#cql!lwj is actually perfect | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

accio-victuuri · 6 days

Text

follow up clowning related to gg’s weibo post from here. a reminder first that i don’t think everything has to mean something and most of the time what they post is just plain and simple. we are clowns, so we will speculate but that doesn’t mean we have to find some candy for every content they post before we can enjoy & appreciate it. for example, we also think that the reason GG is doing these solar terms right now, while he is filming LoZ is in the synopsis of the drama, his character is the son of the “director of the Imperial Observatory of the Great Yong Kingdom” , that’s the english translation. but the key here in the original text is this word: 钦天监 [qīn tiān jiàn].

what is it? thank you to good old baidu for always having the answer:

Qin Tianjian is the signature of an official whose function is to observe celestial phenomena, calculate solar terms, and formulate calendars.

calculating solar terms. so that could be the connection he is hinting at that is somehow significant to the character he is playing. makes sense right?

this is not me washing anyone’s candy. i’m only laying out alternative explanations cause that’s how i do things. lol. the addition i have seen going around is kadian related and i’m not a kadian girlie so i was blocking it out when i first saw it. 😅😅😅

okay, now let’s go to the cpn. ⬇️⬇️⬇️

the post he made is his 1085th on weibo. oh what a good number, like a mashup between their birthdays. and the kadian that was used 191919. which means still still still. or you can concentrate on the repeated use of the number 999 ( In Chinese, nine is pronounced jiu, which also means “long lasting.” As the highest single digit, it represents the maximum level of mortal happiness, longevity, and good luck. A perfect ten is reserved for the gods. Case in point: in respect to the Heavens, the Forbidden City in Beijing has 9999.5 rooms, just short of a flawless 10,000. )

who is saying still too? forever with who? wang yibo. based on my first post about it, his use of that word 谷雨 that also came up in LTS lyrics.

another coincidence is that in the song itself, the word comes up in the 0:19 mark. 👀

commemorating the anniversary of when he followed yibo on weibo, 4/20/2018 so he posted on the eve of that day. maybe he is celebrating something else that only the two of them know and it’s not necessarily something as mundane as following a person on weibo. who knows. however, it’s on the bxg calendar so we are marking that down as a possible reason. 📝

i love this explanation tho, that goes back to that actual day years ago and what happened. it was the 5th day of filming CQL and they did not have scenes together, so why did he pay attention and followed him? he was filming the scene in the burial mounds, WWX was drunk and reminiscing about when he first met LWJ. WWX misses LWJ cause he is not there. Was XZ also missing WYB that time? to the point that he went to his weibo account and followed him?

it’s not a secret that XZ prefers it when WYB is there, not only to act with, but just there for him. plus this level of attachment on the 5th day of filming is not surprising when it comes to them.

finally, the imagery of the rain when it comes to them is one that holds some meaning. much like how we fixate on the stars and moon. photos below to show some of those relations to the rain. ☔️

and that lrlg conversation they had that went:

XZ: "I'm waiting for you"

WYB: "I'll come and have dinner with you when it rains”

XZ: "Tomorrow's meal"

WYB: "Then tomorrow"

before we end, i’ll add this quote that seems to fit the whole subject of rain:

"Because it rains so often, many important things in life seem to have happened in the rain. Those memories are now uncovered and still feel wet. Even if they dry, they are like a book soaked in water, with ripples on the paper that are difficult to calm down."

sources aside from the ones directly linked: one / two / three / four 💛

#yizhan #bjyx #there is no science here i’m just clowning like i always do

70 notes · View notes

mqfx · 6 months

Note

ooh! quan yizhen, lwj, and jyl?

OHOHOHO these are getting tougher (cracks my knuckies) let's go

qyz: his secondary godhood would probably be as the god of street fighters. catch these hands no jutsu, no weapons needed, BRAWLIN. i bet u i BET u there are fight clubs in his honor and not only does he tolerate these but he actually joins in and it's wholesome nosebreaking fun for all involved but he actually knows to hold back his strength against humans. also kids really love his autism swag i speak from experience the children crave specific and detailed violence and he's the perfect guy to ask questions bc he's not like "auuhhh u shouldn't know this" he is fully like "these are the deadliest points of attack" walks them through it and they cackle with glee

lwj: speaking of autism swag. whenever he has a new composition he takes it up to the rabbits and plays it for them, gauges their reactions, then amends his pieces accordingly. nobody really knows how he can tell what the rabbits think or how it affects the process but there's no denying he's the most prolific musician in the whole realm so who's gonna stop him? like on the list of many many hanguang-jun achievements you'll see the typical stuff and then you're like..... HE COMPOSED MULTIPLE OPERAS??? and he's like "mn" "THEE HANGUANG-JUN?" "mn (with feeling)" and they're all the sappiest most heartfelt sweeping romances of all time like instant classics and at first you're like "he does NOT seem like the type??" but then remember like, the entire plot of cql, and then it's like "oh duh"

jyl: before jc was born, madame yu was gonna raise her as the heir of jiang sect, inheritance rules be fucked and all. because of that she actually had a decent grasp of how to run an estate / diplomacy / many responsibilities you'd expect from that role. nothing legendary, but respectable especially for her age at the time. i know canon says that she was mid in cultivation and all other respects but i really think she would've been excellent at calligraphy and poetry, madam yu just had unrealistic bullshit standards. other things she was good at but can't be put on the marriage profile i guess: making things out of reeds, making bracelets and tassels, birdcalls, singing, and front flips

#hewwo #tgcf #qyz #cql #lwj #jyl #sad that there's not as much material to work with for these three...... yeah even lwj in the books #but that's what i'm here for lol #asks #anonymous #ask game

8 notes · View notes

admirableadmiranda · 2 years

Note

I don't think LXC hated WWX either. But people argue he stopped him from confessing his love for LWJ at the temple. I think he might have been a little embarrassed by WWXs confession and that is why he said it.

Do you think he quietly shipped them in WWXs first life?

People have rather a lot to say about Lan Xichen at the guanyin temple, much of it at this point regurgitated nonsense that completely fails to understand what is going on there because he is currently fandom's favorite villain now that bashing Jiang Yanli has lost its flavor. I'm sure eventually they'll get bored once people realize that the Lan Xichen they're talking about does not actually exist and move onto someone else who apparently is not morally perfect enough for this somehow black and white victim vs villain story.

But enough salt. I am here to be a balanced blog which means I'm going to talk about what he likely feels based on the text we are given.

I do think he is somewhat mortified by Wei Wuxian screaming that he wanted to have sex with Lan Wangji, it is not exactly the sort of thing you can prepare yourself to hear. In addition, while I am all right making somewhat dirty jokes with my family and alluding to the fact that I have a sex life, talking about it frankly in front of people is rather further than I or they would want me to go, which is where Wei Wuxian is starting.

Also note that Wei Wuxian is not actually stopped, they just go in out of the rain, Jin Ling and Lan Xichen give them what privacy they can (people who want to insist that they're being homophobic here can go eat rotten eggs, they are all being held hostage in an open temple with nowhere to go, what else are they supposed to do to convey that Wangxian can have their moment to talk?) and then Wei Wuxian goes right back to telling Lan Wangji that he loves him.

As for your second question, do I think he quietly shipped them in the background? Also nope. He had no idea what was going on. No one did. He only found out when Lan Wangji turned his sword on his own clanmates to protect Wei Wuxian, when Lan Wangji no longer cared about anyone knowing and was willing to kill to keep Wei Wuxian alive.

There is a very strong belief in the fandom that someone must have known that Wangxian had feelings for each other in Wei Wuxian's first life. I see it given to Jiang Yanli, I see it given to Wen Qing, I see it given to Lan Xichen. I'm not sure where it comes from. Even in CQL where they are supposedly good friends in their first life, people still seem to think that they don't actually get along depending on the episode. It is a wholly fanon created thing.

I made a post once calling the juniors the first people to actually see Wangxian as a couple in the novel and my opinion will not budge on that. Everyone assumed something about their feelings that did not match with reality, one of the many themes of assumptions about people's relationships and characters not matching up with reality in the book. No one else knew earlier on that their feelings were reciprocated or in most cases even existed, no one quietly shipped them in the background. Were there no resurrection, Lan Wangji would have likely been assumed to be above relationships with no interests because the one person he ever wanted was dead and gone.

Lan Xichen was not being homophobic or trying to stop Wei Wuxian from confessing in the temple. He was also not shipping Wangxian. He was doing what he consistently does throughout the novel, trying to look out for his little brother, because above all else, he will always choose Lan Wangji first.

Thanks for the ask!

#mdzs #wangxian #lan wangji #wei wuxian #lan xichen #proud lan stan who can read the book #asks #anon #anon asks #salty on a monday

64 notes · View notes

coffeeandritalin · 2 years

Text

Okay so a really stupid thought just randomly popped into my head.

Apparently, Wang Yibo really likes vinegar. (I think it has something to do with a cold remedy and he became accustomed to it and just really likes it? If anyone remembers the actual backstory, please share it.) Like there was an episode of DDU where he made smashed cucumber and just legitimately drowned the dish in vinegar. (To be fair, afterward, he also agreed he added too much. But during prep, he was like, ‘yeah~! All the vinegar! Plus, I’m not the one eating the dish…’)

The point is, the boy likes his vinegar, and the fact that everything beautiful in the universe converged to have him play the role of jealous boi LWJ is just poetic to me.

Now, I’m just imagining this kid walking into CQL auditions like…

Casting people: “Share a fun fact about yourself.”

WYB: “Well, I really, really like vinegar.”

Casting people checking the the character description for LWJ: “We have the perfect role for you.”

#cql #cql lwj #the untamed #jealous lwj is jealous

5 notes · View notes

colorisbyshe · 2 years

Note

Previous anon here, I did not mean that WWX wasn't a victim but rather he wasn't a perfect victim like that in Untamed nor did I mean that JGY isn't a gross villain but I was rather commenting on how Untamed presents/introduceds things in contrast to the novel. Sorry if I come off as aggressive or rude 😅

Before I go on about how MDZS ends, I think it is important to talk about the worldbuilding, so cultivators are certainly the elite but their influence comes from the money collected by what is essentially ghost-hunting and protecting non cultivators from hauntings , they are not exactly feudal lords who rule over people or collect taxes but have areas of influence (I am mentioning this because a lot of people have misconceptions ) . So the position of cultivators in the society of MDZS is essentially that of a protector but of course they are pretty self absorbed and normal people are dissatisfied with them and we get to see their plights and complainints throughout the story .( I think it is difficult to get an idea about this by watching the Untamed where the sole focus is on the four great clans but nonetheless ). The ending of MDZS is bleak in the sense that it doesn't actually provide an exact solution as to how can the whole cultivation world be changed but it ends with WWX and LWJ removing themselves from the larger cultivation world and travelling the world, helping with ghost hauntings regardless of money and other stuff, basically working on cases the rest of the cultivation world doesn't do and ofcourse teaching the juniors. iirc the position of chief cultivator post canon doesn't exists as such as it was started by the Jins in the first place and they are shown to be pretty much doomed, there's certainly no mention of another chief cultivator

No, no, we're mostly on the same side! I'm saying even in both the OG text and CQL, I think both try to a make WWX as perfect a victim as they can. My point wasn't that you're saying JGY isn't gross or that WWX isn't a victim, rather that I think CQL and what I can tell about the OG text from the manhua... are more similar than you're maybe portraying. Like I think WWX still is a rather perfect victim even when he is the one to more directly kill everyone rather than it coming from JGY's meddling because his killing is justified.

And, yeah, I think the canon ending is a bit better than the one in the untamed buuut I also think it feels as much as a cheap dodge of providing a solution as the untamed does. Like... they're still fighting for justice on the small problem but it still seems like both are going "the institution itself cannot be fixed, so we'll just fuck off and do our own thing" whereas the untamed is like "the institution itself cannot be fixed, but maybe LWJ will reach immortal status and the liberal leader won't be too bad" and it's like... neither decide to like... overhaul the system?

I think in a lot of ways, the story comes up short on actually providing solutions. Which is fine, a story doesn't have to fix the world to be worth telling, but with "justice" being such a major theme in the story, the kind of lackluster solution is a bit *fart noise*

But at the end of the day I think I came to this story the most for good character building (which is present for the characters that matter but IMO was better in the untamed), good character dynamics (yup, in spades), and then I was surprised by pretty good themes, which it didn't always stick the landing on but did decently in at least invoking good parallels and very poetic statements.

0 notes

ocdhuacheng · 4 years

Text

cql!lwj is literally the perfect man

#.txt #mdzs #mdzs lb #cql lb #yes i am excluding novel!lwj from the perfect man category #i do like novel!lwj but hes too much of a seme fantasy for me to deal with #cql!lwj is actually perfect #wwx is also perfect but at a different wavelength #no i will not elaborate #for now

1 note · View note

watch-grok-brainrot · 4 years

Text

I headcanon once wwx and lwj settle into utter domesticity wwx starts low-key pranking lwj. He once filled lwj's teacup so that it's literally brimming with liquid (see image) and lwj just picked it up without looking and drank the tea. Lwj spilled zero drops. Wwx realized lwj didn't spill because lwj's hand is that steady and lwj's cultivation is that high. Wwx loved lwj more for it. So wwx continues to overfill the tea cups to admire his man's skills.

One day he realizes he could overfill everything: soup bowls, buckets of bath water, teapots. So wwx does. And lwj knows exactly what wwx is doing but indulges him. Wwx especially loves overfilling bath water buckets because those are heavy and watching lwj use his arms makes wwx weak in the knees.

Unfortunately, wwx also gives zero fucks about anyone else and he makes it a habit of overfilling everyone's vessels. Soon, drinking tea handed over by senior Wei without spilling becomes a rite of passage for Cloud Recesses disciples: until your cultivation is strong enough such that you spill no drops while you're focusing on the cup, you can't go on night hunts.

Lsz pass the first try. Ljy missed the first night hunt after the rule was passed because he was laughing too hard at everyone else struggling.

302 notes · View notes

ouyangzizhensdad · 2 years

Note

I saw a few posts recently about how in XuanWu Cave LWJ biting WWX is supposed to be LWJ getting possessive/jealous/marking WWX and one of MXTX’s weird kinks. I wanted to know how you interpret that scene? I honestly think the scene is not meant to be interpreted as “hot” at all. I think it was LWJ’s last resort in the moment, after an Extremely Stressful Time™, to get WWX to just leave him alone. Obviously biting someone is not okay lmao but LWJ is very clearly having major emotional dysregulation based on how he snaps at WWX. I feel like saying this whole scene is only based on how he is jealous really ignores the uhhhh fucking war plot??? And how they got to this situation in the first place??? (The only thing I can think of the biting scene being intended as “romantic” is as a play on the phrase 啮臂之盟, lit. bite an arm to make an oath, usually used as a promise to get married, via BaiDu. But this is more tongue-in-cheek than actual subtext IMO)

(Part 2 to the Cave/Biting ask, salty edition) Also if antis say this scene is OOC for LWJ I will lose my mind. It’s not my favorite scene in the book nor is it particularly notable but it’s not OOC. In WWX’s first life LWJ is shown since their first meeting to be unable to control his emotions and actions as well as he wants to!!! Their first interaction is literally a sword fight. And then this happens again in the Library Pavillion, the XuanWu Cave, etc. LWJ’s knee jerk reaction (after trying to ignore his issues, which is also not healthy might I add) when super frustrated seems to be drawing his sword which obviously directly goes against everyone’s view of him as perfect and regulated etc. LWJ reacts with violence where it’s inappropriate and better to communicate multiple times! Which leads to WWX thinking LWJ doesn’t like him! Of course LWJ gets better at controlling his reactions as he gets older but damn. And some of these fight scenes were kept in for CQL??? I don’t understand the disconnect TBH. God forbid HanGuang-Jun has a Character Flaw that ties into the plot and themes of the story.

Hi anon,

While the novel does show that lwj can get bite-y during kisses and sex, I think it is a tenuous argument to suggest that the scene in the Tulu Xuanwu cave is meant to be read as having sexual undertones or to understand it as the mere expression of a character’s ‘kink’ or preferences.The context of it, as well as the headspace of the characters--particularly lwj--simply do not allow for that reading to be well-supported. It feels a little bit like, I don’t know, trying to argue that, in any context, if lwj ties a rope or a bit of fabric, it has got to be sexual, even if it is tying his own forehead ribbon in the morning.

As you mention, some people have pointed out that a potential reading of the scene relates to “ 啮臂之盟” and works as a declaration. This was never confirmed by mxtx, but mxtx famously prefers to let readers interpret the text and rarely confirms these sorts of interpretations so it might be what she intended.

That being said, while this interpretation might still partly be true, if we look at the scene in context, to me it really seems as if lwj means to mark wwx for the sake of marking his memory.

Prior and after being locked in the cave, lwj sees wwx acting ‘frivolously’ towards both him and MianMianm, including wwx trying to shock him by stripping. This leads lwj to grow somewhat resentful. Based on what he says to wwx, it is clear that lwj finds himself in turmoil when he is on the receiving end of wwx’s teasing and attentions, having to remind remind himself that he is not ‘special’, that wwx does not have these intentions, that this is just how wwx acts (which 😥 no hgj you were special you were the most specialest, he was really flirting with you he just didn’t realise that’s what he was doing). I think, to anyone who has had (or thought they had) an unrequited love, that feeling of frustration is easy to understand; how hard it can be to keep your hopes in check when the person you like seems to treat you in a special way when that’s actually just the way they personally are towards many if not most people.

“Lan Zhan, you really are so strange today,” Wei Wuxian began, once more. “You’re so rude. And you are not talking like yourself either.”

“If you do not have those intentions, then do not flirt with others. You are doing as you please yet others will end up in turmoil.”

The conversation is also preceded by to the topic of “brands”; that having something remain on your body can work as a representation, a reminder. In this case, it becomes clear that wwx having a mark on his body will remind him of having saved a guniang, and will ensure that the guniang herself never forgets him. This leads lwj, who has been shouldering with a stiff lip quite a lot of emotional turmoil since the wen attacked the cr, to lash out and get angry at wwx for this very fact, to the point of physically shoving him.

Lan Wangji’s face was dark. A moment later, he replied, “If you know it hurts, do not be so rash next time.”

“It’s not like I had any other choice, did I? Do you think I enjoy being burned? Who would’ve known that Wang Lingjiao is that heartless? She almost pressed the iron into her eye. MianMian is a girl, and quite a pretty one, at that. If she were blind in an eye or her face scarred, she would have to bear it for the rest of her life. How bad would that be?”

“The thing on your body right now will remain for the rest of your life as well,” Lan Wangji spoke in a thin voice.

“That’s different. It’s not on my face. And I’m a man—what am I scared of? In a man’s life, how could he not get a few wounds and earn a few scars?”

His upper body bare, he was squatting on the ground as he picked up a branch and poked at the flames. “And, if you consider it from another perspective, even though this will never disappear from my body, it represents the fact that I protected a guniang. And the guniang will definitely remember me after this. She won’t be able to forget me for the rest of her life. Now that I think about it, it’s actually quite—”

Suddenly, Lan Wangji shoved him hard, raging.

“So you also know that she will not be able to forget you for the rest of her life!”

Then, just before lwj starts biting wwx, we get the following line that is actually an idiom in chinese ( 好了伤疤忘了痛 ).

Somehow, Wei Wuxian had moved beside him again and sat down, speaking without a care for the consequences [...] Lan Wangji glanced at him, a person who seemed to forget all past pain as soon as the wounds had healed. Just as Wei Wuxian was about to give him a large grin, he suddenly saw Lan Wangji lower his head [...] Lan Wangji was buried into the crescent of his elbow, biting firmly into his arm.

While in this case, it can be taken very literally: that, indeed, as soon as wwx stops feeling the pain of lwj’s earlier shove, he already starts moving back near him. However the idiom also has a more metaphorical sense of forgetting past difficulties once the situation improves which--isn’t this coincidentally quite a good illustration of wwx?

That being said, if we remain in a more literal interpretation, and we think back to the discussion regarding the brands and remembering, the bite can be interpreted as lwj trying to force wwx to remember him--to leave him with a brand of his own, although it is one that will fade away. Perhaps, to a degree, to force wwx to think about lwj just as much as lwj is incapable of escaping thoughts about wwx, if only for a short while.

I think, through this reading, lwj’s ensuing “thank you”s make sense; having relieved this frustration in his heart, these stifled hopes of his, that the quick-forgotten shove had not managed to truly put to rest. That this is enough to defuse some of his more recent frustration. So that’s the interpretation I lean more toward, although of course there is nothing that makes it impossible to have both 啮臂之盟 and 好了伤疤忘了痛 coexist--characters’ actions can have more than a single motivation! And there are potentially other interpretations possible that I simply have not personally thought of.

Now, does that mean that lwj is jealous? Kinda, yeah? It’s not a secret that lwj experiences jealousy during the novel. Big fucking whoop! Some people really took ‘jealousy is not love’ and ‘your lover’s jealousy should never be used as an excuse to control you’ and went ‘if anyone ever feels any jealousy and, god-forbid, ever have any negative feelings or impulsive reactions due to this, they are irredeemable and their love is toxic’. Although we know lwj is jealous at different point in the narrative (rip that poor rock), we only see him act in childish but short-lived ways when he’s very drunk or, in this case, when he is emotionally very fragile, having nearly died after weeks of mistreatment and humiliation, all the while his brother is on the run, his father is dying and his home has been burned down. It’s fine to not like these choices, as part of a romance or otherwise, to question whether they truly bring something to the narrative, the characterisation or the relationship between the characters, but to act like these are big red flags of toxic and problématique behaviour is like... Sure I guess there is no sliding scale between healthy/sainthood and toxic/problématique, and all these people writing these takes must be living examples of the “I have never done anything wrong in my life, ever” meme.

#mdzs meta #lwj #anon ask #mdzs #brine corner

130 notes · View notes

isolatedbubble · 3 years

Text

Romance in MXTX, Priest, and SHL

MXTX: Flower, Wine and Dreamworld

The romance in MXTX's works is like flower that grows in ice and snow; colorful, bright and hopelessly romantic, blossoms in misery and hardships.

It features a distinct "us against the world" mindset, depicting love as the only constant in the world. It's an eternal "dreamworld" detached from worldly matters, the perfect escapism as well as a source of strengths in the face of cruel reality.

Both MDZS and TGCF are a critique of mob mentality.

The contrast between CQL and MDZS is very interesting. While the former ends with LWJ taking charge, and therefore changing the world for the better, the novel ends with wangxian isolating themselves from grand politics and focusing more on helping individuals as recluse. It has an essentially pessimistic attitude towards the morality & intelligence of the collective.

TGCF takes a slightly more optimistic approach, featuring the crowd being courageous under the right circumstances. However, both works share a similar undertone: putting one’s absolute faith in the collective is dangerous, whereas unconditional trust and devotion can be only found in one-to-one connection

MXTX herself compares MDZS and TGCF to 花��一壶酒 (A cup of wine among flowers), MDZS being the wine and TGCF being flower. She also compares MDZS to 风雪夜归人, the person returning home from snow and wind, and TGCF to 红泥小火炉, a small red furnace.

Priest: Breezing Wind and Burning Iron

The romance in priest's works is more complicated. It's the most gentle in its normal state, when it is rational and collected, in which case it's like the breezing wind, soothing, sweet and light-hearted. It gives the individuals more incentive to achieve their individual and/or societal vision, as well as more reason to value their own lives & well-being.

In Faraway Wanderers, the most distinct feature of WenZhou relationship is how in naturally sync they are, and how comfortable & smooth their dynamic is. They both have past burden, but it doesn’t matter, because they bring simple joy, understanding and happiness in each other’s lives.

In Sha Po Lang and The Guardian, the ML’s lingering love for the MC motivates them to become better version of themselves, to care about others, and to form a holistic vision about bettering society.

In The Defective, Lin Jingheng(MC) explicitly said that Lu Bixing(ML) is the only meaning in his life. He had little incentive to care about his own life after his revenge plan fell apart. LBX helped him reconnect with his inner idealism, and gave him a reason value his life.

When the passion and fiery energy manifests itself, however, the romance is like burning iron, blood and fire. It isn’t actually toxic or unhealthy, but it's not pure and innocent either; in this case, it strives for something deeper and more intense, never content with the past or the present. The sheer intensity of relationship is like a double-edged sword, walking the fine line between unconditional devotion and dangerous obsession.

SHL: Spring Water and Healing Open Wounds

The romance in SHL is like "spring water"; it's warm, gentle, nurturing. It breaks through the boundary between individuals to bring the couple closer to each other, taking them back to a utopia of their childhood dream, away from social pressure and responsibility. The theme central to their relationship is “salvation”: how love is able to bring people back to integrity.

Both drama wkx and drama zzs have lots of regret about their past sins and wrongdoings. Four Seasons Manor is essentially a metaphor for purity, acceptance and the safety of childhood home. How to make drama wkx open up and accept this safe harbor as his home is one of the most significant plot-lines of the show.

SHL couple is way more emotionally vulnerable and expressive. A significant part of SHL arc is healing the wounds in an open and honest way. They cuddle and confide in each other way more often, talk about their shameful past and even cry about their regrets in front of one another, which is very rare among MXTX/Priest works.

The heat of the relationship sometimes gets too hot and even burns; in other words, there are constant miscommunications, conflicts and misunderstandings in the relationship. However, they can never let each other go, because it's the only source of warmth left for them in their hopeless lives filled with regrets and guilt.

Similarities and Differences

*Note that this is not a SHL/TYK comparison. TYK is kind of an “unorthodox” priest novel; you will know what I mean if you have read 3+ of her works.

Relationship Dynamic & Narrative:

In MXTX’s works, the concept of “romance” itself is divined; and the characters are illustration of the ideal of “undying love”. People are made for one another, to complete one another. Her works use colorful symbolism (silver butterflies, the emperor’s smile, the 3 thousand lanterns, etc.) to depict this romanticized ideal of love.

For MXTX, the romanticization of “destined love” is one of the most recurring themes of her novels. Therefore, the readers look at their relationship through rose-color glasses. Obsession is usually framed in a jolly & romantic light, and doesn’t feature much tension or stress, and has less negative or unhealthy undertone.

In most of priest’s works and SHL, soulmates are not born but made, so they have to figure out how their relationship works step by step. Therefore the narrative is less of a “rosy picture”.

Priest has a habit of using derogatory terms to describe relationships that are mostly healthy, but somewhat “bloody” and edgy, full of excessive passion and obsession. The most common phrase is “爱生忧怖”, a Buddhist term meaning “love results in worry and fear”.

SHL obviously has to be more subtle in expressing love. That said, drama WenZhou are way more emotionally vulnerable and expressive than their novel counterparts, as well as most Priest & MXTX characters. They have a dramatic falling out once in a while, even towards the end. They barely fit the Chinese definition of Zhiji (to know me/to understand one another), but are “lovers” who are buried deep in their passion instead.

Past, Future and Evolvement:

In SHL, characters are encouraged to treasure past impressions that are thrown in figurative “wrappings”, whose luster is derived from age-old experiences (Psychological Types, Carl Jung). In other words, they are encouraged to root their love in a shared past, a Utopia of innocence.

The contrast between The Defective and Word of Honor is very interesting to observe. Both involve long separation, and the suffering and personality changes hat comes from it. SHL narrative frames their innocent childhood as something to cling to and return to. Drama WKX is encouraged to accept his identity as Four Seasons Manor disciple because it was part of his childhood past. This is a significant part of drama WenZhou relationship.

In The Defective, the narrative doesn't encourage the couple to dwell on the past that much. On the contrary, the all-knowing AI explicitly discouraged the MC from “comparing past to present”. They are advised to accept changes, however painful it might be, and build a better, more equal dynamic out of it, evolving from one-sided pandering to fighting side-by-side.

In Priest’s novels, the characters rarely return to something in the past, but look into the future. Change is usually framed as inherently beneficial, albeit usually painful and rocky, the implication being that you need to constantly strive for something better.

Sha Po Lang is a good example of this, with Gu Yun’s changing attitude towards Chang Geng after he as he matures, gradually showing his intelligence in politics. CG starts referring to GY as Zixi instead of YiFu is also a sign of this change---to see him as equal rather than a parental figure & protector.

The Defective is even more obvious in this regard, with both parties uncomfortable with the change initially, but gradually adjusting to the changes during their 16-year separation. The ML also stops calling MC by his surname “Lin”, as a sign of viewing him as equal.

In MXTX’s works, change in personality or relationship dynamic is neither framed as painful or good. It just happens. It’s a natural flow that take place when it does. Their relationships are rarely challenged by change. They are objectively at a better place compared to their past, but it’s merely the result of a series of events rather than a deliberate choice or struggle.

WangXian’s relationship naturally changes over time after WWX’s rebirth, but neither of them really struggles with the change.

Xie Lian doesn’t even recognize Hua Cheng as the someone from his past, so they start out as friends getting to know each other.

Salvation and Changing one another:

Priest herself stated in an interview that she doesn’t believe in the concept of salvation, since people have the inner capacity to be their own savior. Therefore, priest characters usually don’t actively try to change their partner’s morals or personality. Some might be willingly influenced by their partner, but there’s rarely an element of moral condemnation. Even when there is a conflict between different values, the options are 1) to reconcile them by choosing the middle ground 2) to maintain their independence and tackle it with nuance 3) to break up.

On surface level, Mo Du/Silent Reading is about Luo Wenzhou being Fei Du’s salvation. However, as LWZ pointed out himself, Fei Du would’ve been a good person at heart with or without his influence.

In The Defective, when Lu Bixing mistakenly thought Lin Jingheng stayed in the Eighth Galaxy against his own wishes because of their relationship, and that their priorities are irreconcilable, he even thought about breaking up. Of course he was not serious about it, but this showcased that he would never try to change LJH’s convictions.

In SHL, however, the concept of salvation is central to the theme. Some find it strange that SHL make drama zzs the more “moral” one of the two, despite his action being more objectively questionable. In fact, the only reason he get framed as more “moral” is that he admitted his fault sooner, and therefore could guide drama wkx’s path back to salvation: to recognize the goodness in people, make peace with external world, to clear his name in Jianghu, and to follow due process with his revenge plan to avoid collateral damages.

“I tried to change you, but you end up changing me”, said drama ZZS. This relationship dynamic is never present in any of priest’s works I’ve read. Priest characters don’t *try* to change one another.

Does MXTX believe in salvation? Hard to tell. One could argue that Hua Cheng would have be way more amoral and even immoral if it hadn’t been for XL. This is complicated and is a topic for another time.

However, it is certain that MXTX MCs don’t condemn each other morally. “The orthodox one defending their unorthodox partner in front of the world” is a common wuxia trope, but the way MXTX novels approach it is very different from SHL.

HuaLian never had a serious falling out about being on different sides. Even when they disagree, they respect each other and love each other exactly the way they are. Hua Cheng didn’t approve of Xie Lian saving Mu Qing, but he didn’t interfere with Xie Lian’s decision. Xie Lian feels responsible for helping Shi Qingxuan in Blackwater arc, but he is perfectly fine with HC helping He Xuan keep secrets. In several cases where they have different values, they are able to make it work with ease.

LWJ never *morally* condemned WWX for his action, and never once objected to WWX practicing demonic cultivation after his rebirth. In fact, LWJ never objected to WWX’s morals; in their previous life he was worried about his safety, and struggled with what to do about certain situations due to his family background, but difference in morality is not an issue for them.

The “righteous” one does not feel the need to guide their unorthodox partner or to be their salvation with regards to integrity.

*The similarity & differences part is a bit messy and some points are not fleshed-out. Sorry about that.

**I don’t claim to have the right interpretation. The lens by which we see different styles of romance is ultimately subjective.

#mdzs #tgcf #mxtx #tian ya ke #mdzs meta #word of honor #shl #sha po lang #mo du #can ci pin

213 notes · View notes

llycaons · 1 year

Text

the idea that wwx would be completely integrated into the lan clan postcanon is one of those things that I genuinely understand people being into and respect and can see the appeal of (giving him a home and community that isn’t conditional is great) but personally I just can’t get on board with it. like, it’s about balance, I guess. I’d like to see lwj step out of his comfort zone too I‘d like to see them create something new that suits both of them.

I guess...for me cql is about the triumph of two people who are committed to each other and who make their own way in the world without compromising who they are, who defy the sects and hierarchy to stay true to themselves and their ideals. and this was illustrated so beautifully in the scene where lwj watches xxc and sl walk on together...the two of them united and independent. and lwj clearly wanted that very much and I think that would be most satisfyingly explored in a postcanon scenario where they create their own home. despite the groundwork laid I still don’t think CR the most hospitable environment or community for wwx and the only people who seem to actually like him are teenagers....I’d like him to be in a place he’s welcomed and can feel comfortable in, and not just because people are obeying lwj - isn’t that a conditional acceptance too? starting fresh is hard, but at least they’d be together, unlike every other time wwx needed to start again. and I think that support is what’s going to be the reason this would work this time around. he has a true partner willingly and actively stepping up to do the work

and on a less grand scale, wwx has this personal style he loves and this food he loves and these big expressions of emotion and physicality than he loves and the culture of CR may have changed but for the most part it seems like it hasn’t changed so much to really tolerate wwx’s....personality, ig, and lwj and the juniors being the only ones to encourage or indulge him seems like a really isolating and lonely way to live for him. I really do understand loving CR as his home and wanting to see him grow older in a safe place that he can belong to fully, and he definitely does need a home he can belong to unconditionally I just don’t think CR is the best place for that

#one of the few cql takes I cannot support but I totally get. everyone who loves CR endgame for wx I see you and I salute you #I also think this is more novel vs show thinking bc in the novel his relationship to LP is quite different #and it also ends differently - in the show he actually does leave and when they reunite it's not at CR and it's never stated they'll return #there. and I like that open-endedness #something something freedom vs. belonging #CR was good for lwj in a lot of ways he loves it there #I don't think lwj would ever leave his sect so I like to think they just relocated and went south to run another mini sect in gusu. o #or something? idk. I'm not super opposed to the idea it just doesn't feel perfect #THEY WOULD NOT BE FARMERS #farming is a ton of work and wwx associates it with literally the worst time in his life counting being tortured and being homeless #as a young child #also they are cultivators and teachers. they will cultivate and teach #and maybe adopt some kids. idk #cql txp

3 notes · View notes

vrishchikawrites · 2 years

Note

I'm currently finishing the ubtamed but I was wondering why JC or LWJ didn't take a stand. From what I see, both of them didn't take a stand but JC usually gets more hate for that. However, wouldn't it make sense that JC couldn't hell considering his lack of political influence?

Ignoring LWJ for now because those two aren't even in the same plane of existance. JC has, canonically,

1. Attempted to strangle WWX. Twice.

2. Thrown a fit when WWX saved people.

3. Discouraged WWX from saving people. Or attempted to and failed miserably.

4. Been both classist and homophobic.

5. Hid the fact that he owes Wen Qing and Wen Ning a life-debt and a debt of honor.

6. Let irritation and jealousy compromise his judgement.

7. Stabbed WWX until his guts fell out in a staged fight.

8. Declared WWX the enemy of cultivation world instead of just saying he defected, as they agreed before.

9. Seen a child and a few old people in the BM settlement and led a deadly siege against the settlement anyway.

As for JC and YMJ's circumstances:

1. LP was well on its way to recovery with new cultivators and a good reputation even before WWX defected

2. That reputation and popularity is absolutely because WWX is so terrifyingly powerful, everyone wants in on it.

3. LP didn't burn down like Cloud Recesses did. In fact, Wens left it nearly intact. CR was still under repairs well after WWX died.

4. He had enough political influence. He would have even more influence if he didn't, like an absolute dumbass, throw away the nuclear deterrent.

5. JGS was absolutely driving a wedge between him and WWX, it was so apparent that even a blind person would've been able to see.

6. Him throwing away his little nuclear deterrent actually helped JGS become more powerful. Affection and respect aside, it is an absolute dumbass move to let your most powerful asset walk away.

7. Political influence doesn't pop out of thin air. That would've been the absolute perfect time to establish his political power by, ya know, not letting JGS mess with his ego and brain. What would they do? Attack? With what army? JGS didn't have the balls to go against WWX until he engineered a situation where Lans and Nies were weakened and provoked to the skies.

8. WWX and his little settlement were peacefully exisiting for at least two years and the cultivation world didn't bother to do anything about it. Just what were Jins gonna do if WWX remained in YMJ or JC pulled his big boy pants on and acknowledged a debt?

Finally, to LWJ.

JC is a sect leader of a recovered sect. LWJ is a sect heir with elders, sect leader, and an uncle above him. JC doesn't have to deal with any of these things. Yeah, LXC coddles LWJ and LQR considers him a prized little cabbage, but they have no attachment to WWX or debt owed to the Wens.

They are absolutely not equals in terms of political power, especially not then. It is very likely that LWJ did say something to his brother and uncle and it was discarded but that is speculation. My comments about LWJ's lack of action during the BM days isn't about him not standing up against the cultivation world. It has more to do with what he could've done to help WWX and the Wens on a personal level. That's it.

When it comes to culpability and responsibility, JC comes of worse.

You're comparing a murderer attacking with a knife to a bystander witness.

Finally, The Untamed butchered the story. This is me being bored enough to correct erroneous takes from CQL and a fandom strangely obssessed with a canon antagonist. Take it how you will.

You can find all of this in the novel, btw.

#reader asks #re: jc #re: lwj

97 notes · View notes

pumpkinpaix · 3 years

Note

hello there, hope you're having a nice day <3

so i've been reading a lot of fics lately, uk for sanity's sake, and i've noticed that in most of them, lwj doesn't use contractions (eg., says do not instead of don't)?? and i think he doesn't in the novel either but i don't remember lol so i can't be sure but anyway that made me curious - does chinese have contractions as well? does he not use it bc it's informal?

hello there! I’m doing all right, i started to answer this ask while waiting for a jingyeast loaf to come out of the oven 😊 many thanks to @bookofstars for helping me look over/edit/correct this post!! :D

anyways! the answer to your questions are complicated (of course it is when is anything simple with me), so let’s see if I can break it down--you’re asking a) whether chinese has contractions, b) if it does, how does they change the tone of the sentence--is it similar to english or no?, and c) how does this all end up with lan wangji pretty much never using contractions in english fic/translation?

I’m gonna start by talking about how formality is (generally) expressed in each language, and hopefully, by the end of this post, all the questions will have been answered in one way or another. so: chinese and english express variations in formality/register differently, oftentimes in ways that run contrary to one another. I am, as always, neither a linguist nor an expert in chinese and english uhhh sociological grammar? for lack of a better word. I’m speaking from my own experience and knowledge :D

so with a character like lan wangji, it makes perfect sense in english to write his dialogue without contractions, as contractions are considered informal or colloquial. I don’t know if this has changed in recent years, but I was always taught in school to never use contractions in my academic papers.

However! not using contractions necessarily extends the length of the sentence: “do not” takes longer to say than “don’t”, “cannot” is longer than “can’t” etc. in english, formality is often correlated with sentence length: the longest way you can say something ends up sounding the most formal. for a very simplified example, take this progression from least formal to absurdly formal:

whatcha doin’?

what’re you doing?

what are you doing? [standard colloquial]

may I ask what you are doing?

might I inquire as to what you are doing?

excuse me, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

pardon my intrusion, but might I inquire as to what you are doing?

please pardon my intrusion, but might inquire as to the nature of your current actions?

this is obviously a somewhat overwrought example, but you get the point. oftentimes, the longer, more complex, more indirect sentence constructions indicate a greater formality, often because there is a simultaneous decreasing of certainty. downplaying the speaker’s certainty can show deference (or weakness) in english, while certainty tends to show authority/confidence (or aggression/rudeness).

different words also carry different implications of formality—in the example, I switched “excuse me” to “pardon me” during one of the step ups. pardon (to me at least) feels like a more formal word than “excuse”. Similarly, “inquire” is more formal than “ask” etc. I suspect that at least some of what makes one word seem more formal than one of its synonyms has to do with etymology. many of english’s most formal/academic words come from latin (which also tends to have longer words generally!), while our personal/colloquial words tend to have germanic origins (inquire [latin] vs ask [germanic]).

you’ll also notice that changing a more direct sentence structure (“may I ask what”) to a more indirect one (“might I inquire as to”) also jumps a register. a lot of english is like this — you can complicate simple direct sentences by switching the way you use the verbs/how many auxiliaries you use etc.

THE POINT IS: with regards to english, more formal sentence structures are often (not always) longer and more indirect than informal ones. this leads us to a problem with a character like lan wangji.

lan wangji is canonically very taciturn. if he can express his meaning in two words rather than three, then he will. and chinese allows for this—in extreme ways. if you haven’t already read @hunxi-guilai’s post on linguistic register (in CQL only, but it’s applicable across the board), I would start there because haha! I certainly do Not have a degree in Classical Chinese lit and she does a great job. :D

you can see from the examples that hunxi chose that often, longer sentences tend to be more informal in chinese (not always, which I’ll circle back to at the end lol). Colloquial chinese makes use of helping particles to indicate tone and meaning, as is shown in wei wuxian’s dialogue. and, as hunxi explained, those particles are largely absent from lan wangji’s speech pattern. chinese isn’t built of “words” in the way English is—each character is less a word and more a morpheme—and the language allows for a lot of information to be encoded in one character. a single character can often stand for a phrase within a sentence without sacrificing either meaning or formality. lan wangji makes ample use of this in order to express himself in the fewest syllables possible.

so this obviously leads to an incongruity when trying to translate his dialogue or capture his voice in English: shorter sentences are usually more direct by nature, and directness/certainty is often construed as rudeness -- but it might seem strange to see lan wangji’s dialogue full of longer sentences while the narration explicitly says that he uses very short sentences. so what happens is that many english fic writers extrapolated this into creating an english speech pattern for lan wangji that reads oddly. they’ll have lan wangji speak in grammatically incoherent fragments that distill his intended thought because they’re trying to recreate his succinctness. unfortunately, English doesn’t have as much freedom as Chinese does in this way, and it results in lan wangji sounding as if he has some kind of linguistic impediment and/or as if he’s being unspeakably rude in certain situations. In reality, lan wangji’s speech is perfectly polite for a young member of the gentry (though he’s still terribly rude in other ways lol). he speaks in full, and honestly, quite eloquent sentences.

hunxi’s post already has a lot of examples, but I figure I’ll do one as well focused on the specifics of this post.

I’m going to use this exchange from chapter 63 between the twin jades because I think it’s a pretty simple way to illustrate what I’m talking about:

蓝曦臣道：“你亲眼所见？”

蓝忘机道：“他亲眼所见。”

蓝曦臣道：“你相信他？”

蓝忘机道：“信。”

[...] 蓝曦臣道：“那么金光瑶呢？”

蓝忘机道：“不可信。”

my translation:

Lan Xichen said, “You saw it with your own eyes?”

Lan Wangji said, “He saw it with his own eyes.”

Lan Xichen said, “You believe him?”

Lan Wangji said, “I believe him.”

[...] Lan Xichen said, “Then what about Jin Guangyao?”

Lan Wangji said, “He cannot be believed.”

you can see how much longer the (pretty literal) english translations are! every single line of dialogue is expanded because things that can be omitted in chinese cannot be omitted in english without losing grammatical coherency. i‘ll break a few of them down:

Lan Xichen’s first line:

你 (you) 亲眼 (with one’s own eyes) 所 (literary auxiliary) 见 (met/saw)？

idk but i love this line a lot lmao. it just has such an elegant feel to me, probably because I am an uncultured rube. anyways, you see here that he expressed his full thought in five characters.

if I were to rewrite this sentence into something much less formal/much more modern, I might have it become something like this:

你是自己看见的吗？

你 (you) 是 (to be) 自己 (oneself) 看见 (see) 的 (auxiliary) 吗 (interrogative particle)？

i suspect that this construction might even be somewhat childish? I’ve replaced every single formal part of the sentence with a more colloquial one. instead of 亲眼 i’ve used 自己, instead of 所见 i’ve used 看见的 and then also added an interrogative particle at the end for good measure (吗). To translate this, I would probably go with “Did you see it yourself?”

contained in this is also an example of how one character can represent a whole concept that can also be represented with two characters: 见 vs 看见. in this example, both mean “to see”. we’ll see it again in the next example as well:

in response to lan xichen’s, “you believe him?” --> 你 (you) 相信 (believe) 他 (him)? lan wangji answers with, “信” (believe).

chinese does not do yes or no questions in the same way that english does. there is no catch-all for yes or no, though there are general affirmative (是／有) and negative (不／没) characters. there are other affirmative/negative characters, but these are the ones that I believe are the most common and also the ones that you may see in response to yes or no questions on their own. (don’t quote me on that lol)

regardless, the way you respond to a yes or no question is often by repeating the verb phrase either in affirmative or negative. so here, when lan xichen asks if lan wangji believes wei wuxian, lan wangji responds “believe”. once again, you can see that one character can stand in for a concept that may also be expressed in two characters: 信 takes the place of 相信. lan wangji could have responded with “相信” just as well, but, true to his character, he didn’t because he didn’t need to. this is still a complete sentence. lan wangji has discarded the subject (I), the object (him), and also half the verb (相), and lost no meaning whatsoever. you can’t do this in english!

and onto the last exchange:

lan xichen: 那么 (then) 金光瑶 (jin guangyao) 呢 (what about)？

lan wangji: 不可 (cannot) 信 (believe)

you can actually see the contrast between the two brothers’ speech patterns even in this. lan xichen’s question is not quite as pared down as it could be. if it were wangji’s line instead, I would expect it to read simply “金光瑶呢？” which would just be “what about jin guangyao?” 那么 isn’t necessary to convey the core thought -- it’s just as how “then what about” is different than “what about”, but “then” is not necessary to the central question. if we wanted to keep the “then” aspect, you could still cut out 么 and it would be the same meaning as well.

a FINAL example of how something can be cut down just because I think examples are helpful:

“I don’t know” is usually given as 我不知道. (this is what nie huaisang says lol) It contains subject (我) and full verb (知道). you can pare this straight down to just 不知 and it would mean the same thing in the correct context. i think most of the characters do this at least once? it sounds more literary -- i don’t know that i would ever use it in everyday speech, but the fact remains that it’s a possibility. both could be translated as “I do not know” and it would be accurate.

ANYWAYS, getting all the way back to one of your original questions: does chinese have contractions? and the answer is like... kind of...?? but not really. there’s certainly slang/dialect variants that can be used in ways that are reminiscent of english contractions. the example I’m thinking of is the character 啥 (sha2) which can be used as slang in place of 什么 (shen2 me). (which means “what”)

so for a standard sentence of, 你在做什么? (what are you doing), you could shorten down to just 做啥? and the second construction is less formal than the first, but they mean the same thing.

other slang i can think of off the top of my head: 干嘛 (gan4 ma2) is also informal slang for “what are you doing”. and i think this is a regional thing, but you can also use 搞 (gao3) and 整 (zheng3) to mean “do” as well.

so in the same way that you can replace 什么 with 啥, you can replace 做 as well to get constructions like 搞啥 (gao3 sha2) and 整啥 (zheng3 sha2).

these are all different ways to say “what are you doing” lmao, and in this case, shorter is not, in fact, more formal.

woo! we made it to the end! I hope it was informative and helpful to you anon. :D

this is where I would normally throw my ko-fi, but instead, I’m actually going to link you to this fundraising post for an old fandom friend of mine. her house burned down mid-september and they could still use help if anyone can spare it! if this post would have moved you to buy me a ko-fi, please send that money to her family instead. :) rbs are also appreciated on the post itself. (* ´▽` *)

anyways, here’s the loaf jingyeast made :3 it was very tasty.

#mdzs #mdzs meta #the untamed #the untamed meta #lan wangji #lan wangji meta #mine #mymeta #linguistics #chinese #english #cyan chinese school #cyan help desk #languages #contractions #register #look man idk how am i gonna tag this #*yeets into the void*

1K notes · View notes

franniebanana · 2 years

Text

CQL Rewatch - Ep 34

Note: I will be critical of Jiang Cheng in these posts. If you can’t handle that, please feel free to scroll on.

It actually really bothers me that they played his fear of dogs for laughs here. Aside from it being super over the top and ridiculous, it also is not in line with the tone they've used in the past to deal with Wei Wuxian's crippling fear of canines. If the writers/directors can't take it seriously in this episode, then why should we take it seriously every time it comes up? I honestly hate it. It's never dealt with in this same manner again, so this just feels really tone deaf to the rest of the show. Like, I can't believe that the episode that started with Wei Wuxian killing himself ended with him comically running away from Fairy. The comedy was not needed, CQL team. It was not.

Only good thing about this scene, guys. Sweet, sweet wangxian. I will accept wangxian togetherness under any circumstance, and 99.999% of the time, it improves the scene. I'll even look past the silly way that Lan Wangji flips in the air to get to Wei Wuxian.

I absolutely delight in how Wei Wuxian plays along with this guy and his talk about the man-eating bunker, only to mock him by saying that if no one made it out alive, how does anyone know any of it really happened? It's kind of Sherlock Holmes meets dad joke or something. I also find it interesting how much of the conversation is going on while the camera is focusing on Lan Wangji. We get to see him listening, observing, working through the problem as it unfolds before him. Wei Wuxian is the talker, he's good at getting information (as well as solving puzzles, of course), but Lan Wangji's skill is definitely in observation and character-reading. Also part of me thinks he's a bit impressed to see Wei Wuxian really stepping up and taking charge of this situation. Perhaps he thinks that Wei Wuxian has changed--grown up a little--since they last met.

Ahahahaha! That smirk! Lan Wangji, I don't think you're supposed to mock people! I'm sorry, but I forgot about this little look after Wei Wuxian mocks the man for really not knowing everything, even though he calls himself the "Know-It-All of Qinghe." It's a fantastic takedown, even though it's extremely unnecessary. This is the kind of comedy that I think is in line with the rest of the show and, I believe, more in tune with the source material. Part of what attracted me to Wei Wuxian, and indeed why he was my fave for quite a while, is his quick wit and his snarky remarks. This is the perfect example right here.

LWJ: Wei Ying, there are no dogs here.

Me: Then what was all that barking?!

Really, Lan Wangji is just secretly enjoying any time Wei Wuxian gets close to him, but he has to keep a bit of outward standoffishness to save face. He can't show his whole hand right now! But it's important to note that Lan Wangji doesn't tell him to let go (not yet, at least)!

I find it quite sweet that Lan Wangji is the one seeking information here. Wei Wuxian doesn't volunteer anything about his fear of dogs, perhaps because he finds it embarrassing or maybe because he's embarrassed to cling to Lan Wangji like that. I really like that Lan Wangji, who, when they first met, wouldn't have given two shits about Wei Wuxian's fears, is now actively seeking to understand him. It's really beautiful to see their relationship changing like this, both of them opening up and revealing bits of themselves in ways they never did before, despite how well they knew each other.

Allow me to gush some more. Lan Wangji doesn't push Wei Wuxian away. He only tries to reason with him, to cater to Wei Wuxian's more rational side, which doesn't work. Right now, Wei Wuxian is seeking comfort, specifically the comfort of someone bigger and stronger (canonically, Lan Wangji was taller and much stronger than Wei Wuxian, even if he doesn't look it in CQL). Wei Wuxian just wants to feel safe and the only person who can make him feel that way is Lan Wangji.

Really, I think the only reason that Lan Wangji asks Wei Wuxian to let go of him is because he can't protect them if Wei Wuxian is gripping his arms like that. It's one thing to hide behind him, but another to impair his ability to fight.

This is the first time I've noticed those stairs. This set is really cool. And the ambiance with the fog is perfect. A lot of the art and set design in CQL is really well done. I have no idea if it's the same as all the other C-dramas, because I don't watch them, but it looks really nice to me.

It's so refreshing to be back in wangxian land. I guess I didn't realize how nice it is to have them together on screen basically all the time. And in this episode, we get Wei Wuxian clinging to Lan Wangji a lot, Lan Wangji pretending to be annoyed at Wei Wuxian, and here we have Lan Wangji showing actual concern. I think even for him, some of their detective work so far has been a bit of a lark, but he definitely doesn't take Wei Wuxian's pain lightly. It's hard sometimes to even capture in a screenshot, because Wang Yibo's movements are so subtle that you usually need multiple frames to show the change. I still think it's a bit confusing because they don't ever say why Lan Wangji is unaffected by the spirits and the noise in the bunker. I think it's a callback to that time they were in the forest, dealing with Wen Chao's enchantment. Lan Wangji's mind is trained to block out the noise, while Wei Wuxian's isn't. I'm assuming the same is true now, only likely Wei Wuxian's (Mo Xuanyu's) lack of a golden core possibly contributes to that inability. I think not specifying what's going on makes it open to possibilities like Wei Wuxian is somehow able to channel spirits better than Lan Wangji or he's more susceptible to darker entities because of the practice of demonic cultivation in his former life. I know Lan Wangji is good and pure and could never fathom doing that dark stuff (only not because that would make him really uninteresting--he's my fave because he struggles with light and dark in a society that values piousness, etc.).

I'd be very uncomfortable walking around the Blade Shrine for the sole reason that I'd be worried those coffins were going to just fall from the ceiling. How old are those chains? How long have they been hanging there? What is the quality of their make? Seriously, that is the real danger.

I think Lan Wangji is walking a fine line between wanting to protect Wei Wuxian and not wanting Wei Wuxian to feel weak. I really like how he turns around here, sensing something is going on with Wei Wuxian, but once he realizes he's okay, he turns back to searching the coffins. It's beautiful the way he's grown, actually. He doesn't need to fawn over Wei Wuxian--it's okay to check on him, but he doesn't need to baby him. And I don't think it's fair to say he babied him before, but I do think Lan Wangji rushed to his side a lot when they were younger, and mostly what it achieved was Wei Wuxian blowing him off. 16 years later (or whatever, I can't remember), Lan Wangji has left breathing room between them. Part of it is the security of knowing that Wei Wuxian isn't leaving, though. Wei Wuxian has nowhere to go, especially for the time being. But another part is that Lan Wangji knows that Wei Wuxian can take care of himself, to a point, and does not want to be babied, and he's grown enough to allow him that without being asked.

I find this part so cool. The idea that music can allow someone to communicate with the dead is just so exquisitely macabre and beautiful. Music is already a universal language, enjoyed by everyone big and small, young and old, but to add another layer that it can span space and time--so cool. I know this is a concept that exists even in recent history with the Spiritualist movement--the idea that an instrument can be a vessel for spirits to communicate with the living--but there's something about the way it's done here, that there is a language that is spoken through the guqin strings. It's just very fascinating.

Despite that trust that I was speaking of earlier, we still see hesitation in Lan Wangji's eyes at the idea of splitting up. I think this has less to do with Lan Wangji not trusting Wei Wuxian to stick around and be careful, and more to do with the strange presence that he sensed from inside the bunker. Mo Xuanyu's spiritual power is low, which Lan Wangji knows. That means Wei Wuxian's main defense is his wit, which doesn't go well up against the blade of an enemy. Not to mention, he's weighed down by Jin Ling too. So even though Lan Wangji says he'll go chase that person, he still hesitates. And I think that's very human. It's easy to say you'll do it, but harder to follow through.

I also think Wei Wuxian's call of, "Lan Zhan! Take care!" is really sweet and actually important. I think it's easy to say that Lan Wangji is the one carrying the torch for Wei Wuxian and that it doesn't go the other way, but it does, whether Wei Wuxian knowingly admits to it or not. He worries about Lan Wangji too, even though he knows what a skilled cultivator Lan Wangji is. I think the focus on this line shouldn't be lost, because it's important to see Wei Wuxian making that conscious effort to show he does care, and that he isn't ordering Lan Wangji around needlessly just because he can. The decision to send Lan Wangji on the chase was not one made lightly--it was strategic. Lan Wangji is capable, while Wei Wuxian…isn't. He's got Jin Ling, he can't fight anyone off…it wouldn't make any sense for him to chase down the strange presence.

I think I've said before that Jin Ling is one of my favorite characters. His redemption arc, if you will, is perfectly written and compelling and quite beautiful, considering the terrible influence his uncle has on him. Having said that, CQL Jin Ling is my least favorite of all the iterations. I think the whole entitled, bratty attitude was too heavy-handed for a lot of it, and this is accentuated by the dubbing, which is sometimes grating on my ears. The acting is okay, but it's very exaggerated (which is maybe just a cultural thing that I can't quite embrace). Comparing it to the brattiness of Lan Jingyi, for example, I don't find him nearly as annoying. His attitude is charming and his facial expressions only enhance that. I'm not sure, maybe I'm biased against Jin Ling because he is one of my favorites, so I scrutinize him more. Not sure. Either way, I find myself thinking that it would be great to slap him on many occasions while watching this series.

Not that I'd call myself an expert in parenting--I've only been one for four years--but every time I get angry at my daughter when she does something unsafe, I always regret handling it that way. And I always apologize for raising my voice, and calmly explain why I was upset with her, so she understands. Now, Jiang Cheng is not a parent. He didn't raise Jin Ling from birth. Honestly, it's not clear where he spent most of his time, but it's likely he spent it in Lanling, while probably visiting Jiang Cheng often. I'm just imagining summers in Lotus Pier. But that was all to say that Jiang Cheng doesn't know how to be a parent because he never has had to be one. There's no doubt in my mind that he cares about Jin Ling's safety and that's why he's shouting at him here. The issue I see is that this is all he does--he shouts his feelings. I know this is fiction, but in terms of his fictional character, Jiang Cheng is not a good stand-in for a father, nor is he really even a good uncle. In my opinion, an uncle is who you go to to get away from your parents and have fun. Your uncle spoils you, dotes on you, lets you do all the fun stuff that mom and dad say no to. Now, obviously this situation is different--Jin Ling doesn't really have a mom and dad to run away from. But let me ask you, does Jiang Cheng seem like the kind of uncle you'd ever want to run away to? Seriously, he'd be the one I'd dread seeing at family gatherings.

The faces that Wei Wuxian makes in this scene are priceless. XD However, it melts my cold heart to see this soft smile on his face when he thinks about Lan Wangji chasing off Fairy, the "wonder dog." Do you have any idea how happy it makes me to see how enamored he is with Lan Wangji that just the offhand thought can put this expression on his face? <3

Omg Jiang Cheng's face is perfect here! It's just, "What. The. Fuck." Amazing. I love it.

Jiang Cheng looks so much like a villain here. You've got Wei Wuxian cowering in a corner, trapped by Fairy, and Jiang Cheng just glaring at his drink. I find it really creepy that he doesn't tie Wei Wuxian up or do anything to hold him there, because he can easily take advantage of Wei Wuxian's fear of dogs to keep him down. He's malicious and menacing without any prompting. Wei Wuxian has done nothing but try to protect Jin Ling and stay out of Jiang Cheng's way. When you think that Jin Ling would still be in that bunker now and Jiang Cheng would have no idea--isn't it interesting that Wei Wuxian doesn't even try and take credit for that rescue? He could easily use that as leverage to be set free.

Jiang Cheng can spout insults about Wei Wuxian all he wants, but the moment he says that Lan Wangji has ulterior motives in helping Wei Wuxian, we get this expression. Wei Wuxian is hurt, he's offended. He scolds Jiang Cheng for even saying such a thing. And reading the words again, it's like a two-fold insult: Lan Wangji is only protecting Wei Wuxian for some kind of self-gain, as well as the idea that Lan Wangji is dishonorable because he protects Wei Wuxian despite what Wei Wuxian and Wen Ning did to his own clan. And Wei Wuxian doesn't really mind bad things being said about himself, but he refuses to tolerate Jiang Cheng talking smack about Lan Wangji. In Wei Wuxian's eyes, Lan Wangji has always tried to do the right thing, to walk the right path that he's supposed to walk, and any time that he steered off the path to help Wei Wuxian was out of the kindness of his heart and the desire to help Wei Wuxian right his own path.

WWX: I want to go back to Lotus Pier, even in my dreams.

I know he says this, but I don't think it's meant to be taken literally as in he wants to go and visit Lotus Pier again. I think what he means here is that he wishes he could turn back time, go back to the Lotus Pier before its fall, when things were happy, and everyone was still alive. That's the Lotus Pier that Wei Wuxian misses and desires in this moment. He doesn't want to go to the Lotus Pier of today, because that Lotus Pier is no longer his. Unbeknownst to him, his room doesn't even exist anymore. It was torn down. His place has been removed completely. And that isn't the Lotus Pier that he has any desire to see.

I love this conversation between Wei Wuxian and Jin Ling. I love how comfortable they are with each other, without really knowing one another at all. This is really how an uncle should behave towards his nephew. He's trying to teach him, trying to be there for him. There's some push-back from Jin Ling, of course, but it isn't nasty or malicious. Also, "You will say them while crying someday." I love that. I love the repetition of "thank you" and "sorry", and how just putting your pride aside to say those two things is so important in any kind of relationship. It took Wei Wuxian a lifetime to learn that, and he's trying to get his nephew to understand that kind of humility and empathy before it's too late.

Other episodes: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | Or just check out the #CQL Rewatch hashtag

#cql #wangxian #wei wuxian #lan wangji #jin ling #jiang cheng #the untamed #mdzs #mo dao zu shi #cql rewatch #ep 34

52 notes · View notes

gay-snom · 3 years

Text

contextualizing lwj’s coming to terms with his feelings subplot!

i wanna talk about the role of confucianism in this subplot because i think it’s something some western fans might not pick up on. basically, the sociopolitical climate of confucianism in his character arc, and a little bit about his interaction with the public image theme.

disclaimer: i’m not chinese but i do have a double minor in chinese and asian studies and have written a few papers on confucianism.

we’re gonna be talking about the novel bc i feel its a little more in-depth and nuanced than lwj’s “what is black, what is white” monologue in cql. namely the tension and misunderstanding in wwx’s first life and how lwj got his scars. i feel like it’s pretty well accepted that wwx made lwj reconsider his world view, so i’m just gonna expand on it. also i want to point out it's pretty unspoken in most of the text, but lwj is also affected by/used to explore the public image themes, as his image the is ideal confucian scholar.

confucianism is centered around the ideas of how to behave “good” in sociopolitical contexts. basically it boils down to a belief system on how society should be run. if everyone follows confucian beliefs, you will have an ideal society. the main text is the Analects, which you can read here. it’s been around for a few thousand years (like around 200 BCE ish), had a huge revival in the tang dynasty (618-907 CE). it was put on imperial exams, the emperor’s cabinet had confucian scholars, etc. this is just to say confucian values are important to historic society, especially upper-class scholars, which seems to be a role cultivators commonly fill in xianxia. here are some basic tenants:

being a gentleman/scholar/superior man (君子 jūn zǐ) : partly being learned in the arts, literature, music, poetry, etc., mostly behaving righteously and dutifully.

filial piety: usually described as obedience. it's not simply obeying everything elders tell you, it includes doing it with reverence and thankfulness for their sacrifices for you.

leading by example: if leaders/the government is righteous, the people will follow. lwj has his flock of juniors that are all strong cultivators and the lan sect is just generally known for being moral and good.

rites/rituals: a focus on politeness and holding proper ceremonies, sacrifices, and funerals

speech: there’s some great meta about the register he speaks in here, i just want to touch on think carefully before you speak, only speak sincerely, etc.

tldr; lwj is THE perfect gentleman (even his title contains the character suffix 君 -jūn, like lxc. which, while this character is not uncommon for cultivator titles, it wasn’t chosen carelessly either. also not to be confused with 尊 -zūn). seriously, look at almost all of book 10 and you'll see don't do/consume in excess, don't talk during meals, sit only when your mat is straight, etc.

okay, so Why is understanding his feelings for wwx so troublesome?

1.2 "They are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none, who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion... Filial piety and fraternal submission! - are they not the root of all benevolent actions?"

in other words, people who are filial will never create political tension. so like, morally, wwx should be considered horrible person! he’s not only snubbed the jiang sect. he was a head disciple who undoubtedly had younger students looking up to him. and then he goes and stirs up some huge political issues! he is now a bad role model for the people below him and disrespected the people above him. lwj has an entire image to uphold, he has poured his entire life into following these rules and beliefs, and then wwx comes along. would continuing to be in wwx's life taint lwj? there are some contradicting teachings in regards to interacting with wwx:

15.4: "Do not take counsel with those who follow a different Way"

15.28: "When the multitude hates a person, you must examine them and judge for yourself. The same holds true for someone whom the multitude love."

15.36 "When it comes to being Good, defer to no one, not even your teacher."

this is part of the reason lwj had so much trouble accepting his feelings. he didn’t know how to handle this situation, making him appear distant during/directly after sunshot. if he judges wwx's intentions to be pure, it's then not wrong to be friendly with him. but wwx still is morally wrong by society's standards. now, lwj has to not only figure out his feelings, but also reconcile this with how he still thinks wwx is Not a bad person, despite everything. what if he does get "tainted" by wwx? will it hurt the reputation of his sect? that would be un-filial, right? he spent his whole life memorizing rules that are probably extremely similar to sections in the Analects, and now these mixed messages (coupled with the relatable gay panic) are overwhelming.

onto the next! there’s something unspoken in the scene where wwx discovers why lwj has the whip scars. as other posts have mentioned, lwj taking wwx back to the burial mounds and nursing him is high treason. however, this action is also extremely un-filial. also his entire image is built around being a perfect gentleman, if this were to get out to the public he would lose absolutely everything. he would be just as irreparable as wwx.

“I was worried if those from another sect found you first, WangJi would be considered your accomplice. The best scenario was his name being forever tainted, and the worst was his life being taken away right then. Thus, along with Uncle, we chose thirty three seniors who had always thought highly of WangJi... ”

there’s no way lwj didn’t know what would happen if he did this. obviously as lxc says, if this got out, he would lose basically his entire face. and even though lxc didn’t mention this, it would definitely lose a lot of face for the lan sect as well since lwj is so prominent. the decision about what elders to bring is also notable.

“...As if he knew all along he would be discovered by us, he said that there was nothing to explain, that this was it. Growing up, he had never talked back to Uncle, not even once. But for you, not only did WangJi talk back to him, he even met with his sword the cultivators from the Gusu Lan sect...”

so yeah, he obviously knew they would come for him and what the consequences would be. and he still talked back! that’s already not a good look for the lan sect. but attacking them? totally unforgivable! lwj gives up how he was raised and the importance of filial piety, what he has held on to until this major plot event. since it's basically the biggest "fuck you" to his uncle and his clan, this was not a decision he made lightly. lwj shows them he cares more about wwx and His Own ideas of right and wrong than the sect’s or society’s.

Wei WuXian dug his hands into his hair, “...I-I didn’t know... I really...”

when was the last time wwx was at a loss for words? wwx spends a few paragraphs after this lamenting how he hurt lwj, but he's not unaware of the gravity of what lwj did. it's an underlying assumption from being raised in the culture. i would argue his first instinct is "oh god he gave up what for me?" since those lamenting paragraphs are after lxc finishes speaking.

"But he said... that he could not say with certainty whether what you did was right or wrong..."

this is something thrown around a lot in the Analects, that not even confucius can say for sure what is right or wrong. what better way to show lwj is still a perfect confucian than have him paraphrase confucius himself?

“...WangJi was a model for the disciples when he was young, and a prominent cultivator when he grew up. In his whole life he had been honest and righteous and immaculate--you were the only mistake he made!”

here’s the confirmation that the world and even his family thinks of him as a perfect gentleman, the top tier of society, and it was all thrown away for wwx. this is just so heavy. the mistake thing? thats not only because lwj is fraternizing with an enemy. lxc and the rest of the sect who knew are terrified this will forever corrupt lwj personally, not just publicly. lwj was so devoted to believing this was the right thing to do he offered up everything he had. the gravity of this decision is insane. it’s very obvious that he loves wwx, it’s just that he struggles a lot internally to accept everything that is happening.

as for helping wwx leave after the massacre, is this gentleman-ly of lwj? was it actually in-line with his image? is it more honorable to save someone who is dying, at the cost of your own health, than to look away? isn't looking away a form of resentment? i wasn't able to find a specific passage about bystander-ness, but personally i think it qualifies as "bad intentions." there is also this passage for what it's worth, originally it was about government suppression:

12.19: "...What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?" Confucius replied, "...why should you use killing at all?..."

lwj is always more actions than words, and he was not fucking around. his core beliefs really haven't changed, and remain very strong throughout his life. he is still righteous enough to accept his punishment, graceful enough to search for wwx's body since there was no one else to do the funeral rites (10.22/10.15), caring enough to take in a-yuan, upright enough to still spend his years going where the chaos is.

just with this one action, the audience knows he has come to terms with realizing that authority isn't always just, and neither is the public opinion/opinion of other gentlemen. he has reconciled. this is him standing for what he believes is right. this is his devotion. this is his own choice. just. poetic cinema...

anyway that's it for my first meta post! i would love to hear your thoughts, feelings, opinions, discussions, other meta ideas, whatever! thank u for reading! <3

#its My post and i get to pick the subplot #i have...brainworms #wwx and lwj are foils in the public image theme change my mind #mdzs #mdzs meta #lan wangji #mo dao zu shi #stfu #meta

385 notes · View notes