#an meme

having gay thoughts about Frankenstein? me?

it's more likely than you'd think

SOUND ON

an excellent choice!!  thank you!

How I feel about this character

I”M LOVE HIM.  Hm, well.  I like the way his character went from a kind of mostly useless hanger-on (albeit one who wanted to help! and then ended up needing rescuing instead, etc.) to somebody who’s one of the most feared/powerful characters in the show.  I think death is a pretty neat way to get a power-up.  I love the fact that he’s the dread ~Ghost General~ and yet really gentle as a person?  And, circling back, I love that he tries really hard, that he’s really so earnest, that he tends to be a follower/supporter/etc. of people he respects rather than striking out on his own, and this is okay? and he’s fully fine with it?  And how he always wants to help... and of course the fact that he’s easy-going generally makes that one time he’s provoked mean So Much More.

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Wei Wuxian!  ish.  I mean, I post about it quite a bit for ‘ish,’ lol, they have so many great moments... I LOVE their dynamic, gah, the imbalance in terms of who’s leading/following combined with the absolute mutuality of support and protection.  It is very good for me!  (Wen Ning knelt down in front of Wei Wuxian, and then Wei Wuxian knelt down right next to him, and I died, right there.)  (And: he’s the knife, you wield him, I can’t.)  I love the fact that Wei Wuxian bringing Wen Ning back from the dead is both something that ended up costing Wei Wuxian basically everything... but is not an unalloyed good for Wen Ning, either, cause now he’s a monster!  And did anyone ask him, no, but they couldn’t, cause he was dead.  And canon-wise, it’s very easy for me to read Wen Ning as (unrequitedly) in love with Wei Wuxian... but no matter how much I love their dynamic, Wei Wuxian is so completely in love with Lan Wangji, and he and Lan Wangji are so good to and for and with each other, it’s just... a very hard ship to break; I need very specific AUs/points in canon for it, or quite a bit of disbelief.

I have read one? really great Wen Ning ship fic that I loved so far, lol, it was Wei Ning/Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji, which I don’t ship all that much just because Wen Ning and Lan Wangji don’t have that much interaction, (and also wangxian tend to strike me as more than a bit in-their-own-world-together), but otoh I very much want to build out Wen Ning’s tenuous connection with the Lans, I want him and Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji and Lan Sizhui (and even Lan Xichen) to all be ~FAMILY TOGETHER~ in a to-be-defined way, so... that is also a ship.

And I’m pretty much out of people!... Wen Ning/Jiang Cheng sounds like a great challenge in terms of, okay, they have a ton of negative feelings about each other, but what if they didn’t, lol?  But while that may be enough to make me headtilt, a ship it does not make.

My non-romantic OTP for this character

ALSO WEI WUXIAN TBH, like 90% of what I want from the potentially-shippy relationship I described up above is not actually shippy.  I love their loyalty!  I love the way that Wen Ning follows Wei Wuxian around and Wei Wuxian is like... this might be a problem.  (always hovering there, out of sight).  ANYWAY.

I am also quite into his relationship with Sizhui!  I think they’re both very gentle and quiet in a way that means they tend to get each other well (no I haven’t see their movie, I will sometime), I think that forging a familial bond as adults lacking much in the way of other family is - sweet, cause they both wanna try!  And it’s gotta be deliberate.

Obviously his bond with his sister is VERY STRONG and I love how much he implicitly trusts her and how much she devotes herself to protecting him etc.... it doesn’t ~get to me~ quite as much as the others.

My unpopular opinion about this character

I’m... not sure?  I think everyone pretty much loves Wen Ning and wishes him well and I do too, he’s the cutest sweetest zombie and we can agree on that <3.  The fact that my Wen Ning/Wei Wuxian feelings sometimes rival my wangxian feelings is unpopular in this fandom lol (and I understand why!) but it’s not really about Wen Ning.

Here, okay: although I appreciate the fact that he wants to be included and wants to help, when a team of more skilled cultivators is going into a dangerous situation, when your own cultivation is weak enough that they’ll need to watch out for you... it is not actually helpful to tag along, you’re just making it more difficult/dangerous for the others!  (I feel very mean saying this, cause I sympathize with Wen Ning!  But it is how I feel.)

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon

I wish the thing about him living in Caiyi Town and going on nighthunts with Sizhui (and other juniors?) was included in The Untamed... or, even better, I wish that he was accepted and given a place by some of the other cultivators.  I wouldn’t want him to become part of the Lan Sect, because he’s the last Wen and I think that’s important to him, but I wish he could kinda hang around and be in-but-not-of it and have (more of) some sorta family again!  I think he deserves that.