#i’m just surprised it’s not about jgy

[labyrynth]

PSA for “canon jiang cheng” folks:

please stop using the “subordinate” thing as a basis for your arguments. that word does not mean what you seem to think it means.

y’all talk about jc asking wwx to be his subordinate as if it’s like some show of disrespect. some of y’all literally use it as “evidence” that jc “never cared about wwx” and that he “never viewed wwx as anything but a servant” but like.

my friends. subordinate literally just means “someone with a lower rank (than someone else).” it does not carry any connotations of subservience, servitude, lesser worth, or disrespect.

we understand how sect leadership works in mdzs, yes? there is One (1) sect leader.

Everyone who is Not the sect leader, but is affiliated with that sect, is Subordinate to the Sect Leader.

nobody ever claims that lan xichen didn’t care about lan wangji, lan qiren, or any of the juniors, even though they were all subordinate to him as the sect leader.

nobody ever claims that jin guangshan viewed madame jin, jin zixuan, or jin zixun as “just servants” or even servants at all, even though they were all subordinate to him as the sect leader.

hell, nobody even claims that nie mingjue viewed meng yao as “just a servant,” even when meng yao actually WAS a servant!

[edit: apparently some people are taking objection to calling meng yao as a servant? y’all, they literally made him be their water boy. what would you call that?]

that’s just how leadership works! being subordinate isn’t a bad thing!! it’s just “a person who has a boss”

“right-hand-man” IS a subordinate position to “sect leader,” and it’s also literally the highest position jc could have given wwx without quite literally making wwx sect leader!

so like. unless you ARE legitimately arguing that jiang cheng should have forced wei wuxian to become sect leader of yunmengJiang, just…please drop it.

that word Does Not mean what you Think it means. the thing you are Mad about is Made Up. please just let it go.

[evilhasnever]

Time for a wedding, set in the same reincarnation AU as this and this ficlet by me and this (by @lansplaining)! Btw, I have collected all previous parts in a series on Ao3 for ease of reading: Memory Lane (get it?)

A few people wanted to see what would happen if JGY recovered his memories, which means there is angst coming up... (this drabble turned into 3000 words, so Ao3 link if you prefer!)

For all that Lan Xichen knows his past life, he cannot tell the future. And the future seems dead set on tripping him up, as if holding a grudge in order to counterbalance whatever advantage his past memories may give him. 

That is to say, Meng Yao disappears the morning they are supposed to get married. 

It was not meant to be a big affair, but even a small modern ceremony ends up being a complex production when overzealous friends and overly-traditional relatives are involved. Lan Huan and Meng Yao had agreed to go to the venue separately, both to appease the loudest aunties and to build up some excitement for their own reunion as husbands. This means Lan Huan has slept at Wangji’s place for the past two days, leaving Meng Yao alone in the apartment they share, and has forced himself not to text him constantly over the past forty-eight hours.

At 10 in the morning on the day of the ceremony, Lan Huan is sweating in his tux on the way to the venue, driven by Wangji; he’s fruitlessly trying to meditate to keep calm, but he can’t quite stamp down his eagerness. For once his nerves are of the positive, tickling variety reserved for happy occasions - he doesn’t expect anything to go wrong today, considering A-Yao planned everything. 

He should have known better. 

When they are ten minutes away, Lan Huan’s cell phone rings, spooking both brothers out of their meditative silence. It’s Meng Shi, calling from the reception hall. It sounds like she has a hand on the receiver so as not to be overheard.

"A-Huan, A-Yao is not here."

Lan Xichen blanches. “He is what…?”

“He is not here. He is always here first, heavens knows he would be checking every single napkin even on his own wedding day, but today…”

“ I’m sure there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for this. Didn’t you go the venue together?”

“No, he called me a taxi. He said he had an errand to run, but that was two hours ago and he is not answering his phone. He always tells me where he is, A-Huan, and now…!”

“Perhaps he is just late,” Lan Xichen murmurs, his pulse already picking up speed because the very idea is absurd. “What kind of errand? The cake? A-Yao is always very particular about catering…”

“He didn’t say. A-Huan, did something happen?”

“Not that I know of, but I didn’t see him yesterday, we wanted to play up the anticipation a little…” Lan Huan admits. “Did you see him for dinner last night?” 

“Yes, I did… A-Yao said he wasn’t feeling well, but I thought it was just nerves,” Meng Shi carefully says, and Lan Huan can almost imagine her pursing her lips. “He said he ran out on his own stag party. I didn’t think much of it, A-Yao has never liked surprise parties.”

Lan Xichen’s brow furrows. “I’ll make some calls. Please wait there, and call me if he arrives.”

He tries A-Yao’s number, but it goes straight to voicemail. He leaves a quick message, just to be safe: “A-Yao, are you ok? I’m almost at the venue. Let me know if something happened, alright? I love you.”

Carefully ignoring Wangji’s glance in the rear view mirror, he shoots a text to Mingjue and another to Jin Zixuan, asking if A-Yao is coming with them by any chance. Huaisang calls him back from his brother’s phone immediately. “Xichen-ge, did you lose your fiance?”

“Miscommunication,” Lan Xichen replies tightly. “What happened at the stag party, Huaisang?” 

“Ayo, I don’t know anything! Xuanyu and I put him in the car and he freaked out as if we were some gangsters coming for his family. He was absolutely no fun the whole evening, after I prepared all the decorations and even the stripper–I mean, the entertainment!”

Lan Xichen pinches the bridge of his nose, feeling the grasping hands of a migraine growing in the back of his skull. “We will discuss this at a later time, Huaisang. Did A-Yao do or say anything strange at the party?”

“He hardly said anything at all, and then he just up and left when we tried to put a veil on him for the photos! Total spoilsport. Did he get cold feet?”

“He is late.”

Huaisang gasps in horror. 

“I just want to make sure he is safe. Do you know where he was yesterday afternoon, before you kidnapped him?”

“I resent that wording! Anyway, I think he went to pick up his wedding tux with Jin Zixuan. Trying to be a good brother wa—y too late if you ask me.”

“Alright, thanks. See you at the reception, Huaisang.”

“Is it… still on? Just wondering if I need to get dressed.”

“I’d appreciate yours and your brother’s presence either way,” Lan Xichen says, wryly. 

“'mkay, ge. Best of luck.”

When they reach the wedding venue, they are momentarily intercepted by Shufu - Lan Xichen smiles and dodges him, ear glued to his phone as Wangji shadows him to the waiting room and locks the door. 

When they are alone, Lan Huan turns to his brother. “Wangji. A-Yao should already be here, but I can’t track him down.”

Wangji’s gaze hardens imperceptibly, and Lan Xichen takes a deep breath and lifts his hands in a pacifying gesture. “I am worried about him. His mother doesn’t know where he is either.” 

“Why would he flee?” Wangji asks. 

“We should not jump to conclusions,” Lan Xichen cautions, “He… he should have no reason to do so.” 

“The reasons may be unrelated to the past,” Wangji offers, after a thoughtful moment. “Car accident, panic attack.” 

“Alright, let’s… one thing at a time,” Lan Huan chuckles nervously, trying to push down the bubble of fear growing in his stomach.

For the next few minutes, they both busy themselves calling local hospitals. Thankfully, nobody that looks like A-Yao has been taken to any of the city ERs this morning. Lan Xichen exhales, then dials A-Yao’s number again, letting it ring off the hook. 

When it goes to voicemail again, he decides to try his luck and call Jin Zixuan’s number, which he has only because he is very thorough and always prepared for emergencies - or so he thought, at any rate.

“Ah, Lan Xichen,” Zixuan answers on the third ring. “Are you calling to tell me not to come to the wedding? Because A-Li and I are almost there! I already left several apologies on A-Yao’s answering machine, but I don’t know how my brother’s mind works…”

“Why would you apologize?” Lan Xichen asks, suddenly alert. “Did something happen yesterday?”

“It was odd,” Zixuan grunts, and there are background baby noises for a short while - Lan Xichen holds his breath until Zixuan resumes speaking. “One moment he was all dimples, then when he tried on his wedding tux he stopped dead and looked like he’d short-circuited. Stuck like a mannequin. I’ve never seen him not frenetic, which is why I asked him if he perhaps didn’t like the suit? Told him if we paid extra we could get him another one in time for the wedding, though it would not be custom-made… he wasn’t listening at all, just doing this wide-eyed face in the mirror. I had told him that white was not his color, but the reaction seemed extreme!”

“Zixuan, I need to know exactly what he said. Word for word, if you could be so kind.”

Another long sigh, more baby noises. “Well. I forgive him, because god knows I was panicking the day before my wedding, but–he said I should be dead.”

Oh . 

“I have to go,” Lan Xichen whispers, and hangs up.

He turns swiftly to his brother. “Wangji. I need you to ask your boyfriend to track A-Yao’s phone, stat.”

Wangji’s eyebrows rise in unadulterated shock, but to his credit he doesn't deny that Wei Wuxian can absolutely do that.

“I… I don’t know where he would go,” Lan Huan admits. “Not in this life.” Where would he run? The uncertainty makes him feel unmoored, like he’s being pulled down by a turbulent sea and can’t keep himself afloat. “I think it’s a... memory emergency.”

“I will ask Wei Ying.”

It takes what feels like an eternity, though in truth Lan Xichen is aware that Wei Wuxian accomplishes the task in a criminally speedy manner, and without asking any questions. Not while he’s in earshot, anyway.

“I sent you the last known location,” Wei Wuxian shrugs at last, “but I dunno if he still has the phone on him or he dumped it.” 

“Thank you, Wei Wuxian. Wangji… can I take your car?”

“Mn.” For a moment, Lan Huan can see his brother wants to offer to go with him, so he shakes his head in silence. Wangji hands over the keys and squints at him. “Brother… remember the rule.”

“I know. The past is not the present. The present is not the future. I know, Wangji.” 

“Sooo… what do we do with the wedding?" Wei Wuxian interjects, apparently not grasping the gravity of the situation. "We have the venue booked until 2pm but I’m sure they have people lined up for later…”

“I’m sure you’ll think of some way to buy time,” Lan Xichen smiles tightly. “I’ll call you when I’m on my way back.”

“Did you hear that, Lan er-gege? We gotta think of a distraction~ you got any ideas?” 

Lan Xichen is out of the door and behind the wheel as fast as he can be. He keeps an eye on his phone, but the only updates he gets are from Meng Shi saying A-Yao isn’t there yet, and Shufu reminding him of the schedule and cancellation fees. 

He tracks down the coordinates to an off-season beach two hours south, a straight line from the city. There’s a parking lot nearby, but it’s empty - A-Yao doesn’t have a car. He pictures him telling an Uber driver to just drive until he tells him to stop, and his heart aches. Still, some irrational hope nestles inside him, whispering that perhaps A-Yao hasn’t thrown away his phone yet. That he may want to be found. 

Lan Xichen parks hurriedly across two spaces and hurries out to the sea, sinking in the sand with every step. He pauses to kick off his dress shoes, then resumes running down the seashore. With immense relief, he spots A-Yao, a tiny white-clad figure in the distance, a few hundred meters down the desolate stretch of sea. 

Is it embedded somewhere in A-Yao’s soul to run away to the sea, despite knowing that in this life he cannot swim?

“A-Yao!” he calls out, waving his arms clumsily. There is absolutely nobody else out in January, no umbrellas and no chairs, so A-Yao will certainly see him coming from afar - no point making his approach cautious. Lan Xichen had half expected A-Yao to turn tail and make him chase him, but miraculously he does not.

“A-Yao,” he gasps again when he catches up to him, tugging at his collar. “Are you alright, A-Yao?”

His A-Yao turns, dark-rimmed eyes and windswept hair, terse like a winter morning. He’s undone his bowtie and popped a few buttons at his collar, the tuxedo jacket thrown over his shoulder. 

“The last time I saw you, you would not call me that anymore,” Jin Guangyao says, his voice raspy from the wind. 

“You saw me yesterday morning, A-Yao,” Lan Huan soothes, stepping towards him with his hand outstretched. 

“Right.” A-Yao chuckles humorlessly, and draws a circle in the sand with a naked foot. The hem of his pants is caked in wet sand, but he does not seem to mind. “I meant… before.” 

He looks down, a strange smile on his face, then takes off his engagement ring and holds it out towards Lan Xichen, without looking up at him. “I should return this.”

Despite the fear gripping his heart, Lan Huan shakes his head firmly. “It’s yours. You don't have to keep it, but I don’t want it back.”

A-Yao’s hand lowers, a little hesitantly. Then his razorblade gaze snaps up and pierces Lan Xichen where he stands. “Er-ge. Can you tell me why every wedding of mine comes with a side of lies?” 

Lan Xichen stands to attention. “I never lied to you, A-Yao.”

“You never told me you remembered the past.” It is not a question, so Lan Xichen does not treat it as such.

“Would you have wanted to know?” he asks instead.

A-Yao doesn’t reply for a moment, gaze returning to the gray wintry sea. “What I don’t understand,” he says to the waves, “is why you sought me out, if you remembered.” 

“A-Yao... Even if we’d been complete strangers, I would still have fallen for you. But all the more because I remembered you, how could I not seek you out?” Lan Xichen frowns at his poor wording; he had prepared this speech a million times, but now it scatters like sand in the breeze. “My family has a rule against approaching people from the past, did you know? But A-Yao…  what do I have these memories for, if not to find you?”

A-Yao’s gaze drops to the sand at his feet, the cold waves lapping at his ankles. “Even after everything?”

Lan Xichen closes his eyes briefly. He’s had a lot of time to think about this. “I’m here, aren’t I?’

The reply seems to strike true. A-Yao looks taken aback, but Lan Xichen dares to hope it's a good kind of surprise. Like that time he surprised A-Yao at the airport with flowers, or the time he offered to teach him to play the qin. He hazards another step closer to him, a mere arm’s length from A-Yao. He aches to touch him, but he can’t. Not yet. 

“Mother’s treatment,” A-Yao says abruptly. “Tell me straight.”

“Yes,” Lan Xichen inclines his head. “You and I hadn’t met yet, so I asked a friend to make an anonymous donation in my place.” 

A-Yao purses his lips. “I suppose I must thank you.”

“I didn't do it to earn your thanks,” Lan Xichen sighs. “Knowing and not acting would have been unthinkable, that is all.”

“Still, thank you. My mother is… she is everything.” A-Yao looks younger, vulnerable for the space of a breath.

Lan Xichen smiles. “I care for her too. Your mother is wonderful.”

A-Yao almost smiles at that, but it fades before it can reach the top half of his face, his eyes narrowing again in scrutiny. 

“You introduced me to Qin Su at June’s charity luncheon. Did you invite her?” 

Lan Xichen swallows, painfully. “I did not invite her, but she was there.” He bites his lip. “I looked into it. You are… not related, in this life.” 

A-Yao makes a little ‘hah’ sound, as swift as paper ripping. “I’m happy for her. But why did you go out of your way to introduce her to me? You and I had just started dating.”

All Lan Huan can do is shrug, his shoulders stiff and frozen in the confines of his tuxedo. “Tempting fate, I suppose.” 

“Still unfailingly selfless,” A-Yao hums, and it is a little too dry to feel like praise.

They look at a pair of seagulls chasing each other among cacophonous screams. They sound particularly shrill, drawing playful circles in the air and around each other.

“It is selfishness,” Lan Xichen eventually admits. “I just wanted to make sure that… I just wanted to make sure.” 

A-Yao shakes his head with a small exhale, barely a chuckle. He drops his jacket on the sand and lifts both arms to cup Lan Xichen’s jaw, pulling him slightly closer. His fingers are frozen cold, his eyes dark and serious, with an intensity that halts Lan Xichen’s breath halfway up his throat. 

“Lan Xichen, Lan Xichen... in a world in which I can marry you, how could I ever not?” The words, carefully enunciated, hit Lan Xichen’s chilled face in small, warm puffs of breath. A-Yao is not smiling, and that, for some reason, puts Lan Huan’s heart at ease. It gives his words the resonance of unfailing truth, a timeless verdict.

“We still could,” he hopefully offers. “Well, if Wei Wuxian managed to stall enough.” 

A-Yao snorts softly, then shakes his head. “Not now. I think… I need to get away.”

He surely notices the sheer horror on Lan Xichen’s face, because his brows knit together in an apologetic squint. “Not forever, gege. Just for a little while, to get my head in order.”

Lan Xichen folds his arms behind his back, and leans into A-Yao’s hands cupping his jaw. “We still have the honeymoon to Japan booked for tomorrow…”

A-Yao chuckles, breathless and disbelieving. Then his dark, half-lidded eyes scan Lan Xichen’s face, considering. “...You’d come?”

“Unquestioningly,” Lan Xichen says. “Right now, if you wanted to.”

“With no luggage?”

“I don’t need anything.”

The answer seems to please A-Yao, because his smile turns a shade more secretive, lashes lowering on his cheeks.

Still, he hedges, thumb tracing Lan Xichen’s chin in direct contradiction with his words. “Er-ge… I can’t ask you to…” 

“You need not to ask,” Lan Xichen smiles, eager, desperate to give away his heart. “If we drive to the airport now, we can catch an earlier flight. I’ll call on the way there.”

“A honeymoon while we are still not married,” A-Yao smirks. “What would your shufu say?”

Lan Xichen grins at him with infinite tenderness. “We can marry anytime, but we can only elope once.”

A little skittish, A-Yao puts his hand in his nonetheless, tugging him along as they amble towards the parking lot. They shake the sand off their pants, exchanging half smiles at the state of their attire. They spend an awkward minute tracking down their discared shoes.

When they’re safely in the car, Lan Xichen offers his smartphone to him. “I’m all for eloping, but call your mother and Wangji to make sure they don’t worry, will you?” 

A-Yao brushes Lan Xichen’s knuckles delicately before taking his phone from him, and laughs. It’s small, but as wonderful as the first time.

[robininthelabyrinth]

I adore your supernatural origin stories, may I therefore request some for characters besides the Nie siblings? I am personally very fond of worst boys JGY, Su She and WRH but I'd be happy to see anything that you come up with ^^

“Have you ever questioned your heritage?” Jin Guangyao asked one day, not too long after his marriage, and Su She turned to his friend with a blink of surprise. “I mean…whether your father is really your father, I mean.”

“Uh,” Su She said. “Is this about Qin Su’s baby? Because she’s really obviously completely head over heels for you, so I can’t see any chance that she’d do something like that to you –”

“Oh, no, the child’s mine, I’ve no doubt of that,” Jin Guangyao said, and there was something strangely stiff in his smile. “Qin Su has never given me any reason to doubt her loyalty to me. It’s more…ah…stories I’ve heard recently. About other people. Stories about children who turned out to be cuckoos and neither they nor their fathers never knew; mothers that never told either their husbands or their children – mothers who strayed, mothers who were abused by others, voluntary or involuntary…”

Su She wondered if someone had implied again that Jin Guangyao didn’t deserve to be recognized or treated as a proper Jin because his mother had been a whore, even though it had already been established beyond a doubt that he was in fact Jin Guangshan’s son. All those old bloodline-tied magic treasures wouldn’t work for him if he wasn’t.

He wasn’t going to mention it if Jin Guangyao wasn’t, though, knowing how much of a sore spot it was for him. If his friend wanted to pretend that he’d just heard some stories, then that was the way they’d play it.

“I was asking about you, though.”

“Me?” Su She scratched his head, bemused yet again about Jin Guangyao’s purpose in raising the subject. “Why me?”

“Well, aren’t people always saying how much you look like Hanguang-jun?” Jin Guangyao asked, and Su She winced: he preferred to try to avoid Jin Guangyao’s sore spots whenever possible, but Jin Guangyao often didn’t return the favor. On the contrary, he was the sort of person who liked to dig in on them. “They’re always comparing you two – you’re always complaining about it. And, in fact, you really do look remarkably similar in numerous aspects. Your height, your face, your stance…haven’t you ever wonderedif there was something more to it? Ever speculated?”

“We look similar because I’m his doppleganger,” Su She said. Was that not obvious? He was pretty sure it was obvious.

Jin Guangyao frowned. “As in – a body double? The way emperors have, to guard against assassins?”

“…no,” Su She said, abruptly realizing his mistake: Jin Guangyao wasn’t raised in the cultivation world. “As in, a creature born of resentful energy that turns into a copy of an existing person and increasingly takes on their traits in order to eventually replace them without anyone realizing it.”

Jin Guangyao stared at him.

“…I’m not very good at it, okay?!”

[leatherbookmark]

the only minor gripe i have with posts arguing for the “mxy harassed jgy” option is that they often use the phrase “mxy said”. we don’t know what he said, because the summary is provided to us by wwx. the phrasing might have been “i guess i came on too strong? idk tho”. it might have been “he was my life, he was the only light in this miserable existence of a kid no one liked, he was unreachable but how was i supposed to just accept that? how could i just step down and not wish to spend every passing hour basking in his presence?”. or something else. we don’t know!

we only know that wwx is the one who introduces the “incestuous harassment” read to us. (and he wasn’t manipulated by jgy!)

and not as a rumor -- if mxy disagreed with it, if he was slandered without reason, i ASSUME he would have mentioned it in his notes. “everyone says i lusted after my half-brother!-- and it torments me that my boyish actions of a child starved of affection who only adored the first real brother he ever had would be interpreted like so!”, etc, etc. instead, wwx reads mxy’s notes, figures out that he was harassing* someone from the jin sect, and then he visits jinlintai and everyone, including servants who see a bunch of things the noble cultivators don’t, looks at him weird.

*another thing i’m not sure people are aware of is that the word “harass” doesn’t necessary mean like... sexual harassment in terms of strictly physically molesting, forcing kisses or other sexual contact. it’s more like, pester, annoy? following a class nerd around and shouting “hey, genius guy, explain the quadratic formula to us!” followed by riotous laughter also is harassment, for example. the japanese translation uses 付きまとう -- follow around, tag along. i don’t know about other guys, but when i say i do think mxy held Forbidden Passions for jgy i sure don’t mean that he, idk, forcibly kissed him in the great hall or tried to cop a feel. this is a society where it’s inappropriate for young unmarried ladies and young unmarried gentlemen to be together alone or, in jyl and wwx’s case, too emotionally close. i’m pretty sure mxy could have just surprise hugged jgy super tight for a/ jgy to be uncomfortable, b/ the present servants to go 👀 is he weird or what

[thatswhatsushesaid]

While I do sympathise and agree that many of the ‘immoral’ thing JGY did were a direct response to others attacks on him, for survival and family normal or pragmatic behaviour (I honestly didn’t blame him for the incest at all, I agree there was nothing to be done; and I’m glad JGS died) I have some questions. Especially since you and another user mentioned that him being in power was better for more people (that he did things that benefitted others and him as a side effect too) - then how does one reconcile with what happened to the Tingshan He sect? And even the gamble he takes on JZX’s life by sending him after JZixun? That seems like self serving ambition…

Honestly, anything JGY did to get around or harm JGS and even NMJ, I agree. While one was better than the other, I don’t think either of them were great leaders, nor were they always reasonable, and he was likely a better leader than them.

(Also, I’ve heard varying accounts about the watchtowers being useful/useless, good intentioned and not, can you please point me towards the chapter that makes that clear?)

Thanks

hey anon, sorry for taking such a long time to respond to you! I believe that I answer most of the questions you raise here in my reblog over here, but I'll try to pull out the salient points for you in my reply. fwiw I'm not going to dig down into the jgy-jzx stuff because I think @lansplaining did a great job of that already over here, but my tl;dr version for myself is that I just think mdzs-jgy was mad, made a bad judgment call, and assumed that wwx would have more control over wn than he did.

okay, now to address the rest of your ask:

the tingshan he

the first thing to remember about the tingshan he is that jgy is demonstrably not in power when this sect is brought to xy's demonic cultivation wonderland. jgs is still the jin sect leader. I bring this up because I think it's important to acknowledge that the tingshan he were going to die whether jgy was present to serve as death's ferryman or not. their fates were sealed as soon as they began actively agitating against jgs's desire to establish the position of chief cultivator. here's the relevant sections I highlighted from the villainous friends extras:

as I pointed out in my linked reblog, what this shows us is two things: 1) jgy began with diplomacy and negotiation to try to bring the tingshan he to heel, and I believe we can reliably trust that this is true; if it weren't, he su would have protested this as a lie; and 2) in he su's own words, the tingshan he were prepared to oppose jgs's desires with violence.

however, anon, if you're hoping I'll write something here that will thoroughly cleanse the figurative blood of the tingshan he from jgy's hands (since he is not the one doing the actual killing--xy is), then that's not going to happen--just like there is nothing that anyone can write about wwx's actions vis-à-vis his gruesome murder of wang lingjiao, wen chao, and the other wen sect cultivators that he tortures, mutilates, and kills in the aftermath of the sacking of lotus pier that will remove their literal blood from his hands. I'm not going to say anything that will make one of these actions more morally (I hate this word now) redeemable than the other, because even though their circumstances are different, the acts themselves are still quite awful!

one thing I did not point out in my linked meta, however, and which I do think is significant to call out when examining the full context of the violence that jgy oversees, is the amount of control that jgy does not have over how xue yang chooses to kill the tingshan he. please note that these excerpts are pretty gruesome because, uh. well, canon-typical xue yang, pretty much:

so, on the one hand, xy clearly cuts out he su's tongue here because he is flinging the usual shitty insult at jgy, making a dig about his birth status and his mother. which, yay, thank you xue yang c': but also, jgy is clearly surprised that xy does not kill he su and the rest of his sect before giving them to the fierce corpses. then we have the paragraph that follows:

here, jgy is visibly disturbed by the cries of the children specifically, and though he doesn't step in to intervene, I still find his visceral reaction to what he is witnessing significant when considering his character and how he feels broadly about the violence he facilitates. because yes, he brought the tingshan he to this place knowing that they were going to be killed because of their political opposition to his father's plans. he knew that bringing them to the demonic cultivation grounds meant that they were going to be given to xy for his macabre body horror experiments to pursue demonic cultivation. neither of those things mean that he expected them to be ripped apart while still alive, or that he's emotionally or psychologically untouched by what his actions have brought about.

so... how should we reconcile /gestures @ all of this, The Horrors with all of the tangible good that jgy puts into the cultivation world later on? my short response is, the exact same way wwx stans reconcile wwx's Horrors with his later good deeds (tho as you've probably guessed I don't lean as much on inherent moral goodness or badness in my analyses). so to make this work, we also have to take a look at what constitutes jgy's good deeds. nb: this is essentially what I wrote in my reblog meta, but I'm going to copy/paste or paraphrase/lightly edit it here just to keep everything in one place:

jgy's tangible positive impact on the jianghu

the initial points I raised in my reblog meta (different link from above) emphasize the tangible positive impact that jgy's actions put into the world: peace and stability for both the gentry and the common people. here are the following points where I provide more support for my initial arguments.

his tenure as chief cultivator and jin sect leader objectively does preserve jin ling's place in the line of succession, because once he is gone, we see that jin ling's position is not secure. period. this is in the text. this isn't an opinion. [edit: there’s some good discussion between myself and @madtomedgar in the comments of this post wrt jgy, jl as heir, and how much responsibility jgy has for destabilizing his life in the first place.] from chapter 116, the "banquet" extra:

furthermore, jgy does rein in the fiscal corruption that had been rampant under jgs's tenure. we know this because the text tells us so in the "iron hook" extra (chapter 123):

beyond making it unquestionably clear that lanling is in a much shittier position now that jgy is gone, this part 👆is further confirmed in the official character index of the 7seas translation--which is not something I usually rely upon in my analyses, but it makes clear the broad perception of life in the jianghu under jgs vs jgy:

jgs's character summary: "Under [Jin Guangshan's] rule, the Jin Sect was loathed by the cultivation world for its shameless abuses, corruption, and excesses."

jgy's character summary: "Jin Guangyao rose from humble circumstances and became not only the head of the Jin Sect but also the Cultivation Chief of the inter-sect alliance. His work as an undercover spy was instrumental in the success of the Sunshot Campaign. His skill at politicking and networking is matched by none, and through restructuring and reparations he was able to largely make up for the damage done to the Jin Sect's reputation by his father's rule."

in one of these scenarios, corruption was rampant enough that everyone was unhappy. in the other scenario, that corruption was reined in, and that matters.

the jianghu is also objectively the safest and most peaceful it has ever been under jgy's tenure as chief cultivator, and I don't think this gets acknowledged enough. looking to chapter 45 when wwx and jl are talking about the past, and jl is sulkily pointing out that both his uncles became famous at "fifteen-or-so," wwx's own thoughts are:

Wei WuXian commented in silence, That’s not the same! Back then, the QishanWen Sect was still on top and everyone had to watch out. If they didn’t fight and cultivate as much as possible, who knew if they’d be the next one to run out of luck? During the Sunshot Campaign, you’d be hauled to the battlefields no matter if you were fifteen or any other age. Now, since the situations is stable and the sects are at peace, of course the atmosphere isn’t as tense and people don’t cultivate like they’re crazy. There’s no need anymore.

in other words (to paraphrase some commentary by @xiyao-feels) when the wen were in charge, the world was a shitty and dangerous place filled with war and violence--and now the world is peaceful, and kids like jin ling are allowed to grow up without the very real possibility of being marched off to war hanging over their head at all times. jgy is the chief cultivator who made this reality possible.

and a big part of why the jianghu is a more stable and peaceful place also comes down to the watchtowers, which is one of the points you specifically wanted more details on, anon! so we'll go to chapter 42 in the novel to look at them in more detail:

After Jin GuangYao officially succeeded the position of Sect Leader and became the Chief Cultivator, he immediately gathered people and resources from the sects, and started to carry out his past goals. In the beginning, the voices of opposition were deafening. A lot of people suspected that the LanlingJin Sect used it to gain personal benefits and stuff its own pockets. With a smiling face, Jin GuangYao persisted for five years. During the years, he allied but also fell out with countless people. Using both gentle and forceful methods, he did all that he could and what he wished for was finally completed. More than twelve hundred “lookout towers” had been built.

These “lookout towers” were scattered around the more remote places. Every one of them were assigned disciples from certain sects. If anything strange happened, they’d take action at once. When they couldn’t deal with the matter, they’d send out messages to other sects or rogue cultivators for help. Even if the cultivators who came wanted something in return while the locals were too poor to give them any, the money that the LanlingJin Sect gathered throughout each year would be enough to support them. [red emphasis mine]

All of these happened after the death of the YiLing Patriarch. Wei WuXian only heard the ins and outs from Lan WangJi after they passed a few lookout towers during their journey. Rumors had it that Koi Tower was preparing to build the next batch of lookout towers, increasing them to three thousand in number so that they covered a greater area. Although after the first lookout towers were built, they received widespread approvals due to their notable effects, the voices of suspicion and ridicule had never died either. When the time came, the cultivation world would definitely be thrown into chaos again.

five years!! that is a long-ass time to devote to a project, particularly one that costs him substantial political capital as well as actual money, if your only goal is the consolidation of political clout, because a lot can happen in the span of five years. it certainly isn't the right way to go about laundering money, since for a money laundering scheme to work, it has to actually, you know. pass through a system that is actually making money in the first place, which this one transparently was not. if it was a guaranteed money-maker, jgs would not have opposed wasting time on something that 👆(see above) clearly devotes lanling jin resources towards supporting the poor who cannot protect themselves. whatever the political opposition to the project by jin sect opponents, for the broader jianghu and the common people, the success of the watchtower program was a net positive. anyway: when acting exclusively under his own power and allowed to make his own decisions free of fear and danger, jgy is fundamentally not a destructive character. (thank you again, @confusion-and-more)

okay I think this should answer most of your questions, anon! please do hmu again if you want me to dig down into anything else, I am, as always, super happy to talk about jgy at the drop of a hat.

[alternative27angel]

Chengyao Spy x Family AU

Just getting this out of my head because it’s seriously interfering with my actual WIP that I haven’t touched in months and would love to get back to actually

AU where Jin Guangyao is a seasoned spy that has to create a fake family

The father - Jin Guangyao (Professional spy. Codename: Lianfang-zun)

The child - Jin Ling (Telepath)

The mother step-father - Jiang Cheng (Professional assassin. Codename: Wanyin)

The mission - Infiltrate Cloud Recesses Academy in order to get close to Wen Ruohan, whose only grandson is the first Wen in decades to enroll at the school

The idea is relatively basic in set up, just having Chengyao and Jin Ling in the titular Spy x Family roles, as it’s almost like playing Spot The Difference. JGY canonically is a social chameleon with an eidetic memory and experience in espionage. JC has a ridiculous amount of strength, stamina, and will power, only matched by his ridiculously low self-esteem and astronomically high loyalty to his people. These two are Jin Ling’s parental figures.

This is just forcing them into a scenario where they know absolutely nothing about each other and have it in their best interests act like normal human beings and communicate for once in their lives. Imagine the surprise that this actually works for them.

As no one else fit quite so neatly, everyone else’s roles got tweaked and the plot changed as a result. Other casting choices are under the cut:

Lan Qiren as Henry Henderson - Seeing as I shamelessly replaced Eden Academy with Cloud Recesses, this was both the easiest and admittedly funniest character choice I could make. I’m not entirely convinced this isn’t the same character.

With that in mind, all the Lans are now employed as teachers at CRA, except for Lan Jingyi, whom is instead a dorm student in Jin Ling’s class and replaces the obnoxious twins whose names I can’t bother to remember.

Jin Ling’s only friend is Ouyang Zizhen, whom firmly believes Jin Ling’s family runs a secret business as peace-keeping superheroes. Jin Ling is okay with this assumption, though he’s not sure how Zizhen came to that conclusion.

The target is Wen Yuan, the son of Wen Xu and Wen Ruohan’s only grandson. Yes, I put Lan Sizhui in Damien’s role. Instead of being a classic rich boy tsundere, Wen Yuan is a good boy that’s just so overwhelmed by his crush filter that his brain automatically error codes and he does one of two things: either 1) he runs away at the speed of light, screaming at the top of his lungs or 2) he does random, absolutely dumb things like take his food tray and just dump it on the floor, himself, or whoever’s nearest.

Meanwhile, on the adult side of things: Jiang Cheng has been operating as Wanyin for most of his life, since his parents’ passing when he was fifteen. He grew up with Wei Wuxian, whom is oblivious to his double life, and Jiang Yanli, whom passed in a horrible accident some years back. I’m sure that’s not important.

Wei Wuxian is the Yuri Briar stand-in, only mildly less creepy because there are no obsessive incest vibes to be had, but extra creepy because he’s involved in mad scientist experiments alongside operating as a counter-intelligence operative. Jiang Cheng is blissfully unaware of any of this.

Nie Huaisang is, of course, Jin Guangyao’s lazy but brilliant informant that he’s known for years. His brother works in private security and has known JGY just as long (but does not know JGY and NHS’s actual jobs), and he continuously tries to convince Huaisang to go into the family business. NHS spends most of his off-time dodging Nie Mingjue whenever he comes calling.

[beansterpie]

LMAO and xiyao

Ty so much for the ask! <3

I got another ask for LMAO so I’ll just answer xiyao for this one!

Basically xiyao is, you guessed it, a xiyao fic (will wonders never cease)-- it’s an AU in which Jin Guangyao survives the Guanyin Temple encounter, and is on the run. As a result of him not dying, Lan Xichen doesn’t go into seclusion (well, he does, but just a mini one), but then decides that he’s going to go look for jgy; ostensibly to capture him and bring him to justice, but secretly deeply undecided on the matter. There was way more stuff that I was vaguely thinking about for it, but there’s only two pages of this and I’m almost certainly not going to finish it so, whelp, I guess I’ll just post the whole thing.

Jin Guangyao’s body had not been recovered from the wreckage.

When Nie Mingjue’s fierce corpse had risen— bursting forth like a tidal wave in a manner so like his living self that it ached— Jin Guangyao had looked at him with his bottomless, round eyes, and pushed.

Lan Xichen could still feel the imprint of his hand against his chest.

But after all was said and done, after Wei Wuxian had managed to seal Nie Mingjue’s body and soul away to rot in the ground for a century, after the rubble had cleared and the bodies counted, there was the unpleasant realization that Jin Guangyao’s wasn’t accounted for. A hole was found in a wall where the structure had given way in the collapse, dust and detritus disturbed in the surrounding area. A red, grisly trail. It painted a clear picture; Jin Guangyao had escaped. He’d slid himself among the ranks of the Jin sect, slid himself into the hearts of good people, and finally he’d slid between the cracks of a crumbling temple and gotten away.

All that had been left behind was an arm, the blood that stained Shuoyue, and a hole in Lan Xichen’s heart.

*

For three weeks, Lan Xichen stayed in seclusion.

He was atoning, people assumed, for trusting a criminal like Jin Guangyao throughout the years, for lending him kindness and opportunity. Zewu-Jun is too harsh on himself, servants would murmur to each other. Jin Guangyao had fooled everyone, after all, so there’s no need for the First Jade to shoulder this burden alone.

But it was understood. Jin Guangyao was his trusted friend of many years, his sworn brother. Even in the absence of his death, some turmoil was to be expected after his countless betrayals had come to light.

Those less charitable muttered that, of all people, Lan Xichen should have seen, should have suspected.

And so for three weeks, the only sign of Lan Xichen within the Cloud Recesses was the neatly arranged pile of empty dishes that appeared outside the door of the Hanshi every morning and evening.

During those three weeks, a manhunt for Jin Guangyao was organized.

Lan Xichen first heard the news from his brother, who insisted on dining with him once a week.

“Nie Huaisang has arranged a manhunt for Jin Guangyao,” he said, once he finished his meal. “He asks for the other sects to lend their strength.”

The mild, un-spiced food sat heavy in Lan Xichen’s stomach.

“I see.”

“Uncle is eager.”

Lan Xichen’s gut churned. “And the other sects?”

“Jiang Wanyin has already agreed. Jin Rulan will follow his uncle.”

“Jin Guangyao is also his uncle.”

It was out of his mouth before the thought was even fully formed. The two Jades stared at one another.

Lan Xichen lowered his gaze. “Forgive me Wangji, I…”

Lan Wangji’s look of surprise shifted just a fraction into something more contemplative. Lan Xichen couldn’t find it in himself to figure out what it was he was contemplating.

For a few minutes they were quiet, Lan Xichen pretending as though he wasn’t picking at his food.

Finally, Lan Wangji prompted, “What will you do?”

The question washed over him like heavy cloak. Staring down at his half-eaten meal and suppressing the urge to work at his lip, Lan Xichen slowly settled his chopsticks against the edge of a bowl.

“I would like some time,” he said, “to decide.”

“Brother—”

“Just until morning.”

Lan Wangji took his leave some time later, after patiently waiting for Lan Xichen to painstakingly finish every grain of rice.

*

Morning greeted him like an expectant gaze. Lan Xichen lay in his bed with hands clasped together over his stomach, staring at the ceiling for an incense stick’s worth of time, and came to a decision.

He stood, and he dressed. For the first time in three weeks, he put on more than the two layers that he had been spending his days in. For the first time in three weeks, he secured the silver guan onto his top knot.

When Lan Wangji arrived at the Hanshi half an hour later, he found his brother waiting for him on the veranda. There was a smile on his face that failed to reach his eyes as he turned to greet him.

“Shall we?” he offered, and Lan Wangji nodded.

[songofclarity]

I love how NMJ haters ignore the fact that I’m the last moments of his life when he realizes JGY is about to wipe out his entire sect, the head of the Tingshan He sect sort of invokes his name as a possible source of protection the lesser sects have against JGY’s tyranny, and the one they could count on to avenge them.

Villainous Friends is such a great extra chapter that I'm kind of insulted on Jin Guangyao's behalf when it's overlooked.

The reaction we get from He Su invoking Nie Mingjue's name is rather interesting:

Hearing him mention Nie Mingjue, Jin Guangyao raised his brows. Xue Yang laughed so hard he was about to flop over his chair. Jin Guangyao gave him a look before he turned around and replied calmly, "That's not the way to go about things, is it?" (ERS, ch. 118)

Xue Yang is going to bust a lung and Jin Guangyao is, at best, simply surprised. There is no hint of fear or worry here! And then Jin Guangyao proceeds to spin the twisted story that's going to the presses in the morning of how the Young Master tried to assassinate Sect Leader Jin and then the rest of his sect retaliated against Koi Tower's conviction, thus all of them deserving execution.

Jin Guangyao spins a story that even the likes of Nie Mingjue wouldn't be able to argue against, because he's left out crucial details.

He Su, "Utterly nonsense! Open your eyes and fucking look! There are nine-year-old children here! Old men who can't even walk!" (ch. 118)

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Jiang Cheng mocked, "Those sect leaders thought you gathered some leftover forces and crowned yourself king of the hill. So it's only the old, the weak, the women, and the children." (ch. 73)

And we all know the Jin and Jin Guangyao get away with leading both these massacres.

Although a really neat aspect of this scene is how even when Jin Guangyao holds a person's life and death in his hands, he still can't command their respect or fear.

Knowing he'd undoubtedly die, He Su was brimming with dread. Clenching his teeth, he roared, "Jin Guangyao! You'll receive retribution! [Your] dad is gonna die among prostitutes sooner or later, and you wouldn't meet a pleasant end either, you son of a prostitute!!!" (ch. 118)

It's a little like

Sword in his hand, [Meng Yao] stood amid a pool of blood, the corpses of two white-robed cultivators at his feet. He asked, still smiling, "Does anyone else want to say the word?" Nie Mingjue replied coldly, "Wen-dog." He knew that only death awaited him now that he was in Wen Ruohan's hands, which was why he didn't fear anything. If Wei Wuxian were the one in such a situation, he would've also cursed as awfully as he wanted to before doing anything else--he'd die no matter what. Despite this, Meng Yao only smiled, not at all angered. (ch. 49)

And also like

Looking down, Nie Mingjue shouted, "It's no wonder, coming from the son of a prostitute." … [Lan Xichen], "What happened this time?" Jin Guangyao, "Nothing. Brother, thank you for your advice." Nie Mingjue, "Don't hinder me!" Lan Xichen, "Brother, sheath your saber first--your mind is in turmoil!" Nie Mingjue, "I am not. I know what I'm doing. He's beyond hope. If these keeps on going, he'll do the world harm for sure. The earlier he's killed, the earlier we can relax!" (ch. 49)

Which is all rather clearly spoken by someone who is not relaxed and is feeling very threatened by Jin Guangyao.

Jin Guangyao was almost sobbing, "If [Nie Mingjue] could say such a thing when he was angry, then just how does he think of me on a daily basis? Is it that because I couldn't choose my background, because my mother couldn't choose her fate, I'll have to be humiliated by others throughout my whole life? If so, then how is Brother different from the people who look down on me? No matter what I do, in the end, just a sentence and I'm 'the son of a prostitute.'" (ch. 50)

Let's be honest, it's very funny for him to say 'no matter what I do they call me names' when the thing he is doing most often involves manipulating, torturing, threatening, and straight-up murdering people in cold blood.

[He Su] stammered for a while before eventually caving in, "I… I don't even know what happened, I don't even know!" Yet, at such a place, nobody would listen to his protests. Sitting before him were two villains who already treated him as though he were dead. What they enjoyed was precisely his dying struggle. Smiling, Jin Guangyao leaned back, waving his hand, "Hush him up, hush him up." (ch. 118)

Hush him up, hush him up! The only one who deserves to be heard and receive pity is Jin Guangyao, of course! /s

[shorellesans]

it’s been 24 hours and I’m still haunted thinking about how sad and insanely fucked up Jin Guangyao’s entire life really was. like, the utter loneliness of having to keep everyone at arm’s length, at all times – even the people you care about, your closest friend, your wife – can never know who you really are because you’re so afraid (and reasonably so) that the cost of truth will be losing them and the safety you’ve worked so hard to achieve.

and knowing that this is the consequence of the choices you’ve made, which seemed necessary at the time, one compromised step in front of the other on this bloody climb up the steps of a society that keeps trying to kick you down. and at some point it becomes a sunk cost – you look back at the rising tide of blood on the steps behind you and think that to turn back now means to be drowned in it, as the fall guy in your father’s schemes and have it all been for nothing anyway; while if you keep going you can at least hold on to the hope of one day earning your father’s love and acceptance (only to realise, when it’s far too late, that this was never even on the table).

it’s just. tragic how what JGY really wanted was acceptance, safety and security – the first of which was something he could never gain in this society no matter how hard he worked, because of something outside of his control, and the second of which could only be gained (for someone of his status) by cheating the system, and that meant building this increasingly precarious jenga tower of lies and skeletons that could collapse at any moment. he literally reached the highest possible position in this society, only to realise that it still wouldn’t afford him the safety he craved, and only meant there would be farther to fall in the end.

just. a bad time all around really, I’m honestly surprised he wasn’t more unhinged by the very end.

[angie-s-g]

SangCheng Week

Day 7 - Secrets/fake dating

This is for the same AU as day 4, where Nie Huaisang saves Jin Rusong from being killed and allies with Jiang Cheng to bring Jin Guanyao down.  

Jiang Cheng and Nie Huaisang take advantage of the busy atmosphere at the cultivation conference in Koi Tower to sneak around and go into the Jin’s private  area to look for incriminating evidence on JGY. Unfortunately, JGY comes back way earlier than they had expected so they are forced to improvise.

NHS: what? we? looking for proof of your numerous crimes? NOOOOooo. We were just here because it’s a secluded place and we wanted to kiss. We were kissing. Because we are in a secret romantic relationship San-ge. Obviously.

Its amazing but it does work. Jiang Cheng is blushing ultra hard and not saying anything so he does look genuinely ashamed of having been caught, and Huaisang was kissing him quite ardently so even though the idea of them surprises JGY he believes it. NHS tells JC to go back to the guests quarters cause he is going to have a convo with JGY. 

Our Jin Guangyao is a bit skeptic about this relationship being good for Huaisang. After all Jiang Zongzhu is famous for his anger outbursts and his severity. Huaisang answers doing what he does best: mixes some truths with lies so it is all believable.  He tells Jin Guangyao that he’s been in love with Jiang Cheng since they met at Cloud Recesses. He is the only friend he has left from that generation with wwx and jzx being dead and wangji being in seclusion. He also tells him that Jiang Cheng understands grief, and remembering loved ones, and even though they are very different they complement each other. He even tells him that Jiang Cheng can be very sweet when no one is around looking. So he obviously asks JGY to please keep the relationship a secret. JGY accepts. Jiang Cheng is waiting for NHS to show up back in his quarters. When he does he has a meltdown because JGY now has something he can use as leverage against him. Blackmail him to get more time with Jin Ling than him. They have a bit of a fight because Jiang Cheng shouts ``I'm not a cutsleeve!" and nhs shouts back at him "Well, I AM". That surprises and shuts JC up. After the shouting match they kinda calm down and JC admits that it was very clever move on Huaisang’s part, and that if they are "secretly dating" even if JGY spies on them he will only know that they are visiting each other and travelling together to random places. Everything they do now has that façade 

When all the tension is out Huaisang jokes

"You know, you could at least have kissed back JC, you are a shit lover"

JC blushes hard again and snarls "YOU GAVE ME NO WARNING WHATSOEVER" Nhs probably riles him up a bit more until he dares to prove to him that he knows how to give a goddamn kiss. You know JC's competitive ass. 

They kiss now properly and when they part JC doesn't want to admit it but he kinda has butterflies in his stomach. He says nothing, obviously, but nhs stares at him kind of star struck. 

Nothing else happens that day but something has changed between them and then things will end up evolving.

I love this AU so much I will probably end up writing a fic in the future. I just need to finish the two that I’ve started publishing first and all the wips in my google drive 

[labyrynth]

have i ever mentioned how fucking annoying wwx megastans are

(below cut bc salt is salt)

like i know that seems like a weird sentiment (he’s the main character! i sure HOPE ppl like him!!) but like. there’s a subset of ppl who like wwx that just take their opinions to an insane degree and like. completely flatten him to put him on a pedestal.

like they’re alarmingly wrapped up in protagonism and fucking obsessed with the idea of “the moral ideal” (as if mdzs is some kind of parable and we’re supposed to be taking notes)

they seem to believe that every single thing that wwx has done was either moral, justified, or both. they think that wwx has never made a single bad, or even “well intentioned but unfortunate consequences” decision.

and like i honestly have no idea how much of this moral whitewashing cql can even be blamed for when the most rabid stans also seem to fall in the canon anti jiang cheng camp which is mostly novel based

then again maybe it shouldn’t be surprising: if wwx is The Moral Ideal and everything he does is right, then it follows that not 100% agreeing with him or not abiding by every single one of wwx’s choices is Wrong and Immoral and Bad and Therefore characters like jgy and jc must be Evil

(and let’s throw in some buzzwords like “toxic” and “gaslighting” and “abusive” for good measure, to emphasize their Evil-ness)

and i really really never ever wanna see another take about how “well actually wwx foils jgy and jc and xy bc where jgy/jc/xy are Mean and Cruel and Resentful and Hold Grudges, wwx just lets bygones be bygones!! HE moved ON from resentment!!!”

(i want you to take a good long look at wwx. what is his total resentment-related body count?)

and then they proceed to explain why actually torturing hundreds of people (including non combatants!) to death is moral/justified/deserved or some such

and they will LITERALLY look at the scene where that guy shot wwx and wwx flung the arrow back and killed him and be like “umm well he tried to kill wwx so obviously wwx is allowed to try to kill him back. it’s not like it’s wwx’s fault that he actually succeeded uwu”

and then turn around and go “jgy was so horrible and cruel to kill nmj completely and entirely unprovoked!! how conniving and bloodthirsty and power hungry!!! he only did it because he would benefit!!!!!!” (idk maybe it’s just me, but if i’m looking for opportunities that benefit me, “you won’t be murdered” is kind of setting the bar real fuckin low)

anyway

[thedoubteriswise]

okay so. I am a smart adult with many important responsibilities. I have good taste and care about things that matter. for this reason, I’ve been trying to identify where in cql canon wangxian manage to fuck.

because they definitely do; I like a good post-canon getting together fic as much as the next guy, but it’s just not realistic.

allow them. it’s already been so long.

(just like this goddamn post turned out to be, let’s do a cut)

right. so initially it looks like you could place this right after the time skip in episode 33, because it shows us that wwx is with lwj in cloud recesses. we know that he spent the night in the jingshi because he wakes up there the next morning before he goes for a nostalgic tour of his old school.

and also visits the cold spring, where lwj is mostly naked. nice.

but wait! wwx is surprised by the scars on his back and chest. that seems like something he would have known about if they’d already been naked together the night before, so I’m going to say they did not fuck immediately upon wwx’s return to cloud recesses. okay, fine, they’re taking things slow, that’s cool.

maybe they could work it into the next night, then. oh wait, lqr is injured and... staying in the jingshi? for reasons?

I don’t know why. he must have his own house in cloud recesses, and it’s probably at least as comfortable as lwj’s, but here he is. he lives to stop his nephew from getting laid, I guess.

the next day they do some Q&A with the kids and determine that they need to head to qinghe to figure out what’s going on with this sword thing. great! we love a romantic road trip, plenty of alone time. but they also have to do their jobs, and then jin ling needs to get rescued from a wall of dirt, and jc is unfortunately there being himself, and then they have to grill nhs about his tomb full of angry sabers, etc. etc.

with all that going on, their next obvious chance is at the inn immediately after interviewing nhs. this evening has already included:

wwx gazing lovingly at lwj from afar

lwj carrying wwx on his back

lwj pawing at wwx’s robes trying to deal with his cursed leg

lwj helping wwx up the stairs, serving him wine, fixing his flute, and generally being at his beck and call

a very sexy and homoerotic duet

and now they’re alone and drooling over each other as usual. this seems like a plausible spot, right?

it does! but no. after they go back to the nie basement o’ swords and hear the backstory on nmj’s death, we see them walking in yueyang and lwj asks wwx how the curse mark on his leg is doing. wwx says it’s almost healed, which may or may not be a lie, but his inner monologue says:

he’s more concerned about the wound on his arm from the sacrificing curse, which lwj doesn’t know about, because wwx won’t tell him and they still haven’t been naked together.

also, this silly teenage shit doesn’t make much sense unless they’re still dancing around each other.

you guys love the sound of opportunities as they go flying past, don’t you?

right after this, lwj gets drunk. I’m aware that Stuff Happens in the novel scene that inspired this bit, and they do incorporate some of that into the show by having lwj commit petty larceny and admit that he “likes rabbits” as part of the softest and most loving conversation in human history oh my god

but lwj goes to sleep right on time, and the next morning, wwx is laughing and reassuring him that nothing happened.

after this, it’s time to go on a fucked up field trip with the kids in yi city, so they don’t really have any time alone for a few episodes until they’ve finished that and everyone is back at yet another inn. I wonder if they learned something about wasted chances and poor communication from this miserable songxiao story?

maybe! look, they’re being cute and domestic. there are currently no material barriers preventing them from having sex, nor will there be any specific evidence later on proving that they didn’t.

but they’re still firmly in mystery-solving mode and the juniors and lxc are floating around. the vibe isn’t quite there. if I were to pick the most solid reason why I think they’re saving room for jesus at this point, it would be the tension that happens when wwx again asks how lwj recognized him. lwj asks why his memory is so bad, and wwx replies that he wishes he had a bad memory. even though they’re comfortable and happy being together, there’s still some fundamental distance remaining. there’s no sense of romantic resolution. that was actually a point against all their previous opportunities as well; they’re all very sweet, but none of these feel like the place in a story where the romantic leads Officially Get Together.

okay, off to koi tower! shit is getting extremely real. everyone’s busy insinuating that they recognize wwx, but no one is saying it explicitly. wwx isn’t supposed to be here. the guy he’s pretending to be also isn’t supposed to be here. he and his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s brother are trying to figure out if his boyfriend’s brother’s boyfriend is a murderer. no one is comfortable and the political intrigue leaves no time for fucking in front of anyone’s salad.

I guess there’s plenty of time to make dozens of armed guards and like half the people they know wait while they have a romantic moment, though.

could they be more in love? And that sure feels like a romantic resolution that might be followed by narratively-earned sex.

ah. no, unfortunately wwx gets stabbed again. this certainly sucks, but it does have the helpful consequence of making lwj take him back to cloud recesses, where they are mostly alone and as safe as they can be in the circumstances. now there’s even more tenderness and also some plot-justified touching and skin exposure. plus, lwj just made a very public declaration of love.

too bad wwx has probably been unconscious since he started coughing up blood in the forest near lanling. he’s also still visibly in pain. fresh abdominal wounds tend to kill the mood.

but hey, the injuries on this show are only as serious as they need to be to move the plot forward and facilitate gentle h/c scenes, so by evening he’s looking perfectly healthy and walking around under his own steam like nothing’s wrong. I guess that problem can be ignored moving forward.

lxc then offers the the most devastating highlights of lwj’s backstory, like, all at once. it’s nice that he includes a flute solo to give wwx a second to process this mountain of terrible information. what the fuck.

there he is! the most devoted man in the whole world! turns out they can actually be more in love after all.

and then the following scene... look, I’m lazy and I don’t know how to make gifs, but screenshots cannot properly convey how good it is. you all know. the hesitant way wwx approaches, the slow and gentle piano version of wangxian, the two of them watching the snow together, it’s. ugh.

remember how I was talking about how the last scene with no material barriers was an unlikely candidate because of the lack of romantic resolution?

well, here’s wwx still being cagey at the beginning of this conversation.

and here they are in the middle of this conversation, having some epiphanies about the course of wwx’s life - I love this shot for a lot of reasons, but I extra love it because it shows wwx out in the snow, with lwj as the safety and warmth waiting behind him, god this show goes hard, holy shit

they both recall their vow to live with a clean conscience and internally say some very corny things about each other because they are both So Much, and then,

ah, what the hell. he can say it out loud after all. romantic resolution accomplished.

and then the camera slowly pulls away as wuji plays.

a slow zoom out? swelling music? listen, I am a connoisseur, I know a tasteful fade-to-black indicating a sex scene that won’t happen on camera when I see one. at last, we have a winner!

now you may think this post is finally over, but I actually have one more piece of evidence for you - the next scene shows the two of them the morning after, meditating behind a screen in the hanshi while lxc is waiting for jgy to show up.

before wwx got de-cored, he was a pretty powerful cultivator, right? the chances that he’s just bad at meditating or that he can’t stay focused on this task seem slim to me. so why does he keep falling asleep?

well. he had kind of a late night.

[robininthelabyrinth]

Mini prompt: JGY who doesn't give a fuck about JGS's approval or acknowledgement

“All right,” Jin Guangyao said.

Nie Mingjue frowned at him, suspicious. Jin Guangyao supposed he couldn’t blame his sworn brother for it – he hadn’t held back before, when his goal had been getting the name he deserved. The name, and not the approval, which he’d known was impossible, but he’d promised his mother he’d be recognized as a Jin, and now he was. He’d done everything he needed to, everything and anything, not holding back for unimportant thing like justice or righteousness or morality…and that was a way of thinking that Nie Mingjue just didn’t understand.

He probably didn’t understand this, now, either.

“I mean it,” Jin Guangyao clarified. “I’ll do whatever I can to stop Xue Yang. But you’ll have to help me.”

Nie Mingjue’s suspicious look deepened.

“I’ll tell you frankly: my father doesn’t listen to me in the slightest. If I go and tell him to stop, which I’m willing to do, you’ll have to accommodate for the fact that he’ll ignore me and that we’ll have lost the element of surprise. You were a general, da-ge; I know you’re an exceptional tactician. Use that brain now and tell me how you want me to approach it.”

“You’re actually willing to do something?” Nie Mingjue asked. “You’re not just humoring me – even though your father will disapprove?”

“Fuck him,” Jin Guangyao said, and enjoyed the way Nie Mingjue’s eyes went wide. “Do you think I’ve enjoyed being treated like little more than a glorified servant? You know me by now, da-ge. You better than most! I’m willing to humble myself for a purpose, if it gets me what I want, but I’ve gotten what I wanted out of my father. What more do I need to do?”

“…show him filial piety?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Even you don’t expect me to do that.”

Nie Mingjue was silent for a moment, then shook his head. “I really don’t,” he confessed, and oddly enough, he seemed much less angry than he’d been a few moments ago. “I appreciate you being frank with me. I hate being lied to.”

Jin Guangyao supposed that was true, though he hadn’t thought about it that way – he’d continued with his façade of kindliness because he’d thought Nie Mingjue would like it more, but perhaps Nie Mingjue really would like the person he was beneath the mask, or at least the perception that he was allowed to see it.

“What do you want, then?”

Jin Guangyao arched his eyebrows. “What do you mean, da-ge?”

“You do things to get what you want,” Nie Mingjue clarified. “You said it yourself. So what is it you want now?”

Jin Guangyao smiled. Nie Mingjue really wasn’t that stupid, when he stopped thinking with his heart and started thinking with his mind. “Well,” he said. “I have some ideas…”

[vrishchikawrites]

Sometimes I’m not sure who’s worse—JC stans or JGY stans who seriously believe their faves did nothing wrong ever. JGY’s fandom is full of people who trivialize the rape he inflicted on the sex workers whom he involved in his father’s death and it’s honestly driving me out of my mind, because their bad takes seem to have infected most of the fandom.

I have absolutely zero sympathies for the villains and antagonists. Whether it is JGY, JGS, JC, YZY, XY, or any other shithead, I don't care. When it comes to unforgivable characters, JGY ranks at the very top. I can see JC being redeemed before him. JGY is an absolute nut that deserved the fate he got. Being trapped in the coffin and fighting NMJ continuously is a good punishment for someone who -

- Had his father raped to death by some of the most vulnerable people on earth, revictimizing them.

- Had the He sect slaughtered - the victims included elderly and at least one nine-year-old child.

- Killed his own son before using that death to kill others.

and that's just off the top of my head. And I don't want to hear about the whole Meng Yao is different from Jin Guangyao thing. No, the same person that even while being at the top of the world couldn't stop his evil and murderous impulses.

Honestly, and I don't say this lightly, I would take JC over him any day.

My opinion of XY isn't much different either. Good riddance to bad rubbish.

As for the fandom, I am not really surprised and I have seen stupid ass takes on Twitter about JGY and WWX being similar or something. Instant block because I don't want to waste my braincells on that kind of stupidity. Let these people live in their fantasy world where all manner of evil can be redeemed if there's a uwu backstory.

Zero patience, I tell you, absolutely ZERO.

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 26, part two

(Masterpost) (Other Canary Stuff)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Content note: This episode has a lot of lightning, but this post does not have lightning flashes--I’m using mostly stills for those parts, or I’ve snipped out the unfriendly frames before giffing.

Qing-Jie

Having successfully ruined Jin Guangshan’s party plan to get the Yin Tiger seal, Wei Wuxian dashes off to tell Wen Qing where her brother is. She hops up to hit the road with him, but then sorta-faints because she’s starving. In a rare moment of tenderness between these two, he catches her and gently sits her down again. 

Normally they’re busy out-toughing each other, both before and after this moment, but right now Wen Qing is openly vulnerable. Wei Wuxian responds to that, predictably, with all of his kindness and with his usual slew of unwise, impossible-to-keep promises.

As she eats the bread he’s brought her--a parallel to an important piece of bread in his early life--he says they have to believe in Wen Ning’s survival. Cut to: Wen Ning, not surviving. 

I mean, yes, yes, he’s only mostly dead, but he’s never going to be fully alive again, so.  

24 Hour Party People

Back at the party, Jin Guangyao, deliberately, I think, goes to offer his pops a drink while his pops is still super furious and looking for someone to take it out on. The servant lady is like, better you than me, pal, and helps JGY get his drink ready. Pops, predictably, knocks the drink onto Jin Guangyao.

(more behind the cut)

Lan Xichen is standing by with a hanky and a face full of worry. Lan Xichen is so Lanny that he thinks JGY needs to go change clothes after getting clear alcohol spilled on him, rather than just letting it evaporate and smelling pleasantly of booze for the rest of the evening like a normal party guest. 

JGY launches into a criticism of Wei Wuxian, which Lan Wangji listens to very carefully, frowning. Lan Xichen, Nie Huasang and Jiang Cheng listen as well, and don’t speak up. 

A Clear Conscience

Then Lan Wangji *literally* steps out of his brother’s shadow, and speaks in defense of Wei Wuxian. This right here is Lan Wangji’s turning point, as far as I’m concerned. Xichen is gazing at JGY, totally on board with JGY’s spin of the situation, and his shadow falls away from Lan Wangji’s face as LWJ steps forward.

Lan Wangji says, isn’t what WWX said true? JGY puts on his customer service smile and says that the truth isn’t something you’re supposed to go around saying out loud. 

I’d like to say this is what’s wrong with cultivator society but this is really a universal human thing; every society has rules about upsetting the social order, and they are very frequently at odds with basic compassion and morality. 

Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng stay silent but Lan Xichen goes and throws Wei Wuxian under the bus carriage, saying his character has changed. 

Lan Wangji nods decisively at this, and bows to Lan Xichen, silently asking permission to follow Wei Wuxian. Lan Xichen grants permission, telling Lan Wangji to do his best. Lan Xichen probably thinks he and Lan Wangji are in agreement, in this moment, but that nod of Lan Wangji’s was nothing of the kind.

That nod was Lan Wangji agreeing with himself; he is going to try to bring Wei Wuxian back but he is also going to listen to him.  Meanwhile Lan Xichen is tying himself in knots to appease Jin Guangyao. The divergence between the brothers will just grow, from this point onwards.

Lan Wangji leaves to go follow his boyfriend conscience, while Jiang Cheng continues to silently listen to the commentary of others, and gets so mad he crushes a wine cup.

It Was A Dark and Stormy Night.

Wen Qing and Wei Wuxian arrive at the prison camp, and the first person they encounter is Granny, with a defaced Wen Banner in her hand and Wen Yuan on her back. 

Whenever I read a meta or a fic that talks about how the juniors are so sweet partly because they are “untouched by the war” I want to point to this moment. A-Yuan endures an absolute truckload of war trauma by the time he’s four years old, and while Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both deserve a lot of credit for saving him at great risk to themselves, Granny and Uncle Four are the first heroes of A-Yuan’s story. His kind, mellow personality has a lot in common with theirs. 

This is followed by an eternity of Wen Qing running around asking if anyone’s seen her brother. Eventually Wei Wuxian gets tired of this and gathers the guards together, threatening them with Chenqing. 

He doesn’t need to play it; just holding it up has every Jin dude instantly kneeling and scared. 

The guards send him and Wen Qing go to a giant field of corpses, where Wen Qing runs around checking to see if any of them is her brother. Wei Wuxian starts off kind of detached and angry, but eventually snaps out of it, tucks away his flute and starts helping her to search. 

Wen Qing finds Wen Ning, mostly-dead with a lure flag speared into his belly. Wei Wuxian grimly takes in the situation from across the field of corpses. 

When he arrives at Wen Qing’s side he sees this talisman in Wen Ning’s hand. 

This is the talisman that Wei Wuxian made for Wen Ning back in Gusu summer school, before the war. It’s the one that Wen Ning was wearing at his waist when they met up after the massacre of Lotus Pier. It’s supposed to literally protect Wen Ning from having his spiritual consciousness snatched, as well as being a symbol of Wei Wuxian’s sense of responsibility for, and affection for, Wen Ning. 

Wei Wuxian, understandably, loses his shit at this point. Less understandably, he is about to decide that the best way to express his sorrow and rage is to re-animate the corpse of his friend, right in front of the corpse’s sister. Like, seriously, dude. Dude. 

Ghost General

This super-questionable decision leads to one of the most badass sequences in the show, which is unfortunately chock full of lightning flashes, so not everyone can watch it. Wei Wuxian and his flute and swirls of resentful energy come marching out of the darkness of the corpse field, back to the guards. 

The guards have decided to slaughter all of the prisoners and then run away, which would be a good plan except they should really have skipped right to the running away part of things. When Wei Wuxian accuses them of killing the prisoner in the corpse field, they claim that the Wens have a habit of falling off of a hill and dying. Wei Wuxian can relate. 

At this point Wei Wuxian summons up Wen Ning 2.0, ultra badass edition, who comes flying through the air with his odd, straight-armed fighting stance and cool solid-black eyes and rock-and-roll hair. 

Soundtrack: *Four Sticks*

Wen Ning proceeds to whale on the guards and scare the shit out of his relatives.

Then Wen Qing shows up and begs Wei Wuxian to stop. She explains that Wen Ning is only mostly dead. Like, if he was fully dead would she be okay with this? 

Wei Wuxian tries to reel Wen Ning in and realizes that he is not actually in control of Wen Ning. Ok, see, right from the first day of Wen Ning 2.0, WWX is aware that his control is iffy. Why does he think he’s going to be able to control him later? 

Anyway, this is where we learn Wen Ning’s grown-up name is Wen Qionglin. Wei Wuxian yells this name, and Wen Ning looks up like a cat hearing the “food noise,” and then proceeds to get control of himself. 

This is such a nice symbolic moment, that will be replayed later in the temple, when Wen Ning saves Jin Ling from Baxia. 

Wen Ning has a remote-code-execution OS vulnerability throughout the story; his soul is at risk of being stolen, and he is magically controlled by Wei Wuxian, Xue Yang, Su She, and Baxia.  Meanwhile Wen Qing, Wei Wuxian, and random kids on the street mostly treat him as a child, despite his clear adult capabilities. Wen Ning’s journey in The Untamed is at least partly about asserting his full adulthood, and his ability to overcome magical control is directly connected to that journey.  

After getting Wen Ning to chill, Wei Wuxian calls the floating resentful energy back into his own body, which looks about as comfortable as swallowing a burp. 

On the plus side, apparently resentful energy keeps your hair dry even when it’s raining.

Wei Wuxian should take a page from the guards’ book and slaughter all the Jin witnesses to this situation, but he decides to be the better person and let them live. They go running off down the road, where they encounter Lan Wangji and give him the 411, saying that Wei Wuxian resurrected dead people.

Meanwhile Wei Wuxian collects Wen Qing--half-fainted, again, in an echo of the start of their journey--and collects the Dafan Mountain Wen group, who are hiding, wisely. When they see Wen Ning, Uncle Four and some others start to freak out, but Wei Wuxian tells them that fierce corpses are cool, and they all grab horses and mount up.

Where Are You Going?

Lan Wangji is waiting for them, nonconfrontationally indulging in some visual poetry while he waits. 

In a show where every prop is exquisitely, carefully designed to enhance our understanding character, his Gusu-toned umbrella reveals surprising red and yellow threads woven in, right above his eye line as he looks at Wei Wuxian. 

Wei Wuxian speaks first, saying “you came to stop me?” Lan Wangji doesn’t answer, but asks him where he’s going. Then Lan Wangji warns him that he’s about to abandon orthodoxy forever, if he follows through. 

Wei Wuxian challenges this idea of orthodoxy, asking if Lan Wangji remembers the promise they made together, back in Gusu. It’s worth noting that they both appear to think of it as a co-promise, even though Lan Wangji didn’t speak aloud at the time. 

The conversation will continue in the next episode, because what’s better than a rainy romantic cliffhanger?

Soundtrack: Four Sticks by Led Zeppelin

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i have nowhere to complain about this but in your inbox, so: the friend who got me into mdzs turned out to be a jgy and xiyao hater and now she won't talk to me about mdzs anymore, lmao. the funny thing is that pre this revelation we were bonding about both being xue yang and xuexiao fans... yet she said she hates jgy for being manipulative and evil... ????make it make sense

oh nooooo anon i am so sorry!! what a crummy thing to experience—for both of you, really, tho you know i’m gonna come down on your side in this particular debate given my extremely normal feelings about jgy and xiyao.

there is also just no way i can make her position about jgy and xiyao vis-à-vis xy and xuexiao make sense, because it doesn’t, but i imagine you know that already. i can’t wrap my head around the logic required for someone to stan for both xy and xuexiao while simultaneously hating xiyao and asserting that jgy is evil. like i am actively making an attempt and am just succeeding at giving myself a headache.

i’d suggest just not talking about mdzs with your friend anymore :c she will either change her mind over time and you guys can bond over how xiyao altered your brain chemistry (or maybe that’s just me idk), or she won’t, and all my salt on this blog aside, no one should be ending any friendships over differing interpretations of characters/relationships in a book.

which is not something you mentioned even considering, i know!! but i also have a good friend who was into mdzs/cql before i was, and they also do not like jgy at all and find xiyao to be unpalatable. i gave it one shot to try to change their mind, and i haven’t brought it up with them since because much as i 500% disagree with their interpretation of my special little guy and his fated soulmate energy with lxc, i also, you know. really like my friend and would like to not lose their friendship by arguing about this with them.

tl;dr i’m absolutely down to be an obnoxious pain in the ass to complete strangers on my jgy and xiyao stanning tumblr account, but it’s a different kettle of fish when it comes to people who are already important to me and whose feelings i care about. and who knows? i’ve said my bit to my friend, and if you’ve said the same to yours, maybe they’ll both surprise us and come around in time.