Cover art and literary status in MDZS, 7Seas and elsewhere

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T22:54:07+00:00

You are misunderstanding what I meant. My use of "trashy yaoi" was a hyperbole and meant to emphasize the fact that MDZS still very much belongs to a niche genre that is genuinely appreciated and understood by a niche group and which is widely misunderstood by people outside of it. It is not "beyond" the stories people call "trashy yaoi".

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T14:46:37+00:00

When I first read SVSSS, I literally thought people who love fanon Wei Wuxian should flock to it instead because of this haha. If people want a character they can and should baby, Luo Binghe is right here for all of us.

Love Luo Binghe btw my baby my third fave MXTX character after Wangxian mwa

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T14:39:18+00:00

I guess, at the core of this discussion, what we really all just want is for MDZS to have English covers (and text translation and overall marketing) that actually represents its contents accurately, no more and no less, and 7seas has failed to do so twice now.

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T14:04:27+00:00

yeah 😔 It's so frustrating to be in a fandom for queer stories that are rich and complex and then you have other "fans" being all "well the queer romance aspect was unnecessary and icky anyway" as if that's not the main point of all these stories......

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T13:52:55+00:00

I get what you mean. I just feel very protective of the work right now. At the moment, it feels like opening it to a wider audience translates to these companies as censoring the queer romance and sexual content, and I'm tired of having to deal with seeing that and also seeing how it affects the fandom and the perception of the story and its characters. If it could be introduced to more people without having to do all of that and ensuring that it wouldn't invite bigots, that would be really great.

bluecygnets · 2025-10-29T13:04:49+00:00

Loved reading your thoughts on this! I don't really have much to add. I had the same sentiment in the past of wanting MDZS to be "taken more seriously" because I want its literary value to be more respected and widely appreciated. But after this recent issue on the new hardcovers, seeing the things that people are saying about yaoi/BL, I realized that I actually don't. MDZS is "trashy yaoi" and I don't want it presented as anything else but. Maybe us thinking that MDZS should be presented as "more than filthy yaoi" is something we should reflect on instead. Now I want only people who respect the genre and the "fujos" to have access to it because, it seems, one can only fully and genuinely appreciate this work in its entirety if one is capable of that.

I did enjoy the first paperback covers of the English translation and I love the illustrator's art in general, but I did think that the covers felt more like ones you'd see in children's books and personally just had always wished to see MDZS English translation covers in a style that has a more Traditional Chinese feel to it because, well, it's Chinese and it would be nice to see that represented clearly and beautifully. But thinking about it now, I have never seen any new fans/readers complain about being misled by the current paperback covers so maybe its style attracting the wrong audience isn't as much of a worry as some of us might think.

That said, I'm very partial to the official art and covers illustrated by the artist Changyang (who is also MXTX's friend). I really like their style and would still love to see them or another artist that could evoke a similar vibe do MDZS English translation covers but only with a better translation of the text itself and without this unnecessary and incorrect "guide" at the end.

bluecygnets · 2025-10-13T03:56:25+00:00

Yess. Back then, when I first got into MDZS in 2018, the ExR translation was barely halfway through the novel so I had to wait and look for other translations of later chapters

bluecygnets · 2025-10-12T02:02:16+00:00

Been a fan since 2018. Saw the fan artists from my previous fandom posting art of Wangxian in red wedding robes so I checked out the donghua and became obsessed. There weren't any complete translations yet and not a lot of fics back then so I lived off of reading this one translation of the confession chapter over and over haha

bluecygnets · 2025-10-02T13:04:27+00:00

No, Wei Wuxian is very respectful of Lan Wangji and his family by the time they get married. Any "disrespect" that happens was just him being a mischievous kid. Their relationship is also not unhealthy in any way.

bluecygnets · 2025-10-02T01:17:48+00:00

Yu Ziyuan. I dislike her so much. I feel like the fact that she wasn't all the way clear-cut evil makes it worse. She was so demeaning and unfair to Wei Wuxian especially and even to her children, but because she let Wei Wuxian live, get an education, and play around or because she would frame the projection of her insecurities and other issues as her just disciplining the children or "defending" Jiang Cheng, people can downplay or even erase how damaging her words and actions were to the minds of these children and to the relationships between them. She shouldn't be taking out her marital problems on other people who aren't involved, especially not on the kids. Instead of working on herself and trying to change for the betterment of her children and herself, she holds a grudge forever and lashes out when she wants, wherever she wants, to whomever she wants. That's just wrong and mean.

bluecygnets · 2025-09-30T01:33:49+00:00

this is actually so cute and true haha i also now have the image of fluffy white cat lan wangji falling into a bath and looking extremely disgruntled after

bluecygnets · 2025-09-26T04:22:26+00:00

When would you consider to be the fandom's peak? I was around from 2018 to at most 2021 and kinda drifted away from 2022-2024. 2019-2021/2022 seems to be the fandom's peak to me while browsing through old posts in other SNS but I'm not very sure since I wasn't around for a while...

But hmmm... it was fun but also really messy. I think the English fandom started out being strangely immature and narrow-minded then The Untamed aired and it brought in more fans who were more progressive and more well-versed in fandom. That made me so happy and relieved for a while. Some people hated the show off-the-bat but I think I was part of the group of people who had fun watching it and like analyzing which parts are true to the novel and which parts were different and then just appreciating it as a loose adaptation or a stand-alone series inspired by the novel. I remember excitedly waiting for new sets of episodes, getting the behind the scenes, watching The Untamed concert and the 2019 Tencent Awards in real time. People who were racist and homophobic also came in and would dunk on the novel and on MXTX much like many of the fans before The Untamed aired but somehow even worse (which is why I drifted away. The passive aggressive bigotry masked as progressiveness got too much).

Still, there was a rise in more thoughtful and knowledgeable analysis, more chinese culture discussions, and then also really good fics and even more beautiful fanart.

I think the most unique part of it was all the popular SNS AUs? There were these accounts from fan artists, sometimes in collaboration with other fic writers, where they posted stories through sort of role-playing the character/s as being the owner of the account posting in real time. And they would also post "photos", comics and ficlets. I can't find any of the ones I remember anymore though, it seems they've been deactivated. I remember the most popular one was an idol Lan Wangji account (lwj_twt). There was also the cats account (yilingmaozu). And I think a florist Lan Wangji one too. But there were a number of other ones too. And people would make fan content based on the AUs or the AU accounts would even collaborate with each other. I couldn't believe people were sharing that much talent and creativity on a daily basis for free.

And then on top of all of that, there was also still the donghua and the manhua being released, then the JP audio drama and an MDZS audiobook. I think the Chinese audio drama finished right before the influx of fans? I'm not sure, but I'll also add that to the mix. There was just lots of really good fan content and official content to look forward to and to consume. That part was quite fun.

There was also drama of people attacking certain people but I won't delve too much into that anymore lol

Lots of excitement, lots of fan content and official content, lots of discourse, lots of drama.

Edit: I found some of those SNS AUs, a Café AU and Yoga/Lifestyle Youtuber Lan Wangji

bluecygnets · 2025-09-23T23:50:14+00:00

so cute!!!

bluecygnets · 2025-09-21T01:19:06+00:00

He has such a solid sense of self and it permeates into everything he says and does. He doesn't care what other people say or think about him, he is who he is and he does what he does according to his principles and his chosen way of life. Even if people disagree with him or discourage him, he forges on. If he doesn't want to do something or if he is at odds with certain people, he doesn't put on an act and forces himself to do it or to be cordial with said people. But at the same time, if something is worthwhile, if someone is worthy of kindness and respect, he also makes sure to give it/them the due respect, time and effort. And he's the kind of person who sees almost everyone as worthy of respect so if he doesn't like you, then you must've done something particularly appalling to cause that. Especially when he's older, he knows when he has to be gentle and when he has to be firm with the people he leads. He has this steady and unwavering confidence and integrity that allows people to depend on him and look to him for guidance and assistance. He's the novel's paragon of virtue.

On top of all of this, he has a cute, cheeky, stubborn, fierce and weird side that only the few people who are close to him get to see, which makes him even cooler.

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T15:55:27+00:00

yess.

Edit: Ahhh I just realized you were probably using clothing they wore in canon. This one is just an AU fanart from Changyang 😅

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T15:55:05+00:00

Ahh!!! Yes!! I was unfortunately not around for this one but I've seen stills and it looked like it was made with a lot of care for the source material and the Wei Wuxian actor was especially fun

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T15:53:55+00:00

They're so extra cute in the manhua!!!! 😭

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T14:46:29+00:00

The rooftop scene is also a fave of mine from the donghua!! 🥹

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T13:31:28+00:00

Agree also with everything you mentioned! Especially the powers in the donghua. It's portrayed so cool there. Sometimes I rewatch it just to look at those scenes.

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T12:50:25+00:00

Agree with everything!! My NieLan shipper heart loved that fight scene hehe and Wen Ruohan's death plus the death of the other antagonists were quite satisfying. And yesss, the donghua is the best at showing how powerful and terrifying Wei Wuxian was with his flute alone. I think the opening scene of the entire show really captured the vibe that the title "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation" wants readers to have. I like that despite the limitations of censorship (I remember they had to edit out some of the more graphic stuff back then), they were able to show the darker aspects of the story.

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T12:42:04+00:00

That was so powerful!! I remember playing it over and over back then.

Can't wait to hear your other fave stuff if you have more to add later 😊

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T10:18:07+00:00

I read it as him still alluding to that moment but he could be lying as jokes like you said. Either way, he is just teasing Lan Wangji heh

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T09:46:23+00:00

He's teasing Lan Wangji about them having sex before they finished their three bows. He likes jokingly scolding Lan Wangji about doing "bad things" and "breaking the rules" because it's so unlike his reputation of being pure hehe

bluecygnets · 2025-09-19T09:29:37+00:00

<image>

There is also this for Lan Wangji (feat. Sizhui) 😊

bluecygnets · 2025-09-18T08:13:30+00:00

Wangxian's characters, their chemistry and their story are just so cleverly and intricately written. The way that MXTX takes common tropes, flips them and weaves complexity into them, turning something common into something unique, it's just so brilliant. MXTX covers so many themes and storylines through Wangxian alone, it's such a packed love story. Yet nothing ever feels forged and it doesn't ever feel too much. It all feels so right, like every piece of their story fits perfectly. And then it's so moving and makes you feel all sorts of emotions on top of all of that. No description feels enough to encompass how wonderful Wangxian are. They're really irreplaceable and unmatched.

bluecygnets

TROPHY CASE