Literally, The Only People That Find Complaining About That Stage Performance And Actor's Are Untamed

Jin Guangyao: Of course I have a lot of pent-up rage, you fool! I've been the same height since I was twelve!

Xueyao of course no explanation is needed

WN Rarepair Tournament

Please consider each rarepair and vote for the ship you like the best / find the most interesting / that compels you the most / etc.

[Please be kind and respectful in the notes. Anti-Propaganda is NOT allowed.]

🔽 Propaganda below 🔽

XueWang from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Lan Wangji x Xue Yang

Submission 1: They’re kinda like dark mirrors of each other if you think about it. They both lost the object of their obsession to self-destruction of some kind. They both refuse to move on from said obsession and have built themselves into monuments mourning them (Xue Yang with his preservation of Xiao Xingchen’s body and the way he literally impersonates Xiao Xingchen and Lan Wangji branding himself and going around dressed for mourning). They have each taken in what physical remnants of their obsession remain (Xue Yang turning Song Lan into a fierce corpse and holding onto Yi City and Lan Wangji taking in and raising Sizhui). Each of them admire the other’s object of obsession to some extent (Xue Yang idolizes Wei Wuxian for his cultivation method and Lan Wangji praised Xiao Xingchen for his ideals and sense of justice). This is to say I could totally see these guys recognizing their common grief and latching onto each other as a result. Doing mutual proxyfucking or some shit

Submission 2: Think about it: Xiao Xingchen is dead. Wei Ying is dead. And they find someone who's definitely not the same... but close enough if they close their eyes and pretend.

Fic Recs: of use by rynleaf & six inches by Sectionladvivi; horrible mirror by Sectionladvivi

XueXian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation

Characters: Xue Yang x Wei Wuxian

No propaganda submitted

XueYao from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (MDZS)

Characters: Jin Guangyao x Xue Yang

No propaganda submitted

Fic Recs: Lise (User)

I cannot get over how good the Japanese dub cast is for mdzs.

They have Hikaru Midorikawa as Jiang Cheng and Akira Ishida as Jin Guangyao.

Yessssss

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.

Nie Mingjue : Arguing with me is pointless I knew I was wrong 10 minutes ago

The way Dazai protects Atsushi

When we imagine someone who is protective, mostly it is a person who bursts into a fit of rage or someone who heroically and willingly throws away their own life if it means to protect others. A good example for this would be Kunikida’s actions on several occasions. Dazai is less a person to obviously show rage or to heroically throw himself in front of someone.

Which doesn’t mean that he doesn’t care at all, it’s quite the contrary. And it’s sometimes very subtle and tricky, because he always has plans within plans and tries to achieve several goals with a single plan.

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I will only focus here on Dazai’s actions that solely have to do with Atsushi. I’m not going to bring up every single hidden agenda or goal Dazai is also trying to achieve.

In addition, this post has been tagged as #Dazatsu just to be safe. But of course it can be read from a platonic POV.

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Beware: Spoilers starting from chapter 83 and for 55 Minutes!

Czytaj dalej

He still loved him your honor

Thoughts on Jin Guangyao's name

So the "Yao" in GuangYao/Meng Yao (瑶) means "precious; precious stone, jade, mother-of-pearl" (source is technically google translate as op doesn't know any Mandarin, but "jade" is listed in the novel glossary).

In chapter 10 of mdzs book 2, we learn that the token Jin Guangshan left Meng Shi a "love token" in the form of a pearl button, which she sends him off with to "seek a way out of this life"; gaining his father's recognition.

Meng Shi named her son "precious" as in something of value. She might have also named him after, or at least been inspired by the pearl JGS left her. If this is the case, the pearl button, and Meng Yao's name, come to represent Meng Shi's hope for salvation: "she waited and waited, yearning and hoping for this head of the cultivators to return and take her and their child away."

Which is literally the function Meng Yao serves, to his mother and in the narrative. Although his mother clearly loved him, he represents--- at least initially--- an object/tool/avenue through which Meng Shi's wishes (salvation, a way out of this life) will be granted. (I do think MS came to love him but I don't think she originally kept the baby, at least primarily, out of a uncomplicated desire to be a mother raising a child in a brothel so much as a way out of said brothel yk). This is an important distinction for later-- the pearl, and Meng Yao, are the object of wish granting, not the wish itself or the person for whom wishes are granted. Not that Meng Shi's wish wouldn't also extend to her son's salvation. But this is less about them and more about he role Meng Yao is placed in in this dynamic and by extension the world, especially once Meng Shi is dead and only the ghost of her wish remains.

Unfortunately JGS is. . . JGS, and the button is "hurriedly crushed the pearl to dust" as Meng Yao is kicked down the stairs.

Okay so JGS literally crushes MS (and by extension, MYs) hopes and dreams under his foot. But, this action only furthers the parallels between the pearl button (and so, Meng Yao) and Wish Granting Pearls, or boazhu. One of the Eight Treasures/Eight Precious things, "popular symbols often depicted in Chinease art" and the most popular combination from a greater list of one Hundred Treasures.

One version of this concept found in Buddhism is a Chintamani, or wish fulfilling stone, "sometimes depicted as a luminous pearl" [x]. Further, Jin Guangyao honors his mother by building Guanyin temple. Guanyin is often portryed holding a wish granting jewel in his right hand [x]. I'm not super familiar with this, but the point is. The connection isn't just "JGYs name can mean pearl and JGS gave MS a pearl button", there's multiple associations between JGY, his mom, and the idea of wish granting pearls. Also the pearl is something of inherent value (sometimes fell from the sky) but also a way for wishes to be granted.

Jin Guangyao, who seemed born to resolve conflicts,

Yeah no literally. Named for it too. Assigned genie at birth. Then there's this bit from the fandom wiki:

The name 'Jin Guangyao' may have been cheekily inspired by the idiom "光耀门楣 (guāng yào mén méi)”, "splendor shines on the family's door”. This means "to bring honor to one's family”.

Which. Maybe this isn't anything that's not obvious in the text. But again [something about the distinction between bringing honor to and being honored or honorable, which should theoretically go together but don't necessarily, except I'm not sure enough in my (nonexistent) knowledge of the connotations of that idiom to articulate further].

I find it interesting that we learn the story of the pearl almost as soon as Meng Yao is introduced. And kicked down the stairs. And the pearl is crushed to dust underfoot, like it's nothing. Which

[pearl buttons were] nothing special to the Jin Clan of Lanling. They were so abundant, in fact, that you could fling out a hand at random and come away with a fistful. Their most common use was to be given as gifts to the beautiful women Jin Guangshan dallied with when away from home. He would pass these pretty little baubles off as rare treasures and top them off with a pledge of undying and eternal love. He gave them out as he pleased and forgot all about them after the fact.

Just like his bastard children. Literally. (Also maybe some parallels between the worthlessness of the pearls and what finally gets JGY to decide to kill his father).

Maybe more importantly, the pearl is an object, and a tool, something which has a value inextricable from it's use. Meng Yao is precious, but not for who he is, but for what he can do for people. And he is destined, even in his name, which calls him something precious, to be born to resolve conflicts. Possibly even to be necessarily consumed or destroyed if the wish is to be fulfilled, though I couldn't find enough information on what typically happens to these pearls in stories to be sure.

But it at least seems foreshadowed here. Nothing good is going to happen to the boy born to grant wishes when the object he's named after and heavily associated with is crushed to dust the moment he's introduced into the narrative.