It’s a great question. Some might say the Most Fundamental Question Of Our Time. And they only say that because it Is. Does such a Question have an Answer? Can any of us know what is in the mind of another? Can we ever truly know how Peaceful someone is? Yes, we can. I made a scale for it and it is Foolproof.
Lan Wangji takes us on quite the peacefulness roller coaster over the course of this show. He’s had some highs (while hanging out at the top of a waterfall) and some lows (dashed on the rocks below the cliffs at Nightless City) and through it all he has made like Three Whole Facial Expressions. He’s Perfect in Every Way. Now that we have been on this journey with him, now that we have become intensely, almost obsessively, familiar with his Brow Furrows and Lip Twitches and the way his Eyes somehow go all Soft and Warm, don’t we deserve to know the Official and Canonical Highest and Lowest points? We Do. Let’s begin.
Least Peaceful Episode: It is Episode 32, with a peacefulness average of 1.5/10. I think we all expected it to be Episode 33, and it would have been, if we could count only the flashback portion, which netted a staggering 0/10 average. However, the International Peacefulness Blog Rating Committee forbids such Technicalities, and Lan Wangji’s Soft Little Face when Wei Wuxian woke up tragically lost its episode the title.
Least Peaceful Moment: Obviously. Obviously. It was awarded a -3 but we all know that this is a Lack of Peace that Cannot Be Quantified. I gave it a -3 because I couldn’t figure out how to work Absolute Despair/10 into the average.
Most Peaceful Episode: Another twist, it’s Episode 35, with an Absolutely Incredible 6.9/10. This is because Wei Wuxian is Alive and he spends Relatively Little Time being Actively Menaced by Dogs or Nephews or Brothers or Swords. Plus a Very Homoerotic Duet. All these elements do Great Things for Lan Wangji’s peacefulness.
Most Peaceful Moment: Could there ever be any Doubt? Of course it is when Wei Wuxian Returns to Him For Forever. Lan Wangji doesn’t even appear in this scene! But the Overwhelming Peacefulness is Too Strong To Be Denied.
Series Peacefulness Average: We have come to the Crux of our Investigation. The Question that scholars have puzzled over Since Time Immemorial. How Peaceful Was Lan Wangji, On Average, Over the Course Of The Show? Through a complicated series of Calculations and Arcane Computations, I can now confirm the answer that we have all sought, the Ultimate Peacefulness Average: 4.2/10.
I could have an opportunity to read the script of Goblin’s final episode yesterday.
Many viewers might be wondering what happened to Deok-Hwa in the end. The script contains the scene where old Deok-Hwa (in his 60s) introduces his 6-year-old grandson Yoo Sung-Jae to Kim Shin, just like his grandfather Chairman Yoo Shin-Woo did in ep 1.
After getting a sandwich from a jobless man in the park, Kim Shin comes back to his house and finds old Deok-Hwa there. Deok-Hwa says his little grandson Sung-Jae has come back from the US. Kim Shin kneels down to the shy little boy, saying “It’s nice to meet you. I’ll be your uncle, your brother, your son, and grandson” like he did to little Deok-Hwa in the past.
About 30 years later (Maybe Deok-hwa is already dead because he should be in his 90s), adult Sung-Jae (in his 30s) comes to Uncle Kim Shin and gives a new passport and a house in Prague, the Czech Republic. He asks Kim Shin “Uncle, did you find her?” “Not yet (sigh)”
Kim Shin looks around the white covered furniture and leaves the Seoul house. On his way to Prague from Seoul, he comes across the actress and the detective in the street. Yes, you know who they are.
Since the lovely scenes of detective Lee Hyeok & actress Kim Sun, about 50 more years have passed. (I guess Kim Shin stayed in Prague for about 20~30 years and returned to Korea once again, but couldn’t find reincarnated Eun-Tak during his stays in Korea) Kim Shin is now in Quebec, Canada. 85-year-old Sung-Jae is staying with him as his butler.
“Are you going somewhere, sir?”
“I’d like to go for a walk”
“You’d better avoid the main street if you can. Some Korean students are visiting and they’re noisy.”
“I’ll come back soon”
“Yes, sir”
And then… here comes the ending scene where Kim Shin reunites with reincarnated Eun-Tak on the hill. (It took at least 110 years for Eun-Tak to get reincarnated after she died.)
“Mister. You know who I am”
“My first and last… Goblin’s bride”
“My name is Park So-Min in this life.”
“I’m still Kim Shin.”
This is the end of the script.
I don’t know whether the director shot the old man Deok-Hwa scene or not. I doubt he did, because of the insane filming schedule of the last episode. Anyways, we get to know that the old butler in Quebec is Deok-Hwa’s grandson.
Time table
2017
March, Kim Shin returned to nothingness. (Ep 13)
2026
Kim Shin came back to Eun-Tak and married her. (Ep 14~15)
On Christmas eve, Ji Eun-Tak died of the car accident. (Ep 16)
2056
October, Sunny died of an illness. (Ep 16)
She ascended the stariway to heaven with Wang Yeo.
After some time
Deok-Hwa in his 60s introduced his 6-year-old grandson Sung-Jae to Kim Shin.
Around 2086
Sung-Jae in his 30s prepared Kim Shin’s new passport and a house in Prague, the Czech Republic.
On his way to Prague, Kim Shin came across reincarnated Wang Yeo and Kim Sun in the Seoul street. (Ep 16)
Around 2136
Kim Shin lives in Quebec, Canada, with 85-year-old Sung-Jae.
He reunites with Park So-Min (reincarnated Eun-Tak) on the hill. (Ep 16 ending)
Yes, our Discord server was hacked. The entire server was deleted, channel by channel.
The culprit also spammed an extremely rude image. Apologies for those who saw that travesty.
For now, we do not have a timeline for what will happen next. If there's a way to get a backup, great. If not, we may start a new server. I will continue to report here on what's up.
Edit to add: Please give us some time. Message requests and friend requests on Discord will be ignored (I'm sorry).
In episode 43 where LWJ and WWX have that heartfelt conversation in the snow in Jingshi, there were two lines that really stuck with me? That part where they were like communicating in their thoughts - （LWJ）“无它，问心无愧而已”，and then (WWX) “管他绯我谤我，问心无愧而已”. I understand what it meant on translation, but I was wondering if you could shed any further light on them in context. Thank you and I love everything you write!
oh gosh – 问心无愧 wenxinwukui is like, a major theme in CQL that I’ve touched in a few posts, but never really delved into on its own.
问心无愧 wenxinwukui is a lovely four-character phrase that breaks down to:
问 wen - to ask
心 xin - the heart
无 wu - nothing, a lack of
愧 kui - shame, regret, guilt
so that when you put it together, you get something along the lines of asking one’s heart and finding no regret. This is usually translated as something along the lines of ‘having a clear conscience,’ which is like, fine and all, but misses out on that subtle poetry of asking a question of one’s own heart that I really love.
Anyway! 问心无愧 wenxinwukui (as well as a common variation of it, 无愧于心 wukuiyuxin, ‘without regret in one’s heart’) is a phrase that appears quite often in CQL, especially in context with Wei Wuxian. Like I mentioned in one of the posts I linked above, one of the central conflicts that Wei Wuxian has to negotiate is how to 问心无愧 wenxinwukui / have a clear conscience (i.e. rescuing the Wen refugees) without losing track of his pre-existing accountability to others (his relationship to Jiang Cheng). Most notably, his desire to have a clear conscience is part of the oath he swears on a floating lantern:
Wei Wuxian: 愿我魏无羡 能够一生锄奸扶弱 无愧于心。/ I wish that I, Wei Wuxian, can eliminate the wicked and aid the weak for my entire life, holding no regrets in my heart,
(there’s the variant of it – 无愧于心 wukuiyuxin – that we pointed out earlier!)
This actually isn’t the first time this phrase appears; just an episode ago, Lan Yi uses this phrase to describe herself:
Lan Yi：抱山当年也是如此告诫我的，但是我一生一向我行我素，做事只求无愧于心。/ Back then, Baoshan also warned me of this, but all my life I’ve walked my own path, asking only that I hold no regret in my heart.
What’s fascinating is that Lan Yi doesn’t necessarily use this phrase in a positive light – in fact, it’s framed in her folly of releasing the yin iron, a mistake she spends the rest of her life (and beyond) paying the price for. Despite the fact that this phrase is generally construed as pretty positive – having a clear conscience! What’s not great about that? – we also find out, over the course of the show, that 问心无愧 wenxinwukui is not enough to live a whole, happy, satisfying life, and can actually lead you down some dangerous and heretical paths.
It’s precisely this 问心无愧 wenxinwukui that sends Wei Wuxian into a risky medical procedure to restore Jiang Cheng’s golden core; it’s 问心无愧 wenxinwukui that has him strike out against the rest of the world and save the Wen refugees. 问心无愧 wenxinwukui is often what impels Wei Wuxian towards his most heroic moments, but at the same time, that heroism exacts a cost on his body, his life, his loved ones.
When we get to episode 43, and hear this from wangxian:
Lan Wangji：无他，问心无愧而已。/ Without him – only asking my heart and finding no regret.
Wei Wuxian：管他诽我谤我，问心无愧而已。/ Regardless of how they slander and scold me – only asking my heart and finding no regret.
(staying a bit literal with translations for now, because this is where the sheer efficiency of Mandarin starts devolving into ambiguity. Heads up that everything that follows is just how I’ve read these lines, which are pretty darn ambiguous)
Lan Wangji’s line, here, then becomes something along the lines of without Wei Ying in my life, all I can ask for is 问心无愧 wenxinwukui – that is, he lives his life by the principles of 问心无愧 wenxinwukui, but that is the baseline, the bare minimum. The presence of Wei Wuxian in his life is what brings a grayscale existence into color, a flat image into three-dimensionality – he’s stirred to action, he experiences love; he’ll fight the world; he’ll walk down a single-plank bridge into the dark.
Meanwhile for Wei Wuxian, this comes hot on the heels of Wei Wuxian’s ‘dark knight’ speech, when he declares that there’s no use trying to reclaim his reputation, to clear his name of past crimes, so his line here is less wangxian-themed, more Wei Wuxian-themed. It doesn’t matter what the world thinks of me, Wei Wuxian thinks, so long as I can ask my heart and find no regret in it.
This happens the literal moment after Wei Wuxian quotes Lu Xun, saying 人生得一知己，足矣 / having one person in my life who truly knows me is enough – and we can spill a great deal of ink over whether or not all of these voiceover musings from wangxian in this scene are literal telepathy, but I like to think that not, because that just emphasizes how in tune they are with each other and each other’s thoughts – that they’re thinking of almost the same things in the same moment.
As for the show’s judgment on 问心无愧 wenxinwukui – well, it’s hard to say. It’s part of what makes our protagonists so admirable, but living in a society, with others, consists of compromise, of making sacrifices and doing things you don’t want to in order to make others happy. Wei Wuxian, despite how little he cares for society’s opinions, cannot shake completely free from the ties of reputation and name. He doesn’t regret the things he does, the choices he makes, but he does regret the consequences and mourn the fall-out.
Perhaps, then, that is what the synchronicity of wangxian’s actions and thoughts are telling us – that the best way of surviving in this world is finding someone to live through it with you, someone who will make the same decisions, who will bear the same weight of consequence, who will know you and forgive you and love you still.
So I disgree with @hunxi-guilai‘s tranlation for this line:
Lan Wangji：无他，问心无愧而已。/ Without him – only asking my heart and finding no regret.
While, by character, 无他 means without him/lacking him; within context, I have always interpreted as “nothing else, only asking my heart and finding not regret.”
The use of “他” here is the same as in 别无他求 (have no other request) or 留作他用 (keep for other uses). In these situations, the character means other.
My interpretation of this scene is WWX is telling LWJ thank you for believing me and trusting me and KNOWING me. Thus his statement: “ 人生得一知己，足矣”
LWJ, on the other hand, is saying/thinking, there is no need for thanks between us. All I am doing is being true to my heart.
And, for those of you who read the novel, that’s a huge thing. There isn’t a need for thanks between the two of them. LWJ makes that clear multiple times. This is the scene where the show does the same thing.
HELLO YES THIS IS A MUCH BETTER INTERPRETATION OF THESE LINES AND I WOULD LIKE TO OFFICIALLY EAT MY WORDS THANK YOU @wangxianbunnydoodles!!!!
because in one fell swoop you’ve 1) answered the telepathy question, 2) resolved some parallelism issues that were bothering me but I couldn’t work out while writing that ask response, and 3) maintain the interpretation of maximum wangxian soulmate frequency!
Let me take a hot second to illustrate @wangxianbunnydoodles‘s genius:
god please tell us more about who you think Lan Wangji is! How does 16years change him? Is he marble on purpose or is it nature? Will he thaw fully ever do you think?
man oh man oh man... where to begin with my thoughts on Lan Wangji...
so I’ve talked about his speech patterns, speculated on his childhood competitiveness, gone way too deep on his microexpressions, watched him lose the love of his life more times than I can count; I’ve translated his thinly-veiled love letters, his roasts, his flirtations dialogue. I’ve lost count of how much ink I’ve spilled over Lan Wangji, online in meta and offline in fic, but there’s something about him that keeps making me think more, and more, about how incredible of a person/character he really is
he is also the character that I find most terrifying, but more on that later
let me start off by talking about a trope that, nine times out of ten, I detest: the Ice Queen. Most of the time, I hate it because I often see it as the result of a male author who just doesn’t know how to write women, and the deployment of the Ice Queen trope becomes this cheap way to maintain the allure and unattainability of the love interest until your scrappy protagonist manages to thaw her heart through a combination of questionable charm and inability to take no for an answer, and it turns out in the end that all she truly wanted was a man to break down all of her defenses and heal her past trauma with his supremely average protagonist powers... et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
But sometimes, I come around to really loving a particular rendition of the Ice Queen archetype, and it’s usually when the show doesn’t treat the character’s Ice Queen-qualities as something that has to be overcome with the Power of Lurv. Rather, this character is an Ice Queen because it’s just who they are, and that’s just fine. Their frostiness and aloofness are worthy parts of their personality that doesn’t need to be thawed out or changed just to fulfill a particular expectation or fantasy.
One of my favorite things about watching a friend go through the whole CQL Experience (TM) is their changing views on Wang Yibo’s portrayal of Lan Wangji -- I think most, if not all, of us start out at “okay deadpan, do you actually know how to emote?” and then twenty-eight episodes later go “oh my god it’s the wide-eyed microexpression of concern, please help I am a puddle of emotions on the floor.” Crucially, what changes isn’t necessarily Wang Yibo’s performance, or Lan Wangji’s expressiveness -- it’s how we all come to learn this character, to pick up on his tics and habits and microexpressions.
In short, we come to know him, and we realize that the Ice Queen is very much an archetype that resides in the perception of said character. Sometimes, we’re fortunate enough to reside in a narrative that supports the understanding that the work of Defrosting an Ice Queen isn’t work that the Ice Queen themselves should have to do -- a character doesn’t have to change themselves to fit whatever mold popular opinion thinks they should. Lan Wangji doesn’t need to be rehabilitated or socialized in any way to fit societal expectations. He’s just fine the way he is, thank you very much.
But damn if that isn’t so desperately, heart-numbingly lonely.
Is it any wonder, how swiftly and deeply Lan Wangji falls in love with Wei Wuxian, if Wei Wuxian is the first person in years to actually try and learn the language of Lan Wangji? Because no matter how cold and perfect and invulnerable he may seem, he’s still a living, breathing human being -- one that fears, one that loves, one that hurts, one that wants. But the world doesn’t see that -- the world sees only Hanguang-jun, the bearer of light, the vanquisher of chaos, war hero, living legend. He’s unapproachable, unattainable, untouchable. And even before the Sunshot Campaign, he’s one of the Twin Jades of Gusu Lan, an unforgiving hand of discipline, a cold look and a silent demeanour. Others have always seen him as so high and aloof that they’ve never actually tried to reach out to him, never actually tried to get through and speak to the person behind the reputation.
Lan Wangji makes his peace with that before the story even begins, accepts a life of quiet isolation and meditation and cultivation. He works on perfecting himself, lays the foundation for all of those skills that the world will praise him for in the future, and does not hope that he will meet someone who understands him. He has his brother, and that is enough.
Until Wei Wuxian comes crashing headlong through the neatly-ordered patterns of Lan Wangji’s world, tangles the linearity of cause and effect, frustrates the binary of forbidden and permitted, until Lan Wangji isn’t sure which way is which anymore, what is wrong, what is right, what is black, what is white...
I have written so damn much about wangxian, and how this relationship affects Lan Wangji, but I also think a lot about Lan Wangji in the absence of Wei Wuxian -- Lan Wangji before he ever met Wei Wuxian, Lan Wangji during those sixteen years, Lan Wangji who looks at soulmate he fought so hard to protect and still says I’m going that way, a different direction from one of the only people in the world who have ever listened closely enough to hear the melody of his heart. I’ve written about the principle of 问心无愧 wenxinwukui, of asking one’s heart and finding no regret, and it’s something that drives Lan Wangji just as much as it drives Wei Wuxian -- even more so, sometimes. From the moment Wei Wuxian meets Lan Wangji, he seems a man made of marble, made of ice, made of light -- other-worldly, ethereal, unstained by the dust of this mortal realm. Even at sixteen, Lan Wangji walks through the world with a surety of step and a confidence of motion that is absolutely astounding and profoundly enviable. He makes decisions with an incisive swiftness that baffles the rest of us who have to pause, to take a few minutes and think, weigh options, ask for advice, then decide.
Not so with Lan Wangji -- if he wants to do something, he will. If he doesn’t, he won’t. If Lan Wangji listens to you and judges you boring, he’ll let you know. If Lan Wangji decides that something isn’t worth his time, he walks out.
If he decides that you are worth fighting for, then he will follow you down a single-plank bridge into the dark and fight the world for you.
I played myself, because I made an offhand comment in the tags on this lovely piece of art that I haven’t been able to stop thinking about:
how did you already know the melody of your heart at sixteen, Lan Wangji? How did you know?
What is it like, to have such a powerful, unshakeable conviction in the righteousness of your actions that you’ll carve it into your own body, you’ll willingly accept the heaviest punishment in the memory of your sect, that the only regret you’ll have is that you didn’t make the same decision earlier? What is it like to have a faith so strong that you’ll burn all of your bridges on the steps of a place far away from your home, before a gathered crowd of everyone you’ve ever known? What is it like to know yourself so well and to be fearless enough to do what your heart tells you to, and damn the consequences?
This is what fascinates me and terrifies me the most about Lan Wangji -- his sureness of movement, the solidity of his faith. Lan Wangji is that Peggy Carter quote, the tree who will not move, the river-sunken stone, so set and solid where it has come to rest that all the force of a spring snowmelt has no choice but to part around its will.
This isn’t to say that Lan Wangji doesn’t have doubts, that he doesn’t deal with conflict and setbacks and regrets and mistakes, because he does -- thirteen or sixteen years of it, no matter what version of his story, Lan Wangji endures over a decade of purgatory, of watching his life slip slowly back into grayscale in the absence of Wei Wuxian. He settles back into the life that he knew he would live at sixteen -- cultivating, meditating, night-hunting -- packs away all of those terrifying hopes and dreams and joys and fears left behind in the wreckage from the whirlwind of Wei Wuxian tearing through his life. He doesn’t move on, per se -- if there’s one thing we know about Lan Wangji, it’s that he’ll never move on from Wei Wuxian -- but he builds a life out of the ruins of what could have been. He teaches the juniors. He watches over A-Yuan, now Lan Yuan, now Sizhui. He brings light to dark places; he brings order to chaos. He goes where he is needed, because there will always be a need for someone like Lan Wangji, because even if Wei Wuxian is no longer in this world, Lan Wangji will live their principles for both of them, fulfill a vow entrusted to a floating lantern --
Face says nothing, but is constantly screaming internally.
“Wei Ying won’t come back to Gusu with me.” [This is so sad. Alexa, play Despacito.]
Actually has no brain cells, but people haven’t figured it out yet because the almighty Hanguang-Jun just isn’t that talkative.
Germaphobe.
Great cook. Can pretty much whip up any dish with the right ingredients available.
Has a collection of all the things that WWX has touched.
Horrible at keeping secrets. He just forgets that there are things that he can’t say.
Terrible at naming things. Only WWX related names.
All his rabbits are named after Wei Ying. Literally no creativity.
Actually breaks a ton of rules but he hides it well. He only goes to confess when there are witnesses.
His mind is so filled with Wei Ying that he schedules his day according to the latter’s habits. WWX takes this flight of stairs to get back to his room, so I will sit at this tree and coincidentally bump into him.
Doesn’t understand porn. There is only one man in this world that does it for him.
Horny af but also wholesome af.
“No brother, I despise him.” When he was asked by LXC if he’s gay for WWX.
Will throw hands with anyone who insults WWX.
Will throw hands at WWX.
Constant gay panic.
Cannot express emotions verbally. Really bad at words in general.
Talking dirty in bed happened once and it’s never happening again. It was so bad WWX cried from laughing so hard.
Tries to act natural when WWX walks by. Yes, play hard-to-get. He’ll get it eventually.
Disastrous drunk. Will probably stab a hole in the wall if not under constant supervision.
Those hips don’t lie.
Owns ten sets of the same robe. Only he can tell the difference between them. Doesn’t understand why people can’t distinguish his Monday robes from his celebration robes. The stitching is obviously different.
Can’t handle spicy food, but he’s dead inside so the tears never come out anyways.
Sugar daddy. Endless piles of cash. Doesn’t look at price tag before making a purchase.
Played Inquiry every night after the Yiling Patriarch’s death just to say ‘goodnight’ to WWX before going to sleep.
Intense yearning.
Is in desperate need of physical affection.
Bonus: Heartbroken af. Will never marry again. Unless Wei Ying comes back.
LAN ZHAN! I read somewhere that this was said 102 times by Wei Wuxian in The Untamed. It feels like an understatement, cause I’ve watched the show so many times now I could hear ‘Lan Zhan’ being called in my sleep…
My first time watching the drama, I was full on Team Xianxian. I mean, who would not be? He’s the central character of the story, he’s the first thing you see within the first few seconds of episode 1, and who could resist his sunflower aura? I was not into Lan Wangji at all. I remember this clearly because I just found an old Instagram story in my Archive on the day I first watched this show: a screenshot of Wangji’s face in episode 3 and my caption was: ‘OMG how could Wei sunshine fall in love with this dry and boring man?’. And just like how Wangji eventually swallowed all of the statements he had made about the young Wei Wuxian (’I don’t touch other people’, ‘We’re not close’, etc.), I am not the same person on that fateful day tuning in the first episode on Netflix. I am now Team Hanguang-Jun through and through!
What I’ve been enjoying so much these days is watching random earlier/later episodes just to compare how Wangji’s attitude changed toward Wei Wuxian over 16 years-ish. It’s probably so obvious for everyone that he definitely falls in love first, even when the drama purposely made their early relationship a lot more intense comparing to the novel i.e. showing Wei Wuxian somewhat feeling the same way about Wangji in his first life, with the constant flirting and mutual pining (don’t even get me started…). Now that I kinda understand what the character is like, it makes a lot of sense the way he processed his feelings for Wuxian in his youth. I wonder how different he would have reacted without the push from the best brother/wingman in the cultivation world - Lan Xichen. Sure, Jiang Cheng had a lot to say about this too, but mostly out of a slight envy (I reckon) over Wuxian’s new subject of desire. But Lan Xichen sees through his brother, and has been pretty much WangXian fanclub admin since day 1. I don’t have a brother, but man, I wish Lan Xichen could be mine.
In my humble opinion, the fact that we were given 3 versions of Wei Wuxian throughout the series kinda gifts us 3 versions of Lan Wangji too in a way - the straight face, the confused heart, and the national boyfriend/husband. Considering the number of times I rewatched the latter half of the series i.e. episode 33 onward, I just want to write down all of my thoughts about the national boyfriend/husband Lan Wangji, and not just because that version seems to have the most lines comparing to the other two.
There are several details that were not explained much in the series (although shown on screen) so I have to read from the novel later on. But oh my god, the stuff I found… I never realized that the scene before Lan Wangji went to Mo’s manor where his guqin was playing behind him standing on the balcony referred to how he used Inquiry to find Wuxian. What Jiang Cheng said to him about having gone to a lot of places for 16 years and searching for someone completely went over my head in the first watch, and imagine how I scratched my brain revisiting that part. That plus ‘oh I’ve never seen you at a cultivation conference before’ in episode 41 - my goodness, because he was spending ALL of his time LOOKING FOR Wei Wuxian.
Another thing I hope would have been addressed in the series was the hot iron mark on his chest. I thought the story of him drinking wine and giving himself a mark identical to Wuxian’s was the prime work of a broken heart. He must have thought about their conversation in Xuanwu cave, about the mark staying on his skin forever and how Wuxian was convinced Mianmian would never forget him. Was that how Wangji was making a point of never forgetting Wei Wuxian? If that scene made into the drama, I would have thought Wangji’s character song Buwang to be play in the background. The lyrics fit the situation so much.
Personally, everything from episode 33 onward was perfection for me, finally getting to see Wangji embrace his feelings and ACT ON THEM toward the romance-blind idiot Wei Wuxian (yes, he totally is). All the caring touches and details played out so astonishingly. One of my favourite (which doesn’t seem to be a popular one since I have not seen many gifs of it on Tumblr) was when, after interrogating Huaisang, Wangji comfortably moved over the other side of the table and picked up Wuxian’s left leg to CLEAN THE EVIL SPELL - think of the level of intimacy this act is! Although that came after the romantic piggyback under the moonlight, I thought that speaks volume for someone who doesn’t even physically interact with his family members, and serves as a great follow-up right after he, again comfortably, pulled up Wuxian’s trousers to check his leg.
What I thought was always presented so beautifully is every time Wangji serves Wuxian liquor. The way he carefully picks up his sleeve, prepares the cup (I know they’re probably not called ‘cups’ but I can’t find another word), pours the liquor and slides it over to his partner is so well demonstrated and shows how much he wants to properly take care of Wuxian. Would you put so much effort in such a tiny mundane act if you’re not doing it for the most important person in your life?
In a way, I feel like everything he does is making up for what he could not do the past 16 years, including remembering so many tiny details and keeping all sort of Wuxian-related things. My favourite Wangji keepsake moment, despite being a very short one, is the butterfly talisman at Yunping City which he gave to Wuxian to rescue Wen Ning. I don’t know why that moment makes me really really happy, probably because that was one of the earliest items Wangji could have kept hold of from Wuxian’s. That tells us how way long before he was developing feelings toward this little rebel. Not to mention, we did see Wangji even use this very talisman in episode 11 when he encountered Wen Chao on his way back to Cloud Recesses.
Yes, the ‘I knew he was Wei Ying all along’ while having all the swords pointed at you is highly pivotal as it’s basically the censored version of ‘I love you’. BUT, the moment all leading cultivators of all major and minor clans ran to Burial Mounds just to witness Lan Wangji standing proudly without flinch on the other side with Wei Wuxian makes me appreciate that whole arc a lot more than the big revelation in the last 3 episodes. Wangji ignoring his own Grand Master, Wuxian once again standing against every single person in the cultivation world but with so much confidence this time around - to me, is beyond satisfying. I love this arc so much so I wrote a separate piece about episode 44-45 - if you’re interested in more of my random thoughts, feel free to have a read here.
Thinking about all this, I’m absolutely in awe of how protective national boyfriend Wangji is to Wei Wuxian even before knowing he lost his golden core. They either have insanely accurate GPS, or just really good telepathy. Wangji’s constant attention to his partner (without having to verbally find out where he is) blows my mind every time. Remember how proud Wei Wuxian was having Lan Wangji come out just in time to fight Xue Yang at Coffin Town? That’s how much Wangji’s love and trust empowers Wuxian and makes him so so so secured, even when everyone was walking around in the fog hiding from the most notorious killer and his puppets.
The one detail that pushed me over the edge completely (thanks a lot Lan Xichen) was the story of Wangji’s mom. Oh my god, baby Wangji sitting in the snow really messes with my head. I cannot believe it took 40 something episodes for us to learn about Wangji’s emotionally damaged upbringing and what shapes him into a stubborn lovebird as we know today. It adds A LOT more context and sadness to his famous phrase ‘bring a man back to Cloud Recesses and hide him’, as well as Lan Qiren’s statement ‘have you not learned from your father’s lesson’. I revisit the ‘bring back and hide him’ scene with a completely new perspective and can sense Wangji’s pain and confusion that Xichen described. The desperation in that statement of Wangji was a lot heavier in my eyes now that I understand the back story. If I were Wei Wuxian listening to all of that from Lan Xichen, I would probably have a meltdown right there at the doorsteps of the Silence Room.
Now we all know the source of inspiration of the infamous ‘I want to bring a man to Cloud Recesses. Bring him back and hide him’ in episode 25:
So after all of Xichen’s effort in telling Wuxian how Wangji actually feels about him through the tear-jerker story about their parents, Wei Wuxian STILL asked Lan Wangji WHY he was willing to seal Bichen and his own spiritual power so that Jin Guangyao would not hurt him. This dense man, of course, brought up the guilt card i.e. ‘Oh you don’t owe me anything’. I mean COME ON NOW YILING PATRIARCH! CAN YOU ACTUALLY BE THAT OBLIVIOUS WHEN IT COMES TO THE MAN THAT TOOK 300 LASHES ON HIS BACK FOR PROTECTING YOUR LEGACY?
I know it went the other way in the novel, where the big confession happened. Maybe a bite from Fairy could do you some good, or just talk to Lan Xichen some more and then you can start appreciating your soulmate the way he deserves.
The silver lining after being deprived of an epic love confession is everything that happened in episode 50. It might have not been spelling-it-out clear as in ‘I love you’ ‘I love you too’ because of the government censorship, but it’s easily the most obvious yet emotional type of ending the production team has worked to hard to deliver. If you are still having trouble processing the allegedly ‘ambiguous’ finale, I can help with that - here. Just a heads up: it’s a happy ending.
Good to know Wei Wuxian has the rest of his life making up to Lan Wangji. Everyday means everyday, because Wangji deserves THAT much!
I'm still processing this birthday photoshoot that XZS just dropped, because HOLY HELL, 32 looks good on Xiao Zhan. I'm sure I will have more to say and to scream about, but JUST LOOK AT THIS MAN
And this post?
Let's count it up.
18 photos were uploaded.
33 images in total.
28 images of Xiao Zhan.
For those new to kadian, 18 in Chinese is a homophone for 一博 or Yibo. 33 is a homophone for 战战 or ZhanZhan. And 28 is a homophone for 爱博, or "love Bo."
You really cannot get more clear than that. I'm dead.
Happy birthday, Xiao Zhan, and I hope your beloved gets home from Paris in time to celebrate your special day with you! You deserve all the happiness in the world! ❤️
I was so distracted by the birthday photoshoot eye candy that I missed this bit of candy from Xiao Zhan's own birthday post, which went up at 00:39 on his birthday. What a weird time to post... why not 12:00 like XZS's post, or maybe 1:05 or 10:05?
Where did I see 39 recently?
Oh yeah, just a couple of days earlier, when YBO posted 18 photos of Yibo "strolling the streets of Paris, encountering the lazy sunshine and blue sky." But funnily enough, the blue sky is only seen in the 3rd and 9th photos... 39... zhan jiu (战久) or "zhan for a long time."
So yeah, YBO posts about blue skies, which shows up in only 2 of 18 accompanying photos, which cues the numbers 3 and 9, and then less than 36 hours later, Xiao Zhan posts a photo of himself silhouetted against a blue sky at 00:39. Huh.
"Zhan for a long time" makes sense as a birthday kadian message, so is that what YBO was doing with that photo array? Sending a sweet message to Yibo's birthday boy?
We will never know, but it's a funny coincidence, isn't it?
Logging in to the tumblr I never use to tell everyone my Twitter has been suspended for “evading suspension” which is wild because I’ve never been suspended.
If people could make posts alerting people what happened on twt I would appreciate it so much. If anyone is worried tell them they can find me here or Instagram which is also @swordbunnies
In The Elegance Room @yashi-ghost - Tumblr Blog | Tumgag
