This is basically me kinda analyzing and going over the books of mdzs while explaining how the romance genre is integral to the plot. If you have anything you wanna add i'd love to read it!
Romance drives the characters and plot in “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation” (Mdzs) By Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. Mdzs has many different themes and messages. The one that stands out the most is empathy and kindness matter even when they seem insignificant. There are many examples of this in Mdzs. The protagonist shows love and kindness throughout the book.
Romance is a very popular genre; it can be a main or side focus. There are many types of romances and ways to write it. In society love is something everyone strives for, be it platonic, romantic, or familiar, which is why the romance genre is overflowing with novels, shows, movies, art, etc. Tragedies are also very common in this genre, Mdzs dips into many different types of romance styles but tragedy is very prominent in more ways than one in the books.
Romance started in the mid 12th century while it didn’t become popular until the 18th to 19th century. With low spirits romance started to sprout in the late 1700s giving us the genre we know and love today. Fun fact: The romance genre was popularized by women; it gave them the hope to have the same life as their favorite fictional characters. Inspired them to write and stand up to the men they married. Romance being a woman dominated genre gave them and now us the courage and confidence to strive for equality in the home and now in everything.
Speaking of romances written by woman Mdzs is also one, to explain the setting. The cultivation world as it is called in the book is set in Ancient China. There are five major sects and a few smaller ones as well. Sects are the ones who study Cultivation. There are many different systems to Cultivation but in Mdzs it mainly focuses on golden cores. Golden cores are what give Cultivators their enhanced speed, agility, strength, and stamina. The stronger the core the more enhanced you can get. Your golden core is pretty much an extension of one's soul when Cultivating. While it is physical like an organ it is a Cultivator’s everything.
The five major sects are Wen, Lan, Jin, Jiang, and Nie. They hold the most power in the Cultivation world politically. They distribute resources to their land, trade with each other, and send disciples to help cities and villages in their and other sects’ land. While the smaller sects also get a say in things, the five are like the parents in a way.
We start in the protagonist’s adolescence. Gradually, the Wens are trying to take control of the Cultivation world. They are the oldest and biggest sect in the Cultivation world followed by the Jins, Lan, Nies, and Jiangs. The grab for power causes a war where the four other sects come together to take the Wens down. The Jins are neutral until the end of the war.
This also ties into the theme of Man vs Society, as Wei Wuxian always goes against societal norms. He is loud about his opinions, righteous, and pushes the boundaries of social heredity in the sects. He is what Cultivators claim to be: protectors of the innocent. His unshakable morals are what draw Lan Wangji to him. They later call each other Zhiji, which means soulmate in Chinese. After the Wens fall, Wei Wuxian, in an effort to help the Wens who were never a part of the war survive, goes against the Cultivation world who want all the Wens dead.
Coming back to the tragedy of Mdzs. The wen remnants are like a family to Wei Wuxian. He swears to protect them and in their own way they protect him too. They are killed before Wei Wuxian is and in his grief he tries to take out the Sects who killed them. Ultimately killing himself as his undead army turns on him.
This also circles around to his self-sacrificing tendencies seeing that the cultivation world needs a villain he makes himself one. While not at first he quickly realizes that being one is the only way to help the people he cares about, cutting all ties to the cultivation world and becoming the “Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation”.
Wei Wuxian is from the Jiang sect as a head disciple. His father—who was the servant of the Jiang sect leader—left before he was born to join his wife by becoming a wandering Cultivator. When Wei Wuxian was eight, he was taken in by the sect leader as his parents had died a few years prior. With him being taken in by the Jiangs starts his self-sacrificing mindset. Madame Yu, the wife of the sect leader, hates him for he is the child of the woman her husband loved.
His life there is full of abuse often whipping him over small errors and pitting him and her son against each other for Wei Wuxian showed strong martial powers over her son, the heir to the Jiang clan. The sect leader never interfering and the constant comparison pushes Wei wuxian away from the Jiang family, his only saving grace Jiang Yanli the oldest of the three and only daughter. Being raised close to the family like a servant more than a family member. In spite of that Wei Wuxian is shown to be charismatic, kind, smart, and very mischievous in his teens.
Lan Wangji is described as a cold, studious peerless jade. He follows the rules to a tee, has a blank face that rarely shows emotion and is the second heir to the Gusu Lan sect. He and His older brother lost their mother when they were young and Lan Wangji who already had a hard time making connections outside of family took it very hard and became even more closed off. His older brother is the opposite of his cold outer appearance. Together they are the twin jades of Lan; perfect reputation and awe inspiring. Cultivators in the world try to steer clear of Lan Wangji because of all of this. The only person who doesn’t is our protagonist . He tries to befriend Lan Wangji every time they meet, often seeking him out.
Opposites attract is a popular cliche and Mdzs does a good twist on it. While reading you slowly start to realize Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji aren’t that different. Same person, different font. While their outward appearances are much like yin and yang; Lan Wangji in all white, Wei Wuxian in all black. They strive for the same things, The same soul split in two. To them nobody understands them as much as they do each other.
This is the first time we get clues on how they both feel about each other. Lan Wangji in his confusion with anger and Wei wuxian with obliviousness to said feelings. For Lan Wangji our protagonist goes against every rule carved on the wall, while simultaneously being the embodiment of what everyone says a cultivator should be. While for Wei Wuxian his conformity to heterosexuality even though he doesn’t realize he’s doing it keeps them from getting together till trauma and thirteen years sneak up on them.
The story is written in third person; limited. We only know things to an extent because of our Protagonist . We get his thoughts and feelings. Discovering mystery after mystery with him as he gains information. While our protagonist is one of the smartest in the books, sometimes we can’t take what he says at face value. He is very aware of what’s going on around him, be it a tense atmosphere or someone’s feelings. Even his own feelings are easily recognizable to him most of the time. With this though comes his willingness to put himself in the crossfire to bring people's morales up.
Self-sacrificing is a common characteristic in the romance genre. Specifically dieing for those you love. Putting oneself in harm's way for the people they care about. Wei Wuxian does this for multiple people in varying ways which ultimately leads to his death. The author shows how Wei Wuxian’s willingness to put others before himself further isolates him. Not willing to ask for help he slowly loses himself to his cultivation as it twists his mind to a person even he can barely recognize after he comes back.
Loyalty and protectiveness is another common characteristic of the romance genre. Lan Wangji’s love changes with him throughout the years and so do his priorities. He is a protector to everyone, his title hanguang-jun or light baring lord comes from always showing up where the chaos is to help people. A trait that grows stronger after not being able to protect and save Wei Wuxian. His want to protect Wei Wuxian outweighs his duties to his sect. After Wei Wuxian comes back from the dead he makes it his priority to never let him believe he’s alone.
Friends to lovers is their romance troupe. Though only knowing each other for a couple months before the war starts their bond is strong but with everything against them it never gets a chance to fully develop until later. To some readers their friendship seems one sided in the beginning with Lan Wangji being cold and annoyed by Wei Wuxian. When in fact he welcomes it even though he is sometimes annoyed. He values Wei Wuxian as a friend and his cold and annoyed exterior is just because he is conflicted by how Wei Wuxian makes him feel. Being sheltered and told how to live makes it hard for him to understand what he feels is okay and does not make him a less righteous person even if he goes against the rules he was raised by.
In the books we jump back and forth from the past to the present. Things the protaganist made us believe start to get muddled as time goes on. At first we're led to believe Wei wuxian is a terrible person doing things such as stealing maidens, killing innocents, and sending curses upon the land. Anything and everything bad that could befall a person was the Yiling Patriarch’s fault. Our protagonist never disputes these claims leading us to believe they hold some truth.
Wei wuxian loses everything from his home to his golden core, he loses himself and dies thinking no one cared or loved him as everyone who did in his mind was already dead.
On the other side Lan Wangji lives with the regret of not doing more for protag, for not being by his side and showing he cares,which he fixes thirteen years later when Wei Wuxian comes back from the dead. Watching the person he cares for go down a dark path and change in only a few months. Taking in the last person of the people Wei Wuxian tried to protect.
Their love for each other and others solves and is the conflict. We see them grow as people. Grief their tool as they realize communication and community help rather than harm. They realize not every cultivator is as ‘pure’ as they claim/want to be because they are still human. They never run from their mistakes, they reflect and grow. The love they hold for the living and dead pushes them forward to create a peaceful world where the next generation won't have to fight as hard as they did.
Mxtx has two other books Tgcf and Svsss that also are in the romance genre. They expand on the different concepts of love and twist cliches in said genre. Like the protagonist of Mdzs the others also go through a lot to learn to love oneself as well as others.
Mxtx does a good job of making the characters feel real. Having the plot and romance intertwine and not feel forced. There is no inherently evil or good, just complex characters in stressful and hard situations. In my opinion writers should be able to make characters feel like real people. Complexity of characters and plot are really important in writing. Bringing in romance cliches with a twist is also something interesting in my opinion. All and all love itself is the plot of “The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation”. It is almost everyone's motive in the end and ultimately is the plot.