There Is Something So Tender About How Dongfang Qingcang Uses His Hellfire Around Xiao Lanhua. These

there is something so tender about how dongfang qingcang uses his hellfire around xiao lanhua. these embers of ice, born from the rawest torture of all, are supposed to burn, to destroy cities, to turn the world to ashes beneath his feet. all he’s ever known of its purpose was to wield it like a weapon, and to use it to hurt and to ruin.

but then xiao lanhua comes along, and that hellfire becomes something new. he uses it to heat up the morning dew he spent hours collecting for her. he uses it to keep her warm, to harness an eternal fire so she is never cold again. he places a piece of it in the gulan he carved from his own blood and bone to protect her. and it protects her again and again and again.

hellfire drenches his sword in flames, and he slashes and fights and cuts through space to keep her safe. no one can touch her when she’s with him. his hellfire will take everyone down but her. it will not burn her like the others. it will not kill her but save her.

(and when his hellfire is snuffed out, it’s only to make room for the true fire that’s been waiting for him. liuli fire, red like his heart, red like hers too.)

because his fire is not born from his pain, anymore. it’s born from his love.

~ i found religion in you

Crush, Richard Siken // Religion, Lana del Rey // Fleabag (S2E6) // Tujh Mein Rab Dikta Hai, Rab ne Bana di Jodi (2008) // Normal People (2020) // John Keats to his neighbor Fanny Brawne (1819) // Take me to church, Hozier // Perludio, Tomasz Rut // Coming Down, Halsey // Sappho //

Can I take a moment to talk about how I enjoy the fact that Dongfang Qingcang was NOT ever actually evil?

He was without feelings. He was ruthless. Thirty thousand years ago he tried to attack Shuiyuntian and there would undoubtedly have been innocent victims but he did not do so because he was being a conqueror. He did so because his people were clearly quite desperate (and yes, as revenge against the Fairy Realm for their treatment of the Moon Tribe).

The story describes him as this great evil but it feels more like the victors of the war rewriting history the way they liked, rather than actual description of Dongfang Qingcang as we get to know him. Even in the beginning when his feelings are only barely beginning to wake he's not so much cruel or malicious as angry after all.

Infuriated by being tied to Xiao Lanhua. But he doesn't really do anything truly horrific to her does he? He's kinda mean when she's irritating him - especially when she keeps unknowingly describing him as a green skinned monster with bad breath (which: ICONIC); incredibly grumpy; throws around a few empty threats; gets kinda hilariously excited about the opportunity to kill people and beings FOR her.

But he doesn't kidnap her until it's to save her life. He tries talking/tricking Xiao Lanhua into fixing the previous God of War's destiny book but doesn't hold swords to the throats of the people she cares about to make her do it.

And then he multiple times tries to make Xiao Lanhua feel better whenever she's upset (very resentfully in the beginning to be fair and with the frequent addition of murder eyes as he does it but not in a... calculated way. There's no real manipulation or seduction going on, he's even right when he tells her he never lied to her when she learns exactly who he is).

I just... I like that the story ISN'T 'evil man falls in love and this fixes him'. He wasn't evil. And falling in love didn't fix him. Falling in love was more a consequence of his Heart Tree being given a spark of life, which gave him the ABILITY to fall in love, and not at all the kind of toxic power play that shows often try to make romantic and which just end up making me vaguely ill.

He's not an evil overlord out for his own selfish goals who then starts caring about one person and one person alone. He cares about his entire realm, he cares about the souls of those 100'000 trapped soldiers. He always did, even if up to that point he was loyalty without affection. He's dangerous. Both the leader of and the weapon for his people. But he grows into more than that through the story as he learns selflessness and forgiveness and compassion.

Ultimately I guess I like that though he might have changed because of Xiao Lanhua, he didn't do it for her. At least not the way this trope is usually used in many of my NOTPs.

HOW TO ENTER AND EXIT DRAMATICALLY: A GUIDE BY DAQIANG

Love between Fairy and Devil, dir. Yi Zheng (2022)

You can’t get away from it because she left traces all over the sea of my heart.

A CONVERSATION WITH HALSEY

(cc, 22)