even in a thousand orchids

Things that are set up during the Mo arc in the novel that the fandom feigns don't exist:

Wei Wuxian meditates twice before things go to shit, partly to acquaintance himself with this new body he's inhabiting. During this time, it's explicitly mentioned he's building up Qi, aka Orthodox Cultivation.

The entire exposition on how Guidao works goes ignored. Starting with the fact that Wei Wuxian only requires his voice to do Guidao with "no fancy rituals or seals involved", he's such a powerful ghost cultivator however that his voice carries so much power it will freak out most weak ghosts into terrified immobility at his power. This makes them useless.

While he can tone down his voice and be as gentle as possible, it's still too much for a weak ghost that's unused to him. There are two ways around that problem: he either "breaks in" the ghost (like one would a horse they want to teach to be ridden) which takes time and works better on ghosts he woke himself, or he uses a tool (like... a flute *wink*) to further soften his commands to something bearable to them. The flute probably also has the advantage of furthering his range, but its main purpose is pointed to be a dampener of sorts that allows him to get weaker unfamiliar ghosts to collaborate without freaking out at the onslaught of power.

All these problems become a non-issue for stronger ghosts, which is likely why he says in the narration that the fiercer the fierce corpse, the less trouble they give him.

This isnt the first chapter, but his ghost cultivation talismans are not mentioned to be powered by his own (resentment) energy, but by smaller spirits too weak to be otherwise useful that he keeps catching around. In the Dafan Mountain arc, he's outright frustrated at his lack of success finding useful spirits despite creating a bag to hold them and carry them around.

He can further boost a ghost under his power using sound. In general, the initial chapter ties WWX's power to breath (a classic symbol of life) and sound, not having resentment in his body. While building up normal Qi is brought up multiple times, resentment goes virtually unmentioned regarding WWX himself.

Jiang Cheng tried to distract the soldiers so WWX could escape. He didn’t think about the consequences, and he never offered his core.

Wei Wuxian did.

WWX walked to the forest knowing exactly what he was going to do. He lay there for hours while his core was removed with no pain relief, knowing he would never be whole again. He endured years of scrutiny from the cultivation world, letting them paint him as a villain to protect Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng made a split-second decision hoping he could escape. He couldn’t, and he lost his core.

Wei Wuxian willingly gave his up. He arranged the extraction himself. And immediately after, he was thrown into the Burial Mounds, where he had to learn to live without a core in the darkest pits of hell.

Hanguang-jun knew A-Yuan would never be as unrestrained as Wei Ying once was. Even so, he could not bring himself to subject the boy under the full severity of the Gusu Lan Sect’s discipline. Somewhere, there had to be a middle ground. Just enough structure, balanced with the freedom for A-Yuan to simply be himself. What Hanguang-jun had not anticipated was how quickly time would slip through his fingers. One day, A-Yuan was just tall enough to swing from his arms; the next, he was far too big for it. When had children started growing up so fast?

At the same time, there's all these goddamn tgcf fics where other characters are soooooo adamant that Xie Lian likes Hua Cheng, which Xie Lian wholeheartedly denies for some unknown reason??? And I'm always just like... Xie Lian knew he liked Hua Cheng from way early on in the story, meanwhile the side characters that fandom has convinced themselves are oh so smart have to either be provided with undeniable proof of the mutual affection or be explicitly told that hualian like each other romantically. Shi Qingxuan literally thinks that hualian are "just bros" until Xie Lian gives him a talk; he is not the one helping Xie Lian come to terms with any feelings!

They'll swear that JC's entire clan would've been massacred if he didn't cut relations with Wei Wuxian and that Mu Qing was going to be kicked out of heaven if he didn't side with the officials and his poor sick mother (that he was totally taking care of) would starve and die. So now instead of being a betrayal they can make metas about Jiang Cheng having to chose between Wei Wuxian and his clan; Mu Qing having to chose between Xie Lian and his mother, plus they get to criticize the MCs actions as "selfish" for putting their favs in that dilemma.

Meanwhile the characters themselves never even said anything similar to justify what they did.

Just making up wholesale lies that are so easily disproven. Jiang Cheng was supposedly “so weak” as a leader that the Jin opted for stroking his ego and stoking his insecurities to get him to abandon Wei Wuxian just to secretly obtain the yin tiger tally, whereas this same clan directly massacres two clans and is responsible for the massacre of a third simply because their existences were a political inconvenience. Mu Qing was “so helpless” when he chose to attack Xie Lian because he needed to “help his mother,” yet, the #1 rule of the heavens that Mu Qing himself tried to enforce on Xie Lian before the war was that heavenly officials are forbidden from revealing themselves to mortals.

When Wei Wuxian steps into the courtyard, Jiang Yanli is the only one he greets. Jiang Cheng makes a snide comment, and for the first time in the story, Wei Wuxian directly tells him to shut up. Jiang Cheng asks where Wei Wuxian heard about Jiang Yanli’s approaching wedding, and Wei Wuxian asks him “what do you care?” before turning back to speak to Jiang Yanli. Jiang Cheng complains about Wei Wuxian’s courtesy name pick for Jiang Yanli’s eventual son, and Wei Wuxian tells him that Jiang Yanli asked him to name her son, not Jiang Cheng. Jiang Yanli “quickly intervenes” because she knows they are not engaging in “friendly banter” but actively arguing. Unfortunately, she soon leaves to converse with Wen Ning.