I still have a lot of love in my heart for the adaptations of MDZS, but the book is just...undeniably better.
Especially when it comes to the depiction of the main couple. Of course, this can largely be attributed to censorship, but even still, I feel like the adaptations have a great misunderstanding of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in general. Or at least CQL does. I have not watched the animation in years, meanwhile I recently binged both the live action and the book.
Lan Wangji is...deeply in love and deeply devoted to Wei Wuxian. I often see him depicted in the fandom as a stickler for the rules, someone who tries to force them onto Wei Wuxian at every turn. This might have been who he was when he was a teenager, but adult Lan Wangji - who knows what sticking to those rules so strictly leads to - is not like that. Like. At all.
For all he pretends to stick to the rules - telling Wei Wuxian not to speak while eating, no alcohol, no excessive noise, etc - he doesn't actually give two shits if Wei Wuxian sticks to them or not. It is more force of habit than anything.
He doesn't even care too much about following them himself anymore. In fact, he happily breaks them time and time again. The only thing that Lan Wangji cares about after he finally has the love of his life back is that that same love is happy.
I think this excerpt from the Chapter 116 Banquet Extra perfectly exhibits Lan Wangji's stance on the Lan rules.
(side note; it is unbearably sweet that he went out of his way to make sure his husband didn't have to eat food he didn't like, and also went out and got him something that would satisfy his hunger. He loves him so much).
He would do anything to make him happy. Anything.
I feel like the CQL really fails to express that. Changing the events of the Nightless City and taking away the first Burial Mound Siege causes a lot of problems in the MDZS story telling (maybe more on that in another post because it pisses me off) but I think maybe one of the biggest things it impacts is showing to us Lan Wangji's devotion.
While it is true that he was conflicted, emotionally constipated, and still tied down by the rules he was taught to obey for his entire life during the events pre 13 year time skip, he was still deeply in love with him and he has pretty much always stood by his side.
He spoke up for him, defended him where he could when no one else but Mianmian would (also maybe more on her). And when push came to shove, when it was him against the entire world, he made the active and violent (not said in a negative way) decision to defend him with everything he had.
He hid him away from pursuers for days, desperately trying to nurse him back to health even while he himself was also injured and exhausted. He even chose to hurt his own people in defense of him when it came down to it.
I think the Nightless City, while not his turning point, was what truly cemented it for him. It doesn't matter who it is, it doesn't matter what rules, Lan Wangji will always, always go against them for Wei Wuxian.
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