When Zewu-Jun explains about LWJ's scars, he talks about LWJ fighting Lan sect leaders. When does this happen?…
omg no! I am absolutely not imagining him being the only person that shows up every year, without fail. Everyone thinks he's just there because he's super dedicated to the cause and because he's the esteemed Hanguang-jun and must set a good example. But naw. He actually WANTS the Yiling Patriarch to show up. Somehow I'm both laughing and really sad about this.
When Zewu-Jun explains about LWJ's scars, he talks about LWJ fighting Lan sect leaders. When does this happen?…
No worries! I keep wracking my brain trying to make WWX's Nightless City fall scene make sense as well. He doesn't have his golden core at that point, so a fall from that height might be more likely fatal for him than it would be for your average cultivator. But like you said, LWJ is literally right there holding Bichen, so why can't he just fly down and get him? Especially someone of his advanced skill. Literally the only explanation I can come up with is what you proposed: that he had exhausted his spiritual energy at that point and was therefore unable to. (I remember he's described in the novel as having massive strength, to the point that he can even lift up the corner of a house single-handedly, which we don't really see demonstrated in the drama, but... if he has such difficultly keeping a solid grip on WWX, maybe that's an indicator that his spiritual energy is flagging? Especially because he had no trouble holding up WWX, Su She, and Wen Ning during the Waterborne Abyss fiasco. He's also injured, so... Gosh, idk, I'm just tossing around theories at this point!)
You did mention something else I've been wondering about, though: ["Also, when LZ arrives to Nightfall, he tells WY that things have changed."] I've always wondered what he meant when he said that. I remember in E43 he mentions to WWX that he had talked to Wen Ning about the second flute on Qiongqi Path. Does this mean that when the Nightless City battle happens, LWJ already knows that someone else is manipulating things behind the scenes (i.e., "things have changed")? Because I don't know when else he would've had that conversation with Wen Ning, unless it was after the Wens had surrendered themselves to Koi Tower. Which would make the Nightless City battle that much more depressing if LWJ had suspicions about what was really going on but was never able to voice them in time due to the impending chaos. (Forgive me for writing a novel back to you!)
When Zewu-Jun explains about LWJ's scars, he talks about LWJ fighting Lan sect leaders. When does this happen?…
Right?? ugh. Part of me wonders if him defending Fu Mo Cave isn't possibly/partially related to him waiting outside the Jingshi long after his mother's death, even when he was old enough to know she wouldn't return. As if he himself needed a place to be able to come back to even when he knew the other person wouldn't(/couldn't).
Except I definitely don't want to imagine him returning to the Burial Mounds during those 16 years like he did to the Jingshi, because it's just... way too painful. ಥ_ಥ
When Zewu-Jun explains about LWJ's scars, he talks about LWJ fighting Lan sect leaders. When does this happen?…
I originally thought LWJ finds A-Yuan post Nightless City (which is, if I remember correctly, how it happens in the novel?), but apparently in the drama it actually happens earlier. During his discussion with Wen Ning in the boat, LWJ explains that on the day the Wen clan was killed, he went to the Burial Mounds looking for WWX and ended up finding A-Yuan. I remember someone else suggesting that that might be why he's late to the Nightless City battle, which... actually makes sense? (Though the timeline is still a bit murky. WWX was asleep/unconscious for 3 days before the needle wore off, which means LWJ would've had to have shown up on or after the third day once WWX had left. And I'm not sure how much time is supposed to have passed between WWX waking up and the battle at the Nightless City. Is it literally just a day? Or a few days, especially since WWX couldn't fly his sword and would have to travel on foot?)
As for the other scene you mention with LWJ fighting the sect leaders, I always assumed that it takes place some time fairly soon after WWX falls off the cliff. He still has that wound on his arm from where he'd been injured during the Nightless City fight, so I took that to mean that he had gone directly there. As for why he went there, it might've been like you said, to search for some sign of WWX, and/or he might've just wanted to protect some small part of what WWX had helped build so that there would be something of him left. It also seemed significant that the place LWJ specifically wanted to protect from the mob's destruction was Fu Mo Cave, since that was WWX's space/sleeping quarters and the area he had shown to LWJ.
All this talk about boy love has completely put me off wanting to try this as that's just not something I'd enjoy…
If other people's opinions of the show bother you that much, then simple: Just don't watch it. Obviously I would tell you to give it a chance, but you seem to have developed some strong opinions based on other people's remarks rather than assessing the actual content of the drama firsthand. (There's a twitter thread someone put together where a bunch of guys watched The Untamed and literally only saw a drama about two platonic dudebros -- even going so far as to think LWJ was the villain -- so take that as you will.)
As for why it was recommended based on NIF, I think it actually makes a lot of sense. Both have protagonists that experience both a literal and figurative fall, are branded as traitors largely due to other people's machinations, and then work to unveil the truth of what really happened however many years ago. Both have protagonists who return with different faces (at least in the original texts). And both feature a strong, supportive male-male relationship that serves largely as the foundation of the narratives. Despite the inevitable differences, they really are very similar at their core.
For those who have read the novel and watched(/are watching) the drama, which would you recommend starting with? Generally I'm one to read the book first, but I'm wondering if this is a situation like Guardian where the drama is a really good springboard into the novel?
Watching this was such a unique experience. I can't think of any other drama where I wanted both male leads to die -- and the female lead, if only to free her from all of the nonsense, toxicity, and manipulation.
Is the HIStory series something you can jump into out of order? Does anything connect the three series -- (recurring side characters, etc.) -- or are they are all independent stories?
Does this drama warrant more than 50 hours of our life to pursue? I love wuxia and am deciding if I should give…
Having watched 41 episodes so far, I would actually argue yes. Usually I'll wait until a drama is fully subbed to watch it, but I somehow came across the first ep on Youtube, got immersed in the story, and have stayed caught up with the subs ever since. It does have its issues, and I may have a few gripes with the way certain things play out, but the cast does such a stellar job that they make up for a lot of the drama's shortcomings. For me, anyway. I know a lot of people have said that it's slow, and the first half absolutely is, but I actually appreciated the pacing. And it delves a little more deeply into "backstage" Sect politics that we don't always see in other wuxia dramas. (Also the fight sequences are spectacular!!) So maybe give the first few episodes a try, and if it feels unbearably slow/draggy without you really feeling invested in what happens next, then drop it, because that's more or less the pace for the rest of the drama.
It really is way better, especially thouse weird 'before OP scenes' are missing.
Thanks so much, and I'm glad to hear it! I remember watching episodes, and then having to scroll back to the beginning of certain ones so that the pre-OP scenes made sense. Not sure why they did it that way originally, but I definitely plan on giving the series a rewatch once Viki is done subbing it. (Crossing my fingers that the last episode is patched together less haphazardly.)
I really loved this drama at the start for being a mature, slow-burn wuxia romance, but now I shamelessly love it for what it has inevitably (unfortunately?) turned into: repetitive cornball melodrama. Nearly every female main character, apart from the FL and a very select few side characters, are only there to be scheming, jilted dicks. Meanwhile ML is the literal equivalent of the "this is fine" dog, letting Xiao Tai run around and cause havoc because... he owes it to her father or something? I get that he feels responsible for her, but for a man who supposedly has eyes and ears everywhere, he is spectacularly deaf and blind when it comes to that girl. And don't even get me started on the romance. I literally burst out laughing in episode 36 when ML poured out the rare medicine FL had risked her life to obtain. Like legit cackled. These are noble idiots to the umpteenth degree.
It's the name of the sect (and residence) that the ML is head of
No problem! Xiao Yi Qing is always making comments about how the Snow Tower has eyes and ears everywhere -- (hence, "listening") -- which explains how they're able to anticipate and plan for certain events in advance. So yes, Lang Ya Hall is definitely a good example of that same principle (though it's probably on a much grander scale in comparison, haha). Although I do love the more poetic interpretation you provided!
You did mention something else I've been wondering about, though: ["Also, when LZ arrives to Nightfall, he tells WY that things have changed."] I've always wondered what he meant when he said that. I remember in E43 he mentions to WWX that he had talked to Wen Ning about the second flute on Qiongqi Path. Does this mean that when the Nightless City battle happens, LWJ already knows that someone else is manipulating things behind the scenes (i.e., "things have changed")? Because I don't know when else he would've had that conversation with Wen Ning, unless it was after the Wens had surrendered themselves to Koi Tower. Which would make the Nightless City battle that much more depressing if LWJ had suspicions about what was really going on but was never able to voice them in time due to the impending chaos. (Forgive me for writing a novel back to you!)
Except I definitely don't want to imagine him returning to the Burial Mounds during those 16 years like he did to the Jingshi, because it's just... way too painful. ಥ_ಥ
As for the other scene you mention with LWJ fighting the sect leaders, I always assumed that it takes place some time fairly soon after WWX falls off the cliff. He still has that wound on his arm from where he'd been injured during the Nightless City fight, so I took that to mean that he had gone directly there. As for why he went there, it might've been like you said, to search for some sign of WWX, and/or he might've just wanted to protect some small part of what WWX had helped build so that there would be something of him left. It also seemed significant that the place LWJ specifically wanted to protect from the mob's destruction was Fu Mo Cave, since that was WWX's space/sleeping quarters and the area he had shown to LWJ.
As for why it was recommended based on NIF, I think it actually makes a lot of sense. Both have protagonists that experience both a literal and figurative fall, are branded as traitors largely due to other people's machinations, and then work to unveil the truth of what really happened however many years ago. Both have protagonists who return with different faces (at least in the original texts). And both feature a strong, supportive male-male relationship that serves largely as the foundation of the narratives. Despite the inevitable differences, they really are very similar at their core.