Mo Dao Zu Shi As A Lens For Grief and Loss
When it came to choosing a source work for the first project, I immediately knew I wanted to analyze Mo Dao Zu Shi because of how rich and nuanced the story was. My process for this project changed a lot--from examining the TV Drama in regards to LGBTQ+ censorship to examining the manhua in terms of processing grief. Some images from my writing process are pictured below.
Ultimately, I decided on exploring the intergenerational effects of grief. Mo Dao Zu Shi is unique in the sense that the story spans across two generations--the generation of the characters we originally follow (Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, and Lan Wangji), as well as the next generation following them. We see through Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng how they dealt with their grief growing up, as well as how their mentality shaped how the next generation grew up and processed the world. The essay can be found here.