#everyone here meaning wwx and the fandom

[runespoor7]

I'm fascinated by the people who think JC (he of the "one of my most important people is more alive now than months ago" and of the "my sect is now the most stable and most powerful") is the worst off by the end of the novel in a list that contains both LXC and JL

[doufudanshi]

ON GHOSTS AND DEMONS: Wei Wuxian's "demonic" cultivation?

There are a few big misconceptions I have repeatedly seen in English-speaking fandom about things that are fundamental to the story of MDZS. One of them is this—

Wei Wuxian is not a demonic cultivator.

To prove this, let's take a deep dive into the original Chinese text of MDZS.

(Adapted from my original gdoc posted on Twitter on May 27, 2022. All translations my own unless otherwise stated.)

Demon vs. ghost

Let's start from the very basics. In addition to orthodox cultivation using spiritual energy and a golden core, there are two other forms of cultivation that are mentioned in the novel:

魔道 (mó dào), or “demon cultivation/path.”

鬼道 (guǐ dào), or “ghost cultivation/path.”

To be clear, 魔 mo "demons" and 鬼 gui "ghosts" (and thus their respective cultivation/paths) are not interchangeable because of the in-universe worldbuilding within MDZS. Using the characters in the term 妖魔鬼怪 "monsters," MXTX created four distinct categories of beings, each of which has a strict definition in the novel. From chapter 4 (jjwxc ch 13):

妖者非人之活物所化; 魔者生人所化; 鬼者死者所化; 怪者非人之死物所化。 Yāo (妖) are transformed from non-human living beings; mó (魔) are transformed from living people; guǐ (鬼) are transformed from the deceased; guài (怪) are transformed from non-human dead beings.

And of course, WWX hoards all the ghost-type pokemon monsters at the Phoenix Mountain tournament, and he only exerts control over corpses, spirits, and the like (aka people who have already died). (As opposed to Xue Yang, who appears to have been actively trying to make 魔 "demons" out of living people with those "living corpses" of his, perhaps.) (And, ironically, in order to avoid showing necromancy / zombies on screen, CQL technically does show WWX practicing demon cultivation because everyone is "supposedly alive" even when they're corpses? Which is, funnily enough, far worse morally in the MDZS universe, lol.)

So, intuitively at least, we know that WWX must be practicing ghost cultivation—now let's look at some concrete examples from the book.

Running the numbers

1) 魔道 (mó dào) means “demon cultivation.” As such, it must use living humans.

魔道 appears one (1) time in the novel.

Yes, once. The only time it appears is in the term 魔道祖师 modao zushi, or the namesake of the novel, in chapter 2. This is a title the general public has given him through rumors:

魏无羡好歹也被人叫了这么多年无上邪尊啦、魔道祖师啦之类的称号，这种一看就知道不是什么好东西的阵法，他自然了如指掌。 Wei Wuxian wasn’t called titles like “The Evil Overlord,” “The Founder of Demon Cultivation,” and so on over the years by others for nothing—he knew these sorts of obviously shady formations like the back of his hand.

2) 鬼道 (guǐ dào) means “ghost cultivation.” As such, it must use dead humans. 

鬼道 appears 12 times in the novel.

Here is the first instance that 鬼道 appears, which I believe is the first time Wei Wuxian's method of cultivation is properly introduced. From chapter 3 (jjwxc ch 8):

蓝忘机 […] 对魏无羡修鬼道一事极不认可。 Lan Wangji […] had never approved of the fact that Wei Wuxian practiced ghost cultivation.

Here's another quote from chapter 15 (jjwxc ch 71) for funsies:

蓝忘机看着他，似乎一眼就看出他只是随口敷衍，吸了一口气，道：“魏婴。” Lan Wangji looked at him as if he saw through his half-hearted bluff. He took in a breath, then said, “Wei Ying.” 他执拗地道：“鬼道损身，损心性。” He stubbornly continued, “Ghost cultivation harms one’s body, and harms one’s nature.”

3) 邪魔歪道 (xiemowaidao) means heretical path/immoral methods/evil practices/underhanded means/etc—e.g., lying, cheating, stealing, bribery, and so on.

It appears ~24 times in the novel.

I mention this last term because it is often used to refer to Wei Wuxian's cultivation, but as a pejorative. Every instance of 邪魔歪道 is said by or to quote someone looking down upon Wei Wuxian’s cultivation (Jin Zixun, Jin Ling, etc.) and referring to it derogatorily, whereas every instance of 鬼道 guidao/ghost dao is said by someone discussing it neutrally and/or factually (Lan Jingyi, Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian himself, random cultivators at discussion conferences, the narration, etc.). Here is a pertinent example with Jin Ling (derogatory) and Lan Jingyi (neutral) in chapter 9 (jjwxc ch 43):

金凌怒道：“是在谈论薛洋，我说的不对吗？薛洋干了什么？他是个禽兽不如的人渣，魏婴比他更让人恶心！什么叫‘不能一概而论’？这种邪魔歪道留在世上就是祸害，就是该统统都杀光，死光，灭绝！” “We are discussing Xue Yang,” Jin Ling said angrily. “Am I wrong? What did Xue Yang do? He’s scum that’s lower than a beast, and Wei Ying is even more disgusting than him! What do you mean ‘don’t make sweeping generalizations?’ As long as those practicing this kind of demoniac, heretical path are alive, they’ll continue to bring disaster. We should slaughter all of them, kill all of them, annihilate them once and for all!” 温宁动了动，魏无羡摆手示意他静止。只听蓝景仪也加入了，嚷道：“你发这么大火干什么？思追又没说魏无羡不该杀，他只是说修鬼道的也不一定全都是薛洋这种人，你有必要乱摔东西吗？那个我还没吃呢……” Wen Ning shuffled around. Wei Wuxian gestured at him to stay still, only to hear Lan Jingyi also cut in loudly, “Why are you getting so riled up? It’s not like Sizhui said Wei Wuxian shouldn’t have been killed. All he said was that people who practice ghost cultivation aren’t necessarily all like Xue Yang. Do you have to go around breaking things? I didn’t even get to eat any of that yet…”

Tl;dr—Wei Wuxian does not 修魔道 practice demon cultivation. When Wei Wuxian’s craft is discussed in a neutral and factual manner, it is referred to as 鬼道 ghost dao. 

In fact, Wei Wuxian’s imitators are also referred to explicitly as 鬼道修士 ghost cultivators.

魏无羡早就听说过，这些年来江澄到处抓疑似夺舍重生的鬼道修士，把这些人通通押回莲花坞严刑拷打。 Wei Wuxian had heard a while back that over the past few years, Jiang Cheng had gone around snatching any ghost cultivator suspected of being possessed or reborn, detaining them in Lotus Pier to interrogate them using torture.

So why the confusion?

Of course, there is the matter of the novel's title, which I will get into in a second. But the real issue is a matter of translation.

The idea that WWX uses "demonic cultivation" is a misconception in English-speaking fandom due to issues with the translation of terminology. Of note, EXR actually did translate 鬼道 guidao as "ghostly path" most of the time, though there were at least 3 instances of "demonic" and 1 instance of "dark," especially regarding the first few.

However, this misconception was perpetuated (and arguably worsened) by 7S's official translation, which not only mistranslated additional terms as "demonic cultivation/path" (at least in book 1), but also consistently mistranslated every instance of 鬼道 as "demonic cultivation/path."

So why is this book called 魔道祖师, commonly translated as "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation?"

One possibility is one posed in Chinese-language meta online, which often cites that WWX himself is a sort of 魔 demon. While this may be true—after all, he can hear the voices of the dead—it doesn't quite explain the fact that the title sets him up to be the 祖师 or "founder."

My take is that this novel is very much concerned with hearsay vs. truth. This is one of the many monikers WWX is given by the public, who collectively view him as evil. (Also of note is that the non-cultivator public is not aware of all the nuances that cultivators learn re: distinctions between the 妖魔鬼怪 monsters.) In the quote from earlier, note that the first title we're given is actually 无上邪尊 “The Evil Overlord,” then 魔道祖师 "The Founder of Demon Cultivation." Like, what can that be other than MXTX telling us, "please take both of these with a HUGE grain of salt, lol."

(And not only the title, but the very first line—"魏无羡死了。" / "Wei Wuxian is dead."—is a lie.)

I think the title is genius, honestly. It intentionally makes readers come into the novel with preconceived notions that Wei Wuxian practices 魔道 demon cultivation and evil techniques—just like the public in the novel. What better way to tell a story warning about the dangers of how easy it is to fall for misinformation and jump to incorrect conclusions?

(Though, in our case, perhaps it worked a little too well.)

[holy--milk]

seeing this post and particularly the notes kinda reminded me of how the larger MXTX fandom sometimes tends to see all MXTX tops as like. basically one character in different skins? and while it's true that the three of them basically fit the same general archetype (which i'd probably call something like "overpowered sexy dom + service top + trophy husband"), i think that's still a pretty big mischaracterisation.

so like if we take the situation of "i need to chose between saving my husband and someone else who's important to me", here are what i think would be the biggest differences in approach between the three:

luo binghe: LBH straight up doesn't understand that it's supposed to be a difficult moral dilemma. of course he saves shizun, why would he even hesitate? he's fine with sacrificing someone important to SQQ (like YQY, LQG and even NYY) as long as it means SQQ gets to live, even if SQQ gets upset and leaves him as a result. the only other alternative that could perhaps make it a bit difficult for him would be his adoptive mother, but she's conveniently already dead at this point.

hua cheng: similarly to LBH, it wouldn't be a difficult choice for him since he doesn't really have anyone he cares about to the extent he cares about XL, HOWEVER. he does care about what XL would think about someone else being sacrificed for his sake, especially if it's someone XL personally cares about (and, inconveniently, XL cares a lot about a lot of people). he would obviously still choose XL, but he would probably take extra steps to hide the fact that there was a sacrifice if at all possible.

lan wangji: the only one out of the three who may even see it as a Choice to be made to begin with, since he's also the only one out of the three who still has his family and non-husband related responsibilities he cares about to some extent. it's an easy choice if WWX is pitted against someone he already dislikes (like JGY, SMS, JC and like 80% of the cultivation world), doesn't have a personal relationship with (like WN or, say, mianmian) or someone who would willingly sacrifice themselves out of love for either of them (like LXC or JYL). but if it's LSZ, someone who he both personally cares about AND has the duty to protect as his student? and who he knows WWX cares about as well? i don't think the answer would be quite as obvious to him as it is to the other two, from the purely emotional standpoint.

although to make it a bit more convenient for him, WWX is canonically a genius who may just be able to come up with a creative solution and save everyone. so saving him first is also justified from a pragmatic standpoint.

[sepia-mahogany]

Please stop intentionally mistagging content.

“Canon Jiang Cheng” tag is for discussion of things he did in the novel, explicitly, that means if you want to talk about how brave he was for saving Wei Wuxian from the guards or about how terrible it was that he made things worse for WWX and WRs. Positive or negative interpretations from the novel source are welcome here. The main “Jiang Cheng” tag is for everything, headcanons, fanart, cql donghua every other adaptation canon than just the novel, gif sets, video edits, fanon content, canon content whatever you wish to do.

It is honestly disappointing that after requests from other Jiang Cheng fans (and also to avoid the mess that was people getting hate over posting the direct novel quotes) we made a separate tag so everyone could curate their content and consume what they wished, only for some people to intentionally mistag content (fanships for example, or cql gifs) as a misguided attempt to “reclaim the tag”.

What exactly are you accomplishing by intentionally mistagging content? All you’re doing is making curating content harder, so please stop intentionally mistagging content when you can just block the tag you wish to not interact with but making it so people don’t have a safe fandom space is beyond being rude.

[mxtxfanatic]

Hello! I've seen some posts talk about JC's inferiority complex in MDZS, and there were a few things that kinda puzzled me a bit. The first was talking about how JC treated demonic cultivators post-WWX's death. That him hunting them down and capturing them were just (BS) rumors? That the original Mandarin wording in them implied he didn't really do anything that bad to those he captured? As in, no actual torture? (That he was all bark and no bite, apparently.) Even looking at when JC finally captures WWX, they spun the event to be something like "wow, yes, JC is so great at torturing people! look at him, using just a little dog to scare WWX instead of doing anything else!" What did the novel really say about all that? The other matter was more specific, to ch. 73? When JC and WWX stage their fight and then WWX's defection from the Jiang Sect. How JC then declares WWX as an enemy of the cultivation world? Did he really say something like that in the novel? What were JC and WWX's plans for their stated fight? Did JC follow those plans, or go awry? If the latter, what did he do?

These posts, in my eyes, seem to almost want to make JC look like he really wasn't as bad of a person. That his actions (in regards to WWX) weren't /that/ harmful. Almost of if the rumors in the book (and maybe in the "fandom" too), painted him much worse than he really is. Which, of course all JC stans want to make their "little purple grape" seem like he's so innocent and that even his bad behaviors actually weren't all that bad when you really look at them. (Here's me rolling my eyes.) I'm not a fan of JC, at all; I hate him, actually, lol. But the things these posts mentioned kinda make me pause. Yet given my bias against him, and my terrible memory, I couldn't really recall what truly happened in the novel.

Anon, whoever is saying any of this is just lying. Jc stans lose the battle with canon every time, so they start making up shit to make it seem like Jiang Cheng is actually a good person according to some super secret text only they have access to. Many times, they will even resort to gaslighting, such as with this example. Of all the mxtx novels, mdzs is the most translated by a variety of independent translators on top of the official, and they all say the same thing (with the exception of the official, which is another topic of discussion). You do not need to understand the original Mandarin to know the story, because every translation says the same exact thing. But if you want, we can still go through each point:

1) “Jiang Cheng doesn’t torture people! It’s all rumors!” and 2) “Jiang Cheng only goes after bad people like demonic cultivators!”

Debunked (go to the very last response in the thread): everyone around Jiang Cheng, even Jiang Cheng his damn self, acknowledges that Jiang Cheng kidnaps people to torture to death (because people seem to forget he’s a serial killer when discussing the torture). He also does not go after “demonic cultivators” at all. If he did, he would have sided with Nie Mingjue against the Jin on the Xue Yang situation. He does not. He only attacks people who remind him of Wei Wuxian or are surnamed Wen:

The owner, “No, no. It was his misfortune. The person’s surname was Wen, and that Sect Leader Jiang’s archenemy happened to have the surname of Wen as well. He’s hating on everyone in this world whose surname is Wen. Whenever he sees one, he’d grind his teeth in hatred, wanting to skin them alive. How could he give a single friendly look to...”

—Chapt. 92: Longing

3) “Jiang Cheng doesn’t torture Wei Wuxian!”

Debunked: locking someone in a room with something that makes them go blackout with terror counts as torture. Some people liking dogs does not mean that cynophobia isn’t real, and downplaying people’s actual phobias makes you a shit person. Also, Fairy isn’t a “little dog,” she is (apparently according to interviews) a Husky, and her presence is what Jiang Cheng uses to confirm “Mo Xuanyu” is actually Wei Wuxian before he brings her in specifically to torture him. Because once again, he knows how terrified Wei Wuxian is of dogs.

4) What happened during the defection?

Honestly, it would probably be best if you just reread Chapt. 73 because the lead-up to the defection is long and starts at Wei Wuxian having to prevent Jiang Cheng from potentially kicking A-Yuan, Jiang Cheng attempting to re-murderer Wen Ning, then him telling Wei Wuxian to return the Wen to the labor camps because he doesn’t care about fulfilling life debts if it gives him a bad reputation amongst the other sects. This quote is the end of all that convo:

Wei WuXian, “There’s no need to protect me. Just let go.”

Jiang Cheng’s face twisted.

Wei WuXian, “Just let go. Tell the world that I defected. From now on, no matter what Wei WuXian does, it’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect.”

Jiang Cheng, “... All for the Wen Sect...? Wei WuXian, do you have a savior complex? Is it that you’ll die if you don’t stand up for someone and stir up some trouble?”

Wei WuXian stayed quiet. A while later, he answered, “So that’s why we should cut ties right now, in case anything I do affects the YunmengJiang Sect in the future.”

Or else, he really couldn’t make any guarantees on what he’d do in the future.

“...” Jiang Cheng murmured, “My mom said that you do nothing but bring our sect trouble. It’s true indeed.” He laughed coldly, talking to himself, “‘To attempt the impossible’? Fine. You understand the YunmengJiang Sect’s motto. Better than I do. Better than all of us do.”

He sheathed Sandu. The sword returned to its sheath with a clang. Jiang Cheng’s tone was indifferent, “Then let’s arrange for a duel.”

Three days later, the leader of the YunmengJiang Sect, Jiang Cheng, arranged for a duel with Wei WuXian.

They fought quite a fight in Yiling. Negotiations failed. Both resorted to violence.

Under Wei WuXian’s command, the fierce corpse Wen Ning struck Jiang Cheng once, breaking one of his arms. Jiang Cheng stabbed Wei WuXian once. Both sides suffered losses. Each spat out a mouthful of blood and left cursing the other. They had finally fallen out with each other.

After the fight, Jiang Cheng told the outside that Wei WuXian defected from the sect and was an enemy to the entire cultivation world. The YunmengJiang Sect had already cast him out. From then on, no ties remained between them —a clear line was drawn. Henceforth, no matter what he did, they’d have nothing to do with the YunmengJiang Sect!

—Chapt. 73: Recklessness

Notice how Wei Wuxian says tell the other clans he defected, and Jiang Cheng changes the statement to "let's arrange a duel." Also, keep in mind that everything after that conversation in the narrative reads like someone telling a legend: "They fought quite a fight. Negotiations failed. Both resorted to violence." The narration is depicting the duel the same way it depicted the opening prologue of Wei Wuxian's death: this is what the world was told about the defection battle after the fact, not necessarily the truth. Why do we know this isn't the truth? Well, Jiang Cheng had his non-dominant arm broken to make the battle seem real but also not to hamper his work too much:

Wei WuXian grinned, “How could it seem realistic if it wasn’t hard enough? It was your left hand anyways. It didn’t hinder you from writing. It takes a hundred days to heal a wound to the bone. It wouldn’t be too much even if you hung it up for three months.”

—Chapt. 75: Distance

Meanwhile, Wei Wuxian was gutted, something the legend does not mention at all:

Although he was stabbed in the stomach by Jiang Cheng, Wei WuXian wasn’t concerned at all. He stuffed his intestines back into himself and like nothing ever happened, he even got Wen Ning to hunt down a few malign spirits as he bought a few large bags of potatoes.

—Chapt. 74: Distance

Keeping in mind that Jiang Cheng still has a golden core, Wei Wuxian seemed to have put a lot of thought into how to injure Jiang Cheng in such a way that seemed serious but was actually superficial. Wei Wuxian treated the duel like it was staged. Jiang Cheng treated it like it was real and tried to kill Wei Wuxian. The only thing I'll give Jiang Cheng is that his "declaration" wasn't what damned Wei Wuxian; him refusing to stand by Wei Wuxian rescuing the Wen is what damned Wei Wuxian. The declaration was only the official statement that he had cut ties and everyone else could do what they wanted to his former shixiong.

So in short: stop letting jc stans gaslight you just because they're loud and repeat the same lies over and over again with confidence.

[habizuh-studios]

me gushing about tgcf for... idek-

Haha, don't ask why i'm making this post when I'm basically dead, BUT- TGCF is honestly was got me into the danmei fandom. Two of my friends were gushing about it so in order to not feel left out i watched the donghua and it was the BEST DECISION OF MY LIFE not only because the donghua was actually so beautifully animated and the story was so captivating, but also because i watched it in dub and got to see howard wang. Which was great, obviously. unfortunately, i spoiled a LOT. And i mean A LOT of stuff after finishing season 1. I spoiled the ghost city arc, the 800 year wait, and some of Xie Lian's trauma before even starting season 2. And i didn't even have to wait that long for it- some people were waiting over 2 years!! which is crazy to me. The character designs are so intricate and beautiful in all mediums, including the audio drama (which is actually my favorite art out of all of 'em), which HOW?!??!?!? ITS AN AUDIO DRAMA?!?!??! i ended up buying all the books, despite spoiling myself a TON. And i don't regret it at all- i even convinced myself (not really myself, but my dead bank account) to buy the special edition of TGCF!! The official art is gorgeous, the pop-up is gorgeous, the books\ mark is gorgeous, and- despite all the spoilers, after i got used to the writing style it was honestly A BLAST. I finished all the books in less than 2 weeks. I stayed up late reading them- and my favorite part was finishing a book so i could jump to the next one. And my greatest surprise was i didn't even spoil ALL of it to myself! The instigator of the war between xianle and yong'an (if ykyk, hint: family) was such a surprise to me i had to put the book down for a good second before reading it again! xie lians occasional sassiness was honestly really in character, but still a surprise. I have seen some who didnt like tgcf because of the character arcs and hualian- which is fine, but as long as you have the right expectations going into the book, you will not be disappointed. Xie Lian is honestly my favorite. Sue me for being basic, but i love him. Even before knowing all the trauma, i loved him. (Followed closely are Ruoye and Feng Xin, so i guess you can guess my type which i immediately attach to, haha) anyway, in case you weren't looking for my life story, then here: watch the donghua of tgcf, then read all the books, no spoilers. Trust me. Spoilers ruined some of the emotional moments for me yet i still felt empathy for all the characters, which is kind of hard to do. (it hurts, dream on, there is no banquet that does not come to an end). then consume the fan content. Literally all of it. We are the most blessed fandom in history. You may look up some things to expect for tgcf, because i believe the theme is actually quite different from mxtx's other works! I still love wwx tho ;) ----- PS: I also love the parallels. I'll talk about one since this post is so long already, but here- I absolutely love the quotes. A lot of times, popular quotes are remembered when Hua Cheng is saying them, but when you read the books, you realize he's just parroting what xie lian has said... im biased and this isnt for everyone, and obviously his tone and context are wayy different + he has great quotes on his own- but I think it shows his love for him. or maybe i just love Xie Lian, haha.

[weirdocat83]

*kicks your door down* YOU. I need to write a silly oneshot so I can fall back into writing because Losing Hope is dramaful and I can't comprehend the words I am writing. I need something goofy. Something silly. Issue? I can't think of any silly plot ideas. SOOOO, I come to you, the au/headcanon master, as a mere writer hoping to find motivation. Do you have any silly ideas that you'd be willing to let me sculpt into a quick oneshot?

Whenever I think silly ideas I default to cumplane because they’re ridiculous and them quoting memes wwhile nobody knows what they mean will never not be funny to me. I mean, imagine explaining a meme without the internet! Bonus points if some of them start picking up on how to use the memes without knowing the context.

A friend of mine told me about a svsss au they don’t intend to write where Shen Jiu is a strict teacher and Shen yuan is the TA that grades his students papers so LBH and SY end up communicating through notes and doodles :)

*takes a Quick Look at old posts because I had ideas then and I don’t have any rn*

Not really that fluffy but Any Hualian time travel or truth serum. There’s like, one truth serum fic in the TGCF fandom that’s good and Xie Lian has both so many secrets and also the sassiest thoughts. Also Xie Lian and Hua Cheng meeting while still alive (and possibly ascending together??).

I would also like to direct you to this post and this post because some aforementioned things are there but also various other ideas that could work. It was an idea day and today isn’t (unfortunately)

Any scenario in which anyone gets drunk. Literally pick a character and choose how they embarrass themselves and regret their decisions in the morning. Xie Lian could harp on about the dirty things he keeps to himself as well as insulting *so* many people, Hua Cheng could be very soft and emotional but also really kind and ends up giving so many compliments even to Feng Xin and mu qing (much to their shock and amusement) speaking of mu Qing, get him wasted. My man has so many emotions and unnecessary thoughts. Cuddle the man and make him laugh. I think he’d be a little more insecure openly but also happier. We’ve seen LWJ drunk but imagine wwx drunk. Idk if that’d be angsty or not but up to you. I think he’d be soft and VERY cuddly. Half of what he says is completely nonsensical but the other half is very sweet. Binghe would be clingy and Shen Yuan would probably be singing some modern pop song with airplane (who is equally wasted).

Outing myself here but non-explicit abo is probably one of my fav types of fluff. Idk something about people being intensely cuddly while surrounded by soft things and being incredibly vulnerable always gets me. Like, ‘nope, you’re mine to cuddle for the rest of the week. Live with it.’

Chatfics are my preferred crackfics because hell hath no chaos like a bunch of people smushed together in a gc with naming privileges and being unable to leave. Bonus points if it’s in high school so there’s extra drama and humor. Imagine Hua Cheng and Xie Lian haven’t confessed but everyone else knows? Hilarious. Mu Qing and Feng Xin fighting in the halls (again) over something stupid and getting suspended? Hilarious. SQX being girlfriends with HX and going on dates (they had a rough start with their relationship because Shi Wudu pulled some shit that was NOT run past SQX which led to a lot of difficulties but eventually they did become friends again and eventually lovers.)

Anyhow that’s all I can think of. I also had some fluffy-ish ideas for losing hope if you want those ;3

[accio-victuuri]

yuguyao content is truly the gift that keeps on giving. this fandom is keeping us busy with updates from both sides, but that doesn’t mean we will forget the sweets!

this is part four. enjoy ^^

An incident that got lots of attention with cpfs, because XZ mentioned CQL in the interview. and that was because it was asked how may times he had filmed in hengdian and so he mentioned all the projects. which included cql. I must admit that it was nice hearing it from him again. 💕 not exactly proof of whatever cause we know he loves cql and wwx. It would be out of character if he leaves it out.

but of course some entertainment accounts will twist this cause apparently, we’re not the only ones “not over” CQL and their association. It’s all BS. We all know WYB’s change in Weibo has nothing to do with “contempt” for CQL.

Let me just enjoy the parallels i see popping out and the continued Shiying x LWJ examples 😌

My absolute favorite tho and what people have been interpreting is this “mindset” that he has which is similar to WYB. You may think that this applies to both life in general or romance. The answer he gave to the question in the tencent video ruxi interview in particular. How it compares to his 2019 answer about a similar question. He is still the same stubborn XZ!

2019: "For what he thinks is right, and for the people he loves, he can work hard regardless of everything" "This is also the person I want to be."

2021: (Knowing the established destiny, will I still choose the same)" I'd love to say I will. " " But it's going to be hard work, but I'm still doing it."

So the connection people are getting at is, in the story of YGY, he knows that Zhu Yan will be the one that kills him but he still goes and falls for her. That’s just the kind of person that he is irl too isn’t it? Not saying that WYB is his Zhu Yan but the same theme as loving someone ( everyone says ) you shouldn’t. If you believe in SZD, you have to admit that ZZ can have anyone he wants. He can choose the easy route and just let go of WYB but he didn’t. They are both committed to each other and continue to stay in love despite all the noise. Same goes with WYB, how he said, “ love is like this. you can’t help it” . It’s like they don’t care what people say their “fate” will be, loving each other is a conscious choice.

They are both logical people when it comes to life and their career but when it comes to love — they really follow their heart.

The same persistence even when things get tough is a trait they both have. This is why they still continue to be relevant years after CQL.

I found this comment on one of the posts and I wanna scream cause it’s true. I’m sure that if asked, ZZ will say yes. Didn’t he say that if can re-shoot CQL, he will do all the scenes again? 😌

I’m also cackling at this part cause he now knows what it feels like to play that cold character like LWJ.

One of my feelings at the time was that you must not play him as a face, because the truth is that I really don’t want to play this kind of cold character. Most of them don’t have too many expressions. What is conveyed in front of the camera will make the audience feel like a person with facial paralysis. The audience won't believe it.

Which is the exact same fear WYB had to the point that he panics in some scenes cause what can he do when he can’t show much expressions. I’m here clowning about them talking about ZZ should play Shiying, probably WYB giving him tips. Do you think ZZ rewatched CQL and watched his Lan Zhan? LOL. I imagine WYB will get jealous 😂😂😂😂

Shi ying’s animal form also has a mole under it’s lip and yes it has always been ZZ’s “thing” even before WYB met him. However i think that WYB was the one who really put emphasis on it and add the heart with a mole onto that. Especially the “.” that XZ even started adding to his art signature.

for reference: part 1 / part 2 / part 3 / part 3.5

END.

[lansplaining]

Realizing that lwj has more family members (who he grows up with) alive than anyone else 🤯

wwx: his parents, jiang and wen all dead (expect wn- with whom he is close to, and jc- but wwx doesn't count anymore jc as family. And jl)

jc: everyone dead, expect jl

nhs: everyone dead

jl: expect jc (and wwx - but I am talking about people you are raised by), everyone else dead. IN FRONT OF HIM.

lsz: everyone burned alive, expect wn (but now they should bond)

People out there talking about social privilege, yada yada. When will we talk about the privilege of not seeing your loved ones die in front of you?

smdlfsd minimal-amount-of-trauma privilege

not to switch fandoms but-- YQY tried to lead a session on that at one of the mandatory peak lord sensitivity trainings but for some reason every story he told about his life as an example got sadder and sadder even as he insisted that he was here as an example of someone who'd had an easy time and needed to be mindful of others and it was deeply awkward and everyone has repressed every second of it

on this other hand, this means that everyone except the Lan brothers has "never needs to attend an awkward family gathering" privilege

[insanusnavicularis]

We should really talk more about

When everyone admired my power and wanted to flatter me , you’re the only who scolded me. Now, when everyone wants me to die or hates me, you’re the only one standing by my side.

This is such a powerful quote as a whole, with a very sincere and honest sentiment, but I wanna talk about the first part.

When everyone admired my power and wanted to flatter me, you’re the only who scolded me.

And look, I know we all love a smitten and indulgent Lan Zhan, I love him too! But! This right here, this quote, this sentiment, this is literally the baseline to any long lasting, healthy relationship.

Like, yeah, you’ve got to negotiate and surrender some things for the relationship to actually work, but unless you want an unstable, unhealthy relationship then you’ve also got to be firm and stubborn about other things. You’ve got to have your own opinion and most importantly, you’ve got to trust the other person enough to share that opinion.

I cannot emphasize enough just how much trust in your relationship it actually takes to disagree with someone you care about, to scold that someone.

And I’m not saying that you should go around starting petty arguments with everyone you care about just because, neither I’m saying you should put up with someone when the only thing they do is scold or criticize you, because that’s also unhealthy. All I’m saying is that it takes an enormous amount of trust and love to care enough to tell someone no, to tell them when you think they’re making the wrong decision- not because you want them to feel less or insecure, but because you know they’ll be hurting in the end and you do not want that- which is exactly what Lan wangji did, considering all the information at his disposal.

I’m not saying he didn’t make any mistakes because he did and there were a lot of times when he was the one in the wrong, but I am saying that I believe he did that out of care and love and concern. And Wei Ying seeing that? Accepting that? That’s like a huge step in their relationship if you consider that before his resurrection he was convinced Lan Zhan hated him and was actively trying to antagonize him.

Lwj was brave enough to sacrifice one of the things he cherishes the most (aka his relationship with wwx) if it meant that wwx would listen to him, would not be hurt by the choices he was making (because that’s what lwj thought the end result would be, and it was). He was willing to argue and fight and make wwx hate him but he was not willing to let wwx be hurt, even if it was wwx himself the one inflicting the injury.

And that’s just. So much love. You’ve got responsibilities when you’re in a relationship and one of them is protecting your beloved even if it’s from themselves- especially if it’s from themselves-.

Lwj knew that if he didn’t try to protect wwx from himself no one else would because they all were or too afraid of him or depended on him too much to actually pick a fight with him.

That also says a lot about how lwj sees their relationship.

In this fandom we talk a lot about wangxian being equals in everything, but this just goes and gives it a whole new meaning.

They’re equals in strength and in mind, yes, but even when wwx chose the ghost path and separated himself from lwj’s path, lwj still considered him an equal, he considered them well enough matched to know that he could confidently tell him things as they were, bluntly, that he could be upfront and frank with him.

And that’s just !!! And it all really comes full circle with post redirection lwj, who’s so willing to indulge wwx not because he’s just following him blindly, but because now he’s got the full information and realizes that wwx is in the right- if he really thought that wwx was in the wrong he would’ve told him.

[mdzs-fanon-exposed]

An in-text rumor rating does sound interesting!

For example, WWX being a ‘playboy’ is something believed by everyone, even JC, and fandom even has a tag for it. But!there are lines about WWX saving his first kiss, he never follows up on his flirts, he actually dies a virgin himself, and a lot of those rumors came from ‘yllz deflowering virgins’ and other propaganda to turn WWX into a public target by the clans. And at the time WWX was stuck on a corpse mountain burying a giggling radish.

So the RUMOR is true but it’s not ‘true’ for the character.

And, JC killing DC cultivators as a ‘rumour’ is interesting. Cuz one of the first thoughts we get from JC is him thinking to take away ‘MXY’ to ‘confirm’ and this is from his first opening appearance. When JC feels sure and WWX is finally cornered, JC just gives a gesture and his disciples act immediately, bribing and cordoning off the inn and absolutely no one intervenes as WWX screams in terror from inside.

Jin Ling is the most important character witness for JC, as he the closest to him and also the one who defends JC the most. And he confirms that JC ‘doesn’t let any of them go even if they’re innocent’ and actively helps MXY escape, saving him from his own Uncle. Even if the specific statement about JC whipping people to death is false, there is enough to say that there is some credibility to it overall. And JC’s overall violent behavior, even to his own nephew, doesn’t do him any favors.

This is getting a bit too long sorry, but I need to point out a problem with mo dao and gui dao. Just in case you don’t know, the official translation messes up these extremely important words which leads to a lot of confusion about WWX’s actual cultivation and fanon claiming that it is evil. WWX practices gui dao and other than one time, uses this to describe his cultivation. Xue Yang uses mo dao and all its horrors as seen in Yi City and the Villainous Friends extra.

This can get very confusing when getting into details and singular incidents, when seeing how the narrative treats WWX’s cultivation, how the public is made to see it, how clans like LQR assume it to be, how JGS tries to recreate it, and of course, how it’s treated when compared to the Nie cultivation and how its users always canonically Qi deviate but doesn’t face such scrutiny cuz Nie is a Great Clan.

But obviously you can’t just believe my words, so perhaps there might be a need for a direct Chinese text confirmation, maybe from a trusted friend or online if you can find a trusted source (very hard in this fandom sadly).

Thank you for your time. I hope this blog is fun for you, I love MDZS and having even more people analyzing this amazing book and text is wonderful.

i really appreciate your second ask, and there's no need to apologize! i did in fact ask for correction on that claim about jiang cheng, and i'm happy to get constructive feedback. thank you for messaging me! (and if these aren't sent from the same person...... whoops)

to your second point: if i'm understanding it correctly, you're saying that the "demonic cultivation" we know from the english translations is actually two things mistranslated as one; wei wuxian's branch "gui dao", which he invented, and the actual "mo dao" of Mo Dao Zu Shi, which is the more... harmful/evil of the two, and which maybe existed before wei wuxian came along? (or he invented both but only uses gui dao?) the implications i'm getting here are that the fandom (and many of the characters) misconstrues wei wuxian's actual method for the "evil" method and so thinks wei wuxian is committing more harm than he actually is.

that's a really interesting point, and i'm glad you brought it to my attention. unfortunately, i don't have any preexisting trusted friends/sources that would be able to help me with the chinese raws. in general, my unfamiliarity with these nuances (and chinese culture as a whole) means that i'm much more likely to make mistakes if i rely on that knowledge base on this blog. as i mentioned in my pinned post, i'm only using the english translation of the novels for this reason, and the english versions don't differentiate between different forms of demonic cultivation.

in future posts i will likely not be making a distinction between "gui dao" and "mo dao" without extra help; however, i also don't intend on answering any submissions that would require me to make the distinction anyways. i'm trying to be as objective as possible on this blog (with the exception of some clearly labeled analysis), and i don't exactly feel qualified to rate something as subjective as morality. i can rate the canon or fanon status of specific actions such as "wei wuxian digs up graves," but submissions that make generalizing statements along the lines of "wei wuxian's branch of cultivation is evil" will be ignored.

thank you again for the ask! i'd love to continue this conversation, especially if you (or anyone else) wants to clarify something here. i love MDZS too and i'm really happy that so many people are coming along for this ride with me :)

[withthewindinherfootsteps]

Since your opinions are extremely valid (wwx not being an oblivious everything and lwj being a person of his own right (can't explain what I mean) and jc actually actually not liking wwx and jyl being a well written character etc etc) what are some (if any) fics you would recommend?

(i hope it's okay to ask this?)

Also I was really glad I found your acc, I have an English exam tomorrow (analysis etc) and the way you explained stuff helps a bit (and it's also enjoying)

Aah, thank you! I'm really happy this blog could help you in that way. I hope your exam went well!

…Now, for fic recommendations.

One fic I will never not take the chance to recommend is i won’t say heart, but by victortor. 

It’s a very long AU oneshot, and it’s crafted so well — both in terms of macro things like plot, structure, pacing and the flow of information, and in terms of smaller things like imagery, word choice and patterns between lines — just thinking about it makes me amazed, and if I’m honest it’s probably one of my favourite works of fiction for any fandom. And the characterisation is on point, too! 

I’ve recommend this on here before, but for everyone who hasn’t read it — it’s well worth your time. 

Another one that’s written beautifully is fish and wild geese byimpossibletruths:

Another very long oneshot AU, this time of a world a lot more grounded than the previous one. But it’s not focused on worldbuilding, and it makes up for that with everything else — the writing style, for example, is extremely poetic and evocative, and the characterisation is also done really well.

The second fic is also a good transition point from where the main appeal to me is the more writing- and craftedness-aspect, to where the main appeal is the characterisation. If the first one had very good characterisation but that served more as a reason not to turn away (since I was drawn to it for other aspects), the rest have very good writing but the focus is mainly on who the characters are and how they think.

The Price of a Golden Core by AshayaTReldai is a very good one focusing on the whole Golden Core debate (which… I’m still confused as to why it is a debate), which is very well done.

…It will always be a little funny (and impressive) because of how well it manages to capture fandom attitudes on the topic — you can read it as two people on here debating and it would fit perfectly. But the characterisation of everyone is very accurate, it explores consequences very well, and is just a very good fic.

Worth of a Good Man by Vrishchika is a very good one focusing appreciating (canon!) Wei Wuxian — there aren’t any self-worth or self-esteem issues, just him. It’s written very well too, and like I said, the characterisation shines:

so i hold you close by PrismaticAvocado is also a very sweet fic exploring the relation between Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling, if you want something more focused on the Juniors or one of them (who I love but I haven’t come across a standout fic about them yet, though it does probably exist).

Finally, if you’re looking still for good characterisation (and good fics in general too, but characterisation is especially hard to find in the MDZS fandom), I recommend reading fics by other meta writers on here who are also on AO3. @ladypfenix (Admiranda there), @righteousinadversity and @rynne are people I know write on there, but they’re not the only ones, just the people whose works I’ve interacted with the most. So they’re very safe bets!

[least-carpet]

MDZS characters and Western astrology: Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng

I was thinking about the pure comedy of Jiang Cheng, Wei Wuxian, and Jin Ling all being Scorpios (genuinely fucking hilarious move by Ms. MXTX) and was like: but what is the rest of everyone's chart?? (I was also like is this too niche? but I assume this fandom is full of other queer people and some of y'all must also be into astrology, right? Right?)

That's biting off way, way more than I can chew. HOWEVER. Some Big Three placements (sun, moon, rising) seem more reasonable. (Has someone done this already? Is there consensus?)

Does it make sense to analyze this work through the lens of Western (rather than Eastern) astrology? Probably not! This is just for fun. Take it with many, many grains of salt.

TL;DR I think Wei Wuxian has a Gemini rising and a Sagittarius moon to go with his confirmed Scorpio sun, and that Jiang Cheng has a Capricorn rising and a Cancer moon to go with his confirmed Scorpio sun. If you're an astrology fan then you know that I'm saying WWX is wildly annoying and Jiang Cheng is a champion grudge-holder from hell. Still thinking about Lan Wangji.

Wei Wuxian

I don't think he has a lot of earth placements, if any. My guy is brilliant, dynamic, impulsive, and completely shitty at managing practical stuff and long-term consequences. He's also otherwise pretty well-balanced, so I think he likely has one of each of the other element. Scorpio provides a fixed water sign. I would guess that he has Gemini as his rising sign and Sagittarius as his moon sign.

I love a big Gemini placement, but they are incredibly annoying. Charming-annoying, outgoing annoying, won't shut the fuck up annoying. This also means that his rising sign would trine Lan Wangji's sun sign, which is a generally harmonious aspect. Gemini is a mutable air sign.

I think his moon sign has to be a fire sign, and I want to say that it's Sagittarius. This would put it into his 7th house of committed partnerships. I feel like it's suitable there for a variety of reasons. But truthfully, this pick is purely based on vibes. Sagittarius is idealistic, likes to lead through teaching, and is the fire sign most prone to just straight-up escaping if feelings gets too real. The avoidance and idealism are linked; the desire to maintain distance comes from the desire to maintain the idealism, which might not survive conflict or intimacy. IME they're also wild-ass party animals who love a drink and hold it well (said with the greatest affection and admiration). Sagittarius is a mutable fire sign. That said, I would also buy Aries or Leo.

For more about Gemini risings, check out Alice Sparkly Kat's breakdown here.

Jiang Cheng

Contrary to Wei Wuxian, I would guess that his chart is a lot less balanced. He's shrewd, grounded, and effective. He's also got Big Fucking Feelings. With that in mind, I think his moon sign is another water sign (water ruling the emotions) and his rising sign is an earth sign. Specifically I think his moon is in Cancer (the cardinal water sign) and his rising sign is Capricorn (the cardinal earth sign).

The Cancer moon-Scorpio sun combo is a pretty brutal one-two hit. Congratulations, you now have every feeling and you will get over them precisely never! The other important thing to know about the moon is it sometimes represents the mother; Cancer is additionally ruled by the moon; in my experience, people with notable Cancer placements have particularly significant, overdetermining relationships with their mothers. With the rising sign I've picked, it'll be in the 7th house of committed partnerships—which, uh, his mother's relationship to his father and how that relationship is explained to him absolutely affects how he understands partnership. That's why dude is still fucking single when it would make a lot more political sense for him to marry and have a kid. He experiences partnerships through the lens of his mother's disparagement, humiliation, and rejection, because he's always been identified with her by his family. I digress.

Anyway, now that we have a person who has comically huge feelings, how do we account for his political success? I think his rising sign is Capricorn. Out of the earth signs, Taurus is too lazy (I say, with my own Taurus rising—Nie Huaisang is also a Taurus sun) and too slow getting started. Virgo is too idealistic, it loves a system, it wants things to be simple. It has incredible hustle but what I've noticed about people with big Virgo placements is that they struggle with the disjunct of how they think things should work and how things actually work. It also is a sign with a tendency to wilfully impose itself on others. Capricorn, meanwhile, is pragmatic, strives for self-control, and is sensitive to boundaries. This also puts his sun in his eleventh house, which is the house of the collective. Jiang Cheng's life trajectory is public leadership, which he's born to, groomed for, and sacrifices hugely in pursuit of.

Alice Sparkly Kat also wrote a breakdown for Capricorn risings.

I wanted to put Lan Wangji in here, too, but I'm still rotating him around in my brain... I kind of think he might have both an Aquarius rising and an Aquarius sun. He has big Saturnian energy.

[pharahsgf]

Your last cql post reminded me that one of the biggest tragedies of the fandom is how little respect WWX's relationships with the Wen siblings get. Like, I LOVE WX, but no two people have ever understood each other as much as WWX and WQ understood/respected each other. And WWX brought WN back from the dead! WN *broke through his brainwashing* when he realized WWX was resurrected! It makes me SO sad how often their relationships are boiled down to 'annoying idiot and his keeper (plus sidekick)'.

tbh the whole situation with wen qing feels SEEPED with misogyny given how her personality, trauma, and close relationships are erased to turn her into the assembly line Stern Woman who ceases to exist whenever she runs out of generic oneliners and becomes obstructive to the ongoing narrative. like the entire contingent of bloggers who present themselves as #1 wq respecters but straight up forget she exists when it's time to talk abt jc's crimes or ymsj reconciliation... fans refusing to admit that wei wuxian loves and cares about her just as much as (if not more than) the jiang siblings... it's so deeply typical. she gave so much for him and her death was such a complete failure of justice and at best she gets reduced to a footnote in posts about the endless suffering of the guy who signed her death warrant bc she wouldn't fuck him.

AND WITH WEN NING THIS IS EVEN WORSE LIKE..... he endured unspeakable horrors and lost almost everyone dear to him, yet ppl only acknowledge him as a person when they want to demonise him for being kinda mean one time or make arguments about how it would have been better if he just stayed dead. if the subject is anything else he might as well not exist w how little regard ppl have for his humanity, like they really think wei wuxian would go back to lotus pier and make up w jiang cheng when the latter still wants wen ning chained up outside the gates like a fucking dog. i hate it here

[mxtxfanatic]

(Please tell me if I am bothering you with my anons, I promise I'll stop, I just really need to rant to someone who understands T^T)

They came onto my post and started being wrong, at this point it's a matter of pride! (Tho I am this close to just doing that, if they keep saying things so factually wrong T^T)

Thanks for the answer, it really helped! We have since then moved on to debate whether WWX's cultivation harmed and impacted him and how he couldn't control it because of it.

(I disagree, personally, as that is what the public is trying to claim without even understanding how WWX's ghost path works, or how any form of cultivation works. I am of the mind that nobody can use any kind of cultivation safely and in a controlled manner while being pushed to the brink as often as WWX was during that period of his life.)

Frankly, it is pretty entertaining, tho I can't say it's a riveting conversation either. Their answer to me saying that the title of the novel was a dig to WWX's cultivation path that actually subvert the trope of demonic cultivation in xianxia novels was : "No, it is because of how he had good intentions and tried to protect everyone by using bad means to achieve goodness,tho in the end, he did more bad things than good ones." And I am just sitting there, losing braincells, wondering what the heck they are talking about.

Still better than the "Both LWJ and JC spent years looking for WWX's soul after his death, LWJ literally played music everyday to call his soul to him 🙄" thing. Why do I see this so often? Like, did it happen in the book? Am I losing my mind? Genuine question here, I feel like I am losing my mind T^T.

I think that particular fanon originated from a popular fandom blogger—and is usually paired with the headcanon that Lan Wangji only went where the chaos was to “chase Wei Wuxian’s spirit”—but I think I also heard it might have been written into some of the adaptations? (Idk about that second one because I’ve only ever completed the book.) Lan Wangji is said to have “gone where the chaos is” during the war, hence his title being given then, and the Lotus Pod Seeds extra seems to imply that this behavior was inspired by his first solo journey out of The Cloud Recesses to pursue lotus pod seeds upon Wei Wuxian’s suggestion during The Cloud Recesses arc. Nowhere in the book does it say that Lan Wangji played music to calm or call Wei Wuxian’s soul. The only place in the novel where it is ever mentioned that music was played in an attempt to call forth his soul is when the sects gathered together after the first siege of the Burial Mounds and were unsuccessful in their attempt. Lan Wangji was not present for this.

As for whether Wei Wuxian’s cultivation physically harms him or not: if the ghost path was harmful to the body, then 1) Lan Wangji would reject its use and 2) Wei Wuxian would limit his use of it and refuse to showcase it to others. For the first part: while Lan Wangji had many objections to the use of the ghost path during the war, he curbs those objections at the end of Wei Wuxian’s first life and actively supports his usage of it through actions in Wei Wuxian’s second life. For the second part: Wei Wuxian uses the ghost path in his second life throughout the entire main story and continuing into the extras. He completely forgoes using a sword as his main weapon of choice. He even displays his techniques to the juniors and explains how they work, but he begins to curb some of his usage with them to give them a chance to solve nighthunts on their own instead of relying on him to solve issues for them.

[theuntamedaus]

School for Good and Evil AU (finally)

So, a little premise is due: I have only seen the movie, but the book is in my to-read list, so don't crucify me.

Also, I have seen the poll results and we really are a hivemind fandom lol

Love y'all who voted, I am sending hearts to you all!

So, AU under the cut!

As said, JC and WWX live in LP a quiet, boring life. Yanli is there as well as their elder sister and it's okay, except it's not. Somehow NHS, the local librarian (?), mentions the existence of the School for Good and Evil, because WWX spots one of the books marked with the school's logo and he is like "WHAT IS THAT?"

And NHS is more than happy to explain.

Now, because I want to keep the wuxia/xianxia elements, I will say that the School for Good is where all of the classic heroes/heroines in wuxia/xianxia are trained, with good cultivation and righteous paths and all, and the School for Evil is where the wuxia/xianxia villains, with like demonic cultivation, crooked path and all, are trained.

So, WWX is hellbent on going to this School for Good and Evil out of curiosity, boredom and all - "you mean, I will be able to invent stuff, fight villains, be someone everyone can be proud of, and also, ChengCheng, Aunt Yu will not be scolding me all the time! It's a win"

"Yeah, sure, but how do you think I-, I mean, a-jie will take it? Also, did you not promise me we'd be together as sworn brothers?"

"... Yeah, I did... You know, forget I said it, I'll go wherever you will go!"

And then WWX breaks his promise and JC goes to find him, just to discover that he is going to the School for Good and Evil leaving everyone behind and JC in particular behind and JC is not thrilled.

Their conversation is cut short by the humongous bird coming down and grabbing them both and then flying all the way to the school.

Now, WWX is really a tad too much arrogant, which is usually toned down by his massive caring heart, but it's there nonetheless and he is so sure he will be in the Good school.

JC, on the other side, really just wants to go back home dragging back WWX and wants to have nothing to do with any school.

And WWX sees the Good school, high in the sky, full of nice trees and all like

And then he sees the Evil School, all shrouded in darkness and smoke like

and WWX smiles until the aforementioned bird drops him off in the Evil school, much to WWX's disappointment and JC's distress.

JC gets dropped off at the Good School.

And both WWX and JC hate it.

They both raise hell, but it is useless. WWX gets draped in wuxia villain red and black robes and given the Red Eyeliner of Evilness, whilst JC gets draped in the fanciest wuxia hero robes and given the Righteous Sword to Smite Evilness.

Neither of them are thrilled.

Cue WWX angry-pouting and JC sarcastically frowning.

There is the whole parade thing and here we meet the Perfect Hero Lan Wangji, all draped in white and light blue, sword in one hand and guqin floating in front of him.

WWX sees him and he is smitten, completely fallen in love.

On the other hand, LWJ and JC immediately hate each other's guts.

Soon after we meet Rector LQR, followed by Good School's professor LXC and Evil School's professor WC.

Once again WWX and JC try to present their case, that there has been a mistake, but it seems that "the School has not made any mistakes".

End of part 1 - I will elaborate more in other posts.