![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation
Aug. 29th, 2018 02:54 pmGrandmaster of Demonic Cultivation/The Founder of Diabolism is a Chinese supernatural m/m wuxia novel (with animated and comic adaptions) The translation is about halfway through and I loved it and waiting for the remaining SIXTY CHAPTERS is going to KILL ME.
It's a VERY slow burn romance between Lan Wangji, a serious mindedjedi cultivator/magician, and Wei Wuxian, his frenemy who got kicked out of magic training and accidentally invented being a sith necromancer(*).
Wei Wuxian is completely oblivious to his own attraction to Lan Wangji as well as Lan Wangji's repressed pining and inner monologue of "but why him". The plot is complex and exciting, with lots of fights and plots and supernatural shenanigans, and afaict the adaptations turned the romance into Very Shippy Friendship leading to dudes recommending them with "Ok yes it's originally gay but IT'S REALLY COOL TRUST ME".
It's in the yaoi/slash tradition with a number of the typical character tropes, and the only character who identifies as queer (by ancient Chinese standards) dies tragically before the story starts. There's some sympathetic but tragically dead disabled characters too. The few female characters are mostly treated ok. It manages to barely squeak past my zombie squicks but there's a lot of blood and reanimated corpses.
On the upside the uke is a universally feared necromancer which shakes up the dynamic a little :D Here's his (CORPSE FILLED) introduction.
I am not familiar enough with wuxia to say how it compares to other stuff in that genre but I found it more accessible than others I've tried, possibly because it's a semi-original setting so the politics is simpler than real Chinese history and more is explained.
( More detail, mentions of homophobia and ableism )
It's a VERY slow burn romance between Lan Wangji, a serious minded
Wei Wuxian is completely oblivious to his own attraction to Lan Wangji as well as Lan Wangji's repressed pining and inner monologue of "but why him". The plot is complex and exciting, with lots of fights and plots and supernatural shenanigans, and afaict the adaptations turned the romance into Very Shippy Friendship leading to dudes recommending them with "Ok yes it's originally gay but IT'S REALLY COOL TRUST ME".
It's in the yaoi/slash tradition with a number of the typical character tropes, and the only character who identifies as queer (by ancient Chinese standards) dies tragically before the story starts. There's some sympathetic but tragically dead disabled characters too. The few female characters are mostly treated ok. It manages to barely squeak past my zombie squicks but there's a lot of blood and reanimated corpses.
On the upside the uke is a universally feared necromancer which shakes up the dynamic a little :D Here's his (CORPSE FILLED) introduction.
I am not familiar enough with wuxia to say how it compares to other stuff in that genre but I found it more accessible than others I've tried, possibly because it's a semi-original setting so the politics is simpler than real Chinese history and more is explained.
( More detail, mentions of homophobia and ableism )
