its actually so funny how few morals hua cheng has. he caused the deaths of like 30 people bc they insulted xie lian one time in hearing distance of him. he was absolutely one hundred percent down to unleash a deadly plague on a city of innocent people just bc xie lian asked. not even nicely. he said "we're gonna kill millions of people" and wu ming said "yes sir right away sir." and then as soon as xie lian changed his mind he said "oh we're not doing the plague anymore? alright. i'll fix that for you one sec." the only thing he has ever cared about achieving in his life is xie lian's happiness and damn whatever 'morals' or 'principles' gets in the way of that. i fully believe that the only reason the entire cast of tgcf does not end the book dead in the ground by the end is bc it would make xie lian sad :(
I do not want to be mean but it's a bit of a shallow view on HC, no? The 33 officials didn't just insult xie lian. They (to hc) did not deserve their divinity and therefore were stripped of it. He also was following xl's orders as wu ming and did not care about all these people at all but xl did. And wu ming tried to do as much damage control as possible and him continuing to call xl "his highness" and trying to gift a flower was him trying to remind xl of his true self. He would follow any path XL takes but he does not assume each one is befitting Xie Lian...
just remembered that one post about how hualian would be a super toxic relationship if it was literally about anyone else but hua cheng and xie lian and it got me thinking (nsfw after the cut):
hualian on its surface seems like a stereotypical bad boy hunk x innocent twink relationship but when you look beneath the surface it's not really that?? i mean it is but it also isn't at the same time.
because, y'know, there's the whole power dynamic of xie lian literally being hua cheng's god, and the literal reason he exists. but there's also the fact that hua cheng is pretty much the same thing for xie lian---he's figuratively his source of power (being his most devoted and oftentimes only believer, exchanging spiritual energy with him, etc) during the story, and literally so in the extras, if my memory serves me correctly.
they basically hold so much power over each other and yet are equals at the exact same time, and the specific way they showcase these dynamics wouldn't have worked if it wasn't a 800 year long slow burn between two immortals.
this equal-footing-but-also-not-really is shown---well, implied---in the extras, where xie lian is stated to have "spoiled" hua cheng in a way that has made him more likely to be mean to/bully xie lian when it comes to sex.
hua cheng is clearly supposed to be the more dominant partner in canon, but xie lian still holds power over him despite being submissive (not to say that irl subs don't hold any power; they very much do depending on how their relationship works).
xie lian, to me, seems to have corrupted hua cheng by spoiling him during sex, making it so that, while he himself is put into the submissive role, hua cheng is the one whose wrapped around his finger. hua cheng is only so mean to him because xie lian is into him. you can't tell me that hua cheng wouldn't immediately stop bullying xie lian the moment he complained about it in a serious manner.
on the other hand, hua cheng definitely wants to corrupt xie lian too, as shown by the fact that he wanted to fuck princelian in the amnesia extra (and probably later did exactly that). plus the whole having sex on xie lian's altar thing as well. and xie lian is clearly into it as well, considering that he lets hua cheng seemingly do as he pleases with him.
which is fascinating to me, because it shows how hualian subvert expectations with their relationship: the power dynamics between them are immensely fucked up, but they are so perfect for each other and literally have so much chemistry that any power imbalance is automatically wiped out and replaced with a healthy relationship.
tldr: i think that xie lian and hua cheng both have a corruption kink (as in, they want to corrupt the other) and that their relationship is only strengthened by have kinky sex with each other.
the thing is i don't mind hetbend hualian art because i believe that the artists drawing xl with huge rack don't do it for self insert reasons but rather out of pure lust
Anyway, if Xie Lian got a chance to be a real God for longer than like ten minutes, he would still have been ostracised because his whole philosophy is helping people as much as possible, no matter what, and that’s not what the other Gods are about at all.
Like, they may all want to be super cool and heroic and fight monsters, but none of them want to be in a soup kitchen handing out bowls. Xie Lian would have been that God except he’s a Prince and a God so the fact one the richest Gods and a Prince is getting down in the dirt with the people would have made him a problem even if there was no White No Face plot like he was always kinda doomed to be shunned by the Gods.
Like that’s why Hua Cheng considers Heaven to be awful and bad it’s a system where the rich and royal stay rich and royal that’s why he made Ghost City with paradise manor at its core. Not because he likes being around his people, but because he knows Xie Lian does, and he knows the Ghosts will adore him, and Xie Lian will adore his citizens in turn and help them in any way he can. Like he truly is a God of the people, and Hua Cheng is like the only one who understood that from the jump.
I fucking hate when people come up with their half-assed reddit theories about Hua Cheng’s “unhealthy” attachment that I inevitably cannot conceive as coming from a real unbiased perspective because not only are they too much rooted in 101 psychology blabspeak instead of what message the author wanted to convey through it but also because they cherrypick the shit out of it.
Hua Cheng doesn’t form an attachment and loyalty to Xie Lian all of a sudden in just one or two moments, it’s a subtle but gradual buildup. It wasn’t just because he saved him from falling, and though “live for me” was the turnpoint of his life, it wasn’t the only reason why he dedicated himself entirely to Xie Lian. Hong’er saw Xie Lian defend him from Qi Rong and against Mei Niaqing’s reviling and put the people of Xian Le before himself repeatedly. Hua Cheng doesn’t just love and desire Xie Lian, he deeply respects and admires him. What exactly, in that heartrending “I know every good and bad thing about you and I love them all” speech, made these people think that Hua Cheng loves and follows Xie Lian only because he saved him once and told him to live for him?
Another thing that pisses me off is when they complain that Hua Cheng “lacks” a moral compass, which tells me immediately that they do not remember that among other “scary” things Hua Cheng is famous for getting rid of tyrannical rulers. Not simply rulers that he doesn’t agree with, not rulers that have wronged him in some way, the text explicitly says “vengeful, malevolent tyrants”. He simply says “hey I’m coming over :)))” and the tyrants are like “oh shit I fucked up. Immediately kms”. If he lacks a moral compass and the only thing he cares about is Xie Lian why would he care to go after bad people? Wouldn’t he be just feared instead of also respected and beloved by all of Ghost City’s regular citizens? More importantly Xie Lian, the person upon whom Hua Cheng supposedly built all his morals, almost immediately confronts Hua Cheng about his worry that the Gambler’s Den is dangerous and sinful. Hua Cheng doesn’t fold to Xie Lian like you might expect an obsessed person might: he very candidly says that if Lan Qianqiu hadn’t intervened, he would have. “If I don’t control this place, somebody else will. I’d rather that person be me.” which, for anybody with critical reading skills, is obviously him saying that he cares his City doesn’t devolve into a chaos of murder and sin. He obviously doesn’t care to be morally righteous, but to say that he has no moral compass at all is preposterous at best.
Also Hua Cheng is a ghost, not a human. You can dislike it but in the TGCF world ghosts need a lynchpin to stay on the mortal plane. If Hua Cheng’s reason to exist hadn’t been Xie Lian you can bet your asses that antis would also have been yapping in the trenches about how he doesn’t truly love him and is only obsessed with him. This is a story about undying love and devotion and if you interpret it with human standards (I am baffled every time because why would you even) and criticize Hua Cheng for not finding something else to live for in 800 years you have failed. And no matter how embarassed and unworthy of it Xie Lian might feel, the truth is that the strength of Hua Cheng’s death-defying feelings is exactly what he needs. Xie Lian, who was abandoned by everybody he ever respected and held dear in his life and reviled by the whole world, does need somebody who will make him the center of his entire existence.
TLDR: if you can’t stand the hualian heat get out of the tgcf kitchen.
Xie Lian told both Mu Qing and Hua Cheng that they're more skilled with sabers than swords, and they both eventually chose sabers as their spiritual weapons. I thought it was a fun fact!
Quotes below :-)
“Mu Qing, you fought well onstage today.”
Mu Qing’s shoulders stiffened.
Xie Lian continued, “It was only today that I discovered you’re much more skilled with the saber than you are with the sword.”
Mu Qing’s face relaxed, and he turned around. There was even a little smile playing on his lips. “Really?”
“Yeah!” Xie Lian answered. “But you might’ve been too hasty. Swinging a saber isn’t like swinging a sword. Look here…”
The moment the topic shifted to martial arts, Xie Lian became highly enthusiastic—even more possessed than the State Preceptors playing cards. He jumped off the bed without even putting on shoes, demonstrating his point on the spot using his hand as an imaginary saber. Mu Qing wore a complicated expression, but after Xie Lian demonstrated a few moves, he started to watch seriously. Feng Xin, on the other hand, swung the now-properly-wrapped long saber and chased Xie Lian back onto the bed with it, scolding as he did so.
“If you’re going to show off, at least put on your shoes before you do! You’re the crown prince! Hair loose and feet bare, what a disgrace!”
Xie Lian was just at the height of his excitement when he got chased onto the bed like a duck to a pen. He sulked.
~~~
“You’re pretty good with that sword.”
The boy gripped his weapon harder, and although he was still panting, he instantly stood at attention again. “Y-yes, sir.”
“I wasn’t giving you orders, so why are you saying ‘yes, sir’?” Xie Lian asked. “When I ordered you to run, why didn’t you say ‘yes, sir’ then?”
“Yes, sir!” that boy answered, but he realized that his response was strange and stood even stiffer.
Xie Lian shook his head, pondered briefly, and suddenly his lips curled up. “But you’d be better suited to a saber.”
“Why?” the boy asked, taken aback.
Xie Lian replayed the boy’s strikes and moves in his head, and casually showed him a few example maneuvers. “You’ve never used a saber, right? You use a sword, but the sword is tricky. Although it’s fast and extremely aggressive, its range is fairly limited. If you’ve never used a saber before, try it next time. I think you might be even stronger with it.”
If ever Xie Lian saw someone with notable skill in martial arts, he couldn’t help but want to approach them and chat. Not to criticize—he really was just interested in exchanging ideas. Because he possessed a wealth of experience in combat, he often didn’t even need to think; just one glance and he could pick up on the particulars of someone’s style. Even if he couldn’t explain the why, he would instinctively understand. Out of respect for his status, people would usually listen, but there were very few who’d actually pay attention. But this boy listened intently, seeming to mull over every one of his words and looking down at the sword in his hand from time to time.
Xie Lian had rambled on for a while, when suddenly more rustling noises were heard within the woods, like something had quickly crawled past. Xie Lian instantly remembered that they were still in danger and that it really wasn’t the time or place to get excited. He immediately grew serious again.
It pisses me off so much when people say that Hua Cheng ''doesn't have a backstory''. It's making me very tempted to sit anyone saying this down and narrate his very extistent backstory to them.
And no, we don't know everything about his story, be we don't know that for xl or any other character either. Explaining everything isn't possible anyway, and that combined with mxtx's tendency to leave some things ambigous, it makes sense to omit whatever isn't relevant, that's what stories do.
But that doesn't mean that it wasn't there, and how some people seem to have missed the entire thing is beyond me.
the most insane tgcf takes on this website fall back on "everyone is on xl's side because he's the narrator" while actively structuring their argument around the opinions of characters who have cynical views as if that makes them more objective
Danmei is a very unique genre of queer literature which both centers and de-centers queerness. None of the Danmei I’ve read have been essentially “about” being gay. They’re just stories of life, of magic, of fantasy, of love, in which the main characters happen to be gay. Which is a kind of representation I have often seeked from western media and related intermediaries because why is every gay story, a coming out story? Is there not more to queer people than that?
However, while capturing the personhood of queer people; Danmei also captures the queerness of people because none of these stories would work if the characters weren’t gay/queer
Wei Wuxian’s absolute buffoonery of misunderstanding Lan Zhan’s feelings in a decade long telephone game in which neither of them open their damn mouth would never work in a non-queer story because between a man and a woman romance would be the natural assumption of everyone around them and therefore wouldn’t leave space for confusion. The misunderstanding of their romance is so closely tied to the plot succession that the plot would be… non existent without it
In TGCF Xie Lian and Hua Cheng’s absolute aspirational love is literally in the backseat and front seat of the story. Not too different from a classic hero’s journey but instead of the hero being one person, it’s two people. They are so intertwined with eo that they become one character and witness a lot of the story together. Witness being a very interesting word choice. Their queerness doesn’t drive the story but replacing one of them with a woman would dampen the effect— it’d remove the uncertainty, the confusion from everyone around them, the genuine slow burn of the romance. There’s also this idea of Hua Cheng falling in love with Xie Lian so far separated from concepts such as gender or whatever which wouldn’t have been hammered home in a straight romance where those conversations aren’t always had between the audience and the story
And Erha.. well obviously. Half of Chu Wanning’s “this is so inappropriate” spiral wouldn’t exist if he was a woman. And, the idea of Mo Ran being a “cut sleeve” builds up the under current of his character being so far dismissed by society because he’s seen as immoral. Which just wouldn’t serve to the same effect if he was into exclusively women because so was every other character.
Not in a single one of these stories is queerness and homosexuality the central theme of the story yet without them, the romance wouldn’t be the same. Liking the same gender as you comes with baggage in our society which is so heteronormative and that effect has to exist in the person characters become for them to be authentic but at the same time, limiting that effect only to produce coming out stories/falling in love stories is unfair. Danmei mends this through a middle ground where the plot is the focus but it doesn’t exist in a vaccum, it exists in queerness itself
Wondering how hualian's marriage went... was it cozy and intimate and quiet (to xl's tastes i think) with only them present in their happy solitude or did all of the ghost and heavenly realm learn about it several weeks prior with the preparations alone being louder than royal weddings. I actually can't decide since i can see them happily going with both
hualian marriage
private ☺️
now all of the China knows 😈
secret third option i don't want winning: the first mission was actual marriage
saw fanart of shi qingxuan wearing trans pride flag colours and was like aw so cute :) and then i saw her donghua design and that's literally just what her outfit looks like. #true
Love Feng Xin acting dumbfounded when the guy who is bad news and is definitely pursuing Xie Lian to use and hurt him didn't deny Xie Lian agency in a situation where it "would make sense" because fxmq do it all the time because xl is stupid & naive and can't think for himself
To elaborate on my earlier gripe: Xie Lian's signature busking technique, smashing boulders on the chest, has a rather pervasive misunderstanding in fandom that he's breaking these slabs of rock against his chest, with his pecs, or even that he's the one breaking them at all. He's not. The whole appeal of smashing boulders on the chest to passerby is that the busker invites people to stack slabs of rock on top of them and then smash them all with a hammer. The rocks break, but the busker is unharmed! How impressive!
And that's what makes it being Xie Lian's signature technique so fitting, too. Smashing boulders on the chest isn't about raw strength, it's about taking hits and being able to get up and walk away afterwards. That's why this is also the technique Xie Lian uses to take down Jun Wu: he's demonstrating, literally and thematically, that he can endure the things that broke Jun Wu.
And the particularly vexing thing about this misunderstanding is that we actually see exactly how this busking trick works in Book 4! So when people think this, it means they've either forgotten this scene or haven't read Book 4 in the first place.
Its kinda funny that within the fandom there's simultaniously two problems some fans face when they engage with tgcf which are that they don't know how to treat 1) a morally white character like xie lian with royal upbringing who did not have to "learn his lesson" to be kind and always was just a genuinely good person 2) a morally gray character like hua cheng who's greedy and assertive and does not have to have a more woobified version of himself and befriend everyone to be treated kindly by the story. He is also just like that.
