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[wrecklwj]

Wei Ying has big muscles and tattoos and a motorcycle, and Lan Zhan rightly has many Thoughts about that

[ao3 link]

[wrecklwj]

A shout out to all the writers out there who don’t make the rec lists or have all the buzz or get all the traffic and attention or kudos. Your work is still valuable and appreciated and loved, and without you and your fics, fandom would be so much poorer.

Keep on writing and creating and sharing your works. You have an audience who loves you.

[wrecklwj]

Submitted by @sky-the-snail-fanatic

[wrecklwj]

Lan Wangji did not actually say “you really are an awful person” to Wei Wuxian in the Xuanwu cave

🐢 The exact phrase he used is 讨厌, which has a slightly different connotation

🐢 讨厌 can be pretty contextual, and I’ll explain why below

Let’s go!

Ok so! In this scene in ch 55 of the novel, they’re discussing Lan Wangji’s father’s impending death. In response to Wei Wuxian’s clumsy attempt to console him, Lan Wangji says “魏婴，你这个人，真的很讨厌。”

I’ve seen 你这个人真的很讨厌 taken to mean “you really are an awful person” when translated, which is not at all what Lan Wangji intended to convey here!

Let’s start with the meanings and implications of 讨厌.

“Awful” is a literal translation. Just taken on its own, it’s entirely acceptable. 讨厌 can also mean “dislikeable”, “frustrating”, “annoying”, “disgusting”, etc. But here’s the thing about 讨厌 — it’s so much more than a simple adjective.

In conversation, 讨厌 is commonly centered around the emotions and perceptions of the speaker, rather than the subject. Here, it’s used to describe Lan Wangji’s opinion and reaction to Wei Wuxian’s words and actions, and not Wei Wuxian himself.

What do I mean? Let’s consider these examples:

“今早下大雨，我上班迟到，讨厌死了。” / “It was raining heavily this morning and I was late for work. It was really frustrating.”

“他这人爱吹牛，很令人讨厌。” / “He likes to show off. It’s very annoying.”

So, what does this mean in the context of the Xuanwu cave?

In summary, this was a pent-up expression of frustration on Lan Wangji’s end. It was not directed at Wei Wuxian’s character, but rather, at the specific distress caused by his earlier behavior.

To recap, here’s a list of things Wei Wuxian had done that Lan Wangji had found particularly upsetting:

Removed Lan Wangji’s ribbon without understanding its significance

Attempted to remove Lan Wangji’s clothing, and removed his own in the process

Told Lan Wangji that he didn’t like men

Talked about thanking Mianmian, and about how he had taken a wound for her

Insinuated that Lan Wangji liked Mianmian

Joked and made puns

Unintentionally reminded Lan Wangji that his family was in danger

In short, 讨厌 was Lan Wangji’s way of communicating “In this particular moment, I’m really frustrated and disappointed by all of these specific things you did.” Lan Wangji was most definitely not expressing any contempt or dislike towards Wei Wuxian here!

Wei Wuxian’s response to being called 讨厌

Wei Wuxian understood Lan Wangji’s meaning immediately! He did not react like someone who had been told “you are an awful person”; conversely, he instantly realized that he was being annoying.

Upon hearing this, Wei Wuxian proceeded to reflect on the situation from Lan Wangji’s perspective.

“发生了这么多事，蓝湛心头正烦得要命，却还有个我在他面前晃来晃去，怪不得这么生气，腿受伤了没力气不能打我，只好咬我了……我看我还是给他留个清净地儿好了。”

“With all these incidents that happened, Lan Zhan must be feeling extremely frustrated. And here I am flitting back and forth in front of him. No wonder he’s so angry. His leg is wounded and he has no strength to hit me, so he has no choice but to bite me instead… it would probably be for the best if I left him in peace and quiet.”

(translation by me)

Lan Wangji’s speech patterns

Lan Wangji chose the phrase 讨厌, which is the vernacular (白言文). As we know, he defaults mainly to classical (文言文), with the exception of moments of extreme distress or emotion, such as in the Xuanwu cave.

I’ve previously written about this in my speech patterns meta piece.

This is particularly interesting because it was a deliberate, loaded choice by mxtx. In her writing, she subtly expressed how Lan Wangji lowered his guard around Wei Wuxian.

What do I mean by this?

Throughout the cave sequence, Lan Wangji constantly broke his usual habit to speak in the vernacular. This is a reflection of his innermost feelings towards Wei Wuxian.

It’s also worth noting that Lan Wangji even bothered to express his frustration in the first place, given his circumstances. If he had been in a different situation, trapped with a different person, he likely would have kept his feelings to himself.

Saying “讨厌” as a form of sajiao 撒娇

Very generally speaking, and also in a modern context, the usage of 讨厌 in response to someone can be taken as a particular form of sajiao 撒娇.

What is sajiao 撒娇?

Very briefly, and very loosely, sajiao is a form of expressing affection to friends, family, or love interests through certain gestures, tonal changes, and facial expressions. It’s a very common trope in cdramas (and in a lot of cn-speaking circles irl) to say 讨厌 in response to something teasing said by a crush. In this context the usage of 讨厌 tends to be feminine-coded, and it implies the exact opposite of what it means.

Example of 讨厌 in sajiao:

你：你看起来好像很冷，来让我抱抱一下 / You: you look like you’re very cold, come over here so we can cuddle

我，暗恋着你：讨厌！/ Me, secretly in love with you: 讨厌！

Here, 讨厌 implies that I’m more than happy with the suggestion!

To be clear, I honestly don’t think that Lan Wangji was attempting to sajiao in this scene at all! I simply find it amusing that the phrase chosen by mxtx, 讨厌, is one that is commonly associated with romance and flirting.

Expressing dislike through usage of 讨厌

As a last point, 讨厌 can indeed be used to express straightforward dislike! For example, you could say “我讨厌你” or “I despise you” to someone you dislike.

References

讨厌

Enjing (novel raws)

Original post on Twitter

[wrecklwj]

The thing with statistics - via

[wrecklwj]

So today I got a rather unkind comment on AO3 (one could call it hate), but I believe it to be a bot for several reasons:

Guest account, but username attached

Said username exists but person is unlikely to be reading Tolkien fic (according to their Tumblr and AO3, they are in other fandoms)

Two grammatically correct sentences

Super generic text that could apply to any fic:

"I've seen better fanfiction written by a toddler. Get it together!"

I'm curious, did anyone else get comments like this? Let me know.

And to those who have gotten rude comments and are now worried/upset: Maybe it was just a bot too. Either way: You're awesome for putting your writing out there for others to enjoy and you don't deserve to get rude comments for it. If you want feel free to message me to compare cases and discuss details :)

[wrecklwj]

Hmm let's do a 蝶恋花 for poetry squad today... Which one agsafsfafajoaao @llonkrebboj @wrecklwj

[wrecklwj]

i made this poll a while ago and watermelon won, which to say the least had many members the mangoenthusiast.com up in arms about it, so settle this for once and all

no third option, propaganda is welcome. reblog after voting <3

[wrecklwj]

Off and on, I've been toying with the idea of a topxian bang event that would end on Wei Wuxian's birthday.

So fuck it, here's an interest check.

Any and all WWX ships would be welcome! Please share!

It would likely run July or August-October, with the last posting day being Oct 31st. Responses and numbers will determine if I go ahead planning it.

[wrecklwj]

never let anyone tell you that trawling through mediocre victorian poetry isn't worth it. we just happened upon an absolute BANGER of a worm poem. go read it or else 🪱🪱🪱

[wrecklwj]

In case you lost it - a link to the eSIM donation guide. Even if you feel sick and powerless, you can at least do this. And even if you really, really can't donate, you can always at least share this and remind others.

https://gazaesims.com/esim-purchase-tutorial/

[wrecklwj]

For those who don't know, Rafah Crossing is closed. Meaning Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are technically not allowed to go into Egypt through Rafah Crossing (with exceptions, like holding a foreign passport) so in order to evacuate, Palestinians need to bribe Egyptian border security officials. The standard price used to be about $5000 - 7000 per person but some Palestinians have been told to pay $10,000 per person just to cross the border, forget other expenses like food and boarding.

For a group of people who are enduring genocide and the complete destruction of their homes that money is impossible to raise without the help of fundraising. That and the collapse of the UNRWA is the reason you're seeing so many Gofundmes nowadays. The entire aid system is gone with the exception of local aid organisations that have limited reach.

So if you see a credible fundraiser, please at the very least share it so it can reach more people. This list by @el-shab-hussein is a good place to start.

[wrecklwj]

By 爱鼓捣的形志磊xing zhilei

[wrecklwj]

MXTX Diaspora May 2024: Sign-ups closed!

Sign-ups for MXTX Diaspora May 2024 are now closed.

If you signed up as a 2024 participant, but have not yet joined the event discord, please do so at your earliest convenience. If you have not received a discord link or have any questions or concerns, please contact the mods. Contact information can be found in the Event Rules & FAQ document in the Sign-ups section.

Please keep an eye out for the works in our 2024 AO3 subcollection starting in May. In the meantime, please feel free to browse through our past collections. Kudos and comments are always appreciated by creators, no matter how old the work is.

Past collections:

2021 (MDZS only)

2022

2023

Reblogs and signal boosts for this event are welcome from both participants and non-participants. Please feel free to boost on bluesky and twitter as well.

We look forward to celebrating and sharing the works for 2024!

[wrecklwj]

AO3 Subscribers Poll

(please reblog and share for a bigger reach <3)

[wrecklwj]

Corn in all its colors!