why aren't more people talking about ron fucking weasley and how AMAZING this boy is
this is the same guy who was so friendly to a complete stranger on a train said stranger decided to adopt him as his golden retriever bestie
this is the same guy who got into a fist fight at a quidditch match with fucking malfoy because neville got insulted
this is the same guy who was ready to sacrifice himself to a chess board so his friends could escape
this is the same guy who went to rescue his best friend from an abusive household in the middle of the night in his dad's illegally magicked flying car because he was WORRIED
this is the same guy who was ready to defend hermione's honor from a slur, barfed up slugs as a consequence, and had no fucking regrets
this is the same guy who was terrified of spiders but faced them anyway to get a chance to save his unconscious bestie in a coma
this is the same guy who was ready to fight tooth and nail for the people he loved at anytime
and i'm not even halfway through the series with this
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5 underrated TGCF moments in my humble opinion (and bonus)- expect spoilers!
When Xie Lian saved Mu Qing in book 5 at the volcano: We do NOT talk about book 5 enough, as I will mention further in this list, but when we do, we rightfully talk about Mu Qing's f-f-friends confession (which I would love to talk about more, but that's for another time), but we never seem to talk about the bit before where it's revealed Mu Qing took a cursed shackle for Xie Lian but nobody believes him or really plans on saving him except Xie Lian, despite the huge risk to himself. When Xie Lian makes it clear he would save Mu Qing anyways and Hua Cheng also has a great line to Feng Xin about how dianxia gets to make his own decisions no matter what, even if Hua Cheng himself is uncomfortable with them- something that contrasts him perfectly with White No-Face that gets overshadowed a lot. This scene and the scene leading up to it (the tunnel chase and Xie Lian being too nice to that empty-shelled mutant is just brilliant) all in all feels so underrated. Like I love the f-f-friends confession, don't get me wrong, I could talk about that anyday, but please gods can someone talk about the saving Mu Qing scene.
The virgin-detecting sword in book 3: The fact that Jun Wu even HAD a virgin-detecting sword is one of the funniest things about book 3, but the whole scene where Shi Qingxuan digs Xie Lian into a hole like "I bet he's never kissed anyone!" is just beautiful. The fact everyone assumes he's a virgin before Jun Wu even mentions that his cultivation path requires abstinence never fails to amuse me- me too, Xie Lian, me too. The virgin-detecting sword being his saviour in that moment surely must've been something. It's so funny but I've seen 1 piece of fanart of it on twitter and I think this is incredibly memorable. Since book 3 is so long, a lot of brilliant moments go less spoken about by the fan community, I feel, such as...
Xie Lian tricking Hua Cheng into revealing himself in book 3: One of my favourite scenes in the entirety of TGCF is where Xie Lian tricks Hua Cheng (disguised as Lang Ying) to reveal himself. We've already got the deadpan back-and-forth of "Who's the strongest?", "The one in red", "Who's the richest?", "The one in red", "Who's the dumbest?", "The one in green", with no beats skipped. Then he says "it's a must" to inviting Hua Cheng over, Quan Yizhen takes a bite of a yam through the window (as one does) and then he gets him to try and write an establishment plaque for Puqi Shrine and it's so funny- Xie Lian can be so funny, he's just playing around waiting to see how Hua Cheng will respond and is having the time of his LIFE. B*tch in the best way possible, this man. It's perfect. And then we get, "Only having met you did I rediscover that it's such a simple thing to be happy" which is so simple and lovely and just-- this scene is perfect, okay? We do not talk about this scene enough at ALL.
The scene where Yin Yu 'dies' in book 5: Back to me going off about how much love book 5 deserves, what with that moment between beefleaf and that massive gege statue. However, I'm choosing moments I think are the most underrated, and I just HAVE to mention Yin Yu. This man is underrated in life, in godhood and in banishment alike. The way he chose not to harm Quan Yizhen anyways- "Just because I hate him doesn't mean I have to hurt him!" This moment really links him to Xie Lian, especially just after book 4, as once again White No-Face tries to manipulate someone into weaponising their resentment the way he did, and once again he is denied the satisfaction of thinking what he did was justifiable because Yin Yu chose not to spend his life motivated solely by pain and hatred. One can argue that in book 4, after the bamboo hat incident, Xie Lian may not necessarily have had his faith in humanity at large restored but rather his faith in the power of choice. The choice to care, the choice to help, the choice not to hurt others just because you can- as opposed to the choice that was stolen from him in the 100 swords scene, and the 'choice' people claimed not to have when they stabbed him. The choice Xie Lian made when he chose not to massacre Yong'an despite his pain is like the choice Yin Yu makes when he chooses not to steal Quan Yizhen's power despite his pain. It's so satisfying to see Yin Yu stand up for his own actions when he's been cast aside by everyone, and no matter how much resentment you harbour you can still choose what to do about it.
The pagoda collapsing in book 2: This scene was the tipping point in book 2 where Xie Lian himself realised he didn't believe in his own potential anymore, and it is soul-crushing. The way he spends 3 days trying to hold up the celestial pagoda in pure desperation and anguish, and then being surrounded on all sides constantly until the pagoda collapses with people begging him to save them and him realising he can do nothing...if book 4 is the full-on descent to rock-bottom, book 2 is the anxiety-packed precursor without which book 4 would not hit as hard as it did, and sometimes it feels like it's overshadowed by book 4 completely. Book 4 may hit harder, but the end of book 2 is gut-punching as it is. You can FEEL Xie Lian being overwhelmed and trying so hard to pretend everything is fine when his life and nation are collapsing in front of him, piece by piece. Hands shoving him, some even strangling him until he keels over in the most helpless moment of his god-pleasing life as everyone calls him a fraud and begs for his help, when he has none to give or recieve. And after all that, chasing White No-Face only to break his leg, being the nail in the coffin of Xie Lian's unshakeable will that facilitated his rise and fall. It's haunting, it's poetic, it's the epitome of tragedy.
Bonus!!! : Is it just me, or does nobody seem to talk about the book 5 fight scene? There's so much fanart of Hua Cheng fading into butterflies, which is honestly more compelling for me because of the Wuming reveal and their dynamic; however, Xie Lian finally out-manoevering and stabbing Jun Wu after being flooded with spiritual power by his bf, and then Guoshi calmly addressing Jun Wu asking him if he's exhausted...I think needs more attention too. It's the ultimate fight scene! Xie Lian gets a fighting win over Jun Wu that somehow feels numbing because at the end of the day, Xie Lian's triumph over him was never in revenge or in physical combat. Almost the opposite actually, it was in his choosing not to let his anger and resentment of White No-Face control him. Xie Lian winning is well-earned but ultimately the focus is what a sad, angry, tired man Jun Wu is. I think MXTX writes this wonderfully and really gets that message across...much as I'd like to see more discourse on the fight scene, I can see why there isn't because of how bleak it is and just generally-- unfulfilling compared to Xie Lian's character development. It's the climax wherein the main character had his personal climax 800 years ago, and I love it for how antithetic it feels compared to Xie Lian's other power moves and his overall development. This is just my view, of course, I would really love to see more opinions on this!
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