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Latest Posts by coolnightfire - Page 10
role reversal + body swap + time travel bingqiu au:
binghe reverses time to the moment he and shen (yuan) qingqiu met. figures out the whole not-shen-jiu business, but that's less important and mind boggling than the fact that he's somehow ended up in shizun's body.
(under any other circumstances, he would be overjoyed. now, though— well. it's just not optimal shizun wooing conditions. still will take advantage, just. give him a moment.)
he goes to find himself (he has a hunch) and finds shen yuan literally moments after transmigration, helps him up, and takes him to the bamboo house.
luo (yuan) binghe looks up at shen (binghe) qingqiu and faints. that's as far as luo binghe gets in his master plan of fixing their relationship, because by then the system has wisened up to what binghe's trying to do, and it's come seeking death (trying to get binghe to be cruel to shizun via ooc lock).
this is as far as i've gotten with this idea, but. do you. do you see the vision
The fic where Hong-er is a human sacrifice
Fic idea that I'm going to write later: canon divergence AU where a superstitious group in Xianle try to sacrifice Hong-er to the gods and to BWX, believing that Hong-er falling during the parade is the reason for Xianle's decline.
Anyways, I already wrote a little something for it:
"Hong-er hit the floor harshly. All the air was pushed out of his lungs as a heavy body pounced on top of him, pinning him to the floor. He viciously yelled, punching the man on top of him in the liver. The man grunted before delivering a powerful blow to Hong-er’s face.
Hong-er’s head was thrown back from the force of it, the back of his skull colliding with the stone floor. His vision went white and his ears were left ringing.
Suddenly, hands were grabbing at him. He weakly tried to push them away but they held him in a bruising grip.
“We got him!” “Hold him down!”
“Where’s the rope?! Who has the rope?!”
“Peng Xi has it!”
“Hurry, tie his arms and legs before he can escape!”
The sound of scuffling feet surrounded Hong-er as men filled the small shine. Hong-er was manhandled onto his chest and his arms were forced behind him. He struggled against the men, but their hands remained firm, pushing him into the ground and tying the rope tightly around him.
Blood leaked from split lip and into his mouth, painting Hong-er’s teeth red as he yelled at the men."
I'll come back to this latter, I just wanted to put this somewhere.
Superstar Luo Binghe au. All the directors beg him to be in their movies because his fame will immediately assure success for anything they make. He’s handsome, charming, dedicated, and most of all, extremely talented. He even does his own stunts!! Women love him, and men who say they hate him will still watch his movies so they can figure out how to be more like him.
The only weird thing about Binghe as an actor is that he refuses to star in romantic films. He won’t kiss anyone, won’t pretend to date someone on screen, won’t even let another actor take over his role for the scenes he doesn’t want to do. His reason? He’s completely loyal to his husband.
Everyone thinks it’s stupid, obviously. You aren’t “cheating” by pretending to love someone else, it’s literally your job! Luo Binghe still refuses and says even he’s not good enough an actor to make anyone believe he could ever love someone other than Yuan-ge.
His fans hate this mysterious Yuan-ge. Because of his (probably insecure and jealous) spouse, all of Binghe’s fangirls cant see him sweep some y/n character off their feet. It’s even worse because they don’t know anything about this guy. Whenever someone asks to see or learn about Binghe’s husband, the star says he’ll never reveal Yuan-ge to the public, because he’s too beautiful and he doesn’t want everyone falling in love with him.
People kind of run with the idea that obviously this guy must be a total weirdo who Binghe is embarrassed to be seen with. That has to be the explanation, because no matter how perfect someone is, how can they have such a chokehold on THE LUO BINGHE??
Then, one day, years after Luo Binghe’s initial rise to fame…. He goes on a talkshow. With his husband Shen Yuan.
Obviously EVERYONE tunes in. No one uses TVs anymore bc of the internet, but just for this show, viewer ratings are the highest theyve ever been. Everyone wants to know what the fuss is all about with this guy to have Luo Binghe so down horrible.
And Shen Yuan isn’t a weirdo. He’s also not some pretty yesman. He makes jokes that make the audience burst into laughter. He’s opinionated, which is really refreshing when every other celebrity stays neutral on every topic to avoid losing fans. He’s polite, but he’s not a pushover. He’s likeable, but he’s not a try-hard about it. Referencing memes makes him an instant hit with the younger generations, and the calm gentle way he talks makes him a hit with the older ones. All of a sudden everyone is going, okay we see why Luo Binghe is obsessed with him.
Except… while shen yuan was making jokes and charming everyone, Luo Binghe was at his side, pathetically pawing at his husband for attention. The actor keeps whining every two minutes to be reassured yuan-ge still likes him. Whenever Shen Yuan compliments the host, Binghe looks like he’s about to cry. Whenever Luo Binghe jealously wraps his arms around shen Yuan everyone watching just rolls their eyes. Seeing them together people realize… shen yuan is the one that’s out of Luo Binghe’s league.
In just one hour public opinion goes from ‘no one can be worth binghe acting like that for’ to ‘luo binghe is so annoying, let shen yuan talk!!’
The next day someone finds shen yuan’s twitter and it blows up. He has his own fan pages now. There’s no pictures of him online other than the footage from the talkshow, so the fan accounts just post that over and over again. Shen yuan retweets a post about him with the caption “i never realized she was holding a plate of corn in this scene” and everyone loses their mind. Everything he says immediately goes viral bc that’s luo binghe’s attic wife.
People start nagging Binghe to post about Shen Yuan bc theyre so attached after his one and only publicized appearance. Binghe is super possessive, but yuan-ge tells him not to worry, so he relents and posts pictures of him and shen yuan on vacation. They’re together, holding hands… but shen yuan’s face and body are blurred out. It’s HORRIFYING. He looks like an eldritch monster bc luo binghe refuses to let anyone look at his yuan-ge in a swim suit, go away you perverts!! His instragram is now just full of pics of shen yuan where his eyes are blacked out so noone else can see how pretty they are. It’s nightmare fuel
Shen Yuan is unfortunately too unbothered to post pictures of himself. Everyone’s tired of Luo Binghe for “hogging shen yuan all to himself” when Shen Yuan is practically an internet celebrity now.
People go to watch movies and their theatre conversations sound like this:
“Oh, Luo Binghe’s in this one!”
“Who?”
“You know Shen Yuan’s annoying husband?”
“OH THAT GUY..”
This video is EXACTLY what Lan Qiren fears is going to happen the moment he lets Wei Wuxian back into Cloud Recesses
LQR: When choosing a cultivation partner it is important to choose someone with similar values and ideals as you.
LWJ: Mn. Must be someone intelligent, responsible, kind, wise, reticent, good self-control, quiet, and respectful of our rules and traditions. Must be someone my family(shufu) approves of.
WWX: Sorry to interrupt the lesson, but quick question, Grandmaster Lan—what’s the record for number of rules broken at one time?
LQR, eye twitching: . . .
WWX, fingers crossed behind his back: …for research purposes only, of course.
LWJ: . . .
LWJ: that one
I think a lot of characters in mdzs are written to be foils of wei wuxian, you know, lan wangji, xue yang, jin guangyao, wen chao, jiang cheng, the list could keep going. BUT in contrast to these contrasts, wen ning is wei wuxian's parallel.
They're both a talented child who, under the prejudices of society, become corpses of themselves, yet despite it all are able to persist because of love and understanding. Of course, the corpse thing is more figurative in the case of wei wuxian if we look at him the moments before during and after nightless city. Where he is entirely the yiling patriarch society lauds him to be. Which is just a superficial inauthentic shell of who we know wei ying is. And then he actually dies, so boom, there's your corpse (except 404 corpse not found, my point still stands).
And idk, I think one of the best parts of mdzs is that any of the characters could be the main character. Any of these characters could be the main pov.
But overall, while wei wuxian's foils illuminate his bright sides, his parallels, like wen ning, just make his tragedies that much darker. It's like, wei wuxian, isn't just solely persecuted, this persecution of hope and brightness is an epidemic. And that's so fucked to recognize and so hot of mxtx's brain to deliver as a theme.
Wei Wuxian: Lan Zhan! Our son is giving me /such/ an attitude right now!
Lan Wangji: *comes into the tea room to see WWX and LSZ at the table* Hm? 😐
Lan Sizhui: 0.0 *big eyes and pouting because he’s literally not doing anything wrong* ??? 🥺
Lan Wangji: *turns to WWX* Hm? 🤔
Wei Wuxian: *picks up an annoyed looking rabbit from the floor* Look at this little monster, he’s thumping his legs at me because I won’t give him my food! This is human food! It’s cooked!
Lan Sizhui: *giggling* 🤭
Lan Wangji: *soft eyes of love and affectionate blinks* Mm. 🥰 Entitled.
Bunny: *angry thump at WWX as soon as he’s set down* 😡🐰
wangxian au where wei wuxian keeps getting kidnapped cause people think he's powerless and depends on lwj for everything. kidnappers always think "well if he's so strong, why is he always trying to hide behind hgj??"
and like, wwx COULD easily free himself. but why would he? they aren't a real threat and above all, he LOVES to see his beloved hanguang-jun annihilate any threat that steps towards him
and lan wangji is never really worried. everyone always doubts wwx, writes off his abilities because he can't possible be "that strong." he knows wwx could handle, really, any situation.
but why should he have to?
wwx has been "handling" situations non stop his whole life. as far as lwj is concerned he shouldn't have to lift a finger anymore
This is so extremely in character for him. He is the exact sort if person to do this.😄😂
mdzs headcanon of the day #346 !
jgy has scheduled breakdowns. he’ll set a timer for ten minutes, scream cry and throw up, and then when it goes off he goes about his day
this entire scene is so revealing. notice how all these rich young masters are lost? lan qiren is asking them about something as important (and basic) for cultivators as handling a dead human soul, and they have to flip through their books for an answer.
my opinion is that they're ignorant because these obligations are, at best, boring procedural matters to them. unnecessary red tape, even. as members of the cultivation world's gentry, they're largely shielded from the possibility of becoming resentful corpses due to the soul tranquilization rites. this isnt their problem, so why should they care?
their ignorance stands in stark contrast to lan wangji's textbook perfect answer. (an early example of him displaying an earnest dedication to his duty that sets him apart from the rest of the gentry.) he makes it clear that destroying souls is an extreme last resort.
notably lan wangji's answer implies that orthodox cultivators are taught to procedurally destroy souls. but at the same time, many of these cultivators — namely the rich young masters who at this age are already going on night hunts — don't care enough to know, or much less adhere to, the correct order that places this method as a last resort. i think there's a strong implication that it's not uncommon for impatient or glory-obsessed cultivators to carelessly skip the first two methods entirely and just destroy the soul, because it's more convenient.
but the character whose reaction i find most interesting is wei wuxian. rather than automatically giving the textbook, orthodox answer, he visibly hesitates and contemplates. this is obviously something he's putting a lot of thought into!
and interestingly, when he does provide an answer, he never mentions destroying souls. he places manipulation of resentful energy between deliverance and suppression — implicitly excluding extinction (translated by seven seas as obliteration) from the order entirely.
i think it's important that unlike his classmates, wei wuxian is intimately familiar with destitution and precarity. moreover, as the novel reveals much later on, wei wuxian is not sheltered from the reality of the underclass facing extinction of the soul after death. he is keenly aware of the possibility that he could become one of them.
so when wei wuxian answers, he's speaking from the heart. it's true that he's trying to provoke lan qiren here, but it's equally true that he's giving an honest answer.
while rewriting this analysis for tumblr, it struck me as deeply ironic that lan qiren is singling out wei wuxian to accuse him of not taking his cultivator duties seriously and letting the glory get to his head.
but on closer examination, nobody in this room — not lan qiren, not the sheltered young masters, not even lan wangji — put as much thought and care into this issue as wei wuxian.
-Xie Lian looks so good in this- 🦋🌼
Relax
The Guanyin temple confession is maybe my favorite scene of any piece of media I've ever consumed because it's so unpredictable.
You got the villain just halting his evil plot, full stop, in the middle of his gloating speech, no less, because "What do you MEAN you guys aren't even together?! What?! No, no, no, there won't be any romantic misunderstanding in my hostage situation! Honey, tell him!"
And then the calmest, most polite character alive procceeds to go his version of apeshit on this punk like "my brother like-likes you, you fucking pinecone! You useless twink! We all thought you were a hoe but you are just an imbecile!" (Which is a nice parallel to the Jiang brothers' hatred for the peacock, but I digress)
And THEN, when it's the perfect moment for a climatic love confession, homeboy goes and screams for everyone to hear that he... really wanted that dick, Hanguang-jun! Where's love? Who cares? WWX wants to ride you like a carnival ride: sticky and filthy and multiple times.
It's a wonder that Xichen didn't yank that string from Jing GuangYao to strangle WWX himself.
This has been my favorite addition, I cackled like a seal irl lol
Xie Lian's second ascension is hilarious when you think of how it looks like for the other gods. Disgraced formerly banished crown prince marches up to heaven, kick people's asses, stabs Jun Wu, gets banished again, then...doesn't take his anger out on mortals or target any of their shrines.
Sure no one can control ascension, it just kinda happens, it's up to fate whether you succeed or not- but it really looks like Xie Lian purposely ascended solely to beat them up and run the Heavenly Emperor through with a sword. And now that's done, he's as at peace as a buddha and settles into a humble life of busking and scrap collecting, no resentment at all in his heart now that he had fulfilled his heart's wish: beat up the gods in heaven and stab the heavenly emperor.
In the outsider's point of view, it's like Xie Lian went 'I know I was banished but fuck you fate I will march up there, deliver my justice, and only then will I accept my lot as a banished god. fuck you and also fuck you all'