#flamingwell

[shanastoryteller]

Happy holidays, Shana! Some WWX/JYL ran away if you don't mind? I'm hooked!!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

"Even if you didn't know that we thought you were dead," Jin Zixuan says, "you knew that everyone else did. What was your plan for announcing your return from the dead?"

Wei Wuxian frowns and scratches his nose with his flute. "I don't have one, really. I imagine quite a lot of people still want me dead. But not anyone important, right? Sect Leader Yao wanting me dead isn't remarkable. That's like a Tuesday."

For fuck's sake. That kind of forethought is how they ended up in this mess in the first place.

"I'm pretty sure my father wants you dead," he says.

Wei Wuxian makes a face. "I want you to know, from the bottom of my heart, that I care even less about your father's opinion than I do Sect Leader Yao's."

Yeah, he'd made a point of that when he'd stolen every Wen from him and set up camp in the land between the Jin and the Jiang.

Yanli rolls her eyes. "We were thinking some sort of secret mission to explain A-Xian's absence and special training for A-Ling's." Then, apologetically, "I had been hoping your father would be dead by now."

"I can just kill him," Wei Wuxian offers.

Jiang Cheng pinches the bridge of his nose. "Do not reenter society by killing a sect leader."

"We can also hide out as new disciples," Wei Wuxian says. He really must be worried about his brother if he's dropping it that easily. "Which might not be a bad idea until we can find out what was happening to all our letters."

There's a pause. Finally, it's Lan Wangji who says, "You and Jiang Yanli are rather recognizable to most cultivators."

Jin Zixuan is surprised that they managed to go thirteen years without being recognized, even with staying out of cultivator territory. They certainly won't manage the same now that they're back into it.

"Plus the several dozen junior disciples who already know who we are," Yanli says gently. "A-Xian, we came back so we could stop hiding. So our children could stop hiding."

Wei Wuxian softens. "Okay, okay. But then, realistically, I am going to have to kill a sect leader. Or two. Definitely no more than three."

It really says something that Jiang Cheng is his less irritating brother in law.

[veliseraptor]

So there's a poll that crossed my dash (https://www.tumblr.com/lansplaining/739863989923856384/in-a-time-travel-situation-to-save-himself-jgy if you're curious) about what JGY would do if he traveled back in time. There's lots of incredible but totally dissenting ideas in the notes, and now I really want your perspective. JGY dies in Guanyin Temple and wakes up in the past: what's his game plan?

oh man this is an interesting question! and so much of it is "it depends", particularly on "where in the past does he end up."

I think the first answer is actually to a certain extent "freeze and despair" because the thing is that from Jin Guangyao's perspective, he's never had a whole lot of options. His mistakes - or at least, the things that got him in trouble - look like, if not inevitabilities, a question of "what could I have done that would've been better?", at least at (his own) first impression. I think a lot of the time he makes the choices he makes because he feels cornered into them. He kills Nie Mingjue because otherwise he will die. Whether he was directly responsible for Rusong's death or not (I tend to think not, but I also think the text is deliberately ambiguous), it's a matter of preserving what little reputation he has (and MDZS tells us, repeatedly, that reputation can be the difference between life and death). The incest is thoroughly accidental and, once it's done, fairly inescapable without severely damaging both his own reputation (not an insignificant matter) and that of Qin Su, who he cares for deeply; once he knows he does what he can by ceasing to be intimate with Qin Su.

The only thing that I think is definitely not about feeling cornered is Jin Guangshan's death, which is far more personal; but there is also the consideration that if he doesn't kill Jin Guangshan he is quite probably going to be pushed out, one way or another. I don't remember if it's explicit or not, but Jin Guangshan's bringing in of Mo Xuanyu isn't not a threat that Jin Guangyao is replaceable.

So I think Jin Guangyao, back in time, looks at his options and thinks what am I supposed to do that won't end in disaster, when part of what doomed me was what I am (my mother's son), in and of itself.

He can try to stay in Nie Mingjue's good graces, but that means submitting himself to abuse from Nie subordinates and accepting his "place" with the Nie, which he doesn't want. If he never works as a spymaster for Wen Ruohan, then he never has the means to gain status, and if he works as spymaster for Wen Ruohan then he gains Nie Mingjue's suspicion if not enmity, which is likely to spiral rapidly both because of Nie Mingjue's inevitable deterioration and their drastic differences in perspective in general. If Jin Guangyao ends up with the Jin, he ends up having to do the same things that make Nie Mingjue so angry with him on behalf of his father, because it's not like he can say no. If he kills his father, he might have a chance, but he's also then committed a crime that if anyone discovers it will earn him universal approbation and has to live in fear of that for the rest of his life, intensified by his previous experiences/trauma from the former timeline. If he tries to make sure Nie Mingjue dies in the war, that's risky in itself, because if he is implicated even slightly in it he's also doomed.

Then, if he's only traveled back in time to when he's already joined the Jin after the Sunshot Campaign, it's even worse: he's already in a bad position with Nie Mingjue, who is going to become a (at least potential) threat to his life, but killing Nie Mingjue triggers Nie Huaisang's revenge. Killing Nie Huaisang is maybe an option but he would have to get away with it and that's intensely risky, and not something I know that he necessarily wants to do.

(I think he would kind of like to kill Nie Huaisang. I think he is very angry with Nie Huaisang. Definitely not going to be getting close to him at all, and I think would cut him off from any personal connection as politely as possible. Imagine how Nie Huaisang would feel about this with no understanding as to why, it's fun.)

If he doesn't do anything - leaves Jin Guangshan alive, leaves Nie Mingjue alive, leaves Nie Huaisang alive - he might be able to get through it alive. But from his perspective (at least) I think there's decent odds that Nie Mingjue would kill him, or at least a significant risk of it - if nothing else, because Nie Mingjue is going to lose control eventually and Jin Guangyao is a frequent target of his anger even when he is under control. And even if that doesn't happen, again, there's likelihood that he will have to live under his father's oppressive thumb for a long time, knowing that he's, not even hated, but just worthless to him. Knowing that his mother was worthless to him, and feeling, I think, that by being filial to his father he's betraying her. If Jin Guangshan doesn't just kick him out of the sect with nowhere to go.

I do think that while there's a part of Jin Guangyao that could, maybe, accept a low status as a means to survive (and I don't know that he would have anything but a low status in any other sect but the Jin; even his killing of Wen Ruohan doesn't earn him general respect), I think he would be miserable, and always resent it. I think that would feed into the despair, too: that this is his fate, that all his struggle and striving was for nothing and this is all he can do if he wants to live. That there was never any place for him in the world.

and taken all together this is why time travel fix-its where things are different because "Jin Guangyao just [whatever]" kind of drive me a little nuts, both from a logical and a character perspective. I'm not saying it's impossible. just that it's very difficult, and there's not a lot of pathways to happiness for my boy on his own without help - and where is he going to get help? just like the first time around, he's on his own.

[heipaoxiong]

Hi Heipaoxiong, I'm just curious: when I boop you, it looks like your paws are white? Is there some reason for that? Is someone maybe filling in for you today?

Hello dear student! Today is a very special day, and as such, I have enlisted the help of a few neighbourhood friends to keep up with the... booping? They're a merry bunch, and some of them do indeed have white paws! I hope that clears up the confusion. With so much booping to be done, even I cannot be everywhere at once!

[eirenical]

I got so excited to send you flowers that I forgot to specify a fandom! Guardian, if that works for you still!

*laughs* That absolutely still works for me, @flamingwell. XD

...only you're getting 3 sentences per flower, because I didn't want to cut any of this paragraph. XD

***

Shen Wei took in this new vocabulary as he did everything else, with wide eyes and a quick mind.  Zhou Yiwen never ceased to marvel at it.  He had found Shen Wei barely more than two months ago, half buried in the dirt of a mountain field, like a fabled hero out of a xianxia novel—dressed as such, too—and barely able to understand one word in 100 that he spoke to him.  Every day since then, Shen Wei had soaked up the language like a sponge, only hanging up on words for things that he had never encountered.  Like the fire extinguisher.  Like the television.  Like the microwave.  All the amenities of modern life.  Even flushing toilets had been a discovery.  Showers had been a revelation—hot showers even more so.

[elvencantation]

Hello pocket friend! I hope you like random asks, if not, feel free to ignore or answer privately or whatever. I would love to hear about one thing that is making you happy right now! Feel free to share more than one if you want!

awww i love random asks!! this is a great question. ive been trying to remmeber to use my abandoned twitter as a gratitude journal, and this reminded me

i wrote 1500 words yesterday! 300 for my novel, 1200 for a very indulgent self insert that will never see the light of day. it was a great feeling. i need to try to block out some more time to write. yesterday i was in a car for like six hours so i got to listen to music while looking out the window, play some of arcana and after it turned dark, write!

[pumpkinpaix]

Trick or treat!

you get: a leetle guy :)

[sarah-yyy]

Chuguo for the ship ranking!

Not interested but no negative feelings

(send me a ship)

[comment-exchange]

330. [Podfic] the strange idea of continuous living (Guardian)

Title: [Podfic] the strange idea of continuous living 

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/47364181 

Platform: AO3 

Creator: flamingwell 

Work Type: Podfic 

Fandom: Guardian 

Rating: teen and up 

Pairing: Shen Wei/Zhao Yunlan 

Word count/Length: text: 4535 words, podfic: 49:09 minutes

Warnings: unorthodox torture techniques

Number of comments: 0 

Completion Status: complete 

Short summary/description: Canon deviation during/around episode 33.     

Ye Zun tries to break his brother a different way. There are consequences.            

Ye Zun exhales life, and Shen Wei…needs to live.

[iamwestiec]

3Chen (Song Zichen|Song Lan, Lan Xichen, Xiao Xingchen): who gives the best advice?

A of all this is a delightful trio I have not previously considered, but WOW do I like it!

Gosh, I think Lan Xichen's advice is very diplomatic, Xiao Xingchen's advice is very weird, and Song Lan is the one of the three who's the most pragmatic. 🤔 So it depends if you're looking to navigate a delicate social situation, explore some out-of-the-box ideas, or just find the most straightforward path through a problem. Just don't ask any of them for relationship advice. 😆

ot3 meme

[miss-ingno]

Well, since you gave me permission to indulge myself with mor asks, how about 4, 5, 6, 13, 16, and 32? Feel free to pick and choose if that's too many! You just have a lot of really interesting WIPs, so sue me...

4 - Sweet Revenge

The plotty sequel to In The Middle Of The Night, my vampire canon AU! As the summary for that series gives away, it features the Stealth Lesbians:

Part 1: The Rescue of Li Qian Part 2: The Rampage of Wang Yike Part 3: ??? Part 4: Profit

shh, I'm hilarious, don't pop my bubble 😂

It involves plenty of ZYL sleuthing, and Shen Wei being an overprotective stalker! Also, more flock leader!Shen Wei and fledgling!Li Qian with accompanying worldbuilding :3

5 - In Light Of Stolen Memories

Ohhh, you're gonna like this one, it's deliciously angsty! :3

Kid!ZYL finds a dusty old lantern in the SID's storage and ends up lighting it by accident—and receiving Kunlun's memories of the YOHE era, from when he saved a young Heipaoshi to when he sacrificed himself to light the Guardian Lantern.

Fast forward to canon times, Zhao Yunlan runs into Shen Wei and promptly recognizes him as his Shen Wei. Except... It's not his Shen Wei, is it? It's Kunlun's. Not helped by the fact that Shen Wei recognizes him as Kunlun, when he's not, he's just an imposter. A wannabe Kunlun.

It's Weilan trying to figure out how to build a relationship with the shadow of Kunlun hovering over them. Lots of emotional h/c ;)

6- Soulbond [redacted]

Hmmm, trying to figure out how much to say without giving away the reason for the [redacted]. Let's say it's inspired by a prompt from a certain someone and I'm hoping to write this for them as a gift!

Weilan end up soulbonded and have to figure out how their new abilities and limitations ;) Post-canon fix-it.

13 - Arranged Marriage Weilan

The big longfic of doom OTL. Modern Canon AU in which Dixingren are widely known and there are rising tensions between Dixing and Haixing. Afraid war might break out between them, Heipaoshi offers to marry a Haixingren to reinforce the Treaty. Since he's Director Zhao's son, Zhao Yunlan is the ideal candidate (since HPS specified he wanted a male spouse).

Problem is, Zhao Yunlan is head over heels for Shen Wei, an unassuming paper pusher he met at a government networking party.

Shenanigans ensue in which Shen Wei tries and fails to find alone time with Zhao Yunlan while Heipaoshi is courting him to tell him his secret identity. Also there's some plot with assassins and the like.

It's gonna be a two-parter I probably won't ever finish but by GOD am I gonna write and post the first part (which ends on the wedding night) next year at the latest >:( I've been fiddling with the first 20k I have for over 2 years now, this cannot continue!!

16 - Warlord Kunlun

This is a historical AU in which Kunlun is a roaming alpha warlord, who just defeated Zei Qiu and is claiming everything that belong to the traitorous chief as his war spoils - including the omega twins. Shen Wei pledges himself to Kunlun's service to protect his people (not as a sex slave, but everyone is aware of the bride potential), and then Kunwei fall grossly in love.

32 - Weilan case fic

In which Shen Wei is wrongfully accused of A Crime and the SID has to work against the police to prove his innocence. Meanwhile Shen Wei pretends to be all Harmless (TM) stuck in his jail cell.

[crystalinn]

🥺 🎢 🤲 and ✨ (yes, I know you did this already, but a different one than the last one!)

Hello, dear one! We're starting off strong with the booboo face, huh.

🥺 Is there a certain type of moment or common interaction between your characters that never fails to put you in your feels?

Hmm. Honestly? Shen Wei finally letting himself touch/be touched by Zhao Yunlan, after keeping such a tight grip on himself. Bonus points if it's soft and gentle. Horny works too, but it hits harder when it's just...

Fingers trail over Shen Wei's cheek, their touch gentle. In his exhaustion, he leans into the touch. He feels safe, here in the dim twilight of Zhao Yunlan's apartment, well within reach. Some withered thing in his chest unfurls, still cautious, but desperate for the touch of his beloved.

That. That gets me right in the feels.

Under a readmore from here because it gets a little long.

🎢 Which of your fics would you call your wildest ride?

Depends on the definition of "wild ride". Today, of All Days, See, which is still in eternal WIP hell would probably count, given the, ah. Everything it's about.

Actually published works, however? Probably that same sweet shock, given it's about Alien Bits™️. (Fic is rated E, minors DNI.)

🤲 Would you please share a snippet of a wip?

Oh, I suppose. One moment.

Zhao Yunlan blinked out of his meditation to find Ye Zun sprawled across his lap like an oversized cat, chin resting on his knee. It was a new development—Ye Zun's touch starvation had finally gotten the better of him, and he found himself clinging at times.

"Can I help you?"

Ye Zun gave him a lazy grin. "You could pat me."

"Are you sure you weren't a cat in a past life?" Zhao Yunlan asked, affecting an air of long‐suffering. His hand pressed against Ye Zun's spine, fingers kneading the muscle around it, earning him a soft, pleased sound.

Stretching, Ye Zun relaxed further into Zhao Yunlan's touch. "Your talent was wasted on the SID. Clearly, you should've been a professional pat-giver."

"A what? Actually, nevermind. You're silly."

Ye Zun turned to him, eyes large and dewy. "You call me silly? You dare?! I have been betrayed! Betrayed, I tell you! I—ooh…" Fingers running through his hair cut Ye Zun's faux-tirade short as he pressed into the touch.

"Yes, I dare. You're very silly. You'll just have to deal with that fact." 

A soft huff is all he got in return.

✨ Give you and your writing a compliment. Go on now. You know you deserve it. 😉

I'm going to start biting. me @ me: you're a persistent fucker, I'll give you that, considering you've been working on that Big Fucker for nearly a year now and you haven't tossed it into the Serpent's Maw. Good Job.

Thank you for the ask! :3c

[shanastoryteller]

Happy love day Shana! I would *love* some more of the WWX and Jiang Yanli runaway story! I love it so much!!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

Jiang Cheng would very much like to throw all the Lan and Jin disciples out from Lotus Pier because they’re all irritating as hell and even worse when they’re together, but there’s the issue of keeping them from spreading rumors and that Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan are going to refuse to leave.

Jin Zixuan is fair enough. That’s his wife and child. But Jiang Cheng give anything to be able to kick Lan Wangji into the nearest lotus pond rather than put a roof over his head.

He wants to lie down and not think for a little bit and he wants to hide his face in his older sister’s skirts like when he was a child and he wants to hold onto Wei Wuxian so he can’t leave him again but none of that is reasonable or justifiable or fair.

So instead he watches as they discuss what to do next, how to handle this without kicking off another war.

It’s good to be concerned, and careful, but he doesn’t think there’ll be another war from this, even if they just them back into society with minimal explanation. At least, there won’t be as long as they don’t start killing sect leaders.

Things are different now than they were thirteen years ago.

He has a much firmer grip on his clan and the place of the Jiang in cultivation society isn’t desecrated and limping along. The same can be said of Lan Xichen and the Lan.

Nie Mingjue was an ass last time, somewhat understandably, but both Nie Huaisang and Lan Xichen are better equipped to talk him down and pacify him this time. Besides, Jiang Cheng is a lot more willing and able to kick his ass about it if he has to.

While he would very much like to avoid doing anything with Lan Wangji, he knows he would help, that now that Wei Wuxian is back it’s going to be hell getting that asshole out of their hair. They might as well put him to work.

He real problem, the thing that just shoehorning them back in place stupid rather than inadvisable, is the Jin and the minor clans that have clustered around them.

Jin Zixuan and his ilk aren’t a problem, of course. But Jin Guangshan and the older members of their clan that are still loyal to him, which is a rather large amount, don’t like anything that upsets the balance of power away from them and they do their best to crush it. And often succeed.

He wishes he’d known, he wishes the letter A-jie and Wei Wuxian insist they’ve sent had gotten to him and that he hadn’t spent the past thirteen years drowning and curdling in his grief, he wishes they hadn’t had to survive on their own, hiding and lying and running, and that he could have helped them.

But despite all that, he understands why A-jie felt the need to take her son and run from Koi Tower.

[veliseraptor]

I'm interested in your thoughts about the different way the show vs the novel cuts the timeline, and specifically in terms of how Jin Guangyao is framed. With the show, we're first introduced to Meng Yao as a young man making heart eyes at Zewu-jun and there's a very slow build up of suspicion over time, which allows viewers to get to know and like him more at first before...*ahem*... putting the villain hat on him. In the novel on the other hand (assuming I'm remembering this correctly), we're basically presented with Jin Guangyao as the antagonist almost from the beginning, setting him up for the reader's suspicion and dislike. On the other hand, there's a much more nuanced portrayal of his crimes (e.g. he's not responsible for Every Bad Thing Ever like in Untamed) and the reasons behind them, and an even more clear parallel with WWX as the protagonist. What are your thoughts?

Ohhh this is a super interesting ask and I actually found it an interesting counter to the prevailing Jin Guangyao narrative about his framing in the drama, which holds that he is straightforwardly being painted as The Villain, and while I don't think that's incorrect I do think in some ways it overstates its point. however, I actually think that something specifically about narrative framing (as in, not taking any content changes in mind) here might, perhaps unintuitively, contribute to why the Jin Guangyao of the novel is a more sympathetic figure than The Untamed (tries to) make him.

(once again I came out of CQL like Jin Guangyao Made Many Valid Points, Was If Not Right At Least 75% Justified so like. I actually don't think The Untamed was as good at making Jin Guangyao a Straight Up Villain as it was trying to be. I have thoughts about Zhu Zanjin actively acting against script and how you can feel him pulling against the prevailing narrative and I have thoughts about how that actually interacts very nicely with the way Jin Guangyao in every version of the story is pulling against a prevailing narrative that wants to relegate him to the margins in one way or another. but that's a major sidebar.)

holy hell I wrote an essay so putting the rest of this under a read more.

The point is that I think there's a few things happening here - I will note, first of all, that I don't think we actually are introduced to Jin Guangyao as a villain in MDZS. I believe the first mentions we get of him are actually fairly positive. I went back and checked, and he's mentioned a couple times early on just to note his position as Chief Cultivator (in pretty neutral to positive terms), then identified as the person who gave Jin Ling Fairy, and a few other times including the explanation that he executed Xue Yang to "show that things were going to be different." Pretty shortly after that is the scene where Wei Wuxian finds the kids playing Sunshot Campaign to see how Jin Guangyao is portrayed there (because that's a solid proxy for perception more broadly) and it's pretty complimentary!

"In these types of games, the role of the now-grand-beyond-measure Chief Cultivator, Lianfang-zun, was naturally very popular. Though he had come from a background that most people found too embarrassing to even mention, it was for this very reason that they sighed in admiration over how he'd succeeded in climbing to the top of the cultivation world. [...] He fully deserved the title, and could even be considered a legend of his time. If Wei Wuxian had been playing this game, he also would have wanted to try being Jin Guangyao." (Dew, Part 5)

I do think that's worth remembering, that it's not an immediate jump into "Jin Guangyao bad"; it happens pretty fast but not immediately.

However, it is true that by the time we actually meet Jin Guangyao on page he is under pretty heavy suspicion, and pretty shortly after that is the Empathy sequence, which involves a lot of heavy judgment on Wei Wuxian's part (a very unbiased narrator! of course!) of Jin Guangyao's badness. though that's also the sequence that reveals Jin Guangyao's involvement in saving Lan Xichen, his maltreatment by cultivators in general and Nie Mingjue in particular. So it's...complicated.

But in general, this kind of arc (starting with a character who seems fishy/suspicious or even evil, gradually revealing later on the more sympathetic aspects and drawing a fuller, more nuanced picture of them that's very far from a blanket condemnation and also gets a lot of sympathy from the narrative) is very characteristic of MXTX. She does it all the time, in all three of her books, with pretty much all her antagonists.

(SPOILERS FOLLOW: Shen Qingqiu in SVSSS starts out as a lecherous scum villain who deserves his horrible death and ends as a decidedly tragic and fairly miserable figure that even his #1 hater feels pity for, Tianlang-jun in same is an all-powerful demon lord, terror of the cultivation world -- and he was wrongly accused because the Old Palace Master coveted Su Xiyan. Xue Yang is introduced as a mass murderer and closes as a hand clutching a treasured candy. Jun Wu in TGCF receives the bamboo hat after Xie Lian's beaten him in a truly remarkable gesture of compassion.

Wei Wuxian himself, who is introduced in the first lines of the novel as a terrible evil that has been defeated - this one gets quickly overturned but the fact that it begins there is still significant. I could keep going.)

and while I feel like that's led to some problems in the discourse (namely, people make up their mind about who Jin Guangyao is right off the bat and then dismiss anything that doesn't suit that initial assumption as either false or irrelevant), I also think it's a pretty compelling way to lay out her characters, and does some very interesting things in terms of...challenging the reader to be willing to overwrite some of those early assumptions, being willing to make that change in how they assess a character (or person). I mean, that's a big part of the plot of SVSSS, actually: many of the problems are caused by Shen Qingqiu's unwillingness or inability to see that Luo Binghe is not the character he knew him as from PIDW - that Luo Binghe has changed because of Shen Yuan's decisions. The misunderstandings after Luo Binghe's plunge into the Abyss stem, in a lot of ways, from Shen Qingqiu continuing to assume that Luo Binghe is thinking and acting exactly as his counterpart would, instead of looking at the person who is actually in front of him.

So too, I think the reader is meant to do those same kinds of reassessments in MDZS as character details are parceled out. Notably, the information about Sisi and the Guanyin Temple statue is only revealed after Jin Guangyao is already dead. Everything has already happened, so why put that information in the text? It's one more signpost that says you thought you knew everything but there's still more to complicate the picture and make this even more of a tragedy. You see the same thing with Jiang Cheng and the golden core reveal at the very end - everything has already happened, the great confrontation has already gone down, but here's one more thing. Maybe it doesn't change anything in terms of the narrative, but it's there, it's important.

Now, the problem comes, I think, when people are unwilling to flex on that initial unfavorable impression, and I feel like particularly right now in general a lot of people are unwilling to...change their minds? on things? or to admit they were wrong or maybe making a judgment prematurely? And most obviously this is an issue irl all over the place but I think it happens in fiction, too. The irony here is, of course, that it's replicating exactly how cultivation society in-text responds to Jin Guangyao, namely by taking one thing about him and deciding that says everything about him, regardless of what he does.

To turn to CQL, now...I'm going to be talking about narrative structure from an Anglophone perspective because that's what I know, and that's the part of fandom I primarily engage with, recognizing that what I'm going to say about story patterns may not hold true in Chinese literature; I've read too little of it to say.

I actually think it's interesting that I actually think, while CQL is on the face of it presenting a more sympathetic look at Jin Guangyao to begin with, by putting it in a linear order where the viewer more or less knows what's going on with him through the course of the whole story in chronological order is actually in some ways a villain edit in and of itself without the extra dumping of all the bad things ever being his fault. I say that because that's actually, as a narrative arc, a very familiar one in terms of the path it follows. "Innocent young man falls into villainy" is a classic villain creation trope - and while often it can make for a sympathetic villain it is very much a story that arcs from good > bad > dead.

When it's set up in that linear sort of way, aligned with that sort of familiar path, the reader (viewer) is almost set up to expect what comes; as soon as episode 10 rolls around and Jin Guangyao does something questionable, there's an easy and immediate jump to "oh, so he's going to be one of those" and from there everything he does must be, by the logic of that familiar story, part of that path. He can't get better from there; that's not how it works. He can have a redemptive moment before death, perhaps, but overall once that downward arc begins, the expectation isn't that it'll reverse, and it's a challenge to convince people not to view the rest of the character's story - and potentially back-read into their previous actions - in a suspicious light at best or an actively hostile one at worst.

(Interestingly, I have thoughts/feelings on the way that Wei Wuxian's arc interacts with that sort of story path, which is to say as I've talked about before Wei Wuxian's first life is classic villain origin story. "A smart, clever young man with a healthy dose of hubris acquires sinister powers, gradually gets more unstable and separated from society, and ultimately goes full villain" is the basic outline of Wei Wuxian's story before his resurrection, and that is, I want to emphasize, a villain story. Obviously it doesn't end up framed that way, but viewed from outside that's what it is. The fact that he's extricated from it and gets another chance doesn't actually unwrite that - it gives him another chance.)

So CQL!Jin Guangyao might start out as a more sympathetic-seeming figure than MDZS!Jin Guangyao does, but by virtue of the linearity of his arc on screen (following a familiar narrative path to an inevitable end), I think he's pre-set up to be intractably cast in the villain role, where MDZS!Jin Guangyao, because the reveals of information about him are non-linear, wobbles more. Because the reader doesn't have all the information it (potentially) forestalls making final judgment, or at least calls for a reexamination of judgment. That interrupted arc, with its side trips and detours and glimpses of another story in which Jin Guangyao could've been the protagonist (the brothel flashback occurs to me), makes it potentially a little less easy to mark Jin Guangyao in the villain box and keep him there for forty episodes.

I would say, in general, that the novel encourages a more sympathetic read of Jin Guangyao. But I do think what you've noted here is worth remembering: CQL doesn't present him as a villain or even as sketchy from the start, and the difference is clear in the form of two characters who project "I'm a bad person!" in every scene they're in from the beginning: Wen Ruohan, and to a lesser extent Jin Guangshan.

[peridot-tears]

10 Questions

Tagged by @theleakypen yeHET.

Rules: answer 10 questions and tag 10 people you want to know better

Relationship status: single and NEVER GOING TO MINGLE because i'm tired.

Favorite color: black and red. this predates Wei Wuxian.

Three favorite foods: 牛尾汤，naengmyeon

Song stuck in my head: Ip Man 4, because hOlySHIEt????

Last thing I listened to: the ending song of Assassin's Creed III: Tyranny of King Washington, the very racist DLC, because i just finished playing it. apparently there's a brainwashing WMD off the coast of NYC. neat.

Last thing I googled: idk something about "utah reservoir" probably.

Time: 1:02am

Dream trip: have you MET me. i've been on so many dream trips it's insANE. that being said, Peru with my best friend for a solid month.

Anything I really want: basic universal income.

Currently reading: Mohawk Warrior Society ~Louis Karoniaktajeh Hall • edited by Kahentinetha Rotiskarewake, Philippe Blouin, Matt Peterson, and Malek Rasamny

Last song: "Glad You Came" by The Wanted.

Last movie: Big Eden (2000)

Last series: Winter Begonia 鬓白不是海棠红

Sweet, savory, or spicy: spicyspicyspicy i will fight Wei Wuxian in a tongue battle and WIN.

Craving: for my body to not be sick anymore :")

Tea or coffee: tea

Currently working on: origfics. so much origfic.

Tagging: @iamwestiec, @bladedweaponsandswishycoats, @shadaras, @flamingwell and whoever else wants to do it.

[eirenical]

🌹🌹🌹 I dunno if you're still writing any Guardian, but would love to have some sentences if you are!

Thank you, @flamingwell! You are very much in luck, because I AM actually writing for Guardian again. ^_^ And because you sent me three flowers, I will send you three sentences oaragraphs. ^_^

[Anyone else want to play? ^_^ Feel free to include a word for me to search for and/or a fandom.]

Zhao Yunlan's soft smile widened.  "That's sure not a sight you see every day, is it, Fat Cat?"

Da Qing twitched, flexing his claws in the shoulder of Zhao Yunlan's jean jacket.  "Shen-jiaoshou sleeping?  I think we do see that every day.  If we didn't, you'd be yelling at him for overworking."

Zhao Yunlan shook his head.  "Shen Wei relaxing."

(Going to tag @baiyubai on this one, too, because it was their art that inspired it. ^_^ It was this one, and I highly recommend checking it out. ^_^)

[treemaidengeek]

just thinking about the time I helped a loved one thrift a last-minute bridesmaid outfit. She'd been told "blue."

me: what kind of blue?

her: *looks at me like I'm an alien*

me: *sighs* hold on. *calls bride* so we found suitable options in royal, sky, cornflower, & pale periwinkle. which do you want?

bride: cornflower. thanks! *hangs up*

her: *looks at me like I'm two aliens in a trench coat* wtf just happened. those aren't real colors