and their mother had recently died; who else could he ask?

Lan Xichen, then nine years old, had laughed himself sick.

Still, it wasn’t as if he hadn’t known in the years since then that his brother’s disinterest in women had less to do with virtue and more to do with his personal inclinations. He’d teased him over it a few times, encouraged him in the rare instances when someone seemed to catch his interest, the way Wei Wuxian had; he’d even had a private word with their uncle to prepare him for the fact that any children would have to come from his lineage, not his brother’s.

He just hadn’t realized it was serious this time.

He should have realized. Lan Wangji was six no longer, his attention more serious, his affection sincere –

He’d known Lan Wangji was a cutsleeve, that he liked men the way other men liked women. He just hadn’t understood that his brother had fallen in love – and now he might very well spend the rest of his life mourning his lost chance to win Wei Wuxian, and all because Lan Xichen didn’t realize..!

Some elder brother he was.

By the time he’d figured it out, it was too late to cancel the engagement between Nie Mingjue and Wei Wuxian without great political cost, and Lan Wangji insisted on going alone as chaperone as he had promised; he’d refused any and all attempts by Lan Xichen to discuss the issue, and the most he had said was that it would be better for him to see with his own eyes that it had happened – the implication heart-breaking.

Lan Wangji had had hope, however foolish, and Lan Xichen had helped kill it. By facilitating the marriage of Lan Wangji’s love to another man, no less – not even a woman, which anyone would have understood…! For political reasons…!

Lan Xichen spent a great deal of time pacing and meditating, trying to calm his unhappy heart and thinking of what actions he could take to take to rectify his mistake.

That’s what he was doing when Nie Huaisang unexpectedly swanned in through the door to the hanshi one afternoon.

“So this is going to be a mess,” he announced, throwing himself down on one of the seats. “A mess, I tell you! All that work, and I’ll have to redo the whole thing, er-ge; it’s really not fair…at least I’ll have your help with it, this time!”

Lan Xichen blinked, a little blindsided by the sudden tsunami of words. “You know I’m always happy to help you, Huaisang,” he said, since that was both true and relatively safe.

“I know that, but now you have to be involved! Where do you want your table for the wedding banquet, do you think?”

At least he was only asking for advice on the wedding. The one Lan Xichen was currently kicking himself for supporting.

“I’m not sure,” he said, trying to smile and not quite succeeding. “Near the front?”

“Of course near the front. You’re part of the wedding party, aren’t you?”

Lan Xichen supposed from a certain perspective he was. “You think I should be seated at the main table, given my role as da-ge’s sworn brother?”

“Well, that too, I guess,” Nie Huaisang said. “Maybe it’ll just be easier to have one big table? We could have your family on one side of the table to represent the bride –”

Lan Xichen held up his hands. “Huaisang. Why would we represent the bride? The Jiang sect is representing Wei-gongzi.”

Nie Huaisang, who’d been all but horizontal, splayed out face down on the table, lifted his head and blinked at him. “Er-ge, don’t be silly. I’m not talking about Wei-xiong. I’m talking about Lan-er-gongzi – oh, I suppose I should call him sister-in-law now, I guess? So, Lan-saozi? No, that sounds weird. I’ll just stick with Lan-xiong.”

Lan Xichen rubbed his ears, wondering if he’d started hearing things. “Huaisang, what are you talking about? Wei-gongzi is the one marrying your brother.”

“Yes,” Nie Huaisang said slowly. “Of course he is. Lan-xiong is also marrying him.”

“…that’s impossible.”

“Not impossible at all; the plan is that they’ll share the position of first wife,” Nie Huaisang said, slowly sitting up. “There’s been more than one Madame Nie before…I’m sorry, did you not know? Didn’t Lan-xiong tell you?”

Lan Xichen stared. “Tell me – what? That he’s – that he’s planning on marrying your brother?”

“And Wei-xiong,” Nie Huaisang said. “Normally, both brides would make their vows to the husband alone, but everyone agreed that it would be more appropriate if Wei-xiong and Lan-xiong shared vows as well, reflecting the prestige of the Sects and their own dignity as men – did Lan-xiong really not say anything?”

“Forgive me, Huaisang. It appears I need to speak with my brother. Urgently.”

He strode out the door, his steps more hurried than the calm pace he was accustomed to using –

Lan Wangji was walking towards the hanshi.

He was coming from the direction of their uncle’s house; he must have arrived around the same time as Nie Huaisang – perhaps they’d even come together – but Lan Wangji had always followed family etiquette before sect etiquette, as Lan Xichen had taught him: he would have formally greeted his uncle first and foremost, shared a cup of tea with him, and only then gone to find Lan Xichen.

To break the news first to the sect leader, presumably.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen called, and Lan Wangji turned to look at him –

He was smiling.

Not a full smile, of course; only the most joyous occasions brought out that rare ray of sunlight. But there was the slightest curve to his eyes that suggested he was pleased, and in the light of the setting sun, Lan Xichen could see the small hint of red in his ears that showed bashfulness.

“Brother,” he said formally, inclining his head.

“Walk with me,” Lan Xichen requested, and led them towards the jingshi – it would at least be private, if nothing else, unlike the currently occupied hanshi. It was only once they were inside that he spoke. “Do you have something to tell me?”

Lan Wangji nodded.

Lan Xichen forced himself to sit, as if that would calm his racing heart. “Please do.”

“Before the evening meal, Nie-gongzi will formally deliver to you a letter,” Lan Wangji said, very nearly managing to appear unperturbed to those who did not know him well enough to see his excitement. “Requesting permission to arrange a marriage.”

“With you.”

“En.”

“You and – Nie Mingjue.”

Lan Wangji blinked at Lan Xichen’s unaccountable rudeness. “The vows would be taken between myself, Mingjue-xiong, and Wei Ying.”

Lan Xichen rolled the words ‘Mingjue-xiong’ around his mouth as if seeking to taste every aspect of it. His brother was a stickler for proper etiquette; he would never refer to Nie Mingjue by so familiar a name unless he was truly serious about this.

“And this makes you happy?” Lan Xichen asked.

Lan Wangji smiled. He actually smiled, the expression blooming on his face as inexorably as the sun rising; he ducked his head to try to hide it, but it was far too late for that. “En.”

Lan Xichen wished he could just take that as the full answer it was clearly intended to be.

“Wangji,” Lan Xichen said very carefully, his hands folded in his lap. “When you left – I know you are very fond of Wei-gongzi. I have been thinking of this matter since you left. I have concluded that while the price may be high, if you wish for me to advocate to Mingjue-xiong that you be permitted to marry Wei-gongzi, I will do so.”

Lan Wangji’s smile faded into a look of some bewilderment. He didn’t understand: the expression on his face so very clearly said but I’m marrying him already…?

“If you wish to marry him without Mingjue-xiong,” Lan Xichen clarified. “I do not want you to feel as though the only route to your happiness is through another –”

But Lan Wangji was shaking his head, very quickly. Lan Xichen stopped talking and waited for Lan Wangji to gather his thoughts.

“I would not marry Mingjue-xiong to win Wei Ying,” Lan Wangji finally said. “I would not.”

Lan Xichen softened. “I know you are always sincere, Wangji, and would never act to deceive. But at the same time, this is – very unexpected, you understand? The matter concerns the happiness of the rest of your life. It must be done right. I mean…when did you even become interested in Mingjue-xiong?”

Lan Wangji flushed red and dropped his eyes to the ground. “…six.”

Six? What –

“That crush?” Lan Xichen blurted out, eyes wide. “When you were six and he was thirteen?”

Lan Wangji’s head dipped lower and his shoulders went up defensively.

“You’ve liked him ever since then? Really? You’re not – not just saying –”

With an expression of great suffering on his face, Lan Wangji leaned over and whispered some words into Lan Xichen’s ear – even at that distance, they were barely audible, rushed together into a scarcely coherent mumble, but upon hearing the words ‘spring dreams’ and ‘tried to stop’ and something even more disturbing about Wei Wuxian and the time spent supervising him in the Library Pavilion, Lan Xichen learned in a single blow both that his concerns were misplaced and also far, far more than he’d ever wanted to know about his brother.

“I see,” he said, his voice a little strangled. “And you only got over it by – replacing him with Wei-gongzi?”

Lan Wangji, looking horribly shamed, nodded.

“And now you think about both of them doing –”

Lan Wangji looked up in dumbstruck horror, only to have his eyes narrow as he realized that Lan Xichen had absolutely no intention of finishing his sentence and was only teasing him.

Lan Xichen couldn’t stop the smile that spread over his face, and he didn’t even try. 

“I’m very happy for you,” he said, and meant it. His brother’s happiness was all he had ever wanted, from the beginning, no matter how unorthodox – and besides, having two lovers technically fulfilled their uncle’s constant exhortations that they never allow a single person to become their entire lives, the way their father had.

If either of them were to do something unforgivable (probably Wei Wuxian) or die young (probably Nie Mingjue), Lan Wangji would still have the other by his side to support him through the hardship. He would never be alone.

Yes, this was fine.

Of course, Lan Xichen was still going to have to have a talk with Nie Mingjue about marrying his little brother away from him…

He paused.

“Wangji,” he said, starting to feel a terrible premonition. “Have you raised this with Uncle yet?”

Lan Wangji paused for a moment, and Lan Xichen could see his back straightening as if he could somehow adopt even more of a proper posture than he already had habitually. “…no.”

Lan Xichen knows his brother to be able to infer the rest of that: After all, you’re the head of the family, I had to get your approval first, and also it would be very nice to have someone to act as a shield for me – please?

“…Uncle is going to kill me,” he sighed.

Lan Wangji’s eyes curved up a little, and Lan Xichen felt that it might almost – almost – be worth the truly disastrous scolding he’s about to get.

#mdzs #lan wangji #lan xichen #nie mingjue #wei wuxian #my fic #my fics #pastime with good company #Anonymous #pasttime with good company

[restingdomface]

Lan Wangji makes extremely deadpan videos of his daily life with Wei Wuxian and their kids and nephews (and nieces if JC and JYL had more). This would include:

*shows a video of LWJ staring out the window for a solid thirty seconds, face entirely unchanged and somewhat disappointed, turns camera around to show Wei Wuxian and the kiddos putting mentos in soda bottles and trying to chuck them at each other, camera pans back to his face, still entirely devoid of emotion*

That one time Jin Ling got stuck up a tree and Wei Wuxian tried to get him down and also got stuck up there and now the other kids are looking for a ladder while LWJ just watches them from the patio, drinking tea. The kids finally give up and shamefully come to LWJ and ask him for help, he gets his husband and nephew down without a word.

The one where he buried 5yo A-Yuan in a pile of bunnies and got scolded by Lan Xichen for it because they might bite him if they get annoyed with him.

There is an entire compilation of rabbits that won’t leave him alone. Climb into his lap. Follow him with every step. Get excited when he comes outside. Hear a guqin and start looking for him. Just. He’s the rabbit whisperer. One of the black ones is just about always with him.

Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian interacting in any capacity is going to involve a lot of hitting each other and pushing each other over. Only-child kids think they hate each other, but people with siblings are all ‘no no, siblings are just Like That’. People think Yanli is all innocent till they realize she def only tells them to stop when she thinks they might actually get on each other’s nerves. She’s in the ‘boys will rough house and probably only have one collective braincell’ category.

People won’t stop asking him if he speaks so he vaguely makes mentions of having extremely low verbility. They ask if he does sign and he’s not really sure how (lol cause words hard) to explain to them that sign doesn’t really help when the issue is more of him not having much to say tbh. This is apparently the wrong thing to say because then people start being all ‘yeah I get you, I’m pretty dumb too, at least you’re pretty’ and he’s just sorta sitting there with this smacked fish look on his face while WWX can’t stop laughing next to him at the very idea of someone calling his husband slow. Wow. LWJ just sorta finally gets out that he has like two degrees and teaches giqun lessons and it’s amazing. The kids find out about it and can’t stop laughing for hours.

“Hey, why did you name your son ‘sorrow and longing’?” *commense 10 minute video of that time Wei Wuxian got arrested for something to do with a satanic ritual and that’s when LWJ ended up with custody of his adopted son for the next three years and he was in a really angsty mood tbh so it just kinda happened* not a single commenter expected that, even less so when he mentions that they weren’t even together at that point

Films what the viewers think is a prank at first, where he pours a dangerous amount of chili powder into a mug of hot chocolate (with a completely straight face) and then brings it to WWX who takes a drink and makes a dreamy little sigh and goes ‘you always know how to make it just like I want it’ and no one is sure how to react to this video. It’s like watching someone peel and eat a lemon.

You know that video of the girl with the deadpan voice saying she went downstairs to take a shower and there was something brown in the bottom of the tub but it turned out to be potatoes and she’s all ‘not a problem I was expecting, but a problem I can handle’? Okay so that’s how he talks in every video. WWX hands him a baby and he talks to them exactly like that. People ask if he’s good with kids and WWX is all ‘yeah, he’s not just a rabbit whisperer, he’s a baby whisperer too, he’s super great with kids’ *shows LWJ talking to a baby in That Voice while the baby looks at him in utter adoration*

“What’s it like growing up gay? Do you ever get shit for it?” LWJ.exe has stopped working, he has only met one straight couple the same age as him and they’re his sister in law. His brother has three boyfriends, one of which is his brother-in-law. He doesn’t know what a het-er-o-sexual is and he doesn’t want to. Pretty sure his uncle is acearo and hasn’t seen his parents in like 20 years.

LWJ: ‘I apologize for being so emotional in my last video.’ *viewers scrambled to find what video he meant because they ain’t ever seen that man emotional before but end up finding a video where Sizhui told him he loved him and called him papa and gave him a hug while WWX filmed, you can barely see LWJ’s left eye twitching and he pets Sizhui’s head for a moment* viewers are very confused on how this constitutes emotionalism.

Viewers ask to see his brother ‘you know, the one who apparently has three boyfriends’ and LWJ posts a video of LXC passed out on a couch with like three fully grown men all in various states of sliding off onto the floor while the teens play a game of ‘who can stack the most random objects on uncle’s bodies without them waking’ because apparently LWJ and WWX were gone for a weekend and the uncles were supposed to watch the kids (like, all ten of them probably, there’s probably a lot of kids) and it’s Sizhui filming the whole thing cause he’s the ‘good one’ and never does bad things. But he’s also like Auntie Yanli and is totally gonna egg them on from the sidelines.

WWX hands LWJ literally any food and LWJ will eat it all with a completely straight face but as soon as WWX is turned around LWJ is chugging a glass of milk with a look of death on his face. The kiddos straight up can’t stomach his cooking.

😭 someone asks why their hair is all so long and LWJ puts up a video of chatty adorable Sizhui braiding WWX’s hair while he tells him about his day at school. It’s. Too. Cute.

The never ending debate on if LWJ’s deadpan personality/speech is acting or not. No matter how much everyone assures them he’s really just Like That people just aren’t convinced.

Someone points out several times that in their house they have a room with a satanic symbol on the door. That’s just WWX’s home office it’s all good. This is treated as ‘lol WWX is so dramatic’ for like four whole weeks before LWJ posts a video of Sizhui standing outside the office looking nervous. ‘What’s wrong?’ He says. ‘Dad called me into his office.’ Sizhui replies. ‘WWX must be a very strict father,’ the viewers think. That’s not it. That’s not it at all tbh. That video got flagged on like four different platforms and kept getting removed for graphic images and half their viewers don’t. Want. To know. What happened. In that office. (WWX doesn’t even see what the big deal was, that goat was dead when he bought it shut up.)

The others do videos sometimes too lol. Videos include

Jin Ling’s compilation of ‘Mom, what’s for dinner’ and the answer is Always Lotus root and pork rib soup. Someone asks ‘lol she must make that often’ and JL is all ‘lol often, fairly sure she got same-food syndrome, it’s always soup’.

Lan Sizhui at like 17 years old: The one true secret I’ve never told my dads? My most shameful lie? Rabbits aren’t my favorite. My favorite is butterflies. *proceeds to cuddle a bun* I’m sorry Mister Bun, but you just aren’t nearly as pretty as butterflies.

Shaky video of someone sitting on the couch, pointed at NMJ: Brother, while you’re away on vacation with your boyfriends, I don’t plan on leaving this spot for even a minute. NMJ: Oh yeah? What’ll you do when you have to use the bathroom? NHS: Listen, I found a guy on Craig’s List who’s exact fetish is lazy young men who refuse to move and also diapers exist and he’ll be my slave for the week if I let him change me. NMJ: ...I’m taking you with me on vacation. NHS: Yay! NMJ: I’m also taking your phone away. NHS: -wait, no- NMJ: Too late.

Jin Ling: JiuJiu, I spilt soda on your Valentino white belt. Jiang Cheng: *incomprehensible sputtering* -soda on my Valentino white belt-!

Sizhui: *brings Jingyi a bowl of food* Here. Jingyi: Thank you! *takes a bite, face falls in terror, gives Sizhui a betrayed look* Sizhui: Dad’s worried I’m getting sick, he said this would clear my chest cold up. He didn’t consider what horrible things it would do to my bowels instead. Please eat it, he gets sad when I don’t finish what he makes. Jingyi: *glaring* Just dump it down the garbage disposal! Sizhui: *def has a fever if he didn’t think of that* Oh. Good idea.

LWJ: *swaying in place* WWX: This bitch drunk as hell. LWJ: I’m. Gonna comit. A crime. WWX: *crying a little* I love drunk hubby times. A full shot of vodka and he’s not gonna remember any of this. Hey kids, I’m taking Papa on a walk! Sizhui’s in charge!

Zizhen: *sitting quietly on the couch while LSZ, LJY and JL all argue behind him somewhere, covering his mouth with a slightly horrified look* Jingyi: I mean, that’s not fair at all! Who HASNT made out with their cousin at one point or another? Ling: ... Sizhui: You said you’d never bring that up again please shut up. Ling: ...!!!!!! Zizhen: Amazing.

That one time the kiddos hypnotized Jin Ling into thinking he was a kitten. The adults all thought it was really weird that he was finally going through the whole ‘pretending to be an animal’ phase at like ten, but then the kiddos fessed up to learning how to hypnotize and they aren’t sure how to fix it. WWX instigated a rule that no brainwashing is allowed outside his office from now on.

People ask how WWX and LWJ met and it’s told from the POV of Lan Qiren who progressively getting drunker as he tells the story of the terrible high school romance that he had to watch between bad boy WWX and his precious baby angel nephew that made him consider quitting and how no one believed them when they insisted they didn’t get together till after WWX got out of jail for the cow incident.

#the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #the untamed #mdzs #incorrect untamed quotes #incorrect mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #wangxian #jiang cheng #lan sizhui #juniors #lan jingyi #lan juniors #jin ling #nie mingjue #nie huaisang #nie brothers #ouyang zizhen #lan qiren

[zhuilingyizhen]

agents of shield x mdzs au

This is the qUaLitY content y’all get from this blog. Also see me spamming friend about this AU. It’s junior-centered, with a dash of wangxian. This is basically a more in-depth version of what I gave my friend lol

After getting kicked out of SHIELD for questionable experiments involving Kree blood, Wei Wuxian was spying on Hydra (lead by Wen Ruohan) by infiltrating them as a scientist. However, being Wei Wuxian, he neglected to tell anyone since he got kicked out, so everyone thought he betrayed them.

So he’s at Hydra, befriending Wen Qing & Ning, and realizes that they’re good people.

But he got caught giving info to Director LXC, so Wei Wuxian makes his grand escape. He may have accidentally knocked over a terrigenesis crystal while trying to escape the Nightless City.

The terrigenesis crystal may have turned a little boy into an Inhuman (the first time anyone went through terrigenesis) and that little boy (Wen Yuan) may have accidentally burnt down the entire Nightless City.

At least, that’s how WWX explains it to Lan Wangji when he gives LWJ a child to take care of.

So, with Wen Yuan in SHIELD custody, Lan Wangji adopts him & renames him Lan Sizhui. He’s still a child (I don’t know why I keep referring to him as a little boy?? He’s like 12-ish??).

So Wei Wuxian goes off to re-join the remnants of HYDRA because they let him experiment in peace & he gets to keep an eye on them for SHIELD (even though he’s an ex-agent).

But before that, he vouches for WQ & WN to join SHIELD. And though many people there are suspicious, they do have a vacant spot for a doctor now that Dr. Wei is gone & WQ is quite good. They bring WN along too.

Meanwhile: Lan Jingyi is getting abused my his mother & his dad is working across the country so life is quite sucky for him.

Thankfully, his family has connections to one Lan Xichen (who learns about the abuse eventually) and Jingyi gets into SHIELD Academy. What he doesn’t know is that he comes from a line of people with Inhumans genes.

Which may or may not how been why Xichen was visiting.

Anyways, Sizhui & Jingyi meet at SHIELD Academy (both around 13-14?) and Lan Qiren is about to get more headaches.

Eventually, he (now 16) gets told why he was accepted on the first place & asked if he’d like to go through terrigenesis. He’s like “ok” and boom vocal mind control.

That’s actually inaccurate; he has the power to manipulate people with his voice. He has to learn how to control it though.

Wei Wuxian rejoins SHIELD! Lan Sizhui meets the person who saved him all those years ago. yay.

Little did they know, Wei Wuxian was expieriemnting with terrigenesis while he was gone but shhhhhhh-

Now onto Jin Ling’s backstory, cause his is a doozy.

Jiang Yanli got Inhuman genes from her mother. So did jc, but his powers & stuff come into play later. Wwx is their adopted bro, but due to circumstances that will be explained later, Wwx & jc are estranged.

Jyl and jzx raise jl for most of his younger childhood (until he’s about 7-8) when evil HYDRA people come in & kill jzx and kidnap jyl for Inhuman experimentation. Note, she has the genes but isn’t an Inhuman (yet).

Ling is very sad and Jiang Cheng swoops in to take him in. Jc actually worked at as a SHEILD agent back from before lxc was Director (coughxichengcough) but left when his sister was kidnapped so he could try to track her down & save her. Instead he gets his nephew.

Jc also takes over his parents’ buisness to get a source of income.

And jc goes through the woes of being a parent up until he also gets kidnapped by HYDRA. Jl also gets nabbed, but HYDRA separates them

Wwx may have been expierimenting but he tries to do it without hurting any of them, and he validates it because he prevented many people from getting cut open by explaining to the HYDRA heads that they’re most useful alive. It somehow works.

In fact, wwx is assigned to jl. The HYDRA people know wwx’s relation to jc & jyl, so they don’t tell wwx that they kidnapped jc & jyl or that they’re literally in the same facility.

Since wwx was assigned to jl, he basically helps him undergo terrigenesis and tries to determine his power.

Wwx also doesn’t know that jl is kinda his nephew. But he pities him, so he maybe helps jl escape, but in a way so that no one realizes it because he still has his cover to maintain.

(also, I forgot to mention: jyl’s kidnapping caused jc & wwx to become estranged).

So wwx may have had a very loud conversation near jl’s cell about some of the exits and also teaches jl the basics on his Inhuman ability. maybe the device he uses to control jl’s powers happened to malfunction in the middle of the night.

Ling, not knowing that wwx is helping him, uses his power (energy manipulation) to break out and makes a run for it.

He manages to escape (wwx had a very detailed convo about the building’s layout) and gets the hell out of there.

Jl’s smart enough to realize that since HYDRA knows where he lives, that he probably shouldn’t go back home.

He really wants to get his uncle back (and maybe his mom, but he’s not sure she’s still alive) but has like no idea how to use his power to do anything except bomb stuff. & that only works like half the time.

Jin Ling is about to kill a bitch but then he remembers that his uncle gave him an address to go to if anything ever happened (remember, jc is an ex-SHIELD agent so bad things happen quite a lot).

Meanwhile, despite his carefulness, wwx got caught and HYDRA is deciding whether or not he will die. Wwx, being the genius he is, takes all his stuff and gets the fuck outta there.

He decides to go visit his kinda-boyfriend (that he may or may not have been ignoring for like 13 years), lwj back at SHIELD. He also wants to see how the Wen siblings are doing.

So WWX goes back to SHIELD, only about an hour before Ling arrives. In jl’s defense, he had no idea that the entrance to a secret government organization was a quaint little music shop.

He just kinda... walks in, and everyone is freaking bc they have been breached but sees him and thinks “huh he kinda looks like jc” and then lxc thinks “oh no what happened this time”

Lxc introduces himself and jl (being the second best matchmaker here, second to only lxc) accidentally reveals that jc talked about him before.

Lxc is pleasantly surprised (gay) and asks jl to come with him into his office so that they can... chat.

On their way, they pass by the science lab. Wei Wuxian, who just came back to base, is happily walking along with Lan Sizhui, when all hell breaks loose.

Remember when I said that wwx was quite secretive about helping? And that jl is still upset bc he never got his uncle back and he can’t lose another family member, not to them?

So obviously jl does what anyone would if you saw the guy who forced you to undergo a life-changing event and was involved in the organization that kidnapped two of his family members and killed his dad: he attaccs.

If you also remember, I mentioned that jl has no fucking clue what he’s doing. All he knows is energy and boom boom.

And the mini-explosions only work in close range, from what he’s seen. So in his anger, he unlocks a new skill: energy shots.

Wei Wuxian took cover like the second he realized who was attempting to kill him and screaming at the others not to kill his assailant no matter how annoying he was.

Lan Wangji sadly wasn’t at base, but Sizhui was, and he can certainly hold his own against Ling, especially since Sizhui has had more time to train with his power.

Luckily, Jingyi swoops in & uses his voice to force jl to stop. They handcuff him and lxc drags him away into his office.

It’s safe to say that the science lab corridor is fried.

That’s basically how jl got introduced to SHIELD (he eventually joins and learns the truth about wwx, which makes all their past interactions quite awkward).

Now we have Zizhen, who comes into the story after the two Lans have become agents but before the whole Jin Ling fiasco occurs.

Sizhui & Jingyi were sent to see if Agent Ouyang Xingyun (@yoitsamy’s oc older sis of oyzz)‘a family knew where she was because she was on a undercover mission & didn’t check in with her contact last week. + she didn’t contact SHIELD so Director LXC was worried.

They look through the window and everything is a mess, so they kick down the door and try to find anyone. The whole place is torn apart, like people were fighting there.

In the upstairs bedroom, they find Ouyang Zizhen & four of his younger siblings huddled together in a corner, protected by a forcefield-like shield. Once they realize the Lans aren’t a threat, the go back to SHIELD HQ and put in a room there until they can figure out wtf was going on.

Apparently, Zizhen unlocked his powers w/o terrigenesis when they got attacked by someone who was looking for his sister and used it to protect his siblings. They hadn’t seen their big sister in weeks.

So the Lans have a new case to solve, SHIELD has two new Inhumans with off circumstances, and Lan Wangji is one Xichen away from killing Jin Ling.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #agents of shield #inhumans #lan sizhui #jin ling #ouyang zizhen #lan jingyi #aos au #mdzs hcs #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan xichen #jiang yanli #jiang cheng #jin zixuan #wen siblings #wen qing #wen ning #marvel

[songofclarity]

(Moss!!) okay i think this is gonna be a 2-parter afdjgsjd the flowers!! bby lwj internalised them as a sign of deep love and devotion (w his mom and then nmj, and much later, wwx who noticed how 🥺 lwj got the first time he gave him flowers and now gives him so many flowers all the time aaaahH) how about lxc tucking flowers in nmj's hair too?!?! AND BBY LWJ JOINING IN bc "xichen-xiong loves him. he is Good. yes." (like, Baby logic) nmj: my pores are clear... my crops...watered --(1)

(2)-and in seclusion, lwj left some flowers in a vase for lxc (their mom's favourite kind, then later, nmj's). lxc very nearly cried the first time he saw them but they actually help bring him some peace 😢 wwx also climbs in the window some nights to put pressed flowers on his table. (don't worry lan zhan i'm not disturbing him i always wait till he's asleep) the flowers help bring happier memories of nmj, and he slowly starts hurting less,(this is still sad?? sorry i guess i'm sending 1 more)

(3)ok fluff uhh- nmj bringing nhs flowers/gifts from lxc ("xichen pls dont spoil MY brother" "i'm only following your lead mingjue 😌") nhs is too happy abt this and demands he be allowed to plan their wedding. yes it makes da-ge turn red but not angry red so its ok- and this is out of order but i forgot to mention; nmj about to meet bby lwj for the first time like "i'm sure i can handle this no problem"; lxc: this is wangji! say hello to mingjue😊; lwj,extremely unimpressed(?): hello.; nmj: 😧

(3.5 of 3 IM SORRY I'M SENDING SO MANY AGDJDKD) also all the best for your exams!!! (since i'm already sending this how about an extra: bby nhs being Observant also makes small flower bouquets for his da-ge. nmj asks xichen to teach him to press and dry flowers, and keeps them all)

MY PORES ARE ALSO CLEAR... MY CROPS... WATERED... MY GRADES... EXCELLENT!!

Loving how this plays on Lan WangJi's love language being through gestures. He gives Wei WuXian the chickens in canon. Giving Lan XiChen the vase of meaningful flowers. Copying Lan XiChen to put flowers in Nie MingJue's hair 🥺

Wei WuXian breaking into Lan XiChen's room in the middle of the night to put down pressed flowers on the table LOL Wei WuXian please! (Please keep up the good work!)

--Happier memories of Nie MingJue, you say...

I'm just going to put out there the post-canon-theory-headcanon that Nie MingJue's resentful energy left him when he did what he needed to do and now he is finally laid to rest once more. Flowers as a sign of deep love and devotion are still placed on a peaceful grave of a still dearly beloved... Pressed flowers that do not wilt...

... 🥺 Moss, why would do this LOL

Lan XiChen giving flowers/gifts to Nie MingJue to give to Nie HuaiSang feels like such a power play, omg. Nie MingJue can’t say No because would he ever tell Lan XiChen no?? Never. Lan XiChen trying to cultivate some Nie bro bonding and Nie MingJue can't even be mad about it. Kettle calling the pot fat. Tallest man in the world is held in the palm of Lan XiChen’s hand.

Although this reminds me of a quote from the novel I came across today where Nie HuaiSang tries to cunningly trick Lan XiChen into passing a "good study behavior" report to Nie MingJue.

Imagine: Nie HuaiSang gives flowers to Lan XiChen to give to Nie MingJue, and then insists he doesn't know about any flowers, it wasn't him, it was Lan XiChen! So Nie MingJue ends up confessing to Lan XiChen thinking Lan XiChen made the first move... It was a trap, Nie MingJue, you've been tricked! Now you have a very handsome boyfriend to call your own, congratulations! 😂

Then of course Nie HuaiSang plans the wedding! Everything has to be perfect for his Da-ge and also, "I can't practice my saber, I have to go work on the dinner menu bye!"

This also making me think of Modern AU where at the wedding there is a slideshow that includes baby brothers. Lil Lan WangJi looking very unimpressed at Nie MingJue in one picture and Lan XiChen sees it and is just, Awww, those were good times!! While Nie MingJue is just ...maybe we should have included the flower picture instead?? (Surprise! All the pictures are included! Because Nie HuaiSang arranged them!)

And WOW, my heart--Nie MingJue pressing and drying Nie HuaiSang's flowers and keeping them. Lan XiChen teaching him how to do it. That's so soft, they're so soft... What if Nie MingJue kept them in a pouch in his sleeve? A gift from Nie HuaiSang and a happy memory with Lan XiChen. Yeah, that's fine, I'm fine 🥺

#anon #asked from above #nielan #nie brothers #twin jades of lan #i feel like i need to reply to these with all the tlc #making me feel things 🥺 #emotional roller coaster feeling happy and sad and happy again! #i love it i love it!

[allmydokkuns]

Every night in my head there's a regularly scheduled free-for-all about which MDZS sibling group gets center stage and tonight it's not the 5-way poly sworn brothers AU fix-it... For once.

Uhh also spoilers for character deaths if y'all somehow reading this and haven't been spoiled on the quite extensive list of deceased named characters in MDZS, and also for most major plot points. I still don't know how to do a "read more" on mobile so here we are, I guess.

So tonight we're having feelings about the fact that Jiang Yanli threw her life and future raising her only child away for Wei Wuxian, who ended up dying anyway. So there's the argument there that she did it for nothing, since it's her death that was the last straw for WWX if I remember right. I'm basing this mostly on what I remember from CQL of course, but no matter which version (novel or live), Jiang Cheng is still the last one left, and he's still present at the moment of WWX's death.

I guess what's interesting for me here is it brings up the question of how their sibling dynamic functions: did JYL do it because she's the older sibling and she couldn't have done otherwise? Would she have still done it if Zixuan was still alive, or if Jiang Cheng had predeceased her? Did she think at all about how taking that sword would mean leaving behind her brother and her son?

Lately I've been thinking a lot about how her death parallels the Guanyin temple scene and it hurts me a lot tbh

Sibling takes a blade that wasn't meant for them/a blade provoked by someone else,

While a brother is present and is in shock at what has just occurred.

While yet another brother is also there and is the ultimate cause of first sibling's death, and meets their end quite soon after that

Leaving behind a brother to pick up the pieces in the aftermath.

So while I don't want Yunmeng sibling trio to mirror in part the Venerated Triad, I also can't say that the parallels don't exist... Also *clenches fist* the bitter aftertaste of both Jiang siblings sacrificing themselves for the same person and being repaid in the exact same, even though none of them knew it at the time...

Also if you want to have a lot of feelings about Yunmeng sibs go have a listen at both Yanli's and Jiang Cheng's CQL character themes, and cry a lot at the fact that the flute in her song sounds like WWX while it's completely missing from Jiang Cheng's. I have a very hard time believing that Yanli's song isn't speaking to Jiang Cheng directly and y'all can fight me.

Also can we appreciate how in these two plot points how Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng kind of... resonate, for lack of a better word? When faced with a choice between outliving his sworn brothers, both of whom can be said to have died because of his faith in someone else's words, and dying with the, LXC only survives because JGY pushes him away before NMJ kills him. He has the privilege of making that choice because even if he dies, Gusu Lan still has a Lan to lead it; it's quite in keeping with his reputation that he would want to make amends for his complicity by his death. Jiang Cheng would have died for WWX too, and like LXC is denied the right to choose, not to join them in death, but to know the truth about his golden core. Even though Jiang Cheng doesn't kill WWX personally (yes, I've seen the cliff fall scene, no, Jiang Cheng didn't even stab WWX properly; the whole symbolism and drama there is WWX has been hanging from a precipice and it's too late to turn back for him), he's still there when the skeletons (or in this case, one very pissed off fierce corpse lol) come rolling out the closets because Jiang Cheng never truly had the luxury of choosing to die, not even when his sister was still alive.

Yanli's health isn't as strong because of her core right? Even then, as the only son of the previous Sect Leader JC has to inherit and lead Yunmeng Jiang, not only to rebuild his home and sect, but also later on be his sister's backer so she won't be mistreated after her marriage into Lanling Jin. Yanli was lucky that Zixuan loved her, but if he didn't and she hadn't had Jin Ling, she could still rely on her brother to support her in the event of a divorce. Even though Jiang Cheng tried to protect WWX after the Campaign, he couldn't openly support his shixiong and his sister at the same time any more without being easily overpowered by Lanling Jin.

If anyone's actually read this far then maybe you're wondering, "but what about that time right after the Massacre when he lost his core and asked WWX 'why didn't you just let me die?' " well. Grief, trauma, also he wasn't that old when JFM and Madame Yu died, do you expect a teenager to react logically after almost every single person he's known has died violently? That would be an unfair expectation, especially when as sect heir he's also failed the people he's responsible for protecting. Guilt on regrets on abandonment, that's Jiang Cheng once you get past the anger and stuff. Also you can interpret that as "why am I not allowed to show you that I do in fact give a damn about you and your safety?"

Anyway LXC wanted to die after the truth came out but wasn't able to; Jiang Cheng made a choice at a fairly young age knowing that it could mean his death to save Wei Wuxian. Those were both choices made because at some point, they loved their brothers enough to die for them. It's kind of a pity that their brothers also loved them enough then to unmake that choice for them then, isn't it?

#penny for my thoughts but a dollar for my insights #Penny for Hina's thoughts #mdzs #spoilers for mo dao zu shi #yunmeng siblings #Venerated Triad #thoughts on sibling dysfunction and love #this post is too long for me to talk hc about jin ling and what he felt abt his family growing up but maybe I'll wordvomit that another day #character parallels #The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) #i forgot to tag characters oops #Jiang Wanyin (Jiang Cheng) #Jiang Yanli #Wei Wuxian (Wei Ying) #Lan Xichen (Lan Huan)

[tonyglowheart]

Some thoughts on character naming conventions & cultural significance of name-shortening

I’m noticing a growing trend of people referring to characters from The Untamed by given name only (my theory is this is because of Netflix. Is it because of Netflix?), and while I’m starting to get more used to it and am also actively interrogating my own emotional reactions to it, I do want to provide some of my thoughts on cultural notes regarding naming conventions.

Point the first: Although in English-speaking culture(?)/American culture, naming characters by given-name-only may be the most neutral form of addressing a character, in Chinese, naming a character by full name (e.g. “Wei Wuxian,” “Lan Wangji”) would actually be the most neutral form of addressing a character/someone.

While you can call characters/people by given name only, this usually indicates usually a high level of personal familiarity (like Lan Xichen calling Lan Wangji by “Wangji” for example), or maybe a high level of disrespect/disregard (like in MDZS/CQL when characters refer to Wei Wuxian by his birth name “Wei Ying” as a sign of disrespect [e.g. we see Jin Ling do this, btw]).

Point the second: Additionally, and importantly, if a character’s given name is only one character, it would NOT tend to be called alone. I know Netflix has a habit of subbing people’s names as given-name-only, so then you get names like “Cheng” and “Ning” and “Qing”; however, in CN a single character name would not tend to be shortened alone. I’m not saying no one ever does this, but that more commonly, as a nickname/familiar form of address, something would be added to amend the single character. E.g. a “Xiao” (Little) or a “Lao” (Old, tho in this case not necessarily meaning the person is literally “old”), or “A-” as we see in canon (though I think Netflix also omits this :/), or “-er”, or doubling, etc.

One form we see in canon is “A-[x],” so e.g.: A-Yuan, and A-Ning (which Wen Qing calls Wen Ning), and A-Xian (which Jiang Yanli calls Wei Wuxian). (I think we may also see JYL call WWX “Xianxian”? so an example of doubling, too, though I’d say this version is more used “for kids” or more “cutesy” version)

In terms of name-shortening, “full-name neutral” is possibly why the prevalence in acronym shortening (the other may be the prevalence of danmei fandom on twitter [character limits]? and esp predating CQL growing bigger on tumblr? but this is anecdotal on my part, it’s also easier to type acronyms on a phone lol). Because acronyms preserves the whole name, essentially, within the structure. If you’re calling a character by given-name-only just as a way of shortening the name/for convenience, then imo you run into issues of imposing English/American naming conventions on Chinese characters, and that’s where I personally run into feeling like there’s possibly a respect issue at play towards the source culture, :’)

TL;DR : I would say “when in doubt, default to canon naming conventions,” except I think since Netflix does drop surnames in subs even though the characters are saying them, and puts in given-name-only when familial/honorific forms of address are used (like “Yanli” instead of Shijie), that might have set a certain Anglocentric/ Americentric precedent in people’s minds on the naming...

 In which case, I recommend “when in doubt, default to full names.” 

Now, I’m not saying you HAVE to refer to characters by full name only or else you’re a Bad Terrible Person, or that you are doing things The Wrong Way if you find given-name-only easier for you, nor am I saying you HAVE to use acronyms to shorten character names, (since yeah, that is an EN adaptation to pinyin also anyway), (and like, I can’t control what other people do lmao)

But I did want to provide some cultural notes for people who maybe don’t know or haven’t considered that there even would be cultural issues at play with naming conventions, and would (hopefully) like to learn more about & immerse more in the source culture instead of just going with their comfort zone, which...at worst ends up coming across as Americans/Anglophones imposing their culture on others without really taking the time and effort to respect the source culture

Edit: lol uh *suddenly remembers this thing* o yeah here’s a terminology reference someone wrote up that gives a lot of information on naming and relationship terms & forms of address

Edit 2: follow-up ask regarding use of acronyms

Another Not-quite Ask Response to an anon I got which I was going to go back to and answer “formally,” regarding name use and third person “internal” narration. (tl;dr, Chinese has all these third person self-referential pronouns/pronoun structures that I think ppl are much more likely to think or refer to themselves as, if they’re not just outright referring to themselves as “I” in terms of internal narration. imo third person narration, someone is much more likely to refer to themselves as 本人(”benren,” meaning vaguely “this person”) as a more general term, or any variation of these kinds of self-referential third-person forms of address, vs by name.) Which is to say.. I think it's a moot point as far as how it would translate, so it's not like "but how would a char refer to themselves?" rly helps. Most if not all Chinese media I've seen uses full name for narration, bc as I said, that's the most neutral form of address. If you wanted to "compromise" for English then ofc I can't stop you. But naming habits very quickly is becoming a "no brown m&ms" issue, of "does it seem likely you're trying to write respectfully, or just treat it like a China: Through the Looking Glass situation."

(under the cut if you want some more expansive thoughts/discussions)

[cut]

So. This is where I go a bit more stream-of-consciousness/a lot messy maybe, and also share some more personal feelings on this. uhh strap in if you plan to read through this I guess :’D

My reason for bringing this whole thing up is, in honestly, fueled by a quite visceral initial discomfort with seeing given-name-only forms of address in tumblr posts that keep cropping up, and especially single-character-only being bandied about all over the place. Honestly, seeing “””Ning””” and “””Cheng”””  and “”””Qing””””” etc give me similar *Kill Bill Sirens* feelings that the “””””Childe””””” translation for gong’zi that Tencent does gives me lol.

I’ve been in the process of interrogating also my own reactions of discomfort, and while some of it IS down to familiarity in form - in that I just wasn’t familiar with seeing given-name-only’s, and that I do kind of feel like I can accept it a bit more now that I’ve seen it around and gotten a bit more used to it - but another thing that I think became important to me was my reflections on how this reflects a sort of culture clash, with different cultural norms coming into play, and also how much this kind of hits home personally.

So one hand, you may say that for an English-speaking/Western audience, it’s perfectly valid for them to engage with the source media in English according to their familiar conventions, which is the given-name-only convention. However, as an Asian American, my first impulse on seeing a lot of given-name-only bandied about was that this was a form of address was too casual/presumptive and perhaps unintentionally disrespectful.

Within a sort of meta-Doylist perspective, I think it reads to me as odd because with fictional characters, an audience member wouldn’t necessarily HAVE a personal familiar relationship the way the characters within the media have with one another. You’re essentially a third-person observer on “someone” else’s life if we’re getting really meta-texual lol. It’s different than if you meet someone  in person and they/their friends introduce themselves as “Xiao’Ling” for example because their friends call them that. And a sort of example of where we DO get a familiar form of address as an introduction is with A-Jing, who is just introduced as A-Jing and is just A-Jing. (and ofc there’s an interesting cultural discussion to be had on her lack of family name and how that familiar form of address indicates her relative social status, too, since the idea that she’s family-less and is of relatively lower social status as a “blind” beggar and so more people would feel free to address her by a familiar form of address vs Lan Wangji who is the second son of a major clan and so it would be kind of insulting for people to be casually calling him “Wangji,” even)

Now, the specifics of arguing “how close are you with a character” is a point I’m willing to soften on, since like... this is quibbling something that I can’t really argue on or fully pin down to explain other than “it feels weird” (tho I was venting about some of my Kill Bill Sirens feeling with another Chinese friend and they mentioned “it’s disrespectful, isn’t it?” regarding given-name only and that kind of got me thinking), and getting into arguing “well you’re not as personally close with a fictional character to be allowed to call him by given name��� is. not a kind of argument I ever want to be having lmao. and also I can see there being cases where, for example, you’re getting really emotional over a specific character and it doesn’t ping my radar - although for me, I think in these cases, I tend to default to birth names lol. Like when I’m especially emotional over Wei Wuxian, I start sobbing over Wei Ying, and I think I generally tend to call Lan Wangji as “Lan Zhan” anyway lol.

(Actually, no, I just tried calling a bunch of characters by given name only and it’s just weird to me to think about addressing characters by given name only, lol, it DOES feel too presumptive/familiar :’) it hits on uncanny-valley cultural notes to just do so casually D: this is like calling your...e.g your high school teacher by given name (like when a teacher is just Ms. [xx] but after you graduate they’re like you can call me [first name] but you just can’t?), like that just? doesn’t Work Like That? D: I think the only reason “Wangji” works for me is because Lan Xichen calls LWJ that, and it’s a cute moment, and I feel like I’m invoking LXC’s love for his brother when I do that :’) this. does get more into personal preference yeah but I do think it’s also tied into cultural concepts of respectful forms of address, especially across rank/age/level of familiarity)

But also I mean. this whole though process is a work in progress for me, too, in terms of me interrogating my own emotional reactions, and in terms of me trying not to cross over into “policing” how people engage in fandom. And like... being more honest with myself about it, yeah the acronym structure - which, although I am now more used to - is still an English-specific adaptation, and one which CAN be open to discussion/alternatives. And again, I’m not saying that you HAVE to use acronyms either, as that IS an English adaptation to pinyin anyway. But that I think there is good reason for it, and it’s not just something someone made up to personally target people or whatever.

But the other part where respect is brought up for me is a matter of respect for Chinese culture. Now, I do understand not everyone may be wanting to immerse within the source culture in that way. And I, with gritted teeth :’) say... FINE. because I can’t control what other people do ofc. But again for me, this hits home quite personally, because I DID grow up experiencing a lot of microaggressions with Asianness being dismissed as “weird” or “too foreign” or “too difficult to understand.” It’s the reason why Chinese immigrants and Chinese Americans have to have “English names” that we go by, because sometimes even the pinyin of our names are “too difficult” for people to want to try to pronounce.

And listen, I’m maybe more defensive of some of these cultural notes than a Chinese person in China would be, who may be charmed or amused by what to THEM would be “funny foreign habits”; but I’ve also been threatened more for my Asianness than a Chinese person in China would have, and I have also had to work harder to reclaim my heritage from a prevailing culture which is now more centered within my identity but which simultaneously works hard to erase my heritage from me, and at the same time also alienates me from truly “belonging” without me fighting for it. So... yeah when I did see people casually say “well this is what I think works for me,” I...on one hand want to be like “okay I understand and respect that,” as I recognize to be good fandom etiquette! but on the other hand it reminds me too much of Americans going, like, “this is too difficult, do you have an English name?”

where it feels more like a matter of people aren’t putting in the effort to learn a name that is foreign to them, aren’t putting in the RESPECT to learn a different culture and thinking it’s fine to just impose their own (like this does, for me, trip into the “mmmm cultural imperialism, hm? not cute” kind of territory :’) )

And I am aware that many people may NOT realize that there ARE cultural issues at play with the naming, and that some people (lmao like me) might be sensitive to some of this.

But like. I felt strongly about it lol, and at the very least, I wanted to try to provide some food for thought that people hopefully would take :’)

And ig sort of lastly, I am ofc open to discussion on this topic! I am, after all, a single Chinese American with my single Chinese American perspective on this specific cultural topic! But I do ask of you, if you find yourself reacting to this emotionally in some way, please try to sit with the emotions yourself for a bit? I mean I know I’ve been guilty of reacting emotionally, and reacting by speaking first before pausing a moment to process the emotions. But like I’m putting it out there already that this IS also an emotionally charged topic for me, and overlaps into emotionally-charged issues relating to cultural imperialism and my own experiences as Chinese American. So I ask that if you do have a specific emotional reaction, to please pause and let it distill a little before unleashing it on me :’) This is one of those *John Mulaney voice* things I’m sensitive about :’)

And also if you do use “given name only” this is not a personal attack on you, I am not saying you’re a horrible American cultural imperialist for doing so, nor am I saying you’re being maliciously thoughtless and disrespectful. (I’m also learning more and more that there are certain cultural things I’d taken for granted/had assumed has become more common concepts in English, such as “face,” which actually are still utterly foreign to some people.)

I am just personally tired but also opinionated to a fault and want to share my thoughts on where I’m coming from, culture-wise with this.

#the untamed #chen qing ling #roz speaks #this is literally just on how to address by name this doesn't even touch on forms of respectful address across generations #like Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen wouldn't call their uncle by name and how we see LWJ only call LXC Elder Brother #and how the juniors refer to WWX as ''Senior Mo'' and then ''Senior Wei'' although I actually dk if Netflix keeps this either #I single out Netflix bc I think the other tl's I've seen do mostly preserve this? and I think it does tell important cultural stories #and affects how characters interact with each other #mine

[trensu]

Episode 6: the One Where LWJ is Drunk and Gets Married

YES, GUYS GALS AND NB PALS, WE ARE AT THIS MOST WONDERFUL EPISODE.

OUR FIRST INTRODUCTION TO DRUNKJ!LWJ

AND THE HANDFASTING THAT INSPIRED A MILLION FICS

Okay, to set the scene, we’ve got JC, NHS and WWX having a sneaky drinking party with Forbidden Alcohol

Obviously, LWJ can spidey-sense when a rule is being violently broken so he appears at the scene of the crime to BREAK UP THE PARTY (or possibly a threesome?? He’s not sure but he’s gonna put a stop to that immediately)

HIS SERIOUS BB FACE IS SUPER ADORABLE HERE, GUYS

LIKE, I’M MORE PARTIAL TO WWX BUT UGH, LWJ IS SO CUTE HERE???

IT’S AWFUL

WWX: *bounces right into lwj’s space* join us for a drink lan zhan!! We earned it after defeating the Haunted Water!!

LWJ: *stares over wwx’s shoulder* alcohol is forbidden in the cloud recesses

WHY WON’T YOU LOOK HIM IN THE FACE, LWJ?? IS IT BECAUSE HE’S SO CLOSE TO YOU SUDDENLY???

WWX: chill out dude *playfully tugs on lwj’s sleeve*

Oh man, the glare that lwj shoots at wwx’s hand here could have started a fire. I mean, it must have at least burned a little with how quickly wwx lets go

LWJ: Report to the Punishment Chamber

Did they have to call it ‘punishment chamber’??

It sounds like some kind of kinky sex dungeon, which, like, to each their own,(i’ll read some kinky sex dungeon fic every once and a while, myself)

But this is Ancient Fantasy China summer school…seems a little inappropriate in context

ANYWAY

WWX again tries to coax LWJ in to having a drink with them. He doesn’t understand how someone can just…not drink alcohol. Oh wwx, you budding alcoholic you

And here WWX nobly sacrifices himself to save his drunk buddies by distracting lwj (who was about to call for backup, like a narc) and pins some sort of mind-control talisman on him

Wwx: sit and have a drink with me!

Lwj: *sits down and takes a shot*

Lwj: *passes out*

Wwx: omg i killed him. WAKE UP YOU CAN’T STAY HERE!! YOU HAVE TO GO BACK TO YOUR ROOM!! 

Wwx: *proceeds to gently guide lwj onto the bed*

You know after that initial panic, wwx looks too damn pleased with himself, especially after he gets lwj to call him wei-gege

Wwx suddenly notices that lwj’s ribbon is off kilter and informs him of it bc that’s what friends do

Wwx: your ribbon is crooked

Lwj: *scandalized gasp* crooked??

Why’s he so adorable when he’s drunk?? LOOK AT HIM TRYING TO SEE HIS OWN FOREHEAD AND GETTING ALL CROSS-EYED, WHAT A CUTIE

Wwx: i can help!! 

Lwj: *slaps wwx’s hand* Go Away

Wwx: you’re making it worse!!

Lwj: *slaps wwx’s hand away harder* DON’T TOUCH! THE RIBBON IS ONLY FOR FAMILY AND SIGNIFICANT OTHERS

And now we have a way to measure their queer queer love for each other without making the censors mad

How does this show do it?? This is gayer than most of the stuff aired in the US and the US doesn’t even have that kind of censorship laws media producers here are a bunch of COWARDS, disney i’m looking at you

Wwx: lol, significant others, really?

Lwj: what’s so funny

Wwx: nobody’s gonna marry into the lan clan with your thousands of dumb rules and chronic allergy to fun

LOLOLOL BOY HAS NO CLUE. JUST YOU WAIT WWX, YOU’RE GONNA EAT THOSE WORDS

Wwx: nope, you are gonna be Forever Alone

Lwj: …that’s fine

This is actually kind of heartbreaking tbh

He’s so resigned and pretending so hard not to care!!

HE TRULY BELIEVES HE’S NOT LOVABLE *UGLY CRYING*

Idk how the actor did it bc lwj still has a very placid expression on his face but it somehow manages to convey like, a sense of loneliness while still looking adorably drunk?? Idk man, i think black magic might be involved

All this to say POOR BB LAN ZHAN, COME HERE SWEETIE AND LET ME HUG YOU. YOU’RE GONNA BE FINE, I SWEAR.

Wwx is so incredulous at this response. Like he totally believes lwj would be okay staying alone forever but he doesn’t understand it

Bc wwx is a dumb teenage boy who doesn’t yet have the emotional intelligence to see that lwj is just saying that bc he’s scared and hurting

Now we get to see an acute case of Foot-in-Mouth Syndrome like we did back in episode 2!

Wwx: your mother must be so bored here all the time

DAMN IT WWX

WHAT IS IT WITH HIM AND BRINGING UP PEOPLE’S DEAD MOTHERS???

LWJ: i don’t have a mother 

He says flatly HIDING HIS SORROW

*UGLY SOBBING*

HE’S SO SAD AND LONELY GUYS

IT HURTS TO LOOK AT

WWX: you can’t not have a mother! Somebody gave birth to…oh.

There’s a crack vid somewhere on youtube with this scene voiced over “it was at that moment he realized…he Fucked Up”

And it’s true

Dumb boy

Here WWX makes up by sharing his sad orphan story with LWJ. it’s so sweet

THEIR SONG IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND WHILE THIS EXCHANGE HAPPENS

UGH THIS SHOW

LISTEN, ALL THIS HAS HAPPENED ALREADY AND WE’RE BARELY 10 MINUTES INTO THE EPISODE

LIKE, WHAT??

HOW. HOW CAN YOU GIVE ME SO MANY FEELINGS IN TEN MINUTES. THE FIRST TEN MINUTES OF THE EP EVEN.

WWX: my parents died when i was four and I can’t remember their faces–but i do remember getting chased by feral dogs

POOR BB WWX

HE CAN’T EVEN REMEMBER THEIR FACES 

OH, but we do get to see Actual BB!wwx in a brief flashback (within a flashback, remember this summer school business is not present time, how weird is that) and he’s riding a donkey while his mama and papa walk beside him. It’s adorable.

And after all that Emotional Vulnerability, he’s like “i’ll drink to that bro!” and makes a toast

I actually kind of like the toast he makes here with lwj tho

He tells him “may we never forget what is worth remembering or remember what is worth forgetting”

Idk if that’s like, a traditional toast or something he made up on the spot, but i like it

We get a brief moment of plot development here. 

AND OOOOH, THEY’RE ABOUT TO GET IN TROUBLE!!

So some Lan SNITCH barges into the room where lqr and lxc are at and is all “we caught wwx drinking Forbidden Alcohol!” and lxc’s expression is all gently amused

but then Lan Snitch continues “LWJ was with him!!” and lxc’s amused expression quickly morphs into Very Alarmed

(right before that all happened tho we get to see lwj fall out of bed, still passed out drunk and wwx laughs at him. I can’t even hold that against him bc i totally laughed at lwj too)

The camera now shows us some frankly HORRIFYING beating sticks (paddles?? Do they qualify as paddles?? THEY’RE HUGE AND SCARY AND MADE OF NIGHTMARES)

And bc LWJ is too honorable for his own good

Lwj: i am at fault and accept my punishment!

And goes on his knees to willingly get beaten. STOP THAT LWJ

WWX IMMEDIATELY steps in to take the blame, like no, it’s actually my fault bc i forced him to drink when he didn’t want to. LAN ZHAN SHOULDN’T GET PUNISHED!!

LQR: (proving that lans are all Dramatique) ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN CLOUD RECESSES??

Take a chill pill, old man. A teenager getting drunk is not gonna start the apocalypse (probably)

And here lwj completely ignores wwx’s attempt to absolve him and is all no, I Made a Mistake and Must Get Punished 

Wwx: STOP ASKING FOR PUNISHMENT YOU IDIOT

So the punishment is kind of…harsh, but also lol bc as soon as wwx sees lwj take the beating without flinching or even staggering under the strength of the hits (lwj is truly a stronger man than i; one look at those Nightmare Sticks I would’ve run for the hills), he grits his teeth and forces himself to stay steady

Wwx: *internally but you can totally read it in his face* i’m not gonna let that bastard one-up me!! I have WAY more experience taking punishments. I am the punishment KING.

Okay so that all happens and afterwards WINGMAN LXC STRIKES AGAIN

LXC: wwx, you should definitely visit the family’s private cold spring

LXC: you know, so you can heal faster and not miss class

LXC: not for any other reason

I’D LIKE TO TAKE THIS MOMENT TO THANK GOD AND ALSO JESUS FOR THE UPCOMING SCENE

WE ARE AT THE COLD SPRING

LOOK AT WWX RUNNING TOWARDS LWJ

WET, HALF-NAKED LWJ

Wwx: *leans coquettishly against a tree thing and pouts* why didn’t you tell me about this spring? Friends don’t keep secrets from friends!!

wwx, you’re so clever, how can you be so stupid – boy is flirting at max level and doesn’t even realize it???

Lwj: HOW ARE YOU EVEN HERE *frantically robes up like some virginal maiden which he kinda is*

Wwx: your brother told me!

Lwj: *internally* brother why

And here wwx gets into the cold spring

Wwx: so cold so cold, let me get close to you where it’s warmer~! *dives right into lwj’s personal bubble*

Lwj: *takes a HUGE step back*

Wwx: *pouts* you know i didn’t like you much before but after our Romantic Moonlit Sword Fight and our Sword Fight By the Waterfall, i’ve decided i like you a lot and we should definitely be friends forever

Lwj: *doesn’t even look at wwx* That’s Not Necessary

Wwx: before you reject me, let me show you all the ~benefits~ to being my friend! *starts to strip*

(I’M NOT EVEN KIDDING YOU, HE LITERALLY SAID BENEFITS AND STARTED TO GET NAKED)

LWJ *is Horrified in a Repressed Gay Way* WHAT ARE YOU DOING

WWX: getting naked?? To heal better?? I thought this was obvious???

LWJ: *determinedly walks away*

WWX: wait don’t leave!! I’ll keep my clothes on! Anyway you should definitely visit me in yunmeng and i can pick lotus seeds for you. That’s totally what i meant about benefits.

LWJ: no

WWX: i can also introduce you to all the pretty girls there!

I CRACK UP EVERY TIME AT THIS. WWX, THAT IS A WHOLE GAY BOY YOU’RE TALKING TO, OH MY GOD

Then it turns out the cold spring is actually Haunted Water 2: This Time It’s Personal and tries to drown them

See this is why i don’t trust any bodies of water

They’re all out to get us

AND NOW WE GET TO THE  CAVE OF WONDERS (or cold pond cave, whatev)

Wwx: what is happening

Lwj: *is fascinated by the cave of wonders*

Lwj: *internally* ooooh Magic Guqin!! (BECAUSE HE’S A NERD LOLOL)

Magic Guqin: NOT TODAY SATAN *attacks wwx*

Wwx: WHY IS IT ATTACKING ME, I DIDN’T EVEN DO ANYTHING YET!!

brief pause here to point out that we meet the bunnies now!! Hello bunnies!!! Everyone in the fandom loves you~!!! 💗💗💗

Okay so Magic Guqin continues to attack wwx but wwx is a Clever Boy and figures out that it’s only attacking him because he doesn’t have a sacred lan ribbon

Wwx: lwj, quick, give me your ribbon!

Lwj: *FLIES RIGHT OVER TO WWX and proceeds to bind their wrists together with the SACRED RIBBON ONLY FAMILY ANd S.O.’s CAN TOUCH*

Then the camera zooms in on the metal piece of the ribbon that is now swaying gently between them like, Subtlety? Never heard of her!

Camera: yep, this is totally a straight thing that straight bros do together

So now that they’re bound together for eternity the boys approach the Magic Guqin

Lwj slaps wwx’s hands away from the guqin here – just bc i let you touch the sacred ribbon doesn’t mean you can touch the magic guqin that tried to murder you

BC LWJ IS A MUSIC NERD AND IS TOTALLY GEEKING OUT OVER THE PRECIOUS MUSICAL HEIRLOOM

LWJ proceeds to reverently play the Magic Guqin and we have this moment where he’s like, floating in space surrounded by glowy blue lights??

Idk man, it’s weird but we’ll roll with it

This is the first time we see him communicate with spirits using music, btw. 

Now we meet Lan Yi!! Who is a badass and important for plot reasons but the Valid Reason she’s mentioned here is because SHE OFFICIATES THE WANGXIAN WEDDING (bc we’ve already established that we’re not here for the plot lol)

the boys are tied together with the sacred ribbon and then they bow to a clan elder. How is that not, bare minimum, a handfasting??? 

Okay, technically, lwj bowed to the elder first to show respect while wwx stood there all stunned until lwj reminded him of the Importance of Manners. Then wwx bowed. But I’m pretty sure that still counts.

“You two being here must be destiny!” lan yi says, “i’m gonna do some plot exposition so pay attention.”

Thankfully we are not lwj or wwx so we don’t have to pay attention at all!!

At some point, wwx makes a clever comment and lan yi is all “wwx you’re as smart as i thought!! 

Yes yes i definitely approve of you marrying my great great great grand-son/nephew/whatever the heck he is, idk i’ve been in this cave too long with only bunnies for company" (🎶bunnies are better than people, buns don’t you think that’s true~?🎶 I AM SO SORRY FOR THAT REFERENCE, DISNEY YOU STILL SUCK I JUST HAVE POOR SELF-RESTRAINT)

Okay, she for real complimented wwx’s intelligence (bc I guess everyone’s hot for WWX’s big brain? Idk) but i’m pretty sure she was thinking the rest of that really loudly in her head

Then more plot stuff happens and the episode ends!!!

Beautiful, phenomenal episode. One of the MOST IMPORTANT Wangxian episodes we have!! 100/10 stars, would watch again.

Return to Masterpost

#WangXiantics #wangxian #the untamed #this is my valentines gift to the fandom #well #this episode and the next one #it's not much #but it's all I have! #I MADE IT WITH LOVE AND I'VE BEEN ASSURED THAT THAT'S WHAT MATTERS

[ibijau]

At the risk of enabling you || it would greatly please everyone || if you could drop your thoughts on nhs and wwx hooking up || much to the confusion and anger of the lans || thank ||

I always welcome a little enabling. I’d touched on it before quickly, but let’s expand!

For both it’s the first time away from home. That means no Madam Yu watching your every move looking for an excuse to scold you if you’re wwx, and no overprotective Dage scaring off anyone that looks at you if you’re nhs

they both arrive in CR determined to get experience, aware that it’s a unique chance.

they also both quickly discover that it won’t be with a girl

wwx is a little sad about that because he’s primarily attracted to girls, and probably hadn’t considered the boy option until CR. nhs minds a lot less, he doesn’t care about such details so long as he finally gets to snog someone

queer kids attracts, so they become friends (jc as well: I’m more and more strongly picturing him on the aro/ace spectrum so he is queer as well, thanks for coming to my ted talk)

it probably starts as a joke. since it’d be a joke in bad taste, I’m gonna blame it on wwx. But nhs gives it serious consideration and after a few days, brings up the topic again: Wei-xiong, let’s date!

wwx is unconvinced because, again, he never seriously considered boys an option before. Like sure, he likes looking at lwj’s butt and waxes poetry about his perfect face daily, but everybody does that about other boys, right ahah?

(no, wwx. you’re bi. You’re extremely bi, and that’s fine, now get on with the program)

anyway nhs does a good job of convincing him. Mostly by pointing out that it’s not like either of them has another option if they don’t want to go back home with their kiss virginity. Plus honestly it’s a terrible idea and wwx is always down for a terrible idea.

very quickly in the dating process, they realise that they don’t feel anything more than friendship for each other, but the kissing thing is pretty nice, and it’s a lot of fun to piss of jc by holding hands around him, and also it seems to immensely upset lwj which is always a great bonus as far as wwx is concerned

and oh boy, lwj is upset

dating is an option?

you don’t have to just pine from a distance and get angry about your feelings??

he could have held wwx’s hand?

he could have KISSED wwx?

(he legit needs to go lay down five minutes after that realisation. Because. Kissing. Wei Wuxian. His brain is fried)

picture lwj desperately trying to look for a rule that forbids this sort of shameless behaviours, but the Lans are romantics at heart so actually, there’s nothing against kissing and holding hands

lwj is sitting in a corner, consumed by envy

then he figures out that actually, wwx and nhs don’t even like each other. and that is the absolute worse. how dare nhs not like wwx? who does he think he is to have made the world’s most amazing gremlin boy his boyfriend and he doesn’t even like him?

of course the whole time, wwx is still doing his weird attempt at friendship/semi flirting with lwj so you can imagine how hard it is on that poor boy who probably hasn’t felt that many emotions at once

does nhs figure out that lwj has a crush? heck yeah.

does he want to help? lol no that shit is too funny to watch unfold. nhs is fucking delighted to see those two dancing around each other. he tries to make bets with jc who Doesn’t Like This and threatens to breaks his legs. He also tries to make a bet with lxc who looks oddly relieved to learn that his baby brother will not get his heart broken after all

lcx refuses to bet (against the rules) but he does try to more insistently push lwj to interact with wwx, taking wwx on that night hunt and all

and yeah that’s all I got. they break up when wwx is sent back to lotus piers, but they remain great friends and probably write to each other and stuff and even years in the future, when wwx is back from the dead, they’ll probably still tease each other because ahah, can you believe we used to date?

(cue lwj doing the sword grip of horny each time because he is still upset that he didn’t get wwx’s first kiss)

#plot bunny #meanwhile the whole time lxc was playing sad flute tunes and refusing to admit to himself why he was sad #mdzs #Anonymous

[pumpkinpaix]

hi again! previous anon here, just remembered a question. there's something that's been nagging at me about the show's lan parents storyline — LXC tells WWX that story about his parents and it seems like it's meant as a parallel for LWJ and WWX. But the Lan parents thing sounded like a super toxic/unhealthy relationship? like their mom was literally being kept against her will... maybe i'm just missing the nuance for the parallel? would love to hear your thoughts on this!

(ask con’t, sorry it’s long) i’ve just gotten out of a bad relationship not too long ago and gets really leery of cdramas portraying control as love (ie one love interest preventing the other from leaving, or clear power imbalances as with period dramas). i really don’t think that’s what’s happening here but got kind of uncomfortable too at the “i want to bring someone back to gusu/hide them away” line LWJ had earlier. might you have an alternate interpretation? i’m almost sure i’m misreading!

So a couple things first: thank you so much for asking me this question because my thoughts about the untamed/mdzs have been so much and turbulent that having a specific thing to focus on is really helpful, AND it’s also really flattering that you think I??? would have worthwhile thoughts???? about this really complicated thing.

Second: I want to make sure to say that no matter how strongly I feel about my interpretation, no matter how long I spend composing this response, you are not obligated to change how you feel. If that line still bothers you, it still bothers you. Our experiences are different! And it’s okay! That being said, haha, buckle up I guess, because WOW do I have a lot of things to say.

Spoilers up through episode 43, obviously, with allusions to the novel. I will try to keep any details about things that happen post-43 vague.

Let’s begin with this moment:

“Was he right to do this?” || “I don’t know.”

[id: image 1 is a screenshot of lan xichen asking “was he right to do this” and image 2 is a screenshot of wei wuxian responding “i don’t know” from episode 43 of the untamed /end id]

I think we need to think about how to answer this question before we can answer your question: how can we interpret the relationship between lan wangji and lan xichen’s parents? Was it moral? Was it okay? Was it right? This is clearly a question that lan xichen has been wrestling with his whole life. And from this scene, I think that he’s made his peace with the fact that it’s always going to be a question for him, not because the inherent morality is unclear, but because of the emotional subjectivity he’s always going to hold for it. He doesn’t expect wei wuxian to have an answer because he doesn’t have an answer himself.

Something that I remember from the novel that doesn’t make it into this scene, though, is what wei wuxian says after lan xichen asks, “can you understand why my father acted this way?” and he nods, is the explanation he gives: he hated the person who had murdered his mentor, but he also loved her so much he couldn’t bear to see her destroyed. Unable to live with himself, he married her, swore to protect her, and then imprisoned her for the rest of her life. Tormented by his contradictions, he then locked himself away as well. lan xichen agrees.

lan wangji and lan xichen were raised without their parents—largely, they were raised by their upright uncle, who, due to his brother’s behavior, took up the responsibilities of sect leader and parent at the same time. (It’s really no wonder that lan qiren has such a vicious dislike for wei wuxian: he loves lan wangji so much, and he’s so afraid to watch the child he raised repeat history. Beyond that, I think it’s pretty safe to say that lan qiren probably harbors not insignificant resentment towards his brother for the harm he did to both his children and to lan qiren himself.) Lan qiren is not married and as far as we know, never has any romantic entanglements after he begins raising the lan brothers. So where does that leave lan wangji and lan xichen in terms of models for romance? All they have is the fraught relationship between their parents. 

lan wangji is not good with words. He expresses himself primarily through action, which we see time and time again. When lan wangji says to lan xichen, “there’s someone I want to take back to the cloud recesses. take them back and hide them away,” I think he’s trying to explain (with words) his feelings for wei wuxian in the only way he knows how: by making a reference to the only romantic relationship to which he and lan xichen were firsthand witnesses. lan xichen canonically understands wangji better than pretty much everyone: he sees straight through him at Biling lake when he invites wei wuxian and jiang cheng along to hunt the water spirits because he knows lan wangji wants wei wuxian to come. He asks if he wants loquats even when wangji refuses them. So when lan wangji says that, lan xichen first repeats the statement carefully to make sure he understands what’s at stake, and then he says something very crucial: “you only fear that he isn’t willing”.

I think this says a lot— specifically, that both lan xichen and lan wangji understand firsthand the pain their father caused and what exactly was wrong about it. I think what lan wangji is saying between the lines is, “I’m in love with someone. I want to take them home with me. I want to hide them away from the world to protect them. I fear this makes me like our father, whose love led him to do such terrible things to our mother, and by extension, to us and our uncle. I can’t repeat his mistakes.” And lan xichen, understanding all of that, gets to the heart of lan wangji’s inner conflict: wei wuxian is not willing, and lan wangji refuses to follow in his father’s footsteps, no matter how tormented he feels about the person he loves, no matter how much he wants to.

Every time lan wangji tries and fails to get wei wuxian to return with him to gusu, it’s with the intention of trying to help him, trying to protect him from the other sects, trying to pull him back before he does something unforgivable, much like his father’s motivations for bringing his mother back to gusu (“he swore that this was his beloved wife and that anyone who wished to hurt her [for her crimes] would have to go through him”), but unlike his father, lan wangji never forces wei wuxian to do anything. He never keeps him locked up, never forcibly kidnaps him. Not only that, but lan wangji is also willing to fight wei wuxian when he believes that wei wuxian is doing something inadmissible: heis the only one to stand against his initial forays into demonic cultivation, and physically confronts him on the roof at the nightless city. Would he have actually followed through on killing him, had things gone differently? Maybe, maybe not, but at the very least, it shows that he, unlike his father, was willing to try to destroy the person he loved when he crossed the line.

Anon, you’re right that there’s a parallel between the lan parents and wangxian, but I think the key is how they parallel each other. Lan wangji doesn’t repeat his father’s mistakes. When he finally does bring wei wuxian back to gusu and hide him away to protect him, wei wuxian is not there against his will, and, I think also importantly, lan wangji is with him. It’s no accident that lan wangji’s residence is the jingshi, the place his mother was imprisoned for his whole life, and it’s no accident that he brings wei wuxian there. But lan wangji doesn’t lock him there and abandon him like his father did with his mother: he’s there with him the whole time. Lan wangji, when all is said and done, is finally ready to stand by wei wuxian in spite of everything he did, unlike his father, who couldn’t do so with his wife: couldn’t destroy her, couldn’t stand with her. lan wangji makes his choice. “I regretted that I couldn’t stand with you at the nightless city.” The parallel is one that emphasizes contrast in spite of similarity.

All this ties vaguely into bigger themes present within the story, particularly the tensions between freedom/restriction and parents/children. These are like, two whole other essays haha, so I won’t get too deep into the weeds (unless you or anyone else wants to ask me!!! bc, anon, believe me, I would BE WILLING!!!) but:

1. lan wangji and wei wuxian are fundamentally very similar people, even if their personalities are not. They have incredibly strong moral compasses and want nothing more than to be righteous and to live with clear consciences about their choices. The difference is in how they go about that. wei wuxian chafes under rules, breaks them when he finds them unjust or unimportant, and thinks that he doesn’t deserve to be punished. When lan wangji finds that his moral compass conflicts with the rules he chooses to live by, he prioritizes his own sense of justice, much like wei wuxian, but he also accepts the punishments that are given to him without complaint. wei wuxian cherishes freedom over all while lan wangji lives under strict regulation, but the point is that they both take it too far. wei wuxian is righteous to the point of arrogance, flaunts his peers’ judgments and warnings to his eventual downfall. lan wangji, after doing what he thinks is right, allows himself to be punished without protest so severely he’s bedridden and imprisoned for three years. I would say neither of these approaches is… ideal, and I think that’s part of why wangxian feels so profound. They temper each other’s worst weaknesses. (rereading this, i’m not sure i’m 100% behind everything I just said lol, but again, an essay for another time)

2. Like lan wangji is paralleled with his father, wei wuxian is paralleled with his mother, zangse-sanren: free-spirited, mischievous, and ultimately meeting a tragic end for the choices she made out of that desire for freedom. He too is able to eventually escape his mother’s fate, just as lan wangji escapes his father’s. The parallels between parent and child are strong for almost all the mains, though not all of them manage to free themselves and achieve some measure of happiness, and this in itself relates to the even bigger questions of what matters more: your heritage, or your actions? Your heritage, or your upbringing? What can you do to avoid making the same mistakes as your predecessors?

I’ve already talked about this wrt wei wuxian and lan wangji, but the same goes for characters like jiang cheng, jin zixuan, wen qing, wen ning, mianmian, jin guangyao, su she, nie huaisang, jin ling, lan sizhui, ouyang zizhen, xiao xingchen, song lan, xue yang etc. like the list is endless. Part of why mdzs/the untamed is so heartwrenching is watching history repeat itself while the protagonists, who are also acutely aware, are nearly powerless to stop it. The juniors end up being the breaking from all that: willing to defy their parents, make their own decisions about right and wrong, recognize that a person’s actions should speak louder than the rumors that run on their account.

tl;dr: the lan parents’ relationship is toxic and hurtful to everyone around them. wangxian absolutely parallels it, but in a way that highlights how they differ from their predecessors, tying into larger thematic issues of the story.

eek that was almost 2k words yikes!! I hope my enthusiastic rambling helped you see that “take them back, hide them away” line in a different light haha, but I want to say again: you’re not obligated to take my interpretation as fact, and you also don’t have to think everything about wangxian is perfect to still like it. We all consume and like imperfect stories! I totally get your feelings on weird power dynamics/inequalities in relationships because… it’s abusive? it’s terrible? It hurts to see?? esp given what you said about your own experience, like yeah, for sure!!! but for me? when lan wangji says, “I want to take someone back to the cloud recesses—take them back, hide them away”, it reads as a really powerful, self-aware expression of what it means for someone like him to fall in love.

EDIT 16 APR 2020: I find myself only agreeing with ~85% of this after many months of reflection. /o\ *hides face* leaving it as-is because it’s what I wrote at the time, but! you know. I have changed some of my views.

#the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #陈情令 #魔道祖师 #meta #mine #anonymous #asks and replies #this is so long i'm so sorry!!! #this is also an open invitation for everyone to come talk to me about the untamed/mdzs #please #let me put my literary and film analysis training to any use at all please #mymeta

[yibo-wang]

Hi Aamna,

I am so sorry for the late message, I was indispose and sadly couldn’t reply nor message anyone. I won’t say more because I don’t want to give myself away.

Omg, I had forgotten about Blue’s Clues that was my nephew, niece and my kids favorite show when they were young, I still sing the mail song when I come inside the house with mine. Lol. It drive my kids crazy but it’s kind of catchy. ‘Here’s the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail...’

I love how insigful was your reply and you got me seeing them in a new light. Its always interest to me to see how others see the characters they love; not only do you learn so much one from the person answering but also from the characters, is like suddenly you see them in a new dimension you hand’t even thought of before or maybe just haven’t let yourself see.

I see what you did there, you turn the question on me. Its funny but I haven’t thought about this question in great detail maybe is because I haven’t actually sat down and ask myself this exact question. However, now that is being ask my mind comes blank, well that’s not true I do want to say Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji but in a way I would be lying to a point. I do love them what’s not to love about them but the more that I think about this question the more I find myself asking not who do I like but more of which characters I find interesting, and that’s when names fly through my mind quicker than my hands can write. So to answer your question to a point the characters I find fascinating are as follow:

Lan Jingyi- I find him interesting maybe because he reminds me so much of myself that would just blurt things that were supposed to never be said but never fully understood why you shouldn’t.

Jin Ling- I don’t find him so much fascinating but the mother in me is sad that he never knew his mom and we know that Jiang Yanli wanted him so much she love him from the moment she knew she was pregnant.

Lan Xichen- My feelings for this character are divided, in one hand I like him that he love his brother there was never a doubt that he was nice and kind again no doubt but in the other hand I kind of hate him a bit for letting himself be influence and believe someone that he knew for just so little time compare to his brother that he had known longer.

If you could choose three characters that you wish would have never been written in the MDZS novel, who would they be?

Your C.C Blue 🌸

Blueee hello! It's okay bb I hope you've been well and that everything is alright 💛💛💛

Ahah omg the mail song is catchy 😂 I never pick up the mail so that's an opportunity lost on my end lmao but I used to sing 'we are looking for blue clues' everytime i used to search for something and my family got so annoyed they banned me from ever singing it XD kinda wanna start again just to annoy them some more haha

Ahh it's true mdzs has so many interesting characters! I'd probably write half of them because they're all so unique and well crafted and just you seem to sympathize and understand all of their pov it's a struggle 😭

Oomph yess great choices! It's adorable you're like Jingyi,, I love him so much. He's so chaotic and definitely the most unlan lmao. But I love that about him. And Jin Ling ngl the first time I watched the series i didnt pay much attention to Jin Ling or well I did but I just thought of him as a nuisance but during the rewatch and while reading the novel I got a better understanding of him and just his story is extremely sad too :( I would do anything to have yanli and zixuan getting to see jin ling grow up

Ahh xichen, I understand what you mean but for me I dont think i can bring myself to hate him. Cause idk if one would call it a flaw or not but xichen is inherently a kind and compassionate person, he is too trusting. The thing is that jiggy was just too good at manipulating him. If we look at it from lxc's pov jiggy literally made no mistakes. He never let xihcne catch a whiff of what he was doing, not until if we're talking cql verse when lan zhan brings wei ying back after his injuries and jiggy tells him that wwx has been busy causing trouble in the burial mounds and xichen realises that that cant be possible cause wei wuxian is literally behind the screen atm.

Ig he could've trusted wangji but I sorta think that maybe xichen had doubts that wangji was blinded by his love or smthn for wwx but also the thing is once wwx and lwj brought it to his knowledge that jiggy might be behind all of this he doesn't cut out or dismiss their argument, he's in a way too righteous as well because he's going to listen to both the sides because thats just him haha (sorry I went on a whole ramble here djfjfj I had no idea I had so many hidden emotions for him lol)

Ooh ooh you always ask such good question! It makes me think so hard about them :D I love it!

I really think every character introduced in the series had a purpose so it's so hard to remove them from the story XD the easiest one out of all of them is Sect Leader Yao because I HATE HIM. So so much, no one else invokes this level of negative emotions in me than him 😫😂 the next one would be jin zixun cause again he is ANNOYING. Literally zero skill and only talking trash 😒 also if he's gone then jin zixuan wont die and the whole Qiongqi Path incident wont happen (if no one else is brought instead of him) saves everyone win win :D

Wang Lingjiao (lmao I'm literally picking all of them based on annoyance) but I don't think I would not want her to exist cause then how will we have the 'You like MianMian line' and dense!wwx moment lol. Idk who the third one will be? Who would you pick?

#blue!!! #mdzsnetcc #ive been meaning to answer this for so long but everytime someone interrupts me lol

[crossdressingdeath]

Re Guanyin JC, true, I always forget how WWX never had a non abusive relationship in his past because it's so sad! So that's definitely a worry, but a big game changer imo is that after his rebirth, he isn't persuaded he has a life debt to the Jiang abusive family for fostering him and to JC for "stealing" his place in the family by being too good which guided many of his decisions in his past life. He had lived with the Wens who loved and respected him and LWJ choose to stand by his side 1/4

(Wens sibs also did), Jc revealed his true colors re genocide of people who saved his life  (and WWX is good at resenting insults to others and not to himself)... Jc knows it hence why he's brandishing the promise and the debt to the Jiang as an argument, and not love or brotherhood. In canon, I'm nearly sure WWX won't come back by himself if JC doesn't make at least a given gesture which of course with his pride, anger and blaming others for his own faults, he'll never do.  2/4

Even with nice fanon JC, as you said, people can only imagine JC wanting WWX back, not WWX deciding to rebuild the bond lol It galls me how fans are persuaded that WWX (or JL or poor LXC in the popular ship) just need to learn that coming from JC insults, blame, anger and rejection means love and learn to navigate and degrade themselves enough to make it work. No, it's abusive and JC must learn to stop it first and 3/4

work on his trauma before being let back into polite society? YZY doing it is bad and abusive, but when JC does it, it is not because ...? 4/4 

Hey, it’s not that he never had a non-abusive relationship in his past! He had JYL, who couldn’t do much about his situation because she was a child (even if she did end up having to pretty much raise him) but did clearly love him and want him to be happy. But between her genuinely not being able to do a lot to help him and, let’s face it, her love for both her brothers blinding her to how downright cruel JC could get, in the end he still ended up with approximately zero sense of self-worth.

Re. the deaths of the Wens, I’m pretty sure WWX has convinced himself that JC really couldn’t do anything and it wasn’t his fault, never mind that JC led the siege. I don’t blame him for that; JC is pretty much all he has left of his old life, and WWX really does love him. Blaming him won’t bring the Wens back and it’ll destroy any hope WWX has of getting some small scrap of his childhood back, so it’s easier to just... not. It’s not necessarily the best way of dealing with the whole situation, but... it’s understandable. Of course, the other part of his reasoning (”It’s actually all my fault because I killed JYL (never mind the person who actually stabbed her) so of course JC needed to get revenge (never mind the fact that he was at the ‘let’s kill WWX right after saying we wouldn’t’ party to begin with)!”) is... infinitely less healthy.

I think people look at WWX saying “Oh, he’s insulting me out of love and it’s all playful!” and take it at face value? I mean, playful insults are a thing; see WQ and WWX’s dynamic, which is mostly snark with a solid core of trust and affection. But WWX has convinced himself over years that JC’s insults come from a place of love and care because the alternative is that his brother always hated him, and he can’t even bring himself to consider that possibility. WWX is not a reliable narrator! JC’s style of loving insults is constantly putting down anyone who even looks like they might be better than him, and it’s only considered loving because WWX, who thinks the way YZY treated him was okay and justified and all his fault if you really think about it, says it is. Because, again, he has zero sense of self-worth and is just full of self-loathing, so despite his skill and outward arrogance there really wasn’t much left for JC to degrade. A good example of this is how WWX really does want to rebuild their bond, but seems to be under the impression that that’s his responsibility and it’s all his fault their relationship went south, as if JC didn’t abandon him, call him a traitor to the sects, show up to pledge troops to try to kill him, lead a siege to kill him after their sister died to save him, spend thirteen years torturing to death anyone who reminded him of him, tried to kill him again the second he suspected he’d come back to life, and then when that didn’t work deliberately triggered his cynophobia for “proof” even though he already knew with 100% certainty that that was WWX and so it was probably just for funsies. And that’s not even getting into all the shit he does before and during the Sunshot Campaign!

As for it being bad when YZY does it, an irritatingly large portion of the fanbase seems to be under the impression that her being an abusive bitch is actually all JFM’s fault for not bowing to her every whim and being head over heels in love with her, so...

#grapehate #asks #anon