Mdzs - Tumblr Posts
Just in theory.... Can cultivators use their swords as skewers in their trips?
WangXian AU
where Lan Zhan took a vow of silence after his mother died and now his fifteen and just met a very loud boy who speaks for both of them
ᕱ⑅ᕱ ᘏ⑅ᘏ
๑(ゝ。∂)੭❤️ ʚ(ˊᵕˋʚ ) ࿔
{Part 1}
“Lan Zhan, Lan Zhan? Are you really not going to pay attention to me? What if I tried to run away, huh? What would you say to your uncle?”
Wei Wuxian leaned further onto the table, head held by both of his hands as he hid a mischievous smile. Lan Wangji ignored him again, as expected.
He didn’t give up, though. He’s been trying to get a reaction from the other boy for three hours by now and he still had some time left before he could be released. He could swear his delicate hands were all calloused by how fast he forced himself to copy the Gusu Lan clan’s rules.
He purposely finished the copies faster than usual just so he could spend the rest of his time in the library trying to take a reaction out of Hanguang-jun.
Lan Qiren had punished him by being watched over by the other teenager for disturbing the classroom some time ago. Spending part of his days in the recesses of the clouds being watched and having his actions controlled wasn't exactly what he was planning for himself but it wasn't like he could control his mouth all the time!
To make things worse, the old man had intentionally chosen not only the most quiet and boring person Wei Wuxian had interacted with, but also the person who despised him most.
Since the first day they met, it was clear to everyone that Lan Wangji seemed to have taken a special dislike towards the boy. He didn’t have to voice it, first because Lan Wangji wasn’t the type of person that would go around expressing his dislikes and second of all he didn’t speak. At all.
At first, Wei Wuxian had thought the boy was just ignoring them (and him, more specifically) and his personality was more quiet than most but then he realized that Lan Wangji just didn’t talk, not even with his own brother or uncle.
He had followed the boy around for an entire day and the only time he had seen his lips part was during meals.
“Why won't you speak?”
He had approached him a month ago like this, getting out of his hiding place behind the trees and bushes covered in leaves. Jiang Cheng had been searching for him and he was pretty sure Lan Wangji heard them when his brother found him sneaking behind things to silently follow Lan Wangji.
Even after covering his brother’s mouth with both of his hands, he knew by the way Lan Wangji stopped momentarily in his walk for some seconds before continuing as if he hadn’t heard anything at all, that he was very aware of his presence.
He only stopped again when Wei Wuxian called him directly. Wei Wuxian couldn’t say he wasn’t disappointed when the only answer he received was half of a glaring stare towards him before Lan Wangji resumed his walk.
“Really, what were you thinking of? What if he got really angry at you this time and-”
“Jiang Cheng.” Wei Wuxian turned around to look at Jiang Cheng and he sounded very serious, leaving his brother out of words for some seconds.
“...What is it now?”
“I’m hungry.”
“...”
Jiang Cheng blinked. He had to make sure he hadn't heard wrong. “...What?”
“Ahh, I spent the whole day walking and waiting, I wasn’t able to get a proper meal, so I’m really hungry now!” He said putting one of his arms around Jiang Cheng.
“Wei Wuxian! You- really!”
“I’m really hungry, yes, thank you for understanding. Let’s go grab something to eat before dinner.”
Wei Wuxian knew Jiang Cheng wouldn’t be able to understand how important it was for him to find out the reason behind Lan Wangji’s silence.
Was he born like this? Or was that something that happened in some part of his life? An accident or the result of a fight? An opponent or a curse, maybe?? There were so many options, really, he just wanted to know why!
There was also the option that he was just ignoring people in general, too, though.
Even so, Wei Wuxian was sure that was a cool reason behind his silence.
That night, after dinner, he had run to search for his sister to ask her if she knew anything about it, he heard so many histories over Lan Wangji that he couldn’t be sure which was true or false.
𓆞 𓆝 𓆟❀˖°₍ᐢ. .ᐢ₎ ❀˖°𓆝 𓆟 𓆞
I want to learn how to make edits because I have a list of Lana del Rey songs for every couple that I ship on the mxtx universe (and also for characters alone) but I don’t even know how to start… 🫠🫠
(I already edited before but only some silly things 😭😭)
List of the couples here if anyone is interested:
- HuaLian: Young and Beautiful (Classic, romantic, them)
-Wangxian: Summetime sadness (pls don’t kill me)
-Bingqiu: ArtDeco (like… the vibe?? Just-)
-Moshang: Playing Dangerous (For me, Sqh flirting is something like this -when he’s not afraid ofc)
-Beefleaf: Freak (trust meeee)
-YinZhen: Sad Girl (I’m not afraid to speak the word!!)
-XueXiao: Dark Paradise (Literally died for then, my Roman Empire)
-YueJiu: Cinnamon Girl (the definition of deserved better)
-FengQing: Diet Mountain Dew (THEM. JUST THEM.)
-Bingjiu: Ultraviolence (Got the hots for them but they also deserved better, to god -mxtx- they weren’t her favorite at all lol)
-JunMei: Fishtail (“this is an work of art” seriously, the “You’ll braid my hair” is literally how I envision them in the future, healing, together)
-Niecest: Lust for life (Like you heard that??? The “but my boyfriend’s back… and he’s cooler than ever…” - You cannot convince me otherwise it isn’t them!!!!)
List for the characters:
Binghe: Jealous girl (he was the easiest one for me and I don’t have to explain myself… BE AGGRESSIVE BE- )
Hua Cheng: Cherry (It just reminds me of him!! He really does fall to pieces many times on the story, literally, psychologically and emotionally, in good and bad ways…)
Lan Wangji: Serial killer/Happiness is a butterfly (Suprised for the first one?? Well, for me it’s about the intensity in his love, the type of doing anything and everything for the one he loves… I swear he’s just so dramatic and its just captures his teen phase of ‘first love and I don’t know what to do about it so I’ll just fantasy’ About the second… His time with his love in the first live was short and not completely well lived with so much problems and yet, and yet… he found happiness, also the “if he’s a serial killer than what’s the worst” just fits with the fact that he did in fact tried to save Wwx even against all the things others talked about him, regardless of the truth, he does what he needs to for who he needs… “Looking into his eyes I think he’s already hurt” IM SO SORRY I CANT LIE)
Shen Jiu: Born to die (like I’m not even trying to hurt anyone here but I know it hurts…)
Shen Qingqiu: Doin Time (Why?? Like, “the living is ease” vibe and the sudden “I’ve come to tell you that she’s evil” just reminds me to much of the fact that he’s the “villain”!! And I just imagined the “Louie” in the song as Sqh so much anyway)
Xie Lian: Brooklyn Baby (I don’t think I have to explain this one also right… the fans go “Yeah my boyfriend’s pretty cool… but he’s not as cool as me…” and also, “Baby I’m a gangsta too and takes two the tango” gets me thinking of two different sceneries, a dance with Hua Cheng as his flower and a dance with words representing his martial god nature)
Wei Wuxian: Salvatore (Salvatore is just him, really, the vibe of, like, even if you’re being murdered, you’re smiling and you’re smiling cause you know that, some way, you’ve just fucking won, of being on a serious situation and taking it lightly because is just his way to do things but at same time not as a mockery or a joke to all the suffering, the pain, but rather, an acceptance with a smile… oh gosh what a ride)
Mobei Jun: Black Beauty (like referring to a cold, untouchable beauty like himself, because honestly, life is beautiful but it took a while for him to see the colors but he managed to find his light, or, his “sparrow blue”…)
Shan Qinghua: Meet me at the pale moonlight (I swear, even if doesn’t make sense, for me, his “pale moonlight” is Mobei Jun… but seriously?? The “I’m the sweetest girl in town so why are you so mean?” part FR FR WTH that’s his life you’re singing about Lana)
Xue Yang: Blue Jeans (“Love’s mean… and love hurts” to “I’ll love till the end of times… I’ll wait a million years” is honestly just what he did and also that slightly possessive part “promise you’ll remember that you’re mine” inspired by his insecurities and regrets, only because he was afraid to lose him… couldn’t get any sadder)
Xiao Xingchen: Margaret (In another word yes, yes it could get sadder… He’s just so good… “It kind makes me laugh”, Ah I just keep reminding that scene where he’s with XY, laughing because he’s the easy laugh type of person… And also the “the soul that you bring to the table” I just like to interpret that in a way that he made a family out a villain and homeless distrusting girl and that the “soul” spoken off on the song it’s theirs, how they find “soul” in there, in themselves, in each other…)
Anyway
…Any tips on video edition…? 👀👀
dumb idiots whisper and gossip about the illustrious hanguang-jun
My boy Nie Huasang is genuinely so funny like he knows EXACTLY who he’s talking to.
Screaming but Uncle I love him I’m keeping his baby
taking the most allosexual character to possibly exist and turn them into an asexual character in fanfiction js the greatest thing ever
i’m looking at you asexual lan wangji
thinking about how Wei Wuxian's story allows the martyr to see the sacrifice and the resurrection and Lan Wangji's story allows the bereaved to see the loss and the resilience.
in our world, there is never enough time and space for grief. a failed self-sacrifice is often not witnessed or mourned, the martyr is not allowed to return and wrestle with the consequences and a world moved beyond them. reforming the self after the cataclysm comes from a place of fierce love and devotion.
love, grief, and sacrifice are different faces of the same human force.
I have had mxtx content so deeply embedded in my thoughts, the brainrot is so fierce. I love the narratives in her books, these themes that I haven't ever felt in a story before. Just some rambling about them that's bubbled up over the last few months:
SVSSS: even with a sense of authority on where the story will go, changes both small and large can surprise or underwhelm you. there are always stories hidden behind characters and characters lost to hidden stories. the narrative we tell about ourselves affects everything about how we interpret the meaning of what we experience. often we are blind to the meanings we emphasize or suppress, confident in the authority of a narrative we insist is true, cohesive, consistent, or normative.
MDZS: everyone has their own version of events, often not in service to truth or justice, but power and image. yes, where you come from and what you endure can be limiting or enabling. yes, it can explain why you do what you do. yes, you still always, always have a choice to do what is right. only you can decide what that is. in some cases, everyone will have an opinion. in others, no one will know or care. you choose whether that influence what you do. it is never too late, it is never over, and every choice is a new opportunity. you can't change choices made in the past, but you can learn from them to inform your choices in the future and influence the options available to those who follow.
TGCF: sometimes you can change the story with brute strength and charisma, sometimes all you can do is endure and regulate your own response to it. you can reinvent yourself over and over, run from your past selves, suppress the parts of you that are shamed, but you will always be with you and only you. all that happens, within and around, bad and good, your actions or others', makes you you. the greatest and worst versions of yourself were all required to make this you -- it's not the state of you that matters, but the essence of you. integrate, rebuild, evolve, rebirth, morph, refine, transform, regress -- the story always progresses and characters always develop, the only story that defines you is the one you iterate.
And for all of them... sometimes, the happy ending isn't sweeping change in the world, awe inspiring redemption, or cathartic revenge. Sometimes it's allowing yourself to have a simple life with the ones you love, staying authentic to your values and desires, and understanding the revolution that is inherent to thriving in the body you live in, all its scars and memories included. You can never control the story of the world, no matter your knowledge, skills, or abilities, nor should you try. Horrid experiences and events can't be eradicated, but neither can beauty, awe, and grace. Unfortunately, these are not often equitably distributed. Fortunately, we can never know which will be in the next moment, which will be the last, if there will be better or worse than we have already felt. Such is living.
but like what if I projected on this character so fully that I didn't need therapy, what then
I want to know the story of the burial mounds. How did this place of great resentment come to be? Is the war framing wwx's first life just one of many, does it even make the list of the worst?
A mass grave that everyone knows about, the land barren and abandoned -- how much effort was put into cleansing and at the cost of whom? Where are the families of those buried there, descendents that know of those restless, resentful spirits left to fester?
Every interpretation of what wwx was exposed to, what he learned and lost, what he did to survive there makes me so feral. 3 months in hell. He knew one person couldn't do all that the Yiling Laozu was accused of, the unconsenting object of the masses' need to construct a boogeyman. But I think he came out of the burial mounds knowing well what a systemic force of greed and violence could accomplish.
(All this related to some chaotic thoughts about wwx & his empathy being his key characteristic -- not just his genius. As much as he was stripped, homicidal, starved, feral coming out of the mounds, it is his fundamental ability to connect and relate that saves his spirit over and over. I'm obsessed with him 😭.)
I want to know how mxtx constructs her relationship dynamics. They aren't just tropes, archetypes, foils. They feel so full, especially in the ways fandom explores all the nuggets of detail sprinkled throughout canon (and the ways the adaptations add or explore more). And not just the (canon) romantic ones, but also family members and political counterparts. It feels like all the combinations are fleshed out, including implied out-of-scene developments that have creators of transformative works salivating. The relationship between Lan Xichen, Jin Guangyao, Nie Mingjue. My Qing and Feng Xin. Beefleaf. Shang Qinghua and the other peak lords. Pre-canon parent lives, the juniors, towns passed through, the people of the land. Dynamics aren't just push-pull, teacher-student, savior-saved, unstoppable-unmovable, caregiver-cared for, dom-sub, light-dark, runner-statue, etc etc etc. And then to provide reasons for why characters crave that dynamic, why they resist it, how some cave to what they want and need due to circumstance or relationship development, how some are never able to for similar reasons. The part of me that likes to tug and prod at that flow, feeling the angst, struggle, desire and love, has an ocean of content to play with. It's no wonder Wangxian is one of the most prolific ship tags, and I hope to see more for Hualian once (if 😩) more is adapted as animation or drama. (Unfortunately I'm sure SV will continue to be the neglected eldest child -- more/continued adaptations would help there too.) Creators are just so damn creative in the ways they play in this sandbox and I'm just happy to be here to enjoy it. 🥰
I picked up rereading MDZS (first time with the official English release) after resisting the urge for hella months. (I both want to and desperately don't want to move on from these series LOL.) I never picked up on the Nie brothers having different mothers?? And I don't think the impact of that is clear on the plot? But I wonder what the story is there and if it explains why (beyond the whole fake incompetence thing) NMJ is how he is with NHS. I wonder if NHS internalizes something about what happened to his mother in a similar way to how LWJ does with his. I want to KNOW.
Also, I think this means that the Lan brothers are the only fully blood related sibling unit? We spend so much time focusing on the chaos of offspring brought about by JGS that I feel the rest of the sibling dynamics are understated. Potentially the Wen siblings as well, though I don't recall if any detail is provided about their parents. I wouldn't be surprised if they were half siblings as well. The Jiang trio has its own dynamics, blood relation between JC & JYL but none with WWX, yet intense care and affection all the same (among other spicier details).
These tiny details of chaos and instability do so much to set up this world that has been at war for over a hundred years (this story being the conclusion of it... or one part of it, or a hopeful continuation of temporary peace). A generation of parents lost or disconnected (or just shitty). A generation of youth parentified and sent to war too young. Terrified elders fearing the ways the world could get worse or established power could be threatened.
MDZS from Lan Wangji's perspective is a disillusionment. A interrogation of the status quo created out of survival, firm and unquestioning, but simultaneously lifeless. Wei Wuxian comes in representing pure resilient joy in the face of tragedy, a wine stain on pristine white fabric an artifact of the revelry the night before in the face of darkness. Wei Wuxian the bonfire during the long night, promising life and warmth and chaotic joy and a future that is worth living and fighting for. Lan Xichen's disillusionment strikes also through relationship, but much differently.
(Of course I start this post just pondering family relationships and end up waxing romantic yet again about Wangxian because I HAVE THE BRAINROT SO DEEPLY.)
A generation of orphans raising a new crop of hope, rambunctious and resilient and curious. It's not the blood relation that matters, but who cares for your future, who fans your flames with love and wisdom. Who strokes your hair and makes you soup or fits you to sect colors regardless of how you were found sick in a tree trunk.
Who protects you from whatever Nie Mingjue was protecting Nie Huaisang from, the sturdy older sibling shielding their baby brother while also grumbling about their need to toughen up. A protection and expression of care that drove NHS to devise a plan so extensive it involved bringing someone back from the dead for justice.
The tiny details, ugh. They drive me insane.
sometimes I think about mdzs existing with these adhd/autistic coded (by author intentionally or just claimed by fandom, idc), mutually traumatized, consensual nonconsent loving weirdo4weirdo gifted freaks who are also gorgeous and down so bad for each other like uhaul lesbians and
like who made this gift for me wow, bless, life IS worth living
ty for the food
hello! is it ok to ask you if you can post a compilation of spoonkid’s super cute art for the mdzs audio drama extras or if there’s already an existing compilation may you direct me to it? can’t get enough of their adorable chibi faces and cheeks and she doesn’t post the fanart anywhere and most of them you can find scattered all over the internet and not just in one place :/
MDZS Audio Drama S1 | Extras Official Cover Art | Part 1
Artist: Spoonkid
S1 Part 1 | S1 Part 2
S2 Part 1 | S2 Part 2
S3 Part 1 | S3 Part 2
thinking about the way Wei Wuxian sees the cracks in Lan Wangji's fascade, that calm and cold exterior, with joy and goes "you're human, you're human, you're human" to the point that it breaks Lan Wangji down completely. that's a feeling you can never forget.
thinking about the way Lan Wangji sees the steel in Wei Wuxian's flippancy, that irreverent and silly mask, with sincerity and goes "you're worthy, you're worthy, you're worthy" to the point that it breaks Wei Wuxian open completely. that's a feeling that can keep you alive.
they are so much more than complimentary or foils for each other. they act as each other's key to a part of themselves that is usually locked away, shining light on each other's shadows without even realizing the lifetime of experience they're contradicting.
Rereading MDZS vol 3 (oof ouch my heart) -- trying to pin down my interpretation of Madame Yu is still so interesting. I fully think that she recognized Wei Wuxian's potential and saw that he was currently exhibiting leadership maturity while her son was very clearly still juvenile (love that for JC tbh). In the scene where the kid is taken by the Wens for the kite, WWX jumps into management mode and JC is freaking out with the other disciples. Madame Yu overhears that. I don't think Wei Wuxian would be lead disciple only because of age (though it may be just that) and he clearly had the respect of the younger disciples (oof ouch my heart again). She could have held him back to defend Lotus Pier, but I think she saw how critical he was to Jiang Cheng's (and maybe also Yanli's) survival. And then she drilled in that he owed them, that anything less that absolute self-sacrificing dedication is because he is spiteful, a leech, selfish. JFM's backbone is Madame Yu (it seems) and I think WWX is JC's and she recognizes that, despite all of JCs bluster. She bound WWX to JC with Zidian intentionally, then affirmed his emotional bind to him with her words.
There's also something to servitude (class) and servitude (wife) here but that may be me over reading at that point 🤭.
"To his eternal shock, Wei Wuxian watched Lan Wangji start to cry. He had seen him upset before, angry, even grief-stricken in the Xuanwu cave and on the clifftop at Nightless City, but these tears were not like that. They were slow and full, rolling like pearls down his cheeks."
- A quiet room, a night, a dawn, Chapter one: a night, by BarbV