#he doesn't even know that cql is going to kill him!!!!!

[trans-xianxian]

in high school I would write little poems after almost every therapy appointment about what I talked about in them and I have them all in a google doc and reading through them I'm like damn. he doesn't even know that cql is going to kill him

[leatherbookmark]

actually i have discovered the only true and correct reading of md/zs: wgxn are the true Evil Men of mdzs. just look at how they’re dealing with lxc post-guanyin

[llycaons]

ALSO it drives me insane when people get all 🥺 over jc in the fairy scene because 'hes mad wwx didn't come home' because that may be true but lets look at the bigger picture of jc breaking cups and being physically violent and yelling at wwx and blaming him for the deaths of ppl wwx really loved as wwx is clearly terrified and trying to stand up for himself but jc is about to trigger him with something jc knows is his deepest fear. hello??? read the room maybe???

[poorlittleyaoyao]

Taking screencaps of the Unexpected Meng Yao Mention was going to take too long, so here's the scene in full! It encapsulates several changes that the drama makes to the chronology and the character dynamics! NMJ is the active force behind his and MY's separation in CQL; rather than MY incapacitating NMJ and fleeing to escape punishment for the captain's murder, NMJ straight-up exiles him with no trickery from MY involved whatsoever. While NMJ is upset about this, it was his choice/moral obligation, so he doesn't appear to bear MY any ill will over it.

Given that lack of ill will, it makes sense for him to inquire how MY is getting on with the Jin clan even at this juncture... EXCEPT! Except. He didn't send MY to the Jin with a nice recommendation letter here. He fired him and sent him packing with an actively bleeding stab wound! Drama NMJ really thought--or really told himself--that not only would an injured MY make it to Lanling in the first place, but that the man who personally kicked him down the stairs for existing would hire him even after he was banished from another sect. He really wants him to be alive and thriving!

JZX's bewildered reaction to his questions drives home just how ridiculous that prospect is, and you can see NMJ go through it. No, his father was never going to accept him; even his awkward half-brother who doesn't even know him can tell you that. Yeah, stab wounds kill people, like JC pointed out on the day of the exile! Drama NMJ is confronting the fact that MY might in fact be dead, and this hurts him.

Once JZX exits, the scene cuts to JC sadly holding Suibian as he and JYL cry about missing WWX. That transition seems deliberate!

And then the scene after that opens with WLJ, frightened of the WWX in her nightmares, overhearing WC complain:

Don't worry, da-ge, he's fine. :)

[veliseraptor]

just thinking about the "xue yang never cared about xiao xingchen he doesn't have real feelings and just thinks of him as a toy" take again and @ameliarating pointed something out to me namely:

Xue Yang broke into peals of laughter. "Wei-qianbei, you're merciless!"

"Fine, laugh. Even if you laugh yourself to death, Xiao Xingchen's soul will still be too broken to put back together. He found you repulsive, yet you still insist on dragging him back so that you can play games with him."

Abruptly, Xue Yang swung from laughter into rage. "Who wants to play games?!"

"Then why did you kneel in front of me and beg me to fix his soul for you?"

Of course, someone as clever as Xue Yang must have been aware that Wei Wuxian was trying to bait him. First, distracting him with anger, and second, provoking him into shouting, Wei Wuxian made it possible for Lan Wangji to deduce his location and strike. But still, Xue Yang couldn't help replying. "Why? Hah! As if you don't know. I want to turn him into a fierce corpse - under my control! Didn't he want to be a pure, virtuous cultivator? Then I'll make him endlessly slaughter people, so he'll never find peace!"

"Ah? You hate him that much? Then why did you kill Chang Ping?"

Xue Yang sneered. "Why did I kill Chang Ping? Do you need to ask, Yiling Patriarch? Didn't I already tell you? I said I was going to kill the entire Yueyang Chang Clan - I wasn't even going to spare one dog!"

[...] Wei Wuxian said, "You sure came up with a good explanation. Too bad the timing doesn't match up. Someone like you, who can't even let a dirty look go without avenging yourself a thousand times over, someone who strikes so swiftly and ruthlessly - if someone like you really wanted to kill off an entire family, why would they wait so many years to finish? You know perfectly well why you killed Chang Ping."

"Then tell me, what do I know? What do I know perfectly well?!"

He shouted this last sentence.

"You killed them, yes. But why lingchi? Killing someone that way signifies that it was punishment. If you were only getting revenge for yourself, why did you use Shuanghua and not your own Jiangzai? Why did you have to dig out Chang Ping's eyes and make him like Xiao Xingchen?"

Xue Yang shouted himself hoarse. "Bullshit! It's all bullshit! It was revenge - was I supposed to let him die comfortably?"

"Indeed, it was revenge. But whose revenge were you seeking? How ridiculous. If you genuinely wanted revenge, you should have sliced yourself into pieces!" (MDZS, Chapter 42)

so if we're meant to buy that interpretation, then...what is the point of this passage? what is it trying to say? is it just to give Wei Wuxian a means of distracting Xue Yang and making him show himself? then why this means? and why are we taking the line that Xue Yang himself, a famously reliable narrator (?) gives (re: wanting to turn Xiao Xingchen into a fierce corpse and control him) as the truth of the situation, as opposed to Wei Wuxian's own interpretation (where Xue Yang is taking revenge on Xiao Xingchen's behalf, albeit expressed onto a different target)? and what is the point of Xue Yang's reaction after this, where he suddenly goes silent and stops responding, meant to indicate? the fact that Xue Yang gets angrier and angrier at Wei Wuxian for pressing the point?

these are all cues present for a narrative purpose, not "just because," and they're pointing in a direction that indicates that Xue Yang in this scene is lying through his teeth, whether or not he admits that to himself.

furthermore, since inevitably "but adaptation" comes up in these conversations, CQL actually retains this scene in a remarkably intact form:

coming to the conclusion based on this scene alone (not even touching the narrative surrounding the events in the past) that people who claim that "xue yang had no genuine feelings about xiao xingchen whatsoever" is to be taken as truth are not just taking the most boring possible read of this text but also at least a little actively reading against it.

[xiyao-feels]

Why do so many people believe JGY framed MXY and that the watchtowers were the same as the Wen Sect’s Yiling supervisory offices?

Ha, okay. So, there's kind of two reasons.

The first is that people really like to hate JGY and will totally make shit up and are way predisposed to accept any explanations that make him look bad. "Wait, just like the mob in MDZS?" Exactly like the mob in MDZS. I've said it before, but if this were a novel where WWX's story was framed like JGY's, fandom would be 100% convinced that he cursed Jin Zixun, and probably most people would think he killed Jin Zixuan on purpose too.

For the framing MXY specifically I should also add that last time I wrote about this people pointed out that people want MXY to be innocent, since not only did he have a shitty home life but also he's the only canonically queer character aside from Wang//xian and if he's harassing someone that's just.... really unfortunate.... And I do think that's true and it's an important motivation for people. But I also think that if the guy he was supposed to have harassed was a character people actually liked, people wouldn't conclude that JGY framed him. Some people would probably think he was actually guilty; a lot of people would try to hold them both as blameless. Instead it's mostly just JGY who gets blamed.

The second reason for these positions on MXY and on the watchtowers is, unfortunately, CQL.

When it comes to MXY, first and most obviously, CQL added JGY to his vengeance spell. This isn't the case in MDZS at all, but I think the logic is fairly obvious: if MXY is looking for revenge against JGY, maybe it's because JGY harmed him, in which case.... I do actually think there's a bit of a problem with an argument that uses the CQL-only fact of JGY being a vengeance target, and combines it with the MDZS-only fact of JGY not QS being the one he'd harassed, but such is life. In any case it's not a watertight argument, you can totally see how MXY would want revenge even if he was 100% absolutely guilty, but I think it does help explain why people think in that direction.

But there's also a specific line from WWX, after he wakes up after the cultivation conference:

Now I know who is Mo's last enemy. As soon as he's dead, the curse will lift naturally. It's Jin Guangyao. Now, in any case, would not believe that Mo Xuanyu was expelled from Jinlintai because he harassed madam Jin. I'm afraid he knew what Jin Guangyao's secret was and wanted to tell Qin Su, but Jin Guangyao took the initiative to kick him off.

(Episode 42)

This is never followed up on, of course. You will also observe that in light of what we know about JGY's actual secrets this doesn't make any sense. MXY wanted to tell Qin Su that....JGY killed NMJ? The only secret it would possibly make sense to go to QS specifically with is the whoops incest secret, and the only way MXY could possibly know that is if NHS arranged for him to find out, and NHS has no reason to do that and a great deal of reason not to; it would be an enormous risk (JGY might trace it back to him!) and it's well before NHS has all his ducks lined up in a row. Frankly I'm not even sure if NHS actually knew yet at that point in the timeline.

As a side note, I love how this theory posits that MXY knew an important and dangerous secret about JGY, which he attempted to reveal, and JGY's response was to frame him and let him back out into the world. Like, yes, back into the bosom of his abusive family, but man, what a risk to take! I am pretty much of the opinion that if MXY were actively opposed to JGY while also knowing a dangerous secret he'd be dead, because JGY would have arranged to have him killed, because duh. He might hold him captive instead if he really liked him, or felt like MXY had helped him or his mother or something, but in no case is just sending him back to his family on the table.

And when it comes to the watchtowers, the comparison to the supervisory offices is made in the conversation WWX overhears on his way to JL's celebration.

"Jin clan has come across a series of happy events. Little Childe Jin is about one month old. All Jin clan are over the moon. I hear His excellency wants to set up lookouts around the land."

"Lookouts? Recently several clans are arguing over this. Is there an agreement?"

"What is to argue over? I think the lookout is a great idea. On one hand, it can monitor situations from place to place. On the other hand, it passes messages immediately. I don’t know what they are arguing about."

"I don’t think so."

"What if…it would become another Wen’s Supervisory Office?"

"Are the two the same? Jin clan is only in charge of building lookouts. They are managed by all clans."

"Be that as it may, managing it jointly will finally turn into managing it alone by Jin clan of Lanling."

"I hear the idea was proposed by Jin Guangyao. Even if Red Blade Master disagree with building lookouts, he is supposed to attend first-month celebration of Jin Zixuan’s son."

(Episode 31)

This, on the other hand, is the conversation WWX overhears in MDZS:

One of them asked, “Chief Cultivator? Seems like the big sects have been arguing over this for the past while. Have they come to a conclusion yet?”

“What is there to argue about? We can’t be a heap of loose sand, a group without a leader forever, can we? To set a cultivator who watches over all of the sects—I don’t see anything wrong with that.”

“It’s not that good, is it? What if another QishanWen Sect…”

“How could that be the same? The Chief Cultivator is elected by all the sects. They’re different, they’re different.”

“Hah, they say it’s an election, but everyone knows in their hearts. No matter what, it’s the same few people who’s competing, isn’t it? Is there any space for others?”

“ChiFeng-Zun is quite against it, isn’t he? He’s tried to stop Jin GuangShan so many times, implied or otherwise. In my opinion, there’s still a long time before they finish mulling over it.”

“And there can be only one person who sits in the position of Chief Cultivator. If it really passed, whom exactly the person should be would take another few years of arguing over, I suppose.”

“It’s the worry of those who sit at the top, anyways. None of our business. It’s not like little shrimps like us could have any control over it even if we wanted to.”

Someone suddenly changed the subject, “Did any of you attend the completion ceremony of the Cloud Recesses’ Library Pavilion? Well, I went. I stood there and looked, and it was the exact same as how it was before. A difficult undertaking indeed.”

“Yeah, very difficult. It was such a huge cultivational residence, an ethereal realm of hundreds of years old—how could it be rebuilt in a short amount of time?”

“Speaking of it, there’s been a lot of joyous occasions these days, hasn’t there?”

And then in both cases they start talking about JL's party.

So you'll observe a few differences here. First and most obvious, the worries about the position of Chief Cultivator—which WRH held in CQL, but which didn't exist before now in MDZS—are transferred to be about the watchtowers instead.

Now these concerns make a lot more sense if they're about the position of Chief Cultivator, and they don't really make sense if they're about the watchtowers—like, one whole thing about the watchtowers is that they're in remote areas, that's the entire point. What are they supposed to be supervising, exactly? The one wandering cultivator who comes by the area every three years of they're lucky? And observing that there will be only one Chief Cultivator, and it's going to be from a limited pool of candidates, makes much more sense to me than worrying that the Jin alone will end up running the towers—I mean, it's not impossible, but it's a longer-term concern and much easier to prevent than "limited pool of candidates", lol.

But yeah: the watchtowers/Wen supervisory offices comparison is one CQL draws directly. It's not one that makes any sense, but unfortunately that's kind of CQL on a lot of the CQL-specific things JGY's supposed to have done. (I tried to work out the timeline at one point for the XY collaboration in CQL and just gave up.)

(I also left in the discussion about the rebuilding of the Lan's library pavilion in the MDZS discussion, because it's not there in the CQL discussion, and this really gets my goat. It's like two lines! That ask a question we don't even know, at this point in the story, there's an actual answer to: how did they rebuild it so fast? But apparently in this particular change they're not even going to leave us that.)

tl;dr: a) people really hate JGY; b) unfortunately, CQL.

[radialarch]

it has taken me four years but gf getting into mdzs has finally allowed me to finish watching cql, so let me present this:

lan wangji does not want to be chief cultivator

wangji super doesn't want to "have responsibilities" and "be dutiful to the sect" and "live an austere life", because he tried that once & then decided none of it mattered as much as being by wei wuxian's side

wangji, however, loves lan xichen

lan xichen reasonably does need time to recover from killing his murdery schemy boyfriend; wangji isn't going to deny him this

so lan wangji can't go traipsing about the world until lan xichen is ready to handle leading gusu lan again

and maybe it would help lan xichen if there were, hypothetically speaking, some dimpled twinks around cloud recesses who could soothe a broken heart

flash to: wei wuxian six months later hearing at a tavern that hanguang-jun has been discreetly soliciting (!) beautiful (!!) men (!!!) to come to cloud recesses

oh? what is lan zhan up to, wei wuxian thinks. and what's this talk of dimples? surely lan zhan isn't into dimples. surely wei wuxian would know

does he have dimples, wei wuxian wonders, squinting into a mirror, poking a fingertip into his cheek. mo xuanyu's cheek? but he's earned the right to these dimples by now. he's worked hard for them.

there's only one thing to do, he decides. he's a beautiful man, right? he'll go to cloud recesses and find out what lan zhan's up to. everyone's wondering about it; it's almost a public service.

so wei wuxian gets on his donkey and wanders toward gusu. the trip takes him three weeks. he stops at markets when the wares catch his eye: a new ribbon for his hair, a fine rippling robe that reminds him of water. he tells himself it's about blending in. how else is he to sneak into cloud recesses with a horde of other men?

okay, so maybe it's not a horde. but one can't deny there seems to be a great many smooth-faced young men going about the streets of caiyi town.

wei wuxian stables apple in an inn and settles down to a productive evening of eavesdropping. one youth confides to another in having received a dinner invitation. wei wuxian squints at the letter, trying to see— surely that's lan zhan's brush strokes, crisp and neat. he has letters in that handwriting, tucked inside his robes. another complains about the fare. it was bland, he says. only water for refreshment, and nothing more flavorful than tofu. wei wuxian remembers sharing wine with lan zhan, spices burning on his tongue, and feels obscurely victorious.

anyway, the path forward is obvious: wei wuxian steals an invitation.

there's a disciple at the gate who receives him. not someone wei wuxian knows. briefly wei wuxian thinks it'd be good to see sizhui again, or even that rascal jingyi, but at least it means he gets in undetected. the disciple looks puzzled for a moment, but wei wuxian waves the invitation harder, and soon he's being led along a quiet winding path. it's odd, how the familiarity sinks into his chest. he knows these bamboo, the fresh smell of them, the rustle of the breeze through leaves. he hadn't thought he missed this place. he was always made for wandering.

he's shown into an austere room. the table is set for two. wei wuxian sets himself down and looks around, marveling. has lan zhan changed so much while he's been gone? wei wuxian thinks of rabbits, and forbidden liquor, the times he's seen lan zhan's unguarded smile. there is a softness in him that makes wei wuxian's heart clench tenderly, but you would hardly ever guess this room could hold that at all.

"wei-gongzi," a quiet voice says. "you are always welcome, but to what do i owe the honor of your visit?"

wei wuxian whips toward the voice so fast he nearly slides off his cushion. "zewu-jun?"

[blacklupin-halestilinski]

I don't understand why so many of mdzs fans hate jiang cheng .They are looking at wwx & lwj pov side and why can't they look at jc story from his side as well.

Madam yu was a bad mother but a great leader. She was blinded by hatred. And fengmian can't be called a good person too. He mistreated his own son because he looked like his mother . Jc was a child , all jc wanted loving parents . But madam yu doesn't know how to show love or affection & fengmian knew how to do it, but he didn't even care about it. The only good thing fengmian did was adopt wy & the only good thing madam yu did was care about jc somehow .I will never forget this, which is that fengmian picked jc less than 5 times (according to him) but each time was enough to keep him happy for months .He didn't like jc because he was like madam yu and he never saw how hard jc worked to please him and get his attention. Madam yu used this as a weapon . They were passing jc between the two of them like he was just a toy, and they didn't know how much damage it had done to the boy since he was a child. Can you imagine how depressed he was since childhood? Jyl was the only one who gave him a little relief, but don't forget that after wy came to lotus peir , he got the full attention of not only his father but also his sister. He was so alone but still loved & cared wy. How is it when not only parents but others compare him with wy and always say that you can't do this and that?  He was a little boy then , Because of his family & others his insecurity about himself and the feeling that no one likes him increased.

He was not 16-17 years old when the collapsed clan was handed over to him.  The entire clan has been destroyed, there are about 50-100 people.  Even his parents were killed and he could not find his brother. Also, he lost his golden core when he went to protect wy. Don't forget that time wen chao captured him and tortured him, beating him with discipline whips after removing his golden core. And he had to see his people killed in front of his eyes and had to see his whole clan burn to ashes . And that time how many people tried to take his place because he was young and had no one to help him?   No one can imagine his mental state at that time. But, he endured all of them and rebuilt the clan from scratch.

After wy came back, others blamed jc for all of wy's mistakes. Jc is angry because wy didn't choose him. At a time when his clan is still being built, jc can't choose both his brother and the members of the wen clan. That's why he told his brother to come to him, because he will protect his brother no matter what anyone says. Yiling belonged to yunmenng and who protected them during those three years? And he wasn't there  at JZ's death, so he believed the rumours. And think about it, he is a brother as well as a clan leader.  If he makes a small mistake, it will go outside his clan. And if he doesn't go with wy's seige, what will happen to his rebuilding clan? His sister died in front of his eyes and went to protect wy. Not only that ,in front of his eyes wy divested  his qi.(I am talking about the mdzs plot because the plot of cql/tu has been completely changed)  He loved his brother & sister  more than his parents. Because Yanali and Xian were like his parents since childhood.    

    Who can bear that pain within three years he lost his entire family. In the end, he was left with only that one-month-old child without parents. He didn't kill his brother, but everyone said he did. How does he feel the pain when others  says that?  God, he is  a human too.If he hates wy so much, why did he keep  chengquing a secret from everyone for 16 years? And when wy came back he knew it was his brother. If he hates wy so much, he could have told everyone that he is back? And others don't know if it's true or false about jc torturing dark cultivatiors , it's all rumours. Also, even after wy came back, jc was angry because he chose lz instead of jc.  

He is sad and angry not because of anything, Because no matter how much he trusts wy, wy doesn't trust him. That's why he says that if wy hid the fact that he gave the golden core to jc as a secret, he will also keep the loss of his golden core as a secret. He knows that even if his brother comes back, he doesn't want him and that's why he let him go.  Jc's sacrifices for everyone, his pains, his everything are hidden from everyone by his outer character. 

If we take the story from the beginning to the end, is he not the one who has been alone all the time without anything and bearing all the pain alone? All he wanted was a loving family.

It's so sad that everyone misunderstands him without seeing his story from his side 💔.

Jiang cheng is a person who hide his soft and weak heart by acting strict .

[jaimebluesq]

🤔What’s a story you’d love to write but haven’t even started yet?

Thank you for the ask!!! :D

I came up with an idea for a modern day AU in my fandom that I've had an inkling to write as an original fic - the characters would be inspired by the fandom ones, but I'd change a few details and see how I could get it to work.

The idea: The story would follow the POV of a man, Chinese diaspora living in rural Ontario. Haughty, opinionated, even cruel in his thoughts sometimes - but only in his mind. Outwardly, even though he's not friendly at all, he's actually got a reputation as being dependable and always willing to lend a hand. He HATES it, but he does it because, as the reader discovers, he feels he has a penance to pay. And then one day he goes to the restaurant/bar and there's a face he knows, and before he can run off, the man notices him.

This is a problem... because people think he's dead. His family had been a serious Triad, and in other people's view, he went rogue and tried to turn on his family by going to the police, and then he was shot and killed. The man in the bar plays coy at first, but then not-so-subtly suggests that he could get word back home that the MC is still alive - but he could keep his silence if the MC does him a few favours. The MC has an inner conflict - his instincts are to immediately plan the man's death, but he refuses to go that route. He allows himself to be blackmailed - he figures it's part of his penance - but strangely, the other guy just starts out wanting a guide to the area, and then someone to help him find a place to stay, and get to harder-to-reach areas to go paint the natural landscapes. And the two get closer, however reluctantly, until the MC's loneliness and the presence of one person who knows his history has him end up in the other man's bed.

All this time, the reader learns the backstory little by little. That the MC had been the nephew of the Triad's leader, the muscle of the organization and always willing to kill whoever needed to be killed. And then there was a war between theirs and another crime family, and in the ensuing violence, the MC's cousin died - a cousin that he grew up with, that was like a brother to him, and one who was not suited to a life of crime, and who had actually been trying to get out of it. He became disillusioned in his mourning and began not just looking at his family's role in everything, but his own as well, and he couldn't let go of the fact that he was in part responsible for the falling dominos that led to his cousin's death. He talked himself into going to the police to give evidence against his family, but shortly after the process began, there was an attempt on his life. Of course his family had bought out someone in the police force. So he faked his death and left, using his connections to get a fake identity and documents that he used to leave for Canada.

And then the MC learns the other guy's story - that he's actually hiding as well, trying to get away from their shared past (his family wasn't Triad but had done business with them), because his brother had been murdered and he'd managed to kill the one who did it without getting caught, but he doesn't want to go back.

Neither of them are lovey-dovey soft emotion types, and the MC resents the other guy at first - even afterward. But they've forged this connection, and somehow, find a life together.

Haven't figured out other than that in terms of plot points or inciting incidents, but it's an idea I've had for a while and just haven't gotten the courage to try and make happen. (And I'm sure most of my CQL/MDZS mutuals have figured out who the characters are from the descriptions lol).

So yeah lol.

[thatswhatsushesaid]

Ok I know everyone thinks jgy familiarized himself with human anatomy before stabbing himself or whatever, but I'm curious to know if you think there's any textual support for him impulsively doing it actually meaning to kill himself due to an overwhelming amount of emotion and then immediately regretting it and running away in case nmj decided to help him finish the job?

does everyone think this...? 🤔 i mean, i tend to believe that he stabbed himself in such a way that he hoped he would survive, but i truthfully don't think he knew without a doubt that he would. jgy is not opposed to high stakes gambling and risk-taking in any iteration of the canon imo, particularly if the potential reward is high enough (e.g., embedding himself within wen ruohan's court to make it virtually impossible for his father not to legitimize him at the end of the war), or if he believes he has no choice (e.g., taking jin ling hostage to facilitate his failed escape attempt from the guanyin temple).

how do i put this: i don't think jgy is afraid to die, as long as he feels he is dying for the right reason. particularly in cql, i believe he throws himself in front of wen zhuliu's sword to protect nie mingjue knowing that stopping that blow could kill him. but he does it because he is willing to risk his life in that moment to protect nie mingjue from harm, because at that point in the show, he still deeply respects and cares for nmj. even after that, i think cql meng yao is fully prepared to be executed by nmj, and is genuinely shocked when it doesn't happen.

anyway. i sort of lost my train of thought sdfjlsld sorry anon, but the tl;dr is that i don't think meng yao knew that he was going to survive that blow! i think he did hope, tho, and so was ready to seal nmj's spiritual the second he got the chance.

[aoxue]

no but also 3chen 3zun and songxiao 💖💖💖

Ask game

Going in reverse order! 💖

Ship: SONGXIAO

Ship it? I am a songxiao fan first and a MDZS fan second

1) What made you ship it? Those like, two minutes in CQL where it is revealed that Xiao Xingchen dug out his eyes and gave them to Song Lan and then immediately proceeds to kill Song Lan. And then after, watching XXC kill himself and destroy his soul after learning what he's done to SL, and SL going off to care for and nurture what's left of him for the next eternity. It is peak drama out here for these men. Shakespeare kind of nonsense. It did take reading up on details from the novel, since CQL does miss out on some of the key details (as most of the adaptations do), for all the pieces to come together. But then after that, also reading a lot of fixit fic! I have been gone for them ever since

2) What are your favorite things about the ship? It's about the mutual love, trust, and respect. It's the terrible selflessness. It's the devotion that transcends death itself. It's about having your own life with your own tasks and motivations and morals, but being so lucky as to find another person who understands you and is in sync enough that you can walk your paths side by side and work together toward the dreams you create together. And yet it's also about literally losing pieces of yourself for the sake of another person. It's about horrific acts done out of love with only the best intentions at heart. It's the way none of this tragedy would have befallen them if they didn't care about each other so damn much. It's two very attractive and extremely competent and good-hearted men in the most yin/yang relationship I've ever seen. It's the purported universal touch aversion with one (1) special exception. (This is fanon, but I really love the explicit conversations about consent and boundaries that these two have in fic, even for something as simple as holding hands. Aspec songxiao, also a great flavor.) It's the watching, dumbfounded, as the guy you like splits his sides laughing at wuxia China's most mediocre joke. It's home being another person. It's A-Qing getting to have two dads. I could go on.

3) Is there an unpopular opinion you have about this ship? As much as I think about these guys, probably multiple! I disagree when people say the relationship was weak to have fallen apart so easily, or when people vilify Song Lan for acting the way he did in the aftermath of the Baixue massacre. It's as if an outside entity carried out extreme acts of violence specifically tailored to ruin these guys' lives in the most hurtful way possible. I think that'd put, like, at least a little strain on any relationship between two people, probably. It might also make the direct victim of some of this violence a little upset, and perhaps liable to say a thing or two he doesn't mean in the heat of the moment. Seeing as he is a human person. Who knows.

---

Ship: 3ZUN

Ship it? Yes, but only casually, I admit

1) What made you ship it? As a CQL native, the dynamics are clearly worked into the show, especially xiyao, as well as some nieyao, and they make an impact, for sure. But honestly, a large part of it also comes from the 3zun fanwork I've seen people produce? There is some STELLAR stuff out there about these guys. It's helped win me over.

2) What are your favorite things about the ship? It's the way all three of them would like to make things work, and all three of them care about each other, but each have their own approaches to life that are so in conflict with the others. This post sums it up really well for me: NMJ was raised to live honorably and die young, JGY was raised to survive and be secure, and LXC was raised to take responsibility for everyone around him. I really like the xiyao dynamics of "I've done every evil thing someone can do, but you are the one living person I hold sacred" and "you helped me at my lowest and I see you the way nobody else does (which is simultaneously a truer version of you and STILL ALSO an awful facade)." The utter betrayal while still genuinely caring for a person and then dying in front of them, leaving them to unpack all of that on their own for the next however many years. nielan presumably hit the sect heirs to friends to lovers/sect leaders thrust into power too young and dealing with the heavy weight of what their fathers left behind beats. nieyao had something going for them before it all went sideways and pretty soon you're monologuing to your ex's severed head in your secret evil lair/closet. Not a great look, Yaoyao

3) Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? I know that's part of the appeal for some people, but once we move from Meng Yao to Jin Guangyao, the nieyao leg of 3zun gets a pretty dicey and it becomes a harder sell for me. When JGY's main objective becomes maintaining a secure position in the Jin clan (including defaulting to JGS's opinions, which NMJ is known to disagree with, vocally, and semi-frequently), it's hard for me to get them to a place where I'd find them compatible enough to ship. And certainly when JGY starts to sabotage NMJ, that's a total no-go for me :/ I'm keeping them away from each other

---

Ship: 3CHEN

Ship it? Yes!

1) What made you ship it? I don't actually remember an inciting incident, exactly? I am sure it had to do with happenings on the lanlan discord. Probably comes down to being a lanlan appreciator, but also songxiao being my #1 at the end of the day, and wanting, as ever, for Song Lan to catch a break, perhaps even some slack. I really do think these three would work very well together, especially after all they've been through by the end of MDZS. There is so much healing they can do together. They've all been dealt a really rough, but kind of similar, hands. Lan Xichen and Song Lan have the grief and survivor guilt over their respective dear friends/bfs that they can process together (and for the ship to work, I think this step needs to come first before XXC reenters the picture). Lan Xichen and Xiao Xingchen both had their good faith taken advantage of, which led to the deaths of innocent people and men they loved, and they have similar guilt to process. Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen have their shared history (see: everything above), and they're dealing with different sides of the same traumatic events; they also have a lot of work to do to learn how to exist around each other again comfortably. Put all 3 of these guys in the same place, and you have a lot to work with, I think. Also, Song Lan has two hands (let him have two beautifully kind and loving boyfriends)

2) What are your favorite things about the ship? The dynamics and healing potential explained above! But also, I think the characters are fun together. They're all good boys who would all love and support each other. They're all enormously skilled cultivators, and would be a match for each other in that regard. None of them care about social status in their judgements of people. Xichen is well versed in sect politics and policy, while songxiao are the type to effect change through direct, small-scale action, with Song Lan being the more practical and Xiao Xingchen being less limited by societal expectations; working together, they could improve things for a lot of people more effectively than they could apart. I like Song Lan's steady, serious devotion with Xiao Xingchen's softness and light silly streak and Lan Xichen's good humor and patience. I like Song Lan being able to step outside when he's had enough touch for the moment while his bfs can keep getting their cuddles in, and then blushing as hard as a fierce corpse can when he comes back indoors and gets one little kiss on the cheek from each of them.

3) Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship? It's a small ship, so I'm not sure… But I think A-Qing should be in the 3chen picture. (I also think this about post-canon Yi City fixits generally.) If you're working in canon conditions, and you're doing the work to resurrect Xiao Xingchen in some creative way or another, why wouldn't you bring A-Qing along, too. She's probably easier to bring back than XXC. She also deserves better. She could have THREE dads. Imagine

[thebiscuiteternal]

For the mini jam: I'm the anon that asked about Wen Xu last time. I'd love to hear more of your thoughts on anything xusang related. I'm interested in anything that catches your interest, but maybe more about the confrontation where NMJ kills WX after WX taunts him about Huaisang, or some of your character headcanons for Wen Xu. Just want to see some love (or hate? Or toxic, complicated love-hate?) for my favorite background character.

In the same timeline/vein of the confrontation, I like the idea that Wen Xu honestly didn't think much of Nie Huaisang when they were younger. This undersized, anxious, mousy little nothing hiding in Nie Mingjue's shadow? Boring. Not even worth a second glance.

He spent very little time with the brothers, despite their fathers' friendship, and what time they were in proximity, he mostly spent annoying Nie Mingjue (three years younger than him and already starting to turn into a grouch, much more entertaining) as much as he could get away with.

He doesn't see Nie Huaisang at all for years after the death of Papa Nie, mostly because there's not a chance in hell of Nie Mingjue allowing it. Even at the archery tournament that Nie Huaisang is allowed to attend, he's very carefully kept from interacting with any of their Wen hosts, especially alone.

So the first time they meet since Huaisang was seven is at the Indoctrination Camp, where he's now sixteen.

By this time, he's starting to grow into those "elegant and attractive" (thank you, novel) features, and his nervousness serves to make him look deliciously breakable (thank you again, novel).

Suddenly, he's a lot more interesting this go around.

And, as long as he doesn't A) interfere with the running of the camp itself, which is supposed to be Wen Chao's task, or B) upset the delicate balance that is "keeping a hostage" by actually killing Huaisang, Wen Xu has carte blanche from their father to do as he pleases.

He doesn't get to make the most of his plans before the majority of the captives escape (Huaisang is with them, once more drawing on novel instead of CQL), but really, that only gives him more time to refine those plans. Expand them, even.

When he hears word that his target is now working among the aid tents scattered near the Cloud Recesses, under the belief that a target already so damaged won't be the focus of another attack while there are more lucrative targets to be had, he decides he'll prove that belief wrong and catch himself a little bird while he's at it.

Fortunately, Nie Mingjue is tipped off and confronts him enroute and, well. You know the rest.

[cuckoo-among-beasts]

what's your thoughts on jgy?

anon || random ask

I'm going to assume this ask for me, the mun, and not Huaisang, since I believe we're all pretty aware of what he thinks of JGY xD

What do I think about JGY? That's a complex, but also not complex, question. First of all, I do like the character, he is definitely well made and I love how he has done a lot of good stuff. The reason behind why he did the good things, I'm going to leave up to each person to decide. I personally think that some was due to genuine care and some was to further his position. However, this does not excuse the bad things he did. I'm not going to list those since I assume that you, the reader and/or anon, already knows this as well, but I especially dislike the innocent people he sent to their death (which includes the prostitutes involved in his father's death).

I know what some of you might say now, that Huaisang too killed innocents, but I personally disagree about that. MXY was probably an innocent, but Huaisang did not force his hand. How much he influenced him is unknown, but in the end, he didn't force his hand. Was it wrong of him to influence him? Probably, all depending on to what level he did so. And then there's Yi City, which I don't think Huaisang can be viewed as guilty for, that was XY.

Though, I do also think that pretty much as bad as killing innocents is killing "family" and that was what JGY did by playing Turmoil for NMJ. Should NMJ have kicked him down the stairs? No. But by then he wasn't really himself anymore either and tbh I wanted to slap JGY then too with the shit that came out of his mouth. Hurting in disguise of helping like that, like JGY did with NMJ, that is one of the worst things you can do imo. I'm very much about loyalty and that act was very disloyal, even if he also, in a way, were filial by doing so. Which is also something I find important, but I do draw my line for loyalty (to friends and family) when it comes to hurting others for personal or familial gain.

Do I understand JGY's reasoning and motivation behind his actions? Yes, I think so. The way he had been treated by many was wrong, very much so, but that still doesn't excuse murder.

Oh and while I'm at it, he said he never planned or had hurt LXC, I disagree. Why? Because he used a Lan technique to kill NMJ. He used something LXC had taught him, twisted it by changing a part (also found with the Lans) to kill their sworn brother. He used a gift to do an action he knew LXC would be against and I see that as hurting someone too (just like NHS made LXC stab JGY, even if that didn't technically kill him, at least not in the novels, I've heard it's different in CQL).

Did all of this made JGY deserve to get killed? No, but I'm also against death penalties and murder of any kind. I do think he deserved to be locked away for the rest of his life. Though, what I wish the most is that he didn't have to have gone to such lengths. That JGY had told his sworn brothers about what JGS wanted him to do, even if that would've caused a war.

[jin-zixun]

tbh i think someone should give some pointers to cql wen xu about hostage situations like. he kills those lans so fast. like not even 2 seconds after making his demands his men kill most of them? like slow down buddy. learn patience maybe?

i mean i guess it works out for him though, so maybe its everyone else who is wrong 🤷‍♀️ maybe immediately killing everyone is a strategic move actually. idk i would not know.

(canon divergence where lwj comes out like 2 seconds later, sees wen xu has literally already killed everyone in less than a minute and just like. walks back into the cave before the wens even notice he came out. i mean what's wen xu going to do? wait them out?? he doesn't even have the patience to count to ten! (yes we know wx can get in now but does lwj? idk. how loud are they out there?))

[poorlittleyaoyao]

Top 4 Jiang Yanli Survival Scenarios That Still Allow the Plot to Happen

HOT TAKE: JYL didn't actually need to die and the story would still be plenty crunchy if she hadn't. (Also, it is geographically implausible for her to somehow get all the way from Koi Tower to Nightless City unless she was faking her low cultivation this whole time and secretly mastered teleportation talismans, but that's not what this is about.) Below are 4 ways JYL could live that would still allow the major post-timeskip plot beats to unfold.

SCENARIO 1: JYL remains a widow and stays in Lanling as a member of the Jin household.

SCENARIO 2: JYL is married off to JGY after JZX's death (+ a spicier, alternate version of this)

SCENARIO 3: JYL ends up married off to NMJ after JZX's death.

SCENARIO 4: JYL remains a widow and returns to Lotus Pier.

With descriptions under the cut!

SCENARIO 1: JYL remains a widow and stays in Lanling as a member of the Jin household.

THE POTENTIAL: JYL in this scenario occupies a fraught position at Koi Tower; she has some sway as Jin Ling's mother, but it's unclear where Jin Ling stands in the line of succession. (She's also now trapped in JGS's household without a male guardian so. You know. That's great. 😬) JGY would strive to foster a positive relationship with her, I think; she doesn't pose a threat to him, and even if he has no personal affection for her, showing kindness to his sister-in-law is good optics and maintains the alliance with Lotus Pier. What are the ramifications of that? Maybe she becomes close with QS and help advocate for her marriage? (Maybe she then becomes close-close with QS later on, given that they'd both be terribly starved for physical intimacy.) Maybe she stumbles upon some of the secrets of the Jinlintai Murder Basement and becomes one of NHS's informants. Maybe she has no idea about the Murder Basement and is as shocked and appalled as everyone else when she learns about JGY's crimes and wonders how the hell she didn't realize any of this was happening. Good stuff!

SCENARIO 2A: JYL is married off to JGY after JZX's death.

THE POTENTIAL: Much the same as above, except now JYL has sealed her position as THEE Jin-furen once JGY ascends to Sect Leader and Chief Cultivator. She and JGY are connected with and presumably have developed some degree of fondness for each other, which makes the reveal of JGY's actions that much more dramatic! She's going to feel as betrayed and conflicted as LXC does, and is going to struggle when both her brothers end up in opposition to her husband. Does JGY persuade her to go with him to Dongying, or does he take her hostage as he does LXC? To what degree does proximity to JGY make her potential collateral damage for NHS? This is all very stressful for JYL, but it averts the terrible, horrible, no-good very bad accidental incest marriage with QS, so... winning!

SCENARIO 2B (CQL only): JYL and JGY marry after JZX's death, but had a whole affair going on prior to that.

THE POTENTIAL: There's this one chaotic group interview with a bunch of the CQL actors where they're like "HMMM IT'S PRETTY SUS THAT JIN LING LOOKS SO MUCH LIKE HIS UNCLE!! SHIJIE HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO!!" and while poor Zhu Zanjin was sitting there going "nooo stop it's not like that! it's a coincidence! ☹️" it had me like 👀because I love mess. My fave interpretation of Claudius and Gertrude in Hamlet is that they were always in love with each other and Claudius killed King Hamlet 1.0 so he could be with her (obligatory plug for Haider, my fave Hamlet adaptation, which has this precise dynamic and it's *chef's kiss*), and like... what if THAT'S going on. JYL can have an extramarital affair with far-reaching consequences, as a treat. Sorry, Jin Ling, but the revelations from Guanyin Temple just got THAT much more complicated for you to process.

SCENARIO 3: JYL ends up married off to NMJ after JZX's death.

THE POTENTIAL: Ohohohoho, this one might be my favorite one. The Jin clan (possibly at JGY's suggestion) marry JYL off to NMJ in an attempt to repair Lanling's relationship with Qinghe and get NMJ to stop wilding. NMJ and JYL hit it off (shared experiences include: being parentified at a young age, violently losing a parent to the Wen clan, a strong sense of duty, and chronic illness)... but NMJ does not, in fact, stop wilding, so JGY begins playing Turmoil. NMJ's increasingly volatile behavior would be even more terrifying for JYL than it is for NHS--she's not only worried about her own safety, but if the Jin clan deem the Unclean Realm unsafe for little JL, then JYL's not going to get to see her son. Once NMJ succumbs to qi deviation, JYL is widowed once again, and she's starting to wonder if she's cursed... until her brother-in-law comes to her with his suspicions about JGY. (She might even be the one to ignite the suspicions in CQL canon, since she's present for LWJ playing Cleansing for WWX and thus knows what it's supposed to sound like.) Now JYL is pissed, and even more worried about JL's safety. She keeps Qinghe afloat while NHS goes into his scheming flop era, and perhaps even suggests to him that WWX is the person to call if he wants his brother back. As NHS's plan endangers people JYL cares about--including her son! repeatedly!--JYL starts to question his methods and regrets not confiding in JC instead, but the die is cast at this point.

SCENARIO 4: JYL remains a widow and returns to Lotus Pier.

THE POTENTIAL: This isn't bringing the spicy melodrama the way the other scenarios are, but I do like the quieter change it means for her, JC, and JL. JC doesn't have nearly as much unresolved grief to work through with his sister still alive, and would be a better-adjusted person. He might, in fact, be even better-adjusted than JYL herself, who grieves for and loves WWX but cannot forgive him for killing her husband. WWX upon his resurrection would have to face the consequences of shijie's anger, and now they're the ones having a tearful heart-to-heart in a public space while JC frets. (And then they ALL get to deal with the golden core transplant fallout! Woo!) Plus, an unattached JYL would have the freedom to accompany JL to Lanling, so she's going to be closer with JGY and QS and be present for whatever the hell happened with MXY, so she is going to have some REACTIONS to certain revelations, let me tell you!

I would love to write any one of these, but I am the world's slowest writer, so if it's up to me, they will never actually happen. So fly forth, ideas! Be free! If you write one of these, hmu, because I'd love to read it!

[veliseraptor]

gimme ur hard/soft xue yang headcanons please 🧋

i actually already answered for xue yang but since he is my most beloved boy I'll go ahead and do more

hard headcanon: Xue Yang genuinely liked and cared about a-Qing. I think there's textual evidence for this in the novel, and I hold it as true for CQL as well. I think he found her annoying sometimes, and I don't think he started out liking her (tolerating, mostly), but she grew on him and by the end of the three years he would absolutely kill for her if he felt like there was a threat to her safety.

It's just that it isn't enough when things careen off the rails, just like it's not enough with Xiao Xingchen. It's like a habit he can't break: namely, a habit of violence. He definitely blames her in part for the disaster of everything, but I do think that if he doesn't exactly regret killing her (after she made him angry, stupid, doesn't she know better?) he doesn't make much of an effort to get rid of her ghost, either, and he's not actually happy about her being dead.

soft headcanon: I have a whole sequence of events in my head about the aftermath of Xue Yang's Hand Incident, the main feature of which is that I think there was someone who took some pity on him and scraped him off the street, amputated what was left of his finger, and kept him from dying immediately of shock or exposure. As was almost inevitable with crush injuries before the age of antibiotics, though, there was definitely infection, and when it looked like Xue Yang was going to die he got dumped back outside to not do it in the house.

(Seriously, guys, crush injuries were really bad (still are, but, like, in terms of infection historically even worse). And I feel like it's very important that in Xue Yang's description of what happened, he lost his little finger but the wheel still went over the rest of his hand.)

By rights, he shouldn't have survived after that, and I like the idea that part of the reason he did is because he in some very rudimentary way tapped into demonic cultivation as a means of, like, managing the all-out assault on his body. It's not something he would've had a lot of control over, or even awareness of, but I like the idea of it.

But this is under "soft headcanon" because it's all stuff where, like, somebody else writing a different version of events isn't going to bother me, as long as it's traumatic as heck.