#cql meta

This is one of these scenes that truly stick as Wei Wuxian rescues the Wen remnants and is caught by Lan Wangji. After a verbal dispute, Lan Wangji is left shaken about the events and what is truly right/wrong and lets Wei Wuxian go. At this point, CQL Lan Wangji is very clearly shown to be questioning everything and not stopping Wei Wuxian is the most he can bear to do.

The problem is that after reading the book, Lan Wangji doesn’t actually fit the scene at all. And the scene doesn’t exist in the book for good reason.

Lan Wangji in the book is not some naive, spoiled youth blindly led by rules, or someone questioning what is right or wrong at a base level. Instead there is an entire extra detailing how even as a teenager he would go out and help people even if it meant sacrificing what he quietly wanted because his sense of responsibility means he will try to help where he can. We also know how even as a young child and his mother dead, he refused to move, defying every person, even Lan Qiren, waiting in the snow so he could see his mother one more time. He was called Hanguang-Jun by the people because he travels the lands and would go and help even if it was just a minor case and ignored by larger clans because it gave no benefits to them.

Nothing about Lan Wangji, Hanguang-Jun speaks of a man confused at witnessing cruelty, or human prejudice, discrimination or people fleeing from tyranny. The man just went through a war! He saw his sect attacked! And yet, in The Untamed, Lan Wangji is shown to be completely lost at being questioned by Wei Wuxian, when the truth is that if Lan Wangji had witnessed the camp and been with Wei Wuxian, he would’ve done the same with him. He would not have just stepped aside and dramatically stood in the rain as Wei Wuxian risked everything to save innocents. He would’ve gone with him.

The 2019 Chinese drama The Untamed (CQL) quickly became a massive phenomenon, drawing millions of viewers in China and beyond. Its resonant story, rich cast of characters, and striking production captured audience attention globally; its paratexts and fandoms helped keep that attention sustained. What made this particular mix so compelling, and what can The Untamed show us about increasingly transcultural media flows? Catching Chen Qing Ling explores how The Untamed has been translated, produced, distributed, watched, and remixed. Contributors offer multifaceted insights on the path from subcultural writing tradition to highly profitable entertainment media, as well as some of the challenges such change engenders. From fan translations and digital labor, to the 227 Incident and issues of censorship, this collection explores some of the questions raised by The Untamed’s enduring resonance and considers what it might mean for the future of transcultural media.

Stay tuned for more information and contributor spotlights in the coming days!

Guangyao 光瑶 (Light/Glory ; Jade per seven seas translation)

is a homonym of Guangyao 光耀 (which together means brilliance/honour/glory)

IS A HOMONYM OF guang yaozi 逛窑子 WHICH MEANS TO VISIT A BROTHEL????? NOTE THAT THE zi 子 IS THE SAME 子 AS IN SON?????

this is on purpose. right??? we all knew this man named his son a backhanded compliment (by using the suffix guang instead of the Jin generational zi, and by the fact that it’s a homonym for glory). BUT DID HE NAME HIS SON AN OVERT SLAP IN THE FACE ALSO

a sly snide open secret of an insult name????

screenshot of my mandarin dictionary 4 the ages but seriously What is going on. did we already know about this???

(homonyms don’t quite work like that in mandarin but I talked to my teacher about how she named her kids and she said people often do use “homonyms” (same sound different tone different character/meaning) to layer meaning onto names)

You know the names of the buildings in the Cloud Recesses: the lecture room/hall Lanshi (兰室, Lánshì, "Orchid Room"); Yashi (雅室, Yǎshì, "Elegant Room") – the reception room/hall; the spirit-summoning room/hall Mingshi (冥室, Míngshì, "Underworld Room" or "Room of Darkness"); Hanshi (寒室, Hánshì, "Frost Room") - Lan Xichen's residence; and Lan Wangji's Jingshi (静室, Jìngshì, "Quiet Room"), right?

The character used to write the "shì", room, in the names is 室, here seen in the Lanshi and the Yashi (the names are read from right to left):

As a side note, the Lan seem to use the traditional rather than the simplified characters, so the "lán" in the Lanshi is written with 蘭 rather than 兰.

BUT. Not so in the Jingshi! Instead of the 室, a slightly different character is used for the "room":

My trusty dictionary did not know the character in question, so I started to look at what was different:

As such, the character 凶 (xiōng) means act of violence, murder, evil. An evildoer. A murderer. And as Lan Xichen told Wei Wuxian, we know who lived in the Jingshi before it became Lan Wangji's residence: "It is the place where our mother lived in the Cloud Recesses".

So, it seems that when the house became Madam Lan's prison, the character was changed to reflect her crime, denoting the place as the quiet room of a murderer. Accentuated by the reversed colours of the sign:

This has probably been quite self-evident to anyone who actually speaks and reads Chinese, but was quite an oooff! to me as I realised. One more killer detail in CQL 😟.

And while I was at it, I just had to check what it says above the gate (seen here when LWJ returns home with the Emperor's Smile):

As far as I can read it, the characters are 影竹堂 (yǐng zhú táng), which I freely translate as "Bamboo Shadow Court". An apt name for the place.

Hopefully it offered some solace to Madam Lan.

even if you don't know the terminology, if you've ever seen a movie or show, you've learned the language of shot-reverse-shot. when two people are speaking, the vast majority of time, their conversation is shown through this technique, where we switch back and forth between having the characters in the frame. usually, the one who is speaking is visible at the time. sometimes, we can see the back/shoulder of the other person in the frame. the characters are generally either centered and viewed from straight-on or they might be slightly off to one side and angled slightly to the other side. the key here is symmetry and eyeline matches to create the illusion of 3-dimensional space where the characters are interacting in a natural way.

this scene starts off with a very typical shot-reverse-shot between Wei Wuxian and Jiang Cheng. and even though wwx is being skittish and weird, the framing emphasizes that their relationship is, at least on the surface, still ok. they are having a normal interaction.

when Lan Wangji starts speaking, we begin in a similar state. this mirrors wwx's attempt at maintaining a kind of distance between them as he calls him Hanguang-jun, and even gives him a little bow.

the situation is tense, but the tension isn't really emphasized visually, until lwj asks wwx to come back to Gusu with him. when wwx refuses, the camera cuts noticeably closer to lwj, while remaining the same distance away from wwx. (compare with the two shots above!)

generally, there is a golden spot for framing during a dialogue. if it's happening in a long shot, with the character's full body visible, we get a sense of distance, of removal from the conversation. the conversation matters less, and the surroundings take precedence. a medium, i.e. above the shoulders, shot is our shot-reverse-shot standard. it feels natural and close enough to see facial expressions and feel like we're in the middle of the conversation. any closer than that, however, and it starts feeling cramped, too intimate. close shots are usually used to convey emotional distress or intensity.

when lwj accuses wwx of using wicked tricks, both of them shift into these close ups. at the same time, the camera pans a little further behind the person who isn't speaking. notice how, for both of them, the frame seems to get smaller, because a section of it is now taken up by the other person's back. even though we're still only slightly closer than usual, this framing creates further tension.

then, wwx asks, "how do others know my temperament and why should it be their concern?" and as he speaks, the camera pans even further behind lwj, so that half his face is obscured. this is a visual cue that neither lwj nor the audience are allowed inside wwx's mind at this time.

and then we have the "Wei Wuxian!" "Lan Wangji!" exchange, where wwx is firmly drawing the line and lwj is realizing that there is no way in. this distress is visually emphasized as wwx's back now takes up a full half of lwj's frame, and a strand of his hair even obscures the center of lwj's face from view. though the camera is still very close to him, he's effectively blocked from view, cramped in a small space within the frame, which highlights his distress and inability to break through. when we cut back to wwx, on the other hand, lwj is completely out of the frame. we're no longer looking from his vantage point, but from a tilted, unnatural angle to the side.

as wwx accuses lwj of choosing to be at odds with him, both their shots take that same twisted angle that implies that their mental/emotional state is also off kilter. this side-view shot-reverse-shot is all about tension. and lwj's angle is more extreme - taken from higher above than wwx's, because he is in more distress. we maintain this angle through the "who do you think you are?" moment, which is lwj's breaking point.

here, jc starts talking to them but we mostly stay glued on these angles of the two of them, indicating that this discussion is still very much between them, drawing out the tension and the standoff between them, and making sure we know that they are not okay.

I see a fair amount of meta (and AO3 comments) treating CQL/The Untamed like the Diet Coke version of MDZS, and the reason given is often “CQL is less morally complex.” Why? “Because Wei Wuxian’s actions are more morally justified there.”

What this episode brings home to me is that that chain of logic... just doesn’t follow. Because Wei Wuxian spends much of the story in opposition to other sympathetic characters, the story's moral complexity is in significant part a zero-sum game: if Wei Wuxian becomes less morally crunchy, then the people opposing him—a group that includes, at various times, sympathetic characters like Lan Xichen, Nie Mingjue, Jiang Cheng, late-stage Jin Zixuan, and, most of all, Lan Wangji—necessarily become more morally crunchy. The more obviously virtuous Wei Wuxian’s goals are, the more morally troubling it is for those other characters to oppose those goals.

The Qiongqi Dao rescue in this episode is perhaps the best example of this. Wei Wuxian shows up, terrifies some guards, turns Wen Ning into an undead slave without his consent and over his next-of-kin’s objection, uses Wen Ning to slaughter those same guards and others, without inquiring as to who is guilty and who might not be, then loads a subset of the surviving Wens onto stolen horses and makes a break for it. This is already pretty morally crunchy, but. Unlike in the novel, we later find out from Jiang Cheng that the surviving Wens are "the young, the old, and the weak," and are implied to be partly or mostly noncombatants. So the means are repugnant, but the end is unquestionably good. He is trying to get vulnerable, traumatized civilians to safety – away from the people who tortured and murdered them with impunity.

And then Lan Wangji shows up with his stylish umbrella and tries to stop him.

Yeah. Lan Wangji, hero of the common people, stands there in the rain before the fleeing refugees. He sees Wen Qing, who helped him when he was held captive by Wen Chao, and Wen Ning, who gave Wei Wuxian the medicine that healed his leg in Xuanwu Cave. He sees the old people, obvious noncombatants; he sees A-Yuan. An innocent child.

And he says, Wei Ying, stop. Don't do this. Come back with me. The unavoidable corollary of which is: Wei Ying. Let these people die.

It is, I think, his lowest moment of the whole series. (And one that doesn’t exist in the novel, where this confrontation never happens.) If this is the novel, and many of these people are plainly former enemy combatants, you can perhaps excuse it, at least a little. They arguably don’t need Wei Wuxian’s protection to survive, and they arguably don’t deserve his protection—not as much, anyway. But in the drama, there’s no argument: this is Lan Wangji putting his orthodoxy and his feelings for Wei Wuxian above what’s right. He would trade those 50 innocent lives for Wei Wuxian’s—he would do it in a heartbeat.

Remember that Jin Ling avoided LWJ like plague 'cause he was scared of him shitless, to the point that when WWX fake called Hanguang-Jun he ran without even looking back literally seconds after WWX pulled the same trick on him with JC 'cause he didn't want to risk looking back just in case it was actually HGJ, but he stood against Hanguang-Jun AND sect leader Lan when he thought they were invading his Xiao Shushu's room? Only Jiggy's own intervention made him back down.

& IDK maybe the reason Jin Ling was there at that time was that it was the family section. But since Fairy wasn't with him, maybe he was visiting his uncle. & I find it hard to imagine, like, say, WWX visiting Jiang Fengmian or Lan Sizhui visiting Zewu-Jun or the Lan brothers visiting Lan Qiren in the middle of the night in their private chambers unless something very important has happened. I think according to the standards of their time, they must have been very close for this visit to happen.

Running to Xiao Shushu 'cause JiuJiu is angry with him & adorably hiding behind him 'cause Xiao Shushu spoils him.

Defending Xiao Shushu and having a firm belief that whatever he says is for Jin Ling's own good even in the face of his cool uncle after the rush of winning a fight against a group of his all-time bullies.

Still using the affectionate term "Xiao Shushu"even when confronting him about why would he kill his father, begging him to "say something". Give him anything to make it a little bit less painful.

Jiggy wanting to comfort Jin Ling even when he's crying because he just realized that Jiggy has killed his father.

Jin Ling looking so hurt when Jiggy says that JGS didn't let him hold Jin Ling as though he can't imagine a world in which his uncle is not allowed to hold him. Not being allowed to hold JL being a notable part of JGY's villain origin story.

Jiggy pushing Jin Ling out of danger.

Jin Ling screaming for Jiggy to run even after Jiggy took him hostage. And all the other shit.

(It's worth mentioning that in the books, Jiggy doesn't push JL out of danger and JL still screams for him to run, and he still calls him uncle instead of Sect Leader as he does in the show. It's also worth mentioning that the show made some stunning choices in the Guaniyn temple scene regardimg JGY & JL. As half of the things I'm saying about that scene here only happened in the show.)

Jiggy looking so worried as Wen Ning goes towards JL even though he himself has lost an arm and is bleeding to death. And only looking relieved when Wen Ning holds the blade.

Jin Ling being scarred for life here. Oh my poor, poor baby.

With much difficulty, he coughed up some blood. Everyone present heard a crack that was abnormally clear and brutal.

A whimper of a last breath left Jin GuangYao's throat.

Jin Ling's shoulders shivered. He shut his eyes and covered his ears, too afraid to keep watching and listening.