#Mi screaming about Yingdu

[kuschelkissen]

Added some more things after watching the final PV and the Ending...

Still very unsure what to make of Xia Fei... I know I cannot trust anything that is hinted at, but my perception of him has changed since the chess artwork dropped (with him being a pawn... like... what's that supposed to mean?) from "probably a bitch" to "a pawn" to "just a guy" to "just a sad guy".

Ok so. Actual predictions I make about Yingdu

List under cut

Cheng Xiaoshi dies on screen at least once.

Cheng Xiaoshi dies in a dream and/ or flashback

the two chapters will be split between actual prequel (3 years ago) and the present (current timeline? Or maybe the previous one. Probably somewhere before s1) (Basing this entirely of 2 things, the 2 different outfits and the fact that Lu Guang said in the first trailer "i think he might be in Yingdu" and "he can't go to Yingdu", which sounds to me like something happened on their overseas trip?) (Not sure where the flashbacks with the Qiaos or the basketball scene will be in this)

Xia Fei dies (bonus points if he actually dies in the fire that killed Cheng Xiaoshi at one point. Based on the opening lol)

Lu Guang almost drowns (bonus points for cpr. YES I KNOW IT'S NOT A KISS BUT THEIR LIPS TOUCH AND I'M DESPERATE, OK?!)

full scene of the meet cute at the basketball court (but it's not the first timeline)

Vein can control dreams

Xia Fei and the blonde woman are related (If my gf is right and he is her in disguise, I'm gonna scream and laugh, it would be funny)

Xia Fei will betray... someone. I hope it will be Vein and Liu Xiao, but my gut tells me it will be ShiGuang

Xia Fei probably has powers. Whatever they will look like

Vein is not an actual cannibal (praying for this one, I don't want to mute more artists I like)

we will see the Qiaos taking care of Cheng Xiaoshi (bonus points if the whole "I'll give you a ten year loan for rent" is shown as a joke and papa Qiao's way of trying to make cxs think they're not pitying him, so he let's them help him.)

idk if there will be actual backstory for Lu Guang, but I hope so. I wish to see their actual first meeting, though I don't think we will get that in Yingdu. At least not if the white hair theory will be confirmed, what I assume won't happen before s3 when Qiao Ling confronts Lu Guang.

Cheng Xiaoshi gets his powers (gets them or they awaken)

"thank you for your cooperation, sweetie" is said to either Lu Guang or Cheng Xiaoshi after he helped Vein with something that seemed harmless, but lead to something horrible. (Bonus points if he says it to Lu Guang after whatever he did to help lead to Cheng Xiaoshi dying)

we learn something about Cheng Xiaoshi's parents

- a few questions will be answered, but in the end we will be left with more

every episode will end with a cliffhanger so bad I'll cry

I think that's all for now, need to sort my thoughts more for the rest

EDIT after seeing the final PV

Lu Guang's power turns out to be actually different than what we thought it was

Lu Guang's conversation with Liu Xiao about controlling the future has actually nothing to do with Cheng Xiaoshi's death because it hasn't happened at that point. It is the beginning of the Loop, though

EDIT2 after seeing the ending

the man and woman you see from behind are Xia Fei's parents who died in the big fire (blonde woman is his sister and part of me wants to say she thinks she's the only survivor but her brother survived, too. Adding this one solely based on that cipher reading "there is more than one survivor to this disaster". But in the end it doesn't make sense with XF being so prominent as a famous model, so... UGH. There is, again, more to this.) (still dunno what his agency is though lol)

[kuschelkissen]

Yeah. "The song is not a tear jerker", YES IT FUCKING IS

I'm a fucking mess, I'm crying, I'm not gonna survive this fucking show if I'm gonna be crying within TEN FUCKING SECONDS OF THE OPENING?!

"I couldn't make it to you", are you for fucking real?!

😭😭😭😭😭

Can't even really enjoy the song because OF COURSE it's in English, so i can't even tune out the lyrics!! 😭

The visuals on top??

Gorgeous, BUT HEART WRENCHING 😭😭😭

Gf was like "he's smiling 🥹", well I'm fucking not?! He's also crying! Good, we have that in common, I guess?!

^ Accurate depiction of myself rn, just add some trembling on top, well done, bilibili, well done👏

[kuschelkissen]

My prediction for Yingdu:

I'm gonna cry. I'm gonna cry each fucking episode, because the opening is gonna make me cry, and the more the series progresses, the more I'm gonna cry, because each episode will give more context and will make the opening worse.

This is the one prediction I can make where I'm 100% certain of

[kuschelkissen]

"Every time I watch the opening song together with the first part of the first episode of the Yingdu, I feel like crying. 🥲"

Cool cool cool.

So I'll extend my predictions to We will see Cheng Xiaoshi die in the first part of the first episode.

Yeah, I'm not OK

[kuschelkissen]

Idk, somehow this doesn't make it easier for me 😭 every time we get something new, I feel more and more hopeless for the ending

💀

[kuschelkissen]

Putting this under the cut, I just watched the new ending...

Why the fuck

does he look

SO FUCKING SAD IN EACH FRAME?!

WHAT IS YOUR DEAL?!

[kuschelkissen]

Going to bed now. See you all tomorrow to scream together about the new opening.

[kuschelkissen]

Ok so. Actual predictions I make about Yingdu

List under cut

Cheng Xiaoshi dies on screen at least once.

Cheng Xiaoshi dies in a dream and/ or flashback

the two chapters will be split between actual prequel (3 years ago) and the present (current timeline? Or maybe the previous one. Probably somewhere before s1) (Basing this entirely of 2 things, the 2 different outfits and the fact that Lu Guang said in the first trailer "i think he might be in Yingdu" and "he can't go to Yingdu", which sounds to me like something happened on their overseas trip?) (Not sure where the flashbacks with the Qiaos or the basketball scene will be in this)

Xia Fei dies (bonus points if he actually dies in the fire that killed Cheng Xiaoshi at one point. Based on the opening lol)

Lu Guang almost drowns (bonus points for cpr. YES I KNOW IT'S NOT A KISS BUT THEIR LIPS TOUCH AND I'M DESPERATE, OK?!)

full scene of the meet cute at the basketball court (but it's not the first timeline)

Vein can control dreams

Xia Fei and the blonde woman are related (If my gf is right and he is her in disguise, I'm gonna scream and laugh, it would be funny)

Xia Fei will betray... someone. I hope it will be Vein and Liu Xiao, but my gut tells me it will be ShiGuang

Xia Fei probably has powers. Whatever they will look like

Vein is not an actual cannibal (praying for this one, I don't want to mute more artists I like)

we will see the Qiaos taking care of Cheng Xiaoshi (bonus points if the whole "I'll give you a ten year loan for rent" is shown as a joke and papa Qiao's way of trying to make cxs think they're not pitying him, so he let's them help him.)

idk if there will be actual backstory for Lu Guang, but I hope so. I wish to see their actual first meeting, though I don't think we will get that in Yingdu. At least not if the white hair theory will be confirmed, what I assume won't happen before s3 when Qiao Ling confronts Lu Guang.

Cheng Xiaoshi gets his powers (gets them or they awaken)

"thank you for your cooperation, sweetie" is said to either Lu Guang or Cheng Xiaoshi after he helped Vein with something that seemed harmless, but lead to something horrible. (Bonus points if he says it to Lu Guang after whatever he did to help lead to Cheng Xiaoshi dying)

we learn something about Cheng Xiaoshi's parents

- a few questions will be answered, but in the end we will be left with more

every episode will end with a cliffhanger so bad I'll cry

I think that's all for now, need to sort my thoughts more for the rest

EDIT after seeing the final PV

Lu Guang's power turns out to be actually different than what we thought it was

Lu Guang's conversation with Liu Xiao about controlling the future has actually nothing to do with Cheng Xiaoshi's death because it hasn't happened at that point. It is the beginning of the Loop, though

EDIT2 after seeing the ending

the man and woman you see from behind are Xia Fei's parents who died in the big fire (blonde woman is his sister and part of me wants to say she thinks she's the only survivor but her brother survived, too. Adding this one solely based on that cipher reading "there is more than one survivor to this disaster". But in the end it doesn't make sense with XF being so prominent as a famous model, so... UGH. There is, again, more to this.) (still dunno what his agency is though lol)

[kuschelkissen]

Hate hate hate 😭😭 as if the popular theory of this being the 5th time wasn't already bad enough???

THESE SCENES !!!!

“Trapped in endings I don’t want you to know.”

FUUUUUCK

how many times lg how many times did you watch him die?

[kuschelkissen]

This, but followed by "Will things really go the way you want?", has me in shambles.

I am so unwell, because... what does that mean?? If Lu Guang had the power to control the future, then one would assume that, YES, things WILL go the way he wants? So I'm wondering what this question means.

A part of me is also wondering whether or not this is about CXS to begin with... what if this Controlling-the-future is what caused his death in the first place? Don't ask me how, because my thoughts are a literal mess after the PV and OP, but something about LX's line here and the one from S2 ("I want to bring timelines together", or whatever his words were), ARGH, I have a bad feeling about this...

time travel mechanics wise i am definitely beginning to feel as though (like others have pointed out) LG isn't abandoning timelines per se, but rewinding time ("play it till the end and then reset" vibes) — and maybe the past and future motto + the idea of major nodes isn't a Sure fact, but rather LG's way of retaining as much control over the timeline as possible.

I'm reminded of the earthquake arc, how CXS pleads to save the others and LG very heatedly says something like "changing the past could completely erase the life we have in the present"

CXS probably understood it as a straightforward butterfly effect, but in actuality CXS changing major things throws in a variable that LG hasn't accounted for, and as a result could jepordize the future LG has been so painstakingly fighting for.

[kuschelkissen]

I really, really want to see them get closer, even for ten minutes.

PLEASE I BEG YOU GIVE MY A BIT OF THAT HAPPINESS 😭 I need a few nice scenes between all these horrors, or I'll simply crumble to dust

Can we talk about how scenic and (romantic??) the lightning in the new yingdu OP is??

Most scenes are set in the late afternoon bathed in soft sunlight. This time of the day often carries a nostalgic and wistful tone(at least to me personally) which feels very intimate to me.

The whole OP feels like wistfully looking at a fond memory and I think the scenes wouldn't come off the same way if it weren't shown in those melancholic late afternoon summer days.

[kuschelkissen]

I think this is a good take on this, because while I think we can all agree on Liu Xiao and Vein being the villains here, and Cheng Xiaoshi being the good one, where does Xia Fei fit in there??

(Lu Guang is a bit of a grey zone, since he's, from what we've seen so far, a good person, he has also shown to be a bit... hmm. Don't wanna say morally grey because that's not really it. At least not from what we've seen YET. But he has shown that he'll do basically whatever it takes to get what he wants, regardless of what that might mean for the timeline. So. We will see what else we will find out in Yingdu 🫠 "control the future", hmm, for Cheng Xiaoshi's sake, right? Right??)

So, while I wasn't exactly immediately on board with "Xia Fei is a good one!!", I was still wondering why he was on the same team as the boys??

And this explanation kinda makes a lot of sense? (Though so far, Vein doesn't seem to me like someone who would only react and defend. 🤔 aaah, gdi, so many questions!!)

Link Click Chess Theory: White vs Black

From the discussions I’ve seen online, there seems to be a consensus that characters associated with the white pieces are “good,” while those associated with the black pieces are “evil.” Putting aside the human tendency to associate lightness with goodness and darkness with evil (e.g. Morning is Good, Night breeds crime, or the racist belief that one race is inferior because of skin color), Link Click itself has dropped several hints that align White with the good side.

In this official art, Cheng Xiaoshi is next to a white rook. And, well, we all agree that Cheng Xiaoshi is good at heart...

The fact that Xia Fei is next to a white pawn, plus his mundane PV where he seems to be exploited by LX and Vein, has also gotten the fandom to think that he’s actually Good.

Lu Guang, the other protagonist, is also next to a white piece. So, if the protagonists are all white pieces, then that must mean white is good, right?

Along with the association of white = Good is the belief that the good guys are being treated badly. In Liu Xiao’s PV, Liu Xiao is playing black in the game of chess, while the white pieces (represented by the white goats) are being tortured. The white statues are also colored as if they’ve been mistreated:

Since white is suffering under the hands of black, then the whites are definitely the good pieces while the latter are evil, right?

Wrong.

Link Click has been misleading us with the whole white vs black thing.

There’s this official art, where Lu Guang is a white devil and Cheng Xiaoshi is a black angel:

Wouldn’t this mean the white pieces are actually evil, and the black pieces are the good ones? Still no.

What side the character is playing on is not indicative of the character’s individual stand or morality.

We should’ve known this. When has the message of Link Click ever been plain black and white?

There is only thing you need to know about this whole White vs Black thing, and it’s that:

In chess, the white pieces move first.

That’s it. That’s all there is to it.

Characters associated with white pieces are those who get to move first. They are those with the power or agency to do so.

In the Angel-Devil art above, we have the black Cheng Xiaoshi trapped inside a clock, which is indicative of his doomed fate. Meanwhile, the white Lu Guang is outside the clock and putting his hand over it, which is indicative of the certain degree of control he has over Cheng Xiaoshi’s life and death.

However, in the Break MV, the roles are reversed. Cheng Xiaoshi plays white, while Lu Guang is black:

(Notice the white bottom hair on CXS. White hair theory is real)

In this MV, Cheng Xiaoshi knows the truth:

“Our memories come back to life,” followed by a frame of CXS.

Clearly, CXS has more agency here, so he’s able to play a more active role in the time game and come to Lu Guang’s aid, who is now on the Black side, possibly having lost his own agency.

Conclusion

If the character is in White, then that means they have the agency to take the first move or launch an attack. They are in control. In contrast, if they are in Black, they have little to no agency and can only passively defend.

Characters can change colors anytime. Being either white or black is not absolute.

Up Next: What about Liu Xiao? Is he black or white?

[kuschelkissen]

I REFUSE TO TAKE THIS LITERALLY!! (Especially since BaishaJAWS apparently said they didn't know about the plot, so... I will not take it literally 😭)

THESE SCENES !!!!

“Trapped in endings I don’t want you to know.”

FUUUUUCK

how many times lg how many times did you watch him die?