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tumblrs new policy allows porn but only if it's on your dashboard specifically while u are scrolling at a work meeting and ur boss is sitting behind u

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As much as I love and appreciate fandom metas, especially in mxtx fandoms, a lot of times I find myself thinking "the book is deep but not THIS deep". There are many layers, but there is clear intention from the author in portraying things a certain way. Acting like Wei Wuxian is a villain and Jin Guangyao is a poor meow meow who did all of this because he was poor just detracts from the fact that both characters had a certain level of autonomy and they used it in very different ways. Despite his flaws, Wei Wuxian used his abilities to help the innocent. Jin Guangyao, despite how much he sufferered, chose to murder and destroy lives because he wanted to be at the top. His background humanizes him, it isn't intended to justify his actions.

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Detangling JC, his motivations, & his feelings on WWX (i)

JC and WWX have a very fraught history, and while WWX’s role as the narrator makes it very clear what his feelings towards JC are, JC’s feelings towards WWX and motivations seem a lot murkier. He goes from treating WWX as a brother, to mounting a siege in a concerted attempt to take his life. His actions and motivations in the aftermath of WWX’s resurrection are also subject to interpretation. This meta provides argument for my interpretation of his feelings and motivations throughout these events.

LOVE AND BROTHERHOOD

It is clear from the outset that JC cared deeply about WWX (I wish I did not have to make a case for this because it should be obvious, but there are some who believe that JC did not love WWX). Although he holds bitterness and resentment towards WWX due to his family situation and their rivalry, he cares about WWX and is protective of him. This shines through especially in times of mortal peril. 

When WWX was trapped in the Xuanwu cave, he travelled without stopping to find people to rescue WWX. The trip should have taken 10 days, but because he drove himself to exhaustion in his desperation to save WWX, he only took 7 days.

When WWX is in danger of being discovered by the Wens after the burning of Lotus Pier, he uses himself as bait to draw them away from WWX despite the risk to his own life, which eventually leads to his capture and the loss of his core.

SO WHERE DID THINGS GO WRONG

Things started to take a turn after the Sunshot Campaign. I believe a few key events caused resentment and confusion to build and grow in JC over time:

WWX’s refusal to carry his sword, which put political pressure on YMJ

His decision to break out the Wen Remnants, without consulting or informing JC, with put more pressure on YMJ

His decision to defect from YMJ, effectively (in JC’s mind) picking the Wens over YMJ and his brotherhood with JC

His actions at Qiongqi Path which killed JZX — while we know from WWX’s POV what happened, JC and JYL have no idea what went down except from the claims of the surviving Jin cultivators

His attack on the 4000 cultivators at the Nightless City, which ultimately cost JYL’s life

It’s evident that JC is increasingly bewildered, angered, and hurt by WWX’s actions. It’s clear that he’s confused, and just CAN’T UNDERSTAND WHY WWX IS ACTING THIS WAY. All the while, resentment is building in him that he has to clean up WWX’s messes, all while WWX’s actions undermine him as a leader and brings up childhood insecurities and jealousies. But his love for WWX drives him to continually stand by WWX and believe in him — even grudgingly, complainingly, and with growing resentment. Even up to the attack at the Nightless City, even after JZX’s death, he still seems to believe in WWX.

This last event, the attack at the Nightless City, seems to be the turning point where he stops believing in WWX, so I want to cover this particular event in more detail:

A “pledge conference” is being attended by QHN, GSL, LLJ, and YMJ. This conference is a ceremonial affair, centered around their pledge to eradicate WWX and the Wen remnants. It begins with them honoring the fallen with a toast, but while the other three sect leaders make the toasts, JC goes through the motions of the toast with visible unhappiness, and then conspicuously says nothing to honor the dead.

I feel this action needs to be understood in the context of the ceremony. They are standing in the Nightless City, where their comrades died in the final battle to take down QSW, a battle which WWX contributed to greatly. They are pouring the wine on the ground where the bodies lie to honor the fallen: “Here we honor our fallen. Rest in peace.” (Uncontroversial) “Now in the name of our fallen, we will eliminate the Wens who killed them — and the Yiling Patriarch!” (Controversial because WWX was brother in arms to these soldiers, and JGS is stirring shit because he wants the Yin Tiger Seal.)

JC knows the controversial bit is coming, so while the other sect leaders one by one say things like “rest in peace” and “may they live on” he dumps the wine on the ground and refuses to say anything. He is the only one, of the four with cups, who does not speak.

When WWX appears, the others all draw their weapons, but JC reaction is different: “JC’s pupils shrunk. Blue veins lined the back of his hand.” From this sentence alone, it may not seem clear what he’s feeling, but based on the rest of his actions in this scene, I would guess that he’s shocked and appalled that WWX would dare to appear before such a large and hostile mob, A MOB THAT IS CURRENTLY PLEDGING TO KILL HIM AND SCATTER HIS ASHES, thus recklessly and what seems like arrogantly endangering his own life.

After an increasingly hostile exchange between WWX and the mob, JGS calls for everyone to set up the battle arrays to seal WWX in, with the intention of killing him there. But when WWX calls up the corpses buried under them to defend himself, it’s stated that all the sects were in disarray, except for YMJ, which seems to indicate that WWX’s corpses were not attacking the YMJ delegation — and the YMJ cultivators were not fighting the corpses either.

This all seems to indicate that despite JZX’s death, despite the fact that JC has NO FUCKING CLUE what the hell happened at Qiongqi Path, despite the fact that he’s no doubt been fed lies and biased reports from the surviving Jin cultivators, and despite the fact that WWX is currently unleashing an undead army on all of them — he still believes that there’s another side of the story. He doesn’t even know WHAT that story is, but he believes in WWX— grudgingly, and with growing disbelief, confusion, and incredulity—  he still believes, BLINDLY, in WWX.

THE TURNING POINT

In the ensuing chaos, JYL is killed, and WWX finally snaps in his grief, unleashing a hellish and completely uncontrolled bloodbath upon the assembled cultivators. It is estimated that this killed three thousand people, severely decimating the cultivation world’s population.

The siege begins after this attack, and we know from the prologue that the siege was headed by JC, and that he was the one behind key tactical maneuvers (designed using his intimate knowledge of WWX’s weaknesses) that allowed them to eventually sack the Burial Mounds. In the aftermath, he was the main person credited by the cultivation world for the defeat of the Yiling Patriarch. When WWX meets JL at Dafan, he corroborates this by revealing, through the narration, that JGS was the second-biggest contributor to the siege — after JC, who was the biggest contributor.

I know that there are other popular interpretations of JC’s motivations here. I will name two:

He participated in the siege only due to political pressure — after what WWX did at the Nightless City, he couldn’t NOT condemn him or the cultivation world would have turned on YMJ too

He participated in the siege hoping to take WWX alive and bring him back home to discipline privately

But I don’t subscribe to either of these interpretations. I believe he FULLY intended to kill WWX. Firstly, if he was only participating in the siege due to political pressure, why contribute so vitally to the siege, why take a leading role and design tactical maneuvers to bring WWX down? He could have just done as he’d done previously, which was to participate perfunctorily in “opposition” against WWX, but contributing as little as possible, or nothing at all.

Secondly, some may argue that he was trying to capture WWX alive. But before this, he had always given the impression of being extremely cautious, to the point of inaction when maybe action would have been better. JC is VERY risk-averse. His characterization before the siege is that he’d rather do nothing than do something even potentially risky. The intention of everyone else was to kill WWX, NOT to capture him. As such, the risk that WWX would be killed in battle is extremely high. Even if by some miracle, he managed to capture WWX alive despite the best efforts of everyone else to murder him, it would be really difficult to stop the other sects from executing him, and getting permission to take him home and keep him under house arrest. It would be a safer bet to try to sabotage the siege from the inside, which is not what he did. In fact, he did the opposite. He was leading the siege viciously and with intent.

So I believe that he fully intended to kill WWX, which means the turning point was JYL’s death. Up to her death, JC still believed in WWX. After her death, however, the very last we see of him is him clutching JYL’s body, completely in shock, having not yet processed her death. I believe his last words to WWX should hint to us what caused the snap from blind faith to blind hatred. These words were: “Didn’t you say you could control it?! Didn’t you say it would be fine?!” To which WWX (who is having 99 fucking breakdowns all at once) finally admits that he was wrong, and that he can’t actually control it.

My belief is that this incident made JC realize that JYL’s death (and JZX’s as well) was largely caused by WWX’s loss of control over his demonic cultivation, and IMPORTANTLY, JC’s inaction re: WWX’s method of cultivation and his seeming descent into violent radicalism. Despite all the warning signs, the growing escalations, the increasingly violent confrontations with increasingly large death tolls— he continued to believe in WWX, even when he could no longer understand or predict WWX’s actions. Everyone told him “you need to reign him in” “he’s going off the rails” “he’s a danger to us all” and JC didn’t take them seriously because he BELIEVED IN and TRUSTED WWX.

And now his sister is dead, his month-old nephew is an orphan, and WWX has massacred three thousand people in a single night, likely including members of YMJ, in a total loss of control and conscience. I think that was the turning point, the crux of the betrayal.

I believed in you. I defended you. I stuck my neck out for you. But you scorned my help. You rejected and discarded me. You betrayed my trust.

You don’t give a shit about me.

You don’t give a shit about anyone else.

I BELIEVED in you, and YOU BETRAYED ME.

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NOTE: Right now this meta is getting a little long, so I think this is a good place to maybe cut it in thirds? Part II should cover the siege, WWX’s death, and the 13 years in between, and Part III should cover JC’s actions and motivations after WWX’s resurrection. As the next parts have not been written, I can’t link it! But when Part II is done, I will edit the post to include a link below the cut:

Keep reading

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i don’t usually go for “brutalizing and disempowering a character as a set-up for helping them grow” aus, but.

an au where nmj gets his core melted could be really fun. and unlike the usual ways this genre of aus works, this one… avoids the usual issues i have with it/they work for me in this case because

a) it prevents him from continuing on with saber cultivation, which is the thing that causes big sword rage brain disease. so he wouldn’t degenerate like he does in canon because of it. 

b) unlike a lot of other characters, i think he does actually need to experience being helpless and weak and surrounded by people who are much stronger/more durable than you, some of whom want to kill you or hurt you to be able to understand that position and have meaningful sympathy for it. and fuck he would HATE IT and it would do a n u m b e r on him but the end results could be really interesting

c) ok maybe i’m a little bitter about the sheer amount of things that are allegedly fixes that rely on either brutalizing and disempowering jin guangyao or adapting “barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen” to apply to jin guangyao to “keep him out of trouble uwu” which. disgusting. maybe i think turn about is fair play and if the goose is made to endure it maybe the gander oughta try it too. 

d) I’m just imagining cql nmj with tears in his eyes screaming “STOP BEING NICE TO ME” at Meng Yao/Jin Guangyao because he is actually being extra sensitive about this whole Thing because he Gets It and as big of a game as nmj talks… he doesn’t actually want to be anything like meng yao. anyway. their dynamic, with meng yao/jgy now the one who is actually more physically powerful/threatening, and who is doing his best to make sure nmj doesn’t feel threatened/feel weak (like he did) while nmj is just not handling this well? Good shit.

e) and then there is Huaisang. The potential there. damn.

f) The Struggle would be Real in terms of turning to demonic cultivation/the dark side if he and wei wuxian did go “same hat.” Because like. He HATES being powerless. He NEEDS to be able to protect his people. but also the other pillar that his vision of himself stands on is that he is a good and just person. and so he can either restore pillar one or keep pillar two intact. that’s fun!

anyway. Consider.

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from a utilitarian pov, the character who did the most good (ie. had the greatest net-positive material impact upon the world) was jin guangyao. while saving people on an individual basis is heroic and makes for more inspiring narratives, what ultimately improves the material conditions experienced by large numbers of people is institutional reform.

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Some fem!3zun just because I wanted to~

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there are. broadly speaking. 2 types of whump fanfictions. the first is the type where the author is torturing the character or putting them in situations because they are a sexual or emotional pervert, or better yet both, which is the good and righteous whump. and then the 2nd type is the shit i dont like that reads like that daniel ortberg piece on how to respond to criticism where the point is just what a pwoor little baby the blorbo is and how everyone thinks they look so brave and beautiful suffering under the waterfall

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The Jiujiu Who Stepped Up

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Learning Processes.

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three years postcanon, jin guangyao comes back to life!

jin guangyao is then approached by a genie. the genie says that, due to the hardships he has endured, jin guangyao has been awarded with one miracle: he can choose to bring 1 out of 2 dead candidates back to life.

jin guangyao can only choose 1 person to revive from the provided list of 2 candidates. he also must make a decision in the next 24 hours.

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✨SPIN THE WHEEL TO GET YOUR CHARACTER✨

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smh @ Edmund KingLear bc this little jerk (affectionate) does almost NOTHING aside from go “I’m baby!” and still manages to immediately get everything fellow scheming bastard JGY spends YEARS striving for without success. Recognition from father! Promotion to heir! Lasting validation and loyalty from buff nobleman boyfriend with anger issues! All this without working customer service a single day in his LIFE!!! The INDIGNITY!

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One body horror idea for JC is that WWX's golden care influences his appearance to resemble WWX. It's not obvious at first, JC is still young, some people have a second growth spurt. He takes good care of his hair and always ties it up neatly, so who would notice that it's gotten wilder/wavier.

From there on I could see it going in two directions first, the change happens gradually over years and only WWX recognizes what has happened when he mistakes JC for an impostor of himself.

Second, the golden core reveal enhances the effect, so JC is aware of his body changing. At the same time, with WWX running around in a new body, people don't remember his original looks all that well. So other than JC getting whiplash each time he catches his reflection, it's not so bad. Until someone mistakes him for WWX and now there's a rumor that he's keeping the real YLLZ at LP. While HGJ entertains a charlatan.

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lan wangji spotted in yurucamp

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am i the only person who thinks that wen ning is mostly grateful for wwx bringing him back as a fierce corpse?

like yes there are the obvious downsides he dislikes (cant eat, muted sense of touch, unable to sleep, able to be controlled against his will etc) but i feel like when wen ning was alive he felt functionally useless and helpless due to his (spiritual?) illness, and the fact that he had to be protected was what kept wen qing tied to wrh's side and in his service. now that hes a fierce corpse he no longer needs such protection and was able to fight for himself and his loved ones

like. yes i think there are definitely times he hates it. but i think before he lost all of his family and was cursed to be an experiment instead of dying alongside them, i think wen ning was probably mostly grateful and somewhat pleased about his status as a strong fierce corpse

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Loving you and missing you every day, Yanli 🪷