#Haven't even been around for 2 seconds and already victim blaming

[bonefall]

how the fuck did clear sky get into cat heaven. he literally:

-killed multiple cats (or attempted to)

-disrespected starclan (the whole drown the stars in blood thing)

-try to start a whole war

-threw out his crippled brother

-tried to kill bumble (later the god of speech)

-and a dozen more that i can’t think off the top of my head.

it would be cool for an au possibly where one-eye dies but never forms the dark forest (like he doesn’t believe in religion thus never makes cat hell) and instead clear sky is the first one dammed and the first cat to walk the dark forest. this could be a great set up for later arcs where maybe in the distant future we see the dark forest fighting starclan (again) but this time it’s not tigerstar and firestar, it’s clear sky and gray wing

StarClan is flawed from its inception. It's the ancestors of all Clan cats, not just the ones from the Forest Four.

And that included Clear Sky, founder of SkyClan, cat who invented and established borders and war tactics. It's him and his followers who set the battle culture of the Clans that would come after, a snowball that would only grow larger and larger until it reached the state we see in TPB.

StarClan is the way that it is because of him. Him and cats like him are what encouraged StarClan to develop into the reactionary, self-righteous entity that it is, doing what they believe is right to 'protect' the Clans while still thinking their ego is something that must be coddled.

[theweeklybinge]

The Untamed Rewatch Analysis [Episode 1, Part 2]

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If you haven't read it yet, Episode 1 Part 1 is here!

Suddenly Wei Ying is depressed and when Sizhui asks, he just beelines out of there. Sizhui actually turns around to look at where Wei Ying used to be. They dropped the A-yuan hints so early and I never noticed.

Cut to nighttime, with the Lan cultivators all standing guard and Mo Ziyuan about to do the most stupid thing in his life. Yep, he and his accomplice takes the spirit attraction flag.

And then Wei Ying starts playing WangXian. And he does it AMAZINGLY, I might add, considering he’s doing it on a blade of grass.

Sizhui remembers the song but Jingyi doesn’t, which means that Wei Ying must have played it so much during their time in the Burial Mounds that even Sizhui’s amnesia-riddled mind could remember it. And it’s also possible Lan Zhan had played it for Sizhui and Sizhui only, probably right after rescuing him from the Burial Mounds.

Either way, Jingyi the harsh music critic is not hearing it. He says it sounds horrible and he gives it a 1-star review on Amazon.

We get the same neck-down flashback of Wei Ying’ first glimpse of his future husband, and then he whispers: “Lan Zhan.”

It’s like saying his name is both comforting and painful. He wants to see him, he needs to see him, everything reminds Wei Ying of him — but he also wants to just forget all the horrible things that happened and just not be the Wei Wuxian that was at top of the “wanted” list. He can’t have it both ways.

The peace is broken when Wei Ying is roughly dragged out of his room to where Mo Ziyuan has turned into a puppet. Wei Ying only has a second to be thankful that Sizhui can’t recognize him before Mo Ziyuan goes crazy and Madam Mo accuses Wei Ying / Mo Xuanyu of killing her son and tries to whack him with this random, weirdly shaped piece of wood.

It’s up to Sizhui to protect his parent by arguing that there’s no evidence, but Madam Mo says that Mo Xuanyu’s father (Jin Guangshan) is a cultivator and so he had learned demon cultivation — the evidence is what happened to Mo Ziyuan, and that Wei Ying had said he’d break his arm.

Two things jump out at me here:

There’s some truth in what she’s saying. Mo Xuanyu’s father IS a cultivator, Mo Xuanyu HAS dabbled in heterodox methods (which is how Wei Ying got resurrected in the first place), and Mo Xuanyu / Wei Ying DID threaten to cut off his arm, even if it was all bark and no bite.

Even if everything in #1 was true, there’s no truth to the accusation that Mo Xuanyu / Wei Ying turned Mo Ziyuan into a corpse puppet. Madam Mo just needs a scapegoat and Mo Xuanyu is an easy victim; he has a questionable reputation and no one to turn to. It’s just so reminiscent of how the main sects had treated Wei Ying in his past life. The world just needs someone to blame. But one person could make all the difference: Lan Zhan defended Wei Ying then, and Sizhui defends Wei Ying now.

Wei Ying discovers the spirit attraction flag that he stole and Madam Mo turns on the Gusu Lan cultivators, blaming them for not protecting the child that is Mo Ziyuan. Lady, he’s like 20 years old.

Wei Ying, ever so righteous, immediately jumps to their defense and it’s like Madam Mo is rendered speechless by Mo Xuanyu’s sudden coherence. Nobody notices Master Mo’s left hand shaking until he too becomes a corpse puppet and attacks people outside.

Sizhui tells Jingyi to send the signal to Hanguang Jun and hearing that Lan Zhan could be nearby, Wei Ying goes into PANIC mode. There’s no need to bother him, it’s unnecessary, I can solve it myself (he probably can actually), he says, but to no avail.

Wei Ying immediately recognizes the Stygian Tiger Amulet and his smart brain is already starting to plan.

Here we see something that made me question the quality of CQL on my first watch: the demonic left hand glove that they probably got for $1.99 at Party City.

Even though it’s ugly, Sizhui and Wei Ying’s brains combine against the backdrop of Jingyi’s sassy commentary to figure out the issue is the left hand, which has now taken over Madam Mo. The Lan cultivators...strip to stop her while Wei Ying implements a plan of his own, which is constructing a new puppet army with Master Mo and Mo Ziyuan. Yup, alive for less than a day and he’s already back at it.

Meanwhile, Lan Zhan is elsewhere, staring up at the sky like he always does, when he sees the signal from the juniors.

Wei Ying has fought alongside Lan Zhan so many times he immediately recognizes the iconic blue glare, and for the second time Wei Ying goes into panic mode, hiding behind a curtain.

Lan Zhan appears looking like a god and all his Lan ducklings cluster around him; Jingyi is the first to call him and throughout the series we’ll see that even though Jingyi is the opposite of Lan Zhan in terms of personality — he’s like young Wei Ying in that he says whatever’s on his mind, whatever everyone else is too afraid to say, manners be damned — he looks up to Lan Zhan so much he never really questions his judgement even after finding out that Lan Zhan was aware of Wei Ying’s identity.

The corpse puppet situation is no sweat for Lan Zhan, so Wei Ying is happy just admiring him from behind his curtain. And yep, that’s the look of a boy in love.

Wei Ying comments on Lan Zhan’s funeral-like clothing, which would be a funny reference except Lan Zhan actually has been in mourning for the past sixteen years, you oaf.

Lan Zhan easily attributes the culprit of the chaos to the spiritual energy hiding in a sword, but as the conversation drifts dangerously close to the Stygian Tiger Amulet, Wei Ying seems to snap back to reality — time to go.

When Lan Zhan recognizes signs of the Stygian Tiger Amulet, he feels everything at once — disbelief, nervousness, hope, and fear of getting his hopes up again. In the past sixteen years, I can only imagine how many times a bit of demonic cultivation might’ve given him hope, just for it to be a copycat.

And I don’t know what Lan Zhan has been telling these kids on the down low, but Jingyi looks way too excited at the possibility that Wei Ying could be alive.

Lan Zhan continues to stare for an abnormally long time at the sword (and Jingyi actually seems to catch onto something), while Sizhui notices the disappearance of his other parent.

Lan Zhan’s yearning is rudely interrupted by a shadowy figure running away. He doesn’t catch up but he wonders if it’s Wei Ying and I just love this scene because of the tentative hope in Lan Zhan’s voice.

Cut to the next morning, and Nie Huaisang, with his iconic patterns and fan, makes his second appearance tossing a chunk of gold to the storyteller. It’s kind of Nie Huaisang’s MO, to give people something precious in exchange for their role in his revenge plot — gold for the storyteller, jewelry for Bicao, the opportunity to revive Xiao Xingchen for Xue Yang.

Then comes Wei Ying, dressed once again in his iconic black clothes and red hair ribbon. There’s just one revenge scar left — Jin Guangyao.

So there we go, first episode rewatched!

Up next: Episode 2 — Wei Ying meets his bratty nephew, Lan Zhan fights with his in-laws, and we have our official WangXian reunion before jumping into the longest flashback ever.

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