#:) :) wwx you're a pretty dumb

[starsxinxthexbluexsky]

The Untamed | Episode 13 [You Like Mian Mian?]

⤳WangXian’s Favorite Scenes [13/∞]⬿

[whetstonefires]

spiral emoji and umbrella emoji for the ask game?

🌀Post the fic summary for a fic you haven't written/published yet. It can be hypothetical or something you really plan on releasing...

hmmm i have had another segment of that AU where Carrie Kelly is Tim's Robin mostly written for years, I keep fiddling with the ending. it's one of those fics i'm gonna summarize with an excerpt, I'm thinking this one:

Robin almost tripped over herself, stopping so hard, but she sorted her limbs out without actually falling down the roof, and dropped into a defensive stance. “Who are you?” she demanded. The stranger cocked his head. “I’m Batman,” he said. His voice was a little less deep than Tim’s, flatter and throatier, so that instead of making a pronouncement from on high, he came off as stating crushingly obvious fact. Robin glared. “You’re not.” “Am.” “I’m Robin! I know Batman. You’re not him.” This Batman’s mouth twitched with amusement, almost the same way Tim’s did. “Other Batman.”

☔Is there a fic concept you have that you'd like to just explain and share because you're not sure you'll ever write it? If so, what is it?

You know this is hard. I don't generally remember ideas existed if I don't write at least 2k of them down immediately ngl. And from my abandoned drafts there's so many....oh!

Okay here's one that I think is super funny but I can tell I'm never gonna finish. I was complaining in the groupchat that I'd just read a fic that asked me to believe modern AU Wei Wuxian dated Jin Zixun, got dumped by him, and was broken up about it. Impossible.

I was like, if you want to use an existing villain as a fuckboi ex, still why pick the guy who never once had the power to do anything to Wei Wuxian except annoy him? There's options! And then like. We've actually seen shitty boyfriend Wen Chao done, usually a coercion situation. Xue Yang is a semi-plausible abusive ex if you make them the same age and shift some other variables around, seen that.

You know what none of us had seen? Su She.

And it's weird people don't use Su She for this! He's pretty capable, he's a hard worker, he has to be decent looking if he was allowed to be a Lan disciple, he's not totally dumb. He's deeply selfish but in a mildly complicated way. He's dollar store option Lan Wangji, that's his whole bag!

If you're going to have wwx settling for shitty guys (which like I think that's really ooc because Wei Wuxian had no particular interest in having a love life before it turned out he was hip-deep in True Love and he's a brutal judge of character, but if that's your plot, maybe he's doing some queer version of comphet where you gotta be with someone or your identity isn't valid idk) Su She should be at the top of the list.

Now, for my money, with my fairly demanding standards wrt character motive, I can't see Su She successfully bagging wwx without being genuinely into him, because Wei Wuxian's nose for bullshit is superhumanly powerful. But that's not hard to set up.

All you need to justify Su She pursuing Wei Wuxian with genuine intent is for Wei Wuxian to validate Su She's feelings at a critical moment when they're young--say, coming across him directly following the Waterborne Abyss arc, when Su She was no doubt given the rough side of Lan Qiren's tongue at the very least, for losing his sword and being ungracious and so forth. And sympathizing with all his intense feelings of being hard-done-by and disrespected and so forth. (We will assume there was not outright treacherous behavior from Su She at this point.)

Su She will demonstrably follow you to the ends of the earth and through a river of blood for making him feel properly valued. I do wonder whether he's an orphan or just has shit parents. (I wonder this about Jin Zixun also lmao. His parents wouldn't actually need to be shitty, if they were just totally overruled by Jin Guangshan.)

A lot of what he admires in Jin Guangyao is also true of wwx; when they met wwx was on top of the world, making him a target of envy and resentment, but you could definitely reshuffle that if you started early and showed Su She the right background cards.

And Wei Wuxian does not usually decide he likes people who turn out not to deserve it, through a combination of strong insight, the fact that his faith in people typically inspires them to return that devotion, and that it's just not that kind of story. But he is strongly biased to keep liking someone once he starts, in a funny ADHD kinda way where he doesn't really think about you if you're not there but treats you like no time has passed when you come back, so if he decided this ridiculous sulky unLanish Lan was his friend it would take a lot to change his mind. Su She would remind him of both Jiang Cheng and Lan Zhan, which would help.

The other half of the brainstorming, that had a plot rather than just character setup, was a modern AU fic where (as I've seen done a couple of times) Lan Wangji was dating Mo Xuanyu in the attempt to get over Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian was dating Su She, who unlike Lan Wangji actually like. Said something. Out loud with his mouth words lmao.

And then, probably by watching lwj watch wwx at a party or something, Su She figured out that Lan Wangji was pining for his boyfriend, and because of his intrinsic jealous shithead qualities he was ecstatic because he finally had something Lan Wangji wanted and couldn't have.

So he went out of his way to gloat and flaunt, and kind of lost track of the actual reasons he had sought out this relationship in the first place in favor of his weird Hanguang-jun complex.

And ultimately he destroys both relationships--poor Mo Xuanyu ah?--and fucks himself over, and you get a wangxian endgame.

I actually seriously considered really writing this, from Su She pov mostly, but the thing was the 'scenario for wwx to attract su she's loyalty' was grounded in the canon setup and the dating scenario required a low-homophobia modern setting, and just thinking about doing the worldbuilding to make them match made me tired and bored. I don't like modern AUs and their chief virtue is recontextualization in a familiar context, if I've gotta build some kinda smushworld then where's the value added?

And the idea, while very funny, just isn't my thing enough to dig in and work for. I'm not inspired by dating drama. If anyone wants to adopt it they're welcome!

Here's a bit (set in the smushworld) I wrote that I really liked, where su she and wwx are texting back and forth in their late teens:

>Jiang Cheng would never forgive me if I ran off. >Because he’s counting on you to run his Sect for him. >He absolutely is not. Jiang Cheng will work himself into the ground before he lets me do his job for him. He didn’t admit that of course the Sect Heir was counting on him, but he didn’t disagree, which was basically the same thing. Wei Wuxian worked very hard, for all it looked like he didn't, and was rewarded for it, but Su Minshan knew that even in Jiang the equal opportunity only went so far—he was the Sect Leader’s pet for personal reasons, not just on merit, and even so he could never rise to be the equal of the blood heir. It was infuriating sometimes how that didn’t bother him. Have more ambition! >You’re so lucky, Su Minshan wrote, because he was jealous, he was so so jealous. It was just hard to hate Wei Wuxian. >I am! <3 But let’s see, outside the main family how important can a person get in Lan Sect? You can make a plan. Weeks of effort did not produce any particularly good plans. The most realistic one took forty years to show results. >Maybe I should just kill Lan Wangji and use a spell to disguise myself and take his place, Su Minshan joked. >Haha! Minshan-xiong, I’m sorry, you couldn’t pull off being Lan Zhan. That hurt, an unexpected cold dagger to the ribs. Wei Wuxian was his friend! >Why not! he typed angrily. Was his playing too weak, his swordsmanship, his deportment? Would even Wei Wuxian tell him he was just not good enough? >Because you could never resist saying something bitchy when you had the chance, and he keeps all the bitching inside his head. Su Minshan put his head down and laughed until he thought he might cry.

[llycaons]

ep41 (2/2): cleansing really is that beautiful

jgy is really good at turning his genuinely unfortunate circumstances into sympathy points to skirt around responsibility. I do feel bad for him, I do understand his position. but he's not the only person here without power, and he's certainly only looking out for his own skin

and like nmj says, he's doing all this - crying and lying and manipulating - because he wants to keep a high social position. no other reason. and he admits it!

I find this argument so funny. like in fairness it's similar to the one that wwx brings up later but wwx and wn actually died and in wwx's minds, paid for their crimes already. jgy never did, and hearing him whine 'oh my god, I just killed a few people, are you're STILL bringing it up now???' is pretty funny

good point, jgy! nmj isn't entirely a bastion of flawless justice himself, but 1. he actually tries because he cares about it and 2. this conversation is about your crimes and diverting will not save you from him

oh, so poetic! so dramatic! look at that face!

OH DAMN!!!!!! CRIMSON PEAK MASTER COMEBACK

oh this is a good scene. correct response to 'their lives aren't worth as much as mine!' and a perfect example for people who genuinely think jgy is some hero of the working class. sorry, guys. he's only in it for himself and he;ll step on as many poor and margnalized people as he needs to in the process

bad manners, nmj :(

this was so cunty of him

idk I feel like there could have been a better translation for this

POINTING AT JGY!!! wow so yeah jgy is murdering him for no reason other than 'he kicked me out of the clan for killing his commander and yelled at me a lot :(' you would crumble into dust if you encountered a quarter of the hardships of the wens

holding baxia like that....

oh my god he's so off the rails

ohhh it that suibian I see 👀

okay this looks stupid but but it's my firm belief that this is proof wwx has at least a shadow of a golde core in his new body otherwise HOW COULD BE DO THAT

hiii sexy

it's so cute how he pulls himself up each step like that. he's so tiny!

and then all tucked out and flopping onto lwj's hand <3

so full of personality was this paperman that I forgot wwx had a real body to return to and I jumped when he reappeared on the screen. muppet effect

shoutout to lxc for trusting and believing his brother for this. you know if the situations were reversed lwj would glare him down for daring to suggest wwx was untrustworthy. and he'd be right but it's nice that lxc is so supportive

jin ling isn't easily intimidated, which is funny bc he keeps asking these perfectly reasonable questions like 'why are you trying to get into my uncle's bedchambers at night' and 'what is going on' and ignoring him/glaring at him doesn't work at all

oh you douchebag

I think su she's villainy is a bit dumb and jealousy is a weak and judgemental trait for a villain to even have but this shot makes him look like such a tool idc

personal highlights: I'm tired and I don't care much for nmj and jgy's situationship so let's make this short and sweet

meng yao's water carriers

meng yao's very smooth glide into a standing bow

meng yao's beautiful silver and white robes

meng yao deflecting questions about his intentions with "I'm just glad I...met...you 🥺'

nmj's side-eye to jgy during their brotherhood swearing-in

jgy's blatant and purposeful flirting

"I only killed a few people, can you PLEASE stop bringing it up still 🙄'

nmj yelling ASSHOLE and kicking jgy down the steps for saying he's better and more deserving than other people

sexy sexy suibian ♥

paperman!wwx going WHEW and flopping down onto lwj's hand very cute

[misanthropiczombie]

New day, NEW NINE

oh my god netflix loves to go WHO ME? when i try to pause it and apparently did that last night when i locked my computer and went to bed so I opened my netflix tab to episode 12. Sir this isn't why I liveblog, but i see what hijinks you're up to. i have RECORDS.

anyway

dead people

needles in the neck is a hell of a way to go

lmao "this isnt flirting this is a warning" I love this girl.

cant taste but can still get SMASHED

and maudlin but isn't that just par for the course?

for half a second i looked down and then back up to see the xiao being played and was like hey no i wasnt watching mdzs (which is dumb anyway bc wwx plays the dizi which is PRETTY VISUALLY DIFFERENT but brains band uknow)

anyways i love that he's playing for him thats so cute when is he gonna get all intense and kill a bitch again

lmao grump man returns

music polycule

THE FRAMING "gosh if only i wasn't slowly dying, do u think wen kexing would travel with me :heart: :twirls hair:" next scene he's gonna tell him to get lost i feel it. can't let him know you think he's kinda cute

>: Don't hit changling poor baby i hope he gets real swole and kicks their ass

good for him but also im still mad

babes he wants you to guess bc he thinks ur big brain is sexy. I promise u

roof moon date. im so aboard this ship you dont understand this is THE dynamic of all time

also what a baller outfit wkx

I know they're not going to kiss, because censorship but my headcanon is that they made out on the roof just now.

also i low wkx being like ah i love the sounds of fighting in the evening. Love it when a plan comes together~

google has faile dme what the fuck are the finger picks called for the pipa? anyways his are so dramatic and i love it.

ghost of impermanence is such a look very unrelatedly.

lmao look at all the dumb dead motherfuckers ~<3 wkx gives no shits and does not get why zzz is mad about it

lol he left you gotta keep that on the d/l till you've idk baby trapped him or something.

a touching plea to get back to work

DAMN we killing the musicians now depressing.

CHAOS

well they aren't four sages anymore rip

OIH NOW you dont want it.

Word of Honor Liveblog

Episode one lets gooooo.

Why are these laterns SO Big? Is this going to be a plot point? OH BECAUSE ITS PEOPLE lkajf;sdlkfj Strong fucking start I love it

How to make all of these scenes just A Little moodier: put on your yellow computer glasses because you're in your 30s now.

Did... did they CGI his hat on? No its just. Weird the camera doesn't like the fabric or SOMEHING it looks like a big sticker. anyway

The dramatic metal sounds and the typewriter finished line TING sounds are amazing. Inspired Foley choices.

the popped collar. Okay so this si going to be more Costuming Commentary Hour I guess. but how much interfacing do you think they shoved in that thing to get it to stay upright with those ornaments/clasps stuck in, too?

the singular chair open to the elements is maybe not sensible but man what a cool fucking shot

Seven nails exposition. Urine Town has forever changed how i view exposition dumps in shows. goddamnit.

OKAY BUT THEY LOOK LIKE EXTRA NIPPLES IM SORRY

what cheekbones though goodness me

oh boy emperor dude is MAD he about to kill a bitch. I feel it. disrobing in court seems like the kind of thing for a PWP but *go on*

i love this level of dramatic explosion

SORRY ARE YOU SAYING ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS ARE ASSASINS FOR YOU DO YOU THINK THATS HEALTHY

you're welcome for getting to stab me ✨✨

Local theater nerd assassin, coming to a roadside inn near you, apparently.

WHAT ARE THESE NEW HATS

kink gone wrong.

Millinery in these shows is simply on a whole other level. I am discovering so many new hatshapes and i love them all.

also the vertical pleats built into the front of the outfits is sssssssuuuch a good look.

left line looks like an cosplay contest the bright colors the stand-out outfit designs. the literal scythe.

goddamn everyones an asshole today I see.

WEN KEXING LETS GO GU XIANG LETS GOOOO. I've been promised a horrible goose!!

THE MOST EXTRA WAY TO SHARE A DRINK GIRL

immediate GAY. i love this lmao

Man yeah okay i am in love with Gu Xiang. what a brat who gave her a whip and Stronk? Terrible idea, I fully approve.

[vermillioncrown]

How do you friend good beyond existing really intently near each other. Being able to vibe for hours is already a criteria, and surface level chatting is a thing that I can now do with pretty much anyone, but my current best friend just sort of happened and I want this new person to also be my best friend. What else are you thinking of when you say that that I may or may not be already doing?

Serious Verm here. Best friends go through things together. They develop under trial and fire. Desire is good, but desire should not become force. Let time do its thing and enjoy it together.

All of my current 'best' friends are people I've seen through good and bad experiences and phases, for durations as short as three years to as long as 12+ years. Any friendship will eventually hit lulls or bumps where you ponder "do I think this is worth my energy pursuing or not?" and it's a valid choice either way (pending extreme cases). The more of these you go through and decide time and again "yes, they are worth it", the more opportunities you have for your friendship to mature and define itself.

e.g. the way I write WWX is very much based on one of my best friends. This friend would not be someone I'd like had I not met them when I did, and even then we were very wary of each other. But as we got to know each other, gone through ups and downs, argued and made up, we've come to such a strong and candid relationship that we feel safe enough telling each other things that might seem hurtful to others. There are times where she's too high-energy for me or she does something that isn't hurtful but I'm not in the right space for, and I can say "hey I don't have the energy for you right now, can we talk some other time?". Or she'll point out "I don't think you meant to be hurtful, but that comment seemed judgy and curt and I can't deal with that right now" and we're both okay with saying sorry without it being a big deal.

e.g. my 12+ year friend... I was actually not very nice to them in middle school/high school. But because we had a lot of mutuals and I wasn't a complete shithead, something I did made them want to keep spending time with me, I found myself growing up and separately discovering that I liked spending time with them, we grew up together and found empathy for each other's situations. Eventually, they moved halfway across the country to live with me when she wanted to leave home.

If you want become close to this person, actively spend time with them, actively plan things with them, respect their boundaries, make sure you can communicate your boundaries. If being your friend is a fulfilling experience to them (as it seems to be for you), you're on the right journey to friending.

Sometimes I have a good grasp on social atmosphere, and sometimes I'm dumb-blind (probably on the spectrum, would make sense). If you know you can sometimes miss things, or feel a little baffled or clumsy socially, just go with the intent of

1) approaching things slowly 2) wanting to make sure people are comfortable 3) making people feel included and heard 4) being enthusiastic about your genuine interests without disparaging other people's interests 5) actively soliciting and listening to their thoughts

I think all people should at least have one good friend. It addles you if you don't have one or think you're above having one. Don't make friends to make friends (like collecting Pokémon or something), enjoy people's company until you're good friends.

[bewareof12metersfrogs]

Warning: long rant. Probably messed up grammar. Not LXC-friendly.

So Pinterest gave me this:

And I was like

Ah yes, Lan Xichen.

I mean, I love that guy, but oh gosh that man is BLIND. Like, man's so blind Xue Yang could use him to slaughter people.

(I'm so sorry for that joke)

I really loved him when I first read the book, esp pre-Nightless City, but then I read it for the second (and third) time and that love turned into "uhh, I guess I kinda like him?"

I mean, in Sunshot Campaign arc, NMJ just got freaking tortured. He just got beaten, made to watch his men die, and his former deputy "betrayed" him -- and then LXC was just like, "oh da-ge CALM down, this is all part of OUR plan, A-Yao's our spy lol put Baxia away don't shout at him smh"

Why didn't LXC say to NMJ that the whole thing had been orchestrated? Okay, I get it, maybe he couldn't risk JGY getting caught, but couldn't he just tell NMJ, "hey, this is the plan. You're gonna get caught at Yangquan by WRH and our spy will take care of the rest of it" ? I'm pretty sure NMJ was angrier about his men getting slaughtered than himself getting beaten. NMJ is kinda like WWX; they were both idiots, but they cared about their people. Pretty sure he cared more about his men than himself. If he knew about the "plan", he'd most likely bring the disciples who were ready to die.

THEN LXC just went to NMJ like, "Hey let's be sworn brothers!". Xichen, dude, his wounds aren't even healed. I mean, it's a bit insensitive right?? I think it is. The whole sworn-brotherhood-right-after-shunshot-campaign thing still bothers me. To me, it seems like no one cared about NMJ. I mean, he was the leader of SC, people used his skills, his men, his everything, and then he was just, like, casted aside?? Pretty sure man's got PTSD. Also, qi deviation. Oh gosh I forgot about qi deviation.

Anyway, yeah, LXC was blind throughout the novel. I won't talk about the scene where Wangxian tried to tell him that A-Yao = bad, but I will talk about the scene where NHS decided to "use" his er-ge to kill his san-ge. Was it intentional? Perhaps. Was NHS lying? Maybe. Was it bad? Absolutely. Was it expected? Of course.

Let's put ourselves in NHS' shoes for a second. Your big bro, who is also the one who raised you and the only family you have left, died. People are quacking "oh it's the Nie curse, and isn't it such a tragedy?" BUT NO! One day you be minding your own business and then BAM you found out that da-ge'd been murdered and mutilated AND betrayed. So you started scheming for like a decade. Everything was going great, as great as a 10 years revenge plan could ever be. You just gotta wait for a few more hours, you just gotta listen to your nemesis' retelling his sad background story, you just gotta endure the pain of seeing your dead big bro wrecking havoc, and you'd have your revenge.

Then of course your er-ge, your big bro's best friend, gotta help your big bro's killer. He just gotta treat his wounds, huh? Pretty sure NHS was unstable. He was desperate and maybe even full of wrath. I understand that, at least, the same way I understand that maybe LXC tried to treat JGY's wounds because he still saw him as his brother -- he didn't want to lose another brother. But how about NHS? He was watching the man whom he thought was his brother treating the man who betrayed and murdered his actual brother. NHS was being a dick, yeah, but it was expected.

Think about this for a second. NMJ's corpse was still right there (and gosh, NHS had to sew his big bro's corpse by himself). NHS was RIGHT there, and LXC had the audacity to tend to JGY's wounds after the man himself admitted to his crimes. I think it's understandable if NHS felt at least insulted.

Also, he was perhaps sick of people not thinking that his big brother was as important as other people, that he was also a human being instead of just a war machine or even a mere tool that can be casted aside whenever they want to. Why did his brother have to die because of other people's greed and selfish decisions? Why did he have to lose the only family he had left forever and why did he have to just sit back and accept it?

Most importantly, LXC had been too blind for more than a decade too long.

Also, the bit about "You're Wangji's only mistake":

Bruh.

If WWX is LWJ's only mistake, then (trusting) LXC is NMJ's only mistake. I mean, sure, WWX is as dumb and oblivious as a rock, but can you really blame him?? HE WAS TRYING TO KEEP HIMSELF, HIS FAMILY, AND THE WEN REMNANTS ALIVE, DUDE'S GOT NO TIME TO THINK ABOUT FKING ROMANCE.

Sorry, I got carried away.

Anyway, are we just gonna ignore the fact that LWJ had been acting like he hated WWX since, like, the first time they met?? I mean, I really love LWJ, but his only mistake is his communication skills (or lack thereof).

But LWJ never gave up on WWX. He learned to express himself way better. Man's got dedication and he's not afraid to learn. I really love that about him.

Also, I understand that LXC was angry because LWJ took beatings to protect WWX, but I don't think he had the right to blame WWX for that. Yes, I know WWX did plenty of things wrong; he was extremely reckless and untrusting, but he never asked LWJ to protect him. LWJ did everything voluntarily. Ffs Xichen WWX didn't even know that LWJ did that. You know why? CAUSE HE WAS FKING DYING THAT'S WHY.

TLDR: LWJ was a grown ass man.

Okay. So, do I hate LXC? No. But do I find him flawed? Yes. But that's why I like MXTX's characters, including WRH, JGY, and LXC (the only exception are perhaps JGS and MXY's fam, and I think we all know why). They all have flaws. For me, LXC is too naive and blind, JGY is too power-hungry and selfish, and NMJ is too stubborn and unyielding. NHS? Well, he's a lot of things. He's manipulative, unsympathetic, and IMO he's got a problem with obsession too. He and JGY are alike, in my opinion. The main difference is their goals: JGY seeks power, NHS seeks revenge.

Everyone has flaws. LWJ and WWX have flaws too; they're EXTREMELY flawed. Heck, even our lord and saviour Shijie also has flaws, as much as it hurts me to type that.

Then why do I get so worked up about LXC's flaws? Honestly I don't really know. Maybe it's because I'm tired of (almost) the entirety of fandom treating him like a god, maybe because I'm tired of people who treat NHS like the devil himself, or maybe because I'm disappointed in him. I mean, JGY's our main villain, but I still love him so much. Heck, I love him even more than I love LXC. Bruh, nowadays I even like WRH more. At least that guy is downright evil and he looks cool while doing whatever evil things WRH does (I'm talking about the novel and donghua mmkay).

Anyway, this is the end of my rant. I apologise if I'm offending you, this is just something that's been bothering me since the first time I re-read MDZS. This whole thing is like a plot bunny but instead of a "plot", the bunny is shaped like a "rant". This is a rant bunny. I need to get this outta my head. I've edited this thing like four times already because I keep finding errors and stuffs. I also added like two new paragraphs.

I'm sad now.

[redxblueihateloveyou]

Hiiii!!! 💫💕🌸🥳

Can I bother with a question... I was (re)watching that zhang qiling edit (not today) - 'cause it's so cool, btw- and I wondered if Reboot Xiaoge’s your favourite one...? And if you're up to answering, what do you think about the other adaptations? Especially (our small bean) xiao yuliang's interpretation of xiaoge?

🤗🌺💐🐰💕

Hey, my precious patootie hehe ILY it always makes me very happy knowing that you rewatch my vids <3

lol dang it, I was kinda hoping to avoid this question, just because I feel like I'd find it hella hard to explain some things, but I'll try my best and hopefully it'll make some sense xD

I'll start from afar bc I wanna try to explain my reasonings, since I don't want to go without arguments into such highly debated question lolz. I talked about this a bit in my previous asks somewhere, but not broadly as to why that one guy hit all the right spots.

So throughout the books Wu Xie always does this wonderful thing, where he very tangibly describes the feeling he gets when Xiaoge is near, I mean like the aura around him. And he always somehow does it so colorful, that this mix of safety, assurance, calmness, composure and some things I can't quite put into one noun, that he brings to him, I think everyone who've read the books can recognize as this almost magical "Xiaoge feeling". It's not just the way he acts in some dangerous situations or smth like that. It's just everything. You either have it or you don't. And here goes my first argument... to me none of them, except for Huang Junjie and Yuliang have it.

I mean it's not even the obvious stuff, it's like the way they move during the action scenes, the way they even stand and hold themselves, the way they touch Wu Xie, the tone of their voices (both of which are like soothing as fuck), little things you'd think wouldn't matter, but when you watch it and all the puzzle pieces are together, you're like... fuck yeah, thats him.

Also not really that weighty of a point, but to me there's always a joy to see that the actor who plays the character not only gets what's he's playing, but also loves it, bc it's always seen on screen. Usually when some asked about the character they play and what they have in common for example they answer with obvious things like if some character is introverted they're like "well I also don't talk very much" or smth like that, you know what I mean. When I was watching interviews of Yuliang and Huang Junjie I was just smiling so much, bc they've said such things that made me go "yeah, Qiling is safe in their hands".

In Reboot case working in such close proximity with the author definitely also played a huge role here. Bc it kinda gets complicated in some aspects since the books are written from Wu Xie's point of view and you can't only base your picture on his perspective, just bc it's coming from a person who after being basically told "you're my whole world" goes "I'm just a person he randomly passes by in his long life" in his thoughts. Not only he's utterly clueless and dumb when it comes to all this, that he wouldn't notice the way Qiling looks at him and other things, its also not that kind of book, that would go "I suddenly caught poker face looking at me like I'm his whole existence" (and I honestly don't want it to be that book lmao). So you have to take into the account here stuff like what author says to get the whole picture, bc if you look at that from the point of Qiling's view for example, this shit takes a whole wild turn. So I really loved that in UN and Reboot ways of showing Qiling's feelings were well thought out and fit the timeline.

Bc it also works both ways, when it comes to other adaptations. Like Qiling is very and I mean ETREMELY hard to win over. We all know that it was a very long process of gaining his trust and even longer for him to fall for Wu Xie to the point of him being his everything. So what I want in those interpretations is for them to get at which point of their relationships what Xiaoge's behavior makes sense. I do not need any fanservice if it ruins the character, I'll just hate it. The thing that their feelings didn't come out of nowhere is what I LOVE about this ship, bc I'm not the kind of person who believes in "we love for nothing" thing and love at first sight thing (only "got hots for each other" at first sight), bc thats bull. Wu Xie became his everything after a long LONG process of getting to know each other. At the beginning tho he was the same stranger to him as everyone else. So what Reboot Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie yet and what UN's Qiling feels for Wu Xie is not what Lost Tomb's Qiling feels for Wu Xie (which at that point was nothing). And I feel like not everyone gets the fact that you can totally wreck the character if you make him behave not the way he behaved in that particular time. Like for example, if someone would make a MDZS adaptation where at the very beginning of their relationships LZ treats WWX the way he treated him after the reincarnation just because "who cares, it's still LZ", that would be dumb af, see what I mean. So Xiaoge having a weakness for Wu Xie in part one is automatically not a Xiaoge to me, bc a huge part of his character and the thing NPSS speaks a lot about is just how IMPOSSIBLE it is for someone to catch his attention and how long it took Wu Xie to get there. So let's just say to me UN and Reboot Qilings for the first time didn't feel like some mashup or character summary/parody, they were Qilings the way they are supposed to be in that part of the story, bc it was the only times someone actually bothered to coordinate it.

Now as to why I prefer one to another. Xiaoge has this thing... the way he holds himself with other people, that is sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally suppressing.

Like everyone knows that if you're a passerby, Qiling genuinely doesn't fucking care and would in fact be pretty harsh about it in terms of treating people like they do not deserve their attention. He won't be like "please, don't bother me", he simply ignored them like an empty space. He is also like that with acquaintances who in his opinion do not deserve his respect like that girl who went hysterical, bc she was upset that he was the only one who wasn't drooling on her like all other men on the crew, Chen Wenjin, Wu Xie's uncles and etc. He's not openly disrespectful unless they trigger him in some way (usually by trying to act superior or later on for not treating Wu Xie right), but if they do, he will in fact remind them their place in sometimes a very rude way, at times humiliating them in front of ppl bc he looks younger than them and talking starts.

He's always doing things on his own terms and hates being told what to do. Like he legit scared Chen Wenjin just with a look and the tone of his voice when he said "let go", when she tried to command him on the mission and grabbed him trying to lecture him about what he should or shouldn't do. That's why Wu Erbai didn't even try anything like this and let him do whatever he needed to do and equally lead the mission in Reboot. And why the scene where Wu Xie 'commands' "Xiaoge, come back" and he immediately listens holds another special place in my heart. Bc he NEVER and I mean NEVER allows such things to ANYONE.

So here I came to a point of why despite loving them both dearly, my favorite Xiaoge is Huang Junjie.

I have this dissonance with Yuliang's version when to me in many scenes it felt like he and Wu Xie are the same age. Like if he was Xiaoge, but in his 20s. In his interactions with Chen Wenjin the dynamics was turned upside down, with him being okay with her telling him what to do and just in general the way she behaved with him. Same as like I didn't always quite believe him to be on par with older generation or even Pangzi, it just felt like he was truly younger than them. Some scenes that I do find extremely cute just don't fit book Xiaoge at all, I'm talking about some moments like his face when Wu Xie gave him food, or him pouting and many things he's done, when you were going "uwu he's a baby". He just never gives me this feeling in the books ever, not just bc he's 100 years old, but sad fact here.. bc he's simply unable to behave that way. Like in the books you'll desperately want to shower him with love, but he's just... I can't quite explain, it's very sad.

I guess it's just you know these characters, who are like hundreds years old, but look like they're 18? I think you have to be very careful with how you write those, so you could deliver that. And in UN because of some changed dynamics and scenes I straight up forgot about it, until Wu Xie threw some joke like "he's an old man" in front of a restaurant.

In Reboot Xiaoge could make Wu Erbai stutter with one move, put Yuliang's version in the same scene, I just don't think it would've worked. Like I'm trying to imagine him telling UN's Wu Erbai what to do and having troubles already haha. Same as I don't think he's capable to be genuinely mad at Wu Xie, and HJJ nailed it esp in one of my fav when Wu Xie was laughing at Pangzi's joke about him catching cold. The look he gave him and how ZYL just retreated was priceless xD. And boy could Qiling get angry with him in the books!

Otherwise I didn't have any drastic fall outs there, like with Joseph's Wu Xie and Ah Ning's death, because that was just too much of a difference, but there were still moments where it was once again this the same scene completely different emotion thing. He was more tolerable to ppl in general here, more pliable. And 50% of the time he gave me the cute lost kitten type, which I just cannot connect with the feeling he gave me in the books. His personality is a cat type 100%, but like seriously "cute baby" is the last word combination I would ever apply to book Xiaoge, but with Yuliang's version it's easily applied. So small bean he is indeed. With Joseph and in UN it works incredibly perfect to me, but the way he is in UN is at times too gentle. And there are lots of scenes where Joseph himself looked at him in a way "you're too cute, let me pinch your cheeks" kind of way, or the way he like sat down next to him on the coast, he was a bit babying him at times. I can't imagine book pingxie doing that. It's just a whole different vibe, the way he takes care of him, the way he lets him take care of him... it's...uuuuuuuuu another vibe (see, I'm so good at explaining lmao).

It's also kinda funny to me, bc HJJ who's the smallest and who irl truly a kitten never once gave me that feeling on screen for some reason. The one babied and loved by every crew and old ppl, who was cutely hiding behind ZYL's back on set, who won't sue an ex who almost ruined his career bc of how stupid she is, bc he "didn't want to hurt her", who according to staff can't even step on a fly, whom CMH was petting for several minutes after he had to hit him with a prop brick bc he didn't wanna do it lmao. I was just like.. ok, this is hilarious, bc I in fact didn't expect him to be a small bean, so watching all the bts made me go LOOOOL. Probably ZYL acting like a 3 year old helped him transform and the age difference problem got lost lmao

As for other adaptations. You know I can't watch seriously "Lost Tomb", I think some ppl probably have some nostalgic feeling about it, but I'm sorry, to me it's fucking hilarious. Like I've already said it looks like some type of twilight parody thing or smth. Soft damselle Wu Xie esp killed me, bc 1st when he ever was that, 2nd in the first book he's salty af, I don't even know this dude in this interpretation, I was like who's this. YangYang I know him from other things, I really don't think it's his role. I know the script and everything is bad. I know the costume and hair are horrendously funny, but it's just I was watching him in those action scenes and was like no... just I'm sorry but I'm not feeling it. I simply just don't know what to say about the whole thing seriously, bc I don't even know where to start. 10 episodes of some salad finished with one mutilated scene from book 6 for no reason the fact that characters are weird themselves also I can't quite tell, did they really just meet or they imply smth else lmao.. I'm sorry, but I do not get it.

I've given LT2 another try after finishing all the books and I've dropped it half way through, Cheng Yi wasn't even close to how I pictured Xiaoge in any aspect. He in fact didn't do anything OOC or off the book or anything, I just was like "not my Qiling". Happens sometimes.

Explore with the note you already know how I feel about this lol let's just forget.

P.S. To be fair here also maybe we should take into account the fact that some got luckier than other with "at which point" Xiaoge they're playing. Like for example, "Wrath of the Sea" and "Qingling Tree" books which is LT2 is not exactly you can say much about Qiling there, he trolls them there in the beginning (in a brilliant way that was totally lost in the adaptation) and he is there in "Wrath of Sea", but it's not the part that can make his character shine in any way, there's not much things happening there that would make you fall for him or get to know him; Yuliang grabbed the fattest piece bc it's middle several books, when they're always together and his character shines the most in terms of clues about past, opening up to Wu Xie and Pangzi, and there are many many events where you can get the picture of what kind of man he is; Huang Junjie grabbed my fav piece of utter devotion, where he's already fully and wholeheartedly belongs to Wu Xie, that I'm just weak for. So like... there's also that I guess xD.

[shiranai-atsune]

Thank you so much for writing this fanfic request! I'm looking forward to more! 💖

Can't Cheat Death While You're Digging Your Own Grave

So forever ago, @shiranai-atsune gifted me with this lovely, long list of prompts and I have been very slowly writing a few of them as warmups for a while now. This one is not yet done (none of them are done), but she's been patient enough. So here's the first draft of the first part of a response to:

-What if Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian were closer? Sworn brothers, even? What if NHS visited WWX in Yiling?

[T (for now?), implied Wangxian, 2k, 1/?]

~

Wen Qing:

This is not how this was supposed to go. This is not how any of this was supposed to go.

The time they had, her and her family, was borrowed — stolen for them by a man with too little left for himself. It was always going to end in death. Theirs, his.

Theirs was a symbiotic relationship. He afforded them much needed protection and without him they would not survive. They afforded him much needed sanity and without them he would lose himself to the ghosts that constantly ate away at everything he had left. But this precarious balance had a time limit.

Wen Qing knew better than anybody that Wei Wuxian’s life was fading. She watched him surreptitiously sneak the majority of his meager rations into A’Yuan’s bowl -- just like they all did, but Wei Wuxian did not have the calories to spare. She scolded him for pouring too much of his energy into tilling the fields, spreading himself as thin as their crop and exhausting himself holding the seething resentment of the Burial Mounds at bay.

He was dying and he wasn’t doing it slowly.

With a golden core, perhaps he would be fine. She wasn’t overly confident in that assessment because the balance of yin and yang qi within a human body was delicate, but she’d seen it work with Wen Ruohan -- for a while, anyway.

But, like this, coreless and sleepless and hungry, he would die within the year. And she was tired of watching it happen.

So now, as she helps Popo fold and pack the blankets they had woven and prepared for the oncoming winter, she feels nothing short of shock. As she watches Wei Wuxian carefully lower each of his new -- and volatile -- inventions into a crate, she finds herself considering what his new workshop may look like. And as a dozen cultivators in green and silver gently and considerately move through the rickety buildings of her wretched home, she feels hope.

She had not dared to allow herself anything like hope when the heir of Qinghe Nie had first arrived at the edge of their wards.

That he was alone was surprising, but not in a soothing way. Rather, in a way that made the hair on the back of her neck stand at attention as she flexed the qi in her meridians and extended her senses outward.

Wei Wuxian, a wide, nostalgic smile on his face, invited Nie Huaisang inside, just as he had invited Lan Wangji and Jiang Wanyin, before him.

This, too, did nothing to assuage her fears. She remembered the way Wei Wuxian’s palm had been sliced to the bone after the Jiang sect leader had almost destroyed her brother. She remembered the gut wound that still hadn’t quite healed. She remembered the heartsore sobs she was certainly never supposed to hear that echoed inside that stupidly named cave for a fortnight.

She wondered what new pain this “old friend” would cause.

Wen Ning was sent to retrieve whatever might pass for tea and Wen Qing settled herself next to Wei Wuxian like a second hand, like a general. Wei Wuxian accepted her presence as if it were normal and, after a brief moment of hesitation, Nie Huaisang did, too.

The sect heir spoke with a light voice. He and Wei Wuxian exchanged pleasantries as if nothing had changed. As if they were returning to the Cloud Recesses after a few years away.

It wasn’t until the vaguely leaf-flavored hot water had been consumed that the tone of the conversation changed. Strangely, when, exactly, it had happened, Wen Qing couldn’t say. She’d never been one for court gossip or sect politics, preferring to spend her time studying and cultivating even before she was stretched thin with fear and responsibility. So perhaps it wasn’t actually that strange that she’d missed the subtle transition from idle chatter to political discourse. But by the time she realized their topics had become less-than-frivolous, the tension was already building across the table.

“Lan Wangji,” Nie Huaisang said with a sly smile, “has argued for you to be allowed to attend your nephew’s 100th day celebration.”

Wei Wuxian’s empty tea cup clattered to the table. “He has not.”

“He has.”

“And?”

Wei Wuxian was doing the thing with his voice where he tries not to sound over eager. It never worked very well. The man wore his emotions like he wore that bright, red hair-ribbon of his. His face was glowing with curiosity and trepidation, both. Nothing quite like hope, but maybe desire.

“And Jin Guangshan has agreed that you should attend.”

The desire dashed into dejection.

“Fuck.”

Nie Huaisang sighed, whipping open his fan and idly waving it. A restless gesture, rather than a cooling one. “Indeed.”

Silence settled between them for a moment. Wei Wuxian’s brow furrowed in the way it did when he was considering a deceptively simple solution to a particularly complex problem. He cocked his head to one side and asked, with no small amount of anxiety slowing his words, “You don’t think Lan Zhan--”

But Nie Huaisang cut him off with a snap of his fan. “No,” he said with surprising weight and confidence for all that he has spent the entire conversation up until this moment prevaricating and professing his general ignorance.

Wei Wuxian, though, seemed comforted by this, taking him at his word and nodding.

It was strange, this interaction. Nie Huaisang, or at least Wen Qing’s impression of him during the lectures at the Cloud Recesses, was a flighty and distractible disciple. He was lazy in his classwork, even lazier in his martial arts. And, though he painted beautiful fans, he used them too often to avoid difficult conversations at all cost.

The man before her now, in this moment and this moment alone, looked like a competent advisor to the venerable Chifeng-zun.

“Lan Wangji is naïve and idealistic,” said Nie Huaisang and Wei Wuxian grinned at that.

“Aren’t we all, Nie-xiong.” He raised his eyebrows like it was a joke.

After all they’d all been through, Wen Qing supposed it only could be a joke, but it was still one she wasn’t exactly in on.

“Ah, it’s true,” Nie Huaisang agreed, opening his fan with a puerile smile and becoming, for all appearances, the featherbrained boy of their youth once more. “We are, we are.”

Wen Qing schooled her face into something like understanding as she tried to fit together the pieces of conversation that the two weren’t having. So far she’d gathered that the invitation was a trap, but she could have told them that from the beginning. There was something else hiding in the words that they weren't saying, but Wen Qing didn’t have enough of anything to figure out what it was. Which was frustrating.

It was no secret that Wei Wuxian was brilliant. Fourth-ranked in their generation or not, the man was infamous for his… unique solutions to difficult problems. She knew intimately how unique those solutions could be. But Wen Qing had never seen that ingenuity extend to politics. Or people in any kind of broader sense.

He had been, however, the head disciple of Yunmeng Jiang. A position that required both political acumen and a sense for leadership. Especially if he was awarded the position over the sect heir, regardless of cultivation skill.

It was an uncomfortable realization that she, just like everybody else in the cultivation world, had underestimated him. She thought she would have known better by now.

It was similarly uncomfortable to realize just how much she had underestimated the Nie sect heir, too. Because, even now, she had no idea how intelligent and observant he was. And she had the distinct impression that her ignorance -- both of Nie Huaisang’s cleverness and of the underlying thread of this conversation -- was by design.

Nie Huaisang flapped his fan back-and-forth and stared at it like nothing more interesting than that painted scene was happening around him. “He’s still writing your invitation as we speak.”

Wen Qing couldn’t help her brow from furrowing at that. “Then how are you here so fast, Nie-er-gongzi?” she asked, barely keeping her tone genial, even as frustration mounted in her chest.

“Oh, Qing-jie,” said Wei Wuxian with a grin that she knew boded mischief. “Did you know that just southwest of here there is a rather large and impressive freshwater lake?”

Wen Qing didn’t shake her head. She didn’t groan. She didn’t grab him by the shoulders and yell, “How is that relevant?!” She had greater composure than that. If she could stand at attention in front of Wen Ruohan while he openly threatened her brother, she could contain her reaction to a simple quirk of her eyebrow.

“It’s true!” said Nie Huaisang, snapping his fan closed and gesturing with it. “It’s on top of a plateau and in the winter there are hundreds of species of birds--”

She cuts him off. “So, you weren’t in the room when this decision was made, then.”

“Ah, no, Wen-guniang,” he said, ducking his head as if in apology. Then, allowing a glimpse of his cleverness to show in his eyes he asked, “But have I told you yet of my fondness for birds? Of many kinds?”

Spies, she understood. He had a network of spies that could reach even into the private halls of Lanling. She understood, too, that she was being given this information with trust. That it was only a hint of what the Nie heir was capable of and that Wei Wuxian’s trust in her was transitive.

She smiled. “I’m sure I don’t need the details, Nie-er-gongzi.”

“Good, good.” He smiled back, sharp but only for a flash before it was genial and light and then hidden behind his open fan once more. “I’d hate to bore you.”

Wen Qing’s heart hammered in her chest for a moment, a fear response she knew well how to mask. She wondered what exactly her body had interpreted as a threat.

“So, what are you saying, Huaisang?” Wei Wuxian asked, not bothering to hide his agitation, but also skillfully directing Nie Huaisang’s attention back to himself and giving Wen Qing the room she needed to breathe.

“I’m saying I’ll go with you,” Nie Huaisang said, simply. Like anything about that statement was simple.

“With me?” Wei Wuxian scoffed, incredulous. “You want to walk into Lanling and declare Qinghe Nie’s support of Yiling Laozu?”

But Nie Huaisang just nodded and said, “I do.”

“Huaisang!”

“And,” he continued, plowing through Wei Wuxian’s disbelief like oxen through rice fields, “I want to shelter the Wen Remnants in Qinghe.”

Wen Qing felt her eyes bulging out of their sockets, but Wei Wuxian just laughed and waved a hand dismissively.

“I want to marry Lan Zhan and bear him children,” he said in an uncharacteristically honest admission, flippant though it was. “Not all things are possible, Nie-xiong.”

Nie Huaisang looked nothing short of delighted at his friend’s candor but, undeterred, said, “Bearing his children may be outside even your scope, but offering you the protection of Qinghe Nie is not outside of mine.”

Wen Qing considered his words carefully. Considered all of the things she had learned about him as a person in this short conversation.

“At what cost?” she asked.

“What cost?” he responded, playing the fool as easily as breathing.

Even now, even knowing all that she did, she could almost believe it again.

Luckily, Wei Wuxian was not similarly affected.

“Huaisang,” he said, chastising his friend like he might a misbehaving shidi. “We both know that you wouldn’t even be hinting at something like this without your da-ge’s permission. No matter how much porn you smuggled into the Cloud Recesses, you don’t actually have a death wish. Nie Mingjue would allow you many things, but this?”

Ignoring the comment about porn -- another shared joke Wen Qing wasn’t privy to -- she agreed. She remembered the stories her clansmen and sect members had told about Chifeng-zun during the war. She remembered her cousin’s severed head displayed proudly at the gate of the Unclean Realm. “He hates Qishan Wen more than anybody.”

Nie Huaisang, to his credit, didn’t deny it. He hesitated for a moment but conceded with a nod and a tap of his closed fan, “He does. But!” The fan opens again, “But, he’s not entirely unreasonable.”

Wen Qing could feel Wei Wuxian rolling his eyes next to her, even if she couldn't see it.

“What’s the cost, Huaisang?” he asked, impatience hard-edged in his voice.

Nie Huaisang tapped his fan on the table a few more times. Another restless gesture, perhaps, as he collected his words into an order he thought might best be presented to his friend.

In hindsight, Wen Qing thinks it very strange that this was the moment Nie Huaisang found most uncertain. Most delicate. But then, maybe this pause, this careful consideration and apparent reluctance, was all an act, too.

In the end, whether it was calculated or not never really mattered.

Nie Huaisang fixed Wei Wuxian with soft eyes and a determined frown, leaned forward enough to brace an elbow on the table, and said,

“How much do you know about the Saber Path, Wei-xiong?”

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 39 - watching notes

How did this show manage to make me care for these characters in about one episode???

Xue Yang is 100 kinds of creepy

How does he disappear like that? That's a power we haven't seen on this show yet

This whole revenge plot is waaay too convoluted to be only about revenge

Ohoh ... this silence is too ominous

I love how A-Qing still has her rebellious streak, even in death

This is too easy ... he won't die just like this, right?

Holy shit his arm!! 😱😱😱

Um ... sorry but, it's really obvious that the actor just has his arm tugged under his clothes 😅

Whaaaaaaaat???

He's not the guy under the mask???

Who???

Who is that and why does he want the stygian tiger amulet???

I was so sure that that was him

Lan and Jin sword style? I'm wreaking my brain right now who has a strong connection to both, but I'm coming up empty

Oh no, a qing :'(

This is such a brilliant shot! Goosebumps! All over!

And wow

All the awards for song lan's actor 😥

I am ... fascinated by Xue Yang's backstory. Like ... the guy is a goddamn sociopath

With the parallels of his backstory to wwx it's almost like he's wwx without his good heart 😥

So ... all of this is a direct consequence of what happened when they met them in the flashback?

But this isn't how "human affairs" should go or even normally do! Obviously, xue Yang isn't a reliable narrator at all, but all I want to do is wrap Xiao Xingchen in my arms and tell him that not all his good faith in humanity was misplaced 💔

"Stupid, naive, dumb idiots like you, who think the world is a better place just because they did something good!"

But it is!!!! The world on it's own, without humans, isn't inherently good or evil! It is what it is. Good or evil, that's up to us! In the face of the endless indifference of the universe, every act of kindness tips the scale towards a better world!

(Sorry, my atheism is showing)

And that's why I will always have infinitely more respect for the Xiao Xingchens of the world than the cruel and bitter Xue Yangs.

Oh fuck no

No, this will break him, won't it? 😰

Oh no 😭😭😭😭

Oh no

Honey...

"Say something..."

Oh god

Does this show want to set some kind of record for must characters severely traumatised in 50 episodes???

Noooo

No

Fuck

When I wrote that I hadn't seen yet ...

He ... killed himself

I am crying so hard right now and I feel like I haven't even really processed the full tragedy of this arc yet

What is Xue Yang doing?

This is so weird. He honestly looks at Xiao Xingchen like he is a doting husband waiting for him to come home

Ohhh

And now it makes sense that he wanted wwx to restore his soul

And why his soul didn't want to be restored ... because he killed himself. He doesn't want to come back 😥

The way this looks ... that can't be an accident

So NOW he's grieving. Because he can't bring Xiao Xingchen back, can't control him. Xue Yang has such a screwed psychy, it's fascinating ... in a very disturbing way

Wow, he's damaged ...

Oh no ... the candy ... THE CANDY!!!

Holy shit ... what even am I supposed to feel right now? 😨😨😨

Trying to parse that out, I feel like (and this is just my first impressionof thus and my very raw thoughts)... Xiao Xingchen and his kindness they did touch Xue Yang. But he was ill-equipped to deal with whatever feelings they stirred in him, because he had already been so twisted by the world and his own actions. And so he expressed his love the same way he expressed everything: with obsession and the desire to posses and control.

Honestly, I need some more time to really process this ...

They buried A Qing 😭

Oh, Lan Jingyi. I didn't know you had it in you 💚💚💚

Oh god, the Juniors are ALL so soft! 😭

Oh god I want to know so badly. What did Lan Wangji want to say??? "Fortunately... this wasn't us" "Fortunately... you came back to me"? 😭

Omg ... this is a parallel right? From behind they might as well be song lan and Xiao Xingchen!

Oh song lan 💔

The way he takes the pouch 🥺

And Lan Wangji's look. Maybe I'm imagining too much into this but ... if that's not a man intimately aware of what he's going through

"Roam the world. Exorcise evil beings alongside Xingchen."

I can't guys, I'm crying so hard right now 💔💔💔

Holy shit Lan Wangji's actor's performance as he hands him the sword 😭😭😭

IT IS A PARALLEL! 😭😭

look at the screenshot up there again!!

I'm ugly crying so hard right now 😭😭😭

Gimme a moment ...

Tge music in the next scene is really unusual for this show, almost jarring after I've just bawled my eyes out

What is that?

An entrance?

Okay no, not an entrance

Who is that????

Aardgfdgh

The Juniors!!!

The scenery us so pretty :)

Waitwaitwait ... I have a suspicion... no ... nooooo? It can't be ...

The butterfly toy ...

And the comments in the last episode fit, too ... 😳😳😳

OH MY GOOOOOOOD!!!!

The shot of the little flying thing! That's in that restaurant, right??

The comment about remembering stuff from when you're three!

IS HE A YUAN????

@sweetlittlevampire IS HE A YUAN??? 😱😱😱

I'm crying again you guys

Of course he is! It all makes sense

And omg, lan Wangji with the bunny lantern 😭😭😭

And now wwx remembers A Yuan and... the LOOK!!! The song!!! The bunnies!!!

The smile 😭😭😭😭

"Let's buy it" "Okay"

They're a family, you guys!!!! They're a family and I'm ... so ... so emotional!!! 😭😭😭

So much softness between them!!! 💙🖤💙🖤

And wwx smiles as brightly as before this whole mess and ...

Holy shit this episode you guys!!!

First I cry out of sheer devastation and now I feel like my heart is ready to burst!

And it FITS!!!

wangxian got the happy ending Xiao Xingchen and song lan never did. They reunited and even though they spent many years apart they have a real chance now!!!

And this, their child, this is the pay off.

I'm listening to the new album by Nightwish (my favourite band) all the time right now and in their song "How's the heart?" Is this line "now there's one who came from me / A child of light, another tale" and I can't help but think of that right now! The whole song is about how it is worth it, going through the bleak times, fighting through your own darkness because there is light and love at the end of it. It's worth it to keep fighting, just so we can keep meeting others with love. And I can't help but think of little A Yuan/ Lan Sizuhi (and god, I'm almost bursting at the fact that I can write that line!!) As their manifestation of that love. Their "child of light" :')

And even with Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan ... there is this slight hopeful feeling of "we will meet again", if not in this life than in the next ...

Guys, I'm so emotional right now

Sorry for the tengant. It probably doesnt make much sense put in writing 💚

I'm so sad and so happy at the same time ... :')

Oh god, lan Wangji with the lantern is so unimaginably cute!!!

And they gave it to Lan Sizhui!!!

SYMBOLISM!! 😭😭😭

Now, this should be interesting

How much does lan Xichen even know at this point?

Ohhh! That was nie Mingjue in the coffin earlier!

Why is he buried in Yi City???

I'm so confused right now!

(But don't tell me the answers. As always, these are rhetorical questions ;))

Ohhh ...

I have a suspicion about the ghost faced man

And apparently I'm not the only one

He has been "discussing" things with you every single night. Aha 😏

Sorry, this is serious 😬

(This has nothing to do with anything but I paused the stream to type and this was the image I got. I thought i should share :D)

Lan Xichen is so deep in denial

Poor guy

And again with the parallels! There is another Lan who has stuck to someone with a bad reputation and he's standing right there

And jin ling is conveniently reminding us of that 😐

So much drama

OMG!

That was smooth!

No, I KNOW WHO YOU ARE!

Just, "Wei-gongze" :D

"Don't take it to heart"

MY HEART!!!

I feel like Lan Wangji isn't the only Lan who will suffer an aneurysm from repressed emotions one day

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose and @sxnshot (should I tag you again next ep? No hard feelings if not 😊)

Honestly, this ep was the most emotional one for me so far in terms of the whiplash from pain and joy it gave me, though I certainly cried harder at the Yunmeng massacre. The prevailing emotion is joy now, though. I am such a sucker for mismatched, found families and wangxian and their child of light isn't exactly that, I don't know what is. I'm going to sleep with a smile on my face now. 💚

[crossdressingdeath]

UGH!! I hate when I'm on a roll reading a fic that I really like and everything is pretty in character and then they have people making plans without WWX's knowledge and when he finds out and asks them about it they all just say "Because you're an idiot that needs to be protected from yourself." WWX is canonically a genius. The reason things went to shit is because of situations beyond his control. It wasn't even his fault.

WWX is incredibly smart and I completely blame CQL for how stupid he’s portrayed as being in more recent fics. Like, they dumbed him down so fucking much, the genius inventor of demonic cultivation now has to be cajoled into it by a weird shadow sword, I don’t remember if CQL even mentions that the lure flag and the compass were WWX’s inventions. WWX! is! really! smart! and almost the entire cast knows and respects his intelligence! Can we remember that while writing please and thank you!

[hunxi-guilai]

hello~ may i ask what the expression(?) "Er-gege" or "Lan Er-gege" means? i know that this is probably a dumb question but i can't find a proper explanation, only that it means "second brother" and honestly i can't see why WWX would call LWJ that instead of Lan Zhan, because his name sounds more intimate i think. Sorry if you answered that already and i couldn't find it, and thank you in advance! i really love your blog and explanations, you're a gem✨💝

hi there! Can I direct you to this post?

to me, the difference in intimacy between Lan Wangji’s personal name and er-gege is primarily one of tone; Wei Wuxian uses Lan Zhan when he’s trying to get Lan Wangji’s attention, and is also the term he’ll use if he needs to speak to Lan Wangji about serious matters (you’d never hear Wei Wuxian say Lan er-gege if he’s being serious). Meanwhile, er-gege is obviously playful, a little mischievous, and pretty flirtatious if we’re being honest here

with all the honorifics/suffixes/titles/affectionate diminutives in CQL, it might be more helpful to think of them beyond a linear spectrum of “formal-to-informal” or “courteous-to-intimate” -- both Lan Zhan and Lan er-gege are profoundly informal, but have strikingly different tones

[yilinglaozuhot]

the untamed (YES IT WAS OBVIOUS THAT YOU'RE GONNA GET IT, SO WHAT 🥺❤🥺💞)

I EXPECTED THAT SO THANK YOU! TIME TO RANT!!! (also, i'm a bit drunk so take advantage of it everyone) 

 ❤ Favorite Male: Wei Wuxian (like... obviously duh) ❤ Favorite Female: Wen Qing (There's not much of a choice here tho lmao but she can step on me, especially the novel version of her. She's so mean and so competent and like she has everything I like in a woman.) ❤ Favorite Pairing: wangxian but nowadays I lean towards chengxian too. i mean wwx has two hands, amirite? ❤ Least Favorite Character: Wen Chao (he's not even a character, he only has one trait and it's being annoying assfderhgeweaDSAEHGH) ❤ who’s most like me: Nie Huaisang. He's tiny, he's manipulative, he likes to play dumb to manipulate people into pitying him, and he just wants to have fun but he doesn't have a good time all around. If it ain't me... Also, he should have been a Gemini and that's the hill I will die on.  ❤ most attractive: there are too many pretty boys in this show but if i have to choose only one it's wwx ❤ three more characters that I like: Jiang Cheng (my pathetic king <3), Nie Huaisang, Lan Wangji

give me a series and i’ll tell you...

[amedetoiles]

#ok first of i am screaming all of this is amazing and so thoughtful and eloquent truly tumblr user howdydowdy has blessed us read it #secondly you asked why JC didn't tell WWX and boy do i have theories! is anyone surprised #i think his reasons for not telling varied over time. in the immediate aftermath i think it's actually a pretty deliberate attempt to not #put the core loss on wwx in the wake of the choking incident and in cql hearing yanli cry about how pointless laying blame is when #the three of them are all that's left but also- this was jc's choice not wwx's. wwx wasn't reckless he didn't mouth off to the wrong person #he wasn't playing hero. this one is on JC! and then after he gets his core back i think we return to JC's fear of trapping people with him #when they want to go. he doesn't want wwx to feel like he has a debt to them. he doesn't want wwx to be trapped with him the way his #father was trapped with his mother. he wants wwx to choose him freely. that's why the promise matters! that's why despite it mattering he #never brings it up when he's trying to convince wwx to stay. the more wwx pulls away into his ptsd slide of party ruining trauma the less #likely jc is to tell him because if there's one thing worse than wwx leaving it's wwx staying when he doesn't want to and resenting them #for it. pre-core reveal in the second life i think this is in some ways intensified #because he's at an all time low in trust in wwx & his motives & feelings #and i think there's a vulnerability aspect to it too. he just really does not want to have to look his brother in the eye and say i loved #you and i trusted you this much. i was willing to die for you and i thought that would be ok because you'd always look after our family. #why was i wrong about that? like that's very revealing and he's in a place where he's ashamed of feeling/having felt that way and also #hates talking about his mushier feelings. and then when the core is revealed this DUMBASS does the EXACT THING wwx does like a fucking #hypocrite and thinks well if i tell him now it's an excuse. it's saying look i know i didn't stand by you but it's not because i didn't #love you i did. i love you so much. it's making excuses- excuses which take us back to wwx maybe feeling obligated to have a relationship #with JC that he's already in JC's mind made it clear that that's not what he actually wants. he wants the slate wiped clean so fine #let it be clean jiang cheng can do that and its SO DUMB and makes me SO MAD that jiang fucking cheng of all people cannot appreciate that #wwx might find it helpful to know that his brother loved him the whole time and the problems were misunderstandings and broken trust and #deeply felt obligations and principles and their infant nephew's safety or underlying lack of affection or failure to value wwx or #want/need him around. like MAYBE jiang cheng your brother is ALSO a rejection sensitive loser who feels like he's always too much the same #way you feel like you're never enough and being confronted with your willingness to turn yourself over to a horrible death and a desecrated #corpse lying in the courtyard with your parents and forgoing your chance at vengeance and rebuilding your sect just because of how much #you loved him would CHANGE HIS OPINION OF SOME THINGS like whether he needs to stick around to yell at you for being an idiot but yes #this was such good meta #i'm going to go reread it a million times #jiang cheng and bodily autonomy and the dignity of choice people! #but seriously jiang cheng only yells about the promise when he's feeling safe in wwx's love. otherwise he'll sort of angrily skate past it (important tags by @winepresswrath​ )

Thx 4 killing me with ur tags on that JC x WWX post. For me a big problem is that WWX is saying these things, like, magnanimously. He's perfectly certain that he's the one that sacrificed, so he's the one who can forgive debts. He thinks that terrible things happened to JC, but that's not the same as JC deliberately sacrificing something. :( I love WWX but he can genuinely be SO condescending T. T

Keep reading

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 35 - watching notes

Jin Ling just freed wwx for ... whatever reason. Wwx thanked him by knocking him out ... for whatever reason. Just so we all now where we're at right now ;)

Btw, I assigned wwx and lwj their own heart-colours for no goddamn reason other than boredom. Wwx is 🖤 and lwj is 💙

Aww, jiang Cheng has never hit Jin ling. At least that hasn't changed yet. He's all "tough love" in theory, but really, he never acts on his threats.

Speaking of Jin Ling: I feel like he tries really hard to emulate his uncle, but doesn't have the trauma to back that grumpy attitude up, so it just comes off as bitchy :D

Staring at your bro as he's standing on a britch, bathed in moonlight, the water facing shadows on his perfect hair ... you're so dreamy ... bro

You know why he's sticking with you, wwx?

Seriously though? Their love is one of the healthiest I have seen in any story in a long time. I'm sure others have already written meta posts about it that go way deeper and are way more well thought out than anything I could say at this point, but still ... at no point in the story so far (except maybe when wwx jumped off that cliff, but I'd say those were extraordinary circumstances) did they ask something off each other that they weren't willing to give. Wwx may have wanted lwj to stay and stand with him when he saved the Wens, but he accepted lwj's decision without question and didn't hold a grudge when they saw each other again, quite the opposite. And lwj? He was worried about wwx choosing the demonic path for what it would do to him, but he let him make his decisions anyway. The point is, their individual lives and the decisions they had to make, independent of each other, let them apart. But when fate made their paths cross again, they were right there, ready to lend a hand without question.

Their only flaw as a couple is that they are too goddamn emotionally damaged and/or closed-off to properly communicate their goddamn feelings ...

But I'm still not through with the show, so who knows, maybe I just wrote some bullshit 😅

Oh, I forgot the leg curse!

Quick! Get Snape! He'll fix you (for about a year)

Awww ... lan Wangji remembers how wwx wanted to carry him on his back and wwx doesn't 😭😭😭

The look on his face :(

Who would have thought that one day, wwx would be the one to reject physical contact, while lwj insists on it ...

This scene makes me weirdly emotional and I don't know why! 😭

No, I know why ... because wwx has learned not to ask for or expect help from anyone since these first days of them knowing each other and here lwj is, offering it anyway :')

Never has a piggyback ride been so romantic :D

Nie Huaisang!!!

His vocabulary seems to have shrunk to a single sentence

Lwj even readily gives wwx liquor ... 😱

You know who wwx reminds me of when he's in detective mode?

Okay okay lwj, you don't have to support his alcoholism quite as much

So Nie Huaisang just implied that he has some sympathies left for wwx 🥰

Than again ... that might be because their clan doesn't practice what the other sets would consider proper cultivation either, right? I get why wwx would scoff at that

I gotta ask: why, WHY would you become a grave robber in a world where seemingly every second dead person comes back to habit people???

That's just dumb

The flashback. Gosh ...

Is this a role reversal au? Now it's wwx who won't let lwj undress him to look at his wounds

Lwj's smile when they're playing together!!! 😭😭😭

Poor Nie Huaisang. He just wants to collect his Fans and have his ancestral burial grounds not repeatedly demolished by cultivators

*stressed fan waving increases*

Oh no

The fuck?

Is this was qui deviation looks like? 😱

Poor Nie Huaisang 😔💔

Okay so, the central question rn is: who killed nie Mingjue?

Jin Guangyao was there ... I have a suspect 🧐

Oh not again! (With the framing wwx)

I wonder if Nie Huaisang did recognize wwx after all. I'd be surprised if he didn't

How did lwj recognize him? Should I rewatch the first 2 episodes?

The same wine house they've been to before and this time it's lwj who "drags" wax into it. At this point, I'm pretty sure these parallels are intentional

Oh nice, wwx agrees with me :D

Wait ... is this ... because wwx's memory is somewhat lacking and lwj wants to refresh it ... if so, I'm sad now 😥

Oooohhh! They're talking about Xue Yang! When was that episode 6 or 7 or something? They expect me to remember that? 🙈

Oh so Xie Yang changed allegiance from the wen clan to the Jin clan. Why am I not surprised?

No ... what happened to Xiao Xingchen and Song lan? 😥

Did lwj just take a shot???? 😱😱😱😱😱

Ha! That's gonna be interesting next episode :D

You know what I liked most about this episode? Lan Wangji was so obviously happy!! (Maybe aside from the last scene) For him, the things he did this ep were practically bouncing around with glee. It warmed my heart 💙🥰

[thexnightrainbow]

#:) :) wwx you're a pretty dumb#do you like mian mian. he likes you idiot don't you see the bitch face he makes when he looks at you obviously he loves you#lwj must think why i fell in love with this fool#but let's face it those two are just as stupid when it comes to feelings#and how close they are should kiss there is a lot of tension here

The Untamed | Episode 13 [You Like Mian Mian?]

⤳WangXian’s Favorite Scenes [13/∞]⬿