![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ranaloreRight. I'm not doing a year in review thing, and I'm sure as hell not doing a decade in review thing, beyond saying it sucked rocks through a bendy straw, and I'm glad to see the back of it. My year was less dire, at least fandom-wise, but still not what I had hoped it would be. I wanted to write at least one story a month, but overstretched myself in May—got a fucking awesome story out of it, but nonetheless—and still haven't really come back from that. I'm starting the new year with lower energy than usual, and with a lot of fear and doubt for my future. But that's something I may or may not talk about under lock at another time.
Now, my friends, I have a confession to make. I reached the end of ep. 33 in my most recent Guardian rewatch and had been crying non-stop since ep. 30, and decided maybe it was time to give myself, Shen Wei, and Zhao Yunlan a little break. So I left the boys on that sunny bench where EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, and immediately demonstrated my fannish lack of self-preservation by giving into my curiosity about The Untamed and watching the Lola vid
Boni linked to in this post. Because if your id lives at the corner of competence kink, pretty boys in beautiful costumes, big attitude plastered over gaping vulnerability, mythic resonance, and KNIVES—and my id has an ancestral home at that address—then The Untamed is for you. If, however, part of the point is to give yourself a little emotional break, then The Untamed is a VERY BAD CHOICE.
Which did not stop me from mainlining all 50 episodes about as fast as I watched Guardian. And I'm now on ep. 18 of my first rewatch, weeping gently at everybody's cheekbones.
I would recommend this to my Guardian peeps, obvs, though I'll warn you now that it will make you mad about what Guardian could have been with a decent budget and possibly a little more envelope-pushing, though I do buy the theory that some of the envelope-pushing The Untamed decided to even attempt was because of Guardian's success. I also recommend this to my Saiyuki peeps, and I think it has more YnM vibes than even Guardian, plus some GetBackers and Weiss Kreuz things going on. Most of all, though, I think if you love Ed Elric, you might love Wei Wuxian, though perhaps not as much as me (I will grudgingly allow that my love for him may be a little unreasonable, but when Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, A-Yuan, Jiang Yanli, and Jiang Fengmian all agree with me, I feel I'm on the side of the angels, here).
Anyway, all of this to say I have 102 words of one fix-it written, and 56 words of another, and...no words written of my![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
sundial_exchange. Umm, oops. Also, they are both looking to be longish. Double oops. On the other hand, so many female characters I want to write! And side characters to explore! Wei Wuxian is for sure my OTC in this fandom, and I am very OTP about him and Lan Wangji, but I want other characters' stories, too. And between this and Guardian, I have so many options to fill my Ultimate Personalized Bingo card. Ooh, and my kissing chart. Maybe I should do some drabbles for that to get back in the habit of ficcing every day. All my writing output lately has been coursework, and this course isn't a writing workshop.
Of course, possibly I should also work on my Sundial fic. There's a thought.
Looks like my erratic posting schedule means I blew WeilanWeek2019. C'est la vie.
30-Day Guardian Meme
Day 16: Favorite Conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
Verbal or non-verbal? So much of their most significant communication took place without a word exchanged, and one of my favorite, mostly non-verbal conversations remains the body language of the bomb scene in ep. 24. The camera work was really good in that scene too, because of the way it followed sight lines and focused on close-up details like Zhao Yunlan's beads of sweat, the slight tremor in Shen Wei's breathing, where and how they touched. The words they say in that scene are important and inconsequential by turns, but the underlying message is fundamental to that turning point in their relationship. Shen Wei is apologizing, even while remaining adamant that there are things he still won't tell Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan is forgiving, but notice that he doesn't say it's okay, that he latches onto Shen Wei's promise to let him know what's going on at some point, and makes that the foundation of his actions to save them both in the scene. It's part of his ongoing campaign to make Shen Wei understand he's not alone anymore, that he doesn't have to bear this burden alone. "You have me," he says to bb!Shen Wei in YOHE. He's still saying it, 10,000 years later, with every action that demonstrates not only that he has Shen Wei's back, but that he is, indeed, the Lord Guardian of Haixing and Dixing. Of course saving the two realms is a two-pronged process that involves them both giving everything. I do think there's a way they could have done that without dying, but it still would have taken both of them, all of their combined power and wit and devotion and duty and sheer bloody determination to protect everything and everybody they hold dear.
One to hold the bomb steady; one to disarm it.
Italicized items are the ones changed from the original meme.
1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Favorite Hallows arc
4. How you started watching
5. Favorite set
6. Favorite character
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite worldbuilding detail
10. Missed opportunity
11. Favorite headcanon
12. Favorite rarepair
13. Favorite Weilan outfits
14. Favorite villain
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite Dixing power and/or power you want to have
18. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
19. Which character(s) would you resurrect?
20. If /when do you think Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei get together?
21. Favorite character moment
22. Favorite badass moment
23. Favorite soft moment
24. Favorite team moment
25. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
26. Create a mini-playlist of up to five songs
27. Rec a fanfic
28. Rec a vid
29. Rec a meta post
30. Prompt for a fanwork
Now, my friends, I have a confession to make. I reached the end of ep. 33 in my most recent Guardian rewatch and had been crying non-stop since ep. 30, and decided maybe it was time to give myself, Shen Wei, and Zhao Yunlan a little break. So I left the boys on that sunny bench where EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL AND NOTHING HURT, and immediately demonstrated my fannish lack of self-preservation by giving into my curiosity about The Untamed and watching the Lola vid
Boni linked to in this post. Because if your id lives at the corner of competence kink, pretty boys in beautiful costumes, big attitude plastered over gaping vulnerability, mythic resonance, and KNIVES—and my id has an ancestral home at that address—then The Untamed is for you. If, however, part of the point is to give yourself a little emotional break, then The Untamed is a VERY BAD CHOICE.Which did not stop me from mainlining all 50 episodes about as fast as I watched Guardian. And I'm now on ep. 18 of my first rewatch, weeping gently at everybody's cheekbones.
I would recommend this to my Guardian peeps, obvs, though I'll warn you now that it will make you mad about what Guardian could have been with a decent budget and possibly a little more envelope-pushing, though I do buy the theory that some of the envelope-pushing The Untamed decided to even attempt was because of Guardian's success. I also recommend this to my Saiyuki peeps, and I think it has more YnM vibes than even Guardian, plus some GetBackers and Weiss Kreuz things going on. Most of all, though, I think if you love Ed Elric, you might love Wei Wuxian, though perhaps not as much as me (I will grudgingly allow that my love for him may be a little unreasonable, but when Lan Wangji, Wen Ning, A-Yuan, Jiang Yanli, and Jiang Fengmian all agree with me, I feel I'm on the side of the angels, here).
Anyway, all of this to say I have 102 words of one fix-it written, and 56 words of another, and...no words written of my
sundial_exchange. Umm, oops. Also, they are both looking to be longish. Double oops. On the other hand, so many female characters I want to write! And side characters to explore! Wei Wuxian is for sure my OTC in this fandom, and I am very OTP about him and Lan Wangji, but I want other characters' stories, too. And between this and Guardian, I have so many options to fill my Ultimate Personalized Bingo card. Ooh, and my kissing chart. Maybe I should do some drabbles for that to get back in the habit of ficcing every day. All my writing output lately has been coursework, and this course isn't a writing workshop. Of course, possibly I should also work on my Sundial fic. There's a thought.
Looks like my erratic posting schedule means I blew WeilanWeek2019. C'est la vie.
30-Day Guardian Meme
Day 16: Favorite Conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
Verbal or non-verbal? So much of their most significant communication took place without a word exchanged, and one of my favorite, mostly non-verbal conversations remains the body language of the bomb scene in ep. 24. The camera work was really good in that scene too, because of the way it followed sight lines and focused on close-up details like Zhao Yunlan's beads of sweat, the slight tremor in Shen Wei's breathing, where and how they touched. The words they say in that scene are important and inconsequential by turns, but the underlying message is fundamental to that turning point in their relationship. Shen Wei is apologizing, even while remaining adamant that there are things he still won't tell Zhao Yunlan. Zhao Yunlan is forgiving, but notice that he doesn't say it's okay, that he latches onto Shen Wei's promise to let him know what's going on at some point, and makes that the foundation of his actions to save them both in the scene. It's part of his ongoing campaign to make Shen Wei understand he's not alone anymore, that he doesn't have to bear this burden alone. "You have me," he says to bb!Shen Wei in YOHE. He's still saying it, 10,000 years later, with every action that demonstrates not only that he has Shen Wei's back, but that he is, indeed, the Lord Guardian of Haixing and Dixing. Of course saving the two realms is a two-pronged process that involves them both giving everything. I do think there's a way they could have done that without dying, but it still would have taken both of them, all of their combined power and wit and devotion and duty and sheer bloody determination to protect everything and everybody they hold dear.
One to hold the bomb steady; one to disarm it.
Italicized items are the ones changed from the original meme.
1. Favorite episode
2. Favorite case
3. Favorite Hallows arc
4. How you started watching
5. Favorite set
6. Favorite character
7. Favorite SID member
8. Favorite guest character(s)
9. Favorite worldbuilding detail
10. Missed opportunity
11. Favorite headcanon
12. Favorite rarepair
13. Favorite Weilan outfits
14. Favorite villain
15. Villain you’d like redeemed or whose redemption you liked
16. Favorite conversation between Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei
17. Favorite Dixing power and/or power you want to have
18. Most appealing point for a canon divergence AU
19. Which character(s) would you resurrect?
20. If /when do you think Zhao Yunlan and Shen Wei get together?
21. Favorite character moment
22. Favorite badass moment
23. Favorite soft moment
24. Favorite team moment
25. Thoughts and feelings on the ending
26. Create a mini-playlist of up to five songs
27. Rec a fanfic
28. Rec a vid
29. Rec a meta post
30. Prompt for a fanwork
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 06:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:40 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 08:05 pm (UTC)who are mostly children, but I bought my ticket on the express bus to hell long ago.no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 09:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:45 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:20 pm (UTC)(BUT DOES IT KNIFE YOU AS HARD AS X/1999?)
I've been on the fence about watching it, since I'm still rolling around in HIStory3: Trapped fandom, and am sadly monofannish, but your description gives me an accurate picture of what it's like, thanks, so I know what to expect should I ever get around to watching it.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:34 pm (UTC)I was resisting it, because my fannish mode of engagement for a very long time was multi-fannish, but I felt like it might have changed to monofannish and I've been in Guardian less than a year. I want to pick up my Guardian rewatch after this rewatch of The Untamed, though, so I think I can at least balance these two fandoms a bit, even if one is likely to surge to the fore for a while.
(Really, though, of all my past fandoms, the parallels between Wei Wuxian and Ed Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist [the original anime] hit me so hard last night. And talk about a fandom with knives.)
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 07:42 pm (UTC)Out of curiosity, what else do you put in the same category of "this is for show—oh shit, it's totally not" from a narrative standpoint?
I'd like to know what else sort of measures up, as I'm used to watching ancient Chinese adaptations with a large cast of characters who are interconnected through friendships, rivalries, revenge and stuff.
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 08:56 pm (UTC)Hmm, I'm blanking on another specific example. I've more usually seen the reverse fake-out, where it starts out like a terrible disaster has happened to characters you're already invested in, and then it turns out it's not that dire (GetBackers did this with Ban and Ginji fighting; Leverage did it in their last episode). The Untamed has a structure similar to one I've seen in Western murder mysteries, where the narrative opens with the murder, then the detective(s) arrive on the scene and, with the use of extensive flashbacks, they piece together what happened and why. The emotional beats are different, however. For one thing, killer and victim are the same person in The Untamed. So's the detective, for another. And really, it's kind of misleading for me to say "this is for show," because I knew from the beginning that, once things were explained, it would hurt. I just didn't expect it would hurt as much as it did. I was anticipating a different character type than I got, and the one I got is kryptonite.
Oh, wait! I do have an example. The film Moulin Rouge! does close to the same thing. You're told about the death rather than shown it, but the cut happens all the same, and at first it doesn't hurt or bleed that much, but as the film goes on, you bleed out.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 10:31 am (UTC)I assume this is Leareth's Nukume Dori series?
The film Moulin Rouge! does close to the same thing.
Ah, okay, I get what you mean now. Thanks for the clarification!
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 10:43 pm (UTC)AKK's Decagram series, though you've reminded me I'm also subscribed to Nukume Dori. I just came across it more recently.
Thanks for the clarification!
You're welcome! I'm glad you asked the question, because it also helped me consciously connect the drama with another canon I adore.
(This is a *very* tangential comment)
Date: 2020-01-01 05:46 am (UTC)Seventeen...years... o_o What is time?
(I always think I'm fully aware of how long X has been on hiatus and how long ago my friends who've been fannish about it had those feelings, but it feels so much more recent to me because of work. ^^; So it's still an actual shock.)
Re: (This is a *very* tangential comment)
Date: 2020-01-01 10:27 am (UTC)It will never be done. I think that's probably for the best, TBH.
Re: (This is a *very* tangential comment)
Date: 2020-01-01 09:04 pm (UTC)I don't think I even started reading the manga until it had already gone on this final hiatus, and it was still forever ago.
I think that's probably for the best, TBH.
I have deeply conflicted feelings about the prospect (although I likewise don't really think it'll ever be finished). I think the odds that I'd like the ending are low, but all the years between hiatus and any theoretical ending would let me ignore the ending as if it never happened, if need be.
The conflicted part is due to my tiny flicker of hope that whispers that if the series ever wraps up, and if VIZ's license is still in place, there's a very real chance I'd get to do the adaptation of any new material (which would include the vol. ~18.5~ chapters, which I do love and which never came out in English), since I'm the most recent adapter/rewriter to touch the series. (Having gotten to help overhaul the English release is one of my single most satisfying professional moments, because it really needed it.) And I really, really want to do that someday.
But that's an extremely personal reason for wanting the series to end, so I don't exactly expect anyone else to share my feelings about it. ^^;
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 08:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 09:05 pm (UTC)(Don't ask me why, but I feel this icon is appropriate.)
I guess I better get on making me some Untamed icons.
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Date: 2019-12-31 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 11:47 pm (UTC)AND YET.
https://archiveofourown.org/works/21722695/chapters/51817036
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Date: 2020-01-01 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 01:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 01:39 am (UTC)*goes off to roll around happily in the TU FEEEEEEEEEELS*
no subject
Date: 2019-12-31 09:58 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 02:36 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 02:54 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:20 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 12:59 am (UTC)NOPE.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 01:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 05:33 am (UTC)I'm on my second watch of The Untamed right now (showing it to my spouse), and OOF, yes.
*reads other comments* re: the ages of the Untamed actors, have you seen this infographic? Seeing it all in one place is...a lot.
He's still saying it, 10,000 years later
My whole chest just tightened up with FEELINGS.
I hope this coming year is vastly better to you than 2019 was.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 10:33 pm (UTC)All those discussions we have in Guardian where it's like, "Yeah, but the real tragic ending would have been if only one of them had died." Uh, YEP. That ending is INDEED TRAGIC.
have you seen this infographic? Seeing it all in one place is...a lot.
I have, and I'm never looking at it again, because I like to try to limit the number of coronaries I have in a year. (And then I go and sign up for a Twitter account just in time for the NYE concert in which Xiao Zhan demonstrates his hips are in working order and somebody decided it was a good idea to get Wang Yibo soaking wet for his number. GOOD CHOICE, ME.)
My whole chest just tightened up with FEELINGS.
Where is the fix-it that is ZYL reaching out in the void that final time to say, "No deal, you have me?"
no subject
Date: 2020-01-03 03:21 am (UTC)*sobs a little*
And yes, what a welcome to Twitter for you! Thank you, boys?
(FYI, I'm
Where is the fix-it that is ZYL reaching out in the void that final time to say, "No deal, you have me?"
*yearns* (Are you thinking of an existing fic or casting a hope out to the universe?)
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 07:37 am (UTC)Apparently I'm starting off 2020 as I mean to go on - getting emotional over Weilan.
I rewatched the final episodes for the first time recently, and now I've done it once I think I'll leave off at the end of 35 when I watch in future because, yeah, that was a lot of crying.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 10:37 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 05:34 pm (UTC)I found it cathartic to weep so much over fiction, although the Wen refugees cut too close to reality at many points.
It was also kind of delightful to be thinking, "This is censoring the gay?!?" every five minutes.
And Liu Haikuan/LXC's jawline is a heavenly miracle.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 10:47 pm (UTC)Hmm, you might like Guardian, in that case
although the Wen refugees cut too close to reality at many points.
Yeah, the Dixingren in Guardian are similarly uncomfortably close to reality.
It was also kind of delightful to be thinking, "This is censoring the gay?!?" every five minutes.
You would definitely enjoy Guardian in that respect.
And Liu Haikuan/LXC's jawline is a heavenly miracle.
That man is heartstoppingly beautiful, and I am in denial about his age, as I am about ALL OF THEIR AGES.
no subject
Date: 2020-01-01 05:41 pm (UTC)This is me. So much me. I haven't been this starry-eyed about a character in forever. (Usually I like the charas but what gets me is the ship.)
The Ed Elric comparison would never have occurred to me but you're right! (And I love him, too!)
no subject
Date: 2020-01-02 11:19 pm (UTC)I'm used to characters getting me, but nothing anybody said warned me in any way that Wei Wuxian was going to hit my id like this. But then, how could they know? He is a particular type of character that is so difficult for me to articulate and that I so rarely see portrayed well, I wouldn't even know how to ask if he was it.
The Ed Elric comparison would never have occurred to me but you're right!
It took me a while to think of the Ed comparison, too. It was actually the result of Boni posting a screencap comparison of WWX doing the five-arrow shoot and Tom Holland lipsyncing Rihanna's "Umbrella," because I thought, "What would complete this comparison is a cap of Ed Elric clapping his ha--OH MY GOD."