I would like to take a moment, here, to appreciate all the ways in which Mei Changsu is set up as a parallel to/echo of Jingyan’s mother. I mean, besides the really obvious markers like both preferring shades of white, and jade for their hair, there is the beautiful fact that, when Mei Changsu seriously loses his temper and yells at Jingyan, he does it by using Jingyan’s full name. So, while I would never /actually/ wish Inner Palace politics on the poor man, I do have to admit there’s definitely a voice in the back of my head giggling over consort-verse and Jingyan marrying a man just like his mother.

from Tumblr http://ift.tt/2qPn4nN
via IFTTT

So, I've fallen into Nirvana in Fire, and my goodness but this is a fun one.

Of course, I know, like, five words of the language by ear, as yet, so I'm having to rely on fanposts to pick out the /really/ juicy stuff. This intro, despite being brief, gave me two nice points to dig into.

For one, I do believe that what they're all calling Mei Changsu, translated here as the "Qilin Genius", is, indeed, a reference to the qilin, better known to anime fandom as the kirin, herald or portent of a ruler or great sage. Which is delightful purely on the symbolic level, in that Mei Changsu is exactly that, narratively, and also that the ruler he choses is neither of the ones who are so hot to secure him. But I am also giggling helplessly, because, if I'm not mistaken, Mei Changsu himself is the one who composes the message in which both the crown prince and Yu are told to seek him. And can't you just picture his glinty little smirk over that? On the one hand: arrogant creature. On the other... well, talk about calling your fate to you.

The even juicier concept that post gave me, though, was jianghu. Because my goodness but this makes so much sense (in narrative and genre terms) of Mei Changsu's choice in the end.

( Suppose I should spoiler-cut this )

Okay, that got rather lyrical, but it's wuxia after all, what do you expect?