SHL's 1-year Anniversary of Airing!

[shadaras]

On this day, one year ago, Word of Honor | Shan He Ling first aired! :D

There are a couple different events I've seen around the internet about this:

Word of Honor 1st Year Prompt Fest over on ao3

A few hashtags on twitter:
#1yearwithwordofhonor
#WOH1stAnniversary

If you've seen other celebrations around the internet, please feel free to link them in the comments!

Or simply comment to share a story about Word of Honor!

Some ideas for what you could talk about! Feel free to respond to any of them that interest you, or make up your own topic! <3

1. How did you first encounter the show?
2. What led you to fall in love with it?
3. What's one of your favorite things about the canon?
4. Did the fandom do something awesome you want to highlight?
5. Are there any particularly memorable fanworks you want to rec?
6. Did you create something for Word of Honor that you wish to share?

Really, anything you want to say about Word of Honor's first anniversary is welcome here! <3

Comments

[shadaras]

A few fandom things that I've had a lot of fun creating over this last year, generally tied to fandom events:

DZZS Lunar New Year Exchange, which was run by a discord server I mostly just lurk in nowadays but is a great hub of fannish energy and excitement.

it's not the breaking (7k wenzhou kink fic), which I wrote as a challenge to myself and was so satisfying when I finally got all the pieces lined up. It was also really nice because of community encouragement to keep going back to it every time I wandered away from the fic for a few weeks/months!

When the Orchids Bloom (28k wenzhou time-travel fix-it), which I wrote as an exchange gift for trobadora and grew way longer than I expected. xD <3 It's one of the longest things I've written in a short period of time, and I'm so happy with how it turned out.

honorable mention to the way with morning come (2k wenzhou smut) is still somehow on the first page of shl fics by kudos xD this has done wild things to my ao3 stats page and I cannot believe it, but hey it's so cool to have such clear evidence of just how many people there are in this fandom who love these characters and want to read more about them. <3

And, of course, this comm! :D It exists! I am delighted by each and every one of you who shows up and reads and comments and posts! <333 Thank you so much!

[trobadora]

♥ ♥ ♥

[trobadora]

One year! *clinks glasses*

1) I didn't start watching until well into March, when suddenly everyone was talking about it.

2) At first I was all "this is a fun wuxia show, but I'm not really seeing the ship", AND THEN. *g* At first I just couldn't tell whether they were genuinely into each other - whether WKX's flirting meant anything, or whether ZZS's rebuffs meant anything, or why they were both suddenly talking/thinking about being zhiji. On rewatch it's all perfectly clear, but back then it didn't hit home until the revelation of the nails and its aftermath in episode 14.

3) Wen Kexing in full Valley Master glory. I totally fell in love with WKX in That Scene in episode 10. *points to icon*

4) It exists! It keeps existing and being active! Which is what I want it to keep doing, especially here on DW. *g*

5) I recced a bunch of things recently here; don't have time to look up more. (Wow, not that recently, actually - that was nearly two months ago. Where did the time go?! It feels like yesterday.)

6) So far I have only written (well, finished) one fic: before the dawn, mild canon divergence Wenzhou set in episode 23. It mainly deals with ZZS's senses. More to come some day, hopefully - and hopefully before everyone else has moved on to different fandoms, LOL. I stick around in my fandoms for a long time, but sometimes I'm very slow getting started with the writing.

[peachpai]

I still love that fic very much. ♥

[trobadora]

♥ ♥ ♥

[shadaras]

One year! :D

And yes, the fandom exists and continues to exist! A marvel, truly! <333

<3 Whenever you do write more fic for SHL, I at least will be excited for it. :)

[aurumcalendula]

1) People on my flist posting about it, iirc.

2) The blatent flirting! ZZH and GJ's chemistry! The cast and crew's enthusiasm about everything!

3) I love how the drama expanded on the novel (particularly re: Luo Fumeng and Liu Qianqiao) and upped the romance tropes.

4) This community! (and that the fandom exists and is still active)

5) Some of my favorites are this harbored deluge for you and i // 像我和你需要下一场雨  by gardencitymovements, A Good Bargain by Neery, and you're the trouble that i always find by sundiscus.

(ETA: not to mention Benisora's jewelry, Shinohara's pins, and Brilcrist's digital art.)

6) I have a couple vids I'm really happy about!  (I'd planning to have them premiere at Escapade and VidUKon, so they're not  posted yet)

[shadaras]

Oooh I'm excited for your vids! Please share them once they premiere!

And yes, the show did so many good things for the women of the story! <3 I'm still utterly delighted by all that. :)

[dreamy_dragon73]

Happy anniversary!
*toasts*

1. A friend recommended Word of Honor last year in October saying I might like it since I loved The Untamed so much. Turned out they were right.

2. It actually took me a couple of episodes to get into it, but I fell in love with Wen Kexing once I saw him in full Valley Master glory. And fell in love with Zhou Zishu as well soon after. I love the chemistry between the two leads, their bickering and flirting and how they both can be cold and cruel to others but soft and tender with each other.

3. Wen Kexing in full Valley Master mode, Zhou Zishu reminding everyone that he was the leader of Tian Chuang for a reason, the whole Siji Manor arc.

4. The fact that it exists and is active - and especially this comm!

5. There are a couple of vids and artses I have rec'd here and on c_ent.
I'm slowly reading my way through the WenZhou fics on AO3, so there might be some recs forthcoming. Currently, I'm halfway through the recently completed Forlorn Shadows Soaring Home, which I love so far.

6. Not yet. I have a couple of little plot bunnies nibbling at my heels so hopefully there will be writing at some point.

ETA: I just came across this anniversary vid, in which international fans talk about what Word of Honor means to them.

[shadaras]

It's so easy to fall in love with WKX in full Valley Master mode. <3

I'm looking forward to your recs! :D Please feel free to make a post to the comm with anything you wanna share!

Jiayou for the writing! I hope the plot bunnies aren't too forceful in their nibbling. :)

Awwwww, that video's absolutely fantastic. Thank you so much for sharing! <333

[peachpai]

Happy SHL one year anniversary, friends! ♥

I wrote a little ficlet to celebrate: everyone is waiting - postcanon wenzhou, 600 words of family fluff.

I'm also thinking about the very first SHL fic I wrote, right after ep 35 aired on YT, because I think they go together: Lacking Finesse - postcanon caoxiang au, 600 words of family fluff.

[shadaras]

<333

Yay for family and fluff and writing! An excellent celebration. :)

[velithya]

1 + 2. I encountered the show in May or maybe June? last year when I was buried in work and fandom events for another c-drama fandom, and it only took a few episodes before I was in love with the costumes and the incredible fight choreography and of course the amazing complex humans that are ZZS and WKX. The politics stuff dragged a bit for me but every moment with ZZS or WKZ on the screen made the show really come alive.

3. I loved how canon really leant in to the romance! I remember watching so many scenes thinking "THEY AIRED THIS?!" and "HOW WAS THIS NOT CENSORED" and it was so beautiful to watch the leads really fall in love and stay in love through all of their trials and heartbreaks.

4. Ah, this fandom is really lovely! I'm barely a lurker now in that discord server - it's far too big for me after the influx of members in the back third of last year! - but when I was going there regularly everyone was really lovely and helpful and just so joyful about the show. What I love most about the fandom is the way everyone supports each other.

I'm not reading in SHL fandom atm so I don't have anything to share, and I haven't written anything myself (well I started two different ZZS is a cat fics but they're only a few hundred words and I will probably never finish them so it doesn't count). But yay SHL! The Mountain is a beautiful place to be, and in good company.

[shadaras]

The fight choreography is so much fun! :D

Right??? Everyone yelling about "how was this not censored???" was a lot of what drew me to the show at first! And then I got invested in ZZS and WKX and everyone else, and that was that. <3

And same, about the discord server -- so many people came in and I muted over half the server and mostly just lurk in the rest. But it's still nice to see the community exist, and to have another hub to let me know about fandom events!

ahaha ZZS as a cat, perfect. <3 and it sounds like you had fun, so even if they never go anywhere else they're still worth it! ^_^ I'm glad you're finding joy and creativity here too. <3

[velithya]

It's so gorgeous!

Yeah I think once someone has a good look at the Wenzhou show it's all over for them :D

I read the announcements which semi keeps me up to date but I don't read any of the channels anymore ^^;;; my brain gets twitchy about "must read back" which in a large server (let alone one that size!) is already impossible. It's better for my mental health if I just don't try in the first place.

heh, yeah I posted them on twt but I'm 100% Guardian at the moment so IDK that I'll ever finish them. I enjoyed writing them in the first place, though, so you're right! Worth it :3

♥

[shadaras]

I think I quell my brain's "must read back!" impulses there by having a different server that I mod and therefore need to backread, so there's something deeply freeing about hitting "mark server as read" when I just Cannot. <3 But yeah, I totally get that. :)

Ooooh nice! :D I love those snippets! They're delightful and made me smile and laugh (respectively), even in such brief forms. <3 (Guardian is also a very nice place to be! Can't fault that choice. :) )

[velithya]

Ahh, that's certainly a good way to get around it! I avoid trying to mark the server as read because then if there's only a few dots then maybe my brain thinks it should read them... ^^;;;

hehe, thank you! ♥ and yeahhh I'm really enjoying Guardian and the discord and DW community at the moment! I think I'll be there for a long while yet :3