You Know What I Hope We Get To See? The Coexistence In Will Byers Of That Kid Being Emotional As Hell

I've been obsessed with Jiang Cheng since halfway through my first watch of cql, and here's why. He always keeps doing better than I expect him to.

(wow, this got long. rest is under the cut!)

He's introduced as the brother-killer, the ruthless sect leader with a reputation for being merciless. Then cut to the flashback, a Jiang Cheng who is fifteen, surrounded by his sister and brother and happy about it, occasionally doing stupid teenager things, trying so very hard to be Ideal Heir, while Wei Wuxian is the prodigy that keeps stealing his thunder effortlessly. And you go, "oh, I know this story. It's a tragedy, because these brothers loved each other once, but one's ambition will eventually breed jealousy which will fester into hate and end, tragically, in the death of the better half." It's Cain and Abel! You've seen how it ends, it's the first scene you see, of course that's where it's going!

And then you see how the three siblings help each other survive a frankly horrible and abusive household. They try to do for each other what their parents couldn't; Yanli tries to be their mother, Jiang Cheng doesn't believe the rumours about Wei Wuxian being jfm's illegitimate son or hold it against him as he very easily could've learnt to from his mother, and Wei Wuxian does his darned best to get jfm to acknowledge and love his son as he does for Wei Wuxian.

You keep waiting for the other shoe to drop!! Yunmeng burns, Jiang Cheng chokes his brother in the rain, and you think this is it, this is where it finally breaks. But he sticks with his brother and sister, he makes some stupid decisions in his grief and pays dearly for it. When he wakes up without a core he is broken, his 'ambition' is destroyed, and you remember him choke his brother and think this is it, and then... it isn't. Other than the one grieving rant in the rain, he never blames his brother for their loss, never demands that he fix it all. When Wei Wuxian does come with a solution, Jiang Cheng doesn't act like it's something he was owed. It's his brother, his brilliant genius brother, who miraculously fixed this impossible thing! He's the most Jiang of them all, of course he achieved the impossible!

And then he's the young sect leader in a bloody war, needing to win, needing to prove his worth and his sect's worth at every turn. This is where he becomes the ruthless, powerful man we meet in the first few episodes! Only.... he finds Wen Qing, who is the enemy in the eyes of the Jianghu, and offers to protect her (only her because he knows his limits, he can't protect all her people and his own, and his duty to his sect is first). He goes looking for his brother, months on end, haggard to the bone.

Then Wei Wuxian shows up wielding a power that's the worst taboo in their world, a power frighteningly similar to the power-drunk villain that they war is being waged against! He's doing unspeakable things, terrible torture in the name of revenge! Ah, so this is what it finally is! The moment they finally fall out for good, where Jiang Cheng cannot abide to tarnish his sect's reputation with Wei Wuxian's, and their love turns to hate.

But.... Jiang Cheng sees what he's done, and the first thing he does is to hug him tight. He asks about Wei Wuxian not carrying his sword, but even after the diplomatic nightmare of a war council, Jiang Cheng is just worrying. It's the most open, the most honest we've seen him so far, and he is concerned for his brother. He shuts it down when Jin Zixun tries to pick a fight. He takes responsibility for the person everyone's wary of, because that's his brother and he trusts him! He's hiding things, yes, but one day he will be ready to talk and Jiang Cheng will wait till then.

Then the war's won (by Wei Wuxian, of course!) and he has a sect to rebuild. And his brother is not at his side. First he's slacking off and drinking around town, then he runs away with the Wens to the Burial Mounds. It's terrible for the sect's and Jiang Cheng's own precarious position in Jianghu. Surely, this is the last thread of Jiang Cheng's love for his brother, the beginning of the man we were introduced to? But it's fucking not! Yes, he's frustrated. Yes, he's mad. And yet, he doesn't force his sister into a diplomatically advantageous marriage (which I strongly believe is the bare minimum of being a decent human being, but is something that wouldn't have been a questionable or dishonourable thing for him to do in the culture and world this story is set in) because she is not a pawn and he respects her choice above the politics! He tries to defend his First Disciple, his brother, and is overshadowed by much more powerful leaders who are bigoted and/or afraid of his power. And when it all goes to shit, they fight! This is the end of it, surely? But no! It's all fake! They fight, make up a lie about how the Yunmeng Jiang has supressed Wei Wuxian and his Wens in the Burial Mounds so they can live without being under attack for however long, and then have shady meetups to discuss their nephew's name!!

In the carnage of Nightless City, their sister dies at his hands, and the horrible realisation dawns that this is what pushes them over the brink, literally. And then!! AND THEN!!!!! EVEN THEN IT WASN'T ENOUGH FOR HIM TO KILL HIS BROTHER!!! The first scene was a lie, WEI WUXIAN HAD TO THROW HIMSELF OFF!!!!!! And when he's finally back, what does Jiang Cheng do? Kill him? ban him from ever returning to their home? No! He wants to drag him back home and make him apologise, explain himself!!

A lot of this is very focused on the brothers, but even outside of that, Jiang Cheng keeps subverting the expectations that the story builds for him right in the beginning. For all the talks of 'disciplining' his nephew (which could unquestionably entail some form of corporal punishment, as we see in other parts of the story) and the childhood Jiang Cheng himself had, the idea of his Jiujiu raising his hand against him is unthinkable to the point of incredulity for Jin Ling. When Jin Ling has his breakdown over Suihua on the Lotus Pier docks, I was full bracing myself for Jiang Cheng to yell at him for crying in public without any shame or dignity, but what does he do? Calls his nephew to his side and demands to know who made him cry, so he can fucking wreck them for daring to do that! He has a mere day to process the Golden Core reveal, and after all the yelling, he actually apologises to his brother!!

Then, in the mother of all sucker-punch moments, we find out that the one grief-riddled, frustrating moment of apparent stupidity whose domino effect this entire thing has been, was in fact Jiang Cheng willingly sacrificing himself, sect be damned, to save his brother and sister. And like!! How do you have such a character who simultaneously is and is not what he seems to be!!!

I (and a lot of the audience) immediately played into the simple brotherhood-destroyed-by-jealousy plot that it seems to be at first, but that's the intention! The entire story keeps showing how misleading, how vicious rumours can be and how horribly it can affect who someone is in the eyes of society. We see this happen in the story, of course, but the narrative also relies on the audience to make the same mistake, to take the tropes that seem obviously implied at the start, and then unravels the true complexity of the story as it moves forward. We got played by the narrative and it was so worth it!! Wei Wuxian is the prime example, of course, but cql (and mdzs from what I gather, though I haven't read the books) does it with such nuance and brilliance for Jiang Cheng, how do you not immediately lose your entire mind about it for the rest of forever!!!!!

@alkalinefrog suggested that I publish the headcanons I wrote with her in response to her escape room ask. I didn't wanna postjack but I thought I might as well share.

Including some of Alka's own thoughts and contributions, stylized like this! I copy pasted her words directly from the chat we shared, but some of mine have been elaborated on because they were my own statements and I had some other things to add!

It takes a little while, but eventually, L mentions that there might be a way to beat this without resorting to asking the Taskforce. Nobody knows of their shame except, of course, Watari. Once L explains his idea, Light is completely on board.

The three, even Misa, come back with Mello, Matt and Near for some support and area coverage. Misa was determined to see this through when she saw how much this meant to Light!

"Besides. This will be an excellent learning experience for them -" "Round two motherfuckers let's go." "Light, do not curse in front of the children."

"Fuck yes let's do this." "Near, do not encourage him."

It's pretty much canon that Near is a worse pottymouth than Mello is. Chickenshit President.

Mello drops like a solid loud F bomb here and there, but Near sprinkles it into his regular speech completely nonchalant lolol Oh man, Mello would be ON BOARD with Light's aggressive haunted house redemption arc I love the idea of L calmly chiding his boyfriend for being a bad influence on the kiddos All three of them take to Light like ducks to water tho 😭♥️

It's a matter of pride to Light and he's not afraid to let that show. He thinks that's an important lesson to instill in the children anyway - take pride in your abilities and if someone insults you, come back twice as hard.

L disagrees with this as a lesson. Mello points out the hypocrisy of that.

"Yes, but that means I have firsthand experience."

"If you don't think we should be learning from this, why are we here?" Matt asks at one point. "Oh, I read that these make for excellent teambuilding exercises. Aside from that, I just don't think you should be learning from Light's aggressive grudge keeping." Mello stares for almost a solid minute.

"Aight imma head out." "Mello come back here." "Nope." "You must get over your feelings with Near." "Bottlin' it." "Mello please."

"where's the door" "Mello that's the point, we have to find it together" "GODDAMMIT"

L's like "don't worry, this will be great practice for when you collaborate on cases---- Light you're doing that wrong" "Screw you L" "Please" All three kids "..."

"Mello, you must learn to put your emotions aside for the good of a case. It's an invaluable skill." "Like when you let a man be killed cause it made Kira react?" "Did it work?" L actually allows himself a smug little smile as Mello fails to come up with a response to that.

Near notices how Light is quietly fuming at that statement. Interesting.

Near goes "Light, what do you think about the Lind L-----" "Let's go kids, this room isn't gonna escape itself!" Near: side eyes

It's a journey of Self Discovery for all of them!

Matt learns that he can hide behind anyone and get some sort of comfort from them because he has the Saddest Face when he's scared. Light gives this most easily, because he already has experience as an older sibling. He lets Matt grab onto the back of his shirt and puts his arm over his shoulders. They could pass for half siblings, L notes.

AWWW

Near gains a whole new vocabulary of Japanese curse words following Light around

Near learns that ghosts are, in fact, quite frightening when they're in front of you. They were never nervous or worried about stories or even movies, but seeing them in person is quite different.

Near also learns that they're not good at figuring out where the clues have been hidden, but once they have them they're good at figuring out how to use them.

Mello learns that he could make a better escape room because God these hiding places are so obvious. They're also good at figuring out motives and profiling people.

Mello knows People, Near knows Application. Analyze and utilize. L decides that they must be better advised on how to work together.

Misa learns that when kids are clever and well behaved, she actually quite enjoys their company. She thought she didn't like kids because she's used to them being loud and obnoxious and poorly behaved from her time in America, and she didn't really observe children in Japan because their quiet and proper manners let them slip under her radar.

Misa ends up bonding most of all with Near due to their being odd ones out in their trios. Mello is very confused as to why the goth chick is so fond of Papercraft Child. For all of their differences, they end up quite good friends, and Near even gets Misa to help them with the puzzles as a second pair of hands and willing ears.

Mello ends up ignoring a lot of Near's advice outwardly, but when nobody's looking, he tries what Near suggested because it does make sense. "Hah! Got it!" "Well done, Mello, what was the answer?" "..."

Upon exiting, Light throws his arms up in the air and lets out a bellowing cackle that leaves everyone mildly concerned. Except for Matt. Matt's still clinging to him. Matt does not care that his new Big Brother has mildly concerning habits.

when he sees me

this animatic is also on my yt :D

Chpt 1 // Chpt 2 // Chpt 3 // Chpt 4 // Chapt 5

Chpt 6: part 1 // part 2 // part 3 // part 4 // part 5

THERE HE IS

(You can find this comic on tapas / mangadraft and spoontasti’s fic on ao3)

(2019) it hid behind your teeth and you were too nervous to seek it out. you waited for the perfect moment until you couldn’t.

The way Lucas is established to have issues with stress and by extension anger in season 1 but in season 2, we quickly see through Max that he is the type of person to switch into caretaker mode as soon as she expresses issues with her own and more easily and quickly calms himself with the goal of cheering her up.

The way Lucas Sinclair is a caretaker by nature in the way that he is more able to take care of himself if he’s taking care of others.

The way it makes me think of his relationship with Will and even potential added tension at Mike’s refusal to let him help on Halloween night and the way Lucas tends to heal himself in the process of healing others but Will tends to set things down to avoid conflict. The back and forth of someone who insists on apologizing, not selfishly so much, but because it actively isn’t a chore and is healing for himself.

Thinking about his parents and the way he goes to them immediately for advice on conflict resolution with Max. Thinking about how he only ever begrudgingly apologized when Max didn’t seem genuinely hurt in their relationship. Thinking about Lucas seeing Max hurting and not letting him in even later when she did ensuring that she knew he how much he wanted to help and how he even regretted not trying harder. Thinking about how he wouldn’t stop brainstorming until he realized the best and most comforting thing he could do for her against Vecna was trust her.

Thinking about Lucas, who we’ve often seen a bit tense with Mike, especially surrounding Will, jumping at the chance to help with something and offer advice and a place to vent.

Thinking about Lucas’ relationship with Dustin, who seems pretty self-sufficient (and sassy) so ends up just as a fairly harmless source of bickering that can help blow off steam.

Thinking about a similar relationship between Lucas and Erica. Thinking about the desperation required for the caretaker who cares for himself by caring for others to call for help from her.

Thinking about Lucas Sinclair as a caretaker.

I made another head canon of AbeMiha– of when they’re turning 50 years old! I want to draw this since long time ago, something about showing they’re getting old together. I can’t draw any older than this, I think–

Note: If this is somehow against your convenience, please tell me tags I should put on this post :)

apprehensive shark would like 2 remind u of a thing

from a conversation with @guqin-and-flute about Cousin Dynamics irt their parents - A-Yuan is a very sweet and kind cousin and will be sympathetic over almost anything... but post WWX-return, no one has to put up with worse parental indiscretions than him, and he is not interested in hearing your pathetic complaints, alright?

also, like, A-Fu, considering that you have three whole dads in a triad long-distance relationship, and considering the very very complicated history between them, they have done EXCEPTIONALLY well to get you all the way to teenagehood before you got this very specific kind of trauma!

more of this AU

happy holidays !