Crack plot
Jin Guangyao: If we want a bloodless solution to how the Yiling Patriarch should be handled, we should have a competition. Whichever sect wins will decide what happens to Wei Wuxian and the Wen Remnants.
Dumbass Yao: And what competition would we have?
Nie Huaisang: I don't really know, but what about whichever person can get Wei-gongzi to leave the Burial Mounds and Yiling willingly? I don't know, something like that
Jiang Cheng: Agreed. Once he's back in Lotus Pier, we can put all of this nonsense behind us, correct?
Jin Guangshan: Once there is a clear winner, their decision will be final. We can all move on to other things.
Jiang Cheng: Good. If that's all, I have a letter to draft.
Lan Xichen: Gentleman. If I may be so bold, I would like to make an attempt now, so there's no confusion about any success or failure that might come.
Jin Guangshan: Go ahead. What secret technique does the Lan clan have to summon demonic cultivators?
Lan Xichen: Just this. I'M SORRY WANGJI, BUT WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE! YOU'LL HAVE TO MARRY JIN ZIXUN!
Wei Wuxian, out of nowhere: I'll skewer the Jin pig!!! Lan Zhan doesn't have to marry anyone he doesn't want to! That pompous prick doesn't deserve Lan Zhan anyway!
Lan Xichen: I believe I've won
Relax
I think the greatest testament to how much wangxian is That Bitch™ is that in almost any other fandom, the main ship would absolutely be more often disregarded or at least made into a "he has two hands" when faced with the utterly poetic and heartbreaking and BEAUTIFUL relationship between Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian, from the way they were immediately enamoured with each other upon first meeting to the way they both betrayed their own clans to protect the other to Wei Wuxian LITERALLY REWRITING THE LAWS OF NATURE TO SAVE WEN NING AND MAKING HIM INTO SOMETHING NEVER BEFORE SEEN-
They both saved and ruined each other. And yet never once does Wei Wuxian fear what his friend has become or regret saving him, never once does Wen Ning blame him or fear the fact his friend can turn him into a puppet with a mere whistle.
Their bond and trust in each other is unbreakable, their relationship is woven into the fabric of the entire story, in many ways they have defined each other's identity...
Bow down to our esteemed Hanguang-jun cuz in any other fandom, when faced against THAT, AO3 would be like "uuummm Lan Whoji?
Baggy shirt 🖤🤍
One of the things that interests me about Wangxian's sex life is that in reality Lan Wangji must be soooooooo gentle with him.
Hear me out. There's this very popular and widely accepted idea that everything in literature is about sex but sex. I... don't really agree that everything in literature is about sex, but I do agree that sex is rarely about sex.
Yes, Wei Wuxian likes getting tossed around and bitten to hell etc etc and Lan Wangji likes giving it to him blah blah- They're horny kinksters and it's well within the realms of normal and they're obviously both fine and happy with it.
But Lan Wangji lifted a monolith WITH ONE ARM. Thousands of pounds of stone, lifted like a Chili's fajita platter. Wei Wuxian as Mo Xuanyu has a very weak golden core. He is infinitely weaker than his husband on a physical level.
Which means it stands to reason that Lan Wangji has to constantly be mindful of his safety and what his body can handle and be mindful of that even when engaging in rough CNC sex.
It's one of those things that for me highlights the care and reverence Lan Wangji has for Wei Wuxian as a person and as his spouse and lover. He spent years trying and failing to coax Wei Wuxian into a place where he already was, and in this second chance he instead meets Wei Wuxian right where he is.
I find it very sweet, actually.
We as a fandom need to talk more about how Wei Wuxian changed the Burial Mounds. In the beginning of the story, we are explicitly told this is a place that will kill you dead and leave nothing behind.
"Look at the dark air. Tsk tsk tsk, the hostile energy is strong, isn’t it? And the resentful energy is thick, isn’t it? Even us at the Wen Sect weren’t able to do anything about it. We could only surround it and prevent people from going in. This is still daytime. At night, really any—-thing can be found in there. When a living person goes in here, both the body and the soul, they cannot return, unable to get out for all of eternity." - Wen Chao, Poisons, Chapter 60
But then of course, Wei Wuxian survives it. And then he returns, to this hell of a place that left him broken and bleeding, because he has no other choice, because the cultivation world is determined to kill innocents and they have no where else to go.
And within the three years that followed, he does what even the Wen Sect in their prime wasn't able to, and tames THE FUCKING BURIAL MOUNDS. The Wen Remnants start farming there, for crying out loud.
(I do think some of the taming started during when Wei Wuxian was first there, because they were able to enter the place without too much trouble.)
By the time the siege happens, people could walk in and out of the place, and it no longer carries with it the horror it once did.
Even after the siege, with Wei Wuxian dead, the clans are able to remain there, loot the place, and set up prevention measures against Wei Wuxian potentially coming back.
The various clans set one hundred and twenty stone beasts on top of LuanZang Hill and initiated frequent soul-summoning rituals, followed by heightened vigilance and searches for strange occurrences from all over the world. - Prologue, Chapter 1
And then, during the second siege, we again see the clans easily enter the place and throw around their ridiculous allegations.
MXTX shows that Wei Wuxian is a genius in many ways, of course, but this is one that makes me love him so much - with sheer ingenuity and willpower, he made a home out of a hellscape.
I feel like whenever Sizhui is doing something WWX didn’t appreciate, he would always play out some variation of “do you know how long I was in labor with you? 9 hours of agony only for this!”
Every time someone tries to go like “that’s literally impossible” the Hanguang-doesn’t tell lies-jun is there saying “no I was there. I watched it happen. I held his hand through it”
Exactly.
To whom it may concern,
Nie Mingjue’s blind spot
That part where Nie Mingjue asks Jin Guangyao something on the lines of ‘are you different than them/ what makes you different’ and then claiming that he himself would never use his privilege for his own benefit is so funny…
Like babe, you are great and have your own trauma to deal with, but you know… you managed to openly attack and injure your sworn brother with zero consequences because you are the privileged legitimate sect-leader, and he is the whoreson grudgingly recognised.
Talk about privilege blindness of the elite… really!!!
it’s the way that for the wen remnants, one of THE most joyful moments they share together, possibly since the sunshot campaign came to an end, was when wei wuxian was able to bring sentience back to wen ning’s fierce corpse. that this cultivation method that wei wuxian had created, unjustly and with prejudice painted as an unequivocally vile, horrible, exceptionally offensive and dangerous thing... ended up bringing these persecuted people so much joy. wen ning, killed too soon for the crime of bearing the wen name, was able to live again, at least in some capacity. this wasn’t about creating a weapon, or making the formidable ghost general—it was entirely about getting wen qing’s brother back, getting the wen remnant’s beloved member back and i do consider it one of the most moving parts of the books in general.
One of the things I love most about Lan Zhan is that he didn't make Wei Yings death about himself. About his anger or his loneliness or his regret. It was all about keeping Wei Ying alive in any way he could. In the way he worked to change his sect. In how he went out of his way to help people who needed it most. In making sure Sizhui grew up healthy and surrounded by people who cared for him. I think the only 'selfish' thing he did do was allow himself to be freely angry and annoyed with Jiang Cheng. To be the little menace he always holds himself back from truly being.
Lan Zhan had every right to bring down his fury onto the cultivation world for what they did to Wei Ying and the Wen Remnants but he didn't because that was never what Wei Ying truly wanted. I think there's more nuance to that kind of love then the kind that demands one side to burn the world for the other.