yes yes yes exactly!!!!!!!!!!! Binghe thinking the way that he can be with SQQ, to exist in his orbit, is to be a righteous cultivator and not appear socially as a demon is SUCH a compelling motivation

and no i get what you're saying, I think it's a lot easier to assume that there's a deeper message with visual art, and I think that people do a lot of work to both interpret and project when it comes to fanart so if you have an audience that's looking for wlw relational interiority they might have an easier time conjuring that up

it makes me wish I had like, craft related things I could say about writing but I will say that I think about your line "of the clean smell of the crook of her Shizun’s neck" a Lot. and then always the Carson's translation of Oresteia line "Call me baseminded, blackmouthing bitch! if you like-- for if this is my nature we know how I come by it, don't we?" like these are extremely evocative of relations between women to me