#wwx is and always has been a huge nerd

[tea-cat-arts]

Wasn't he also canonically a straight A student though? And even back when he was 15, he was doing both his and Nie Huaisang's homework and receiving high scores + in his very first interaction with Lan Qiren, it's established he both knows all the cultivation stuff he's supposed to and processes it to a degree he's already trying to build off it and invent new methods.

Also, 5 paragraph essays every week? Idk if that's a cultural thing or if it's a general Ed vs advanced classes thing, but that just wasn't a thing where I went to highschool, so idk what you're talking about there. We more did 3 page research papers every month

Also, wwx was an artist even back when he was 15 (drawing/painting was confirmed, idk if flute playing was), so I'm still convinced he'd be vehemently against generative AI

To like a character means to accurately understand their flaws. Modern au Nie Huaisang would use chat gpt to write his essays for him, and I don't have to like that fact to know that it's true.

[whoisthatmovinginthedark]

Hunxi-guilai’s blog is my favorite thing on Tumblr! I’m so grateful for it! I’ve been just a lurker, but this post inspired me to write out thoughts into the void for myself for the first time. Because this is an important scene, I love it and it gives me feelings! 

I’m convinced, too, that LWJ is thinking about his brother in that moment. And WWX, because this is the moment they both need to finally address their worst fears which were easy to brush to the side when there was the mystery to solve and action to be had. But now it’s over and here they both are, standing with their fears of getting rejected, and that’s why there’s this unspoken nervous thing momentarily looming between them. 

For WWX it comes in a form that everyone has a place they belong to but him now, post resurrection. He’s not officially welcome anywhere for the moment. Everyone he knows has plans that doesn’t include him. There are people at Cloud Resesses too that don’t want him there. And besides, he has turned down LWJ’s offers to settle there enough times for him to not maybe ask him anymore. Just very recently when they left from there he made a joke what a relief it is to leave. But he has grown and maybe his thoughts about Cloud Recesses have softened too. Maybe he is finally ready now to make compromises for the one he loves.

And as for LWJ’s fears, he has a place that he belongs to. A place that needs him now more than ever. His brother needs him now more than ever. And he must, and wants to go. But it’s also a place that WWX has always turned down when he has offered and he has no reason to expect a different answer this time. Just very recently when they from left there, WWX made a joke how relieved he is to leave. But this is the one and only time he can’t turn his back on everything else and follow WWX wherever he decides to go. And he is afraid that this is it for them. That he will loose him and they will go separate ways.

The camera zooms out and we can see that they stay in place, and what I picture happening next is that LWJ gathers up his courage and offers once more, which is a huge comfort to WWX. But also LWJ, to have the one he loves make the choice to go with him for the first time after hoping it for so long. And I think they will leave together from that spot to Gusu.

(And like the nerd that I am, I have compared their fantasy world map to real life map of China and researched comfortable long distance travel speed for a donkey. It would probably take them about three weeks to travel to Cloud Recesses with Apple. Enough time for WWX’s neck to heal for their waterfall moment in that next scene that we are whisked to.)

I have lots of feelings and thoughts about the clifftop scene too, which is related to all this, but I’ll leave thing to this for the moment.

So, first post, ha! (English is not my first language, so if there’s any strangeness, that’s most likely to blame.)

Hello! First of all, thank you so much for all you do! I had a blast going, "wait there's meta for this" at my friend who was watching the show for the first time, and of course each time, it was your posts, and we screamed/cried over them a lot. So, I had a question: how would you interpret the scene in episode 50 (time stamp 30:12), in which WWX goes "let's go" and asks LWJ where they should go, then turns and starts walking back. (1/2)

oh oh OH THANK YOU you just handed me the last piece of a puzzle I’ve been trying to solve for a while!

so, if my theory holds water, the moment you’re asking about is the third in a series of moments in the show where a similar exchange happens between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. These moments usually have the following beats:

one of them is lost in thought/emotions

the other picks up on said thoughts/emotions, and says 走吧 zouba / let’s go

the first one snaps out of whatever thought/emotional rabbit hole he went down, looks at the one who spoke, and nods

they continue onwards 

The first time this happens is in episode 10, right after they bid farewell to songxiao:

Lan Wangji gazes longingly after songxiao; Wei Wuxian turns, notices, and says let’s go in an unusually somber manner for him (again, this is episode 10 Wei Wuxian; so far, he’s been all sunshine, no shadows).

Lan Wangji comes out of his reverie, blinks, and looks at Wei Wuxian, who nods at him. Lan Wangji responds with a tiny chin-tuck of his own, and the two of them turn and walk off together, so that we--

-- get this lovely 背影 beiying / turned-back shot of them walking away (yes, the songxiao echoes are powerful).

The next time we get a similar sequence (if my memory serves me better than Wei Wuxian’s) is in episode 40, as they stand on the top of the stairs at Jinlintai.

Wei Wuxian gets a little overwhelmed by emotion -- understandable, since this is 1) his first time showing up at a major cultivational event post-resurrection, where he can be very confident that most people in attendance would kill him if they knew it was him under the mask, and 2) the last time he came to Lanling, he had just accidentally brought about the death of Jin Zixuan, and was trying to get a glimpse of Jiang Yanli before he fled the tower.

Lan Wangji picks up on Wei Wuxian’s distress, and looks at him with concern. Let’s go, he says, snapping Wei Wuxian out of the moment, a steady anchor in a riptide of memory.

Wei Wuxian comes out of his reverie, blinks, and nods at Lan Wangji, and the two of them follow Lan Xichen into Jinlintai proper.

So here, we have an established pattern, one that quietly highlights how in-tune the two of them are. Both Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are difficult to read, for different reasons -- Lan Wangji because he rarely shows expression, Wei Wuxian because he is so overexaggerated in his emotiveness that he can often use that to conceal how he’s truly feeling (see: every time he has an injury and downplays it). And yet, wangxian continue to identify each other’s emotional states and respond to them without fail, offering each other a mental-emotional touchstone in the truly wild, wild rollercoaster of their lives.

Which makes the moment in episode 50 that much weightier with meaning, because it’s the first time we see a deviation from this pattern:

First, there’s the fact that the words are a little off -- Wei Wuxian says, Lan Zhan, let’s go too... hm, where to?

And without checking in/making eye contact with Lan Wangji, laughs and turns away.

Wei Wuxian gets quite far from Lan Wangji before he realizes that Lan Wangji isn’t coming; the smile slides off his face as he slows, stops, turns around to look at Lan Wangji, who still hasn’t moved. 

Lan Wangji has been deep in thought since Wen Ning and Lan Sizhui bid farewell to them; and honestly, it’s anybody’s guess what he’s thinking about in this moment (my money is on Lan Xichen because the Twin Jades continue to own my heart and soul, and given that Lan Sizhui just left, he’s probably thinking about family atm)

Wei Wuxian asks -- Lan Zhan... are you no longer coming? 

Something about this line is really difficult to translate -- what I’ve been translating all along as let’s go is 走吧 zou ba, which is literally the verb for ‘walk/run/travel/move,’ followed by the -ba sentence-ending suggestion particle. So what Wei Wuxian says here is 蓝湛，你...不走了吗? Lan Zhan, ni...buzoulema? which maintains the use of the verb 走 zou, but expands it beyond simply the negative form of ‘let’s go.’ There’s a subtle difference between 你不走吗 nibuzouma and 你不走了吗 nibuzoulema that I’m not going to be able to articulate well, because the day has not yet dawned that I can confidently state that I understand the grammatical function of 了 le, but essentially:

你不走吗 nibuzouma would be “are you not walking?” / “are you not going?” in the present, immediate sense

你不走了吗 nibuzoulema takes the action of 走 zou and generalizes it -- not just walking/going in the present moment, but in general. To a certain extent, Wei Wuxian is asking if Lan Wangji is no longer walking with him, like, for good

Wei Wuxian isn’t just asking are you not coming with me? for now, he’s asking are you no longer coming with me, at all? 

(That’s taking the translation for 走 zou as, specifically, ‘going with Wei Wuxian,’ but from a non-wangxian lens, it’s also a more abstract asking of if Lan Wangji is no longer going to walk this path, whatever this path may be -- a path of wandering heroism, of appearing where the chaos is, of journeying under a vast sky)

(there is also a pretty hefty chance that I am way over-reading connotations into the role 了 le plays in this sentence, but hey, individual interpretation, right?)

Lan Wangji finally turns around, and meets Wei Wuxian’s eyes. 

You're absolutely right in that there is an Entire Wordless Conversation Happening Right Now, In Front of My Salad, which more or less consists of:

eye contact

Lan Wangji looks away first

Wei Wuxian gives the tiniest, tearful nod and also looks briefly down

Wei Wuxian seems to come to a conclusion, nods more firmly, then looks back at Lan Wangji

Lan Wangji looks back up again

Wei Wuxian smiles and nods

(zoom out, fade to black)

At least for me, I’ve read this conversation as such:

Wei Wuxian, verbally -- Lan Zhan... are you no longer coming with me?

eye contact -- there are no words here, just a confirmation that the two of them really, really care about each other

Lan Wangji looks away first -- not this time and I’m sorry.

Wei Wuxian gives the tiniest, tearful nod and also looks briefly down -- okay. that’s okay

Wei Wuxian seems to come to a conclusion, nods more firmly, then looks back at Lan Wangji -- this moment is hard for me to parse, because it could be anything from ah, everyone leaves me eventually to that’s actually okay, I can use some time on my own to that’s okay, I know you have important things to do and I don’t hold it against you or heck, all of the above. This necromantic beanpole can and has embodied legions

Lan Wangji looks back up again -- it’s really okay?

Wei Wuxian smiles and nods -- it really is

Basically, this moment is where wangxian do all the emotional work of the parting that will happen later on a picturesque cliff. This is the moment when the two of them come to terms with what it means to go their separate ways, at least for a while, and crucially, both of them accept it. 

This isn’t to downplay the significance of the clifftop scene or anything, but at least to me, this moment right after Guanyin Temple always felt much more emotionally raw and vulnerable between the two of them. Clifftop scene gets poetry, and my favorite track from the CQL soundtrack, but forest farewell gets me right where it hurts.