#nirvana in fire meta

[waterlilyvioletfog]

I’ve been re-watching the Wei Zheng plot recently and we just came to the scene where Xia Jiang accuses Jingyan of freeing Wei Zheng while simultaneously the Empress accuses Consort Jing of treason. The timing of the two events is Prince Yu’s call, btw, it was his idea to rouse tempers by hitting on two fronts, and it might’ve worked if not for two things: 1) the emperor is by nature suspicious and paranoid, and convenient timing will strike him as contrived, not accidental, 99 times out of 100. 2) the thing no one (including the first time audience) knows is that the Emperor asked Consort Jing to do that so you’re actually maneuvering him into a position of defensiveness.

Anyways, the point I wanted to make here is from the beat where the eunuchs come in with the initial accusation from the Empress— Consort Jing has committed treason, please come deal with it— which causes the Emperor to immediately fly into a rage, casting recriminations upon Jingyan as an unfilial son, an ungrateful child of an ungrateful mother, and begins literally kicking his adult son while he’s down, knocked from kneeling upright to kneel-sitting forlornly. This moment is for me a microcosm of everything the Emperor does. He’s quick to judge, to overreact, he lashes out at innocents, and not only innocents but those completely unrelated to the crime, often without verifying if they’ve done anything wrong. He’s also most likely to fly into a rage when you do something he personally encouraged you to do— but as soon as that thing becomes an accusation upon another’s lips, he abandons his previous trust and begins without hesitation to denounce and decry. The only reason Consort Jing is able to get out of this is because she’s so obviously meek, calm, and obedient. If she’d been reduced to tears, or claimed he told her to set up the memorial tablet, he would have taken the bait and punished her harshly. In fact, although he castigates her for not confessing to the actual crime she’s accused of, it’s important that she took the tact of girlhood friendship because anything else— including the “acceptable” answer— would have destroyed his ability to trust her. Consort Jing’s endless poise and circumspection is the real thing that saves her here. Not even the Emperor’s personal knowledge of her innocence could have saved her if he began to doubt her intentions.

[anndramarama]

I feel like the scene in this is gifset by @guzhuangheaven is where Lin Chen officially, consciously crossed over.

To what mindset, I'm not quite sure, but he has avoided that last bit of conscious introspection for a long time, but now the threat to Changsu is not something that Changsu with all his powers can defend against in the moment, and the threat isn't Changsu's deteriorating health, which Lin Chen is at turns empowered to battle directly and helpless to change at all.

Lin Chen knows that the battle against the poison was lost a long time ago, as part of a past he can't change, and the fact of that moves like a leviathan in Lin Chen's psyche, making him more unhinged and eccentric every year.

So if he has a chance to pick up a sword and defend Changsu in a direct and visceral way, he's going to take that chance, all appearances of neutrality be damned.

(He would take any chance to do it, too; he would feed himself dangerous drugs or transform into a mythical creature, or spin the roulette wheel of time to save the person he loves.)

Think about the way he delivered his diagnosis and treatment plan to Nie Feng and Xia Dong (and Changsu and Mu Nihaung). He was flippant and direct and rude, a bit too much like an actor on a stage, because there was no way he could be even a little bit himself, or behave in a way that was closer to normal (think about how Yan daifu might have summarized their options for contrast).

He couldn't be somber because Changsu depends on him to be anything but (the one time when he did start to show his true feelings MCS literally broke down and cried).

He couldn't show too much compassion because Changsu reads that as pity, and Lin Chen knows that MCS carries that heavy burden every time he interacts with Mu Nihaung.

He can't be too enthusiastic about Nie Feng's rather excellent prognosis because Changsu chose the other path, the one that had the treatment that was worse than death and would make his life miserable and comparatively short, and dwelling on that forsaken possibility can only lead to despair.

So with his choices so limited Lin Chen plays up his eccentricities, his supposed medical objectivity and curiosity, and no one can see the man behind the curtain. He might as well be a disembodied voice during that diagnosis dialogue, because Lin Chen is present but largely unseen by everyone except MCS, who can only metaphorically look at his shadow during moments like this -- and MCS can only look at it sidelong, in denial, and in strict control of himself.

Which is a good thing, because sometimes Lin Chen is internally screaming and enraged, and already furious with a grief that burns too bright for the few human eyes that are tuned in enough to see him clearly.

Lin Chen had long ago stopped speaking to Changsu in absolutes. Changsu is going to die. Soon, tomorrow, a month from now, two months, three? No one knows. Lin Chen doesn't know, he can only make predictions and wait.

He would rather not make predictions. He would rather not be asked, thank you. Leave Lin Chen alone. Let him brew medicines and banter with MCS and drink, and wait for the sun to come up on one more day where his friend is alive to drink the medicine, tease him, and see another sunrise.

Now back to the same remarkable gifset I referenced above. OP captioned it "Lin Chen and Fei Liu worrying about Mei Changsu: a full time occupation. Look at Fei Liu," and I owe OP big time because, yes, let's look at Fei Liu, and let's talk about Fei Liu and Lin Chen.

We see and we're told that they don't get along. Lin Chen is a bit of a dick to Fei Liu even though he seems fond of him too: he teases Fei Liu, tries to play with him mostly unsuccessfully, and seems to use him as a distraction to help play up his (Lin Chen's) eccentric behavior. I think there was also a comment about Fei Liu wanting to avoid Lin Chen because Lin Chen makes him (Fei Liu) drink medicine, but I'm not super clear on that.

We see that they "don't get along," and if anything this amuses MCS. Fei Liu comes to MCS for help, asks to be saved, and MCS helps Fei Liu. Because MCS can do that, it doesn't require physical strength, only that he plays the role of the "good dad" according to the established dynamic in their family of three.

So we're told that Lin Chen and Fei Liu don't get along for all the reasons above, but we also see that they're a really good team when it's necessary. There's the scene where they're chasing Qin Banruo, for instance. Later, Fei Liu sits across from Lin Chen while he makes Changsu's medicine and talks about their upcoming tour of jianghu, and they both agree that it doesn't matter where they are as long as the three of them are together. (Yeah.)

That's quite a contrast to the scene in the gifset, where Lin Chen is anxious, and possibly feeling helpless, and definitely contemplating violence.

And where's Fei Liu in that scene? He's shut down, head on the wall, inert.

This is the same position he's in when MCS is ill sometimes, or he's upset about something. Because we are supposed to understand that while Fei Liu can't quite articulate what he's feeling, and is mentally still a VERY young child, he does react immediately to situations and has an intuitive understanding about what's going on around him, particularly with regard to MCS.

So, how does Fei Liu feel about Lin Chen, and more specifically why does he seem to dread his presence in previous scenes, to the point that he captures and is going to kill the pigeon sent to summon Lin Chen?

My guess is that Fei Liu sees right through Lin Chen. He knows what Lin Chen is feeling under all the bluster and weirdness, and he knows that the dark feeling coming from his other parent affects MCS too.

However we read their relationship, Lin Chen and Changsu are very, very close; they live with each other off and on and love each other deeply; they understand each other better than almost everyone else around them; they rescued a child and parent that child together. Their little trio is intimately connected by time, experience, trauma, and pain.

Lin Chen and Changsu both playact that all is well but they can't fool Fei Liu, especially when they are together.

So it makes sense that Fei Liu would want to keep them apart as MCS gets sicker and that dark feeling grows, because it's scary. They're Fei Liu's world and that world is breaking down continually, weirdly, unpredictably.

He wants them to stay in their corners, thank you, because he's afraid of how it feels when they're together.

But back to that gifset:

At the start of this post I theorized that Lin Chen crossed over from even paying lip service to neutrality, but where else did he cross over? From ongoing anger to something like acceptance of MCS's inevitable death, in a way that would allow him to prioritize Fei Liu in the moment?

Or did he move on from anger to full-on Denial?

Because after that scene Fei Liu is pretty much at ease in Lin Chen's presence, and part of the reason for this (long, sorry) post was to try to understand why.

If he's moved on to Acceptance, good for Lin Chen. He might have a chance at good mental health in the near-ish future (think five years post-canon, and that might be a generous estimate).

But if he crossed over into Denial and it's strong enough to fool Fei Liu? I think Lin Chen's long term future might be a lot darker than one would expect from the always-sunny, temperamental, eccentric jianghu doctor.

[junemermaid]

writer life:

start an ot3 fic

become obsessed with the underserved side of the triangle and spend two chapters on establishing the dynamic of the canon love interest and best friend while the actual main character chills off-page

sigh and decide to blame canon for leaving this obvious gap you now need to fill

[ajaxbell]

Master Links Post

Tumblr is where we're allowed to be weirdly obsessive, right? Because I can't even pretend to be normal about the things I post. Mostly just rambling about cdramas and c-ent stars. Lots of reblogs, some original content, many many pics posts pulled mostly from Weibo and Douyin.

Here’s the links:

C-ent stars posts

Wang Yibo Yibo-a-Day (I tried to watch a WYB performance every day)

Xiao Zhan

Tan Jianci TJC Shanghai concert posts TJC Beijing concert posts

Dilraba Dilmurat

Gong Jun

Yang Zi

Zhang Linghe

Deng Wei

Wang Hedi

Wang Kai

Alen Fang

Liu Shishi

Liu Yuning

C-ent stars commentary:

Very Specific Fetish Photoshoots

Tan Jianci reacts to a kiss

Cdrama posts & meta

Cdrama show reviews, meta, gifsets, and commentary. Plus just a lot of ridiculous flailing over things I like.

A League of Nobleman

Watch it!

Gazes

Lost You Forever

Gifsets 1 | 2 | 3 | 4

Xiao Yao at the Crossroads

But Can They F*ck

Kisses

Bonus Xiang Liu Kiss

Can't we all live in Qingshui Town?

Love Between Fairy and Devil

Gifset 1

Dylan Wang's kisses

Nirvana in Fire

Watch it!

Behind the Flames (behind the scenes pics)

Fanfic: Moonlight Through the Parting Clouds

Story of Kunning Palace

Review: everything I shouldn't like and I love it

Just my unhinged rambling on Xie Wei as a character

Musings on Yan Lin, a lethal little love puppy

The Truth Season 2 (Variety Show)

Slightly fixed subtitle files

Pilot ep recap

Unhinged rambling about the gayness of eps 1-3

My clips of the show

All my posts on The Truth S2

Other Shows

The Journey of Chong Zi - everyone in this show deserved better

Back from the Brink - More fun than I expected

Butterflied Lover - Very unusual (in a good way)

Hard to Find - great for the goth teen in my soul

[skalidris]

oh people are liking the jgy guanyin post again. i just felt it was weird that this wasn't addressed more among fans (=at all), only being received as a way of referring to his mother (which it is also, although guanyin has mother-related aspects also)

the thing is that it's kind of hard to make a definite assessment of what guanyin 'means' here (beyond what i said in that post) because of the unclear temporal setting of mdzs.

because the guanyin=mother images are mostly later than i think mdzs would be (because of the prominence of daoism) but clearly they're known in mxtx & our nows. so? it's a little complicated.

so i couldn't write a very coherent meta. the ideas aren't coherent in the text to begin with; i'd have to treat guanyin as a semantic cloud whose boundaries i can only define loosely.

plus... i'd basically have to explain about buddhism first. so it'd get really long and work-intensive for me.

[kimboo-york]

Nirvana in Fire rec list & Resource database!

I have been busy updating my NiF database! I have added a new tab, "Resources," which contains links to all kinds of information about the drama Nirvana in Fire, the novel Lang Ya Bang, and cultural/historical facts/meta!!!!

Here's a peek:

So whether you are a fan who just wants to know more, or a fanfic writer who needs to know more, please partake of all the great information here!

If you have any suggestions for resources I have missed, please let me know.

[olderthannetfic]

Subject: "hanfu" pet peeve

Since the discussion has spread out across multiple posts, I figure I'll summarize and add on my thoughts here. To reiterate, I don't like the usage when it's meta and breaks immersion. I dislike it for the inaccuracy and, more importantly, for the othering. If I didn't sufficiently hammer on that last bit, I'm doing it now. Do I blame fic writers for thinking they are very educated using the word? No. I gnash my teeth without comment when I see it happen, and I look elsewhere for escapist entertainment. Though I've since left the fandom, I do still check back from time to time.

There may be instances where the word fits very well. I tend not to read fic where that may be the case. I don't particularly care for fic about the actors getting into costume, for example. Potentially I could be interested in reincarnation fic, in which the modern-day protag gets flashbacks from touching an antique from their former life, but that's besides the point. I generally stick to the canon setting, where I also don't want to be told that all conversation is in Chinese. I already assume it is.

Telling the reader these things may not be redundant to some people, but it is to me. It ruins the flow. And besides, "hanfu" doesn't really specify which article of clothing. Not that there's anything wrong with being vague. It's perfectly fine to tell the reader that so-and-so has gotten dressed or disrobed without getting into the details. Often the way it's used could easily be replaced by "robe" (or "robes" plural) from what I've seen. If they're not referring to the full ensemble, they usually mean the outermost layers. If there are any instances in which "hanfu" is used to indicate trouser legs or underwear, I have yet to see it.

The point is, I'd prefer people use whatever least obtrusive term fits for what they're trying to say, unless they're prepared to be both accurate and precise with their terminology. I certainly don't expect the effort. It was just a suggestion based on what I've seen done elsewhere. Tangentially, everybody who hasn't yet ought to go watch Nirvana in Fire. (It's only, uh, what's the runtime again? And that's with a rushed epilogue, too.) But please! If you get the itch to write, leave out the mention of you know what -_-

--

A little knowledge is a dangerous thing. Haha.

(This thought brought to you by my love of the "Yin-Yang Master" franchise.)

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Maybe for 2024 I will make it a goal to just actually read or watch all the really good media that I’ve been putting off starting/finishing. I often like to save some of the really good stuff for some indelible later, but actually maybe later is this year. So, some stuff I’m finally gonna get through this year must include:

-finally finishing harrow and nona instead of waiting forever for alecto to come out so I can just binge all of the rest in a row as was my initial hope after finishing Gideon and skimming through chunks of Harrow. What am I waiting for. When I finish it once I can still just read all three again before Alecto comes out. Plus I’m gonna get way more of the layers to these books now that I have read so many metas written by people who have already read the extant series like a dozen times.

-Revolutionary Girl Utena. I’ve watched many other classic shoujo, but not this one??? Somehow??????

-Leverage. Self explanatory.

-The Expanse. Another series I have only heard good things about, especially from @battlestarbones

-Naomi Novik has several books I haven’t read yet that I absolutely should starting with Spinning Silver.

-I should try to get into Earthsea again. I tried quite a long time ago and I think I would get way more out of it this time.

-half of Wheel of Time tumblr is obsessed with Realm of the Elderlings, and so many people have recommended it to me, so I guess I gotta do that too.

actually there are many pieces of media that have been recommended to me over the years that I have to add to this list. Most importantly, I owe my beloved friend @platanosandprejudice a life debt at this point because I have yet to make good on my years old promise to them to play Undertale in exchange for listening to my conspiracy theory presentation about One Direction in undergrad (don’t ask you don’t want to know trust me) so:

-Undertale

-I recently got a recommendation from @mean-lesbians for a Very intriguing sapphic webcomic based on Edgar Allen Poe’s works called Nevermore, and the art and pitch were Very good so it’s gotta go on the list.

-Maybe MAYBE I will read one or two of Priest’s webnovels. Perhaps. I could be persuaded. Like I know she Will give me some characters that I will love and then she Will make them suffer horribly and probably die, but to be fair, that’s true about Most media I enjoy, including other entries on this list so.

-OH and that reminds me, I can’t forget that I also promised @izoryotaro I would at some point watch Nirvana in Fire, so that’s also on the list.

[nemainofthewater]

For the meme: D, J, and N?

Question from this ask meme

D - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t.

Lie Zhanying/XIao Jingyan from Nirvana in Fire. I've written one fic for it as a treat in for Nirvana In Fire Exchange 2022 but I still don't seek it out. I wish that I liked it!! It's got everything that I usually like: devoted lieutenant, two people who've only had each other to rely on for a decade, utter trust and loyalty... And yet. One day I'll get into it! One day!

J - Name a fandom you didn’t think about until you saw it all over Tumblr. (You don’t have to care about it or follow it; it just has to be something that Tumblr made you aware of.)

Gideon the Ninth! I had literally never heard of it and still have very little idea of the plot, but whenever I see meta or art on my dash I'll smile at it.

N - Name three things you wish you saw more or in your main fandom (or a fandom of choice).

I'm going to cheat a little and done one thing for three different fandoms!

Guardian - I would love to see more academic outsider fic tbh? I am fascinated by all the paperwork that Shen Wei has to go to for his three (!!!) jobs, and the fact that he is presumably running his own lab with his own students at the same time. What's happening there? Does he have postdocs? When does he write grant applications? Do all of his lab resent him for having a nice office while they're stuck either with lab desks or hot-desking?

Love Between Fairy and Devil - I am fascinated by the relationship between Changheng and Ronghao. There have been a couple of wonderful fics that explore it a little, but I want more! I am greedy like that. Just the vibes of 'I will hurt anyone and I hate everyone, but not you. You're different' get me every time?

Word of Honour - I want more Ye Baiyi centric-fic! Once again there is some excellent stuff, but once again I am very greedy. I just love him - he's my favourite. I am especially interested in the fact that he came down the mountain to eat and drink and eventually give up his immortality, to die, especially looking at his actions and words to Zhou Zishu whose initial plan...is basically the same thing in a shorter (and more painful- period of time. I just think there are cool parallels I'd love to see explored?

And then the off handed, I would love to see more Oh My General (2017) fic in general and specifically more fic with Huli (beloved) who currently has changed out of his uniform and is causing me great mental distress with his slightly wavy ponytail. I'm too ace for this, Huli, please put your unflattering helmet back on.

[fateandloveentwined]

perhaps an index — the chinese side of fandom things

excuse this i'm a little bit of an organising person so here's an attempt to make things neater; [return to general intro]

current interests: NIF / 2ha / tgcf + mdzs / 第一仙师 / modern day fics here and there; i tend to prefer cnovels over cdramas bc i read faster than i watch shows coughs

marked 🍂 are stuff i'm highlighting <3

meta #

definitions, “etymology”, whatever comes my way

general meta

🍂wuxia, xianxia, and cultivation differences meta

🍂wuxia and confucianism

morality in wuxia and xianxia (rblg)

chinese and word choices

City C, University P -- the way modern chinese names places

the chinese "i love you"

creates #

on creations, translations, thought experiments and fic recs.

analyses # and stuff i made up

🍂antithetical couplets (multi)

chapter 275 (2ha)

🍂poetry lines befitting mcs and xjy (nif)

🍂Anle and Nirvana in Fire: what's so mesmerising about NIF's worldview (nif)

Zhou Zishu (tyk/woh; in chinese)

🍂5 notes on Xie Lian and maybe a note more (tgcf)

attempted translations #

⟶ song translations

from afar silver butterflies flutter like glistening orbs, dashed across the starry sky (tgcf donghua x one flower one sword)

isle of land - song translation (陆屿 from 内娱第一花瓶 audio drama)

🍂long darkness — cháng yīn 长喑 translation (nif — xiao jingyan)

⟶ amendments on the title of 长喑 cháng yīn // long darkness

⟶ (Thoughts on 【长喑 】Part 1/3) @ yj's super elaborate response post TT

⟶ excerpt translations

he knelt amidst, and kissed the earth. (panguan)

🍂chapter 60, fragmented souls (shangxian)

chapter 84, wildfires (shangxian)

lotus as the heart (nif — li chong fanfic)

recommendations #

Nirvana in Fire fic recs

🍂cnovel recs (in chinese)

wonky thoughts #

🍂number of unique chinese characters in a book

to all the fandoms I've loved before

fate's stuff #

miscellaneous stuff that i posted or commented on.

Very Subjective Comments on literary prose in danmei and cnovels

chinese webnovel favs/recs

⟶ xianxia-specific favs mentioned at bottom of this post

NIF vs. MLC vs. MDZS polls (on overall franchise, character, and worldview/themes)

🍂THE TEARS ep34 (woh)

interpretations realisations aka. headcanon analyses #

i tries to answer (essentially asks) #

other “non-selectively mine” tags that might interest one: #interpretations realisations (headcanon analyses), #chinese language, #chinese (on culture), #reads and books (current reads and book/tv series-related stuff).

link to kofi-coffee if you're so inclined.

[anndramarama]

Was going to make a post where I explain/justify why I empathize with Xiao Xuan a bit more every time I rewatch NIF, but after thinking more critically I know that must be BS because he's ten kinds of awful even if he is a very human villain, it's just that Ding Yong Dai's performance is THAT GOOD.

[aceofthegreenajah]

13 books! tagged by @old-man-ghost

1)Last book I read I read Ocean at the end of the lane in two days recently. It was a very fun concept. It's the kind of book that would have left a lifelong impression on me if I had read it young. But now it was just one good book in a long line of others. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

2) A book I recommend Let's go with a Taste of Gold and Iron. It's a very fun mystery, and the main character made me go. Wait. I know that feeling! I have a brain exactly like that too! (Riddled with anxiety and self-doubt at the most mundane things, but when things get serious, it's suddenly all business.)

3) A book that I couldn’t put down: I don't know if it exactly fits, because I wasn't fully invested from the start. But I did read all 500+ chapters of Omniscient Readers Viewpoint in just three days. And it is the only book I've ever read that make me go "Wait. I didn't know you could do that with a book." There are so many levels of meta in this book. It's like three books in one.

4) A book I’ve read twice (or more): I reread a ton of books. Let's go for Kalevala just because I was reminded of it while taking the picture at the end of this post. I used to read it every 6 months or so as a teenager. When we were told to read it for school I just read it again instead of telling anyone I'd read it like six times already.

5) A book on my TBR: One that has been there for ages is the Thief by Megan Whalen Turner. I hope to get around to it one day. I already bought it after all.

6) A book I’ve put down: Putting things down (as in meaning to continue then forgetting about it) happens often. Putting down and deciding not to continue very rarely. Last was The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal. I have no idea why. In concept is sounds like just my thing and I have enjoyed her other books. My mind just couldn't get a grip on it, my attention always started to waver instantly.

7) A book on my wish list: I want an ORV official english translation SO BAD. Where is it??? It's announced and everything! Same for Nirvana In FIre, actually. Usually if I wish for a book I just buy it. It has to not exist to stay on my wish list long.

8) A favorite book from childhood: How young are we talking? Roald Dahl's witches book was my favourite at age 5. His dark materials at age 8. Good omens at age 12. Farseer trilogy at age 14. (all ages approximate)

9) A book you would give to a friend: 've gifted two people with All systems red. I would love to give it to everyone I know.

10) The most books you own by a single author: Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. As long as all 8 physical tgcf books and 4 svsss books count as separate. Though Brandon Sanderson comes very close. I think I have 7 of his books as physical copies and a few as audiobooks.

11) A nonfiction book you own: The Dawn of Everything is both excellent worldbuilding material, and really opened my eyes on how uncreative and stuck I was about how societies 'must' work. Applicable to real life as well.

12) What are you currently reading: I am still reading Exordia. It is an excellent book I'd recommend to everyone (as long as you are not particularly sensitive to body horror). But that is also why I'm going slowly because I only want to read it when I can concentrate properly. I am also reading Trash of the Count's Family when I need a less serious book, and an isekai manga, and What technology wants. The best way for me to read stuff is read whatever I feel like at the moment.

13) What are you planning on reading next? I got The Traitor Baru Cormorant at the same time I got Exordia so that's probably next.

My shelfie (one of several bookshelves. I should really weed them):

[rose-tinted-vision]

Cdrama masterlist

Meta-ish (brainrot, really) stuff:

A Journey to love

Relationships in ajtl

Six realms squad details

Yuan Lu imitating Yu Shisan

Yuan Lu's longevity braids

Yu Shisan and Qian Zhao

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Di Feisheng holding He Xiaofeng hostage

Jealous!Fang Duobing

Names and it's importance

White Cat Legend

Qiu Qingzhi protecting Li Bing

The Double

live reaction post 1

live reaction post 2

Dramas I've Watched (tagged accordingly!):

The Untamed

Word of Honor

The King's Avatar

My Journey to you

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Guardian

Hikaru no Go

The lost tomb 1&2

A journey to Love

Tiger and Crane

The longest promise

White Cat Legend

The blood of youth

I am Nobody

The Double

Dashing Youth

Sword and Fairy 6

Justice in The Dark

Honorary mention: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity

Still watching:

Love and Redemption

Stay with me

To Watch:

The legend of Chongzi

Nirvana in Fire

The Legend of Shen Li

Immortal Samsara

Heroes

Who rules the world

The Spirealm

Love you seven times

Back from the brink

In Blossom

Century of Love

[wen-kexing-apologist]

Hello, can I ask something random? So I really love BL. Started it as my love for fanfics of my favorite non canon couples in shounen series. Then I found out about Danmei novels. And now I'm also fan of BL manga and manhwa series (be it explicit or non-explicit). But somehow I can't really got into BL live action drama. Sorry, is it weird? Is there something wrong with me?

Like I know that these past few years there are quite a lot adaptations of BL from manga and manhwa. My friend try to made me watch it with them because they knew I love BL. But sadly, I can't really enjoy them....

The ones that I enjoy are the subtext BL, like : The Untamed, Word of Honor, Killer and Healer, The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty, Nirvana in Fire, My Roommate is Detective, etc.....

What do you think? Thanks so much if you want to answer.

I found your blog because of your long meta about why you loved MLM romance more than het romance and why Asian MLM are better than Western MLM. Thanks for sharing such inspirative meta.....

I don’t think there is anything wrong at all with not being able to get in to live action BLs. Everyone has their preference for the media they engage in. I don’t read a lot of manga and I don’t really watch anime, I’m not typically interested in stories in those mediums and am only likely to read a manga if I liked the live action story.

[thelaithlyworm]

Ooh, Reached Another Milestone

[ID Screenshot of an AO3 Dashboard, including a list of fandoms (The Musketeers, The Grave Robbers’ Chronicles, Nirvana in Fire, Star Trek Picard, and Good Omens), the Recent Works field showing the title of “[META] The Unreal Becomes Real: Mirror Motifs and Visual Juxtapositions in Time Raiders (2016)”, and, circled in yellow, Works (400). End ID]

I want you all to understand that the work which pushed me to the grand 400 Published Works Milestone was a fancy-schmancy analysis of cinematographic technique, not a ten-minute podfic about *cough* night-time joy. 

I Am A Very Serious Person.

I Swear.

[rhysiana]

For organizational purposes, links to all my writing of the past couple of years, short bits though they may be: (updated 7/3/2023)

Atom no Ko -This Would Be Enough: Tumblr | AO3 (post-canon getting together ft. ace Nayuta)

Old Fashion Cupcake -Meta: the half-generation divide between Togawa and Nozue and how they approach work-life balance -Meta: Old Fashion Cupcake and kawaii culture -Meta: gay characters and office matchmaking in Old Fashion Cupcake and Kinou nani tabeta? -Kawaii ne (Togawa, Nozue, and the power of kawaii): Tumblr | AO3 -Petit Fours - an AO3 collection of post-canon domestic moments (originally individually posted on Tumblr, currently at 6 moments) --“only fools rush in” - a song lyric prompt ficlet --Togawa stuck in a hotel away from home - a winter travel woes prompt fill Semantic Error -Embrace (Chu Sangwoo learns to appreciate hugs): Tumblr | AO3 -Missing a train in France - a winter travel woes prompt fill -5 Times Chu Sangwoo Made a Change and 1 Time He Didn’t Have To: Tumblr | AO3 - post-canon domesticity and learning to live together Under the Skin -Tiny character study: Du Cheng looking at Shen Yi -Tiny character study: Shen Yi being conflicted about his art -“there's a light in your room, and it burns like a shade of yellow” - a song lyric prompt ficlet Nirvana in Fire -Fragments of a Life Lived in Dreams: Tumblr | AO3 | Podfic - what if Lin Shu and Xiao Jingyan started sharing dreams after Lin Shu fell? Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty -New teacher Tang Fan gets rescued from typhoon flooding by neighbor Sui Zhou (modern AU inspired by stupid personal experience, sadly not extending to being rescued by Sui Zhou) -Modern AU where Tang Fan loses his perfect scarf and has to track down the knitter to get a new one -Bad Coffee and Good Company (an unacknowledged reincarnation AU, mostly vibes, fake-to-real dating speedrun): Tumblr | AO3 My Country: The New Age -“all we need is candlelight” - a modern AU Seonhwi song lyric prompt ficlet (now also on AO3) -a Seonhwi sci-fi AU in which Nam Seon-ho had an emotion-repressing implant and Seo Hwi rescues him from drifting in space (this one I did start rewriting in a more polished style, but who knows if it will actually get finished) -Weather the Storm: Tumblr | AO3 - snowed in at the secret shack, a Seonhwi winter travel woes prompt fill -“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love you.” - tiny Seonhwi angst prompt fill Cherry Magic -Off of the Podium, Into His Heart (a winter Olympics AU): Tumblr | AO3 The Untamed -A Shang Chi AU ft. Yunmeng Jiang -Test pilot WWX with a Wangxian romance novel rescue -Chengqing modern arranged marriage AU -The punk club AU: Wangxian 1&2, Wangxian 3, Songxiao -Modern Untamed chained romcom series ft. Sangcheng, Nielan, and Wangxian (whyyyy do I not have enough writing brain to turn this into the glorious fic series it deserves to be?) -In Love with Ghosts (post-canon LXC & Song Lan): Tumblr | AO3 -All the Lotuses in the World (post-canon Sangcheng): AO3 | Tumblr [art post for ch 2] -“not until you return” - a post-canon Wangxian song lyric prompt ficlet -“I'm gonna spouse you and make ya tat' ya ring” - a modern AU Wangxian song lyric prompt ficlet -“Hurts.” “I know. It’s going to hurt some more, okay? Deep breaths. I’m sorry— I’m so sorry—” - a tiny Jingyi/Sizhui angst prompt fill -art class nerdery - thoughts about NHS, WWX, and LWJ as students in art classes I took in high school -Warmth in Winter: Tumblr | AO3 - a Wangxian post-canon winter travel woes prompt fill -Already On It: Tumblr | AO3 - a Chengqing modern AU winter travel woes prompt fill ft. mutual competence appreciation -OYZZ disappears modern juniors quartet AU fic prompt idea free to a good home -Fics I Didn’t Write: Nighthunt Dispatcher NHS - premise for a modern cultivation AU that was going to be a set-up for a Sangcheng sex pollen emergency contact story, but also started b/c NHS being good at a job against his will made me laugh -Fics I Didn’t Write: Nieyao MMA AU - the opening of a niche medical massage therapist/MMA fighter AU I started as a vehicle for my issues with the MMA fetishization of jiu jitsu school pedigree -Two Pollens (Alike in Indignity): Tumblr | AO3 - a Nieyao truth pollen + sex pollen story, cowritten with ritualist (the longest thing I’ve completed in forever!) -3 People Wei Ying Talked to About Suddenly Getting Taller and 1 Person Who Definitely Noticed On His Own: Tumblr | AO3

Word of Honor -Antihistamine-fueled modern college AU ft. Wenzhou as disaffected seniors out to make Prof. Zhao's life hell -Modern AU ft. author ZZS and hairdresser WKX (started as a joke after I watched Hey Sensei, Don't You Know? and then took a swerve into actual plot, another one I really wanted to turn into something more formally written, but as it is it's already over 5k) --Update: Now on AO3 with a title! Persistence Pays Off Guardian -Urban fantasy AU with Shen Wei as a symphony conductor (I 100% forgot I wrote this) Devil Judge -“you can call me villain” - a Gahan Vicious AU song lyric prompt ficlet -Gaon finally makes it to Switzerland - a Gahan winter travel woes prompt fill Bonus throwback content: OMGCP -“this can't be love” - song lyric prompt speedrun version of a long Nurseydex I had in progress before Asian dramas took over -to be myself again - the bits of the longer version that actually got written (post-canon, Dex inherits a house back in Maine, invites Nursey to stay while he works through writer's block), also with notes