Incomprehensible nonsense and spoilers follow.
So, they decided to omit the part from the novel where the Guanyin statue in the temple looked like Meng Shi. 😅 That might be for the best...
The whole "you didn't have to do that" dialog does not hold a candle to the two of them holding each other and repeatedly confessing their love for each other. (Obviously.) But...concessions had to be made due to the oppressively anti-LGBT+ stance of the government.
What is "caught him passingly" supposed to mean? I... 😰 At least most of the problems with the subtitles aren't broken English. I hope "caught him passingly" is going to be the only broken line in this episode. What with it being part one of the finale and all. (At least this time they gave the broken line to Su Minshan. I'm just fine with him speaking bizarrely.)
Um. During the fight between Jiang Cheng and Jin Guangyao, when he forces Jiang Cheng to deflect a blow aimed at the bystanding prisoners...shouldn't the blow have been aimed at Wei Wuxian instead of Lan Wangji? Not only is it out of character for Jiang Cheng to bother defending Lan Wangji (who had his sword in hand and thus could defend himself, despite his sealed powers), it wouldn't break his spirit either way: by being in a position that forces him to defend Wei Wuxian or watch him die, Jiang Cheng's spirit is broken whether he does it or not, because deep down he's never truly hated Wei Wuxian (and hates him even less now that he knows about the golden core transfer) so watching him die again would crush him, but having to defend him also crushes him since he does still blame Wei Wuxian for the death of his sister. (Also for the deaths of his parents, but that really was not Wei Wuxian's fault, particularly not in this version.)
I do wonder what they're supposed to be digging up in the back of the temple. Or rather, I wonder what they told the actor playing Jin Guangyao was buried there. Because that look on his face does not say "I'm about to recover my mother's remains so my enemies can't dishonor her dead body." Which is what his face ought to be saying, since in the novel what was buried there was his mother's body. (So that all those visitors worshipping the Guanyin statue that looked like her would, in effect, be worshiping his mother. Because our boy has issues. Beyond his fetish for mass murder.)
Thankfully, today's episode was tear-free (for me), and didn't even need many notes. Okay, actually it didn't need any notes, I just made a few anyway because I have unleashed a particularly obnoxious genie.
The episode ended with Jiang Cheng beginning the confrontation with Wei Wuxian (if it can be properly called a confrontation) regarding the golden core transfer, so there will 100% be tears tomorrow. 😅 Also there might be actually necessary notes. Or there might not. Depends how much more we learn about the golden core transfer (if anything) and how much further into the final confrontation the episode goes. (I have a feeling that when I first watched this show two years ago, I must have watched the last four episodes in one big block...)
I'll just add here that the show continues to be inconsistent in its use of courtesy names. Su Minshan has never been addressed or referred to by that name, only as Su She or Su-zongzhu, but Jin Guangyao in this episode addressed him as Minshan. (This is how he addressed him in the novel at this juncture as well, ofc, but there it stands out less, since he's typically referred to as Su Minshan in the novel. Except when he's referred to as the gravedigger, lol.) In the previous episode, during the confrontation in the Ancestral Hall, both Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian used Jiang Wanyin instead of Jiang Cheng, which in Wei Wuxian's case was just proof of how mad he was that Jiang Cheng was turning his venomous words at Lan Wangji. (It's funny how differently that scene plays out in the two versions. In both cases, Wei Wuxian's position is about the same: "you can say whatever you want about me, but don't you dare say one bad thing about my Lan Zhan!" But Lan Wangji's position is reversed: in the novel, he's horrified and deeply wounded when Wei Wuxian "defends" him after Jiang Cheng complains about the two of them flirting, but in the drama he's touched and warmed when Wei Wuxian defends him against actual accusations that while unfair aren't completely wrong. And yet both scenes play out naturally and fluidly from the events preceding them. I do have a lot of complaints about how the adaptation was handled, but moments like that really do prove that there was a lot of skill involved, and that it mostly worked well. Just some things really suffer from the comparison to the novel...)
Once again, though, this episode makes me wish for some truly accurate subtitles. Also, what is it that the subtitles have against the word "uncle"? Jin Ling is sixteen (in this version), but they would have him address his uncle by name, instead of as his uncle? I mean, sure, it's a bit weird in English to just shout "Uncle!" when your uncle bursts through the door to rescue you. But it would also be weird to shout his full name. If they didn't want to have him just say "Uncle" then why couldn't they have gone for something that would feel more organic to an English-speaking audience, like "Uncle Cheng" which actually makes me shudder just looking at it, but...that's 'cause I've read a lot of reference materials for writing in this fandom. 😅
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