If I Had A Nickel For Every Time I Encountered Some Version Of The Following Observation In The Mdzs

if i had a nickel for every time i encountered some version of the following observation in the mdzs fandom:

"i'll never understand why fans of jin guangyao and jiang cheng and xue yang keep insisting on defending these characters' virtues. you can just admit that your favourite characters are assholes and terrible people. it's fine. why are you defending them."

i could probably buy myself a packet of some really sick edibles the next time i hit up the dispensary. but more to the point, what truly frustrates me about this observation (aside from the implicit arrogance that seems smugly baked into it every time i stumble upon it) is how completely it misunderstands what villain and antagonist fans are doing when we discuss the positive attributes of our favourite characters. it's the assumption that what we're doing must always be about defence, about arguments, about insisting that the characters we like are Good, Actually, And Here's Why--when in reality i have never, ever, ever encountered a fan of any of these characters who has been interested in definitively declaring that any of them are good or bad people. like that just straight up hasn't been part of the conversations we've been having with each other.

like, what you are interpreting as us "defending a character's virtues" is very often just us literally stating how the characters' actions have had a positive impact on other characters' lives, or the world more broadly. or we are just trying to compare acts of cruelty/violence committed by one of these characters vs the acts of cruelty/violence committed by the protagonist and his inner circle, to draw inferences about one or both characters, to better understand them and the story and how they illustrate various themes, whether mxtx meant for them to appear in the text or not. it's just... analysis. and yes, a core competency when it comes to literary analysis means being able to critically defend your arguments using examples from the source material.

jokes about the jgy or jc stans and "defence squads" aside, it's not about defending individual characters, because the characters don't need a defence, because they're not real. but the work we've all collectively put into examining these characters, and contextualizing their actions within their circumstances within the source material, is certainly real, and it makes sense that we'd want to step up and defend our work when people who disagree with us choose to misrepresent our arguments.

More Posts from Trauda38 and Others

trauda38

4 months ago

I just love how he's treated like the emperor he is for his birthday 🌟💗💗💗👑

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trauda38

6 months ago

How MXTX characters would react to the assassination of the UHC CEO

Wei Wuxian: has anyone seen Wei Wuxian and Luigi Mangione in the same room? 👀

Lan Wangji: 100% ready to aide and abet

Jiang Cheng: Runs to review the sect healthcare plan - he has enough problems without looking out for assassins.

Lan Xichen: understands the motive but did Luigi try playing calming music for the CEOs before resorting to violence? 🥺

Jin Guangyao: oh so some people get lauded as heroes when they commit murder? SMH double standard.

Nie Mingjue: appreciates martial artistry when he sees it. The stance? How quickly he cleared the jam? A true warrior.

Xue Yang: it lacked a certain pizazz, a stabbing would have been much more visually effective

Wen Qing: 100% approves bureaucrats should have no authority over doctors

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trauda38

4 months ago

Can't agree more

Wei Wuxian: Me and Lan Zhan are dating

Lan Xichen: We have known for ages

Wei Wuxian: ? We started dating 2 days ago

Jin Guangyao: tf were you doing before that

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trauda38

4 months ago

Literally, the only people that find complaining about that stage performance and actor's are untamed ride or die fans

Its like I'm falling in love with Wei Wuxian's character again... I don't know anything about his stage actor but he seem slaying it. I like how playful and confident he is in the photoshoot. He reminds me of Audio Drama Wei Wuxian. People who hate on him are probably The Untamed only fans and never MDZS fans.

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trauda38

1 month ago

Meng Yao striving // stained // weighed down (sparks amidst snow)

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trauda38

3 months ago

Jiang cheng: People out here having threesomes and I ain't even having twosomes

Nie huaisang: And that's way they call you handsome

Tags

wei wuxian wangxian jin guangyao lan xichen

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trauda38

2 months ago

I am seriously concerned by the danmei-confession anons that seem to think that murder and extreme torture are okay as long as it's done to 'bad people'

Darling, dear, you need to see what a slippery slope of superiority thinking that is. That is in fact the kind of hard lined morality that lead to inprisonment and eventual massacre of the Wen Remnants. Because they were 'bad', they were on the 'wrong side' of the war, part of the invading force of Lotus Pier (Wen Ning said that his people didn't kill people at random, doesn't mean they didn't kill.) But it doesn't matter if they were good or bad, because to murder a bunch of people is still wrong.

The cultivator that accidentially killed Jiang Yanli, only attacked Wei Wuxian because Wei Wuxian had just killed his brother. The brother was killed because he fired the opening shot at Wei Wuxian. The guy and his brother were there, probably because their sect leader told them that they had to defeat a dangerous villain with dark magic, which did appear to be true because Wei Wuxian did invent a whole new type of fierce corpse and killed the heir to of of the big sects. So did they deserve to die?

Y'all need to let go of this storybook idea of good and bad. Morality is so much messier and complex.

And if MXTX really does think that Wei Wuxian is the ideal of goodness, I am allowed to disagree with her. While it is her story, she did put it out in the world, and readers are allowed to form their own thoughts and opinions based on the story she has written.

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trauda38

6 months ago

Akutagawa: you have disappointed me.

Atsushi: like how you’ve disappointed Dazai?

Akutagawa: *heavy breathing*

Atsushi: OKAY I’M SORRY-

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trauda38

1 month ago