luxhesperus

[luxhesperus]

Listen, listen, listen. Listen to us, the roses cry. You are his echo.

The blooms all shift their gaze—all turning to the little, lone rose.

Lin Qiushi wishes.

Rating: General Audiences

Archive Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply

Fandom: 死亡万花筒 - 西子绪 | Kaleidoscope of Death - Xī Zǐxù, 致命游戏 | The Spirealm (TV)

Relationship: Lin Qiushi | Ling Jiushi/Ruan Nanzhu | Ruan Lanzhu

Additional Tags: Inspired by Pygmalion and Galatea, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Character Death, Non-Linear Narrative

Word Count: 5,330

huzzah, i can still write apparently

[luxhesperus]

link is tragic not because he died and came back with no memories

link is tragic like all heroes are tragic—because heroes are not meant to die before they've served their purpose and certainly not before they've done what they were made for

(how dare they die and fulfill their final role as sacrificial lamb before they are meant to? before they defeat the evil and be crowned hero [sacrificial lamb] in their tomb? that's not a hero, that's just a martyr)

link is a hero and heroes often are someone who didn't die when they should have except link did die when he shouldn't have and then he came back (but he must have come back wrong as that what resurrections are wont to do)

and then link is finally someone who didn't die when they should have, living in the aftermath—the consequences—of both his failure and success; finally, he is someone who has lived past the end of his myth

and so now what is link, really, without his mission? and who is link, really, without the title of knight and hero and champion? without the hand of fate using his own to wield the sword that seals the darkness?

who is he outside the myth that fate has made of him?

who is he when he was made to be something (a tool—a blade of the light he may be but a tool is a tool) and not someone?

(hero or martyr, neither are meant to live past the end of their story)

(p.s. i am well aware this only applies to botw/totk link bc those are the only ones i've played so far)

[luxhesperus]

anybody got recommendations for unlimited flow danmei? i've read:

全球高考 | Global Examination

薄雾 | Mist

死亡万花筒 | Kaleidoscope of Death

卡牌密室 | Card Room

幸存者偏 | Survivorship Bias

i've just finished survivorship bias and already feeling withdrawal symptoms 🤲🏻🤲🏻🥲🥲

[luxhesperus]

ruan nanzhu 🤝🏻 shen ti

a god who gave up their divinity/godhood and memories all because they loved a human

lin qiushi 🤝🏻 an wujiu

the human loved by a god in question and also the only one who remembers the god for a while after the god's "death"

[luxhesperus]

shen ti being such a pest 😭 your honour, i love him

but most especially, an wujiu, i love whatever's wrong with him 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

[luxhesperus]

i just finished jitd so now i'm about to talk about one of my favourite details (and i'm sure i'm probably overthinking this detail but hey i've always been delusional lmao):

pei su's glasses (and their shape)

now, granted, pei su's glasses haven't changed much throughout the series—maybe i even missed some—preferring the thin steel frame and square/rectangular shaped

this pair lasts throughout episodes 1 to 19 (this specific screencap is from ep 9). it's a thin, steel framed square glasses; though the edges are a bit rounded, it's still pretty angular and "sharp"

his and luo weizhao's relationship is still pretty shakey with lwz still not quite fully trusting him but that changes in episode 21 when both of them finally came clean with each other

now this one is during ep 20; this pair is larger but still steel-framed and square but the edges are more rounded now, softer

granted, this is an episode shy before lwz and pei su repair their relationship, but at this point, pei su has tossed the hot-potato-of-trust to lwz

this one is from the latter half of ep 28; steel-framed but circular—no edges or cutting angles to be seen anymore (a little segue but him dressed in lighter colours/white as he walks to his own death later is a whole other can of worms i love, also considering that those colours are meant to represent innocence and purity)

by this point, pei su has now shown much of his genuine self to lwz—his cunning, self-deprecating, and kind-hearted self

ep 29; his glasses are back to something akin to the one from ep 20-28—softer rounded edges but plastic-framed this time

this one, i believe, is much more for convenience because of the hidden tracker but also kind of fitting to how he currently presents himself—that despite his bravery and his determination, he still must've been scared

and of course, ep 30; this pair is less circular but still round like the one in ep 28, i actually can't tell if it's steel or plastic lol (and again with the lighter colours!!)

pei su is free, he no longer has true need for edges; he trusts and he is trusted (he loves and he is loved, he knows this now)

[luxhesperus]

i love how the jitd script writers and director really took the opportunity with pei su (i still don't like that name change but needs must, i guess) and the bombing incident

that if there's any reason why pei su should go back to the living, it's because luo weizhao and tao ze are still there

that if there is to be someone he would want to go back to, that he would listen to (even if not always lmao), it's luo weizhao

it's no coincidence that it's luo weizhao's voice that he hears when it could have just as easily been tao ze's

on another note, i like how it's so clearly not pei su's mother at all (because what loving mother would want to send their kid so early into their grave? and without having truly lived?) with the way the whole scene cracks and crumbles the moment he resolutely says "no. not yet"

[luxhesperus]

so now i've seen s1 and i still stand by what i said

marlene saw a cure (possibly) and joel saw his daughter

also, it's kinda fucked up, isn't it? asking a kid to give up their life for something no one can even guarantee would work (and what sane person is gonna go ahead and kill the possibly only immune subject they have without running some tests first)?

seeing tlou edits (even though i don't know much about it) and the comments are just driving me nuts

so take this opinion with a grain of salt bc this is coming from someone who hasn't seen the whole thing (yet)

now see, i'm not arguing whether joel is selfish or not for having traded the world (as some would see it) for ellie's life; because he is, in fact, selfish but so is everyone else—at one point or another and for one reason or another

sure, you could call joel selfish for choosing one person over the world but isn't it also selfish to ask a father, who already lost one kid, to sacrifice their (other) kid?

but to call him stupid for choosing his kid over everything else? fuck him for trying not to lose another person he cares about i guess (which is also what everyone wants which only further proves my earlier statement—who hasn't been selfish?)

(they would sooner make a martyr out of a kid than try and find another way)

[luxhesperus]

this shit is so funny because what the hell do you mean that huang weijie could have worn any other colour to that sham of a wedding but he chose to wear WHITE?? (or was it feng guanyu's doing? either way it's clear that the director and costume team knew what they were doing 🤭)

and that fight scene??? 😩😩 guanyu holding weijie as he slides and shoots aakdhskdhakndeo now that's what you call a wedding 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

god i love li taotao 😌

[luxhesperus]

watching ep 12 of stand by me and it's so fucking funny

feng guanyu is fighting inner demons (jealousy) while also being a weakass for huang weijie

[luxhesperus]

you know, i understand that it's hard for celine to fully and truly accept rumi because of how she was raised and it's not exactly easy to rewire yourself and your beliefs when it's been so deeply ingrained into you—when it's been the only truth you've ever had

but she was also unfairly cruel to rumi, not only because of what she had raised her to believe about herself [rumi] but because i think from the very beginning, she saw rumi as a part demon more than anything else—that rumi was only ever the circumstances of her birth to her [celine]

(and that's the part that angers me the most. i believe that she did try to love that part of rumi as well but she held firm to tradition and her idle conviction that rumi's demon heritage took precedence over actually loving her)

do i think she actually does love rumi? sure but only when she [rumi] is convenient to love (e.g. rumi being the daughter of her sister/best friend)

[luxhesperus]

just watched kdh and i still think it's curious how rumi isn't affected by gwi-ma's voice and maybe it is because of her human side or maybe she really is from gwi-ma's bloodline (whether father or grandfather as some speculate) but i like to think it's because rumi is already her own worst "voice" inside and outside her head

our worst critic is our own self, after all. rumi didn't need gwi-ma to voice her shame, she was already doing that so well herself; in fact, she couldn't even look at herself in the mirror

and worse still is that it wasn't only her voice that makes the cacophony of her shame and fears, the loudest and very first voice would have been celine's

(who knows, maybe she does hear gwi-ma but really, what could gwi-ma say to her that she hadn't already told herself? or already heard from celine?)

[luxhesperus]

seeing tlou edits (even though i don't know much about it) and the comments are just driving me nuts

so take this opinion with a grain of salt bc this is coming from someone who hasn't seen the whole thing (yet)

now see, i'm not arguing whether joel is selfish or not for having traded the world (as some would see it) for ellie's life; because he is, in fact, selfish but so is everyone else—at one point or another and for one reason or another

sure, you could call joel selfish for choosing one person over the world but isn't it also selfish to ask a father, who already lost one kid, to sacrifice their (other) kid?

but to call him stupid for choosing his kid over everything else? fuck him for trying not to lose another person he cares about i guess (which is also what everyone wants which only further proves my earlier statement—who hasn't been selfish?)

(they would sooner make a martyr out of a kid than try and find another way)

[luxhesperus]

i just finished 9 puzzles and HELLO??? WHAT THE EVER LOVING FUCK?? IS IT A COPYCAT?? IT'S PROBABLY A COPYCAT

I NEED SEASON TWO YESTERDAY

[luxhesperus]

you know, i am feral for futuristic sci-fi media wherein there's always this part of society that calls itself eden or garden of eden that presents itself as this utopia (but only a select part of this society is allowed in or really, it's just a fancy prison) and how at some point in the story, it is burned to the ground and usually by those who built it in the first place

i mean, there's more to it than just the gratifying feeling of burning and destroying a false paradise but also the absolute heresy in calling it eden only for it to be the complete opposite of what it should/used to represent

(there's really more to it that makes me go ape shit about this trope in media but unfortunately i currently cannot slap the words together nor can i make them coherent, so have this for now)

(also, i'm looking at you 残次品 and 小蘑菇 👁️👁️)

[luxhesperus]

i'm on my first rewatch of the final destination franchise (for the year bc i'm expecting another rewatch by october/november lmao) and currently on the 3rd movie and i'm wondering why they didn't bring back the two survivors from the second one and helped them like clear rivers did for kimberly and officer burke

guess death finally said no loopholes, no escapes this time around huh

[luxhesperus]

i like your head canon so much better! zelda finally being able to live and just be rather than only be what's expected of her. i wish we got more scenes of her and link just going around hyrule having fun (although i doubt nintendo ever would considering it doesn't really progress the plot forward or anything)

can anyone who knows the lore better tell me why (at least in the botw/totk era) princess zelda is still princess when technically she should be queen since king rhoam's death or does the ascension of royalty in this universe's monarchy different i'm genuinely curious

(i mean, i suppose, the events of botw and then totk might have been the reason why she isn't queen yet)

(also, on a completely different note, tell me why i saw someone on twt say that, and i quote, "link canon wise is christian")