Hi..... if you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 favorite characters from MDZS? And your top 5 (or top 3) favorite moments from the novel (or the drama)? Sorry if you've answered this before....Thanks
Hi, hi! I have NOT, in fact, been asked this before, so thank you very much!
The top five characters I can definitely pick! They are:
1) Jiang Cheng (no surprise there. I just... I LOVE HIM SO MUCH! He's so MEAN but he feels and loves so so so soooo much! He's hard working and dedicated and has fought and triumphed in the face of impossible- yeah, I went there- odds! He's not perfect by any means, but his personality fits together perfectly in light of nature, nurture, environment, and circumstances... you know what I mean? And that is just straight catnip for a writer/people analyzer like myself.)
2) Jin Ling (MY BABY!!! He's adorably spoiled, adorably short-tempered, and adorably bratty... then he gets some SERIOUS character development that builds on the worthwhile foundation that was clear to see UNDER the brattiness. Like how he's ride or die for anyone who takes him into consideration-- the juniors, Faux Xuanyu, and of course JiuJiu-- or how he's trying to be a better person, or how he very bravely stood up to THE two most revered cultivators and his supposed blood relative as they tried to break into his little uncle (and Chief Freaking Cultivator)'s private rooms, and how he's trying his best as his dad's murderer and dad's murderer's puppetmaster come back to life and start hanging out with his only friends who don't really try to understand where Jin Ling is coming from only to find out that his second-most-trusted-person in the whole world was actually behind it all. MY BABY!!!)
3) Nie Huaisang (This dude's hilarious! I support him in his messy murder-revenge endeavors! When my mutuals started getting into the Untamed, before I knew jack-squat about what the whole thing was about, I saw him and Jiang Cheng and I was like "I have no idea what is going on but these two idiot assholes are gonna be my favorites, I just know it..." And I was right!)
4) Wen Qing (My tag says it the best: Very Desperate Older Sister Does Not Deserve This Please. She is in SUCH impossible situations, over and over again, and she just keeps trying to keep those she cares for safe, despite the risk or hardship or principle-violation it poses to herself! Also I want her and Jiang Cheng to make beautiful, bitchy, cranky, supermodel babies.)
5) GAH, this is hard... I mean, the amazing thing about CQL is they got such an AMAZING CAST that you just either love everyone or utterly delight in hating them! But I'm going to pass on Romantic Muffin Ouyang Zizhen and Yet Another Grumpy Single Dad Uncle Trying His Damned Best Lan Qiren and ULTIMATELY pick... Lan Xichen. His compromising and vacillating are SO! ABSOLUTELY! MADDENING! but he is such a pure person in such a cruel world, and he tries so HARD to please everyone, and he really does go above and beyond when Wei Wuxian comes back to life-- letting him hide at Cloud Recesses and hearing WangXian out when they're accusing his dear a-Yao. I'm really proud of him for the latter, tbh, and it's the reason he's nabbed spot number five.
(It might be noticed that WWX and LWJ are *not* in my top five. Please rest assured that I still love them oodles and boodles! Their actors are absolute *perfection* and are hella impressive and make it impossible NOT to like them! It's just that both characters are I-do-what-I-want-and-to-hell-with-everyone-else types and I am more the overburdened-with-responsibility-oldest-sibling type, so it makes me perhaps a little harsher than others in my "favorites" rankings.)
Top *moments* are definitely harder! But I'm going to try! (This will be The Untamed/CQL *only* as that is currently my only direct exposure.)
1) The Death of Jin Zixuan (HOW COULD I DO THIS TO MYSELF?!?!? But it is just... soooooooo! well! done! The acting, the pacing, the music, the abruptness, the lingering dawning horror... 1000/10 for exquisitely done maximum-grade tragedy! *upside-down smiley face*)
2) The Second Siege of the Burial Mounds (Hoo boy, but this runs the gamut! The grief of the return to the burned out husk of their old home and the ghosts haunting their memories, the hilarity of the Juniors bickering, the showdown outside, Jiang Cheng's sexy, sexy stride to the front of the battlelines, his resulting repressed panic at his spiritual power draining followed by *Wei Wuxian's* repressed panic at Jiang Cheng's panic, the showdown INside with Jingyi and Huaisang gossiping like hens right in front of a deliberately-ignoring Lan Qiren, the GORGEOUS FIGHT SCENE with Wei Wuxian's blood talisman written out on Lan Wangji's borrowed underoos, Jiang Cheng trying DESPERATELY not to show the rest of the cultivation world how BATSHIT WORRIED he is about Wei Wuxian's survival and YES he's still angry at him what does THAT matter... Cap off the whole thing with the scene at the docks in all ITs heartwarming/ breaking /reassuring glory... IT'S JUST... *CHEF'S KISS*!)
3) The FUCKING COMBβ’ Saga (Okay so I'm cheating a little bit since this comprises multiple scenes over hours, but the whole tragic non-romance of two people who are so completely dedicated to their own people and responsibilities that they are unable to explore the potential of uniting with those same similarities... *keening screech*)
4) Yunmeng Jiang Arrives at Caiyi Town (a.k.a. When Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt. To see the pure, affectionate, adorable HAPPINESS of the Yunmeng sibling trio and their disciples, especially knowing how utterly, utterly fragile and short-lived it will be... just... excuse me. *googles directions to nearest cliff*)
5) Soft Soulmates Song (That scene post-resurrection when Wei Wuxian is nursing Emperor's Smile outside the Jingshi as it starts to snow, and he's spiraling down remembering all these bad things and how little has changed and how everyone still hates him... and the sound of a guqin playing their song starts from inside. That beautiful, BEAUTIFUL moment of Lan Wangji silently saying "I love you, I'M glad that you're here, I think you're worthwhile"... *UGLY SOBBING*)
That's what I got at the moment, but I fully anticipate reblogs and comments to spark a personal parade of "OH SHIT I FORGOT THAT'S ONE OF MY FAVORITES TOO" regrets.
Thanks again for the ask!
