#someone sent me an ask for mdzs too I WANNA ANSWER

[lemonade-of-gods]

TGCF fandom- for the Ask Game

The first character I first fell in love with: Shi Qingxuan and He Xuan

The character I never expected to love as much as I do now: Jun Wu. God he's a bastard, but writing him is so fun. Yes bastard man, go and do bastardy things so that I can kick your ass later. I prefer Jiggy to him but he still has a special place in my heart jdshfghsd

The character everyone else loves that I don’t: It's not that I hate him, but I can't bring myself to love Mu Qing as much as everyone does. Western fans kinda go overboard in their Mu Qing defense (which is the direct opposite with Jiang Cheng lmao) and I'm sorry but Mu Qing is not the "eat-the-rich" guy you think he is.

Doesn't mean that I hate him tho. I think witnessing the hualian statues fuck in his backyard is enough punishment lmao

The character I love that everyone else hates: ... TOUGH QUESTION BECAUSE I DON'T THINK THE FANDOM ACTUALLY HATES ANYONE??? (mdzs on the other hand... I HAS OPINIONS)

I do hate the dumbass take that Hua Cheng is a creepy stalker because of the thousand statues and the papapa fanart of dianxia though (for example, in hinduism the linga (representing Shiva) is legit a symbol of Lord Shiva's phallus entering Parvati's womb (the disk the linga is placed on, aka the Yoni) + various real life poets have thirsted on paper for our gods. I assure you, this is not the creepiness you think it is)

The character I used to love but don’t any longer: I like Mei Nianqing, but dude is horrible to Mu QIng. That insecurity did not come from nowhere (honestly, there's no character that I don't love anymore, they're all okay to me)

The character I would totally smooch: Pei Ming sir I am hoe for u (u and Yushi Huang, my favourite threesome!)

(... of gods on a mission. Whatchu looking at me for?)

The character I’d want to be like: Yushi Huang. She's the one goddess that's practically untouchable + she does her own thing and no one disturbs her and everyone else is happy. I am very okay being a rain master lol.

The character I’d slap: Look, I think Book 4 Mu Qing should be slapped once to understand that STANDING AROUND WATCHING YOUR FRIEND BE BULLIED INSTEAD OF DOING SOMETHING, ANYTHING IS BAD. SUPER BAD. YOU'VE BEEN IN THAT POSITION, YOU KNOW HOW IT FEELS LIKE. BRO.

A pairing that I love: Hualian, Junmei, Beefleaf...

A pairing that I despise: For some reason I've never gotten on board with PeiShui. And anything that pairs hualian with other people is not up my alley, sowwy

[beautifulterriblequeen]

[Mu Shu “I live” gif goes here]

SO. TDP posted this today and now I have LIFE. Go read it if you haven’t! I’mma break down all the moonfam goodness I’m seeing peeking around the edges of this very very Moonshadow happysad birthday information.

Runaan and Ethari both like books now. Can you imagine them just sitting together under a tree, casually touching with feet or shoulders, each engrossed in their own book, being delightfully introverted together? Maybe reading each other the most interesting parts of their books as they come across them? Aahhh. It’s so soft.

Rayla is the one who insists on the adoraburr meadow picnics! She’s decided that her stabby dad needs these picnics! I love this so much. Ethari pretends he’s helpless in the wake of Rayla’s picknicky juggernaut, but I gotta ask you: who makes the picnic food? It’s definitely Ethari.

Also! Why does Rayla think picnics are birthday-worthy? I wonder if Lain and Tiadrin did this with her before they left for the Storm Spire. Whose birthday got a picnic? Was it each of them? A family tradition that Rayla adored and insisted on continuing with her new dads! Ohmygod it’s the sweetest thing!

And I’m so soft for the fact that Rayla believes Runaan deserves this birthday celebration ritual even though he’s quiet and stabby. She doesn’t care that he’s a natural loner. He’s family, and she’s going to care about him whether he likes it or not. ohgodmyheart

These big strong dads getting foiled--repeatedly--by a tiny elfling with pockets full of adoraburrs though. Halp.

Okay the moscato detail is sending me, guys. Before Rayla came to live with them, Runaan’s birthday probably consisted of reading under trees and then moscato and a quiet night in. Moscato is a sweet wine, and it’s not very high in alcohol content. Runaan doesn’t really do sweet, so I think he drinks this particular wine for Ethari. But if he’s a lightweight, it could get him tipsy anyway. This page started by telling us that Runaan has a hard time relaxing, so maybe the moscato is his way of uhhh letting down his hair, just for Ethari? holy shnikes it’s my mdzs headcanon

Ethari’s gifts have a whole bunch of little details tucked in there though! Ethari knew Runaan for what seems to be many years before they married. He knew him as a “young assassin.” Awww man, I need all kinds of details there! And of course he spent many hours working on a joke gift for Runaan. A sweet, cute tasteful jeweled mouse. That’s just... I can’t, Ethari is too pure! But I bet he loved to practice his craft and made fun gifts for all his friends. What dedication, though. A true jeweler at heart.

And he’s observant, watching Runaan when Runaan thinks he isn’t being watched. He does that, with Runaan and with Callum in the show. He just likes to watch everyone around him, to know them. Part of his friendly charm! 

Can we get an awww for young Runaan petting an itty bitty Moonstrider? Because awww. Did he pick that one? Is that his mount? Did he insta bond with her and need to take her home that day? I think he might’ve! Runaan seems to make heartfelt decisions in a snap, despite his stoic exterior.

It’s literally a heartbloom flower, that’s its name, I hoped it was. I wanna know all the traditions around those flowers now. They seem very Moonshadow, tied so strongly with life and all its good things.

I’m angsty over the shift in Ethari’s gift choices though. When they were young, he made Runaan a mouse, because he thought the assassin was so quiet. Last year, his gift was supposed to be a three-eyed nightfox, a stabby hunter. Because he thought Runaan would like it. Runaan’s changed so much since they were young, and it makes me have feels. I mean, all the adults have changed. All three dads got harder. But this... ow my feels. Ethari’s just a craftsman in love, trying to make his handsome husband’s stabbiness beautiful. And he does. He looks at Runaan and he sees sleek efficient lines, an apex predator, perfectly suited for his job. He sees Runaan with an artist’s eye, and a lover’s eye. Every move Runaan makes is lovely to Ethari, the epitome of deadly grace. So he crafts his husband a dramatic, lovely fox while Runaan’s in Katolis.

Angst warning!

Runaan had his birthday in Katolis after all. He left home before his birthday, and Ethari took that time to craft the nightfox, to have it ready in time for Runaan’s birthday. But Runaan never came home. Whether he was in the dungeon or the coin, Runaan missed out on sharing that special day with Ethari and Rayla in the meadow. He missed out on those glasses of moscato, on letting Ethari surprise him with yet another jeweled trinket.

Runaan missed his birthday. If you have a birthday in the in-between space of the coin, do you really have a birthday at all? Maybe Aaravos knows the answer to that question.

Okay, more angst, but then a silver lining, okay? I promise.

When Runaan’s lotus sank and Ethari had to ghost Rayla with the rest of the village, he lost the last two members of his family, the two closest to him. In the last five months, Ethari lost every member of the moonfam, and he was completely alone. Three of them ghosted for cowardice, and one dead. Of course his husband remained honorable. But he still died. He still isn’t coming home. He still missed his birthday.

Moonshadows are tightly knit introverts. They need each other very deeply, even though they don’t go around expressing it with every breath. They spend time together and give each other gifts to show their love and affection, instead of blurting their feels with words. Runaan, Ethari, and Rayla were deeply rocked when Lain and Tiadrin supposedly ran away and abandoned their duty. They were each a different kind of mess as a result, but they clung together all the harder. And then, Ethari lost them both. And he was the only one left. 

This is Very Not Good Tee Emm for a Moonshadow. They literally need other Moonshadows to be in their lives. And Ethari is so open with his feels, and they’re so strong for his sweet family, and especially for Runaan, that he was actually dying of his grief. Just like Zubeia, who’d been married to Avizandum for how many elven lifetimes. It’s impossible to live without your heart. You just can’t. And so, Ethari crafted a different trinket. Not one for Runaan. Not anymore. But a trinket in memory of Runaan. A dying weeping-tree leaf. Ethari was going to die of grief for all his lost family, for his lost husband. That trinket? That was for everyone else, after he’d gone. To tell them why he died. He spent hours on it, making it with all his usual focus and dedication. Because it was going to be his very last piece. He wanted it to be just right.

Okay now I’ll make it a little better, yeah?

First of all, obviously, Rayla came back! Ethari isn’t going to die. He’s living for Rayla, helping her out, supporting her with everything he’s got, fighting to get her un-ghosted. She’s the only family he has. She’s his world now, and he’s never going to stop loving and supporting her, ever again.

But secondly, *hands you tissues* surely Runaan knew his husband deep down, after all their years together. He may have been a stabby nightfox on the outside, but his heart was attuned to Ethari’s. When he saved Rayla, he did it for love of her. But when he told her to go home...

...He knew, guys. He knew how terribly Ethari would suffer if he lost literally everyone in such a short span. He knew it would be the end of Ethari, that he couldn’t take such a devastating blow on top of the one they’d already suffered.

Runaan didn’t just save Rayla for her own sake. He saved her so Ethari would still have someone to love and care for. So his husband would still have family.

Runaan’s mission was a disaster, and his whole team was lost. But he didn’t just save one life with his last sacifice. He saved two. Runaan saved the rest of his family by sending Rayla home to Ethari. He saved them both. The stabby dark nightfox is more than just a hunter. He’s a husband and a father, and he’ll do whatever he must for his family. 

Ethari won’t need that dying weeping-tree trinket. And he’s already made something since: his lighthawk, that carries a message of life. Ethari only needed to know that Rayla was alive and well and needed his help, and he found his purpose again. The moonfam’s going to be okay, because Runaan sent Rayla home to save Ethari’s life. And sooner or later, they’ll save his in return.

[adhd-wifi]

So uh, someone sent me an ask about my opinions of the different adaptations of mdzs (and cql) but I accidentally deleted it. Anon pls forgive me. 

Anyways here’s the answer under a cut so I don’t spam anyone with my opinions (unless you wanna know I guess in which case thanks???) Warning: I got a little more into this than I probably should have. 

I’m just gonna do them in bullet points it’s just easier. At least while I’m on desktop lol.

The novel

It’s a really great read overall. I love the details and the comedic aspect of the story and characters really shines in the novel. However I can’t say all too much because I’m still actually struggling to finish reading it. 

The reason for this is because I actually...hate reading Chinese-To-English novels. Not saying the English fan-translation is bad, and in fact I think Exiled Rebels Scans did an amazing job with it (there are some nitpicks, but eh, they’re providing free content with no compensation they deserve all the praise regardless). I just hate it because, as a Chinese person, you tend to notice all the things that are lost in translation or things that just CAN’T be translated properly. I’m currently reading the Chinese version, but my Chinese reading isn’t great so it’s taking a while. 

The animation

My personal favourite, but mostly because I’m biased towards animation in general LMAO. It was also my starting point into the franchise. My friend, who I hadn’t seen in 10 months at that point, came to my house and made me watch the first two episodes. I finished the anime at like 6am from that same night. Safe to say I had fallen into hell. 

The only things I didn’t like about the anime was the fact that it was clearly rushed, which is why I’m okay with season 3 coming out in 2021, and the fact that I’m PRETTY SURE the censorships hit it and we’re not gonna be getting any on-screen gay. I mean the only scene that displayed this was the scene where WWX pretended to be attracted to LWJ to get JC off his back, but that scene was played off as him flirting with EVERYTHING on the basis that he was insane, but gay. So yeah, I’m not expecting gay but eh. 

Unpopular opinion, but anime!WWX has my favourite WWX voice. I love the audio drama/CQL voice, but I just love the playful notes of anime!WWX’s voice. 

The anime also amps the dramatic flair of literally everything up to 11 on a scale of 1 to 10. As much as I love the other adaptations, you can’t really beat the anime in terms of it being the drama queen of the adaptations. I love it. Also, it was therapeutic to see Wen Chao torn to shreds and beheaded the way it was done in the anime. 

The manhua

The manhua actually has my favourite art style of the adaptations, I like it even more so than the anime. Also props to them for making teen!WWX look different from Mo XuanYu (seriously, help me I’m a confused dumbass okay)

I’m...not a fan of the pacing. The pacing of the manhua for like the first few arcs was just so rushed and confusing, and because of the more comedic nature of the manhua as a whole, sometimes the seriousness of the scene just falls flat (e.g. the Mo Manor scene with the fierce corpses, it was so...dull). Then Yi City comes along and that arc alone seemed to last like 62 years. While I like the characters, I’m not a major fan of the arc itself, so I was mildly peeved. Oh well. 

The audio drama

To be fair, I’ve only heard like 3 episodes and several snippets of the audio drama. Mostly because I can’t find it. (I’m aware SuiBianSubs have it shared on their discord, but I’m scared of giant servers so I’m holding off on that unless I really can’t find it anywhere else.)

That being said, I really like the audio drama so far. I really, really like WWX’s voice actor here, and you can tell he’s really going ham with it while he was more restricted to match Xian Zhan in CQL. 

Anyways the audio drama version of WangXian is the best one don’t @ me.

The Untamed/Chen Qing Ling (Warning: LONG)

Hhhhhh oh CQL, CQL, where do I even start with you?

See, I didn’t like the first one-third of the drama, and took like a month watching those bits, but then basically after WWX became the Yiling Patriarch I got really into it and basically finished like 30+ episodes in 3 days. 

I still don’t like several of the changes, and I’m not a fan of some of the directing decisions, because some of them just made little to no sense. I especially hated the fact that WWX wasn’t the founder of demonic cultivation, and instead it was some rando who was probably Xue Yang’s greatX12 grandfather. 

All that being said, I actually like the character writing THE MOST out of all the adaptions. Every single (named/significant) character was expanded upon, and it gave basically everyone more depth as characters (except I guess Wen RuoHan and Wen Xu, but no one likes them in CQL anyway so who cares). 

Basically, every character just felt so much more alive, and I’m not just saying that because it’s live people on screen. It’s that the actors really did wonderfully, bringing out the characters so vividly, and giving them more depth and building on their relationships. The little moments here and there, like JZX planting lotus plants for JYL There are some moments I’m just EH on (such as the changing of the moral scale for some *cough*MOST*cough* characters), but for the most part, I just found it so much easier to relate and feel for them. And as someone who doesn’t typically like watching live dramas (again, I just prefer anime), that meant a lot to me as a member of the audience.

I especially like how they handled Mianmian, I was EH at first to see her as a member of the Jin Sect, but in the end I really liked that. I mean, who can’t love a bitch who renounces her sect colours right in front of the then-most powerful man in the cultivation world? Also, the soup scene with JZX and JYL, I really liked that it was Mianmian who defended her instead of some nameless, faceless servant girl. It gave her more character, and built nicely on her relationship with JZX as his subordinate. Mianmian in MDZS was great, but she felt little more than a plot device to me. In CQL, she was actually a character, and thus made her actions more significant.

Listen I just have a lot of feelings for Mianmian considering she was the only named female character to survive the series and I have salt about that but I still like her so I’m glad CQL made it easier for me to like her

Welp I’m done rambling. If you didn’t get bored halfway and made it all the way down here, thanks for you time lol. I hope this was entertaining. :D Also, anon I hope you’re reading this. ^^;