Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 39 part one
(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3)
Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!
Fight Exposition Club
Wei Wuxian hollers into the smoke, saying things to provoke Xue Yang, in the hopes that he’ll come fight properly, so Lan Wangji can shank him. Wei Wuxian is figuring out a new way to be a battle couple with Lan Wangji. Without flinging a lot of yin energy around he can’t fight back-to-back with him like they did during the Sunshot campaign, but he can use his mastery of tactics to bring enemies into range of Lan Wangji’s sword arm.
Xue Yang repeatedly sneaks up on Wei Wuxian, rolling natural 20s on his stealth checks even when he’s in extremely plain sight.
Come on, Wei Wuxian. Try harder.
They trade trash talk and Wei Wuxian points his flute a lot while Xue Yang tilts his head a lot.
(More after the cut!)
This scene is tedious but it does give Xue Yang a chance to explain his motivations and philosophy. Why do we need to know? Because he’s here to provide a contrast to Wei Wuxian. Notably, he says, of his massacre of the Chang clan, “since I want to kill that whole family in Yueyang, then I wouldn’t even leave their dog alive.”
As we get to know Xue Yang, he seems to be into murdering entire clans, and it’s easy to assume he picks them at random. But in fact, his killing of the Chang clan was his revenge for a grievance, and he waited until he earned Wen Ruohan’s permission before he embarked on his massacre. He’s not an uncontrolled spree murderer, despite talking and preening like one. His killing of Song Lan’s sect was also revenge for a grievance.
The problem with Xue Yang’s murderous tendencies isn’t that they are uncontrolled or random; it’s that he has no sense of proportion, and no mercy. Contrast this with Wei Wuxian, who went on his own revenge-driven killing spree, but even as he massacred the Wens at their corporate offices, he left Wen Qing alive. And once he’d killed those directly responsible for the massacre of the Jiang clan, he turned to actively saving other Wens.
Active Listening
Meanwhile, Lan Wangji’s fight coordinator is on a smoke break, so Lan Wangji has nothing to do for several minutes except turn around trying to see or hear something through the fog. He keep this move fresh by executing it in as many different ways as possible.
You’ve got the head turn with hair flip...
the “eyes first” head turn...
the fast head turn...
and the body turn while the head stays put.
Nailed It
After conversing through the mist for a while, Xue Yang decides he’s going to try to stick nails in Wei Wuxian, like those he used on Song Lan.
Wei Wuxian’s fight coordinator is taking a nap, so he just stands there helplessly while the nails come straight at him. Fortunately Wen Ning has some moves prepped, and he comes sailing in -- flying faster than two metal projectiles, which is a neat trick -- to intercept the nails.
He squeezes them to make sure they’re dead, and drops them as dramatically as possible.
Wei Wuxian gets in on the head-turning action for a bit, until he figures out that A-Qing is helping them.
A-Qing is even better at listening than Lan Wangji is, and she knocks her stick on the ground when Xue Yang is near her.
This allows Lan Wangji to throw Bichen right through Xue Yang’s chest.
Unfortunately, Xue Yang is busily stabbing A-Qing in the heart already.
Wei Wuxian runs over to A-Qing, but he’s too late...since she’s not a cultivator, the wound is fatal.
If you find the low camera angle and the lens distortion here familiar, there’s a reason for that.
Actually, the whole situation is familiar, isn’t it?
Right down to the white clothes and the pierced heart.
Sigh. At least A-Qing’s death was part of her own fight with Xue Yang, not someone else’s story. She put herself in harm’s way to use Lan Wangji as her weapon.
Lay Down Your Arms
Speaking of pierced hearts, I feel like Xue Yang’s chest wound should be bleeding at least as much as his mouth is bleeding, but what do I know?
Xue Yang goes to attack Wei Wuxian, hollering as he does it. At least I think he’s targeting WWX; the blocking in this scene is confusing. Anyway, this gives Lan Wangji the opportunity to do the greatest fight move of his entire career.
He throws Bichen at Xue Yang, severing his arm in such a way that the arm spins around and hits Xue Yang with his own sword.
Fuck Yeah Hanguang-Jun!
Note: if you like Xue Yang’s fight scenes as much as I do, check out my fanvid over here.
Now I’ve Gotta Turn My Back on You
Once Xue Yang is unable to fight, Su-She-in-a-mask appears, initially trying to rescue him.
Su She goes to grab XY’s shoulder to teleport him out out there, but Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji react simultaneously, throwing a talisman (WWX) and Bichen (LWJ) at his hand, forcing him to let go.
So he yoinks the Yin Tiger Seal from Xue Yang’s vest pocket and them bamfs himself away, leaving Xue Yang to his fate.
Xue Yang takes a moment to contemplate how well and truly fucked he is.
Then he cackles gleefully, since that’s his response to anyone having a terrible day, including himself, apparently.
This inspires Song Lan to finish pulling himself together so that he can finish Xue Yang.
Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji leave him to it instead of sticking around to make sure XY is really dead this time. Remarkably, this does not result in a miraculous escape for Xue Yang, and Song Lan stabs him, mortally wounding him.
Then, as Xue Yang lies bleeding out in the road, the show pulls an amazing switcharoo, giving us Xue Yang's perspective on the events leading up to his death, explaining his perspective and giving new depth to his character. Still evil, still an asshole, but also a victim, with a temperament formed by trauma and injustice.
Flashback Time
Flashback-Xue-Yang tells Flashback-Xiao-Xingchen what he’s done. First we get him gloating as he explains what he’s done to XXC.
Then he explains why. We circle around and around until we arrive at his central trauma: the encounter with Sect Leader Chang that cost him his finger and turned him into a vengeance machine.
When he was busy carrying out his long-planned revenge on the Chang clan, Xiao Xingchen interrupted him, with Song Lan’s help, so he extended his revenge plan to include them. And because he has no sense of proportion, he wasn’t content with killing them; he wanted to destroy them, particularly Xiao Xingchen, whose idealism deeply offends Xue Yang.
Everything he did to Xiao Xingchen was basically an elaborate way of saying, “the world is worse than you believe it to be.”
His plan comes to fruition when he tells Xiao Xingchen everything he has done to him, culminating in showing him what they - together - have done to Song Lan.
Unfortunately it works too well, because Xiao Xingchen is so horrified and disillusioned that he cuts his own throat, falling dead while Xue Yang watches in horror.
Song Lan’s tiny, perplexed reaction to Xiao Xingchen’s death--the first thing he’s reacted to since losing his fight with Xue Yang--always breaks my heart.
Then things get really weird. Xue Yang is determined to resurrect Xiao Xingchen, following the same protocols that Wei Wuxian developed for reviving Wen Ning. But his version is way, way creepier.
Initially his plan is to add Xiao Xingchen to his collection of fierce corpses, because the dead are easier to control. But as time passes and XXC fails to wake up, Xue Yang becomes more and more distraught, showing what looks like a genuine attachment to Xiao Xingchen.
This doesn’t make him less of an abuser, but it does make him a lot more interesting and complex of a character.
As the flashback ends, Xue Yang’s last thought is about Xiao Xingchen giving him candy, simply out of the kindness of his heart.
Ultimately, Xiao Xingchen teaches him, at the very end of his life, that the world is--slightly--better than Xue Yang believed it to be.
The Point of It All
Of the many parallels we see in Yi City, the arc of Xue Yang’s life compared with the arc of Wei Wuxian’s is particularly important.
They each have similar talents; they each had similar beginnings. But Wei Wuxian has a kind heart and a yearning for justice, while Xue Yang is relentlessly cruel and cynical. Why?
The answer, I think, is this guy:
When Xue Yang was a hungry street urchin, he encountered Sect Leader Chang, who reviled him, beat him, and grievously injured him, setting him on the path of vengeance, murder and mayhem. When Wei Wuxian was a hungry street urchin, he encountered Sect Leader Jiang, who fed him, elevated him to a high status, and taught him, by example, to value and protect the weak.
Xue Yang responded by wiping out every member of the Chang clan. Wei Wuxian responded by tearing himself apart in order to ensure the continuation of the Jiang clan, as well as becoming the hero of the Sunshot campaign, a champion for the weak, and the cultivation partner of the most righteous dude in the Jianghu.
Jiang Fengmian wasn’t a good parent (understatement), but he was a pretty good sect leader, and at a crucial moment, he chose kindness. That moment ripples outward through families and sects, across generations, into the wider society. How a man chooses to interact with a hungry child can ultimately shape the entire world.
...damn it, Yi City, you made me appreciate Jiang Fengmian!
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