*sigh* At this point, I've missed enough days that I either can't miss any more days if I want to finish by August 20, or I'll have to have some days where I do two episodes. After I'm far enough past my AU point, I hopefully won't need to take many more notes, though, which would at least make everything go faster, I guess?
Anyway, everything past the read more tag is just rambling and incoherent, me jotting down notes about various things in the episode as I watch it, much of it geared towards eventually editing my stupidly long fanfic. There will be spoilers in among the nonsense. (Spoilers for MDZS, that is. There may also be spoilers for my fanfic, but who really cares?)
Well. Today Netflix is not cooperating with screenshots. 😡 But what I wanted to screenshot right at this moment was the subtitles, not the image, so that's fine for right now. Because early on in this episode, we're told that Wei Wuxian is saying this:
Um. Really? Really, Netflix? You really want to claim that our incredibly smart and extremely well educated lead is using a sentence that broken?
Do you not have any editors who look over your subtitles before things go up?
Argh!
Anyway, back to what I was talking about yesterday, regarding the location of Mount Muxi, if they're saying that the Xuanwu of Slaughter was in the service of Xue Chonghai, then surely Mount Muxi should be located fairly near Yiling, since in The Untamed's version of the story, we know the history of the Burial Mounds: they were Xue Chonghai's stronghold. If Mount Muxi is near Yiling, then it actually makes sense that Jiang Cheng would only need a few days to get back to Yunmeng, as Wei Wuxian mentions in the previous episode, but it makes his other statement--that Gusu is closer--flat-out incorrect.
😣 There's much about the Mount Muxi sequence that doesn't quite make sense in this version, and pretty much all of it has to do with the location of both the indoctrination camp and the mountain. They should have just established that Wen Qing and Wen Ning were already at the Yiling Supervisory Office, and then placed the indoctrination camp not too far from Yiling, instead of putting it all the way at the foot of Qishan.
Though one other thing that doesn't make sense is that Wei Wuxian has already discovered that the tunnel everyone else used to escape through is closed off before they fight the monster. That removes a lot of the reason for them to fight it. Or rather, it removes all the reason for them to fight it. It can't reach them where they are, after all, so what's the point in killing it just to be killing it? I mean, yeah, dying heroically is better than starving to death, but...in makes more sense in the novel, where they assume they can get out the same way everyone else did once the monster is dead, and only after that do they find that the tunnel has been blocked, probably due to the battle and/or the monster's death throes.
Gnh. A combination of translation problems and a fairly out-there Cultivator Power:
15) Some kind of short-range telepathy? Just before the battle with the Xuanwu of Slaughter, Wei Wuxian's line is translated as "Listen to me." Lan Wangji nods, holds up two fingers, which then glow blue at the tips, and he places them against Wei Wuxian's forehead, where a little light lingers for a moment after Lan Wangji removes his hand again. This makes Wei Wuxian nod...and then during the battle, Lan Wangji can hear what Wei Wuxian is thinking, and vice-versa. So, whatever he actually said, I'd expect it was a bit more than just "Listen to me." It was maybe the name of the technique, or something? I have no idea...but it's weird as presented. Plus, ya know, why would this never be used again? If people can just listen to someone else's thoughts, wouldn't that get used for, I don't know, interrogations or secret communications in tense situation, or something? (Agh, I probably have places I should have used it in my fic. And I have no excuse, 'cause I remember going "wtf?" about this technique when I was rewatching the pre-tragedy flashback portion of the show before I wrote the fic!)
*ahem*
Anyway.
So, there's like absolutely nothing to show or explain Wei Wuxian getting inside the thing's shell. They just leave the sheltered part of the cave, and then he's inside the shell. The establishing shot should have shown him swimming up to it or something. *sigh* Anyway, what the heck is "scarfskin"? Is that a legit thing that's part of a turtle/tortoise and I'm just ignorant of it because I'm not particularly educated about biological nitty-gritties, or is it a weird translation thing?
I feel like most of his mental speech from inside the shell should have been said before he went inside it. Maybe originally it was, and they decided to move it to voice-over in order to speed things up a little?
Anyway, later on, after he's found some upright corpses in there, covered in some kind of pink slime (maybe it's the flesh of the Xuanwu of Slaughter growing up over the corpses?), he leans in close to one that still has its eyes open, and there's a weird sound effect before he backs off again, shocked and horrified. He sends a thought message to Lan Wangji, saying that the monster "not only eats human flesh, it also digests spiritual cognition." I still don't quite understand what that's supposed to mean. Lan Wangji of course replies that such actions make it like the Yin Iron.
Then Wei Wuxian backs away from the upright corpses and bumps into the sword. Which has a hazy black smoke around it. Touching it causes him to hear the sound of screaming, and it seems to wake the beast. He comments that "the resentment is so strong," and then for some reason concludes that the sword is what's trapping the Xuanwu of Slaughter there. Which does not make much sense to me. (The fact that the sword is stabbing into its flesh also doesn't make a lot of sense. I'm pretty sure in the novel it had just been dropped by one of the thing's victims and then just stayed there, soaking up the resentment of centuries of other victims.)
Then in something truly bizarre, in the midst of the battle, as the sword starts pouring out black smoke, Wei Wuxian begins to hear the screaming again, and the hand that's holding onto the sword begins to bleed profusely. Then the smoke seems to be coming from Wei Wuxian himself as he smiles, gestures with his other hand, and causes all the dropped weapons on the bottom of the lake to fly up and strike the beast in the neck. Um. I don't recall him having that type of telekinetic powers at any other time. I guess that makes this a Crazy Wei Wuxian Power since it doesn't come back?
9) During the battle with the Xuanwu of Slaughter, he gains the telekinetic ability to call up all the lost weapons on the bottom of the lake and fling them against the monster. While surrounded by the wispy black smoke that's typically used later in the show to indicate his demonic cultivation powers.
Anyway, that's the end of the monster, even though Lan Wangji's technique didn't actually penetrate its neck in any way. (I'm pretty sure in the novel he actually decapitated the thing, or came close to it anyway. That's what the Chord Assassination Technique is supposed to do, after all, cut through flesh and bone like it's mud, just as the subtitles said before the battle. But I guess that would have been pretty gross to animate.)
And then we switch to a scene in Wen Ruohan's audience hall where the puppets are fighting against each other; the scenes are too close and too chaotic to get a good idea of how many there are, but the nastier version are definitely in the minority among them still. I feel like the walls around the stairs leading to Wen Ruohan's throne weren't there in earlier episodes? But that can't be the case. Hummmmm. Well, I don't spend too long in there in the fic, anyway, it's probably fine.
After the report on the puppets' power indeed having increased (in which Wen Ruohan is addressed as "Father" in the subtitles, but it doesn't sound like Wen Chao's voice, so I'm confused; enh, no, I guess it is him, he's just not sounding spiteful since he's scared of his father), Wen Ruohan says "Tell Wen Xu to find Xue Yang. And if there is anyone related to Xue Yang near Yueyang and Qinghe, you should check them out." Hmm. I wonder if this changes anything for my fic? I don't think it should, since Xue Yang basically has no one in his life but himself?
Oh! But there must have been reports sent back to Nightless City regarding their search for Xue Yang, so Meng Yao should have seen those reports, so that will impact my fic in the scene where they're interrogating Meng Yao! Or maybe we're supposed to conclude that this hunt for people connected to Xue Yang is how the Wen Clan first encountered Meng Yao? Hmmm. That's also a possibility. I plan to pay especially close attention to everything that's said about what happened to Meng Yao between leaving the Unclean Realm and starting to work for Wen Ruohan, so hopefully there will be a few more little hints somewhere.
Uh. Now they're saying that the last piece of the Yin Iron (despite that it clearly needs more than one piece to be completed) is the only one that can actually control the puppets. Despite that a) they've been controlling them just fine and b) how could one particular piece of a broken tool control things that the other pieces can't if they all have power? Or rather, isn't the power of the Yin Iron just the massive amount of resentful energy stored up in it? I...I don't...I don't get it. I just don't get it. I mean, yes, I do get it in that this conversation is trying to say "see, that sword was made from the last piece and that's why Wei Wuxian can control the puppets," but that's...it doesn't jive with what's already happened in the show, and it takes almost all agency and invention away from Wei Wuxian. What's the point of trying to keep his hands clean if you also make him nothing but a tool controlled by an ancient evil? 😠
Back in the cave, Wei Wuxian is very weak and already feverish. Worried about him, Lan Wangji starts transferring spiritual energy to him. This is one of the things I wanted to take notes on about how it looks. He makes the same gesture as before, holding two fingers up, and a blue light like a flame appears above them, then he aims his fingers at Wei Wuxian's wrist, where he's holding it, and the light turns into a short beam like lightning, staying there as the energy is passed from the one to the other. After a little while, this eases Wei Wuxian's shuddering.
Ah, whoever it was that said that was right: if you look at Lan Wangji's lips as he's identifying the name of the song, he really does call it "Wangxian" rather than "Wuji," the name of the song on the album. 🥰
And then, weirdly, they have Wei Wuxian wake up just outside the cave, and the first person he interacts with is Jin Zixuan. Who rushes over looking worried but then just sounds annoyed as heck. (Does he also have a slight tsundere side to him? Or is it just that he hates the fact that Wei Wuxian's natural charm is starting to break through his pompous disregard?)
Jiang Cheng says that he and Jin Zixuan hurried without sleep for seven days, but it's not clear if that's the round-trip time or if that was just to get to Lanling. (Wouldn't Yunmeng have been closer? Also, in addition to Jin Clan men, there are Jiang Clan men with them, so where did they come from?) Oh, no, that's round-trip.
Okay, wait, now he's saying that Gusu and Qinghe were closest, but because they're both under Qishan's thumb, they had to go to Lanling instead. Um. According to the art book's map, Gusu and Qinghe are very far apart. It is literally impossible for a place to be closest to both of them. I am in deep confusion about all of this.
Anyway, I guess the Jiang Clan men with them are the other disciples who were at the indoctrination camp. But the geography in this sequence is beyond sketchy.
And then Jin Zixuan says that it's now been decided that all the clans will fight together against the Wen Clan, and that the survivors of other attacks are already gathering in Lanling.
So, uh, why were they so unprepared for the attack on Lotus Pier? And also, y'know, why does no one actually rise up against the Wen Clan until after the Jiang Clan is wiped out?
I mean, yes, it takes time for anything to happen when you're talking about organizing a rebellion, but...argh! And of course even in the novel they're aware that there will be repercussions for all this, but that's why they send Jiang Yanli to Meishan where she'll be safe. But also in the novel it's less...less clear that there's going to be war, because the Wen Clan isn't being quite that blatant about its aggression. I mean, in the previous episode, Wen Chao literally is threatening the hostages by saying that if they don't behave themselves, he'll have their families killed--even to Jin Zixuan he's saying this! So it's like double-hostage: the disciples at the camp are hostages being held to keep their clans from stepping out of line, but their families are also being treated as hostages to keep the disciples from stepping out of line! Not to mention that in this version, Cloud Recesses is decimated in a brutal attack, rather than burned in a feigned "this is justice" ploy in which very few people are even hurt let alone killed (in fact, the only injuries we hear about are Lan Wangji's broken leg and of course his father being beaten to the point that he literally cannot recover and is dead before the events at Mount Muxi are over).
Once again, this is me getting frustrated with inconsistencies caused by the added materials. I really need to write a fic at some point that's just taking the drama's story and then letting every addition actually play out properly, instead of being forcibly dropped so the novel's events can play out as they originally did. (Not that I'm saying that's what they should have had happen in the drama. I'm just saying they shouldn't have added things that necessitate either a change of plot or a contradiction of events within the show. It's not something that bothered me the first time around, but it's sure getting to me now. In part because now I've read the novel, so I know the original version of the story.)
Okay, so now we get a report from a random Wen Clan soldier to Wen Chao, about Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng having been seen headed to Mount Muxi with some of their own men. Wen Chao sneers that they must be there to rescue Wei Wuxian, but that all they'll find is his body, because he and Lan Wangji were trapped in there with that giant tortoise.
So...how does he know that it's only the two of them in there?
As far as he should know, all of them were trapped in the cave!
I guess the Wens recaptured some of the other escaped disciples already and they told him only the two hadn't escaped? I feel like that's the sort of thing we should have seen. Even if only seen a report about it. Like, why wasn't that in the earlier scene with Wen Ruohan? Wen Chao could have reported that his men had caught some of the hostages that had escaped, and that only the two were still trapped, and what should they do about it?
Back at Lotus Pier, we see the various younger disciples practicing archery, and Jiang Fengmian giving the smallest of them (who was about twelve in the novel, if I recall, but seems more like eight or nine here) instructions in about the same way Wei Wuxian was giving instructions to Wen Ning earlier, but with a grown man and a little child it seems paternal, whereas with two young men of the same age it seemed homoerotic. (Which is slightly frustrating, since they didn't have the freedom to show much homoerotic material between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji!)
And this time Jiang Yanli called out to Jiang Cheng first, then Wei Wuxian. That's once each way now. Hmmmm. Hopefully there will be enough instances that I'll be more sure about which way it should go in my fic.
And then Wei Wuxian passes out, and wakes up where he should have to start with: in his bed, with Jiang Yanli nursing him back to health. There's a childhood drawing he carved into the bed showing two figures kissing. One of them is slightly smaller than the other so he probably intended it to be a girl, but they're also drawn identically, so it's more like two men.
Netflix is not cooperating with screenshots right now, so I'll have to use a phone photo, lol. (Made more awkward because Blogger just changed how you upload pictures and now they can't be uploaded from my phone, plus Dropbox was stalling out on me, so I had to upload the picture to Discord on my phone and then download it onto my computer. What a hassle to go through for such a bad picture! I shoulda just opened the episode on Youtube and taken a screenshot there. Tch. This way should have been faster and easier...)
Anyway, it bugs me that his hair still has that little bun on the top while he's lying in bed sleeping. I get that the wigs are all pre-styled and what-not, but who would really put him in bed with that still in place? It keeps clonking against the headboard! After he was resting peacefully in bed, they would have let his hair down. I know that's a minor nitpick, but that kind of thing bothers me.
The detail that despite that he's in his sick bed and in the middle of trying to eat his first proper meal in weeks, Wei Wuxian tries to get up to properly greet him as soon as Jiang Fengmian comes in! It's touching, but also kind of crushing? Like that much formality even in such circumstances...it's hard for my mushy American brain to wrap around it.
Hmm. I'm not sure what the conditions are when a close relative still uses someone's family name in addressing them. I've specifically noticed it twice now. The first one was during Wei Wuxian's archery lesson to Wen Ning: when Wen Qing came upon them, she called out "Wen Ning" to get his attention, rather than "a-Ning," her usual form of address. And now in this scene, when Jiang Cheng is rebuking Wei Wuxian for his behavior back at the cave, Jiang Fengmian sharply says "Jiang Cheng" to get his attention and shut him up, instead of "a-Cheng" like he usually uses. In this case, it's possibly analogous to the way in English someone might tack on the last name of whoever they're addressing in order to make it that much more clear that the person being addressed is in trouble, but in the earlier one that's definitely not the case: Wen Qing didn't sound even the least bit angry, and seemed almost amused by what she was witnessing. Maybe there it was just because the full name would get his attention more easily? Hmm. 🤔 It's not necessarily a huge deal in the fic I want to edit, or even any other fic, but I would like to get the basic cultural connotations correct whenever I can.
*sigh* And we're back to what I was talking about earlier, with how the changes for the drama are not reflected as soon as they want to get back to the novel's plot. Yu-furen comes in and starts scolding everyone and everything, and says that Wei Wuxian was "Fooling around even though he knew it would bring trouble to his clan." Which is just plain not the case in this version. There was already a freaking battle going on by the time he took Wen Chao hostage. He wasn't just trying to save three people: he was trying to save all of them. And Jiang Cheng had already killed Wen Clan soldiers, so the Jiang Clan was definitely already in hot water even without Wei Wuxian having dared to lay a hand on Wen Chao. And then she goes on to say how Wen Chao would never have really dared to harm the two young masters of the Lan Clan and the Jin Clan. Despite that a) it wasn't even remotely about them in this version, b) Wen Xu had already broken Lan Wangji's leg (which was the case in the novel as well, admittedly) proving that the Wen Clan had no intention of safeguarding the heirs of other clans, c) Wen Chao had made it very clear at every step of the way that he was very much ready to kill any one of them at any time and their whole clans as well, d) Wen Chao closed all of them up in that cave with a man-eating monster so he was obviously 100% okay with killing them, e) there was a full-on battle going on!
I know I shouldn't harp on it, but...it really bothers me that they're actually making Yu-furen even worse at this moment than she was in the book, because at least there was a modicum of logic to this line of argument in the book. The fact that Wen Chao closed every single one of the hostages up in there with a giant monster already defeated a certain amount of her argument, but not nearly as much of it. I recall that when I first watched this, I couldn't understand why she (and later Jiang Cheng) was going on exclusively about him trying to protect Lan Wangji and Jin Zixuan, when it had been everyone in the cave who was already in danger from the pitched battle.
And she just addressed Jiang Cheng as such as well, instead of as "a-Cheng." And oh god, does he look miserable as he walks over to her! Why does she have to drag their child into their arguments? I mean, I know that's extremely true to life, but it's so painful to watch. (I am once again so thankful that my parents not only had a strong and happy marriage while I was young, but in fact still are happy together after more than fifty years.)
I'm not sure what's worse, that Yu-furen is willing to say all that in front of her own son, or that Jiang Fengmian doesn't even try to defend himself or stop her until she starts to voice the rumor that he cheated on her with Cangse-sanren and that he's Wei Wuxian's actual father. Even then, I think he only stopped her because he didn't want her to say that where Wei Wuxian could hear it. (Though it's not as though he hasn't heard it before, even if not from her.)
I'm finally playing Shin Megami Tensei V Vengeance right now (I was delayed because I wanted to get it on the PS5, but then I had to actually get a PS5 😅) and a few days ago I got to the part where Dazai explains the miserable home life he's had, with his parents always arguing and he feels like he's being expected to take sides, and yet if he does that only makes everything worse. When he said that, all I could think of was scenes like this where Yu-furen drags Jiang Cheng into her arguments with his father, seemingly for no purpose but to make him even more miserable than he already is.
Poor Jiang Cheng! He's such a tragic figure! (But that's why I like to write AU fanfic, to save them all from the worst of their tragedies. Even if my fanfic is subpar and childish wish fulfillment. I don't care: I love these characters and I want them to be happy. If that makes me childish, then fine, I'm childish.)
Ah, I do love Wei Wuxian's honest, open understanding of people! "Don't hide things so sulkily in your heart," he tells Jiang Cheng. And he goes on to tell him that of course Jiang Fengmian is going to be more strict with his own son and heir than he is with the son of old friends. The heartbreaking thing about Jiang Cheng's response--"He's not stricter towards me. He just doesn't like me."--is that he really believes it. He won't find out until the day his father dies that he really did love him, even if he couldn't or wouldn't show it. 😭
This. This is the moment with the "Twin Heroes" line. Which I could swear said "Twin Prides" the first time I watched this. Have they changed the subtitles since 2022? (If so, why didn't they fix that line from early in this episode? Or, you know, get rid of the "Stygian" crap?) It comes right after his promise that in the future he'll be supporting Jiang Cheng, just like his father supported Jiang Cheng's father. (Without either of them reflecting on the fact that Wei Changze then ran off with the woman that Jiang Fengmian had fallen in love with...which is not exactly something either of them wants to repeat!)
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