this clip was so novelwwx coded that I had to drag myself out of art-block to do this
i wondered why i like the hualian underwater kiss in tgcf so much specifically because its happens underwater and then it hit me. it's because i used to be a juge percabeth shipper as a kid . my percy jackson era never truly left me it's just hybernating and the second i see something in a story that happened in pjo i worship it IMMEDIATELY. it was never a phase.
So idk if anyone else who is a Danmei fan was also a Percy jackson kid, but I was, so I’ve got a new series of polls!
DRUM ROLL PLEASE… 🥁🥁🥁
Who is this Danmei characters godly parent!
So like always we have to start with my fav, Xie Lian!!
*Disclaimer* there are like a ton of choices, so for this poll i will primarily stick with the main pantheon, but I’ll try and have an other option for any other deity options!!
Thinking about how Jon said he was a deeply annoying child and then listed textbook symptoms of autism
Don't let anyone make you feel bad for being a virgin in your 20s, Hua Cheng was a proud virgin for 800+ years and feared among gods
hey can we talk. can we stop it with the white savior pinkwashing queer paternalism that white libs always seems to hold when talking about queer people/gender-nonconforming people from countries where gay rights isn’t a legislated reality (i.e. often developing countries/countries where the majority ethnicity is non-white).
you haven’t been on weibo, you haven’t ever been to China. you haven’t walked the streets of chengdu which is the unofficial queer capital in the country, you don’t know what slangs and jokes we use to talk about queerness.
you read whatever your war crime aiding and abetting news sources spoonfeed you because you never went out of your way to befriend Chinese people in real life, you accept whatever reality is easiest for you to stomach—that Chinese people, well, “the government and the mainstream social media” at least, are ontologically evil and are intolerant to a fault; that Chinese people are so different than you (who are so liberal and tolerant and queer and punk) that these “special few Chinese people who are queer” need YOUR approval and YOUR protection and YOUR help.
I’ve spent a good portion of my life living in China, I have family there. I have queer friends there. My parents had colleagues and friends who are officially or unofficially out at work. I met my first butch-femme lesbian couple in China. I met my first trans man uncle in China. A large part of my middle school friend group turned out to be queer and have found people who they care about and who care and protect them in turn.
I only pity your willfully ignorant way of living. you see Chinese people as a sexless monolith, you see Chinese people in any position of power as a threat to your “democracy” aka violent imperialism disguised under a neoliberal facade. give me a break.
”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.
Peaklord Shen (svsss) as Lord Shen (Kung fu Panda)
“I’m fine, I’m not getting corrupted by this power! I can control it!” -guy who is 100% getting corrupted by this power
We were asked a series of questions pertaining to Wei Wuxian’s cultivation that were fairly interesting. We’ve decided to sum up the contents of our reply here. (This reply occurred over a series of messages so I’ve rearranged the answers and questions it to the best that I can)
What would be the most appropriate form to address Wei Wuxian’s cultivation? Should it be called the “devil/monster path 魔道 (Mó dào)” or the “ghost path / 鬼道 (Guǐ dào)? And how does that apply in the context of the book? (妖魔鬼怪 (yāo mó guǐ guài) was the term that Lan Qiren used describe the various creatures in the novel)
If he’s not using the “devil/monster path/ 魔道”, then how does 邪魔歪道 (xié mó wāi dào]) and 邪门歪道 (xié mén wāi dào) come into play? This phrase has been used by various characters (ie. Jin Zixuan) to describe his mode of cultivation.
To answer question 1, you’d need to revert back to Chapter 13 of the novel.
This was in chapter 13:
"我问你,妖魔鬼怪,是不是同一种东西 / “I’ll ask you this; are yao, mo, gui, guai the same thing?”
” 魏无羡笑道:“不是。” / Wei Wuxian smiled as he replied, “‘No, they aren’t.”
“为何不是?如何区分” / “How are they different? How can they be differentiated?”
“妖者非人之活物所化;魔者生人所化;鬼者死者所化;怪者非人之死物所化.” / “Yao are created from non-human living beings; Mo are created from humans; Gui are created from the deceased; Guai are created from dead non-humans. ”
This exchange occurred when Lan Qiren questions Wei Wuxian on the classification of monsters, of which the book establishes that 魔 (Mo - devil/monster) from living (humans), and 鬼 (Gui - ghost) from the deceased (humans). Hence, based on this definition, as he’s only shown to animate the dead (humans) in the novel, it’s quite safe to say that he’s practicing 鬼道. (Ghost path.) C-fans have an additional meta that Wei Wuxian himself is a living person, so in terms of classification, he can only be classified as someone who is a “魔 (Mo - devil/monster)” (from a living person), practicing the “ghost” path. (ie. resurrecting the dead). To confirm this theory, “魔道 - devil/monster path” has only been mentioned once in the novel, “鬼道.- Ghost path” has been used 12 times. Wei Wuxian himself has also addressed that he “修鬼道” (cultivates the ghost path). (As a note, 妖魔鬼怪 itself is a general idiom that refers to all beings that are seen to be evil. MXTX takes the idiom apart in the context of this novel) Onto Question 2 (You might need to understand Chinese to fully appreciate this but I’ll try to explain it anyway).
邪魔歪道 itself is a common idiom which traditionally means to “stray from the traditional (or orthodox) path” [baidu dictionary definition] but it could also mean demonic/evil ways. This phrase is also commonly used in Buddhism teaching. “魔” in modern Buddhism loosely refers to Mara, a demon that claims lives and obstructs good deeds. The other term 邪门歪道 is a synonym of the former but without the religious connotations.
So here something that’s very interesting - this manner of which interpretation is used seems to depend on what the user is thinking. In Chapter 7 (footnote 7) Wei Wuxian has interestingly referred to his type of cultivation as “the cultivation method that he practiced in the past.” Also, in Chapter 14, when questioned by Lan Qiren, Wei Wuxian brings up the idea of a “fourth” source of power (ie. ghost path); and he questions as to why resentful energy can’t be used as a reservoir of power. From this, we can actually infer that Wei Wuxian feels that it is a source of unorthodox power, but not necessarily evil.
Contrarily, it’s obvious that the rest of the characters deem that his methods are downright evil. So hence, they would interpret idiom as demonic/evil ways.
Interestingly though, it seems like 邪魔歪道 were used by people in the "orthodox” clans - Jiang Cheng, Jin Ling, Jin Zixuan, etc. On the other hand, 邪门歪道 was used by Xue Yang and WWX. In the same way that 邪魔歪道 is more closely linked to religious teachings, the unorthodox is deemed as “evil”, hence the term 邪魔歪道 becomes a more fitting term used by those in the orthodox camp. References (they’re all in Chinese): (1) Definition of 魔,(2) Definition of 邪魔外道,(3) Definition of 邪门歪道 (4) Definition of 妖魔鬼怪 (4) Chinese Meta - Wei Wuxian is a central character in MDZS, why is he on the 鬼道 (ghost path) and not the 魔道 (devil/monster) path?