#zhang jue (not really??)

[astarlightmonbebe]

the ep 15 post-breakup arc was crazy. we had lan jue dabbling in faking evidence while being haunted by his dark side in the form of a xuanji hallucination and his conscience is the form of zhang ping's cat, while zhang ping nearly died and then did the post-breakup trip home to recover.

[circumference-pie]

Zhang Ping, about to be in mortal danger: Is Lan-daren here yet

Me: *aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa*

[avicebro]

this is the funniest line up ever, bazett please

[zeravmeta]

don quixote fgo is just so good, he is such a hopeful character and i absolutely think he's the standout from traum

what really strikes me about him is that traum is a story dedicated to broken ideals and unfulfilled dreams: the major players of each faction are all characters with failed ambitions and who wage war against panhuman history to achieve those dreams. kriemhild wants revenge on siegfried even after killing hagen, komstantinos wants to remake his old empire, johanna abhors that she is a living fictional character and wants to become a real person, all the nameless servants from each faction are dedicated to rebel not only because of zhang jue's influence but because they all, in some form, had unfinished business, dreams they never fulfilled. this even extends to moriarty himself, a younger version who's fixated on defeating holmes because his older version could not, and he follows through on it because he did not really understand the value of his own nemesis, a fact that ultimately left him defeated no matter how much he tried to control fate. All of these characters refused to face the reality of their failures, and honestly don quixote was the most guilty of this

he was originally a servant summoned in the atlantean lostbelt, and genuinely did try to rally heroes, but as he saw these legendary figures he adored be struck down he lost hope. it wasn't just that he was afraid, it was that the heroes around himself had given up even before him, a craven old man.

the thing is though that the reason don quixote and sancho ran is antithetical to the reasons that the other servants ran: they did it specifically to survive. sancho was able to convince don quixote to leave because she reminded him that it wasn't wrong or evil to want to live, and this was only possible because don quixote, despite being a servant, still thinks of himself as being human. even though he consciously understands himself as being a servant, his way of thinking and reasoning is undeniably that of a normal human

A big part of his too is that traum is also a singularity in which the names of heroic spirits have lost their meaning: the sheer volume of servants means that there is no singular standout hero, sure, but when kriemhild killed the lancer who was about to declare his name she called him merely a foot soldier because said name was worthless, in traum there is only the endless war of people slaughtering each other, and ironically a unifying peace in that.

names are the linchpins of heroic spirits: servants aren't the ghosts of dead people, they're the manifestations of what those legends meant to humanity, all codified by the names they carry. servants have to name themselves and have names for their noble phantasms which directly identify them because they are literal living legends. Yet in traum, those names and legends and meanings become all but worthless in the face of endless war as armies of these protectors of humanity are reduced to mere foot soldiers. there is a similar parallel to this when vlad goes to the righteous realm, and as he sees the army gathered he finds it entirely lacking because it's fully composed of singular standout heroes who are all used to essentially being the main character and thus cant function as a unit. Traum is a world where being a hero has no meaning.

but i think that's also why don quixote declares himself against konstantinos and challenged him: in this moment, he reclaimed the value of being a knight who fights for his ideals, that of a true hero

konstantinos throughout traum is presented as equally a legendary figure as charlemagne is, and yet his reason for fighting is incredibly simple: he's in love with johanna and wants to make her real to panhuman history, and to this end he'll continue the war in traum as needed for that end. kriemhild has an equal but opposite reason rooted in the same thing: love. she wants revenge against siegfried for having gone through with hagens plan, for not letting her in to his pain, he was too much of a hero for everyone that it led him to sacrificing himself even if it would hurt her. konstantinos wanted to be the perfect knight, and kriemhild wanted to get revenge against her own knight for being too perfect.

The thing is, despite their insistence on traum being the cruel reality of a war, both of them were holding onto rather idealized, almost romanticized versions of what a knight should be.

konstantinos knows and declares don quixote as being likely the most famous knight to have ever lived, but he dismisses him as a threat when actually fighting him. When he's about to finish him, he tells don quixote that he has to face reality as he's about to die. However, the story of don quixote was always that of an old man whom lost himself to his fantasies of chivalry and knightly idealism, and despite the troubles he caused still continued to fight for what he believed was honorable. Even if he had returned to reality in the end, there was still meaning to the outright silly journey of an old man knight long past the age of chivalry, of the old man who, despite his fear, still chose to rally an army and fight for the world he felt he had failed.

what traum needed was someone who did good not as a hero but as a human. almost every knightly character in fate carries grand ideals as to why they are knights, but the only requirement to BE a knight and a hero is the simple desire to do good for others, and don quixote is fittingly the most famous knight in the world because he's utterly obsessed with the great chivalric legends of old, yet still strived to do good in the way normal people do.

it's why charlie finds him so inspiring, as well

for all the non-extella link players, charlemagne as we see him in fgo is actually the fictionalized version of him from the tales of the paladins of charlemagne and not the actual karl der Große. He's even more fictionalized than johanna and don quixote himself, because while johanna might have been an erroneous account and don quixote a story book character, charlemagne is a full on sensationalized re-imagining of an already real person. but even if he may be a fictionalized person, what he represents is what matters the most, the same with any heroic spirit, which is why charlemagne considers johanna just as real and why the actual karl der Große saw fit to send him to traum

at the center of traum we ultimately find wakamori, who despite seeming cruel and mysterious throughout the entire plot, has shown multiple times that he's essentially trying to fill in bigger shoes than he can: He's obsessed with defeating sherlock and presenting himself as the ultimate evil, but he's still green at the end of the day, and I think this is in part what leads him to somewhat even respect don quixote

when he tries to taunt don quixote, he does so with the assumption that much like himself, don quixote is attempting to play the part he represents most: don quixote is surely trying to be the greatest most idealized version of a knight, the same way wakamori is trying to be the perfected version of himself, the true evil mastermind whom can finally defeat sherlock. But don quixote flat out tells him that conflict and even life itself has always had no inherent meaning nor any inherent roles to play, so much in the same way that he has no special value to his life tied to being a knight, wakamori's own value is not tied specifically to that of being sherlock holmes' greatest evil rival. There's a surprising empathy in this exchange I feel, because don quixote understands wakamori immediately where it took sherlock the entire story: there's nothing wrong with being a little delusional, but you have to treat them with respect.

wakamori ultimately fails because he believed that defeating sherlock would finally give value to james moriarty as the ultimate villain, unaware that sherlock holmes is the defining equal to james moriarty. there is no purpose to a story with an evil mastermind that doesn't have an equally great hero trying to stop him, and wakamori failing to understand that his own value as such is not diminished by not having ever defeated holmes is what ruins him: He didn't respect the story he was so enthralled by. shinjuku showcased a similar dynamic, but the difference between shinjuku and traum is that the older moriarty very much understood what it would take to succeed, and that would be to become the protagonist of the story, rather than the ultimate final boss.

the stories of knights and heroes and monsters and spurned loves and great detectives and evil masterminds are all in part defined by the meanings that people derive from them, from the ordinary good that they can inspire first and foremost. And even though don quixote may have been a craven old man who eventually gave up chivalry, he still tried to live a good life and do good the way any ordinary person would.

And that's such a genuinely hopeful and kind sentiment to tie to the concept of knightly ideals: you don't have to be grand to be a hero, and you don't even have to be a hero to inspire others.

[ryin-silverfish]

In Qin Opera (秦腔), one motif that often turns up in operas telling mythical or legendary is immortals "releasing their taboos"/"破戒" when they seek to work destructive magic. The immortal or sage will indulge in meat and concentrated wine, as opposed to the vegetarian diet they consumed before, and then engage in forbidden arts. Lu Ya does it in the opera adaptation of FSYY, when he curses Zhao Gongming with his seven arrows. Zhao Gongming's three sisters do it too when they summon their Yellow River Formation. (representing "nine twists" of the large intestine, but also used as a euphemism for uterus, as seen in the ten gods of Nuwa's Guts/女娲之肠 in the Shanhaijing) In another adaptation of a legend, Sun Wu does it to scourge some ghost women haunting him. Is there any Daoist religious or folk belief basis for this motif from the operas?

Very interesting!

In Daoist canons, you can't really find much support for such a thing——when priests are about to work powerful magic, they'd be doing the opposite: keeping a vegetarian diet and maintain purity in body and mind.

However, if I were to haphazard a guess? It probably has sth to do with the folk magic belief of "pollution" (meat, wine, pungent vegetables) and "dirty stuff" having a sort of power all to themselves, as well as being able to neutralize spells and the powers of supernatural beings.

You see this in the novel proper, where black chicken + dog blood and buckets of excrements are employed by Jiang Ziya against the peachwood and willow spirits, Gao Ming and Gao Jue, to "subdue their demonic aura" (Chapter 90).

Gao Lanying also tried and failed to use the same mixture against Yang Jian to neutralize his transformation arts, and was tricked into killing Zhang Kui's aging mother instead (Chapter 86).

The second thing I can think of is that, in FSYY novel, the 12 immortals of the Chan sect are joining the war because it is part of their "Peril", the consequences for failing to sever the Three Corpses and violating prohibitions.

And when they were about to kill people, they'd often voice that first: "this disciple is going to break his prohibition against killing today" et cetera.

Which...isn't as relevant, but might have been an inspiration for the overt on-stage performance of taboo-breaking.

As always, I cannot speak on the opera part, but from a folk magic perspective? My speculation is:

the immortals breaking their prohibitions against taboos in adaptations seems like an intentional subversion of the regular Daoist rituals of purification, where the dangerous and harmful effects produced by the "taboo" substance is channeled away from the caster and towards some other target.

[finalfantasyx]

Thoughts on Dashing Youth - Blood of Youth

I HAVE THOUGHTS AFTER FINISHING BOTH DRAMAS. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen them.

First things first: I heard of The Blood of Youth when it first came out and have had it on my backburner to-watch list for a long time, but I never got around to it. H O W E V E R, I didn't hear peep about Dashing Youth until it was airing and youtube threw it into my face. Dashing Youth automatically got bumped to the top of my watchlist because I will die before I miss a period/xianxia/wuxia drama starring Neo Hou, just saying.

Ergo, I watched Dashing Youth before I watched The Blood of Youth while thinking, "huh why does every drama have [Shao Nian] in its name nowadays?" only to find out later when I was watching the first few episodes that it was the PREQUEL to The Blood of Youth when my mom walked past and casually asked what this was because the names that were mentioned were in The Blood of Youth (she watched it a while back and recommended it; she's been right on the money so far with good recs--Mysterious Lotus Casebook was also hers and both of these dramas ended up on my top 3 favorite dramas list). A quick google search later told us as much.

That meant I had no context to the world we would be in for the next 80 episodes prior to watching Dashing Youth, and I had no idea who these people were and what would happen to them in The Blood of Youth (which, thank goodness. I would have been in tears the entire time if I watched it the other way around).

To begin--Dashing Youth sucked.

I said what I said; Neo Hou couldn't save this one. The story was bad, the CGI was...not great, and the pacing was THE WORSTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. The *only* thing the producers got right were the characters, because those were A+ spot on. Neo Hou and Xia Zhi Guang and He Yu were SO GREAT in this, and Zhang Chen Xiao was a welcome familiar face after Cang Lan Jue.

Side plug, did y'all know there was a scrapped romance subplot between Dongfang Xunfeng and Dan Yin in Cang Lan Jue??? I am so angry; we could have had all the good things, but no, we're not allowed.

I also absolutely adored the other disciples of Jixia Academy, Baili Dongjun's shixiongs. Lei Mengsha, oh my GOD he was so funny and I laughed every. single. time. he did his gremlin laugh on screen. The others also really grew on me, like...hold on, let me check my notes.../looks at scribbles on hand

The da shixiong who showed up for one arc and like two episodes, after which he was dropped like a sack of potatoes and never seen agani, third shixiong--the sword one with the badass wedding arc in the beginning who we don't care about, the fourth shixiong--Liu Yue, the pretty one, the fifth shixiong--the "ugly" (??? he wasn't???) one who I'm not convinced isn't in some sort of relationship with Liu Yue, the sixth shixiong--the music one whom we know nothing about--OOOH OOOH OOH I KNOW THIS ONE, the seventh shixiong--Prince Langya, Xiao Ruofeng!

Yikes. I wish the show would do these characters more justice, because the actors did GREAT in bringing them to life only to have them nuked because of screentime restrictions and lack of dialogue if they weren't Lei Mengsha, Liu Yue, or Xiao Ruofeng. I literally have the most barebone ideas of who they are. And even Liu Yue got nuked later on. Ugh.

Speaking of characters, I really loved Yue Yao and her drive to do what was right as the story progressed. She was so interesting when she decided to take charge of things instead of letting them happen to her, and then LOOK WHAT THE PRODUCERS DID WITH HER. Sidelined her and made her arm candy to Baili Dongjun when they could have been a badass fighting couple. A N D based on the timeline we got in the drama, they were together for like seven years and you're telling me they didn't get married until post-drama??? I don't believe you~

I literally powered through this drama, though credit must be given for the soundtrack, which I thought was overall better than The Blood of Youth's (save for a few songs, but I would sooner listen to the full OST for Dashing Youth without skipping songs than The Blood of Youth).

There was a lot of story and a lot of characters to cram into this drama so that it would set up for The Blood of Youth properly, which was by then a very established drama. Retconning is a nightmare, but the producers and screenwriters somehow MADE A PREQUEL WORSE because there were a lot of details and characters that dragged on for too long, took up too much screentime for NO purpose whatsoever (like Baili Dongjun learning the sword and dao technique that he maybe used like once?), and then caused the rest of the actually important details that need to set up The Blood of Youth to be SUPER rushed.

The pacing. Dear GOD, the pacing. If your drama requires multiple voice-over timeskip cuts, you're doing it WRONG (see: shoving in the Four Guardians of Tianqi without actually letting us see this badass team interact even once...nuking the seven disciples of Jixia Academy while then bringing back Liu Yue and Mo Xiao Hei at the end to fight Nanjue with Lei Mengsha ALSO without actually letting us see them together and then saying that they went back to jianghu after the battle without mentioning how Lei Mengsha died while fighting Nanjue in The Blood of Youth...how on earth Li Hanyi became the second City Master when Sikong Changfeng was explicitly namedropped by Luo Shui, the previous City Master of Xueyue...I could keep going).

This is bad writing at its finest and I am angry that the drama turned out this way when source material was actually so good.

--Then, The Blood of Youth.

This drama was everything Dashing Youth wanted and tried to be, but even with a template in front of them, they still managed to get it wrong. The audacity and freedom and shackles of youth, the adventure and the beginnings of romance, the court politics and the complexity of jianghu--The Blood of Youth did it RIGHT, and with excellent pacing and development.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

All in all with Traum? It's...honestly I'm gonna say it. It's Apocrypha 2.

The good parts of Higashide's writing come through here. He's great at creating cool scenes where the servants get to show their stuff (if he respects the characters, we'll get to this). Astolfo vs Tametomo and Roland's scenes are great, and even though there are issues with Johanna as a character she has some genuinely well-written moments. Even Don Quixote has his time in the spotlight which you wouldn't expect.

But the bad parts are really present. If Higashide does not seem to care about a character, they're just going to die or be killed offscreen. Salome's entire presence in the lostbelt is bait, she doesn't really join you and literally just gets sniped by Sugitani. Sugitani themselves only show up TWICE in the entire Lostbelt: the scene where they shoot Salome and the scene at the end where she takes a shot at Zhang Jue, who doesn't die and instantly kills them in response. The reveal that Sugitani was working to destroy the Lostbelt the whole time has no weight to it because they've not shown up ever! They don't even know who we are. It's the weirdest Chekov's Gun ever.

Zhang Jue himself is a very weird case where he's technically quite important but he doesn't really do anything particularly interesting. He just sort of "dies" a couple of times, and then it's revealed he's been dead the whole time and probably made the entire singularity? But this is narrated to us by Moriarty and we don't see it or hear it from Zhang Jue because again he's...dead, kind of. It just feels weird, it feels like we should have a climatic final battle but uh...we never do.

Kriemhild...*sigh* I'm not going to go into detail on this. It's bad writing, it's really bad. It's a sudden character reversal with no real build-up or foreshadowing or...anything. It destroys every aspect of her character and leaves behind only "Siegfried's wife" which at this point, I guess I should expect from Higashide. Maybe he is a misogynist.

With the possible exception of Xu Fu, literally EVERY female character in this lostbelt is defined by their relationship to a man in some way. Some of it is obviously pre-established like Bradamante or Kiyohime, but once you get to "Johanna and Constantine XI are in love" you just kind of hope it dies in this singularity. Johanna is a cool character outside of this, and if this fucking envelops her character from here on out I'm gonna be pissed.

I don't have any strong feelings about the Holmes reveal, I do think it's funny that its foreshadowed quite early on, but it comes from a fairly logical place. It's a bitttt silly but honestly not the worst thing in the world.

[discountalien-pancake]

A League of Nobleman [sic] is compulsively watchable and also so unsettling, 9/10 ⭐️ would watch again

This kind of turned into an essay, so my non-spoilery thoughts are under the cut.

The Good:

Cinematography was unparalleled. Truly. I praised it before but I have to praise it again. The lighting choices were so good. The way they made the atmosphere early on feel so heavy and almost claustrophobic. Only a handful of scenes were too dark, but even then it didn’t totally detract from the storytelling. The way you couldn’t quite tell right away whether some scenes were dream sequences because of the lens work. The way characters were framed by doorways and windows and lighting and literal theatrical stages. I could go on all day.

And holy shit the acting. The performances are so good and the cinematography really allows every actor to shine. Chen Chou is played by the same actor who played Lan Jingyi in the Untamed and it’s like night and day. Don’t get me wrong, Jingyi was one of my favorite characters in The Untamed, but even though Chen Chou similarly is mostly comic relief in this, his performance feels more restrained, more believable, more rounded. Mental breakdowns in other cdramas often feel so artificial and over the top. In this show, even when the degree of madness starts to strain narrative believability and veer into melodrama, the way it’s portrayed is magnetic. And one of the characters spends 99% of their screentime just sitting and smiling sinisterly but it’s terrifying. Everyone in the show is terrified of them and when you see them and the way they carry themself and the way they speak, you completely understand.

The writing combined with the acting and cinematography makes you willing to suspend your disbelief. That seems like such a low bar, and yet. This show manages to balance the unbelievable magic and sorcery and mysticism with grounded, logical explanations but in such a way that the fantastical still works within this world. Is it magic? Is it trickery? Is it science? It ties in perfectly with the recurring theme of fake vs real.

Another point regarding the writing is that the characters skills don’t exist just to make them more attractive or badass. A lot of period cdramas have a habit of giving the main character some kind of Quirky Hobby at the beginning that is all but forgotten as the story progresses. Talents don’t actually matter to the plot, they’re only there to make the character talented. This show doesn’t do that!

Zhang Ping is a street vendor who makes noodles. The plot doesn’t have anything to do with food—it’s a detective drama with supernatural elements and an overarching conspiracy mystery. The street-vending doesn’t matter almost at all to the plot. But it matters to the storytelling. Hardly an episode goes by without Zhang Ping putting homemade food in front of someone he cares about. Food is how he shows affection. Tired? Sick? Depressed? He will make you food about it. Sometimes it’s played for laughs but there’s more than one scene where it’s a real punch in the feels.

Lan Jue can perfectly copy anyone’s handwriting. Forgery is one of the first ethically questionable things we see him do in the show, and in another show it might just be left at that. But in this one it is completely entangled with his backstory and motivations. It’s so well-integrated that you might not realize it right away when you get to the scene that explains how he came to have that skill. And it once again ties into the theme of real vs fake.

Every single character, no matter how minor, is treated with so much love and care by the storytelling. A lot of dramas treat minor characters as just plot devices. That’s not the case here. Every character has their own realistic motives and narrative continuity even if they’re only in one or two episodes. The show doesn’t just forget characters until they’re plot relevant (*cough*TheUntamed*cough*) and it doesn’t just senselessly slaughter all the characters for the melodrama (*cough*WordOfHonor*cough*). Characters who have a role to play in the overarching plot have frequent appearances and Do Things. They’re not just accessories to the main characters. No one feels like a caricature! Not even the silly bonkers old mentor figure who only shows up for like four episodes!

In terms of production value, the costumes were beautiful. They were not particularly elaborate or heavily embellished, but they felt so believable. The movement. The color symbolism. The literal physical weight of the clothes echoing the weight of their consciences. The fact that the extras were dressed with just as much care. You don’t get Main Character Costuming Syndrome with this show, which so many period cdramas are guilty of. I just love that they let the beautiful fabric and craftsmanship do the work. The textures are subdued but beautiful and there’s nothing that breaks immersion.

None of the props have that plasticky or Fake look. Weapons actually look like they’ll cut something! Gemstones don’t look like gumdrops (*cough*WhoRulesTheWorld*cough*)! And the masks! There are a number of masks in the show that are just so cool. The designs are sleek and simple and so aesthetic, none of that fancy filigree domino mask from Amazon crap that does literally nothing to hide the wearer’s identity. These masks completely obscure the actors’ faces, because they really don’t want you to know who is behind them. You can guess and you might even get it right but you won’t know until the characters reveal the truth.

And then there’s the books. Oh my god they must have spent so much of the props budget on all of the manuscripts and scrolls and books. The BINDINGS on them. Literally exquisite. Much of the plot has to do with the imperial examination system, either directly or tangentially, so they’ve got their noses in books and manuscripts for a significant portion of the show. The delicacy of the writing paper and the way it flutters on the desk when a breeze passes? The heft of the official documents? The way old, decaying manuscripts look brittle? The way Zhang Ping’s most beloved novels clearly look worn but are in such good condition despite how often he has read them?

Messy, grounded, weighty fight scenes. This show is fantasy, but it’s no xianxia or wuxia—if you want wirework you aren’t going to get it. There’s no fancy spinning just for the sake of spinning. Half of the fights end in the characters grappling or getting bashed in the head with a stick or rock. The fights are fights. They’re not there to be eye-candy. Everyone has a realistic level of ability and way of fighting that matches their personalities. The two scholars don’t just randomly have martial arts. Nobody is able to fly over a wall. There are no cheat codes. The fact that the physical limitations are so consistent actually makes the supernatural elements feel more real to me, in the sense that no matter what bonkers shit is happening in-universe, there must be a logical explanation. A lot of fantasy just handwaves things with “it’s magic!” And this show could easily have done that and made it work but it chose not to.

You don’t get those classic cdrama Hidden Villain shots from behind of the BBEG consulting with his cronies. You keep heading about the mastermind from the minor villains and victims, but the scope of knowledge is limited to what the characters themselves are able to learn or remember. Which means that when a character guesses something incorrectly, we’re on the same page and we’re not left banging our heads out of frustration that the answer is obviously something else.

Everything combined means the world and characters all feel so real. I hardly have to put in any effort to suspend my disbelief. So many shows do this smoke and mirrors routine of ‘we’re done with that now, don’t look too hard’ while this one feels like it’s almost daring me to look harder.

The Not Great:

I’ll be blunt, there is some pretty typical cdrama racism. It’s not a lot, but it’s there. The southern kingdom’s armies are depicted in a typical ‘savage’ aesthetic, though you really only see them in one episode and they’re fighting in a dense forest. There’s also the Hidden Ethnic Tribe With Mystic Powers, though this is not quite what it seems and I don’t hate it the way I do in some other shows/stories.

If a lack of female protagonists is a dealbreaker for you, you’re not going to like this. But if you gushed about The Untamed and complain about the lack of female characters in this I’m probably going to give you some bombastic side-eye. It’s a danmei and it’s going to be a long while before they fix the genre’s gender balance.

The editing. Specifically the censorship. A lot of the episodes are barely over 30 minutes long, including the ending credits. Most people speculate that it was in order to No Homo the two male leads, and this definitely did happen, but I think a bit of it was also political. Some of the messaging in the show is a little on the nose regarding corruption and a government’s responsibility towards its citizens. But yeah there’s like 10 minutes of material that got cut out of almost every episode. There’s literally like, 2 hours of missing footage. Which is Not Great! It doesn’t impact the plot, mostly, so you’ll still get a great story and sense-making progression. But it does really dampen the relationship development between the two leads. Even then, they did an amazing job with what screentime they were allowed. And there is a slightly bonkers re-dub in the last episode. I wouldn’t have necessarily realized it was a re-dubbed line if I hadn’t seen mention of it in another user’s post but it still sticks out as Very Weird in a show that until then was very coherently written. It’s very obvious in hindsight though, because they literally cut away in the middle of the character’s line delivery.

This show is based on a book that was not originally a danmei, and I don’t think it adheres to that book very closely (granted, I haven’t read it and won’t be reading it). But for some baffling reason they decided to keep two particular details the could have been cut without making any difference at all to the show itself. It almost feels like they’re just there to act as a No Homo. You’ll know them when you get to them, and trust me they won’t impact the show at all. You’ll just sort of. Be baffled.

The fucking English title.

The Neutral:

The genre of this is hard to pinpoint. I’ve definitely watched things like it before but if you asked me to name one I wouldn’t be able to tell you. It’s kind of horror, but also not. It’s definitely fantasy, but whether low or high is kind of impossible to say. I like that about it, but others might want something more clear-cut. I think that regardless of how it’s classified, the show did a great job of being what it is.

Culturally-specific references. The most important one in particular does get explained in-show, but if you’re not familiar with it, you won’t understand right away why everyone in the scene is so shocked. Name symbolism and poetry and calligraphy are among the other things that might go over your head, but generally speaking the show does a good job of explaining everything that is necessary for plot. Anything unexplained is just additional flavor.

In typical asian drama fashion, this show is a complete story in one season. It’s 29 episodes long and due to cutting is a bit abnormally short. I love the One Season, One Story format but for western audiences this might be a weird adjustment. It means the story has to have a clear ending in mind which keeps the pacing and plotting more coherent than in a lot of western shows that just limp their way to the finish line once funding runs out (*cough*SPN*cough*). Which isn’t to say that all one-season shows end well, but it i find it preferable to have an ending in sight. You’re less concerned about a show being canceled before the plot is resolved (*cough*Lockwood&Co*cough*).

It’s Very Polycule. There is no OTP. There is a slight rivalry and implied jealousy between Zhang Ping and one of Lan Jue’s other boyfriends, but he doesn’t have any such beef with Lan Jue’s other boyfriend and Lan Jue has no objection to Zhang Ping’s close friendships either. But even though I truly, wholeheartedly ship Zhang Ping and Lan Jue, I still enjoy the dynamics they have with other characters. I never felt annoyed at the supporting love interests for “getting in the way” because they…don’t. I can’t say much more without getting spoilery but there is only one vertex of the Love Shape who actually wants to interfere and get between the two leads. I found this to be very enjoyable but if you strongly desire a clear-cut OTP or enjoy dramatic jealousy/misunderstanding arcs, this probably isn’t for you. Yes, there is a midseason breakup, but it’s for other reasons.

Anyway I am now obsessed. I’m gonna wait a bit and rewatch to try and pick up on more of the moments that got cut subtle details.

[thedramabinger]

Reset (开端)

My consistency atm is not bad with writing reviews aha. This show I’ve rewatched, I don't even know how many times, maybe like 4 times. It’s literally one of my favourite shows and if you continue reading you’ll know why!! I fell in love with Bai Jing Ting and Zhao Jin Mai from this series, and I’ve watched almost everything with these two in it. Cause wow, they are such good actors!! Going into this show for the first time, I think I wanted a time-loop show because I just finished watching Marry My Husband and was looking for something with good time travel and I came across the show, and just wow. My review for this show won’t follow the same layout I usually do, since it’s not romance based! 

My Rating: 10/10

Episodes: 15

Country: China

Genre: Thriller, Sci-Fi, Mystery

Aired: Jan 11th, 2022 - Jan 25th, 2022

Cast:

Bai Jing Ting as Xiao He Yun

Zhao Jin Mai as Li Shi Qing

Liu Yi Jun as Zhang Cheng

Huang Jue as Wang Xing De

Liu Dan as Tao Ying Hong

Zeng Ke Lang as Lu Di

Zhang Xi Qian as Ma Guo Qiang

Leon Li as Jiang Feng

Liu Tao as Du Jing Song

Synopsis (according to MDL):

An unexplainable phenomena finds college-going student, Li Shi Qing, trapped in a never-ending time loop where she is always stuck on a public service bus which is due to explode, bringing death and destruction to not only herself but to all on board.

Desperate to find a way to escape not only the time loop but her tragic fate, Shi Qing inadvertently drags fellow bus passenger Xiao He Yun into the time loop as well. Together they try to find a way to alter their fate by ensuring the bus arrives safely at its destination, but attempting to do so proves anything but easy.

Adapted from the web novel "Kai Duan" (开端) by Qi Dao Jun (祈祷君).

How did I feel about the plot?

This show honestly had me on my toes for a while. At one point, I already knew what and who caused the explosion, however, how the show plays out, and how every little detail matters in this show is really well done. I went into this show not expecting much since I’ve seen very little time loop shows/ movies done well, I was pleasantly surprised with how the author wrote this show/ brought together all these little details to help us understand how the story is coming together. From beginning to end I enjoyed this show thoroughly, because of how well put together it was. Time loop plus murder mystery, it's a concept we see a lot in Hollywood media, however, my first time in a Chinese production and it was executed so nicely. I also thoroughly enjoyed seeing the backstories of the other characters on the bus. By the end of the show, it makes you feel more connected with all the characters and you genuinely hope for no one to die. 

Beware of (Some) Spoilers Moving Forward!!!!!! 

The actors portrayals of the character

I could go on and on about how I feel about the acting in this show. My god. The actors, let's give a round of applause to them. *vigorous clapping* LOL. They. just wow. The actors in this show were phenomenal. Let’s start with Bai Jing Ting and Zhao Jin Mai, I have almost no words. These two are wonderful actors, they evoked all the feelings that most people would feel in a situation like this, through their acting. Considering this is a time loop show, a lot of the scenes are done in the same areas (aka on the bus) for the majority of the show. They always show these two actors waking up in the new loop, and every single time, their reactions are different. Sometimes they are significantly different, yet sometimes there are very subtle differences, and that shows how well they understand their characters. Let me just say, the actress who plays Tao Ying Hong, Liu Dan, she’s a gem. Her portrayal of this character was insane (literally), and she does a wonderful job portraying the sorrow and vengeance that her character feels throughout the plot. I, also, want to applaud all the other actors who play the characters on the bus. I felt genuinely connected to all of these characters, one because of the plot but also because of how the actors/ actresses portrayed them. I fell in love with all of them and their stories. 

Reset Review- an invigorating time-loop series worth your time

I gave this show a 10/10. Its rewatch value is off the charts, personally, as I’ve already watched the show like 4 times. The plot was executed well from beginning to end, the actors/ actresses do a wonderful job portraying their characters, even the length of the show is perfect, a good 15 episodes that are emotional, heartbreaking at times, filled with hope, fear, thrilling, and love. It was thrilling from beginning to end, and the 2 main characters' arcs, and how they grow to understand each other more and work together better as the show continues is just wonderful to see! All in all, I recommend this show to anyone who loves time travel/ loop series/ movies, or a good murder mystery. 

[eldritch-bisexual]

My Journey to You: 22

-> The very last scene of 21 gave me a smidge of hope after wanting to hit Jin Fan with a spoon

-> See? It's a sweet scene near the end. This kid is not making it. Good luck next life baby boy.

-> I am enjoying the laying out of plans but each episode is about an hour and there's two and a half to go. #fear

-> The shots of Yuanzhi setting up to protect the Jue house alone are just... *sob*

-> 3 kms of fabric used to make a cape that trails behind Zhang Linghe

-> I will fucking SCREAM if the monk guy kills Yuanzhi. Really. It will be so sexy of them. The angst. The pain. Shangjue can go drown in the bath on purpose then!

-> I guess Shangguan Qian decided to fuck off the moment blades are drawn. Clever. But I imagine she ran to the Jue house, which will most likely lead to her stopping the assassination just in time bc she changed her mind

-> If the Xue kid dies I'll R I O T

-> GUNS! Hua boy made G U N S. He should have gotten the girl.

-> Oh that's why there's so much time left. I thought it would be one or two scenes of "we were hiding from you" but it's several episodes. 100% need to turn off my brain now. Like, it IS entertaining, but it's also really shit storytelling unless they show me cracks in the original story

-> I do love the concept of the Gong unity though

-> YUANZHI WHERE ARE YOUR STEEL MESH GLOVES

-> Hanya Si caught me by surprise. Good for him.

-> Esther is a tall woman, but not NEARLY enough to make "supporting" Zhang Linghe look reasonable. At best she'd be dragging him behind her

-> The guns are fun and all but they're here for the NUKES

-> One death from my list is down! It wasn't in the top 5, though. And it took way too long

-> Fuck yeah Xue kid???? That was. So badass. I love this actor and I love this character too.

[olderthannetfic]

Escapade Dance Party 2023 Writeup 3/3

Second Half

Jaskier has no more fucks to give by Gondolin AMV

Obviously, having just shown the other Witcher, I had to open with the more familiar one.

Vids under 2 minutes also aren't actually danceable no matter the tempo, so this makes a good upbeat intro to a section.

Grandmaster of Troublemaking (The Untamed) by NKZephyr Edits

I love the enthusiasm and goofiness of this vid.

Goncharov (1973) | Read the description! by Etoile

Come on, we had to have Goncharov!

TBH, there were other vids, but basically none of them were danceable.

【HIStory3-圈套】On a daily by Nerjaveika

Trapped's moment seems to have passed, but the combination of great use of text and this fun song made this one a perfect fit.

Ego | AMV | Mo dao zu shi & Heaven Official's Blessing (CC Lyrics) by Nitisha Donghua Productions

I was more looking for Heaven Official's Blessing alone, but most of the options I was finding weren't really danceable. I love this song and was looking for a vid to it anyway.

trouble in my head | lan jue & zhang ping | a league of nobleman by Victoria

I have no clue what this is. I probably found it in the sidebar while searching something else, but it's such a pretty vid.

История Бай Ци (AU, Bai Qi/Shen Zui) by Kemriko

What is this? Who knows. I liked it, and it was m/m, so people got to watch it.

BTS Jhope • Gasolina• |FMV|• by kookie taex

In a concession to how many people the previous song would inevitably chase from the dance floor, I wanted to follow it with something much more booty-shaking. I fucking love Gasolina and am always looking for more vids to it. Tragically, a lot of English-speaking vidding fandom has No Taste and does not vid this kind of music.

Yes, this is a vertical vid of J-Hope dancing to Daddy Yankee. No regrets!

Мания Хирото by Fausthaus

Ah, my favorite source of vids: Russian fandom combats. Are they on AO3? Yes. Have English speakers gone anywhere near their vast stores of battshit content? No, absolutely not.

No one at the con, including me, knows anything about this fandom. Too bad. The music is great, and I wanted to dance to it.

Отступники by fandom Vampires of Central Russia 2021

This is another fandom I spotted in the fandom combats. The vid is shorter than I'd normally show, but I wanted to showcase this interesting vampire fandom that I didn't think most people at Escapade had heard of yet.

Sex and Violence by bironic

Another one breaking my rules. Nandermo was a must-have for a vampire-themed year, but mockumentaries are shot like ass on purpose, and that makes them hard to vid, so my options were limited. Bironic's always a sure thing, if not exactly obscure to an Escapade audience.

Sadly, the embed seems to be dead at the moment.

Sex Drive by Franzeska

Yes, I will always play my own vids when I need to fill a hole in a playlist.

Night Watch was such a passion of mine for a while and the source of my ill-fated attempt to learn Russian. I always meant to go back and add text to this vid to echo the weird subtitles they did for the movie, but I never got around to it. Oh well.

【盾冬衍生】no body no crime 黑暗爽文利刃出鞘兰森/我们一直住在城堡里表哥 by 蜜桃奶霉包

Batshit AUs are my favorite. When I found this, I knew I had to inflict it on everyone.

The Hunger - Say Yes To Heaven by themaybatatter

I had a long list of vampire fandoms, most of which I never did find a vid for, but The Hunger was at the absolute top of my list. After scouring the internet, this was the only arguably danceable vid I could come up with and one of the few in general. What the hell, internet? What the hell?!

“你不了解你的妻子，我吻过她” by 没饭呲了

This would be a lot more danceable if it weren't quite so plastered with show audio… but too bad. As usual, sufficiently horny femslash gets an automatic pass. Everyone swayed vaguely on the edges of the dance floor staring, so I still consider it a success.

【巍澜】这可是极限拉扯的鼻祖！！！ by 甜飞惹

Guardian is another fandom where I'm spoiled for choice, but the Chinese vidders do like to include an awful lot of dialogue. This vid stood out for great dance party music and no audio clips.

Morpheus & Hob | The Night We Met by WolfPhoenixWriter

A lot of people were into Sandman this year. I liked this vid for making me feel a lot of feelings despite never having seen the show and barely remembering the comic.

It's a bit slow dance for Escapade, but I loved the emotion in the song too much to not include it.

Boyfriend | FMV | Yan Wei X Xu YouYi by Nitisha Donghua Productions

I guess this was my horny femslash year.

Lee Soo Hyuk - Gwi (Scholar Who Walks the Night) Savage by Serendipity

What's this? Dunno, but it's got a vampire and this great song.

The Monster by frayadjacent

This one was pure self-indulgence on my part. It was made for a con by a vidder everybody knows, but the vidder felt it required too many content warnings and didn't send it in the end. I, however, reserve the end of the dance party to show more content warnings-heavy things if I feel like it. I despise how fandom has turned into a "compromise" where anything that reaches into my soul is never on the table while pabulum always is. Fuck that. I am the arbiter of what's normal.

This vid lit me up in places I'd forgotten.

Ahs Hotel :| Tear you Apart by xxxxxx

This song was used in the show and there are a billion vids to it, but this one is far better than the others aside from how it just cuts off.

AHS isn't a fandom most at the con are in, but I just had to include its vampire season.

A Shot for the Pain by Franzeska

I honestly did go looking for other Penny Dreadful vids. Sadly, the selection was not impressive, and most of it was not to anything danceable, let alone goth club-appropriate music.

【拔杯|暗黑慎入】你是我奇怪的瘾症 by 两只阿夏跑不快

I've seen a lot of Hannibal vids. Almost all of them are gross. Few are as interestingly edited as this one.

Twilight Zone by hmmyeahokay

Okay, this one is a massive blast from the past. Do people outside of Highlander fandom even remember this bad 2001 movie?

I loved the song, and I appreciated that there was a black lead. That and vampires trump the fact that it's a het vid (ish).

Supernatural ►Cry Little Sister by Gwen

I scoured Youtube for vids to this song. I thought this was a particularly interesting take out of the extensive genre of horror set to Cry Little Sister. (No, seriously, it's a genre.)

【荣耀向我俯首｜kinnporsche】没长出恋爱脑前的少爷们怎么能错过这首BGM by 旧城与笙Zz

Kinnporsche hit big this year. I wanted a really fantastic vid that people hadn't seen. I love that this one is by a Chinese vidder (probably) to a French song.

Sadly no longer online, probably for being of a horny BL series and posted on a Chinese site

Kingdom come by fandom ATEEZ 2022

Okay, ATEEZ isn't a big fandom at the con, but this vid is some sort of kink AU, and I'm always weak for that. It's also to a Taylor song everybody loves.

Last of the Real Ones by colls

I cheated again and included a well-known vidder, but do you know how hard it is to find stormpilot vids? Kylux has like eight billion genius animatics and fan art vids. Finnpoe? Bupkis!

I don't know if people still care about this part of Star Wars, but all of the Bandom trash immediately rushed the dance floor when the song started playing.

louis & lestat | take my breath away (interview with the vampire) by ScribbledDreaming

I have ended with this song before, with finnpoe in fact, so that's a little in-joke for myself.

What better way to end the vampire party than the new IWTV and the most over-the-top vid I could find?

[animegirlsakurablr]

Shenanigans in the Grand Order, part 796

Bruh.

"Who's going to be the driver" Who do you think, Mori-nort?

How about Team A - Alt?

Oh come on! We all talked about the other Crypters, why not her?! (Also, Da Vinci said that she disabled the collar a while ago)

Don't pull the "maybe it doesn't go down" shtick, I can and will kick your ass down these stairs.

Also, he found the actual Servant Zhang Jue... who turned himself into nothing more than a corpse.

He put the guy out of his (presumably) misery.

That sounds like hell.

OI, MORIARTY! GET YOUR ASS BACK FROM THE THRONE AND TELL ME WHAT'S WITH THE BUNDLE OF NERVES (?) AND THE STICK

And I got through Traum! I thoroughly enjoyed it, and while I do have some complaints about it, it isn't as much as Tunguska or Avalon.

Just. Ohhhhhhhhh. The fact that it's called dream in German and all of the major players are all connected with a dream theme too. Pope Johanna is a fictional Heroic Spirit, a dream incarnate. Charlemagne - the one we see and summon - is also a fictional Heroic Spirit, but one to the real Charlemagne, Charles the Great, a dream of someone real. Don Quixote and Sancho are living out a fantasy - a dream - even as Servants. Kriemhild has her dream of enacting revenge against Siegfried, but also just seeing him again. Even Constantine, as... I'll be honest, flimsy his excuse is for being an antagonist, was helping a dream into being rooted to reality. And the music that's introduced here, as always, is really good. Hot damn, that Revenge Realm and Kriemhild theme tracks.

Before I do go into my few problems with Traum, I will say what I mentioned back at the beginning - the "someone else who I wished joined with us". I really wished that Siegfried, our Siegfried, came with us. With Mash being excluded from the field because the Ortinax is being fixed, it wouldn't hurt for him to take her place until it was, well, fixed. This isn't complete bias for him either, as I genuinely think that he would benefit from getting reconciliation with Kriemhild like how she did in the story. Whether it ended somewhat differently (either him still living or both of them) or going the same way, I still think it would've been nice.

Now with the few problems I have, starting with gameplay. I actually got a little frustrated with the amount of NPC fights. While I understand why the first few fights are like that, it still got annoying. There is a silver lining in that, like Avalon, the NPC fights are given story buffs that doesn't make the fight unbearable, and some of them can be seen as a "here's how the unit is like in case you or your friend supports don't have them" case. Also, the last... 6? 7? Fights before getting to Kriemhild (the "complete in 7/6/5 turns or fail" ones) were also annoying, but if you have access to a decked out (lv. 120, NP5, 10/10/10 skills, the works) Morgan, Summer Ibuki, or Junao, you'll get through it just fine. I actually failed one and only one of those fights, lol.

Thankfully, I only have one major problem with the story, and I already kinda spoiled it beforehand, but it's Constantine, or rather his reasoning for being an antagonist. I just, didn't feel it, the emotional aspect for him deciding to help Johanna be re-established, or "reinstated" to be real in PHH. The "love" between the two just wasn't there. This is an ongoing problem that Higashide's has, ever since Apocrypha (hello, Sieg and Jeanne's relationship, how are you...), and it seems that still hasn't improved. He seems to often like using love as a motivator, but again, it just doesn't click - it either comes of as generic as it comes (remember when I was bitching throughout Summer 6 in regards to Summer Corday and Ana? He's the writer for both of them) or a copycat of another fictional couple (Artemis and Orion is almost literally Lum and Ataru from Urusei Yatsura, and the less I say about post-Traum Kriemhild, the better). I can see them being friends, but not really potentially a couple.

Hell, I joked at the beginning of comparing Traum to Fire Emblem Three Houses ("Did We Wind Up In FE3H?"), and Constantine's comparison to one of the lords, Edelgard, is also the weakest. Kriemhild is like Dimitri - driven to madness by someone in their past, by someone who they loved and trust, and ultimately given closure about that madness by another someone who they're close to in the present (although in Kriemhild's case, it was the same person), and Don Quixote is like Claude - leader of a 3rd group made up by a ragtag team of misfits who, while have problems pertaining to themselves isn't connected to either of the other factions, was the one who got to truth of it all (Nemesis in FE3H, Area 51 in FGO). The most of a comparison I can see between Constantine XI and Edelgard is that they're both emperors who wear red. I guess you can also say that they're enraged by a broken system (Crests in FE3H, PHH's response to those like Pope Johanna in FGO), but why they're motivated to go against said system is different. That's... not great. Constantine's motivation, the inspiration of another franchise, his overall writing is somehow the weakest amongst the cast.

I have two nitpicks before stopping. 1) I wished that Salome had more screentime. She was the last of the Bronze Batch from Anni 4 to get a main story role, and hers is also the smallest. I love that her feelings for the player - for us - is friendship (Higashide can't write romance, but he can do friendship), but I want her to appear more. She didn't even make it a third through the story! Maybe if she took Kiyohime's place later on, that could probably work, with some amount of tweaking to the story? Kiyohime already has plenty of scenes in events and interludes, one less isn't going to hurt her.

2) What was the deal with Sugitani? They weren't even named for a year and a half until it was revealed that they were going to be playable - in an event that has nothing to do with here! You could switch them with another gun using Servant, like Billy or William Tell, and nothing would change. This is like my curiosity with Tunguska and what happened behind the scenes, but on a much lower scale.

And now, to wait for... Oh sweet God, Lostbelt 7. Pray for me, because I don't think I have much sanity left for Nasu again...

SQ used: 0

Revival stones: 0 (hilariously enough)

[hassiegfrieddoneanythingwrong]

Looks like there's been confirmation on the writers for (most) of the Traum cast + Bakin event (and Arcuied) over on the subreddit

I say mostly in parentheses because the op hasn't found who wrote for Don Quixote yet

[marquisguyun]

Hi it's your secret santa 👋I love that some of your fav dramas for this year are also mine "The Blood of Youth, A League of Nobleman, Mysterious Lotus Casebook." Do you have a particular fave character or dynamics in those dramas?

Hello!! Lol, looks like the mods did a good job of matching us (and also you have good taste 😉)

Here are some of my favorites:

The Blood of Youth

My favorite character in this show is Tang Lian! I also got unexpectedly attached to Xiao Chong (and I totally called him becoming emperor lol)

I also really love the like,, main gang (Xiao Se, Lei Wujie, Tang Lian, Sikong Qianluo, Ye Ruoyi) especially as a group (doesn't have to be the whole group)

I'm not super interested in any romances for this drama, canon or otherwise, and I'm also not as into Wuxin (altho I don't hate him or anything!)

A League of Nobleman

If I had to pick one character it'd be Zhang Ping. I really like Wang Mowen too tho

As far as dynamics between characters go, I'm definitely a huge polyshipper for this show lol... Like my ideal polycule here is Zhang Ping/Lan Jue/Wang Mowen with Gu Qingzhang as Lan Jue's ex, the Emperor as Zhang Ping's boyfriend, and Chen Chou either as Zhang Ping's queerplatonic partner or his boyfriend. (I viewed Zhang Ping and Chen Chou as super close but platonic when watching it originally, but I don't have super strong feelings about that.)

All of that said, you don't need to feel like you have to include the whole polycule in anything you make for me! Feel free to focus in on any part of it that you may ship or want to create for. (You also don't have to actually state that anyone is together, I'm good with Vibes.)

I just wanted to give you the context of my preferred dynamic! Maybe avoid like "one true soulmate" type talk for this particular show? But I'm a generally a multishipper who can enjoy all kinds of conflicting ships separately, so don't feel too pressured about this, I'm sure whatever you're inspired to make would be great!

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

Li Lianhua, Fang Duobing, and Di Feisheng. I am just very invested in whatever the hell the three of them have going on. Or any two of them, your pick! Platonic or romantic is fine, I'd take either... Also down for any of the three on their own

Alternatively, I thought the Li Lianhua & Yun Biqiu little side plot was interesting!

[mirageofadesert]

C-Drama Review: My Journey to You

Broadcast: iQIYI, 2023, 24 Episodes Genre: Romance, Wuxia

My Rating 7/10

A beautiful show with a promising premise, ultimately disappointing with a poorly realized asynchronous story-telling and unsatisfactory ending.

Acting: 6/10 World-building: 7/10 Production: 9/10 Storytelling: 4/10 Pacing: 7/10 Re-watch Value: 6/10  Bonus: for Jolin Jin's and Tian Jiarui's characters. One of my favorite big sister and little brother!

Summary with minor spoilers: My Journey to You tells the story of two assassins, Yun Weishan (played by Yu Shuxin) and Shangguan Qian (played by Lu Yuxiao), who are sent to infiltrate an enemy sect territory, the Gong residence, disguised as potential brides. However, their respective objectives are in conflict with each other, and so are their targets. They encounter two very different young masters and their respective families. Young Master Gong Ziyu (played by Zhang Linghe) surprisingly attains the title of Sword Wielder of the Gong family, but faces accusations about the legitimacy of this status and title. Only by completing three challenges can he prove himself and take up his family's legacy. He falls in love with Yun Weishan early on, meanwhile Shangguan Qian future husband Gong Shang Jue (played by Cheng Lei) distrusts his new bride. In a balancing act, she must win his trust without revealing her true intentions. Thus begins a dangerous game, wherein the lines between friend and foe are blurred. The price? Freedom from the oppressing employers - and their own survival.

My review - spoilers ahead!

The show started out incredible promising: A captivating premise, a darker tone in both cinematography and theme, beautiful sets and costumes, decent special effects and a different voice for Esther Yu. And while the show had great moments, it overall failed to deliver what it promised. So what went wrong?

The short version is that the show suffered from the typical shortcoming: mediocre acting, misguided directing and bad writing.

Esther Yu and Zhang Ling He never stood out to me as particularly great actors, and this holds true in this show as well. However, I don't think the problem with My Journey to You can be blamed on their unconvincing acting, but is rather a product of the direction the writing took them.

The tension arcs get boring really fast: Again and again the female leads are in danger of being exposed (or better: exposing themselves), but by the third time it doesn't feel exciting anymore. The other major plot line is the conflict surrounding the succession of the sword wielder title, which I was never able to care about. I think a different story-line for the ML would have greatly benefited the drama. Trying to make the audience care about him by putting a lot of emphasis on his hard childhood early on in the show, didn't work, because it felt so irrelevant compared to the backstories of the other characters. It didn't give him depth, it actually took it away.  Therefore, the dynamic between the main couple wasn't working either - she was too cold, he was too immature for them to create any interesting chemistry.

The second couple not only had the better written characters, their storyline had more suspense. I have seen mainly Esther Yu being criticized for this drama, so my potentially controversial opinion is, that it's actually the fault of the dull main storyline and the bland ML.

The other big problem are the poorly build-up plot twists. Some of these plot twists themselves were great, like the switch of the medical document and the death of the little sister. While these were great plot points, the narrative build-up wasn't. In retrospect, it made sense we got so much information about the MLs unhappy childhood and complex relationship with his parents, because that build-up both to the medical record swap and the betrayal of the older brother, however... it was just done in such an annoying way, that it made the ML look unnecessary whiny and the storyline boring.

As the show progressed, they increasingly used the element of time-jumps and flashbacks to tell the story. There should have been a better way to deliver tension and twists, than constantly making jumps in order to catch the audience off guard. Part of the fun in mysteries like this is to make guesses while watching, but that only goes so far, when it is all in the editing and crucial information is simply being withheld. And what made this even worse, it that the final plot twist (e.g. the brother coming back) was so predictable, all the asynchronous story-telling wasn't even necessary!

Worst of all was the ending: A twin sister out of nowhere? A villain that was poorly build up? No resolution for the second couple? A cliffhanger for a next season that does not fit the tone of the first 23 episodes and is unlikely to ever happen? Frustrating.

It wasn't all bad: The supporting cast was great. Ryan Cheng, Jolin Jin and Tian Jiarui were amazing! The dynamics between all the other couples were engaging as well. Gong Zishang was my favorite comic relief in any cdrama, and she gave the whole show such a unique vibe! Tian Jiarui's character was right done my alley - I just love my twisted little psychopath in emotional turmoil!

Just one last thought ... please no more Chen Duling? She has been in most shows I have watched this summer and has failed to charm me every time. She is a decent actress, but the type casting of "sad, whiny girl" isn't doing her any favors.

Overall, I think this was a decent drama. I still would recommend you to watch this show, especially if you value intriguing characters over plot!

[shewholovestoread]

My Journey To You - Thoughts and Impressions Part 1 of 2

I realise that I've been missing these past few months, i've been on a consumption binge but with little to no bandwidth to write about any show/film irrespective of how much I may have loved them. (depression is an ass) But I can, once again, feel thoughts tingling in my brain and I've decided to get back to writing, something that I deeply enjoy. Anyway, enough about me, let's get started.

To keep the post from getting obscenely long, I'm going to split it into two. This post will be about the technical aspects of the show. Part 2 will focus on the characters.

My Journey To You is a 2023 fantasy, Wuxia show (shows/films that are based in ancient China with martial arts warriors being capable of superhuman feats, like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). It was highly anticipated owing to the amazing trailer (one of the best I've seen)

Plot: The series tells the story of Yun Wei Shan, a spy longing for freedom, who infiltrates the Gong residence to complete a mission. In the eerie and treacherous Gong residence, she encounters love and friendship, embarks on a journey of self-discovery, and finds the determination to move forward. Together with the rebellious nobleman Gong Zi Yu, they grow and mature through their shared experiences. (via mydramalist)

It stars: Yu Shu Xin (Yun Wei Shan), Zhang Ling He(Gong Zi Yu), Ryan Cheng (Gong Shang Jue) and Lu Yu Xiao (Shangguan Qian), Tian Jia Rui (Gong Yuan Zhi), Jolin Jin (Gong Zi Shang) and Sun Chen Jun (Jin Fan)

Written by: Edward Guo.

Series directed by: Edward Guo & Luo Luo

I'll talk about everything I liked before I get into the stuff that I didn't.

Right off the bat, this show has some of the most gorgeous characters you'll come across and this applies to both the men and the women. The costume and make-up departments do an amazing job making already attractive people look ridiculously attractive. They also help the actors really inhabit the world seamlessly. The costumes are especially incredibly detailed and intricate, you can see the care that went into crafting the look for each of these characters. Shout-out to Huang Wei (costume designer) and Shi Hui (Make-up)

One of the best aspects of the show is the cinematography by Wei Hong. This show is aesthetically beautiful, so many absolutely stunning shots. Chinese shows (and Korean shows) love slow-motion shots, and while at times, it can be a bit much, this show makes great use of them, especially during the fight scenes.

The cinematography is helped to a great extent by the excellent production design, courtesy Jiyao Zhang. Like the costumes, the production design too is detailed and intricate. The world feels fully realised and yet also lived in. Each of the different clan mansions, the Front Hill and Back Hill are so incredibly different and distinct that you can immediately tell where you are. An insane amount of hard work went into the show and it shows in every frame.

You can tell that they had a good budget to work with and every bit of it was spent on making the show look as stylized as possible, there is not an ounce of realism to be found here, cue slow-motion beautiful hair flying shots. (Every day I bemoan my inability to make gifs) But the screencaps below illustrate the beauty of the show, it's so gorgeous that you could literally use screencaps as wallpapers.

The fight scenes in the show are some of the best I've seen. They are intense and thrilling and always coherent, you can always tell who's fighting who. The fight scenes are also so aesthetically pleasing, like an exceptionally deadly dance.

Now, we come to the not-so-great stuff.

First off, the marketing. The show was marketed and advertised as an action fantasy show and while there is action and it is excellent, it's not an "action" show. The main focus of the show is on the characters and the internal power struggle of the Gong family. There are also whole scenes, sometimes making up the bulk of an entire episode which are just conversations. I've seen a lot of viewers disappointed and it makes sense. they thought they were coming for action and instead they got verbose conversations.

The pacing also comes to a near-halt in some of these scenes and instead we're treated to lengthy expositions which isn't necessarily a bad thing but it becomes tedious when it happens repetitively.

Now, let's come to the worst thing about the show, it's ending, specifically the last 5 minutes. This end is ridiculously mindbogglingly bad when you consider that there is almost no confirmation on a 2nd season. It's just such a bad idea to end on a cliffhanger like this. If they wanted to leave things open for a potential 2nd season, they could have ended with the Wufeng elders coming together at that character's home, possibly to hold them ransom or something, like literally anything else.

if you're planning on watching this show and I do recommend it, keep in mind that it does get slow and don't watch the last 5 mins of the show. Trust me, you'll like the show a whole lot more if you follow that approach.

Part 2 HERE