#anyways i know cql is what got many people into the mdzs fandom which is why folks have a skewed idea of chengxian

[zinniapetals]

it’s so weird when a post is explicitly chengxian and then people add lwj into the mix.

I blame CQL and the animation for not sticking to the relationship between wwx/jc faithfully and creating that whole extra subplot of jc/wq in cql bc truly, in the novel when it focuses on wwx/jc friendship, it’s silly teens that are just so intimate and knowledgeable about one another while being blurred with the strange history of their parents and the inherent competitiveness they both have and it’s way more than what could be viewed as just romantic ship or whatever

The conviction wwx has that jc will return with help when trapped in the cave, jc believing in wwx’s words that they are twin prides, jc having faith in wwx finding a core solution, wwx seeing jc’s scars and promising to get rid of them — it’s the little things in their interactions as people who grew up and trust and love each other to the point of giving up their lives for each other!!

it’s frustrating to see a good chengxian post and it being reblogged or commented with other characters that a) were never mentioned in the post b) removes chengxian and makes it some other ship

[layzeal]

Hello!

This is my opinion, please correct me somehow im really willing to change since thats how i am with new fandoms i get myself into(is it really new if i have known it for 2 years) anyway, please forgive my insolence. I just wanna ask what you think of cql changing a lot themes (especially that importance they have put on yunmeng trios ( its to the point ive ask my myself if JYL manipulates WWX, you know guil tripping forcing someone to be with you (obv not romantically) out of pity or other) (and downgrading certain things like JC's cruelty or washing WWX making him not lose control but have outside factors) (the timeline is also confusing) and i just felt like most of the lessons in mdzs was not successfully implemented in the live action. There were a lot of times that made me leave the show halfway because i was hoping for a lot of wangxian actions (it was 50 epi after all) but most of it was in flashback and focuses too much on the said trio. then the sudden change of story into XXC and XY, and the little changes too like LQY being a Jin disciple.

and also about that LWJ self harm ask, ive read some meta about it him being sad and in grief, another saying its a part of remembering WWX (which for me is so ridiculous, which part exactly will remind him of WWX, the self harm part of the scars?) and frankly im more inclined to believe thats its a mistake he have done while drunk and grieving, he has to let it out somehow and without logic and inhibitions he must have done it after seeing the torture weapon?? like its not a planned thing( but who am i talk, it could be depression speaking) which is not making sense how do you manage to find it just lying so it could also have been because something have reminded it of him. i honestly wanna stop thinking about the hows so i just ask.

another point id like to ask is how do people manage to have questions that sounds so amazing? idk the word for it. but you know what i mean, bizarre then people like you somehow have the word to explain such things. how long does it usually take you to articulate what you mean, and what process are you using that makes it so easy to understand.

hi friend!! so, for a brief history: i actiually got into MDZS through CQL back in june 2021, and i really loved it!! however, there were a lot of things that were very confusing to me (especially the timeline), which is why i decided to pick up the novel, because i was very very interested in understanding the whole picture!

(more under cut)

but as you can see by now, my fandom content has almmost exclusively switched to novel/audio drama canon! and well, there's not really much secret about it, other than me just vastly preferring the novel's narrative, for many of the reasons you mentioned! my general stance on CQL is that, while it's a pretty bad adaptation that fails in a lot of ways to convey some themes of the original work, it does work really well as its own, independent thing, and that's kinda how it exists in brain? i've kinda grown a wall of separation between the two, in which i don't really see CQL as MDZS, and tend to appreciate it on its own (ie. for as much as i LOVE wangxian's relationship in the novel, there really is something incredibly tasty about how it was done in the show that only works within that universe)

but most of all, i only watched cql like, once, and can remember VERY little about it, so it's why i don't really feel comfortable talking about its changes because i genuinely cannot remember how they were executed LMAO. but YEAH there are more changes i dislike than i like, and whether they were made because of censorship or not, it's still sad how much lost potential there was :(

and @ you last question: oh, thank you so much!! hmm, i do tend to just kinda... write down what i'm thinking, so the words you're reading are pretty much my exact train of thought haha i guess i can be really thankful to having reached a level of english fluency that allows me to make-up sentences in my mind already in english, rather than having to translate them beforehand. a lot of my practice experience was actually by doing writing and roleplaying here on tumblr, so maybe that's related! just reading and writing a lot can definitely help you develop an easier way to articulate your thoughts. it's why i love doing media analysis, really, i get so excited about something from a piece of media that i HAVE to share, and for that to work i need to articulate it well enough, so it's very motivating! does that make sense? i hope so dkjfhjdfkg

hope you have a good day, anon <3

[shijiujun]

hey so uh, it's 110% Not Your Job, but can i ask for like a crash course on these chinese bl series that are everywhere around me but i don't know them. like i'm familiar with the untamed or however many names it has but i'm seeing two or three more???? help please if you can thank you

hello!! oh no worries, i happened to be looking for a distraction too so this was timely hahaha although it’s a pretty broad question since there are so many new live adaptations coming out (and some which have already come out which are featured as bromances), but let me see if I can like round this up for you a little. 

*i may be giving you a bit more than you need or like irrelevant stuff, but i guess i’m bound to hit something hahaha

Okay so the chinese BL series you’re talking about is The Untamed, and since you said you’re familiar I won’t get into it in detail, BUT just for like flow’s sake:

The Untamed (Chen Qing Ling) is based on the danmei (BL) novel written by MXTX, called Mo Dao Zu Shi (and yes however many like English translations to this title there is), or MDZS for short. You watched the live-action, and there’s like a lot of other versions of it e.g. the anime, the chibi anime, audio dramas etc. etc. the list goes on. In case you still haven’t seen any of those, just glance through this masterpost made by @the-social-recluse​ - In any case, right now everything is sort of already out EXCEPT:

MDZSQ - chibi donghua, cutest shit you’ll ever see

More MDZS merch 

Some teasers from MDZS mobile game which has been one year and developing

Now moving on to other BL series floating around so frequently - MDZS is the second book that MXTX wrote. So there’s SVSSS (The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving-System), which is also called lovingly by others in the fandom by Scumbag System/Villain in short, this is MXTX’s first danmei novel. Right now if you’ve seen this on Tumblr, it’s the anime (donghua) version - 10 episodes only for Season 1, available on WeTV with subs, finished airing like a few weeks ago. Translations of the novel are definitely out in full somewhere.

An absolute mess, but an organized one

Tried to do a manhua but failed

Everyone thought the donghua wouldn’t air on time either (it has a history of dropping development halfway) but it did

Would probably be the most entertaining if ever dealt with a live-action

And then there’s arguably, the most beloved child out of all three novels (at least right this moment) - TGCF (Tian Guan Ci Fu, or Heaven Official’s Blessing). This is the third and so far last (???) danmei novel MXTX has written, main pairing invented love. Strawhat-wearing scrap collector smiley angel with devoted kid-turned-adult-turned-ghost-king who follows smiley angel for like many years because he loves him. Anyway, if you’re seeing this, once again on Tumblr a lot, it’s the donghua version you’re seeing. Still airing, I think we’re midway through the whole season, the yelling starts Saturday (Asia time zone) and then extends into Sunday, sometimes Monday.

There’s like a god-tier Eng translation in full for TGCF by Suika

There is a manhua for this as well, only like 45 chapters in, but the time Jan/Feb 2021 rolls around, the donghua would have overtaken the manhua progress on the storyline HAHAHA

Apparently the director/production team who did CQL/The Untamed managed to get the rights to filming its live-action, but heh nothing much about that just yet aside from casting rumours and fans worrying that the casting will be done wrongly and also that they won’t be able to do justice to the story.

Alright now that we’ve more or less cleared MXTX and what everyone is hyping over (for good reason), let’s move on to the other CHINESE BL stuff you could be seeing (although I feel like you might not actually be asking about this), and these will all be live-actions (I’m also only clearing SOME of this year’s stuff, so none from before 2020, don’t ask me why I didn’t leave Guardian or SCI up here):

✨✨✨ Already aired, done and dusted or maybe ongoing, just ones I see on my dash and notifs so I definitely am biased ✨✨✨

The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (Cheng Hua’s Fourteenth Year) - Many episodes, much bromance, base novel is gay af, but live action is cute af. Read more here and full translation is not yet done I think

My Roommate is a Detective - THIS IS A SPECIAL MENTION. NOT BL. Doesn’t even have like a book to go along with it, it’s just I’ve seen people getting into this again and creating content, so idk, imma just leave this here. It ain’t BL but it got the most glaring BL-esque relationship I’ve ever seen in my life. You’ll get what I mean if you watch it

The Lost Tomb Reboot - AGAIN another special mention, because many handsome young-ish men who you know, head into tombs, much bromance. Based on a huge series of novels, totally not BL, but as always with like a lot of men put into one story, ships happen. This year as well, in case you’ve seen it floating around

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL live-action adaptations, confirmed + casting + filming. You may have seen some of these because like posters were recently released etc. - As far as I know these are all slated for 2021 ✨✨✨

Faraway Wanderers (Tian Ya Ke) - A danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up, should be airing soon. Leads are pretty cute, although I’m sure they’ll turn this bromance. One of the male leads is known for a lot of period web dramas, and Gong Jun, the other male lead, is known for more contemporary modern dramas, but damn Gong Jun’s jawline

Winner is King (Sha Po Lang) - Another danmei novel by Priest, filming wrapped up recently as well if I recall? Posters recently released, and this is arguably Priest’s most famous and popular danmei

Immortality (Hao Yi Xing) - A super popular danmei novel called 2ha or The White Husky and His White Cat Shizun by Meat Bun. Filming also... wrapped? I think, because posters came out the next day and everyone from Earth to Pluto went mad, definitely one you should look out for next year spring i think, but I’m pretty sure there’s gonna be a hell lot more teasers, posters etc. coming up and then half of danmei Tumblr will probably go into cardiac arrest

The Society of Four Leaves (Zhang Gong An) - Ehhhh I think this hasn’t yet been filmed but casting was recently confirmed (contentiously).  Concept posters are up though. This technically isn’t classified officially as a BL. There are no CPs officially in the novel, but apparently it’s very like idk flirty etc., also slated for next year

*There are a few more by Priest, e.g. Liu Yao, but no concrete news that I’ve seen (by now like at least 60% of her danmeis either have a live-action contract or a donghua contract or both lmao)

✨✨✨  Upcoming Chinese BL donghua adaptations (2021-ish). All by Priest✨✨✨

*Throwing this in just as a by the way thing, because these are also recent news (these two weeks). There might be more but I haven’t seen anything yet personally :D

Imperfection (Can Ci PIn) - Space AU, the novel won like two national literary awards if I recall like last year? Anyway a brief trailer recently came out last week I think, and main lead is handsome af, and once again it’s space and space wars so it’s pretty cool

Silent Reading (Mo Du Zhe) - Novel is called Mo Du, and honestly I think the donghua has been like teasing fans for like idk years, but it looks like we’re finally getting to the donghua as the team previewed the first ep like... two weeks ago live to an audience? Modern crime thriller thing, there’s a masterpost going on Tumblr

Lie Huo Jiao Chou - Another Priest fan favourite, a historical + modern danmei combination. Much angst from what I’ve seen, but donghua teaser looked good also, released also last week

---

anyway hopefully some part of this or at least one part answers your question? if not, just send me another ask or like, DM me hahahaha

[ouyangzizhensdad]

hiya im new to the mdzs fandom... I actually got into it by watching c/ql cause i dint know that there was more... I've read the novel and I started reading the manhua cause more content is life... So anyways my question was basically could you explain why you dont like the serial? Im sorry pls dont get offended just an honest question

Hi there anon,

No problem with asking a question. If tumblr had a better archiving capacity or if it was easier to search a blog, I'd probably redirect you to posts I've written before. But to summarise, I do not "hate" c/ql, I simply 1) am not blind to its fault as a stand-alone work and as an adaptation, and am interested in discussing in a blunt manner the way it fails to adapt different aspects of the novel which will of course bring into discussion the much weaker writing, 2) became slowly embittered by the fandom and the absolutely wild things people say about the series, the novel or just the characters in general--something I've never been able to avoid because the western fandom does not know how to fucking tag shit to keep them separated because c/ql changes too much (for many reasons) to continue to be compared or treated as the same as the original work. I mean just yesterday I saw a post by someone recommending "mdzs" and tagged "mdzs" and it was about.... c/ql. And my knee-jerk reactions to these takes in fandom now is not necessary "you fill me with rage," it's generally on a scale of "oh, honey, no" to benafflectsmoking.jpeg.

As people who have been following me for a long time know, I've mentioned many times before how I had watched c/ql mostly in 15-minutes chunk on my phone during breaks at work the summer it aired, and how it had been a good help at the time because I was Going Through It needed something to latch unto to distract myself. So of course I was attached to it despite its many fault. I guess part of my mistake was not avoiding the c/ql fandom 🤷‍♂️. But, also, at the end of the day, I just find that c/ql is not a series that holds up to scrutiny or long-term actual engagement with the 'text' of it, which impacts how I was not able to sustain this attachment to it. Let me use a Clueless reference: c/ql is a little bit like a Monet - watch it mindlessly on a phone skipping to deal with the weird pacing and weird scenes, and you can enjoy it; but look any closer.... and what is revealed is a big ol' mess.

But! If you are a person who does not like seeing critical or negative things being said about something they like, then my blog is certainly not for you! As I mention in the bio, "you will most likely be disappointed if you follow this blog for CQL content". Generally I'm also pretty good at tagging them "brine corner" if you still want to follow but don't want to see any of those types of posts. If you are however interested in considering critiques people leverage at things you love, if only as a way to understand these things more or confirm you do not find these criticisms valid, then you can just approach my posts from a pov that I'm not doing this because I hate the series.

[veliseraptor]

got tagged for two fic writer memes yesterday! the one from @ameliarating first:

How many works do you have on AO3?

509.

What’s your total AO3 word count?

3,432,24. dang! that’s a lot of words

How many fandoms have you written for and what are they?

I have written for...counting the MCU as one fandom, on AO3 I have written for 32 fandoms, including at least one work in:

MCU, The Sillmarillion, Caliban Leandros, both DC and Marvel Comics, the book Barebacked by Kit Whitfield, Doctrine of Labyrinths, Doctor Who, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Star Wars, Black Jewels, Dragon Age, Lucifer, Dexter, Temeraire, Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Supernatural, A Song of Ice and Fire, Greek Mythology, Lymond Chronicles, Merlin BBC, Code Geass, Good Omens,  Death Note, and White Collar.

this is not a comprehensive list of every fandom I’ve ever written for, because it is not including ones that live only on FFN or Livejournal.

What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

Life In Reverse tops the list (11066), aka my 200k Loki-centric post-Thor AU fic that I wrote between 2012 and 2018 and with which I have a decidedly complex relationship at this point. I love it but also I no longer think it’s my best work but also I credit it with teaching me a fuck of a lot about writing and writing longer projects in general.

With Absolute Splendor is rapidly catching up, to my astonishment (6559), despite having been posted for less than half as long. Aka the wedding planning fic that’s really just me mucking about in my Jiang Cheng and my Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian feelings, at length.

some good mistakes (4618) was my first foray into the Untamed version of “characters who hate each other going on resentful roadtrips together, feat. Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng.” I have gone on to write others and will continue to write more.

Unraveling (3069) is a little bit of a surprise but also not - it was originally just sort of WWP stuff for my ‘what if people remembered that blunt force trauma is a really bad thing actually’ problem that pops up sometimes, re: Loki at the end of The Avengers, and then it kind of turned into a whole thing. I personally think it’s the weakest of the installments of the series it belongs to, but it is the first one and also the one that gets least into the broader family dysfunction and depression stuff that probably is less everyone’s thing (but is what came out this fic that mattered more to me, personally).

I am a little surprised to see Steve Rogers’ Halfway House for Notorious Supervillains (3068) here too! I was expecting one of the more...idk, mainstream concepts from the MCU to win out? But I also wasn’t expecting two Untamed fics to make it here, either. But I am stupid proud of this fic even if it is very extraordinarily unfinished. This is one of those unfinished fics that will nag at me unless and until I finish it, at least a little, because the concept - if I do say so myself - is so goddamn good and I think I was executing it pretty well, too.

Do you respond to comments, why or why not?

Pretty much never. I was never very good at it and now I’d feel like I had to go back and reply to all of them and I just. I can’t do that. and when I do try to just start at the beginning I get overwhelmed very fast and start avoiding it.

Basically I decided that if it’s a decision between wrestling with myself to reply to comments versus actually doing more writing I’m going to end up landing on the latter as feeling both more doable and more productive.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

probably it’s The Worlds Forgotten, the Words Forbidden for sheer level of “so then what was the point” of it all. but like. I’ve definitely written a few extraordinarily miserable fics, and by “a few” I kind of mean “a lot.” Other nominees I’d put down might be nor autumn falter (for currently personally making me suffer most), once there was a way to get back home (for I think having the ouchiest summary), and Waiting for the Summer Rain (which remains one of my personal favorite Supernatural fics I wrote).

but like. there are 43 fics I have marked with Major Character Death warnings and every single one of those, pretty much, has a downer ending.

Do you write crossovers? If so, what is the craziest one you’ve written?

I have written several though not in a long time! My craziest probably remains the Morgoth/Cthulhu short I wrote that actually got sporked because someone took it seriously (???) enough to do that. But the craziest that actually has any merit, (I’d argue) is probably the Maeglin/Viserys one.

not linking to either, if you want to go find them I don’t think it’ll be that hard.

Have you ever received hate on a fic?

Yeah, a few times on a few different things. More if you count “people who seem to like the fic but love telling you how much they hate the female characters you’re writing about in it” as ‘hate’ which I would but isn’t, you know, quite as straightforward. If I had a nickel for every time someone bitched about Jane in Life in Reverse, though...lots of nickels.

Do you write smut? if so what kind?

Sure do! But what does ‘what kind’ mean, I don’t know how to answer that question. I feel tempted to just put in my “Mike’s Hard Kinks” image edit in this space.

I guess usually I tend to write smut that at least involves a little bit of a kink? I don’t think I’d feel comfortable writing entirely kinkless smut. I think I’d feel weird about it, the same way I do when I write really nice fic, generally.

Have you ever had a fic stolen?

I think I did back when but I don’t remember anything about it. I feel like it was one of those mass data scraping things where my fic happened to be among those caught up in it.

Have you ever had a fic translated?

I have! several actually, mostly into Russian and Chinese. every time it happens I’m immensely flattered that someone wants to put in that kind of work on something I wrote.

Have you ever co-written a fic before?

I think I’d be very, very bad at it.

What’s your all time favorite ship?

Depends on when you ask me! I could probably give you a top five but then I’d remember six that I forgot to mention five minutes later. I guess if I were to think about ships that feel like they hold very special particular places in my heart... Xue Yang/Xiao Xingchen, Steve Rogers/Loki, and Min/Rand come to mind.

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

oh god do you want the whole list cause honestly I could just like. screencap the entirety of my “in progress” folder with a crying emoji watermarked over it. and that’s not getting into the fics that are like...half formed babies in my consciousness but not anywhere on paper.

and also I just hate to admit that I might not finish something.

you know what? the Lucifer/Good Omens crossover I started would’ve been a lot of fun. I’m probably never going to finish it, but it would’ve been great if I had. I know other people did it too but my contribution could’ve been amazing.

I can say this very boldly with the near certainty that I’m not going to finish the fic so no one will be able to disagree.

(...also the Last Herald-Mage fix it. that was going to be a good fic too, and also will probably languish unfinished forever.)

What are your writing strengths?

I’m pretty sure dialogue is my strongest point. Dialogue and emotions, which is why I always end up just wanting to write about characters talking and having feelings at each other.

What are your writing weaknesses?

Writing action sequences throws me into conniptions every time I have to do it and I will take drastic actions sometimes to avoid doing it at all, which probably weakens the work as a whole.

Also, I don’t plan ahead and this means I write myself into corners kind of a lot. If I wasn’t writing long, dense fic it wouldn’t be a problem but here we are.

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic?

I tend to avoid it unless it’s in the context of, as in CQL/MDZS fic, leaving certain terminology untranslated. I’m pretty sure I almost never write full exchanges of dialogue in a different language than I’m using for the narration within a fic, and generally speaking my reaction to other people doing it is at least mildly negative.

What was the first fandom you wrote for?

Harry Potter was technically the first fandom I wrote for, but it was a crack fic I wrote to make my friends laugh more than anything; I tend to count Wheel of Time as my first actual fandom for which I wrote my first actual fic.

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written?

some days the answer is “all of them” and some day the answer is “I don’t like anything I’ve written in my entire life” and I never like giving this a definitive answer. yesterday I reread efforts in a common cause (the bound copy!! thanks @spockandawe) and you know what, that was a good fic and I’m proud of it, so I’m going with that one, for this meme, today.

tagging: @mostfacinorous, @jaggedcliffs, @silvysartfulness, @mikkeneko, @kasasagi-eye, @curiosity-killed, how many people am I supposed to tag for this one anyway

[zhansww]

Hi. Thank you so much for replying. You gave me so much good information. I respect that you treat XZ and WY like people and not as fictional characters as I see so many people doing. I'm still reluctant to join this side of the fandom because from what I've seen so far, it's a mess. Tell me if I got this right: xfx= solo XZ fans who think WY and his team sabotaged XZ's career so he could be the top actor also hate cp fans because they support both XZ/WY. mtjj= solo WY fans.

Acknowledge that WY could be in love with XZ but think XZ doesn't care about him, hope WY moves on. They don't seem to like cp fans for not ruining XZ/WY's friendship? bjyx=cp fans. Some of them are supporters and, some of them are fetishizers. Want the solo fandoms to combine??? ( I still don't know what V/JK is) But is that the state of things?? Way more complicated than the CQL/MDZS fandom. I am enjoying your blog, your pinned post is the best introduction to the fandom imo. Are there any other analysis type blogs like yours that you could rec? Thank you. ( Sorry for the long ask)

oh my... smh your reluctance to join this part of the fandom makes you so endearing to me. If I wasn't as socially inept as I am, I'd ask you to be friends 🥺 Gonna put this all under a cut~

Let me start with the easiest thing to answer. V and Jk are two members from BTS whose relationship is shockingly real to me. I avoided writing their names or their cp name out cuz I didn't want my pinned post to show up in those searches. Unlike with ggdd, I never got the impression they'd be okay with speculations about them, though. So I don't ever feel the need to analyze or discuss about them. I just quietly believe in and support them.

You got xfx and mtjj right. Xfx is the official fan name for XZ's solo fans. Mtjj is not an official fan name, though, i.e. Yibo or his company never made it official, as far as I know. It stands for motojiejie which means motorcycle sisters, there's also mtgg = motorcycle brothers but you'll mostly see mtjj. Bxg is what ggdd's cp fans are called. It stands for BoXiaoGirls/Guys. It can also stand for baixiangguo which means "passion fruit". And there's a third meaning which I don't know but has something to do with turtles and which is why you're likely to see bxg refer to themselves as turtles. Bjyx is ggdd's main, fanmade cp name. It was coined back in April 2018, after XZ and WYB only just got confirmed as the actors who get to play WWX and LWJ. One of the rules in the bjyx supertopic on weibo is that you can't switch their "roles". And those were solely based on wang/xian but I suppose once fans realized that ggdd is actually real and their dynamic is vastly different from wang/xian, they came up with different cp names for different dynamics. There's also zsww and lsfy. (Sidenote; if I remember correctly, bjyx means “to make your special someone smile”. Zsww means “lord over a district/castle” and lsfy means “chain reaction”) And as far as I know, zsww fans are called little bandits and lsfy fans are called baby lotus. I apologize if me explaining this makes you feel weird in any way (cuz this fandom separation is dumb af) - I just wanna give you any info I have cuz you might come across some of this, at least. Anyway, the most common abbreviations you'll see; bxg = ggdd cp fans and bjyx = ggdd's cp name. There's also bjyxszd 博君一肖是真的 which means "bjyx is real" or bjyxszd 并肩于学山之巅 which means "side by side atop the snowy summit" and is a phrase that bxg use to hide the first phrase in plain sight, so to say.

I don't know what it's called but there's actually also a supertopic on weibo for XZ and WYB solo fans who believe that ggdd is real but are still only solo fans. So truthfully, you can't really generalize that. Some solo fans do believe in ggdd and are supportive but not necessarily openly. I (like to) think most solo fans are just dedicated to their idol and don't care about anything or anyone else and that's it. The rest, though... yeah, those are the obnoxious ones. Who made up ridiculous conspiracy theories about how Yibo and his company are responsible for what happened last February to gg. Or who make up theories about how XZ only got as successful as he is because he copied Yibo. They really want to believe that ggdd aren’t special to each other or that they even hate one another. So they come up with the dumbest bs to e.g. vilify XZ. Like, about a year ago, mtjj got mad at gg cuz they thought he, as dd's boyfriend, must have forced dd to sell one of his motorcycles. When Yibo uses kadian, they think he just does it to bait cp fans. But when XZ uses kadian, he's being the worst, most careless boyfriend and how tf could he put Yibo in danger like that. And yes, I've seen the same hateful mtjj spout such contradictory nonsense. It can be quite hilarious, ngl. I only follow decent solo stans so I truthfully don't know what the newest sh-t is that antis/solos have come up with.

When it comes to bxg... yes, there are a lot of supporters but also way too many who seem to be unable to separate ggdd from novel!wang/xian. They so badly want only bjyx - that dynamic - to be real that they constantly feel the need to "change reality" to make it happen by e.g. misgendering gg, drawing him smaller than dd and/or more feminine, making assumptions about him and his character that are simply untrue but fit their preferred dynamic so they keep spreading those assumptions. They way they view XZ is wrong and beyond disrespectful and yet, they call themselves fans. I genuinely hope you'll never even have to see any thing of the sort. I don't actually know anything about bxg, wanting to combine the solo fandoms xD I guess, ideally that would be desirable but I wonder if that's even possible.

Thank you so much for liking my pinned post... That and a lot of the posts that I linked in it are what I keep hoping may make more people believe in and support ggdd and it makes me so so glad that it could be of use to you! About recs, I could recommend you some twt accounts or on here, gif makers and fanartists that I like and follow but I don't follow any ggdd blogs that make a lot of text posts. And just to be clear, I don't make many text posts myself either. I stay away from rumors (unless they become more than that) and from stalker info and from all the reaching, too. You might find it interesting, I don't know, but me, I see no point, mulling over any and every minute connection between ggdd that may or may not even be real. It gets too invasive or ridiculous imo. I actually also stay away from all that recent behind the scenes footage of ggdd because I highly disapprove of the way it was acquired. I only comment on things about them that I consider reasonable and possibly noteworthy and that preferably come from the men themselves. And occasionally, I gush about how cute and perfect they are together. Sorry I can't be more helpful with this last question >.<

[xiyao-feels]

contemplating the sexism of MDZS' society, got to wondering about the number of female clan leaders

I mean this isn't a comprehensive review, mostly I used my memory + looked up references from the wiki, but:

Wen: Wen Mao is a man (ch 72, it's not actually mentioned the first few times he's mentioned), WRH is a man, rest I couldn't find. The third clan leader is mentioned as having built a wall around the Burial Mounds (ch 67) but I couldn't find a gender.

Nie: NMJ, NHS, and their father are all men; the sixth, fifth and fourth sect leaders were all men (ch 26). The founder is mentioned as a butcher but I couldn't find a gender. Rest I couldn't find.

Jin: JGS, JGY, and JL are all men; rest I couldn't find.

Jiang: JFM and JC are men; I think the text suggests that it was JFM's father (or rather, not JFM's mother, which I guess doesn't rule out more complicated inheritance scenarios), more on which later. The founder, Jiang Chi, is given a name but I couldn't find a gender (ch 56). The rest I couldn't find.

Lan: we're explicitly told than Lan Yi, the third Lan clan leader, was the only female clan leader (ch 55). We know of at least four others: Lan An, the second clan clearer, QHJ, and LXC. We also have a bit of a sense for how much time passed between now and then—we're told that if BSSR was indeed alive in the generation of Lan An and Wen Mao she must be a "few hundred" (Taming Wangxian) or "hundreds" of (Exiled Rebels) years old (chapter 29). We're also told that WM legendarily killed a divine beast "hundreds" of years ago (ER, ch 72). So however many Lan clan leaders there were in that time, Lan Yi was the only one.

Looking at more minor sects: Ouyang-zongzhu is a man (ch 84); Yao-zongzhu is a man (ch 110); Qin Canghe is a man (ch 86); He Su (of the Tingshan He) is a man (ch 118); Moling Su is led by SMS; the Yueyang Chang were led by Chang Ping and his father Chang Ci'an before him, both men (ch 30). I can't find anything for Yingchuan Wang.

And there's Baoshan Sanren, of course, although she's not exactly a clan leader.

The Meishan Yu are interesting. Certainly they produced Madam Yu, and presumably Madam Jin who grew up with her, and Madam Yu's impressive servants, Jinzhu and Yinzhu. The wiki argues that Meishan Yu are likely led by a woman around the time of Sunshot, given that JFM tells JC to find his grandmother at Meishan ("try to go to Meishan as soon as possible to find your sister and your grandmother") ch 58). On the other hand I'll observe that Madam Yu gives him similar instructions earlier in the chapter but /doesn't/ mention JC's grandmother ("Go to Meishan straight away and find your sister!"), and also—as far as I can tell the Chinese is for paternal grandmother? I could easily be misunderstanding something here but in the text as I find it it's 江枫眠道：“我回去，你们两个离开。不要调转方向，不要回莲花坞。上岸之后立刻想办法去眉山找你姐姐和祖母。” And 祖母 is paternal grandmother I think?? I tried rereading some of the past-timeline chapters and couldn't find any other references to JFM's mother, but I could easily have missed them. If this is so, though, it does suggest that JFM's mother was not clan leader before him.

ETA: ah, just wanted to note that I was rereading the studying in CR chapters and although Madam Jin did grow up with Madam Yu, she's not from Meishan Yu (ch 18):

The only reason why Jiang YanLi was able to enter an engagement with Jin ZiXuan was because her mother was from the MeishanYu Sect, and the MeishanYu Sect was quite friendly with the sect of which Jin ZiXuan’s mother was from. The two madams grew up together, and they had a close relationship.

Oh, I'll mention for completion's sake—apparently people read this passage from ch 60 as meaning that people wanted WQ to take over the Wen? That isn't my reading at all, but I'll put it here so people can judge for themselves:

Wen Qing cut him off, “What the Wen Sect does doesn’t represent what we do. We don’t need to be responsible for the Wen Sect’s wrongdoing. Wei Ying, there’s no need to look at me like that. There’s a beginning to all debts. I’m the office leader of Yiling, but I was ordered to take the position. I’m a medic, an apothecary, I’ve never killed anyone, much less touched the blood of the Jiang Sect.”

It was true. Nobody had heard of any lives lost by Wen Qing’s hands. There were always many cases that people wanted her to take over. It was because Wen Qing was one of the Wen Sect’s people whose way of doing things was actually normal. At times she could even put in a few good words for people in front of Wen RuoHan. Her reputation had always been good.

Anyway. Eeesh. What a ratio. WWX doesn't say that Lan Yi was the only female clan leader ever, so presumably there have been others, but....eesh. It's a very sexist society!

I mean it's not just the clan leaders, you kind of see it all over the place. The Lan are strictly gender-segregated (ch 114), although at least they do have female cultivators in sufficient number that they can go on their own night-hunts (ch 114). Madam Jin and Madam Yu are very powerful, but their husbands are still in charge. The terms in which Yao-zongzhu chides JL for crying in ch 110. The reactions to Mianmian's defense of WWX in ch 73. Madam Jin disapproves of WWX and JYL, "a young man and a young woman," being alone together (ER, ch 70). WC's beliefs about the purpose and role of women (ch 59), his treatment of the few female cultivators during the Wen indoctrination and the fact that there are so few female cultivators to begin with (ch 52), and also that he doesn't spend more than half a year on any given woman max (ch 61). And I know there's lots more, this is really just off the top of my head!!

I think I'd agree that the society CQL presents is less sexist (albeit still very sexist). But MDZS....man. It really is very sexist! In general I feel like I don't see cultivation society presented as nearly this sexist in fandom, although usual caveats for personal experience not being universal and I suspect a lot of people the time they're drawing more from CQL. Still, from a perspective of understanding people's actions and/or characters in MDZS, it does seem worth noting.

...also if anyone else has anything on female clan leaders I would be very curious!!! It's not like I reread the whole text for this, I was mostly just tracking down references, so if anyone does remember anything I'd love to hear about it!!

[intoxicatingimmediacy]

Fandom Fic Rec Days - CQL/MDZS

I bring you FIC RECS! ENJOY! And to our beloved writers - THANK YOU! I don’t have the words to express my gratitude for how much joy you bring into the world. 

Under the cut there will be pining, there will be devotion, there will probably (definitely) be kink, and most of all there will be rampant wangxian.

For my first ever fic rec post, these are the first stories I thought of without checking my downloads. Some I read long enough ago that I don’t remember them exactly, but they must've hit me hard enough to recall their names off the top of my head. Some of them are definitely top tier ultimate favourites, but many of those are also missing from this list as I’ve spent the last year in Severe Lockdown feat. Hours Of Ao3 Every Day.

A caveat: I read wide - as in, I enjoy interpretations of the characters that contradict how I experience them in canon, as long as they have internal consistency. For example, in canon WWX doesn't read as self-loathing to me - he’s seethes confidence in his abilities; it's his place in the world that he struggles with - but I thoroughly enjoy fics rooted in self-worth issues. So, YMMV.

In the same vein, I like pure CQL, pure MDZS, and mash-ups, as well as RPF; my squicks are few and far between, my triggers nonexistent, and I have happily eaten many a dead dove. For our yown safety, read the tags.

+ Linger in the Sun by etymologyplayground, Teen/39k

"Tell Lan Zhan that I'm weeping uncontrollably," Wei Wuxian says to the juniors. "Tell him I'm truly pitiful and he needs to do everything I say until I'm well again."

Lan Congyi is in the middle of carefully holding his eyelids open to check his pupils, but he still obeys, bless him. "Hanguang-Jun, Senior Wei would like us to tell you that he can't stop crying and he'd like for you to do everything he says until he's better." There's a moment of silence, and then Lan Congyi says to Wei Wuxian, "Hanguang-Jun says he already does everything you tell him."

- Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji find themselves cursed, unable to see or hear each other. They figure things out anyway.

(I remember reading this on a long train ride home over a year ago, so spellbound even after finishing, that I alighted a stop too early.)

+ The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch by aubreyli, Teen/20k

Wei Wuxian’s hand jolts, spilling a drop of wine onto the tabletop. “Love?” he croaks, then clears his throat and tries again. “Lan Zh— uh, Hanguang-jun, in love?”

“Have you not heard the story?” the other young woman asks, looking pitying. “You must, it is a truly heartrending tale of star-crossed romance and mutual pining — go to any storyhouse in town, everyone has been requesting a reading of this book.”

“There’s a book?” Wei Wuxian says blankly.

- In which the junior disciples (namely, Lan Jingyi, Ouyang Zizhen, and a reluctant Lan Sizhui) turn to RPF in an attempt to rehabilitate Wei Wuxian's reputation so that he and Hanguang-jun can get together and get married and live happily ever after. It's… surprisingly effective.

(My original comment, because it’s been too long, I think it’s long overdue a re-read: ‘Pure joy! This made my whole week. My cheeks ache from all the giddy smiling at my screen.’)

+ An Account of His Days by theherocomplex, Teen/3k

Someone, someday, may read it, though what they will gain from doing so is anyone's guess. They will learn he loves Wei Wuxian, but that is no secret. It never was.

(Utterly gorgeous and so very much exactly how I headcanon LWJ's inner life.)

+ (our friendship) up against the ropes by daltoneering, Explicit/36k

The reboot completes, and Wei Ying’s brain smashes this information together into two mind-shattering thoughts. Number one, he knew very well already, and is now further seared by defined muscles and a mouth-watering tattoo into his every waking moment: Lan Zhan is the hottest fucking person on the planet.

Number two: that guy wasn’t visiting Lan Zhan’s neighbour, he was visiting Lan Zhan, which means:

Lan Zhan fucks.

Lan Zhan fucks.

Lan Zhan fucks.

- Lan Zhan has been Wei Ying's best friend for years. Literally, years. How did he not already know? How has he missed this most important of facts? And more importantly, how is he ever going to get over it?

(My salivating comment upon the first read: ‘Ah I'm so glad I waited until you had finished posting the whole glorious thing so I could inhale it in one delicious go. Not that I did, I had to take a break twice, just so that it'd last longer, so I could live with it in my brain for a few hours more.’)

+ Meng Yao vs. the Board of the Homeowner's Association by Ariaste, Mature/114k (as of this post, series not concluded)

Two gremlins, their husbands, and the horrible HOA board. As long as nobody gets arrested for arson or murder, we're gonna call it a win.

(Mainly XiYao, with WangXian secondary, but this one is really about the ridiculously stupendously funny. As in, I discovered new sounds coming from myself, ever escalating levels of snortcackling.)

+ For a Good Time, Call by ScarlettStorm, Explicit/171k

The picture is of Wei Ying, that much is clear. It’s of a lot more of Wei Ying than Lan Zhan is used to seeing. He supposes that, technically, Wei Ying is dressed. It’s a bare technicality, since one of Wei Ying’s hands has rucked up his black tank top practically to his collarbone, showing a long expanse of abdomen and one nipple. Sweat beads on his sternum, catching the light like jewels. His other hand is--Lan Zhan feels his eyes widen, as though unable to look away from a train wreck--on his hip, one thumb tugging down the waistband of a pair of red briefs. Wei Ying is biting his lower lip and looking directly into the camera, sultry, his eyes dark and inviting. His erection is obvious, outlined against the red of the briefs and framed carefully with the hand on his hip. Lan Zhan’s brain goes wildly, screamingly blank.

Or: Lan Zhan accidentally finds his best friend's OnlyFans account and has an ongoing emotional crisis.

(This one has so much, the funny, the painful, the smut, it has such meaty substance to it. I get a craving every few weeks to re-read and it never fails to make my belly go swoop. ‘Just... one of the most satisfying reads EVER.’)

RPF

+ Fixtures and Fittings by ella_minnow, Explicit/42k

The client is tall and slim, the padded leather motorcycle jacket he wears adding artificial bulk to his upper body which angles sharply in to slender legs braced wide on either side of the bike. His face is fine-boned and delicate and -

Very, very familiar.

It’s a face that Xiao Zhan has seen daily for the last several months, although never in real life. No, he’s used to seeing it through his kitchen window, twelve feet tall on the billboard that graces the side of the building down the block from his apartment.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

It’s Wang Yibo.

(One of my very first loves in this fandom way back when; wonderfully engaging and detailed.)

+ The Scent of Happiness by mrsronweasley, Explicit/49k

He raises his head up at the drinks menu and that's when the guy behind the counter turns around and greets them both with a smile.

Oh.

Yibo is aware that he's staring, but he just. Can't stop. The guy is tall--taller than Yibo—with long hair tied loosely into a bun. Soft bangs cover his forehead, with longer tendrils framing the most beautiful face Yibo has ever seen on a human person. And Yibo has met a lot of beautiful human people.

(My flailing comment upon first reading: ‘Some moments you had me literally, physically breathless. I kept copypasting exceptionally exquisite sentences out to flail over their particulars but the list got too long. I feel like my ribcage has been cracked open and my heart is bigger after having read your gorgeous words.’ I think I enjoyed it.)

[pumpkinpaix]

Hello! and PSA

*waves* hi everyone! so uh, I’ve kind of had a bit of a surge in followers recently, and I thought I would make a bit of a PSA/intro post with a bit more targeted info than my about page.

anyways, I’m cyan! statistically speaking, you are probably here for one of the following reasons:

my fic

my meta

my gifs

my translation

all of the above

this is pretty much an mdzs blog on main these days, but I also rb a lot of other misc things because I have never been good at keeping my interests separate. it’s also my personal blog, so expect some of that? i am very all or nothing ahaha. my opinions change very quickly as I process new information, so like, something I said last week or yesterday might be different now! I’ve seen several people going through some of my older posts, and I’m just like oh dear, I said a lot of things six months ago that I no longer vibe with. /o\ please keep that in mind as you go diving in my blog!

i don’t have a BYF or DNI policy, but I reserve the right to block anyone for any reason because this is a personal blog first and foremost, and I do need to be better about setting my boundaries and curating my own online space! on that same token, you are free to follow, unfollow, block, whatever, even if we’re mutuals. <3

you’re free to come talk to me in my inbox or dms, but please be aware that there’s a very high chance I will never get back to you /o\ it isn’t personal!! I am just very mentally ill and have many difficulties with keeping up social interactions or talking to people.

in the interest of trying to be more open about myself, my brain, and what that means for me in an online/fandom space, I’m gonna do a boatload of mental health talk under the cut (or, if you’re looking at this on my blog proper or somewhere where the cut doesn’t display, it starts right after this paragraph), including mentions of self-harm/thoughts of specific self-harm etc, just so you are warned! I’ve been thinking recently that it’s good to try and take steps towards being more open about my issues, both for my own sake and others’. It’s long, because one of the fun things about my mental illness is that I am hyperverbal ahahaha (if that... wasn’t already obvious orz)

so if you’ve read pfmmpd, you can kind of get a sense of what I’m working with. a lot of how i wrote lwj was drawn directly from shit happening in my own brain, but like? dial that up from the specific issues that lwj had in that fic and apply it unilaterally across the board to almost anything you can think of.

I hesitate to describe my OCD as debilitating, but only because my specific cocktail of compulsions and anxieties and triggers push me to be hyperachieving and hyperfunctional. I consider myself pretty fortunate (?) in that regard. on paper, you could never tell how absolutely batshit my internal landscape is! which is very good for me practically in that I can hold down a job, keep scholarships, graduate with honors, have good prospects for my future, hold onto relationships (usually yikes) etc. but the fact of the matter is, I’m like. oh boy.

to give you a peek, here’s a non-exhaustive list of things that have triggered me to varying degrees of severity within the last like, week or so:

my dog

a chinese folk song

my mother reading a chinese haiku to me written by a young gay man

a chinese reader of my fic lovingly and gently giving me a history lesson on china and on mdzs while praising me

stepping on a piece of snow that didn’t collapse in the precise way i expected it to

writing meta

reading meta

ruminating on my triggers (honestly, I played myself)

seeing a twitter thread going around tumblr with decent information but the OP is someone who was exceedingly cruel to a good friend of mine

visiting my grandmother’s grave

deciding to visit my grandmother’s grave

discussing the concept of cuddling my partner whom i love and have been with for four years

self-harming (truly the height of irony, being triggered into self-harm and then getting triggered by the result of the self-harm hahahahahaha)

dropping off a package

trying to explain queer-coding to my parents

talking about stressors in my life related to covid19

having a very pleasant conversation with a person i admire

editing my translation

the fact that the “close” button on my accessibility sidebar on the translation website is the wrong color

choosing between eating all the shiitake mushrooms in my soup and purposefully giving myself a bad reaction or throwing one out and wasting food

thinking about playing a fun game with my partner and a mutual friend

my mom asking me to take a photo of some tea for her

my mom asking my opinion on a photo she was photoshopping

animal crossing

writing this fucking post HAHAHAHA

like!! it goes on!! endlessly! obviously, these triggers are not simply “bad” things. the chinese folk song and the haiku were both really beautiful and i love them! but I did spend a good amount of time curled up on my floor in the dark sobbing as i played the song on repeat. the haiku was one of the last straws that ended up with me screaming and crying and hurting myself. the snow??? like wtf the snow thing. I stepped on the snow and it felt wrong and my brain just started screaming SMASH YOUR KNEECAP. ???? (I didn’t, for the record, and I would never.) I love my partner very much! I love my friends very much, and my mother, and my grandmother etc. my triggers are infinite, unpredictable, and bizarre.

I’m saying all of this because I want to be clear that MDZS/CQL fandom specifically triggers me on a daily basis, sometimes very very badly. this is just a fact! it is no one’s fault! I have decided it is worth it for me to stay anyways. it is impossible for me to request people tag for certain things because I myself have no idea what my triggers are until I encounter them. It’s like a fun mystery boss encounter! sometimes it’s low level and i’m well-equipped to handle it. other times it’s a one-hit KO. We just don’t know! there are lots of very cool content creators in this fandom that I can’t follow because it would make my dash that much more high stakes. the original source canon material triggers me! all the events leading up to Lotus Cove massacre? I was shaking at work for three hours after consuming it for the first time.

Meta specifically is something I know a lot of people like me for, but it’s 100% the most triggering activity I participate in for this fandom. like, that suibian meta post I wrote that’s currently going around? Probably took me four or five hours of concentrated effort to write because I was compulsively panicking and rewriting and editing and panicking more and qualifying and editing and qualifying some more and then debating whether I should post it or not and then fighting with myself about my wording and then immediately regretting it and then every time someone commented on it (regardless of positive or negative!) my anxiety spiked. I started a reply to a response on that post and had to stop after a few minutes because I was already starting to trigger myself over it.

this is actually a pretty good outcome when it comes to meta! I recognized that I was hurting myself before I got any further, and I only spent like, five hours on it! it was good exposure therapy for me! the bad outcome is. well. bad, as you might imagine lmao.

I like writing meta. I like talking to people about it too! I like participating in fandom, I like writing, I like translating, I like all of these things. they’re just also really hard for me! there’s a couple meta requests sitting in my inbox right now that I want to get to, but it might take me like. a long time because of. you know! *gestures* Everything takes me a long time. that first chapter of the translation took me literally five months from beginning the project to posting a final edited version. It’s just over 1k words. D8

I try really hard to be chill and kind in public and I largely think I succeed on the kind part (I hope!). If you thought I had even an ounce of chill before this, perhaps I have disabused of that notion entirely now lmao. I’m not saying this for pity, but like? just so we all know what we’re dealing with here. I don’t want anyone to get hurt when I don’t engage with them or feel snubbed if I never reply to them. and also like, hey, if someone relates it’s like hooray, high fave, solidarity! we’re not alone in this world! or maybe this will help someone understand OCD a little better! I don’t know. I hope this post is a positive thing. BUT! I’ve spent three hours on it already, and i’m definitely starting to compulsively spiral, so instead of going back and editing it over and over, I’m just going to post it. thank you everyone for your understanding! I hope you enjoy your time on my blog! (*´▽`*)

[miyu-hyperfixates]

Horrifying AU-background about Baoshan Sanren and her disciples

Soooo this has been sitting on my drafts for nearly one month because I didn’t want my first post on the fandom to illustrate how weird and creepy my thoughts process could be sometimes.

Anyway so here are the little facts we know about Baoshan Sanren and her mountain:

Baoshan Sanren’s mountain is somewhere in Yiling [cql fact]

She is an immortal that has the reputation to be so strong that she could cure anything, even bring back dead people [cql + novel]

She lives on a mountain no ones knows of with her disciples...she accepted a lot of disciples but they were not allowed to leave the mountains

If they did, under no circumstances are they allowed to come back

So far only three of her disciples had ever left the mountain.

All three of them died. None of them of a peaceful death.      

Okay, so here’s the thing since cql added the detail of Baoshan Sanren’s mountain being in Yiling, my mind immediately went mountain in Yiling = Burial Mounds, because how many significant mountains could there be in Yiling?  

[Edit: Of course since then I’ve looked the actual Yiling District in China up, which I supposed MDZS!Yiling was based from, just by curiosity...  and the thing is like 3 424 km²...  so yeah I supposed they could be several mountains in there.... but for the sake of it let’s keep it that way.]

And then, from there my mind went to this very, very horrifying sorta-AU concept. My thought process went like this. If her mountain was really that hard to find and Baoshan Sanren didn’t leave the mountain, how could there be “a lot of disciples there”? How could so many find her mountains? But what if they were already there? What if her mountain was really the Burial Mounds, full of corpses and resentful energy?

Look, Baoshan Sanren’s is said to be so powerful that she could even bring back the dead, right? What if it was real? What if she she took pity on some of the souls that were trapped there [especially the children], carefully pieced back their broken souls together and brought them back to life? What if the only thing maintaining them all alive is Baoshan Sanren infusing them spiritual energy or life essence on the mountain and shielding them from the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds? 

What if this is the real reason they are not allowed to go down the mountain? Because Baoshan Sanren is what maintained their bodies alive. What if this life essence is a special type of spiritual energy something that can only be made in the Burial Mounds? What if the way to keep infusing this life essence was incompatible with the spiritual energy of the outside world? And so, the moment the disciple would go down and try to cultivate, they’ll lost irrevocably the ability to receive more life essence, because they have been tainted by the outside world.  

But we do know that three of them still decided to go down though... So maybe the problem isn’t insofar that she couldn’t keep them alive the moment they go down. I mean if she knew they planned on descending then she could infuse them with enough life essence to let them live for decades without her constant energy supply. But what if the problem is about going back?  

If they ever try to go back then the resentful energy of the Burial Mounds would immediately recognize them and eat at them and their life essence. And the more they’ll be there, the more would be eaten and if there’s nothing left, they’ll revert back to their “natural state” in the fastest way that could naturally happen.... Let’s say.... suicide? or during a night-hunt?

Let’s have a head count.

We don’t know how old Cangse Sanren was when she left the mountains nor how old she was when she died...but I’d gather she’d spent at least a decade in the outside world and her reserve were... not low per se, enough to leave ten/fifteen more years on her own...but then she went on a night-hunt in Yiling. And it wasn’t quite the Burial Mounds... but it was close enough that maybe she wanted to give her master a visit to introduce her son and husband... (or maybe ask her master for permission to give the location to her son and husband in case of emergency)... and well.... you know how it ends.

As for Xiao Xingchen,  he survived because when he came back dragging Song Lan, he’d only left the mountains for 2 years so he had plenty of life essence left and didn’t died immediately from the exposure... but note that he killed himself something like 3/4 years after that (also  that Song Lan, who had Xiao Xingchen’s eyes, died around the same time... as if having a part of Xiao Xingchen body inside him, caused the same fate)... 

And neither Xue Yang nor Wei Wuxian could bring him back, because his soul was in tatters and there was barely anything left. Now the canon explanation is that  Xiao Xingchen committed suicide and was absolutely unwilling to be “brought back”. What if the reason his soul was this way is because it reverted back to how it was on the Burial Mounds?

But why couldn’t Baoshan Sanren just warn them about the consequences instead of just giving them the order not to come back?  

What if the mean/spell to keep them alive relies heavily on them not knowing that they had been dead? Sort of like tricking the body and the soul to think that it’s still alive, while it actually should be dead.  What if the moment they realize what had happened to them, the trick is out and the soul remembers that it’s supposed to be dead so it would immediately get corrupted by resentful energy, causing them to go berserk and trying to destroy everything around them?  [Like in Noragami where the gods must never reveal their shinki’s past names and past human lives ]

(And maybe the other reason Baoshan Sanren didn’t want her disciples to go down the mountain is that, even if they stay away from Yiling like she told them, there was always a risk that they would find out the truth about themselves).  

And so if we take Yanling Daoren’s drastic change of behavior literally and at face value (and not yet as another example on how he probably just stood against the public opinion, got vilified for it and killed), then maybe somehow he discovered the big secret and simply went mad. 

.

.

And that’s it. Horrifying, isn’t it? I really don’t know how my brain got there, but it wouldn’t leave me until I wrote it down... so here you go. Think about it more like an AU-ish world than an actual theory that would fit canon.

(All pictures have been taking from their respective pages on the MDZS wiki page)

[layzeal]

3, 5, 17!

mdzs/cql ask meme!

THIS TURNED OUT LONG. YOU ASKED FOR IT

3) how did you get into mdzs/cql and how long have you been in the fandom?

okay so lemme say first that i had NO intention of ever "getting into" cql/mdzs. what happened is that on June of last year i had exhausted all my dishwashing shows (shows i watch while doing dishes) and was looking for something new. i had heard about The Untamed and was curious. i had NO IDEA what mdzs was at the time and once i got through the first 2 eps......... well............ the rest is history

sometimes i am a bit sad though that i didnt get to read the novel first, but honestly? i know that a year ago i wouldn't have read it anyway, it just wasn't in my circle, so who cares! i'm just glad to be here now!!

5) what's the most compelling arc to you and why? whether a story arc and/or character development.

OH MAN, THERE ARE SO MANY........ though something i think is done quite well in mdzs are the corruption arcs! WWX is one, though it's quite subverted by there never being a "corruption" in the first place, just a "darkening" (except during sunshot but well... everyone had a darkening then). NHS was quite surprising, but it makes SENSE once you spot his anger and grief, JGY which is absolutely heartwrenching because his story is so sympathetic but the fallout and consequences of his choices were so bad and all because JGS just couldn't pay the child support. ughh. OH RIGHT, jc's is a biiig one too esp when it comes to the cycle of family trauma, watching him go from a troubled, but well-intentioned young master to literally a shadow of his own mother, a man so badly haunted by anger and grief who can't help but simmer in his own misery, to the final confrontation at guanyin temple where the cards are put on the table and he finally realizes there's a way to move on? *chef's kiss*, it was SO satisfying to witness

17) favorite canon facts about lan wangji and wei wuxian individually, and as a couple?

BRO THAT'S WHAT THIS WHOLE BLOG IS ABOUT uhhh hm... i guess if i HAD to choose one right now though, it would be:

- i guess this kinda fits into the character arcs thingy, but wow... the way lwj comes to terms with standing up for what he believes is right vs what his family has taught him for all those years. what's especially good about it is that while a conflict of ideas exists, he never has to forfeit one for the other! he never stops being the perfect Lan paragon even when he is breaking rules to stand up for his beliefs-- in fact, that only makes him even more of a good example! god, if teenji got to see adult lwj and how he just exists without worrying about fitting himself into a mold? he would pass out

- sometimes i think about my first reaction to wwx abandoning everything to save war refugees and how THAT was the beginning of his downfall and i just get. wow. that was such a good twist, i don't think we appreciate enough how good a twist it was to finally learn that between all the awful things we hear about the yllz, one of his most "irredeemable" actions was literally. saving war refugees. and he stood by it!! even after WQ and WN died and he had that moment where he thought "i could just leave. i could drop everything and run away" he slaps himself in the face and continues to stand by the people who have no one else to protect them!! AND IT'S SOOO GOOD, he's not a blindly positive person! he knows the situation he is in, he IS sad about the things he lost and left behind, he knows his future is not looking bright, but he also learned how to find a home and a place in this new community and has long accepted the responsability to these people. He still stood by then even after shijie died, even after he had nothing else to keep himself going!! he protected the burial mounds settlement to the very end and while that almost seemed useless because the Wens still died, it saved Sizhui, and that's enough!! he sees the Wens crawl out of the blood pool to protect them and thank him, he sees Sizhui alive wearing a lil Lan forehead ribbon and he knows was worth it!! every sacrifice, every moment of despair was worth it because at least it saved one person and GAHHH i love wwx so much. he did what he had to do, he paid his prices, suffered his consequences and now gets to be safe and happy. i wanna cry

- this was my first answer to the LWJ question but it turned into wangxian, so..... LWJ's complete refusal to pursue WWX romantically, for one reason or another, always coming out of respect for WWX himself. it's just so sweet to me, the loyalty with zero expectations, the wish to stay by WWX's side not because he wants something out of him, he just wants to be near him and protect him, it doesn't matter if his feelings are ever requited! how is a love story built when for 80% of the time neither of the leads are actively pursuing the other romantically? no idea, but it sure depended a lot of selling how much they care for each other OUTSIDE the romantic feelings and that's why wangxian works so well for me. they were friends before they were lovers, and we can see that they're STILL best friends even after marriage! they love each other in SOOO many different ways and it makes me so happy, it was so well deserved

[shijiujun]

I saw your tweets and honestly like ??? why can’t we just all live and let live? I’m always like, it’s ok if you love cql only, it’s ok if you love cql for the actors/rps only, etc etc, but I don’t see why people have to be obnoxious about it on socials. I just want to yell out FYI there’s no right or wrong way to love something. There are multiple ways to love something. Personally I think it’s good to expand your repertoire of interests anyway, and I’m happy to see more people get introduced to the world of danmei, c-dramas or even c-actors through cql.

oops I pressed sent too quickly. but yeah, just wanted to say that I totally agreed with your tweets and while I have nothing against the actor stans onlies, or the cql onlies, etc etc, they really should stop being so defensive. Nobody is threatening their love for the show haha :)

---

AHAHAHAHA okay so yeah I know it’s an old argument and there will always be ppl like this - i guess when i see it i whack it HAHAHA i hate how it’s always CQL vs. everything else. Definitely CQL got danmei adaptations on the radar again and made it profitable (whether good or bad that’s up for everyone to think about) and sure not every production team does danmei live actions because they wanna stay true to the story and shit and they just wanna earn money, i get that - but no one asked for apple to oranges comparison. yes they’re all fruits, but if you judge an apple by some orange standard you’re of course not going to be very happy

and once again, we all love CQL. we love MDZS, and MXTX. they’re awesome, the cast the story everything was awesome. i would know, considering that this blog was cql-focused for like at least half a year XD - it’s fantastic, deserves every bit of fame and everything it got

i think everyone is mostly staying in their bubbles which is awesome, it’s always a few of these peeps? i think we should all be happy at having more shows we actually like to watch? yeah sure they’re monetizing the danmei content now but come on, there will always be supply to meet excess demand XD

love [redacted] only? that’s great! even if you think every other show is trash that’s fine too but coming out to say hey your show sucks because it copied my [redacted] and vaguely saying yeah they copied without actually saying what they copied... gosh. i can name so many historical wuxia xianxia danmeis that came out between 2010 and 2016. 

the funny thing was the user didn’t just rile up SHL peeps which the tweet was targeted at, because there were technically NO SHL/TYK peeps before the first ep even aired ahahahaha so everyone is either a SPL/TYK or 2HA/TYK or PRIEST/TYK or MENG XI SHi/TYK general danmei persons and that single tweet like... managed to make everyone across these fandoms, even those who had no interest in SHL or TYK go like excuse me?

idk, some fights i believe can be better picked. i’m not saying there are no bad apples or problems within each fandom but it helps a lot when ppl are quiet-er

[three--rings]

I Pimp The Untamed/MDZS

Can’t shut up, won’t shut up.

Ok, now that the drama is done, I’m going to make an actual post to encourage people to watch it.   

Rule Number One: Don’t Be Intimidated.

This fandom sounds really confusing and complicated from the outside.  And like a big commitment.  I get that.  But it’s not that bad.  It’s not like it’s Kingdom Hearts or anything.  

What is Mo Dao Zu Shi?  (Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Modao Zushi, MDZS)

Simple.  It’s a web novel, written by a Chinese BL author called Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (MXTX) (You’ll get the idea that this fandom abbreviates a lot.  There are a lot of letter combos around.  But it’s way easier than typing the names out all the time and having to spell them correctly.)   The novel has a full and complete fan translation you can read here.

This novel has been adapted into a BUNCH of different mediums.  There’s a donghua (anime, currently airing series 2), manhua (manga, in progress), audio drama (in progress) and finally a live action drama which has just finished airing.  Everything but the drama are called Mo Dao Zu Shi.  The drama is titled The Untamed (official English title) or Chen Qing Ling (CQL).

Okay, but what is it about?

It’s Wuxia/Xianxia, aka Chinese fantasy about martial artists with magical abilities, cultivators trying to become immortal.  You know A:TLA?  That would be pretty close. Set in Ancient China, there are many different families of cultivator sects.  On a broad scale, it’s about the vying for power between these different clans, a few wars, schemes, backstabbing, etc.  Your typical epic political fantasy stuff.   However the story is really focused on the characters, because this is also a romance.   Practically it means a lot of very pretty people in flowing robes spinning through the air with swords (and flutes and zithers).

Characters?

There are a LOT of them!  And they are all great!  (And they all have multiple names!  More on that later.)  But I’m gonna focus on the two you’re really interested in.

Wei Wuxian (aka Wei Ying, Yiling Patriarch) - The main character.  POV character.  Fearsome, infamous necromancer known as the Yiling Patriarch.  He died 13 years ago.  Except now he’s back, in a new body (err, depending on version).  In actuality is an adorable trickster with a heart of gold. Chaotic Good with some extra chaos thrown in.  Disaster bi, but too much of a dumbass to realize it for like DECADES.

Lan Wangji (aka Lan Zhan, HanGuang-jun) - Perfect disciple of the Lan clan, famed for his purity, his beauty, and his crazy-good fighting and power.   Annoyed nearly to death by Wei Wuxian when they are teens.  At some point annoyance becomes Secret Pining.   Man of very few words and very little expression.  Secretly deeply passionate romantic.  Pines for DECADES, refuses to ever tell Wei Wuxian how he feels.

 So this romance?

You like slow burn?  We’ve got the SLOWEST.  You like Mutual Pining? Yup.  You like one person so incredibly oblivious to the other’s increasingly obvious feelings that you yell at your screen?  Oh boy, Wei Wuxian is the KING of that.  You like characters on opposite sides of a moral divide who fall in love anyway?  How about one character who pretends to be gay and hits on the other in order to turn them off but uh oh it doesn’t work and now we have to share a bed?!?  Cause that’s the beginning of the book.  This is everything you love about fic, all the tropes, but with great original characters and epic plot.  

What about the drama? Didn’t they get rid of the gay?

(Points up at that gif: That’s the “Straight Version.”)  The drama is subject to very strict Chinese government censorship that forbids the depiction of homosexual relationships at all.  However, the show manages to be SO INCREDIBLY GAY and SO ROMANTIC without ever putting anything on screen in words.  It’s very gay, IMO, but all in the LONG LONGING LOOKS.  I mean, it’s almost breathtakingly blatant at times.  They did a very deliberate and well thought out job toeing the line.  You can’t point to any physical contact or dialogue that is definitely gay, except to just gesture at THE ENTIRE THING.  (I mean, okay, they call each other soulmates and are constantly catching each other in their arms but that’s just Bro Stuff, right?)

Is it a happy ending?

YUP.  I feel a little weird saying this because there’s a LOT of angst in this story.  But it’s all plot-related angst, not romance related angst.  I mean, see back up there, I mentioned that WWX dies, right?  He’s hated by his entire community and literally the first thing every version shows is his death.  A lot of characters die.  Everyone suffers.

However, both the book and drama end happily.  The novel gives you everything you could desire from a gay romance, including explicit sex scenes and...yeah, just good, good shit, okay.  (I will say the sex scenes aren’t the author’s strong suit, IMHO as a smut writer.  That’s one of my main complaints.)

So where in the world do I start?

So my personal recommendation is to watch The Untamed first.  That’s going to get a good amount of disagreement from other fans, probably.  I have my reasons.  First, I think the novel is pretty confusing and intimidating for English speakers because there’s a lot of context missing.  And a lot of names.  So many names.  A huge amount of cultural naming conventions and xianxia standard worldbuilding, etc.  Plus the novel is told non-linearly.  It jumps around in time a lot, moving forward in the present but having lots of lengthy flashbacks from multiple POVs.  I completely get WHY it’s written that way, and it’s pretty brilliant, but that combined with a non-professional translation means it may not grab everyone at first. Personally, while I enjoyed the book (and read it in a week or so) and the first season of the donghua, I didn’t fully become OBSESSED until The Untamed.  

The drama, OTOH, has one MASSIVE 30ish episode flashback from ep 4 on, in which everything is told in chronological order.  I also think it’s much easier to follow who is who with visuals, whether you watch the drama or the donghua.  And finally, I think the experience of watching the drama, and then getting to go to the novel, with all the gay stuff left intact, would be pretty amazing.  If you really don’t want to be spoiled for the novel, you could always stop watching the show and go read the book after like 15 episodes or so.  But good luck restraining yourself.  I will say you probably have to be patient with the drama for a few episodes.  The special effects and fight scenes are its weakest points and there’s a lot of that in the first three eps.

You can watch The Untamed with English subs Here or Here, though I prefer the translation on Viki over the official channel, usually.

What about the other versions, like the anime?

None of the other versions is complete.  I started with the anime (donghua), for a few episodes, then read the book, then went back and watched the rest.  I really enjoyed the anime, until I watched The Untamed and now I find the anime...stilted?  It’s pretty and the fight scenes are way better than the drama, but the drama brings it SO HARD on the emotional front.  Then you can also read the manhua and listen to the audio if you want.  Both are much more strict to the book than either the drama or the anime.  (The anime is also edited of most gay content.)  The anime can be found here.  The manhua is here.

Anything else?

I mean, I can’t begin to talk about the other characters and their relationships because I would be here all day.  Wei Wuxian’s adopted siblings and their relationship give me such feels.  Each side character feels like they have their own story written somewhere, just as complicated as Wei Wuxian’s.  

In conclusion, please, please watch The Untamed.  And then yell at me about it.  Also a Disclaimer, everything above is only my own opinion.

ETA: Tumblr repeatedly stripped my links out of this post.  Let me know if any are missing.

[tonyglowheart]

So I’m watching Yanxi Palace, and it’s fascinating bc I’m learning so much in terms of language and culture that I wouldn’t have necessarily especially paid attention to before, but have been bc I’ve gotten into the mdzs/danmei fandom, right? and so 陈情 (chenqing) actually came up a couple times, and each time it was used in a “plead one’s case”/”make one’s petition” kind of way, which I think is very enlightening to me on the kinds of context the term would be used in.

I think in MDZS/CQL, people love to play with the “old feelings” meaning, but I do think that’s more, like, if you’re reaching for a meaning on word play vs what you’d take the term for. I see it kind of like, “corn” in Chinese is, more literally, “jade rice.” But you wouldn’t really take it as “jade rice,” you’d take it as corn. However, if you wanted to, you could play with the characters/do wordplay around that. But I think to most people, they’d just be like. “it’s corn.”

Another interesting thing is naming. I know it’s Qing dynasty, so a bit more modern than the period of time we’re assuming for “vaguely historical” - which I think tends to be Tang dynasty? or Han likely? Anyway, so I’m thinking again on that theory I see people floating around, that in MDZS, ming (given name) is one character, and zi (courtesy name) is two. So, according to that logic, Jiang Yanli’s “Yanli” is a courtesy name? Which means somehow Jiang Yanli has one, but Wen Qing doesn’t. But... I don’t think that’s something I’d assume. I think for ppl of similar generations, I’d assume they’re given names unless we’re told specifically it’s a courtesy name. People point to women historically having “courtesy names,” but the sources I find tend to say “after marriage,” and if we’re looking at, like, imperial concubines, I think.. they are given a new name upon entering the palace, but I’m not really sure if that’s considered a courtesy name, or a name change? I mean obviously, their birth name is still their birth name. But I think the impression I got was more that like.. that’s a “new name” for them? Tho obv this is something I’d want to research more, etc.

I will say though, many instances of a given name I’m coming across in history, where the lady’s personal name was recorded (it seems like they’re often not) have been two-character given names, I’m thinking of Yang Yuhuan (the infamous Yang Guifei), Zhao Feiyan, Wang Zhaojun. etc. So like, I don’t know what the prevalence of one-character ming vs two-character ming are in history, but I hardly think it’s a “rare” thing. And actually, in modern day, I kind of think two-character given names are more common, and given that MDZS if fantasy fiction and not a specific historical piece, I don’t think it’s remiss to think that modern influences creep in. (lol I’m thinking of ppl giving mdzs flak for potatoes and peanuts XD)

I will say, though, I don’t think there’s any reason to assume that Jiang Yanli has a courtesy name, where Wen Qing doesn’t. I’m inclined to think that those are just their birth names. Just because I don’t think there’s any reason to assume this kind of sweeping pattern, when I think the names were given more on a case-by-case basis. And also building off the name thing, I still find my headcanon that the Nie’s don’t do courtesy names very fascinating, and what that speaks to re: class and, like, family history ig? in MDZS, vs say the Jins and the Lans, who are more of the “established” gentry.

[saezutte]

Dear Yuletide Writer

Dear Yuletide Writer,

Happy end-of-the-year season! Thank you for writing for me!

This is my first time signing up for Yuletide, though I’ve been reading Yuletide fic for 14-15 years and it’s one of my favorite yearly traditions. Now I’m turning over a new leaf of active participation in my old age! I guarantee you I am much more worried about what I’m writing than what you’re writing—I’m pretty easy-going about the fic I read and I am going to try to help you out as best I can with this letter. If there’s something you’re unclear about, feel free to contact the mods or stalk me to find my preferences.

My AO3: saezutte

My public twitter: juncassis

My tumblr: here but I do not use tumblr much anymore, sorry.

Do Not Wants

[note: I have no actual triggers, nothing you can write for me will make me any more depressed or anxious than I already am]

Death (of major/important/beloved characters)

Suicide attempts

Rape

Angst without a happy ending, really too much angst at all

University/college settings

Established relationship

Cheating

Actual Unrequited Feelings

Pregnancy (the actual process; breeding kink is fine)

Scat or watersports

Hard BDSM or any kink complicated enough that the characters would have to discuss it ahead of time

Non-canon cisswapping or gender change (it’s ok if they do it in canon, e.g. HX/SQX)

Homophobia as a plot device

Excessive attention to sexual identity or queer politics

Note on AUs: I am ok with the usual popular AU tropes (except, see above, university settings) but I do not want them combined, e.g. A/B/O is fine and coffeeshop is fine, but I don’t want an omega barista getting his scent all over the lattes he makes for some alpha lawyer who comes in every morning. (Ridiculous example, but you get the point.) For AU/modern settings of fandoms with magic, I often like it when the magic is still there in the AU setting. I also like AUs which maintain the general outlines of the character’s relationships, like if the characters are childhood friends in canon, I like to keep that intact.

General preferences:

I am a pretty basic bitch when it comes to fanfic: I like it when two clueless boys pine for each other through some shenanigans and then lock eyes/lips/dicks.

If you fed a neural net every fanfic written in Stargate Atlantis fandom between 2005 and 2010, the result would probably be some nonsense I’d enjoy.

I love many tropes. Tropes! Bed-sharing. Sharing an umbrella. WASHING EACH OTHER’S HAIR? Confessions where they are having an argument and then one of them yells “Because I love you!” 

I love situations where characters are forced to spend time in close proximity and find themselves with feelings.

I love fakeness: fake dating, fake marriage, arranged marriage, marriage of convenience, fake lust induced by sex pollen or heats, aliens make them have sex, whatever. 

I’d prefer story/romance/build-up to PWP but you are welcome to write porn

Tian Guan Ci Fu

Requested characters: He Xuan, Shi Qingxuan

Note: If you don’t want to write those two, I would be happy with Hualian! There are other pairings I like as well, like Fengqing. I requested these two because they are the ones I want the most, but I like almost all of the characters in TGCF so if you want to write me something that sells me on your pet pairing, go for it. Caveat is that I don’t like Qi Rong (sorry cousin)—he makes me anxious, haha.

Why I like the canon: Tian Guan Ci Fu is my favorite of MXTX’s novels, which took over my life this summer. What I love about it is the gods/mythology angle. The different story arcs remind me of reading myths about gods going out on adventures—I love folklore and myths! I love Xie Lian, I respect him so much, and I love Hua Cheng. I love how dark the story gets and I love that I could read it while being relatively assured of a happy ending. But with MXTX, you only ever get that happy ending for the main pair, hence why I requested my side pair.

Why I like these characters: I was in love with these two when He Xuan was pretending to be a grouchy Earth Master who reluctantly goes along with whatever Shi Qingxuan wants. When it turned out to be ABOUT REVENGE and they have FATES WHICH ARE ENTANGLED TOGETHER, I promptly lost my mind. I like the contrast in personalities.

I love Shi Qingxuan as a happy gossip god who is friends with everyone and yet also still pretty good at his job (unlike a lot of the gods around). I like his struggle with realizing he wasn’t meant to be a god and I honestly like where he ends up at the end of the novel—but personally I’d like it better if he re-qualified as a god, haha. I love his sex switching and you are welcome to play with that, though I would prefer if it weren’t a straightforward switch where he (she) settles as a woman. With He Xuan… I love that he’s on this dark completely-justified vengeance quest but he is also kind of a mess? How in debt is he to Hua Cheng? Has he totally neglected his ghostly duties to play Earth Master in heaven? How did he feel starting to be friends with SQX when he’s still planning on ruining his life?

What I would like for these two is something between pure fluff / all the issues are solved / “decapitated brother who?” and angst. I think they mirror Hualian in a lot of ways and I wish they had a chance together!

Prompts:

Them meeting again post-canon: He Xuan not knowing what to do with his (after)life now that he’s got his revenge and not being totally sure what’s keeping him around now that his business is over. SQX living his happy beggar life and HX not sure how he’s still so energetic.

A canon divergent AU where He Xuan doesn’t pull off his revenge plot ? Instead something else happens?

A soulmate AU would work well for these two IMO

Modern AU where HX is infiltrating the company that destroyed his family business and falls in love with the heir to the company president

SQX reascending to godhood as a beggar god and HX suspecting he will come for him in revenge but he just wants to be friends again

The Untamed (RPF)

Requested characters: Wang Yibo, Xiao Zhan

Why I like the canon: Uh, it took over my stupid life this summer. I haven’t liked an idol in years. I have frequently said I don’t like RPF because the canon is too diffuse to keep up with! And yet look at my twitter. I’m living in a hell of my own making.

Anyway, I got into the RPF side for The Untamed initially because the fictional canon here was very overloaded with its status as an adaptation of a novel where the characters are already together and where there aren’t many points for a writer to jump in and add to it. So I got more interested in the actors’ dynamic particularly because it’s different from Wangxian—WYB is a gremlin! Xiao Zhan is the serious professional one! And then I fell in love with them and now this is my life.

Why I like these characters: I just love their stupid handsome faces, I can’t help it. Don’t look at me. I am more of a Xiao Zhan fan but I want to be Wang Yibo’s best friend and bully him.

With Xiao Zhan, I love his smile and I love that he can write a whole essay on Wei Wuxian’s character and I love that he was a regular person who worked in an office before deciding to join one of wjjw’s basically-a-scam idol raising shows and then accidentally becoming the most famous man in China. He’s so professional and serious in interviews and it’s a great contrast to how we see him goofing around with WYB and the others on set.

With Wang Yibo, I like that he’s a wild boy who will run off to race motorcycles at any minute. I would like to shove him a little bit, in an affectionate manner. I love that he’s always looking at XZ and smiling and doesn’t seem to care if anyone notices.

Prompts:

Fooling around on set leads to love? The most basic of basic  

AUs with different settings/meetings—maybe XZ is still a designer and his company ends up working with WYB (who is still an idol)? Or WYB is a pro motorcycle racer and XZ is a sports photographer?

They drift apart now but meet again in 10 years with Regrets

Porn star AU

Having to share a bed

WYB is scared of something! XZ comforts him!

Any dumb AU you want but I would like to veto ABO for this, it’s too weird for me when they’re real people.

The Untamed (TV)

Requested characters: Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian

Note: There are other CQL/MDZS pairings I like, namely Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang. I also like the junior trio (as OT3 or as various twosomes.) Also, one night I read a Jiang Cheng/Lan Sizhui fic and suddenly I got all these ideas for inappropriate uncle pairings JC/LSZ and LXC/JL. If any of that speaks to your heart instead, go wild.

Why I like the canon: So obviously I read the novel and plunged into this MXTX abyss for 100 years. With this adaptation, there are a few things I don’t like versus the novel but I’m happy to ignore them because I love what they did with the visuals and music and the acting choices. Some of the changes I also do love—I love how WWX seems to be so much more into LWJ from the beginning! I love seeing them goof around, I love drunk!WYB in the drama.

I also don’t like established relationship fic for the most part, so the censorship in this adaptation means I have more to play with in fanfic!

Why I like the characters: They invented love!!! They did. I particularly like them both as kind of messes… It’s easy to forget with how great Hanguang-jun is but he’s also bad at expressing himself and it gets him into trouble. Then you have WWX the deviant genius troublemaker with a heart of gold (even when he doesn’t have his golden core). They’re immature kids who can’t figure their shit out before things get serious and then 16 years later, they are emotionally stunted 30-somethings and (tbh) I feel that. These two are meant for each other and meant to wander the country following the chaos and getting into adventures together while fucking a lot.

Prompts:

How do Wangxian get together in this universe? Was it as teens? During the war? Did they split up? Did LWJ give in to temptation earlier than in the novel? When did WWX realize his feelings?

Fix-it for the ending where they separate!! Duh! Does anyone think them being apart is going to last?

Star Trek AU with the Lans as Vulcans

Uh, I really like A/B/O fic for these two.

MAGIC SEX CURSES. Fuck or die! Sex pollen! Particularly if they’re not a couple yet and this leads to awkwardness and getting together.

Nirvana in Fire (TV)

Requested characters: Mei Changsu, Xiao Jingyan

Note: I also love Lin Chen so if you want to write some MCS/LC or LC/Fei Liu or LC/MCS/JINGYAN OT3??? go for it. I am also a Nihuang/Xia Dong shipper so if you want to put that in… somehow… my gay little heart would be happy. I also like Nihuang/MCS/XJY or MNH/MCS + MCS/XJY but I’d like the focus on the men in that case! 

Why I like the canon: I watched this show because someone recommended this show to me as, like, Chinese Game of Thrones but good. I think it’s genuinely one of the best TV shows I’ve ever seen. I love plots and revenge and good people doing bad things for justice. Even the ending is good for me though obviously it left me unsatisfied on several points.

Why I like the characters: I am deeply into sickly doomed genius MCS and every time he got even more deeply ill, I fell deeper in love. Every time he coughs up blood, my heart would race. I love his terrible schemes and stupid self-sacrificing choices. I find watching this show very soothing because I knew he would always come out on top in his schemes. I trust him. I love handsome clueless Jingyan and how he’s just so good (it’s terrible.) I love his mom and how much he cares for her. I love him but he is useless, he needs his Xiao Shu and I need fanfic to restore him to him.

Note: So my limited research on this says that male/male sex practices were accepted and well-known in this time period in history, so I really don’t want them thinking “oh no what are these weird gay feelings.” There are other barriers to them being together, like a ruler or official being overly attached to one person was considered very bad. I am also a big supporter of the socially-approved polygamy of this time period, so I don’t need Jingyan to refuse to sleep with his wife or something out of loyalty to MCS—he has to do it! Or all their plans are ruined! And he can enjoy spending time with her or the concubines without affecting his feelings for MCS—you could explore that complexity in fic if you like.

Prompts:

Mei Changsu isn’t dead, he’s hiding again, Jingyan searches for him

They start having sex during the series, the ending is averted [somehow]

Post-canon, MCS is alive and Jingyan hides him in the palace with his consort/concubines to keep him on as an advisor without anyone objecting

AU where male/male marriage is customary (maybe aristocratic men are expected to have one male and one female consort?) and so MCS decides the best way to influence and help Jingyan in the capital is by becoming his wife or one of his concubines

anything just get them together and happy.

Promare

Requested characters: Galo, Lio

Why I like the canon: I love this film but I also find it to be… not enough? I wanted more character development, I wanted more plot, I wanted the goddamn Burnish to stay burning things. So I requested it because I want more! Please help me.

Why I like the characters: I love freedom fighter idealist Lio who will kick everyone’s ass for what is right. I love idiot idealist Galo who wants to fight all fires and learns to love exactly one fire. I think now that they aren’t saving the world by punching global warming, they should have a nice romance. I also like they points where they clash in the film, so I’d love to see them adjusting to “normal life” and having to deal with not having the crisis to make sure they get along.

Prompts:

Galo and Lio rebuilding the world together

Lio regaining Burnish powers?

AU where the Burnish are still a thing but it’s not a big crisis/battle and they just have normal jobs and there are integration programs and Lio is an angry Burnish teen and Galo volunteers at a community center helping Burnish control their powers. Like a world that’s more everyday X-Men than X-men in full adventure war mode.

This is the one request where I’d probably enjoy gen fic with lots of worldbuilding.

I would also enjoy lots of horny porn, preference for Galo topping with his giant stupid dick? I’m sorry I’m like this.

I do want to note ahead of time that I might be traveling (as in, possibly literally on a plane) when fics go live, so please do not be upset if I do not comment on the fic right away! But I definitely will! I know this can be a sore spot for authors so I wanted to give some warning. 

I think that is all! Thank you very much and I’ll see you at the end of all this. 

[shijiujun]

On Translations

Once again, I’m just plain incensed by dumbasses who think it’s okay to firstly, steal someone else’s hard work and secondly, think they’ve got some right to edit that person’s work because they think they’ve got a better grip on English (not true btw) - It didn’t happen to me (well, as far as I know) and I’m not in the Guardian fandom and I don’t personally know the person who’s dealing with this ridiculous shit, but oof am I angry after seeing the tweet.

Just saw on twitter that some asshole stole a translator’s works (Guardian, Chinese to English) and edited it - Yes it’s just like the MDZS saga a few weeks ago when some white person who doesn’t have any Chinese language knowledge, tried to ‘improve’ translations done by another person who actually knows what they’re doing in both Chinese and English - And then put in on Wattpad with a ridiculous letter and intro where they said: “Great things can be made greater” to explain why they edited the English of the original translation.

“Great things can be made greater,” said the thief.

“I hope my actions will be appreciated,” said the thief again.

Like wow, once again, the audacity - There’ve been extensive arguments on translations since the MDZS saga a few weeks ago and obviously the fan who took ExR’s translations and ‘made them better’ stupidly stepped on a landmine by fucking with the MDZS fandom that has a longer history, more resources and clout than the amount of time she’s been exposed to MDZS via CQL, and got bitch-slapped by the rest of the fandom where there exists a majority of fans knowing clearly what to do and not to do.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said of all fandoms, especially smaller ones - The user i saw is a translator for Guardian and the mofo 1. Stole their translations 2. Edited the translations to ‘better english’ 3. Wrote that they don’t know who did the original translations but “they know where to find me” *cue my eyeroll* 4. And after op commented to say please credit at the very least in May, they’ve been ignored so far - but luckily they’ve got some supporters as well to help report the mofo.

Aside from the ridiculous thievery (not crediting, blatantly lying and stealing, being an arrogant, indecent person stuck on that high horse) of course, the “I believe that great things can be made greater” is a fucking load of bullshit in this instance, and I mean taking someone else’s translations and adding your own spin to it because you think you’ve taken tests in English as a first language in school all your life (fuck off, a lot of these translators did too), that you’ve got some superiority over English or because you think it reads funny?

Granted, most fan translators don’t put up flawless translations (once again, these translators are FREE LABOUR), but you get it for free and you don’t have to (and can’t) read the original text, so suck it up.

Moreover, the disgust that I feel at the claim that the thief’s work is now ‘greater’ is extremely visceral - It’s not a greater piece of work because the thief stole it, period. No one asked for the thief’s help.

(In case you guys are curious the stolen post on Wattpad is here: https://my.w.tt/7dehLj7D56 and if you’d like to report just follow the instructions)

On Chinese to English translations:

1. If you don’t have good grasp of the original language, you have no right editing the translated work after, regardless of language. Until you can clearly understand the original idioms, context, characters etc. or have at least lived with the language for a substantial part of your life, honestly, just stop, you’ve got no right! 

Sure, some translators aren’t as good as you like them to be, but the argument is always, well, you wouldn’t even have this minimal translation if they didn’t do it, so yay you’re like a few sentences and words closer to the text than you were before. If it’s really that bad, hopefully there are better translations and you can ignore the one you’re looking at, but the same rules apply across all translations!! Don’t disrespect the translator (especially when they’ve done nothing wrong except try to give you access to more content).

2. For Chinese, it’s even worse because the language is known for its hidden nuances and complexities within just two to four characters that, when translated into English, can sometimes take up to two long sentences to explain. That’s why sometimes shit reads funny. It’s not that these translators can’t do English, but Chinese to English acrobatics is beyond your comprehension, hell sometimes it’s beyond translators’ comprehension, so thanks for editing something you’ve got no idea about. This user Bee made a very good argument thread IMO about this on Twitter which I suggest people read

3. Adding your edits to a translated piece of work especially without permission or discussion with the translator, honestly who the fuck are you to do that? Either work your damn ass off by painstakingly translating the original and then editing it however you like, or just... enjoy the free content. Chinese BL novels (in this instance and as in many instances i’ve seen) and some of these translators have been around for longer than you’ve been in the fandom, so suddenly when you have an interest in the content, in a culture and language that you’ve never seen before, are unfamiliar with and have zero knowledge about, you think that as a fan you now have the right to edit someone else’s work that was already done correctly? 

The fact is if the translator wrote a bogus line in the English translations, you wouldn’t have known, and when you upload it as your own and ‘improve’ it, you would be a joke, but you didn’t read the original text did you, so what makes you are any sort of authority to edit the translations?

4. Of course this is not to say that non-Chinese speaking people can’t enjoy the same content or have excellent, poignant discussions and understanding over the content, but honestly a lot of translations don’t capture 100% of a Chinese novel because the nuances are just that complex, and translators do their best to convey it regardless - This is why RESPECT FOR THE TRANSLATOR IS IMPORTANT. And I don’t mean simply paying lip service and typing “we respect all translators for their hard work on this work”, and then disrespect it entirely by not crediting, by the simple act of editing without permission etc.

Respect their interpretation and translations, because it can differ from translator to translator translating the same sentence (and people who don’t speak the original language want to compete with that, I don’t understand?!)

5. Honestly, considering how people are still arguing on the semantics of the Bible for example, not only in its original language but also in English alone - if people can’t agree on every sentence of the holy text and what each sentence means to different people, fan translators get a fucking pass

6. I read in Bee’s threads where someone disagreed with their argument of ‘only people who understand the original language can translate and edit’, saying that it’s okay if the editor doesn’t have a grasp of the original language - I understand that yes, someone else’s English might truly be better (for e.g. actual editors but also please don’t proclaim that you’re one just because you think the translator hasn’t lived with English for most of their lives or whatever), but even then, the editor has to work really closely with the translator because the translator is the primary source of the translation i.e. they know exactly what is going on in a particular sentence in their heads that may not have been translated fully, so how can non-Chinese reading editors truly understand the translated text on its own, editing in silos?

7. Perhaps in actual publishing houses that deal with official translations, this is a fallacy that is ever-present and editors do that anyway without understanding the original text (not sure about this, I’m bringing up the point for consideration, hypothetically putting this out here), but my issue with ‘editors’ in the fan translations space is that they come off sitting on some high horse because they think they’re better in English than you are (which of course yes, might be true, but then read points 1-6 again)

8. A thief is a thief, don’t put up an open letter or disclaimer explaining your motivations. It’s plain and simple, you stole someone else’s work, claimed it for your own and are riding on the great (sometimes not so great but still great, if you get what I mean) work that the translator did. You don’t get to claim ownership for any part of it, even your edits. And once again, “original work belongs to the translators” without actually naming the translators? Fuck off.

9. God, I hate Wattpad and Instagram (okay sometimes Twitter but Twitter seems to be a halfway point) - The Sanctuaries for Lazy Content Thieves Where The Platform Endorses Their Shitty Behaviour

10. Aside from translations, I’ve also seen assholes stealing like shitposts and jokes - These are the hardest to prove as well and it’s almost impossible to claim ownership when someone steals your jokes. Thieves only wish they had as creative a brain as some of you (didn’t happen to me but to a mutual) do. The audacity. The audacity! if the work was actually done and paid and recorded, if TurnItIn.com was available for fandom posts, these thieves would be out of gas.

11. Fan translators are not obligated to answer to any of their readers when it comes to why they translated something a certain way. You don’t like it or don’t agree with it, simply ignore, close the tab and go find another translation you like, it’s that simple. Nowadays readers 1. Threaten/Diss the translator directly and rudely 2. Steal the work 3. Add their own spin on it without understanding the original content and say: Yay! Look at this I made it so much better so give me some attention 

*****

The point of this post is not to claim ownership over any fandom or content just because translators or Chinese-speaking/reading people in the fandom know the content better. It’s also not to say that non-Chinese speaking/reading people can’t enjoy, understand, have great discussions over original Chinese content, because just from MDZS alone you can see that they can. Of course there are also individuals who might not be able to speak the language but are familiar with Chinese culture etc. because they’ve studied or lived it well, or maybe they’ve actually watched decades of Chinese drama to be able to analyse it properly now, all that’s awesome. 

Also, I’m all for people who are learning Chinese (or any language for that matter) to translate something as practice. That’s great, that’s good, that’s to be admired!! 

It’s non-Chinese speaking/reading people who claim they know the original content better than translators without any discussions, claiming some superiority over the content because they think the translation is not done well enough without doing any of the ground work that I really have an issue with (and also the fuckers who steal of course XD).

*****

And unfortunately I had too much time on my hands today and got pissed off after seeing the tweet so some of you have to read through this drivel XD