For @fytheuntamed‘s Untamed Fall Fest. Day 25: Ghost
早就没有了
Long gone.
温氏早就没有了
The Wen Clan is long gone.
-Old man sweeping grave, Ep 2
I love this scene because it’s so strange compared with much of the rest of the show. The camera angles are all over the place. The wind and the leaves are chaotic. Wei Wuxian’s expressions are often desperate. As a first time viewer, it really offers a haunted feel. And the old man is very likely a ghost -- the way he just disappears after wwx turns around again.
The other thing I love about this scene is this is our first exposure to Wen Qing. Wei Wuxian clearly remembers her. Being here reminds him of her and of her helping them on their Yin Iron Quest. Even though I don’t really like the Yin Iron subplot, I do like what they did with this part. And considering ALL THE OTHER TIMES people FAIL to acknowledge Wen Qing, it’s really nice to see her here on a rewatch and get the feeling that, no, maybe she’s not forgotten. Maybe wwx still holds her dear. Maybe she still lingers and haunts him in some ways. And the fact that he repeats her words often to Jin Ling, to Lan Wangji really solidifies that.
And that old man! He presents himself to the juniors and to wwx and then disappears. He’s likely a ghost. He’s likely the ghost of some Wen Clan member. Could he be closely related to A-yuan? IDK but I hope so. It would be really sweet if he is and he shows up to help LSZ because he knows who LSZ is.
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For @fytheuntamed‘s Untamed Fall Fest. Day 15: Golden
I didn’t remember JC seeing WZL remove his core in the flashback scene. o.O the way lotus pier is on fire and JC’s horror and the glow of the core. it hurts!
But then we get the pretty purple glow of his... er... wwx’s golden core. NOT what i expected but this is the only visualization we have of a golden core and it’s so yunmeng jiang it hurts. Probably one of the reasons he DOESN’T realize it’s not his own but WWX’s is because they practiced the same style. Even had wwx practiced due to his parents’ teaching, his dad was from the Jiang sect so likely taught him to cultivate along those paths. Their cores probably feel the same and have the same architecture -- if core architecture is a thing. I image it ebbing and flowing like the waters of Yunmeng lakes.
I also love JC’s smile and happy faces in the last two gifs. the last three gifs are from the same shot but I cut them up with some overlapping frames because i love how he looks in this and want to focus on each expression. just the way he sighs with so much of him and that relaxing.
HEY IF YOU’RE READING THIS TAKE A BREATH LIKE JC IN THE LAST THREE GIFS! RELEASE YOUR SHOULDERS AND CHANNEL THAT JC SMILE!!
That’s all. I hope you have a good day. <3
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I am blaming @needtherapy for the fact that I even noticed their faces in this interaction. She’s been pushing the Nielan agenda on me hard. Between that and @baoshan-sanren writing Nielan in her Emperor WWX AU? I am succumbing to this agenda.
So now I see it in Sunshot interactions:
LXC’s little smile. And nmj responding with his own little smile. And then that bemused eyebrow raise of NMJ. Look at that eyebrow raise! I can't get over Da-ge's eyebrow raise.
Ok. I’m done for now.
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Wuji Refrain Breakdown/Translation
I feel like every time I hear the refrain of the cql end theme I break a little because the feeling of mourning and missing and loving overwhelms me.
煮一壶 生死悲欢 祭少年郎
EVERY TIME this line starts playing my heart just stops. The imagery it invokes SO freakishly sad.
煮 - boil/cook
一 - a
壶 - pot
生 - life/birth
死 - death
悲 - sorrow
欢 -joy
祭 - sacrifice/memorialize
少 - small/young/few
年 - years
郎 - man/boy, used also as part of the binome meaning groom (新郎), sometimes used to address a male significant other.
So all together i would translate it as
“Boiling a pot of life’s breadth of feelings to memorialize a young man I loved”
The idea of “boiling a pot of” I associate with alcohol. A lot of old school booze was ingested warm. And that echoes the character for sacrifice/memorialize since alcohol is often poured onto the ground to memorialize people. Pour one out for the dead, right?
And the phrase 生死悲欢 actually echoes a song dynasty poem by su dong po where he says “ 人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺 humans suffer sorrow, joy, union, and separation and the moon has clear and overcast days, waxes and wanes”. The union and separation part of the phrase about people got replaced by life and death -- LWJ and WWX’s specific union and separation.
So the image this line paints in my head is snow slowly falling outside the jingshi. LWJ with his hair down, tending to a pot of emperor’s smile. Tears are probably flowing down his face but no one is there to see it so it’s ok. He pours out the emperor’s smile -- all of it -- and looks up at the moon and says something to WWX. And in his head, there is zero question that WWX is the youth he loved.
明月依旧何来怅惘
So this continues from the previous line where LWJ pours out the pot of liquor and thinks of wwx. He stares at the moon and he asks the moon about his feelings.
明- bright
月- moon
依旧- still/as before/ unchanged (two characters are aligned with and old)
何 - what/why
来 - come
怅惘 - listless/distracted
“The moon still shines bright, so from whence does my listlessness come?”
This echos poetry by Li Bai, Su Dongpo, Wang Anshi, Wang Changling, and basically anyone of note in chinese poetry. The image of a bright moon is often associated with wistful longing, missing loved ones, and inexplicable sorrow. Examples (via haoppo’s quick translation and any additional notes i think are relevant):
秦时明月汉时关,万里长征人未还。——王昌龄《出塞》
The bright moon since Qin and the Pass since Han, 10000 li traveling, the people have not returned.
( this is a poem about war. the moon and the pass symbolize how war has been continuous since these have existed. The 10000 li represents the distance between China proper and the borders. The people not returning are the soldiers. OOOOOF.)
明月几时有,把酒问青天。——苏轼《水调歌头》
When will the next bright moon be? I lift my liquor to ask the deep blue sky.
(This poem is ICONIC. It’s the on same one as where 人有悲欢离合,月有阴晴圆缺 is from. It’s very commonly associated with Mid Autumn Festival. The whole point of the festival is to look at the moon and realize everyone you love that is still alive is able to see that same moon. Sweet, sentimental, wistful)
春风又绿江南岸,明月何时照我还?——王安石《泊船瓜洲》
The spring breeze has brought greenness to the lands of Jiangnan. When will the moon’s light guide me home?
(Jiangnan means south of the river. It’s a region in china south of the yangtze. Iconic because it includes Shanghai, Nanjing (nanking), Hangzhou, Suzhou, etc. Jiangnan is where a lot of cultural things happened in south china. Hangzhou and Suzhou are two of THE MOST BEAUTIFUL cities. There’s a saying that in the sky there is heaven and on earth we have hangzhou and suzhou. I can go on about this but this isn’t a post about how freaking much i love traveling in jiangnan.)
我寄愁心与明月,随风直到夜郎西。——李白《闻王昌龄左迁龙标遥有此寄》
I mail my sorrowful heart and bright moon, via wind, directly to west Yelang
(I didn’t want to use the standard bright moon and frost poem we get whenever we think of Li Bai. But i also couldn’t not include Li Bai! So this one! Li Bai’s writing is pretty clear he has feels and he’s sending them to west Yelang. But what is west Yelang? It’s where his friend is! The poem is basically, hey, i heard you were at this palace so i’m writing you a poem and telling you how i want to be with you!)
So the next line is a tone shift and it’s more of a promise, IMO. This is WWX and LWJ’s wish. Not as heartbreaking but still part of the refrain so i want to include this in my post.
不如 潇潇洒洒 历遍风和浪
This part is a MOOD and hard to translate. I will try to at least explain it.
不如 - not as good as/would rather
潇潇洒洒 - freely/natural/easy/unrestrained (ope, isn’t this just wuji? :P)
历 - experience/weather
遍 - through
风 - wind
和 - and
浪 - waves
“I would rather freely experience all of life’s dangers.”
So, 潇潇洒洒 is just a MOOD. It’s the mood of a rogue cultivator untethered to rules. It’s the mood of the legendary masters in Wuxia Jianghu who does what they want and are completely at ease. They wander through towns righting wrongs and standing up for justice and then leave without a trace. It’s the feeling of wind in your hair as you stand at the top of a hill on a crisp day. It’s free of stress and pain and suffering. I think the closest thing i’ve seen in english is something like “footloose and fancy free” but without the romantic connotations.
And then the experience + through basically means experience all of or experience thoroughly.
And wind + waves is a way of saying hardships, danger, or trials: the wind blows and waves come, the waves bring the ups and downs of life. I love how chinese words are very imagery based.
天涯一曲共悠扬
tiān yá yì qǔ gòng yōu yang
天涯 - end of the earth (literally sky + cliff)
一 - a
曲 - song/tune
共 - together
悠扬 - melodious (leisurely + spread)
“Playing a melody together to the end of the earth.”
And this part of the song invokes the last scene of the show where WWX is playing a flute ON A CLIFF (note, end of earth = sky + cliff). I’m positive he’s there waiting for LWJ and trying to hasten LWJ’s appearance by playing THEIR SONG.
Ok. I’m done. I’m going to go listen to this song and TRY NOT TO CRY. And it’s ONLY 4 LINES of the song! The rest of it is just as bad. Gaaaaaaaah. SO MANY FEELS.
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can you rec me some nice blogs that post about the untamed?
Sure! But first, this was answered by some people i follow already. so i might as well tag them and link their posts since they’ve tagged some great people! follow them if you haven’t. LOL. but i think that’s a given?
@leonzhng recced a lot of blogs on this post
@candicewright answered here
@aheartfullofjolllly answered here
@yibobibo answered here
I know there are others but i wasn’t tagged so it’s harder to find.... i would go through and follow everyone mentioned in these posts. I would also go to @mdzsnet and follow everyone there. they make content. support them. [disclaimer: i am a member, so this is somewhat self serving. oops.]
I follow a lot of people. these are ones i’ve noticed who post or reblog a lot of CQL/MDSZ content...some do post more than just cql content, but i might as tag them anyway. so some people i follow that i don’t think was mentioned by the above posts.... uh... to those i don’t ever talk to, i do read a lot of your stuff and i hope you don’t mind being tagged.
@winepresswrath, @bi-the-wei, @trans-axian, @pumpkinpaix, @phoenixrisesoncemore, @merelhyn, @trensu, @wuxian-vs-wangji, @honeyiling, @artsy-alice, @seekingthestars, @jupiterjames, @three--rings, @bilboo, @robininthelabyrinth, @kurowrites, @ibijau, @howdydowdy, @veliseraptor, @chinajousama, @chi-zi, @moobiess, @yutaan, @a-cutebird, @brancasyard, @flanpu, @fols-eli, @lan-trans-ji, @ouyang-zizhen, @gravitydefyingtears, @inessencedevided, @bladedweaponsandswishycoats, @dying-redshirt-noises, @wangxianficrecs, @merinnan, @theleakypen, @paradoxspaceheater, @cangse-sanren
ok. you can tell i’m all over the place with who i follow. it ranges from craft makers, fics writers, ranters of odd ideas, artist, meta spew-ers, translators, etc. some just reblog cool stuff and curate a neat page. idk. i love them all for different reasons -- even if i don’t always agree with everything they may say.
also, it’s FUN to see when people are friends. they reblog and talk and have fun interactions in the comments and reblogs. i love seeing that! i know there are clusters of people i’ve never interacted with and hopefully i get around to it one day. :D
one thing to remember is tumblr is a hell site. I sometimes follow people because i realize we have similar tastes. why is that important? because I MISS THINGS. Tumblr doesn’t show me EVERYTHING I WANNA SEE. So sometimes just because I follow someone doesn’t mean i know they updated until i see another person I follow reblog it. I follow people so they can help notify me when cool things are posted. It’s also why i try to reblog many many things and have a queue going. i’d rather see a cool post 20 times than none. fear of missing out, i guess. hahaha.
so if you like someone’s work follow them. if you like their taste, follow them. and reblog like crazy!
uh... this turned into a soapbox. sorry! >.< also, sorry it took me so long to answer this. i had to find bandwidth to go through notifications and find the posts i wanted to link... and then i realized i had a mini-soapbox. Orz.
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Does anyone ever think about cangse sanren's name like I do?
藏色散人。the sanren part is fine. it’s one of those not-of-this-world/free spirited wander type things. But to be titled with “藏色”, I feel like she had to be smokin' hot.
藏 - to hide/conceal
色 - colors as in 色彩. But also countenance (like your face/expression. e.g. 怒色) and beauty (姿色).
So her name is basically hiding her face or hiding her colors. In either way, I want to interpret it as hiding her beauty. I feel like BSSR saw the child, raised the child, and realized she would end up causing a lot of problems with her face alone. And so BSSR bestowed the name on CSSR in hopes that it would help guide her when she joined humanity.
We know WWX is supposed to be super attractive. That’s why he was ranked 4th on the list of eligible bachelors without being in the direct line of succession in a sect. I would also like to propose his mom was even more attractive and a total gremlin.
Think about how hard JFM fell for CSSR! To the point that YZY cannot see WWX and not see CSSR! and then take her jealousy out on WWX!
and think about LQR’s reaction to her. How in the WORLD did she get away shaving his beard? (i don’t know why but when I first heard LXC talk about LQR’s beard’s mishap I assumed she lit it on fire. I actually like the version in my head more.) And then in CQL after LWJ and WWX get drunk, remember what LQR said? “Don’t think just because your mom is -- ” and then he stops himself.
I REALLY wanted more about this! LQR had STRONG feelings towards CSSR! And they weren’t simply “How dare she ruin my beard!” Also, what does this mean in terms of LWJ and LXC’s parents? Do you ever wonder how LQR feels about his brother imprisoning LWJ and LXC’s mom? Do you ever wonder if he thinks about CSSR when he sees his sister in law? Do you ever wonder if he misses what he thinks might’ve been?
TL;DR I firmly believe CSSR is named because she’s super hot. And BSSR wanted to remind her to hide it in the mortal world lest it harm her. I really believe JFM, WCZ, and LQR were all head over heels for her. And I WANT TO KNOW THE STORY!
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I am bribing myself to do work with fics to read. For every document you give review comments to the author, haoppopotamus, you can read a short cql/mdzs angst prompt fic.
>.>
<.<
>.<
I used to do this as a child to myself with candy: e.g. for every 20 pages of this book you read, bb! haoppopotamus, you can have a skittle. I'm an adult!!! Why am I still doing this? Shouldn't I have discipline to just do work?!
[tbh, it's because I am about to have take a 4 day weekend. Now to power through. Oooof]
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TGCF is more than a million characters in length. Aka it's the length of 5-10 novels... wtf. This is why I'm so slow at reading it.
Well that and my brain.
Sometimes I read a sentence and my eyes keep going on the page but my brain has moved on and did a cartwheel over some images and landed somewhere idk where and then my brain checks in with my eyes and it's like "WTF?! You didn't wait for me. Go back!!! Go back!!!"
Is this a common thing? XD
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🌺💘🌷 get to know your mutuals ! when you get this, it 🌺🌺💘🌷means someone wants to know more about you, so list 5 things about yourself you want your followers to know. they can be as simple as your age or as complex as your deepest fear, as long as it’s something you’re comfortable with sharing. when you’re done, send this to 10 people you want to get to know better ! 🌷💘🌺
Hm... idk. I don’t really think there is anything. I’ll just ramble about 5 things?
1) My family is from Sichuan/Chongqing areas. We eat SPICY food and SICHUAN PEPPERCORN! :D It’s super fun and before i could handle spice, i would still eat sichuan peppercorns straight. When I was a child i slathered a single peppercorn all over my mouth and just reveled in the weird tingly feeling for half an hour. I was a bored child and this was very entertaining.
2) I identify probably too strongly with WWX: ENFP (or so I believe), smart but DUMB, scorpio, instinct to protect people, irreverent gremlin, dislike social niceties, cares about actual friendship a lot.
3) i like tea. a lot. I have a bunch of nice black teas (not flavored stuff. jin junmei, 3 different yunnan black/red teas, 4 different chinese lapsong suchongs, a black tea that was processed like an oolong and allowed to fully oxidize, and some other stuff that’s escaping me. I also have less nice black teas that i drink as milk tea ), 6 white teas (fuding tea balls from 2012, vietnamese white tea that i got from a vendor in indiana, a moonlight white that i adore, a semi-wild tea from 2018, an aged white from 2005, and a white tea that i’m hoarding and trying to let age), 2 greens (”twisted green” and uh... .hm... maybe i only have one green tea right now. i should remedy that... ), 2 different grades of jasmine green (which i classify as huacha/flower teas and not actually greens), some sheng puer, some fuzhuan (from a friend), and probably over 15 different types of oolong (4-5 taiwanese high elevation from different mountains/seasons, a bunch of different yancha, some dancong, and a tgy or two). I also buy cheap grocery store lychee black tea and blend it myself with rosebuds and honeysuckle buds. it’s really yummy. oh and a darjeeling or two somewhere. i think they’re both SFTGFOP grade. lol. i like tea.
4) i have a pickle jar. sichuan style with a lid that looks like an inverted bowl. I pickle things my parents mail me from their garden. When i put in fresh stuff to pickle, the live culture/fermentation releases gas and with enough build up, it bubbles out. i call it my pickle jar is burping. it’s really important to me for making food i like. and i love food.
5) i live in the midwest USA and i use this word “ope”. i use it A LOT. and it’s weird to people because it’s a local thing. It basically combines oh! and oops! and eep! into one. kinda like a startled apology. i sometimes use it like “oh well, oops. what am i gonna do?” but i think the oh and oops are always there. the tone of the oh changes though. i hope that helps any of my followers wondering what the heck “ope” means.
i don’t know if i have 10 mutuals that have their asks open and i think will do this. but i guess i’ll try! hahahaha!
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listening to jianchuhanshan audiodrama and i just can't with chinese pennames. "original work by 'what a large roll of toilet paper’" spoken in a fairly low male voice in all seriousness sends me every time.
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Askdhfhajh. Working on translating stuff at the request of a friend and listening to my WFH playlist to keep me focused. Gotta distract the part of my brain that distracts me, ok? Is that an ADHD thing? I often wonder if I'm ADHD...
Anyway, lo and behold Wuji starts playing and I'm suddenly not ok.
I'M PARTICIPATING IN THIS FANDOM BY DOING THIS TRANSLATION!! I DON'T NEEEEEED TO HEAR THE END THEME AND HAVE MY HEART REPEATEDLY STABBED OK UNIVERSE?! K THANKS!!
but tbh, I could never skip this song while I'm in fandom. It's too good. aaaaaaaah!!!
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Writing a fic. What the heck brain?! Why can't we work on one chapter or even one scene?! Focus!!!
No, I don't want to jump between 5 different tabs of my story. What? Aaaaargh
Urggffhdhshahhah. Fine. Just bounce around. At least we're making progress.
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I am finally getting into TGCF and it's so cute!!!! Omg. Someone please @ me so we can talk about it. I'm on ch 26! And Hua Cheng is everything.
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Tried to finish a chapter of tgcf last night and gave up when I dropped my phone on my face because I fell asleep while trying to read. Ow.
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Mood: do I work on my meta WIP more, actually write the fic I keep on wanting to write, read more tgcf, or start reading yet another fic?! Why must there be so many great ficrecs?!
I haven't even practiced drawing at all today! But at least I made a gif. I need to figure out how to pull screenshots from vlc without crashing the software... also automate it 76 screenshots is kinda painful... Maybe if my computer weren't 8 years old? But it's built for gaming! You'd think it can handle it. Argh. Maybe this pandemic I'll be antisocial enough to save up for a new desktop... Ooooh. Goals.
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Askdhfhajh. The dialogue in tgcf is so funny. I'm dead.
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