I do what it takes...

i'm so sorry it took me 5 million years to answer this :'3

i have many uncharitable thoughts about how the fandom approaches MXY, but i'll share just one of them today. idk how to phrase this exactly, but when it comes to approaching MXY as a character, on the part of the english-speaking left-leaning fandom there's almost this sort of....copium? towards what was written in the text?

textually, the story tells us that MXY was accused of sexually harassing his half-brother, faced heavy homophobic abuse from his family, and committed suicide, with the intention of killing his abusive family as well, as a result. the story never refutes the allegations that MXY sexually harassed his half-brother.

let us call a spade a spade. this is a homophobic writing decision. this writing decision is based on and reinforces preexisting, deeply bigoted stereotypes about gay men - the gay man as a sex pest, the gay man as someone who simply cannot stop himself from sexually harassing other men, male homosexuality as a perverse abomination on the same level as incest. the fact that MDZS is a BL novel (a genre aimed primarily at straight women) does not change this fact.

now, more controversially - in my opinion, the fandom is actually fully aware of this.

but the fandom doesn't want to admit this fact. they, especially the more discourse-brainrotted ones, want to position MDZS as a perfectly woke and morally pure work of Ideal Gay Rep TM, and MXTX as the perfect author of a perfect work. in order for this to be true, MDZS cannot have any blatantly homophobic writing decisions in it. MXY, the only non-w/angxian canonically gay character, having actually sexually harassed his half-brother, would be a homophobic writing decision. therefore, the only way out of this conundrum is to conclude that Actually, MXY didn't sexually harass anyone at all - this way, MDZS as a work can be cleared of charges of obvious homophobia.

the reasoning goes:

in the story, MXY is accused of having sexually harassed his own half-brother.

if MXY - the only non-w/angxian gay character - had actually sexually harassed his half-brother, then that would be a pretty homophobic writing decision.

i don't want MDZS to be a book that has a homophobic writing decision in it.

therefore, MXY did not actually sexually harass his own half-brother.

QED.

and like. i can fully buy the theory that MXY did not actually sexually harass JGY. i think this is a fully valid reading of the text, especially given the story's themes surrounding the unreliability of rumors.

however, if you are going to make this argument, then you need to answer some fairly obvious questions. such as: if MXY did not actually sexually harass JGY, then where did this specific accusation come from? was it invented by the lanling public after learning that MXY was gay, due to them putting homosexuality and incest in the same bucket (a reasonable theory imo)? if you want to argue that JGY himself falsely accused MXY to get rid of him, why did JGY choose incest specifically, given that JGY logically would have incredibly negative feelings about the topic himself? if you want to argue that JGY himself sexually harassed MXY and then spread rumors of the converse, then why would JGY do that ("for the evilz" is not a valid answer)?

my read on it as per always is that certain sections of fandom are...ah, how to say it. kinda prudish isn't quite the right word? but it's close? and believe that this is a story about every character getting their just desserts, generally speaking? it's about drawing moral lines?

(yeah yeah I know this is a gay romance with kinky sex hold on bear with me).

in reg to the punitive pov: look, if MXY had sexually harassed his half-brother, that would be a morally wrong thing to do, right? and if this is a book about characters getting rewarded or punished for their actions, that means that he should suffer for it, narratively speaking.

if he did sexually harass a family member, then his family would've been correct to punish him for it. If his family was correct to punish his sexually immoral behavior, then his attempt to revenge himself on them would've been immoral. wrong. he's not learning and doing better, he's doubling down on his immoral behavior.

but if the accusations are false, we're in the clear. if the accusations are maliciously false, even better! if mxy did nothing wrong, if he was harassed and abused by an evil man spreading lies and a family all too happy to believe and punish him for those evil lies, then it is in fact morally right for him to revenge himself on his tormentors. he wanted to kill his whole family? it's fine! they were Bad People who believed Bad Rumors and did Bad Things. mxy has the right to punish them for it. it's tragic that he dies while getting his revenge, but his revenge is fundamentally moral.

the sex-negativity/purity wank: look, I'm dragging the lan parent wank into this because I think it's relevant. fandom is very...protective...of the morality of the lead characters' romantic and sexual relationship to the nth degree.

the book originally implied that the love interest was the product of coerced sex & his awareness of that dynamic affects the way the love interest approaches his own romantic relationships.

the fandom response was: absolutely not! the idea cannot be considered! the love interest can't be tainted by [anything from inherently dubiously consensual sex to marital rape]. the love interest must be morally pure and come from a morally pure family.

siiiiimilarly: the protagonist gets shoved into mxy's body almost immediately. now. if mxy is innocent, this is fine: the protagonist is morally pure and exists in the body of an innocent and morally pure victim of false accusations. well and good.

if mxy is guilty of incestuous sexual harassment, that is not fine! the protagonist (morally pure, innocent) hasn't done anything that deserves the punishment of being forced to exist in the body of a sexual harasser. the love interest (morally pure, innocent) does not deserve to be tainted by fucking the body of a incestuous sexual harasser.

And IDK (and I'm not sure I care) what MXTX actually meant this to mean but it's really poignant to me, that he does his best to fix his face before he loses himself.

"The America I loved still exists, if not in the White House or the Supreme Court or the Senate or the House of Representatives or the media. The America I love still exists at the front desks of our public libraries."

Qinheng-jun takes the shitty middle road. Protects this person from death but doesn't let them go free.

His brother raises his sons. We can assume they are constantly told, don't be like your father. If you are ever in this situation, take the righteous path.

It happens to Lan Wangji. He doesn't take the righteous path. He goes far further than his father. Prevents the murderer from being captured, injures his relatives himself to defend them. He is horribly punished for it, it's the worst thing that has ever happened to Lan Xichen and Lan Qiren, and it doesn't even work, Wangji's beloved still dies. Clear object lesson for Lan Xichen. This is the only, the greatest mistake Wangji has ever made. Lan Xichen can never, will never, make it himself.

Of course he would be thinking about it, after Wangxian bring their suspicions to him. Of course that's what's behind his conversation with Wei Wuxian about Lan Wangji and their parents. Of course he has to be trying to psych himself up about it, from the return of the Cloud Recesses pass to the final confrontation in the temple.

Even Wangji is reminding him that he knows what he has to do. And yet he doesn't want to, he doesn't want to, he'll take any other option, please-

Thirty-Three.

Lan Xichen gets trolled

@sagewiththyme You know that's a fascinating point because I figure the two options are a) no one really remembers what happened at the end because of magic bullshit or b) they play it off as a really elaborate but fully planned performance.

And the second one - can you fucking imagine.

Imagine one of the most popular bands in the world have this ongoing lore bit that they're actually demon hunters and they're always referencing it in their songs. And then one day a new boy band pops up and gets wildly popular with an over-the-top-cutesy hit. They're so soft and sweet and respectful. They're called Saja (Lion) Boys and they're all like "join the pride!" How cute!

And then they announce a new concert and you get there and it's fucking this. They're all dressed as demons/grim reapers. Surprise, "Saja" meant Jeoseung Saja all along! They're singing about how they're here for your soul and they relish in your pain, just a stunning 180 from their previous personas.

And then while you're trying to process the emotional whiplash the fucking demon hunter band bursts in and beats the shit out of them with the most insane pyrotechnic show you've ever seen in your life. They "kill" the boy band demons and then you never see them again. The whole band was a fucking psyop for Huntrix to play up the "demon hunters" bit.

Except, uhhhh. We didn't expect them to get so popular so fast? They For Sure weren't supposed to make it to the final round of the Idol Awards. Like, for Legal Reasons. We were almost visibly panicking on stage when they announced that! I mean, do you know how it would look once it eventually came out that Saja Boys were working for us? "Oh, you planted a fake band so you could win the competition!" No joke. I mean, that is a pret-ty clear conflict of interest there. You know?

The Idol Awards are all about the fan's choices, and we just accidentally rigged the game.

The Saja Boys had to win the Idol Awards, now, but there was no chance. They only had two songs, Soda Pop and Your Idol. We couldn't have them push up the debut--I mean, we thought about it, Your Idol's a banger song and it totally would've given us a run for our money--but we'd have to follow it up with This Is What It Sounds Like, first off, and second, 'killing' the Saja Boys onstage would be like. The Media equivalent of announcing we won, like the Fans didn't have a choice in the matter. At the Idol Awards? Ha. Yeah. That's a no-go.

And I mean. Soda Pop is catchy but not that catchy guys, c'mon. We were totally gonna cream them with Golden.

So we were all scrambling. Rumi and Mira and I were trying to write and choreograph a brand new song, Takedown, something good but not Good Enough To Win, to maybe prolong the Rivalry, you know? To make our comeback all the more sweet. But it was all such short notice, and the song wasn't working, and Huntrix never gives a shoddy performance, on principle. We couldn't do it. But it was looking like the only way we were gonna legitimately lose was if something... happened during the competition.

Like, obviously the Saja Boys weren’t a “real” band, so it makes sense they’re not coming out with new music, and since they’re “dead”, of course all their official band accounts have gone quiet, but like… someone would have had to be portraying the band members, right? Even if you wave that off as them being some of the same actors who portray the “demons” at their concerts, someone would definitely have to be lending their voices for the songs. Who were they? They couldn’t have been well-established in the industry, otherwise they’d have been recognized too quickly and the ruse would have been up, and something like this would have been a huge break for new performers.

So why’d they just disappear?

Where are the actors?