u/Independent_Sky_3034

I am a bit lost when I think about WWX's age. Is he 36 like Lan Wangji, or 23 like when he died? Mo Xuanyu's body is 26-28, to add into the mix. Was WWX's soul sentient/conscious in those 13 years? Could it go through any kind of reflection while not anchored? Was it an intact soul already in the beginning after his death? Why was LWJ not able to find any of it in the Burial Mounds?

To me it feels like that WWX in his second life reflects to his earlier life with an ounce of wisdom and keeping a bit of sanitary distance to it. He does not come off as freshly traumatized. It feels like he digested all what had happened to him in some way. But how was it possible for him?

So, I am a bit confused about the naming of Jin Rusong, the only son of Jun Guangyao and Qin Su, who was killed at the age of 5.

In the MDZS universe, children are given a courtesy name at the start of adolescence: we see that in the Cloud Recesses arc all the kids have already a courtesy name and use it as well. But a 5 year old would not have a courtesy name. Even if the parents chose already one for him, it wouldn't be widespread knowledge. We know that Rusong is a courtesy name, because it carries the "Ru" character for the next generation of Jins as well as Jin Ling's hated courtesy name "Rulan".

Why was this 5 years old, mentally challenged little child known after his courtesy name instead of a birth name?

Dear fellow Daoists and international cultivators! Recently someone created an age-bracket poll which I found very interesting and inspired me to do an other poll to see the geographical composition of the fandom in this subreddit.

There are 16 categories to choose from, that's why I created the poll through StrawPoll - it allows more than the 6 options on Reddit, and it's completely anonymous. You can vote once with one IP address.

I was taking into account when creating the categories, that the English-speaking part of the world seems to be in majority here, so I aimed to allow for a higher resolution there. I also wanted to have a higher resolution for Asian countries, since MDZS comes from China and I really wanted to see how many Asian fans are in this subreddit and from where.

Please don't be mad at me if you don't find your country by name, only by category; I lumped my own country also up with others, since I didn't want to present an endless list.

The link is active for a week.

Dear Fellow Daoists!

I am looking for a possible Spotify playlist which has the opening and closing theme songs of all the donghua seasons (including Q). I was digging through Spotify for these songs, but only found 3 of them. It could be that not all them are on Spoitfy, but I just gave it a shot asking the hive mind. Thx in advance!

PS: I found some playlists with hundreds of songs in them (complete OSTs) but I am not even sure they have the theme songs.

Let me start by saying, that am not familiar with xianxia novels and worldbuilding apart from reading MDZS and watching the donghua. As I understood, cultivation of qi is something every being is capable of, even animals or stones (when worshipped). It is not like in Harry Potter where some people are born with magic and others are just muggles. So the distinction between cultivators and the common folk is artificial, and based on access to training. Naturally, there is a difference between individuals about how powerful they can get in their cultivation, but still everyone is capable of it on some level. Cultivation for men in cultivation clans is seen as basic necessity as it brings longevity and power with it. When a boy from an affluent household doesn't develop a golden core by the end of his junior years it is seen as a big disgrace to the whole family. However for women it is an interesting add on. There are cultivating ladies but many just don't do it and it's not expected of them. I was wondering if this difference is based on the gender norms of "sword cultivation is not for women" or the simple convenience of marriage and double cultivation. The Lan Clan has music cultivation and it's mentioned in the extras, that one can hear the female cultivators practice every now and then, leading me to the assumption that they have normal classes of female cultivators, just like for men. This would make sense since making music is seen much less "manly" than sword cultivation. (I don't know how hang up on they are about gender roles and such.) There is the case of Jiang Yanli, who is not different from a mortal girl in her abilities, but noone bothers, since she will anyways sooner or later profitate from the cultivation of her future husband.

On the other hand we see, that normal mortal people see the cultivation world as the world of the chosen and everyone is dreaming about belonging in it. We see Mo Xuanyu's obnoxious cousin steal curtivator artefacts from him, and he is sour about that he never had the chance to learn it himself. Servants of big cultivation clans are promoted to a cultivator role, when they seem promising or trustworthy. We see it in the case of MianMian and also JZX's lady servant who pretends to cook JYL's soup for him. They are both got promoted from servant to lady cultivator, which is a rare and big thing to happen.

We also see Meng Yao learning cultivation from books and since he was never taught as a child or adolescent, he was never able to develop a powerful cultivation. However he was still able to use the sword and develop a golden core if I'm not mistaken.

Someone here also mentioned that cultivating on certain spots like caves, waterfalls and mountaintops is especially effective for accelerating one's cultivation development, but these places are often owned and guarded by the bigger clans. I see this as a prime example of gatekeeping. Gatekeeping of access to places, knowledge and education. Access is only granted upon a display of loyalty for an elongated time.

My question is: is it really how I see it? Are there any nuances to add? Are other xianxia-based novels more equalitarian in access to cultivation?

Hey everyone! I am relatively new to this fandom and I really like nice (fan)art, true to the books. Every fandom has their "go to" illustrators, which are well loved and cherished by everyone. I would like to know where can I find them. I also like the original novel illustrations and I was curious if one can find them assembled somewhere or if the artist made extra art what didn't make it to the official book releases. I was digging through the archives with the search function, but I often bump into screenshots without source or photos made of original book release versions I don't have, etc...

I don't really have social media like X and Instagram, so I am a bit disadvantaged when looking for such stuff. But as long as I can open links from Browser I'm good.

I am also a bit torn about some of the Japanese artworks or official illustrations (definitely not all of it), because some of them look so generic and expressionless like the characters could be in any danmei fandom they just slapped MDZS-coded clothes on them and they were done with it.

So I am looking for illustration with "soul" made by real fan of the novels (be it official art or fanart) and looking for artists which you hold as MDZS gold standard here, haha. Just drop your favourites in the commenst (when the artist doesn't mind sharing and with source of course). :)

Hi All,

I was looking around for a while in the subreddit for an answer, but haven't found anything satisfactory.

I recently finished the books and also all the extras and I was very surprised to find absolutely no descriprion of WangXian's wedding. It looked like they just eloped for 3 months and their wedding could have been doing a 3rd bow in private after the two already done in the Ancestral Hall of Lotus Pier.

A wedding is however mentioned two times:

1. Directly before meeting the MianMian family on a night hunt, LWJ does mention that "it does not count as fornicating when we already told our marriage vows". Although I felt like this event happened between the Guanyin Temple chapters and their arrival at the cloud recesses. They were on the way for 3 months as I understood well. So what they mentioned here as wedding was done privately and inofficially. Oh, how I would loved to hear those vows...
2. In the second incense burner dream the adult WWX meets the teenager LWJ at the bunny field and tells him that they are married, shortly describing it as "having a proper ceremony and all". Still, when and where was this ceremony? Who were present? Does he refer to the bows and vows they exchanged while on the way for three months?

I found an other post from eay earlier which mentioned that when the parents are dead a wedding ceremony can be conducted by bowing 3 times in the presence of the wife's parent's memorial tablets, and then 3 months later the same in front of the husband's parents' memorial tablets. The author of the post claimed that this was the only way for WangXian to get married and the 3 months between Lotus Pier and the Cloud Recesses also checks out.

However I am conflicted a bit about WangXian not going public with their wedding. The Lan Clan of Gusu has for sure many rules which would forbid their way of living with each other, were they not married and each others' cultivation partners. Yet, there would have been noone to witness that they officially married?

I somehow think that the second part of their wedding, where they bowed in front of the memorial tablets of LWJ's parents was witnessed at least by Xichen if noone else. But Sizhui could have been also there. Or Wen Ning... I don't know. But I just want it for them to wear red and be able to go public with their love, even if in a small circle.

(Maybe it's only me, but I would have so badly traded one of the the spicy incense burner dreams in the extras for a WangXian wedding chapter...)

I recently finished the novel, but not yet all the extras. I saw the first season of the donghua and haven't read the manga or watched The Untamed (yet).

I have the following observation, and I would like to ask your opinion about it:

WWX dies when he is around 23 years old. He comes back in MXY's body 13 years later. This means that his past CR school buddies are all in their mid-thirties. JC is up to a year younger, LXC is 3-4 years (?) older and NHS could be the same age as WWX. We saw in the case of JFM and Madame Yu, and also JZX and JYL that prominent clans liked to arrange marriages between their kids, and marrying was normal in their 20ies.

However NHS, LXC and JC all seem to be bachelors in the middle of their thirties. I don't think there is anything wrong with that, it just seems weird that all of them seem to be unmarried, regardless of all being young clan leaders and possibly swimming in marriage offers and having all the expectation on them to create offsprings. I could imagine JC being so bitter, that he just doesn't manage to secure any partner, but the other two?

This made me wonder if their partners (since they would be irrelevant to the story) were simply omitted? I am aware that some of you like to ship some of these characters together as spares, but for me it would make more sense to imagine that they have actually someone at home who was not mentioned.

As headcanon goes I imagine LXC as married with someone pure, kind but quite down to earth and withdrawn from politics. They might have kids.

NHS has a lover but keeps them in secret because their status doesn't fit his.

JC had some short and turbulent relationships with some female cultivators but they all ended in fighting.

What do you think?

Edit: I don't understand well the concept of a cultivation partner yet. Is this someone who is always a significant other? Does this mean that a person who has a cultivation partner can reach a higher level of cultivation than without? Must there be some kind of connection to ensure this special relationship? If having a "soulmate" or someone with the same cultivation level was important for being cultivation partners, it would make sense that not all of them would be married, since finding someone really suitable is hard and takes time. Anyways, it's not like they are getting old...😅