#so im happy he got the wwx role

[ghooostbaby]

Reading the MDZS novel

A high octane journey through the final extras chapter

• ahh LWJ and WWX role playing they've never met before?!

• Lan WangJi, sir, I frankly cannot believe that you, an educator, are lying to children about math

• I got very excited when I first thought this was in Gusu Lan sect, and that they hang out with the little kids there! Logically if they teach the juniors as teens they MUST also teach younger kids and I just want to see it!!!!

• Ahhhhh wei ying feeding Lan Zhan things ... just all of it

• wwx sticking a sweet thing into his mouth and lwj just letting it stay there, and then wwx is like do you like it? And how lwj says nothing. And how wwx says I'll take back if you don't say if you want it! So lwj bites it (oh how he loves to bite what we wants)

• Honestly its one of the most romantic things in my opinion, that knowing lwj has trouble saying what he wants, wwx doesn't try to fix him, and just playfully gives him snacks to try, while teasing him

• The two of them just sauntering around a market together omg the domesticity im MELTING

• "When [Lan WangJi] finished [the snacks], Wei WuXian would always ask, 'How was it? How was it?' Sometimes Lan WangJi replied 'fine', while other times he replied 'excellent', yet more of than not, he would reply 'strange'. Whenever that happen Wei WuXian would laugh and take it, not letting him have any more." AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

• Lan WangJi being the baby oh my heart!

• Lan WangJi sneaking off to secretly learn to cook Wei WuXian's favourite soup for him it hurts

• Wei WuXian: you're a virgin who can't cook

• Lan WangJi: *is silent*

• 1 minute later

• Wei WuXian: plzzzzzz hanguang jun cook for Meeeee

• Love how they bully each other. Love how wwx has no poker face. Love lwj loving to win and being all big and good and getting kissed. Love wwx loving losing to lwj and being all small and bad in his lap.

• Also wwx calling lwj "my dear" (as the translation goes) !!!!

• OK there's just too many little back and forths that I am HOWLING over! WWX begging to be cooked for about to jump in his lap! lwj then correcting his posture!!! The "Er-Gege you can't treat me like this"!!!! And then finally holding wwx's hand and saying he cooked for him already!!!!

• But also hasn't it been months?? Atleast?! What have they been eating all this time?

• Wei Ying!!! No sex in the restaurant!

• Ohhh WWX being serious and he's just so earnestly overjoyed that his husband is a good cook fuck they're sweet

• Ahhhhh smile lan zhan, smile! It would send your wei ying through the roof

• Oh nooooo now they're playing a CARNIVAL GAME?!?! I am dead. They're winning toys for each other ahhhhhhhh help me

• Lan WangJi repeated, "Whatever it lands on is mine." We all know what you're thinking you possessive bitch

• Yeeeeeee forehead ribbon tugging in public. Who belongs to who now?!

• "I want whichever one you get." Oh lwj and your beautiful pure heart

• Ahahahahaha "Look at you. What are you doing in front of all these people?" Lan WangJi, "What?" Wei WuXian, "You're flirting with me." Lan WangJi's expression was calm, "I am not."

• The gentle teasing, the deep familiarity, the sense that they are that old married couple at the farmers market so in love after 100 years oh my god

• Ahhhh if wei wuxian can throw from that far away that must mean he developed mo xuanyu's golden core this is too much goodness

• "The jinshi is a peaceful place only for playing the guqin and burning incense"!?! Wei WuXian I've read about many other things occurring there ...

• Aghhh you never see LWJ as a normal teacher so the image of hanguang jun standing up at the front of a normal classroom as the juniors file into their desks ... "good morning class" ... with the new souvenir their teacher's husband got for him on their recent romantic getaway on display

• Honestly these two being teachers is the sweetest thing. Imagine having this hot gay magical power couple be your teachers.

• Ohhh they're actually in lotus pier!? Ugh my heart

• so adorable and dramatic lwj! wwx: "don't tip the boat sweetie." lwj: "do not worry. I can save you if you fall."

• "Yes! We can come again." Ugh these two. So gorgeous

• The way wwx reacts to lwj's smiles ... they are so so so in love (and the fact that Lan Zhan smiled at Wei Ying saying he wanted to trick him into getting beaten by the angry lotus farmer!)

• Oh Lord!!!! The serenity of lwj when they've fallen in the water, and he takes the blame for tipping the boat, so then wwx takes the blame, and they laugh and kiss!!!! SO. IN. LOVE. I am so happy for these sweet little lambs

• "Back then, all I really wanted was to play with you." Ajhh wwx you're going to end me.

• LWJ just scooping him up and putting him back in the boat, its too much!!

• Did lwj retrieve wwx's hair ribbon from the water or does he just keep a supply of red ribbons incase wwx needs one?!

• Oh no LWJ now you've DEFINITELY killed me: "you can try now to see if I would reject you over anything."

• And then wwx's reaction "please warn me before you say anything so romantic, or else i won't be able to take it." ahaaaaa you little shit. But honestly SAME

• And then lwj's little "ok" !!!! Imagine that he takes this seriously and from then on periodically says, "Wei Ying, I'm about to say something really romantic." And Wei Ying takes his hand and says, "OK, I'm ready Lan Zhan."

• So glad they get to have endless laughter and hugs now. My sweet darlings, you deserve it

• They really are so perfect

I love them so much

#this chapter killed me #now to start the novel again to actually read it in order and for the plot ahaha #mdzs #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian

[saberspirit]

jiang cheng character analysis essay under the cut! bc he means a Lot to me (its 5 pages im sorry)

tl;dr my thoughts on his relationship to his parents, his relationship with anger and feelings of inferiority, what zidian represents to him, his siblings (largely about what led to him and wwx falling out), and my thoughts on reconciliation between him and wei wuxian in the end.

tw!!! for child abuse and death, also warning for spoilers for the ending. 

alternatively can be read on google docs for accessibility

foreword: by writing this it is not my intention to imply this is the end all be all interpretation, or that i know more than fans of colour (especially chinese/chinese-american fans). i’m looking at his character as a white fan and through a western lens. i understand there are nuances i wont understand, but i have tried and continue to look at him w/ an educated view point and i’m always trying to continue my own self-driven education. i’m as always open to criticism and correction, although i understand it is no ones job to do so. it’s purely an interpretation from someone relating to his themes that i talk about here. thank you for reading! 

Jiang Cheng has a very complicated relationship with his parents (understatement), though different from Wei Wuxian’s complicated relationship w/ them (some overlaps being given).

It’s obvious to me that JC identifies more as his mother's son than his father's—feels he has to be because surely that’s why he feels neglected and like he’s constantly being found wanting by his father (even if Fengmian does Not mean to come across that way and isn’t a cruel man). He identifies with his mother’s anger and feeling of not being what his father truly wanted or loved and I don’t think he realized the effect she had on him with her constant comparison game—trying to measure him up because Madam Yu used him as a playing piece in her constant warring with Fengmian and instilled a sense of otherness in him and his deep-rooted feelings of inferiority and not being Good enough, not being enough in general. And yet he still deeply loves them even through all that he’s been through because of them both.

He never grew up learning how love should be in a relationship; should be from a parent to a child. The love he learned is a different type of conditional love from WWX's (WWX being that he doesn’t trust it in the first place, knowing it will leave). JC receives love and praise but knows it comes from a silent arrangement: it’s transactional. He upholds what his parents want and he gets…a form of it. Jiang Fengmian loved him in a way that you just kind of do love family, perhaps without a real reason otherwise—not pretty, but it is as it is. Madam Yu loved him in a way one loves a possession: she saw too much of Jiang Fengmian in him and JC was a reminder of how unhappy she was and how much her husband didn’t seem to care about her or what she gave him. (This isn’t to downplay Yanli's role in JC’s life: I think she was truly the only one to show him unconditional love in a way that he understood and recognized but it's unfortunately different from siblings and fell on half-deaf ears when all JC really wanted was his father’s approval).

Madam Yu was (afaik) stated to not be physically abusive (aside from the whipping when the Wens came from Wei Wuxian), but she was one-hundred percent verbally and emotionally abusive (for example, punishing WWX w/ isolation from the family w/ seclusion, or in general just how she talked to JC and WWX). She broke those two boys and it's something that can’t be undone…and Zidian represents that trauma, abuse, and expectation and JC’s anger and resentment that was the product of it. It’s literally lightning in a whip form; able to bind without harm, but it’s primarily used to hurt; it can reveal a true form; control over it is only relinquished to one’s family and loved ones.

JC doesn’t just lash out verbally at Wei Wuxian when they meet in his second life, he literally does. It’s his anger under his skin like static, driving him forward and being unable to rest because he’s constantly looking for closure he can’t have. He resents how his parents and Wei Wuxian made him feel but it’s also the only thing he has of them, and he clings to that (and therefore Zidian). It’s the last thing, bar Lotus Pier, that he has of his family anymore, and he wields it like a weapon…because ultimately it’s the only thing he's known for a very long time. Anger is an easy emotion. He wears it well. It was an emotion he learned from his mother, and he is his mother’s son.

As a side note for Zidian: Jin Ling refusing to take it from JC in the Burial Mounds to me was very much about not wanting a goodbye. He's a stubborn kid—JC mirrored what his mother did to him in handing off Zidian before certain death, and I think Jin Ling realized "take care of Zidian" meant "because I can’t anymore". JC wanted Jin Ling to stay safe and keep a hold on their family's legacy, but Jin Ling refused it and stepped forward to protect JC—JL is tired of goodbyes and afraid of losing more people, but also that stubborn streak to protect his family back. He went into the fray himself even if it’s not what JC was asking him to do (but then to JC’s chagrin the kid never really does do what he asks usually, Jin Ling has a good head on his shoulders and he’s as stubborn and quick to anger as his jiujiu but he’s also as incredibly loyal and caring). And I think it's a good vehicle to show that JL is breaking that cycle for them both.

Back to Jiang Cheng and anger and his siblings though. Yanli is all about showing affection in her words and actions (ie. meal sharing, peeling the lotus seeds, etc). WWX struggles to show it in forthright actions, let alone verbalize it (he’s truly bad at it) so while WWX does love his brother and shows it in actions like giving him his golden core…it’s not something JC picks up on well, or at all because he doesn’t even get told about the core until the Guanyin Temple. Jiang Cheng is someone who needs verbalized confirmation and very obvious action. But then to be fair, JC is also not good at verbalizing his love and care (he and Wei Wuxian are two peas in a pod w/ this one). It’s often behind barbed wire because 1) that’s how it was shown to him and 2) because it’s safer and easier to hide behind anger. He really does use it as a shield to protect his real feelings because he’s used to his feelings being trivial and being thrown in his face, and is used to loss. It’s a buffer.

This leads to a problem: Wei Wuxian does love him unconditionally, but I don’t think JC knows that. When he’s faced with the golden core surgery after everything, it’s definitely obvious, but it’s so twisted up in being hidden from him, in his own fears and feelings of failure and reliance that it’s soured. And he struggles to reach out and be frank with his own worries.

And this leads and lends to the severity of their falling out (not the only cause, but a big player in it).

He deeply loves his brother, but it's also entrenched in his bitterness and fears. If it was initially hard for him to verbalize because of those issues (on top of being a teenager/young adult and his feelings of inferiority irt WWX), he’s now in the current day steeped in sixteen years of loss/grief/trauma. Of unresolved tension between the two of them because WWX never told anyone anything—even if that’s just how he is, nothing personal towards JC except maybe that it’s his little brother, his shidi, and he doesn’t want to put a burden on those he loves—and JC tried time and time again to believe him and in him.

The problem was that his trust got thrown in his face time and time again. His older ‘peers’ (clan leaders) mocked and insulted him to his face for his naivety, pointed out that what WWX was doing was an insult to JC and their family, that WWX’s actions disrespected him and that he should do something about it. WWX’s actions themselves alongside him never letting JC in on anything further isolated them and put walls between them. This sewed the seed of the idea for JC that maybe he was naive. That WWX couldn’t uphold his duty and promises to JC and their family while also upkeeping his own personal code of ethics. (Not that it helped that Jiang Cheng also started lashing out at Wei Wuxian in minor ways for not having Suibian, but he didn’t exactly know why, to his credit).

His trust was him trying to care for WWX through all they’ve lost, but he’s also under the immense pressure of leading and rebuilding his home while also being looked down upon for his inexperience and ties to the man the cultivation world loathes.

Jiang Cheng believed WWX when he said he'd help him, wanted him to and expected him to. That’s his big brother and ultimately family comes first, so it was out of the question that WXX wouldn’t uphold that duty to him. Jiang Cheng is barely an adult as Sect Leader and was still a teen when they lost everything, so of course he wanted to rely on and believe Wei Wuxian when he said he'd help. JC doesn’t usually rely on others—I’d wager he hates relying on WWX especially as a callback to the inferiority complex—but he lets WWX in when they have the “Twin Prides” talk, lets him in when he promises JC to help him rebuild their home…and then WWX lets him down several times.

Post Burial Mounds there are signs that JC notices, if not consciously then subconsciously, that something is off with his brother (the demonic cultivation, the flute, the lack of Suibian, his weakness when pushed, etc), little things that he noted but didn’t have the time during a War to think too deeply on. He’s more relieved to just have him back where he can see him, happy that his brother can help them. Jiang Cheng gives him his vote of confidence in his abilities, in him, because he never thought of WWX or his methods badly (having been a fan until it became a symbol of losing Wei Wuxian to Something Else). Even if he had thought something of it, did have a concern, they don’t easily talk to each other now.

That much is obvious when after various meetings post the Sunshot Campaign as WWX is struggling with his temperament and resentful energy, after WWX saves the Wen remnants from the Jin Clan, and Jiang Cheng shows up at the Burial Mounds. He still believes in Wei Wuxian, still is bound to help him, and wants to help him. He’s willing to sacrifice the Wens for his brother. His actions and words are not pretty, but by god is he desperate. Jiang Cheng wants to save him and hides it with harsh words because once again he’s not good at being forthright with his feelings. He’s at his wits’ end, he’s barely 20, and suddenly he's losing Wei Wuxian too. It’s not about them being Wens because at this point he’s aware they’re helpless—it’s because it’s WWX and he’s supposed to make the right decision and be competent. It’s freshly post-war and he’s scared: his big brother is leaving and he feels powerless and he Hates that. Once again feels like he’s not good enough. Not good enough to save WWX, not good enough to lead, and he’s under intense scrutiny. He tells WWX as much that at this point he can’t help, and it hurts him to not be able to. Jiang Cheng wants Wei Wuxian to help him, help him. It’s an admittance wrapped in hurt and hurtful words, and WWX throws it in his face because he can’t let him in.

It’s not meant in any malicious way. Wei Wuxian is also traumatized, scared and hurting and dealing with the changes demonic cultivation is causing within him. But this is a key moment when JC for once verbalizes his fears and WWX tells him, ‘good, you don’t need to worry, I don’t have anything to do with you from now on’. (And of course, WWX is doing this to protect JC, but this response is what JC is afraid of).

So we have two times that JC has tried really hard in his own ways to let WWX in. To rely on him and be honest with him and WWX ends up…breaking his promises and leaving him and their family behind. And to me, that explains his actions when the last time they speak before he dies (that we’re shown anyways). WWX is sitting down with Jiang Cheng and Yanli. JC is the one that set up them being able to meet him, the one that reached out even after they fought to make his defecting from the Sect look convincing. He was the one that told Yanli that WWX should be the one to give a courtesy name to her child.

And then WWX brings Wen Ning. Yanli is open to Wen Ning sitting in and enjoying their family tradition, but JC can't understand why. Why WWX chose these people over his own family. He resents it. When he says "you might not be able to come back, to your family" I can imagine how much it destroys him to hear WWX say "but the people I’m returning to are also my family". Because what does that make them, WWX’s siblings; what does that make the promises and the years spent raised together, the duty he had to them first. Wei Wuxian might return to the Burial Mounds, but Jiang Cheng has to return to an empty Lotus Pier. The ghosts of his parents and ghosts of memories of his siblings he’s never getting back (because Yanli will be in Jinlin Tai after her upcoming wedding).

Repeatedly over and over Jiang Cheng reaches out, but time and time again it’s like WWX is telling him he’s not enough: not enough for WWX to rely on, not enough to protect him, not enough for him to want to return to, not enough to be family.

Then the cultivation world comes for WWX and his amulet. Yanli is killed, as far as JC can tell, because of the mess WWX made, and once again he’s in the dark about everything. Then WWX dies and rumours swirl that JC killed him, and maybe he did, maybe he is his brother’s killer even if Wei Wuxian would call it a misunderstanding. He’s left alone with an orphaned nephew in Lotus Pier with his entire family, bar an infant, dead.

So Jiang Cheng spends the next sixteen years without answers, with WWX having reinforced his insecurities and fears that stemmed from the abuse he'd suffered during childhood and then died. Yanli died when she never should’ve been in danger in the first place, seemingly because of Wei Wuxian. And he's so angry. He lashes out at memories and reminders, lashes out at anyone who chooses that same path that WWX chose over his family.

By the time Wei Wuxian’s come back from the dead and JC knows it’s him, WWX is still deflecting, still hiding still not telling him the truth. The fact that WWX comes back at all hurts purely as a fresh opening of the old wound, but the fact that he doesn’t come to find JC, that once again JC and his family isn’t a priority and once again is second best (this time to Lan Wangji)?

He doesn’t kill his brother. JC sits him down in a room and tries to talk but old hurts rile up and he reaches for anger again. WWX isn’t forthright and it makes it worse, neither of them are good at communicating: too many things unsaid, that can’t be said, too many misunderstandings and neither of them knowing how to talk about it. JC has Fairy there and it’s a minor act of revenge. JC uses what he knows is WWX’s weakness to intimidate and immobilize him, but it doesn’t help either of them actually talk.

Reconciliation is going to require WWX being able to talk to him without deflecting and JC getting angry so easily. But by this point, he’s given WWX a lot of chances and it’s why I think they could and would easily post-canon. Jiang Cheng's starting to come to an understanding that WWX did and still does care about him. He didn’t give him his golden core for no reason, and JC starts to understand why WWX did it for him and that he knew JC well enough to hide it in the first place.

He started to reach that conclusion shortly after Wen Ning told him—oh the pain of it having been WWX's chosen little brother figure—and Jiang Cheng had gone around asking people to unsheathe Suibian. It's why he brought Chenqing to the temple in the first place.

I think it speaks to his maturity that he decided at that moment he couldn’t say what he wanted to tell WWX in the end. I think he knew neither of them was ready, but I also think it speaks of how much he misses and trusts WWX to have let him go for now…I think he knows they will meet again as long as they both live, and that they'll be better for having waited. After some time to think, digest, they’ll be ready to be family again and all that entails.

#he really lives in my head rent free and i just. well. i think hes a really good example of the ''uglier'' side of the feelings of-- #-- victims of abuse and how we deal -or sometimes cant- with it in our lives afterwards and how they affect relationships #BUT the important thing is that hes healing :) #jiang cheng #for my own tagging purposes #caleb meta hours #caleb.txt #i may come back to edit this tbh its 1am and i spent 3 hours editing it

[ameliarating]

you knew I was going to ask: Yi City texting?

Okay, here we go, fist thing’s fist -

The Yi City Crew text each other wildly differently than they would have texted others before, because the Yi City Crew consists of one blind person, one person pretending to be blind, and one person who is highly motivated to keep that first blind person happy. And then later on one sighted person who really isn’t texting anyone joins the party.

That means no emoji and minimal punctuation as Xiao Xingchen (and usually A-Qing) use voice-to-text and screen-reader apps and Xue Yang texts but only messages that won’t be impossible for Xiao Xingchen to read.

It’s possible he’s been horrible and sends A-Qing texts with lots of emojis that the screenreader has to read out (”knife smirking face skull and crossbones knife knife knife”) but jokes on him, A-Qing just reads them anyways.

But here’s a closer look at their individual styles:

Xiao Xingchen, before he gave up his eyes, texted like my mom. Maybe like your mom too! He didn’t grow up texting, there was zero cell service on the Celestial Mountain, and he definitely started out signing his texts to Song Lan, “love, Xingchen” but he got out of that habit pretty fast by getting used to the way Song Lan texted him.

He uses emoji more as little illustrations rather than integrated parts of the conversation. They don’t fill the same role as gestures or expression or intonation because he just never got the hang of them.

He lets autocorrect do the work of capitalization and punctuation but doesn’t fuss much with standard grammar in his texts. He is in the habit of sending long blocks of text, rather than breaking it up in different messages too.

Xiao Xingchen is a Slow Texter and worse, sometimes if you send him a text and he doesn’t feel like texting back, he’ll just call. He even leaves voice messages. It’s ridiculous. 

Song Lan grew up texting, also doesn’t bother with standard capitalization and punctuation, but while he uses emoji fluently (but sparingly), he doesn’t mess with emoji or standardization (or lack thereof) for aesthetic reasons. 

Song Lan texts a lot because he does not want to speak to you on the phone, but they’re also pretty short. Sometimes, Xiao Xingchen answers his cell for him.

Here’s an example conversation:

XXC: I saw this tree yesterday that had lichen hanging from a branch so delicately that it looked like some spirit had woven a lace sleeve for it with the end of the branch peeking out like a wrist and hand. It was lovely Zichen. You would have enjoyed it. I hope you’re well. Miss you. 🌲❄️ SL: 😊 

Xue Yang would have texted people constantly if he had many people to text. He throws emoji out there like crazy with no sense of what’s appropriate. He doesn’t wait for people to respond, he just texts several messages at a time, and then sometimes he never writes you back after all that either.

Like Wei Wuxian, he backspaces autocorrect because autocorrect just doesn’t get him, you know? If he wanted that capitalized or with correct spelling, he would have done it himself. 

It’s unclear if he’s using emoji as a seamless way to make up for gesture, intonation, and expression, (because he really is that expressive) or if he’s just throwing them all out there for the fun of it. Probably a mix of them both.

An example conversations:

XY: ⏰⏰⏰ the fuck where are you been waiting 4ever know ur not 2busy4me 🙄

XY: on a schedule here

XY: lianfang-zun~~~~ 😘 big brother is waiting 🧟🧟

XY: guess I gotta come find you 🤷 1sec chifeng-zuns heavy 🧟 gotta get him 💪

JGY: STAY WHERE YOU ARE. I’m coming.

XY: read ya loudnclear 🤫 cant wait 2 see u 😇🔪

and another

XY: yiling laaaaaozuuuu ☠️ 🔪 🧟 🤩 😍 heard u were back !!!! ✨🎉 🎉

XY: huuuuuuuuge fan of ur work 🙌 ☢️ 🙌 gotta favor to ask 😘😘😘🍆🗡️💓💓

WWX: ... how the fuck you get this number/???????

A-Qing never had a phone until Xiao Xingchen got her one and usually pretends to be blind, so she doesn’t use emoji. She does use all caps and extra letters and abbreviations, which is pretty strange for someone who’s not supposed to rely on visuals and it sometimes wreaks havoc with the screen readers. But neither Xiao Xingchen nor Xue Yang knows enough about that to get suspicious, Xiao Xingchen because he never feels super comfortable with his cell anyway and Xue Yang because he doesn’t use screen readers.

They all use pretty standard spelling in general though between voice to text and screen readers. 

A sample convo in their group chat:

XY: hey daozhang busy tonite?

XXC: No why is there something you need me to do?

XY: more like someone

AQ: OMG did you FROGET IM HERE????? ffs

XY: didn’t forget

XY: why would you think I forgot?

AQ: GROSSSSSS

XY: fucking deal with it not everything’s about you

AQ: you’re not supposed to fucking swear in front of me! daozhang is reading this!!!!!!

XY: what, who’s fucking swearing? I’m not swearing shit. 

Daozhang is not, in fact, reading this, because he left his phone in his room mid-conversation and forgot to check it until hours later.

Honestly, Xue Yang is just mourning the waste of his ability to use obscene emoji to best effect, but, you know, worth it.

As a bonus, here are their names in each other’s contacts:

Xiao Xingchen has them as:

Zichen

A-Qing

Friend

A Qing has them as:

Xiao Daozhang

Asshole

Xue Yang has them as:

Daozhang 😘

Little Blind 👹 

Find more untamed texting here! 

#untamed texting #xue yang #xiao xingchen #song lan #a qing #the untamed #mdzs #cql #veliseraptor #ask #my posts

[valdrift]

ever since i found your blog via mdzs art (since i recently got into it) it makes me super happy to see you not only draw p much all the characters w/ darker skin but also trans wwx. it's so good! but i also have a question unrelated to your art but mdzs in general. im an mlm but im also not chinese but on twitter a lot, i see a lot of artist going 'oh it's okay to call wwx wife in his relationship with lwj' and while i dont heavily interact w/ many people for my own sanity, i was wondering- 1/2

2/2 -if i could hear a second opinion? bc it's kind of just. off-putting to hear people continuously call wwx wife, while in a mlm relationship. but i'm not sure if it's also something that also comes w/ chinese culture (but im also hesitant bc mxtx from what i know is a straight woman so) though, there is 100% no obligation for you to answer this from me and delete it if you would rather ignore it. i'm just a little curious as to how you might feel abt it. aside from that, have a nice day!

1) aaa tysm, im glad u enjoy my art! ;; and 2) oh boy i have Many Thoughts abt the whole wife/mother thing.

my thoughts are that it makes me extremely uncomfortable and reeks of fetishization and trying to force gay ppl into cishet labels. like. we gays know that we often have a very complex relationship with gender and our very existence subverts the typical cishet narrative however, considering wx were written by a cishet woman, we all know that she didn’t have that in mind.

(then again, i’m pretty sure the whole wife/mother thing was a purposeful mistranslation by exr the most popular translation for mdzs. theyre run by fujos so im not surprised. idr where but i think mxtx has referred to wx as husband and husband, and wwx has called himself lwj’s husband, so i think the blame is mostly on exr)

tbh idrc if lgbt ppl want to explore gender and gender noncomformity through characters they like, my issue is with cishet ppl who insist on these gender roles in the first place. every gay person has probably been asked “whos the man/woman in the relationship?” and it’s fucking annoying bc we all know that’s not how it works! there is no woman in a mlm relationship and there is no man in a wlw relationship, that’s the whole point. when i see cishets insist on calling wwx wife/mother, i see ppl who have no idea how gay relationships work and are enforcing heterosexuality.

(also the amt of times ive seen ppl refer to wwx as the wife bc he, what, bottoms? is so ridiculous hsaldfjdsf)

as for whether its a part of chinese culture, im vietnamese not chinese, so i cant speak on this with confidence. ive seen someone say that its just mxtx trying to figure smth out with her setting but eh. also, the canon typical homophobia in mdzs is so unnecessary, homosexuality wasn’t seen as a crime in ancient china until westernization so like.....whats the deal hasdlfjdf

#if this makes no sense i have adhd and cannot word things right :pensive: #Anonymous

[bottomlwjrights]

MO DAO ZU SHI REREAD:Thoughts™️....and Stuff

Chapter 28

I will refer to nmj’s corpse as either nmj or as “our dear friend”

Also wwx is funny

“Lan WangJi’s brows shifted slightly, as if he was actually worried that Wei WuXian would strip right here and right now.” Yeah he doesnt want anyone to see your body except him so he was worried

Im tellin you they should wear makeup

Nhs tossed the hand at the juniors, while jgy/Su She must have been the ones to hide the legs

“The people who hid the legs knew about the QingheNie Sect’s Saber Hall tradition, while the people who let the left hand loose knew about the GusuLan Sect’s plans.” See i was right

You aint gonna catch lwj off guard, wwx, “Think for yourself.”

“Wei WuXian tugged at his sword tassel and dragged him in the opposite direction” shut up thats so cute

“Although these words were a bit rude, tenderness pooled within Lan WangJi’s eyes. Again, he spoke in a low voice, ‘Mnn.’” 🥺🥺🥺

He’s still holding onto his sword tassel im 😭

“‘Especially the one next to you. Among average folks, I’ve never seen such a… such a…’ Wei WuXian grinned, ‘Such a pretty person.’”

Lwj does not hesitate to pay for wwx

Ooooo now it makes sense they were frightened to death because Xue Yang killed them using the stygian tiger seal huh

Chapter 29

Is 3,600 an important number? Like why this number specifically?

“The way he looked over, you’d think that I was putting my arm around his wife” well, his husband, but yea same feeling

“Wei WuXian, ‘My surname…’ Suddenly remembering the “Wei WuQian” that the waiter mentioned, the corners of his lips twitched. He smoothly transitioned, ‘Is Lan.’” Wwx can predict the future, he just doesnt know it. He’s said things about marrying into the lan clan at least twice now

“Under the bright-red banners of the liquor shop, it seemed as if, for one second, Lan WangJi’s figure stumbled ever so slightly.” ;-;

“It was as if he returned to those days, before he died, of being even worse than a sewer rat, despised by everyone. He played a role in everything; he was to be blamed for everything.” WuXian...

Fun fact: xxc was 17 when he left the mountain

“he wanted to build a new sect with a close friend that didn’t value a bloodline.” Im angry that he didnt get to do this 

Chapter 30 

(under the cut because i thought it was a little long)

Xxc was the one to find xy and bring him to Koi Tower

“known far and wide for his radiant smile, inhumane means, and merciless personality” wow yanno what that sounds like what people thought wwx was like except xy was actually like that

Once again, FUCK Jin GuangShan

“After using it for the second time, he finally decided to destroy one half of the seal.” Seeing the damage caused and the lives that were lost because of the seal, he decided to destroy it so that no one would be able to do something like that again

Okay i uuuummmm dont like xy very much but he is intelligent ill give him that

The idea of testing the extent of the seals powers on a live clan of people sickens me

Nmj was persistent and intimidating enough to convince the Jin Sect into agreeing to punish xy

Nmj had a strong sense of justice, also he planned on killing xy right there on the spot, which i think he Should have done

“Even when Nie MingJue’s saber was pressed against his neck, he still had a grin on his face.“ id be horny if i was in his position, but thats not the point

“Daozhang, you wouldn’t forget me, would you? Let’s wait and see.” Kill this with fire, thanks

When nmj heard about LanlingJin changing xy’s sentence, he got mad and pressed them about the issue

“All of the other sects watched them from the sidelines, but, shortly afterward, Nie MingJue passed away from Qi deviation.” Coincidence? No absolutely not. I think jgy tried to kill him faster after this so that he could personally get his hands on the Stygian Tiger Seal

“He cultivated at a faster speed than any other past leader of the Nie Sect, and also died sooner than any of them.”

Wwx says something vicious about what he would’ve done to xy

“Xiao XingChen the bright moon and gentle breeze; Song ZiChen the distant snow and cold frost.” Listen...these titles are beautiful

Imagine if lwj and wwx got titles like that....what would they be???

“Why did he not go and give Xue Yang what he deserved?Just as he was about to ask, he remembered the scars that the discipline whip gave him.” .... ouchie

“For some reason, in his heart, Wei WuXian cared quite a lot about those scars.” Ouchie again

Haha you ever dig out both of your eyes for your “friend” haha justfriendsthings

Side note: why did he dig out BoTH of his eyes? They could of been twining with cute eyepatches (xxc with a black one and sl with a white one....)

Jgy quickly took over the LanlingJin Sect soon after this all went down and “took care of” xy to fix the sect’s reputation

The grave robber is Su She

“Wei WuXian hurriedly clapped twice, got down on one knee, and slammed his fist on the ground.The strength of his punch passed through layers of dirt, reached the depths of the soil, and penetrated the thick coffin lids, provoking the corpses trapped inside.” Wwx is a badass, in case anyone forgot. Also, that was incredibly sexy of him

God hes so cool...

Su She is fuckin stupid

Jajfnc wwx laughing at him in the middle of battle

“To him, Lan WangJi wasn’t the kind of person who’d hide or run away from the truth.””In Wei WuXian’s opinion, if someone asked Lan WangJi to lie, he’d rather silence himself and not talk at all.”

Chang Ping died via lingshi and his eyes were cut out

Im screaming after lwj said you shouldnt judge without knowing the full picture, wwx thinks about how he admires lwjs morals and attitude a lot

OoOooOo my gosh the first drunk scene here we go!

God lwj will do anything to make wwx happy....

stooooop this is giving me feelings already

He tucks him in...

Wen Ning Wen Ning Wen Ning

Not gonna get over wwx describing wn as delicate im just gonna cry about it forever

Poor boy....

“It seemed as if he was trying hard to endure the pain.How strange was it that, although he had died, he could still experience feelings of ‘pain’.”

Wen Ning heals

God it would have been funny if he smacked into his chest like a cartoon

#mine #Phoenix rereads MDZS #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #wn #wwx #lwj #nmj #xxc #my MEMORY it SUCKS