Season 2: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8
Jin Ling: They said my mother was a bad person.
Wei Wuxian: Jin Ling. Ignore them. Your mom was very kind.
Jin Ling: And my father...?
Wei Wuxian: Your father... loved your mom.
Wei Wuxian: Jin Ling. Ignore them. Your mom was very kind.
Jin Ling: And my father...?
Wei Wuxian: Your father... loved your mom.
When Wei Wuxian finds Jin Ling in peril once more, he attempts to save him from a malicious curse. To do so, he needs to look into the boy's inner demons, as well as his own.
- Adaptational Early Appearance:
- Wei Wuxian transfers Jin Ling's Devil's Mark to himself earlier than he does in the novel. He does it as soon as he saves the latter and is left alone with him; in the novel, Jin Ling is taken to an inn to rest but runs off as soon as he wakes up, forcing Wei Wuxian to go look for him and transfer the curse at a later point.
- Wei Wuxian begins recalling his memories as the Yiling Patriarch post-Sunshot Campaign here, something that happens later on in the novel.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In the Langya flashback Jin Zixuan was a lot more aggressive than his novel counterpart when accusing Jiang Yanli of stealing credit for the soup he's received. In the novel the worst thing he did was give her a brutally honest speech about how status doesn't equate to one’s integrity, whereas here he shoved her away before grabbing her wrist while further antagonizing her.
- Adaptational Nice Guy:
- Upon seeing Jin Zixuan getting physically aggressive with Jiang Yanli, Wei Wuxian punched him once and told him to get out of their sight. This is way subdued compared to his behavior in the novel, where he bet him up so viciously that Jiang Cheng, Jin Guangshan, and Jiang Yanli herself had to intervene and drag him away, all while screaming that one day he'll definitely kill Jin Zixuan.
- Unlike in the novel, Jin Zixuan wasn't harsh nor condescending when he noticed Jiang Yanli seemed hesitant to accompany him during the hunt at Phoenix Mountain and told her she could leave, nor did he try to stop her.
- Madam Jin was more gentle than in the novel and not nearly as pushy in trying to get Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli together. While she still called for her son to accompany the latter back to Jinlintai, it was mostly to tell him to at least show some courtesy. She also didn't go into a subtle game of tug-of-war with Wei Wuxian over whether Jiang Yanli should leave together with Jin Zixuan or not.
- Adaptation Deviation: Wei Wuxian encounters Jiang Cheng under different circumstances from the novel, partly due to him saving Jin Ling from the curse earlier than the original. In this episode he encounters Jiang Cheng right after saving the teen, thanks to Fairy finding him. In the novel, he gets chased by Fairy while looking for Jin Ling to fix the curse, which is how he runs into not only the latter but also Jiang Cheng.
- Adaptation Expansion: Wei Wuxian looking into Jin Ling's childhood memories and interacting with the young boy in an illusion while transferring the Devil's Mark to himself is unique to the adaptation.
- Adaptation Explanation Extrication: What caused incident in Langya between Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli and how he started developing feelings for her isn't explained here unlike the novel. What the episode doesn't clarify is that it was Jin Zixuan who was in the wrong instead of Jiang Yanli, as she was indeed the person who made him soup but chose to hide that fact. Having assumed a maid was responsible for it, he jumped to conclusions when Jiang Yanli finally brought him soup herself and only realized how wrong he was when the maid cleared up the misunderstanding. It was only after this incident that Jin Zixuan had a change of heart towards Jiang Yanli and realized her good qualities.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: Not wanting her to misunderstand things further, The Stinger shows Jin Zixuan dramatically confessing to Jiang Yanli that he was the one who invited her to the hunt, essentially revealing his feelings for her.
- Armor-Piercing Response: In response to all the accusations Jin Zixun threw at Wei Wuxian, Jiang Yanli gently but firmly reminded him that the latter Wuxian didn't break any rules of the hunt, and that insulting him means also insulting the Jiang Clan as a whole. Jin Zixun had no comeback to this whatsoever.
- Badass Boast: Jin Zixun lambasted Wei Wuxian by calling him arrogant (for hunting down most of the prey by himself) and mannerless (because he didn't bring his sword with him), and mocked him for using an unorthodox form of cultivation. Wei Wuxian coolly responded that he could make short work of everyone who challenged him by using The Dark Arts, even without a sword.
- Beware the Nice Ones: As gentle and polite as Jiang Yanli was, she showed that she was not to be trifled with if someone tried to talk badly of her family, Wei Wuxian included.
- Big Brother Instinct: Disparaging Jiang Yanli once again earned Jin Zixuan another hard punch to the face from her younger brother figure Wei Wuxian.
- Big "NO!": Wei Wuxian shouts out an anguished "no" after seeing visions of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli's deaths.
- Big Sister Instinct: When Jin Zixun started antagonising Wei Wuxian and threw accusations at him, Jiang Yanli immediately stepped in to defend the latter and warned him that she will not tolerate anyone insulting him.
- Buried Alive: The Man-Eating Castle trapped Jin Ling in its walls prior to the protagonists' arrival. He fortunately avoids being permanently buried alive by it thanks to the duo.
- Compressed Adaptation:
- The flashback of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Yanli's misunderstanding in Langya is heavily cut down, making it unclear to viewers who haven't read the novel what exactly happened.
- The majority of the Phoenix Mountain Crowd Hunt flashback is omitted, and instead it just focuses Jiang Yanli standing up for Wei Wuxian against Jin Zixun and Jin Zixuan's Anguished Declaration of Love. Though still coherent, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's sudden appearances can seem random (the two had an awkward encounter nearby and spied on the couple in the novel), and Jin Zixuan announcing his feelings doesn't have much foreshadowing (the episode cuts out most of his walk with Jiang Yanli, where it was made clear that he was earnestly trying to court her).
- Damned by Faint Praise: Downplayed. While talking to an illusion of a young Jin Ling, Wei Wuxian tells the boy that his mother was a great woman. Then when asked about the father, the only thing Wei Wuxian can say is that Jin Zixuan genuinely loved her — while not untrue, the way he avoids complimenting his actual personality says a lot about his opinion of him.
- Enemy Rising Behind: As soon as Wei Wuxian stands up after healing Jin Ling, Zidian suddenly starts glowing and coiling from behind him, showing that Jiang Cheng is nearby. The moment he notices, he gets whipped by the weapon.
- Friendless Background: When Wei Wuxian enters Jin Ling's memories, he comes across the latter as a child struggling to make friends with the other kids, who bully him for being an orphan.
- Generation Xerox: During the Phoenix Mountain Crowd Hunt, Wei Wuxian saved Jiang Yanli from a large snake — exactly like the one that almost got her son Jin Ling two episodes ago in the present timeline.
- Internal Reveal: The episode has Jiang Cheng officially confirm that he knows Mo Xuanyu is actually Wei Wuxian, something that's already been hinted to the audience beforehand.
- Lost in Translation: When a young Jin Ling asks who Wei Wuxian is, official subtitles has the latter say he's an uncle. The exact word used here is shishu, a Chinese terminology for martial sects/organisations which translates to "martial uncle". This makes it clearer that Wei Wuxian is introducing himself as a martial mentor figure (in this case Jin Ling's mother's younger martial brother) rather than an uncle in a familial sense. The episode is also titled "Shishu" in Chinese which refers to the interaction between the two characters in this illusion, however its significance is lost in the official English title which is "Family". This was done to avoid having to explain the cultural significance behind martial uncles to international viewers.
- Luminescent Blush: Jin Zixuan's face turned beet red when he realized he just confessed to Jiang Yanli in front of several other cultivators, including his own mother.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Jin Zixuan looked incredibly guilty after getting decked by Wi Wuxian again for mistreating Jiang Yanli, showing he realized the error of his ways.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Wei Wuxian is petrified with fear when he sees that Fairy is at the Man-Eating Castle, and panics further when the dog starts biting his clothes (to lead him to where Jin Ling is).
- The look of surprise on Wei Wuxian's face when Jiang Cheng calls him by his name hints that he knows he's screwed.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Despite Wei Wuxian's cynophobia, he doesn't so much as flinch or yelp when he hears Fairy's barking at the end of the episode because he's also faced with Jiang Cheng — who he knows spells much bigger trouble than the dog.
- Psychotic Smirk: Jiang Cheng gives a malicious smile when he meets Wei Wuxian again, this time alone and defenseless.
- Punched Across the Room: Downplayed. Wei Wuxian's punch was strong enough to literally knock Jin Zixuan off his feet and send him a few metres.
- Sapient House: The Man-Eating Castle is a sentient building that can trap people in its walls, which Jin Ling found out the hard way prior to this episode. When it realizes that the teen got dug out of its walls, it immediately attempts to drag him back and bury him again.
- The Stinger: The post-credits scene is the flashback of Jin Zixuan making it clear to Jiang Yanli that he was the one to invite her to the hunt and not his mother like she originally thought.
- Suddenly Shouting: While confessing his true feelings to Jiang Yanli, he weakly stammered and muttered a few sentences in before screaming from the top of his lungs, "I want you to be here!" To top it off, they were on a mountain, so his voice echoed at that part.
- Tranquil Fury: Besides hitting him right in the face, in response to seeing Jin Zixuan being rude to Jiang Yanli once again, an infuriated Wei Wuxian merely warned the former in a cold tone to never show his face again.
- Tsundere: Jin Zixuan clearly didn't want to let Jiang Yanli go her separate way at Phoenix Mountain but refused to admit why, and it was only right until the end that he couldn't take it any longer and let out an Anguished Declaration of Love. This impulsive act left him screaming out of embarrassment while running away.
- Ungrateful Bastard: Despite seeing that Jin Ling was saved by Wei Wuxian in some way, Jiang Cheng chooses to focus on capturing the latter rather than show any appreciation, if his Psychotic Smirk is any indication.Wei Wuxian: Clan Leader Jiang, I saved Jin Ling, you know. Why did you whip me with Zidian again?
Jiang Cheng: You clearly know why, Wei Wuxian.
