“his Relationship With Thomas Hamilton– The Initial Friendship– And Them Then Becoming Lovers Is

Gosh. So powerful.

This is exactly the spirit, the very soul of his fight and of his being.

MXTX interview

This is a partial translation of an interview given by the author in March 2018, it can be found on her Weibo. There are actually 40 questions in the full interview about all three of her books, her upcoming fourth book and also about herself and her writing in general. I’ve only kept the parts pertaining to Mo Dao Zu Shi for the sake of clarity and because I doubt many people have finished reading all three books. Some parts were a bit confusing, hopefully I got it right…

Mild spoilers for the main story.

Original interview: https://www.weibo.com/6049110380/G7RfoEcj9

Where did Wangxian perform their third marriage bow? How did Lan Wangji call his rabbits?

The names of Lan Wangji’s little rabbits is a secret that only he knows, even I don’t know. 

Anyway, Wangxian’s third bow was done before their second time together.

Luo Binghe likes using Immortal-Binding Cable, Lan Wangji likes using his forehead ribbon, what about Hua Cheng? Can the skills of the three be scored? [1]

The most skilled of the three is without a doubt Hua Cheng. He is talented with his words and even more with his actions as well as extremely appealing. Even though Xie Lian is easily embarrassed, he will obediently do anything he is asked.

Lan Er is the hard-working and straightforward type, but that’s all right, Wei Wuxian can tell him himself how to play.

It goes without saying for Luo Binghe. Shen Laoshi, please be a little more patient with him.

What is Wei Wuxian like when he is drunk? Does he act any different than his normal self?

Not really, there’s no big difference between him drunk or sober. It’s not everyone that has a change of personality when drunk, it’s just really over-the-top in the case of the Gusu Lan Sect.

What did Wei Wuxian go through during the three months he spent in Burial Mound? Was there really a mysterious book artefact left there by a master? [2] When Lan Wangji healed Wei Wuxian after the massacre at Nightless City, what did he say to him? How did Wei Wuxian pass the time during the thirteen years he was dead?

Some things that were said were not to be taken seriously, there is no mysterious book from a master. I don’t really like the kind of plot where predecessors do the hard work and plant the trees and their successors can just cool off in the trees’ shade.

Please do your own research. 

He was in a confused and chaotic state [3], not quite conscious but not completely unable to feel anything either. It’s like being stuck in an unending nightmare.

When Wen Ning went berserk at Qiongqi Path and Koi Tower, was that an accident for both times? After changing into a fierce corpse, how long can he live?

When Wen Ning attacked at Qiongqi Path, it was Wei Wuxian losing control.

What happened at Koi Tower wasn’t an accident. 

It depends on the maintenance.

Is Jin Ling’s courtesy name the one chosen by Wei Wuxian, Rulan [4]?

That’s right. But he never ever uses it. Jin Ling dislikes it because it sounds sissy.

What was the relationship between Cangse Sanren and Lan Qiren and why did she cut off his goatee? Does Lan Qiren have prospects for elderly marriage? What are the criteria Lan Qiren looks for when choosing a spouse?

It was because Lan Qiren was not as understanding and sensible during his youth as compared to now. At some point it resulted in Jiang Fengmian and his servant Wei Changze running into trouble while night hunting and they almost lost their lives. But Lan Qiren deemed that he was only following the rules and that the fault was not his so he refused to apologise, angering everyone. Then Cangse cut off his beard to play a trick on him. To tell the truth, beardless Lan Qiren is still very handsome, there’s no one bad-looking in the Gusu Lan Sect! 

It’s unlikely to happen so there is no criterion.

PS. Why are there people asking for Lan Qiren’s spouse criteria…

What is the age difference between Nie Mingjue and Nie Huaisang and how is their relationship? Was the part of Nie Huaisang’s partner [5] that was mentioned before deleted from the book or was the design simply scrapped?

Five or six years. Although they are half-siblings with different mothers, they get on pretty well. 

Scrapped as I found out afterwards that the story remained consistent without adding this character. Adding the character would instead make things difficult and the final result might not have been satisfactory.

Translator’s Notes

[1] Skills in bed.

[2] That’s how Wei Wuxian explains his demonic powers to Jiang Cheng when he returns from Burial Mound.

[3] 混沌 (Hùndùn) means literally ‘muddled confusion’ and also refers to the primal chaos that existed prior to the formation of the world and in which nothing could be distinguished or perceived according to Chinese classic texts.

[4] Rulan (如兰) means literally 'like an orchid’.

[5] It’s mentioned in an older interview that the author had planned Nie Huaisang to have a subordinate helping him behind the scenes so the meaning was a partner in crime.

It’s titled “Once Upon A Time.” And it’s the story of us.

So interesting, thank you! I'm going to see what you linked too, as I was saying, I'm not skilled in history but I might be interested in some topics in particular (like this one), so thank you for sharing such precious infos!

Yeah they never named that ship, the original name is beautiful but a bit long I'd say. Still it would have been interesting to know, you're right.

The Man O'War

One of the mysteries of Black Sails is where the Spanish man o’war captured in season 1 vanishes to after Captain Flint and his crew return to Walrus…but another mystery is exactly WHAT is this ship. I’ve seen her referred to as a frigate, but now that I’ve captured a good screenshot (season 2, episode 4), that this is definitely no frigate.

The man o’war has three full gun decks. Counting gun ports, it looks like each has approximately fifteen guns, plus a short gun deck back aft near the main deck. This averages to 45-49 guns per broadside, which makes this grand bitch not just a ship of the line, but a first rate ship of the line. That's the age of sail equivalent of a battleship! Take a look at the gif below of the man o’war savaging Walrus and Ranger.

(Frankly, if she was a frigate, I don't think Flint would've worried much; Walrus has the throw weight of a sixth rate frigate and would've stood a good chance; with Ranger along, they would've been just fine and no one should've panicked.)

So, what ship is this? The Urca de Lima was a real ship, though Urca was only a nickname for Santissima Trinidad, and she was part of a combination of two flotillas that made up the 1715 Treasure Fleet. This fleet consisted of eleven ships, of which at least two were ships of the line.

The first was ex-Hampton Court, a British built third rate ship of the line of 70 guns that was captured by the French then sold to the Spanish. Sources say that she was renamed Nuestra Señora del Carmen, but contemporary sources such as the governor of Jamacia, Archibald Hamilton indicate that this was a separate ship and the flagship of the second part of the fleet. (More on that in a moment.)

The second confirmed ship of the line was the French Griffon, which was the one and only survivor. (Cool fact: the captain of this ship was also likely the informant who gave Hamilton his information).

The third ship is the mystery ship that brought up the rear of the formation. This ship is harder to place, and was either a different "massive war galleon" or Nuestra Señora del Rosario, a third ship of the line. This may have been a third rate or fourth rate ship of the line, but sources make it very hard to tell. Given that the wrecks that have been found have never been positively identified, it's even harder to determine which ship was which.

Back to Black Sails. Historical evidence says that there wasn't a first rate ship of the line in the 1715 Treasure Fleet, but the show does also indicate that the Urca was traveling alone, so a bit of dramatic license says that we've got a first rater along for the ride. It's far from outside the realm of possibility, given the contemporary evidence that the Spanish definitely did use ships of the line as escorts for treasure ships.

I think it's safe to say that the ship isn't Hampton Court, however. An ex-British officer like James Flint would 100% recognize Hampton Court, who would've been captured (1707) after he left England but was a distinctly British design. Additionally, the characters continuously refer to her as a Spanish man o'war, which indicates she's Spanish-built.

Spanish-built ships of the line with three decks have 94 guns or greater. Until 1700ish, they frequently were referred to as galleons, a term that faded out of use and was replaced by navíos. If I'm going to be a real history nerd, Spain didn't really have a three deck ship of the line in this era; they'd scrapped the only one they had in 1705, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y las Animas. But prior to scrapping, this ship was sent to the colonies to harass settlers around Panama, so she was on the right side of the world in the early 18th century.

Historically speaking, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción y las Animas (Our Lady of the Conception and of Souls) is the best candidate for the Man O'War in Black Sails.

In-universe speaking, that big bitch is a three deck, first rate ship of the line of somewhere between 94-100 guns, just based on the number of gun ports and the mincemeat she makes of two ships at the same time. Why did she vanish? Probably because it'd be hard as hell for anyone to beat Flint if you let him keep that ship, and Woodes Rodgers would've had a much harder time taking Nassau when she was protected by a ship of the line.

Have you seen this post before? Probably a close cousin of it. Dimwit me deleted my tumblr and had to remake it.

Additional sources:

1715 Treasure Fleet Information

Ship resting places, armament, and educated guesswork

Archibald Hamilton's information

Don't tell me, I can't wait for it. If someone has their own candidates please share! I already have mine...

Every so often I remember we’re likely going to get casting announcements for Gabrielle and Akasha within the next two months and I get so dizzy I have to sit down

Swan Queen and the Parent Meeting at School 

REGINA:  You’re late, dear.

EMMA:  Yea, sorry about that.  My WIFE decided to pack my lunch today and all I found was a plastic container of blended apple, kale, carrot juice and a bran muffin.

REGINA:  It’s wholesome and nutritious.

EMMA:  It looked like sea monster vomit in a cup.

SNOW:  Guys, please. We’re in a meeting.

EMMA:  What.  You’re my mother.

SNOW:  Right now I’m your daughters’ principal!

EMMA:  You mean your GRANDDAUGHTERS?

REGINA:  (ignores current conversation, turns to Emma)  Lunch was delicious.

EMMA:  I wouldn’t know.  I didn’t eat it.

SNOW:  Maybe we should proceed…

REGINA:  What do you mean you didn’t eat it?

EMMA:  I didn’t eat it!

SNOW:  (waves to get their attention)  Hello?

REGINA:  (crosses arms)  Well, what DID you eat then?

SNOW:  Principal trying to talk here.

EMMA:  (defiantly pins Regina with a stare)  I went to Granny’s and had a DOUBLE bacon, grilled onion cheeseburger and French fries with a chocolate milkshake chaser.

SNOW:  (shakes head in hands)  Oh geez.

REGINA:  You did WHAT?

EMMA:  You heard me.

REGINA: EMMA!

EMMA: (imitates)  REGINA!

SNOW:  (points to self)  Principal!

EMMA:  (to her mom)  SHHH!

REGINA:  (to Snow at the same time) Oh shut up!

They both stare at each other hard again while Snow tilts her eyes heavenward and closes them while shaking her head.

REGINA:  Do you know what those things are doing to your body as we speak?

EMMA:  I don’t know about you but my body’s feeling pretty thankful.

REGINA:  You think so?  Let’s see how it feels when your ASS is sleeping on the couch tonight.

EMMA:  (scoffs)  Are you serious?  For eating a cheeseburger.  Who are you? My mother?

SNOW:  No… that would be me.

EMMA:  (jokingly)  You just said you were the principal.

There’s a knock at the door. The school janitor, Leroy, pokes his head in.

LEROY:  Snow, you called to have some extra stuff thrown out?

SNOW:  Yes, Leroy.  Those bags by the wall.

Leroy nods to Regina and Emma but they only crack a small smile alerting him to the tension in the room.  He awkwardly shuffles towards the trash knowing well what could happen between the Sheriff and the Mayor, even though they’ve been married for years and were perfect for one another.

REGINA:  (to Emma)  Do you even care about your heart and arteries?  Because I do.

EMMA:  Oh my God, Babe!  Look at this body.  I am in prime condition.  (flexes arms) I don’t mean to BRAG but look at these! (holds her arm up to a passing Leroy)

LEROY:  (puts garbage bag down and feels Emma’s arm)  Wow, those are some serious guns you got there, sister! (Looks up to find Regina glaring at him and Snow subtly waving for him to leave while he can)  Um…

SNOW:  Thanks, Leroy.  That’s it. (waits a beat, looks at two cross-armed irritated women)  Okay… Why don’t we just forget about this whole thing and move on. What’s done is…

REGINA:  (scowls at Snow)  Don’t you have chalkboard erasers to BANG somewhere?

SNOW:  (tilts head back and sighs at the ceiling)  

EMMA:  Babe, it’s not like I eat like this all the time. And I think I’ve done pretty good with all the other stuff you give me. I actually like flaxseed and goji berries now. (sees Regina soften and puts a hand on her forearm)  Heck!  I’ve even gotten used to grilled cheese on WHEAT bread!  (looks into Regina’s eyes meaningfully, smiles)  But I draw the line at “cat puke in a can”.

SNOW:  (mumbles unheard)  I don’t even think a cat would eat the stuff Regina gives you.

REGINA:  (pause, raises eye brow, smirks)  There was no “milkshake chaser” was there.

EMMA:  (smiles wider and nods yes)  No.

REGINA:  (strokes Emma’s hand)  And the grilled onions?

EMMA:  It was a plain hamburger, no cheese and with a side salad instead of fries. (happy with Regina’s megawatt smile) And NO onions.  I WAS planning on kissing you later.  (wiggles eyebrows)

Both women have eyes only for each other and ignore Snow’s twisted mouth as the moment seems inappropriately intimate all of a sudden.

REGINA:  Only later?

EMMA:  Well… Maybe a lot sooner than then.  

REGINA:  How about right now?

EMMA:  How about we take this someplace more private?

REGINA:  Follow me then, Sheriff Swan.

EMMA:  To the ends of the Earth, babe.  (opens door for Regina)  So am I still sleeping on the couch?

REGINA:  (as door closes behind them)  Lucky for you I happen to like “your guns” wrapped around me in bed where they belong.

Snow is left with an empty blinking expression at their vacated chairs.

SNOW:  Well, Audrey and Sophie are adjusting really well to school life. They love kindergarten and play well with others. (pause, dismissive wave at the chairs)  I’ll just tell them everything at Sunday dinner.

———-

Credit for the gif goes to @lana-lana-b0-bana.  (Thank you for letting me use it!  I love it!)

When I saw this lovely gif, I immediately thought it looked like a parent/teacher conference type thing and this scene took place in my head.  This is set in The Twins of Storybrooke universe and I made Snow the principal.  Who knows, by then she might be!

It doesn’t feel like living anymore.

I love Miranda. And this is maybe the moment I find her the most arresting and beautiful. It’s such a raw, desperate moment. Asking to be seen. I love her contradictions. How she is both selfish and self-sacrificing. She is incredibly strong in so many regards, and yet struggling to find her own agency. She is honest and yet underhanded. She is kind and petty, smug and patient. As an avowed hedonist, she comes to endure even when she’s past her endurance. An in the end she becomes a martyr, when I think all she ever wanted was to be her own person.

That complexity is reflected in her relationship with James I think. There are many different takes on it, all of them valid, obviously, so this is just my own…

I find their relationship fascinating. It’s obvious that they love each other. It’s also obvious that this love is different than the one they had for Thomas, although that shared love for him certainly plays an important role in their relationship. But I think that Miranda maybe doesn’t love like James and Thomas at all, not in this all consuming way. The way I see her, she’s also completely aromantic, but that doesn’t make her love something lesser.

Miranda loves Thomas as someone who shares her interests and temperament, an intellectually stimulating partner, a great man. They were a harmonious couple, their relationship seemingly effortless. Her relationship with James on the other hand is a constant struggle, and not just because of the circumstances they find themselves in, I think. They are both too alike and too different. The one that fit with them was always Thomas.

Miranda and James’ love for each other is mostly built on loyalty. On knowing that whatever may come, the other will stand with them to the bitter end. And because of that loyalty they both try to be more for the other, to fill the void Thomas left, and failing miserably at it.

James tries to give Miranda things that connect her with her old life: books, a spinet, delicate tea cups. Even sex. But it’s a poor substitute, and the thing she most longs for —companionship— is unbearable for him to provide, because being with her reminds him of what he lost. Miranda wants to remember Thomas and talk about him, but James can’t.

James tries to keep Thomas close by striving to bring his vision to life, finish what they started, and prove England wrong in the process. And Miranda tries to be a partner in this. She helps him plot and patches him up and harbours prisoners, but she hates it just as much. They both hate the things the other needs from them. And yet they stubbornly hold on to each other, and try to keep each other safe. It’s not a passionate love. At times it’s almost resentful. But it’s deep and true.

How hard it must be for Miranda to love James. Love him in Thomas stead, knowing that she falls short by miles. How hard it must be to see him try to love her better, and failing because he, too, isn’t Thomas. Loving each other with such loyal devotion across the divide, the hole that Thomas left. Loving each other even though it is hard, and it hurts, that’s what makes it beautiful to me. 

Happy Thomas Hamilton Resurrection Day!

[ ✕ ]

That last gaze between them...the complicity, the understanding, the solace, the love between the romantic kind and the friendship and way above both of them...one of the best couple ever❤

I found it, Miranda. Parrish’s ship? You found the schedule?

for @ellelan

"But I hear other voices. A chorus of voices. Multitudes. They reach back centuries. Men and women and children who lost their lives to men like you. Man and women and children forced to wear your chains. I must answer to them.

And this war, Flint’s war, my war, it will not be bargained away to avoid a fight. To save John Silver’s life, or his men’s, or mine.”

I’d like to start from this beautiful speech from Madi to explain why I think Madi is the war itself. Why she was exactly what Flint needed to start fighting it and why she couldn’t be further away from Silver as a person.

Just because I rewatched the final ep. today and I feel the need to honor the one who lost part of herself in this and to reason about the dynamics among the two persons who might have changed the world and the one who kicked that hope back into the dark corner of the untold.

As always, Flint and Silver’s conversation at the end of ep.XXXVIII made me think A LOT. First time I guess I was overwhelmed by emotions, but this time, between the bitterness of the betrayal and the desperation of Flint's loss, I think I started to see exactly what Silver couldn’t get about the war. Which basically is its meaning.

But let me begin with Flint, because is the character I think I know better by now and because I need to start from a warrior who is not the war itself.

Flint started by fighting a war, another one, an easier one, alongside Thomas. He found himself in that period of time, but he lost that war and the one he loved the most with it. Then he started to fight another kind of war, twisted himself in order to fit into its lines. That war was never about liberation, even if that was what he had been telling himself all along and maybe what he hoped he could eventually accomplish by fighting it: it was just about revenge and something to grab in order to stay afloat. It took him to lost every hope of happiness he had left (Miranda), the last possible meaning of his life and of the person he felt he really was deep inside to see the chance for yet another kind of war. A wider one, a harder one, a most fundamental one. It took him to meet Madi. Knowing her, someone completely different from anyone he had known and fought along in the past, someone who was somehow closer to him as a person than anyone he had ever known (except maybe Eleonor, I’m talking mainly about the pirates. Thomas and Miranda were close to him but not very similar in character I’d say and maybe this is why they got along together so well), he finally had the chance to understand that he was not alone in his misery. She had the courage to be what Flint didn’t even know he could become, the fight not for the fight’s sake but for the outcome, as much as he reputed himself already excluded from it, because however he couldn’t ever be part of anything again, not in the way he had been with Thomas and Miranda. But there’s a difference between fighting just to kill and fighting to save who the one you are killing would have been willing to kill, and Madi represented that change for him.

And the war represented the only meaning he was still able to give to his life.

He is defined by his past, absolutely and mainly, and this makes him both someone with valid reasons to fight and someone with reasons to stop fighting.

In the previous episode we see how Silver instead refuses to be defined by his past, which could be a good or a bad thing, depending on how one let that past influence themselves, but that in this specific situation is basically what makes him unable (just my point of view of course) to get the general meaning of that war.

He chooses to erase his experience in favor of the moment, of the future maybe, and this makes him unable (as much as he likes to affirm the contrary, which I had never agreed upon) to understand the minds of the ones who let that experience shape them. And even more, it makes him unable to understand the minds of the ones who don’t need to have cruel experiences behind them in order to feel the fight. That is, Madi.

To link with my previous post ( https://www.tumblr.com/dragonsinthedarkness/758840316125216768/from-the-moment-he-started-speaking-i-couldnt?source=share ), in that infamous conversation in the last ep. Silver confesses he felt the war only (or especially, but I’d say only) when he lost Madi, because he felt the need to honor her sacrifice, avenge her lost and everything Flint had been doing for years, and the point is that that war was EXACTLY that. It was answering to the multitudes of voices who had undergone all that suffering and that demanded justice for it. It was trying to accomplish that as few others as possible could undergo that same fate.

And the point I want to make is that Madi was not only a warrior but the war itself because she felt those voices and the need to answer to them EVEN IF she had never personally experienced such tragedies. She was raised with the Guthries, then in the camp, she had probably even had the chance to be happy in her childhood, but this didn’t prevent her from developing the knowledge of that evil or the responsibility to fight it as leader of her community and as sisters of all the ones who had suffered before and may suffer again.

She wasn’t defined by her own past, but she brought on her shoulders the most painful and important legacy and decided to honor it.

And one may ask for justice for what happened in their own lifetime with a single chance of succeeding, that can make a great warrior of them, but those voices REACHED BACK CENTURIES, as she said. Her justice, their justice, would have been hopeless as long as something bigger as that war started to change things, and this is exactly what Silver couldn’t understand.

Now of course I know changes don’t happen overnight because “the world is too strong for that”, but I’m talking about their reality in that age right now and I think that as much as a war couldn’t have probably changed things, it would have been a beginning at least. A scream echoing in the night of their existences who would have maybe be heard, and as long as even a single person was able to gain goodness from it, it wouldn’t have been in vain.

As I believe all their efforts had not been in vain, despite the outcome.

For one hour, a month or a year (to improperly quote Silver) of freedom.

For one single moment of victory, of light in the dark.