#fatal journey

[popsigills]

Restrain your grief

[br-disaster]

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

Nie Huaisang, immediately: 🏃🏃

[mikkeneko]

#fellas. u know when ur 12 and u decide to take on a generations-long curse that will kill u before u turn 30#so that ur 8 year old brother won't have to??#so he can cultivate with his HEART?????#AND HIS MIND??????#INSTEAD OF LOSING BOTH TO ALL THE VENGEFUL GHOSTS OF UR ANCESTORS????? - tags by @wethecelestial

and here i thought i could protect you for a lifetime.

[mysteryequationart]

Sect Leader Nie Huaisang

[momzawa-5]

Completed drawing! Nie Huaisang, Fatal Journey 💚

[bipolyjack]

we finally saw the nie huaisang movie and wow. what a banger. if you watched the untamed and thought to yourself "man i rly wish i coulda seen the nie bros crying on each other more" i have Such excellent news for you

[anachronismstellar]

Ok, I'm gonna make a separate post for this.

Fatal Journey is such a good expansion on how power works in The Untamed universe, I wish people geeked more about it.

Like?? The entire scene where Nie Mingjue uses energy to fight off the evil vines? Right after he screamed for his soldiers to get in formation, which means they trained for situations like these-

And!!! The complexity of the arrays in the Sword Palace??? No wonder NHS picked up fast what WWX was trying to do, he already knew the basics from his own family way of Cultivation, because let's be honest, the Nie were dabbling in a little of dark shit with how they cultivated.

Idk, I just think the Nie clan is so neat

[westiec]

[ID: four gifs of Nie Mingjue in Fatal Journey looking over his left shoulder, turning to face the camera (implied: and his disciples), and nodding at what he sees. He is bloody and sweaty and visibly overcome with emotion. In the final gif, he takes a deep breath, as though steeling himself to carry on. /end ID]

We are willing to advance and retreat with the Sect Leader!

[somepinkthing]

CQL/MDZS AU where the events of Fatal Journey (including the nhs realizes he's been duped scene but prior to nmj dying) happen pretty much right after wwx breaks ties with yunmeng jiang. Meaning his reputation isn't completely in the tanks yet but things are building up.

Wanting revenge for his friends and to help his brother but realizing that actually involving said still-unstable-brother would probably get him killed, nie huaisang turns up at the burial mounds with a proposition. He can squirrel away the remaining wens to safety, hidden away within different pockets of qinghe that border qishan, if wwx agrees to marry him under the guise that they eloped during the sunshot campaign and come to qinghe to help his brother.

Wei wuxian initially opposes, but nhs is smart enough that he posed the offer to wen qing, citing that wwx has no right to refuse an offer not made to him. Wen qing asks what about wen ning and nhs admits that he can't integrate himself in with anyone normal, but the unclean realm is a fortress built to keep enemies out. There are places to hide even a fierce corpse. WWX eventually accepts after wen qing talks him around to it, knowing that nhs is right about their surrent situation being a literal dead end solution.

And because huaisang is trans in all my headcanons, wei wuxian also raises the question of others viewing nhs as his wife. Huaisang shrugs it off. He's accepted in qinghe and, more importantly, by everyone close to him. Everyone that he actually cares about. He's not so proud that he won't use an advantage when he sees it just because of some people he'll never meet will think him a wife instead of a husband.

Ofc they do eventually bring lwj into the fold. Whether they involve him in the plan or just in their relationship... who knows.

AND ofc a-yuan stays with wwx. Probably they'd give him to him to give him a chance of a better life. One not on the run. He gets three dads out of this so not a bad deal for the kid.

Anyways here's a bit of what I've got

"And what will you say to Chifeng-zun? Your brother won't object to you marrying the Yiling Patriarch, a monster and a known Wen-sympathizer?"

Nie Huaisang waved him off, as blase as ever.

"I think you're underestimating my brother Wei-xiong. He's a little self righteous and very bullheaded, he's not stupid. He's never believed a word out of Jin Guangshan's mouth and certainly isn't about to start believing him over me. If I say you aren't evil, he'll trust me. As for whether he'll oppose us? Well that's why we've already eloped and deflowered each other, remember? Harder to oppose something that's already happened."

Huaisang paused to consider before continuing in a much more somber tone.

"And besides, given recent events, I think... Well, let's just say he's currently very inclined to do anything he can to make me happy. I'd usually hate taking advantage of my brother in this state, believe it or not, but I'm willing to if it means he sticks around."

It was odd to see Nie Huaisang talk like this. Wei Wuxian couldn't really remember ever seeing him take anything seriously. Then again, he'd never before considered Nie Huaisang someone he'd had to consider seriously either.

"And you?" Wei Wuxian asked, "You won't oppose marrying me? Helping them? I saw you wince when you saw Wen Qing you know. I know what the Wens did to your family, how can I trust you won't try to hurt them?"

Nie Huaisang scoffed.

"Not all of us are so inclined to heroics, I would know. I can't say I don't resent them, but in their place? I wouldn't have opposed Wen Ruohan either. My brother would have. You would have too. That's the difference between us, I suppose."

"But you do resent them?" Wei Wuxian clarified.

"Yes," the other man answered simply, "Immensely. At least, in Wen-guniang's case I do. But you know? On the way here, I measured my hatred for the Wen sect—for the murder of my parents, for the war, for all they took from me—against my love for my brother..."

"And?"

"And they weighed nothing at all."

Nie Huaisang took a sharp breath in and a long breath out, as if he were actually letting his resentment flow out of him with the air in his lungs.

"Wei-xiong understand this, if I had to bring back Wen Ruohan himself just to give my brother an extra week of life, I'd do it. In a heartbeat. Damned be the consequences."

[little-meowyao]

Check out this thing I made

[greenandhazy]

Spent a solid 20 minutes on discord debating whether Huaisang was meant to be wearing the same robes for the entirety of Fatal Journey because the sleeves were so dramatically different. Then I went back to the beginning for something completely unrelated and realized that we see Huaisang deliberately wrap up his sleeves in this extremely practiced and hilarious motion when he tries to pretend he's totally been working out this whole time. It's such a great detail, I just had to share.

(forgive the crappy quality, but these were the still references we were using before this)

[br-disaster]

Nie Mingjue's Fatal Journey crying scenes appreciation post

There's no way I wouldn't make this post, but it ended up way longer than I intended.

Fighting with Huaisang

When is this man not tearing up?

This fight is so important for Huaisang's character development and the movie's themes, with Huaisang being ready to challenge and question the Nie ways and Mingjue doing his best to uphold those traditions and keep the peace through the only way he knows how.

But it's still hard to be challenged like this and to face the possibility that everything you've ever known might not be right, actually.

And this gif specifically is from the moment Huaisang questions if Mingjue even knows what they're there to fight and what this supposed great evil that will come to Qinghe if they fail to balance their blades even is. Mingjue has no answer, of course, I suppose he was only taught this and never had reason to question it.

But Huaisang is also talking about the disciples they already 'lost' at this point of the movie, and he says something along the lines of " You don't know anything, you only know how to bring them here to die" and that does it. Because it's both "you can't follow these rules blindly when they rely on sacrificing people" and "you've changed and I don't trust your judgement on these matters anymore".

And as he says it, Mingjue looks at their disciples and he sees the puppets for a moment. And Huaisang just questioned if the other disciples were really attacked by puppets.

So that's a big moment and Huaisang is right, of course, but he doesn't have a confirmation that this is the result of Mingjue's health deterioration yet, so he keeps pushing. And Mingjue doesn't really have a counter argument because he knows what's going on with him, but it must be very scary to hear it from the person you care about the most and realize just how much you're being affected.

(Actually, Mingjue has one counter argument and that is "Well, I am at least trying to do something while you're painting and living a carefree life", and he's not wrong either. Huaisang is right and rightfully harsh, but this is the first time he's being confronted with these difficult choices and all their family history. He can reflect on and question it, but his brother has been meking those hard decisions since he was 14, when did he ever had a break to question and change things?)

Which leads us to

The Talk

After seeing his brother sacrifice himself for him at the bridge, and then seeing Mingjue be so vulnerable and lost, that anger from their fight is gone. They can meet in the middle with "You are right, I wasn't thinking straight, this is not a long term solution and I've failed at changing our ways" and "It's not your fault, you did everything you could but you're not responsible for this situation" and it's very beautiful and heartbreaking.

Mingjue is so remorseful, both because he has condemned Huaisang to die with him and because he feels like he failed everyone and everything (even if he doesn't seem to know what he could have done differently to avoid all this).

And Huaisang's reaction in this scene is so calm it made me think this Huaisang is somewhat used to his brother displaying vulnerability around him. This isn't book NMJ with all his victories, this isn't a man who never let the Unclean Realm be conquered and who could afford to keep Huaisang far away from the war. This is a man who was attacked and subdued in his own home, who had to send Huaisang to the hands of the people who killed their father.

This Huaisang doesn't have reasons to see Mingjue as this unmovable force, he has seen Mingjue hurt and threatened and fearful; and he's now seeing him remorseful and defeated.

(I'm sure Mingjue telling Huaisang about the fact that he's dying and admiting his mistakes and insecurities is something new, especially considering their previous fight, but this Huaisang doesn't take it as a shock, because he knows his brother is only human and there's only so much he can handle. He even, like, explicitly says this)

And so he assumes this calm, reassuring and empathetic posture, because that's what his brother is asking for. And it's the most beautiful thing, Huaisang has so much love for him, so much empathy. And this is Mingjue's reaction to his brother's reassurance that it's okay if they have to die there:

I'm sure Huaisang is still processing Mingjue's "I only forced you to practice because I'll die soon", but he's so good at reassuring his brother.

Because Mingjue just told him "I am dying and I'll go as a failure" and Huaisang insisted "None of this is your fault and you did everything you could and more, and if I have to die here with you today, I don't regret a thing, and you shouldn't either".

There's no despair or anger that his brother is only telling him this now, there's only understanding and acceptance and so much love and they really knew what they were doing with this movie.

His people love him

Mingjue is so moved. He just admitted to Huaisang that he's not in peace with his accomplishments, or lack thereof; that he feels ashamed to face his ancestors, having done so little.

So I truly believe Mingjue doesn't consider himself worthy of this much trust and support. (And I can't ignore how this is tied to the Nightless City situation, where he led the men who trusted him with their lives to a dangerous situation and couldn't save any of them).

As we see in the confrontation at Jinlintai, that technically happens after this movie, that is still a very sensitive topic.

And here he has his loyal disciples saying they will follow him yet again, despite his previous 'failures'; just like Huaisang was ready to die with him. They have so much trust in him, and the way he's nodding a little here, just like he was nodding when Huaisang reminded him of everything he's done for their sect since their father died, is like he's convincing himself of it. That he can do this and he can do this right this time.

And yet

He fails again. And I don't even think he knows it was him who killed those disciples, like some people say. He doesn't need to because it doesn't matter. His men, who followed him till the end of the world, are dead again. And so is the hope he had of doing this one right thing before he dies.

Yes, he supressed the saber spirit like he had to, but they're still dead, all of them.

He falls apart, how could he not?

At some point I'm sure Huaisang his holding all his weight because he just gives up. There's only so much loss one can handle and that's way too much.

And look at the way Huaisang is watching him as he realizes something inside Mingjue shattered forever.

There's so much pain in this scene, it looks physically taxing and I hope people gave Wang Yizhou a break after he shot this. I know it's his job and he's phenomenal at it, but this has to mess with your head a little.

And hey, it's a Huaisang crying scene as well. CQL Huaisang only really cries twice. First he watches his brother have a mental breakdown in his arms after unknowingly killing his own disciples; and then as he watches his brother qi deviate and die, while unable to do anything to either stop or comfort him.

(And a lot of people said there's no hesitation on Huaisang's part when he rushes to his brother's aid when Mingjue is hurt on this post's notes, and that's true for book Huaisang too, because he runs towards Mingjue as he is qi deviating, gets hurt in the process, and still keeps calling for him, which makes CQL's decision to have JGY holding him back kind of cruel, tbh, there's not a Huaisang who would run from a hurting Mingjue regardless of the risks

But at least we have this scene.)

And that's it, I guess. There's nothing uplifting to say about this, really. He just went through a lot and kept shouldering everything until he couldn't anymore. I just wish book NMJ had gotten to receive the same love and comfort and acceptance from NHS before he died, I wish he had been able to tell his brother what was actually happening, but thats kind of the purpose of this movie, so I'm just very grateful that it exists.

It's like that post says, it didn't change anything but the love was there, you know? That's how this movie feels for me.

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Wáng YiZhou 王翌舟

Wb update 12.08.2023

Looks like someone finally remembered their logins for their account. I've missed his cryptic posts and dimples!

[untamedmetablogiguess]

the other thing about Fatal Journey is that it is an almost perfect example of my the-untamed-as-a-dnd-game thing. they are literally exploring a dungeon. it's set up with a bunch of smaller fights and also various puzzle rooms. it leads them to an ultimate boss fight. splitting the party is a bad idea. they take a few scenes to pause and have an intense emotional conversation. like!!!!!

[momzawa-5]

This shot from Fatal Journey GAVE ME CHILLS OMGGGGGGGG

[panther-os]

sometimes my brain gives me prompts like "au where a-yuan was found and raised by jiang cheng" and sometimes it gives me prompts like "nie zonghui is a drunken jiang cheng/trans!song lan oopsie baby who went back in time to try and fix things"