it's the expected question but you know, why not? i'd love to hear your thoughts on wang/xian! (either adaptation)
thank you! i love wangxian of course, i don’t see how anyone can be a fan of mdzs and NOT love wangxian because they really are the heart and soul of the story. but i feel like i don’t talk about them enough because they are so popular that i always feel like there are so many other people with better understanding of them than me.
a lot of the key aspects of their relationship and just running themes through the whole story (society keeping loved ones apart, the grief of losing a loved, the whole idea of looking beyond the horrible things someone has done and loving them anyway). because of this i think some of the most emotional parts of their relationship were during the phase where they weren’t together. seeing for example how lwj allows wwx to take the wen to the burial mounds, doesn’t ask him to stay, and wwx never asks lwj to come with him. in a way they suffer from BOTH being too self sacrificing, wanting to give the other whatever they want at the expense of the self. and you can see how much it hurts them both, especially lwj when wwx was dead, but you get the sense he never regretted what he did even if he thought it didn’t amount to anything. he accepts his punishment and only regrets not helping wwx enough. which is romantic because it works out for them in the end but what if they HADN’T gotten that? would people still think lwj had done the right thing if his love for wwx was going to make him miserable forever? imo the lan curse of eternal devotion is almost always harmful, and lwj is the only person who has ever benefitted from it because of the entirely unexpected resurrection of wwx.
i think there can be a bit of oversimplification(?) in fandom sometime because wx have a happy ending so there’s this assumption that it’s a happy couple. but for the majority of both of their lives until the end of mdzs, the relationship caused them both a lot of emotional pain. not because they hurt each other, because they were kept apart, but i think people can overlook the tragedy of their early circumstances just because they one day overcome it, and the tragedy to me is one of the most interesting parts.
on a lighter note, i’ve been having fun reading the novel because that version of wx feels very different than in cql. because cql doesn’t allow for open declarations of feelings and relies more on subtext, it felt to me like they were together and fairly secure in their relationship the whole time wwx was resurrected. but in the novel you can see wwx doubting things, wondering how lwj really feels about him, and it adds an interesting level of conflict and some humor (because seriously, wwx, it is so obvious lwj is in love with you!)
