🍖

Jonny and Alex, very aware of their audience, writing in the fact the statement giver doesn't like DnD to indicate that they're a villain

”Hua Cheng would never bottom” are you high. Are you on drugs. What is it you smoke. Is it crack? Weed? Coke? Are you huffing glue? Are you on mushrooms? Xie Lian could politely go ‘I think I wanna top tonight’ in passing conversation and that man (ghost?) would go ‘Ok Gege :D I love you’ and then he’d happily get his back blown out, and he’d be arching the whole time. I know him personally so I can vouch. Get your act together.

The 11th emoji in your history is now your cutie mark 👁️

wealthy, gifted, loved and admired guys that need a lesson in humility to earn their comforting big-dick boyfriend xD

now i’m not denying the fact that these characters were privileged at at least some point in their life (xl being born into it as royalty, sy being a second-generation rich kid and wwx being adopted by the jiangs), but saying that they ‘need a lesson in humility to earn their comforting big-dick boyfriend’, in my opinion, is a gross misrepresentation of their characters.

from the way you phrase it, you make it seem like the advantages that these characters’ possess is an inherently bad thing. privilege is no one’s sin. none of these characters asked to be born with talent and/or riches, it’s simply just the circumstances they happened to find themselves in, and there’s nothing they could have done about it.

being privileged in and of itself is neither inherently good nor bad, and the deciding factor lies in whether privileged individuals choose to acknowledge this privilege, and how they choose to use it.

some choose to use it in a way that is harmful due to perceived superiority and arrogance. this is when there is a need for ‘a lesson in humility’ in order for there to be character growth.

now do kindly elaborate and provide some concrete examples rooted in fact to illustrate your point. how do these three characters choose to use their own privilege to harm? i would be more than happy to hear you out provided you can give valid proof.

I dunno, I think that post-Scum villain MXTX wants to write a poor mistreated Cinderella protagonist, but somehow keeps ending up with these wealthy, gifted, loved and admired guys that need a lesson in humility to earn their comforting big-dick boyfriend xD (Hard work, who? Don't know her, I was born better/wealthier!)

Like, the boyfriend is universally a dick to the protagonist's family members/friends who in any other story would be terrible abusive faithless monsters - but somehow MXTX cannot write them as anything else than decent, upright, complicated and dedicated people who only leave the protagonist's side when faced with insurmountable odds, and yet still try to support them.

Dunno, it's like we're trapped in the genre and can't get out :0

a spoiler-free jwqs sapphic character headcount:

1. lesbian tangled in love and revenge

2. bisexual who’s so in love it hurts

3. another bisexual who’s had it tough in love

4. sapphic who’s been torn apart and is later put back together lovingly

5. seductive bisexual with a plan (hehe)

6. elder bisexual who’s in a steady relationship

7. lesbian who’s lost it all and is hellbent on revenge

8. sapphic suffering from unrequited love and goes a bit pyscho from it

Holy trinity of buffoonery

A story like Thousand Autumns is very subtle in its romance.

Shen Qiao has only ever known his sect. He knows it very well, because of this fact. He knows the people, he knows the rules, he knows the daily doings and who is doing them. He knows every blade of grass and every stone. He’s like a lonely mountain flower, on the highest peak, unseen by any but a few birds and unknowing that there’s more it might never know.

When he finds himself away from his sect for the first time, he’s confused. At most, he’s gone to the base of the mountain, maybe the fields surrounding that, but no further. The flower was plucked and tossed aside.

For a man stumbling blindly in the world, literally and figuratively, there really isn’t a better guide than one that knows just about everything. And that’s, without a doubt, Yan Wushi.

Yan Wushi has lived longer than Shen Qiao, has been more places than Shen Qiao, and has fought more battles than Shen Qiao. Yan Wushi is the perfect example of something out of reach even for someone out of reach. He’s the only one who could answer any questions asked of him, but especially the questions that Shen Qiao would want to ask him.

And there’s no question in my mind that Yan Wushi doesn’t fall for Shen Qiao at first sight, but he’s certainly attracted to him. Not in an overtly sexual or emotional way, but Yan Wushi, the way his character is set up? It’s impossible for him not to be fascinated by Shen Qiao.

He knows Shen Qiao is the very picture of a peerless immortal. He’s well aware that Shen Qiao is considered untouchable by even the people closest to Shen Qiao. He’s most aware that Shen Qiao is Qi Fengge’s (coughhndisputedcough) favourite disciple, and honestly that’s enough for him to overwhemingly want to mess with Shen Qiao.

There are a lot of reasons for Yan Wushi to fall for Shen Qiao. Most of the people in the novel fall for Shen Qiao, after all, there is a precedent.

But the one I’ve seen questioned is Shen Qiao’s affection for Yan Wushi. Where does it come from? When did it start? Does Shen Qiao even fucking like that asshole?

The easy answer is: yes, he does. The novel tells us that. Shen Qiao, despite everything, does fall for Yan Wushi’s, um, “charms” in the end. This is made clear.

But why? A thousand voices cry out. Why the fuck would any reasonable person like Yan goddamn Wushi in any capacity?

Well, there’s your first mistake. Shen Qiao is not a reasonable person.

Shen Qiao as a character is absolutely terrifying. He could absolutely destroy the world given half the inclination, but he just doesn’t want to. He’s already considered unmatched before he’s pushed unceremoniously off of a mountain, and his journey only increases his strength. He isn’t quite equal to Yan Wushi, but he’s the only person Yan Wushi ever sees as equal to himself.

Shen Qiao’s best and worst trait is his patience. He’s unwavering. He really just embodies taoism, especially as it’s presented in the novels. He is the picture of a river that doesn’t stray from its path.

Which is why it’s hard for him to reconcile his own attraction to Yan Wushi, but let’s all be clear here. Yan Wushi absolutely starts seducing Shen Qiao on day fucking one. If he could’ve (if Qi Fengge hadn’t been there) he would’ve tried to eat that cabbage when it was just a little sprout. Shen Qiao is unpracticed in most social interactions, to be frank, but he’s especially unused to romance and Yan Wushi really is his first introduction to being hit on.

Yan Wushi is far from good, at really any point, to anybody but especially to Shen Qiao. But that doesn’t particularly matter because Shen Qiao chooses to forgive him, again and again. And I really think, after giving Shen Qiao to a confirmed terrible, awful person who has already promised to do terrible thing to Shen Qiao, that Shen Qiao himself wouldn’t forgive literally anyone else for doing that. And he shouldn’t, because it was really fucked up, but that still doesn’t matter because Shen Qiao ultimately DOES forgive Yan Wushi.

What am I saying? I’m saying that Shen Qiao fell for Yan Wushi first. It is the only way the story makes any sense. Shen Qiao is annoyed at him, he’s furious at him, he’s so fucking pissed he could kill that man, but he likes him. He likes Yan Wushi’s company. He likes that Yan Wushi gives him a challenge. He’s exasperated, but he likes it.

Shen Qiao forgives Yan Wushi SO MANY TIMES. Yan Wushi humiliates him and mocks him and is the absolute worst, but Shen Qiao forgives him and more than that, Shen Qiao always is waiting for Yan Wushi to come back to bother him more.

Is there more to Shen Qiao’s attraction? Probably. Is it a daddy kink? It could be. But I honestly can’t help but read it as Shen Qiao falling for the absolute pits of a man that is Yan Wushi. Shen Qiao likes that old bastard and decides to spend the rest of his life with the fucker and he is just too much of a block of ice to show it.

I really think everyone needs to truly internalize this:

Fictional characters are objects.

They are not people. You cannot "objectify" them, because they have no personhood to be deprived of. They have no humanity to be erased. You cannot "disrespect" them, because they are not real.