WWX: …… Is. Is this what karma is?? I don’t want it take it back–
(i am of the firm belief that the chengsang dynamic becomes 1000% funnier if you add distressed brother wwx lmao)
Endou Yuu versus the cosmic unknown
imagine: the di angelos being legacies of victoria (nike)
it makes sense when you think about the fact that nico was essential for the success of two great prophecies (making percy invincible, rallying hades’ army, convincing bob to help percy, leading argo II through the house of hades, dragging the athena parthenos across the globe)
this also goes hand in hand with my hc of the di angelos essentially being like the addams family bc imagine everyone in his family just has rly clear Sight, and nico eventually finds out he still has a mortal family. he’s nervous to meet them, because what if they don’t like him? but then he gets startled by how openly and warmly they greet him because their grandparents have told them stories about maria di angelo and her godly paramours and they’re so eager to know him and he’s never felt more accepted.
bonus:
somehow their different cross-media designs give off different vibes/ship dynamics to me, i just thought it'd be fun to draw it out lol
(also i love their mobile designs they're so pretty ;v;)
bonus:
(i like to think nie husiang’s entire existence is just a stream of continuous flustered internal screaming upon being Chosen™ by this really weird grumpy dog with abandonment issues,)
Sangcheng week Day 5 - Collaboration
sorry all that i can offer for today is a silly doodle because i ran out of time lol the collaboration is JL JC and NHS commitment to the bit.
(i dont know if its readable so im putting transcription under cut)
wwx: you know a-ling, we should find your jiujiu a nice madame…maybe that’ll finally help his temper (lol) (shame that he is blacklisted everywhere haha)
jl: what are you talking about. jiujiu and Nie-zongzhu have been together for years
wwx: (a-ling are you /srs or /j)
jl: [acting casual but cackling inside] [gave sangcheng his blessing with the condition that he’ll get to break it to wwx]
----------
wwx: -and you didnt tell me?!??
jc: says the one who secretly eloped?
wwx: but! but! Nie Huaisang?? did you not listen to what i told you?
jc: yeah i did. So we talked it out like adults. we disagreed on things but its ok now.
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the “talking out”:
jc: -ARE YOU INSANE???!-
nhs: lower your voice wanyin.
where in nhs hits the husband jackpot and he’s even more shameless about it than wei wuxian
*me, getting out of my dissociative state to log back on my mdzs bullshit for a hot second:* there really wasn't much of a choice for Nie Huaisang but to send those girls with Jiang Cheng. No matter how upright Lan Xichen was, he didn't trust him enough to play the role of a neutral judge given how close he was to Jin Guangyao. Nie Huaisang couldn't take care of that part without disturbing the wishy-washy persona he carefully crafted for himself in front of the entire world. But Jiang Cheng? Relentless. A dog with a bone. He'd get to the bottom of the matter and dig out all the facts in less than 2 hours, never mind if someone he should be cultivating strong and stable alliances with is at the centre of the storm. Trust the leader of the sect represented by the flower that blooms in the mud to lend his ear to a servant girl and a prostitute.
According to @demiace-wen-ning‘s iconic post, every MXTX novel has:
A red/black, morally ambiguous, all-powerful bastard man
A fan wielder who is much more than meets the eye
And a fucking Jiang Cheng
Now we, as a collective fandom, have decided with our communal braincell that in SVSSS, the “fucking Jiang Cheng”™ character is Liu Qingge. And on the surface, this seems Right and Good:
HOWEVER! I posit that these aspects are only the most superficial and external aspects of the vast and multi-layered Dagwood sandwich that is fundamental “fucking Jiang Cheng”™yness. “fucking Jiang Cheng”™ has LAYERS. And for all that I love Liu Qingge, I love him in the same way I love the Sonic franchise’s Knuckles the Echidna:
This is emphatically NOT how I love Jiang Cheng. Furthermore, this is demonstrably NOT the sort of character that a fandom becomes viciously divisive about. This is the sort of character you either like or dislike and move on with your life because he is not deep and complex enough to Die On This Hill for defending. (This is a Feng Xin or Nie Mingjue sort of character.)
So what makes for a “fucking Jiang Cheng”™ character? What are the quintessential “fucking Jiang Cheng”™ characteristics that result in a complex and divisive character? I propose:
ambiguous/unexplained actions
refusal to explain motives
canon selfless actions missed or negatively interpreted
socially over-conscious while still socially detested
harsh and contemptuous outward behavior
honestly, naturally is an asshole, but holds back just enough to get away with it
hard-working but overshadowed by upstart prodigy
childhood trauma that fundamentally affected behavioral patterns
aggressively focused on their cultivation and consequent social status
secretly heartbroken about a perceived betrayal regarding the protagonist
yay, war crimes!
These attributes all describe Jiang Cheng. All but the last one describe Mu Qing, with the second-to-last applying in a way where HE is perceived as the betrayer. None of these attributes describe Liu Qingge. But you know who they DO describe in SVSSS?
The ORIGINAL Shen Qingqiu.
An undeniable asshole who nevertheless gets punished for every good deed he ever did, who clawed and scraped his way to the top of the cultivation world and ensured he stayed there no matter how many bridges he had to burn or enemies he had to make along the way, who acts like a bitter tsundere to the person who matters most to him because said person broke their promise and never explained why, whose childhood was a never-ending parade of trauma and abuse that molded him into a harsh and suspicious individual, who (though we don’t find out until the extras) shows no sexual interest in anyone, whose own path to cultivation was so difficult and traumatic that they could not stop themselves from jealously lashing out at the heaven-blessed prodigy standing right next to them.
Shen Jiu is the TRUE “fucking Jiang Cheng”™ of SVSSS, and I cordially invite any haters to bring it on because this is My Hill and I am ready to fight for it.
the sumeru concept of the academic family was criminally under explored. you’re telling me cyno and tighnari and collei consider themselves an academic family? kaveh and alhaitham got academically divorced and that’s basically the same thing as getting maritally divorced in sumeru? unreal.
bun puns