Wen Chao said in chapter 59 that "Back then, she forced the man to marry her with the power of her sect." but we don't know whether that's actually true or if it's just another rumour. There were loads of false rumours going around, after all. We do know that the Meishan Yu sect suggested the marriage alliance and pressured Jiang Fengmian. It's hard to say whether Madam Yu wanted the marriage or whether she just went along with her sect's wishes. Going by chapter 56, they didn't interact a lot with each other before their marriage, and Jiang Fengmian didn't like her conduct (based on those interactions, I suppose), so that makes it less likely that she had a huge crush on him all along, but it doesn't rule it out. Overall I like Madam Yu, from what little we got to see of her. She's a flawed character who has a lot of things in common with her son. She's strong, proud, practical, assertive, cares a lot about her family and sect, says things she shouldn't when she loses her temper, and has trouble communicating her affection clearly. One thing that people tend to forget is what a bad situation Jiang Fengmian put her in. Jiang Fengmian brought home the kid of the woman everyone thought he was in love with, started raising him as part of the family, and favoured him over his biological son. There aren't many spouses who would be happy about this. Not only that, but Wei Wuxian was so outstanding that Jiang Cheng couldn't hope to compete with him. Combined with the rumours that JFM was secretly WWX's real father, that presented a potential threat to Jiang Cheng's future as sect leader. Madam Yu absolutely went about dealing with these issues in the wrong way - having big arguments in front of and involving the kids! sparking feelings of inferiority in JC and constantly reminding WWX of servanthood - but essentially what she wanted was for Jiang Fengmian to treat Jiang Cheng better and value him more. For whatever reason, Jiang Fengmian wasn't willing to change the way he treated Jiang Cheng. She could have made life a lot more difficult for Wei Wuxian if she had really wanted to hurt him, but she didn't, and Wei Wuxian was aware of this. It's even possible that she liked him to some extent, if what Wei Wuxian said to Lan Wangji in chapter 55 (about how other than LWJ "there isn’t anyone who doesn’t secretly like me despite saying that I’m annoying") is true. What she didn't ever do was accept him as a member of her family - and that was largely the fault of her husband for putting her in that situation.
Joining in the party late... Madam Yu looks, sounds and acts like the fierce and jealous stepmother that we all love to hate. It may not matter how she married to the Jiang family, the outcome will probably be the same given how her husband treats Wei Wuxian differently (better?) than his own flesh-and-blood, and how Jiang Cheng always "loses" to Wei Wuxian. Wei Wuxian is destined to be different than anyone else, because he is the protagonist of the story... I liked how CQL portrayed Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu's final moments. At least Madam Yu is shown to have some feelings for her husband rather than just being constantly bitchy about her family, and all the stuff about getting the end raw end of the deal etc. Aaaand... I've been really quiet lately after the Thailand FM. Still processing new tidbits coming out from the event, like whether Xiao Zhan smiled after doing that "Shhh" because someone screamed "Wang Yibo ai ni !!" I'm working on another Wangxian fic, will post it to AO3 soon. Hold on to your nosebleeds....
You know the question at the crux of this entire drama, atleast as far as WX is concerned (excludes Meng Yao.. because that is the other crux or the core point/question that this drama raises) Coming to WX, the whole tragedy begins with the fact that when it came to saving the Wens, WX was not going to back away.. not simply because he would do that for any innocent (pretty sure many innocent ones were killed in the past).. but because he owed a debt to both WN and WQ and he could not turn away from that.. a debt that only he knew of.. JC wasn't there to see how WN risked his life to return ill JC to WX the first time, JC wasn't there to see and understand the depth of what WN had to go to retrieve dead bodies of JC's parents.. and JC wasn't there to know of how much WQ had to push herself to help WX transfer the core.. and not only JC, but literally no one else knew o fthis.. EXCEPT WX he was the only one who saw two orphan kids trying to survive the world, he alone saw the sister being manipulated ..being scared for her brother.. a sister whose only priority was her brother... more over a woman surviving in the evil world.. he alone saw how strong and brave that little kid (WN) was.. AND he alone had these common threads of association with them of being orphan, so lost without an elder..so he understood, loved them, respected them, and wanted to protect them.. Now, question is when he tried to argue saving them with the point of view of not hurting innocent - a) he never did justice towards JC by not going all out to make him understand why they must and therefore he cannot EVER regret being a pariah.. right or wrong.. this was WX's duty b) What does morality mean.. what does a sect stand for.. JC's pov was that he can't sacrifice so many people for 1 person.. BUT then what is the point if a righteous sect has conditions on who to save.. this is bull crap in name of pragmatism.. you should be willing to die if you can save even 1 innocent life.. SO, when WX said that Wens should be saved.. gusu, JC's clan, all other clans or atleast the ones whose motto is saving people should have stood together.. and since they didn't, including LZ, this is all a joke.. and neither should people kid about joining sects Just so meaningless And if and only if JC had stood by the morality of its sect as a leader - saving people - WX would not have to go separate way to fight for wens - he wouldn't be treated the way he did - none of this would have happened... **************************
My dear sisters-in-arms !! I've managed to persuade my mum to add CQL Untamed to her chinese drama watchlist All 50 glorious episodes now sit in a USB stick and waiting for her to sit back and enjoy her first taste of BL novel-turned-live action !!! She's about to finish watching "The Longest Day In Chang An", which she says is quite convoluted, political and "serious", so I really have high hopes that she'll enjoy the more eye-candy friendly CQL Untamed and its plentiful cute Wangxian moments... So, my dear sisters-in-arms !! Let me ask: How does it feel to have a non-BL family member or relative introduced to BL stuff? What is the best way to EXPLAIN about BL in the most gentlest and subtle ways? My mom is in her 60's, by the way !!! So you have an idea of the kind of Generational Gap that I'll be facing... What should I be prepared or expect in the aftermath of showing CQL Untamed to a non-BL and non-MDZS person?? Explaining plot holes? Gay or homo relationships?
THANK YOU THAT'S FROM WHERE THAT IDEA GOT STUCK IN MY HEAD! Indeed there might have been just rumours, since we don't know the background story, so we can't be sure. I don't absolve Jiang FengMian from all faults. He was indeed an asshole when it came to his preference on Wei Wuxian. He is the other half of why Jiang Cheng feels so jealous over Wei Wuxian. Mother pressured him in all ways to be better. And no matter how much he tried, the father still preferred the other! I think the fact that Madam Yu complained about Wei Wuxian all the time and brought him down mentally, reminding him each time that he's only the son of a servant, played a big part in Jiang FengMian's choice. If one didn't love him at all, at least the other will. I'm not saying it's right. I want to punch him for ignoring Jiang Cheng, but oh well. It's not Wei Wuxian's fault for being outstanding. It's her fault for forcing his son to compete with him! She puts her ideals in him and makes a mess! Not everyone excels at the same things. Some are slow learners. Each person is different and Madam Yu is too blinded to see this. Yes, Jiang FengMian put her in an awkward position. He might have loved Wei Wuxian's mother, but aren't these rumours as well? We don't know what the actual truth is. And let's say he did love her. Madam Yu knew very well their marriage was arranged. What did she expect? His feelings to make a 360° turn? With her cold personality? And it's not like Jiang FengMian lied to her about his feelings or cheated on her, but he did try to make it better between them. But instead of trying to make things work she fought again and again. And what was he supposed to do with the boy? Give him away? Let's not forget that WWX's father was JFM's loyal servant. Something like JC and WWX. So how can he just leave him be or throw him somewhere else? I understand that rumours are nasty and the social status means a lot, but putting those ahead instead of trying to solve the problems is ... stupid. Especially since the rumours won't die down even if she acted cold towards Wei Wuxian. It can even fuel them. "She hates him because the rumours are true" kind of thing. Could she? Yes she could at the risk of fighting even harder with Jiang FengMian. I don't think he would hesitate in taking drastic measures if she were to abuse him physically for example. More than whipping him I mean. Wei Wuxian is always positive and talks nonsense. Imo those words were directed only at LWJ to see his reaction. If that was true, it would mean that even Wen Chao liked him or Wen Zhuliu and I really doubt that. @fangirl79 some of these points can be applied to your reply too. I don't have the energy to write it again
You can like what you like and not everything is everyone's cup of tea so it's fine I didn't much care about the action scenes quite simply as the show didn't have a lot of budget in the first place, so a lot of things such as CGI, sword fights, flying scenes were toned down. So I could somewhat understand. I've seen quite a few Xianxia / Korean fantasy dramas, and even the best and some of the best and crowd-fav ones had cringeworthy flying/action scenes. Yes, I did find the first T shaped intro to be funny but I was more focused on WWX's reaction in that scene, which was adorable. The first few episodes were probably the ones they could have done better. About WeiYing's powers, I believe this was mostly due to censorship, they couldn't show a hero winning with demonic/evil powers, or show him in grey colours as it is in canon.. I could go on and on about this.. but personally I liked a few changes to his persona, like the one where they made his death more 'touching' in the sense he jumps off the cliff after what happened to Shijie, rather than his powers backfiring. Again, it's fine if people disagree with me on this As far as the actor Xiao Zhan is concerned, he wanted to divide up his character in three stages in terms of personality. First was as a student (16-17yrs in the novel), second was Yiling Partriach and third was after he came back from the dead. Unlike the series where Mo Xuanyu was in a different body hence could get away with a different personality, this was the same actor portraying all three, and he did the best he could to highlight differences in all three. Hence you might find some of his earlier scenes quite childish, but it was just how he wanted to portray it. I was quite amazed at his understanding of the character, he added his own touches (the real WWX would probably wouldn't get teary eyed so much lol). I was particularly impressed at one of his interviews during the last episode, where he said 'he wanted to return WeiYing back to his beloved and say goodbye'. Yes they changed the plotline *sigh*, but I had seen Untamed before the donghua. I personally think the changes made Untamed easier to follow, as that time I had no idea what the source material was and Untamed unravelled itself quite well. Donghua is unparalleled in terms of action, but again some of the scenes we see in donghua are physically impossible to do in the LA unless the budget is similar to maybe Game of Thrones. Lastly, donghua, manhua, LA are all adaptations. The only true 100% adaptation will probably be the audio drama. As fans of MZDS, we are free to like what we like
Wei Wuxian understands Jiang Cheng's personality the best. After having his sect destroyed by the Wen's he clearly didn't care about who is innocent and who is not in there. He's personality is straightforward and he's hatred even bigger. Even if Wei Wuxian tried to make him understand and somehow succeed, what could Jiang Cheng do? He barely gained back his sect and was currently the weakest from the remaining four. And Wei Wuxian didn't tell about his GC for a reason. Have you seen how crazy he got when he found out? Telling him that in the moment when he tried to rise his sect would be a big blow for him. A sect leader is still a leader. As someone who has in his hands the lives of so many people he needs to make sure that the majority have a good life. You can't please all when there's a big number involved. And again, Jiang Cheng was rebuilding his sect, he couldn't protect him even if he tried especially with Jin's acting like they did. He said to Wei Wuxian he couldn't protect him if he continued that way and Wei Wuxian said that there's no need. Also, sects are not there to sacrifice themselves like flies for one another. They cultivate to escape the world from ghosts and monsters and stuff. The fact that they are idiots and fight each other is another matter. Let's make the math here. The Jin's wouldn't help. They were the ones to abuse the Wen's. The Nie sect had the same hatred towards the Wen's since Wen RuoHan killed his father and of course he wouldn't start breaking the relationship with the Jin's and risk bad connection between them because of a few Wen's. JC, I already said. He couldn't do much. The Lan's, I think they were in the same position as the Nie's. Didn't want to break the connection. Especially since no one else was willing to intervene. And they would have practically go against the Jin's. Everyone would need to choose sides and start a war again in the worse case scenario. And as leaders, it wouldn't be smart to start another war and lose hundreds of people because of a group of 50 persons. If they were to do so, there would never be 'peace'. Unfortunately, life sucks and sacrificies needs to be made for others to enjoy life. My opinion. Idk.
Are you more on the sentimental side? I guess that's why you liked that scene. I personally like more when they die painfully. The impact is much greater for me. I'm not sadistic I swear But yes, it's a matter of preferences so it's fine. But he didn't actually die there, right? Since he came back as himself and not Mo XuanYu. (Chinese law is really strange, I'll never understand it.) About his performance. I think it's a matter linked more to the script. He didn't need all the exaggerated stuff as long as the script did WWX's character justice. When young he was childish, bold, carefree. Saying this and that without a care. Naive in the sense that he didn't know how cruel life can be. After ressurection, he was mature. Acting carefully, keeping his words to himself (when needed - the important stuff I mean). He still talked a lot and was positive and all that, but the change are visible for me even if he seems to remain the same. Seriously, the actor did fine, but... teenagers do not move constantly like that. Unless they are nerveous? But that's not related Wei Wuxian cried twice I think through the whole novel. Once after Lotus Pier burnt and once after Jin ZiXuan's death. After Shijie died his mind broke completely poor guy. Reading the scene where he asked WQ and WN what he is supposed to do after Jin ZiXuan died made me cry at the same time with him. Someone so strong breaking it's more painfully to watch than someone who cries constantly. (Not talking about the live action in this part, just so no one can get the wrong idea) I can agree that the live action took their time to expand the story. They had a lot of time to do so in 50 episodes and is of course easier to follow. The donghua... well, if I didn't read the novel I would be extremely confused. With 8 episodes not much can be said tbh. I wish it was a long series to have time and put all the important stuff in there. All in all, I like the novel the best Then the donghua.
Gosh, The Longest Day In Chang An is probably one of the best done period dramas (and best I've seen after maybe Yanxi palace), but I had to rewind its episodes so many times ! The plot was too convoluted. Untamed isn't exactly BL, at least way way lesser than HIStory or Addicted. So maybe she may not pick on the subtle hints which we can A lot of traditional 'BL' fans were disappointed because the show hardly had any. So to a non BL fan, I believe they will see what they want to see lol. And since you mention your mum is in her 60's, she might not get the hints, or if she does she'll probably smile to herself and be quiet about it. For CQL specifically, you can always tell her they are 'soulmates'. And leave it there. The one friend/flatmate I introduced BL too was blushing when she saw Junjou Romantica. Granted, I didn't tell her what it was just to see her reaction. We had a very awkward dinner and she never brought up the topic of BL... ever lol. So that was my one experience to introduce BL to anyone.
Well to sum up my feelings, while I do personally love CQL live action on my end but there are still negatives to me, e.g. which you said the fight scenes isn't that great, and yeah I agree too, but I can look past that however I can't look past, which I didn't like how they handle Wei Ying Yiling Patriarch powers because they tamed it down so much that they even have that f*ckin SuShe outdid Wei Ying and I literally on my end... For me I love the Yi City arc and I was hoping to see some Wei Ying badass level like the summoning of the painted eyes, him controlling the necro brawlers etc but that was all toned down, where we were left with so little... That ending where Lan Zhan showed Wei Ying 'each to their own path' showing he can't go with Wei Ying yet at the end is another negative for me that I didn't like because that's so not Lan Zhan's character for not wanting to stay by Wei Ying side after all that has happened, it also felt so random like it doesn't make sense to me, so for that I will always love the novel ending and that part to the novel better I acknowledge that there are pros and cons in each version, some I love the novel better, some I love the live action better and for what I love better in the live action when compared to the novel, is Jiang Cheng's characterization in the live action (which I already said in my previous post); I love these additional moments and scenes where it shows me how Jiang Cheng cares for Wei Ying because I crave to see their brother bond on my end, and the live action has this more than the novel so I will always appreciate the live action in showing this side to Jiang Cheng in this aspect. It makes me like him better. I also love the strong bond between Wei Ying and Lan Zhan during the sunshot campaign where it shows that Lan Zhan really went out of his way to help Wei Ying to the point that even his uncle notices this and punish him by making him to through the Gusu Lan rules again and locking him up. I love seeing CQL!Wei Ying showing me how important Lan Zhan is to him to the point that he actually cares how Lan Zhan sees him, Lan Zhan trusts Wei Ying makes him happy whereas when Lan Zhan shows his doubts, it saddens Wei Ying. So this is a pro in CQL live action for me. You don't see a distance between him and Lan Zhan during these times because you see their strong bond to that level (if that makes sense) I also love how in CQL live action, they let Wei Ying met the real Xiao Xingchen because I always wanted to see the interaction between them if they were to met but CQL was able to Grant me this at least even when the whole age does not connect since I know in canon, Wei Ying is older than Xiao Xingchen despite Xiao Xingchen being his his Shi Shu. I guess to me, as long as the character essence is still the same or its shown in a positive light for the characters than I can still love it. I actually didn't have any hopes or intentions to watch the live action at first because of the rumours that has been flying around but I gave it a shot because I read that wangxian was strong in the first episode and I'm so glad and thankful that they remain true and faithful to Wangxian at least. I also was kind of meh at the cast when I first saw the casting, especially Wang Yibo as Lan Zhan because to me, Lan Zhan is too perfect and too handsome but I decided to give the casting and this live action a chance and while starting off I find some of the scenes awkwardly funny like Wei Ying wearing a mask and Lan Zhan's character portrayal at the beginning but once I got into the story I came to fell in love with the casting and the characters especially Xiao Zhan as Wei Ying and Wang Yibo as Lan Zhan. Wang Yibo most of all because I do know it is very difficult to play a character like Lan Zhan where you have to rely on micro expression but to me, Yibo in that department have mastered it and portrayed it so naturally that I can feel the love, the pain, the sadness in his eyes so after watching the live action as a whole, I am convinced and happy that he was chose to cast Lan Zhan as well as the confirmed casts for CQL live action. They all did really well especially the adorable lil A-Yuan. To me, no one is a better live action cast for Wei Ying and Lan Zhan aside from Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo. I also love that actor that plays Jiang Cheng, he did well to make me love him in this live action at least. Now speaking about the donghua I am a fan to the donghua because it's what got me into the novel and this fandom. But that all aside, bias aside, I am disappointed with how season 2 was handled. The flashbacks felt randomly placed into the donghua and it felt like a fast forward flashback where it skipped the scenes I want to see I wish it was handle with care, I wanted to see Wei Ying laughing at Lan Zhan on the sideline and Lan Zhan buying toys for A-Yuan as well as A-Yuan clinging to Lan Zhan and this whole brother rich and brother poor conversation between Wei Ying and A-Yuan. I really hope that season 3 would be done better in this area where it focus more to the present time line and plot development because I honestly felt like even if I havent watch season 2, I didn't miss anything important since the present timeline didn't progress at all. Negatives aside, I do enjoy the donghua on my end and I love seeing those Wei Ying and Lan Zhan scenes even when it's so little Anyways for me, in the end, each version have its pros and cons and I do love it as a whole despite there are negatives, so for me I just take which I love better and appreciate that I get this, where some I love this part better in this version compared to the other version, but as a whole, I will always love the novel as my no.1 because the ending for Wangxian is so fulfilling, it's just that for me, I personally love Jiang Cheng's characterization and the relationship between him and Wei Ying better in CQL live action. In the end I feel like I am jumping back and forth with the whole like in this version and dislike in the other version so I won't go into this anymore. I love how Jiang Cheng went along with Wei Ying despite the danger of the mission because it shows me he walks the same path as Wei Ying. While he plays a prank behind the statue to scare NHS only lol because Wei Ying knew it was him, I find that cute to enlighten the atmosphere after what just happened with these walking corpse. In CQL they actually opted that part out that made Fengmian favour Wei Ying better so it actually makes Madam Yu more detestable to me in the live action since she have no reason to act like that... Honestly I know there are fans to Madam Yu and I'm not going to judge those who loves her but personally for me, no matter which version I see of Madam Yu, I just don't like her on my end. I do blame her on how Jiang Cheng turn out and her hate and verbal abuse on Wei Ying makes my blood boil, but I won't touch on this subject anymore since I already said all this previously...I feel bad for Wei Ying because Madam Yu always makes him feel bad for something that isn't his fault at all. It isn't a good feeling to always being reminded that you have no place in the family because you're just a servant, so seriously, madam Yu can never be on my good term because the kids have suffered so much because of her toxic attitude and behaviour...If she wants Fengmian to love her than she needs to make the first step to show that she can be reasonable and likeable... (so honestly I resonate and understand Fengmian here when it comes to Madam Yu, but at least he's not cheating on her like Jin Guangshan...)
Judging by the flashback story about kid Wei Wuxian in the early days at Lotus Pier, Jiang Cheng already felt as if his dad disliked him even before Wei Wuxian was brought there. He was incredibly worried that if Jiang Fengmian found out about what happened that night with Wei Wuxian running away, "Jiang FengMian would definitely dislike him even more". Having Wei Wuxian there excacerbated a problem that was already there. Fuel poured on a fire, pretty much, because not only did Jiang Cheng feel neglected but he got to see another kid getting the affection he wanted. It's a marvel that Jiang Cheng and Wei Wuxian made friends under those circumstances. I mean, Jiang Fengmian affectionately picked up little Wei Wuxian, and "Watching the scene unfold, Jiang Cheng was shocked speechless. Immediately, Madam Yu let out a bitter laugh and went out the room."...Jiang Cheng did not feel secure in his father's affection at all, even aged 8 or so. That all makes me wonder about Jiang Fengmian's parenting style with Jiang Yanli. I wish I'd seen them interacting more. Wei Wuxian was the child of Jiang Fengmian's best friends, and was a poor little orphan kid who'd spent years begging on the streets. Jiang Fengmian spent years looking for him. It's natural that as Wei Wuxian's new guardian, Jiang Fengmian would be kind and indulgent. On the other hand, he was raising Jiang Cheng to be a sect leader. Wei Wuxian believed that that was why Jiang Fengmian was strict with Jiang Cheng but not with him. We can only speculate, of course, but I don't think that's enough to explain the whole difference in treatment. I'd like to think that Jiang Fengmian didn't dislike Jiang Cheng but simply didn't know how to communicate with him and didn't understand that Jiang Cheng felt unloved. Whether that's true or not, I don't know. Better between him and Madam Yu, or between Madam Yu and Wei Wuxian? I didn't really see any evidence of him trying either way. He and Madam Yu got so little page time. From what little they had, it seemed to me as if Jiang Fengmian and Madam Yu had given up on trying to be a good couple a long time ago, if they ever did try. By the time we see them interacting in the novel, Madam Yu isn't trying to make Jiang Fengmian love her, she's trying to get him to treat Jiang Cheng right. Jiang Fengmian was a rich sect leader, so he had other options. He could have found Wei Wuxian a good adoptive home (one with two parents who wanted him) and checked in on him regularly. It's easy to see why he would want to keep Wei Wuxian with him, since after all he was the child of his two good friends and he spent years looking for him, but he could have avoided a lot of family strife instead of unilaterally deciding to bring a kid into a family with somebody who didn't want him and had no intention of being his parent. Going back to this point, we don't actually know for sure that she was fine with doing that. The order of events went like this: - Wang Lingjiao demands Wei Wuxian's hand. - Madam Yu tells her maids to close the doors and claims it's to prevent people seeing the blood. - Wang Lingjiao tells her to get somebody to hold Wei Wuxian down, but Madam Yu says there's no need to. - Jiang Cheng begs her not to cut off Wei Wuxian's hand. - As soon as he says "If Father knew…”, Madam Yu gets angry and all “Don’t talk to me about your father! What could happen if he knows? Could he kill me?!” - Then Wang Lingjiao mentions the supervision office. That series of events is also consistent with her planning to disobey Wang Lingjiao. Telling the maids to close the doors to hide the blood could be an excuse for separating Wang Lingjiao from the outside. And why would she need to have the maids hold Wei Wuxian down if she wasn't planning to chop his hand off anyway? It's also consistent with her not having made a final decision either way yet, up until the supervisory office was mentioned and she knew that there was no way to avoid a fight. If she did plan to or consider following the orders and chopping off Wei Wuxian's hand, there's no way she would have wanted to do it. She would only have done it to protect the sect. If she had been the kind of maniac who hated Wei Wuxian so much that she would gleefully chop off his hand in those circumstances, Wei Wuxian would have been having a much, much harder life during his upbringing at Lotus Pier than he did.
I believe this was down to censorship as well. They would never have let them be together and walk off to the sunset as much as I would like them to, but I prefer this over the one on Guardian where they killed him... omg why So am glad they let Wangxian live, and gave them a 'higher purpose' which rose above their own feelings. And an opened ending where they could always meet up in future. At least they are alive!!!!
Yeah I already know it's because of that You know it's really sad because I feel that if there's no restrictions, CQL can be even better than it is now. Censorship can really ruin a good show but it's not all bad as long as they stay true to the source by having Wangxian staying faithful to each other. While there are negatives (as mentioned on my post earlier); but I do appreciate the team for giving us what we can have despite all odds. And most of all its not a hopeless ending because yes they are both alive and we know how strong Wangxian is, and in the end, when we hear someone called out "Wei Ying", that person is clearly Lan Zhan and Xiao Zhan wrote a meta about this in his Weibo on Wei Ying's character where he said something about (in translation) "In the end, Wei Ying is still able to smile like that because the light he's been waiting for has arrived"; which this to me is his way of indirectly referencing that Lan Zhan returned to Wei Ying at the end, but we can't see it as a definite confirmation since this is all because of the restrictions. To me it's a happy ending for Wangxian but as a very very open ending. I rather have this calling out "Wei Ying" over nothing at all . This is why for me I will always love the novel ending to wangxian better even when I appreciate the live action on its own for giving us so much despite these odds Don't get me started on the Guardian, I heard so much about how fans rage in the live action. It's also one of the reason why I didn't want to read the novel because I don't want to get into something when I know an adaptation can ruin it
I've found it isn't a big issue and that there's nothing much to explain. If you show somebody a BL series, you don't have to say that it's BL. Chances are that eventually they'll work out for themselves that it's a romance starring two guys. But CQL...well, it is censored. There's a slim chance that what remains of the romance will fly over the audience's head. I wouldn't be surprised if somebody asked "Are they gay?" in which case you could just say "Yes, but it was toned down for the TV adapation". I've shown some of the MDZS adaptations to a few people. Nobody watching the donghua guessed that the series is BL, but the person I showed the audio drama to realised after a while. The real problem for me has been that people have trouble remembering all the characters' names.
Hahaha you're actually right. I'm a sentimental sob. What hurt even more if they centred the death around the siblings, he couldn't take Shijie dying and when he jumps off, it was Jiang Cheng's sword that makes him let go of LanZhan's hand. In Untamed, they whitewashed his character so much that he was literally absolved of his crimes; so there was no need for a grim death eaten by puppets/zombies. True, I forgot lol. I'm getting mixed up with the book now This part I particularly didn't like, but there was no way around it unless they used different actors. I think the mask is hideous though. Hehe we can agree to disagree. You can think of him as a three year old XianXian if that helps I didnt know this I'll prepare myself for the oncoming chapters. I liked Untamed as my favorite adaptation as it was my introduction to the world. I'm reading the novel and audio drama right now, and they're very good too. Coming from watching BL series like Guardian and Addicted and getting heartbroken at its treatment, I can feel the effort it took for the creators to show WanXian to that extent, within censorship laws. And from what I gather from others, they made an appreciative effort to get a quite a bit of the WangXian source material in within all constraints. To me, what's important they kept the soul of the show.
But that is precisely my point.. ultimately, WX knew what others didn't.. with regards to wens and WN (alive WN-WX interactions - no one is ever present) Drama JC didn't seem like he didn't care about innocent.. infact the only two who still chewed on WX's words were LZ and JC.. JC's only problem was he couldn't ask his sect to fight and stand against the world for 2 or 10 people.. JC never gave me that impression of gladly justifying or being ok with that massacre (ofcourse that's the impression i get.. and you get another.. so subjective point) What are these sects for when they were fighting wen? Not for ghosts and not for monsters.. who decides or why is one life immaterial vs 10 lives.. How are you starting a war? If someone comes to you , asking you to save his/her life.. and you refuse .. with what face can you ever talk about moral/ethical actions or even claim to stand for the right.. and extend that to new age problems - refugees/ kidnappings/ any victims
simple she is a fkin stuck up jealous bitch tat doesnt admit when she is wrong and likes to blames other ppl for her wrong doings. and make JC turn out wat he is for abonding wei ying and even hate him just cause his family and sect r gone -.-. i don like both JC and madam yu they make my blood boil like mother like son always blame ppl for wat they do wrong and think they r right and so damn fkin prideful. most like madam yu sect forced JFM to marry her cause just to get an alliance and maybe she just wanted to hav power? cause she will be the madam of lotus peir so will hav power and authority tat maybe she didnt and cant get when in her own sect?. she is a just a fkin jealous bitch to me so i don realli care if she lives or die. she died and i was like yay tat bitch is dead wei ying don need suffer her verbal abuse, but den JC comes along and be like his mother -.- ya and she even push tat on to yanli and not sparin a thought for her and keep sayin its gd for her blah blah. she didnt even get mad at tat stupid peacock for insulting her daughter, but rather blame it on wei ying. like wtf shouldnt u put ue child first like wtf sia this woman is fkin fked up in the head. onli care for JC but don care yanli at all and keep pushin the arranged marraige just cause madam jin is her fren . or wat just cause its her fren son den she won blame JZX for insultin yanli but rather blame wei ying? this woman realli too much, they nvr even let them spend time together den madam jin just keep sayin JZX is lucky to hav yanli since she is so gd OMG WTF IS WIF TAT FKIN LOGIC. den they arrange this marraige just cause they r frens and so they can contact each other more cause of this? or just wan to hav more power . they don even spare a god damn feeling for thier children hu don wan to get the arranged marriage (mostly JZX yanli is madly in love wif a fkin peacock gods knw y onli)
Well, looking at this I can say the live action is only loosely based on the novel since there's many differences. Sometimes I feel like we're talking about something different. Wei Wuxian said at some point that if he were to meet Xiao XingChen they would definitely hit it off. Then not much later his mood changed and started to doubt because of his reputation back then. It was nice I guess to see the interaction between them. The donghua is what got me into mdzs too! That's why it holds a dear place in my heart. I had high expectations, but it is what it is now. We can't change the past. With the Jiang Cheng thing... I understand what are you saying, but they were in danger before. How could he just stand there and be so sure that the corpses would leave and he could continue his prank? I'm sorry, but I can't understand that with logic. That scene is poorly written imo. Even if they meant to be a comedic relief or something. I don't remember well about that part with Jiang FengMian not showing affection to Jiang Cheng even before. Then he's not just an asshole but a huge asshole! He seems fine with Jiang Yanli, I don't understand what caused his intense dislike towards Jiang Cheng then?? He is no different than Jiang Yanli. Both born from the same mother. Did he pick WWX up to defend him of dogs or was it only in the donghua? The communication thing, that's what I believe too. He did not know how to act with him. I really really don't want to believe that he disliked him. I was talking about Madam Yu and Jiang Fengmian. When he was coming back from whatever mission he was in towards Lotus Pier when the Wen attacked, didn't he want to give her something? Both the donghua and the live action depicted them with some sort of closure in their last moments. Wasn't the same in the novel or just an addition from the adaptations? He could have. But because he was rich he could easily take care of him. Maybe this is something subjective, but if Wei Wuxian was in his position and it was Jiang Cheng's son who was left orphan, seeing their close relationship, would he really give him away? Or the other way around. Would jiang cheng leave wei wuxian's child somewhere else? I honestly doubt it. A little kid was no threat to her. I'm sorry, but holding a grudge against a child who lost both parents and lived for so long on the streets is just pure cruelty. How can you have no compation in such situation? The child is not at fault. About the hand cutting part. She left me with that impression because of her temperament. Would she really risk her sect for a hand? Especially for someone who she repeatedly punished and verbally abused? Yes, the events coincide, maybe the author left it like that for our own interpretation. Imo she would have cut his hand for the sake of the others. But since she found out that they were gonna be under their power anyway she changed tactics. I'm not saying she's a psychopat escaped from an asylum with the sole purpose to go after Wei Wuxian. I just said that in those dire circumstances she would have done so.
I will completely agree here. I wasn't expecting anyone to agree with me tbh, but thank you for trying to make it better Now that's something I admire in the live action. They tried, unlike the donghua. They went with the soulmate thingy where the donghua showed us short incomplete flashbacks. I'm almost always talking about the original source, and when I'm unsure of it I say it. Now however I'm sure. Jiang Cheng from the novel didn't care at all about the Wen's, even when he met small A-Yuan, he disliked him immediately. The live action changed his personality so I can't comment on it since it's different. But I can comment about Wei Wuxian and the Wen's. Honestly, who would care about their hardship? If he told them about it he would be laughed in the face by others. I mean... the Wen's attacked them and wanted to conquer them and put everyone under their control. They were fighting for their freedom! It's different from earth to the heavens! The ones Wei Wuxian defeated were the Wen's. The ones who they just fought against. The one who wanted to humiliate them and rule over them! So why would they risk bringing bad blood between powerful sects to protect the ones who started the previous war in the first place? And I'm not saying they are saints. They made mistakes. But in this case, I can understand why they didn't act.
I'm not sure if you watch the whole live action or not, and there are changes of course, where scenes are opted out, and changed but the events followed very close to canon IMO for the most part. But it's fine if you don't like the live action that's your choice. For me if the changes are for the positive than I'll accept and love that as an addition to see things in another light. There are positives to me but if I'm going to list them that would be a long list. Honestly for me I just felt Jiang Cheng wanted to play a prank on Wei Ying as a way of punishing him because Wei Ying left on this mission without telling him, and when Jiang Cheng did that, it's just his way of scaring him even though that didn't work out in the end, or it could be the writers did it to enlighten the atmosphere afterwards to bring him into the picture to join with Wei Ying and the others, anyways I don't dislike that scene so I was fine with it, but I do understand what you mean from your pov, like he could just jump in to help instead of hiding behind the statue and play this prank on him or something. Also the whole GC revelation in the live action was more impactful to me personally, I mean the novel was good but the live action when I watched that scene it brought me to tears and I really love how that whole scene was played out. If you haven't seen it then you should at least check that part out. The thing with Jiang Fengmian I see is that he does love his son, if he can love Yanli, he can love Jiang Cheng, he has compassion unlike Madam Yu, but I think he doesn't know how to act on showing this on his end when it comes to Jiang Cheng. One thing I do know for certain is he doesn't hate Jiang Cheng the way Madam Yu hates Wei Ying. He just doesn't know how to act on showing this love for Jiang Cheng just like how Madam Yu can't show this kind of love for her son in a positive way when she keeps comparing him to Wei Ying and wanted him to be better than Wei Ying , which her actions caused him to have this inferior complex at the end... As for Fengmian, in the live action it was done better where it does show the equal love he has for both Wei Ying and Jiang Cheng so there's no favouring one over the other, this is why Madam Yu in the live action is so detestable to me because when I saw that Fengmian doesn't show he favour Wei Ying more, I'm like: "OK, that issue is fixed, so can I get a better Madam Yu"? But when she came into the picture while they were having dinner, before all this, it was a warm family dinner, but when she stepped in, she cause tension in the atmosphere and start to spout her toxic nonsense again and I literally just face palm on my end... she made the happy warm atmosphere from before so awkward afterwards, she made Jiang Cheng feel insecure with her way of saying things, and she made Wei Ying feel bad for being a part of this family to ruin the relationship between Madam Yu and Fengmian... When this is NOT his fault at all! As for this whole business if Madam Yu will cut off Wei Ying's arm or not, I DO think she would if WC woman did not bring in the whole supervisory office because she got her "pride" after all... She was so ready to do it, she didn't even defend Wei Ying at all, given if that was Jiang Cheng she would have beaten the crap out of her, because that's the difference between how she sees her own son and someone else's son. She have NO compassion or heart to protect an outsider, if it meant an arm will protect her sect, she would do it because who is Wei Ying to her anyway? A Servant. Period. I mean not even Fengmian could stop her when her son mention his father's name. It only anger her more. If WC woman would stay quiet and watch this scene there's no reason for her to back down and she would have cut off Wei Ying's arm because you know why? She held NO love for Wei Ying! To her she saw him as a thorn to her heart because of her petty, selfish and jealousy, even when she cut off Wei Ying's arm, she would think it's not her fault and see that Wei Ying deserve that as a form of punishment for putting her sect in danger because why?! That's who she is! She never admits her faults, to her what she said is right, she pass the blames on others and refuse to acknowledge her own mistakes...So when WC woman brought up the supervisory office, this is the 'turning point' in her decision because what she said went too far, where she will not allow this to go any further because the Jiang sect belongs to her and her family not some stupid Wen! Yeah saying all this makes me abhor her even more. It's really admirable how Wei Ying can still respect her after all that. I only feel for Wei Ying here.... He doesn't deserve this shit and being reminded that he's nothing more than a servant to the family... It does rub in on him all these years that's why when Wei Ying said he will stay by Jiang Cheng side, he used the word "subordinate" instead of "brother" because he knows this is probably for the best and he didn't want to take any position as a brother in the family because he doesn't want to make it sour afterwards.....The only son in the family is Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying is always going to be his subordinate.. it's sad really, and this is all Madam Yu's fault for making it a clear distinct way of showing this through her verbal abuse! So really whenever I see Madam Yu gets put into the best mother award, I cringe because she is so far from being the best mother in my eyes... The best mother to me easily goes to Yanli, Wei Ying's mother and Mian Mian. As for the whole Wen's, to me any people with a heart and righteous would know how to distinguish between an innocent from the non innocent. I feel that if Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan was in the picture they would want to know the full picture or investigate this, because they are both righteous to me. Even Lan Zhan didn't agree with their way and walked out after Mian Mian to show his disapproval. What Jin Guangshan and Jin Zixun did was wrong... And they're a hypocrite for saying bad things about all the Wen's when they themselves are being another Wen with the power control...I always feel that if the other sect stood up and said something the way Mian Mian did, then the Lanling Sect wouldn't have gotten so out of hand. For me, I saw Wei Ying decision to protect the innocent Wen's is a righteous thing. They are innocents, and shouldn't be condemn of this injustice just because their surname is Wen... Wen Ning didn't do anything wrong, he even saved both Jiang Cheng and Wei Ying but he was awfully killed in the end by those stupid Lan Ling Jin.... @setsuna3025 , we surely do share the same feelings where Madam Yu is involve. Honestly if she was more like Yanli than the kids will really grow up to be happy as a warm family. It's too bad that she isn't.