Thinking about the sharp divide in the Fandom between people who support Sasuke and people who support Itachi. I don't get this.
So, I understand the flaw in Itachi's story is essensially blind patriotism. Yeah, Fuck Konoha. I hear you and I fully agree but lemme tell you what I think folks get wrong about Itachi.
Itachi was watching death from a young age, he was a tiny little child standing in the middle of huge battles with dying men and corpses. That would fuck any kid up. Being introduced to death so young would certainly change your perception of death immensely. Not to mention how rushed he was into anbu, which we are all aware is more dangerous and more fucked up than the average shinobi jobs.
Plenty of trauma thus far and we haven't even reached the massacre. He's being Isolated from everyone. His family isolating him by sending him into a dangerous situation and the village doing so by giving life or death ultimatums that none of us would be able to handle. One thing he knew is that Sasuke came along and made the world a little better.
He loved his sweet pouty little brother and he chose whatever could save him. He's 13 years old and he experiences an EXTREME trauma. Now of course his little 13 year old traumatized brain was thinking of whatever plan necessary to give his baby brother a reason to live. Bear the burden of his hatred. Just the same as Naruto wanted to.
God, yeah the village sucks and deep down I really wish Itachi could have seen through the bullshit but how is he supposed to do that if his brain has already been altered by trauma even before the village began to directly fuck with him?
He was a kid and because everyone saw that he was a smart kid, he was expected to be like a machine. To know the right answer and his family had isolated him to the point where he definitely couldn't go to them. Then Shisui died.
he was a kid.
He probably spent the rest of his short life entirely stunted. emotionally and mentally he was at 13 years old. Yes, a prodigy but still a little boy being forced to bear the weight of bullshit that NO person should ever bear. So he was a dick, he manipulated Sasuke, and he did fucked up shit because that's what he thought was the right thing. The fandom acts as if the shitty decisions he made to face the same trauma means he deserves to be shit on.
Here's the thing, both Sasuke and Itachi had completely valid reactions to the experience. Sasuke learned what happened to his brother at 16 years old and because of that, he was able to see it from an (mostly) outside perspective.
He thought "This is really fucked up. I can't believe he experienced this."
Sasuke saw it for what it was, it was a bullshit reason to give up everything for but at the time.. to Itachi it was all there was.
So like an older sibling in an abusive home following orders to stay safe, to the younger getting pissed and deciding to fight back.. they had different reactions and different view points. That's how it works. Sasuke is my favorite character and he didn't deserve to lose everything or be manipulated the way he was. I also believe that Itachi tried his goddamn hardest and not a single person on this website could convince me that they could go through what he did and not make some shitty decisions.
Not to mention, you cannot stan Gaara, Pain, etc.. and then shit on either of the Uchiha brothers. You literally just can't. Don't even get me started on folks sharing anti-itachi shit and then dicking off to stan the founders. Leave them both the fuck alone.
TianchengAU "There is a Demon Lord in my room but I can't take care of him because I have a job?!"
Thank you again bestie @neurodivernon....
I wanted to make something similar as a true webcomic for the vibe haha
Hope you will like it!
From the conversation at cloud recesses we KNOW this is an established dynamic: Wei wuxian gets in trouble, Jiang Cheng cleans up. But if you asked Wei Wuxian, he'd say he doesn't need the support, or anyone to have his back, despite Jiang Cheng doing it anyway as is the tsundere way.
And this is what he does here too!!
He doesn't need anyone else to speak for him!! He can take care of himself!
But wwx going from "cleaning up my messes ONE more time won't hurt" to "just drop me" did irreparable damage to my psyche (and, to Jiang Cheng's too, I suspect).
I was wondering why no one else thought this. Jiang Cheng doesn't have to do what he does for Wei Wuxian when they were kids. Sure, Jiang Yanli is the softer of the two, more open and peeling lotus seeds for him and more direct, but it's not like Jiang Cheng didn't love him. That's what makes them tragic as hell!
the fact that this was the angle wei wuxian, wen ning's main source of information about jiang cheng, used to convince wen qing to do the golden core surgery, explains a lot, actually
wwx: i swear i'll be FINE, i can totally handle everything without a golden core, unlike jiang cheng who is sooo competitive and insecure he'll shrivel up and die if we don't cut my life's achievement out of me and put it in him and lie to him so that he could still be obsessed with his cultivation [wen ning will remember that] hey what was that. anyway, trust me, it's the only way to make him happy
Another pointless, unprovable, but un-disprovable MDZS headcanon of mine is that Jiang Cheng can't play a single musical instrument for shit, but he has the voice of a songbird. Few people have ever heard him sing, and of those few even fewer lived long enough to tell about it, but the man has the voice of heaven. He's mortified by this, but also very, very, very secretly proud of it.
first jiang fengmian seeing his crying sons in a boat tied with zidian and thinking it was some new game, now jiang cheng seeing wei wuxian bleed out of every orifice and thinking it's one of his usual pranks, WHAT was their childhood like jesus fucking christ
Tiancheng AU "There Is A Demon Lord In My Room But I Can't Take Care Of It Because I Have A Job ?!"
A funny AU based on my friend's @/neurodivernon DM and I !
Finally made a second comic of this AU.. I wanted to color to make it clean as possible but I lost all motivation on the thought of bakcground :sob:
And since I didn't post anything formore than 20 days (it is rare I am inactive lol) I just put grey scale so I can share it...
so i decided to take another look at the ancestral hall scene. i felt like wei wuxian's narration was less so objectively describing the scene and instead moreso describing how wei wuxian was interpreting the scene, so i tried pruning out everything except the dialogue and some basic stage directions. here's what i ended up with:
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[Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in the Lotus Pier ancestral hall. They have just finished bowing three times to the memorial tablets of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan.]
[A snort suddenly echoes from behind Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian turns around to see Jiang Cheng standing behind him.]
Jiang Cheng: Wei Wuxian, it seems you really donât consider yourself an outsider. Coming and going as you please, and bringing people with you too. Do you still remember who this house belongs to? Or who its master is?
Wei Wuxian: I didnât take Hanguang-jun to any other restricted areas of Lotus Pier. I just came to pay my respects and offer some incense to Jiang-shushu and Madam Yu. Itâs done. Weâre leaving now.
Jiang Cheng: If youâre leaving, then please go as far away as possible. Donât let me hear or see you fooling around in Lotus Pier again.
Lan Wangji: Watch your words.Â
Jiang Cheng: Seems to me you two should watch your behavior instead.Â
Wei Wuxian: Hanguang-jun, letâs go.Â
[Wei Wuxian turns around and kowtows a few more times in earnest to Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu. Then, Wei Wuxian stands together with Lan Wangji.]Â
Jiang Cheng: You certainly do need to kneel before themâto apologize for showing up in front of them for no reason, sullying their eyes, and violating their peace.
Wei Wuxian: Iâm just offering some incense, okay?
Jiang Cheng: Offering incense? Wei Wuxian, do you have no self-awareness? You were expelled from my family a long time ago. And yet you bring riffraff here to offer incense to my parents?
[Wei Wuxian has already stepped halfway past him to leave, but when he hears this, he suddenly stops in his tracks.]
Wei Wuxian: Make yourself clear. Who is this riffraff youâre referring to?
Jiang Cheng: Youâre so forgetful. What do I mean by riffraff? Well, let me remind you. All of Lotus Pier perishedâincluding my parentsâbecause you played the hero to save that Lan-er-gongzi next to you. But no, that wasnât enough. You had to go back for a second round. You just had to save those Wen dogs, and you dragged my jiejie and the others into your mess. What a great man you are. Even better, youâre so magnanimous that you brought these two to Lotus Pierâlet the Wen dog wander around in front of our gates and escorted Lan-er-gongzi here to offer incense. Youâre deliberately trying to upset them and me. Wei Wuxian, who do you think you are? Who gave you the right to bring others into my familyâs ancestral hall as you please?
Wei Wuxian: Jiang Cheng, listen to what youâre saying. Is it even fit for hearing? Donât forget your statusâyouâre a family head, after all. And yet you just insulted a distinguished cultivator of a prominent cultivation clan, right in front of Jiang-shushu and everyone elseâs memorial tablets. What happened to your upbringing? Where are your manners?
Jiang Cheng: Who exactly is the one humiliating my parents in front of their memorial tablets?! Please recall whose family home youâre in. Get it through your thick skull. Itâs bad enough that you were being so shamelessly touchy-feely outside. Donât come to my ancestral hall and fool around in front of my parentsâ memorial tablets! They watched you grow up, for whatever thatâs worth. Even I feel embarrassed for you!
[Wei Wuxian realizes that Jiang Cheng had seen his earlier romantic-esque encounter with Lan Wangji, and that Jiang Cheng is now offensively insinuating that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in a romantic and/or sexual relationship.]
Wei Wuxian: Shut up!
Jiang Cheng: Go outside and fool around however you please, if thatâs what you want to do. Whether under a tree or on a boat, whether you want to hug or do whatever else! Get the hell out of my house and get the hell out of my sight!
Wei Wuxian: Jiang Wanyin, you⊠Apologize right now.
Jiang Cheng: Apologize? Why should I? For stumbling on your rendezvous?
Wei Wuxian: Hanguang-jun and I are just friends. What kind of relationship do you think we have?! Iâm warning youâyou better apologize right now! Donât make me kick your ass!
[Lan Wangjiâs expression freezes.]
Jiang Cheng: Then Iâve never seen a âfriendâ like that in my life. And youâre warning me? On what grounds? If either of you possessed even the slightest bit of shame, you wouldnât have come hereâŠ
[Wei Wuxian sees the change in Lan Wangjiâs expression and thinks that Jiang Chengâs words have stung him. Wei Wuxian is incredibly angered.]
[Wei Wuxian flings out a talisman.]
Wei Wuxian: Are you done?!
[Wei Wuxianâs talisman strikes Jiang Cheng on his right shoulder and explodes, causing Jiang Cheng to stagger. Jiang Cheng hadn't expected Wei Wuxian to strike so suddenly, and his own spiritual powers have yet to fully recover. As a result, the blast catches him head-on and his shoulder begins to bleed.]
[Disbelief flashes across Jiang Cheng face, and Zidian shoots from his finger.]
[Lan Wangjiâs Bichen leaves its sheath to block the attack. With that, the three of them are fighting in front of the ancestral hall.]
Jiang Cheng: Fine! You want a fight? Then bring it on! You think Iâm afraid of you both?!
[Wei Wuxian haphazardly wards off a few blows, then abruptly comes to his senses. He is distressed by the realization that he is fighting Jiang Cheng in front of Jiang Cheng's parents. He feels like has been doused in icy water; his vision goes first dark, then white. Lan Wangji glances at him before whirling around to grab his shoulder.]
[Jiang Chengâs expression changes too. He retracts his whip, then blinks, looking alert.]
Lan Wangji: Wei Ying?! Whatâs wrong?
[Wei Wuxian feels dizzy and realizes he is bleeding from his mouth and nose. Wei Wuxian grabs Lan Wangjiâs elbow and manages with some difficulty to stand. Seeing that Lan Wangjiâs newly changed white clothes are stained with his blood once more, he unconsciously reaches out to wipe them.]
Lan Wangji: How do you feel?!
Wei Wuxian: Lan Zhan⊠Letâs leave.
Lan Wangji: All right.Â
[Lan Wangji lifts Wei Wuxian on his back and makes to leave.]
[Jiang Cheng is both shocked and suspicious that this is an act Wei Wuxian is putting on to escape.]Â
Jiang Cheng: Hold it right there!
Lan Wangji: Get lost!
[With Lan Wangjiâs words comes Bichen. Immediately after, a flash of purple lightning hurtles forth as well. Both divine weapons strike each other loudly.]
[The impact of this noise gives Wei Wuxian a splitting headache, and his eyes close and his head droops low.]
[Sensing the sudden weight on his shoulder, Lan Wangji promptly extracts himself from the melee to feel for Wei Wuxian's breathing.]Â Â
[With Lan Wangji no longer supplying Bichen with power, Zidian immediately advances toward Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng, who doesnât actually want to injure Lan Wangji, instantly pulls back his strikeâbut it seems it is still too late.]
[Just then, a figure leaps down from nowhere and stands between them.]
[This person is Wen Ning. Jiang Cheng immediately flies into a rage.]
Jiang Cheng: Who said you could enter Lotus Pier?! How dare you?!
[Jiang Chengâs whip strikes directly hit Wen Ning, who tanks the blow.]
[Wen Ning holds out Suibian, Wei Wuxianâs sword, to Jiang Cheng.]Â
Jiang Cheng: What do you want?!
Wen Ning: Pull it out.Â
.
some miscellaneous observations:
jiang cheng opens this interaction by repeatedly telling wangxian to leave; however, he also insists on getting as many barbs in as possible, even as he's telling them to leave. both jiang cheng and wei wuxian insist that wangxian leave (jiang cheng by telling wangxian to get the fuck out of his house, wei wuxian by repeatedly saying that they are leaving); however, wangxian fail to actually leave because both jiang cheng and wei wuxian keep dragging themselves back into the argument.
jiang cheng repeatedly highlights the assertion that lotus pier is his house, not wei wuxian's; that wei wuxian no longer has the right to freely walk around lotus pier as if he lives here.
wei wuxian's narration states that he got angry with jiang cheng not on his own behalf, but rather on the behalf of lan wangji - starting when jiang cheng referred to lan wangji as "riffraff." what's especially interesting is that jiang cheng's block of dialogue starting with "you're so forgetful" is in fact more insulting to wei wuxian himself than it is to lan wangji, since jiang cheng focuses his tirade entirely on wei wuxian's actions. however, despite this, wei wuxian's replies to this tirade (starting with "jiang cheng, listen to what you're saying) not by responding to jiang cheng's criticisms of his own behavior, but rather by calling jiang cheng out for insulting lan wangji....even though i did not see much actual insult towards lan wangji specifically in jiang cheng's rant. in fact, jiang cheng's tirade is more insulting towards wen ning than it is towards lan wangji, since jiang cheng refers to lan wangji as "that lan-er-gongzi" but calls wen ning "the wen-dog" - but wei wuxian does not call out jiang cheng for insulting wen ning, either. to me, it seems almost like wei wuxian is using "you can insult me, but you're also being mean to lan zhan!!! i'm defending lan zhan!!!" as an excuse to respond belligerently to jiang cheng's verbal abuse, rather than straight-up defend himself, the actual target of jiang cheng's rage.
it is wei wuxian who first escalates a verbal confrontation into a physical one.
wei wuxian escalates this confrontation to physical violence because he sees lan wangji get upset as a result of the conversation. wei wuxian assumes that lan wangji is offended that jiang cheng has insinuated that he and wei wuxian are gay, which wei wuxian himself seems to also take as an inherently offensive insinuation. however, it is fair to surmise that, in reality, lan wangji was actually upset because wei wuxian said they were "just friends."
jiang cheng is not angry at wangxian for being gay; rather, (on top of all his other reasons to be mad at wei wuxian), jiang cheng is angry at their perceived PDA right in front of his parents' memorial tablets.
jiang cheng does not seem that willing to actually physically fight or harm wangxian. he only fights back after wei wuxian hits him first, and stops fighting the moment wei wuxian collapses. the fight only resumes when he yells at wangxian, lan wangji strikes at him with bichen, and he blocks the strike; even then, the narration states that he did not really want to injure lan wangji.
wen ning enters the scene and jumps immediately into the golden core transfer. he does not try to piece together the situation or physically drive jiang cheng away from wei wuxian. one can only presume that he was already at the scene earlier and had seen much of this confrontation play out, hence why he doesn't need to try and figure out what's going on.
JC, just days after he barely got any credit for running pillar to post to save his brother with barely any rest and succeeding in saving him, had his core melted, and he had all of a week (maybe?) to come to terms with the fact that he didn't have it anymore before WWX gave up his core for him, after which he became a sect leader overnight without the support of his family in the middle of a war which started because his entire sect was decimated, and right when he thinks everything is okay and the war has ended his brother defects and his sister is married into a different sect, his brother in law is killed by his brother, his sister dies for his brother and he's alone again, (except for a child he's now responsible for).
This obviously traumatized him and he acted very negatively towards both WWX and all demonic cultivators. Especially WWX.
But that doesn't erase who he was before all of this, or even during it. He loved his brother and gave up his life for him. He was a boy king who made his sect one of the great sects after it was razed in the war. He raised his nephew while grieving for his family and raised him well, (JL is a bit immature and arrogant, but he's intelligent, righteous, and strong willed).
I kinda feel like people sometimes forget that even though they are nameless, the Jiang sect disciples and the people of Yunmeng are people, not the red shirt army. And as a sect heir, Jiang Cheng wouldâve been raised to be keenly aware of the consequences that his actions had on those people. Every time Jiang Cheng avoids conflicts, every time he tries to deescalate the situation, every time he tells Wei Wuxian to stop picking up new causes to defend, heâs arguing that his people is worth more than that new cause. He chose his people over Lan Wangjiâs broken leg, he chose his people over the Wens. He has his disciplesâ service and loyalty, but he is also aware that in any conflict that he picks, any cause that he defends, the cost will not be paid by him, but by his disciplesâ blood, and he doesnât take that lightly. Jiang Cheng would be on top of the list of sect leaders that I would follow to the ends of earth, because I know he wonât spend my life frivolously over a cause that I, as a smallfolk, donât even understand.
Daily reminder that jiang cheng was an impressionable and easily manipulated young man trying to protect his newly rebuilt sect, disciples, sister and, yes, brother, after he saw said sect burned to ruins and his parents and former disciples slaughtered.
Not for one moment did that young man think "As long as it doesn't affect me, I don't care what happens to others".
It was more like "What I do can affect the lives of countless people who depend on me and I can't risk that (again)".
Did he handle things as best as they could? Maybe not. Are we saying homeboy doesn't have issues? Also no. But selfishness ain't it.
Just saw someone claim that WWX gave JC a core that was 80 years more advanced???? And that he did nothing with it because no one was scared of him???? WTF do they mean â80 years more advancedâ Iâve never heard that claim spouted anywhere before. And that no one was scared of him? Arenât a lot of antiâs main talking points that he cows everyone by being a mean, torturing, serial killer that murders everyone he so much as dislikes? Theyâre trying to claim heâs mediocre, but theyâre way of claiming it is just so illogical and stupid.
Dude wtf I just saw the same one and thought "The hell are they on about?" XD
What part of the "If you're going to insult someone make sure it's not ever this guy" sound like "he's mediocre"? đ
What part of "he was searching for wwx on the battlefield, while carrying his struggling sect on his shoulders" sounds like "he didn't do anything with it"?
"80 year old advanced golden core" More like 8 year old advanced reading comprehension đ
Every time Jiang Cheng doesn't outright kill someone when they annoy him he turns to one of his advisors and says "I'm going to heaven for this one" and it never gets any funnier until he accidentally says it in front of Sect Leader Ouyang
