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The Untamed: all the episodes!
It's entirely possible that I'll be writing a lot of follow-up posts because this has captured my brain, but here is my first set of thoughts after a few days of settling into it.
They may still be incoherent thoughts, but OH WELL. Just have to live with it :D
THEY ARE MARRIED AND THEY HAVE A SON.
I had to get that out first :D
So, when I started this I knew very little. I knew this much:
1) There were two main characters, a stern one and a happy goofy one
2) Bunnies were important
3) The main characters did not die at the end
4) It would initially be complicated and confusing, but stick with it and it'll make sense
5) There were cultivators, so possibly there would be farming?
Point 3) was established due to Guardian, because I was not ready for another show that would leave me with an emotionally devastating ending where both members of the ship died. It was the only spoiler I asked for, and![[twitter.com profile]](https://p.dreamwidth.org/e0caa790ec10/-/twitter.com/favicon.ico)
hockeybosh was a good friend and did not give me any others. She didn't even hint at the NHS reveal at the end. What a good friend!
In retrospect, I'm glad that the show had that framing device of starting with WWX's death, fast-forwarding to the resurrection for a couple of episodes, and *then* doing a 30-something episode flashback. Although it was confusing at first, it meant that I knew WWX was going to die eventually, but I also knew it wouldn't last and he'd be reunited with LWJ.
It also established their epic feelings for each other through one very long mutual stare when they're reunited, but that's another thing entirely.
If it had started out with everyone arriving for the Lan lectures and then I'd had to watch WWX's death 30-something episodes later, I suspect it would have broken me. I became very attached to WWX and only got through the episodes leading up to his death by reminding myself that it was going to be fine eventually, he'd come back. Watching those without that reassurance would have been much, much harder.
I felt like I went on a journey with this, even more than with Guardian, because there was so much in this show. So many characters, so many plots, so many elements to care about. I really want to rewatch it because there is so much depth that I'm sure I missed things on the first watch.
I can highly recommend watching this with a friend to scream at. And having friends to fill in the missing cultural details that added so much significance to certain parts (rabbits, rooster, bowing to ancestors together), because it was a much richer experience with that communal element.
And yes, that means the whole ship was even better (and less subtle) than I might have thought without the extra details :D
The funny thing is that I feel like my tiny bit of knowledge at the start was both very right and very wrong. The stern one was the soft, forever in love one, you just had to know how to read his expressions. The happy goofy one got the most traumatic plot-line and emerged older and sometimes more serious, but still happy and goofy a lot of the time.
The rabbits had so much more significance than I realised.
It was definitely confusing initially, but I picked it up much more quickly than I expected. Maybe because I'd already watched Guardian, so some of the basics of "this is how a C-drama works" were already there, I was just having to adjust to it being a xianxia drama rather than a modern one?
As for the cultivator thing...well, there was some farming eventually! And the episodes in the Burial Mounds are actually some of my favourite from the flashback half of the show. Although things are awful in some ways and it's obvious to everyone that this can't last, watching WWX build a home and a family is lovely. Those episodes only be better with LWJ deciding to stay at the Burial Mounds :D
I won't lie, about 90% of my attention was on WWX and LWJ.
But! I was also very much there for Wen Qing and Wen Ning. And Jiang Yanli. And Lan Xichen. And A-Yuan.
(OK, I asked for one more spoiler after the flashback ended and I realised who Lan Sizhui was. I had to make sure he also survived to the end.)
There are so many great characters in this show. I even found myself caring about and feeling sympathy for a couple of the evil guys! Hardly anyone is ever purely good or purely bad, and I think that's one of the things I really enjoyed. Bad guys had backstories and motivations, good guys had moments when they messed up and had to come back from it.
Our two leads had such a clear and beautiful storyline, but it wasn't always easy and they made mistakes that hurt both of them. Which made their post-resurrection story so gorgeous, because they were both learning from and repairing the mistakes they'd made, and by the end you could clearly see how tightly bound they were to each other.
Whether you read it as them having finally got together during the post-flashback episodes or them not getting together until after the final scene, it's impossible to deny that they do get together.
They are married. They have a son.
I can read it either way. The scene in the Jingshi after Lan Xichen explains what happened to LWJ after WWX died, where LWJ brings wine for WWX and they are both thinking about each other, is a very easy scene to read as them having their get together moment after the camera stops rolling. It's gorgeous. I can also read it as them not getting together after WWX comes back from travelling, because they were pretty busy until then.
And even though censorship hit so they couldn't have an overt romantic relationship, the subtext is so loud it's practically text. Even the ending, which had been my biggest fear, was as blatant as possible within those restrictions that they got a happy ending together.
(I choose to go with what I now know is the special edition edit, where the waterfall scene was moved to be the final scene, because that's even more blatantly "they are married and happily ever after now".)
It's possible that I'm writing a fic about the time period between WWX going off to travel and the flute-playing "Wei Ying" scene, to work through my feelings on the ending :D
I'm also diving head first into reading the fanfic, but not because I need to fix everything the way I did with Guardian.
Nope. It's because I want to read all the parts were didn't get to see on screen. Specifically:
- I want all the post-canon fics about WWX and LWJ being happy and shamelessly in love with each other, setting up a home together and maybe building a family together.
- All the fics where that includes WWX teaching the juniors.
- Or just teaching any disciples.
- And having adventures that aren't world-ending.
- All the modern AUs, all of them.
- Canon-divergence AUs.
And happily, this is a fandom that is providing in spades. SO MUCH FIC. I'm so pleased.
(I'd been saving the link to a canon-divergence fic about the telepathy spell from the tortoise of slaughter episode not wearing off, and you'd better believe I've already read it. SO GOOD.)
I still have so many thoughts about this show, and Wangxian, and everything else. Knowing me, I'm going to end up working through a lot of those thoughts and feelings via fic, but I may also be writing more DW posts while I noodle at things.
In conclusion, hello new fandom, I'm diving in.
They may still be incoherent thoughts, but OH WELL. Just have to live with it :D
THEY ARE MARRIED AND THEY HAVE A SON.
I had to get that out first :D
So, when I started this I knew very little. I knew this much:
1) There were two main characters, a stern one and a happy goofy one
2) Bunnies were important
3) The main characters did not die at the end
4) It would initially be complicated and confusing, but stick with it and it'll make sense
5) There were cultivators, so possibly there would be farming?
Point 3) was established due to Guardian, because I was not ready for another show that would leave me with an emotionally devastating ending where both members of the ship died. It was the only spoiler I asked for, and
In retrospect, I'm glad that the show had that framing device of starting with WWX's death, fast-forwarding to the resurrection for a couple of episodes, and *then* doing a 30-something episode flashback. Although it was confusing at first, it meant that I knew WWX was going to die eventually, but I also knew it wouldn't last and he'd be reunited with LWJ.
It also established their epic feelings for each other through one very long mutual stare when they're reunited, but that's another thing entirely.
If it had started out with everyone arriving for the Lan lectures and then I'd had to watch WWX's death 30-something episodes later, I suspect it would have broken me. I became very attached to WWX and only got through the episodes leading up to his death by reminding myself that it was going to be fine eventually, he'd come back. Watching those without that reassurance would have been much, much harder.
I felt like I went on a journey with this, even more than with Guardian, because there was so much in this show. So many characters, so many plots, so many elements to care about. I really want to rewatch it because there is so much depth that I'm sure I missed things on the first watch.
I can highly recommend watching this with a friend to scream at. And having friends to fill in the missing cultural details that added so much significance to certain parts (rabbits, rooster, bowing to ancestors together), because it was a much richer experience with that communal element.
And yes, that means the whole ship was even better (and less subtle) than I might have thought without the extra details :D
The funny thing is that I feel like my tiny bit of knowledge at the start was both very right and very wrong. The stern one was the soft, forever in love one, you just had to know how to read his expressions. The happy goofy one got the most traumatic plot-line and emerged older and sometimes more serious, but still happy and goofy a lot of the time.
The rabbits had so much more significance than I realised.
It was definitely confusing initially, but I picked it up much more quickly than I expected. Maybe because I'd already watched Guardian, so some of the basics of "this is how a C-drama works" were already there, I was just having to adjust to it being a xianxia drama rather than a modern one?
As for the cultivator thing...well, there was some farming eventually! And the episodes in the Burial Mounds are actually some of my favourite from the flashback half of the show. Although things are awful in some ways and it's obvious to everyone that this can't last, watching WWX build a home and a family is lovely. Those episodes only be better with LWJ deciding to stay at the Burial Mounds :D
I won't lie, about 90% of my attention was on WWX and LWJ.
But! I was also very much there for Wen Qing and Wen Ning. And Jiang Yanli. And Lan Xichen. And A-Yuan.
(OK, I asked for one more spoiler after the flashback ended and I realised who Lan Sizhui was. I had to make sure he also survived to the end.)
There are so many great characters in this show. I even found myself caring about and feeling sympathy for a couple of the evil guys! Hardly anyone is ever purely good or purely bad, and I think that's one of the things I really enjoyed. Bad guys had backstories and motivations, good guys had moments when they messed up and had to come back from it.
Our two leads had such a clear and beautiful storyline, but it wasn't always easy and they made mistakes that hurt both of them. Which made their post-resurrection story so gorgeous, because they were both learning from and repairing the mistakes they'd made, and by the end you could clearly see how tightly bound they were to each other.
Whether you read it as them having finally got together during the post-flashback episodes or them not getting together until after the final scene, it's impossible to deny that they do get together.
They are married. They have a son.
I can read it either way. The scene in the Jingshi after Lan Xichen explains what happened to LWJ after WWX died, where LWJ brings wine for WWX and they are both thinking about each other, is a very easy scene to read as them having their get together moment after the camera stops rolling. It's gorgeous. I can also read it as them not getting together after WWX comes back from travelling, because they were pretty busy until then.
And even though censorship hit so they couldn't have an overt romantic relationship, the subtext is so loud it's practically text. Even the ending, which had been my biggest fear, was as blatant as possible within those restrictions that they got a happy ending together.
(I choose to go with what I now know is the special edition edit, where the waterfall scene was moved to be the final scene, because that's even more blatantly "they are married and happily ever after now".)
It's possible that I'm writing a fic about the time period between WWX going off to travel and the flute-playing "Wei Ying" scene, to work through my feelings on the ending :D
I'm also diving head first into reading the fanfic, but not because I need to fix everything the way I did with Guardian.
Nope. It's because I want to read all the parts were didn't get to see on screen. Specifically:
- I want all the post-canon fics about WWX and LWJ being happy and shamelessly in love with each other, setting up a home together and maybe building a family together.
- All the fics where that includes WWX teaching the juniors.
- Or just teaching any disciples.
- And having adventures that aren't world-ending.
- All the modern AUs, all of them.
- Canon-divergence AUs.
And happily, this is a fandom that is providing in spades. SO MUCH FIC. I'm so pleased.
(I'd been saving the link to a canon-divergence fic about the telepathy spell from the tortoise of slaughter episode not wearing off, and you'd better believe I've already read it. SO GOOD.)
I still have so many thoughts about this show, and Wangxian, and everything else. Knowing me, I'm going to end up working through a lot of those thoughts and feelings via fic, but I may also be writing more DW posts while I noodle at things.
In conclusion, hello new fandom, I'm diving in.