#but imo jc would be the type of person to be like | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

murfpersonalblog · 11 months

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🔥 choose violence ask game 🔥

CQL/MDZS Edition

1) the character everyone gets wrong: Jiang Cheng might be the most polarizing character of all IMO. But I don't think people get him "WRONG," so much as we tend to fall on either side of the discussion: either more or less critical of his inactions/overreactions. Personally, I am less inclined to forgive a lot of JC's BS, but!!! I also blame his parents' godawful child-rearing for him being so emotionally constipated.

2) a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom: Canonically, LWJ never bottomed a day in his life, and I rebuke any heresy refuting this god-given evidence, amen.

3) screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr: That one poll where people actually voted to behead WWX and marry Xue Yang had me like WHOMST???? Like, I understand marrying JGY, but XY?! O_O

4) what was the last straw that made you finally block that annoying person? I haven't blocked anyone in the CQL/MDZS fandom (yet)

5) worst discord server and why: I don't use discord. I wish they'd change the layout, it's a jumbled mess IMO.

6) which ship fans are the most annoying? I don't read anything but WangXian and 3zun fics, so I don't really get annoyed by other ships

7) what character did you begin to hate not because of canon but because how how the fandom acts about them? See #1. I'm actually hating JC LESS because of how the fandom acts--I used to spit on that man's name, LOL. XD

8) common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about: Look, is it 13 years or 16 years y'all, cuz I am CONFUSED.

9) worst part of canon: the fact that Jin Guangshan ever existed.

10) worst part of fanon: the racism. Y'all out here really doing the most, huh?

11) number of fandom-related words you've filtered: I only filter out Bottomji; I did NOT sign up for this; hasn't WWX suffered enough?

12) the unpopular character that you actually like and why more people should like them: Does Nie Mingjue count as unpopular? I guess, in WX-centric fics he might be?

13) worst blorboficiation: Xue Yang. Don't get me wrong, he deserves a hug, but he's done way too much heinousness out of pure spite & wickedness for me to sit here uwu-ing him. (Even if he is hella pretty.)

14) that one thing you see in fics all the time: wangxian 😍

15) that one thing you see in fanart all the time: wangxian 😍

16) you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc): ONLY shipping LXC with either NMJ or JGY, when he deserves BOTH of them gosh darnit. It's Venerated TRIAD Feels!

17) there should be more of this type of fic/art: there's plenty of 3zun, but I want MOAR

18) it's absolutely criminal that the fandom has been sleeping on... The fact that LWJ has the arm-strength of Hercules himself--people never talk about how physically inhumanly STRONG he was! Like...he lifted WEIGHTS. O_O

19) you're mad/ashamed/horrified you actually kind of like... Jin Zixuan

20) part of canon you found tedious or boring: every time Sect Leader Yao speaks.

21) part of canon you think is overhyped: The Incense Burner chapter. Like sure, all the smutty smut-smut, but I don't like sex pollen type tropes.

22) your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores: LWJ being a literal TODDLER when drunk. It's the most adorable thing on the planet, but people usually just have LWJ pass out and wake up the next day, without showing how his repressed childlike/immature tendencies come out when he's inebriated.

23) ship you've unwillingly come around to: Lan Sizhui with Lan Jingyi. I see them more as brothers, and I ship LJY with Ouyang Zizhen more. But I get it--having LSZ w/ Jin Ling would be LXC w/ JGY all over again, in terms of who would marry in/out; while having LSZ w/ LJY stay together in Gusu is much neater, logistically.

24) topic that brings up the most rancid discourse: See #10.

25) common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing: that LWJ bottoms. He doesn't. End of discussion! 😤 And Happy Hanguang-June!!! XD

#the untamed #mo dao zu shi #mdzs #headcanon #questionnaire

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llycaons · 1 year

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ep7: ah, young love

okay so this episode had a lot of EXCELLENT scenes but also some that don’t land very well and read as a little tryhard and poorly thought out. imo

since we weren’t done being beaten over the head with the parallels yet 😭

exchanging significant looks! the first (?) of MANY. they will have a long career in staring at each other ahead of them

oh damn is that what the original plan was? fuck, this plot is boring

this is so sweet. wwx got a little connection to his grandmaster

I remember wwx having much bigger ‘rip to you but I’m different’ vibes but he seems more chill here this rewatch

FAKE ROCKS LMAO

this is actually one of my least favorite tropes/moments for wx. it just feels like a contrived situation that’s designed to make the audience go ‘oohhh, that’s gay!!!’ without any intentional input or decisionmaking from the characters. like it turns them from subjects into objects? it’s hard to explain but I think this is annoying and meaningless as a romantic writing choice

I love how I can read lwj again now. and he looks SO hurt and betrayed

also his face/nose look rounder than usual. he’s always had round features but they look accentuated in this shot. another reason that lines about lwj’s sharp jawline confuse me in fics

aw shit did he say zhiji

wwx is so cute when he’s serious

lwj writing off wwx as telling stories and being silly, internally rolling his eyes, and then VISIBLY reassessing when he realizes that wwx is actually being very clever in misdirecting nhs. like ‘OH. he’s smart!’

wwx literally looked at lwj for five seconds and jc lost it lmao

all of his looks of sadness tend to be so...private? inwardly directed? he’s out theoretically in public but he’s experiencing this sorrow entirely unconnected from anyone else. wwx tends to be expressive when he’s sad, jc is loud and physical, jyl reaches out to others. but lwj usually doesn’t let anyone else see, then just tucks it away like this

this shot is so fucking funny. wx and xy awkwardly standing in the waiting room as the evil cc does heretical experiments in his throne room

I usually don’t endorse assigning a character top/bottom status because it’s dumb and unrelated to how real life people act. that being said this man is a slut and I fully believe he knows what he’s doing. where’s that post about him being erotically darth vader chocked by wrh

awww jyl is so pretty

man, wwx really was a dick to nhs

ah I love this scene. so pretty!

mm! lxc and lqr being there too is so nice. it’s easy to forget that they’re teachers too and they look after these kids

CLASSIC SHOT. I fully endorse the ‘lwj had a crush he was confused and frustrated by, and at this moment his crush compounded into genuine and very intense young love’ I don’t endorse love at first sight I think it’s silly

at first I felt bad because jzx didn’t want to be in an arranged marriage (fair) and wwx kept going after him for it but nah. look at his face. what a tool

wwx trying so hard to protect his sister’s heart/reputation bc he loves her but his public freakouts just embarrass and humiliate her more 😭

I love that lwj has never looked this confused before or since

I love youuuuu

so funny that this is how we’re introduced to jfm, who is notorious for having no backbone

this is what I mean when I say wwx seems to be from a different setting than other characters. nobody else would do this type of exaggerated posturing. it gives him such a distinct personality and mannerisms, which is probably really hard to write coherently

interesting you say that, with your history. you who never married, hm?

I cannot believe that people genuinely think jfm was as bad or worse than myu. for all his faults, he stood up against jgs to ensure his daughter didn’t end up in an unwanted marriage like his. and he doesn’t treat wwx (or jc) as well as he should, but myu would never have taken wwx in and never would have loved him or defenced him or taught the way jfm clearly does. he does treat jc badly, but it’s not like myu treats jc much better, and the fact that she treats him worse because wwx is around and better than him at stuff doesn’t reflect on jfm or wwx, but rather on her as a person. I have a soft spot for jfm despite not really respecting him at all

the song playing here is SO sad god he misses her so much

jyl saying wwx will marry a beautiful woman, because she thinks him flirting with guys is a phase or something?. I actually read her as very sweet and loving to wwx, but straight and not really totally understanding how his attraction to men is just as important to him, if not moreso, than his attraction to women. a few explanations for his response

1. he means it because he’s not bi as speculated, he’s gay (possible - he’s been very forward with the porn and the insinuations)

2. he means it because he’s already sold on marrying lwj (VERY early for this to be the case imo. also he was laughing about living in CR and the idea of someone marrying lwj just a few eps ago)

3. he means it because he genuinely doesn’t want to get married he just wants to hang out with his big sister (if so: 🥺😭)

4. he’s pretending to joke around but he really means it but he doesn’t know why yet (given how good he is at masking his own desires and avoiding his own feelings, perhaps this is most likely)

5. he’s fully joking in order to make her happy (he doesn’t seem that serious to me)

imo if the writers wanted this to be a legitimate moment of wwx expressing his desires that conflict with jyl’s (and the rest of society’s) views on what marriage should be, they should have maybe not framed it so lighthearted? ah, it’s wwx, he hides what he really wants under jokes all the time

in the book he actually inspired like, dozens of disciples to drink and shirk their classwork instead of just nhs and jc. very funny ngl

hard to see in this shot but wwx’s look of what I can only describe as awe when lwj walks in. my boy

I love his confidence he’s so funny

oh everything hurts

he’s so funny playing around with the bunnies and making them talk. too much ‘chaos gremlin’ wwx not enough ‘playful and sweet’ wwx

something I really love about these early arcs, despite that yin metal plot being so boring I could cry, is how protective wwx is of lwj. he really cares about him and wants him to be okay!

overall despite adoring young wwx and lwj, and enjoying many of the scenes in this episode, I still think this arc has the least compelling wx. but it's laying really important groundwork for plots and relationship dynamics that will become delicious later, so I don't mind

personal highlights

lwj’s confused face

wwx being very dramatic

jfm defending jyl and jzx’s right to decide who they marry

xy, for being very entertaining in his sluttiness

wwx making the bunny talk

wwx being protective of lwj

#cql re-rewatch #im so tired fuck this took a long time

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plan-d-to-i · 3 years

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I have to say, seeing the mess in the mdzs fandom (still relatively new here!) has me genuinely worried for any possibility of tgcf (main fandom!) ever blowing up in popularity like that (hopefully not). There are already many shitty takes around, especially wrt HC (is it just a black-red character thing? Ppl are so desperate for them to be actually evil or morally grey 😐), we don't need any more... I guess I'm mainly wondering if MQ stans would ever get as bad as JC stans. MQ as a character is definitely better than JC with actual redeeming qualities as you've pointed out yourself in the past (and he admitted to his faults in the end, ergo he is aware that he has them and made mistakes), but you still see many stans trying to take away his flaws and make him a purely soft but misunderstood poor boy who gets antagonized unfairly by everyone. Wwx and lwj barely even did anything to JC and ppl act as if they are devils incarnate, compared to that HC is fully hostile to MQ (with good reasons, imo, and I actually try to see both sides) and XL often points out MQ's shortcomings and ofc, FX's... everything, lol.

I think for svsss, SJ would be this specific character? (More extreme than the other two, though.) Ngl, I was actually surprised how much sympathy and love SJ gets in the fandom (Bing-ge doesn't get even half of it).

Anyway, sorry for rambling! The drama in the mdzs fandom and how much stans villanize actually good characters to defend their flawed favs shocked me, lol. And it's just confusing to me how ppl try to sympathize with their meow meow but never try to understand why other characters treat them the way they do. But blind stans...

ah ramble away!! We're absolutely on the same page. Truly nothing had prepared me for this fandom. I don't really project on characters when I read. I just want to be entertained, so to see so many ppl stan these underwhelming (to say the least) side characters so hard that they feel the need to change canon to make them into uwu soft babies and shit on the genuinely heroic characters!!? can't relate.

Shen Jiu has been almost totally ruined by his own stans 🥲. They just turned him into a generic YA heroine. rip Shen Jiu, you were so much cooler as you were written.

So I can understand the trepidation w tgcf's adaptation. There are already people bitching about how Xie Lian isn't "really that good! and his relationship w HC is toxic"🙃. I don't even think it's Mu Qing stans you have to watch out for. As you said Mu Qing is demonstrably better than jc and is thus rewarded with a reconciliation with the mc. I don't exactly vibe with that personality type but even I had to admit by the end Mu Qing was not in fact a shitbag. Just the fact that he broke the rules to take supplies to Xie Lian means something. All jc gave WWX when he was helping the Wens was a gut wound. Anyway, welcome to my theory : Qi Rong will be JC 2.0 sad angry uwu baby green grape 💚. The "eating people thing" was just mean rumors. He just wanted Xie Lian's love and attention >:-/ they were CoUsinS!! Xianle Bros! Cousins! Look at the way he cared for Gu Zi! # 1 DAD! Also he's known as the Green Ghost! DUH OBVIOUSLY this means he's Aromantic. And the way he helped Xuan Ji get revenge by killing all those women! Can you say FEMINIST KING!

#mdzs #answers #tgcf #svsss

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vrishchikawrites · 3 years

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JC's condemnation of WWX and the recent discussion about Lan Xichen made me wonder about how both characters failed their brothers (JC obv more than LXC) and the entire discussion about how things could've changed if JC had stood by WWX.

And that made me wonder of a scenario where Xichen for the sake of his brother, actually tightens his belt and visits WWX in the Burial Mounds- would that have made an effect? After all LXC doesn't know WWX at all and only through second hand accounts at this point so why not actually DO something about it.

Honestly i wonder about a comparison between LXC and Jiang Fengmian where both characters are the wait-and-see type and do the bare minimum of courtesy but never proactive enough to bring about a change or raise their voice. I don't dislike these sort of characters because they still feel better then the ones who accuse and vilify and have no control over their emotions, but they also feel like a cautionary tale of being too mild and trying to make everyone happy but failing completely.

I know everyone says LWJ is suppressed but sometimes I think LXC is worse. LWJ is eventually honest with himself but I feel like LXC lies to himself a LOT. So much that he actually believes it. Always smiling. Always unruffled. The First Jade of Lan.

The cast is so big it's a bit hard to think about all characters so i've liked/been neutral about LXC for a while. I have to admit though that in many many fanfics he basically exists only to give shovel talks to WWX (which is beyond annoying) and very rarely makes friends with WWX and often when he does WWX is overly tearfully grateful and it's affected my view of the character somewhat. I've become less fond of LXC but I still sympathize with him for Meng Yao. It's what he warned to his little brother about WWX but instead it was actually happening to him.

On a different note- how strong a cultivator is Lan Xichen? I feel like he should be right up there among the best but his cultivation skills are mentioned. What is he good at? Is he super good at anything?

I sometimes think LXC is, in a way, a foil for LWJ. He's this gentle, placid guy, willing to cruise along with the world, serene as the surface of the lake until someone throws a stone. LWJ, on the other hand, feels powerful like a storm sometimes. Even his silence has an edge to it, he comes across as fierce in ways LXC just isn't.

His fierceness makes him proactive instead of reactive, that's especially true when he's an adult. He's always ready to shoot and he doesn't hesitate. That's why he goes where chaos exists. LWJ isn't the kind to sit idly by when people face problems, even if the people don't concern him.

With LXC, things are different. Yes, he earns his title during the war and is known for helping hundreds of cultivators. We get the picture that he's this incredibly kind, gentle, and honorable guy. And he is.

But honestly, there's a limit to how much a kind guy will care about other people not connected to him. He knows LWJ cares for WWX in some capacity but LXC himself isn't attached to WWX in anyway. In his view, this is the guy who teased his brother relentlessly as a teenager and then showed up rebeling against everything they had been taught.

WWX's no innocent peasant or helpless cultivator that needs defending. In his eyes, WWX is powerful, dangerous, and a proven soldier. He knows WWX is smart and cunning. LXC knows he's capable of being very ruthless.

All of the heroism and kindness that LWJ has seen first hand, LXC has seen none of it. I'm also uncertain about how much he understands LWJ's feelings for WWX. He was forced to go mediate between the two a few times during the war because they were fighting so much.

So why would he go out of his way to get the true facts regarding WWX and the Wens? Especially if JC, WWX's own sect leader is set against him? He has no reason to distrust JC, who has always seemed like a steady guy, trying to reign in WWX's chaos.

From his perspective, whatever happens to WWX and the Wens is just a part of the post-war politicking.

Now, if LWJ had asked him to check, LXC would've definitely gone to the BM settlement. But he didn't afaik. LXC simply went on handling his own sect business and life.

All of that makes perfect sense for his character and his station in life. He becomes a little more invested post-ressurection when LWJ and WWX request his aid. He gets involved because both of our heroes ask this time. And due to his connection with JGY. If he wasn't tied so closely to the situation, with JGY and LWJ at risk, he wouldn't have paid much attention to the situation.

Imo, he's just a kind guy who is inclined to help but also needs to have some sort of personal stake to truly involve himself. Everytime he's shown stepping forward (outside of war) in any meaningful way, it happens when someone close to him is at risk like JGY, NMJ, LWJ, or even NHS.

There's a big difference between how JC and LXC failed their brothers.

JC activily turned the entire Cultivation world against WWX. He refused to defend him or offer help when needed.

LXC only saw his brother's somewhat 'friend' was turning bad and his brother maybe felt a little put out about it. Can't even consider that a failure, tbh.

When he knew how seriously invested LWJ was, having seen his brother suffer for love, he became seriously invested in WWX's wellbeing too. He showed that by sheltering WWX even if it meant going against his sworn brother in spirit.

But that doesn't mean WWX owes LXC anything.

So to conclude, I think he's a kind but casual character. MXTX basically wanted him to be a humbo, so there's that.

As for his power, I believe he's a skilled cultivator, particularly good with musical cultivation. He's so good that JGY thought he was nothing in comparison. He's also a good swordman and very good at archery.

Is he has powerful as LWJ - I somehow don't believe he is simply because LWJ seems to go on many more nighthunts. I assume that hightens his cultivation somewhat. But LXC is very competent from what the text suggests.

#reader asks #my personal opinion #i could be wrong

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zanna-ho-zanna-hey · 2 years

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So I just got home from seeing the JCS 50th anniversary. Umm here's my thoughts

My first thought was that this was very heavily informed by the 2018 NBC production (and in a way Hamilton? - more on that later) and I was like oh no cuz I wasn't a huge fan of that production but it still had some good elements so I kept an open mind

So I don't know if this is just me not being in touch with modern theater or whatever but GURL I hated the choreography in some places. The opening number and like the first few songs it felt so weird and out of place. They all kept doing this one motion with one hand on their face and the other pointed out and I was like ok does this represent their blind devotion to Jesus? But it was the only thing they did for like an entire song and it got kind of annoying imo. It did come back up a few times so maybe it did represent that so I guess it ended up making sense.

But overall with the choreography especially of the disciples/JC's crew it felt extremely theater kid if that makes sense? Like a bunch of overly enthusiastic theater/improv kids who are super pretentious about their art form choreographed it themselves. I'm not describing it well but it reminded me of the type of person depicted in this SNL sketch / this Studio C sketch. It was just not the vibe whatsoever.

Then there was the whole thing where they were holding mics/guitars the entire time. I want to say that I get what they were going for but I kind of don't? If the idea was that they were being literal about the whole superstar thing so Jesus is a rock star and the disciples are like his band and crew - which seemed to be the case when Mary was singing the last part of her solo with a mic stand to the audience and same with Gethsemane - then why would they be using hand held mics when they're not singing to the audience but just to each other?

Reasons for this aside, I feel like in some parts of the show it was almost a hindrance to the actors. In a lot of songs the actors felt very stuck and kinda stationary but it didn't work it was like oh shouldn't they be moving/emoting more rn?

BUT in some places it did work - in a way I did like how Jesus and Peter both had acoustic guitars simply because it provided more of a connection between them. Like when they sat down together and played the guitar part in Pilate's Dream. I feel like in some productions there isn't as much of a connection between the two of them so when Jesus says Peter will deny him it doesn't have as much impact as it could because there's hardly been any difference shown between Peter and any of the other 9 apostles who aren't named.

Also I did like how Pilate had that mic with the million foot long chord idk why it worked for me but it did.

Now am I gonna talk about Judas? ?????

uhg

I mean,,

JCS is about Jesus Christ and the people who love him. Judas is the second main character because so much of the show is supposed to focus on his love for Jesus or even just his relationship with Jesus.

So where was that relationship???? Hmmm???

Throughout so much of the show Judas was so physically and kinda emotionally removed from Jesus. It's like he was just this figure in the corner in the sense of 'hey I'm here I'm gonna be the one who causes your death.'

In every production Judas is kinda removed from everyone else and for good reason, but also "[He's] been [Jesus'] right hand man all along" and yet he's like hardly ever by his side and he hardly ever seems like he cares from a distance.

And idk this was especially apparent to me in Damned for All Time. There was no anguish, no desperation. He wasn't even torn up about betraying Jesus which is kinda the whole point. Not to say he was emotionless but he really didn't seem to have too much of a problem betraying Jesus. Maybe it was just the particular actor who was playing Judas today? I don't know? but I just remember watching that scene and thinking like wow dude you hardly care huh

And even when he betrays Jesus it's hardly even a thing? I don't know how to describe it but they weren't interacting. The betrayal wasn't an interaction between them it Judas doing some stuff and Jesus doing some stuff but it was almost like they weren't people in each others' stories they were props to each other.

Basically there was barely any establishment of a friendship between Judas and Jesus - there was far more so a friendship between Jesus and Peter than there was with them. Just overall how they did Judas was kinda disapointing

HOWEVER I LOVED how Judas was the last person who was there with Jesus while he was still on the cross I was so relieved when I saw that cuz like at least they did that one thing to show some kind of closeness ya know

Ok here's some other little thoughts

Why did Herod have a sword? ??

The scene where Judas hung himself was kinda disappointing but it did go with their minimalist vibe I guess? But I mean even the NBC production was able to have Judas actually hang himself and not just throw a microphone.

I do understand the minimalist set design thing but the platform that held the musicians took up 3/4ths of the stage and it was kinda weird when the actors were under the platform a lot

Also I think you can definitely do a minimalist set but still idk add a bit more difference between scenes? I think some productions have done this really well with just a good use of props

Though I do like the idea of having the guitar players on stage and visible cuz the guitars are so iconic and important

Herod's costume was so ridiculous - before he came on and the lights were off you could see this giant thing that was his big silver costume thing and I was like yep here comes Herod so love that

Overall it felt slightly rushed? but I guess that could be good like this is the whirlwind that is Jesus's life. Despite it being so rushed I was also thinking 'where's the tension???'

39 lashes and the following scenes were really good. Jesus was really going through it the actor went all out. Also loved the mix of blood and glitter. He just looked super dirty by the end of it which was reminiscent of how he was taking on the sins of the world

I almost forgot - so I said at the beginning that it felt informed by Hamilton - I have actually never seen Hamilton but I did hear about 'the bullet' character who is like there whenever a character dies or something. So there was this principle dancer in this production she was really out there and kept flapping her arms and stuff and she was the one who led Jesus between the arrest and Pilate and Herod. But then at the end she was very visibly crying when Jesus was being crucified and she was the only person doing so. I just never quite caught on to what her role was supposed to be. Was she like death? or the holy spirit? It was never really clear

I hate that this seems majority negative - I really didn't hate it. Some parts were really cool like 39 lashes and the crucifixion and especially Superstar. I loved how Jesus was getting physically passed around between people it was just pain upon abuse upon betrayal it was done v well.

Also please don't think this is just me looking at it with shipping googles and being upset that they weren't gay or whatever. Honestly Judas x Jesus isn't a huge part of being a JCS fan for me. It is a part and I do love that side of the fandom - people who are big Judas x Jesus shippers create a lot of beautiful things and add so much to the fandom - but what's more important to me is the relationship between the two whether it's seen as platonic or not it is supposed to be significant to the two of them. There's supposed to be a bond and that's what makes it so emotional.

I mean I just think back to that line in The Last Temptation of Jesus Christ, where Jesus and Judas are discussing what's gonna happen and Jesus says to Judas "God gave me the easy part, I only have to die." Implying Judas has the worst job of all because he has to betray this man who means so much to him - his friend. And I just saw very little of that here.

I think I just kinda went in expecting a musical but it was actually a concert with "ooh edgy contemporary" choreography.

#JCS #jesus chris superstar #jcs 50th anniversary #long post

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crossdressingdeath · 3 years

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It's interesting how I've seen lately a couple of people bringing up, here and there, how cql is at fault for jc stans' wrong stance on his character bc I have wanted to ask you for a while what were your thoughts on cql!jc in particular... I mean, I know cql isn't a fave of yours anyways so I thought maybe there was no point to it anyways.

And, the thing is, I haven't read mdzs yet and I've only watched the donghua and cql and still... I've always had mixed feelings about him, which is funny bc- yes, in the end, he was softened there but even with that fact, that didn't made me like him. Now, I do prefer cql's but like I said, it wasn't enough to like LIKE him. And after a bunch of musing about why it was like that, I think I found out why. You see, if I had to list my top 5 charas from this universe, that would be: xy, wwx, xxc, lwj and wn. So you can see it's not as if I have a type as in "I love villains and bad boys" OR "I have a soft spot for heroes and good boys", there IS variety in what I like but no matter what are the flaws in a character, jc had one that I particularly despise: he's ungrateful. And he was ungrateful in the most disgusting way. To a lot of people, to the wens, to wwx himself... So even if we don't see him doing the terrible things he did in the novel (which in the end, maybe I would care like, xy is my fave so srsly, it's not about morals as such but having characteristics that aren't my cup of tea) and being homophobic and all that, he has one of the worst traits someone can have imo which is ungratefulness.

Finally, another thing I noticed is how contradictory his character was regarding his feelings for wwx. Look, I lean more towards this not being wzc's fault but the script but, the thing with cql!jc was that you sometimes could feel he genuinely cared about wwx and two second later it was like he genuinely hated him ??? I can't help but think the reason was that the cql staff fell into their own trap of wanting to make him more sympathetic and likeable but since he still needed to be one of the main antagonists for the pilot's sake, it became this contradictory mess...

Yeah, my personal breaking point for JC is the homophobia (which show-only fans wouldn’t know about) but... he’s got a lot of aspects of his character that are going to be Too Much for a given person! He’s just one of those characters. And yeah, the ungratefulness is... a lot. But honestly CQL JC just confuses me. I don’t know what they were going for with him? On one hand they try really hard to focus on how he’s sad and conflicted in a way the novel doesn’t (because... well, he’s not either of those things in the novel) and they quietly drop the bit where he leads the slaughter of a civilian population because he’s decided that the only way to assuage the pain he feels about what happened to Lotus Pier is to inflict it on others, but on the other hand... he really does straight up tell a woman that she can either marry him or die and he won’t lift a finger to help her if she doesn’t give him what she wants (and won’t do anything for her family either way) despite having the necessary information to save her without marrying her. I can’t speak to the overall quality of WZC’s performance; personally I thought it was pretty bad (god, the overacting, please calm down sir, you look like you learned how to act from a kindergartner), but I’m hardly an expert. But yeah, definitely at least part of the issue was the script. I don’t think the writers were entirely sure what to do with a character like JC, who starts (chronologically) as an ally and gradually becomes an antagonist partway through. I don’t know how much of that was censorship and how much was poor writing, but “confused” is the word that comes to mind looking at JC’s CQL characterization. His role as an antagonist is too important to cut and relies too much on his relationship with WWX to give to someone else, but they either didn’t want or weren’t allowed to just make him an antagonist so we get this... weird, uncertain mix of “loving brother” and “open antagonist”. They wanted him to be a good guy, but the story wouldn’t allow that. This is a lesson about not trying to force an adaptation to obey what you want with zero regard for the source material, and definitely not without bothering to fit the rest of the story around that change.

#cql negativity #grapehate #anon #asks

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sneakydraws · 3 years

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Well, here it is - a lengthy explanation of each card in my mdzs major arcana deck and what I meant to convey/what i would have changed in retrospect/what alternatives i considered! It’s a bit messy and my typing style is lazy but hopefully it will be an interesting read to some of you :)

And so you don’t say I didn’t warn you - jiang cheng’s section (11 justice) is absurdly long lmao

0 the fool I elaborated on this in the post itself but yeah basically jin ling is kind of representative of all the damage and trauma caused by the past, and there’s a kind of danger there of him falling victim to the same vices as the older characters and repeating the same mistakes and perpetuating the cycle of war and misery (the cycle that we already see with how the jin sect became the new wen sect, and later with how jgy became the new wwx) and he has a lot of room to grow! He grows so much over the course of the novel, comes to realise the complexities of the past and gets a harsh life lesson in how nothing is as black and white as it seems. But ill save talking about his progress for the end, for now whats important is that he has room to grow and also a dog. I don’t really have a justification for the sun, i mostly just thought it looked sick? It made its way to the next card as well, where it makes a bit more sense, but then i realised it was a dumb motif to include 1 the magician I still very much like wwx for the role, and that illustration would have probably had him raising a corpse on his left and pointing threateningly to the sun on his right. I considered including the table as well, with some mdzs relevant items replacing the card suits. Anyway, like i said wwx got a few cards to himself already so i went with the alternative wq design, since i think she fits the card as well. Both she and wwx are highly skilled people, extremely driven once they set their mind to something. The card to me symbolises the creative mind as well as a general drive for action, which fits them both - wwx was famously a prolific inventor, and wq came up with a previously unheard of surgery, after all. This card strays pretty far from the rider-waite deck design, largely because i was still figuring out how i wanted to approach this series, but you can still see the influence. 2 the high priestess I was actually going to skip this card at first because I couldn’t think of a fitting character, but once i considered a qings character post death, it all fit pretty well. She was already a highly intuitive person in life, and in sharing her memories with wwx she is, in a way, relaying a kind of secret knowledge. Anyway she’s one of my fav characters so im glad i got a chance to include her. The coffins could be interpreted to be xxc and sl or xxc and xy 3 the empress Theres other mother figures in mdzs who got to be mothers for a longer time, but jyl definitely embodies the positive aspects of this card the best. She’s nurturing, kind, emotionally supportive, she already mothered wwx and jc quite a bit when she was young. Plus i liked that the rw card had both water and flowers, making an easy lotus connection. In retrospect the stars look kind of out of place and i should have replaced them with something more relevant... Also, i should have had her hold a lotus seed pod instead of a flower, haha 4 the emperor Like i said I considered jc for the role but hoching bullied me into admitting that nmj was better… they’re both more of an inverted emperor than an upright one but then again theres hardly any character in mdzs who would fit upright emperor so. Jgs was also considered but he’s even uglier than nmj so i couldn’t bear to draw him 5 the hierophant It was pointed out to me that lqr would have fit this card better and the truth if that statement haunts me to this day. Unfortunately I have no space in my brain for lqr so lxc got the role instead. My main reason was his role during the wen destruction of gusu lan, when he ran away with the contents of the library - this is why there’s bookshelves behind him. The keys, take, from the rider-waite deck, are meant to represent the gusu pendants that allow you to enter 6 the lovers Im sure many people would have chosen wangxian here but I uhh don’t really care abt wangxian personally? And also their love story is so convoluted that jyl and jzx seem idyllic by comparison lol. Also i didnt really have an idea for who to put in the angel’s place for wangxian… mme jin certainly did not get these two together in the end but undeniably she and mme yu did initially give them a chance to fall for each other so. Thats something i guess. Anyway the trees became their sects’ flowers and the mountain became the burial grounds - an omen of their tragic fate, basically 7 the chariot There might have been other characters who fit this card better but i couldn’t really think of another card for lwj and i thought it would be weird to not include him… anyway i don’t really care for current timeline lwj BUT i do like that he was clearly influenced by wwx to walk his own path in life based on his moral convictions rather than follow his sect’s rules blindly. The chariot is to me a card of self control, self determination and focused action, so it seemed fitting. The composition felt kind of empty without the actual chariot so i padded it out with the guqin, the cloud recess in the bg (it doesn’t look great but i tried to replicate the drama design….) and the bunnies which conveniently fit the colour scheme of the sphinxes in the rider-waite design 8 strength Like i said before, my interpretation of this card is more… morally ambiguous than the quote unquote official meaning, so i thought about manipulative or duplicitous characters more than kind characters whose strength is expressed through gentleness (though i did consider jyl briefly for the latter interpretation). As such, i considered both jgy and nhs, but ended up going with jgy largely because i couldn’t pass up the opportunity to put the nie sect’s beast as the lion. 9 the hermit My thoughts immediately went to bssr lol. It may be an overly literal interpretation but whatever, i like it just fine. And i like that i managed to echo the rider-waite silhouette in the mountain and the tree (and even in bssr herself) 10 wheel of fortune God i love the parallels between these 2… this card to me is about how you cant trust your current situation, good or bad, to last forever, and these 2 embody that perfectly imo. Wwx went from son of a well off servant and a powerful cultivator, to street rat orphan, to adopted son of sect leader jiang, to double orphan, to MIA, to terrifying but admired warrior, to terrifying and despised traitor, to dead, to, at the very end, suddenly respected and trusted again. The dishonesty and cheapness of whatever the public’s current opinion of him is is portrayed beautifully as far as im concerned. And jgy of course claws his way up to power only to instantaneously become public enemy number one, to the point that he’s probably blamed for stuff there’s no reason to believe he had a hand in. Wei wuxian’s silent astonishment at how quickly the cultivation world turns against jgy and towards him again is a delicious moment of thematic resonance. 11 justice I settled on this card for jc after he got booted from the emperor seat but i do think it fits, in a somewhat convoluted way. I turned both the sword and the scales into visual representations of the golden core transfer (can you tell im obsessed with it). According to biddy tarot, the justice card is partly about searching for the truth, and the scene where jc finds out about the transfer is of course a big deal. I was also very influenced by the reversed meaning again - which is about being reluctant or unwilling to face or accept the consequences of your actions. I feel on an intuitive level that this fits jc but I’m not sure how well i can explain it - it’s something about how he’s a little too comfortable scapegoating wwx for things that were also, if much less so, influenced by his actions, and also something about the way he keeps wwx at an arm’s length emotionally but still leans on him and accepts his support when he really needs it, and somewhat hypocritically expects wwx to put the needs of him and the jiang sect before the needs of others. And also something about the core exchange is the consequence and proof of wwx’s deep - terrifyingly deep, even - love and care for him, which is something jc doesn’t seem to let himself acknowledge. Maybe even something about how you could argue that the way all of the jiangs acted around wwx - jfm’s favouritism that left him with the feeling of a debt he needs to repay, mme yus insistence that he be a servant more than a brother to jc, prepared to give his life for jc, and jc’s own unwillingness - or inability, he was a child after all - to clearly acknowledge wwx as an equal to himself, enabling wwx’s self sacrificial and protective tendencies - that all of this was what caused wwx’s complete and unquestioning willingness to do whatever it took to protect jc, and therefore paved the way to the golden core transfer. And i don’t mean this to be scapegoating jc - especially considering how young he was when this all went down, it wouldn’t be fair to expect this level of emotional perceptiveness, awareness and maturity of him - but i think adult jc has to grapple with the fact that the chain of cause and effect was not as simple as wwx fucking everyone’s lives up to be a martyr, and that both jc and his parents had a role in that story as well. I don’t even necessarily think this is something that jc only realised in the current timeline - i think it’s something he felt on some level this whole time, and it probably led to a lot of feelings of guilt - but the suibian reveal definitely puts it in sharp focus, and i think he’s now better equipped to handle this introspection than he was as a recently orphaned, traumatised teenager, lol. ANYWAY the window with the fabric is both a nod to the rider-waite design and a reference to the destruction of lanling - i actually did some basic ass research for this, and it seems that in ancient china fabric would indeed be hanged in a window if the normally used paper was damaged. The design of the window, as well as the very idea to use it to imply the reconstruction of lanling, was taken from this great piece of jc angst by my pal moroll1! Oh yeah also the covered window kind of works as a denial of forgiveness for jc because it’s like a halo but covered up... Also I completely forgot to put a blindfold over his eyes which would be perfectttt because blind justice and the core exchange......... ok moving on 12 the hanged man I always have issues with this card because i cant find a satisfactory summary of what it’s really about. Best i can tell it symbolises a need to hit pause, surrender or let go of something… ive also seen it tied to sacrifice? So mo xuanyu doesn’t fit perfectly, but sacrifice is definitely there in a surface level reading kind of way, and the idea that you have to surrender or let go in order to achieve your goal does fit the whole deal of getting revenge but giving up your life in exchange and not being there to see it 13 death This is probably one of my favourite cards, definitely not because I have huge issues with change or anything…. I see this card as signalling the necessity of change or putting an end to something / leaving something in the past in order to start anew? At first i considered putting past wwx, mxy and current wwx here as a kind of transformation and one cycle flowing into the next... But firstly, I’d already used mxy in the very previous card, so putting him in again would feel like overkill, and secondly, the longer I thought about it the less convinced I was that this would even fit with the card’s meaning? Because coming back from the dead doesn’t like... trigger an internal transformation within wwx or anything? Anyway, fun fact: the design I ended up going with was actually originally intended for judgement! I thought I was being very clever with the whole “figure plays an instrument and the dead rise” parallel, but apparently I’d just completely forgotten that the judgement card had a completely different composition... Truly I was boo boo the fool... But yeah anyway at the end of the day I figured the design would kind of work for death as well, with Wen Ning and the theme of transformation, (since in his case coming back as a fierce corpse does actually mark a certain transformation in behaviour) and Wei Wuxian’s protection of the Wen people essentially signifying an attempt to break the cycle of oppression if that makes any sense? Like, wwx is trying to revolutionise the way the world works a bit, if you catch my drift 14 temperance The centrist card! Again this is probably going off track from the “official” interpretation, but to me this card has a certain “don’t commit fully; do everything in moderation; don’t take either side” flavour to it that i personally find infuriating irl and that i very much assign to lxc. It’s entirely possible that I’m misinterpreting his character because i didn’t really pay him (and the 3zun in general) much mind while reading, but hell, I’m allowed to pick favourites and choose who i want to interpret deeply vs shallowly. Again, i wish id chosen lqr for hierophant because its so annoying for a character i don’t care about to get two cards…. But oh well 15 the devil My alternative idea for this was jgy as the devil and lxc plus nmj as the figures, but since all three had been featured already (multiple times, even!) i figured I’d go with xy instead, especially since he’s among my faves lol. I think the devil signifies something along the lines of unhealthy attachment, obsession or addiction, which isn’t 100% accurate in the case of xxc and a-qing, but if i stretch it a bit to cover toxic relationships in general, and especially manipulation or negative influence, i don’t think it’s half bad. My main struggle here was to choose who amongst the xxc/sl/aq trio to choose for the human figures. 16 the tower Arguably jin zixuans death and the following massacre of nightless city were the final and most direct reason for the siege of burial mounds, and the tiger seal is good shorthand for wwx’s loss of control over his powers, which led to the deaths of jzx and jyl. When reimagining major arcana i like to feature some kind of building in this card (spoilers for a possible future project but in my rose of versailles major arcana set the tower is bastille) and even if it’s not a tower, the image of wwx looming over the gathered crowd from atop a rooftop is so good i couldn’t resist 17 the star Struggled with this one - considered both jin ling and lsz for it, as symbolising a hope for the future, but that was kind of covered by the world so it wouldn’t make sense to include here as well... As usual when I struggle with interpreting a card (as opposed to understanding it but struggling with matching a character to it, like with death or moon) I went to biddy tarot and read all the details about its meaning. What i got was that this card signifies an incoming period of introspection and inner peace following a time of turmoil, as well as a general moving on into a new, better phase of one’s life or finding new meaning and purpose. The figure also suggests someone vulnerable, but possessing a keen sense of intuition as well as a good degree of practicality and common sense. Given all those, I settled for mianmian because IM LOVE HER..... I also kind of see her as a prelude to the “just one person is enough” theme present in tgcf!! And i think her decision to abandon her sect because she saw the toxicity and corruption in it is a very inspiring action - even if it didn’t make a large visible impact, i think the appearance of her and her idyllic family at the very end of the novel - paralleling and mirroring wangxian - implies that at the end of the day, it was a meaningful one 18 the moon Another card i ALWAYS fuxking struggle with - this time less because i can’t grasp its meaning and more because I can never find a character that fits it well. I usually get fixated on the “dreams and subconscious” part, but if i lean more on the “disguise, deceit, anxiety and fear” part, i eventually figured the whole yi city arc wouldn’t be a bad fit. I say the entire arc because it really does encompass all those themes if you include both the past and the present - xue yang’s disguise, his tricks with the villagers, a-qing’s lies and even xxc’s reluctance to talk about his past as well as xue yang pretending to be xxc all fit the disguise and deceit angle, and the general mystery and creepiness of the current timeline yi city work well with the anxiety and fear - the mist, the slow uncovering of the past, even a-qing being revealed to be an ally after scaring the shit out of the protags. I definitely struggled with including all the elements and characters, and even moreso with making them vaguely fit the rider-waite composition, but i think it ended up okay ish. OH and i completely forgot to draw mist swirling around them :( 19 the sun I was considering mianmian’s family for this one, but since I used her for star, I ended up with wwx and his parents instead. Once again I’m reinterpreting the card a bit - normally I think it symbolises incoming times of pure happiness and abundance, as well as a connection with the inner child, but I gave it more of a nostalgic or sentimental twist - wwx looking back at the brief glimpse of his happy childhood. 20 judgement another card that i struggle to interpret a bit... Here i actually used the tgcf tarot zine as a reference! In it judgement is summarised as “rebirth, following duty, absolution” SO i figured that nhs, mxy and wwx all together would fit pretty neatly... wwx achieving (public) absolution through clearing his own name after being reborn, and nhs sort of calling on wwx to expose jgy’s crimes... It’s a bit messy but not bad I think! 21 the world This ties very closely to my read on mdzs as a story - which is that it’s, at the end of the day, largely about cycles, and about how hard it is to break them, but how we gotta keep trying and have hope anyway. Or maybe more precisely, that the people directly involved with and influenced by the trauma of the past might not be able to get over said trauma and that the hope for healing from it will be shouldered by the new generation. Or something like that… Basically what i mean is that jc and wwx and lwj and lxc and nhs and jgy and all these people who were in the thick of the sunshot campaign and the siege are so profoundly affected by it that it genuinely feels by the end of the story like there is little hope for them to ever truly overcome that trauma and build a better future without repeating the same old mistakes - but there is a glimmer of hope in the new generation, specifically in jl and lsz. And it’s a bit paradoxical, because they have also been directly impacted by the past tragedies - lsz having his entire clan wiped out after wwx failed to protect them, jl losing both his parents to wwx’s mistakes - but despite that loss, and despite coming from arguably the two opposing sides of the past conflicts, they are both, in the end, capable of moving past that tragedy, of recognising the complicated nature of those conflicts (jl’s moment of clarity at the end is both heartbreaking and hopeful) and forging friendships between clans in the process. I honestly think that the extra where jl is struggling to assert his authority as sect leader, to treat his subjects well and to cooperate with other sects in a truly amicable way is the single hopeful ending note for the larger themes of the novel - it allows us to imagine that maybe these kids can learn from the mistakes of their elders rather than getting sucked in by resentment at those mistakes, and actually build a brighter future for the cultivation world. And sidenote, this is also why i have a soft spot for jin ling and lan sizhui as a ship... speaking of which their poses were directly referenced from the lovers card ehehe

Looking back, I’d like to add some symbol of jin ling’s trauma so that it mirrors baby wen yuan in the tree stump... maybe his father’s sword?

#mdzs #mo dao zu shi #tarot

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yiling-daddy · 3 years

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Hello there! I feel like you are addressing my reblog with your last comment on your post. I do not wish to be confrontatuonal, but would like your honest viewpoint on this matter. This is why I am addressing off anon.

I am honestly wondering how much Chinese I have to be to address an issue that impacts me. I didn't state in my original post, but anyone looking at my face would call me Chinese, or at least Asian, but being raised in America by white Americans, I've had one person actually call me whiter than white.

Trying to explain MZDS to white people who have been recipients of what they consider abuse, as someone who is not white but raised by white people, is as difficult as trying to explain to Chinese people why it is perceived as abuse through the western lense.

I feel like in these discussions I'm neither Chinese nor American, because I can understand both sides, even if I have not necessarily had the experiences.

Ultimately, I understand where you are coming from, and I wasn't trying to minimize what you're saying in any way. I was just trying to explain why some people would have a hard 'no' to that type of discourse altogether. And in those situations I think the best course of action is for everyone to enjoy the thing in their own lanes. Thank you if you made it this far and I do really enjoy your insightful post. 🙂

Hi there, thanks for reading my post. I'm glad you enjoyed it! My reblog was meant to be a blanket reminder since that post is now blowing up again. For context, the first time it made the rounds, there were (self-identified) white people writing comments along the lines of, "Madam Yu is abusive and you only wouldn't think so if you were abused." Thus, in a single sentence, they both called traditional parenting norms and my actual upbringing abusive. That is the kind of commentary I really want to avoid; it is wildly inappropriate.

I'm not interested in answering your question of how Chinese you need to be to comment on an issue, because I am not interested in intra-community gatekeeping. Although I'm mainland diaspora, I was raised in the west myself and my English is much stronger than my Chinese, so I'm sure there are plenty of Chinese fans of differing backgrounds who would happily write me off as "not Chinese enough". Certainly I've seen that being done to other Chinese diaspora in this fandom, and frankly I think it's inappropriate. Thus, I sympathize with your desire to comment in this discourse, and I really don't think it's anyone's place to tell you if you are "Chinese enough" to do it or not.

However.

I think as Chinese diaspora, we - both you and I and any other diasporic fans - need to be wary of which cultural issues are ours to speak to and which are not. This is especially true because we are both in the west; it is as just as possible for us to participate in cultural imperialism as it is for white westerners. But even beyond this east vs. west dichotomy (which is flawed/incomplete, imo), we need to remember that the experiences and backgrounds of Chinese heritage people are quite varied, and not all of us are going to be equipped for nuanced takes for everything across the board. And it's not just the knowledge, but also the stakes that will be unequal between us. And because Chinese experiences are so varied, only you can judge for yourself as to whether or not you are well-equipped to enter certain discussions.

You brought up this idea of "an issue that impacts me", and I think that is heavily related to my question of, "which issues are mine to speak to and which are not?" Making an example of the post at hand:

I am in the west but had a very traditional upbringing by mainland parents, and I and many of my friends had to personally navigate this cultural mismatch in parenting norms. It is because I did this that I wrote that post, in an attempt to address what I consider to be culturally insensitive readings of YZY. Because of my personal experiences, I can also tell you that many Chinese people instantly understand how and why westerners perceive these norms as abusive. It's not a puzzle to us.

It is also because of my upbringing that when I went back to check your reblog, I instantly disagreed with this take of yours:

because it completely decontextualizes what discipline and scolding looks like within Chinese parenting from the rest of how Chinese parenting works. (And by the way, I only spoke to yelling in my post - YZY did not hit or break things to discipline JC or JYL.)

Your comment also had interesting phrasing wrt how apologetic behaviour often looks for us, calling those actions that I described "trivial". Trivial from whose perspective? Again, the way you describe these actions decontextualize them from the rest of the cultural norms. These "trivial" actions exist within a culture where acts of service are highly important, to the point where it's common to buy your kid's first house if it's within your means, it's common for your kid to pay off your entire mortgage if you aren't able to, it's common to live in multigenerational households for the purpose of taking care of your parents until the end of their lives. It's the norm to do this kind of thing for each other even if you never utter the words "I love you" or "I'm sorry", because the words are considered almost meaningless in comparison to the actions. When I wrote the line, "In Chinese culture, the dominant love language is acts of service" - I was describing a dynamic that is worlds away from an abuser luring you back into a relationship with gifts and insincere apologies so that they can later abuse you again.

That is how my experience with my culture informs my perspective on YZY, fandom discourse, and to your reply. I consider this specific issue of traditional parenting norms as mine to speak to. I cannot tell you if this or any other cultural issue is yours to speak to; only you can make that decision for yourself.

#long post #i need a blunt tag #pls dont be offended at this tag its just my personal tag for this blog lol #anyway thank you for approaching me off anon

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hellsbellschime · 3 years

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1 Nice analysis, H! But don't you think that the Martells conspiring to overthrow the Lannisters with Daenerys and then turning to Aegon is not a lesson for morality? The plan is not to oppose the Targs, they are planning to bring them back. Aegon brought the GC to Westeros, and armies kill and destroy anyway. Or is that a lesser bad bc no dragons? Also, imo Jon is no hero; he's a bastard and so far did nothing truly heroic. Aegon although has all the potential to become one.

2 First, bc of his name; second, bc he means to overthrow the Lannisters; third, bc it is established well in Brienne's and Jamie's chapters that the people are longing for the return of the Targs, so at the very least they will see him as a hero. I do think that there's potential in this theory, but I am still not quite convinced although I see it. There's just too many people involved with their own agenda: Varys, Doran, JC, Ashara. Did they manage to save Aegon? We'll see.

Thanks! But no, I don’t think their plan is for a Targaryen restoration at all, I don’t think that any of Doran’s plans are very good in terms of marrying his children to a Targaryen, which is weird given that he’s supposed to be very intelligent and has had literal decades to plan these things out. I think they want the remaining Targaryens to think that the Martells are on their side, but after what the Targaryen family has done to them, I see absolutely no reason why they’d be Team Targ. Like, the only reason Elia and her children are even dead is because Rhaegar abandoned her with a maniac and then CAME TO HER HOME KINGDOM (which I honestly feel is vaguely manipulative/threatening, like Rhaegar was essentially abusing their forced loyalty because he was the only hope of them ever getting Elia back or keeping Aegon and Rhaenys alive, and he couldn’t even be arsed to go and rescue them) to impregnate another woman. The Targaryens have done nothing but insult them and get them killed, so why exactly would Doran be so desperate to hook his children up with a Targaryen (while also doing nothing to actually actively support them or even doing anything himself to make these matches happen)?

And yes, it actually is a lesser evil, both because Aegon doesn’t have dragons but more importantly because he’s invading when there is a dangerous person on the throne. Arguably, Ned, Jon, and Robert should have done everything that they could have to avoid war, but their war is slightly more justified because their lives depended on it, but more importantly because Aerys happened to be a massive threat to everyone. Same goes for the Starks against the Boltons, and same goes for Aegon with Cersei. It will likely be easier for Aegon to conquer Westeros because it’s in complete disarray anyway, however, his ultimate goals at this point also largely coincide with what’s best for everyone, Cersei is a “queen of the ashes” type of person so removing her from power is in everyone’s best interest. When Dany destroys Aegon however, her goals will not be in line with everyone’s best interest, and she’ll be using weapons of mass destruction in order to do it.

The common people have consistently demonstrated a shitty understanding of politics, and as quite a few characters have already pointed out, they just care about their own lives and don’t know what’s going on with the higher ups. The common people who long for a “Targaryen” return don’t give a fuck about the actual Targaryens, they just feel like their lives sucked less before, or they may be having a “good old days” delusion that plenty of people have in our own world despite the fact that they’d probably be dead or go nuts if they actually had to live in the era they’re feeling fake nostalgia for. They will likely be happy to have Aegon on the throne because he’ll manage the country better, but no one who is fantasizing about the return of a Targaryen is fantasizing about Daenerys bringing hundreds of thousands of people to eat all of the food or bringing her dragons to burn thousands of common people alive.

#house martell #aegon targaryen #Anonymous

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golbrocklovely · 3 years

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You're very stubborn too, i noticed. You have your opinions and no matter what people tell you they're not going to change your mind. Your replies often seem very dry and cut because you want to be nice but at the same time no matter what people say you see things the way you see things and will not be persuaded otherwise. You answer asks because you dont want a bunch of unanswered asks in your inbox but in reality you dont care about a lot of the stuff that gets sent in because you already have your mind set.

This is not an attack just an observation.

i mean... you're not wrong lol

i know i'm stubborn and i have my beliefs set on certain things and people. but i don't see that as a problem because i believe everyone can be stubborn about something.

we all have our set opinions about things. we all have "unpopular opinions" too.

for example, guacamole is gross. salsa is superior. you cannot tell me otherwise.

but to get back onto what you were saying...

i have my ask box open and on anon because i want ppl to come on here and vent their frustrations about whatever fanbase they are in. that's why i get asks about fanbases i've either never heard of or don't have opinions on.

i know what it's like to go against the grain when it comes to fandom opinions and thus feel like you can't say what you want to because you know you're gonna get hate. no one deserves that. even ppl who i fully disagree with that come on here and send in an ask, i'm never gonna be mean to them. i will be cut and dry, but i won't be rude.

that being said, there are certain situations that happen that i just, full-heartedly and transparently, don't have opinions on. it could be because i don't know the situation that well and are only going off of what the person sent in, or it could be that i don't know the influencer that well, and thus can't tell if this is a pattern to watch out for or just a one-off time they weren't at their best.

because that's how i feel for most influencers; not all, but most. we get a miniscule look into any influencers' lives on the semi-regular. there are gonna be times when they don't act at their best. there are gonna be times when they fuck up and do something wrong. does that give us the right to full on hate them now because of one fuck up? it depends on whether or not that fuck up was terrible and unforgivable, or just a random everyday-type of fuck up.

you wouldn't want ppl to hate you for one screw up, right?

let me use the example of tara and the previous asks i've been getting about what she did on jc's stream, since this has been the only time i've ever fully said 'i don't care about this situation'. now, i have a generally positive outlook towards tara. i like her content. i don't watch it that regularly to call myself a fan, but i do like it. i also like her relationship with jake, and i think overall i like her and her personality. that being said, from what i've been told about what she did on jc's stream, do i like what she did? no. cursing out his chat and maybe being overdramatic wasn't the best thing for her to do. if i was in her shoes, i wouldn't have played the game in the first place, but that doesn't matter. she knew what the game was and then didn't want to play it, but wanted the benefits. i get how that could upset someone.

do i now have a negative opinion about her because, to put it bluntly, she was a sore loser and stubborn? no. i still like her. what she did was forgivable. it's a one off time of her not being nice. i'm not gonna hate her now because of it. i also don't see these things as negative because i am these things as well lol

not to mention, i haven't even seen the stream. so yall could be full on lying to me (i don't think you are, but it's always a possibility). and because i know how good of a person she is, or at least i believe her to be, i'm not gonna change my opinion of her. if she acted like this all the time, then i would consider not being so positive towards her. but, that's not the case.

and also, because i'm not a huge fan of her, i don't care how she acted. i care that you guys are upset at what she did. i feel for you. that doesn't now mean i have to hate her. what she did didn't negatively effect me, and thus i don't have a full emotional opinion about it.

but if you do, you're allowed to feel that way. even if you didn't see the stream, don't know who she is, whatever the circumstance, you're allowed to be upset at her and now dislike her. i'm not saying you can't. i'm just saying because i don't care about the situation that much, i'm not gonna change my opinion about her.

i wanna make this clear that i don't really hate anyone that snc associates with, besides elton and brennen. those are the only two i dislike. but everyone else, i have positive feelings towards. that being said, i'm not a fan of them. i don't mean that negatively, i just mean i don't watch their content, don't follow, and don't really know anything about them. when you guys send in asks about these ppl that are negative/them doing something to upset you, i feel for you. i'm upset that you're upset. that's why i usually tell ppl that if an influencer is pissing you off at every turn, cut the tie. stop following them.

but unless the person did something morally corrupt or just super wrong imo, i'm not gonna hate them or change my feelings towards them.

have you ever looked at a gossip magazine cover and read the headlines and didn't have reaction towards any of them? that's how i feel for a lot of things influencers do.

if that makes me stubborn, so be it.

#ask #personal

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wangxianhugs · 3 years

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I guess I could have liked JC when I was younger. It was easy to think a character who is very in-your-face, have no mouth filter, and rather rude manners as straight forward and kinda “cool”.

It’s much harder after a few years of working not to realize that no one wants to deal with an unpleasant person with no manners, easily triggered, holier-than-thou, violent and jealous. No matter if that person is actually “just need love”, “tsundere”, “not that bad”, “still care a lot but don’t know how to express” etc, like just no. I’m not gonna deal with these types of people, I don’t care how good or pure they are inside, just nope. Behave properly, or I leave. Adults (he is 30s in canon timeline) should behave like adults, and that means civilly unless severely provoked.

This, in my opinion, is why in the end JC has no one left who was willing to be his friends. Who would dare to get close to him, tbh, after seeing what happened to WWX? Someone who grew up with him like a brother, and he turned and led the siege again him? Like, despite whether it was justified or not (which it was not, but outsiders wouldn’t had known), the fact is still that he was willingly to not just going against, but attempted to kill, his former friend/brother in cold blood. And he didn’t show any remorse/sadness about that action even 13 years later. That alone would make anyone wary of being close to him, because who knows if they would be next?

Even if one believes that JYL’s death was the trigger that turned him against WWX, who knows if someone he deemed “family” like JL won’t somehow accidentally suffered, like getting grievously hurt in night hunt, and you would happened to be there? I can totally see JC blame everyone who was there for not protecting JL properly, and either whip them to death or take actions against them until they ended up dead or desolate. The only way to protect oneself, thus, is to stay the hell away from JC and everyone he holds dear, just in case. Or at least, imo, is the way normal, sane people would do irl.

#jc #jiang family #jiang cheng #mdzs

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aspiringprofessionalnerd · 4 years

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Wei Wuxian and the Trauma of the Burial Mounds

Sorry folks I am officially In My Feels after therapy this week, and then I came online this afternoon to see that @hunxi-guilai has knocked it out of the park with their analysis again. I love to see that people are talking about the portrayal of WWX’s trauma on a larger level, and I wanted to add my two cents:

Pre-Resurrection

First of all, I want to acknowledge that WWX is far from the only person who experiences trauma throughout the course of CQL ahem Jiang Cheng . Even WWX endures various types of trauma throughout his first life. But what I’m so impressed (and gutted) by is the way in which the show establishes that it is WWX’s first stint in the Burial Mounds specifically that breaks him (or, at least, catalyses his breakdown).

We know WWX has had a difficult childhood and teen years. He lost his parents at a young age and had to survive on the streets for an unspecified amount of time, facing physical and logistical hardships like running from dogs and battling starvation (no cultivation training yet, so no opportunity to train inedia) as well as the grief of losing his parents. Yet, remarkably, aside from his lingering fear of dogs, these incidents don’t seem to leave too many lasting physical or emotional scars. WWX is able to jump around and play with his adoptive brother on his first night at Lotus Pier, and when we see him in his teen years at Cloud Recesses Summer Camp he is a warm, bubbly individual with no reservations about physical contact (on the contrary, he’s more gung-ho about it than LWJ would like). He remains open to new experiences and new people, and even though he uses humour to obfuscate at times, the people close to WWX can still see through to his deeper intentions (take, for example, Yanli reminding Jiang Cheng that WWX is serious about the important things). Moreover, once the Jiang siblings and WWX return to Lotus Pier, we gain a greater appreciation for the past things WWX has survived, including years of verbal abuse some awkward family dynamics. Madam Yu’s words obviously hurt him, but even so he bounces back almost immediately and diverts his attention to comforting Jiang Cheng despite the fact that he is still recovering from Teenage Mutant Murder Turtle injuries himself. I think there is an important distinction to be made here: it’s not that criticism and harsh conditions just roll off of WWX. He DOES process and internalise them, but he keeps going and maintains his faith and openness in spite of having these negative experiences. Clearly, he is a remarkably resilient person.

After the massacre at Lotus Pier and Jiang Cheng’s loss of his golden core, we see WWX wrestle with more complex emotions: grief, guilt, and concern. It’s obvious that Wei Wuxian is suffering acutely, but he’s still doing it in a way that’s very true to his character as we know it. He’s crying. He’s seeking physical comfort from Yanli. He’s proactive, looking to plan and problem-solve. Yes he balks a little at what JC’s core recovery will involve, but his overall reaction is primarily one of satisfaction and relief.

We don’t see too much of WWX between the mountaintop ordeal and his dropping into the Burial Mounds, but I think we have enough material to say that he is still in command of his own mind and maintains his sense of agency. You can tell that our Wee Sweaty Boi has been through the wringer, but he’s still quite animated and even cheeky when facing off against Wen Chao and Wen Zhuliu in the teahouse. That dog speech? Damn. Classic WWX. He might die, but he’s not going down without getting the last word. It’s only when they are all riding swords to the weirdest and most out of place glam rock score in the entire series wtf over the Burial Mounds that we see an inkling of genuine horror cross WWX’s face.

Take now, by contrast, WWX’s reactions and interactions post-Burial Mounds. His flinchy moments inspired such a visceral reaction in me. I’m a repeat trauma survivor as well, and when I saw the way that WWX jerked back from NHS’s hand, it was deeply uncomfortable to watch precisely because of how familiar it was. This is an instinctive, almost animalistic response to touch, and it’s a FEAR response. Moreover, this isn’t some rando about to bump into him; this is one of his best friends from childhood. This is the reaction of someone who has survived by believing that the only possible safe space he has is within the confines of his own body; if anyone touches that, it will shatter. Wei Wuxian’s logical mind can tell him that NHS is not a threat, but his trauma-brain can’t turn off the panic simply by knowing that. (And why should he trust his logical mind, anyway? As we get glimpses of in the first few moments of the Burial Mounds, it’s as much the voices of people he knows and loves as the voices of unnamed resentful souls that prey on him during those three months. The psychological trauma in the Burial Mounds was not just the introduction of external threats, but the convoluting of things WWX knew and loved into instruments of torture so that even once he returned to the world, he could not shake those negative associations.)

We get an equal-but-opposite illustration of WWX’s trauma in instances like his reunion with JC and LWJ or his soup session with Yanli. There’s a deadness behind the eyes, an uncanny stillness. Wei Wuxian is in survival mode, going through the motions of what ‘should’ be his return to normal life but wondering why it doesn’t feel right this time. Wei Wuxian had told himself in the Burial Mounds that all he needed to do was survive the Burial Mounds themselves and then everything would be alright: he would go back to Lotus Pier, JC would be healed, and he would make up a new version of the plan that had been shot to hell (I’m convinced that WWX DID originally have a plan for how to navigate life in Lotus Pier post-golden core; however, he never got to put that plan into place because he got dumped into the Burial Mounds before he could enact it). But Wei Wuxian returns, and what he’s told himself isn’t true, because in all his planning for returning to Yunmeng he didn’t account for the fact that what it took to get there would fundamentally alter him. As a result, Wei Wuxian doesn’t fit anymore--not because the world has changed, but because Wei Wuxian has changed. And he can’t talk about that with anyone.

Why not? Sure, in part it’s because he feels bound to keep the secret about Jiang Cheng, but I think there’s another aspect here that’s been significantly overlooked: namely, that Wei Wuxian is the ONLY person to survive the Burial Mounds in any kind of living cultural memory. The problem isn’t so much that he can’t tell people as it is an issue of no one being able to understand or relate to his experiences even if he did share them. After all, how do you convey to an outsider what it was like to survive for three months in a place where every single bit of torture was customised to draw on YOUR individual, personal fears and hurts? Significantly, this is also the point in the story where we see Wei Wuxian begin to answer questions by in turn asking, ‘Would you believe me if I told you...?’ The question is rhetorical: he doesn’t expect people to believe him (although it still hurts when they don’t), but even if they do believe, it’s still not enough because they don’t understand. IMO, the rest of WWX’s issues leading up to the cliff at Nightless City stem from him trying--and failing--to come to terms with the loneliness of that knowledge.

Post-Resurrection

After WWX comes back, we see a shift in him. He’s no longer focused on the fact that no one will understand him; he’s decided that having someone (namely LWJ) believe him is enough. This resolves many of the auxiliary issues that had been plaguing WWX before his death, but it does NOT resolve the original trauma of his first experience in the Burial Mounds. WWX continues to have nightmares, and what are they about? Not Lotus Pier. Not Qiongqi Way and his sense of guilt. Not Shijie getting stabbed right in front of his face. Not his final, distraught moments with LWJ and JC. Nope, his nightmares continue to revolve around falling into the Burial Mounds all those years ago: an experience for which even death and rebirth are insufficient to ease the pain.

I’m convinced that even at the end of CQL Wei Wuxian still has a LOT of healing to do, and I think this healing is not something that can happen through Lan Zhan’s love alone. Thank goodness for fanfic and headcanons, eh?

**Gentle reader, this turned out to be more like 50 dollars than two cents. Thank you for reading to the end if you’re still with me!

TL;DR I believe Wei Wuxian’s turning point moment in the story is his dumping into the Burial Mounds. It’s easy to get swept up in how many terrible things happen to him AFTER that in the lead-up to Nightless City, but I genuinely think he could have endured the loss of his Jiang family, the censure of LWJ, and society turning against him if he had not been psychologically broken during his first three months there. The writers, directors, and Xiao Zhan give us a very raw, real version of what trauma looks like with their depiction of post-Burial Mounds WWX, and it is utterly harrowing.

#cql #xiao zhan #big angst vibes #the untamed #meta #wei wuxian #i've edited this too many times because i'm a perfectionist #but it's still a mess because i've picked up slang from each country i live in #also talking about my own feelings?#nope don't like that one bit #projecting hard #ptsd #mdzs

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