#one of my fave scenes in svsss

[bonesblubs]

Fuck! He can’t fly!

[spockandawe]

Oh, this is interesting. To me. I'm not sure it's interesting to anyone else! But I'm on my computer for once and FULL of words again, and I'm delighted to talk to myself given half an excuse.

So, I made a post about Long Live Evil! Because I cracked open the book and was absolutely taken aback by how transparently it seemed to be an SVSSS reskin. I wrote up a goodreads thing (it's whatever, I'm going to rehash the main points here too), because I was also full of words and beans after finishing the book yesterday, and after polling online friends, I was surprised to see that the comparison didn't seem to have organically occurred to anyone else, when it was so naked to me. I know there’s a TON of transmigration and isekai stories out in the universe, and pointing at one single book was a big claim, so I just had to assemble all my thoughts! I find this so interesting! And I reblogged my initial one-off post with a little more elaboration about some of the things that jumped out at me, then got on with live and went back to chipping at ORV and GHG, and shotgunned MADK this afternoon.

This is a subtle nod and a wink to my passionate love for these kind of... morally grey main characters! Calling them villains might be a bit much, I don't think there are many true villain protagonists out there (LLE included), and even Devil Venerable has a demonic cultivator who's doing demonic shit and killing loads of people... but with the ultimate balance of the heavens and earth as his priority. This kind of story is my jam. I was recced this book on the basis of transmigration and sketchy protagonists being my thing. I can't rightfully call SVSSS the best cnovel I've ever read, but it is my favorite. And I've probably reread it more times than any other cnovel.

So, that SRB post, huh? I put Long Live Evil behind me, and honestly even following up on the sequel is mmmmmdoubtful, but THIS snagged my attention again. First, the comparisons she's calling out as incorrect are wild to me. Draco and Harry? What? Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian?? (I had to ponder that one for a hot minute, but I bet you anything it's about 'the golden cobra' and 'the last hope' and that's just silly, they're not wangxian, they're MOSHANG)

I was recced LLE in one friend group, but I had an anti-rec from my book club friend group. My book club friend hadn't been at all impressed by it! And she's cool, and I talk up svsss and mxtx to that crowd every so often, without really expecting them to read it. I talk about transmigration as a plot device that I love, and the things that can be done with it! But with that connection in mind between the books, as I started LLE, I was jokingly defending the honor of SVSSS to this crowd, so I admit I was primed to recognize similarities.

I really truly did not make it far in the book before locking it down. I was getting vibes basically from the moment Rae started gushing about her problematic fictional fave, I referenced 95% certainty shortly after she makes the jump to the fictional universe, the golden cobra was 98%, Lia Mingyan's, I mean Liu Mingyan's lack of sex scenes was 99%, and the first pov section for Marius-jun was where I gave up and called it as a sure thing.

It'll be very funny if I'm wrong! I don't think I'm wrong.

Plenty of spoilers to follow, because I identified this inspiration early, I guessed basically every plot twist early, I don't have the patience to dance around spoilers while explaining how it all lines up.

Now, I said this elsewhere, but it bears repeating: I don't think this is plagiarism. I think it's tasteless to accuse an author of stealing and repurposing characters to her face. But I think it's also tasteless to repurpose characters as nakedly as happened here! Again? If I'm wrong? That's why I'm talking to myself on my blog and not messaging her directly (?????? who even does that). What are the stakes for me being wrong here? I look like a clown online? That would be terrible, I've never done that before! It's not a crime to write in ways I find distasteful. It's not a crime to write a book I think is not good, even apart from the use of fictional influences. But I like talking about my feelings online, and I can't be stopped!

But there's two aspects of this that make me somewhat uncomfortable in a less fun way. Both are contingent on the big IF. If this is inspired by svsss, I think it's not a classy move to take a Chinese story in a Chinese setting, inspired by the modern Chinese literary scene and classical Chinese fantasy, and just dump the characters into a generic western setting. Fanfic? Have fun and try to be respectful. Profic, making money off it? Ehhhhh. The question of how much change is necessary is a tricky one! It's not one I'm equipped to answer, this is not my wheelhouse or my place to speak. But it doesn't make me feel good!

However, here's where I have more personal stake:

Again, if this is inspired by svsss. It really doesn't feel great to see a queer story (a smash hit in more than one country!) stripped down for parts and made into a heterosexual story. It's not all heterosexual, we get side lesbians, we get men with homoerotic tension. But the central ship is now a guy and a girl. And it... stings a little extra, because in the story of svsss, the idea of assumptions about default (hetero)sexuality are such a central theme. A queer man has written a trashy, oversexed stallion novel where the hottest guy in the universe collects the hottest women like pokemon, and it sells so much better than the more personal stories he tried to write. He has to write this pandering trash to make money to live, he can't live on the more authentic stories he tried to tell before. The protagonist is the projection of his own insecurities and self-hate, and the protagonist's right hand man is his projection of his own ideal man. Another man transmigrates into the book, assuming that he himself is straight, assuming the protagonist is straight, and the force of their love changes the course of the entire narrative. In retrospect, it's upsetting to see those load-bearing themes casually carved out of the story and the hollowed-out remains used like this.

Anyways, in their place, now we've got running gags about how the heroine's tits are BIGHUGE now and she can't keep her balance because her GIANT HONKERS keep tipping her over.

I'm a little more bothered than I was yesterday! On the other hand, since I saw SRB's post, I've been chewing on that central ship. Full disclosure, it was one of my favorite aspects of the novel! My other favorite aspect is the dynamic between the golden cobra and the last hope (the moshang, which I think some people misdiagnosed as wangxian).

I know that the central ship here is the thing that's LEAST comparable to svsss, and the biggest roadblock in the way of my theory. On the other hand, I think it was the thing that HAD to change if this story was going to repurpose svsss without getting called out for being a classic 'bro can i copy your homework' adventure.

For this section, let's assume that I'm right and let's roleplay an author trying to figure out how to change Bingqiu into something not-obviously-Bingqiu. How do we need to differentiate Rae and Key from Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe.

First, we eliminate the martial sect thing. Easy peasy! That's a wuxia concept, and this book goes full nondescript western fantasy. She's not his teacher, he's not her student. And if she's not his teacher and he's not her student, why does this woman have power over this man, to build up the resentment that inspires him to turn the tables on her later? Well, in nondescript western fantasy, she's a noblewoman of some kind, and he's a servant of some kind. Noble lady treats servant like garbage, servant resents her. Doing great.

And to loop back around to the beginning of this a little, I think it really is key to this reskinning that Rae is a SHE. If the central ship remained queer, it would be so, so hard to pull away from the most identifiable thematic aspects of svsss. And pieces of what remain are... kind of bizarre for a normie heterosexual ship where our protagonist is aware that she's transmigrated into an impossibly desirable sexpot character!

Shen Qingqiu never considers that Luo Binghe might be interested in him because Luo Binghe is about to have a HAREM of beautiful women, he's the most heterosexual man of all time, and Shen Qingqiu is straight too! Besides, Shen Qingqiu is his teacher! He half-raised Luo Binghe! Even if Luo Binghe was bent, he wouldn't be interested in an old man like Shen Qingqiu!

Rae is 20, occupying a 24-year-old body. Her character's sexiness is relentlessly remarked upon from start to finish. Key is 18. Why is Rae so sure that he looks up to her as... a mentor, as an older woman? He almost goes down on her! He makes out with her! And she's like 'ah yes, it means nothing. lol. so funny how these things happen.' Bruh, at least after Luo Binghe kissed Shen Qingqiu, Shen Qingqiu finally got hit with the clue stick. Binghe didn't try to blow him only for Shen Qingqiu to keep noodling on about how Binghe definitely isn't into him in any sense, even the most oblivious man in the universe managed to catch on.

Why doesn’t Rae think there’s any chance of genuine attraction here? Yeah, I get that she's coming back from terminal cancer. She's doing great. She knows that the fictional character she occupies is one of the most desirable ladies in the land. He’s a teenager. He’s not expressing disinterest. A lack of horny for sexy lady ought to be more surprising for her. But I guess she’s slightly older than him and that small age gap has been magnified by the transmigration, so she conceptualizes herself only as his teacher, I mean mentor.

I’m not even mad at this dynamic. I love their chemistry, the ‘boss’ thing is cute, but lordt, I have to wonder if it’s meant to substitute for ‘shizun.’ But you know where this comparison really falls apart? Key isn’t really THAT much Luo Binghe.

At least, he isn’t in terms of personality. I mean, we’ve got the mysterious magical heritage, the healing factor, the unbeatable fighting skills, being beaten repeatedly because of the protagonist (tbh it’s sexier when she’s responsible, rather than just being a bystander), being yeeted into the abyss, I mean the ravine, to rise again and assume power as the merciless ruler of all the land. Oh, and he comes back from the dead still bearing the scar that represents her betrayal. In the original novel, he turned on her the moment he got his opening and was responsible for coming up with her gruesome torment.

(Also, Shen Qingqiu being terminally ill isn’t canon, but it’s very popular fanon, and it’s hard to ignore that with how hard the narrative lingers over Rae’s terminal illness as her gateway into this fictional world)

But! But the things that are different! Luo Binghe is a smart and sweet teenager, who had a rough start on the streets and has a tragically deceased single adoptive parent, but that’s their only backstory parallel, he doesn’t blacken until he’s thrown into the abyss. Not like Key, Key is a murder-happy sociopath, a former street kid who fought the odds and made good, and who’s a lot sharper and cleverer than the upper classes think someone like him should be. He utterly destroyed a righteous cultivator clan, I mean glassblowing guild, for the sake of revenge. Once our heroine scores a number of trust points with him, we unlock secret backstory about how as a small child, he experienced deeply formative hand trauma.

He’s Xue Yang.

It took me a moment to process the wangxian allegations SRB mentions in her post, because I was trying to figure out how someone would be aware of wangxian, and read that backstory, and somehow miss it. But it’s fine, I’m pretty sure they were actually talking about the golden cobra and the last hope! So LET’S TALK MOSHANG.

It was so funny. I was liveblogging the book to friends, because honestly, I do not jive with the buffy-esque joss whedon relentless quip-quip-quip writing style. I was struggling to stay engaged when the narrative never took a moment to breathe. And I perked up at the introduction of this new character! He seemed kind of fun, kind of meta, Key came over to share Secret Info with him, and I messaged the friend who recced this to me (also an svsss appreciator) ‘lol, what if he’s shang qinghua. just straight from svsss shang qinghua.'

Reader, a second transmigrator has hit the narrative.

Now, in some ways, he’s a disappointment to me. He’s not nearly as interesting as Shang Qinghua. Adding the author to their own narrative is way more fascinating to me than just dropping a rando into the story. But I’ll take what I can get, I think multiple transmigrators are almost always a fun decision. And for the queer reasons I mentioned above, I think Shang Qinghua ties into the themes of his novel a lot more strongly than Eric does here. I don’t want to call him ‘the golden cobra’ every time, I get more self-conscious every time I write it. And honestly, the reveal of Eric’s full Eric Whatever name feels a little awkward and… pointed compared to the sheer opacity of Shang Qinghua’s existence. Never mind what his name was in the real world, we don’t even know his name before he was a Peak Lord. I’m not upset we got a name or anything, it would make certain fannish activities a lot easier if Shang Qinghua had additional canon names, but it was an interesting detail in light of how parallel the characters are.

Okay! He’s not the author! He’s still a super-fan. He transmigrated into the book years before the LLE main character, and has settled in pretty well. According to canon as Rae knows it, he’s fated to be killed by his own favorite character. He’s fast-thinking and fast-talking, and scattered and all over the place, but dangerous when cornered and more competent than he looks. He deals in information and manages a network of spies. He’s a creative! He and the main character banter relentlessly and get along like a house on fire. He and the king’s trusted ice-cold right hand man share a weird codependent dynamic that’s part hostile, part homoerotic.

Marius has complicated feelings about not-shang-qinghua. Eric is a coward, he’d rather talk fast and lie than stand up for anything, he cowers and cringes and isn’t honorable. He and Mobei-jun also shared a deeply formative experience in their youth, where as a teenager in distress, Eric/Shang Qinghua appeared before them and announced their devotion. In Shang Qinghua’s case, it was offering to serve him (and saving him from huan hua injuries), and in Eric’s case, it was declaring him to be his favorite character (and saving him from sad teenaged isolation), but man. And in the end, after a long, fraught relationship, Marius/Mobei-jun is furious and strangely distraught when Eric/Shang Qinghua abandons him.

Guys, it’s not wangxian.

I think it hits less hard when Marius’s themes of family violence aren’t allowed to sit directly in the narrative, and when it seems like some vague berserker rage thing rather than Linguang-jun just bluntly wanting to murder him for practical reasons, but hey! This was still, genuinely, one of my favorite parts of the story. I wanted more more more of them, I would read this moshang au any day.

After that, the parallels get a little more nebulous! The comparisons between the abyss and the ravine are pretty obvious. I’m not sure why we decided to build our city and palace right on top of the pit of people-eating ghouls rather than literally anywhere else, but it means we don’t need to take a special field trip to Jue Di Gorge, which means we can do the bait and switch where it turns out Key was a heavenly demon all along. The temperamental King Octavian, the young master of the palace, one might even say the xiao gongzhu if they were feeling spicy, jealously tries to romantically monopolize half our main ship and has the other half flogged with a magic whip.

I already mentioned that Rae brings up that Liu Mingyan — wait, I said I’d change some answers so it wasn’t obvious I copied — Lia doesn’t get a sex scene in the books even though loads of other people did, just like Shen Qingqiu praises Liu Mingyan for her untouchable image in such an oversexed, gratuitous book. I don’t think it would be right to call Liu Mingyan a white lotus heroine in either SVSSS or PIDW, but her archetype is in that wheelhouse, and Lia is just a white lotus rival played straight (and played deliberately, another touch I liked). We don’t have made up animals like black moon rhinoceros pythons in LLE, but we do have leucrotas, which are like a lion and a hyena and serve no narrative purpose.

Oh, you know what else I forgot to mention? Rae gives Key one of her red ruby earrings, and he refuses to sell it, and stubbornly holds onto it until the bitter end. Is this Xue Yang holding onto the last piece of candy Xiao Xingchen gave him, or is it Hua Cheng determinedly keeping Xie Lian’s red coral earring with him even through his own death? Por que no los dos?

There are things that are original in here. I know that this presentation undersells how much of the book is original. The trouble is, almost everything I thought was good is something that either was lifted from another person’s creative endeavors, or is being tainted by association with all the other naked lifts. Some of the noble ladies have an archery contest! That’s pretty new and fresh, huh? We didn’t have any archery contests in SVSSS!

Yeah, but we sure did in MDZS. And MDZS is already in play, because we’ve already got one character who’s just copy and paste Xue Yang.

There’s a thermocline of trust in this book that fell off for me sharply, and it turned a lot of this into a guessing game of ‘wait NOW what the refrance? owo'

I’m probably on a hair trigger by now, but I’ve also probably missed some things. And I’m sure this is a synthesis of multiple influences, because most stories are. But this feels like cooking and trying to season your dish with a little salt and then the container lid just falls off.

Emer isn’t a clear parallel to an existing character! Love that for her! Love a lady with an axe, especially if she gets a nice girlfriend! On the other hand, in terms of backstory? Wow, she’s been raised with our protagonist since early childhood, as not-quite-foster-siblings, but she was always the clear unfavorite and harbors a lot of resentment over that. Oh, and once Rae entered the story, Rae started trying to speedrun an enemies to 'hello hiiii we should bestiessss' arc with her. I think she had to have an axe, because a whip or a sword would make the Jiang Cheng and/or Liu Qingge vibes a little uncomfortably strong. She doesn’t follow their character arcs! But the disappointing thing is that it felt like she was just there to facilitate pasting the frankenstein patchwork of the narrative together rather than having an arc of her own.

(why did Marius stop to give her a sword lesson? Why did she immediately sneak onto the roof to eavesdrop on the king?? It’s hard to give her credit for being an original character when none of her original actions make sense in the greater universe)

Oh, I almost forgot, we’ve even got magic plot macguffin plants. While Binghe is in the abyss, Shen Qingqiu needs to get the Sun And Moon Dew Flower Seed so he can build an escape hatch for himself before Binghe wrecks his shit. Rae, on the other hand, needs to secure the Flower of Life and Death by an arbitrary deadline as an escape hatch so she can go back to her original life rather than being trapped here forever. Very different! There’s even little side tangents about how these plants can be so beneficial to others, Zhuzhi-lang is desperately trying to secure a seed to build a new body for Tianlang-jun (which Shen Qingqiu enables him to do, despite not knowing what he wants it for), and Rae thinks about how the flower could “save someone on the very doorstep of death,” and gives it away for that exact purpose. So different!

I need to cut myself off, otherwise I’ll keep going. Truly, there is original content in here. It was just all the stuff I didn’t like. The character quipping was. God. There sure was a lot of it! By sheer volume, that’s a lot of original content. Some of the extended cast was interesting, I enjoyed the Horrors and their brothers, I liked Valencia. Now, I didn’t like how basically every girl ADULT WOMAN in this cast was in shitty teen mean girl mode. I didn’t like how immature every character interaction period was. I lost track of how many times Rae was going around in sexy clothes and rando servants were like “HARLOT,” out loud about a favored noblewoman, you know, as you do. Especially when her bodyguard is pulling against his choke chain just waiting for an excuse to do a murder. I don’t need Rae to be the picture of flawless maturity. But nobody is mature, full stop, not even the set dressing servants.

For a less loaded example, the cumplane friendship dynamic is here, practically intact. Shen Qingqiu can't snipe about authorial choices, because Eric isn't the author, so instead Rae and Eric squabble about favorite scenes and favorite ships and such. But it isn't nearly as charming when we don't see these two characters dropping their dignified Peak Lord cultivator roleplay to talk shit with each other. Rae and Eric never have a filter once in this book. They are always Like This, it isn't a secret face that gets unlocked when they're bouncing off each other, they are never circumspect, never have a filter, never have any idea they shouldn't be speaking their full thoughts at full volume 24/7. Even after this starts to have material consequences when they're inevitably overheard! It's an immersion-breaking level of immaturity, which is terribly frustrating when the original dynamic that I loved is only changed in such minor ways.

And another thing that actually tastes way more sour than it did on first reading – Valencia is probably the least mean girl of all the women in the cast. She’s delightful. Too bad that in every scene but her last one, Rae, who repeatedly references her own experiences having her body and appearance ravaged by cancer, cannot for love or money stop talking about how uggo Valencia is.

I know this is an adult novel. The characters are, by age, adults. There’s almost an oral scene. God, I wish we’d gotten the oral scene. But by every other metric, the characters are all high schoolers and I’m an exhausted adult muttering to myself ‘they’ll grow out of it, please GOD let them grow out of it.’

Again, none of this is a crime! Nobody forced me to finish the book! And I did enjoy the book. Parts of it! But that very distinct partial enjoyment experience almost forced me to dissect my own emotional response. And truly, other than a few flashes like Valencia, almost everything I enjoyed about the book was something I could trace directly back to one author, and mostly to one book by that one author. I… enjoyed half of the book. And if I can track most of that half back to mxtx and svsss, I really think that says something about how much wasn’t done to make the inspiration behind this book the author’s own.

It's disappointing! I read this book because I like svsss, I read it because I want more books like svsss, I read it because I trawl the novelupdates tags looking for more books that will hit me the way svsss did. It doesn’t taste good to be served reheated svsss with expired buffy sauce drizzled on top. It tastes even less good once I have a minute to think about what turning an m/m meditation on sexuality and self-image and assumptions about others into a m/f snooze does to the themes I loved so much. It stings to see an author rehash a book that was/is so important to me, and see what they kept and what they threw out, and be like ‘oh, so… these were the elements that mattered to you?’

Again, I hate to be redundant with this, but. I think calling this book plagiarism would be overdoing it. I think it’s tasteless. I don’t think being tasteless is a crime. It remains wild to me that she’s getting messages calling out her supposed inspiration, even if I’m simultaneously criticizing the judgment of the people making those specific comparisons. And I ABSOLUTELY understand why she’s reluctant to own up to the specific inspirations behind this book, because good lord. If it was me, I’d be professionally embarrassed too.

It’s not my job to be the book quality police, but I think someone as experienced as this should be able to do a better job of synthesizing inspirations into something original. I dropped ‘can’t afford to offend my scheming disciple’ earlier this year, because that narrative couldn’t shake the taste of stale svsss fanfic, and it was much more subtle than this is. Once again, if I’m wrong, this post will be retroactively VERY funny and I’ll be all ears to see what her inspirations actually were. I don’t think I’m wrong.

[wangxianficrecs]

Follower Recs

~*~

I'd like to make a rec or two for WIP week!

The first is this one, a SVSSS crossover where BingQui raised WWX, and it's a fix-it from the point after WWX breaks the Wens out of Qiongqi pass. The author said they only had a couple scenes left before it was complete, and despite it's unfinished state, it's still a pretty complete read!

回家/Huí jiā

by Exaigon

T, WIP, 68k, Wangxian & Bingqiu

Summary: Wei Wuxian makes his way back to the parents who raised him. Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe are inordinately pleased by this, and aren't willing to entertain the cultivation world's silly thoughts about their son being evil and needing to be killed.

~*~

Next is a Royalty AU with Royal Lans and Concubine WWX playing identity shenanigans on everyone but LWJ. Political intrigue! Mystery! Angst! Silly outsider POVs! The first two parts of the story are complete, but the third is not, but what is there is very good!

The Concubine Mo Chronicles

by Enigmatree

T, Series, WIP, 99k, Wangxian

Summary: An AU where the Lan Xichen is the Emperor; Lan Wangji is the Crown Prince; the Jin, Jiang, and Nie are Dukedoms; and even 13 years dead, Wei Wuxian is still the most feared man in all of China. Newly resurrected, Wei Wuxian would love nothing more than to cultivate a core and go become a rogue cultivator. Except, there's something very suspicious going on in the Imperial Palace, and while Wei Wuxian might not be able to help Lan Wangji in solving it, the unassuming and soft-spoken "Prince-Concubine Mo" sure can.

~*~

And finally, one of my new faves. An Addams Family AU! A locked fic though! Each individual chapter is it's own story that are all loosely connected, but it's still very funny!!

The Altogether Ooky WangXian Family

by FluffyHippogriff

T, WIP, 64k, Wangxian

Summary: This was a perfectly normal town, once upon a time. Perfectly normal people with perfectly normal hobbies and perfectly normal jobs leading perfectly normal lives. And then the perfectly abnormal family at 0001 Cemetery Lane enrolled their oldest child in school, unleashing countless "horrors" upon their fellow citizens. [Chapters are individual stories, with loose sitcom-esque overarching narrative]

~*~

(Please REBLOG as a signal boost for these hard-working authors if you like – or think others might like – these stories.)

[ultfreakme]

Danmei ask, what are your top 5 (or top 7) favorite moments from MDZS? Also, can I ask why you love those 3 (JC, WWX , XXC)?

(Riki, I'm so glad when found out you also love Jiang Cheng. You must know how many haters on his character in tumblr and twitter. Like, I was blocked 4 times by MDZS lover blog, when they knew I love Jiang Cheng.)

I love reading your MDZS/ SVSSS crossover, they're so in character.....And yes, SQQ must love Sukuna and Jogo if he ever read JJK...

Thanks for the ask Anon!!

Top 7 moments:

When we find out the Jiang Cheng sacrificed himself to the Wens to save Wei Wuxian. It was dropped so casually and I had to backtrack and go "wait, wait, WAIT! DISCUSS IT PLEASE!!"

The juniors in the Yi City arc, they were so adorable, I loved reading them putting on a brave face and investigating.

Wei Wuxian murdering the crap out of Wen Chao with his sexy undead ladies. Him and Jiang Cheng together torturing him while Lan Wangji was sent out and it's like, LWJ is confused, shocked, and horrified.

The scene where Wei Wuxian's roasting Jin Guangshan at the conference post-war and everyone's scandalized. I love it when Wei Wuxian gets bitchy.

Jiang Cheng's intro scene in the donghua where he emerges from the shadows of that tree, pushing aside the leaves. That's so hot of him.

Wei Wuxian covered in blood in the second siege of Burial Mounds and Lan Wangji is defending him. That scene's so cool and romantic in all its iterations. The donghua went above and beyond and made it seem like a wedding.

Jiang Cheng giving Zidian to Jin Ling ;_; It hurts me. It's so much worse knowing that MXTX was planning on killing Jin Ling soon after to really hurt Jiang Cheng.

Reasons I like:

Jiang Cheng-

He's so complicated! You can't immediately look at him and say he's the good guy or the bad guy. I personally think he leans more towards the good guy category.

He's the perfect opposite of Wei Wuxian, he's not a genius cultivator like wwx, he had to work for every bit of progress he made. He started off simply wanting to keep his family together and at peace, but the war happened and his priorities shifted. He's duty-bound, he's always fighting and scraping to be recognized but no one ever does. He wanted so bad to help wwx, but duty made it so that he was forced to pick between his sect and wwx. Forever chained, closed off.

He's jealous and vicious and so, so angry. I get it, I understand the worst parts of him and relate to it.

Wei Wuxian-

Again, super complicated as a person. Wronged at every turn. He wanted to do good and protect people, and for that he kept sacrificing himself over and over again with little value given to himself as a person. He's got his sharp edges and cruelty too, and I feel like people often forget that Wei Wuxian's traumas and his lack of self-appreciation and value on himself show in ugly and vicious ways.

His story obviously shows a key message of MDZS, which is that when people sacrifice themselves thinking that they're protecting their loved one, they only hurt them in another way. I understood his desire to do good, protect people, but there's no one to stand at his side. The loneliness and fear that comes with fucking up so bad that no one even tries to hear you out, no one's listening no matter how loud you shout.

Xiao Xingchen:

He's like Wei Wuxian but 100% times worse and more self-sacrificial. Too trusting, too good, and everyone kept taking advantage of that without bothering to guide him or be honest with him. Like legit, no one told him what they were truly thinking.

I love that xxc wants to be a good person, i hate that he was ruined for it. God I really wanted him to have a happy ending because he's just, he's so NICE. In a world filled with betrayal and deceit, xxc wanted to spread goodness. And yet.

AAHHHHHH

I think these characters made me see the point of MDZS in a very clear way, or in a way that impacted me most. So they're my faves.

Being a Jiang Cheng liker is a struggle! I was getting into MDZS even before the donghua started airing, like around 2018 and back then Jiang Cheng hate was so bad. I kept waiting year after year for the hate to go down but it just got worse the more popular MDZS got. The misunderstandings built up too. I got black and got into a million arguments too ;_; We have to stick together!!!

i have so many thoughts about Jiang Cheng specifically because, okay I read and watched everything about 3 years ago, so I don't remember much other than my fav, so I'm always thinking about everything he did.

nbsdhfb SQQ's monster-loving ass would go gaga for Sukuna. Four armed man wrecking people??? Yes sir! (side note; big tall powerful man who is called king who is only nice to his close servant and confidante???? SQH come get your boy!)

[marshymeds]

What are your fave scenes from each Mxtx work?

I probably don’t need to say this, but I will anyway! SPOILERS for SVSSS, TGCF, and MDZS below!

Ill start with TGCF since it was the first I read. There are so many scenes that I loved, and this series was so long its a bit hard to narrow down, but everything in the White No-Face arc was impactful to me specifically. The 100 sword scene, the drunk scene, the suicide scene…I just think the arc did a really good job of portraying how helpless Xie Lian felt. There was literally nothing good happening. But my FAVORITE scene from it all was the bit where the man came back, in the rain, to apologize for being angry and tell Xie Lian to suck it up and get out of the rain. Something about the scene was so incredibly human, both for Xie Lian and the man. We have a tendency to see bad and assume there will only be bad, and it wasn’t just that it was a “happier” ending to it all. It was interesting and very REAL to see someone who had yelled at him for no reason turn around and apologize, explain he’d had a bad day, and then help him out without babying him.

MDZS was the second I delved into (technically at the same time as SVSSS but that’s not important) and I loved it for a lot of the same reasons. My favorite scene is probably the one where Lan Wangji visits Yiling and runs into Wen Yuan and Wei Wuxian. Everything about the setting was bittersweet—despite all of their disagreements in the past and the situation they’re in now they walk on egg shells and just sort of. Be friends for a bit. And then, Wei Wuxian, who knows on some degree that he’s ruining himself to save these people, walks in on the Wens throwing him a large dinner. And Wen Qing says they were AFRAID to ask him. That they thought he was some scary lofty figure but have grown so grateful that they want to give back somehow. And he just feels as if it doesn’t matter anymore how hard it is. Something felt so…painful but heartwarming about this scene. Like watching an old video that includes a family member that passed away or finding something from a friendship that didnt end well but was happy at the time. Im not sure if that makes sense. In that moment, despite their troubles, they just got to exist.

For SVSSS I’ll cheat and choose something from the extras because its kind of a tie. I loved the Bamboo Branch Poem extra so much, I love Zhuzhi Lang and Tianlang-Jun’s familial relationship a lot. The Airplane extras are also very near and dear to me as a moshang lover, but I love the bit specifically where Shang Qinghua runs away and Mobei-Jun tries to take him back and is actively making concessions to do so (carrying him, offering to make noodles) because

Overall, I think what I love most about MXTX books is how human the characters seem. Theres never a “good” or “bad” outcome necessarily. The Banyue arc is a good example in TGCF, or Wei Wuxian’s struggle to save the Wen prisoners in vain and tearing himself and his relationships apart in the process in MDZS. The gods in tgcf are more human than god, and the cultivators in mdzs and svsss are still flawed despite all their training and skills. Scum Villain is a bit different because it comments a lot of fandom culture and media consumption but ultimately its commenting about the READER instead of a character—still in a very human way.

I hope that wasn’t all gibbrish—I’ve been drawing and thinking about this question for a bit now and my mind is soupy from a busy week. So I hope my thoughts make sense. Thanks for the chance to ramble a bit and I wish you a great weekend ❤️🫶

[ineffectualdemon]

Hello....I'm not the anon who asked YOI & SVSSS, but can I ask the same questions (fave characters/why you love them and fave moments) but this time about MDZS? Thanks if you want to answer.....

Absolutely happy to answer!

Top 5 MDZS characters!

5. A-Yuan/Lan Sizhui: baby A-Yuan was so so cute and fun but I also really enjoy how he's just this good guy. He's calm and patient and kind but he's also not like outstanding or a genius. He's just a dutiful nice young man with two dads and a dead uncle. Anyway he just makes me happy

4. Lan Wangji: controversial I know to put him so low. I do love him just not as much as some of the other characters. I love how autistic he's coded since I am autistic. I love how he basically wrote Wei Wuxian a note that said "get out of my school" because he couldn't handle his crush but was devastated when Wei Wuxian got out of his school.

I love his desperate attempts to help Wei Wuxian. I especially love how he had grown in the years of their separation. While Wei Wuxian always saw him as confident before Wei Wuxian's death I see a Lan Wangji who was unsure and uncomfortable and not clear on how to help or what to do.

Whereas Lan Wangji post Wei Wuxian's resurrection is completely confident in himself and his decisions. He's able to tease and flutter Wei Wuxian the way he had flustered Lan Wangji before. It's a realistic maturity he's been granted

3. Wei Wuxian: I love his energy and how morally grey he is. He has strong convictions and does what he thinks is right but (at least in his first life) he also believes that his ends justify his means.

He is impulsive, charming, oblivious to his own sexuality to an incredibly familiar degree, and can dish out teasing but can't take it

He loves with his whole being but he also hates with his whole being. He's a creature of absolutes which I love

He also really needed to explain things better to people in his life holy fuck

I also like how death matured him. He has regrets and wishes he did some things differently and is just calmer post resurrection which is good

I also like how he is very much an unreliable narrator because his perception and reality are not at all the same

2. Lan Jingyi: the most un-Lanlike Lan to ever Lan. He picks fights with everyone, he's loud, he'd abrasive, he picks on Jin Ling, he picks fights with sect leaders!

I love him

1. Jiang Cheng: he is a complete asshole but I love him. I just feel for him with his story. His mom was abusive, his dad was neglectful of him, he felt unwanted and a failure and everything impressive or good that he did was overshadowed by Wei Wuxian who he still loved! And tried to help and protect in his own way for a long time only for it to feel like it had all been thrown back in his face in favour of strangers

Like if you really think about the story from his perspective it's hard not to feel for Jiang Cheng. He's angry and hurt and an asshole but also he loves his close ones, especially Jin Ling, so much. And Jin Ling feels so safe with him. He never worries that Jiang Cheng will harm him but he's worried about disappointing him. But the way Jin Ling is loyal to Jiang Cheng speaks volumes

Jiang Cheng is selfish. In thst he wants to protect what's his and only that but that's also what makes him interesting

There is a lot I identity with when it comes to Jiang Cheng and feel like at the end of the novel there is a door open for him and Wei Wuxian to heal even though it will never be what it was

Top 5 moments

5. When Young Wei Wuxian first meets Lan Wangji and in particular the aftermath where he says out of no where about Lan Wangji not liking him "he's not that pretty" only to internally realise he is that pretty and ignore the pouty feeling Lan Wangji ignoring him gives him

Like that is so incredibly gay and the fact he doesn't realise it is just...I was like that at 15 I get it

4. When Lan Wangji in the cave is done with Wei Wuxian's shit and bites him. How can you not love that scene?

3. Jiang Cheng being physically restrained trying to protect Wei Wuxian from his mother in front of the Wens. As badly as it goes I really think that's an insight into his real character and a moment that highlights why they were willing to go to such lengths for each other (cause remember Jiang Cheng only lost his core because he got caught so Wei Wuxian could escape)

2. The Kiss on Phoenix Mountain: I mean it's iconic isn't it? Also definitely opened a door for Wei Wuxian I'm just saying. Someone acquired a kink that day ...

1. The confession scene. Again it's just iconic with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji ruining Jin Guangyao's villain moment by being gay and in love is just *chefs kiss* actually the whole temple scene where Wei Wuxian's various relationship drama is aired out while Jin Guangyao is like "hello? This was my big emotional moment?" Is just brilliant

[hunxi-after-hours]

O Soul (lol, sorry! couldn't help it!), rewatching SHJX made me recall that top fave moments you did for QianQiu, and now I wanna know if you've got any top 5 (eh, or any other number, 5 is just feels like a, IDK, default?) favourite svsss scenes/moments? *grabby hands*

hmmmmm I gotta admit my grasp of SVSSS has been steadily waning as time goes on, but here's a quick list in no particular order:

chapter 43: 主角卒,全剧终: I'm still yelling over the goddamn AUDACITY of this title. also probably my favorite emotional turn of the novel

the fact that when Shang Qinghua's identity gets revealed, there's this beat of stunned silence and then Shen Qingqiu fucking lays into him with years worth of suppressed literary critique. peak comedy

in the part where Shen Qingqiu has been taken hostage by Zhuzhi-lang and Tianlang-jun and Luo Binghe shows up in his tent because he has no sense of self-preservation, because I think I laughed my entire way through that scene where Shen Qingqiu carefully positions Zhuzhi-lang so he can't see Luo Binghe but Luo Binghe continually pops out of his blanketed hiding spot. exquisitely blocked and rendered slapstick comedy

Shen Qingqiu yelling 安全第一/"safety first!" when he, Liu Qingge, and Luo Binghe go on their sword roadtrip

that time Luo Binghe negotiates them down to two rooms on their flying sword roadtrip by reminding them who's paying the bill. one (1) right for demon twink

at some point I had a screenshot collection ongoing of Shen Qingqiu facepalming/rolling his eyes

that time Yue Qingyuan and Liu Qingge throw hands for Shen Qingqiu in front of the rest of the cultivation world but deny it with the laziest deadpan excuses. "My hand slipped" "my eyes are getting old" sldkfjsldkfj you two PLEASE

every time Shen Qingqiu starts a roast with 打住 or ended it with a supremely passive aggressive 谢谢. his internal voice is to die for

that time Mu Qingfang utterly roasted Qi Qingqi and like... no one commented on it? no one noticed?? I fully yelled

齐清萋把茶盏在桌上重重一搁，挑目道：“不错。那怎么可能。洛冰河这厮现在要是还敢上苍穹山来，人人见他就是一剑！” 坐在一旁笼着袖子的木清芳随口道：“那也得刺得中他呀。”

Qi Qingqi placed the tea back on the table with an emphatic "thunk" and raised an eyebrow, saying, "You're right, how could that be possible? That pest Luo Binghe wouldn't dare to come up Cangqiong Moutnain now. Everyone who saw him would stab him!"

Mu Qingfang, seated to one side and wrapped in his voluminous sleeves, casually said, "They'd have to be able to hit him first."

ALL THE RIGHTS FOR MED BRO, ALL OF THEM

[ben-wisehart]

In ur SVSSS meta on SY being gay, u mentioned how his 'fave' wife LMY is the one who Binghe doesn't have a sex scene with... I think it also is in reverse with his least favorite wife SHL: she's the 'seductive/sly' one and v popular with the male fans aka recurring sex and I find it pretty telling that she & LMY intro together and he Hates Her. She's not all that textually into LBH (if ever), but SQQ uses his view of her character to align his Binghe Is Designed Hot So No Homo parameters

GOD REMEMBER THAT TIME HE SNEAKILY CUT HER NAILS FOR HER BECAUSE HE HATED HOW SHE ALWAYS SCRATCHED UP BINGHE'S BACK DURING SEX

Like my darling. Light of my life. You are a simp.

It's really fucking funny how he's ostensibly really excited to see BOTH female leads introduced and doesn't specifically single LMY out despite the fact that the Airplane Extra makes it pretty obvious he likes her best, and yet as soon as they actually appear it's "Shen Qingqiu was very fond of this female lead" (LMY) vs "He couldn't believe anyone could bring themselves to like her" (SHL). Like you just KNOW any time SY talked about SHL online it went "I like Sha Hualing! I just think she's (insert ten page dissertation on why she's annoying and toxic and isn't good for Binghe)"

I'm not sure exactly what you mean by SHL not being textually into Binghe, though? I'm pretty sure she was, at least for a while. But I might be misunderstanding your last sentence. Do you mean Liu Mingyan?

[dangermousie]

top 'this is NOT how sexual intercourse works' moments in danmei

Bwahahahahahhahaha!

I am going to leave out the very common "and his dick is a foot long and he can go all night" trope (it's common in both danmei and het, and western romances as well, at this point it would be shorter to list works with explicit sex scenes that don't have that!)

I am also going to leave out the "this position can only be achieved by a trained acrobat" bits because hey, cultivators are hella flexible.

And I am also gonna pass by any bits where participant is not human - for example, at one point in The Reader and Protagonst Definitely Have to Be in True Love, Xie turns into a humanoid dragon (don't ask) and possesses two dicks. I've never met a dragon, humanoid or not, so who am I to say they don't have two dicks?

The crazy thing, there are still plenty of OMG moments. Some of my "faves:"

1. Wei Wuxian's self lubricating behind in MZDS. I am sorry, this is not how human body works! Don't be cheap and buy some lube. The people in The Wife Is First will happily sell you some from their shop at discount. It's not the only novel that does this (hi, Yu She!) but MDZS was my very first danmei and I remember going ????!!!!! After reading many danmei, I get pathetically excited when someone mentions any form of lubrication, heh.

PS The only time I didn't go !!!! at one of these things was in Yuwu, where Meatbun at least bothered to tell us Gu Mang's body has been altered and made demonic and demons do produce lubrication there. I mean, I still would be happier without but at least it doesn't break my logical brain.

Honestly, I adore MZDS but sometimes I wonder if MXTX has full understanding of how human body works. (He put a sword hilt WHERE?!)

2. Luo Binghe's "meat pillar" (no, that's the term used in the translation) with "green veins." PLS SEE A DOCTOR!!!! (Though the sex scenes in SVSSS are at least biologically possible so other than that, the novel gets a pass!)

3. Du Ze remembers kissing undead Xie to help him survive in The Reader and Protagonist Definitely Have to Be In True Love. Fine. But at that point Xie is a skeleton literally. Also fine. But he remembers entangling their tongues. WHAT TONGUE DOES A SKELETON HAVE?! I am not sure I want to know!

4. This is physically possible but it drives me nuts so I am going to mention it. In Wu Chang Jie, in possibly the most gonzo sex scene, Zixiao forces Ziheng in an underground cave. OK. And at the very end, Zixiao, a big fan of facials, unloads at Ziheng's chest, face and hair. Yes - THE LOOSE LONGASS HAIR THEY ALL GOT DOWN TO THEIR BUTTS. They are in a cave. There may be an underground water source but still cave with no towels or soap or anything. HOW THE HELL DO THEY CLEAN UP?! All we get is Ziheng waking up all cleaned up and I am trying to imagine - did Zixiao drag his unconscious self into some underground pool and scrub the stuff out of his hair? How and with what? Did he perform a magic spell?! I can't help, I am detail oriented.

5. Once again, if you have tentacles, I suppose they can work that way, how would I know, I have never hung out with an octopus, but every time the ML of The Villain Is Outrageously Beautiful...ahem...spreads his tentacles, I crack up.

[layzeal]

I can tell you this has made me consider Situations.

So without further ado, here's a list of mxtx characters that I could be friends with and potentially introduce to my mom, ranging from "this would cause irreparable damage to our relationship" to "she would invite them again in a heartbeat" (caveat: I've only watched what's out of the svsss donghua and I'm still at the very start of the tgcf novel so this is very mdzs oriented. If a character isn't here it's because I don't know them or I wouldn't be friends with them 🧡). Also warning my mom is an otherwise kind and generous 70-something woman whose love language is making fun of you in a devastatingly accurate way at the most unexpected moment.

Dishonorable mention. Xue Yang: no. Just no. She doesn't know of his existence and we're keeping it that way. Xue Yang is not even allowed to be in the same country as her, I'm straight up putting him in a plane when my mom comes to visit. Can't risk it.

17. Luo Binghe: honestly okay as a friend (although the drama gives me headaches) and I'd tell my mom about him in passing, but they can never meet. He seems nice on the surface but he manages to make any mundane thing look unhinged. Too big of a risk, if anything happens it might be the thing that destroys all the progress my mom and I have made over the years

16. Nie Huaisang: my mom hates whiny people. He'd get tipsy and make a scene, negative points out of 10. She would not really endorse our friendship because of his whole lack of work ethics thing. However he's insufferable in a normal way so he's still above Binghe.

15. Mo Xuanyu: I love him and I hate to say it, but he's too queer for my mom. She's making progress but she might never get there. She'd be very nice to him though but it'd be awkward for everyone involved. Pass.

14. Liu Qinghe: he's rude and abrasive. I get it but she won't. If he could get a grip on himself she might like him though. Tentatively placed not at the bottom on the off chance he might just be very quiet and at most scoff once in a while.

13. Shen Qingqiu (Yuan): she would probably like his facade but if he slips up it's all over. He's not that bad but if he goes on a rant she would judge him for the rest of her life and make underhanded comments about him on the phone. Might be willing to take the gamble as long as Binghe isn't tagging along.

12. Jin Guangyao: she can tell something is deeply Wrong with him so she wouldn't like him (she likes authenticity and gets weary of people who are hiding stuff) but she'd appreciate his politeness. He's showing up with a gift and he says all the right things but he deflects all her teasing which she takes personally. Potentially she might pity him a bit if she figures out that he's just too stressed to relax, which hopefully he might not notice. Most likely she might think that HE doesn't want to be friends with her and that's why he's maintaining the faux polite act. She asks about him on the phone but it's a bit stilted. If he could relax and be more genuine around her, she'd like him, but thats not gonna happen

11. Song Lan: he's nice and polite and he brought a little something as a gift so she's already on board. However he's a bit austere and not very talkative so it doesn't get any further. She'd comment on how handsome he is afterwards though.

10. Lan Wangji: at first she wouldn't really like him because again she doesn't like people who are too quiet but his manners are impeccable and he'd help her with the dishes and share some anecdotes about our friendship and she would love him although when talking on the phone she'd say something like "he's special but he's a nice young man". She wouldn't try to make fun of him thought so they can never really become close.

9. Xiao Xingchen: she can tell he's Weird but hes quick to laugh and an absolute sweetheart. He lacks too much of a backbone to be one of her faves but she definitely asks news of him once in a while.

8. Jiang Cheng: hard to place.... she would dislike his initial everything, but if he gets even just a little bit vulnerable in front of her she would love him. Maybe she makes a little bit of a mean joke to shut down his whole bravado act and he gets flustered enough for her to get to what's really under the surface. She takes a very no bullshit approach with him and I think it might really work tbh. She's sharing baby parenting tips with him by the end of the evening. She sends me links for baby stuff so I can forward them to him.

7. Mianmian: she speaks her mind but she's kind and polite, that's a win! My mom would try to steal her kid but that's fair game. Tries to talk about social issues at the dinner table though which my mom usually tries to avoid, so she gets points off. If they can get to talk about this stuff after dinner though my mom would love to chat and share memories about her childhood or the times during the war. She also sends me links for baby stuff for her.

6. Wen Qing: she has a bite, she's polite and straight forward, she has a great career and comes with stellar recommendations, that's a bingo! My mom would not only love her, she would keep looking at me very pointedly. She is seeing the daughter in law opportunity. I keep telling her I'm not into her like that and she keeps saying "that's a shame.... maybe one day"

5. Wen Ning: she would treat him like a baby bird. He's a bit too quiet for her but she would be able to tell he's just shy so she'd spend some time alone with him to get him out of his shell and ask some kind questions about his life. On the phone she tells me to say hi to him on her behalf because he's such a nice young man and also she hopes I'm taking good care of him. She'd also make fun of him a bit but then add a little "no no he's nice I'm being mean". They send each other pictures of their garden once in a while but otherwise they don't really talk and they're very comfortable with it. They go on babysitting dates with a-yuan and her grandchildren. Pretty sure Wen Ning would love her more than me in the end.

4. Nie Mingjue: he's loud he's manly he's respectful he's complimenting her on the food and her outfit. What's not to love. She tries to tease him a bit but he takes it seriously and starts getting a little bit teary so she immediately aborts. Also he clears the table without being prompted and maybe tries to fix the leak in my bathroom before leaving. She's charmed. She's adding him to my brother's artisan network within the week.

3. Lan Xichen: she would love him more than me and take his side over mine if we'd ever get into a fight. She'd make fun of him a bit as a joke and he wouldn't know what to do but ultimately laugh along, which she would find hilarious and adorable. They do end up laughing together at some anecdote or another. As soon as he gets the hang of it he'd be very good at making subtle digs at people which she would find delightful. He listens to her talk about documentaries and adds relevant commentary. She's gonna ask news of him everytime we're on the phone now. Might ask periodically if we're still sure we're both too gay for this to work out, just in case. She tells me to give him her number in case of an emergency.

2. Wei Wuxian: he's charming he's polite he's clever he's witty he can tell a good story and more than anything else he can take a good joke. They're ribbing each other 30min into the conversation and anyone who tries to pitch in gets instantly roasted by the both of them. They talk about their love for babies for so long I have to exile myself to the kitchen to escape from it. They get each other's number and within the month they have a dozen inside jokes about me. It's great because both of them understand what the boundaries for this are, it's devastating because they make the other 40% worse on sight.

1. Xie Lian: they love each other at first glance. They're making inside jokes barely halfway into the night. She's getting the sweet wine out to chat into the night with him. They don't exchange numbers but my mom keeps asking when he's going to stop by next and also how does he feel about hiking with her sometimes. I don't understand how this works but also i can't deny it in my gut.

I'M LOSING MY MIIIIND THIS IS THE FUNNIEST THING I'VE EVER READ

[suibianjie]

With the year ending, let's look back at what we did! What are your favorite creations you did or the ones you think deserve more love? Send this to 5 other creators to share the love

Thank you! (also thank you @highwarlockkareena and @yibo-wang for the tags as well ❤)

5 fave creations from this year:

[Lan Jingyi’s iconic line from the Yi City arc] - when I pick stills for posts like this, I flip through them frame by frame to pick the perfect shot. It was very fun to look at all of different faces Wei Wuxian and Lan Jingyi made for this scene 😂

[SVSSS + AO3 tags] - the idea for this one came from a chat with the pals, where the question was asked “so is SVSSS technically non-canon?” 🤣 Had so much fun picking out tags and selecting scenes to gif. 

[Wangxian in Yunmeng Jiang purple] - I really enjoy doing photomanips, and this one is probably my favorite so far.  

[Lans + their reaction to Su She] - no one side-eyes quite like Gusu Lan, and I was chuckling almost non-stop while making these gifs lol

[CQL Lan Wangji with his donghua look] - another photomanip. Doing these are always a fun challenge. I think it’s kind of like solving a puzzle? Makes the brain go brr 😁

And here’s 5 posts that got less attention than others (but I love them regardless and have no plans to stop lol)

[Hua Cheng s2 trailer photomanip] - this took longer than most to do because I had to paint in a lot of hair and tweak the shading, but I’m super happy with how it came out.

[CQL Hanguang-jun, in the style of MDZS Q] - listen, I’d pay an irresponsible amount of money to see a chibi version of CQL

[Wangxian on an evening stroll] - got to use a lot of filters and techniques I usually don’t have a reason to use, plus they look so soft I just 😭

[Demonic Cultivator Jiang Wanyin] - not taking any critiques on this one but Jiang-zongzhu with dark eyeshadow (!!!!!)

[Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji photomanip set] - idk, it came out pretty so I like it lol

[agendratum]

For the ask game: svsss

important warning! i'm going into this with mostly just the knowledge of first volume/season, so i don't know a lot of things

blorbo (favorite character, character I think about the most)

shen qingqiu! listen, he's relatable, hilarious, meta, and also isn't he just the blorbo of all blorbos? he's literally among his blorbos and yet he keeps telling himself that they're just blorbos from his show novel but really they're blorbos from his life

scrunkly (my “baby”, character that gives me cuteness aggression, character that is So Shaped)

little luo binghe :C my boy :C

scrimblo bimblo (underrated/underappreciated fave)

so, i have no clue, who's appreciated enough, who's not. but i have a feeling that mu qingfang might be a decent character, who can go under the radar because of his, stay with me, donghua mustache

glup shitto (obscure fave, character that can appear in the background for 0.2 seconds and I won’t shut up about it for a week)

judging by how EXCITED i got when mobei-jun showed up for 3 seconds, for now, till i get to know more characters, he's the glup shitto

poor little meow meow (“problematic”/unpopular/controversial/otherwise pathetic fave)

gotta be airplane-bro. i only had him for 10 pages, but he's great. he's exactly what i imagined him to be, i'm so happy about that. really pathetic

horse plinko (character I would torment for fun, for whatever reason)

probably sqq, yeah. that's the whole point, right?

eeby deeby (character I would send to superhell)

i don't yet acquired the character that i would want to send to superhell. but i think i know who canonically goes to eeby deeby in a very plot important scene, so important, that if this character didn't end up in eeby deeby, it would destroy everything. you know, that famous scene? when shen qingqiu kicks luo binghe down to eeby deeby? that one

[setsailtomorrow]

hi lisaaa here have 3 😊 💘 😭

Maggie you're my fave ❤️❤️❤️

😊 A fic that made you smile on a bad day: something wangxian, modern au with a-yuan and bunnies probably. there's lots of them and they're all generally soft and wonderful. i have lots of recs if anyone is interested!

💘 A fic you couldn't stop reading once you started: my most recent one here is a bingqiu/svsss fic, and i know people following me aren't really into that fandom but this fic!! Loaded God Complex, Cock It And Pull It - 70k, i started reading it by the breakfast table on a saturday and then... suddenly the whole day had gone.

😭 A fic that ripped your heart out (but it hurt so good): imma god old school! @mediawhorefics and she knows it's my fave, Through Eerie Chaos. that scene at the nursing home... the whole fic is just *mwah*

fic rec ask

[spockandawe]

1, 2, 3!

Ooh, let’s see!

1. Tell us about your current project(s)  – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

Okay, so I have tabs open for several likely wips where inspiration might strike at any time, but my big focus right now is in the fic I refer to interchangeably as ‘diet bingge’ or ‘bingge lite’. I hit a wall for a little while, but I’m trying to get back into it. This is (one of) my svsss feynite-inspired aus of aus situations. And it’s basically here, because I love all the svsss characters a LOT, and it is remarkably hard to keep them all alive and happy, not in the least because one of my biggest faves (shen jiu) technically dies before he ever appears. Also, I multiship like whoa, and the scope of a jianghu setting intimidates me, so the iwywmh dreamer-in-the-spring-boudoir-based harem setting.... it is a good fit for me.

So! My initial impulse. In the iwywmh “canon” setting, shen qingqiu gets killed by luo binghe, kinda... accidentally. An ‘I didn’t realize my own strength’ situation, after they’ve had a horrible falling out and shen qingqiu’s marriage has been effectively destroyed. My initial impulse was ‘but what if he.... didn’t die, though’

It opens up a really interesting story is what happens!!!

Because, okay. I’m not going to rehash all of the original story’s backstory, because it’s So Much, feynite’s fics and comments are packed full of solid gold. But in this situation, Shen Qingqiu has watched his marriage dissolve out from under him, and he’s heartbroken and furious, and just got framed (partly by binghe) for the death of his husband’s baby-in-progress (with another man). He’s lost everything he valued most. He no longer has a will to live. Binghe, on the other hand, is kinda horrified at what he just almost did, because he hates his shizun, definitely, but also.... shizun is the most important person to him. So with that tweak, I’ve saddled him with a Shen Qingqiu who he just almost killed, who has no will of his own to keep going, and he’s trying to make his way in the world.

Also liu qingge is there, and also shen sha yuan eventually, and they’re all important, but the shen jiu + binghe dynamic is the core of this story for me. Because what happens is that they kind of despise each other, but also.... Shen Jiu accidentally makes Binghe a much, much better person. He’s not nearly as soft as the Binghe of the original fic, but he’s not the Bingge of the original fic either, not by a long shot. And the emotional balance is fraught for some time, and is slow to get more healthy, but my boy gets there! And it’s kind of a situation like the last svsss verse I posted, where I was like ‘wow, I have no idea who will be willing to take this trip with me, but I tripped into a concept I find fascinating, and I hope people will join me’

This is the first story I’ve written in a long time where I’m letting myself diverge sharply from a flowing narrative with the minimum number of povs. I actually have to take like 20k of wip out of second person, because I’ve got like four major povs I need to bounce between constantly (binghe, shen jiu, liu qingge, shen yuan) and one or two side povs I need to flush out other bits of story (shang qinghua and maybe mobei-jun) (outside chance of liu mingyan too, goddd). I just made the decision a few days ago to split this into chapters, so I’d be able to post something soonish, but I did stall out for a while, because the scope is pretty overwhelming. And in the end, I’m not even sure it will work as A Narrative, because I don’t even know how it concludes, but I’m working on making my peace with that XD I’ve got close to 30k in a document, and still ages to go, so I badly want to pull it into a shape I can share, but.... it’s so much story, hahaha XDD

(my document with working notes for this is ‘SHIZUN GET BACK HERE AND GRADE MY FINAL PROJECT’, which also lives in my head rent-free as a working fic title. actually titling this fic is going to be a bear)

2. Tell us about what you’re most looking forward to writing – in your current project, or a future project

Oh, hmm. I think... If I’m sticking to projects where I actually can picture the scenes in question, I think I’ll have to go with the xuexiao wip that I’m going to return to any day, I swear, where I get into the actual dialog of the humiliation kink. It’s going to be a really interesting emotional balance, which is part of why I’ve been putting it off (I need to be in just the right mood, y’know?), but I’ll be in Xue Yang’s head, and I want to roll around in the way he gets to let loose with his crueler impulses, and the satisfaction that comes with it... plus a side serving of emotional self-harm, because he’s got extremely mixed feelings about making Xiao Xingchen hurt, and this is showing him all the ways he could dig the knife in deeper, which is theoretically what Xiao Xingchen agreed to, but is Xue Yang even enjoying this anymore??? Anyways, I love a good excuse to write top drop. Some of the top drop is written so far, but I’ll have to edit it based on how the scene itself plays out

3. What is that one scene that you’ve always wanted to write but can’t be arsed to write all of the set-up and context it would need? (consider this permission to write it and/or share it anyway)

Oh my god, I want to write the whole peak lord liu mingyan au, but it’s another one where I don’t have a narrative so much as a whole bunch of sequential moments in a story. But I am COMPLETELY committed to giving Shen Jiu a happier life, and if that means flipping the liu siblings around so that Liu Qingge is Luo Binghe’s peer (and drags him up the hill to Bai Zhan Peak instead of Qing Jing), and they are both shamelessly corrupting Shen Qingqiu’s favorite disciple, Shen Yuan, then... I’ll....... try to do it. Eventually :X If I had to pick a single scene, it would probablyyyy be the aftermath of this version of the abyss (the focus is the shen jiu + liu mingyan frenemyship, but the background is bingliushen)

But also, I want to write the canon version, where people accuse Shen Jiu of creeping on women for violently unfair reasons, and where he’s unfairly blamed for Peak Lord Liu Mingyan’s death in the Lingxi Caves, but now there’s an additional flavor of ‘well I bet she rejected him, and he took his anger out on her’ and he very bitterly doesn’t even try to defend himself, because nobody will believe him anyways. And I want to write the fic itself, where her natural big sister energies are exactly what he needs and can never never never admit out loud, and where she’s a comforting presence that he would never admit to needing. 

I have no idea what this fic would even look like, physically! None at all I want it to just Exist, but it’s looking like I have to write it, which means I need to figure out how to write it, and none of this is fair :’)

[rentfreecat]

SVSSS Fanfic Recs

fuck I love reading fanfic about this I just like fell down a hole recently

say it again and again - lqg gets caught in a time loop when he and sqq visit the succubi. sped-read it super quickly so I don’t have that much to say but I’m a liushen shipper, here are my liushen credentials

Secret Route Unlocked - liushen fluff. action. adventure. drama. sqq being sqq and thus a complete fucking idiot. okay but yeah the confession scene, it’s great.

An easy lie - shen jiu, shen yuan’s older brother, is the one who transmigrates into sqq’s body instead. angst. fluff. humor (sj’s snark). utterly amazing. i just kept checking for new updates, luckily there is a very quick update pace.

Insert A Ry’leh Original Title - sqq is an eldritch abomination. he is still incredibly oblivious. even someone like me who can’t stand misunderstandings found this pretty hilarious. you need to read this. pun title too which is always a bonus.

Deluxe System 2.0: Co-op Mode! - after refusing to kick lbh down the endless abyss the system makes sy share sj’s body with sj. stuff and teaching sj to be an actually good teacher then happens. i am trash for sy/sj body sharing fics and so far this doesn’t seem like it’ll pull out (fuck I just realized—) from that too soon so rec!

Falling in love with a Demon Lord - bamf sqq is great. here is a part of me that is just power fantasy trash and also i like how it makes bingshen much more equal. i also kinda love how the author seems to love cool demon monsters just as much as sqq. 

Little House in the Hellscape Prairie - og!binghe is very, very, horny for bamf sqq, and he’s suffering from that because he is an idiot. hilarious. content warnings for, well, og!binghe fantasizing about dubious consent scenarios with sqq.

Ascension - nice character study on bingge!

High Mountain, How I Long - sqq is held captive as an “honored guest” by lbh in huan hua palace. absolutely amazing dream sequence. i love the melancholy mood. sqq please develop even a modicum of basic social skills and just communicate

Scum Villain Archive - oneshot collection. they are all very big and very long. faves are 1, 3, and 23-24.

Scum Villain Fic Dump - oneshot collection. by the force you have to read the star wars one. the nyanzun stuff is pretty cute and funny too.

Scum Villain AUs - yep another oneshot collection! i like transmigrator swap and cucumber planes best of them, though the f/f one is also pretty good.

[ryukoishida]

Not-Really-A-Review: “Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System” [SPOILER WARNING]

SVSSS, simply put, is a really fun, rowdy, yet equally feelsy isekai/transmigration BL novel. The story revolves around Shen Yuan, who died and reincarnated as Shen Qingqiu, the villain in the web novel that he’d just finished reading and absolutely detested for various reasons. The original SQQ ends up being violently killed by Luo Binghe, the pure-turned-dark protagonist of said novel. Basically, he must do all he can to change the plot and survive.

Things I enjoyed:

How SQQ pokes fun at all the terrible tropes that web novels tend to have

How the System itself acts like a character; I especially like the bickering between the System and SQQ XD

Prose quality is not bad. I did have a hard time understanding some of the Internet slang so thank god for the notes provided on the margins. There were a couple of scenes that especially stood out for me; e.g. when the old leader of Huan Hua Palace got poisoned by the seeds in the Holy Mausoleum and sprouts started growing out of his skin... yeah that image was pretty damn hard to get rid of. 

Great cast of characters. Just to list a few of my faves, we have:  - A protag who pretends to be cool and collected in front of people but is constantly screaming/bickering with the System internally. Also venting about stupid tropes. Also a doting teacher. - A male protag who is fragile/vulnerable and isn’t afraid to show it in front of the one he loves. In fact, he cries so much that SQQ constantly questions his own teaching methods back in the days lol.    - Ngl but honestly? My absolutely fave is Liu Qingge, the lord of Bai Zhan (Thousand Battles) Peak. He’s the type that either hates you or supports you; there’s no in-between. He started off being wary of SQQ because the previous SQQ and he didn’t get along, but after being saved by him, LQG became one of his ally. I dunno, I love the way he mocks SQQ with a straight face and kicks down the door without knocking to enter the room lol :’)   - GONGYI XIAO DESERVES BETTER T.T

If you’re interested in reading the novel after my little blurb, you can read the English translation HERE and the Chinese online version HERE.