#cql canon

[pocketfulofrecs]

The River Brought You Here by ChilianXianzi

not rated | 11k | wangxian | complete | memory loss

When she found the boy by the side of the river, Zhou Jia knew that anyone who'd come for him is not to be trusted. Not with the dark purple fingerprints around his throat, the veritable map of lashes old and new upon his back. It's almost a blessing, she thinks, that the boy remembers none of the life that had treated him so cruelly. That he's free to just be A-Ying, in this small harbour town that he embraces so readily as his home.The day someone does come for him, she had not expected it to be the war hero Hanguang-Jun - Saying A-Ying name with such fervent hope before it turns into anguish as A-Ying fails to recognize him.

Dee’s thoughts - Impressive as always. Beautiful story that shows the consequences of strangulation. WWX loses his memories but thrives regardless. LWJ eventually finds him. Perfect and well written.

Ju’s thoughts - Wow! How come a fic written from a terrible beginning be so soft and perfect? Canon divergence from JC strangulating WWX and leaving him to die. After that, it is so soft, WWX has a good family who cares for him, he is so loved, and he shows all his potential. I love it. 

Author’s tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, sunshot campaign divergence, POV Outsider, Amnesia, Memory Loss, Past Abuse, Strangulation, Permanent Injury Side Effects, Seizures, Found Family, Refugees, The Cultivation World's canonical self-importance and neglect, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn Get a Happy Ending, And a cottagecore life by the sea, Recovery

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[waterlilyvioletfog]

Something that is in fact SO important to Wei Wuxian is that, fundamentally, he is hot. He is Thee Hot Girl. He’s shooting five arrows blindfolded as a charged political statement and he’s doing it with zero magic powers AND he was sexy when he did it. He beats out his own brother (sorry, Jiang Cheng) for Most Eligible Bachelor despite being literally dirt poor and not a sect heir. He lives rent free in the minds of everybody twenty years later, to the point that JC and LWJ are literally Like That and NHS literally constructed his revenge plot around him and— look, just watch the scenes at the Second Burial Mounds Siege. Oh, and they use all his inventions, even though he’s an evil heretic, because uhhh they were really good inventions. Actually. Like he was in fact at the top of the field as an inventor and innovator. And he was hot. AND he had no powers. Whoops.

[poorlittleyaoyao]

from this poll

[wenningfanclub]

Like girl. literally no one but wwx and mianmian did anything to help the wens, why do you only care about jiang cheng. are you like, in love with him or something?

[symphonyofsilence]

"Jiang Cheng is selfish."

Canon Jiang Cheng in his brief appearances: is always following WWX around and cleaning up after his mess (like carrying him on his back after he's beaten by the Lan Sect, sitting in the front of the classroom to appear attentive to LQR after WWX's shenanigans to save face for their sect, to quote WWX himself "you've already saved me so many times. So what's one more?"), warns WWX not to anger WZL since he's known as the core melting hand, then goes to attack WZL with his bare hands when he stands between him & WLJ after WLJ has burned WWX, runs for seven days straight to get help for WWX, begs his mother on his knees to stop hitting WWX in front of the Wens even though he knows if WLJ is not satisfied the Wens would lay waste to their sect and it's either WWX or their sect, uses himself as a bait to draw the Wen soldier away from WWX even though he knows his sect will end with him, his only thought after losing his golden core is that now he can't take revenge for his family and can't rebuild his sect, doesn't stick with his brother even though that's what he's always been doing because he can't risk his newly-built sect's safety, only truly gets mad at WWX when he kills their BIL & indirectly causes their sister's deaths, after 13 years still doesn't have a dog, offers Zidian to JL when he can't protect JL himself, even though he can barely stand and lift his sword still goes back for WWX in the burial mounds, takes a stab to the chest trying to protect WWX, offers to take JL's place as hostage for JGY, stands between JL and an unstoppable fierce corpse, doesn't say anything to WWX about his sacrifice.

[lgbtlunaverse]

Most annoying NMJ or JC take is when someone that dislikes them is like "oh you're a fan of him? *scoff* Well obviously you've only seen cql, where he was super watered down. In the novel he's a dislikable asshole and that's the objectively superior canon I'm working from instead of your woobified fanfic." Meanwhile your main canon is novel canon and you genuinely find novel Jiang Cheng and Nie Mingjue complex sympathetic characters.

[haifoct]

Touch starved but for physical violence or something

My beloved feral chengzhan I commissioned from the most glorious @marshallmigraine. I love them so so much, I will cherish them forever.

[add1ctedt0you]

The Untamed - Episode 19

Throughout the night, he [Jiang Cheng] had somehow managed to sleep a couple of times. The first reason was that, having been too tired from crying himself weak, he couldn't help from passing out. The second reason was that he still had the hope that this might be a nightmare. He couldn't wait to wake up after some rest and open his eyes to find himself lying inside of his room back in Lotus Pier. His father would be wiping his sword in the main hall. His mother would be angry again and complaining, scolding Wei Wuxian who winked in a funny way. His sister would be in the kitchen, thinking as hard as she could about what to make today. His shidi would be refusing to do their morning lessons properly and jumping around.

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, Chapter 59, Poisons- Part Four

[porcupine-girl]

Saw this post doing this meme with DMBJ characters, had to make a CQL version.

[wangxian-on-repeat]

Wei Wuxian: why only evil allegations. why no hot allegations

[pocketfulofrecs]

Catching Your Reflection Passing By by Suspicious_Popsicle

teen | 9.8k | wangxian | complete | soulmates au

Sometimes reflections showed Lan Zhan glimpses of another life.

It had been happening for as long as he could remember. Usually—at least at the start, back when he was learning to brush his own teeth, and still needed a stool to stand on to reach the sink—he would see the boy in the bathroom mirror. In the very beginning, he had parents with him...something that Lan Zhan and his brother did not have in their uncle's quiet home. Lan Zhan remembers watching them, that happy family, grinning at each other in the mirror, laughing as they poked the corners of each other's mouths to stretch those smiles even wider. It all looked very silly.

@ladypfenix thoughts: I love the whole premise of their story. Lan Zhan has since a child seen glimpses of Wei Ying in reflections when they are looking in the same sort of glass, Wei Ying can open a door into an empty room and see Lan Zhan in a room that isn't there. Since they were children they have wanted to meet the other boy they've seen, but without knowing their name they have not managed to have their paths cross. While Jiang Cheng is a sweet but grouchy younger brother in the fic, personally I have found that he's not enough to stomp out my adoration of the idea of soulmates growing up together with glimpses until they get to finally meet.

Author’s tags: sort of but not quite a soulmate au, Magical Realism, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, pov switching

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[starrywangxian]

i'm so deep in my belief that lan wangji is autistic and wei wuxian has adhd that i forget it's not canon so when i see posts talking about it i'm always like "yeah??? this isn't new information???" and then i realise to some people it is new information and it is a new way of looking at them.

[duohensheng]

pov you’re zewu-jun and you’ve reached the thinly veiled gossip sesh part of the night

[thatswhatsushesaid]

shitpost dispatches from nightless city - incorrect but plausibly canon quotes edition

[khattikeri]

drives me nuts when people treat jin guangyao or wei wuxian like they're socialist revolutionaries like no! they're not!! in fact their respective roles in society and complacency regarding its hierarchies is why ANY of the story even happens to begin with!!!

jin guangyao doesn't hold bitterness just because he was born lower class. he is bitter because others deride him and his prostitute mother in spite of both their intelligence, skills, and efforts to climb the ladder.

why do you think we were shown scenes of other prostitutes in the brothel deriding meng shi for being literate, for "trying" so hard? why do you think we were shown scenes of anxin taunting meng yao and throwing shit at him because he was trying to learn cultivation at his mother's behest?

why do you think jin guangyao arranged for the arson of that brothel, burned to the ground with everyone except sisi inside? that's not the behavior of someone who believes in true equality and the inherent worth of sex workers as human beings!

that's the behavior of someone who thinks he's better than them. the behavior of a man who already came up on top through political games and war crimes, backstabbing and spying for the sake of the "greater good".

i won't rehash his argument to nie mingjue that he didn't have a choice-- he had some choice, but no matter what he does his class will come up and people will always assume the worst and try to hurt him for it, which forces his hand to do whatever will protect him best (hence 'no choice').

jin guangyao did everything he could to secure his own safety and a place among those already higher up. and by that point, he'd won it.

the fact that the temple rebuilt on the brothel site is to guanyin, the goddess of mercy, is even more ironic! the fact that jin guangyao has the goddess's statue carved to look like his own mother is proof that he viewed both her and himself as higher than them. more worthy than them.

of course he cared about the general welfare of others (read: the watchtowers). but consider also that there is no watchtower near yi city, which ended up being one of xue yang's playgrounds. jin guangyao can and will turn a blind eye to certain sufferings if it is convenient to him.

sure, jin guangyao made undeniable contributions to cultivation society and accessibility, but he is not at any point trying to topple existing class structures. his adherence to them is in fact integral to his own downfall in the end.

it brings with it the inevitability of society conveniently ignoring his triumphs and genuine moments of humanity to deride him once more as an evil, disgusting son of a whore once his crimes come to light.

now for wei wuxian. he's the righteous protagonist of the story and he doesn't give a fuck what society thinks, yes, but he wasn't out there trying to cause an uprising so that all the poor servant classes and lower could become cultivators. he wasn't trying to redistribute wealth or insinuate that those who are lower deserve to be viewed as equal to the gentry.

the most critical and non-explicitly stated fact of mo dao zu shi is that wei wuxian has always been resigned to his position in the social hierarchy.

his unreliable narration, especially regarding his own past and thoughts, is so damn important. he doesn't EVER tell the reader directly that people treated him any which way at their leisure because of his parents' differing social classes.

no. instead we are shown how much prestige he is afforded as cangse-sanren's son-- reputation as a talented and charming young cultivator, made head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang-- and how little respect he is given in the same breath, as the son of servant wei changze.

the way he is treated by others is as fickle as the wind. if he obeys and does as told, there is no reward. of course he did that, that was the expectation to start with! if he does anything even slightly inconvenient, there is a punishment. of course he has no manners, what else would you expect from an ungrateful son of a servant?

wei wuxian's righteousness is not a matter of adhering to principles he was explicitly taught, the way nie mingjue values honor or the way jiang cheng always tries to prove himself. wei wuxian does the right thing regardless of what the consequences are to him because his good deeds are always downplayed and his bad deeds are always singled out, no matter who or how many people were doing it with him.

he has faced this double standard since childhood. there are points in the novel where it's clear that this sticks out to wei wuxian, but does he ever fight back against that view of himself? does he EVER, at any point in the story, explain his actions and choices to jianghu society and try to debate or appeal to their sense of reason?

no. because he knows, at his very core, that any explicit deviation from their interests whatsoever will be punished.

slaughtering thousands of people is fine when they want him to do it, and when the alternative is unjust torture, re-education camps, and encroachment upon other sects' lands.

slaughtering thousands of people who are trying to paint him as evil for not going along with their genocidal plans, however, is punished.

wei wuxian knows his acceptance among the higher classes is superficial and unsteady. from the age of 10, when jiang fengmian took him in, he knew subconsciously that he could be kicked out at any time.

he knows that cultivation society doesn't care about war crimes and concentration camps and mistreatment of the remaining wen survivors of the sunshot campaign. but the right thing to do now that they aren't at wartime is to help them, plus they'd punish him either way for it, so he will.

in this regard wei wuxian is more self-aware of his position than jin guangyao. he does care about common people and he does try his best to help them as an individual. even if that ends up with him disabled, arrested, targeted in sieges, or dead.

but is he revolutionary? in the full equality, fight the establishment, rewrite laws, change social structures and people's perceptions of class sense?

no. no. he isn't.

now my knowledge of chinese society and history is fairly limited to my hindu diaspora upbringing and our shared cultural similarities ... but speaking to what i absolutely know us true, adherence to one's social class is expected.

this is rigid. efforts and merits might bring you some level of mobility, but in the end, the circumstances of your birth will always be scrutinized first, and your behavior compared to the stereotypes of where and how you originate.

mdzs is not about revolution, and none of its characters are able to truly change its society. there is no grand "maybe cutsleeves aren't inherently bad" or "i'm sorry for persecuting you and believing hearsay, you were truly a good person all along!" at the finale.

people ignore history and repeat it again with the next batch of ugly gossip and rumors.

wei wuxian, lan wangji, and luo qingyang find peace only by distancing themselves from cultivation society and its opinions.

jin guangyao and wei wuxian both cannot ever escape from others' perception of their origins and actions. regardless of their personal beliefs, they are not revolutionaries.

[lgbtlunaverse]

So I've been wondering about one particuar point on the "Jiang Cheng marriage recquirement" list and it's the one about low cultivation.

Now on its face, except for the "must be nice to jin ling" point, the whole thing just looks like the most standard list of "ideal wife characteristics under a patriarchal society." naturally beautiful, graceful and obedient, coming from a good family, voice not too loud, etc. This leads to either the interpretation that jiang cheng really wants that (doubt dot png) or just... put all the most stereotypical things on a list even though that's not what he really wants.

In that context "cultivation must not be too high" sounds like a typical "men are scared of women who are smarter/stronger" thing. you know, the dudes who feel 'intimidated' when their wife or girlfriend makes more money than them.

...Except wasn't Yanli openly mocked for her low cultivation? Like, wasn't one of the reasons Jin Zixuan was such an ass to her initially because he shallowly assumed her lower cultivation made her an unworthy marriage candidate? Jin Guangshan may hate women who can read but society overal doesn't give the impression that high cultivation in women is seen as something undesirable. I mean... a wife that never looks like she's over 20 even as she starts aging? yeah I have no problem believing a misogynistic society is okay with high cultivation.

So if it's not there just to fit the stereotypical standard of an ideal wife...

Jiang Cheng, are you just describing your sister?

LIke?? Every single point on this list applies to Yanli. All of them. I don't mean this in a freudian incest-y way but in a "jiang cheng are you so unaware of what you want in a partner you just took the only woman you've had an unambiguously good relationship with and hoped no one would notice???" way. Does he know the difference in what you should like about your sister and what you should like in a spouse? Is he even aware he's doing this? Jiang Cheng answer meeeee.