#ep35

[xinyuehui]

I can't bare to look back. Who will stay by my side in the end? This so-called growth is more like an end. Only I remain with my tragedy. ��

大理寺少卿游 · White Cat Legend

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 35 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3) 

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Perfect Date, Continued

Lan Wangji begins his day pondering an ancient philosophical question: If your crush happens to sleep over on your first date, whether in your bed or just crashing on the couch, and he doesn’t leave in the morning, are you still on your first date? Or is it your second date? He would ask Lan Xichen but the one time he asked Lan Xichen “is there a Lan rule book for dating,” Lan Xichen said “there are no set rules in this world” and wandered off to go fuck his ex’s ex. 

Either way, Lan Wangji is pretty sure it’s important to show an in interest in your date’s hobbies. Wei Wuxian’s favorite hobby is desecrating burial places, so Lan Wangji takes him back to the Nie tomb to see what sort of fun they can have there. 

This time their stroll through the woods isn’t spoiled by any irritating dogs or nephews. 

Dig

When they arrive, they find Nie Huaisang directing a team of dudes to close up the wall where they previously rescued Jin Ling. 

It’s good that these guys aren’t using any mortar, since Lan Wangji wants to fuck up this wall with his sword. 

He strikes the wall and it collapses towards him, not away, because he’s been watching Three-Body and has decided physics isn’t real. 

(More after the cut!)

Inside the wall are these three objects, put there by a props crew that has decided anatomy isn’t real. Nie Huaisang isn’t too happy about the digging, and Wei Wuxian puts an arm around him in a friendly manner to console him.  

Lan Wangji notices this and immediately summons Wei Wuxian to his side, handing him Bichen and telling him to dig, in a totally hot unnecessary display of possessive dominance. 

Velociraptor mode unlocked

Wei Wuxian’s not complaining, mind you.  

Wise Production Decisions

While Wei Wuxian examines these ostensibly human skeletons to determine how their bones are able to stay assembled without any connective tissue, let’s take a moment to contemplate one of the major changes between Mo Dao Zu Shi, the book, and Chen Qing Ling, the show. 

In the novel, donghua, and manga, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian road-trip together not in pursuit of a sword spirit, but to collect chunks of Nie Mingjue’s dismembered corpse. Eventually it’s all put together again for the big showdown in the temple. 

I read an interview a while back--sorry, can’t source it at the moment--where the producer of CQL said that the reason for the change wasn’t because of censorship or the difficulty of painting swirly stuff to hide NMJ’s junk, it was because they tried various ways to do the body-part thing and “we couldn’t find a way to make it beautiful.” Considering these skeletons, and the demon hand from episode one, and the animatronic dog, let’s all thank our lucky stars that the Department of Questionable Practical Effects was not tasked with creating a walking-dead Nie Mingjue. 

Sabermetrics

Having sufficiently fondled the skeletons, Wei Wuxian wants to move on to fondling the Nie sabers, and so he asks Nie Huaisang to let them open all the sarcophagi. Nie Huaisang wants to say no, but Lan Wangji, who is in charge of this date, bows at him until he has to say yes. 

Lan Wangji’s status and reputation are so strong that Nie Huaisang can’t make a saving throw against this request, even though he’s a clan leader and Lan Wangji isn’t.

This is why it’s extra-romantic that Lan Wangji later risks his reputation in front of everybody for Wei Wuxian’s sake. 

After opening all of the coffins up they determine that there is one saber missing. Gosh, which saber might that be? It doesn’t come to Nie Huaisang or Wei Wuxian’s mind, but Lan Wangji intones “Baxia,” and Wei Wuxian helpfully reminds us that Baxia was Nie Mingjue’s sword.  

Lan Wangji might not be a people person, but he remembers every sword he’s ever met, much in the way I imagine Wang Yibo remembers every dog he’s ever met.

Qi Deviation

Nie Huaisang tells them about Nie Mingjue’s literally explosive qi deviation, in which he bled from his face and from several squibs stuck to his chest, followed by more exploding squibs that just produced smoke without any extra bleeding.  

To explain a bit, in the most lay of layperson’s terms, your qi is the energy in your body, which circulates through your meridians and, through cultivation and/or traditional medicine practices, can be directed and improved. Qi that is out of balance is bad, and can cause illness and squib explosions.

Or possibly he’s just gassy

As Nie Huaisang tells it, this just up and happened, but he actually knows why and how it happened, and who did it.

Second Date

After that cheery little outing, Lan Wangji figures that by now they’re definitely on their second date, so he takes Wei Wuxian into town for dinner.

As they enter downtown Qinghe, Wei Wuxian briefly touches his arm, causing Lan Wangji to immediately clock that he’s hiding an injury/curse.  

So busted. 

Wei Wuxian attempts to distract Lan Wangji  from his questions by making provocative curse-measuring gestures, and then offering to strip so Lan Wangji can check him it out. 

This is where Wei Wuxian discovers that he can’t beat Lan Wangji at gay chicken any more. 

Next, Wei Wuxian does this adorable walking-backwards thing, which is impractical but lets him look at Lan Wangji while he’s talking. He is just as smitten as Lan Wangji is, although he’s clearly got no idea what to do about it. 

They talk over some of the details of their detective work, and then Wei Wuxian tries, once again, to get Lan Wangji to tell him how he recognized him. Once again, he’s unsuccessful, as Lan Wangji tells him it’s “getting late” and heads to an inn, despite the clear daylight all over the place.

Memory Care

He’s chosen a place for dinner that they went to together, way back when they were young, because he’s heard that going to familiar places is is a good way to help your loved one who is struggling with memory impairment. 

They ignore their food in favor of pounding liquor (WWX) and tea (LWJ), while they openly eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table. 

The conversation at the next table is all about the exact thing that happened the last time they were at this inn, which leads to Lan Wangji filling Wei Wuxian in on the (apparent) fates of Xue Yang, Song Lan, and Xiao Xingchen. 

By the time he remembers that trauma-dumping is best saved for a third or fourth date, he’s already telling Wei Wuxian about how the last survivor of the Chang Clan was found dead of lingchi, and that the cuts were made by Xiao Xingchen’s sword.

Realizing he’s made a tactical error in eviscerating Wei Wuxian’s happy memory of his sect uncle, Lan Wangji has to find a way to rescue this date from the cliff it’s heading over kind of like the cliff Wei Wuxian previously headed over. So he grabs Wei Wuxian’s drink and knocks it back all in one go. 

This delights Wei Wuxian, so the evening is back on track. 

[kerubimcrepin]

Episode 35 - The Gobbal Set

Finally, a non-heavy, light little episode. Thank god.

Their conversation is cute, their closed sign is cute, even they're both cute.

Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, and Kerubim Crepin to tell a single story where he went to Brakmar, despite that seemingly happening many times, between, and those are just the ones I can remember at the moment, his and Lou's "slaughter safaris in Sidimote Moors" or having a rare sword from there.

He's trying to "disappear" all the occasions that may or may not involve Atcham out of his life, as if it's 1984.

He is so normal.

Kerubim would love NFTs.

I love you, Kerubim's Unspecified Adult Responsibilities.

Joris is so special for this.

I like to imagine, that as an adult, he publishes sad """romance""" novels under thirty pen names (lest anyone in his real life learns he has emotions)

They are, in part, musings on why one must imagine someone spending thousands of years of immortality happily, — the same way Sisyphus must be happy, haha.

If Kerubim and Atcham learn about this, he will explode.

He truly is god's strongest Kerubim apologism warrior.

I just wanted to include this because gay people.

He is so bad at this. It's very cute. I love him.

Let the traumatic flashbacks to Kerubim actually almost drowning commence:

I'm insane about researching Joris's psyche.

Is there anything you'd like to tell us, Joris? Does this make you scared frequently, haha? Do you think about this a lot?

A friend had recently convinced me of the headcanon that Joris has OCD (not that I needed much convincing. If you've read my fics, I uh... accidentally gave Joris OCD in one of them. Whoopsie.), and while it's mostly about his adult self, I can see him having inclinations/some form of that even as a child.

Mostly due to the "persistent scary thoughts of someone he loves dying," "being so upset by the concept of changing bedtimes, that is a Nightmare to him," "needing reassurance that his thoughts of Kerubim dying are Not going to happen for real," things, — which look similar to the way intrusive thoughts and thought spirals work, — as well as the "having so much anxiety compared to an average seven-year-old (due to Kerubim and the general home situation), that he sometimes still sucks his thumb while sleeping" thing.

He looks so peaceful here. Cute.

It is interesting that he values something that was quiet and quaint so much. I guess both excitement and the calm, are equally important to him. It makes sense, considering he keeps pivoting between returning to adventure, and then going on breaks again, during his long, immortal life after the series.

(From this show's quietude, to moving between cities, to settling down in Bonta for a little bit. Then, two-hundred-something years later, yet again, more adventures, and yet again, settling down in Astrub. Then in Wakfu, moving to Bonta again, going on missions with Joris, and complaining that he needs his retirement, while getting beat up heavily due to lack of regular training. His switching between these two things is so interesting.)

He's so funny for this.

[letsoulswander]

BLINK SHARK BLINK SHARK BLINK SHARK AHHHHHHHHHHHH

[johannepetereric]

DOJI JUST CALLED TSUBASA A MOUSE XDXDXDXD

[theloopcrew]

i missed when he was ugly SO MUCH you have no IDEA!!!!!!!!

[quippso]

mollymauk!

click for image quality

[martinhug]

hiyaa first post!! started listening to malevolent and I'm already on s4 how fun

[dramaticpokemonpictures]

[xinyuehui]

And this is why cloning is unethical 😞

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 35 part one

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)  

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Perfect Date, part one: Moon Gazing

While Wei Wuxian has been out unpacking emotional baggage with his family, Lan Wangji has been busy planning the perfect date. He's found the tallest bridge in town and placed himself there where his crush is most likely to see him in profile. 

When Wei Wuxian arrives, Lan Wangji is gazing at the moon to pass the time. I wonder what phase the moon is in? Crescent, maybe? Waning? 

Ha ha ha ha, this is television, the moon is full, of course.

Wei Wuxian is downtrodden and bummed out until he sees Lan Wangji, at which his whole demeanor brightens and softens, and he cat-blinks up at him. 

Then he reflects for a moment on the reversal in his expectations. He's not one to dwell on gains and losses, but in this moment he sees that he's both lost Jiang Cheng and gained Lan Wangji.  Wangxian, flute solo edition, plays on the soundtrack while he somewhat dejectedly goes to meet up with Lan Wangji.

Get Your Hair Did

Lan Wangji didn’t do his hair specially for this date, because his hair is always so extra it would be too obvious if he tried to make it more extra. But he sure does look beautiful. 

The Lans have a rule about not wearing excessive bling. It’s good to know that wearing two pieces of silver on your headband (one of them is not visible here, it’s on the part that wraps around his ponytail) and four more on top of your head is not excessive. 

(More after the cut!)

One of the things I love about Lan Wangji is that he values beauty, including his own beauty. He's an ideal gentleman of his time; one who appreciates his natural gifts and is responsibly curating them for the enjoyment of those around him. And while he’s been through an ocean of grief and trauma, and has a body covered in scars to show for it, he hasn’t let that change the way he adorns or carries himself. 

It’s Only A Flesh Wound

Wei Wuxian slowly hobbles up the stairs and then tries to bullshit Lan Wangji about the state of his body at this moment, which is: 

limping because of being beaten with magic lightning whip 

massive gnarly curse on leg 

additional curse on arm which Lan Wangji doesn't even know about yet 

probably didn't eat anything today either

Lan Wangji wants to take care of Wei Wuxian. Lan Wangji has his work cut out for him.

Wei Wuxian tries super hard to downplay the entire situation but Lan Wangji pretty much reads his mind, immediately yanking his robe up to look at his leg. 

(Knee replacement surgery photoshoppery by yours truly)

When he sees the gnarly curse, he is able to infer that that Wei Wuxian transferred the curse from Jin Ling, and that he therefore met Jiang Cheng, and that he therefore got his ass beat. 

These two and their nonverbal communication. Wei Wuxian says ten times as much as Lan Wangji, but so much of it is deliberately misleading that his words don’t convey any more real information than Lan Wangji’s silences. They both need to rely on body language and inference in order to understand each other.

Lan Wangji decides that he’ll carry Wei Wuxian, and when WWX says no, they go back and forth about that time during the turtle hunt, when Wei Wuxian offered (unsuccessfully) to carry Lan Wangji. Wei Wuxian claims not to remember, and Lan Wangji has the nerve to get his feelings hurt, microfrowning as if Wei Wuxian forgot some special or tender moment.

Of course, to Lan Wangji it was a special, tender moment; Wei Wuxian was thoughtful and risked getting in trouble to try to help him. But to Wei Wuxian it would just be another of the many, many, many times he tried to get close to Lan Wangji and Lan Wangji told him to fuck off.

Perfect Date, part 2: Barebacking Piggybacking

Lan Wangji, displaying the same respect for Wei Wuxian’s boundaries that Wei Wuxian chronically displays for his, ignores his protests and picks him up to carry him back to the inn. He’s working his way down the romance-tropes checklist tonight and he’ll be damned if he misses any ticky boxes.

The department of questionable practical effects has cooked up some excellent fake legs for this occasion. I mean...its possible they’re real? But come on. Look at them. 

In the shot where Wang Yibo is actually carrying Xiao Zhan while they both obviously laugh, XZ's legs are tucked back, with the sole of his shoe showing. 

And when they walk down the stairs in the closer shots, it really doesn't look like XZ is putting his weight on WYB. Maybe they are both walking down the stairs in tandem? Anyway, Wang Yibo has an exceptional bod, with perfect control of every muscle on his frame, but he is a slender, wiry guy who is overall smaller than the dude he is carrying. So I don't begrudge them any fakery they needed for this shot. I just laugh at Wei Wuxian's gently swaying feet whenever I see them.

While Lan Wangji carries Wei Wuxian, they banter a bit about how Lan Wangji was able to recognize him. But that’s mainly a distraction from what’s really going on in this scene, which is a classic hurt/comfort encounter. The last time we saw WWX get a piggyback ride from someone, it was Jiang Yanli carrying him after he fell out of a tree. Wei Wuxian is always taking care of everyone, but his sister is the person who consistently took care of him, and now Lan Wangji is stepping into that role. 

He tried to do it in Wei Wuxian's previous life, without much luck, but now he's just blowing past Wei Wuxian's objections and doing what he feels needs doing. 

Perfect Date, part 3: Drinks with a Friend

When you’re shy or just not that talkative, it’s not a bad idea to meet up with friends on your date, so that someone can help get the conversation going. Lan Wangji has recruited old friend Nie Huaisang to break the ice and put Wei Wuxian in a cheery mood. 

The camera cuts away while Wei Wuxian ties the ribbon of his mask, just like it cuts away whenever a cultivator starts to re-sheathe a sword.

And now we, and Wei Wuxian, learn that grown-up Lan Wangji is not only comfortable touching and carrying Wei Wuxian, he's apparently into manhandling him quite a bit, unnecessarily doing a full-body, both-hands snuggle just to walk him three steps over a threshold. 

Nobody is complaining about this, mind you.

Lan Wangji has a hunch that Wei Wuxian likes his mean side, so he is mean to Nie Huaisang in front of him, hoping that it gives Wei Wuxian ideas. 

Wei Wuxian follows up by giving NHS a warning that comes directly from his own experience: “if you don’t explain what’s going on today, be careful that once it gets out, all the cultivator families will gather to interrogate and subjugate [and]...when you want to talk, no-one will be willing to listen; no-one will be willing to believe you.” 

Nie Huaisang gets revenge for their bullying by dumping nearly 10 solid minutes of exposition on them. We are kinda done with the “show, don’t tell” phase of the story; there’s a lot of information to impart. I’ll explain. 

No, is too much, I sum up.

The crypt in the forest is a Nie Clan ancestral tomb, that occasionally eats people because it’s got traps all around it. 

The crypt doesn’t hold bodies, but sabers.

The Nie Clan’s sabers are just absolutely loaded with resentful energy, which is why Nie Clan leaders tend to die of qi deviation.

The crypt's sabers are angry, and they like to feed on monsters and beasts, so the traps are designed to lure in those sort of creatures.

The humans who get eaten are generally either thieves, or cultivators too dumb to realize they’re trespassing on Nie property, which makes it fair to eat them.

How was Nie Huaisang to know that Jin Ling, a cultivator who actually matters to people, was that dumb? 

This is all a big secret because using resentful energy, even without killing humans to get it, is forbidden. And the entire Nie Clan has been using it for ages. 

Including, incidentally, during that one time when they came to Nightless City to point their (resentful) sabers at Wei Wuxian and punish him for using resentful energy.  That time that he basically described to Nie Huaisang in his warning at the beginning of the conversation.

Fortunately for Wei Wuxian’s mood while hearing all of this, Lan Wangji has already ordered wine for their date, and he has it ready for Wei Wuxian the moment it’s needed. 

Look at that swagger. 

Also fortunately, Nie Huaisang is a genuine friend to Wei Wuxian (even more than WWX realizes currently, of course), and there is a lot of goodwill still remaining from their youth together. Earlier in the conversation Wei Wuxian yoinked NHS’s fan off of him, and before he gives it back he looks at it carefully and has a flashback to a new-to-us scene of their time in cloud recesses, where NHS showed him how great the fan is, while WWX rated it “meh.” 

This time he repeats, verbatim, Nie Huaisang’s words of praise about the fan. Wei Wuxian’s memory for poetry and poetic speech is perfect, despite the swiss cheese that is his functional memory.

It’s a little jarring, and a lot heartbreaking, to see young Wei Wuxian, with his fresh, pure style (no black robes, no bracers, a floral silver twist in his hair), with his boundless enthusiasm and curiosity, and with his sword. The fact that we haven’t seen this scene before makes it hit that much harder. 

I’m not sure if Wei Wuxian is deliberately giving Nie Huaisang a hint about his identity, or if he’s just praising his fan as a way of showing that he appreciates his friend. Nie Huaisang doesn’t show any sign of recognition, though, just grabs his fan and goes. 

Perfect Date, part 4: Slip Into Something More Comfortable 

Lan Wangji jumps into the next part of the date with gusto, settling at Wei Wuxian’s feet and attempting to take his clothes off. Wei Wuxian gets all shy, saying he can do it himself. 

Lan Wangji signals his new acceptance of demonic cultivation by making an unabashed thirst face when he sees Wei Wuxian’s extremely-cursed bare leg.

The moment is interrupted by the cursed sword in the Qiankun bag, jumping around on a fishing wire like a fucking cat toy.

Perfect Date, part 5: Gift Giving

At this point we, and Wei Wuxian, discover that Lan Wangji has stealthily stolen his flute and has fixed it so it sounds good. Also it has some nice carvings on it now, which presumably came from Lan Wangji, although maybe they were there already from Wei Wuxian waving Jingyi’s sword around when he initially cut the flute. That’s how the holes got put in it, after all. The entire genesis of this flute is sketchy. 

While the “somebody loves me” music plays on the soundtrack -- a tune we hear a lot when Jiang Yanli is on screen -- Lan Wangji finishes fixing up the flute while Wei Wuxian watches him, with dawning warmth and happiness. 

This is the first of two times that a person who previously condemned Wei Wuxian’s method of cultivation, gives him a flute. Both times, I think, it’s the person’s way of giving their blessing to his cultivation method.

The fact that Lan Wangji initially tells Wei Wuxian to play Rest solo is another huge gesture of respect. Rest is a Lan Clan jam, but Lan Wangji lets Wei Wuxian take lead, only joining in when the cat toy Qiankun of Sword Cursedness doesn’t cooperate. 

Perfect Date, part 6: a Duet

When Lan Wangji does join in, it's the best part of their date night, for them and for us. The camera operator treats us to several gratuitous closeups of beautiful hands and lips while they play.  

They are delighted to be playing together, with a whole lot of eye fucking  gazing, and Lan Wangji openly smiling like the lovestruck dork that he is.

This duet is a quiet evolution of their battle-couple dynamic; they're perfectly in sync with each other, subduing a restless spirit like regular cultivators on a night hunt. The first time they played Rest together, it was after an argument, on opposite sides of a killing field. Now they're playing and working in perfect harmony, in a considerably more intimate setting. 

Lan Wangji feels like this date is going really really well.

[poofmalyakaet]

I can be your angle... Or yuor demon....

Happy Light Yagamis death day, January 28th!

[isogashiro]

minor heehee moments that made it into cql unscathed

[johannepetereric]

”[Ryuga] has won two tournaments today, increasing his total Beypoints to 38,000”

HOW DID I NOT NOTICE THIS?!

[dramaism]

Li Xun & Zhu Yun + kisses