phantomhivings

[waitineedaname]

seeing people read svsss for the first time is so much fun because no one is ever prepared for book two. even if you know that bingqiu are freaks, there is nothing that can quite prepare you for the shit that happens in that book

[kirie-mitsuru]

First of all, I love Luo Binghe with every fiber of my being and I just want him loved so thoroughly that he can't, not even for a second, doubt that he is loved.

Which is why I need to know if Shen Qingqiu is explicitly banned by the system to tell anything to LBH? I read through the novel twice, but I don't remember this being a thing. I am too emotionally damaged by how traumatized my pure LBH is by everything SQQ did to him and them not talking about everything that happened between them at all even until the very end. Unless they did and I missed it??

By things, I mean:

1. Why LBH has to go through the Abyss

2. Why SQQ assumes LBH is the cause of everything going wrong to SQQ during Jin Lan arc

3. Why SQQ keeps rejecting LBH presence even after knowing tht LBH loves him as a lover

4. Why LBH lost all trust in SQQ after the many lies and rejection LBH went through

5. Why SQQ restrains his affection even when they are already a couple

6. Why SQQ still lets the rest of the sect and the human realm people bad mouth LBH despite knowing how wrong they are abt LBH

(Warning: The rest is just my word vomit on my frustration over their nonexistent communication and why I feel they need it, so don't read the rest if it bothers you! Read the tags before you read the rest at least.)

I love BingQiu only because I can't see LBH truly happy w anyone else and I know tht SQQ actually loves all of LBH, the good and the bad, throughout the novel. It's just his denial and so called God's POV blinding him from seeing LBH as himself instead of what SQQ expects from LBH.

It happened, I get it. Teen angst (from both of them, SQQ is in his early 20ies too), realization, character growth and all that, but it does not change the fact that probs ard 90% of LBH trauma is caused by SQQ.

Like being put, going through, and surviving this universe ver of Hell (which I think Shang QingHua glazed through w convenient time skip in PIDW?) because of and for SQQ. Watching the love of his life die in his arms for him and because of him (even though LBH is equally clueless on what even happened during Jinlan arc until he tortures the truth out of the Old Palace master)(and multiple times too). Believing that he is being hated and feared by the love of his life because of his genetics or gender, which he have 0 say on and painful coz no one else seems to care about gender for couples in the novel besides SQQ so how else would LBH translate tht as nothing but an excuse for SQQ to reject him.

Oh, of course, not forgetting Xin Mo, the mind corrupting OP sword that constantly tries to take control of LBH's mind, which SQQ was looking forward to for LBH to acquire to be OP despite knowing what it does to its user.

(Personally, the scene where LBH secretly watch SQQ, who just ordered him to go away, laugh and say nothing as everyone bad mouth LBH before agreeing to stay for these people after treating LBH like a shameful secret that he don't want anyone to know was the most painful betrayal SQQ had done. Because, at this point, SQQ knows LBH loves him and has been pursing him all these time instead of wishing SQQ harm, yet he never even try to clarify this to his sect siblings, laughing instead when they insult LBH. This scene hurts me so much because how can SQQ eff up so quickly after acknowledging that he had broke LBH's heart so so many times into thousands of pieces just a few minutes before. Does the realization mean nothing at all to SQQ? I hate SQQ a little bit here even tho I know he didn't mean anything and is just too lazy too correct these many ppl and hates confrontation. At least he knew he eff-ed up when he knew LBH was listening)

I get why SQQ does the thing he did which he does w the underlying intention of 'helping' LBH get all the good things he deserve (nevermind that SQQ's definition of best is never what LBH wants for himself) (a painfully perfect example of the path to hell is paved with good intentions), but LBH doesn't know and he deserve to know if only to help him overcome or minimize his trauma.

I'm also sad that the main reason SQQ misunderstood LBH so much and expects the worst out of LBH is not even because of what LBH did. It's mainly the result of him reading abt Luo Bingge, punishment from the system, and his own cowardice to stop denying the truth. The only part LBH eff up is the blood parasite torture in the water jail thing, his blackening to the point 'lets end the world so there is only me and shizun' (which technically is due to the myriad of trauma caused by SQQ) and the last dub con scene which technically is orchestrated by the system due to SQQ's choice... why don't SQQ even expect it tho, all of his choices via the system prompts always led to him seducing LBH or in compromising situation w LBH and its the deluxe scene smtg...

... Yet the ending is just SQQ declaring he will always go wherever LBH go from now on (which he broke soon after coz LBH has to go to the demon realm and SQQ stays in the sect in the extras, which led to Luo Bingge showing up). Also, the extra just shows LBH acting pitiful to get affection and attention from SQQ (which is sad that he needs to be like this to get affection from SQQ, especially when internally SQQ 100% wants to pamper and love LBH already), their abrupt and private marriage.

Please, if I miss any scene they actually talk about their issues, do enlighten me.

(If there is any fanfic of them actually communicating w SQQ acknowledging his mistakes outloud and comforting LBH, or of SQQ 100% spoiling LBH, or going balistic when LBH is hurt, or dead LBH -especially considering tht his halo means near 100% his death caused by some form of suicide- which leaves crazy SQQ suffering and regreting everything he did to LBH, tell me too! I may or may not love yandere-for-LBH SQQ hehe. .)

[allpiesforourown]

i don't think you guys realize how devastating shen yuan's existence is for luo binghe in modern aus.

imagine youre luo binghe. you used to have nothing, but you've toiled and given up everything to be the 'perfect' man. you're handsome, successful, charming. everyone either wants you or wants to be you.

cue shen yuan. he's like you but effortlessly. everyone who talks to him falls obsessively in love with him. people think you're hot, but him? if shen yuan died, people would go to war over who gets to bury his corpse

he's rich, he's cute, he's kind, he's everything that binghe broke his bones to pretend to be. But worst of all? The most horrible thing? Luo Binghe falls in love with him too. And of all the people in love with binghe, out of everyone who would marry him in a second, he's in love with the ONE person who can't identify he feels attracted to binghe

i love binggeyuan because it is torture for luo binghe on every level

[tossawary]

I think, on some level, that Shen Yuan is like enrichment for Airplane Bro's enclosure. I think Airplane Bro kind of fucking LOVES having this guy around. Like, I do think their relationship is nuanced, weird and full of contradictions and not always good for them, but I also think that some chaotic part of Shang Qinghua honestly likes having his #1 hater weirdo running around completely fucking up his world.

Shen Qingqiu, grabbing Shang Qinghua by the shoulders: "Why didn't anyone TELL ME that Binghe is GAY NOW?! I'm going to die because of MONSTER DICK?!?!?!"

Shang Qinghua: (internally, probably only half-consciously) "Incredible. Amazing. How did I live without you? You torture me with your bullshit. You complete me in every possible way. I think we might be soulmates and we should make out about it. I hate you. I love you. You mean nothing to me and everything to me. This isn't your story and you stole it from me. I wrote this for you without even knowing you existed. You are a fascinating mystery that I will never solve. I will throw you under the bus at the first opportunity and yet I can't stop risking my life to help you. Your stupid game of gay murder chicken with my emotionally and mentally unstable protagonist is going to destroy the world and kill us all and I've never felt more alive. You have changed me as a person. Let's do this forever."

Shang Qinghua: (out loud) "Lol, sucks to be you, bro. At least you can get laid."

[sunderwight]

Shen Yuan with a Luo Binghe dakimakura is great but sometimes I stop and think about how a role reversal would have looked (i.e. Binghe as the reader who transmigrates in, Shen Yuan as the fictional character he was obsessing over) and oh my god. Fan Binghe who grew up with chronically online geek culture would have been next level in the absence of an actual, physical Shen Yuan/SQQ. Fan Binghe would have owned everything. He probably would have had to commission it all himself, either because the novel wasn't popular enough for the level of desired merch or because the mainstream commercially produced products were too cheap or flimsy or inaccurate for his specifications or probably both. Perfect hand fan recreations. Replica Xiu Ya (it's an actual sword) hanging on his wall. Fanart both done in a classical style (as in, 'what Shen Qingqiu might actually have hanging on his walls') as well as a variety of character portraits and erotic art zines. Printed and hand-bound copies of his favorite fanfics. Somewhere in China there's an amateur bookbinder who is making BANK off of this obsession, producing the most high level gorgeously bound copies of the filthiest smut and fluffiest hurt-comfort teacher/student fics.

Luo Binghe would be controversial in fandom because he is just as nitpicky and wank-y as Shen Yuan, with an extra dose of turning up in the comments sometimes to act like a jealous/possessive boyfriend accusing writers of being a little TOO lustful towards his unlikely waifu, but on the other hand he is rich and he will pay through goddamn nose for anything and everything that caters to his preferences. So a solid chunk of the fan creators just do things they think he'd like because they want in on the cash cow, while much of the rest of the fandom hates his guts because they feel like he hijacked everything with his own fanon and headcanons and obsessions. Shen Yuan isn't even that popular! Most of the rest of the fandom is kind of down on him as a cliche clueless danmei protagonist, they're all there for the score of blueballed love interests. Beautiful Liu Qingge and darkhorse Shang Qinghua and mysterious, tortured Yue Qingyuan and whatever the hell is going on with his evil doppelganger, Shen Jiu. Luo Binghe doesn't ever commission Shen Yuan with any of them, though! He's always solo, or maybe with a faceless tentacle monster or something!

It gets weird. There are probably Woman Buying Wonder Bread-esque memes about Binghe's highly specific kink commissions. On the other hand, Luo Binghe comes down harder than the actual artists on unsanctioned reposts because he commissioned Shen Yuan in that sexy lingerie fondling a really huge sword and it's not just for anyone to go around putting that up on whatever website they please!

He would own several dakimakura and they would arguably be more normal than a lot of the rest of his collection, is what I'm saying. He'd have them in different poses and seasonal outfits and versions that were acceptable for company and ones that had to get tucked into a drawer under the bed every morning because they were for Binghe's eyes only. And it wouldn't even just be the sexy ones, but also the ones where Shizun looks soft and fond and gentle and affectionate. The man was definitely working his way up to commissioning a lifelike Shen Yuan sex doll when the universe did absolutely everyone a favor and yeeted him into a transmigration scenario.

[zykamiliah]

repeat after me:

Luo Binghe didn't have a crush on SJ!Shen Qingqiu. He had daddy issues about SJ and did hate him for what he did to him but also felt like SJ should have treated him kindly because SJ did take him as a disciple out of his own free will.

What seals the deal for Luo Binghe isn't SY!Shen Qingqiu being handsome or sexy in red ropes, but that from the moment in the carriage to the Immortal Alliance Conference SQQ repeatedly treated him kindly and sacrificed for him and gave him a home and taught him and became his actual shizun, not the man that neglected and tortured him before.

Like, I can not understand the people that think LBH would fall in love with his abuser. Come on

[toffeecoco1]

@perpetualgrey's comment on this post

Ok my first instinct was to laugh, but then I realised you might be onto something???

Shen Yuan is LITERALLY an impostor, who’s more far more kind and beloved by Binghe than the original. The Guanyin pendant is a counterfeit, but it carries the love of Binghe’s mother and is far more precious than any real jade could ever be.

The heartbreak Binghe’s mother felt after realising that the Guanyin pendant was fake and she’d been tricked was part of what lead to the gradual decline of her health.¹ In wanting to do something kind for Binghe, she felt that she’d failed, and this led to her demise. What is Shen Qingqiu’s entire story, but trying to be kind to Binghe, feeling inadequate at this, and dying? (More than once!!)

Guanyin is a Bodhisattva associated with mercy, kindness, compassion and unconditional love. She is a patron of mothers, and is called upon in times of fear, uncertainty, and despair. The Bodhisattva she originated from is seen as a saviour, through whose grace even those with the most negative karma can achieve salvation. Even when she is not worshipped as a goddess, she is revered as the principle of love, compassion and mercy.² From wikipedia, “The act, thought and feeling of compassion and love is viewed as Guanyin. A merciful, compassionate, loving individual is said to be Guanyin.”²

The original Luo Binghe appears never to have lost his pendant. Shen Qingqiu tells us: “It was the only bit of warmth in Luo Binghe’s dark world, always by his side, and even in the future when he was at his darkest, it could summon up his last dregs of humanity.”¹ He also states that “it was Luo Binghe’s biggest berserk button.”¹

Our Luo Binghe does not cling to the pendant when he’s at his darkest: he clings to the love he has for his shizun and to memories of his kindness, and later, to the lifeless body of Shen Qingqiu himself. His biggest berserk button isn’t when people insult the pendant or his mother, or try to take it away; it’s Shen Qingqiu: when people insult him or try to take him away.

From the start, Shen Qingqiu expresses truly unconditional love for Binghe. He spends three years showing endless compassion and kindness, actions which feel insignificant to him but are more than enough to completely change Binghe’s life. He holds no blame or resentment for the things he fears Binghe will do to him; though he doesn’t want to be tortured, he forgives Binghe for it nonetheless, before it has even happened. He sacrifices himself to save Binghe as his mind is eaten away at by Xin Mo, when he believes that Binghe just slaughtered a hundred Huan Hua Disciples, when Binghe’s reckless use of the sword is putting countless more lives at risk.³

Shen Qingqiu is a counterfeit that is more precious than the original could ever be. For Binghe, he personifies kindness, compassion and unconditional love. His regrets over his treatment of Binghe lead to his temporary demise. Binghe clings to him in his darkest moments, and he is that which Binghe protects most fiercely.

I always found the pendant’s role in the story to be almost lacking: it’s treated as such an important item to Binghe, yet in the end its return is almost anticlimactic. But perhaps this is because the role the pendant played in Bing-ge’s story has been overtaken by Shen Qingqiu. When he returns the pendant, Binghe is relieved and appreciative: but his joy seems to stem more from the fact that Shen Qingqiu held onto it and cherished him than from the pendant itself. The pendant doesn’t matter all that much to him anymore, at least not compared to how important it seems to have been in PIDW. Binghe doesn't need an object to symbolize love and kindness; he has a person to love, who loves him back.

In conclusion: Shizun was in fact the fake jade Guanyin pendant all along!

sources cited below :)

1. Seven Seas Volume 1, Chapter 1: Scum. Pages 40-41.

2. “Guanyin,” Wikipedia. There’s a lot more to her than what I mentioned here, she’s quite interesting.

3. Seven Seas Volume 2, Chapter 8: Death. Pages 154-156.

[ineffectualdemon]

I said parts of this in the notes of another post but I think it deserves it's own post:

What I like about Shen Jiu is that unlike Shen Yuan he is relatively self aware. He knows he's doing wrong. He knows he has earned his torture and death by Luo Binghe and he knows he can only blame himself.

He has known this is how he would end up because he couldn't see any other way it would.

That's why he doesn't defend himself. Even if he is innocent of Liu Qingge's death he understands why he's being blamed. He threatened to kill him in public often enough.

He didn't harass the young women in his care but he allowed himself to develop a reputation by openly going to brothels. Of course they would see him as a lecher (and he maybe feels dirty anyway)

He decided to torture and abuse a child for the crime of having had a loving mother and talent.

And by doing so he made the monster that will kill him.

This, perversely, seems fair to Shen Jiu, or if not fair, at least inevitable

He just really didn't want Yue Qingyuan to get caught in his mess.

However he doesn't get this mercy

The biggest torment in his life was not one inflicted by Luo Binghe.

It's inflicted by the only person with the power to truly hurt Shen Jiu down to his core.

Yue Qi did not come for him when he desperately wished him to

Yue Qingyuan came for him when he desperately wished him not to

Despite all this torture it wasn't Luo Binghe who broke Shen Jiu.

It was Qi-ge

It was always going to be his Qi-ge, the one who never listened to his warnings

[mxtxfanatic]

Bing-ge and Victim's Entitlement as Portrayed by MXTX

I was thinking about Bing-ge’s journey as an abuse victim into an abuser and how much the creation of Bing-mei is a critique on both the writing trope that creates Bing-ge as well as the societal expectations that drive it.

In the world of PIDW, one of Shen Yuan’s main critiques was about how terribly the young Luo Binghe is treated by the narrative, so much so that he views it as torture porn. From being abandoned as a baby, to being abused as a servant and watching his adoptive mother wither from sickness and die, to finding his way to Cang Qiong Mountain and suffering under a cruel shizun who then pushes him into hell, Shen Yuan finds all this unnecessarily cruel. However, Shang Qinghua knows that the trauma Luo Binghe suffers directly correlates to the enjoyment readers are meant to get out of the second half of the protagonist’s life when he becomes overpowered and primed for vengeance. Shen Yuan knows this, too, as this is the trope he girds himself with as Shen Qingqiu to work up the nerve to push his disciple into the Endless Abyss, to “earn” his happiness. However, is this a true happiness? Does the trauma justify any and all of Luo Binghe’s actions?

On the surface, Bing-ge seems happy! He is able to enact revenge on Shen Jiu—and demolish Cang Qiong Mountain Sect who acted as accomplices to his abuse—and was given narrative access to any and every woman of marriageable age who crossed his path. He is even able to destroy his world by merging the three realms with no consequences to himself. Bing-ge has seemingly reaped the twisted “reward” that having survived unconscionable abuse and abandonment from the time of his birth had sown for him, and PIDW readers were able to enjoy and defend Bing-ge’s later megalomaniacal actions directly because they had read through hundreds of pages of his ill-treatment beforehand. The worse Luo Binghe’s childhood was, the more they were willing to accept of his actions in adulthood. We see a similar thing take place in the SVSSS fandom: the reveal of Shen Jiu’s past as a child slave is used to justify his later abuse of his child disciples—children who had no hand in his trauma but who he has decided to bear the brunt of it, anyways. But Shen Jiu lived a very unfulfilling adulthood due to his unwarranted actions until his untimely death. Is Luo Binghe any different?

Enter Bing-mei: the revised protagonist who abandons revenge in pursuit of experiencing genuine affection from the only person who gave it unconditionally. No, Bing-mei doesn’t get all the girls or all the power. He does not become the emperor of all three realms and he is not an uncontested leader that all conscious beings bow to. In fact, he is very tame and controlled in comparison to his PIDW counterpart despite not having complete control of his sword that amplifies his negative emotions. But when Bing-ge slips into the world of SVSSS and discovers that, despite all of this, Bing-mei has an intact world, platonic relationships, and a shizun who loves him, he’s willing to throw it all away to experience that same life. Bing-ge is revealed to be the unhappy, unfulfilled one, because the one thing he wanted—genuine unconditional love—was the one thing that he cannot earn or forcibly take. No amount of audience hype can change the fact that Bing-ge must leave behind the happy Bingqiu couple to return to his destroyed world in his unsatisfying reality.

This isn’t just a theme in SVSSS, either; it’s present in all of MXTX’s works in how people—both characters and the irl fandom—react to antagonists and asshole characters who have experienced trauma. In mdzs: a female cultivator tries to say that Jin Ling endangering other cultivators should be forgiven “since he’s an orphan.” Jiang Cheng throws his parents’ and sister’s death around to justify being an unrepentant serial killer. Jin Guangyao cries about how much his father hates him compared to the legitimate Jin heirs that he murdered. In tgcf: Qi Rong escapes discipline at every turn because his mother had to escape with him from his abusive father, and Mu Qing’s transgressions against the marginalized are ignored because “he was poor, once.” All of these characters have their actions whitewashed both in their stories and by their fandoms at large because their defenders believe that their trauma excuses any of their subsequent behavior.

Yet, MXTX does not prescribe to this idea. Notice the pattern of how the above characters end their stories. Jiang Cheng tanks his reputation and loses the respect of his only living relative. Jin Guangyao and Qi Rong die. But Jin Ling experiences setback after setback until he adjusts his behavior, and Mu Qing had to earnestly apologize under harrowing circumstances to be forgiven. It is not characters who seek justice for being harmed who are punished in these novels but those who persevere in their entitlement to do whatever they want because they were once harmed, thereby eventually destroy any goodwill others, particularly their loved ones, had towards them. The characters who are able to contain their actions to aim only at those who wronged them or else honestly reflect on their sense of entitlement in order to change for the better become well-liked by their peers. And as for Bing-ge: his inability to change within the narrative of PIDW may have “earned” him all the material things his world could offer and the affections of an unseen audience, besides, but he misses out on true human connection and love. These are the things he can never forcibly take, because in real life, no amount of trauma would entitle him—or anyone—to those things.

[scribblestatic]

So, like, if you've read SVSSS far enough, you know about the Bingmei vs Bingge part. And there's all sorts of stories with Bingge (basically a PIDW Binghe, not SVSSS Binghe) finding his own shizun in various ways.

Well, what about if he manages to summon a Shen Yuan, but his soul is in Shen Jiu's body? Which, like, wouldn't really be a problem, except he's already been torturing Shen Jiu for a good while now and he's down an eye and all of his limbs are mostly stubs at this point. Thankfully he still has his tongue and penis, which, after so often demanding Shen Jiu be castrated, he's pretty jazzed that didn't happen.

Shen Yuan, being the absolute freak he is, probably wouldn't mind too much. After all, he'd read this part of the story and cheered it on. Just cause he's now experiencing it himself, doesn't mean the revenge was any less cathartic.

Though, well, the dreams he has about what Shen Jiu went through does dampen his enjoyment of his suffering (so many lives lost that he can do nothing about, so much torment that just cycled on because no one thought to seek help, because the world was built so firmly on cruelty)...

And perhaps he'd woken up sobbing at times, crying his apologies to Binghe as though he was the one who had done all those terrible things to him, but he didn't, but those dreams were so vivid and felt so real

The girls at the Warm Red Pavilion, were they okay? Shen Jiu never had sex with them, only kept company to avoid the boys when he couldn't sleep and trained them in the four arts and gathered information from them, gods, he'd misunderstood Shen Jiu and thought him a remorseless villain and enemy to women

Liu Qingge, fuck--

At least now he can help Binghe actually enjoy his life and perhaps stop the cycle of abuse from continuing. Besides, cool motive, Shen Jiu, still child torment. And though the results were quite drastic, it was the dog-eat-dog world of xianxia China, and life was generally unfair. No reason to make Binghe's life needlessly unfair on top of everything.

But yeah! Now that he's in Shen Jiu's body, he and Luo Binghe get to talk, and Binghe, for the first time in his life, experiences regret for his actions, because now his lovely new kind shizun can't card his fingers through his hair or twist little braids into it. Moreover, Shen Yuan somewhat mourns over the fact Binghe's hair is straightened--he loved reading about his bouncy curls.

So now, imagining that, after time, Shen Yuan becomes a more prominent figure in the empire, especially post-marriage. He has a lovely eyepatch and wears soft red, black, and gold clothes, heavy on the red and gold. This nearly limbless man helps Luo Binghe do his taxes and works out various tips on using beasts to the benefit of the empire and remembering small notes about other races that allows the Demon Emperor to be both magnanimous and fierce in whomever's eyes he meets.

Others can't decide if Shen Qingqiu's mind was utterly broken, if he was cursed to act against his own will, or if he was possessed by some strange spirit. Regardless, the realms have never been in such peace before now.

Moreover, Luo Binghe has started changing.

While he can never regain the height lost to a childhood full of suffering and a lack of nutrients, he can change in other ways. He actually eats healthier because Shen Yuan insists on having him eat as well. He steadily stops straightening his hair, letting his curls return until they're like clouds. His muscles grow in firmer and his chest broadens.

Also, as he and his kind shizun speak further, even though he explores the worst parts of himself and uncovers those dirty, evil deeds and the ways they truly hurt him, Xin Mo doesn't get the chance to latch onto them anymore. As painful as discussing those things are...releasing them is exceptionally freeing. So, a sense of inner strength and ease he never had before starts to settle in his body, and his qi, usually constantly battling, stabilizes more than before, his heart demons no longer so adamant or strong.

As a side-effect of both parts, he was already handsome, but now, he's even more so. A wise, secure man no longer so strongly gripped by hatred, lust, or greed. Someone unforgivable to many, but becoming okay with forgiving himself.

Indeed, what a man!

Which is kinda a shame for Luo Binghe's many wives, because he's been heavily trimming down on his harem. Political marriages are substituted for other exchanges, fervent troublemakers are sent back to their homes (the ones who dared to attack his A'Yuan are never heard from again, strangely), and wives who simply ask for divorce are granted them, receiving a hefty gift for at least being loyal whilst married.

So, previously, a harem once numbering into the hundreds falls to the tens, and the remaining ones are either ambivalent or antsy.

Then, as though to answer everyone's burgeoning questions, he names Shen Yuan his empress during a meeting and proclaims that they will make preparations for his crowning ceremony.

I feel like that'd really set off what remained of Cian Qiong Mountain Sect.

Hmm... I think I'll talk more about this later.

---

Part 1: here Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5 Part 6 Part 7 Part 8 Part 9 Part 10

Part 11+: links on Part 10

AO3

[pr0cyon-lotor]

Sometimes I'm tempted to write angst with NO happy ending. Especially with JiuYuan.

Do you guys understand how much unrequited (or unknowingly required) JiuYuan FUCKS?! DO YOU GET THAT UNHEALTHY AND TOXIC JIUYUAN FUCKS SO HARD ITS CRIMINAL?!!

An au where Shen Yuan unknowingly helps Shen Jiu escape the Qiu's and he becomes SJ's obsession afterwards. But Shen Yuan ends up never talking to Shen Jiu again and simply doesn't remember him. He means the world to Shen Jiu, but for Shen Yuan it was just a Monday.

An au where Shen Yuan grew up with Shen Jiu and Yue Qi, but constantly gets set aside because those two are more codependent on each other than him. Shen Yuan wants to have love too even if it's unhealthy. And when the two have a falling out, he tries to shoot his shot but Shen Jiu is too closed off and ignores him.

Another au where they grew up together but they both killed people so they think their tainted or evil and they don't want to ruin the other. So they end up distancing themselves from the other until they haven't spoken in years. And Shen Yuan doesn't become a cultivator and Shen Jiu becomes an immortal master. So at his deathbed Shen Yuan finally sends a letter detailing his feelings for Shen Jiu. And somewhere in the letter it's says something like "I'm being selfish right now. It's a selfish thing to write you this letter. I could've died with this secret, yet I share it with you. I hope my name means nothing to you at this point, and I'm simply just another child you had to deal with as a street rat. You're beautiful and always have been. I'm glad you're reaching your potential." And Shen Jiu is in a panic trying to find Shen Yuan because that was a selfish thing to do. Shen Yuan isn't selfish, he isn't selfish with Shen Jiu, yet he's been selfish by telling him this just now and dying on him without facing him. And when Shen Jiu finds him it's too late, and he only has a stone with his name to keep him company.

An au where Shen Yuan is crazy about Shen Jiu instead of Luo Binghe, and he gets transmigrated to PIDW while Shen Jiu is being tortured. Shen Yuan manages to get Shen Jiu out, but the man is unresponsive and refuses to eat. And like Shen Yuan is DESPERATELY trying to save him, but you can't save someone from the water if they're committed to drowning. So either Bingge finds them or Shen Yuan forces himself to free Shen Jiu from his pain.

PARASOCIAL STREAMER AU WHERE THEY'RE BOTH FANS OF EACH OTHER'S CONTENT. They're crazy about each other but they don't know it. They're borderline stalking each other. Then one of them says something about already liking someone special in an interview or something and it causes the other to spiral.

DO YOU GUYS KNOW HOW HARD I'M BITING WIRES ABOUT THIS?!

I WANT TO READ MORE TOXIC JIUYUAN BUT I DON'T HAVE THE HEART TO WRITE IT AAAAAAAARRGGGHHH

So yeah feel free to ask me anything about any au I talk about. I will cry incoherently while trying to explain it :D

[sun-and-moon-mushroom]

AU where Bingge goes back in time and becomes a peak lord of the same generation as SJ… only to end up with an even worse reputation than him because he doesn’t change his other behaviours that much. Like this:

YQY: Luo-shidi, we need to talk. You really can’t be falling into bed with random women whenever you leave the sect…

LBG: what am I meant to do, say no?

YQY: there’s also the matter of your disciples…

LBG: they were all adults! and I told them to leave the sect first so there’s no abuse of power!

YQY: Luo-shidi, the fact that they’re willing to leave the sect for you *is* the abuse of power

LBG: is this just a meeting to complain about my love life?

YQY: well, there is also your apparent fondness for torture to look into…

When the Luo Binghe of that timeline comes along everyone is just surprised that one of his kids hadn’t shown up earlier. He still ends up on Qing Jing but SJ actually feels a bit bad for him, having LBG as a father you didn’t even know existed is definitely worse than just being an orphan — there’s a reason he’s never looked into his own background.

(Bingge originally went back in time to just mess around/get revenge on someone who died before he could kill them/wife plot/etc. but the moment he arrived, Xin Mo merged with the version of itself in the new timeline and he ended up getting stuck).

[allpiesforourown]

Ranking danmei love interests by how crazy they are

HUA CHENG: challenged and indirectly killed 33 gods for insulting Xie Lian

LAN WANGJI: publicly tried to defend the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation after Wei Wuxian started a bloodbath that killed approximately 3,000 people. Injured 33 Lan elders in order to protect him

LUO BINGHE: (under influence) attempted to end the world because he was insecure his shizun liked their sect more than him

MO RAN: (under influence) Spent years torturing, blackmailing, and abusing his shizun over a misunderstanding

YIN HANJIANG: where the fuck do I start

[nexadarling]

Okay but you know what i really love about bingqiu?? Big ol spoilers for svsss btw, if you haven't read all the books.

I just love how when the System puts SQQ through original LBH literally ripping him limb from limb as "alternative punishment," SQQ just wants to see his Binghe. Like it would be totally reasonable to project that trauma onto his Binghe, but all he wants is the reminder that HIS Binghe is sweet and caring to him. Fuck idk this isn't expressing the depth of the importance of that action, but the fact that he NEEDS to see Binghe instead of fearing him again is so big

He doesn't even seem to hesitate, it doesn't occur to him to be afraid of Binghe. His first thought and the first person he mentally reaches for takes the same form as the man who just put him through torture, but it doesn't matter because to him they are fundamentally different. Not everyone could make that kind of immediate distinction.

I just love them so much 😭😭

[endlessburningdarkness]

i now forgiveness is a trope and its all wish fulfilment, but even like semi-realistically, shen jiu would not forgive nor fall in love with lbh after lbh ripped off his limbs, tortured him for years and/or murdered yue qingyuan. torture is abuse, just bc you can justify what lbh does with "sj abused him first!" or "sj deserved it!" it doesn't change the fact that it's abuse. nor does it change the effects of abuse. neither lbh or sj become better people after being abused, they become worse.

sj after torture and de-limbing would not be ready to admit his wrongs or want to forgive. he would be even more viciously certain he was right to try and kill lbh as a child. even if lbh healed him and found out the truth and even apologised, he would not fucking forgive. he would hate lbh, he would spend the whole time trying to kill himself, drive lbh insane or hurt lbh in new and terrifying ways. i also can't see him giving a single fuck about any other person. he would hate them all.

qiu haiting for throwing his mercy back in his face, yingying for fucking marrying the man who burned down their sect etc. he might even try to and succeed in killing some of lbhs favoured wives as revenge if he plays the long game. letting lbh think the past is water under the bridge until he lowers his guard and murdering his wives so he knows how it feels to lose someone you love. none of this "he dissolved the harem for me, i guess i have to take his cock now uwuw" shit. shen jiu's soul is full of knives and he is constantly using them. why assassinate his character this way? even if luo binghe grovelled or bought yqy back to life or turned back time, shen jiu would not forgive.

and that's the wonderful horrific tragedy of this ship. even if luo binghe tried to make amends at some point, it just wouldn't work. sometimes there's just too much damage. some things can't be forgiven. some things you can't move past. embrace that. like why would shen jiu forgive twenty years of torture and the murder of his brother? just because luo binghe treated him nicely for a few months...

please let shen jiu be his awful, excruciating self, please i am begging you. let him be angry at his torturer! let him be vicious and unforgiving and hateful, that's what's so good about him! he's not the typical graciously forgiving victim. he never forgave qjl, why the fuck would he forgive lbh? let him set the palace and lbh on fire! let shen jiu be himself.

also don't take this as a personal slight, i know why people enjoy the forgiveness trope and its absolutely fine to like it. this is just my take on the trends i have observed in bingjiu fanfic and my own opinion.

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Thoughts on “How Jiang Cheng treats Jin Ling is normal because that’s just Chinese parenting”?

I was explaining to someone why I considered the way Jiang Cheng talks to Jin Ling to be abusive, and got hit with that.

I have noticed that parents and guardians in xianxia works sometimes speak quite harshly to their children in punishment scenarios specifically (plus there is frequently corporal punishment involved), but Jiang Cheng’s way of talking to Jin Ling feels like it’s on a whole different level. I can’t think of any time he speaks to Jin Ling like a normal adult.

Am I being gaslit here?

This argument in a gif.

First: There is no excuse to say that corporal punishment is a necessity to use against children and has lasting trauma against those that have had it used on them in the form of consistent psychological maladjustment including depression, unhappiness, anxiety, feelings of hopelessness, use of drugs and alcohol and can alter dopaminergic regions of the brain which hinders long term mental well being and inhibits behavioral responses emotionally and cognitively for themselves and social interactions. Up to some themselves beginning to engage in aggressive and physically abusive behaviors themselves.

Two: Verbal abuse is still... abuse. Some have defined it as the production of psychological and social defects in the growth of a minor as a result of behavior such as loud yelling, coarse and rude attitude, inattention, harsh criticism, and denigration of the child's personality. Other examples include name-calling, ridicule, degradation, destruction of personal belongings, threatening the torture or killing of a pet (and doing as such),excessive or extreme unconstructive criticism, inappropriate or excessive demands, withholding communication, and routine labeling or humiliation. 36.3% of children experience emotional abuse globally.

A consistent usage of this is not something to continue to normalize or excuse in parents, guardians and figures of authority of children. Verbal abuse is also not seen as a pressing issue as it is not physical harm enacted and still considered something that cannot be lawfully punishable despite the widespread statistics of its repercussions on the development of children and their adulthood life interactions.

At any rate, the author of the three novels condemns the abuse of children by several adults that engage in this behavior from Shen Jiu abusing his position of teacher and master over Luo Binghe because of jealousy. To Jiang Cheng and Madam Yu for physically and verbally degrading children they are guardians over and said children participating in dangerous antics to be praised for their skill or continued loyalty theyare said to owe. Jun Wu for trying to groom and gaslight another child (Xie Lian) to become another abuser and killer simply because he did not like the way said child interacted with the world with the position he had socially.

We also see from all three of these same works, is that these characters do also begin to physically abuse these same children as well as engage in isolation and negligence of them more than once. Enough that the audience should understand that these adults are not misunderstood AS THE ADULTS WITH CHILDREN UNDER THEIR CARE.

And as I have said before, whatever love may exist in Jiang Cheng for Jin Ling (and he desperately does, that isn't in dispute at any time unless someone who reads this is that stupid to come to the conclusion and say JiangWanyinscatmom is saying Jiang Cheng never cared or loved his nephew at all), does not negate the abuse that he has exhibited from the start of his very introduction when he threatens Jin Ling with abandonment when he says this:

江澄话中带刺，又是一转：“还站着干什么，等着猎物自己撞过来插|你剑��？今天你要是拿不下这大梵山里的东西，今后都不必来找我了！”

Jiang Cheng's words were full of thorns, he turned around and said, "Why are you still standing there, waiting for the prey to bump into you and pierce itself on your sword? If you can't hunt down that creature in Dafan Mountain by today, don't you ever come back to me again!"