#he who drowned the world spoilers

[spiderthread]

why don't you let yourself be gently peeled off the ground and tossed across the back of a horse like a sack of potatoes by the most handsome man in china, then maybe you'll calm down

(+ bonus:)

[layaart]

he who drowned the world is so fun* you guys

(*it's mostly not fun)

[sowlmates]

tragedy enjoyers when a character chooses love and kindness instead of destruction and vengeance after all

[ozymandien]

ouyang your phone keeps chiming

[teartra]

He Who Drowned The World Spoilers

I know I just lost my husband a few chapters ago but this scene is what freaking got me

[harmacys]

thinking about how ouyang died without letting himself understand that this bond he had with zhu wasn’t something degrading, something offensive, but instead it could be something truly empowering, to know that there was someone else in this world who was fighting against the labels, who was something more than just their body, someone who could stop ouyang from feeling so lonely

one of many things baoxiang meant when he said that ouyang has cursed himself

[thelonghairedone]

Uh HWDTW spoilers

He Who Drowned the World: In which Zhu and Ouyang do the less popular cousin of the "Enemies to Lovers" trope: "Enemies to Allies with some sort of S&M arrangement going on"

[marnz]

so is anyone gonna start talking about the ouyang/zhu sex scenes and the gender of it all or do I have to do everything myself around here

[fey-changeling]

God that was a lot of tags to unblock, ok i literally just this minute finished hwdtw and i was pretty much fine up until I'll find his grave, and bury you together and that whole paragraph hit me out of nowhere and i'm never going to fucking recover

[thoughtfulfangirling]

Some absolute highlights from He Who Drowned the World:

Everything about Zhu and Ouyan's interactions for the first half of the book

In particular, Ouyang thinking Zhu made too ugly of a girl to be convincing

Baixong becoming such a major character. I liked him in book one quite a bit, so it was thrilling to see him step up so high in the narrative

How Baixong is a straight man playing the part of a gay man to be intimate and make the Third Prince love him for his protection, and how he ends up genuinely, deeply loving him back even though it's not at all romantic

Generally the amount of deep platonic love in this tbh. Zhu's love for Xu Da is so entrenched, he's become a part of her. For almost the first third of the book, we don't even really spend much time on Zhu and Ma's love (it's there, but it just doesn't take precedent)

The way Zhu loves Ouyang not because of their relationship but because of what she sees in him/herself. How much she wishes to forge a connection. That though her feelings are completely platonic, she seems to see him like a soulmate

The slow realization that conversations with Zhu almost opens up a world of other possibilites for Ouyang he never considered. He gets so close to getting it. But as usual, he's just too self destructive to get there

The whole scene of Lady Ki's downfall. WHAT A SCENE!

The way characters can cause bad things to happen, and even though they are indirect, both the narrative and characters themselves hold those characters responsible. It may not be their hands that inflicted the moment of death, but they are responsible.

Zhu finally fully realizing that while she will sacrifice anything for her desires, the cost might instead be paid by others and having to reassess how much she's willing to have those others sacrifice for her

How this queer book written by a queer author decided to give a major part, one that experience Otherness very similar to those who are queer, to an effeminate straight man. To make that space in this kind of book to acknowledge how these kinds of expectations can harm so many because rigid expectations always have too small a box to fit in for most.

THAT LAST SCENE!! How Zhu made the riskier choice because she's learned there is more kindness in her than she thought. How that kindness frees two people in the span of just a couple of pages before her reign even beings.

That she rises to the top in the garb and, after having lived briefly, as a slave. The lowest of the low taking her seat on the throne

I just really really loved this book. This duology. I could make some complaints, but at the end of the day, I loved way more things than I disliked.

Okay, just had to get that out of my system

[nonasbirthday]

Finished He Who Drowned the World and WHEW I thought for sure Zhu was getting a full corruption arc but the last act of the book was a pleasant surprise! Not that a corruption arc wouldn't have been interesting, but we already had 2 other characters filling that niche. But those characters were how Zhu learned her lesson!! I found the ending much more satisfying than I was expecting.

[quinoariver]

Finished he who drowned the world yesterday! Its so good! An incredibly engaging read! Character emotions done so well! Compelling storytelling! Just a very very good book!!

Was a little sad to be seeing so little of ma xiuying for the first two parts of the book but i was very glad she played such a big part in the last part and everything she had going on with baoxiang was very fascinating and compelling

[teartra]

This parallel

[greencarnation]

did ouyang just fucking DIE???