As a massive proponent for more focus on familial relationships in media I am getting fed by MDZS and the Untamed. You’ve got Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian, one of the most tragic depictions of two brothers with a complex but strong bond disintegrating into resentment that I have ever seen, of fraternal jealousy and insecurity as a consequence of both being parented badly but in very different ways. Jiang Yanli haunting the narrative.
Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang and the parentification that ends up hurting both them, all that rage that comes from that pressure and need to protect, that vicious loyalty being a given despite it all. Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen having a good but somehow distant relationship that isn’t quite what it ought to be despite the fact they clearly care immensely for each other. Wen Qing and Wen Ning and the doomed nature of it all.
Jin Ling is terrified of his uncle, who’s notoriously short tempered and regularly threatens to break his legs, but is shocked at the notion that he’d ever have struck him because he hasn’t, not once. Wei Wuxian teaching him how to fight bullies and worrying that he doesn’t have friends, after knowing him a few months and getting into physical fights with him most of the times they’ve interacted.
Lan Sizhui. I’m not even getting into it right now but holy fuck.
The love. There’s so much love and they don’t all know it, or want it, but it’s integral to understanding the story that you know it’s always there. This might be fundamentally a romance but it feels like it was written with families very much front and centre and it is breaking my heart.