Wei Wuxian: So I've Tried Every Talisman, Array, Curse, Whatever, That I Can Think Of, And I Do Think

One day, on the vast expanses of Pinterest, I came across one piece of art and thought that it would be cool to draw it, so I made something like a mini comic, adding other details. I really like Wangxian bunnies ❤️🩵 The art is old, I drew it about a year ago 😴

Original artist : @kuratba on Twitter

Nie Mingjue: *in a tiff* And where were YOU when Huaisang wasn’t in saber practice today?

Meng Yao: *annoyed with Huaisang and Mingjue having the same argument for the 18th time this week and doesn’t wanna get put in the middle* Getting scolded by sword captain for being ‘too pretty to be seen outside your chambers’.

Huaisang: It’s true, Da-Ge, he was being gross again!

Mingjue: You saw it?

Huaisang: Yes.

Mingjue: And you did NOTHING?

Huaisang: Well, I was hiding from saber master, who had A-Yao and Sword Captain in his eyesight at the moment. I couldn’t leave the alcove. I was trapped!

Mingjue: You are both little bastards that need to speak up more often. Both of you go get ready for bed, I’ll be in there to tuck you in soon.

Meng Yao: I’m sleeping in A-Sang’s room?

Huaisang: Yes. Until Da-Ge kills sword captain, at least.

Meng Yao: …what? *didn’t think Mingjue would actually do anything about the man being an ass to him* …what?!?

Huaisang: Yeah. It’s okay, you can come with me to saber practice tomorrow. I’ll comb your hair and you can wear my sleep robes tonight. *pulls him out of the room with their hands together*

Meng Yao: *rewriting his 20 year plan to take over the world to instead be a kept didi by nice Nie brothers* hmm :/

the conversation jiang cheng and wei wuxian have before their arranged fight after wwx settles in the burial mounds is so intense but it’s also so enlightening about their mindsets because jc goes into with this idea that wwx’s current actions are reckless, ill-thought decisions that he can talk wwx out of whereas wwx is fully aware of the deep shit he is in and knows exactly what awaits him and yet he chooses to stand by his morals. it’s the way at the start of the conversation, wwx says:

“what other path can I take, aside from staying in a jail of my own making?”

and this says everything about his understanding of what he’s doing while supporting the wen remnants and what kind of consequences that will bring him. but jc goes on to basically list out everything wwx will face – how he’s being ostracized, how siding with the wens will lead to doom – and i know part of it might be expository information, an insight into the cultivation world’s slimy ways but it is also kind of funny how jc thinks he needs to let wwx know all of this, as if wwx made a hasty move and will back out once he knows he’s starting his own downfall. but wwx painfully, thoroughly knows and that is what makes his stance with the wens all the more powerful, all the more selfless, all the more commendable. the very points that stop jc from supporting the wens make wwx more determined to help them. when jc fears ridicule, wwx fears for the lives of the wen–their fallout was inevitable, even without all the other conflicts they were embroiled in. they’re such different people, fundamentally, at their cores (the pun is very ironic ik 😭). while jc questions the lack of precedent, worries over straying from the conformist path, wwx readily accepts the unpaved road and walks it, not out of some misguided hero complex as jc suggests but because that is the right thing to do even if everyone’s deadset on proving him otherwise.

I would love to know what MDZS was like from Wen Ning's pov.....

(just remembered I forgot to post these two posts here, so... here they are)

i know a lot of peeps are going YZY x CSSR because of the Changmian + WWX/JC parallels- but have you considered YZY x Mdm Jin? they're actual besties, and love each other so much that they decided to have their kids marry each other since they can't

also: kinda a pity Mdm Jin never got an actual name so uh my placeholder name for her: 花如燕 / Hua Ruyan- [Flower, Like Sparrow] to contrast with YZY's Purple Kite (bird)- also her nickname: 花蝴蝶 (Flower Butterfly) haha to match the Violet Spider

+

when you're trying your best to date your best friend but she's married to her job [YZY x Mdm Jin, the single moms side of the single dads AU lol]

Night meeting sketch

This made me realise that I tend to pick apart people in real life the same way. Like, why did they do this? Why not that? Why? Why? Why? And of course that's my own method of coping, but also it is a result of being able to see potentiality, and how things could have been just a little different and how that would have made so much difference. Which is also, now that I think about it, a coping mechanism. If things could have been different then there is still hope that they might be different someday. But if not, then it hurts so much, it's so senseless that I got hurt just because someone else was having A Day. I love Aus for that reason too. Everything can be made better. And I can conjure gratitude by assuring myself that atleast it's not as bad as it could be.

as much as I enjoy reading discourse on why this person and that person did that in mdzs, sometimes I feel like we think too much on them and it really is just… the characters are just… human… (referencing people in the main cast) They do things whatever they think is right and wrong, because of their own histories, upbringing and personalities. It’s inevitable that they clash with others, which escalates emotions and events. Their very superficial society doesn’t help at all. With everything coming together in a shitshow, this makes all their stories so damn painful and tragic.

This doesn’t mean that I excuse characters who inflict more harm on others. I acknowledge and don't want to take away whatever any character experienced. Being human doesn't excuse shitty behaviour. But still, I feel for them that they had to resort to/end up in their respective ways to make it through their loveless world. I want to focus on the greyness of humanity behind everything that happens in the story. One of the many thematic concerns that resonate with me is how much of us as humans are black and white (as such, we debate on the characters’ place on this spectrum, because of their actions). 不说黑白, Never black or white. Even if it nears the blackened end, it still never goes pitch black.

I say 人就是人，人就是这样 — People are people, people are simply like this. We all can be kind, we all curse out. We are all insecure about something. We laugh, we cry. We write love songs as much as easily as we write hateful messages. One day our loved ones and friends are around, and the next day, they aren’t anymore. There are times in our past that we can never return to and we can do nothing but move on with our own ways of coping, for what we think will be a better life for us. For better or worse.

Amidst all the viciousness and pettiness of the jianghu, mdzs touches on our tragedies and fallacies as people just trying to make sense of an unfeeling world, with unjust consequences and impartiality. Many of the mdzs characters try, and they fail. Isn’t this how our own reality is? How many of us have the privilege of a denouement to our own stories?

We can all have our personal opinions on the characters and their actions, but do not deny them their humanity or whatever shred of it is left.

AU where Meng Shi was just a bit more cynical and spent her hard-earned on buying Meng Yao study materials for the Imperial Examination instead of dodgy cultivation manuals. Cultivation is for his father to teach him, after all.

Meng Yao fucking blitzes the exam, because of course he does, and the first time he arrives at Koi Tower it's with an imperial mandate to audit the shit out of them for tax purposes.

Cloud Recesses Arc but modern and less depressing:

LWJ: that BRAT has been harassing me all month!

LQR: Wei Wuxian is just like his mother- he needs attention or he'll whither away and die.

LWJ: Good. Let him whither.

LQR: Bu-ut if you give him attention, he won't know what to do with it. He will panic and his face will turn interesting colors.

LWJ: .... I see.

(The next day)

WWX: Lan Zha-a-a-an, how is the most beautiful person in Cloud Recesses?

LWJ: I don't know, how are you?

WWX: *blue screen and elevator music* Buh-hue guh sjdklgisoskkjdnfnf

(Lan Qiren and Cangse Sanren and Wei Changze are all sitting in the background watching the show)

Wei Changze: I got you the same way.

Cangse Sanren: Yes, but you did it to flatter me. Wangji did it out of spite. I hope he enjoys the next five minutes of quiet, because it only gets worse from here.

(All the adults sip their tea for the next five minutes. It is a beautiful day in Cloud Recesses, and Wei Wuxian is a terrible guest disciple.)