#you definitely could like cql jc and not novel jc!

[wangxianficfinder]

In the mood for...

Sep 7th

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1. So u know how during bm days and 1st seige of bm wwx is often portrayed as guilt ridden/self sacrificing 'I deserve this' loyal 2theend mentality? What about any fics where wwx is horrified and feels betrayed? That jc opinion could be swayed by outsiders, that jc broke their cover up/truce they made during their faked duel where they staged defection. That jc is two faced in his dealings. Just that type of vibe where even if wwx isn't all 'destruction revenge' in response, he takes it personally

Lay my body down by tawaen (M, 48k, WWX & WQ, WWX & WN, wangxian, WWX & JYL, Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Eventual WangXian, No Golden Core Transfer, Not Cultivation World Friendly, Canon-Typical Violence, Not JC Friendly, What if WWX saw the first siege of the burial mounds and said Nope to the war, OCs, OC point-of-view for one chapter for plot reasons) AU after the fall of LP where WWX gets a glimpse of the future up to the siege & goes 'fuck that & fuc JC in particular'

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2. A) Finished reading this fic (forces of attraction by bleuett) and now I am in the mood for rogue cultivator wwx AU's. It doesn't matter if lwj belongs to a clan or is a rogue too...i'd love M/E rated fic recs for this trope please!!

Hello!! I am in the mood for some of the following tropes/types of fics:

B) rogue cultivator wwx and/or rogue cultivator lwj

C) childhood friends to lovers wangxian/growing up together (any AU works)

D) the jealous/possessive lwj trope feat wwx dating some other male chara/mistaken to be dating that chara

E) dragonji and/or dragonxian fics

F) complete wwx rarepair fics (like non wangxian but with anyone shipped with wwx if its well done)

Please make sure that if the fics are M/E rated, that they only have bottom wwx (I avoid top wwx/switch dynamic like my life depends on it) Thank you!!

@stellatosparkle

2A)

🔒 Ad Oblivione by Baph, HikariNoHimeWriter (M, 70k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, POV Multiple, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Identity Reveal, Golden Core Reveal, Cultivation World Critical, Not JC Friendly, Abusive YZY, Angst with a Happy Ending) also fits 2B Time travel AU where WWX grows up as a rogue cultivator.

Cultivating immortality by KizuKatana (E, 231k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Mutual Pining, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, Angst with a Happy Ending, Hurt/Comfort, unreliable narrator, Found Family, First Time, novel canon relationship dynamics)

Dispersing Clouds by dreamingofcake (E, 283k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Abusive YZY, Canonical Child Abuse, Hurt/Comfort, Slow Burn, Eventual Sex, Implied/Referenced Self-Harm (Background Character), Background Character Deaths, child deaths, Canon JC, Good Uncle LQR, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Cultivation Sect Politics, Homophobia, Heteronormativity, Feelings Realization, WWX is Not Oblivious) although Wei Ying starts as a Jiang and ends up becoming a Lan, with time as a rogue cultivator in between

2C)

❤️ All will be well when the day is done by abCEE (T, 76k, LQR & WWX, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fix It, Not Jiang Family Friendly, JFM & YZY Bashing, YZY Bashing, Definitely not YZY centric, Fix it for our main characters, Time Travel, Butterfly Effect, Madam Lan Lives, No Sunshot Campaign, Artistic License, Unreliable Narrator, JC Bashing, non-yunmeng WWX, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Good Uncle LQR, OOC, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, WWX gets the love and care that he deserves from the very beginning, Mainly CQL but has elements of the novel as well, WWX Isn’t Adopted by the Jiangs, verbal and physical (c/o Zidian) abuse from YZY)

how a smiling homeless child melted jade hearts and got a home by anxiouswreck0_0 (T, 41k, wangxian, LXC & LWJ, LXC & WWX, WWX was adopted by the lans, lan WWX, pining WWX, Canon Divergence, LQR making questionable parenting choices, madam lan is a good parent, Fluff and Angst, Fix-It of Sorts, Childhood Friends, childhood fiances? Yes, Character Death, insecure WWX, slightly possessive WWX, Possessive LWJ, Not Everyone Dies, Dark LXC, OOC, Mild Gore, Explicit Language, Supportive LXC, Morally Ambiguous Character, Sassy WWX, WWX does not like the jins and it shows, clingy LWJ, mother hen LXC, Good LQR, Good Parent LQR, Good Parent QHJ)

🔒 Life is Like a Stranger by through_shadows_falling (T, 69k, wangxian, Kid Fic, Child LWJ, Child WWX, First Meetings, Canon Divergence, Cute Kids, Orphan WWX, Autism Spectrum, Fix-It, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Alternate Canon, POV LWJ, Growing Up Together, WWX raised at Cloud Recesses, Fluff and Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Puberty, Growing Up, Coming Out, teenage angst, Wet Dream, Pining, This fic gets a little raunchier as the kids become teens, But it won’t get too explicit, Slow Burn, Friends to Lovers, Spanish Translation, Brief mentions/moments of WWX kissing others in chapter 22 but only on the cheek, also characters kiss WWX on the cheek in chapter 23, but his real first kiss is with LWJ, Перевод на русский | Translation in Russian)

soft-hearted by sarahyyy (G, 6k, wangxian, alternate universe, childhood friends, hurt/comfort, getting together, first kiss, wedding fluff)

🔒 Cuties and Questions by WiseDawn13 (T, 6k, WangXian, Modern, Childhood Friends, POV WWX, losing touch with your best friend and then meeting each other again years later, Reunions, Getting Together, LWJ is a Little Shit, LWJ is a Confident Gay, WWX is Loved, CSSR and WCZ Live, the mortifying ordeal of finding out your childhood best friend grew up to be hot, Light Angst, Fluff, Happy Ending)

When we were small by deliciousblizzardshark (T, 7k, LXC & LQR & LWJ, LQR & WWX, WangXian, LQR & JFM, Modern, Kid Fic, Good Uncle LQR, Neurodivergent LWJ, Baby LWJ, Baby WWX, Parenthood, Homophobia, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, POV LQR, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, Grief/Mourning, Emotional Hurt/Comfort)

2D)

Am I (Gusu Lan Cultivator, 24 M) the Asshole? by moonwaif (M, 41k, WangXian, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, modern cultivation au, Oblivious LWJ, Jealous LWJ, Jealous WWX, Misunderstandings, No actual WWX x Others, A "What If WWX Figured Out His Own Feelings First?", AU Hanguang-jun unlearns compulsory heteronormativity, Implied/Referenced Homophobia)

he gets under your skin by Skadiseven (M, 87k, WangXian, XiXian, (sort of), Inspired By While You Were Sleeping (1995), Modern AU, Accidental Engagement, Chicago (City), lan typical communication skills, wangxian's tendency to self-sacrifice, Christmas, Cats, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Angst with a Happy Ending)

2E)

💖 Hoards and treasures by apathyinreverie (T, 21k, WangXian, Siblings, Family, not particularly Jiang friendly, YZY Bashing, slightly darker Gusu Lans, LXC being the best brother, Some manipulation, But with the best of intentions, and not between wangxian, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Smitten LWJ, Fluff, perfect happiness, adorable WWX, Romance, Some worldbuilding, courting)

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3. hiiii can you help me find fics where wangxian just got together and are exploring the relationship? or fics where wei ying is getting used to being loved after so long 🥹🫶

Seasons of Love by Witch_Nova221 (G, 24k, WangXian, Eventual Romance, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Caring LWJ, POV WWX, Falling In Love, Self-Esteem Issues, Finding home, Post-Canon, Soft, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Happy Ending)

You, Asleep and Dreaming by etymologyplayground (M, 9k, WangXian, LWJ POV, 5+1 Things, Literal Sleeping Together, Sharing a Bed, Cuddling & Snuggling, Intimacy, Getting Together, Fluff, Post-Canon, Undressing, wwx’s ‘angry lwj’ kink)

Tripped at Every Step by brooklinegirl (E, 28k, WangXian)

the hidden source is the watchful heart by o_honeybees (E, 10k, WangXian, Post-Canon, Getting Together, Domesticity, Touch-Starved, Grief/Mourning, Misunderstandings, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Unresolved Sexual Tension,Eventual Smut, reflections on selfishness and selflessness)

my age has never made me wise by idrilka (E, 63k, wangxian, Post-Canon, Part-epistolary, Mutual Pining, Getting Together, Marriage Proposal, Homecoming, One Brain Cell WWX Strikes Again)

I hope that you will come and meet me by feyburner (M, 28k, WangXian , Post-Canon Getting Together Love Letters Emotional Hurt/Comfort Cuddling & Snuggling Literal Sleeping Together Intimacy CQL Compliant No Plot Just Feelings First Time, [Podfic of] I hope that you will come and meet me by exmanhater )

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4. hello! i would really love to find fics where wwx (teen or adult) meets his parents and gets to have a relationship with them. maybe it’s a time traveling wwx or his parents time travel or something. bonus points if the weis get pissed off with the jiangs and gets him out of there!

🔒 the world wags on by justdoityoufucker (orphan_account) (T, 5k, WCZ & WWX, WCZ & LQR, WCZ/LQR, canon divergence, pre-canon, WCZ lives, not everyone dies au, not Jiang friendly, past child abuse, canon Jiang family dynamics, not YZY friendly, parent- child relationship)

The Long Winding Road Homeby Admiranda (T, 13k, CSSR/WCZ, wangxian, flash forwards, Time Travel, Post canon, WWX’s parents come to post canon mdzs, not for JC fans, fluffy family reunions, mocking LQR to his face, mocking JC to his face, wild rumors abound)

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5. hi! ITMF Xue Yang centric fics? Ones where he was found by WWX and has a better childhood because of it. I'm fine with any ships or none. Just for reference, I really loved how Xue Yang's character and the relationship between him and Wen Ning developed in Yearning for Miles by Murahi. So if there are any other similar fics, I'll appreciate the recs, thank you!!

a bird in your teeth by Eevee (ChaosBitch) (E, 61k, JYL/XY, wangxian, Let XY have nice things, Let JYL get some good dick, (sorry JZX I know you did your best), Past JYL/JZX, Past JYL/MM, All of the sex in this fic is consensual, But one of the participants IS a fierce corpse, JYL POV, Minor Character Death, I feel like this fic turned out surprisingly soft, but XY still does some onscreen murders, Implied/Referenced Torture, Mention of JGS’s canon behavior, Mentions of XY’s canon behavior, Also Wangxian is not the main pairing, but they’re definitely here and stupider in love than ever, Angst, past XY/JGY, Hopeful Ending) JYL/XY fic where XY brings JYL back as a fierce corpse

Keep My Shadow Alive by namelessdeer (M, 81k, WIP, WangXian, Novel canon with CQL sprinkles, Found Family, Fix-It of Sorts, Burial Mounds Settlement Days, Burial Mounds Ensemble as Family, XY-centric, POV Multiple, Mental Health Issues, Psychological Trauma, Dubious Morality, Hurt/Comfort, Humor, adhd wwx, autistic lwj, Unreliable Narrator, Chronic Pain, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Angst, Eventual Happy Ending, Slow To Update, rated for violence and heavy themes, Grief/Mourning) has XY presenting himself at the Burial Mounds as a disciple and not taking no for an answer. Mostly XY POV, but not always.

Please Take This Radish by Wildcard (M, 7k, WIP, LSZ & XY, XY & WQ, JYL & XY, JC & XY, WN & XY, WangXian, JYL/JZX, Canon Divergence, at no point does XY actually sell Wen Yuan, Bad Parenting, not abusive parenting, but just bad in the way of a kid who does not know how to parent, XY loves his little brother really, he's just not the best at showing it, raising the dead is easier than raising kids, Angst with a Happy Ending, Comedy, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Dysfunctional Family, demonic radishes, Everyone Lives, For Want of a Nail, Temporary Character Death, Mistaken Identity, XY is not the Yiling Patriarch, musical cultivation) is a really good wip where xy & yuan escape bm seige and xy is mistaken for a de-aged wwx

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6. I'm in the mood for a fic, where Lan Zhan has amnesia (preferably temporary) and doesn't remember anything. He doesn't know what Lan clan is, doesn't remember his family and events and Wei. It could be some injury or some spell. I wonder if there is such fic like that. Not modern au. I would like to see Lan Zhan being oblivious of Lan clan rules and not recognizing his uncle and brother. And being generally very confused of the cultivation world.

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7. Itmf god!wwx fics esp diverging aus where he ascends. Also itmf fics where wwx died earlier than in canon but still continues on in some way (a ghost, wrath/calamity, God, resurrected, etc.) and/or esp if he or others don't realize it at first.

🔒 A Heart Undying by NonsensicalRambling (M, 114k, WangXian, Undead WWX, Canon-Typical Violence, canon-typical dead things the burial mounds, Fix-It of Sorts, Canon Divergence, Eventual WangXian, No Yīn Tiger Seal, Morally Gray WWX, Animals Eating People, WWX's questionable choices, Morally conflicted LWJ, Oblivious WWX, WWX Creates a Sect | Yiling Wei, YLLZ WWX, Sect Leader WWX, LWJ & WQ have an Understanding) Wei wuxian basically became an official for diyu

🔒💖 Calling Heaven by mondengel (Not Rated, 2k, WangXian, God AU)

Having Enough (of your foolishness) by makexianxianhappytoday (T, 18k, WangXian, Hurt WWX, YLLZ WWX, BAMF WWX, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Angst with a Happy Ending, Jiang Family Bashing, Canon Divergence, CSSR and WCZ Live, Yunmeng Jiang Sect Bashing, JYL Lives, JZX Lives, (but what are the consequences), JC Bashing)

In the end by apathyinreverie (T, 4k, WangXian, LSZ & WWX, WWX & WN, Canon Divergence, God WWX, WWX ascends, the cultivation world hates it, but they don't get a say, LWJ is done with the cultivation world, cultivation sect critical)

Meet you at a different place by tawaen (M, 57k, WQ & WN, WN & MXY & WQ, WQ & WWX & WN, Eventual WangXian, Ghost General WN, Ghost WQ, Canon Divergence, WQ comes back to haunt the cultivation world, Bad idea to kill the one person who didn’t kill anyone, Cultivation World Critical, Not JC Friendly, Wen Remnants Deserve Better, Sīsī Deserves Better, MXY Deserves Better, POV WQ)

Not Only Gods Are Listening by a_dancer (Not Rated, 69k, WangXian, HuaLian, Post-Canon TGCF, MDZS Fix-it, Post-First Siege of the Burial Mounds, YLLZ WWX, Fix-It of Sorts, Crossover)

🔒 Of Destruction and Rebirth by demoniqt (M, 88k, wangxian, JYL/JZX, major character death, rape/non-con, underage, graphic depictions of violence, Slow Burn, Canonical Character Death, God WWX, God Verse, BAMF WWX, Grieving LWJ, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Canon Divergence, Gods & Goddesses au, JC & WWX Reconciliation, Rabbits, Fix-It, Attempted Sexual Assault, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Canon-Typical Violence, Blood and Gore, Castration, Lots of it, repeatedly, Punishment, Hell)

🧡 Vow by draechaeli (E, 216k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, BeliefGod!WWX, Adoption but WWX birthed them all, Pregnancy Kink, Mpreg, minor male lactation, Consensual Non-Consent, Light Bondage, Non-Graphic Rape/Non-Con because JGS, Mentions Canon Typical Incest, Canon Typical Violence)

Practical Mythology by metisket (T, 17k, WangXian, Time Travel, YLLZ WWX, myths and legends, apparently the burial mounds has to fix everything itself, zombie farm collective, accidental deities, Families of Choice, WWX has no idea what he's doing, that's why he's doing great)

Blood of the Black Earth by wirevix (M, 48k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Xuánwǔ of Slaughter Cave, Sunshot Campaign, Sad with a Happy Ending, Ghost WWX, Monster WWX, Canonical Character Death, Although not at the canonical time, Grief/Mourning, Good Sibling JC, Horror) WWX dies in Xuanwu cave and his spirit ends up merging with the murder turtle

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8. itmf vampire x werewolf wangxian @nalalie

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9. Fics where wangxin raise a daughter?

❤️ Attempting the Impossible by Ariaste for williedustice (T, 36k, WangXian, JC & WWX, Post-Canon, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, Adoption, Family Fluff, Kid fic, Family drama, Fluff, 🔒[PODFIC] Attempting the Impossible by Ariaste by lunatique)

🔒 Little Stars by Aki_no_hikari (G, 4k, WangXian, Family Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Canon Divergence, Yílíng Wèi Sect)

🔒 Little fall of rain by luckymoonly (M, 10k, wangxian, Canon Divergence, Fix-It, WWX didn’t know he was pregnant, Mpreg, Mention of Birth, Family Feels, Nielan himbo rights, soft LQR, Misunderstandings, jealous LWJ, Fluff and Angst, Happy Ending, Smut, Breastfeeding, Thirsty Granny Wen, JGS being his usual self)

❤️ Seen and not heard by eatmyass (E, 51k, wangxian, case fic, no sunshot, kid fic, dadxian, strangers to lovers, found family, LWJ pov, pining, fake/pretend relationship, first time, falling in love) Although Wei Ying & Lan Zhan haven't adopted the children yet, their parenting skills shine

Where the Lonely Ones Go by CSHfic, VSfic (T, 23k, WangXian, Accidental Baby Acquisition, Case Fic, Night Hunts, Fluff, Established Relationship, Mystery, Married Life, Domestic Fluff, Haunting, Kid Fic, Post-Canon, gratuitous use of empathy) Although Wei Ying & Lan Zhan haven't adopted the children yet, their parenting skills shine

Foxsong by Admiranda (T, 41k, A-Qing & WWX & LWJ, Yi City trio, WangXian, SongXiao, fox a-qing, Fox Spirit WWX, Dragon LWJ, Dragon LWJ/Fox WWX, XY causes problems, High Fantasy, mythical beasts in human forms, Found Family, background wangxian, married wangxian) Not quite what you're asking for, but it's about A-Qing and she essentially gets adopted by wangxian

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10. Hello again! Thank as always for your hard work guys!! ❤️❤️ I was wondering for the next I'm in the Mood for... a trope where WWX stays in lotus Pier and has a better/good relationship with JC!! Maybe the golden core reveal happens way earlier and they solve their stuff together (?) Thx in advance!! @nia-rarita

Rewrite the stars by Moonlit_dewdrops (T, 70k, JC & JYL & WWX, WangXian, JC/WQ, JYL & MM & WQ, Angst with a Happy Ending, Protective JC, yunmeng sibling love, Canon Divergence, Lives get saved, Yunmeng sibling bonding,bHurt/Comfort, Protective JYL, Golden Core Reveal, JYL & JZX Live, Fix-It, fuck JGS, JZN too, no one tolerating jin sect’s bullshit, Found Family, JC GETS TO BE HAPPY AND IS MARRIED, JYL & WQ & MM GET TO BE SWORN SISTERS, WangXian Get a Happy Ending, Canon-Typical Violence, just a bit, WWX has PTSD due to Burial Mounds, Very protective younger bro vibes, soft JC, Family Feels, Healing, Not Everyone Dies, Twin Prides of Yunmeng Feels, WWX will get a New Golden Core, justice for the wen remnants) Not quite the ask as its jiang cheng centric but its about jiang cheng if there was an early golden core reaveal and the relationship of wwx and jc .

🔒Blur the Edges of Memory by geethr75 (T, 53k, WangXian, JC centric, Good brother JC, Post canon, Time Travel Fix-It, Canon Divergence, No golden core transfer, Sect Leader WWX, Hopeful Ending, Yunmeng Bros Reconciliation, Heavy Angst, Fluff, Angst with a Hopeful Ending) is a JC-centric time travel AU where he prevents the core transfer and everything goes better. Chapters alternate between the original timeline and the new improved timeline.

A Mother’s Love by FirefliesNLightningBugs (M, 170k, WangXian, XuanLi, Canon Divergence, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Mostly combo of the Untamed and MoDaoZuShi timelines, Unreliable Narrator, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Eventual Happy Ending, Miscommunication, Family Feels, Found Family, PTSD, Post-Sunshot Campaign, Political Intrigue, Mystery, POV Multiple, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Strong Female Characters, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note, Good Brother In Law JZX, Genderbent WWX, Intersex WWX, not a/b/o, POV Original Character, Expanded Universe, Unplanned Pregnancy, Golden Core Reveal, WWX Has No Golden Core, Cultivation Sect Politics, Bisexual WWX, YLLZ WWX, Yunmeng Shuangjie, Pining WangXian, Parent-Child Relationship, Getting Together, Protective Yúnmèng Jiāng Sect, MXY Lives) The wen camps got whistleblown by jc and jzx by chance earlier so wwx wasn't involved and didn't get an excuse/chance to leave, giving him time to start dealing with his issues. Has sect culture and politics w Jiang sibs+jzx being real family to each other and an alliance to rekon with

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11. hi know there has to be a fic like this somewhere!! so basically takes place in canon but lz marries wy to save him and wy is locked in the cottage like how his dad married madam lan to save her and basically just LZ repeating his fathers mistakes but happy ending ofc @yesibest

Practical Considerations by teawater, the_anthropologist (E, 97k, WangXian, JC & WWX, LXC & WWX, LQR & WWX, Arranged Marriage, Canon Divergence, Found Family, Spouses to Lovers, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Politics, Scheming, Lán Elders are assholes, BAMF WWX, BAMF LWJ, eventually BAMF LXC, learning to make decisions, Learning Self-worth, Self-Esteem Issues, Sweet Wangxian, Domestic Fluff, Fix-It, JC is a big asshole, he improves somewhat but it's open-ended, WWX learns to stand up for himself, Quote: Come Back to Gusu With Me, POV wwx, POV LWJ, POV JC, Golden Core Reveal, Teacher wwx, Golden Core Transfer Fix-It, Alcohol as a Coping Mechanism, Past Suicidal Thoughts, Post-Sunshot Campaign, WWX Protection Squad, Feelings Realization, WWX protector of the twin jades, Protective LWJ, Protective WWX, Protective LQR, Demonic Cultivator WWX, WWX is Loved, Married WangXian, Genius WWX, Everybody Lives) Wei Ying (and Jiang Cheng) think that an arranged marriage to Lan Zhan is made so the Lan can lock Wei Ying away for his demonic cultivation. Wei Ying isn't locked away & is eventually respected by most of the Lans, so it's not a perfect fit for the request.

pale shadows of forgotten names by Chrononautical (T, 56k, wangxian, Madam Lán Lives, Madam Lán Deserves Better, Good Sibling LXC, Badass LXC, He gets there in the end it just takes a while, Not particularly JGY friendly, Gūsū Lán Sect Rules, Canon-Typical Behavior, Unresolved Sexual Tension, the universal fear of growing up to become one of your parents, Canon Divergence, Everyone Lives AU, Except WN but he's very polite, Arranged Marriage, Forced Marriage, Imprisonment, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, not between wangxian, Drunk LWJ, to lighten the mood, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Traumatized WWX, though he will not admit it, Taking time to heal, canon-typical communication skills) Lwj is very much trying to avoid his father's mistakes as much as he can in this one, but it is about Lwj marrying Wwx to protect him and the lans keeping him locked up

A Way Out by pinkquilts (E, 143k, WangXian, Angst with a Happy Ending, Living Together, Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, First Love, Locked In, Major Character Injury, Fluff, Sharing a Bed, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Tension, Drunken Shenanigans, WWX misinterprets literally everything, Miscommunication, Mutual Pining, Eventual Smut, Fix-It, Injury) they're not married but wwx's is trapped inside the jingshi against his will (initially at least)

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12. I'm in the mood for ... a Star Wars AU. Any of them out there? Thanks for any you can think of! @pinetreelady

🔒Divided Destinies by Samking (T, 48k, WangXian, Star Wars Setting, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic References, Star Wars level of violence)

change by antebunny (G, 16k, WangXian, WWX & JYL, LWJ & LXC, Star Wars Fusion, Found Family, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Fluff, Telepathy, because...the Force, Non-Graphic Violence, The Power of Love™, BAMF WWX, JYL is a queen, wwx is a little shit)

Hollowed By The Depths by rymyanna (T, 57k, WangXian, Star Wars Setting, Minor Character Death, Non-Graphic Violence, Family Feels, Attempt at Humor, Force Bond (Star Wars), Established Relationship, Forbidden Love)

The Return Of the (Yiling) Sith by Zephyr (ZephyrAndTheSilverfish) (T, 23k, WangXian, SongXiao, Star Wars Setting, Hurt/Comfort, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Canon-Typical Violence, POV Alternating, The Force, Kidnapping, Pining, IN SPACE!)

🔒The shortest moments are the longest memories by giorassol, hypermoyashi, IceBreeze, Pteropoda (SilentP), Silverne (T, 6k, WangXian, Star Wars Setting, not crackRound Robin, Writing Exercise)

Circlet of Death by cinder1013 (E, 20k, WangXian, XiYao, MingYu, Star Wars Fusion, scum, Villainy, Pirates, I make up Jedi stuff, Gender Fluid Character, Genderfluid MXY, Misgendering, BAMF JYL, Tantric Sex, Badass QS, Sexual Violence, Anal Sex, Wedding Night)

🔒Starlight Will Shake by Syolen (T, 10k, WangXian, Star Wars AU, Pre-Relationship, but they'll get there, Order 66, All that sweet sweet yearning)

fallen by insane_falcon (T, 8k, WangXian, Star Wars Setting, Inspired by Star Wars, Mandalorian WWX, Sith LWJ, Implied Sexual Content, Reunions)

Built On Hope by Alaceron (G, 2k, wangxian, star wars au)

🔒Duel of the Twins by Theladyofravenclaw (T, 71k, WIP, WangXian, Star Wars Setting, Science Fiction, each chapter is intended to be a whole movie within a trilogy, Canon-Typical Violence, Mild Gore, mild body horror, Mentions of Suicide, But only in passing, please take that major character death warning seriously, Angst with a Happy Ending, Yúnmèng Siblings Feels, Twin Prides of Yúnmèng Angst)

🔒Zona by FixaIdea (T, 12k, WangXian, Crossover, Survival, Wilderness Survival, Accidental Baby Acquisition, (teens but you get the idea), Mild Gore, Found Family, of sorts, weird physics, Character Death, pre-AOTC)

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13. Hii thank you so much for previous recommendations!! I've been looking for a fic (not specific) in the modern world where the Juniors are at school and they have 'parents visit day' or something similar, and the whole gang is coming. Like WWX, LWJ, JC, and basically everyone, and all the other parents are shocked (it's a bonus). That's it, I think. Ty so muchh!

🔒 how to make your dad fall in love with your high school teacher in five steps; the complete and bulletproof guide by ravenditefairylights (T, 90k, wangxian, modern, coffee shop au, nonbinary LSZ, hurt/comfort, trauma, past abuse, past domestic violence, healing, hurt WWX, found family, hospitalization, therapy, single parent WWX, pining, teacher LWJ, unreliable narrator, chronic pain, queer platonic relationship, genderfluid WWX, autistic LWJ, fluff & angst)

🔒 care by everbrighter (T, 35k, LSZ & WWX, wangxian, modern w/ magic, resurrection, family bonding, getting to know each other, past character death, pining)

not unspectacular things by taizi (T, 14k, WangXian, The Parent Trap Fusion, Unconventional Families, Adopted Children, Misunderstandings, Mutual Pining, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Getting Back Together, Happy Ending, the kids are alright, Families of Choice, Modern AU, Meddling Kids, Unreliable Narrator, Good Sibling JC, Protective NHS, One Big Happy Family, POV Third Person Limited)

~*~

14. hihi! Any rogue cultivator WWX fics? Preferably long fics and nothing explicit, but I'm fine with oneshots/short ones too. For the next ITMF! Thank you for the help! :D

🔒 Ad Oblivione by Baph, HikariNoHimeWriter (M, 70k, WangXian, Time Travel Fix-It, Temporary Character Death, Canon-Typical Violence, POV Multiple, Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Identity Reveal, Golden Core Reveal, Cultivation World Critical, Not JC Friendly, Abusive YZY, Angst with a Happy Ending) link in #2

We Meet at the Thousandth Step by Admiranda, Rynne (T, 316k, WangXian, CSSR/WCZ, Canon Divergence, No Sunshot Campaign, CSSR & WCZ Live, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Different First Meeting, Night Hunts, Genius WWX, Inventor WWX, Plot, Romance, Drama, Fluff, Strangers to married, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Everyone Lives, Developing Relationship, Minor Violence, Case Fic, Mystery, Flirting, WWX’s Canon-Typical Flower Flirting, Arson, There Was Only One Bed, Getting Together, First Kiss, Meeting the Parents, Resolved Sexual Tension, Resolved Romantic Tension, WWX Is a Good Big Brother, New Relationship Bliss, Chinese Mythology & Folklore, Blood and Injury, Yiling siblings, Married WangXian, Honeymoon, Wangxian’s Baby Fever)

Going on charmingly by scribbet (T, 21k, WangXian, Teenage LWJ, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, WWX is BSSR’s Disciple, Genius WWX, Petty LWJ, Meddling LXC, What if LWJ didn’t have an excuse to instantly write WWX off?, Canon Divergence, JFM Doesn’t Adopt WWX, WWX minus canon sense of obligation, but still with an inability to shut up around LWJ, I swear LWJ’s inner voice was no quite so snarky when I started this, JZN is unfortunately present but only to lose face, LQR’s inconsistent adherence to the Lan clan precepts, writing the effective Lan education you would like to see in the world, Technically pre-relationship, but in the typical Wangxian way of them being in deep but just not acknowledging it yet, POV LWJ)

🔒 crying like a fire in the sun by Reverie (cl410) (T, 10k, WangXian, SongXiao, BSSR/LY, Runaway WWX, Canon Divergence, Everyone Lives/Nobody Die, srogue cultivator WWX, Angst, Post Cloud Recesses, Not YZY Friendly, Happy Ending, BSSR is WWX’s grandmother instead of grandmaster)

Cartwheels In Cloud Recesses Series by ShanaStoryteller (Not Rated, 23k, WangXian, CSSR/WCZ, CSSR and WCZ Live, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans)

The Devil That You Forgot by pottedplnt (Not Rated, 20k, WIP, WangXian, Canon Divergence, BAMF WWX, YLLZ WWX, Rogue Cultivator WWX, WWX Isn’t Adopted by the Jiāngs, Angst, Sentient Burial Mounds, Demonic Cultivation, Somebody Lives/Not Everyone Dies, Angst with a Happy Ending, Sunshot Campaign, Chronic Pain, JFM and YZY Bashing, Bad Parent YZY, Jiāng Family Bashing)

A Thousand Things by tickertape (M, 108k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, WWX Isn’t Adopted by the Jiāngs, Developing Friendships, lots of OCs, miscommunication and misunderstandings (they’re idiots your honor), Nightmares, Hurt/Comfort, Panic Attacks, Cloud Recesses Shenanigans, Slow Burn)

Debts of a Child Part 2 by Hauntcats (M, 111k, WangXian, YZY Bashing, Not Jiang Family Friendly, Angst and Feels, lots of anger, JC Bashing, not Jiang friendly, Angst with a Happy Ending, Content warning for icky spiders in later chapters., hurt no comfort for Jiang siblings.)

🔒 Flowers Blooming by Ilona22 (M, 35k, WangXian, Adoption, Prostitution, Family Fluff, Family Drama, Growing Up)

Just go forward like you mean it by tawaen (M, 101k, WangXian, WWX & WN &WQ, WWX & JYL, NHS & WWX, Canon Divergence, WWx does not attend the Wen indoctrination, WWX saves Lotus Pier, Inventor WWX, No Golden Core Transfer, Sect Leader JYL, JC Has No Golden Core, Bad Parents JFM & YZY, Not JC Friendly, but he gets a happier ending than canon so don’t look here for bashing)

Our Immortal Blood by Saori (M, 81k, WangXian, Alternate Universe, Temporary Character Death, Minor Character Death, Platonic Relationships, Family Feels, Blood and Injury, Night Hunts, Monsters, Immortality, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Grief/Mourning, Mutual Pining, Friends to Lovers, First Kiss, Slow Burn, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Marriage Proposal, Angst with a Happy Ending)

~*~

15. Hihi I wondering if you knew of any fics where wwx is a dragon rider? Or dragons just in general?

No A/B/O or character bashing please 🙏

A Baby Dragon’s Guide To Seducing Your Huli Jing by sweetlolixo (M, 102k, wangxian, Fantasy, But still in the Cultivation World, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Younger LWJ, Older WWX, Fluff, Humor, Eventual mpreg, Angst with a Happy Ending, Best Boy A-Yuan)

cloudy autumn heaps the sky by anatheme (T, 23k, WangXian, Fantasy, Universe Alteration, Secret Identity, Dragon LWJ, Fox WWX, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Timeline What Timeline, wwx is a little older here, wwx piling gifts on lwj and encouraging hoarding tendencies, Sharing a Bed, Literal Sleeping Together, Arranged Marriage)

The Dragon’s Bride by jaws_3 (T, 34k, WangXian, Beauty and the Beast Fusion, Arranged Marriage elements, Slow Burn, sometimes ya get sent off to atone for ur villages misgivings and u just gotta deal, Dragon LWJ, Mutual Pining, Happy Ending, Spanish Translation Available)

These Mortal Treasures by ChilianXianzi (T, 9k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Fantasy, Dragon LWJ, Rogue Cultivator WWX, Possessive LWJ, Domestic Fluff, implied eggpreg, The Cultivation World’s canonical fuckery, eggyuan!, Gift Giving)

this river runs to you Series by aubreyli, sundiscus (T/E, 66k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Mutual Pining, Dragons, Literal Sleeping Together, Tender wound tending, First Time, Oral Sex, Coming Untouched, Porn with Feelings, Established Relationship) 

To lurk, to lie in wait by trippednfell (M, 124k, WangXian, Modern with Magic, Huli Jing, strangers to co-parents to lovers, Strangers to Lovers, Dragons, Kid Fic, teenage juniors, background NieLan, Angst with a Happy Ending, Case Fic, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Not Really Character Death, Fox Spirit WWX, Dragon LWJ, Blood and Injury, Additional Warnings In Author’s Note)

🔒 flame and rust by cl410 (M, 34k, WangXian, Canon Divergence, Happy ending, Dragon WWX, Fluff and Humor, Light angst) although not tagged as bashing, are tagged for Wei Ying's abuse at the hands of Madam Yu

my rivers tilt towards you by perfectlyrose (T, 26k, WangXian, Canon, Canon Divergence, Slow Burn, Mutual Pining, Fairy Tale Elements, dragonji, mentions of, Madam Yu’s A+ Parenting, First Meetings, Romance, Strangers to Friends to Lovers, Hurt/Comfort) although not tagged as bashing, are tagged for Wei Ying's abuse at the hands of Madam Yu

climb the sky, make the flight Series by exmanhater (E, 26k, WangXian, Dragons, Mating Flight (Dragonriders of Pern), Pern Fusion, First Time, Riding, Anal Fingering, LWJ is a service top, Fire Lizards, Established Relationship, 5+1 Things, Threadfall (Dragonriders of Pern), Telepathy) the series "climb the sky, make the flight" by exmanhater is a Pern fusion AU. I don't *think* there's any character bashing but it's been a while.

~*~

16. Do you also find fics with other ships? I am in the mood for a fic, where it would focused on Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan. And what I have in mind specifically, it's their first meeting. There is a lot of fics where they meet and instantly goes along (they are part of larger story focused on wangxian ship) or they are usually together. But I would like to read something more detailed on how they first met and bonus point if they wouldn't get along at first at all:) No modern au please.

~*~

17. hi ! im looking for fics where yiling laozu era wei wuxian meets post canon wangxian (or any similar fics where different versions of the characters meet). ive read a bunch but cant find any of them :( i know theres a good amount that are pwp but theres also a bunch that have no smut/arent just smut which is what im looking for more tho I'll take whatever :) @snapcracklepop-myjoints

Key Differences by pupeez4eva (T, 5k, WangXian, Humor, Dimension Travel, Crossover, Drama!WWX meets Novel!WWX, Public Confessions, Post-Canon)

River Stones by littlesystems (M, 18k, WangXian, Time Travel, Post-Canon, Cloud Recesses Study Arc, Junior Quartet, Oblivious WWX, Suffering LWJ, LJY having the time of his life, Voyeurism)

Song of Joy and Regrets by HelloKitten (Not Rated, 134k, wangxian, hualian, WIP, TGCF, Angst, Self-Harm, Child Abuse, characters watching their series, Time Travel Fix-it)

花无百日红; the flower that withers by yiqie (M, 29k, wangxian, Time Travel Fix-It of Sorts, Case Fic, Spells & Enchantments, Hurt/Comfort, Forgiveness, It’s about the emotional catharsis, If you have ever laughed at WWX clowning himself for the ‘no one will marry you’ scene, This fic is: for you)

~*~

If you didn’t get an answer to your ask here, don’t forget to make use of @mdzs-kinkmeme and MDZS KINK MEME on Dreamwidth. Authors actually do use them for ideas. You may get what you order!***Your prompt doesn’t have to be kink! Fluff, crack, whatever - it’s all good!***

[r95irth]

It's asexual representation day so-

Here are my Headcanons concerning ace-spectrum sexuality for MDZS characters -(know that they're evolving as i write)

I HeadCanon...

Lan Qiren as Aro-Ace. He does not feel sexual desire at all (not ever) can see people are beautiful like he can see a painting is beautiful but that's it. He has never been in love and given his family's foolish decision history because of love, doesn't want to be. He doesn't understand love at all and i like to write him being completely lost with his nephews + brother's love tragedy. (His opinion is basically "Like could you perharps, just not fall in love with a criminal??? maybe that would have helped not being miserable???)

I rarely get to write him that way because i have friends who love Lan Qiren/Sisi dearly so I gave them their ship when i can. In Building a home and Burning roofs however he is going to be Aro-ace, and stay that way until the end.

Wen Zhuliu is Aro (but not ace) in Building a Home and Burning Roofs. I'm planning on a queer platonic relationship between him and Wen Xu (who is Ace but not Aro) idk how it will develop yet.

But when i think about it i think i like the other way around, with Wen Zhuliu being a mix of in love with WRH on top of his loyalty. Though i do like having him being just Loyal-to-this-extent too without involving love (because love is not the explanation for everything/every loyalty)

Wen Ning is a complicated character for me, i like him Biromantic, that's for sure. But i also like him as Aromantic (making his devotion for WWX entirely on friendship gets me). One day i might write him as an Aromantic character. But right now i want to write a fic where he ends up with Mo Xuanyu. (In Building a Home and Burning roofs and Just a drop he ends up with Qin Su so i'm done with this pairing for now) Either way i like to imagine him on the ace spectrum, not sex repulsive but definitely not seeking things beyond hugs and kisses naturally.

Wen Qing i know lot of people HC her as a lesbian, but i started with CQL so i ship her with JWY (and my crack ship is her with JWY and NHS). I have like 0 ship with her as lesbian, sorry >< it's just not my jam. But I do like her on the asexual spectrum, very much like her brother, not sex-repulsive but very aware of consequences of sex (diseases, pregnancy, labor) and not looking forward that complication in her life. Sex is never a drive for her, emotions/affection are.

Jiang Wanyin again i started with CQL so i ship him hard with WQ. But as i read the novel i started to like him as Ace too. Then reading fic i started to like him with NHS too and i decided that since he wasn't loved by his parents he deserves two spouses and not a love triangle. This is how my crackship was born xD Anyways now i HC more as Demisexual (so on the ace spectrum still) he needs to spend lot of time and bond with someone before he develops feelings of love then sexual desire. It takes a long time and he is confused about it. He doesn't like kisses, sex, hugs when he is witnessing them but as he starts having a relationship he finds himself yearningf or it and it infuriates him. (He is not going to end up like his stupid brother!!)

Unfortunately i have 2 NOTP with JC which are LXC/JWN (I need canon interaction to ship, i do not understand this ship) - and JWN/WWX (i just don't vibe with it, i like them as brothers u-u sorry for those who likes it)

Nie Huaisang should not have a place here as i HC him as very Allo-horny, pansexual and even sometimes lately trans. But since in my crackship he is with asexual-characters i want to say that he respects his partner's boundaries UU All he wants is attention and love and fortunately having 2 spouses assures that there's always one ready to give him some. Sure he prefers having them both but consent is sexy.

I like to imagine sharing his porn book with them and WQ is judging it like "it's doable" or "this is compltely anatomically inaccurate and dangerous" while JC is like "please can we not- in front of my salad!" until they kiss him silly and he is like "fine but i'm not doing that part èé you want this NHS you do ALL THE WORK!" and NHS whines bc he doesn't want to work :c (and ends up convincing JC to do all the work bc JC has a praise kink)

Nie Mingjue is my most certain HC, i HC him as Ace of course (otherwise he wouldn't be on that list). But i also HC him as being completely in denial / confused about it and not able to put what he feels into words. He loves JGY but not the same way he loves LXC who is his best friend but how? I HC that their fallout / break up is 50% due to heartbroken denial on NMJ's part. He turned into this diorcee character who couldn't see a single flaw in their partner during their marriage but now they are separated their ex only have flaws.

I adore putting him as the "too ace for this bullshit" type of situation. Especially stuck him between his little brother, (NHS) his best friend (LXC) and ex (JGY) and being like "why" "why do you want to lick his face??? actually neverminde don't explain i don't want to know"

Putting him in this situation made me relate to him (i find myself back in High school with people kissing left and right and me being like "cant' we just play football?")

In Building home serie, I will probably explore his sexuality more. For now he is not sex repulsed (something i do like HC him as, but not always and not in this fic) - but he sexual intercourse is very much like a good training session for him. I can't wait to write about him exploring that, especially since LXC and JGY are horny (well they have problems so they can't be horny right now but-)

Wei Wuxian is totally demisexual in my HC. He does not imagine more than cottage core fantasy until he is certain of his beloved's affection. Then it goes to kinky land trainride wet dreams. I do think he is in love and in denial of his sexual urges (excusing it as teasing) until he is certain the love is returned. What does it say about his character? A lot. And i like to write about it.

Last but not least is Jin Guangyao as demisexual bi - listen my OTP (with Wangxian and ChengQingSang) is Xiyao. But i do HC him as Bi, and needing very much like WWX to be loved/respected to develop feelings. Qin Su is like this, i think he very much wanted to love a woman (bc to fit in and be the perfect son) and she was pretty and admired him so his heart caved. The only exception is LXC, he saw him and his brain went "pretty" then LXC respected him and his brain melted right away despite his precautions. I also adore HC JGY as having troubles with sex in general -being scared of it, of the intimacy, of the loss of control. Which almost brings him to the ace spectrum?

I do like story with Ace-sex repulsed and together and happy withtout sexual intercourses. (I aim to go for that with Wen Xu and Zhao Zhuliu in Building home serie; though i don't feel very confident about it) I loved KouhiArashi's fic "atypical courtship". But I don't write about isuch couples often because that hits very close to home for me and i don't write/read fanfics to be reminded of real life.

And here it is. The others characters in my mind are either hetero, homosexual or bisexual or pansexual but not on the ace spectrum. (Lan Xichen and Lan Wangji are very gay in my HC for example)

Know all those above are MY OPINIONS only (and as stated it changes too) don't take it personally i put the word HC for a reason. This is NOT a statement and presented as "the truth about this character's sexuality and everyone who disagree read the novel wrong"

[rynne]

Why do you think Wei Wuxian didn't pretend it was Wen Zhuliu who crushed his golden core, so that he could tell people about it? I get he probably didn't want to during the war but it's so sad to see him push everyone away afterwards and them all speculate about why he's not carrying his sword and doing demonic cultivation, and it seems like an excuse they'd believe. Do you think it's just pride?

Here is the thing -- MDZS has a very hierarchical, classist society that already tells WWX in many ways that he does not belong. People call him the son of a servant to put him in his place, even though he was a head disciple before he seceded from YMJ. They already treat him poorly for his status.

And that's when everyone still basically considers him a cultivator with a strong golden core. How much worse would that treatment become if WWX made it known that he no longer had a golden core, the very thing that made him part of cultivator society in the first place?

Very, very few people would continue to accept WWX as a cultivator if he told them Wen Zhuliu crushed his core. Most cultivators would think he was no longer one of them, and they would treat him that way, especially because I doubt that JC -- notably jealous and competitive and who wants to "win" over WWX -- would defend him. I don't think demonic cultivation would be enough for society to still think him a cultivator.

I expect WWX didn't spread a story about Wen Zhuliu not out of pride, but because he knew what society's response would be. He was ultimately willing to reject that society, but it was still his home and what he knew.

I also think that WWX didn't want JC in particular to know that he no longer had a golden core in case JC made the connection to the core transfer. Wen Zhuliu was a reasonable story, but WWX might not have wanted to take that chance, especially considering the Guanyin Temple discussion makes clear that WWX knew how JC would react. It was much safer to just keep everything about golden cores from him.

Finally, on a slight tangent, but I don't really think WWX did really push people away in the novel. CQL made a much bigger deal about WWX not using his sword and pushing people away than the novel did. The novel makes clear that other people are pushing WWX away more than he is pushing them. For instance, WWX is happy to try to engage with LWJ both on Phoenix Mountain and in Yunmeng with the ghost girls, while LWJ is the one either reacting coldly or crossing lines WWX has already established. I do think during this time period he plays up his arrogance as a defense mechanism, but he was definitely not pushing people away to the point where explaining that he no longer had a golden core would have helped him in any way.

[ninjakk]

Hello, I’ve loved reading your posts on WWX and LWJ and MDZS in general. Spent most of it just nodding along and going ‘yes!’ at them.

I’m new to this world, found CQL/TU a couple months ago and I’m working my way through the novel rn as it becomes available in my country. But something that I’ve been wondering about, partly in response to your posts on WWX’s ‘obliviousness’ to his feelings for/attraction to LWJ in his first life, and partly because the way some ppl seem to insinuate that WWX is … dumb, for lack of better word, for not realising them sooner (which really bugs me); do you think it would’ve even been safe for him to realise that he had these feelings, especially given JC and Mme Yu’s attitude to him and cutsleeves?

Just curious about your thoughts on this, hope you’re well!

Hi there ☺️

Thank you for the ask and your lovely comments about my blog posts 🥰 I'm glad you are enjoying them 🙏🏻

I find this whole question very interesting! I'll try my best to answer it 😊

Personally, I don't like using the term oblivious, because I think that's rather harsh on him and I hope it doesn't come across that way in my posts! ❤️

WWX's attraction and feelings for LWJ are definitely, to a certain degree, subconscious to him. But he isn't oblivious to his feelings, he just doesn't understand them. They were both so young when they met, with teenage hormones raging and the overwhelming chemistry between them hitting them both like a tonne of bricks - It's no wonder they couldn't fully understand their feelings for each other. As I've said before, it probably didn't help that LWJ seemed rather cold towards WWX - not that it stopped him pursuing his attention any less! But we can't blame LWJ for this either, because he was trying to cope with the exact same feelings WWX had for him also. They just dealt with these confusing emotions differently - as so many often do.

I am the same - I can't stand it when people call WWX (or LWJ) dumb for not understanding their feelings for each other sooner. It's a lot to take in! They have every right to take as much time as they need to comprehend such new and monumental emotions. What teenager even understands half of the things they feel at that time in their life?! I think a lot of people forget how fleeting their time together actually was as well. They had three months together in the CR and a whole year past before they met again. A lot happens in the cultivation world over the next few years. They don't really get much time together, or a chance to work through their feelings before everything kicks off. I'm aware you are yet to finish the novel, so I'm trying to keep away from spoilers as much as possible! 🙂 WWX is definitely not dumb, in fact he proves to us all he's actually extremely intelligent on so many levels. He even uses his emotional intelligence throughout the novel, to help obtain information and to understand others. The only reason he doesn't face his feelings for LWJ is down to denial, which he uses as a defence mechanism. He tries to convince himself that the feelings he has are different to what they truly are. There are many reasons he does this. He has a reputation that he must uphold for his Sect, he grew up in a house with (at least) one homophobe and he has been subjected to heteronormativity from a young age. All of these factors add up to a very heavy mental burden, that causes him to bury his true feelings under lies and excuses that he tells himself, in order to counteract his underlying feelings.

Now onto your question ☺️

Obviously my answer is conjecture, because we will simply never know how characters would have truly reacted. Before I take a stab at the question, there are a few conditions I think would have to be in place before WWX could have come to terms with his sexuality in his first life. I think this could have only happened sooner if he'd been able to spend more time with LWJ and certain events hadn't happened in the cultivation world. I also think, even if he had accepted his feelings for LWJ, I'm not sure he would have told many people (if anyone, bar LWJ himself perhaps) at such a young age. But if WWX had realised his feelings for LWJ, and he did indeed tell people, it would have driven a wedge between him and JC. Considering JC and his homophobia, I don't think this would have went down well with him. In fact, I think he would have been disgusted at him - from what we can gather from his reactions to 'cut sleeves' in WWX's second life. Madam Yu took the most insignificant of things WWX did and used them as an excuse to harm him, both physically and in turn, mentally. So it's not too much of a jump to assume she would use this against him also. Of course, he also had his shijie, who cared for him dearly and I would hope, support him emotionally as much as she could. I'm not really sure what JFM would think of it all though. Personally, I think WWX wouldn't have been able, nor want to, continue living at LP if he had come to terms with his sexuality and told everyone in his first life. As I've covered above, WWX is incredibly intelligent. I think he would have realised how everyone would react and he might of hid it from them. I don't think his safety would have come into play, as he'd either leave, going off to do his own thing (becoming a rouge cultivator or working elsewhere - with or without LWJ) or perhaps kept it a secret until it was the right time.

Other than the above I can't really comment any further. I would hope, but I'm not sure how much this would have panned out, that if he had come to terms with his sexuality in his first life, LWJ would have been there for him and they would have been a couple ❤️ But I'm a sucker for a happy ending, so of course I'd write it that way if I had to guess 😂💞

Overall, I don't think WWX or LWJ were emotionally ready, or even mature enough, when they were so young, to come to terms with their feelings for each other at the time. MXTX masterfully wrote a beautiful love story that develops so naturally, without rushing them into something before they were ready and it makes their relationship in WWX's second life even more perfect 🥰

[thedoubteriswise]

okay so. I am a smart adult with many important responsibilities. I have good taste and care about things that matter. for this reason, I’ve been trying to identify where in cql canon wangxian manage to fuck.

because they definitely do; I like a good post-canon getting together fic as much as the next guy, but it’s just not realistic.

allow them. it’s already been so long.

(just like this goddamn post turned out to be, let’s do a cut)

right. so initially it looks like you could place this right after the time skip in episode 33, because it shows us that wwx is with lwj in cloud recesses. we know that he spent the night in the jingshi because he wakes up there the next morning before he goes for a nostalgic tour of his old school.

and also visits the cold spring, where lwj is mostly naked. nice.

but wait! wwx is surprised by the scars on his back and chest. that seems like something he would have known about if they’d already been naked together the night before, so I’m going to say they did not fuck immediately upon wwx’s return to cloud recesses. okay, fine, they’re taking things slow, that’s cool.

maybe they could work it into the next night, then. oh wait, lqr is injured and... staying in the jingshi? for reasons?

I don’t know why. he must have his own house in cloud recesses, and it’s probably at least as comfortable as lwj’s, but here he is. he lives to stop his nephew from getting laid, I guess.

the next day they do some Q&A with the kids and determine that they need to head to qinghe to figure out what’s going on with this sword thing. great! we love a romantic road trip, plenty of alone time. but they also have to do their jobs, and then jin ling needs to get rescued from a wall of dirt, and jc is unfortunately there being himself, and then they have to grill nhs about his tomb full of angry sabers, etc. etc.

with all that going on, their next obvious chance is at the inn immediately after interviewing nhs. this evening has already included:

wwx gazing lovingly at lwj from afar

lwj carrying wwx on his back

lwj pawing at wwx’s robes trying to deal with his cursed leg

lwj helping wwx up the stairs, serving him wine, fixing his flute, and generally being at his beck and call

a very sexy and homoerotic duet

and now they’re alone and drooling over each other as usual. this seems like a plausible spot, right?

it does! but no. after they go back to the nie basement o’ swords and hear the backstory on nmj’s death, we see them walking in yueyang and lwj asks wwx how the curse mark on his leg is doing. wwx says it’s almost healed, which may or may not be a lie, but his inner monologue says:

he’s more concerned about the wound on his arm from the sacrificing curse, which lwj doesn’t know about, because wwx won’t tell him and they still haven’t been naked together.

also, this silly teenage shit doesn’t make much sense unless they’re still dancing around each other.

you guys love the sound of opportunities as they go flying past, don’t you?

right after this, lwj gets drunk. I’m aware that Stuff Happens in the novel scene that inspired this bit, and they do incorporate some of that into the show by having lwj commit petty larceny and admit that he “likes rabbits” as part of the softest and most loving conversation in human history oh my god

but lwj goes to sleep right on time, and the next morning, wwx is laughing and reassuring him that nothing happened.

after this, it’s time to go on a fucked up field trip with the kids in yi city, so they don’t really have any time alone for a few episodes until they’ve finished that and everyone is back at yet another inn. I wonder if they learned something about wasted chances and poor communication from this miserable songxiao story?

maybe! look, they’re being cute and domestic. there are currently no material barriers preventing them from having sex, nor will there be any specific evidence later on proving that they didn’t.

but they’re still firmly in mystery-solving mode and the juniors and lxc are floating around. the vibe isn’t quite there. if I were to pick the most solid reason why I think they’re saving room for jesus at this point, it would be the tension that happens when wwx again asks how lwj recognized him. lwj asks why his memory is so bad, and wwx replies that he wishes he had a bad memory. even though they’re comfortable and happy being together, there’s still some fundamental distance remaining. there’s no sense of romantic resolution. that was actually a point against all their previous opportunities as well; they’re all very sweet, but none of these feel like the place in a story where the romantic leads Officially Get Together.

okay, off to koi tower! shit is getting extremely real. everyone’s busy insinuating that they recognize wwx, but no one is saying it explicitly. wwx isn’t supposed to be here. the guy he’s pretending to be also isn’t supposed to be here. he and his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s brother are trying to figure out if his boyfriend’s brother’s boyfriend is a murderer. no one is comfortable and the political intrigue leaves no time for fucking in front of anyone’s salad.

I guess there’s plenty of time to make dozens of armed guards and like half the people they know wait while they have a romantic moment, though.

could they be more in love? And that sure feels like a romantic resolution that might be followed by narratively-earned sex.

ah. no, unfortunately wwx gets stabbed again. this certainly sucks, but it does have the helpful consequence of making lwj take him back to cloud recesses, where they are mostly alone and as safe as they can be in the circumstances. now there’s even more tenderness and also some plot-justified touching and skin exposure. plus, lwj just made a very public declaration of love.

too bad wwx has probably been unconscious since he started coughing up blood in the forest near lanling. he’s also still visibly in pain. fresh abdominal wounds tend to kill the mood.

but hey, the injuries on this show are only as serious as they need to be to move the plot forward and facilitate gentle h/c scenes, so by evening he’s looking perfectly healthy and walking around under his own steam like nothing’s wrong. I guess that problem can be ignored moving forward.

lxc then offers the the most devastating highlights of lwj’s backstory, like, all at once. it’s nice that he includes a flute solo to give wwx a second to process this mountain of terrible information. what the fuck.

there he is! the most devoted man in the whole world! turns out they can actually be more in love after all.

and then the following scene... look, I’m lazy and I don’t know how to make gifs, but screenshots cannot properly convey how good it is. you all know. the hesitant way wwx approaches, the slow and gentle piano version of wangxian, the two of them watching the snow together, it’s. ugh.

remember how I was talking about how the last scene with no material barriers was an unlikely candidate because of the lack of romantic resolution?

well, here’s wwx still being cagey at the beginning of this conversation.

and here they are in the middle of this conversation, having some epiphanies about the course of wwx’s life - I love this shot for a lot of reasons, but I extra love it because it shows wwx out in the snow, with lwj as the safety and warmth waiting behind him, god this show goes hard, holy shit

they both recall their vow to live with a clean conscience and internally say some very corny things about each other because they are both So Much, and then,

ah, what the hell. he can say it out loud after all. romantic resolution accomplished.

and then the camera slowly pulls away as wuji plays.

a slow zoom out? swelling music? listen, I am a connoisseur, I know a tasteful fade-to-black indicating a sex scene that won’t happen on camera when I see one. at last, we have a winner!

now you may think this post is finally over, but I actually have one more piece of evidence for you - the next scene shows the two of them the morning after, meditating behind a screen in the hanshi while lxc is waiting for jgy to show up.

before wwx got de-cored, he was a pretty powerful cultivator, right? the chances that he’s just bad at meditating or that he can’t stay focused on this task seem slim to me. so why does he keep falling asleep?

well. he had kind of a late night.

[plan-d-to-i]

So I was wondering if you can shed any light on why so many JC stans even care about JC? When I first got into the mdzs/cql fandom I barely even registered his existence next to wwx and lwj, and I don’t really care enough about him to love him or hate him 😂

ah, doubt the sun itself could shed light on this...

I just reread the novel and was reminded how I did. not. care. about. jc. the first time around. Like I found him irritating because I find that kind of tantrum throwing temperament deeply unappealing, but saw him as a basic pitstop on the hero's journey; A foil; The childhood friend/one sided rival who ends up opposing the mc and who the mc grows apart from while pursing the right thing. It's not exactly an unheard of groundbreaking dynamic. But ultimately his own stans are the ones who made him genuinely insufferable.

To answer your question I don't know why they care so much about him. Maybe in the same way I find his tantrums and self absorbed nature deeply unappealing they find it attractive and relatable. It's definitely not just a simple "oh that character is crap but hot" bc then they wouldn't be trying to rewrite canon and flip how he's meant to be seen into some sort of misunderstood baby man.

[crossdressingdeath]

You were right about how CQL makes it hard to completely like it, but hard to completely hate it too.

Like yes, Xiao Zhan makes WWX a little too emotional at times but he also arguably gives us that most obvious version of WWX being done with JC’s whole personality.

Yes it messes with a lot of things about LWJ, but it also gave us “you are not qualified to talk to me”

Yes there could have been better casting for certain characters, but look how much effort and clear adoration XY’s actor had for his role.

Major low budget, but holy shit did Xiao Zhan do a very convincing trauma response to his worst fear despite working with a low effort prop.

There’s that horrid JC and WQ one sided romance shit. But also makes JC look even worse in this version for turning against someone he was supposed to have strong feelings for because she returned a comb when it was clear he wouldn’t help her family.

CQL really falls into that weird “definitely not the greatest but not as bad as it could have been” middle ground at times

I think the best description of CQL is "vaguely competent with some exceptions in both directions". It might be good for an idol drama (I don't know, it's the only idol drama I've ever watched), but it certainly doesn't match up to proper dramas. I'd say the trick to enjoying it is that you can't watch anything with a proper budget and skilled actors immediately before or after and also try not to think of better shows you've watched while watching CQL or vice versa. ...That last part brought to you by "Now every time I watch Hannibal I get annoyed at people calling WYB the king of microexpressions when Mads Mikkelsen is right there". (And now I'm annoyed about that again, oh dear.)

Anyway, I think the important thing to keep in mind is that CQL wasn't supposed to be high art. It's a shitty idol drama made to make a lot of cash off of a popular novel and some pretty faces, and it was very successful in that role. With that in mind, yeah, it's pretty good in places! But it's never going to be great, and that's fine, because it isn't supposed to be. Some of the actors are genuinely good, some of the sets are genuinely pretty, some of the dialogue choices are genuinely well-written. Most of the actors are vaguely competent at best, most of the sets are cheap, most of the dialogue that isn't straight from the book is poorly done... but there are some good parts (and some parts that are so bad they're hilarious; I will never be over JC's overacting, he's chewing the scenery so hard I'm amazed he never literally takes a bite out of the set), and with something like CQL that's what you have to focus on. Just shut off your inner critic and enjoy 50 episodes of vaguely competent nonsense brought out of the pit of awfulness by being based on a good book! ...Which would be a lot easier if it weren't for all the people who scream about how it's the best thing ever like they've never watched an actually good drama or TV show or movie ever in their lives.

[neverdoingmuch]

something that i’ve seen a lot in fics and posts is people getting annoyed at lwj for getting between jc and wwx and/or jc and wwx’s reconciliation. someone will write about lwj trying to maintain distance between the two of them and people will complain about how lwj overstepping his bounds and be mad that he’s not letting them be brothers again. which like yeah, fantastic, if you want a reconciliation lwj is definitely going to be an obstacle stopping that, but you need to look at it from lwj’s point of view.

lwj was told by everyone that jc killed wwx (or at the very least was responsible for his death) and jc never contradicted that. he also led the siege of the burial mounds; he wasn’t someone who tagged along to try and keep his reputation without actually partaking in the bloodshed, he didn’t come to help save wwx or the wens, jc led the attack on the burial mounds. that implies a certain level of intent to kill or harm that can’t be easily ignored.

jc then proceeded to spend the next thirteen years (or sixteen because he did this in cql too) torturing and killing demonic cultivators. while you could interpret that as jc just wanting to stop demonic cultivators from fucking things up and causing any mayhem and suffering, it’s pretty clear from the way jc reacts when wwx comes back from the dead that he was killing them all on the off chance that one of them was wwx. to be clear, jc garnered a reputation of killing anyone who might have possibly been wwx. one of mdzs’s themes is about the damaging nature of rumours, so you could try and interpret jc’s reputation as a rumour that’s spun out of control, but, given the way jl reacted when jc captured wwx, it’s probably fair to say that there’s a decent amount of truth in his reputation - a reputation that lwj is probably well aware of.

so now you have lwj living in a world where the one other person who should be mourning the loss of wwx is someone who caused his death and is still so caught up in their past that he keeps wanting to kill him again if he ever comes back. this isn’t a condemnation of jc’s character, it’s just the image of his character that his actions cast. 

anyway, wwx comes back to life and jc immediately tries to kill him, forcing lwj to step in between them to protect wwx, and then jc spends the rest of the novel actively antagonising wwx. this is from trying to kill him some more to trapping him in a room with his greatest fear to trying to ruin his relationship with the one person who’s standing by his side. jc doesn’t once show any hint that he wants to get along with wwx again (unless you count him telling wwx to kneel before his parent’s tablets and then when he does exactly that, attacking him again) until the truth comes out at guanyin temple. 

say what you want to about whether they should or shouldn’t reconcile but lwj definitely isn’t being unreasonable when he’s being cautious about jc. if wwx were to tell him that he wants to reconcile with his brother and make amends, he’d probably first tell him that there’s nothing to make amends for but then he’d let wwx do that - lwj would keep close to wwx to protect him but he wouldn’t get in the way of their reconciliation. at the end of the novel though, wwx and jc split paths and the focus is on the future that wwx gets to have with his new family instead of his past with his old family and reconciling with jc. so no, lwj trying to keep jc away from wwx isn’t him being a “bad” character, it’s him being protective over someone who has been repeatedly hurt time and time again by someone who, just a few weeks ago, would have killed wwx on the spot. 

from jc’s pov it’s a lot more complicated because this is his brother who he’d loved and lost, who he thought had betrayed him and caused him to lose so much, and he’s carried that rage with him for 13(/16) years. and when he finds out the truth, when he learns that he’d never actually lost his brother, he might decide that he wants to make up with him. we know that the twin prides of lotus pier are a dead dream - they’d been killed after the sunshot campaign and their coffin only sealed properly in guanyin temple - but they could still be family if they put the effort in. 

now jc might want that, he might wake up one morning and decide that he’s lost too much to let wwx and jc live their second life as strangers, but lwj isn’t going to know that! lwj isn’t going to know about the way wwx had comforted jc at his lowest by telling him about how they could be the twin prides, he isn’t going to know about the way wwx had pulled away after the war when jc needed his strength the most, he’s not going to know about the way jc clung onto the promise of wwx’s future by his side only to have wwx leave him. all lwj knows is that jc has spent just as many years hating wwx as he did loving his brother. and if you want to create a reconciliation for wwx and jc that is accurate and loyal to the characters, you need to be able to acknowledge that; lwj isn’t being petty towards jc because of some contrived reason, he loathes him because of everything he did to hate wwx and spit on his memory. 

lwj isn’t going to step aside and let jc get anywhere near wwx until he proves that he’s not going to hurt wwx again. there’s a lot of nuance in their relationship - being between wwx and jc or between lwj and jc - that tends to get flattened down and ignored in order to make a reconciliation work. reconciliation between wwx and jc is hard work and part of it is proving that things will be different when you’re given a second chance. when lwj got given his second chance, he did everything he regretted never doing before - he stood by wwx and protected him and loved him and he was unabashed and proud in everything he did for wwx. jc and wwx have been given a second chance too and them becoming brothers again isn’t as simple as lwj being pissy and protective and wwx and jc drinking a lot and then deciding they’re brothers again, it’s jc showing that he doesn’t want wwx dead anymore and wwx trusting jc with the truths about himself or the world that he’d always tried to hide from him. and that’s even before they actually get to reconcile. 

[chengxians]

Okay so I'm pretty neutral about Wangx!an (like I see the appeal, its the most simple relationship, the devotion, the pining etc.) but one of the things that really bothers me is that LWJ never questions WWX post-revival (at least in the CQL).

And like one of the main issues WWX has is that while he has a good sense of morality, his execution in doing what's right leaves a lot to be desired. But instead of double checking with WWX on if they're doing the right thing the right way or suggesting possible alternatives, it feels like he blindly follows WWX and even goes so far as to enable his behaviour. Which is one of the things about Chengxian that I really like.

JC always questions WWX and WWX is never hesitant to call out JC. It feels like they keep each other in check where as LWJ's behaviour reads as guilt for not being completely on WWX's side and supporting him. And even the ways they think, WWX thinks in terms of "do now, fix as you go along" while JC definitely thinks more about the long-term consequences and the implications it has on broader society which makes them seem more like a balanced team.

Overall, it seems like JC can separate his love and support for WWX (like he can love WWX immensely but still disagree with his actions) vs. LWJ feels like a blind follower who believes WWX can do no wrong.

Is it different in the novel?

okay omg first of all i fucking love this interpretation

i still havent finished cql but i can definitely say that lwj is more well-rounded in the novel, by definition of Being A Novel. he goes through quite a few internal crises because supporting wwx means going against his upbringing, and his relationship with wwx suffers from it.

i think in the novel (how i interpret it anyway) that by the time wwx resurrects, lwj is certainly a bit guilty (that he could never really Say Anything to wwx before he died, etc) but mostly just Content. at that point, he’s already decided that he’s willing to go against his upbringing & the cultivation world as a whole in order to stand at wwx’s side. by nature of being a tv show, cql doesn’t really do him justice!

he definitely DOES suggest alternatives in the novel (& the donghua), most famously “come back to gusu with me [and focus on healing instead]” because he knew he had no chance of changing wwx’s mind at that point. he was attempting damage control because wwx….is Like That LOL

that being said, i LOVE unhealthy and undying devotion. i can see it in lwj AND jc and it’s my favorite thing ever. jc keeps coming back despite being hurt, lwj putting aside his own feelings to follow someone he loves….(chefs kiss) god i fucking love that shit

i adore the phrasing of “jc can separate his love and support for wwx.” like u really put into words The Vibes. i think it’s also that jc’s tumultuous emotions are much more obvious on his face/in his actions, while lwj is very good at hiding his emotions and being classically stone-faced.

i have to Do Things now besides type on my phone but just know i will be thinking about this all day. guilty lwj is such a good flavor god thank u op

[ibijau]

Do you ever think about the fact, that Meng Yao probably was part of the inner Nie household for so long... that even duringnhis time plotting revenge, NHS occasionally found himself in situations, where his initial instinct was to turn around towards Meng Yao to ask for help/advice, only to remember??? Because I just did. And I had to sit down for a moment.

You know, it’s funny because in the novel you could make the argument that nhs never even met him as Meng Yao, and only as Jin Guangyao after the war, which I think makes for a very different relationship between them

in cql though

boy oh boy

cql goes out of its way to make it clear that they’re friends as well as master and servant. You can see a certain playfulness in their interactions, and you can see nhs’s very real concern and anger when meng yao is kicked out of the unclean realm. It’s always harder to say for jgy, but clearly nhs liked him a lot, trusted him a lot, and relied on him a lot. nhs lets MY speak for him several times (when giving a gift to lqr in Gusu, something that I think JC does himself when it’s his turn? and then later when Xue Yang is caught) which speaks of a great amount of trust. A trust that I’d assume remains after jgy has entered another sect.

and, yeah, definitely, some of that must linger even after jgy’s crimes have been revealed. You can’t erase years of intimacy that easily. Not to be tmi, but I know I have dreams still of people who have hurt me, and in those dreams things are good, or trying to be good. Can’t you just imagine nhs having that sort of dreams, where nmj and jgy are getting along and everything seems fine on the surface, but at the same time there’s always something off that he can’t figure out because dreams are bitches like that?

Not to mention he’s forced to still rely on jgy. It must have been so weird for nhs to turn to the person he once trusted the most (right after his brother) and now see the person he trusts the least, and be forced to act as if his feelings aren’t there. Forced to feign affection and intimacy and trust.

It’s no wonder that man did some pretty fucked things during his revenge quest, because I think at this point he was pretty fucked up himself and maybe seeing no reason why others should have it better.

[coffintownkids]

As mentioned yesterday, I wanted to post a little bit more dialogue with LWJ. In particular, it’s the scene after LWJ and WWX reunite once JL helps WWX escape from JC. WWX now has the Curse Mark and is shown to be in pain. This happens much later in the Untamed/CQL than when it’s shown in the novel, so from the book perspective we actually haven’t seen too many “bonding moment scenes” between LWJ and WWX (ie no indoctrination camp, no Xuanwu cave, etc). But LWJ does make reference to it before we really know what he’s on about.

This scene involves the word 背 (bèi) which is fun because it can be translated as “carry on one’s back” or “piggyback” so it’s a good example for me to convey how to make LWJ sound more formal vs WWX in English. Because let’s be real. I can’t picture Hanguang-Jun saying the word “piggyback.”

Lán Wàngjī said, “You shouldn’t be walking.”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “I can’t walk so you’re gonna give me a piggyback ride, huh?”

“……” Lán Wàngjī quietly watched him. Wèi Wúxiàn’s mouth curled into a smile while an ominous shadow swept across his mind.

If this was the past Lán Zhàn, he definitely would have been choking back his words and would have either stormed off while throwing him a frigid look or ignored him completely. But how he would respond now was difficult for him to say. As expected, Lán Wàngjī heard what he had to say and stood in front of him as if he was really going to stoop down, bend his knees and nobly lower himself to carry him on his back. Wèi Wúxiàn again became panicked and hurriedly said, “Hold on, hold on. I wasn’t being serious about what I just said. I’m just numb from getting struck by Zǐdiàn a couple of times. It’s not like he broke my leg.”

Lán Wàngjī said, “Would it look so terrible?”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “Would it look that good?”

He was speechless for a moment, then Lán Wàngjī said, “But you also carried me.”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “Did something like that happen? How do I not remember it?”

Lán Wàngjī drily said, “You never remember these things.”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “Everyone says my memory is terrible. Fine. If it’s terrible, then it’s terrible. Anyway, you’re not giving me a piggyback ride.”

Lán Wàngjī asked, “You really don’t want me to carry you on my back?”

Wèi Wúxiàn decisively said, “No piggyback rides.”

The pair stood locked opposite one another in a stalemate for a moment. Suddenly, Lán Wàngjī looped an arm around his back, bent down slightly, then slipped his other hand under his knees.

Wèi Wúxiàn was shorter in stature than him, lighter than him, and easily got scooped up and carried away in those solid arms. Wèi Wúxiàn hadn’t expected his “no piggyback rides” to result in this. Whether it was his past life or the current one, no one had ever treated him like this. He was alarmed, “Lán Zhàn!!!”

Lán Wàngjī held onto him. His gait was completely steady and his reply was completely steady, “You said you didn’t want to be carried on my back.”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “When did I tell you to hold me like this?”

WWX clowned himself and ends up getting carried bridal-style instead :P. What I also love about this is how much it shows LWJ’s growth. He’ll “do as he’s told” to the letter of things, but definitely not in the spirit of things! I wonder where he could have learned about circumventing rules and orders like this?

[rynne]

Hello Jie! Have some for the ask game! 4 5 8 21 23 24

Ooof many questions!

4. Do you have a NoTP in your fandom? Are they a popular OTP?*

Mostly just anything that breaks up Wangxian or adds a person. (I can really only do poly if I think the relationship between all of them is meant to evolve that way, which is rare.) Pretty much any other ship I'm not interested in reading, but nothing makes me go "no! wrong!" like breaking up Wangxian.

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

Not a romantic one because I rarely care about ships outside my OTP, but fandom definitely ruined the WWX & JC relationship. We could have been exploring the limits of debt and loyalty, and the complications of being family-but-not, and the realities of sibling abuse, and instead we get...best brother fanon JC. Blah.

8. Have you received anon hate? What about?*

Only once so far! Some person objected to me saying that the Jiangs didn't see WWX as family and insulted my reading comprehension. But I mostly found this funny and ironic because their ask misquoted my post. Who's having issues with their reading comprehension? XD

21. What are your thoughts on crack ships?

Have fun! I'm unlikely to actually end up shipping them -- I tend to get just one OTP and don't care about other ships -- but we're in fandom to have fun. Sometimes that means waxing rhapsodic over Wangxian and sometimes it means laughing over a crack ship.

23. Unpopular character you love?

I don't really love him (I only really love WWX and LWJ as characters), but there's a lot of hate towards Lan Xichen that I think gets overblown. He's flawed, but he has a good heart and he tries to act in good faith, which is better than a lot of other characters! I think more people should cut him some slack, especially for what he says at Guanyin Temple.

24. Would you recommend XXX to a friend? Why or why not?

I have recommended MDZS to a friend! Unfortunately, she's got enough on her "media to consume" list and wasn't that interested. But I would definitely recommend the novel, less so CQL. The novel is just a much tighter story than CQL.

[untamedunrestrained]

Moral of the Story

I was scrolling through the WangXian tag on Tumblr when I came across a post that I eventually scrolled past but it seems to have planted a germ of an idea that I just can’t shake loose and I tried and I tried and then I procrastinated some more for good measure but it didn’t work. So, here I am trying to present my thoughts with some degree of coherency.

The post that was the impetus for this post, talks about LWJ’s punishment after the events at Nightless City just before WWX’s death. That post raises the question of how LWJ could forgive his uncle and brother for a punishment that would have killed a lesser cultivator.

The moment I read the post I disagreed with it but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why but since I have been thinking about it for the past few days, I now know exactly why I disagreed with the post in the first place.

Before we proceed, I would like to make it clear that while what I’m about to say tracks across every canon of MDZS, I’m going to pick the details from the novel verse because it’s more detailed with regards to this particular aspect of the story, and also if you have only watched The Untamed/CQL and not read the novel (albeit only in its translated form) it might be easier to fall into the type of thinking that lead to the previous post in the first place.

Ideally, I should just link to the original post but since I found the post while I was scrolling through Tumblr’s tag for WangXian and initially tried to ignore it completely because I didn’t quite understand why that particular idea was troubling me, I don’t think it would be easy to find it again and since I’m disagreeing with the post I don’t want the author of the post to find this because even when we try to be rational our first response to being disagreed with is hurt or anger and I don’t want anyone to feel that way. These are just my thoughts and you might agree or disagree with them but I feel like I should put them out there since the idea will not leave me alone.

So, let’s get into it.

LWJ is given thirty-three discipline whips for each of the thirty-three GusuLan elders he gravely injured to protect WWX.

When WWX sees LWJ scars in the novel these are his thoughts-

Usually, with only one or two strikes of the discipline whip, it would already be enough of a punishment for the bearer to remember it for their whole life, never to make the same mistake ever again. The amount of scars on this person’s back accumulated thirty at the least. Just what sort of monstrous crime did he commit for him to be whipped so many times? If it really was a monstrous crime, why didn’t they kill him?

As we will later learn LWJ’s punishment is a little more detailed than just whipping he was also made to kneel in front of the “Wall of Discipline” following the whipping.

It’s a barbaric punishment and of course, the ones ordering it are his uncle and his brother who have both been established as characters who truly do love LWJ. So, why? Why is LWJ’s punishment so severe, well there are two reasons for that and I will discuss the lamer one first.

His punishment was severe because by this point we know that LWJ is probably one of the best cultivators of his generation if not the best (I could definitely argue for the latter, I mean this guy can fight Xue Yang wielding his sword with one hand and keep an entire horde of zombies at bay while playing his guqin with the other. And, did I mention this is happening at the same time, he literally managed to fight a horde of zombies and Xue Yang with two different cultivation methods being practised simultaneously and of course, he won but not only that there wasn’t a moment during this entire fight when that wasn’t the expected outcome). So, of course, if you want to really punish this guy the punishment has to be on par with his own physical and spiritual strength, it wouldn’t be much of a punishment he was able to do it without even breaking a sweat. I told you it was a bit lame.

Secondly and more importantly, the punishment should fit the crime. If the crime is particularly grievous, the punishment must be as well, it must be severe and in this particular story, depending on the individual’s spiritual strength a severe enough punishment might be different for different levels of cultivation. So, the real question is did LWJ deserve the punishment and the answer is an unequivocal YES.

LWJ grievously injured thirty-three GusuLan elders who were looking for him specifically so that they could find him before the other clans did because if the other clans did find him first they would kill him. After all, he saved WWX and kept him alive. The same WWX who at the Nightless City declared war on the combined might of the Cultivation World and then proceeded to kill thousands of Cultivators and then when they died he resurrected them to fight their very own comrades, that WWX.

Now, we might all argue he only fought the Cultivators because they killed all the Wen remnants and that only happened because he killed Jin ZiXuan who he technically didn’t kill but he definitely provided the opportunity and the weapon for his death because his ego couldn’t let Jin ZiXun go. At this point, we don’t know that there is another player in the mix but both these fights that ultimately take the lives of Jin ZiXuan and Jiang Yanli respectively were both started by WWX and even if we forget about the inciting event (Jin ZiXuan’s death), WWX still killed thousands of people from all clans. But, we only know these intricacies because the story is told from WWX’s perspective. LWJ doesn’t know this and neither do most of the people in the Cultivation World.

What they do know is that LWJ took WWX after he had killed thousands of cultivators and depleted the remaining Cultivators of their spiritual energy so thoroughly it took them three months to recover enough to mount a second attack. No matter how you spin it WWX is responsible for those deaths and LWJ is responsible for saving an outright murderer and then he further cemented his crimes by fighting thirty-three of his own elders and grievously injuring them in defence of said murderer when it seems like they largely made the journey to protect LWJ's life and his reputation and not with the primary purpose of killing WWX.

So, yes he deserves his punishment and as he himself believes this -

But he (LWJ) said… that he could not say with certainty whether what you (WWX) did was right or wrong, but no matter what, he was willing to be responsible for all of the consequences alongside you.

The reason LWJ could forgive LXC and LQR for his punishment is because he didn’t need to. He understood exactly why he was being punished. At the end of the day, LWJ didn’t actually protect WWX thinking that he might be right, he protected WWX because he was intensely and irrevocably in love with him and he is ready to stand by his love right or wrong.

While these are all very valid points the real reason that post caused this disquiet to appear in me was because it was trying to paint LXC and LQR’s actions in a bad light with the power of hindsight completely forgetting that their actions were relevant in the context they happened in which brought me spiralling back to the story as a whole.

The story firmly tries to tell you that what you see and what you observe might paint a very clear narrative in your eyes but there is always a possibility that the narrative we feel is so immutable can completely change its structure if we were just able to see it in a different light as is beautifully illuminated by this story.

The other thing that we don’t realise is that in this story we aren’t depicted by LWJ or WWX or JC or JL or LSZ or even NHS and JGY for the matter. We are the mob, we are Sect Leader Yao, we are the people who are told stories that paint people in a certain light and then we can’t see them in any other light. In our very upbringing, some prejudices are a staple and we still harbour them and these influence how we interact with the world and more specifically how we judge people and their actions. This story urges us to remember that while things might seem black and white maybe unearthing the reasons behind them might make the story more grey, so the next time you decide to paint a group of people or even a particular person as wholly bad no matter how egregious their actions may seem remember the moral of Mo Dao Zu Shi, remember that there might be more to the story than meets the eye and more importantly remember that something in the future might make a success of today look like a blight on history.

If I have to be more precise, I would say the moral of this story is to be open to the possibility that we might not know the whole story and we might be wrong even when we are a 100% convinced we aren’t.

[llycaons]

oh but i have to do mdzs / cql for the ask game

YESSS!!!

Favorite character: LAN WANGJI and WEI WUXIAN!!! lwj because he unlocked a new part of my brain and wwx because he's the most character ever. but they tie with jin ling today because I love jin ling he's my boy he's very very young and learning how to live and his flaws are endlessly endearing

Second favorite character: wen ning and wen qing! AND lan qiren because you know what I love that old man. he's made a lot mistakes but I think he does his best and he loves his nephews

Least favorite character: su she. why are you even here su she. ugh. also jin guanshan for being an asshole and treating women like shit and pressuring jyl to marry his son and manipulating jc and oh yeah. murdering thousands of innocent war prisoners for sport. fucker

The character I’m most like: wen ning but not as cool. also jyl.

Favorite pairing: well naturally it's the one I made a whole new tag for do I even need to say it. invented love and trust and intimacy and tenderness and growth and support and have that kickass red/black and white/blue color scheme and complement each other in everything they do and inspire each other to be better people...

Least favorite pairing: any incest or age gap one obviously (including lxc and jc, what are you ON) but also xxc/xy truly does make me ill. I also hate wq/jc but there aren't many (implied canon) pairings that inspire such revulstion in me as xxc and the man who manipulated him into murdering both innocent people and his best friend/beloved and mocked him for his ideals and was implied to be in a relationship w him under false pretenses. god. there are only a handful of good couples in this show anyway that aren't incredibly obscure and with people who actually meet (like uhhh wang/xian good, yang/qing good, song/xiao good, mm and her husband good...sang/cheng is okay I guess but it's not much in canon...lxc and nmj fine...yeah not a lot. oh shit I forgot the straights. jyl and jzx I do like)

Favorite moment: hard to say. not a lot beats the staircase confession scene. I think I've mentioned this, but I definitely saw it as a full romantic confession scene as well. beautiful beautiful coming together of the relationship, and resolution of one of the issues it's had since the beginning (lwj not having wwx's back in a way he really needs him to) the callback to wwx's own words the elevation of concepts and themes from the original work into an adaptation. brilliant. also I have to say the snow scene in 43 (?) was just gorgeous visually and so cathartic emotionally and the domesticity in that scene was so much and you can really tell how wwx is slowly healing from the past and how having lwj's support and love is so good for him and he's grappling with his grief and what's happened to him and what he's done and lost but he's not doing it alone! even if they haven't like said it out loud... scream

Rating out of 10: 9.5/10. I had to split this section up lmao

treat your girls better. plot's kind of a mess. the effects were really quite bad, though they didn't ruin the scene for me. qishan lava pits and the puppets were a bit on the worse side. lwj should have had more and bigger scars on his back and he should have been allowed to get bloody and dirty which is something that'll always bother me. I also wanted more scenes with him! I think the show didn't want to make him do too much outside of his novel self which is a shame because he could have used just a little more personality and color. the pathos of some scenes are overdone - like when the kids reunite after LP massacre. I was upset too but jyl stood there and cried for way too long imo. also I have a bit of an issue with the body diversity for the leads of this show as well (most shows do this, here in the US as well, so I'm not criticizing cql in particular) but the fans heaping praise on the actors for being literally underfed is so disturbing. (I'm looking at you, blog who's liking my shit with a title like "lwj tiny waist appreciation zone" sit down and think maybe)

but as a show I just think it's an absolute triumph. I do think it had respect for the source material (see the callbacks and references a novel fan would get) but wanted to make the story its own. I thought the way the romance was written into the narrative even while being censored was legitimately masterful, the cinematography had some really stunning shots, the character relationships and arcs are deeply satisfying and complex and tragic and hopeful, the music was excellent and integrated well into the story, most of the acting was incredible (special shoutout to zzj, xz, wzc, and wyb for playing jgy, wwx, jc, and lwj SO well my god), there was chemistry between the leads and between pretty much all major characters, the flashback structure is unique and compelling, and despite the overuse of cgi in some establishing shots I thought the sets for unclean realm, cloud recesses, and lotus pier felt both lived in/homey and fantastical. I said some of the emotional scenes are overdone but when they aren't, they're the kind of scenes that you think about for months. the emotional storytelling is incredible and the character work my god the jiang family alone...there's so much there to dig into

thank you penta! in terms of adaptations I just find it so fascinating as well

[plan-d-to-i]

I saw a couple posts you did recently, at least I think that was where I read them, where you mentioned that CQL was trying to do a love triangle for JC, WQ, and WWX. Is that actually a thing? Because I definitely picked up on the romance things they did between JC and WQ, but I only ever got sibling vibes from WQ and WWX. If they were going for a love triangle, shouldn’t JC have brought her up more in the ‘13 yrs later’ segments or something?

Initially Wen Qing's role was bigger. She was going to be the one WWX rescued in the Xuanwu cave instead of Mianmian (Link 1) and at the end of the story WWX was going to separate from Lan Wangji to try to find her (Link 2). I guess the script writer (Yang Xia), thought she could make it a het love story on top of all the other stuff she muddled in there - like the Yin Iron, WWX not even being the creator of Demonic Cultivation, switching the focus from the central love story to family and bros, shoving in a comb romance between WQ and jc etc. Also at the very ending on the mountaintop when WWX turns and sees LWJ, supposedly it was going to be WQ he was seeing. Novel fans found out thanks to leaked filmed footage and scripts and created enough furor to force the script to be changed and parts to be filmed again, which is why we don't get the Wei Wuxian Wen Qing love story.

[crossdressingdeath]

to continue off of the anon talking about jc stans downplaying jc’s canon homophobia, i wonder if it’s partly because they view the homophobia present in the plot and in character behavior as a flaw of the novel rather than an integral part of the romantic conflict and character motivation

like, i’ve seen plenty of takes in this fandom around the idea that cql is ‘better’ because its world exists without homophobia (which they never acknowledge is because of censorship 😬). i’ve even seen people pass around edited versions of the translation “without the homophobia” as if removing those scenes doesn’t actually affect anything at all in the story and in our understanding of the characters.

i don’t think all jc stans or only jc stans have this take but law of large numbers there is definitely some overlap and i really think these attitudes contribute to each other. a person already predisposed to ignore the flaws of jc also gets it into their head that his homophobia isn’t even his flaw but the author’s. just another instance of horrible mxtx showing her biases :///. then they absorb this weird idea that jc’s flaws are actually a result of bias from the author and that jc himself (as if he is anything more than a literal construct made by the person they are determined to dislike) is a victim of her just truly awful thoughts :////////

Yes! It’s a big problem, where people fail to realise that a work containing something is not the same as that work supporting something. Personally I suspect that with MDZS in particular the issue is that the people making this argument have come to the conclusion that JC is the “hero” and so always right and correct; if JC is always Right And Just in the narrative and JC is homophobic, clearly we’re supposed to conclude that homophobia is Right And Just! This is, of course, incredibly stupid, but here we are. And as you say alternately they’ve decided that JC’s homophobia isn’t his flaw, it’s the author’s, because there’s no way an author could give a character a belief they don’t share or anything. There are of course other explanations for why people would hate the canon gay couple and stan the only openly, violently homophobic character who doesn’t learn better by the end of the novel while calling him their “homophobic gay king” and insisting he’s the only good gay rep, but... well, let’s not get into that.

With CQL in particular it’s... almost funny, because the subtext makes it very clear that unlike in the novel (where LWJ is punished for, y’know, treason) CQL’s LWJ is beaten for... having feelings for WWX. Meaning homophobia is in fact real and present in CQL’s universe. In fact it’s more present, even with the removal of all textual gay content meaning that all textual homophobia is also cut; remember that the Lan sect canonically isn’t homophobic, or at least is not-homophobic enough to take zero issue with their heir marrying a man beyond “Wangji why that one”. Meanwhile in CQL they’re straight-up beating him for it! And yet CQL has no homophobia in its setting? What, because it changes it so that JGY just accused MXY of harassing QS instead of going for the triple whammy of harassing his married half-brother? Because JC doesn’t outright call WWX disgusting for hugging a man? That is not how it works. Cutting the gay from everything except subtext is not the same as the setting not being homophobic!

People really do fail to realise that... the antagonists being homophobic or using homophobia to achieve their ends isn’t the same as saying that that’s a good thing? Yes, the MDZS universe contains homophobia, and it’s fine to not really enjoy a work that contains homophobia at all. But it never appears as a lasting trait in characters we’re supposed to root for, and when it appears at all in those characters it going away is an important part of their development. See JL; him going from being disgusted by WWX’s flirting with LWJ to demanding that if WWX is going to be Like That he should at least stay loyal to LWJ to just grumbling a bit over seeing his uncle being lovey-dovey is basically giving us a clear metric for his growth as a character! Honestly I’d take a work where homophobia exists in the setting but it’s clearly set up as a negative trait that only shows up in the heroes as something they need to grow out of over a work where homophobia supposedly doesn’t exist but people still seem weirded out or disgusted by gay relationships any day.