There was A LOT going on in that Untamed finale okay

[spindizzy]

We watched the final two episodes of The Untamed last night and holy fuck there have been some ironic punishments in this show but THIS! I am positively GLEEFUL with horror. Spoilers!

Like, that entire set-up looked like a spur of the moment thing, but can we just appreciate that Niè Huáisāng KNOWS that Lán Xīchén is passive and enabling, knows that every single chance Lán Xīchén had to stop Mèng Yáo has been less missed and more deliberately ignored, knows that Lán Xīchén could have saved lives by taking action even once, and he USES THAT AGAINST HIM. Lán Xīchén takes action - purposeful, deliberate, living up to his word action - for the first time, and he's WRONG. Everyone else he's hurt up to that point he's hurt by not taking action (the Wen genocide, Niè Míngjué, Lán Wàngjī), but he stabs Mèng Yáo by his own choice and however he rationalises everything he enabled he's never going to be able to avoid that.

Getting the man who stood by and let your brother be murdered to murder the person responsible: DELICIOUS.

Vaguely related points:

• My brain that entire scene: You STAB Mèng Yáo? SECLUSION for da-ge! Seclusion for a thousand years!


• Niè Huáisāng's FACE whenever he gets to stop pretending to be a flustered ninny is great and I love it.


• Walking onto the sword you're impaled onto so that you can properly traumatise the only person who believes your bullshit AND use your own blood to raise one of your victims from the dead: ULTIMATE POWER MOVE.


• Lán Wàngjī switching to Zewu Jun because his brother's a fucking disappointment is just *chef's kiss*


• I have so little memory of this part of the book! And I don't find Lán Xīchén going "I know that literally everyone says not to let him talk because I'm gullible and want to believe him, but WHAT IF we heard him out!" to be that interesting! So I was genuinely just there looking at the Niè brothers like
  


• Okay, no, I'm being unfair, the bit where Mèng Yáo asks Lán Xīchén to die with him and then saves his life when he appears to agree was great and I respect that as an excellent moment of dangling hope of never having to confront their failures in front of someone and then ripping it away.


• *CRIES OVER LAN SUZHUI AND SOMEONE IN THIS FUCKING SHOW FINALLY GETTING THE HUG THEY DESERVE*


• As someone who watched the show and went "OH, Xuē Yáng and Mèng Yáo have the same sense of proportional response (none) and idea of what they're entitled to because they've been sad (literally everything)" Wèi Wúxiàn calling Mèng Yáo out for that specific thing was very validating.


• WEI WUXIAN DIDN'T KNOW THAT EVERYONE ELSE KNEW HIS TRAGIC BACKSTORY AND THANKS HE HATES IT.


• I have my issues with Jiāng Chéng but this arc had some Good Shit.


• (Jīn Líng has survived the worst day of his life and is almost definitely going to push his uncles into a lake at some point to make them deal with their shit. He kept Fairy away from Wèi Wúxiàn to stop him being scared! That's basically declaring that he will die for his dead trash uncle!)


• Me: On the plus side, the number of uncles who murdered Jīn Líng's family has stayed exactly the same!
  The chat: SUSAN —


• My headcanon is that Lán Wàngjī stays in charge of things exactly long enough to fix what the previous generations broke (and make it all Niè Huáisāng's problem) and then just fucks off out of Cloud Recesses never to return. Like, he's probably too classy to give his uncle and brother the finger, but I like to imagine them asking him why and he just gives them the look of you know why and leaves without a word. I love the idea of Lán Wàngjī and Wèi Wúxiàn bimbling around the countryside and occasionally giving the ducklings crash courses in dealing with weird shit or hanging out with Mianmian, or occasionally causing problems on purpose for Niè Huáisāng and Jiāng Chéng. I absolutely do not take criticism.