i see that today, perhaps in place of the usual daily temple breakdown thread, we are collectively having a little bit of a cloud recesses breakdown

as a treat

a few thoughts and comments on rewatching the cloud recesses burning: wen xu is the one who leads the wen forces, with wen chao intercepting lwj on his way back. given that he drops the chase as soon as lwj gets away, it doesn't sound like he was given orders to capture #qjgp

next shot -- and the first shot we see of a wen blade up close -- is one of a wen blade dripping with blood, and tbh it looks more like a saber? instead of having a cutting edge on each side, it's more of a knife with one cutting edge that curves to a point. #qgjp

(maybe we see a wen blade up close before this? idk? or maybe this is a wen xu special? )

it's cutting down what look like wee baby juniors! like, sizhui looking! first time through, i did NOT notice how young the lan that come charging down through the gate are. #qgjp

noticeably, the command that wen xu shouts to send the troops through the gate is kill (xia) rather than forward (qian). it's a full-on slaughter from the start. and that's followed by one of those overhead drone shots of the river without what i think of as the cr #qgjp

theme that has been heavily used for parallel shots of the river/back hill/nature around cr before. in fact, the big dramatic hollywood style serious action music that plays during the attack on the gate cuts out sharply with a boom type noise (behold my music literacy) #qgjp

and echoes with a tiny little bit of ambient noise from a running creek.

then, the ringing bell from a rafter, presumably signaling the preaching of a ward, the long twisting, disorienting shot in that resolves into the aforementioned lqr and lxc meditating. pretty sure #qgjp

it's lqr's house, not lxc's -- the furniture is what we see in prior shots set in his house, and you see the little green teapot with the red handle decoration on lxc's side, which lxc used to pour tea for uncle in ep 6 when they're arguing about what to call wwx #qgjp

next shot is the action music again, doors of the "house of correct behavior" bursting open and disciples running out from the courtyard, presumably to meet (and be quickly struck down by) the wen forces. back in uncle's house, lxc opens his eyes in response to wen xu (?) #qgjp

giving orders to surround cloud recesses (odd, they're already in cloud recesses, you'd expect him to tell them to surround a specific building, and if the dude is in earshot, why did the disciples go running out of the courtyard rather than stepping back to defend lqr/lxc) #qgjp

the language from wen xu tracks what wen chao was using with lwj -- describing the lan as insects. youtube subs had wen chao describing lwj as an ant; wen xu uses "cangying" which technically translates to "housefly." and the speech that lxc hears is specifically #qgjp

"To me, troops! Surround [full five-word formal name of Cloud Recesses which is a line from a famous poem written in the Tang dynasty]! Do not let a single housefly escape!" And then you hear the chants of the troops essentially shouting, "Exterminate! Exterminate!" The #qgjp

Without you know, the Dalek comedic overtones. Because the exact translation is, “Clean the sect! Clean the sect!” YouTube translates it as “clean the house”; the word “menhu” that is used literally means gate or door, but is used to stand in for an #qgjp

Sect or faction.

So uh. In case you’re wondering how Lan Xichen feels about hearing Wen Xu say that the Lan are vermin who will be cleansed from their own home:

then things REALLY go to shit, with the following happening in rapid sequence:

1. a disciple crashing in to say, Lan sect leader (Xichen) all the exits/entrances to Cloud Recesses have been sealed by Wen troops, and reporting that Wen Xu says he will #qgjp

"set fire, burn mountain" (and yeah, as you might guess, it's a four-word formal phrase. fucker is making a COMMITMENT. he does not intend for it to be read as idle talk.)

2. LQR, whose eyes have been closed throughout, abruptly spitting up blood onto himself #qgjp

xichen going to him and gripping him by the shoulder and looking ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HORRIFIED as seen in the cap here: https://twitter.com/weiyikes/status/1267448510397452288?s=20

3. Uncle gasping that the Qishan Wen are vicious and terrible, because even in extremis, a proper Confucian gentleman manages to talk shit

4. Lan Xichen saying that Wen Xu's talisman has what translates literally to "fire poison", which I suspect is not meant to be read #qgjp

as like, "if you eat the talisman, you will be poisoned like if you ate cyanide then burst into flames." Given that spitting blood up like LQR is doing is generally a sign of qi deviation, it may be more interesting to read it as, like. The five Chinese elements? #qgjp

Of which fire is one of them (and with which the Wen are clearly aligned, what with the Nightless City and the flame insignia on their ropes and the Sunshot campaign). And somebody who actually knows shit about Chinese medicine and culture should step in, but I think "du" #qgjp

is a quality that things can have?

Just because something has "du" in it, doesn't mean it's "if you will eat this you will die." Instead, if you eat too many things with "du" in them with an imbalance, you'll end up poorly, but it doesn't have the immediate tie to #qgjp

death in a context when you're dealing with Chinese medicine and mysticism. it's a quality that things can have.

but uh, somebody who knows better should maybe opine, b/c this is just gut instinct and my gut instinct about comes from my mom yelling at me to not eat so #qgjp

duck (heavy with the du! full of du! i was already the fat daughter!)

I think it makes sense, tho, to frame LXC's comment as "fighting a magic battle with the Wens means you will be exposed to a lot of fire and poison that will imbalance yr humors and cause you to qi

#qgjp

deviate" especially given what LXC says immediately afterwards, which translates idiomatically to "Please, you do not need to become angry" but word-for-word is closer to "You thousand-ten thousand do not need to be moved to rage." #qgjp

which makes a lot of intuitive sense -- if exposure to powerful fire and poison have caused him to qi deviate, then they may have an effect on his emotional state (ahem, nie zhong-zhu's foul-ass temper after sunshot).

so i think there's stuff there? #qgjp

especially given how lxc subsequently LOSES HIS SHIT a little, and the "Do not be angry" in the Youtube subtitle is misleading. esp given his won reaction, lxc isn't telling uncle not to be mad about the wen, but that they need uncle to keep control of his emotions #qgjp

it also works b/c of an outburst from lxc later. but put a pin in that because the next thing that happens is

5. uncle turns to xichen and says with this HORRIFIED expression and says, because he's just thought of it, "Where's Wangji? Have you had contact with him?" #qgjp

Xichen turns away, face frozen in his own expression of HORROR because he realizes that his little brother might be dead, and LQR puts his hand down Xichen's hand hard -- they really amp up the sound, almost a slap -- & gasps,"You must make contact with him. Make him flee." #qgjp

The Youtube translation for the second sentence is "Ask him to leave as soon as possible," which is technically correct, I think, but also something you hiss when somebody's annoying friend has been in your house for SIX HOURS ALREADY AND IS EATING ALL THE SNACKS. #qgjp

Youtube subtitles then translate the next line as "Never ever come back" which is, uh. A position? But I think the line is more accurately, "He must not return." Word-for-wrd it's "Thousand ten thousand must not return," with Uncle's voice breaking a little at the start of#qgjp

the sentence, a faltering, and he says, "If Wangji is outside, there is a chance that perhaps we can preserve -- "

And the camera pulls back and you can see how he is hunched over with pain, not caring that his sleeve is flipped inside out, one hand #qgjp

flat on the table, the other gripping LXC's hand HARD, his whole face drawn up with pain, and he hast to stop talking because of the pain/doubles over with the disciple who brought the news about all entrances/exits being cut off still kneeling back there FUCKING TERRIFIED #qgjp

and Xichen says "Uncle," and it's not clear whether Qiren hears him

and then a new disciple comes in, gasping "Sect leader! Sect leader! Bad news -- " and the camera moves, so you see Xichen rise

the

fuck up

from where he is kneeling by Uncle, #qgjp

like, they specifically move the camera so that you can see just how tall he is, especially next to an Uncle doubled over in agony and compared to the two kneeling disciples, including the new one who came in and sprawled all over and to scoot forward on his knees. #qgjp

and is clearly just terrified out of his mind, unable to even form a sentence properly

and lxc stands up real fucking slow and says, in a voice to strip the flesh off the bones, like seriously, we have not heard LXC talk like this, I think, even to the Wen #qgjp

like, he stands and says, with increasing anger in his voice, "Junior disciple of the Lan, danger and death come, but we are not terrified. Have you utterly forgotten what disciples like you are taught?"

(The "danger and death, but we are not" is a loose translation of #qgjp

one of those four-word Lan rules. Xichen is clearly reciting one of the strictures. Word for word it's "Nearby danger/death; no terror.)

So if you're wondering what it takes for Lan Xichen to lose his shit a little, it's apparently his home being under attack, his #qgjp

uncle doubled over in agony and unable to speak, his little brother in the wind, a man with an avowed mission to exterminate your sect insects and burn down the actual fucking _mountain_ your home is built on, all on top of fighting a magical battle against a talisman that #qgjp

imbalances the humors and makes you lose your shit with rage.

Here is angry Xichen. You can’t quite see it, but he has his left hand out, thumb and forefinger making a gesture that I very much associate with a Chinese person of authority laying down the fucking LAW

But it works, the guy gets his shit together and gives the report, and well, here is Xichen’s face

Here is Uncle’s entire being.

And that's when Xichen steps back to make room, says the Lan face a disaster, and asks Uncle to take the ancient books in the library and bows to Uncle, holding the position while he finishes the sentence.

Su She, being the less stupid of the two juniors or whatever, #qgjp

cries out, "Sect leader!" and raises his hands with sword in them because he realizes that what Xichen is saying is that he will die with the rest of them, because Uncle will be the designated survivor along with the books. #qgjp

Uncle asks what Xichen will do, what will the rest of them do -- turning to the juniors -- and Xichen articulates that plan about retreating to the cold cave where Su She cannot go because he is conspicuously missing a regulation headband. Uncle shakes his head in negation #qgjp

and Xichen gets on his knees, flipping the sleeves forward so they’ll move with him and hang down properly, rather than being hitched high or looking undignified, so that when Uncle looks at him, Xichen will have the full cultural weight of this posture behind him

Like, Xichen is just BARELY keeping it together. When he says “Uncle” as he brings his hands forward, there is so much emotion in his voice. And he says they have to preserve the foundation of the Lan. And I swear you can see the moment Qiren thinks, #qgjp

“You noble, loving boy.”

and he tells Xichen to go. He will stay. And Xichen comes off his knees forward to press his case, but gets the raised hand of finality #qgjp

And then the ne plus ultra of Chinese family arguments — if you consider me your X, then you will do Y.

But Xichen will not take it. we’ve talked about the tension — Xichen as the sect leader, but Uncle as the one who makes final decision about whether to go to war with the Wen, Uncle as the one who talks to other sects, Uncle who decides whether Wangji will be beaten. #qgjp

And this exchange is the culmination of that, Xichen specifically saying: you are my uncle, but I am the sect leader, sworn to never leave Cloud Recesses.

And it’s notable that here, Xichen does not say just the short version of Cloud Recesses. Instead, he says the full five-word name that is the last line of a famous poem about a man who meets a child under a pine tree and asks where the child’s master is #qgjp

And the child responds, “He is on this mountain, but the clouds are so deep — I know not where.”

So by using the full name, Xichen is reminding his uncle that he is the master on the mountain. He cannot leave. Cloud Recesses is not Cloud Recesses without its master. #qgjp

The point of the poem and therefore Cloud Recesses is not the clouds or the mountain or the pine trees — but the master within. And what are the Lan without mastery? #qgjp

(Please note the tears already rolling down Xichen’s face. I’ll save you scrolling up LOOK AT THEM HERE THEY ARE I regret only that I cannot gif the little shake he lets out on saying CR’s full name but please imagine it)

And Qiren turns to look at Xichen after that speech, and this is what he sees:

And Qiren slowly, bracing himself against pain, having to push off against the table, turns to Xichen. Gasping with effort, trying to suppress a cough that still makes it way out, he struggles up into his knees and just manages to get his hands on Xichen’s arms.

And he rocks with Xichen for a moment, getting Xichen to look at him, then shifts his hands to under Xichen’s forearms, lifting them up to tell Xichen to stop bowing to him. Look at the sleeve flipped inside out — a small detail, but a sign of the pain LQR is in

the absolute desperation of their situation #qgjp

“It is because you are the sect leader that you must run.”

If the books of the Lan do not vanish

If the master does not die

Then the Gusu Lan live.

(Technically, a more accurate phrase than “live” is “not extinguished” but it doesn’t have the same punch in English, and since it’s what you’d use to describe a candle that hasn’t been sniffed out — live seems truer to me to the emotional impact and expression #qgjp)

And two things of note

1) LQR is holding Xichen’s hands now in his own

2) LQR is putting Xichen’s survival as being as important to the Lan as their texts.

As. Important. As the writings of Lan An.

As important as their rules.

#qgjp

And then with blood on his mouth, Qiren settles back, so that he is actually lower than Xichen, and Xichen whispers, Uncle, closes his eyes, and goes down in the full kowtow. #qgjp

(The disciples go too, because from why I remember, it would be inappropriate for them not to be kowtowing if Xichen is, since it would imply they are receiving it as well rather than just uncle. But I could be wrong.) #qgjp

And then, while they are all bent double, Uncle struggles to his feet and orders the last stand of the Gusu Lan in accordance with the plan laid out by the sect leader.

#qgjp

The end, close scene, thank god, I have spent too many hours today tweeting about this, I am so sorry #qgjp

#qgjp

a few more stray thoughts:

+ given how much the wen are tied to fire, it's interesting that the two sects they go after first are both tied to water. in traditional chinese, the universe is made out of 5 elements, with fire & water being fundamentally opposed while

#qgjp

also leading to one another (water nurtures trees that are burned to fire).

so it's interesting that the wen sect first goes after the lan (who are heavily aligned with water through the cold pool cave, the 10000 overhead shots of mountain streams, etc.) and the jiang

#qgjp

(lotuses, waterways, boats, the clan name is the word "large river")

+ the lan are real into incense censers, and there is one burning in lqr's study. there's one really lovely (read: heartbreaking sequence of shots where they're talking about the wen burning cr and

you see lqr through the smoke from the incense. GOOD STUFF.

NOW I AM DONE FOR REALS #qgjp