Spring chores

We finally got a warm enough day that I hauled out all my materials, including zip ties, the step ladder, and the netting, and put up my trellis netting on the porch. There used to be a lovely pear tree for shade and privacy, but it bit the dust in windstorms last year. So now I have a privacy/shade panel secured to the railing, and a trellis to have my incoming clematis climb. The "measure twice, cut once" adage took a hit, putting this up, but the casualties were zip-ties, which I order by the several hundred, so I don't feel too bad. I got the netting right, at least!

Behold the twitter thread full of pictures. My shoulders are going to complain about all that over-head threading along the largely invisible dowels at the top, but I have triumphed.

I've been waiting for a warm day when I didn't have anything else to do, and Wednesdays are close enough for rock and roll, so here we are. I don't think this is stir-craziness except in the Michigander, "omg, is it spring yet? now? how about now?" that tends to hit in March. On the other hand, I can't deny there was definite therapeutic value in a specific task with simple parameters that didn't change before I finished.

Now: time to turn on the outdoor speakers and have a margarita!

Untamed rewatch: 21-22

These are so meaty, I think I need to do them in smaller chunks.

Twenty-one is full of the really obvious beginnings of Wei Wuxian’s ostracization for daring to depart from the One True Way of cultivation (with Jin I-am-scum Zixun stirring the pot right away, and very offended to be told to rack off). The rigidity of the cultivation world self-evidently contains the seeds of another cycle of tyranny.

Notable are Lan Xichen trying really explicitly to chip away at Lan Wangji’s black-and-white worldview, with only middling success (courtesy of Lan Qiren, you poisonous old stick); and also Nie Huaisang being very sensitive to the interpersonal nuances around him, intervening on behalf of WWX when he can and clearly knowing something is quite wrong.

Also, really beautiful Jiang sibling emotional bonds, which are pretty much instantly set in tension against Jiang Cheng’s efforts to act as sect leader among sect leaders. Once again, politics and policy, in this world, stand directly counter to emotional truths.

Twenty-two gives us the tense reconciliation between LWJ and WWX, LWJ still being convinced of the black-and-white method for judging rightness. I think it might be the struggle this is for both of them, that I like best--for WWX to let /anyone/ know enough to even try to help, and for LWJ to at least /try/ to believe that WWX is not irreversibly contaminated by his choices.

Fight choreography continues fairly dreadful, but does make it clear that both Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng are supposed to be very skilled, on the general scale of things, and only poor on comparison to the likes of LWJ or WWX (and possibly LXC, who is later shown to be exceedingly badass).

This is also where we see the new layer of Meng Yao’s machinations, at Wen Ruohan’s side but passing intelligence to Lan Xichen after, we may recall, taking one long look at Wen Chao on the doorstep of the Unclean Realm and going to let Xue Yang free in order to get in good with the Wens. I find it interesting that we never see Meng Yao with just one loyalty or just one agenda; he’s /always/ trying to play both ends against the middle, and I’d argue that it’s /that/ more than anything else, that the story is trying to demonstrate is a dead end approach.

This is also the ep where we see WWX totally /lose his shit/ on behalf of Jiang Yanli and make a good start on beating the shit out of Jin Zixuan, right up until LWJ intercedes. And you can see that it’s still hard for him to draw back, even then. Definitely being affected by the malice he’s channeling. (Also interesting that Jin Zixuan doesn’t resist, clearly accepting that he was in the wrong to be such an asshole to Jiang Yanli.)

This is also where we get the first battle of the Nightless City, in which LWJ is very protective of WWX’s swordlessness, despite WWX holding his own just fine. He really doesn’t want WWX to start using his new cultivation path, and he’s always paying attention to WWX, once he starts, looking very worried, and even conflicted about WWX’s turning the tide by taking over the lava orcs. Sorry, the ghost puppets. But he still stands there, guarding WWX instead of backing off like everyone else.

*takes a moment to squeal over them.*