#mo dao zu shi spoilers

[frankencanon]

you ever think about the fact that nie huaisang's father and brother both died the exact same way — forced into qi deviation via a third party

you ever think about how nie mingjue's obsession with getting revenge for his father's murder might have been foreshadowing for nie huaisang's own obsession with avenging his brother and utterly destroying jin guangyao

you ever think about how nie huaisang is a lot more like nie mingjue than most people realize

[onhoude]

I absolutely love the genius of Nie Huaisang during the final confrontation at the Guanyin Temple.

The man appears and disappears from the story entirely (there's no mention of his whereabouts for pages at a time), only to slightly sway the direction of the confrontation or battle whenever he is mentioned.

He wakes up exactly when Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng had spoken just enough to have the issue laid aside for now (p. 57), and then he simply vanishes from the pages if not for a mention or two, wailing in surprise to see Nie Mingjue's corpse there.

Then, when it looks like Wei Wuxian will succeed in sealing Nie Mingjue, Nie Huaisang appears miraculously near Su She and Jin Guanyao, only to be injured, despite otherwise consistently hiding behind Lan Xichen (p. 104).

Because of their status as half-siblings, the scent of his blood rouses Nie Mingjue and sets him back up against Jin Guanyao.

It is brilliant how he moves around while being effectively insignificant most of the time.

And his commentary! When rereading the story, he truly reads like a malignant jester.

After melodramatically reminding everyone how he is pitiful and scared of any pains and aches, he wails:

"Why am I so unlucky? Getting randomly captured by Su Minshan on the road... He started out just trying to make a break for it moments ago, too, but then turned around and stabbed me. If I was in his way, he could've just pushed me aside... Why use a weapon?" (p. 109).

'[U]nlucky', 'random', and 'why would he do that?' All things to push the blame to happenstance or others. He didn't do anything but be his usual incompetent self!

And, of course, with everyone on edge, as they had more than enough time to have seen Jin Guangyao manipulate expertly and be aware of how dangerous he is, his final act of tricking Lan Xichen into killing Jin Guangyao is especially striking (p. 111). Sorry, Lan Xichen.

In particular, because this is too direct of an action for Nie Huaisang! The most obvious of his ploys! The situation is instantly suspicious! Everyone knows (or at least highly suspects but is also confused by the idea that) Nie Huaisang did that on purpose!

So, yes, he acted rashly there, maybe seeing his last chance for his vision of revenge escape before his eyes and he seized the first opportunity there was.

This was impulsive! And it only worked because he was so jumpy and easy to look down on!

No, Nie Huaisang's entire plan wasn't openly revealed or even indeed confirmed (though kudos to Wei Wuxian for spelling out every step of Nie Huaisang's actions on the spot), but he let a glimpse out of his malice at that moment and the intent to manipulate the situation to have Jin Guangyao killed was called out:

"To think I'd fall like this, by your hand..." Jin Guangyao spate hatefully (p. 114).

But even though Wei Wuxian and Lan Xichen doubt Nie Huaisang's story, they can't really do anything. Or, rather, it's meaningless to even try. Because just like Nie Huaisang's lifelong reputation as a good-for-nothing is considered an indisputable fact, Jin Guangyao now has an irreversible taint on his character as a manipulative and vain liar that cultivators will be in no rush to see be disputed. Even Lan Xichen isn't entirely sure of what happened, as shaken as he is by it all.

It was also his final act, in a way, because from then on Nie Huaisang had a different reputation for those who were present. There is an unease there: his traces aren't entirely covered! There are now people out there who may be wary of him, could raise questions, or at least see him in a different light now. And genuinely, even with Jin Guangyao's name cursed into oblivion, it's a good thing for Nie Huaisang that those who could potentially call him out may not do so any time soon, if ever.

Lan Xichen goes into seclusion, Jiang Cheng is focused on Jin Ling and Jin Ling himself is already being discredited because of Jin Guangyao's reputation (we also don't know if either of them is suspicious of Nie Huaisang in the first place and most likely isn't), and that Wei Wuxian practically retreats from Jianghu politics with Lan Wangji.

Ah, it's brilliant. I love Nie Huaisang's arc so much, I'm just giddy about it all.

[stop-spreading-this-poll]

Round 1 Poll 19: Not deliberately/willingly!

Warrior Cats submission:

Idk how often this is still believed, but for a long time people would claim that Hollyleaf didn't intend to murder Ashfur. That it was an accident, or at least the way it happened was kind of ambiguous. And like... It wasn't. She murdered him. On purpose.

Mo Dao Zu Shi submission:

Spoilers: That Jin Guangyao was forced to do all the evil things he did. Like no, stans... he admitted to killing his child to cover up incest (which he used to frame another sect because they disagreed with him, massacring them) and he did kill his father via rape (of said father and sex workers) with no one forcing his hand. Dude's just vile as mxtx (author) intended.

[deadguydeathmatch]

Dead Guy Death Match Round 1: Poll 38

[saintshrimo]

[[ Drawn by @meiilan ]]

Early design for the MDZS AU of my OC Chenwu.

________________________

Lan Su (蓝肃, Lán Sù), courtesy name Lan Chenwu (蓝晨雾, Lán Chénwù), is a member of the Gusu-Lan-Sect. Right next to Lan Wangji, the younger brother of his best friend Lan Xichen, he is one of the most talented guqin users of his sect. Although very skeptical of the man to whom he is later promised for political reasons, he quickly develops feelings for Wen Zhuliu, whom he gets to know more and more. He allows this stoic henchman of Wen Ruohan to fill a spot in his heart and recognizes him as his "Fated One". This happiness is short-lived however, as Wen Zhuliu dies in the sectarian war that also involves the Gusu-Lan-Sect.

[yarmageddon-blog]

I hate you, ending of The Untamed live action show. Have more kneeling before the eyes of the heavens in an act of symbolic marriage, idiot. Have you even tried depicting domestic bliss between two gay wizards? Huh?

Oh yeah and they should fu

[still-snowing]

smooch!

[violetscanfly]

Art inspired by a tangled/mdzs fusion fic called the rivers start to sing by fruitys on ao3! Rapunzel-xian with his Xiao Pingguo crow just wouldn't leave my brain :'D

[lazycranberrydoodles]

sibling bonding moment!

[sukizula]

thinking about the shi wudu-he xuan-shi qingxuan conflict in TGCF and realizing their characters are just nie huaisang split into three. a nhs deluxe edition if you will

[pillow-boi]

“I’ve lied countless times, ki||ed countless times. But I’ve never even thought about harming you.”

[frankencanon]

has anyone else noticed mxtx's inexplicable fondness for characters that were once talented and powerful prodigies but due to unforseen circumstances are now far weaker than they once were or could've been

(e.g. wei wuxian, shen jui, xie lian)

[onhoude]

The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mo Dao Zu Shi), volume 5, p. 98.

"(...) Wen Ning was at a slight disadvantage."

A SLIGHT DISADVANTAGE?!

This is a fight against Nie Mingjue who not only dominated the battlefield in life, but who also, as a dismembered corpse, had enough resentful energy to incapacitate several Lan-members, including Lan Qiren, and had to eventually be cleansed every day by Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji together to temporarily keep him restrained. And this was before he had reassembled his body and without most of his senses.

Wen Ning is an absolute powerhouse.

I know Wei Wuxian often says that Wen Ning truly is the strongest fierce corpse he ever raised, but I suppose I kind of just nodded at that. The Ghost General is just so strong that this evaluation of Wen Ning's disadvantage in his fight against Nie Mingjue is voiced as a minor inconvenience.

[enlightningbugs]

When Jiang Cheng stabbed the Yiling Patriarch in the gut, 2020.

[catkindness]

good for you, you look happy and healthy

not me, if you ever cared to ask

[khattikeri]

one of my favorite things about mdzs is that for how heavily its plot involves politics of classism and misogyny... even the characters most directly impacted by it can't and don't free themselves from it. literally the closest exception is mianmian.

meng yao being the "son of a whore" wasn't some sort of commie awakening for him that led him to wanting everyone to be socially equal. he played the political game, climbed the ladders, sucked up to and backstabbed and murdered people, including other prostitutes who actually had nothing to do with how he and his mother were treated at the brothel he grew up in.

he put in so much extra excessive effort for even a fraction of the same respect that members of gentry cultivation clans got. and he did deserve to be treated more humanely! but he feeds into the exact same system that created him, leading to his own undoing.

his efforts were for a fragile upward mobility that was never going to hold up. he never surpassed his origins nor did he empower others in similar stations, because the society he lives in is not one that would accept that.

the second he got caught and all those crimes exposed, he was scapegoated to hell and back, replacing wei wuxian as society's terrible one-sidedly evil boogeyman overnight.

speaking of not-quite male gentry, i think it's interesting that wei wuxian explicitly doesn't try to climb the ladders in BOTH lives, knowing full well that anything he does will be punished just for the sheer fact that he is wei wuxian.

wei wuxian is scolded for giving intelligent and correct answers in school. lan wangji does the same and is praised.

wei wuxian occasionally lounges around with fellow disciples and is punished. jiang cheng does the same and mostly escapes.

wei wuxian refuses to carry his sword around in public (after losing his golden core, which nobody knows) and is scorned as an arrogant upstart. nie huaisang has been doing the EXACT SAME THING for YEARS and nobody bats an eye.

unlike jin guangyao, wei wuxian knew subconsciously from the start that his acceptance was superficial and that he could be cast out any time. when he was 10 and recently taken in by the jiangs, he canonically would not eat or use "too much" food and water because he thought they'd find him a nuisance for "wasting their things" and kick him back out.

now away from just the classism, yu ziyuan is a proud and strong noblewoman in a society that belittles and derides women for everything they do. her strong cultivation doesn't matter. she's victim to the vicious rumors of her husband loving another woman who is strong like her but apparently had a more likeable personality.

it doesn't matter even if jiang fengmian didn't cheat or that wei wuxian is wei changze's son with cangse sanren; yu ziyuan can't bear with the humiliation of herself (and by extension her children) not being "good enough". she's ridiculed for "failing" in that one duty as a wife, mother, and woman.

she lashes out and takes out that anger on everyone present for years, giving her children lasting trauma and also being a key element in how the jiang family and yunmeng jiang sect are effectively wiped out at the hands of the wen clan.

madam jin doesn't even have a name outside of the fact that she's married to jin guangshan. i don't even remember reading anything that indicates if she's a strong or weak cultivator, or what, which in itself proves that to most people, it doesn't matter. she's "just" a woman.

of course she's angry at her husband's affairs and all the bastard children they bring in. but she also can't do anything about them, so she lashes out at the few people she can: servants. non-cultivators, probably. those very same bastard children.

shoutout to meng yao getting shoved down a flight of stairs at age fourteen, because if madam jin tried that move against her husband instead, it would make her lose even more face, which as a noblewoman she'd never do.

and that's not getting into how jiang yanli is consistently sidelined for being physically weak.

that's not getting into how mianmian was actually a good cultivator, but was mocked by everyone around her for trying to stand up for wei wuxian when everyone was turning on him. how everyone scoffed at luo qingyang's words as "just some lovesick woman" who "obviously wants to marry or bed him since he saved her".

luo qingyang is the only one of these characters who HASN'T died. she didn't play society's games like jin guangyao. she didn't dig her heels in confidence of her own abilities like wei wuxian.

she didn't bitterly lash out like yu ziyuan and madam jin. she didn't gently accept it like jiang yanli.

she just LEFT.

she married an ordinary merchant and cultivates separately from mainstream cultivation society, and therein found her own peace and happiness.

mxtx doesn't bother with particularly class conscious or feminist vocabulary to hand-hold readers into understanding these disparities, but that choice highlights them & the deeply entrenched politics of their society even more. i really love it.