#wen kexing from woh

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

an angle that i think is underexplored with wkx is that he is very unpleasant to be around for the first third of the show because he is a fake, self-righteous gossipper. he talks shit about people behind their back with an insufferable, righteous air. he avoids vulnerability and lifts his voice to make clear he holds the monopol on being morally correct. ive seen him put into queen bee and mean girl clique leader roles but i think rather than this, he is much less self-contained and less self-aware as he is convinced he is. in media, the queen bee or the leader of a mean girl clique is calculatated, whip smart, self aware, and unapogoletic about it. she doesnt want to change, she likes what shes doing. she knows shes mean; she enjoys it. wkx thinks he is the underdog, but he has too much power to be the underdog anymore. hes like a white feminist girlboss thinking he is being oppressed when in actuality, he is on his best way to becoming what he seeks to call out. in our witch hunt purity culture public humiliation perfomative activism era, this is incredibly on the point

[warandpussy]

👁

[lofe-arts]

New Fandom, Who Dis?

So recently, enabled encouraged by the MDZS Meltdown Renegade peeps I was convinced to was Word of Honor (AND DID IT IN A VERY REASONABLE FIVE[maybe 6?] DAYS RHI) and obviously became immediately obsessed with Xie Wang.

You can fit so much fucked up relationships in this badboy. Had to stop in the middle of an episode to draw this. Did a whole new style i've never even tried before, as you do. Lots of fun 100% recommend both FAFO in drawing your blorbos and also watching Word of Honor.

They all need so, so much therapy and I do not want them to have it.

-

Buy it on Redbubble

[birbfeeder2artisticboogaloo]

repost of my old drawing that i fixed up a tiny bit!! zzs's forehead was bothering me a lot, not sure i've totally fixed it, but it does look a bit better i think!!!

[mount-everwhite]

Silly Love Songs - Wen Kexing & Zhou Zishu | Word of Honor (by Crying Raven)

[luckydragon10]

It's BACK! :D Happy Valentine's Day yet again!

HanWenZhou Valentines!

It's not too late for a few more fandom Valentines cards... special hanwenzhou edition. 😍

These Valentines cards were a team effort:

@antique-forvalaka - art creator

@fractured-ice - moral support and essential keeper-awaker

@luckydragon10 - writer

[whumpfish]

So, I have been in a very long, very hot shower because I hurt like a bitch, and I think I have narrowed down the basis of my major whump pet peeve, and I'm going to be using my pet fav series Word of Honor to do it.

You cannot survive sustained/chronic/severe pain if you don't develop a relationship with it. The first couple episodes of Word of Honor aren't about Zhou Zishu x Wen Kexing, they're about Zhou Zishu x Zhou Zishu's pain/condition. And that latter relationship continues to evolve and stay at the forefront on a parallel path to the development of the former.

He saddles himself with this thing as penance, because when he makes that decision, he believes that being crippled is "a fate worse than death." And then he goes on living, and discovers that life goes on, so he makes an increasingly-less-guarded peace with it. So when he meets Wen Kexing and Gu Xiang, he's doing his own thing, enjoying the good parts of what remains of his life even though his condition remains at the forefront, and will for the rest of the series. He's integrated it into his life to such an extent that Gu Xiang readily dubs him "Sick Man."*

That's what gets my goat every time: whumpees that aren't allowed to develop a relationship with their pain and are instead thrust into relationships with "caretakers" who don't do much more than provide warm blankets and snuggles and therapy-approved conversation on demand, and be "heartbroken" over how broken and pathetic the whumpee is in their eyes. Because the reality is that the relationship with pain has to be established before any other relationships can go anywhere.

Pain/illness kills relationships. People leave. They just do. It becomes too much of a bother to make changes to their own lives, and they jet.** And it's just you and your pain/condition until you can find the few truly good people who will give you love and reasonable help. You have to develop a relationship with it. It's your new roommate for the rest of your life.

You and your pain are going to be in the wars. You're going to get mad and scream and throw things at it. You're going to resent it for being the only one who's there with you every day. You're going to think about all the shit you can't do anymore, and you'll be frustrated to tears.

But eventually - if you're allowed - you make peace. You stop hating your roommate for holding you back from parties, you just find someone who can drive you home, or stay in with you. You'll find other people who have the same kind of roommate, and then you'll all get along.

And if you are very, very, galactically, fictionally lucky, you find a partner who will help you stand your ground against life and what your roommate pain has made of it. This is what happens in Word of Honor.

Wen Kexing is by no stretch Zhou Zishu's perma-caretaker, or "Caretaker" in the sense that plagues new wave whump. But he cares, and offers what help he can, when he can, without hovering and without kid gloves. He looks for a cure earnestly but without coddling or pitying Zhou Zishu for being a Sick Man. It's a more honest and realistic portrayal of someone ill/disabled and someone not who loves them than I've seen anywhere else.

My relationship with my pain is ongoing and continues to evolve. It takes things from me, but it gives me things, too. My love of whump, the Pain Genre, is one of those things. Whenever my pain spikes like this, my tolerance for fluff in the whump zone plummets, so just know that whenever you get ornery meta from me, my pain and I are sitting around having wine (gingerbeer, can't have wine with the new meds, thanks a lot pain) and bitching.

The reason there's no good chronic pain rep outside of WOH is that characters are not being allowed to develop relationships with their pain, and are only allowed to have relationships with other things and people, and those relationships are inevitably trainwrecks, or insultingly unrealistic and saccharine, because an entire segment of the character's life and personality and identity is being masked or exploited instead of embraced. So let your whumpee have a relationship with their pain/conditions/traumas. Chronic pain/illness havers the world over will thank you.

[minsarasarahair]

Whenever people are allergic to see a mild/morally good version of the original complex morally questionable character from Danmei, I'm like "If its too vanilla or not too evil for you, blame the adaption? Not people who like it?"

They are fine with The Untamed's Wei Wuxian erasing his flaws from the novel? But when it comes to Jiang Cheng, Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu. They are not even downright evil. Just morally questionable. No, I'm not excusing their actions especially Qi Ye's Zhou Zishu. I just find it weird why they refused to acknowledge the character's soft side that actually existed in original material? I'm too jaded to expect perfect faithful cdrama adaption so I'm good as long as they get what I care about the character. To Jiang Cheng, his connection with Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling are still a big deal in The Untamed that's why I still like it. I don't really care if he's softer than the original. I don't like his new connection with Wen Qing though because guy is too aroace for me. To Wen Kexing; his hatred, his ghost valley's crimes and affection for Zhou Zishu are still there even if he gone back to the right track when he avenge his parents, reduced to shidi role and I hate his miscommunication. To Zhou Zishu; his Tian Chuang's crimes and his love for Jiuxiao are still present in Word of Honor even if its toned down. Sure, he's softer but he's still masculine in his own way. I especially like his Hobo Axu because the Tian Ya Ke ZZS is strong in that one. I'm not fond of immortal ending and WOH Zhou Zishu's naiveness toward Wen Kexing tho. They are all imperfect portrayal of my favorite characters but I still like them.

What matters to me is I can still see the fragments or small similarities that I like from their original self despite the drastic changes. I just treat it like I'm watching Disney's adaption of Grimms' Fairytales. You Yao's Lou Zhu is also like that. A morally questionable character in the novel but became a hero figure in donghua adaption. Actually everyone in You Yao novel are antiheroes, not only him lol The donghua team understand his deep connection with Zuo Yunqi so they even made sure they are reunited in the ending that's why I forgave them with the changes. Ghibli's adaption of Howl's Moving Castle is also a good example and I still like it. Tbh there's no perfect adaption and sometimes it just depends if I vibe with them or nah. Simple as that.

[variouspolltournaments]

Propaganda

Zhou Zishu: Ok so his villainy is kinda downplayed in Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers (especially in WoH) cause like the whole point is that he wants to retire from being a villain but like I think he still fits here. Like ok episode 1 opening scenes are him leading an attack to wipe out a whole household of an official for opposing the crown prince, being told that he's on the evil side, him going to the official's daughter and telling her she needs to commit suicide, having the last remaining member of his martial sect request a torturous 3 year execution that he invented basically because he can no longer serve under him, and then the reveal that he also picked the 3 year torture execution thing in order to quit and also because he thinks he deserves it. This is like the first half of episode 1 in the show where they downplay some of his more evil stuff!

In like episode 10, we also get a flashback scene that confirms he killed children in service of his goals, but also like his main regret/thing he has the most guilt over is that he lead all of his martial brothers to their deaths by bringing them along with him. He only felt bad about killing Princess Jing An cause she had been Jiuxiao's lover, not cause like he falsely accused her father of treason for not going along with what he was doing. When he does good stuff, he says he's trying to take a couple years off of his punishment in the afterlife. The only reason he's not actively hated by the martial arts world when he returns is cause they don't know he was the leader of Window of Heaven. He meets Wen Kexing, the Ghost Valley Master, who is considered one of the worst evils of their era and is like "yeah we're soulmates I guess." When Xie Wang sees the two of them together he says "why are those two devils together." He's invented some of the cruelest torture techniques of their time too

Again, I'm just pulling these from the show where they tried to make him a better person!!!! That's not even touching on the stuff in Qi Ye, where they show more of him from before he quit. He doesn't get redeemed, he just retires

Zuko: He’s a villain. His goal for most of the series is to catch the only survivor of a genocide to be allowed back into his old position as a prince. In pursuit of this, he threatens an innocent old woman, burns down a village, steals a healer’s horse, etc.

He’s a protagonist. His story, from horrible backstory to his other obstacles and even his emotional journey are all portrayed throughout the series. He eventually learns that his family are evil and goes against them to join the team of heroes.

Also, this is Zuko. You guys know Zuko.

[sirenofthegreenbanks]

thinking about how the department of the unfaithful is likely a thematic parallel, almost a foil, to wkx. and im not even talking about luo fumeng or liu qianqiao, im thinking of the many women working there, those that have notably no martial arts or power of their own, who are somehow part of the valley and take care of "women's work", the servants, the invisible threads that keep the machinery running. the machinery being wkx's era of ghost valley; still violent and hostile, but notably more inhabitable, with a clear direction of right and wrong.

alright, im going on a tangent, but what i mean is: everytime wkx has personally to do with these women, he is confronted with their "uselessness", their institutional weakness. they dont have any worth beyond the small acts of service they can provide; they dont have money of their own, they are not established in any way in the jianghu, they dont carry titles or achievements to their names, they are rarely portrayed as anything but unfortunate victims of their circumstances. his reflex reaction is always to send them away--out the valley, back to the human world. and he is puzzled and carefully apathetic when they remind him that they dont have anywhere to go but the valley.

im assuming that he has a hard time understanding this; hes not stupid and hes not unsympathetic to the systemic and institutional struggle women face, so im guessing he very carefully does not think about this too hard, to avoid finding parallels to his own experience. these women are prey as he used to be prey, but he is strong and established and has his martial arts now, he doesnt want anything but jump back into the human world--trying very hard not to think about what he fears is true: that there is no place for a ghost like him, and what the life h envisions with zzs is all but an illusion.

the women of the department of the unfaithful reminding him that even as weak, adorable, pretty, and as far removed from the state of ghost as they are, they are still finding it hard to edge out a life anywhere but in ghost valley and let everything remain exactly as it is, i mean, that must be difficult for him. i feel like a big part of wkx has internalized victim blaming, or that he is terrified of the invitable nature of these women's fates.

i mean, he so often looks back at the times when everything was still good and well, before he went to the valley, and im wondering if he is not thinking that he deserved what he got, and that there was nothing he could have done. he has suppressed the memory of how exactly the murder of his parents comes to pass, and he later reasons that he is the one to blame for it, because he was the one who lead the wolf into the sheep's den. so he might think, even as innocent and blameless as he was as a child, maybe it was inevitable for him to be and stay and die a ghost

[hiemaldesirae]

Food for thought: everyone makes human Vox tall....but what if the dude was short? Like, 5'5 or 5'4? And Alastor was 6'2? And if the two were changed back into their human forms (but still had their demon powers) Vox is just...short. yes, he's beautiful, with his mismatched eyes and a streak of pure white hair (that he used to dye red in the human world) amongst his dark navy hair, but he's short. He doesn't even have any brawn to level the playing field--he's scrawny as well. Alastor finds it delightful. Finds his muse delightful--and beautiful, but he always knew Vox was beautiful as a human. Why wouldn't he be?

YOURE SO RIGHT NONNY (extremely loud correct gameshow sound effect playing)

i always thought of human vox as having like, a generally tall but very lithe sort of figure, sort of like stolas from hb. maybe not 6'2" tall but 5'10 or so? but hes so thin that he's got a thigh gap in human form too :') i imagine he would have to have some muscles, but like the lean kind that you develop as an actor because you dont want the whole bulging vein kind but the kind that lets you do weird stunts instead of having to sub in doubles. still the appeal of a small vox is so appealing to me.... AUWGDHAJ

that last sentence reminded me so much of my beloved wenzhou btw (woh/faraway wanderers). just every time that wen kexing gives a backhanded compliment about zhou zishu with something like 'oh, he must be beautiful under [the ugly skin mask he's wearing to disguise himself as a peasant]! only a beautiful person would do something so stupid :)' and thats how i imagine alastor acts with vox. like 'oh he must have been gorgeous in life, only a beautiful person would act so fucking stupid and think they can get away with it'. and hes fucking right

[misspermitted]

My fav memes from WOH pt 4 (this one is small, I’m procrastinating)

The duality of Wen Kexing

I could write for ages about Wen Kexing’s costuming but it comes down to absolutely SERVING

He would, he does

Some fun novel content!! I gotta read more of it tbh but from what I can tell, also gay

Zishu literally the entire first meeting: wow he’s… NOT ATTRACTIVE AND IM JUST A LITTLE BEGGAR don’t pay attention to me! (Looks again out of the corner of his eye) Jesus Christ I’m so so gay

[pastelcheckereddreams]

Four Seasons Manor (四季山庄): Set Layout!

If you’ve been following my descent into madness my research progress for my next set design project, you’ll know that it immediately became impossible for me to work out the layout of Siji Manor from screenshot studies of the show alone. To backtrack to about a year ago: it quickly became clear that the exterior shots of the manor’s first courtyard and the birdseye view we see in episode 24 is not located in the same set, or possibly even film base, as the “interior set”. Unfortunately, that secondary set is where many of the indoor scenes take place (with significant rooms, such as Wen Kexing’s bedroom being redressed to be used for other scenes in the show), and is where the secondary courtyard is located.  I soon realised that I had to do three things in order to create a Four Seasons Manor for my project that feels as authentic as possible to the one we are presented with in the show. First, find the full film base on Google Earth (which has the most up-to-date satalite imagery I can find); second, identify all the buildings to create a “complete” Manor and confirm the secondary set isn’t just another part of the first; and third, find the secondary set in order to correctly map its layout and marry it with the birdseye view. Friends, I have achieved two of those three things. The second set still evades me. But so far, I have finally managed to correctly and completely identify the film base that is presented to us as Four Seasons Manor:

Full research breakdown under the cut. Find part two and three linked below, and please consider supporting my research and art projects through kofi or INPRNT 🙏✨

Part One | Part Two | Part Three

project list | kofi | prints

This is one of two full manor sets on Hengdian World Studio’s No.1 Mountain in the ‘Spring and Autumn Tang Park’ filmbase. In anticipation for the birdseye plan in my set design project, I’ve gone ahead and mapped it out faithfully to the satalite image:

As you can see, there's five distinct areas that make up this manor: three courtyards (labelled 1,2,4) and two gardens (3,5). The first courtyard will be familiar to everyone who has watched Word of Honor:

It is the main courtyard of Four Seasons Manor. Likewise, the fifth area will also be familiar to you all, although you may not realise it yet. It's Sanbai Manor:*

*With the exception of the main gate. The main gate of Sanbai Manor is actually from another set in the Spring and Autumn Park filmbase - the Tang Palace. There is fantastic drone footage of that set here. The Sanbai Manor gate is at the rear of the set, but you may recognise the opening shot of this clip as another place we see in the very first episode of WOH 🤫 Edit: I forgot I had a second douyin clip for the Tang Palace set.

These are the main two areas used in WOH of this set. Confirmation of the rest of the set comes from drama New Life Begins and various douyin videos and tourist photos on the internet. I won't bore you with a breakdown because Tumblr has eaten too many drafts of this post and I am Tired, but here is a snapshot of my confirmation process:

Find the difference between these two pictures

Edit: On rewatch, I can confirm that are 4 is also used in WOH. We see it in the very first scene of episode 1, dressed as the Military Governer Li’s Manor:

Here is a daylight photograph (source here) of that same building:

You may be wondering though, about the alternate layout I have detailed in my map:

Friends, this is where I would like to hear your ideas.

After scouring many clips and photographs trying to confirm whether these photos are part of this same set or a later development, I've found that since the satalite picture of this site was taken by Google Earth in 2020, corresponding to what we see in WOH, Hengdian has remodeled this part of the set. You can see a wonderful walkthrough of areas 4 and 5 here, in which you can see the remodelled layout:

This douyin video was the last confirmation I needed to place the photographs from the article. This photograph in particular feels very much like Siji Manor to me, and so I will be trying to include this remodelled layout in my project design:

But.

Despite not having located the secondary set yet, I have been thinking over which area would be best to remodel myself, to try and incoporate the kitchen space and the two rooms it sits between, which I have confirmed to be WKX and ZZS's rooms:

Reminder of that early process here.

There are two options that I see right now:

1) I use area 4 as this second courtyard. I remove the gate, make the main room ZZS's room, remove the side halls, drop in a kitchen, put WKX's room where the gate was. Chengling's training dummies then get dropped whereabouts the hexagonal pavillion is in the alternate layout, and I tweak a random building here or there:

However, somewhat crucially - the view from WKX's moon widow would be blocked by the big building that is the centerpiece of area 5. I don't like that. Past the first courtyard, there's a certain sprawl and lack of uniformity to Siji Manor created in part by this CGI shot. I think that's why the above photo appealed so much to me.

So, 2) I remodel area 3. It's pretty sparse. I was thinking of making courtyard #2's main hall into a private study or meeting room, with the sidehalls being ZZS's "medicine room" and the "first night room" - the Cold River Room, as @minnarr​ called it in their stellar sleuthing post (I hope you don't mind that I'm using the name? And may continue to use it? Also, I'm still searching for this set and your sleuthing is going to be so much help.) - they could later become Chengling's room (and Han Ying's. For hanwenzhou headcanon rights).

Area 4 could then be used as a training courtyard and lecture hall perhaps? Meanwhile area 3 can be completely redone, to have ZZS's room at the bottom facing north, WKX's facing south:

The "training area" is then still technically past a covered walkway to the left of their courtyard. The spirit remains. However, crucially: The dotted line between areas 3 and 4 is indicative of a drop in elevation. The whole set is on a slope, with areas 1,2 and 3 at a higher elevation to 4 and 5. So. If the moon window in WKX's room did face west across the garden and down the mountain, it would actually be true to the CGI we see out of his window in the show: Especially because you see part of a roof. That could totally be the roof of the building that sits against the dotted line.

But additionally, there's also this alternate orientation:

It makes the kitchen feel more tucked away, and the additional screened walkway would give ZZS and WKX their privacy. But the view from the moon window would be blocked, and there's no reason to not have the rooms central to the courtyard the way they are here.

...Does any of that make sense? I bypassed Normal about this show a solid year ago. I'm leaning towards option 2 right now, but I will continue my hunt through cdrama for this other set. What's irritating is that I can see its style in lots of other places, including Lotus Pier, and I just can't find the real world setting for it...

ANYWAY, as always, thank you for joining me on my research adventures -supporting me through ko-fi, and checking out my previous CQL projects here and on inprnt, would be greatly appreciated.

Find part two and three linked below, and please consider supporting my research and art projects through kofi or INPRNT 🙏✨

Part One | Part Two | Part Three project list | kofi | prints

[xiao-chuhe]

Please note that Mei Changsu is automatically excluded from this poll by virtue of him being able to blow every single one of them out of the water with his scheming :')

[bl-bracket]

#1 Himbo Loser's Bracket Round 1: Gu Xiang (Word of Honor) vs Mork (My Ride)

[Submitted Reasons Under Cut]

Gu Xiang: "HEAR ME OUT! She is strong and a capable fighter and is always ready to kick some ass. However she is also quite naive in certain things and doesn’t understand much outside of like fighting and whatever else Wen Kexing tried to teach her. Like she is definitely the muscle of the group, not the brains (though if we’re being honest none of the kids in woh are the brains). Despite being quite brash to the point of coming across as rude, she’s also quite kind and definitely loves the people she cares about so fiercely that like you can forget that she’s been subjected to the horrors since she was small."

Mork: "Baby boy just wants to love and be loved. Dropped everything to get his girlfriend through college only for that to go wrong. That didn’t stop born green flag Mork from devoting himself to someone new again though. The kid is a human Labrador who deserves the world."

[gawin]

Hi MJ! I hope you're doing well! I'm rewatching some of my fave eps of WOH so naturally I thought about you! And I was thinking maybe Zishu calls Kexing 'Lao Wen' because Kexing talks like an old man. You know in book quotes and riddles and rhymes. I feel like we talked about this but I don't remember...

hi eboni!!! i’m doing well! hope you are too!!

ohhh you’re rewatching woh and thought of me??? 🥺🥺🥺 that’s an honor! thank you so much!!! ❤️💙

omg yeah, i think we’ve talked about this before but it’s always a good time to talk about it again akdkkskdks

but basically i do agree with you! it definitely started as teasing because wkx talks like an ancient person. and he also behaves like one most of the time because of how fast he had to grow up in the ghost valley and raising gu xiang all by himself. he’s got that Single Dad™️ vibe to him

it’s only when he’s with zzs that he allows himself to be more playful because zzs brings out that childlike joy from when they first met as kids. wkx wishes to be that person again but his speech pattern and years in hell still give him away 😭😭😭