#ep36

[xinyuehui]

Him: I do not care Also him: 8 years, 6 months, 11 days

棋魂 · Hikaru no Go · 2020

[dramaism]

li xun + his love for tickling zhu yun

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 36 part two

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

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Breakfast Al Fresco

After a nightmare about falling into the burial mounds, Wei Wuxian wakes up all misty.

I guess this is supposed to be sweat, but sweat is usually not distributed in a fine spray over the surface of a person’s face like this, at least not the kind that happens while you sleep. My fellow menopausal people can attest to this.

For the first and probably last time in their lives, Wei Wuxian is up for breakfast before Lan Wangji. 

This means that we, not Lan Wangji, get to watch him eat. 

What? I’m a simple woman with simple interests.

(more behind the cut!)

I Sit And Watch the Children Play

While he eats his breakfast, Wei Wuxian watches a group of kids playing “Sunshot Campaign,” complete with shooting toy arrows at a kite that represents the sun. A reference, presumably, to that kite that Wang Lingjiao used as an excuse to attack Lotus Pier.

Doing things I used to do They think are new

Wei Wuxian smiles with genuine pleasure, watching these small fry play-acting the central trauma of his and his peers’ lives; only the mention of Jin Zixuan’s death brings his mood down. 

He appears to carry his damage very lightly, but we know that this bright morning began with a nightmare. Perhaps every morning begins that way, but he is an expert at clearing his mind and embracing The “Now” of Wolf Thought the  present moment. 

Seeing kiddie Hanguang-Jun and Jiang Cheng cheers him right back up again. Kudos to whoever was in charge of casting kids in this show. I particularly love baby Nie Mingjue’s big boss energy. 

BBNMJ: Don’t make me shank you

The kiddos do a good job of embodying the conflicts of the cultivation world, roleplaying a bunch of guys trying to be in charge while smack-talking the other guys who want to be in charge. 

Wei Wuxian politely asks the kids where’s Yiling Laozu? which sets up a gag in which their...nanny? shows up and hollers at them and they call her Yiling Laozu and run away. It’s funny and it does illustrate Wei Wuxian’s ongoing bad reputation. 

It misses an opportunity, though, to show us a cute baby Yiling Laozu like the one we see in the Donghua. 

There’s Got To Be A Morning After

Lan Wangji finally emerges from the inn, and proceeds to have more facial expressions in 60 seconds than he usually has in an hour.

Wei Wuxian has a good time teasing him about his drunkenness, while managing not to actually tell him any of the things that happened, other than their discussion about rabbits. 

Note that this conversation is even more entertaining if you mentally substitute the word “ass” for the word “rabbit.” 

Trust Me

Wei Wuxian mercifully changes the subject, asking Lan Wangji if he recognized the Ghost-Masked guy’s sword style. Lan Wangji doesn’t remember anything from last night except the sword fight, which is very on brand for him. He loves: sword fighting, rules, and Wei Wuxian, not in that order.

Wei Wuxian, because he has a perception bonus of +10, noticed that the dude put a spell on his sword to disguise it, meaning that he and his sword must both be well-known cultivators. He also noticed that the dude knew Lan Clan sword moves. Wei Wuxian very gently asks if the guy is someone that Lan Wangji knows. 

Lan Wangji thinks for a moment and says No. Wei Wuxian accepts his answer so readily that Lan Wangji is taken aback, and thinks that WWX doesn’t believe him. 

He asks if Wei Wuxian trusts/believes/believes in him, using the same word,信, that we looked at in Episode 33, and that will come up again in a couple more places. 

Wei Wuxian reassures him, although his reasoning--that Hanguang-Jun has never spoken a lie--is not 100% correct. Unless we think he really was night hunting in Yiling all those years ago. 

At this point the Qiankun bag of Plot Convenience tells them to mosey along to scenic Yi City.

An Inauspicious Place

When they approach their destination, we get to see the more mellow side of their camaraderie; their interaction has a lot of the flavor of their first road trip together, but with more maturity and mutual respect. As in the old days, Wei Wuxian handles the social interactions, talking to a dude by the road to get directions, while Lan Wangji hangs back. 

In discussing the name of the place, Lan Wangji listens with interest while Wei Wuxian explains the layered meaning of the name, and we’re reminded that Wei Wuxian was a formidable scholar before his life went to shit. 

Wei Wuxian 2.0 has some catching up to do, both in cultivation and in reading, to be a match for his 30-something boyfriend once again, but his fundamentals are strong as hell.

When they reach the gate of the city they take a moment to share some unnecessary eye contact. They probably think they’re about to have a fun low-angst adventure. 

They start walking through the almost-deserted town, which has random paper funeral swag rolling around. The whole town was apparently focused on funerals and making funerary offerings, which seems like an unreliable basis for an economy. 

Everything is covered in a haze that makes things difficult for sword dudes and gifmakers.  They’re led a little ways into town by a mysterious running person, who is A-Qing running at breakneck speed, presumably to hide from Xue Yang while she also tries to make contact with the newcomers. 

A little more running, and Wei Wuxian find a whole crowd of juniors, including all of our favorites. Bright boy Sizhui immediately figures out that if “Mo Xuanyu�� is here, Lan Wanji must be here too. Jingyi immediately fangirls about Hanguang-Jun, recognizing Bichen’s sword light through the haze. 

Jin Ling has never had a cool teacher in his high school, so he doesn’t get what the fuss is about.

Wei Wuxian encourages the kids to dump a heap of exposition about why they are here. They are here because the plot wants them to be here. 

Then they start squabbling, because they are a bunch of teenage boys, and Lan Wangji, who is not anywhere in sight, silences them with the Lan silencing spell. Despite the fact that they’re all lost in a fog in a strange, inauspicious place. Fuck safety, amirite?

Naturally the next thing that happens is a bunch of zombies come up behind Wei Wuxian and the kids try to warn him, but without speech they’re reduced to impassioned pointing. Don’t bother drawing your swords, you useless twits. 

Wei Wuxian temporarily stops the zombies with a finger snap, but then they start up again. Lan Wangji shows up and guqins them into oblivion, accidentally poisoning a random selection of juniors in the process. 

The adults figure out that there’s a Yin Tiger Seal in operation, but it’s not Wei Wuxian’s. Wei Wuxian takes this opportunity to brag about his superior corpses.

Lan Wangji: I know, dude; I distinctly recall one of those fuckers slicing my Wei-Ying-catching arm open

Then the ghost-mask dude shows up to fight, making the most of the low visibility and his uncanny ability to not actually be in the scene for most of the fighting. 

Camera Operator: sword fighting while I hold this camera sure is difficult

Lan Wangji elegantly goes after Ghost Mask guy, heading over the rooftops to have a smoke a prolonged offscreen fight while Wei Wuxian handles things in town for the next...hour or two? However long it takes to make congee, anyway.

Wei Wuxian leads the kids to find a house with a functioning kitchen so he can cook up a remedy for the poisoning. 

He tells the juniors that getting poisoned is good because it’s an experience they can talk about when they’re older. By that measure, Wei Wuxian has had the best life of anybody ever. 

They find a creepy house with a creepy lady who has corpse lines on her neck, which is as good as things get here in Yi City, so Wei Wuxian talks his way in.

 He’s very polite but he shows the juniors that he’s got the door blocked with his foot so that he can push his way in if necessary. 

Sizhui lights a candle and all of the kids freak out when they see the full-size paper servants hanging from the rafters, even though paper servants would be a pretty normal thing to see in their lives, and they are all, like, professional ghost and monster hunters. 

Wei Wuxian, looking fine as hell, steps into the creepy lady’s room to ask her permission to use her kitchen. He notices that she’s working in the dark and sees the lines on her neck, but he’s not prejudiced against corpses so he doesn’t comment. He uses his beautiful hands to thread her needle for her before going to cook fire congee for the juniors. 

Soundtrack: As Tears Go By, by Marianne Faithfull or by The Rolling Stones, take your pick; There’s Got To Be a Morning After by that girl in The Poseidon Adventure. 

Further Reading: The “Now” of Wolf Thought is a reference to Elfquest, which is an awesome comic book series that launched back when I was a teen. You can read all of them for free at Elfquest.com without registering or anything. 

Bonus: Beautiful Hanguang-Jun

[kerubimcrepin]

Episode 36 - The Ding-Dong Belt

It's scary how good at lying he is, to be honest.

Also, the fake kanji/hanzi is very cute.

Yet another proof that Incarnam exists within the animated shows. I only point this out because I had seen people say that it's simply not a part of the ~lore,~ outside of games.

Also, it makes sense why it would be here — relatively speaking, Astrub and Incarnam are closely associated, and thanks to Zaaps, it is usually very easy to travel back and forth between the two.

God won't let me die. I am... not translating this.

The text seems to be filler, the kind we've seen before, although not lorem ipsum. You can see a lot of repeating first paragraphs.

It's too small, and I am a fragile little bird. My head will begin hurting.

The second page's big text says:

LE CHAI_ (that "E" lookng letter doesn't exist in the Amaknean alphabet. Maybe corrupted "A" or "V"?) EN CHAINE

Ok, this one is much easier. Thank god. This is probably modified lorem ipsum, judging from "dolor" and "orem ip s"

Scary thing I learned about Waven's pig imperial palace recently: For some reason, rap is a reoccurring theme for Japanese-coded characters in this universe. And no, I don't know why.

Say Gex, Keke. Say Gex.

Also, this implies the existence of an analogue of english within the World of Twelve, the same way Waven's Japanese Rap suggests that an analogue of Japanese exists.

Scary. It's already scary enough that this universe's Fantasy Common Tongue is French.

I forgot to mention this earlier in the post, but this academy is definitely the reason why Kerubim fights the way he does when he doesn't have a weapon.

The same newspaper asset, LMAO. The text is too small to read, but here's my take on it:

THE cutest bit of the entire episode. dfsgsfdg

Heartbroken little face.

Chances are, he learned absolutely nothing, except that papycha is awesome. Good for him, good for him.

[johannepetereric]

WHEN THE FUCK DID THEY GET TO THE US?! IS THERE AN ALAMO IN JAPAN?!?!

[ratislatis]

she was the last thing he saw

[apricior]

i'm gonna send hate mail to anthony burch and it's gonna look like this

[coredrill]

also this has me fucking sobbing 😭

[bitemarx]

sad abt them

[xinyuehui]

They sure are in sync. The perfect match ♡

棋魂 · Hikaru no Go · 2020

[greylight32]

I just realized how did Ron know that Terry was in hell? I mean I don’t think you get alerted whenever your family member dies and doesn’t go to wherever you are.  but then I thought about it a little bit more, and it’s established in S2 ep23 that Jodie keeps track of everybody who goes into hell to some extent. So what if my man was just reading through the paperwork of who got into hell, and then sees Terry. and knows how emotionally devastating that will be for Ron, so he goes down to mega hell and tells Glenn. Glenn knows that there’s no avoiding this and that he’ll have to tell Ron so he calls him and they have a conversation. Ron thinking that Terry will come through the gates of heaven soon and Glenn having to tell him that he’s already came through the gates, but just not of Heaven. And Ron, insisting that he has to be wrong, because Terry’s a good boy. And Glenn saying that he knows Terry is a good boy, but he did some things that even Terry would agree weren’t good things. So then Ron goes like “okay i’ll be down, but heres this to give to him” and then accidentally group messages, everyone the letter, and that’s how we got the letter at the end of the episode.

I might write a one shot on that later 

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 36 part one

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

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!  

Lan Wangji’s alcohol tolerance has improved considerably since the last time he got drunk with Wei Wuxian; this time he does not face plant onto the table. He’s still totally hammered after a single drink, though. Lan Wangji doesn’t do anything halfway. 

Wei Wuxian maneuvers him into their inn room (which does appear to have a second bed, alas) making the same vocalization that people in cdrama seem to use to settle skittish horses, and puts him into bed.

...Fully clothed, because the hair & costume department ain’t got time to be re-doing anybody’s outfit, we’ve got a schedule to keep here, people, let’s move!

The last time Wei Wuxian put a drunk Lan Wangji to bed, they were kids and he laid him down like a sack of potatoes. 

This time he cradles his head, holds his hands, tucks him in, and comes within a censor’s breath of kissing him. 

He’s obviously got a lot of feelings for Lan Wangji at this point, and I think he’s sort of aware of the nature of those feelings, but he is still not clear about what’s going on in Lan Wangji’s head and heart. So he continues to slap a veneer of playfulness over the deeper stuff that’s going on underneath...mostly.

(more behind the cut!)

Old Friends (Sat on the Park Bench Like Bookends)

While Lan Wanji sleeps, Wei Wuxian goes outside to find Wen Ning. Wen Ning shuffles up wearing comically huge chains and a deeply strung-out expression. 

He’s so blank of expression, in fact, that the editor uses this exact same shot three times in the course of his interaction with Wei Wuxian, rather than bothering to film a longer take. 

Wei Wuxian is delighted to see him; the only survivor, or sorta-survivor, that he’s seen from their little refugee village. He’s not delighted to see that Wen Ning barely recognizes him--although he recognizes him enough to come whenever he hears his flute playing, even though it’s a new flute, which is really very sweet. This kid got a sincere compliment from a beautiful upperclassman when he was a freshman and promptly signed his entire self over to that guy for the rest of eternity, and he’s not going to let death or mind control keep him away. 

Wei Wuxian can tell something is wrong because of the heap of chains that Wen Ning is wearing, which weren’t part of his look in the old days. Critical Role fans like me are probably thinking of ways to sell these to a blacksmith. 

After a little provocative hair pulling, Wei Wuxian extracts the control nails from Wen Ning’s skull. 

Wen Ning: I hope this doesn’t awaken anything in me

Unlike the next time Wei Wuxian encounters this exact same technology, he doesn’t stop with one nail, but keeps poking around until he finds and removes the second one, which fully restores Wen Ning’s consciousness. 

Wen Ning promptly feels bad about having killed Jin Zixuan, and kneels to apologize.

Wei Wuxian is like “dude, I’m so over it” and tries to get him to stand back up. When he won’t, Wei Wuxian kneels down too.

This is a gesture so important and powerful that he does it from two different camera angles, for emphasis. 

It’s interesting, when you watch a mix of CDrama genres like I do, to see how kneeling is so often a huge deal in Wuxia, Xianxia, and whatever genre Dao Mu Bi Ji and Guardian are (Sci-fi? Fantasy? Ghostpunk? Gravepunk?), and then to watch a palace drama where non-emperor people spend endless time on their knees without appearing to have any feelings about it at all.  I’m not saying these things are in conflict; kneeling is governed by a bunch of hierarchical stuff and in a palace drama, the hierarchy is all-pervasive, whereas in a Wuxia, it’s more nuanced. 

Here, Wen Ning kneels to apologize to Wei Wuxian for killing his family member. Wei Wuxian, however, has come to a different understanding of that death; as Wen Qing told him long ago, Wen Ning is a knife. Wei Wuxian is the knife’s creator and wielder, which makes Wen Ning’s violence Wei Wuxian’s responsibility. By kneeling himself, he forces Wen Ning to get up and to start moving past that event.

Next, Wei Wuxian wants to cut Wen Ning’s chains off, but he needs a spiritual sword to do it so he plans to borrow Bichen. As soon as the words are out of his mouth, though, Lan Wangji appears, still drunk, and now also jealous.

Wen Ning wisely makes himself scarce, after a few obvious “scram” gestures from Wei Wuxian.

Shenanigans

After Wen Ning leaves, Wei Wuxian attempts to guide Lan Wangji back to their inn, and manages to get lost in this town with exactly four shooting locations, if you count the Inn’s dining room and bedroom as two locations.

Lan Wangji enjoys being lost and immediately gets busy stealing and tagging. 

First, he steals a couple of chickens and gifts them to Wei Wuxian. 

Much has been made of the “betrothal gift” aspect of this chicken situation, but I’m more interested in the “penis slang” aspect of the scene. 

So, in English, the word “cock” can mean a male chicken, a.k.a. a rooster, and is also popular slang for a penis, as anyone ctrl-F’ing an AO3 page to get to the spicy bits knows. 

Naturally this made me curious if the same association exists in Chinese. I’m not any kind of Chinese speaker, but Google Translate tells me that 雞 (jī) means “chicken,” 公雞 (gōngjī) means “rooster” or “male chicken”, 母雞 (mǔ jī) means “hen” or “mother chicken.” 

...and 雞雞 (jī jī) means “dick.”  

Google image search confirms that this isn’t some other type of “dick,” either. So, with that in mind...let’s look at what happens in the scene. 

1. Lan Wangji gives Wei Wuxian one chicken.  Wei Wuxian is confused. Lan Wangji gives him a second chicken.

2. Lan Wangji asks Wei Wuxian to evaluate his chicken(s), asking is it “肥‘ (féi), which Viki subtitles as “fat” but google translate tells me can also mean “fertile.”

3. Wei Wuxian says it’s fat and pets it, then gives it a thumbs up.

4. Lan Wangji wanders off while Wei Wuxian speculatively knocks their...chickens together..

Given that Chinese and wordplay go together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong, I’m going to go out on a limb and say I think there is possibly some sexual subtext hidden in this scene. 

Sword Grafitti

Next, Drunkji decides to carve his name on a post, so that everyone will know he’s a chicken thief, I guess.  Wei Wuxian reflects on how Lan Wangj, due to his repressed upbringing, is an even crazier drunk than Wei Wuxian is. 

Book and/or Manhua readers are aware that these mild on-screen antics are not nearly the extent of their uncensored drunken craziness. Tags include: hand jobs, biting, pinching, dubious consent, improper use of the gusu lan forehead ribbon, under-negotiated everything, major injury to a bathtub. 

Lan Wangji spends some time looking at Wei Wuxian’s suprasternal notch, and eventually allows himself to be dragged away from the farmyard.

Wei Wuxian puts his Lil-Apple dragging experience to good use here. 

Having convinced Lan Wangji to stop vandalizing things, Wei Wuxian’s natural sense of mischief instantly recovers, and he runs back to carve his own name in the post next to Lan Wangji’s.

He also takes the opportunity to try out Lan Wangji’s signature move: cuddling his beloved under the guise of keeping him from falling over, while gazing at him yearningly.

Drunken Master

Back at the Inn, Drunkji looks at Wei Wuxian with 100% bedroom eyes, but unfortunately Su She in a mask has shown up to cockblock him. 

Lan Wangji promptly sobers up the swordfighting part of his brain so he can bust a move. 

Not for the first time in this show, we’re treated to a fight scene with beautifully executed fight choreography paired with weird camera framing and rapid, choppy editing.

Wei Wuxian stands back and carefully watches the swordfighting, analyzing the fight moves to try to figure out the identity of the masked dude. Then he throws a talisman at him to chain him up. 

Fanfic writers, I feel like I should have read more stories featuring this particular talisman.

Anyway, with the virtue of hindsight, we know that this masked dude is ex-Gusu-Lan weasel Su She. How did Su She ever get to be such a strong cultivator? He holds his own in a sword fight with Hanguang-Jun, breaks a Yiling Laozu binding talisman, and teleports.

He still sucks, given that he’s not able to hang on to one little bag of corpse parts, but he’s definitely not the guy who couldn’t get his sword out of the lack back in their Gusu days. Maybe he’s getting regular doses of qi from Jin Guangyao, if you know what I mean. 

Oh He May Get Weary

After the remarkably proficient fighting, Lan Wangji goes right back to being extremely drunk, so much so that he briefly irritates Wei Wuxian with how bad he is at drinking.

But the dynamic shifts very quickly as Wei Wuxian sees Lan Wangji’s vulnerability, and allows himself to treat him with tenderness.

It's not just sentimental no, no, no She has her grief and care, yeah, yeah, yeah But the soft words they are spoke so gentle, yeah It makes it easier, easier to bear, yeah

We’re seeing a new side of Wei Wuxian in these moments. We have seen his devotion, his easy affection and his playfulness with his friends and loved ones. But tenderness is something he’s mainly reserved for Jiang Yanli.

Of course, he quickly moves along to mischief, asking Lan Wangji a series of questions about rulebreaking and rabbits. (Gifsets here and here)

Then he moves along to the serious question that’s been on his mind since their reunion: why are you helping me? In Wei Wuxian’s mind, he and Lan Wangji parted as enemies or perhaps frenemies; certainly not as allies. He doesn’t know about Lan Wangji’s grief or his true thoughts.

Lan Wangji gives him a serious answer, that he’s totally not prepared for: Lan Wangji regrets not being by Wei Wuxian’s side in the final battle.

Hearing this, Wei Wuxian comes a little unglued; he’s felt himself to be all alone, even while traveling together with Lan Wangji, and hearing that Lan Wangji has held him in his mind, possibly even in his heart, is overwhelming for him.

Wei Wuxian tries to tell him that he shouldn’t feel responsible for Wei Wuxian’s choices, but Lan Wangji refuses to acknowledge what he’s said, and drunkenly toddles off to bed.

Soundtrack: 1. Old Friends by Simon and Garfunkel 2. We Go Together, from Grease 3. Try a Little Tenderness by Otis Redding (but the version that is in my head forever is by that drunk Irish dude in The Committments, thanks VH1 circa 1991)

[thegreymoon]

The Story of Minglan

So, she's still alive, smh.

The ONE thing I was asking for from this rebellion and they couldn't even give me that 😠

***

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Didn't your actual WIFE die yesterday? Aren't you supposed to be in mourning, for appearance's sake at least?

I thought we were done with him and his nonsense but apparently not.

***

She was only PRETENDING?

Why won't this drama let me have good things 😭😭

***

LMAOOOO

Baby is here to take back his home! He is now best buddies with the new Emperor, evil stepmom can seethe 🤣🤣

***

Are you kidding me?

I thought she would have more dignity and be openly hostile, not fawn over him so blatantly.

As if he would fall for her act twice.

***

Their faces, LMAO 🤣🤣

***

LMAO

Adult!Gu Tingye never really made it onto my list of favourite characters but I absolutely love how Feng Shaofeng plays him 🤣🤣 He's so smooth and charming, an absolute rascal! He smiles and I smile, no matter whether it's genuine or not!

***

Well, in my view, with all their money and lack of boundaries, these wastrel young masters could be doing much worse, such as raping and murdering (like the gentlemen from the Fourth and Fifth Gu house did in their time).

Third Brother is at least only out supporting the economy by frequenting brothels and hopefully paying the sex workers well. The Song Empire should send him an Imperial decree expressing its gratitude.

***

This is the full irony of her evildoing.

And even if he did not yield the title, what could she have possibly wanted that he would not have given?? She and her incompetent son had it made! But no. Nothing is enough when you're born too greedy for your own good.

***

Eh... not quite, but almost.

I am fascinated by these people. "We have spent your whole life hating you and ruining your life for no good reason, but how dare you not love us in return?"

LOLOLOLOL

Even Lin Qinshuang had more shame.

***

I live for beautiful scenery in c-dramas 💚

***

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU ARE NOT TAKING THE EXAM?

I'm more invested in him passing this exam than I am in me passing any of mine, which is obvious from the amount of time I spent watching his shenanigans instead of studying 😕

***

Cackling 🤣🤣

He's always so outraged by the lack of propriety 🤣🤣

I love the two of them, they are such a good pair! One is so proper and the other so improper!

***

LMAO, yes, panic 🤣🤣

It's episode 36, you loser! How long do you expect the girl to wait for you? You had better hurry!

***

God, this is nice 😭😭

I wish I had the skill to turn this into art! 💚

***

Oh, yes, it is the Old Madam you are eager to visit 🙄

IDK why, but he gives me the ick.

He hasn't really done anything wrong but he's always so nice and kind and sweet and subservient, plus he's not the OTP. All the alarm bells in my head are RINING!!

***

WHO THE FUCK?

I knew there was something shady about him, smh.

***

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Where do all these cockroaches come from?? Are there no single men in China to marry and you must go after someone who already has a wife??

I AM MAD.

***

LMAO, he at least has the decency to be shocked.

So, he is not on board this nonsense. Good. But is that what happens to screw up his marriage to Minglan? His family insists on him marrying this woman?

[johannepetereric]

Tak actually looks kinda hot 👀

[mollywauk]

*about meeting Percy De Rolo*

FCG: Just be yourself around this fella

Ashton: I promise I will NOT be myself around him, we need to get shit done

[apricior]

hey hermie, i don't know what you imagine rejecting someone means but i don't think it involves asking the person you rejected if he wants to be in a throuple with you and one of his best friends (who you are both married to)