Wen Qing - Blog Posts
If I missed someone my bad. And this is not who is the better friend to wwx, just who do you feel has the best friendship with him
EDIT: I've done some thinking and the "best" can just be whoever has the best vibes with him/most iconic or just whoever you like the most, should've made that clear sooner mb you guys 😅
AU where Wen Qing and Nie Mingjue were betrothed like Jiang Yanili and Jin Zixuan, but after Wen Rhoan basically kills Nie Mingjue’s father, the Nie elders— or whoever is incharge at that point before Nie Mingjue becomes clan leader— decide to end the engagement.
Childhood sweethearts to unwilling enemies :(( 💔
I've been obsessed with Jiang Cheng since halfway through my first watch of cql, and here's why. He always keeps doing better than I expect him to.
(wow, this got long. rest is under the cut!)
He's introduced as the brother-killer, the ruthless sect leader with a reputation for being merciless. Then cut to the flashback, a Jiang Cheng who is fifteen, surrounded by his sister and brother and happy about it, occasionally doing stupid teenager things, trying so very hard to be Ideal Heir, while Wei Wuxian is the prodigy that keeps stealing his thunder effortlessly. And you go, "oh, I know this story. It's a tragedy, because these brothers loved each other once, but one's ambition will eventually breed jealousy which will fester into hate and end, tragically, in the death of the better half." It's Cain and Abel! You've seen how it ends, it's the first scene you see, of course that's where it's going!
And then you see how the three siblings help each other survive a frankly horrible and abusive household. They try to do for each other what their parents couldn't; Yanli tries to be their mother, Jiang Cheng doesn't believe the rumours about Wei Wuxian being jfm's illegitimate son or hold it against him as he very easily could've learnt to from his mother, and Wei Wuxian does his darned best to get jfm to acknowledge and love his son as he does for Wei Wuxian.
You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop!! Yunmeng burns, Jiang Cheng chokes his brother in the rain, and you think this is it, this is where it finally breaks. But he sticks with his brother and sister, he makes some stupid decisions in his grief and pays dearly for it. When he wakes up without a core he is broken, his 'ambition' is destroyed, and you remember him choke his brother and think this is it, and then... it isn't. Other than the one grieving rant in the rain, he never blames his brother for their loss, never demands that he fix it all. When Wei Wuxian does come with a solution, Jiang Cheng doesn't act like it's something he was owed. It's his brother, his brilliant genius brother, who miraculously fixed this impossible thing! He's the most Jiang of them all, of course he achieved the impossible!
And then he's the young sect leader in a bloody war, needing to win, needing to prove his worth and his sect's worth at every turn. This is where he becomes the ruthless, powerful man we meet in the first few episodes! Only.... he finds Wen Qing, who is the enemy in the eyes of the Jianghu, and offers to protect her (only her because he knows his limits, he can't protect all her people and his own, and his duty to his sect is first). He goes looking for his brother, months on end, haggard to the bone.
Then Wei Wuxian shows up wielding a power that's the worst taboo in their world, a power frighteningly similar to the power-drunk villain that they war is being waged against! He's doing unspeakable things, terrible torture in the name of revenge! Ah, so this is what it finally is! The moment they finally fall out for good, where Jiang Cheng cannot abide to tarnish his sect's reputation with Wei Wuxian's, and their love turns to hate.
But.... Jiang Cheng sees what he's done, and the first thing he does is to hug him tight. He asks about Wei Wuxian not carrying his sword, but even after the diplomatic nightmare of a war council, Jiang Cheng is just worrying. It's the most open, the most honest we've seen him so far, and he is concerned for his brother. He shuts it down when Jin Zixun tries to pick a fight. He takes responsibility for the person everyone's wary of, because that's his brother and he trusts him! He's hiding things, yes, but one day he will be ready to talk and Jiang Cheng will wait till then.
Then the war's won (by Wei Wuxian, of course!) and he has a sect to rebuild. And his brother is not at his side. First he's slacking off and drinking around town, then he runs away with the Wens to the Burial Mounds. It's terrible for the sect's and Jiang Cheng's own precarious position in Jianghu. Surely, this is the last thread of Jiang Cheng's love for his brother, the beginning of the man we were introduced to? But it's fucking not! Yes, he's frustrated. Yes, he's mad. And yet, he doesn't force his sister into a diplomatically advantageous marriage (which I strongly believe is the bare minimum of being a decent human being, but is something that wouldn't have been a questionable or dishonourable thing for him to do in the culture and world this story is set in) because she is not a pawn and he respects her choice above the politics! He tries to defend his First Disciple, his brother, and is overshadowed by much more powerful leaders who are bigoted and/or afraid of his power. And when it all goes to shit, they fight! This is the end of it, surely? But no! It's all fake! They fight, make up a lie about how the Yunmeng Jiang has supressed Wei Wuxian and his Wens in the Burial Mounds so they can live without being under attack for however long, and then have shady meetups to discuss their nephew's name!!
In the carnage of Nightless City, their sister dies at his hands, and the horrible realisation dawns that this is what pushes them over the brink, literally. And then!! AND THEN!!!!! EVEN THEN IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR HIM TO KILL HIS BROTHER!!! The first scene was a lie, WEI WUXIAN HAD TO THROW HIMSELF OFF!!!!!! And when he's finally back, what does Jiang Cheng do? Kill him? ban him from ever returning to their home? No! He wants to drag him back home and make him apologise, explain himself!!
A lot of this is very focused on the brothers, but even outside of that, Jiang Cheng keeps subverting the expectations that the story builds for him right in the beginning. For all the talks of 'disciplining' his nephew (which could unquestionably entail some form of corporal punishment, as we see in other parts of the story) and the childhood Jiang Cheng himself had, the idea of his Jiujiu raising his hand against him is unthinkable to the point of incredulity for Jin Ling. When Jin Ling has his breakdown over Suihua on the Lotus Pier docks, I was full bracing myself for Jiang Cheng to yell at him for crying in public without any shame or dignity, but what does he do? Calls his nephew to his side and demands to know who made him cry, so he can fucking wreck them for daring to do that! He has a mere day to process the Golden Core reveal, and after all the yelling, he actually apologises to his brother!!
Then, in the mother of all sucker-punch moments, we find out that the one grief-riddled, frustrating moment of apparent stupidity whose domino effect this entire thing has been, was in fact Jiang Cheng willingly sacrificing himself, sect be damned, to save his brother and sister. And like!! How do you have such a character who simultaneously is and is not what he seems to be!!!
I (and a lot of the audience) immediately played into the simple brotherhood-destroyed-by-jealousy plot that it seems to be at first, but that's the intention! The entire story keeps showing how misleading, how vicious rumours can be and how horribly it can affect who someone is in the eyes of society. We see this happen in the story, of course, but the narrative also relies on the audience to make the same mistake, to take the tropes that seem obviously implied at the start, and then unravels the true complexity of the story as it moves forward. We got played by the narrative and it was so worth it!! Wei Wuxian is the prime example, of course, but cql (and mdzs from what I gather, though I haven't read the books) does it with such nuance and brilliance for Jiang Cheng, how do you not immediately lose your entire mind about it for the rest of forever!!!!!
The Untamed as text posts (80/?) mad scientists edition
Okay, so I've been watching a lot of kdramas (or by extent Asian dramas) since March 2020, and there were a lot of characters who were so queer coded (or just had a fruityness to them)?? Anyway, so here's a list
But let's start with some canonically queer characters in mainstream dramas, shall we?
Park Mae Yi (Run On) - is ace and talks about her asexuality early on in the show
Go Ye Joon (Run On) - is gay and outs himself in the end, has a talk with another character about the discrimination and struggles of being gay
Ma Hyun Yi (Itaewon Class) - is mtf transgender, and while her being a cook is her main story arc, her confidence and pride of being trans is important too
Hikari Kuina (Alice in Borderland) - is mtf transgender and an absolute badass fighter as she grew up learning martial arts
Jung Seo Hyun (Mine) - is lesbian and (like every woman in this drama) an incredible independant badass
Now that we have that out of the way, let's move on to the actual queer-coding:
Seo Moon Jo (Strangers from Hell) - okay, he may be a psychopath and a serial killer BUT he calls Jongwoo 'babe' every chance he gets, and immediately threw his strategies out the window for him, so I declare him gay
Seo In Woo (Psychopath Diary) - again, similar to Moon Jo, the homoerotic tension of obsessive love is STRONG, and in his case, In Woo and Dong Sik are even mistaken as a couple at some point, he's definitely gay
Oh Mi Joo (Run On) - she just gives me bisexual wife energy, especially when you consider her chemistry with Dan Ah
Jang Bong Hwan / Queen So Young (Mr. Queen) - considering their souls are trapped in the same body, and Bong Hwan actually falls in love with the king at some point, they definitely fall into the genderfluid and queer spectrum
Han Se Ju (Chicago Typewriter) - like with Mi Joo, I have no actual reasoning other than vibes, and Se Ju just gives me incredible chaotic bisexual vibes, also his character is basically in a polyamorous relationship that's disguised with some bromance
Jang Man Weol (Hotel Del Luna) - okay, you cannot tell me that somebody who has been alive for 1300 years and is as flirty and cheeky as Man Weol is straight, she definitely falls on the mspec spectrum as well
So Mun (The Uncanny Counter) - again, this is based off vibes, but So Mun feels like a closeted bisexual kid (and boy am I speaking from experience here lmao)
Lee Yeon (Tale of the Nine Tailed) - this man is not only an ancient god, but a fruity god at that. One, he has that bromance chemistry with his best friend, second his true love is kind of split into a male and a female soul if I remember correctly?? that's kinda queer
Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishou (Word of Honor) - I'm putting them together because they're technically canon in the source material, but their chemistry in the drama is still off the charts
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji (The Untamed) - again, they're gay in the novel but are demoted to "platonic soulmates" in the drama
Wen Qing (The Untamed) - my queen and her (not subtle) hatred for men flirting with her~ she gives me lesbian vibes and you cannot change my mind
Lu Yao and Qiao Chusheng (My Roommate is a Detective) - I don't know if this has a novel, but considering their immense chemistry, an incident of Yao introducing himself as Chusheng's boyfriend, and their overall vibes, they both give me bisexual vibes
Shang Xirui and Cheng Fengtai (Winter Begonia) - aside from the cinematography of this masterpiece, both Xirui and Fengtai are very queer, and canon in the novel
Rizuna Ann (Alice in Borderland) - she's giving me girlboss-lesbian-who-will-outsmart-you vibes, especially after her and Kuina became ~closer friends~ and solved the last murder case
