I wish I could properly explain how profoundly important it is to me that in mdzs, wangxian’s happily ever after includes them marrying and then becoming teachers to the next generation of cultivators in the Cloud Recesses
There’s just so much there
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s marriage is recognized by the Gusu Lan Sect, even though they live in a fiercely homophobic world
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian is trusted enough by the Gusu Lan Sect to teach the disciples, despite having founded demonic cultivation, which Lan Qiren once called a subversion of the natural order of things
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji get to stay close to Sizhui, so that Sizhui does not have to suffer like they both did, losing their parents so early in life
There’s the fact that Wen Ning is always nearby, this sentient corpse, formally feared and hated and seen as a monster, now known as the lovable uncle figure to Sizhui and all his junior disciple friends
There’s the fact that the junior disciples absolutely adore Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning, trusting their guidance and protection without question
There’s the fact that Lan Wangji is a far more forgiving teacher than his uncle, understanding that the rules are meant as guidelines, and that they are not infallible, and therefore allowing the younger Lan disciples more freedom to think critically and trust in their own judgement
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji still have the freedom to travel and be wherever the chaos is, so that neither one feels like their wings have been clipped
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji’s love isn’t a secret, that they are allowed to live without shame
There’s the fact that the next generation of cultivators will likely grow to be far more tolerant and open-minded than the last, having seen for themselves how dangerous prejudice and hate can be
There’s the fact that the next generation of cultivators will get to grow on their own terms, not being forced to mature too quickly due to war, like what happened with their parents
There’s the fact that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji get to be playful, to be silly, to get drunk, to play games, to break rules, to recover some of the youth and innocence that was taken from them, to live out the adolescent and early adulthood experiences that they missed out on
For Lan Wangji, a gay man who has struggled between his desires and his rigid sense of righteousness, who has survived a whipping that might have killed him, and the death of a man he loved despite himself, choosing to continue fighting and living, in spite of the cruelty of the world, for the love of a child he grows to think of as his son…
And for Wei Wuxian, a guy who always felt like an outsider, like he was in perpetual debt to anyone who ever showed him an ounce of kindness, who believed that he had to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders, and who refused to drag anyone else down with him…
For them, I can think of no more fitting ending
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