#loki jiang cheng etc

[worst-ships-poll]

competition info:

current bracket (will be updated as we go):

complete list of character names and their respective fandom under the readmore below.

submissions:

submit here: [google forms link]

submission rules: [tumblr post link]

SUBMISSIONS CLOSED!

poll info:

this poll is literally to cause tumblr drama because I’m bored. feel free to start discourse in tags or replies. I’m not a mod of my posts and I’m not monitoring my posts. do your thing.

reiterating this poll is for fun, and while I’ll try to keep it organized, I am not going out of my way to make a tumblr poll bracket I’m doing in my free time 100% bias-free or 100% optimized.

I reserve the right to add or remove ships to the initial bracket at my discretion, or to not answer all asks, or whatever else makes it more fun, short of actually changing results (I will let the people decide.) basically, if you have a problem with something about the way this competition is run, I don’t care.

I feel like this should go without saying but I do ascribe to the idea that some ships are inherently morally bad and deserve to be hated. I won’t post about all my opinions on the ships, but if a ship is predatory/offensive/has bigoted shippers I will join in calling it really bad, and I will not be accepting or starting anti/pro-shipper discourse here. it’s 2023, grow up and stop shipping incest.

polls will be posted in batches from their respective level on the bracket and will last a week before moving on to the next set. i.e. all of the first vs. polls will be posted at the same time until a week passes and they’re done, and then the winning ships will be noted and we’ll move on to the second level of the bracket and all of those polls will be up for a week, etc.

posts will be tagged via batches (”batch 1“, “batch 2″, etc), ships, and fandom.

I will be trying to seed it properly based on ship prestige, number of submissions, and common sense. if you have an issue with it after all of that, send a text form complaint to 1-800-YOUR-MOM to file necessary feedback.

full list of ships and characters with their fandoms and rankings:

(struck out listings are ships that have lost in the bracket so far)

1. Dean Winchester/Castiel from Supernatural

2. Kylo Ren/Rey from the Star Wars sequel trilogy

3. Ciel Phantomhive/Sebastian Michaelis from Kuroshitsuji/Black Butler

4. Midoriya Izuku/Katsuki Bakugo from My Hero Academia

5. Thor Odinson/Loki Laufeyson from Marvel/MCU

6. Keith Kogane/Lance McClain from Voltron Legendary Defender

7. Merlin/Arthur Pendragon from Merlin BBC

8. Derek Hale/Stiles Stilinski from Teen Wolf

9. Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian from Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Untamed

10. Pannacotta Fugo/Giorno Giovanna from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure: Golden Wind

11. Sam WInchester/Gabriel from Supernatural

12. Draco Malfoy/Harry Potter from you know what

13. Sam Winchester/Dean Winchester from Supernatural

14. Tony Stark/Steve Rogers from Marvel/MCU

15. Axel/Roxas from Kingdom Hearts

16. Edward Cullen/Bella Swan from Twilight

17. Onceler/Onceler from The Lorax

18. GeorgeNotFound/Dream from Minecraft Youtubers fandom

19. Rhaenyra Targaryen/Daemon Targaryen from House of the Dragon

20. Kaeya Alberich/Diluc Ragnvindr from Genshin Impact

21. Alina Starkov/The Darkling from Grishaverse/Shadow and Bone

22. Tony Stark/Stephen Strange from Marvel/MCU

23. Blackbeard/Stede Bonnet from Our Flag Means Death

24. Uchiha Sasuke/Haruno Sakura from Naruto

25. Dirk Strider/Jake English from Homestuck

26. Dabi/Hawks from My Hero Academia

27. Phoenix Wright/Miles Edgeworth from Ace Attorney

28. Catra/Adora from She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

29. Sans/Toriel from Undertale

30. Jack Zimmermann/Eric “Bitty” Bittle from OMG Check, Please!

31. Obi-Wan Kenobi/Satine Kryze from Star Wars: The Clone Wars

32. Kai/Lloyd Garmadon from Ninjago

rankings was done via a combination of counting the number of submissions and balancing fandom/ship popularity and/or exposure. ship names for the bracket image were found via websearching, I did my best to find accurate or relevant ship names for all of them when applicable.

#poll #competition #pinned post #worst ships tumblr poll 2023

[lightlyt0astedtoast]

Introduction!

My name is Toast! I'm a Typology nerd who's currently obsessed with Dayshift at Freddy's and Mo Dao Zu Shi. I also make Synth V covers and I play rhythm games. (Particularly Project Sekai and Project Diva, I also play Osu and I try any free 4 key rhythm game I can find)

I'm nonbinary/transmasc, I use ey/em, it/its, and they/them pronouns. (Don't like neopronouns? Then fuck off! ☺️) I'm asexual and arospec (probably demiromantic, idk), and I'm gay.

I become a socially anxious mess online. Also I've been on TikTok for years, forgive me if I sound/post like a TikToker, I used to be one.

( more on why I left and came back here )

Interests

Big interests, mainly post about:

Mo Dao Zu Shi

Dayshift at Freddy's

Typology (mainly enneagram)

Vocaloid/Vsynths in general

Smaller/fading interests I may reblog:

The Amazing Digital Circus

Project Sekai (you'll see my scores often)

Favorite characters:

Nie Huaisang (jxhwbdhs love him, I'm a Nie Huaisang apologist /hj)

Dave Miller (Ourple)

Jake Wilson (I like the color purple ig, surprised Jiang Cheng isn't here)

Kagamine Rin (best vocaloid)

Yuma (Synth V, idc that he's literally 2 letters)

Ena Shinonome (sx4's are objectively cool)

Caine (silly tooth man go brr)

Favorite Ships:

Davesport

Wangxian

Mizuena

Minoharu

Rinku

Me x Nie Huaisang /j

What you can expect from me

Gushing about my favorite characters

Typology content (I'm bringing the more niche Typology systems over from TikTok, where's the firo content at?)

Random thoughts

Character.ai screenshots (I have so many unhinged ones just sitting and waiting in my gallery)

Rhythm game score bragging

SynthV cover stuff

Typology List

(for those who only know the basics: ESFJ 3w4)

Enneagram: sx/sp 369

Socionics: ESE-2Si-H

Jungian/Cognitive functions: EF(S)/FeSi

Psychosophy: FELV³⁴⁴²

Big 5: rlu[A]/N/

MOTIVES: mCh[I]dEG

Temperaments: Phlegmatic-sanguine

Firo: phsu-suph-phsa

Temporistics: VPNB (not completely sure)

Amatorics: EASF

DELFA: L-22333

I'll spare you all from anything more obscure, I will mainly post enneagram, psychosophy, and firo. (Firo is such an underrated system holy shit)

Random things about me:

Birthday: August 4th

Favorite food: Costco pepperoni pizza

Favorite Drink: Pepsi/Coffee

Favorite Game: Project Diva Megamix+

Favorite Music Artist: Utsu-P

Favorite Animal: Cheetah, I also love all animals in the Bovidae family, snakes, and tarantulas.

Dream Job: Zoological Veterinary Technician

Pets: a dog named Loki (technically my brother's, but he's living here rn) and a corn snake named Candy. I might get a green anole soon.

Keep in mind

First off, I'm 17, I'm fine with adults interacting, but please don't be weird.

Also, while I've had a decent enough connection on reality lately, I have had a history of becoming very delusional. Just a quick warning.

Basic DNI stuff apply, no pedos, no racists, etc.

#intro post #How do tag #I already sucked at tags on TikTok

[joy-returns-in-the-morning]

The thing about Nishiki though... The first half of the first game is him constantly failing at everything. It's kind of lame, right? (but perhaps not entirely his fault). But like.... that's why I love him, you know? Because he is pathetic. Because I am pathetic. Because he is struggling so desperately to succeed, to be seen, to be loved. Aren't we all? And of course Nishiki is not really pathetic. He's very talented! Just not in the same way that Kiryu is. That's the whole tragedy of it all. He'll never be Kiryu. But I dunno. I would have just loved and supported him for who he is. Rip to the others but I'm different.

#nishikiyama #yakuza #actually i liked nishiki a lot in 0 but then in kiwami #i was kinda like: meh this plot's so overdone #brother overshadowed by more popular brother? #loki jiang cheng etc #but then i watched it again and i'm like WHO AM I KIDDING it gets me every time #i have room in my heart for them all <3 #to love nishiki is a form of self-care #anyway rip nishiki :( forever in our hearts

[veliseraptor]

I know your blog is mostly focused on Yi City characters (mostly Xuexiao for my particular happiness) but I'd like to ask for an opinion about the many ships Jiang Cheng is involved in (these being Sangcheng, ChengXian, ChengQing, ChengNing, Xicheng and... did I forget something?) discerning about your personal tastes and which one objectively makes more sense according to canon (their build, compatibility, etc). Of course I have an opinion, but I won't reveal it here. Thanks in advance :)

well first of all I don't think there's any objectivity to be had when it comes to shipping. like, I think maybe there are ships that are easier to make sense of, and ships that are canon, but I think saying anything "objectively makes more sense" is almost always going to be an overstatement of things.

(I wrote "always" but I don't like absolutes and also there are probably exceptions, hence. and I mean, this is not me saying that I don't feel like certain pairings "objectively make more sense" I just...try to stay aware of the fact that the caveat there is from my perspective.)

anyway that caveat written and done with - oh boy, are my feelings about Jiang Cheng ships...complicated. I mean, generally I think I just don't really...vibe with Jiang Cheng ships in practice, for one because I tend to read him as ace and for two the way that I feel like they're often written/the popular interpretation of them. that being said, there are Jiang Cheng ships that I like in theory.

let's run through some of the ones you mentioned:

Nie Huaisang/Jiang Cheng: I don't have a lot of notps in this fandom (i don't actually tend to have a lot of those in general, I have more "indifferent tps"), but this is...well, not quite one of them but it kind of edges that way. I think this is one where that is at least partly because of what feels like the popular interpretation of it, where it feels like often Nie Huaisang's edges are filed off, particularly post canon, and overstates the way that (specifically as adults) their relationship doesn't seem to have stayed that close. They're not best friends anymore! Not to say they couldn't get close, but...I see things that act like they are after the timeskip and I just do not see it.

(Which I think is intentional! One of my favorite things about Nie Huaisang is the way that he cut himself off from really connecting with people as friends while he was on his revenge mission. That single-minded focus to the exclusion of everything else...that's good shit.)

And tbh I think part of it is It Just Doesn't Compel Me and Also I'm Still Mad at Nie Huaisang, I Appreciate Him As a Character But I'm Very Upset With Him Nonetheless.

Wei Wuxian/Jiang Cheng. This is one where I'm always...okay, don't shoot me for this, but I feel a little about Chengxian the way I felt about Thor/Loki in MCU fandom, which is to say "I don't generally ship it, I prefer gen, but their relationship is so intense and emotionally complicated and tangled up in each other that I won't say no to a read on it that's shippier." So...yeah.

But it's not one I typically read fic for; I'd have to feel very compelled by a premise. Or if it was Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji/Jiang Cheng, I would read that, potentially.

Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing. I always feel funny about this one because the real answer is sort of that I like it because it fails. Like! Do I want them to be happy (both of them) and feel like maybe it could work? Yes! But also...god, the trainwreck of the too-similar and missing each other and just...the way in the show in particular they keep brushing against each other and then moving on in different directions...it's the could have been of it all.

Wen Ning/Jiang Cheng. This one I am 100% here for. Baggage! So much baggage! Also just like. This post.

Lan Xichen/Jiang Cheng. Yeah so I mentioned I don't have a lot of notps in this fandom but this is another one. Between the fact that it just doesn't make any sense to me, the way it feels sort of pair-the-spares post-canon, and its popularity...pretty hard turn offs, all.

I've had people try to explain it to me - that it's about trauma and healing - but I just...don't think these two are the two to do that for each other. I've seen people talking about how dysfunctional it could be (and also how funny the dynamic would be with Wangxian), but while those things entertain me and the former is the only thing that would interest me, I want nice things for Lan Xichen post canon in particular. He deserves it. Boy's been through the wringer.

And Jiang Cheng is just...not ready to be in a positive relationship, I don't think. Particularly with someone like Lan Xichen. The way I see them both, their particular issues/ways of coping would just...clash is the wrong word. Grate against each other, maybe. Like the Titanic on an iceberg.

Which in other ships I could find fun! but this one...doesn't work for me.

You didn't ask about it but I feel I need to add timeskip era Lan Wangji/Jiang Cheng which is a solid yes because - if I haven't said it enough - proxyfucking, hatefucking, and grieffucking all in one place and I am into that. Also the sheer distress it would cause Wei Wuxian is a delightful combination of hilarious and deeply upsetting, which is a better combination than people give it credit for sometimes.

#there's probably other ones i'm forgetting but...yeah #i just don't really ship jc with people much! #i'm interested in his relationships with many people but not shippy ones #ship negativity #jiang cheng #aggressively headcanons #ish. i should have a general 'opinions' tag that's not for serious stuff #the sad queer cultivators show

[antebunny]

April 30: rebirth

(Also called Bargaining–idea is taken from an old Loki fic with the same time travel premise).

When Jiang Yanli dies, Wei Wuxian goes into denial and just runs from Nightless City. He goes back to the Burial Mounds and feverishly works on a time travel array. Within the month he completes it and prepares to travel back in time, but there’s a catch. He first activates the array and then spends the next several hours going through the ritual, while outside the Siege of the Burial Mounds begins. The Wens know what Wei Wuxian is up to so they understand why he’s not bothering to protect them. He completes the ritual just as Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan burst into the cave. They’re both there, at the front, in order to protect Wei Wuxian, but by the time they arrive it’s too late: the array is fading and Wei Wuxian is already dead. He barely sees them in the entrance when he dies, which leads him to (logical) conclusion that they’re there to kill him.

Here’s the catch: Wei Wuxian gets to go back, rewrite time, and change things. He decides to go back to the day before he got kicked out of the Cloud Recesses. But when time finally arrives at the time he activates the array, everyone gets their memories back. Although a lot of people will remember dying, it’s preferable to actually dying. Then Wei Wuxian has to conduct the ritual again, to ensure that this is the future that stays, and seal the deal with his own life. Basically, in order to change the future Wei Wuxian has to die. And obviously because he's Wei Wuxian, he decides that that’s okay so long as everyone gets to live.

So Wei Wuxian comes back to life with a golden core and cries for a solid minute, scaring tf out of Jiang Cheng, before he gets a grip. Then he proceeds to yell at Jin Zixuan, not get kicked out, and live life like everything’s normal. He enjoys the next six months of peace, and then he gets to work. Once the year is over, he goes on a very long night hunting trip, kills the Xuanwu of Slaughter, and sets up the cave for use. A year later and they’re at the archery competition, where Wei Wuxian still places first, meets Wen Ning again, and doesn’t pull off Lan Zhan’s forehead ribbon.

Then Wen Ruohan is ~mysteriously~ assassinated and the Wens declare war on all the sects in revenge. When the Wens come for Lotus Pier, there’s no personal vendetta, and Wei Wuxian hides in the shadows and drowns all of them. Then he pretends that he got knocked out and was unconscious somewhere hidden from the main battle where Jiang Cheng finds him. They win the war, and Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan are still alive and bickering with each other, the Jiang sect is still strong, etc. etc. Wei Wuxian personally hunts down Wen Zhuliu early in the war, before he can cause any damage. Then he also kills Jin Guangshan, blames it on the Wens (does it make sense? No. does anyone care? No) and Jin Zixuan commits fully to the war. Jin Zixuan learns to appreciate Jiang Yanli during the war, and since they’re already engaged they get married soon afterwards. Jin Guangyao gets taken in as Jin Zixuan’s younger brother, and since Jin Zixuan is a decent person who doesn’t want him to commit crimes but also needs Help, it goes a lot better. Meanwhile Wei Wuxian finds the DafanWen and they move to the Xuanwu cave, which Wei Wuxian has prepared. Also the carcass of the tortoise should scare anyone away.

Wei Wuxian sticks around to see his sister get married, takes Lan Zhan on a tour of Lotus Pier, at the end of which Lan Zhan proposes. Wei Wuxian is confused but figures that Lan Wangji must like this version of him that hasn’t used resentful energy as far as Lan Wangji knows or recused the Wens as far as he knows, or done any of the things that Other Lan Zhan hated him for. The Wens ask him to adopt A-Yuan, which he does after talking about it with Lan Zhan and after they get married. So now Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are married and they have an adopted child. That part was all the fluff and fix-it, cue the angst. The date of Wei Wuxian’s death draws near, and Wei Wuxian starts getting moody and antsy, starts drinking. Yu Ziyuan yells at him, of course, and everyone else worries over him. It is during one of these blackout drunk sessions that Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji that he fully expects Lan Wangji to regret marrying him in the future. Lan Wangji swears up and down that he won’t, and Wei Wuxian kinda critiques himself and calls himself selfish, for marrying Lan Wangji and raising a kid when he knows it’s not going to last.

Basically Wei Wuxian starts getting skittish and disappears for periods of time to the Burial Mounds, where he acquires enough injuries that Lan Wangji suspects that someone is hurting him, which Wei Wuxian vehemently denies, but Lan Wangji is still Onto him. He goes to Jiang Yanli, who says that Wei Wuxian has been acting differently ever since he came back from the Cloud Recesses, seemed to know things that were going to happen before they did, disappears at odd times and incidents that occur when Wei Wuxian is missing, and they get Jiang Cheng, who recalls that one time Wei Wuxian woke up in the middle of the night and just bawled, and after that didn’t lose his temper on Jin Zixuan, pulled back on his most crazy antics.

Still, none of them suspect the exact day, so on that day, Wei Wuxian gets up, tells Lan Wangji he’s going to train the Jiang juniors, and then just…disappears. Night comes and Lan Wangji is already worried, according to the juniors he never showed. Yu Ziyuan accuses him of slacking, but then Lan Wangji barges in crying, holding a note. In it, Wei Wuxian doesn’t tell him about the time travel, but says that Wei Wuxian is going forever, and Lan Wangji will understand why tomorrow. He understands that it’s too much to wish for that Lan Wangji won’t hate him, after how selfish he’s been and what a terrible person he’s been, marrying Lan Wangji and pretending it can last, but he hopes Lan Wangji can still look back and remember him fondly in the future. He apologizes again and tells Lan Wangji again that he didn’t mean to tarnish Lan Wangji’s reputation or saddle him with a child, but A-Yuan is here now and he knows Lan Wangji loves A-Yuan. He leaves a similar cryptic note for Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, apologizing to all of them for things they don’t understand.

Lan Zhan immediately begins searching for him all through the night, and then in the morning everyone blacks out and suddenly has memories of a different past couple of years, for most people starting with Wen Ruohan getting assassinated. People don’t immediately suspect the Yiling Patriarch, because they think he was simply never created in this timeline, and lives as Head Disciple Jiang and Lan Wangji’s husband, but Wei Wuxian’s family know better. They immediately rush to the Burial Mounds, and find it guarded by corpses. Inside the cave, Wei Wuxian begins conducting the ritual, also crying because he really had a happy life this time and he really really doesn’t want to go, but he can’t bear to revert to the original timeline, not when everyone is still alive here, so he continues. Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian find out about the whole yiling patriarch thing and jiang yanli is just like…i don’t care. Jin Guangshan is dead and can’t care, Jin Guangyao doesn’t have a vendetta, Jin Zixuan does what his wife says, and Jiang Yanli is alive so Jiang Cheng has no beef, plus he sees the lengths Wei Wuxian went through to save everyone. He also understands the letter now, then he and Jiang Yanli confront Lan Wangji like…do you no longer love him? Lan Wangji of course reacts poorly to this accusation and denies it. They leave A-Yuan behind and go to the Mounds with the intention of convincing Wei Wuxian that he doesn’t have to run away and they want him back.

They arrive in the cave just as Wei Wuxian is finishing with the ritual. But of course, parallels, Wei Wuxian looks up to see them standing in the entrance of the cave and thinks that they’re there to kill him, but also can see how distressed Lan Wangji looks and attempts to reassure him that he doesn’t have to kill Wei Wuxian! You know, his husband in this timeline! Because Wei Wuxian will do it himself! Wei Wuxian makes them fight some corpses while he rushes to finish the ritual, because they seem keen on stopping him (“i know you disapprove of demonic cultivation but this is the only way to save everyone”). Lan Wangji tackles him away from his ceremonial knife, and Wei Wuxian fights back (still has golden core!) they both fight desperately (“i have to do it myself Lan Zhan, otherwise I would let you do it”) over the knife. Jiang Cheng insists that there must be another solution, bc he doesn’t want Jiang Yanli to die. Then Wen Qing and Wen Ning walk into the cave, and Wen Qing like the genius she is, proposes the Alternate Solution. (What is it? Idk. just a magic solution in which Wei Wuxian doesn’t have to die). Wei Wuxian pauses in the middle of fighting Lan Wangji (“i don’t have to die?” he asks while Lan Wangji is busy shattering the knife and then he and Jiang Cheng pin him down so he can stop trying to kill himself in front of them. “Nope,” says Wen Qing, the only person with brains here). So Wei Wuxian sits on the floor of the cave, tied with deity-binding thread (Wei Wuxian: let me go Lan Wangji: not until you promise to go with wen qing’s version of the ritual Jiang Cheng: unless…do you want to leave? Wei Wuxian: no!) (What’s the solution? Maybe all of them sacrifice something important to them, maybe they just…all use their power to BS their way through a solution? Again, I don’t know).

So Lan Wangji unties Wei Wuxian and they hug and kiss and they all head back to Lotus Pier, where they eat a celebratory dinner, and reunite with A-Yuan, and Wei Wuxian celebrates the fact that he can live this happy life and not owe the world anything/need to go through the ritual.

The End!

#mdzs #the untamed #antebunny's april prompts #spring fest 2021 #fic outline #my writing

[plan-d-to-i]

Much like that other anon, I can also see not-great parts of myself in JC (and YZY for that matter), and they're big flashing warning signs of: HEY MAKE SURE YOU KEEP WORKING ON YOURSELF SO YOU DON'T END UP BEING LIKE THEM (and maybe it's tooting my own horn, but I feel like seeing those horrible parts in myself makes it easy to write *canon* JC :p). But despite that, I also liked JC because I enjoy villains, redemption arcs, messy sibling relationships, and messy sibling reconciliation post-redemption...Except most of the fandom doesn't even see JC as someone as anywhere close to villainous, or someone needing a redemption arc, or needing at least a good fucking dose of self-reflection to reach a place to reconcile with his brother.

And I have to wonder if it’s other messy sibling relationships (Thor & Loki, Zuko & Azula, Gamora & Nebula, etc) that have so warped the fandom perception. Because JC and WWX don’t fit the pattern of the other sibling pairs, since JC is “hey what if we combined the *worst* parts of Thor *and* Loki or Zuko *and* Azula,” or etc. He has privilege and insecurity, pride and cruelty, anger and impulsiveness without a heart of kindness. He doesn’t have prodigious strength and skill, but neither does he have prodigious intelligence or creativity. He is not the outcast from society, but neither does he find a group of friends/found family/family. Maybe both JC and WWX get so warped as fans try to mash them into at least one of those other classic sibling patterns, even though JC is just painfully average in many regards (whereas WWX has so far above average in so many categories XD).

So JC just turns into...the always-perfect Gary Stu, the Jiujiu Knows Best who has to tell his poor, emotionally- and politically-inept brother what's what to make sure that idiot takes care of himself. Or whatever.

Anyway, I’d like to thank the fandom from turning JC in all his horribleness from one my favourite characters to someone I can’t *stand* anymore, and turning me off from pretty much every sibling reconciliation fic even though that used to be one of my favourite fic genres -_-

This is beautifully, brilliantly written. Your characterization of jiang cheng is completely on point. Seriously TOOT YOUR HORN! *toots it for you* (ﾉ>ω<)ﾉ :｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆

I also completely agree that jc functions as a warning within the story, of what happens when you let the worst parts of your nature take free reign over your character and actions- the three poisons! That's such a powerful message/warning in this book. It's amazing to me that so many people who say they identify with jc chose to miss it entirely and instead try to excuse the things he did or reframe them as positive.

#mdzs #Wei Wuxian #jiang cheng #canon jiang cheng

[vroomian]

Who are your top favorite mdzs characters?

anon i love all of these idiots

(xue yang. it’s xue yang. he’s my fav. worst boi best sociopathic light of my heart <3!!!!! his terrible little face fills my soul with delight <3333 his “love” story was strangled in the cradle and i can get behind a tragic romance

my least fav is Jiang chang. jiang cheng is literally just su shi with more screen time!  a bitter toxic man-child who, like,  never exercised a shred of empathy or thought about the consequences of his actions and blamed everyone else for the misfortunes in his life. blah blah blah abused kid rebuilding a sect etc, but even then his decisions were fucking terrible --not even in an interesting way! he was boring about his toxicity unlike jgy and my boi xy!!! unforgivable!!!)

(also, I'm not one to believe blood is a requirement in the name of siblinghood -- Loki and thor from mcu??? bros. totally bros! stiles and Scott from teen wolf?? brothers. Even if neither of them is technically adopted.

wwx and jc? i would maybe classify them as childhood friends, perhaps even best friends if I'm generous. They ain’t brothers. 3zun have more brotherly energy than wwx and jc do and they’re full of murder. wwx had his flaws, don’t get me wrong, but like. damn, he deserved better than fucking jc and madam yu. 

the worst part of mdzs is that wwx clearly considered jc his younger brother and jc considered wwx a person who lived in his house.)

#faves 2nd and 3rd are lwj and wwx in that order #shijie is totally wwx's big sister though #sorry angry grape you are The Worst tm #i really can't stand sibling relationships starting out toxic and then *staying that way* #literally wwx would've been better off out in the streets than in the jiangs #srry about your family life wwx #the worst crime a character can commit is being boring #if you're going to be terrible *commit to being terrible* dammit!!! #you've got questions we've got answers #mdzs #Anonymous

[ruensroad]

Name ten favorite characters from ten different things (books, tv, film, etc.), then tag ten people.

I was tagged by @complaininginthedark - thank you beb! Putting these in order of who’s influenced me most, not from ten different fandoms though, sorry!

1. Jiang Cheng, MDZS/The Untamed. Surly, stubborn, wrathful, but with a loving heart, will probably break your legs and you’d thank him, LOVES HIS NEPHEW SO DAMN MUCH OH MAN. He’s private and grumpy and everything I love in a character, flaws, pride, but still retains the capacity to learn. Singlehandedly dragged me kicking and screaming into writing for this fandom, which I’m sure surprises NO ONE. He’s the kind of character that is best for me to write where I am now in life, finally in a good place. I can take all I’ve learned and help him too, which feels good!

2. Tony Stark, MCU/Marvel. Brash, smart, but also sweet, honestly running on fumes most the time and pretending his heart isn’t so very human. Loves his team, loves his family, don’t even @ me. He hides his true feelings except to those he loves, and for a while, through arguably the most change-filled time of my life, he was the character I leaned on the most. I could see my own flaws, my own weaknesses, in him, and being able to write him was a balm. Also singlehandedly dragged me back into writing fanfiction after a few years hiatus. I don’t know if I’d be doing it still without him, TBH.

3. Loki, MCU/Marvel. Sly, two-faced, but with a surprisingly loyal heart, always lying to everyone and everything, especially himself. Loves his family but denies it, until it destroys him. Will save your life then happily stab you in the back. I’d still thank him, I think. Like Tony, he got me through some tough times, also because I could relate to his past and was very interested in how he dealt with it, so differently than how I was. I’m still very fond of this gremlin and probably always will be. We all need some chaos in our lives anyway.

4. Oliver Queen, DC Comics. Witty, charming, but will punch you in the face, usually at the head of a rally somewhere when he’s not in the green. Loves his family, his friends, his team, and is never afraid to state his opinion. Usually in trouble. Honestly, I don’t know why I love him so much, because we’re nothing alike, but when he’s done correctly he is beautiful. Gives me both a perfect example of what true strength is while letting me know the wrong ways of doing things. Always will have a place in my heart for this asshole. Always.

5. Wei Wuxian, MDZS/The Untamed. Smiling boy, always smiling. Charming, intelligent, a total gremlin. Heart of solid gold. He’s that perfectly tragic hero that swept me away. If Jiang Cheng got me into writing for this fandom, Wei Wuxian ran off with my heart and dragged me into it in the first place. And I thank him for it every day. He’s so flawed, but tries his best, and it’s inspiring. Plus, he’s so smart but also a fucking dumbass, which makes him so endearing. Hero to the extreme, he saves me every day.

6. Lan Xichen, MDZS/The Untamed. Neutral, but willing to side with mischief. Beautiful, but also a troll. Sweet and gentle, yet will slap a bitch. When I see this character I see duality, but not in a bad way like it would be with Meng Yao. He’s a solid character often driven to extremes. His love for his brother verses his love for the villain of his story. His sense of righteousness verses his turning away of atrocities during war. His neutral tendencies verses siding more than a few times with the wrong person. He’s considered perfect, and yet he is SO flawed. Himbo but we all love him. He was played like a fiddle and needs some love. Luckily for him, he is SO easy to love, and so easy to write a happy ending for.

7. Lan Wangji, MDZS/The Untamed. What can I say about this man that we already don’t know? In love with his chaotic husband for YEARS, salty, cutting, and savage af. But also refined, beautiful, honorable. He loves so HARD you guys. SO HARD. And that’s always interesting since he’s usually struggling with saying how he truly feels. He feels so much and can’t give it voice. Thankfully his actions speak loud and clear. Also, BE GAY DO CRIMES when drunk, which hard same.

8. Meng Yao, MDZS/The Untamed. Sly, fox, liar, will charm you out of your clothes and your house and you’d probably thank him. I know this is an odd choice to see on a list, but honestly he is so layered and flawed I am in AWE of him. There is so much to work with in writing, so many times you could save him from himself that it’s startling. Tragic villain in every sense of the word. He reads like a playbook on how to write a great character/villain and I thank him for it.

9. Inspector Javert, Les Miserables. Stoic, uncompromising, but so misguided and tragically so. He, for me, is similar to how Meng Yao has touched my life, but where Meng Yao is tragic villain to the extreme, Javert is just tragic, and is a character that has touched me for a long time. It’s so easy to write him off as just a grumpy, all about the Law sort of man (which he is), but guys he FEELS SO DEEPLY. Gosh, he felt so deep he couldn’t even deal with life anymore. I just love him, okay?

10. Mo Xuanyu, MDZS/The Untamed. Abused, neglected, soft spoken, but fucking turned around and raised the fucking YILING PATRIARCH to get some revenge. Like holy shit, he is the poster boy for why you do not treat people like that. It’s always the quiet ones. But in all seriousness, probably another odd one to see, but he has touched me so much! There’s so much we don’t know, so much we can guess, and I guess as an abuse survivor I can relate. In him I can see what I could have been if I hadn’t been strong enough, or been pushed too far. I see him and I’m proud of myself for not falling into darkness. Writing him now is a balm, because I know HOW to have a happy ending and I wish to share it with him.

Now I tag: @bloody-bee-tea, @this-solaris-life, @dyabolos, @the-sassiest-trixster, @whatisasideblog, @glass-o-lemonade, @frostbyte13, @stratataisen, @aiandbooks, and @waiting-to-be-lost-at-sea

#ruenwrites #jason todd and damian wayne were 11 and 12 #if people who've known me a long time were surprised they didn't make it! #XD

[hamliet]

What inspired your XiYao fic? What made you look at three series and take on the challenge of a happier ending for everyone? And speaking of happy, I’m ecstatic jgy calls jzx “gege” (especially in front of nmj) :)

Ah, thanks for reading!! I’m loving writing it. And haha, yes, Nie MingJue needs to realize that he’s judging Jin GuangYao… and Jin GuangYao also needs to realize he’s judging Nie MingJue; his assessment of NMJ’s character is not entirely accurate. He’s certainly not a reliable narrator when it comes to Da-Ge. They both have communication issues lol. 

So I am cursed and if I say I hate something or would never write something there’s like a 95% chance I’ll eventually be called on my bluff :P It’s no secret I dislike time travel; I don’t like the plot holes it leaves, I don’t like the paradoxes, and I really, really, really hate it when consequences are erased. But, I have read a few time travel stories in which it really, really works (for me. to be clear it is very much a taste thing, even when pulled off well!).

The ones that use time travel really well and in a way I really enjoed are The House in Fata Morgana, and an older Loki MCU fanfic called “Bargaining” which appears to have been deleted from Ao3 and now I’m heartbroken about it lol–found it on ff.net, bless. Anyways, the point of time travel in these stories isn’t that it erases what already happened–that can never be erased–but that two timelines can coexist. (Endgame tried to do this but it kind of fell into its own plot holes towards the end.) In THiFM, the point is actually that the time travel didn’t prevent the disaster–but by entering into the characters’ suffering with them, by empathizing, that changes the future. 

In “Bargaining,” as in my XiYao fic, the past is indeed changed, but there are consequences and costs to that too. Jin GuangYao isn’t going to be able to save everyone (we’re already seeing a bit of that with the Chang Clan massacre, but there are several more things he won’t be able to prevent). The second timeline won’t be better for every single person. 

So that’s why time travel. But the other part is just that I really, really want to see Jin GuangYao coping with the wrongs he did–all of them, so canon divergence isn’t going to satisfy here–with the people who can help him around him (aka not dead). I want to see him have a sibling relationship with his siblings, spare A-Song (though there are no easy answers for every single screw up lol), reconcile with Nie MingJue. And see Jiang Cheng reconcile with Wei WuXian, of course. 

For Scum Villain, I was disappointed the truth about Shen Yuan didn’t come out in story because #angst, so I wanted to write that, and I also felt sad for Yue QingYuan. I wanted more from certain relationships in TGCF (namely, Yin Yu’s death left so much unfinished–not that it was a poor writing choice; it was good, it just hurt. Also YuShi Huang and Pei Ming’s implied crush on her, Feng Xin and Mu Qing reaching a new level of honesty in the end, Shi QingXuan and He Xuan not fully talking things out…) 

Anyways, there’s just so much more to explore in all three of these worlds, with all of these characters (because MXTX is a fantastic writer and all her characters seem *alive*) that it’s fun to play them off each other even if from different novels, because each of her three novels explore similar concepts–empathy, existentialism, redemption and forgiveness, society sucking, etc. All her characters are very unique and yet you can see inspiration from story to story in their characteristics, and just… yeah. I love writing them interacting together. 

Also, it’s been a fun challenge to write the three antagonists getting redemption. I’ve always loved Jin GuangYao and empathized with Shen Jiu, but as for Jun Wu--he’s actually one of two complex MXTX characters I have disliked (they’re both from TGCF for the record), even if I think they’re both well written (not counting the one dimensional characters like Jin GuangShan, who can roast himself on an open flame). I wanted to see how writing a redemption for a character I really struggled to like would go, to challenge myself really, and honestly at this point I do like him now. So that’s been really cool to see as I’ve tried to immerse myself in his character for his part of the story. 

#ask hamliet #WOW i rambled #sorry anon #but i love this ask thank you so much #writing #fanfiction #xiyao #mxtx #Anonymous