#the disaster bisexuals of cql

[ilgaksu]

Can you recommend a good entry point to the grave robber's chronicles? Some of the stuff you posted back on twitter intrigued me but I'm not sure where to start! Glad to see you here on tumblr btw

Thank you!

so I know I got this ask literally about 10,000 years ago @ehyde and when I was really unwell so I didn't get around to it, but I ran across it today and wanted to answer, so here we go:

I can tell you the order I went into it in, but I'm not sure I can recommend a definitive way, since there's novels and side-novels and a game and just. There's a lot. So, let's go with the assumption we're just looking at movies/series? I would honestly recommend watching all of the series with a friend, because it's a very I Didn't Say This Was A Good Franchise, I Said I'm Having A Good Time kind of deal.

The order I went through with it was:

Ultimate Note - needs some contextual detail still and assumes a familiarity with the franchise, but is chronologically relatively early on and was a pretty fun intro for me and does a lot of belated work to make the rest of the TV universe, as it were, make sense. You definitely notice that on a rewatch. It also has a lot of interaction between my two favourite side-characters, Bitchy Pink Twink (Xiao Hua) and Disaster Bisexual Immortal (Hei Xiazi). This is on YouTube and IQIYI. When I was Twitter, this was the era I was primarily obsessed with, if that helps?

Sand Sea/Tomb of the Sea - I know for a fact this is on YouTube since that's where I rewatch it all the time. This is overall my favourite in terms of narrative. It also has my very favourite Hei Xiazi. Xiao Hua is pretty absent, but you know, still my favourite series overall. It also has Xue Yang's actor pre-CQL as one of the characters.

Renuion: Sound of the Providence (2 seasons) - this is the one that was a lot of people's gateway drug, on the grounds that it has Zhu Yilong from Guardian in it. I still have not finished this. I have accepted I may never finish this. I enjoy Baron Chen as an actor generally, though, and while this isn't my favourite role I've seen him in, he's got a great Hei Xiazi intro and energy.

You do need to have seen Sand Sea in particular, imo, for the two spin-off movies that I personally care about, which are:

Reunion: Escape from the Monstrous Snake - this is a little spin-off Hei Xiazi centric action movie with a monster featured in Sand Sea showing up. I feel like you need to have fallen into the Hei Xiazi fan pit for this to really hit for you; otherwise it's a pretty enjoyable but not life-changing action movie. Unfortunately, I am in the pit.

Reunion: Mystery of the Abyss - this one is legit colloquially referred to as the HeiHua movie, because it basically is. They are the main focus of the film, and honestly I think you really need to be in the HeiHua version of the fan pit for this one to land. It's again, a little action web-movie that is elevated by the two leads. There's plans for there to be another movie with these two.

Both of these movies have Ji Chen (the Sand Sea Hei Xiazi) reprising his role and he's pretty beloved as the character at this point.

If you're interested in the novels, I have only read one but I can always talk about that too!! This is the least comprehensive post on this franchise and I am so sorry, I'm sure there's others though and I can always answer more questions because I deeply love this nonsense?

[azems-familiar]

I am This Close to watching the untamed

So if you want to perhaps yell about it or something (since you’ve gotten me into stuff that way before) that could be cool idk

OH MY GOD PLEASE WATCH IT

okay to start with. the live action show is very good and a great place to start but it has some important differences from the novel and the donghua (animated show). i personally prefer a combination of cql (the untamed/the live action, that's the acronym i'll be using for it from now on) and the donghua; the novel suffers a lot of lost in translation effect and whatnot and i personally dislike the way the relationship is built in several places in it as opposed to how the adaptations do it, but it's definitely still worth reading. (dm me on discord if you want a copy of a pretty good fan translation of the novel and also like, a link to a place you can watch the donghua, btw.) other problems with cql: censorship hits the live action the hardest and their budget was i'm pretty sure basically nonexistent (they very clearly spent most of it on the costumes and the props, which you know what, the costumes are fucking stunning so great choice). so they changed the worldbuilding some and like.... the fight scenes? are really not good. they're really not good. also the special effects are universally pretty bad. it can make watching some parts of it difficult to get through, and there are some plot elements that are changed as well that i dislike, and a lot of the moral greyness of the original story had to get removed because again, censorship issues (if you want the most accurate, non-morally-whitewashed take first, you'll want to start with the novel, which is also what has the explicitly gay stuff). it's also not explicitly gay - but the actors played it as gay and there are multiple marriage metaphors and holy fuck like. honestly. there doesn't need to be a kiss or a confession or anything it's REALLY FUCKING GAY.

what cql excels in is its character interactions. the acting is absolutely stunning, the soundtrack is beautiful, and every single scene is just done with so much heart and emotion in it. so definitely keep that in mind going into it. i've watched it all the way through i think 3 or 4 times and i still keep seeing new fun details in the background that i hadn't noticed before.

the donghua, on the other hand, has an absolutely stunning art style, very very good voice acting, the worldbuilding and plot are more accurate to the book, and the magic and combat scenes are much more realistic for a fantasy and the powers they have. however, it, especially specifically the third and final season, is very rushed (and it has its own plot changes to fit how much they had to condense things, mostly just in the second half of season 3) and excludes some details, so it can be confusing if you don't know what you're seeing first. i recommend either watching cql or reading the novel first, then watching the donghua!

in terms of like, actual fandom stuff! so the main character of mdzs is, obviously, Wei Wuxian. i'm not sure how much you know but he's like. an incredibly ADHD man with horrible self-worth issues (despite being arrogant as hell) and a very strong sense of justice who is extremely brilliant and goes through a shitton of tragedy. he is known for inventing a viable form of necromancy, which is considered incredibly heretical and, among other things, gets him killed, and then gets him resurrected, so you know. pros and cons. he does magic by playing the flute. he is a disaster bisexual and also a bit of an alcoholic (okay a lot of an alcoholic) and i love him. his love interest is stoic and serious and incredibly autistic-coded and has been in love with him since they were teenagers and literally wrote him a love song. the two of them get trapped in a cave together and have to kill an ancient corrupted divine monster without weapons. it's very romantic. wei wuxian as a younger teenager is basically the epitome of a child pulling a girl's pigtails because he has a crush and is desperate for attention.

anyway, i'm not sure how much you know about the plot, but there's two timelines going on - the present and the past. the present is after wei wuxian is resurrected, and he and lan wangji (the love interest, in case you haven't picked up on the names yet - everyone has like two or three names and it can be hard to tell them apart at first) are basically going on a fun little murder mystery quest while also babysitting a bunch of teenagers which then abruptly devolves into politics, murder, more politics, and more murder. the past on the other hand goes from a high school definitely-not-a-romance to a goddamn war drama to politics and back to. hm. not exactly a war drama anymore but i'm really not sure how to describe everything that happens after a certain event. it's all very much a tragedy and the real "villain" of the story (which is less obvious in cql, again because of moral whitewashing due to censorship, though honestly i feel like they did a pretty good job of staying as true to the source material as they could all things considered, a whole lot of the scenes were word for word from the novel just slightly edited to fit the adjusted worldbuilding or plot changes) is the mob mentality, rumors and gossip and hearsay, and society itself!

lastly, because i am trying not to overwhelm you here, i am going to link you a couple great amvs i've found on youtube that will probably not make a lot of sense without context but will at least hopefully intrigue you?

and

and

the other one i really want to link i cannot because it definitely will make absolutely no sense without having watched the show and so you have to come talk to me when you've finished it so i can give it to you. also hey please feel free to come dm me on discord i Will ramble at length about this. especially about wwx he is my BLORBO and currently taking up residence in my brain. and also i need your live reactions if/when you start watching things oh my god

be glad it's almost 2 am and i'm still recovering from my covid booster or this would be even longer

[pandorem]

Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE me some “Wei Wuxian is Lan Wanji’s horrible fake date to a family gathering to piss them all off but then they fall in love for real!”, like that is a good trope right there, but please imagine:

Wei Wuxian is MIANMIAN’S fake date to piss off HER family because they are getting on her back about being bi and how she should settle down with a nice young man, and it’s pure platonic disaster bisexual solidarity.

[kitkatsgalore]

wherever you go, i go with you

[bucksbisexual]

wei wuxian in black and pink

or, alternivately: wei ying in your area

[hunxi-guilai]

this might be kind of an "opinion" question, so feel free to skip it but - do you think WWX should or would teach his style of demonic cultivation a la his Yiling Patriarch era, or nah? it's a popular fandom thing, but I can't help but look at the corpse desecration and the whole "bad for your body and spirit" and think it's more akin to working with radiation - useful and helpful in small, controlled doses, but you don't bathe in it or encourage others to either.

!!!! a fascinating question anon, and one that is very much connected to questions of CQL worldbuilding, which, as we all know, is Notoriously Sketch. I’m going to try my best to outline the theory of demonic cultivation as I understand it, based on my own (rather scanty) knowledge of CQL canon, and then see if I can reach any conclusions from there.

(please note that I’m proceeding solely off of CQL canon, so if the novel says anything different and/or I’m completely off-base in my understanding of CQL worldbuilding, then I vote we let this entire post can dissolve quietly into the unending darkness of the underbelly of the internet where dumb posts go to die)

all righty, so we got folks in this world who cultivate spiritual energy in order to form a golden core, which in turn will aid them on their spiritual journey towards becoming immortal cultivators. Along the way, they get fun bonus skills like flying on swords, talismanic shenaniganery, supernatural healing, as well as the capacity to use their spiritual energy to upgrade otherwise normal abilities – swordsmanship, music – to Magical Abilities.

Demonic cultivation, in contrast, replaces the usage of your own spiritual energy for self-cultivation purposes and instead draws power from resentful energy. The problem with demonic cultivation, then, is that resentful energy has to come from somewhere. I’m guessing that most folks don’t have enough resentful energy on their own to power a significant amount of demonic cultivation, which is where desecrating corpses and breaking into tombs comes in handy. When you disturb the spirits of the dead, they’ll generate resentful energy due to inappropriate burial ritual, and you can very quickly harness a very large amount of power.

As far as I can gather, resentful energy is capable of much the same as spiritual energy – can power musical cultivation, supernatural healing, the works. It simply comes from an alternate, exterior source, rather than having to rely only on whatever amount of spiritual energy you possess (which can make it rather tempting for those who don’t have a particularly strong cultivational base, like Jin Guangyao). If accomplishing things with the aid of spiritual energy is like seeing how far you can walk in a day under your own power, then channeling and controlling resentful energy is like getting in a sleek black sports car and flooring it, with the added bonus of being able to control the dead/undead by twiddling with the radio knobs. Oh, and that car doesn’t take gasoline, it runs on corpses.

The catch is, of course, that resentful energy corrupts. We see this in Xue Chonghai, in Wen Ruohan, in Wei Wuxian. In addition to granting the cultivator access to a great deal of power, it also opens said cultivator up to the risk of being overwhelmed, in return, by resentful energy. I would guess that Xue Chonghai and Wen Ruohan didn’t start out as the genocidal megalomaniacs they became, but were rather corrupted into it by overexposure to resentful energy. The risks for Wei Wuxian in particular, are doubled – he doesn’t have spiritual energy to fall back on or to anchor himself to, so he has no choice but to continue using resentful energy. This becomes especially relevant in the second battle of Nightless City – Wei Wuxian uses resentful energy to heal himself from that arrow-wound, but in turn erodes his already-fraying control over his only source of power.

So, can resentful energy/demonic cultivation be used for good as long as you remain in control? Theoretically, yes – but the show implies that it’s impossible to remain indefinitely in control, that even without the machinations and meddling of other parties, Wei Wuxian would have eventually lost control as well. At the same time, Wei Wuxian makes an excellent point in episode 4 about balancing the flows of energies in the world; he references 大禹治水 Da Yu taming the floods as an example of why merely suppressing resentful energy isn’t as good as channeling it towards more productive purposes, and thereby letting its force dissipate. We can see an in-universe example of how destructive unchecked resentful energy is – the Burial Mounds are uninhabitable, deadly, an area of land thoroughly gone to waste. No number of cultivators and all their vaunted spiritual power could cleanse the area; no, it takes Wei Wuxian, channeling resentful energy through demonic cultivation, to turn the Burial Mounds back into a place that could see human civilization.

All of this, really, is a long and roundabout way of answering your question anon with: yes, I think you’re absolutely right in that resentful energy/demonic cultivation can be useful/helpful in small doses. Again, Wei Wuxian has the right of it in episode 4 – resentful energy is just energy, the way spiritual energy is energy, and it would certainly be helpful if cultivators to knew how to handle resentful energy, given the nature of their occupation. There are things that resentful energy can accomplish that spiritual energy cannot, and it seems to me that studying resentful energy would be useful for just understanding how the forces of the world interact with / react to each other. That being said, resentful energy cannot and should not replace spiritual energy as a medium of cultivation, because that doesn’t end prettily for anyone who’s tried.

[pretentioussongtitle]

Unsexy Things Wei WuXian Manages To Make Look Sexy:

Getting stabbed

Stabbing other people

Coughing up blood

Getting thrown off a cliff

Throwing someone else off a cliff

Throwing himself off a cliff

Soup

Alcoholism

Ugly crying

Murder 

Existential angst

Necromancy

Gardening

The slow succumbing to the inevitable downward spiral into madness

Sexy Things Wei WuXian Manages To Make Look Even More Sexy:

Whips

Swords

Masks

Long hair

The color black

Archery

Blindfolds

Blindfolded archery

Woodwinds

Lan Wangji 

[tiptoe39]

I am trying to come up with a clever caption for this (something something compulsary heterosexuality?) but all I can come up with is I love them so much and LWJ is gaaaaay.

[nakasomethingkun]

you know, i feel that wei ying had realized his feelings for lan zhan during the sunshot campaign (in the CQL-verse). i know, i know - he’s oblivious about the ~romance~ transpiring between them, and he doesn’t seem to catch onto the depth of lan zhan’s feelings for him until 16 years later, after he comes back from the dead - but when he asked yanli about why a person would like someone so much and how ludicrous the whole thing is, and when he saw lan zhan at the mountains during the hunting contest and remembered lan xichen’s comments about the people he cares about being affected by his actions etc.... i don’t know, it seems like wei ying had a bit of an inkling to just how much he likes lan zhan. and afterwards, when he said that he wouldn’t mind being killed by lan zhan, and even later on, when they bumped into each other in yiling and later that night when wei ying was reminiscing while he was drunk -- i’m about 97% sure he wanted to ask lan zhan to stay, and in a different universe, he would’ve definitely done so. (there’s also the whole thing about proclaiming that lan zhan is his match and that they’re superspouses/soulmates/partners in crime/lifelong confidantes etc, but that deserves its own post tbh)

what i’m saying is: in a different universe, where the persecution against the Wen remnants and all the shitty politics didn’t happen, i think that wei ying would’ve courted lan zhan. he would’ve stuck by jiang cheng’s side like he promised so they could rebuild lotus pier, and with soft nudging from yanli (assuming she doesnt die in this verse lmao), wei ying would’ve definitely tried his best to woo lan zhan and court him with all the refined graces he thinks lan zhan deserves to be courted with and ask for xichen’s blessings (and lan qiren’s lmaooo) and then ask for lan zhan’s hand in marriage.

[psychokangaroo]

I absolutely have a thing for Sandra Ma in Oh My General (which is the gayest Chinese drama I've watched, including CQL and WOH). Like when she has the iron whip out I'm just like... gah pls. Like any time she has some sort of weapon out I'm just like she can peg me ANY DAY. I know that we hate her cousin (okay actually I love her as a character because she's so complicated and tragic) but in her defense ye Zhao is really swoon-worthy.

But okay also while main ship is male-female, it features a canonically bisexuality female character and bisexual-coded male character, as well as a few arguably bisexual side characters. Like main girl talks about shamelessly flirting with girls as a teenager and still occasionally flirts with brothel girls on occasion and she definitely still florts with the concubines in her home. Main male characters first appearance was dancing with a male dancer in a brothel while half naked and kept on insinuating liking the male form. Like legit twink bisexual disaster and butch bisexual disaster get into an arranged marriage ft sweet bisexual concubines who ship it. Hijinks ensue. They kill a few assholes, fight in a few wars, help with disaster relief, and basically becomes one of the emperors main helpers in court.

And like yeah there's a harem involved but it's a small harem and pretty low on drama and they get along. They are concubines and know they are concubines and understands the unfortunate situation of being a woman in that time period but they also recognize that the butch lady is a very good main wife and very nice to them (and oh soooooo hot) and that the twink is also a good master of the house who is generous and treats them kindly. Like honestly the sweetest harem story I've seen

Like so sweet??? And so gaayyy?

10/10 recommend even if only for Sandra ma as a lady general. I would totally be one of the ladies swooning in the presence of her character.

PS: did I mention the main characters dress in the colors of the bisexual flag??? I'm so surprised this drama made it past the Chinese censors, but I guess there is some benefits to bi-erasure, right?

[wangxiansthings]

Okay okay y'all listen. I recently read some fem! LWJ and male! WWX and I kinda liked it. Its a guilty pleasure dont @ me. Anyway so I was thinking about them, naturally, and my mind went. "What if they switched bodies?" LIKE LISTEN. IMAGINE BISEXUAL DISASTER WEI WUXIAN SEEING THE PRETTY SECOND JADE OF LAN AND JUST GOES, "Im in love and shall unleash my full gremlin potential on her" AND HARASSES POOR LAN WANGJI. Im thinking of this for cql plotline sooooooo... maybe instead of the water borne abyss they find out a weird curse has been making its way through Cayi town and LXC's like "oh Wangji why dont you invite young master wei?" Blah blah blah MAIN POINT IS. ONLY WANGXIAN GO. BY THEMSELVES. Cause LXC is also a gremlin and wants to set up his little sister with the pretty boy she's interested in. Or maybe he wants her to get friends idk you guys pick.

Anyway. The reach Cayi and interview some of the townsfolk. Wwx fluttering about picking up random trinkets and going "Lan Zhan Lan Zhan look at how pretty!" And then he sees this cute little white rabbit pin and. Naturally. He buys it and sneakily tucks it into LWJ's hair. She feels the pin go through her hair and whips around to see wwx's cheeky grin but instead she sees him flushed pinked and in awe (yes this is his 'holy-shit-shes-really-pretty-holy-shit-i-wanna-marry-this-girl' moment)

MEANWHILE. LAN WANGJI IS FUMING. BECAUSE HOW DARE THIS INSUFFERABLE DISCIPLE OF YUNMENG TOUCH HER HAIR. She reaches out to yank out whatever skewer or twig the idiotic but adorable pest put in her hair and instead finds a pretty white pin in her hands. She stars at it and lets a little smile bloom (LWJ is slllliiiiiiiiggghhhttttllllyyyyy shorter cause im a sucker for this trope too ANYWAY) WWX FLUSHES EVEN MORE AND PROCEEDS TO DUCK HIS HEAD DOWN TO CATCH THE FULL THING. LWJ realises quickly and spins on her heels and hurries away- not running, Lans do not run.

So they find the origin of the curse. A jealous townsperson made a silly mistake because they wanted the life of someone else or something like that idk im just here for wangxian. Anyway. Somehow the jealous townsperson...lets call them... Chung Yun? OKAY CHUNG YUN. He's afraid to be punished for accidentally unleashing a curse so. In an attempt to save himself. He throws the...powder? Yeah a white powder at wangxian and they cough and splutter while the guy escapes. Well. They decide to look for him another time. They have enough information on him to know he wont go too far and his name. And what he looks like. So they head back to CR because as much as wwx likes lwj. His new-found epiphany isn't gonna be much help if lan zhan falls asleep and he has to HELP HER.

I will continue tomorrow :)

[aliasblack73]

I’ve been thinking about some of the discourse I’ve seen recently regarding WWX’s sexuality.  I have not consumed any version of the story except CQL, so my perspective is entirely based on that.  The only noted difference I am aware of is that apparently in the book WWX gives LWJ het porn and in The Untamed it is gay porn.  

The reason I’ve been thinking about it is because I saw a tweet angry about WWX bi erasure, presumably aimed at folks who choose to think of WWX as gay and not bi. I in no way want to argue their feelings of anger and frustration, as I too am peeved when folks don’t consider it a possibility.  And for my purposes, I’m definitely not ruling out that he’s bi, I just think there’s room to argue that he is gay who was dealing with comphet.

Disclaimer: I am bisexual, and didn’t realize for many years, mainly due to being demisexual and also mistaking any flustered feelings around attractive women for latent trauma from pretty and popular girls that bullied me as a kid, but comphet certainly played a part in it. 

As mentioned before, I haven’t read the book, which certainly would have contained more detail about WWX’s thoughts. For all I know, he had a huge crush on MianMian and rhapsodied about her pretty face and figure. It just doesn’t come across that way on the show.  He is known to be a flirt with girls in general (I think JC mentioned it), but his onscreen flirting with MianMian has a purpose - to avoid getting his family kicked out of the inn.  He also prevents her from getting branded, but it could be said he would have done that with anyone.  His words to LWJ afterward were more about liking the idea of being remembered by someone than any personal desire for MianMian to fall in love with him.  In the same vein, the flirting with girls could be because WWX loves attention from anyone, and girls are certainly going to give positive attention to a hot dude flirting with them.

We never see him trying to actually pursue girls during their time at Cloud Recesses (which to me is the only time that matters in the sense that any time after that he is dealing with war and trauma). He’s a teenage boy, and yet he spends his free time hanging out with his friends, drinking, and annoying LWJ.  His face doesn’t light up for any of the girls the way he does with boys.  Besides MianMian, his only interaction with a girl is Wen Qing, and once again there is an agenda there - he suspects something secretive is going on with her and he wants to know what it is.

Another argument for comphet is how he keeps bringing up girls with LWJ.  No matter how many times LWJ demonstrates that he doesn’t care about girls, WWX keeps bringing it up.  It never occurs to him that there might be a reason for LWJ’s disinterest in women and marriage other than him being a Lan and cold in general. I know from personal experience that I was the same way growing up - unless I was explicitly told that a person was gay, my brain never considered it an option, even with strong evidence that it was a possibility.

Anyway, if WWX is explicitly attracted to women in the book (or one of the other versions out there), I’d love to know.  I still think the CQL version is open to interpretation.  I am happy to see him as either bisexual or gay who went through comphet.  He’s an oblivious disaster either way, and I love him.

[khaotungsfirst]

honestly the idea of any world where wei wuxian doesnt love loudly being a disaster bi is MIND BOGGLING to me and to know its technically canon? i dont even know what im supposed to do with that

I KNOW RIGHT??!! like i’m sorry mxtx but your opinions are not valid. i propose we do the same thing we did to jk rowling as in we just collectively take away her authority on canon and make our own version (or accept cql as the one true canon) cause EXCUSE ME but wwx is a disaster bisexual and has had many a ~gay thought~ during his teenage years. i refuse to accept this homophobic version of him

[tardisfireworks]

as a disaster bisexual with cynophobia, i thank cql for representing me

[disasterbialert]

Hello! I’m still mostly in the void but I’m briefly popping to talk (gush, I’m totally gonna gush) about my fave shows I discovered/brought me joy in 2020! Lots of folks are doing this and I thought it was a really sweet trend so I thought I’d jump on too!

2020 was a lot (obviously) but it was particularly huge for me for a few reasons. I’m not gonna talk too much bc y’all are here for soft queers not Trauma™️, but basically several things happened at once that led to me being pretty devastated and very lost. Hurt, raw, and frightened, I didn’t think I had anywhere to go or anyone to talk to. And then, boom! Fandom and tumblr and twitter and ao3. And suddenly I found tenderness, learned I was allowed that tenderness and affection, that it was ok to seek it, to want it. It was ok to be gentle, to be soft, to be vulnerable. That others felt this way too. That I was safe. So, thank you, beautiful friends and strangers in this nebulous space. My gratitude is boundless and heartfelt.

Ok hah emotions what? ANYWAY. Without further ado and in no particular order, fave shows Let’s go!

1. The Untamed/陈情令/Chén Qíng Lìng/Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/魔道祖师/Mó Dào Zǔ Shī

THIS SHOW. WOW. This show, the novel and every adaptation, and this fandom have been life-changing. In every way. I started watching cql end of may/beginning of june I think? I binged it in about two weeks. Then I re-watched it with my mum as she experienced it for the first time. THEN we both re-watched it. Soulmates. They’re married and they have a son. Disaster bisexual representation. Found families again and again and again. The cast, the music, the costumes, the sets—everything about this show is breathtaking. I am in awe of everything the creators managed to do. What an incredible experience this show was. And I am so grateful to the fandom, from deep-dive metas to fascinating cultural explorations to equal-parts soft, fluffy, spicy, horny, tender, hilarious fics and fan art. That this fandom has also become a space for me to explore my own queerness, my own identity and my sense of personhood, is truly an unexpected and wonderful gift. Seriously. This show and this fandom—what an absolute gift.

2. 2Gether/เพราะเราคู่กัน /Still 2Gether/เพราะเรา(ยัง)คู่กัน

My first foray into Asian dramas/queer dramas and WOW was it a really bloody good one. My eternal gratitude to Chai (@/proyearner) on twitter for one off-hand comment about a Thai drama on YouTube. Cue snowball. The softness? The hilarity? The hurt/comfort? The fake-dating? The subtle sweetness of BrightWin’s acting? The utter chaos of Man and Boss? EarnPear definitely being canon (no i don’t care that it’s not actually IT IS OK). This show and its sequel were a gosh-darn bloody Win for they gays. And also my entry into queer fandom—something I’ve never truly felt or even really been a part of, despite being out and involved in literally studying queer literature and media for many years. So, thank you Thai BL fandom, thank you Sarawatine, thank you Chai.

3. Where Your Eyes Linger/너의 시선이 머무는 곳에 (series AND film)

The Tenderness. Good grief. I waited until every episode was out and then watched them all. Then when the film was out, I re-watched both. I could wax poetic about this show, about the actors, about the characters, about the writing, about the music, about the editing, about the fight choreography holy shit, but honestly? The above gif encapsulates it pretty entirely: the power of gaze and where it lingers.

4. Guardian/镇魂/Zhèn Hún

Oh my whole heart went to this show and this gorgeous ensemble and the music fuck. Zhu Yilong is phenomenal holy shit. And his and Bai Yu’s chemistry is insane. I’m of the firm belief they paved the way for cql in terms of handling censorship bc WOW. This show was censored and yet everything—ten thousand years of Yearning and Devotion, Love and Tenderness—was so fucking palpable. I cared about everyone: every side character in every case, every villain. And the fact that every character in SID was given their own arc and the actors portrayed them so fucking incredibly. I barely breathed through the majority of Chu Shuzhi’s arc because holy shit Jiang Mingyang blew me away. And Gao Yuer as Zhu Hong? Fucking WOW. I went into this series thinking it was just gonna be a nice fantasy/sci-fi bromance with a sad ending I was going to have to put up with and came out the other side yelling about WeiLan being married with a cat son and I regret nothing.

5. Until We Meet Again/ด้ายแดงซีรีส์

This series cracked me wide open. I cried just about in every episode (obviously) but I specifically remember watching the episode where Pharm meets In’s sister/Dean’s grandma and the music soaring (THIS SONG FUCK https://open.spotify.com/track/7c7FfcuwwGmriy72YAQrud?si=q6Sk871BQPKJIYc4xCYHlg) and my whole heart just breaking and my then partner asked me what was wrong and I couldn’t even speak. I was so overwhelmed with feeling. This show broke my heart but then carefully, gently held me, and allowed time to sit with my cathartic grief. Beautiful, powerful, humbling. An extremely banal but nonetheless important for me plus was the fact that I adored each of the ships equally. So often I find I myself loving side ships more than main ships but this show was so outstanding and the actors did such an incredible job that I just loved them all. An absolute gift.

Honourable mentions: My Engineer; Gaya Sa Pelikula; Together With Me; Love By Chance; HIStory3: Trapped; HIStory2: Crossing the Line; TharnType; She-Ra and the Princesses of Power; Legend of Korra; The Dragon Prince; The Good Place; One Day At A Time; Russian Doll; and Glow.

Bless queer fandom! And my eternal gratitude to translators everywhere—y’all are phenomenal and such a gift!! This year I’d love for more GL dramas and more queer ladies/enbies as well! Not that I don’t love my soft boys!! But I’d k-word/d-word for a lesbian warrior drama or a queer ladies time travel/loop drama or queer enbies vibing on adventures! So here’s to you, 2021: may you not be nearly as shitty, and may you instead be filled with more queerness, more love, more happy endings, more tenderness ♥️

[mvsicinthedvrk]

Was that [XIAO ZHAN]? Oh no no, that was just [WEI WUXIAN], a [CANON CHARACTER] from [THE UNTAMED/MDZS]. They are [THIRTY-THREE] years old, use [HE/HIM], and [ARE] aware that they are not actually from Washington DC. Too bad they can’t stray from this city for long.

how long has your character been here?

wei wuxian has been in D.C. for about eight years (as of 2020)

what is your character's job?

he’s a freelance music tutor! he teaches music theory, piano, and woodwinds (specializing in dizi, which is a type of ancient bamboo flute), mostly to children, but also to teens and adults if they want. 

he’s also slowly creeping through grad school for the mostly unrelated field of engineering/physics, because he contains multitudes.

where has your character been pulled from in their fandom?

he got pulled from just before he would have been brought back to life, in the show (so-- after nightless city, but before mo xuanyu brought his spirit back to enact his revenge). so wei wuxian’s been dead a number of years. his body is physically older than it was when he died, though he’s not sure logistically how long.

has any magic affected your character?

he’s died a bunch of times in the city and switched memory statuses a million more, but he’s currently aware (as of april 2024)

and any other information you might find useful for us and the other members to know!!

his courtesy name is wei wuxian, which is what most people call him, his students call him mr. wei or teacher wei, though, since wei is his surname. 

he used to be a cultivator, meaning he had a golden core that could store and control spiritual energy-- useful for battle and what you can essentially imagine as spells/magic but it’s spiritual/natural in this genre. he voluntarily (and secretly) transferred his golden core to his brother, whose golden core was crushed by an enemy, so wei wuxian can no longer cultivate traditionally. 

he did, however, invent the discipline of demonic cultivation, which harnesses resentful energy rather than spiritual energy (it’s technically ghostly cultivation and nothing to do with demons... but the name is dramatic, so). he could then summon resentful spirits by playing his dizi and use the resentful energy to control the dead (using them as puppets). most people hated and feared him and thought he was evil because of this. (he sort-of was, but for good reason? it’s complicated and probably irrelevant to most of you.) 

he went by the name yiling laozu (yiling patriarch) and people have lots of scary myths and ghost stories about him; they were terrified of his abilities & his “wicked tricks” and power. literally the entire cultivation world turned on him and wanted him dead. 

wei wuxian is mischievous and fundamentally good-hearted. he becomes very protective over the people he cares about and is self-sacrificial to a fault. he’s also prideful and can have a hot temper on occasion. he does not talk about his negative feelings and will in fact go out of his way to avoid doing so. he made many mistakes at the end of his life which he’s still trying to reckon with. 

he’s not always the most ‘professional’ adult but he is genuine and tries his best to mentor the Youths. back home, he had a toddler that he essentially adopted and helped raise in a communal family situation (who is now a full adult here in the city) so sometimes he gives off major Dad vibes despite outwardly seeming, at most times, to be pretty immature. 

he’s canonically a chaotic, disaster bisexual. he will either befriend your characters instantly or become enemies at first sight. there is really no in between with him. 

i draw on CQL (the live action) mostly. i think some of his exuberance comes more from the donghua but i went with the less moral grey-ness of the live action.