Latest Posts by trauda38 - Page 2

There will never be a day where I'm not salty about LXC's treatment post Guanyin Temple

i’ll do everything for him

just because it has come up in conversations today, here's what novel canon meng yao says to nie mingjue when nie mingjue catches him killing the jin commander on the langya front:

Nie MingJue saw all of the scene. Without saying a word, he unsheathed his saber by an inch. A sharp ring pierced through the air. Hearing the familiar sound of unsheathing, Meng Yao immediately trembled. He spun around, his soul almost evaporating, “… Sect Leader Nie?”

Nie MingJue pulled all of his saber out of its sheath. The body of the sword glared brightly, yet the blade itself vaguely glinted in the red shade of blood. Wei WuXian could feel the billowing anger from him, along with emotions of disappointment and hatred. Meng Yao knew Nie MingJue’s character more than anyone else. He dropped the sword with a clang, “Sect Leader Nie, Sect Leader Nie! Please wait, please wait! I can explain!”

Nie MingJue shouted, “What do you want to explain?!”

Meng Yao threw himself over, half rolling and half crawling, “I had no other choice, I had no other choice!”

(EXR translation, pgs 476-477)

he doesn't deny what he did or try to say someone else did the killing like he does in cql. he just wants a chance to explain why he did it.

Of course they do

Jiang cheng: People out here having threesomes and I ain't even having twosomes

Nie huaisang: And that's way they call you handsome

* Post temple scene

Wei wuxian: what lies do you tell yourself when your heart had been broken?

Lan xichen: I can't even lie to myself anymore I just feel empty inside

hate to say it, but one trend i don't really like among MDZS canon divergence and/or fix-it fics is the more simplistic morality. i know many people disagree with every part of the following statement here, but MDZS is genuinely interesting to me because of it's grey morality: almost none of the characters are purely good or purely evil, the moral characters of each person don't stay unchanging over time either, and the moral dilemmas that characters are placed into are genuinely distressing and therefore interesting.

but quite a lot of MDZS canon divergence fics seem to strip that away? instead of preserving the moral ambiguity of the source work, they instead wholeheartedly choose some characters to be "good guys" and other characters to be "bad guys," therefore allowing the story to have a straightforwards good-beats-evil resolution. ahhhhh, i can't bring myself to enjoy fics where jiggy is a mere mustache-twirling villain, so whoever the writer stans can just kill him and thus fully save the day (whether lan xichen is an evil enabler or a tragically deceived victim is up to the writer's discretion). ahhhhh, i can't bring myself to enjoy fics where the entire jiang family are evil abusers to poor uwu xianderella, just so lan wangji can swoop in as his prince charming and save him (whether jiang yanli is an evil enabler or also the victim of [yu ziyuan/jiang cheng/etc]'s abuse is up to the writer's discretion). ahhhhhh, i can't bring myself to enjoy fics where wen qing and the other wens are just straightforwardly evil, so everything jiang cheng does against them is justified. fics that somehow maneuver every named character onto the same side, against Evil Big Baddie wen ruohan / wen chao / wang lingjiao / jin guangshan / morally-acceptable-to-torture ensemble / etc., are more fun and pleasant to read, but even they seem to fall into the same pitfall of simplistic morality: there are good guys and there are bad guys, and happy endings are when the good guys kill the bad guys.

or maybe the preponderance of this trope suggests a broader, more depressing reality: in order for there to be happy endings in stories involving violent interpersonal conflict, morality must be black and white. when morality is allowed to be ambiguous instead, the happy ending dissipates, because the reader finds that in some sense all violence is tragic. thus, no - there must be a clear hero and there must be a clear villain, such that when violence is enacted upon the person designated the villain, it is a triumph instead of a tragedy.

This!

That's my favorite variantions of that ship,

WN Rarepair Tournament

Please consider each rarepair and vote for the ship you like the best / find the most interesting / that compels you the most / etc.

[Please be kind and respectful in the notes. Anti-Propaganda is NOT allowed.]

🔽 Propaganda below 🔽

XueWang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Lan Wangji x Xue Yang

Submission 1: They’re kinda like dark mirrors of each other if you think about it. They both lost the object of their obsession to self-destruction of some kind. They both refuse to move on from said obsession and have built themselves into monuments mourning them (Xue Yang with his preservation of Xiao Xingchen’s body and the way he literally impersonates Xiao Xingchen and Lan Wangji branding himself and going around dressed for mourning). They have each taken in what physical remnants of their obsession remain (Xue Yang turning Song Lan into a fierce corpse and holding onto Yi City and Lan Wangji taking in and raising Sizhui). Each of them admire the other’s object of obsession to some extent (Xue Yang idolizes Wei Wuxian for his cultivation method and Lan Wangji praised Xiao Xingchen for his ideals and sense of justice). This is to say I could totally see these guys recognizing their common grief and latching onto each other as a result. Doing mutual proxyfucking or some shit

Submission 2: Think about it: Xiao Xingchen is dead. Wei Ying is dead. And they find someone who's definitely not the same... but close enough if they close their eyes and pretend.

Fic Recs: of use by rynleaf & six inches by Sectionladvivi; horrible mirror by Sectionladvivi

XueXian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Characters: Xue Yang x Wei Wuxian

No propaganda submitted

XueYao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Jin Guangyao x Xue Yang

No propaganda submitted

Fic Recs: Lise (User)

Xue yang: just give me 4 minutes and I swear all them little curls are gonna be straightened when I have done with your ass

Song lan: why you texting my man

Xue yang: why you responding when you know I wasn't talking to you

sometimes you can tell when somebody who likes a ship just likes one of the characters and is simply using the other half as a vaguely ooc vehicle to make content for their fave which is whatever. not against the law. until the other half theyre using as a vehicle is YOUR fave. and then you want to explode them with your mind

Xueyao of course no explanation is needed

WN Rarepair Tournament

Please consider each rarepair and vote for the ship you like the best / find the most interesting / that compels you the most / etc.

[Please be kind and respectful in the notes. Anti-Propaganda is NOT allowed.]

🔽 Propaganda below 🔽

XueWang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Lan Wangji x Xue Yang

Submission 1: They’re kinda like dark mirrors of each other if you think about it. They both lost the object of their obsession to self-destruction of some kind. They both refuse to move on from said obsession and have built themselves into monuments mourning them (Xue Yang with his preservation of Xiao Xingchen’s body and the way he literally impersonates Xiao Xingchen and Lan Wangji branding himself and going around dressed for mourning). They have each taken in what physical remnants of their obsession remain (Xue Yang turning Song Lan into a fierce corpse and holding onto Yi City and Lan Wangji taking in and raising Sizhui). Each of them admire the other’s object of obsession to some extent (Xue Yang idolizes Wei Wuxian for his cultivation method and Lan Wangji praised Xiao Xingchen for his ideals and sense of justice). This is to say I could totally see these guys recognizing their common grief and latching onto each other as a result. Doing mutual proxyfucking or some shit

Submission 2: Think about it: Xiao Xingchen is dead. Wei Ying is dead. And they find someone who's definitely not the same... but close enough if they close their eyes and pretend.

Fic Recs: of use by rynleaf & six inches by Sectionladvivi; horrible mirror by Sectionladvivi

XueXian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Characters: Xue Yang x Wei Wuxian

No propaganda submitted

XueYao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Jin Guangyao x Xue Yang

No propaganda submitted

Fic Recs: Lise (User)

the transcript btw. It was hard to make it out on the video because of the blowhards yelling and me feeling incandescently blind and deaf with rage

oh, to have a leader with the moral fiber and strong backbone that Zelenskyy has

Goodnight.

The real story of how Meng Yao killed Nie Mingjue (based on this tweet)

Test-drive of the gun-dryer method

"As long as it's a harmless ship"

All of the ships are harmless because they're all completely fictional characters.

I saw this and I can't stop laughing.

Nie Mingjue : Arguing with me is pointless I knew I was wrong 10 minutes ago

Literally, the only people that find complaining about that stage performance and actor's are untamed ride or die fans

Its like I'm falling in love with Wei Wuxian's character again... I don't know anything about his stage actor but he seem slaying it. I like how playful and confident he is in the photoshoot. He reminds me of Audio Drama Wei Wuxian. People who hate on him are probably The Untamed only fans and never MDZS fans.

It's not my usual post, because most of the time I have just rebloging something, but I hope it starting the era where I will sharing my thoughts about some certain topics , anyway happy birthday to my A - yao

I just love how he's treated like the emperor he is for his birthday 🌟💗💗💗👑

Can't agree more

Wei Wuxian: Me and Lan Zhan are dating

Lan Xichen: We have known for ages

Wei Wuxian: ? We started dating 2 days ago

Jin Guangyao: tf were you doing before that

Nie huaisang: what's your body count?

Jin Guangyao: oh me ? Like 30 now

Nie huaisang: oh my god, you're a hoe

Jin Guangyao: how does it make me a -

Wait are we talking about people we have slept with?

Nie huaisang: yeah

Jin Guangyao: oh well I have never done that yet

Nie huaisang: then why have you say 30 ?

Jin Guangyao:

* pre qin su accident

i think rednote has hope 🫶🏾

Matka Boska Ostrobramska

A Polish lithograph of Our Lady of the Gate of Dawn in Vilnius, Lithuania.

Wei Wuxian: Me and Lan Zhan are dating

Lan Xichen: We have known for ages

Wei Wuxian: ? We started dating 2 days ago

Jin Guangyao: tf were you doing before that

Thoughts on Jin Guangyao's name

So the "Yao" in GuangYao/Meng Yao (瑶) means "precious; precious stone, jade, mother-of-pearl" (source is technically google translate as op doesn't know any Mandarin, but "jade" is listed in the novel glossary).

In chapter 10 of mdzs book 2, we learn that the token Jin Guangshan left Meng Shi a "love token" in the form of a pearl button, which she sends him off with to "seek a way out of this life"; gaining his father's recognition.

Meng Shi named her son "precious" as in something of value. She might have also named him after, or at least been inspired by the pearl JGS left her. If this is the case, the pearl button, and Meng Yao's name, come to represent Meng Shi's hope for salvation: "she waited and waited, yearning and hoping for this head of the cultivators to return and take her and their child away."

Which is literally the function Meng Yao serves, to his mother and in the narrative. Although his mother clearly loved him, he represents--- at least initially--- an object/tool/avenue through which Meng Shi's wishes (salvation, a way out of this life) will be granted. (I do think MS came to love him but I don't think she originally kept the baby, at least primarily, out of a uncomplicated desire to be a mother raising a child in a brothel so much as a way out of said brothel yk). This is an important distinction for later-- the pearl, and Meng Yao, are the object of wish granting, not the wish itself or the person for whom wishes are granted. Not that Meng Shi's wish wouldn't also extend to her son's salvation. But this is less about them and more about he role Meng Yao is placed in in this dynamic and by extension the world, especially once Meng Shi is dead and only the ghost of her wish remains.

Unfortunately JGS is. . . JGS, and the button is "hurriedly crushed the pearl to dust" as Meng Yao is kicked down the stairs.

Okay so JGS literally crushes MS (and by extension, MYs) hopes and dreams under his foot. But, this action only furthers the parallels between the pearl button (and so, Meng Yao) and Wish Granting Pearls, or boazhu. One of the Eight Treasures/Eight Precious things, "popular symbols often depicted in Chinease art" and the most popular combination from a greater list of one Hundred Treasures.

One version of this concept found in Buddhism is a Chintamani, or wish fulfilling stone, "sometimes depicted as a luminous pearl" [x]. Further, Jin Guangyao honors his mother by building Guanyin temple. Guanyin is often portryed holding a wish granting jewel in his right hand [x]. I'm not super familiar with this, but the point is. The connection isn't just "JGYs name can mean pearl and JGS gave MS a pearl button", there's multiple associations between JGY, his mom, and the idea of wish granting pearls. Also the pearl is something of inherent value (sometimes fell from the sky) but also a way for wishes to be granted.

Jin Guangyao, who seemed born to resolve conflicts,

Yeah no literally. Named for it too. Assigned genie at birth. Then there's this bit from the fandom wiki:

The name 'Jin Guangyao' may have been cheekily inspired by the idiom "光耀门楣 (guāng yào mén méi)”, "splendor shines on the family's door”. This means "to bring honor to one's family”.

Which. Maybe this isn't anything that's not obvious in the text. But again [something about the distinction between bringing honor to and being honored or honorable, which should theoretically go together but don't necessarily, except I'm not sure enough in my (nonexistent) knowledge of the connotations of that idiom to articulate further].

I find it interesting that we learn the story of the pearl almost as soon as Meng Yao is introduced. And kicked down the stairs. And the pearl is crushed to dust underfoot, like it's nothing. Which

[pearl buttons were] nothing special to the Jin Clan of Lanling. They were so abundant, in fact, that you could fling out a hand at random and come away with a fistful. Their most common use was to be given as gifts to the beautiful women Jin Guangshan dallied with when away from home. He would pass these pretty little baubles off as rare treasures and top them off with a pledge of undying and eternal love. He gave them out as he pleased and forgot all about them after the fact.

Just like his bastard children. Literally. (Also maybe some parallels between the worthlessness of the pearls and what finally gets JGY to decide to kill his father).

Maybe more importantly, the pearl is an object, and a tool, something which has a value inextricable from it's use. Meng Yao is precious, but not for who he is, but for what he can do for people. And he is destined, even in his name, which calls him something precious, to be born to resolve conflicts. Possibly even to be necessarily consumed or destroyed if the wish is to be fulfilled, though I couldn't find enough information on what typically happens to these pearls in stories to be sure.

But it at least seems foreshadowed here. Nothing good is going to happen to the boy born to grant wishes when the object he's named after and heavily associated with is crushed to dust the moment he's introduced into the narrative.

he's not a vile creature he's just a little guy 😞