We're finishing up what has turned into a Wen Kexing week with bang. A bit of a gore warning on this post, both for fig blood and movie-scene blood. There's also some disturbing subtext here, depending on how you read this scene.
The scene that inspired this fig is from Episode 21, when some of the 10 Devils are recounting how Lunatic Wen deposed the previous Ghost Valley Master to become the new Ghost Valley master. And by "deposed", they mean, "skinned the old Ghost Valley Master alive". We're treated to a short flashback of this event through Changing Ghost's eyes:
The director's approach to this scene is pretty intense. This is no kingmaker power scene - from this perspective, it's not even a scene of revenge. Instead of some overpowered, unstoppably triumphant, bloody conqueror, we see a young, dirty, barely dressed man, covered in patches of blood, with the glassy, thousand-yard stare of someone living through their own personal nightmare.
Below are some photos of some of the scene that was cut from the final version. I'm assuming the bloody corpse of the old Ghost Valley Master was too gory for TV.
He looks traumatized and exhausted. He's got like one and a half layers on. His belt is just a strip of fabric and knotted in a tie so plain and utilitarian it's like I tied it. Hobo-Xu wore more clothes than this. The only thing that's in any way actually publically presentable is his hair, which you can see was originally neatly arranged (there's actually a braid in the front) and adorned with his hairpin. This is about as stark and non-glamorous as a scene as I could possibly imagine for someone taking both revenge and a throne. Full kudos to the directors and Gong Jun.
Our young Wen Kexing arrived safely in his protective box. Which is good, since for sure this poor guy doesn't need any more damage.
The fig arrived with the heads of his enemies, but not in his hands.
At his feet, where they belong. We have our choice here of two corpses.
Canonically, I had to have him hold the old Ghost Valley Master, of course. I'll leave the other corpse at this fig's feet on my display shelf.
The hair knot of the old Ghost Valley Master looks like it should fit tightly in Wen Kexing's hand, but it does not. It fits well, shape wise, but it's so loose it doesn't hold at all. I tried using some museum putty, but the putty isn't sticky enough and the cream/white of it shows through. I was going to glue it, but then decided there was enough room to try a sliver of a fig sticker instead, so that's what you see here. This seemed to work perfectly - the fig sticker filled in the loose gap.
The fig maker sure captured that thousand-yard stare. This fig looks as traumatized as Wen Kexing looked in the show.
No printed box for this one, but we do have a box card:
I like the blood red background of Ghost Valley the fig maker has here.
Speaking of the Ghost Valley, the background to my header picture actually is Ghost Valley. It's from the official art book / photo book from the show. I wanted to take a pic against the burning tree, but the photo in the book was too small.
We'll have a happier fig post tomorrow, I promise!
Material: Resin and the bodies and blood of his enemies
Fig Count: 392
Scene Count: 27
Rating: Sometimes karma comes in the form of Wen Kexing
I think something that gets me so much about Wen Kexing in Word of Honor, is his line "It's too late." He uses it twice when Zhou Zishu is going on about how he's finally found Zhen Yan again, and then a few more times when Shen Shen confronts him about his parents. At that point, he cries out in despair- "They're both dead, along with Zhen Yan." And it's just so completely gutting.
I have a unique experience of being betrayed, of my family being hurt, by people who I trusted, who formed a large part of my community, my identity, and who I thought would help us in time of need. It led to such a horrible traumatic experience, for all of us. And it does feel like a part of me has died. I keep meeting people who are part of this community (and have nothing to do with the others) and they still believe in it and wonder why I don't. But the reality is, I don't have the ability to anymore. I suspect I will regard this community with distrust and skepticism for years to come. It is indeed too late. The part of me that believed is long gone, replaced with anger and trauma that will never fully heal.
I am in a unique position to understand why Wen Kexing had such a burning desire to burn the world down and himself along with it. Because sometimes, all you want to do after such a horrible betrayal is hurt the ones who hurt you. Calling them dogs and demons doesn't even faze me. Even though there is good people in the mix, they didn't do anything to help and so they're going to be part of the pyre too.
So at the end of the series, when Wen Kexing takes his revenge on Zhao Jing, and calls out the Jianghu for namedropping his father but not helping them, it gives me a very sick sense of satisfaction. That's what I wish I could do as well, but I can only engage in the catharsis that fiction allows.
Wen Kexing is a fucked up little guy. But he's my fucked up little guy. And I understand him perfectly.
I'm out on the edge and I'm screaming my name,
Like a fool at the top of my lungs,
Sometimes when I close my eyes I pretend I'm alright,
But it's never enough.
i mean i already knew this but ep 31 is further proof that wkx was right all along, all these sect people esp those in the five lakes alliances are just massive hypocrites. they preach about righteousness and goodness and laud themselves as such when all the while they’re coldheaterdly doing unsavory things behind closed doors—things that they accuse those from the ghost valley for indiscriminately. when in reality, the only difference between the two groups is that people from ghost valley who actually commit crimes/does nasty things are doing so out in the open and are harshly punished for it while the rest of the people from the other sects does it covertly and then pin the blame on the easiest/most convenient target to escape justice/persecution. and yet the latter had the gall to condemn and even want to eradicate literally everyone from the ghost valley, even though there are also people who were only driven to live there because the rest of the society ostracized them for some reason or other (most times unjustly so even).
We’re doing a Ghost Valley zine!! I don’t know how many word of honor fans are here that aren’t on twitter, but if any of you are interested in owning or being in a zine focused on Ghost Valley, make sure to keep an eye on this twitter account. :)
What's killing me is that ppl that don't know me are contacting me and the first introduction is seeing the ghost Valley Master. Like it's truly POSITIVELY KILLING ME THAT THEY FIND THIS PERSON WITH A MALEVOLENT GRIN on his beautiful face with cultivator robes and fluent black hair. And they go: what a peculiar person