#hua cheng is DOWN BAD

[maalidoesart]

most devoted believer!!!!!

[muzsmoux]

Just finished season one of tgcf. Do I know everyone's names? I don't. Or am I sure what that guy's deal was with the snake girl?? Not entirely. And why?

I couldn't hear the plot over the gaydar beeping nonstop.

I'm sorry but how was I supposed to pay attention to anything when the wholeass time Hua Cheng was in the background, making heart eyes at Xie Lian??? Bro clocks into reality occasionally to check if there's any real danger or an opportunity to impress gege with some sick lore but otherwise? Just wondering how he likes his eggs in the morning and if it's possible to top AND bottom at the same time.

[muqingfx]

hes so👉👈

[esora247]

take some bad quality hualian comfort because 👍👍👍

[mellophase]

Honestly no fuckin' wonder it took Hua Cheng 10 years to escape Tonglu it seems like he would have been pining for at least 8 of them

[lazycranberrydoodles]

🔉 sound on!

so gomens season two huh. / youtube / follow for more fafa with fangs

[average-hua-cheng-fan]

all i want is for the gambler's den scene to be loudly blaring poker face by lady gaga. is that too much to ask

[thatoneweirdo14]

Breaking news: I am a massive simp for hua cheng

[melonnade]

Hua Cheng’s dub lines in s2ep5 have got me twirling my hair and giggling

[domokunrainbowkinz]

ouuuugh I feel my danmei phase rising from the ashes....

[starpros-sunshine]

So. Tgcf wataei au <- completely delusional

[muzsmoux]

Xie Lian 30 seconds into meeting a tall faceless man with legs for days and an aura so evil it dissolves enchantments:

[nox-tiene-box]

ya know, every now and then I think I know pining. I sit and listen to a song, remembering a certain someone that I haven't seen since 4th grade but fuCKING HUA CHENG. THAT MAN WAS OVER HERE FOR 8 0 0 YEARS??? LIKE GODDAMN BRO HASNT JUST PERFECTED THE FINE ART OF YEARNING BRO IS THE FEELING ITSELF

[kamariya]

the cursed shackles are gone.

[peacesmovingcabaret]

It really feels like Hua Cheng’s character was design to showcase just how ineffective and dare I even say useless heavenly officials truly are.

First, you have reports of a ghostly groom who’s really just Pei Ming’s bitter ex kidnapping brides and murdering god knows how many people over the past 100+ years. Yet heaven does pretty much nothing, and dumps the responsibility on a twice demoted scrap god. It takes Hua Cheng showing up, guiding Bride! Xie Lian to the ghost’s domain and destroying the barrier that kept away outsiders for the issue to even get resolved.

When Xie Lian needed to find information about Banyue pass and asked around heaven, they declined to enlighten him on anything. Meanwhile Hua Cheng (while in his San Lang disguise) tells him every detail, helps him on his journey, finds him the antidote for the scorpion snake bite, protects him while trapped in the Sinner’s pit and helps him with exposing Pei Jr. as the culprit.

Oh and then there’s the boy with the multi-faced disease that he asked Ling-Wen to look for several days ago, that took Hua Cheng all of two minutes to track down. Like come on!!!

Then there’s the whole Fang Xin Guoshi/Golden Feast Massacre incident Xie Lian was accused of. That took Hua Cheng only a few hours to uncover the truth and prove Xie Lian’s innocent. A matter that would have taken heaven who knows how long to settle.

Heaven is so bad at their job, Hua Cheng made a jab at them for how they would be dragging their feet when it came to dealing with Qi Rong’s underlings. Then proceeded to highlight that fact by literally making it rain with the blood of said underlings that he’d just slaughtered in that very instant.

[illuminatedferret]

With the new edits to Xie Lian's request to be banished again rather than fight Lang Qianqiu, I'm really struck by the gravity of Hua Cheng rejecting his ascension again. We conflate being a Heavenly Official with being a god, being a god with being beneath Jun Wu's dominion, but that's really not the case. Ascension and godhood are natural consequences of diligence and cultivation, not something handed out because you impressed the right person. And yet as more people ascend, they fight, they bump elbows, they learn to live among one another, regulating each other and developing a 'status quo' for godhood.

This is the Heavenly Court- not a natural location, but a system constructed to exercise control over gods and godhood. A place just as coveted as it is full of rules and expectations, just as unforgiving as it is illustrious. Yet the violence inherent in the heavens, in Jun Wu's rule, is never truly addressed. And that violence can be boiled down into one simple question:

Do people have the right to say no to godhood?

For all intents and purposes, it seems that few people view ascensions as a bad thing. The only case we have of someone outright rejecting the heavens and doing so on their own terms is Hua Cheng. And as far as we can tell, no one ever follows up with him over this, but we can't forget his unique circumstances: his ghosthood, his place in Mount Tonglu, his soon-to-come power as one of the strongest men in the world, all allow him to pull off this escape and land himself a position where the heavens cannot afford to punish him, even if they want to. But for a more average person, what would happen if they said no?

And if Jun Wu accepts that "no" (if he accepts any no), does it come with no strings attached? What are the odds he allows this mold-breaker to walk out the doors without some sort of condition in place? Let me remind you, godhood is not contingent on his approval- rejecting the heavens doesn't make you stop being a god. Really, isn't rejecting the heavens rejecting him and his rule, more than anything else? He cannot make someone a god, and he cannot truly make them stop being a god, either. It is a privilege of his position (and power) that he can pretend otherwise, and he has to go to extreme lengths (the cursed shackles) to do so.

What ruler wouldn't see it as an act of disrespect that someone wants to leave their court? What ruler would willfully allow someone to leave the heavens and become what is fundamentally a rogue agent? It flies in the face of the purpose of the Heavenly Court. Surely this hypothetical person allowed to leave ends up like Xie Lian: shackled, deprived of at least the ability to hear prayers. At worst, Jun Wu may decide someone who rejects the heavens rejects the cultivation that brought them there as well, and seal their spiritual power too. But with those sorts of caveats, who would choose to leave? And to deprive people of choice is inherently violence.

In one act, Hua Cheng not only rejects the heavens but bucks their yoke, escaping the system of power and control that demands obedience from everyone unto the man on top. This is a far, far more significant and noteworthy act than is addressed. While he clearly cares little for it, Hua Cheng is a god, making him the only god in the world truly removed from Jun Wu's control and influence. He exists outside of the heavens' system, and thus paves the way for a space similarly divorced from the control of the heavens, where people can live without fear of censure or persecution from the people the world insists are their betters.