#Liu Yao spoilers

[pippuns]

meme through the pain (ノД`)・゜・。

[biipbop]

"Silly boy," The ghosts laughed "It's time to grow up"

[nekoning]

i love 10 y/o cheng qian because his permanent mood is "this person is so annoying so i think they should die", prime example:

[saturn-s-moon]

'Cause oh I stole from my father all I thought I could sell/ Tossed his copper and I watched as it fell/ But there was no water in the wishing well

-Wishing Well, The Oh Hellos

[fogemorfem]

The instant she passes out from blood loss, he's there. And he's holding her, and crying, and kissing the wounds all better. I AM NOT OKAY 😭 How I wish she had faked it, I wish she got to see this, how he's fighting so hard to seem like a monster in front of her, to keep her away, but he's really right there under the surface, the real person, the one she connects with, the one who cares.

[ajaxbell]

Lost You Forever 2 animated short, possibly to be serialized? From Tan Jianci's Weibo. Spoilery through LYF 2 ep 6.

[qoomakuma]

this reply on reddit explains it really well 🥹

[pippuns]

tfw sect leader at 16

[biipbop]

"Right now, as he floated amongst the clouds and watched the caves and yards fade into distance, Cheng Qian's boggled heart suddenly emptied.... He realized that the hatred he'd considered as profound to him, was by all means unfounded."

Liu Yao Chpt 21

Shout out to the ppl liking my liu yao stuff lately. Its thanks to y'all that I realized I didnt post this one on here.

[nekoning]

han muchun and cheng qian's father-son relationship is precious but i feel like his dynamic with yan zhengming isn't discussed often, considering how he was his first disciple and from some bits of dialogue you can tell that they've known each other for longer, that they trust each other and that there's a very endearing balance between yzm being coinceited by him and respecting him at the same time

i think one of the most important elements of han muchun's fatherly love for yzm is how clearly he is aware of his disciple's temper and spoiled attitude, but he has an enormous amount of patience for him and that shows how much affection he holds for him

it's very noticeable in some parts like when they go down the mountain and yzm insists on them getting on the carriage with him and shifu refuses, choosing to continue on horse instead:

and han muchun never scolds him angrily, he gets slightly annoyed and sighs at most, he tries to correct his behavior always in a gentle manner, even when yzm is mad to the point of pretty much throwing a tantrum (if it was another sect he would've probably gotten punished for it, even more considering he's the da-shixiong and "should act like it") han muchun tries to soothe his anger instead:

and this is a dynamic that probably took some time for them to develop, han muchun knows his disciple very well and how scary his anger can be (lol) it's literally the first thing he warns cq and hy about:

we don't know how many times he had to bear his young disciple's tantrums, but we can tell that he became accustomed to it to the point that he was unfazed by it, that he already knew HOW to handle it, the right words to say, the calmness he had to approach him with, something that probably took years and some mistakes here and there, but the fact that yan zhengming expresses his anger freely shows that he trusts shifu to not punish him unfairly, he knows that even if he acts a bit immature and selfish at times it won't mean he'll get a harsh reprimand from him, he knows he is safe with him!

this is the only way han muchun knows how to love, by being patient and spoiling his disciples a little, making candies for them, not being angry at their flaws and gently guiding them

and the thing is, yan zhengming doesn't take advantage of it or disrespects him because of that

when han yuan got lost, han muchun doesn't have to ask him twice for yzm to fulfill his da-shixiong role, he doesn't complain to him or try to get away from the responsibility and shifu knows that at crucial moments, if there's a dangerous situation he can trust him to do it, he knows he can let him be in charge of his shidi's safety, there's an incredible amount of mutual trust between them and that's the reason why he left the role of sect leader to him, even when yzm himself wasn't sure of his capabilities!

i love how they don't need to say it, han muchun doesn't need to say that he loves and trusts yzm because, you can tell, it's obvious, it's shown in how they treat each other, it's shown in their actions and in how hard yzm fought to keep their sect alive, it's all love

[evilvillainapologist]

Now I’ve always been a staunch enemies-to-lovers kinda hoe, but reading Liu Yao I gotta admit, there is something about this dynamic where there is so much (non-sexual) intimacy long before there are any romantic feelings...

Hmmm

I might have to think about this a bit more closely.

[foxofninetales]

A Brief History of Liu Sang's Glasses

Because I was curious!

Glasses worn in Reunion: The Sound of Providence

Glasses pair #1 :  Black wireframes with a slightly peaked, semidetached nosepiece

Continued under the cut - beware vaguely referenced plot spoilers.

These glasses are worn from his intro through the South Sea King’s tomb.

He wears the same glasses in both Wu Xie’s and his hallucinations.

What happened to them:

They survived the South Sea King’s tomb, but are replaced sometime between the wrapup scene in the tent and the start of the party scene with:

Glasses pair #2: Chunky plastic frames, black on top and clear on the bottom.

He wears these through the the remainder of season 1, and into the fight in the hotel in season 2.  These are also the ones he wears during Pangzi’s hallucination-memory in the hotel.

(Fun fact! These glasses also make an appearance in a short Rang Jiu musical video cover that Liu Chang posted to his weibo 9/1/24, where he is otherwise wearing the Liu Sang outfit seen in bts for the Kan Jian/Liu Sang/Wang Meng movie.)

What happens to them:  Knocked from his face when he attacks a Wang goon during the hotel fight just before the Wang goon chokes him out.

He is glasses-less through the following scene, but sometime between the “execution” in the cave and the rescue of Wu Xie from the cave, he replaces them with our old friend the black wireframes again.  My theory is that after one adventure with Wu Xie he realized he was gonna need sturdier glasses and upgraded, but had to fall back to his old pair when even those weren’t strong enough. 

He wears these through part of the journey to Thunder City.    

A brief nod of acknowledgement to these goggles that temporarily replace them during the cliff jump.

What happens to them:  He is last seen wearing them in the cave right after Boss Jiao captures them and they are missing when we next see them being walked towards where Boss Jiao will make camp.  They may have been lost during a struggle, or possibly they were removed in an attempt to weaken him by disabling his sight. 

He is glasses-less through the remainder of the Thunder City arc.

The next time we see a be-glassesed Liu Sang is at the Wushanju grand opening, when he has opted for:

Glasses pair #3: this nice set of gold-and-black wire-rims, which he wears through most of the second Warehouse 11 arc.

What happens to them: unknown. He is wearing them at the end of ep27 when they are planning to rescue Wu Xie in the Unredeemable Goods section and is missing them in the next scene (more of the same rescue planning) at the start of ep 28, with no indication of anything happening between these times that should have resulted in their loss.  From that point he is glasses-less through the end of the show, which seems to indicate that they are gone and he didn’t just temporarily remove them.  Possibly a cut scene of some kind is missing that would explain their loss

Other Liu Sang glasses outside of Reunion:

Black plastic emo glasses in Matchmaking Painter:

Two distinct pairs of gold wire-rims from Liu-Sang-character advertisements:

More gold wire-rims in Ping Yao Wang Shi:

And, fascinatingly, in Moonfall  Echo it’s our old friends the original black wire-rims from Reunion again:

From behind-the-scenes shots of the upcoming KanSangMeng film, it looks like a slightly different pair of black wire-rims.

And that's all for now - let me know if I missed any!

[baiwu-jinji]

danmei reading update

Long time no see Tumblr friends! Some update about the danmei I've been reading - I was reading Liu Yao by Priest a while ago and was only able to finish Book 1 before I somewhat lost interest. While I recognize that it's objectively well-written and I love Priest's wit, I sometimes feel emotionally thwarted and alienated when reading it and I think it's because Priest doesn't always allow emotions to flow freely in her writing, as if every surge of emotion must be held back behind a shield of sarcasm, derision and dry humour. This takes away the catharsis of the reading experience - and emotional catharsis is what I'm usually looking for when reading popular online literature that's meant to be gobbled down instead of pored over. I might give Liu Yao another try when I'm less busy and feeling more patient though.

Right now I'm reading Yuwu by Meatbun and on chapter 66. So far the plot offers a lot of delicious pain, which is obviously Meatbun's strength, but there's also not a lot of surprises as Meatbun is operating in safe territory. I'm looking forward to finding out if Yuwu is able to surprise me in any way that 2ha couldn't, and since I find Mo Xi and Gu Mang's dynamic similar to Wangxian's from MDZS, I'm also curious to find out differences between the two in subsequent reading. What I've found most interesting so far is how (spoilers) Mo Xi tormented Gu Mang at one point with almost the same level of malice and bitterness that Gu Mang's real enemies would have, out of sheer frustration with not being able to get closure - I find this part of the plot realistically and insightfully written, and it reminds me of a thought I had that you can't truly hate someone if you've never loved them.

Yuwu lets the readers know very early on that both Gu Mang and Mo Xi are parentless. And it makes me think that a lot of the danmei I've read that're set in ancient China work in the same way - the main couple either don't have parents anymore or their parents are out of the picture. I think it's because in the rigid hierchical family structure in ancient China dictated by Confucianism, where children should unconditionally obey their parents, parents are the presence that kills romance - they arrange marriages for you, they act as your passionless superego, and they're a reminder that marriage isn't about love but about responsibility and carrying on the family line. This might be why it's simply more convenient to omit the parents altogether as they're bound to bring the romanticism of danmei down to some unpalatable historical reality.

[ncmadsteve]

WELL i'm completetly satisfied with xiang liu's ending

he's such a sad tragic boy, all that he selfishly left for himself was one tear from a person he loved!!!!! im okay

thank fuck tumblr is one place you can actually hide the spoilers, so spoilers under the cut

xiang liu has long ago seen that he and xiao yao don't have future and that the ending he wants for himself is to die on a battlefield. he's been preparing for it all the time - all the poison that he consumed was actually a ticking bomb that would be activated the moment he died, taking as many enemy troops to the grave with him as he could. this was the path he chose and he didn't want to step away

his love for xiao yao was selfless and when she said that she had no strength to protect herself, no one to rely on and no place she could go to, he gave it all to her one by one. the ending montage lays it on quite thickly, but we get it, he taught her archery, he gave her tushan jing, and i guess made it so that the sea can now be her home

he didn't expect that his fate may come knocking so soon and thought he could enjoy a few more decades of life, but once it was clear that he won't get that, he started tying up all the loose ends to die in peace

first he says goodbye to the good memories of a simpler times in the qingshui town, where he first met xiao yao and where they weren't impossible yet, because back then she wasn't the princess of haoling and cang xuan's sister. he smiles as he recalls their shenanigans

he kills chishui fenglong (yeah im not sure if that's what he wanted or if he wanted to kill cang xuan, probably cx, but)

then he sets out to kill the love bug. when xiao yao passes out, he allows himself to mourn for the future that they will never have, kissing her wounds and embracing her

he wants xiao yao to live on without any burden on her conscience, so he lets her "repay" him for all he's done for her with her blood when she's conscious, and once she passes out, he sacrifices two of his lives to kill the love bug and to make sure xiao yao can live on when he dies. he doesn't let anyone tell xiao yao about it, so that she doesn't feel she owes him anything and can move on without any weight in her heart

then he saves that lukewarm noodle tushan jing and sends his soggy body straight in the arms of the search party, so that xiao yao can still have someone who is dedicated to her to share life with (even though he is an overcooked noodle)

then he sends mao qiu away :( bird is not allowed to die with him

in the end he dies in peace, but not because he let go of everything before his death, but because he held on to everything he cared about and gave it the best ending

he actually tried to let go! he kept a tear that xiao yao shed, and when he first threw her in the arms of tushan jing, he wanted to let go of that tear that symbolized xiao yao's affection for him, and dissolve it in the sea. but in the end he couldn't bear to part with it, and kept it with him

so he dies with a smile, because he's done all he wanted to do in his life to the best of his ability and considering the situation he was in. he weighed his loyalties and his heart to the army and to xiao yao, and made his choices. he chose to live and die with the chenrong army, giving his life for the cause and his soldiers, but not before he could arrange the best life for the person he cared about. even though he couldn't live with her by his side, he made sure she will have the best life she can have in her circumstances

the only thing of xiao yao's affection that he kept for himself was a single solitary tear. in the moment he dies, he lets it drop into his own eye, and it's a tear that xiao yao symbolically sheds for him (oh no, I'm crying again)

his plans were realized and he could die satisfied, and i'm also very satisfied with this consistent story line and ending for him. even though i'm sad that he died, i feel emotionally fulfilled

i'm also glad tan jianci got to play this role - it really wouldn't be the same without his skills and effort, his pretty face and sad eyes that can speak a thousand words. also his voice, in the end of the 22nd episode when he speaks out as a general to the enemy's general... chills!!!!

OKAY i think that's all I want to semi-coherently say about xiang liu's ending in lost you forever. even though he is dead now, he will stay in my heart <3

PS. okay and now nothing connected to the story, my roomie came in when i was writing this post and made me write down a randomly chosen quote from a book she just started reading:

"Besides these bands a less orderly and a worse-armed force, consisting of the Saxon inhabitants of the neighbouring townships, as well as many bondsmen and servants from Cedric's extensive estate, had already arrived for the purpose of assisting in his rescue" ~Sir Walter Scott, Ivanhoe

PS PS. IM NOT PROUD TO SAY THAT WHILE I WAS CRYING FOR XL DYING I ALSO HAD THE BRAINSPACE TO NOTICE AND APPRECIATE TAN JIANCI'S BEAUTIFUL EYELASHES. appreciate them with me:

[ultimateshixiongfuckertournament]

Round 2, Match 3: Mo Ran vs Cheng Qian

Match 3 is between Mo Ran (shixiong: Shi Mei) from The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun vs Cheng Qian (shixiong: Yan Zhengming) from Liu Yao: The Revitalization of Fuyao Sect

Propaganda under the cut

Mo Ran:

Obviously the whole point is that he’s more of a shizun fucker, but Shi Mei IS his shixiong. And he does have feelings for him.

Mo Ran's obsession with Shi Mei plays a big role in the beginning of the books, and is also a huge factor in why thing went so badly in Mo Ran's first life.

Cheng Qian:

Cheng Qian and Yan Zhengming end up together. Most of it is spoilers, but they're very cute! Yan Zhengming nicknamed him Tong Qian / Copper Coin

[huasahyo]

I have read Qiang Jin Jiu and honestly think I'll never recover

(Spoilers ahead!)

Oh god, where to start this? Maybe I should start with the very begging: I didn't understood shit. I just saw a kid being tortured and lots of information. When I felt it was too much, I went after the translated map and OMG that was so helpful! Bless the translators for that. After looking carefully at the map, things started to make sense.

As the story went, before the end of book one I was not very familiar with all the characters. I kept mistaking Hai Liangyi for Hua Siqian lol. But during my reading I started to take some notes and was never confused again. The thing is, this book has A LOT of characters and some of them are introduced early but only become major players later (Yao Wenyu, Hua Xiangyi...)

Even though this huge ensemble would make characters easy to forget, this doesn't happen. The author managed to create likeable and rememberable characters pretty easily??? I fell in love with many of them at first read, even if they didn't show up a lot. And there were characters that got me completely off guard, I wasn't expecting them to be so cool and relevant, BUT THEY WERE (Fei Sheng, Kong Liu)! And the antagonists were also brilliant, I love a good story where everyone has a point and no one is actually evil: People from Biansha had their truths and in a war there are no right sides, Xue Xiuzhuo wanted the best for Dazhou (even though I can't forgive what the did to my baby Yuanzhuo), and Li Jianting??? WHAT A LEGEND! Also, Feng Quan plot twist left me speechless, what an interesting character. Every character was very human (in the good and bad way), everyone had their own goals and beliefs. I actually might do a second post screaming about every character because I have a lot to say about them. (hello hasen my love)

The Plot??? Perfectly done. AND WELL EXPLAINED! I was always a little afraid of reading novels with a lot of politics, but I really dug this one. The problems with grains, provisions, registry, army and BRO THERE WAS EVEN SOME AGRARIAN REFORM SHIT

The way this author write the MOST well written battles I have read, without using any magic... it's just... I never thought I would be so enthusiastic about cannons, rocks and GRAINS.

The conflicts in Zhongbo could be all repetitive, but they weren't at all. Each prefecture that Lanzhou took back had a interesting story.

The war with Biansha was also brilliantly written. The way Amu'er was attacking Dazhou from the inside out and the scorpions with those hammers??? My man was a genius. Sadly, he could never have predicted Bai Cha and her son.

Talking about that, the family relationships are a great point in this. Seeing flashbacks about Lanzhou, Ji Mu, Ji Gang and Hua Pinging made me CRY! They were so happy... And seeing Xiao Chiye with his brother and HIS DAD LIKE... Xiao Fangxu and Ji Gang best daddies. Fei Sheng and Yin Chang too, what a beautiful chapter the one that they talk after Fei Sheng has a fight with Qiao Tianya.

Talking about Qiao Tianya, it was refreshing to see a novel with more LGBT characters. The secondary pairings were great, they didn't steal the spotlight from cezhou, but were very enjoyable (even though THAT happened between Songyu). I just wished we could have seen more Qihua moments and OH GOD KONG LIU AND LUO MU??? That got me truly off guard, wasn't expecting at all. Also, I found really interesting how Lanzhou basically got a LGBT parade following him at the end, that was truly the gayest empire ever. I have so many headcanons here, let me scream them: Xue Xiuzhuo is AroAce, Li Jianting is a non-binary legend and Huo Lingyun a Bi King. Also, Fei Sheng is not straight. Said it.

The little animals in this??? I WAS TERRIFIED WHEN LANG TAO XUE JIN FELL IN THAT HOLE YALL I THOUGHT HE WAS GONNA DIE. But luckily he didn't. Meng, Hunu, Feng Shuang Ta Yi were all the cutest, I need more novels with cats.

THE CHILDREN - Ding Tao, Li Xiong, Xiao Xun and Jiran. They served chaos, humor and cuteness. I really liked whenever they showed up.

THE LADIESSS - If you have read my other posts you know I love some powerful women. This story did not disappoint me in that sense. Hua Hewei had some despicable acts, but she really got everyone on her hands despite never leaving the inner palace, good for her. Hua Xiangyi is a way better version of her aunt, my girl was smart and cared for the people, an amazing woman. QI ZHUYINNN owns my life, I really adored the fact that she was a badass and that she never hated the fact she was born a girl, slay. Bai Cha was really out there helping women that were sold and their children, that is some real sorority there. Lu Yizhi was so kind, loved seeing her interactions with Lanzhou. Li Jianting was everything, her story was one of the saddest and yet she was doing her best to become a ruler. Duo Er'lan was amazingly brave, even more than Hasen, mad respect for her.

And last, but definitely not least, there is cezhou. I have no words to explain how much I adored these two. The way both of them got their own development and had their own private goals and went after them, so good. They are so well written that I wanna scream. The chapters that are focused on Lanzhou's feelings are not big in number, even when he is the main character, his feelings are shown in discreet ways (the handkerchief!) and most of the time we don't know what he is plotting or thinking. But when we take a peek at what's going inside of his heart, it's... astonishing. And I love seeing how he actually cared for the side characters, even though he doesn't show a lot.

And Ce'an kind of caught me off guard, I thought he was going to be a totally different character but he went and delivered

Xiao Chiye was a perfect fit for Lanzhou and Lanzhou was a perfect fit for Xiao Chiye: they were both in similar situations where only them could understand each other's suffering, and after they leave Qudu we see how much of a match made in heaven they are (not just romantically, but strategically).

THE SEXUAL TENSION AT THE BEGINNING YALL... They were scheming/fighting and flirting at the same time. Iconic.

Read this, you won't regret it!

By the way, I started reading the story in December and finished by March, but I completely forgot to post this! College has been frying my brain these days.

Hopefully I will resume my Sha Po Lang reading and come back here to tell my opinions on the book. (Not sure when though.)

See ya!