#this took like an hour to write SDLGHRI

[squish--squash]

TGCF THOUGHTS!!!!! I‘M LISTENING

I just woke up 7 minutes ago but TIME TO RAMBLE!!!

Tgcf is the best thing I ever accidentally stumbled upon I stg! Back in late November- the last day of my Thanksgiving break actually, it was a Friday- I wanted to watch Pacific Rim. Pretty sure I'd seen it once as a kid, but I have no memory of what it was about, so I wanted to rewatch it because I heard it was pretty good. And so I decided to check Netflix for it first because I don't go on Netflix a lot it could've been on there idk lmao And that's when I saw the donghua; a scene from the first episode was playing (the scene where Xie Lian sees a wraith butterfly for the first time and Ling Wen contacted him immediately afterward) at the top of my screen because I think it was recommended for me since I was watching anime and another donghua last time I was on Netflix. Anyways, I temporarily forgot about looking up Pacific Rim because the animation in that scene looked so fucking PRETTY and Xie Lian's voice sounded so soft and gentle, and the synopsis Netflix gave me sounded pretty interesting, so I just sat there in my bed like "oh my god, I'm going to check this out after the movie"

And that's exactly what I did after finding the movie on smth else and watching it (it was pretty good ig, not my genre of movie tho). But because I'd watched a movie I didn't remember the synopsis, and so honestly, I was very confused watching the first couple of episodes. I barely understood what was going on lmao- and then THE scene from episode two played and I was like "hUH???"

Because it was the most romantic thing I've seen in a WHILE and at that point I realized I was watching a donghua, not an anime, and didn't think censorship laws would've been able to show lgbt+ relationships and so I was there thinking "Okay that was so romantic, wow, uh... That had to be unintentional, though, right?" The fact that I was still confused about the plot and what was going on didn't help me in this situation because I know for a fact if I'd knew what was going on there would've been NO WAY I could've just brushed that scene off the way I did.

It luckily didn't take me too long after that to suddenly remember the synopsis and realize that THE scene introduced the other main character, and I started understanding everything so much better after remembering that. I was still kind of confused though because holy shit why are there so many fruity moments, it drove me up the wall because I still thought it was all unintentional lmao

Don't worry though! I figured it on episode five! It went like this: It's the scene where Xie Lian asks about Hua Cheng in the Spiritual Communication Array and finally learns his name and is like "oh that suits him :)" and it just cuts to a close-up of Ling Wen looking distressed as FUCK. I think that cut is so sudden and her expression looks so funny that it distracts me from what Xie Lian just said and I'm like "omg, I need to take a screenshot of this". HOWEVER! Netflix doesn't let you screenshot, so I googled Heaven Official's Blessing to see if it was available anywhere else. And as I looked at the search result my eyes caught the review tab on the right of my screen, and I catch a word because it's in all caps. The word was "LGBT", and when my eyes locked onto it I stopped everything and went "..... HOLD THE FUCK UP-"

Three reviews and an additional google search later, I'm literally losing my shit because OH MY GOD I DIDN'T THINK IT WAS BL BUT IT WAS, WHAT?!"

And I'm so glad I found out early on in that episode because it's literally the same episode as the ox cart scene, and I think I would have died if I was still playing ignorant at that point lmao- and after screaming to all of my friends about accidentally watching something lgbt without realizing one of my friends knew exactly what I was watching and so I went into his dms and reacted to the rest of the first season to him. It was so fun lmao, and I got done watching it at like 2am or smth so that meant the ending got me me emotional than it probably should have laskdh

I enjoyed the donghua so, so much. I'm not going to lie, there was some point very early on where I genuinely considered quitting because I was becoming too confused about what was going on, but I decided to stay and that's when I remembered the synopsis. And I'm so glad I stayed because it was so good!! The animation and character designs were so nice, and the music during a lot of scenes were almost breathtaking. AND DON'T GET ME STARTED ON THE STORY-

So after finding out there was a manhua- OH MY GOD WAIT A NEW CHAPTER CAME OUT THIS MORNING- I binged all of the available chapters in a single day on that following Saturday literally just after binging the donghua (It was a fortunate time to do it too, the artist had been taking a break for complete the next volume so and started updating again not too long after I binged what all I could read). And the manhua about took me out because the romantic moments were even more romantic and everything looked SO PRETTY. It was also very similar to the donghua, although there were definitely some details that were different. I found it really interesting.

After that, I heard that the og source of the series was a series of novels, but I was honestly on the fence about reading them because I didn't know where to find an English translation. So that Sunday I kinda just searched for tgcf content online and was very happy to get some. Sure, I might've spoiled a couple details like what the ring really was (I didn't get it the first time I watched the donghua because it was literally early morning when I saw the last episode), and it was after learning these little tidbits that I caved and decided that yeah I was going to try and read the novels.

And so I found an online source of the entire series (minus the extra chapters) and started reading that Monday at home. I immediately started enjoying it even though it was the first time I was consuming the same story (the first two arcs, at least). It got to the point that on that Wednesday I decided to pull up the website on my phone and read at school too, because the last two periods I'm a library ta and get some free time to read, and quickly got into territory that I hadn't seen in either the donghua or manhua.

Ngl some parts confused me again but it was GOOD, it was GREAT.

Like book 1 was fun and the way it left on a cliffhanger to perfectly begin the flashback that book 2 is. Also, book 2 hurt like a bitch even though it was shorter. Book 3 picked up off from book 1 perfectly, and was so enjoyable because both the plot and romance had really picked up and I was losing it. And then book 4 came around, and despite it being the shortest novel in the series it fucking ripped my heart out and spared it no mercy. You think book 2 is painful and that it can't get worse but then you read book 4 and it gets worse. IT'S WORTH IT THOUGH! Because the final novel, book 5, is AMAZING. So many sweet moments, so many moments of laughter, and quite a few tears- and this is coming from someone who never spills tears over books or shows, yet I was reading that last book with watery eyes and two steps away from crying because the ending chapters AHHHHHH

I finished the novel series in about a week. I honestly want to reread it because I know there were a lot of bits that went over my head the first time (such as somehow not realizing the Yong'an in the Ban Yue arc is THE Yong'an idk how that escaped me!). I've also rewatched the donghua a couple of times (and I realized something really amazing with the character designs my second time through; gods and ghosts have pupils that are more slitted, while humans have round pupils!!!) and I reread the manhua right before it came off hiatus with my laptop's nightlight off to appreciate the true beauty of it alsdghas

Anyways I actually have to go, but anon feel free to ask me more! I know I didn't actually get into the characters or plot because I wanted to avoid any possible spoilers aldkg, but if you want to know more just send me more asks about it or dm me! I'll be happy to ramble (when I have time, ofc... I started back school today augh)