The Untamed, second time through Ep 2

[which_chick]

When Jin Ling, whom I mentally characterize as Snobby Little Shit Mark 2, says "It's you" to Wei Wuxian, he means "It is you Mo Xuanyu, my funny uncle who got kicked out of Carp Tower for being a perv." and not "It's you, Wei Wuxian, back from the dead." This confused me the first time around.

When Wei Wuxian says "You lack maternal education" back at Jin Ling, this is a gut-punch the second time around because now we know that the kid's mom is Wei Wuxian's elder sister figure and also that Wei Wuxian is kinda-sorta implicated a bit in her tragic death. We know neither of those things the first go-round (though they are revealed later in the episode), so this casual remark lacks the cut it gets the second time. Also Jin Ling's response to the remark makes more sense, too. Jin Ling could very reasonably expect his half-uncle by bastardy Mo Xuanyu to know his backstory and to avoid making jerk remarks like that... so he reads it as an attack and responds accordingly.

Further "Why your uncle and not your dad" from Wei Wuxian to Jin Ling also cuts like a knife. Fortunately, Jin Ling doesn't have to answer this (obviously hurtful) question because his uncle Jiang Cheng shows up. I like how the show gives us his sword first. :) Also the slow motion turn from Wei Wuxian when he hears that voice, fucking *chef's kiss*. So good.

Jiang Cheng immediately recognizes the little paper talisman (lol I slay me) as one of Wei Wuxian's tricks. (Again, if you are not good at mapping "Yiling Patriarch" onto Wei Wuxian, this is not gonna work for you the first go-round. Maybe you did better than me. Must be nice.) Here, Jiang Cheng does not realize it's Wei Wuxian back for real but the little paper talisman no doubt plants the seed of possibility in his mind so that he is primed for his later realization (when he sees WW with flute and Wen Ning accoutrements). Nice.

And so Jin Ling goes to stabby stab our man Wei Wuxian who is his mostly-uncle on his mother's side and also his half-uncle's body on the other side, whereupon the sword is deflected by Lan Wangji making a very timely save.

Wei Wuxian is all "so unlucky" because this is 100% the guy Most Likely To Clock His Real Identity.

Jiang Cheng's "Hey, Lan Wangji, looking for someone?" is super pointed because he means Wei Wuxian. Cloud Recesses subordinate is "What do you mean by that?" and Jiang Cheng is "Lan Wangji knows what I mean." And he does. Camera looks at Lan Wanji, actor could teach a masterclass in minimal expressions for maximum impact. Fuuuu. And of course Wei Wuxian knows what all this is about and he happily gets to hear it all from behind his tree.

And shit, it's sensible and kind Lan Yuan there, being all boyscout true to the values of Lan Clan stuff, right from the start. (It really is helpful to know who these people are. NAMETAGS.)

(They do call it Lan Clan of Gusu here. I just... didn't link up Lan Clan and Gusu until very recently.)

Shit, now that we ALL KNOW that Jiang Cheng has a purple electric whippy Zidian thing on his hand, that look at his hand/wrist makes so much more sense.

Does Lan Wangyi know here that it's Wei Wuxian? I don't think so. Because he leaves.

WW has a like... chiffon/gauze overlayer on his outfit for this episode, you can see it sometimes making a nice smoky effect on the skirt part. I am, however, unconvinced that, like, chiffon is a sturdy enough fabric for the cultivator lifestyle.

The little Cloud Recesses cultivators have clouds embroidered on their robes. It's adorable.

Okay, stone lady statue thing. WW tries talismans, which don't quite work. Later, when they're outside, he thinks to himself that he and Lan Zhan sealed it before. (Now that I can map "Lan Zhan" onto "Lan Wangji" this is a more informative statement.)

WW makes a rustic bamboo flute and starts playing it but he DOES NOT expect Wen Ning. He gets Wen Ning, totally, but he was not, like, summoning him.

AND AGAIN we have dude-in-dark-clothing in the bushes and whatnot. This is probably yet again The Opposition's efforts to stir up rumors about Wei Wuxian. (The Opposition is still unaware that there is an actual Wei Wuxian running about.) Might could be Su She doing flute to control Wen Ning so that he could make an appearance and flesh out the ooh, Wei Wuxian HAS RETURNED narrative. 'Cause that is TOTALLY what Wen Ning is in the area for. He's there to firm up the "evidence" for the purported return of Wei Wuxian. "It's GOTTA be Wei Wuxian, look, actual credible witnesses have seen his Ghost General, who hasn't been seen in SIXTEEN YEARS, live and in the flesh out there doing his murder hobo gig! Who else could summon him from beyond the void but the dreaded Yiling Patriarch?"

Except there's no accounting for bad luck and turns out that there's a real Wei Wuxian on site with a hastily-constructed flute in his hand and now your underling isn't running Wen Ning, Wei Wuxian is and so there's no ... whatever you were planning. Possibly a massacre of young cultivators? Dunno. Anyway, you don't get to do it because your guy can't flute Wen Ning as well as the OG. (However, this incident also has to alert the opposition to the fact that someone VERY LIKE the OG Wei Wuxian is on the board and that all their careful plans about blaming stuff on him are in the shit.)

Wait... did Jin Guangyao (Silly Hat Guy, son of a prostitute, backstabber, patricide, filicide and incest on his resume, eventual clan leader for the Carp Tower people) keep Wen Ning on ice for sixteen effing years? Saving him for later? I do admire a guy with long-range planning skills.

I'm sort of going this route because Wen Ning is in fairly hefty-looking chains when he shows up. The chains are a new thing. Wen Ning didn't have to be chained in the before times, but that's the sort of thing you would do if you were keeping a very dangerous... prisoner.

And here, where Wei Wuxian is playing a flute to control the Ghost General, well, shit. Lan Wangji shows up.

Lan Wangji knew Wen Ning both as a Real Boy and as the Ghost General. It is not possible for Lan Wangji to not know the identity of the corpse-guy in chains.

He ALSO knows in his bones, who plays the flute to control the dead in general and to control this general in particular.

And he knows that song.

As impossible as it might seem, there is only one person that it can be.

Lan Wangji *knows*.

Now, he's been defending Wei Wuxian prior to this. Partly he was defending... everyone at the Mo Manor thing and he might not have been really aware that Wei Wuxian was, y'know, hiding on site. He showed up for the young cultivators in his sect, because they sent out the bat signal.

Lan Wangji directly defended Wei Wuxian at the... daytime night hunt where Jin Ling was gonna stabby stab Wei Wuxian. But he wasn't there for the build-up and he might just have been objecting to Jin Ling stabbing at an unarmed and possibly... mentally ill person in a fit of pique.

But here... Lan Wangji *knows*.

There is no time for discussion though because just then Jiang Cheng shows up. Excellent timing as usual, my man!

Jiang Cheng, also, knows who plays the flute and controls Wen Ning. "Great. You are back." No doubt in his mind, either. He whips out Zidian *snerk* but it doesn't... exorcise Wei Wuxian. Jiang Cheng is confused, because he thinks Wei Wuxian is adversely possessing Mo Xuanyu. He's not, tho, which is why Zidian doesn't work.

And now we're flashing back for like thirty episodes. The poor audience, watching this damn thing and going "But... but..." for thirty episodes.

First rabbits is Wei Wuxian at Caiyi Town, sixteen years ago before they get to Cloud Recesses. :)

Comments

[heavenscalyx]

We were intensely confused for quite a while, even though there were three of us collaborating on picking up cues, and two of us had trained on old Hong Kong cinema movies (especially the Swordsman series). The colorcodong really helped but we still had arguments over who a particular person was.

We should really do a rewatch, Gotta finish Word of Honor first though because there’s so much opportunity for conflation there…

[sunshine304]

This confused me the first time around.
The first 2 eps are incredibly confusing on first watch because they reference a lot of stuff the viewer doesn’t know yet (if unfamiliar with the novel). It's just so many people doing kinda weird stuff and I'm just glad that the show decided on colour-coding the sects, as heavenscalyx mentioned. I also didn’t get all these interactions at first, why WWX reacts the way he does when he finds out that the kid is Jin Ling, and of course why Lan Wangji and Jiang Cheng are so incredibly bitchy and passive-aggressive towards each other. Second time around it’s far funnier. XD

Jin Ling could very reasonably expect his half-uncle by bastardy Mo Xuanyu to know his backstory and to avoid making jerk remarks like that...
I love how this has multiple layers. For WWX, it’s an awful reveal because he loved his sister and also feels responsible for her death; for Jin Ling, it’s awful because his stupid crazy uncle should know better than saying sth like this and how dare he! (Also, Jin Ling has gotten bullied in the sect precisely because he has no parents and so it hits even harder)

I like how the show gives us his sword first. :)
Well, Sandu is a gorgeous sword! :D

Jiang Cheng immediately recognizes the little paper talisman (lol I slay me) as one of Wei Wuxian's tricks. (Again, if you are not good at mapping "Yiling Patriarch" onto Wei Wuxian, this is not gonna work for you the first go-round. Maybe you did better than me.
No, we couldn’t have known yet that WWX used papermen a lot in his youth and that it’s a clear hint that he’s back – definitely sth that must make his peers suspicious.


Jin Ling has many uncles. Like, so many. Almost everyone in this show is somehow his uncle, either by blood relation or by being adjacent to blood relation or by Chinese culture being what it is and people becoming your uncle if they’re sworn brothers with one of your uncles etc. Like, so many uncles! Running gag of the whole show. XD


actor could teach a masterclass in minimal expressions for maximum impact.
Wang Yibo, king of microexpressions. People thought he wouldn’t be able to do it, but he nailed this shit.

I am, however, unconvinced that, like, chiffon is a sturdy enough fabric for the cultivator lifestyle.
But it looks great in the wind, like smoke wisps and therefore perfect for WWX. XD Looks over practicality, always! Can't look anything but your best if you're yet again getting hunted by the sects!

The little Cloud Recesses cultivators have clouds embroidered on their robes. It's adorable.
Fun fact: The embroidery is magic, imbued with protection spells. (Also perhaps a spell to make dirt and mud slide off those white robes…)

The whole “characters have many names” is really mean, especially if they’re mixing up how they address each other. “Lan Zhan” is the birth name and should only be used by people Lan Wangji is very close to, it’s a sign of very close friendship, family relations etc. The show tells us quite early on that WWX tends to be super familiar with everyone he meets and the way he keeps calling Lan Wangji “Lan Zhan”, even though he never got permission to do so, tells a lot about his character.


Please appreciate the short scene where Jiang Cheng and Lan Wangji sit at some roadside tea house completely ignoring each other while the kids go up the mountain. They’ll let the kids do their thing but they’ll stay close just in case. While not acknowledging each other at all. XD Prayer circle for the poor staff at that tea house, dealing with pissy cultivators.

This is probably yet again The Opposition's efforts to stir up rumors about Wei Wuxian.
I have to rewatch, not sure if this is mysterious guy from the beginning or Su She keeping an eye on Wen Ning…
But IIRC it’s agreed in fandom that mysterious guy was tagging along there, causing trouble with the goddess illusion so that WWX would be forced to do something, some demonic cultivation flute playing or whatever. Wen Ning def showed up because of WWX’s flute playing, even though WWX didn’t intend to summon him (as he was sure that Wen Ning was dead).

What it also does is prove that the Jin sect lied about killing Wen Ning, a fact that Jin Guangyao wouldn’t want to get out at all costs.
Because:
keep Wen Ning on ice for sixteen effing years? Saving him for later?
Indeed he did. XD Too valuable to kill, and at the time, Xue Yang was still on good terms with the Jin.

Also, keep an eye on, well, Wen Ning’s eyes. Dead *hehe* giveaway when he is actually lucid and when he’s not.

But here... Lan Wangji *knows*.
And isn’t it the most romantic thing you’ve ever seen? :D

Jiang Cheng is confused, because he thinks Wei Wuxian is adversely possessing Mo Xuanyu. He's not, tho, which is why Zidian doesn't work.
I always love how Lan Jingyi explains how Zidian works to Jiang Cheng. XD While Jiang Cheng is going through the five stages of grief on speed run. XD Guy's not having a good day here.