The Untamed, Episodes 46-50

[galaxysoup]

AND SO WE HAVE REACHED THE END. I may do a final reflections/look back kind of post this weekend, now that I’ve seen the whole series and am finally able to appreciate the naivete of my earlier comments, but until then:


Episode 46

• Oh Wei Wuxian... even when it looks like someone is handing you public disapproval of and disgust with Meng Kid on a platter, you just can’t help poking holes in the story anyway.


• Whoa, wait... there’s a another chessmaster lurking somewhere? They would have had to be plotting against Meng Kid for a while to orchestrate the whole saving-the-prostitute thing. How long ago was Jin Dad killed (rest in pieces, fuckface)?


• Jfc Jiang Cheng go to therapy


• OHHHHHHH SHIT yes Wen Ning with the dramatic sword reveal!!! Good job kiddo, about time!!!!!


• LAN. WANGJI. CRYING!!!!!!


• Everyone’s reactions to Wen Ning’s truth bomb are so cathartic to me. It must be cathartic to Wen Ning too – he’s had to carry this and stand by silently for a long time while everyone talks shit about Wei Wuxian. And he gets to show what a badass doctor his sister was (oh god I miss her so much).


• Not that I mind Wei Wuxian swooning into Lan Wangji’s arms, but is this still residual post-battle stuff or did something else happen?


• I love that Wen Ning rowed them out to a beautiful spot in the lotuses to rest. He could have gone anywhere, but he chose somewhere nice.


• Ohhhh god Wei Wuxian was awake the whole time his core was being taken out?? No wonder he looked so rough when the Wen clan grabbed him. ;__;

Episode 47

• I love that Wei Wuxian is (finally) trying to figure out Wen Ning’s future, but um... maybe “How open-minded are the ladies in the Lan Clan?” is not the best opening gambit


• Oh no, why’s Lan Big Bro there??


• I hate him, but that was a pretty good villain entrance, Meng Kid.


• Ohhhhh Lan Big Bro’s down, that’s bad...


• Ohhhhhhhhh nooooooooooo Lan Wangji’s down too!


• JIANG CHENG with the unexpected rescue!!


• Ahahahahaha Lan Wangji giving Wei Wuxian an arm to hide behind when Fairy omes in!


• Oh, Lan Big Bro... Meng Kid hurt you pretty badly, didn’t he?


• Where did Wen Ning run off to? He wouldn’t have left unless it was really important.

Episode 48

• Ugh, of course Jiang Cheng thought through everything he’d been told and landed on ‘now I will be angry and blame Wei Wuxian for it’.


• Well, I’m glad they sorted through it a bit, anyway, although I bet the day Jiang Cheng learns to ‘not hold it in his heart’ is a long time coming.


• Welcome to the party, Nie Kid. It’s a pretty sucky party.


• Wait, what? They were digging up Nie Angry Sword? Why was this a whole Indiana Jones operation, didn’t Meng Kid put him there in the first place?? And why was there poison???


• Okay, never mind, this other chessmaster is good, whoever they are.


• WHOA!!!! Su She was the one who was poisoning Jin Jerkface!!


• Lol poor Nie Kid... all these big revelations and he has no context for any of them.


• I appreciate Su She standing in for the many, many nameless cultivator flunkies who have died in this story, but I feel like it gets undercut a bit by the fact that he’s an objectively terrible person


• Wow Meng Kid is really channeling Psycho Goth Smirkface here


• Meng Kid’s ability to twist the verbal knife versus Wei Wuxian’s – I really like that the climactic battle is as much verbal knifeplay as it is a physical fight.


• MENG KID: I am the scariest one here and I am in control! WEI WUXIAN: *raises the dead by whistling*


• Meng Kid you do not get to speak to Lan Big Bro

Episode 49

• Ohhhh pressure from the other chessmaster is what set him off! But I’m still not sure what was supposed to be buried in the temple though? I mean I’m defaulting to Yin Iron because that’s why everyone does everything in this show pretty much, but I’m really not sure.


• ”I had no choice but to murder a bunch of folks” is not the best defense ever created, Meng Kid


• Poor Baby Jin... this is a rough introduction to the horrible things people do


• Meng Kid can stop justifying his horrible actions annnnnny day now. I mean, for sure, he has not been treated well. But I feel like ‘cool motive, still murder’ applies here.


• WHOA who resurrected Nie Angry Blade? I would have thought it was Wei Wuxian when he whistled, but he seems surprised. And why isn’t Nie Angry Sword coming from the back of the temple, where his body was?


• Oh no it’s Wen Ning! Why can’t this poor kid catch a break??


• Did Lan Wangji just dismember a bitch???? Or was it the blade spirit?


• Aaaaaaaah Jiang Cheng brought Wei Wuxian’s flute!! AWESOMESAUCE


• I feel like maybe DESTROYING THE TIGER AMULET might be better than burying it with a corpse??


• Did... did Nie Kid just pull a fast one and con Lan Big Bro into stabbing Meng Kid??

Episode 50

• Well gosh the comeuppance from the Tiger Amulet happened faster than I’d anticipated


• Please die, Meng Kid. Your arm’s off and you’ve got a sword in your chest. Please just stop monologuing and die.


• You fuckface – “why couldn’t I matter to you”? Lan Big Bro defended you and took your side throughout the whole thing when no one else would! And don’t think that tossing him out of the collapsing temple will buy you any sympathy, YOU COLLAPSED THE TEMPLE


• Oh, Jiang Cheng. Even now everyone rushes to check on Wei Wuxian and nobody tries to check on you. That sucks and it must sting. Maybe not yelling at everyone who talks to you would be a good place to start, I bet you’ll make friends someday.


• The kid playing baby Meng Kid is so stinking cute omg. Also I guess this explains his persistent and terrible hat choices later in life.


• Ohhhhh gosh, Jiang Cheng got nabbed all the way back when and lost his golden core because he was trying to draw the guards away from Wei Wuxian? That... does make me like him more. And it makes some of his actions and resentments make a little more sense.


• AUUUUUUGH Lan-Sizhui-Yuan talking about what he remembers!! And they HUG!!! ;__; ;__; There is not nearly enough hugging in this show. Everyone needs a goddamn hug!!


• Omg Wei Wuxian threatening to plant him like a radish again I can’t


• Aw, A-Yuan/Wen Ning road trip buddy comedy!


• Waaaaaiiiiiiit so Nie Kid really was the second chessmaster? Nie Kid?!?!?
Jesus Christ, Meng Kid never stood a chance.

• I’m okay with the open-ended way they left the ending. Lan Wangji is too responsible to walk out on his clan and Wei Wuxian would get bored and restless there even if they did put him in charge of all the baby cultivators (shortly after Lan Dad had an aneurysm and a personality change, presumably). I like the idea that they do spend time apart, but Lan Wangji joins him on the road from time to time and Wei Wuxian presumably goes back to Cloud Recesses whenever he needs a break.


• I’ll just get the living together hijinks that I really want from fics. :D

SPEAKING OF FICS since I am now done with the series and thoroughly spoiled for spoilers and also deprived of any new Untamed episodes, please give me fic recs if you have them! Bonus points for hijinks. Extra bonus points for Wei Wuxian + baby cultivators. Look, I’m a simple fan, all right, I like what I like. :D

Just for funsies, here are some of the fics I’ve found myself and enjoyed!

all your life you'll dream of this by Attila, 22k words. It's a Cinderella AU. I mean, come on.

in defense of fools by Pumpkinpaix, 2k words. A college AU in which LWJ and WWX's underwear gets switched in the laundry, guest starring some of the best and most realistic Jiang Cheng dialogue I've ever seen in my life.

please forgive my most passionate disruptions by Pumpkinpaix, 65k words. A surprisingly true-to-canon College AU with WWX as a stripper (do heed the content warnings). Featuring a wonderful and thoughtful look at why LWJ might cling to rules so much.

A Civil Combpain by Ariaste, 19k words. Post series, Jin Ling decides he should probably marry Lan Sizhui. Hilariously in-character hijinks ensue.

i'd be all right (if i could just see you) by ThirtySixSaveFiles, 17k words. Another College AU (I thought if I stuck to AUs I might avoid spoilers). Guest-starring the most hilariously awkward group project ever.

A Little Happiness by Suspicious_Popsicle, 20k words. LWJ gets de-aged and WWX takes babysitting duty. Hilarious and poignant.

The Absolutely True Story of the Yiling Patriarch: a Manifesto In Many Parts by aubreyli, 27k words. Post-series, the baby cultivators take it upon themselves to repair WWX's reputation so he can marry LWJ. They decide to use the ancient fantasy China version of fanfiction to do it. Hijinks ensue.

Comments

[goss]

Hi! Here via network. Thanks for posting these recs! I think I'd only read one modern AU before today, but from your recs I am LOVING the whole college era AU thing. <3

Also, yay show! I enjoyed reading your reactions to these eps. *g*

[galaxysoup]

Aw, thank you!! I had a lot of fun doing these posts. :D

[dancing_serpent]

You want Wei Wuxian + baby cultivators? Here you are:


Something Yet to Learn (16188 words) by Glitterbombshell
Chapters: 4/4
Fandom: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù, 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Characters: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Yuàn | Lán Sīzhuī, Wei Wuxian/Wei Ying & Lan Juniors, Baby Juniors
Additional Tags: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Wei Ying would be a Good Teacher fight me
Series: Part 1 of Joy In the Midst of These Things
Summary:

Wei Wuxian is asked (under duress) to babysit a class of tiny Lan cultivators for just a few minutes. A few minutes turns into an hour, turns into two hours, turns into an impromptu literal field trip and now there's an entire class that is weeks ahead of their curriculum, their most junior disciples have apparently imprinted on Wei Wuxian like baby birds, and Lan Qiren has no one to blame but himself.

Linger in the Sun (39400 words) by etymologyplayground
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī/Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín & Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn
Characters: Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Jiāng Chéng | Jiāng Wǎnyín, a whole SLEW of oc's
Additional Tags: Case Fic, Intimacy, Curses, Canon Compliant, Post-Canon, Cuddling & Snuggling, Getting Together, Romance, Sexual Tension, Scent Kink, m.. maybe??, its not as intense as a kink, wwx Loves To Teach, oohh myg od... theyre married. wangxian are married, Fluff, this is so long and it is mostly. nonsexual intimacy! you're welcome, Scars, Sharing a Bed, Wuji.MP3, Nonverbal Communication, this is HEAVY on the symbolism
Summary:

"Tell Lan Zhan that I'm weeping uncontrollably," Wei Wuxian says to the juniors. "Tell him I'm truly pitiful and he needs to do everything I say until I'm well again."

ETA: Also, now that you're finished, come over and join us at theuntamed_mdzs?

[galaxysoup]

YESSSSSSSSS *grabby hands*

And thank you for the comm link too. I'll check it out this weekend!

[clevermanka]

Congratulations on finishing! Your notes have been a delight.

I love Jiang Cheng's hero entrance in the Guanyin temple.

Nie Huisaing was my favorite secondary character from his first moment on-screen and when the full impact of his true self hit I actually YELLED and had to pause the show while I jumped around for a while. Oh god I love him so much.

[galaxysoup]

Omg it's such a good hero entrance! I can totally imagine the Nie Huisang reaction. You really don't see it coming, it's so well hidden!

I'm glad you've enjoyed the reactions! I'm looking forward to going back and reading through them now that I know how everything turns out. I bet there will be a lot of gleeful facepalming.:D

[trobadora]

But I’m still not sure what was supposed to be buried in the temple though?

Wasn't it Meng Yao's mother?

Waaaaaiiiiiiit so Nie Kid really was the second chessmaster? Nie Kid?!?!?

Heh. Honestly, I wish we knew more about what the hell turned him into "fuck any innocent bystanders who may get in the way of my revenge". I can't quite say I like Jin Guangyao, but I like him better than Nie Huaisang because I feel like the show at least gives us lots of little pieces of what got him to where he ended up. With Nie Huaisang, not so much.

[galaxysoup]

Wasn't it Meng Yao's mother?

Oh wow - so it wasn't actually a power grab at all, he was trying to secure her remains before he... fled? Died? Dang. I'll have to rewatch that part, because I did not pick up on that even a little bit.

I wish we knew more about what the hell turned him into "fuck any innocent bystanders who may get in the way of my revenge".

Yeah - it definitely makes me want to rewatch now that I know the big reveal, because when did he turn into this mastermind? Was he always this smart, he just didn't focus it until his brother died? Was he always faking the uselessness, or was it genuine? He's an interesting contrast to Meng Yao, because they both come across as helpless and innocent, but when the chips are down Meng Yao starts to bust out the downplayed/hidden cultivation skills whereas Nie Huaisang sticks to manipulation. By the end of the show we've still never really seen Huiasang fight physically.

[trobadora]

I may be getting things from novel and drama canon mixed up! I haven't rewatched or reread in a while - should do that some time ...

I think Nie Huaisang was always smart, but his kind of smarts wasn't what his brother wanted from him, so he hid it. And then got used to hiding?

[unrelaxing]

Everyone’s reactions to Wen Ning’s truth bomb are so cathartic to me. It must be cathartic to Wen Ning too – he’s had to carry this and stand by silently for a long time while everyone talks shit about Wei Wuxian. And he gets to show what a badass doctor his sister was (oh god I miss her so much)

oooh man YES. It was like getting to breathe petty, petty air for the first time. And OOH, I'm bad with titles so I'm not sure if I've ever read any of these fic but I'm excited to check them out!

[rheasilvia]

Nie Huisang is my second favorite character in the series! :-) He pulls the strings for the events of the entire series, inckuding WWX's resurrection... man, I love him so much. (For some reason, I caught on to him very quickly, but the golden core thing totally passed me by. Maybe because I was completely over Sulkmeister at that point, and just blanked out anything to do with him in my mind...)

I appreciate Su She standing in for the many, many nameless cultivator flunkies who have died in this story, but I feel like it gets undercut a bit by the fact that he’s an objectively terrible person

True, but I liked that he was actually both extremely competent and extremely loyal to Slimer - he followed the wrong person, but he actually had a LOT of potential that noone else saw. I did think it was an interesting nuance to add...

Jfc Jiang Cheng go to therapy

LOL, this should be the soundtrack of his life. :-)

Please die, Meng Kid. Your arm’s off and you’ve got a sword in your chest. Please just stop monologuing and die.

Yeah... I think he got way too much of a chance to lay out his (incredibly lousy) justifications, because the pathos the series gave that entire sequence made me feel as though the audience was supposed to feel at least a measure of sympathy for him. Which... uhm, WTF, hell no.

I love A Civil Combpain so much!! I'm sadly uninterested in fic with the main pairing in this fandom, but I could read ten thousand lovely Jin Ling stories like that. :-) :-)

[galaxysoup]

Nie Huisang is my second favorite character in the series! :-) He pulls the strings for the events of the entire series, inckuding WWX's resurrection... man, I love him so much.

I really want to do a full rewatch now that I know just how much is going on with him, because boy did I not sot it at all! And I'm really curious about how much I might be able to figure out about what he starts planning when. Of all the characters in the story, he's the one we never really hear explain himself in his own words.

I did think it was an interesting nuance to add...

It definitely was! I did also lol every time WWX pretended to forget who he was, though... :D

I'm sadly uninterested in fic with the main pairing in this fandom,

Oh man, I feel your pain. I do enjoy WWX/LWJ in this fandom, but in the Star Trek fandom I am completely uninterested in Kirk/Spock. There is a lot of it to wade through before you find something that ticks all your buttons...

[rheasilvia]

Oh man, I feel your pain.

I knoooow! I don't even really understand it. It's so sad, because there is SO MUCH lovely fic out there. *cries*

in the Star Trek fandom I am completely uninterested in Kirk/Spock.

Me too! I tried for a long time, but it just isn't happening. Le Sigh. I did finally get to read some TOS slash when Kirk/McCoy started happening, so I guess patience is the watch word. ;-)