Welcome Ghosts and Ghouls!

Decay and Be Gay

This is my second foray into chinese media. I started with the 19 days webcomic five years ago, and somehow, I ended up here. This is my first ever danmei novel, and I enjoyed it so much. I've rarely read novels with art inside them, so it was a really fun experience and I'd love to do a reread eventually. The art for the manhua is cute as well. And I actually watched the donghua after reading the manhua and ExR translation. (Although I've started The Untamed, I consider it an alternate canon simply because I don't want to mix them).

With that out of the way.

Mo Dao Zu Shi is such a fun story with really interesting worldbuilding. I don't know how typical or atypical it is for its genre, but it was super fun to explore it's power system and mythology. I love how MXTX writes using present and past arcs. It took me a little while to get used to it, but I think it really helps us understand the complexities of it's plot and characters. One of my favorite aspects of this story, in terms of world, is the demonic cultivation (or 'ghost path'). I love how it ties into the story's themes of class, justice, ressurection, and tradition.

Wangxian is the narrative focus of the story and I do like them together. I like how they seem to be so different but mesh really well, and how their relationship arc ties into the larger politics of the story. They were separated by circumstances and misunderstanding that they repeatedly try to mend, and I really love how there are textual reasosn for these, rather than petty issues. The traditions of their world, the circumstances they deal with, and the nature of class dynamics and walking off the broad path all lead them to their ends. Wei Wuxian's death serves no one justice, but it allows things to return to the status quo and I love how Lan Wangji never lets those regrets go. I love that Wei Wuxian only has the space to process his own feelings after death. I love watching them try to navigate that as they relearn working together.

I also love how the very thing that killed Wei Wuxian (and The Wen remnants) is the thing that is weaponized for the justice of one man.

It's interesting to me, because Nie Huaisang hurts a lot of people and completely destabilizes the cultivation world in getting revenge for his brother's death. Wei Wuxian wanted to protect the living with what little he had left to give, in a time of war and rebuilding. These are very different circumstances, and I find it a very distinct example of class politics. Wei Wuxian was condemned by the narrative and Nie Huaisang actually gets away with it, due to his own class and the unstable position of his target, Jin Guangyao (who is in a high position while still being regarded as lower -- out of the gentry).

MXTX is very clear on a few things: gossip, reputation and class have such a heavy impact and determine what options (or paths) people have available to them. Alongside this, she makes a very clear parallel between Wei Wuxian and Jin Guangyao, and how their status and personal perspective causes them to fall down very similar yet entirely different paths. She also ends the series with the question of whether or not we can really decide people are wholly good or wholly bad, and if we condemn people unfairly (or allow others to avoid it), are we serving anyone justice? I really love the way she uses a love story to explore that while also giving us a lot of hints to the other characters and their place within a narrative that has such themes.

Wangxian is a couple I really enjoy, but I think it's the more fun and youthful dynamics inside a complex plot that make it much more enjoyable.

Since Wangxian is the main couple, the narrative of this story is obviously going to focus primarily on their lives and perspectives, but I love that MXTX works in details of the side characters. She gives us glimpses into their own complexities and I have to say, I really, really enjoyed looking into Jiang Cheng's. He's such a mess of circumstance and insecurity and love and rage, and I adore him.

His relationship with his parents and sect is one that influence him so strongly, and they shape his entire perspective on Wei Wuxian. I think their relationship is actually incredibly interesting, complex, and so fucking brittle. I actually wrote an entire post about this on my tumblr (here), but I want to focus on my enjoyment of his character here.

I love how Jiang Cheng tries so hard to fill in the shoes he was left and how vulnurable he is. He hides his pain and grief and lack of experience behind rage, but he tries so hard to take care of his sect -- including Wei Wuxian. For as long as he's able, Jiang Cheng puts aside his insecurities around Wei Wuxian and his own parents in order to protect someone he loves. Like a brother, like a trusted disciple, he wanted Wei Wuixan to stay. But the cultivation world does not take kindly to those who fall off the traditional path and threaten the order of thing. Jiang Cheng knew this, warned Wei Wuxian over and over and was never listened to.

Their approaches to life and justice, their differences in capability and status, and their responsibilities (to a diminished sect, to a family one is indebted to) all result in them being unable to reconcile things. When Wei Wuxian is set up, when Wei Wuxian loses control at nightless city, Jiang Cheng no longer has any grounds to protect him, no matter how he feels about it. One thing I really like is that he's so angry and conflicted. He hates Wei Wuxian, grieves him and obsesses over him, and wanted them to be okay. That's why it hurt him so much when it wasn't.

Jiang Cheng is such a young leader. I want to acknowledge that. He rebuilt his entire sect while dealing with the intense politics around Wei Wuxian, with little to no external support. He didn't want to abandon Wei Wuxian and he didn't want to abandon the Wen remnants, but he had an entire sect to protect. Wei Wuxian understood. I think he gets a lot of hate from people who see his actions and never take the politics and responsibilities he has into account and I find that a bit sad.

And the thing is. Jiang Cheng is a bit of an asshole. He is deeply loyal once you've earned it but also vindictive. He is unselfish to a fault and uses the route of tough love like he was given. But this story was never about perfect people who always make the right choices. He is flawed and complex and so so interesting. And yeah, he hurts the main character. So what? It happens. Wei Wuxian hurt him too. That's just what it means to be a person. I can give him grace for that.

(And if I'm honest, I think hating him and trating him like a one-dimensional villian completely misses the point. MXTX very clearly questions this binary view of people and heavily contradicts that idea.)

Anyway. I think he's cool/his character design is super pretty. I love his sexy whip. I love that he's a bit of an asshole and a total mama's boy. I love that nothing about him is simple. I love that his anger hides his complexities. I love him. So much. And I think he deserves everything. (including an apology from Wei Wuxian, lol)