Pencil Drawing Of Wei Wuxian II

✏️✏️Pencil Drawing of Wei Wuxian II✏️✏️

~~~ He’s so beautiful ~~~

(Commission for @kamistrife)

Drawing Progression:

Hi! I was just reading your post about golden core restoration, butcthat and me wonder, if core restoration is a thing, then why did wwx need to give up his core to Jiang Cheng? There seem to be a few options for that, either cores can't be restored in general, jiang cheng would not have had the patience/strength to replace his core, or Wen Zhuliu's power does more than melt the core and instead destroys the entire infrastructure which supports cores. What is your thought on this?

(follow-up questions to this post)

Uh... I’m pretty sure that golden cores can’t be restored after they’re lost? The big deal about them is that you can only form one golden core in your lifetime, which is why 1) Wen Zhuliu’s ability is so destructive and devastating, 2) why Jiang Cheng pretty much loses the will to go on after he loses his golden core, and 3) why Wei Wuxian’s sacrifice is so monumental. Core restoration is not a thing, which is exactly why Wei Wuxian feels the need to give Jiang Cheng his golden core.

The whole thing where Wei Wuxian might formulate a new golden core completely hinges on his resurrection; in the novel, he gets a golden core because Mo Xuanyu still has the ability to formulate his golden core. It’s not so much Wei Wuxian cultivating a new one as it is him picking up Mo Xuanyu’s.

And again, it’s fuzzy in CQL whether or not Wei Wuxian has a golden core post-resurrection. On one hand, he shouldn’t have one, because he’s been brought back in his original body, which already had its one chance at formulating a golden core and blew it. On the other hand... is it his original body? It appears to be missing most of its scars (the Wen brand is missing on his chest post-resurrection); and idk how deep we want to get into the dirty (bloody) details of how the resurrection worked. There’s a possible interpretation out there that the raw material of Mo Xuanyu’s body is functionally put through a magical resurrection meat grinder and re-assembled into a new body that just looks like the Wei Wuxian of years before, but technically isn’t the same (because again, it’s Mo Xuanyu’s body, but recycled). In that case, we have Wei Wuxian in the living matter of Mo Xuanyu’s body, which has just been shaped into a Wei Wuxian-esque form. In this case, he’d also be able to formulate a golden core because it’s not his original body. It’s not the body that had the core surgically removed from it, so he still has that option, can still use the raw materials Mo Xuanyu gave him to formulate a new golden core.

Orrrrrr CQL!Wei Wuxian never formulates another golden core. Also a possible interpretation; we just can’t tell.

I think a big part of the reason why Wei Wuxian was able to keep his missing golden core a secret was because he was walking the ghost path -- people just don’t study demonic cultivation, so who knows what kind of effect it might have on his body? Conceivably, a lot of his injuries could have been passed off as oh, you know how resentful energy is -- it pushes out the spiritual energy, stifles the golden core, because in fact, no, no one knows how resentful energy is, no one’s desperate or crazy enough to risk using it except Wei Wuxian. 

Especially post-resurrection, Wei Wuxian makes up all sorts of excuses -- oh, resurrection really did a number on this body, I’m not fully recovered, Lan er-gongzi will just have to protect this fragile and weak man -- and since Wei Wuxian is constantly on the cutting edge of cultivation theory, he can say a great deal of things about his own condition and have other people believe him. Those three days spent unconscious after the end of Sunshot? Overexertion from using the Stygian Tiger Seal -- and since no one knows what overexertion from using the Stygian Tiger Seal looks like since, hello, new invention, maybe one of its side effects is depleted spiritual energy? And again, after Jin Ling stabs Wei Wuxian -- it could be any combination of stress, empathy backlash, empathy-backlash-while-projecting-into-a-paper-talisman, lingering aftereffects of resurrection... what I’m trying to say is that Wei Wuxian has a lot of leeway to make up bullshit about why he’s definitely fine, don’t worry about him, he’s just a little tired that’s all, it’s not worth using his spiritual energy for this small wound... and so on and so forth.

Another thing that complicates matters is that Wei Wuxian isn’t devoid of spiritual energy: when Wen Ning talks about the process of removing a golden core in episode 46, he describes spiritual energy as a body of water -- one that gradually slows, evening out, becoming stagnant and unmoving when the golden core, which used to drive it, is cut away. In that sense, spiritual energy seems to move like blood throughout the body; the golden core is the heart, pumping it, giving it motion. Without a golden core, the spiritual energy doesn’t necessarily dissipate; it just stagnates, stationary, and can’t be moved or used again by the golden core-less person themselves. As a result, Wei Wuxian still appears to benefit from spiritual energy transfusions, which I suppose you can think of kind of like dialysis; it might be that spiritual energy transfusions still work to heal Wei Wuxian’s body because someone else’s golden core is doing the moving that Wei Wuxian’s lack of a core cannot.

I keep thinking back to that moment in episode 29, when Lan Wangji reaches for Wei Wuxian’s wrist, only to have Wei Wuxian jerk it viciously -- frantically -- out of Lan Wangji’s grasp.

This feels like a moment of possible discovery; Wei Wuxian clearly doesn’t want Lan Wangji to realize that anything is amiss (like a whole-ASS GOLDEN CORE) and again, reaches for excuses about why he isn’t bothering with golden core-assisted healing. It’s only thanks to Wen Qing’s timely arrival that Wei Wuxian dodges any further questioning on the subject, but these small moments are the ones where he’s most at risk of being exposed. If he’s fallen unconscious for days, then he can pass off the lack of spiritual activity as a side-effect of the injury or other situational factors. It’s when he should be fine -- he’s up and moving, after all, just subdued a resentful-energy-crazed Wen Ning -- that he has the least amount of excuses he could possibly make.

I pray The Untamed forgives me for sullying its beautiful show with my cursed hands

you may have already answered this before, but i was just wondering what your thoughts were on that shot in ep 48/9 (canny remember which it is sorry) of jc staring at wwx when he's playing chenqing with the stygian tiger amulet for the first time since his resurrection?? because i have Many Feelings and all of them Hurt

oh, I haven’t talked about this moment before! I also just watched this moment last night, and oof--

other folks have definitely Expressed Feelings about how Jiang Cheng, at this moment, has this beautiful and agonizing mix of pride and sorrow on his face at seeing Wei Wuxian wielding Chenqing again. What struck me this time, though, was that this feels like the first time Jiang Cheng can be openly, unreservedly proud of Wei Wuxian, and yes, his dangerous talent

Before the reveal in episode 46 (and following) about the golden core and the real reason why Wei Wuxian turned to demonic cultivation, there were always caveats to any pride Jiang Cheng could feel about Wei Wuxian’s alternative cultivation -- there’s the frustration that came with Wei Wuxian’s refusal to conform to sword-carrying societal norms, the old familiar jealousy when gossiping voices whispered that Wei Wuxian is the true strength of Yunmeng Jiang, didn’t you hear, during the Sunshot Campaign -- that made it so that Jiang Cheng couldn’t be unreservedly, unproblematically proud of his shixiong and all that Wei Wuxian’s accomplished

(thinking about Jiang Cheng and that smile, back before Lotus Pier burned, back when they were two boys shooting kites in the wind--)

and now that the truth has come spilling out in a haunted temple, now that Jiang Cheng knows why Wei Wuxian did what he did -- not because Wei Wuxian was being arrogant, not because he was being difficult, not because he didn’t care about Jiang Cheng and their brotherhood and their hopes and dreams for the future,

but precisely because Wei Wuxian loved him, cared about Jiang Cheng so goddamn much that Wei Wuxian was willing to sacrifice their mutual dream of the Yunmeng Shuangjie in order to give Jiang Cheng what he wanted, what Jiang Cheng needed at the lowest point in his life, sixteen years ago in a supervisory office--

finally, finally Jiang Cheng can look at Wei Wuxian with Chenqing, and be proud of his shixiong with no qualms, no conditions. They’ve already tried everything else -- no one in the temple is a match for a vengeful Baxia, and the Twin Jades have already tried soothing the saber spirit to no avail -- so for Wei Wuxian to step up, to perform his alternative cultivation with the unparalleled skill, grace, and poise that he was so admired and hated for -- in a sense, this moment is the first time Jiang Cheng’s feelings have been able to throw off all the obstacles that came between the two of them -- jealousy, bitterness, hatred, frustration, resentment, misunderstanding

because here is a truth about the Yunmeng Shuangjie -- both of them were instrumental, fundamental, foundational in shaping the other; Jiang Cheng, without Wei Wuxian’s golden core, could not have revitalized the Yunmeng Jiang sect as confidently and successfully as he did

and Wei Wuxian, without being driven by the force of his love and devotion to his adopted family, the home that gave him his shidi and shijie that he would tear open heaven and earth for, reinvent the flow of natural energies for, crawl out of the dark of the Burial Mounds for, would have never been able to become the fearsome Yiling Laozu that he was

at any point, in the unending twilight of the Burial Mounds, Wei Wuxian could have given up and died. He’d lost his golden core -- cut it out of himself, given it away -- anyone else would have called it a day, gone gentle into that good night. Heck, Jiang Cheng nearly gave up the fight after the same happened to him

but Wei Wuxian had so much to fight for. Wei Wuxian had people he wanted to, needed to return to, and without the fierce motivator of love, he wouldn’t have made it out of the Burial Mounds

and Jiang Cheng is undoubtedly an instrumental, integral part of that

(source: https://m.weibo.cn/profile/5103645868)

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