#and the donghua's catching up to the manhua | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

piosplayhouse · 1 year

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Ayo thank you for your contribution to society and world culture through the SVSSS iceberg, now if you don’t mind can you please explain it? I’ve been in the fandom a while but I swear I’ve never heard of some of these

Sure! Explanations will be sorted under the cut:

SHEN YUAN TIER:

- all items in this tier are either surface level details from the source material or

- daily bingpup is a popular fandom meme (used in the metal gear sense lmfao) started by @ kamkamquats on Twitter that's pretty self explanatory: kam draws and posts a bingpup picture every day! The archive is available here.

I probably should have made this point just bingpup, as I believe his origins precede kam's art, but she certainly boosted his popularity significantly, and now her art and bingpup are canonized with the publishing of the 4th volume English translation of the novel, so I thought it was a fun point!

LUO BINGHE TIER:

- Feynite's au collection: an extremely popular collection of alternate universe fics written by legendary Scum Villain fic author Feynite.

- Scum Villain is a tragedy: an interpretation of the books that poses that from every other perspective besides Shen Yuan's, Scum Villain is an incredibly depressing tragedy.

- Luo Binghe is Airplane's self insert: "Don't asky why Luo Binghe wasn't the embodiment of [Airplane's] ideal man; Luo Binghe's use had primarily been to fulfill his desire to be a badass and get revenge, as well as his desire for wanton [this section has been censored]" (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System volume 4, page 163).

- Shen Yuan died on his birthday: Shen Yuan's death date is never given in the original novels, but in the first scene of the donghua when he dies while at his computer, you can catch a glimpse at the date reading September 21st (both his birthday and the day svsss was published!)

- Shen Qingqiu's canon fursona: binghe compares sqq to a crane multiple times in the story but is depicted as a cat in fandom much more frequently, leading people to joke about how the fandom disregards his "canon" fursona in the same way bingpup is much more prevalent than sheep binghe.

- Shen Qingqiu can knit: there's official crossover Christmas merchandise that shows all of the mxtx couples participating in different holiday activities: wangxian are decorating a tree, hualian are baking cookies, and shen qingqiu is knitting a scarf for luo binghe.

- Luo Binghe's birthday: Luo Binghe is actually the only main mxtx character that doesn't have a canon birthday. He's noted in the books as being born on "the coldest days of the year", but it's debatable whether this is late December or early January, and there's no specific date from this that we can confirm is his birthday.

- sv manhua's indefinite hiatus: much to the excitement of starved fans, a Scum Villain manhua began publishing in 2019. It ran for a grand total of 3 wonderful weeks before being unceremoniously put on indefinite hiatus because of drama within the fanbase stemming from rumors that the artist/company drawing it actually hated scum villain. It has yet to return.

SHEN JIU TIER:

- Moshang's horrible first time: MXTX stated in a Q&A interview that neither Mobei-Jun nor Shang Qinghua enjoyed their first time having sex together.

- Shen Qingqiu invented maxi pads: the "scum villain pad commercial" is a commercial from the first season of the donghua depicting an exchange where Ning Yingying is self conscious about going out on her period because her sanitary supplies aren't cute, so Shen Qingqiu magics her up some maxi pads.

- Shen Yuan read mpreg yaoi: "#18 Peerless Cucumber [Expert]: Upthread, keep cool. This forum has a lot of Green JJ sisters 😎" (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System volume 4, page 145). / "''Great Master' Liu! Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky didn't write a green Jinjiang mpreg novel!'" (The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System volume 4, page 295).

- Shen Jiu transmigrated into Shen Yuan: A somewhat popular theory in the fandom that when Shen Jiu died, he transmigrated into modern day Shen Yuan the same way Shen Yuan did to him.

- Cursed monkey island: Cursed monkey island is/was a private discord server made up of very og sv fans that was known for outputting somewhat dark/off-color/weird fics for each other, often with funny porn spoof names and niche concepts. The first fics from there were published in 2018, while the last fic in the collection seems to have been published in 2022, so they might still be active, but I'm not sure.

- Moshang has a 20 year age difference: Shang Qinghua died at at least age 20 (probably older) and since he transmigrated into a baby, he has 20 extra years of consciousness from his first life on the PIDW native characters, who he meets when they're both teenagers in the Airplane extras. Though physically the same age group, he would've been mentally somewhere around 30-40 years old at this point getting bullied by teenagers.

- The microwave: some of the first previews released for the donghua were static turnaround videos of the 3D models set to elevator music -- after these dropped, it was radio silence on the show's status for a long, long time. Fans called these previews "the microwave" because of the static rotation of the models and referred to the time it took for the donghua to come out as "defrosting it in the microwave". There's a fair amount of art/memes from this time period featuring the characters literally inside microwaves, even to the point where people made microwave-themed SV merch. When the donghua finally came out bingqiu were declared "free from the microwave" and a wave of fanart of them destroying microwave prisons emerged.

TIANLANG JUN TIER:

- Wangxian have read resentment of chunshan: in the mdzs audio drama extra episode "Accompanying you to sleep - Lan Wangji", Lan Wangji takes care of a drunk Wei Wuxian by getting him ready for bed. Towards the end of the episode, Wei Wuxian asks Lan Wangji to read him a bedtime story. Lan Wangji says he isn't good at telling stories and Wei Wuxian suggest he reads him The Resentment of Chunshan (bingqiu fanfiction). Unfortunately, Lan Wangji had never heard of it before and thereby could not ASMR it.

- Six Balls x Zhuzhi Lang: a rarepair (also called bamboo balls) written by the lovely Alex here.

- Shen Qingqiu has the protagonist halo: a theory/headcanon suggesting that when Shen Yuan transmigrated, the role of protagonist and subsequent protagonist halo left Luo Binghe and transferred onto him. Often used in angst canon divergences wherein due to the lack of a protagonist halo, Binghe dies from an event he otherwise would have survived because of his story invulnerability.

- Shen Yuan's sister found his dead body: an angst headcanon centering around the idea that Shen Yuan's sister found his dead body rotting in his apartment after he died- very good art made about this here!! (Gore/blood cw)

- Who is zhuzhi lang's dad: we all know zhuzhi-lang's dad was a big snake but what kind of big snake? How big? Why did his mom fuck him? all important questions heavily debated about in this fandom.

MOBEI JUN TIER:

- Every ship is cumplane: we already know Luo Binghe is Airplane's self insert, and Mobei-Jun's cold demeanor is somewhat reminiscent of Peerless Cucumber's tsundere wife-isms, making bingqiu and moshang arguable proto-cumplanes. However, we can go further and argue because Airplane created the entire world of PIDW, all of it in a way reflects him and his feelings, therefore meaning that because it loves Shen Qingqiu and Shen Qingqiu loves it back, every possible PIDW asset x sqq is cumplane in its basest form.

- Original donghua designs: the first pv for the donghua actually featured slightly different designs for bingqiu, which were then changed later in production! You can see the original ones here.

- PIDW is real: someone actually posted PIDW on jjwxc so you can get the real Shen Yuan experience.

SHANG QINGHUA TIER:

- Shen Yuan penetrated into the body of the scum villain: there is a listing for the svsss donghua on Amazon prime video (though no episodes are actually available) which features this banger summary:

An ordinary youth, Shen Yuan, after reading the novel "Arrogant Gods and Demons' Journey", triggers the mysterious system so that he crosses into the book world and penetrates into the body of villain--Shen Qingqiu. Shen Qingqiu's disciple, Luo Binghe, is the main character of the novel.

- Airplane's foot fetish:

#and thats it!#svsss #svsss iceberg

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cnovelartreblogs · 2 years

Text

How to Read Manhua on Bilibili: Legal, Free, and in English

In my posts on this blog, I keep sharing screen caps from manhua I've read on Bilibili, along with the link to read it yourself, but I know:

This blog doesn't have all that many followers.

It's one thing for me to post the link and quite another for people to realize just how easy this is to do.

Considering how often I see English-speaking MXTX/c-novel/c-drama/donghua fandom peeps screaming and begging for more content, I'm now begging you in return:

STOP SLEEPING ON THE BILIBILI APP!

If you want more danmei content, fully legal, entirely free, already translated, you literally c.a.n.n.o.t. do better than using the Bilibili app to read manhua. That's not to say this is a perfect method - their translations are...um...wanting sometimes? (Shout out to the four pages in a row I recently read where someone broke in to a residence and every time the breaker-inner was mentioned they were called "the intrud") But it's still ALL THERE, FOR US, ANYTIME, and the more eyes the manhua in the apps gets, the more content we'll get, so please, PLEASE, if you're out there thirsting for danmei content, DO THIS.

Wondering how?

Well, I've got you covered.

WAY 1: The Bilibili Manhua Website

I know I said "get the app" but honestly you don't even need an app to do this! You can read on Bilibili using any web browser.

The website is Bilibilicomics.com.

It looks like this:

Yes, you're reading that right: there's an entire section of BL.

There's also an entire section of GL!

There are 38 titles in GL and 121 titles, yes ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY ONE titles, in BL.

AND there's het stuff, and non-romance stuff too!

New episodes general come out weekly or biweekly, though a few things are daily. The website is often a few chapters ahead of the app (which I actually didn't realize until just now - Chapter 55 of Legend of Exorcism, for example, came out today on the app, but it lists 60 episodes as available on the website. Which, considering the cliffhanger I just read... *eyes emoji*...though apparently in other cases there are more chapters on the app than on the website, so ymmv.)

The best-known title available (again: FOR FREE. OFFICIALLY. LEGALLY. IN ENGLISH) is Tian Guan Ci Fu. When you go to a specific title's page, you get this...

...and reading it is as simple as selecting the chapter you want, clicking it, and et voila! Just scroll down and read to your heart's content!!

NOTE: SOME CHAPTERS WILL HAVE WAIT TIMES. More on this shortly.

WAY 2: The Bilibili App for Android

I personally have been reading primarily from the Android app, since I have a Samsung Galaxy phone and a lot of time sprawled on my couch while my kids watch cartoons.

You can download the app from the Play store - here's a link, for what that's worth.

It looks, essentially, like this (I'm logged in so mine looks a little different than non-logged-in, I made an account even tho you don't actually need one):

If you don't want to make an account, you don't have to. If you choose to, as you see it'll try to guess what other titles you might like. tbh I have no idea how good these recommendations may be; I'm still reading/catching up on the specific titles I wanted to read so I haven't had to try their recommendations yet. But, there's definitely some stuff that looks interesting (that top middle one definitely looks up my alley...)

You can also "favorite" things (again: EVEN WITHOUT AN ACCOUNT) and it'll store them in your library and make a red dot (like you can see on the above screen cap) when something has an update you haven't read yet. For example, here's my Favorite list, which helps me keep track of what I'm reading and enjoying (or, well, in one case I'm more "wtfing" than "enjoying" but hey that still counts).

There's even a weird, like, "dress up" side game??? So like, every chapter you read there's a chance the app will drop a "card" and you can use the cards to dress your avatar up, and there's a whole crafting system built in? It's. A little odd. But, considering I recently quit my Love Nikki addiction after 3+ years, it's nice to get a small hit of pointless dress up.

Yes, my avatar is currently wearing San Lang's shirt.

The point is, again: this app is free to download, and incredibly easy to use, and even has a fun pointless side game.

BUT. There is one "but" here. See the Coins: 0 Top Up right below my randomly assigned username?

There is an optional pay system. What does it do? It reduces wait times.

Some titles, but not ALL, have a "built in delay" that kicks in at some point. On some, it seems to start when you're "within 5 chapters of the most recent" (that's what's happened with Global Examination and TGCF, for example). For others, it seems to be arbitrary - for A Single Strike of Shimmering Frost, it kicked in at chapter 40 even tho there are, like, 80 something chapters up. Regardless, it always works the same.

The system functions using wait times, and it has 5 tiers that are always the same.

Tier 1: You must wait one minute before you can read the next chapter. This tier is rarely an issue; the count down sometimes (but not always??? it's weird) starts when you start a new chapter, and it almost always takes more than one minute to read a full chapter, so this tier is often "satisfied" before you even get to the next chapter.

Tier 2: You must wait six minutes before you can read the next chapter.

Tier 3: You must wait one hour before you can read the next chapter.

Tier 4: You must wait six hours before you can read the next chapter.

Tier 5: You must wait twenty-four hours before you can read the next chapter.

I initially thought this system functioned as "once you reach Tier 5, you're just stuck there and can only read a chapter a day" but it's turned out that's not the case - A Single Strike of Shimmering Frost having 40+ semi-locked chapters has given me the chance to actually test this a bit. In fact, what happens is:

The first time you hit a "wait delay" chapter, it puts you at Tier 1 and you have to wait a minute. The next chapter, you up to Tier 2, the next to Tier 3, then Tier 4, then Tier 5...and then it cycles back to Tier 1. So, with a little care and planning (which I almost always fail at) I can time reading something with many wait-delayed chapters such that I can read 5 chapters in one day, then I have to wait a full day, then I can read 5 more chapters.

Here's how it looks when you've done your waiting in purgatory and can now read on...

...and here's how it looks when the sad trombones play...

Now, I mentioned I'd circle back to the coins? THE TIME HAS COME! Because, look - for 17 coins, you can read on instantly!! Alternatively, if you're willing to share on social media, you can also skip (I have no if that's something you can do over and over, or just once, cause I haven't tried - you can skip the wait time once for free). This begs the question, then...is 17 coins a lot?

And the answer is...

...eh not really, no. Ten bucks will get you the ability to pay 17 coins many, many times (58, to be precise), but honestly? I haven't spent a penny yet and I've caught up on 7 different titles and am steadily reading through two more (one of which hasn't had wait times kick in yet, I just can only read so fast).

All of which is to say: yes, there's a pay system, and tbh, I'm probably going to throw them a few bucks not because I care about the wait times but because I'm getting so much enjoyment out of reading these titles and I want to support them a little (I also bought the print version of the TGCF vol. 1 and will likely buy the other volumes, and I once-upon-a-time paid to watch TGCF s. 1 streaming as they came out). With a little patience there is absolutely zero call for spending even one penny to read as much of this cornucopia as you want.

WAY 3: Download the Bilibili App on Apple

I don't have access to an iPhone and don't feel like grabbing my tablet rn and I've hit the Tumblr image limit anyway, but the Apple app looks about the same as the Android app, and you can download it HERE.

Basically: use the website, or download the app for whichever platform you're using, and READ, READ, READ!

So, what is there to read?

I'M SO GLAD YOU ASKED!

(okay, cutting to a read more)

I've been reading on the app pretty regularly for like two months (prior to that I was only reading TGCF, and only when I remembered, which was rarely), but I'm juggling a lot AND reading other stuff too so I am far from having explored the wide range of options. I can, however, highlight a few I think are likely to be of interest to a danmei-reading audience. Note that of these, I've only read the novels for TGCF, TYQHM, and Daomu Biji, which means that I only know as far as the manhuas have covered for the rest - I haven't read farther than that yet.

A. Tian Guan Ci Fu by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu. The one, the only - this is the official manhua with art by Starember. It tells the story of newly ascended god Xie Lian trying to navigate the intricacies of the heavenly bureaucracy, figure out his place in the world, and understand why a sexy guy in red keeps showing up in his life. (Worst synopsis ever award goes to: ME!). The English translation is currently on episode 77, which has Xie Lian and Hua Cheng in the gambler's den. A volume just ended, which means it's on hiatus temporarily - there's usually a month or two break between volumes - so it'll be back soon!

B. Global Examination by Mu Su Li. Based on the book Global University Entrance Examination, featuring art by E Zi. Global Examination is a story set in a dystopian near-future about a world where groups of people are randomly selected (read: kidnapped and forced) to participate in an "exam" where they have to answer extremely complex puzzles. If they succeed, they get to live and become one of the people who administer the exam. If they fail, they die. Despite the premise sounding dark, it's really not been so bad and I've been reassured it won't become so. The story itself focuses on You Huo, a recently selected examinee with amnesia, the other people in his examinee group, and Examiner 001, who clearly has some kind of history with You Huo. If only he didn't also have amnesia, we might even know what that history is...

C. Dinghai Fusheng Records and Legend of Exorcism, both based on the books of the same names written by Fei Tian Ye Xiang. The art for Dinghai Fusheng Records is by Qianerbai (who has also done a lot of work for the Mo Dao Zu Shi audio drama) and for Legend of Exorcism, it's by Warp. These stories are set in the same 'verse, at least several hundred years apart; it's a xianxia high-fantasy setting, and the main enemies are resentment monsters and demons (...or are they? dun dun duuuun). Dinghai Fusheng Records takes place, chronologically, first, and occurs a couple hundred years after a calamity caused all qi to fade from the world - there are only mortals, and no one can cultivate. It follows Chen Xing, a young man born with a gift, as he seeks his protector - Xiang Shu - and others, and they encounter (surprise!) unspeakable evil. Legend of Exorcism takes place in the "future" of Dinghai Fusheng Records, and focuses on Kong Hongjun, a half-demon boy who has received a summons to join the Exorcism Department, as he explores the mortal world for the first time and gets to know the others who have summoned to join the Department, especially the mortal leader Li Jinglong.

D. Daomu Biji titles, originally by Nanpai Sanshu. There are two DMBJ titles on Bilibili right now, though both only have a few chapters, and the website lists them as "on hiatus." I've read them both, and am not entirely sure what's up with one especially, but... Grave Robbers' Chronicles starts where Book 1 starts, with changes of course but it's quite recognizable as the initial "Wu Xie is brought a silk scroll and gets curious and then Wu Sanxing gets involved" plot line. The Grave Robbers' Chronicles Seven Dreams is...odder...and as far as I can tell is an alternate canon/AU which starts with a "what if" of "what if the Zhang's were incredibly abusive, raised child!Zhang Qiling themselves, and Wu Xie and he met as kids." It's. Um. Extremely weird. And not for those sensitive to kids getting beaten bloody. But I'm still hoping they'll release more than 9 chapters, if only because I'm curious.

E. A Single Strike of Shimmering Frost, based on the novel A Sword of Frost by Yu Xiao Lanshan. This one opens with the Prince Ji Yanran approaching Sect Master Yun Yifeng, who runs a sect of spies and information collectors, to ask for help finding an item that has been stolen from the palace. In exchange, he promises to give Yun Yifeng the cure to an ailment that plagues him. Problem 1: he doesn't actually have this cure. Problem 2: everywhere they go people start dying. Problem 3: catching feels for the pretty Sect Master. Despite having the trappings of xianxia, this story has actually thus far been a sequence of murder mysteries with politics-related causes.

F. Saved the Public Enemy By Mistake by Liu Muqiao. If this is based on a novel, I haven't been able to track it down. It's xianxia; demon immortal cultivator Liu Jianghe shows up, nearly dead, on the doorstep of famed doctor Lu Jiu who is just trying to live a quiet life in seclusion. Not knowing who Liu Jianghe is, Lu Jiu saves him, and thus stumbles into a mess of politics and history he doesn't understand...but nothing is actually how it seems, there's amnesia and hidden back stories galore, there's a heavy side plot of sword lesbians, and honestly I've read like 50 chapters and I'm still a little lost but the art is pretty and I really need to read the reveal on the two MCs history together so I'm sticking with it. Warning that it's got a fair amount of blood and gore.

G. Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine by Man Man He Qi Duo. A historical (non-cultivation) setting focused on politics, machinations, and the long history and deep love between Zhong Wan - former top-scorer on the national exam who lost his position when his adopted father was accused of treason - and Yu She, of dubious parentage and believed by most people to be the bastard son of the Emperor. I loved the book for this, and finding out that the manhua was on Bilibili is a lot of what drove me to download the app.

So - that's everything I'm currently reading: 6 titles inspired by explicitly BL danmei titles, 2 based on other books I like that aren't BL, and 1 BL that just looked interesting and my taste.

There's SO MUCH MORE, seriously. I'm going to be reading on this app for months and still finding more, I'm positive of it.

But unforth, I hear you say, there's some other manhua I want to read! What about Mo Dao Zu Shi? What about Erha? Are those on Bilibili? Can I read them? And the answer, sadly, is no. Those two are published by Kuaikan, which does not offer free legal English translations at this time. But! I am holding out hope that if the audience for Bilibili grows, other manhua publishers will see the profitability in emulating them. I cannot guarantee that anything we do will result in this happening, but I do feel pretty confident that if we don't read with the options currently available, we sure ain't likely to get more options.

SO. GO FORTH. READ THE THINGS I'VE MENTIONED. READ OTHER THINGS. COME BACK AND TELL ME WHAT YOU LOVED SO I HAVE SOME IDEA WHAT TO READ NEXT.

PLEASE.

I'm begging. GO READ MANHUA!!!

RIGHT NOW.

ON BILIBILI.

(and signal boost this post to get other people to do the same!! help the small fandoms grooooow! I really just wrote all of this so I'd have someone to scream with about the current awful that is the recent chapters of Legend of Exorcism PLEASE WE ALL NEED SQUEEMATES COME READ!!! THE THINGS! THEY'RE GOOD! WITH PRETTY ART!)

#mod post #resources #tutorial #tyqhm #man man he qi duo #daomu biji #nanpai sanshu #tian guan ci fu #mo xiang tong xiu #legend of exorcism #dinghai fusheng records #fei tian ye xiang #global examination #mu su li #a single strike of shimmering frost #saved the public enemy by mistake #liu muqiao #yi xiao lanshan

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muninnhuginn · 26 days

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Hi Mun!!! I wanted to ask if you have any other kdramas or cdramas you would want to recommend? :0 I still need to catch up with Stranger/Secret Forest, but I’m curious if there are any others I should check out too!

That I do.

Okay so I'm trying to decide how much to factor in enjoyment vs quality here because I have a few shows I really enjoyed but are, um, well, you have to let some stuff pass.

I will mention that my tastes in terms of romancey stuff tends to lean towards non-existent or subtle and so that's largely reflected in my recs. The only exception to this on the list is Flower of Evil. (I didn't intend it but this list doesn't actually have any main BLs/GLs either. A lot of people ship various combos of the main three in MLC and WCL though.)

Shows below cut in no particular order:

Flower of Evil

(modern kdrama)

I wasn't sure how to start with this one so I'll just nab the description from Wikipedia as it's actually fairly accurate here:

Baek Hee-sung is a man who hides his identity and past from his wife Cha Ji-won, a detective. On the surface, they appear to be the perfect family: A loving couple with a beautiful six-year-old daughter who adores her parents. Cha Ji-won and her colleagues begin investigating a series of unexplained murders and she is confronted with the reality that her seemingly perfect husband may be hiding something from her.

I don't want to spoil much about this, but it's very cat-and-mousey. It's evil with the cliffhangers. At one point, it briefly becomes a buddy comedy between a guy and another guy he kept in his basement. And there is one scene where people just sit in a car crying for two minutes. So, like, it has the range? I think of it as a guilty pleasure kinda show personally, but it's probably the closest to Beyond Evil of the shows on this list.

Mysterious Lotus Casebook

(historical cdrama)

Full disclosure: I have only recently finished this and it has somewhat taken over my brain so I can't claim to be in any way unbiased here. Li Lianhua is a lying liar who lies who may or may not be the fallen hero Li Xiangyi (he is). He wants to get by pretending to be a doctor and minding his own business, but unfortunately, the plot is out to get him. And so he, along with Fang Duobing, end up investigating various crimes as Li Lianhua tries to find the body of his former senior to lay him to rest before his own body gives out on him.

My favourite thing about this show is a) Li Lianhua, and b) the dynamic between the main trio. The levels of trolling and identity porn at any one time are through the roof. It's a comedy until it isn't.

Reset

(modern cdrama)

This is the incredibly rare type of show known as a decent *modern* cdrama. It's a timeloop show and is fairly short at 15 episodes. It's about two strangers who are trapped on a bus that keeps exploding and their attempts to uncover why and how it keeps happening. Being a modern cdrama, some of the police stuff can be fairly... heavy-handed, but I think the writers do what they can despite that, and it does use the different bus passengers to explore different societal issues, which is neat.

Overall, it's a bit of a mystery show, a bit of a character drama, and a teensy bit of romance which is for the most part nicely underplayed.

White Cat Legend

(historical cdrama)

This is waaaaaay more down the enjoyment end than quality but I'm having such a good time here. This is originally based off a manhua (I've only read pieces of it myself) but mainly just takes the characters and some story beats and does its own thing. I watched the donghua first and tonally that was an interesting experience in how it raced between funny cat shenanigans and reckoning with the nature of war crimes (though the donghua stuck much closer to the og source overall). But the live action so far is staying firmly silly (I'm midway through so it will shift at some point, I'm sure, just can't see the tonal whiplash being as bad as in the donghua).

Anyway! To explain what the show actually *is*, it follows a guy who has been cursed to become a cat (in the manhua/donghua this means he's like a walking furry but the live action has it more of a werecat/shapeshifter deal which is good because I could not handle that cg 24/7) and his attempts at running investigations as part of the local court. This is not helped by being the only competent guy in the entire place. Still, at least his underlings are *incredibly* entertaining in their failures. So, most of the show is investigating crimes against a backdrop of Li Bing (catto dude) trying to uncover the origins of the curse and why the old court and his father died. There's also a purple dude with whom he has History and an italian vampire. And vice president shangguan, who is one of those rare female characters you get in historical cdramas where the show is actually normal about her existence *without* just entirely brushing over the implications of her being in her position as a woman.

Move to Heaven

(modern kdrama)

This is a genuine rec where I'm not going to say you have to let quality pass or whatever because it's objectively good and doesn't have a high entry barrier. It may be good to watch an episode at a time depending on your mood though rather than trying to marathon it or anything.

This show basically follows the 'move to heaven' team, who are summoned to clear out the belongings of the deceased. Each deceased person has a story associated with them and as part of tidying the belongings away, there's an element of investigating to find out what their story was. It can be a tearjerker at times, but it can also be incredibly sweet. Also, it has a canon autistic character where it actually strikes a really good balance in terms of not infantilising him whilst still having it make sense why he wants help with certain things.

Nirvana in Fire

(historical cdrama)

This is my beloved. My favourite cdrama of all time. But I suspect it may not fit for you if Secret Forest doesn't. Still, I'll mention it and say to look up the diagrams to keep track of all the characters in the early episodes (...yeah, it's that type of show).

Anyway, this show is about a terminally ill man who takes on a secret identity or two as he plots to take revenge/bring justice (depending on who you ask) for the crimes of the past. This is part of the 'lying liar who lies' subgenre. It's much more serious and complicated overall than Mysterious Lotus Casebook despite the superficial similarities, but it does have its lighthearted moments.

Misc. shows that didn't make the list

I'll mention Signal (kdrama) and Kairos (kdrama) because they both have neat time travel mechanics, but with huge stipulations here. Signal is the objectively better one of these two and the male mc in Kairos is unbearable at times but at the same time Kairos has enough good points to keep me watching. The friend trio of female mc (they're just besties frfr) and the villain romance subplot especially. Signal had potential to be amazing, but for me, some of the time travel mechanics fell through and it was almost BBC Sherlockian at times with some of the 'profiling' deductions.

Signal's premise is that there's a walkie talkie that links the past and the present between a current day consultant profiler (with a distrust of the police despite now working for them) and a past police officer who is dead in the present day. It follows various cases between the past and the present that are interlocking with each other, with the overarching mysteries being present day profiler's backstory and past cop's death. I feel like this started out decently, went hit-and-miss, had a few episodes where it was absolutely amazing, and then lost steam somewhat, though the ending hit the main points.

Kairos' premise centres around a mobile phone. When a phone is disconnected, the number ends up being assigned to someone else. So, the two main characters, living a month apart in time, have the same number and thus can communicate with each other. The male mc in the future has recently found out that his wife and daughter have both died and the female mc's mother has gone missing. So they've both got a scenario they need the other person to help them with and as they change things, more new problems keep cropping up. It's a show where the premise is super interesting, but I personally found it a very frustrating watch, not least because of characters making decisions that were in-character, but incredibly stupid and *not* in the entertaining way.

Also, as I didn't include any BLs/GLs, I'll mention that I cannot in good conscience recommend Guardian (cdrama), but it's such fun trash and it has Shen Wei. It's a bit like shows like Torchwood and Buffy in that it's ostensibly modern era but there's magic (sorry, 'aliens') and a team that's meant to be keeping on top of it all led by Zhao Yunlan. He meets Shen Wei and then proceeds to *keep meeting him* at various crime scenes because Shen Wei sucks at this whole low-key deal.

On a similar note, Couple of Mirrors (cdrama) is a republican era GL. The two leads are well-written, but it's basically like two different shows mushed together (a soap and an assassin/cat-and-mouse chase). It has Yan Wei though! It's about a popular writer meeting a photographer (who is also an assassin) and them both discovering that the writer's husband really and truly sucks.

#sorry for taking so long!#asks #roseofcards90 #in b4 I entirely forgot a really obvious show here #if there are any specific shows you want to know about just say. I tried to keep things relatively spoiler-free so may have erred too vague #cdrama recs #kdrama recs

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canary3d-obsessed · 2 years

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Restless Rewatch: The Untamed, Episode 33 part two

(Masterpost) (Pinboard)

Warning! Spoilers for All 50 Episodes!

Side Note: As you know, I mostly except for sex scenes try not to compare CQL to its parent work, MDZS, because I think different works should get to be their own things. But I do love the book and all its many adaptations, and in case you want to dive into all of that, I’ve put together a roundup of everything I’m aware of (Novel, Donghua, Manhua, etc.) that’s available in English, and where to find them. That post is over here.

Morning in Cloud Recesses

It’s morning, and by the time Wei Wuxian gets out of bed, Lan Wangji has already stretched, made breakfast, folded the laundry, and gone to play his guqin by the waterfall.

Wei Wuxian steps outside and takes a deep breath, happy to be staying in a place that doesn’t smell like lava or corpses.

He wanders through the oddly empty cloud recesses, hallucinating about happier times. These are not normal flashbacks; he is in the frame, watching, while things happen in the past.

Eh, that’s ok, he’s been through a lot. Hallucinations aren’t uncommon with PTSD.

At each memory, he smiles warmly, until the present day catches up and his mood crashes back down.

This repeats until he reaches the library, where he remembers (in a normal desaturated flashback) showing porn to Lan Wangji and how mad he got. A bit of a smile stays with him after that.

(more after the cut!)

Bunny Kisses

Then he finds the rabbits, two of whom cheer him up by smooching, like he wishes he and Lan Wangji would do.

As a stand-in for a human kissing scene, this is cute, as long as we anthropomorphize them so that their sniffing of each others faces counts as kissing. It’s definitely better than watching those birds from The Long Ballad.

(I adore The Long Ballad and have watched it three times so far, and that is three times more than I ever needed to see a bird’s tongue)

Return of the Bathing Beauty Trope

Then Wei Wuxian finds Lan Wangji in the cold spring. Let’s compare this encounter to the previous time they met each other here, so many years ago.

Then: Baby Wei Wuxian sees Lan Wangji and *sprints* down the stairs to be near him, even though they don’t really get along yet.

He’s completely delighted to see him, not at all deterred by the unfriendly reception.

Now: Grown up Wei Wuxian reacts with with a fond smile, similar to the way he’s reacted to all the memories he’s been replaying.

The smile fades, and he approaches with absolutely none of the exuberance of his youth.

He just has...no joy. Not in living, not in being around Lan Wangji. But he’s sought him out as unerringly as he did in his youth, all the same.

Then: Baby Lan Wangji realizes Wei Wuxian is approaching, takes a millisecond to consider the situation, and immediately goes to put clothes on. He’s fully covered by the time Wei Wuxian reaches the shore.

Now: Grown-up Lan Wangji sees Wei Wuxian, and just...sits there...while Wei Wuxian looks at him. He’s got his hair pulled over his shoulder so his back is on display, too.

Lan Wangji is never going to tell Wei Wuxian about his scars, but I think he wants him to see, to understand that Things Have Happened in his own life while Wei Wuxian was gone. Talking isn’t really his thing, so he’s showing him instead.

(These unobtrusive scars, incidentally, are what happens when a character is extremely scarred but is being portrayed by a half-naked Wang Yibo. The producers aren’t going to give up a thirst opportunity for the sake of medical verisimilitude.)

I think he’s also deliberately letting Wei Wuxian see how beautiful he looks without his many layers of robes on. He sits still, being looked at, for 30 seconds of screen time, and then he turns around to show off his tiddies.

Unfortunately that’s when Wei Wuxian notices the burn on his chest, which wasn’t what Lan Wangji was going for, so he--slowly--gets out and puts his clothes on.

This burn scar is never discussed in the show, although the book explains it. I think if you haven’t read the book you can still guess that Lan Wangji did it to himself out of grief. This is a literal mark of Lan Wangji’s devotion--one he’s not ready for Wei Wuxian to understand just yet.

Continuing the comparison: in the past, it was Wei Wuxian trying to get close to Lan Wangji, as Lan Wangji resisted.

In the present, Wei Wuxian doesn’t need to push; Lan Wangji comes to him. Lan Wangji has, in the course of 12 hours, invited Wei Wuxian so far into his life and has shown Wei Wuxian so much of himself that he might as well have embroidered "down to fuck" on the front of his robes.

Before this, Wei Wuxian had never seen his house, not seen his hair without several chunks of silver in it, not heard him play guqin other than for medical purposes, and definitely hadn't been given a generous eyeful of his elegant torso and swanlike neck.

Seeing Lan Wangji’s various scars, Wei Wuxian starts to get out of his own head a bit, and begins to think about the person Lan Wangji has become in his absence. He demands--not via his usual whining, but with quiet authority--to know what happened.

This gets him absolutely nowhere, because Lan Wangji is the stubbornest person on Earth. He let Wei Wuxian look, and that’s all the communicating he plans to do on this subject.

He knows perfectly well that he has an interfering older brother who will eventually explain everything for him.

Failmaster Qiren

The tension is broken by the arrival of some juniors, who say that Lan Qiren tried to communicate with the sword spirit, and it kicked his ass. This happens to him more often than it should.

There are a lot of funny moments in The Untamed, many of them deliberate, but some caused by the challenges of a big production with complicated continuity. For me, nothing will ever be funnier than the fact that, on his way to save his uncle from the homicidal sword spirit, Lan Wangji stopped to do his hair.

Outside the sword room, Wei Wuxian demonstrates one of his core skills: busting through barriers in the Cloud Recesses.

None of the juniors can get past this door that he’s easily blasting open, but they all still believe that this dude with Lan Wangji is second-rate cultivator Mo Xuanyu.

Flute Recital

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian start playing "Rest" to the sword, but then Wei Wuxian realizes that Lan Qiren is going to recognize him if he plays the flute well...while not wearing a mask...or something? This is one of those moments where it would make a lot more sense if Mo Xuanyu did not look like Wei Wuxian, but we would all be sad if either version of Wei Wuxian did not look like Xiao Zhan, so let’s roll with it.

To hide his real abilities, and because he is a compulsive troll, Wei Wuxian launches into an extra-shitty rendition of WangXian, which is apparently bad enough to knock Lan Qiren out again.

Lan Wangji takes a moment to wonder why he had to be born a clownosexual, exclusively attracted to clowns. One clown in particular.

Now the mystery-solving part of the story gets rolling. Wei Wuxian picks up the sword, which is smoking with resentment, to get a read on it. It screams at him like the Xuanwu sword did, back in the good old days.

Wei Wuxian shudders and gasps sexily, and then falls into Lan Wangji's waiting arms.

Lan Wangji suddenly feels totally fine about his clownosexuality.

Party in the Jingshi

Later, at the Jingshi, Wei Wuxian expertly twirls his flute just like that one Yiling Laozu guy was known for doing while Lan Wangji and several disciples tend to Lan Qiren.

Lan Wangji has put Lan Qiren in his own bed, the same bed Wei Wuxian was sleeping in 12 hours ago. I'd say Lan Wangji has the busiest bed in the Cloud Recesses, except that we all know that honor belongs to Lan Xichen.

The disciples gossip about the resentful energy, and one of them wonders aloud if the Yiling Laozu has taken over a new host body. That earns him a nearly lethal dose of stink-eye from Lan Wangji.

Lan Wangji finishes checking his uncle’s pulse and puts his hand down but does not tuck him in, because his uncle is not named Wei Wuxian.

We get our first clue that Lan Wangji is actually Lan Sizhui's dad when he vaguely dismisses the whole group of disciples, but sends Lan Sizhui, specifically, to bed.

Hot-grumpy-dad Lan Wangji is my favorite. We don’t see him in this mood a lot at this age, particularly not when he’s busy making googly eyes at Wei Wuxian. But his worry for Lan Qiren seems to have brought back a slice of his angsty, angry younger self. *sizzle noise*

Lan Sizhui tries to argue about bedtime and gets shut down, so he verbally acquiesces to what his dad told him to do. Then he fucks off and does what he wants to do instead. It’s nice to see that Lan Wangji has raised a normal teenager.

Sizhui goes outside and chats with his other dad for a while. He doesn't know yet that this is his other dad, of course, just that his father has a new, cool boyfriend who can probably score much better weed than that crap Jingyi's always bragging about.

Wei Wuxian is a kind, serious authority figure in his conversations with Lan Sizhui; not silly or teasing as he is with Lan Jingyi. He tells Sizhui him not to blame himself for what happened at the Mo manor, and compliments his learning and thought processes.

I Trust You

In the morning, Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji talk on the porch. Lan Qiren taking the only bed means they probably didn't have the fun night Lan Wangji had been hoping for. Also, while they are getting along well, Wei Wuxian isn't comfortable with him yet; he asks if Lan Wangji suspects him, when they talk about the haunted sword.

Lan Wangji takes the opportunity to tell him, emphatically, “Of course, I believe you.” This is the same “trust/believe” ( 信 ) that was hanging between them the previous evening, and Lan Wangji is taking steps to rectify the problem.

Fortunately, Wei Wuxian is helplessly in love with Lan Wangji, and has a very forgiving nature, so they will get comfortable with each other very quickly. They work out that Xue Yang must have recreated the Yin tiger seal using his own piece of Yin Metal.

Guest Lecturer

Next, Lan Wangji gathers a roomful of disciples together to listen to Yiling Laozu’s lecture on the topic of resentful energy and this demonic sword. (Lan Qiren wakes up, feels a disturbance in the force, faints again).

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian also flirt in front of the whole class. Features of this flirtation include Wei Wuxian doing this...thing with his flute and his mouth while he leans on Lan Wangji.

This one time, at band camp...

Theoretically, this move of Lan Wangji’s, where he steps away while Wei Wuxian is leaning on him, could be read as “doesn’t like to be touched.” Except grown-up Lan Wangji is happy to touch Wei Wuxian, and everyone’s faces say that this is Lan Wangji indulging in a moment of playfulness.

Lan Jingyi is slightly horrified, but Lan Sizhui is practically ecstatic about this development. He and Wei Wuxian have a little nonverbal conversation in which Lan Sizhui gives him the opposite of a shovel talk.

Lan Sizhui is the president of the Let's Get Hanguang-Jun Laid club. Jingyi will join up soon.

On The Road Again

Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian leave Gusu on a pair of horses that are never seen again; why does Wei Wuxian ride a donkey if they've got horses? *shrug.*

They go into Qinghe and walk through the market; Wei Wuxian lighthearted and interested in his surroundings in a way he hasn't been since he was young. Lan Wangji seems comfortable in the crowd; a contrast to his early travels.

A vendor is selling Yiling Laozu merch. Wei Wuxian is offended by their ugliness, explaining that the Yiling Patriarch was one of the most beautiful men in the world, with many successful sponsorship deals.

Just then Jin Ling shows up, because the cultivation world is like 3 city blocks wide and everyone lives on the same block. He attacks the vendor for daring to mention Wei Wuxian in public.

This is my father’s font! I won’t put it down!

The stunt here involves the vendor getting yanked on a wire into a produce table, without knocking it over. One radish falls on the ground but the table doesn’t break into splinters and the air is not filled with flying veggies.

If you are accustomed to American TV and movies, seeing someone hit a produce table or cart without destroying a massive quantity of produce is positively surreal.

Wei Wuxian realizes that Jin Ling’s personality is an unfortunate combination of Jin Zixuan and Jiang Cheng. He decides that he should try to instill some of Jiang Yanli’s virtues in him. He puts his mask on and starts a conversation with Jin Ling.

Enter Fairy, the fluffy adorable dog, who is an exemplar of Wei Wuxian's deep fear of dogs. Fairy is also is a catalyst for a sudden onset of broad comedic acting in our leading man. Wei Wuxian screams and runs away as Fairy slooowly chases him.

#the untamed #the untamed gifs #the untamed meta #restless rewatch the untamed #wangxian #canary3d-original #clownosexuality #the busiest bed in the cloud recesses #parallels #return of the bathing beauty trope

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moonprojects · 7 months

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Introduction Post!

Hi, my name is Ajax! I'm 18, a college student, and use he/they/neos ( wind/windself, hydro/hydroself & mew/meowself are the immediate go to, but feel free to ask! )

This entire account was started for the purpose of storing my NaNoWriMo projects + I want to use it as a means of interacting with readers and other authors alike! I've very excited to see how this turns out!

This ties into a big part of what this account is going to hinge off of: reader interaction! I'm going to have polls set up for certain aspects of fics, I.E, major story choices, design ideas, AUs, all of that fun! I feel like it'd be a really amazing interaction for us all!

Below the cut you'll see guidelines for my account and some extras goodies about what I'm planning on doing here! If that interests you, I highly advise you follow so that you can keep up! Or at least keep an eye on accounts. ( Also I promise I don't always talk in proper grammar don't let that scare you LMAO + divider credit to @cafekitsune! Please check out her stuff she makes really amazing graphics! )

Some basic guidelines for interacting —

PLEASE no bigotry, be respectful and kind! I will not tolerate any sort of behavior of the like, and will immediately block if I see it happening. This also means to please keep fighting off the account.

RESPECT my boundaries. I don't have a lot but a big one I ask is that everyone keeps it casual but proper. Please don't attempt anything weird with me or fellow people here. I will let you know if you've crossed a line that you might've been unaware of but if it happens a second time, after I explicitly state things, I will block. I am not looking for that kind of energy.

NO nsfw please. While this account definitely will deal with some dark subject matter ( such as death, violence, so on and so forth ) I do not want any nsfw being present in interactions or asks.

ADDING on to that, PLEASE note this account WILL touch on and discuss dark subject matters that may not be for the faint of heart! I really really want people to take in consideration their mental health and comfort levels above everything else so if such topics are not for you, DO NOT INTERACT. For both our sakes.

BE mindful of spoilers! Some fans of the content I may write about might not know what you know! Be respectful of that please!

AND most important of all, remember, this is for fun! I want everyone, myself included, to enjoy being here!

What do I write? A collective list below but note it doesn't cover everything!

Trigun ( Manga, '98 & '23 anime. This is what technically inspired me to make this account! )

Jujutsu Kaisen ( Manga & anime )

Genshin Impact ( Game & manga )

HI3/HSR ( Although I'm not super familiar with the games lore and such I'm still testing the waters with it )

MXTX works ( I've read them all, and working to catch up on donghuas/manhuas )

Bioshock! ( All games, big bioshock fan here! )

Castlevania ( Netflix series! Both the original & Nocturne )

Transformers ( Basically anything within the TF franchise I will touch on in writing )

Please feel free to ask about anything too! Whenever I do these posts I tend to almost immediately forget what I write, so I encourage you to throw an ask my way if you're curious!

And I believe that's all! Thank you so much for coming by!

#intro post #introductory post #trigun maximum #trigun stampede #trigun #genshin impact #honkai star rail #honkai impact #bioshock #castlevania #transformers #jujutsu kaisen #mxtx

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kotaboda · 2 years

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finished setting up my merch shelf at my new home :) my roommates figures are the my hero ones and the big gorillaz girl. oh forgot to remove cardboard thing oh well

detail shots under the cut!!

my nice lil tgcf pendants and hualian shikishi boards

of course my charms from @koujaaku (ive ordered more!! I'll pair them together soon) and some nice hualian standees for the donghua

very proud of how this section turned out. my english novels, various charms, my two new minidolls!!! my new figure set of them eating! and existing figure set of san lang catching gege :) and a matching starember standee of hua cheng catching dianxia. and my cute chibi donghua hualian standee

also new figure set of the bridal sedan scene!! it came with a standee background!! and no instructions so that took some figuring out ... and my stickers and charms from @saltymeat :)

the fifth camphong novel arrived!!! so its now lined up with the other novels and their matching charms :') and of course various hualian standees in front of them because i have no where else to put them and they only partially cover the novels pretty covers

and my two prints from kredericART. cute bookmarks of diff tgcf characters and all those cute domestic hualian pics that are on the inside of the chinese novels

VIBRATES. i got the novels for Golden Stage and Nan Chan!!! a couple standees and pieces of art for them too!! love the golden stage catboys djdjjfjf

My promare official and zine merch!! lio's figure is as fabulous as ever.and my mdzs merch!! i got the lunar new year wangxian figure set! and my lil figma figures!!! (wei ying took much effort posing). and my standees and single manhua volume ofc :') i only have two english books because i think the third got sent to my old apartment....

the mass effect zine is new!! im so excited to finally have mass effect merch hehe. and my beloved good omens and ace attorney zines

and oh tumblr only allows 10 images. well the other zines on the bottom shelf are yuri on ice, fe3h claudeleth, and ares from hades game. and avas demon. but those arent new. well the ares one might be new from last time i shared but oh well

#kota speaks #tgcf #just tagging that one bc well #its the special interest #and a majority of the merch here #and my pride and joy of this shelf #hualian #yea sure #look at my THINGS!!#my collection gives me so much DOPAMINE

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shieldherostuffs · 2 years

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Fans of a God and his Believer (RotSH x TGCF Prompt)

Just got an Idea for a RotSH x TGCF Crossover.

Basically, somehow, no one decided to tell Naofumi and Kizuna there not only were there elves(classified as Demi-humans), jewel people, and spirit people in L'Arc's world, but also Actual Gods and Ghosts.

The way they find out is when they & co. stumble upon an abandoned temple seemingly centuries old, overgrown with plants and looking as if a light breeze could make it collapse.

(The reason they're all out adventuring together instead of making L'Arc rule his Kingdom, is because L'Arc just pushed that responsibility onto his advisors before sneaking out to join them all.)

Upon going inside, the group decide to explore, while Naofumi stared dumbfoundedly at the statue, the whole head except the jaw and left ear missing, and multiple other places missing bits and pieces, but mostly intact.

What catches Naofumi's attention, is what the statue holds, a flower in one hand, and a sword in the other.

When Kizuna asks why he's staring, Naofumi says it reminds him of one of his favorite stories back from his world, about a God and his Believer. Kizuna, amusedly, says the same.

The two stare at each other, and Naofumi asks her what God.

"His Highness the Crown Prince, The Prince Who Pleased The Gods, -" Kizuna says

"The Flower Crowned Martial God, Xie Lian of Xian Le." Naofumi finishes

The two stare at each other again, before breaking into questions mainly, "You know Heaven Official's Blessing?!".

The two fan over it for a while until the rest came back.

Kizuna was grumpy after hearing that Naofumi's world had gotten Manhua and a Donghua, while she was summoned before hers could even get translated to English.

They'd made an agreement to check if the fiction of their worlds might be reality mixed into this world.

So when the rest comes back, Naofumi asks them if they know who the God of this Temple is.

L'Arc answers that he's not sure, as most people up here in the north worship the God, General Ming Guang.

Naofumi and Kizuna side-eye each other, 'Ming Guang?! General Pei Ming is real here too! Hell yeah, more proof!'

A few weeks of traveling later, as the sun is setting and a village is on the horizon. As L'Arc looks at a map and everyone is idling in the carriage drawn by two horses, Naofumi asks what the village is called.

"Hmm, Piqu Village, from what the map says."

Kizuna, who'd been taking a sip of water, suddenly chokes and starts coughing, prompting Glass to sorry and pat her back to help.

They all end up being led to the little Shrine to ask for any places to camp, Puqi Shrine, kept by the nice Shrine Keeper dressed in white and almost always accompanied by a youth dressed in red.

Naofumi and Kizuna once again gave each other side glances and restrained smiles of big fans, as they'd done each time they came across a major temple for one of the Gods in their favorite story. They'd already spent countless hours comparing, and found that their two favorite stories were completely identical.

Therese and Raphtalia were the ones to go to the Shrine and ask the keeper if he knew any good spots for camping around, and they were pointed in the direction of a stream.

Naofumi and Kizuna pointedly decided not to engage in any way with the Shrine Keeper, just in case it would really be the Xie Lian, and they would accidentally start fanpersoning.

But Therese did also mention that the Shrine Keeper introduced himself as Xie Lian, a humble shrine keeper for the Crown Prince of Xian Le.

Naofumi had not choked on his food. He had not.

Months of traveling and fighting the Waves later, the group some-fucking-how find themselves in Ghost City, of all places.

Naofumi and Kizuna are absolutely admiring the place as they wander around, as are the rest of the group.

And no, Naofumi and Kizuna did not squeal and absolutely did not stop and stare when they stumbled upon the entrance to the Gambler's Den.

And also no, they did not freeze and did not gasp when they saw the silhouette of Hua Cheng and Xie Lian sitting upon the divan behind the red curtains, and they did not gasp again when they saw a split second of Yin Yu leaving the Gambler's Den.

They did not.

(By the opinion of everyone else in their group, they absolutely did. The two will forever argue that they did not.)

#tgcf #shield hero #the rising of the shield hero #rising of the shield hero #naofumi iwatani #kizuna kazayama #crossover #shield hero crossover #l'arc berg

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musings-on-aching-flowers · 2 years

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Wei Wuxian - on strengths instead of flaws

I think there’s a lot of confusion between the various MDZS canons, like the novel canon vs donghua canon vs audio drama canon vs manhua canon vs CQL canon. One such confusion is on the nature of one Wei Wuxian.

Mo Dao Zu Shi is a story about resentment. It is a story where those who hang onto resentment, who tally up past grievances and pay them back hundredfold, are the ones who eventually meet their downfall. Xue Yang. Jin Guangyao. Even Mo Xuanyu. These people made their resentment an intrinsic part of who they were, and it ruined them.

Of course, resentment is not an exclusive theme of the novel, and it may not even be the main one, depending on how you look at it. It’s also about class conflict, and mob mentality, and righteousness in the face of every obstacle. But in MDZS, the people who hold onto their resentment the tightest, who bury it within themselves and grow around it like the sand forming a pearl, those are the people whose actions eventually catch up to them.

Wei Wuxian does not hold onto resentment. He is the type of person to keep moving forward. He doesn’t resent Yu Ziyuan, or Jiang Cheng, even with how awfully they treated him. He never resented Lan Wangji when he believed that he’d wanted to take him back to Gusu to imprison him. He doesn’t even resent the 3000 cultivators that came to slaughter him, or the cultivation world as a whole, although that would be very natural, because what did they know about Wei Wuxian?

On top of that, Wei Wuxian seems to be always smiling. Even in his Yiling Laozu era, he was smiling when Lan Wangji showed up in the Burial Mounds. A lot of people seem to ascribe this part of his character to cripplingly low self-esteem, in that he doesn’t see himself as someone who deserves or is allowed to resent others. CQL in particular falls prey to this mischaracterisation, as do many of its fanworks who may have not experienced the original novel.

In fact, it’s much the opposite. It takes knowing your own self worth to forgive and move on.

I know this from experience - one of my friends believes I don’t have enough self esteem to get properly angry over being wronged, and perhaps I don’t, but to me it takes strength to acknowledge something as out of your control and move on rather than continue to be hung up over it. Similarly, it speaks to a great inner strength that Wei Wuxian has this capacity to keep moving forward, despite every single blow he is dealt over the course of his life. His ability to keep smiling is born from strength, not flaw.

Of course, just because he doesn’t resent these people doesn’t mean he necessarily has to reconcile with them - and he doesn’t. That also takes knowing your own worth and value. Wei Wuxian knows that he deserves better than constant degradation, and realises that by stepping away from Lotus Pier, and never returning. There is nothing left for him there anymore, thus, it’s not productive nor healthy for him to stay.

In sum: Wei Wuxian is self-empowered, capable and confident in his capability. He knows his own value, and he trusts his judgement (and he is right to - he is the most righteous cultivator of them all).

He is resilient. And that is what sets him apart from the rest.

#mo dao zu shi #mdzs #mdzs novel #cql #mdzs meta #wei wuxian #wei ying #my meta #character analysis

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shandian-go · 9 months

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Hi Mel, I was just wondering, would you ever do any group orders in the future that consisted of mainland China books? For example would you ever put up another listing for the TGCF manual, donghua art book, or co plete book set? I know that you do TW orders every once in a while but what about for mainland China? Thank you!

there's a lot of new merch that i still have to catch up on but i'll definitely consider running another ongoing order for cn books later this year! but if you can't wait until then you can definitely look into a alternatives :)

for the upcoming in stock sale, i'll also have some tgcf manhua vol 2's and other cn edition novels (2ha, yuwu, golden stage etc. off the top of my head) so you can look into that as well~

#shandian go asks

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nomadicism · 2 years

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Get to know me better meme (2022 edition)

Tagged by: @dear-kumari ヾ(＠^∇^＠)ノ

Favorite color: black, and darker shades of purple and indigo.

Currently reading: Mobile Suit Gundam Thunderbolt (manga), Maison Ikkoku (manga), and the MXTX light novels: Heaven Official’s Blessing (Tiān Guān Cì Fú / 天官赐福), Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation (Mó Dào Zǔ Shī / 魔道祖师), and Scum Villain’s Self-Saving System ( Rén Zhā Fǎnpài Zìjiù Xìtǒng / 人渣反派自救系统).

I’m hoping that the manhua for the MXTX novels will get official English translations and print release (I have some difficulty reading comics in digital format). Also, because I’m greedy, please somebody license the novel and manhua for Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire (Lièhuǒ Jiāo Chóu / 烈火澆愁).

Last series I watched: Drowning Sorrows in Raging Fire (donghua), and The Sopranos (live-action TV). I really need to catch up on season 3 of Legend of the Galactic Heroes: Die Neue These, and Space Battleship Yamato 2205.

Please somebody license the donghua for Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation.

Last movie I watched: The Thing (1982). Such a great film. The special effects hold up well enough, and the Collector’s Edition blu-ray did well with the video (good depth of colors, film grain is balanced, etc)

Currently working on: avoiding reality. Should probably water my plants.

I will tag @headspacedad and @yamatonerd2199

#thank you friend!#tag game #meme

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colorisbyshe · 2 years

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I have literally no way of verifying this info so take it with a grain of salt but I heard a while ago mxtx actually was in college when writing mdzs so the confusing style makes a lot of sense since she's inexperienced, and tgcf was much tighter and made more sense. as someone who read the fan translation of mdzs (and never will again, lmao cql is my only canon), it's interesting to hear about your thoughts about the writing and novel! imo there are genuinely spectacular book moments/dialogue/scenes, but most of them made it to cql, and the few good romance scenes (if he catches me I'll-, the yunmeng date extra) rly aren't worth it. I'm personally glad I read the entire book (sans incense burners) because it gives me a fuller perspective and allows comparison between adaptations, but it's not something I would necessarily recommend. the only scene that I think the novel did great that cql didn't have was the wen blood pool scene, but iirc that was in the donghua too. on the other hand the novel had a lot of really cool worldbuilding elements that were explained much better than in cql and I think jin ling was a stronger character so it also depends on what you like and want to see. anyway it's great to hear your thoughts, thanks for posting!

same anon - also love your description of the problems in the framing device in mdzs. you're right! it's inconsistent and a mess! also super insightful to pinpoint the fact that wwx is being used to introduce characters without spoiling them instead of reacting organically to the situation. and his weird interactions with lwj…they were so miserable /sob

Yeah, I do think the novel does a LOT better job explaining word building stuff than CQL did, since it can just... write things out instead of having it just sort of implied or directly stated via dialogue, which can be clunky. I honestly think a looot of hwat I know about the ~lore was actually picked up through checking the wiki or like having concepts spelled out in fanfic by authors who were drawing from both MDZS/CQL information, which... is a problem. Like it's almost all technical information (like about how golden cores work and what specific terms signify) but also some of it is just concepts being better explained when they were skimmed over in the drama.

So the novels do have value in like... padding out the world and maybe providing some character moments (although I will say... I thought Jiang Cheng being homophobic was just like... an exaggerated meme but no he's like... straight up just textually homophobic LMAO... don't know if i needed that enhanced character depth) but they will never be my definitive understanding of the story, even if I do read past Vol 1. And I definitely hve no interest in spending money on or owning the novels, even in a pirated way.

I am still impressed with how enjoyable of a read it is and I think the text holds up better than I thought it would in terms of like... properly dropping bread crumbs for people who know how everything ends, like it lays things out well... outside of the very weird framing of Wei Wuxian himself against everyone from his former life.

Like I said his reactions to everyone... come off as very unnatural and untrue to his character and their relationships, even with how much distance came between them in his final months/years. For how well misdirection worked in CQL at least... it's really not working here when provided with characters more inner thoughts.

So I LIKE having them, at least in theory, and I like more peaks into the background (like Lan Xichen teasing Lan Wangji early on about liking Wei Wuxian's company lmaoooo), but idk if the early stuff is servicing what is to come as well as it should be.

Also... the bad BL tropes are already hitting hard. Like LWJ making WWX sleep on top of him and the moments emphasizing how tiny WWX is now.... girl, the fujoshi within you has leaked onto the page, go clean that up.

I think (from what I know at least, from the manhua and from comparisons) Imas sively going to appreciate MXTX being less present in the CQL adaption. Like I feel the author too much in the novel. I feel the machinations.

So as pleased as I am by the world building and overall narrative/character moments, which is VERY pleased, she really is her own worst enemy. Not even getting into her moral issues just from like a technical stand point, her writing is very frustrating to me.

Going from a superior adaption to the OG text is lot.

It's like... did any of y'all read the thirteen letters? Womb to tomb bitches?? It's like reading that then watching TFA. Like... even the likable things become frustrating because you're so aware of their limitations and how they aren't reaching their full potential.

#i really have jumped from one franchise where i hate the creators to a new one huh #can't even appreciate the source material

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crisisaur · 2 months

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I…need to catch up on so much media with mo dao zu shi

I have to read the books (which I’m currently about half way through the second book so I got that covered for now), watch the donghua (something which, at least what I’m aware of, is not readily accessible to me without having to pay for the episodes), read the manhua and now on top of that I have to read the manga that’s going to be released?

#I’m in too deep to quit now #And tbh I don’t want to quit now #I’m too invested in wangxian to quit lmao #mo dao zu shi #the grandmaster of demonic cultivation #mxtx mdzs #mxtx

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tgcf-donghua · 7 months

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This is a spoiler-free Heaven Official's Blessing or 天官赐福 (TGCF) donghua fan account. Will mostly be official content/ reblogs related to the donghua.

let's get to the point of this post- this blog will contain absolutely NO SPOILERS for the TGCF Novels, Manhua or any other related Canon content, like the light novels ⚠️ please refrain from mentioning such content in the replies, reblogs (including tags), and in asks/ submissions related to any of the above-mentioned content to this blog (i haven't read the novels yet either, and don't intend to until the donghua catches up!)

~ May the heaven official's blessing shatter all taboos. ~

Some clarification if you didn't know: Donghua, according to my knowledge, refers to Chinese animations/ animated series'. And Manhua, similarly, refers to Chinese comics. This terminology is apparently mostly used by Non-Chinese people to refer to Chinese animations/ comics.

Heaven Official's Blessing, or 天官赐福 (Tiān Guān Cì Fú) in Mandarin, is a donghua adapted from a series of novel of the same name, written by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu (墨香铜臭) available for streaming on various platforms such as Crunchyroll and Bilibili (a sidenote: you get subtitles on Bilibili but the resolution is horrible [480p] if you watch it without logging in/ without premium).

TGCF has officially taken over my heart, and I've wanted to explore and interact with the fandom so much. But very few people in the fandom (as far as I have noticed) haven't yet read the novels or the manhua, and its difficult to find fan-content which doesn't spoil the other canon media the donghua hasn't caught up with yet. I've seen this happen in a lot of fandoms, like JJK (if you know, you know).

Which is why I've made this blog! This is like a safe space for the donghua-only people who do not want the books/comics spoiled for them. I'll post (reblog mostly) fanarts, theories and other stuff related only to the donghua over here and make sure there's no spoilers, so that people can find stuff easily without having to worry about finding out more than they want to!

Hope you enjoy your visit here!

Disclaimer: I do not know any Chinese at all and the Chinese words I've used here are translations I've found on the internet. Please do correct me if its wrong anywhere!

#tgcf #heaven official's blessing #pinned post

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waterblobbu · 8 months

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hi would you mind more asks. if not can you sell tgcf to me I cant bring myself to start. also whos your wings of fire favorite

hi!!! i dont mind asks at all :)

its a bit long so ill put it under the cut!

im not very good at summarizing or advertising things to people but ill do my best!!

for a quick summary, tgcf is a chinese bl that tells the romance between a fallen/disgraced god and a demon king as they unravel mysteries of their pasts. i wont get into spoilers here, but the plot starts off with the main character having to solve a demon problem, and then encountering the love interest on the way. from there, their problems just escalate further...

the main character is a man named Xie Lian. he has ultra bad luck, gets into trouble often, but is charming and very funny to witness. his backstory is also heart-wrenchingly angsty, so if you love that kind of stuff, then this seems like a good story for you. (just be warned that there are explicit mentions of suicide, depression, murder, alcoholism, all that stuff)

meanwhile the love interest of the book is a man named Hua Cheng. he is mysterious but in a suave way, he has awesome character design (though ill argue that almost every character in this series is amazingly designed), and his reasons for his devotion to the main character are similarly heart-wrenchingly angsty (but still sweet).

for illustration purposes, here they are:

(xie lian is dressed in white, while hua cheng is dressed in red)

their chemistry is really cute, because you have several elements of their personalities that compliment each other (for example, xie lian is sometimes clumsy while hua cheng is almost always perfectly poised and always there to catch him). their linked pasts are also...really good. i cant say much else without getting into spoilers here..but there's a shit ton of really good angst. i keep repeating myself but the angst in this story is god tier. i love it so much.

also, keep in mind that there is a 7 year age gap between them, so if you're uncomfortable with that, then maybe dont get into this series...

now, aside from the two main characters, there are lots of other side characters with various personalities and motivations in this story, but all of them indulge in a bit of clownery in the end, they're simultaneously funny but interesting. they dont feel like 2d characters in a sense and all of their lores are all connected to the main character in some way, which ties everything up into the central focus of the plot nicely (he keeps getting into a lot of situations...)

here are some of the side characters, just to show you some of the designs (in the donghua version):

if you enjoy reading, then i wholeheartedly suggest you read the books, as it originally started out as written literature. the narration is pretty easy to understand, but it does drag on a bit at times (because of the sheer amount of Plot happening). some translations are available online, but seven seas has official published english translations available for purchase.

there's also a manhua/comic, though i havent read it yet so im not sure where to access it, but from what ive seen so far the illustrations are gorgeous!

the first season of the animated version/donghua of tgcf should also be available online or on netflix, if you prefer to watch a moving version of the story

tl;dr tgcf has great visuals, great storytelling, awesome characters, an interesting and heart-wrenching dynamic between its main leads, and FANTASTIC angst. go watch it. or read it. whichever you prefer :)

anyways, whew! that was long

as for the second part of that ask...

tough one... i enjoy a lot of characters (sunny, kinkajou, moonwatcher, sundew, winter) but i gotta say Glory, she's my og fave :)

thanks for the ask!!

#blob text #i hope nobody from the main tags see this or else im gonna crumble to ashes /j

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