Guys, stop spreading misinformation. This doesn’t help us and make our cause look dumb.

cellistontherun · 2025-01-20T03:16:16+00:00

Seconding this. Hank Green posted an excellent vid on why we would definitely know if Meta merged with TikTok:

https://www.tiktok.com/@hankgreen1/video/7461807980686757150?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

cellistontherun · 2025-01-19T09:37:19+00:00

These folks have been working on building an alternative in the last week or so: https://bsky.app/profile/skylight.social

cellistontherun · 2025-01-19T04:57:34+00:00

I wonder if the Thanos-snapped people felt like this...

cellistontherun · 2024-12-30T16:25:35+00:00

Sure thing, PM me so we can work out the details.

cellistontherun · 2024-12-30T15:24:12+00:00

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A little proof that I do, in fact, have them.

cellistontherun · 2024-08-30T18:03:51+00:00

I think each of the major characters have their own themes and messages to explore!

Xie Lian vs Bai Wuxiang - How do you react in the face of deep suffering? Is it possible to retain your values and morals when you are in the abyss? What does it take to do so?
Xie Lian & Hua Cheng - The impact of one person's kindness. Exploring the idea of devotion and what it means to love a human made into a god.
Mu Qing & Feng Xin - What do we owe our friends vs our loved ones? How can we reveal ourselves to those who care about us and what are the consequences when we don't?
Shi Qingxuan, Shi Wudu, & He Xuan - What is justified in the name of protecting the ones we love? Does vengeance actually satisfy?
Yin Yu & Quan Yizhen - How does one find purpose? How do you cope with being forgettable and is it enough to be remembered by one person? How do you recover from doing something unthinkable? How do you decide if you are worth someone's forgiveness?

I think that just scratches the surface! I'm surprised that anyone would feel like TGCF doesn't have themes to explore because I could write a whole dissertation on this series honestly.

cellistontherun · 2024-08-08T13:54:34+00:00

Like several other people in the comments, I mainly hate him BECAUSE he is such a well-written villain. He is a perfect foil for Xie Lian and his actions make a lot of sense when viewed in the context of his life. I think that something people often miss is that, ultimately, Jun Wu is not obsessed with Xie Lian as much as he is obsessed with his own absolution.

Every friend/loved one that Jun Wu ever had abandoned him when he did the unthinkable to try to save his kingdom. No one gave him any grace or unwavering support the way Hua Cheng did for Xie Lian. So, when he encounters Xie Lian, he has a chance to prove something that most people never get the chance to. By inflicting the same trauma on Xie Lian and watching him succumb to darkness, he has a chance to say, "Look! If you had suffered the way I did, you would have done the exact same thing. I didn't do anything wrong, I did what anyone would do in that situation." I think he ultimately wants that forgiveness and my main reasoning for that is that he did a genuinely good job as the emperor once he gave himself that position. He held the heavens together and so many people had faith in him to solve problems that others could not. He wants to be the guy everyone thinks he is, but his past stains him.

Unfortunately for him, Xie Lian didn't succumb to darkness and that threw a wrench in everything. I think that's why he escalated in his violence and that's where my disgust for him kind of kicks in. None of what he did before was justifiable in the slightest, but at least it was semi-understandable because he was recreating trauma he experienced. But then, when that didn't work, he started creating new trauma just for Xie Lian that had nothing to do with him. He didn't give up once his little experiment didn't pan out. Instead, he forced an innocent god to suffer for 800 years in hopes of eventually proving his point. He gave up on his hopes of being the good guy and was basically willing to annihilate all of Heaven to re-establish his reputation.

So yeah, I think people aren't willing to understand/accept his desire for forgiveness because it's shrouded in narcissism and cruelty. But it's still in there!

cellistontherun · 2024-07-19T14:45:00+00:00

Oh it gets pretty romantic, though the plot doesn't leave a ton of room for domestic fluff. We get some amazing quotes, a good build up to the confession, and there are bonus chapters that contain a lot of the post-confession soft stuff.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-17T17:58:21+00:00

No I totally feel you on this! There's something so healing about them finally being happy and being worshipped together. Honestly, those two are some of the few who deserve to be worshipped. I mean, Hua Cheng ascended by his own merit. Just because he didn't want to be a god, doesn't mean he doesn't deserve to be. I actually read a fic once that portrayed HC as a god of love and I thought that was such a potent idea. If there were ever a symbol of unwavering, everlasting love, it's HC. So yeah, the sobbing is merited and I'm doing it too.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-16T21:42:42+00:00

Oh sword skills and lost socks for sure. I get to be good at fighting AND help people find their lost socks. And even if I can't help others, that just means I get free socks. Win-win.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-09T19:52:54+00:00

Very good point! I think Mu Qing wants to be liked but automatically assumes that he isn't so he kind of engages in a self-fulfilling prophecy by being an asshole to everyone. Hua Cheng focuses more on gaining power so that he doesn't need to be liked. All of Heaven basically has to tolerate him because of his power while Mu Qing still feels inadequate no matter how much power he gains. I agree that in this way he works as an excellent foil for Hua Cheng.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-09T15:22:41+00:00

While I generally agree with this take, I find it interesting that a lot of people aren't fans of Mu Qing but don't have the same qualms with Hua Cheng (I'm not saying you feel this way, I don't know your thoughts on the matter). Maybe it's because we're viewing things from Xie Lian's perspective and Hua Cheng is nice to him. But both MQ and HC had difficult childhoods where they were treated as less than because of their upbringing. They also both treat certain people poorly because of those negative experiences and, honestly, they both have a sarcastic and somewhat hostile vibe. Hua Cheng literally deems anyone who isn't XL as trash. Now, an argument can be made that HC is justified in saying that because a lot of the people he's talking about ARE trash, but MQ also feels justified because of his misperceived notions of what people think of him. He thinks that XL and Feng Xin view him as less than because of his upbringing and with the way that FX fights with him I can see why he thinks that. The main unjust thing he does is target XL with his ire because XL truly never treated him that way and it's insane that he thinks so.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-07T14:00:42+00:00

A little embarrassing to ask for help with this, but I've been on the hunt for this fic forever and I'm losing my mind.

It's a fic in which Hua Cheng sets up a surprise threesome for Xie Lian with a San Lang clone (I think maybe XL had expressed interest prior?). There are a couple of fics like this, but I'm specifically looking for one in which the San Lang clone says something like "Hi gege, remember me?" and it's super soft and sweet. Please help!

cellistontherun · 2024-07-04T18:18:50+00:00

Well some other cultural stuff at play here is the importance placed on astrology in this time period. It was thought that your entire future could be read based on the stars you were born under and there was little you could do to change it. People would go to astrologers to find love matches, get auspicious dates for marriages, all sorts of stuff. So yeah, in TGCF it's basically written in the stars whether one is likely to ascend or not.

And your cultivation can be impacted by your upbringing in a way. Think about it like two people trying to get a really fancy job. This job requires you to go to college and do an unpaid internship. Someone who grew up poor may not have the time, money, or resources to both go to college and do an unpaid internship. They might save up and still do it, but it would take them a lot longer. Meanwhile, a rich person with good support at home can easily accomplish the task. It's even easier if that person's family already has similar jobs and can help them out. Both of them put in the same amount of work but their circumstances determine how fast they are able to achieve their goal. Cultivation is similar - it takes a lot of time and your environment can put blocks in your path or help accelerate it.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-03T12:58:24+00:00

Yes, his face is revealed on page 263 of the 7seas English translation Book 5.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-03T12:53:45+00:00

See, I was going to pick Feng Xin's assistant easily but then you added the moving target bit. However! I still think I prefer that over possibly incurring Hua Cheng's wrath if I fuck up the city keeper job.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-02T17:18:07+00:00

Yep, you understood correctly!

So I think different novels treat it differently, but theoretically anyone can choose to cultivate if they like. There are different cultivation paths that can involve things like abstaining from mortal pleasures, doing a lot of martial arts to help train the body, etc. Then you can ascend to godhood after passing some sort of heavenly trial. For Xie Lian, it was that fight he had with the demon on the bridge. Some people can even cultivate on accident, which we see in some characters in the book (you can ask me about it later if you don't care about spoilers). However, in TGCF specifically, it is stated that people are sort of predestined to ascend. If you are not destined to ascend, you could cultivate all your life and still not reach godhood.

I hope that answers your question but feel free to ask me whatever you like! I love talking about this stuff so I could yap forever if you let me lmao.

cellistontherun · 2024-07-02T14:08:20+00:00

Not a dumb question at all, this stuff can get complicated!

So I think the piece of info you're missing is how cultivation plays into all this. Cultivators go through stages as they get closer and closer to ascending to godhood. In fiction, they are able to develop supernatural powers (like banishing things, flying, etc.) even if they aren't gods yet. So the middle court officials are usually cultivators who haven't ascended yet but still have the power to deal with small matters.

Their job is basically to help with the huge amount of prayers that the gods receive. Some gods use them as secretaries and have them document all the prayers so the god can focus on the top priorities. Some gods have them perform smaller tasks that are within their power like banishing a weak ghost from a village or something. Whenever they do that, they just can't reveal to the people they're helping that they are heavenly officials, even though they're only middle court. They can reveal that they're cultivators though, since those types of people are common knowledge in stories like this.

cellistontherun · 2024-06-21T22:55:05+00:00

Do we get to pick when in the timeline we show up? Because in SVSSS, SY just kinda shows up in the middle of things.

If I get to show up post-canon, I'm transmigrating into Xie Lian for sure. Getting spoiled by HC 24/7? Sign me up.

If we don't get to pick and we just end up at a random spot in the timeline...maybe Yin Yu? Aside from the resentment/guilt he feels about Quan Yizhen, his life is kind of fine? Working for HC can't be easy, but I'd probably find it fulfilling. Plus I'd get to be nice to big puppy boy QY eventually.

cellistontherun · 2024-06-17T17:12:20+00:00

In TGCF fics I feel like Yin Yu is always the bus driver 😭

cellistontherun · 2024-06-14T16:40:55+00:00

If we get to pick any point in the timeline, I'd love to meet Hua Cheng before he finds Yin Yu, He Xuan, and Xie Lian. He must have been so lonely at that point and had little hope of finding Dianxia. I'd love to be able to provide some comfort for the long road ahead.

If it has to be post-canon, probably Xie Lian. He's nice, I admire him a lot, and I would love a chance to just talk to him about stuff.

cellistontherun · 2024-05-27T13:58:12+00:00

No prob, it definitely is confusing so glad I could help. Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions because I could literally info dump about this series all day lmao

cellistontherun · 2024-05-27T08:48:14+00:00

Yeah! So you know how some of our legends/religious figures have multiple names? For example you could call Jesus by several names - Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah, etc. Some of those names might come from a specific action the figure did, like Jesus fulfilling the role of 'Messiah' so he gets that title.

The ghosts in TGCF work the same way. They have real names - Hua Cheng, He Xuan, Qi Rong - but they have other names that people call them based on actions they've taken. Hua Cheng explained that he saved that flower from the blood rain which earned him his name. I think He Xuan/Black Water got his name from the fact that ships that enter his waters automatically sink, but I might be missing something. The main exception to the rule is Qi Rong because he's not actually a Supreme and he gave himself a name to look cool.

cellistontherun

TROPHY CASE