lisbei

A Missing Branch (10834 words) by lisbei
Chapters: 2/?
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Xiǎo Xīngchén & Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi, Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén
Characters: Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi, Xiǎo Xīngchén, Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo, Sū Shè | Sū Mǐnshàn, Ā-Qìng (Módào Zǔshī)
Additional Tags: background Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - Freeform, Xue Yang redemption arc, xue yang is his own warning, xue yang is not a nice guy, Asexual Character
Summary:

Xue Yang has been trying for ten years to get Xiao Xingchen back. Ten years, without any result, positive or negative. So, Jin Guangyao's bullshit errand to a village at the ass-end of the world isn't high on his list of priorities.

Little does he suspect that what he'll find there will change his life - forever.

 so not gonna bother with a recap. Suffice it to say, stuff happened, fell in and out of love with the MCU and Game of Thrones - the latter being a particular problem as I still have a long fic to finish - and discovered a shiny new obsession.

Behold!



The Untamed (陈情令) is hard to sum up or even describe. It's based on a web novel called Módào zǔshī (The Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation) which is LGBT  - due to censorship, onscreen they call each other soulmates (no-one tell the censors that that's just as close).

Summary: ok, here goes. Wei Wuxian, the protagonist (the one wearing black in the pic), dies in the first five minutes. Sixteen years later, he is brought back by person or persons unknown, and he's reunited with his soulmate (hem hem), Lan WangJi, and they solve a mystery together, and it's not just the mystery of how they managed never to express their feelings for each other before. In between, Wei Wuxian remembers the past, and how he got to the point we see in the first episode, with everybody, except for Lan WangJi, hating him and wanting him dead.

How is that gonna fill 50 episodes, I hear you ask. Well - there's other stuff going on - stuff with different Clans and how they interact, there's even a Dark Lord who's messing things up, but he's not the main villain of the series. In fact, I wouldn't watch any trailers - they spoil literally everything, all the key points. The opening credits spoil a little, but the closing credits are spoiler city.

After I finished the Untamed, I watched the special edition - which has bits missing or rearranged, or added.

A note about the subtitles - The ones on youtube are generally terrible. I know that translating Mandarin to English must be a hellish job, and there isn't the type of word salad you find in other series, but these subs needed a few more passes. Try to watch on Netflix or maybe even Viki/IQIYI - subs are much better. 

Also, those who've watched The Untamed, don't judge but I love this guy:



Before The Untamed, as regards Asian drama, I'd watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and Train to Busan. After? Hooboy. I HAVE A LIST.

Crash Landing on You	South Korea
Faith	South Korea
Fatal Journey	China
Kingdom	China
Kingdom: Season 2	South Korea
Live Up to Your Name	South Korea
Nirvana in Fire	China
Nirvana in Fire 2: The Wind Blows in Chang Lin	China
Story of Yanxi Palace	China
The Living Dead	China
The Romance of Tiger and Rose	China
The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty	China
The Story of Ming Lan	China
The Untamed	China
The Untamed Special Edition	China
To Get Her	China
Train to Busan	South Korea
Tunnel

So, yeah. I might have a problem. 

Not all of these are equal in quality. Nirvana in Fire 1 and 2, Yanxi Palace,  The Untamed and both Kingdoms are front runners in terms of quality, as is Ming Lan (obviously they're different - Ming Lan and Yanxi Palace are slice of life historical drama, while NiF is fairly realistic wuxia, the Untamed is fantasy, and Kingdom is horror set in Joseon).

Tunnel is a really good South Korean time-travel detective drama. 

All the others have their pros and cons - I've removed one of two which I didn't like - and I'll happily answer questions about, without spoiling too much.