#neuxue watches lyb

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the way Xiao Jingyan gives precisely zero seconds’ thought to choosing diplomacy before punching his way through the guards at Zhaoren Palace.

Like on the one hand godspeed Mei Changsu you’ve got your work cut out for you. But on the other hand. It’s very satisfying.

Xiao Jingyan: I’m tired of being nice. I want to go apeshit. Mei Changsu: Jingyan it’s been 3 days.

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starting a collection called ‘Mei Changsu obscured unsubtly by some element of the set or the camera, set apart from others, as if to emphasise that he is like a ghost, that he is a memory, that he is no longer truly part of their world’

(episode 6)

(episode 7, yes okay there's no one in the shot with him to set him apart from, but you're seeing this from Mu Nihuang's point of view so it counts)

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"He's an indoor cat, he would never hurt a songbird!" --Mei Changsu, probably

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《琅琊榜》/ Nirvana in Fire really just hitting me in my weak spot for Soundtracks That Did Not Need To Go This Hard

Obviously there’s the end credits song with its lyrics like knives even when you’re only partway in and don’t know the whole story, and the plaintive melodies that stitch together moments of nostalgia into a haunting image of what once was, but there’s a fun throughline in a few of these early episodes of:

The main theme with its grand crescendo playing over ‘Su Zhe’ entering the assembled court in ep3, and prostrating himself before the emperor for the first time (or at least, the first time in twelve years, the first time in this guise), as if marking the Beginning of a grand game that promises a grand ending...

And then, in ep4 as Mei Changsu, calm and inscrutable as ever but unyielding, his words falling with the same resonant gravity as the drumbeat that underscores them, says, “我想选你，靖王殿下” // “I intend to choose you, Prince Jing,” that same main theme begins to play, quickly approaching that grand crescendo, and you think that if ever there were a moment in the opening episodes that merits it, it would be this moment here when Mei Changsu makes this plan known, reveals his intentions, states his choice (to choose the one who stands before him, one who knew him mourns him and does not recognise him)... but instead of hitting that crescendo it shifts at the last minute, muted and then subverted, altered into an indistinct background harmony as Xiao Jingyan instead laughs, rueful and with even a hint of scorn...

And instead that crescendo comes in ep6, as Xiao Jingyan decides at last, warily, after declaring his uncrossable lines and speaking of his brother, and his best friend, and receiving Mei Changsu’s promise to do what is necessary but while doing everything in his power not to hurt them, to trust Mei Changsu. That’s when this main theme plays out in its full power and signals that a decisive moment has been struck.

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"Were you always this insufferable or is that part of the Mei Changsu persona as well?"

--Mu Nihuang, probably almost certainly

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Xiao Jingrui: ‘such a shame Su-xiong can’t find a just and admirable lord to serve…’ Yan Yujin: *trigonometry.meme*

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I love the very specific way Mei Changsu conducts himself when he is being deliberately and impeccably courteous to someone whose life he is about to ruin

Exhibit A, episode 1

Exhibit B, episode 3

No doubt plenty more to come!

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lyb episode 13, a summary:

Xiao Jingyan: I wish I could be completely honest with my new friends about my plans :(

Mei Changsu: I will continue telling blatant lies to my old friend’s face :)

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starting over with 琅琊榜 and I just have one question

how is he steering that boat

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kind of obsessed with the whole... everything about the dynamic and the shifting of power between Xiao Jingyan and Mei Changsu in the fireworks factory aftermath.

Xiao Jingyan letting fly furious accusations (that will become knives in his own heart once he knows who he was speaking to), only to moments later be reduced with a word to shamed uncertainty. Mei Changsu's implacable calm as he rebuts Xiao Jingyan's accusations with all the accommodation of an avalanche (but none of Lin Shu's fire).

Xiao Jingyan tossing out his first 本王 of the show only for Mei Changsu to almost praise him for it, to claim the last word with that soft-spoken yet exquisitely arrogant courtesy, walking away before Xiao Jingyan can find his footing.

The way Xiao Jingyan's entire demeanour changes at the slightest word from Mei Changsu, while Mei Changsu remains all but unreadable. The way Mei Changsu's courtesy is graceful and exact, every gesture precise, while Xiao Jingyan's shamed deference is all ducked head and avoidance of eye contact and uncertainty.

The way Xiao Jingyan rises to the challenge when Mei Changsu baits him, entirely willing to join in the verbal sparring even though he (knows he) hasn't a hope of winning. (Did xiao Shu used you as a rhetorical chew-toy too, Jingyan?)

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"[since they want to draw on jianghu powers, then I will let them know] who the master of the jianghu really is"

Or, 'they want to fuck around? Then I will ensure they Find Out'.

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Mei Changsu: "靖王现在的夺嫡心志还算坚定，不管我说什么，他都听得进去。即使有些计划和行动有违他的本意，他也从来都没有拒绝。你知道这是为什么吗？因为他心无杂念。他只需要考虑我所做的一切，对夺位是否有利就行了。至于这些事情，对梅长苏会有什么样的后果，他不用太过在意。可是一旦他知道梅长苏就是林殊，他在做每一件事情之前必定会先设法保全我。如此百般顾虑，又怎能成事？你应该最懂我的意思。知道我的身份之后，有许多事情都会忍不住去在意，对不对？// Prince Jing’s resolve to fight for the throne is set; he will listen to whatever I say. Even though some of it goes against his nature, he does not refuse. Do you know why that is? Because his heart is free from distractions. All he has to consider is whether or not the things I do will aid him in contending for the throne. He doesn’t have to care about whatever consequences there may be for Mei Changsu. But once he learns that Mei Changsu is Lin Shu, he will always try to protect me before doing anything else. How can he succeed, with all that on his mind? Surely you can understand, more than anyone. Having learned my identity, there are many things you cannot help but worry about, am I right?" 《琅琊榜》 / Nirvana in Fire ep18

Yes I had to quote this entire monologue and now I have to pick myself up off the floor so that I can scream in identity and annihiliation of the self—

In order for this to succeed he can stand at his friend’s side once more, but with none of the joy of reunion, the laughter and tears of relief. Because that would be a hollow victory, both of them losing what they had only just regained in all the time it takes to say ‘treason’.

He chose Xiao Jingyan for his heart, and he cannot say the words that would help to heal it.

Because for Lin Shu’s memory to live, Lin Shu himself cannot.

This is not self-immolation in the name of vengeance, burning it all down with him. That might have been Lin Shu's way, but this is not—cannot be—Lin Shu. And Mei Changsu's way is instead to lay himself as an offering on the altar of the dead, and quietly hold out a flame to let the living set it alight, that they may all find peace.

And he just. thinks that’s fine.

Because Lin Shu is gone and Mei Changsu is little more than a paper effigy, a hollow name wrapped around an unspoken memory, and so who will care when he is scattered into ashes?

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Mu Nihuang: "要说谁还能保有祁王哥哥当年的风骨，也就只剩下靖王一个人。// Prince Jing is the only one left in whom remains some of Prince Qi’s character from those days." 《琅琊榜》/Nirvana in Fire ep18

I’m just thinking about this line again, about the identity of it all, and the haunting.

The way the past overshadows the present, the way the living are haunted by the dead they not only can no longer reach but the dead they cannot be.

Mei Changsu haunting his own narrative as the ghost of Lin Shu… a liminality, a transient state, a vessel for the ghost(s) he carries and a promise to be fulfilled; a means to an end that (he believes) will also be his ending.

And then there’s Xiao Jingyan, himself alive but so very haunted by the past, uncaring what the living think of him so long as he can face the dead unashamed. Trapped in memory and ghosts, not only Lin Shu but also Prince Qi, and the echo others see of him in Xiao Jingyan. And so Xiao Jingyan too is drawn into this liminal space of… who is he? Is he himself, alive and graced with a future, or is he the ghost of his brother, the past trapped in a present that does not tolerate it?

There is an irony, is there not, in the way Mei Changsu says things like like "让我一个人去做就好了，我一定要保住景琰身上那份赤子之心 // Let me take on those dark, insidious deeds alone—I must preserve the innocence of Jingyan’s heart," to preserve that part of Xiao Jingyan that so resembles the best of Prince Qi, who is gone, while he himself cannot retain any part of Lin Shu, who is alive.

And yet. And yet for all that an echo of Prince Qi may live on in Xiao Jingyan, Xiao Jingyan cannot—and must not—be Prince Qi; Xiao Jingyan cannot be allowed to remain trapped in the past, for all that he must be its redemption. Haunted as he is, he must not become another haunting.

Because Mei Changsu is transient, ephemeral, and thus expendable. Mei Changsu does not truly exist and so Mei Changsu cannot truly be harmed, because none of the harm is lasting, when there is no future for him into which it can last. But Xiao Jingyan isn’t transient; Xiao Jingyan is the one who is alive, the one to whom this present and the future truly belong. Mei Changsu is a creature of the past, and so let him carry these ghosts as he hands the future to Xiao Jingyan.

But what a fine line it is to walk: for if Xiao Jingyan is chained to the past by his brother who he cannot be but cannot forget, then how can they ever move forward, how can they ever do anything but repeat the tragedies of before? And yet if Xiao Jingyan didn’t hold to the spirit and the character of his brother, then how could he be what they need?

I’m no longer sure where I’m going with this but I am just obsessed with the way this show looks you in the eyes and goes ‘who are you when you exist as a living memorial to the dead who would otherwise be forgotten?’

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Mu Nihuang: 你认识林殊吗？// Do you know Lin Shu? Mei Changsu: ……认识。// ...yes. Mu Nihuang: 他是真的战死了？// Did he really die in battle? Mei Changsu: 是。// Yes. Mu Nihuang: 战死的哪里？// Where did he die? Mei Changsu: 梅岭。// Meiling. Mu Nihuang: 尸骨葬于何处？// Where was he laid to rest? Mei Changsu: 七万英魂，天地为墓。// For seventy thousand valiant souls, the earth and sky are their grave. Mu Nihuang: 他的尸骨都没人收？一块遗骸也没有找到吗？// No one retrieved his body? Or any remains at all? Mei Changsu: 战事惨烈，堆尸如山。又有谁能认得谁是林殊呢？// In such a fierce and terrible battle, with bodies piled high as a mountain, who could recognise which was Lin Shu?

when you’re alive but you’re a ghost but the people who knew you look at you like you’re still alive but you’re a ghost: the Mei Changsu Experience™

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politicians hate him: area man chooses which governmental department to overthrow next by having his housekeeper pick a card any card

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The thing I find so fun about Prince Yu is that on the one hand he’s being very responsible by listening to and considering the advice of multiple advisors! On the other hand he forgot the critical thinking part and also at least one (possibly both? unclear) of said advisors is specifically aiming to topple him.