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thedoubteriswise · 4 years ago

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okay so. I am a smart adult with many important responsibilities. I have good taste and care about things that matter. for this reason, I’ve been trying to identify where in cql canon wangxian manage to fuck.

because they definitely do; I like a good post-canon getting together fic as much as the next guy, but it’s just not realistic.

allow them. it’s already been so long.

(just like this goddamn post turned out to be, let’s do a cut)

right. so initially it looks like you could place this right after the time skip in episode 33, because it shows us that wwx is with lwj in cloud recesses. we know that he spent the night in the jingshi because he wakes up there the next morning before he goes for a nostalgic tour of his old school.

and also visits the cold spring, where lwj is mostly naked. nice.

but wait! wwx is surprised by the scars on his back and chest. that seems like something he would have known about if they’d already been naked together the night before, so I’m going to say they did not fuck immediately upon wwx’s return to cloud recesses. okay, fine, they’re taking things slow, that’s cool.

maybe they could work it into the next night, then. oh wait, lqr is injured and... staying in the jingshi? for reasons?

I don’t know why. he must have his own house in cloud recesses, and it’s probably at least as comfortable as lwj’s, but here he is. he lives to stop his nephew from getting laid, I guess.

the next day they do some Q&A with the kids and determine that they need to head to qinghe to figure out what’s going on with this sword thing. great! we love a romantic road trip, plenty of alone time. but they also have to do their jobs, and then jin ling needs to get rescued from a wall of dirt, and jc is unfortunately there being himself, and then they have to grill nhs about his tomb full of angry sabers, etc. etc.

with all that going on, their next obvious chance is at the inn immediately after interviewing nhs. this evening has already included:

wwx gazing lovingly at lwj from afar

lwj carrying wwx on his back

lwj pawing at wwx’s robes trying to deal with his cursed leg

lwj helping wwx up the stairs, serving him wine, fixing his flute, and generally being at his beck and call

a very sexy and homoerotic duet

and now they’re alone and drooling over each other as usual. this seems like a plausible spot, right?

it does! but no. after they go back to the nie basement o’ swords and hear the backstory on nmj’s death, we see them walking in yueyang and lwj asks wwx how the curse mark on his leg is doing. wwx says it’s almost healed, which may or may not be a lie, but his inner monologue says:

he’s more concerned about the wound on his arm from the sacrificing curse, which lwj doesn’t know about, because wwx won’t tell him and they still haven’t been naked together.

also, this silly teenage shit doesn’t make much sense unless they’re still dancing around each other.

you guys love the sound of opportunities as they go flying past, don’t you?

right after this, lwj gets drunk. I’m aware that Stuff Happens in the novel scene that inspired this bit, and they do incorporate some of that into the show by having lwj commit petty larceny and admit that he “likes rabbits” as part of the softest and most loving conversation in human history oh my god

but lwj goes to sleep right on time, and the next morning, wwx is laughing and reassuring him that nothing happened.

after this, it’s time to go on a fucked up field trip with the kids in yi city, so they don’t really have any time alone for a few episodes until they’ve finished that and everyone is back at yet another inn. I wonder if they learned something about wasted chances and poor communication from this miserable songxiao story?

maybe! look, they’re being cute and domestic. there are currently no material barriers preventing them from having sex, nor will there be any specific evidence later on proving that they didn’t.

but they’re still firmly in mystery-solving mode and the juniors and lxc are floating around. the vibe isn’t quite there. if I were to pick the most solid reason why I think they’re saving room for jesus at this point, it would be the tension that happens when wwx again asks how lwj recognized him. lwj asks why his memory is so bad, and wwx replies that he wishes he had a bad memory. even though they’re comfortable and happy being together, there’s still some fundamental distance remaining. there’s no sense of romantic resolution. that was actually a point against all their previous opportunities as well; they’re all very sweet, but none of these feel like the place in a story where the romantic leads Officially Get Together.

okay, off to koi tower! shit is getting extremely real. everyone’s busy insinuating that they recognize wwx, but no one is saying it explicitly. wwx isn’t supposed to be here. the guy he’s pretending to be also isn’t supposed to be here. he and his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s brother are trying to figure out if his boyfriend’s brother’s boyfriend is a murderer. no one is comfortable and the political intrigue leaves no time for fucking in front of anyone’s salad.

I guess there’s plenty of time to make dozens of armed guards and like half the people they know wait while they have a romantic moment, though.

could they be more in love? And that sure feels like a romantic resolution that might be followed by narratively-earned sex.

ah. no, unfortunately wwx gets stabbed again. this certainly sucks, but it does have the helpful consequence of making lwj take him back to cloud recesses, where they are mostly alone and as safe as they can be in the circumstances. now there’s even more tenderness and also some plot-justified touching and skin exposure. plus, lwj just made a very public declaration of love.

too bad wwx has probably been unconscious since he started coughing up blood in the forest near lanling. he’s also still visibly in pain. fresh abdominal wounds tend to kill the mood.

but hey, the injuries on this show are only as serious as they need to be to move the plot forward and facilitate gentle h/c scenes, so by evening he’s looking perfectly healthy and walking around under his own steam like nothing’s wrong. I guess that problem can be ignored moving forward.

lxc then offers the the most devastating highlights of lwj’s backstory, like, all at once. it’s nice that he includes a flute solo to give wwx a second to process this mountain of terrible information. what the fuck.

there he is! the most devoted man in the whole world! turns out they can actually be more in love after all.

and then the following scene... look, I’m lazy and I don’t know how to make gifs, but screenshots cannot properly convey how good it is. you all know. the hesitant way wwx approaches, the slow and gentle piano version of wangxian, the two of them watching the snow together, it’s. ugh.

remember how I was talking about how the last scene with no material barriers was an unlikely candidate because of the lack of romantic resolution?

well, here’s wwx still being cagey at the beginning of this conversation.

and here they are in the middle of this conversation, having some epiphanies about the course of wwx’s life - I love this shot for a lot of reasons, but I extra love it because it shows wwx out in the snow, with lwj as the safety and warmth waiting behind him, god this show goes hard, holy shit

they both recall their vow to live with a clean conscience and internally say some very corny things about each other because they are both So Much, and then,

ah, what the hell. he can say it out loud after all. romantic resolution accomplished.

and then the camera slowly pulls away as wuji plays.

a slow zoom out? swelling music? listen, I am a connoisseur, I know a tasteful fade-to-black indicating a sex scene that won’t happen on camera when I see one. at last, we have a winner!

now you may think this post is finally over, but I actually have one more piece of evidence for you - the next scene shows the two of them the morning after, meditating behind a screen in the hanshi while lxc is waiting for jgy to show up.

before wwx got de-cored, he was a pretty powerful cultivator, right? the chances that he’s just bad at meditating or that he can’t stay focused on this task seem slim to me. so why does he keep falling asleep?

well. he had kind of a late night.

#yes I do have a lot of time on my hands #the untamed #cql #wangxian #meta #my meta

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br-disaster · 4 years ago

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nie mingjue’s outfits appreciation post

This is way longer than I expected oh gods, please forgive me for it.

It’s a well known fact that Jiang Cheng has the best wardrobe of all CQL characters, I’m not here to argue with that, but I think it’s time for us to stop sleeping on Nie Mingjue’s absolutely fantastic fashion sense.

I mean have you seen him?? The man is out there serving looks even with the Nie sect limited color palette. Please let’s ignore the context here and just look at his robes

I wasn't sure if I should rank them, so I’ll just ramble about them in order of appearance:

1. The gray “I’m the boss” one

That’s the first time we ever see him and what can I say? He does leave an impression. We see him using these robes two times, in episodes 10-11 and on the beggining of Fatal Journey, as the first picture shows, which makes me wonder: Is this his stay-at-home set of robes? ‘Cause damn

I don’t know how I should comment on the particular details of his robes but I really appreciate how wide this extra fabric layer makes his shoulders look.

Really imposing and powerful look.

2. The Sunshot incredibly beautiful "this is how you win a war" one

Look, this one might be my favorite, it has EVERYTHING

Shoulder game is strong here, and this bronze-like color goes really well with his belt. Now let's talk about his outer robe for a moment, just THE COLOR I mean it's the prettiest shade of gray I've ever seen.

Also Long Sleeves

And a CAPE. A f**king CAPE. I'll never get over this look and I'm really glad the costume department let this king wear a cape again in Fatal Journey, he was made for it.

Next comes the inner layer that's not really a robe, as you can see when he's standing, but the silver pattern is what really does it for me, guys. It's probably the first thing you see once you look down from his face, 'cause I know we all get lost on that beautiful mustache, and it's perfect.

You can’t lead a war campaign if you don’t look good, I see.

3. The "I didn't really want to be here but I’m looking good anyway" one

It's so dark, it probably reflects how he was feeling during pretty much all the scenes he's in while wearing it.

Once again he accentuates his shoulders with an extra fabric except this time his sleeves are not long at all. I personally think he looks even more handsome like this, it makes his arms look bigger. What is it called? I don't know, but it matches his belt as well.

( Is it really a belt, guys? I don't wanna disrespect but I don't even know where to start looking for names nor I know other english names for belts)

The subtle golden/bronze details on the outer robe and on the inner robe's collar contrasts really well with the black and dark gray

Sad thing he looked really miserable wearing it :c

4. The "big event he seemed ok with attending" one

Dark again. But he didn't look as depressed as in the previous one, he actually had fun that day, which is good. Enough of tears and betrayal for now.

May be the wider sleeves he ever wore, perfect for clapping his hands like a happy toddler. There's also a lovely flowery pattern on the darker robe that you can easily miss if you don't pay enough attention.

For the first time his shoulders are not accentuated by fabric or shoulder pads and it's really nice to see him like this. We all love a buff Mingjue, but CQL Mingjue is not that buff and I love him just as much.

Really elegant, not as imposing and he has every right to want to look civil for once. It may be the series' way of telling us that he's not dressed for real combat or war, who knows.

5. The "all this just for a flashback?" one

Listen, this one right here is just AMAZING

I don't understand why they dressed him so beautifully for what? 10 minutes of a flashback. I wanted to see it for more than a couple os scenes!!

Everything here is different, so this will take time.

First: His inner robe, the first one, is not the usual black, it's light gray, it's lighter than his robes actually, and we don't see him wearing it like ever again since chronologically in the series this is the first robe he wears. Does it secretly mean that all went wrong from the moment he met MY? who knows

Second: The outer robe is fancy. There’s so many details to it and it may be the lighting of the scene, but it seems to be a warmer shade of gray, doesn’t it? The golden\bronze thin strip around the silver larger strip is perfect. It kinda has the opposite effect of his shoulder pads, since it makes his shoulders look a bit smaller but it’s so very elegant.

Third: The upper part of the inner robe. I mean who gave him the right to look that good ??? It’s dark but it has golden little shapes in it!! And it kinda looks like there’s a zipper in there because of that mid section. And oh to be a single jewel resting over Sect Leader Nie’s chest...

Fourth: The bottom part of the robe is also something new. We see pleats on Huaisang’s main robes, but never on Mingjue’s until now, that’s why I took the last screenshot, nothing to do with the bloody Baxia at all. I wish we could have seen them in pretty pleated robes together.

It probably contradicts what I said about his shoulder things being a code for battle, since the first thing we see him doing with this outfit is killing some guy/puppet; but for the rest of the time he wears it is peaceful

Honestly, imagine how Meng Yao felt. It was some fairy tale thing, wasn’t it? You’re a nobody eating bread and drinking water and then this king pops up out of nowhere and defends you from bullying and offers you a job and takes you home with him??

6.The “kick your local murderer down the stairs” one

I don’t really know what to say about this one. The context kind of ruined it for me, but let’s try.

It resembles the fourth outfit since it’s a really dark inner robe and a lighter and patterned outer robe. Except this one has this nice and shiny thin strips around the sleeves and the waist.

It’s pretty but not especially pretty in my opinion. If I were to rank the outfits, this one would rank last.

7. The “fighting qi deviation and needing emotional support” one

Fatal Journey, baby.

I know what I said about the second one, but this might be my favorite. It’s practical, no long sleeves or heavy outer robes. It’s also appropriate for horse riding, wich is great. The simple, sleeveless light gray outer robe is really nice.

There’s a cape again!! And I have to say the cape looks even better now that his sleeves are tighter, the way it falls gracefully on his back is perfect. I love the way it seems to be attached to the shoulder pad too.

The robes are simple but the thing is: The accessories are not.

His belt is now silver and if we ignore that the production team just painted it, we can assume he has two sets of identical waist belts, one is bronze and the other is silver. Now the final touch: The shoulder pads. This is what makes this outfit the most extra of them all. It’s silver and just so, so pretty I wanna cry everytime I look at them. I mean, the layers, the dragon\beast entire head makes him look so fierce and ready for the fight.

I wonder how comfortable they are tho.

10/10 would rank first place.

bonus: Baby Mingjue

We love a consistent king after all! Has he been wearing dark robes since he was a baby? We will never know. I love this dark yet translucent outer robe tho.

1000/10 the cutest and best dressed child out there.

Conclusion: Nie Mingjue is a fashion icon!

* Do not take this too seriously, I did zero research and english is not my first language. If there’s any terrible grammar mistakes, point them to me and i’ll edit it. If I’m somehow disrespecting Chinese culture, please also point it to me and I’ll apologize, edit or even delete the post.

#nie mingjue #cql #chen qing ling #mo dao zu shi #is this meta?? idk #poorly analyzing fashion choices #nie brothers #the untamed

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chalkrevelations · 3 years ago

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Back, finally, with Word of Honor, Episode 11, which involved a lot of waving my hands around over precious button Zhang Chengling and his concern about whatever ridiculous argument between his Murder Dads left his shifu in a snit and must be solved right this minute. I really think if he could’ve just pushed their heads together like two Ken dolls to make them kiss and make up, he would have. Didi, I could eat you up with a spoon, although not in the creepy way that Du Pusa threatens. I promise.

First, though, due diligence: Spoilers, possibly likely for the entire show, not just this ep, so scroll away and come back later if you are still, at this point in the game, trying to watch the whole 36.5 eps unspoiled. Also, this is hella long. Strap in. Hashtag long post (remorseful).

First thing I actually want to do is point out a couple of scenes that I found particularly striking for various reasons. The first one is not quite the opening scene - which is super-brief and involves Yueyang’s prep for the Heroes Conference, Gao Shan (AKA Chengling’s bully-in-chief) being smug about Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance (oh boy, are you in for a surprise, you little schmuck), and Gao Chong’s extreme weariness at the idea of Yueyang’s upcoming ascendance. Gao Chong is very tired, y’all. It’s been a long 20 years. There’s also a ginormous sword on display, like Yueyang is now having a dick-measuring contest with who they think is the disciple of the Changming Sword Immortal (and oh boy, are you guys in for another surprise. I’m not sure what part of “immortal” y’all don’t understand). But I digress - as I said, this is a very brief scene, and then we cut back to Luo Mansion, where we left Ghost Valley and Lunatic Wen at the end of the last ep. Everyone is gone except for Wen Kexing, who’s still plotting, Beauty Ghost, who’s trying to stay tf out of this current shitshow as much as possible (good luck with that), and Tragicomic Ghost, who is totally and completely Done With This Shit. She berates WKX for acting crazy, he gets snappy back – I feel like their relationship is maybe a little bit fraught at this point – and Beauty Ghost attempts to soothe the waters, leading to an eyeroll from Tragicomic Ghost with a directive to stand the hell up and stop being scared of this idiot child throwing his weight around. WKX dismisses Tragicomic Ghost so he can plan a Very Secret Mission for Beauty Ghost in secret. WKX is … he is super-tired at this point. Painfully, achingly tired. I would almost say weary. We can see it in Gong Jun’s face. It’s a nice subtle bit of acting, and it definitely says something about WKX’s relationship with these women that he’s willing and able to show it in front of them, even as he’s still throwing his weight around.

Anyway, Liu Qianqiao proves her smarts by showing her hand just enough for WKX and us to see that she’s seen through the Lunatic Wen act to the utility of chokin’ out a dude as a warning, to try keeping Changing Ghost in line (good luck with that), but she also assures all of us that she only wants to serve the Ghost Valley Master and has no agenda of her own. WKX assures her that he has everything under control (Uh … huh. OK, my dude) and tells her he has a task for her, before detouring into a quiz about her disguise technique (learned from Qin Huaizhang, Zhou Zishu’s shifu at Siji Manor, and this is probably a tipoff that the Very Secret Mission will involve disguising herself), about Siji Manor, and about why she never visited there. We get some interesting vague hints about her past, including the fact that she met Qin Huaizhang when she was “little” and he took pity on her “disfigurement,” according to both the Youku and Netflix English subs. @coralcoloratura pulled out 童年时 (tóngnián shí) from the Chinese subs for me, which does mean “childhood.” Given that the going story is Yu Qiufeng’s wife threw acid in LQQ’s face over their affair, this opens up some questions about how old LQQ actually was when all that happened. Viki subs, per @janedrewfinally, add that she says she treated Qin Huaizhang to a meal, so she couldn’t have been too young. But Qin Huaizhang dies when ZZS is just 16, and LQQ can’t be any older than ZZS, and is likely younger (good lord, I just checked actor ages, and Ke Naiyu is 7 years younger than ZZH, so that’s probably not a good age gap to port over to the show, because just. No.). All this leads me to place LQQ at somewhere between Zhang Chengling’s age and Gu Xiang’s age (at most) when this whole tragic backstory happened, which is still pretty freakin’ young, and I can see why she would consider herself a child, at least metaphorically, in terms of naïvete, if not literally. I don’t know how much exploration has been done about this, on the fannish side of things, but it seems like an area rich for exploration. Also, I CANNOT TELL YOU how much I now want to read the AU of WKX and LQQ both actually being brought to Siji Manor at various times by Qin Huaizhang and staying there. I suspect that with those two shidi backing him, ZZS might never have had to go to Prince Jin in the first place. (Clearly this makes some things problematic, including A-Xiang, but I keep thinking about ZZS, WKX and LQQ growing up together … And anyway, I’m ALSO willing to read the AU(s) where WKX’s storyline stays the same, but LQQ does come to Siji Manor – both the AU where she and ZZS together manage to save the sect, and the AU where she goes with them to Jin, and the kind of weapon she could be for ZZS there, as he runs Tian Chuang. Who’s writing all this? Anyone? Anyone?) Anyway, when WKX asks why she didn’t visit Siji Manor, LQQ tells WKX that she’s a ghost now and doesn’t want to think about the living world anymore, which is probably a way of saying she wishes she had gone there and doesn’t want to talk about her many and varied bad decisions back in the day; it also acts as an unknowing reinforcement of that bright line WKX is desperately trying to maintain for himself between the world of ghosts and the world of humans. Plus it gives him the chance to speak the very portentous line that “Yes, we’re ghosts, and ghosts disappear in the light,” pulling the theme of light back in, again and giving us all kinds of foreshadowing. Cut away as he leans in to whisper her mission to her.

The other really striking scene, for me, happens near the end of the ep, when Gao Chong visits the shrine room, with the memorial tablets of his various brothers and friends. This hit me not just because of Hei Zi’s acting (which is great, don’t get me wrong) but also because this is a scene that reflects both backward and forward in the show - back to ZZS in Ep 1 and forward to the two scenes that Zhao Jing will have in this same room – as well as giving us all sorts of subtle clues about relationships throughout the show. So first of all, we see, in a shot that will mean more the deeper we get into the show, tablets for Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao (or, “his wife,” as the Youku subs call her, and this is me, rolling my eyes), who were apparently close enough to Gao Chong that he keeps memorial tablets for them on his home altar - which helps explain why WKX is so incensed that none of these Five Lakes Alliance assholes helped his parents when they were turned out of the Healer’s Valley, although that’s not something we would have known yet on a first watch through the show. Gao Chong lights some incense and apologizes to the tablet of Zhang Yusen for letting Zhang Chengling get kidnapped. He talks about waiting 20 years to learn the truth – which is kind of cryptic, but probably means the truth about who poisoned his sword before the spar with Rong Xuan, which we hear about in a later scene this ep – and gets a little bit salty about the fact that it doesn’t matter if everyone else doesn’t believe him, but why didn’t Zhang Yusen believe him? Again, I’m assuming this is about Gao Chong’s protestations that he’s not the one who put poison on his sword. We also learn in this same ep – from Chengling – that Zhang Yusen’s break with the Five Lakes Alliance seems to have at least started that far back, and that Yusen would have been at Mount Qingya to stand with Rong Xuan against his other Alliance brothers, if Yusen’s shifu hadn’t broken his legs so that he couldn’t travel there. (Yusen clearly had some strong feelings about this, if that’s what it took to get him to sit still for it. Also, it makes me wonder how Ye Baiyi’s feelings about Chengling might change if he ever learned that Chengling’s father intended to defend and stand with a guy who Ye Baiyi considered his own child, as well as his disciple.)

Gao Chong then proceeds to have a little crisis of faith – he’s very tired, y’all, it’s been a long 20 years – and talks about how no one understands him, and he’s old, and everyone’s dead. He also yells at Rong Xuan’s tablet, calling Rong Xuan da-ge but also saying he’s sorry he ever met him, but then there’s this brief little moment after, when he seems a little bit shocked at himself for saying it out loud, which reminds me, honestly, of the moment in CQL (we’ve all seen The Untamed, right, I don’t have to put spoiler warnings for it, right?) when Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are in the Yunmeng Jiang memorial hall and Wei Wuxian talks about Yu Ziyuan’s punishments back in the day, then pats his own mouth and says “My fault, my fault, my fault” before bowing to her tablet. Like, yes, their relationship was multiple levels of fucked-up, and his reaction is not out of place given some of his continuing neuroses, but also, this is just not a thing you do, speaking ill of the dead to their faces. I’m sure Gao Chong does regret ever meeting Rong Xuan, and the way that led to the building of the Armory and the Five Lakes Alliance to guard it, and the position that ultimately put Gao Chong in - not to mention that if he never met Rong Xuan he never would have accidentally killed him. But you can’t say things like that OUT LOUD to the MEMORIAL TABLET. Then contrast this to Zhao Jing, who literally takes a piss on the tablet in one of the later episodes. Because he’s the worst. And THEN, Gao Chong kneels and talks to the tablets of Zhang Yusen and Lu Taichong, his dead Five Lakes Alliance brothers, saying they must have met again in the netherworld, and that they’re probably swearing about him right now, and this is the point when I sit straight up and exclaim, out loud, “Fuck. Me. This is Zhou Zishu’s breakdown at the mirror in Episode 1.” When he talks to Jiuxiao about how Jiuxiao and Jing’An must have met again in the afterlife by now and are probably discussing what an awful shixiong ZZS is, right? And then Gao Chong even laughs bitterly like ZZS, and cries like ZZS, and I just. OK. FINE, show. I’ll try to go a little easier on Gao Chong, because you’re clearly linking him to ZZS, here, and I’m willing to forgive ZZS for anything. I suppose I’d be a hypocrite if I didn’t try to extend just a little bit of the same grace to Gao Chong.

So, that’s a lot of verbiage, and I haven’t even gotten to Wenzhou yet, but trust me, I have some things to say about them. While WKX has been terrorizing the troops, ZZS left Han Ying’s place and immediately started drinking again, because that continues to be the best way – in combo with his Nails – he knows to kill himself by increments, but so sad, he’s run out of wine as he wanders the marketplace, alone and zhiji-less. Inside Yueyang, Chengling finds a note purporting to be from “Xu,” instructing him to meet at the North Gate that night, and like the little idiot they keep calling him (he really is too pure for this world), he takes it at face value. On his way that night, he runs into Gao Shan, who inadvertently almost saves him by interrupting his sneaking around to try to bully him back to his room. Something something food as bonding, because the lie Zhang Chengling comes up with is that he’s hungry (he’s not eating Yueyang’s food, and it’s not nourishing him), and he’s on his way to find something to eat (because he and his Murder Dads are in a mutually nourishing relationship, and that’s who he wants to be with). Also, no, he would prefer going to find something to eat for himself and not eating whatever Gao Shan will bring back to Chengling’s room. (A little bit, I’m sad there’s never any place to fit in some canon-complicit long-form enemies to failboats to lovers fic for these two. I have to admit, I would read it. Someone should do something with the tension between them, although I don’t really want it to be anything that will make Best Boy permanently sad.) Anyway, A-Xiang shows up just as Gao Shan is about to frog-march Chengling back to his room, and Gao Shan never sees her coming before he’s knocked out on the ground. A-Xiang is confused about the note but nevertheless helps Chengling get to where he’s supposed to meet “Xu,” whereupon she gets beat up and gets her didi took by the Scorpions. (There’s an interesting moment here where Pretty Arhat is fighting with A-Xiang and asks what her relationship is to Beauty Ghost, which whaaaaaat? THERE’S some backstory I need more on. I’m assuming this is based on A-Xiang’s hand-to-hand fighting style, which I think is the only thing Pretty Arhat has seen at this point, and exactly WHEN has she gotten so familiar with Beauty Ghost’s fighting style? Also, I like the apparent nod to Beauty Ghost’s influence in raising A-Xiang (and we’ll see more of this).) Meanwhile, ZZS has been inexorably drawn to the place he left his child disciple child and is moping right outside of Yueyang, so he sees Pretty Arhat fly away with Chengling. Murder Dad 1 springs into action.

Yueyang disciples run around like ants whose hill has been kicked over, looking for Chengling in town, and two of them encounter Wen Kexing, out for a midnight stroll in a fetching pastel blue and green combo. They ask him about seeing a guy. With a pipa. Or maybe without a pipa. So maybe just a guy. Wen Kexing correctly deduces they’re asking about Phantom Musician Qin Song, who covered Pretty Arhat’s getaway by incapacitating everyone with his magic music. YY disciples are excited and tell WKX yes, this dude was involved in kidnapping Zhang Chengling! Y’all. WKX’s face when he hears that. He is not happy. Almost immediately, he spots Qin Song on a rooftop. Murder Dad 2 springs into action.

So, WKX the Ghost Valley Master finds Qin Song, asks him where Chengling is, crushes his playing hand, threatens to break every single bone in his body one at a time (meanwhile dropping the tidbit that he learned the number of bones in the human body from his dad), and tells him a little story about a time when – apparently – he asked another guy the same question (about WHO? has A-Xiang been kidnapped in the past, because that’s about the only other person I can imagine him being like this about?) and only had to break 80 bones before he got an answer. Meanwhile, ZZS actually finds Chengling, in the Scorpion lair where Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat have variously been molesting him (srsly, I feel like I should probably say something to a trusted adult Murder Dad), torturing him with unpleasant magic pixie dust, smacking him around (he loses a tooth, y’all), and waterboarding him. During all this, Pretty Arhat says she’s yet to meet a man who can stand up to waterboarding, and I’m kind of reminded of WKX’s scene threatening Qin Song, and I don’t know if that’s on purpose or not. Chengling literally spits in her face and proclaims that he’s the son of Zhang Yusen, none of whose sons are cowards, and about then, ZZS busts down the door like he’s WKX (by throwing Monster Jiang through it), tells the Scorpions he’s their daddy, and gets into a big fucking fight with all three of them. He flags a little bit somewhere in here as he starts having some Nail pangs (which, yeah, it must be getting about midnight, which is when that’s supposed to happen) and spits some blood, but he reassures Chengling and then tells the Scorpions no one can stop him from killing who he wants and getting what he wants (OK, Wei Wuxian …). Then he shoots some projectiles from some little contraption up his sleeve that we get a quick look at that I did not remember AT ALL from my first watch of the show but is literally like the gun hanging over the mantel in the first act. Huh. Anyway, he kills Monster Jiang, and Du Pusa (who didn’t give a shit about Monster Jiang OR Qin Song earlier), wants to capture him alive, supposedly so she can get revenge for them by teaching him how it feels “to want to die more than live.” Joke’s on you, lady – too late! That’s literally his constant state of being!

About this time, Qin Song comes flying through the doors – or what’s left of them – gasping his last breath as WKX makes his dramatic entrance. Chengling not only calls him “Wen-shu” but also has already figured out exactly how to manipulate Murder Dad 2 and tells him that in addition to kidnapping him, they also hurt ZZS. WKX is predictably murderous, and Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat run away and hide behind the skirts of Xie Wang’s robes as the Zombie Drug Man Army approaches. WKX tells ZZS to take Chengling and leave, ZZS refuses, and Xie Wang LITERALLY SAYS “IN LIFE AND DEATH YOU WILL NEVER PART. WHAT A TOUCHING MOMENT.” and I am DYING. Also, this will not be the last time ZZS/WKX will exhibit what Xie’er wants from his Awful Yifu. Anyway, Xie’er calls ZZS “Leader Zhou,” then tells WKX that he’ll tell them who he (Xie Wang) is if WKX tells them all who he is first. ZZS is Very Done with all of this and smoke bombs the Scorpions to escape. Xie’er shows he actually does know who both of them are – even though each of them doesn’t know everything about the other’s identity yet, and won’t for a while – by telling Du Pusa and Pretty Arhat that they’re the leader of Tian Chuang and the leader of the Ghost Valley and wondering “How did these two devils end up together?” Like calls to like, I guess.

OK, this is getting super-long, so I’m going to attempt to wrap up with the actual Wenzhou material. We cut to Murder Dads and Chengling sitting in the forest, around a campfire, and Chengling is in heaven, back with his family. He’s super-emotional, and ZZS is all, come on, be a man, don’t cry (OK, crybaby). WKX gives some campfire-cooked rabbit? maybe? to ZZS, who starts a precedent by passing it to Chengling. Please, A-Xu. WKX wants to feed his laopo, will you eat something, ffs? Chengling, still emotional, tells them that he knows they’re the only ones who are sincerely kind to him, that Five Lakes Alliance has all kinds of agendas and none of them care about him, and nobody has asked him what he wants. (I know, bb, they were awful.) ZZS asks what he wants, and Chengling says he wants to learn martial arts, to get revenge, and to not be a useless child anymore. Oh god, the cut to WKX here. His face, y’all. He is not cool with the fact that Chengling thinks he can’t be a child anymore, and probably with whatever role he (WKX) had in it. He is so sad. It’s killing me. However, it’s not as if WKX has lost his edge, and he also pounces, asking Chengling if something happened that made him suspicious of the Alliance. Chengling spills that his dad already didn’t trust them and also told him not to trust anyone ever, but he trusts his Murder Dads! This kid, I tell you. He tells them that his dad hid the Mirror Lake Glazed Armor in his stomach and starts getting ready to cut it out for them before ZZS stops him. He tells them Yusen gave him a letter for the Changming Sword Immortal detailing Rong Xuan’s injury (and we get our first iteration of the story of the battle between the Five Lakes Alliance brothers and Rong Xuan, the poison on the sword, and how that turned Rong Xuan evil). Per Chengling, the original argument was about the Combined Six Cultivation Method. Also per Chengling, the Alliance bothers should have been responsible for Rong Xuan after that, but no one stood up for him – I mean, Zhang Yusen would have, but his legs were broken. We learn that the poisoned sword that injured Rong Xuan belonged to Gao Chong. ZZS looks taken aback, but this all just CONFIRMS WKX’s SUSPICIONS.

Cut away for another scene. Cut back. ZZS has suddenly remembered that he’s pissed off and that someone (else, not him) is sleeping on the couch tonight. Earlier, they were sat in order of Chengling, ZZS, WKX. Now Chengling has been put between them. WKX asks for wine, A-Xu is being passive-aggressive and ignoring him before finally handing the wine gourd to Chengling to pass to WKX. He won’t even look at WKX. It is hilarious, particularly as he only remembered he was mad after they’d all eaten dinner, which WKX cooked, and the pair of them made sure their child was OK. Chengling wants to know if they fought and tells them there’s nothing confidants can’t resolve. He’s in full puppy mode. He tells WKX to hurry up and comfort ZZS, because you know he looks tough on the surface but he’s got the softest heart! Didn’t you teach me that tough women can’t resist clingy men? ZZS’s indignant little face at this is a picture. Chengling offers to apologize for WKX. WKX’s face is all fondness for Chengling, except for the eyebrows, which are doing the Tragic Sadness Eyebrows at ZZS. ZZS is all, OK, fine, although he immediately changes the subject and starts talking about the kidnapping attempt. He tells Chengling that the world is dangerous right now, and the safest place for him is Yueyang Sect. ARE YOU KIDDING ME WITH THIS? Chengling sadly nods. My little dude, c’mon. ZZS’s Nails are bothering him and WKX takes the chance to feed him qi, which ZZS accepts – might I note - without complaint. WKX waxes rhapsodic about A-Xu’s shoulder blades, and says he once saw a dead body with beautiful shoulder blades. Smashcut to a flashback of two people who we don’t yet know are Zhen Ruyu and Gu Miaomiao dead on the ground. Although this takes place immediately after the scene of Gao Chong at the altar, when the first tablets we see are Zhen Ruyu’s and Gu Maiomiao’s, we also don’t know yet to connect those names to these bodies. Tricksy, show. We see Zhen Yan place his hand on Gu Miaomiao’s back, and WKX’s voiceover talks about how he could tell she was a beauty despite the blood everywhere. ZZS interrupts this morbid tale to say they should let the past stay in the past, and then tells WKX, “My condolences,” even though WKX hasn’t actually mentioned anywhere in the story about this dead body that it was even anyone he knew, let alone someone he was related to. Because A-Xu isn’t stupid. Immediately after this - after saying they should leave the past in the past - ZZS asks WKX who he is. WKX goes into his Philanthropist Wen evasion spiel. ZZS shakes his head, visibly steels himself, and apparently comes to the decision to model the behavior he’s trying to encourage by coming clean about his real name, his relationship to Siji Manor, all of his bad decisions, his choking guilt over the deaths of all the Siji Manor disciples, and his reign of state-sanctioned terror as founder and leader of Tian Chuang. Notably, the very first word Chengling speaks to ZZS after hearing this rundown of supposed and actual crimes is to call him “Shifu” again to get his attention before asking for more info about the Scorpions. THIS CHILD. MY HEART.

ZZS tells them both, “I spent half my life alone, doing things I didn’t want to do and killing people I didn’t want to kill,” and I literally want to reach into the screen and shake WKX, because OMG LAO WEN. You are reflections of each other, and he’s baring his soul, and you’re going to continue to be so afraid that he’s not going to accept every part of you that it’s going to be episodes and episodes before you open up, and even then, only after he figures it out on his own. :hands: To make things even more OBVIOUS, ZZS then asks Chengling if he still wants ZZS to be his shifu after learning all of this, and Chengling doesn’t even hesitate, he says “Of course,” and ZZS and I are both about to cry. UGH. Zhang Zhehan, your face. It’s killing me. This is a man seeing the hope of resurrection for the sect he was convinced he had ground into dust. ZZS and Chengling are both so busy being emotional at each other that WKX has to take matters into his own hands, encouraging Chengling to bow, and we get a real bow to shifu this time, in a scene that once again mirrors the later scene when Zhen Yan makes his bow to Qin Huaizhang to become a Siji Manor disciple.

ZZS tells Chengling, all right, then. You are the first disciple of the sixth generation. (SHIXIONG. NO PRESSURE.)

End ep.

#zhou zishu #wen kexing #zhang chengling #beauty ghost #liu qianqiao #gao chong #gao shan #du pusa #pretty arhat #qin song #gu xiang #xie wang #tragicomic ghost #luo fumeng #qin huaizhang #word of honor #word of honor episode reax

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coffintownkids · 4 years ago

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Alrighty! Ch. 32 is done and such brings an end to the 朝露 arc. I’m sure y’all remember the cute scene in The Untamed/CQL when WWX comes across a group of kids playing make-believe about the Sunshot Campaign. This is the chapter where that takes place. However, as previously mentioned, we’ve actually never met pretty much any of the characters involved first-hand. So this is again slowly filling the readers in about how the world perceives all these characters.

I couldn’t decide what part I liked best...So you get the entire scene! Very long post beneath the cut.

*EDITED* @weishenmewwx was nice enough to help me fix a couple of errors. Thank You!!!

The group of children stopped chasing it, then gathered together to start seriously wracking their brains over it, “What do we do since no one shot down the Sun? It fell by itself, so who’s the Leader now?”

One of them raised a hand, “It’s obviously me! I’m Jīn Guāngyáo and I killed the greatest villain from the House of Wēn!”

Wèi Wúxiàn sat on the inn’s front steps and watched on with great pleasure.

In games like this, there was boundless high regard for the Chief Cultivator Liǎnfang-Zūn. Of course, everyone would welcome playing that role the most. Although his background made people too embarrassed to speak of it, it was precisely because of it that him climbing to the highest position made people gasp even more in admiration of his achievements. During the Sunshot Campaign, he had acted as a spy for a number of years and had been a natural at it. He had run around in circles deceiving the entire Wēn Sect of Qíshān both inside and out, having them divulge countless secrets without even realizing it. After the Sunshot Campaign, he was fawned over in every possible way with terrific amounts of cleverness and an extreme variety of methods. Finally, he took the position of Chief Cultivator and became the person fully deserving of ranking first among the multitude of cultivation Houses. Such a life can be called legendary. If was playing, he would also want to try out for the part of Jīn Guāngyáo. Picking this little boy to be the Leader was just common sense!

So JGY is super well-liked by everyone, or so we’re led to believe at this point in the story. It’s mentioned in the novel very early on that he is JGS’s bastard, but it’s definitely pretty much glossed over and this certainly makes it sound like nobody cared about his “embarrassing” history. (We will come to learn this is, in fact, bullshit.) BUT, WWX does seem to think quite well of him.

Fun language bit about the “fawned over in every possible way with terrific amounts of cleverness and an extreme variety of methods.” The sentence uses 百般, 千般, 万般 to show the increase of how much praise got heaped upon him as 百=100, 千=1,000, and 万=10,000.

My other takeaway, which I think the show did a pretty bad job at conveying, was the passage of time and that JGY was actually with the Wēn Sect for years.

Moving on.

Another one of them protested, “I’m Niè Míngjué and I’ve won the most battles and have had the most captives surrender to me. I should be the Leader!”

‘Jīn Guāngyáo’ said, “But I’m the Chief Cultivator.”

‘Niè Míngjué’ raised his fist, “So what if you’re Chief Cultivator. You’re also my sān-dì, so you won’t see me running off with my tail between my legs.”

As expected, ‘Jīn Guāngyáo’ was rather well-suited at getting into character. He hunched his shoulders and ran away.

Sān-dì (三弟) just means third brother. AKA JGY was the youngest within 3zun.

Then another kid said, “You’re the one that died young.”

Since he had chosen to be a certain cultivation head, he naturally had been looking forward to being said cultivation head a little bit. ‘Niè Míngjué’ got mad, “Jīn Zixuān, you died earlier than I did. You had an even shorter life!”

‘Jīn Zixuān’ was unconvinced, “So what if I died younger? I was ranked Number Three!”

“Being ranked Number Three just means your looks were ranked Number Three!”

At that point, one of the little boys seemed tired of both running and standing, so he slowly walked over by the steps and sat down by Wèi Wúxiàn. He waved his hand like he was some sort of mediator and said, “Alright already, there’s no need to fight about it. I’m the Yílíng Lǎozǔ, so I’m the most awesome.”

Wèi Wúxiàn, “……”

He glanced down and, sure enough, the little kid was carrying a little branch at his waist that was probably meant to be Chénqíng.

There was actually a child pure enough to not bother arguing about good and evil. He was only debating the value of combat abilities and had willing taken up the honor of being the Yílíng Lǎozǔ.

Another kid said, “No way. I’m the Sāndú Shèngshǒu and I’m the most awesome.”

The ‘Yílíng Lǎozǔ’ rather understandingly said, “Jiāng Chéng! What can you do that’s better than me? When haven’t you lost to me? How is it a good idea for you to say you’re the most awesome? Aren’t you embarrassed?”

‘Jiāng Chéng’ said, “Hmph! How am I better than you? Do you remember how you died?”

Wèi Wúxiàn’s faint smile got wiped right off his face once his meaning sunk in.

It was like being jabbed with a highly poisonous needle without warning and it sent faint prickling pain throughout his entire body.

Oof. That is a lot.

The ‘Yílíng Lǎozǔ’ next to him clapped, “Look at me! On my left is Chénqíng, on my right is the Tiger Seal. Plus I have the Ghost General. There are none beneath Heaven that are my equal! Hahahaha…” He had a stick in his left hand, a stone in his right, and was laughing hysterically, “Wēn Níng, come out!” A kid in the back of the crowd raised his hand and weakly said, “I’m here…that’s…I want to say…during the Sunshot Campaign, I didn’t die, either...”

Wèi Wúxiàn felt that he couldn’t not interrupt.

He said, “Fellow cultivators, can I ask you a question?”

The children had never had an adult take part when they played this game before, let alone one that didn’t scold them and was completely serious about asking them a question. The ‘Yílíng Lǎozǔ’ was giving him a strange and guarded look as he said, “What do you want to ask?”

Wèi Wúxiàn said, “Why don’t you have any people from the Lán Sect of Gūsū?”

“We do!”

“Where are they?”

The ‘Yílíng Lǎozǔ’ pointed at a kid that hadn’t opened his mouth to say a single word from the start, “That’s him.”

Wèi Wúxiàn looked at him and, sure enough, he was completely fine-featured and looked like a charming child. He had a clean, white string wrapped around his forehead to serve as his head ribbon. He asked, “Who is he?”

The ‘Yílíng Lǎozǔ’ disdainfully curled his lip and said, “Lán Wàngjī!”

…Great. This group of children grasped his essence. If you’re playing the part of Lán Wàngjī you really ought to shut up and not talk!

Then suddenly, the corners of Wèi Wúxiàn’s mouth began to curl again.

That little poisoned needle got pulled out and he didn’t know what cranny it got tossed into, but all the stinging pain had instantly been swept away. Wèi Wúxiàn said to himself, “It’s both wonderful and strange. He’s such a stuffy person. Why does he always make me feel so happy?”

*yelling* Why does he make you so happy, WWX? Any guesses?

I’ve seen this translated as “boring” instead of “stuffy” so I’ll explain a bit. The word used is 闷 (mèn) which can be read as boring, so that’s not wrong. But, it’s a little more nuanced than that. It can also mean something “sealed tight” or “suffocate” or “shut indoors.” Like how a hot room without circulation can be called “stuffy.” But in English, we can use stuffy to mean someone that’s kinda old-fashioned and very stuck on being prim and proper. Which certainly is someone people might consider “boring”! I just didn’t think “boring” alone really captured it though.

Of course, this is when LWJ finally emerges from his Fortress of Solitude (after needing time to get through his Gay Panic.)

When Lán Wàngjī came downstairs, he saw Wèi Wúxiàn sitting on the steps and sharing a steamed bun with a group of children. Wèi Wúxiàn was eating his bun while directing two children that were back-to-back in front of him. “……There are currently countless Wēn cultivators before. They’re all armed and they’ve got you completely surrounded. Keep your eyes sharp. Yes, just like that. OK. Lán Wàngjī, pay attention. This isn’t the current you during peacetime. You’re covered in blood! Your killing intent is so heavy! Your expression is so fierce! Wèi Wúxiàn, get a bit closer to him. Aren’t you going to twirl your flute? Let’s see you twirl it one-handed. Have pizzazz. Do you know what pizzazz is? Come let me teach you.” ‘Wèi Wúxiàn’ made an “oh” sound and handed over the thin stick he was carrying. Wèi Wúxiàn rather skillfully and swiftly twirled ‘Chénqíng’ around between two of his fingers, causing the group of kids to whoop with excitement.

Lán Wàngjī, “……”

He quietly walked over and Wèi Wúxiàn saw him coming, so he brushed off the dust from his backside and called out his goodbyes to the kids. It had been so easy to just stand up and walk along the road with a smile. It was oddly like being drugged.

Lán Wàngjī, “……”

Wèi Wúxiàn, “Hahahahahaha, I’m sorry, Hánguāng-Jūn. I ended up sharing the breakfast I bought for you with them. I’ll buy more for us in a moment.”

Lán Wàngjī, “Okay.”

Wèi Wúxiàn, “How about it? Weren’t those two kids just now cute? Who do you suspect the kid with the string around his head was imitating? Hahahaha…”

He was speechless for a moment, then Lán Wàngjī ultimately couldn’t help saying, “……What exactly did I do last night?”

It definitely couldn’t have been anything simple. Otherwise, why did it make Wèi Wúxiàn keep laughing???

Wèi Wúxiàn kept waving his hand, “No, no, no, no, no. You didn’t do anything. I was just being silly, hahahahahaha…Alright, ahem, Hánguāng-Jūn, I swear I’ll talk business.”

Lán Wàngjī said, “Go ahead.”

Apparently WWX missed his calling and should have gotten into theater!

And poor LWJ is still panicking.

So now they’re off to Shǔdōng and we’ll be starting the Yi City arc next.

#mdzs #ctk reads mdzs #mdzs translation #my translation

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ohnobjyx · 4 years ago

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A hotpot of candies EP 1-2

It took me so long to find somewhere to watch all of the episodes of “Let’s hotpot together” that I only sat down to write this today. This is going to be a “compilation post” since most of the candies are already out there, but picking them and putting them together was still fun for me.

Disclaimer: fake fake fake.

1. Gongcai expert

The first big signal for this one is the director saying “only people who frequently eat Sichuan hotpot will order this”. Sichuan and Chongqing are very close and Chongqing cuisine is considered a derivative from Sichuan cuisine with local flavors (Henan, where dd’s from, has a cuisine that’s a mixture of Jiangsu and Beijing cuisine, and it’s known for being mild and a mixture of flavors).

Then ZHL adds that “this person must have a good understanding of me, and must not be very young”. This received a bjyx explanation, as apparently, as many parts of the Chinese cuisine, this is a dish better appreciated by older people, so it’d be rare for dd to know of this vegetable.

However, I think that he was just talking about age differences. ZHL follows an almost vegetarian diet, which would be known by people who know him well. He’s 45 years old, more than 20 years older than dd, so it’d be strange for dd to know that he prefers vegetables to meat in his dishes. That’s why, in my opinion, dd chose this dish just because he likes it, no deeper meaning.

Not just that, but for someone who struggled to remember the name of a typical dish of his hometown, he knows surprisingly well how to prepare it in a hotpot, and which is the best way to eat it. And he keeps taking bites from ZHL’s plate throughout the episode.

He also was the only one who recognized it in a TTYSJ episode (ttxs during quarantine).

2. The spicy hotpot (EP1) and the Sichuan pepper oil (EP2, more info in point 4)

This is the most telling one for me in the episode. When gg and dd were asked whether they preferred all-spicy or mixed hotpot/鸳鸯锅 (the photo is a mixed pot, whereas an all-spicy only has the right side) in CQL interviews, gg said “all-spicy”, and dd, “mixed pot”.

They also explained in other events/shows what kind of dippings they preferred for their hotpot. Dd liked sesame paste, while gg liked a mix of powdered spices (spicy as f***, really).

They both changed their hotpot tastes:

As shown in the episode, dd now likes to eat an all-spicy pot with a base of Sichuan pepper oil and garlic, “classical Sichuan hotpot” combination (EP2). Just look at his face after he says “this pot is so spicy”.

Gg, in more recent interviews, admitted that he now likes the mixed pot and that he now prefers the sesame paste. In one of the interviews, he admitted that if he ate a too spicy hotpot now, he’d have diarrhea.

They both said they like cow tripe (mao du) for their hotpot. Dd likes it so much he eats it anytime he has hotpot in a show and gg once said that it’s one of his “3 must have” for hotpot.

Dd’s change is very drastic. Really. In the variety show (极限青春) dd filmed in 2019, dd was uncapable of eating Chongqing’s spicy dishes.

If any of you have travelled to Sichuan, you’ll know that it’s hard to eat there (and in the surrounding provinces) if you’re not used to spicy food. When I was there, we asked every restaurant to serve food without chili or spicy condiments for us, but everything tasted spicy no matter where. Because the pots had been used hundreds of times to cook spicy food, no amount of scrubbing could take out the spiciness. Thus, whatever they cooked was spicy for a non-Sichuan person’s standards, even if they don’t add spices.

The kind of spiciness of Sichuan cuisine also takes time to get used to, because they boast a 麻辣 (málà) flavour that’s both numbing and spicy at the same time (dd said in the variety show that it was so spicy it made his stomach hurt. I confirm that it can happen to people not used to it).

What I mean with all of this is that it takes time and a lot of spicy dishes to change someone’s taste as much as it has changed dd’s. He couldn’t even have the spicy half of the mixed pot (which is usually milder) a year ago and now he eats it even when he shouldn’t (because of his cough).

It’s not just dd who changed his tastes. These level of spiciness requires frequent exposure to not lose tolerance (almost like what happens to people who drink a lot and stop for a while, after that their alcohol resistance is diminished). So gg had to tone down the spiciness of his food, but this is likely due to him being a professional singer now, and having to take care of his voice. I find much more meaningful that he prefers sesame paste now.

3. Sore throat

So it’s a really big thing that not only did dd get used to it, but he likes it so much he’ll order it even if he has a sore throat. You really have to like something a lot to eat it even if it hurts your throat (I dare you to try having a spicy soup with a sore throat... not a good experience, I assure you).

I talked about this somewhere (oh, here), but there are 4 prohibitions in Chinese traditional medicine for those who have to take care of their throats and/or voices: spicy, sweet, oily and alcohol. These flavours and foods can be overstimulating for the lining of throat and it’s also advised not to have cold food/drinks.

So seeing him gulf down a spicy hotpot and follow it with a bottle of frozen water it’s like (sigh).

4. Sesame oil and garlic

In EP2, the captains put their hotpot base together. Dd picked Sichuan pepper oil and garlic, which is mildly spicy, so one of the directors said: “this is classical Sichuan hotpot” (dd just nodded and said yes).

Director: Have you always eaten this combination? I saw your old interviews, and you said you liked sesame paste.

Dd: Yes, at the beginning I ate sesame paste, but I met a friend in a filming crew, who taught me this way of preparing hotpot. This way, the spicy pot won’t be so spicy, so it suits my taste.

Director: yes, it’s also better for the stomach.

This is one of the many reasons mtjj don’t like people mentioning hotpot 😂. Remember that time mtjj dug up a list of people born in October 5, just trying to prove that dd’s Colgate post wasn’t about gg? Well, bxg did the same and did a list of all the people dd has worked with in a filming crew and where they are from (I only have the list in Chinese).

And... surprise: the only two people in the list from Chongqing who could have taught him Sichuan cuisine, are gg and JL. And I love jcisthebestfightme take on JL 😂

5. Bo ge/博哥 (”older brother Bo”)

A few moments after, WJE says: “bo ge said it”. Inmediately, dd jumped in and said: “it wasn’t me”.

WJE was actually talking about HB, a guest for EP 2-3, whose name contains a character that’s also pronounced “Bo”, with the same intonation. They all laugh at dd, because he’s actually the youngest of them all, and no one would actually call him 哥 (ge, older brother).

BUT... we all know of someone older than dd who actually called him Bo ge quite frequently in interviews and bts. I’ll leave here a video with some of the instances gg called dd that, though in the s/na interview (when dd was typing) gg called him “bo ge” a lot more times than what the video shows.

He’s obviously used to someone calling him that, that’s why he reacts so quickly when he hears it. Most of the people he usually works with and the friends that we know of are older than him, and out of all of them, we’ve only heard of gg calling him “bo ge”.

6. Washing a little bit

There’s also speculation and theories about another of the dishes dd picked (chicken tendons), but I don’t find it especially meaningful.

The same thing happens with “being near-sighted is like opening your eyes under the water”. Bxg were saying that the sensation must have been described to him by gg, also very near-sighted, but well... I dunno? Besides, there’s no proof for these two.

(Sad bonus, not-bjyx related: I felt really bad for them when one of the directors announced that WJE’s mum was on the backstage and coming up and it ended up being a very bad joke. While they earn more money than I’ll ever see, they can only see their families like twice a year in a very family centered society due to work schedule. They all looked very expectant and happy for a moment, until it was announced as a bad joke.

Dd said: “I thought there were true feelings in humans, I thought true love existed”. They were all disappointed, even though they cover it with laughs, and you can see WJE rubbing the corner of his eye. Even the director that played the joke felt bad and said “this was a bad one, we can cut this from the episode”. WJE said it was fine.)

Part 2: EP 3-4

#yizhan #bjyx #sdoc s3 #candies #hotpot

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extraordinarilyextreme · 3 years ago

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Fic Writer Interview Game

thank you @jockvillagersonly for tagging me! you're the absolute sweetest 🥺💖

name: susu (苏苏)

fandoms: honestly, a lot. but of the works i've posted on ao3, the list includes the following: Qing Ya Ji (The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity), Dao Mu Bi Ji (The Grave Robbers' Chronicles/The Lost Tomb series), Zhen Hun (Guardian), Chenghua Shi Si Nian (The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty), and Good Omens

if we include fanart though, then there's also Shan He Ling (Word of Honor) and Chen Qing Ling (The Untamed)

two-shots: i genuinely didn't think i had any but here we are lol.

do not speak as loud as my heart: DMBJ & Guardian crossover 💙💚

i love(d) you: Star Wars AU for Good Omens ♡♥

in another time (UNFINISHED): TSOMD immortal!Ding Rong 💜❤️

and may we tie our hearts together again is technically part 1 of something too: red string AU for QYJ ⚫️⚪️

most popular multi-chapter fic: well, i mostly write one-shots haha! but by hits, kudos, comments, and bookmarks, it's a string of paper cranes (red string AU for TSOMD 💜❤️)

actual worst part of writing: i think just getting into the groove of things, trying to find enter flow state? i'm unfortunately really particular about the music i listen to when i write, so i tend to spend hours trying to find the perfect song to serve as my soundtrack instead of, you know, writing LOL

how you choose your titles: it's usually a quote lol no matter if it's a line from the show/book, a lyric, or from a poem (i've been doing more translation work recently so i take stuff from Chinese songs too). and on the occasions that i actually come up with something original... man, i couldn't even tell you how it happens; it's like when the DVD logo finally hits the corner of the tv screen and suddenly i have an idea once in a blue moon

do you outline?: yes. i've outlined for every fic i've written so far except the upcoming PingXie Exchange one (and for that reason, it was so much more difficult to write even though it's one of my shorter fics lol); i really need outlines so i won't miss any of the details i want to include

ideas you probably won’t get around to, but wouldn’t it be nice?: the thing is, i really think i WILL eventually get around to all my ideas, but i just have a lot of things going on :') but some of the stuff catching dust in my folder include an Orpheus & Eurydice retelling of CQL WangXian and some PingXie and Iron Triangle post-canon fluff. the Story of Yanxi Palace AU for TSOMD is still there, and i'm still not satisfied with the second chapter of "in another time" lol. other WIPs include a "Wu Xie dies but the DMBJ world has to continue on" AU and also the red string AU for QYJ from Qingming's pov. there's a huatubing (hanahaki) AU for RongZhi + focus on Wan Tong idea that i've discussed with @rongzhi too, and @naiwong-bao and i are of course still working on our QingYa derivative fic :)

and i'd love to write something for Xin Zhai Lie Ren (Psych-Hunter). the ending of that show left me so unsatisfied LOL

OH actually, i think the one idea that i'll truly never write is something for Shi Shen Ling (The Yin Yang Master). that movie... anyway, i just want to give all the characters so much more development dammit. it'd be post-canon; Baini and Boya become unlikely friends, and Qingming is still doing his stupid i-have-to-be-alone-to-protect-the-world nonsense or whatever. but he's always watching out for Baini and making sure she's safe.

callouts @ me: um... write faster? haha and... try to work outside your comfort zone a little more. try and write something without any angst at all. a rated-E fic maybe. and remember that even if only one person reads your story, even if that one person is you, then that's all you need.

best writing traits: i think i tend to have pretty strong dialogue. i'm good at showing love stories without necessarily an "i love you" in there. and, as much as i whine about it, i think i'm pretty good at making the "angst with a happy ending" pay off; it's exhausting to cope with the characters as they go through losses and tribulations, but i think i tend to handle it pretty realistically for the most part.

spicy tangential opinion: well, i don't think this is particularly anything newsworthy, but read what you like and don't read what you don't like. remember that most people are doing this out of an interest in the fandom, that it touched some part of them, and even if they're angry at the creators and writing fix-its out of spite, they're still doing it for free. so be kind to each other. and be kind to yourself; don't purposefully consume anything that will upset you.

and also. if you are not the intended audience for which a work was originally created and you're unfamiliar with the socio-historical and cultural context of the work, i am telling you not to speak over the voices of the fans who do belong to that culture. i am not asking nicely anymore. be respectful, do the proper research, and ask questions. if you are genuinely willing to learn and be educated, then people will be excited to answer. REMEMBER. you are a guest.

tagging (only if you want to!!! and if you've already done this, i'm so sorry for missing it): @naiwong-bao, @rongzhi, @lqcoups, @astarlitwishforyou, @aloverdestroyed, @ftw-wolvie, @inrainprose, @laireshi, @thosch3i, @a-universe-of-almosts

#tagged #ask meme #be kind to each other everybody

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llycaons · 1 year ago

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rightt i love the cql ending i think it was needed for them to go their separate ways. soo many cql haters bring up the ending as their main point for why it sucks. its as if they forget they reunite at the very end. also ive seen soo many weird fics where they hate on lz for “leaving wy and abandoning him” when thats such bs 😭 there was a fic summary where it was like ‘novel lz sees cql wy traveling alone and they get together’ like huh?? wy doesnt know that man and he loves HIS lz get over it

literally get OVER it lmao wwx didn't literally say 'WHEN I come back I want to hear the name of the song' (meaning he knows its significance and plans to RETURN and confess/hear lwj's confession) and lwj didn't say "I have long since known it' (meaning he's been in love w wwx for many years and knows it/plans to tell him) for wwx to LEAVE his star-crossed beloved of over two decades in order to shack up with some yellow-eyed weirdo who already has his own wwx who's into the same shit as he is? like. we HEAR lwj say wwx's name at the end, SEE wwx turn and smile. not to be rude but did these people watch the finale to the very end? are they stupid? what do they think is about to happen? lwj is going to say "oh it's you. I don't want to see you again, wei ying. being cc is more important to me than you are. I reject you and I will never have sex with you. that's why I came out to this cliff where you're playing the song I wrote for you. bye' and then leave??? lmao. please. PLEASE

plus it was a mutual decision based off of temporarily incompatible needs - lwj didn't abandon him! and if these fans are mad he 'let him go' then all they're saying is they're mad he didn't, what, imprison wwx somewhere he didn't want to be? clearly wwx wanted to travel and couldn't stay at CR, and clearly lwj needed to return to his home and help them all readjust to a shattered lxc and no cc. no it was good they each had time to breathe and they each as individuals needed to deal with things before they could be together

to be completely honest I think I would have liked the finale less if they HADN'T separated. postres, they slowly did become closer and started breaking down the barriers between them, but it was a process with a lot of stops and starts that seemed to stagnate at times. separation was a huge change that felt like it pushed their relationship into something new and resulted in an event so significant it was like they couldn't even show it. it was a really powerful choice!

to be fair if people don't like cql or think it's not gay enough or the censorship worked too well that's their business and I'm not going to lecture anyone into liking something they don't like, that's fine. there are little things about the performances and writing choices that annoy me too. but if the separation was written bc of censorship then they still got back together in the end and if the separation was an independent decision, then it was made to serve the story, which as a whole was a genuine and sincere attempt to convey a gay relationship even while being censored. and I do think it served the story and the characters very well. I know people also dislike cc lwj, which I can't fault them for since it's so far from the 'run away from the cultivation world' finale in the ending, but as someone who never read the book my first time watching, it made perfect sense to me. like....canonically wwx planned on returning and canonically lwj was there to greet him. if that hadn't happened, yeah it would have sucked. I would have been miserable. but it didn't! they got their ending together!

#asks #bro if wwx and lwj had not reunited I would have been heartbroken. I would have despised the finale too. but they DID!!!

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veliseraptor · 4 years ago

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top 5 most disliked CQL characters (I hope this isn't cheating xD it's more bottom 5 but whatever. I know who's number 1 worst but I'm curious about the rest)

oh boy well. let’s see here. this is actually hard! well, four were pretty easy, the fifth one was hard, because for the most part my character feelings for this show are ‘relative indifference’ or ‘my love <3′ with a few shades in between.

don’t think most of these will be terribly controversial, though.

1. Jin Guangshan. Pretty sure this is the one you called, right? I mean, just. I hate him! I hate him!!!! Good thing he’s there to be hateable (if also good at what he does).

2. Sect Leader Yao. He’s not, like. Bad, I guess, he’s just obnoxious but he’s obnoxious in that way that enables the people around him to be bad, because he basically exists to serve as a Greek chorus for everyone’s worst impulses and uncharitable assumptions. Which, he’s very good at that role, but it does mean I’m very I Don’t Like You about him.

3. Jiang Fengmian. I - yes, I know it’s unfair, I know, I know, but look, while Yu Ziyuan is...objectively worse as far as the abuse dynamics in this family go, I personally get madder at Jiang Fengmian. I just want to strangle him! I think it’s the way in which he’s so clearly ~well-intentioned~ and ~laid-back father figure~ but like. Buddy! The dysfunction in your house! Your daughter is doing a better parenting job than you are. And it just makes me mad. At least Yu Ziyuan is fun for me personally to watch, whereas Jiang Fengmian just makes me >:| especially on Jiang Cheng’s behalf. Allow your son to know that you love him challenge.

4. Jin Zixun. I feel like he’s sort of with Wen Chao who didn’t make this list solely because he’s so entertaining to watch that he manages to skate by, but like. More punchable and less scenery-chewing hilarity. He’s just kind of a jackass backed up by institutional power! No thank you.

5. alskjadslkjafsd I don’t really have a fifth so I guess by virtue of my frustrations with him that aren’t wholly his fault I’m going to have to go with Nie Mingjue, I’m sorry da-ge, the deck was stacked against you but you’re still miles ahead of literally everyone else on this list.

He just happens to hit several personal buttons of mine as far as ‘character types I’m predisposed to not like,’ but he’s definitely more in the ‘just don’t have that many feelings about him except in relation to other characters’ than actual dislike.

#top five meme #the sad queer cultivators show #blackteaaddict #conversating

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hunxi-guilai · 5 years ago

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Hi! A follow up to your Wen Zhuliu and the assassins' biographies and 知己 posts (which were great!) - It got me thinking about the relationship between Yu Ziyuan and her maid/assassins Yinzhu and Jinzhu, especially the line about how they had never served anyone else and were no ordinary servants. No question here, but your post made me think about them a little more, and wonder whether that might apply to them. It is a fun headcanon, at least, given that we really know so little!

(follow-up to this post about Wen Zhuliu and assassin literature)

oh! it’s funny you should mention that, because I remember watching episode 15 and, when I saw Jinzhu and Yinzhu in action, I was a little shook because I got mad 聂隐娘 vibes from them

so who do I have to pay for an all-ladies encore of CQL

聂隐娘 Nie Yinniang is a peculiar but evocative Tang Dynasty 传奇 chuanqi story (often translated as ‘legend’ or ‘tale of the marvelous’), found in the 《太平广记》Taipingguangji. There’s a lot of plot and political machinations packed into the 1400 characters of her legend, but the tl;dr is that Nie Yinniang is the daughter of a general who gets kidnapped by a nun. Said nun spirits Nie Yinniang away to an unknown but vaguely mystical place, where she is trained in the brutal art of assassination, and five years later, gets dropped her off at like nothing had happened. Her father simultaneously dotes on her and is terrified by her because, hello, assassin. A random mirror-grinding youth walks by one day, and she takes one look at him and says “oh I could marry that one” and what’s her father going to do? Deny his half-feral assassin daughter?

They get married. Anyway. Her story’s wild, and that’s just the beginning. 侯孝贤 Hou Hsiao-hsien made a movie about her, 刺客聂隐娘, which I stg I tried to watch but noped out of because I couldn’t understand the dialogue (which was simultaneously speedy and 文言 and I was just like... please... some mercy here...). Living legend Ken Liu also borrows heavily from the Nie Yinniang mythos in his short story “The Hidden Girl,” which, incidentally, is the name of his newest short story collection!

Oh goodness I’m getting distracted. WHAT I’M TRYING TO SAY is that there are two other badass lady assassins in the Nie Yinniang story, 空空儿 Kongkong-er and 精精儿 Jingjing-er (for those of you more familiar with the source story, I’m choosing to read 空空儿 and 精精儿 as the two girls in the line “已有二女，亦各十歲，皆聰明婉麗不食。能於峭壁上飛走，若捷猱登木，無有蹶失” because... narrative Occam’s Razor?). Nie Yinniang ends up going toe-to-toe with the two of them in order to protect an official she decided she liked better than her former employer, and the whole fight between Nie Yinniang and her former assassin-sisters is blanketed in a great deal of mystery and magic. After Nie Yinniang fends off Jingjing-er (by... dissolving her into water? unclear), she says:

隱娘曰: 後夜當使妙手空空兒繼至。空空兒之神術，人莫能窺其用，鬼莫得躡其蹤。能從空虛之入冥，善無形而滅影...

Yinniang said, “Later in the night, [he] will of course send dextrous Kongkong-er to continue [the assassination] to its finish. As for the magical skills of Kongkong-er, its use cannot be seen by people, its footsteps cannot be trodden by ghosts. She can descend into darkness from emptiness and hollowness, excels at formlessness and exterminating shadows...”

(five minute translation, text pulled from ctext)

Which, considered in context of Jinzhu and Yinzhu’s fight scene in episode 15?

on one hand I’m mad because I can’t see the choreography because they’re blurring, but on the other hand... well played, CQL production team, well played

definitely resonates a lot with Kongkong-er and Jingjing-er from the Nie Yinniang story.

I can’t speak to whether this was a deliberate allusion made by the CQL team (since it feels a lot like the fun 福禄寿 Fu Lu Shou resonances in that other meta), but it’s certainly fun to think about!

#yeah I have a lot of unanswered questions about Jinzhu and Yinzhu tbh #their fighting styles are completely different from the rest of the Yunmeng Jiang school #and the fact that they wield regular whips makes me wonder if Madam Yu was grooming them to eventually take up Zidian?#rather than passing it on to Jiang Cheng?#I love the idea of Meishan Yu as a matriarchal sect of warrior women because why the heck not #ask and ye shall receive #Jinzhu and Yinzhu

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paradife-loft · 4 years ago

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Close reading all the Jin Guangyao scenes: episode 22

Episode 10 | Episode 11 | Episode 23

Alright, now we’re getting somewhere! Still a pretty small amount of content in this episode, comparatively, but it’s fun and features a truly wonderful outfit so I am certainly not going to complain!

This episode, of course, features Round 1 of Meng Yao’s confrontation with Nie Mingjue in Wen Ruohan’s throne room while working as a spy. I think I need to mention at this point just how much I love these early partial versions of the scenes between Nie Mingjue and Meng Yao, that we see later explored more fully during the Empathy session with NMJ’s head? Just this idea and execution of partial context being given before the story does its definite “reveal” about JGY as the one who killed him - I think it does an interesting job of making the viewer complicit in the theme of forming opinions based on incomplete information, giving the viewer only a partial look at who Meng Yao is in the same way that the characters themselves only ever get a partial glimpse.

...Which may make it a little ironic that what I’m going to say here is definitely informed by hindsight out of necessity, but ah well!

The first thing I want to say is that I do see Meng Yao as playing a role in these scenes too (just as much as he does when he’s being the polite host), as opposed to dropping all personality masks and acting as his unfiltered self. The clearest example here for why I think that can be seen in the rebuke he delivers (yelling!) to Mingjue: “How dare you be so rude in front of Wen-zongzhu!” - like, this is not the sort of concern that he displays anywhere else in his scenes; he’s not Wen Chao, to take a lack of subservience to the Wen clan as an infuriating personal slight worthy of immediate violence. While he no doubt appreciates the ability (and indeed, expectation) to shed his subservient manners for a much more commanding, threatening air, this reaction is one deployed in service of the persona of someone who’s come to serve the Wen sect out of a desire for vengeance, angry at being cast out from one of their enemies’ sects - as is the smirky, “been a while~” line he greets Mingjue with.

(I wonder, also - given the speculation I settled on regarding episode 10 - if part of Meng Yao’s story to Wen Ruohan for what happened with the Nie sect was indeed something along the lines of, “I already wanted to serve your interests; I was going to hand you Xue Yang when your son came calling, but Nie-zongzhu discovered me and cast me out as unloyal.”)

So, after that, we move on to Mingjue breaking out of Meng Yao’s control of the scene, taking back Baxia, wrecking the room full of Wen disciple guards, and taking a full flying leap straight toward Wen Ruohan, because if a stealthy assassination mission doesn’t work, might as well go back to what you’re best at!

And this is Meng Yao’s reaction to said flying leap! His face looks so worried here! (Also in pain. Honey.) Given the kind of power he’s already seen Wen Ruohan throw around, I highly doubt that’s worry on behalf of WRH’s ability to handle an already-roughed-up NMJ flying at him. More like, he still absolutely cares about Mingjue and doesn’t want to see him turned into a crispy puppet sect leader by the power of the Yin Iron. Especially since he continues looking over, worried, when NMJ is knocked out from the bolt of energy that’s hurled him back onto the floor.

Oh man, and then the next little bit where he’s struggling to get back up? Hand trembling, almost falling again as he tries to support his weight with the one arm to push himself up? I love these little embodied indicators we get of how he’s not remotely as sturdy as most of the other characters, due to his low cultivation.

Which! Speaking of!

It’s the “still” in this line that interests me a lot, actually! We know that in CQL canon, the Wen sect will clearly teach cultivation to people that most other sects probably wouldn’t bother with, if they see some reason to, i.e. Xue Yang most obviously (but also possibly Wang Lingjiao? It’s unclear whether she has no spiritual power at all, or simply very very little). So given that Meng Yao is saying “must still trouble” as opposed to something else that wouldn’t imply an expected change in ability over time - my bet is that Wen Ruohan has arranged for someone to instruct Meng Yao in cultivation, despite his very late start. It might even be the first place where he’s been given actual cultivation instruction? The evidence on whether or not he’s been taught while living at the Unclean Realm is pretty scant, unfortunately, and I can think of arguments in favor of either side.

And that’s.... pretty much it for this episode! He closes out the scene fade-to-black watching and waiting to see what Wen Ruohan is going to do now that his Yin Iron modem & router setup seems to be on the fritz, with us none the wiser about what his ultimate intentions are here; whether Wen Ruohan or Lan Xichen or both have been deceived as to his true purpose in this role.

I do actually think there’s a decent reading to be made that Meng Yao could well have infiltrated Heavenly Nightless City with the intention of playing double agent so that he could come out on top regardless of who eventually won the day; he certainly undertakes a good many courses of action that he feels personal regret about for the unfortunate outcomes of others caught in the crossfire, while still believing them necessary sacrifices to the goal of his own safety and advancement.

And while I was originally going to say here that my ultimate read was that he was working truthfully for the Sunshot army’s victory only, taking the costuming choice of leaving his hair done up in the Nie sect style as a clue intending to indicate his actual allegiances... Honestly? I think the costume cues of Nie hair combined with Wen robes do just as good a job of signalling uncertainty, dubious loyalty and conflicting feelings, both to us as viewers and as an outward sign of what his own internal reality is at this point.

While I do think he’d choose the Sunshot army if forced to pick a side he’d prefer to win... I also don’t think his pragmatism allows him at this point to throw his emotional lot (much less his actual plans) entirely in with either outcome. He has reasons to be emotionally attached to aspects of his life lived on both sides of the war.

#The Untamed #Jin Guangyao #no good things for the poor sad cultivators #meta #rambling #James liveblogs television #and in conclusion I am now thinking about jgy using his status and influence to strike a bargain #for LXC's life and freedom as a vassal clan leader in a Wen Sect Wins AU #(he'd probably want and maybe even try to bargain for Mingjue as well at the start but...)#(Mingjue would be incredibly hard-headed about it and refuse to play along and they both know it)

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wangxianficrecs · 5 years ago

Text

WangxianFicRecs Presents: Hair Brushing & Caretaking

Hair Brushing & Caretaking

ialwaysfuckingchooseyou asked:

Hi, love your recs! Do you have any fics that focus on wangxian brushing each others hair? Domestic fluff.

Here’s a list that features (to different degrees) hair brushing and caretaking. (Seriously, I just did a search for “hair”.) I’ll do another post later just for domestic, curtain fics... since most of the hair brushing stuff I found was more hurt/comfort.

As always, if y’all think of any that should be on the list, comment or reblog with your suggestions. Everyone else will appreciate it!

Continuation

by thefaceofno

T, 14k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: “How long has it been?” Xichen asks.

Wangji looks up from the tea he had been pouring. “Since?”

“Since you started as Excellency.”

Since Wei Wuxian walked away from him, he means.

“Two summers.” Wangji says. He doesn’t like to count the time. He is not much of an artist, and he had not asked anyone to draw Wei Wuxian before he left. He thinks he has forgotten the shape of his cheek when he smiles. He does not remember forgetting Wei Wuxian last time. He does not like to count the time.

(A continuation of the live action drama.)

Jiang Cheng’s Mysterious Fever

by Hades_the_Blingking

T, 14k, xicheng, background wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: Set around Episode 03 of the Untamed drama. The Jiangs release their sons on the unsuspecting Lan Clan and Jiang Cheng has to try to figure out what an emotion is. Lan Xichen is having the time of his life wooing an oblivious yet very reactive Jiang Cheng. The Jiang entourage take bets on how smitten Jiang Cheng really is with the blindingly beautiful Lan Sect leader. Just a fun lil thing I did for my friend’s birthday! :D

Wherever the Chaos

by shadowsapiens

T, 3k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: Perhaps it’s a fool’s goal to keep Wei Wuxian from hurting himself. Perhaps it’s enough to stand by his side, to put him back together when he breaks.

Little Moments

by Hades_the_Blingking

T, 3k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: When he is visiting Yiling, Lan Zhan notices that Wei WuXian has not been taking care of himself as much as he should be. So after A-Yuan inadvertently discovers a hot spring, Lan Zhan decides that it is perfect place to tend to him. Even with chaos and uncertainty surrounding them, they can find a little peace.

(A scene inserted into Episode 29, after Lan Zhan is served tea (oop, water), but before Wei WuXian leads him down the mountain.)

Stained With Blood and Tears

by FaramirsBlessing

G, 63k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: A night hunt gone wrong leaves Lan Zhan greviously injured and Wei Wuxian reeling.

Strange Darling

by etymologyplayground

T, 7k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: “I’ve been trying not to think about Xiao-xiong and Song-xiong,” Wei WuXian confesses. “I didn’t know them that well either, but I really liked meeting them. I guess I had known what their deal was before, but to actually meet them was like, Here, idiot, here’s two cultivators doing exactly what you want to do! It’s possible after all!” Lan WangJi stops breathing. Wei WuXian continues, “I thought then that maybe after everything was over I could…” He stops and clears his throat. Then he admits, “Well, I sort of fantasized about whisking you away from Gusu and convincing you to join their sect with me.”

“Oh,” Lan WangJi breathes.

– you know that part in CQL where they’ve just met xxc and sl for the first time and lwj watches them leave with the most unbelievably intense yearning in his eyes? you know how that’s gonna make yi city EVEN WORSE? yeah

Beside him when he wakes

by kaminikaku T, 8K, my bookmark/post

Summary: Lan WangJi was not beside him when Wei WuXian fell into the Burial Grounds the first time, nor the second time when Jiang Cheng led the charge against him, and the stygian tiger seal brought him down. This time, on the dark steps of Koi Tower when Jin Ling strikes Wei WuXian, Lan WangJi is there to catch him as he falls.

This time he will not wake alone.

flourish, full-flowered

by lazulisong

T, 13k, my bookmark/post

Summary: The landlady says, “How many rooms would you like, sir?” at Lan Wangji, in a way that strongly implies that Wei Wuxian had better not be chasing after a handsome alpha cultivator trying to return him to the bosom of his family before Wei Wuxian managed to irretrievably compromise himself.

Wei Wuxian opens his mouth to say “Two, please, auntie,” in an effort to save Lan Wangji’s reputation, but before the words leave his mouth, Lan Wangji says,

“One.“

Both Wei Wuxian and the landlady stare at him. It’s clear that the landlady is trying to figure out if this upright-looking cultivator is the one actually taking advantage of a scrawny omega with donkey shit on his boots, but Wei Wuxian isn’t much less confused.

This has a lot of caretaking in it… I’m FAIRLY certain it’s got hair-brushing. It’s got a sponge-bath, for sure:

Fire in the Blood

by Jo Lasalle (Jo_Lasalle)

M, 21k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: Wei Ying is traveling, and he gets busy. Lan Wangji knows that sometimes, Wei Ying forgets things.

This next one is an mpreg, so there’s a lot of spoiling and caretaking, although I can’t recall if hair brushing specifically is in it:

Accidents Will Happen

by mrsronweasley

E, 46k, wangxian, my bookmark/post

Summary: Wei Wuxian downs the cup of tea. “All right. Now, I’m fine.” He isn’t, though. The tea is a mild kind, the sort that Lan Zhan prefers before bed, but even so it makes his taste buds revolt. It’s only through sheer force of will that he doesn’t vomit a second time.

Fucking hell, who cursed him, and how soon can he kill them?

Wei Wuxian finds himself in a whole new situation.

wide enough and wild

by impossibletruths

E, 64k, wangxian [my bookmark here]

Summary: Wei Ying leaves. He follows.

~*~* ~Follower Recs that I’ve not read yet~*~*~

the thread may stretch or tangle but it will never break

by RoseThorne

E, 38k, wangxian, WIP

Summary: Following the return of Wen Ning's spiritual cognition, Wei Wuxian doesn't pull away quickly enough to avoid Lan Wangji discovering his secret. Largely CQL-verse with some frankencanon.

(You may wish to REBLOG as a signal boost for the authors if you like -- or think others might like -- these stories.)

#ialwaysfuckingchooseyou #anonymous #Wangxian Fic Recs Presents #wangxianficrecs presents #hair brushing & caretaking #Wangxian Fic Rec #MZDS Fic Rec #The Untamed Fic Rec #The Untamed #wangxian #domestic #fluff #hurt/comfort

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xueyangs-pinky-finger · 4 years ago

Note

Hello! It's CC time :)

Which adaptations have you read/watched/listened to? And which was your favourite? I think CQL is my favourite because of how much it made me feel. I hadn't felt so emotional about any media for ages until CQL.

- your classified cultivator (I'm still working on a codename 😅)

Hello!! ☺️💕

This is probably going to be a long answer so you’ve been warned alsdkf.

So my first step into the MDZS universe was The Untamed. I’d never rly watched Chinese dramas before, but if there’s enough hype around something and enough ppl in my tumblr circle seem to like it, I’ll give anything a try (tumblr recommendations usually don’t let me down)~ So I started it in April, and finished in June.

Since then I’ve watched both spin-off movies, I’ve started the novel, I’m not quite caught up on the manhua, I still haven’t seen the special edition, I’m mostly finished with my first CQL rewatch, haven’t heard any of the audio drama yet, I’m all caught up on the free episodes of MDZS Q (I set an alarm and look forward to it every week 🥰), and I haven’t seen any of the donghua bc I told myself I have to finish the novel first, hoping it serves as motivation bc it can be hard to get myself to read these days rip.

So I’m totally engrossed in the MDZS universe, but I did always kinda figure CQL was the best, and that’s still how I’m feeling so far~ Aside from just preferring the live action format in general, and it being the first MDZS thing I consumed, it’s just... 10/10, like there are no words lol. The aesthetics, the writing, the acting, I mean the whole cast is ❤️❤️❤️And like you mentioned, nothing has as much control over my emotions !! It’s the kind of thing that makes you go "Wow, how can mere mortals even conceive of this, much less execute it so perfectly?!” lmao. Oh, and the OST??? My Spotify Wrapped will tell you how much I love it lol.

Of course the novel is interesting in its own right; it’s definitely deepening my understanding of some things, and of course the canon Wangxian is fun to read as well~ There were some changes the show made that I actually preferred tho! And the censorship, though it shouldn’t exist obviously, does kind of force a more beautiful, less in-your-face and cliche romance, which is also kind of nice~ Like it requires more creative writing, and they totally delivered, so much so that it’s even better than a lot of explicit romances in a lot of ways.

So there’s pros and cons to each, like I just read the Yi Cheng arc in the book and rewatched that part of the show (😭), and they each portray Xue Yang slightly differently, and some things about him I prefer in CQL, but some I prefer in MDZS; it depends on which paints him in a better light in that instance tbh alskdf. Like MXTX having Xue Yang make tongue tea?? CQL didn’t do that to me and I love it for it. 😤

And then I turn to the manhua for easy reaction images, and we of course require MDZS Q for healing 🙏 So I think each adaptation serves its purpose, but yeah... CQL reigns supreme. 🏆

Sorry this was so long alskdf I’ve always been better at writing longer things than concise ones 😬What about you; which have you made your way through so far? 💖

#mdzsnetcc

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sleepymarmot · 4 years ago

Text

Re-liveblog: eps. 4 & 10

Here's something I've been planning to do for a while -- rereading the liveblog of The Untamed I wrote a couple of months ago and looking at my own initial reactions to Jin Guangyao's storyline with new eyes. Returning to old liveblogs is always fun, but particularly when the perspective on something changes so much by the end of the story!

Of course, this turned into a monstrosity with word count in thousands that sat in my drafts for about a month, and involved rewatching most of the scenes the liveblog mentioned, and some that it didn't. Please be warned: this series of posts is not meant to be a comprehensive analysis, and will jump from one point to another or highlight only the things I have changed my mind about, or haven’t talked on this blog before. It is going to include some very personal interpretations and opinions, sometimes possibly (or definitely, in the case of this very post) unpopular or negative. I am here to reflect on my own experience of watching the show almost as much as to write meta about the show itself.

[All re-liveblog posts]

[ep 4]

is this shy illegitimate son the same person who summoned WWX in the first episode, or are they two entirely unrelated bastards? I don’t think the ages match up…

Oh, so that's what I was thinking during Meng Yao's introduction scene: trying to figure out whether he was the same person as Mo Xuanyu or not. That's funny.

[negativity ahead!]

Of course, I was also admiring Xichen's elegant way of Using His Privilege For Good, but I thought that was self-explanatory enough not to put in the liveblog. It didn’t occur to me this scene could be interpreted as a sect leader openly hitting on a disadvantaged youth, or that such an interpretation would be popular, especially in a literal and positive way as opposed to a dark or subversive headcanon. So even if this is ever confirmed to be an intended message of the scene, I’d just say “I recognize the council has made a decision...” and continue to disregard it. Kind of incredible how it manages to squick me in at least five ways -- and xiayo is one of my main ships in this fandom! And not only squick -- in my eyes, sexualizing LXC’s intentions in this scene not only adds something that I don’t like, but actively detracts from the textual, surface meaning and narrative function of LXC’s actions (establishing LXC as a Model Authority Figure who masterfully manipulates the social power dynamics not for self-interest, but for justice, kindness, and peaceful conflict resolution; see also the following scene with the Wens). And from the other side, I think Meng Yao is shocked and impressed specifically because someone like LXC would do this for someone like him without an ulterior motive; I suspect that if he saw this as LXC making an excuse to touch someone attractive, he would only be turned off: a sect leader who can’t keep his hands to himself is nothing new and nothing good from the point of view of JGS’s illegitimate child.

But if this brief brushing of hands holds any in-universe significance in addition to a possible foreshadowing of this relationship’s future importance -- I think I just finally realized what it must be! This interaction is an adaptation of the following scene from the book (which, to be fair, happens when MY and LXC already know each other, not during a first meeting):

Meng Yao had been a famous joke for a certain period of time, which was why a few recognized him. Likely thinking that the son of a prostitute perhaps also carried some unclean things with him, the cultivators didn’t drink from the cups that he had presented with both hands. Instead, they put the cups to the side and even took out white handkerchiefs. As though it felt too uncomfortable, they repeatedly wiped the fingers that they’d touched the teacup with, either intentionally or not. Nie MingJue wasn’t someone mindful to such things. Wei WuXian, though, caught sight of this through the corners of his eyes. Meng Yao acted as if he didn’t see anything, his smile unfaltering as he continued to pass around tea.

As Lan XiChen accepted his cup, he looked up at him and smiled, “Thank you.”

He drank a sip of the tea immediately afterward. Only then did he continue to converse with Nie MingJue. A few cultivators began to feel uneasy as they saw the scene.

(Chapter 48)

So CQL!Meng Yao’s eyebrows twitch in pleased surprise because the sect leader not only personally approached to verbally support him, but took something directly from his hands, not even trying to avoid him or flinching at skin contact. As if it didn’t even occur to the majestic Zewu-jun to think of Meng Yao as dirty or disgusting.

I don’t know if this is an intended interpretation either, because I don’t remember anyone specifically avoiding physical contact with MY in the show, and on the contrary, there were examples of both friendly (from Huaisang) and unfriendly (from the commander) touch. But I certainly prefer it to the other interpretation, and ignoring the interaction altogether seems a bit intellectually dishonest.

[/negativity]

On another note, much is said about JGY’s performativity, but check out LXC’s! Someone’s being bullied in his classroom? Not on his watch! Time to descend from his pedestal like truth coming out of her well, Very Pointedly and at length explain how this person Has His Official And Personal Approval And Is Very Welcome Here, then take the gift from him personally instead of letting a disciple do that. Note how in the following scene, he also personally accepts the gift from Wen Qing as a peacemaking gesture. I love how LXC’s character establishing event is about defusing not one but two uncomfortable situations in a row. Of the two brothers, all social skills went to him...

I have no comment on the goodbye scene. Just sadness.

Oh wait, after rewatching the entire show and coming back to the post, I do have something to say. This episode is the only time I can say with all certainty that all of Meng Yao’s words and reactions are fully sincere. After this point in the timeline, it will never happen again. :(

It’s a shame that the gifs I’ve seen of this scene end with the iconic stopped bow, because the final shots are also great! As soon as MY turns away, his face becomes clouded again, and seconds after the Sect Leader himself held his arms and assured they were peers, he felt the need to bow and lower his eyes as some unnamed disciples walked by. And the bitter look he sends after them tells the viewer how much he is aware of falling from the dreamland where a nobleman would compliment him like three times within three minutes, back to the regular life where it is better not to be noticed at all. Meanwhile, Xichen looks him in the back like “I want it to grow strong and healthy, I want to tell my friends and neighbors about it”.

[ep 10]

Alright, when 10 minutes ago I thought “Meng Yao, sweetie, kill that clown”, this is not what I had in mind

SOMEBODY GIVE MENG YAO A HUG (after some emergency medical care) HE HAS DONE NOTHING WRONG IN HIS LIFE. Can Xichen adopt him now?

Ah, the joys of the first viewing.

At this point, I was thinking of both Lan Xichen and Nie Mingjue exclusively as of father figures for Meng Yao. For LXC I think I slowly started to notice the romantic tension later but made a complete flip to the romantic interpretation only during the "late light talks... no sign of curse on his body" conversation. For NMJ it was during the head flashback. And as much as I like these pairings, it does feel like a loss that their existence displaces the very different pseudo-family dynamic. I think a story in which NMJ, LXC, WRH and JGS are all openly presented as competing father figures would be interesting; has anyone written that?

On rewatch, I was outraged by all of the blatant manipulation that I bought completely on the first viewing. MY is very good at playing a wounded bird -- especially when he's literally wounded. I had wondered why he just limped away without treating it, but now it's obvious he is using Stoic Suffering to invoke pity and admiration. Just like, a few minutes earlier, he showed NMJ that he was ready to be struck down, and it saved his life. He tells NHS with a sad but brave face “I won't be able to take care of you anymore” and on first viewing it worked on me just as he intended -- I thought “Poor boy, so trained to serve, he puts his duty to others above his own feelings even in this situation”. Ha...

And NMJ is only helping his case. He had the chance to explain everything and share the truth of MY's actions. And in the novel, he does take this chance, retelling the incident to Xichen (who chooses to turn a blind eye). Instead, NMJ basically confirms MY’s narrative: by hiding the reason for the exile, he makes it seem like there was no respectable reason at all. NMJ, all by himself, makes himself look like an irrational tyrant, and MY like a victim of an arbitrariness. And he does it in front of Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, no less -- an heir to a major clan and his brother! By trying not to discuss internal problems with outsiders, he achieves an opposite effect. Luckily for him, JC and WWX don't give a shit... But imagine how different the plot would be if they had this information from the start?

What I still don't understand is -- what was Meng Yao’s plan in this episode? Who was he working for? Who was his accomplice, whose feet we saw in the later flasback -- surely not Xue Yang himself, he’s supposed to be under arrest! Was he working with the Jin secretly already? (I don’t think so: in a later scene, JGS asks him about this incident, seemingly ignorant.) Or with the Wen (I don't remember -- did Xue Yang go back to the Wen afterwards)? Or just with Xue Yang directly, setting him completely free just on the promise of future cooperation? This seems most plausible -- but to risk and lose everything over such an uncertain gamble doesn’t make MY look very smart.

I have some other things to say about the events of this episode, but they’ll be in the post about the flashbacks in episode 41.

#the untamed #jin guangyao #lan xichen #nie mingjue #blah blah blah #jgyreliveblog #starting with a risky one likely to alienate most of potential readers

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