#and Lan very much cannot move on from her | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

grewlikefancyflowers · 2 years

Note

Okay, people blame all the miscommunication on LWJ but have they ever considered how the situation may look from his pov? WWXs enormous crush is obvious to the readers but not to LWJ. His behaviour might seem confusing from the outside pov.

I think WWX's behaviour caused LWJ a lot of confusion and frustration.

I mean, WWX flirts with him pretty much in all their interactions across both his lives*. LWJ is very aware of this because he tells him, 'If you do not have those intentions, do not flirt with others. You are doing as you please yet others will be in turmoil.' (ch.54). He's not 'in turmoil' because he's jealous that WWX had been flirting with Mianmian (or at least, that's a minor part in it). WWX flirts with girls all the time, LWJ is aware of this, he's aware of the fact that WWX doesn't feel anything towards her (or any of the others), this is precisely the thing that frustrates him, because WWX behaves this way with him too (or at least appears to, LWJ has no way of knowing that WWX actually has real feelings for him. WWX doesn't even know this).

*Notable examples of flirty behaviour in his first life since there are somehow people who miss his planet-sized crush — Constantly trying to get LWJ's attention and calling him er-gege (not inherently flirty but is when taken in the context of everything else), drawing a portrait of LWJ & winking at him, seeking him out and saying 'did you miss me~' and giving him gifts, finding LWJ in the cold spring and draping himself over the rocks and murmuring 'lan zhan' in his ear then stripping, then purposefully trying to move closer to/touch LWJ while they're both nakey, throwing flowers for him at Phoenix Mountain & in Yunmeng (while knowing he is imitating how girls behave with their crushes), pretending to faint to 'trick' LWJ into catching and holding him when he visited Yiling.

When WWX is flirting with the jiejies in Caiyi town, JC comments that he is 'flirting around again,' (which carries a double meaning because WWX had just been flirting with LWJ too), so it is evident to LWJ that WWX casually flirts with whoever. WWX seems barely aware of what he's doing, which only frustrates LWJ further,

'Lan WangJi looked at him quietly, “Do you behave in such a frivolous way towards everyone?”

Wei WuXian thought for a second, “I think so?”

Lan WangJi looked at the ground. He only replied a moment later, “How impudent!”

The word was spat through gritted teeth and tinged with an inexplicable bitterness'.

As well as that, WWX several times suggests, or outright says, that he is straight.

When he gives LWJ straight porn — '“What kind of person are you?!” “What kind of person could I be? I’m a guy!” Wei Wuxian said. Lan Wangji’s tone was cutting. “You have no shame!” “I have to be ashamed? Don’t tell me you’ve never looked at these things. I don’t believe it.” Evidently, in WWX's view, looking at straight porn is just the standard expected thing for him to do, as a guy. He evens expects LWJ to have done so too. Obviously this is comphet talking, but to LWJ is simply comes across as if the boy he's crushing on is straight, and cannot even fathom being anything else. LWJ never appears to struggle with any expectation that he should be interested in women, nor does his family find his queerness unusual, so it's probable that WWX's struggles with his sexuality are hard for LWJ realise and understand at this point, esp because he's so young and preoccupied with his own feelings.

In the cold spring scene, WWX's flirting reaches unhinged levels, he also starts complimenting LWJ, and says, '“Lan Zhan, did you figure out what I was trying to do earlier?” “No,” Lan Wangji replied. “Really, you didn’t know? I was kissing up to you so you’d be my friend.” Lan Wangji side-eyed him. “What are you trying to accomplish?”' LWJ asks WWX what exactly his intentions are, clearly he thinks just trying to be friends is not a good explanation for the things WWX does. But WWX insists he really just wants LWJ to be his friend, he says if he's his friend he'll share his porn books (btw the word used is 春宫图 which refers exclusively to het erotica), then WWX goes on to insist that girls won't like how LWJ is behaving, then tries to convince him to come to Yunmeng with the promise that there are pretty girls there. So WWX really does just repeatedly flirt with LWJ, in this situation he does not only reiterate that he is attracted to women, but also just operates under the assumption that LWJ is too. LWJ again can only reasonably take from this interaction that WWX firmly identifies as straight and isn't generally open to anything else.

(Yes bisexuality exists but I do not think characters within the text (or perhaps the text itself) have much awareness of that. Eg, it is decided based on MXY's cutsleeve behaviour that he cannot possibly be WWX, because it was widely 'known' that WWX was attracted to women. Aside from that, imo MXTX repeatedly wrote all these examples of WWX's supposed attraction to women with the purpose of it coming across to LWJ as if WWX could not possibly return his feelings because LWJ's unconditional love of him with no expectation of anything in return is a key part of his character. From a storytelling perspective there isn't really any other reason for these scenes to exist.)

And then there is that infamous scene in Xuanwu Cave when WWX strips and pulls LWJ's clothes off too, pretending that he has certain intentions, though his real purpose was obvs to help LWJ. (Also I think 'Wei WuXian took off all of his clothes and tore them to shreds, “What do I want to do? Right now, we two are the only ones here. I’m already making it so obvious— what do you think I want to do?”' (ch.54) echoes the cold spring scene — 'Wei Wuxian kicked off his boots, removed his clothes, and threw them everywhere. “I took off all my clothes and you’re still asking me what I’m doing here."' (ch.18), implying that WWX was on some level aware of how his actions came across back then, though couldn't consciously address it). The exchange ends with LWJ asking WWX not to do things like this, 'Although he knew that it was out of good will, Lan WangJi still seemed a bit annoyed, “… Can you not make this kind of joke again?!”' He's still annoyed in large part because this is not the first time WWX has pulled this exact trick, 'good will' is not all there is to it. WWX misunderstands and decides to placate him by assuring him that he is straight, '"Don’t worry—I don’t like men, I won’t take advantage of the opportunity and do anything to you.”' Unsurprisingly, this only seems to annoy LWJ further. Probably because WWX has constantly been making these types of 'jokes' and the fact that WWX seemingly has no real feelings behind them is precisely why LWJ reacts badly to it.

LWJ isn't someone who lacks empathy and understanding, when it comes to WWX he is always watching him. So, it probably does occur to him that WWX's insistence that he is straight can perhaps not be taken at face value (especially when they spend a lot of time together in WWX's second life). Actually, after the Phoenix Mountain flower throwing, LWJ is quite insistent that WWX admit to being to one who did it, 'Holding the flower, Lan WangJi seemed to be quite cold. His tone seemed cold as well, “Was it you?”' Then in Yunmeng, LWJ asks WWX why he did it 'Lan WangJi, “Why?” Wei WuXian, “Why not? I just wanted to see how you’d react to such a thing.” Lan WangJi, “Ridiculous.”' (LWJ responds here with his signature '无聊', which carries a connotation of doing something pointless, because you're so bored you have nothing else to do, which I think is reflective of how he takes WWX's flirting overall.)

So, LWJ probably considers the possibility that there is actually something more to WWX's flirting, and wants to get him to admit he does it and asks him why he does it. But I think LWJ is also hesitant to dwell on this possibility too much as he is very fearful of violating WWX's boundaries, I think he's very concerned about wishful thinking or making assumptions or inadvertently projecting his feelings onto WWX. All this is also reflected in how LWJ warns WWX several times in his second life to be aware of his actions/words ('Mark your words', 'are you sure you want to do this', 'do not fool around', 'you reap what you sow'), he sincerely wants WWX to think about what he does, he doesn't want to allow or reciprocate WWX's advances if there's a possibility he's just messing around and doesn't mean it. Basically, he really wants to avoid a situation where they do anything together for any reason other than that's what WWX truly wants.

#[thinks about chapter 95 and screams]#mdzs #mdzs meta #good lord how did this end up so long #this subject overall touches on an issue where just because wx do not openly talk about some things people think that #they are bad communicators #actually they each have reasonable & valid reasons for keeping things to themselves #lwj expresses himself through actions not words. so he really is not the best at explaining himself or saying clearly what he means/wants #but him not being open about this is not an example of bad communication #and i mean he's pretty clear in xuanwu cave when he tells wwx not to flirt frivolously or make his 'jokes'#lan wangji

145 notes · View notes

onaperduamedee · 1 year

Text

Notes on The Great Hunt

Very strong beginning rife with political intrigue and stealth break-in. Also, you cannot get a stronger opening than with the arrival of the Amyrlin Seat herself.

Siuan must be the most imposing character I have read in a while. She radiates such intelligence and power, it's the most incredible experience. I was also really looking forward to her reunion with Moiraine and it did not disappoint, particularly with how they are written as conspirators. And were ready to blast Verin out of existence. I don't think I grasp yet how much of radicals Moiraine and Siuan are within the White Tower. Although their actions do not lead to systemic changes, it's fundamentally rebellious and extreme.

Smart move on the show's end to move the Horn's theft to S1. It builds anticipation and allows more room for the power dynamics shifting around Rand in early B2 and that were exemplified by this unspoken tug-war between Shienar and Tar Valon for influence over Rand.

The white cloaks and Bayle Domon chapters... I keep thinking these books need more thorough editing and these are strong arguments in favor. Bayle Domon is a fun character and I enjoy the way he is used as a very external point of view character who wants little if not nothing to do with the plot. Which is a fine cool concept, but it seems a tad contrite to me in the context of such a breadth of POV characters. At times, it felt like arbitrary switching between POVs to show how it looked from a different angle and create tension.

Am unexpectedly annoyed with Lan, who managed to fall down to the bottom of my favourite character's list after this book. I do not like how he acts with Rand, Nynaeve, even Moiraine. I loathe manly superhero hypocrisy and he has it in spades: he's no more helping Rand than Moiraine is, just shaping him into a warlord, a future ally in his war against the Shadows. A whole other meta is in progress about Moiraine and Lan as two contrasting mentor figures in this book and how Rand uses parts of their teachings, but I have just an epidermal reaction to how he is written. It doesn't help that he seems to be leading Nynaeve on. I preferred him when he was barely talking.

On the other end of the spectrum, I cannot wax enough poetry about Siuan. Going into the books, I was sure I could not love her more than her show personification and I was so wrong. She is the very definition of a force of nature and to witness her fine mind clicking like a well-oiled delicate clock is a privilege. I adore how Robert Jordan makes you feel the power of her mind and the way she weighs and turns people. I will need to mourn for a week if the Amyrlin casually dropping off to teach Nynaeve and Egwene, then getting slammed against a wall because she successfully angered Nynaeve into using her power is not included in the show. I will be distraught.

Thom dropping by to go "lol, I hate you guys, you were the worst experience of my life, I am never helping you ever again" was funny.

The Lan/Moiraine scene was super interesting for reasons I will maybe expand on another time, but what struck me most is that not that long ago, Aginor mopped the floor with Moiraine. Truly, beat her so brutally they had to carry her on a stretcher, and neither Lan's presence, nor strong channelers' like Nynaeve or Rand, was enough to spare her. Her decision has been strongly driven by the brutality with which she was reminded of her own mortality, of how weak she is compared to the new players. Her death - a debt for the quest she had accepted to pay a long time ago - is very much about to be paid and in a way that she might have not suspected would hurt so much.

Was disappointed in Nynaeve's Accepted test and Moiraine's fight against the Draghkar. The former came much too soon after the girls' arrival to the Tower, to the point where I didn't get why Nyn was even going with it and why she should care, or worse, why the reader should care. The latter was downright expedited. This was the first time we were seeing from up close those truly terrifying creatures and it was just over in an instant.

Verin was everything the fandom let her out to be. I love that sly old fox who is far more observant than she lets everyone believe but is also absolutely in the clouds.

Loved the venture into the parallel universe and the steading most. These books are never better than when they turn into travel journals, except in odd and magical realms. Same with the description of that monstrosity being unburied that Rand passed by. Have you ever heard of nuclear waste Chekhov's gun ? Because that's how it felt.

Padan Fain is a self-serving bastard and I love him for that: soft retconning the first book helps discard the more classist aspects of his character as well.

The hunt in itself was really engrossing. Because of the title, I was somehow expecting a Wild Hunt from European folklore to turn up but technically we get two! One in the form of the Trolloc party, the other with the Seanchan. Which means the heroes are following the steps of a Wild Hunt rather than fighting or fleeing it. It's a nifty twist on the archetype. And it pays off stunningly when the horn is blown and an army of the dead rises to fight the Seanchan.

Despite knowing Ingtar was a fan favourite, I found him extremely suspicious from the start and the narrative didn't exactly spare hints to show he was obsessed with the horn. So, when the revelation came, it was a) expected but good, b) trying because Rand shows FAR more sympathy toward men doing bad things trying to do the right thing than women.

The description of the battle over Falme itself was impressionistic at best, so like the Ways and TEotW, I bet people are going to complain about the screen adaptation, no matter how obviously unadaptable to the screen it is. I don't care. It was so enjoyable in the books and it'll be good but different in the show. I was really looking forward to it and it went beyond my expectations.

Now the Seanchan... I've got to admit I had to stop reading for a few days after encountering Damane for the first time. On one hand kudos to Jordan for creating antagonists who are genuinely abhorrent and terrifying. Like one hundred percent, bloody hell, hats off, I was not expecting that level of cruelty and political commentary. On the other hand, I have now sizeable concerns about how well a white American author can handle writing about slavery where the victims are so far in the books mostly white. In the same vein, I am very concerned with how it will translate to the screen given the numbers of black and brown channelers involved. If you add on top the fact that this violence seems suspiciously gendered... I am afraid.

Nynaeve and the Seanchan though, hell yes. Everything about that encounter was breath-holdingly good, from her righteous fury to her ability to hold it back not to kick someone who was already down and would get her punishment anyway. It almost makes up for the fact the girls fell for such an obvious trap.

Egwene and the Seanchan too. It honestly hurts too much to think about what she went through and how it will impact her development as a character. She's going through too many traumatic experiences in the span of a few months for it not to leave painful scars.

Oh, the chills I got from the sounding of the Horn of Valere. Seriously. Chills. Beyond that, I am In Love with the concept of the heroes of the horn, the idea of great warriors and heroes from the past walking the world again, some more legends than history. Reminds me of the myth incarnations in Mythago Wood.

Overall, this book was a little frustrating. Frustrating because I knew this was the book where the story was really supposed to pick up the pace and expand lore, so I was looking forward to getting a taste of the series onwards. And it started off really well - Rand, Mat, Perrin and Loial on the hunt, Nynaeve and Egwene on their way to the Tower, Lan and Moiraine doing research, and then it petered out into nothing much. Oh, things happened, but among everything that was set up, only Rand's path was really fleshed out in the middle. I was expecting much more of Nyn and Egwene at the White Tower, and it was treated as a sort of palate cleanser between swaths of Rand chapters. Mat and Perrin didn't have anything to do. Even Lan and Moiraine got more done in the few chapters they were in.

I guess Mat was there as an incentive for Rand and Perrin got to use his powers in a way that would make him feel less monsterized which was actually quite neat, but it's pillow fluffing compared to how much of the story was Rand's.

Even when the girls finally got to do something it was entirely driven by Rand. I get he is the main character and I truly enjoyed his journey across worlds and cities, but part of what spurred me to read the book was the promise of an ensemble, with the characters each having their own story. So far, this doesn't cut it.

THAT said, despite the soft middle, the finale was incredible, much like TEotW. The pacing increased drastically in the last chapters, as well as the tension. It felt like a series finale more than a book finale. I'm starting to see a pattern in Jordan's writing: intriguing steady start, meandering middle and bombastic finale. I am not entirely sure the frustration of the middle part justifies the payoff for me because those are long books, but Robert Jordan knows how to set all the fireworks to make sure the lasting images are the biggest, loudest finale you can imagine. Overall, I did enjoy this one more than TEotW, but less than NS.

Edited: I completely forgot to add I really like Hurin. Much like Loial in TEotW, he gets the archetypal anti-hero treatment from Jordan, and with a lot of benevolence and honesty. It's kinda heartwarming. For his interest in chosen ones and exceptional heroes, Robert Jordan shines most to me when he writes about average people.

#wheel of time #wot book spoilers #the great hunt #the wheel of time #ramblings #remblai #full spoilers for the Great Hunt #finally sitting down to edit my notes #with luck I can also clean up the two Lan and Moiraine metas I have #I have a lot of things to say but listen I did bend L's ear for an hour during our bike trip about WoT #so better on my blog than confusing the daylight out of passersby #Wot meta #Meta #Wot review

33 notes · View notes

sadhorsegirl · 1 year

Text

need it on the official record that i do love moiraine and lan's relationship sososo much!!!

i love the implicit understanding they have with each other, based partially in the fact that they are both heirs separated from a crown for very different reasons. moiraine and lan are both people who cannot go back to where they came from, whether they want to or not. so there is this shared sense of loneliness, and drift that they share, wrapped up in the idea that they probably aren't going to survive the last battle (or even the journey to it) and would rather sacrifice themselves than have anyone they care for or, in moiraine's case for some people deem more necessary to The Pattern (although to be fair to her, this often still means having a certain level of care for them she just um. wasn't raised to know how to show any healthy positive emotion i don't think) moving in companionable silence eternally Searching™

i've grown increasingly haunted by this exchange they have at the end of new spring:

like............"surrender after you are dead. yes." is the sentiment set up as one of the core values of their partnership starting from the very moment she decides to ask lan to be her warder. surely, this will end well for all parties and will NOT have any tragic implications!

it sets up this really harsh poetic symmetry (surprise) when they have their Big Fight™ in the great hunt. moiraine LITERALLY invokes how they first met with funny little jokes abt him throwing her in a pond to get his defenses down so she can jump scare him w an intense re-examination of their relationship. the whole fight is basically her forcing him to think on his toes so she can examine him at his most basic emotional level in order to try and expose the truth abt how he feels, going from playful to painful at the flip of a coin lol. and he's aware of it!!! him calling her out on it and her answering back w patented Aes Sedai Speak, in a relationship that should be free of such manipulation.....

the real master stroke here, though, is the fact that the chapter is from moiraine's pov. we get to see her own inner thoughts about it and see that beneath the devastating chess game she's playing she's just as heartbroken at having to play it. the argument is really a crystalization of what makes her such an interesting character for me -- she is leveraging absolutely brutal social dynamics in order to, from her perspective, HELP someone she cares for deeply.

essentially, moiraine is saying that in his love for nynaeve he's found something to live for beyond sacrifice and that means that their bond to each other must be terminated. he can create a new life, and bc she thinks she understands how everything will play out moiraine thinks she is just cutting down the time before he realizes he can and will ask for her to dissolve the bond anyway. he isn't wed to death anymore, leaving the heavy implication that moiraine still is.

which sets us up for something really interesting for them in s2 i think! while their relationship in the show seems to generally be under less strain than it is where we see them in the mainline series, there remains another crucial difference btw the books and the show -- moiraine has siuan!!!!! im rly excited to see how that comes into play in terms of any potential interpretation of this fight/the breakdown of lan and moiraine's relationship bc it makes her decision to push him away feel even more hypocritical and rooted in her tendency to be self-sacrificing to the point of self loathing.

tldr for anyone just trying to figure out what this might all mean for season two according to one singular poster on tumblr dot com: in the books moiraine feels very........time to burn all bridges so no one can chase after me on my suicide mission basically and i can't say im NOT excited to see if that's where she ends up in the show (to live is to suffer etc etc)

#ch 22 of the great hunt is the assigned reading for todays post!!!! plz be prepared for the pop quiz at tomorrows lecture!!#yes it WAS necessary to break out some NOTES some PASSAGES #this fight drives me insane one of the best thing in the entire series i am not kidding #he knows what shes doing!! she knows he knows what shes doing!!!! and still!!!! she chooses to hurt him to try and save him!!!#guess queer platonic life partners doesnt have to cover an entire life together 👀😬🫡#lan mandragoran #moiraine damodred #wheel of time #wot on prime #wot books spoilers #meta

29 notes · View notes

helly-watermelonsmellinfellon · 1 year

Text

My headcanons that you won’t be able to pry from my cold, dead fingers!

This is a compilation from various pieces of fiction.

Severus Snape loves musicals and has everything possible on vinyl. Wicked and Fiddler on the Roof are his favs.

Every single one of the Konoha 12 - sans Naruto - has a crush, however minor, on Naruto.

Itachi Uchiha is either Asexual or he’s Demisexual with Kisame Hoshigaki as his only point of interest ever. I oscillate between the two regularly.

Yuri Plisetsky is Asexual and Aromantic.

Aro of the Volturi isn’t straight. This is based on the fact that while Caius and Marcus fell in love and ‘mated’ vampires, Aro only chose to take a wife to appease the masses. While being ‘mates’ is described as being something uncontrollable, Aro literally just looked for a human woman who fit his requirements and convinced her to let him turn her. Specifically done this way because he felt that what Caius and Marcus had was a weakness and would get in the way of his plans to seek power. Having a wife doesn’t mean he’s straight. Also, as the Volturi are 3000+ years old, I believe wholeheartedly they cannot be homophobic especially since they’re from around 1000 B.C. Greece, before Christianity fucked the world over.

Crowley ranted about Aziraphale to Freddie Mercury and Freddie wrote Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy in response.

Kaname/Zero is a much better ship than Kaname/Yuki or Zero/Yuki. It simply makes more sense.

Haruhi Fujioka is non-binary.

John Watson(BBC Sherlock) isn’t straight. He simply said he wasn’t gay and that leaves many other options.

Ravenclaws are actually very bad at Chess because they get so wrapped up in the particulars of a potential future move that they forget to focus on the present.

Everyone is hot for Wei Wuxian, idc what anyone says.

Lan Xichen is secretly a kinky bastard and I can’t be convinced otherwise.

#headcanons

45 notes · View notes

robininthelabyrinth · 2 years

Text

Relentless - chapter 9 - ao3

“I didn’t think you came out of your room,” a well-dressed lady said to him, her tone snide.

Lan Qiren ignored her as he perused through the bookshelves. He was assuming she was one of the Nightless City’s many courtiers, or at least the wife of one – presumably one of the ones he’d already refused to help, given her rudeness. She’d appeared within only a stick or two of incense after he’d arrived at the main library, her timing impeccable; it really made him wonder if someone were having him watched.

Someone other than Wen Ruohan, that was. He wasn’t stupid.

Ignoring her seemed to annoy the lady further, though, and she followed him deeper into the rows of bookcases, saying, “One really does have to one what you spend all your time doing, locked away in there…though I suppose one needn’t really wonder. It must be a piquant delight for the sect leader, having a former rival sect leader submit to you –”

“Acting,” Lan Qiren corrected her, having heard accusations of a similar tenor several times before and no longer capable of being moved by them. “I was never truly a sect leader, so I cannot be given the title of ‘former’. The position has at all times been temporary, even if it were regularly renewed. At the moment, I am acting only in the role of teacher.”

“Oh, yes, teacher,” the lady sneered as if it were a bad word. “You lack the ability to give him children, so you will mold the ones he has, is that the idea?”

That was so very much not the idea that Lan Qiren couldn’t help but scoff.

“Or is there another reason you want to be left alone with young boys for so long…?”

“Have I done something to offend you, mistress?” Lan Qiren asked icily, finally pushed too far for endurance and turning to look at her. “I assume I must, and yet I cannot think of what it might be, given that we have not been introduced.”

The woman gaped at him. “You cannot be serious!” she shouted, and Lan Qiren’s frown deepened. “You know perfectly well who I am!”

“I most certainly do not. Who are you?”

“I’m – I’m Second Madame Wen!”

Lan Qiren just barely managed to bite his tongue before blurting out The former maid?, since unfortunately that was the only thing he knew about her. He took another look: she was, as he’d noted before, very well-dressed, draped in luxurious fabrics and glittering with gems, but it was like he’d said to Wen Ruohan before – riches and luxury all looked the same after a while. She was pretty enough, he supposed, though he’d never developed much of an aesthetic for such things, and if he tried he supposed he could see something of Wen Chao’s features in her face.

“Oh,” Lan Qiren said. “Why haven’t I seen you before, then?”

Second Madame Wen gaped at him again.

“I only banned Wen Xu from seeing his mother, not Wen Chao from seeing you,” Lan Qiren said, wondering if she needed a further explanation. “Your son may be overly spoiled, but I haven’t seen any indication that you were actively interfering with his education or efforts, so there was no need. Given that I’m teaching your son, and since I’m here in your home, I would have expected you to come to greet me far earlier. Or at least join in on one of the official dinners that Wen Ruohan has been holding – you are invited, are you not?”

“How dare you!” she shouted, which wasn’t even remotely a proper response to his question. “You – you – trollop!”

Lan Qiren blinked. “…me?”

It wasn’t that he didn’t understand where she was coming from, what with all the rumors about him sleeping with Wen Ruohan, but – really? A trollop? Him?

What next, was she going to call him a brazen little hussy too?

He almost wished she would. It would make a fine story to tell Lan Yueheng when he returned home. And Lao Nie, should he ever heard of it, would probably do himself very serious injury laughing –

Sadly, Second Madame Wen instead made a high-pitched sound between her teeth and stormed off.

Lan Qiren was so taken aback by the abruptness of her actions that it took another moment for him to realize what had happened, and then he called after her, “No, wait – I was serious – we really do need to discuss Wen Chao’s progress on –”

No, it was too late, she was gone.

Lan Qiren sighed. He’d already learned from experience that there was little that could be done about these sorts of relationship-based misunderstandings – denying it just made people think he was hiding something, asking people what was wrong with them made them suspect that he was ashamed of it, and even getting the other individual in question to deny it was only seen as further evidence of a secret liaison, as if such a thing were necessary to collaboration. The only time he’d ever managed to throw off rumors had been when the other person in question had been Lan Yueheng, who had very genuinely not understood what was being implied and asked a lot of very earnest question about how exactly he could ‘improve’ his relationship with Lan Qiren on account of them already having reached the pinnacle of friendship back when Lan Qiren had edited an entire book on the mathematics underlying alchemy for him.

(The rumors about him and Cangse Sanren, in contrast, were somehow still going strong, and she was already married to another – and dead.)

In this case, Lan Qiren was quite sure that attempting to try to talk Wen Ruohan into issuing a denial would be completely pointless, and also probably lead to nothing more than further flirtation.

Anyway, even if it didn’t, Lan Qiren didn’t actually want people sent to the Fire Palace just for gossiping about him. Even with the improvements of the past short while, proper discipline was terribly hard to implement in the Nightless City, given how afraid everyone was of Wen Ruohan reverting to form…

“Are you Teacher Lan?”

Lan Qiren missed the private library already. He closed the book he was holding, suppressing the urge to sigh, and turned to look at the person who’d interrupted him – another lady, though far more simply dressed, without any of the ostentation or jewels that had been practically pouring off of Second Madame Wen.

“I am,” he said politely. “Can I help you?”

The young lady dipped her head down shyly. “There’s a matter I don’t quite understand in my book. Could I prevail on you to assist me?”

Lan Qiren was not a teacher of girls, given how the Cloud Recesses divided men and women for the purposes of their daily life, and being himself unmarried, he did not have too much experience in dealing with the other sex. Still, despite his role as the Wen boys’ teacher, he was still very much an interloper in the Nightless City, however unwillingly he’d arrived – it was probably rude to simply reject a polite and very simple request like this out of hand, no matter how much he longed to.

“I am unsure of my ability,” he said, casting a longing gaze at the bookshelf beside him as if it would save him. “What is the subject of your study?”

Her question turned out to be something related to music, very basic and straightforward, so at least he knew he had the ability to help. Deciding to be efficient, Lan Qiren went to a desk and pulled out a piece of paper and the treasures of the study – the hidden mechanism had taken a while to get used to, but now that he knew about it, having a brush to hand at all times was actually quite convenient – and began writing out an explanation.

The young lady apparently hadn’t anticipated that. “Are you certainly you don’t want to just tell me about it directly?” she said uncertainly, shifting her weight from one leg to another. “If you would just come sit beside me, I could continue to read on my own and simply ask you anything I don’t understand.”

“If you’re having trouble with a concept as fundamental as this, it means your foundation is all wrong,” Lan Qiren told her bluntly. “Reading a book that is beyond your limits won’t help, not even with assistance from a teacher. I’ll write up the parts you need to know first so that you can review them at your leisure – more than once, ideally. In fact, if you copy out the notes a few times, it would probably help your understanding.”

The lady stared at him blankly.

“You don’t have to linger,” he pointed out. “Feel free to go make another attempt at your book. I’ll be done soon enough.”

“…no, I’ll stay, thank you,” she said, and then proceeded to make a complete nuisance of herself – offering to pour him tea (he’d just poured some for himself), asking if he were comfortable (he was), complaining that she was cold (what she expected him to do about it, he had no idea).

She even asked him whether he thought she was pretty.

“Just because you’re no good at music now doesn’t mean you can’t get better,” Lan Qiren said, trying to be comforting. He couldn’t imagine reaching the age this woman had without knowing the elementary aspects of qin playing, especially not if she was, as she claimed, an aspiring musician who had loved the instrument from a young age, but perhaps her family circumstances were unfortunate and her self-confidence affected as a result. “Even if you do end up not finding a talent for it, you can always find another skill. You shouldn’t be so hasty to give it all up and assume that your only asset is your face.”

She brightened. “So you like my face?”

“…I’m not the person to ask.” Lan Qiren decided that bluntness was the only way to make it through to her apparently thoroughly obtuse head. “Listen, all of your interruptions are making writing this introduction for you more difficult than it needs to be. Could you wait elsewhere?”

“But –” She glanced from side to side, then proceeded to abruptly swoon.

Lan Qiren was enough of a gentleman to try hastily scramble to his feet to catch her. “Are you all right?” he asked, concerned by her sudden onset of weakness. “Should I call a doctor?”

“I’m better now,” she said, looking up at him. “Much better.”

“I’m glad to hear it, but a sudden loss of consciousness can presage any number of more serious illnesses: a drop in blood pressure, dehydration, heart issues, brain issues…You should go see a doctor at once.”

“Oh, but – but Lan-gege…”

Lan Qiren’s eye twitched at the overly intimate form of address. He was about to correct her when he heard someone clear their throat.

Lan Qiren glanced over and was relieved to see Wen Ruohan standing there.

“Oh, good, you’re here,” he said, helping the lady back into a standing posture. “Wen Ruohan, tell this woman she needs to go see a doctor immediately; she hasn’t been listening to me. I am more than happy to continue writing out the introduction to qin playing for her, but it’s not something that requires her presence – I can have one of the pages send it to her rooms later on. Certainly there’s no reason to wait around for it when such a delay could pose a risk to her health! I understand of course how music can drive one to recklessness, but –”

“Qiren,” Wen Ruohan said, and his eyes curved in a smile that seemed even genuine, as if he were suppressing the urge to laugh. “Qiren, she was trying to flirt with you.”

Lan Qiren recoiled at once. “She was what?!”

He looked at the lady, who was blushing.

Flustered, Lan Qiren took several steps back, thinking to himself (not for the first time) that his sect’s rule about not disturbing female disciples was a good one but somewhat lacking in guidance as to what one did when the female disciples sought to bother him. Then he frowned. “Hold on, does that mean you don’t actually want the introduction to music theory?”

“It’s actually quite good,” Wen Ruohan said, having meandered over to the desk to poke his nose into Lan Qiren’s business as usual. “Very straightforward. Have you considered writing a book?”

“I – well, I’ve never had the time…”

“You’re dismissed,” Wen Ruohan said to the lady, who saluted, pale-faced, and hurried away. He glanced over at Lan Qiren, still looking incredibly amused. “Surely someone has flirted with you before.”

“Not often. And they’re usually more overt about it.”

“Are they? Or did you just not notice anyone who wasn’t blunt enough?”

That was distressingly plausible.

“What a colossal waste of everyone’s time that was,” Lan Qiren said, discouraged. Wen Ruohan sniggered. “What was even the point of that?”

“Me, I suspect.” Wen Ruohan shrugged when Lan Qiren looked at him. “My first wife has a way with schemes. I expect I was supposed to walk in and see you snuggled up together with some pure, virtuous, scholarly young lady that would be far more what one would expect a person like you to like. People seem to think I have a problem with infidelity.”

“Then people are very stupid,” Lan Qiren said, irritated beyond belief. In retrospect, the only part of it that surprised him was Wen Ruohan’s assumption that it was his first wife that had taken action – he himself would have assumed it would have been the Second Madame Wen who’d instigated it, thinking it revenge for him having seemed to slight her earlier. He’d just been thinking nastily to himself that Wen Chao would clearly need to work quite hard to overcome the deficiency of brains on that side of the family – though perhaps he was being naïve once more. It was Wen Xu’s mother that he had irritated first, and the lady had clearly been well prepared; Second Madame Wen wouldn’t have had time to put such a thing together so quickly, and her presence immediately beforehand could have been arranged specifically to divert his blame. Rather clever, he supposed, if petty and ultimately pointless. “Obviously you don’t care one way or another what anyone does with their bodies, provided you have their heart.”

“You sound very certain of that.”

“You sound as if you’ve forgotten that I’ve been acting sect leader for over a decade,” Lan Qiren said, rolling his eyes. “And that I’ve had to endure those horrible parties at Jinlin Tower for just as long. No one who has seen you and Lao Nie making bets on how many prostitutes you can handle in a given night without resorting to your cultivation for additional energy would think that you expect physical fidelity from your lovers.”

“That was a good night,” Wen Ruohan said nostalgically. “Also, that man is insatiable.”

“Maybe you’re just old.”

Wen Ruohan snorted, hand actually rising up to cover his mouth – he must not have meant to laugh – and then he shook his head, clearly dismissing the entire thing. “Why are you in here, anyway? I thought you preferred the other library specifically to avoid situations such as these.”

“I do, and that is indeed why. I was looking for something specific.” Lan Qiren realized a moment later that admitting that fact meant opening himself up to questions as to what, exactly, he was looking for, and possibly even an offer of help in finding it, which he didn’t want. “Nothing sufficient to rise to your concern.”

“Well, now I’m doubly interested. Were you finally tempted by the spring books?”

“I have more interesting things to do.” There was no getting around it, it seemed. Perhaps he could be non-specific? “As it happens, I was looking for records on the Wen clan.”

Wen Ruohan blinked. “I utterly forbid you to read the Quintessence. It may be the gift of my ancestors, but I can do very well without having it quoted in my ear at every moment – the Lan sect rules are bad enough.”

“I hardly quote my sect rules at every moment, though I’m willing to make a significant effort to do so if you continue to pester me about it.” Wen Ruohan held up his hands in mock surrender. “Anyway, there’s no point in learning a bunch of quotations that contain wisdom that nobody follows.”

Wen Ruohan didn’t bother disputing the point. “So what were you looking for?”

There was clearly no way out of explaining, so Lan Qiren begrudgingly admitted, “I was looking for family records. It occurred to me that I had no idea if you had any siblings.”

Wen Ruohan appeared taken aback.

“Yes, I know, I could have just asked,” Lan Qiren said with a sigh. “However, given the importance of knowing family structures among the sects, it seemed rude to admit that I had no notion of yours. Assuming the absence of knowledge on the subject wasn’t intentional on your part.”

“Merely an artefact of time, in this instance,” Wen Ruohan said, sounding bemused. “The last time someone actually quoted my family tree back at me was in your father’s generation, and that was to accuse me of having murdered all of my immediate kin for power.”

Lan Qiren arched his eyebrows. “Did you?”

“Only some of them, and typically they were also seeking to kill me at the time. My father fancied himself an emperor.”

“Ah,” Lan Qiren said. “A familial disorder, I see.”

Wen Ruohan was struggling not to smile again. He hadn’t smiled this much in the entire decade or so Lan Qiren had known him, but then again he supposed that they hadn’t really spoken much in that time. “Oh, to be certain,” he agreed. “I would argue that it’s been in our blood since Wen Mao first put the red sun in the sky…though I like to think I’ve been more successful at it than any of my predecessors.”

“If you were to say you were second, no one would dare claim to be first. Congratulations on your successful career of tyranny.”

“Even your insolence is charming,” Wen Ruohan mused. “You say things that would have me ordering an execution if it were anyone else, and yet I find them hysterically funny. You must tell me how you manage it.”

“Contrast, perhaps?” Lan Qiren said after a moment’s contemplation. “You have over a decade of expecting me to be frightfully dull. You’ve belatedly discovered that I’m not, but your initial impression is engraved so deeply that you continually find it to be a surprise.”

“That wasn’t actually a question that needed answering, but I suppose you’re right. Dare I ask why you wanted to know about my family? I assume it wasn’t for the purpose of insulting me.”

Lan Qiren rolled his eyes. “A matter of curiosity, nothing more. I had suddenly recalled an old teacher of mine who once asked if I could find out whatever happened to ‘that poor boy Wen Ruoyu’ and I thought I might try to find out if that were a real person or not.”

Wen Ruohan choked.

Lan Qiren arched his eyebrows, having not expected such a reaction from the normally unflappable sect leader.

“…my favorite younger brother,” Wen Ruohan said, sounding a little strangled. “He died tragically. I regret it to this day.”

“Ah. My condolences. Losing a brother is very difficult, especially if you liked them.”

Wen Ruohan gave Lan Qiren a strange look, which Lan Qiren didn’t think he entirely deserved for such an anodyne statement.

“I’ll be going,” Wen Ruohan finally said instead of pursuing the conversation further. “There’s a report that’s been sitting on my desk for too long, being neglected, and I find myself suddenly compelled with a deep desire to read it.”

“…do you want me to wish you safe travels and good luck?” Lan Qiren prompted when Wen Ruohan did not, in fact, leave. “Or were you lingering in order to point me in the right direction for a genealogy?”

Wen Ruohan’s eyes were curving again. “I haven’t the slightest notion where such a thing might be. I recommend you ask a servant to find it for you, that’s what they’re for.”

“That’s what I was trying –”

Wen Ruohan rather rudely left before Lan Qiren could finish his sentence. In the end, Lan Qiren decided that discretion was the better part of valor and left instructions with one of the servants to find it for him and deliver it to him later, then retreated back to his rooms to focus on something else.

Anything else.

He ended up settling on composing something, a hobby he hadn’t had nearly enough time to devote himself to in the past. He’d initially planned to pick up one of the spell-songs he liked to tinker with when he had time, but instead he’d started writing something new – a snippet of tune that had popped into his head out of nowhere, which for some reason reminded of Wen Ruohan, aggressive and yet cool, like some massive snake hanging around sunning itself on one’s throat, its fangs always at the ready.

At some point during the afternoon, while he was preoccupied with that, Lan Wangji wandered in with Wen Ning trailing behind him like a duckling, and they made themselves at home in the corner. Lan Qiren had always allowed his nephews to settle near him if they so wished, provided that they were quiet, and so he did not pay them any mind as he continued what he was doing. Spell-song composition was tricky, requiring expertise in cultivation techniques, musical theory, and the art of combining the two, which was its own independent skill, and so there was rather a lot of plucking away at Yunhan, writing something down, repeating the melody with spiritual energy, writing more down and crossing things out, picking out yet another attempted melody…

Sometimes Lan Qiren thought he might envy the demonic cultivators of old, who were said to bend spiritual energy to their whims through the feel of the music rather than the content. While one could brute-force it and use a lullaby as a calming spell or a spritely dance as a summoning, it was a grossly inefficient waste of one’s own spiritual energy, vast quantities spilling out into the environment to grow grass rather than being properly channeled into the music. Only a demonic cultivator who relied on external sources of spiritual energy or who went as far as to utilize resentful energy could reliably use such a method, since it wouldn’t be their own energy they were wasting – of course, a demonic cultivator also typically ended up relying on murdering people to obtain the necessary spiritual energy to strengthen themselves, so it wasn’t actually any sort of solution. Orthodoxy was orthodoxy for a reason.

But oh, it would make things so much easier…

“Shufu?”

Lan Qiren shook himself out of his reverie and crossed out several lines of musical notation that kept edging towards the outright jarring. “Yes, Wangji?”

“Wen Ning said that you make Sect Leader Wen better by being around him.” Lan Wangji was frowning down at the ground, and Wen Ning was lurking behind him, looking at Lan Qiren warily and yet hopefully. “How did you do it? Does it work on other – on anyone?”

Lan Qiren winced and put his guqin aside.

“It doesn’t work like that,” he said, putting his hands in his lap and hiding them in his sleeves so that his nephew wouldn’t see the way he’d clenched his fists. “I’m not making Sect Leader Wen ‘better’. If being around me makes him want to be better, then he can be better, but it always remains his choice. We cannot change the decisions of others.”

If Lan Qiren could, through his presence, have made his brother better, or even his much-despised sister-in-law that was likely to be the closest thing he ever had to a wife, he would have sacrificed everything in order to achieve it – he had sacrificed everything, and yet had not made a single change in either of them.

The worst of it was that Lan Qiren knew that Lan Wangji, who was very much like him, would have made the same choices he had, and just as futilely. That was his true fear for both his nephews, Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen both – he knew that they were just like the rest of their clan, Lans ruled by their heart and restrained only by the rules that they loved just as much, and he feared that if he did not do his utmost to guide them in the right way, they would end up like their father…or their uncle.

It didn’t matter to him whether they would be the one to make the terrible mistake or the one to have to pay for it, whether they would commit themselves to that which did not love them as well as they deserved or whether they would keep the world at arms’ length, distant and cold, until they drowned in it and forgot their own identity. It was irrelevant. The fear was the same either way.

He wanted them to be luckier than he and his brother had been. He wanted them to be happy.

He…

He himself was happier now than he had been in the past, although Lan Qiren hated to admit to it.

He hated to think that it took being kidnapped to remind him that he could not model joy for his nephews when he himself had none of his own – to remember that he had longed to give his nephews the gift of their family’s rules and its inheritance, not to treat the sect as a burden that he could only protect them from for so long before he had no choice but to load unto them. He did not want them to grow up thinking of their sect, and his own presence, as an obligation merely to be borne.

The way others did.

(Lan Qiren supposed Wen Ruohan didn’t see him as a burden, but he really wished the other man had expressed that feeling in some way other than kidnapping. The fact that they were on better terms now, or that the kidnapping may have saved his life and sanity from the corruption of his own sect’s negligence, did not mean that that he had wholly forgiven him for having done it in the first place.)

Lan Qiren’s eyes drifted over to Wen Ning. “Who is it that you wish to change?” he asked, and Wen Ning flushed. “Sect Leader Wen? Or someone else?”

Wen Ning wrung his hands and ducked his head. He disliked speaking at the best of times, which this was far from being.

“His grandfather, I think,” Lan Wangji announced, helpfully blunt. “Or maybe his sister. Definitely Sect Leader Wen. They all expect so much from him, and he hates that he lets them down.”

Unable to lie and say that Wen Ning had done well, as his performance was truly mediocre at best in most fields, Lan Qiren told him, “Of late, you have done much better in my classes than you did at the start, and I have told both Sect Leader Wen and your sister of your improvement.”

Wen Ning looked pleased enough at that.

“I would tell your grandfather the same, though I haven’t met him –”

“Oh, you shouldn’t!” Wen Ning blurted out, uncharacteristically interrupting. “He lives in Dafan and he hates Sect Leader Wen.”

He did? How strange. If that were the case, Lan Qiren wondered why the man had sent his grandchildren to the Nightless City after the death of his son and daughter-in-law, though he supposed it was possible that Wen Ruohan had just taken Wen Qing when he’d discovered her talent. Though if that were the reason, why take the amiable but fairly useless Wen Ning as well? From what Lan Qiren had learned, both Wen Qing and Wen Ning had been in the Nightless City for some time and seemed to expect to remain indefinitely, yet Wen Ruohan was not the sort of person to bring along someone for no reason, nor to give in to a girl pleading to bring along her brother. Even Lan Qiren had had to threaten suicide to try to change his mind – and even then it hadn’t actually worked. That irritable bastard had just found another way to get what he wanted.

Lan Qiren resolved to ask Wen Ruohan about it at the next possible opportunity. It might be a little rude of him to stick his nose into other families’ affairs, but Wen Ning was his student; he could (just barely) justify it.

“It’s all right, though,” Wen Ning said shyly. “As long as you’ve changed Sect Leader Wen, that’s good enough.”

“Again, I have not ‘changed’ him, even if my presence might have been the trigger for some change,” Lan Qiren corrected. “It is only that he has chosen to change himself – and he can always choose otherwise.”

He had cause to regret his prescient words later that evening when they all went to dinner, it being one of the days Wen Ruohan invited them all to the formal dining room, because when they arrived it could be seen that Wen Ruohan’s mood was terrible, his face as black as stormclouds.

“Sect Leader Lan,” he said sharply the second Lan Qiren entered the room, before he even had a chance to sit down, much less for the food to be served. “Let us speak on the subject of your brother.”

#mdzs #lan qiren #wen ruohan #lan wangji #wen ning #my fic #my fics #relentless #it's a good thing I have these chapters ready because work is kicking my ass

114 notes · View notes

greenhills-woodtoburn-fic · 2 years

Text

TheAnswer had some questions in their review on "Chapter 7: Scattered like spring flowers", and we thought it would be fun to answer them here! feel free to send us in any other questions/headcanon requests :)

I wonder if you could share some meta on what are the changes to canon in this story? This seems almost like a "what are the smallest changes necessary to get to a happier ending (or - if the jianghu had more than one braincell)".

so "what are the smallest changes necessary to get a happier ending" was definitely our original premise - this entire AU actually started as a discussion about that very concept and just sort of spiralled outwards! our very first small change was Meng Yao staying at Cloud Recesses for the lectures, which we figured would butterfly-effect outwards by giving him some actual friendships, as well as a closer relationship with Huaisang and an earlier one with Xichen, and that would potentially change his priorities and situation, and then... it goes on and on. our other key premises that we started with were "what if the live action show had an unlimited budget" - and from that we hugely expanded the war section and the amount of people that exist in the jianghu, and played with the use of magic - and other other key premise was... uh... "what if there were actually a reasonable amount of women in this world, and those women actually got to be interesting characters". which was what led us to giving Yanli her handmaidens, making Mianmian a POV character, populating the side character roster with lots of women, and bringing in Qin Su much earlier in the story.

what brought Qin Su's mother here?

hopefully that's pretty clear by now ;)

Why is Lan Xichen being the distraction who's going to get captured (and not Nie Mingjue)?

this decision wound up happening because of things that we extrapolated from canon - we think that in canon Mingjue is the one who leads the infiltration to Nightless City because he is unwilling to risk other people and thus gives himself the most dangerous role. we cannot think of any other good reason why the fuck someone with minus one in stealth would decide to play assassin, unless you want to dig really deep and try and find some sort of double bluff from Meng Yao to get someone into the city to kill Wen Ruohan and Meng Yao didn't want it to be Xichen because he doesn't want Xichen to get hurt but that starts to get way too overcomplicated!!!

so if we assume that Mingjue's top priority is going to be to keep the people he loves as reasonably safe as he can - without compromising the war effort - in a universe where Mingjue a. knows Meng Yao is the spy, b. knows that Meng Yao loves Xichen and will fight and kill to keep him safe, it makes sense for him to send Xichen as the distraction, because either:

the plan goes perfectly! Xichen gets into the city and kills Wen Ruohan, and the war is over and everyone is safe

the main plan is messed up and Xichen gets captured - but he gets held in a cell and kept safe by Meng Yao until Mingjue and the rest of the Sunshot forces arrive to kill Wen Ruohan and end the war

the plan is absolutely fucked. Xichen is captured and the Sunshot forces are destroyed. in this case, the safest place for Xichen to be is with Meng Yao, who Mingjue knows would move heaven and earth to make sure Xichen survives - and if Xichen manages to escape, that means there's someone who would look after Huaisang with Mingjue gone

there's also the fact that Mingjue is literally the general leading the entire Sunshot campaign, so the idea of him not being there for the LITERAL CLIMAX OF THE ENTIRE WAR to help lead and strategise is just ????? like. from a doyalist perspective obviously it happened beause the NieYao confrontation needed to be a thing but it really makes no tactical sense!!!

#meta #part 2 #nie mingjue #lan xichen #meng yao

27 notes · View notes

sleeplesssodatyler · 7 months

Text

Why am I doing this?

Because I'm sick, my head hurts and I feel horrible.

Please keep in mind, I wrote this while not feeling well. Hence, the only checks I'll be doing will be with the books I own (because I am not searching the internet in this state, sorry.)

That said, I beforehand apologize for the abomination this will probably be ^^

⚠ warnings ⚠

Blood, violence, emotional, sacrificing?

And finally : this is an au within an au

Hahhahah

(Basically an au getting mixed with another au. Very confusing, it'll make sense I promise. This is part 1. I'll edit when more parts get posted/written.)

Very short too btw. But ah ah. I blame sickness~

(I feel like an AO3 writer 🤭/jk)

□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

Madam Jiang died at the battle in Nightless city. That is how the original story goes. She died, sacrificing her own life for her brother.

That is how it goes in many stories. Madam Jiang dies. She dies. Dies. Dies.

However, things don't always go the way they are meant to be, clearly.

Here, the story… plays out differently.

□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■□■

Wei Wuxian saw the corpse approaching shijie. The sight alone made fear strike his entire body. At first he wanted to try making it stop with Chenqing. But the corpse was so close. It was too close for his comfort. His body moved before he even realized it.

"SHIJIE BEHIND YOU!"

Before he knew it, he was by her side, pulling her back so the corpse didn't hurt her. He was too in the moment to hear Jiang Cheng yell at him. He didn't hear Lan Wangji calling out for him.

At that moment, he didn't notice many things. However, one cannot ignore a corpse slashing at your torso. He felt his flesh being torn apart, blood surging instantly.

He didn't know if his knees buckled, but he knew his shijie held him. At first he couldn't grasp what, but then he could nearly again. It was like something snapped in his ears when he heard his surroundings.

"A-xian! A-xian!"

His shijie was crying. Jiang Cheng was frozen standing next to her. The fighting still went on around them. It was loud. So, so loud. And the pain didn't help the intensity of the moment.

"You- you- make the corpses stop! Wei Wuxian!"

Even though Jiang Cheng yelled at him, the concern was now clear. Could he stop them by this point though? The whole situation was weird. So weird. But he can try. His chest hurts, and he can feel the blood polling out of his injury, but he can try. For them he'll try everything.

He brought his dizi up to his lips. His hands weren't shaking, he told himself. And he played. It took a lot of effort to make them stop, but this time the corpses obeyed. With a content exhale he allowed Chenqing to fall from his hands.

"My good a-Xian, hold still, you're gonna be alright."

"You said you could control it! You- you why were you so reckless?!"

"Wei Ying.."

One voice sounded the most odd out of them all. Wei Wuxian's eyes shifted towards the source.

Lan Zhan.

Didn't he hate him? Why did he sound so upset? Ah, the wound hurt. But his siblings are here. He can't worry them. After all, he already put them through so much- so, he gathered himself and smiled.

"Ayah.. Acting like this could actually kill me."

His shijie, she was shaking. Jiang Cheng was on the verge of tears. And Lan Zhan.. He didn't dare look at him again. Because when he did, his chest hurt more than it already did with the injury.

Resentful energy cannot heal. It can make things still, after all, it patched up his broken up body after his fall quite well. However, it never healed any of his injuries.

It was probably even numbing the pain right now, but how could he tell?

Jiang Yanli shook her head, trying to convince herself that her brother didn't get hurt protecting her. But reality couldn't be ignored if it was right in front of you.

Then Jiang Cheng was pushed away from him. Yells sounded out.

And before shijie could do anything she too was pushed.

A sword then stabbed itself in his throat before he could react.

Blood flowed from Wei Wuxian's neck. Cheers erupted almost instantly when the cultivators realized he was the one to die.

Expect three.

One.

Leader of the Jiang sect was frozen. Staring at the body of his now dead brother.

Wei Wuxian died.

It isn't that he liked him much after he killed jie's brother, however his death didn't bring him any joy.

If anything it brought the opposite.

The tears he wanted to hold back got out. And he cried. Sincerely cried, for the brother he lost.

"Wei Wuxian.."

Two.

Madam Jiang was on her knees, holding her body. A-Xian died. Her dear brother died. Yet another member of her family, torn away from her because of chance. Because of chance that creamy hated her.

Why else would it keep on taking?

She wanted to tell him that she knew it was an accident, that she knew he wouldn't kill her husband-

How could she do that now? How could she tell her a-Xian that she will help him through this, get to the bottom of what happened?

Her brother was dead.

And she didn't know if her tears would ever stop falling at this point.

"A-Xian! ..A-Xian..!"

And three.

Second master Lan at first just stared. He was so close, his sword was in his hands. If he was faster- if he was faster Wei Ying could have lived. But he was too slow. And a cultivator claimed his life right in front of him.He wanted to deny this- he didn't want to accept that Wei Ying, Wei Ying, died. Lan Wangji wanted to pretend that he was fine. That the man.. The man who brought light into his life… who was the light.

Died in front of him. And he was too slow to stop it.

He didn't even know it, but he caught Wei Ying's body before it fell to the ground.

He didn't even know about it, but tears streamed from his eyes.

He didn't even know it, but he yelled in anguish.

Ignoring the blood that stained his robes. He ignored it all. The people around him, the Jiang nearby.

Because the light of his life was taken away.

"WEI YING!"

#spoilers mdzs #mdzs #what if

2 notes · View notes

wifiwuxians · 9 months

Note

ship game ship game⛵️

ok,first I want to say that xuechao makes a lot of sense,actually. jiaojiao and xue yang are actually a bit similar,if you think about it. true,we don't know about wang lingjiao's past,and I guess she at least did not grow up on the street. but both of them are pretty and love torturing people and are quite overdoing it on the revenge front.

now,since that one got asked already,pick whichever you feel like🍉:

-xuexiao💀 if you want to and you won't be getting haters on here from answering that

-sorry,I'm basic,but,songxiao🌟 I just want to read a love letter to my fav ship and who better to ask than my fav shipper of my ship

-lanlan! (at first I was like,no! song lan would not move on even after 800 years! but then I read some fics and it made sense for lan xichen and song lan to at least become close as friends)(but I want to know what YOU think so don't worry about disagreeing)

omg okay first of all THANK YOU SO MUCH for your compliments!! I am really thrilled I am your favorite songxiaoist lol 😳 Second! You are so big brained actually! Jiaojiao and Xue Yang both have come from bleak backgrounds and are trying to cling to what little they have! I believe Jiaojiao was just about sold by her family lol and she is illiterate 💔 And they are both petty batshit revenge machines! I've actually briefly considered xuechaojiao LOLLL... HMM... but okay, onwards to the

GAME

I'll give you my love letter to Songxiao first so you don't need to go digging for it hehe

I hope I won't get hate for playing the game jhdgjsg I hope everyone will be a little more mature than that

Xuexiao

Do I ship it: I do not. (Tim Allen AHUUUAHH?) But on a single day of the year my aversion to it lessens and I'm able to retweet art of them kinda smooching so my tolerance is overall getting better, maybe? lol

Why don't I: There are many factors... I like mutually destructive toxic mess ships, right? We've established that. But I don't like ships in which one person is doing all the hurting and the other person ends up, uh. Like XXC did. "But DJ I thought you were the fixit king" I am! It's just not exactly appealing to me, and the other big factor as to why is that I just... Never really saw them that way. Like even removing their canon storyline and only leaving their dynamic, which removed from context is lovely don't get me wrong, it never registered as romantic. It registered as XXC looking out for his goofy little brother, you know? I dunno. There's nothing there for me, sorry. "But DJ the devotion" yeah. There are many ways to love someone. Even if that were romantic, it's too onesided for me.

What would have made me like it: If they actually liked each other LMAO I have no issue with the thought of them loving each other, just not romantically! Outside of canon they're pretty much cemented as family in my brain, though very rarely I'll maybe entertain the idea of some sort of QPP dynamic but then it slingshots right back into family again. Just friends who really love each other and tried to do the do only to find out they don't see each other that way is the furthest I'm willing to go for them and this is a HUGE leap from where I was a year ago LOL

A positive: I appreciate that a lot of people just really want them to love each other. Maybe try and find some healing in all the mess. I get what that's like.

Please whoever reads this don't take this as an invitation to start talking to me about it though as it still does cause me to react negatively 💀 some days I really cannot stand it at all, I'm just mature enough to not be a hater 100%

Lanlan

Do I ship it: I'm in the process of being converted, we will see how it goes! Kind of sucks this game doesn't have a maybe option so I'll make up the questions myself

What's drawing me to it: I, like you, was originally like "naur Song Lan has his man already thanks, and after he fixes him he's going to bed", but one of my close friends made the very good point that just because he's on a quest doesn't mean he can't be loved on the side, too! So I'd like to see Song Lan get loved on, and Lan Xichen deserves this, too, and I think stories about processing grief are very potent

Things I like about it: It seems this ship is about healing oneself and each other, and I'm a big fan of that! Both characters also complement each other well, with each having characteristics of someone the other has loved before (i.e. NMJ's righteousness, XXC's gentle energy). I also think canon gave them really sad endings, and in LXC's case it's a bit of a bitter one, too. SL's is at least bittersweet so sharing the joy is nice 🥺

What would seal the deal: Strong characterization aligned with my view of the characters! Being in character goes a long way for me, so if you've got them down pat, then I'll be more likely to give it a chance. If you add that they've both been in love before and that they're not looking for a replacement then we're set! (:

#this one got LONG SORRY #Ship game #lanlan

4 notes · View notes

horridporrid · 2 years

Text

A Place of Safety: (58 min)

An in-depth look at Wheel of Time s1e3. Spoilers for all of season one.

Prologue:

We're back at the Bel Tine battle, Nynaeve's perspective, picking up shortly after she was dragged off by a Trolloc. It's the sound design working their magic again as we hear a muted version of Egwene screaming Nynaeve's name as battle sounds go on around her. That muted sound and the dazed look on Nynaeve's face suggests she's either just come to or has been floating close to unconsciousness.

Excellent use of editing and pacing in the scene between the two Trollocs. There's a long enough pause when the big Trolloc looks over the wounded Trolloc that you kind of expect the big one to help the wounded one. So when the killing and cannibalism does come it's shocking.

And of course, it's an anathema to Nynaeve, our healer. Shocks her all the way to awake and she takes the opportunity to run the fuck away.

I love both how fast Nynaeve moves and the leeway they give her before the big Trolloc pulls himself from his meal and gives chase. It means the Trolloc pops into screen high off in the corners, like a boogeyman. And it means the Trolloc's own speed can be seen as threatening. (Even with that much lead time, the Trolloc is hot on her heels.)

I also love the little pause when Nynaeve enters the cave and you can see her think, "okay, now what?" Like she ran here on instinct (this is her safe place) but now she has to really think her way to getting out of this trap.

Once again, the practical effects and CGI people really did a great job on the Trollocs. And I'm glad they went practical. I don't think this scene would work with purely CGI effects.

And! I love the homage to... I think it's a scene from "Preditor" when Arnold Schwarzenegger's character creeps out of the water to take down the alien?... Letting the viewers know that Nynaeve is about to do something pretty badass. (Intertextuality!)

Which, of course she does. This was a one chance move that required precision and strength and she did it. That's our girl. And now we know how she got the Trolloc knife she used to threaten Lan.

The bit with the Trolloc's blood forming the dragon fang struck me as cheesy when I first saw it in a trailer clip. But in-show they use the image very sparingly. It's barely formed when Nynaeve comes splashing up through it and that saves it, imo. Instead of a heavy-handed lampshade it's more an easter egg.

Credits and...

We're back to Nynaeve holding her Trolloc knife to Lan's throat demanding he take her to her friends. I notice (because I'm really looking out for these things) that both Lan and Nynaeve are kind of dirty and he's getting scruffy.

This scene is all about negotiation. They both want different and at this point, apparently opposing, things. Nynaeve wants her people back. Lan wants help for Moiraine. Lan cannot give Nynaeve what she wants and therefore she has no interest in giving him what he wants.

Nynaeve appears to have the upper hand, being armed. And first Lan tries to say she's just bluffing, that she's not the violent type. Which, he's wrong (which I love!). But, he's also better at the whole violence thing so even though Nynaeve's willing to use both her Trolloc knife and her teeth, Lan wins this round.

Cut to mountains...

It's early morning and we're with Rand and Mat in the mountains overlooking Shadar Logoth. The view gives us a nice look at the differing typography surrounding the city, depending on which side of the river you're on. So viewers interested in orienting themselves regarding our three different storylines can see the forest and plains stretching out beneath the mountain range Rand and Mat are climbing.

Well, Mat's climbing, Rand is hollering for Perrin and Egwene. Which leaves Mat as the voice of reason (things are chasing us, maybe not a great idea to be loudly advertising our location). And then we have another set of negotiations with a bonus reveal of the two character's current driving motivations.

Mat wants to go back home. It seems the cynicism he'd expressed in the last two episodes was honestly felt and he's surprised that Rand doesn't agree with him in distrusting Moiraine. But of course, Rand's motivation is to find Egwene and Perrin. He cannot allow himself to believe they're dead and he cannot go home without them. So, they're going to go where Rand knows Egwene will be going: east to Tar Valon.

I don't think this is the dagger talking. There's some actorly business that Harris uses to signal when the dagger is coming out and he doesn't use them here. Plus, he's kind to Rand. Easily agreeing that Egwene and Perrin must have made it, gently stopping Rand's panicked hollering, giving up on the idea of going home with very little push back. I think it all comes down to Mat's most driving need being caring for his sisters, so of course, his choice will always be to get back home unless something specific interferes. (In this case, his love for his friends. Mat wants to find them, too.)

This also suggests that Mat believes that neither he nor Rand are serious contenders for the Dragon Reborn. (Which, I'm pretty sure if you took a poll of our four at this point, Egwene would win.)

This is where we get that perfect exchange, "They say all roads lead to Tar Valon." "That's not how roads work." that signals the beginning of the Rand and Mat comedic duo portion of the episode. I relish every moment of it.

Meanwhile, on the plains...

Winning the "worst time ever" award, Perrin and Egwene are stumbling across what looks like freezingly cold and windy plains. We can hear wolves hounding them. When they huddle in the covert of a dead tree and Perrin uses Mat's dagger to try to light a fire I'm already cringing for him expecting the knife cut to come. It is so hard to do anything when you're freezing and he looks like he's freezing.

Fortunately, Egwene is a quick study and channels the fire alight. The camera work is clever here. We're not quite sure if what Egwene was obviously trying to do worked or if Perrin succeeded in getting a spark (the scene is Perrin's POV, so no weaves are seen to give us a hint). I like the slow burn aspect of what Egwene is or will be capable of.

And I love that Perrin is so supportive of Egwene being able to channel. He might not be sure if she was the one to light the fire but he shows that he's comfortable with her having that ability by joking about her getting them food and water as well. Which you can see is a big relief for Egwene.

For these two, there is no negotiation. They both want to find their friends. So the only discussion for them is the direction to take. West to back home or east to Tar Valon. Egwene is sure Rand will go back home. Perrin knows Rand will go where he thinks Egwene would go. Neither of them worry about what Mat would want. (Because both of them know Rand will be the one to make the call? Or do they not think Mat has a strong opinion one way or the other?) Anyway, Perrin's certainty prevails and we're saved from a Gift of the Magi, journeys edition. The two snuggle in for some rest.

The next day, in the forest...

The cut to Nynaeve bound and gagged will never not be funny to me.

Lan is back to being clean and groomed, every hair in place. This is the group that is the most well off, camping-wise. Lan got out with both his and Moiraine's horses, so they have whatever supplies are in those saddlebags. Nynaeve has her own horse and supplies as well (her portable herb kit!!). And they're, all of them, used to being out in the woods. The only down side is Moiraine dying of Trolloc poison, but even then, they've got a trained and equipped healer.

Which, we get to see that training and equipment in action as Nynaeve gathers and mixes and does her best to help Moiraine.

What struck me on this rewatch is that, while it appears that Nyaneve has the upper hand (she gets the last word in all her interactions with Lan and seems to feel like the one in control), I think Lan is using a bit of negotiating jiu jitsu. She's not asking for anything Lan and Moiraine wouldn't be willing to eventually give and Nynaeve is doing everything Lan is asking of her.

Of course, it helps that Nynaeve is a healer to her bones. Moiraine is truly ill. There's no way Nynaeve wouldn't help her no matter her words.

Anyway, lovely forest scenes, gorgeous music. Lan carefully watching Nynaeve's every move and you can see him getting more and more intrigued. And then that little bit where he finally asks Nynaeve how she tracked him and she says, "I said you could ask. Not that I'd answer." It's so petty and unexpected and you can see Lan is amused despite himself. I love all of this!

Very interesting that it's Nynaeve who explicitly let's us know that Lan is Moiraine's Warder and that they have a magical bond and can physically feel what the other feels. A late in the game confirmation of all that was visually shown to us from the moment Lan and Moiraine appeared on screen.

It's something I think the show does really, really well. They visually share information or lore with the audience and then confirm what the audience has probably already figured out with dialogue. (Like the hierarchy of the Fade and the Trollocs, last episode.) This strikes me as a really organic way to work in a lot of world building and lore.

More excellent practical effects with Moraine's wound. Totally gross and painful looking.

This also marks a moment of change in how Nynaeve sees Lan. As she watches him tend to Moiraine, you can see her register how much he cares. For the first time Nynaeve speaks to him as someone worried about their sick loved one. Patient and gentle and empathetic.

Break for dream sequence:

Perrin's dream is spooky. Very atmospheric with the storm and the glowing eyes in the window and the tinkling of the various wind chimes but...

Is it bad that I'm a bit bored by it? I mean, there's not much too it, really. It keeps us guessing as to who's the dragon, with the baddie obviously keeping an eye on Perrin. And it tells us that Perrin is still upset about Laila's death and there's something odd going on with him and wolves, but... We see Perrin carrying his guilt and grief regarding Laila in an upcoming scene with Egwene that hits much, much harder, imo. And the way the wolves herd Perrin and Egwene throughout the first third of this episode already tells us something is up with Perrin and the wolves...

I think I'm probably a bit annoyed because the issue within Laila and Perrin's marriage (his love for Egwene) should've been handled a ton better on the front end. If we knew Laila was worried about Perrin's affection for Egwene, than we'd be in on the extra guilt driving Perrin here. And that could be interesting. But since we don't know, this just adds fodder to the Laila was a darkfriend false-lead (that I know the show did not mean to set up).

I mean, I guess that Laila's cryptic "I know" has something to do with Perrin being snuggled up with Egwene at this moment but especially as I don't think Perrin has anything remotely romantic going through his head at the moment (too exhausted and freezing and scared for those sort of thoughts) it seems a bit... forced. Or something.

Anyway! The important bit is that the wolves have come in close enough to alarm Egwene and get her and Perrin moving in a very specific direction as we see with the multiple course corrections as they run through the woods.

I will say, I think Perrin and Egwene are the worst off of the three groups. They're both town kids who probably have little experience fully roughing it in the wilds. I'm sure they camped and such and are tons more experienced than the average person today: see Perrin knowing how to light a fire using a rock and a knife. But getting thrown into the wilderness with nothing but the clothes on their back (and the knives on their belts) has left them in pretty dire straits. Not like...

Meanwhile, on the mountain:

...our comic duo with Rand on hand. He's in his element. Not only would Rand have a ton of experience being out in the wilds with the sheep, he was quick enough to grab up his quiver and bow (and his dad's sword!) when things went sideways in Shadar Logoth. So the biggest complaint with this group is that it's cold. (Or a little chilly. Depending on who you ask.)

Rand really is in a good mood as he and Mat make their way over the mountain. Best he's been in since Egwene dumped him. I think it's because he and Egwene got things settled between them and he's on his way to find her (and Perrin). He's got a goal and it's something he can totally do and there's no one trying to run his life or making him question himself.

But of course, happy characters don't make for good stories so our two stumble across a mining town. I love the twangy bass guitar theme for the town. Foreshadows a character we're about to meet but also sets up the "16 Tons" vibe the town has going for them.

If you're looking for worn costumes, dirty faces and hard-lived sets... welcome to Breen's Springs! Don't let the dead guy hanging in a cage throw you off. (Or you know, do. I don't think Breen's Springs is dependent on tourist dollars.) I will also note, neither Mat nor Rand stand out too badly compared to the town residents. Rand's coat is a lot nicer but it's very much travel stained.

Discerning viewers might have noted the four totems just outside the bar they're entering. Carved with the likeness of four kings, one might ask? (Nice little easter egg for viewers but a light enough touch that it's easy to miss, allowing for a fun surprise later on.)

I love how subtly they build Dana's character. She definitely clocks them coming into the bar but it reads more like the barkeep making sure they know to come and buy something.

Both Rand and Mat are so wet behind the ears when it comes to the big wide world and we see it on display here. Rand's taking Dana's word that the soup is actually good. Bless him.

I love the idioms the show has introduced for various locations. Two Rivers had, "down mountain," to describe people and activities that don't concern them. Breen's Springs has, "fresh one," to describe people new to town and boy doesn't that layer on implications about this place.

The only other fresh one being the gleeman. *excited gasp* Thoooom!!! I love everything about this moment. From the way he gets up onto the stage, to the light flick of his coat showing off the gleeman colors of its lining, to the way he owns the room from the moment he starts tuning his guitar.

And then he starts to sing. That gravelly voice... Oh my God... that voice.

Mat is immediately entranced, which Rand clocks. The whole room falls into the sadness of Thom's song but it hits Rand particularly hard. He actually has tears in his eyes. Interesting that it emphasizes dead children ("little graves that had no warning"). I predict this is going to be the specific Dragon-grief direction the show will take.

Anyway, the listeners are deep in the throws of the grief catharses Thom tossed them into but Dana easily lifts the mood by reminding patrons they can still drink. And Mat is such a fresh one himself he's victimized by the town pickpocket.

Which Thom notes and rectifies and he gives Mat a chance to notice he's down a coin purse but Mat is more interested in throwing Thom some shade. "Too depressed for charity." Rude! Insulting the song choice and the singer. So Thom engages and Mat is still a little prickly pear. Which is interesting because he really was enthralled with Thom's singing while it was happening.

Is this the dagger? Some of it, probably. But I think you could also point to Mat's issues with his dad. They spin him in a different direction later on in the episode but it makes sense to me that he'd start off in a more guarded mode.

I do note that Thom pays for his drink with his own coin, then pays for Mat's food with Mat's coin. Which is when Mat finally realizes his purse is gone and Thom drives the lesson home. Which, it's a good lesson to be learned and Thom did give Mat a couple of chances to not be a colossal dick.

Mat seems ready to actually throw down (which again, dagger? or Thom pushing his daddy-issues buttons? why not both?) but fortunately Rand is there to read the room and keep Mat from getting thrown in the lake. At best.

Back to the plains

The wolves are still herding and Perrin and Egwene are still walking. His coat is filthy. Her coat hides the dirt a lot better but the fleece lining of the hood is looking pretty sooty. They stumble across some wagon tracks and this is either a good thing (merchants) or a bad thing (White Cloaks). And off of Egwene's very visible gasp at the idea I wonder, did our Two Rivers crew always see the White Cloaks as baddies? Or were they more, "down mountain," folk that they didn't really think about until their recent encounter and Egwene's learning she can channel?

Egwene suggests the wolves herded them here. Perrin thinks about it. (This is the slowest storyline.)

Back to the bar

Rand continues to be in a good mood and Mat continues to be sour. They head off to chat with Dana about night lodging and Mat steps in for a charm offensive that falls incredibly flat. There's an edge to his demeanor that means either Mat isn't actually that good at being charming (which I don't believe) or he's not really on his game (which I do believe). Again, this could be down to circumstances (just got robbed, etc.) but I think the dagger is warming up.

More humor bits: That close up of Rand's face as Dana pours all the customer leftovers (food, drinks) into the soup pot. Confirmation that Mat goes for older women (which leaves me wondering, a bit of a mom-complex, or is it more targeting women of means who'd tend towards older?)

Anyway, they end up out back chopping wood for their lodging and this is where the dagger really kicks in hard. Mat sniffs, winces, rubs his nose. All little actorly bits throughout the scene that point to his being off kilter. I also love how when Mat says things he knows will hurt Rand (Perrin and Egwene are dead), you can see him instantly regret and feel guilty about it. And yet, the dagger keeps him digging into sore spots. (Egwene wouldn't go out of her way for Rand.) And Rand finally hits back, calling Mat a prick and sending him away.

Does Rand realize what a loaded word that is for Mat? Could be he does. You always know how to hurt the ones you love.

I do love how diabolical the dagger's influence is. It's getting Mat to act in a way that's off but not entirely out of character. He's still got his instinct to charm but now he's not as good at it. He's not the guy to voluntarily offer hard labor but this time the suggestion actively angers him. So he winds up turning on Rand after he'd spent all last episode doing his best to keep Rand's spirits up. Which means Mat will be left wondering if the dagger tapped into something within him rather than merely turning him into a different person.

Anyway, Mat tries once more to charm Dana and she's having none of it (love the easter egg of the horse trader bit). I think he's also subtly offering sex as a payment method with that crack about the sheets. Dana doesn't bite but she has softened towards Mat and they end up having an honest conversation as Mat starts waiting tables.

Again, I love the subtly of Dana. She's deftly probing for information here but not pressing too hard. Mat lies, a bit awkwardly, but she lets it go. We also get our first inkling of Dana's motivations. She hates where she's from and who she currently is and dreams of getting out. (Love watching how the idea of completely reinventing oneself lands so hard on Mat. Foreshadowing!)

A power shift in the forest:

Nynaeve admits she's at her limit with Moiraine. Lan totally calls Nynaeve's bluff and heads off (to go look for Aes Sedai as we later learn), leaving Moiraine entirely in Nynaeve's care. She's not thrilled that he's so right about her, but what's she going to do? Their dynamic is so fun to watch and now it's Lan with the upper hand.

Into the fog:

Perrin and Egwene are about to head into some thick fog so their cautious approach is no longer viable. And this is where the emotional fog Perrin has been under starts to thin. I love that he and Egwene know each so well she's immediately able to cut through what he's saying on the surface to the underlying motivation.

And Perrin finally verbalizes that Laila's death is his fault. A massive step forward in healing! But of course, Egwene isn't actually a mind-reader so she's assuming it's a "I didn't protect her like I should have," not an actual fog-of-war thing. Still.... baby steps.

Also, I do appreciate that Egwene knows the first rule of survival in a potentially horror level situation: do not split up. (Which, I'm mostly joking but the show does tell us she enjoys adventure stories. Maybe that trope is still around?)

Perrin gets to show off some super-human perceptive abilities in realizing they've got people behind them before Egwene notices them.

And then the Tuatha'an proceed to act extremely sketch. The fog is a big assist as is their weird, "Do you know the song?" greeting tradition. The camera work also sets us up to be wary of these people as it comes at them at a slant. It's only after Aram fills Egwene and Perrin in on the custom and Ila moves into the finishing bit that the camera comes straight in on her and her crew and we get to see, oh this is just a sweet, hippy grandma. (And compared to the Tuatha'an, Egwene and Perrin really do look awful. Dirty, frizzy-haired, very hard traveled.)

Along with the shift in camera angles we're shown laughing children, a bunch of potted plants (which, clever way to assure steady greens as they travel), and tasty home cooking to show us that these people are safe. (In contrast, there were no children and no greenery in Breen's Spring.) Perrin and Egwene have just leaped-frogged into being in the most comfortable storyline.

I like the set up that Aram is the only one of the Tuatha'an who gets that their opening lines are a bit... odd, to the uninitiated. I also like the set up that the Tuatha'an aren't used to running across people who don't already know who they are. (They may have thought Perrin and Egwene were interested in joining them? Or maybe scouting them for some nefarious purpose. We'll later learn they use numbers as a safety measure.)

Interesting that the Two Rivers aren't familiar with the Tuatha'an. It's not until Aram shares the slur-word, Tinkers, that recognition flickers with Egwene and Perrin. (A subtle reinforcing of the Two Rivers isolation.)

Meanwhile, at the woodpile:

A very sweat-stained Rand (seriously, there's a sweat stain all down the back of his shirt) is chopping wood and throwing shade. Mat will return, "when the work is done." And no, he and Mat aren't a couple. If Rand wanted a man, he could do better. I die laughing. Rand gets pissy when he's angry.

Dana does not own the bar/inn and she does not get great pay. Which, going by everything she says throughout the episode I have to wonder, who owns this town? Because I'm strongly suspecting that my "16 Tons" reference early on was more apt that I'd realized. People get stuck in this place when they've nowhere else to go and have made some really bad decisions. I'm guessing people either have to work here in the first place (paying off a debt) or once they start are quickly trapped into not being able to leave (a debt is manufactured, company-store style). Probably a combination of both. The economics of this world are not rosy, in other words.

Dana's let down her hair, sort of, and pulled open her blouse and Rand is very sweet and picking up on none of it and I'm not all that surprised she thought he and Mat were a couple. But then he swerves right into asking Dana to stay and drink with him. (And we know he doesn't mean it the way it comes across and this is going to get him into trouble one day. I mean, regular trouble.)

Gorgeous man rides gorgeous horse through gorgeous scenery:

Pretty much all there is to Lan's searching and finding montage. But... it's enough. :)

I will say, it makes sense that Lan was able to so easily find the Aes Sedai. He knew, via the White Cloaks, where they were heading and/or coming from and there probably aren't too many routes between Ghealdan and Tar Valon.

Moiraine whispers Siuan's name!!1!!1! I couldn't make it out without the help of the subtitles but it's there!

Nynaeve is very tender to the injured Moiraine. She's a big softy at heart and everyone who knows her knows that. Lan now counts as one of those people.

At the dead man's cage:

The second showdown between Mat and Thom!

And now we get a very rare example of the show giving us some world building exposition prior to any visual work. Thom tells us a few things about the Aiel, including their unusual to this world, red hair. It's an interesting choice to show us a dead Aiel and then explain a bit about their culture before we ever meet a living one. A case of wanting their reputation to proceed them?

If you're going to do a verbal exposition drop, Thom's your guy. (The viewers are cued into seeing Thom as someone who knows things because he knew exactly where Mat was from. Proof of ability, then ability activated.) And it gives him a chance to bond with Mat.

You can see how hungry Mat is for a father-figure in this scene. Just a few moments of patiently answering Mat's questions and he's earned Mat's trust enough that Mat goes for total honesty. And then Thom repays Mat's honesty with a tender level of understanding (we all have our desperate moments) Mat probably isn't used to receiving.

Despite his quickness to pull his dagger on Thom in the scene's opening, this is the real Mat we're seeing. And the real Mat does not shirk from hard labor when asked. He stays to help Thom bury the body. (Though he does have a long glance towards town because he knows Rand will be wondering where he is.)

In the sound-proof room:

Dana's coming off as trustworthy as Thom, dropping easter eggs all over the place as Rand wisely keeps some information back (where he's from, where he's going, why) but drops some emotional honesty, admitting that his world's turned upside down on him. (I don't know shit, really.)

There's an interesting contrast in their views of the Wheel. Dana feels it's trapped her where she doesn't want to be. Rand sees himself as making his own decisions without the Wheel taking a hand in his life. (Though, he is starting to wonder about that one.)

Rand continues to really throw out the wrong signals (leaning right into Dana's space as he opens up emotionally) so it's not weird or forced that Dana makes a move. That Rand pulls back and that they're both immediately apologetic about reading the other wrong is also not weird or off putting. But Dana has played her hand. There's no good reason for her to stay anymore but she does need to stay to make sure she gets Mat. So she closes the open door (with epically ominous door-closing sound design) and proceeds to act creepy as fuck.

That, "get back on the bed," line. O.O For a moment I thought the scene was going to go in a completely different direction. But it's just a capture and hold move. She needs to make sure Mat walks into the trap Rand's caught in.

I love how easily Dana is able to take Rand's sword from him. He's a fresh little innocent and Dana's been around rough sorts her whole life.

I also love that she genuinely seems to like Rand. I think everything she told Mat and Rand has been true. She just failed to share how far she was willing to go to get out of the situation the Wheel has put her in.

Meanwhile, at a fresh grave:

Mat has fully imprinted on Thom, baby duckling style, by this point. And he shows off for his new dad-figure by demonstrating his own pickpocketing skills. Thom, being a good guy, acts suitably pleased at Mat's skill and then drops that super ominous (especially since Dana made a similar quip), "don't let me find you hanging in a cage." [Why has the show suggested this might happen to Mat, TWICE!!]

Thom guitar-themes his way out. I'M SURE WE NEVER SEE HIM AGAIN.

Back at the, oh... now I think on it, a sound-proof room is actually kind of creepy, room of realization:

Dana tells Rand it's impossible to break down the door. ... Rand breaks down the door.

(Good sound-design, here. Again. Cues us that something beyond panicked farmer strength is going on.)

Then it's Mat and Rand running while Dana chases them Terminator-style and I do like that they completely drop the humanity of Dana for this chase scene. It's how the boys would be seeing her: an inexplicable threat/monster. Especially as she's able to use her knowledge of the town's layout to cut them off.

And then the learning begins: We learn Dana (and all of her ilk) are looking for five (5!) different potentials via info fed to them through their dreams.

We get the first Big Bad name drop: Ishamael. (There's so much I love about how Izuka Hoyle played this role, but the way she delivers that name: *chefs kiss*)

And in direct contrast to Tam's philosophy of the Wheel back in episode 1 (the Wheel is a mercy and gives us a chance to try again, to do better this time), Dana lays out the view of the Dark (the Wheel is a trap forcing good people to live through bad things again, and again, and again. Stopping it would be the mercy). And we learn that the Dragon Reborn has the power to break the Wheel itself.

Knife in the throat! (Great special effects here.) Thom and his guitar-theme are back and Mat's imprinted hard enough that he's given up on home (he's also been given definitive proof that Moiraine was right and his name is on a list) and is very willing to travel east with Thom. Rand's had a hard lesson on trust and is not as eager to go with Thom, but Mat prevails.

Dana's blood transitions us to...

A road in the forest:

Nynaeve has her own horse! I figured but we see it for certain here.

I love the Aes Sedai riders just sort of appearing on the cliffs. They're being framed as highly competent soldiers with that sort of introduction. Which, it's Red and Green Ajahs we're seeing so, they're not wrong.

Also, first planned shot of Liandrin, I'm sure. Hair filled with tiny braids. Brilliant red outfit contrasting with Moiraine's blue. And then the way she and Moiraine greet each other. Just title and name but this is Rosamund Pike and Kate Fleetwood so there's all sorts of history and conflict in their tone alone.

First shot of Logain as well. And with Alvaro Morte in the role, all we need is a look. A man who can channel. A man thought to be the Dragon Reborn. And the viewers are left wondering, is this candidate number 5?

tl;dr I adored this episode. Mat and Rand's journey was my absolute favorite as we got to watch them be the best comic duo and introduced us to Thom and Dana. I do love a good enemies-to-lovers dynamic, so everything the Lan/Nynaeve scenes gave us was golden. (With a bonus Moiraine/Suian foreshadow!) Perrin and Egwene had the dullest storyline but what time we did spend with them was short and built towards their story yet to come.

#wot on prime rewatch #wot on prime season 1 spoilers #wot on prime deep dive #episode deep dive

4 notes · View notes