Ok I’ve been in the tgcf fandom for a hot second now and one of the things that I’ve found rlly common amongst the fics/aus is different meeting hualian and i have opinions.
I don’t think hualian could have worked well under any other circumstance. In the Wu Ming arc hc was much two young and also kind of half sentient (I don’t think he was fully himself yet, his spirit wasn’t finished forming properly), and Xie lian was too angry/fragile to have any sort of healthy relationship.
Both xl and hc needed that 800 years to actually become the people they needed to be in order for their relationship to work.
Xie lian needed time to work through his anger and trauma (even if he highkey got more trauma along the way - eg. The yong an coffin). He also had time to feel comfortable in who he was, first banishment Xie lian was constantly having identity crisis - if he wasn’t a god or crown prince and then he didn’t know who he was anymore. That time allowed him to figure out who he wanted to be and build a life away from the expectations others had placed on him prior (and after) his ascension.
Meanwhile, little Hua Cheng was a mess. We all know that he has some.. obsessive tendencies, but a central part of tgcf was abt idolisation. Xl is constantly scared that people will get close and treat him not as the flawed person he is, but as a deity or archetype - something that happened to him frequently and often with detrimental consequences to his health. Hua Cheng needed that time in order to love Xie Lian and understand what it was like to live properly so he could understand and appreciate him as not the powerful God of his youth - but as a kind and inherently human person.
Hua Cheng also needed that time to become his own person outside of Xie Lians shadow. Yes, most of his actions are motivated somehow by him, however he gets the chance to make friends, build a stable home and become someone he thinks is worthy of loving and protecting him.
Hualian is so interesting because their love works despite all of the horrible things they’ve endured, and how they used each other to build themselves into the people they needed to be - the people that were able to achieve their forever.
Idk how coherent this is but yell at me in the comments yippee
ALSO THE NEW SHORT FILM WAS SO GOOD SO MARRIED HUSBANDs OF THEM. It made me think lmaoo