CQL is a gateway drug

the narratively cool thing about this to me is like. have you ever listened to your best friend rant about some asshole who ruined their day? have you ever validated their feelings and ended up also thinking that the asshole in question sucked, despite not seeing the situation firsthand and not knowing the asshole personally? perhaps your best friend ranted about someone so much that you became familar with, idk, The Asshole Karen From Work entirely through their lens? if you, then, actually met The Asshole Karen in real life, would your friend's stories influence the way you treat her? for something so trivial, could there be consequences?

But Wei Wuxian does not take the time (thirty seconds! WWX, you could have made an educated guess!) to figure out this kid's specific identity! He's just been wrestling with an incredibly stubborn donkey all day and he's probably hangry again because they had to share an apple. He just thinks to himself, "Wow, this Jin kid is a real spoiled brat," and goes from there!

"Didn't your mother ever teach you any manners?" he says obliviously to JIN LING, his own fucking nephew. When Jin Ling is FAMOUSLY ORPHANED. Like, you could go up to literally anyone on the street and be like, "What happened to that rich kid Jin Ling's parents?" and they would immediately tell you, "Oh, the evil Yiling Patriarch killed them, evilly." Very high chance that no one has ever said anything like this to Jin Ling - extremely rich young master, most famous orphan in the cultivation world, in possession of some very scary uncles - before.

And from Jin Ling's perspective, this outrageous comment is coming from his OWN UNCLE, Mo Xuanyu, his late grandfather's bastard son who was kicked out of the sect for being gay and crazy. There is NO WAY that Mo Xuanyu could somehow not know that Jin Ling has no parents, so of course, this has to be an intentional low-blow insult bringing up and disparaging his dead mother. So, of course this brat tries to start a fight! Mo Xuanyu started it with words like that!

And then Wei Wuxian trips him and essentially sits on him (using a talisman), there's the whole "My uncle is going to kill you!" & "Who's your uncle?" exchange, and Jiang Cheng immediately interrupts them. And Wei Wuxian has to do the sudden, incredibly simple, damning mental calculation of: "Jin kid + Jiang Cheng for an uncle = Oh, fuck."

+ healer wen au!

He fucking did, tho?

Did you skip the fourth of the novel that spells out that Wei Wuxian fucking did owe Jiang Cheng something?

He owed him a goddamn ✨✨explanation✨✨ for suddenly going rogue, then seemingly insane, then murdering his brother in law and then losing his mind and their sister to the powers WWX assured everyone and anyone he could control 100% no biggie.

And that this is ultimately all Jiang Cheng wanted from Wei Wuxian? An explanation and an apology for being lied to and abandoned without a word? He wanted him to come back home, apologise to the dead, and explain himself.

How is that a hard concept to understand to some people?

If your friend keeps telling you "Hey, let's open up a bakery and I will do half of the work, and its gonna be great!" but then, once you open the bakery, the friend keeps skipping his part of the job and ultimately, without an explanation, goes to support your flagging competition while pissing off every other shop owner in the city - demanding an explanation is the least you'd do.

How the hell can you look at the guy desperate to ask "What happened to make all our lives go so wrong?" and think "Eugh, entitled!"

Jiang Cheng and Jin Ling are THE people deserving answers the most in the whole world post WWX's ressurection. He pretty much destroyed both of their lives - not on purpose, no, but inadvertently that's what happened. There was more people and interests at play, but the things that impacted these two the most were of Wei Wuxian's lies.

Lan Zhan: I see. And the so-called "Pool of Blood"?

“Who is this famous and talented cultivator” is possibly the funniest line in the book and one of my very favorite Jiang Cheng moments and I would just like to revisit it. I think fandom does not always fully appreciate that my stand up comedian king had zero warning about any of this, he didn’t know that his brother was going to show up at the biggest political event of the year, he didn’t know about the murder mystery all of this is very unwelcome news to him. He was already dealing with the complicated emotions of his brother being alive again and also his insolent brat of a nephew that he hasn’t actually seen in days. Jiang Cheng has basically 0.02 seconds to process the fact that Wei Wuxian is going to be around him in his nephew’s house, disguising himself as incestuous sex pest probably to investigate a serious crime his co-parent committed, and what does he do? Invent comedy and then drop it entirely to banter with JGY and Jin Ling and then go about his business like this is a Very Normal Discussion Conference with zero Yiling Patriarchs or criminal investigations of the host going on. Meanwhile the people who had time to prepare:

Incredible job here guys, a very convincing performance. Jiang Cheng is not just a comedic genius but also a great improv actor working with some truly shitty material. This little conversation is already hilarious in English, but my friend @tavina-writes enlightened me on further layers:

Me, a few Cdramas in: character calls another character "sibling word" NO ONE IS RELATED UNTIL YOU CALL THE SAME WOMAN MOTHER AND MAYBE NOT EVEN THEN!

The more time they spend together, the more suspicious Lan Wangji is that "Mo Xuanyu" is Wei Wuxian reborn, but he does not speak on it. He is aware he may very well be seeing things that are not truly there due to his grief, and does not have any concrete proof still that this is, in fact, Wei Wuxian.

However, at the same time, Wei Wuxian is falling for Lan Wangji. It's eating him up inside and he thinks "well I am in the body of a cut sleeve, might as well use that to my advantage" and tries to earnestly come on to Lan Wangji.

Lan Wangji turns down his advances, stating "Apologies, but my one love died some time ago. I will not love another."

Without missing a beat, Wei Wuxian replies, "MianMian died?! When?!"

Lan Wangji stares at him bewildered. "Wei Ying." He addresses his companion in a cross tone.

another interesting tidbit of narration in mdzs. what makes it so fun is that it’s presented as omniscient narration fact, but it’s obviously positioned unfavorably toward jiang cheng. and as we keep reading, we can see how wei wuxian specifically would hold this opinion of jc—jc doesn’t want to break rules in cloud recesses, he doesn’t want to resist wen chao as a teenager, he doesn’t want to go against the cultivation clans after the war.

but the thing is, barely adult jc, alone, traumatized, inexperienced, was one of the renowned leaders of the sunshot campaign, when they were at a distinct disadvantage. he diverted the attention of the wen soldiers to save wwx, knowing he would get captured. he never stopped looking for wwx during his 3 months in the burial mounds, even after everyone else except for lwj had given up. he rebuilt lotus pier from nothing. he steps into guanyin temple at the end knowing very little of the situation inside to protect jin ling, and it’s clear that he couldn’t have won that fight alone. again and again, he has proven that when it’s time to fight, he will risk everything and give it his all even when victory is unlikely.

“Jiujiu, come inside!” Jin Ling beckoned. Jiang Cheng lunged at the horde with Sandu, which had completely lost its glare. “Shut up!” he snapped at him ferociously. As he yelled, more blood poured from his nose and mouth. Jin Ling rushed down the steps, seized him, and started dragging him toward the Demon-Quelling Cave. Jiang Cheng’s spiritual powers were completely gone by now, and he was physically drained from grappling with the enemy for half a day, so Jin Ling was able to haul him over just like that. The Jiang Clan’s cultivators hurried to follow their sect leader.

MDZS Seven Seas translation, vol. 4, Core of the Truehearted

NO bald. NO nuance.

#guy who doesn’t think other people are real is good in bed???? No. @lansplaining with accurate anti-propaganda for Our Winner Xue Yang 

#this is a grave misunderstanding of the term 'body count' @hydrofelicity HELP. 

Lan Qiren: repressed turbovirgin who would probably faint if he saw a nipple and is still hung up on the girl who pulled his pigtails in ninth grade. 0/10 nothing is happening here

Sect Leader Yao: misogynist middle aged dad. he can fuck but it won't be good. 1/10

Wen Ruohan: he's got that cultivator stamina, definitely fucks, and is very hot in every version of canon, but he's a wannabe emperor, he's not going to be a considerate lover. 2/10

Xue Yang: as has been pointed out, he doesn't think other people are real and is unlikely to care about your pleasure, and he also thinks SSC is for pussies. but if choking a goth twink is your dream and you don't prioritize survival you might have a great night. 3/10?

Jin Zixuan: he'll probably cry and be excruciatingly awkward the whole time especially if you hit on his mommy issues. but he'll put the effort in and be a gentleman, unless he doesn't like you and is only doing this out of obligation, in which case it'll be miserable. 5/10

Mo Xuanyu: I have to admit he's also likely to be a virgin but he's definitely fantasized about everything and would be thrilled to try it out. 5.5/10

Su She: 10/10 if you're Jin Guangyao. 7/10 otherwise because he's keeping his shirt on and thinking about Jin Guangyao while you do it, but he's competitive enough he'd still want to make sure he did a good job.

Wen Zhuliu: yeah he probably fucks like a machine. 8/10

Would he approach said treatises with grim determination? Yeah probably. Would he develop a goddamn exercise regimen for his tongue and practice it religiously? Hell yes.

1) decides to guy fawkes the emperor on new years with absolutely no follow through plan or end goal other than killing him in the most dramatic way possible. just fuck this guy in particular yolo. and he was right to say so

2) when he shows up to rescue yujin from The Birthday Party Of Despair the marquis of ning is like you can't come in i have a handwritten plaque from the emperor that says no one is allowed to be mean to me :) and marquis yan just turns and looks at it in silent contempt and is like 'okay...anyway...' and keeps walking up the stairs while two small armies cower around him

3) the scene where mcs is like wanna join my big plot to put my bf on the throne and he's like this has zero personal benefit for me and will ruin my comfortable retirement but i really fucking hate the emperor so sign me up lol

4) when he stalls xia jiang during the prison break thing he waits until enough time has passed and then just gets up and is like fuck this fuck you i'm out and walks off immediately. the pure contempt rolling off him is inspiring. then he gets a heartwarming father&son moment to watch xia jiang run through the woods on foot because yujin stole the horses

5) in the running to be the only good dad in the show, which like, yes, he did neglect his son for 20+ years but he's trying now and the bar is really THAT low

6) in the hunting lodge siege when everyone is freaking out he's the one who takes control and is like listen bitches if the enemy comes through the door we are going to stab the shit out of them so everyone had better grow a pair real fast... this is mostly aimed at the emperor and also 100% gets things back under control

7) was the backup for reading the letter at the end which, okay i wouldn't change how it actually went down for anything, but man he would have enjoyed that so much. i bet they didn't even have to get halfway through asking him to be the backup before he was like fuck yes i want to ruin that man's birthday party so hard