Mu Qing, Grinning: Before You Were What? 

'mine'

I love Zu Zhan Jin's portrayal of JGY so much. Like he's so expressive! His face! His body language is so fluid! His voice has so much emotion! And yet his intentions anv emotions are as opaque as a block of solid wood. I love Villains like that

One of my favorites from last year 💜

i will always love and appreciate the irony and parallel of how in the first siege, the cultivators mass-attacked the burial mounds and destroyed everything, using wei wuxian’s cave to hide the aftermath of their brutality and in the second siege, it is exactly that cave which shelters the cultivators and infact, saves them from the fate they had once dished upon the wens without thought or mercy. it is how the place they had collectively condemned and looked down upon is precisely the place that keeps them alive when their circumstances finally turn on them. it’s the way that it is the home that had once occupied wei wuxian–the enemy of the cultivation world–that becomes their salvation in the end.

also, i don’t completely remember this but the array that protects them was missing bits that lan qiren helps remake and the thought that the reason the array was broken in the first place was because it was barged into by the cultivators during the first siege, whilst the remaining wens were inside it, a last ditch effort to save themselves, breaks my fucking heart. because the cultivators of the second siege were saved by the very tools that wei wuxian CREATED to help and protect and secure the wen remnants, the very people that these cultivators and their predecessors killed in cold blood.

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.

Yknow there's something so in character about how JC, JGY and WWX in the advice they give Jin Ling to deal with the bullying issue.

Jiang Cheng tells him to come to him and even if Jin Ling doesn't, the moment he gets a hint that someone is fucking around with his nephew, it's Zidian out for murder because only he can be mean to Jin Ling cause he's the only one he knows doesn't actually mean it.

Jin Guangyao suggests the same survival method he uses, don't act rashly or fight back immediately, you need to get better and stronger until you are standing higher than them and they aren't worth your time, so stay calm don't let it get to you.

And then Wei Wuxian strolls up, helps him beat em up and tells him to continue beating them up, until he's an adult and cannot be easily pardoned for breaking the rules.

And if that itself doesn't show you the whole foundation of how these three characters.

Based on this post that has been stuck in my head for ages- the three straightest guys lmao

And also their husbands having a similar conversation

Guys I'm so normal about all of these books don't @ me lol

人若思念便思念 / 终会相见

she knows

MXTX protags my beloved. Prettyboy table for the win

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