I just finished watching The Untamed, and while I can talk about all the light-hearted stuff elsewhere, I figure I'll blog about some of the dryer and duller meta stuff here.
Part of what fascinates me the most here is how the story shows how the force of public opinion - and, in many ways, how flawed it can be.
Fair warning, if you don't want any spoilers, you probably shouldn't read any more.
The main character - Wei Wuxian - would, in a more Western storyline, probably be considered an evil necromancer. Or rather, that's his reputation.
The story flits back and forth between the present and the past, so it takes a while before you get the full story, but he's not really evil. In fact, you could probably argue that he's chaotic good. He's generally a trickster, and doesn't follow the rules just because they're the rules, but he's clearly got a working moral compass and tries to do the right thing.
There's a lot of comedic moments that highlight the difference between his fearsome reputation and the reality, both with him and his most infamous work - raising Wen Ning from the dead. Here you have a powerful undead monster, Wen Ning, also known as the 'Ghost General', and when he's not being controlled he's pretty much the sweetest and nicest guy imaginable. He cooks. He does chores. He clumsily tries hiding himself in tall leaves. He stutters.
Anyways, the true villain of the story frames Wei Wuxian (not without a bit of help from our overly dramatic protagonist), and there's some interesting scenes where we see how easily the public is swayed. How once they set their minds on believing the worst of Wei Wuxian, they closed their minds and refused to hear any evidence to the contrary.
One guy ambushed Wei Wuxian, with ultimately tragic consequences, simply because he assumed Wei Wuxian was the one who put a pretty nasty curse on him.
From a pollitical viewpoint, I wanted to talk a bit about an incident somewhat early in the slide to tragedy.
This world has four main clans, and three of them had just won a brutal war against the vicious and aggressive fourth clan. The clans at large were looking at Wei Wuxian with concern, because he'd used some particularly nasty powers during the fight... but he had been on their side, so for the most part it was just a worrying concern.
Then Wei Wuxian ran into someone who had been a great help to him during the war, even though she and her brother were a smaller offshoot of the losers clan. She and her brother, and other remnants of the losing clan, were being targeted and hunted down by the winners... who naturally dehumanized them and considered it 'just' and 'right' to do exterminate the threat.
This was Wen Ning's sister, who had become separated and was frantic to find him. Wei Wuxian could have walked away, could have decided nothing could be done, but he didn't.
They finally found Wen Ning in an internment camp with a bunch of other remnants of their clan. Mostly women, children, and the elderly.
Or rather, they found Wen Ning's corpse, and the rather brutal conditions of that camp. Again, Wei Wuxian could have chosen to look the other way. Decided nothing could be done. Or maybe even helped them escape and then left them to get hunted down and interned again.
Obviously, he didn't.
Anyways, we see a meeting between the clans as they tried to discuss what to do about Wei Wuxian. It seems fairly realistic, to me, of that type of meeting. You had your hotheads and your overly fearful, exaggerating Wei Wuxian's evils and assuming the worst of his intentions. You had the 'realpolitik' type, who coveted/were concerned by the power of 'the Ghost General', and the amulet Wei Wuxian used to create him. We see the more sensible ones refusing to give in to the more extreme viewpoints.
But during their discussion you realize that they had a particularly warped view of what happened. The jailors at the internment camp, after all, weren't going to admit that they killed their detainees. They claimed Wen Ning just 'fell off a cliff' and died.
And even if they lied, what did it matter? It was just a bunch of 'Wen dogs' that died, and who cares about them, anyway?
What you see, then, is how they found reasons to turn and look the other way. And, in the process, they saw Wei Wuxian's actions as a threat against the established order.
I know this is a fictional Chinese high fantasy show, but the thought processes there strike me as very realistic. It's like how after the Holocaust certain powers said 'never again' and swore to prevent something like that from happening again.
But when it does, they find convenient reasons not to do anything. And they call it 'ethnic cleansing', or give it some other label that obfuscates what's really going on.
I've heard (generally in cynical, war weary tones) people talk about how 'the powers that be' will stamp out threats and don't care about justice, but its generally said in a way that makes it seem... I don't know. Impersonal. Just 'the way it is'. It sucks, but what can you do about it?
But here's the thing. Wei Wuxian had the choice to look away. To silence that little voice in the head that says 'this isn't right'. To choose convenience over the pain and struggle of trying to do the right thing.
He refused to look the other way - and paid a terrible price in doing so.
But everyone in that meeting had the same choice. One character refused to do so, even leaving her clan when she saw the direction things were going. The rest? Not so much.
One of the more interesting characters - Jiang Cheng - highlights this. Wei Wuxian was raised as his brother, they grew up together. Their personalities clashed a lot, they argued a lot, but there was a lot of genuine care and concern for each other. But Jiang Cheng was always insecure - heir of the clan leader, but often overshadowed by his talented foster brother. And at the time of this meeting he was the new clan leader trying to restore his clan after the ravages of the recent war.
It's hard to say what he was thinking, as he saw everyone speak out against Wei Wuxian. Was he too new to his role to try to defend Wei Wuxian? Too jealous? Did he believe that the person he grew up with would truly have done such terrible things without cause? Or was it that, much though he loved his clan - and brother - he was more concerned with protecting them then anything else, and had no room to care about the remnants of the other clan? Even though Wen Ning and his sister were the ones that helped rescue him and return his parents bodies?
The Untamed is a good tale, over all. I like the blend of action, comedy, mystery, and romance. The world building is amazing, the scenery and costumes are very pretty...
And it makes you look at questions like this. At what it means to do the right thing. At how easy it is to look the other way, or justify doing nothing. At what one person can do - and the limits therein - to stand up to injustice.
At how the group, as a whole, can be swayed in either direction. (There's a hilarious moment where... as a new villain is revealed, the very same crowd that had been baying for Wei Wuxian's blood suddenly wanted him as an ally. Funny mostly for the expressions on Wei Wuxian's face.)
Was it 'inevitable'? Was Wei Wuxing so scary and powerful that of course the powers that be would take steps to neutralize the threat?
Was it a sign of his naivete, and lack of political skill? There's a million steps along the way, each one of which could have been handled differently. By the choices of a million different characters.
Was it Wei Wuxian's fault? Was it Jiang Cheng's? What about the villain? How responsible was he?
So many times so many people try casting blame, some of it more warranted than others, that it does a great job of showing how pointless most of that is.
And how fickle the public's perceptions can be.
Part of what fascinates me the most here is how the story shows how the force of public opinion - and, in many ways, how flawed it can be.
Fair warning, if you don't want any spoilers, you probably shouldn't read any more.
The main character - Wei Wuxian - would, in a more Western storyline, probably be considered an evil necromancer. Or rather, that's his reputation.
The story flits back and forth between the present and the past, so it takes a while before you get the full story, but he's not really evil. In fact, you could probably argue that he's chaotic good. He's generally a trickster, and doesn't follow the rules just because they're the rules, but he's clearly got a working moral compass and tries to do the right thing.
There's a lot of comedic moments that highlight the difference between his fearsome reputation and the reality, both with him and his most infamous work - raising Wen Ning from the dead. Here you have a powerful undead monster, Wen Ning, also known as the 'Ghost General', and when he's not being controlled he's pretty much the sweetest and nicest guy imaginable. He cooks. He does chores. He clumsily tries hiding himself in tall leaves. He stutters.
Anyways, the true villain of the story frames Wei Wuxian (not without a bit of help from our overly dramatic protagonist), and there's some interesting scenes where we see how easily the public is swayed. How once they set their minds on believing the worst of Wei Wuxian, they closed their minds and refused to hear any evidence to the contrary.
One guy ambushed Wei Wuxian, with ultimately tragic consequences, simply because he assumed Wei Wuxian was the one who put a pretty nasty curse on him.
From a pollitical viewpoint, I wanted to talk a bit about an incident somewhat early in the slide to tragedy.
This world has four main clans, and three of them had just won a brutal war against the vicious and aggressive fourth clan. The clans at large were looking at Wei Wuxian with concern, because he'd used some particularly nasty powers during the fight... but he had been on their side, so for the most part it was just a worrying concern.
Then Wei Wuxian ran into someone who had been a great help to him during the war, even though she and her brother were a smaller offshoot of the losers clan. She and her brother, and other remnants of the losing clan, were being targeted and hunted down by the winners... who naturally dehumanized them and considered it 'just' and 'right' to do exterminate the threat.
This was Wen Ning's sister, who had become separated and was frantic to find him. Wei Wuxian could have walked away, could have decided nothing could be done, but he didn't.
They finally found Wen Ning in an internment camp with a bunch of other remnants of their clan. Mostly women, children, and the elderly.
Or rather, they found Wen Ning's corpse, and the rather brutal conditions of that camp. Again, Wei Wuxian could have chosen to look the other way. Decided nothing could be done. Or maybe even helped them escape and then left them to get hunted down and interned again.
Obviously, he didn't.
Anyways, we see a meeting between the clans as they tried to discuss what to do about Wei Wuxian. It seems fairly realistic, to me, of that type of meeting. You had your hotheads and your overly fearful, exaggerating Wei Wuxian's evils and assuming the worst of his intentions. You had the 'realpolitik' type, who coveted/were concerned by the power of 'the Ghost General', and the amulet Wei Wuxian used to create him. We see the more sensible ones refusing to give in to the more extreme viewpoints.
But during their discussion you realize that they had a particularly warped view of what happened. The jailors at the internment camp, after all, weren't going to admit that they killed their detainees. They claimed Wen Ning just 'fell off a cliff' and died.
And even if they lied, what did it matter? It was just a bunch of 'Wen dogs' that died, and who cares about them, anyway?
What you see, then, is how they found reasons to turn and look the other way. And, in the process, they saw Wei Wuxian's actions as a threat against the established order.
I know this is a fictional Chinese high fantasy show, but the thought processes there strike me as very realistic. It's like how after the Holocaust certain powers said 'never again' and swore to prevent something like that from happening again.
But when it does, they find convenient reasons not to do anything. And they call it 'ethnic cleansing', or give it some other label that obfuscates what's really going on.
I've heard (generally in cynical, war weary tones) people talk about how 'the powers that be' will stamp out threats and don't care about justice, but its generally said in a way that makes it seem... I don't know. Impersonal. Just 'the way it is'. It sucks, but what can you do about it?
But here's the thing. Wei Wuxian had the choice to look away. To silence that little voice in the head that says 'this isn't right'. To choose convenience over the pain and struggle of trying to do the right thing.
He refused to look the other way - and paid a terrible price in doing so.
But everyone in that meeting had the same choice. One character refused to do so, even leaving her clan when she saw the direction things were going. The rest? Not so much.
One of the more interesting characters - Jiang Cheng - highlights this. Wei Wuxian was raised as his brother, they grew up together. Their personalities clashed a lot, they argued a lot, but there was a lot of genuine care and concern for each other. But Jiang Cheng was always insecure - heir of the clan leader, but often overshadowed by his talented foster brother. And at the time of this meeting he was the new clan leader trying to restore his clan after the ravages of the recent war.
It's hard to say what he was thinking, as he saw everyone speak out against Wei Wuxian. Was he too new to his role to try to defend Wei Wuxian? Too jealous? Did he believe that the person he grew up with would truly have done such terrible things without cause? Or was it that, much though he loved his clan - and brother - he was more concerned with protecting them then anything else, and had no room to care about the remnants of the other clan? Even though Wen Ning and his sister were the ones that helped rescue him and return his parents bodies?
The Untamed is a good tale, over all. I like the blend of action, comedy, mystery, and romance. The world building is amazing, the scenery and costumes are very pretty...
And it makes you look at questions like this. At what it means to do the right thing. At how easy it is to look the other way, or justify doing nothing. At what one person can do - and the limits therein - to stand up to injustice.
At how the group, as a whole, can be swayed in either direction. (There's a hilarious moment where... as a new villain is revealed, the very same crowd that had been baying for Wei Wuxian's blood suddenly wanted him as an ally. Funny mostly for the expressions on Wei Wuxian's face.)
Was it 'inevitable'? Was Wei Wuxing so scary and powerful that of course the powers that be would take steps to neutralize the threat?
Was it a sign of his naivete, and lack of political skill? There's a million steps along the way, each one of which could have been handled differently. By the choices of a million different characters.
Was it Wei Wuxian's fault? Was it Jiang Cheng's? What about the villain? How responsible was he?
So many times so many people try casting blame, some of it more warranted than others, that it does a great job of showing how pointless most of that is.
And how fickle the public's perceptions can be.
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