#meanings

Yes, it’s a cute pun. ‘Wick’, from a family focused around light. And, for fun points, again this is out-of-universe information here, but ‘ander’ in names in our world usually means ‘man’, from the Greek andros. So ‘wicander’ could be taken to mean ‘human wick’.

But looking at the function of a wick? The purpose of a wick is to draw fuel up into the flame by capillary action. Which, on two different levels, is very interesting given his role in the family.

He was designed to draw fuel to the fire. To be the public face, to lure faithful to the Candescent Creed. To very earnestly and piously build up the faith and bring power to his family. On a metaphorical level, he genuinely did function as the wick to their flame.

But on a less metaphorical level … Wicks draw up fuel by capillary action. ‘Wicking’, as a verb, means to draw up liquid. Which. Um. Filament. His grandfather’s blood. The tattoos on Wick’s face. The liquid that, unprocessed, viciously burns people. The liquid that his family have been spreading along with the faith, and tattooing onto ‘a lot of bodies’.

Another interesting tidbit about wicks, because they’re the part of the candle/lamp that you set fire to, they’re almost always treated with flame-resistant solutions, in a process called mordanting, so that they won’t be burned up before the fuel even gets to the fire. Wicks are built to be resistant to fire so that they can last inside it to perpetuate the light.

Which, again. The tattoos. The process of his father’s making. The process of his making? I’m very curious about his mother, and his father, and how natural a child-making process that might have been, given that his father’s eyes sear people, and also Yanessa’s apparent views on marrying Aetheon (‘that’d be disgusting’).

With all of that in mind … ‘Wick’, as a name, in the context of the Halovars and everything they’ve got going on, kind of takes on an ominous sort of tone? Given that, you know. The wick is the part you set fire to even as it draws fuel into the flame.

Occtis wound up taking a sacrificial role within his family. But, just going by name alone, now I’m wondering if Wick’s role is also intended to eventually be sacrificial.

✈ «- У вас есть заветная мечта?

- Хочу построить тигролет и улететь

от всей этой *уеты к едрене фене» 🙄

Isaiah Bradley is what America did.

He is the buried chapter. The truth they tried to erase. The living consequence of a nation that took Black bodies, bled them for science, and dared to call it patriotism.

He didn’t ask to be a symbol. He was forced to be an experiment. And when they realized it was successful, they didn’t “praise” him or parade him around has the heroic proof of peace. NOPE. They erased him to preserve the myth of a white savior in red, white, and blue.

“They will never let a Black man be Captain America…”

But Sam did it anyway.

So Isaiah isn’t the dream, he’s the warning.

His whole being forces us to ask: How many heroes did we never know about because history refused to remember?

For clarification purposes, Isaiah wasn’t before Steve. He was after.

But that makes it even worse because that means they had the blueprint of success in Steve and chose to sacrifice Black bodies to reproduce it. Isaiah’s story is not a woke agenda. He’s not the “Black Captain America” just to “balance things out”. His story doesn’t undermine Steve at all—it exposes the system behind him.

And it’s a reminder that power built on injustice isn’t heroism. It’s horror.

⸻

Now we have Bucky, everyone’s favorite white boy [including me admittedly 😮‍💨]

Bucky Barnes is what America owes.

A soldier used, broken, and cast aside. He is trauma wrapped in duty, loyalty wrapped in grief. A man who fought the same wars, but came home without the parade. He didn’t choose the violence; but he carries every scar it left behind.

Bucky is the reckoning.

The one who remembers it all—because he has to.

Even when the world would rather move on.

He’s proof that redemption isn’t clean. It’s bloody. Awkward. Ongoing. But it’s worth it, because his life matters too. Bucky is the man under the mask who never got to rest. He didn’t choose to be a symbol—he was made into one. First by Hydra. Then by grief. Then by the people who looked at him and saw nothing more than a weapon.

He didn’t wear the shield to be Captain America. He never wanted to be Captain America… ever. It’s why we often see him side by side with Captain America (i.e Steve & Sam both during their runs).

Basically, Bucky fights so someone else can carry the shield without shame. That’s why he’s not just the “Winter Soldier turned Avenger.” He’s the soul of the legacy—bruised, tangled, complex.

The one who knows the truth, and fights anyway.

⸻

So when you put them all together?

Your Captain America Quintet

• Steve is the ideal.

• John is the caution.

• Sam is the evolution.

• Isaiah is the history.

• Bucky is the reckoning.

Together, they don’t just tell America’s story. They challenge it.

In MDZS shīxiōng (elder shì brother) is used exclusively for Wèi Wúxiàn (21 times); once, Wèi Wúxiàn is called called Dà-shīxiōng (first elder shì brother).

Wèi Wúxiàn is born on October 31st and Jiāng Chéng on November 5th; making Wèi Wúxiàn five days older.

Age alone, however, would not make Wei Wúxiàn automatically Jiāng Chéng’s shīxiōng.

Normally, in cultivation sects, the one who joined first, would be considered the eldest disciple.

In MDZS, instead of cultivation sects, we have cultivation families; the bloodlines.

Jiāng Chéng, being a Jiāng by blood, should, by rights, be considered member of his shì by default; and Wèi Wúxiàn would anyways be his shīdì.

In MDZS, Wèi Wúxiàn is usually called shīxiōng only by younger Jiāng-shīdì (who are younger than Jiāng Chéng as well, and thus would also refer to him as shīxiōng).

Jiāng Chéng never calls him shīxiōng.

Unless MXTX is using the word only as an age marker, this should mean the junior shīdì joined the Jiàng-shì after Wèi Wúxiàn did.

Which is possible.

In the scene when Wèi Wuxian runs away, Jiāng Yànlí says her brother is always home playing by himself; she blames that on his bad temper; but we see no juniors at all until the boys are fifteen; nor does Jiāng Yànlí have any shījiě or shīmèi that we know of.

We can think that, up until Wèi Wuxian's arrival, Lotus Pier didn't have any junior disciples.

After that, since he already had two to train, Jiāng Fēngmián accepted more of them.

By the time of the Indoctrination Conference, we know there are at least twenty juniors, since that is the number that go to Qishan.

The only other person to use this term for Wèi Wúxiàn is Jīn Guāngyáo.

This happens at the Guanyin Temple showdown, when Jīn Guāngyáo is talking visciously to Jiāng Chéng to annoy and distract him.

"Ever since we started, your eyes have been so shifty, almost like you’re scared of looking that way. Is anything over there ... Nothing is over there except for your shixiong."

Jin GuangYao, “Fine. Mr. Wei, you see? Your shidi didn’t come looking for you. He doesn’t even want to spare you a single glance.” Wei WuXian smiled, “Now those are strange words. It’s not the first day Sect Leader Jiang treats me like this. Do I need you to keep on reminding me?” Hearing this, Jiang Cheng’s lips twisted slightly. Veins popped from the back of the hand with which he held Zidian. Jin GuangYao turned to him again, sighing, “Sect Leader Jiang, look—it’s just so difficult being your shixiong, isn’t it?”

(CH. 101)

Is Jīn Guāngyáo here suggesting that somehow Wèi Wúxiàn joined the shì before Jiāng Chéng did?

In that case, he would be implying that Wèi Wúxiàn is really Jiāng Fēngmián’s son.

As far as I understand, in ancient China there is no concept of illegittimate children; only that of unrecognised ones (like Jīn Guāngyáo himself had been ).

As the eldest son of Jiāng Fēngmián, Wèi Wúxiàn should also have been Zōngzhǔ after him.

Examples of half sayings that lost so much meaning:

- the customers always right: “the customers always right in matters of taste” meaning don’t yuck someone’s yum, not let average customers become abusive

-blood is thicker than water: “the blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb” the relationships you forge and choose are more important than shared family.

- eye for an eye: “an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind” meaning you’ll reap what you sow and too much karmic action costs everyone something in the end

-Jack of all trades: “a jack of all trades and master of none” meaning a little bit of experience across the board but at no point did anything stick enough to allow masterful precision of that activity or field - HOWEVER even this version is altered from the original “jack of all trades but better than a master of none” crediting your experiences and ability to pick up from a wide array of experiences and create useful knowledge from them

-imitation is the sincerest form of flattery: great minds think alike: “ great minds think alike,but simple minds/fools seldom differ” usually used in a complimentary fashion. But can also mean that perhaps you only agree because neither are capable of deepening the complexity of the thought.