#tgcf book 2

[princessofxianle]

"hm? I wonder why the donghua team added in Feng Xin's immediate reaction to Lang Qianqiu breaking his right arm with his left?" bc its not in the book

*ahem* Feng Xin in Book 2... seem familiar???

And heres the original scene...

#ONCE AGAIN THE DONGHUA TEAM KNOWS WHAT THEY ARE DOING #i trust them with my life #...for the most part #tgcf #tgcf s2 #feng xin #lang qianqiu #xie lian #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #mxtx #tgcf spoilers #tgcf book 2 #btw this is ch 65 and 45 #fenglian

[citronverveine]

xie lian and identity issues

this is something i'll probably want to expand on more as i give it more thoughts later but right now i'm just. thinking.

i'm thinking of xie lian in book 2 who has to realize that he is not as invicible as he thought. he is powerful yet he cannot do enough. he is not enough. he cannot save his country, he cannot help the common people, if anything he makes it worse.

i'm thinking of xie lian in book 4 who has to get used to a life with no title, no riches, no priviledge. he has to live as no one, and if people find him out he will not be celebrated like he used to be, he will be captured, beaten, or worse, who knows.

i'm thinking of xie lian after being stabbed 100 times, so disconnected from his destroyed body that he can't recognize himself. i'm thinking of xie lian becoming white no face, hiding his face and seeking revenge, turning his back on everything he was before.

i'm thinking of xie lian after wuming's death, after changing his mind and not cursing the Yong'an people but causing the death of his last believer in the process. the distance between what he would have wanted to be and what he ended up being, doing.

i'm thinking of xie lian in mount tong'lu learning about the past of white no face and starting to think they're the same person. thinking maybe he was the one doing all this. thinking this was all meant to be.

it's just, like. young xie lian was so ambitious, and rightly so; everyone told him he could achieve anything, be anything, he ascended so early, was so powerful and so loved so early on. he started high, only to jump from heaven and land terribly low, in a 6-feet deep hole, unable to crawl out of it. the distance between what he was and what he ended up as. i know the war took a couple years to end but the change was still probably very brutal for him.

especially during his first banishment. at first it could have been alright. he had his parents. he had feng xin. he had mu qing. everything was new and unfamiliar and wrong but he had them, he knew them, they were familiar at least. even if xie lian had failed they were still with him, they still loved him.

and then mu qing left. and xie lian's view of relationships started to shatter. and then he was against mu qing on the land of cultivation and he was the one being humiliated and rejected. and then he was losing himself with the stress of white no face, becoming crazy with anguish and despair. and he couldn't provide enough for his parents, and he was afraid feng xin would leave, and he couldn't recognize himself. how had he fallen so low? how had he failed so much?

and then the temple. he wanted to fight white no face, to get rid of him once and for all. but white no face broke him without even lifting a finger. he shattered his faith in the goodness of the world by showing him how cruel it could be. and afterwards...

just think. being tortured for a whole night, used by hundreds of people for their own benefit, left torn open and raw without care. but you heal and you recover and your body hides any trace of that event. did you really go through it? did it really happen? did it happen like you think it did? was it really that bad? was the pain that severe? your body hid it all. you'll never know. the only thing you have are you memories. but can you trust them?

anyway. after that, xie lian comes back to his parents and feng xin. he steals. he doesn't care. he's angry, he's raw, he's weak. feng xin leaves. his parents leave. he's alone.

he's completely alone. he doesn't even have himself anymore. his old self is dead, his old self was nothing, his old self was naive and stupid. xie lian trying to kill himself even though it's useless is symbolic of him completely leaving his old self with his parents and what was familiar, to become someone else entirely. to abandon this part of himself.

it's explicit as white no face that xie lian completely rejects his previous identity of crown prince and god. he does not want to be called that. he does not want to be reminded of it. he hates this past self so much that being associated to it makes him feel humiliated and ridiculed.

only that old part of him is not entirely dead. xie lian still hesitates, deep down, to release the spirits. a part of him still wants to believe. he wants to be proven wrong. he wants the world to give naive xie lian another chance. it's the bamboo hat man that does that for him.

i just think the distance between xie lian, his body, and his mind, is very interesting. i didn't mention how he is completely disconnected from his body even 800 years later because i feel like it's more dissociation from the self than an identity issue (struggling to connect your thoughts to your actions and/or associate them with your perception of self, or even simply not having any definite perception of self especially when you are traumatized) but. i'll definitely make a post about that some day.

that was a bit long but i just. wanted to put some thoughts down. thx for reading up til here ??

#tgcf #mxtx #mxtx tgcf #tgcf thoughts #heaven official's blessing #tgcf meta #xie lian #white no face #bai wuxiang #wu ming #wulian #heaven officials blessing #tian guan ci fu #tgcf spoilers #tgcf xie lian #tgcf novel #tgcf book 4 #tgcf book 2 #tgcf headcanon #mine

[winkk-koo]

"Stfu"

#tian guan ci fu fanart #beefleaf #shi qingxuan #ming yi #tian guan ci fu #tgcf fanart #tgcf donghua #tgcf book 2 #tgcf book 3 #mxtx tgcf #tgcf #heaven official's blessing fanart #heaven official's blessing #mxtx fanart #mxtx #fanart #anime fanart #anime #tgcf shi qingxuan #wind master #black water sinking ships #black water submerging boats #ming yi tgcf

[mimimar]

to ascend is human, to fall is also human TGCF book 2: the god-pleasing crown prince

1  •  ( 2 )  •  3  •  3.2  •  4  • 5

#tgcf #(a sword in one hand a flower in the other; symbolizing the power to end the world but with a heart as gentle as a flower) love this quote #the second illustration from the series! #xie lian #tgcf fanart #xie lian fanart #the god-pleasing crown prince #tgcf book 2 #tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #heaven official's blessing fanart #the crown prince of xianle #crown prince xie lian #flower crowned martial god #illustration #illo #digital art #clip studio paint #gold

[guess1mjustheren0w]

When Hua Cheng kidnapped Xie Lian from the heavens

Feng Xin: me and my boys are gonna mess you up Feng Xin: I rolled a 1 Mu Qing: I rolled a 1 Feng Xin: Fuck!

#fengqing #tgcf #tgcf book 2 #mu qing #feng xin

[tgcfsketches]

👁️🫦👁️

#hualian #heaven official's blessing #tgcf #hua cheng #xie lian #tgcf meme #mxtx characters #mxtx fanart #mxtx #hong hong er #tgcf book 2 #tgcf hua cheng #tgcf xie lian #danmei #xianxia

[crystalsamethyst]

Gonna pass this around again with the updated summary!!

Words: 93,925 (Completed, Part 1 of Butterfly Wings)

Rating: T

Tags: AU Canon Divergence, Book 2 Divergence, Hua Cheng as Honghong-er, Feng Xin Swears, Mu Qing tries to be a f-f-friend, One Sided Hua Cheng/Xie Lian, Minor Feng Xin/Mu Qing, Canon-Typical Violence, Slow Burn, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff, Politics, Hong-er Lives

Summary: “Did I not ask you before to live for me? I did not say die for me, now did I?”

“…” Honghong-er met his eyes, looking guilty at the light scolding. “Your Highness told me to live.”

“Focus on your training and it will get you far. Perhaps you will one day be enough of an expert to be able to stand with myself and my deputy gods.”

- - - After the incident with the Land of the Tender, Feng Xin is tasked with finding and bringing the talented young soldier who protected Xie Lian to train in the palace.

The god’s to-do list expands from simply leading a war and creating rain to investigating the secrets of the white-clothed creature haunting Xianle and changing the fate of the cursed boy now in his care!

#tgcf #xie lian #hua cheng #hong-er #feng xin #mu qing #tgcf book 2 #heaven officials blessing #hob #tian guan ci fu #tgcf fanfic #my writing

[wayward-inspiration]

"After his travels, at the age of seventeen, Xie Lian the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Xianle soundly defeated a nameless ghost at Yinian Bridge. Just like that, he ascended to the Heavens amidst roars of thunder and lightning." 天官赐福

---------

Ace of Swords: Breakthroughs, new ideas, mental clarity, success

Color Ver

#myart #tgcf #tgcf fanart #tgcf spoilers #heaven official's blessing #heaven official's blessing spoilers #xie lian #hualian #tarot #tgcf book 2 #flower crowned martial god #crown prince of xianle #xianle #I cannot be stopped I'm having so much dun doing these #tarot cards #ace of swords #mytarot

[fierrochase-falafel]

5 underrated TGCF moments in my humble opinion (and bonus)- expect spoilers!

When Xie Lian saved Mu Qing in book 5 at the volcano: We do NOT talk about book 5 enough, as I will mention further in this list, but when we do, we rightfully talk about Mu Qing's f-f-friends confession (which I would love to talk about more, but that's for another time), but we never seem to talk about the bit before where it's revealed Mu Qing took a cursed shackle for Xie Lian but nobody believes him or really plans on saving him except Xie Lian, despite the huge risk to himself. When Xie Lian makes it clear he would save Mu Qing anyways and Hua Cheng also has a great line to Feng Xin about how dianxia gets to make his own decisions no matter what, even if Hua Cheng himself is uncomfortable with them- something that contrasts him perfectly with White No-Face that gets overshadowed a lot. This scene and the scene leading up to it (the tunnel chase and Xie Lian being too nice to that empty-shelled mutant is just brilliant) all in all feels so underrated. Like I love the f-f-friends confession, don't get me wrong, I could talk about that anyday, but please gods can someone talk about the saving Mu Qing scene.

The virgin-detecting sword in book 3: The fact that Jun Wu even HAD a virgin-detecting sword is one of the funniest things about book 3, but the whole scene where Shi Qingxuan digs Xie Lian into a hole like "I bet he's never kissed anyone!" is just beautiful. The fact everyone assumes he's a virgin before Jun Wu even mentions that his cultivation path requires abstinence never fails to amuse me- me too, Xie Lian, me too. The virgin-detecting sword being his saviour in that moment surely must've been something. It's so funny but I've seen 1 piece of fanart of it on twitter and I think this is incredibly memorable. Since book 3 is so long, a lot of brilliant moments go less spoken about by the fan community, I feel, such as...

Xie Lian tricking Hua Cheng into revealing himself in book 3: One of my favourite scenes in the entirety of TGCF is where Xie Lian tricks Hua Cheng (disguised as Lang Ying) to reveal himself. We've already got the deadpan back-and-forth of "Who's the strongest?", "The one in red", "Who's the richest?", "The one in red", "Who's the dumbest?", "The one in green", with no beats skipped. Then he says "it's a must" to inviting Hua Cheng over, Quan Yizhen takes a bite of a yam through the window (as one does) and then he gets him to try and write an establishment plaque for Puqi Shrine and it's so funny- Xie Lian can be so funny, he's just playing around waiting to see how Hua Cheng will respond and is having the time of his LIFE. B*tch in the best way possible, this man. It's perfect. And then we get, "Only having met you did I rediscover that it's such a simple thing to be happy" which is so simple and lovely and just-- this scene is perfect, okay? We do not talk about this scene enough at ALL.

The scene where Yin Yu 'dies' in book 5: Back to me going off about how much love book 5 deserves, what with that moment between beefleaf and that massive gege statue. However, I'm choosing moments I think are the most underrated, and I just HAVE to mention Yin Yu. This man is underrated in life, in godhood and in banishment alike. The way he chose not to harm Quan Yizhen anyways- "Just because I hate him doesn't mean I have to hurt him!" This moment really links him to Xie Lian, especially just after book 4, as once again White No-Face tries to manipulate someone into weaponising their resentment the way he did, and once again he is denied the satisfaction of thinking what he did was justifiable because Yin Yu chose not to spend his life motivated solely by pain and hatred. One can argue that in book 4, after the bamboo hat incident, Xie Lian may not necessarily have had his faith in humanity at large restored but rather his faith in the power of choice. The choice to care, the choice to help, the choice not to hurt others just because you can- as opposed to the choice that was stolen from him in the 100 swords scene, and the 'choice' people claimed not to have when they stabbed him. The choice Xie Lian made when he chose not to massacre Yong'an despite his pain is like the choice Yin Yu makes when he chooses not to steal Quan Yizhen's power despite his pain. It's so satisfying to see Yin Yu stand up for his own actions when he's been cast aside by everyone, and no matter how much resentment you harbour you can still choose what to do about it.

The pagoda collapsing in book 2: This scene was the tipping point in book 2 where Xie Lian himself realised he didn't believe in his own potential anymore, and it is soul-crushing. The way he spends 3 days trying to hold up the celestial pagoda in pure desperation and anguish, and then being surrounded on all sides constantly until the pagoda collapses with people begging him to save them and him realising he can do nothing...if book 4 is the full-on descent to rock-bottom, book 2 is the anxiety-packed precursor without which book 4 would not hit as hard as it did, and sometimes it feels like it's overshadowed by book 4 completely. Book 4 may hit harder, but the end of book 2 is gut-punching as it is. You can FEEL Xie Lian being overwhelmed and trying so hard to pretend everything is fine when his life and nation are collapsing in front of him, piece by piece. Hands shoving him, some even strangling him until he keels over in the most helpless moment of his god-pleasing life as everyone calls him a fraud and begs for his help, when he has none to give or recieve. And after all that, chasing White No-Face only to break his leg, being the nail in the coffin of Xie Lian's unshakeable will that facilitated his rise and fall. It's haunting, it's poetic, it's the epitome of tragedy. Bonus!!! : Is it just me, or does nobody seem to talk about the book 5 fight scene? There's so much fanart of Hua Cheng fading into butterflies, which is honestly more compelling for me because of the Wuming reveal and their dynamic; however, Xie Lian finally out-manoevering and stabbing Jun Wu after being flooded with spiritual power by his bf, and then Guoshi calmly addressing Jun Wu asking him if he's exhausted...I think needs more attention too. It's the ultimate fight scene! Xie Lian gets a fighting win over Jun Wu that somehow feels numbing because at the end of the day, Xie Lian's triumph over him was never in revenge or in physical combat. Almost the opposite actually, it was in his choosing not to let his anger and resentment of White No-Face control him. Xie Lian winning is well-earned but ultimately the focus is what a sad, angry, tired man Jun Wu is. I think MXTX writes this wonderfully and really gets that message across...much as I'd like to see more discourse on the fight scene, I can see why there isn't because of how bleak it is and just generally-- unfulfilling compared to Xie Lian's character development. It's the climax wherein the main character had his personal climax 800 years ago, and I love it for how antithetic it feels compared to Xie Lian's other power moves and his overall development. This is just my view, of course, I would really love to see more opinions on this!

#tgcf #tgcf book 2 #tgcf book 3 #tgcf book 5 #analysis time by me so i can track them in my tags #tgcf meta #well some of it is atleast #xie lian #yin yu #hua cheng #mu qing #feng xin #white no face #xianle trio #underrated #posts originating from my brain

[hckitten]

So I introduced my mother to TGCF. She’s now on chapter 40 and told me that she doesn’t believe Xie Lian could never do something as bad as the gilded massacre because he’s ‘to kind hearted’! Ma’ma just wait till you get to book 2 and 4!

#tgcf #mxtx tgcf #heaven official's blessing #mxtx #xie lian #books #I’m scared for when she realizes just how dark this book is #tgcf book 2 #tgcf book 4

[fandom-shit-i-like]

TGCF random thoughts

Xie Lian was that overly confident teen who thought he could save everyone but forgot about himself. He would sacrifice his well-being for others in a second. He didn’t realize his own limitations. He grew up being praised and loved and therefore believed he could achieve greatness. He felt indestructible. That’s the vibe I’m getting from him.

#i just finished book 2!!! #this is kinda the vibe i’m getting #i hope it comes across like how i mean #anyway he’s such a sweetheart #tgcf #heaven official's blessing #tian guan ci fu #xie lian #tgcf book 2 #btw i could be wrong i’m legit not even halfway thru the novels

[lejay-the-impossible]

Xian Le trio is the only thing that keeps me alive during the second book.

Also a rare picture of My Qing smiling :)

#tian guan ci fu #heaven official's blessing #tgcf #hob #tgcf novel #xie lian #hua cheng #san lang #mu qing #feng xin #qi rong #tgcf book 2 #tgcf fanart #sketches #fanart

[the-devil-is-an-author]

#my own art #comics #Xie lian #mu qing #feng xin #hua cheng #butterflies #mxtx tgcf #tgcf comics #tgcf #tgcf book 2

[princessofxianle]

GUOSHI FANGXIN HAS ENTERED THE BUILDING MANHUA

Bonus: baby LQQ

#omfg hes so cool #tgcf spoilers #tgcf book 2 #xie lian #lang qianqiu #tgcf manhua #tgcf

[aprilthemonth11]

finally getting around to reading vol 2 and of course it’s so good!!! i was really surprised by the amount of hualian interactions! after the way book 1 ended i thought it would be a while before we got to see them together but nope!! hualian will always find each other

#mxtx tgcf #tgcf #tgcf book 2 #hualian

[yikeskauri]

THATS FUCKED UP LING WEN SWEETIE IM SO SORRY

#tgcf #tgcf book 2 #tgcf book 2 spoilers #ling wen