YMMV / Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi

For YMMV tropes that pertain specifically to the Live-Action Adaptation, go here.

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Tropes that apply to Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi in general

• Adorkable:
  • Wei Wuxian's cheerful, playful, (and oftentimes flirty) nature can often make him appear lovable and an utter dear, especially in any situations where he's with Lan Wangji.
  • The childishness Lan Wangji displays whether he's sober or drunk (but especially when he's drunk) is as hilarious as it is endearing.
  • Even after becoming a fierce corpse, Wen Ning retains his timid and awkward demeanor, which fans love along with his kindness.
  • Lan Xichen, when drunk, is essentially a hyperactive and happy goofball.
  • The manhua and some of the donghua's promotional artwork show a younger Jiang Cheng melt in the presence of dogs, and it's sweet to see.
  • Jin Ling's brattiness and his hot-and-cold attitude makes him both hilariously annoying yet also lovable.
  • Although Jin Zixuan doesn't seem to be adorkable material at first, the Tsundere side that emerges in later flashbacks turns him into affectionate joke material. It becomes even more transparent whenever he tries to romance Jiang Yanli or performs romantic gestures for her.
• And You Thought It Would Fail: MXTX admits in an interview after writing The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System: Ren Zha Fanpai Zijiu Xitong that she thought Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation would be the least interesting book she made and fully expected it to flop. Not only did its popularity explode overnight, the novel and its adaptations won various different awards in and out of China, thus became one of the most well-known danmei novels all over the world. This, in turn, launched her to be one of the most popular danmei authors in China.
• Angel/Devil Shipping: The pure-hearted good samaritan Xiao Xingchen (angel) is often shipped with the cruel and violent criminal Xue Yang (devil).
• Base-Breaking Character:
  • Yu Ziyuan. One third of the fans like her for being an Iron Lady and a powerful Action Mom; another third aren't as fond of her because of her hatred of Wei Wuxian, which also led her to constantly lash out at either him, her husband, or her son; and the last third see her as an interestingly complex character but also have reservations about how she deals with her family and especially with Wei Wuxian. Everyone does agree, however, that she's not going to win the "Mom of the Year" award any time soon.
  • Jiang Fengmian is rather divisive in the fandom due to the impact he had on his family's dynamic including with Wei Wuxian. While everyone agrees he's neither a bad person nor good father, fans are split as to whether 1) still likable in spite of his poor parenting skills or the other way around, and 2) he's worse than his wife or not, which can turn into a lengthy discussion.
  • Jiang Cheng. Everyone unanimously agrees that he's a deeply flawed character. What everyone doesn't unanimously agree on is whether they love or hate him for it. The former find his flaws to be well-written and feel that they add to his complexity as a character; whereas the latter side thinks that he's too flawed to be likable or sympathetic. A third party, however, agrees that they both love and hate him at the same time because of his qualities.
  • Xue Yang is one among the villains of the novel. He's either a layered and twisted villain who has a great amount of depth and a surprisingly tragic background, or he's just nothing but a vile madman who deserves no understanding or sympathy.
• Broken Base:
  • The "Incense Burner" extras and, to a lesser extent, the sexual content of the books are controversial especially amongst the Western fandom due to the questionable nature of the way it was written^note Many fans, especially those who are more familiar with censored versions like the donghua or The Untamed, express surprise and even disgust after discovering the non-consensual parts due to Values Dissonance. and there is discourse within the fandom whether they're tasteful or not.
  • There are mixed feelings towards the golden core transplant or when Wen Ning reveals it and whether they were the appropriate things to do in-series. Notably one's opinions about this tend to correlate with their feelings towards Base-Breaking Character Jiang Cheng, as he plays a central role in these instances.
  • The resolution of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng's relationship in the end. Either you think that it's realistically the best ending they could ever get despite its bittersweet tone, or you think that it's too depressing and they were cheated out of a reconciliation.
• Cargo Ship:
  • Despite the fact that a scene involving both only happened once in the novel, Lan Jingyi's love for chicken is a go-to joke.
  • Due to certain wild events in an "Incense Burner" extra where Wei Wuxian goes to the extreme of flirting with Lan Wangji, he and Bichen are shipped as a joke.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Most of the audience cheered when the unbearable and cruel Wang Lingjiao finally got a good smacking from an enraged Yu Ziyuan and met her much-needed demise when Wei Wuxian dealt with her in the most gruesome ways in each adaptation.
  • Wen Ning dropping the bomb about how Jiang Cheng really got back his golden core. Is it emotionally painful to read? Yes. Is it also immensely satisfying, whether because it's the first time Wen Ning stood his ground on his own terms or because you think Jiang Cheng needed to be taken down a peg? Yes again.
• Crack Pairing:
  • Regardless of what little likelihood there is of them interacting with each other let alone liking each other, fans like to ship many of the older generation cultivators with one another, such as Lan Qiren with anyone.
  • Although they're never stated to have met In-Universe, there are some fans who have taken to shipping Mo Xuanyu and Xue Yang together since both were disciples of the Jin Clan of Lanling and were potentially both there around the same time.
  • Mo Xuanyu is sometimes shipped with Nie Huaisang despite their lack of relationship, given the possibility of the latter's involvement in the former's revenge plans against his abusive family.
  • Some fans have taken to shipping together Jiang Yanli with some of the other female characters with whom she hasn't had even a single interaction within the novel, namely Wen Qing and Mianmian, for the lesbian shipping appeal.
• Death of the Author: You'd be surprised (or not) about how rampant this trope is on all sides of the fandom, such as how several fans read the novel or view its adaptations yet bash Mo Xiang Tong Xiu for a multitude of reasons:
  • MXTX once said in an interview that while she's alright with shipping, she emphasizes that the flagship couple should never be broken up or reversed.^note a term used for switching a couple's dynamic, e.g. Wei Wuxian as the Seme and Lan Wangji as the Uke The Chinese and Japanese fandom respect her wishes that it's extremely rare to find fanworks of Wangxian reversed or shipped with others as doing so would lead to vicious backlash from other fans. On the other hand, the Western fandom protested and argued that the author should have no business dictating her fans' creativity. As such, fanworks of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji reversed, separated to be shipped to their preferred pairings, or become a Launcher of a Thousand Ships are more widespread in the Western fandom.
  • MXTX stating that Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are morally ideal caused a lot to cry foul as many would point out that this would contradict the Gray-and-Gray Morality setting, Lan Wangji's implied selfishness and Wei Wuxian's unsavory acts in his first life. Interpreting what she actually meant led to debates on how morally right they really are with some outright ignoring this stance.
  • MXTX is rumored to have stated that both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian are gay,^note It's worth to note the interview in question was actually mistranslated but the reaction is all the same. yet many fans take WWX's flirting with girls and other men (even if it's only to elicit disgust from them) as a sign that he's actually bisexual. While she never confirmed nor denied this, Western fans would insist he's bisexual even after an interview explaining she envisioned her protagonists to be the perfect compliment for each other, and is adamant in telling fans that the couple should only be shipped with each other as stated above.
• Diagnosed by the Audience:
  • Wen Ning's sheepish behavior and poor social skills (especially before he became a fierce corpse) have fans speculating that he has some kind of social anxiety.
  • Thanks to many of Wei Wuxian's character tics, thought processes, and actions — especially in the novel where the reader sees some parts of the story directly from his point of view — fans often believe he has ADHD. Aside from his notoriously bad memory, he is also prone to being easily distracted, can be impulsive, has trouble coping with stress, is excessively active, occasionally suffers frequent mood swings, is not the best with long-term planning, and can hyper-focus to an unhealthy degree. This trait becomes downplayed after he came back to life.
  • Given what Wei Wuxian went through up until now, fans assume he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. In the last few months of his first life, his ordeals had actually broken both his spirit and mind for some time. While he's proven to have recovered after his resurrection, some adaptations hint that he still gets nightmares about the worst segments of his life, and at times he becomes melancholy whenever he reminisces or is confronted by anything or anyone connected to the bleaker parts of his past. After all, in spite of his maturity, his emotional strength, and his healthier coping mechanisms, Wei Wuxian is still only human and he has his limits.
  • Some readers theorize that Jiang Cheng has post-traumatic stress disorder, due to the amount of trauma he accrued in the flashback arc that still haunts him in the present timeline and his inability to feel (let alone) express emotions that aren't anger or grief.
  • Many fans love to label Lan Wangji as autistic as they cite some of his traits: like his sensory sensitivities, lack of tolerance of being touched, his auditory stimming with his guqin, his love of rules and order and scripts, and his difficulty in communicating with other people.
• Draco in Leather Pants:
  • Xue Yang is one of the villains of the story with the most heinous crimes, yet he's very popular among the fans and tends to be toned down in fanworks.
  • Jiang Cheng is meant to be a complex and flawed character, while very sympathetic, is still a jerkass who has massive anger issues towards his former martial brother that he'd tortured and killed demonic cultivators to make sure he won't return back and never helped civilians until the situation is too dire to ignore. That doesn't stop fans from downplaying his atrocities while insisting that his aggression is from Anger Born of Worry, takes his scathing accusations of his martial brother at face level that they blame Wei Wuxian himself for all the hardships they've faced and for not wanting to fix their relationship when it's clear in the narrative that his reluctance of helping anyone is one big reason for Wei Wuxian's downfall, his Never My Fault attitude makes the latter very reluctant to mend the bridge between them, and there's a very good reason why nearly everyone feared him and has no good things to say about him at all.
  • While he is Affably Evil, Jin Guangyao still garnered many fans who either tone him down in fanworks so he's easily shipped to other characters or defend his crimes even though the narrative and the Villainous Friend extra reveals that chose to do all the heinous crimes he did even after the death of his father and never regretted all he's done.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • While the Yi City group (Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, A-Qing, Xue Yang) only appear for a few chapters and their story is more of a side arc in the overall plot, their complex characterizations and tragic backstories still made them easily memorable among fans.
  • Although his only role is to talk on the unnamed juniors' behalf whenever they're around, Ouyang Zizhen immediately became a fan favorite simply for being an Adorkable and Nice Guy that's very supportive of Wei Wuxian. Fans would also half-jokingly and half-affectionately dub him the "president of the Wei Wuxian fanclub" for the same reason.
  • Luo Qingyang, better known as Mianmian. Her role in the story is very minor, but the readers love her for being one of the very few who stood up for Wei Wuxian and the only female character who survives the story and gets to have a happy ending.
  • Fairy is well loved simply for being a Canine Companion who contributes to some of the novel's funny moments where they scare Wei Wuxian. Fairy became even more popular after The Untamed aired, since the dog portraying them is very friendly and cuddly.
• Epileptic Trees: The true circumstances of Wei Wuxian's death is left for the reader to decide, but what's known is that nothing of him was found by anyone after the First Siege has ended. Some fans speculated that his body was thrown in the blood pool alongside the corpses of the massacred Wen survivors, and that it's the first one to emerge out of the pool during the Second Siege when Wei Wuxian's life was in danger.
• Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Be careful to not call the novel and some of its adaptations "The Untamed [novel/animation/manhua]", which is the title of the live-action drama. Whether you did it by mistake or not, fans will quickly remind you why that's something you should avoid doing, especially since while The Untamed generally follows the plot of the novel, it still took plenty of liberties that sets it apart from the source material. Additionally, if you claim in any way that the novel and its other adaptations is only an adaptation of The Untamed and is not the original canon, expect the backlash to be vicious.
  • calling it an anime or saying the story would be better if a Japanese studio made it will raise the ire of many fans
• Fanfic Fuel:
  • As the story makes good use of the butterfly effect as one of its Central Themes is that every action has an intended and/or unintended consequence, it's no surprise that fans would want to write about what would have happened instead if a certain scenario had happened differently or if the circumstances were changed entirely.
  • Since the author never showed the events surrounding Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's marriage becoming official, the fans are given free rein to depict how it went.
  • Besides a few certain facts, the novel never extensively narrates what Lan Wangji or Jiang Cheng had been doing in the thirteen years Wei Wuxian was dead. This leads to several fanfics that cover the fans' various takes on what happened during that time period.
  • Many love to entertain the idea of Wei Wuxian forming and leading his own sect, which is dubbed the Yiling Wei Sect by many fans.
  • The novel leaves the state of Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng's relationship on an open but bittersweet note. Naturally, fans like to rectify this with fanworks where the two properly reconcile, or at least gain some better closure, after the events of the epilogue.
  • As the novel doesn't elaborate on the first siege and Wei Wuxian's death other than a few tidbits like all the four great clans joining in the siege and that he died of backlash, this leads to several fans writing their takes on how exactly the siege would have gone.
  • Since there's no indication of Nie Huaisang's machinations within the story and how he was able to really discover what happened to his brother until the end, many fans have free reign on writhing how they think this went down in the story.
  • Mo Xuanyu's status as a Bit Character, his hard childhood life while being Jin Guangshan's son, and why he sacrificed himself to bring back the Yiling Patriarch are intriguing enough for fans to create ideas on what his personality is really like.
  • Fans who love to explore Wangxian's kinks/sex life would use the incense burner featured in the aforementioned chapter to create fanworks without fear of it actually derailing canon.
• Thanks to a standee released for an official event, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are popularly depicted as a fox spirit (Huli Jing) and celestial dragon (Tianlong) respectively.
• Fan Nickname:
  • Wei Wuxian is also called WiFi, due to a homonym between the Chinese word for Wi-Fi (无线) and his courtesy name Wuxian (无羡).
  • Lan Wangji is 汪叽, which is also a homonym of his courtesy name. He's also been nicknamed Bluetooth to match with Wei Wuxian's Wifi, and because he's brother number two of the Lan(blue) sect.
  • Lan Xichen is Brother-Reading Machine (读弟机) due to his ability to read his younger brother Wangji's infamously stoic facade.
  • Jiang Cheng is Uncle (舅舅), because he's Jin Ling's uncle.
  • Sometimes Nie Huaisang is referred to as "Director Nie", with that title often times appearing with his live-action actor during interviews.
  • The entire fandom in general loves drawing Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji as different kinds of animals, but more often than not the Western Fandom gives names to their animal versions (e.g. Bunji and Bunxian, Meowji and Meowxian, etc.).
  • Jin Guangyao is called 瑶妹 "Yao-mei" (little sister Yao, girl Yao), by both fans and MXTX in her interview. The nickname might be the result of him being the shortest among the characters, often depicted as having rather "feminine" facial features, combined with his polite and soft manners.
  • It's popular in the Latin American corner of the fandom to deform the character's names because of their similarity with words in Spanish. Examples include Wi-Fi for WWX, "lancha" (literally "boat") for Lan Zhan, "Guayaba" ('guava') for Jin Guangyao, and calling Jian Cheng "Juan Carlos" because the initials are the same.
  • The Latin American fandom likes to call Jin Guangyao all manner of weird nicknames based on his shortness. Such as "the Murder Flea" or "el Chaneque" (Chaneques being creatures from Mexican folklore that were short and mischievous, appearing near bodies of water to play pranks on anyone who got close. Nowadays the name is used to refer to people who are both short and annoying, or just short).
  • Many fans love to refer to Lan Jingyi as the "Un-Lan Lan" or "Lan version of Wei Wuxian" due to his tendency to unknowingly break the Lan Clan rules while hypocritically berating someone else (mostly Wei Wuxian) for it.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Many fans ship Jin Guangyao with Lan Xichen instead of his wife Qin Su due to them being sworn brothers. Lan Xichen fully trusting Jin Guangyao no matter what others say about him and him being the only person Jin Guangyao wouldn't want to harm in any way makes it easy for fans to ship the two men together. Unlike other examples, Qin Su doesn't experience the Die for Our Ship treatment from fans as they sympathize with what happens to her after the Awful Truth of them being half-siblings and learning that he had a hand in killing their son.
• Fanon: Has its own page here.
• Foe Yay Shipping:
  • Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao share an extremely complicated history that ended with Jin Guangyao secretly causing Nie Mingjue to die via qi-deviation, but are nevertheless shipped despite (or rather because) of it.
  • Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng mutually dislike each other and are so blatant about it sometimes that their shippers like to see it as Belligerent Sexual Tension.
  • Even if Xue Yang is the reason why Song Lan lost his eyes and would lead to the events of his and his best friend's death, this doesn't stop shippers from shipping the two themselves.
• Friendly Fandoms: The fans of Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi and The King's Avatar get along really well, since both the animated and live-action adaptations of both shows are one of the first to become mainstream and catch the attention of viewers outside China. That, and several voice actors from the former show were also cast in the latter.
• Gateway Series: Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi is the other series besides The King's Avatar that got Western fans into donghua. Although whereas The King's Avatar attracted Western viewers due to its focus in real-life gaming without the isekai and fantasy aspects, Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation: Mo Dao Zu Shi introduced many fans to xianxia, as well as danmei genres (which is similar to yaoi since they're both Boys' Love, but danmei works differ in how they play their tropes and ship dynamics).
• Harsher in Hindsight: Back during their time at Cloud Recesses, a teen Lan Wangji told Wei Wuxian to "Get out!" after a prank. It's hilarious even in-universe (due to out of character it is) but takes on a bitter tone when you learn that the last thing Wei Wuxian said to Lan Wangji, when completely out of it due to trauma, in his previous life was "get out!" no matter how much he pleaded and begged.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: Every interaction between Wei Wuxian and Lan Sizhui becomes endearing after one reads the finale since the reader is actually seeing A-Yuan and his "Brother Xian" bond once again.
• Hype Aversion: Due to the incredible popularity of the series and each adaptation, some people find themselves overwhelmed by fan content and discussion of the series and they end up attempting to run away from it completely.
• Incest Yay Shipping: In contrast to the reaction on shipping Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng together and the canonical incest pairing Jin Guangyao/Qin Su, there are many who have no problem shipping actual siblings like the Nie and the Lan brothers together. Both siblings are portrayed to have a healthy bond and be protective of each other, which may be a factor why some have no problem shipping them unlike the first two.
• Iron Woobie: Wei Wuxian is one of the biggest Woobies of the novel, suffering so much that he doesn't even get a peaceful death. And yet when he gets brought back to life, he rarely shows outwardly just how he shoulders all the pain he went through and the guilt he harbors for all that happened.
• Jerkass Woobie:
  • No one can deny that Jiang Cheng's very spiteful and angry and has committed several horrendous actions, but his backstory does a good job explaining exactly why he's so bitter and make the audience feel bad for him.
  • Jin Ling may be bratty and still has much growing up to do, but he didn't have an easy life due to having neither parents to raise him. Thankfully, he gets better throughout the story thanks to his experiences with Wei Wuxian.
• Launcher of a Thousand Ships: Despite being an Official Couple with Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian still tends to get shipped with many other characters, such as Jiang Cheng, Wen Ning, and Jin Zixuan.
• Lost in Medias Res: Some readers find the novel's back-and-forth jump between the past and present hard to follow as many flashbacks are sprinkled throughout the story, and there is no indication if one is happening in the text. The donghua and The Untamed tried to mitigate this by combining the flashbacks in one giant arc, though this also created a caveat where the flashbacks went so long that it becomes jarring once it ends and returns back to the present timeline.
• Memetic Loser: Despite being an enchanted weapon owned by a powerful cultivator, the fandom likes to poke fun at Bichen and exaggerate embarrassing incidents it has gone through — being used as a seam ripper to cut pants off corpses, as a shovel, as a dildo...
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Lan Wangji's "Everyday" (天天).^note Wei Wuxian tells Lan Wangji he wants to sleep with him everyday during his Love Confession; when they finally consummate their relationship in Chapter 111 and the former jokingly begs the latter to forget about what he said, Lan Wangji ends the chapter with, "Everyday means everyday." Both the protagonists and fans frequently refer to their active sex life as "everyday" as a result.
  • Lan Xichen as Brother-Reading Machine.^note He is one of the few (and initially the only one) who can understand his brother's facial expressions, which have little to no variation. Many fans thus like to joke about is uncanny ability to read his brother's thoughts.
  • Jiang Cheng's status as a bachelor is memed up to eleven — "single dog" (单身狗) sometimes refers to him, since it's a derogatory way of referring to someone who is single.
  • A series of videos on Bilibili sets up the characters singing their POV to the tune of "What Makes You Beautiful".
  • Fans love to post or share mundane pictures/videos of rabbits and refer to Lan Wangji in some way since they are a symbol of homosexuality and are kept as pets by him.
  • Jin Ling's Uncle^note Thanks to some Tangled Family Tree shenanigans and the concept of sworn brothers in Chinese culture, many fans joke that nearly every important character is related to Jin Ling by blood or by sect.
  • Poking fun at Jin Guangyao being one of the shortest men in the male cast is a popular subject of fanarts.
• Misaimed Fandom: One of the most popular gags that the fandom likes to bring up is how Lan Xichen is the biggest Shipper on Deck for WangXian. However, anyone who reads the complete canon material will realize that it's actually inaccurate; while Lan Xichen did encourage his younger brother to befriend Wei Wuxian in the past, his opinion of Wei Wuxian became more and more negative over time, and under the misassumption that Wei Wuxian knew of Lan Wangji's feelings but continued to toy with him, called him the only mistake (or the reason behind the only mistake) his brother ever made. While those words were said out of Big Brother Instinct, they're still not the words you'd hear from a Shipper on Deck, right?
• Moe:
  • The bunnies! You will find yourself getting cute aggression over the fluffballs no matter what adaptation you read or watch.
  • Wen Yuan. Every fan agrees that he's adorable and precious in every adaptation. The audio drama added to the cuteness factor by having a real toddler voice him, and The Untamed pitches in by casting an actor who has the most pinchable cheeks.
  • Wen Ning is considered to be very precious due to his kind and meek personality, both as a human and as a zombie.
  • Young Lan Wangji. Just look at him!◊ And if we're being honest, he still has a lot of adorable moments as both a teenager and an adult.
  • Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng were just precious when they were kids, having the squishiest faces and the cutest-sounding voices.
  • Lan Xichen when he's drunk. He's so merry that it's endearing.
  • The papermen Wei Wuxian creates in situations where he needs to sneak around. Admit it, you wished that you could own one of them.
• Moral Event Horizon:
  • Xue Yang has crossed the line repeatedly. Massacring the Chang clan in revenge for one lost pinkie crossed it once. Massacring the White Snow Temple and blinding Song Lan crossed it again. The third time was tricking Xiao Xingchen into killing innocent civilians and Song Lan. Even Wei Wuxian, who had done some unsavory things during the Sunshot Campaign, summarized it best: "Xue Yang must die".
  • If persecuting Wei Wuxian in the Nightless City wasn't enough, then massacring a group of innocents and throwing their corpses in a pool of blood definitely counts for almost everyone in the cultivation world. Besides Lan Wangji, almost no one is exempt from being guilty of this.
• Narm: Lan Wangji's title of Hanguang-Jun is translated as "Gankou-Kun" in Japanese, which can sound funny to those who strongly associate the kun with the modern Japanese honorific usage of it.
• Never Live It Down:
  • Few will forget Lan Jingyi eating chicken, dropping it from his mouth and then having it shoved back into his mouth by Lan Sizhui (in reaction to seeing Wei Wuxian's hands tied by Lan Wangji's ribbon), due to the entire scene being so hilarious that it's the one plot-irrelevant detail all the adaptations kept in some form.
  • Remember that one time when Wei Wuxian used Lan Wangji's sword as a dildo in that one extra chapter? It's likely that you do, and the fandom will definitely make sure that you won't forget it.
• No Yay: There are members of the Western fandom who don't take kindly to shipping Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng together due to believing that Wei Wuxian was adopted into the Jiang family. Though they were certainly close enough to be family in the past, they were martial brothers which are entirely different from adoptive brothers, and they saw each other more as brothers-in-arms.
• One True Threesome:
  • Many fans tend to ship Lan Sizhui, Jin Ling, and Lan Jingyi altogether rather than ship two out of the three, as they are the main junior characters (nicknamed the Junior Trio by fans) and Jin Ling eventually becomes on friendly terms with the two Lans.
  • Fans tend to ship the Venerated Triad due to their strong relationships with one another as sworn brothers.
  • Depending on who you're asking, Xue Yang, Xiao Xingchen, and Song Lan are often shipped together (provided the person doesn't protest shipping Xue Yang with either of the other two).
• Portmanteau Couple Name:
  • WangXian, which is also the name of the song that Lan Wangji composed for Wei Wuxian in-canon. Lan Wangji was clearly Leaning on the Fourth Wall here...
  • ChengXian or XianCheng for Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian.
  • XuanLi for Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli.
  • SongXiao for Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen.
  • XueXiao for Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen.
  • ZhuiYi for Lan Sizhui and Jingyi.
  • ZhuiLing for Lan Sizhui and Jin Ling.
  • XiYao for Lan Xichen and Jin Guangyao.
  • XiCheng for Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng.
  • NieLan for Nie Mingjue and Lan Xichen.^note This one is an interesting case since the ship name makes use of the two's last names rather than their given names, despite having relatives who are also prominent characters in the story, making their ship name confusing for those who aren't familiar with the story or the characters yet.
  • NieYao for Nie Mingjue and Jin Guangyao.
  • SangCheng for Nie Huaisang and Jiang Cheng.
  • NingXian for Wen Ning and Wei Wuxian.
  • XiSang for Lan Xichen and Nie Huaisang.
• Ron the Death Eater: Despite the fact that not everyone operates a Black-and-White Morality in the story and how Society Is to Blame for all the troubles brewing in the narrative, one would be surprised at how many fans still warp some good characters as evil:
  • While Jiang Fengmian wasn't a good father, some fans demonize him and act as if he spent every day making Jiang Cheng's life miserable, causing all of his son's and Wei Wuxian's problems, and forcing Jiang Yanli to solely act as her brothers' emotional support. While his passivity and more lenient treatment of Wei Wuxian did cause issues, he was overall looking out for the kids and never actively malicious, and he was not responsible for his wife's own mistreatment of her family and Wei Wuxian which was the main source of the Dysfunction Junction in the group.
  • Wei Wuxian looks up to Jiang Yanli as his mother figure for a good reason, but some fans call her an enabler of the abuse Wei Wuxian experiences within the Jiangs. Accusations run from her downplaying Jiang Cheng's actions whenever he lashes out at Wei Wuxian, to being naive/not helping him enough with all his troubles, to unknowingly gaslighting him into staying by normalizing the abuse he experiences when she acts as a mediator. The novel shows only Yu Ziyuan mistreats him and aside from her, he's a spoiled servant with a prodigious position within the clan,^note he's still treated as an unofficial member of the family, and being Head Disciple is an enviable position for someone of his social status and a huge incentive to stay compared to living in the streets showing she's not the reason why he stays with the sect. The extras show even she's not safe from her mother's wrath when she defends her martial brother a few times, and she cherishes him as a brother to forgive him for Jin Zixuan's death and take a stab wound for him even while she's injured.
  • Despite his politeness and timidness being his main traits, Wen Ning has been vilified by some fans and accused of not being as nice as he seems. A core reason is that these fans see his decision to reveal to Jiang Cheng the truth about his "healed" golden core as unnecessarily cruel. However, Wen Ning is only compelled to act this way when the situation gets violent, and one would not blame him for laying it out on Jiang Cheng considering the latter had led the siege that led to the deaths of his family.
  • Some fans tend to play up Wei Wuxian's brutal moments and accuse the story of running on a Protagonist-Centered Morality because he gets a happy sendoff unlike some other characters. The narrative however establishes that he is one of the most righteous characters of the novel and that the other cultivators are hypocritical for demonizing him and glorifying themselves when they're no better than him (if not more morally questionable); his worst moments only occur when he's protecting people, retaliating against his wrongdoers or is out of control, and he's otherwise one of the few heroic characters that acts like how a cultivator should and so more than deserves his happy ending.
  • The Wen refugees were harmless and had no intention of repeating their clan's crimes, yet were dismissed by fans who claim that Wei Wuxian was completely in the wrong to leave Jiang Cheng's side and go against the cultivation world to save and protect them. A few would even go so far as to add that even if they're innocent, Wei Wuxian should have let the Jins kill them instead.
  • Fans demonize the entire Lan Clan who treat them as an abusive clan that uses their 4000 rules to control and micromanage everyone's lives, with Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian, and sometimes Lan Xichen portrayed as the victims. This is rather baffling as even if a few of them are hypocritical with some of their rules, they are strict because of their origins (their ancestry is based on Buddhism) and nearly all the named Lan members are decent people compared to the other clans:
    • Being a stereotypical Chinese elder with traditional Eastern values, his nephews' very strict upbringing, and for whipping Lan Wangji after the Nightless Capital Massacre, fans claim that Lan Qiren is an abusive guardian to his nephews. Not only is this ignoring the reason for his strictness, or the reason why Lan Wangji was punished,^note Lan Wangji siding and saving Wei Wuxian (who just became a mass murderer) is equivalent to treason and it's all but stated he would be executed if anyone else found out what he's done, and his seclusion is to hide the fact that he was recovering from his whipping. which the man himself is aware and has accepted the consequences, it's shown that he is lenient to his younger nephew despite his strictness by allowing Lan Sizhui's adoption and later reluctantly accepting Wei Wuxian as his partner. Some would even accuse him of being homophobic against Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's relationship when his distaste is more for other reasons rather than homophobia.
    • Some fans deride Lan Xichen for his passivity, his trusting of Jin Guangyao more than Wei Wuxian, and calling Wei Wuxian "the greatest mistake [Lan Wangji] made". This is ignoring that Jin Guangyao is talented in hiding his true colors and Wei Wuxian's reputation understandably makes it hard to trust him, Lan Xichen did not know that Wei Wuxian’s flirting was initially trying to freak Lan Wangji out and that he was still always fair in his dealings with Wei Wuxian, only calling him out after misunderstanding that he was only playing with his brother's feelings.
    • Even if nothing of this sort is told or hinted at in the novel, there's a disturbing amount of fans who believe Qingheng-jun kidnapped and forcefully married Madam Lan before imprisoning her. Some would even go so far as to accuse him of raping her many times until she died under his captivity and that he's emotionally abusive to his sons.
    • You'd be surprised by the number of fans bashing Lan Wangji, either by accusing him as an abuser who doesn't respect Wei Wuxian's freedom or he's a horrible and selfish brother for leaving Lan Xichen alone when he and Wei Wuxian eloped after the events in Guanyin Temple. These fans often disregard that Wei Wuxian was purposely testing his patience but Lan Wangji never made a move on him no matter what, and the novel text outright states that he knows that comfort is useless for Lan Xichen during his seclusion, yet he returned after his marriage to give him support.
• The Scrappy: While she's a nameless Bit Character who's only given prominence for either three sentences or thirty seconds maximum, don't expect anyone to have any positive opinions about the female cultivator who decried Lan Wangji during the Second Siege arc. The best that can be said about her is that her question "What wicked means did [Wei Wuxian] use to get you on his side?!" is used as a running joke in the fandom.
• Ship Mates: A lot of fans who ship WangXian tend to ship XiCheng and/or XiYao as well, with both Lan brothers having partners and going on double dates being the main appeal. Fans would also throw in SongXiao due to their similarities with WangXian.
• Ships That Pass in the Night:
  • XiCheng is a very popular ship in both the Western and Eastern fandoms, despite the fact that Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen never have a proper one-to-one interaction and are only seen standing side-to-side in a few frames at best.
  • Even though their only In-Universe interaction has them fighting each other, there's a small part of the fandom that ships Song Lan and Wen Ning, since they're both fierce corpses with tragic backstories. The few fics that feature said ship tend to have the two meet by chance after the events of the novel.
• Ship-to-Ship Combat:
  • Due to Xiao Xingchen having been a very important figure to both Song Lan (his old friend) and Xue Yang (a criminal who nevertheless spent a few years living with him and was determined to bring his soul back), the argument of whether SongXiao or XueXiao is the better pairing of the two can get heated if you don't ship both.
  • The Venerated Triad gets this as well assuming you don't ship all three together, due to their complicated backstory and the fact that Jin Guangyao and Nie Mingjue spend much of the story on opposing sides. Whoever isn't included in the preferred couple is often completely vilified, or in Lan Xichen's case for NieYao shippers at least deemphasized.
• Stoic Woobie:
  • Lan Wangji. Just because he always seems composed and his ordeals aren't given as much focus as Wei Wuxian or Jiang Cheng's, it doesn't mean he didn't suffer any less than them in the past.
  • Song Lan is a Perpetual Frowner if not The Stoic yet has a tragic backstory. Out of grief, he drove away his closest friend, which he quickly came to regret, and he died before he got the chance to apologize and reconcile with said friend. It doesn't help that his final fate is bittersweet at best, since he's now a mute, sentient zombie who decides to spend his days Wandering the Earth while waiting for his friend to reincarnate. Even if you don't know much about him, you will cry for him.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot:
  • Despite the story going out of its way to establish Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning as excellent or surprisingly good archers, the story never follows up and doesn't see them make use of a bow and arrow as other means of fighting.
  • The novel didn’t go into much detail on the Sunshot Campaign and the war between the clans other than a few important parts like Wen Chao's demise and Wei Wuxian's fight with Jin Zixuan. Details of events during this period are very sparse; either scattered all over the novel, or just glossed over whenever a character recalls something from the past, and there is more focus on events that happened before or after the war itself.
• Values Dissonance: Has it's own page here:
• The Woobie:
  • Xiao Xingchen suffered one of the worst fates out of the good characters, and it all happened because he just wanted to help and do good. It just got worse and worse for the poor priest until he literally gave up on life and unlike Wei Wuxian, he didn't get a second chance.
  • Qin Su seems to be one of the few genuinely good members of the Jin clan who has the misfortune of having her child killed during the Time Skip and later finding out her husband is her half-brother; the shock is so bad that she's Driven to Suicide. What's worse is that she did nothing wrong and knew nothing about the horrible truth about her parentage.

Tropes that apply to the donghua and audio drama

• Broken Base:
  • The donghua is considered the most contested adaptation alongside The Untamed. Some see it as another great adaptation that, even with its restrictions due to China's censorship laws and its limited episode count and runtime, still does well in translating the source material into an animated format. Other fans see it as subpar because it's not as faithful as the audio drama and rearranged the order of events that played in the past and present time.
  • The fandom is split on the ending of the donghua, which technically still follows the novel but makes a lot of rearrangements and changes. The fans either think it makes sense given the divergence of how and when each plot event from the original canon happens and it still sticks true to the core of the novel's themes and its portrayal of the cast, or they think it did both the story and its characters injustice.
  • The casting of Tatsuhisa Suzuki as Wei Wuxian in the Japanese dub of the audio drama. Even with the fact that he's Mo Xiang Tong Xiu's favorite Japanese voice actor and her preferred choice for Wei Wuxian, the fanbase is split on whether he's a perfect casting choice for the character or the complete opposite; while the former think he shows off his personality well, the latter think that Suzuki's voice doesn't fit Wei Wuxian at all despite being a good actor.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • The slow and torturous manner in which Wei Wuxian dealt with Wen Chao in the novel might be a little hard to stomach for some readers, to the point that some readers (albeit understandably) feel a bit sorry for the latter. However, the more straightforward and climactic way Wei Wuxian executes his revenge in the donghua by tearing him to pieces with resentful energy leaves all the viewers with no problems in watching Wen Chao get his gruesome comeuppance.
  • While Yu Ziyuan doesn't do anything to Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng in the chibi spinoff, when one remembers how much of a harridan she can be in canon — combined with the abuse and negative influence she left on both young men — the mishaps she gets thrown into in Episode 11 can count as some form of comeuppance for the fans who have a less-than-positive opinion of her.
• Heartwarming in Hindsight: The flashback featuring a younger Lan Wangji gifting his rattle drum to Wei Wuxian is sweet enough on its own, but the chibi spin-off adds another level of touching to the scene when it reveals that the rattle drum was originally a gift from Lan Wangji's mother.
• It's Short, So It Sucks!: While several fans agree that Season 2 is not a terrible season, the fact that it's only eight episodes long yet covers so many plot points (particularly from the past events which detail Wei Wuxian's downfall) causes it to suffer from pacing issues and a few rushed plotlines — problems which didn't plague Season 1. It doesn't help that the audio drama and The Untamed had already adapted most or all of the novel's plot, and aren't nearly as restricted as the donghua when it comes to covering the novel's story.
• Memetic Mutation:
  • Lan Wangji embedding paperman-Wei Wuxian with the Gusu Lan Clan seal containing his spiritual energy in the donghua gave birth to many Japanese fanarts of the real Wei Wuxian having the seal somewhere on his body. The confirmation that the seal was put on the paperman's back especially lead to a lot of fanart having the seal placed on his lower back akin to a tramp stamp.
  • Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji covering their robes with blood when using themselves as Spirit-Attraction Flags during the Second Siege in the donghua lead to instant popularity of fanart and jokes about the two getting married in that scene or in those outfits (as red garments are traditionally worn for Chinese weddings). 忘羨結婚 ("WangXian wedding") even trended in Japan after the episode was released for VIP members.
• Moe: While it's a given considering they're all drawn in chibi, the entire cast is nothing short of adorable and precious in the chibi spinoff of the Animated Adaptation.
• Most Wonderful Sound:
  • Almost every instance Wei Wuxian would say "Lan Zhan!" sounds endearing to the heart.
  • Any time Wen Yuan speaks or makes any kind of sound will have even the casual fan Squee from sheer unbridled cuteness.
  • While it's only heard once in both adaptations, Lan Xichen calling Lan Wangji "didi" is likely to be one of the most precious things you've ever heard.
• Narm Charm: The Cornetto commercials are hilariously jarring since they're often placed in the middle of the episodes and almost looks like they're part of the scene, but they are very endearing nevertheless since the characters are enjoying some dessert while sharing a nive moment together.
• Signature Scene: Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji, and Jiang Cheng's respective introductory scenes are considered iconic even to those who aren't familiar with the donghua, especially since the direction, soundtrack, and overall atmosphere during said scenes can already tell the audience a lot about their characters under one minute.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!:
  • Because the narrative flow of the donghua deviates from that of the novel's, it's inevitable that fans are split on the changes. Especially applies to the second season since it strays further from the novel, although the complaints stem less from the narrative changes and more from the past events being noticeably condensed and rushed through.
  • Some fans are unhappy about the donghua following the same approach the live-action drama used in downplaying the Grey-and-Gray Morality of the story (although it's more subtle about it than the latter), which is due to the strict censorship laws in China regarding morally complicated characters.
  • Some of the changes to the story's ending in Season 3 have been derided by some fans as too absurd/contrived (the revelation that Jin Guangyao somehow had the entire watchtower system secretly designed as a massive array as a contingency plan in case the cultivation world were to learn of his plans) or detrimental to the narrative flow (the decision to have the ancestral hall scene in Lotus Pier happen after the confrontation at Guanyin Temple).
• Tough Act to Follow: The audio drama isn't the first adaptation to come out (the donghua began some months earlier), but it is touted by several fans as the best adaptation of the novel, which inevitably casts a shadow over the later adaptations.
• Unintentional Uncanny Valley: The way animals are drawn in the donghua can look unsettling for some viewers, since the animals are drawn with human eyes instead of the standard animal eyes.
• Visual Effects of Awesome:
  • By Yaoi Genre anime standards, the donghua is the most well-animated. By general anime or donghua standards, it's still one of the most well-animated works of 2018, with fans praising every aspect of the animation from the scenery to the battle choreography to the integration of CGI into hand-drawn animation.
  • Even if they make use of only nendoroids, clay, and a few simple props, the stop-motion skits that the animation team would occasionally create is still impressively smooth in terms of movement.

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