#mxtx conspiracies

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Modern day YouTube au where Xie Lian is infamous on the internet for his catastrophic cooking channel.

[khattikeri]

i think it was really cool of mxtx to make wangxian and their romance be so unconnected from the overarching plot of 3zun's political murder drama.

like. lan wangji and wei wuxian's love story is just one vehicle nie huaisang uses in his revenge scheme to tie off all the loose ends, just a very convenient means to an end with the unintentional benefit of wangxian realizing they're mutually in love. wangxian's closest connection to any of the things going on there is lan wangji being lan xichen's brother.

i feel like most other BL stories, when there's any sort of conspiracy or mystery to unravel, have the main characters a lot more... directly involved? for example "this was all predestined", or it's a decades-long plot that involved the MC's parents, or the villain is secretly a relative who suffered a lot hiding their origins, or a trusted close friend of MC or ML was behind the betrayals all along! etc.

jin guangyao is none of those things to wei wuxian or lan wangji. and same with xue yang, wen ruohan and his sons, everyone... even non-villains who are involved like nie mingjue just have nothing personal to do with wwx or lwj. with slightly different framing of the story's events wangxian could easily be a background pairing, which isn't often the case with power couples like them in these kinds of stories. they are truly just vibing.

[tiredbitchposts]

Fine, this may be a conspiracy theory, but does anyone else thinks that after seeing the popularity of the non-canon ships in the scum villain fandom MXTX decided to write her next protagonist to be completely isolated on purpose? Because that has been on my mind a lot. Like, it's a fact that she hates it when people ship her MCs with anyone other than their canon love interest, MXTX wrote her first book with an MC that had a long list of people who adored him and were willing to die to protect him in-work, people ate it up, she noticed that a great part of the fandom ships her MC with basically anyone, she hates it, but no matter what she says the ships keep going, then she writes her next book. In that work her MC is a charming, popular cultivator, who suffers a terrible fall from grace and by the end of it he's lost pretty much everything from his past, except his canon love interest. Even if we take away all the love, respect and adoration Wangxian has towards each other it's pretty clear by the end of MDZS that Lan Wangji is the only one left for Wei Wuxian, everyone else is either dead, distant or just hates him

[tavina-writes]

it’s been years since I read the novel and watched the drama and I still think about Wen Xu. Do you have any headcanons?

Hi Nonny!

Sorry for the late response, I got stuck in grading hell but!

Wen Xu headcanons... See, I think the thing about me is that I definitely do have headcanons, but I'm pants at making headcanon type lists because largely characters and their traits grow out of whatever fic/fic universe I'm working on rather than just free floating headcanons that I add to lots of things/fantasize existed in canon, but that said:

I think he's generally quieter and less showy or loud than Wen Chao, who takes up a lot of narrative space in the book

He's probably married given that his younger brother is married and typically younger siblings don't get married before older ones

I feel like he's invested in Wen supremacy for the financial benefits rather than out of personal hatred for anyone in particular?

I like to think that Wen Yuan/Lan Sizhui was his son, even as I recognize that this is 200% conspiracy cork board and also not an intention of MXTX's because it could be fun!

He likes math. I'm not entirely sure why but he strikes me as a math guy.

I also like to think that he ranked 6th on "jianghu's hottest gongzi" but literally no one talks about it afterwards bc if you do war crimes like that you get stricken from the hottie list 😔

Alas, I feel like my thoughts on poor severed head blorbo (who I really do adore) are rather pedestrian alas. D: Sorry about that Nonny!

[pan-gaa]

Apothecary diaries is a hidden gem!

A short and quick summary plus me being obsessed with it.

The story involves Maomao an apothecary raised in the red light district, she then gets kidnapped and made to work as a maid in the imperial court. Her intelligence and talent are later recognized and she starts being asked to solve various strange things happening in that side of the castle. There are many secrets and conspiracies going around involving people or varios position and powers. This is based on historical Chinese period may I add which is very important to remember since it ask a lot of context.

Ok I know it was very superficial but I want people to give it a chance. This story is something I dint thought I’ll love so much but it truly is an amazing story. At first the anime was marketed kind of like a Shoujo? At least from the previews I saw before which couldn’t be farther from the truth. Contrary to the artstyle and colors, this is not a rose colored shoujo! This story covers real issues involving sex work, social classes, how woman are treated in history overall. Jinshi, the male lead, is someone who supports the main character well and is not there only for the tension. This is a drama mystery that can seem pretty simple at the start but it unfolds beautifully into more lore that just grabs at you and you can’t look away.

Now I may be biased because I love and consume other historical Chinese media like MXTX novels but I would say that I had absolutely no expectations for this series when I started it. In fact I only did start it because of a friend convincing me to watch it with them and I couldn’t be more glad we did. If you are someone who is into Josei or pretty realistic mysteries I think you would enjoy this story.

[lryghe]

MXTX thoughts; conventions

The long awaited (not) analysis of MXTX conventions is here! I’ve literally been meaning to talk about this for months but it got sidelined in favour of vicious arguing on PDB about MBTI. Anyways! Obviously this post will contain spoilers, and something I wanted to touch on was 3rd person limited in MXTX, but I already have a post on that here, so feel free to check that out for a better explanation of it. Beware of mediocre analysis ahead, I’m a little rusty (also shoutout to the person who liked some of my posts this morning, you reminded me to actually write something!).

THE AGENDA since this post is long:

Non-linear storylines

Dying and resurrection

Colour symbolism

Character tropes

NON-LINEAR STORYLINES

An interesting thing that follows MXTX’s more thought out works, is the non-linear plotlines she follows in them. This itself is a really good convention of writing in general, especially if it’s done well, and I can safely say that MXTX did it astoundingly well in TGCF. The clear cuts between time periods in relation to each book is an incredible feat, and is something that easily trumps MXTX's other examples of non-linear storylines. Through the use of the jumping back and forth in time, specifically in TGCF, creates an excellent cause and effect, something that is definitely central to the novel. Everything done has an effect, whether that be on the continuation of the plot, or even as a characterisation point, so the non-linear narrative cements that sense of foreboding hanging over everything. A simple sentence said when Xie Lian 17 somehow amounts to a complete upheaval of the heavens 800 years later, unveiling a conspiracy well over 2000 years old. A friendship group dissolving due to difficult circumstances results in a really horrific friendship confession later in the novel. Shi Wudu trying to save his sibling ends his own demise, the crippling of said sibling, and a vengeful ghost with nothing to do anymore. This nonlinear storyline is definitely used in MDZS as well, but I found it a bit more complex, and actually, now that I think about it, is a really good reflection of Wei Wuxian in general. The thing with MXTX, is that all her novels are in 3rd person limited, so they follow our protagonist in 3rd person, but it’s tinged with their own personal views and biases that limit the omniscience of 3rd person. And with MDZS it would be a fair assessment to say that the unordered mess of time leaps in the novel are an excellent indication of Wei Wuxian’s bias leaking through the 3rd person. The incessant jumping is difficult to follow in places (don’t say otherwise), but it’s actually a genius idea because it’s an accurate assessment of the thought process that Wei Wuxian probably follows anyway. I wouldn’t say that this was definitely on purpose however, as MDZS was written before TGCF, so it could just be MXTX growing alongside her writing, but hey, maybe it is a stroke of complete and beautiful genius! Don’t bother mentioning SVSSS, it’s definitely an interesting novel, but it’s not non-linear, at least not as wholly as MDZS and TGCF are. The most you’ll get in SVSSS is like a two line flashback, plus the extra’s, but I think that’s a reflection of when MXTX wrote it.

DYING AND RESURRECTION

Moving on from serious conventions, MXTX’s trope with one of the main characters dying and then coming back later is a really funny kind of convention, because it’s not funny in the moment obviously, but the fact that it’s done at least once per novel is hilarious. Wei Wuxian’s initial resurrection after 13 years of being dead, Shen Qingqiu’s return in his plant body 5 years later, and then his return back to his ‘original’ body, and Hua Cheng’s little death defying stunt at the end of the novel. Then there’s the use of cliffs and such, like Binghe’s fall into the Abyss, Hua Cheng’s fall off that wall (forgive me its been like 3 years since I read TGCF), and if we’re being inclusive, then there’s always Wei Wuxian’s death in The Untamed. Maybe there’s a hidden meaning in there somewhere, but it’s fine to look at it from a surface level, which amounts to ‘MXTX got bored and needed some drama’. A perfectly reasonable deduction. 

COLOUR SYMBOLISM

Another thing I wanted to touch on was the colour symbolism that MXTX uses because I think it’s pretty cool, AND it has the added benefits of adding symbolism and contrast to each novel's main character and their love interest. It’s mentioned in the novel’s obviously, but it really shines in fan content and fanarts. I like the symbolism of Luo Binghe and Shen Qingqiu’s robes both being green before the time-skip, because Luo Binghe was a disciple at the time and a little white lotus, so the green was used to directly align him with Shen Qingqiu. After the timeskip he’s obviously got his big boy pants on and swapped to a stunning black and red ensemble, fitting of the protagonist, and that itself contrasts Shen Qingqiu’s majestic and lofty green robes, because Binghe means business with this fit. A fun thought is how green and red fit together on the colour spectrum, because they don’t, they’re contrasting colours which is some real obvious symbolism. Do I really need to spell out Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian? I feel like this one is rudimentary. White equals noble and virtuous, pure and holy, and black is evil, demonic, cruel, and scary. Simple! And Hua Cheng and Xie Lian’s red and white are a very cute mixture, because although it gives them a Bingqiu style christmas tree vibe, it’s interesting in comparison to the previous two love interest and main character dynamics, considering red and white are a lot more complimentary than black and white or red and green. And it’s a testament to how similar Hualian are with their complimentary robes, how like-minded they are throughout the novel, especially considering their predecessors. Or maybe I’m overthinking it, who knows?

CHARACTER TROPES

In regards to tropes of MXTX, I think her character tropes are incredible and have the addition of being really funny. She’s consistent enough with her conventions that clear links can be drawn with her side characters across all 3 novels. To begin with, there’s Mr Angry. I think you can guess who that is, but it's Jiang Cheng, Liu Qingge, and Mu Qing. All have a really close relationship with their related main character, all are angry or harsh where they probably didn't need to be, and all three are good fighters. Then there’s the guy who’s always smiling, like Yue Qingyuan or Lan Xichen. Complacency is a key part of their characters, and excuses aside, it’s interesting how it played out. You could argue for Jun Wu to be a part of this circle, but I’ll keep that to myself. Finally, there’s the fodder characters, only useful to further the plot in a miniscule way. Gongyi Xiao (MAY HE REST WELL), Xiao Xingchen, and once again, I don’t have a very good TGCF equivalent. Gongyi Xiao dies after the events of the water prison, and Xiao Xingchen was really just there to highlight how fucked up Xue Yang was. Rest in peace our beloved fodder, especially Gongyi Xiao, MXTX should have treated you better…

I think I’ve typed myself out honestly. Kudos to whoever reached the end of this post, I haven’t written this much since my Team 7 analysis when I got back into my Naruto phase briefly.

Word count: 1271

Reading time: 4 ½ mins

[proshippers-against-censorship]

I havs absolutely nothing against people who see Diluc and Kaeya exclusively as brothers and who stay in their own corners and enjoy their brotherly relationship, but there’s a loud and annoying side to these people who think those who ship them romantically are all incest addicted women with a fetish for gay men/relationships

one group in particular idolizes a 34 year old Mexican who proudly calls herself an “old hag”, who has LEARNED Chinese and surrounds herself with diaspora who all validate that the text says everywhere that the two MUST be brothers. Hell this same person went as far as to write a comparison between danmei stories and Genshin and compared the sworn sibling hood in the stories that the danmei author MXTX wrote to Diluc and Kaeya, which of course has a completely different context and the relationships in the danmei stories aren’t even the same

but she and her mindless followers wear the “I learned Chinese, I wrote to Chinese customer service, every text I read says they are BROTHERS!” like a badge to be proud of and this “old hag” continues to obsess over their relationship (and has already done so for years), she and her followers are calling people freaks (that also includes Chinese shippers), are absolutely racist, need to insert themselves into everything and show that THEY’RE right and not the “pseudo incest lovers”, and she even thinks common danmei tropes are “weird” or “pseudo incest”

I’m sorry but obsessing over fictional characters and making sure they’re fictional brothers in their fictional universe is just stupid and embarrassing, and I’d say it’s even more so at her age. She thinks it’s like the best thing ever to be regarded as a menace to fandoms and makes up wild conspiracy theories or just (maybe intentionally) misteads what people say.

sorry for the long post but it’s these people I really dislike and who paint a bad image of western fandoms. It’s already a mess, we don’t need more shit from people like these

(I also blame Genshin’s shitty localization)

Bold of her to assume that some of the biggest MDZS ships AREN'T sworn brotherhoods. She really needs to think over her examples better.

At least she knows she's an absolute hag, though.

(Also, sorry for the delay, lads. This shameless furry was running around the city for a bit, lolz)

[jiangwanyinscatmom]

Can't understand how chengcheng fans has always been the first who started to disgust people and start a war in the fandom.

Let me tell you a story. In China itself, modao once was a peaceful fandom on Lofter or Weibo during 2016-18, because the fans are all coming from reading the novel. At most they like the friendship of young Shuangjie but not UwU-ing so bad while scolding WangXian.

It was Not until late 2018-19 when donghua and CQL came out. A lot of JC stans spread like moss, either baby-ing JC or breaking WangXian by saying ChengXian originally is the official pair but because LWJ got popular mxtx give it to him (simply daydreaming😒 Even before writing, mxtx has said she first constructed what kind of protagonist she'd write and what kind of Husband he'd get thus WangXian are canon even before the making of MDZS).

At first the pairing of JC with LXC originally came due to the coincidence of Shuangjie and Shuangbi, but afterward, they literally recruit almost every character in MDZS to love their chengcheng. Such as ChengNing, ChengQing, ChengJingyi, RuohanCheng, ChengYao, SangCheng, even incest ChengYanli! etc, because chengcheng is pitiful being alone and he needs much love, lol. And finally, they simply insult both WangXian for betraying JC for love, or wen sibling for whatever sin they said to be guilty of, insulting Jin Guangyao for the third party between XiCheng (almost every XiCheng fanfic must hate and step on JGY to dregs to make JC look so much better, which is funny because XiYao is kinda popular in China much earlier, so this is a tense war, poor Xichen though🤣).

The even funnier thing is that they started to protest "why can't official pairing be broken?". In China, fans are pretty strict to official pairing (even the role of top/bottom, so this is really getting on a lot of people's nerves). If previously they robbed WWX and hate LWJ, now they started to rob LWJ and hate WWX. Yes. They think why did WWX get all the best thing? Why can't LWJ love and pamper their chengcheng? (Oh they already forgot about pairing LXC with JC in order to pamper him in the early days, can't get enough and want more).

There is even a party of DuWei or HeiMXTX(smth like antiwwx and antimxtx here), distorting canon facts (practically the so called canon they say is by ignoring 80℅ of facts itself), distorting every good intention of WWX into sinful and wrong things, even stepping on mxtx and slander her for neglecting her character just to make way for wangxian. The funny thing is that not even JGY Stan are as hardworking as them in slandering WWX and mxtx, when JGY literally got butchered in the end compared to the alive and kicking JC.

Naturally, WangXian fans get disgusted so bad they retaliated hard😂 around 2019 and intensified around 2020-21 (now the fandom has cooled down a bit). All kinds of meta and fanfic to slap awake those daydreaming ChengDu (literally mean Poisonous Cheng) are made. We can find tens of thousands articles (there are different tags, so rounding them up, it is more than 100k articles) has been written to refute the weird logic-brainwashing from JC stans on Lofter or Weibo.

This. At this point, came another problem.

Some of them simply hated JC but think that JFM and JYL are good people (which I also think so, they are just simply normal people who treat WWX just like how normal people in their shoes would be, without particular malice or hidden conspiracy). Some of them got angry for ChengDu remarks who said WWX owe YMJ for life, so they feel disdain even to JFM and JYL because those 2's kindness arent so great, if they were replaced by someone else WWX could even be treated better, yet why did it got said WWX owe them so much? Small portion of them even turn to dislike JYL so bad for being an ignorant and almost love brain Mary Sue girl, in retaliation of ChengDu who practically insult all kind of shits about WWX and Wen Qing while putting the saint family YunmengJiang onto the pedestal (including JYL), lol.

Anyway, there are all kind of different sides even for those who hated JC and his poisonous fanatic. But each one of them came due to JC Stan brainless remarks in the first place, lmao.

But what I want to say is, no matter what country, no matter what fandom, whether local or international, why is it always those JC stan who started to first disgust people and provoking a fight? Like, is this really hereditary? Those who worshipped JC are destined to distort the canon facts, refuse to accept reality, must insult and slander other characters to whitewash their own idol?

That has always been a mystery to me🙃

I think my largest frustration with the English side of the base is, that I never had to defend the fact that the Ancestral Hall fight, was never in the wrong for Wangxian and Wen Ning when it came to Chinese fans. This is completely on the side of mostly American fans.

I remember the mess of Jiang Cheng fans while the novel was being written only to have been replaced by nastier Xue Yang fans that were the ones to chase MXTX finally off of weibo, which is honestly as notoriously gross to creators as twitter is on the western side of things. It stopped once they didn't get what they wanted, and at least JC stans there stay in their corner because they know they will be mocked to hell and back for claiming distorted canon is actually true (trust me bro).

I can very much deal with Chinese mainland and Taiwan fans as they are well aware what fanon and canon separation is. What I am shocked about is how heavily I still get insulting anons and slurs from his base specifically that do only speak English and use some distorted meta that argues about "cultural sensitivity" yet they don't have anything other than some weak argument about their own personal life as proof of it all to try to shut me down when I speak about the abuse Wei Wuxian did face from Jiang Cheng's actions.

I don't mind fanon, I ship Xicheng as I have said multiple times. I can deal with a softer Jiang Cheng as long as there is acknowledgment of his past actions being shit and him having to work damn hard to be a better person for the people he supposedly loves so much. Yet I am still being told "personal experience is always different so that means this behavior from him is actually okay", when no, because the author of the work makes it textually aware that it is not at all ever meant to be a reason to take Jiang Cheng's side. Just because you, personally, relate to a character does not mean the text of them being meant as an antagonist changes suddenly. Your unhappiness of that does not change the story that is shown and what we are meant to generally pull from each of his interactions with Wei Wuxian.

I am tired of being told to accept that people want to make a hateful homophobic, selfish rich man, as something else and demanded to accept that people want to project that instead of what he is. I don't need to accept that because my rejection of that "hurt feelings." I am not here to say all interpretations are valid, because it is not truthful to the story text or the author's further clarifications of how she meant for him to be perceived.

[philologique]

my second-biggest celebrity conspiracy theory that will never in a million years be confirmed is that mxtx had a wicked phase in the 2000s

[veliseraptor]

May Reading Recap

I'm doing this so late, don't look at me. In my defense it's been a very busy month and a half. I am presently writing this while a little bit high, so forgive me any, uh, oddities.

A Fever in the Heartland: The Ku Klux Klan's Plot to Take Over America, and the Woman Who Stopped Them by Timothy Egan. As a study of the KKK's resurgence in the early 20th century, and how deeply embedded and powerful it was, including in political terms, this was a pretty strong book. Where it fell down a little was the fact that it was trying to hang that book on one about the brutal rape and eventual death of a young woman and how her testimony, given posthumously, helped bring down some of that political machine, and I don't think those two things ended up fitting together very well. Not to mention that the way this book was titled and marketed (and introduced at the beginning of the book!) made me expect for it to be more about Madge Olberholtzer, but it was very much more about D.C. Stephenson. I think it would've been a better book if it'd owned that more.

Also, yeah, content warning for some seriously gnarly, detailed description of the abduction, rape, and abuse of a woman. I don't get fazed easily and it was a lot even for me.

Lone Women by Victor LaValle. I liked this one! I wouldn't say I loved it - Ballad of Black Tom is still my favorite Victor LaValle work by far - but this is probably second place. Good story, loved the choice of setting (I haven't actually read a lot of horror set in this place/time, which was fun), enjoyed the cast of characters. I was a little irked by the "postlude" tying things up with a nice bow, but overall I'd give this one a "if you're thinking about it already go for it" rec more than a "I actively want to recommend this to others" rec.

The Storm is Here: An American Crucible by Luke Mogelson. This book was a lot to read. It was about the leadup to (and ultimately the events of) the January 6th insurrection, and one of the things I really appreciated about it - maybe appreciated most - was the way it specifically discussed the dynamics of how the Capitol Police interacted with most of the insurrectionists - and contrasting that to how the police interacted with BLM protestors. I think there's a bit of a desire sometimes for some liberals to cast the Capitol Police as "heroes" in contrast to the insurrectionists themselves, and Mogelson doesn't shy away from contesting that narrative. This is definitely a book for "people like me who are fascinated with right wing conspiracies and also with histories of the american far right" than, like, broadly a recommendation, but as far as those books go (and there are a lot of them) this was a pretty good one.

Ascension by Nicholas Binge. This was a really good book that was making good use of being really weird about its horror and then it kind of fell apart in the last ten pages when it became a "villain explains their master plan in a monologue and the whole thing ends with an anticlimactic splat" sort of thing, and then the whole thing was dead to me.

The Social Lives of Animals by Ashley Ward. I feel like lately everytime I read natural science books I end up with this weird mix of "I liked this but I also found it sort of irritating but I did learn some new stuff out of it that was interesting" and this book definitely continued that trend.

Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, vol. 5 by Mo Xiang Ton Xiu. Last volume of the official English translation of MDZS is out, I have finally read the Wangxian extras. I also feel like I remembered that I did/could ship Wangxian by reading this book so now I just have to not talk to anyone on the internet about it.

Villainous Friends is still my favorite extra though. Possibly of all the MXTX extras, narrowly beating out the Shen Jiu ones for SVSSS.

Victory City by Salman Rushdie. I think I need to read more Salman Rushdie. I didn't find myself in love with this book, but I'm glad I read it, and I feel like I like Salman Rushdie as a writer thematically if perhaps not in terms of prose style as much. So, yeah. Didn't blow me away, but nudged me toward finally actually reading more Salman Rushdie, which I've kind of been meaning to do for years and then haven't.

Wolfish: Wolf, Self, and the Stories We Tell About Fear by Erica Berry. I thought this book was going to be social sciences and it ended up feeling like there was a lot more memoir in there than I bargained for. This book more of a narrative-focused book than an analysis-focused one, and it was a pretty good book for that, but because of the mismatch between expectation and reality (and what I wanted and what I got) means that it lost me. I'm also not much of a memoir person specifically, so in this case that mismatch was really in an unfortunate direction in terms of how much I enjoyed this book versus how much it felt like I was struggling through it to finish it.

There were some interesting insights and commentary in here, just not enough to be the book I wanted it to be. Not precisely this book's fault, but it did make me want a different book than the one I was reading at the time, which is never a good sign.

I've already read a few books this month (though again, no real big winners so far); presently I'm reading Superior: The Return of Race Science and Indigenous Continent is next on my list. I also need to finally finish the last little bit of Qiang Jin Jiu that I haven't read yet and might try to do that this month.

[tossawary]

heh that's a tpough one since I really enjoy you being in SVSS fandom.

Hmmmm, the only other fandom I'm really active in right now besides the MXTX ones would be the DPXDC where Danny Phantom meets/collides with Batman and family.

Thanks! I'm not planning on leaving the SVSSS fandom or anything. I was just bored at work and thinking about some of my older WIPs for other stuff, and wondering if my writing made anyone think about anything in particular.

The Batman community on AO3 does seem to enjoy its crossover AUs! The entirety of Danny Phantom taking place within Gotham would be hilarious, honestly.

Most takes on Gotham that I've personally seem have the most supernatural/magical people involved be the League of Assassins, which makes me assume that any magic user worth their salt doesn't want to go near Gotham and the dozen things that are Wrong with this city (organized crime, curses, pollution, cults, conspiracies, science experiments gone wrong, etc.). In which case there would HAVE to be some in-universe joke among the magical community that Gotham is too haunted even for ghosts.

And then the Fentons open a ghost portal in Gotham. The Bats do not actually want to play Ghostbusters. They're not happy.

[weepingpussywillowtree]

I got some new followers recently so here's the lowdown of my most used tags if you want to filter any, as well as a few things to know about what I block for because sometimes it surprises people. (I encourage tag filtering! I do it too! Please let me know if there's something you'd like me to tag for and I'll do my best!)

For triggers, I try to tag all major triggers and use the format "tw ___". For example, "tw snails".

#shouting into the void - personal rants, posts, or questions mostly.

#mxtx - I tag all Mo Xiang Tong Xiu book related posts with this tag.

#tgcf, mdzs - I tag individual MXTX books with their acronyms in case you want to filter one or the other

#lotr - Lord of the Rings posts

#lotr relisten - my sparse series where I write my LOTR thoughts while relistening to the audio books.

#my knits - posts related to my knitting projects

#knitting - all knitting related posts

#linguistics - all linguistics related posts

#my fics - promotional posts for my fics or posts related to writing my fics

#ethics in computing - posts related to my interest in ethics in computing or my thoughts on the subject

#actually autistic - autistic advocacy, discourse posts. And/or my personal thoughts on my own autistic experience.

#mha, #bnha - all my hero academia related posts.

#tma - all Magnus archives related posts.

#art - non-fandom related art.

#fe3h - all fire emblem three houses related posts.

Update: a non exhaustive list of things I block for since I've had some people following me only to be shocked by my beliefs

Telling people to harm/kill themselves, even as a joke

Saying all men are evil/born evil.

Picking fights with me about the way I describe my autistic experience, or getting mad at me for advocating for listening to higher support needs people and describing myself as level 1 asd.

Conspiracy theories, mis or disinformation, or doomerism

Making fun of the way other people enjoy living their lives

The obvious stuff: racism, transphobia, ableism, etc.

Being insulting towards the knitters I reblog or my own knits

Any diet talk or pro-ED content

[gloriousmonsters]

lol cryptic anon here. I've seen you speak favorably of the Doma arc and jumped to conclusions, my apologies. Belated context; Doma is packed with hidden references to media that deal with topics considered controversial in early 2000s, especially LGBTQ and mental illness-related ableism. It also hints at the whole thing being metafiction with Dartz as a real world schizophrenic who thinks he's in YGO. (1/6)

...aaand tumblr won't let me send the rest of my essay. Anyway there's a LOT of adult stuff in there. In all honesty I think it's supposed to be an 'if you get it, you get it' thing (so don't publish these asks lol) but there are authors who make Doma arc-style references to YGO in their original work, for example MXTX, and Fire Punch does something similar; that's why I assumed it was the unexpected Doma names that had caught your attention. Sorry for coming off as rude.

this was originally a much longer reply but I think it can be summed up to this:

either i am being pranked right now

or this is a conspiracy theory

[rest-in-bees]

do you have a live action bl series with a serious plot you would recommend? i like the stuff you’ve been reblogging but i can’t choose which to start with

hi anon! i wasn't quite sure what you meant by serious (like focused more on the plot than the romance or like more serious tonally) so i went with a mix of the two with the help of the group chat! for the record everything in this list has a happyish ending except for one

a lot of the stuff I've been reblogging lately is from Kinnporsche, which is a thai mafia bl with romcom vibes but it's also v dark. and honestly i don't even know how to explain it? but i want to steal the genders of most of the cast and wear them like little hats (esp this one guy named vegas who i also want to put in a washing machine set to maximum spin) anygay there's three couples and they're all living in different genres, and there's def a reason everyone i know calls it a revolutionary bl. it can be found on dramacool, tws for sexual assault tho and there's also sex on screen if that's a squick of yours

another good one (still airing tho) is The Eclipse, which is thai and airing on youtube every friday. it's inspired by some real life events where the first openly transgender member of thailand's parliament was removed from office due to authoritarian measures (pls do not ask me what they are im too tired to google it) and so they decided to make a bl about an all boys high school fighting against an authoritarian school board! i really like the main couple and the side couple both, it's telling four different queer journeys and i love how all of them are portrayed

there's also Not Me which is thai and on youtube as well, and it follows a dude going undercover in a biker gang to figure out who put his twin brother in a coma. fair warning it's a little over the top at times (white is kind of an idiot but he's sean's idiot) but the pride rally episode makes it worth it imo

next up is Manner of Death, which is a thai crime drama on dramacool and was so cool to watch, bc it was the first bl I'd ever seen in which they could've been a straight couple and v little would change. they're adults and they have really good chemistry even if i think sometimes the characters engaged in some Poor Decision Making™️

and ofc i have to mention Cherry Magic! it's a japanese office drama on dramacool which covers a lot of serious topics and has a great ace character so i think it deserves to be an honorable mention. shoutout to the side couple for being hilariously cringe

next off is 180 Degrees of Longitude Passes Through Us, which i would like to say up front i have not seen! but it does come highly recommended to me and has a serious plot so i wanted to mention it. tws for kind of a big age gap and a sad ending. it's thai and can be found on dramacool

another one i haven't seen yet is Young Royals which is a swedish bl on netflix and looks like it's only angst so I'm ignoring it as that's not my thing but it might be yours! it's a prince and a commoner story set in a high school and my friend said i should suggest it to you since it's serious, season two is about to air!

is Bad Buddy serious? sort of so I'm adding it to the list bc it was so so so good. it's a childhood friends to rivals to lovers romcom and it does cover serious topics and i really like it so i highly recommend it. it's a thai bl on youtube

and ofc i have to mention The Untamed, which is a chinese bl (and as such is censored) and can be found on netflix, but it's based on novel called The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation by MXTX and just so you understand the vibes: the first line is "Good news! Wei Wuxian is dead!" and uh. wei wuxian is the mchecking main character. but the plot follows a lot of conspiracy and murder and a lot of the characters are heartbreaking but i swear it does end in marriage

NOW. there are two dramas that are not strictly bls but are both v homoerotic and so i really wanted to mention them anyway bc they are v serious and i liked them a lot

first off: The Devil Judge. the man himself becomes the head judge in a televised courtroom in a post pandemic south korea in an attempt to remove courtroom corruption and foul play from high priority trials. along the way he engages becomes the beast to a fellow judge's beauty (not a joke they literally said it was based on beauty and the beast and it's kinda obvious) and it has a bittersweet ending, can be found on dramacool

and last but certainly not least is Beyond Evil which is a kdrama on netflix and is this one guy trying to catch a serial killer, but the other one thinks he's suspicious and ofc insanity ensues but in a v dark and murdery way. bittersweet ending again and there is an age gap but it's not technically a bl even tho there's a lot of hinting imo

and ofc look out for Big Dragon when it starts airing on oct 8, it's one I'm really looking forward to (another thai mafia bl ofc)

and that's all I've got right now! anyone else pls feel free to add on to this list and anon def feel free to reach out with any questions! I'd love to know which, if any, you end up watching and your thoughts on it!

[ao3feed-xicheng]

Our Fox Mate (Wangxian Fanfiction)

by ROSE_S7B Lan Wangji and Lan Zhan are vampires since more than five hundred years ago. They have a same mate who takes rebirth but still twin Lan brothers aren't able to find him/her. Lan Wangji doesn't show any interest in his mate because he has given the place of his mate to Wang Zi Xuan. Wang Zi Xuan's more than half body is paralyzed because a witch gave curse to her. Lan Zhan always waits for his mate. Lan Sizhui is Lan Zhan's son. Lan Sizhui's mother was Lan Wangji's and Lan Zhan's mate. Then how twin Lan brothers' mate died? In this FF when a red thread appears on the wrist of a person then it is the symbol that their mate has taken birth and the red thread also appears in the wrist of their mate. That's why twin Lan brothers always gets the information that their mate has taken rebirth. But their mate's fate is so bad because he/she always died before completing the age of eighteen years. Then the red thread turns in black and after some days it disappears from their wrist. But again when Lan Zhan's and Lan Wangji's mate takes birth than the red thread appears on their wrist. Will Lan Wangji ever except his mate or he will think that his fate is joined with Wang Zi Xuan? Words: 7617, Chapters: 4/?, Language: English Fandoms: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, wangxian - Fandom Rating: Mature Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death Categories: F/M, M/M, Multi Characters: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Lan Qiren, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Jiang Yanli, Jiang Fengmian, Jiang Family (Modao Zushi), Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Jin Zixuan, Nie Huaisang, Nie Mingjue, Yiling Wei Disciples (Modao Zushi), Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao, Wei Changze, Cangse Sanren, Yang Yang (Actor), Zhao Liying | Zanila Relationships: Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji & Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan/Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Jiang Yanli/Jin Zixuan, Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Meng Yao | Jin Guangyao/Nie Mingjue Additional Tags: Twins, Top Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji/Bottom Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Bottom Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Top Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Rebirth, Reincarnation, Inspired by Tale of the Nine Tailed (TV), Foxes, Vampires, Jealousy, Gusu Lan Forehead Ribbon (Modao Zushi), Gusu Lan Sect (Modao Zushi), Twin Prides of Yunmeng Feels, Yiling Laozu Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Love/Hate, Sex, Anal Sex, Oral Sex, Gay Sex, LGBTQ Character, Boys In Love, Boys Kissing, Sharing, Threesome - M/M/M, Age Difference, Fox Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Vampire Sex, Vampire Lan Zhan | Lan Wangji, Immortality, Immortals, Conspiracy, Mates, Red String of Fate, Marriage, Mo Dao Zu Shi & MXTX | Fanfics en español's Wangxian Week, Rejection, Curses, One-Sided Attraction, Obsession via https://ift.tt/S19zXtW

[arguments-rants-conspiracies]

A MDZS Theory That will Make You Want to Slap Me

Warning: This only applies to the MDZS novel.

So, I was thinking about Mo Xuanyu and Jin Guangyao one day, as one is wont to do these days, and I’m thinking --

What if instead of Mo Xuanyu sexually harassing Jin Guangyao during his time at Jinlintai, it's the other way around? Namely, what if Jin Guangyao had been the one to sexually harass, if not assault, Mo Xuanyu?

Now, to be honest I don’t think this is what MXTX had in mind, and this is more of a "Hmm won’t this put things in a different light” conspiracy theory than an actual deduction of what happened, but hear me out.

First, let’s look at their circumstances:

Mo Xuanyu:

- Was a minor (14) when he was called back to the Jin family.

- Not in a position of power. (Didn’t grown up in a cultivation family, and was only there because Jin Guangshan wanted someone to hold Jin Guangyao back. Thus, the only backing he had was Jin Guangshan, and I highly doubt that accounted to much, if at all.)

- Physically weaker (No spiritual powers or fighting experience).

In contrast, Jin Guangyao:

- Was an adult (Exact age is unclear, but he’s born on the same day as Jin Zixuan, who’s around Wei Wuxian’s age, so 21 plus and minus some?)

- Had significant power and influence. (Yes, he’s the son of a prostitute, but  he made enough of a name for himself in the Sunshot campaign to strong-arm his way back into the Jin family. In addition, he has some pretty powerful people (Lan Xichen for one) on his side so he definitely could move a few things around, and he probably did.)

- Knows how to fight, not on the same level as some other cultivators but keep in mind, the dude was a soldier.

- Has shown himself to be manipulative multiple times.

I can’t help but notice a power dynamic going on here, and to be frank, Mo Xuanyu’s profile reads more like that of a victim than a perpetrator. While a child can perpetrate sexual harassment against an adult, it is VERY, VERY rare. Unfortunately, these things are usually done by adults in power.

Second, why sexual harassment?

Isn’t it odd that of all the crimes and transgressions Jin Guangyao could pin on Mo Xuanyu, he picked sexual harassment?

Why not just have him, you know, killed and done with? Some may argue that he couldn’t outright kill Mo Xuanyu because that’d be suspicious, but even so, I’m sure there are a million ways to embarrass him and get him kicked out.

Fake sexual harassment is literally the worst plan for him. Why? Because sexual harassment is disgusting not just because of the act itself, but because of how people react to it. Even in modern society, victims are often not believed or accused of being somewhat responsible for the harassment by “seducing” the perpetrator. And I can’t imagine things being any better in ancient China for the son of a prostitute, especially considering that, as I argued earlier, he could easily be seen as having more power over Mo Xuanyu.

As unfortunate as it is, I can already hear the following dialogue at Jinlintai:

“Hey, did you guys hear? Apparently Jin Guangshan’s youngest bastard has been harassing Jin Guangyao.”

“Mo Xuanyu? The kid who couldn’t hold a sword to this day? Harassing the dude that killed Wen Ruohan?”

“Yeah, I don’t believe it for a second either. Who knows if that son of a whore was really harassed? You know what I think it is? That snake led the kid on with his brothel tricks and Mo Xuanyu, being stupid, fell right in.”

“Or maybe it was him that’s the real cut-sleeve here. I’m not saying Mo Xuanyu is particularly great, but how’s the child of a pure mother supposed to know about cut-sleeves? Lianfang-zun on the other hand...”

Even if he can silence these counter-accusations, rumours still go around and Jin Guangyao would be associated with “deviant sexual things” and I don’t see him wanting that, given that there’s nothing he hates more than being reminded of his parentage.

So why would he choose this path?

Because he had no better option.

This could be one of several cases:

There's no other way Mo Xuanyu's going down.

Mo Xuanyu actually did harass Jin Guangyao.

He harassed Mo Xuanyu and was discovered, and Jin Guangyao had to address it in a way profitable to himself.

1 seems unlikely. As I said earlier, Mo Xuanyu is a kid with no political power and a familial background only marginally better than Jin Guangyao's.

And take a million steps back, even if framing him of sexual harassment was the only way to get Mo Xuanyu kicked out of Lanling Jin, Jin Guangyao didn't have to frame himself as the victim. There are others (Jin Ling for one) whom he could have utilized as pawns to deflect the hit in reputation sexual harassment victims get.

2 also seems improbable. Even ignoring the fact that Mo Xuanyu doesn’t match the profile of a sexual harassment perpetrator (which I’ve mentioned far too many times), another thing to note is that Jin Guangyao seems...somewhat fond of Mo Xuanyu.

Yes, Mo Xuanyu could enter Jin Guangyao's personal quarters and peruse top secret documents. But also, Jin Guangyao's not a nice person to those that wrong him or get in his way. He killed a fellow clansman for taking credit of things he did, musically poisoned Nie Mingjue for calling him the son of a prostitute, and murdered his wife and son when they became not useful to him -- why would he leave Mo Xuanyu alive?

It’s probably not because of commiseration because we know he killed off all of his other brothers, some of whom must have came from backgrounds similar to his. Also, brother or not, if someone sexually harassed you won’t you want their heads off? And we know Jin Guangyao’s...a little pettier than the average person, so why would he let someone who sexually harassed him live?

Also, as long as Mo Xuanyu is alive he is a potential liability to Jin Guangyao. What if he takes revenge? Sure, he's mad and harmless, but what if he's faking it? A lot had happened that could have been entirely avoided if Jin Guangyao just offed Mo Xuanyu when he had the chance.

All of this points to Jin Guangyao feeling like he “owes” Mo Xuanyu something for having wronged him. Now, why would he feel like that? Maybe because he dragged an innocent kid into his lust for power, but combined with option 3, I’m going to stretch it and say another reason could also be because of guilt for sexually harassing Mo Xuanyu.

Abusers (ouch, that’s a heavy word) often use “gifts” to mollify their guilt and to manipulate their victims into compliance [source], and it’s possible that Jin Guangyao saw giving Mo Xuanyu his trust and, ultimately, keeping him alive as “gifts”.

Perhaps the abuse continued after Mo Xuanyu left, perhaps it didn’t.

Third, let’s look at what happened on Mo Xuanyu’s side after the “scandal” happened.

After Mo Xuanyu went back to Mo village, he supposedly “went mad”. Sometimes the madness goes away, and sometimes it acts up. A couple of years under abuse from the Mo family, and the madness got worse.

I’m going to go out on a limb and say that sounds an awful lot like PTSD, which could be caused by the sexual harassment or the traumatic aftermath.

A prominent symptom of PTSD is uncontrollable thoughts about the traumatic event, in the form of reliving the event, distressing emotions regarding the event, or anxiety and panic attacks. [source]

This theory could explain the sporadic nature of his madness. Notice that even the victim themselves cannot control the flashbacks, so the anxiety and panic attacks, as well as other actions undertaken, could definitely come across as episodes of insanity to observers.

But if that’s the case, why doesn’t he ask Wei Wuxian for the revenge on the Jin sect?

The answer - Because he thinks he’s not worthy of it.

At the beginning of the novel, we get to read Mo Xuanyu’s “will” of sorts through Wei Wuxian’s eyes, and it’s from there that we know he was kicked out of a prominent sect for being a cut-sleeve. However, Mo Xuanyu doesn’t tell us which sect he was kicked out of and whom he supposedly harassed.

Why doesn’t he tell us that? He went so far as to tell us a brief history of the Mo family and his cousin’s obsession with cultivation, why wouldn’t he tell us which sect he had once been a part of? Even if he was kicked out in the end, being related and having once been a part of the LanLing Jin sect could be an honour of a lifetime.

And why would he (to Wei Wuxian at least) openly admit that he was kicked out for harassing a fellow male? It sucks being a victim, but there’s no way that being a cut-sleeve sexual harassment perpetrator could be seen as an honor. He even seems to be protecting Jin Guangyao, by not giving his name.

Note how both of these actions serve one purpose - to demean himself. This letter reveals what Mo Xuanyu thought about himself at the time of his suicide - A cut-sleeve bastard who shamed his family and harassed an innocent man.

You might ask: why would he think this lowly of himself?

Well, remember what I said about sexual harassment? Victims are often not believed or accused of being responsible by asking for it.

Mo Xuanyu is also gay, so he was a teenager, on the cusp of puberty, that had his sexuality outed and ridiculed. And combine this with the fact that not only was Mo Xuanyu not given any support, but every adult blamed him for it.

Perhaps Mo Xuanyu was convinced, either by Jin Guangyao or by the homophobic rules of his society, that since he sexually preferred men, he must have liked the “attention” Jin Guangyao was giving him, and that he deserved to get kicked out for “liking” it.

This, combined with the guilt that sexual harassment victims frequently have regardless of gender and sexuality, made for a difficult recovery. Even his own mother committed suicide in shame, and that, combined with the abuse that came from his aunt afterwards, likely further exacerbated his spiral into low self-esteem.

And judging by the fact that he waited many years to commit suicide, I think he genuinely tried to recover. He tried standing up for himself in front of his aunt and convincing himself to live, but it was a very, very tough war that he lost more often than he won. Thus, when Nie Huaisang gave him an incentive, he likely took it without much protest.

So what, according to this conspiracy theory, actually happened?

This, I repeat, is more of a “what if” situation than a serious guess at canon. Thus, do not attempt to stab me over the internet. You will only wreck your own device in the end, and you do not want that.

Mo Xuanyu is a closeted, 14-year-old gay boy who has yet to come to terms with the fact that he’s one of them despised “cutsleeves”.

His mother placed a lot of hope on him when he was taken back to LanLing.

He grows close with Jin Guangyao, because the guy is charmer and a really pleasant guy to be with when he doesn’t want to kill you.

In spite of his best wishes, Mo Xuanyu’s sexuality begins to show itself. No secret is safe at Lanling Jin.

And Jin Guangyao, for whatever reason, decides to make a move on Mo Xuanyu.

And Mo Xuanyu 1) couldn’t reject him and 2) was gas-lighted by him into believing that he was at fault.

How far the “sexual harassment” went depends on how you want to believe it.

Regardless, Mo Xuanyu and Jin Guangyao grows close, and Jin Guangyao gives him gifts.

Then, someone catches them together.

Jin Guangyao quickly pushes all of the responsibility onto Mo Xuanyu, leading to his being kicked out of Jinlintai.

He lets Mo Xuanyu live, and pats himself on the back for it.

After being shamed by Lanling Jin and kicked out, Mo Xuanyu was shamed by his own family.

His mother, especially, was disappointed in him, and Mo Xuanyu didn’t defend himself because there’s nothing to defend - he’s a disgusting cutsleeve who harassed Jin Guangyao.

Mo Xuanyu down spirals into depression after his mother’s death.

He tried to convince himself to live for many years, but is teeming on the edge.

Nie Huaisang comes and gives him an easy way to die.

He takes it.