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melthed1saster · 4 months ago

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Here's How I'd Fix S1 Ep5.5 of Link Click

I originally posted this outline on AO3 some time ago, but I wanted to share it here as well.

Link Click is one of my favorite animes/donghuas. For the most part, the show's writing is spectacular, but not everything is perfect. This is my attempt to constructively rewrite certain aspects of Episode 5.5 “Marrying by Contesting.” I’ve also reordered the episode to appear sooner in the series for a couple of reasons.

If someone has already figured this out, please feel free to add your thoughts and/or direct me to where this has already been said! I'd also love to hear your thoughts!

Warning: I haven't renewed my Crunchyroll subscription so I don't have access to screenshots right now, and the other sites I know of don't have Ep. 5.5 listed at all fsr.

Here’s how I’d rewrite this episode:

1. (Timestamp: 8:36) Delete or rewrite this line calling the Nokia an “antique.” For instance, just change it to, “Put that away!” Let’s say CXS dived to the year 1990. This year is plausible for two reasons: Nokia phones were common, and Xu Wen has aged since then. Let’s also say that the current year in the present timeline is 2020. (Worldwide pandemics obviously do not exist in this world lmao)

2. (Timestamp: 9:25) Remove this shot of Qiao Ling entirely. It could be a flashback, but it mostly looks like she’s watching them use their powers in real-time when she shouldn’t know about them.

3. Change Xu Wen’s and Ouyang's present ages to approximately 50 years old, not 70-80. Change their appearances from all gray hair and hunched backs to brown hair with subtle grays. Making them look middle-aged makes the situation and timeline feel more believable. If they’re approx. 20 yrs old in 1990, they’d be approx. 50 yrs old in 2020. (Still a hella long time to stay unmarried because your gf’s dad beats you up every year lmao, but that’s the point.)

4. Retitle/reorder Episode 5.5 to Episode 3 for two reasons.

Reason 1: It wouldn’t suddenly interrupt the Doudou arc as an abrupt filler.

Reason 2: The callbacks to Emma’s death make more sense and would line up like this:

Same — Episode 1 — “Emma”

Emma dies.

Same — Episode 2 — “Secret Recipe”

CXS looks through noodle lesbian photos and asks, “I wonder… if we were ever to disagree, would we still be friends?” Lu Guang thinks back to the news of Emma’s death, but does not answer the question.

Change — Episode 3 — “Marrying by Contesting”

Qiao Ling hears the news about the serial murders and wants to protect herself. She meets Xu Wen at the dojo and hears his story about how he’s fought his lover’s dad for approval for years. (Side note: Although she hears about the news, neither she nor CXS can know that Emma was one of the victims.)

Change — Episode 4 — “To Lose, Not To Win”

The basketball episode becomes Ep. 4, not 3. Opens with Qiao Ling jogging. She may or may not be listening to the news again. It’s not necessary because both she and the audience know about the serial killings as implied at the beginning of Episode 3. It doesn’t hurt to add it in either because it adds the signature Link Click tension, though that in itself may be laying on the tension too thick.

In the present, Chen Xiao approaches her, and the scene alternates with the gang training with Xu Wen. This is another reason why I’m more inclined for her to not listen to the news in this episode’s present because we already see the tension build up by showing Xu Wen’s dojo as Qiao Ling and the others are training. The characters could even have a conversation in which they briefly mention the serial murders, and there could be a single frame showing Lu Guang’s subtle apprehension over Emma’s death.

Xu Wen is tough on them but supportive. Qiao Ling needs to fight her way to be strong. She and CXS progress at the same rate. Neither is more overpowered than the other, which would demonstrate the status quo for both sexes and not pander for just one or the other. (We need to show Qiao Ling’s development, not a live-action Mulan situation.) This would also offer an opportunity for more sibling dynamic behavior as Qiao Ling and CXS make mistakes and tease each other together.

Back to the present. Instead of Lu Guang protecting Qiao Ling from Chen Xiao, Qiao Ling protects herself. Leads to funny interrogation—Chen Xiao is truly harmless, and Qiao Ling hasn’t fully harnessed her self-defense skills yet.

Putting ”Marrying by Contesting” before this interaction also explains why Qiao Ling is able to fight both in this scene and later in Season 2. The only flashback we see of the gang learning from Xu Wen in the dojo (excluding that one mini short) is right before CXS sucker-punches Aunt May as Doudou. So having an additional flashback of Xu Wen’s dojo in “To Lose, Not To Win” develops Qiao Ling’s abilities and even CXS’s when he dives as Xu Shanshan twice and defends himself.

And the rest of the Season 1 episodes carry on as usual. Basketball -> Earthquake -> Doudou -> Xu Shanshan -> Liu Min’s capture -> Finale.

#link click #link click season 1 #rewrite #constructive criticism

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melthed1saster · 5 months ago

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⚠️Spoilers for Yingdu Chapter EP6⚠️

I already went over this in my long post, but I feel the need to reiterate it since I'm still seeing a frightening number of people believe Lu Guang is the one with the fake death ability.

Wang Qing temporarily killed Vein.

Wang Qing's student ID is 54274636454943. When typed into a Chinese T9 keyboard, the resulting text we get is, "假死能力者," which means, "fake death ability user," once translated.

One glaring problem that people pointed out with the idea of Lu Guang controlling her, aside from Wang Qing's blue not being the same as Lu Guang's blue, is the lack of any visual indicator for him using any power to possess her.

However, it may not be so glaring when looking back at the S2 finale for the scene where Lu Guang resets the timeline (his eyes are also the usual gray and not lit up with either blue, to indicate him using his foresight/observer power, or yellow, to indicate him using possession).

These are the facts we know though:

Lu Guang has used Cheng Xiaoshi's power in the past to reset the timeline by jumping into a photo he took of the sky.

Li Haoling stated in his latest interview that, in the case of someone dying and passing on their power to someone else, that power stays with that person.

While it's unclear if that statement covers powers with time limits, a.k.a., Cheng Xiaoshi's 12 hour cap until one either gets stuck in the new timeline or claps out before then, the implication is that Lu Guang and Qiao Ling have kept possession of their new powers.

I also mentioned this in my long post, but Wang Qing's fake death ability doesn't activate until she calls out Vein's real name, Xiao Weiying. So even if Lu Guang had possessed her, he'd be relying on her knowing Vein's real name to use her fake death power.

Lu Guang also would've needed a present photo taken by Wang Qing to possess her, similar to how she took a picture of Cheng Xiaoshi and sent it to Shao Yuanyuan so she could possess her in that moment.

Check the notes for more info

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melthed1saster · 5 months ago

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Some of my observations about Link Click: Yingdu Chapter

⚠️Spoilers for S1, S2, & Yingdu Chapter, but mostly the Yingdu Chapter⚠️

Now that the final episode has aired and finished with a bang, I can properly start another observation and theory post without the threat of immediately being proven wrong💀As per usual, feel free to correct me on anything and add your own info should I not include it.

A post-Bridon interview between director Li Haoling and Hui Xiao Hui revealed that Xia Fei held onto the cat ears hat the whole time and returned it to Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang.

That same interview also had the director hinting at the possibility of Liu Xiao having more than one power, along with the fact that Liu Xiao has planned everything early on and that S3 will reveal his motives.

Considering Li Haoling's comment about the three ways someone could inherit powers (1: genetics, 2: passed through death, and 3: killing to steal), this could mean Liu Xiao has either received a power by having it passed to him from someone on their death bed, killed someone for their power, or is genuinely adopted, chat did y'all manifest this—

One major reveal from the interview was the confirmation of Lu Guang having looped through one timeline, not branching off and jumping to new timelines as many (including myself) grew to believe. A.k.a., there are no parallel universes or multiple timelines. I went over this in the notes, but imagine overwriting a cassette tape or hitting the reset button on a device.

Though there are still a number of discrepancies this fact fails to explain or clear up, Shao Yuanyuan telling Cheng Xiaoshi to not concern himself with investigating her and his father lends credence to him not knowing where they are or when they're coming back in S1.

The person Vein speaks to over the phone certainly isn't Liu Xiao, namely because Liu Xiao spends half of the episode playing faux Tetris on his phone, but also because Vein strictly uses English while on the phone with this mystery person. Perhaps he was in contact with someone associated with Yingdu's Chinese Chamber of Commerce (Vein is the leader after all), or simply an unknown figure that he has ties with and was tasked to confiscate the book with the eye.

Wang Qing's power involves faking death, something that's been hinted at by her student ID number translating to "fake death ability user."

The information of Wang Qing's classmates has been blurred out, but it's all unique text and some of it can even be made out. The pages for Amy and Blair (the girls that bullied Wang Qing) appear briefly, and though Amy's information is harder to make out, Blair's is somewhat discernable.

The kid that used his power during the test also appears, but the most that can be made out from his page is a middle initial. It should also be noted that Wang Qing had the most absences among the students we saw pages for, and that Cheng Weimin wrote, "Intervention needed," on her page.

We finally know the fates of Cheng Xiaoshi's parents. While Cheng Weimin is certainly dead from the fire at Bahati (confirmed by the ISBN number of the Sonnet Shakespeare book), Shao Yuanyuan is still alive somewhere.

Shao Yuanyuan's use of possession through a photo confirms that Cheng Xiaoshi received his ability through genetics. While we don't know if she is the original holder of the power or if she gained the power from Cheng Weimin after he died, it's clear Cheng Xiaoshi gained his power from either of his parents.

Li Haoling confirmed that death results in the passing of one's power, meaning there's a chance Lu Guang can still possess someone through a photo they took. But while it certainly appears that Lu Guang possessed Wang Qing and used her fake death power on Vein, it doesn't explain how he could've possessed her without having a photo she'd taken in that very moment (Shao Yuanyuan received the photo she took of Cheng Xiaoshi and possesed her that way).

One user on Twitter pointed out a detail on Liu Xiao's phone: the date on his phone is not the current date in Yingdu (June 2019). They also stated, "This is the evening, probably around 5 pm, which would be the same time as 00:05 September 13 in China."

While that could be an error, it should be noted that a string of text appeared during Bilibili's and seemingly only Bilibili's version of the episode: "Three years later, after the Li twins case." This whole thread is interesting actually, give it a go.

On the note of dates, Lu Guang came to the reset timeline on April 11th and passes the 12 hour mark once the clock hits 5:32AM (meaning he possibly and originally met Cheng Xiaoshi four days prior to the guy's birthday).

Vein interestingly uses darts on Cheng Xiaoshi and Wang Qing rather than real bullets as in the EP1 opener. It's also unknown if he's aware of powers, let alone that Shao Yuanyuan was in control of Wang Qing as they fought.

It's implied that Wang Qing needs a person's real name in order to use her fake death power on them, though it's unclear how she knows Vein's real name.

For once we ended the season without a death, though we have no idea what happened to Xia Fei and his former colleague Jack, who were both reported to have recently gone missing after we cut back to Lu Guang in present day China.

CHENG XIAOSHI GOT THAT DUMPHY

Vein's real name is Xiao Weiying

Back to the book with the eye (the same book Cheng Weimin had in his desk), it's being heavily speculated that the book contains either classified information on the students of Bahati (particularly the ones with powers), or something deeper. Either way, Shao Yuanyuan's statement about the fire being started on purpose supports the idea of someone starting the fire in the hopes of grabbing the book while Cheng Weimin leaves it behind or dies.

The idea of it holding information on the students' powers, or simply being a catalogue of all of the powers Cheng Weimin has crossed paths with, seems likely with Liu Xiao potentially being another seeker of the notebook.

Liu Xiao was the one seen unzipping Vein's body bag in the post credits scene.

Qiao Ling asks why Cheng Xiaoshi changed the studio's name from "Hero Photo Studio" to "Time Photo Studio," and while he gives his indirect answer of being connected through time, we can infer that changing the name is his way of keeping his promise with his mother after leaving Bridon. To make things clearer, a flashback in S1E10 confirms that the name of the studio hadn't changed while Cheng Xiaoshi and Qiao Ling were renovating (which is also when Qiao Ling first meets Lu Guang).

Lu Guang hasn't blushed once in the Yingdu Chapter, but Cheng Xiaoshi has (which makes for a grand total of two blushes from Cheng Xiaoshi and a stagnant five for Lu Guang).

When asked if Xia Fei was a survivor of the Bahati fire, Li Haoling dodged the question.

Soon after the fire at Bahati took place, Shao Yuanyuan tasked Wang Qing with allowing her to speak with her son through her someday. Since Wang Qing was still a student and in the hospital at the time, this means she's remained in contact with Shao Yuanyuan for 10 years.

Li Haoling commented during the interview that Lu Guang doesn't know about Vein having come back to life.

He also stated that Shao Yuanyuan would have interactions with Lu Guang in S3.

Actually, here's a full thread of translations for the interview, and a slight summarization of what was said.

The artwork Bilibili released to commemorate the series reaching 700 million followers on their site has this message in the tweet: "The game between "Hunter" and "Mastermind" continues, turning over the cards in the mystery and throwing the final chip." We can infer from past context clues that Liu Xiao is the hunter and Lu Guang is the mastermind.

Cheng Xiaoshi volunteered to play the flower fairy in the third grade despite the role calling for a girl (among other embarrassing stories Shao Yuanyuan told to make Cheng Xiaoshi believe it's her in Wang Qing, she's quite the charcter).

Shao Yuanyuan's speech about saving Cheng Weimin implies she's on a similar journey as Lu Guang (they're both desperately trying to save someone they're close to by resetting the timeline).

Wang Qing goes by the alias "Chris" for her psychiatry business, though it's unknown if her business is still continuing after she disappeared with Cheng Weimin's book.

Considering Shao Yuanyuan's lines when she finds Cheng Weimin in the fire, she was likely not meant to be there at the time, and possibly confused Cheng Weimin. That would explain how blasé he appeared to be about leaving Cheng Xiaoshi in China, if we're to believe that Shao Yuanyuan would usually be in China with their kid while he's in Bridon at the language school.

Cheng Xiaoshi changed the background of his conversation with Xia Fei to a picture he took with him during their modeling gig.

Aight, my well has run dry, and once again I'm certain I'm forgetting something (definitely forgot to go more in depth with the two pieces of artwork that dropped around EP6's premiere), but I hope this is satisfactory in some regards. Again, correct me or add anything I may have missed, time for me to hunker down for the long 2+ year wait until S3 arrives😭

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