The Untamed episodes 14 and 15
Aug. 10th, 2020 12:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayIt is horribly ridiculously hot and I'm back at work. I resent this. At least I got more excellent Untamed last night to sustain me through these trying times.
Do I tackle the parts I squeed at first, or the parts I yelled at first?
Yelled, let's go with yelled.
Pretty much the whole of episode 15 was an extended trip into "this is why Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are so screwed up". Wow, talk about A+ parenting. I'd also hazard a guess that Jiang Yanli's tendency to mother and love her brothers to an extreme has its roots this amazing display of fucked up parenting.
If Madame Yu hadn't displayed such amazing loathing towards WWX, I might not have worried that he was actually going to lose a hand in that punishment scene. But I was, and I'm about 90% sure she only fought back because she felt insulted and her home was threatened. If that hadn't happened, I'm pretty sure WWX would be sans hand now.
And baby, comforting yourself that losing your hand isn't that bad and you can totally train to use the left one...is maybe also not a healthy emotional reaction?
*sigh* Madame Yu is scary. But I do appreciate that her reaction was to get her son (and WWX, I GUESS) out of there and to safety. And that Jiang Fengmian backed up that decision by sending all three of them off to safety. They may be awful terrible parents, but at least they try to keep their kids physically safe (mostly) even if they're not so good at keeping them mentally and emotionally safe.
The Wens are definitely evil. Very much evil. So evil. And the impending sense of doom is getting louder. At the same time, I'm almost relieved that they're openly being evil now rather than everyone trying to pretend and go along and hope to avoid their attention. It's like a switch has flipped and everything is in the open now, rather than politely pretending nothing is happening, which is both more worrying and also a relief in a strange way.
There was a gorgeous shot in this episode of WWX and Jiang Cheng walking through Lotus Pier talking/arguing, all done in one camera shot, that really brought home how beautiful and complete that set is.![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
hockeybosh commented that it was like one of the West Wing walk and talks and it was. It was also a great scene for their relationship development. Episode 15 was the first time where it really felt real that Jiang Cheng is the younger one, not WWX, which isn't actually a great thing for him (gosh, the pouting and whining) but gave a different dynamic to his interactions with WWX that was interesting.
And I'm starting to notice how often WWX uses his own whining and chaos gremlin tendencies to make other people feel...better?...about their moments of worry and weakness.
Both of these episodes were very worrying if you have any fondness for WWX, which I obviously do. Talk about whumping. Stop hurting him, show. Just stop it.
Which brings me neatly to episode 14, which somehow made me both squee for delight and also be horribly concerned for WWX all at once.
I'm pretty sure LWJ was having similar issues.
I thoroughly enjoyed all the working together, figuring out a plan, battle couple goodness of their how to kill the tortoise plan. It was so good.
However, it resulted in a plan where WWX had to sneak inside the shell of THE TORTOISE OF SLAUGHTER. The name alone should be a clue about how badly that would go.
On the other hand, there was magical telepathy, which made me squee because I love that trope.
Except apparently it never appears again? Someone please say that fic writers are on it and have done fun and interesting things with that particular thing.
WWX used his brain to find the thing that was suppressing the tortoise and (maybe?) made it easier to kill it by removing said implement. Except! That sword has OMINOUS SHIMMERY BLACK SMOKE and it made WWX have a moment that I can only describe as "possibly getting tempted to the dark side" that really worries me. And also, during the entire sequence where WWX is being flung around like a rag doll I was simultaneously yelling at hime to just let go while also acknowledging that the sword with OMINOUS SHIMMERY BLACK SMOKE probably wasn't allowing him to let go. Yes, that whole sequence was stressful.
Pretty sure that sword is connected to the Yin Metal in some way. The Wens are displeased about the death of their tortoise of slaughter, they're going to be even less pleased about the loss of their ominous shimmery sword.
WWX, stop cuddling that sword. It's clearly evil.
After all that, though, we got the LWJ healing WWX scene. Which...
There is no heterosexual explanation for that scene. A montage of all their best bonding scenes together so far set to incredibly romantic music? GEE I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU COULD BE IMPLYING HERE. And also HOW DID THAT GET PAST THE CENSORS.
I'm willing to bet WWX could have watched that entire sequence and still be thinking "nope, he clearly isn't interested and does not in fact like me at all".
*headdesk*
LWJ's face when he was worrying over WWX <3
So in summary, these were two very distressing and stressful episodes, alleviated by some beautiful shippy stuff for WWX and LWJ. And episode 15 was entirely LWJ-free, which is not on. Bring him back. The labrador chaos gremlin needs him.
I'm not getting LWJ back for a while, am I? Very stressful things are going to keep happening and keep getting worse, and WWX is going to have to go through it on his own (because Jiang Cheng is not exactly a supportive younger brother, and Jiang Yanli is lovely but maybe not *helpful*) so it's all going to be much worse than it needs to be.
There will be no Untamed tonight, because it's a two episode Xena watch night and I'm being a sensible adult now that I'm back at work.
Do I tackle the parts I squeed at first, or the parts I yelled at first?
Yelled, let's go with yelled.
Pretty much the whole of episode 15 was an extended trip into "this is why Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian are so screwed up". Wow, talk about A+ parenting. I'd also hazard a guess that Jiang Yanli's tendency to mother and love her brothers to an extreme has its roots this amazing display of fucked up parenting.
If Madame Yu hadn't displayed such amazing loathing towards WWX, I might not have worried that he was actually going to lose a hand in that punishment scene. But I was, and I'm about 90% sure she only fought back because she felt insulted and her home was threatened. If that hadn't happened, I'm pretty sure WWX would be sans hand now.
And baby, comforting yourself that losing your hand isn't that bad and you can totally train to use the left one...is maybe also not a healthy emotional reaction?
*sigh* Madame Yu is scary. But I do appreciate that her reaction was to get her son (and WWX, I GUESS) out of there and to safety. And that Jiang Fengmian backed up that decision by sending all three of them off to safety. They may be awful terrible parents, but at least they try to keep their kids physically safe (mostly) even if they're not so good at keeping them mentally and emotionally safe.
The Wens are definitely evil. Very much evil. So evil. And the impending sense of doom is getting louder. At the same time, I'm almost relieved that they're openly being evil now rather than everyone trying to pretend and go along and hope to avoid their attention. It's like a switch has flipped and everything is in the open now, rather than politely pretending nothing is happening, which is both more worrying and also a relief in a strange way.
There was a gorgeous shot in this episode of WWX and Jiang Cheng walking through Lotus Pier talking/arguing, all done in one camera shot, that really brought home how beautiful and complete that set is.
And I'm starting to notice how often WWX uses his own whining and chaos gremlin tendencies to make other people feel...better?...about their moments of worry and weakness.
Both of these episodes were very worrying if you have any fondness for WWX, which I obviously do. Talk about whumping. Stop hurting him, show. Just stop it.
Which brings me neatly to episode 14, which somehow made me both squee for delight and also be horribly concerned for WWX all at once.
I'm pretty sure LWJ was having similar issues.
I thoroughly enjoyed all the working together, figuring out a plan, battle couple goodness of their how to kill the tortoise plan. It was so good.
However, it resulted in a plan where WWX had to sneak inside the shell of THE TORTOISE OF SLAUGHTER. The name alone should be a clue about how badly that would go.
On the other hand, there was magical telepathy, which made me squee because I love that trope.
Except apparently it never appears again? Someone please say that fic writers are on it and have done fun and interesting things with that particular thing.
WWX used his brain to find the thing that was suppressing the tortoise and (maybe?) made it easier to kill it by removing said implement. Except! That sword has OMINOUS SHIMMERY BLACK SMOKE and it made WWX have a moment that I can only describe as "possibly getting tempted to the dark side" that really worries me. And also, during the entire sequence where WWX is being flung around like a rag doll I was simultaneously yelling at hime to just let go while also acknowledging that the sword with OMINOUS SHIMMERY BLACK SMOKE probably wasn't allowing him to let go. Yes, that whole sequence was stressful.
Pretty sure that sword is connected to the Yin Metal in some way. The Wens are displeased about the death of their tortoise of slaughter, they're going to be even less pleased about the loss of their ominous shimmery sword.
WWX, stop cuddling that sword. It's clearly evil.
After all that, though, we got the LWJ healing WWX scene. Which...
There is no heterosexual explanation for that scene. A montage of all their best bonding scenes together so far set to incredibly romantic music? GEE I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU COULD BE IMPLYING HERE. And also HOW DID THAT GET PAST THE CENSORS.
I'm willing to bet WWX could have watched that entire sequence and still be thinking "nope, he clearly isn't interested and does not in fact like me at all".
*headdesk*
LWJ's face when he was worrying over WWX <3
So in summary, these were two very distressing and stressful episodes, alleviated by some beautiful shippy stuff for WWX and LWJ. And episode 15 was entirely LWJ-free, which is not on. Bring him back. The labrador chaos gremlin needs him.
I'm not getting LWJ back for a while, am I? Very stressful things are going to keep happening and keep getting worse, and WWX is going to have to go through it on his own (because Jiang Cheng is not exactly a supportive younger brother, and Jiang Yanli is lovely but maybe not *helpful*) so it's all going to be much worse than it needs to be.
There will be no Untamed tonight, because it's a two episode Xena watch night and I'm being a sensible adult now that I'm back at work.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 12:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 01:21 pm (UTC)I forgot to ask but did you catch LWJ telling WWX the naem of the romantic song that he was singing and had also composed??
I didn't! Please explain and then I can flail a bit more about the entire sequence :D
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 03:19 pm (UTC)There is an AMAZING fic where the spell ends up being permanent and it's SO GOOD. It has spoilers for, like, the rest of the the show but it's in one of my fic rec posts so hit me up when you're ready to read it
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 03:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 07:41 pm (UTC)Jiang Fenmian and Madam Yu are super interesting but yeah, not exactly what I'd call parental rolemodels. And I LOVE the WWX/Jiang Cheng relationship, they care about each other so much and it's all so GAAAH!
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 07:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 07:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 07:58 pm (UTC)I'm not going to survive this *bites nails*
And I LOVE the WWX/Jiang Cheng relationship
It's so siblingy and they love each other but they're so very much brothers and it's great. Even wen Jiang Cheng is being pouty and angry.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 08:01 pm (UTC)And yes they are the MOST BROTHERS and I love poor Jiang Cheng, he is the saddest and angriest grape and I love him.
I have also sent you a very important message elsewhere, lololol.
no subject
Date: 2020-08-10 08:38 pm (UTC)he is the saddest and angriest grape and I love him
Poor angry grape. His parents definitely did not help him grow into a well-balanced and healthy young man.