#cql nhs is at least a little worried about nmj all the time it's so endearing

[br-disaster]

Nie Mingjue: *is a little unsteady on his feet*

Nie Huaisang, immediately: 🏃🏃

[jaimebluesq]

Fandom Trumps Hate - MDZS/The Untamed, Nie Huaisang lovers' edition

This year I (and several other familiar fans!) decided to participate in @fandomtrumpshate - and omg there are 100 fics in the MDZS/The Untamed fandom! If each participant gets at least a $5 donation, then that's $500 dollars our fandom is giving to various charities! These days we're all feeling a little scared and worried, and it's the perfect time to dust ourselves off and put some good out into the world.

Since there are so many offerings, I'm going to tailor a list around my favourite character, and the one me and most of my mutuals will have in common: Nie Huaisang. (Am only including offerings specifically mentioning NHS and/or his ships as principal in the offering, rather than secondary or in the background). All participant names will link to the official offer on Dreamwidths which will have much more information about what they will and won't write.

JaimeBlue - fan fiction (new), remix of an existing fanwork "1 - ANY Nie Huaisang relationship/pairing (whether romantic or platonic, M/M or M/F or M/NB, including poly ships of various dynamics) - my preference is for NHS to be of his canon gender identity, but am open to other characters being trans or NB --- 2 - Yu Ziyuan (Gen or shippy - romantic ships with Madame Jin, Zhao/Wen Zhuliu, Meng Shi, Wen Ruohan, original characters, possibly open to others but best to ask first) --- 3 - Jin Zixun (what can I say, I've adopted the knock-off peacock as my trash son - if you have a weird idea with him, check with me first to see if it would be up my alley, but I'll likely be interested in giving it a go!)"

roseclaw - fan fiction (new) "For MDZS, I prefer to focus on sangcheng, either romantic or platonic, Nie bros, romantic or platonic, mingcheng romantic or platonic, xuanli romantic or platonic. I am also open to poly options regarding these pairings."

Queen_of_Moons67 - fan fiction (new) "My main blorbos are NHS and JC, but don’t feel obligated to request them both. In the past, I’ve focused on NHS & NMJ, NHS & the Nie disciples, and JC & WWX. I’m also open to JC/LWJ and to exploring the Junior quartet’s relationship with the older generation."

Pijulle - fan fiction (new) "Siblings dynamic (especially if fluffy/protective) (Laurent and Auguste, Will and the Kent sisters (or just the two girls), Violet and Tom, Lan Zhan and Lan Xichen, Nie Bros, the Jiang siblings and Wei Ying, Jin Zixuan and Jin Guangyao) Ships: Lamen, Lauguste, other problematic stuff; Wames, Sarcean/Anharion, Violet/Cyprian, Violet&Will; Wangxian, Zhangcheng, Jin Zixuan/Jiang Yanli Wangxian/Wen Ning, Zhangning, 3zun, CanonxOC, platonic pairing involving the juniors and their mentor"

The Hourglass Muse - fan fiction (new) "For MDZS, I am most interested in writing fics involving Jin Guangyao, Xue Yang, Mo Xuanyu, and/or Nie Huaisang including any combination of them, or involving sxx, or 3zun. I'm also willing to write Wangxian, or Niecest. I LOVE writing rare pairs- especially if it involves one of those four as part of the ship.

Alwritey87 - fan fiction (new) "Characters preferred pov Jiang cheng Lan Wangji Wei wuxian Jiang Yanli Zin zixian Jin Ling Lan sizhui Nie huaisang Lan qiren. Happy to work on any relationships below! Wangxian Yunmeng siblings Nie bros Jin ling & Jiang Cheng Twin Jades Lan Wangji & lan sizhui Xuanli"

Nary - fan fiction (new) "MXTX: Hualian, Beefleaf, Fengqing, 3 Tumors, 3zun (or subcombinations of any two), Wangxian, Wangxian + someone else, Niecest, anything with Jiang Cheng, Wen Ning, or Nie Huaisang, Bingqiu, Moshang"

JaggedEdges - fan fiction (new) "For MDZS/CQL, I specialize in Nie Huaisang/Nie Mingjue, but I am also very fond of Lan Xichen/Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen/Lan Wangji, Jiang Cheng/Jin Ling, Wen Chao/Wen Xu, and Jiang Yanli/Yu Ziyuan. I'll happily do platonic for the Nie brothers as well."

swordsmithofgondolin - fan fiction (new), fan poetry "MDZS - I like Wangxian, the relationship between Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, A-Yuan, and the other folks of the burial mounds, and the relationship between Nie Huaisang and Nie Mingjue. Also Mo Xuanyu."

chadsuke - fan fiction (new), remix of existing fanwork "MDZS: I'm willing to write any characters. However, for pairings, I'm willing to write any pairing combinations of following characters, including as-many-as-you-want polyamory, as long as it's not incest or Lan Wangji/Jiang Siblings: Lan Wangji, Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng, Jiang Yanli, Qin Su, Jin Zixuan, Nie Huaisang, Wen Ning, Xiao Xingchen, Song Lan, and Mianmian. I am also willing to write Wen Qing in ships with women in the previous category. I'm also willing to write Nie Mingjue/Lan Xichen, Su She/Jin Guangayo, and Mo Xuanyu/Xue Yang. Ouyang Zizhen and A-Qing can be shipped with each other, or with the following characters, but no polyamory between the following: Jin Ling, Lan Sizhui, and Lan Jingyi."

MissAnonymoushp - fan fiction (new) "Main/focus pairings: Fengqing with Top FX/Bottom MQ (TGCF), Hualian with Top HC/Bottom XL (TGCF), Quanyin with Top QYZ/Bottom YY (TGCF), Sangcheng with Top JC/Bottom NHS (MDZS). I also ship Beefleaf (TGCF) and Wangxian (MDZS), though those will almost always be side ships and not the main focus. Outside of ships, the platonic relationships I like to focus on are: Xianle trio, Hua Cheng & He Xuan, Hua Cheng & He Xuan & Yin Yu, Jiang Cheng & Wei Wuxian, Wei Wuxian & Nie Huaisang. I'd even enjoy the chance to force Hua Cheng to get along with Fengqing."

ImpureLily - PodFic "I prefer these pairings but I'm willing to do most if not all ships but please no sibling and no Adam ships. Katara/Aang, Sokka/Zuko | Lan Wangji/Wei Wuxian, Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen, Jiang, Cheng/Nie Huaisang, Jin Ling/Lan Sizhui also anything featuring the juniors is always golden in my eyes | with svsss pretty much everything goes ship wise | Langa/Reki, Joe/Cherry"

clipper782 - fan fiction (new) "MDZS: I'm a JGY stan, SuYao followed by NieYao and SangYao; outside of JGY, Chengxian, Chengqing, Chengning, NingSu, QingSu, Su She/Jin Zixun, Su She/Lan Wangji, Su She/Lan Sizhui."

Rifle - fan fiction (new), meta/analysis, other written fanwork "For CQL/The Untamed: My favorite characters to write about are Wei Wuxian, Wen Qing, Wen Ning, Wen Yuan, Jiang Yanli, Jiang Cheng, and Nie Huaisang. I will only write gen or Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji fics. I am comfortable with adding side pairings or previous romantic/sexual histories for the main pairing. Please be advised that characterizations in my fic will be based exclusively on CQL/The Untamed."

piyo13 - fan fiction (new) "For MDZS/CQL, I am similarly a known Jiang Cheng fan, with xicheng (Jiang Cheng/Lan Xichen) and sangcheng (Jiang Cheng/Nie Huaisang) being my two most common ships, though I also am extremely fond of nielan (Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue). I'm open to writing most Jiang Cheng ships (e.g. mingcheng, chengyao, chengqing…; but see DNWs for some important exceptions), as well as to attempting other characters/genfic."

irrationalpie - Other Digital Fanwork "MDZS/Untamed --- Characters I'm most interested in: Yunmeng siblings (including Wei Wuxian), Gusu siblings, Nie siblings, Jin siblings (mostly Meng Yao or Mo Xuanyu), or Wen siblings (Wen Qing and Wen Ning) --- Relationships I'm most interested in: Platonically, pretty much any sibling relationship, including sworn siblings or found family. Romantically…as long as you're drawing from this set of characters, you can probably talk me into it!"

adarksweetness - fan fiction (new), remix of an existing fanwork "Prefer to write anything focused on Jiang Cheng(MDZS), sangcheng, chengxian, zhanchengxian; female characters; polycules; WWX/JC/JYL, Jiang Cheng/Liu Qingge; other crossovers with SVSSS"

Finch - fan art "preferred from MXTX: BingQiu, BingLiuShen, LiuShen, BingLiu, MingLing, MingLingYing, WangXian, ChengXian, SangCheng, FengQing, BeefLeaf"

sunshine304 - fan fiction (new) "My main ship is WangXian and it’s what I usually focus on in my writing and prefer to write. I have also written some ChengQing, and like XiYao/3zun though I’d currently prefer those to be side-pairings at most. --- Besides Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji I especially love the Yunmeng siblings, Wen siblings, Nie Huaisang, the Juniors, Luo Qingyang."

[xiyao-feels]

Finally got around to writing down some thoughts on the differences between Empathy and the original—per scene and then a general reflection.

Episode 10

(episode 10 differences)

Going through this chronologically, our first comparison is the captain encounter. Honestly I think NMJ was straight-up inventing most of this—even aside from the sheer absurdity of MY, what, smuggling XY out of prison, bringing him into the middle of everything (he runs into the Captain and friend AND WWX!), XY…just going back into prison…well, anyway, putting all that aside—the Captain's questions here seem like NMJ's preoccupations, not the Captain's. The Captain is hugely contemptuous of MY, but he's not, like, obsessed with his innermost heart, you know? "You're lying! I just saw that. You were talking. Tell me honestly. What's your ulterior motive?"—that's NMJ, not the Captain at all. Plus there's the way the Captain grabs MY basically the exact same way NMJ does. 

Next up there's MY telling NHS he's going to go check on XY—minor phrasing differences aside, one thing that's interesting is we don't get all of MY's reaction/decision before he tells NHS in Empathy, just the tail end:

Ahhhh, now, the bit where NMJ sees MY stab the captain! You can see here the beginning of a pattern of Empathy erasing the Wen. MY throwing himself in front of the blade to save NMJ is removed, of course, but so is NMJ fighting WZL, as he was before going to the prison in episode 10; in the Empathy he's just kind of standing there. And then sees MY, uh, creepily pick up a sword??? And follows him??? Instead of hearing that XY's escaped and running to the prison because of that, which is of course what happened in episode 10. (So XY is erased some in this scene, too; even when it comes to MY's excuses, he says It wasn't me, but we don't get to 'Xue Yang killed him', as we do in the original.)

Some other points of interest here… Of course the expression NMJ sees on MY as MY kills the captain is only shown in Empathy. Interestingly, also, while MY is quite clearly terrified at NMJ's approach in both, in episode 10 it's presented immediately, while in the Empathy he has a beat before he starts reacting that way.

The last scene—NMJ confronting MY and kicking him out of Qinghe. In the Empathy, we start with MY having been thrown onto the floor, rolling—but this isn't there in episode 10, and to be honest I think it probably didn't actually happen. First, while I can see NMJ throwing MY onto the floor, I don't actually think he'd throw him quite that hard at this point in time? And it's also got a lot of visual echoes of JGY rolling down the stairs; I think he's projecting backwards. Of course, it still takes MY longer to recover in episode 10; Empathy consistently minimizes the physical harm done to MY.

So the conversation is interesting because it's really just two different conversations in the Empathy vs episode 10. In episode 10, MY leads with the Captain's abuse of him, and he's clear that it's habitual, ongoing, long-term. In Empathy, he leads with the Captain releasing XY, /adds in/ that the Captain wanted to kill him (that's not there in episode 10!), and absolutely skips over and minimizes the abuse: the beatings aren't mentioned, the credit-stealing isn't mentioned, the insulting and humiliating… even the 'Every time' is removed from before the 'he humiliated my mother', making it seem like this was a one-off provocation instead of habitual. NMJ's somewhat unhinged rant about MY's motives, including the would you have killed everyone at the cave if I hadn't helped you, is also Empathy-only (and then when MY starts to reply NMJ is like, Don't lie to me! and MY shuts up, suggesting perhaps that a denial would have been lying, which may be part of why people think this is a remotely reasonable assertion).

Some other interesting things—in episode 10, we see NMJ lift his sabre and then lower it, unable to go through with it; in Empathy, we don't see that at all—in general I think there's less of a sense that he's struggling with his decision, in Empathy, it's more just like He Is Doing The Righteous Justice. Fascinatingly we also don't see him put Baxia away in Empathy—I think he must because we see a scene where he already had, in episode 10, but we don't actually see it. We also don't see MY, injured, get up and thank NMJ and walk out, or indeed NMJ's conflicted gaze after him; the scene cuts off too soon.

Episode 22

(episode 22 differences)

There's only one scene for episode 22: the WRH, NMJ, and MY scene, inside Sun Palace. Right off the bat, we have the Wen erasure again; the episode 22 scene starts with WRH directly addressing NMJ and tormenting him and his Nie cultivators, whereas the Empathy one only starts when MY walks in. (Although interestingly MY addresses WRH as xiandu, while he doesn't seem to say anything with his bow in episode 22).

This one is an interesting scene because there's relatively little overlap? In the episode 10 scenes, you mostly saw different versions of the same events; in this one there's some of that, but there are also large chunks of time that are only in episode 22 or only in Empathy. Most of the MY-interacting-with-NMJ is only in Empathy, including, yes, the damn sabre touch. But we do have the beginning of MY talking to NMJ in both. MY's expression is different in Episode 22 vs Empathy—it's a little hard to capture in a still, but it's a lot more, mmm, simpering-mockery in the Empathy version?

Ah, one detail that's interesting—so, in CQL—which is to say in Empathy because we don't see this sequence at all in Episode 22—when that Nie cultivator calls the place 'a den of Wen' he uses 温/温氏, for Wen, and then when people are insulting MY in this scene they're using 走狗. But in MDZS all of those are actually 温狗, Wen-dog. Which is definitely more directly disrespectful to WRH than the 走狗 insults, but I feel like in general CQL doesn't use 温狗 a lot, while in MDZS it's all over the place—so while it's an interesting detail I'm not sure it's suggestive for Empathy in particular. Hmmm.

We return to things being shown in both Empathy and Episode 22 with NMJ shoving MY back. In Empathy, we only see MY stagger a little, while in episode 22 it's quite considerable—again, Empathy's tendency to minimize the physical damage MY suffers.

And then MY kicks NMJ in return! Okay this is actually fascinating, because in Empathy, it looks like this totally wipes NMJ out, and the scene stops here. But that isn't at all what happened! He's knocked onto his back, yes, BUT he recovers and comes up and shoves MY hard enough he goes flying: 

He gets up and goes to attack MY, and would probably have killed him if WRH hadn't interfered. Which, don't get me wrong, is entirely reasonable of him given his understanding of the situation but it is not at all the impression you'd get from Empathy. If anything NMJ's collapse in the Empathy after MY kicks him looks like the collapse he has after WRH finishes with him, in episode 22. And MY saying How dare you be so rude in front of Clan Leader Wen when he kicks NMJ is also removed—the whole sequence here is really another example of the removal of the Wen from the Empathy scenes. 

Incidentally, MY didn't actually kill all the Nie cultivators, in this scene. If you look while MY is flying back, at least one of them is still alive:

And then you can see all four are dead while NMJ's attacking WRH:

But MY has been on the floor recovering from NMJ's attack, so he definitely didn't kill the at least one and quite probably two who are still alive.

WRH asks MY if NMJ killed Wen Xu question; you have MY staying quite noticeably silent, which I think is still meant to be understood as MY saving NMJ's life. I guess they changed it because the MDZS version really doesn't work with the flow of events as happens in CQL? For the record, in MDZS MY answers yes, but then immediately suggests that they torture him instead of killing him immediately, and then once WRH isn't set on killing him immediately, kills WRH on the spot and starts lugging NMJ's unconscious body out of there. So there's no WWX for distraction, and Sunshot's army definitely isn't right outside, there's only LXC he sent a message to and who hasn't quite shown up yet—so in MDZS he's taking a bigger risk, and more unambiguously saving NMJ's life and winning them the war. Which is not, to be clear, to in any way minimize CQL MY's astonishing bravery and achievements.

Episode 23

(episode 23 differences)

So in both we start with LXC holding NMJ and looking down at him. In episode 23, when NMJ sees MY, we see LXC see and notice his reaction and /then/ look over at MY in concern, whereas in Empathy we don't get that moment—it just goes to both of them looking at MY.

NMJ demands his sabre back, and in both MY complies, though in the Empathy one he takes a beat longer and looks more worried about it. In the original, MY also has "Let me explain" which is dropped from the Empathy.

In both we have NMJ attacking MY with Baxia, and trying to get past Shuoyue—in the Empathy it's a bit shorter, though, and we also lose LXC asking NMJ what he's doing this for. I think that goes with cutting LXC seeing NMJ react before he looks over at MY, above; the effect is to make NMJ's response seem more obvious/natural, when in fact LXC is pretty baffled by it at the time.

"he became the Wen's underling and had been helping the tyrant at Nevernight!"—the language on 'became the Wen's underling' is actually different in episode 23 vs Empathy. In episode 23, you have 原来投靠了温氏; in Empathy, though, it's 原来是做了走狗. Note the 走狗 as earlier!

Okay, and now the big one: LXC giving NMJ reasons they should trust MY/not kill him. Empathy cuts most of this. It keeps that MY is the one who sent the map, but it drops: that the reason LXC is here today is because MY sent him a message; that MY was the one who schemed to get WRH's guard down, and then /killed him/; that MY was the one who saved LXC's life after CR burned; and that MY independently approached WRH to spy on him and has been sending LXC letters the whole time. /That's really not trivial. That's a lot to cut./

I wonder if this has any relation to the common idea that LXC did not in fact have a lot of very good reasons to trust JGY.

(Incidentally it's after the MY killed WRH reveal, in episode 23, that NMJ lowers his blade.)

...also. so. In episode 23 LXC asks MY, you know, didn't he already tell NMJ about all this (a question which makes a lot more sense in MDZS, where NMJ has already woken up before LXC joins them, but I just run with it), and MY says, you saw it ZWJ, even if I had he wouldn't have believed me. And NMJ—again it's kind of hard to capture in a still, but he pretty much reacts like he thinks that's ridiculous and MY is just making excuses/being manipulative?

And then of course that gets erased from the Empathy, as well as as just mentioned most of the reasons LXC actually gave. So. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Oh, this also means it cuts what I'm pretty sure is the first on-screen use of A-Yao—it does show up later in the Empathy version of this scene, so I don't think that's hugely significant, but just as a note.

Then there's MY kneeling in preparation for apology, which is in both Empathy and episode 23. The Empathy cuts make it seem like he kneels pretty much right after NMJ lowers his blade, though, and we don't get to see him making the deliberate choice to step out if LXC's protection to kneel—again, I think it makes LXC seem more understanding of NMJ than he actually is here.

The apology proper is only in Empathy; honestly it mostly seems fairly reasonable to me, although it does mean you only hear LXC saying "But I believe, when he was doing such things, deep in his heart he must have been…" after the version that cuts most of his reasons for believing that. In terms of actual changes, I wonder if LXC reacted more quickly/strongly to the bit where it looks like NMJ is actually going to kill MY? It's definitely more understated than his previous reactions, and it would fit with the other changes made.

Last scene: the oath. At this point I think it's fairly well-known that NMJ looking at JGY, and LXC turning his head to look at them both, is only in Empathy—there's also, maybe?, a small change to the text; in episode 23, "Both God and people will be furious with us" is 天人共怒, but in Empathy it's 天人共戮. I say maybe because—on the one hand, the subs definitely use a different character, and it's in both the YT subs and the Netflix subs even though those aren't always 100% identical, but while I'm not usually checking the audio for this I did here because it's just the one character and the audio pretty much sounds the same to me? (ep 23) (Empathy) Could just be my ear, or a mistake on the subs' part or the audio part, who knows.

Overview

Looking at all the changes together, a few patterns emerge.

First, people who are doing damage who aren't JGY—the Wen, XY—tend to get minimized or erased from the narrative. Similarly and to some extent as a result, the harm caused by JGY is exaggerated; also similarly, the good that JGY does is also minimized or erased. Meanwhile, the damage done /to/ JGY is minimized—both the environment of abuse he suffered at Qinghe, and the physical harm done to him, which he usually recovers from much more quickly in Empathy (even when the attack itself is made stronger as, unusually, it is in the confrontation where NMJ kicks MY out of Qinghe). Finally MY is made more manipulative than he necessarily is; while I'm not saying he's never being manipulative, NMJ understands his expressions of weakness as /purely/ manipulative and inherently false, when in fact the weakness MY expresses is very real, however calculated, or not!, its expression may be.

Honestly—in this JGY who does way more harm and way less good than he actually does, who is more powerful and experiences less damage than he actually does, who is never actually weak but only acting that way to manipulate people? I feel like I'm seeing a lot of where popular takes on JGY come from.

[razberryyum]

Fatal Journey Thoughts (spoilers)

I DEFINITELY liked Fatal Journey MUCH more than Living Dead, mainly because most of the movie did actually focus on the Nie brothers’ relationship. I really felt how much they loved and cared for each other. There were really good bonding scenes between the brothers; we even got to see them as kids which was just too precious! They had bonding moments that I wish Wen Ning and Sizhui got in Living Dead. We even got to see the softer side of Nie Mingjue and how much he loved his little bro…so much so that he was willing to give up his own life in order to save him.

I loved that we got to see the NMJ show his vulnerable side in front of NHS which really provided more dimension to his character. By letting us see this facet of NMJ’s personality and his devotion to NHS, we understand now why NHS would go to such lengths to avenge his brother.  To that end, I actually really appreciated the fact that they showed us what tipped NHS off about Jin Guangyao’s scheme:

When this moment first happened my stomach actually dropped: I thought it was implying that NHS had an unwitting role in his brother’s demise. While it didn’t go that far, the fact that his playing did lead to NMJ killing his own men was just as sad since it was obvious NMJ was greatly affected by their deaths, even though NHS blessedly kept the actual truth from him. 

I have to commend both Ji Li and Wang Yizhou for their performances in this movie: on top of having great chemistry with one another so that you totally are sold on their sibling bond, overall they just put in really solid performances. And they’re really good criers! 

I really felt both their losses: NMJ at the loss of his sect brothers and then of course NHS over the loss of his beloved brother. I have to especially commend Ji Li for really stepping up to the plate and delivering every beat perfectly: he was funny when he should have been, dramatic when he should have been, and then heart-breaking when he should’ve been. He was perfect. Wang Yizhou was just as good but unfortunately he was hampered by really poorly choreographed fight sequences which I really could’ve done without. That’s actually one of my biggest complaint about this movie: there was too much bad fight choreography, made worse by a lot of really unnecessary slo mo action. They were cringey AF…and so was the horrible CGI. I mean, when this happened I pretty much clocked out and started playing with my phone because it was too painful to watch.

I mean, seriously, wtf was that all about? YUCK.

Another thing I didn’t like about the movie was how they mangled the score from The Untamed. There were a few themes peppered throughout the movie but they were always cut up. Felt disrespectful. Otherwise, the new pieces of score that were specifically created for the movie were actually pretty good. 

I honestly didn’t really care about the tombraiding part of the movie, especially since the last big fight didn’t even involve NHS. I know he’s not a good fighter but it felt odd seeing some nobody fight side by side with big bro when it’s obvious that dude wasn’t going to live at the end. I did appreciate the humor in having NHS pass out through most of the final battle. Felt right. 

Another thing I really appreciated about the movie was how it let us see the gifted side of NHS. He was mostly used for comedic purposes in The Untamed so it was nice seeing him take the spotlight as the talented, intelligent person in the room for once. I loved seeing him being the emotionally strong and supportive person for his brother, and actually exhibiting some leadership qualities. It’s a shame the sect members who got to see this side of him perished inside the tomb.

I could have done with even more scenes between the two brothers, and maybe even more of JGY.  I actually worried for a second in the beginning that they weren’t going to allow JGY to speak, that it was just going to be a silent cameo. He didn’t appear much but Zhu Zanjin really made every second he was on screen count with his expressive face.  I think they changed his voice actor though, which is a shame since his VA in The Untamed really added to his performance.  Actually, there were moments that I even wondered if they changed the voice actors for NHS and NMJ since they sounded a little different in parts as well. 

I also wish the movie had at least covered a little bit of how NHS came up with his revenge plan against JGY…would’ve loved to see him meeting Mo Xuanyu for the first time. They really could EASILY make a sequel to this movie. I think Ji Li can definitely carry a movie on his own. Throw in more of Zhu Zanjin and maybe some other cameos from other beloved characters and that could easily occupy another full length feature. This movie just made me wish we could get more CQL content, so while I really enjoyed it, now I’m feeling empty all over again. 

Guess I should really get back to my CQL rewatch to help fill the void.

[yiling]

Untamed rewatch Episode 21

In this episode: brief spots of military strategy surrounded on all sides by Wei Wuxian’s increasingly obvious PTSD

-THIS SIBLINGS SCENE...I WILL SCREAM

-“we’ll be together forever” GOD SHUT UPPPPP

-oooh that flinch :( 

-I like that jc immediately sees nhs out once it’s obvious wwx is uncomfortable. a good brother

-this very spare arrangement of wuji is interesting

 -ugh wrh...already tired of this motherfucker

-oh my god wwx is at a banquet in his honor and all he can think about is missing lwj and his trauma. what a guy 

-hey this is the first time we hear the song of clarity!

-is it meant to be implied that wwx can hear this diegetically or what

-ah yes the conflict for the next several episodes: wwx not carrying his sword and wwx’s drinking problem

-my mom: ptsd much?

-interesting to see jyl compare chenqing to zidian. it’s kindly meant! she loves wwx and she knows everyone being on him for not carrying his sword is wearing on him. so I think she intends it as “hey, your spiritual tool can be something other than a sword and that’s fine!” but I think wwx is...less than enthused about being compared to madam yu.

-paused so I could explain the translation of chenqing to everyone 

-please talk to yanli ._.

-my sister: I love how they only show nightless city in the nighttime

-I fully believe that at least at this stage, jc would get nothing done without yanli hassling him. 

-hey the pattern on jc’s robes matches nmj’s, I wonder if he had them commissioned in qinghe

-I wonder why wwx is so distressed to see the wens being tormented here, since they’re still technically his enemies. (he’s plainly horrified even before he sees wen qing is with them, so that’s not it). My idea of what’s happening here is that when he’s this fresh off the burial mounds, he’s especially sensitized to resentful energy, and that includes the pain and distress of living people. he has to try and channel it through the music to not lose his mind, but it’s too intense to control, hence rockslide.

-this is a sexy shot with the ribbon

-holy shit the flute doubling is so bad lmao. worst thing about xiao zhan’s performance by far.

-this is where I start to get in my feelings about the plot of CQL as mental illness metaphor, and I especially have feelings about wei wuxian’s flat refusal to communicate with his family here. sometimes acknowledging that you’re suffering is so much more scary and awful than just the suffering itself, and I think that’s what his deal is here. if he were to sit down and explain what is actually happening with him, explain what happened in the burial mounds, he’d have to relive it and that’s something he’s doing too much of anyway. better to keep his mouth shut, even though it’s increasingly obvious he’s doing badly.

-wwx my guy, could you possibly have made a less supervillain-like entrance, and said less weird and cryptic shit? all these people are already annoyed with you

-I love xichen’s “what the actual fuck is your problem” expression lmao

-xichen has this discussion about morality with his brother, and i think he...kind of sows the seeds of his own sorrow, here. wangji’s obviously not there just yet, he’s really struggling with it, but he’s gonna hear “things aren’t black and white, you have to judge people as individuals” and run with it. i don’t think the twin jades ever hate or resent each other, but i’m sure that after the death of wei wuxian, after the burial mounds, after the discipline whip and three years of seclusion, their relationship is...not the same. (and frankly, i don’t think that that is xichen’s fault)

-the music that plays here is so lovely and melancholy

-oh boy a reprise of the yiling argument :/// wwx these people all love you and are worried about you

-...but that in itself is part of the problem, isn’t it? like, wei wuxian is angry at lan zhan here because they argued and wwx won’t let it go, but I think the fact that lan zhan decided to talk to yanli (which was extremely good of him, lbr, he’s trying so hard to help this boy out) is partly why wwx is so furious. jiang yanli is worried about her shidi right now, but jiang yanli will always be worried about her shidi, and being around her is one of the few things that gives wwx a sense of safety and normalcy, as raw as he is. he sees lan zhan giving her the “The Dangers Of Resentful Energy” talk as a threat to that safety! i don’t think he really gets that this is information she would like to know because she loves and is afraid for him, and her opinion of him is not going to change based on this. he is desperately, desperately trying to conceal all this from her, and he’s not happy lan zhan is not in favor of that goal!

-it’s non-obvious, since he’s so arrogant and obnoxious all the time, but I think one of the emotions wwx struggles with the most in this post-burial mounds pre-yiling laozu era is shame. i don’t think he feels that awesome about having to cultivate an unorthodox path, i think he feels pretty terrible about having had this awful thing happen to him that he doesn’t feel able to talk about, and i think he especially feels bad that he’s in enough pain that he can’t just keep it under wraps and act like everything is fine. through wei wuxian’s early life, i think he pretty consistently got told that he was a burden to his family and an obstacle to his adoptive siblings. his preferred coping mechanism for this was to smile and laugh and never take anything too seriously, and this worked up until a series of extremely horrible things happened in very short order, and now he’s not in a place where he can just hide his problems under cheerful irreverence. he’s already afraid of burdening his remaining family with his problems, since he’s the one who’s supposed to protect them, and now that people have started questioning his cultivation methods, he’s increasingly afraid that they’ll reject him outright. he’s ashamed of what he’s been through, he’s ashamed of everyone’s increasing suspicion of him, he’s ashamed that he can’t just be who he was before, and it intensifies until he goes FINE, FUCK IT, IF THERE’S NO WAY LEFT FOR ME TO BE GOOD, I’LL BE EVIL, and we get the yiling patriarch

-a lot of people have already talked about wwx baring his throat to lan zhan’s sword here but woof that sure is a call forward...if I could die by your hand...

-we talked a little bit after this about suibian and cultivators’ swords and whether the sword chooses the cultivator harry potter style

-the drama and trauma. will only increase