#Xie lian you oblivious fool

[yeonslayjun]

Binged tgcf manhua

Okay so I just binged the whole tgcf manhua and all I want rn is Hua Cheng. Like someone pls get me a man like him my standards have risen way too high that I don't think Mortals can reach them

[orenji-iro-no-sora]

I've started reading Heaven Official's Blessings and I am currently on the first book Banyue arc. So I'd be talking about it a lot here because I am so into it!!

*Spoilers for MDZS and TGCF*

Firstly, MXTX is so skilled at writing characters who are clever but whimsical. She really makes you root for the protagonist.

Both Wei Ying and Xie Lian are quite similar in the sense that they both had the right intentions but faced repercussions that, while being justified through the nature of the universe they live in, they didn't deserve. And despite the tremendous pain they went through, both of them were able to reach a state of kind-hearted acceptance which makes them so loveable irrespective of how they're perceived in their story world.

Hua Cheng (San Language) and Lan Zhan are also similar in their endless devotion, the kind that transcends life and death which makes them great love interests. You can't help but feel the adoration they hold for their partners and while Lan Zhan struggled in Wei Ying's first life, he was all in when he got the chance again. Hua Cheng, for now, feels more explicit about his emotions than Lan Zhan (although with Lan Zhan if you know you can't unsee how in love he is). Both of them are dreamy!

MXTX is so good at portraying an almost 'agape' type love between characters. I also enjoy the dynamic of bleeding-heart-oblivious-fool and highly-accomplished-selflessly-loyal.

I can't help but feel that just like MDZS, TGCF is going to be full of action, horror and grief. I am going to hurt for Hua Cheng and Xie Lian, I just know it.

Another thing that I really loved is how Hua Cheng earned the title of Crimson Rain Sought Flower. It's a great description for him, a man who can make the heavens rain blood would seek flowers which are symbolic of Xie Lian. To me, he "sought" flower both in sense of searching it and desiring it (Xie Lian is sought after by him). He sought like butterflies, protective and compulsive. And that's beautiful.

Also "Hua Xie"! Seriously?!?! His fake name was Hua Xie?! Why am I shocked? It's wangxian all over again.

You're actively shipping in your own novel, mxtx!! I love you.

[danhoemei]

[ID: Anonymous asked: Just wanted to know who your favorite “villains” (or antagonists) are in all of MXTX novels. Whether it’s a big bad/final boss like *censored* or more of a side character like Xue Yang. Whether you wanna do a ranking or just throw some names out in no particular order. /end ID]

Sorry anon for the screenshot, I wanted to avoid a major spoiler for one of the novels 😘 Even though this blog is not spoiler free I try to avoid at least the major or too direct ones.

That being said,

VERY MAJOR SPOILERS ALERT

for mdzs, tgcf and svsss.

Really don’t read if you don’t want to spoil yourself the whole novels.

Nie Huaisang

Goddaaaaaamn I was IMPRESSED by his level as the mastermind. He fooled me for over half a book, I started being suspicious just a few (10-odd?) chapters before the big reveal. I think cql has more obvious foreshadowing, from what I saw on some screenshots, but in the novel he was impeccable. Such a meticulously woven plan, executed perfectly and fooling everyone to the very end, even the most perceptive characters like wwx. Absolute fav from the antagonists (honestly weird to call him that but he pretty much is).

Meng Yao

I gave some thoughts on this character here. He deserved better ;-;

He Xuan

I liked him as ming yi, his grumpiness and done attitude, and very enjoyable dynamic with sqx (beefleaf 💚). Then the venerable of empty words arc absolutely destroyed me. It’s one of my fav arcs in tgcf actually. I experienced literal catharsis in the culmination scene with shi brothers, I was freaking gaping at the screen, then mumbling and tearing up, then key smashing to my friend who read the novel earlier. This whole arc was a wild ride, fascinating and with a lot of unexpected turns, constantly keeping me at my wits end and hungry for knowledge, while I gradually learnt about he xuan’s devastating story, shi wudu’s ruthless selfishness and sqx’s obliviousness. This whole story was really extreme and even though it was absolutely heart-wrenching, I was elated by the amount of emotions it dragged me through. I am regretful AF that he xuan couldn’t end it in a different way and am sad for beefleaf 💔 But still, I like him as a character and can’t really hold his choices against him. I dwell on wholesome AUs though xd

Shen Jiu

Also pretty much this (the same ask as linked for Meng Yao).

Jun Wu

Ngl, he was very annoying for me and I wished many times for him to leave xie lian tf alone xd But he grew on me at the end during his exchange with xie lian and mei nianqing, but especially as we learnt his background. So I ended up pretty much with mixed feelings towards him, annoyance for his present sorry self and softness for his past. I also like dwelling on what ifs and AUs here xd Not too much because, on an everyday basis, I don’t think about him at all, but whenever I see a fanart of junmei, I melt a bit xd

From the ‘smaller fries’:

Mobei Jun

Cold, emotionally stunted demon learning what care and love is thanks to his hamster’s influence 💙

Qi Rong

He was quite annoying and just a comic relief, but I grew to enjoy those comedic scenes with him, and especially his progressing father-son relationship with gu zi. There was development in this character, who was quite human and relatable in how he starved for recognition and attention, but still failed miserably and was always second (or worse). I agree with this post by @thisworldgodonlyknows​.

Sha Hualing

Wild, cheerful, chaotic lady ❤ I respect her and enjoyed her appearances (rather later in the book, first appearance was as an annoying, overconfident brat, but later we get to know her better and I love the friendship and banters between her, lbh, and mbj).

Tianlang Jun

Such a non-stereotypical demon for PIDW world, just wanted to indulge himself and experience the world, fell in love and wanted a happy life. Which got harshly destroyed ;-; I regret their tragic backstory, his and su xiyan, and wish they could have been happy together ;-; He was also very fun (a bit like pei ming), with his constantly shipping mind xD

[righteousinadversity]

Hi , I am the anon who asked about the anti wangxian and anti lwj drama and let's just forget and ignore those people who do shitty takes like those.

I wanna know how you came to know about mxtx.

I discovered her in the most random ways that one can , it's really funny and I am really lucky for discovering her the way I did.

I saw an ad on YouTube about the tgcf's donghua trailer on a video which I skipped halfway , I didn't know what it was , but what I knew about it was that it was a Chinese anime , I don't know why but I picked up gay romance vibes from it , I don't know how I picked it up because I was a oblivious fool during that time when it came to picking up romance vibes from any piece of fiction or media and I didn't even see Hua Cheng in the trailer , nothing related to romance was in the trailer . I didn't know the show's name during that time , but I was quite curious about it , but during that time thought that I shouldn't watch it , since I never understood romance in fiction as well as in real life . This happened in my birthday month by the way .

One month later , I again saw a sneak peak of it on Netflix when it got recommended to me , but still decided not to watch it since I might not understand it . I knew though that it was not a cringey romance show which I hate , and thanks to those stuffy shows I hated romance as a genre and never understood anything about it.

Two months later after it's title card on Netflix kept staring at me and curiosity won me over , I decided to give it a chance and watched it , I am glad that my curiosity won me over that day and my intuition about the show came true cuz it didn't turned out to be those cringey romances and it was full of symbolism , trust , bonding , romance, adventure , oh I could rant and rant and will stop only after I don't have energy left.

The show won me over , Xie Lian and Hua Cheng took control over me and I could not stop gushing about it . After that , I discovered mxtx and then discovered mdzs and svsss.

One month later , I watched mdzs's season 1 and wondered how could the author write such perfect stories. There was not a lot of romance between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian , but it was enough for me to understand that they cared a lot about each other and that Lan Wangji had fallen in love in the Xuanwu Cave.

Fast forward to 2 months , I watched svsss and loved it , and started reading the novel , I loved it but still have some questionable thoughts about the romance . Everything else was perfect. OOC IS OOC became my new catchphrase and I say it most of the times.

Fast forward to October , I watched 21 episodes of the untamed because apparently everyone was recommending it to me , I didn't watched it completely and found it a little bit boring (might get hate 😝, the actors were great but it still felt boring) compared to the donghua's 1st season , it just wasn't doing it for me ( they introduced yin iron which I didn't liked at all and changed some things) , then I started reading mdzs and felt all different sort of things , it is the most perfect story I have ever read in my life , I can rant more and more and more and would never stop until I die because of not having proper food , water and sleep because of ranting.

Tgcf is the only one I haven't read yet , and will probably start after volume 2 of the novel releases , I can't wait to see what it has in store , I can't wait to feel a plethora of emotions.

I can't still believe that an oblivious fool and a romance hater experienced so many different emotions , mxtx changed me so much and I will forever be grateful to her . And the stupid thing is I still don't grasp romance because it is still written in such a shallow way when it comes to many works , but when it comes to mxtx's works everything is so deep and symbolic.

Mxtx changed the meaning of romance and so many things for me.

I will forever be grateful to YouTube and Netflix for letting me discover mxtx .

Heaven Official's Blessing was literally a blessing for me. Everyday I thank God for making me discover mxtx.

Sorry it got a bit too long and is a bit cliché but I can still rant more and more ,thanks for reading. 🤗

Feel free to rant, anon! I am glad that you discovered this lovely author!

I have restricted myself from reading either TGCF or SVSSS just yet because my academic life can't handle it. MDZS lives in my head rent-free.

How I discovered MXTX? Hm. Let's see. In the early Jan of 2020, I came across an untamed edit on youtube that was basically crack, but I was won over by WWX's smile and Wangxian's interaction. I think there was the scene where WWX goes on reciting the Lan rules to WC, and while I didn't understand the significance of it then, I was intrigued, and because I had time, then, I looked up the show and went to watch CQL.

Now, three episodes in is when I found out that it was an adaptation, and I went searching for the actual novel version because I have always preferred books over visual media. After finishing the novel, I loved and adored it, both WWX and LWJ stole my heart. Every theme it explored, from mob mentality to righteousness to power plays to resentment to staying true to your heart, was absolutely beautiful.

I didn't delve into any of the adaptations until like, April, because I had exams and stuff, but afterwards, I finished CQL and I didn't... find it as appealing. Honestly, I was in it for Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo and that was it. I only started watching the donghua much, much later, binge-watching it during my winter break.

I am genuinely thankful for MDZS. It gave me life lessons that I aspire to live by.

"let the self judge the right and the wrong, let others decide to praise or to blame, let gains and losses remain uncommented on."

"You have to remember the things others do for you, not the things you do for others. Only when people don’t hold so much in their hearts would they finally feel free."

As MXTX said, I hope to be like Lan WangJi in virtue and Wei WuXian in character.

[elencelebrindal]

If I'm not mistaken you've now read/watched the three mxtx works and WoH. How would you rank them following personal preference? Which main couple did you like the most? Favorite plot twists in all four?

Yep, I did. I still have to read Faraway Wanderers though. Can't wait to.

This came out to be quite a long post, so I'll put it under the read more thingy.

Now, how would I rank them?

I'll have Tian Guan Ci Fu at the top, no doubts. It's my absolute favorite among all these four, and will probably remain my favorite even after I finally get to read the huge thing that's 2ha. It's the perfect balance of a story with no characters left unexplained (except for the minor ones and RIP Hua Cheng's backstory, why did mxtx rob us so much), of characters being unique all in different ways, and of a romance that, while being absolutely the main focus of the novel, is not overwhelming. For me, an aro/ace person, the romance written in TGCF is so good that it made even me stupidly happy. I don't get such big smiles on my face while reading my own romantic content.

This is the ONLY novel I've ever read that doesn't have a single character I hate in it. Only one, maybe two at most, that I dislike. That's it. Everyone's good. Everyone.

Then I'll definitely have Word of Honor. Just like TGCF, it's a really good balance between an interesting story (I was literally squirming in my seat while impatiently waiting for things to be revealed, enjoying every second of it) and a subtle romance that was still obvious enough to make me wonder what the hell happened with censorship in this drama. Not that I'm complaining though.

Almost all the characters are incredibly good. They have depth to them, all the main ones have either a satisfying backstory or a beautifully crafted development.

And this is it for the ranking. I wrote way more than I should have, but oh well.

After that, it's a tie between Mo Dao Zu Shi and Scum Villain. I don't want to favor one over the other, because I genuinely like them the same. Scum Villain is really underrated, and while I understand it somewhat, it's really unfair.

MDZS (and The Untamed) has a story that draws you to it, especially if you (like me) have an obsession with all things dark and spooky and terrifying like the demonic cultivation in this, like the whole mystery they have to solve with body parts leading them to the solution. The drama, as good as it was, really didn't do justice to the spook factor of using dismembered parts of a corpse to move around.

SVSSS is straight up weird, literally an isekai but make it Chinese. I think the best part of it is Shen Yuan panicking and cussing everyone out every time something happens around him, though... I really loved the story and the way it played out. I especially liked how the novel kept mentioning Proud Immortal Demon Way and compared the events of that book to the events that were happening in that book's world.

But why do I prefer Word of Honor to them? Well, it's simple. There's some aspects of the romance that don't resonate well with me.

WangXian is a beautiful couple, and they deserve all the happiness in the world (they have a canonic son!!!!!!!!), but Wei WuXian's initial obliviousness made me really uncomfortable at times. Not because he didn't know Lan WangJi was in love with him (the fool! thank goodness for Guanyin Temple), but because he kept teasing Lan WangJi about it while the latter was drunk. I mean, I get it. If you don't know, you don't realize what you're doing. But as a person that easily suffers from people making fun of me behind my back... it kinds struck a nerve. I still love them to pieces, though, they're so good together.

BingQiu, well... this is a rollercoaster of a couple. Again, I absolutely love them together, but some parts come off almost as scenes where consent is thrown to the wind. As a reader you know Shen QingQiu is willing and in love (gods, they married each other, I'd be a fool to say the opposite), but there should be a limit to how many times a willing person should say "No" in such a novel. This is mostly me being my aro/ace self, though. I don't really understand what goes on in the world of intimacy between people because I (literally) don't give a fuck, so I'm probably reading too much where there's too little. Don't take this as me not liking BingQiu, I'm in love with them and I desperately need more content.

Favorite plot twists, eh? Okay, big SPOILER ALERT from here onwards. And I mean it. BIG. SPOILER. ALERT.

Now, which main couple did I like the most?

Hualian. I don't even need to think about it. Bonus point because they're both out of their minds and the extras show it.

I said it before, and I'll say it again. I never have smiles so big and goofy in front of anything else, not even my own stuff. Hualian genuinely makes me happy.

Stop reading if you haven't finished all four of these, please.

...

Okay, here I go.

WoH:

Wen KeXing faking his death and telling basically everyone but Zhou ZiShu.

The villain being Zhao Jing; I was actually fooled and thought the main bastard of the series was Gao Chong.

Episode 35, and I'm not saying anything else. Although, as soon as that son of a bitch put his hands on Cao Weining's face like that, I genuinely knew what was going to happen.

The hairpin being the key for the armory. That was so stunning I had to pause the episode for a second and take a walk around the house.

MDZS:

Jin GuangYao being the villain. And being an amazing villain, on top of that.

Nie Huaisang. Fuck's sake, that man fooled the entire fandom just like that. I don't think many people realized he was the one behind everything.

The golden core transplant reveal. I'm sure that more experienced readers and viewers (aka people that had read/watched a ton more cultivation world stuff) had hints of it, but when I watched The Untamed I never read/watched anything remotely close to this genre. It hit me like a brick and I sat in front of the screen in shock.

SVSSS:

Shang QingHua being Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky. It's such a silly thing, but it made me pause for a good five minutes. I wasn't expecting it in the slightest.

The whole thing with the Old Palace Master. The man belongs to the dumpster he never got thrown into.

Tianlang-Jun not actually being the villain. Poor demon, he just wanted to continue with the questionable hobby of reading porn and daydreaming about Shen QingQiu's relationships.

I think I had another one, but it's late and I'm probably forgetting it.

TGCF:

Oh boy, where do I belong? Ah yes, the entirety of book 4. Took me out on the spot.

Jun Wu being Bai WuXiang completely blew me away. That was probably the biggest plot twist in the history of plot twists.

Also, Ling Wen knowing, and her being the creator of the Brocade Immortal.

Fu Yao and Nan Feng being Feng Xin and Mu Qing. For some reason, even if it's kinda obvious when you take a good look at them, it never clicked before being revealed.

On the same note, Ming Yi being He Xuan, and the Earth Master being actually dead. What a ride that arc has been for me.

One of the most important details, however... I got it myself. The ring Hua Cheng gives to Xie Lian. I see so many people saying that they didn't expect the ring to be his ashes, but I did something I generally can't stop myself from doing. I guessed something tremendously important by accident, something I do with many many books so I can ruin the experience for myself. I was literally sitting down, taking a break from reading (I devoured TGCF in 3 days, I needed that break lol), and all of a sudden this goddamn revelation descend upon me like the holy spirit, completely out of the blue. I just sat up, looked at the screen, and went "the ring is is fucking ashes, isn't it?", and completely ruined the surprise for myself.

And this is it.

If there's more I forgot (probably) I don't know. For now, this is my answer. Way too long, as always.