Because I love to murder my own ass with gross emotion, I’d like to talk about another instance of Peak Romance™ in The Untamed, which somehow, miraculously passed censorship. (The censors were bribed, like, I’m pretty sure.) May I present, The Bunny Lantern Scene: Tanzhou Redux.
It’s nice to see our boys so comfortable and relaxed after the Yi City Tragedy Porn arc from whence we’ve just returned. Wei Ying, much like a bunny himself, is skipping around and poking things, while Lan Zhan is staid and stoic as ever. Until, he sees the bunny lantern. He takes a rather pregnant pause to look at it, and given this is The Untamed, I’m actually a bit surprised we did not flash back immediately to the Original Bunny Lantern.
But let us do that for you now - this is the day Lan Zhan consciously fell in love.
Unfortunately, Wei Ying is having a bit of a flashback of his own, or rather a vision of what he thinks is A-Yuan. Now, what’s interesting is this is the moment that WuJi (or Wangxian as we all know it’s really called) starts playing in the background. It’s a particularly romantic choice to associate WuJi with A-Yuan because at this point we, the audience, have probably figured out that A-Yuan = Sizhui = their son, i.e. the ultimate evidence of Lan Zhan’s love and devotion.
It’s fairly obvious by now that the bunny lantern is intimately linked with his emotions for Wei Ying, but in case it wasn’t, we now see Lan Zhan look right at him - and Wei Ying is beaming and gorgeous and entirely too easy to fall in love with. Heck, we’re all Lan Zhan at this moment.
I’d like to point out that during the entire 38 seconds that it takes Wei Ying to have this trip down memory lane, Lan Zhan is steadfastly staring at him. Finally, Wei Ying feels his gaze and turns around, so that they can proceed to stare at each other for another 26 seconds (no Baifan Mountain but still respectable), whilst WuJi plays, in front the entirety of Tanzhou and my gay eyes. (Let’s do the math, at this point, Lan Zhan hasn’t taken his eyes off his Socialist Bro here for a full 1 min 4 sec. That’s some intense camaraderie.)
At this point, Wei Ying, never one to miss the opportunity to take the piss out of the bae, points out the bunny lantern and reminds Lan Zhan that he drunkenly admitted to liking rabbits. (Hey man! What happens in Yueyang etc…)
And then, Hanguang-Jun looks at him like this:
And I am not sure how I’m supposed to even live having perceived that look on that face, but well, let’s just assume I’ve been dead this whole times BECAUSE HE KILLED ME.
And when Wei Ying suggests they buy the lantern, and Lan Zhan agrees, and then Wei Ying gives him THAT SMILE and Lan Zhan gives him THOSE COW EYES, I need to immediately lie down for a million years.
You guys, you are in public! You literally just dismembered a man and found your old pal’s decapitated corpse! There are CHILDREN around! WangXian don’t give a fuck. Lan Zhan casually carrying that fucking bunny lantern in front literally EVERYONE as if it were Wei Ying’s purse is the image I’m willing to die for. Fare thee well! I’ll be in my coffin, listening to WuJi.mp3.
(Huge shout out to @significanceofmoths for the beautiful gifs, how she didn’t go blind making them, I’ll never know)
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