The Untamed rewatch: episodes 2-6

[selenay]

So, the rewatch continues to be an excellent idea (I swear, I did not watch 5 episodes in one night, they were spaced out over the days since my last Untamed post).

Episode 2 was, yet again, a lot of me going "oh, this makes so much sense with all that added context!". Not in quite the same way as episode 1, because there was less obvious NHS involvement, but still a bit.

During the shrine goddess section, there was a part where WWX realised she wasn't really the goddess and speculates that she was some kind of phantom constructed to make him call Wen Ning (I assume he was just aiming for any convenient potential-puppet, not Wen Ning specifically because he thought Wen Ning was completely gone), which didn't make sense at the time but now I wonder whether that was NHS, too.

Was it? Hmm. It probably was.

It wouldn't surprise me at this point, because I'm guessing he knew that Wen Ning was still around and would respond to WWX's flute. And he definitely would have known that what WWX's response to a situation like that would be and he's sneaky enough to have planned for that.

Now that I know who they are and what has happened, the scene where LWJ and Jiang Cheng are clearly waiting for their children (son, nephew) to get back from their hunts and radiating hatred at each other is a much more significant. Wow. I hadn't picked up on that quite so strongly the first time around. How many times over the thirteen/sixteen years did they do that? How many incredibly uncomfortable people had to witness that?

The moment when WWX steps back and collides with LWJ, with the wrist grab and the very long significant look and WWX grabbing back, had so much more impact the second time. SO MUCH. I mean, I kind of knew it was a big deal the first time around, but now I've got the context. Particularly the LWJ context. It is a very beautiful and wonderful moment and I'm delighted by how much better it was with context :D

OTOH, angry grape Jiang Cheng makes me much sadder this time around. Seeing all that bitterness and hatred is much harder. Ugh, he's a character I can't ever hate, but he makes himself difficult to love at times.

(WWX fainting at the end of that scene was so WWX, and I'm certain that what we didn't see was LWJ catching him as he always does. I did not know LWJ was going to catch and hold WWX through so many faints the first time I watch this, but now I do and therefore I can't not think about what happens after the scene fades away.)

Going back to happy Cloud Recesses time is so lovely. WWX and LWJ's first meeting is even better second time around. All the shenanigans are better with the context of what happens later. I love this period because everyone is pretty much okay and happy.

And WWX is the sunshine chaos gremlin labrador we all love in these sections. I adore older WWX, too, but it's quite relaxing to see ball of sunshine bb!WWX.

All the main actors portray their characters at different ages in this show, but Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo are the two who really stand out for making me believe in the differences. Going from older WWX and LWJ in episodes 1/2 (and in episodes 33 to 50 because that was a lot of episodes to watch them in) and into to bb!WWX and bb!LWJ is really interesting because the difference is so stark. It's less so when we do the time-jump in episode 33, because by that stage both characters have done a lot of growing and maturing over 31 episodes. But going into the flashback is really interesting for seeing the contrast.

Also, now that I know who he is, Su She is right there at the waterborne abyss! I mean, I knew he was because we were told that later, but there he is! Gosh, he's annoying and terrible. He's the idiot who tried to replicate LWJ's sword into the water trick, but he's not very good at it and loses his sword! That's who Su She is!

Ugh.

I also really enjoyed getting to see Lan Xichen being lovely and kind and an adorable matchmaking troll for his brother. Oh, LXC, I'm sorry about how everything goes for you.

Episode six ended with the Cool Pool Cave scene, which introduced the rabbits and that time WWX and LWJ got kind of married, so that was good.

(They're married! And they have a son! In canon! (Ish) That will never ever get old.)