Up to episode 20 of The Untamed, reading Jiang Cheng fixits

[waterscroll]

So that got real, hunh.


I wasn't so into the high school shenanigans, but wow they all grew up fast.

This seems to be the part of the show where they slowly and methodically break Jiang Cheng into the angry murdery mess that he is in the first few episodes. Spoilers tell me he doesn't get better in canon either. I can see why Wei Wuxian tricked him into accepting his golden core without telling him what was going on, but I can also see how one way or another it's going to wreck him, and after the way his family was killed he's pretty close to wrecked already. So before I go on and watch it happen, I need someone to hug him. Fortunately fandom is helping me there. Some favorites:

Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian:
Haunting Legacies, featuring Jiang Cheng as a drunk, angry, terrifyingly powerful middle-aged woman much like her mother. She was married to Wei Wuxian when they were younger and they both never completely got over it. Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji/Jiang Cheng endgame. I think this is my favorite thing I've read so far in the fandom.
Never Sleep Alone is a much more straightforward and sweet fixit, in which they never give up on each other.
Adopting love is another Jiang Cheng/Wei Wuxian young marriage AU, in which Wei Wuxian was brought into the Jiang family to be Jiang Cheng's concubine/secondary wife. I like the premise a lot but since the series isn't finished I have no idea if it's going to be a fixit or just hurt in a different way.

This pairing is overintense in a way that suits my tastes so I'll keep looking for it.

Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing
Snowberryrose has a *lot* of long, plotty, romantic Jiang Cheng/Wen Qing fixits, each of which takes off from a different point in canon and fixes things a different way. I particularly like Darkness, in which Wen Qing loses her brother and all her fucks and then bonds with Jiang Cheng over being bitter and angry.

I've been looking for Wen Qing fixits and have had some trouble finding them, since she is tagged in a lot of fics which aren't really about her. But these are good.

Jiang Cheng/Lan Jingyi

This seems to be a good pairing for Jiang Cheng moving on from his angst and woe rather than continuing to try to fix things that can't be fixed.
A Compromising Position is cute and funny.
Cloudy Eyes is slow-burn and romantic.

Do you have any fixits for Jiang Cheng that you like? What kind of happy ending would you like to see for him?

::deep breath:: Okay, time to go watch him be broken some more. Once I'm able to handle it.

I know Wei Wuxian is getting broken just as badly, but I'm less worried for him because of his protagonist plot armor. And I am SO grateful that I came across spoilers about Yu Ziyuan's arc before I met her, because that would have been very unpleasant to see unspoiled. Well, it was unpleasant to see anyway. But here's a fixit for her, and there seem to be a few others.



I'm also on episode 7 of the animated version and chapter 19 of the novel, because I like seeing multiple versions of things. I'm finding the novel difficult to read so it might take a while. The animated version is a lot of fun though.

In other fannishness, I'm slowly and haphazardly rewatching Guardian. I'm pretty sure I have more Guardian fics in me, so I hope I can keep my head in the canon.

Comments

[glymr]

There's a specific pairing that I like for Jiang Cheng (and one that fans tend to like for him but I'm pretty 'meh' on), but I'm hesitant to go too deeply into discussing them until you've watched the rest of the show! I know you've gotten spoilers, but I don't know which ones, and there are some major developments that don't happen until the end. ^_^;

[waterscroll]

I am not at all avoiding spoilers, so tell me what you ship!

[glymr]

I started to reply, but it got SO LONG that I ended up making it its own post. ^_^;;;; https://glymr.dreamwidth.org/295614.html

[alias_sqbr]

I'm trying to figure out if Haunting Legacies is a bit OOC or the Untamed is more different than I thought. Does Jiang Chen not canonically dislike Lan Wangji? In the book he is already pretty prone to resentment of Wei Wuxian prioritising anyone other than the Jiangs, and I can only see romantic jealousy making that worse.

But I know I am unusual in wanting my poly fic full of jealous resentment haha. And it's still a good story.

I have read a bit of Jiang Chen/Lan Xicheng which is SUPER popular, generally pretty sweet, and about moving on, though more prone to bittersweet melancholy than Jiang Chen/Lan Jingyi. I thought this one was ok: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16824490/chapters/39493117

I really liked this cracky book based gen fic about WWX and JC working things out https://archiveofourown.org/works/18299264/chapters/43311404

[waterscroll]

Does Jiang Chen not canonically dislike Lan Wangji?

I'm only on episode 20 but so far it seems not so much? They work well together during the three months WWX is gone and bond over missing him and trying to find him. It's kind of a nice relationship, although I assume it will fall apart terribly soon enough. But I was actually surprised how well they worked together and how much they seemed to trust each other, seeing how bad things are between them later in the first couple of episodes.

I did like how the fic series dealt with the angry resentment, especially in the second part, but it sounds like in drama canon there's less to deal with.

That bodyswap fic is really fun! And what a great trope for them.

I've seen a lot of JC/LXC fic but I haven't read any yet. Maybe I'll start with that one.

Right now I'm enjoying the extreme tropiness of JC/LJY, it seems like the ship is based less on their canon interactions than on fantasies of fixing an angsty middle aged man with the love of a hot sunshine prettyboy. Which is a trope that I have very mixed feelings about, but mixed includes liking sometimes when it is done well and I have reason to want good things for the middle-aged person in question.

[alias_sqbr]

Huh ok! Not OOC then. I would say it's a change in the Untamed from the book but maybe it even happened there and I just forgot because of how things get later. Well then, my only complaint about the fic is it's not the (as it turns out, possibly OOC) story I imagined in my head based on the summary, but I had fun imagining it so that's still a win :)

My feelings on JC/LJY are similar. I enjoyed the fics you linked, and since the connection to canon is loose, book/drama differences don't really matter. But it is what it is.

I really like the idea of Wen Ning/Jiang Chen but it's 100% a drama thing so I'm missing a lot of context (I've read summaries but it's not the same). I should see if any of those AUs split early enough that the drama-only events either won't happen or will be explored in the fic. I wonder if there's a supercut of their scenes...(I am very bad at following subtitled live action for long enough to watch a whole show)

EDIT: Haha I looked up "youtube wen qing the untamed" and got a bunch of Jiang Yanli/Wen Qing. Thank you google, I know I would NORMALLY be after the femslash but right now I want the canon het.

I did find this, which gave me some feels despite only being able to guess at the unfamiliar plot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcmzfEVIicA

[waterscroll]

I didn't love how JC/WQ was written, it seemed in some ways Obligatory Het, but I thought the actors (especially his) did a good job selling it. It made her doing the core transfer while lying to him about it somewhat more interesting though. But I feel like it's going to make his inability to save her life hurt much worse and I might end up furious at him or even losing all patience with him for that depending on how it goes down.

WQ in general has a much bigger role in the drama. I'm moving slowly through the novel but I'm on episode 11 of the animated version and keep being surprised that she hasn't appeared yet, in the drama she's a main character during all the flashback episodes. A lot of it is about her interestingly complicated mentor/vassal relationship with Wen Ruohan (completely non-romantic on either side), which I get the impression isn't developed in the novel either.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah it was interesting poking a few Untamed fics which go through the start of the story and Wen Ning and Wen Qing are there so much! Jiang Yanli being at the Cloud Recesses is interesting too.

As I recall, in the book she's fairly respected and relied upon amongst the Wens for her skill, but her relationship to Wen Ruohan isn't very complex: she doesn't like him or what he's doing but can't openly oppose him, and still feels loyalty to her less evil branch of the Wens. But these discussions keep reminding how long it's been since I read the book and how many details I'm fuzzy on, so don't trust my memory!

[waterscroll]

Wen Qing is such an interesting character in the drama, the way she tries to navigate between complicity and loyalty and her own sense of justice, between working with the Wens and trying to get around them to save lives. But I wish, if they were going to make her that interesting, they'd also have found a narrative way to save her life.

I'm also finding Jiang Cheng much more interesting in the drama than in the animated version or novel so far. I think a lot of it is the actor, who does a good job of looking like he's feeling many different complicated things at once. While in the animated version he mostly looks grumpy and angry.

[alias_sqbr]

Yeah, part of me wants to watch The Untamed for the extra Wen Qing but...it'll still end the same :(

Someone I follow on twitter is VERY INTO Jiang Cheng and his actor so I have seen many photos of him making various expressions and he does seem very versatile ( also much cuter without the wig, imo)

[solo]

Does Jiang Chen not canonically dislike Lan Wangji?

In the drama, it's just a bit of jealousy at the start, and they work well togetehr looking for WWX while he's in the Burial Mounds, but post-WWX's death he dislikes him a hell of a lot, for *reasons*. Even just watching the confrontation between them in episode 2 speaks volumes (and is also hilarious if you like that kind of thing).

[alias_sqbr]

nods

[scytale]

It's very fun to read your reactions even as someone who doesn't know the canon!

slowly and methodically break Jiang Cheng into the angry murdery mess that he is in the first few episodes. Spoilers tell me he doesn't get better in canon either. I can see why Wei Wuxian tricked him into accepting his golden core without telling him what was going on, but I can also see how one way or another it's going to wreck him, and after the way his family was killed he's pretty close to wrecked already

Oooooooh. This sounds fun in a painful way.

[waterscroll]

I think you'd like this show, it's interestingly complex. And if you like painful epic no-win situations between people who love each other, it's got those.

[solo]

I can see why Wei Wuxian tricked him into accepting his golden core without telling him what was going on, but I can also see how one way or another it's going to wreck him

There just was no good way out of that situation... :(

[waterscroll]

Yeah, that's what made it so interesting and heartbreaking.