#head ribbon
among other things, I really love the way love bears a liberating quality for wei wuxian and lan wangji. it’s definitely more obvious for lan wangji, what with his famous head ribbon being touched and played with so many times and finally untied by wwx. his head ribbon signifies self-control, following the clan’s rules and your principles. it stands for wangji restricting his feelings in the name of what’s considered right by his clan and in the name of maintaining the perfect image.
this is how wangxian’s relationship starts: with wei ying messing around with the lan clan’s virtues and making lwj break his rules and take a different look at the world, at morality, at what’s wrong and right. the untying of lan zhan’s head ribbon was a symbol for this (aside from the whole “only family and spouses can touch it” thing).
its colour is also symbolic - white, the whiteness of being pristine, controlled, chaste, and proper. this is what wei wuxian freed lan zhan from.
and liberation works the other way around too. it’s hard to see the wild wei ying who does whatever he wants as someone in need of freedom but he has his own chains weighing down on him too. he’s not the only portrayed constantly wearing a ribbon. remember the red binding he used for tying his hair all the time? they didn’t put this in the tv show but it’s right there in the novel and the donghua. he, too, is restricted but it’s not by rules and high morals and self-control. it’s by everything the colour red stands for - by his own passionate nature that gets angry in the face of injustice and has to stand up for shit and fight, be violent, by his arrogance that makes him believe he can do it all, he can dominate the world and protect all of it at the same time, by his hot head and fast mouth. sometimes you get burned on your own flame and it hurts the most.
now I’m not sure if he wasn’t portrayed as wearing his hair down at some other part of the novel but the one time it’s mentioned that his ribbon is finally undone was when he and lan zhan were having sex. actually i think it was on two occasions - during that time in the bushes and in the incense burner dream when wwx’s hair became undone and loose and his ribbon was splayed out under his head. it’s with lan zhan that he could finally let go of all of this - the anger commanded by fear and desire to prove himself and protect what he values, the hot temper, the fight. that too is a heavy burden to carry.
and lan zhan takes it off from him. sometimes, it is in love that you finally find freedom from your own self.
It’s for these kinds of details that make me love them and love their relationship more and more every time, ohh gosh this is so perfect I’m crYING ;;;
