#and they have a super awkward time with lwj

[icyolive]

Fairy tale-ish AU where the Cloud Recesses arc still happens, but LWJ is widely known to be suffering some kind of stone heart curse that prevents him from Feelings. The Lan have tried everything, but their precious second jade cannot be thawed. They can't even identify the curse. It's tragic. And very Lan. He's probably acquired some ridiculous honorific about it because *slaps LWJ* you can fit so many titles in this bad boy.

Then WWX shows up, runs into LWJ, and like... this guy... is hilarious?

Like, WWX is immediately Fascinated by this guy that everyone keeps saying is a tragically frigid perfect upright Lan. Because the guy is clearly full of quiet simmering rage (okay mostly just annoyance) and deeply, deeply bitchy. He's fun to provoke. He gets all of WWX's literary puns. He's got this hilarious deadpan humor that... like... how is no one else seeing this?

Novel WWX was hooked pretty early, but with the mystery of this curse that no one can explain, WWX fixates hard and picks up on a lot of what he otherwise would've missed.

He tries a million different curse breaking techniques. Works on it in class and has less time to bother LQR with shenanigans. Drags LWJ to the library to research, instead of being dragged there to copy lines.

He talks to LWJ instead of provoking him (he still provokes him). Notices LWJ is sad. awkward. speaks like his friends are all books. Gives him the benefit of the doubt, at first, because the poor guy's cursed.

WWX asks what kind of curse it is: no one knows. They can't even find a curse mark. No purification ritual has ever worked.

What do they think it is? For a long while, it was thought to be a curse from his mother, and that she hadn't wanted to deal with such a fussy child. When did they tell him that? Around the time when he was taken from her, just after uncle told him that his crying was unacceptably disruptive. Being disruptive meant he would miss his monthly visit. (LWJ has no idea why this is all spilling out of him. He says it all with what he thinks is a blank face, so it's not like he's making a scene. WWX hears the bitter humor in his phrasing, the sadness in his thousands-yard stare. He shares what he can remember about his own parents.)

The current theory is a love curse; they've been introducing him to eligible young women for the last few years, to see if they could break it. (Because he's Paying Attention and LWJ's face does a Thing, WWX adds super gay to his mental list of LWJ's attributes.)

"Lan Zhan... u know ur not cursed right."

Turns out, and no one's surprised here (somehow everyone but WWX is surprised here) this so-called curse is just the cumulative effect of the Lan repeatedly traumatizing and isolating this kid in various ways more or less since birth.

Maybe it's a complete surprise. Maybe LWJ had some inkling. Maybe he knew, but couldn't find the words to explain to anyone. Maybe he's like "yeah no shit but it made them leave me alone."

So yeah I've been having a lot of Feelings about how WWX is just utterly delighted by LWJ. Not despite his personality, not trying to fix him--he's just a dork who's head over heels for his gorgeous bitchy husband who talks like a book.

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

~*~

1. Itmf the warmest, comfiest wangxian fics that feel like snuggling up next to the fire with a blanket and a cup of cocoa/tea. @vi-sky

🧡 paint smears on sunny days by SnowshadowAO3 (E, 53k, WangXian, Comfort, Fluff and Smut, Everyone Is Alive, Modern AU, Dadji, Mutual Pining, Happy Ending, Brief Alcohol Mention, Masturbation, Blow Jobs, Hand Jobs, Accidentally co-parenting with your son's art teacher, Fatherhood)

The Art of Communication by mrcformoso (G, 4k, WangXian, Modern AU, College/University, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Meet-Cute, Engineering Student WWX, Music Student LWJ, Swimmer WWX, Martial Artist LWJ, POV Outsider, POV WWX, POV LWJ, Everything is Beautiful and Nothing Hurts, Communication Issues, But Wanxian Makes it Work, LWJ has limited words, WWX has too many words, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Love Confessions, Love Languages, Requited Love)

box your errors by mellowflicker (T, 42k, WangXian, Modern AU, single dad lwj,   Domestic Fluff, Family Issues, Slow Burn, Kid Fic, let lwj have friends agenda, Hurt/Comfort, Pining)

Worship you till morning comes by feyburner (E, 6k, WangXian, Modern AU, Meet-Cute, First Dates, First Time, Fluff, Kissing, Hand Jobs, Falling In Love)

I know what my heart wants  by yakuso5u (Not Rated, 28k, WangXian, Modern AU, Single Father LWJ,   Fluff, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Accidental Child Acquisition, Domestic, Slice of Life, Christmas references)

Many happy returns. by orange_crushed (E, 25k, WangXian, Modern AU, Mistaken Identity, Misunderstandings, Grief/Mourning, Loss of Parent(s), Implied/Referenced Suicide, Past Suicide of a Parent, References to Depression, Anxiety, Therapy, References to Anti-Depressant Medications, Escort Service, Loneliness, Everybody’s Abandonment Issues, Angst and Fluff and Smut, Angst with a Happy Ending, Domestic Fluff, Moving In Together, Oral Sex, Penetrative Sex, Hopeful Ending, Recovery, References to Escorting/Sex Work but No Actual Escorting/Sex Work)

can you feel it by lanzhancore (E, 5k, WangXian, Modern AU, Awkward Sexual Situations, Established Relationship, Hospitals, Slice of Life, Fluff and Humor, Idiot Lovers, Crack Treated Seriously)

I'll buy you the moon (I'll buy you two) by Thesaurus_with_no_words (E, 27k, WangXian, Science Fiction, Space, Rebels, Space Opera, On the Run, Promoted To Parent, Robots, Androids, Mechs, Battle Mechs, Hurt/Comfort, Technopathy, Willful and Deliberate Baby and Wife Acquisition, Porn With Plot, Mpreg)

~*~

2. Itmf wangxian fics where a) sizhui saves WWX b) best big brother nie mingjue and c) the lans take in WWX and are super supportive (similar to Where is home? and Stunted, Starving Juvenility)

2A)

Would You Come Home? by s6115 (Not Rated, 46k, WangXian, Family Feels, good uncle JC, Canon Divergence, Junior Quartet Dynamics, Junior Quartet, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It)

~*~

3. hello! i would like to know if there are new wangxian mpreg fics especially pregnant wwx, please!

The Legend of Moonflower by JJSIN2020 (E, 94k, wangxian, 3zun, A/B/O, Emperor LWJ, LWJ FUCKS, he has a whole harem of male omegas so of course he does, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, Beta LXC, Omega JC, Omega XY, Omega XXC, omega SS, Omega OYZZ, Beta NHS, Mpreg, Wolves, Angst with a Happy Ending, Imperial China, Character Death, Fighting, Blood, WIP)

My Heart is a Cavern of Longing, Please come home? by LadyVamp (E, 50k, wangxian, rape/non-con, graphic depictions of violence, A/B/O, Non-Traditional A/B/O Dynamics, Omega WWX, Alpha LWJ, Bitch WWX, Forced Marriage, Accidental Baby Acquisition, YLLZ WWX, Oblivious WWX, wangxian Get a Happy Ending, Forced Bonding, Forced Pregnancy, Depressed WWX, Sex In A Cave, Uncontrolled heats, JZX Lives, Arranged Marriage, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Pining, LSZ is a Ray of Sunshine, Child LJY, LJY is WangXian's son, alpha to omega, Unplanned Pregnancy, Pregnant WWX, Mpreg)

The best kept secrets (taste the sweetest) by h0peless_oblivion (T, 13k, wangxian, A/B/O, Canon Divergence, Mpreg, Unplanned Pregnancy, Getting Together, Mutual Pining, Misunderstandings, Child LSZ, Alpha LWJ, Omega WWX, Fluff, Angst, It's angsty for like 5 minutes then it's happy endings from here on out I swear, Secret Baby, Past pining while fucking, Happy Ending, WWX doesn’t lose his golden core, ossible SA (not between wangxian), Madam Lán Backstory, Good Uncle LQR, WIP)

there is a lantern shining dark (upon this winter's day) by AnnaAphrodite (T, 21k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, LSZ & LWJ, LWJ & OFCs, major character death, Not Everyone Dies AU, Mpreg, A/B/O, Omega LWJ, Alpha WWX, Omega WQ, Beta WN, Pregnant LWJ, Implied Bottom LWJ, Supportive LQR, Supportive LXC, Good Uncle LQR, Good Older Sibling LXC, Good Uncle LXC, LWJ & NHS Friendship, LWJ & WQ Friendship, Thirteen Years of WWX's Death, Bitching, Minor arranged marriage between LXC and a female oc, LXC does have a slightly morally grey moment, but he means well)

~*~

4. ITMF canon era fics where wwx is:

A) Artist

B) musician

C) dancer @constellationdks

I'm here for recently ITMF post #4: thnx for all the suggestions but they are not what I'm looking for. In my post I said Canon era, all the fics suggested are modern.

4A)

🔒 Away from Trouble by Ilona22 (M, 15k, WangXian, Not Jiang Family Friendly, WangXian gets a happy ending)

A Life Without Regrets by naqaashi (M, 74k, WIP, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Crack Treated Seriously, musical cultivation, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Murder Husbands, Happy Ending, PTSD, BAMF WWX, Cultivation Sect Politics, Worldbuilding, Módào Zǔshī & The Untamed Combination, No Yīn Iron, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Artist WWX, Musician WWX, Bad Parent JFM, Bad Parent YZY, Cultivation Theory, Sentient Burial Mounds, Dysfunctional Family, Grief/Mourning, Parent-Child Relationship, Angry WWX, Angst, No Golden Core Transfer, BAMF LWJ, Idiots in Love)

obscura: ink stain by AvoOwO (M, 20k, wangxian, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Canon Divergence, Emotions, Heavy Angst, Painting, Temporary Amnesia, Drugs, Drug Use, Non-Consensual Drug Use, Date Rape Drug/Roofies, Drink Spiking, Victim Blaming, LWJ Has Feelings, LWJ Has a Crush, Soft wangxian, Holding Hands, Blood and Violence, Good Sibling JC, Protective JC, WWX is a Mess, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Politics, Protective LXC, Good Sibling LXC, Good Uncle LQR, LQR Tries, OCs, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, WWX Needs a Hug, someone gets punched a lot, LWJ contemplates murder for a moment, JC almost gets it done, not quite about romance, as much as romance elements there, more so about the small things, LWJ loves how WWX smells, some nasty things are said, WWX def needs a nap, he gets one dw, LQR Gets Shit Done, NHS Is A Little Shit, Scheming NHS)

( 不忘 | Don’t Forget by dragongirlG (E, 50k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Reincarnation, Fix-It of Sorts, Identity Porn, Social Media, Devotion, Reunions, Feelings, Family, Angst with a Happy Ending, Light Bondage, Names, References to Canon, Modern Era, Artist WWX, Sexual Content, Pining, POV Multiple, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note) is a canon/modern time travel fic with artist!wwx. )

the best of you by sysrae (E, 41k, WangXian, XuanLi, Modern AU, College/University, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, slightly undernegotiated kink, but in a very soft and consensual way, Nightmares, Panic Attacks, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, JFM and Mdm yu's A+ parenting, Dysfunctional Family, Mental Health Issues, Reference to animal attacks/animal cruelty, descriptions of past violence)

For a Good Time, Call by ScarlettStorm (E, 170k, WangXian, Modern AU, Getting Together, Pining, Porn, like in the writing and also as a plot point, onlyfans au, repressed LWJ, sex worker WWX, Minor Angst, major shenanigans, Background ChengQing, background NieLan, background XuanLi, Nonbinary NHS) photographer and sex worker

To See You (Again) by FrameofMind, Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle) (E, 84k, WangXian, Modern AU, London, No Magic AU, lan zhan FUCKS, But Like Bottomji Fucks, Friends to Lovers, Self-Discovery, Pining, Grindr, Light Bondage, mild D/s themes, Experienced LWJ, Less Experienced WWX, straight boy wwx)

adoration by Lunarieen (T, 12k, WangXian, Modern AU, Artist/Model AU, Childhood Friends, Sensuality, Hurt/Comfort, Reconciliation, Art as Love Language, Character Study, Friends to Lovers, Gender Exploration, a little bit of dissociation)

4B)

Across the street to another life by danegen (M, 99k, WangXian, Modern AU, unleashed au, Family Fluff, Set in America, Hurt/Comfort, Past Child Abuse, Addiction, Crime, Amnesia, Ableist Language, another fridged mother, POV Alternating, past wwx/ofc, past wwx/omc, Medium parent YZY, A-Yuan is wwx's biological son, Musicians, Happy Ending)

When the Lights Come Up by brooklinegirl (E, 50k, WangXian, background 3Zun, Notting Hill AU, Modern AU, famous WWX/non famous LWJ, Break ups and make ups, Musician WWX, bookseller LWJ)

4C)

A Flower in Bloom (or Wei Wuxian Crashes a Party) by UmbrellaMartialGod (E, 30k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Crossdressing, Humor, Fluff and Smut, Established Relationship, Festivals, Dancer WWX, Insecurity, Blow Jobs, Anal Sex, Porn with Feelings, mild possessive behavior)

The Darkness Before Dawn by PsycheStellata707 (M, 113k, wangxian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, BAMF WWX, Attempt at Humor, PTSD, Oblivious WWX, WWX-centric, Blind WWX, Sentient Burial Mounds, Everyone Lives AU, Except Those Who Deserves to Die, Oblivious Pining, Not Canon Compliant, WIP)

4c dancer wwx fic: canon era wwx is raised by a group of traveling performers. I believe he was a fan dancer and possibly a musician as well

notes on a scene by wishingswell (M, 27k, WangXian, Modern AU, Ballet, Fluff)

space, skin, muscle, bone by tombenough_and_continent (T, 23k, WangXian, Modern AU, Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake, Non-Linear Narrative, Dance, Background SongXiao, background NieLan, a surprising amount of texting, gratuitous use of ballet terminology)

Falling to the Rhythm by Selenay (E, 128k, WangXian, Modern: No Powers, Dance, Strictly Come Dancing Fusion, Ballroom Dancing, Dancer!WWX, Violinist LWJ, Pining While Dancing, Oblivious WWX, Gratuitous Costume Descriptions, Gratuitous dancing descriptions, Slow Burn, [Podfic] Falling to the Rhythm by semperfiona_podfic (semperfiona))

Unstrictly Ballroom by Ariaste (T, 47k, WangXian, SongXiao, Modern AU, Everyone's alive, the gang defeats systemic heteronormativity, Stripper AU, competitive ballroom dance AU, really stupid misunderstandings, Yearning, Mutual Pining, the wrist grab, lwj makes a friend (who isn't wwx!), modern au but it's still set in Fantasy China (Gusu/Yiling/Lanling) rather than Real China, LWJ's pov, Erotic Handholding)

~*~

5. Heyy ! I am in the mood for a fic where lan zhan is a therapist ! (wether wx is his patient or not isn’t relevant ) thank youuuu @sebyyw

Deep Dive by MimiSpearmint (E, 24k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Modern AU, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Feels, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng are Bad at Communicating, LWJ is a Panicked Gay, Therapy, Fluff and Humor, Getting Together, Angst with a Happy Ending, Career Ending Injuries, counsellor!lwj, background NieLan, Melbourne, Eventual Smut, Crack, Baby JL, domestic abuse is discussed but does not happen, Baby LSZ, Baby LJY, Anal Sex, Blow Jobs, Good Sex Practices, Implied Slight D/s, WangXian Have a Breeding Kink, Cameos by various minor characters)

~*~

6. hi! i would like to know if you know any fics where

A) someone goes off about how demonic cultivation is dangerous/immoral etc and gets their argument refuted

B) wwx teaching other people demonic cultivation

C) kind of an overlap between the two above, but any fic where wwx considers demonic cultivation worth pursuing even after the book's end/has some pride towards his accomplishments of creating it @chellsky

6A)

Cradle by Dragonesque (T, 196k, WIP, Canon Divergenc, Adopted children, Yiling Wei Sect, BAMF WWX) For #6 a & b, forgetting the name but it's super long ao3 qiongqi path au, for want of a nail, Jin zixuan lives and wwx gets hurt. Accidental yilingwei sect. Wwx gives a bunch of wen's the wei surname, it was inspired by a 2ch incomplete fic. Anyone know what I'm talking about? / I think 6A OP is talking about is Cradle by Dragonesque on AO3?

6B)

no one ever said the single-plank bridge had to be walked alone by rosemu (T, 124k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, Yílíng Wèi Sect au, Fix-It, Not Everyone Dies, LWJ Stays at the Burial Mounds, Fluff, Angst, Domestic Fluff, Canon-Typical Violence, Found Family, Slow Burn, LWJ and WWX get to be Dads together, the healing power of homoerotic flute/guqin duets, Happy Ending) WWX takes on MXY & XY as disciples

Death of a Ghost by Gotcocomilk (E, 107k, WangXian, WWX & JL, Canon Divergence, Ghost WWX, Hurt/comfort, Family bonding, Fluff, Angst) if I remember correctly, has ghost!WWX teaching mxy demonic cultivation

~*~

7. I’m in the mood to read a great many things, but I’d really appreciate it if you could do a rec list of fics where wwx gets to flex being a talisman master/a badass with talismans(knowingly or not) or an updated list for Immortal Lan Wanji x either reincarnated wwx or also immortal wwx. I feel like generally the first just isn’t tagged and that I’ve already read all the good ones under the other.

Btw, I’m not asking for both unless you want to compile both. Just whichever list sounds more fun to make/ find fics for.

Help expanding my library would be very much appreciated.🙏 @omgnectarina

~*~

8. If you do find this fic, would you also recommend something in this similar theme? LWJ doing things for family and not being happy and LQR finds out and regrets his actions? @lailan-rosie (last part from a FF)

Tempo Rubato by Spodumene (E, 107k, WangXian, Modern AU, Angst with a Happy Ending, Romance, Persuasion au, Separations, Mutual Pining, Depression, Miscommunication, Emotional Roller Coaster, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, Reconciliation, Eventual Smut, Jane Austen Fusion, Underage Kissing)

~*~

9. Hiiiiiiiiii, How are you guys?

Im in the mood for a modern au fic where lwj and wwx are in a committed relationship but break up due to wwx over-committment to the wens or jiangs. It can be because they dont get to spend enough time together or its taking a toll on wwx and they fight about it. Whatever it is - i want wwx to be the one who realises things and has to make amends. Happy endings ofcourse.

I have seen many fics along this plot line BUT lwj is always the one apologizing and putting in the extra effort to be accommodating. It might just be me but i dont think thats fair. So pleeeeeeease recommend some fics where wwx puts in the work to fix things

KILF (Knits I'd Like To Fuck in) by ScarlettStorm (E, 168k, wangxian, modern, sex work, fiber arts, 2nd in series) is a long fic but it has a fight at the end of chapter 17 which is related to WWX being overcommitted (partly to JWY, I guess), and he has to be the one to try and make that right. They don’t break up, but it is a significant fight.

~*~

10. Hey! I’ve never really done one of these but figured I might as well give it a shot. I recall in one of your posts you recommended Stunted, Starving Juvenility. Long story short, I took it and ran away with it. Now I’m pleading for any similar Fics like Stunted Starving Juvenility (Preferably no slow burns unless it’s really good) @neverforgetyou-1

Silenced With A Kiss by NinjaKK (E, 120k, WIP, WangXian, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Flirting, Teen Romance, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Soft WangXian, WWX in WWX’s Body, Secret Relationship, Falling In Love, First Kiss, First Dates, Inventor WWX, Genius WWX, Canon Divergence, Protective LWJ, Protective WWX, Ripple Effect, First Time, Fluff and Smut, Optional Smut, Supportive LWJ, BAMF WWX, Inappropriate Use of Gūsū Lán Forehead Ribbon, Has an Angry LWJ Kink)

~*~

11. heyyy sorry for bothering you guys. itmf for more fics like Concord by deastar (currently in the angsty mood, specifically wwx feeling sad) thank you for your hard work! @aquiver-heart

~*~

12. In the mood for fics where either lwj/ wwx is something akin to butler in A) canon era/ canonverse B) modern or 19XXs or future ✨

~*~

13. Hi! Any fanfic about junior shenanigans saw how scary wwx is? (Especially when they saw the Yiling Laozu Era)

Thank you so much! @just-for-browsing-stuffs

~*~

14. Itmf fics where person X is " as long as I'm here, no one can hurt you... " To person Y

A) X= lwj and Y= wwx

B) X= wwx and Y= jc and/or jyl

C) X is anyone, Y is wwx

Haha sorry for this format of asking, but I can't help it, I've been doing maths for hours now...

~*~

15. Hello! For the next itmf I was looking for a fic where NHS asks WWX for help with NMJ’s saber cultivation problem and WWX manages to save him and prevent him from dying. Ideally with 3zun too but it’s fine if not. Thanks!

The Core Issue by Hauntcats (T, 21k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Not JC Friendly, Canon Divergence) It's WWX going to NHS asking for help, but otherwise fits the request

~*~

16. First part added to a Finder post ~Mod L // Also I would like more fics where wwx has a tiger/lion, i don't mind it being modern

~*~

17. I want to read Wangxian future series watching fanfiction. Can someone suggest me few fanfiction in these genre @abz18699-blog

Characters watching/reading their series fic comp

Reaction_fanfics collection Try Oracle of Pearl . It's Future Viewing series of Wangxian.

Wangxian: Oracle pearl by Abby18699 (G, 183k, WIP, Wang Xian, ChengQing, NieLan, XuanLi, Sunshot Campaign, Golden Core Reveal, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Future, Time Travel Fix-It, Temporary Character Death, Güsü Lán Juniors Dynamics, JC Needs a Hug, Characters React to Fandom, Canon Divergence, Post-Canon, Pining LWJ, Soft LWJ, LWJ Needs a Hug, Inventor WWX, Chief Cultivator LWJ, Oblivious WWX, Characters watching future, Implied Mpreg)

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[vrishchikawrites]

Wangxian couldn’t happen before WWX’s reincarnation into MXY though. He didn’t love LWJ back then and had WWX found out about his feelings, it would have just made the situation super awkward. They would’ve probably just avoided each other until the Nightless City battle. Besides, MXTX tagged her novel unrequited crush while writing it, so there’s that. I think Wangxian was not intended to happen earlier than it did

No it wasn't intended to happen earlier but people don't seem to understand why that actually is. Love doesn't pop out of thin air without effort and nurturing. That's just attraction. WWX was intensely attracted to LWJ, he was from the very first time they met. It took a mere two months of LWJ showing his care for WWX to fully dive in.

If LWJ put the same effort back then, WWX would've fallen just as easily. WWX wasn't indifferent, he was merely not in a space to think about love. And while LWJ was smitten, he wasn't in the right mindspace to commit to love.

If WWX didn't have this intense connection and draw to LWJ, the post-ressurection storyline would be much much different. There's a formula there, preexisting connection and compatibility plus active care and concern equals full-fledged love.

And it could've happened even as far back as CR because the baseline was always there. But the time wasn't right for them. Timing also matters. With MDZS, love became a reward and that's what it was supposed to be. This is MXTX saying love needs time, space, freedom, and nurturing to flourish.

[northisnotup]

OKAY so i have a modern mdzs idea based on a twitter thread and two Devon Cole songs that I'll never write, bc idk if this is the set up or the fic or what but my life is a garbage fire 🔥👍😊

Where wwx's whole 'lost everything' thing was him getting carbon monoxide poisoning/having a gas leak in his apartment and thus having a year where he loses time, acts super erratic, loses friends/family/scholarship or job, is accused of multiple things including drug use, and eventually has to move in with the Wens!

I just think equating the whole yin iron/resentment poisoning thing with an actual irl thing thats similar would be really interesting!

Cause yeah those are choices he made that he now has to live with - But they're choices he made under the influence so how much can really be attested to him?

And he went against the housing corp (Jins of course) and lost! (lxc could never believe jgy would allow that to happen) (he can and would!)

Wwx: okay i didn't - 'break up' with my boyfriend.

Wn: oh?

Wq: thats not what I heard.

Wwx: no what happened was i walked out of what was, unbeknownst to me, supposed to be our engagement party because i was high, again - unbeknownst to me, and i yelled 'i just wish your family would call me a gold digging whore to my face!' Which was. Bad. So i walked out. With like. No phone, wallet, or anything and got on a train where i didn't know where it was going. Then i ran into A-Ning being mugged and couldn't just leave him!

Wn: thank you!

Wwx: its fine! Its good! So then you guys took me home...and to the hospital. And by the time I was okay to leave and I could phone home it seemed to awkward - like ....yeah. So i didn't leave him. I just! Left!

Wq: thats worse. You see how thats worse, right?

(Meanwhile the Jin took over the Wen housing division in a take over spearheaded by jgy - Wen Qing found...a lot black mold and immediately moved herself and wen ning 4 hours away where its much cheaper to live. It was a hard adjustment but worth it. She has no idea how wwx found them and he does not remember the trip.)

And like - listen - i'm not SAYING lwj was rushing things to try and get wwx to move in, but he might have been rushing things! 'Come to Gusu' is not DISSIMILAR to 'marry me.'

[llycaons]

ep25 (pt 1): the superior PM blindfolding and wx scene

picking up directly where we left off last episode, wwx and jyl coming back in from harvesting lotus, wwx teasing the kids all the way. it's cute! and jyl is sooo pretty

jzx shows up so she changed, I guess. her clothes were wet anyway

jzx is such a dork in this episode. yeah. he's obnoxious and arrogant to her later, but when his awkward immaturity slips out from his veneer of smug superiority, it's quite endearing.

I do NOT know what jyl sees in him before this but maybe she was just excited to get married and be loved by someone? but in this episode she was going to dump him if he didn't change how he treated her which is the only way I got invested in their relationship. he had to work for it and prove himself and be genuine and selfless and kind!! and he did!! rip

this is so funny I love him

wwx is so good at deflecting, I feel like most fics don't do it as naturally or skilfully as canon did. teasing, confident, bordering on condescending. he has such a strong personality and it sucks to see him reduced to 'traumatized and clingy crier'. he is all three of those things too, and postcanon he is a bit chiller but he's still HIMSELF. bold and clever and sarcastic and unwilling to grovel before authority

this is SUCH a jyl and wwx episode. they're so silly together, he's making her laugh and she's hiding her smile behind her fan. this reminds me of the goofy things my little brother would do 🥺 he's not dead or anything I just haven't seen him in months

the wens getting paraded out really changed the tone of the scene. EVERYONE was taken aback, everyone looked shocked or nervous. wwx is the most visibly angry, and it's only bc of jc's frantic motions to 'DON'T DO ANYTHING' that he steps back. honestly I get jc's fears here, but...sign. tho none of the other sect leaders did anything either, looking at you lan 'fair judgement' xichen and nie 'justice' mingjue. lwj is also curiously subdued this episode - lxc says later he's distracted but he's even less expressive than usual

everyone handing him stuff cracks me up. he doesn't even need to LOOK. and his bow and arrows matchy with his robes and the tents and the tower itself WOW this world is so color-coordinated

ohhh super impressive! I wonder how anyone can beat a perfect bullseye?

this request kind of baffled me, bc his forehead ribbon is far too narrow to use as a blindfold. maybe he wanted it as a good-luck charm? the cut to jc looking angry was kind of funny though. how dare wwx be so shamelessly gay in public etc.

we never see these unwrapped iirc 👀

and of course they have matching bows for the yunmeng aesthetic

HELL YEAH. SEXIEST MOMENT OF THE EPISODE

aww even jc clapping for him. this expression is like one of the nicest he ever gets

and he's smiling to his sister!!! his face is honestly a little sexy for that but that's what he's doing

DUDE DUDE THIS SCENE!!!! wwx all alone, then seeing lwj, then remembering lxc's warning and looking away, then lwj seeing him and LEAVING THE PATH TO COME JOIN HIM ANYWAY??!! yet another of the tiny re-enactments of their relationship over the course of the show. and wwx's eyes get so big when lwj comes to him, he's clearly so touched that lwj isn't abandoning him even if he can't tell him the truth.

fuck I love the post-ss arc SO much this is like catnip to me the relationships and the drama and the tragedies are all so delicious

eh, I'll always favor 'soulmate' even if it it's technically correct. honestly 'confidante' would work better here too. anywa THIS IS IT!!!! I STILL AM!!! so earnest, so full of love, so ready to help, so scared for him. ough, the romance. the tragedy!

wwx looks at chenqing for such a long time after lwj says that...lwj wants to know what's going on and how he can help but wwx is so paranoid and traumatized and afraid that he just can't say it 😭

and this scene, where they're just looking at each other for a long time...the tension in this scene was INTENSE. if it had gone on a little longer, who knows what would have happened.

[heavymetalchemist]

I agree w/ some points u made in ur meta abt jiang cheng, but wwx wasnt just a sworn brother. they literally grew up side by side and yet he was wilfully blind to wwx's nature that should have made jc trust him: wwx's goodness, his tenacity, his selflessness. jc knew him and yet in his grief and anger and haste to blame someone he pours it all on his brother who, as selfless and self-loathing as he is, accepts all the blame. It's not abt the lie, but that jc chose to believe the lie.

I’m guessing this is in response to this post and to clarify, Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian ARE brothers, and I didn’t mean to diminish that by comparing the blind trust to Lan Xichen and the Venerated Triad.

However, here’s the thing, like, what lie are we talking about? Because the lie I’m referring to in that post is multifaceted:

Your golden core has been restored by Baoshan Sanren

I’m totally fine

I can absolutely control all this resentful energy and this new cultivation method isn’t hurting me at all

I don’t carry my sword any more because I don’t feel like it, even though it is very publicly rude of me not to

You cannot rely on me to help you run the sect because I am off in a tavern drinking all day, stumbling home drunk, but again, I’m totally fine and have nothing to discuss with you about my mental state at all, I swear I am just a fun-loving guy!

I have said before on my blog that I don’t like good person/bad person dichotomy, for a number of reasons, but primarily because it implies a static state of being and causes a willful blindness to harm people cause. People are complex, and while I do think intent matters, it’s not magic. Wei Wuxian gives up his golden core for Jiang Cheng, with all the good intentions in the world, but he does this without consulting Jiang Cheng, lying to him about it, drugging him to perform experimental surgery, dealing with the trauma of three months in the burial mounds and not having a core alone and absolutely refusing and rebuffing every overture Jiang Cheng makes trying to figure out what’s wrong with him, causing a lot of political problems with his behavior that Jiang Cheng then has to smooth over (and the Jiang sect is in a very fragile place, politically), then busting into a prison camp and killing ALL the guards with a fierce corpse and running off to the burial mounds with the last of the Wen cultivators.

And even with all of this, Jiang Cheng still defends and cares about him, they have that entire staged fight after Wei Wuxian insists on leaving the Jiang sect, which to Jiang Cheng is a betrayal of his promise to be with him in leading the sect, but Wei Wuxian does not tell Jiang Cheng about the whole surgery thing so he really doesn’t have a clue about how much Wen Qing and Wen Ning did for him (although, of course, if he had known about it he would never have let them do it, I’m sure).

From Jiang Cheng’s perspective, how is he supposed to trust in this goodness and selflessness? WWX is throwing the Jiang sect under the bus. WWX is not helping rebuild the sect, he’s drinking all day. (Of course he’s traumatized, they’re ALL traumatized, but he’s not talking about it so how can JC help?) WWX murders a bunch of Jin sect cultivators, running off with a bunch of prisoners of war, from the sect that attempted a full-scale genocide of the Jiang sect. (And to be clear I do not condemn this action and think that Blood Feuds Are Bad, however, in context this is a world where blood feuds are a very real thing. Personally I like the AU where they get Nie Mingjue on their side, as the Nie sect actually has a lot of power that the Jiang sect simply doesn’t, and therefore they can protect the Wen remnants that way. But I digress.)

Not to mention, WWX is using demonic cultivation, corpses are running around, he’s thrumming with resentful energy. Not a good look.

And then Jin Zixuan gets his heart punched out. In CQL there’s a second flautist, but in the book he simply loses control (the control he SWORE he had) and even in CQL it’s not like we find out about the second flautist until the end. How is JC supposed to trust in WWX’s goodness when he’s just murdered his brother-in-law? When he’s abandoned his family and sect for the people that murdered them? (YES I know the Dafan Wens weren’t involved in actively killing people but this is the whole blood-feud-thing, audience knowledge is not character knowledge, etc.)

And then at Nightless City, WWX loses control AGAIN (or at least appears to), three thousand people get murdered, Yanli dies, and JC STILL can’t actually stab him. JC was DESPERATE for any sort of explanation or reason of why this was all happening, but over and over WWX said it was fine, and the real takeaway for JC by the time Nightless City rolls around is - this man is not the boy I grew up with, this man is no longer my brother, my brother would NEVER do this would NEVER hurt Yanli, so it can’t be him any more.

It’s not unlike knowing someone who becomes addicted to drugs. Someone you knew and loved becomes an alcoholic and their whole life goes up in flames and then they’re drunk driving and then they kill someone doing it, and how long are you supposed to sit there while they destroy themselves, telling yourself that you know they’re a good person on the inside?

Now all that said, on the OTHER hand, if you’re talking about the lies that the other sect leaders were spouting, about how WWX was speaking against JC, about how he doesn’t respect him, etc?  You are SO right and it pains me so much that JC didn’t have the ability to stand up to those assholes and say “He’s my brother, shut the fuck up” a la Yanli to Zixun at Phoenix Mountain. Even with all the crap going on in the background, it was obvious to the other (older!) sect leaders that WWX was very powerful and very close to JC and they deliberately tried to undermine the Jiang sect and I hate them. That plays into a lot of the trauma that JC personally has but yes, I think that’s one of the failings that haunts him - how could I have listened to their poisoned words at all?

[ladyqueth]

I’ve noticed that many some fanfics paint LWJ as having trouble with words.  An unfortunate result of translation/language issues (I think?).  LWJ often chooses silence over speech, and he’s terse - in English, that can come across as someone who’s shy / awkward / bad with words, etc.  But LWJ is actually incredibly literary and articulate!  Because LWJ’s Chinese is short not in the “can’t find words” way but in the “it takes more intelligence to say things in fewer words” way.

[There’s lots of good reading on linguistic register in Chinese and MDZS specifically (here’s two), but I was chatting with @spicychickenyang about this and figured I’d post in case anyone needed the reminder or missed the memos.]

I’m super-interested to see if/how perceptions change with the official translation.  From what I’ve seen, they sacrificed LWJ’s brevity to preserve his formality and erudition, which is absolutely the right choice for localization (as opposed to straight translation) imho.  There, look, I made this post timely.

[person-behind-books]

(kinda) svsss au!mdzs

wei ying 21century biomechanical engineer by day and fanfiction writer by night dies in a car crash and get’s transmigrated in his favourite/most-hated novel as wei wuxian or the yiling patriarch. monster that killed his favourite character (jzx) and the sister of the protagonist (jyl) before he (jc) had to purge the evil that took over his beloved brother out of the world only to see him rip himself apart with corpses in his madness.

he get’s transmigrated to the day jfm takes him of the streets. as in he is dead by car one second the next he’s attacked by dogs (who he’s been terrified of forever for no particular reason) before being taken in by bad dad of the week jfm. (lqr is good uncle in general, wrh is bad dad of the month and qhj is bad dad of the year, jgs is bad dad of the century)

because wwx is an adult he can see what it does to jc to have him suddenly there and because he’s a rational adult he can ignore/put aside his fear of dogs for three kinda adorable monsters so jc get’s to keep his puppies and is less clingy to jfm. instead he’s just kinda fascinated with this world he woke up. yzy hates him less because his presence didn’t cost her own son as much. and over time begins to like this wild, weirdly mature, stupidly loyal child. he’s like a lotus root, she likes to say, he tangles with you and doesn’t let go. even if this is dangerous. lotus roots if they don’t let go sometimes drown people.

wwx just enjoys his second childhood. his first had sucked. he had grown up in an orphanage for troubled kids until at 18 he was inevetably kicked out and just through pure luck and a bit of good timing and his smarts managed to get an internship at a small laboratory that he, through his earth shattering findings, catapulted into a multi-million dollar one.

he has a nice sister, a grumpy but loving protagonist brother, an aunt that kinda loves him, an uncle that could have been so much worse had he been the original terrible wwx, and an awesome home with cool powers.

when time comes for cr study arc he is super excited and as first desciple and ward of the jiang family of course is allowed to go.

that is where he meets lwj. he had read hundreds of descriptions of his beauty but it doesn’t hold up to the real thing. and he kinda reminds him of the weird, sad hermit he met once on an old mountain during a holiday who he spend multiple months with, so of course he spends a lot of his time trying to befriend him. he wouldn’t have planned to do so at first. in the book and in a lot of fanfictions he had been a standoffish asshole and the first to condem wwx whenever but that monster truly deserved it. there had also been a lot of great fics where he had been a background ship and even one outrageously out of character but also perfectly in character from his point of view with him in love with wwx and keeping that love burning for thousands of years before meeting his reincarnation and falling in love all over again. it had brought wwx to tears and he had re-read it a few times.

he also finally get’s a chance to meet his favourite character. jin zixuan. at first he hadn’t liked him. he had insulted the protagonists sister and always been standoffish but then there had been the peony arc. it had been soly from jzx’s point of view (the first time the author left jc’ pov) and went from his childhood to his friendship with lqy (mian mian) to his falling in love with jyl and his confession to the birth of their son: jin ling. it had been a heartbreaking mirror to jc’s story where jc was the unwanted son with a maybe bastard taking his place to jzx as the only loved child taking the lives from so many people with a horrible father he had to be loyal to, no real friends that would sell all his actions to his father (at least lqy told him she could forget to mention one or two things if he asked) and an unwanted betrothal pressed on him since birth and a social awkwardness and inability to interact with people to rival wwx’s need for attention.

it had been awesome. he had been a bith stuck up in the beginning but had soon enough surrendered to his attempts to make friends and his idea that maybe if he hades not knowing his finance he could maybe send her letters.

it had worked and by the time wwx would have punched him he just said that his fiance is nice and that they are good friends. 

he had stayed the whole year, learning with jc, having fun with nhs and jc and jzx, attempting to befriend lwj, and enjoying life.

before finally returning home to lp and finally seeing jyl again.

during the archery competition he doesn’t pull lwj’s head band of and the twin jades share the first place, wn (who he befriended on discussion conferences and mde more confident) lands on place two, jzx and jc land on place three, and he himself on place four (he was to preoccupied with lwj to truly give his all).

wrh is dispeased but wn is on second place and that is while not great for his sect it’s still a score so he hasn’t completely lost face. the indoctrination still happens because wc feels like he needs to reaffirm his position in his father’s court and lwj and jzx kill the xuanwu. wwx knows about jc getting help he had read every single agonising chapter about it but it still was to dangerous for the other parties to try safe them while it was still alive.

lotus pier still get’s attacked but wwx had been ready for it and they mostly survived. he still get’s kidnapped in the chaos and has his core melted by wzl and get’s thrown into the burial mounds during the chaos because things like him loosing his core or getting thrown into the burial mounds are inevitable.

in there the resentful energy whispers his memories back into him. he remembers crying and running away from dogs. he remembers clinging to a tree with only one shoe on. he remembers beautiful lan zhan screaming get lost after he showed him porn. remembers punching the peacock. remembers pulling the ribbon. rembmers jiang cheng’s core and the desperation to save those members of his family still left. remembers killing armies in a single day, corpses ravaging the battlefields. remembering pressed to a three lips on his - that part wasn’t mentioned in the book. remembers wen qing beautiful, proud wen qing on her knees begging him to safe her brother. remembers freeing the wen cultivators, the wen elders, the wen child, her dead wen brother from those golden camps. remembers the kind smile in the eyes of a stiff face of a corpse giving his soup to a-yuan. remembers that same face only now with anger clouding the eyes punching  a hole through jin zixuan’s chest. remembers shijie - beautiful, mournign, kind, brave shijie - pushing him away. remembers the hate and desperation in jiang chengs eyes the fear and the pleading as he destroys the stygian tiger seal in an attempt to do one good thing before he dies. remebers the pained scream and tears welling out of devestated eyes and the satisfied curl of lips and the hysterical laughter that spilled from those same lips as jiang cheng saw him be ripped apart. unable to do anything as the last of his family died and he was left alone with nothing but the burden of those he swore to protect if they seved him and a newly orphaned nephew.

he throws up even if there is nothing left inside of him. he was right. wei wuxian. the yiling patriarch truly was a monster. and he would do anything to keep him from ruining everyones lifes again.

four months later he is found by jc and lwj. he had known they were looking for him but he had been so careful not to be found. seems like his luck finally ran out.

when jc tries to give him suibian he explains wzl maltes his core so he can’t pick it up again. 

when lwj tells him demonic cultivation harms the body and mind he tells him how it woks and why the way he uses it isn’t dangerous als long as he keeps just using what he has around him instead of collecting it in a seal that would corrupt his mind over time.

when lwj pleads him to cume to gusu to be cleansed he expains over jc’s angy shouts that his loyalty lies first and foremost with yunmeng jiang but if he want’s he can maybe visit from time to time.

when he sees yzy, the new sect leader jiang until jc comes of age again, he cries in her dress while she scolds him for his foolish actions while she rubs his back. just like when he had been a child. because that’s what he was a child. it didn’t matter that he had the memories of growing into and adult two times. 

he kills the wens on the battlefield with a heavy heart and wen ruohan with the lightest feeling of reliev if his chest.

he makes sure wen qing and her family and all the wens that had no other choice and all those that did recieve a fair punishment and their own farmland. the moling wen sect is born and under the jurisdiction of the lan sect. they become a sect of healing and help every person in need that comes seeking aid.

when wen qing learns of two cultivators and their prisoner traveling to gusu lan to have their prisoner be punished before going to baoshan-sanren’s mountain to have the eyesight of the blind one restored, she cuts out the yes of the criminal and implements them in the blind one. they still visit her from time to time and apparently have adopted a daughter.

lan wangji’s visit’s to yunmeng are still regular and it isn’t a rarity to see him smiling at young master wei while he tells him an outlandish tale that is just as likely to have happened as it is to haven’t while they wander the docks of lp.

a few years later wen qing and wei wuxian come up with and idea for him to built a new core. she can open his miridans, that shriveled together when his core was crushed, with needles and her qi and another person can let their qi circulate in wwx body like they did in their body while trying to form a core. lwj volunteers and after six month of a daily treatment his new core is stable enought to cut the treament down to once a week.

this proves to be good timing because jin ling’s one hundred day celebration will be soon (he was born a bit later in this because of all that was going on)

when wen qing tells lwj that they have reached a stage where someone else (not the person who started the qi infusions) can do the qi infusions no without destabalising wwx lwj refuses unless wwx wants someone else. wwx want’s to know why lwj invests so much time in him. que: wangxian confession.

jgs eventually dies do to mysterious cicumstances that don’t seem to unlikely concerning him a few months after he declared mxy due to his potential as his son.

jgy, a few days after gaining a new brother decided his standing in lanling is to tenuous to allow more siblings to threaten him position and created a nice long plan to kill jgs without any proof or witnesses.

without him he has no reason to kill nmj so they stay out of each other’s way before on the prompting of lxc they refresh their relationship and becoming tentative friends. nhs loves it and supports their friendship wholeheartedly because jgy is a wonderful shireld to hide behind when he doesn’t want to do any work and enventually and somehow manage to manuyer jgy in the positon of madam nie by having those two marry (yay less work for him let jgy manage his brother, yay less politics for nmj let jgy handle those, yay more power for jgy without having to kill his brother who he kinda likes)

over the following centuries the sects and cultivation slowly fade into obscurity until nothing but the myth of cultivation is left.

it is then that a familiar novel is written. only this time the ending is a lot more happy and a lot less tragic than the original piece.

wwx, when he tracks the author down meets  Liu Wei, jiang chengs newest alias. after wwx, lwj, jc, and lxc had cultivated to immortality they had mostly gone their seperate ways, wwx and lwj stayed together of course.

after teasing jc endlessly wwx gets an idea and visit’s an old mountain again. and he was right the old hermit that had reminded him of lan zhan is there.

“zewu-jun” he greets.

apparently unlike lwj, wwx, and jc, lxc prefered to seclude himself on a mountain and simply enjoy his time there and let his grief over those that didn’t cultivate to immortality fester. he seems happier this time around. if wwx had to guess it would be because this time his brother has happiness.

it would also explain why he had acted so strangely the first time they met on that mountain and how the writer of that fanfiction know exactly what had happened between lwj and wwx. there was noone who could read his brother better and who would have the knowledge of what happened between them back then. he must have gotten inspired after he met wwx’s reincarnation. wwx can’t blame him - it isn’t as if he didn’t have inspiration at weirder times.

wwx convinces lxc to leave the mountain and he slowly becomes close to jc. they eventually (a few years later) begin dating and move in together.

(jc could write from jzx’s pov because they kinda were friends after xuanli marriage and he wanted him too be remembered)

[littlesmartart]

Jin/Jiang/Lan/Nie modern AU family bbq! recreating very specific memories from my childhood of Mandatory Bank Holiday Sunday Bbq Family Gatherings

in this AU the older Jin siblings teamed up and got rid of JGS (JGY’s business skills and eidetic memory + Qin Su’s interpersonal skills and connections + JZX’s reputation and trust fund = Dream Team) and MXY has been in JZX and Yanli’s custody since he was about ten. 

notes on the AU under the cut!

Zixun isn’t there because he and his family took JGS’s side in the legal battle, so he’s now That Awkward Cousin We Don’t Invite To Things, and Mianmian is there because she and JZX grew up together so he considers her basically his sister 

Yanli and JGY have a very cheerful war of attrition over who does hosting duties at Jin Fam events, and the only reason JGY is currently winning is because Yanli’s pregnant so can’t really chase after him when he carries out all the plates 

(JGY’s always happy to rope one or more boyfriend in to handle the heavy lifting, though) 

90% of the time it’s WWX who runs around after the kids and he’s absolutely a-okay with that, just so long as LWJ holds his drink and feeds him when he takes a breather

this is WWX’s shirt

did JZX buy the obnoxious grill specifically for this bbq? yes. can he cook at all? absolutely not, he’s hopeless, but he does try, bless his heart. thankfully NMJ is actually a pretty good cook and has Yanli’s permission to step in if needs be

(JZX is pretty sure that Mianmian and Qin Su aren’t interested in each other, but he’s lowkey terrified at the possibility, because if they get together... which one of them does he give the shovel talk???)

there’s always one little prick who brings a fucking Super Soaker(TM) to a squirt gun fight, and this time it’s JC. originally I was imagining he would just use it to drench WWX and wouldn’t dare go after the kids, but @ellethinthewoods galaxy brained and pointed out: JC would get hyped up with competitive spirit, get Jin Ling right in the face, Jin Ling would burst into tears, and JC would spend the next half an hour trying desperately to convince Jin Ling not to tell Yanli.

MXY is only about 13/14 here, so there’s like a ten year age gap between him and NHS (and therefore no absolutely no romantic relationship!). NHS is sort of like his arts/theatre mentor. he’s probably showing him his photography blog.

MXY is emo. his siblings are... bemused, but supportive. MXY loves them a lot but can’t help being vaguely gutted that he got born into such a preppy family. he highkey thinks WWX is the coolest person ever, which literally no one else understands.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 09 first part

(Masterpost) (More Canary Funsies)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

This episode features so many eternal minutes of zombie shambling that I thought I could fit everything into a single post. HA HA HA HA nope. 

Zombie Temple

The trio do their best to fend off the not-zombies in the temple. Lan Wangji tells Wei Wuxian that he can’t go carving them up because they’re not actually dead, and drops a callback to their very first meeting at the gate of Cloud Recesses, when Wei Wuxian caught his attention with his pillowy lips comment on the not-dead cultivator. 

Lan Wangji: You said it in that golden moment that will be seared into my memory for eternity, where I heard your voice and laid eyes on your angelic face and lost my heart forever, remember? Come on, babe, it was our very first zombie! How baked were you?

Wei Wuxian: I jerk off to the sword-fighting memory, not the zombie memory, you weirdo.

Nie Huaisang’s fear of the definitely not undead has apparently gotten him the rest of the way over his fear of Lan Wangji, because he’s now yelling “Lan-Xiong!” right along with “Wei-Xiong!” as he struggles. Note that although he later mentions that his fan is made of some fancy metal, we don’t see any evidence that he wants to fight with a fan any more than he does with a blade. I don’t hate anyone’s fan-fighting NHS headcanon, but my take is that he just isn’t a physical fighter, and that’s ok. 

This is a good time to remember that our entire experience of the Nie clan so far in this story is 1. Clever but hopelessly combat-unready tiny artiste Nie Huaisang 2. Quietly helpful, absurdly pretty sidekick Meng Yao. 

We don’t know yet that Nie Huasang’s gege and Meng Yao’s sugar daddy is literally the toughest motherfucker in the entire cultivation world. But his friends do! Which makes me love these dynamics even more, because not one of them criticizes Nie Huaisang for being the person he is. 

(more after the cut!)

Never Let Me Go

This scene is where Wei Wuxian gives his tacit consent to being used as the eventual agent of Nie Huaisang’s vengeance....ok not really.

But he does make it clear what Nie Huaisang should do when he’s in a pickle. And NHS doesn’t forget things.

Priorities 

Meanwhile, Lan Wangji isn’t nearly as patient as Wei Wuxian, and he drops a silence spell on Nie Huaisang basically out of annoyance. It’s not like they’re trying to be sneaky. 

Lan Wangji: How about you have an exquisitely crafted ceramic cup of shut the fuck up?

Flute Girl

Wen Qing comes to the rescue by summoning all of the not-zombies, who happen to be her extended family, to come toast some marshmallows. 

She’s another person who unwisely demonstrates, where Wei Wuxian can hear her, the power of flutes over zombies. 

This move doesn’t seem to do anything important but it looks cool. 

Brother Dynamic: Bad. Really Bad. 

Jiang Cheng shows up in the temple and trolls everyone, because this is a great time for childish antics. Wei Wuxian is super happy to see him and runs over to hug him, which earns him a shoulder slam. 

This is a regular part of their body language with each other. Wei Wuxian covers his hurt reaction very, very quickly, with a smile that doesn’t involve very much of his face. 

Ow

Wei Wuxian is so good at pretending his feelings aren’t hurt, he probably convinces himself. 

Then he gives a too-honest answer when Jiang Cheng accuses him of...daring to enjoy himself, basically.

That’s more truth than Jiang Cheng was looking for, and he raises a hand to Wei Wuxian, who hides behind Nie Huaisang. This move is interesting because on one level it’s just clowning; obviously Nie Huaisang can’t protect WWX from anything, and WWX doesn’t need protection from Jiang Cheng. 

WWX can easily beat JC in a fight, as he’s let us know before. On another level, this retreat signals WWX’s harmlessness, his childlike-ness, in a semiotic dance that has been playing out for over a decade between the brothers.  NHS is taking on Jiang Yanli’s role in the choreography, this time.   

All of this troubling hostility doesn’t make Jiang Cheng a bad person. He’s young and he’s still under his parents’ control and subject to their abuse at home. It takes time to develop mindfulness about this stuff and learn to treat people beneath you differently than the way you are treated. 

Jiang Cheng isn’t ready for that yet, any more than he is ready to say out loud that he cares about his brother. 

Leave My Boyfriend Out of It

This interaction is noteworthy for Wei Wuxian defending Lan Wangji to his brother, before Jiang Cheng even has a chance to blame Lan Wangji. 

Wei Wuxian says that following Lan Wangji was his own idea, and then gives LWJ the sweetest, warmest smile.

Lan Wangji also gets a pair of totally unearned, delighted smiles of thanks from his two besties when he lifts the silence spell on Nie Huaisang. 

Being mildly dickish all the time works out fine, I guess, if you only make friends with people whose brothers are legendary grouches.

Grilling Wen Qing

Wei Wuxian finally decides he’s had enough of Wen Qing’s crap, and gets slightly aggressive in questioning her.

He’s not actually roughing her up but he is approaching her as a near-enemy for the first time, rather than as someone who wants to be her friend. Once Wen Qing tells him what’s up and agrees to a sort of temporary alliance, he goes back to being his normal slightly awkward self with her. 

I don’t romance-ship WQ and WWX, except maybe as corpse-mountain era FWB, but I do like their chemistry. And their friendship is really refreshing and interesting, based on sharing goals and working together, not on emotional intimacy. It’s nice to see people with a lot of barriers around their hearts, building a strong, trusting bond without having to actually open up very much.

The idea of perfect sharing between people is a nice one, but it’s pretty alien to many of us who are recovering from trauma, or people who just aren’t wired that way, and it’s good to see other models of friendship and love. 

Wei Wuxian, at Lan Wangji’s direction, parts the Red Sea drops a cage on the other 3 cultivators before going to hunt the dire birdy.  

Jiang Chang is, predictably, pissed off about it, in spite of Wei Wuxian’s “you’re good at this” parting words, and says, according to the subtitles, “you bastard!”

“Bastard” is a pretty specific epithet, in English. In the current century, it’s generally used to mean “asshole,” more or less. But it still does carry the meaning “of illegitimate birth,” and since The Untamed is often concerned with legitimacy it seems pretty strong for JC to use with someone who is rumored to be his own Dad’s by-blow. 

Let’s have a look and see what he really is calling him... 你混蛋 =  Nǐ húndàn = “you bastard” per Google translate. Wow, Jiang Cheng, you really went there, huh. 

Wen Granny

Wen Qing and the others in the golden cage watch as the not-zombies try half-heartedly to get to them. Wen Qing is super sad about it, as opposed to the two guys who are just annoyed (Jiang Cheng) or scared (Nie Huaisang).

The first time I saw this, it was just - oh, Wen Qing sympathizes with this poor random woman, she feels bad about what's happening, this is to show us she has a heart.

Now though --  that's HER granny. Maybe not her bio-grandma but clearly a granny of her clan, who she knows well, who later cares for A-Yuan when he's a child, so may very well have cared for A-Qing and A-Ning when they were small, too. Owie.

Dire Bird Hunting

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian run off to hunt the smoke bird together. They are quickly trapped in cool-looking fog. Kudos to the Director of Photography.

They spend some time being confused and also being peak Wangxian 1.0 as they help each other out. 

Lost in the fog and unable to summon talismans, Wei Wuxian is mainly about checking on Lan Wangji, making sure he’s ok, making sure he’s near.  He doesn’t spare any worry for himself.

(We get a rare instance of seeing an actually glowing sword here, instead of just having a character say “I saw the beams of swords!” to save money on VFX.)

Lan Wangji, meanwhile, understands the mental attack they are under, explains it to Wei Wuxian with only a little snark about Wei Wuxian’s overly busy mind, and teaches him how to handle it.

Lan Wangji is super disciplined in mind, body, and sword - his fight moves don’t change, really, throughout his life, but he gets better and better at execution. Wei Wuxian isn’t exactly undisciplined, but he’s super creative and busts out a new skill in nearly every encounter. Lan Wangji sees this and is learning to make use of it.

After Lan Wangji helps Wei Wuxian overcome the confusion that is blocking his talisman use, he tells him which talisman to use. 

This isn’t a talisman that LWJ uses himself, it’s just that he’s paying very close attention to WWX’s battle moves, and has a great memory, so he knows which ones will work. In a pretty short timespan he’s moved from thinking like a solo swordsman to thinking as part of a team with a broad range of battle skills. Very soon, he’ll be starting to use Wei Wuxian’s talismans himself. 

WWX takes a hit from the flying death chain, but uses it to his advantage, as in so many encounters. He’s not just self-sacrificing--he is definitely that--but he’s also a chess player, knowing how to use a sacrifice or an injury to his advantage. Cue Lan Wangji being worried for the entire rest of his life.

Part Two is here!

[wangxianficrecs]

Okay, y’all.  This is the kind of question I am the worst at, so help me out.  I’ve put down my first thoughts, but do you have suggestions?

~*~

1.  Do you have any mdzsxtgcf crossover fics? - @mystic-wolf-bait​

❤️ Demonic Cultivator’s Blessing, or: Curse of the Bunny Gods by FayJay (E, 25k, wangxian, hualian, post here )

00:00 by uraa (G, 3k, wangxian, hualian, my bookmark)

even across a thousand miles by merryofsoul (T, 11k, wangxian, hualian, my bookmark)

A Chance Encounter in YiLing by museaway (M, 10k, wangxian, hualian, my bookmark)

I can smile at the old days by zacechild (T, 30k, WIP, wangxian, hualian, my bookmark)

Atlas by etymologyplayground (E, 12k, wangxian, hualian, my post here)

For Whom the Bell Rings by DawnCloud (T, 23k, wangxian, ghost jiang yanli)

let this soul be your whisper by merthurlin (T, 29k, hualian, wangxian)

Somewhere Sits an Empty Throne by Siamesa (E, 20k, wangxian)

~*~

2.  Thank you for all your awesome work in running this blog! [You’re welcome!]  Do you know any time travel fics where the people traveling don't know all the plot twists before traveling/have incomplete/biased information? (the longer the better but even short stuff is fine). - @winterschild

Here’s my time travel tag, but I can’t think of anything as specific as what you’re asking.

~*~

3.  Any fics where Lan Zhan sings To Wei Wuxian? 

~*~

4.  Forbidden Love?

~*~

5.  Can you recommend fics where one of the juniors got hurt/cursed during night hunt and wangxian take care of him? [These 4 all have wangxian caring for hurt juniors at some point, but it’s not the primary focus.]

❤️anyway, here's wuji by kakikaeru (T, 18k, zhuiyi, wangxian, my post here)

Still in the Water by airgeer (T, 45k, wangxian, my post here)

Heavy as the setting sun by snoozingkitten (E, 24k, wangxian, my post here)

Only If For A Night by greyskais (M, 19k, zhuiling, wangxian, my post here)

~*~

6.  Hey! do you think there is a fic in which when WWX asked LWJ in cave if he liked mianmian and LWJ actually replied yes? @threeyearoldweiying​

~*~

7.  Do you know of fics similar to "A Bell That Tells Us to Rise and Fight" by DeerstalkerDeathFrisbee? I like the idea of wwx coming back to life to a happier world then when he left it.

~*~

8.  Hey there! you do some pretty good recs, [😳] i was wondering if you can recommend me fics where lan zhan has a yiling patriarch kink (for example "devil from heaven" by incendir). thank you!

~*~

9.  Hi!! I'm suddenly overcome with an urge to read a post canon fluff fic with loads of cuddles??? I was wondering if you've read anything like that?? Thanks again for all the work you do, I've been able to discover more fic writers thanks to you! - @tardisfireworks​

❤️hunters seeking solid ground by Attila (E, 24k, wangxian, my post here)

❤️Senseless by carolyncaves (T, 7k, wangxian, my post here)

Twelve Moons and a Fortnight by stiltonbasket (G, 207k, wangxian, WIP... “has ALL the cuddles. separate beds who??????” says Nonny)

~*~

10.  Do you know of any fics that deal with Lan Zhan and Jiang Chang being petty as hell towards each other despite the fact Wangxian are either dating or married? I just need some fics with them being shitty in-laws and Wei Ying trying to mediate.

the only way out by cafecliche (T, 12k, wangxian, my post for the series here)

Where the Winds of Change Blow by merakily (G, 17k, wangxian)

some good mistakes by Lise (T, 18k, wangxian, @flamingwell  says:  Very Awkward Road Trip.   IT'S SO GOOD!! I've read it on my own multiple times, plus read it aloud to my household, twice. There's also a very excellent podfic version. Seriously, Lise (@veliseraptor) is just....top shelf Yunmeng bros feels author, and also loves the Super Awkward LWJ/JC in-law relationship and I Love It So Much.)

[jaimebluesq]

if you are still doing the Highly Specific Ship Ranking, how about NHS/JZX or NHS/LWJ? :)

Always happy to do an ask meme :D

I'm actually going to turn this into because a set of initials you gave me also applies to my super-secret evil little guilty pleasure ship.

Nie Huaisang/Jin Zixuan -

Squick / Just nope / A trainwreck you can’t look away from / Mehh but they are bloody everywhere / Not interested but no negative feelings / I need to see how I could make it work / BroTP / Cute / I love them / They rented a room in my mind and are here to stay

I can def. see them as a BroTP - I always imagine NHS asked Da-ge to tag along any time he went to Koi Tower because he loves pretty things and all the gold is pretty (even when it's tacky sometimes) and the gardens are pretty and the clothes, etc etc, and can see him making conversation with the awkward Jin sect heir, and NHS just loves talking so it's nice to talk to someone who'll just sit and listen. The thing is, there's this one scene in The Untamed/CQL which could be a good starting point to figuring them out as a friendship OR a romantic ship. The fight scene when WWX attacks JZX, NHS gets in the middle of it and from all appearances doesn't look like he's picking a side. In fact, when the fight ends and WWX & JC walk away with JYL, NHS is still behind with the crowd. So yeah, it gives food for thought. Don't know if I'd ever write a romantic ship, but am actually working on a BroTP friendship in a fic I hope to get working on... sometime in the next century.

Nie Huaisang/Jin ZiXUN -

Squick / Just nope / A trainwreck you can’t look away from / Mehh but they are bloody everywhere / Not interested but no negative feelings / I need to see how I could make it work / BroTP / Cute / I love them / They rented a room in my mind and are here to stay

NOW HEAR ME OUT - okay, I know Jin Zixun is an asshole, that is a part of his character, etc etc etc. But... I think they'd be hilarious together. Seriously. Or tragic. Either way, what bliss? I wrote them together in my Purple Peony fic as a "surprise, this is who the mystery guy is", was supposed to be a one-off joke... and they haven't left my brain!!! Like an enemies to lovers with them sniping and being really nasty and eventually falling into bed together because JZX saved NHS' life in the war or something, or a tragedy where JZX is inspired to not be so much of an asshole because he fell in love but then it all goes to hell because he won't give up his crusade against WWX and NHS refuses to be with someone who's after his bestie, or some sort of redemtion arc after WWX dies and JZX realizes he can't have been the one to cast the curse because wouldn't the holes have gone away when WWX died? Honestly, I just love the idea of them together, and if people can ship Xue Yang with whoever, then I want to ship with Jin Zixun, damn it!

Nie Huaisang/Lan Wangji -

Squick / Just nope / A trainwreck you can’t look away from / Mehh but they are bloody everywhere / Not interested but no negative feelings / I need to see how I could make it work / BroTP / Cute / I love them / They rented a room in my mind and are here to stay

I can see the potential, especially after WWX dies, but I just don't see the chemistry. Maybe for the same reason that I'm not much of a Xisang shipper either. My favs tend to be NHS with someone mean/sarcastic/can be nasty or nice, which is why I love him with JC, JGY, and the abovementioned Jin Zixun. LWJ, while he can be an ass sometimes, it's of the quiet glare at you, shut you up with a silenceing spell, or tattle on you variety, and there's little room for banter, which I love :( At least romantically. As friends, there's more potential there. Their brothers were besties, friends with WWX, they at least have connections, and potentially a shared enjoyment of music (NHS does play the flute in Fatal Journey after all).

Thank you so much for this! You accidentally gave me an excuse to talk about my guilty pleasure :D

[llycaons]

ep16 (part 2):

oh cinematically tragic lost handhold....

I've seen so many gifsets of wwx in this scene and that's because as terrible as everything is he has genuinely never looked better. very handsome. sorry about the tragedies

aw man there's jyl OH SHE HAS PEARLS SEWN INTO HER ROBE I wonder if the jiangs trade with sects that live along the ocean. do they have ocean access? I can't remember. maybe they're freshwater pearls

when jyl asks what happened and all wwx can do is stand there crying. and jc is also crying. oof

why did she tell wwx to do this...did she think jc couldn't?

a triangle of misery...

there's a really long meta post about the cinematography for this and I don't remember all of it but it's like. jyl and jc are in the foreground so their grief is being paid attention to, but wwx is in the back and you can't even see his face. his grief is ignored, even though he's the central figure. he's also taking on the task of a servant and neither jyl nor jc stop him

this is def a most extreme case (jc and jyl are SUPER traumatized and I'm not even blaming them for this), and it's not representative of all their interactions with wwx, but it gets me thinking. wwx talks about lwj being his equal bc he's good at things in the way that wwx is, but you can also view it like, with lwj wwx is completely free of the tangle of debts and obligations he has with the jiangs, and they look after each other , purely because they care about each other rather, than that onus always being on wwx. jyl does take care of him, and jc does too sometimes, but wwx must do the same for the other two and cannot truly fight back in a meaningful way if he's being mistreated.

obviously this setup above would never happen with lwj bc lwj doesn't see wwx as a servant or someone bound to him at all. he may see other people as servants, but he's always insistent that wwx is taken care of and he wouldn't accept wwx acting this way to him. which is really good! like I feel that ppl who are ride-or-die for yunmeng sibs and ignore lwj don't appreciate how freeing being with lwj is for wwx and how happy he is to have a relationship that's his own and on his own terms. ah, I miss him

jyl getting ill so easily, I think she has an autoimmune disorder. I've seen her hced as having celiac's and having chronic joint pain, and I think either an autoimmune disease or chronic fatigue makes mot sense. and for some conditions, both of those symptoms are seen so it's not a stretch. fibromyalgia, for one

uh oh. last look before the end.

LIFE-ALTERING MOMENT. this scene is so well done. the dread I feel every single time. it's incredible.

literally who is that

flashforward to the scene in 18(?) where jc makes the same promise to jyl about wwx. I feel ill

something really messed up is how often one of the kids will be like 'we'll go together, right"? this past few episodes. they really are clinging to each other like buoys in a storm

this happened when wwx was running out of BM after waking up from wen qing's needle. he runs and falls over :(

oh jeez I bet they're all dead by the end of this huh

MEAN TO WEN NING. he lied kind of awkwardly but it WAS effective. a nice thing about being known for being weak and socially awkward is that nobody suspects you when you're being suspicious

I wonder what happened to those women too. I assume they're wens, unless they were hired by wens. the clan is fucking huge idk

HE KNEW. and he knew it could have been lethal, I assume, unless he detected the exact poison used. and he somehow knew it was for the bodies of the jiang parents, huh

next episode will also be pretty rough but sunshot/postsunshot are among my favorite arcs so I am HYPED

also we'll finally see lwj again next ep. I think. I miss him. I wonder how many eps jc is missing from. surely several in a row, esp postres. yi city for sure. he's been in every one so far. now I'm curious

[restingdomface]

Modern au where Wei Wuxian has a sweet little white rabbit who’s always super excited when he gets back from classes and puts his wittle paws up on WWX’s knee and wriggles his nose to scold him for being away so long and he sleeps in WWX’s arms every night and loves his human with all his heart- but. He’s a lonely lil snowball of a fluffer and WWX feels bad that he has to be alone all day while he’s in class, so he takes his baby down to the pet store, to see if they could find an animal (doesn’t have to be a bunny, they don’t always get along anyways) that can become a good little companion for his fussy grooming bun bun, and finds!!! Lan Wangji! A classmate who’s in a similar track to WWX and always looks so perfect and pristine and composed and WWX once caught him holding a baby (a lil cousin) and charming it to pieces with his stoic beauty and tummy tickles, and WWX is NOT in love with him, he just thinks the man could wreck him both physically and emotionally and WWX would thank him- anyways. Off track here.

LWJ!!! Turns out to be there. For the exact same reason as him. He’s got a hyperactive little bitch of a fluffer on a leash (Snowball doesn’t usually stay on his leash, since he refuses to let WWX out of his sight if he’s around, but WWX is starting to realize that this situation is sort of ‘dog in the water’ akin, and his baby boy should really be on a leash too, so he gets one while theyre there) and looking for a good companion for Inkblot, who likes to eat chili peppers, and sleeps on LWJ’s head, whether LWJ wants him up there or not. WWX is charmed by this angery lil thumper and joins LWJ in his search so they could both find a companion to take home.

The only issue is. Snowball and Inkblot. Seem to have decided. Their perfect companion. Is each other. Shit. Shit. Shit. We can’t just take home each other’s pets. Fuck. But now they’re refusing any and all other pets. Inkblot, who had previously been cowering from a teacup poodle (WWX doesn’t blame him, the puppy gave a bark and he got a frighten and WWX might have hidden behind LWJ’s back a little because the animals are Okay™️ if they don’t jump or bite or bark and he’s even given Jiang Cheng’s old lab a pet or two when he’s seen him but a few times he’s heard a bark from the big dog and suddenly he’s halfway up a tree and that one time the oversized bear of a neighbor’s dog was off his leash and the owner SAID he was just trying to get WWX to love him but WWX was crying and Jiang Yanli had to take a day off work and bring him to her house and WWX didn’t even freak out at that stupid peacock seeing him cry for once cause Jon Zixuan had been shockingly nice to his traumatized brother-in-law, plying him with cookies and spiked tea until WWX was finally calm. No no. WWX doesn’t blame the bunny for running from the poodle. Those things can turn so fast) is now all but refusing to even look at the kittens he’d previously been sniffing at, making pleased little nose wriggles and chewing sounds while Snowball grooms that mess that we call fur into a sort of almost normal looking bunny.

Anyways. So. Shit. We can’t just. Maybe we can... share custody? No no, Snowball would throw a fit (biting included) if he had to be separated from WWX for a full night, and Inkblot would probably get mad and make the biggest mess he could.

So. It starts off with play dates. See. This doesn’t really solve the issue of them being alone while the boys are in class, but play dates are a good way to start, instead of just throwing your fur baby into a new environment without any warning. So, WWX will bring little master Snowball over to Lan Wangji’s swanky apartment (listen, WWX has a whole room for his cranky baby’s toys and items but LWJ seems to have dedicated a pretty epic portion of his massive apartment to an appropriate rabbit run for his spoiled child, and Snowball seems a little jealous lol) and will watch their boys interact. It mostly involves grooming and playing and that one super awkward time when the boys decided they were grown up enough for Adult Fun Times and ruined both LWJ and WWX’s delicate sensibilities (catch me in the back rootin for 25+ year old virgins WangXian cause fuck that whole ‘no modern WangXian is gonna be virgins’ bullshit scenario okay even modern people can wait for sex wow) and then, when they’re sure the boys can handle being around each other for hours without fights, and also after LWJ has set up like five nanny cams to the apartment that’ll stream straight to their phones so they can watch their babies during the day, they start leaving their kiddos alone so they can go to class with a peace of mind knowing their boys aren’t lonely.

Which helps. A lot. Until one day. They’re sitting in the same class. Getting ready for class to start (I see a lot of Music Students WangXian, but what if they’re both medical area students? I want scientist WWX who works with dead bodies and pediatric doctor LWJ who loves babies, even the ones with sticky fingers) and WWX is just cooing at his phone. ‘Such a good boy you are, eating those greens, awww, you’re good for Diedie, huh sweetheart, Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan, look at them, arent they adorable? Look at his puffy fur. Do you think Snowball will ever realize his fur isn’t gonna lay flat?’ ‘I once got his fur to lay flat. While it was wet. It only lasted a moment.’ And they’re cooing over how cute their boys are.

And the students. Around them. Are all ‘oh shit you two are together and have bunnies?????’ So. That started the rumor that they’re all but married. Maybe even are married.

And it takes them. Months. Of people asking about their boys. Of people talking about them like they’re old friends or whatever. Of Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng starting rumors that they’ve been together for years and just didn’t wanna advertize. For them to realize. That people think they’re together.

Well. They realize. About two days late. Because they don’t realize till the lease on WWX’s apartment is up and LWJ offers for WWX to move in with him and he’s all moved in and settled and their boys are delighted to be together all the time (it’s still gonna be a few months before the boys convince their humans to sleep in the same bed so they can all cuddle all night long cause safer in packs, but for now, they’ve made their humans fall asleep together on the couch a few times) and. They mention. How annoying it is to move apartments. And someone mentions how rewarding it is to finally live with your BF tho. And that’s when it hits them.

Anyways. This is the story of how Snowball and Inkblot went down to the petshop to get their humans a companion.

[ouyangzizhensdad]

Please please do write the post about wwx not being dumb/oblivious. Those posts were just funny at first but somehow it's now become accepted fact. Meanwhile whether cql or mdzs wwx is a very competent, savvy protagonist who's actually pretty observant! It's getting pretty tiring to see him reduced to genki oblivous magical girl (not that I don't like those, it's just wwx is not one).

Hey anon! 

I do plan on writing a more elaborate meta post exploring what arguments there are in the novel to support my wwx is not dumb/oblivious agenda.

But for now I just want to address one factor I think plays a big part in shaping the fandom’s perception of wwx as oblivious/dumb, regardless of how wwx was actually written in the novel. That is, the creative liberties taken by (or forced onto) the cql production team, which have had in my opinion two consequences: 1) cql does not manage to establish how quick-witted and savvy wwx is, which is compounded by the fact that it chose to play the troublemaker persona straight  2) the fact that wwx and lwj’s relationship is entirely subtext actually ends up making wwx look oblivious (at least to people applying a queer reading/bl-danmei reading to their interactions--people who are obvious to or choose to ignore the subtext certainly wouldn’t come to the same conclusions). 

So, the first issue. In the novel, wwx’s intelligence is more of a focal point in the narrative because it is a crucial part of the dramatic irony/tragedy of his death: as a result it cannot help being more important to the themes of the novel. After all, he is ultimately hunted down because of and killed by his inventions. The man created an entirely new field of cultivation! In cql, this is somewhat lost due to the fact that he does not invent modao nor does he create the yin hufu, and his death is more of a suicide than a sacrifice (i am still not over the fact that he throws the yin hufu at the crowd to let them wage war over it? that’s the complete thematic opposite of his death in the novel...). 

The novel, as well, is better at establishing that wwx’s antics are generally not because he’s just being a troublemaker, but that they are a way in which he garners information, gets people to act the way he needs them to or misdirect them. For instance, in cql, when lwj destroys wwx’s (well, nhs’s) spring book in the library, wwx looks genuinely pained and affronted--in the novel, it is clearly shown that, when wwx realized lwj intended to bring the spring book to lqr, he intentionally made him angry so that he would destroy the evidence himself. the point of the prank was also to not only get a reaction out of lwj, but also (reading btw the lines) wwx’s way of trying to leave a lasting impression on lwj now that his punishment was over. Differently put, while wwx can do directionless pranks,  more often than not, they have an underlying meaning/goal instead of just being for Attention(TM) in general. In contrast, the web series is full of missed opportunities in terms of characterisation, and is so from the very beginning (I find extremely disappointing how they decided to adapt the mo mansion and dafan mountain arcs because of how important they are to establishing wwx’s character for the readers/viewers. Through these arcs, we get acquainted with the way he thinks and deduces information, and how he uses people’s perceptions of him and others to his advantage. If you can only read English, @pumpkinpaix‘s translation of the first few chapters might help get a better sense of the nuances). 

I’m not saying that wwx is portrayed as dumb in cql: but that his characterization is a lot more fuzzy and inconsistent, and that his intelligence is utilized mostly when wwx goes into his detective mode. As a result, I do feel like it undermines how analytical wwx is in all aspects of his life, making it easy to see him as, you know, someone who’s, like, half-smart, half-super-dumb. 

As for issue #2, part of it boils down to the fact that most of the obstacles to wangxian’s relationship had to be erased due to censorship. There no longer is homophobia/internalized homophobia to motivate moments of denial or internal conflict; there is no longer the phoenix mountain kiss to explain lwj’s reluctance to respond to wwx’s flirting after his rebirth (as I explored in one of my other meta post); there is no longer lwj’s failed confession and lwj’s mistaken belief that wwx knows of his feelings, etc. These vectors of tension help contextualise and explain why it takes so long for wwx to realize lwj’s feelings towards him (but let’s not forget that he does: after jinlintai, he starts to realize that lwj treats him especially well, which becomes a certainty after the second siege). the cql production team had no choice but to take these elements away. 

that being said, by adding new or by changing moments to support the subtext and to please (bl-danmei) fans, the show actually takes away even more vectors of tension/misunderstanding between wwx and lwj, and makes wwx’s crush seem even more obvious and straight-forward. Take for instance the mo mansion arc. In the novel, wwx sees the Lan disciples’ white robes and has this moment of reflection that he recognizes the robes, and sees danger in the fact that the Lan sect is involved, thinking he should leave but knowing he can’t until he resolves the curse. in cql, we get a slow-pan flash-back of wwx’s first encounter with lwj, leaving him clearly emotional. The novel sets up the association as: white robes -> Lan Sect (subtext, Lan Zhan) -> orthodox/sticklers to rules/people i’ve met in my previous life who disapproved of modao -> danger! In cql, we have instead: whites robes -> Lan Zhan -> emotional reaction/I miss him. That fact is further driven home when wwx starts playing wuji on a blade of grass, ending with a soulfully whispered “lan zhan”. In terms of subtext, it sure lays it on thick: wwx does look like he has a big crush on lwj! But that destroys a big source of tension between them at the beginning: when wwx is summoned into mxy’s body, he thinks lwj hates him and disapproves of his methods and wants to bring him to gusu to punish him. That’s why he wants to run away at first, why he doesn’t disclose his identity to him and why it takes him a moment to understand lwj’s intentions. cql does not do a great job of setting that up. And the changes they make to the events of wwx’s first life, including changes to the timeline through which we are introduced to what happened in the past, makes it even more difficult to see how wwx could have misunderstood lwj’s intentions or his own feelings (again, in a queer or danmei-bl reading of the subtext). They go on a mission together! Spend a lot of time working together toward a similar goal!Lwj calls him his zhiji (”soulmate” as is often translated)! Lwj literally tries to save him from dying! The last thing wwx would remember when he wakes up in mxy’s body would be lwj holding onto his hand and screaming his name when he let go! Again, it does great for the subtext--but it makes it really difficult to understand why wwx would misunderstand lwj’s intentions and feelings, and it makes his own feelings toward lwj seem quite obvious. 

Overall, the changes in the themes, genre, events, narrative timeline, characterisation and much more in adapting mdzs into cql have been an important influence explaining why the fandom has this vision of wwx as dumb/oblivious. It reminds me of the way some people on tumblr like to talk about Mr. Darcy as “shy” and “awkward” based on the movie pride and prejudice 2005, which totally misses the point of Mr Darcy and his character as portrayed by Jane Austen--but, if people have only or mainly engaged with this specific adaptation, it is not necessarily surprising that they hold this frankly misguided interpretation due to the choices made by the film production team. 

In contrast, in the novel, we are shown a lot to help us understand why wwx comes to the wrong conclusions or might not understand his own feelings and reactions. But that’s for all for another post!

[crossdressingdeath]

Could you imagine if as LWJ was leaving BM the first time that A-Yuan looked really sad and started crying and begging LWJ to stay and he goes "but a-die you have to stay" and LWJ turns right back around is like "ok I live here now" and WWX goes "you can always leave later when he's asleep or tomorrow morning or something" but LWJ who very much knows what its like to feel abandoned by his parents and never get to see the parent he loved most is horrified and offended and he's like "NO I MUST STAY FOR A-YUAN AND BE THE A-DIE HE WANTS ME TO BE" and A-Yuan beams at him and the next day LWJ sends a letter to LXC telling him that WWX and him adopted a child and live together now in BM and LXC is just like "I knew something like this would happen but I didn't expect it to happen like this?!" So of course he has to go to BM to meet his nephew right? BUT LQR and NMJ refuse to let him go alone so they all roll up to BM ready for a fight and are greeted by the most adorable child who takes one look at them and goes "🤷🏻‍♂️ those are free uncles" and what are they all gonna do say no to A-Yuan?! Can anyone say no to him?! LQR may not be fond of WWX but now that he has a kid with LWJ that means they have to get married. Plus seeing that the people under his care are innocent he decides that he will accept the Wen remnants into his care as well as having all of WWX's be given merit to the Lan sect (but obviously stay under WWX's name they just get first dibs on them). WWX accepts the offer because the safety of the Wen is most important and he has a sense of duty right? So he tells himself he is only marry LWJ for the Wen and for A-Yuan (we all know the truth). Anyway they get married and WWX sees LWJ in wedding red and his heart is flying through his chest. Most of the cultivation world is like "ah Hanguang-jun truly is so honorable to do whats best for the cultivation world and take control of the evil Yiling Laozu" meanwhile WWX is like "ah yes 👍 👀🥵 LWJ has completely control of me". They are both so in love and happy. WWX gets to go to JL's ceremony and no one dies. He sees JYL again and she has a twinkle in her eyes cause she KNOWS. WQ and WN revolutionize medicine together. WWX invents all sorts of things. A-Yuan gains a bunch of siblings because WWX and LWJ see sad orphan kids and go "I guess we'll adopt them" and A-Yuan is like "free sibling". The junior quartet become bffs a lot sooner cause WWX and JYL are like "our kids will be together all the time." JZX and WWX surprisingly become good friends and they talk nerdy stuff all the time (look JZX may look like a prep but the dude is a total awkward nerd at heart). NMJ doesn't go I to qi deviation because WQ invents a way to reverse and prevent it. Eventually LXC marries NMJ and they are super happy. JGS dies under mysterious circumstances but no one is sad about it. With JZX as sect leader he promotes JGY to his right hand man because he thinks his brother has a good mind and good plans. The two of them bring the Jin sect into a new age. JGY doesn't have to worry about his place in the world or the sect because anyone that messes with him answers to JYL and really are you going to upset or disappoint her? (I sure as hell won't). Idk about JC maybe he dies of envy and jealousy? Maybe he is a whiney cry baby? Who cares he doesn't matter anyway.

Can’t believe that A-Yuan whining that he doesn’t want his new rich friend to leave unlocked the golden ending.