the significance of the number, 3 in tgcf gets me every time.
xie lian's third ascension is when everything changes (for the better)
hua cheng introduces himself as "san lang" when he meets xie lian after his third ascension. "san lang" means "third son." it's the third time, or the third form (his third life, if you will) that hua cheng has met xie lian in.
there are three calamities (if you ignore bai wuxian, and if you still count qi rong as a calamity)
there are multiple trios — xie lian, mu qing, feng xin; shi wudu, he xuan, shi qingxuan; shi wudu, pei ming, ling wen; and so on.
there were thirty three officials who disgraced xie lian; and were consequently destroyed by hua cheng.
hua cheng released three thousand lanterns for xie lian.
he also died three times for xie lian; first as hong hong'er, second as wu ming, and third as the supreme ghost king.
all this information, coupled with the fact that three is considered a lucky number in chinese culture just makes me feel so many emotions
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"Does Shen Qiao even like Yan Wushi?"
I feel like it may be relatively easy for people to pick out "what does Yan Wushi like about Shen Qiao / what does YWS get out of yanshen." but I think a criticism/line of thought I see around is people struggling with "well what does Shen Qiao get out of all of this?" and like, "does SQ even like YWS, what with how YWS annoys him and gets him angry all the time."
But I think that actually is the crux of their relationship, lol. Because if you think about it, to everyone else, Shen Qiao is this lofty ideal, this untouchable immortal/仙, maybe even this obstacle or goal to conquer or shoot down.
Who else treats him casually and teases him and pokes at him to get emotional reactions out of him because they like that about him?
If he wants to seek people who treat him with respect and reverence, he just has to step out into the city square - hell, he just has to travel out and random people he meets are likely to treat him with that sort of dazzled awe or reverence too (we literally see this happen several times in the course of the novel).
So yeah, I think joking not joking, YWS makes him angry and feel Emotions and he likes that, YWS is enrichment for him, YWS pushes his buttons and his boundaries but reframing that it's pushing him out of his comfort zone and like hardening him off to the elements and realities of the world like a gardener with plants out of the greenhouse. But also, YWS treats him like a person, like a man, and not like Shen-daozun, Shen-daozhang, Shen-zhangjiao. To Yan Wushi, Shen Qiao is Shen Qiao. (and he loves to tease the shit out of him hehe ( ̄▽ ̄) )
CONVERSELY! This also gives Shen Qiao a space to *be* Shen Qiao. With Yan Wushi, he does not have to be Shen-daozun, Shen-daozhang, Shen-zhangjiao. He does not have to always be magnanimous and generous and a bastion of righteousness. These are in his nature, yet, but it's not ALL of his nature - he is, after all, still a man, a human, with human emotions -- including the full breadth of human emotions. Yes Yan Wushi annoys him and he shows it, but it's specifically BECAUSE of that that they are closer than him and anyone else in the world. He can "be himself" around Yan Wushi, he can get worked up and be petty and be snippy, and it's fine and won't cause catastrophes or undesired splashdown sociopolitical effects.
But also, he (lets himself?) get worked up by Yan Wushi - they HAVE that level of intimate understanding with each other where they can be like this and not have feelings hurt in any irreparable way. This isn't something that SQ does (lets himself do?) with just anyone, which we see throughout the novel reflected in his internal narration and comportment. So really, the fact that he DOES get annoyed with YWS shows that they are on a different, more "real" level with each other than SQ is with anyone else.
And like, they didn't get there in a day, sure, but imo we definitely see through the novel how they get there, so imo, the yanshen relationship is incredibly justified.
(I also say this bc I think literally every "I've connected the two dots" moments I've had in my reread, I would metaphorically flip the page only to be met with that connection I'd made spelled out on the page by MXS lmao. Like... yeah okay MXS *shakes your hand* you know your stuff. oh and also because I do think there may be some level of skepticism about yanshen esp from SQ's side floating around lol, but like... MXS did the legwork! yes chapter 45 happened, yes YWS never "apologizes" with words, but that doesn't mean that they don't share a deep mutual understanding of themselves and each other by the end, nor that they haven't moved past the events of literally 83 chapters ago, 96 if you count the extras -- a whole literal two-thirds of the novel ago. Like, I know we piss on the poor here and many educational systems around the world are in shambles these days, but work on developing reading comprehension skills, pls :') )
(lmao rip this post got long AGAIN. well, hopefully at least some people are reading all of this lol.)
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def unpopular opinion: despite being brilliant worldbuilders and storytellers, very few big D&D/AP people have the background necessary to engage with stories about questioning gods/religion in a way that goes beyond the American Christian/culturally Christian atheist context.
Hard disagree. I think the vast majority of people who think that CR is doing this in a way that's too Culturally Christian are in fact themselves the Cultural Christian who is pressed that they're not getting the answer they want (and also, Sam is often the player they are mad at despite the fact that he is ethnically/culturally Jewish and converted to Catholicism for his Vietnamese-American wife...which really is the big tell for me). Aabria's discussion of religion in the WBN fireside has always struck me as someone who actually did grapple with her Evangelical upbringing; Brennan Lee Mulligan has a degree in philosophy and Emily Axford has a degree in Religious Studies.
Also, people say this a lot, but no one has ever explained it. I'd love to hear that explanation, as someone who is neither an atheist nor Christian either culturally nor religiously, because it's giving me "D&D doesn't allow for player agency" - it's something that a lot of people afraid to question because it sounds confident but I think it's full of shit. What are they failing to engage with? What are the elements of their cultural Christianity responsible?
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