#I am however amused at the traction both the silly names post and the WWX hickies post got

[admirableadmiranda]

I posted 2,185 times in 2021

122 posts created (6%)

2063 posts reblogged (94%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 16.9 posts.

I added 3,048 tags in 2021

#mdzs - 1138 posts

#wei wuxian - 414 posts

#wangxian - 403 posts

#lan wangji - 225 posts

#mdzs art - 216 posts

#jiang cheng - 189 posts

#canon jiang cheng - 159 posts

#cql - 116 posts

#the untamed - 114 posts

#svsss - 74 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#jiang cheng never made a decision that made his life harder except the one time that he (and his fans) forever hold over wei wuxian’s head

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

I love that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both have a spiritual tool that no one will ever say the name of because it’s so awkward to have Whatever the sword and the guqin with the exact same name as its player.

185 notes • Posted 2021-12-04 19:34:24 GMT

#4

Jin Ling: pah, Wei Wuxian is okay, he’s a good teacher and he looks out for me but he hugs me and ruffles my hair too much.

Also Jin Ling: don’t speak to me or my shishu ever again, you are not worth to touch the ground my shishu has walked on.

186 notes • Posted 2021-11-10 14:27:50 GMT

#3

The importance on when we find out something: or JC’s sacrifice reveal

I just want to note that I keep seeing this brought up as a “Gotcha!” or a winning argument that we should have all known that Jiang Cheng really cared and it should change our perspective on things. But all it really is meant to do is hammer home the tragedy of Jiang Cheng’s failings.

Narrative beats exist in every story, and Modaozushi is no different. The flashbacks offer us a deeper understanding of the present story, there is one key moment that entirely reframes the story and our perspective of a character, and of course the emotional climax of Guanyin Temple that begins with the clarity of Lan Wangji’s love and ends with Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue being sealed in an eternal battle of hatred. Where Jiang Cheng’s sacrifice reveal is placed is telling.

Regarding the two core reveals, we find out Wei Wuxian’s between the emotional heights of the Second Siege and Guanyin Temple, and it is a reveal to both the audience and everyone in story. Set shortly after the last flashback, it completely recontextualizes everything we thought about Wei Wuxian during the Sunshot Campaign. Why does he give up his sword? Why does he learn demonic cultivation? Why does he keep everyone at arms length and go so far to save the Wen siblings and the others in the camp? Because of this one action that he owed them so much for and can’t ever let anyone know because in the world he lived in, to have it known that he can no longer cultivate at all would invite the dogs to his door. Once you know it, you can’t look back at his actions without seeing that struggle there. Wei Wuxian as we know him becomes a different person knowing everything he did was to hide that one fact. Successfully, it doesn’t come out for almost eighteen years down the line.

Contrasting, we find out that Jiang Cheng distracted the Wens at the very end of the story. Narratively, this is not the point that is meant to recontextualize his actions as actually loving. It can’t. That’s not the point of that reveal. In story, we only find out that this one action of his happened after Wei Wuxian has turned away and let the door finally close behind him. This reveal is also set before everything else that happened, but only lets us see that Jiang Cheng once cared enough to actually do something. Him once deliberately drawing the Wens away does not make up for the following lifetime of refusing to pay any of his debts, actively turning the cultivation world against Wei Wuxian, leading the siege that killed him, and actively trying to capture and torture him through all of the present day. The reveal is not meant to tell us “Oh, but he loved him after all,” it is meant to highlight the tragedy of Jiang Cheng’s fall.

Once, yes, he did care and he acted in emotion to save him. But regardless of everything, it isn’t enough. One act of care is not enough to outweigh all the bad you have done. And Jiang Cheng knows that, and in his second and final act of care towards Wei Wuxian across the whole book, keeps it secret and lets him go.

191 notes • Posted 2021-10-04 17:04:19 GMT

#2

Wangxian appreciation moment of the day: the scene after Yi City where Lan Sizhui tells a story of the young Wei Wuxian telling bad poetry to the flower spirit on purpose to see her face. I just love so many things about this scene.

Why does Sizhui know this story? It’s definitely not the sort of story that advances the Yiling Laozu as being evil in any way. Hanguang-Jun having told it to him seems like the only plausible explanation.

Lan Wangji silently laughing at young Wei Wuxian because it’s a funny story and he’s charmed by it.

Wei Wuxian seeing the silent laughter and only vowing to embarrass him back in the same way, with stories of him being a dorky teenager.

All of the Lan kids just having a good time on this field trip. Wei Wuxian having a good time with all of them. Even though soon we wander back into plot, I just love the interlude here so much.

224 notes • Posted 2021-10-20 15:20:02 GMT

#1

The whole climax of MDZS always gets ten times better for me when I remember that WWX is running around the whole time with a ton of hickeys on his neck and it’s clear that everyone notices and no one says anything.

324 notes • Posted 2021-08-13 14:23:08 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →