The Untamed episode notes 《陈情令》

Updated Jan 15 2024

• MDZS
• fandom

My raw notes for The Untamed, started when I was trying to make sense of the plot but now an indispensable resource for fic. Lots of shorthand and emoji feels so probably useless to anybody but me 🤷🏻‍♀️

• WWX resurrecting in Jin color robes, lolll—cannot fully appreciate the irony of this the first time around
• Lan clan using the lure flags he made; already innovating 😭
• SZ recognizing Wuji from LWJ playing it in Gusu 😭 (diegetic Wuji, “flute”/grass)
  • (ALSO, he would be not realizing he recognizes it from WWX playing it in Burial Mounds)
  • Full moon
• Btw a-Yuan (愿) means “wishes” and Sizhui (思追) means “miss you and chase you,” so basically SZ is a love letter to WWX from LWJ 😭

• Is WWX your dad? / No he’s my idol. 🤣🤣
• Per Jin Ling: Mo Xuanyu didn’t have enough spiritual power to cultivate
  • “So now you’ve resorted to evil tricks”
  • (Also if JL was smart, here’s how to know it’s not MX—he doesn’t recognize JL or know what happened to his parents)
• LWJ already zapping ppl (JL) trying to hurt WWX
• JC to LWJ in front of WWX: you really are where the trouble is; are you looking for someone; you’ve been a lot of places the last 16 years
  • (he asks are you looking for someone before he’s really spotted WWX/MX—so this is just a common occurrence / annoyance for him??)
• SZ best boy at diplomacy, doing all the talking for LWJ
• Silence spell for JL 😆
• LWJ such a good dad: “Go do your work. Just try your best. Don’t force yourselves.” (Especially after JC)
  • (Beautiful lingering face of WWX listening to this in the special edition)
• LWJ knows it’s WWX, but all about making him feel safe?
• “I thought I could be indifferent to the world, but nobody can repress their feelings after all.”
• SZ at the Wen graves, doesn’t know that’s his people 😭
• Jingyi using one of the monster compasses that WWX invented
  • (did he invent it, or did he steal it off that impersonator dude?? lol)
• JL super archery skills like WWX 😭
• Dancing fairy an illusion to get WWX to summon WN
  • NHS did it; he knew, there when WWX and LWJ sealed her
• Summoning WN: diegetic Wuji (flute)
• Start of flashback: Jiang Yanli says they have 10 days before the ceremony in Cloud Recesses starts

• FIRST WUJI @ THE ROOFTOP
  • Full moon
• First sword fight, WWX never unsheathes Suibian! Only blocks Bichen
• First calls him Lan Zhan @ the roof fight, then in front of LXC and LQ 😂
• “Didn’t expect that fuddy-duddy to have real skills.”
  • Yelling fuddy-duddy when the silence spell breaks 😂
  • Translates second ‘fuddy-duddy’ as fool
• Snippet of Wuji as WWX realizing LWJ let the fam in
• WWX and LQ actually brainstorming about the puppets together; they’d make a good team 😂
• LWJ already staring up at the rooftop having mad feels
• Wen Ruohan: “West of Dafan, east of Gusu, north of Yueyang—where is the last shard of Yin Iron?”
  • (Xue Yang: I’ll tell you where after I get the one in Yueyang)
  • So WR doesn’t know there’s a fifth, and it’s in Xuanwu? But XY does

• LWJ pretty feisty against the Wens—wanting to jump into the fight like WWX, but gets the no from LXC
• The presentation ceremony is the first day—WWX telling NHS about the fight with LWJ “last night”
  • WWX already writing lines, lol
  • his first batch is 300, then sentenced to 1000 more
  • Did 40 copies the first night—but even reading them takes hours in class
  • 1300/40 = 32.5 days to finish them all (possibly longer because of dawdling, mistakes, earning more punishment, etc.)
• One of the Lan principles: “don’t indulge in pleasure”
• Distracted by NHS’s canary during the “don’t take evil paths” part 😆
• NHS being the matchmaker with LXC and JGY (still Meng Yao here) just like with WWX and LWJ 😂
• Orchid House = classroom
  • Check the name of pavilion right after scene w NHS WWX and JC
• When two disciples pass JGY, it’s a Lan + Jiang pair
• “Magic tricks for catching fish is no fun”
• JY coming down from upstairs with the soup
• “Just as Madam Yu says, I will never make any trouble.” 😂
• “The fuddy-duddy is so mean.”
  • Good WWX face @ 22:40ish
• Wuji playing again during the LQ Q&A, LWJ already falling SO HARD lol
• “I actually knew the answer, but I was thinking of a fourth way.”

• WWX fixing LWJ’s sleeve after sword fight 😭
• Full blown Wuji in the library
  • Silence spell after “I can kneel down to you” 😆
  • (last silence spell for WWX ever tho? LWJ your feelings are showing)
  • First calls him Wei Ying after the pornography book
• “It was my pleasure to help him break the rules.”
• Beautiful smile @ 13:14, not one of the usual ones
• LWJ calls him Wei Ying when talking to LXC
• “Fuddy duddy put me in confinement for three days”
  • so the show makes it look like a very short period of time but they’re actually in Cloud Recesses for six months soooo 🤷🏻‍♀️
• LWJ: no no no / LXC: so you wanted them to come
• LWJ’s long pause at the bed in the room 😆
  • I bet we think the same / You think so too, don’t you? —already reading LWJ’s expressions
  • Stayed the night in the inn together (?!)
  • Full moon
• Yin Iron causing water demon at Biling Lake
  • No liquor allowed during night hunts
• WWX still intermittently calling him Wangji
• Alllll up in his personal space while LXC smirks
• Wen Ning goes to save Su She, WWX goes to save Wen Ning, LWJ goes to save WWX… seems about right
  • Can’t you just hold me? Here, take my hand! / I don’t touch other people. / But we’re so intimate! / Not close at all.
• WWX giving WQ the talisman to protect WN… so that’s what he sees on the body in ep 26 😭
• Comb is an emblem of lovesickness
• LWJ: what WWX said is not unreasonable

• I don’t know how the Gusu Lans put up with you. / Hey, I’m adorable.
  • (actually says hey, what’s wrong with me; mistranslation)
• In special edition ep 2, WWX says “to come early is not as good as to come in time” when LWJ comes in, referenced again in ep 37
• We killed the aqua demon today—so library>Biling Lake>drinking>Yin Iron happens in like 3 days
• In ep 36 LWJ says he’s never tasted Emperor’s Smile, but he has—but under the spell so doesn’t really count?
  • “I bet no one thought someone high and mighty like you would one day follow my lead.”
  • WWX toast to LWJ: May we never forget what is worth remembering, or remember what is best forgotten.
• LXC says a few days ago I took some students to Biling Lake; WWX said yesterday so they were there a few days?
• “You are one of the people I approve. And I wanna be friends… A lot of benefits come with being my friend.”
• The tiny smile and nod from WWX at LWJ after he ties on the forehead ribbon and retrieves his sword
• Like this is THE MOST BLATANT wedding of all the weddings, jeeeeeeez
• LWJ tugging WWX around by the ribbon like WWX does with the binding talisman
• “Wangji has been diligent since he was a boy, he would never fool around with Wei Wuxian.” —LQ, famous last words, meet your future nephew in law
  • (literally RIGHT THIS MOMENT LWJ is marrying him in a cave 🤣)
• Hundreds of years ago when the Yin Iron was whole, the Burial Mounds was a celestial land
• WWX: if the Yin Iron can absorb natural energy, turn it into a good use / LWJ scolds him but Lan Yi thought the same
  • She tried to break the rules and innovate
  • Lan Yi: I have always done things my way to have a clear conscience
  • Lan Yi: just because it hasn’t been done doesn’t mean it can’t be done

• Saying ancestor in unison, 5:33
• WWX first talking about duty and justice, bowing with LWJ and insisting to share responsibility for the Yin Iron with his ancestors
• LWJ not actually pushing WWX off until JC and WQ appear 😂
  • LWJ magic hair powers: ribbon and whole ‘do fixed between shots
  • Barefoot and dirt-stained in their robes
• LXC using his flute powers on Yin Iron, WWX impressed
  • Calls LWJ zhiji right after that
  • LWJ is so passionate debating w/ LQ about Yin Iron
• JC: You are so familiar with LWJ, you should stay in Cloud Recesses
  • LWJ listening to this conversation
  • “3000 family rules would do me in”
• In the cave one day and night, light the lanterns that same evening (NHS says so)
• “Let’s set a lantern together since we’ve risked our lives.” / “I’m used to being alone.” 😭
• WWX taking his vow from Lan Yi’s words 😭😭
• Altair and Lyra meet once a year—actually Altair and Vega in the Lyra constellation (Every year on July 7, Vega (a weaving girl) and Altair (a cowherd) meet each other after crossing a bridge — the Milky Way. This is celebrated in an event called the Qixi Festival.)
• JY and LWJ doing their first tag team to calm WWX the fuck down
  • LWJ calls him Wei Ying to break up the fight
  • Calls him that again, next scene, at the punishment—thinks WWX is crying but he’s really poking ants
• THE ANTS 🤣🤣
• “After half a year together, can’t I say goodbye?”
• WWX so unhappy to hear they’re leaving

• Goes to say goodbye to WN, before/after rabbits (but Wens gone)
• LWJ leaves in white robes (bye to the rabbits), WWX catches him in blue robes 🤔
• WC to WQ: after months of lecturing you’re fond of them
• Tanzhou, same as ep 39–40 with the rabbit lantern and inn (headed to Qinghe)
  • Dafan Mountain on the way from Tanzhou to Qinghe
  • White pear flower liquor at the tavern (WQ + JC ordering it)
  • Tiannu Temple
• LZ, she has a crush on you
• Fighting the fairy statue—reversed positions of when they’re fighting Xuanwu
  • Full moon
• The first time calling LWJ Hanguang-jun, and it’s Nie Huisiang?? It’s also pre-Sunshot Campaign

• LWJ just lowkey reminding WWX of his insight, that the puppets aren’t dead
• WWX to JC: it was my idea, don’t blame LWJ
• WWX saying it’s so much fun to travel without JC nagging him; kind of like he teases about LWJ being boring
• NHS: good thing my fan is made of Darksteel
• Back to back, get quiet and in sync with each other, fight in unison
  • First using the glitter spell in the forest with the dire owl (or trying to)
  • Fire split talisman against the flying chains
  • WWX chain around his neck at the tree, neck bruised
• A-Yuan!! Too young to remember WWX and LWJ showing up together 😭
• WN getting his cognition stolen as a child
• WWX saying dancing fairy only attacked LWJ; LWJ looking at him; is it surprise because WWX clever enough to figure this out when he hadn’t?
• By Yueyang, WWX has changed clothes, neck healed; LWJ same robes tho
  • How much time has passed??
  • Dichroa Red liquor of Yueyang (so this is what LWJ drinks in ep 35/36)
• Big shift in LWJ through here; done playing it cool, done even trying to say boring and keep distant
  • (until the broken leg part, haha, but arguably that’s about sparing WWX more notice/punishment from WC)

• WWX to Song Lan and Xiao Xingchen: good for you on caring less about bloodline; LWJ and I went on a night hunt together for the same reason
  • Also an inspiration for when he stands up for the Wens??
• Xue Yang, same family name as Xue Chonghui (who created Yin Iron)
  • XY: I’m just a hooligan from Kuizhou
• WWX saying about using Yin Iron to counter Yin Iron in front of NMJ
• Is WWX ditching a feast when he goes out for liquor and runs into JGY (still Meng Yao)?
• Sleeping on the rooftop—precious LWJ smile (the second one we see, after the rabbit lantern?)
  • Would give LWJ the butterfly talismans at some point?? He has them on the road

• Let’s be brothers in the afterlife too
  • The visual parallels of kneeling for punishment with JC vs LWJ (also when kneeling in the temple)
  • WWX wanting to take the punishment from Jiang Fengmian (different story when LWJ did it tho)
  • Jiang Fengmian’s robes here—what WWX’s can look like post-canon? Very elegant and expensive, still black but trimmed in satin/silk (that part in Lan colors etc)
• LWJ using the butterfly/glitter spell (or devil scatter spell, per Wen Chao) that WWX made 😭
• Big shift in WWX through here too, just totally concerned about/constantly alert to LWJ or Cloud Recesses in danger
  • Kept sending LWJ messages on the way home (communication talisman, or old fashioned way?)
• “To attempt the impossible, do nothing until you achieve something.”
• Per LXC: refining Yin Iron is extremely complicated. When refined carelessly it will control people
• “Uncle, it is here that predecessor Lan Yi told me we should keep our conscience clear.”

• First time LWJ pulls the sword block move to protect WWX??
• His distance now is totally protecting WWX from danger/Wen Chao, not protecting himself from WWX
• NHS faints so he doesn’t make it to Muxi Mountain 😆

• Mocking Jiaojiao for not carrying a sword (her cultivation is too low)… ha, foreshadowing
  • Wang Lingjiao = Jiaojiao
• WQ running with the others down to WWX too, leaving WC behind
• LWJ blocks Mianmian from Wen Chao first; JC holding WWX back
• Definitely teasing LWJ about the Mianmian bit 😂
  • Special edition dialogue goes: don’t say things like that unless you mean it / unless… / what do you want to say? (LWJ wants to know)
  • “You just talked to me for the longest…” Hasn’t used the silence spell on him in AGES
• Used to get injured all the time and still swam
• Muxi Mountain closer to Gusu than Yunmeng
  • 1-2 days to Yunmeng (but only if they have swords)
  • Lanling is closer too

• Now they’re just doing straight-up telepathy instead of silence spells 😂
  • Can they hear every thought or only the “conversation”? 😆
• Xuanwu digests spiritual cognition as well as human flesh
  • It’s LWJ who says it’s just like Yin Iron
  • Flashback to Xue Chonghui; Lan Yi first told them about Xuanwu
• Is this a flashback within a flashback now? (The song?) It’s WWX memories as LWJ hums, right? Or no…it’s just LWJ emotions/memories via the song??
  • First diegetic Wuji, right?? (Except for ep 1–2 of course, but that’s out of order)
  • Also “his memory is bad” but he is remembering allll of this
  • Can remember Wuji note by note from hearing it once while he was half conscious
  • “Am I dreaming?”
• Has the scruff after his research at WQ’s but not after seven days in a cave 🤣
• If it hadn’t been for JZ convincing JGS to fight the Wens, couldn’t have saved them
• Wen Chao and Wen Xu
• Madam Yu = Yu Ziyuan (aka Purple Spider)
• TOTALLY a kiss, look at that drawing on the bed
• WWX line about how no one could follow all the Lan rules and live—it’s like that line in Fahye’s fic, LXC saying that’s the point, to be mindful about which ones you do break
  • Lan Yi the black sheep of the Lan clan

• A few days in the river to get from Yunmeng to Lanling
• Jiaojiao arriving — “it’s been 10 days since father and JY left”
• Jinzhu and Yinzhu, handmaid assassins
• Madam Yu agreeing that servants should know their place while looking at WWX
• Netflix and youtube captions say “you reckless maid,” special edition captions say “you bitchy bitch” (Madam Yu to Jiaojiao)
• Go to Meishan for refuge (grandmother)
• “Little fool, don’t cry”—Jiang Fengmian to JC, echo of what WWX says to SZ in ep 50??

• JC to WWX: why couldn’t you just let LWJ and JZ die?
• Over 2400 spiritual tools at Lotus Pier
• Fight w/ JC at dawn, wake up ~noon, find JY, WWX rows them down the river, JC goes back that night or next night? So still close to Lotus Pier? Where are they hiding?
  • JC doesn’t lose his golden core until he goes back and is tortured, right? (per his mom, who checks his pulse and says he’ll recover from the first blow)
  • Tells JY to go to Madam Liu’s; she makes him promise he’ll bring JC and they’ll go to Meishan together (so not in Meishan yet)
• WWX orders five pancakes
• WWX debates using WN as hostage but sees the protection talisman he made for him at his waist

• WWX inventing the Hefeng liquor
• WN rowing the boat, some ep 46 parallels
  • Full moon
• Wens drugged with the 100 Days Ibriety, per Wen Zhuliu
• Madam Liu calls WWX a-Xian; he calls her popo too… but that’s not the Jiangs’ grandmother, right? Still not in Meishan
• WC knows WN helped them, says they’ll go to Yiling tomorrow… but they don’t? WN says they’re safe here, won’t be searched
• WWX split lip when he’s in the carriage transporting JC and JY
• The Wen medical textbooks
  • Diagram of core transfer @ 30:?
• Lan Zhan will help me 😭
  • What if he’s able to get to LZ here tho, and has help?

• Flying around catching pheasants for the last time, a joyride before the core transfer 😭
• Song Lan: rushed back to celebrate my master’s birthday
• WWX says, get Song Lan to take JY to Lan Zhan and the Jin clan in Lanling—so he knows LWJ is there too
• JC: this food tastes bad (WWX cooking) 😂
  • Adorable/funny WWX face when he’s eating the chicken leg
• To baby WWX: at Lotus Pier, you don’t have to apologize for what you didn’t do wrong
  • But then why all the punishments from Madam Yu, lol?

• Seven days later
• Yiling Teahouse is where Wen Chao fucks up WWX
  • Who is watching when JC comes off the mountain? Just a Wen soldier?
• Three months later
• Thought he went to find you in Lanling
• LWJ takes Suibian instead of JC; only a lover allowed to do that, it would have caused rumors?
  • The sword is already sealed when LWJ gets it—WWX won’t know this until ep 42 though
• JY wearing the white waist sash in mourning
• JZ congrats to LWJ on your successful revenge—as he’s holding Suibian 😭
• Qishan indoctrination bureau burnt (where they recover their swords)
  • Supervisory offices in Langya and Qinghe have fallen; Gusu is next; then Yunmeng and Yiling
  • LWJ and JC request Yiling (where WWX was last seen)

• Yiling is where Jiaojiao dies, and the first round of men; but then they chase Wen Chao and WWX to Qishan… but find them in Yunmeng courier station instead
  • (in next couple eps, when they reference it though, they just refer to Yiling Supervisory Office)
• “You prick—where have you been?” JC to WWX
• Raided the Indoctrination Bureau at Nightless City (aka Nevernight)
  • So this is the same as Qishan bureau, right?? Nightless City is in Qishan?
• Youtube captions say “since we broke up in Xuanwu Cave…” lol
• LWJ doesn’t know the difference in WWX is trauma not evil
  • Wei Ying, don’t joke (so he gets at least some of it is put on)
• Ancestral shrine w/ JC, tells Madam Yu he’s kept his promise to protect JY and JC 😭
  • Also parallels with ep 46, kneeling w/ LWJ in the shrine but fighting with JC

• WWX’s reputation as an untamed character
• When WWX meditating, startles and reaches down to his waist for the spirit bag with the Yin Iron—so that’s what he’s reaching for too, in front of the leaders. Same gesture.
• They do have stoves/heating sources in the room
• JY reading with tea when JC runs up 😭 she and LWJ would be best in-laws
• That meeting is when LXC returns
• LWJ to LXC re: no set rules (“intentions of the heart”)
  • LXC best brother 😭
• The sword fight @ WWX’s throat because he just wants back to normal—fighting, laughing, joking
  • It isn’t WWX if he hasn’t grinned and teased LWJ

• WWX remembering the rooftop mtg @ Cloud Recesses
  • Again, not a bad memory for the important things
  • Echo of WWX waiting for him on the roof in ep 10
  • First time LWJ actually sits with him on a rooftop though 😭
  • No full moon here, but so bright it could be
• LWJ: “Things change. How could it be the same?”
• Says thank you to LWJ for Lan temperament techniques
  • Not wicked tricks, crafty tricks
  • “Mastering by the mind is like taking a grain from a burning fire”
  • (see also the Jiang motto: attempt the impossible—overlaps with Lan Yi’s philsophy too)
• LWJ re: the puppets: at least three months’ transfusion of spiritual power to cure it
  • This is how long it takes WWX with WN? And how he knows it can be done?
• LWJ + JY tag team to calm WWX the fuck down (Mianmian standing up for JY too 😭)
• LXC: we’re fighting with our backs against the wall, no way back
  • “Qishan is as hard as an iron cask, but can be penetrated with water.”
  • Jin Guangyao is who hides LXC after Cloud Recesses burns 😭

• Plum blossoms outside (and inside) the rooms in Qishan—the plum normally blossoms in mid-winter during January and February when all flowers die and the land is pale in colour
• Now Meng Yao is Jin Guangyao
• LXC knows the Jins are hunting anyone who knows anything about Yin Iron: Wen, Jin, or Jiang
  • (so knows there’s a threat to WWX, and LWJ by proxy)
• Everybody toasting at banquet, LWJ all alone, goes to find WWX

• Host a hunt at Jinlintai this fall (youtube captions)
• JGY clocks WWX as having “an intimate relationship” with LWJ
  • JGY spying on WWX
• Both go home again, but don’t fit
• Heat sources: sunken fire pit w/ sand in Jingshi; with LQ there’s a standing furnace/stove
• Errrrrbody that’s Lan knows LWJ is gone for WWX, thinks he cannot be trusted
  • LWJ fidgeting with his hands when LQ is restricting him 😭
• Core discipline of the Jiang: attempt the impossible
• Core discipline of the Lan: eradicate evil, set up laws, then goodness is everlasting
• WWX hears LWJ is sentenced to mending the books, straight up tells LXC he wants to visit and “help”
  • (reverse the roles—“now I can be in his position, it seems more fun,” lol)
• Now LXC all “there are set rules in the world, goodness follows them,” what up with that
  • LXC still best brother 😭
  • LXC: if you trust us, we can help you pick up your sword arts again / WWX: I trust you, but I don’t want to pick it up
  • Maybe I am the prodigy (echoing Lan Yi frpm ep 6)
• WWX and JY—tear running down his face resting on her knee, when he starts joking about being hungry, but then asking about liking someone so much
  • It’s like haltering your own neck 😭
• JC slighting JGY for being a lesser brother/bastard gets to WWX because is he wonders if that’s how JC sees him?
• LWJ BREAKS THE RULES!!!!!! Breaking into the forbidden library for the musical scores 😭😭

• Ripe opportunity of what would have happened here if WWX had fessed up to LWJ about what’s going on
• LWJ never gonna recover from this
• The LWJ + JY tag team of calming WWX the fuck down again

• LWJ bitchy greeting to Su She
• A month ago you were night hunting the Wen remnants in Ganquan
  • Eight-winged bat king 😆
  • The Stygian lure flag already in use—so who invented it?? WWX already? It’s pre-Yiling-laozhu though?
• WWX: am I wrong?
• LWJ: is he wrong?
• What’s the difference between you and the Wen clan?
  • Tooth for a tooth — at what point is that also evil?
  • 17:20, the look at LWJ as he leaves the banquet
• JGY using the Wen for trial cultivation (special edition captions are clearer) — using the spirit lure flags to cultivate wicked techniques (!)
• WWX magic hair powers: dry and flowing once he’s playing the flute in the rain
• Remember the promise we made
• Special edition has sooo much more emotion, especially from WWX

• “That reclusive former predecessor of the Lan clan came”—meaning Lan Qiren
• “Everybody knows they’re close” @ the banquet 2.0
• Mianmian!! She and LWJ ain’t having it 🔥 (she actually defects though, BOSS MOVE)
• Says JC rebuilt Jiang clan for several years… but still calls them teenagers? Timeline is wonky (or captions are wonky)
• LQ asking LWJ about 52nd rule, no association with evil
  • LQ coughing—sick? Still affected by Wen attack?
  • “Repeating your father’s tragedy” 😭
  • LWJ so upset at insinuating his mother was evil
  • LQ teary-eyed when LWJ gone
• Darker stormy clouds when JZ talking to JY
• WWX says been here three days and three nights to WQ
• Promises a-Yuan siblings 😭
• Didn’t know WN wasn’t dead, just wanted to teach Jins a lesson, didn’t know he would become a puppet

• Wen Ning had part of his spirit snatched by the dancing fairy when he was a child (see ep 5 and 9)
• JC to WWX: Do you know how many eyes are spying on you?
  • No one will speak for you
• His talismans prevent Zidian from striking WN
• No precedent / I’ll be the precedent! (Echoing to LXC in ep 24 about I’ll be the prodigy, which echoes Lan Yi)
• JC sleeping in Qiting??
  • Full moon
• The guqin accompaniment when he’s playing Wuji 😭 (flute part is diegetic)
• JC sword vs flute/yin energy like LWJ in ep 32
• WWX wants potatoes, sick of turnips
• LWJ makes it one month before taking off for Yiling
  • “Must be his dad, their noses are the same” 🤣
  • LWJ lying like a pro, “night hunt” my ass
  • LWJ’s little gulping swallow of doom watching WWX kneel and chat with a-Yuan
  • LWJ stands NO CHANCE against the a-Yuan/WWX combo 😭

• Says one month later onscreen, but WWX says several months to LWJ (“Several very dull months”)
  • LWJ to a-Yuan: Silence while eating
  • Ceremony in half a month
  • Youtube captions: “Mn.” / “What did you ‘Mn’ for?”
  • LWJ getting ready to tell him something when the fire talisman interrupts
• You did it. / Of course. I am a man of my word.
• Can anybody show me a smooth, broad road?
• One can choose to be good or bad, but it depends on others to praise or condemn him. I don’t care my gain or loss.
• Everyone has his own road to take.
• “A good name after death can’t compare to some good wine while living.”
• Reminiscing about the Emperor’s Smile fight and LWJ’s stony face, another case against the “bad memory”
• Compass of evil, flame talisman (aka wind talisman?)

• Lan means orchid, a gentry (or gentleman) among flowers
  • Actually Lan surname (藍 lán) means blue; different lan (兰) that means orchid
  • JC complains “Jin Rulan” sounds like he’s Lan 🙃
• JC and WWX staged the fight??? Lol
• Heal from the stab wound in seven days; JC’s broken arm in plaster for over a month (WWX: it’s usually three months for injuring bones, one month isn’t that long)
• When reminiscing, replays the lantern vow w/ only WWX angle
  • In the special edition, his reminiscing is almost all LWJ-oriented; the only real clue here is musing on the name Rulan
  • Full moon

• Everybody @ Burial Mounds has new robes (WWX x2, plain set and fancy set)
• Working on the gift for JL for half a month
• JZ last words: WWX, why can’t you just compromise for once? Don’t you know that Li is… she is still waiting for you…
• WWX calls JL a-Ling during the rant at WN—does he have the courtesy name at birth?
• WQ calls him Wei Ying during last convo in the cave 😭

• So per ep 46 LWJ has already found a-Yuan at this point? He went back for WWX after the Wens were killed, but WWX had already run
  • Not shown onscreen: LWJ speaks for the Wens at Jinlintai (LXC tells WWX in ep 43 and WN thanks LWJ for it in ep 46)
• WWX: Explain how I manipulated WN to kill in Jinlintai when I was a thousand miles away
  • More than 30 innocent people died on Qiongqi road / More than 10 innocent Wen cultivators died in Burial Mounds
• Do you really consider yourself such a great man for disregarding universal condemnation?
• Different flute song when it’s against LWJ??
  • Full moon

• Diegetic Wuji as WWX wakes up (qin)
• JC (says he) searched for WWX’s body, LWJ couldn’t for three more years 😭
  • (According to the LWJ character song, he keeps searching by playing “Inquiring for the Soul” with no answer 😭😭😭)
• Echoing the “16 years ago” line (Netflix captions get it wrong)
• Bruised lip in resurrection/bed scene—can see it in the flashback on Jinlintai steps in ep 42
• Memories from ep 7—“I desire equivalence, he is my match”
  • Remembering alllll of this, how can memory be bad
  • Bunnies kissing
  • “Didn’t that fuddy-duddy say he didn’t like you?”
• More magic hair powers by LWJ: totally elaborate fix between the cold springs and the underworld chamber
• LQ worst nightmare coming true 😆
• LQ moved into the cultivation chamber… WWX gotta move out
• Saying Xue Yang in unison, 36:10
• “I finally won’t be controlled by all the strict rules here.” 😂
  • Traveling from Cloud Recesses on horseback (WWX cannot ride a horse lol)

• JC recognizing WWX as soon as he takes the mask off
• JC accusing LWJ of lying to WWX, he brought you back just for vengeance etc — HA! not a chance, WWX doesn’t buy it for a second
• JL actually saves him; he’ll be a good kid away from his uncles

• Beginning is even more poignant after JC’s accusation in previous ep. Knows LWJ would never 😭
• Full moon, LWJ watching it before piggyback ride
  • Full moon at Mo Manor too, when WWX resurrects—so it’s only been 1-3 days, when moon could still look full. Or a month? (Implausible.) Or just artistic licence, lol
• It’s called a sword ghost before the scene w/ NHS in the tomb where he corrects them that the Nie practice blades not swords; called blade spirit after that
• WWX thinks someone might have brought him back to frame him
  • So JC wasn’t wrong, only wrong about it being LWJ, haha
• Yueyang, Qiting wine house (same as ep 9)
• Xue Yang appearing 16 years ago, but pardoned by JGS (“it was only 50 people”)
  • Right after killing WWX for “only 50 people”
  • LWJ having to endure this while in isolation with WWX dead—the injustice

• WN calls the new flute Chenqing—he’s the only one though? A slip? It’s not supposed to be Chenqing until JC gives it back in ep 49, right?
• Ok, so they go from in town to the woods because they’re combining like three drunk scenes from the book together, and have to do the marriage proposal chickens—otherwise it makes no sense how they “get lost” from standing right in front of the inn 😆
• LWJ HAS REGRETS—big deal because part of the promise they swore was to live with no regrets
• Ghost face man—Su She
• Coffin town, east of Shu
• Fairy bit Apple, Apple kicked Fairy—now neither of them can move lolll
  • Jingyi very much Team Apple

• JL in Qinghe, Lan juniors in Langye, run into each other in Yueyang
• WWX calls JL Young Mistress Jin
  • WWX to JL: don’t take your uncle’s tone
• XY: I have a friend whose acting is far better than mine (JGY)
• Can’t believe most rumors (about raising people from the dead)
• XY confessing that he has the last Yin Iron piece (but not from Chang clan); knows WWX got the fifth one from Xuanwu
  • WWX says congrats for being smart enough to set him up so everybody thought he had the missing piece
• “Wen Ning is not a thing”
• To LWJ: “Should I call this, ‘to come in time is better than to come early?’” (see note for ep 6)
• All the little ducklings surrounding him @ 37:00 ☺️
  • When they ask WWX, Low-key, right?
  • Waving, it’s up to you now! @ 38:58
• WWX is the one saying “there’s no need”
• “Empathy” is the “wicked trick”… irony

• When they’re burying a-Qing: “Lan Zhan.” / “Fortunately…” / “What?” Never finishes the sentence
• The Song Lan heartbreaker, the rabbit lantern, the post-LXC drink all back to back
  • Tanzhou, same as ep 8 with the masks scare and the lady florist
  • WWX bopping the rabbit lantern with his flute while they walk into the frame 😂
• WWX looking at LWJ when LXC describing NMJ—he was gone, I prepared myself for the worst
• LXC: All of these events happened within the past month, when he was with me every night 👀
• SZ to JL: a person of demonic cultivation doesn’t necessarily use the power to do evil (LWJ’s influence?)

• Ooyang saying JL returns to Jinlintai tomorrow
• Jingyi calling JL Young Mistress Jin
  • (wasn’t there to hear WWX in ep 37, so who picks it up from the other?)
• In the novel, Jingyi dropping the chicken wing isn’t because LWJ is carrying liquor, but because drunk LWJ ties up WWX with his forehead ribbon and hauls him upstairs
• SZ has a finger tattoo! 😆
• The three day cultivation conference @ Jinlintai next month
• Per JC: LWJ has never been to a conference in Jinlintai, “what’s different now?” 😭 LWJ showing his undying loyalty (and picking up WWX’s grudges)
• LWJ saying suibian, “whatever,” when WWX is worried about how he’ll have to bluff
  • In youtube version: “I’m just afraid of losing you face.”
  • WWX already in the food before JGY can make his speech
• Is that Bacao, the maid from eps 45–46 with Qin Su?
• At the dance, room is mostly empty, LWJ and LXC coming from outside, WWX coming in from other direction after NHS theatrics—so little time skip there
• JGY, the playa, can’t tell he’s getting plaaaayed
• LWJ: Don’t go far. WWX: Wait for me. 😭 After what happened last time they were here 😭
• WWX face while JL is defending him, ahahaha
  • WWX best uncle 😭
  • “I’m in love with someone else. Madam Jin is not my type.” 🤣
• LWJ is so soft toward WWX, definitely some boning down happened over those drinks and during that month
• Staying in the same room where LQ lectured him about WWX being evil like his mother

• WWX knows JGY swapped the music, he confesses in the Empathy with NMJ. So when WWX plays it, he’s giving LX the evidence to “discover” on his own instead of just telling him?
• LWJ (and WWX) bitchy greeting to Su She

• LXC: Gusu disciples were on a night hunt in Yiling when they passed Mo’s Manor…
• LWJ: Hands off. / Su She: You should keep your hands off. 😂
• Su She not back on his bullshit—he stays on his bullshit
• Sacrificial curse: a trick for healing those who are severely wounded at the cost of one’s entire spiritual cognition (special edition captions)
  • So sacrifice summon was a Yiling-laozhu idea? Or maybe with his manuscripts, bc something obscure he found? In Wen manuscripts? Collab w WQ? Or actually a Jin document but trying to pin it on him?
• Good memory: immediately remembers what LWJ asked him in Cloud Recesses
  • In special edition it’s “trust” instead of “believe in”
• “Lan Zhan, you fuddy-duddy,” with great affection when LWJ won’t leave his side
• According to the book, curse mark on WWX’s leg is lifted by the time he’s stabbed
• NHS has the body, so this is when he puts it in the temple coffin??

• LXC gonna test the evil music on himself
• Taking WWX back to the Jingshi (“silence chamber”)
  • Su She is the one facing off with LWJ at the siege (of COURSE he is), followed by JGY
  • “You are not privileged to talk to me.”
  • JGY coming from inside the cave
  • JGY: even if WWX happens to survive… so they’re not sure he’s dead
• LXC not there while he’s punished—doesn’t agree, or simply not in Cloud Recesses??
  • The ends of LWJ forehead ribbon bloody from the beating (has been bloody before, after Xuanwu)
• Still secretly took her to Cloud Recesses, married her quietly
• Snow when his mother dies; when punished after Yiling
• In special edition, WWX says “I wouldn’t have asked him to do that” after LXC story
• “Surely it’s too flirtatious to say out loud…” in youtube edition, that’s the line when WWX is trying to say thank you the first time
• If I were him… but trails off, looking at LWJ
• You didn’t tell him? On Qiongqi Way, the second flute? / You know? / I asked Wen Ning.
• Lip bruised @ porch scene
• Diegetic Wuji (qin)
• Special edition captions:
  • “Even if I run out now and scream ‘I was wronged!’ for 100 times, no one would believe me.”
  • LWJ: “Nothing matters. I’ll do what my heart tells me.” / WWX: “Let them slander me and defame me. I’ll do what my heart tells me.”
• Little Apple not wanting to leave Cloud Recesses 😆
• Diegetic Wuji on Little Apple
  • So right after WWX has heard LWJ play it on the qin (which he heard before in ep 33, too)

• LWJ knows WN following them since Jinlintai—during this is when LWJ asks him about the flute?
• His lip split by the time they arrive @ Burial Mounds
• “This body of mine lacks spiritual power”
• Jin Chan, the little brat who was trying to beat up Jin Ling, is the one mouthing off in the cave 😂
  • JL tells him to shut up when he’s attacking WWX
  • JL and SZ tied together
• “They haven’t come back in days…” —but has it been that long? It’s Jingyi, who would say that after 15 min
  • So maybe there are extra days at Cloud Recesses then
• WWX does open Suibian for WN after they’re in the cave (the second time, in one shot he tosses it to him closed, then in the next shot WN carries it unsheathed)
• SZ calls him Wei-qianbei when they arrive 😭
  • The Lan ducklings defending WWX against the rest
  • LWJ and SZ are the ones to step in front of him with JL 😭😭 (Jingyi too!!)
  • WWX basically does the same thing—joining LWJ against his uncle
• The other day, JGY “hurt” during an “assassination attempt”
• WWX asking WN not to go out when clans start arriving
• LQ ordering LWJ to come here, he doesn’t—WWX expression
• LQ overhearing Ooyang defending WWX (he saved us in coffin town and saved us here)
  • Calls out the Jins for lying about executing WN; LQ starting to think
• LWJ reliving the siege but this time with WWX beside him (and juniors)
  • WWX saving JC with the flute when his powers go
  • WWX saving JC and LWJ saving LQ
  • SZ saving everybody by realizing there’s a magic circle in the cave (and then the juniors backing him up)
  • LQ mending the magic circle
• LQ draws his sword on WWX
• JL says still have spiritual power after trapped there for two days (if LWJ and WWX stop in Yiling, and maybe elsewhere, there is time for the jrs to get kidnapped after they leave Cloud Recesses)
• WWX to Su She: who are you? 😆
• The juniors all doing the Q&A with WWX like they would during night hunts 😭
• WWX’s face @ “who dares to drink the water in Burial Mounds?”
• LWJ silencing Su She so WWX can talk 🤣
  • Blame the silence spell as WWX wicked trick, but no it’s Lan—more of the gray area
• WWX asks LQ a question, LQ tells him to ask LWJ
  • LWJ watching LQ listen to WWX
  • Jingyi talking back to LQ?? During Su She interrogation
• At second siege—they can tell their spiritual power is weak (pulse) but looks like only the doctor can say if golden core still intact
• Since the qin can subdue the evil, why can’t it summon the evil?

• Jingyi wanting to draw the lure flag on himself too
• JL and SZ fighting puppets together
• Lotus Pier nearest to Burial Mounds
• He’s like a brother and a father to me, taught me how to play qin 😭
• WWX passed out but change of clothes, LWJ too
  • Fancy new robes—so LWJ had those in waiting? Dressed him in the boat? 🙃
• Zizhen standing up to his father and clan leader Yao, defending WWX too
• At that different dock (Yiling??) before they sail back to Lotus Pier
  • Full moon @ Lotus Pier arrival
• “No misbehavior” when sprawling on the porch steps 😂

• My parents are dead because you had to go save your precious LWJ
  • WWX calls him Jiang Wanyin in the temple fight
• Flashback of saving a-Yuan; the same day the Wens were captured and killed
  • So LWJ @ Burial Mounds x2? Goes to find WWX, finds a-Yuan instead; then goes back for siege after WWX dies
• First thing WWX does is defend JC to LWJ, which hits so different for LWJ now that LWJ KNOWS
• The right time for lotus seeds—usually early harvest is July–Aug, late harvest is Oct–Nov
• So it’s been fall, heading into winter if it’s snowing in Cloud Recesses
• Blossoms when they’re walking into town—but could be plum blossoms? Still winter? See ep 23

• Sends WN back to the inn
• Fall colors on the maple trees too
• “I’m half a wreck, but we still have Hanguang-jun”
• History repeating w/ Bichen’s blade at WWX’s neck
• LWJ locks down his spiritual power, so has a hint of WWX without it
• “Yesterday” JC running around Lotus Pier with the sword—2 days since last ep?
• JC saving LWJ from JGY sword 😭 (about time, the literal least he could do, etc etc)

• LXC watching WWX defend teenage LWJ 😭😭
• Hands tied until LWJ cuts them loose (LWJ hands not tied, because JGY knows he’s not going anywhere without WWX?)
• Lan clan won’t tolerate betrayers
• “You’re chivalrous and untamed”

• JC has Chenqing; tosses it back to WWX
• The little nod of LWJ’s approval 😭
  • (and shaking his head at LXC trying to stop him)

• WWX calls SZ a-Yuan after the big reveal
• Looking at the flute
• Swans at the pond
• Says the most important rule of all—don’t befriend evil
• Pomegranate tree @ the Cloud Recesses waterfall next to LWJ—an auspicious fruit in China, representing posterity, solidarity, luck, and virtuous offspring. When a couple marries, pomegranates are often placed in the bridal chamber to bless the new union.
  • WWX new robes swirled like clouds
• Diegetic Wuji x2 (flute and qin; then only flute)

]- Cloud Recesses also translated “Where the Clouds Retreat”

• Hanguang Jun, also one who possesses the light
• Bichen, also “Eluding the Dust of the Mortal World”
• Liebing is the name of Lan Xichen’s flute. The name means Cracked Ice
• Btw Lan Yuan (愿) means “wishes” and Lan Si Zhui (思追) means “miss you and chase you”, so basically Si Zhui is a love letter to Wei Ying from Lan Zhan
• chenqingling, anything from “a song to explain myself” or “a song of past relationships” or “a song to command the world”
• chenqing… to lay out my feelings, to reveal myself fully, to express the song of my heart …