#After 16 years lan wangji

[starsxinxthexbluexsky]

Lan Wangji + When Wei Wuxian is not looking at him

#the untamed #cql #theuntameddaily #i can tell the sharp look he has at first and how he is after #first he's like 'i don't look at you' but then he's 'wei ying look at me' #they are in love your honor #well after longing for 13-16 years it's obvious #it seems to me that lwj is in charge of looking wwx more closely in the eye after he came back to life #that when he was young that cuz i suppose he avoided his gaze so as not to have his feelings confused #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #my gifs #mygifs.cql #1k

[stiltonbasket]

in the flowers in the palace au, when did lwj realize that she was in love with wwx? It seems like she knows by the first part of the series, since lqr is trying to encourage lwj to marry and she's refusing, so did lwj fall in love when wwx was studying at the cr (if that happened in this verse)?

Lan Wangji's love realization happens when Wei Wuxian breaks into the Cloud Recesses to comfort her in "for myself, in my frenzied heart." This doesn't have much to do with Lan Wangji's refusal to marry; she was simply raised differently from most other girls in the FITP universe, because Lan Qiren and Qingheng-jun knew they could rely on Nie Mingjue to protect her after their deaths through NMJ's marriage to Lan Xichen.

During Lan Wangji's childhood, Nie Mingjue's father was a high-ranking general who controlled the most important military garrison in the empire, and LQR/QHJ were confident that Lan Wangji would be free to live the life she wanted (and stay safe from power plays within the Lan clan) as long as LXC had the Nie family behind her. Thus, LWJ was allowed to choose the subjects she studied after she came of age; and when she decided to pursue higher studies in music and weapons training instead of learning how to manage a household, QHJ didn't object.

By 21, Lan Wangji would have found it extremely difficult to fulfill any of the responsibilities of a gentry wife, so QHJ/LQR never considered marrying her off until Qin Su joined NMJ's harem as a concubine (signaling a loss of favor/power on Lan Xichen's part).

#asks #flowers in the palace #lan wangji #reference #part of the problem (re: lwj living the life she wants as an unmarried woman) #is that there are male heirs around who would refuse to respect lwj's leadership of the clan in future #and unlike say jiang yanli #lxc and lwj do not have a maternal family to back them up #because their mother was a wen princess who eloped with qingheng-jun and then went into seclusion for the next 16 years #so wrh wouldn't find out #and after lqr and qhj passed away lwj would have no one to protect her within the cr #luckily by the time madam lan died lxc was 14 and already pretty much spoken for re: marriage #so she had the assurance of future protection through her sister after losing her mother #and qhj rly didn't want to think about a backup plan for lwj bc he'd only need one if lxc or nmj died before their marriage could happen #and at the time nmj was the heir to a dukedom and part of a strictly monogamous family #so qhj figured that lxc would have all the power she needed as a) nmj's wife or b) his widow if he was killed in war #he was not counting on nmj overthrowing wrh and crowning himself emperor

[faeratil]

Thinking about how Lan Zhan watched the love of his life throw himself off a cliff, and then spent the next 16-20 years (depending on the adaptation) looking for his body and mourning him while raising his son and never once considered siding with the people who hated Wei Ying because he kept holding onto the hope that maybe one day, even if it was in another life, he’d get to see him again, and that if he did get the chance to see him again, he would not hesitate to stand by him and give him all the love and support he wasn’t able to give him while he was dead. That’s what I call being soulmates.

#I have so many feelings about them #I tried to think what I would do for 16-20 years if I saw my fiancé disappear in front of me #I bet lan zhan spent the whole 16 years wearing only white even after lan xichen tried to convince him that the mourning period had passed #it wouldn’t surprise me if jgy or jc gave him dirty looks for continuing to mourn wwx #mdzs #gmdc #cql #the untamed #lan zhan #lan wangji #wei ying #wei wuxian

[youaremysunshine-court]

Sometimes you read a fic and you're like huh this author did not understand the growth that takes place over 13 years

#naming no names LAN WANGJI WOULD BE MATURE AFTER 13 YEARS HE WOULD NOT ACT LIKE A CHILD #AND HE WOULD NOT TAKE HIS ANGER OUT ON A LITERAL 16 YEAR OLD WHAT THE FUCK

[wutheringskies]

Re-reading MDZS; CH 1 - 11

rereading mdzs out loud with my bestie and we're only doing 2 chapters a day, and discussing everything and here are things I never noticed:

1. from the start, the narrative exposes us to how Wei Wuxian is when he's upset: he's unfocused, walking off the wrong way, disliking his reflection, organizing his thoughts, crying but not saying he cried.

2. despite being miserable, when lil apple tries to cheer him up, he thinks "the poor donkey even went out of its way to drag him" and decides to be get up and move on. it's not an in-built setting - it's not a "being born chronically optimistic" but rather a conscious choice.

3. frankly i never noticed just how sombre his tone is in the first couple of chapters. it's quirky and sarcastic but sombre all the same.

4. also, this guy is literally a Lan. like I'm sorry, he probably has a degree in the Lan Sect. he keeps explaining everything about them.

5. Sizhui already made such a huge impression on him that the first thing he thinks of when he sees Jin Ling is that he's of Sizhui's age.

6. Wei Wuxian IS traumatized about Jiang Cheng. His reaction is simply to run off into the distance. He DOES NOT like being around Jiang Cheng, and his opinion about him is not good, as he keeps adding comments about Jiang Cheng's arrogance, his anger, and comparing him to Lan Wangji (knowing JC hates being compared, and I personally think this was something he never allowed himself to do.)

7. Jin Ling was such a jerk under Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao's tutelage. Like, sincerely.

8. Lan Wangji does not even acknowledge Jiang Cheng.

9. Also, a comment that my friend and I made: MDZS is a book about Lan Wangji, with Wei Wuxian casually throwing some trauma on the pages in between. Like, goodness, the narration from Wei Wuxian's point of view rarely describes a lot. But come to the point of Lan Wangji and this guy won't shut up. His clothes, his face, his voice, his sword, their meaning, the clan rules, what they stand for - Wei Wuxian tells us more about Lan Wangji and the Lan Clan than about his own life.

10. Wei Wuxian was so in love with Lan Wangji. Since he saw the Lan Clan this guy was on his head. THE FACT WEI WUXIAN CAN RECOGNIZE LAN WANGJI JUST BY 2 STRUMS OF HIS ZITHER after 13 years of being dead!!!

11. When Lan Wangji held his hand, he was breathing hard and his notes on the flute kept cracking

12. Wei Wuxian is so good at meditating btw

13. Wei Wuxian describing Lan Wangji's voice as "deep and magnetic" and "stirring the heart" like bro trust me Jiang Cheng's not feeling any tugs upon his heart, and Jingyi is most probably just scared.

14. Wei Wuxian is such a flirt with women - his best flirting tactic is "give them space" 😂😂

15. Wei Wuxian did not ask, expect or even comment upon the absence of gratitude from the villager clan after saving them and instead even thanked them for providing him with information.

16. Wei Wuxian is so keen on people's behavior. Noticing the orb of souls that could've been saved if people were more focused on their duty than catching a prey like Wen Ning, understanding people's discomfort etc.

17. He's such a good teacher, earning the respect of Lan students just like that, asking good questions, not even complying with his own worship, and appraising them when they get things right and also playfully scaring them with Hanguang-jun's punishment (what a husband)

18. Wei Wuxian has great self esteem but poor self worth, but he's working on the second part.

@zenenini

#rereading MDZS #MDZS with fea and zene #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #wangxian #my thoughts #lan wangji #wei wuxian #canon jiang cheng

[mxtxfanatic]

So I just did some math, and y’all got me fucked up. I’ve seen so much handwringing in this fandom about the age disparity between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian’s body because “oh, lwj is soooooo much older than Mo Xuanyu, it ‘basically’ counts as a grooming that wwx was given such a young body and lwj is still attracted to him!”

It’s literally not true. Lan Wangji is around 33 at the start of the present-day plotline. Mo Xuanyu is 27. Y’all are so full of shit.

The math:

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are around the same age, give or take some months. They are 15/16 at the start of the Cloud Recesses arc, the discussion conference in Qishan happens less than two years later (16), the Wen indoctrination camp happens definitively when they are 17 (madam yu says so) a year later, then the Sunshot Campaign takes place 2 weeks after that with Lotus Pier’s fall. The war lasts for around a year or two, but wwx mentions he is 20 during the Phoenix Mountain hunt. This means he’s still 20 when he breaks the Wen remnants out of the labor camps 2 months later, and they abscond to the Burial Mounds. For Burial Mounds arc timeline, you have to go by A-Yuan/Lan Sizhui’s. A-Yuan is a teething toddler between one and two (jc deduces) in the Burial Mounds. He’s 15 at the start of the story 13 years later. The Burial Mounds settlement, therefore, lasts about a year. By the time of the siege, wwx should be 21 (again, give or take a few months). Thirteen years later, lwj is 33/34.

Mo Xuanyu, on the other hand, is given a definite age start. He is 14 when he is taken by Jin Guangshan back to Koi Tower. This happens after the siege but  before Nie Mingjue dies (Jin Guangyao mentions this in the chapt. 79 flashback during his argument with Nie Mingjue about Xue Yang), and Nie Mingjue dies a year after the first siege takes place. This would mean that Mo Xuanyu is 14 when the siege happens and, 13 years later, he would be 27 when he sacrifices his body to summon Wei Wuxian.

Mo Xuanyu is not some barely-legal young adult at the start of the story, and the age difference, besides, would be 7 years at most. The fact that this is regular discourse is embarrassing.

#human reads mdzs: take 2 #nevermind that this discourse is STUPID anyways #given that wwx is literally the same age as lwj #but whatever #y'all also need to stop treating ADULTS PUSHING 30 like they're still teenagers #that 'you're a child in your 20s but a senior citizen once you hit 30' shit ain't cute

[lansplaining]

I think people have a hard time visualizing JC and WWX’s different strengths. Like WWX is great in a emergency when quick action is needed but if you need someone to set up a permanent plan for running an organization you go to JC. It’s not to say JC can’t think on his feet or WWX can’t plan ahead, but I know which one I’d like to work on a group project with.

yeah!!! but we also don't get to see Jiang Cheng do his thing, ever, so I get why! I for one am DESPERATE to know how he rallied enough cultivators to his utterly destroyed sect to be anything resembling a leading force in the Sunshot Campaign. how did he rebuild and restructure the sect when he didn't have a clan to back him-- he'd have to reimagine a completely new structure for Yunmeng Jiang, something unlike what any other major clan is doing! how did he navigate not only the practicalities, but the politics of being an extremely young sect leader with no resources, no Jin Guangyao to give him free loans and help him rebuild like the Lan had, not a member of the Venerated Triad, only the Jin as extremely contingent and fair-weather allies... and after 13/16 years, is back to being one of the largest and most important clans in the jianghu, respected and feared and known?

Lan Wangji is Hanguang-jun and Lan Xichen was seen as a beacon of hope wherever he arrived, but imagine the stories they must have told about Jiang Cheng. imagine what a miracle he must have seemed to be, rising from the ashes of Lotus Pier.

#ask answered #jiang cheng #i love him.

[shanastoryteller]

happy birthday!! the untamed, wwx in female mxy's body please!!

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31

Xuanyu seems very familiar with Song Lan.

She pulls up a chair right next to him, leaning into his space and demanding he tell her everything. Song Lan seems faintly bewildered by this behavior, but inexplicably starts to tell her the details anyway.

Lan Wangji has always known Song Lan to be a quiet man. It's unusual for him to be this open with anyone, even if he and Xuanyu have met before.

"They're just talking," Xichen says.

He forces himself not to flinch. The last thing he needs is his brother to realize he was so busy staring at his wife and the wandering cultivator that he didn't notice his approach. "Of course."

"You could probably go join them," he continues, that same teasing glint in his eye that he had the morning after he drunkenly slept with Xuanyu.

He deliberately turns away from them. "They can catch up just fine without me."

Xichen is disappointed and Jin Guangyao rolls his eyes and makes no effort to hide it.

He regrets his decision a half hour later when both Song Lan and Xuanyu are missing.

~

"You're very good at talismans," Song Lan says to the young woman who's very different than the teenage girl he met before. She'd been quiet with a look in her eyes that hadn't seemed to match her meekness.

Xiao Xingchen had called him paranoid, but he hadn't had much to say when they'd found out the girl was a demonic cultivator and the ghoul they were fighting was the results of her own botched ritual. She'd at least helped them destroy it.

He'd thought it was mistake to leave her at the Mo's, in that house full of people who hated her. It could only end in death, although who's was to be decided.

Turning her in hadn't been an option to either of them. Even taking into account her cultivation methods, she'd been the least monstrous member of that household.

He hadn't expected her to marry into the Lans, of all people. Her forehead ribbon is hard to miss. He wonders which of the cultivators she managed to seduce and if they knew exactly what they were getting themselves into.

"It's a skill," she says dismissively, letting the cloaking talisman fade as they make their way down the street and away from the inn. "You didn't need much convincing to let me use it."

"I assume you don't want your new family to know of your demonic cultivation," he says, then has to reach out an arm to steady her when she trips. "I don't approve of your choices but if you're going to use your skills to help me find Xiao Xingchen I don't much care what else you do with them."

She looks at him for a moment, mouth hanging open, before closing it and shaking her head. "Huh. Yeah. I don't suppose you have a flute on you? I was going to try to go for the subtle approach, but I guess there's no point."

A flute? Odd, she'd leaned into arrays before. Then again, it's the tool Wei Wuxian used, so maybe there's something to it's effectiveness that she's discovered for herself in the years since he saw her last. "I know where we can get one. Do you really think you can find him?"

"One way or another," she answers, face suddenly grim, and Song Lan swallows.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #anon #untamed

[lgbtlunaverse]

Thinking about the fact that during the gusu lectures arc Huiasang has apparently been going every year for the last 3 years, but he isn't older than the others. He can't be any older than Zixuan because Meng yao is canonically younger than Zixuan, yet Huaisang calls him "san-ge" which means Meng Yao is older than Huaisang. So maybe Zixuan is way older than the other kids there, except in the novel it was mentioned that they were all around 15 to 16. And Huaisang also calls himself around Wei Wuxian's and Lan Wangji's age. Which means Nie Mingjue has been sending Huaisang to gusu summer camp since he was like 12 years old.

I'm relatively sure that you're just supposed to chalk that up to nmj's general gung-ho-ness about Huaisang and training like wowww he's so intense! HOWEVER. We are not here to take the easy route we are here to overthink. So I have 2 alternate headcanons.

1. Nie Mingjue went to the gusu lectures at an unusually young age himself.

So we know Nie Mingjue's father died when he was between the ages of 10 and 15, generally assumed to be a little on the older side of that spectrum, 14 or 15-ish. Considering that he was, you know, allowed to acually inherit the sect and it didn't topple down, nor did a coup occur or did any of his advisors use him as a puppet ruler. And I'm not sure a 10 year old is capable of handling all of that. We also know that Nie Mingjue's father got wounded in a night hunt that Nie Mingjue was present for, as he saw his father's saber shatter himself, and that it took 6 months for Lao Nie to actually die from his injuries. During that entire timeframe, and afterwards- as I presume sect leaders don't exactly have the time to leave their sect for multiple months to go study- Nie Mingjue could NOT have gone to the gusu lectures. It could be true that he didn't go at all, we're not told this. But IF he ever went, he must've been unusually young. 13 at the eldest.

If that's true, it'd provide him a reasonable motivation to send his brother at a younger age as well. "I did it too and I was fine, Huaisang! It's not that hard if you actually work for it"

or, alternatively:

2. He didn't want him to be in gusu in the same year as the Wens.

Nie Mingjue has a longstanding grudge againt the Wens for his father's murder and very good reasons to NOT trust them with his family's safety. He definitely wouldn't like his little brother to be out of his sight for a multiple month-long stretch with one of Wen Ruohan's sons right there. We don't know Wen Xu's exact age but since he wasn't in the archery competition he's at least 1 year older than lan xichen, which means he's at least 3-4 years older than Huaisang, so sending Huaisang early would mean avoiding Wen Chao, who was his age, without running into Wen Xu. Sadly, due to Huaisang failing the 2 years before, he's ended up in the same class as Wen Chao anyway. And not sending him again after failing for 2 years would mean giving up, and was probably considered a disgrace, so Nie Mingjue had to bite the bullet.

There's definitely other options I'm not seeing but both of these are fun to play with and rotate around in my head.

#mdzs #mdzs headcanons #nie huaisang #nie mingjue #like in-universe this is an anomaly EVERYONE ELSE waited until their kids were like 15 #it's JUST nie mingjue #no wonder xichen doted on huaisang so much he's been having him over every year since he was a fucking baby

[travalerray]

please tell me about your chengxian timetravel au

[The Grandmaster of Accidental Time Travel]

Omg, thank you for the ask!!

Okay so. Basically, the AU starts from Jin Guangyao's stab being very fatal and Jiang Cheng dying and returning to when he was ten years old.

Most of his concentration is focused on a) stopping Wei Wuxian b) stopping Wei Wuxian c) stopping Wei Wuxian— you get the idea. Except we all have read the novel and know that Wei Wuxian is real bad at listening to Jiang Cheng. Or anyone really.

So shenanigans follow. Except due to certain things (Jiang Cheng's knowledge of future events, things getting shifted by a little bit, a shift in attitude and a certain case of fever etc etc), things keep getting shifted. Lan Qiren is called to Qinghe earlier, they discover the skeleton of Qingfeng-jun's teacher, fight the Waterborne Abyss muuuuch earlier and somehow also manage to prevent Wei Wuxian from getting sent back to Yunmeng. How? Well, Jiang Cheng kinda gets in the middle of the fight, because he is trying. A little. To avoid. Jin Zixuan fucking dying. And he may or may not have gotten a horrible reaction from the fight. The reaction also may or may not have been exaggerated due to certain reasons.

The engagement is still dissolved. by a letter. All hail the greatest father of all time, Jiang Fengmian.

Now, in the background what did happen is. Lan Wangji manages to develop an unfortunate one sided crush on Jiang Cheng. Lan Xichen thinks it's hilarious and pairs them up for a night hunt. It goes horribly, important things are revealed and Wei Wuxian finally gets to the gay station without reading the name of the station. Everyone suffers.

the real reason for the time travel is a fuzzy thing I have in mind which involves taking a certain element from 2ha (Three Forbidden Techniques) and fusing it with the ghost path invented by Wei Wuxian. I am thinking more specifically that the creature ZhanCheng do encounter on their unfortunate night hunt could give a nod to the two souls residing in Jiang Cheng's body (while he keeps having strange dreams that shouldn't belong to him. Now, I personally think that the idea of some of Wei Wuxian's tendencies to be transmitted onto Jiang Cheng via golden core exchange fucks heavily but like. What if they literally ate each other. What if I didn't know where I began and you ended. What if separating you from me would kill me. What if you doomed us both. What if—) which would fuck him over more. I mean, there's still Wen Qing left who is also trying to change the past to save her side of people, but that would involve another fiasco. Anyways

Jiang Cheng being an actually good sect leader trying to convince his father (who reportedly is like That™) that a war is coming is going to be horrendous. On top of which, Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Yanli are 100% convinced that the fever knocked Jiang Cheng silly in the head and made him worse with auditory problems, while Jiang Cheng is going, "I am acting like a normal 16 year old. Which is totally a normal and possible thing to want to achieve". Wei Wuxian himself isn't normal but even he thinks Jiang Cheng's habits are a little insane at times. Like. Diving into the lake for five hours at a time (tfw you used to cry in the lake while helping people dig out your family relics but can't tell your still alive family that lest they bring every single doctor in the jianghu to Lotus Pier AGAIN). Or other such things. I do think he might be able to convince Yu Ziyuan faster than Jiang Fengmian if he tried hard enough. But that's after the Qishan Wen Conference and after he finally says fuck it and invents evidence to get Yunmeng Jiang moving and contemplates the best way to alert the Gusu Lan Sect about the burning.

Since this is a slowburn, Chengxian do not kiss properly until like the end of the war preparations (before which Jiang Cheng strangles Meng Yao, panics, runs off, has a breakdown, swallows a whole vat of soup, cries and curses random things). Since this is also a slowburn the POV shifting is funny because it is:

JC: A war is coming. I need to make sure people do not die and Wei Wuxian does not give me a golden core and become a demonic cultivator. That's all I want, really, the fact that he's probably going to end up with some other guy is definitely not heartbreaking—

WWX: *trying hard to be normal* Shidi looks hot when talking about array formations. Did talking to Zewu-jun turn me into a cutsleeve.

anyways.

Since Jiang Cheng had managed to gain the trust of Gusu Lan Sect, the Cloud Recesses is mostly saved, which means Qingfeng-jun leads the war effort this time. Which means that the time travel plot which actually had been resting on the back burner kicks up since his backstory is very much connected to the whole schtick going on. Which also means that we get to see Yu Ziyuan yelling people's ears off as per usual, but this time it's not Wei Wuxian.

I do think about the reveal though. since in the original world, Wei Wuxian is dead for the second time and has given up his soul in trying to bring Jiang Cheng back. When Jiang Cheng figures out the whole situation, things are going to Not Go Well. Because that's exactly what he had been trying to prevent! Why can't they ever be happy without one of them being dead like that! What do you mean happiness can't be found without being writ in blood!

.......Wei Wuxian is going to have a stroke learning this.

#kk's ask tag #oops sorry for talking for so long #the grandmaster of accidental time travel AU #jiang cheng #wei wuxian #chengxian #mdzs #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mo dao zu shi

[fierrochase-falafel]

MDZS, CQL and the passage of time

MDZS novel and CQL spoilers ahead!

There's this thing where despite The Untamed / CQL having Wei Wuxian be dead for 16 years instead of 13, everything is meant to feel so much rawer and closer in time than the novel I feel. For a start, naturally having 30 episodes straight of flashback sequencing before depicting an immediate reconcilation between Wangxian really imprints those flashbacks much closer in your mind than Wei Wuxian's actual ressurrection, which happened in episode 1.

Furthermore, there are also these other flashbacks when Wei Wuxian sees something reminiscent of his past, different instrumentals played initially in the flashbacks coming back again to remind you of the themes those instrumentals represent. One of the most distinct examples I remember is in episode 2, when CQL Wei Wuxian sees a vision of Wen Qing introducing Dafan Mountain as the place where her branch of the Wen clan lives in CQL and then remembers the dancing fairy statue. This never happened in the novel- partially because, in CQL, Wei Wuxian was introduced to characters and locations / concepts WAY before he found out about them in the novel (eg.- YiCheng characters, Meng Yao, Dafan Mountain, demonic cultivation in the form of the Yin Iron). By entrenching these places and characters so far back into Wei Wuxian's past- all the way back to his Gusu days, in fact- they feel much more central in the overall plot and connected to the modern storylines involving rediscovering them. Wei Wuxian isn't being thrown into a new world at all, it's the same world with all the loose ends to be tied up. This does force him to remember the past more to deal with the present, and also links the show together in a way that would engage people who have come to watch a put-together story (this sort of strong cohesion I think is less required in novels than in a series because of the way the story needs to flow from 1 episode to the next to be coherent). In the novel, Wei Wuxian's own past storyline has a much slimmer connection to the current events- the obvious kicker being Jin Guangyao in CQL was the main reason Wei Wuxian was villainised and it all comes together in the end, but novel Jin Guangyao just accelerated the process of Wei Wuxian becoming the scapegoat and made this very clear. He didn't know Wei Wuxian would kill Jin Zixuan, he said; even though Jin Guangyao's not the most trustworthy character, how on earth could he have predicted that Wei Wuxian would lose control if he wasn't there to influence him like in CQL?

However, there are even more flashback scenes like the one in episode 35, where Wei Wuxian flashes back to Nie Huiasang being excited about fans and then compliments modern-day Nie Huiasang's fan. Scenes like these cannot be explained by the changed plot because Nie Huiasang and Wei Wuxian being friends at 15 in the Cloud Recesses is canon in all versions of MDZS. Personally, seeing this scene, the strongest effect I can garner from it is nostalgia for simpler times, for people he used to be close with. Memories are flooding CQL Wei Wuxian the minute he's alive again. Contrast this exact scene with MDZS, where Wei Wuxian zones out for a good while after Nie Huiasang leaves- no words of companionship or nostalgia or anything.

Novel Wei Wuxian rarely remembers any of his past life in detail unless he fully means to, actively giving himself reminiscing time, or in a life-or-death situation. The 3 flashback sequences in the novel begin:

when Wei Wuxian decides very specifically to muse over his past with Lan Wangji,

when Wei Wuxian gets stabbed and has to be taken away from Golden Carp Tower,

when everyone turns on him in the Burial Mounds with the same words and having the same intent they did at Nightless City (to harm him, to besiege him).

I think novel Wei Wuxian has spent 13 years in the afterlife getting used to wallowing over his memories, and then consequently repressing and ignoring memories from his past life because they were all associated with pain and bitterness and so much guilt (traumatic, even, but I can't say much from a perspective of trauma because I neither have trauma nor am qualified to know enough about it). Nobody cared for him anymore in his eyes, and he DID lose control, fully feeling himself lose control and accidentally cause the deaths of people he genuinely cared about. The worst-case scenario that he had to contend with actually happening and being, to some degree, his fault. With 13 years to exist as a ghost, I think he had so much time in which he would've had to contend with his choices and death that he fully removed himself from his old life as much as possible, leading to his modern-day gap in memories. You feel the effect of his years dealing with his emotions about this whole mess.

In contrast, CQL Wei Wuxian feels like he is experiencing everything raw when he comes back into the world, like he hasn't been practicing repression to the point of memory loss. Maybe he wasn't conscious during his years as dead? He's introduced with Mo Xuanyu calling to him in his brain during the sacrificial ritual, I think, and is getting told he IS Mo Xuanyu and he is...a tad confused. And then disappointed, but I mean given what Yiling Laozu Wei Wuxian had come to expect after the fiascos that ended his life, he probably wouldn't be too surprised or confused anyways. My theory is that CQL Wei Wuxian likely was unconscious when he was dead whereas MDZS Wei Wuxian was not.

This doesn't seem...important. However it does change who Wei Wuxian is and why he does the things that he does upon reincarnation. Novel Wei Wuxian taking every opportunity to drape himself over Lan Wangji with the purpose of pushing him away makes a lot of sense for a guy who's convinced the worst thing he could do to someone is get too close to/with them; he goes ahead with making a ruckus and trying to make Lan Wangji uncomfortable- without shame (because that's gotta erode away after being dead and reviled for 13 years) and without considering the possibility that Lan Wangji might want to help. Why would he consider that? He doesn't see himself worthy of help or believe anyone would help him, and he's internalised that for years on years.

CQL Wei Wuxian though, he faints on Dafan Mountain due to the weight of his memories- he's confronted with so much of the past so fast and his response is to faint. Barely any ruckus at all. When Lan Wangji finds out who he is, they have a calm conversation about it, where novel Wei Wuxian is like "oh frick he called me Wei Ying" and pretends nothing happened. CQL Wei Wuxian is a lot more open, and I think part of that is because he woke up from his death and was given the support he needed in his previous life within a couple of days. He didn't feel the years go by, have to deal with the consequences of the things he did alone (and in CQL 60% of them weren't even his own actions), so he didn't build himself the same kind of emotional fortress novel Wei Wuxian did.

CQL Wei Wuxian is jaded, true, but not the kind of jaded that comes with floating around in the afterlife for over a decade. It's easier for him to get back into this world and solve a little murder mystery together with Lan Wangji- they fall into step with each other perfectly- while novel Wei Wuxian is still getting his footing. Thus, CQL Wangxian's relationship doesn't evolve the way book Wangxian's do in Wei Wuxian's new life, and Wei Wuxian's reason to be back in this new life is far more about getting back that which he lost (Lan Wangji, a claim to justice) as opposed to gaining something else, something new and all the more important for it (a newfound relationship with Lan Wangji). Novel Wei Wuxian being so out of sync with the new world around him, in both memories and relationships, means that he has so much more room to grow in his present life as he can stop being haunted by the past. I'm not saying this is better than CQL, that's really up to what you like in your media, but this puts Wei Wuxian in a very different position in MDZS than in CQL, and also fundamentally changes their purposes and outlook on their new lives. Whether the focus of his character development takes place in the past or in the present. Whether it's about tying up the loose ends of the past, or chucking out the tapestry of the past to weave a new future.

#mdzs meta #mdzs #wei wuxian #cql meta #cql #the untamed #lan wangji #wangxian #nie huiasang #jin guangyao #analysis time by me so I can track them in my tags #time #mdzs headcanon #posts originating from my brain

[17-million-years-of-pining-poll]

BEST LONG-TIME PINING SHIPS: REDEMPTION ROUND R1 M7

Reasons to vote for each ship under the cut!

Wangxian: So poor Lan Wangji fell in love with an oblivious bisexual, Wei Wuxian, when he was 15, fast forward a few years and the love of his life dies tragically so he mourns his love for 13 years (16 in some adpatations) while looking after a child that Wei Wuxian swore to protect (basically his son)! Wei Wuxian then returns to life in a different body and Lan Wangji almost instantly recognises him and, of course, he is still stupidly in love with him. Add in some excellent miscommunication and misunderstandings, Wei Wuxian pretends to like Lan Wangji and fast forward a good few weeks, Lan Wangji's brother has enough of seeing his brother be flirted with with (what he thinks is) no emotional intent behind it, he finally reveals Lan Wangji's true feelings to Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian then realises that he, too, loves Lan Wangji and they live happily ever after.

Catradora: These two ladies are one of the most iconic examples of friends-to-enemies-to-friends-to-lovers in fiction. They’ve known each other and cared about each other since childhood. They weren’t sure what their feelings for each other were, but both knew the other CARED. Then Adora realized that they were both working for the Bad Guys and defected, and Catra did NOT take that well. What follows are 4 straight seasons of flirtation, hostilities, and heated combat before Catra finally understands where and how badly she messed up, and joins Adora’s team. At which point they become even MORE flirty, before they finally seal the deal with a kiss in the finale, becoming the couple that they always had the potential to be, but couldn’t for so long because of things unspoken and undone.

#redemption round #polls #rround 1 #wangxian #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #lan wangji #wei wuxian #spop #she ra and the princess of power #she ra #catradora #spop adora #spop catra #catra x adora

[gentil-minou]

Lanuary Day 16 - Dadji (featuring new foster kid Mo Xuanyu)

(warning, this was meant to be a quick thought but spiraled so is rougher than normal sdjfhs)

Xuanyu keeps getting into fights in school, coming home all bruised up and angry, running straight to his room.

He's only been with them for a couple weeks, but it's not going well. He ran out of the last social worker's appointment, who only shook his head at Xuanyu's new foster parents.

"He always does that. Just barges out. This will be his fifth placement. Sorry, just…just try your best till we figure out what to do with him."

Lan Wangji resists the urge to bare his teeth at the social worker.

A social worker who treats their charge like a sack of flour meant passed from one person to the next. But of course it's wwx, who's has experienced something far too similar when he was a kid, who snaps at the social worker.

They resolve to keep Xuanyu as long as they can, and to ignore every one of the social worker's words.

But Xuanyu doesn't make it easy. He fights, he yells. When A-Yuan, they're adoptive 5-yo son, tries to play, Xuanyu rebuffs him. He's only 12 years old, but his words spit like fire and he seems to want to burn everything they touch.

At first, wwx steps up to the plate, determined. He'd gone through all this himself, of course he'd be most suitable for it. It was his idea to foster after all, so he's sure he can try.

But everything he does, every offer to go outside and kick rocks, every attempt to watch a movie, even just sitting outside the kid's door trying to show him he's there, nothing seems to work.

And wwx starts to wonder if the reason he passed from foster to foster was because of his own shitty behavior. If maybe he's not cut out for this. If broken things can only break, never fix.

It takes a toll on his health, and though he never gives up, lwj can see the bags beneath his eyes grow as his nightmares return.

lwj, admittedly, was the most apprehensive of this in the first place. he's not exactly the healthiest one of the bunch, so how could he possibly help.

And Xuanyu won't speak. He won't join them for meals or tell them anything about him. How can lwj help if he doesn't know what to do?

Then he comes home from work one day to find Xuanyu playing hooky alone at home, going through wwx's makeup.

He's got like a deer in headlights, terrified. His mouth open and shuts though all that escapes are shuddered breaths. A tattered photograph is clenched in his hands.

"I—I—…" Xuanyu stammers, but he bolts from the room before lwj can so much as blink.

lwj hears the front door slam and rattle its hinges.

Makeup lies strewn across the vanity. Bottles spilled and knocked over in Xuanyu's haste to escape. Liquid eyeliner trickles down the side, staining the carpet. Next to the stain is the crumpled photograph Xuanyu held in his hand.

lwj's intelligence has always rated above average, but it doesn't take a genius to recognize the resemblance between Xuanyu and the woman in the photo. His mother.

The social worker spoke of Xuanyu's mother with condescension, painting her as a woman perpetually under the influence raising a boy in the backseat of a used sedan as she made money in the worst way possible. That she'd died abandoning her son selfishly for the sake of one more high. His face sneered derisively as he'd spat those words out.

But the woman in the photograph lwj holds, though sickly and a little wane, is smiling with a baby in her arms. She's looking at the camera, dressed in rags while her chilld's clothes are brand new.

Her hands cradle the baby to her chest, and a light in her eyes reminds lwj of another mother, gone far too young, leaving behind a child even younger.

And he thinks, for a moment he thinks he might understand. Xuanyu a little more than he'd thought.

He waits for wwx to return with a-yuan from the daycare in case xuanyu comes back first before he heads out, not one, but two old photos tucked safely in his breastpocket.

It's an hour of slow driving through the neighborhood when he finds Xuanyu. Hidden in alleyway behind a convenience store nibbling a a honey bun, he rocks back and forth. He shivers in the cold, wearing one of the old shirts he'd brought with him from his previous placement instead of the new clothes they'd bought him. All of Xuanyu's clothes are old, older and barely fit.

lwj wonders what it's like to go from one home to the next, looked at with pity. Hearing someone slander a woman they never met, who you knew and loved and lost. How tainted gifts from them must be, spoiled by poisonous whispers.

He thinks, once again, maybe he might understand.

Xuanyu doesn't run away this time when lwj drapes a jacket over his shoulders and sits next to him, offering him a carton of milk freshly purchased. He does choke on a a bite of his honey bun and narrows his eyes at the milk like it's poison.

lwj opens the carton and waits.

xuanyu coughs again before he finally accepts. it's a while longer before he speaks. "I didn't steal it," he says, holding up his empty honey bun wrapper. "A lady gave me money when she walked by."

"Mn," lwj replies, mentally adding honey buns to the weekly shopping list.

Xuanyu draws his legs towards his chest and rests his forehead against his knees. He's not looking at anything when he says, "…Are you gonna kick me out?"

"No, we will not kick you out," lwj replies simply.

Xuanyu shrugs, but when he shoulders fall they seem a bit lighter.

"The last one did when they caught me. Said they wanted a boy not a pansy."

"They were out of line," lwj states, "wei ying enjoys wearing make up. he would be happy to teach. I am less proficient but a willing demonstrative subject."

A muffled laugh escapes from the huddled bundle next to him, followed by an intake of breath, like lwj wasn't supposed to hear that. xuanyu's shoulders stiffen again, the telltale sign of someone running away lwj knows well from all the times wwx would bolt if confronted by something he was not yet ready to face.

before xuanyu can move, lwj retrieved the photos from his pocket.

he makes sure to hand over the photo of his own mother carrying a small lwj.

xuanyu is silent as he looks at it. unlike xuanyu's resemblance to his mother, lwj hardly inherited any of his mother's features. he wonders if he can tell that the woman wearing a hospital gown in a yard surrounded by concrete walls that block the sky is lwj's mother.

"I was not permitted to see her very often," he says before xuanyu can ask. "I was told she was 'unfit for caregiving.' So I saw her once a month."

"Oh."

lwj hands him back the photo of xuanyu's mother. he'd tried to straighten it earlier, but some of the crinkles run deep. if permitted, he will make another copy on something stronger than printer paper.

"Yeah well. That guy told you what happened to my mom so…that's that."

"He told me, yes. But I would much rather prefer to hear what you have to say."

Xuanyu turns wide eyes at him. In the dim alley light coming from the street, they appear almost grey. They shake as they dart between lwj's, as if looking for a catch.

"You….really? You would?"

"Mn."

Xuanyu hands lwj back his photo, keeping his own in his. As he speaks, tears fall to rest on his mother's face. Refraction along the droplet makes her face shine.

"She liked doing make up with me, when her hands weren't shakey. She said I was prettier than her. That one day I'd grow up and be the prettiest person in the world." He takes in a deep, stuttering breath.

"But I always told her she was the prettiest. That in the future we'd walk down the street together and everyone would call us twins. But she never said anything, she just smiled.

"I think…I think she knew when it was going to happen. I think she tried. I dont, I don't believe what they said. I dont think she'd just leave me like that if she could. I don't—they keep telling me I'm supposed to hate her but I don't—I don't. I don't and I can't and I won't"

His heaves turn to sobs, and he drops his forehead back onto his knees. lwj wraps an arm around his shoulders, a warm and comforting hold.

"No one can tell you how to feel," lwj says, and he thinks for a second of a little boy kneeling at his door waiting to see a mother who would never again see him. "You simply do."

And xuanyu turns his head onto lwj's shoulder, and he cries and he cries until the sun sets and a pale white moon takes to the sky.

little by little, he begins to open up. wwx does his make up, and they go for a movie. a-yuan shows xuanyu his dolls and together they play. they find xuanyu a professional to talk to, and each day he smiles more and more. they pull him out of the school into another one, where bullying lgbtq is taken more seriously.

lwj buys him a brand new skirt for his first day and he shines.

one year later, with a small gathering of their little family, they sign the adoption papers and make it official

and in the hallway next to xuanyu's room, sits a brand new photo of him and his mother printed on glossy printer paper, right between the photos of lwj and wwx with their parents and a brand new photo of the four of them, beaming bright at the camera.

(threadfic here)

a/n - i do want to make a note because i work with social workers and foster kids with complex trauma history and their families, and i can say with experience that while the system is not perfect, many of the people involved are someone of the kindest most loving people in the world. while i'm sure social workers like the one portrayed here exist, but i can say that the ones i've had the pleasure to work with really are trying to give those who need it the best life they can. so yeah.

#lol i meant it to be quick but if you let me talk about wangxian foster family i will never shut up #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #the untamed #lan sizhui #lanuary #lanuary 2024 #mdzs musings #mdzs fanfiction #bushy writing #lan wangji #lan zhan #mo xuanyu

[incognito-lionbeast]

So, for my birthday on Saturday I’m subjecting my friends to the first 5-6 episodes of the MDZS donghua & I’m still proud of my summary for the event description:

Ancient Chinese Florida Man [Wei Wuxian] learns necromancy, accidentally becomes Public Enemy #1 while trying to do the right thing, and is eventually killed after experiencing several years-worth of the Worst Day Of His Life... only to get dragged back into the world of the living 16 years later, unwillingly, via a self-sacrificing ritual committed by a Local Madman.

Meanwhile, the man who spent all those years pining for his stupid ass, Lan Wangji, immediately finds & drags this "stranger" all the way home. His home. Whether Wei Wuxian likes it or not. This is proceeded by a season-long flashback sequence -- starting with how he & Lan Wangji met.

#MDZS #Wei Wuxian #Lan Wangji #Bay babbles

[starrywangxian]

hello i am here to remind you that lan wangji did not wait for wei wuxian for 13/16 years because wei wuxian died. (now with edits!)

people don't come back from death! what happened to wei wuxian was the first time it had ever happened and probably the only time i would happen (at least in a long time) because the riutal can only be done under certain conditions, i.e. someone has to be willing to sacrifice themself, you have to call a spirit that is vicious enough etc. and most importantly, lan wangji had no idea about any of it being a possibility! [edit: only four people had used to ritual before mo xuanyu - so my point still stands i just forgot that detail - source: "only three or four examples [of using the sacrificial ritual] have been proven to be true" novel chapter 2]

lan wangji did not wait because waiting implies that he knew wei wuxian would come back, which he didn't because he died. he spent those 13/16 years mouring and taking care of lan sizhui, the only connection he still has with wei wuxian. he spent those years preparing to spend the rest of his life in mourning and wearing white mourning robes!

he played inquiry [edit: lan wangji does this in the donghua, consider that canon or fanon] to try to talk to wei wuxian but lan wangji's cultivation and skill with the qin language is so powerful that spirits he calls must answer him truthfully! so when he'd call for wei wuxian and get no answer: that was his proof that he had died. then he would ask other spirits if they knew what happened to wei wuxian, where he was, how he was etc. none of them knew anything about wei wuxian. [edit: spirits cannot lie to lwj when he uses inquiry (as seen in chapter 22: "Under his [lwj's] control, the spirit who came was unable to lie, and had definitely been answering the truth.") and lsz reveals that some people have the power to ensure spirits must answer in chapter 37: "the spirit that i summon will be able to avoid answering, but will not be able to lie. so, if it is willing to answer, then it will definitely speak the truth." this doesn't exactly mean that lwj has this skill but when speaking with jin ling, it says that lwj has mastered qin language in chapter 22: "As he mastered the language, without any hesitation, Lan WangJi confidently played a few limpid notes."]

because wei wuxian hasn't born to a sect, he didn't go through the rituals to make sure his spirit would reincarnate so when he died he turned into a spirit but because even his spirit was torn apart by ghosts and demons he was unable to do anything. [edit: i worded this weirdly - i was trying to say that the ritual prevented people from becoming ghosts and that wwx didn't have this ritual because he was the son of a servant and wasn't raised in a sect. this is mentioned in chapter 60: "disciples of famous clans, like Jiang FengMian and Yu ZiYuan, had been affected by their clan and their clan’s treasures since they were young. When they grew up, they’d receive countless soul-calming ceremonies so that there was only a miniscule chance of them becoming ferocious ghosts. But Wei WuXian was different. He was the son of a servant. He didn’t grow up in the Jiang Sect since birth, either. He didn’t have the chance to go through so many ceremonies. If after he really died with too much resentful energy and became a ferocious ghost to haunt them, it’d be quite a pain."] he spent those 13/16 years being fully unconscious and aware of what was happening but not having the power to do anything about it. he was in literal hell for 13/16 years! [edit: this you'll have to bare with me because i read it in a tweet and can no longer find it ;-; basically it stated what i said] so no spirits knew what happened to him and he couldn't answer to lan wangji's inquiry!

in conclusion, lan wangji did not wait!! [edit: it's still wrong to say that lwj waited for wwx even if i got stuff wrong lmao]

#it's a simple fact but i see so many people say lwj waiting for wwx on the daily and it's just /wrong/ #lan wangji #mdzs lan wangji #cql #mdzs #the untamed #wei ying #wei wuxian #lan zhan #mo dao zu shi #mdzs wei wuxian #grandmaster of demonic cultivation #wangxian #starrywangxian #now with edits !

[shanastoryteller]

Happy Valentines!! Some more identity porn? Or first disciple WWX

a continuation of 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

Lan Wangji looks down at Xuanyu, her face slack in sleep, and tries to reconcile the conflicting emotions he's been doing his best to avoid.

Despite how she'd curled around him the morning after they'd had sex, she's returned to keeping herself to her half of the bed without complaint. It's been over a week, and besides his brother's teasing and one dinner with a red faced Sizhui, nothing has changed. Xuanyu spends her days reading or meditating or sparring. The latter tends to gather a crowd of spectators these days, because in spite of Xuanyu's lack of power, she has an abundance of skill. She often abandons traditional cultivation style to resort to dirty street tricks more commonly seen in wandering cultivators, but it's hard to argue with the results when she's the victor nine times out of ten.

He should be grateful.

Xuanyu is living as she had since their marriage, asking nothing of him and completely apart from him except for sitting next to him at meals and falling asleep beside him at night.

When Lan Wangji had agreed to this marriage, he had not given thought to what sort of husband he would be.

Now, after months of ignoring his wife in spite of Sizhui’s affection for her to the point that she attempted to throw herself off a cliff, disregarding her injuries and abandoning her after their spar, and getting drunk only to nearly immediately demand her virtue, it turns out that the answer is he’s a terrible husband by almost all metrics.

Maybe that shouldn’t bother him. He never wanted this marriage. But it seems as if Xuanyu didn’t either, and he at least chose this. All evidence points to Jin Guangshan forcing her into this role. He at least volunteered.

What has she done to deserve his ire? His staunch disinterest? She’s treated his son with nothing but kindness, been courteous to the disciples, made a show of following the rules of the sect she married into, and has asked him for nothing.

Her greatest sin is not being Wei Wuxian.

This too is hardly her fault. Still, it’s a near insurmountable thing, that she is in his bed and on his arm and is not the only person he’s ever loved.

His grief is not her fault. Even he can’t bring himself to put any blame on her for Wei Wuxian’s death when she was still a child during the war and those terrible years after.

The sun shifts, shining through the window and landing across her face. It wakes her as it does every morning and she scrunches her nose before her eyes slowly open.

She meets his gaze squarely for one moment, then two, then she groans and covers her face with her arm. “You have to stop doing this. It’s weird.” She peeks out from under her arm. “Are you drunk again?”

“I need help with something,” he says, forcing it out before he can change his mind.

Xuanyu pushes herself to sitting, her eyebrows pushed together in concern. “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”

He holds out his hand. “Can you put this on for me?”

She stares down at the forehead ribbon in his hand. Her wide eyes and trembling bottom lip that she catches between her teeth tell him she knows what it means. “Are you sure?”

No. “Yes.”

Xuanyu’s brilliant smile in response is worth the terror and anxiety and uncertainty. He doesn’t think she’s ever smiled at him quite like this before, so much warmer than her teasing grins.

She’s his wife.

He owes it to her to at least try to be a husband in more than name.

#prompt answers #prompts are closed #asks #wanderingthyme #untamed