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Also, while I'm in a posting mood, I will just say, there seems to be an incredibly skewed view of how much leeway people are willing to give JGY.

I've discussed it multiple times, but, in-world, the only person who's willing to really hear JGY out and consider his situation is LXC. LXC does this consistently throughout the narrative, and, as we see repeatedly, it is not blind faith, but rather LXC being the only one willing to take circumstances into account, which he does as early as responding to NMJ about what happened at Langya, and as late as the explanations in the temple sequence. This is grace, but not a great deal of leeway, as especially in the latter part of the book, LXC is quite tough on JGY, it is just that he remains the only one willing to actually listen and look at the whole situation. No one else will do even a fraction of this for him, and the "sob story" he is often criticized in fandom for making use of is actually functionally useless, as, in the narrative, his background makes him an object of ridicule rather than one of pity.

This brings me to how much leeway JGY is given in fandom spaces and, having been around them for quite some time, the answer is: not a lot. As I have said before, JGY is a difficult character, and obviously no one is under any obligation to like him, but the amount of grace extended to him by fandom at large is vanishingly small, especially given the context of the narrative and its characters, and it is much more likely that any given fan of the material will echo the sentiments of the gossips at the end of the book than, like LXC, seek to look at the whole picture of JGY and to understand his reasons.

It seems that, to many, it is unacceptable for there to be anyone at all, whether it be LXC in-world, or those of us who find JGY interesting in fandom, who wants to look at the full situation and at JGY as more than just his worst moments, and any attempt to discuss any kind of context becomes a sweeping statement of giving JGY all possible leeway and excusing everything.

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NMJ absolutely does care about JGY's background and judges him for it, no matter what he or the narration claims.

Sure, NMJ is willing to give JGY a chance, and he rebukes his own cultivators when he hears them disparaging JGY. He says all that matters is JGY's actions.

Well, if actions are what matter, let's take a closer look. When JGY does things NMJ doesn't approve of—his undercover mission with the Wen and the torture committed in the name of Wen Ruohan; his loyalty to his father who has the power of life and death over him; and other acts like the murder of the Jin commander—what does NMJ do? He criticises those actions. At first.

But what happens later, when JGY finally has enough and asserts himself, telling NMJ that his situation is absurdly precarious and he's had to make difficult decisions and commit terrible acts to survive?

The mask comes off.

It's no wonder coming from the son of a prostitute.

At the end of the day, when NMJ cannot argue logically against JGY's actions, he falls back on using his background to abuse and denigrate him. NMJ will only disregard JGY's background as long as JGY's actions meet with his personal approval. Not exactly in line with his earlier claims, is it?

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I've made many variations on this post but it is worth repeating that JGY has actual, tangible problems based on how his society actually, tangibly treats him, and there is nothing he can do that will ever change what they truly think of him, as the narrative so thoroughly proves. It should not be JGY's problem that people have a problem with the fact that he exists at all, and yet both in-world and in fandom, people are very eager to assign him blame for this.

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3zun dynamics.

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I still love him♥

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Seeing the Episode 4 material going around again, I really have to remark that if what either LXC or JGY had with NMJ were even remotely comparable to what they find with one another, they would not both be acting as if they have both discovered something entirely new when they meet. This is clearly a transcendent experience for both of them and clearly one neither of them has experienced before. And everything that passes between them afterwards only affirms this unique connection.

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I haven't had time to look at Tumblr for a few months now, but for unrelated reasons a post about characterisation in fanfic came across my radar and I disagree with it enough to have something to say.

I'm not going to link the post itself, since I don't even remember if it was popular or not and anyway I like to think I have manners. But essentially it said that as long as you're capturing a character's mannerisms you can make them do anything. Real people behave in a range of ways that aren't always logical, and so do characters. Therefore convincing characterisation is not about what a character does, but how they sound while doing it.

I appreciate the sentiment behind this, but no. This is bad advice. Not just bad for fanfic characterisation, but for characterisation in general. For one simple reason.

Characters are not real people.

Real people are indeed inconsistent and illogical and random. Not because human actions are selected on the roll of a dice, but because you can never fully know someone. Sometimes you can be wrong about someone. Sometimes someone can be wrong about themselves. I'm not disputing any of that.

But characters are not real. They are defined within certain parameters. Those parameters don't have to be fixed and eternal, and they can certainly be deconstructed and debated, but debating the definition of a thing does not mean that thing does not exist. Let's not get too existential here.

Here is the actual key to characterisation. It is not 'you can make Blorbo do anything and it's convincing as long as they do it with the Blorbo aesthetic'. It's 'how can I get Blorbo in a position where it is convincing they would do X?'.

There's no need to be afraid to take a stance in the 'would Blorbo do this?' debate. What matters is your interpretation of the source (or your vision for your original material). Do you think Blorbo would never do X under any circumstances? Can you imagine a scenario where they might do X after all? What would that look like? Is that a story you want to write?

Mannerisms and speech patterns are important, but they fall into the category of 'necessary but not sufficient'. As a rule, anything that can be introduced at the line edit stage should not be the foundation of your approach to characterisation.

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nice to see you back on here! if you're answering questions again, i've had something i've been meaning to ask, if you don't mind. do you have any thoughts on the things wwx and jc did for each other?

I'm never truly gone. Whenever you see a fox scurrying about its business in the twilight, I am with you in spirit. By which I mean I'm very busy but I do get a notif if someone sends me an ask.

This one has sat in my drafts for a while and it's still quite messy, but I thought I'd better just get it off the to do list and move on. So, the Twin Heroes!

I've seen quite a bit of negativity towards JC in my time, usually accusing him of all manner of iniquities that aren't actually supported by the text. To make my own position clear: I don't think JC did nothing wrong ever in his life. But I do think he's a capable clan leader and an extremely loyal brother who tried very hard to make things work with WWX.

Let's start with the biggie: WWX gives JC his core. It is an incredible act of love to be sure. Functionally it saves JC's life (he's not going to last long in that state) along with preserving the existence of the Jiang Clan itself. I don't have a problem with WWX making a unilateral decision here, because he knows JC won't agree otherwise and the stakes could not be higher. It also makes sense that the Grandmaster of Impulsive Cultivation conceals the entire thing from JC. He knows the effect the truth will have on JC, and he's just trying to get them through the current crisis and worry about the consequences later. So I think his choices are understandable in a desperate situation where there are no good options.

To be honest, what bothers me is WWX's subsequent dumbassery. My god, man, what is the point of making a monumental sacrifice for someone and then proceeding to fuck shit up for him on a regular basis afterwards?

WWX's behaviour is catastrophic for the Jiang. I understand that he's in his emo goth era and I don't expect him to make perfect decisions at all times, but the way he treads on JC's toes makes my teeth hurt. Quite probably WWX himself was never going to end up in a good place, since his demonic cultivation made him too much of a threat for the Jin (or society at large) to leave him in peace. But that's not particularly relevant to the way he undermines JC. On more than one occasion, JC is doing his best to navigate a delicate political situation and WWX clomps in with his size 13s and makes everything worse for everyone. This, as much as popular sentiment turning against WWX, is a huge driver in why they have to fake their falling out and sever ties publicly.

Meanwhile, JC makes an equivalent sacrifice for WWX—he lets himself be captured, even though it results in the loss of his core and, as far as he knows at the time, the functional extinction of his clan. This is revealed right at the end of MDZS, encouraging the reader to look back at the novel and recontextualise JC's actions throughout. JC put WWX above his own life and the continued existence of his clan. There can be no question that he made as enormous a sacrifice for WWX as WWX made for him. Their mutual ignorance of this fact for so many years is the heart of their tragedy.

But crucially, there remains a difference between WWX and JC. Because JC doesn't only come through for WWX when the stakes are high. Right up until the death of JYL, JC is the one trying to balance his responsibility to his clan with his desire to protect WWX. For a start, they fake the cutting of ties between WWX and the Jiang, when it arguably would be much less risky for JC to cut ties in actuality. JC is also the one taking further risks by allowing WWX to see JYL in her wedding clothes. He even suggests WWX gets to pick her child's courtesy name. These things show a pattern of consideration that WWX simply does not match.

Let's not forget, JC does a decent job as clan leader. He's very young, and unlike NMJ or LXC, he has to build his clan again from literally nothing. Disciples need to be recruited and trained from scratch. Lotus Pier needs to be rebuilt—without Jin gold. He's doing what needs to be done to ensure the Jiang Clan continues to exist, yet still attempting to balance that with his loyalty to WWX even as WWX becomes more and more of a liability. Yes, WWX is being affected by the resentful energy he's cultivating, but his arrogance has been present from the start. It's not that the resentful energy is creating new traits in him, but that existing traits are being exaggerated.

WWX does a lot of very admirable and brave things and he is pretty much always trying to do right by the people he cares about i.e. the Jiang and the Wenmants. The trouble is that he's fundamentally not capable of recognising the damage he's also doing. His altercation with JZX over the soup is one thing—though JC (with JGS) has to pull him off JZX and it makes a bad situation worse, it's an understandable impulse reaction to seeing his beloved shijie being mistreated. But despite the negative consequences of his impulsivity, he never learns to stop and gather more information before reacting (unlike JZX!). He continues to undermine JC by letting the whole world see that he doesn't respect his authority. This really is where I as a reader get stuck: what use is the grand gesture of the core swap when the more everyday consideration is so totally lacking?

I also think it's interesting that in the temple JGY points out to JC that if he'd stuck by WWX, no one could have done anything about it and things might have turned out quite differently. I don't think JGY is being truthful here; or at the very least, if he is being truthful then I don't agree with his assessment. It's a remark intended to goad JC and prod him where he's most sensitive, and it's successful in that regard. I'd be willing to bet that deep down JC does fear that if he'd backed up WWX then everything might have been all right and JZX and JYL would still be alive.

But it's simply not true. WWX's affiliation with the Jiang is catastrophic for them. He openly flouts JC's authority—and of course his demonic cultivation taints the Jiang by association, particularly in light of the Jin smear campaign. WWX's intervention to rescue the Wenmants is the last excuse JGS needs to do what he planned from the beginning: put a target on WWX's back. This isn't a post about whether or not WWX's actions to protect the Wenmants are moral; it's merely an observation that they put JC and the Jiang at risk by association, especially when WWX also deliberately insults the Jin in a public forum. The Jin don't exactly need to work hard to sabotage WWX's reputation: they're merely handing him the rope and he's merrily tying the noose. On a pragmatic level, an actual estrangement rather than a fake one would have been the more better option for JC if his sole priority was the wellbeing of his clan and not also his love for WWX.

On the other hand, if WWX had continued with his demonic cultivation but respected the authority of his clan leader and not undermined him in public, JC might have been more able to effectively protect him. I'm not entirely convinced by that argument, but I certainly find it more plausible than the idea that JC backing WWX would have prevented the consequences of the determined Jin smear campaign.

Essentially, my point is that I'm not splitting hairs about the degree to which JC and WWX love each other. Their love for each other is not in question. Nor is it in question that they have made equally huge sacrifices for each other. But there's the rub. What about the small sacrifices? Who is making those? More often than not, it's JC. JC has the weight of his clan's survival on his shoulders and he still does his best to remain privately loyal to WWX despite the risk it poses to his own position. He only turns on WWX when WWX's actions result in the death of JZX and JYL—JYL being arguably the only person they both love even more than they love each other. (Sorry, LWJ. You only make the leaderboard in Life 2.) Meanwhile, WWX is willing to give up his core for JC but not willing to make the effort to present a united front against political foes who are actively trying to destroy them. He loves JC, but I see no evidence that he respects him.

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I think one of the things that bothers me about the mastermind vs mastermind narrative that often seems to be constructed for NHS and JGY is that it’s a game only one of them is aware he’s playing, and it’s a game NHS is almost always set up to win, even in AUs. This seems related to something that comes up in lighter AUs as well, where NHS is the genius who just doesn’t care to exert himself, and the moment he chooses to, he is automatically capable of almost anything. It’s a very recognizable archetype, and has an appeal, but I feel that it becomes uncomfortable in the world of the narrative, especially when set against how very hard the viewer/reader sees JGY working all time, and in fact sometimes working hard on behalf of NHS, either to protect him or to assist him in some way. Overall, however, it seems to suggest, just as the society of the narrative does, that NHS is inherently superior: JGY may do as much work as he likes but he’s only pretending to the level that NHS was born to; if NHS actually makes an effort, he will inevitably surpass JGY. 

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It looks so good! Hope you had a great birthday.

presenting my jgy-related birthday gifts from yesterday

ft. my favourite fanfic by @fincalinde in book form for the mxtx shelf

a jgy necklace (😮‍💨)

& this mug of a drawing I made

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hello! would you mind if I printed and bound one of your fanfictions (the weakness of falling in love)? it means a lot to me and id love to have it on my MDZS shelf. I’d use the official art as cover art of course!

Hello hello! And how flattering! That fic was a huge labour of love, so whenever someone tells me it means something to them I make a face not dissimilar to this:

In short: go for it!

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Xiyao having a genuinely good and, yes, healthy (especially by the standards of the narrative they are in) relationship and still coming to grief are not mutually exclusive. They are doomed by external forces and the narrative as it stands provides them with no way out.

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神仙眷侣

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琴箫合璧 (x)

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It's not safe to stay in one place for too long, but Meng Yao is all too aware of the toll their journey is taking on Lan Xichen. The closer they are to the coast, the more often they see the effects of the war with their own eyes: the refugees and struggling farmers, the half-abandoned villages. The burn scars.

x

While hiding from the Fire Nation and trying to come up with a plan, Meng Yao takes Lan Xichen to Yu Island.

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I have been thinking about Episode 4 of CQL again lately and, although I've talked before about how I prefer the MDZS sequence of events, I do think CQL executes the changed version very well.

I know we all spend a lot of time on the box scene, but, as I think I've touched on before, that initial meeting, however electric it may be, is so effective because it functions as the first half of an extended scene that concludes with LXC and MY's later parting conversation.

One of the benefits of CQL, and of the change in medium, is that we get to see private moments happening away from our POV character. While there is certainly plenty to observe about JGY and LXC in the novel, the only time we get them in private conversation it is when they are being eavesdropped on and interrupted, where the show is able to offer more opportunities of looking at them without the presence of another character's viewpoint. Episode 4 is the first time we see them interact, and the structure of their two conversations provides a good example of this.

The initial meeting could not be more public, a formalized ceremony of gift giving and gift receipt, which everyone is watching closely, and the camera moves around the room, showing various reactions to the proceedings. We do get both LXC and MY's reactions to one another, but the entire exchange is very much about how they both know they are being watched and both conduct themselves with impeccable propriety; neither MY nor LXC can avoid scrutiny, albeit for very different reasons, and LXC is able to take advantage of the attention he commands to silence the whispering and give MY standing. This is a significant moment, one in which they impress and make an impression on one another, but it would be an incomplete one without what follows, and it is here I think CQL really makes the best of the change they're working with.

As noted above, CQL offers the opportunity for more private moments and the parting conversation between MY and LXC cements the connection that the initial meeting had sparked. I won't do a full breakdown, but it is especially notable that MY takes the initiative to seek LXC out (a fairly bold move for someone we learn is not even a Nie disciple) and, on LXC's side, a demonstration of both interest and understanding, as he is clearly disappointed that MY cannot stay, but nonetheless understands why he must go. Additionally, while the conversation is still fairly formal and semi-public, it is much more relaxed than the salute ceremony and lays the groundwork for the intimacy that will develop, with LXC calling himself 'Xichen' to MY, before going on to stress that they are peers.

Taken together, these two exchanges effectively form a solid basis for the relationship that will develop between LXC and JGY; by creating space between the two exchanges and setting them in different environments, CQL creates a clear progression, even in so short a time, from an initial interest and admiration to a mutual willingness to seek one another out that will continue over the course of the show.