#One of my favourite scenes in the whole show happens when Jiang Cheng is called to account for Wei Wuxian’s jailbreak and Jin Guangshan

[winepresswrath]

I think a lot about the precarity of different people's positions in the cultivation world. How being too entwined with the sects vs too separate from them dooms people in different ways. SongXiao made a name for themselves. When we first met them, they were an ideal WangXian looked up to. Ten years later, it was perfectly believable to the cultivation world that Xiao Xingchen tortured and murdered the last surviving member of the Chang clan. He slipped through the cracks entirely.

Yeah, and I do think that makes sense! Obviously there’s lots of corruption and general malfeasance amongst the sects, but it’s also just a feudal honour culture where kinship and loyalty bonds are hugely important. Even if everyone admires Xiao Xingcheng and thinks he does good work, no one except Song Lan actually knows him well enough to vouch for him. Hearing that a minor celebrity who’d previously had a good reputation is a murderer might be surprising and strange, but are you really going to stake your reputation on his innocence (or even doubt his guilt) the way you probably would for a sect-sibling you’ve known since childhood? Aside from the question of who you’re willing to stick your neck out to defend, there’s the bonus issue of who you actually know well enough to feel capable of judging the content of their character. The fact that anyone who could do that for Xiao Xingcheng is busy cultivating to immortality on a magic mountain they can never leave if they intend on returning makes him an easy target for Jin Guangshan’s bullshit, because there isn’t actually really anyone who’s qualified to speak in his defense.

[veliseraptor]

I can't remember if anyone has actually asked you this. I apologise beforehand if you're repeating yourself. What are your three favourite scenes in The Untamed and why?

(Love how this took so long, mostly because I was waiting to get through all the listed moments in my rewatch. Anyway! It’s here now!)

Oh, fuck. 

Okay, I couldn’t keep it to three. I tried! I did! But I couldn’t. So here is a list of just general favorite scenes with the three scratched off. I realized belatedly that most of these are just painful because I love pain I guess??? but yeah that’s just who I am and I think I have to accept that.

Under a read more because Jesus this got long.

1. The entire scene at Nightless City culminating in Wei Wuxian’s death. Like, okay, honestly, if I could expand this into basically everything between Jin Zixuan’s death and Wei Wuxian’s, I’d do that, but that feels like too much even though in my head it is all sort of...one contiguous marathon of pain. But god!!! I have a whole thing for...characters hitting their breaking point, for breaking points in general, for seeing a character I love just...crack open, and that’s what happens here.

Like. Wei Wuxian’s been cracking for a while, and there’s a number of breaking points that kind of build on each other, but this is, obviously, where the real snap happens.

And on a narrative level, too, there’s the thing that...this is the point that we as the audience have been spiraling toward since first seeing the beginning of episode one. This is where the entire long stretch of flashback has been pointing - here’s where it culminates, where it falls into place, where everything circles back to where the show started and now you know exactly how it got there. 

Also I just. Love to suffer, and this entire scene is one whole long stretch of suffering. 

2. The golden core reveal. Oh man, I was waiting for this conversation for, like. Ever. I knew it was coming and I knew it was going to have to happen and I just kept being like. When will it be. When will it be and then it happened and god it was beautiful. Everything about this whole scene was just tailor made to hurt me and make me love it, from the confrontation in the ancestral shrine right down to when Jiang Cheng bolts in a panic. 

I hurt for everyone here. Wen Ning who has hit the end of his rope and is just fed up with everything. Jiang Cheng whose world is getting turned upside down and inside out and a whole lot of things falling into place all at once, his self-conception wrecked and his understanding of Wei Wuxian both opened and destroyed. Lan Wangji who is understanding what he missed and, I think, beating himself up about having missed it, and also the fresh understanding of just how ready Wei Wuxian is to throw himself under a bus for the people he loves. Wei Wuxian who doesn’t know any of this is happening but has just collapsed after running on fumes basically since resurrecting and is going to find out later that the biggest secret he’s been keeping and planned to keep for the rest of his life is now out. 

It’s just. Lord. It’s all so painful and it’s all so good, the payoff is so good, and especial mention here of Wen Ning’s done with your shit and I’m not taking it anymore face as he brandishes Suibian at Jiang Cheng not as a weapon, exactly, but a little bit.

(He doesn’t bite but he can hurt you in other ways!)

Anyway, this isn’t actually saying anything coherent, really, except just a lot of “ahhhhh” screaming about this scene and everything in it and everyone suffering in it and just. What a moment. 

3. The excruciating conversation between Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian in episode 48. Oh my god. Ohhhh my god. Okay, so, I’m always going to be a sucker for extremely painful and difficult sibling confrontations where everyone is spilling their feelings everywhere and it’s just a lot, and this was like. I remember on my first watch when this happened and I was like. Holy shit. This. This was what I needed. This!!!! 

And then no real resolution after, orz. But that’s what fanfiction is for. And there’s glimpses of the possibility, for sure, I Believe.

But anyway! And on rewatch this conversation just gets better and also more painful because of the ways that while it is finally a conversation that Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng have sort of needed to have for, like, ever, it’s also one that rips open a lot of old wounds and it is also one that involves a painful amount of talking past each other. 

There’s a long meta post somewhere (sorry! I never know how to find the meta I’m looking for when I want it and I’m lazy right now!) about how what Jiang Cheng needs to hear is that Wei Wuxian loves and cares about him, and what he does hear is that Wei Wuxian is, once again, cutting himself off, that it was all always about debts and obligations and nothing more. And what Wei Wuxian is trying to do is release Jiang Cheng from being tied to him by those debts and obligations, to give him freedom, with I think the idea of creating a clean slate that’s not tainted by everything that went wrong before. He thinks Jiang Cheng needs to be released, but what Jiang Cheng needs is to be held.

(Both of them do! Both of them need that! Both of them need to feel loved and cherished and these things also specifically by each other!)

And I just. I just cry a lot.

But it is also beautiful, in the way that it captures so much about their relationship and the blood and hurt and tenderness and love all tied excruciatingly together, the ways that they hurt and have hurt each other, the ways they push and pull, all of Jiang Cheng’s anger and hurt spilling out everywhere in a way that I think has been building for 16 years. It’s not closure, but it is a catharsis. 

And for Wei Wuxian - I think it has to be, on some level, a relief. Even as it’s painful, even as it is exactly what he never wanted to happen, the secret is out now and he doesn’t have to hold onto it anymore. They are both - in his eyes - free. 

It’s just...a wrenching conversation that hits, like, sixty of my buttons at once and gives me a whole lot of emotions. 

4. asldkajsldfkj the flashback to Xiao Xingchen’s suicide in episode 39 and what comes after, just go ahead and kill me now. Like okay it’s probably obvious by now that I live in this hole called “Yi City, my Xue Yang feelings, and my XueXiao feelings,” and during this liveblog I specifically spilled several posts and screenshots worth of them, but god!!!! it’s just so much. Like, the entire Yi City arc is messy and painful as hell, it’s just like being put through an emotional wringer where I hurt for everyone in it, but this is the part that is especially excruciating because everyone in this emotional climax is suffering so much. 

And, like. We knew where this would end. We knew Xiao Xingchen died, and a-Qing was just killed, and at this point Xue Yang is dying. No one is getting out of this alive - but we haven’t seen yet exactly how things closed out. And the answer is “badly. it’s badly.” 

Both of these people in the very bad breakup scene are hurting. Xiao Xingchen is in agony, his life falling apart in his hands - everything he thought he knew has been a lie, he’s been tricked, played for a fool. And the hammer blows keep coming. It’s not enough that it’s Xue Yang, that Xue Yang has been fucking with him (as far as he knows), lying to him, for three years. It’s what Xue Yang reveals about what he’s done. And then it’s what Xue Yang reveals about what he’s done to Song Lan.

And on the other end - Xue Yang’s weird fake domestic life that he’s gotten attached to, Xiao Xingchen who he’s come to care about - it’s imploding, irrevocably, in front of his face. And first he tries to explain himself, sort of, but he must know it’s not going to work; and then he goes back to what he does best and lashes out. You’re going to hurt me? I’ll hurt you fifty times as much.

I think he expects a fight. Or maybe, at most, he expects Xiao Xingchen to break down, and maybe he has some vague idea that then he can say see, this is what the world is really like, now you get it and rebuild him in some kind of Xue Yang-esque image (though I don’t think he really thinks that’ll happen). He doesn’t expect Xiao Xingchen to kill himself. He doesn’t expect Xiao Xingchen to die.

And then he doesn’t expect to not be able to get him back.

It’s just. This whole arc is people destroying each other and themselves body and soul, and this is the climax of it, the breaking point. And it hurts, real bad.

And as we have established! I love to suffer.

5. Drunk Lan Wangji, take two. All of these are like. “Pain! Pain! Pain!” and here we are with some goofy antics instead. I mean, the intro to drunk!Wangji is sad in the way that it has to do with what happened to Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen (and Lan Wangji’s always feelings about those parallels ouch), but then...I mean, drunk!Wangji is just generally adorable, but here he is especially adorable. 

Chicken theft! Vandalism! Trespassing! His adorable little smile when Wei Wuxian asks if he likes rabbits and he’s like. Yeah. :) :)

And then we close out with more emotions, of course. Because it’s not The Untamed without a little bit of pain thrown in there. 

“I have regret,” Lan Wangji says, a confession of fault, and of course Wei Wuxian can’t receive it, or won’t - and Lan Wangji reacts to his attempt at absolution by basically doing his usual “I don’t want to talk about this” routine of just bluntly changing the subject (in this case “going to bed now goodnight.”).

Also the entire bit where he goes from hopelessly drunk to fighting off an opponent and then back to hopelessly drunk, like. Even drunk!Wangji can and will kick your ass. 

And all of Wei Wuxian just like. Basically trip babysitting him? Gently trying to herd him around? The gentleness and fondness of it all?

Good. All good.

6. Qiongqi Path, take one. Emotional mauling! Terrifying evil flute Wei Wuxian! Dramatic face-off between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji! The beginning of Lan Wangji’s moral crisis! (Or, okay, not the beginning but this is definitely a major breaking point for his worldview, I think, and where his questioning really, truly begins.) 

It’s just...a lot of good. Everything with Wen Qing searching for Wen Ning’s body hurts so bad. Wei Wuxian coming stalking back into the camp with vengeance on the brain is as gloriously sexy as that vibe always is on him. And the confrontation between Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian? oh man. 

Juicy. And also. Ouch. 

(And am I a sucker for everything about ‘former allies ending up on opposite sides and one of them saying something along the lines of ‘if I’m going to die then I’d rather it was you who killed me’ yes I sure am! I didn’t cry nearly as much on my third watch but this scene is another one of my points that I think of when I think of bits in The Untamed that make me cry.

And as we’ve established already, I just love to cry.

7. God like. All of episode 19? Is that cheating? But it’s all so good! We have suffering Wei Wuxian! Mouthing off while being tortured! The entire sequence of him grabbing the sword and that moment of choice where his life turns as he answers that question (do you want revenge?) with a resounding yes? 

Lan Wangji absolutely fucking up some Wens on a desperate quest for Wei Wuxian? Teaming up with Jiang Cheng? (Do I still want to see more of that team up in that time? Yes please!!) SPOOKY FUCKING FLUTE MUSIC STARTING SIGNALING EXTREMELY OMINOUS THINGS TO COME?

Anyway it’s all very “fuck yeah, this is all quite tailored to me and my interests, thank you.”

8. Jiang Yanli coming for Jin Zixun’s life. I feel like I should just link to this analysis of this scene that really breaks it all down in detail? But god so satisfying. I mean, Jin Zixun is truly one of the most hateable characters in this show, in my opinion, and seeing Jiang Yanli step up and politely and meticulously demolish him is like. So satisfying. 

The face of a woman about to murder someone. But with words.

I really wish we could’ve seen more of this Jiang Yanli, because before this point she’s all softness and gentleness and while that’s very true of her - this part of her is also there, always, and I’d love to have seen more of it.

But like. Getting it here? Stunning. Showstopping. Love it.

9. Wei Wuxian wrecks a party, but, like, sexily. I mean, he wrecks a few parties, but I’m thinking specifically of the one in episode 26 prior to Qiongqi Path, take one. Everything about that whole scene is gold top to bottom, but what really gets me going is everything from the dramatic entrance (I’m tempted to make a list of Wei Wuxian’s best dramatic entrances) onward to “sexy menacing countdown.” It’s just all so...I mean, I’ve talked about how much I love furiously angry and on the verge of losing it Wei Wuxian, and this is some prime that material. 

(Pictured: the sexiest way anyone has ever said the word ‘two.’)

And just! The tension of it all, how it builds and builds and builds and even when it finally releases when Zixun caves there’s still all this lingering “oh fuck! that’s bad!” dread...it’s just very good. 

And I also love it as one of those key plot turning moments where it’s like. This isn’t the irrevocable break, but it’s a big one as far as ‘no going back from this.’

And like. Not just Wei Wuxian, everyone else in this scene is excellent too. Just. Mm. Good.

10. Wei Wuxian is sexy when he’s mean and that’s just the truth. Which is to say: the very bad breakup scene between him and Lan Wangji in episode 20. I’ve read two different analyses of this scene, both brilliant (by @hunxi-guilai here, and @neuxue here), and I feel like I can’t add much to that other than to reiterate that Wei Wuxian is very sexy when he’s mean, and the layers of everything going on in this scene are. Ugh!!! So good.

(I mean, also everything that comes before, I have put myself down firmly in camp “Wei Wuxian is also sexy when he murders people, you go Wei Ying, murder people as much as you want, it’s hot.” And the hug with Jiang Cheng! (THAT HUG. IT IS SUCH A HUG.))

But the confrontation between him and Lan Wangji in particular! it is so fuckin good. Honestly just read the linked analyses, I’ve got nothing I can say better that’s not in there, just a lot of “ahhhhhhh” about it all.

BONUS MENTIONS TO: basically every time Wei Wuxian Yiling Laozus, “stay and die with me.” 

[missholland]

Lan Wangji (mostly, his love)

LAN ZHAN! I read somewhere that this was said 102 times by Wei Wuxian in The Untamed. It feels like an understatement, cause I’ve watched the show so many times now I could hear ‘Lan Zhan’ being called in my sleep...

My first time watching the drama, I was full on Team Xianxian. I mean, who would not be? He’s the central character of the story, he’s the first thing you see within the first few seconds of episode 1, and who could resist his sunflower aura? I was not into Lan Wangji at all. I remember this clearly because I just found an old Instagram story in my Archive on the day I first watched this show: a screenshot of Wangji’s face in episode 3 and my caption was: ‘OMG how could Wei sunshine fall in love with this dry and boring man?’. And just like how Wangji eventually swallowed all of the statements he had made about the young Wei Wuxian (’I don’t touch other people’, ‘We’re not close’, etc.), I am not the same person on that fateful day tuning in the first episode on Netflix. I am now Team Hanguang-Jun through and through!

What I’ve been enjoying so much these days is watching random earlier/later episodes just to compare how Wangji’s attitude changed toward Wei Wuxian over 16 years-ish. It’s probably so obvious for everyone that he definitely falls in love first, even when the drama purposely made their early relationship a lot more intense comparing to the novel i.e. showing Wei Wuxian somewhat feeling the same way about Wangji in his first life, with the constant flirting and mutual pining (don’t even get me started...). Now that I kinda understand what the character is like, it makes a lot of sense the way he processed his feelings for Wuxian in his youth. I wonder how different he would have reacted without the push from the best brother/wingman in the cultivation world - Lan Xichen. Sure, Jiang Cheng had a lot to say about this too, but mostly out of a slight envy (I reckon) over Wuxian’s new subject of desire. But Lan Xichen sees through his brother, and has been pretty much WangXian fanclub admin since day 1. I don’t have a brother, but man, I wish Lan Xichen could be mine.

In my humble opinion, the fact that we were given 3 versions of Wei Wuxian throughout the series kinda gifts us 3 versions of Lan Wangji too in a way - the straight face, the confused heart, and the national boyfriend/husband. Considering the number of times I rewatched the latter half of the series i.e. episode 33 onward, I just want to write down all of my thoughts about the national boyfriend/husband Lan Wangji, and not just because that version seems to have the most lines comparing to the other two.

There are several details that were not explained much in the series (although shown on screen) so I have to read from the novel later on. But oh my god, the stuff I found... I never realized that the scene before Lan Wangji went to Mo’s manor where his guqin was playing behind him standing on the balcony referred to how he used Inquiry to find Wuxian. What Jiang Cheng said to him about having gone to a lot of places for 16 years and searching for someone completely went over my head in the first watch, and imagine how I scratched my brain revisiting that part. That plus ‘oh I’ve never seen you at a cultivation conference before’ in episode 41 - my goodness, because he was spending ALL of his time LOOKING FOR Wei Wuxian.

Another thing I hope would have been addressed in the series was the hot iron mark on his chest. I thought the story of him drinking wine and giving himself a mark identical to Wuxian’s was the prime work of a broken heart. He must have thought about their conversation in Xuanwu cave, about the mark staying on his skin forever and how Wuxian was convinced Mianmian would never forget him. Was that how Wangji was making a point of never forgetting Wei Wuxian? If that scene made into the drama, I would have thought Wangji’s character song Buwang to be play in the background. The lyrics fit the situation so much.

Personally, everything from episode 33 onward was perfection for me, finally getting to see Wangji embrace his feelings and ACT ON THEM toward the romance-blind idiot Wei Wuxian (yes, he totally is). All the caring touches and details played out so astonishingly. One of my favourite (which doesn’t seem to be a popular one since I have not seen many gifs of it on Tumblr) was when, after interrogating Huaisang, Wangji comfortably moved over the other side of the table and picked up Wuxian’s left leg to CLEAN THE EVIL SPELL - think of the level of intimacy this act is! Although that came after the romantic piggyback under the moonlight, I thought that speaks volume for someone who doesn’t even physically interact with his family members, and serves as a great follow-up right after he, again comfortably, pulled up Wuxian’s trousers to check his leg.

What I thought was always presented so beautifully is every time Wangji serves Wuxian liquor. The way he carefully picks up his sleeve, prepares the cup (I know they’re probably not called ‘cups’ but I can’t find another word), pours the liquor and slides it over to his partner is so well demonstrated and shows how much he wants to properly take care of Wuxian. Would you put so much effort in such a tiny mundane act if you’re not doing it for the most important person in your life? 

In a way, I feel like everything he does is making up for what he could not do the past 16 years, including remembering so many tiny details and keeping all sort of Wuxian-related things. My favourite Wangji keepsake moment, despite being a very short one, is the butterfly talisman at Yunping City which he gave to Wuxian to rescue Wen Ning. I don’t know why that moment makes me really really happy, probably because that was one of the earliest items Wangji could have kept hold of from Wuxian’s. That tells us how way long before he was developing feelings toward this little rebel. Not to mention, we did see Wangji even use this very talisman in episode 11 when he encountered Wen Chao on his way back to Cloud Recesses.

Yes, the ‘I knew he was Wei Ying all along’ while having all the swords pointed at you is highly pivotal as it’s basically the censored version of ‘I love you’. BUT, the moment all leading cultivators of all major and minor clans ran to Burial Mounds just to witness Lan Wangji standing proudly without flinch on the other side with Wei Wuxian makes me appreciate that whole arc a lot more than the big revelation in the last 3 episodes. Wangji ignoring his own Grand Master, Wuxian once again standing against every single person in the cultivation world but with so much confidence this time around - to me, is beyond satisfying. I love this arc so much so I wrote a separate piece about episode 44-45 - if you’re interested in more of my random thoughts, feel free to have a read here.

Thinking about all this, I’m absolutely in awe of how protective national boyfriend Wangji is to Wei Wuxian even before knowing he lost his golden core. They either have insanely accurate GPS, or just really good telepathy. Wangji’s constant attention to his partner (without having to verbally find out where he is) blows my mind every time. Remember how proud Wei Wuxian was having Lan Wangji come out just in time to fight Xue Yang at Coffin Town? That’s how much Wangji’s love and trust empowers Wuxian and makes him so so so secured, even when everyone was walking around in the fog hiding from the most notorious killer and his puppets. 

The one detail that pushed me over the edge completely (thanks a lot Lan Xichen) was the story of Wangji’s mom. Oh my god, baby Wangji sitting in the snow really messes with my head. I cannot believe it took 40 something episodes for us to learn about Wangji’s emotionally damaged upbringing and what shapes him into a stubborn lovebird as we know today. It adds A LOT more context and sadness to his famous phrase ‘bring a man back to Cloud Recesses and hide him’, as well as Lan Qiren’s statement ‘have you not learned from your father’s lesson’. I revisit the ‘bring back and hide him’ scene with a completely new perspective and can sense Wangji’s pain and confusion that Xichen described. The desperation in that statement of Wangji was a lot heavier in my eyes now that I understand the back story. If I were Wei Wuxian listening to all of that from Lan Xichen, I would probably have a meltdown right there at the doorsteps of the Silence Room.

Now we all know the source of inspiration of the infamous ‘I want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses. Bring him back and hide him’ in episode 25:

So after all of Xichen’s effort in telling Wuxian how Wangji actually feels about him through the tear-jerker story about their parents, Wei Wuxian STILL asked Lan Wangji WHY he was willing to seal Bichen and his own spiritual power so that Jin Guangyao would not hurt him. This dense man, of course, brought up the guilt card i.e. ‘Oh you don’t owe me anything’. I mean COME ON NOW YILING PATRIARCH! CAN YOU ACTUALLY BE THAT OBLIVIOUS WHEN IT COMES TO THE MAN THAT TOOK 300 LASHES ON HIS BACK FOR PROTECTING YOUR LEGACY? 

I know it went the other way in the novel, where the big confession happened. Maybe a bite from Fairy could do you some good, or just talk to Lan Xichen some more and then you can start appreciating your soulmate the way he deserves.

The silver lining after being deprived of an epic love confession is everything that happened in episode 50. It might have not been spelling-it-out clear as in ‘I love you’ ‘I love you too’ because of the government censorship, but it’s easily the most obvious yet emotional type of ending the production team has worked to hard to deliver. If you are still having trouble processing the allegedly ‘ambiguous’ finale, I can help with that - here. Just a heads up: it’s a happy ending. 

Good to know Wei Wuxian has the rest of his life making up to Lan Wangji. Everyday means everyday, because Wangji deserves THAT much!

[inessencedevided]

The Untamed, episode 42 - watching notes

I was up playing partygames over discord until 3 am yesterday, so I didn't get to watch another episode. I complained about it to my friends, which in turn made them complain that I sounded like I would rather watch my "gay chinese fantasy show" than spent time with them. I contemplated saying yes, but decided to keep my friend instead :D

And we were currently in the middle of a confrontation with Jiggy (as I've been informed he's called ... what? ^^) who apparently murdered his son to keep some secret, which with how this shows is going, I wouldn't be surprised is them going full game of thrones and ... you know what I'm talking about

Oh right, Su She is there

He's the Jin Zixun to my wei Wuxian. As in, I can never remember his name or why I should care 🤷‍♀️

(But thus time I DO remember who he is. That is, after lwj said his name ^^)

I'm so sure that jgy hit all evidence by now, btw

Okay, no. his wife is still there

Su She might be an asshole but his hair piece is gorgeous :D

What does it say about me that my first thought about that dagger was COOL!!! 😱😱😱

How dare you take Wen Qing's name in vain! 🤬

😱

I thought she'd stab him!!! Not herself :'(

I'm a bit surprised that with 5 cultivators in the room, no one does more to save her

Oh, JGY is a damn good actor!! I mean we knew that before, but now his apparent confusion and grieve for his wife seems even more (dare I quote lwj?) shameless

Lan Xichen, i know you love him but ...

Fun fact: In German, we call fake tears "Krokodilstränen". Literal translation: "crocodile tears"

That's what this is 😐

Especially about the nie Mingjue

Poor Nie Huaisang 💔💔💔

"Taking the head. Who in the world would have done such an insane act?" GEE, I WONDER ...

Sorry, I still find jgy fascinating, but this is so uncomfortable to watch, knowing at least part of what really happened 🙈

Lord, give me the power to murder people with one gaze like Lan Wangji 🙏

This whole conversation is so supremely uncomfortable

I'm still unsure if Jin Guangyao really doesn't suspect that "Mo Xuanyu" isn't who he says he is or if it's just a very convincing act 🤨

Favourite trope: Hanguang Jun, Yiling Laozou's knight in shining armour

First of all: Hot

Second of all: Lwj internally: DON'T YOU DARE FUCKING TOUCH HIM I ONLY JUST GOT HIM BACK AND WE HAVEN'T EVEN MADE OUT YET

probably

Also, for a split second there, you saw Jiang Cheng leap forward with a real look of concern on his face, like his first instinct was to help wwx himself 🥺🥺🥺

HE'S USING SUIBIAN AGAIN!!!

This feels so huge! 😱

I'm weirdly emo about a sword rn :')

His cover is blown of course

And him and Jin ling just had a good relationship :(

NHS, JL and JGY: How could it BE that this is Yiling Laozou???

Meanwhile Lan Xichen and Jiang Cheng

"With the right kind of sacrifice, it can safe one who was seriously injured." Is this another instance of "we can't say this it's necromancy because censors, but y'all damn well know this is necromancy because no one falls down a cliff and then lies there "seriously injured" for goddam 16 years"?

I'm all teary eyed at lwj not even hesitating to flee with wwx :')

Jin Ling 💔🥺

Fuck you Jin Guangyao for playing at his pain!!!

Omg they're as good as holding hands!!! 😭😭😭

Of course, wax is pushing lwj away, OF COURSE. Self-sacrificing idiot!

That mask reveal was *chef's kiss* the drama! The gasps! The ... long-suffering "here we go again look" from lan Xichen :D

I LOVE IT WHEN LWJ SPEAKS UP!!

"You're wrong."

So simple. Yet saying so much: "I kniw him. I trust him. I chose this."

And OF COURSE Wei Wuxian gives him another way out

BUT THESE TWO FINALLY GET THEIR SHIT TOGETHER AND COMMUNICATE THEIR THOUGHTS! FINALLY!

"Did you believe in me back then?" YES, I WAS JUST TOO AFRAID TO SAY IT,SO MY CONCERN CAME OUT AS ANGER 😭😭😭

And the single logged bridge again 😭😭😭 I adore that metaphor! And I love that they chose to show us the flashback. Because last time, wwx and lwj parted, took different roads so to speak, one the one of defiance, the other the one of orthodoxy. Neither wanted to part ways, but neither probably thought that they had much of a choice. But they did have a choice and they made it. And lwj has already expressed his regret over that. So here he is again, using his second chance without a thought.

Because lwj believes that wwx is right, MORALLY, so he will go against his clan, reputation be damned, and stand with the man he loves ... finally. He'll choose what they both believe to be right and walk with him "until it's dark" :')

And THAT'S WHAT I LOVE ABOUT THIS SO MUCH!! It's not just that "oh they're so cute and they compliment each other so well, they must be soulmates uwu". Most of all they share a common morality!!!

I'm so goddamn amazed at this ship! This is not I was thought I was getting when I boarded it, but goddamn it I'm loving the ride! 😭😭😭

And .. just, the look in Lan Wangji's eyes ... they have 50 swords drawn on them, but guessing from the look on his face and the softness of his gaze they might as well be at their wedding 😭😭😭

He looks like a man entirely at peace with his decision :')

Just ...

Look

At

THEM!!!

They're holding hands in that last shot!!!! 😭😭😭

I'm absolutely floored at how utterly beautiful this scene is! "Romantic" seems too insignificant to describe it. It feels more like 42 episodes worth of love and pining and misunderstandings coming to their natural conclusion

My heart is so full right now guys :')

Very nice of these 50 people to wait for their moment to pass before attacking. Very considerate 😁

"Are we going to fight or not." "Too much talking" I WANT 50 EPISODES OF THESE TWO BICKERING!!! 😭😭😭

Jin Ling :'(

Noooo

No

Noooo

I don't know who my heart is bleeding for more here

Jin ling doesn't deserve to have to shoulder his parent's and uncle's pain :'((

All this supporting each other when injured? That's the good stuff

And those flashbacks ... wwx finally FINALLY realizes that lwj never hated him for his actions, he was afraid for him :')

Tbf,the guy has a sliiiight communication issue 😐

That quote about how lwj is at his side now that everyone else despices him!! That's it THAT'S THE SHIP!!😭😭😭

Oh, lwj took him back to cloud recess

I'm surprised he was allowed to, tbh

Ooh, so Mo Xuanyu knew something!

And... someone else must now know about him?

Also, I didn't realise that wwx still had a cut from the curse

I gotta take a moment to scream about HOW UTTERLY DOMESTIC AND AT EAS THESE TWO NOW ARE WITH EACH OTHER!!! 😭

XICHEN!!!

I should have known that the OG wangxian shipper would support them

But he still trusts Jin Guangyao. Not that I'm surprised

It's so weird to see anyone on this show in trousers btw 😅

"You're more than I can handle." Lol ^^

"You trust Master Wei, while I trust Jin Guangyao." Oh boy ...

I feel like this might be more of a confrontation than these two brothers had in their entire lives

Love me some detective-wwx

Poor Xichen 😔 he doesn't want to believe it

Somehow, wwx with a white underrobe makes me think "that's what he looks like when he and lwj accidentally swab robes" :D

Uuuh! The restricted section forbidden chamber!

So ... jin Guangyao somehow got this piece of music from the lan library?

But he's good! He's really good! He consistently uses others weaknesses and prays on them so that they act in a more extreme manner, but not so much that others would suspect foulplay. Case in point: nie Mingjue's death by anger and (more recently) the way he played towards Jin ling's feelings.

Aaaand another rather abrupt end in the middle of a conversation. That's one thing this show does not do well 😅

Anyway, I'm not complaining this episode send my shipper heart (BECAUSE I'M SO DWEP DOWN THIS RABBIT HOLE AT THIS POINT) fly with joy!!

@sweetlittlevampire @fandom-glazed @elenirlachlagos @allhailthedramallama @luckymoony @kyrrahbird @i-love-him-on-purpose 🖤💙🖤💙

[cesare-and-raistlin]

The Untamed/MDZS Spoiler Review

Book rating: 3.5/5                  Drama rating: 8.5/10

This is going to be a comparative review of the novel and the live-action drama. I started with the drama, and watched about 25 episodes (all that were available at the time) before I started reading the book. I finished the book at around the time episode 38 came out.

So both my viewing and reading experiences were directly impacted by me consuming both versions at the same time, which is why I don’t think I can write a review that isn’t about comparing the two.

Overall, I’d say I like the drama better. The main actors’ performances, Xiao Zhan’s in particular, played a large role in that. But neither work was perfect, and each had their respective strong points.

First off, I think I have to make it clear that Wei Wuxian is my favourite character (which is good, since he’s the main character). This is important for this review, as I will take into great consideration how each version treated him, his story and his arc.

I usually separate my drama rating into two: I give a maximum of 5 points for objective quality and 5 points for personal appreciation. But I had to cheat here. The most The Untamed could have gotten with that system is a generous 7.5/10, and that feels somewhat wrong for a drama that made me feel so much.

The Untamed is probably the first longer Chinese drama that I watched where I never felt like there were too many episodes. Even The Rise of Phoenixes and Guardian, which I both love, had filler that could easily have been cut. But this drama was almost never boring and mostly stayed focused on the main characters, and with 50 episodes, that’s really impressive.

Dark Wuxian

The best thing about the novel for me was probably how delectably gruesome it was. The drama was only PG-13—and I’m being generous—, but the book was R-rated in every aspect. And while the sex scenes weren’t especially my thing (more on that later, unfortunately), the violence was unrestrained in the best possible way.

I love villains. I really do. And while Wuxian wasn’t exactly a villain, every single one of his villainous scenes was just marvellous. I think he has a body count of about 6,000 in this book. Six. Thousand. His Sunshot Campaign moments were some of my favourite, especially the scene where Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng finally find him after searching for him for three months. The way Wuxian dealt with Wen Chao was extremely gruesome (after all, he made him eat his own legs), but it was sooo satisfying.

(Please don’t come out of this review thinking that I’m a sadist. This kind of events in real life would absolutely horrify me. But this is fiction. And I enjoy my fiction best when it’s ruthless.) 

Dark Wuxian, as I’ve been calling him, is definitely my favourite aspect of the book. We don’t get enough of him, but what we get is amazing. Wuxian is a morally gray character. On a D&D spectrum, over the course of this story, he goes from chaotic good to chaotic evil to chaotic neutral. He does good things, he does bad things, he does selfish things, he does selfless things. He’s a complex character.

But it seems that the drama decided that no, Wei Wuxian wouldn’t be a bad person. At all. The only really reprehensible thing we see him do (and even that is debatable) is killing a few dozen Wens and torturing Wen Chao (in a much less gory way than in the book, but I can live with that). From the moment after he comes back to Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng, he is somewhat… muzzled. The book has him digging out corpses and using zombies to fight in the war, while the drama opted for the much less morally ambiguous “smoke ghosts” that aren’t ever really explained. There were no giggling zombie girls serving him tea either, which I also feel is a shame.

But, then again, I can live with that. 

What annoyed me the most, and something for which I cannot forgive the drama, is the Nightless City battle. Forget how poorly executed the whole thing was—I’d given up on this drama’s technical quality long ago. I can accept bad CGI. I can accept incompetent editing. I can even accept odious music. What I will not accept, however, is Wuxian to be absolved of his every fault by making someone else the author of the massacre and the reason for Jiang Yanli’s death. The greatest thing about Wei Wuxian is that is he not blameless. But that’s what the drama made him, and I’m absolutely bitter about it. The drama’s Wuxian doesn’t lose control: control is taken away from him. He doesn’t pay the price for his overconfidence. Jin Zixuan dies at Qionqi Path, not because Wuxian’s instincts and PTSD get the better of him and make him lash out like a cornered dog, but because someone intervenes. His sister dies, but it’s not his fault. And this is really frustrating me. 

The book asks this question: Can someone who does bad things be a good person?

But the drama doesn’t, because the drama doesn’t allow Wuxian to be bad.

Also, we’re supposed to accept that Su She was talented enough to overpower Wuxian at the technique that he himself invented? And without owning the Tiger Seal? You’re kidding me, right?

 Storytelling and Authenticity

One of the major changes in adapting the novel to live action was the decision to spend 60% of the story in the past storyline, something the novel was very concise about. The events presented in both versions are generally the same, but the drama greatly expanded on the material that it had, and let me say, this was the best thing they could have done. Making most major characters meet at the Cloud Recesses? Genius move. The characters had time to build relationships, something they didn’t always have in the book. It was necessary, notably, to establish a connection between Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning and Wen Qing before the YunmengJiang massacre, so that the rescue wouldn’t come out of nowhere, something it kind of did in the novel. The relationship between the three Yunmeng siblings was explored in detail, making their later tragedy several times stronger and more painful. Though Wuxian stayed the main character the entire time, the drama also gave a POV to other characters, most notably to Lan Wangji, which was a great improvement to the book, where Wangji is a POV characters for maybe two scenes. While I’m never a fan of not having Wuxian’s prettiness on my screen, we do needed to see scenes like the attack on the Cloud Recesses or Wangji’s punishment with our own eyes. Getting these moments through exposition only would have made for weaker storytelling.

And weaker storytelling was what we unfortunately got with the novel. This is not the right story for a one protagonist only third person limited point of view. Especially when that one protagonist is dead for 13 years, 13 years during which many things happen. Wuxian gets reincarnated, and now needs to know what has been going on when he was dead. Being limited by the narrative style that she set herself, the author was forced to deliver the exposition in huge chunks through the Empathy spell, occupying several chapters each time and thoroughly boring me in the process. This could have been delivered organically with additional POV characters, but the book went the route of the exposition dump.

To be fair, similar exposition dumps are also there in the drama. But they do not feel as much out of place, as the drama made a point to show us scenes with and about the concerned characters beforehand, Jin Guangyao in particular. He was an already well-established character long before he became a major player in the story. Which certainly wasn’t the case in the book.

Something that is easier to do on screen than on paper is the everyday gestures of the characters. Things like Jiang Cheng rolling his eyes at everything that Wuxian does, Wuxian holding his flute Chenqing the same way one would do a sword, the Yunmeng bros playfully hitting each other at any given time, Wen Ning looking at everything with puppy eyes, the ducklings junior disciples using exaggerated fighting stances, Wuxian and Wangji’s eyes crossing every time one of them decides to do something. 

You can, technically, put all of these, every instance, in a book. But by writing something, you draw attention to it. You not only make it important, you also make your main character notice it. Which is why writers don’t include every single move their characters make in their book, since most aren’t necessary to the story, would feel repetitive and would distract the reader, or would make the protagonist more observant than they should be. The beauty of film, however, is that you can include these details, as much as you want, without directly drawing the viewer’s attention to them. There are many ways to do this; wide or crowded shots are some examples. These seemingly unimportant details were extremely useful in accomplishing what seemed to be one of the drama’s main objectives: they made the whole thing feel sincere. Character quirks and background interactions work wonders at making you feel like the people on your screen are real and not just played by actors. The relationships between the characters felt so much more real and made me feel so many things that the book didn’t. While I wouldn’t go so far as saying that the book characters felt stale or artificial, the drama definitely added another layer of authenticity.

The drama was better at portraying Wuxian’s conflicted emotional state in the events from his return from the Burial Mounds to the Nightless City battle. Of course, it’s to be expected, as the drama spent way more time in the past storyline than the novel did. But by deciding to spend more time with the Jiang siblings, it was also able to depict the way Wuxian’s behaviour changed and how his new physical weakness affected him in a way that wasn’t present in the book. Wuxian doesn’t possess a golden core any longer, and he doesn’t want anyone to know about it. But there are things he cannot fake. Two scenes in particular come to mind. In the first, Wangji attacks Wuxian suddenly, and after barely blocking a few blows, a shocked Wuxian just closes his eyes and waits for the sword to kill him. He used to be one of the best swordsmen, but without any spiritual energy, he now knows that he cannot win a sword fight against Lan Wangji. So he closes his eyes and accepts his imminent death with a painful expression on his face. In the second scene, Wuxian tries to reconcile with Jiang Cheng after an argument, but his brother shoves him the second he touches him. Wuxian falls on the ground, and stays there. The look on his face is a combination of shock and hurt, as he comes to the realization that even playful fighting with his brother is now out of his grasp. 

These scenes were a great addition by the drama. Not only did they succeed in adding tension to the characters’ relationships, they also successfully teased Wuxian’s lack of golden core. In the book, this reveal doesn’t entirely come out of nowhere, but you also really needed to pay attention to every detail to guess it. The drama plays a different game: while it is still perfectly possible for less attentive viewers to be surprised by the later reveal, the real emotional pull of the subplot has now become “When will the people who love Wuxian discover the sacrifices that he made?” The fact that the mystery is easier to guess for viewers simply manages to make them more invested in the eventual reveal and how it will affect the characters. And the reveal itself is… *kisses fingers* delicious.

Adaptations Are Hard

In adapting the book, the drama succeeded in many things, several of which I’ve already mentioned. But too many times to count, it also failed to stand on its own.

This isn’t a drama that was ever going to be 100% faithful to its source material. Because of China’s censorship laws, it had to change a lot of things to be able to air. Of course, the gay romance was turned into a bromance (although it didn’t dupe anybody). All the R-rated content was turned into PG-13 appropriate. Undead Wen Ning was made kind of alive in the drama (reminding me of how Chu Shuzhi was a zombie in the Guardian novel but a perfectly alive dude in the drama). Most walking corpses were replaced by black shadows, and were only used by villains. (China really doesn’t like undead characters, guys.) It has been brought to my attention that Wuxian’s toned down evilness may also be a result of adapting to censorship, and if that’s the case, it makes me both more annoyed and more understanding of what the drama did.

However.

When you change something from the source material, whatever the reason is, you have to think about what the implications of your changes are. Which the scriptwriters of The Untamed clearly didn’t.

“Wei Wuxian has been killing indiscriminately since the Sunshot Campaign!” No he hasn’t.

“I’ve fought 3,000 people before, I can take 3,000 of you now.” No you didn’t.

“Sect Leader Jiang, don’t forget that one of the main powers that surrounded the Burial Mounds was you.” That siege never even happened.

Over and over, the drama changes things from the book but doesn’t adapt its later scenes to fit those changes. This results in a succession of lines that feel out of place and incongruous.

In a similar way, they have Wuxian be reincarnated into his old body instead of into Mo Xuanyu’s body. And I get it. I understand why. Your lead actor may very well be the best thing about your show, and giving him up midway through would be a pain for several reasons. BUT. They kept the whole thing about people not being able to recognize Wuxian until the Koi Tower sequence when he unsheathes Suibian. Even though he has the same jaw, the same hair, the same clothes, the same voice, the same basically everything that he had before his death. I guess the drama realized that pushing this farce with Wangji wouldn’t work, so they dropped the whole series of scenes where Wuxian tries to make Wangji believe that he’s Mo Xuanyu. It still doesn’t redeem how senseless other scenes are. In the book, Jin Ling frees Wuxian after Jiang Cheng caught him because he genuinely thinks that Wuxian is Mo Xuanyu, whom he knows personally and probably doesn’t want to see get tortured. But in the drama, he frees Wuxian because…? Jiang Cheng has seen Wuxian’s face and has stated that it’s him, so Jin Ling shouldn’t have any reason to doubt his uncle. 

It’s an adaptation. It’s alright to change things. But guys, the changes have to make sense!

Did anybody proofread the script? Nobody?

The Technical Stuff, or Me Shitting on This Drama for 700 Words Straight

If what you’re looking for is competent filmmaking, then I would suggest you look elsewhere.

But if you want an interesting story, sympathetic characters, poignant relationships, and themes of what is right and what is wrong and all the gray areas in between, then go ahead!

— Me, August 15

So.

This is not well-made television.

Like, at all.

Ok, so the costumes are pretty great. The different clans are easy to distinguish while never seeming cartoonish, the details of each garment are exquisite, and, let’s face it, Wuxian black robes simply stole the show. The weapons were really pretty. Some of the tracks from the soundtrack are actually quite nice. There are a few beautiful visuals. The main leads’ acting was good.

But I’m sorry, I have no more nice things to say.

The cinematographer obviously didn’t know how to frame a shot. Camera angles were often awkward or downright useless. The camera moved amateurishly, enough to bring the production values down by itself. Chinese drama reviewer Avenue X has dedicated a significant part of her Untamed review to the problems with this drama’s photography, and since she knows what she’s talking about way more than I do, I’ll leave a link to her video here: X

The editor didn’t know how to edit a scene. It was mostly apparent during fight scenes, with their weird cuts and incessant fading to black for no reason, although I don’t think that I could call any scene of this 50-episode drama “well edited.” Even my favourites. The best ones are just passable.

The editing and cinematography aren’t necessarily bad because of a lack of budget, which we know was a problem with this drama. You can make simple but great content with a small budget. No, they’re bad because the people responsible were not competent. 

The two directors themselves don’t have the best track record. The Legends and The Plough Department of Song Dynasty are not well-made dramas in any way. Even Secrets of the Three Kingdoms, on which director Cheng Wai Man worked, was great because of its script and its characters but was brought down by its underwhelmingly average technical craftsmanship.

The sound mixer didn’t know how to juggle the diegetic music and the soundtrack. You know, when you have a main character who fights with a flute, maybe, just maybe, don’t use the tracks from the soundtracks that have flute in them in his scenes. There are many points during the drama where I could hear flute music but had no way of knowing whether that music was diegetic or not, if Wuxian was really playing or if it was part of the soundtrack. Wen Chao: “The flute! The flute! Is it the flute?” Wen Zhuliu: “It’s not. It’s the sound of the wind.” [Meanwhile in the background: flute music.] At this point of the story, Wen Chao is clearly deranged and Wen Zhuliu acts as the voice of reason. However, as the audience, we can hear the sound of a flute. Is it part of the soundtrack? Is Wen Zhuliu in denial or lying to Wen Chao? Is Wuxian playing for Wen Chao’s ears only? There was no need for this scene and others like it to be so confusing.

Most of the secondary actors didn’t know how to act. Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo were mostly great, particularly once they got used to each other better, and I can name a few actors whom I think did a really good job (Xuan Lu who played Jiang Yanli and Liu Haikuan who played Lan Xichen) but most others were passable at best and horrible at worst.

The VFX artists were just lost all the time. Though I will say that the black shadows created by Wuxian usually looked pretty cool. But they had neither the time nor budget to make this CGI-heavy show seem realistic in any way. Is this a surprise? No. I’m used to Chinese web-drama CGI by now. And I actually appreciate that The Untamed made some efforts to have practical effects when possible. They still looked bad (that giant dog was absolutely terrible), but they could have been so much worse if they had been computer animated. At least they tried.

We Need to Talk About Wangxian, I Guess

The drama’s version of Wangxian is amazing. It’s soft and romantic and heartfelt and authentic. And the fact that it’s technically supposed to be a bromance doesn’t take anything away from it. Nobody in their right mind watches this show and thinks, “They’re just friends.” Where Guardian still tried to (unsuccessfully) pass Weilan as bros, the people who made The Untamed were all *wink wink* with the entire relationship: having Wuxian and Wangji call each other “soulmates” and gaze at each other like the two idiots in love that they are, holding hands, being overprotective, and even including a damn montage of them falling in love. (How this drama still hasn’t been cancelled in China is an absolute mystery to me.)

Book Wangxian is… something else.

In the drama, Wuxian and Wangji become friends rather fast. And while Wuxian still has some moments when he believes that Wangji is there to put him down (“Lan Zhan, I’ve always known that we’d end up in a fight to the death”), he mostly understands that they’re friends. Book Wuxian, on the contrary, still believes that Wangji is out to get him well into the present storyline. And let me be clear: both versions work. They carry very different emotions, but they work. Until we get to the romance.

Because in the book, Wangxian kinds of happens out of nowhere.

In the novel, Wuxian suddenly goes from “Lan Wangji hates me and I need to get away from him” to “Is homosexuality contagious” to “I really wanted to sleep with you!” (in front of his damn nephew, may I add), and that’s fine, in theory. But the transitions in between those changes of heart aren’t really there. 99% of the story is told from Wuxian’s point of view, and I still came out of the book not really knowing why he likes Wangji. That’s kind of a problem.

And then there’s the sex scenes. Oh, the sex scenes.

It would be an exaggeration to say that they sex scenes of the book ruined Wangxian for me, but they certainly did nothing good for the ship in my heart.

It’s not really on brand of me to talk about these things in detail, so I’ll be brief: there is a consent issue with pretty much every single sex scene. In the very first, Wangji is inebriated and cannot consent. The very worst one, which is part of the extras, is clearly a rape. A dream rape, sure, but a rape nonetheless. And the book treats it like something, I don’t know, exciting? So yeah, after finishing the book, Wangxian was making me uncomfortable. The show’s absolute sweetness made it better, but I still have a sour taste in my mouth.

Conclusion

After this review, you may be thinking, “Wow, she really doesn’t like either the book or the drama that much.” But this is just harsh love. I have an eternal soft spot in my heart for this story. To quote my own tweets:

“I have to hit pause every 30 seconds because I love Wuxian so much my heart hurts.”

 “it's so good

i wanna cry”

[irenewsky]

The Untamed: part 2

Hello. I wrote my thoughts and reactions on the first five episodes of this show and now I’ll continue to do so for the next five. I’m really enjoying this so far.

[Disclaimer: this post contains spoilers! Also some swearing]

Ep. 6

The chaotic trio is back and they’re drunk!

*cackles* exposing Jiang Cheng like that! I love this brothers dynamic. 10/10

Ah, yes, the ”quick, act natural” moment I’ve heard so much about

Drunk Lan Wangji! This is the most expressions that I’ve seen on him

”No women would marry you” oh boy, do I have some news for you Wei Wuxian

The Wei family. Lemme just cry here

Oh no, now Zewu-jun and Lan Qiren knows about the liquoir. Fuck fuck fuck

Can you just imagine what this cold spring scene would have been like had it been exactly like the novel’s?

I’m pretty sure LWJ doesn’t care about the beauties in Yunmeng unless it’s you, Wei Wuxian

”What’s happening?” I’m asking the same thing, Wei Wuxian. I don’t remember this from the novel. I mean, a magical guqin and rabbits?? A mysterious cave?? Wtf

Oh? OH. The headband is now around their wrists

Okay, so... that’s Lan Yi and her story. Encounter like this did not happen in the novel, right?

Ep. 7

Small world, huh, Lan Yi

There’s so much happening right now

I’m seriously confused right now. I’m raking my brain to try and remember if this happened in the novel but I’m coming up empty. I don’t think this happened at this point or at least not like this? Then again, it’s been 2 years since I last read the novel so I wouldn’t trust my memory

But if I recall correctly, Qishan Wen sect’s Discussion Conference and the whole Xuanwu thing should be nearing us?

Is this Jiang Cheng being afraid that his brother will leave him behind

Aw, Wangji smiled

”Wish that I can graduate successfully and don’t come back here again” me back in high school

Shijie protection squad is back and fighting Jin Zixuan

Jiang Fengmian appears! Father of the year! (can you hear my sarcasm)

”Marriage is important” says Jin Guangshan, the man known to have many sidechicks. Madam Jin deserves better

”Let’s cancel the throt” Jiang Cheng and I seem to have the collective ”no!” ringing in our heads

”You’ll have a beautiful lady to marry you” does Hanguang-jun count?

Ep. 8

”Lotus Cove” it’s Lotus Pier wtf

Don’t throw the rabbit around like that! I almost got a heart attack!

Jiang Cheng with a bunny! I can die happy now

Aaand Wen Chao’s back. Great.

Lan Xichen’s probably cursing you off in his mind as we speak Wen Chao. You don’t just come into someone’s home and do that to their carpet. Rude.

It still bothers me that they’re already calling LXC ”Sect Leader.” Their father should still be alive at this point of the story

The plot has gone so off the rails at this point (compared to the novel) but oddly enough I don’t mind

Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang know nothing but trouble. They also seem to share one braincell when they are together. I don’t know who has it most of the time

Fuck, Lotus Pier is a beautiful place

Nie Huaisang.exe has stopped working

Lan Wangji standing in the rain of flower petals? Unparalleled gorgeous and elegant gentleman indeed.

Sure, let’s follow this crazy old woman into this seemingly deserted village. What could possibly go wrong

Sure, because staying the night in a place with a murderous statue is a great idea

Now would be a really good timing to have some of Dage’s teachings in memory, wouldn’t you agree, Huaisang?

I’m starting to feel like I should read the novel again

Ep. 9

Wait, Wen Qing is controlling them??? Yiling Matriarch Wen Qing

Wen Chao might be a big douche but I actually kinda like his robes (shut up, red’s my favourite color)

Are these the Wens WWX will help in the future?

And is that A-Yuan I see?

Ah, the chaotic trio and their one braincell

Ep. 10

Xiao Xingchen! With his eyes still there!

And Song Lan! The whole crew’s together! Or as we Finns might say ”koko lössi koossa”

Xue Yang is a smug, cunning bastard, isn’t he

Also, this scene with Xue Yang all tied up always brings my mind back to this one post about bdsm and Xue Yang’s gay awakening and it never fails to make me laugh

”Yet Clean Realm” it’s Unclean Realm ffs (these youtube subtitles, I swear)

I don’t trust Meng Yao

DAGE! NIE MINGJUE! In the brilliant words of Krazie.wes on twitter: Stan Dage fighting on a horse!

Unclean Realm looks so much like I imagined it to

Meng Yao really got a lot of shit for just being his mother’s son, huh

Fucking called it! Don’t 👏🏻 trust 👏🏻 Meng 👏🏻 Yao 👏🏻

Don’t tell me that that’s the Core Melting Hand Wen Zhuliu

It is. Shit.

Part 1

[veliseraptor]

Who is your favourite character in The Untamed and why? Oh, and what is your take on Lan Wangji's character?

God anon, the thing here is that my answer is basically “I love everyone in this bar!”*

*other than, like, three people

There’s just so many characters I have such good feelings about. I tried to top five it but I kept ending up with six or seven instead and then remembering more characters that I love. I just have a whole lot of feelings. I mean, the thing about me is that my true love when it comes to characters is “emotionally dysfunctional people with terrible lives” and that’s basically what we’ve got going on here.

But I guess if I’m picking a few:

1. Wei Wuxian. I mean, I walked into this show because of him and I walked out of this show with a new adoptee (this one). There’s so many buttons getting hit here, and it’s not just “evil flute music sexy” or “narrative kink for stories about the way that the stories people tell about people shape a person” but it is also both those things.

Like, if ever someone gave me an introduction designed to make me go ‘oh, this one’s mine now’ it’s...well, both number one and two on this list.

It’s just...watching that opening scene, and then two episodes later getting slingshot back into the past with someone who seems completely different, and watching those cracks grow and form with each hit he takes...is really good for my narrative kinks.

But also...he’s such a determined-to-be-good boy, he’s such a conciliator in all of these ways that make me feel things, I’m always a sucker for someone who is self-destructive while not always realizing that they’re being self-destructive, who has this particular type of selflessness that becomes self-immolation and also leads to a whole bunch of collateral damage. I have a thing for people who are desperately hiding their dysfunction because they don’t want anyone to know that they’ve got any.

Like. He’s such a mess. He’s got a big heart and a lot of love to give and he’s an enormous fucking mess. And like. The family issues? The self worth issues? Just a whole bunch of things designed to hit me right where I live. 

And evil flute music sexy.

2. Xue Yang. I know myself well enough that sometimes I can look at a character and within thirty seconds of their introduction go ‘oh I’m going to like this one’ and 90% of the time I am right and that is what happened with my new favorite gremlin. Yes he is terrible, I love him and I want him to have nice things. 

This was true before we got to the Yi City arc and I was like. oh thanks for hitting me in my dysfunctional fucked up ship feelings, show, I needed another one of these! Which, I mean, I did need one, because I always do, but hoo boy. 

I just...love a deeply feral and absolutely ruthless murder bastard. The sheer level of “fuck it” energy coming off him all the time. The absolute commitment to the psychological destruction of his nemesis slash boyfriend. The psychological fuckery of spending many, many years trying to resurrect the nemesis slash boyfriend you drove to suicide. The weird murder friendship with Jin Guangyao. (Friends help you be complicit in the murder of two of five sect leaders!) 

I love it. And him. That Good Shit.

3. Lan Wangji. Possibly this is like. Transitive property of character love because I love Wei Wuxian so much and obviously Wei Wuxian is fucking head over face in love with Lan Wangji, so - but also I just think he’s a very good boy?? He’s a disaster gay primarily passing as a functional gay by virtue of not talking enough for people to notice how much of a disaster he is. He’s spending a good half the show having a whole-ass moral existential crisis, which while I don’t find it relatable I do find deeply endearing. 

And just. I’m always going to be a sucker for ‘character who has a whole lot of emotions but doesn’t want anyone to know’ and that’s very Lan Wangji. He’s just! Very good. I am thinking about the scene with him drunk later in the show and that especially just makes me want to grab him and hug him only he wouldn’t like it. 

I don’t know, he just gives me a lot of very squishy feelings where I want to tell him that he’s good and it’s not his fault that his boyfriend went over the literal edge.

4. Jin Guangyao. It’s funny because on my first watch I didn’t notice him all that much for a while (I was busy! having Wangxian and sibling feelings mainly, especially the latter tbh, and some bonus ‘adopting a new horrible gremlin’ feelings), and then we hit the Nie Mingjue flashback episode and I was like. oh shit I love you. you’re coming home with me now. 

I mean, that’s not totally unexpected, I am weak to characters who are a) schemers b) have a lot of shit going on with identity and perception and c) do a lot of really certifiably horrible shit, and I just. pocket sized murder kitten and he belongs to me, I will continue to call him Jiggy forever but that is only because he is yet another of my terrible sons

5. Lan Xichen. Another character I was like - warm and positive toward through my first rewatch and then at the end when he was completely shattering was like “oh hey I love him now.” And then also seeing people in fandom talk shit about him and going “oh hey I love him more now.” 

And then on my rewatch just like. Loving him even more because...yeah he makes some poor choices sure but he’s also just full of such...warmth and generosity? Like, this is a guy who, in a world where everyone is leaping to conclusions all the time, is like ‘maybe let’s not leap to conclusions and give people the benefit of the doubt sometimes, you guys.’ And I like that in a man. It seems like he’s almost compensating for everyone else by going maybe a little bit overboard.

But when did “characters making good choices” be something that qualifies anyone for a favorite of mine? The answer is never.

Also I deeply appreciate his commitment to Lan Wangji and by extension his position as the Founder of the Wangxian Fan Club (co-founder with Jiang Yanli, I’d say, but I think he did get there first). And his consistent expression of exhaustion through the whole thing. Characters who need and deserve a nap: Xichen, and not just the depression one he’s taking post-canon.

6. Jiang Cheng. Didn’t see that one coming but in retrospect probably should have! I’m always going to have emotions about emotionally dysfunctional people with inferiority complexes who have a whole lot of feelings but only really know how to express one of them. Also just like. The entirety of the relationship between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng was designed to hit me right in the place where I live and boy howdy did it succeed in leaving me hurting a lot for them both. 

And just. This boy is such a disaster! He’s miserable! Everything in his life kinda sucks and he’s not helping himself and definitely not dealing with any of his issues at all! I feel like he needs a nap and a five year hug in the worst way.

But also like. All my love for Wen Qing and Wen Ning both? I’m acquiring more Jiang Yanli feelings on the regular? The entire Yi City Disaster Crew is gold and their dynamics are *chef fingers* amazing? I love all of the juniors but maybe especially Jin Ling so much???

(I do not have as many Nie brother feelings, but I feel like I could get talked into them with very little effort on anyone’s part, especially with Nie Huaisang. I already have feelings about the NHS/JGY relationship, so.)

like this is very much one of those pieces of media where I’m like ‘yes maybe I have latched onto these two characters most but G O D I love them all so much, taking them all home with me for therapy and hot chocolate.”

[ohsoverylittlehoneybee]

One of my favourite scenes in the whole show happens when Jiang Cheng is called to account for Wei Wuxian’s jailbreak and Jin Guangshan tells him that he’ll write Wei Wuxian killing his cultivators off like it’s a parking ticket Obviously we the audience know those guys sucked and sympathize with Wei Wuxian’s desire for vengeance but they didn’t get a trial and it’s not being treated as an execution.Wei Wuxian certainly doesn’t have the authority punish Jin cultivators even if they are guilty  and everyone just nods along while jin guangshan plays indulgent uncle with jiang cheng over the lives of his people! who swore loyalty to  him and had a right to his protection it doesn't really matter what wei wuxian did it matters who he is which means he gets to kill a bunch of people so long as he doesn't hit anyone too important but is not enough to counteract 'emotionally unstable one man superweapon not under jin guangshan's control'  like JGS is definitely making a point about how reasonable and indulgent he's being and if that second part wasn't in play he might not  bother   but that's a move available to him! this is a very shitty universe to not be a magical aristocrat in and an even shittier universe to try and go it alone in tbf that is honestly also true of our own universe like- one of the surest signs of privilege in my country is also whose fuckups get treated as fuckups and whose fuckups get treated as Crimes you're just generally not allowed to vengeance murder a bunch of people admit that's what you did and have it be cool                                                                                                                                                

I think a lot about the precarity of different people's positions in the cultivation world. How being too entwined with the sects vs too separate from them dooms people in different ways. SongXiao made a name for themselves. When we first met them, they were an ideal WangXian looked up to. Ten years later, it was perfectly believable to the cultivation world that Xiao Xingchen tortured and murdered the last surviving member of the Chang clan. He slipped through the cracks entirely.

Yeah, and I do think that makes sense! Obviously there’s lots of corruption and general malfeasance amongst the sects, but it’s also just a feudal honour culture where kinship and loyalty bonds are hugely important. Even if everyone admires Xiao Xingcheng and thinks he does good work, no one except Song Lan actually knows him well enough to vouch for him. Hearing that a minor celebrity who’d previously had a good reputation is a murderer might be surprising and strange, but are you really going to stake your reputation on his innocence (or even doubt his guilt) the way you probably would for a sect-sibling you’ve known since childhood? Aside from the question of who you’re willing to stick your neck out to defend, there’s the bonus issue of who you actually know well enough to feel capable of judging the content of their character. The fact that anyone who could do that for Xiao Xingcheng is busy cultivating to immortality on a magic mountain they can never leave if they intend on returning makes him an easy target for Jin Guangshan’s bullshit, because there isn’t actually really anyone who’s qualified to speak in his defense.

[theleakypen]

tags from @winepresswrath​ continue to be real good:

One of my favourite scenes in the whole show happens when Jiang Cheng is called to account for Wei Wuxian’s jailbreak and Jin Guangshan tells him that he’ll write Wei Wuxian killing his cultivators off like it’s a parking ticket Obviously we the audience know those guys sucked and sympathize with Wei Wuxian’s desire for vengeance but they didn’t get a trial and it’s not being treated as an execution. Wei Wuxian certainly doesn’t have the authority punish Jin cultivators even if they are guilty and everyone just nods along while jin guangshan plays indulgent uncle with jiang cheng over the lives of his people! who swore loyalty to him and had a right to his protection it doesn't really matter what wei wuxian did it matters who he is which means he gets to kill a bunch of people so long as he doesn't hit anyone too important but is not enough to counteract 'emotionally unstable one man superweapon not under jin guangshan's control' like JGS is definitely making a point about how reasonable and indulgent he's being and if that second part wasn't in play he might not bother but that's a move available to him! this is a very shitty universe to not be a magical aristocrat in and an even shittier universe to try and go it alone in tbf that is honestly also true of our own universe like- one of the surest signs of privilege in my country is also whose fuckups get treated as fuckups and whose fuckups get treated  as Crimes you're just generally not allowed to vengeance murder a bunch of people admit that's what you did and have it be cool

I think a lot about the precarity of different people's positions in the cultivation world. How being too entwined with the sects vs too separate from them dooms people in different ways. SongXiao made a name for themselves. When we first met them, they were an ideal WangXian looked up to. Ten years later, it was perfectly believable to the cultivation world that Xiao Xingchen tortured and murdered the last surviving member of the Chang clan. He slipped through the cracks entirely.

Yeah, and I do think that makes sense! Obviously there’s lots of corruption and general malfeasance amongst the sects, but it’s also just a feudal honour culture where kinship and loyalty bonds are hugely important. Even if everyone admires Xiao Xingcheng and thinks he does good work, no one except Song Lan actually knows him well enough to vouch for him. Hearing that a minor celebrity who’d previously had a good reputation is a murderer might be surprising and strange, but are you really going to stake your reputation on his innocence (or even doubt his guilt) the way you probably would for a sect-sibling you’ve known since childhood? Aside from the question of who you’re willing to stick your neck out to defend, there’s the bonus issue of who you actually know well enough to feel capable of judging the content of their character. The fact that anyone who could do that for Xiao Xingcheng is busy cultivating to immortality on a magic mountain they can never leave if they intend on returning makes him an easy target for Jin Guangshan’s bullshit, because there isn’t actually really anyone who’s qualified to speak in his defense.