#illogical editing

It's dawning on him that Jin Guangyao used him in order to kill Nie Mingjue, because he got Lan Xichen to teach him the cleansing music, and to vouch for him. He asks, "can you allow me to be more cautious before coming to a conclusion?"

Lan Wangji, who has never hesitated to come to a conclusion ever in his entire life, moves into his "arguing" stance, but Wei Wuxian, who is comfortable with ambiguity, clasps his arm and stops him, giving him a significant head shake.

Wei Wuxian is so comfortable with ambiguity, in fact, that his outfit today features a literal grey area, in the form of a grey trim line between the black of his outer robe and the white of Lan Wangji's his underrobe.

Lan Wangji settles down, but he's not happy about it. Neither am I, because we never get to see Lan Xichen actually do this test. How would it even work? Would he have to play guqin in front of a mirror to harm himself with his own spiritual energy? Important questions are being left unanswered.

Having sorted that out, they all come out of the library together. Lan Wangji goes to see his uncle while Lan Xichen escorts Wei Wuxian back to the Jingshi so he can give him the world's most confusing shovel talk.

Tea Time

Once they're in the Jingshi's front yard (courtyard? It's not a traditional Siuhuan layout, but it does have a gate, so I'm not sure what the yard would be called), Wei Wuxian stops Lan Xichen to ask him a question, specifically because Lan Wangji isn't there. Then they have this exchange, which totally blew my mind when I first watched it.

Wei Wuxian: what's up with the whip marks on Lan Zhan? Lan Xichen: He didn't tell you? WWX: I asked, but he wouldn't tell me, so I figured I should ask you. LXC: I know how he is, he would never ever ever tell you, in his whole life. LXC: SO I WILL.

I was raised in a culture (white, Irish-American Catholic) where family secrets are meant to be KEPT unto and beyond the GRAVE. So to see Lan Xichen, a generally virtuous guy, (if a little wobbly around the whole "is murder ok" question), casually spill all of his brother's tea like this was startling for me.

But when I make the effort to see beyond my own context, it actually makes sense; this secret is an essential part of Lan Wangji's life, and it's one that intimately concerns Wei Wuxian. Lan Xichen has authority over Lan Wangji, as his elder brother and as his clan leader, so he's empowered to make choices about what he thinks is best for his brother, and what his brother wants doesn't really enter into it.

Also, they are in a Wuxia/Xianxia* story; secrets in this context exist purely to drive plots forward, so spilling them at opportune moments is every character's sacred duty.

*I feel like MDZS is a hybrid of Wuxia and Xianxia, because there's cultivation-based magic but no real otherworldly component. In a more conventional Xianxia we'd be spending 13 years in the underworld with Wei Wuxian while he rose to be the king of the demon realm or something like that. Which would be awesome, actually.

Protect the Smoldering Ruin

Lan Xichen cues up a flashback to Lan Wangji fighting to protect Wei Wuxian's…stuff. This scene makes no goddamn sense, because it's based on things that happened in the novel that can't be talked about in a censored TV show. So there's a whole lot of handwaving needed for this scene to happen.

In the novel, Wei Wuxian is off his face on drugs resentment, the crowd is there to kill him, and Lan Wangji is protecting WWX, having unsuccessfully confessed his love. Lan Wangji injures 33 Lan elders in the ensuing battle, so his punishment is 33 strokes of the punishment whip. Wei Wuxian dies in an unpleasant manner anyway, and the story carries on. All of the important stuff including WWX's demise happens in the burial mounds.

In the live-action version, we see Lan Wangji surrounded by several Jins + Su She. Su She asks Lan Wangji what the fuck he's doing, and Lan Wangji delivers the epic diss, "You are not qualified to speak to me."

Jin Guangyao shows up and says they'll leave the cave alone, because they've got the burial mounds surrounded so Wei Wuxian can't get back to his cave anyway. And that Lan Wangj's uncle is there, probably planning to take him back to Cloud Recesses.

Next we see Lan Wangji leaning on his sword with his hand and arm bloody, with a voiceover from Lan Xichen saying that Lan Wangji "caused a lot of trouble" and their Uncle was furious.

So, if LWJ's motivation is to protect an empty cave, that seems really dumb. But I think this is just down to confusing editing, and the cave isn't actually empty. When we look at the events of this episode in conjunction with some other flashbacks and events from other episodes, a possible chronology emerges:

Lan Wangji is looking for Wei Wuxian, goes to burial mounds, finds A-Yuan.

Lan Wangji stands outside the cave where A-Yuan is hidden, guards him against Su She and Jin Guangyao. Then they go away, warning him that his uncle is coming.

Lan Wangji dashes (teleports?) to Nightless City, tells Wei Wuxian "the situation changed!" with no further information, but meaning "I need you to come help me guard A-Yuan, and then get married and raise him as our son." He gets a cut on his arm during this battle; Wei Wuxian falls while Lan Wangji bleeds a lot, making his arm and hand bloody.

Lan Wangji rushes back to the burial mounds to collect A-Yuan, and fights the Lans in order to guard the cave & A-Yuan.

This still has one error, because the not-yet-very-bloody cut is seen on Lan Wangji's arm during his confrontation with Su She & JGY, but I find that easier to accept than..the entire logic of everything, otherwise.

What's Black? What's White?

Next, Lan Xichen says that their uncle punished Lan Wangji with THREE HUNDRED strokes of the punishment whip, which is ridiculous, because the punishment whip is a spiritual weapon designed to maim, and most cultivators couldn't survive 33 strokes from it. It's not a translation error; Lan Xichen clearly says "sānbǎi" and the Chinese subtitles say "三百". Maybe Lan Xichen is exaggerating to make Wei Wuxian feel worse.

We flash back to the flogging scene, in which they hit Lan Wangji with the exact same sticks they beat him and Wei Wuxian with when they got in trouble for drinking, not with anything that deserves to be called a "discipline whip."

The only sound Lan Wangji makes is to crack his knuckles really loudly when making a fist, which is I guess what happens when he doesn't have Bichen or Wei Wuxian's wrist to grip. Now we know why Wei Wuxian wears wrist armor. The guy beating him, meanwhile, makes all kinds of effort noises.

Lan Qiren makes Lan Wangji recite the 52d rule of the clan, which is "do not befriend evil people." Lan Wangji points out that there's a footnote with an exception if the people are really super hot.

Lan Qiren yells at him saying he's ignored their rules for "establishing one's person" according to the Viki subtitles, which I take to mean "building one's moral character," and asks how will he face their honorable ancestors? An urgent question, given that 300 strokes of an actual discipline whip would send Lan Wangji to those ancestors with a swiftness.

Lan Wangji doesn't take this lesson, however, asking his uncle "What's good? What's evil? What's black? What's white?" Lan Qiren is shocked that his best student has the ability to actually think, and says that he's greatly disappointed.

I remember when I was a kid, Dad telling me he was disappointed with me felt like a heavy punishment, but that's because he didn't beat the hell out of me while he was saying it. And I imagine Lan Wangji is ok with disappointing Lan Qiren at this point, since he's fundamentally disappointed himself by 1. Failing to save Wei Wuxian's life 2. Failing to stand by Wei Wuxian during the moment their paths diverged, when WWX asked him "who's strong, who's weak, what's black, what's white?"

The flashback wraps up with Lan Wangji kneeling in the cold pond with a book of Lan rules in front of him, looking like he still doesn't give a fuck what his uncle thinks, while frost grows on his eyebrows.

Lan Xichen says he went to talk to him and advise him - advise him to retroactively dump his dead boyfriend, is heavily implied. But that Lan Wangji said that because Wei Wuxian is his zhiji, that he should believe in his character - using the same word for trust/believe, 信, that has been spoken between LWJ and WWX in previous conversations (see my Ep 33 writeup).

Meet the Lans

Wei Wuxian says "he shouldn't have," and Lan Xichen responds by dropping his utterly horrifying family backstory. He is currently contemplating how far a person - himself or his brother, specifically - can and should go for their chosen person, which leads him to think about his parents.

He gazes hauntedly at the Jingshi and explains that this is where his mother lived, while his father was in seclusion. His father met his mother outside Gusu and it was love at first sight. Wei Wuxian, being a romantic cornball, likes this idea, smiling and saying that Papa Lan was young and passionate at that time.

But then Lan Xichen goes on to say that his mom didn't love his dad, which instantly makes Wei Wuxian sad again. LXC also says that she killed a respected teacher of his father's. Wei Wuxian perks up and asks why. He's a fan of killing people, after all.

Lan Xichen responds that he doesn't know, but that it was probably for righteousness, a grudge, right, or wrong: these four words. Yep, that would cover the vast majority of reasons to kill someone. His father dealt with it by secretly marrying her in defiance of his clan, and then locking her up while he went into seclusion. Note that seclusion is not isolation; it's a way of retreating from worldly things in order to focus on spiritual life. It apparently doesn't preclude occasionally knocking up your captive wife.

Lan Xichen then asks Wei Wuxian if he understands what Papa Lan's intentions were? And does he think he did the right thing? Wei Wuxian says "fuck if I know" and wonders what the hell is wrong with the straights, given that the Jiang parents' marriage was almost as terrible as the Lan parents.

Then Lan Xichen says that his father took them away from their mother, gave them to other people to raise, and then when they were old enough, handed them off to their uncle, who was super rigid and uptight as a result of seeing his brother fuck up his life. They only got to visit their mother once a month.

Palace Drama Dynamics

Now, before I get into that, let's have a little interlude to talk about some of the wack family dynamics we've seen in The Untamed. I want to propose an alternate way of looking at things. I don't have any relevant Untamed pics to put in this section so instead, enjoy this selection of our boys in palace & historical dramas.

Guo Cheng in A League of Gentleman

If you're like me, you have watched a fair number of palace dramas. In these stories, the emperor is in charge, the princes vie for favor, and the women are all competing with each other to gain rank and move their sons into positions of power. The rank of the son and the mother are usually joined; if a prince is elevated in rank, his mother will be elevated as well. The empress is at the top of the heap, the noble consort is just below her, and then there are ranks of consorts and concubines. A low-ranked woman might have her child taken from her to be raised by a higher-ranked woman. A woman who seriously loses favor lives in a "cold palace" - a less comfortable, isolated living arrangement, sort of being banished from the Emperor's favor without being actually banished.

Wang Yibo in Luoyang

The Clan heads in The Untamed aren't Emperors but they are rulers in the Jianghu. In an alternate universe where the clan heads are Emperors, and Palace rules are in effect, a lot of the behaviors make more sense. Madame Lan is a disfavored Empress/consort who has been banished to a cold palace, and whose children have been taken from her as a punishment. Jin Guangyao is a low-ranked concubine's son who schemes to kill the crown prince and rise to take his place. Jiang Fengmian has an Empress - Yu Ziyuan - and a deceased consort - Cangse Sanren - and has sons by both.

Wang Zhuocheng in Love Like the Galaxy

The Empress's son (Jiang Cheng) should outrank the Noble Consort's son (Wei Wuxian), but because of his love for his consort, he favors her son--which puts the Empress' son in grave danger, given that many historical princes solidified their power by killing the other princes in their family. Look up Li Shimin sometime if you're curious about this.

Xiao Zhan in the Shiniest Promise of Blossom. j/k I made that up, this is from The Wolf

In this way of thinking about things, Yu Ziyuan is actually very good to Wei Wuxian, given that she didn't poison him the moment he showed up, the way the mothers in the palace dramas so frequently do.

Anyhoo, that's my palace-drama version of The Untamed. Fic writers, feel free to run with it!

(Continued in Part Two)