[SPECIAL ORDER]Nirvana In Fire Artbook <踪> by Banafria
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“No, Wei-tongling; or, at least, not one that I am aware of.”
“That doesn’t seem right. The sight of a heroic last stand deserves to have a name – something that will sound good in the history books.” Wei Wuxian looked around, his eyes moving from man to horse to tent, as if cataloguing everything before it was lost. “I’m going to call it Luanzang Hill. What do you think?”
Ouyang Zizhen shivered. “Don’t you think that’s a little…morbid?”
“Morbid? Not at all.” Wei Wuxian tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword, knuckles pushing whitely through the skin. “I think it’s very fitting. Unless this new strategist the Emperor has sent for can work some kind of miracle, we are all going to die here.”
***
Trapped and outnumbered, things look grim for the men of the Changlin army unit and their commander, Wei Wuxian. There’s a new strategist on the way, but even he can’t work miracles…can he?
This story is part of the MDZS RBB 2022 which is currently posting over on AO3. Y'all go read and love!
How do you depict social class disparities on a personal level, rather than masses of people with very different means and lives and the unwritten rules that divide them? How do you tell a meaningful story staked on these differences?
There are a lot of reasons why Nirvana in Fire is compelling, one of which is the assured way the narrative knows when to be subtle and when to bring the angst and drama, and its exploration of how identity is deeply entwined with social class is a great example of this.
Historical background
Though NiF is a story with a fictional historical setting/架空, it is still grounded in real history, and the choice of the Northern and Southern Dynasties as a very loose background period is no accident. During this time, the ruling class’s stranglehold on society was especially strong. In canon, you see nobles such as Xie Yu/Marquis Ning and Marquis Huaiyi own large estates and their own private militia, which was very much the situation back then. There were a large number of rebellions and unrests led by these aristocrats during this time, and being Emperor was a delicate balancing act to keep them happy but not let them gain too much power.
This kind of background is what a work of fiction generally wants to avoid directly dumping on the audience as exposition; a good period-setting story should stake its narrative conflicts on its historical basis in a logical manner and make the audience feel the conflict. As an example, the nine-rank selection system/九品中正制, the official selection process in use during the Northern and Southern Dynasties, is exactly what’s being discussed in the scene where Xiao Jingyan brings Shen Zhui and Cai Quan over to Su Manor (and in my opinion a good change from book to screen).
In particular, they’re talking about how to choose the selection officials/中正官 who grade candidates to be selected and ranked into positions of the imperial bureaucracy. Instead of the imperial examinations/科举 that many later dynasties use, this system has these selection officials recommend people to become officials and was instituted to replace the previous system (察举制) which had been fully taken over by the aristocracy. At first, the selection criteria of the nine-rank system were the candidate’s family background, virtue, and talent, but this again became corrupted over time by the ruling class to essentially only depend on background and connections with the selection officials. There was a well-known saying back then: 上品无寒门，下品无士族, which means no commoners in the top ranks, no upper class in the lower ranks.
In canon, corruption of this process is specifically linked to the ex-Crown Prince and Prince Yu’s power struggle, each packing the government full of well-to-do officials sympathetic to their own factions. Shen Zhui lists the factors in the process of choosing selection officials, from family background to houses of marriage and mentors, from which it’s clear that ruling class influence is inextricably tied to this process. They discuss whether to go for bold reforms and possible conflict and bloodshed, or something more incremental, and decide on choosing the least corrupt candidate within the pool of eligibility that would not ruffle feathers, essentially trying their best while staying within the bounds of the system.
This scene is also narratively important as the first Jingsu reunion after Mei Changsu was imprisoned in the Xuanjing Bureau and Jingyan discovered painfully that he had accused him of things he didn’t do. Through the class angle, I think Jingyan interprets Su Manor turning him away when he tried to visit earlier as the way a subject would implicitly slap the hand of their lord by reminding them of their place. If Jingyan has no official business to be at Su Manor, if he is only there to make a personal visit and apologize, then he is not there as Mei Changsu’s lord, but as his friend, which Jingyan has no right to be, any longer. Of course, that’s not the real reason (at least, not the only one), but Jingyan doesn’t know that. With these boundary-enforcing interactions, Jingyan believes Mei Changsu wants to remind him that he had erred precisely because he was too emotionally invested in his relationship with Sir Su instead of thinking logically, that the boundaries are there for a reason and he should maintain them.
So what does he do instead of trying to make more personal visits? He brings Shen Zhui and Cai Quan with him on an official visit from lord to subject, one specifically designed to pave a path forward for Su Zhe’s advancement in government, showing that he knows he was wrong and wants to make amends in a useful way without making an explicit apology, which Mei Changsu neither wants nor needs. Mei Changsu receives them warmly yet professionally in return, showing in turn that he has no qualms about continuing to serve his lord and that the past is past.
All in all, I find this scene a good example of subtle layered storytelling that occurs a lot in NiF: this conversation that is about social class on the surface has its underlying structure and place in the narrative also reflecting class differences. It shows how the feudal hierarchy leads to rampant misconduct in government while also warns of the dangers of venturing too far from the rules that are in place.
A bit late this month since I had to send my computer off for repairs (RIP my stickers, but at least it was mostly cosmetic damage), but I made it! I’m putting the 7 Star Wars fics of various pairings above the cut, and the 5 miscellaneous fandoms (Nirvana in Fire, Life 2005, Lord Peter, The Untamed, Our Flag Means Death) underneath.
“You need to show him what you have to offer,” Fives said, which sounded shockingly like relevant advice. Cody blinked over at him.
“What?” he asked, because, honestly, he’d take any advice he could get, at this point. The war had been over for nearly six months, and he’d made no progress on his own.
Fives slammed back a shot of his own and then–kind of leered over. “You need to give him a look at the goods,” he said, and then, pointedly, dipped his gaze down.
OR, the one where Cody takes some very bad advice and has to deal with the consequences.
*wheezing with laughter* AKA the one where Cody sends a dick pic. Post-war, no Order 66, very funny and sweet. Also, it didn’t really hit my embarrassment squick despite being tagged for that, because it’s not mean-spirited about it, and has some good perspective about how there’s a huge gap between the clones’ life experience and their socialization for things outside of fighting a war.
Triptych of stories about Obi-Wan and Cody set post-Order 66, with absolutely GORGEOUS prose. The first two will break your heart (especially #2, how DARE), but the last one will gently patch it.
A few things are slightly different, which means everything is different. Boba and Fennec arrive just a bit later, Din takes his jetpack back up to the temple, and so he and the child are both taken prisoner by the Empire.
Fascinating AU and a lovely h/c series that deserves a lot more hits than it currently has.
Admittedly, this is not the first time Luke has wound up at someone else’s kitchen table in someone else’s clothes. But it’s not breakfast, Luke’s not an undergrad scarfing down bacon and eggs to cure the common hangover, and Din doesn’t strike him as the kind of guy he’d meet at a house party. The baby is definitely a first.
Luke is a grad student trying to finish his linguistics PhD after an unexpected leave of absence. His neighbor, Din, is a single dad and delivery guy at Pizza Parsec. (Actually, Pizza Parsec is just a front for the bounty hunters’ guild. But Luke doesn’t need to know that.)
Fantastic modernish AU that hit the sweet spot for me regarding Luke being a emotional mess with disaster family issues but ALSO a very smart and competent person in his field. I also really enjoyed how the Skywalker family drama was translated into this setting.
Luke reacts strangely to Din’s bared face and an overheard conversation leads the Mandalorian to believe the Jedi thinks he’s ugly. Things spiral out of control from there.
Featuring Mandalorian combat without armor, Han and Leia being a little into Din, and Luke being so much into Din he accidentally makes him think he’s unattractive.
This one has been widley recced already, but I finally read it and it’s just as charming as promised without the secondhand-embarrassment I feared.
Newly knighted Obi-Wan Kenobi and his padawan, Anakin Skywalker, have been sent to Ryloth on a simple diplomatic envoy. While there, an unsettling incident causes Obi-Wan to look at Anakin in a new light and re-evaluate…everything.
The Galaxy will never be the same.
aka: “come for the obikin, stay for the tzai and deep emotional discussions that dismantle every single misunderstanding in the prequels.”
Very satisfying fix-it AU on many levels, with lots of time and detailed work on building their relationship in a healthier way.
I’m gleefully angry about how perversely perfect the lyrics are for this Jingyan vid, and at the vidder for making it work both on a straightforward editing level and a cheeky ‘let me vid this serious historical drama to this iconic pop song’ level. I love it <3
“I don’t do undercover,” said Dani. Not anymore, anyway.
“I’ve never really done undercover, or not anything longterm,” said Crews, frowning.
Tidwell leaned back in his chair, unmoved by their protests. “Yeah, gonna be honest, you two are not the preferred undercover picks. You are, however, the only two detectives available who could plausibly pass for a married couple in search of a precious baby to adopt.”
Classic execution of the undercover-married-in-suburbia trope, but perfectly written for these two characters and their whole thing. Post-canon, Charlie/Dani.
Next time, Lan Qiren swore he would stay in bed with Xiao Jingfei. Wei Changze could be the one to take their wretched spawn to the market.
AKA Accidental Child Acquisition: The Fix-It Series. So delightful! Low-key Cangse Sanren/Lan Qiren/Wei Changze, which some of you might remember the author writing in a different AUfroma prior rec set - that isn’t the same continuity and isn’t a prequisite though it does develop the triad more if you’re curious. This one’s all about the (literal) found family and making things happier!
“Stede,” says Ed, “I’d sit on your cock all day for a chair and captain the ship like that if the option was available.”
I haven’t read a ton of OFMD fic (I think this is gonna be another Old Guard-like fandom for me where I loved the canon but my brain doesn’t really want fic), but this one is a gorgeous piece of kinky smut with sharp characterization.
SO! After finishing Nirvana in Fire about a month ago, I am craving to watch smth similar. Which is a hard find, considering how good it was. Then, as I was browsing Wang Kai’s other dramas he starred in, I came across “The Disguisser”. Little that I know… I have a found the drama that I am searching for.
Basically: The Disguiser, (while a worthy drama on its own) is a Nirvana in Fire, reincarnation!AU. Set in 1940’s Shang Hai.
It . Is . Glorious. Thank you for coming to me TED talk.
