#cql sets

[pastelcheckereddreams]

The Jingshi in Autumn by nikkidraws

Turns out, I didn’t mess it up after all 😅 although I’ve been reliabily informed by my bestie that that bridge looks likes it’s rising from the pond similar to the Loch Ness Monster. I may put this up on my shop over at INPRNT depending on interest - so let me know! I plan on doing a lot more of these kind of marker projects in future.

Speaking of my shop, there’s also currently (July 2023) a storewide sale of up to 40% off your order, and $5 wordwide shipping 👀 If you like my CQL set design saga, why not check out my set blueprints? Or you can head over to my kofi if prints aren’t your thing. I’m still a fairly new artist so I appreciate your support 🙏

[khattikeri]

one of my favorite things about mdzs is that for how heavily its plot involves politics of classism and misogyny... even the characters most directly impacted by it can't and don't free themselves from it. literally the closest exception is mianmian.

meng yao being the "son of a whore" wasn't some sort of commie awakening for him that led him to wanting everyone to be socially equal. he played the political game, climbed the ladders, sucked up to and backstabbed and murdered people, including other prostitutes who actually had nothing to do with how he and his mother were treated at the brothel he grew up in.

he put in so much extra excessive effort for even a fraction of the same respect that members of gentry cultivation clans got. and he did deserve to be treated more humanely! but he feeds into the exact same system that created him, leading to his own undoing.

his efforts were for a fragile upward mobility that was never going to hold up. he never surpassed his origins nor did he empower others in similar stations, because the society he lives in is not one that would accept that.

the second he got caught and all those crimes exposed, he was scapegoated to hell and back, replacing wei wuxian as society's terrible one-sidedly evil boogeyman overnight.

speaking of not-quite male gentry, i think it's interesting that wei wuxian explicitly doesn't try to climb the ladders in BOTH lives, knowing full well that anything he does will be punished just for the sheer fact that he is wei wuxian.

wei wuxian is scolded for giving intelligent and correct answers in school. lan wangji does the same and is praised.

wei wuxian occasionally lounges around with fellow disciples and is punished. jiang cheng does the same and mostly escapes.

wei wuxian refuses to carry his sword around in public (after losing his golden core, which nobody knows) and is scorned as an arrogant upstart. nie huaisang has been doing the EXACT SAME THING for YEARS and nobody bats an eye.

unlike jin guangyao, wei wuxian knew subconsciously from the start that his acceptance was superficial and that he could be cast out any time. when he was 10 and recently taken in by the jiangs, he canonically would not eat or use "too much" food and water because he thought they'd find him a nuisance for "wasting their things" and kick him back out.

now away from just the classism, yu ziyuan is a proud and strong noblewoman in a society that belittles and derides women for everything they do. her strong cultivation doesn't matter. she's victim to the vicious rumors of her husband loving another woman who is strong like her but apparently had a more likeable personality.

it doesn't matter even if jiang fengmian didn't cheat or that wei wuxian is wei changze's son with cangse sanren; yu ziyuan can't bear with the humiliation of herself (and by extension her children) not being "good enough". she's ridiculed for "failing" in that one duty as a wife, mother, and woman.

she lashes out and takes out that anger on everyone present for years, giving her children lasting trauma and also being a key element in how the jiang family and yunmeng jiang sect are effectively wiped out at the hands of the wen clan.

madam jin doesn't even have a name outside of the fact that she's married to jin guangshan. i don't even remember reading anything that indicates if she's a strong or weak cultivator, or what, which in itself proves that to most people, it doesn't matter. she's "just" a woman.

of course she's angry at her husband's affairs and all the bastard children they bring in. but she also can't do anything about them, so she lashes out at the few people she can: servants. non-cultivators, probably. those very same bastard children.

shoutout to meng yao getting shoved down a flight of stairs at age fourteen, because if madam jin tried that move against her husband instead, it would make her lose even more face, which as a noblewoman she'd never do.

and that's not getting into how jiang yanli is consistently sidelined for being physically weak.

that's not getting into how mianmian was actually a good cultivator, but was mocked by everyone around her for trying to stand up for wei wuxian when everyone was turning on him. how everyone scoffed at luo qingyang's words as "just some lovesick woman" who "obviously wants to marry or bed him since he saved her".

luo qingyang is the only one of these characters who HASN'T died. she didn't play society's games like jin guangyao. she didn't dig her heels in confidence of her own abilities like wei wuxian.

she didn't bitterly lash out like yu ziyuan and madam jin. she didn't gently accept it like jiang yanli.

she just LEFT.

she married an ordinary merchant and cultivates separately from mainstream cultivation society, and therein found her own peace and happiness.

mxtx doesn't bother with particularly class conscious or feminist vocabulary to hand-hold readers into understanding these disparities, but that choice highlights them & the deeply entrenched politics of their society even more. i really love it.

[accio-victuuri]

getting ready with xiao zhan ( untamed bts ) 🎥

[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

[anotherdescentintomadness]

Happy Hanguang June!

Another in my Hanguang June series for Pride Month. You can see the others here 👉 First / Second / Third / Fifth

(Please no reposts)

Reblog for Hanguang June! 🌈✨

Happy Pride, everyone. Stay safe out there.

[valarinde]

— albert camus.

[kyannnite]

someone help i can’t stop making these .

[coulsandies]

mdzs headcanon of the day #181 !

wen qing, xxc, and lxc were all study mates together when they went to med school together and the amount of times they did not know what they were doing was mildly alarming. they’ve all bonded through the trauma that was organic chemistry

[yilinglaozu]

sunshot campaign ep. 22 // bloodbath of nightless city ep. 33

[pharahsgf]

it also kind of annoys me how often people attribute wei wuxian's hesitance to publicize his relationship w lan wangji to wwx's own feelings of insecurity or inadequacy or whatever, when in truth "i have a terrible reputation that will impact you if we get together" is a fairly neutral and logical standpoint to take & quite a rational thing to be concerned about

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Lotus Pier WIP: Final Previews!

AHHHHHH My architectural study of Lotus Pier is finally, finally almost complete! It has been sixteen months since my initial screenshot studies of this set. For nostalgia's sake, here's how that looked:

I (foolishly) did not anticipate Lotus Pier becoming such a pinnacle piece in this ongoing set analysis project, nor did I take into account how much of the architecture is roofing oh my god so much roof i hate it here.

The final piece will, as always, include floorplans (yes, two!!) sleuthed from screenshots which, at the final count, totals 367. I have subsequently become immune to the burning of Lotus Pier. Here's some previous previews about those:

I hope you look forward to seeing the finished piece!

I also have much to say about what the layout and style of Lotus Pier say about the culture/lifestyle of the Yunmeng people and have some meta reflections on the camera angles in certain scenes (which you can read a bit about here). I'm also really fascinated by the kitchen, which is a location we don't see much detail of, and how the layout of the main compound echoes chinese architectural principles I've already touched upon in my other set drafts.

In the meantime, I'm going to continue to wrestle with the towers on the compound gate and finish these goddamn roofs I'm dreading drawing Koi Tower after this. As always, I have no idea what I'm actually doing, but I'm having fun ✌

 Links for the first projects in this ongoing series:

Part 1: The Jìngshì (And the original pencil sketch, here) Part 2: The Hánshì My Ko-fi: nikkidraws If you'd like to support me and add to the coffee spoons that fuel this project, please consider buying me a coffee at the link above.

[evakant]

jiang cheng reacting to lan wangji's defense of wei wuxian THE UNTAMED  —  episode twenty-six

[popqorn]

If I'm not thinking about Wei Wuxian, I'm thinking about Luo Binghe.

If I'm not thinking about Luo Binghe, I'm thinking about Xie Lian.

If I'm not thinking about Xie Lan, I'm thinking about Lan Wangji.

If I'm not.......

[accio-victuuri]

[sweetlittlevampire]

A BUNNY FOR CHRISTMAS

Wangxian, G, modern AU, 8.803 words, completed

lternate Universe - Modern Setting | Romance | Getting Together | First Kiss | Single Parent Wèi Yīng | Kindergarten teacher Lan Wangj | Lán Wàngjī Loves Rabbits | Rabbits | A-Yuan is adorable | Christmas as a secular holiday | Christmas

Kindergarten teacher Lan Wangji gets burdened with the difficult task of explaining to his young pupil A-Yuan why getting a rabbit as a Christmas present is not the best of ideas. The fact that he would like to acquire a rabbit himself does not help. Maybe he can find a solution to his conundrum together with A-Yuan's father?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/52450823