NIE MINGJUE

Anyway Lan Xichen was in love with his sworn brothers and in other news the sky is blue and grass is green

Lan Xichen goes into seclusion after losing Jin Guangyao and finding out Jin Guangyao killed Nie Mingjue. Which echoes both his father’s seclusion, Lan An’s seclusion, and Lan Wangji’s seclusion. All of which had to do with losing the one they loved. And still MXTX says that Lan Xichen wasn’t in love with his sworn brothers

Huaisang darling maybe it would have been better if you just Locked In one of your summercamp years you know. Because then you wouldn’t have had to go back. Just a thought however

Cornetto is prohibited in the Cloud Recesses

Seriously why do so few people mention CQL!Lan Xichen put Nie Mingjue’s head in his lap while Nie Mingjue was unconcious in Nightless city. Which could mean nothing

Yeah they say sect leader Zewu Jun put sect leader Nie’s head in his lap while he was unconcious. Yeah I’m going to be real I think they might have a bit more going on than a warrior’s bond

You must imagine Baxia going ‘this is MY vessel with which I can destroy evil #MyVessel #MyMingjue #MyHumanBody’

At what point did Lan Xichen realise he was not getting the Nie Mingjue he became friends with as a child back. At what point does he realise Nie Mingjue is not putting down Baxia, and that Baxia is slowly hollowing him out until only an angry, moody Nie Mingjue shaped figure remains. At what point does he realise Nie Mingjue no longer remembers his former self. At what point does Nie Mingjue’s anger reach a point Lan Xichen never thought he would get at. Does he sometimes, in the way Nie Mingue hands him his tea or picks a flower for him or in how he writes his letters, still see glimpses of Nie Mingjue’s previous - his actual, his true - self? Is this the only reminder he has that the Nie Mingjue he has in his mind did actually exist and he isn’t making him up. Does he have trouble coming to terms with that the Nie Mingjue he has now is also the real, actual Nie Mingjue - the Nie Mingjue he’ll have to make do with? Does he sometimes get overrun with emotions thinking about what Nie Mingjue could have been had Baxia not been in his life

The only moment in any of the MDZS canons when we get a mention of what Nie Mingjue was like pre-sect leadership and sabercurse is in Fatal Journey of all places, where Nie Huaisang comments that Nie Mingjue turned moody and angry while he never used to be before. And we see Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang playing together. And they look happy. And this seems fundamental to a reading of Nie Mingjue and the Nie brothers and yet it’s only in a movie which can barely be considered canon even for CQL. In other places we just do not know what Nie Mingjue was like and therefore we do not know what Nie Huaisang (and Lan Xichen) has in his mind about him.

I feel like not enough people play with the fact that Lan Xichen knew Nie Mingjue from before he ever received Baxia, while Meng Yao has only ever known Nie Mingjue while he was under Baxia's influence. A lot of Lan Xichen's insistence that Nie Mingjue just has a bad day and isn't really like this might have to do with the fact that he genuinely used to know a Nie Mingjue who wasn't anything at all like this. While Meng Yao has always seen the anger and paranoia that is now turned on him somewhere in Nie Mingjue's eyes and his way of dealing with things. To Lan Xichen, a different da-ge just genuinely exists, while to Meng Yao, this idea is just a hypothetical.

There is something to be said for the take that Nie Mingjue pre-sabercurse was already a bit paranoid and that he already had a bit of an angry demeanor and that these traits were just enhanced by the saber curse. However, if Nie Mingjue was a genuinely calm, clear-headed and happy child and teenager before receiving Baxia his transformation just hurts more to think about. It would mean that, relatively quickly, he changed into a stoic, easily angered and moody older teen and man, nothing but a shell of his previous self. It means he entirely lost himself and the people who knew him from before might not recognise him at all anymore. 'Is that really the first young lord of the Nie? He always used to be so happy, gentle and kind, always playing with his baby brother!' And a change like this is not implausible, it happens to people in real life who get (neurological) diseases all the time. Besides, we just genuinely don't know what Nie Mingjue was like before he was affected by the saber curse. We just know that the saber curse makes people irascible; even Nie Huaisang is predicted to turn irascible if he takes his saber cultivation more seriously, and we know what Nie Huaisang is like as a teen; also happy, cheerful and passionate about his hobbies. This mostly means that the saber curse is something that can genuinely change you from someone happy and air-headed to a stoic, angry individual. And I want this to have happened to Nie Mingjue. Because it would be tragic.

You must imagine Nie Mingjue going ‘my saber curse #MySaberCurse’

When did I make 2011 posts WHEN. How. 2012 now