okay but something I find so tragic but so good about sunshot and beyond dynamic is how it’s communication misunderstanding but not about the words they say but about the meaning that music has for them???
bc for Lan Wangji at this point it’s the biggest love gesture he can give. look, I composed us a love song! look, I learned all those new scores to help you! look, I want to play for you and for no one else! LWJ is a professional musician and music is the only form of self-expression he has. he looks at his feelings, so great he doesn’t know how to deal with them, and he puts them into his music. any time he proposes to play for WWX he is saying: “I care for you the most” and every time Wei Wuxian answers with the harshest rejection and it hurts as hell but LWJ won’t give up!! he will go and break his uncle’s explicit orders to learn more because even if WWX doesn’t want it now, Lan Wangji wants to be ready to help whenever his soulmate is ready to accept it. like you know that awkward moment when LWJ comes to play for him right after he wakes up after sunshot’s final battle? LWJ is like I played for him every day, surely he gets it?? but no he doesn’t and it’s because he uses music for completely different things!!!
because Wei Wuxian’s whole things is Controlling through music. he doesn’t just bottle up his emotions, he is taught to constantly have them under control, to be careful who he expresses them to, to control the tension in the room, in his family, through carefully crafted image of himself, always smiling, always cheerful
and this becomes so much more important with Tiger Seal Amulet, because he cannot slip, cannot compromise himself with anger or fear. Chenqinq is a tool of control first and foremost - it can control resentful spirits but most importantly it can control Wei Wuxian’s emotions. he plays Wangxian to calm himself or others. he puts just enough emotions into constraint of a song so he can still have full control over it. where Lan Zhan expresses his emotions through music, Wei Ying contains them
so what Wei Wuxian hears whenever Lan Wangji offers to play for him is “I want to control you. I don’t trust you to deal with it on your own” and he is rightfully hurt by it. if Lan Zhan knew him, as he claims to, if they were still equal, then there would be no need for that, right? it’s the same as with “come to Gusu with me” - what Lan Zhan says is, “let me take care of you” but what Wei Ying hears is “let me protect others from you”
we joke about how oblivious WWX is about how he was recognized after his resurrection but if music is his tool for controlling, how could he see it as a love confession? he and Lan Zhan are on the same page and the only thing they need to figure out now is how to communicate it and they do! Wei Ying says “I need your help with cleansing those evil spirits” and Lan Zhan says “here is your fixed flute so we can play together”. LWJ learns to show his love through other gestures. WWX starts playing Wangxian to express his gratitude and then his longing. it takes time and effort as communication does, but it’s no wonder this story almost ends with a duet played by a waterfall, across the water. they are reaching for each other and this time they both finally know what the other means
baratheonpilled
ellievsbear
theartofmadeline
yousharknotpass
germansingergirl
2087
prguitarman
kianamaiart
