Never say never

[darkemeralds]

I thought I was done with fandom. I hadn't read any fic in ages, and the last couple of fandoms I put a toe into--Teen Wolf, maybe? and, IDK, Sherlock, a little?--never fully grabbed me. My fannish life seemed to be over.

Then a month or so ago, Twitter lured me to the edge of The Untamed and I fell off that cliff backwards*.





I've now watched all 50 episodes twice and am on my third pass. I'm almost done reading the 900-page source novel (translated by enthusiastic amateurs). I'm five episodes into the Special Edition (a cut of the TV series that skips the political stuff and focuses on the love story). I've loaded my Kindle with fic, and I'm making a podfic of a Cinderella AU story featuring the two main characters.

Oh, and I've re-started Mandarin lessons, which I first began way back in the Firefly era. I've even made an icon.

The series can seem a little queer-baiting, but the novel it's based on is explicitly gay. They had to skirt Chinese censorship by cutting any kissing or sex that's on the page in the source novel, but I swear it's singlehandedly bringing back intimacy through longing looks, private nicknames, eyefucking, and so little skin showing that a glimpse of a collarbone is hot.

Costumes: gorgeous. Sets and locations: stunning. Story: operatic.

The Untamed is long. It's complex. Everybody has four different names that you have to learn, it's in Mandarin, the subtitles are odd, the conventions are unfamiliar...and I love it to bits.

Why? Soulmates. Longing. Opposites attract. Tightly-controlled rule follower meets outrageous rule-breaker. Matchmaking siblings. Hurt/comfort all over the place. Operatic tragedy. Redemption. Bunnies.

It's available on Netflix.

Comments

[lyr]

Oooh, thanks for the link! I was pretty sure I'm not catching all the subtleties that don't translate. I already spent quite a while researching the finer points of name use, for instance, because it was pretty clear to me that Wei Wuxian teasingly using Lan Zhan in the library was significant, and that the first cry of Wei Ying, in public and unplanned at the lantern launching ceremony, was even more so.

[darkemeralds]

It is SUCH a kink of mine, the intimacy of private names--moving through layers of titles and honorifics, to personal given names then nicknames. It's one of the things I loved most about writing upper class English Regency characters.

In fact, CQL has kind of a Chinese Regency thingy going on. The purity of the language (even to the point that both main actors' voices are dubbed because they both speak in regional dialects) is a bit like Received Pronunciation English. The main characters are titled, privileged, upper class gentlemen (and a few ladies). The class, wealth, and power divide is significant. And Cultivation is an idealized vision of what nobles are supposed to do, kind of like Knights Errant in the Euro Middle Ages, slaying dragons and stuff.

They may not be white or necessarily straight, but themes of conquest and patriarchy are pretty damn big in this thing.

And yet here I am, immersed.

[lyr]

That's a kink of mine, too! I love the delicate, subtle dance of intimacy inherent in things like that.