#this combines all my previous untamed masterposts

[canary3d-obsessed]

Master Post - The Untamed

All of my CQL original content! This consolidates & replaces my previous CQL masterposts. 

You MAY repost any gifs or images from ANY of my “Restless Rewatch” posts as long as you credit me (Canary3d) or my blog (@canary3d-obsessed) somewhere in your post or comment. For non-Restless Rewatch images, please ask me first. (If you’re using Tumblr’s weird gif feature there’s no need to ask because that embeds a credit and it’s impossible to tell if it came from a RR post or not). 

Restless Rewatch Gifs and Memes

part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 |part 6 (Jiang Cheng) |part 7 

Restless Rewatch Full Posts

Now also on AO3: Restless Rewatch: The Untamed by Canary3d

I’ve updated these links with gaps between the A and B parts, so hopefully they will work properly in the phone app, unlike before. If they’re still not working, please drop me a note, thanks!

Ep 41 (part one) and (part 2) and (part 3) (NEW)

Ep 40 (part one) and (part 2)

Ep 39 (part one) and (part 2) and (part 3) 

Ep 38 (A) and (B)

Ep 37 (A) and (B)

Ep 36 (A) and (B) 

Ep 35 (A) and (B) 

Ep 34 (A)

Ep 33 (A) and (B)

Ep 32 (A) and (B)

Ep 31 (A) and (B) 

Ep 30 (A) and (B) 

Ep 29 (A) and (B) 

Ep 28 (A) 

Ep27 (A) and (B)

Ep26 (A) and (B) 

Ep25 (A) and (B) 

Ep24 (A)  and (B) 

Ep23 (A) and (B) 

Ep22 (A) and (B) 

Ep21(A) and (B) 

Ep20 (A) and (B) and (C) 

Ep19 (A) and (B) 

Ep18: (A) and (B) 

Ep17 (A) and (B)  

Ep 16: (A) and (B)  

Ep15 (A)  

Ep14 (A) and (B)  

Ep13 (A) and (B) 

Ep12 (A) and (B) and EXTRAS 

Ep11 (A) and (B) 

Ep10 (A) and (B) 

Ep09 (A) and (B) 

Ep08 (A) and (B) 

Ep07 (A) and (B) 

Ep06 (A) and (B) 

Ep05 (A) and (B) 

Ep04 (A) and (B) 

Ep03 (A)  

Ep02 (A) 

Ep01 (A)

Restless Writing Prompts 

Clipper’s Guide to The Untamed

Mo Dao Zu Shi Adaptations Available in English

Parallels

I love digging into the many, many visual, stylistic, and thematic parallels in The Untamed.

A cave, a baby, a fever 

Wrist Holding: Parting & Reunion

The Blurry Sword of Doom 

Bichen at Wei Wuxian’s Throat 

The Honor of a Glance (more of a “see how time changes things” than a parallel, exactly) 

Troublemaker (ditto above) 

Letting Go

Arm Holding on Mount Yeet - Gif Overlay Challenge

Protective Lans

Putting Lan Zhan to Bed  

A Gentleman’s Revenge

Answer Me

When the Man Comes Around

I Am Leaving

You Touch It You Buy It

The Sky is Vast and the Earth is Wide

Pay It Forward

Wen Ning’s Boat Rides

(Here’s a cut so I don’t kill your dashboard)

Holding on/Letting go

Don’t Cry

Having a Spat, Yunmeng Style

Like Father, Like Son

Let Me Carry You

Never

Great Idea, Thanks Bro

Assorted Gifs & Memes & Stuff

Mood: Serious

Lan Wangji Watching Wei Wuxian, Episode 33

Wei Wuxian screaming with Xiao Zhan’s voice 

Rainy Argument 1 | 2 | 3 

Rainy

World’s Second-Worst Party Guest

Wei Wuxian is here to  make you feel better

Yu Ziyuan’s daughter

If you don’t trust me, how can you help me?

Do You Want Revenge?

Wei Wuxian Blindfolding Jiang Cheng

Contemplating the Future

Which unlucky family’s place did you take?

Hands, Episode 16

Zidian Beatdown

A Man Should Have Scars

Trauma Survivor Wei Wuxian

Mood: Neutral

Reciting the Lan rules at the Wen indoctrination

Question and Answer Time

Lan Zhan, do you like rabbits?

Right in Front of Lil Apple’s Apple Salad 

Jiang Cheng and his facial expressions 

Besties

Wei Wuxian wants you to know: you’re awesome

LWJ looking at WWX

I adore you//Fucking hell

Color Palette Challenge

Blindfolded

The many loves of Wei Wuxian

Significant Glances

Flute Fixing

Study Time in Yiling

Single Plank Bridge (Untamed/Yanxi Palace)

Soft Papa

WWX Jumps into Battle

Wen Siblings @ Burial Grounds

Flower Boys

Flower Boy Nie Huaisang

Fisherman Nie Huaisang

Kicking Your Ass: Teen Edition

Kicking Your Ass: Adult Edition

This Beautiful Hothead

Mood: Silly

The Adventures of Paperman 

New Problems Have Appeared 

Let’s have a cooking sequence but make it terrible 

That Twitter/Tumbler Meme but it’s CQL 

Reactions to Sisi’s Story, Ep 45 

Wangxian Communication

The Untamed as Dear Prudie Letters 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 

Curses, cockblocked again

The Tuber of Disappointment 

Wei Wuxian & Wen Kexing

Wen Qing and the Lan Nymphs

No Time for Necromancy

When the landlord says it’s ok to repaint

How did you express the pain (WOH spoiler!)

The Untamed as Psychology Today Articles

Voice Actor Wang Kai Yelling at Xiao Zhan

Half-Incorrect Subtitles

Wangxian Brothel AU 

Nie Mingjue Yells Merry Christmas

Wei Wuxian making out with his Lunch

Wei Wuxian x Unnecessarily Erotic Drinking

Nie Huaisang Reporting In

Strong Hanguang Jun

Jiang Cheng’s Purple Jammies

Wei Wuxian searches Xue Yang

Adolescent’s observation

Failmaster Lan Qiren

Oh No He Noticed

Super Regularly

Oh Crap! Act Normal!

Emergency Hairpieces

Acceptability Review Meeting Episode 45/46

Acceptability Review Meeting Episode 45

Fanvids

Drinking, Drinking, Drinking

Xue Yang/Dandy Highwayman

Fight Moves/You Spin Me

Wei Wuxian/Not an Addict

Fanfic

Fractured Spirit (Warning: EXPLICIT)

Other Stuff

Adoption meta

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed Episode 16 part one

(Masterpost of All the Recaps)  (Canary’s Pinboard)

Warning: Spoilers for All 50 Episodes

All righty, this one is going to be a laff riot...not. Let's do it.

The first half of this episode is like a beautifully executed standalone tragedy, while also threading together all sorts of themes and paying off all sorts of relationship building that's happened in the previous episodes. My hat is off to the writers, while I also shake a fist at them for making me cry an unreasonable amount.

We’re Sailing on a Strange Boat

The episode starts right off absolutely DESTROYING me with the Yunmeng brothers holding hands, fingers interlaced, in the first of many hand-touching moments that punctuate the episode.

Jiang Cheng has to be pretty far gone to accept this degree of comfort and tenderness. I think, from their positions, he is also holding Yanli's hand out of the camera's view. 

Zidian finally lets the trio go, and they immediately turn the boat around and head back to Lotus Pier. Wei Wuxian gets the clever idea to turn the benches into makeshift oars but nobody gets the clever idea to use magic to push the boat like they do literally every other time they are in a boat. 

Their emotional need to go back to Lotus Pier is understandable, but they are being disobedient and irresponsible by doing it. Jiang Cheng is the future of the clan, and should not risk his life, particularly after his mother chose to sacrifice herself to protect him and after both of his parents told him to go hide with his sister and personal bodyguard brother. 

On the other hand, Jiang Fengmian, as clan leader, probably had a duty to go into hiding himself rather than go home to die romantically, so his authority is questionable at this point. Anyway, this is the Jiang Clan, they get to kind of do what they want, except when that pisses Jiang Cheng off.

Lotus Pier Massacre

Back at Lotus Pier, the Wens are kicking Jiang ass. The fight choreography is pretty good, taking full advantage of walkways, railings, pools, and other features of the environment. 

Using the set this way always makes fights feel more kinetic and real, as opposed to simply sparring in an open area. 

(more after the cut)

Yu Ziyuan is fighting adequately with a sword, having given her preferred weapon to her son.  She's clearly been at it for a while, and is tiring; the Wen soldiers are starting to land more and more sword blows but no critical hits yet.

Wen Zhuliu is kicking ass and possibly melting cores, although we don't see him do it to anybody yet. Later we'll hear from Jiang Cheng that he crushed the cores of his parents, but it's not clear when that happens.

Sixth young master replays Jiang Fengmian's entire archery lesson in his head while he waits, and waits, for Wen Zhuliu to finish strangling a dude the right moment to shoot an arrow at Wen Zhuliu. 

Homicidal tart Wang Lingjiao notices him lining up a shot, strolls over, and stabs him in the back while he's still thinking about what Jiang Fengmian said. One could wish that JFM's archery lessons weren't quite so wordy. 

Wang Linjao normally doesn't carry a sword because of her low spiritual power, but apparently can use one just fine when she's killing kids.

If you start feeling like this episode is unreasonably painful, just think of it as building up calluses so you can handle Yi City when the time comes.

Jiang Fengmian to the Rescue

Jiang Fengmian shows up very far past the nick of time, although he is not actually useful, so it's questionable whether arriving earlier would have helped. But his wife is glad to see him.

Netflix subtitles say that Jiang Fengmian calls Yu Ziyuan "My Lady!" which sounds courtly and romantic in English. His actual words are "San Niangzi" which hunxi-gullai breaks out here.  I might render this as "lady wife!" rather than "my lady" but I don't think English really has a perfect equivalent.

Jiang Fengmian sails across the courtyard, knocking down a few Wen soldiers and becoming a young, slender man in the process.

I mean, come on, that stunt double does not look like a boxy middle-aged man from any angle.

The Dying Bit

The episode splits up the big death scene for dramatic effect but I'm recapping it all together to keep things simple.

Within moments of arriving, Jiang Fengmian gets shanked by Wen Zhuliu like Scatman Crothers in The Shining (or Groundskeeper Willie in The Shinning).

Wen Zhuliu stops a Wen soldier from finishing JFM off, just so that a different Wen soldier can deliver the killing blow from the back, which is kinda harsh. With all this spin-fighting there is probably not an implication of cowardice when someone dies from a stab in the back, but still. Too rude, Wen Zhuliu.

Yu Ziyuan sees Jiang Fengmian fall, and after having a moment of sorrow and despair, she stabs herself in the heart, falls down, crawls to him and interlaces her hand with his. He revives just enough to give her hand a squeeze and say "San Niangzi" one last time before dying. 

She dies next, with a smile on her face at the end. The soundtrack plays that amazing "horribly emotional death scene" music that isn't one of the tracks available on the OST, argh. This same music appears at the end of Xue Yang's story.  

Of the many things I love about the Untamed, the complexity of all the minor characters is possibly my favorite. These two people suck at parenting, and suck at being married, and ultimately suck at protecting and leading their clan, making stupid, selfish choices at every step of the building conflict. 

And then they have this incredibly romantic death scene, in which they both face the inevitability of failure, and find comfort in failing together. Yet their death scene is totally in keeping with who we know them to be, and who they are to each other; the drama doesn't cheat by making them ideal lovers or great people at the end. But they have a great, great moment.

Jiang Yanli, waiting in the woods while her brothers are presumably running toward Lotus Pier, drops her lotus pendant, which is made of the loudest jade ever discovered, and it breaks with a crash.  

Yanli, who is a well educated young lady, knows a moment of doomy symbolism when she sees it.

Jiang Yanli: Who put a giant rock out here in the woods? What are the odds I’d drop my pendant directly on it? 

It’s all Over Except for the Crying, Running and Choking

The brothers climb up on the roof and are shocked to see nothing but Wen soldiers and piled up Jiang corpses... 

...including one child who is either about to become a zombie or who is being played by a young actor who can't control their curiosity, judging by the way this eye is sneakily opened while the camera is running.

There's a moment where Jiang Cheng is saying they must have spared his parents, they must be okay, where Wei Wuxian's face is just...wow. You can see right here the gulf in life experience between these two. 

Wen Zhuliu roams around looking troubled while searching for more people to kill. He’s an interesting villain; someone who believes his loyalty to his boss makes him a good guy, but knows his boss is a bad guy. 

Then we are treated to a hell of a camera move, where it tracks over Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian together on the floor, heroic in death and still holding hands, and then sweeps up to show their killers sitting on the lotus throne. 

The dead couple were at odds for their whole lives together, while the evil people who killed them are acting like devoted lovebirds. It's a stunning shot and a terrific thematic contrast. When Wei Wuxian eventually comes to take his vengeance, he will spend some time turning Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao against each other, before ending them. 

The camera shows us JC's reaction, then shows his mother, then WWX’s reaction, then JF; each reacting to the death of the person who loved them. Some folks may feel that Jiang Fengmian actually did love Jiang Cheng but was just bad at showing it. But Jiang Cheng doesn't think so, and I don't think it's a given that parents love their children.

Side note: Macroexpression king Wang Zhuocheng is able to open his eyes so far that a giant strip of white shows above his irises, and keep them like that, which is quite a trick. Try it yourself.

Meanwhile Wang Lingjiao and Wen Chao gossip about YZY and JFM's bad marriage. Wen Chao admires YZY's beauty, and Wang Lingjiao insults her character, and announces that she's going to stab YZY's body a few extra times. Jiang Cheng briefly faints at this, taking a page from Wei Wuxian's book, and rolls off the roof. 

Run Run Away

Both young men run, and run, and run away from Lotus Pier while Wen Chao and Wang Lingjiao mistreat the bodies of Jiang Fengmian and Yu Ziyuan 

The stabbing happens off camera, because it's ok to stab a live child on camera, but not a dead adult. (As always, there are cultural reasons for "what's ok" in any country, and I'm not saying anybody's wrong about these choices). 

Wen Chao follows this up with pouring a cup of wine across their faces. He does this in the style of a libation for the dead, but as a desecration, combining mistreatment of bodies with profaning a ceremonial rite. In a world where ghosts are real and have sharp fingernails, this is deeply, deeply stupid.

Yu Ziyuan’s actress Zhang Jingtong is able to have liquid poured INTO HER EAR without flinching. Mad props.

The brothers eventually finish running and arrive in a field with an extreme purple photo filter on it. Which I've done my best to remove for these gifs, with variable results. 

Jiang Cheng wants to turn around and go back to Lotus Pier. He says he wants to retrieve his parents’ bodies and to take revenge, but he's devastated and it seems likely he just wants to die with everyone else.  

Wei Wuxian pleads with Jiang Cheng to calm down and stay safe, while Jiang Cheng gives himself over to anger and shock as the brothers shout at each other.

Punching and running ensues, and Wei Wuxian tries to hold his brother back, grabbing him around the shoulders him in a gesture that painfully echoes the many hugs he's given over the years. 

This time Jiang Cheng doesn't just push him off. He turns around and chokes his brother for nearly a full minute, while screaming at him and blaming him. 

Just as when Madame Yu beat him, Wei Wuxian doesn't fight back; he pulls on Jiang Cheng's wrists but doesn't hit him or try to break his hold.

Finally Jiang Cheng lets him go, and cries out for everyone he's lost, while Wei Wuxian weeps silently next to him. Eventually they fall asleep in the grass together, their bodies curled up in the form of a heart. 

Damn, this episode really brings it.

Side Note: during their argument, Wei Wuxian says, among other things, that "revenge is a dish best served cold," according to subtitles. It's a French saying from the 1800s so it's probably not precisely what Wei Wuxian is saying. More importantly, as a longtime Star Trek fan I can't help but hear James Kirk yelling "KHAN!!!!!" whenever I encounter that phrase.

There’s Got To Be A Morning After

When they wake up in the morning, Jiang Cheng is still in his feelings, but now his feelings have moved along to despair, from anger.

I feel bad for noticing how handsome they both look in this scene. Let's all feel bad about this together.

Jiang Cheng is free to have this level of emotional breakdown because Wei Wuxian is there keeping his own shit together and focusing on what matters.

When Jiang Cheng refuses to get up, Wei Wuxian reminds him, very, very gently, that they have a sister, who has waited all night to know what happened.

At this, Jiang Cheng gets up, but won't look at Wei Wuxian, continuing to blame him for everybody else's actions, as he walks onward to find Yanli.

Wei Wuxian follows, hurt and bereft, as he gets to work internalizing everything that he's being accused of. This is good practice for his future as a widely reviled bogeyman.

Part two will be slightly less awful! Coming soon!