#mxtx fanfics with this plot are amazing

[happypeachsludgeflower]

Not even five minutes into Cherry Magic and I suddenly understand why I keep seeing so many au’s of it in various fandoms!! My favorites so far have definitely been mxtx au’s, but I may be biased…

[jade-len]

bad svsss fanfic/au idea, pt. 2: random svsss anti-fan (or hater) transmigrates into svsss after tweeting "stupid author, stupid novels" and proceeds to solve 90% of the novel's conflicts out of pure spite by pretending to be a seer.

"luo binghe will not kill you, shen qingqiu. just trust me when i say that."

"please listen to me when i say this, luo binghe. focus on yourself for a bit. learn to love yourself too. yes i know you're hopelessly in love but you shouldn't just rely on his affection to hold up your emotional wellbeing, okay??"

"oh yeah no. the huan hua palace's sect leader is a pervert who preyed on su xiyan, which led to a bunch of conflict and misunderstanding and now he's kinda gotten away with it." *proceeds to explain the whole lore of it* "see you later, yue qingyuan!"

"zhuzhi-lang, i have very important advice, okay. just because you love someone and believe something is best for them, you should not force them to do it. by the way, can i see your uncle real quick?"

"yeah. uhm. it was all old palace master's fault. go fuck him up, tianlang-jun. just don't kill anyone else in the process. also uh, read better romance novels please."

"gongyi xiao, if immortal master shen qingqiu and shang qinghua ever ask you to look around for some special mushrooms, run right after you help them navigate huan hua palace. like leave the damn place. you will meet your fate if you stay here. ok cool bye."

"mu qingfang please introduce this thing called 'therapy' and 'counseling'. i promise you it will reduce qi deviations by 50%."

"mobei-jun... don't. don't beat shang qinghua up. look i know it's demon culture but maybe try to also learn some human courtesy too?"

"liu qingge. one day you will find someone who will have the same amount of devotion for you as you will for them. and you are an amazing person for it ok."

at some point they probably explain to sqq and sqh that they've transmigrated into a story that's about sqq transmigrating into PIDW, which is also a story.

there can be three routes to this:

1. there is no hurt. binghe's heartbreak points doesn't even exist. everyone is cool and there are no deaths. also tianlang-jun tortures and kill OPM, so there's that. maybe some romance or whatevs happens but it's all good.

2. while they stopped 90% of the original conflict, they proceed to accidentally create some more by simply being there. the system declares that they're the "new main character" for the audience, just like how sqq is with svsss. now, new and different plot points start happening to them instead of shen qingqiu! how will they use their knowledge now, with things they can't predict?

2. mid-way, they accidentally put a huge target on their back. unintentionally, they're going against the system's wishes and the whole point of the novel: uncover the hidden plot of PIDW. they're like a virus, a bug, something that isn't supposed to be there, but is. they don't have a system, they exist beyond that; so they can't just be sent back. they're accidentally ruining the story of svsss by not having any of the conflicts mxtx created to occur, and thus must be stopped before they completely flip everything over.

the new mission given by the system for sqq and sqh? [URGENT: stomp the bug, no matter what!]

[eirasummersart]

A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate

Refering to this.

Thank you for the ask! Let's answer this one too C: Adding this after the full answer, I'm gonna add a read more because it turned out quite long hahaha

7. A medium of art you don't work in but appreciate?

Ah, what medium of art don't I appreciate? I love art! I love reading, listening to music (and singing, but I'm not great at it hahah), sculpture, etc.

With reading, I mostly read fanfics lately, but I enjoy lots of typical books and authors too: Chaos Walking (Patrik Ness), the Lord of the Rings, Rick Riordan's books in general, MXTX's books, the Castle in the Sky. Those are the ones that come to mind first, my faves~ Of course, I include here manga and comics, there's sooo many I love as well. I do draw, but don't usually do comics (maybe someday!). Lately I've been loving Jujutsu Kaisen and Akagami no Shirayukihime, but I could recomend so many good ones.

With music I just always need some music if I'm not watching anything that has sound otherwise, I love so many kinds of styles, but I have a preference for melodic, mellow songs~ specially ones that I can sing along too. Lots of classical too (Chopin is my fave~). And piano is my fave instrument to listen to <3 I kinda talked about music already in the previous ask, so I won't go into more detail hahah

For sculpture I don't really have a particular artist I like, it's more a casual love. But all those "realistic" sculptures are mind blowing to me, how it seems completely real, specially fabric or expressions, but it's made of marble or another hard material.... man, so much talent, I admire them so much.

If we talk about drawing/painting I'm not proficient at but I still admire: watercolour is gorgeous and I am incapable of it. I love the art made with it! Oil and classic paintings as well, there's so many classic artists who have made amazing pieces. My fave is Monet! But I also greatly admire the ones from the victorian period in general. The way they render fabric and clothes is SO GOOD. I kinda emulate it unconsciously when I do my shadding ahah but I am sure it looks nothing like that xD Like, look at this art called "Flirtation" by Frédéric Soulacroix, that fabric 🙏🙏🙏 And the background is gorgeous too.

Also, I really enjoy watching movies/tv shows. Wether they're animation or not. Specially if they have good plot and/or if they have good photography/animation. There's so many beautiful works of arts in that medium as well. Ghibli movies are some of my faves (Howl's Moving Castle is my fave movie ever), Lord of the Rings movies are also masterpieces. I've also enjoyed lately the Poirot movies they've been making recently, they're really interesting and have great photography as well~

I have to say, I don't often watch theater/musicals because they're expensive and I'm broke af. But the times I went to see some, they're amazing as well 🙏 I'll include dance performances here too, because they're in a similar category to me.

I enjoy seeing architecture as well. My fave period for architecture is gothic! The way they did all those high arches and beautifully decorated walls. And the stained glasses! Sooo many great buildings!! Most of the ones I can see around where I live and was able to travel are churches or cathedrals. They are such beautiful buildings, even though I'm not religious in any sense at all, I always love visiting them and seeing them. But there's sooooo many amazing artstyles out there as well! Lique some Mosques are absolutelly stunning, with their intricate colorful patterns! There's so much good architecture to admire as well...

Also, I'll add that videogames are a form of art in my opinion as well, and I admire lots of creators. There's SO MUCH variety in this media, it's insane. Stuff like Return of Obra Dinn or Papers Please by Lucas Pope (who makes it all, including music, he's so talented), Baldur's Gate 3 (currently enjoying this one), Chants of Sennar, Binding of Isaac, Fire Emblem, Kingdom Hearts, etc. So many different styles but so fun and interesting. And also, so many good RPGs with amazing stories I don't think can be told in a better way using other media (Persona series, Tales of series, Dragon Age, the Nonary Games, Mother saga, Xenoblade Chronicles, etc.)

Sorry for the big rambling, I guess you didn't expect me to go into such a extended answer hahahah I really, really love all art of creation, it's such an amazing thing that someone visualizes something and can create it so everyone else can see.

I've said this over and over again, I wish I were filthy rich, so rich I could never ever use all my money, only so I could be an art mecenas (I think it's called patron in English, I like the word we use in Spanish tho XD) and give money to aaaall my favourite artists so they can just create without any worry at all, just focus on their art and not the money they need to make to survive. Just create their own stories, characters, art pieces, or create fanworks of any kind. I don't even want to request stuff I want to see, I just want to see what they want to create! What their mind can imagine and how they see the world!!!

Ah, if only...

Anyway, this has gone for long enough hahah thanks again for giving me the oppotunity to ramble~

And if you read till here, thanks as well for your time~ Feel free to send more questions for this ask~ (or anything else, really, if you want me to expand on any of these topics I mentioned here haha I'd be happy to~) P.D.: Just as I posted it, I also remembered tappestry/weaving/any kind of thread art. AND OF COURSE, fashion/outfit makers and designers!!! There's so much art in this world... so hard to remember it all, but it's all around us <3

[balladofaldelis]

heyy, happy STS!! I'm curious to know about your recent reads - what was your favorite book/short story/screenplay/whatever that you've read this year? any that disappointed you (feel free to ignore if you don't wanna spill any tea lol)? or, if you haven't read anything, first, I see you, and second, any book you'd particularly like to get your hands on?

Thank you so much for the ask!

This year... ah, so hard to say but I think my favourite books have been the Scum Villain's Self-Saving System by MXTX, particularly I think book 3 and 4. I've read a lot of danmei this year and that absolutely comes out on top. Scum Villain was just such a funny and enjoyable read and Luo Binghe is a character I thoroughly enjoy, and Shen Qingqiu is a character full of hilarity. MXTX's writing style is such a joy and her ideas are amazing - I'm also reading her other series!

On the disappointed side... this one seems controversial, but The Husky and His White Cat Shizun. I have a COMPLICATED relationship with this book series. It disappointed me in the writing style - it reads to me very fanfic-y in a not so good way and the plot is messy and there are some aspects like the ghost King's palace that were very offputting. But at the same time I can't stop reading? The snippets from the past are absolutely fantastic and I'm curious where it's going, but I can't help but be disappointed all the same. Love/hate if you will.

For books I'd like to get my hands on, I've just ordered a Colleen Hoover book to see what all the rage (and hate) is about which I'm sure will be an amusing read, I'm looking to get Iron Widow in hardcover, and some other danmei books too! I've got many a classic and fantasy book in my Goodreads TBR though so I have no idea in what order these will get read lol.

I appreciate this ask - I was really proud of how many books I read this year. I'm JUST getting back into reading and I hit my Goodreads goal of 20 books this year! Hopefully next year I might be able to make it to 30!

[mercyandmagic]

Hello! I'm one of Mxtx's ardent fans and reading your investigative article on Mxtx's potential arrest really gave me a lot of closure (because I've been dying to know what happened to her). Glad that she's okay. I'm curious about her author ranking though. I know she rose in popularity with MDZS and consequently became one of the most popular authors on JJWX with it so I kind of want to know what kind of author she was before all the fame hit her. Like the specifics of what her rankings were during SVSS? Or how she grew as an influential author since she began writing? Or her plotting techniques, writing methods... Anything really. Sorry to suddenly spring this on you but since you seem knowledgeable about her backdrop I thought you might have some behind the scenes info on what kind of author she was before she became popular. Ps: Thank you for the amazing job you did with the article and cheers to mxtx. I know I wasn't supposed to feel like that but it really felt like reading a crime thriller throughout the whole read of the article. Cheers to both you and mxtx! ❤️

Cheers to you for caring about MXTX <3. 

I don’t know the specifics of her rankings during SVSSS. But more information on her writing methods are answered in this interview with her. (The interview was conducted by Shuo Jianmeng, so I suspect the female interviewer is actually Shaonian A and the male is Chongyang, but it is not said).

Some cool facts from these interviews: MXTX actually wanted to be a mangaka, not a writer. She eventually decided that since she loved reading stories so much, she wanted to try writing her own. 

She wrote MDZS off an outline, but then went back and reedited it with significant changes, and planned to do the same for TGCF. She is not sure whether TGCF edits or Grim Reapers will be done first, because for Grim Reapers, she plans on only posting the edited version this time (i.e. a longer wait was expected even before the legal issues). 

There is a fifth novel planned for after Grim Reapers – actually, it was planned before MDZS and TGCF! As in, MXTX intended to write this unknown fifth novel right after SVSSS. However, the image of a man with a flute appeared to her during her last year of university when she was finishing SVSSS, and kickstarted MDZS before anything else. (So for everyone who knows what it’s like to shelve a fic or fanfic idea for the sparkly new idea, MXTX did precisely that with MDZS and TGCF!).

Her summaries of each chapter are hilarious and cheeky, seen here for MDZS.  You can also read her chapter notes under the “Author’s Note” part on the MDZS wiki’s summary of each chapter, starting here. They read like AO3 fanfic notes, and at first, they’re informative, funny, and teasing. As the novel explodes in popularity, however... at the end they turn towards her pleading for overenthusiastic readers to stop comparing her to other authors, which obviously caused unnecessary drama she did not want. 

Her notes reference animes like Naruto, D. Gray Man, and shows like Person of Interest, which seems to imply she’s quite a nerd. Her Weibo references her love for Jin Yong’s novels, and she follows Taylor Swift so I presume she’s a fan (something near and dear to my swiftie heart). 

Honestly, MXTX seems like a humble, cool person despite her insane talent. 

[manggaetteokkie]

It's like my first week in the tgcf fandom and it'd be a crime if I don't read the source material but God is it long. I hate having ADHD (plus I'm not a native speaker), I can read like 1000 fanfics which are <6000 words but if I have to read one super long thing it's over. The last "book" (and longest) I've read is a 100k word fanfic, it was a huge challenge and it took me like 2 weeks reading literal hours each day. Tgcf is 1.2M words bro I'm gonna die. But I really wanna read it T.T

From last anon - hope I didn't sound annoying. It's just frustrating because I wanna join all the people who've read the novel, I watched the first 4 episodes and fell in love with the characters and setting it's just *chef's kiss*. I actually translate and write subtitles for anime in my language and TGCF is currently like the one series that I'm super excited to translate and feels like a walk in the park

Hey anon, first off, WELCOME TO THE TGCF FANDOM!!! I’m super happy that the donghua is getting more and more people into the fandom because by gods, it’s such an amazing story that I wish I could get everyone I know reading it (my weekly tgcf posts are also a way of me lowkey trying to spark some interest and get more people reading/watching it hehe) also, don’t worry, you’re not being annoying at all! I’m just very happy there’s another joining our ranks x) Also, thank you for doing god’s work and making subs for the donghua 💖💖 your work is more than appreciated ☺️💖

So... I’m actually a huuuuge reader, and the concept of “pacing” literally doesn’t exist to me. I start TGCF on a Friday night and finished it Sunday.

It literally took me two days to read 244 chapters + the extras.

Granted, I did barely sleep but... 🤷🏻‍♀️

So with that in mind, I may be biased but this novel is honestly one of my ultimate faves, one of the best things I’ve ever read. To be honest, I’d finished the author’s second novel that clocked in at 113 chapters, TGCF is literally more than double that so I was a bit worried by the size too. I had the PDF ready but I actually pushed off reading it for 2 weeks because I wasn’t sure if I was ever ready for it. But lemme tell you, when I started it, I never wanted to stop. It was a struggle between wanting to savour every single word, and wanting to rush ahead to learn what happens. MXTX (the author) has an amazing way of keeping the action constant and dragging you in with what happens next. There’s never a good enough place for you to pause safely, because she keeps it coming constantly.

That being said, honestly, my advice to you would be to not force yourself or be overly frustrated at your pace. Take breaks if you need to, sometimes life gets in the way too, so don’t pressure yourself too much. It doesn’t matter if it takes you months to finish, it doesn’t even matter if you ever finish (you can always stick to the donghua if it’s easier), all the matters is you want to read it to learn more. At the end of the day, any pace is a good pace x) And honestly, the donghua is likely only going to cover the first two arcs of the novel (which is roughly 29/244 chapters lol), so you have plenty of time to catch up and join the novel readers ;)

It’s honestly a beast to read but really, once you start, you’ll barely notice the length. MXTX has a way of getting you invested into every single character and plot she crafts, and the interactions between the main ship is honestly to die for. What you see up until episode 4 is really just the tip of the iceberg, there’s so much more to the story that it’s impossible to put into words without revealing everything. One tip I have for all readers is to absolutely avoid spoiling yourselves. Do not go on wikis, avoid digging deeper, just take your time and read on. The revelations hit harder if you go in without any idea of what’s going on.

[awesomeorangepumpkins]

tgcf made me do it

I don’t post on tumblr ever? I don’t even know why I feel compelled to say that. I don’t have followers. I’m just a quiet lurker that follows and reblogs and has commented like twice.

But I just read Tian Guan Ci Fu/Heaven Official's Blessing and it doesn’t have a huge english speaking audience? There’s a little bit on reddit and a little bit in tumblr, nothing that I can find on ao3. I’ve posted a few sad tweets because its’ been almost 24 hours now since I finished the story and my heart and brain are so obsessed. Normally when you read something so massive (1992 PAGES on my kobo reader for all 5 books), it’s really rare that the story hangs together all the way through. I read it translated. An aside, holy fuck are these translators AMAZING for translating such a huge thing so quickly. I wonder how much I’ve lost. I’ve never so badly wished I could read another language. I’ve been sad I can’t speak spanish, but I read in english, there’s TONS of awesome stuff to read in english, even at the pace I read, it’s been great. 

tl;dr I went into this with low expectations, but while I HATE the huge flashback in the untamed/Mo Dao Zu Shi, I LOVE the characters. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are incredibly compelling. I’ve explored it almost exclusively through some amazing fanfic, but I personally don’t think it invalidates anything. 

The problem is that now I’m fucked. I have read this TGCF masterpiece. I don’t see how the story could possibly have been shorter. The flashback device was actually fucking necessary here. The characters were brilliant (I dislike the scream-y-ness of Feng Xin and Mu Qing, but that’s 10000% personal problems). The relationships absolutely skewered me. I can only think of one other plot that blew me away as much as this (Ancillary Series).

And I have no way of handling this? I’ve already read the extras. There’s no fanfic that I can find in english. The donhua hasn’t come out yet. There’s mostly people trying to find or read the story and no one talking about how it wrecked them. There’s lots of gorgeous art. That’s mostly how I’ve been feeding my soul. Art and the manhua.

Anyways, I need to flail. Spoilers ahoy below the cut.

Two tiny quibbles before I get into how unstructured flailing: I really wish I could read this in the original because 1) what happened to the newer young Lang Ying??????? 2) was it ever explained why baby Hua Cheng (Hong Hong-er?) didn’t want to show his face? I thought maybe it was the the first sign of human face disease, but then that seemed to not really be it? Maybe because this was such a massive story, MXTX just left those bits dangling and couldn’t stomach spending any more time editing?

Did anyone else have a few moments where they wondered if Hua Cheng was Jun Wu or White No-Face? Like in Book 1 before you really knew what the fuck had happened? I think in Book 2 (maybe? this shit became a blur, maybe it was later) I started having inklings that Jun Wu was White No-Face and it was really clear that the little boy, the soldier, the nameless general, and the determined ghost fire were all Hua Cheng from the second those characters appeared, but the fact that baby Hua Cheng wouldn’t let Xie Lian remove his face coverings made me think we were supposed to be suspicious of ... something?

BUT. Then Book 4 happens and I couldn’t absorb any of it while it was happening. Book 3 ends in such a cliff-hanger and Book 4 is designed to force you off that cliff and shred you into pieces. I was so obsessed to how on earth Xie Lian was going to get out of the kiln that I was probably halfway through Book 4 before I realized just what it meant that the 800 years happened AFTER Book 4. Like fuck. That timeline hit me like a tidal wave. I’m still at sea.

It’s bad enough that Xie Lian was stabbed 100 times without dying and Hua Cheng was already in love with him and watched it happen. It’s already bad enough that Hua Cheng prevented the second wave of the Human Face Disease in Yong’an and basically saved Xie Lian from that horrible mistake and was blasted into pieces for it. It’s already bad enough that Hua Cheng DIED on the battle field believing absolutely in Xie Lian. It’s already bad enough that you realize that the whole REASON Hua Cheng made 33 gods disappear before Xie Lian could ascend for the 3rd time because Hua Cheng had to watch Xie Lian be humiliated when Hua Cheng was powerless to help or support or even really let Xie Lian know he was there. 

Then you realize that for eight. hundred. years. after all of this Hua Cheng has been trying to find Xie Lian again and Xie Lian has been slowly unfucking himself from his messed up sense of pride and hubris and the pain he went through while thinking he’s completely alone. The fucking bamboo hat. Rouye. If Rouye doesn’t tell you WHAT kind of person Xie Lian is underneath his puffed up pride and inflated sense of self, I don’t know what else does. I just. I’m sure I’ve absolutely not conveyed how insane these characters and this relationship arc is. I haven’t even gotten into the villian or the other characters that fill out this world or the PLOT of this story, but Hua Cheng and Xie Lian. fuck. fuck. The extras DO NOT HELP make up for this pain. There was 800 YEARS between when Hua Cheng got blasted into pieces saving Xie Lian from the most shameful moment of his fall from grace and Hua Cheng holding Xie Lian’s hand to help him out of the wedding ... litter/sedan.

I’m dead.

[razberryyum]

I JUST FINISHED 2HA. I WILL NEVER RECOVER FROM IT.

First of all I'm so sad I'm done because I really wanted the story to continue FOREVER. I feel the same sense of emptiness now as I did after MDZS/Untamed and SVSSS. Actually, the emptiness might be worse since it reallyyyyy put my emotions through the wringer. I need a long mental and emotional vacation before even thinking of starting TGCF, which is next on my list (altho, in case anyone isn't aware, 2HA is by Meatbun Doesn't Eat Meat-laoshi; MDZS, Scum Villain and TGCF is ofc by MXTX-laoshi)

I also feel a bit bummed that I had to read the last two-thirds of 2HA, which is pretty much the most important parts, through MTL. Even though some parts of the MTLs were edited it still doesn't do this amazing novel justice. But I am truly grateful efforts were made to improve parts of the MTLs cuz that made it at least bearable and comprehensible for the most part. I cannot wait until the official translation team (headed by @rynnamonrolls on Twitter) finishes translating the book tho, I can't wait to re-read the MTL chapters just to see how different they would be, how much better. Thank God they're translating at such a fast pace. This intricately plotted novel by MDEM-laoshi really deserves a strong translation and I'm so glad such a good team is working on it.

From my understanding the novel has been licensed to be a live action drama and honestly, I don't know how the hell they would be able to do justice to the breath-takingly amazing imagery and action sequences described. That Chinese production company that bought the rights would need Marvel-level budget and CGI capabilities. Not to mention, considering the very dark subject matters that serve as the backbone to most of the story, there is no way the story would pass censorship as it is. It would have to be mutated to the point of being unrecognizable. Just thinking of the relationship dynamics between the main CP...omg, no way can most of that be preserved. So really, why bother? Honestly, even though I'm a rather latecomer to the bandwagon, I already feel so protective of 2HA that I don't want it to be altered or fucked up in any way just to meet Chinese censorship demands. I would love to see it brought to life, don't get me wrong, but since there's no way in hell it can be done right and proper, I'd rather people just not try.

Anyway, I just had to get that off my chest. I'm so happy I pretty much dropped everything in my life for the past week just for 2HA. My only regret is I read too damn fast and now it's all over. Fellow 2HA lovers, if you have any good fanfic recs, PLEASE send them my way. I am SAD AND HUNGRY. Thank you in advance!

For anyone who hasn't read 2HA and is thinking of doing so, I HIGHLY recommend it, but please, for the love of God, HEED THE WARNINGS. Shit gets REALLY DARK and DISTURBING. Please don't do the dumbshit thing and ignore the warnings only to turn around and blast the author and 2HA fans after reading. You will have no one else to blame but yourself AND you'll come off pretty fucking stupid too so just please, pay attention to the warnings.

Otherwise, enjoy the tears and emotional turmoil that you will soon be deluged with!

[xcziel]

i have to say, i have tried with the MXTX danmei novels (at least, the english translations) and personally ... i just can't

idk if it's the translations themselves (because everyone says the writing is so good in chinese, so something might really be getting lost) or just the style, but they are not enjoyable for me personally to read

the wording is clunky to me, the descriptions dry. there's just so Much stuff that's ... pointless (to me) ghost story/early-episode-of-Supernatural type of events, seemingly just plopped inside the plot? with one or two elements of relevant character or plot information scattered within? i'm guessing possibly this may be due to them being serialized web novels (got to keep people interested chapter to chapter i suppose)

and then the parts where i could really do with more authorial involvement or descriptions are rendered with: "and then that happened" and no more? again, this may be the unspoken genre conventions that i'm not aware of as a western reader, but if that's the case i feel i can be excused for going: wtf?

a character "ascended to the heavens"? um, how exactly? could you describe this process other than "there was a great disturbance that shook the foundations" and then totally side-tracking into petty disaster reparations? how does the character feel? bc all they actually seem to do is shrug and go "oh, okay whatever"

for stories with such high stakes and deep emotions running rampant, there's ... such a lack of affect? and i don't know if that's a cultural thing, a translation issue, or me just marinating in fanfic for so long, but honestly, reading a description of something that would be unimaginably painful happening to a character, but them going, in text, "oh. well, it was justified that happened i suppose. i guess i don't feel it anymore" leaves me literally like "???"

to my reading, the characters are opaque, it almost seems an issue of telling rather than showing. they perform impossibly romantic actions, enact modes of devotion and revenge, but there's no examination of their internal psychology. even inner thoughts are somehow rendered as passive, almost remote? it's like books full of cql lan wangjis. people talk and perform actions, and i'm meant to interpret their emotions purely from that, which is certainly a valid way to write, but i feel i'm not able to properly describe how ... distancing? how ... textbook-like? it makes the stories feel for me

it's like i thiiiink i can see where parts of the novels are deconstructing tropes that are almost sort of invisible outlines of things i've come to expect in fandom reading, made clear more from the spaces left by their absence, so i can guess at the author's intentions there. but unfortunately the execution is what i'm actually left dealing with, and it's ... not something i would ever read by choice? if i picked these books up off the shelf in a local bookstore (maybe they had a really great covers), i'd read the blurb on the back, flip through a few pages, see the rains of blood or the chatty disembodied heads, and put them back down again

i'm not even seriously addressing the sex scenes bc people have made it very clear that those do actually conform to genre and cultural conventions, however irksome they are personally to me as a western reader (they really do read like a straight female's version of gay sex, though. as though they were written het, and then she just switched a few things and the pronouns. the different translations change things considerably between them, but that part still really comes through)

and like these aren't just fantasy stories, they're ghost stories, they're very much Horror stories in aspect - there's far more curses and gore and gross spooky shit that seems to be there just for the sake of being gross and spooky as far as i can tell - than like the 'magic' magic a western reader might expect in a supernatural fantasy. MXTX's writing (or possibly the xianxia genre?) to me has a lot more in common with japanese horror than say, the dresden files or tolkien

and i know part of that is the culture: everything's related to spirits, reincarnation, ancestral honor or debts, and clearly that's why the genre doesn't map directly to the western idea of supernatural/fantasy stories, but like, i still, personally, hate horror stories? i don't care about ghosts either. buzzfeed unsolved and blair witch and the ring leave me equally cold.

so for me, the part of The Untamed featuring gorgeous people in amazing costumes being utter badasses? improbable fight scenes, mystery-solving, and heart-wrenching romance? yes yes yes, a thousand times yes!

the curses, creepy eye-sacrificing, tongue-slicing, flesh-eating, revelling in zombie/ghost/creature skin-crawlingness? a very big no thank you on my part. most especially on the written page

(they toned down a LOT of that in the adaptations)

tl;dr the MXTX books may be the basis for an amazing tv series and adaptations, plus the plots/characters by themselves are iconic and fantastic worldbuilding, but me trying to read through the translations is like making myself do homework, and i have enough other media waiting on my time and attention that fighting to read in a genre i don't normally care for is just not worth it.

i'm sorry mdzs purists, i can understand the frustration of endless bad takes, but fandomers pick and choose their canons, and a lot of us chose cql as the starting point. we're not doing it to be obtuse or obstructive - it's literally just the version that is most satisfying to engage with for some. no hard feelings okay? we all just want to enjoy ourselves, after all

(i mean, i've never read the lord of the rings either and i don't regret it. i still enjoyed the movies)

[miyu-hyperfixates]

The Untamed and MDZS appreciation and recommendation post

Okay so fair warning to my small amount of followers, this blog will probably be full of MXTX contents starting from now, because I’ve fallen into MXTX’s hell and I don’t see myself climbing out any time soon.

I’m not even kidding in the span of three months, I’ve watched CQL (like 4 times), watched the special edition, watch the MDZS donghua, read the novel, read the manhua, read a fair amount of fics, discovered the SVSSS’s characters through a few crossover fanfics, started to read SVSSS, then TGCF (as well as their respective manhua up to the last translated chapters) and well generally immersed myself into the fandoms. And I LOVE it! And I have so, so many feelings and thoughts about the characters, the plots, the relationships, everything, that I don’t even know where to start! 

Okay so for those who don’t know what the hell I’ve talking about. MXTX stands for Mò Xiāng Tóng Xiù who is the author of three amazing novels: Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) [also called Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation], The Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System (SVSSS) and Tian Guan Ci Fu (TGCF) [Heaven Official’s Blessing]. The Untamed or Chen Qing Ling (CQL) is the chinese drama adaptation of her most well known (as of now) novel MDZS.

I am going to talk about CQL/The Untamed and MDZS (novel version) in this post... But it will probably be followed by posts about TGCF and SVSSS too.

I’ve tried to be pretty vague on several points so that should keep the spoilers at minimum, in case you didn’t watch CQL yet.

[More under the cut] 

Okay so as someone of Asian descent who was born and raised in an European country and spent her formative years watching wuxia and xianxia, The Untamed/CQL is the kind of representation that I really didn’t know I needed and I am so, so glad that I gave it a chance. (Big, big thanks to @shit-happens-bitchachos for reblogging so much CQL contents that the frequent presence of it on my dash got me curious  enough to start watching it).

Watching The Untamed for the first time feels like coming back to a home that you once thought would be frigid but actually became very warm and welcoming without you noticing because you have been away for so long. And it feels both nostalgic and new, in the best possible way. It’s a wonderful feeling, really. 

Where to find it?

You can watch the drama english sub version on Netflix, Viki or Youtube, just typed “The Untamed” and you should find the episodes easily.

To be honest, though I am very thankful for the existence of such platform, I have a slight [read huge] dislike of Netflix’s choice of translation for any Asian movie/tv shows. I mean I’m not going to go off on a debate about official translation vs fan translation, nor westernization and how doing so not only take off a huge layer of subtle/or not so subtle communication but also participate to erase part of the culture. [Because I have opinions about this and I am still very much so cringing about all the “Yanli”s, it is really not the point I’m trying to make right now. ]

So out of the three version, I’d lean more on the Viki version. To be clear though this choice isn’t based on the accuracy of the translation, but strictly on the choice of naming and title convention.

As for the novel, you can find  here a complete english translation made by the Exiled Rebels Scanlations group.

The plot

I’m not going to go into detail about the plot, because I’m sure a lot of people out there managed to do so in a way more articulate way that I ever could.

So basically CQL is about Wei Wuxian, aka the Yiling Patriarch. The Yiling Patriarch is like this huge urban legend that everyone warns their children about, except he actually existed. Why such a reputation? Well, in a Cultivation society where people used spiritual energy to fight and exorcise creatures full of resentful energy (such as ghost, ghouls and other things), the Yiling Patriarch is actually the guy who decided that he was going to use resentful energy to fight resentful energy. What he is doing is called “demonic cultivation” and if you want a western equivalent it would be quite close to using necromancy. And if you want an idea of how blasphemous such method of cultivation is deemed, it would be the equivalent of going to a Christian exorcist organization and yelling loud and clear to all the people there that you’re gonna desecrate the tombs of all holy people and use their corpses to fight ghost and other dark creatures.

So the legend/story of the Yiling Patriarch goes as follow: The Yiling Patriarch and his army of corpses were actually quite useful to turn over the tide of a war that shook the foundations of the Cultivation World, annihilating the strongest Sect of the five Great Cultivation Sects (that lorded over the cultivation society). But some time afterwards the Yiling Patriarch revealed his true colors, and killed more than 3000 cultivators (among them his elder sister and her husband - orphaning their one month old son) before finally ended up being killed by his own little brother.

And now sixteen (or thirteen in the novel) years later, Wei Wuxian’s soul got called back because of a dark ritual. The ritual involved giving up their own soul and offering their body to summon up the soul of a dead, evil, person. The soul summoned would have to accomplish the task the summoner wished for, or the soul would be forever destroyed without being able to ever reincarnate. And so, Wei Wuxian woke up in the body of Mo Xuanyu, a young man who was abused by his family and wished for revenge. While trying to work out what he is supposed to do, Wei Wuxian quickly realized that the Mo family is actually being targeted by fierce corpses that are acting way more aggressively than they should. Turns out that it was because of a possessed spirit sword [a cut out arm in the novel].

Afterwards he encounters Lan Wangji, an esteemed cultivator, one of the strongest of his generation, coming from one of the most righteous Cultivation Sect. And the thing is, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji appear to have quite a complicated history that dates back to their teenage years. And CQL/MDZS is not only about how they decided to investigate the mystery of the possessed sword/arm (which ended up digging up a lot of secrets and conspiracy ), but also about Wei Wuxian’s past, starting from when he was 15 and meeting Lan Wangji for the first time.

The few things that you’re probably going to feel/think while watching the few first episodes

Confusion I think I’m not even kidding when I say you’re supposed to be in a state of perpetual confusion for the first two episodes... There’s this huge info dump, in the first five minutes of episode 1, then you’ll have to navigate this new world feeling as confused as dead-for-sixteen years Wei Wuxian... You’ll meet dozens of characters and if you can’t remember their names or who they are it’s normal don’t worry. Each character has a birth name (Wei Ying, Lan Zhan) and a courtesy name that (Wuxian, Wangji)... And so if you see Wei Ying or Wei Wuxian just know that it refers to the same person. And to complicate things further some characters also have a title (Yiling Patriarch, Hanguang-Jun)  other people might use to refer to them. So really, if you want to understand what is going on, you might want to note the name, title and relationship down... But it’s kinda tedious?  I promise it is unnecessary as those characters will all be introduced properly in the flash-back starting at the end of episode 2, and you’ll fully be able to get used to them and keep track of them. Of course, if you managed to remember a few names, once the character is being introduced in the past, you’ll get a “ Oh so at some point, this is going to happen to them” sort foreshadowing/foreknowledge, which is neat, I guess. [I recommend going back to watch the first two episodes, once the flash-back is over, to fully grasp what was going on there].

What the hell am I even watching? Okay so this one might only just be me but I was pretty hooked by the story by episode 3... and then I reached episode 8 and 9 and I kid you not, I went “Oh boy... that’s.... yeah okay... *cover face with hands*”... So I was cringing pretty hard for those two episodes out of second-hand embarrassment at the extras actors acting level... Like woah... It was supposed to be scary and threatening and all but I couldn’t just take them seriously? (You’ll know what I’m talking about when you get there)... That with some plot points made me seriously consider stopping right there.... But thankfully I didn’t. So you really just need to pass the first two episodes [which are really good] and cringe your way through the two most abyssal episodes in the show (in my opinion) and everything will go smoothly afterwards.  Though to be fair, it might be explained by the fact that no one expected that CQL would have the highest number of reviews of Chinese drama, nor that it would be the highest earning drama of 2019 and certainly not that it would accumulate 8 billions views on Tennent by May 2020. Where am I going with this?  Well it was certainly no Game of thrones in terms of budget... That’s what I’m trying to say. It had a low budget production... and well in a fantasy world where everyone and their grandma use supernatural power to fight each other and demonic creatures, special effects are a must. Choices had had to be made [and while I am very thankful for the aspects they decided to use the money on] the special effects were very touch and go.

Okay but are they going to be together or is this another case of queerbaiting? So if what you’re asking is “will we ever get a kiss, a love confession or definite proof of their relationship?”. The very short answer is “No.” You’ll never see any of those on screen for the very simple and good reason that there are censorship laws in China regarding queer relationship on screen. “So it’s basically queerbaiting?” Again no. CQL was adapted from a BL chinese novel. In the novel there is absolutely no room for doubts that they are together. But because of the censorship the producer teams had to remove all definite and obvious proof of romance, but it also means that they had to be creative and anything in the subtext or subtle areas was a go. Like really they crammed more homoerotic text (like at this point is this even subtext) in the show than in all other kinds of adaptations (including the novel, where we get kissing, sex and eloping). It got the point that contrarily to the novel, donghua and manhua where the whole Cultivation world thought Lan Wangji hated Wei Wuxian and that they couldn’t stand each other,in the show everybody and their dogs knew that the two were very close.  Also, while I absolutely hate that those censor law exist and am very disappointed that such homophobic mentality still exist and that we won’t get a full adaptation and explicit of their love story, I must say that because of this my demisexual ass absolutely love the depiction of their love in the show. I mean, when you don’t have the “easy way out” of kissing and sex and so all to show that they is definitively romance material going on here... You have to get creative, you have to convey it with all other gestures... touching, gazing at each other and so on... And it creates such a soft but intense  and intimate environment around them...By the way I’m not trying to negate their sexual relationship in the novel (#LetWangxianFreelyExpressTheirSexualLives)... I’m just saying that I’m not sure the producing teams would have gotten to such a length in the show if they could just have adapted the explicit romance scenes. Now if somehow they’d had managed to keep the same level of intense subtext and be able to adapt the romance scenes too, that would have been the best, but well...

The reasons you should still absolutely watch/read it? 

The plot

The way all those character journeys and stories are interwoven in such a cohesive picture is nothing short of amazing. And the way that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji unravel events that happened more than a decade ago piece by piece [or rather body part by body part] is so very well done. And of course half way through, you think that you’ve got the full pictures, and you’re sort of gloating all the while because you see it coming from miles away and how can the cast be that stupid... And well you are not wrong. Watch out for the canary though.   The show chose to move a few things in term of timeline (character appearing and events happening way before they were supposed to... )... They also added a few original plot points in the past.... So as a results it feels slightly less cohesive and coherent than in the novel. Anyway I won’t go into details here because I’ve got this super long post planned where I’d detailed all the differences between the novel and the show and why some things worked in my opinion but not other. CQL and MDZS are what a properly balanced plot-driven and character-driven show/novel look like.

The relationships

Of course, Wangxian (Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji) should absolutely be mentioned. Because throughout the story in the past, you watch as young, wild, ingenious, thinking-out-of-box Wei Wuxian meet an equally young seemingly inflexible, impassive, following 3000+ rules in his daily lives Lan Wangji, you watch how their personality clashes before finally acknowledging each other skills, you watch how they hurt during the war, how quickly they had to grew up, you watch how one of them had to watch the other walking down a quickly crumbling path, being alienated by the world without being able to help, you watch how they lost each other, before finally finding each other again after sixteen/thirteen years. And then you can finally watch how soft they are with each other, how in-sync they are, the trust, the devotion, the willingness to stand by each other against the whole fucking world. And as I already mentioned before, because of the censure law in China, you’ll never can’t and will never get to see Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian say “I love you” to each other on the show. It still manages to convey “I love you” in every other possible way without having them actually say the words. I mean at this point it can’t even be considered subtext... It’s plain text written in bold underlined font that can be read in every single one of their interactions, and sometimes even when the other isn't even there, [It's basically subtitles! Hah! Okay getting out of there].

It helps that the chemistry between the two actors is absolutely mind-blowing. And the acting is nothing short of amazing. If you’ve been in the spn fandom then you might know that Jensen is king of the micro-expressions ... well I’m afraid that he has been dethroned by Wang Yibo (Lan Wangji’s actor) in my mind.

But really, wangxian is not the only relationship worth mentioning in CQL/MDZS. One of the other huge highlight in my opinion is the several siblings dynamics. There are about seven sets of siblings among the whole cast and because shitty, shittier and shittiest parents were apparently the norm for their generation, we get to see the trope of “eldest child basically raised their younger siblings” in five different flavors. Of course the main focus is on Wei Wuxian and his siblings, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t see the sheer care and protectiveness oozing out of the other four sets of siblings. As someone who loves family bonding (and especially found families), I really appreciate the fact that among those sets of siblings, there are some that are related by blood, some who are half-siblings and some who are not related biologically but consider themselves siblings regardless. And while all their relationships are different - because they are different people - they all do share the same love for their siblings.  “How far are you willing to go for your siblings?” “How much are you ready to sacrifice for them?” The show answers those two questions in various all throughout the story in a more or less oblique way, and right there lies the motivation behind a lot of the characters’ actions, good or bad. Their relationship with their siblings is actually one of the major driving force of the characters (Wei Wuxian among them). And I love it, because it shows that love comes in a many, many forms.

  The overarching themes

“What’s right, what’s wrong? Who’s good, who’s evil? Who’s strong, who’s weak?”

In such an elitist society who will judge you at the drop of a hat (especially if you have the bad taste of coming from a more unfortunate lineage), how can you define the difference between “right” and “wrong”? Wherein the midst and the aftermath of a blood thirsty war, the distinction between “good” and “evil” more often than only lies on where you were born and/or your family name rather than where you actually stood or what you did in the war. This right here is the very huge underlying theme that is being woven throughout the show/novel. Not only are we, the viewer/reader, invited to think/judge for ourselves based on the actions of the characters... But our main character, Wei Wuxian verbalizes those doubts and questions explicitly a few times and implicitly in the stand and choices that he decided to take. And due to Wei Wuxian’s influence, Lan Wangji who is used to follow his 3000+ rules on a daily life basis without ever questioning them, starts to do so. (“Do not befriend evil.”, “Be righteous.” )  What does it mean to be righteous? Must the notion of righteousness always align with general opinion? How do you define the ‘evil’ that you are not supposed to befriend? Is my definition the same as yours? Is my definition the same as the rest of the world? And if it is not the case, does it necessarily means that I’m in the wrong?  And the very obvious answer to those questions is “No, there is no visible line between ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, ‘good’ or ‘evil’... Nor is there any universally agreed on way to act in order to fit in one category or the other...” And this answer is illustrated in all the ways those numerous characters are depicted: their love, their hatred, their fear, their pain, their joys, their tears, their motivations, their frustrations, their shortcomings, their hidden or not so hidden agenda, their flaws... All of them are depicted in such an awesome and wholesome human way.  They are not fully good or fully bad, they are human, with all that it entails... Main characters and main villains included (or rather, I’d say especially them) [Though the show tended smooth and cover this aspect a little bit more than the novel in my opinion]  

“Don't you understand? When you’re standing on their side, you’re the bizarre genius, the miraculous hero, the force of the rebellion, the flower that blooms alone. But the second your voice differs from theirs, you’ve lost your mind, you’ve ignored morality, you’ve walked the crooked path.” (Jiang Cheng)

Another theme that is strongly address here is the matter of “Public Opinion”. Despite (or rather because of) how fickle it is, public opinion, rumors (no matter how unfounded) could so easily ruins your reputation, your standing. And if you loose their favors than all your previous actions (no matter how praised it had been in the past) would be seen with a blackened lens. I remember feeling as frustrated as Wei Wuxian at the lack of logic, the rhetoric employed and the sheer hypocrisy that had been portrayed by the mass. I think that there is one character that can be easily recognized as the pure personification of “Public Opinion”, he is without a doubt meant to be the “voice of the mass, of the bystanders whose opinions shouldn’t really matter but actually does a lot”. I won’t tell who it is, it’s pretty obvious if you watch the show... And I think that we are meant to feel annoyed at such characters. I think we are meant to be as frustrated as that one character who at a mass gathering tried to make a stand, tried to do the right thing, but was quickly shut down with dubious rhetoric and blatant disregard because their voice didn’t carry enough power. And last but not least, the show/novel broaches the issue of how social standing is considered very, very much dependent on your circumstance of birth. Like I said before the cultivation world in CQL/MDZS is inherently elitist. In order to be able to cultivate you must learn the proper techniques and at a quite young age. But it is not something that you could do on your own unless you’re some kind of genius or prodigy. Which means that you must attract the attention of a nearby sects or begs them to take you in as a disciple. It means though that you’ll probably start a little later than the disciples that were born directly within the sect [inner disciples], meaning you’ll probably end being weaker. However even if by some truly dedication and perseverance you manage to the same level as the inner disciples, you’ll still only be seen as an outer disciples, nothing more than cannon fodder in the eyes of society. In all the major sects, there is a distinctive mark, objects that only disciples coming from the sect family line are allowed to carry, as an irrevocable sign of their high standing in society and their inherent privileges. There are some exceptional circumstances though where someone of low birth status might reach this elitist sphere. But no matter how high they reach, how outstanding they are, in some way they will always be reminded (sometimes behind their backs, sometimes subtly, sometimes right in their face) of the stigma of their birth. There are three characters in particular, whose journeys mirror and foil each other a lot.   And I think it is very interesting to see this “son of a prostitute” or “son of a servant” or “street rat” or “bastard” advanced through society. They all received very different upbringings, despite all starting more or less at a low point. And I liked that the way they decided to live later on and how they tackle/handle the cultivation world  is very much reflected and influenced by their upbringings rather than the circumstances of their birth. It brings up this very strong message that, if they are the way they are it is not because of who their parents are, but rather how the people around them reacted to them. The way they are right now is not the fruit of their birth but a direct consequences of the rejection/acceptance of society. And so when you look at them, you can’t help but see their journeys as a three forking road paths reflecting the other like twisted mirrors. You look at their actions now, then back their different circumstances and you can’t help but think “Ah, that is what might happened if things were different.” [There is a reason that canon-divergence and time travel fix-it are my favorite tropes... my bias is really showing here... haha] And it really, really hammers on the importance of kindness in the face of misery and discrimination. Kindness  and acceptance at the right moment, no matter how small can change everything. Sometimes, something even as small as a candy.  

The movie sets and props So I mentioned before that the budget of CQL really wasn’t that high and they had to make choices. And I could only applaud their choices, because really, wah! Just look at the main sects locations, the scenery, the backgrounds. It’s so beautiful!! [Had I had any gifing talent I would have included them so that you could get the full mind-blowing experience... so I’ll just send you to @gusucloud​ blog, where all the gifs and edits are amazing, (Cloud Recesses here and Lotus Pier here) and in this post  have my lame-ass screenshots instead.]

The fine details, the workmanship in most of the props in the background, the swords!!! *Incoherent flailing*

[I didn’t manage to get any close-up of the swords... but believe me, they are piece of arts!]

The music

The soundtrack of the show is absolutely amazing and beautiful.

You know how in movies and tv shows couples always seem to have “a song”... like “Oh! Look our song is playing!”... Weeeeeell...

Wangxian do too and it’s literally their song, as in their actors are singing it. You can of course hear it in the ending, but... but! I think the way it was used within the episode was very striking. It’s one of the many ways the producer teams managed to convey the romantic aspect of their relationship. And it was very well done.

Wuji, by Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo

Wuji, instrumental piano + flute + Zither version

Just imagine, dude just resurrected from his 16 years of deadness and you see him moping at night by playing this beautiful tune with a freaking leaf... just because he saw some cultivators wearing the same uniform as Lan Wangji... So at this point you know that this song might means something but well, you don’t really get it...

The second time you hear this tune, we are on a mountain, and it’s through a bamboo flute that Wei Wuxian used to appease and calm down an agitated corpse [who he apparently knows]... He is luring ‘it’ out to a safe place, so he is playing the song while slowly moving back one step at a time. Then his back suddenly bumps into someone... This person catches his hand. The flute playing abruptly stops and the full instrumental version with piano+flute is suddenly blaring out in the background. And then it’s as if the whole world stops as they gaze at each other, while the music keeps playing. And really, you might fully understand the weight of their gazes, or their history, but you know that it’s there... That’s the moment where you look at them looking at each other, grasping at each other wrist, where you can still hear their song in the background... and can only go “Oh. Oh.”  [Then of course a purple ball of pure anger just had to come and interrupt them. Excuse you, they were quickly having a moment there. Kidding aside, It was such a nice scene, it’s hand down one of my favorite scene of the whole show, and the music played a really huge part in my opinion.]

And if it wasn’t enough to hammer it down. The third times will definitively do it. So both of them are fifteen years and meet each other for the first time, when Wei Wuxian goes to study at Lan Wangji’s sect. Of course there first impression of each other is disastrous, what’s with Wei Wuxian insisting to come inside despite having lost his invitation and Lan Wangji clearly stating that no one is allowed without invitation. Of course it doesn’t help that after running back to fetch his lost invitation, Wei Wuxian snuck in after curfew (breaking a protective ward on his way), while smuggling two jar of alcohol. All of the above are forbidden in Cloud Recess, by the way. So our boy just casually broke three rules and then who catch him, right when he is climbing over the wall? Lan Wangji, who’s on patrol, of course. [Like I said, disastrous first impression]...And so after frostily listing all the rules Wei Wuxian broke not even five minutes in , Lan Wangji tries to bring Wei Wuxian to be disciplined. Wei Wuxian, of fucking course, resists. And the two proceed to fight (sword and all).

Cue their song playing as they cross swords on the rooftop of Cloud recesses, under the light of a full moon night.

If that is not a meet-cute I don’t know what it is.

Anyway this song is played many, many more times in the show and I’m not talking about them because I don’t want to spoil anyone.

Also as an aside, they don’t appear in the show... But there are character songs that have been recorded. Some of them sung by the actual actors and other not. And while all of them are really good, if there is absolutely one that you must listen to, it’s “Bu Wang” by Wang Yibo the actor of Lan Wangji.  Make sure to watch the official MV only after watching the whole show (because it’s spoilery) and to activate the cc for the lyrics translation. It’s such a beautiful and painful song; and a very insightful reflection of Lan Wangji’s character.  I love it.

Lan Sizhui and A-Yuan

No argument or explanation needed, you’ll see when you get there. I dare you not to like those small fluffy cinnamon rolls! 

The Junior Quartet

Okay those ducklings deserve a whole sub-section on their own. Not only because they are all amazing kids but because of what they represent.  

What is really great here is that since the story takes place over the span of 16/13 years, you get to see three different generations at various stage of their development. In the past you get to see the parents generation at their sum-up while there child, the following generation [Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji etc] from their teenage years to young adulthood. Then in the present you see the teenagers reaching the age their parents were (more or less, probably slightly younger) and the next generation (the ducklings) about the same age as Wei Wuxian’s generation were at the beginning. And the juxtaposition between the two pictures is just so, so very telling because the differences are glaring.

I’m going to borrow the words from qrbat who wrote this wonderful fanfiction, “tell some storm” on ao3.

The parents generation was a generation of Pride and Greed, it was a generation that lauded standing your ground no matter what and refusing outsider help. They were the generation which raised their children as a “generation of War”. A war that they started and that their children, teenagers, had to fight and end for them. And in comparison the junior generation seems so unexperienced so soft... and that’s a good thing, because it means that those children hadn’t had to experience the hardship of war, hadn’t had to grow up so fast because they basically didn’t have any decent parental figures to help them. Instead of perpetuating the cycle of hate and war started by their elders, the generation of War raised the next generation as a generation of peace, as a “generation of Love” and acceptance.

And it is amazing because the juniors, simply by being who they are, are embodying  this  message from Wei Wuxian’s generations to their parents “See? This is what it means to parent. I had to sacrifice my childhood and innocence to fight your war and I still managed to raise such amazing and kind children, what was your freaking excuse? I will not be like you. Times are changing and they are changing for the better.”

.

.

*Look at length of the post* *snort* Right. Okay, would you believe me, if I told you that in the beginning this post was supposed to be an appreciation post for all three of MXTX’s works and not just MDZS because I was afraid it would be too short? Yup so turned out I had a lot more things to say than I thought.  Please feel free to react or just message me about anything MXTX’s fandom related... I am desperately in need of friends to discuss with about MXTX’s stuff!   

[ateanalenn]

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writer

ORIGINAL POST AT DREAMWIDTH! (and updates will be there too and maybe on tumblr, if I remember)

(this is a copy paste, the formatting might not survive)

(also available on AO3)

The Untamed / MDZS, resources post, stuff I needed as a writerApr. 11th, 2020 05:46 pm ateanalennFinding info for this show / how to write about / pitfalls to avoid was a pain :( I guess that's part of having fandom on Tumblr. Since Tumblr's search function only works by selling a kidney and sacrificing a goat, I had to rely on Google. Which, not great. Anyway, useful stuff I found to understand this fandom: • MDZS on Dreamwidth: theuntamed_mdzs (active) mxtx (community focused on all the works by the author Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Not active, but it's there) theyilingweisect (community sharing fics, meta, discussions. Not active either since jan 2020) • MDZS aka Mo Dao Zu Shi (book) aka Grandmaster of Demobnic Cultivation / The Untamed (drama) (there's also an audio drama, a manhua, a donghua, ...) - the novel's en glish fan translation at Exiled Rebels (complete ) As far as I know, this is the most popular translation, though I would like to know if anyone has another translation that they think fit best. - the drama is streaming on Netflix, Viki, WeTV & Youtube. From what I heard around, Netflix and Youtube are the most accessible, obviously, but Viki has the best subtitles (and a whole lot of annoying pubs though). I think that I heard somewhere that there are fan subtitles made, will update if I find the link again). • About names: • The Untamed: A Primer Basically an overview of what is this drama, a few spoilers (but under arrows to open so less risks to see something you didn't want to see). Useful list of titles for the main charas! (ex: Wei Wuxian:    Young Master Wei    Wei Ying (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    The Yiling Patriarch (use of this name denotes “I think you are evil”)    A-Xian / Xianxian (use of this name denotes “I am your loving older sister, have some soup”)    Lan Wangji:    Second Young Master Lan    Lan Zhan (use of this name denotes “I feel affection for you”)    Hanguang Jun (use of this name denotes “I respect you, and you are also famously very beautiful”)    Wangji (use of this name denotes “I am your older brother and I wish you’d make a friend”) ) • Another primer tumblr by sonickitty with a few where-do-I-find links • Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) • How Ancient Chinese Names Work - Learn from The Untamed Detailed explanation of what's going on with the names (aka Lan Wangji, Lan Zhan, Hanguang-jun) • Dramatis Personae for Modao Zushi the book dw (another detailed who's who/names list) • Names again, Chinese/Mandarin conventions twitter (aka ex the accents aren't necessary, they're there for pronunciation and some explanation of who would use full name/shortened name) • Infographic: birth name vs courtesy name vs title vs respectful address  twitter • Quick table / honorifics guide tumblr by cleyra • Mo Dao Zu Shi | 魔道祖师 The various adaptions tumblr by gravitydefyingtears • A list of MDZS FanFic Common Misleading tumblr by kazeki • A conversation about linguistic register, Lan Wangji, and I guess Wei Wuxian can come too tumblr (pretty important text to understand how lwj speaks) • Writing Lan Wangji's speech patterns (aka say the most in the least words) and the follow up Lan Wangji moving into the lowest, most vernacular linguistic register to try and get through to Wei Wuxian tumblr by hunxi-huilai • Using "You/I" vs "Title-as-you" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Sword names tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Honorifics: jun vs zun tumblr by hunxi-guilai • THE spreadsheet: Mo Dao Zu Shi Character Name Chart, recced by flamebyrd (of who uses what for whom) • Misc Info: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • Everything about those cultivation sects in ‘The Untamed’ Quick who's who of the various sects (Gusu Lan, Lanling Jin, Yunmeng Jiang, Qishan Wen, Qinghe Nie. Protip: first word is basically the location, second is the sect/clan name). • Reference for Modao Zushi Writers: Chinese terms ao3. "This is to provide a reference for writers who are unfamiliar with Chinese literary conventions or terms used in canon." • Resource list dw: Libitina's twitter links for Meta, Linguistics, Costumes, Food, Edits, Art. • Actual drama title vs English drama title twitter • How "Mo Dao Zu Shi" became "Chen Qing Ling" became "The Untamed" tumblr by hunxi-guilai • Very necessary meta about why the novel/extras seems to have so many sex consent issues and how translating to English potentially gives a very different overall feel to the scene (ex: ExR = "you're too much, you're way too much" becomes chiaki_himura's "you're good, you're too good", becomes bigbadredpanda's "you're amazing, you're the best"). Also, Chinese language enables to shorten sentences which makes stuff implied, 's your job to see context clues.) • hunxi guilai's master list of various detailed topics re-Chinese language/customs tumblr • "Wangxian" is such a clever portemanteau tumblr by untamedconnotations • Song Lan didn’t just say that Xiao Xingchen was “nice-looking,” he basically said that Xiao Xingchen was smokin’ hot except like, in two characters and blanketed with literary respectability. tumblr by hunxi-guilai (this is only relevant because xxc IS the most beautiful person, really and needs to be protected at all cost) • The Unclean Realm isn't "unclean" has in dirty/bad, it's most probably to show the difference of way of cultivating vs the other sects tumblr by hunxi-guilai • WuJi, the love song's fan translation tumblr by iarrod • Timeline: • 59 slides of awesomeness by chatcolat. Who's who, plot summary, humor. Beware, so full of spoilers you'll cry if you want to keep some mystery, but! concise recap of what happens in the show to keep the timeline in mind. • A google spreadsheet, via mihanada's GoDC timeline wip (Year/Event/Notes/Ages/...)     • MDZS Timeline, that meta AO3 post on speed by TheWickling. Useful if you want all the details, a bit difficult to navigate/understand when you just landed in the fandom. Still very useful. • And the sequel: On Character's Ages  ao3 "A collection of meta on the possible ages for different  characters in MDZS and what ages they would be during key events in the  timeline." • Modao Zushi, birthdates/timeline dw Dirthdates starting with 0 = wwx's birth year. Succinct & useful. • Maps • Fan made mdzs / untamed worldmap twitter • Places of The Untamed - Where They Are in The Real World • IRL sect locations reddit • Google Map of clan locations in Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation tumblr • Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter • Gifsets and images: - Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed drama character guide! deviantart picture = name, who's who in pics. - The Untamed sect sigils - In Which LWJ Gives Not A Single Shit, A Thread #LanWangji #WangXian #cql #TheUntamed SPOILERS for most of the show twitter - The various stages of hairstyles + accessories twitter - SongXiao are in love, got married, are living happily ever after,(FITE ME) twitter by shenweiss - Realizing that wwx is wearing lwj's silk undershirt and the follow up: Qiren's face when he notices xD twitter - gingersnapwolves's Untamed tumblr tag - thewickling's mdzs tumblr tag - hunxi-guilai's cql tumblr tag - compilation of wangxian just being gay and making everyone feel like a third wheel twitter by weiwxngji - wwx swoons a lot and he's gorgeous twitter - Alexandra Rowland explains What Is The Untamed twitter (with pics) - grinding ink requires great patience, often represents that one is willing to wait for another’s feelings twitter - sad compilation of wangxian gazing into each other’s eyes that no one asked for, you’re welcome twitter - This frontal view of Wei Wuxian laying on Lan Wangji’s lap is everything. twitter - Lotus Pier really is one of the most underrated but beautiful places. twitter - Sometimes you see something, a picture, a video, just a snippet of a short moment, and you SEE the love. twitter - CQL’s working title was hot murder husbands twitter (this is amazing) - Lan Wangji just looks a thousand times more intimidating with golden eyes twitter - #TheUntamed’s spinoff webmovie #FatalJourney posters twitter (yessss, nhs, one of my fav) - Don’t you love how exactly 0.5 seconds of this video is Lan Zhan explaining that only spouses are allowed to touch the headband and the rest of the entire 2(!) minutes is a complication of Wei Ying touching it anyways... he said I wanna marry you. twitter • Fic Recs: - DW guest Post: Untamed Fic Starter Pack (a few fics for each subject (ex post canon, juniors centric, ...) - Twitter thread starting with Alexandra Rowland asking for fluffy MDZS/Untamed fic recs. (good new-fandom starter too!) - That twitter thread collecting a list of lady-centric Untamed/MDZS fics Which, good, because as much as I love the fandom, once again women don't exactly come out on top. How many are still alive at the end? I can think of one previously Jin sect lady, but that's it on top of my head, soooo. - Libitina also has posted a lot of mdzs fic recs dw - A "they're students in lockdown and socially distancing" WangXian ficlet tumblr by besanii And bonus: a capybara enjoying a good scritch because I love those dog-sized guinea pigs, seriously, that twitter account is my daily dose of cuteness Also, have some guinea pig on a cutesy bridge PS: I thought that this would be fast because I didn't have that much info to collect at one place, buuuut. It's been 5 hours and it turns out that I did lol.   Still, if you have anything else of potential interest, don't hesitate to leave a comment, please :D