#mimicha.lc

[mimicha-arts]

I don’t know if someone posted about it, so let it be. Some time ago storyboards from the first season were posted on twitter. I love these things because I really like to look at the production process and learn, find something new and interesting. And just... hgjhhgjghghj. s1e1, the first moment of diving that was shown to us at all.

That scene, when Lu Guang looked calm towards Cheng Xiaoshi, but in the next frame his expression softened a little.

This was actually Lu Guang's reaction to Cheng Xiaoshi's words: 程小时(画外音): 我的领航员 - My guide/My navigator

I finally got the art book and the process of developing this part is here too. The matching frame from this scene is also different ~

They are in love, your honor.

[mimicha-arts]

Date: 09/13/2023 In my previous post, I wrote that time in s2 is broken and dead. I was curious if this was true for s1, too… For me the main problem of the last month was the dates in the files (character intros), the date of Emma's death + September 9th mentioned in episode 3, so I tried to consider these as related things. I always was confused by April-September thing, I thought that it is a mistake, but. Probably not. So. Let's break down the first episode! It was a deep dive, I'm not sure how real any of this can be, but (c) Let's divide everything into three parts:

Сhronology

It's not about Quede

April is not April

WARNING: SPOILERS

Chronology

April 16, which we see hours later that day. Qiao Ling receives an order from an unknown customer.

The goal is to get financial core data of Quede company. Information has to be obtained by diving in Emma, during the last financial settlement meeting before the release of the financial report, 2 days ago, on the April 14th, photo was posted at 10 pm.

Additionally, it is mentioned that there was an earlier photo, but they start with the most recent one so that the information is not “outdated”.

Events take place from April 16th to 17th in the present for Lu Guang. From April 14th to 15th in the past for Emma and Cheng Xiaoshi.

April 14th: 10:00 pm - start of diving. As Emma, Cheng Xiaoshi lived through the events in the company's office and stayed for overwork.

April 15th: About 2:45 a.m. Emma's parents text to her, Cheng Xiaoshi decided to reply.

9-10 am, morning, the meeting began. A conflict situation occurs, the laptop falls, Emma!Xiaoshi is on the floor. Lu Guang records data from the screen - Cheng Xiaoshi returns to the present time.

Later this day. Somewhere later that day, information about the company is leaked, involved people are arrested (news from April 17th)

Before 10 pm: Emma comes home after this day, she realizes that the situation with Quede is a stain on her career, because she was Mr.Zhu's assistant, there is no way for her to find a job in this field anymore.

Lately she discovers messages (02:48, that Cheng Xiaoshi texted) with her parents - this becomes her motivation for a call. It's the same day, still today (今天）- April 15th. This is the reason why we know that the disclosure of the company's affairs occurred on the same day after the meeting.

After 10 pm, before 10:30 pm Emma goes to the train station but runs into Liu Min, agrees to go with him.

About 10:34 p.m Liu Min attacks Emma.

Somewhere between April 15th and 16th. An accident occurs, Liu Min will be left paralyzed.

April 16: At the moment of dawn, Emma jumps from the bridge.

Later this day, Quede Company was suspended (news from the 17th)

Later, Emma's body is found in the river in the evening (mentioned as "yesterday", news from the 17th)

April 17: present 9-10 am: Lu Guang gives instructions to Xiaoshi, they successfully obtain the information, Xiaoshi returns to the “present” time.” Evening, the same day: We receive information about the disclosure of financial fraud in the past tense until the 17th from the news at the end of the ep. Additional note: in these events, there is another Cheng Xiaoshi from the "future" (events of October 22-23), who hides first in Liu Min's trunk, and then on the bridge with Emma. The chronology of events can be written as follows:

So it's clear - Lu Guang himself receives the necessary information about the company on the 17th at 10 am. By that time, Mr. Zhu had already been arrested 2 days ago and the company's activities had been suspended 1 day ago. Precisely because of financial fraud.

Also his reaction to Emma's death is interesting. Okay, that's a guess, but I always had the feeling that he knew she was dead from the very beginning of the case.

2. It's not about Quede

And so, we know that data about the company and financial fraud were already published on the 15th. The question remains simple - why did the mysterious unnamed client need the data, since he would have received it only on the 17th, after information about the fraud in Quede was already made public before they (the client) offered this task/job. So what other events are happening on nearby dates? They're not in the episode, they're in the characters intro. Obviously, the unknown client was unknown for a reason. As we also know, there is a character (or characters, there are 2 signatures on the documents) who are collecting dossiers on the main trio. There is a high chance that all of this is connected. This event takes place from the 14th to the 17th in total. Date on Qiao Ling's file: april 8th Lu Guang's file: april 10th Cheng Xiaoshi's file: april 12th

Documents for Lu Guang should be destroyed on the 17th, for Xiaoshi - on the 19th. This timing is kinda perfect. In my opinion, this task/job came as part of an "investigation" so that the unknown could better study the process of trio's work, understand the abilities of Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, probably, what their time limits are. So, yes. If we look at it from this side, this is not about Quede, it is not about financial fraud, it has never been about it. This research is to answer questions about the abilities of Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang that remained on the files.

3. April is not April

April is a lie. Events take place in September. Although it’s more likely that the time has already been broken since the first season, and we technically don’t know which one is correct. Although Lu Guang's watch and documents (character dossiers) point to April, real events cannot possibly take place in April for many reasons.

1. 3rd financial quarter This is the main reason. This is stated in the first episode by Qiao Ling, and should immediately raise questions. The third quarter cannot possibly be April, absolutely. Because the following months are considered the third quarter: July, August, September.

2. News, 3rd ep Qiao Ling listens to the news on her headphones. We are not given a name, but the circumstances are the same - we learn that Emma's "suicide" was most likely a murder. Once again, it's September.

3. Cold weather is coming Emma's parents arrive to bring Emma warm clothes and mention that it is getting colder. If it were April, on the contrary, it would only get hotter, but everything is different when it comes to autumn.

4. Murders I am firmly convinced that the numbering of victims does not correspond to the real chronology. Yes, we know that there were more victims, and Emma was never "first", I mean those cases that were consolidated by the police and are in Xiao Li's documents. We have dates for an early murder in April, Emma being somewhere in the middle of that "break", since she was killed in both “April” and “September”, and there were murders after her, where the month was not indicated. Which once again points to the fact that something is wrong with these two months. Now things are going to get confusing, we consider April like September here. I can't see and understand details, so I'm only able to find the dates, since the numbers can at least be distinguished. Emma is considered the first murder only by number (died "April-September" 16th), but number 4 (Zao Cai, a blond man) died before her, "April-September", 2nd. In the folder, her documents go after his case. I think the fact is that initially the police believed that Emma committed suicide; at first, her case was not classified as a part of a series of murders, so police did not assign a chronological fifth number, but later, with new clues, simply moved her old documents in the "correct" chronological order to fifth place.

This technically makes Emma a 5 case… Or even a 6th. Because case 6 (Nan You) is also not without mysteries. The date of death is 14. I'm not sure why they put her file after Emma. Maybe they're unsure of the date or something and it's just an estimated date? So her date of death also “fell out of space.” But if 14 is correct, then this girl died 2 days earlier than Emma herself, and Emma technically becomes case 6.

The eighth case (Zhao Lin) occurs on 25th. The mystical 7 case is somewhere before that date, but we don't know how much of this is actual April or September.

In addition to mysterious 7th case, we also have 3 other earlier victims. They had to die before "April-September" 2nd, so the time of their death is roughly "March-August". We haven't seen their documents, but we know about their cases because of the photographs (the girl in the pink suit is probably the girl with the dog from ep11, since the BG is the same)

And also Xu Shanshan.

Who technically didn't die due to the time loop, but most likely "died" (since Lu Guang was thrown out) in the original events, which was still visible for Lu Guang in the unaltered photo.

I mentioned this in the post about s2 - the interesting thing is that Xu Shanshan's phone, as shown in s2, does not have a single photo from May to the end of October (current events with unknown date), which is quite. Strange.

All the murders had to happen with the similar style and certain time frame that they could be connected as a series. Given the news about Xu Shanshan: it was written - no new murders had occurred for several weeks (数周未出现新的受害者), which fits the September-October period (s1 ends at October 23). So we know for sure that the last cases with unspecified months should have occurred in September.

So. Obtaining financial information as a goal does not make sense, "someone" studies our main characters at the "perfect time", and all the dates are intertwined and have inaccurate implications. Like, almost half a year was literally “stolen” from time? Or something similar. The dates are so deliberately strange that I am speculating solely that time was broken from this point already, not even in s2 - what happened can only be speculated for now until we are told the background of Lu Guang's story. And who is the real 7th victim if April and September are mixed up, and the time has been “changed”. The funny thing is that everything also connected to the birthdays: April 15th - Cheng Xiaoshi's birthday September 16th - Qian Jin's birthday October 23th - the day Lu Guang was stabbed, exactly before his birthday Maybe I understand something incorrectly and I'm going down the wrong path altogether. No conclusions. My CPU is blown up. Thank you @wrathyforest for discussing this with me, trying to find connections, completing everything with time points, you are the best!

[mimicha-arts]

Date: 09/29 SPOILERS FOR S2 Part 1

I don't know how many times I rewrote everything, my documents flew away for dozens of pages, so I will divide my post into several parts.

I like to theorize and explain things to myself, but at the moment every new question that comes up contradicts every answer I found. I don’t have a lot of time now, and unfortunately I have to write first, then translate. So I don't know when I will be able to edit the next part and post it.

In the first post I want to talk about time, number of attempts, and what the original reality is. My friendly reminder - this is all just empty speculation and I'm just having fun (while crying actually). I'm pretty sure that when we get trailers and more information about canon, I'll change my mind a lot. But that's it for now.

Time

The events in s2 take place in a short time. In the last interview it was said that about 3 days had passed. so. October, 23th - Lu Guang was stabbed, Cheng Xiaoshi was interrogated during the day, the events in the hospital placed during the evening. October, 24th - Chen Bin's funeral, Cheng Xiaoshi dived in his photo October, 25th - dive in Li Tianxi's photo, interrogation of Li Tianchen, time loop, Lu Guang's kidnapping October, 26th - everything that happened in the theater and in the tunnel Plus taking into account the time (about a month) they spent in the hospital, ep12 ends at the end of November/beginning of December, congratulations. The start of the new year is almost here, have we really crossed the critical point for Cheng Xiaoshi and he won't be forever 21? Heh.

9/13 is not the date of Cheng Xiaoshi's death,  it has to be 9/12. Below I will describe why I think that this is not his first attempt, and in this case more than 5 minutes have definitely passed. Time has not stood still, seconds are passing. Lu Guang's watch does not say five in the morning, but midnight and five minutes. The date of the password is Lu Guang's reminder, corresponding exactly to the time of the dive. If that's the case, I believe that each new reality is a new password corresponding to the time of  diving, as a reminder of the previous failure. 

Technically, I think that Cheng Xiaoshi actually died at 5:35 in the original timeline - this date was indicated, everything led to it, but in the end it was not shown  in s2 itself. The events in the tunnel do not correspond to this time, since the actions took place earlier (the meeting at the theater was scheduled for 3 am, the rest of the events happened very quickly, the whole action couldn't have lasted for 2 hours and a half, so I think everything happened before approximately 4 am or so).

It coincides too well with this broken time in the Overthink. So, I am desperate enough to believe that  Cheng Xiaoshi's death occurred at 05:35 (as actual time). Even if the specific time in the ED can be perceived as 5:20, because that is literally the reason why Lu Guang broke the time - his wish that Cheng Xiaoshi could live, his love for Cheng Xiaoshi. It is possible that time passed in the original reality - literally from this moment until the last attempt at 00:05. So maybe. While Lu Guang lives one life after another, in fact, Lu Guang is truly “frozen” in this 12-13 September, and not even a day has passed in the original timeline. Why do I think that exactly this amount of time has passed (more than five minutes, but less than a day)?

It’s difficult to say at all that Cheng Xiaoshi died in the photo studio in the first place.

There are changes in the design of their room.

Lu Guang probably washed the blood from his hands, so he spent some time for it, but did not change his clothes, still covered in blood, even has traces of blood on his face. (Did Cheng Xiaoshi touch his face before he died? Did Lu Guang himself cry, covering his face with hands? Oh, boy)

I'll talk about details in the next part.

Again and again

I feel sorry for him. He is the most pathetic, most selfish, most insane person in the universe. I love it so much.

I believe we have not yet seen the actual chronology in terms of events, but we have seen the original timeline in terms of Lu Guang's insane room.

I’m sure this is not his first dive; we have always had the symbolism of constant resets. Again and again, again and again, again and again. I think there have been many attempts. As many as there were photographs he could find - if the ability works the same way as Cheng Xiaoshi use it himself, and he should be the author of the photo, we can only cover our heads with our hands and cry.

This is Lu Guang's POV - Lu Guang already knew that the death node cannot be changed (meaning he already tried), but he still wants to use the very last attempt to try.

He looks so dead inside, it's impossible. In my understanding: he initially used earlier photographs that were closer to September, the death of Cheng Xiaoshi in the original reality, and then dived deeper and deeper into the past, into more distant events.

Let's go back to s1. It is still difficult to say how many times the events were repeated. Lu Guang himself confirmed it in his words that this happened more than once. There have been a lot of attempts, he himself said “no matter how hard you try".

I think that “last chance” meant just that, last chance. From what he said, we know that a photo can only be used once. If s1 showed us the events of the current timeline, which I believe, this was probably one of the earliest photos that Lu Guang could use - a photo that happened before their first meeting. Back to their real beginning. This… tritely has a beautiful and symbolic logic behind it. Current events are “all or nothing.”

The photo studio from the flashback is the original universe, this reality is not destroyed, he returns to it after each original attempt. We know that Cheng Xiaoshi died many times in many different ways. If there have been many attempts, if the attempts are limited to photographs, all he can do is use them from some original point.

Like I think he can't get an "infinite" number of attempts by using the photos again within the "past" he returned to. In my opinion, “dive within a dive” is impossible. I don't think that after diving, there is a possibility of another dive by the same person inside the diving - because it makes more sense if Lu Guang has an invisible timer that reminds him - the time is running out.

I think the design of their room in the original timeline confirms this. Their table is always full of books, there are things, lamps, even framed photo. Everything is empty. If these were the events immediately after Сheng Xiaoshi's death, would their room be so lifeless?

I'm inclined to think that Lu Guang went through all their belongings, used every possible attempt to find suitable photographs that would allow him to try to rewrite the events again.

I find destroyed or burned photographs more symbolic of failed attempts being burned, too - after all, a photo can only be used once, everything is changing, it’s not a time loop. Every used photo, every reality that doesn't turn out well, is another crossed out opportunity. But remembering his words about the destruction of photos - I think that we will see this again in the context of the fact that he destroyed the photos himself. It is quite possible that he destroys the photo after the dive to erase the reality/time where Cheng Xiaoshi died again as a fact. Because… otherwise a terrible situation will arise. If Lu Guang possesses himself from a photo, then after leaving it after Cheng Xiaoshi's death, the original!Lu Guang moves back to the original line, while Lu Guang from the rewritten timeline remains in the timeline where Cheng Xiaoshi is dead (and if the events are rewritten so deeply, it is not at all clear what will happen to his memory). Therefore, I am sure that the original Lu Guang must destroy the photographs because of this as well.

I was wondering if he destroys the photo while diving, right after it - maybe that's how the mechanics could work, I would say, of how he "locks" himself into a certain reality. But since I believe that he should return to the "original point", I do not think that this is possible - if he doesn't need to come back, if he just "dives after diving" further into the next timeline, it won't make sense: more photos can be taken, attempts won't end with a limit. But do I like this idea for the last attempt? That he has to live his entire life from the very beginning without a “save point” to return to? Oh. Yes. Note: I considered the possibility that there is no original timeline as a starting point for diving, that he dives again after diving inside the dive itself, destroys the photo immediately inside the dive, that everything is repeated again, no limit either. Just at some point Lu Guang himself decides there is no point in continuing to use any photos from this period, so decided to use a photo corresponding to the very very beginning. But in doesn't make sense, in any case he will have the opportunity to take more photos that he could use for further dives, this does not create a " the last try" point (even if it was possible, also knowing Lu Guang’s character, I don’t think that he could partly “give up”, partly take such risks voluntarily)

But it's still questionable. Because, if the original timeline exists, all dives were made from there, then a simple problem arises - given Cheng Xiaoshi's ability, all dives take place in “real time”, i.e. in the original reality the same amount of time should also pass. We all understand that this is impossible, it is difficult to imagine how many attempts Lu Guang made, how many years actually passed.

So, if we believe that the “original reality” is a thing, then the combination of their abilities, becoming a “perfect fusion,” has other limits, other specifics of using and/or the original timeline is so broken that time only passes when Lu Guang exists in it.

The original universe… or?

I hope I've made it clear enough before - in my opinion the original timeline was shown to us in terms of the timeline from where he dives into the photos. Their room. Because there must be something that creates a limited number of attempts.

But I have some doubts about the fact that what we saw in the vision or flashback is the original timeline, too. Yes, they could have shown us the very first death of Cheng Xiaoshi, this would even be logical, but the problem is that this is only relevant if we agree that Lu Guang has white hair from birth.

Considering that the hints themselves within the series may turn out to be a joke, I still haven't completely dismissed this idea. The only characters with unusual hair color are twins, but they are like that at least because of genetics, they inherited it from their mother. While the issue with Lu Guang remains open.

Therefore, I am considering 2 simple options: 1. Lu Guang's hair was originally white from birth, so we shouldn't expect him to have a different design in the original timeline. Or Lu Guang's hair turned white before Cheng Xiaoshi's death for some other reason. Then we can safely say that the events of the flashback is the original universe.

2. Lu Guang's hair was not originally white, but his hair gradually turned white with each dive attempt due to overpowering, trying too many times, and overusing his abilities.

If we consider the second option, then:

The flashback events shown to us are one of the later attempts, for example, the penultimate one, which is generally a possible option. That version of death, when Cheng Xiaoshi received a very similar injury to Lu Guang - that why the flashbacks were specifically about this late attempt.

The events shown to us are this current reality in which Cheng Xiaoshi was/has to be the 7th case, and this is exactly the death that was intended for him in this timeline - but this period of time, from April to September, was cut out and "stolen", just as case 7 disappeared. And that in the most recent attempt, not only was time rewritten “from the very beginning,” from the very first photo, but something else happened to prevent Cheng Xiaoshi’s death at the appointed time.

The one who was supposed to die in the photo studio when Lu Guang was stabbed - was Cheng Xiaoshi himself, and what was shown was not a flashback, but Lu Guang's vision of how things could have been different (if we perceive the forest not as a literal location, but a symbol) . I doubt it, but let's leave this possibility open.

Why do I even think that the white hair theory could be real? Of course, maybe it's just the light, but maybe… Due to Li Tianxi's memories and abilities, taking over the memories from the other reality in which Lu Guang lived, Qiao Ling's hair also changed a bit. Pay attention to the only white strain in her hair. This is an extremely interesting and rather intentional detail.

If this is the case, then Qiao Ling's white hair is a hint. This does not mean that every attempt is 1 white strand of hair. It's not that… literal. This is an artistic way of allowing the viewer to speculate if this is the case.

I'm not betting on any particular idea, given that things can't be that simple and we don't really know how September-April will be explained. Another problem is why Lu Guang is wearing a watch on his other hand in this shot. Everything may be different, case 7 may be about a completely different character. But I also think many things will be connected at some point.

Photos and OP

There are a lot of photographs. So many. As we remember from Dive Back in Time. There will be two key ones - thanks to Vortex.

One of which is precisely related to the moment that allowed Lu Guang to travel 6 years (or more) into the past - to the moment they even met. Would this be a photo at school? Was it an accidental photo left behind? I have much more painful though. Their “very beginning” has a huge chance of not being high school time, but as I mentioned before, I’ll leave that for a separate post.

But the other one? I can’t imagine clearly, of course, but for me there are 3 ways:

This is about the current timeline - September-October were influenced by the use of a different photo - it will let us understand what the 7th case and one of the main storylines.

The starting point from where Lu Guang began his attempts to save Cheng Xiaoshi and change his fate. The core one.

If we believe the hints in the art book, the intro, the dark design of Cheng Xiaoshi, then the photo will be from the moment where something happens to make CXS become depresso!CXS.

I had hopes that the teaser would be about s3, and thus something would become clearer in my head, but… For now, we can only build theories for the next year or two.

Thank you for reading ~

[mimicha-arts]

Link Click s2e9/e10

Date of the post: 09-01-2023 Okay, I watched this episode a couple of times, another post-episode post where I’m trying to gather my thoughts. SPOILERS FOR S2E9 AND E10 1. Probably missing scene I am 99% sure that we are not done with the “from the hospital to the pier” scene, I will believe until the last moment that this is a hoax. Chen Xiaoshi will run into the red light, and in fact, I think there is one missing scene at this point.

Some time ago, a small draft was published, where one of the characters ran across the road and barely dodged a moving car. Soo, I think it was here. If this remains in the final version, of course, we'll definitely come back to it (source). Just my speculation.

Yes, Xiaoshi was just impossibly lucky (lmao) to escape from the hospital, but we are still left with three unclear details:

upside down phone

the kettle in chronology 1

damn boat! This part of the plot is still the most confusing thing for me. What was the point of giving Lu Guang away the first time? What was the point of creating a time loop? Why he still ended up with Lu Guang (as it seems) in the scene of Romeo and Juliet? I'm pretty patient with this, just curious.

2. Abilities. I think we got a hint about how the twins' powers work. Previously, I assumed that the limitation of Li Tianchen's control abilities was like this: that he could only act in the evening, night and early morning (somewhere in between), since all the kills and uses of his abilities did not occur during the day. Now perhaps we have our answer? Based on the history of the foxes, it is likely that the time of using his abilities is tied to his sister's "sleeping time". Because when she was sleeping, her brother went for "hunting". Moreover, such a focus is on his “paws” and pats.

3. Change of events - Qian Jin and twins The way twins met Qian Jin is SO different. I actually kinda think, that that one of the variants of events is the already fucked up past through the present. s2e9:

s2e8:

It seems to me that the difference in these events is obvious. Both the moment itself and the details. Li Tianchen's backpack on his back, blood on Li Tianxi's dress. Everything went differently.

Alternate realities went brrrrr? The scene from the episode is an attempt to change events, where instead of Qian Jin it is actually Cheng Xiaoshi? I have no idea. 4. Hi, hatman! Friendly reminder: it's just my guessing. At the moment it seems to me that if there is no trolling here, the boy from the flashbacks and the hunter from the fairy tale are the same character. Clearly. We know that his last name is Liu, and Liu Min himself has a younger brother, Liu Xiao, so yeah- Сan't wait for him to return from overseas and be part of a real scene.

In fact, I really love that Li Tianchen hoped throughout his expression that Liu Min is Liu Xiao (whether he realizes that these are different people is still unclear)

Considering the announcement of Neo Aurora, it seems that we will see Liu Xiao's real appearance and design in the near future, I'm shaking. I have so many stupid jokes about him! 6. Liu Min I guess the woman they were discussing at the beginning was someone else? Since Liu Min can still able to move his legs and even can stand up.

I can conclude that Emma was not the first victim of this “alliance.” So it's hard to say how many people were actually killed, definitely not 8, much more. At least that's what it seems to me. Idk, I'm just having fun, as always. Feel free to discuss. Thanks for reading ~

[mimicha-arts]

Starry, Starry night

This new picture for the upcoming episode has been released, let's talk about it. Please remember, I live in delusion.

There are several posters on the wall, and the one next to Cheng Xiaoshi - 星空，refers to the film with the same title. Starry, Starry night is a 2011 Taiwanese drama based on a novel by Taiwanese author Jimmy Liao.

Hsieh Xin-Mei used to live with her grandparents up in the mountains. Then she moves to the city to live with her parents, but her family situation is not very good, and she tries to hide from reality in the world of her own imagination. One day, a new student was transferred to her school - a boy named Zhou Yu-Jie. 

Despite the misunderstanding at the beginning, both of them are lonely and feel like outsiders in their own lives, befriending one another. When reality catches up, they try to escape to a world that belongs only to them, to see the stars. Do I have to tell you that this story is about grief and sorrows, "the end of summer", journey to adulthood, love across time and distance? About an accidental meeting and fate.

I think it's worth your time to watch, this film is very heartwarming.

You can read the full plot description on Wikipedia, although it will not convey the full meaning, since the film has many artistic images and interesting decisions that convey the story sensitively. If you want to watch it yourself, read no further. 

Spoilers … And References. And some beautiful moments that make me THINK.

1. Time 

One of the themes is time, the hands of the clock often tick in the background, and at some point the numbers themselves, which indicate train departures, not just stop - freeze.

18:42 - 18:50 - 18:55

Do I believe in coincidences? No.

 2. Journey 

Their path - an escape to their dream world - passes through a tropical wild forest. On their journey, they try, despite the difficulties, to find the right path to their dream.

Since s2e1, I've been thinking about how much the forest in the back of that vision, ED/OP, is a real forest, a real tunnel, not the symbolism of the "journey". But now, if such a choice is not accidental, I have received answers to my questions, at some point.

In fact, I lost my mind at the moment when they came to a fork in the road, they had to choose their path - they took the wrong path, and were forced to face the same choice, choosing a path, for the second time. Again.

But in the end, the path to the stars ends in a life-threatening situation where they have no choice but "return". Although they both know that this is the end for them, the end of their journey, and the end of their "summer".

3. Puzzles 

This story is about art, not about photography, but about paintings and puzzles. Puzzles literally act as moments of remembrance. Although these are not burning photographs, deep in her sleep, Hsieh Xin-Mei follows the image of Zhou Yu-Jie in the night forest, and the entire world also collapses when the end comes.

When Hsieh Xin-Mei woke up from her dream, Zhou Yu-Jie was no longer here.

The search for the missing part - the sun, on the puzzle based on the painting "Starry, Starry Night" - is fundamental, literally the core to the plot.

The connection of everything, through the years. It's like a promise, it's like an eternal memory of that time.

There are more things I could write about, but I don't want to make this post too long… Just. There is always something about stories with a sunshine-like person, curious, breaking boundaries, talking non-stop, and about a person who quietly looks at the first one, listening to everything with a smile. And it becomes life-changing. I would like to remind you that these are just my thoughts, I'm having fun, maybe seeing something that isn't there. We will see anyway. 

But. For real. Put a detail like that into an episode and expect me to ignore it? No. Huh. 

I'm just overthinking once again, but Interesting choice :) 

[mimicha-arts]

What's wrong with characters' ages.

Something I still don't fully understand.

Probably spoilers?

We remember that the characters are about 21-22 years old.

Since the series literally starts almost on Cheng Xiaoshi's birthday, I'm not entirely sure is he still 21, or already 22. Lu Guang is a separate problem, we won’t talk about that now.

We've known since season 1 that Lu Guang and Cheng Xiaoshi met during they high school day. From the storyboards we know that Lu Guang was 16 years old (十六嵗) at that time.

Considering 12 years of education, they must have been around 17-18 by the time they graduated from high school and went to university.

They all entered the same university together for a bachelor's degree. Again, the undergraduate/bachelor degree lasts 4 years. Technically, they should be arout 21-22 years old. But!

They must have been 21-22 years old when they graduated from university, when the trio decided to run a photo studio while their friends, Xu Shanshan and Dong Yi, continued their education. And the s1 itself is the time when they graduated with master's degree. I hope it's obvious where I'm going with this.

So? It was said literally in the series itself. Another two years should have passed since Lu Guang, Qiao Ling and Cheng Xiaoshi graduated from the university - and in fact they should be older, like already about 24-25 years old, which does not correspond to the character concepts/intros at all. This still raises questions for me.

I know that there are errors in the ages of the supporting characters, given that the art book was recently released and the information on the concepts is different. But about this case - Xu Shanshan's age matches that of the trio, she is 22 years old, while Dong Yi is... Actually 25 🤔

I'm still not sure if this is a mistake, or if the age of their intros/concepts are actually misleading and refers to either a different period or different versions of the characters.

Which might be the case, since their intros (even before s1) don't quite match how we see the characters in actual donghua.

Qiao Ling's gloomy expression

Lu Guang's smile (very out of character in my opinion)

Completely different design for Cheng Xiaoshi', not like in s1 (don't forget about the ring he only got in s2). And he looks so depressing that something is definitely wrong with it.

Usually character intros give a basic and literal idea of them, while the image that the intros create is somewhat at odds with how we see them in s1 - considering that moments in s1 are depicted using photographic film, this is done on purpose, in my opinion.

No conclusions, just thoughts, thanks for reading.

[mimicha-arts]

Date: 09/10/23 Hm. Some thoughts, details, mostly speculation about ep 10 + things discussed over the last two months, it might be a bit chaotic ~ Don't take it too seriously, feel free to discuss. A lot of thing are open-end speculations, as we don't have too much detail about the lore and Lu Guang.

Spoilers for s2!

Twins - who killed Chen Bin?

I won't dwell too long on the exposition about the twins' abilities -the fandom's collective mind was right, who has what powers, how important physical contact is, why Qian Jing actually wears gloves. Really satisfying thing - twins are really attached to the theme of the “present” and do not physically disappear. May we say that the situation with the photo and the phone is confirmed? That it was Li Tianchen both times (unless there are any time jumps that we are not aware of). The main question, given the unpredictable factor, depends on how spontaneous the plan was. I think the timing is pretty fast, but in pure theory, I understand how everything could happen in such a short moment. Chen Bin was taken in control as soon as his phone conversation with Qian Jin ended. The following time was just enough for Cheng Xiaoshi to come to Lu Guang's room and all the characters discussed the current situation (Now it’s clear why Chen Bin’s behavior was so strange and there was a misunderstanding), at the same time Xiao Ma drove Qian Jin and twins to the hospital.

Xiao Ma left, he was waiting on the roof in advance - Chen Bin (possessed) left the room, went to the roof and gave the phone to Xiao Ma.

So...... Xiao Ma left him alone, and we now "know" for sure that he was not directly involved in his death - the one who threw him off the roof was Li Tianchen... Perhaps not. Yeah, this was the trigger for Li Tianxi - so there is the problem one, even if Li Tianchen was planning something behind Qian Jin's back, he couldn't predict his sister's reaction and that this situation would get out of control. Personally, I kinda think  that this happened to her at exactly this moment,  because she and Chen Bin knew each other personally (If Qian Jin continued to keep in touch with Chen Bin all these years, there is such a chance. Perhaps Chen Bin wanted his child to be a girl also because of Li Tianxi... I'm speculating) But did Li Tianchen really manage to throw Chen Bin off on his own, or did he lose control earlier? Because I think it's the second option, and Xiao Ma returned to the roof - completing what Li Tianchen couldn't do. > I've got the aftermath covered for you.

As I think, in the end the twins didn't kill Chen Bin - Li Tianchen lost control before that happened (which also gives extra time considering the count was in minutes - because Li Tianchen had to be at the hospital in the shortest possible time to pick up the phone from Xiao Ma coming down the stairs). So the real killer was Xiao Ma.

Anything is possible, of course, we will see. Although I still have a question. Did Li Tianchen stop following Li Tianxi because it was his only opportunity to pick up the phone/contact Lu Guang? Or was the spontaneity of the moment not so spontaneous and he had not planned to run after her in the first place? I still don't quite understand Li Tianchen's actions regarding Lu Guang. There is a possibility, based on his sister’s mental abilities, that having possessed Qiao Ling, Li Tianchen already knew about the abilities of both Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang - the questions in s2s1 were nothing more than catching Cheng Xiaoshi in a lie.

It's kinda confusing, but in the end it turned out that Li Tianchen "framed" his sister, because of which Qian Jin does not suspect betrayal from Li Tianchen. I also think about the possibility that Li Tianchen, if he actually killed Zhuang Shuai, he originally knew (through his sister's abilities) the real circumstances between Chen Nan and Zhuang Shuai, and this is what may influence Li Tianchen's real attitude towards Qian Jin all these 7 years. Li Tianchen cares about his sister a lot - it's not just his words, voice, and my own faith in the complexity of his character. Because Li Tianxi ended up in a fairly safe place, in an abandoned area, but it was an old shop that still had groceries and, surprisingly, electricity.

She ran away without her old toy fox. I also think that this is the same toy from her childhood that was sewn up, given the condition of the fox. The only person who could find her and return her fox is Li Tianchen. There is still a lot to be revealed here.

The question remains. Where's the phone? I don’t think that Liu Xiao is in contact with Li Tianchen now, it seems that the promised meeting has not happened yet and Li Tianchen pursues purely his own goals. Obviously it needs to be a safe place, but probably still "visible" and accessible. Still a lot of speculations! Just a though. But what if? Inside the fox toy.

Li Tianxi's drawing - blue ability

The interesting thing is that Tianxi drew Lu Guang. Initially, this seems fine in the context of s1ep11, attack towards Lu Guang, but Qiao Ling or Cheng Xiaoshi were not drawn, and Lu Guang himself had red eyes. Such a thing should not have happened since the original plan in s1e11 was to hurt Lu Guang, not possess him. From the time Lu Guang was injured until Li Tianxi escaped, about 12/13 hours passed, most of which Lu Guang was unconscious, so I can't figure out where is a "window" for possessing. I don't know how to understand this part yet. Unless Li Tianxi simply used Lu Guang as an “example” and did not include any subtext.

Another thing: it is possible that the twins do not perceive the physical pain of the person they are possessing. There was a scene with Xiao Li, who explained that a person, purely technically, cannot strangle themself due to the physical reaction. But, again, I didn’t have that experience, sooo, idk.

In my understanding, Li Tianxi probably did not cry from physical pain, but rather from this entire terrified situation, from what her brother was doing and/or the thoughts of Lu Guang himself.

Since she uses her abilities with Lu Guang's photo to determine his condition, I also have one thought, since I am sure that we still don't know anything about Lu Guang's "real current blue abilities."

Considering that not only photographs have become key moments in the narrative, drawings also play this role, I think it’s time to mention one strange moment that is connected with Lu Guang. I still have a lot of questions about why Lu Guang, closing one eye, used his abilities not on the part with the photo, but on the back part, with the drawing. Was it an animation error, or… Technically, is it possible to use abilities on any images at all? Now that we know abilities aren't tied to photos, yes, in theory.

Anyway. We still don't know how much the "blue" ability can vary - but what if Lu Guang, much like Li Tianxi, can sense a person's "state" in the current, at least whether a person is alive or not, through a photo or image.

Because, well. Let's go back a little. The Doudou's case. Since s1 I've been wondering. Could Lu Guang have known in advance not details, but the simple fact that Doudou was still alive and the case would not lead to a dead end?

Considering Cheng Xiaoshi's mental state, their quarrel, the absolute unpredictability of what could happen to the child that day or later, how could he objectively propose this case without knowing that the child was alive, after these three years? I just find it interesting.

Innate ability - ability to take it away

I also think, we can confidently say, using the example of twins, that abilities must be innate + have a first activation trigger. Can they be activated separately, or must a trigger situation occur for both at the same time? So far it remains unanswered. Twins do not have the ability to take away abilities from others literally, and in fact, Tianchen's words simply meant that he wants, with the help of his sister, possess Cheng Xiaoshi and experience his abilities.

But. Who really knows about the possibility of taking away abilities? Lu, fucking, Guang. Of course, nothing is said directly, but I'm more than sure for now, based on his reaction and response.

Considering that he did not know about the existence of twins, does not suggest in s1 that the killer in theory could be a person with abilities, I will write a rather wild thought. This does not apply to some abstract carriers of abilities, I don't think Lu Guang has ever met other people like himself and Cheng Xiaoshi in the past - so his knowledge that the ability can be taken away - refers specifically to his personal experience and Cheng Xiaoshi. What if the ability to "take away" an ability is not an actual ability, but refers to the death of the ability's bearer?  In fact, to the death of Cheng Xiaoshi in the past.

So if Xiaoshi's death was the moment when Lu Guang "inherited" his abilities and was able to rewind time, could this be pretty interesting? We've never been shown their "overall color coding" as green, although the visual elements very often use green instead of yellow. Also, for Li Tianxi (blue) and Li Tianchen (red) we've seen the purple/magenta visuals a few times already.

Moreover, we already had an interesting implication that Cheng Xiaoshi himself received abilities only after meeting Lu Guang, at the same time (同時). Lu Guang was said to be the bearer of the ability (超能力者）, which somewhat… May imply that Lu Guang already had the ability when they first met in the current timeline. But, again, I'm not sure if it's reliable

I'm not ready to write the entire RGB/CMYK theory right now. I'll have to think about it carefully, but if the parallel realities/rewritten timeline theory will be finally confirmed, mark my words. Let's leave that for the next post, as well as the possible interpretation of his other already shown abilities related to cameras, recording information and sketches-like POV. Anyway, I wouldn’t be surprised if it turns out that Lu Guang’s original color coding is not even yellow, but green, and Cheng Xiaoshi’s is blue.

I have a lot to say, but I think it's best to leave that for another post. Either their abilities were activated due to the power of love in the first place, lol.

Posters Besides Starry, starry night there are some interesting things, but I don't understand them too well. These are my guesses, my understanding is very shallow.

1. One of the poster with 海燕和黑色闪电 refers to the "The Song of the Stormy Petrel", written by Maxim Gorky. Up above the sea's grey flatland, wind is gathering the clouds. In between the sea and clouds proudly soaring the Petrel, reminiscent of black lightning. 2. 春深似海 - spring (love?) is like the ocean, is a chengyu from 兒女英雄傳 (The Gallant Maid), novel by Wen Kang. 3. 声色俱厉 is also a chengyu, stern in voice and countenance. You can check a part of 《語林》 here, what it refers to, I hesitate to take responsibility for conveying the meaning in context, but I found it VERY interesting. Correct me, if I'm wrong! The rest is too blurry for me, maybe I'll come back to it later. XƎTЯOVerthink I made a separate post about this, you can see it here, the episode with the theater/stage is extremely close in essence to what we see in XƎTЯOVerthink. I wonder if we will understand the whole context of the many dead Cheng Xiaoshi just in these two weeks :)

We have so many implications that nothing can be rewritten, and at the same time, time is already broken, and Xiaoshi is being challenged for the second time whether he is ready to rewrite everything just for Lu Guang. The level of this tension is SO noticeable it's terrifying.

Xiaoshi and his abilities I think his actual plan was pretty smart, even if it didn't work out well due to other circumstances - and we're getting into some very dangerous zone where "diving" almost borders on the topic of teleportation, so the use of abilities is more and more closer to the context of the present, not the past.

Personally, I think. that the photo (which Li Tianxi looks at) has nothing to do with this - this photo on the phone was needed specifically for Li Tianxi’s abilities. Considering Xiao Li's phone, they should have used a remote CCTV feed, so that they could create a "save point" and move it around. So, maybe it's not "diving", but like respawn on the same spot.

Technically, Cheng Xiaoshi's abilities are limited to diving into the past - but we don't know this for sure (and what opportunities does he have for “cheating”), since all the information we have comes from Lu Guang, and he's an unreliable narrator. As we remember from episode 2, Lu Guang himself could use his abilities to “view and track” in the present time. Not in the past.

The Tunnel When I did the analysis on Starry Starry Night, it was added that the tunnel scene, if this is the reference for OP, has an obvious feeling - to go on the path to a dream, where the end is ... the end of everything. And now we actually have a tunnel and rails as part of the narrative and the location, amazing.

Time is already dead. I already wrote that in s2 something strange happens with time. Dates are gone, years are gone. Even the twins' files never included a year of birth, although we can calculate it. The moment that made me think that everything was WRONG from the beginning was the Xu Shanshan phone from the previous series. There are no dates anywhere on the phone screens, but our timeline is the end October, maybe the beginning of November. Only her phone still has some dates. And the photos at the bottom are dated as "today", yesterday", and the previous ones… May(五月). And April(四月). Like. Xu Shanshan didn't take pictures for half a year? Doesn't sound right.

But apparently? Time is unimportant. At all.

Because. Everything literally vanished. Year? 0. Month? 0. Day of the week? 0. Hour? 0 Time is truly dead.

Thank you my dear @wrathyforest without you  I don't know if I could take this road ~ I'm pretty sure I'm wrong about a lot of things, so I just keep having fun and playing bingo. I just want to see how wrong I am about everything ~

[mimicha-arts]

Qian Jin

Hello and sorry. I’m here again with my “catch the details faster than the frame changes.” Let's talk about Qian Jin! I'm pretty sure we'll learn new information in the next episode because of the flashback, so I want to get ahead of things a little and play bingo ;)

SPOILERS FOR S2

1. Romeo and Juliet Many have discussed this, but we will go deeper. One of the main key points in the s2 is the Romeo and Juliet theme and poster, which we now know is related to Qian Jin's story.

In my opinion, his whole scene with the poster looked very personal, hardly just "symbolism" of his feelings after losing his wife or something like that. And here I will try to explain why. Because, most likely, the actress on the poster is Qian Jin's wife. Her name was shown for such a brief moment that I actually nearly lost my mind while trying to capture the frame. So, her name is probably Chen Nan (陈楠). And I really don't think it was necessary to include such details if they are minor.

Well. Pure speculations. We all remember that initially everything was wrong with the case, the suspect in the murder of Qian Jin‘s wife after some time committed suicide and left a note with a confession. Although I can read some words, I can't rely on my eyes, so I can't string them together into complete sentences. But what I can guess is that there are two characters in the signature, and the surname kinda looks like Zhuang (庄).

So. Which character also has the surname Zhuang, who has already been "shown" in the series… On the same poster of "Romeo and Juliet", where the actress, theoretically, was Qian Jin's wife… Yeah. Zhuang Shuai (庄帅)

Okay, this could all be a coincidence, my imagination, speculation. But is these details actually connected, for now, until this has been refuted, I suspect that the story of the murder of Qian Jin's wife was much more personal and deep. Like, now we are convinced that after he found out about Cheng Xiaoshi's ability, his motivation is obviously to capture Cheng Xiaoshi in order to rewrite the past. Likely to save his wife (?). But I'm not sure how much more complex it will be?

If any of this is confirmed, I rather think that Qian Jin's wife was killed by Zhuang Shuai out of jealousy. I also need to say, for now I don't think that 戴绿帽子 is a possible situation here, seems TOO cruel for me, but who knows.

2. Qian Jin and details Eyes. We were all confused because Qian Jin's eyes were not common, but icy yellow. In fact, his eyes can be said to have three states. I also note that sometimes pupils are not drawn or too small because of 2D graphics, so I take into account only obvious close-ups. First type: present, yellow eyes with a vertical pupil. We see that kind of his eyes in most of his scenes. The same type of eyes are in his character design pictures and intro.

Second type: present, yellow with a round pupil. This type of eyes appears specifically in episode 4.

(Technically) third type: the past, yellow eyes with a round pupil. In all the close-up scenes in flashbacks, his pupils are round.

Abilities: It's hard to guess, but at the moment I don't think he personally has any special abilities. It seems to me, given his one line, that Qian Jin relies more on his skills, plans and his people, treating abilities (at least in this situation) in a rather lenient way. Also, his real words sound more special and poetic - If there is a way to reach the sky, it will be difficult to fly away even with wings (friendly reminder, I'm not a translator or native speaker)

But there is one dubious detail. OK. Speaking of gloves, he probably uses gloves to avoid accidentally touching Li Tianchen and getting controlled, which is a pretty logical conclusion after episode 8. But. At some point, while talking to Li Tianchen, when the frame points to Qian Jin, there is a rather small movement of the hand and the sound of either the rustle of clothes, or the sound of something being handed over (ep 7, 1:22-1:28). This was weird.

This may be a trick, but at some point, when it gets to 7pm, Qian Jin claps his hands. And given to Cheng Xiaoshi's abilities, we know that clapping can be a means of activating/disabling an ability.

Speculation: Since we can't fully rely on changing the shape of the eyes, pupil, eye color, due to the change in visual "rules" compared to season 1 + animation errors, but for now I'll make assumptions.

In fact, in some of these scenes, Qian Jin may be possessed by Cheng Xiaoshi (which is trite, but possible)

Someone uses their abilities on Qian Jin, they are in cooperation. This person either possess him either they watches events through Qian Jin's eyes from time to time, as if through a camera.

Qian Jin gave something to Li Tianchen in the car, and that will play a role in the plot.

The change of eyes is an attempt to show the change in his personality, but I don't think it's that simple.

3. Something beyond my understanding

The man with a hat. They are obviously connected, and I already wrote a big theory about this, if the man in the hat turns out to be Liu Xiao, let's not dwell on this, if you want to read, click on - Person in the shadows.

Dates In his intro, although there is some information, as always, the year is not indicated. Obviously, the current year is still 2021 (according to s1). But in the second season, we are not shown specific dates anywhere (even with the twins, although we can find out their year of birth by literally subtracting 19), and here. There is an event, there is a blurry date. Not specified. I guess something is wrong with time already or is this a hint that it doesn’t matter, because the events are looped / will be erased.

Player and music And probably the most ??????? thing. When Qian Jin is in the car, there is a VERY short frame before he takes the call. If you catch it... here is a player on the screen. The music is Symphony of Fate (生命交响乐). And the player does not have a "back" button, only forward.

Time is like music, yeah. Thank you for reading once again ~ I hope episode 9 gives us more information and answers some questions though… *cries*. Feel free to discuss!

[mimicha-arts]

Passwords and … audio drama episodes

Some time ago I started listening to an audio drama. There are only 12 episodes, but it took quite a long time, since my understanding is far from perfect. In fact, after the release of episode 8 and a certain overtinking about the plot and other points, about the meaning of Lu Guang's password and so on, I remembered one moment from the audio drama. What follows is a short summary. I remind you that my skills are mediocre and I am not a native speaker. Spoilers for the audio drama??? (if anyone even cares)，episodes 3-4.

This arc told the story about a girl from a photographer's family, her name is Wen Wen. This story is in many ways about love for photography, about family drama, about grief, but I'll be brief. In Wen Wen's early childhood, her father (Wen Qingshan) died due to an accident. Because of this, there was a conflict in the family between the Wen Wen and her mother, Lan Hui, since the daughter wanted to take up photography, following in the footsteps of her father. As well as fulfill his dream of participating in a photo contest.

Wen Wen asked for help in the photo studio - she would like to get old photos from her father's old broken camera, but there is a password that she did not know. After trying many options, Wen Wen was not able to find a solution, so she hoped that Qiao Ling, Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang would help her to restore access to the camera's memory card.

Therefore, Cheng Xiaoshi had to jump through the photos and history of Wen Wen and her family in an attempt to get her father's old notebook. It was not the easiest task for Cheng Xiaoshi, but in the end, when the opportunity arises, he and Lu Guang could look over the notes. Initially, they did not find any clues in these records, that is the password.

Cheng Xiaoshi was frustrated, left the photo, already wanted to tell Qiao Ling that they have failed, but was stopped by Lu Guang. And Lu Guang literally right away, instantly said which set of numbers could be a password. Just by guessing.

When Qiao Ling gave the password to Wen Wen, Wen Wen had no idea, was not able to recognize these numbers, but the password was correct. The password is a date. Wen Wen was very surprised, since she already tried all the dates associated with her, her father and mother.

And after another scene with Wen Wen and her mother Lan Hui, even the mother herself did not know the meaning of this date, it turns out that the password her father set was a day on which Wen Qingshan (Wen Wen's father) took a photograph of her mother for the first time.

This date was not directly written in the diary. It was a caption on the back of Lan Hui's photo, that was placed inside the diary. And the photo was signed: "My beloved", with a signature and this password-date: 980713

And, you know, I'm not really getting anywhere here, I'm just thinking about how it feels like some kind of foreshadowing or reference. Lu Guang was able to figure out what the password so fast. I can assume the obvious thing 一 because of his own experience and the meaning that he put into his own password. Many people guessing about the way how to read these numbers, as a symbolic phrase with a homonym, or a date, but in different format, not like year-month-day, rather month-day-hour…

Whatever event this refers to, whatever is the implication, the inner meaning… I'm pretty sure it's going to break our hearts <33

[mimicha-arts]

Wasn't even sure if I want to post it, but anyway. I like to be more objective, analyze everything and so on. But this is the last week - which means I will live in delulu. Just don't take anything seriously. This post is a mixture of thoughts, guesses, a little personal opinion, not a theory. It's about possibilities. To begin with, I must say that my expectations have unfortunately broken free, and I cannot keep them in check. I also hope that, as always, the final episode will be more than 30 minutes ;)

REMINDER SPOILERS for ep11/ep12/s2

Keep calm No one has shot Cheng Xiaoshi in this timeline (yet)

Possibility 1 If it's just one shot. There is a possibility that the shot is a trick, where the frames and words should be in a different order. First there should be a shot scene where Qian Jin is still wearing the bulletproof vest. Most likely, he will simply run out of ammo later.

If so, yes, Cheng Xiaoshi was shot. Yes, the bullet partially hit. In fact? It was a miss. By all logic, the events when Qian Jin does not have a vest are what comes next in chronology. He must be left without firearms, so he switches to hand-to-hand combat. At the moment when Xiaoshi raises his hand to strike, you can see that he has a wound/torn clothing in a very obvious place, but this is not a through shot. Also Lu Guang's words, as an answer to Cheng Xiaoshi's worries: "You're not better than me, anyway" - probably, this “similarity” reflects the duality of their wounds.

And it's gonna be just like this... Or. Possibility 2 There will be two shots. And even if Qian Jin runs out of ammo, Xiao Li still appears in the scene, he most likely has a gun. I'm not sure if they can put such a serious and important moment in a teaser, but.

Keep in mind that where XIao Li is, there is always an absolute mess (do we trust him at all, haha). Considering all the actions of the police, either the animation studio is really salty about police work in the real world, or the constant fuck ups is deliberate actions.

Although I think Li Tianchen's attention will be focused on Li Tianxi or Qian Jin... Speaking of XƎTЯOVerthink, we still have "Li Tianchen and a bouquet of flowers". He has a very strong motivation to “get it all back.” If he shot at Lu Guang, but Cheng Xiaoshi blocked him with himself, it would make sense.

Ok, maybe things will be different. Anything can happen.

Qiao Ling

Everyone already assumed - it came true, since in the opening her eyes lit up in an extremely interesting way, and now in the preview we see the activation of her abilities.

Considering that this is (probably) the second time we see such a scene, we can say with some degree of certainty that Qiao Ling initially did not have her own abilities, but upon the death of Li Tianxi, Qiao Ling received her abilities or activated powers which are more compatible with the inner “core” of Qiao Ling herself.

Again, I think she kinda fits the role of "healer" in the team. This may also be related to the fact that in collaboration with 花亦山心之月 one of her abilities was directly related to healing and restoring HP. If this was done on purpose a year ago, if collaboration lore is particularly canon and hints... Ohhhhhh :)

I'm not sure if Qiao Ling's abilities will be a "one-time opportunity" since it is unclear whether we will remain in this timeline/reality. Considering all the elements in her posters (hearts, the music player, stop button), I think she will have the ability to stop/freeze time in the moment. It is precisely because of the symphony of life, probably she represents a “pause” button.

Lu Guang, Cheng Xiaoshi and Vortex

Something has to happen. Everyone understands perfectly well what the fandom is waiting for. Everyone perfectly understands hints and literally directly said things (visually and with OSTs). But we are all afraid that this situation is a hoax. Ugh, me too. This is terribly funny.

But let's not forget. This is the essence of LinkClick. Confuse everyone, make them doubt and overthink, and then take the most literal and direct path. Because that's what the game is about. I like to think of s2 as a game with an audience. I would laugh that Lu Guang would just be a "normal guy", but (c)... Nah, I think he is an onion with many layers.

YES. I'm still confused by the circumstances of the shot in the ep 12 intro. But we have so little understanding of where the truth is that I will continue to support the most obvious and direct way to the end.

In my opinion: s1 events is the cyclical past but with changing circumstances/Lu Guang's attempts, s2 is the present in which a “vortex” will occur, they will switch roles, and s3 is Chen Xiaoshi’s stage of depression - so Cheng Xiaoshi will be the one who will face the destiny from the other side, either learn how to live without Lu Guang, either find a way how to get him back. If everything goes this way - everything in s3 will ultimately lead to an attempt to change the node of their meeting so that they never intersect, but this is completely mystical speculation based on foreshadowing.

Considering how Cheng Xiaoshi's abilities are developing, 12 hours is not his limit. That’s why I’m betting on time jumping/rewriting from Cheng Xiaoshi's side. This choice had already arisen before him twice. We are getting closer and closer to what this will lead to. I guess one of his main themes as a character is, can he remain “himself” until the very end? I am referring to 天真.

I'll accept any scenario, just in general knowing WHAT Director Lee likes to do in his works... Huh. Also this poster for s2 extremely strange “does not coincide” with themes is s2. Like, we discussed the cameras several times, the difference in reflections and so on, but there is one point that was barely brought up. At least I didn't see it lately, cause I'm kinda new here. They're here in their damn SCHOOL uniforms (校服), we never had a flashback or anything with this designs in s2. Well. Time-jumps into the past, at the moment of the “nod/meeting” on the basketball court, but now all events will go on behalf of Cheng Xiaoshi? Yo. Is it possible that we will see (s3) their “past” not through flashbacks, but through the prism of the present? This seems like a rather interesting idea to me. If we are considering "The Arrow of Time" here, all events are relative, and it's also possible.

Considering that we all know about the “dark-design!CXS” in the intro, it never matched his design in s1, and there is an obvious link between the seasons and the passage of time, where exactly s2 is the present, and the entire s1 is a continuous "flashback". I'm not a big fan of posting materials from the art books, but it's just bits… In concept sketches of scenes, Cheng XIaoshi has a dark design, like in his intro. His eyes are not black, they are kinda ligher, like yellow, so these are not concepts for s1 at all (I’m speculating) - these are probably his concepts for s3, reliving the events when the Vortex turns over.

Anyway. Cheng XIaoshi is going to take a burden. Therefore, it is easy to draw parallels in s2ep3, we all understand the context. The themes of promises. Also, the ring. He is character with the obvious path - he have to realize the truth, find out about everything and live with it, keeping the memories. Especially about one "forget-me-not" person.

This is my personal opinion and empty speculation. So, in overall:

Lu Guang's vision was a flashback, he took over Cheng Xiaoshi's abilities at the time of death and was able to rewrite the events, but it's not the same as Cheng Xiaoshi's time jumping in the past. The color coding can be anything, but since red-lilac (as connection with twins) and white went to Qiao Ling, and all the Easter eggs point to green, Lu Guang still most likely originally had a green-yellow color coding, blue for Cheng Xiaoshi, idk.

All of Lu Guang's knowledge of lore and abilities comes from his personal experiences - for me, he as a character is literally imbued with the theme of regrets and the severity of his own actions. We saw how much his emotional moments, worries and sincerity were centered around Cheng Xiaoshi in s1, and everything became completely straightforward in s2.

Difference in design - in my eyes refers to the fact that Cheng Xiaoshi from the past could not survive his “fate” in any scenario before this attempt. And Cheng Xiaoshi from this timeline is the only one who got the opportunity to “move further into the future.” There's a chance that the story will begin once again, but from a different, now “correctly chronological angle” , if we take it from the point of view in the intros, precisely at the transitional moment from s2 to s3. But at the same time, I think that they cannot completely destroy the current chronology of events.

A lot depends on the date of Cheng Xiaoshi’s birthday, so maybe when he crossed his “age limit” everything goes to an end. I will scream if this shot is not actually a happy return to the photo studio, but Cheng Xiaoshi's birthday celebration in the past.

What about Lu Guang? Well. We literally have lyrics for "The Tides" - if this ED won't spoil everything that happens, I don't understand the lyrics at all. I don't think Lu Guang's existence will be eradicated from the universe, time or reality now. I think the current version of him will end up dead/cut off by the universe from the current version of Cheng Xiaoshi.

Will my understanding of events deceive me? Very likely. I'm not sure of anything except one thing - I'm wrong somewhere. Especially because here I do not take into account the plot role of Hatman (we have no idea what he is trying to achieve and what his influence will be in this particular situation) Again, a friendly reminder - this is all pure speculation. Lu Guang is a mystical liar, and this is not a fair game. We're playing bingo.

But am I completely sure that Lu Guang is absolutely pathetic and miserable, that he is the person who, despite all his words and rules, could not let go the person he loves?

Yes.

Qian Jin

Honestly? I love what they did. Oh, it will be a sexy main villain with complex morals? He has his own vision of justice blah blah blah. No, we have a very dirty story here, some people just fucked up everything in their lives and everything in the lives of the people around them. “And what, everything was just like that, so useless, is that how the script works?” Ok, everything may change in ep12, but.. yeah? And I think that's great. Because that's how life works, too. One of the most terrifying experiences in life is to be around such people in power. I'm not making excuses for Li Tianchen's actions, but I have deep empathy for him - his life really was nothing but a nightmare. I have no questions about his logic or methods of “asking for help” - because he is a victim of abuse.

At the moment, it's the pure irony that Qian Jin always used everyone as tools, that even his "family" were never really on the same side with him, and in the end the real "tool" - is Qian Jin himself. In the hands of a Hatman. If earlier I believed that they could act as one (since I had other thoughts about Quede, and we also did not know Qian Jin’s motivation), now I am inclined to believe that Qian Jin never knew that he was just a pawn in someone else's hands. Also, that purple color is all around his figure ;) "Hatman" was never on the screen in present, but also always was here.

Twins

My bet is that they definitely don't fall out of the plot. Their role is too important, they must be included in the main cast to reveal the story arc of Hatman (here I'm sure he is Liu Xiao). If he promised Li Tianchen a meeting in the future - it will happen. Could he get a redemption arc? Perhaps. Will he be able to get his HE? I guess no. Hatman's words in flashbacks about his philosophy about hunters sound pretty straight forward. This will be a completely different antagonist, with his own philosophy and understanding of the structure of the world and society. But it's not entirely clear to me what path the plot is leading us down and what the final point will be. To what extent is our “main” antagonist really... the main “antagonist”, will Li Tianchen continue to follow the path of "destruction" or will he receive a redemption arch.

Given his background, it's possible, and I can generally see the possibilities for it, even considering that Li Tianchen was involved in a series of massacres. The different details of the murders and the broken chronology - I can get how this could theoretically be softened if it is divided who killed whom. Yes, we know that Li Tianchen generally had no problem stabbing a person with a knife. But I still don't understand the difference in murdering styles (also what's wrong with boots in some cases), considering that Li Tianchen probably prefers more planned and quiet methods (like murder-suicides). It probably doesn't mean anything, Li Tianchen personally confirmed that he killed these people, but I sense something strange here. For now, I cannot imagine, if Li Tianxi does not die completely, how the script will be able to maintain the right degree between drama and logic and at the same time not discount everything that happened in the plot. If events are rewritten, it all depends on what impact it leaves, whether this reality, where everything mattered, will continue to exist. But this is definitely not the end for all of them.

Hatman

I'm still firmly convinced that Hatman is Liu Xiao, not much has changed since my first post about him. Possible antipode of Lu Guang (was Lu An from the mini-series a subtle hint, haha). At the moment I'm leaning towards 3 ideas:

He is also a person with abilities and sees variations of the future that has not yet happened since childhood, which generally clarifies his mysterious phrases about possibilities and chances.

In terms of time, since all events are relative to each other, maybe he is able to move from the “present-future” to himself 7 years ago in order to “lead” Li Tianchen to the desired point in current events and correct the necessary course.

It's all part of a time loop, the events are rewritten, but he still has memories of them, which is why he can "correct" what happens when the "loop" of several years is repeated again.

What else am I sure of? He will have some kind of terrible background story with his mother, remember it. And, if we take into account another donghua from the same studio, perhaps Liu Xiao takes his “roots” and “references” from approximately the same character as Lu Guang himself - just each of them … adopted different features, references and archetypes. Because damn it, Liang Chao's legacy is real and I can't stop thinking about it - this is one of the characters from Tu Bian Ying Xiong: Leaf - his story and family situation have interesting points, especially considering some moments in the link click itself, which refer to Leaf's plot (same city, closing of a pharmaceutical company, some interesting easter eggs, all of it)

Photos from OP

I always wondered what was going on in all the photos in the opening. I didn't expect them all to be left with such intrigue until the very last episode.

We have two photos in the opening that are flying in the water, they are almost impossible to see because of the blur, I think that their meaning will be revealed this friday (same as diary). If the events were/will be rewritten, most likely it has something to do with these photos - the same two photos from the op, as well as in 3D scene.

Except for Chen Nan, there are a few more strange photos from the passage in the tunnel. More cases, covered bodies, a bicycle/bike handlebar or something like that... But I have no clear thoughts on them at all.

What are the main points?

Some could be picked up in episode 12 in my opinion. Or in s3, I hope they not fall into oblivion. I am not taking into account all the questions that left since s1, hello to April-September and Emma.

Qian Jin should probably die, his birthday present.

The real circumstances of Chen Nan's death, there is too much unreliable information.

Explanation of the circumstances of Chen Bin's death, since it's not confirmed.

Xiao Ma also will be choked on screen.

Did Wang Juan survive?

How exactly did the twins' parents die?

Context of Qiao Ling's abilities - will Li Tianxi be saved or not.

Where is Liu Min's phone, what is the danger of information inside

Some chances of hints for 7th case, maybe.

The boat / flipped phone / kettle, everything related to the time loop, why Lu Guang knew the place/left a photo. Why doesn't Lu Guang use his watch anymore?

Password, ring, call - these are not questions that will be answered immediately

Who will get the shot, in what timeline and how? If the vision shows different circumstances, what happened there?

What are the photos about, what is the book/diary from the OP?

We still hope and believe in Lu Guang flashbacks, if related to the previous points, then. Why do they need to use such "time machine" references -

Vortex in context, will time be broken completely?

Will circumstances bring Cheng Xiaoshi and Li Tianchen to some extreme point?

Why is there a photo studio frame with balloons?

Liu Xiao / Hatman as the main cliffhanger

Too much, probably. All thoughts are my delusions. Well. See you on Friday.

[mimicha-arts]

OP - old draft

Let's talk about Vortex? I recently saw that people were discussing on Twitter the draft for OP that had been posted a long time ago. I still have screenshots from that time.

If you haven't watched s1/s2, Friendly reminder - SPOILERS

It's obvious why the first draft was changed, although the idea remained the same - the original draft was too straightforward and contained too many spoilers for the plot, as I can say. I'm posting this purely to keep it in history, especially when the season has almost come to an end, and we already know the main points that could be spoilers in terms of visuals. Vortex. It's really Vortex..

The first part remained the same as it was: machins, water, drowning Cheng Xiaoshi who begins to “rise and fall” at the same time

Lu Guang and the broken glass shards still the same, he and Cheng Xiaoshi “fall” like a reflection opposite each other. And so do Li Tianchen and Li Tianxi.

Cheng Xiaoshi continues to fly in the air, but his direction changes. There was not just light, but a butterfly like light. Li Tianxi and control abilities.

While Cheng Xiaoshi is grabbed by the “hand” when the second part begins, the one who flies further in space is Lu Guang. This can be seen in the silhouette of clothes and hair. The one standing on the roof is Cheng Xiaoshi. Lu Guang tries to reach him, but :)

Initially, there are many more characters standing on the roof. Among them are Xu Shanshan (probably), Chen Bin, Li Fan, but not Qian Jin.

And then… the reverse begins.

Have a nice day ~

[mimicha-arts]

SPOILERS S2E10/11

I'm just sitting here with a slight smile on my face. The theater scene is an absolute point of no return, it tears my heart apart.

It's literally so - almost - frame by frame - XƎTЯOVerthink theme, everything about this scene. Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang are on "stage", they walk torwards each other, the shadow and light are separated.

Cheng Xiaoshi comes out of the shadows, to the side full of light, the one who is in the shadows now - Lu Guang.

Everything becomes nothing more than images, nothing more than memories.

Memories that burns to ashes.

It is so beautiful. Just beautiful. My soul is crying, I'm so excited. Maybe I'll write a proper analysis for the episode later, but now - I just can't think of anything other than this.

[mimicha-arts]

As a part 2 for this post I read the reblogs and considered it necessary to add， idk

Audio drama: This should still be considered as canon, I guess? This ep partially reveals a little information, since the final story is dedicated to two students, Li Zhen (黎臻) and Xia Ke（夏可). Qiao Ling, Cheng Xiaoshi, Lu Guang also studied in the same university.

The exact year when this event occurs is not specified, it's unknown whether 1 year or 2 years have passed, as I remember. The time of the episode is Xia Ke's and Li Zhen's senior year, right before their graduation - the trio themselves have already graduated and run a photo studio. The episode itself kinda tell us that the undergraduate degree in their uni lasted 4 years (四年 part), considering how many years Xia Ke and all her friends studied.

So I can assume (but then again it might be different) that this probably applies to all departments, since it was mentioned that Li Zhen is from a music college, Xia Ke's related to physical education.

Xia Ke is about to graduate. Qiao Ling mentions that even if their fields of study were different, Xia Ke is still considered as "學妹", as junior/younger female schoolmate (hope it's correct to say it like this). So I think that the trio also received exactly the undergraduate degree, and graduated at least a year earlier. Just my thought. Otherwise, would it even be proper to call her like that? Cause I'm not sure.

Some stuff, but I don't even know if we can consider it as a general canon. Friendly reminder, that I'm just digging into the details because I'm bored :)

[mimicha-arts]

Unbroken Promises. For my dear friend @wrathyforest ~

[mimicha-arts]

Still waters run deep.

[mimicha-arts]

破碎的蝴蝶

Day 6: Destiny & Song Lyrics LCweek2023