#ep35

[melonatures]

scream, he fainted

[zexalscreencaps]

[xinyuehui]

I can't bare to look back. Who will stay by my side in the end? This so-called growth is more like an end. Only I remain with my tragedy. ⸺

大理寺少卿游 · White Cat Legend

[johannepetereric]

"The black hedgehog was standing by the entrance with Eggman 😄😏"

Amy-Gurl is a real homie, not holding the info hostage for realsies'

[canary3d-obsessed]

Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 35 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard) (whole thing on AO3) 

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Perfect Date, Continued

Lan Wangji begins his day pondering an ancient philosophical question: If your crush happens to sleep over on your first date, whether in your bed or just crashing on the couch, and he doesn’t leave in the morning, are you still on your first date? Or is it your second date? He would ask Lan Xichen but the one time he asked Lan Xichen “is there a Lan rule book for dating,” Lan Xichen said “there are no set rules in this world” and wandered off to go fuck his ex’s ex. 

Either way, Lan Wangji is pretty sure it’s important to show an in interest in your date’s hobbies. Wei Wuxian’s favorite hobby is desecrating burial places, so Lan Wangji takes him back to the Nie tomb to see what sort of fun they can have there. 

This time their stroll through the woods isn’t spoiled by any irritating dogs or nephews. 

Dig

When they arrive, they find Nie Huaisang directing a team of dudes to close up the wall where they previously rescued Jin Ling. 

It’s good that these guys aren’t using any mortar, since Lan Wangji wants to fuck up this wall with his sword. 

He strikes the wall and it collapses towards him, not away, because he’s been watching Three-Body and has decided physics isn’t real. 

(More after the cut!)

Inside the wall are these three objects, put there by a props crew that has decided anatomy isn’t real. Nie Huaisang isn’t too happy about the digging, and Wei Wuxian puts an arm around him in a friendly manner to console him.  

Lan Wangji notices this and immediately summons Wei Wuxian to his side, handing him Bichen and telling him to dig, in a totally hot unnecessary display of possessive dominance. 

Velociraptor mode unlocked

Wei Wuxian’s not complaining, mind you.  

Wise Production Decisions

While Wei Wuxian examines these ostensibly human skeletons to determine how their bones are able to stay assembled without any connective tissue, let’s take a moment to contemplate one of the major changes between Mo Dao Zu Shi, the book, and Chen Qing Ling, the show. 

In the novel, donghua, and manga, Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian road-trip together not in pursuit of a sword spirit, but to collect chunks of Nie Mingjue’s dismembered corpse. Eventually it’s all put together again for the big showdown in the temple. 

I read an interview a while back--sorry, can’t source it at the moment--where the producer of CQL said that the reason for the change wasn’t because of censorship or the difficulty of painting swirly stuff to hide NMJ’s junk, it was because they tried various ways to do the body-part thing and “we couldn’t find a way to make it beautiful.” Considering these skeletons, and the demon hand from episode one, and the animatronic dog, let’s all thank our lucky stars that the Department of Questionable Practical Effects was not tasked with creating a walking-dead Nie Mingjue. 

Sabermetrics

Having sufficiently fondled the skeletons, Wei Wuxian wants to move on to fondling the Nie sabers, and so he asks Nie Huaisang to let them open all the sarcophagi. Nie Huaisang wants to say no, but Lan Wangji, who is in charge of this date, bows at him until he has to say yes. 

Lan Wangji’s status and reputation are so strong that Nie Huaisang can’t make a saving throw against this request, even though he’s a clan leader and Lan Wangji isn’t.

This is why it’s extra-romantic that Lan Wangji later risks his reputation in front of everybody for Wei Wuxian’s sake. 

After opening all of the coffins up they determine that there is one saber missing. Gosh, which saber might that be? It doesn’t come to Nie Huaisang or Wei Wuxian’s mind, but Lan Wangji intones “Baxia,” and Wei Wuxian helpfully reminds us that Baxia was Nie Mingjue’s sword.  

Lan Wangji might not be a people person, but he remembers every sword he’s ever met, much in the way I imagine Wang Yibo remembers every dog he’s ever met.

Qi Deviation

Nie Huaisang tells them about Nie Mingjue’s literally explosive qi deviation, in which he bled from his face and from several squibs stuck to his chest, followed by more exploding squibs that just produced smoke without any extra bleeding.  

To explain a bit, in the most lay of layperson’s terms, your qi is the energy in your body, which circulates through your meridians and, through cultivation and/or traditional medicine practices, can be directed and improved. Qi that is out of balance is bad, and can cause illness and squib explosions.

Or possibly he’s just gassy

As Nie Huaisang tells it, this just up and happened, but he actually knows why and how it happened, and who did it.

Second Date

After that cheery little outing, Lan Wangji figures that by now they’re definitely on their second date, so he takes Wei Wuxian into town for dinner.

As they enter downtown Qinghe, Wei Wuxian briefly touches his arm, causing Lan Wangji to immediately clock that he’s hiding an injury/curse.  

So busted. 

Wei Wuxian attempts to distract Lan Wangji  from his questions by making provocative curse-measuring gestures, and then offering to strip so Lan Wangji can check him it out. 

This is where Wei Wuxian discovers that he can’t beat Lan Wangji at gay chicken any more. 

Next, Wei Wuxian does this adorable walking-backwards thing, which is impractical but lets him look at Lan Wangji while he’s talking. He is just as smitten as Lan Wangji is, although he’s clearly got no idea what to do about it. 

They talk over some of the details of their detective work, and then Wei Wuxian tries, once again, to get Lan Wangji to tell him how he recognized him. Once again, he’s unsuccessful, as Lan Wangji tells him it’s “getting late” and heads to an inn, despite the clear daylight all over the place.

Memory Care

He’s chosen a place for dinner that they went to together, way back when they were young, because he’s heard that going to familiar places is is a good way to help your loved one who is struggling with memory impairment. 

They ignore their food in favor of pounding liquor (WWX) and tea (LWJ), while they openly eavesdrop on the conversation at the next table. 

The conversation at the next table is all about the exact thing that happened the last time they were at this inn, which leads to Lan Wangji filling Wei Wuxian in on the (apparent) fates of Xue Yang, Song Lan, and Xiao Xingchen. 

By the time he remembers that trauma-dumping is best saved for a third or fourth date, he’s already telling Wei Wuxian about how the last survivor of the Chang Clan was found dead of lingchi, and that the cuts were made by Xiao Xingchen’s sword.

Realizing he’s made a tactical error in eviscerating Wei Wuxian’s happy memory of his sect uncle, Lan Wangji has to find a way to rescue this date from the cliff it’s heading over kind of like the cliff Wei Wuxian previously headed over. So he grabs Wei Wuxian’s drink and knocks it back all in one go. 

This delights Wei Wuxian, so the evening is back on track. 

[elvencantation]

But Ye Zun uses my name to incite conflict. It's my fault. I should've been more ruthless back then.

bonus:

[kerubimcrepin]

Episode 35 - The Gobbal Set

Finally, a non-heavy, light little episode. Thank god.

Their conversation is cute, their closed sign is cute, even they're both cute.

Never ask a woman her age, a man his salary, and Kerubim Crepin to tell a single story where he went to Brakmar, despite that seemingly happening many times, between, and those are just the ones I can remember at the moment, his and Lou's "slaughter safaris in Sidimote Moors" or having a rare sword from there.

He's trying to "disappear" all the occasions that may or may not involve Atcham out of his life, as if it's 1984.

He is so normal.

Kerubim would love NFTs.

I love you, Kerubim's Unspecified Adult Responsibilities.

Joris is so special for this.

I like to imagine, that as an adult, he publishes sad """romance""" novels under thirty pen names (lest anyone in his real life learns he has emotions)

They are, in part, musings on why one must imagine someone spending thousands of years of immortality happily, — the same way Sisyphus must be happy, haha.

If Kerubim and Atcham learn about this, he will explode.

He truly is god's strongest Kerubim apologism warrior.

I just wanted to include this because gay people.

He is so bad at this. It's very cute. I love him.

Let the traumatic flashbacks to Kerubim actually almost drowning commence:

I'm insane about researching Joris's psyche.

Is there anything you'd like to tell us, Joris? Does this make you scared frequently, haha? Do you think about this a lot?

A friend had recently convinced me of the headcanon that Joris has OCD (not that I needed much convincing. If you've read my fics, I uh... accidentally gave Joris OCD in one of them. Whoopsie.), and while it's mostly about his adult self, I can see him having inclinations/some form of that even as a child.

Mostly due to the "persistent scary thoughts of someone he loves dying," "being so upset by the concept of changing bedtimes, that is a Nightmare to him," "needing reassurance that his thoughts of Kerubim dying are Not going to happen for real," things, — which look similar to the way intrusive thoughts and thought spirals work, — as well as the "having so much anxiety compared to an average seven-year-old (due to Kerubim and the general home situation), that he sometimes still sucks his thumb while sleeping" thing.

He looks so peaceful here. Cute.

It is interesting that he values something that was quiet and quaint so much. I guess both excitement and the calm, are equally important to him. It makes sense, considering he keeps pivoting between returning to adventure, and then going on breaks again, during his long, immortal life after the series.

(From this show's quietude, to moving between cities, to settling down in Bonta for a little bit. Then, two-hundred-something years later, yet again, more adventures, and yet again, settling down in Astrub. Then in Wakfu, moving to Bonta again, going on missions with Joris, and complaining that he needs his retirement, while getting beat up heavily due to lack of regular training. His switching between these two things is so interesting.)

He's so funny for this.

[letsoulswander]

BLINK SHARK BLINK SHARK BLINK SHARK AHHHHHHHHHHHH