Heaven Official's Blessing

GUYS THEY ARE FINALLY RELEASING TGCF SPECIAL FILM EP 3 AFTER ALMOST A YEAR!! WE GET TO SEE THE KISS FOR REAL IN FULL!!!! MAR 1!!!!! OMILORD

gege, you’re just so strong and powerful!

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[ID: A TGCF comic done in grayscale with red accents. San Lang is radiating an aura of menace behind Xie Lian, eyes glowing red, while Xie Lian ruefully comments, "Ah, they're gone. Almost like they got scared of me..." He wonders nervously, "... Or maybe they got scared of something behind me?" He turns to look at San Lang, who cocks his head at Xie Lian, smiling sweetly and angelically. He exclaims, "Daozhang, you looked so brave and heroic!" End ID]

The only character who treats Xie Lian like he can take care of himself is Hua Cheng, but he also wants to protect him - not because Xie Lian can’t protect himself, but because Hua Cheng just wants him to take it easy and chill out. Xie Lian lets him fight for him because he knows it makes him feel better (and he looks kinda hot when he fights).

but he’s so scary and everybody just forgets all the time I find it sooo funny

I feel like it’s mostly because of his intense stubbornness and refusal to lose, which means he’s built up a lot of skill over 800 years (especially in using his own body without relying on spiritual power). He also just bounces back and takes injuries like a pro - I feel like u have to tho if you’ve had as many as him.

So essentially, Xie Lian is the scariest but he’s too sweet to just fight with people, meanwhile Hua Cheng would love to protect his Gege because it makes him feel like he has a purpose.

but I also want to go a step further and appreciate how his unwillingness to fight and resort to violence in the present time speaks to how his trauma and experiences over the past 800 years have shaped him. when I think of Xie Lian, I often think of that quote: do you know the violence it took to become this gentle?

because by god that's him down to a tee. he has suffered, he has fought in devastating wars, he has the skills and knowledge to topple generals, armies, and kingdoms, and he has. but he doesn't want to because he knows, he has seen, he has felt firsthand the consequences of violence. he knows how quick people are to resort to it and how that choice has the potential to eat you alive from the inside out, to corrode your soul, and lay waste to your life.

so he chooses sweet smiles and shrugs. sometimes, he chooses to walk away. always, always he chooses kindness.

He has been fighting, he has been evil and cruel, he’s been a victim and a perpetrator and he’s so tired because he’s been forced to fight and think of another path that doesn’t lead to disaster and pull his still breakable body to its feet over and over again until he finds a solution. And now he finally has someone who gets it because he has also been a victim and a perpetrator and fighting his whole life and death and he is so solidly in Xie Lian’s corner that he can finally think in peace and come up with answers that aren’t self destructive because he has the breathing room it’s just god I love hualians whole dynamic.