#will i regret responding?

[mxtxfanatic]

Let’s talk Yi City Arc! I’ve seen a few posts since my time in the fandom that talks about the Yi City Arc as unnecessary or out of place in the whole of the mdzs narrative. I’ve even seen some suggest that the disconnect is because Yi City was originally a separate story to mdzs, a sort of prototype, if you will, to explain it away. I, too, after my first read questioned the significance of this arc to the overall story. However, the Yi City arc and its placement so early in the novel is actually just a huge and very clever spoiler to most of the important plot points of the overarching story… if you know what plot points to look for, which an un-spoiled first-time reader would not. So let’s talk about those spoilers:

1) The righteous cultivation clans’ refusal to stand against evil—and, really, their indulgence of it—leads to the wiping out of an entire clan and a monastery as well as the deaths of two powerful cultivators unaffiliated with any major sect.

The “righteous” cultivation clans happily ignore that fact that the Jin Clan is amassing power through unscrupulous guest disciples, and it is only when Xiao Xingchen, an outsider, brings the crime against the Chang Clan to light do they bother to pretend to do anything about it. However behind the scenes, the Jin Clan assassinates their only real opposition, and the other clans, great and small, continue to do nothing as Xue Yang is released to commit another massacre. The Jin are never held responsible for their actions. Likewise, all the clans turn away from Wei Wuxian, an outsider, when he calls out the Jin Clan’s crimes against the Wen remnants and accuses them of amassing power via poaching vassal clans and attempting to steal his tools. Behind the scenes, the Jin work to undermine Wei Wuxian’s reputation before joining in to massacre Wei Wuxian and the Wen remnants. The Jin are never held accountable for this, which directly leads into the Xue Yang situation.

2) Xiao Xingchen has his reputation slandered by Xue Yang killing others using his sword.

After Xiao Xingchen kills himself, Xue Yang begins using his sword to enact “vengeance” on the remnants of the Chang Clan, who he considers as having “betrayed” Xiao Xingchen. Finding the signature of Xiao Xingchen’s sword on the slain bodies leads the cultivation world to believe that a disillusioned Xiao Xingchen is killing in revenge. In much the same way, Wei Wuxian is used as a scapegoat by the cultivation world whenever bad things happen, such as the presence of walking corpses or the mass digging of graves. In neither situation does any clan investigate the true events of the situations, happy to blame the easiest suspect and allow the unrest to continue. In both situations, Xiao Xingchen and Wei Wuxian are eventually found innocent of the crimes for which they are accused, and the true culprit is revealed.

3) Xiao Xingchen is betrayed by someone he considered close to him, which eventually leads to his death.

Xiao Xingchen, due to being literally blinded by his sacrifice, ends up running into, rescuing, and caring for his mortal enemy, Xue Yang. Taking advantage of Xiao Xingchen’s blindness, Xue Yang tricks him into murdering a bunch of innocents and his best friend, causing him to commit suicide. Wei Wuxian, similarly, is betrayed by a close friend he kept near, figuratively blinded by a former childhood friendship and the present debt he felt owed to said friend’s parents. This misplaced trust directly leads to his death.

4) Xiao Xingchen must give up his eyes for Song Lan to see again, because Baoshan Sanren is not magical.

This is probably the biggest spoiler of the entire arc, but by the time you get to where this information is relevant, you’d probably have forgotten that this was even said. Xue Yang blinds Song Lan after destroying his home, and to atone for this, Xiao Xingchen goes to his master, Baoshan Sanren, to beg for her help. However, Baoshan Sanren cannot make something out of nothing. Mxtx explicitly writes that tidbit into the narration. Song Lan goes up the mountain blind and comes down with eyes. Xiao Xingchen goes up the mountain with eyes and comes down blind. Song Lan was given Xiao Xingchen’s eyes.

Much later in the story, Jiang Cheng loses his golden core. Wei Wuxian offers the miracle solution of Baoshan Sanren “giving” him a new one. Jiang Cheng, obviously skeptical, questions Wei Wuxian up until the moment he must go up “Baoshan Sanren’s mountain” alone. Wei Wuxian descends, alone, looking pale and weak. Later, when Wei Wuxian is ambushed by the Wen, Wen “Core-melting Hand” Zhuliu touches him and is visibly shocked by a discovery that he then keeps to himself. Jiang Cheng emerges from the mountain with a new golden core, while Wei Wuxian emerges from the Burial Mounds with a new cultivation method wholly independent of the need for a golden core. The Yi City arc tells us why this is: “Baoshan Sanren” cannot make something out of nothing.

And these are just the major parallels I remember off the top of my head. However, while a reread makes a lot of these parallels directly applicable to specific plot points in Wei Wuxian’s own story, I would argue that the biggest role the explicit paralleling is meant to play for a new reader is to make you question the dominant narrative of the main story. The narration tells us that Wei Wuxian is a bloodthirsty man who may as well be a demon, known for cruelty and vengeance. We see none of that from his character when he is resurrected. Then we get a mini-drama where a man with attributes Wei Wuxian directly relates to, with a story Wei Wuxian directly compares to his own life, is scapegoated by society, killed, then eventually vindicated. If nothing else, the Yi City Arc is meant to make you, as a reader, stop and go “Hey, wait a minute, what if Wei Wuxian isn’t the bad guy here???” And once you understand that, you should start questioning everything the prologue told you, just like the juniors start to question what they were told about Xiao Xingchen post Yi City in their group debrief.

[autisticandroids]

CASTIEL: Stop. What's the point if you don't mean it? You fear me - not love, not respect, just fear.

[youtube with closed captions]

a godstiel pity party. i'd like to thank an anon i got way back in february of 2021.

[isbergillustration]

Entity grown in a jar discovers the eternal pain of growing out your hair from a buzzcut. Suffers. Develop telepathy that does severe psychic damage as result.

[bellaaldamas]

Hurt/Comfort parallels

inspired by a conversation with @stupidrant

[turochamp]

thoughts? falin loves pocket frogs.

[dnangelic]

heist tonight . everybody dress cute for him .

[averlym]

,,, sun-dappled sheets...

[turnstechgodhead]

this websites hatemail game is INSANE

[gmaybe666]

the girls are fighting !!!!!!

pt 1. of 'argument'.

THUNK

for context on their fight, this takes you to the initial comic that started it all

[ghostlyg0ssip]

Wait what is the Ghoulia dolltwt discourse about I wanna cringe

just people arguing if g1 ghoulia (and all g1 zombies) speaking zombie was an allegory for a non-english language or an allegory for non-verbal autistic people

even as an autistic person myself, growing up it was always very clear to me that the zombies speaking zombie, and other characters understanding them, was meant to symbolize people who don't speak english as their first language, and i think there's something a bit insulting about comparing the zombiespeak to non-verbal people (and it gets annoying when people say g3's ghoulia erased "non-verbal rep" that was never there to begin with; iirc shea herself even said they ditched zombiespeak because they didn't want it to come off the wrong way)

please no discourse in the replies/rbs, don't stoop to twt's level

[wereh0gz]

[pierog]

i hate my doggys name i wanna rename him while hes only a few months old. is that insane. i dont wanna be like 40 with a dog whose name i dont like. but like man i didnt even know the guy when i got him at 10 weeks!! genuinely can someone from dogblr talk me through with this. also give me potential name suggestions.

hes soo cute i love this guy

[timeflow]

I took your word. I don't even feel bad about it. It was funny so I tried to pass it off as my own. And it worked - a girl called my tag funny in a dm. I responded "thanks". Remember this: I have more influence now than you ever will.

Long Live Trumbloola

I'm going to be honest with you you're a sick fuck and need to be exiled from my blog

[birdie-ghost]

I love your Fitz Afton Gregory au and the fact that Michael and Gregory are androids is so cool :D

Their eyes glowing is funny tho because imagine Jeremy coming home one night and theres 2 pairs of eyes watching him from the darkness 😭

Poor guy has a heart attack LMAO

HAHA!! That probably happens the first couple of nights after the series is over.

[jrueships]

the monthly apathy is back, rlly sorry if i said smthing to u and then u say smthing back and i don't respond for like a thousand years only to spam u after it passes and then u respond bcs ure awesome and i go on an unspoken vow of silence for yet another thousand years and the cycle just continues

[strawbubbysugar]

Since you essentially killed off Sun and Moon in your last story for y/n to end up with Eclipse (I regret reading it), I shouldnt have been surprised you are having hang ups with y/n ending up with both boys in this story too. Not even sure why you brought it up because that sure did spoil the story. Regardless of the whole "brother" thing (which doesnt make much sense because they arent biological and dont even need to be intimate with eachother to both be with y/n) your jealousy reasoning would happen even if y/n gets together with only one (unless you plan to kill off one of the boys or turn them into Eclipse again). Might be a better ending if you just kill off y/n. That way sun and moon dont have to compete for affections.

Hey. This isn’t a normal thing to say to someone. This is a story. It’s not real. But I’m real. I’m a real person.

If the my story is affecting you this much, truly, stop reading. Unfollow.