#cql did some messed up shit to jgy's story

[evilhasnever]

I keep seeing people start from the premise that "JGY is heartless" to read all of his actions in the worst possible light, or claim that he was, for example, incapable of loving Lan Xichen... Meanwhile a quick cause-effect analysis of his canonical actions shows that he often chooses mercy when it is NOT beneficial to him, that he repays kindness with kindness when he can, and that he is filial to a fault until he is pushed off the deep end by JGS.

Examples: he did not start playing the evil medley for NMJ until NMJ had actively tried to murder him three times! He did not kill SiSi upon realizing who she was, even though she was a very dangerous loose end. He did not mysteriously get rid of Qin Su or repudiate her, so as not to ruin her reputation. He delayed his departure to Dongying to dig up his mother's remains to take them with him! He waited way too long to kill that horrible father of his (poetic yet horrifying method aside). He got Jin Ling Fairy, and later Fairy led his enemies to Guanyin temple...

Every single one of these choices came back to bite him, and was literally instrumental to his undoing. If he'd been as ruthless as some people think, none of those people would have lived long enough to ruin him. tl;dr: it would have been far easier for Jin Guangyao to truly not have a heart, but alas.

[sleepy-salami]

Jin Zixuan and Wen Qing for the ask game?

Thank you <3

Jin Zixuan

How I feel about this character: He definitely deserved better. We mostly saw him as a rich narcissistic asshole throughout the novel, and when he becomes a better person... it's for 15 minutes and then he dies. I kinda like how CQL toned down his asshole-ness a little and turned it into awkwardness. And he still has one of the best character growth arcs in both stories.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Jiang Yanli and no one else, thank you, she's perfect and why would anyone want someone else when Yanli is right there. (I haven't even seen any other ships with Zixuan, though ChengXuan is funny as a concept)

My non-romantic OTP for this character: Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao would have been unstoppable, if Jin Guangshan wasn't such a piece of shit. I believed JGY when he said that he have never wanted JZX to die, Zixuan might have been one of the few Jins to treat him nicely. He even had his passionate rant about how people with poor backgrounds are often much better than nobility. Directed at Jiang Yanli, but still. He got the spirit.

My unpopular opinion about this character: Everyone and no one is guilty of Jin Zixuan's death. In this house we reject Demonic Cultivator Su She and Jin Guangyao Who Is Guilty Of Every Crime. And in the novel it's... it's such a massive fuck-up on all sides of the conflict, because no one wanted Jin Zixuan dead, but everyone contributed a little. JGS, JGY, Jin Zixun, Su She, Wei Wuxian, yes Wen Ning too, and even Jin Zixuan himself ("I'll try to grab this mentally unstable demonic cultivator who is currently convinced that I want to kill him, what can possibly go wrong?"). It's not a very unpopular opinion, is it? I just wanted to say it somewhere.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: He would have been a good husband and father... I miss him so much.

Wen Qing (under the cut, because it's getting long)

(I’m mostly talking about her novel/donghua version here, because her character and story are a bit different in CQL... but I have a mess of all adaptations in my head anyway) How I feel about this character: Beautiful. Queen. Goddess. My favorite MDZS girl. I’d let her stick all her needles in me and then I’d thank her. AND she’s a complex character which makes her even more perfect. I love how multidimensional she is. She looks like a boss ass bitch at first, and it’s a correct assumption, she absolutely can kill you in seconds, and she might. But then you learn about the softer side of her personality, about how deeply she cares for her family. And then you realize how far she’d go to protect her loved ones, because that’s the main thing she cares about. And in the end you also see how naïve she is despite all her skill and competence, if she thinks JGS will be satisfied with her and Wen Ning’s deaths and leave Wei Wuxian alone. But everything she does, she does out of love, and... I just admire her so much.

All the people I ship romantically with this character: Again, ChengQing in CQL is nice but she would probably kill him, and novel!WQ would kill him even faster. Wen Qing/Jiang Yanli is also nice, two queens deserve to be together. I also will explore that NMJ/WQ ship one day.

My non-romantic OTP for this character: As much as I love her relationship with Wen Ning, I’ll go with Wei Wuxian. They’re just. So perfect together as friends. Two gay geniuses with a lot of braincells, but Wen Qing has all of them. Every interaction they have brings me so much life. That moment when WWX complains that there’s nowhere to sit in his man cave, and Wen Qing just sweeps his Creative Mess™ from a stone bed onto the ground and invites Lan Wangji to sit there, while WWX cries in shock? Iconic. And then she literally dies for him and it hurts

My unpopular opinion about this character: I often see the narrative that, while the Wen sect did a lot of really bad stuff, the Wen siblings were “innocent”, I think even Wei Wuxian uses that wording and, well. Wen Ning, yes, he has done nothing wrong, ever, in his life. Wen Qing? We have to remember how powerful she was, how high her position in Qishan Wen Sect was. She was the same rank as Wen Chao. People hoped she would become the next Sect Leader, it was a possibility. Even if she used her power to occasionally stop Wen Ruohan from executing people, everything Qishan Wen has done over the years was done with her participation or silent approval. It was her timid little brother who finally made her do something about it. And I don’t blame her for putting her own and her family’s safety before the rest of the world, because it’s an understandable choice, and a difficult situation to be in, but still, I wouldn’t call her 100% innocent. And it’s not a bad thing, it adds more layers to her character.

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she weren’t burned alive by an angry mob, accomplishing literally nothing with her sacrifice, yeah. I also wish she stuck some needles in Wen Ruohan so he just fucking died, and Wen Qing somehow became the Sect Leader, and everyone lived happily ever after and no one died (except Wen Ruohan, but he had it coming). If there’s a fanfic with that AU, please send it to me.

[possiblydistasteful]

xiyao for the ship meme :D and if you feel like doing another, i'm curious about chengxian

Xiyao well YEAH uh am VERY into it. SPOILERS BELOW for anyone still halfway through the show.  

1. What made you ship it?

I think their first meeting in cql had me raising eyebrows but it wasn’t until later when the extent of jgy’s crimes were coming to light that I was like OH... oh YES this is for me. The finale cemented it for me though, I have a friend whose main ship THING ends up being murder suicide and I guess that rubbed off on me lol. 

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

It’s the tragedy luvs. Cql re-arranging the story so it’s told in order kind of messes with some of the mystery elements and jgy’s villainy reveal being near the end I think does a disservice to his character BUT having the coffin town arc right near the end makes the parallels between xue yang/xiao xingchen and jin guangyao/lan xichen’s relationships that much more apparent. The desperation to be understood vs incompatible moral frameworks compounded by class issues is PEAK tragedy. I’m also not finished the novel so my feelings on them are almost entirely based on cql canon but holy shit that scene at the end where jgy sort of cruelly throws out “Die with me” and Lan Xichen pauses and then closes his eyes and just ACCEPTS IT? It’s the “I can’t live without you but I can’t live with the things you’ve done” that does it for me. I swear I used to be such an angst fan as a teenager but in my early 20s I tended to gravitate more towards friends to lovers.... this show has brought all my passion for misery back lol. I could say 10000 other things here but I think I’ve covered the basics and everything else I could say would just be me expanding on everything I’ve already said. 

(Okay one more thing... Lan Xichen haunted and desperately begging NHS for the truth... did JGY move against him?? And he seems so torn because if JGY never cared about him and was willing to try and kill him then he wouldn’t have to feel guilty for killing him. ON THE OTHER HAND that would mean that JGY didn’t love him and that their relationship was a lie, or if he did love him, his goals were more important than his feelings for LXC and watching him try and DEAL with the consequences of either is DELICIOUS)

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

I’m on desktop so I can’t insert a grimace emoji but... yeah I have a LOT of unpopular opinions about this ship. This is NOT a dunk on anyone who likes this ship differently than I do, and I want to be clear I respect everyone’s unique interpretations. 

That being said: one thing I have seen a lot is ‘Lan Xichen was the only person to understand and accept Jin Guangyao/Meng Yao’ and I don’t think that was the case. For one, LXC only ever saw what JGY wanted him to, so his understanding of JGY was based on half truths and omissions. I absolutely think that he loved him, and that JGY allowed him to see some of what he was, but until the ending, LXC never got a complete picture and when he finally did, he rejected him. LXC was unable to accept that the things JGY did were ‘necessary evils’ and he was horrified by what he saw. In contrast, both Su Minshan and Xue Yang not only knew all of JGY, but actively accepted and worked with him.  My only other major unpopular opinion is that I don’t really ship 3zun, or at least the way I ship it is a lot more antagonistic than most art and fic I see depicting it because given the timeline of the relationships I just can’t see there being much time were 2/3rds of the trio were not trying to kill each other (which is totally hot imho but not really what I see much of when I see 3zun).  AGAIN, I am absolutely not throwing shade or trying to bum anyone out. Please keep doing your thing and having fun!! Chengxian. Oh Absolutely yes 100%. Onesided? Mutual? A mix of both? Yes please. 

1. What made you ship it?

Honestly I think it was the same moment for me as it was for you, the scenes in the Guanyin temple. But building up to that... the scenes where Jiang Cheng finds out that his golden core is actually Wei Wuxian’s and it just BREAKS him.

2. What are your favorite things about the ship?

This ship has everything: childhood friends to enemies to lovers, attempted murder, betrayal, possessiveness, incest undertones without even being related. I love the whole “We made a promise during simpler times that we’d always be there for each other but now everything is so much more complicated and I’m angry about it but instead of being angry at the situation I can do nothing about, I will direct my anger at YOU” and there is a LOT that can be said about like... how JC sees WWX as a ‘safe’ person to lash out against because WWX does love and care for him and I think he knows that it won’t make WWX hate him. And that’s not even TOUCHING on the “You were supposed to be a loyal servant to me like your father was to my father” angle. OR the what does brotherhood even mean in this circumstance especially considering how we were raised together OR the jealousy because my dad was nicer to you angle. 

Oh also like I KNOOOOW that WWX’s first kiss is technically canonically with LWJ during that night hunt BUT ummm canon is a liar sometimes because COME ON there is absolutely no way WWX wasn’t getting into trouble sneaking off to make out with the other disciples in the broom closet. Anyways with that in mind there is no way that wwx wasn’t jc’s first kiss like COME ON. 14 year old JC embarrassed he’s never kissed a girl before, WWX like “lol it’s easy I’ll show you how” I mean SERIOUSLY PLEASE. And then JC held on to that for the next decade+.  OH ALSO don’t get me started on the “I’m so mad about everything that went down I’m going to torture and kill anyone who might be you or might be a follower of yours.” It’s the pinnacle of fucked up romantic jealousy and aggression and I love to see it. (I would also very much like to see a post-canon fic where WWX is like “lol that sounds hot, you wanna do it, minus the murder bit?” and JC’s brain shatters into 1000 horny pieces.) 

3. Is there an unpopular opinion you have on your ship?

My unpopular opinion is that there is not enough of it tbh (also idk if it’s unpopular or not but I imagine it would be... would love to see the pseudo-incest angle leaned into a little more. I wouldn’t even consider myself an incest shipper but it just WORKS for this ship). 

SORRY TO MY DASH FOR THE LONG POST, I have a LOT of feelings about stuff whoops. 

[uraharabyakuya]

Rant: ChenQingLing is a disgrace.

Disclaimer: this is a rant, and it’s antiCQL. So those who like it, pls ignore and refrain from posting your counter arguments to me. I just want to vent my displeasure of this live action and only welcome those who agree with me to comment and share.

Being a massive fan of MDZS, I just have to get this off my chest. I am sick of all these brainwashing and gaslighting by so called “fans” of the original work who are singing high praises for this shambles of an adaptation.

The live action series should be ashamed of themselves because they’re simply using the popularity and following from the franchise and totally disrespecting the core of the story and characters. Before these nincompoops come and wax lyrical about adaptations being different from the source material, there is an obvious difference between a genuine adapatation to screen whereby the major plot lines are maintained, the core stories are maintained, the character histories are maintained and superfluous or extrapolated materials are minimised, also where there are obvious gaps of non-explained or non-elaborated space only is where things are created and imagined. Whereas a rubbish excuse of an adaptation is what CQL has done. Because what it did was to use the characters names, take the fantasy world setting and cool elements, and then totally walk over the storyline by completely meshing and mixing and stirring everything and everyone into a big pot of dog poo. And testament to them just using the franchise’s popularity to milk money and attention is by completely unashamedly BL-bait with all the WangXian interactions including many that are either not in the book or extras, or not in the right context or scene, or completely nonexistent and made up. And then the shameless tag that it’s just a platonic bromance since censorship in China wouldn’t allow this. Right.

So let’s talk about the plot. So WWX is not some grandmaster of demonic cultivation since it has already been going on behind the scenes with Xue Yang casually helping WRH practise some hardcore demonic cultivation and the fact that the Tiger Stygian Amulet is just some relic that’s been around for ages. Nothing to do with WWX’s ingenuity and talent for harnessing the resentful energy stored in that sword found at the TuLuXuanWu cave. Then apparently the TianNu statue that comes to life was already something that he and LWJ had encountered before in their youth whilst they go along to hunt for the Amulet pieces. And then WQ apparently is able to influence the zombified with a flute like instrument anyway. And then apparently Lan Yi and WWX’s mum knew each other cos nothing spells more destined love than when your respective previous generation also had some sort of bond and connection. And the bunnies were really reared by her so not a sweet little homage of the Wangxian love. And the forehead ribbon is not just ugly aesthetics wise but LWJ can’t decide if he’s steadfast about it or he is nonchalant about taking it off and tying it onto WWX’s wrist even when he was not intoxicated. And then WWX was already using some unexplained paper puppet powers which was apparently not seen as demonic cultivation in his youth to mess about, and he apparently could manipulate LWJ quite easily to get him drunk. And when things that are not canon like LXC and JGY they just had to make their first meeting so obviously charged with innuendo. And then WQ since the actress invested in the series, had to be important, so she is given some all so noble duty of being the good guy in the bad camp who is doing stuff that she doesn’t want to but she is still good and should be liked though she’s still a bad guy nonsense trope. So she goes to GuSu to get the amulet piece for WRH, because only when he gets the piece will she be able to somehow bring WN away. And WN was a great enough character both alive and dead as the Ghost General with his design from the source material, but no, they want to embellish it that he’s afflicted with some condition that makes him susceptible to being possessed and taken over by evil spirits. Wtf. And naturally, WQ should somehow capture JC’s eye, because why would JC want to be infatuated with a Wen person when eventually they cause the demise of his parents and his clan. But hey maybe he’d be so selective thinking WQ didn’t do it though so that’s okay. Like wtf.

Let’s talk about the actors. I like WWX’s look, the actor has a good face, he “looks” like a WWX, but damn his acting is bad. And damn, he cannot do the duality of WWX, because he does not exude that dangerous aura and the strength and power that WWX naturally possess because of his natural abilities, evident even before he was a Yiling Patriarch, much less if this guy wants to play a convincing Patriarch. He does all these ogling of LWJ from the get go since they met, cue all the cheap BL baiting. And he pouts and stomps his feet and acts cute the whole time. WWX is cheeky, naughty, devious, mischievous, but not girly, not a sissy. Wtf. Then we move onto LWJ. So that guy is some boy and heartthrob, but damn he has neither r looks nor the presence nor the acting skills to touch LWJ. WTF. The moment he appeared he made me want to slap LWJ, want to cry for his ru8ning of his whole imagery. The action sequence is so wooden, and the expressions are so constipated or dead. Everybody else looked bad. The actors I think chosen right for their looks were WWX, WN (alive version, the ghost general version has such awful make up it makes me cringe), NHS, JGY, XY (he apparently got to get a good looking dude to play him who also looks kind of evil and yet looks like an anime character walked out of the anime) and maybe JC (that’s because aesthetically he actually can be considered good looking and that is ridiculous because he’s better looking than the Twin Jades of Lan in this). LXC and his butt chin hurts my eyes. WRH looking like some voodoo witch doctor gone drag in his evil volcanic dungeon lair makes me want to throw an encyclopaedia at someone’s head violently. NMJ looking like a complete perverted uncle complete with hentai stache is just blasphemous. JZX just looks weird, no better way to put it.

So onto the make up, costumes and props. Make up is so shit that you can see up close where spots are done smoothed over or powdered down, the gore or the effects of veins and wounds are so fake and so obviously drawn on it looked like a 6yo went to arts class and took some marker pen and crayon and created these outcomes. The props are so cheap that the ghost hand looks like a rubber Halloween glove you get from the prop shop around the corner, the deity binding ropes look exactly like rough ropes. The Emperor Smile bottles look so tiny and white that it looks more like medicine bottles on ancient times than an expensive alcohol bottle. Where’s the YunMeng silver bell, the jade piece on LWJ’s robe. The forehead ribbon looks so cheap because it’s too thin and the stupid metallic piece in the middle is ridiculous. Why can’t they just stick with the original to have the silk cloth with the cloud patterns embroidered on the cloth. And the clothes, Lan sect is supposed to be ethereal, so why are they dressed in such plain white and tight clothes. They should have the flowing sleeves, the light blue tones, and the cloud embroidery. YunMeng needs to have their original violet colour, the Wen Sect does not need to be full body red like they’re getting married (see WQ), and the Jin sect needs their golden robes with the centrepiece of the JinXinXueLang peony, not some watered down white with yellow hues and nothing else to show for it. And what is with LWJ’s hair do and hair piece, it has such a disgusting look to it and it doesn’t look right. Do the bun properly and the accessory properly, not some weird plop of hair right in front on top of his head and then put a flat piece of elaborate metal on top of it.

I had been looking forward to seeing the epic ness of MDZS brought to the small screen. I had been completely prepared for changes in terms of the romance line being cut, but I fully expected the main storylines to be followed and perhaps elaborated on. Not to be chopped and changed and meshed up and violated like they’ve done so. And with the ability to get some really lovely natural scenery and some of the sets that actually look good eg the Lotus seat in Yun Meng was elaborate and intricate. So why won’t they invest in the right places like making the make up perfect, getting the costumes and looks correct, getting actual actors who can act cos even if they don’t look aesthetically good enough but if they’re solid actors it would flow so much better, and more vitally, why don’t they retell and elaborate on the existing epic storyline as it is! That’s the core of it, the MDZS storyline and major scenes are so awesome wit( their backstories, no changes need to be made, but merely elaborated and extrapolated on, not to be comepltely vandalised and violated. My heart breaks as for the sake of my love for MDZS, I’ve watched 8 eps and had to stop and restart so many times because of how jarring, unnatural, awkward, infuriating, irritating and frustrating the factors above contribute to my viewing. And now the greatness of MDZS as an original source material will forever be tainted by the sacrilege that is the Untamed.

[llycaons]

ep18: put that thing back where it came from or so help me

I tried to go back to my novel lbs and see how faithful these past few episodes have been, but those posts are a goddamn mess. I don't know what's going on since they don't summarize what's actually happening and I still can't remember how the plot went

the donghua left out a lot of really funny details from the book's early chapters, but I still think the humor and tone was mostly preserved

also in the book there were even more rape jokes than I remembered in the 'trapping wwx in CR' section of the story ugh I do not want to go back to that for any reason ever again

the novel making a point of talking about how lwj went wherever he was needed was a fairly significant part of his (good-guy) character and something he needed badly because he was fairly flat in most other ways. and they don't have even that in the donghua so I think that's a shame. sure, it was tell and not show, but the donghua is not really showing it either

anyway. 18. jc is like 25% more unhinged here. he laughs humorlessly and loudly and it's kind of creepy. but he seems a lot less brimming with bitterness and anger all the time than in cql and he interacts with his disciples normally and in a controlled way. he's like a human disaster fire in cql

here he's like "lan zhan...I'll be watching you..." and lwj just stares after him like I do not give a shit

FUCK I never added trytophobia to the cql tw list

pacing is an issue in all versions of this story...the donghua's been best about it so far but this conversation that was literally just a monotone shot - reverse shot discussing some schemes or whatever was so hard to sit through. spice it UP

and who the fuck are THESE people in the veils and with white and purple robes. jgy??? jgy and su she?? some demonic cultivator group?? nhs in different robes??? I swear my patience for this story is going down the drain...just stick to the og plot wyd

they literally showed his face and I have no idea if I'm supposed to recognize him he looks like every other goddamn character in this show

oh so frostwork is a literal title

I'm pretty sure, based on my reading the other day, that by this point in the novel lwj knows who wwx is. how long are they going to keep this charade going? I can't think of any good reason that reveal would be delayed. are they expecting the audience to believe lwj still doesn't know?

I cannot follow wwx's logic at ALL I always hated these surmises and guesses and manouvering here and in the novel and in cql AND in tgcf too they just seem way too complicated and wwx and xl making wild assertions I can barely follow that are always correct is not my idea of a fun mystery story

very little about what I love in cql is present in this story. it's so alien...I can't imagine donghua lovers enjoyed cql very much or vice versa, or if they did it must have been for different reasons or individual scenes

this is why the fanbase is so confusing we're all fans of different things and assuming things about one version that don't apply to the others lmao

my wifi keeps cutting out nooo please dont do this to me baby please dont prolong this experience by buffering

oh FUCK OFF CORNETTO. no more in-series ads I am SICK of it stop ruining my suspension of disbelief and trying to make me believe wei wuxian would be a corporate shill

so donghua lwj legitimately looks like a freak when surrounded by townspeople. something truly rotten in his design

why the fuck are his eyes purple in this shot I hate everything

oh wow scooby-doo jump that's so funny haha he's scared of dogs

I am losing my goddamn mind over this episode never has lwj looked more like a dollar-a-dozen bland stoic pretty boy bl love interest top I am incurring psychic damage he hasn't had a change in facial expression or voice tone in at least three episodes he is the worst he's NOTHING

ohh the nhs thing is pretty cool. the bird repeating his headshaker line

oh thank god they're having a conversation about his fear of dogs. can this please be a gateway to open communication I am dying here (spoiler alert it was not! the conversation consisted of one sentence from each of them!)

not to be rude that is the fucking ugliest child I have ever seen in my life

for once this flashback is way more dramatic than it was in cql (and than it was in the novel too). I couldn't get into the emotional journey wwx was going on since everything looks so hideous but I got the idea

but I think the food aspect was such a significant part of his welcome into the jiang family - in both cql and the novel jfm offers wwx food when he finds him - and it's a shame that was cut out to focus on the dogs

the connection to family and safety and love and belonging with food has always felt SO crucial to his character in both the source material and the drama

do they even show jfm confirming wwx's identity? that seems fairly important too

oh hey here's nhs

real tragedy of the drama is we never saw n.mj's tits :/

[llycaons]

ep16: jesse what the fuck are you you talking about.jpg

screams and cries and throws up I don't want to see any more flashback scenes I know what happened

well the fight scene was spectacular

wrh fighting with like, a ball of power? and then being stabbed in a nonfatal place and collapsing, killed (I guess) by a character we know literally nothing about?

you know what this show reminds me of? that post that was like complaining about people who say luke and darth vader shouldn't have been related, because isn't a story so much more compelling when none of the characters are connected to each other/s?

no things just have more emotional weight when characters mean things to each other and are treated as significant in the narrative! but besides lwj and wwx almost none of the characters get that treatment. most of them barely even get establishing character moments. I don't care about what any of them do

OH. jgy has that hat in the donghua too! cql probably modeled it after the donghua then (or manhua?) because I don't think it was described as such in the novel

on the flipside seeing that this respected and humble leader is the one who murdered wrh is kind of thrilling. I see it

those watchtowers were a good idea I really hope they weren't abandoned or destroyed by the cultivators after everything came out and he was discredited

jgy and lxc are clearly longtime friends, but like the novel there was no romantic subtext

it looks like the donghua is treating jgy's villainy as a spoiler, which is not quite accurate to the novel? I feel like as soon as we knew who he was, we knew he was evil. cql initially introduced him as sympathetic bur showed how his ambition and desire for a position and respect from his father/society and his malice drove him to do heinous things. I mean, by the time he started murdering war prisoners, was anyone still rooting for him?

anyway this intro for jgy keeps some tension and surprises for later, while maintaining a coherent narrative. I changed my mind I do think it's a good choice

HELP. 'oh yeah things have been great my brother brought a body part home"

it looks like this is going to be a much clearer and logical postres narrative. postres is a mess in cql and unbearable in the novel. it's nice to know what's going on with the arm, and the tension of what jgy knows or suspects - he pricks his ears up at the mention of an arm

very few scenes are not wwx pov so I doubt this is in the novel word-for-word but lxc did meet w jgy I think

bracing myself for this deeply uncomfortable escape attempt. the jade tokens were a big thing in the novel and it looks like here too. they don't show up in cql iirc

I have misremembered things but usually I remember what does or doesn't happen in cql pretty well not just because I've seen it like five times but because after I finished it and starting looking for fic I would see all these references to things I didn't recognize, like the jiang bells or the 13 years, and know I was reading something based off a different adaptation, and it stuck in my head

I never realized lwj was in the pool with pants on this whole time I thought he was completely naked lmao

when he started getting out of the pool in cql right after wwx got back I was oh holy shit have they seen each other naked already wha's happening

oh my god their height difference here is like half a foot booo

I'm so embarassed to be watching this contrived bullshit I hate this

well at least it's short. hope those other scenes don't happen. I don't think they will

probably the best thing about novel/donghua wwx is how powerful a demonic cultivator he is. he tells the resentful energy to open the doors and it does. pretty neat scene to see the energy swirling around and then be contained

this scene also shows us what exactly lwj does in his role filling in for lxc which is cool

the show looks like it's saying wwx has his own reasons for wanting to solve the mystery of the arm, but didn't all his scars heal? I don't remember there was a last one to take vengeance for and I was paying attention for it

it looks like lwj sent bichen to that house and then transported there instantly. I don't think that was a thing in the novel

so yeah they go to a town and some poor traumatized woman is there and wwx acts incredibly suspiciously when some guy talks about yllz and uhhh if this was in the novel I don't remember it idc either really :/

the ending shots are some of the most lush and detailed scenery pieces I have ever seen in animation. I actually watched the ending ending just to take them all in, something I never bother doing. the lwj one and the jyl/jxc one with the flower petals were particularly stunning

fun fact: according to some comments made about w/zl I read in the wiki, cultivating a core later in life is possible, but the person's youth is "not well preserved"