[spoilers about Wen Qing] Despite a shaky start, The Untamed 陈情令 starring Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo has been steadily gotten love from viewers. However, it wasn’t that long ago when fans were upset that the story which is adapted from a BL novel would be changed to include Meng Ziyi’s character Wen Qing as a female love interest. As a result, Meng Ziyi bore the the brunt of the backlash as she was bashed on social media.
Now that a big chunk of the story has aired, it’s become clear that Wen Qing is not a love interest for Wei Wuxian. Meng Ziyi whom I suspect is tired of all the negativity finally took to social media to explain herself. She clarified that she didn’t have financial backing when she joined the cast, that she didn’t change the script for The Untamed and that her character is not getting resurrected. Wen Qing has been turned to ashes and the actress Meng Ziyi signs off.
She admits that in the Xuanwu Cave scene, it was in the script that Wei Wuxian would be branded in order to save her but she explains that the motivation behind the change was so that Wen Qing will help Wei Wuxian when he would ask for her favor to help Jiang Cheng restore his golden core. The change did not end up making the final cut. Nonetheless, Meng Ziyi stresses that the script never had a love story for her character.
Despite her clarifications, some people are still skeptical. Others have asked why she waited this long to say something if there was no love story intended from the start. Some fans believe that there really were scenes filmed with Wen Qing as a love interest, however, objections were too strong that the production team changed their minds. One of the commenters posted a photo taken during filming that showed Meng Ziyi holding on to Xiao Zhan’s sleeve.
I can somewhat understand why people would be upset, but regardless of the circumstances, The Untamed seems to be putting effort into staying true to the novel, which is a good thing.
Source: 1
Scrltpimpernel
It’s just getting annoying that China keeps making these TV shows based on BL novels and they end up just turning them into Bromances. What is the point of even using the novel when gay themed literature and TV shows his band?
yuyuyu
but mo dao zu shi is a bl novel tho…
Anonymous
Cause those BL novels have cultivated a large fanbase, so turning them into drama would generate more $$$.
amilgaoul08
If you have read the manga version of the untamed (mo dao zu shi), wen qing's character give justify as the person who transfer Wei Ying's golden core to Jiang Cheng when wen zhuilu destroy it. In the series/drama, wen qing's spirit was seen/appeared to young master mo/ wei ying during unexpected visit at Yiling mount where the stone goddess monument can be seen. That's the time when wen ning also appeared
Anonymous
It's all ridiculous anyway. Tencent is not stupid. Why would they waste money to produce a drama that would certainly get hate. And about her grabbing xiao zhan's hands during filming, reaching too much, those cnetz, who knows what the context of the scene they were filming? Those who have seen episode 26 will know it's a super sad scene involving her character's brother.
Because of all the mess we've lost a huge chunks of her character's development and now it feels the character's friendship with the main character was half assed.
And didn't she post clarification last year too? No one believed her then, and still no one believe her now. I am not even her fan and I feel so bad for her.
Anonymous
I never knew about the controversy until I started the drama, so was never worried about any love interest. And it's so obvious how much WuXian and Wang Ji love each other. However, my big problem with her (not as a real person but as an actress) is I don't think she's very good, frankly. Her acting doesn't seem organic, but stiff (at least in this drama). And they didn't give her much more to do than sideways glances. She takes me out of the drama and in to the thought "oh, she's acting". Not usually a good thing. Plus her added scenes seem unnecessary. That's all.
Anonymous
Thank god someone exposed Meng Ziyi early on during the shooting of the drama. if not for the book fans to gather up and make this a big deal along with the 300K comments under the official blog last year, 'The Untamed' would not be what it is today. The script (with her added scenes) along with some already filmed scenes were exposed and served as evidences, that's why her denying it now won't make anyone believe her. When the drama aired, many of her scenes were deleted. For those who doesn't understand, please go read: https://www.douban.com/group/topic/146600388/
I say that this is all a blessing in disguise, as without this controversy, it would not be easy to pass the trial. The series being broadcasted at a much lower expectation due to the controversy was an unexpected surprise to many audience. From a douban rating of mid 4s to 7 is a little unprecedented and tells you that many fans have changed their opinion of the show after watching it.
BTW, Meng Ziyi's agent is Jia Shikai (Victoria Song and Yang Yang), has a pretty notorious reputation in the circle.
Anonymous
Well, of course no one believe her as there were evidences to suggest otherwise.
https://www.douban.com/group/topic/146600388/
Anonymous
It's the 21st century for crying out loud. why can't they give the BL fans what they want.Im pretty sure society these days are more accepting in what is going on in the world these days. If they are making money off the books that fans love wouldn't they make just as much or maybe more if stick to the story from the books.
vampire_princess_miyu
china is HEAVILY SENSORED. HEAVILY… … heavily…. foreign movies wanting to make money in china must tow the line.. so how hard must it be to even for those who live there.
Anonymous
3a. What i think funny is how no one ever thought that they probably intentionally filmed two versions of the scenes to throw off the fans watching in case of early spoiler, also the censorboard.
I followed the whole mess. Even the timeline. July 17th was when everything broke. A month left of filming. If they really planned to have her be THE love interest (changing all wangji's scenes with her character) after seeing the finished product, do people still believe that they managed to reshot that many new wangji scenes in the one month they had left?
As for the other document 'evidences' no one knew the sources of, take them with a huge spoonful of salt. Besides, with the crew being novel fans (read the audio drama direction's statement) and how Tencent holds MDZS IP in high regard, no way they were willing to muck up one of their biggest projects that year.
Maybe Meng Ziyi's company really paid to have her character have more scenes, but not as the love interest of any of the two leads, as we've seen from the drama.
Justcall_loners
Where I can read the manga version ?
Anonymous
Hmmm shes beautiful but i agree her character is not developed much and not that interesting. I thought shed have more relation to jiang cheng instead.
Sanctuary
Y’all, leave Jiang Cheng out of this. I ship him with Xinchen. Xicheng should’ve been endgame ???
Anonymous
@8.a- "People can ship anyone they want" okay then leave this shipper alone. NOTHING about their comment was 'hateful'. They didn't even specifically reply to another shipper's comment unlike you. All they said was to leave JC out of the discussion and you go off and write a whole song and dance about it. Fuck off with this "I'd rather not hate anyone for disagreeing with me" bullshit bc clearly you're pressed enough to reply to someone who disagrees with you. Stop acting like some pompous fuck bc you're no better than any other shipper in this fandom.
Anonymous
People can ship anyone they want, I personally ship Wen Qing and Jiang Cheng and Xichen with Guangyao, but I'd rather not hate anyone help for disagreeing with me, i mean, if you wanna argue I would gladly do so
Anonymous
XiCheng is the superior ship!
Annonymous
I am a big fan of Mo Xiang Tong Xiu’s works, I was definitely upset when the thought of a female love interest came around. For the actors though, Xiao Zhan and Meng Zi Yi are really good actors, they’re also a really good match. I would watch a drama with both of them as main leads.
Anonymous
i am pretty sure they made The Untamed more of a bromance because relashionship bettween Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian is not the maun focus of the story…Its more about cultivation world and stuff like that… Yes the characters get married at the end but thats not the main thing in the story.. Novel is well writen and turning it into a drama would bring a lot of new fans and money…i know they get togehter at the end so im not mad by the way they made the drama