#catch me crying in the nie ancestral hall

[pastelcheckereddreams]

I don’t think we appreciate the atmosphere of Xinglu Ridge enough - specifically, how it’s portrayed in Fatal Journey. 

It is cold: the fog closes around anyone who enters, so thick they can barely see. 

It is dark and barren: the man-winding vines feast on the flesh and blood of unfortunate wanderers for nutrients - sunlight does not reach here, at any time of the year. 

Seasons, therefore, mean nothing- a liminal space that grows outside the passage of time. 

But, twisted as this place seems, the vines have simply adapted to their habitat, finding nourishment in the only resource available to them: 

They, like all living things, have a survival instinct. And that instinct stops them from pursuing their prey into the Nie sect’s ancestral hall when the Sword Spirit has become unbalanced. They know the Sword Spirit requires sacrifice.

As does Nie Mingjue.

[farmerlan]

Farmer Lan’s Rewatch Guide to The Untamed - Episode 6

Vanity, thy name is Lan Wangji

SPOILERS AHEAD YOU KNOW IT

HAHAHA I feel like this episode is going to be really trying for me because there are so many scenes that TECHNICALLY happen in the novel, but not in this way. There’s a lot of crafty rewriting going on here that I’m going to try my best to reconcile with what’s going on in the novel. WARNING IT GETS REALLY LONG.

[We see the trio (Nie Huaisang, Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng) enjoying some Tian Zi Xiao, a famous liquor produced within the region. Lan Wangji walks in at that moment and sees the debauchery going on. He demands they receive punishment but Wei Wuxian sets a talisman upon Lan Wangji to forcibly control him. Wei Wuxian then orders him to drink and we find out that he’s a super-lightweight. Wei Wuxian takes this chance to mess around with the usually stoic Lan Wangji. We learn that the Gusu Lan’s sect headband is sacred - no one can touch the headband except parents and significant others.

Wei Wuxian counters that no one on earth is going to marry into the Lan sect because they’re so stuffy HA. We learn a little about their backgrounds - Lan Wangji claims he does not have a mother, Wei Wuxian shares that he was orphaned at 4, and his only memory of his family is of them traveling with a donkey, laughing and having a good time.]

Differences from the novel:

Lan Wangji doesn’t interrupt the party - he interrupts the morning after. After a night of drunken shenanigans, Wei Wuxian & pals are all passed out in his room when Lan Wangji strides in the next morning. Next thing Wei Wuxian knows, he is being dragged by the collar into the ancestral hall for punishment. Lan Wangji doesn’t fall prey to any talisman tricks because...he’s too good for that obvi.

In the novel, we first learn that Lan Wangji is a one-shot wonder in Chapter 30, post-resurrection timeline, as part of the Yi City arc as they chase down the other body parts of the Demonic Left Arm’s corpse. He does not drink or become inebriated in Wei Wuxian’s first life. 

The actual backgrounds of both characters are correctly portrayed but this heart-to-heart conversation never happens at any point in the novel. In fact, with Lan Wangji’s general emotional constipation, many believed they were downright hostile to each other at times and I think even Wei Wuxian was unsure if Lan Wangji really returned his friendship prior to his death. 

We learn about Lan Wangji’s mother in more detail in one of the later episodes so I’ll talk about it then, but Wei Wuxian’s memory of his family was brought up in Chapter 66 of the novel. Specifically, he has a flashback as he is riding on Little Apple with Lan Wangji beside him, and then asks Lan Wangji to pick up the reins in order to re-enact the scene of his mother riding on a donkey led by his father from his memory. He then laments, “Guess we’re only missing a little one to complete the picture”. Obviously, Lan Wangji has no clue what he’s up to but he obliges and picks up the reins anyway.

Re: the headband, in the novel, it’s explained at the end of the Yi City arc, so there are no scenes with Lan Wangji’s ribbon in the Gusu Lan arc. Lan Wangji doesn’t actually explain in the drama what the headband signifies, besides that it is important (I forget whether the show explains this later on). But in the novel, we learn from Lan Sizhui in Chapter 45 that the headband is meant to signify self-restraint, and the only time when you’re allowed to be *ahem* uninhibited is in front of your significant other. Unfortunately, it’s a bit too late for that, especially since he explains this the day after the juniors witnessed a rather...shocking scene in the tavern (replaced by a more tame scene in Episode 40...so I’ll talk about that then because this is getting way too long.)

I’m just going to drop it right here that there is a flashback scene in the novel that is not in the drama. It’s right after Wei Wuxian learns about the meaning where he recounts that the first time he had touched Lan Wangji’s ribbon. In their youth, the Wen sect hosted a gathering/festival (idk what you want to call these...basically sects host get-togethers for other sects and these often last several days and can consist of many events, from banquets to hunts etc). It was during an archery competition event. Wei Wuxian initially tells Lan Wangji that his ribbon is crooked, causing Lan Wangji to feel for his headband to check, only to realize Wei Wuxian was teasing him. The next time, however, Wei Wuxian warns him that it really is coming loose but Lan Wangji ignores him as he figures Wei Wuxian is just being his grand ol’ joker self again. So Wei Wuxian reaches for it as he offers to fix it for Lan Wangji... and ends up accidentally ripping it off entirely. Lan Wangji is so upset he actually withdraws from the competition early (he still ends up placing fourth because he’s ~gifted~). Back to the present, Wei Wuxian reflects that it was a testament to Lan Wangji’s character and restraint that he didn’t immediately end Wei Wuxian’s life right there and then HA.

[The next day (let me stop here and just say the teaware in this show is to die for), we cut to Lan Qiren discussing similar happenings at the Nie sect, from where Lan Qiren has just returned. Lan Xichen deduces the water demon and snatched cultivator souls are connected.

We learn more about Wei Wuxian’s mom (Cang Se San Ren...CSSR because I can’t with how long the name is) but then our protagonists’ shenanigans are reported to Lan Qiren. Lan Qiren mets out punishment to the four of them, poor Lan Wangji included, and also accidentally reveals that he knew Wei Wuxian’s mom.

Cut to the Jiang sibs running into Lan Xichen and he tells them it’s going to take weeks to heal, and then points him to the cold springs. Wei Wuxian wants to learn more about CSSR - LOL Lan Xichen alludes to CSSR shaving Lan Qiren’s beard while she was here.

We get a scene with Wen Qing/Wen Ruohan - she seems to have discovered the Yin iron is in the water due to Wen Ning’s sudden change in appearance during the water demon hunt.]

Differences from the novel:

In the novel, Lan Qiren is called away to attend a conference the day after the pornography incident (so Wei Wuxian was NOT punished for that trick ha) and has no involvement in any of the events until the fight with Jin Zixuan.

The punishment scene was portrayed differently. Backstory is - the night before, Lan Wangji caught Wei Wuxian sneaking in alcohol again (he drew the short straw and had to buy it for his gang of do-no-gooders for the party). They fight again, but this time Wei Wuxian clings to Lan Wangji and tackles him off the border wall and onto the ground outside - which means Lan Wangji has now technically also broken the sect rules of being outside and re-entering past curfew. When Lan Wangji drags Wei Wuxian to the punishment hall the next morning, Wei Wuxian tries to pull a ‘gotcha’. He figured Lan Wangji would let him off since technically they both broke the rules and before you punish someone, you should apply the same rules to yourself. Cue Lan Wangji kneeling beside him and giving himself 50 more lashes than he gave to Wei Wuxian. Talk about holding yourself accountable.

There’s not really a lot of discussion of Lan Qiren and CSSR’s relationship in the novel - the author does state in an interview that CSSR AND Wei Wuxian both messed with Lan Qiren’s beloved facial hair, so like mother like son, but it wasn’t canon in the novel.

Jiang Cheng straight up carries Wei Wuxian out of the punishment hall on his back in the novel. Wei Wuxian’s being all finicky and “I didn’t ask you to carry me anyway” and Jiang Cheng replies, “Lan Wangji took 50 more lashings than you and walked out of there by himself! If I didn’t carry you out, god knows how long you would have laid there rolling around in the hall. I don’t think I could bear the shame! Also, stop playing victim then - get off my back and walk.” And Wei Wuxian immediately changes his tune and is all “But I caaaaaaan’t I’m so injured” LMAO.

Yes, Lan Xichen is still the biggest WangXian shipper and is indeed the person who points Wei Wuxian to the cold springs in the novel.

[Cold springs scene with Lan Wangji (they are both semi-naked in all versions besides this, also, who takes a dip FULLY CLOTHED, hello censorship) and Wei Wuxian declares his offer of friendship. Lan Wangji refuses, what else is new.

They both get sucked into a cave that is protected by ~magical guqin~ which forbids non-sect members from getting closer - oh, and there are rabbits wearing the Lan headband. Lan Wangji ties their wrists together with his sect ribbon and they are able to head up to the guqin together.

Lan Wangji plays the guqin to perform Inquiry (have I mentioned I cry tears of laughter whenever I see the guqin scenes I’m sorry bb it’s just really hilariously wrong…) Lan Yi shows up, we also see that everyone outside is looking for the two of them. Cue weird Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan scene as she slips and he catches her. The Jin Zixuan here is downright swoonworthy compared to the novel, I tell you.]

Differences from the novel:

The cold springs scene more or less follows the novel - the dialogue is somewhat different and there’s less physical contact (Lan Wangji in the novel straight up puts his hand on Wei Wuxian’s shoulder to stop him from moving around and splashing water everywhere). 

There is NO CAVE SCENE in the novel. The cold springs scene in the novel ends with Wei Wuxian’s offer of friendship being rejected, and he goes “You’re not giving me face at all, aren’t you afraid I’m going to take all your clothes when I leave if you keep rejecting me like this?” and Lan Wangji of course tells him to gtfo. So, no, we don’t get the symbolic ~tying together of their wrists~ scene in the novel and we do not meet Lan Yi in the novel.

There’s no Jiang Yanli and Jin Zixuan scene in the novel - I assume it was done for some more relationship building between the two characters in the drama since it would be kind of weird for the show to just throw them together into a romance and arranged marriage without building up to it.

There’s a whole other origin story to the rabbits running around Gusu Lan which I’ll cover in Episode 7.

[We learn that Lan Yi is a boss ass bitch who created the Chord Assassination technique and also appears to have a fondness for rabbits. Turns out she is NOT dead - just guarding the Yin metal until she dies. Cue origins of the Yin metal - it was owned by Xue Chonghai and he was the original demonic cultivator, using people as sacrifice and controlling the Tortoise of Slaughter. He was brought down by the sects and Yiling became known as the Yiling Burial Mounds. The Yin metal was then shattered to be suppressed by the five sects, and kept a secret.

Lan Yi, in an attempt to revitalize the Lan sect, went after the Yin metal despite the warnings of her bff Bao Shan San Ren (Wei Wuxian’s grandmaster). The Yin metal cannot be resealed, so Lan Yi was forced to seal herself in with it.]

Differences from the novel:

Nope, none of this happened. Xue Chonghai is not a character in the novel at all. There’s no Yin metal, but Wei Wuxian DID come up with the Yin Hu Fu (the Yin Tiger Seal) as a weapon. We learn more about its backstory in Chapter 30, however, the novel only states that it was crafted by Wei Wuxian from a mysterious piece of metal he harvested from a monster. The power of the seal therefore really comes from the knowledge that Wei Wuxian possessed to make it - many after him had tried and failed to replicate his success following his death. In the novel, Wei Wuxian is the originator of demonic cultivation (or at least the first person to master it to such a fearsome degree), and he never controlled or sacrificed live people - only corpses.

In the novel, Lan Yi is indeed the only female cultivator to have led the Lan sect, and the creator of the Chord Assassination technique. This was covered as part of the introduction to the technique in Chapter 55 before Lan Wangji uses it on the Tortoise of Slaughter. We learn that due to the cruel nature of it (used to eliminate or suppress many of her enemies), not many people speak fondly of her but there’s no denying the power of the technique. However, that’s all we get - there’s no back story with BSSR or anything of that sort.

Overall Thoughts:

I have none because this post is already long enough hahahaha

[kat8porgs]

Tragic-3

I mean the PLAN was to work on my ‘WWX as the Jin’s pet necromancer’ fic but INSTEAD I wrote this set of three with one canon Sad Boy and two AU drabbles of the different ways the members of the Venerated Triad would react to the death of their brothers.

Lan Xichen mourned with silence.

Silence was the only truly acceptable way to mourn in Cloud Recesses. Loud noises were, after all, breaking the rules. Excessive shows of emotion broke the rules. Lying broke the rules. So, crying, screaming, rending one’s flesh… that was forbidden but so too was claiming that one was fine when one was obviously not.

Xichen was not fine.

He was not happy, or healthy, he was not capable of leading the sect. His Uncle might not have been happy to take over once again as acting sect leader but Wangji was there. The second jade of Lan was quite capable of becoming sect leader while Xichen was in seclusion.

He did not expect to break his seclusion any time soon.

He expected to die before he did.

Not that death would come fast. Lans in seclusion had lasted generations before death had come to them and the higher the cultivation the longer one may last. Xichen was not one to brag, that was forbidden, but his cultivation level was high enough he was positive that without a war breaking out and someone burning his cabin down he it might take two or three generations before death came for him.

It was why he had written the letter.

It was not a long letter (or, not a long letter at the moment, things could change) but it spelled out his wishes for his burial. Shouyou he asked to be placed in the armory, to be made available to any Lan disciples who were capable of wielding it. He asked to be buried with Liebing instead. He had no control over what was to happen in his next life but he hoped… if he was buried with a tool meant to bring peace he hoped not to be reborn into a world where he was forced to kill.

If Lan Xichen made it to 100 years, to the point when the coffin that contained his sworn brothers could be opened and their bodies moved…

As a former Sect leader it would be expected for him to be buried in the ancestral hall.

He requested he be buried alongside his sworn brothers.

He expected this request to be denied.

--

Nie Mingjue mourned with actions.

“Brother, you must calm down.” Huaisang at his side, his hand on Mingjue’s arm, on his sword arm. The weight of Huisang’s words and hand forced him to lower Baxia. There were no bodies this time, there had been no battle. The battles were meant to be done, to be finished.

“Sect Leader Nie.” Jin Guangshan speaks again, oily, assured. “What do you mean by threatening me this way?”

He still has trouble with the saber spirit, with remembering where he is. Sometimes the anger is too much and takes over. This… this was not one of those times.

“You killed my sworn brothers.”

There is tittering from the sides of the room, whispers, they are not important. What is important is the useless, slimy, conniving bastard in front of him.

Jin Guangshan does not laugh, it is all that saves him from being cut down right away. “Sect Leader Nie,” his voice only increases in sliminess, though he is attempting to sound reasonable, “Jin Guangyao killed himself.”

He does not call him ‘my son’ but at least he does not call him ‘that bastard son of a whore’.

Huaisang’s grip on his arm tightens and Mingjue’s hold on Baxia shakes. His sword shakes, hungry for more blood.

“He wrote a letter,” Huaisang’s voice cut through the whispers and forced them into quiet, “before he took his life, Sect Leader Jin.”

It is not often that his younger brother is serious, though he has seen it more and more often as they investigated the truth of Jin Guangyao… no, of Meng Yao’s letter. The letter had arrived addressed to Huaisang anyway, perhaps to circumvent whoever was watching for communication between the sworn brothers. After Xichen’s funeral Mingjue had little chance to talk with his youngest sworn brother, not that he had tried very hard.

He should have tried harder.

“A letter?” Nie Mingjue does not look over his shoulder to see what small sect leader is puffing himself up for attention, “You trust a letter from a man who clearly lost his senses? When did he even have a chance to write it? Everyone knows he was locked up to keep his madness behind closed doors.”

Madness, the whispers say, that lead him to take his own life.

That was true.

“I did not trust his letter.” Mingjue does not look away from Jin Guanshan, “I went to find proof.”

There it is. The tell. It had taken him years to figure out Jin Guanshan’s tell and in the end it was Meng Yao who had helped him do it. There is a twitch at the corner of his lips, a slight tick to the right before settles himself down.

This, he thinks, this pitiful excuse for a man, this terrible father, this… Lan Xichen was killed for this.

Huaisang pulls open his spirit pouch and tossed an object to Guangshan. By instinct the man catches it and then drops it almost as quick. A four fingered hand, the false finger held in the glove only loosely attached to the wrist, fell onto the floor before his seat.

“What…” half the cultivators in the room rose to answer the insult, “what is this?”

Guangshan swallows hard.

“Xue Yang’s hand.” Xue Yang, the man who had murdered Xichen under Jin Guangshan’s orders, who had been given the means through Meng Yao’s unwitting tutelage.

Who was now cooling his heels in Nie Mingjue’s dungeons where he would stay until he died.

Huaisang let go of Mingjue’s arm and he raises Baxia once more. “You killed my sworn brothers and for that, you must die.”

It does not take long.

--

Jin Guangyao mourned with words.

“I’m sorry.” He strokes the side of Lan Xichen’s beautiful face while the fierce corpse that was Nie Mingjue struggled against his bindings. Each touch brought on a fresh thrashing and a fresh wave of vitriol, muffled by a thick gag. He has sent Xue Yang away for now, Xichen’s corpse is a weakness he does not want the other man to control.

He turns to look at Nie Mingjue with a sigh. “Da-ge, did you really have to be so strong? I thought for sure the music would have weakened you enough.” He pulled himself up to sit on the table by Xichen, slid his arm down the other man’s bare arm to grasp his hand.

Xichen had such beautiful hands, such long fingers.

“I’m sorry you killed him,” he says to the corpse, who quiets down and glares at him, who promises murder with his eyes, “he wasn’t supposed to be there.”

He had sent Xichen away before the confrontation had happened, Xichen had been meant to stay away. Nie Mingjue had either been louder than expected or Xichen had been closer. Or perhaps Xichen had just wanted to see what was taking Jin Guangyao so long.

“It was a beautiful fight,” everything Lan Xichen did was beautiful, his martial arts especially so, “but he would never have killed you.”

And so Nie Mingjue had killed him, his sword had sliced Lan Xichen in two.

The wound on his corpse was ugly and red, stitched together with thick black string. Looking at it makes Jin Guangyao unreasonably upset. He has certainly seen uglier wounds, on living men and living corpses, but they were not Lan Xichen. Lan Xichen whose skin is otherwise flawless, even his callouses are aesthetically pleasing.

“I’m going to call Xue Yang in now,” he says to Nie Mingjue when the shackles holding him to the table creak with the strength of his pulls, “he loves a challenge.”

He needs to decide what to do with Lan Xichen, it was foolish to steal his corpse away, sentimental. He would make for a powerful fierce corpse, of course, but…

Perhaps he will bury him with his mother.

He has time to decide.

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Actually... I really love how this initial scene with Nie Mingjue sets up a subtle indication of his declining ability to lead. 

We have Huaisang, questioning his brother and outright defying him. Of course, we saw Huaisang playing truant against his brother’s orders and misbehaving a younger man in the main drama, but he never questioned Mingjue or stood up against him on a serious matter. (And now I have to wonder, is the lack of Nie braids a subtle indication of Huaisang’s refusal to conform?) 

And we have Zonghui, who lingers fretfully at the edges of the conversation, torn between his loyalty to his leader and his instinct to protect the young second master. 

And then we have Jin Guangyao, who - all suspicions and known villainy aside - presumably should not be present for a private sect matter under normal circumstances. So considering that, his presence is perhaps the most telling in this situation: at some point nmj must have given him permission to sit in on otherwise confidential clan meetings, because nmj himself realises he can no longer control himself and trusts (trusts!) jgy to provide support in moments like this. It probably helps that, as his former subordinate, jgy has sat in on these meetings before in a different role. But so much has happened between them since then, it probably also drags up a lot of resentment too... which is convenient. For... plot and people with ulterior motives... 

And this is at the beginning of the movie. Although all of these relationships develop further as the plot unravels from this point, this scene stands out to me more as a way to show right from the start just how changed these characters already are from where we left them in the show (pre-timeskip).

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Today on, it’s not that deep but what if it is: 

I’m thinking about Nie clan battle formations and units.

At first I was like, aw they all spread out in a circle and protect Huaisang, that’s cute. 

Which, yes, they do instinctively and I have Feelings About Brotherhood. 

But look, there’s more men inside the ring:

And the following skirmish shows that those in the centre (just one extra in this scenario unfortunately) push forward to support the defensive ring when the line is broken, to take the brunt of the attack while the ring recovers:

Unfortunately, this strategy is hindered by Huaisang’s presence, because Zonghui has to stay by his side as ordered. 

But this perhaps gives a deeper explaination as to why Huaisang, clearly not trained in combat but trained in strategy nonetheless, takes one of Zonghui’s swords.

He knows he is part of the supporting combatants here, under Zonghui’s watch. (You can see how the group is clearly split into two:

and that Huaisang falls under Zonghui’s command) so knowing this, Huaisang wants to try and pull his own weight as much as he can. 

He wants to show that he’s capable, and that he can support them in turn. The Nie are already at a disadvantage here, already on the defensive when they could’ve been offsensive. That’s not on Huaisang’s shoulders - Nie Mingjue insisted he come along, after all. But nonetheless, Huaisang sees their disadvantage and feels a duty to play a supporting role as much as his limited training will allow, to not be a burden on Zonghui. 

Playing this interpretation out, I can’t help but bring it back to the slow decline of Nie Mingjue’s ability to lead his clan. We’ll see in just a few moments that his reason is compromised, and that affects his execution of battle tactics. But now, watching this preceding scene, I can’t help but feel more for Huaisang and Zonghui in this moment. They still trust in Mingjue’s ability, but it hammers home the absurd logic of bringing Huaisang along on such a dangerous expedition.

Suddenly I feel like I’ve tapped into an undercurrent of unease or apprehension in these early scenes I wasn’t aware of before. 

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Look at him. This is before nmj snaps and goes to hit him. Huaisang is already apprehensive (fearful) of his brother’s temper. And still he just... 

I’m starting to wonder now if nhs was being less of a little shit about the trip to the Ancestral Hall, instead actually trying to avoid spending time with his brother. 

They’re becoming estranged because of Mingjue’s erratic temper and slow qi deviation and I- I don’t know what to do with that.

[pastelcheckereddreams]

I wonder if it pained Nie Huaisang to listen to music after Da-ge’s death. I wonder if Nie Huaisang, figuring out days - hours - after his brother’s murder that his san-ge played a cursed form of “Cleansing” for Nie Mingjue, could ever hear Lan Xichen or Lan Wangji play the guqin again without thinking of his brother’s unavenged death. I wonder if, able to disguise his pain so well for an entire decade, he let everyone believe their own assumptions - that he was so aggrieved by the failure of “Cleansing” to cure his brother, he could no longer hear the pluck of a string without succumbing to his grief. When in reality, every note that vibrated through the air filled him with incandescent rage. And rage scared him. Because, ultimately, it was the uncontrollable anger that drove a wedge between himself and his da-ge.  

....It is ironic, he thinks, hurrying from the hall where the Chief Cultivator, Lan Wangji, practises his qin. One note, and Nie Huaisang feels that he, too, may qi deviate on the spot for the whole world to see, when for so long they saw nothing - heard nothing - at all. 

I actually have a running headcanon/plot about this, for my sang+wangxian agenda. I headcanon that after Wangji witnesses Huaisang’s traumatic reaction, he theorises that Huaisang reacts to all music in this way because he does not understand what he is hearing. He can read sheet music and play the dizi, but he does not understand the qin. So, Wangji resolves to teach him.

Cue quiet nights in the jingshi where Wangji sits Huaisang at his side and has him play simple, calming melodies while Wei Wuxian drinks to the moon from their bed. 😌😌😌

My niche ships aside though, I feel like this could be such a complex exploration of Huaisang’s trauma and grief. The hope he must’ve felt, hearing the notes of Jin Guangyao’s guqin through the halls of the Unclean Realm... to suddenly realise that every note was hurting his brother, pushing him closer to self-destruction... to realise that Jin Guangyao taught Huaisang the corrupted music and encouraged him to play it for Mingjue... I doubt Huaisang would ever pick up an instrument again, or could even listen to one without having a breakdown in those first few years after Mingjue’s death.