#I love xiao lanhua so much

[stillboredbuttrying]

Rewatching Love between fairy and devil for emotional support reasons.

I still can't forgive whoever translated the title from something like "Orchid's farewell" to love between fairy and devil. She is not a fairy and he is not a devil.

Anyway ep2. How good the actors have been for the body switching??? XiaoLan is a complete airhead (I love her) and when they switch body you see all her silly reactions in the body of this dark lord. Peak comedy. Meanwhile Dongfang Qingcang is so done from the very beginning. And you can see it's still him when they body switch and XiaoLan's body is all straight and serious

[clj-art-blog]

Evening walk in Lucheng | DFQC: "Even if she said that was not tired, Benzuo knows the truth"

[cardiagf]

every moment between dfqc and xlh is so so precious to me oh my god i swear it's the little things that always makes me cry bc what the hell!! it's love that endures and persists!!! love that is selfless and giving!!!! love that is eternal and unchanging!!!!! love that is true no matter how simple or grand the gestures may be!!!! love that is worth fighting against destiny for just to be with your beloved!!!!

love that is worth all the inconvenience, the time, the effort, the absolute tragedy, that they would give everything including themselves just for a world where their most dearest person is alive, well and happy even if that means they won't be by their side.

if loving meant being selfless, then you're worth everything i can give myself to you for.

[vazanni]

I’m missing LBFAD. I’m missing XLH and DFQC and XLH/DFQC and all the other characters. I’ve been watching some ongoing dramas that people rave about, claiming they’re the next best thing after the sliced bread and ok, some are entertaining and engaging enough. But none can compare to LBFAD. I just don’t care about the character enough. And sure, LFAD might not have had the most sophisticated and complicated plot, but the characterization was out of this world and the pacing, the settings, the CGI, the costumes. And even plot and worldbuilding – it might not have been revolutionary, but it was all so very well and tightly written. No one makes me feel as much emotions as DFQC and XLH did. Hell, Jieli, Changheng, Shangque and Ronghao made me more emotional than main leads in all the latest dramas I've watched.

[curiosity-killed]

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objectively one of the best moments in this show

[mengyan]

thinking about xiao lanhua... there’s no one quite like her.

in the beginning, she’s presented to us in such a one dimensional way— sweet, bubbly, naive, fallen hard for the good guy, the typical female protagonist— but we also find out quickly that she isn’t.

she’s hopelessly reckless. she jumps into danger without a second thought. she steals spirit stones from her friends all the time to try and improve her own cultivation. she’s a fearless spitfire and she huffs and stomps her feet and throws tantrums. she sobs and wails at the yuezun, this unbelievably powerful man hated by all, and she doesn’t stop. if anything, when she finds out who he is, she works to annoy him harder.

she’s so cringe. she’s messy. she’d probably bite a person if she could bring herself to hurt anyone. she’s dramatic and loud and sometimes you’re like oh man... she needs to shut up for just one second and think things through.

because she makes mistakes. all the time. and she’s not perfect. she doesn’t have everything handed to her. she’s lonely. she’s so selfless yet selfish. she wants to be loved. she’s not hopelessly adored by everyone around her. she doesn’t get the things she wants. she gets hit by setback after setback but she keeps going.

and most of all, she keeps loving.

because that’s who xiao lanhua is, in the end. she isn’t the destiny written for her in fate. she isn’t the nameless and weak little flower spirit she knows herself to be. she’s just xiao lanhua, and she loves and loves and loves.

her love heals and it grows. it inspires and it saves. that’s her true power, how she loves in spite of everything and despite everything. she’s seen what love can do, how it can destroy people and corrupt them.

but she will always choose to believe otherwise.

[moonsorchid]

Love Between Fairy and Devil, ep.22

[vegaseatsass]

I have to pry myself off the computer for real but tomorrow will someone please talk to me about Love Between Fairy & Devil now that I've finally watched it a year after the rest of the internet, and how Fairy Danyin is the best character, and Danyin/Changheng is the most lesbian (and/or gnc)/gay solidarity ship ever, and I am so stunned that they textually ended with Danyin admitting her original thing for Gods of War is that she wanted to become one herself - i.e. there was some "idk if I want to be him or be with him" to her Changheng pining - and with her demonstratively labeling Changheng her xiongdi???????? They are bros in every lifetime!! And should go on Chidi/Danyin Changheng/Ronghao double dates!!!

Someone please talk about this with me.... tomorrow.

[nothingwronghere]

You don’t like it?

[iri-vail]

i started watching love between fairy and devil and omg this is the best-looking most silliest looking show i have ever seen i am completely in love

[xiaohuayaos]

I love Dongfang Qingcang pre realising he has his own organic feelings for Xiao Lanhua outside of the one heart curse so much. he's just like The only thing that ties that little flower spirit and I is the one heart curse, if it weren't for that I would HAPPILY have gotten rid of her and meanwhile he's saying that while carefully sweeping her up and carrying her to bed, tucking her in all comfy, making sure the blankets are pulled up tight, cutting the crusts off a sandwich just the way she likes it, absently doodling Mr Xiao Lanhua in his evil moon supreme planner and shit. 10/10 what a guy.

[clj-art-blog]

Commission for «TRAITOR» Written By @beatrixacs

[stillboredbuttrying]

Love between fairy and devil ep6 rewatch

Dongfang Qingcang (doesn't know what sex is) (can't feel love or other emotions by himself for magic reasons): YOU ARE MINE. YOU BELONG TO ME. YOUR BLOOD BELONGS TO ME

Xiao Lanhua (knows what sex is, been trying to bone the God of war for 500years): You look like a very nice escaped convict, but sadly I'm not into bad boys.

Dongfang Qingcang (doesn't understand that Xiao Lanhua thinks he wants to sleep with her) : I WILL KILL ANYONE THAT TRIES TO HURT YOU. I WILL DO EVERYTHING TO MAKE YOU HAPPY

Xiao Lanhua: You are very smooth and romantic but my heart belongs to the hero of the Heaven realm. My dream is to become his waitress :)

Chang Heng (knows what sex is) (thinks he's a tragic hero): Xiao Lanhua is so pure and good, I wish I could marry her! Alas, my brother doesn't allow it :(

Also Chang Heng (doesn't know what gay sex is) (in a painting drinking with Rong Hao): Man, there isn't any place I rather be than here drinking with you. You are my favourite person in the world. Your eyes are so pretty up close

Bonus:

Shang Que (trying his best): Boss don't you think you are taking this orchid thing a bit too seriously? She's dumb as a rock, no need to stress so much

[joyburble]

So, we see Donfang Qingcang reading on screen several times, and I think it's an important character message.

On encountering a problem, in episode 4, that can't be addressd by violence, what is the first thing our character does? He RTFMs. He sends Shanque to fetch the Fucking Manual, and he Reads It. What. In fact, they both read it, at least until they find the right bit.

Iconic. And adorable.

Definitely much less surprising in a Chinese genre than it would be in any English-language genre. But this section is so spectacular I want to give it a lot of weight.

The scroll is extremely long. He baulks, for a second, at the length,

but this, his face says, cannot possibly defeat him: he backs himself (I love it) and gets down to work.

It's illustrated. I'd love to hear from someone who can read any part of the text. He engages in detail with the content.

He continues in episode 5, having made some progress, and still backing himself to work out what it all means.

He takes it out on the balcony to study it by daylight. When his plans don't succeed at first, he doesn't reject the information, he thinks about it harder and compares it with the data.

Then something interesting happens: after making Orchid's tummyache better, he sits down, and without any stated reason tries to read something else, which looks like a completely normal book:

He can't focus because she's so sad, but we get a glimpse of the corner of a title label. When he puts it down, we can see it's a paperback stitched in the traditional Chinese manner.

It could be anything, but looks a reasonable size for a novel. There are also some other books on the table. Maybe they're technical works from Xiao Lanhua's library, and he's just bored and curious?

This wouldn't be as clear if it was the only example, or if we saw other characters repeatedly reading. But I don't think we do.

In episode 18 post-whump we learn again that what he does to relax and distract himself, when in pain and/or wanting attention, is read a book. It's a slim volume with a vertical format and a pretty, embellished cover. Perhaps a book of poems?

In Episode 26, now knowing he is loved, he is reading for fun again, with no explanation asked or given. Another sewn book, but in this case it has a hard cover with a shiny and colourful design. What could it be? Who knows? It seems to be making him smile a little.

The message we are getting, here, is that what he does when he wants to relax and enjoy life, is read. We’re supposed to understand that in his natural disposition, minus his father’s crimes and his profession of violence, he is a gentleman and a scholar. He is curious. He is capable of handling new information. He has brains and capabilities and ingenuity. He has a big ego, but he can put it in the engine room, not the driving seat. It's a gently-delivered message, but I think it contributes a lot to our perception of the character.

In dream-world episode 31, he is reading a scroll with Xiao Lanhua. Are they reading a story to each other? Doing the voices?

So apparently in his imagination it's a bonding activity too: you can read together with a person you love and share your reactions. A bit like you and I are doing now.

Finally, I think they published this behind-the-scenes shot for a reason (thank you @moonsupremesblog, and I'm sorry this probably should have been a reblog of this post but I got too far in before I remembered)

We can see it's Dylan Wang referring to a script, but we do a double-take because it's totally in character, the lighting, composition, and depth-of-field intentionally reinforce that effect, and we have to look at the plastic cover and the little place-tags to realise it isn't.

[mengyan]

people who call xiao lanhua annoying (derogatory) simply don’t understand her well enough. she IS annoying. that’s one of her best traits. i love how much she gets on my nerves. she makes so many god-awful decisions and i just close my eyes and support her every step of the way.

[harocat]

Perhaps this is inaccurate, but does it ever feel to you like general cdrama fandom takes the FL being a “mature” character as the end-all indicator of the show’s quality? Recently with legend of Shenli I see quite a few people start their praise along the lines of “unlike those other garbage xianxia with their annoying FLs”. And often it becomes clear they’re trashtalking Lbfad specifically

This is not just Cdrama fandom, it's fandom on the whole; the girlbossification of female characters.

I've generally always favored characters that get this treatment. Riza Hawkeye (badass) vs. Winry Rockbell (immature), Sango (badass) vs Kagome (immature). Sorry those examples are anime, but they're very well known so 🤷

These are also often healer characters, which is a trope that tends to be... sort of maligned. How dare a women be relegated to just being a healer! But IDK, I'd rather have a well written healer than a generic, flatly written warrior any day. XLH would definitely fall under the healer class.

(One good thing I've noticed is that while all the above mentioned girls got a lot of hate back in the day, as time has gone on, they've grown to become beloved characters. You rarely see hate for any of them nowadays. It's great.)

Keeping in mind fandom's general disinterest in women, so naturally the appreciation that does exist is often extremely shallow. Characters that tend to catch their attention because of this are ones that are 'badass' or that they want to 'step on them' or whatnot. A character that starts out more mature is more likable to them because they don't need to look beyond the surface to see how 'cool' she is.

This is not an implication that Shenli is a shallow character (I am only on ep twelve, so I'm not here to give any kind of overall impression), but just that she from the beginning has more traits that are easy for people to glom onto as a 'strong female character' Do these specific people (this is obviously not all fans of Shenli) who say 'finally a mature character' write meta about Shenli? Do they gush on her and share fanworks and create and all the like. Generally no, because in my experience people who like characters for 'girlboss' reasons don't really appreciate them beyond the surface.

These people will gripe about characters like XLH, sing the praises of 'strong female characters', then go back to only caring about male characters 90% of the time.

Xiao Lanhua takes too much work for these kinds of fans. Obviously we know she is strong, we know she is badass and brave, but the XLH we meet at the beginning is silly, immature, and boy crazy. To appreciate her character fully, you have to do more than just look for five seconds and go 'wow badass'. She's a layered, richly written character, but she doesn't start out as the kind of character that fits a girlboss reading.

On the other hand, almost because of this, you can find pages and pages of meta, fic, and fanworks about her, and almost any fan of hers can give you a plethora of reasons they love her that have actual depth.

On the subject of maturity, it's often a case of the kind of immaturity that's acceptable. Dongfang Qingcang is deeply immature at the start of the series. I don't need to explain why.

But his immaturity is appealing to fandom; cute, likable, and funny. It's good immature, cool immature. And I think this is because in addition to being a male character, we're also taught that being immature like Xiao Lanhua is--- is like... a horrible thing to be? But that's not the case at all. It's just normal! Again, back to girlboss feminism. Women and female characters are held to an impossibly high standard. Female characters that act in a way that might be seen as cringe (if they aren't also badass)? Yikes.

Yes, Xiao Lanhua starts out flighty and silly, but she's also a hard worker, and even from the beginning, she's courageous (despite her timidity when confronted with bullies). She's a good character, even at the beginning; she is lovable, charming, and so, so funny. People just refuse to see beyond their first impression.

The goal in writing a female character should be to make them well written, and in that sense, Xiao Lanhua is a great character. She just happens to also be extremely brave and badass, but some people are too shallow to see it. At this point in time I don't even argue with XLH haters. I'm just like 'well fine, I'd rather not have you here anyway.'