One of my favorite easily overlooked details of MDZS is the story of the Lan clan's founding. It's literally one throwaway paragraph. It's a background detail about the wall carvings. The wall carvings say this: A monk left his home, met his partner, and together they started a family. Then his partner died, so the monk killed himself.
The men aren't explicitly gay. It kind of doesn't even matter if they were. What matters is Wei Wuxian says he finds the story romantic and they use it to transition to talking about marriage. What matters is that it can be read as queer by the characters in text. And that it ends in tragedy.
Lan Zhan grew up in a house that had a giant mural that told the story of two men who tried to live in peace together and ended up dead. Wei Wuxian woke up in the body of a man who was driven to death for being gay. In Yi City, they find the remains of two men who wanted to be together and were killed before they could reunite. Again and again, they encounter stories that hammer home the same thing people say about Wei Wuxian's necromancy: Do not stray. Do not deviate from the orthodox path. Only tragedy can come of it.
Hell, Wei Wuxian and Lan Zhan are themselves already a queer tragedy. Wei Wuxian tries to leave and found something new, and gets killed for it, before he and Lan Zhan can actually be happy. He died.
And Lan Zhan grew up in a house that tells the story of what a Lan does when their partner dies.
That is what is so profoundly, absurdly important about Wangxian. It's that they are literally told again and again by the narrative that queer people do not get happy endings. They are told that they do not get a happy ending. On both a literal and thematic level, everything was against them. And they still found happiness.
After Wei Wuxian is falsely accused of assault after witnessing a crime he is sent to be under the guardianship of one Lan Qiren. Qiren isn't exactly friendly to Wei Ying despite having been friends with his parents, but he warms up eventually. On his first day of school he sees Yanli being harassed by Wen Chao until Jiang Cheng runs up to protect her. They warn Wei Ying away from that creep and eventually all three of them end up falling into the palace together. Jiang Cheng's arm was broken by Wen Chao's bodyguard last year and it made him lose his sports scholarship so he's been exceedingly bitter. And the rumors they started about Jiang Yanli ruined the reputation of the Jiangs and left them pretty friendless. So the three of them team up to take down Wen Chao and make him confess his crimes.
The trio runs into Jin Zixuan after, the young man wanting to know that Yanli is okay after learning that she was being threatened and not sleeping with whoever Wen Chao said she was. Wei Ying and Jiang Chang are both unimpressed with his weakness and give him a hard time until it become clear that there is more going on. Jin Zixun has been sabotaging all of Zixuan's work, taking credit for his projects and just all around steamrolling him, but Zixuan won't speak up because he's still family. So the trio have their next target, with Zixuan being dragged along and seeing the true extent of his cousin's horrible crimes. He and Yanli begin dating after.
Before they can find their next target Nie Huaisang approaches them with proof of their activities and says that he'll reveal them unless they do a favor for him. So they take out local thug Xue Yang who is working in money laundering and sex trafficking. Little did they know that this target was set up just to cause Jin Guangshan issues by cutting off his money and women. And decreasing one of his brother's headaches, he's getting worried about Mingjue and wants the thieves of heart in back pocket just in case. He didn't realize that meant joining them!
Lan Qiren accidently gives them their next target in the form of his nephew, a brilliant young man who has been wasting away after the death of his mother. A suicide that he was blamed for that has left him with severe agoraphobia and he now never leaves his home nor changes from wearing anything except mourning white. His brother Lan Xichen helps give them access to Wangji and they promise to steal his heart and prove that he is not some monster who killed his mother. Although Wei Ying is certainly interested in stealing more than just the twisted desires of his heart.
Wen Ning was a complete accident, the shy stuttering boy was absolutely overlooked by everyone around him. Unless someone wanted a punching bag for everyone named Wen. But when the group sees him being abused by his fiance, a sham marriage that was used to facilitate a business merger, Wei Wuxian decides to step in and save him. They take him to Wen Qing who tells them that their Uncle is well aware that he's sending Wen Ning to what is likely his death, but doesn't care since all he wants is more power. Wen Ning fails to awaken his full persona until the final fight, standing up to his uncle and unleashing the full extent of abilities. It should have been like every other target, and then Wen Rouhan dies, and the phantom thieves are accused of his murder.
Jin Guangyao has been a minor annoyance for a while now, and then he reveals that he's a persona user too. He's terrified about how he's been forced to use it to take out his father's enemies and he wants to join the good guys. He works with Mingjiu and has been told to try and get him accused of corruption to get him off the case of the Phantom Thieves so it can be handed to Guangyao instead and he can sweep it under the rug. The only problem is Mingjiu has become too obsessed with the case and he's becoming out of control over it, so they need to make him have a change of heart so that he can get back on the track of justice. Because right now he's been revealing to Huaisang that he doesn't care what it takes he will see them prosecuted or hunt them down himself if they think they can keep away from him.
Jin Guangyao is a valuable asset to the team, helping them clear the palace with clever ease and talent. But trouble strikes after they manage to get the treasure. There's an ambush and the thieves are surrounded. With Wei Wuxian being captured and taken into custody. Wei Wuxian is beaten and drugged as corrupt guards try to force him to sign a confession. And then Nie Mingjiu shows up to interrogate Wei Wuxian. After talking to him about everything that has happened and revealing that Mingjiu's own brother is one of them, he tells the prosecuter that he knew the thieves were going to be betrayed and he can help Mingjiu get the proof he needs if he helps them. Which comes in handy after Jin Guangyao reappears and kills Wei Wuxian. Which ended up being all according to plan.
With Guangyao having killed Wei Wuxian's cognition but believing he'd gotten the real thing, the team is ready to take down the reason behind all of this, the man who lead to the false accusation against Wei Wuxian in the first place, Jin Guangshan. They get through his palace and suceed in pulling off the change of heart, making Jin Guangshun drag his son down with him in confessing all of his crimes. Wei Wuxian is cleared of all charges with Nie Mingjiu's help and the gang decide to spend their summer on a road trip.
Semester 3 spoilers!
Maruki - Lan Xichen
Xichen's guilt over failing Jin Guangyao and his wariness of Wei Ying for corrupting his brother and making him a criminal is devastating to him. So he wants to fix it all. He unleashes the power of his palace and makes his idea of a squeaky clean perfect world, written in his image to make everyone happy. Jin Guangyao is now in a relationship with Xichen, because he thinks that will fix him and Lan Wangji is a nice, normal student who has never met Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian was never accused and is well regarded by his peers and teachers now. And it's nice but also skin crawling because Guangyao works from the shadows and is still a bit unhinged so he decides that if he can't have the world he wants under his own power then he will take Xichen down with him. So he teams up with Wei Wuxian reluctantly to get their world back, because Wei Wuxian would rather walk his single plank bridge with Lan Wangji rather than a bright, wide road without him.
Wei Wuxian who simultaneously wants Jiang Cheng to be fundamentally different but also never change, and Jiang Cheng who doesn't know what his constantly overwhelming feelings are most of the time but he does know that he loves Wei Wuxian
Yay made a small wangxian animation in Procreate Dreams 2 beta! Had a lot of fun, made this thingy within 2 evenings >:)
Actually, enjoyed the beta a lot, the old app was practically unusable for me cos it was wonky and lacked some key features but this one feels like smth that is pretty comfy to use!
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