Dark Wen Yuan AU where Wei Wuxian still lived and A-Yuan grew to be his disciple. WWX doesnât leave Burial Mounds and A-Yuan meets with other sects on his behalf. He doesnât hate LWJ, heâs still fond of him, but him and WWX have a wrong perception about what happened
They think LWJ attacked WWX with all the rest during the fight at Nightless city. Of course WWX and A-Yuan donât know that LWJ actually saved him and suffered the punishment for it. THEY DONâT KNOW ABOUT THE SCARS ON HIS BACK AND BABY DOESNâT REVEAL IT TO THEM!
Anyways Lan Wangji has not seen Wei Wuxian for 13 years, because wwx closed himself off with the strongest fucking barrier known to the cultivation world. (YES. Itâs our genius YLLZ), and only sees Wen Yuan from time to time.
However in this au, 13 years later there have been very fierce attacks that the cultivation world cannot handle and they think itâs the Yiling Laozu at work again of course, so they plan to make another siege. LWJ hears of this and hurries to see WWX and talk to him, to find out if it was really him who caused it (although heâs the only one who doesnât believe it), and to warn him as well. Heâs very nervous because heâs never seen WWX since 13 years ago and WWX never showed himself and neither replied to his confession.
So LWJ kinda understood this as his decline and let him be. BUT NOW BABY HAS TO GO UP THE MOUNDS. And thatâs where they meet again for the first time. With WWX wearing this cloak (I had too, itâs sexy ok?) and still demanding to respect Hanguang Jun even after all that happened :â(((((
The destruction of the Tiger Seal and Wei Wuxianâs death
A really popular theory in the fandom is that WWX died destroying the Tiger Seal, either because of an explosion of all the energy it had accumulated or because trying to destroy it affected him to the point that he couldnât control the resentful energies anymore. This theory often implies the destruction of the Tiger Seal was a relatively fast process and that WWX started to destroy it when the sects besieged the Burial Mounds, because he didnât want it to fall into the wrong hands.
However, the novel explicitly contradicts this theory:
It wasnât as though Wei Wuxian, after forging such calamity, had refused to destroy it. However, creating the thing had been difficult enough; destroying it was every bit as difficult, and demanded an incredible amount of his time and energy. Moreover, by then, he already vaguely sensed that his own situation was precarious, and sooner or later, everyone would turn on him. The immense power of the Yin Tiger Tally meant that no one dared touch him while he was wielding itâthus, Wei Wuxian kept it, for the time being. He only split the tally into two, so that anyone attempting to use it would first have to put both pieces together. Furthermore, he decided never to use it without thinking carefully through the consequences.
In all, he only ever used it two times, and both times, it shed rivers of blood. The first was during the Sunshot Campaign, and after the second time, he finally found the determination to destroy it. One half, he completely obliterated. But before he was able to finish disposing of the other, the Siege of the Burial Mounds descended upon him. He had no control over the events that followed.
(Chapter 30, Fan Yiyi translation)
This passage is very clear: WWX had completely destroyed the first half of the Tiger Seal before the siege happened. At the time, he was in the process of destroying the second half, but then he died and couldnât do anything about it anymore. Itâs also stated that destroying the Tiger Seal required an incredible amount of time and energy, which was one of the reasons he hadnât decided to destroy it earlier.
Given the amount of resentful energy the Tiger Seal contained, itâs not surprising that both creating it and destroying it were such difficult processes. Even a much less powerful object like the bell WWX had made for JL took a long time to create:
Wen Ning, âYoung Master, is this what youâve been making for the past month or so, when you were shutting yourself in the Cave on days upon end?â
Wei WuXian, âThatâs right. As long as that nephew of mine carries this bell around, not a single creature whose level is just a bit too low can even think about getting close to him. You canât touch it. Itâll probably leave you affected for some time as well if you do.â
(Chapter 76, ExR translation)
If a bell that could only protect a person from the weakest creatures took a whole month to create (I assume because a lot of energy needed to be stored in it), how much longer would it take to destroy an immensely powerful artifact like the Tiger Seal, which could even surpass the power of its creator and didnât recognize a master? Weâre talking about something that was forged from a piece of metal that had accumulated resentful energies for centuries and WWX himself admits making it into a usable tool was a long and difficult process. Even destroying just a half probably required a lot of time to gradually dissipate all the resentful energy that was stored in it. Since we know the siege happened three months after the bloodbath of Nightless City - and considering WWX probably had other things to do in the meantime, like strengthening the defenses of the Burial Mounds for the attack he knew would come sooner or later - he had enough time to successfully obliterate one half of the Seal and start destroying the other one. Before he could completely destroy the second half, the sects arrived to besiege him and he had to focus on protecting himself and the Wen remnants.
Moreover, the process of destroying the Tiger Seal didnât only require a lot of time, but an incredible amount of energy as well. By the time the siege happened, he was probably already exhausted. This would explain why he received a backlash and lost control of his army of corpses, since we know demonic cultivation is affected by the mental state of the one practicing it. Besides, seeing JC - the person who was once like a brother to him - lead the siege meant to kill him and destroy everything he was fighting for didnât help his mental state at all. All of WWXâs guilt and grief at the time were already a lot to bear, but knowing that his former shidi hated him so much that he took part in the siege as the leader must have shaken him quite a bit. We donât see him sad often, but one of the few times we do is when he gets reminded of JCâs role in his death while heâs watching a group of kids impersonating them in a game based on the Sunshot Campaign (chapter 32).
I think WWX did what he could to protect the Wen remnants, but his exhaustion combined with his unstable mental state made him lose control of his demonic cultivation and receive a backlash, which led to him being torn to pieces by his own ghost army and dying in a really gruesome way.
The fact that he died because his cultivation method backfired and he was torn to pieces by the corpses he could no longer control is stated in the novel multiple times:
âRejoice, rejoice! Say, which hero dealt the finishing blow to the Yiling Laozu?â
âWho else could it be? His disciple-brother, Chief Jiang Cheng of the Yunmeng Jiang Sect! [âŚ] Sect Chief Jiang killed his own disciple-brother and destroyed his lair for the good of us all. The Burial Mounds are gone!â
[âŚ]
âBut thatâs not what I heard. I thought one of his evil tricks backfired and he was shredded to pieces by those ghosts of his. Some say that they bit and tore at him so viciously that by the end of it, his body was no more than a slurry of flesh and bone dust.â
(Chapter 1, Fan Yiyi translation)
After a moment of silence, Wei Wuxian said, âWhat else have you heard?â
âJiang Cheng, Clan Chief Jiang, brought people to encircle and besiege the Burial Mounds. He killed you, sir.â
âI have to clarify this. He didnât kill me. I died because one of my techniques backfired.â
Wen Ning finally lifted his eyes and looked at him directly. âBut, Clan Chief Jiang, he clearlyââ
âItâs impossible for someone to walk on a lonely, single-log bridge safely and soundly for an entire lifetime. It couldnât be helped.â
(Chapter 43, Fan Yiyi translation)
Jin GuangYao, âIt is true that body sacrifice cannot be proven, but whether or not he is the YiLing Patriarch can. Ever since the YiLing Patriarch had received the cultivation backlash and been torn to dust by his ghouls on the top of the Burial Mounds, his sword was collected by the LanlingJin Sect. But, not long afterwards, the sword sealed itself.â
(Chapter 50, ExR translation)
Some of the things that were said about the first siege - like that JC had dealt the fatal blow to WWX - were untrue, but since the backlash is something WWX himself confirms we can safely take it as a fact. Also, a lot of people were present during WWXâs death and witnessed it with their own eyes, so they knew how he died. JGY, who described WWXâs death as him being âtorn to dust by his ghoulsâ, was probably one of them since the Jin Sect was on the frontline as one of the main forces.
In my opinion, WWX started destroying the Tiger Seal not long after returning to the Burial Mounds. What finally made him decide to eliminate such a dangerous artifact from the world was the bloodbath it had caused at Nightless City. He had originally resolved not to use it unless it was really necessary, but he ended up activating it when he wasnât clear-headed at all, in a moment of extreme desperation and grief after his whole world had crumbled, his beloved shijie had died and everyone condemned him and blamed him for everything that had happened. He wasnât proud of all the people he had killed and didnât want something like that to happen ever again, so he finally resolved to destroy the most powerful weapon he had, which until then he had kept as a deterrent to discourage others from attacking him, since he sensed that sooner or later the cultivation world would turn against him.
He knew perfectly well that destroying the Tiger Seal would leave him in a more vulnerable position (though he still had his demonic cultivation to protect himself and the Wen remnants), but he chose to do it anyway because he knew it was the right thing to do. Such a terrible artifact couldnât be allowed to fall into the wrong hands under any circumstances, and he knew his own fate was sealed since the sects had already labeled him as the scourge of the cultivation world and sooner or later they would come to besiege him. Instead of perpetuating the cycle of violence, WWX chose to willingly put himself in a more precarious position, but it wasnât the destruction of the Tiger Seal itself that killed him. It was a series of circumstances that his decision partially contributed to.
You cannot tell me that someone who goofed off in his youth as much as wwx did wouldnât have found time enough at least for a kiss if heâd wanted to be kissing people.
Instead, we have a line of text in the novelâthe ORIGINAL STORY WRITTEN BY WWXâS CREATORâsaying that wwx had been guarding his first kiss.
This gremlin child had years of opportunity where he was running around flirting with all the pretty girls in YunmengâŚand he never voluntarily kissed anyone in his first life.
Itâs not âoh, he never had the time for romance!â No. Heâdâve found the time if he wanted. He was canonically flirting with girls and looking at porn* before he was shipped off to Cloud Recesses boarding school, and he still had some downtime back home after that before everything went to hell in a handbasket. If wwx was the type to have flings with people, he had plenty of time and chances to go for it.
Instead, CANONICALLY, he was kissed once, by force, while he was blindfolded and physically weaker than any cultivator due to his lack of a golden core, and then he died a virgin a few years later. (Iâll give you that he had other things on his mind during the Burial Mounds years, but that doesnât erase all that carefree time he spent playing around and hunting and flirting and decidedly not kissing anyone.)
Wwx not having any romantic partners isnât due to his situation, itâs due to his character. If you think he sleeps around, heâs fooled you as easily as he fooled lwj.
Also BC âsaving your first timeâ is still v prevalent in mainland China and youâre judged if youâve had other partners. There are literal fans (and fanatics) who will go at authors who try to write characters with a sexual past. So the fact wwx is a virgin? Nothing to be celebrated about.
The fact is wwx as a character couldnât have kissed anyone besides lwj BC if he didâŚyou bet thereâs gonna be readers out there who will then go omg heâs so slutty heâs not good enough for hanguang-jun
Itâs a kind of thing that can take on a bad/good perspective depending on what context you read it in. One can go from âheâs canonically a romantic and choose to *save himself for the one so he wouldnât have multiple partnersâ to âitâs based on the sex negative idea that having multiple partners making you *defiled and itâs worth challengingâ to âbut sex positivity is also about not being immature or less for being an adult virgin and choosing to wait, and it can be a valuable rep for ace and demi peopleâ and suddenly weâve gone full circle.
I guess I have no point to make, except that people with different cultural and sexual experience will have different interpretations of wether itâs a good thing or bad thing, and as with most itâs âlive and let beâ to me.
Okay, but whatever the authorâs reasons were for writing that wwx had no experience donât matter. Those reasons are outside the context of the story. The only canonical reason we get for why wwx never kissed anyone is that he was saving his first kissânot that he didnât want to âââdefileâââ himself by having partners before marriage, not that he wanted to spare his creator from a hoard of angry fans. He could have made any excuse mxtx wanted to have him make, but the one in the novel, and so the one true to wwx, is that he was saving his first kiss. No other reason matters, bc no other reason was written into the story. We were given what we were given.
Does that make him easy to read as being demisexual? Hell yeah it does, and thatâs how Iâm going to read him. Did mxtx mean to do that? Havenât got a clue, but she wrote him as an irritating little bastard of an arrogant flirt who was saving his first kiss and eventually chills out a bit and dreams of a cottagecore life with his bestie/newly-realized-crush, and I ADORE that contrast.
You can say whatever you want about why mxtx was saving wwxâs first kiss, but Wei Wuxian was saving his first kiss because it was special to him.
So much of WWX not knowing about LWJâs feelings when they were younger was such a combination of things, and one of the few good portrayals of miscommunication.
Young LWJ had no experience with even having close friends and was horrible as getting his feelings across once he knew he was in love with WWX. Meanwhile, WWX had no idea yet he had a crush on LWJ since he thought he only liked girls, and he had JC outright lie and say multiple times LWJ doesnât like him. WWX already had some insecurities as a teenager, and the combination of LWJ not being able to express himself and JC words made him doubt a lot of things.
Then there was the fall of Lotus Pier that was basically the start of WWXâs own fall. Even if he was confident LWJ liked him even as a friend, he could no longer afford to let him close. He couldnât tell LWJ why he created Demonic Cultivation, he couldnât tell about the Golden Core transfer, he couldnât even think of confiding in him even though he still held a lot of trust and respect for LWJ.
WWXâs first life was the best reasons to have miscommunication happen so itâs believable why they never got together earlier or realized each otherâs feelings, but also the best example of âright person, wrong timeâ
Oh, absolutely! It's not miscommunication for the sake of ~drama~, it's miscommunication because that is the only thing that makes sense in the situation. Of course there's a failure to communicate between LWJ and WWX, have you seen the state of these two's lives? Their situations are so different that they just don't know how to interact in a way that would let them make their feelings plain!
That's actually one of the major issues I have with CQL, because by making them friends earlier the writers completely destroyed that set-up of them being just so different and having been raised so differently that they just don't know how to communicate; it goes from "right person, wrong time" to every shitty sitcom ever. There's no longer a reason for the failure to communicate that ends up screwing things up until WWX gets resurrected; they just... don't communicate. Because that's what the story demands. It's infinitely weaker as a plot point.
Whatâs really cool about this is that cephalopod (octopus, squid, etc.) intelligence evolved completely separately from intelligence in tetrapods (which includes primates, dolphins, crows⌠basically any other intelligent animals you can think of). Cephalopods are very, very far away from us on the tree of life. For context, you and a starfish are more closely related than you and an octopus. The last common ancestor of humans and cephalopods was the so-called Urbilaterian, the hypothetical first animal with a left-right symmetric body. This animal almost certainly had, at most, an extremely simple nervous system, without anything resembling a brain.
All this is to say that the fact that this octopus appears to be dreaming means one of two things. Either
a) dreaming is a very, very old thing indeed, going directly back to the Urbilaterian. This would mean that almost every animal, from insects to starfish to sea slugs to newts, is likely to have the ability to dream in some capacity or another (unless they have specifically lost it by evolutionary simplification).
or
b) dreaming evolved entirely independently in cephalopods when they developed greater intelligence. This would suggest, at least, that thereâs something very fundamental about dreaming related to intelligence itself, which causes it to emerge independently when sufficient intelligence arises.
Needless to say, either of these outcomes would be really very cool.
Hi :) First of all, I love your writing and characterization! I'm waiting for your longer fics :)
I wanted to ask - what is your opinion on WWX's mental age in the future timeline? I read that MTMX said that he was in a repetitive dream, but he was aware of the time passed. Many people think that it means that he aged mentally the same as LWJ. But I feel like we're continuously shown how much LWJ has progressed while WWX stayed more or less the same as his younger self, only calmer.
If I imagine a cannon divergence where WWX is resurrected a short time after his death and then lives somewhere until the incident at Dafan mountain, I have trouble believing he would have acted the same. I mean, his behavior is a bit juvenile ... What do you think?
Hmm, there are layers to this. I think we all agree that experiences define us. Just the passing of time isn't enough for a person to grow and mature, they need to deal with different responsibilities, challenges, personal realizations, etc. If WWX was in a repetitive dream and still conscious of time passing, he wouldn't have aged at the same pace at LWJ. I think that is pretty clear. LWJ went through real-life experiences for 13 years. WWX was essentially in a coma.
Because he was somewhat aware, we can say he still experienced some mental growth. But I rather think he went through some sort of spiritual healing. What happened during the last two-three years of his first life was breathtakingly traumatic. We always say that WWX is resilient and tends to shrug of the worst because of his philosophy, but I can categorically tell you that's not possible. Stress and trauma cause damage. So much so that babies actually inherit stress and trauma from their parents.
The fact that we don't see much of it post-resurrection leads me to believe that he went through something very intensely therapeutic when he was in that limbo. He came out too settled for it to be anything less.
As for his maturity, a lot of his juvenile behavior was a front, a deliberate deception that was meant to distract. A lot of it is just his personality. When push comes to a shove, he's doesn't act juvenile at all. The entire Yi City arc is a clear example of this. WWX probably gets a lot of private amusement by just being carefree and open. Also, he has awoken from a 13-year absent state. He's processing a lot of things internally. I assume he would only settle into a true personality after a few months of things settling down.
Mind, some people also tend to act a bit childish when they are very comfortable or near a person they trust. I wouldn't be surprised at all if he continues to be so in LWJ's presence all his life.
I think WWX has matured but at a lower rate compared to his peers. But - but I still think he's on a similar level as LWJ.
There's one thing to keep in mind - WWX was ahead of the curve compared to his peers during and after the SSC. He was facing more strife, more hardship, more responsibilities, and more trials than LWJ certainly. He was making more mature decisions compared to JC (like by miles) and even had an edge over LXC. He certainly possessed a sharp-eyed clarity that others simply did not. He sensed JGS's powerplay and understood its implications. He kept the Seal with him because he know he may end up needing it as the world turned against him.
I think we saw LWJ's growth more clearly in comparison to WWX because he was actually playing catch-up. LWJ, despite his experiences with war, was the Second Jade of Lan, a sheltered and well-loved child of a big sect. WWX went from a street child, to a just partially-welcomed ward, to a cultivator without a sect or a golden core, to a man tortured and thrown into the burial mounds, to a war hero, to a pariah, to an persecuted enemy, to a lone protector--- so on.
This guy did all of his growing before died in his early twenties. It is actually natural for him to be more dismissive and care-free now, when all of that stress is far behind him. If he were alive and in hiding, his experiences during that time would shape him. I do believe he would've been a little different, but not significantly so, especially if he spent his life in some peaceful place just farming and charming villagers.
A/N: I've thought about this conversation between them since I finished the novel. While I would broadly classify WWX here as "sex-favorable asexual" and LWJ here as "grey-ace/demisexual (Wei Ying specific)," each person's experience is unique and neither of these are mine. I beg your forgiveness if anything I've had them say rings false. This fic is largely a discussion is about their sex life, but nothing more physical than kissing is shown in this story.
đ¤đ¤đ
Wei Ying likes everything Lan Wangji does. Lan Wangji knows this to be true, because Wei Ying tells him, in exactly those words, every time Lan Wangji draws his husband close and asks what he would like.
But.
Perhaps there should be no "but"âWei Ying is vocal, even loud, in his enthusiasm for all the ways Lan Wangji touches him, all the ways he takes him apart and feasts on the sight and sounds and sensation of his body.
But when Lan Wangji asks his fantasies, hoping to fulfill Wei Yingâs desires as fully as Wei Ying has fulfilled his, they are games, stories, often moments from their own past or clichĂŠs from romantic tales or erotic literature, and if playacting is the shape of Wei Yingâs desire, then Lan Wangji will do his best, but.
The jingshi glows warm tonight, and the day has been a good one, and when Lan Wangji draws Wei Ying into his lap and asks, "How would you like me tonight?" and Wei Ying replies, as he always does, "I like everything Lan Zhan does," Lan Wangji pauses.
"Wei Ying," he asks, "is there nothing in particular you desire from this husband?"
"Lan Zhan?" Wei Ying is confused. Lan Wangji considers the shape of what he has been wondering and arranges the words.
"You know there are many rules about restraining desire and excessive indulgence in physical pleasure," he begins.
Wei Ying grins. "Ooh, is this a new game? Have we broken rules, Lan Zhan?"
"Hush," Lan Wangji says, softening it with a kiss. "Listen." Wei Ying settles into Lan Wangji's arms, his thoughtful face on.
"In my youth, I did not understand these rules, why the other disciples joked about them. To me, they seemed simple, easily followed.
"Then, Wei Ying."
Wei Yingâs cheeks flush, and Lan Wangji has to restrain himself from taking that beautifully reddened skin between his teeth.
"I felt urges so intense they frightened me, reactions in my body I had no context for." He feels the corner of his mouth twitch. "I thought the problem could be solved if only you would learn to observe the rules."
Wei Ying laughs. "And yet I remain a problem, eh Lan Zhan?" he says, eyes twinkling with mischief.
"Never," Lan Wangji disagrees. "It was only ever that I had not yet learned how to hold wanting you inside my skin."
"Lan Zhan, you can't say things like that," Wei Ying protests. "It makes it sound like you wanted to ravish me all the time."
"I did want to ravish you all the time," Lan Wangji replies easily. "I do still. I'd never felt anything like that before, nor for anyone else, since. When I look at you, when I think about you, sometimes when I'm doing something else entirely, the wanting is there, dozens of different ways I desire to have you. Just now, I wanted to bite your cheek." Wei Ying shudders against him, breathing coming faster as Lan Wangji speaks. "What I wonder," he asks gently, "is whether that is how it feels for you."
Wei Ying's brows draw together. "Lan Zhan, you know I love you. You must know I love what we do together, all the ways you love me."
Lan Wangji kisses the wrinkle away. "I do know. I only ask to see if there is something you want that I haven't offered, or..." this is the delicate part "...or anything you don't don't want that you accept because I want it from you."
"That doesn't make any sense," Wei Ying argues. "Everything I like, I like it because you want it fromâoh..."
He pauses, and Lan Wangji can see the ideas rearranging behind his eyes. He is so grateful for the ways Wei Ying understands him, for the second chance he has been able to understand Wei Ying.
"Oh, so... for you, the wanting is separate from theâ" he waves his hands, blushing again "âthe loving me of it all?"
Lan Wangji tilts his head side to side. "Not separate," he says, "but distinct. Like a hunger that remains, whether a meal is spread out before me or I'm practicing inedia, only for Wei Ying."
"Lan-er-gege!" Wei Ying squeezes him tight and buries his face in Lan Wangji's chest. "The things you say..."
Lan Wangji holds him. Sits with the ever-present simmer under his skin and waits.
"I like that you want me," Wei Ying admits, in his smallest, most honest voice. "I don't know that I feel that hunger the way you describe, but it feels good that I'm what you want, just as I am."
He wipes his face against Lan Wangji's chest, and Lan Wangji's heart clenches at the wetness that clings to his eyelashes when he looks up. "Is that okay?" Wei Ying asks. "I'm sorry if I'm notâ"
Lan Wangji cuts him off with a kiss, and Wei Ying melts into it, like always.
"No sorry between us," he insists. "Just as you are, as you said. If you wanted nothing more from me than someone to buy you Emperor's Smile, that is what I would give you, and gladly."
"Well I certainly won't turn that down," Wei Ying chuckles, "but I've grown rather spoiled by the rest of it too. I think we'll keep things as they are, Lan Zhan, everyday and all."
"If it's ever too much, if I'm everâ" he needs Wei Ying to understand, needs him to know that he's not beholden to what he said once or what he says now.
"I'll tell you," Wei Ying promises. "I don't think you could be too much for me, Lan Zhan, if I'm honest, but I'll tell you."
Lan Wangji nods and lets his body show the gratitude he feels for the promise, for Wei Yingâs understanding, for everything about the man in his arms. Wei Ying meets him, warm and welcoming as ever, opening to receive all the love and desire Lan Wangji has to give. Their lips and bodies move in tandem, a dance they've both learned all the steps to, until Wei Ying suddenly stops and pulls back.
"Wait!" he says, looking stunned, "Wait, so you mean to tell me all that poetry about desire and yearning and aching for the touch of your beloved is literal? People are really walking around out there feeling a physical need to, to kiss on somebody? Isn't that distracting??"
Lan Wangji can't help but smile. "Highly."
"And some people feel like that for more than one person? Maybe even for anybody attractive they see?"
"I believe it differs in focus and intensity," Lan Wangji says, "but as I understand it, yes."
"Holy shit," says Wei Ying, looking a little gobsmacked by the very idea. "All this time, I assumed that was metaphor."
Lan Wangji loves him so, so much.
"Well. WELL!" Wei Ying says, as he pins him with a serious look. "Anytime you're feeling too distracted by all that yearning, you just come and find me, husband. It won't do to have Hanguang-jun incapacitated by his amorous desires."
Lan Wangji chuckles. "If my husband insists."
"He does! This Wei Ying will accept as many kisses and everydays as his poor, horny husband requires." His grin is wide and beautiful and so fond, and, as ever, Lan Wangji wants to kiss it right off his face.
Iâm a xinjiang chinese-kyrgyz thatâs very active in both the en and cn speaking cnovel fandom and yall need to understand that as much as that was phrased as a meme, you are truly not immune to it. racism, colourism, and xenophobia against ethnic groups in/from central and northern asia are entrenched in every single aspect of the han media that has been popularised in western fandom. the books and adaptations of them use racism that can be as subtle as the eye colours of villains to making the xiongnu an alien species of violent beasts. cnovels, regardless of their morality or status as problematic/unproblematic, such as mdzs, fgep, cql, tgcf, 2ha, woh/shl and spl, all of them engage in and encourage the racism, xenophobia, colourism, classism, and sexism that form anti-central/northern asian stereotypes
this isnât me saying donât read cnovels or to completely disengage with fandom. rather, Iâm asking you to think critically about the media you consume and what prejudices it might encourage. think about how this impacts your views of these ethnic groups; even if we donât actively realise it, we are conditioned by media to view these groups as barbaric, savage, and uncivilized. think about how your ingrained prejudices might impact those around you. if you see a character coded as mongolian, then maybe consider how theyâve been coded. why do you interpret them as mongolian? how does this represent your view of real, living mongolian people?
many people honestly donât know about us either! the struggles we face are unrepresented and heavily suppressed by eastern media, making western understanding of northern nomads and similar groups very stunted. the number of people Iâve met who have never even heard of my people is innumerable. however, being uninformed does not negate the harm you do by engaging in racist habits, no matter how good your intentions
frankly, I do not want to be responsible for educating an online space that has firmly entrenched racism, it makes me upset to have these conversations in the first place. I would much rather you educate yourself and think critically, but I also know that topics like these can be difficult for western audiences to understand and I know a lot of people truly mean the best and want to support minorities. so, just as a general guide, here are some things that are the most prevalent in anti central/northern asian racism:
eye/hair colour: lighter hair and eye colours, especially when paired with darker skin, are common in our genetic clines, while han culture views those combinations as unsightly, creepy, dangerous, sinister, etc. often you will see villains given bright blue or green eyes, such as xue yang in many mdzs adaptations, to signify that they are murderous and untrustworthy. this directly stems from interactions between central asians(casians) and central plains people. our features are labelled as demonic, freakish, and evil
broad features and large stature: often you see the quote âback of a tiger, waist of a bearâ. the ban yue desert people in tgcf are a good example of this, described as being many feet taller than the average person, broader, and in general much more physically strong
powerful voice and coarse language: describing our languages as guttural, barbaric, harsh, rough, simplistic, or lacking nuance is an attempt to paint us as uncivilized, uncultured, and intellectually inferior to other peoples. similarly, giving us voices that are booming, loud, coarse, and rough attempts to do the same
sparse clothing and animal furs: think of âcaveman attireâ. having characters wear strips of fur, have bare chests, clothing considered barbaric or caveman-like, etc. this is a pretty self-explanatory one
exotic customs/dance/looks: while central/northern asian people often do have different appearances and customs than han people, the portrayal of evidently fabricated, uneducated, exaggerated versions of our culture is offensive, othering, and often fetishistic. our hair styles are also incredibly important, and many times are religiously significant. using them as âexotic braidsâ or similar intricate styles is offensive and rips away all their cultural significance. these cultures and customs are an important part of life to millions of people, they are not a costume or flashy dance that is there to make a character seem exotic and enticing
geographical racism and fantasization: to many casian groups, our lands are extremely important to us, such as the northern steppes. if this is portrayed respectfully, then great! but most media shows our lands as the mystical, faraway, dangerous grass plains filled with roaming wolves and venomous snakes. for the love of everything holy, you can have a fantasy world WITHOUT fantasizing a certain region in an offensive manner. this is an ecological region, similar to every region in the world. if you want to write mystic lands filled with dangers, then have all the regions included in that. do not single out the northern steppes to be some fantastical mountainscape. while this might seem odd to western viewers, this kind of prejudice is linked to thousands of years of casian lands being portrayed as demonic and dangerous in han culture
religious racism: again, othering and fantasizing a strong cultural component. having characters practice blood sacrifices, use corpses for âevil religious ritualsâ, cast curses with bones, etc. this is really any uneducated and exaggerated portrayal of casian religion (especially tengriism or any paganistic variant), making it look exotic or dangerous
medical racism: this is closely tied with religious racism, but normally manifests through offensive portrayals of shamans or priests. having shamans be anything outside of their traditional roles of religious leaders and healers in most communities is offensive! having shamans or priests be demonic practitioners that make blood curses, raise poisonous beasts, and breed venomous beetles is offensive!
innate connection with beasts/animals: making this a trait associated with specific groups of people, especially tribal societies, is just racist and dehumanizing. this one is self-explanatory
Brutal Strong Girlboss Female General: large, strong, domineering, women are considered unattractive and disgraceful in han culture. the strong female warrior stereotype is 99% of the time not some feminist girlboss statement, its a racist stereotype to make our people look brutish and unattractive, especially considering that another strong stereotype against us is that casian men are all brutal, womanizing, harem-masters
sinicizing/civilizing us: the western equivalent of this is christianizing various ethnic minorities. having casian characters be âcivilizedâ through introduction to han culture is just blatantly racist. similarly, describing mixed han-casian people as âmore delicateâ than their casian family, being finer-featured, etc is also just plain racism
a lot of these overlap with anti-indigenous and anti-black racism too! while the struggles our groups face are not the same, we have many mutual experiences that mean this conversation also extends to these groups. with that being said, if you are not central/northern asian, indigenous, or black, if you clown on or derail this post Iâm going to start swinging
Kill the idea that Mo Xuanyu was a soft shy boy who couldnât hurt a fly and was manipulated into taking his own life.
He canonically slit his own arms and performed a never-been-done demonic ritual to summon the creator of necromancy. He died with only three (or four, depending on if you read or watch) wishes, every single one of them a desire to have the new owner of his body kill a certain someone. Dude, to his very last breath, wished for nothing other than revenge. Even in the manhwa heâs drawn with gold eyes that are narrower than Wei Wuxianâs, much sharper and more filled with hatred than doe-eyed Wei Wuxian could ever manage, even when he was in patriarch mode.Â
Like I get it itâs nice to write a beaten down uwu Gay boy who selflessly gave his soul for a greater cause.
But man isnât it so much more fun to write the 25 year old co-conspirator of Nie Huaisang (who didnât shy away or pretend like Nie Huaisang, who wasnât scared to let everyone know his true colors),Â
who STUDIED NEXT TO Xue Yang and was capable of resurrecting people where even Xue Yang failed (who was in the end willing to go farther, deeper, DARKER than Xue Yang would have ever considered),Â
who probably knew he was being used and didnât care so long as the bastards that ruined his life got what was coming to them in the end.
Also he canonically looks VERY SIMILAR TO WEI WUXIAN and that should honestly be explored more because you bet youâre ass a LOT OF PEOPLE WERE VERY SCARED WHEN THEY SAW HIM THE FIRST TIME.
ayo not to be self centered but I just saw this ask on someone else's blog and i feel personally called out bc im not sure how popular this very specific take i have about cql!wwx is đâ like i had Reasons as to why i said this i just never bothered to say them. feeling Misunderstood and Misrepresented rn đ
canonically, he doesn't cry that much. canonically, he's not traumatized. some traumatizing events happened to him, but he's not traumatized, that's the point of his character, he's resilient.
let's say we view cql!wwx as a different character from the novel, i still dislike him. people are just deluding themselves if they think everyone wants to see excessively emotional character as mc. the way people discourse characters, trying their hardest to make them sound like the weepiest emotional wreck, the way people shit on stoic and rational characters, and demand characters to emote and break down is tiring. all this is just making emotions cheap.
see when it comes to wwx and Trauma it's clear that he just processes it differently. he's not someone to wallow in self pity and cry all the time. if he was, a lot more people would know he was going through a bad time and he probably would have had a lot more pity points (cough this is exactly what jin guangyao does). instead wwx refuses to hold onto the shitty things that have happened to him and forces himself to push forward, (generally this leads to unhealthy coping mechanisms such as drinking like we see him do after the war). and the thing is, it makes perfect sense for his character. he spent years as a child living on the street, then spent years in lotus pier being a verbal punching bag- he's never been allowed to wallow in self pity and cry for himself, but cql!wwx cries literally every other scene like a spoiled young master who's never faced the harsh realities of the world.
i think mdzs!wwx cries maybe once in the entire book? (that we dee of anyway, i can't fully remember) right after he kills jin zixuan, and like i said earlier he's not really crying for himself. he's crying for the life he had created for the wens because he knows it's gonna be destroyed now, and he blames himself for this. wwx is the type of person who cries for other people, who hurts for other people, but never himself. i think that by having him cry at the slightest inconvenience like he does in cql waters down a lot of his character and also doesn't really make sense for him considering the life he's lived up to that point.
idk like at the end of the day its another poor character decision the cql directors made at the cost of the characterisation that was crafted in the novel.
There's something I really love about early fandom fics. Before the fandom have properly established, and before any fanon have taken foothold, one can see how most fanfics come from somebody's own interpretation and relationship with the work.
Early fanfic pieces feel somehow so genuine and passionate, and so much of that is lost as the fandom evolves and people start being influenced not by the work itself, but by fandom trends and fanon. Is that bad? Not necessarily. The most important thing is that people are having fun after all. Still, as somebody who've twice been in early fandoms and seen them grow, there's something truly special about those early days. Nothing's established, people who like a thing are gathering and sharing what they like about said thing with little but their own reading. There are no pre-established ideas, no interpretation more prevelant than the other. And I love that.
I've seen so many people read the moment wwx gets flustered by lwj's words as him being "unused to any romantic words or in general positive words/praise, and not knowing how to handle that bcs of low self-esteem" or smth. Which is- quite a bit off mark. Not touching on the misconception of wwx's self-esteem, wwx in himself isn't that easily flustered by romantic words or actions, even lwj's. In the extra this happens, lwj flirts with wwx in creative ways, yet wwx will mostly react with a "aww babe, how shameless of you" or just throwing himself at him in elation.
No the reason wwx got flustered in the first place, was because lwj, dead serious, dropped one of the most devastatingly romantic lines I've heard in my life.
Wwx "Be honest about wether or not you thought about me in the same way." In a solemn tone, he spoke, "Rejecting me like that so coldly every single time- it really made me lose face, don't you know?"
Lwj "You can try now, to see if I would reject you over anything."
Like. Seriously. It's no mere 'I love you' or 'you're talented' or smth I see people use as a line wwx would get flustered by. It's not the mere presence of love or affection. I don't know if this misconception also plays into the idea that lwj is somehow bad with words, when he's really not! Moments like these show just how good he is! Wwx is not taken aback at the nature of what he says, but how he says it.
dr abu al-ouf was head of internal medicine at palestineâs main hospital, al-shifa.
he was just killed along with twelve members of his family, including his parents, his wife and two of his three children.
there was no warning before an israeli air strike demolished the apartment building he was living in.
on the left is a picture of dr mouin al-aloul.
he was gazaâs top neurologist. he was killed the same day as dr abu al-ouf.
a few days earlier, israeli air strikes destroyed roads leading to gazaâs main hospital.
red crescent, a medical humanitarian group from qatar, and mÊdecins sans frontières (doctors without borders) had their facilities and crew targeted by israeli air attacks.
gazaâs main covid lab was damaged in an idf strike and has ceased all operations.
regardless of the fact that thereâs a pandemic happening, which isnât over for most of the developing world, the loss of medical personnel at a time when theyâre so desperately needed is devastating, to say the least. and a breach of the geneva convention, making all these events a certified war crime.
this post covers some really good charities that offer medical aid to palestinians in need. please consider donating if youâre looking to help!
there is no defence to targeting medical personnel. there is no justification, no argument, no âbut hamasâ about it. palestineâs fragile healthcare system is already at breaking point, and this bombardment has only driven it further over the edge.
if you canât donate, thatâs totally okay. just please do keep spreading awareness!
Iâve been reading about Chinese ghosts and spirits today and it is honestly a miracle that Wei Wuxian did not end up as a vengeful spirit. Like, there are so many different ways that someone could become a vengeful ghost in his particular setting: improper burial? check. Absorption of too much of one kind of energy over another? check. Rage against moral injustice? check. Violent death? check.
Like, no wonder people are still talking about him thirteen years later. No wonder people still sell talismans to ward off his ghost. No wonder heâs a bogeyman story. Because he should have been. He absolutely should have been causing malicious havoc somewhere. And then I think about Lan Wangji during that time, and I justâŚ. thatâs what he expected, isnât it? He expected to find Wei Wuxian among the restless, angry dead, and he expected to be the one to try to pacify him. But itâs never Wei Wuxian. For thirteen years he investigates rumors of chaos and destruction and itâs never Wei Wuxian.
And then it turns out Wei Wuxian wasnât a vengeful spirit at all. Heâs not even possessing Mo Xuanyu. He was invited, and his spirit is whole, and not corrupted, so long as he can fulfill this binding wish of destroying an enemy he canât readily identify.
How much relief must he have felt, at that chance? At knowing that this fear heâs carried with him for over a decade is something he can set down, and maybe even something he never needed to worry about at all? How much of his faith in Wei Wuxianâs spirit and intentions must have been restored.
Idk, I just canât stop thinking about this. About how close they were to not just âWei Wuxian is deadâ but to âLan Wangji meets Wei Wuxian on a night huntâ under the absolute worst of circumstances.
lots of good stuff in the notes but I wanted to add: is it any wonder that Lan Wangji devoted himself so wholly to the search for Wei Wuxianâs ghost, for any hint of anything that might be Wei Wuxianâs ghost? Not just for his own sake, missing the man that he loves, but for Wei Wuxianâs sake too.
The Lan cultivators are said (early in the Gusu arc) to be the only sect that emphasizes liberation of the spirit over suppression and elimination, because they still care for the welfare of the spirit after death where other sects are more interested in dealing with the trouble the spirit is causing to the living.
Wei Wuxian is so infamous, Lan Wangji knows full well that if any other cultivator encounters his spirit â even another Lan cultivator, most likely â they wonât hesitate to destroy it utterly. The only cultivator still alive in the world that cares enough about Wei Wuxian to bring peace to his spirit and ease him on to the next life is Lan Wangji.
If Lan Wangji isnât able to find and heal his spirit, nobody will.
I'm just going to leave a reminder here of Wei Wuxian's, Jiang Cheng's and Lan Wangj's "crimes" and what morally grey actually means.
Wei Wuxian: He created the ghost path which entails necromancy, hence the taboo within the cultivation world calling it a "dirty" path. It is the desecration of bodies and no burial rights for the dead, it is seen as a moral offense to harm your own human body, which Wei Wuxian does by harnessing resentful energy. His Taijitu is unbalanced by too much Yin meaning withdrawal, bitterness and spiteful (sound familiar yet?)
He was not looked down on for his actions in the Sunshot Campaign as it was seen as his right and Jiang Cheng's to destroy the Wen's within Wen Ruohan's army. This plays into the eye for an eye of sect politics and Wen Ruohan was asserting himself as a higher power within a society that works upon daoist beliefs. Wei Wuxian is not a war criminal due to this, all of the deaths that he was infamous for he was also praised for until he decided to protect the remnant Wens that were seen at large as a stain upon the cultivation world due to their family name.
His cultivation was only convenient when it could be harnessed by the Sect of Yunmeng Jiang. His defection is a show of shame and projected as such to the cultivation world which left him under suspicion even more so by protecting a worldly enemy. Yet he does not attack until he is provoked something that had been warned against but the Sects with power consider him a liability along with getting rid of the Wens who are still considered to hold the same responsibility as Wen Ruohan by association by name. His deaths during the rampage if Nightless City was already a response to the attacks against him that Jin Guangshan called for due to the death of a Sect Heir.
Later Jiang Cheng joins again for the first Siege as revenge for Jiang Yanli. Wei Wuxian was forced into the position to defend himself without the backing of other cultivators. His crime was being a volatile outlier to the 4 Great Clans as he claimed no loyalty to them despite his powers.
His personal crimes came down to the accidental deaths of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli, which only Jiang Cheng holds as deep crimes once Wei Wuxian is back in the world. His supposed villainy is quickly switched onto Jin Guangyao as a far more active threat to unbalancing the powers of the Four Sects as his past crimes are now lesser to cultivation politics.
He is thematically the compass of moral and idealistic justice killed due to being too radical by the standards of the world. He was in the right, morally, but by political standards he was a danger and also one to himself due to desperation. And hence the only morally grey character of the main three, his actions were questionable but also ultimately meant to be for the greater safety of those he protected first with the Jiang Sect and later the Wens.
Lan Wangji: He is presented as the ideal of rigid to the book standards of daoist practices, does not boast, follows a sensible routine, is scholarly and follows the rules set by his Sect. He is the lawful morality of the plot, but his naivety is what puts his own knowledge of what true morals are as he learns that it is not black and white thinking and not everything can be placed in the world with just rules.
He does help the common people of the world, but it is not until he is faced with understanding why Wei Wuxian defected and became a wanted criminal that he dwells on his own thoughts of what can be done within the confines of the political rules that have been set. He does in fact rebel against his own Sect as a show of picking his own personal morals, choosing to stand by Wei Wuxian and protect him.
He proceeds to accept punishment for standing by a cultivation world enemy, not out of guilt, but as a show that he stands by his choices and would choose to do so again as there are always situations that cannot be solved easily and they can not be defined cleanly as right and wrong.
Later on he instills his own morality and kindness in his juniors neither pressuring them or pressing them to do more, only what they can do safely and within their abilities as well as their own thinking. Sizhui especially is the greatest show of what Lan Wangji thought as he does not run to assumptions first meeting "Mo Xuanyu" remaining courteous and showing care to his safety, and later when finding out who Wei Wuxian was but still choosing to stand by him and Lan Wangji in solidarity despite the accusations aimed at them.
Later he is able to stand by his own choices next to Wei Wuxian without hesitation due to his surety within trusting Wei Wuxian and understanding that there is a deeper plot at play unlike when he was young.
Lan Wangji's personal crimes was hesitating to stand by someone he cared for due to his own lack of understanding in separation of rules, morality, and how to come to terms with forging his own path of realization with them until later in his life. He is the typical coming of age story and maturing into a kinder morality that is balanced into something that can safely protect one's self and others with the least possible chance of losses.
Jiang Cheng: Politically he stays close to Sect regulations and later as stringently as possible in order to solidify his place among the cultivation sects. He is well off, he had at one point the power of the Yiling Laozu under his command as he was a disciple solely of Yunmeng Jiang. But, he places his morality against the order of the cultivation world.
Since he was young he ordered Wei Wuxian to keep away from problems, it was a disruption and not worth the wrath or trouble that could be brought down on them. The sacrifice of some lives did not weigh against the safety of those who were more important to him, first his parents, and then the happiness of Jiang Yanli despite that happiness being veiled in ignorance.
His life debt to the Wen siblings during the Sunshot Campaign, even without knowing about the Golden Core, he chooses that the debt is not important enough next to his hate of the Wen name and, out of jealousy of Wei Wuxian leaving him for something lesser. He views repayment as something above him, that he does not owe if the slights against him are seen as unforgivable. His own morality is very cutthroat and insular to himself despite his love of others.
His festering hate even when Wei Wuxian leaves eventually morphs into a personal vendetta, and he states several times that Wei Wuxian's repayment is his death, an eye for an eye, for his parents, Jiang Yanli, and Jin Zixuan. His first death is not enough as he hunted for his soul for thirteen years eventually resulting in the murder of innocents that had nothing to do with his grudge. He is infamously cruel and considered unhinged as a Sect Leader, but is seen as a hero for killing Wei Wuxian and has the clout of power to protect himself as needed and is allowed to continue his torture of cultivators.
He falls into a spiral of pure violence hate and bitterness as his honorary title reflects, ironically he meant it as a ward against being poisoned, but he poisons himself by his lack of further reflection and dismissal of everyone's actual motives. He is the antithesis of Lan Wangji's kinder actions as he instills his harmful hateful views within his nephew and as he was when he was young, still keeps his head down and following the structure of the cultivation world as his position is not threatened. He has no just morals any longer, he is obsessed with chasing a revenge that has long been solved and has not changed since his years of the Sunshot campaign and his eye for an eye thinking.
In the most basic sense for these three they are the hero (Lan Wangji), the anti-hero (Wei Wuxian) and the antagonist (Jiang Cheng). They are the three focal points of extremism of story structure of character arcs. Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji learn their lessons and are granted their happy ends with finally learning to understand the other morally and find love within their shared ideals to balance what the other lacks. Jiang Cheng stagnates and is left to mull over where to go after his hate is no longer a matter of worth and the rest word moves on.
Certainly lot of fanon has gotten into the habit of having of a dumb but sometimes smart Wei Wuxian. They take a lot of what he does at face value and only part of it has to do with CQL and the changes made.
The other part is basically it being lost in translation.
Mo Dao Zu Shi is based firmly on common xianxia tropes. Which it then deconstructs and even subverts at times. But some of them are played straight before being skewered by the deconstruction elements.
One of which is how Wei Wuxian is a Master of the Six Arts. He is, in fact, a prodigy, a genius, and all around the best of his generation.
What are the six arts?
Rites: Religious rituals, but also social manners and how a gentleman should conduct himself.
Music: A good gentleman can do an instrument perfectly, knows how to make good music too.
Archery: Skill in archery is also associated with gentlemen.
Chariotry: Being able to use a chariot and horse? Must be a gentleman. Though I get the impression itâs just horsemanship in MDZS.
Calligraphy: Elegant, proper handwriting is a must.
Mathematics: You have to be able to handle this as well.
And if heâs a master of all of these, he can do them. We know he is the best archer of his generation, we see him use his dizi in a masterful way (to the point he can fake being bad and still use musical cultivation perfectly even so). Math isnât exactly given a focus, but considering his analytical brain in canon itâs easy to assume he can do it.
Horsemanship is mention to be good in the novel. His actor having a bad seat in CQL is just the actor himself failing there. In-universe heâs meant to be good!
That leaves Rites and Calligraphy. And guess what? Itâs an absolute choice. His style of calligraphy is actually a genuine style, a form of cursive so to speak, and he is shown to be very careful in how he writes out Jin Rulan in the donghua. He can very well write properly.
Rites? He could very well be as well-mannered and gentlemanly as Lan Xichen. He shows understanding of good manners, he deliberately is a gremlin on purpose. This guy could be a proper gentleman, he just doesnât want to be.
And early on, we are shown heâs actually smart and knows very well his education as a cultivator. He answers difficult questions from Lan Qiren on his first day in class and only doesnât answer one because he wants to get out of the class and so deliberately brings up the manipulation of resentful energy.
In fact, letâs remember that he invented demonic cultivation in canon. No one is shown to have his power in canon, heâs dismissive of anyone being able to prevent him stealing control of their corpses without the Yin Tiger Seal.
And this, by the way, is why people scorned and labelled him âYiling Laozuâ. Why they came up with so many horrible rumours.
These classist jerks were jealous and spiteful over a âson of a servantâ being that good of a cultivator, that brilliant. At being the one who shined the best out of his generation and even out preformed previous and future generations with his feats!
Thatâs the twist in the original novel. Wei Wuxian getting that horrible reputation was mainly because he is a genius and the classist cultivator society could not STAND the fact he is. Because heâs âlow bornâ so shouldnât be that great, shouldnât be that wonderful. Cultivation is mostly in the hands of essentially the noble class here, they are the ones meant to be the greatest. They go out on night-hunts mainly to showcase their power and ability, not to help out people in need.
And Wei Wuxian still out shines them with his abilities. Even without his golden core â though they certainly didnât and still donât know about that! â Wei Wuxian managed to prove himself the best even so. He went through a whole war and came out the other side alive despite having no golden core.
So really can we go back and appreciate just how smart and competent Wei Wuxian is? Itâs not just Lan Wangji who is legendary with his abilities.
