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Interesting take, especially because he doesn't actually do anything to buck the patriarchy. Jiang Cheng is still his heir, for example, not his eldest child.

It actually mirrors how he treats Wei Wuxian: uncomfortable acting like master and servant, but not actually adopting him or doing anything to change the realities of that unequal relationship.

Honestly the most interesting thing about the Jiang interpersonal dynamics that is being totally slept on is how Jiang Fengmian's power as head of the family affects everyone, including him.

Yu Ziyuan knows Jiang Fengmian won't use his power against her unless he feels like he needs to, and that he doesn't fear her and isn't going to feel like he needs to act in self-defense unless she attempts significant physical harm, so short of that she can do whatever she likes against him, and he won't resist.

But if the collateral damage to the kids of her verbal attacks on him goes above a certain level, he says one word and she stops.

He just goes, 'wife.' ('My lady' but it's just a polite term for wife.) Sort of disapproving. Same kind of way he talks to Jiang Cheng when he acts like a shithead, but without the subsequent attempt at an ethics lesson.

And bam. Momentum halted. That line of attack is out of bounds. Nobody likes this, but good god it works.

And because they both know he ultimately has all the power, that Yu Ziyuan's lifestyle of privacy and doing exactly as she pleases at all times and so forth is all something that exists by Jiang Fengmian's generosity and sufferance, and she hates it, and he's not comfortable with it either, he sets that boundary really high, and she gets away with all kinds of cruelty because it's all stuff she's strictly allowed to do, entitled to do. So he'd be abusing his authority over her, by constraining her right to exercise her power within normative bounds over the people she outranks.

Even if she's using it harmfully and in a way directed by spite, these are her rights, she's not technically abusing her power, and her primary target in all the episodes he actually witnesses is him who outranks her; she's not being one of those mistresses.

So he'd be overstepping if he tried to constrain her, he'd be one of those husbands. Just like she always accuses him of.

(This is why she keeps insisting that she's also the master of jiang sect and he's 'forgetting' that in contexts where it doesn't make a huge amount of sense.)

Anyway, the fact that it's impossible to unpick where Jiang Fengmian's moral principles stop and his conflict-avoidance kicks in with this relationship is so much more interesting than the weirdly sexist readings I keep seeing, where it's all the conflict-avoidance and he's an unmanly loser who lets Yu Ziyuan bully him and his kids without ever standing up to her, for no good reason. When actually they have a really interesting and fantastically realistic toxic relationship.

He has a good reason! His reason is he's uncomfortable with the patriarchy! And guilty that his wife is miserable! And that he doesn't love her correctly! So he gives way as often as he can, trying to fix it!

But it doesn't fix it, because no amount of giving in to her gives her cause to trust him, and if she doesn't trust him and she knows that if he actually cares about an issue her ability to get her way will disappear, she can't feel secure about any of it. And therefore everything, especially Wei Wuxian the symbol of that fact, makes her angry and Want To Punish.

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do u think that the self sacrificing ritual leaked. and sometimes wwx just disappears for a week and then comes back like 'ull never guess what just happened !' cuz some guy wanted revenge on his neighbour for stealing his goats or some shit.

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bringing this back

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my favorite scene in LotR as a kid was when Sam started miserably freestyling in the tower of Cirith Ungol and the only reason he ever found Frodo was because he deliriously tried to join in

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I like that there's a chapter in the extras (Lotus Seeds) devoted entirely* to Wangxian having No Chill about each other** after summer camp.

Wei Wuxian, loitering around the pier with the boyz: hahaha Lan Zhan is so funny and interesting. I invited him to hang out, but he won't come. but wouldn't it be hilarious if he did. If he does, he can sleep with me, I'll drive him crazy. We should fight, I'm a bit better than him. He's a bit prettier than me. Lan food sucks. I know deep down he wants to come play with me. he wants it badly. Wow that's crazy about that lotus farmer and his water ghoul. anyway, sigh, I can't believe Lan Zhan turned me down.

Lan Wangji, meditating upsidedown against a picturesque background with his brother: xiongzhang. have you had lotus seeds. ...xiongzhang. the ones with long stems are tastier. ....xiongzhang. have you had watermelon rinds. they can be stir-fried. they taste good. ...Yes xiongzhang my the rabbits are cute. No xiongzhang I will not be discussing their names at this time....brb going out for a stroll. for no reason. don't ask about the new lotus seed pod decor.

*Whatever, there's some Yunmeng Shuangjie stuff in there too. And another defense of 'demonic' cultivation. Horribly isolated Lan Wangji. Non-aggressive spirits. Probably some other stuff. It's a loaded chapter for being mostly about vegetables.

**Okay fine at least a third of the chapters are about Wangxian having No Chill.

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vibrating rn over the lotus lake lady who talks with Lan Wangji.

"You're too late today, but come earlier tomorrow."

Hmmm what else was Lan Wangji too late for? Saving a certain someone? Accepting rules aren't the be-all-end-all?

"How far is your house from here?" [...] "So far! It must have taken you a long time to get here."

Hmmmmmmm what else took a long time to get to? The wangxian endgame perhaps?

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I think we should write more straight relationships with 2010s TV queerbait tactics. Let that man and that woman's lives be horribly intertwined, let them take bullets for the other, let them be each other's meaning but NO KISSING. They are holding each other platonically. You're crazy for reading anything romantic into it at all tbh

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"Several muddy toddlers [...] squatted in the ridges of earth between fields, playing with the mud as they laughed merrily and smeared each other with it. There was such a rustic charm to the scenery that Lan Wangji stopped to look..."

Major Dad Energy™

We all know the exact face Wang Yibo is making here.

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"...even Lan Xichen had once joked that the land in a two-meter radius around Lan Wangji was a frozen tundra where not even a blade of grass grew."

Xichen what the fuck.

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'Jiang Cheng couldn't stand it anymore. 'All of you, shut up! Talk sense, or I'll stab through the bottom of the boat and we can all die together.'"

God he's such a dramatic bitch.

Someone on here said Jiang Cheng my beloathed and I've never felt so seen.

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"'[The child ghoul] helps me propel the boat, so what's wrong with giving it a few lotus seed pods to eat?'"

Random Yunmeng lotus farmers are out here using 'demonic' cultivation and we wonder where Wei Wuxian gets all these craaaaazy ideas.

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Mo Dao Zu Shi ch 44 - Allure - “Suddenly, however, as Wei WuXian stared at those soft, pale lips, he didn’t know what had taken over him, but he suddenly went and kissed them. After the kiss, he even licked them, as though a kiss wasn’t enough.“

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"'He's the second young master of the Lan Clan, the one everyone says is very handsome and capable, right? Is be really very handsome?' 'Very!' Wei Wuxian gushed."

Yanli knows what's up 👀

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'"There's nothing to be scared of, even if [Lan Zhan] visits," Wei Wuxian said. "If he really does, tell Jiang-shushu to have him sleep with me."'

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"'The 'head of the family' said to drive him away?!' [Jin Ling] yelled. "Why didn't I hear anything about that?!" He had then turned to the master of the Bai family and said, 'You're from the Bai family? The ones who live ten kilometers west of the city? I got it. Go back now. Someone will go find you in a few days.'"

IDK why, but this reread I'm suddenly just like.... noticing Jin Ling? As a person? Sure, he's a bit whiny, but he really kinda blossoms into someone who wants to do the right thing.

As a Wei Wuxian stan I want to say it's his influence—he certainly takes an interest. But it could easily just be the experiences he's had.

Even early on, he frees his crazy uncle (who is might be WWX) from his angry uncle. He's pretty good about keeping the dog away from WWX. He starts off loathing WWX and WN, but struggles with his resentment after learning the whole story—plenty of people just double down no matter how irrational, but he actually wrestles with it. Channeling both parents at once, he tries to repair the relationship between WWX and JC while being super awkward and antagonistic about it. And in the extras, he channels his horrible grandfather by pushing someone down the stairs... but instead of an illegitimate son, it's a guard who rejected a merchant/civilian's request for aid (and subverted JL's authority).

And lest I forget, he goes from crying his eyes out to bawling out that Yao asshole:

"So what if I wanna cry?!" [Jin Ling] hollered. 'Who are you? Who do you think you are? What do you care if I cry?!' Sect Leader Yao had clearly not expected his lecture to be so thoroughly rebuffed, nor that he'd wind up being the one getting yelled at."

Good for you, Jin Ling.

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Oh and also? A few pages later, on the way to the ancestral shrine—and the scene where JC throws a homophobic shit fit about WWX really definitely not being welcome, not even to pay his personal respects to people who the closest thing he had to parents for several years—WWX notes that the building with his room was no longer there.

So add that to the list of metaphors. and incorrect fanon.

"Wei Wuxian felt a sense of loss. He didn't know whether the old buildings were obstructed from view by the resplendent new ones or if they had been demolished by now. After all, they really were very old."

Lotus Pier did not burn.

Noticed this in the pre-Sunshot chapters, too.

Cloud Recesses was burned to the ground and rebuilt exactly as it was. Lotus Pier was occupied, retaken, and, over the course of thirteen plus years... renovated.

The burning of Lotus Pier is another annoyingly pervasive bit of non-canon-compliant fanon.

What a fucking awesome metaphor.

Ready for some fucking crack meta?

Cloud Recesses was wholly demolished, completely rebuilt, and now appears exactly the same. When Wei Wuxian returns, who has also been completely destroyed (by grief), rebuilt (his values), and is wholly familiar to Wei Wuxian (except gayer)? Lan Wangji.

Lotus Pier was changed incrementally by time, and Wei Wuxian is no longer sure if those old familiar buildings are gone or simply hidden under thirteen years of change. When Wei Wuxian returns, who has changed so much that Wei Wuxian is no longer sure if their old familiar relationship is gone or simply hidden under thirteen years of change? Jiang Cheng.