#wujiwatch

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.

I’ll be honest – I find this episode really hard to watch. Wei Wuxian is so deeply unhappy. He’s expected to do a job that he used to love but physically can no longer do—but he can’t disclose the fact that he can’t do it, so instead it looks like he’s just being an asshole. The two people he loves most in the world keep trying to force him to go back to being the person he used to be: Jiang Cheng pushing him into his old sect role as head disciple, and Jiang Yanli pushing him into his old family role of cheerful jokester. But he can’t be that Wei Wuxian anymore. That Wei Wuxian is—perhaps literally—dead. So instead, he wakes up every morning knowing that this will be yet another day in which he will be a disappointment to the people he loves most… but that escaping the situation—leaving Lotus Pier—would only hurt and disappoint them more. No wonder he’s drinking heavily to self-medicate.

Then along comes Lan Xichen. And for a moment, Wei Wuxian thinks maybe there’s a way out after all. He’ll go visit Lan Zhan! They’ll sit together in the library just like they used to—only this time, Lan Zhan will be the one making copies, and Wei Wuxian won’t have any responsibility except to keep him company. He spins the fantasy out in the air between them, wearing what finally looks like a real smile, thinking of a place he was happy, once – a place where he had, and would have, no real responsibilities at which he could fail. Thinking of a person who made him happy, who doesn’t need anything from him, who saw him at the Yunmeng Courier Station and knows very well that he’s not that happy-go-lucky kid anymore, who wouldn’t be disappointed—

And then Lan Xichen tells Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji still wants to try to “cure” him with spiritual music; that, if he went to Cloud Recesses, Lan Wangji would expect him to try to pick up the sword path again. In other words, Lan Xichen reminds Wei Wuxian that Lan Wangji, just as much as Jiang Cheng and Jiang Yanli, wants Wei Wuxian to be someone else. That he’d be just as big a disappointment in Cloud Recesses as he is in Lotus Pier.

I’ve read some takes that Jiang Cheng must actually know right at the start that he has Wei Wuxian’s core (or that he’d have to be incredibly stupid/in denial not to) because he wakes up with a great big scar over his lower dantian. Other clues are sometimes cited – that Baoshan Sanren sounds exactly like Wen Qing with a cold; that the whole Baoshan Sanren plan makes no sense anyway; and later, that Wei Wuxian acts like a person without a golden core, in his physical weakness and his reliance on cultivation that doesn’t require one.

I’m sorry, but these are terrible takes. As a practical matter, Wen Ning says, after the big reveal, that the surgery took two days, and the title card post-surgery in this episode says “Seven days later.” Those five extra days were sufficient to allow Jiang Cheng’s—now super-powerful—core to heal the incision without scarring. (Indeed, one assumes that’s why Wen Qing kept him sedated for those extra days.) The Wen Qing-with-a-cold thing is fair, but it’s not exactly a smoking gun

As a thematic and psychological matter, moreover, the point about the Baoshan Sanren plan making no sense is, I think, not fair. Anyone with any psychological acuity knows that the easiest lie is one your subject already believes to be true, and after that, the lie your subject wants to be true. Wei Wuxian plays on this ruthlessly in shopping the plan to Jiang Cheng—but it works even better than he realizes, because he doesn’t know why Jiang Cheng lost his golden core. The details Wei Wuxian feeds Jiang Cheng—particularly his instruction that Jiang Cheng should pretend to be him, that the immortals will only help him if they think he’s Wei Wuxian, that Wei Wuxian has this one golden ticket he can redeem and he’s spending it on Jiang Cheng—would have felt deeply, karmically right to Jiang Cheng, because they resonate with the fact of his sacrifice. I lost my core for you, he’s thinking, so now you give up your immortal get-out-of-jail-free card for me. I lost my core by trading places with you; now I’ll regain it by stepping into your shoes.

Something that I’d suspected on previous rewatches really became inescapable on this one: when Wei Wuxian leaves Baifeng Mountain, even before he meets Wen Qing, he has already made the decision to leave Yunmeng Jiang Sect.

He’s been staying for three reasons—for his brother, for his sister, and for the sect—and in this episode, each leg of the tripod is knocked out. “Staying for Jiang Cheng” was already tenuous from the previous episode: Wei Wuxian knows that he’s a constant disappointment to Jiang Cheng and doing a shit job as Jiang Cheng’s second-in-command. But Wei Wuxian goes into this episode believing that, by virtue of his power/skill, he’s still a huge asset to the sect, and that, as a brother, he has to stay for Jiang Yanli. By the end of the episode, he will come to believe the opposite: that both the sect and his sister are better off without him.

When it comes to Yunmeng Jiang Sect, Wei Wuxian learns in this episode (from Jin Zixuan) that people are saying the Yin Tiger Seal somehow harmed the cultivators who were there when he used it at Nightless City and so Wei Wuxian (and thus Yunmeng Jiang) owe them compensation. Wei Wuxian’s greatest strength is thus instantly transformed into a liability for his sect. The same thing happens, symbolically, at the crowd hunt, where Wei Wuxian uses his incredible power to draw 30% of the prey into Yunmeng Jiang’s nets—and instead of being impressed by Yunmeng Jiang’s strength, people say it’s cheating and reflects poorly on the sect, ultimately forcing Jiang Yanli to apologize on Wei Wuxian’s behalf, which Wei Wuxian clearly finds almost unendurable.

Speaking of which, when it comes to Jiang Yanli, as a fandom we tend to focus on her absolute ethering of Jin Zixun and how badass it is—which is fair! But that’s clearly not Wei Wuxian’s takeaway from that interaction. He looks extremely upset the whole time she’s defending him—I think in part because he hates the idea that she has to defend him. As far as he’s concerned, it’s his job to defend her, and this confrontation means he’s failed.

Then, when the dust has mostly settled on the Jin Zixun thing, two last straws: first, Jin Zixuan confesses his feelings for Jiang Yanli, meaning that she is now pretty much certain to marry him; and second, Jin-furen tells Jiang Yanli that she shouldn’t be alone with Wei Wuxian anymore because it will spark rumors that the two of them are sexually involved. The first honestly might have been enough on its own to make Wei Wuxian believe that he’s just dragging Jiang Yanli down – he tried over and over to protect her from Jin Zixuan, and now it’s clear all that effort was futile at best, and actively detrimental to her hopes at worst. (He could have figured this out a while ago, obviously! Jiang Cheng did! But here we are.)

But that second piece is really the nail in the coffin. Wei Wuxian may not like Jin-furen, but he has to recognize that she genuinely cares for Jiang Yanli and has her best interests at heart. When she says to Jiang Yanli, “Stay away from Wei Wuxian or your reputation will be ruined”—especially in a feudal setting where a woman’s reputation for sexual purity is everything—he has to take that seriously. And he does. Not instantly; he still grabs Jiang Yanli’s wrist and tries to pull her away again. But when she resists, he stops in his tracks. And that’s when it’s over.

Long time, no WujiWatch! But I’ve been reading Catching Chen Qing Ling and it’s put me in an analytical mood about The Untamed again. Picking up where we left off...

Episode 23 has at least two iconic Wangxian scenes: Lan Wangji’s visit to a recovering Wei Wuxian’s sickbed to play Clarity, and the “I am not Wen Ruohan” conversation on the same clifftop where they will meet again in the last moments of Wei Wuxian’s (first) life. One thing I didn’t realize until this rewatch is the way those two scenes are tied together; that the second one picks up, thematically, where the first one left off.

The Clarity scene is interrupted by the screams of Wens being rounded up (and perhaps killed on the spot) and the shouts of their pursuers. Wei Wuxian immediately looks disturbed and asks what’s going on; Lan Wangji says, “they’re hunting down the rest of the Wens” and looks not disturbed at all. I am very good at interpreting Wang Yibo’s microexpressions by now, and this dude is 0% bothered. That is especially striking since the very next scene is all about (among other things) Lan Xichen being very disturbed at the prospect of murdering Wen civilians. By this point in the drama, Lan Wangji has made some progress toward moral nuance—but it’s all specifically Wei Wuxian-focused. His view of the rest of the world is still very black and white. The Wens are bad, so it’s appropriate for bad things to happen to them. End of story.

That’s how the Clarity scene ends, and then, as mentioned, we have the scene where 3zun and Jin Guangshan debate the treatment of the surviving Wens. After that, we have the clifftop scene—and what I’d forgotten is that the first line of dialogue in this scene is Wei Wuxian asking Lan Wangji, “What do you think of the people here [in Nightless City]? Who is good and who is bad?” The fate of the defeated Wens is still very much on Wei Wuxian’s mind. And it’s still a matter of no concern for Lan Wangji: he ignores Wei Wuxian’s question. He doesn’t want to talk about the larger events happening in Nightless City – he only wants to talk about, and help, Wei Wuxian. This foreshadows the scene in the rain at Qiongqi Dao – the moment when the hero of the common people looks at a group of starving, abused civilians and says to Wei Wuxian, in effect, Let them die—because otherwise, I’ll lose you.

The centerpiece of this episode is the “How do you solve a problem like Wei Wuxian?” (thanks, varnes) conference at Jinlintai, for which basically every living character (except the Wen Remnants and, interestingly, Jiang Yanli) is present. The most memorable—and awesome—moment of the conference is definitely Mianmian’s secession from Lanling Jin Sect. But what drew my focus this time is something that happens shortly after that: the moment when Lan Wangji also walks out of the conference.

When I remember this scene, I tend to remember it as “Mianmian leaves, then Lan Wangji leaves to go talk to her”—but that’s not correct. The events are far enough apart in time that I think it’s clear, upon rewatching, that she may have given him the idea to walk out, but what actually makes him leave is his increasing disgust with the discussion in the hall and his refusal, as a matter of principle, to have anything more to do with it. Like Mianmian, he turns his back—both symbolically and literally—on the hypocrisy, the dishonesty, and the pettiness. He won’t be party to it.

There’s a key difference, though, between Mianmian and Lan Wangji. When Mianmian tries to speak up for Wei Wuxian, she’s shut down and dismissed—including with some weird sexist shade that the subtitles render impenetrable, but that I think is meant to be Sect Leader Yao saying she’s only defending Wei Wuxian because she liiiikes him. No one takes her seriously. But when Lan Wangji speaks up for Wei Wuxian, to contradict Jin Guangyao’s assertion that Wei Wuxian said he didn’t respect Jiang Cheng, it actually makes a difference: Jin Guangyao backs down, and admits that, okay, maybe Wei Wuxian didn’t really say that. (Even though he also remarks on how close Lan Wangji is to Wei Wuxian, echoing Sect Leader Yao’s attempt to discredit Mianmian.)

When Mianmian walks out, it’s because she’s realized that’s the only thing she can do to maintain a clear conscience. But Lan Wangji had another choice.

To be clear, I am not throwing shade on Lan Wangji for walking out. He’s taking a principled stand, and that’s admirable. But… in practical terms, it means that the last person in that room who was willing to stand up for Wei Wuxian—and challenge the narrative being peddled by Jin Guangshan—is gone. A respected voice that could have contradicted the party line or asked probing questions is silent. His refusal to participate in a flawed system has a price, not just for him, but for the people he cares about: when you opt out of the world’s mess, you also forfeit your power to clean it up.

What stood out to me most about this episode is how absolutely hilarious it is. Two things in particular:

First, Lan Jingyi, turning to Wei Wuxian during the fight against the dancing statue and shouting, “Why are you playing a flute in the middle of a battle? You really are crazy!” as if LAN Jingyi doesn’t come from Gusu LAN Sect, where LAN cultivators whip out musical instruments in battle ALL THE TIME. 🤣

(I also really respect the writing choice to have Lan Jingyi Lansplain Zidian’s powers to Jiang Cheng. They had to have someone deliver that piece of exposition for the audience’s sake, and the writers accurately identified the character in that scene who would have the chutzpah to lecture Jiang Cheng about his own weapon.)

Since this is my favorite episode, I’m making room for three topics in this one!

First, I often focus in these posts on moments when a rewatch shows me I’m remembering something wrong, and this episode has a big one: I am very guilty of thinking that Wei Wuxian, all by his genius self, brought Wen Ning back.

But is that true? This episode has the scene where Wen Ning returns to life/consciousness, following a pretty lengthy (by this show’s standards) battle with Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. The thing that struck me about it this time is that, after Wei Wuxian has done all the talisman-ing he can do and stands back, Wen Ning still isn’t himself. That only happens after a big final burst of spiritual energy from Lan Wangji—after Lan Wangji has been pouring spiritual music into Wen Ning for quite some time, too. It’s hard not to wonder: could Wei Wuxian have taken that final step, brought Wen Ning back to himself, if Lan Wangji hadn’t helped? Is his ghostly path, on its own, enough to achieve these miraculous results? Or is it the combination of Wei Wuxian’s heretical cultivation and Lan Wangji’s orthodox cultivation that ultimately solves the puzzle?

Second, I know not everyone is on board with the idea of Wangxian as A-Yuan’s parents, even symbolically, and I respect that. But I think it’s a useful exercise to ask, re: the scene in and outside the Yiling Tea House, Why is A-Yuan there? You can easily imagine the scene unfolding basically the same way without him (Wei Wuxian runs into Lan Wangji; they chat over lunch and Wei Wuxian grieves the loss of his dream of his sister’s wedding). So what purpose does A-Yuan’s presence, specifically, serve?

I think it’s hard to escape the conclusion that A-Yuan’s presence is, in fact, intended to set up the idea of Wangxian as A-Yuan’s potential parents—from the onlookers calling Lan Wangji A-Yuan’s dad, to Wei Wuxian’s joke that A-Yuan is his son, to the visual tableau of the two adults eating lunch with A-Yuan sitting on Lan Wangji’s lap. Maybe it’s just my personal blind spot, but I’m having a hard time thinking of any other reason for those beats to exist. This is perhaps extra important to the drama writers because of censorship: giving two characters a shared kid is the perfect plausible-deniability signifier of couple-dom, since there’s nothing expressly romantic about it… but viewers are culturally accustomed to co-parents being romantic partners. That gives the writers a reason to really lean into the “Wangxian Dads” thing, above and beyond what might be in the novel. Whether that’s fair to Wen-popo and the other Wen Remnants is a worthwhile question—but I don’t think it's plausible to say that fans who also lean into the “Wangxian Dads” thing are imposing something on the characters that the writers didn’t intend.