Unrequited Love

THE UNTAMED episode 20

+ bonus:

leaves from the vine, falling so slow🍃

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another edition to my atla series, which you can view below!

some of my zutara sketches from twitter!

everything, everywhere, all at once

closure.

Semi-motivational quotes from Hayao Miyazaki

Another day, another time i crib about Mr. Yeon spouting nonsense words.

Mr Lee Yeon on his moral high ground spouting how he never abandoned Rang without a single evidence in his favour. Left the boy alone on a burning mountain with his dead dog and came back only to punish him for his sins once he was much older. I see how you never abandoned him, were right there by his side throughout, weren't you? Oh sorry, maybe they forgot showing us that.

Mr Lee Yeon copy pasting the same statement to Hong joo. Again without evidence.

At this point, someone either teach me the meaning of abandonment Or someone please teach it to Yeon. Because we have completely different definitions it seems. 😅 Yeon, bro, next time you tell someone you did not abandon them, maybe try telling them how. Like how are we to believe that you did not. Did you check up on them, send someone to look after them. Anything, bro, anything!!

Though i really do like the season 2 Yeon, I really wanted him to have a decent long conversation with Rang where he actually talks about what he did wrong, owns up to it and strives to do better by saving his brother. The conversation regarding Rang's death should have actually been longer and should have dealt with Rang's insecurities for once. Coz as we can see, Rang still believes that he meant shit to his brother and was basically a stain in his life.

The day my boy stops being hurt about this is the day i will forgive Yeon for it. Till then, I shall continue to be bitter. My boy internalised all his abandonment issues and ended up believing that he is the one who is unworthy of love and that it's somehow his fault everyone left him. They should have done a better job fixing his hurt this season. On the other hand, all he gets is new pain.

When Mr. Don't-follow-me keeps trying to push people away, but those who really matter don't listen to him

First, it's his best friend and loyal protector

Then the one who wouldn't leave his side be it in his last birth or this

And finally, the one he will love for eternity, the one who will rather die than let go of him

The three people who love him, though in very different ways.

Most importantly, they don't abandon him.

Dean Winchester | Supernatural: 9x12 Sharp Teeth

Isn't it unfair just how everyone gets to live and it's only Rang who has to die a tragic death? Lee Rang, the guy who never really got to be happy in his 600years of sad and lonely life? Even Moo Young after all the horror he brought upon the world is saved by Yeon and gets a second chance but when it's about Rang he's just supposed to die lonely with no one there for him, no one to sacrifice for him, no one trying to bring him back when it was actually him who sacrificed himself for Yeon and gave the couple a happy life that wasn't really theirs! They never meant to be together! It was their destiny to always have one of them dead if they got together! it was only Rang's sacrifice that changed it for them and yet he's the only one whose destiny isn't gonna change? The only one who's not going to be saved? The only one who's going to die for everyone else's happy ending? How is it even fair? He's the one who protected Yeon and the only one Yeon failed at protecting. Like everyone survives and gets a happy ending w/o even paying for their actions and it's only my beloved fox child who's not going to have a happy ending when he deserves happiness the most? Yeon always remember that Rang was your only brother who died for you and the only one you couldn't save...💔

This will always be a sad ending no matter what happens in parallel timelines and how happy everyone is there. The world in original timeline is a world without my baby half fox. It's still a world that Lee Rang left home on a snowy day and never came back. In original timeline the half fox will never come back home to his found family and no one is going to change his sad fate and bring him back.

Actually there's a big difference between "putting your love first" and "not giving a damn about anyone but your love" you know? Unfortunately Lee Yeon was shown to be the latter in both his 1938 and 2020 versions and he only learned his little brother's value after he lost him! And Yes. They both were mean to each other in pervious season But one had a reason for that and the other was just being mean for the sake of being mean for no reason. S2 just proved again that Rang would have always welcomed Yeon back in his life and it was only Yeon who didn't want that to happen. Grief? Opium? Call it anything you want but truth is 1938Yeon was a guy who didn't even bat an eye when he heard the news about Rang not having much time left and the only thing that got his attention was the news about Ah eum and this one just can't be excused! There was no reason for him to be that indifferent about his brother's limited time to live! He wasn't fighting Rang at the moment, he wasn't angry with him either. He simply just didn't care and we are just supposed to believe this guy when he says he never abandoned his brother? He would only show up after getting the news about Ah Eum's reincarnation otherwise he would still be sitting somewhere, wasting his life w/o giving a damn about what was happening to his brother.. and that's something future Yeon was well aware of too coz that was literally his past... but the thing is it's just so unfair to Rang considering he's the one who's going to sacrifice his life and happiness for such "brother" and give Yeon a happy life with his eternal love! Then Why not showing past Yeon as someone who cared about his brother in his own way after saying it over and over that he never abandoned Rang? Like was it too much to ask for? To have Yeon in better light? To show him as a caring brother specially now that everyone knows what a big sacrifice Rang is gonna make for him in future? Was it really too much to have Yeon as someone actually worthy of such big sacrifice? Coz sorry but this Yeon really doesn't deserve his brother and sure Lee Rang deserves so much better than this.

Ok, but Wei Wuxian telling Jin Ling to talk to Jiang Cheng instead of distancing himself from him for JC's own good is a level of ironic that can't be accidental, right?

We agree on that, right?

Whenever I try to imagine relationship between adult Jin Ling and Jiang Cheng, it's always JC going "boo-hoo, now that he's all grown up, he will fly away from the nest and forget all about me and leave my old bones to rot as things should be" and JL going "FINALLY. FINALLY IT'S MY TURN TO FUSS OVER YOU".

Something like this:

"why do you like jiang cheng?"

is such a weird question. what is there NOT to like?

sweet, insecure, covers up his embarrassment with fake anger, youngest baby sibling, heir to the sect, tries his hardest and is truly powerful and smart but doesnt look like it next to his beloved shixiong who is a genius and can do anything with barely any effort

desperate for his fathers approval, is aggressively mothered, pretends his shixiong is embarrassing and he wants nothing to do with him but is constantly letting himself get dragged into shenanigans

loses his entire sect and both his parents in one night, sacrifices himself in a potentially SI way to save his shixiong, becomes chronically disabled (for a cultivator), loses said brother he sacrificed himself for. gets plunged into a war as a teenager while trying to build up his sect from essentially nothing using his dead mother's weapon of choice.

goes through the sunshot campaign, wwx's demonic cultivation and defection, all while building up his sect again. loses yanli to the jin, loses wwx to the dafan wen. loses them both permanently. has no family remaining in the world, alone and vulnerable, except for infant jin ling.

3zun have essentially tied 3 of the 4 great sects together, leaving ymj out. vulnerable. so jiang cheng channels his mother and protects them by cultivating - successfully! - the reputation of the feared sandu shengshou who nobody wants to cross. forces himself to become angry and bitter to hide any remaining vulnerabilities, fragility, emotion.

threatens to break jin ling's legs but jin ling knows he is loved and is never scared of being physically harmed. raises the ymj out of the ashes to the point they can afford to lose 400 spirit nets without even worrying about it

jiang cheng is so broken and fragile and when he needs support, when he has lost everything and everyone, he has nothing. so he is forced to put himself back together, to harden his edges, to ensure that nobody will ever hurt him again. he is untouchable. he is respected. he is feared. he is powerful.

and despite all this, he still kept chenqing in pristine condition for over 10 years. he still trusts in wwx to do the right thing despite all the wrongs he has done. he cries, he rages, he threatens.

but in the end, jiang wanyin is the only one to come out of guanyin temple better than they went in. he wins. and he does it all by his fucking self.

even if all he wants now is jin ling to be safe and for wei wuxian to come home.

oh, and he looks like THIS:

"It is quite unhealthy, but they are so feverishly, manically in love with each other. They can't be away from each other and they can't be near each other at the same time." - Jacob Anderson