#banyue arc

[nootcatt]

Hua Cheng fell first so he could reach the bottom fast enough that he can catch Xie Lian before he falls too hard. Both literally and metaphorically.

[ray-eh]

Imagine being stung by a scorpion snake and you are dying and after like 20 to 30 minutes, everybody finds the solution, i.e. find the leaves you didn't even know existed until a few minutes ago.

And then there is this one mf WHO CAN'T EVEN DIE gets bit by a scorpion snake and another bigger mf goes on his knees sucks the poison out of him. And everyone goes back to talking about the leaves like nothing happened.

And you js sit there processing everything painfully. That's your life.

[fleur-reads]

The Banyue arc was the most useless, uninteresting, & problematic arc MXTX has ever written all at once.

I seriously admire that woman's talent and MDZS is one of the most perfect series I've experienced, and I think there are some things she managed to do even better in TGCF

for example - Jin Guangyao is a 10/10 villain but Jun Wu is hands down my favorite villain she's wrote. He's just way more irredeemable yet I appreciate that about him, he has insane villain aura yet he's also so pathetic for Mei Nianqing and... I'm loosing track but the Black Water arc invoked so much emotion in me and it's perfect and it's one of the greatest tragedies ever written

and ALL THAT POSITIVE PLUS MORE is ruined by the fuckass racist Banyue arc!

And the thing is, I don't think MXTX even intended for it to be racist because she gives Kemo some redeeming qualities at least but Pei Xiu and Ban Yue are never called out for committing a genocide and are given more sympathy than the actual victims because apparently ALL the Banyue people including the children and babies were suicide bombers?!??

It's a shame how terribly this was done too because in MDZS she handles genocide victims (Wen Qing & Wen Ning) with so much more respect and care and doesn't generalize people, acknowledging that one bloodline in not filled with only good or only bad people.

Anyways fuck Pei Xiu, fuck Ban Yue, and fuck anyone who's a fan of/defends those two genocidal assholes.

If you like the rest of TGCF on the other hand (and the rest of MXTX's work) while agreeing that the Banyue arc is shit, you are based AF and I want to be your friend.

[mdzs-owns-my-ass-i-guess]

Also

If the scorpion snake had bitten xie lian's leg instead of his hand, tgcf wouldve been at least one book shorter

[stray-shinkii]

I gotta come out with smth as a Rayllum Stan😰

I literally cannot watch the episodes in the midnight desert for 2 reasons:

A) mayhaps a hot take in itself: I don’t like Nyx💀 I’m not even really a fan of her design, like she looks fine ig, it’s just kinda off to me and looks somewhat out of place or like an OC & I’m just like- very aware of that & it’s distracting…also she’s low key a bitch and good for her ig but she pisses me off- but tbf that’s just me being petty😂 but OMFG she just bothers me by virtue of existing idk why I can’t deal with it, it’s like how literally 95% of the men in Genshin inspire absolute RAGE in me for no apparent reason 😂

And B) TGCF ruined “crossing dangerous desert with special magic snakes that are worse than normal snakes” vibe for me💀 if you read TGCF yk about the Banyue arc curse, where basically every adaptation of the novel has gotten stuck at the Banyue arc…..which is low key one of if not the most boring arcs of the series😭 so having to re-read and re-watch it sm times has literally ruined the concept - i literally CANNOT anymore😭🤚

Which is funny bc like- yeah Rayllum kissed and had a nice heart to heart and I do LOVE that scene esp with how AGRESSIVELY respectful Callum is- that’s my favorite trait of his😂

But also HuaLian had a “oh I got stung by a scorpion snake and will now cease to exist on this mortal coil in about 12 hours (except no bc he’s fucking immortal but ok) AND HUA CHENGS FRUITY ASS SUCKED THE POISON OUT OF THE WOUND- when there was another dude who was bitten and HC was low key just gonna let that guy die bc he wasn’t Gege (who would’ve been fine anyway lmao) + XL indirectly called Mu Qing a snake which was funny ig and that still didn’t fix it for me lol

[starchbean]

Hua Cheng would ABSOLUTELY give his entire support to that little kid merchant who said he was gonna build a temple for Xie Lian after the Ban Yue mission concluded.

I can imagine that kid grew up to be the most successful merchant of his age, always having a little extra luck for reasons unknown to him. Even ghosts never disturb his company's shipments.

He also finds himself hiring a one legged beggar with a broken arm as his marketing rep--which turns out to be the best decision of his career. The company has a banquet once a year in the finest restaurant in the capital. The marketing rep brings the same dour faced stranger with him every year. This stranger eats through half of what the restaurant makes for the entire company.

Even though he never got Xie Lian's identity, events would unravel that would mysteriously allow him to figure it out. A puzzle that intrigued him through his adolescent life, very satisfying to finally solve.

When the merchant starts working on the temple he promised Xie Lian, he commissions the divine statue from an especially talented and earnest traveling sculptor with no references or background to speak of--he just has a good feeling.

Hua Cheng and Xie Lian visit the completed temple often, and even go there on dates sometimes.

[musings-on-aching-flowers]

Xie Lian as a narrator: why we don’t get more about his being nailed alive into a coffin for hundreds of years

Xie Lian is the narrator of TGCF/Heaven Official’s Blessing, so as we go through the story we witness events from his perspective, and interpret or extrapolate on other characters’ opinions and viewpoints based on how they react to the situation through Xie Lian’s eyes. 

However, MXTX is the master of unreliable narration, and has certainly tripped me up before (especially Shen Qingqiu, his thoughts were so confusing to read that I completely misunderstood his feelings/intentions) - and Xie Lian is no exception: although in my opinion he is mighty easier to read than his counterparts.

I read a post somewhere here which explained how Xie Lian only tells us the things he wants us to know, or the things he wants to remember. We know nothing of those two months he spent reforming after the White Clothed Calamity scene because he doesn’t want us to know, and/or he has repressed it to the extent that he is unable to recall it himself. 

It’s the same for when he was sealed in the coffin as the Guoshi Fangxin for 100 years. It’s mentioned maybe once in book 1 of the series, and then it isn’t brought up again until the birthday extra, where we get this:

Hua Cheng, who’d been quiet for a long time, suddenly says, “Dianxia.” Xie Lian immediately responds, “What is it?” 

”How long were you in the tomb?”

Xie Lian was startled. He replies, “I don’t remember clearly anymore”. 

At any rate, it was for a very, very long time. So long that he didn’t even want to count. Pain, starvation, blood loss, hallucinations. At first he wouldn’t move, but then he’d regret it, and furiously hit the outer coffin to break it and escape. But he’d eventually let himself sink back into the infinite darkness. 

It wasn’t as intense as the inescapable, damning pain of being pierced a hundred times. But it was a constant pain that seemed to last forever.

We don’t get more elaboration on what happened to him there either simply because of how traumatic it is for him, that it was so long and difficult it felt like forever. Same again with when he was trampled underfoot by literal thousands of soldiers during the Yong’an/Banyue conflict. This man has gone through so many terrible, painful experiences that he’s cultivated a careful numbness to pain. Why should he have to relive his worst moments of suffering? And after all, one of his philosophies in life is to remember the good things and forget the bad:

“...Besides, some things are best forgotten. Rather than remembering how I was butchered and trampled hundreds of years ago, I’d prefer to remember that I ate a delicious meat bun yesterday, no?” 

[xianxian-flower]

If im not wrong there are 36 chapters of banyue arc (manhua)