cashew | Some blabbing about 景元 and 饮月二丹

First, hilarious fic: 策士长工作日志一则① & ② & ③
Qingzu's headache when it comes to dealing with the many ridiculous stories surrounding Jing Yuan and his "inappropriate relationship" with Imbibitor Lunae.

Pros:

So funny, omfg.
Hilarious mentions of canonized doujin.

Now, to rant a bit about Jing Yuan and the fangirl's BL shipping goggles.

The triggering event for this rant is when I saw a Lofter post going on and on about analyzing the BL moments of 2.5 patch and proclaimed that who does the penetrating is dependent on the personality of the character.

No. No it does not.

Who gets to do the penetrating is purely the result of kink. There are many reasons why a person might prefer a certain type of character doing the penetrating during a sex scene, such as but not limited to heteronormative assumptions about sex, personal hang ups and repression with respect to sex, visual preference, associated tropes with specific positions during sex, etc. But ultimately it is dictated by kink. That. Is. It.

There is nothing inherently progressive or regressive or logical or justified about wanting a character doing the penetration vs receiving the penetration.

With that said, there is nonetheless a tendency for fandom to associate common tropes with characters based on whether they (fangirls) want them (the characters) to do the penetration vs receive it. A lot of this comes from the preponderance of heteronormative porn/erotica and the safety of BL to explore heterosexual kinks without reminders of the messy real world politics that are often directly tied to misogynistic expectations when it comes to sex (the act). So.

Let's talk Jing Yuan and the two incarnations of Imbibitor Lunae.

景元 × 丹枫

Despite fandom's insistence on Jing Yuan being basically a baby while depicting Dan Feng as an adult (often nearing the end of his lifespan) for some god forsaken reason, until further evidence to the contrary, I subscribe to the tragic teen drama hypothesis (see maths for full justification).

In terms of who pursued whom, I think both sides were too young to emotionally understand what was really happening. They also thought they had their entire lives ahead of them to figure stuff out. Sure, Jing Yuan was a professional soldier who could honestly die any moment given how many bloody battles he participated in even pre-Sedition time, but for every bloody battle he survives, the confidence in the future just grows greater. Not to mention Jing Yuan is a brain over brawn type who just also happens to have plenty of brawn to back up the brain, so there's probably a much lower sense of danger. Meanwhile, Dan Feng is literally the most important person of his clan, he's going to get all the protection and is unlikely to be in any real danger.

Given Jing Yuan is still alive 700+ years later and outlived other generals in a position where most don't last past year 100, plus Dan Feng literally survived his psycho dragon rage only to fuck everything up through his own missteps, I'd say their confidence is pretty well justified.

So how did they feel about each other? Canonically, Jing Yuan has spoken of Dan Feng as someone who is considerate and kind, contradicting Jingliu's accusation of Dan Feng being someone who is arrogant and cold. Meanwhile, Blade's memory backs up both claims, remembering Dan Feng as someone who saved lives on the backline while nuking the frontline with his dragon magic. Of course, we also know from the ghostly remains that there was a lot of friendly fire when Dan Feng was on the battleground (although it's unclear if that is the result of 龙狂 or just regular splash damage from the attacking magic).

Meanwhile, our only real hint to how Dan Feng feels about Jing Yuan is through Dan Heng Imbibitor Lunae's memory, where Jing Yuan is described as the person who laughed and talked with him, which suggests that as far as Dan Feng is concerned, Jing Yuan was an equal, not a kid to be spoiled or protected or talked down to.

On Jing Yuan's side...well, Jing Yuan is the only one who spoke of Dan Feng's actions during Sedition as coming from a place of good intent. Unlike Jingliu who straight up accused Dan Feng of ruining Baiheng's reputation and Blade...well, Blade really doesn't have room to talk. Anyway, point is, Jing Yuan is willing to see Dan Feng as a good person who made bad decisions.

So how does all that translate into a BL ship? My personal headcanon is that Jing Yuan and Dan Feng probably just had too many things keeping them from honestly wrangling with their feelings. Jing Yuan respects Dan Feng and is painfully aware of their different positions in life. Dan Feng values Jing Yuan's closeness and probably wouldn't want to lose it to the funny feelings in the pit of his stomach.

Effectively, it's just a bunch of unresolved sexual tension that didn't even get a chance to get explored because Dan Feng decided to resurrect the dead.

景元 × 丹恒

As the person who visited Dan Heng despite having zero obligations to do so and worked his ass off trying to get Dan Heng out of jail then get his expulsion overturned, I think it's clear that Jing Yuan considers Dan Heng's happiness as part of his responsibility. He is also a strong defender of Dan Heng as an identity that is separated from Dan Feng. Most likely, for Jing Yuan, Dan Heng fits into the role of the offspring of a friend for whom he once had feelings and he would like to make up for all of Dan Feng's missed opportunities with Dan Heng. But like...not in a sexual way. Yet.

Meanwhile, Dan Heng is confused and seems to be in denial. He obviously likes Jing Yuan, what with the guy being one of the few friendly faces in his early life development, who literally saved him from prison, and who gave him the true freedom of being a person in every legal and philosophical sense. I think Dan Heng, merely out of gratitude to Jing Yuan alone, would like Jing Yuan the person.

But then there's this pesky business of his memories of the past life, the knowledge that all the kindness Jing Yuan showed him was owed not to Jing Yuan being a saintly person who simply wanted to save an innocent victim, but because he is Dan Feng's reincarnation. He simply cannot escape the shadow of Dan Feng, and therefore every bit of kindness Jing Yuan shows him is colored by the knowledge (or should I say at this point jealousy) that had he been unrelated to Dan Feng, Jing Yuan wouldn't have shown him the same kind of care.

(And to be sure, Jing Yuan, being the busy person that he is, probably is not personally involving himself in every miscarriage of justice that happens on Luofu. His involvement with Dan Heng is completely contingent on his past feelings for Dan Feng.)

So, Dan Heng likes Jing Yuan, wants to repay the kindness, probably might even have considered liking the guy in that way, but how can any of that mean anything when Jing Yuan's kindness to him is contingent on his bloodline?

Until Dan Heng can accept that Jing Yuan's feelings will always be colored by the past, that feelings are messy and confused and formed not in isolation but rather through a series of coincidences, he's going to be a tsundere about it. In short, Dan Heng has to grow up some more, with confidence of who he is and his value to Jing Yuan as Dan Heng the person, not just "the reincarnation", before their relationship can go any further.

So...while the writing is absolutely horrible for patch 2.5, I think having Dan Heng state that his position as not a Luofu citizen is what makes him useful (in the arrest of Taoran) is the story's attempt at making this point. Badly. God I hate that scene.

How I would have Dan Heng grow past his tsundere stage: rather than being useful due to his dragon powers (as seen in 1.3 patch, which started all this angstiness), Dan Heng pulls on his personal connections as a Trailblazer to bring new alliances to Luofu/Xianzhou. This is a type of value that Dan Feng wouldn't have been able to provide. This is a vector of personality that Dan Feng never would have developed. Through this diplomacy network, Dan Heng can repay Jing Yuan's kindness while establishing himself as a reliable ally and a stalwart friend on his own merit. Thus, he will have the confidence to know that whatever develops with Jing Yuan in the future will be the result of his actions and not the result of some unresolved holdover emotions that Jing Yuan carries for his predecessor.

In short, Dan Heng has to get over himself and be the pursuer in the relationship. It's the only way to be certain the relationship that develops (friendship or romance) is dictated by his efforts.

But when it comes to the actual sex...Jing Yuan tops.

Edit to add:

I'm kind of annoyed at the one argument from a Jing Yuan/Dan Heng shipper that actually Jing Yuan wasn't close to anyone in the Quintet except to Jingliu, and even that relationship was built on a strict teacher-student dynamic with no emotional ties.

WTF? Like I feel like you'd have to be deliberately obtuse to ignore all the blatant context indicating everyone in the Quintet mattered deeply to Jing Yuan. He's not just an outside observer, he was actively their friend. The fact that Jing Yuan goes to visit Bailu yearly with a made up excuse shows how close he was to Baiheng (since everyone treats Bailu as her direct descendent). The fact that an entire PV was made to address the emotional fallout from Jingliu going crazy shows how much Jingliu mattered emotionally to Jing Yuan. The fact that Jing Yuan spent literal hundreds of years dealing with the mess of the Sedition and continues to defend Dan Feng as a good person (with misguided intentions) proves he deeply cared about Dan Feng. The fact he goes out of his way to get Blade out of prison shows he still values the feelings between him and Ying Xing.

What the hell? Why would issues such as age gap, being a different species, having a different lifespan matter only when it comes to Jing Yuan's closeness to the Quintet but doesn't interfere with anyone else's friendships?! Why is Jingliu/Baiheng totally not affected by their giant age gap and being different species with differing cultural practices?

Shippers drive me crazy sometimes...