Hanguang-Jun Says You’re Boring.

Mine. | AO3

Episode 51 | AO3

If I were to re-edit CQL, this is how I would do it.

Let’s face it- the first episode of the show is nearly unwatchable. I know it’s accurate to the book, but it is confusing, off-putting, and definitely turns people off of the show before giving it a chance. Here’s what I’d change:

First, I would keep the opening exactly the same. The scene of wwx’s death at Nevernight is an AMAZING intro and introduces us to the major characters (wwx, lwj, and jc) and where the story is going. Keep it all. 11/10.

The first change I’d make is what we hear as wwx falls. In the show, the storyteller hired by Nie Huisang begins speaking in voiceover. This leads into the future timeline.

Scrap that. Instead, you’d hear an echo of Yanli yelling “A-Xian!” Text would then appear indicating that we are jumping back in time (“Before”? “In the Past”? We don’t actually know how long the Sunshot Campaign is)

It’d then fade in on the first chronological scene: Wwx lounging on a boat in the town near Cloud Recesses. We hear Yanli calling “A-Xian!” until he notices, just as it plays out now.

The show then proceeds through Wwx’s first life. We are immediately intrigued to learn that the person we just saw kill him is in fact his brother. We are also intrigued by the fact that lwj, who we just saw try and save him, starts out despising him.

No craziness at Mo Manor, no trying to piece together what the heck is happening… just straight (lol) narrative.

Then, we get to wwx falling again. We know how this ends. We hear lwj say “Wei Ying” softly. It fades to black.

But wait a minute. We’re only 33 episodes in. That’s the end of the story……right????

BOOM text appears saying “Sixteen Years Later” The audience goes “THERE’S MORE???” and now we hear the storyteller: “As for Wei Wuxian, sixteen years ago…” It fades into the Lan juniors listening to the story, and off we go with wwx’s second life.

We now KNOW who wwx is! We can see first hand how the legends about him have ballooned. We know who the major clans are. We can guess that nhs is behind it all (if you’re paying close enough attention) and we feel the same confusion and uncertainty as wwx does about “I’m supposed to be dead, why was I brought back?”

Notably, we get to see post-time skip lwj for the first time with the same anticipation as wwx. We can guess who Jin Ling and Sizhui are before wwx does (as it is now, we have to piece together that he had a sister at some point but I guess she died? Again, it’s so confusing for first-time watchers. Also, this way, you would have NO idea that Yanli dies until it happens. Imagine). We know the baggage of Jiang Cheng and wwx’s relationship. We remember the dancing statue lady from previous episodes, instead of learning about it for the first time.

And oh my GOSH the reunion between wwx and lwj?? The anticipation?? The emotion?? There’s a reason people go back and rewatch this scene after finishing the show: It is 300x more emotional with context!!

Wwx still faints after reuniting with lwj and jc, but then he wakes up afterwards at Cloud Recesses, and the show plays out from there. He reminisces, and so do we.

——

Not everyone will agree, but I think it works MUCH better this way. Anyways, maybe I’ll make an actual edit of this show one day to rest my soul 😂