Lan Wangji

Lan Zhan (蓝湛), courtesy name Wangji (忘机), is a major character in the serialized danmei novel Mo Dao Zu Shi (MDZS) and its audio drama, manhua, donghua, and live-action drama adaptations. In the live-action drama he is the protagonist Wei Wuxian's friend/soulmate, and in the original novel and other adaptations he is the love interest. He is an extremely popular character in fandom and is half of the juggernaut canon ship.
==Fandom History==
===Chinese fandom===
===English-language fandom===
=== Events ===
* Bottomji Big Bang
==Common Pairings==
Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian (WangXian) is by far the most popular Lan Wangji ship. As of July 2023 on AO3 it has 33155 fanworks. Other Lan Wangji ships include
* Lan Wangji/Jiang Cheng (WangCheng or ZhanCheng) - 5915 fanworksJiang Cheng/Lan Wangji AO3 works tag, accessed 26 August 2021.
* Lan Wangji/Lan Xichen - (Jadecest) 409 fanworksLan Wangji/Lan Xichen AO3 works, accessed 26 August 2021.
* Jiang Cheng/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian - 320 fanworksJiang Cheng/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian AO3 works tag, accessed 26 August 2021.
*Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning - 229 fanworksLan Wangji/Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning AO3 works tag, accessed 26 August 2021.
*Lan Wangji/Lan Xichen/Wei Wuxian - 184 fanworksLan Xichen/Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian AO3 works tag, accessed 26 August 2021.
*Lan Wangji/Wen Ning - 105 fanworksLan Wangji/Wen Ning AO3 works tag, accessed 26 August 2021.
==Fanon and Common Tropes in Fanworks==
===Inquiry===
A popular fanon has Lan Wangji playing 'Inquiry' on his guqin to seek Wei Wuxian's ghost in the years between Wei Wuxian's death and return. This fanon predates The Untamed, and the source is sometimes attributed to the fic "Letter for Xian" translated into English in 2018 by 6989 from the Chinese fic 与羡书 by 蓝忘机. 6989's AO3 translation links back to a Baidu post dated March 2, 2016., 2016-03-02. (Accessed 17 September 2022.)
Lan Wangji's character song for The Untamed mentions playing Inquiry, but this element is not mentioned on the show itself.Lan Wangji character song: Never Forget (Bu Wang) 不忘 translated lyrics on youtube
===Art Tropes===
Animal-related: Portraits of Lan Wangji often include one or more pet rabbits (see WangXian#Bunnies), because Lan Wangji expresses he likes rabbits in several versions of canon (such as the audio drama and the live-action drama). There is also a general trend in fanart of adding bunny ears to characters, so for both these reasons, Lan Wangji has received this treatment. Lan Wangji has also been depicted as a dragon (see Dragonji and Foxxian).
Sad/Grieving: Canon skips over the years Wei Wuxian was dead before being brought back to life, and some fanfic and fanart imagines what Lan Wangji's grief looks like. First, there are plenty of artistic renderings of the "Inquiry" fanon:
* by SslGu on twitter (Feb 2, 2020)
* by _BEPS1 on twitter (May 29, 2020)
* by kikipofffffffu on twitter (Dec 26, 2020)
Another approach is to show him remembering or imagining Wei Wuxian's presence as slightly transparent:
* by akakumoeteru on twitter (19 April 2021)
* by beccadrawing on twitter (Dec 30, 2020)
* by mmungnothing on twitter. Features both sad guqin and ghostly Wei Wuxian! (Nov 19, 2020)
* by ereyzme on tumblr. Another sad guqin/transparent Wei Ying combination. (Dec 6, 2020)
Eye color: In the book Lan Wangji's eyes are described as light, and in the manhua they are drawn as golden, but in the live-action drama his eyes are dark brown. Art based on The Untamed is more likely to give him brown eyes than art based on other adaptations, but sometimes an Untamed fanartist gives him his golden eyes back.
==Example Fanworks==
===Fanfic===
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===Fanart===
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===Vids===
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===Meta===
* 
==Links and Resources==
* character information at Wikipedia
* Lan Wangji character page at MDZS wiki
* Lan Wangji character tag, Lan Wangji-centric tag, and Lan Wangji POV tag - fanworks on AO3
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Mo Dao Zu Shi Characters