#but these are tag complaints because there are many versions of canon and it's honestly not even the point

[tozettastone]

I'm so tired of how much of the tumblr experience is just people I don't know reblogging my happy little fandom posts with "well, actually—" and sometimes I do just snap and actually respond to them. This isn't constructive but, your honour, I'm being provoked.

Sometimes they even make interesting points, and I still have to block them because they think this is a constructive way to talk to strangers about their fanfic ideas.

But half the time, they're not even right. They're confidently wrong and they're correcting me on a post about what would make a fun fanfic.

Listen. I am presenting a fic idea. It is the realm of make believe. I am playing a happy little game of pretend. That's why I introduce these posts with "there should be a fic where," or "the world needs more fics where..." I am signifying to you, my peers in this social activity, that this is a creative exercise and we are playing.

If you join in by telling me I am playing wrong, and actually the idea I presented is bad, you are being rude. Go make your own post with your own better ideas.

You engage constructively with posts like this by saying "yes, and," rather than "well, actually."

[tleeaves]

Thank you @luciehercndale and also @faithfromanewperspective (I am pretty sure you also tagged me and I forgot to make my reply then) for tagging me 🥺 It means the world, honestly, since I don't update a lot nor write too many fics, yet I'm still remembered.

When you get this, reply with your favorite five fics that you've written, then pass on to at least five other writers. Let’s spread the self-love 💖

(All of the below are in The Last Hours fandom)

Wasting Beats In This Heart Of Mine 136,108 words. Work in progress. This fic is my most ambitious and it is a various x OC story (James Herondale, Cordelia Carstairs, and Matthew Fairchild). It's my own take on how multiple universes of the same characters work and what would happen if a time loop was created by trying to save someone who is meant to die. Basically, it's the fracturing of reality, the occasional dose of heavy existentialism and derealisation/depersonalisation, fixing of some canon complaints I had, but it all takes place during Chain of Iron. It's a re-write of an earlier and now deleted fanfic of mine called Chain of Lies. Oh, and there's romance. Everything kind of revolves around that, one way or another, even in some rather dangerous ways.

The Rain (It Rains Every Day) 7,912 words. Work in progress. This is a Beauty and the Beast AU but greatly inspired by the myth of Eros/Cupid and Psyche, as well as earlier versions of the Beauty and Beast story (the French version, as well as some others under different titles like East of the Sun, West of the Moon, which is basically Cupid and Psyche in a different font). It's got James Herondale x Cordelia Carstairs, Lucie Herondale x Grace Blackthorn, and Alastair Carstairs x Thomas Lightwood. The setting is 1900, Greece in an alternate universe where a whole bunch of the TLH cast immigrated to the country or live(d) in Bulgaria or Persia.

A Diamond On Your Pillow 1,978 words. Complete work. A crack-ship fic about Christopher Lightwood x Lara Croft because of a silly joke I had with @thevagabondexpress. I still maintain that it is the most genius of my works, even if I did not get around to writing out any of the backstory we talked about. Also, it's the strangest ship in the fandom corner right now and I am proud of that. The moment someone takes my title, I will be publishing a James Herondale x Alastair Carstairs fic and no one can stop me. Not even your mother. Heed my warning because after that it might be Peeta Mellark x Cordelia Carstairs AND I WILL DO IT.

Love, We Did Our Best 3,354 words. Work in progress. A Matthew Fairchild x pregnant OC fic. I came up with the idea after a weird dream I had about IVF, but anyway. It takes place in France (past) and Tortuga (current story), 1906. Matthew has been travelling the world and generally avoiding Shadowhunters until he gets to Tortuga and meets a Nephilim woman with her marks stripped in exile there. She is a widow expecting to give birth to her first child in somewhere over three months. It only has two chapters so far, but it's supposed to be a cute murder mystery (..."cute" as in there's romance, but also the murder mystery itself is not actually cute, it gets quite dark).

Pride and Prejudice 2,460 words. Work in progress. It is literally just a Thomastair Pride and Prejudice AU. It has one chapter. I intend to continue it one day, but I have to refer to the book often so it's on the backburner because I am too lazy to refer to the book to write and this AU requires it. I'll get around to it eventually. Probably.

I am tagging @griddle-cakes, @sourlemons262, @zoyalannister, and @all-this-panic-still-no-disco (mostly because I know you're also fanfic writers, 3/4 of which have written also for TLH. You absolutely don't have to do this though if you don't want to.)

[quietlysatan]

An Invincible Summer - ShanaStoryteller, AO3

Link: Here!!

Rating: T for read the warnings, but don’t worry too much because of them

Favorite Quote(s): I legit wanna tattoo this next quote on me somewhere

"Oh, the things that can be accomplished through ignorance of their impossibility," 

And this Straight Up Fact

“There’s no such thing as cheating as long as you win,” Natsu says, and the brat’s not wrong.

This one’s just funny

“Chouza,” Inoichi forces himself to say evenly, “Your teachings produced Ebisu and goddamned Gai.”

“Genma’s pretty normal though,” Chouza sighs, “I never could get through to that boy.”

Gently Gai casually caring about Kakashi’s well-being is my entire reason for living, speaking of which if someone wants to come be my Gai that’d be really fucking nice because us Kakashi’s don’t do too well on our own

He hesitates, but says, "Not that I do not find your newfound mentorship to be a most youthful endeavor, but -"

"I don't know," Kakashi interrupts his friend, "I met her while she was taking her genin exam and she, I don't know, adopted me or something. She just keeps showing up."

Gai nods thoughtfully, "Stubbornness is a useful skill to have when trying to cultivate a friendship with you." Kakashi elbows the other man, but doesn't protest besides that. "She's a good cook."

And this one because I love it when people Get It, ya’know?

That's really why he won't say anything, why he won't reveal that the Kyuubi's container and the fourth Hokage's child is still alive: they already killed him once. Naruto and Shikamaru are the same age, they would have been in the same class, and the idea that anyone could want to harm his innocent, precious son makes his blood boil 

And this one, for accuracy

"This sounds like a most youthful endeavor. I will bring Anko! She will fan the flames of youth in our young Konoha blossom!"

Both Itachi and Kakashi look at Gai, horrified. "Please don't," Itachi says weakly, like he knows it'll fall on deaf ears but he has to try anyway.

"Don't worry," Gai attempts to assure them, going into his Good Guy pose, "They will produce youthful flames of feminine excellence!"

"They're going to burn down Konoha," Kakashi says flatly.

Gai's hair and teeth sparkle in the sunlight, and he doesn't attempt to deny it.

Another important one

"The world is a terrible place," she says, and she has to swallow before she speaks again, "and it's full of terrible people. But I don't have to be one of them." 

I love that Natsu-chan has great balance, this is my number one favorite character trope, and I wish more people would write it

She bends down to look at him upside down, and Itachi can feel that she's not using chakra to stick onto him, and sometimes her balance just isn't logical. 

I just love the idea of tiny genius Naruto, and I love that Natsu-chan is a seal master at like, fucking seven and a half lol

Itachi knows it's actually far more complicated than that, but just as he does not tell her minutia of the past shinobi wars in their history lessons, she does not overcomplicate her explanations of sealing. Usually he's grateful for that, but when she appears to break every known law to sealing and chakra, he's not.

"That's," he blinks and he's not going to tell her it's impossible because it clearly isn't, "new," he settles on.

A mood honestly

Inoichi now feels the urge to bang his head against the table top, because 'a huge pain' to Natsu is 'literally impossible' to everyone else.

Another mood honestly

Inoichi watches his former genin dig in with resignation. “When are you guys going to start picking up the tab? Feeding you all isn’t cheap you know.”

Hana swallows her mouthful, “Sensei, I am but a lone healer’s apprentice –“

“I have been a chunin less than a month,” Kabuto pouts, wounded, “and already you seek to profit-“

“Do you have any idea how much sealing paper and ink costs?” Natsu demands.

“Okay, okay,” Inoichi grumbles, but it’s not very effective considering he’s smiling, “I take it back, jeez.”

Okay so, since this is a 100k+ word fic, I’ve been doing this thing lately literally just now on this fic review where I only feature quotes from the first chapter (Depending on length.) but, I’m making an exception because I’ve never seen these three characters and my thoughts on them summed up so well by someone I don’t know which is to say anyone, no one I know cares about my interests really lol

"Maybe a little," he admits grudgingly, "Sakura's really smart, but she acts dumb for some reason. And her endurance is really bad. She probably would have been failed on that alone if she didn't have such good aim with shuriken. And Sasuke's good at like, everything, I still don't get why he didn't graduate earlier. He's just so-" Kiba rubs his hand over his face.

"So what?" Hana prompts, even though she's heard this particular complaint before.

"Sad," the genin sighs, "He's miserable all the time, and he works hard and if you yell at him for long enough he'll work with you, but - crap, I don't know. He's got this really great poker face so you think he's just a big jerk, but I can smell his emotions, the big idiot, and he's just this sad lonely kid who won't listen to anyone."

Hana hums, because if she opens her mouth she'll probably start cursing the Hokage and his dumb rules and his dumb ideas, and that is not the type of thing that leads to a long life.

Just one last quote because dudes, guys, pals, friends of mine it’s important and you should all stop and read it.

 “Thanks for being cool with – everything. I’m really happy you’re not mad at me for not being honest with you.”

“You are my friend,” Gaara says warmly, “and you have always been honest about that.”

Words & Chapter(s): 136,306 words of greatness, and 6 full chapters of nicely done completion

Summary: When Naruto is five, he's gutted by a drunken civilian and presumed dead.

Six months later a girl with ash pale hair and dark blue eyes enters the Academy. 

(Guys I swear on my cool as fuck username, and all around internet personality as practically satan and probably Lucifer and whatnot that nobody we like stays dead or severely injured)

Score: 13, this is one of my favorites for a reason, this is actually my second technically third time rereading this in as many weeks

Pairing(s): Uchiha Sasuke/Uzumaki Naruto Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, background Haku/Zabuza, but don’t worry anything you’re thinking of is addressed quite nicely in the fic ultra background but still there’s a lot of relationships and I’m not going to tag them all

Warning(s): Naruto technically dies more than once because this is Naruto we’re talking about but they also technically don’t??? You gotta read it, but basically temporary character death, only the bad guys stay dead in this one.

Nobody knows that Naru-chan lived so there’s that angst for you, however, to be fair it’s not like this whole story is just characters mourning and crying and whatnot, at this point it’s mostly just passing thoughts and memories which, again, to be fair, does almost feel worse at times... Huh, regardless it’s not overly angsty

Kakashi is adopted whether he likes it or not by Natsu-chan, we love both of our emotionally fucked over fair-haired ninja in this house so you won’t have to worry about that sorta fic coming outta nowhere from me BTW... but anyways, Kakashi freaks out a bit, much like the abused dog he always reminds me of, but Natsu is the sweetest and most gentle, yet forceful person he could’ve possibly caught the attention of. (This is canon)

The Akatsuki are still bad, BUT ITACHI ISN’T technically SO WHO FUCKING CARES!!!! (The Massacre still happens tho...)

Mentions of The Flower District and what that implies, and also things a Kunoichi might definitely do

Oh my fucking god the Hyuga... Who would willingly do something so horrible as that? Of all the things... Warning for... The Hyuga branch family situation, it’s dealt with nearly as soon as we are informed but, gods, my blood ran cold, and my face whited out, my sister thought someone had died when she saw my face haha,,, who the fuck does this? And do they die? In canon I mean? I think I only watched up to the chunin exams or Pein’s attack, I can’t remember which tho...

Natsu cries because people are nice to her sometimes. And honestly that’s fair, I burst into to tears once because I imagined someone kissing my forehead softly so, Natsu is completely valid... Sidenote, I’m touch-starved and have no cure for this beyond younger siblings and my cat because I don’t have the ability to ask my mom for a hug without literally gross sobbing and I have A Thing about embarrassment sooooo... yeah if anyone has some therapy justu for me that’d be nice

Mentions of Gross Men that apparently want to have Natsu’s increasingly growing collection of the absolute most dangerous people she can befriend pay them a visit. And by that, I mean an old fuckwit has the gall to leer at a TEN-YEAR-OLD and a FUCKING THIRTEEN-YEAR-OLD!!!!!! Ugh, I hate those kinds of pathetic worms.

On that note, there is technically underaged things going on, but they are also Ninja soooo???? They’ve killed people and are technically in their version of an army, and by the laws of their lands they’re all adults, actually I’m pretty sure by shinobi life expectancy Kakashi is middle-aged, Inoichi is a senior citizen, and Hiruzen is a walking corpse tbh

Alcoholism??? I don’t really think it is but I’m not sure, but some characters do drink often, and usually when stressed courtesy of Natsu and co. but still... I don’t actually know if it is because it doesn’t actually happen much, more like every few weeks/months

Mentions of past sexual assault, and attempted past sexual assault, neither happen in fic or to any of our main characters, the experiences are not graphic though they do talk about it in chapter five, it’s not to graphically described.

Also, a bunch of off-screen lemon

A Thing (That I copy-pasted from the author so that all of you will see it and not say a single word against it.): If you thought Natsu was too mature for her age - she has seen and been through some really horrible shit. But also: my cousin has, since he was like 4, hung out with kids that were about 4 years older than him because those were the kids that were in his neighborhood or whatever. Point being, even after he started school, his main group of friends was consistently older than him. He very quickly adapted to that, and to this day (he's 12) hangs out with that same group, and considers children his own age 'kids' because he adapted to the behavior of the group he was surrounded with. I hardly believe Natsu would be any different.

And also

4. Quick little note because some people mentioned liking my portrayal of the Sandaime. I base his decisions/motivations (and Itachi and Danzo's to a certain extent) around this quote by Clementine von Radics: "It is so hard to live half monster, to hurt everything you love by trying to protect it wrong."

Pros: Watching Natsu just casually disregard the idea of gender with little to no thought is the greatest thing anyone will ever experience beyond, I dunno, the party we’re all gonna collectively throw when soggy Cheeto dies (I still haven’t decided which song we should make chart number one when that happens)

Given that I’ve technically read this three times you should already know the writing is fucking amazing, like, whoa, mind blown type of amazing, like, wow, so good, I usually hate rereading something I’ve read before, and especially so soon after the fact but geez Louis is this fic amazing

Natsu is just as easy to fall in love with as Naruto, and they are still the same people with slightly different personalities as is to be realistically expected with a situation like Naru’s was.

Also, GENDERFLUID REPRESENTATION DONE FUCKING AMAZINGLY IS ALWAYS A PLUS!!!!!!! 

The author manages to convey a very realistic genderfluid character in an incredibly believable manner, while also still keeping Natsu/Naruto themself. They’re still the Naruto that we knew and loved, but they’re different too, as is to be expected. when Natsu is a girl no-one stumbles, she is a girl without a doubt, even the author doesn’t trip up on societal expectations, and when Naruto is a boy there is next to immediate acceptance of this fact with absolutely zero (0) Zero bullshit from transphobes, which, as a genderfluid person myself, is always fucking nice to see. You’ll have to read it to know more though.

Natsu running around creating seals is honestly the greatest thing ever, and the end scene with the village made me cry a lil bit, and dammit this fic is so fucking good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, there’s a scene, where Natsu heals Kakashi, and the way the author handled explaining the intimate not sexual relationship between two of my favorite characters ever is just, so subtly beautiful, the sibling-bond these two have is beautiful, and a part of me wants to cry sometimes when I read it, and usually do cry a little when I get to this scene, and only partially because of what happened directly before it.

I love the way everybody just gets up and moves past their trauma and just decides to politely ignore it, oh they still have it, they still deal with it, but they care, and they are careful about it, and even though it hurts them like a knife-wound to the kidney in slow-motion they still get back up and keep fucking going. That’s hella admirable and I can respect that, I can respect even more that they slowly but surely let themselves heal as time moves on. This fic is beautiful on so many different levels but it is this one perhaps, that is the most magnificent. Perhaps.

Sasuke is adorable and depressing and adorable and I love it. And Ino is still a bad bitch but she’s a kid so we only see it like a handful of times in the first two chapters. The Akimichi/Yamanaka/Nara are all great, and I occasionally pity Inionchicause like, he’s putting up with a well-informed seal genius that’s still hyper, a slightly frightening medic-kunoichi with giant dogs, another slightly more frightening medic-nin who isn’t the greatest fighter but damn can he be intimidating and also really good at pointing out “Certain Things” while judging you about them which, honestly, is my greatest pastime. Itachi is so sweet and then so tragic oh my gods, and Natsu never even considers giving up on him. Kakashi is so sweet, and he slowly becomes less of a beaten dog as time goes on and I just love all of these characters.

Except for Hiruzen. Well, no, I still love this particular incarnation of Hiruzen, for all that he’s got one hell of a pathetically small backbone, I get why he does shit. But that doesn’t make me happy. Still, he’s better than dumbledouchebag. Granted that’s not difficult, and you might have to actively put an effort in to be as bad as that guy, but still. Plus, his hearts in the right place, and he’s less about the greater good then... certain disgraces to teaching and being in charge of a large group of people... Hiruzen is actually kinda sweet and admits he has issues and actually has an excuse that’s understandable for the shit that he pulls which is great, if sadly uncommon.

Anyways, Sakura is terrifying, and I remembered why I had a crush on her. She’s so badass, also, she ends up Princess Mononoke basically which, honestly, is fucking great, and the best thing we could’ve asked for, I love all of these characters so much!!!

Aesthetic: It reminds me off beefy stew (We don’t eat beef, so we used vegan soy beef stuff instead, and it was just as good.) it reminds me of the warmth, and friendship, and home that I felt after my mom and I make dinner together with nothing but a little music on and jokes passing back and forth between us. It reminds me of scraping my knee and having my friends help me to their mom, it reminds me of loyalty and compassion. It reminds me of dancing outside at night, alone in the forest with nothing but the moon for company and wind for music. It reminds me of the first time I realized that I could love someone despite their gender and that I should despite mine. It reminds me of finely spun handmade lace, and all it’s delicate while also reminding me of the sturdiest of steels, it reminds me of so much. It reminds me of acceptance, and understanding, and so much more. If I were to say what food and drink it reminds me of, I’d say chicken noodle soup, and sweet lavender-lemon tea.

Music Aesthetic: So, I made a playlist while I was reading this the first time around, and instead of a gif or twenty like I would usually prefer to do I’m going to add that playlist. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbhXmTSBbAyjk0m1b4BZUp3t0RHL83LDK

But if I were to add a gif or two it’d be these

Because something about this fic reminds me of rainy days with tea and baggy clothes.

Every time Natsu/Naruto decided to fight ever, to be honest.

[dlamp-dictator]

Allen’s Rambling XXVIII: It’s just a [         ] (Fandoms)

So yesterday on one of my RP blogs I talked about making a blog for a character from the Fate franchise since I’m playing Fate/EXTRA and getting reacquainted with the Fate series in general. An anon was nice enough to give me a bit of a brush up on Fate lore, but told me that the Fate RP community had a reputation of being unwelcoming, to which I gave this response: 

Dude, I’ve been forged in the fires of Gaia Online’s RP forums, trudged through the Touhou, Dangan Ronpa, and Blazblue RP communities my first three years of RPing on Tumblr, and have dealt with 18+ RP forums off this site. There’s not much I haven’t seen or dealt with in terms of difficult (RP) communities and fandoms.

After that, the anon asked me why I would then go an RP community with a bad reputation when I’ve already experienced similar issues with others. I told that anon that specific question was Ramble-worthy, but the short version was that I’m older, wiser, and know what to look out for in terms of figuring out how a community behaves nowaday. Now, I’m not gonna’ talk about RP stuff since this is my personal blog and all, but I did want to talk about fandoms and my general view of them.

Honestly? I could care less about the behaviors and tendencies of a fandom. 

To give my general opinion, I don’t think any fandom is bad. I think some fandoms have rather loud, rather toxic voices in them at times, but at the end of the day whatever we’re into, whatever we’re talking about making ships and fanfiction about is just a game. It’s just a show. It’s just a book. It’s just a comic, and so on. These things are just pieces of media and it’s when one try to make them something more than that is when I get worried about that person.

As far as my own involvement in fandoms go I do quite a bit. I write lyrics to the BGMs of videos games I’m into, namely fighting games. I occasionally do comedic or serious graphics. I write fanfiction when the mood strikes me. I make RP blogs and write stupid, crazy crack plots with other RP writers. I’m... not linking that last one since I don’t do canon RP blogs as much anymore, but you get the point. I do all these things in the fandoms I’m in, but I try not to let them consume me. I’ll spend a solid 5 hours on a fanfic and lyrics, but that’s mostly out of my pride as a writer and lyricist, not my obsession with the fandom... I hope anyway. -_-;; 

That’s not to say I can’t take semi-critically look at a thing and pick it apart if I felt like (just wait until I start comparing FE: Fates and FE: Echoes), but I do realize it’s just a piece of media in the end, and whatever I say about is just my opinion. Whatever feelings we have about a certain thing, I hope we can all realize that these pieces of media don’t matter at the end of the day, it’s not destroying people’s lives, it’s not plaguing the nation with disease and famine. It’s just... a thing. I know a lot of people know this, but I think it’s worth saying to remind everyone that it really is just a piece of media at the end of the day. 

This isn’t to say that shows and media don’t effect people, they do. 90% of the interests I have now are due to media. My interest in fighting games and shounen anime had me taking martial arts when I was in middle school. My love of manga and anime inspired me to draw. All the cheesy YA books I read made me want to write. My interest in writing lyrics actually came from the Blazblue LA Vocals. Half the reason I wanted to play an instrument was to play my favorite video game BGMs. Hell, I got into rollerblading, a passion I’ve had since I was ten, solely because Shadow the Hedgehog was and still is my favorite character in the Sonic the Hedgehog series. When people asked me how I was able to rollerblade so well so quickly I just said it came naturally. No, what I really did was analyse Shadow the Hedgehog’s animations in SA2 so obsessively and Radical Highway so often that when I copied them at age 10 I was rollerblading perfectly with little assistance. No, fandom and media can push you to do many things, I won’t deny that. However, just know that when something about a fandom is making you upset and angry, it’s the people and not the media. And if the media is making you upset, then it’s time to find a new piece of media.

Of course, I have my fair share of annoyances with fandoms too. The fighting game community can be quite annoying when patches and update go through and I have to read through text wall upon text wall of complaints, “git gud” is an honest-to-god trigger word for me, and hearing commentators talk about who has skill in a game and who doesn’t just... drives me up a wall sometimes as a casual player, even if I can see where they’re coming from. I swear the next shounen/action anime that makes people spam it’s yaoi ships at me out of some social justice nonsense will be block. The next time I hear some asinine western cartoon discourse about horses and space rocks I might just scream, but... all the same, I don’t think fandoms are bad, you just have to find what you want to see and tolerate what you don’t... or block it, whatever works for you. At the end of the day, it’s just a piece of media, and if the people surrounding that media make you uneasy, then just enjoy the thing privately with those you trust and tolerate, nothing wrong if that. 

I mean, there’s a reason I tag my Video Game Updates and not my Anime Updates after all.

[blowing--minds]

mdzs adaptations masterlist

look this is my first post on this account and I figured what better to make it about than my current obsession: modaozushi (or “the grandmaster of demonic cultivation” for all you english plebs out there I say as if I was not, in fact, one of those english plebs)

so I got into this fandom around mid-november-ish (as my ao3 bookmarks will clearly show you) and I have got to say: I am LOVING it

there’s just something about it that kinda latched onto me, and i doubt it’ll ever let go. and you know what? I’m okay with that.

so let’s b-b-break it down

from what I’ve gathered, mdzs is the favoured child of the threquel of Chinese novels written by mòxiãng tóngxiù (each standalone but they all seem to be set in the same/similar universe(s)). the other novels include the scum villains self saving system and heavenly officials blessing (both of which I ALSO have feelings about but this ain’t about them). from my understanding, mdzs is the most popular amongst the other two, and it’s pretty obvious. this bitch has SO MANY different adaptations attached to its name it’s unreal. and here is where our story begins…

let’s start of with the classic: the original novel.

(you can find the English translated novel here: https://exiledrebelsscanlations.com/the-grandmaster-of-demonic-cultivation/

so the novel. I’ve heard some pretty mixed reviews about the novel tbh, and I have admittedly not finished all of it (look okay it’s p long and I could be using that time for fanfic) but I’d say generally ppl like it. the plot seems reasonably solid, the characters are *chef’s kiss* (especially my son Lan wangji) and it’s overall a nice mix of Soul Crushing Angst and a slightly below comfort ratio. oh and it’s gay.

not bad.

the main complaints I’ve heard about it are, uh, some questionable consent scenes between the main characters (nothing too bad, but enough to rightfully piss ppl off, and pls watch out for it if it might trigger you).

other than that, I honestly dont hear the novel talked about too too often, but idk. I mean I liked the parts I’ve read.

the only thing I know about it if that it’s… a thing, and the art looks very nice (v similar to the donghua; we’ll get there)

Imma give it a 7.75 stars out of ten.

up next: the donghua

(donghua: basically a Chinese version of anime)

the donghua is actually the only adaptation I’m like semi-comfortable talking about (because I’ve actually watched the majority of it) and let me just say:

stunning

I believe it’s following the book canon fairly closely (don’t quote me on that) and it’s currently ongoing with two completed seasons and the third in the works. it’s all easily found on YouTube with English subs if you’re interested! (couldn’t find any dub)

I,,,,, actually love the donghua with all my heart ngl. the animation is absolutely BEAUTIFUL, I adore the voice actors, the character designs are so visually pleasing and it’s just 👌👌. ofc since this is a Chinese tv show there is some censorship (so I guess the main couple (being very gay) probably won’t explicity get together) but honestly? I ain’t even that mad. there’s plenty of undertone anyhow.

I just *clenches fist* love it so much. high HIGH recommend.

I’m giving it 9.5 stars out of 10

to conclude: the untamed/cgl verse

so if you’ve been lurking around the mdzs tag on tumblr, this is probably the one you’ve heard about the most. live action, with 50 episodes, all like in the 40 to 50 mins range, what’s not to like?

well. it diverges a lot from canon (new plot points, changing some stuff around, new OCs, the whole shebang) and it definitely is more heavily censored than the book is. some ppl like the divergences, some don’t. I like a couple of them (I liked how they gave more screentime to more minor characters, and I def liked my girl Lan Yi) and there were some I didn’t (let! Wei! wuxian! stay! on! the! dark! side! also what the fuck jgy). overall it’s more up to preference.

I did note a lot of ppl actually liked how it was more censored. since the censorship takes away most of the sexual side to their relationship, it also for rid of all the questionable consent scenes as well, and it let the viewer focus more on the romantic side of the main couple. although again never explicitly stated they get together, you can clearly see how deep their relationship goes and how much they mean together, romantic partners or not. I… really liked that.

ofc, the one thing that sorta bothered me was the things like the CGI and the wigs. this is more not picky, but I definitely felt the fighting in the donghua was much more badass and cool, whereas the cgl verse kept bugging me with all the… twirling and questionably cgi’d flips. idk, I guess maybe the producer didn’t have the biggest budget? it just kinda bothered me, but it took nothing away from the overall story

Imma give it 8.5 stars out of 10

vague notes :

there is also a translated manhua (Chinese equivalent to manga) adaptation and an audio drama adaptation! I have zero (0) knowledge about either of them, but they are a thing so… check them out? lol

fanfiction:

mdzs has pretty good fanfic on ao3. not the biggest fandom I’ve seen, but it does seem to be growing quite fast (at a rate I have only seen in fandoms like *pained cough* voltron or the umbrella academy) and it’s generally very good! I am thoroughly enjoying it. there’s a lot of gen as well as romance, and ofc my fav genre: gen romance (jk my fav genre is gen) but there really is something for everyone, a statement I do not say often. fanfiction.net does not have nearly enough (and is a pain to find) so I recommend endeavoring on ao3 if you’re interested

conclusion:

mdzs is great. oh and happy bday lan wangji!