The Untamed - Blog Posts
Okay this is lovely. They have an extremely lovely longfic, too*, which I've just read and I have no words.
The Waves are Rising and Rising, to be found on Ao3. Seriously. It's so, so good.
happy valentines day! have some happy 3zun, based on a lovely moment from the Good Mornin'! sequence in Singin In The Rain :)
I'm currently watching the MDZS donghua with my Mom - and yes, I'll make a list of her opinions again when we're done, but my schedule right now is crazy, so I don't get to sit down in peace as much as I'd like.
This isn't about that. This is about me warning her that I'll sit her through The Untamed, eventually. (Assuming I'll survive this. Every time Jin Guangyao shows up on the screen a beam at him, actually whooped in his first scene because it's so, so late in the donghua and WHAT AN ENTRANCE THEY GAVE MY LITTLE GUY, and I've said I adore that man. She's going flay me alive because she's not going to feel the same way.) She's all for it, but I warned her that the special effects are ... ahem. Not it.
Her response: Is it phallactite-level bad?
Me, trying to process this question for a minute and failing: WHAT-level bad?!
Her giving me a huge grin: You know, pallactite. Like the one from Kirk.
It took another hot minute for me to get what she meant, but then I told her that I knew she was okay with the horrible effects and props from Star Trek, but it's one thing in a no-budget 60s show and another in a modern one so I wanted to warn her. I also said the props and costumes and what not are good and SOME of the effects are, too, but she shouldn't think too much about how physics work most of the time.
(Look up the scene in 'What Are Little Girls Made Of' with a stalactite. Or just look for Kirk and stalactite. The scene is about a minute. If you find a still of Kirk holding a huge, unfortunately shaped prop - yes, that is, in fact, a real still.)
Now keep your fingers crossed that I live long enough to do this.
Mini-fic or Prologue - who knows?!
Okay, I have drafted a prologue for the Xiyao fic I threatened earlier today. My friend likes it, so I took a second glance at it, smoothed out a few wrinkles, and now I'm throwing it here.
I have no idea if this can function because I have yet to read the books, so I can't tell for certain if I will use it all - and if I do, it might not be the prologue so much as part of a chapter, all of that is written in the stars. But since Ao3 doesn't allow placeholders (nor should it) and I don't know when I get to write the whole thing (although that I will write it certain), I'll at least put this fragment of questionable permanence here for the time being. I will announce when I post the actual fic to Ao3.
No Bonds Can Hold Me
‘Maintain your own discipline. Train your body and your mind. Store your inner wisdom deeply.’
Second nature. All of this was second nature to a man who had lived by these rules his entire life. Now discipline eluded him, his mind refused to focus on what mattered, and his inner wisdom was torn to shreds. There was almost nothing left of the man he had been … before. And if there was nothing left, what was the point of him? ‘Do not act impulsively.’ That rule had saved his life several times over recently. To what end? He had broken so many others: ‘Do not grieve in excess. Do not bully the weak. Do not associate with evil.’
Am I the evil? The voice that existed in his thoughts only perforated his meagre attempt at meditation again, stripping away another layer of his strength.
Seclusion had done nothing to erase the guilt and the pain and the grief, to silence this voice. It lived in his heart as constantly as its beating. It hadn’t helped compose his mind, hadn’t let him accept that what was done was done. Every time he started out asking himself, ‘How could I have acted any differently?’ the question quickly degraded into the much simpler and much more destructive, ‘How could I?!’ The blood on his hands and clothes was long gone, but he could still feel it sticking to his skin any time his eyes closed, could smell its cloying scent, so much, so much of it.
‘Be gentle and content in adversity.’
Slowly, Lan Xichen opened his eyes. It was, indeed, done, and yet he knew there was one path not yet taken. ‘Do not act impulsively. Do not fall to evil.’ But was an act he had chewed over time and time again for more hours than he could count impulsive? Was saving a soul evil?
He hadn’t allowed himself those thoughts at first, but now that he did, he felt calmer. ‘Have a strong will and anything can be achieved.’ His path was laid out before him and he would walk it openly and with determination. He needed help, and he wasn’t afraid to ask for it. Beg for it, if he had to.
‘Don’t be unreasonable.’ What was one more rule broken anyway?
The voice in his head that kept repeating his name like a broken mantra could only be assuaged by returning it to the real world. It was his fault that it had been silenced, so it had to be him that did all he could to restore it. (‘Uphold the value of justice.’) And if that proved impossible, he should earnestly consider following it into oblivion, the way he had been prepared to.
Lan Xichen stepped out into the darkness. (‘Venturing out at night is prohibited.’) He had tried to silence the call that only he could hear, but now he welcomed it, let it guide his steps and fuel his spirit. Lan Xichen, Lan Xichen … ‘Yes,’ he thought, conscious of the cool air surrounding him and the light breeze rustling his robes, ‘I still hear you. I’m not grieving for you. I’m coming for you.’
After watching CQL, I feel the need to write a fanfic. Because of course I do. Now I just need to finish my current project and then read the books.
Until I have, my ability to predict what it'll be like is limited, but I do know that it'll be a Xiyao fic. I know from my friend that things end a bit differently in the books, but I don't know how. She thinks I can work with it. 😅 She did not word this in a promising manner.
Oh, and there is one more thing. Jin Guangyao is going to have a huge, HUGE praise kink. I'm prepared to die on that hill.
The title might be 'No Bonds Can Hold Me', but that might very well change.
Oh and the friend I mentioned is the same one who asked me to write beefleaf. There is a tendency there, but this time no persuasion was necessary.
every day people tell me that the untamed is good, i’ve seen the first episode, stop gaslighting me
i’ve decided that after 13 years of mourning, lan wangji carefully devised an algorithm for making decisions involving wei wuxian and it looks like this
Same picture of wangxian twice 4 times
Bros got a point
Why was it called "Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation"? That name describes only one plotline.
Should've called it "A Tragedy of Jin Ling's Uncle". Covers pretty much all of the main plotlines.
Lmao Jingyi is experiencing the Jiang Cheng experience.
Lan Jingyi : Am,… I … third wheeling?!!!!
I Want my Wei Ying Back, with apologies to Jon Klassen.
Happy Lunar New Year!
Here's a quick drawing as celebration!