Running out of things to say before the read more tag. 😅 Spoilers below, in amongst random and incoherent rambling. Also a lot of detailed little nitpicks of things that aren't really...things that don't detract from just the watching experience but are frustrating me a lot as someone who's become more familiar with Mo Dao Zu Shi novel canon and is now trying to fix up a stupidly long fanfic that uses The Untamed's canon.
I should have noted this yesterday, but I need to remember that the bloody cracks appeared on the victims here. I somehow had it in my mind that there were no such cracks on the victims in the Chang Clan. That may make things more complicated in my fic. 🤔 I'll have to handle certain scenes more carefully...
Okay, important to note: Xue Yang and Xiao Xingchen already know each others' names, and Xiao Xingchen has been actively pursuing him. I remembered the active pursuit part, but I forgot they knew each others' names already. Presumably they first met in a scene similar to the one from "Villainous Friends" only with some Wen Clan official being with Xue Yang instead of Jin Guangyao (he isn't even Jin Guangyao yet, lol!). Anyway, that means there's some unknown history there, but I'm not sure if it'll change anything in my fic. However, it also means that Xue Yang may have been waiting around in Yueyang not for Chang Ping's return, but for Xiao Xingchen to catch up to him. (Or both. Both is a very real possibility. I still don't get how the blood is still fresh after eleven days, though.)
Xiao Xingchen says he's been tracking Xue Yang for "about half a month." That means bare minimum amount of time since the scene wherein Jiang Fengmian mentions the deaths in the area is two weeks, but probably more than that, since Xiao Xingchen would have to hear about the slaughters before he could set out to put a stop to the killer. But it's impossible for someone to walk from Gusu to Yueyang in two weeks, especially not with Nie Huaisang slowing them down! Although, admittedly, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji left Gusu by boat, not on foot, so if they took a boat most of the way to Tanzhou...they would still have to walk from Tanzhou to Dafan to Yueyang, though. That's...that's a long walk. The map in the art book includes radically different positions (from the reality-based map on the wiki) for pretty much all the cities it includes, but it doesn't show Tanzhou, Dafan or Yueyang, so that's not even very informative.
*sigh*
I feel like so much of this comes down to "they move unnaturally fast no matter where they're going." It's like no one stopped to ask how far a person and/or a horse can walk in a day, or how far one can go up or downstream on a river in a day, etc. It's like they're moving at car speed on foot. 😰
I may have to give up on making sense of the chronology from the show.
Damn, Xue Yang's sword is nasty! It's got all these notches in it so it'll cut more viciously. Very fitting for the character.
I still think it's pretty unfair of Wei Wuxian to interfere with the duel between Xiao Xingchen and Xue Yang by using his Binding/Bonding thing to keep Xue Yang from escaping while also refusing to let Jiang Cheng take part in the fight in any way.
Uh. I don't think I want to call this a Cultivator Power, since it's being used by Xue Yang, and therefore likely deviant or even demonic, but...what the heck is this? It's apparently known, as Lan Wangji calls it "Waving of Qiankun" which does not explain much to me about what the technique actually is. It seems to involve a cloud of dust surrounding Xue Yang's enemies, so they can't see him coming as he attacks?
Naturally, that's when Song Lan arrives to protect Xiao Xingchen. 😊
And then we get a return of immortal-binding ropes just popping up from someone's sleeve to wrap around an enemy, in this case being launched at Xue Yang by Xiao Xingchen.
Gah, I totally misremembered what was going on. Meng Yao says he was sent to Yueyang to accompany them to Qinghe because Nie Mingjue wants to talk to them because of a letter that Lan Xichen sent him. That is so far removed from what I had him say when they interrogated him that it's not even funny. (Probably what actually happened was that Nie Huaisang sent a letter to his brother saying they were on their way to Yueyang, or...I'm still not clear why he was already expecting Meng Yao to meet him in Yueyang. But maybe I can rework the interrogation scene so it won't matter.) I'm going to have to completely invent a different reason he had already met Xue Yang. Ugh.
Oh, I like this phrasing. Xiao Xingchen says that Nie Mingjue is well-known for his "heroic spirit and clear standards." I might borrow that at some point in the fic.
Hmm. Does Meng Yao bring up the Wen Clan at this moment--specifically talking about "handling" them--because it was already brought up in some of the "here's what happened" discussion that we skip over, or was it part of the subject of Lan Xichen's letter (well, obviously it was, but would it have been mentioned in such a way that Meng Yao would have been told about it?) or does he recognize Xue Yang as a Wen Clan guest cultivator because of the (relative) proximity of Qishan and Qinghe? For just watching the show, it's irrelevant which is the case, but for that one scene in my fic where he's talking about this sequence, it's vital that I decide which is the most likely case...
As translated, Xiao Xingchen says he's the youngest of Baoshan-sanren's disciples, but...that doesn't really feel plausible to me. Why would she only take one at a time? I may just chalk that up to a translation issue...
I'm trying to get a read on the look that passes mostly from Meng Yao to Xue Yang (but with a slight glance going the other way) during the conversation between Wei Wuxian and Xiao Xingchen about Baoshan-sanren and their connections to her and thus to each other. It concludes with a brief but very noticeable nod on Meng Yao's part, but since it starts out with a bit of literally eying him up and down, maybe it's not so much a nod of agreement or greeting but just sort of unconscious because he realizes he's been caught checking out the hot prisoner?
Uh. yeah, that's weak. Funny, but weak.
It's not implausible that they could have met in the course of Meng Yao's duties to the Nie Clan, though. I'm sure he might have been sent on errands that took him into or near Wen Clan territory. Hmm. The problem is that this is sort of the start of CQL's basic policy of "let's portray JGY as pure evil!" Which is one of the biggest problems I have with the show, really, because in the novel Jin Guangyao is very complex, and while he certainly ends up evil, by this point in the story he shouldn't be even remotely evil. Personally, I see his fall into wickedness as not being irreversible until he's after gotten his brother killed. Up until that point--even after he's decided to set up the Qiongqi Path ambush and trick Jin Zixuan into going there--he can still turn around and go back. So him already being evil at this time is not going to work. Unless the show wanted us to think he was only working for the Nie Clan as a mole sent by the Wen Clan, but that's not really plausible, either.
I don't know what Xiao Xingchen is actually saying when he says that Baoshan-sanren "lives freely without a fixed residence," but all other canon materials (including, as I recall, some of the dialog later on in the drama) specifies her as inhabiting a particular mountain, so...
There's something painfully poignant about the way Lan Wangji is watching Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan walk off. Like he's not even sure how to view what he's seeing, but there's definitely a sense of sorrowful jealousy there, an envy that they can live so freely and walk all those roads together, while he's destined to return to Cloud Recesses at the end of the journey, parting him from Wei Wuxian. Actually, this scene is painfully poignant all around: Wei Wuxian feels crushed that Xiao Xingchen can't tell him anything about his mother, and Jiang Cheng is hurt by Wei Wuxian's pain but also clearly afraid that it's going to lead to Wei Wuxian leaving the Jiang Clan and never coming back to Lotus Pier.
Oh. The "teenage heroes" line is here! Lan Xichen used it in his letter to Nie Mingjue, describing Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian both. Which to me suggests that he realized both of them would follow Lan Wangji on his mission! 🤣 (That means when I put the phrase in Jin Guangshan's mouth in my fic, I should have Jiang Cheng even more frustrated by it, because it felt like such an honor coming from Lan Xichen by way of Nie Mingjue, and yet feels so dismissive coming from Jin Guangshan.)
I feel like him asking Lan Wangji if everything is all right with his brother has to be a mistranslation, though? Because surely the letter--whatever was in it--left Lan Xichen's hands long after Lan Wangji set out from Cloud Recesses, and therefore he would have less knowledge of his brother's current state than Nie Mingjue has?
...actually, I suppose that's irrelevant.
Wei Wuxian was the first one to try to keep Nie Mingjue from killing Xue Yang then and there. At some point in my fic, he should probably blame himself for all the lives Xue Yang has taken since then. No one else will agree with him, but it seems in character for him to take responsibility, even if only internally. If nothing else, it should be part of his motivation in hunting down Xue Yang in my fic; he wants to amend that error.
Anyway, by this point, it seems like everyone already knows about the Yin Iron, but I guess it doesn't necessarily mean much, since it's been established that Lan Qiren spoke to Nie Mingjue--well, we know he spoke to him about the puppet stuff, but I suppose the Yin Iron may not have been mentioned. But there have obviously been explanations we didn't see regarding what Xue Yang did, so maybe the Yin Iron was explained at that time? We already missed Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji explaining it first to Nie Huaisang and then Jiang Cheng, so...I guess I can't quite count this as "but everybody seems to know about it" territory just yet.
Meng Yao seems to address the guy he'll later kill as "da-ge"? I must be mishearing. That would make zero sense. Maybe it's his name or rank and it only sounds similar to that? Since I do have trouble parsing individual words a lot...
Anyway, Xue Yang was clearly enjoying watching that awful exchange. I was definitely right in saying that he would have been encouraging Meng Yao to murder that guy. (No other named characters witnessed it, though.)
Nie Mingjue says that "all four" pieces of the Yin Iron have "appeared." Is that right? Lan Wangji has one, Wen Ruohan got one from the Dancing Fairy, Xue Yang has one, and Wen Chao got one from the Lady Florist. So, yeah, that's right. But they're all outer parts; the middle is missing. (The artbook claims the sword inside the Xuanwu of Slaughter was made from it, but that's impossible; the center is the smallest part, and the sword is, well, sword-sized. Also that would make no sense from any perspective.)
Okay, Nie Mingjue already knows who Xue Chonghai was, but that information was evidently not relayed to Jiang Cheng when they explained what the Yin Iron was. (They may have only said they were looking for pieces of an evil spiritual tool called the Yin Iron and left it at that. Which, really, is probably all they needed to say?)
And now he's talking about "thousands of years ago." Is that a translation error or...? Enh, yeah, it's probably just a translation error.
So, that letter included the information that Lan Xichen "found records of the Yin Iron in forbidden books." Which is both informative and too vague to really help me. 😰
Okay, the guy Meng Yao will murder is being addressed as "Captain" by one of the other Nie men. And then he calls Meng Yao a "son of a whore" and that one Wei Wuxian did witness.
Ah! Wei Wuxian just settled down on the roof of the guest house where Lan Wangji is staying. And according to one of the informational things I found, sleeping on the roof of a house is a confession to the one inside. Admittedly, he's up there to drink, not to sleep, but the implication is definitely still there. 😊 To the audience, anyway; not necessarily to the characters. Oh, no, he just said he was going to sleep up there! 💕 He says in the morning that he "might have been drunk" so maybe that was his subconscious trying to send a message to himself and/or to Lan Wangji.
Oh! I should add that to the Things They Added to Highlight the Romance They Weren't Allowed to Mention tally!
10) Wei Wuxian deciding to sleep (however drunkenly) on Lan Wangji's roof at the Unclean Realm.
Hmm. I thought there was a moment when Wei Wuxian witnessed Meng Yao speaking to the captive Xue Yang. I mean, I know he witnesses something like that during the Empathy session in the present, but I thought there was something at this time. Maybe that's in the next episode? Or it could even be in flashback in the present despite that we didn't see it at this time. 😰 That is, unfortunately, a common thing in movies and TV, keeping stuff like that back from the audience until much later.
Okay, so when the Wen Clan shows up for the Yin Iron piece and Xue Yang, they're at least claiming that they want to punish Xue Yang for the massacre. So they're still vaguely pretending that they uphold honor and justice and all that. (Though the pretense would be more convincing if it wasn't Wen Chao doing the talking. 😰 Like, literally any random soldier would be more believable.)
*sigh* Netflix, it doesn't do us much good that they write character names on the screen if you don't translate them. It's fine on a rewatch, 'cause I know that's Wen Zhuliu, aka Core-Melting Hand, but the first time I watched it? I had no freakin' clue that he was anyone significant. Or, for that matter, why he was the one fighting Nie Mingjue instead of Wen Chao. (Other than that Wen Chao obviously was all talk and didn't have the nerve or ability to fight Nie Mingjue. That much was easy to determine.)
....aaaaand Meng Yao just addressed Nie Huaisang as "Huaisang," with no formality or honorific or anything. Um. That is very much not appropriate to his station. It's fine that he calls him that after he becomes Jin Guangyao and becomes Nie Mingjue's sworn brother, but now? That's crazy inappropriate.
Watching the battle between Wen Zhuliu and Nie Mingjue, I'm noticing there's no attempt on the former's part to melt Nie Mingjue's core. (Assuming that my guess earlier that it's a bare-handed combat move is correct.) Is that because he respects Nie Mingjue too much, or because that's not part of this mission?
Uh. That was a saber, not a Wen Clan sword that Meng Yao used to kill that guy.
That doesn't even make sense!
In the novel, he very carefully used a Wen Clan sword and sword move to kill his tormenter from the Jin Clan. In this he's just using his own saber? Or does he even have a saber? We never see him with one, but...
Ugh, this is all dragging my fic through the mud. I should have taken more precise notes last time. 😭
That was a blow from Wen Zhuliu he took? And he survived? Dang...they really intended to say that Meng Yao was a double-agent for the Wen Clan while he was with the Nie, didn't they?
That. That would completely wreck a large chunk of my fic.
Well...maybe I could say he was approached to act as a double-agent and hadn't made up his mind, or had been unclear enough about his answer that the Wens assumed he was on their side?
Either way, it's touching that in the midst of all this, while Meng Yao is lying there half dead, on hearing that Wen Xu is on his way to attack Cloud Recesses, Meng Yao worriedly thinks of Lan Xichen. This show really does ship them hard.
The building where Nie Mingjue renders his judgement against Meng Yao is being translated as "Blade's Hall." It's the audience hall, basically, so I may need to know that.
Meng Yao does claim the guy he killed had let Xue Yang go, in among his other claims. It's hard to guess how much of what he says is true and how much isn't: between his physical pain and how upset he is at the way the man was constantly insulting his mother, every word he says is filled with anguish, so it's like which are genuine and which aren't? It definitely would have been better if they hadn't imported the "taking credit for my accomplishments" line from the novel, though. That made sense when he was with the Jin Clan and preventing him from getting credit for things he accomplished prevented him from having any chance of winning his father's acceptance. With the Nie Clan, it makes no sense whatsoever.
He does genuinely seem to think Nie Mingjue is about to kill him, and to accept that fate placidly, maybe even to be a bit grateful that someone he respects so much will kill him. Regardless of their intent for the character's inner motivations at this time, I think my basic plan of "he just succumbed to this one temptation to get rid of a tormentor and is not actually aligned with evil at this time" still works. I'm going to need to adjust everything about his connection to Xue Yang, though.
Hmm. Does Baxia not have a sheathe in this? I should doublecheck in the art book, but if so, then I probably need to fix up a lot of minor mentions...
Anyway, current standing of the tallies:
Things Added to Highlight the Romance: 10
Crazy Wei Wuxian Powers: 8
Cultivator Powers: 11
Mistranslations of "shufu": "Grand Master"
Cast Members with Obviously Pierced Ears: Meng Yao, Lan Wangji
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