No Hate To Cql Or Anything But Every Time I Read A Fic That Has Lan Wangji Be The Chief Cultivator I

zhancheng to me is like this:

imagine a scenario in which jiang cheng actually does know quite a lot about lan wangji's tastes: his favorite and least favorite tea flavors, snacks, food, books, music, authors and artists, and so on.....except jiang cheng specifically sought out this information during the 13 year timeskip to make lan wangji miserable.

maybe lan wangji is just publicly A Bitch to him one too many times and jiang cheng finally decides he's had enough. so, for the next few months, jiang cheng spends an inordinate amount of time gradually sussing out everything he can learn about lan wangji's tastes. what kind of tea does he like? what kind of tea does he despise? which authors does he always read? what temperature does he prefer his room to be? what new trends in music does he find completely unbearable? when he passes through a region whose cuisine he hates, which restaurants does he find slightly less intolerable?

and then, the next time there's a discussion conference at lotus pier, jiang cheng weaponizes this knowledge. actually, the next time there's a public event anywhere wherein both jiang cheng and lan wangji are in attendance, jiang cheng weaponizes the fuck out of this knowledge. he makes sure that the tea lan wangji hates the most is served to everyone. he has his disciples buy all the local snacks he knows lan wangji has a preference for, just so lan wangji can't have any. he makes sure lan wangji's room and bed are heated to the exact temperature lan wangji finds just too hot to be comfortable. whenever lan wangji's favorite obscure author releases a new work that gusu lan doesn't think is cultivation-related enough to include in their library, jiang cheng has a bunch of his disciples swoop in and buy as many copies as possible, just so that it takes lan wangji a bit longer to get his hands on a volume. jiang cheng "leaks" to a few minor sect leaders the idea that lan wangji actually does like spicy food, and said minor sect leaders actually believe that information for a full year of hosted visits and public events.

this continues for all 13 years of the timeskip. of course, jiang cheng isn't outstandingly successful in actually making lan wangji miserable, because there are limits to what jiang cheng can actually achieve and what he's actually willing to spend enough time on; realistically, all he's accomplishing is causing lan wangji some minor irritations once in a while. but it's enough for jiang cheng to know that, every time lan wangji has to pass through yunmeng, he's absolutely miserable because jiang cheng has persuaded/paid every musician in the area to play the one song lan wangji hates the most.

jin guangyao, of course, figures out what's going on immediately. but even loyalty to lan xichen isn't going to make him sacrifice potentially useful dirt by putting a stop to jiang cheng's asshole behavior himself, so instead he just decides to watch and wait. he also just finds it really funny. meanwhile, lan wangji, for all 13 of these years, never figures out what's going on. he never figures out why he can't ever find the lanling-style osmanthus cakes he hates slightly less than the rest of lanling cuisine whenever he passes through the area and runs into disciples from yunmeng jiang. when his favorite obscure author releases a new book, he gets in line at the indie bookstore in qinghe he went out of his way to visit, and just doesn't question why everyone in front of him is wearing purple.

postcanon, though....now lan wangji has one hell of a source of insider information (wei wuxian), so the turns are about to get fucking tabled.

the way wangxian’s first meeting is literally just we wuxian saying “is that a sword or are you just happy to see me” and lan wangji, who has just fallen in love for the first and last time, immediately trying to kill him

My favorite part of Lan Wangji's character arc is the way he goes from wanting not to be seen for who he is, even if it is lonely, to being determined to show everyone who he is and daring them to judge him.

This poor fifteen year old boy, totally overwhelmed with romantic thoughts about another man, while everyone he knew informed him that this person would never be accepted in his life. This eighteen to nineteen year old, plagued with the need to keep his affections a secret. The twenty year old who turned away from it due to the opinions of his uncle and elder brother.

The twenty two year old who lost the love of his life and faced punishment from his clan for daring to love someone they disapproved of... then went back and told them he didn't care: "This child of the Yiling Patriarch is now mine, thanks. I don't care if you punish me, I'm done cutting off the people I love for your sake."

Turned into a thirty five year old who shackled this man to himself for everyone to see. He became a person who refused to waver in his commitment to stand by them, despite the consequences. Ultimately, he told those same family members that if they had a problem with his spouse, he didn't have to be their family anymore.

He became strong enough to support his spouse through experiencing the judgment of a 'family' member who refused to accept him.

And through this journey, he found the security of self that allowed him to love freely and take chances. Self-acceptance allowed him to build the life he wanted--to share the safety he built for himself with the people he valued the most.

HC that wwx likes to ramdonly sing and even bounce in a little dance, his voice is so pretty sometimes random young master try to hire him or swoon him to be his little spoiled caged bird, LWJ is ENRAGED

wwx saying lwj’s title during his qiongqi dao monologue. not his bosom birth name, lan zhan, or the more formal and distant "lan-er-gongzi" that’s grown more familiar on his mouth during these many months. but the noble and dignified and righteous hanguang-jun. "if am doomed to death, may it be by hanguang-jun’s hand. that would be worth it."

wwx using a name lwj got during the throes of war as he fought and murdered hundreds of wen ruohan’s soldiers and turning it on its head to say, "if you are as good and moral as they all say you are, don’t doom these wens to the same fate." and that’s the thing, wwx does deem lwj as good and moral, more so than all the other gentries he’s met. as his self assigned zhiji, he sees lwj for who he is at the fundamental basis of his being, and indeed that is the bearer of light. wwx, with so many words, is saying, "you are worthy of your title, more than the whole of the jianghu is aware." and for that reason hinges his life and those of some few dozen refugees on his steadfast and unfailing belief of the other’s morality. with a single word, he assigns lwj the role of his judge, jury, and need be, the bringer of his demise. "if you really feel that my defense of the wen remnants is wrong, that i am wrong, draw your sword on me, hanguang-jun. go on, i’ll allow it, i’ll gladly agree to it—if it’s you, for no reason other than it’s your hand that i would meet my end by."

and the weight of that with it being one of only two times that he refers to lwj by his title during his first life. the first that he did so was during a bitter reunion, and laden with animosity. "hanguang-jun" said not with awe and admiration but to deride his standing as if the mere idea of him as a genuine moral authority is a foolish one. but the moment lwj also begins to doubt his role as a marshal of the law—as someone who is able to differentiate between right and wrong—there is a man who is willing to bet his life on his worthiness of fulfilling it.

(don’t mind me i’m fleshing out musings from my burial mounds au)

☀️One morning☀️

I think a lot of characters in mdzs are written to be foils of wei wuxian, you know, lan wangji, xue yang, jin guangyao, wen chao, jiang cheng, the list could keep going. BUT in contrast to these contrasts, wen ning is wei wuxian's parallel.

They're both a talented child who, under the prejudices of society, become corpses of themselves, yet despite it all are able to persist because of love and understanding. Of course, the corpse thing is more figurative in the case of wei wuxian if we look at him the moments before during and after nightless city. Where he is entirely the yiling patriarch society lauds him to be. Which is just a superficial inauthentic shell of who we know wei ying is. And then he actually dies, so boom, there's your corpse (except 404 corpse not found, my point still stands).

And idk, I think one of the best parts of mdzs is that any of the characters could be the main character. Any of these characters could be the main pov.

But overall, while wei wuxian's foils illuminate his bright sides, his parallels, like wen ning, just make his tragedies that much darker. It's like, wei wuxian, isn't just solely persecuted, this persecution of hope and brightness is an epidemic. And that's so fucked to recognize and so hot of mxtx's brain to deliver as a theme.

happy lunar new year 🐍 2025 ✨🎉💖

*a sketch requested by my patron--- Jiang Cheng with SanDu and ZiDian (my weapon spirit oc design) celebrating lunar new year :3

you know how the untamed’s version of wangxian (song) is officially credited as wuji?? my dumb ass just realized that they. just flipped it. so it’s wu(xian)(wang)ji. they are the unsubtlest motherfuckers alive.

anyway i’m taking this to mean that the untamed’s wei wuxian is canonically a top, thank you and goodnight