#xue chonghai

[yunmeng-jiang]

List of people who did demonic cultivation in CQL:

Xue Chonghai. Went insane and created a dark superweapon and tried to destroy the world.

Wen Ruohan. Went insane and tried to take over the world.

Wei Wuxian. Tortured and killed tons of people in remarkably horrifying ways.

Xue Yang. Massacred an entire clan and spent many years doing horrible things relating to corpses and controlling partially dead bodies for fun.

Mo Xuanyu. Suddenly and "inexplicably" went insane during his study at Koi Tower under JGY, came back with some of Wei Wuxian's notes which were seized by the Jin after his death, then killed himself to summon what he thought was the evilest ghost in the world to murder his family.

Su She, I think. He actually had a super strong golden core (as evidenced by him using the extremely taxing teleportation talismans a lot) so it seems like it affected him a bit less than others.

I'm just saying... maybe Jiang Cheng was right to track down people who used demonic cultivation and stop them from doing that?

[cql-screenshots]

[thegreatdemonzhuyan]

Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji || The Untamed 1.22

These tricks harm your body and your temperament as well. I know. But Lan Zhan, what I'm practicing is not Xue Chonghai's wicked tricks.

[phoenixcatch7]

Up next, the only model I have of one of my rare fandom OCs. I typically only make one per fandom, so this is mdzs!

This is Crow, a nameless and amnesiac raven. The animal reincarnation of an ancient demonic cultivator puppeting the skeleton of their previous life. Wwx named them upon meeting them when he mistook their species in the dark, and then found it funny enough he kept the name.

It's vanishingly rare these guys get lore, but this one does!

I typically keep to book or anime continuity, and crow is my nod to cql/the untamed. In this, crow is the only known member of a rare and unorthodox species - a yin skeleton.

To 'become' a yin skeleton, a few criteria must be met: a creature of sufficient power and resentment must die an unsettled death and yet refuse to become a resentful spirit. Their corpse must then be left, undisturbed and unburied in whatever state it was left in, in a location of immense resentful energy with full exposure to (the purifying yin of) the moon. After many years, once the flesh has rotted off the bones, the skeleton left will rise once more and mindlessly seek out its soul. Should it encounter the soul in their new body, and the soul accept the undead shell rather than fleeing or destroying it, the bond between mind and body will be forged anew, and the skeleton becomes a second body of the soul, allowing it to cultivate immense amounts of yin energy without damage to the current vessel.

Having no organs, it of course cannot talk or feel pain, though resentment puppets its limbs and allows it to see and hear just as well as any reanimated skeleton - better, even. Though it can carry out orders and operate from a significant distance, a yin skeleton will always be drawn back to its soul, seeking out what it can never again have.

Crow is the reincarnation of whoever created the burial mounds, the losing side. It's been so long since they first reincarnated, gained their yin skeleton, and cultivated to sapience that they no longer recall anything about their human life, including their old gender. Wwx theorises that they could be Xue Chonghai himself, or one of his disciples, but any clues are long since lost to time and they're not really interested in finding out. Nonetheless, they have 'lived' in the burial mounds undisturbed and undiscovered for centuries, learning and experimenting with yin energy with their decreasingly limited intelligence and total lack of resources or modern knowledge.

Wwx encounters them for the first time utilising corpses for a dance ritual to expose the sky above the thick smog. Think a rain dance, but in reverse. Though they're not a fighter (nothing to fight in the burial mounds if you're part of it) or good at using their words (nothing to talk to in the burial mounds period), they nonetheless possess a deep understanding of yin energy/resentment and its interactions with its cultivators that wwx reverse engineers and uses to reach even greater heights. Vaguely endeared and deeply interested in the most unusual thing to happen in the mounds in literal centuries, their raven body often leaves the mounds to scavenge for berries and the like for wwx to eat, because lord knows what he was eating in canon.

When wwx breaks out of the burial mounds, they intermittently visit him, acquiring a veiled hat and covering robes to avoid getting hunted down, pretending mutism and the bird being a talking service animal trained for translation. They could not look any more like a demonic cultivator if they tried, though, so results are mixed. They are often one crow among the many that follow wwx around being ominous and creepy, so it's no surprise he thought they were one too at first!

With a reason and desire to explore and socialise (with like, one person lol), Crow slowly grows to genuinely like wwx and shows initiative by spying for information. This works worryingly well, being just a bird and a super powered undead. When wwx brings the wens to the burial mounds, Crow is introduced to them all and in turn shows them the way to the old sect ruins, where they settle. They bond with wn, unsurprisingly, and are extremely fond of him and the small human who is soon unafraid to approach them. During the first siege of the burial mounds, wwx orders them to hide and guard a-yuan, and they do so, though they struggle to care for him as his fever climbs. When lwj comes and rescues a-yuan, they follow him in secret, often checking in on the pair in between general spying and stalking and trying to clean up the mounds.

When wwx is forcibly brought back to life in a new body, his own skeleton wakes up and tries to find him. Crow takes care of it like an exasperated child minder, keeping it from running out in public or off cliffs in search of him, until they encounter him halfway up dafan mountain. A dark human shape looming in the shadows of the trees just off the path looking straight at him, following the narrative it'd be the first time the audience meets them lol. The very image of Bad News.

Crow leads wwx to a clearing, where there is the outline of a tall, broad figure standing just inside the shade cast by the trees. Red eyes, tumbling and tattered hair, flowing robes. It steps out into the moonlight, and wwx's skeleton is skinless and bare but for the cloak Crow has forced it into. Wwx reaches for the grasping bony hands with zero hesitation, and thus wwx gets his own yin skeleton - the first ever human to do so.

As a demonic hippie, essentially, Crow isn't really a fighter - preferring to cultivate through dance where wwx chooses music - though they aren't afraid to dish the pain. Like any other undead, the skeleton does all the work, fighting unarmed with immense brute strength, speed and endurance. Like wn, basically. When not covered from head to toe to participate in society they typically wear very loose, gaping clothing to allow Crow to climb around on the bones. They typically rest in the exposed ribcage like a birdcage, but when making a point they often climb into the skull to peer from an eye socket (which is why the design has a single red eye. All very goth. I was going to use a normal eye but it looks absolutely HORRIFYING on a skeleton XD).

Crow, being a bird in charge of a skeleton in a pit of death, cares very little for appearances, and their yin skeleton is clothed in repaired and stolen rags from the corpses. The only thing remaining of their past life is a weirdly indestructible cloak/outer robe embroidered with falling red leaves. Shoes are very hard to wear when you don't have any skin or muscles, and it's not like it can get scratches or sore feet anyway, so it's barefoot, only using wraps to give the illusion of shoes. The whole chest was supposed to be exposed so you could see the ribs! But there weren't any chest pieces like that so I had to settle. It does look SUPER cool though. The feathers on their chest are from the bird! It's hard to tell given the dark colours and the blood, but they're the same blue as the wings! The arm guards and wraps are basically just falconry gloves so Crow can land safely and not fall off the bones lol. The moon/yin bleaching has left the bones really white, unlike natural skeletons which are yellow. The bleaching white is for hygiene and aesthetic I think.

Due to the bird cultivating resentment, Crow successfully reached immortality in their flesh and blood body. Perhaps they could have been human by now had they stayed in the reincarnation cycle and led good lives, but they prefer the life they have. If they could speak eloquently enough they could revolutionise the study of yin, but wwx is the only one who really listened. Eventually, perhaps, if they form the undead trio with wn and sl (and a-qing, technically) and one of the two teaches them the modern writing system. Due to all the spying and exploring (breaking and entering) they do, they often struggle to have patience with surprise or denial. Crow may have bitten someone in frustration. Or five.

Luckily, lsh and jl regard them as the creepy but helpful uncle, and enjoy petting the raven as much as it enjoys being pet. The adults who know of them are mostly warily resigned to ominous eyeless staring and a bird randomly sharing personal details of their enemies. It's how they show their love.

Man but I'm SO happy with the design, it came out SO WELL!!

If you've read this far, yay! Tell me what you think ^u^

[youhideastar]

WujiWatch: CQL Rewatch Episode 10

 Two things stand out to me in this episode: the question of conflict between the sects, and the question of the pros and cons of being outside the system.

So, first, conflict between the sects. It’s interesting, for a long time I assumed that serious conflicts—like, deadly armed conflict—between the sects was rare. In fact, I assumed that the last sect war was the war against Xue Chonghai (which occurred “thousands of years ago” according to Nie Mingjue, “hundreds of years ago” according to Lan Yi, and “a hundred years ago” according to Lan Xichen—amazing), and that since that time, the cultivation world has basically been at peace. Cultivators’ martial training was for fighting yao, mo, guai, and gui, and also taking down individual baddie cultivators, not for making war against large, organized groups of other cultivators.

But then, in this episode, when Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan are asked to help our heroes with their quest, they refuse on the ground that they don’t get involved in inter-sect conflicts. Not “we don’t want to get involved with this inter-sect conflict,” but “as a practice, we do not get involved with inter-sect conflicts ever,” which sure seems to imply that there have been others, in their lifetimes. Like, for abstaining to be a practice, there needs to be something to abstain from, you know?

And as I’m pondering this, the camera cuts to the first shot of the Unclean Realm, and my question is very definitively answered for me—because nobody builds fucking twenty-foot high stone walls with ramparts and a fucking portcullis because they’re scared of individual demons or ghosts, or even scared of a small group of the cultivational equivalent of bandits. You only build a fortress if you’re scared of an army.

(When you start seeing the sets this way, you realize that Cloud Recesses (at the top of a mountain accessible only by one narrow staircase), Jinlintai (another stone fortress accessible only by a staircase), and Nightless City (ditto, at the top of a mountain) are also all built to withstand a siege. Only Lotus Pier, wide-open and unfortified, is vulnerable. Easy pickings.)

This is important because I’d previously been pretty judgy about Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan refusing to be involved in dealing with the Yin Iron – I’d thought, “Sure, you don’t want to get involved in petty squabbling—but this is a big deal! Wen Ruohan is kidnapping random cultivators and turning them into zombies! How can you say you’re devoting your life to justice and then sit this one out?” But their decision makes a lot more sense if the sects are frequently at war with one another – this would, at this point in the plot, just look like more of the same. And I, too, would find it exhausting constantly getting asked to pick a side in bullshit wars waged by people more interested in acquiring power than using it to protect the people who they’re supposed to be protecting.

Okay, second thing: the idea of rogue cultivators. One of the interesting things about the drama introducing Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan this early is that it sets up this theme of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji both yearning for that kind of free, roving life, and in fact, bonding over that shared longing. Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan sure make that life look very attractive. (Not just because they’re gorgeous, but that helps!) Prioritizing shared principles over bloodlines, going where the greatest need is, opting out of petty, grasping sect power struggles—it makes total sense that our heroes would go starry-eyed like they’re meeting celebrities; that Wei Wuxian would earnestly and awkwardly tell Xiao Xingchen that he and Lan Wangji have been trying to do the same thing with their Yin Iron quest; that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji gaze longingly after Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan’s departing forms and then share a wistful look with each other.

But the price of that life, as the drama shows—also using Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan—is how powerless it makes you. Xue Yang’s capture would not have been possible without sect cultivator Wei Wuxian tethering him to keep him from running away. More importantly, only sect cultivators have a prison in which they can keep Xue Yang – if the sect boys hadn’t come along, Xiao Xingchen would have had no choice to either kill Xue Yang immediately—something that characters in this show are shockingly (to this Western viewer) loathe to do—or let him go. Xiao Xingchen tells our heroes that they can call on him if they are in need… but when Lan Wangji, practical boy that he is, asks how they can get in touch with him, Xiao Xingchen’s answer is basically, “You can’t,” because he doesn’t have a home base. So it’s a pretty empty promise. The vast and manifest injustices that will soon unfold in this story—from the Wens’ massacre of several entire sects (the very crime for which Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan sought to bring Xue Yang to justice) to the post-Sunshot torture, imprisonment, and murder of the Wen Remnants—will do so without a peep from these two righteous cultivators. The sects have corruption, and war, and hypocrisy—but they also have infrastructure, resources, and networks.

Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan show what happens when someone makes a principled decision to opt out of those resources and networks.

Meng Yao is about to show what happens when someone has those things stripped from him, against his will.

[kimboo-york]

A Short History of the Xuanwu of Slaughter

This is all about the Xuanwu of Slaughter, the Yin Iron (a la CQL), and the Burial Mounds as represented in my fic, The Bastards of Yunmeng, not cannon!

WARNING: If you have not read up through, uh, about chapter 26 or so of the fic, this is a little bit spoilery. Or, at least, it explains things in ways the characters themselves don't understand for a while yet.

YIN IRON

My headcanon is that the yin iron is a big chunk of a meteor that was happily dormant underground until a big battle happened on top of it and turned it into “yin iron” after it got soaked with resentment. If there was a beating heart to the Burial Mounds, it was the yin iron.

Everyone thought there were only four pieces because that’s all they remember or have record of, but Xue Chonghai broke off a large piece, and the Xuanwu ate the remaining piece to keep it safe before she left to chase after him (see below for her story).

Xue Chonghai’s piece was broken apart into five pieces by the clans near the end of the war, although he hid a shard under the assumption he could come back for it later (he died instead). So, there are six total.

Original locations: Yunmeng Jiang was not included because it did not exist at the time as anything other than some rando river pirate cultivators. Also, keep in mind that the four great sects did not know where the other sects had hidden their pieces, only that they had them:

1 - Xuanwu (no one knew this existed)

1 - Dancing Fairy (Qisan Wen)

1 - Flower Lady (Lanling Jin)

1 - Lan Yi (Gusu Lan)

1 - Qinghe crypts (Qinghe Nie)

1 - unk/lost (hidden by Xue Chonghai and forgotten)

Locations at the start of the Qinghe arc:

1 - Xuanwu

2 - WHR

1 - WangXian

1 - Quinghe crypts

1 - Xue Yang

How things stand by the Sunshot Campaign:

1 - Xuanwu

2 - WHR

3 - Wei Ying

Xuanwu of Slaughter & Burial Mounds timeline:

Very Far Distant past: She was born when and where a great battle raged, as many demonic creatures are, and hid until it was over so she could feast on resentment and ghosts. The Burial Mounds was only a big valley at the time, but she was small and could not eat ALL the resentment. However, she ate enough to keep the Burial Mounds from expanding too much, and along the way exposed the yin iron. You could say they were born at the same time.

Much, much later: Xue Chonghai figured out that the Yin Iron was very powerful and stole a huge chunk of it from the Burial Mounds, right under the Xuanwu’s nose. She ate the remaining piece and left the Burial Mounds to chase him and get it back. Wars happened and Xue Chonghai was defeated, but the Xuanwu was far away from home and tired, so she hid in a cave. When the Yin Iron was broken into pieces, it magically put her into hibernation because she had eaten the remaining piece.

Time passed (500-800 years or so): The Burial Mounds, left without its caretaker, grew in size and power. WRH became power mad, grabbed two pieces of yin iron and when he put them together, it created a ripple effect that made all the other pieces start resonating again and, in turn, woke up the Xuanwu of Slaughter, who was now trapped in her cave and pretty unhappy about it.

Links:

The Bastards of Yunmeng (the fic itself) A Short Treatise on Madam Yu (my commentary on Madam Yu as represented in the fic)

[nakimochiku]

little head canon time to answer this question: why does cql! Xue Yang seem unaffected by yin metal? (If someone knows the actual answer please share i dont recall if it was ever said in the novels and i dont have my copies to reread with yet)

so in cql we see Wei Wuxian immediately fucked up by that yin sword at the demon turtle cave. We see Wen Ruohan fucked up by continued use of the yin metal, and he has Wen Qing help him suppress it. And we see Xue Chonghai go crazy with it according to the myths.

xue yang was never shown with the same struggle. Easy and obvious answer is because the drama did not care about xue yang and scrapped like 50% of his story but I'm not gonna waste time being bitter about that. Instead i need to fill a gap.

so here’s my idea stolen from many xianxia novels: what if xue yang has a “pure yin body”? Now obviously what that actually means will change depending on the novel you’re reading but. If the yin metal is fucking these guys up because its imbalancing them, it’s too much yin energy, where everyone is usually yin and yang, then having a pure yin body would mean the yin metal isn't imbalancing. Its an inclination xue yangs body already has, so it doesn't affect him.

i like the idea that a yin body gave xue yang a natural inclination to demonic cultivation. It was very instinctual and less methodical, so not technically cultivation, before he actively started studying cultivation methods. I also like the idea that a yin body made it difficult to cultivate the righteous path (not enough yang energy would make it hard to develop golden core) so his cultivation is a little weaker than others.

of course if this is the case dual cultivation would be helpful for him to gain yang energy…. Just saying.

[theladysunami]

Dishonored MZDS Crossover Idea(s)

I've got some half formed "Mo Dao Zu Shi characters and themes in the universe of the Dishonored games" ideas spinning through my head that I really want to share and brainstorm about. 

Alas, I don't know all that many people in the MDZS fandom yet, and definitely don't know anyone in the fandom who also knows the Dishonored game franchise. It's terribly frustrating!

I'll go ahead and type out some of the ideas I've had so far, just in case they'd be of interest to anyone else: 

Wen Ruohan is a bit of a blend of Hiram Burrows and Delilah Copperspoon. I'm undecided if he's the rightful Emperor, he’s acting as Lord Regent, or he's done some shady political maneuvering to place himself on the throne in place of little Wen Yuan’s birth parents (he’s absolutely responsible for the death of said birth parents regardless). 

He has void powers via the Mark of the Outsider, and can grant them to his underlings in the same manner as Delilah and Daud. He has granted powers to both his sons. While they don’t flaunt their powers (at least not at first) they certainly use them to keep both the nobility and the common folk under their thumb.

(Wen Zhuliu might have his own, independent, mark --and thus a unique power set-- but is loyal to Wen Ruohan).

The Lan Clan is the Abbey of the Everyman... or at least they are an order in the Abbey responsible for the anti-void Music Boxes and the “Musical Healing” (as portrayed in Death of the Outsider). Their music is less jarring of course, or at least it is to those not touched by void-magic. 

Lan Wangji likely aspires to create music that can slowly fix void damage to the mind in a way that won’t damaging the host in other ways, but his fellow researchers into “Musical Healing” don’t seem to care that much about the mental distress of their patients. (Lan Wangji eventually questions if void magic itself causes “damage” at all). 

Wei Wuxian is a little bit Corvo Attano and a little bit Death of the Outsider’s Billie Lurk. He is (was) a ward of the Jiang noble family, who figures out Wen Ruohan’s involvement in shady dealings, and his involvement in shady magics. Unfortunately his suspicious aren’t believed (except perhaps by Lan Wangji). Worse, his ideas about studying Black Magic further and hopefully learning how to undo the Outsider are anathema to the Abbey, and have earned him their ire. He’s soon stuck in the unenviable position of both the Emperor and the Abby gunning for him, when he really only wants to help the common folk.

Wei Wuxian’s does end up obtaining void powers, but those powers are granted from artifacts, not a mark. (Perhaps his hand really is cut off at the behest of the Wen at some point, and he creates an artifact replacement himself). His ultimate goal is to kill the Outsider, and in doing so cut off the source of power for Wen Ruohan and his followers. (He also protects Wen Yuan from either death or imprisonment at some point. Specifics undecided).

The Outsider is either Wen Mao, or Xue Chonghai. Which one depends somewhat on whether Wen Ruohan is the rightful emperor (and the connection between the royal family and void-magic runs deep) or Wen Ruohan simply took advantage of his powers while manipulating things to his own benefit.

Wei Wuxian does eventually successfully kill the Outsider (the role of the Twin-bladed Knife being played by the resentful blade from which he made the Yin Tiger Tally of course. Perhaps collected from a whale?). Unfortunately for him, his use of void magic is well established, and at least some are aware his powers come from artifacts that can be stolen from him. 

As to be expected from a Mo Dao Zu Shi AU, things end poorly for him. He is badly injured, and either the void��“likes” him, or his allies in the Outsider’s destruction hope to buy time to save him, and he ends up as the Void’s new representative. (Or as a third option, perhaps somewhat like in the Dishonored Novels killing the Outsider has some unfortunate consequences, and Wei Wuxian becomes the new representative to resolve things).

Wei Wuxian isn’t heard from (directly) for about 13-years. Lan Wangji suffers from the knowledge Wei Wuxian was absolutely correct about Wen Ruohan’s corruption, and (thanks to being surrounded by the Ancient Music his whole like) being someone Wei Wuxian can never speak to. Wei Wuxian either avoids giving any marks (except to Wen Ning), or makes certain to only give them to the dying that they might fulfill some final wish. (Delilah could remove Corvo’s mark, so perhaps as Wei Wuxian’s agent Wen Ning removes those of the near dead before they die, so they can truely rest). 

Wei Wuxian does come back, but how I haven’t decided. Maybe his friends actually figure out how to safely remove him, or maybe Mo Xuanyu comes across a ritual for turning oneself into a direct avatar of the Outsider. (If the ritual is involved, perhaps Wei Wuxian found it and hoped it would aid in his quest to end the outsider, but either realized killing the avatar probably wouldn’t remove the marks, wasn’t willing to let a friend make themselves an avatar just to be killed, or was worried the avatar would escape and become a worse enemy). 

[cql-screenshots]

[silvysartfulness]

If we're arguing fun cql canon, Wen Ruohan technically claimed the Dancing Fairy Yin Iron piece some 10-20 years ago and began experimenting with demonic cultivation, presumably predating Xue Yang first fucking around with it...

But the win still goes to the Xue bloodline because this guy

was the one who used death and resentment to first corrupt the heavenly Yin Iron, and started poking around at demonic cultivation literal centuries before the current plot. 🙂

In short: Xue Chonghai is in fact the Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.

Wasn't very good at controling it, but everyone's gotta start somewhere. 😀

i just realized something about the untamed

in the book of mdzs xxc and wwx never met and xue yangs whole massacre of the chang clan happened after wwx was already dead, but in the untamed they changed it so wwx was investigating the chang clan massacre BEFORE WWX INVENTED DEMONIC CULTIVATION so because cql fucked up the timeline xue yang is the real grandmaster of demonic cultivation

[sorrowschengmei]

sometimes i wonder how a real Xue Yang would look like...

even with Haoxuan as a 'base', we're talking about someone who's endured malnutrition, mutilation, physical abuse since childhood and it's CANON. if one feels cruel might add the very real possibilities of infection, sex trafficking, food or water poisoning, venereal disease. [isn’t his erratic behaviour similar to accounts of late stage syphilis?]

that person would probably according to endogenetics be short with a slow as fuck metabolism, have entire areas of the brain malfunctioning, and look considerably older than his age. i think in his first appearance it can be considered well translated to CQL IF you consider this is a 15 year old boy like he is on the novel. Haoxuan is a cutie, yes but he looks his actual 23 in CQL, I'd give him even 26.

"but cultivation makes you younger" bitch whatever Xue Yang was cultivating was NOT the same shit that made daddy Ruohan, Jin G*uangsh*n etc look like 50 year old teens lol by CQL canon even Xue Chonghai aged af when he started demonic cultivation...

(seems like the Xue have bad genetics.ouch) 

idk enough of Chinese candy but depending on the level of sugar it could mean apart from all of this damage, IRL Xue Yang could have absolutely Nasty teeth too  his evil smile would look even more terrifying with a hole in the middle!

"but he IS described as looking young" trans AFAB coding,simple lol. no beard???? high pitched voice???? softer skin???? young cis boy. (disregard the expression lines, heavy af eyes, overall mature -looking bone structure). 

cultivators seem otherworldly beautiful and young because of their upbringing on cultivation. it has grown into their cells, their bones, their brains. i find plausible Wangji looking underage at 36 bc he's THE Hanguang Jun. now Xue Yang, he experimented the most harsh realities of mediocre human life AND engaged in demonic cultivation. (and ate too much candy!)

behold, another pic of our ill fated HS freshman:

[pumpkinpaix]

hi! idk how it took me this long but i just relized that xue yang and xue chonghai have the same name. do you know if they're related?

yeah, they’re related! xue chonghai is one of xue yang’s ancestors. it’s explicitly mentioned a few times in the show, but I can’t pull receipts off the top of my head sorry. /o\ i have a LOT of significant episodes memorized, but tbh every time the yin iron or xue chonghai are mentioned, i basically become the embodiment of the i am looking away i do not see it meme :’D

xue chonghai and the yin iron is a CQL-only plot point though. I actually think the existence of xue chonghai does a not insignificant amount thematic damage to both xue yang and wei wuxian’s character arcs. in a nutshell:

1. it establishes a powerful ancestral lineage for xue yang, when I think that the parallels between him, wei wuxian, and jin guangyao rely upon the fact that all of them are the children of commoners, xue yang especially.

2. xue chonghai is supposedly the one who started down the whole demonic cultivation path. this means that wei wuxian is not actually the inventor of the path, but following in someone else’s footsteps. this ties into the whole “wei wuxian did nothing wrong” arc that CQL went for (probably due to censorship), but also undercuts his power. if you’re curious about my thoughts on CQL vs novel and haven’t yet read my ridiculous meta, it’s here.

[themorrana]

I just now (somehow *facepalm*) realized that Burial Mounds were Xue Chonghai's residence or at least the place where he dwelt and murdered a lot of cultivators before being defeated. And thus the Mounds came to be.

[mifeng-xiaojie]

No it’s funny that this anon will accuse people of lying with their whole chest because I have seen XY, JC, and JGY antis not only lie with their whole chest about shit that happens in canon, but then when you press them about their lie, they say something Iike, “Well, I hate this character, so to be honest, I didn’t actually pay much attention to what happened.”

Honestly, people like this person is why I don’t share my thoughts on MXTX works. Like for CQL, they added Xue Chonghai and changed a few other things because the Chinese censors literally deemed Wei Wuxian’s character to be too morally grey and they wanted him to fit in with the more black and white idea of good and evil.

I hate that you can’t point out that Wei Wuxian isn’t some perfectly good, morally upstanding gentleman without people automatically thinking it means you must hate him. Recognizing that a character isn’t an immaculate angel and talking about that isn’t hate. Saying shit like, “This character deserved to be abused as a child. It’s just one finger” absolutely is.

MDZS fans on tumblr act as if they never read other genres of fiction than kids' lit,the way they go on and on about how nuanced and morally gray MXTX's world is. Please read other genres too?

It is nuanced and complex. It is also pretty straightforwardly moral. MDZS is for the dreamers who like the macabre,tragedies,a dash of politics,and social criticism. Not for those who ONLY like politics,and have an allergy to heroes,or to systems of values other than opportunistic.

It annoys me to no end. These people,because they like the villains more,lie with their whole chest about the themes of the novel. Then get offended and call everyone who is not in their camp as 'lacking critical thinking'.

Nope,intellectual dishonesty is not critical thinking. The fact that WangXian are the main charaters makes this an idealistic story where following your moral code even if society is against you matters. Jin Guangyao is complex,and very human. Even if you relate to him more,it doesn't automatically turn MDZS into an 'everyone is equally morally gray' kind of narrative.

If you want your main characters to be Jin Guangyao-like,look into a different genre please. If we're talking western counterparts,MDZS has perhaps similar intended audience as the Silmarillion? The character drama and the villains are the type that makes you want to analyze them and sympathize with them,but the genre is actually fantasy,not politics. It has overarching themes about life,death and everything in between that are more than just 'character x was justified or not'. You are supposed to admire and root for the hero. It is a genre where it is INTENDED to be cathartic to see some form of justice being delivered. Also most good people meet tragic ends. That does not translate into 'morality is absolutely relative,in this novel and everyone who says differently is an idiot,because,I,a JGY fan,said so'.

Tumblr MDZS fandom is really pushy and aggressive about claiming (ironically) that it's nuanced thinking to paint literally all nuances as gray and that that is the only correct way to enjoy this particular novel. Please open your mind a little.

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[korpikorppi]

The Untamed Ep6, collage 13: Madness

[stiltonbasket]

Since Eowyn! WWX is not a woman, what if the witch king couldn't be killed by a cultivator. And *that* is the golden core reveal (no need for extra drama though, WWX just has his boss moment)

My version of the LOTR AU doesn't have cultivation, but just imagine the Witch-king going "No cultivator can kill me!" right before Wei Wuxian stabs him in the face.

Meanwhile, A-Yuan, a coreless hobbit, has stabbed him in the knee. The Witch-king is having a very bad day.