The Untamed episodes 42 and 43
Sep. 1st, 2020 11:59 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenayI'm spending a lot of this week adoring my tiny baby nephew while he visits, so I don't know how much watching I'll be able to do, but I did get to watch two episodes yesterday and they were SO WORTH IT.
So,![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
hockeybosh promised me the best scene in the show in these episodes and they delivered. But they also delivered two other scenes that have made it to joint very-close-second, so these were basically two episodes where I was calm, collected, and absolutely rational in my emoji use with HB.
(Pity HB. I have been throwing a lot of emojis and headcanons at her this weekend.)
So, let's get through the unpleasant JGY stuff first so I can get to the pure joy and beauty of these episodes. Because fuck that guy, WOW. Also, I totally called that he'd empty his dungeon in five minutes (how did he do that so fast?) because obviously he would.
My sadness for Lan Xichen only gets more intense. Particularly because he's having to choose between believing his brother and his very good friend, and his very good friend is so good at lying and manipulating. But LXC appears to be slowly losing his faith in JGY (that little meeting at Cloud Recesses seems to have knocked a lot of his "no, JGY is good!" confidence) and I'm both relieved and very sad for him.
BUT.
I am loving the way that LWJ believes so completely in WWX. Has he seen the preserved head and other shit? No he has not, but WWX says it was there and that's all he needs to know. It's beautiful.
And now the whole world knows who WWX is because JGY apparently kept WWX's sword and WWX reached for it instinctively (I'm assuming this whole sealing of the sword thing has significance I'm missing?) so there's that. Everyone hates WWX again. JC's conflicted face in every scene was so painful.
But this led us to the Best Scene (TM).
I love the way everyone surrounds LWJ and WWX with swords, but respectfully waits for them to have an important relationship conversation before attacking. Good work, everyone, you're Doing This Right.
And that relationship discussion...wow. WWX telling LWJ to leave him to it, he's not worth ruining LWJ's reputation over, he'll be fine (he will not be fine). And LWJ basically saying, "Screw my reputation, I'm 100% in, let's run away together and I'm never leaving you again."
(I might have paraphrased, but that was pretty much it.)
There was a lot of flailing over that. A LOT. And WWX looked like he might be having a bit of an internal flail-meltdown too, which was excellent. It's possible he's finally caught a clue about how much LWJ loves him. Only took him 16 years and dying, but he got there eventually. Excellent.
It was all going so well until Jin Ling stabbed WWX. Which I can't actually blame him for, he's been raised on stories of how the Yiling Patriarch killed his parents and is the most evil cultivator ever, but he really needed to think a bit more carefully about the person he's met versus the stories. Hopefully he's doing that now.
And then LWJ took WWX home and we got the joint second best scene, with WWX waking up and LWJ looking after him and being very soft and gentle and it was LOVELY. So much loveliness.
The other joint second best scene was the one just after WWX's talk with LXC about LWJ's history (I have so many feelings about that). LWJ brought alcohol, wore his soft 'at home' look, and they bonded quietly together and WWX looked so soft and there was the whole 'soulmates' thing and ugh. I loved it.
(Also, my head canon for what happened after that scene definitely involves a less platonic soulmate concept. If they hadn't already figured out the sex thing by then, that was definitely when WWX and figured it out and LWJ just went "OMG FINALLY" and yes. That.)
Anyway.
That talk between WWX and LXC gave me so many feelings. SO MANY. LXC and LWJ had such a rough childhood, ugh that's awful. And LWJ has been so lonely his entire life, looking for someone to fill the space where he has so much love to give, and WWX is that space-filling person. It felt like LXC was both giving WWX information he knew WWX needed, and warning WWX about how much power he has to hurt his little brother. I love LXC and his little talks. He's an interfering troll sometimes, but he's an interfering troll who wants his brother to be happy and knows WWX can do that. He's the best brother.
And WWX took that talk seriously and wasn't scared off by it (he'd definitely have been scared off by it before). He's also very lonely and has so much love to give. They're a perfect match. They both need a lot of love and hugs and luckily they're in sync on that now.
There is no question that whatever they do, it will be done together. Even visiting rabbits and going on a trip back to the Burial Mounds, which is probably going to go badly but not as badly as if they weren't doing it together.
The other thing I have a lot of feelings about is music magic and the idea that JGY corrupted the music LXC taught him for bad purposes. And he might be (is probably) the second flute so he's basically been setting WWX up from the start. ARGH.
(HB asked me if I still love music magic with these revelations and, honestly, yes. Because it's not the music magic that's caused the problems, it's someone using it to do bad things. Any tool can be used for good or evil, it's all about how it's used. So I still love that there's so much music magic in this show.)
And now we've got LXC going off to the Golden Unicorn Tower and WWX and LWJ off to the Burial Mounds, which I'm sure is going to go so well for all of them. Uh oh.
So,
(Pity HB. I have been throwing a lot of emojis and headcanons at her this weekend.)
So, let's get through the unpleasant JGY stuff first so I can get to the pure joy and beauty of these episodes. Because fuck that guy, WOW. Also, I totally called that he'd empty his dungeon in five minutes (how did he do that so fast?) because obviously he would.
My sadness for Lan Xichen only gets more intense. Particularly because he's having to choose between believing his brother and his very good friend, and his very good friend is so good at lying and manipulating. But LXC appears to be slowly losing his faith in JGY (that little meeting at Cloud Recesses seems to have knocked a lot of his "no, JGY is good!" confidence) and I'm both relieved and very sad for him.
BUT.
I am loving the way that LWJ believes so completely in WWX. Has he seen the preserved head and other shit? No he has not, but WWX says it was there and that's all he needs to know. It's beautiful.
And now the whole world knows who WWX is because JGY apparently kept WWX's sword and WWX reached for it instinctively (I'm assuming this whole sealing of the sword thing has significance I'm missing?) so there's that. Everyone hates WWX again. JC's conflicted face in every scene was so painful.
But this led us to the Best Scene (TM).
I love the way everyone surrounds LWJ and WWX with swords, but respectfully waits for them to have an important relationship conversation before attacking. Good work, everyone, you're Doing This Right.
And that relationship discussion...wow. WWX telling LWJ to leave him to it, he's not worth ruining LWJ's reputation over, he'll be fine (he will not be fine). And LWJ basically saying, "Screw my reputation, I'm 100% in, let's run away together and I'm never leaving you again."
(I might have paraphrased, but that was pretty much it.)
There was a lot of flailing over that. A LOT. And WWX looked like he might be having a bit of an internal flail-meltdown too, which was excellent. It's possible he's finally caught a clue about how much LWJ loves him. Only took him 16 years and dying, but he got there eventually. Excellent.
It was all going so well until Jin Ling stabbed WWX. Which I can't actually blame him for, he's been raised on stories of how the Yiling Patriarch killed his parents and is the most evil cultivator ever, but he really needed to think a bit more carefully about the person he's met versus the stories. Hopefully he's doing that now.
And then LWJ took WWX home and we got the joint second best scene, with WWX waking up and LWJ looking after him and being very soft and gentle and it was LOVELY. So much loveliness.
The other joint second best scene was the one just after WWX's talk with LXC about LWJ's history (I have so many feelings about that). LWJ brought alcohol, wore his soft 'at home' look, and they bonded quietly together and WWX looked so soft and there was the whole 'soulmates' thing and ugh. I loved it.
(Also, my head canon for what happened after that scene definitely involves a less platonic soulmate concept. If they hadn't already figured out the sex thing by then, that was definitely when WWX and figured it out and LWJ just went "OMG FINALLY" and yes. That.)
Anyway.
That talk between WWX and LXC gave me so many feelings. SO MANY. LXC and LWJ had such a rough childhood, ugh that's awful. And LWJ has been so lonely his entire life, looking for someone to fill the space where he has so much love to give, and WWX is that space-filling person. It felt like LXC was both giving WWX information he knew WWX needed, and warning WWX about how much power he has to hurt his little brother. I love LXC and his little talks. He's an interfering troll sometimes, but he's an interfering troll who wants his brother to be happy and knows WWX can do that. He's the best brother.
And WWX took that talk seriously and wasn't scared off by it (he'd definitely have been scared off by it before). He's also very lonely and has so much love to give. They're a perfect match. They both need a lot of love and hugs and luckily they're in sync on that now.
There is no question that whatever they do, it will be done together. Even visiting rabbits and going on a trip back to the Burial Mounds, which is probably going to go badly but not as badly as if they weren't doing it together.
The other thing I have a lot of feelings about is music magic and the idea that JGY corrupted the music LXC taught him for bad purposes. And he might be (is probably) the second flute so he's basically been setting WWX up from the start. ARGH.
(HB asked me if I still love music magic with these revelations and, honestly, yes. Because it's not the music magic that's caused the problems, it's someone using it to do bad things. Any tool can be used for good or evil, it's all about how it's used. So I still love that there's so much music magic in this show.)
And now we've got LXC going off to the Golden Unicorn Tower and WWX and LWJ off to the Burial Mounds, which I'm sure is going to go so well for all of them. Uh oh.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-02 07:52 pm (UTC)I do feel bad for LXC, I thnk it's a great parallel to LWJ & WWX though because one of them doubted and now wishes he'd had faith whilst LXC... well we'll see.
no subject
Date: 2020-09-04 11:44 am (UTC)