Yeeeeeesss Look At That, Gimme All The Great Quotes

Yeeeeeesss look at that, gimme all the great quotes

I do think there is a balance in the message though. These people who ascend or fall are human, but how much of their humanity do they lose? Over hundreds of years, how much do they change, try to leave behind - or remember, or vow to never, ever forget, to never let go of?

Just the ability to choose to hold onto or let go of things, of beliefs or obsessions, that's so human of them - but humans aren't supposed to be eternal. Xie Lian has to suffer things that regular humans never do, to live through death (or fatal injuries), through generations of change, through the rise and fall of kingdoms, through his own strengths but also his very many weaknesses.

Jun Wu and Hua Cheng have held onto and lived consumed by their resentment and devotion respectively, having to actively fight off anything that would contradict these things. A single lifetime of living with betrayal and heartbreak can break a person, but Jun Wu's resentment is so powerful that it essentially reshapes the entire world because of how it grew and amassed and never stopped tormenting him. Hua Cheng's devotion was so powerful that he gained an actual foothold to reshape the world almost as effectively as Jun Wu - enough to oppose his reign. These kinds of devotion are impressive specifically because they lasted so long, enduring so much, enduring things that shouldn't be human.

Xie Lian, Hua Cheng, Jun Wu, and many of the other gods have held onto who they are without any desire to change - regardless of the right or wrongess of these beliefs they refuse to change. It takes a great deal of effort, but in the end Jun Wu is the one who has to stop, who has to change after 2000 years of obsession. Even after he remade the heavens and got revenge on everyone, he still went this far.

It's natural to want to stay a certain way out of habit, because staying the same is comforting, but even so the world moves on without you and you inevitably change despite your efforts. But these gods spend hundreds and thousands of years without change. Jun Wu got everything he wanted but he continued hating even when there was no one left to hate - in fact he seemed to foster another round of gods to continue hating, just now they're under his thumb.

These people are fundamentally human at heart, but how much of that humanity remains once they've lived lives that can't be called fully human anymore? They are human, but they also can't be, but they can choose to try to stay human, or they can choose to be warped into something else.

And when they find out they chose wrong, they can choose again - but only if they remember that they are human, and humans have the power to keep chosing and changing.

Totally random but, as much as I generally love the TGCF fandom, I’ve noticed that it always mildly annoys me when people refer to, say, Hua Cheng or Xie Lian as not being human, when it’s kind of a major thing that they are still human. Maybe I’m being annoying here but, there’s a reason one of my favourite quotes from TGCF is ‘When humans ascend, they are still human; when they fall, they are still human’. I kinda feel especially strongly about this in regard to some of the ghosts because, well, you wouldn’t look at a human corpse and say “No! That’s not a human! It’s a corpse!”, yeah, obviously it’s a corpse, but it doesn’t cease to be human just because it’s dead, it’s just a dead human.

Today’s episode was heartbreaking

We’ve seen so much of Xie Lian’s pain

So much of the fall of XianLe

But now

Will you tell me that it was all his fault?

The “consequence of his actions”?

So what should we blame him for?

For being a child against the most powerful and cruel ancient evil?

The one that lived 1000 years, destroyed all the gods and deceived the entire world?

Or was he too stubborn and not listened to other people?

Well let me tell you

XIE LIAN WAS NEVER WRONG FOR NOT LISTENING TO OTHERS.

Who should he have listened to?

That very evil that told him not to try and help his people?

His guoshi who knew everything and told him nothing but to sacrifice an innocent child in “penance” to that very evil?

Should he have crushed all youngans in one go, kill the poor starving people, led to desparation?

Should he have told his own desperate people that their cure was in murder and watch the inevitable massacre?

The only thing

The only thing that he should have seriously done differently

His biggest, most fatal mistake

He did

BY LISTENING TO SOMEONE WHO TOLD HIM HE WAS WRONG

ONE TIME.

He listened to his father.

The King of Xian Le.

When at the very beginning of it all they had an argument

Where Xie Lian insisted they should melt his golden statues and let the starving homeless people into his shrines

That’s EXACTLY what they should’ve done, but they did not

Because guess what the father said

We can’t. Because we did not build the shrines and the statues.

People of Xian Le did.

Do you want to disregard your people by doing that?

SAID THE KING

Knowing VERY WELL that he is talking about THE ROYALTY OF XIAN LE.

THE RITCH PEOPLE OF XIAN LE.

THE ONES WHO LET HIM RULE.

THE ONES WHO EASILY MIGHT TAKE HIS POWER

AND LIFE AWAY

IF HE DISPLEASES THEM.

But he knows how to PHRASE IT RIGHT to his son who CHERISHES HIS PEOPLE NO MATTER THE STATUS.

And who might very much not know the intricacies behind the ruler’s chambers.

Because Xie Lian

Was

Never

Meant

TO RULE.

He was raised to be a Martial God.

To fight demons and grant wishes.

NOT

TO RULE

A COUNTRY

BUT GUESS WHO

WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO RULE THE COUNTRY????

WHO WAS SUPPOSED TO MAKE SURE A HUGE PART OF IT WON’T STARVE TO DEATH?????

THE KING

And his son had to

ABANDON HEAVEN

To come deal with his mess

You can try blaming Xie Lian for not listening to the prayers from that part of Xian Le.

But he did not NOT listen.

He DID NOT HEAR.

Because the prayers system of “the ritcher - the louder” is inherently corrupt.

And growing up in a wealthy capital

Xie Lian must’ve not even SUSPECTED that there’ll be a part of his country so poor that no offerings would be enough for him to hear the prayers.

He did not know.

BUT THE KING

DID.

There’s no way he didn’t.

Yet does anyone

Does anyone in the book

And outside, anyone of the readers

Ever thought to blame him?

No.

Not even once have i seen this take.

Not even i realised it until recently. Thanks to my dear friend @3luecactuz

And why?

Because Xie Lian tells us the story.

And he himself

Completely believes

That it was all his fault.

When his only real fault was in not standing his ground

Agains the only person

Who held authority in his eyes.

Who was the authority in his life from the very beginning of it.

Who, no matter the future arguments, was the person he loved.

His father.

In the face of the greatest crisis he’s ever seen

Under the pressure to make the right choice for so many innocent lives

He gives in and listenes to a person who he not only inherently trusts

But who objectively had much more experience and knowledge than him

Who’s flaws he has not yet seen clearly enough. And never will.

Because this person raised him to be

Perfect.

And he failed.

Because no one is perfect.

And he believed in it in the wrong time and place. He gave in.

Decided to look for another solution.

And gave the evil orchestrating his demise just enough time to pull the first string.

Of many.

So tell me.

Really, tell me.

Did he deserve this?

Should he have listened more?

Should he have?

Or maybe

Just maybe

He needed someone

Who could have told him

To do what he thinks is right.

[He wasn't scared of falling. He had fallen many times over the years. But hitting the ground still hurt. How wonderful it would be if there was someone there to catch him.]

Don't mind me just obsessing over this pair

💖Even for a moment💖

YALL THEYRE IN A LONG DISTANCE RELATIONSHIP IF YA THINK ABOUT It

She be amazing, where the lazy?

Umm Fem Yan Wushi

Then got lazy xD

Just our boy's face, actually being taken off guard for once because Xie Lian recognizing him in any way seemed beyond him for all these years. ☺️

He spent his childhood thinking Xie Lian wouldn't remember anything about him, perhaps even HOPING His Highness wouldn't remember him because of how ashamed he was to even exist. He spent his life ridiculed, looked down upon, and thought himself ugly and cursed, but Xie Lian treated him well all the same. He was surprised when he learned Xie Lian didn't even know he was kicked out of the army, thinking Xie Lian had personally given up on him, only to be relieved that he wasn't aware (and had even recommended him, so yeah dick move there Mu Qing, you deserved a few punches).

Xie Lian didn't even seem to connect the bandaged child to the young bandaged soldier, then he wasn't recognized as a little ghost flame or a Wrath as Wuming. Hua Cheng thought his love for Xie Lian would be seen as just another horrendous part of him, but he could still indulge in it so long as Xie Lian never knew. He's so terrified of Xie Lian finding out about his obsession that helped him become a Supreme that he nearly misses Xie Lian being put under a spell and is scared to let him free just because of his fear of rejection. He immediately says he'll destroy the murals and divine statues before Xie Lian finally beats it into his head that he doesn't want them destroyed and wasn't averse to any of it from the start - just a little surprised and amazed.

Our boy was nervous to show his true form for the first time, suave as he played it off, still thinking he's going to be too ugly and tainted to be worthy of Xie Lian's attention, or to just not be memorable at all. He's constantly worried about hurting him, offending him, or showing horrible sides of himself, but by the time we get to Qi Rong, Hua Cheng has an even bigger grudge against him than Mu Quing and actually gets really angry - to the point that Xie Lian even notices. While he's just trying to clear Xie Lian's name, he goes to the effort of paralyzing him and forcing the truth to come out, which is a huge betrayal of trust and the only time he seriously goes against Xie Lian's wishes. Hua Cheng is fine with being the bad guy to do the dirty work so Xie Lian never has to, so he's even MORE shocked that Xie Lian stands up for him in that moment because at that point, the illusion of a kind stranger has begun to crack, and there's no going back.

Xie Lian is absolutely willing to be the bad guy just to make sure others aren't punished, even if one of them fought for a pretty lie and the other fought for the ugly truth. Remember that Hua Cheng knows basically nothing of the 800 years after almost dying as Wuming and becoming a Supreme, since even all his resources couldn't find Xie Lian while he was unaffiliated with the Heavenly Court - probably Xie Lian's awful luck making him nearly impossible to track down until Hua Cheng got some godly(ghostly?) luck to counteract it (also probably the same reason Xie Lian never mamaged to hear about this famous "Ghost King Hua Cheng Crimson Rain Sought Flower" dude, since the human realm doesn't keep up with that stuff); only his third ascension allowed him to find Xie Lian again, and Xie Lian has gone through even more tragedies that Hua Cheng doesn't even know about.

Hua Cheng seems to have forgotten that Xie Lian is more like him than his idolized memories would have him believe. Xie Lian is willing to fight for what he believes in - and he's freaking STRONG and SKILLED enough to do it, he's just purposefully asked to be hindered and contains himself whenever possible - not just a passenger to his fate, and he will care for Hua Cheng whether he's a monster or a beast because they're friends, not even with anything more being involved. Our prince is used to being ridiculed and targeted, especially by his cousin, but badmouth his friends and get slapped!

Anyway so the above image lives rent-free in my head nbd

Ok, I am never gonna be over this moment.

I wanna know exactly what Hua Cheng is thinking with this look on his face!!

I want first class premium access to all the thoughts racing in his brain rn because... man....

Hua Cheng has never expected Xie Lian to return his affection and love or to defend him or to fight for him, yet Xie Lian starts feeling it and showing it more and more, as he inevitably falls deeply for Hua Cheng. Now that Xie Lian is in his life again and it's no longer one-sided, it's too much for him. You can tell he hasn't planned for this.

In the novel, he says at some point later down the line that he wants to become stronger to win over his beloved, but he didn't actually realize that 1. it would be so soon and 2. Xie Lian would also feel the need to defend him.

Hua Cheng would give the whole world to Xie Lian without even expecting a "thanks", so when Xie Lian starts actually reciprocating his actions more and more, it leaves him speechless and heart-eyed every time.

They both love each other so much, but don't realize how worthy they are of each other's love and care.

I am in love HuaLian's love!