thatswhatsushewrote | ASKS: cql-canon lan xichen, post-canon

[originally posted here on september 13, 2024.]

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anonymous asked:

Sorry if I'm misremembering something you said, (or if I alr sent this ask, I am Forgetful), but why do you think novel!LXC recovers post canon but CQL!LXC commits suicide?

my answer:

big mood re: the forgetfulness, anon, my memory is a tea sieve!

quickly just to give credit where credit is due, i first started thinking about this possibility after reading some meta on the subject first by xiyao-feels and then through some follow-up discussion with confusion-and-more so i am certainly not the first blogger in the jgy stan corner of the fandom to have this thought! the tl;dr version of why some of us think novel canon lxc survives (not recovers--i do not think he ever recovers from jgy's death, and yes, i am being very specific about saying it IS jgy's death that destroys him, but i can come back to that in another post) is because he does remain in that position in the post-canon extras, even if he is definitely aboard the struggle bus (e.g., his body language and detachment from what is going on during the banquet extra).

to enter Speculation Station™️ however, as long as there is a possibility of jgy (and nmj, too, to some extent, but i truly believe jgy would be his priority) either regaining his spiritual cognition, or some other means of helping his soul pass on peacefully, i think lxc would be committed to making one of those two possibilities happen. but also, strictly in terms of what we are given in the text, lxc remains sect leader, even if he's a ghost of his former self in terms of his ability to function normally. if he was no longer sect leader for 'whatever reason, lwj would have to contend with that, and i think mxtx would have written about it because wangxian are her special little guys. ....(derogatory)

in cql, however, here's what we know about the state of the jianghu after the guanyin temple sequence:
nie huaisang is not the new chief cultivator--lan wangji is, which is... certainly a choice;
there is no precedent in the canon for a chief cultivator to assume leadership of the jianghu without also being the leader of their own sect;
sect leaders remain in charge of their sects until their deaths. there's no abdication or retirement;
it follows, then, that for lan wangji to become sect leader, lan xichen has to be dead.
like... i suppose there are some assumptions at work here; e.g. would his death have to come about as suicide? couldn't it have happened through other means? but i think they are assumptions grounded in what we actually see in the show: lan xichen was willing to die with jin guangyao, and then is not seen or mentioned again after that last devastating glimpse we see of his face while the junior quartet talk around him, right after jin guangyao's death. i can't track down my screenshots now because my collection is such a disorganized mess T_T but if i can find them i'll reblog this post with them included, because it's... it's bleak.

anyway, there you go: my thoughts about why i think novel canon lxc survives, but cql canon lxc does not.

[i then reblogged this with the screenshots from cql episode 50, and additional commentary:]

here we go--the episode 50 screenshots of lan xichen and members of the junior quartet, as promised:

i haven't included every single line of the conversation between jin ling, lan jingyi and ouyang zizhen because i don't think they're necessary to conveying the point i'm currently focused on, which is that lan xichen's expression and affect are completely untouched by what is happening around him. it's actually... so chilling, to be honest, but i don't think it's accidental.