The Untamed - name guide?

[marycrawford]

Okay, so I tripped and accidentally fell into 50 episodes of The Untamed on Youtube, and reader, I watched ALL of them. Quoting some of my reactions from fannish chat:

wei ying is reminding me more and more of Miles Vorkosigan
locked up in a cave with a mob who wants to kill him
and now they’re sheepishly asking him what to do next
it’s fabulous

wei ying is pontificating in front of the previously murderous mob
and one of them is saying “stop this nonsense, just kill me now”
he is SO miles

 still getting such vorkosigan vibes from our hero:
 “you set him up!”
“if I set him up he wouldn’t just have a wounded arm..”

“stop bluffing to intimidate us!” yells the guy holding a sword at his jugular
<3

I do love Wei Ying a LOT, and Lan Zhan slowly started growing on me, also the very VERY fraught and blink-you'll-miss-it secondary pairing I'm not sure is book canon (but probably is? Lan Zhan's adorable shipper big brother and the little :koff: innocent in the big hat?)

I don't think I want to write fanfic for it or stare endlessly at pics of the main actor(s) the way I do with Guardian, but I would still like to watch it again now that I know What Will Happen and also possibly have some slightly better chance of telling everyone apart. Though I will also probably skip a lot of the really harrowing moments, because, just fyi if you're considering watching it, this show is like GoT in brutality and that's not even counting the zombies.

So, before I rewatch, is there a name guide or person guide or something to The Untamed, for hapless non-Chinese-speaking fans, that a kind soul could link me to, that shows me how everyone is related to everyone else and what all their names are? Or something like that twitter thread from Pru, that explains a lot of naming nuance as well as cracking me up?

I feel like I only JUST got the hang of how it works in modern shows like Guardian, what the -lao and -ge suffixes can mean, etc, but this is something else again: everyone has like five names and then they CHANGE them or get adopted by a different clan and IDEFK. Help?

Comments

[qikiqtarjuaq]

This character guide for the novel should be helpful for the main characters. It does miss some stuff though, like how Jin Guangyao = Meng Yao (possibly because it was written prior to his chapters). And Lan Sizhui as Lan Yuan (and Spoiler: Wen Yuan).

The gist of the naming is that everyone is born with a name, like Wei Ying. Then once they reach of age, they're given a courtesy name, like Wei Wuxian. This name is the more polite name to use when speaking to people you aren't close to or that you aren't trying to insult. (Hence, why it's very notable that WWX and LWJ often call each other Wei Ying and Lan Zhan.) Finally, every character also has a title that is often a more respectful address. Like, Lan Wangji's title is Hanguang-Jun for example.

[marycrawford]

Ahh thanks for the link, that's a big help! I did pick up on the way WWX and LWJ call each other different names and assumed it meant a level of intimacy, but I wasn't sure HOW intimate, and it still baffles me a bit - for example, LWJ's brother calls him Wangji in informal conversation, right, and not Lan Zhan, even though they're close?

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Lan Wangji and Lan Xichen are very stiff, formal people, even if LXC is the smilier and friendlier of the two. Going solely by book knowledge, I think Lan Xichen only ever calls LWJ "Wangji." While Lan Wangji almost solely calls Lan Xichen "Xiong-zhang" 兄长 (older brother - super formal).

There's also an age/respect thing, between older vs younger siblings.

Example: Wen Qing calling Wen Ning A-Ning, and Jiang Yanli calling Wei Wuxian A-Xian. The other way around, Wen Ning calls Wen Qing "jiejie" (older sister) - which is at least a less formal and more intimate term than xiong-zhang compared to LWJ. Wei Wuxian calls Jiang Yanli shijie (usually refers to an older sister who shares the same master - a.k.a older martial sister, because they are not blood related and are in the same sect).

Take a look at this table if you want more details.

It's... complicated! I'm sorry. XD

[marycrawford]

Thanks for the added info! Yeah, it's complicated, but it's also fun in a way - I wish English had more nuances like this (I wish they still had the formal/informal 'you' distinction, for example) because it can be such a boon for writers.

I love that 'older martial sister' thing, that's very cool. And when she calls WWX "Xianxian" it's obviously affectionate and sisterly, but also age-related, right? Like, she's his elder sort-of-sister, so she can call him that, but WWX wouldn't go around calling her YanYan, even if he is an irreverent type, because he's younger and it would be disrespectful? I hope I got that right.

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Yeah, those kinds of nicknames are generally reserved for older siblings or the older generation towards someone younger. And a nickname like Yanyan is very affectionate, so no one would even call her that out of disrespect (unless someone was disrespectfully trying to flirt). There's exceptions, mostly in modern usage, but that's the rule for the most part. It's a bit nebulous honestly! Most of the time, I just go by what the canon has them call each other.

[marycrawford]

Right, that makes sense! And yeah, same, re: canon, it's always good to go by what they use (if I may skip fences for a sec, that we got a canon "xiao-Wei" in Guardian makes me so happy, and there's a possibility that we also got a canon whisper of "xiao-Lan" but I'm not sure...)

[qikiqtarjuaq]

Xiao Wei is fantastic. If you're willing to take inspiration from the novel canon, Zhao Yunlan entered his name/phone number in Shen Wei's phone as "Ah-Lan." I'm very fond of that nickname for him!

[marycrawford]

AW yes that is adorable! And such a great character detail, that fits the drama ZYL perfectly as well - if Shen Wei had a phone he would totally do that, I'm sure.

[bonibaru]

I don't think I want to write fanfic for it or stare endlessly at pics of the main actor(s) the way I do with Guardian, but I would still like to watch it again now that I know What Will Happen and also possibly have some slightly better chance of telling everyone apart.

This is exactly me. I'm reading the occasional really adorable fic my friends link to, much as I have been doing for Good Omens, which I also enjoyed but felt very little need to pursue alternative stories for.

Come sit by me and let's talk about how much I adore the dimpled angel in the big hat and the man he loves and all the AUs where they both make better choices and overcome obstacles to become the second best power couple in all the lands.

[marycrawford]

Yeah, I feel the same way about GO, too: fun but not something I'm obsessing over. It's been ages since I obsessed about any fandom, though, so this is quite the rebirth for me. XD

Dimpled angel <3 I do love him, and I love to watch him - seeing his whole arc unfold was--I don't want to spoiler anyone reading these comments too much--it was QUITE A THING.

[bonibaru]

It was a thing indeed and possibly the one thing I would want to rewrite into an AU - BUT - it would have to be a sprawling complex 450k word AU in order (akin to the original source novel) to do full justice to it and I would be dead long before it finished, lol.

[marycrawford]

Oh man, yeah, I can imagine - I would LOVE to read that but it feels like it would be very selfish to encourage you to write yourself to death like the Lord of Dixing in Guardian.

(I am hoarding all the XXL Guardian fic for the holidays, and speaking of things I would love to read, I'm really looking forward to the Crimson Lotus. <3)

[bonibaru]

I really look forward to your thoughts!