#still have no idea how the name Decline relates to the drama tho

[lonelylonelyghost]

Decline (2023) is a pretty cool little thing

So, I just stumbled upon this short Cdrama today and ended up watching it in one go. It was actually much better than I expected!

Basically, smart and free-spirited Su Cheng Xi (in white) crosses path with no-nonsense Sui Han Bai (in black) while investigating a strange disappearance of a theatrical troupe, and the fun starts from here.

Hidden identities, the mysteries of the past, treasure maps, murders and bromance - literally, what more could you possibly want??

It's a 20 episodes drama, 10 minute each. Viki combined it into 7 longer ones, which is much better to digest, at least for me.

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The first thing that I noticed was - unexpectedly really good cinematography! I am generally quite lenient towards the technical side of shows, but I still have eyes, and those eyes were pleasantly surprised today. The chase scene at the very beginning was beautifully shot. Do you see the colors? Chef's kiss!

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Second great thing is characters.

Su Cheng Xi - a wandering detective, mischievous and seemingly carefree, but also very sharp and with the hidden agenda:

Sui Han Bai - an uptight and serious constable of Dayong City, follow-the-rules kinda guy... Or so it seems. But more on that later. For now - behold the visage:

When those two meet for the first time, they literally have a battle in slow motion, dramatic song and flower petals in the air. Sure, that's totally normal thing for anyone to do, what are you even talking about.

There are also two female characters present, but they don't feel like being there just to appease the censorship overlords. It's hard for me to say anything about them without spoilers, but the dynamic between them and the boys is interesting.

Yue Xiao Qiao, an assassin from Qianji Pavillion:

Zuo Han Qin, Dayong City Lord's daughter:

This is Zhao Yin, a servant of Su Cheng Xi, he's there and he's nice:

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Third thing is the plot and pacing. This is a crime-solving drama, so there is an (unusually high) number of dead bodies to identify and secrets to uncover. The cases are not overly complicated, but at the same time quite interesting. I managed to guess some of the twists, but was also surprised by others.

Because of the shorter run-time there are no unnecessary fillers, something is always happening to someone. Sometimes several events are going right after another or even simultaneously, and you're sitting here like wtf. But in a good way, you know?

(Skulls are awesome, and frankly there should be more of them in every drama).

And at the same time the pace doesn't feel overly rushed. We have time to witness some dramatic flashbacks, tender scenes and some funny moments sprinkled in between.

Also-also, and this is a slight spoiler, but I know that a lot of people are pissed about generally crappy endings in cdramas, so I'm happy to announce that Decline has a good one! Like, wow, what a rare thing this is. Though not every mystery is solved, so there's a potential for season 2, but at least you won't be left feeling like you've been slapped in the face with a rotten fish afterwards.

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Forth thing (and this is my personal opinion), this drama is definitely a love story between Sui Han Bai and Su Cheng Xi. They obviously don't say anything out loud, and regard each other as "best friends" (this "xiong di qing" aka "brotherly love" excuse has been cracking me up since Guardian), but come on. Like, you literally have several tropes that are common in het romance dramas! And the lengths that they go in order to protect each other? Simply insane.

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Speaking of protectiveness, Sui Han Bai. This guy surprised me the most in terms of his disposition. Based on the initial impression, his dynamic with Su Cheng Xi (playful vs strict), and his archetype that we've all seen in previous dramas, you'd think that you know what kind of character this constable is going to be, right? Well... I don't want to spoil anything, but there was a moment in ep.3 where I was like: "Holy shit, he could just do that?" So I'm just going to put this picture here, and leave it up to you to guess the context:

This was a scene where I was like, I love this guy. Devotion, combined with ruthlessness. Delicious.

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Overall, I really liked it! Adding this little gem to my collection of mystery-solving boys. The history books will write that they were really good friends.

This has been your friendly ghost from Abyss, with some recommendations on how to distract yourself from the horrors of existing（*＾-＾*）

[susannahsteiner]

How would Batman cover up Robin's and Jason Todd's death, making sure no one connected the two as the same person.

How would Batman cover up Robin’s and Jason Todd’s death, making sure no one connected the two as the same person.

This is a question that’s bothered me for a long time and I think I’ve figured out how. Bruce could make a fake news headline stating that, “Robin, the Boy Wonder Dies Trying to Save Bruce Wayne’s Ward, Jason Todd”.

It could be written more gracefully but you get the idea. Bruce owns the daily planet so he can basically publish whatever he wants.

Right after Jason’s death, the Joker gains diplomatic immunity and Superman is sent to prevent Batman from beating him to an inch within his life. I want this incident to put a huge rift between Bruce and Clark, metaphorically putting an end to “The World’s Finest”. Once they considered themselves the best of friends and now Bruce coldly refers to their relationship as long-term acquaintances. No more jokes or teasing between the two. Batman tries to finish the mission as quickly as possible and the moment he’s done, he disappears. If there are other people, he divides the group so that he’s with someone else and Clark is in the opposite direction. Bruce also dodges Clark all the time to the point where Clark gives up after trying so hard for so long. As opposed to in the past where he usually lingers a little to make small talk before slipping away.

I also imagine that Lois has just given birth to Jon. I’m not a mother but I’m sure that the birth of a first child is magical. And because of that she has become somewhat soft hearted. Which gives Bruce the leverage he needs to convince/persuade/emotionally blackmails Lois into writing the article about Jason and Robin even though she is a strict believer in finding and only reporting the Truth.

Bruce kind of convinces her by guilting her of what she would feel like if she lost her son and by pressuring her of possible consequences of ppl linking Robin to Jason and him to Batman. He may also tell her/make up a story about how the Justice League is in full swing only because “he, Bruce” the “human” is there to control these God-like creatures. And because he has no powers and can still take down the Justice League, that is why the American Government lets the League function. He can also say that he bribes many ppl on the inside of the government to look the other way regarding superman as he has singlehandedly produced enough damage as Hurricane Katrina because of his powers. (Okay that may or may not be an exaggeration but you get my point)

The reason Bruce asks her to write the article is because Lois is a “famous” news reporter and is thus “trustworthy” so if Bruce can get the story published under her name, no one would really ask any questions.

Batman also has a camera recording everything that goes on when he puts on the cowl so he could choose many images to forge the cover picture for the article. Since he made it a point to master multiple technologies to hack into systems and to keep his identity safe, I imagine he also mastered image manipulation and that he begrudgingly uses them to forge an appropriate image for the “occasion”.

This incident not only distances Bruce from Clark, but also the rest of his friends from the League which is why none of them are there for Jason’s funeral, as in he didn’t or Alfred didn’t invite them.

The funeral is obviously private because Bruce doesn’t want to deal with the media right now. The attendees are Bruce, Alfred, Barbara(Oracle), Commissioner Gordon, Lucius Fox (and his son Luke maybe?), Leslie Thompson, maybe Selina, AND DICK GRAYSON DAMNIT.

WHY THE HELL WAS HE NOT INFORMED OF JASON’S DEATH?!?! ALFRED SHOULD HAVE CONTACTED HIM FIRST LIKE YOUR YOUNGER SON JUST DIED SO YOU SHOULD HAVE THE DECENCY TO TELL YOUR OLDER SON. THIS NEVER FAILS TO ANNOY ME. IM JUST GONNA WRITE THIS OFF AS A MISTAKE ON DC’S PART BECAUSE THEY LIKE MAN PAIN AND DECIDED THEY WERE GONNA PUT MORE ANGST FOR BOTH BRUCE AND DICK.

The members of the Justice League, and some from the Young Justice team come visit a few at a time to check up on Bruce but Bruce is locked up in his or Jason’s room so Alfred attends to them.

I feel like Conner from the Young Justice TV show (the introvert softy but with rage issues) would have been able to relate to Jason the most because they were both kind of “replacements for the originals”. Conner being a replacement for Clark and Jason being a replacement for Dick. Although the latter isn’t completely true, many of Dick’s team mates (Teen Titans I mean here. The Young Justice team dealt with clones of Superman and Roy Harper and Artemis “replacing” Roy as the archer in the team- this team didn’t mind too much so Jason got along with them better) probably felt that way and didn’t warm up to Jason too quickly and kind of gave him dirty looks when Dick wasn’t looking. By the time they realized their mistake, Jason would have passed away. Conner losing someone for the first time and trying to act fine but then breaks down in his room privately because he doesn’t want to be seen.

I feel like Jason and Conner would be good friends. Like, Conner is the quiet type and Jason I think is considered an extrovert. And because Jason is Nightwing’s “little bro” Conner decides to humor him and listen to what he’s saying. Jason had high grades in school(his grade average was like a 94%. Even his teacher thought he needed to chill. Lol when you’re so op everybody is jealous) and I think he was super into reading. So because he would read a lot, he was exposed to different lines of thinking and he shared those open minded ideas with Conner because Conner actively listened but also because Conner was too afraid of offending Jason and in turn rubbing Dick the wrong way, so he always listened, nodding and answering when necessary. Pretty soon he found himself talking and debating with Jason and reading the things that Jason recommended.

This is what got Conner to unfortunately break up with Megan (m'gann??). Because Conner was exposed to these ideas that Lobotomy was wrong and that all people have certain rights, even though they may be trash, inequality, violence, rape??(Jason ran into a few incidents with rape victims during his run as Robin so maybe he vented to Conner instead of Bruce because of Bruce’s no kill rule and Bruce can sometimes be a brick wall), laws, psychology, philosophy, etc.

This is what got Conner thinking about what Megan was doing and confronting her about it. Then being strong enough to break up with the person he was the most closest to and had been with him his whole life because he knew what she was doing was wrong and was strong enough not to ignore it.

I feel like this says a lot about him and it would develop his character. Because at the very beginning, he was this guy with rage issues who didn’t like to listen to people. Then, once his rage issues slowly decreasing, he obediently follows orders or suggestions(or politely declines??? Season 2 his birthday he declines going out with that other chick??? I don’t remember am I just making things up??) and becomes much more easy to approach and nicer. Lessening his ego to ask Canary to teach him how to fight properly and later happily sparring with Aqualad in season 1.

Near the middle of season 2 he has “the talk” with Megan (but his break up was during the time skip…he still took suggestion and orders seriously tho like how he should read previous reports of missions to increase his general and battle field knowledge) which shows that despite being obedient to his what the league tells him and to his peers who have lived much longer than him and generally know what’s best, he can still think on his own and isn’t a “yes-man” to everybody.

I also feel like Megan and Conner getting back together destroyed the whole character development in a sense because when people recall their relationship, they will probably glaze over why they broke up in the first place. Usually saying things like, “oh yeah and they broke up for two seconds and got back together again”.

Even though at the beginning I was all for the two to be together, I think it was good that they showed an actual break up because that happens in life. You can both love each other with all your hearts and still not be “meant to be”.

I didn’t like how quickly Megan got with Lagoon boy but honestly I’m glad because then I wouldn’t have to barf through them flirty and finally getting together so I kind of appreciate it in a sense. Doesn’t mean I like it, but still.

And although I don’t like Lagoon boy either, I was hoping that he would stay together with Megan. I didn’t like that she broke it off. Even though Conner may have been right about the “rebound guy” part, that didn’t mean she had to break it off. It would have been nice to see her have a healthy relationship after a break up. That’s something that’s kind of rare in most tv dramas. Or maybe I just wanted to have a sure fire way to make sure Conner and Megan didn’t get back together again.

I would also like to commend Megan for acknowledging her mistakes and apologizing to Conner for it. (Although it took jacking up and fixing Aqualad’s brains to do it. )

Well this post went in a completely different direction then what I expected. So this is what a 180 looks like. I have no regrets. These are my headcannons. This is my life and these are my choices. I bet like no one is gonna read this because it is so long…… I’m sorry. I don’t know how to do the thing with the read more button and it cuts off a fourth in.