Wow, getting close to the end, now!
Anyway, spoilers and incoherent rambling follow.
Actually, haven't even started the episode yet. Just wanted to jot some stuff down regarding earlier episodes that I didn't mention before. Though they're not actually relevant to my fic. 😅 So, in the scene with Lan Xichen at the end of the previous episode, he's talking about Nie Mingjue's death, and in that episode they actually just call it a qi deviation, rather than the "possessed by the devil" malarkey they used earlier. He also says that since the body was never found, he kept holding out hope that maybe Nie Mingjue was actually still alive somewhere. (This may in fact be one of the clues that let Wei Wuxian figure out that Nie Huaisang knows so much more than he's letting on, since he ought to have been the one desperately clutching at that hope, but instead he's bitterly, somberly accepted that it's the case that his precious brother is dead.) As I said, not relevant, but interesting.
The other thing is about an even earlier episode: the episode at the start of the Yi City arc, when Wei Wuxian is watching the little kids playing Sunshot Campaign. When the kids playing Jin Zixuan and Nie Mingjue start arguing and calling each other "short-lived guy" one of the things the one playing Jin Zixuan says is that he's ranked number three in the world...which one of the other kids promptly deflates by pointing out that was "number three in looks," rather than in power or importance. I'm pretty sure that's the closest the drama comes to talking about the "eligible bachelor" rankings from the novel. Which, of course, were not purely based on looks, but also weighed skill and personality, hence Lan Wangji taking second place to his brother, due to Lan Wangji's anti-social personality. If the list was actually based just on looks, then for The Untamed's version the results would be very different, in that everyone would be debating whether Wei Wuxian or Lan Wangji was in first place. Not sure who would come in third behind them; looks alone are so subjective...and there are a lot of seriously gorgeous men in the cast...
Anyway. Not relevant at all, but I thought of it and wanted to write it down.
So, into the actual episode now, when they're talking in their room at the inn, the subtitles actually translated "xiongzhang" as "my brother." Probably because it was discussing Lan Xichen instead of addressing him, but I'll take what wins I can get. 🤣 But this scene also had Lan Wangji use "Jiang Cheng" instead of "Jiang Wanyin." 😖 I really don't understand the logic behind any of that. It can't be that the writers didn't think their audience could handle characters having two different names: they use three names for Lan Wangji (though admittedly the name Lan Wangji is used considerably less often than Lan Zhan and Hanguang-jun) and they use both Wei Wuxian and Wei Ying with great regularity. (They also call him the Yiling Laozu a fair amount, but that's more a title than a name.) Did they think that only the hero, love interest and villain get to have two names? It's weird. And I'm flummoxed as to whether or not I need to force myself to replicate it in my fic. Because I'd really rather not have everyone always calling him Jiang Cheng all the time even if they're not close to him. It's disrespectful. (Admittedly, he still gets a fair amount of disrespect in the fic, what with that kind of being an aspect of his character, that no one respects him until he becomes a downright terror, but...)
So this was the episode where that .gif I found came from. Separated out from the rest of the scene, it does look like Lan Xichen is checking Jiang Cheng out, but in context and with the rest of the visuals in place, it doesn't look that way at all, more like he's concerned that Jiang Cheng is going to expose Wei Wuxian's identity then and there. Or at least keep itching for a fight. 😅
I need to reread the book. I feel like there wasn't such a big deal about Wei Wuxian coming to Golden Carp Tower in Mo Xuanyu's body (and using his name) because it's been like ten years since Mo Xuanyu was kicked out of the Jin Clan, so no one particularly remembered him, and certainly didn't know him just by looking at him. The amount of time should be either the same or longer here, so why is everyone pitching such a fit? He thanks a servant for giving him food and she panics. She's so young that she would have been a literal child when Mo Xuanyu was kicked out, and the name hasn't been used this whole time, so... 😖 Why am I wasting time writing about this when it has literally no bearing on my fic? In my fic, Mo Xuanyu is traumatized by witnessing an act of cruelty by Jin Zixun, so he ends up joining the Jiang Clan. (And developing a crush on Wen Ning, but that's unlikely to go anywhere, since Wei Wuxian gives him a direct order (as his shifu) not to do or say anything about it to anyone until he reaches crowning age (Mo Xuanyu is, at the time, twelve, so that's eight years away), so it's purposefully set aside until long after the fic is over.)
The music for the initial portion of the Paperman Wei sequence is entirely inappropriate. I mean, it's good music for a mildly comical stealth sequence, but it's inappropriate for the setting. It'd be just right for a sequence like this in a modern setting, though.
Ah. This is important not just for this fic but for all other fics in this fandom. Unlike the formal letter from one clan to another, the letter from Bicao is in an envelope. A regular envelope, only the opening is at the narrow end. (Actually, the fact that someone like Bicao had access to paper and an envelope is already super-suspicious. But presumably the kitten who hides his claws provided her with both along with the expensive jewelry (or money with which she bought said jewelry).)
Not actually relevant to my fic, but the way this episode ended, it looked like Wei Wuxian had purposefully started the Empathy session with Nie Mingjue's head, as opposed to the novel, where it was caused purely by the massive amounts of resentment filling said head.
So, this episode actually turned out not to be so important for my note-taking, but the next episode will be vastly important.
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