Belated thoughts on MDZS and CQL | Untamed:
I did watch the animated version, and read some of the translated novel, but I have to admit that my overwhelming familiarity is with the TV show. I think that explains why:
(1) I cannot stand Xue Yang. No, you can't rehabilitate him in any way or form, not even in a time-travel or AU fic where he's a cute kid who has yet to start holding a sword. I still cannot read any fic about him, and if he is mentioned in all but a passing reference, I scan past or backspace. Similar sentiments go for:
(2) Meng Yao, aka Jin Guangyao. And damn it, first of all I hate his name. It may be a very petty matter, but his dad was Jin GUANGshan, and he calls himself Jin GUANGyao? His dad is a total waste of space, we get that, but MY's name keeps giving me the impression that he totally dissed his dad in the most meaningless way possible. [ETA: Looks like it's more complicated than that, as
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
libitina points out in the comments. (Thanks,
libitina!) So the name thing may not be his fault. But I still do not like him. He's like the Yue Buqun of MDZS|CQL-verse.] And in one way (to me) it was totally a foreshadowing of how he perverts everything: as a son, as a father, as a brother, as a husband, as a leader of a sect. I also find it very hard to read fics where his character is rehabilitated, no matter how much Lan Xichen sayangs him.
(3a) Fics where people change their surnames are... puzzling. I admit that it's because in my culture people usually don't change their surnames upon marriage. They might do so for family reasons, such as if you were adopted as a child or if your mum re-married or if you were in a single-parent situation and took your mum's surname. They might use the spouse's surname as a part of a courtesy title (e.g. Mdm Lan*) but they wouldn't change the name itself. To have Wei Wuxian become Lan Wuxian after getting married is just plain OOC to me. It's the height of disrespect to the memory of his own father, and even if WWX doesn't remember his parents, I don't think he'd want to do that.
*And the logical extension to this name changing schtick is that that Mdm Lan was made to change her name... and that kinda makes me want to throw things.
(3b) I guess I can see the Wen remnants changing their names? On pain of death? They wouldn't do it if it were just because they wanted to support WWX, though. I could see them pretending to take on another name but secretly using their Wen names. Why shouldn't they hold on to it? They'd paid for it in blood.
(3c) Someday I want to write a fic where Lan Sizhui defeats a petty challenger from, say, the Yao sect, by making him shit his pants with fear, by telling him, "I'm not just Yiling Laozu and Hanguang Jun's son - I'm a Wen too, you know."
Fics:
to the act of making noise, wip, past Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Lan Sizhui, angst, by words-writ-in-starlight (Gunmetal_Crown)
a paper friend, AU, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, by savedbythenotepad
acoustic, Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, guqin, by hanguang-jacked (nasaplates)
