#anyway i play with the chinese dub so i don't know if the other dubs got the same voice direction for that thing with sam's voice

[hydrachea]

One thing I've come to appreciate about going into a story after having sought out or seen spoilers is that to me, it doesn't ruin my experience of the story - it changes it. That doesn't apply to all spoilers, but I've been thinking about Penacony's biggest spoiler (really, the one that so many people saw, it wasn't even treated as a spoiler anymore long before it actually dropped. Which was shitty, but a different topic).

For some, knowing Firefly and Sam were the same person before the reveal might have soured their enjoyment of the story. But since HSR's quests aren't replayable, I ended up really appreciating knowing their identity in advance, because otherwise I don't think I could have noticed some things - like Firefly's occasional little slip-ups into her more professional side, or the one that marked me most was how in both Sam's conversation with Acheron and few words with the Trailblazer pre-reveal, you can hear Firefly in Sam's tone of voice in a way you couldn't before. It really gave me a new kind of appreciation for those scenes.

(I still wish the main quests could be viewed again, though.)

[hamletisintown]

I'm so fucking annoyed at the number of english-speaking hoyoverse players who play with the japanese subtitles

I'm only speaking about like, streamers and youtubers because those are the ones i see playing, obviously (and i'm only talking about genshin impact and honkai star rail bc those are the 2 hoyo games i play but i'm willing to bet the trend is the same in other hoyo games, and possibly in other chinese "anime" games)

The number of times i click on a video and the person speaks english but has their game set to japanese dubbing for no reason, like. Can you guys stop being weebs for just one second please.

[wangmiao]

An Incomplete History of Zhang Luyi & Chen Minghao's Friendship

Do you like Pangxie's chemistry in Tibetan Sea Flower? Do you feel that they are really old friends? Besides the fact that Zhang Luyi and Chen Minghao are very good actors, they are indeed old friends, and the earliest record that I can find of them working together dates back to 2006. However, CMH was in the 1996 class of acting at the The Central Academy of Drama, while ZLY was in the 1999 class of directing at the same university, so I figured they definitely got to know each other before 2006. So more or less, on Chinese social media, people usually assume that they've been friends for almost 20 years.

Before I dig into the history, I want to mention that some Pangxie scenes are actually improvised by ZLY and CMH on set. CHM has played Pangzi several times, and is insanely good at it, so he knows about Pangzi and the character dynamics inside out. While ZLY is new to the DMBJ universe, he did read all the DMBJ novels before the filming of Tibetan Sea Flower, so he has very insightful understanding of the characters and relationship dynamics as well.

For example, according to an interview of the director, this iconic & funny "拜年/new year's greeting" scene in episode 6 was improvised, and the director just decided to keep it in the final cut. In a BTS footage, Pangxie putting peanuts on Feng's very wrinkled test paper in episode 9 was also shown to be something that ZLY and CMH came up with during rehearsing.

The History

In the first paragraph, I mentioned that they went to the same undergraduate university. Another thing that connects them even more is that they went to the same graduate school - Peking University's School of Arts, and both have the master's degree in arts. ZLY fans sometimes just endearingly call CMH “师哥/shige" because of all of this.

In 2006, ZLY and CMH were in the stage play 琥珀/Amber. Here are some rare photos of 26-year old ZLY and 31 year old CMH LOL:

Both of them continued to do a lot of theatre works, some tv/film roles, and also attended grad school in the coming years. ZLY got his breakthrough leading role in 2014, and started to lead in shows/films.

In 2016, ZLY and South Korean actor Jang Hyuk starred in the drama 新海/New Sea, and CMH was seen sharing the following scene with ZLY. Unfortunately, due to China's ban on South Korean entertainment content in the same year, this drama will probably never see the light of day.

Then, I think some of you already know this, in late 2016, CMH directed the stage play Big D, and ZLY was his lead actor in this play. According to different news articles, the tickets of this play were sold out in either 5, 7, or 8 minutes (LOL no idea why there were such discrepancies, but they were sold out within 10 minutes for sure).

In 2018, they appeared in The Sound which is a very good variety show about dubbing. Celebrities were asked to dub domestic and international shows/films (sometimes in both Chinese and English) to show case their voice acting skills and language skills. What's really funny is that ZLY is one of the typical introverts who can be a clown when he's surrounded by people he's familiar with, but once you put him in an unfamiliar environment, he gets nervous and shy. So after he and CMH entered the room together, he just naturally and subconsciously stood right beside CMH, the one he was most comfortable with, even though he was supposed to team up with another actress (who was off screen). He got really confused for a minute when all the other guests and hosts were questioning why he didn't stand beside his teammate LOL.

Both ZLY and CMH are really very low key actors in c-ent, so you don't see them in public events a lot. The last time that they were spotted chatting in public was during the premiere of the movie Under the Light last September.

Anyways, thanks for reading! I hope this can bring some insight into their friendship. You can tell they are just so comfortable with each other, and shooting Tibetan Sea Flower seemed to be such a fun experience for them. I hope they get to work together again soon in the future!

Edit: if you noticed my tags and saw the reply of someone requesting to know why ZLY was picked as Wu Xie: I made a long post here.

[syn4k]

digital media i watched this year that i really really enjoyed: a (non-exhaustive, non-ranked) list

hi everyone! ray keys here. i'm writing this on Dec 21st because I know I'll forget to post this on time if I don't schedule it beforehand.

i don't watch things on streaming services because i don't have any of the apps downloaded on my phone and most shows just aren't my thing anyways (ATLA has been the only exception) so all of the links here go to YouTube or other (free) sites

here we go!

Misc. Series and Standalone Videos

17776

17776 is a multimedia webnovel (?) about American football in the year of, you guessed it, 17776, written in 2017 by Jon Bois. It's told through the communications of three space probes made by humans and it's genuinely comforting as someone who's generally terrified by the concepts of eternity and immortality. Trigger warning for unreality at the start.

17776

20020 (the sequel, written in 2020 by the same author)

Code MENT

Code MENT is a YouTube series made by PurpleEyesWTF, of which the first episode was released in 2010. It's a fan-made abridgMENT of the anime Code Geass, voiced entirely by one guy (or at least i think so), and some parts of it have become legendary (see: Soup Store). Trigger warning for murder, infrequent use of the R slur, and depictions of blood and gore.

Code MENT playlist

Star Wars The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West, uploaded to YouTube by GratefulDeadpool in 2017, is a video where somebody put the entire script of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in Google Translate, translated it to Chinese then back to English, and dubbed over it. Yes, it's the entire movie. No, it somehow hasn't been taken down yet.

Star Wars the Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West

Mianite (S1)

At least some of you should be familiar with Mianite, seeing as how it has taken over my entire blog over the past month or so. The World of Mianite is a vanilla Minecraft SMP launched in 2014. It was streamed live, but the recordings of those livestreams were later uploaded to YouTube. The main members of the serverlist are CaptainSparklez, II_JERIICHO_II, SynHD, and OmgItsFirefoxx. Mianite has had three seasons so far, but I've only watched the first from one perspective so that's what you guys are going to get.

CaptainSparklez' Mianite S1 Playlist

MAMASb0y's Mianite Animations Playlist

Mianite Purge Highlights Playlist

Alan Becker (and his Team)'s Work

Hi! This channel gets a special section all to itself because I just finished the Animation vs Minecraft series and I'm pretty sure my life has been irreversibly changed forever.

Animator Vs Animation

Animator Vs Animation (shortened: AVA or AvA) is an animated YouTube series by Alan Becker. The first episode was originally posted in 2006 and was later reuploaded to the platform in 2018. I recently binged the entire thing and was NOT expecting it to be as fucking incredible as it was. This is the de facto best place to start if you want to jump into Alan's other works featuring these characters, which I highly recommend because all of them are fantastic!

Animator Vs Animation Series Playlist

Animation Vs Minecraft

The stick men play the block game. Do not read the comments of any of the episodes until you have finished the entire series. Do not go in with any prior knowledge if you're able to. Set yourself up with a bowl of popcorn and a big ol' glass of ice water, sit back, look really closely for continuity because it is there and it is GLORIOUS, and enjoy.

Animator Vs Minecraft Series Playlist

[blueberrybladelemonade]

Colors of Expression

Inspired by this little comic by @pervertedindividual

💜While I usually don't write for other PizzaTower characters, this was fun to do a short fic on. Apologies if there's any errors, there was no drafts or planning as I wrote this 💜

Pepperman x Reader

Contains: Enemies to lovers (kinda?), Questionable art, Bullying an anthropomorphic pepper, kinda crack-ish/crack fic. 

You stared out from the window, concentrating. Rain was still gently falling. You watched as the water in some spots cascaded from the awnings below. It had been raining on and off like this for almost two hours now, not that you were complaining, and didn't show signs of stopping. Your head dipped down again and in a fluid motion a pencil scraped across paper. 

Music from the studio played overhead, light notes from the piano added a cliche but relaxing atmosphere while you worked. Your pencil flicked across a few select areas, following the contour of the other lines. 

Humming in approval, you raise your arms and stretch, deciding you might as well stand up.  As you sigh contently you feel the pressure from your back ease up. Maybe you'll go downstairs and treat yourself to a nice coffee. Or maybe you'll try a tea today.

You pause. Should you take a break now? It's not like anyone else was here in the room. While you didn't mind others in the studio (it was a public space, anyways) you did enjoy the feeling of having the entire place to yourself.

You cast another glance down at your piece. With the groundwork mostly done, you can finally begin the "point of no return" as you dubbed it. Once you begun adding colors you wouldn't be able to erase them. 

You shrug, you'll paint a little bit before you go downstairs. Every drop of paint and color had to be carefully calculated. One placement gone wrong and it'd be difficult to correct it, if it even could be. 

* * * * 

You wince, feeling a streak of paint fall onto your pant leg. At least you weren't wearing your nice clothes today. You jump at the voice that was suddenly beside you. 

"Oh my, not only is that a poor rendition of a Chinese brush painting, those colors weren't even used then".

You glance to the side, looking at the giant pepper that was standing nearby. What. 

"This style of painting is a tragic amalgam of a brush painting and what ever this style is you're also using. Might I suggest-

"I'll have you know that art is a form of personal expression!" You snap, rising to your feet. How rude. 

"Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's not art!"

You take a step closer. Throwing a hand up. "Someone taped a banana to a wall and as ridiculous as I think that is, that's still art!

You pause. I think. That counts right?

"Hell I put a cup of coffee on the floor in an art gallery to take a closer picture and when I got back, people were standing over it taking pictures of my coffee. It wasn't even part of the gallery! People are just weird! But they seen that as art"! 

The pepper seeming to shrink as you inch closer. Literally. 

"Art is a personal expression so if I want to paint with purple and paint an aurora sky with a cherry blossom tree, on a damn mountain, you can sit down and shut up"! You stare down at the Pepper, small and only coming up to your hips in height.  

"So you better respect my art you pompous jerk"!

With that you spin back around and lift your canvas. With a sharp click you folded up your tools and began marching towards the door. You'll just have your coffee now. 

Pepperman stood motionless, flinching as the door slammed shut. Staring vacantly at the space, he felt a sudden heat rush to his face. 

Why was that hot?

* * * * 

Days later you returned to the studio. As you swing the door open you groan. 

Not this pepper bitch again you curse. Whatever. You were here to paint, so you were going to paint. If he wanted to try you today you were going to demand to see what he dubs "real art". 

You shoot a sideways glance at him before your attention falls onto his painting, and the one set on the counter nearby. You snort, "Dude you're painting yourself"?

He turns to you, giving you a questioning look. "And, pray tell, what is the problem"?

You move to hover over his shoulder as you get a better look at his current illustration.

"You trash talk my art but your art is just drawings of yourself"! 

"I have illustrated myself in dozens of styles. Cubism, Fauvism, Nouveau, Neocla- Why are you laughing?" the Pepper snaps. 

You had doubled over, arms wrapped around your stomach as you laughed. Of course. Of course this pompous ass pepper would only draw himself. You notice his name signed in the corner. 

You heard it here folks, your art pales in comparison to the pinnacle of true art. Behold, Phil Pepperman. Historians shall one day sing praises of enlightenment as Pepperman bestows his talent those in this mortal coil. 

His art wasn't bad though, you'd admit. You wave him off before regaining your composure. Instead you suck in a breath and simply grin. "Sorry. Just expected someone that was so high and mighty about how bad my art was to not just draw themselves".

"I did not say your art was bad! I simply called it a tragic amalgam." he retorts. 

You roll your eyes in response. Instead you set your canvas and tools up.

* * * * 

You were seated across from Pepperman, two large canvases separating you both. Weeks had went by and you had grown accustomed to your interactions. While you both would make sarcastic remarks and shoot back insults to each other, there was an edge of playfulness to it now. 

Though you'd swear Pepperman would insult you on occasion just to watch your expression turn indignant. You recall the incident last week. 

You had shown Pepperman your finished painting, this time a lake with mountains. He eyed the piece quietly before looking up at you, in a deadpan voice "My dear, your trees look like broccoli".

He laughed as you made a face before demanding to see how great his art was in comparison. 

After shuffling around a few papers, he showed you the newest drawing of himself. 

"Why did you draw yourself as an apple"? You asked. 

Huh. Now that you thought about it, he kept being more secretive with what he had been working on for the last two weeks. Any time you would get up to stretch Pepperman eyed you carefully. If you were to walk past, he'd scramble to hide or put another drawing over it. 

As you stood up, you decided to test that theory. Sure enough, the moment you began to walk past, Pepperman started to cover something up.

"Man, what ever your drawing must be hideous if you're not showing it off." you comment, studying his expression. Oddly enough, no wise crack comes from his mouth. Confirming your suspicion, you go to sit back down. 

Minutes pass by before you decide to poke your head out to the side. 

"So uh...what ARE you drawing anyways?" you ask. 

Silence.

"The most beautiful piece I've done yet". Pepperman finally speaks up. He tilts off to the side to meet your gaze. You scoff. "A tad narcissistic don't ya think"?

"Perhaps. Perhaps not. Would you mind offering your critique"?

"The great 'Phil Pepperman' is asking for the opinion of Y/N? My, I didn't know you'd trust a mere peasant with such a task!" You chuckle as you make your way around to his side of the work station. 

As your eyes fixed on the painting he had been working on, the laugher died in your throat. No sound came from you as your mouth simply hung open. 

"How hideous is it, that even the sharp tongued Y/N has been rendered silent". he said, although it lacked the usual edge you were familiar with.

"Nnn..?"

The illustration was of you. The colors and shading were vibrant, as if the sun was reflecting off you. You had your eyes half closed in contentment. As you looked farther down at the painting of you, one hand had a cup of what looked like tea while the other had a pencil. In the painting it looked like you were sitting outside, the sky behind containing various hues.

It was beautiful. 

"I..."

Pepperman leaned in slightly, tentatively. As if what you were about to say would physically sting. 

"It's beautiful". 

[lovecanbesostrange]

I kept thinking of that poll from yesterday about writing down a list of 100 fav movies and so I just gave it a quick try...

Alien (don't make me choose between 1&2)

Heathers

The Breakfast Club

Nightmare on Elm Street (1, 3, 7)

but I'm a cheerleader

Star Wars 4, 5, 6

The Faculty

The Goonies

Terminator (1, 2, Dark Fate)

The Proposal

Barb & Star go to Vista Del Mar

The Lost Boys

Imagine Me & You

Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind

Princess Mononoke

Laputa - Castle in the Sky

My Neighbor Totoro

The Iron Giant

Titan A.E.

Mulan

The Little Mermaid

Lilo & Stitch

The Emperor's New Groove

Brave

Maleficent

The Hunger Games

GhostBusters (this franchise has no bad entry)

Scream (much like with Alien the third comes in last, but here the whole franchise is one big banger)

The Sixth Sense

Signs

Stardust

X-Men: Days of Future Past (I love almost all foX-Men films though, but 2 and DoFP are the best)

Avengers, Age of Ultron, Infinity War, Endgame (let me put them in a row and I will not pick any more from the MCU)

The Dark Knight

Back to the Future

Jurassic Park

The Lord of the Rings (SEE please)

North by Northwest

Witness for the Prosecution

Some Like it Hot

Mulholland Drive

Raiders of the Lost Ark (also Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, no wait probably more so 3>1, the others are fine)

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Charlie's Angels + Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle

Pirates of the Caribbean (1, 2, 3)

Stephen King's IT Chapter One (funny enough I probably wouldn't qualify Two as a fav on its own, though it's a good and necessary second half of the story, but Chapter One is where it's at)

Carrie (1976)

The Mist (black-and-white is dope)

Misery

Stand by Me

Spaceballs

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Adventures in Babysitting

The Invisible Man (2020)

Pitch Black

Sunshine

The Cabin in the Woods

Evil Dead (especially 2)

Event Horizon

The Blob (1988)

Death Becomes Her

Steel Magnolias

A Fish called Wanda

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (German Dub supremacy though, Volle Kanne Hoshy)

Stranger than Fiction

An American Werewolf in London

The Silence of the Lambs

Starship Troopers

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Mamma Mia

Little Shop of Horrors

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Moulin Rouge

The Craft

A Chinese Ghost Story

Lady Vengeance

Silver Hawk

Dr. Wai in the Scripture with No Words (had to look up the English title, hey it's Jet Li's version of Indiana Jones and I have a soft spot for this one, even though it's far from Li's best and has so many flaws due to being a nightmare production)

Parasite

Mallrats

St. Trinian's

Ginger Snaps

The Fountain

Galaxy Quest

Elvira - Mistress of the Dark

Cruel Intentions

St. Elmo's Fire

Shaun of the Dead

Rock'n'Roll High School

The Prestige

Underworld (the first above all else)

Resident Evil (especially Afterlife)

Playing by Heart

The Heat

Kill Bill

Ever After

Donnie Darko

Happy Death Day

Trick 'r Treat

D.E.B.S.

Wait, how have I already reached 100? There aren't even the quirky films (like TiMER) or the fun horror trash (my love for Deep Blue Sea is endless). Didn't dive into European films (Amélie) or specific German stuff (bandits). I can do a 100 list for horror alone easily (omg not even The Haunting on here).

Anyway do not question how my mind wandered from title to title, also there is zero ranking involved. Damn, there are five on the list that I don't own on DVD or BD. hmmmm... What does favorite movie even mean? Who knows. In any case for the past few months I've gone back far more to stuff I already know instead of watching new things (that I plan to watch some day, but well, it never felt right).

[eunique]

☕️+Genshin Impact :)

Bro where do I begin?

First off, this game is F R E E. Like how is a game with amazing yet loveable character designs and STUNNING graphics free!?

The world building, lore and story is so good. Each little bit tells a story from the novels you collect to the artifacts you farm. Its so well developed and references other aspects of lore around Teyvat unlike other games (that being our good old brave frontier where they just don't know how to connect their fucking lore or cross reference it Jesus christ). The characters are so lovable and endearing. I really like that some dialogues and story are restricted until you level up their friendship so you gradually get to know them the more you play them.

Soundtrack is a fucking 11/10. Bless Yu Peng Chen for creating such good osts for Genshin. Highly recommend people listen to the soundtrack. I cannot praise the music enough as a music student!

Also major bonus points that some of the Haikyuu!! JP VAs voice some of the characters in Genshin. Man I miss Haikyuu!! so much-

You've mentioned a lot of the pros to Genshin and I absolutely agree with a lot you said about it. Though with pros, there are cons to Genshin.

As you mentioned Genshin being unsuited for mobile gaming, while i don't 100% agree to the statement, Genshin is admittedly really awkward to play on mobile. I play Genshin on mobile and yes it is playable, it's just sometimes verycumbersome. Especially when you play bow characters (says the person here that has both Ganyu and Venti in one team). Trying to collect crystalflies and butterflies is a nightmare. The only time mobile players had the high ground was the rhythm minigame during the windblume festival lmao. The lag is pretty bad too and my phone does heat up quite a bit when I play-

Another con isn't with the game but more with the growing fandom. Things like people who already had Venti upon Genshin's release sending death threats towards those who got Venti on the rerun banner because it didn't make them "special enough". The fetishisation of characters who are canonically minors. Not to mention people in co op trashing on other people's mains (esp if you main the starter 3) and stats.

The micragression (though idk if it does count as micragression but imma count it anyways) towards what honorific Childe should use to address Zhongli and claiming that just because they play the game with the JP dub, that sensei is the correct term. As well as the fact that people who say that JP is the sub and CN is the dub. Some going as far as to make some racist remarks towards Chinese as a culture, and language which I've seen on Instagram. Trust me, I've seen 2 comment threads and as someone who is ethnically Chinese, it was really upsetting and uncomfortable to read.

Of course, I'm not calling out everyone who wasn't entirely aware. If they didn't know, that's okay. As long as they've learned their mistake. I'm just calling out the minor few who for one, ain't Mihoyo and two, clearly didn't do their research.

To clear things up. Mihoyo is a game company based in Shanghai, China. Genshin Impact is a Chinese game, making the Chinese voices the sub and Japanese voices the dub alongside the Korean and English voices. It's fine if you have a preference to which voices you prefer but just because JP is the preferred version, it doesn't make it the sub.

As for what honorific to use when people want Childe to address Zhongli in fanart or fanfic, I wrote an explanation here which explains which honorific to use for who and what situation.

I honestly hope that Genshin doesn't become a suffocating and toxic fandom. The game is so fun and I've had so much fun playing Genshin and Co oping with people over the past maybe half a year and it's given me joy (after haikyuu!!) People really need to do better and not be pricks or racist. Full stop.

[thegreymoon]

Hi!! I love your posts about Untamed and I thought about watching it but I wanted to ask, do you like actors' performance? It's just the gifs I see all look the same to me, I don't see any serious change in their face expressions, that bothers me a little. Like, you describe your reactions and I'd think the scenes would look intense but the on the gifs, characters just always look stony.

Hi, anon!

I absolutely love the actors’ performance (the main group, anyway), however, you have to take into account the genre and cultural expectations here. I have exactly one person IRL that I could recommend this to, expect her to enjoy it and not look at me as if I have gone insane fifteen minutes in. This is essentially a soap opera with zombies, and if you are to stand any chance of enjoying it, you have to accept it for what it is.  

First of all, the budget they had for this show did not even come close to matching their ambitions, so the monsters and the CGI are hilariously bad, which is unfortunate, considering the world it is set in. The battles are also rather sad, because they filmed with only a handful of extras, and I would be lying if I said that it didn’t show.

Another important thing here is that you have to completely let go of expectations that you have for western shows, especially the ones that are ‘gritty’ and ‘realistic’. We are used to our heroes being all sweaty, filthy and loud. The blood and the grime are a staple, and so is a whole string of vulgarities that writers rely on for shock value because they couldn’t otherwise write a coherent and satisfying story to save their life (TWD, GoT, looking at you 😠). In The Untamed, you will have your main characters make it through what is supposed to be a pivotal battle with not a single hair out of place and white robes absolutely pristine. Is it realistic? LOL, no. Do I care? LOL, again, no. 

However, I know a lot of people (men, especially) who would gripe endlessly about this and turn it into a mockery. What they fail to understand is that this is not ‘bad’, it is just a different way of doing things. If you cannot suspend your disbelief for things like that, flying swords and perfectly pitched music that kills dozens on the battlefield with a single note, then this show is not for you. Also, please keep in mind that what we may consider ‘bad acting’ is very often, in this case, simply a matter of a different acting style. 

As for the actors themselves, in the context of this show, genre and what is expected of them, I think they are fantastic. For comparison, none of them are, say, Colin Morgan, but they are all leaps and bounds better than, for example, Henry Cavil, who, once you get past his muscles, is as interesting as watching paint dry. The majority of them are also still very young (think early-to-mid-twenties) and for some of them, this was one of their first roles and I don’t think anyone expected The Untamed to blow up as much as it did. On the subject of performance, the only thing that actually throws me off from time to time is that the voices are all dubbed (this is just how it is done in China), so I catch some dissonance here and there. 

The main lead is very, very vibrant and goes through every emotion there is on screen and I find him incredibly adorable. His main love interest is the only one who may be described as ‘stony’ but this is very much intentional because he is playing a certain character type. When it comes to performance, he is one of my favourites, because he is playing such an incredibly complex character almost entirely through microexpressions, so when he smiles or cries, or shows anything at all, even though he barely moves a muscle, it is a huge fucking deal and an entire legion of fangirls worldwide squeals in unison. 

His brother (my favourite) is very similar and, again, this is intentional. The difference between them is that while the first one is ‘stony’, the other one is completely neutral. He always smiles pleasantly and radiates an insane amount of calming energy, and again, you have to rely on microexpressions to tell when he is a second away from going feral and committing murder. I am fascinated by both of them, in the sense that they both dress the same and act the same, yet one is vibrating with such intense murder energy the entire time, while the other emanates peace even under the worst of circumstances. 

Anyway, the point is, all of the characters are very distinct, their personalities are wildly different and their choices in life range from soft and benevolent to cold-blooded vengeance and unhinged murder. Another big thing in this show is how they portray the difference between good and evil, as compared to politeness and acting out of turn. They start with cookie-cutter, simplistic villains and move up in complexity. The story itself is very fascinating, not to mention, one of the best and most respectful portrayals of a gay love story I have ever seen on film in spite of the censorship and all the other limitations they had to deal with. 

Another thing that you have to be aware of is that the subtitles on YouTube are hilariously bad, but even if you watch it elsewhere, Chinese does not always translate particularly well into English. Also, the show is filled to the brim with tropes that are very familiar to the viewers in China, who get an additional level of delight from seeing them subverted, but which will be really unfamiliar to western viewers, who will often end up confused. It was only after I read The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (which is the same genre as the novel The Untamed was adapted from) that some of the things in the show suddenly made sense, so I can only imagine how many other little things just flew right over my head. 

Anyway, sorry for making this so long, anon, but if you do decide to watch this show, please keep in mind that the first two episodes are likely to be very, very confusing and strange. Just keep pushing! Everything becomes clear as you get further along, and at one point, those first two episodes just smack you over the head with how much sense they make retroactively and then you just want to sit down a little and cry 😢 

If, however, you cannot get past the messy CGI and the acting style, one thing I would like to recommend is trying the donghua (animated series) instead. I have not watched it yet, but it is really beautiful, and when I cried to one of my friends about this show, she told me, ‘Wait... that sounds familiar!’ and it turned out that even though she did not know about the drama, she has already watched/is watching the donghua, and she tells me that it is fantastic. 

Anyway, here are some ⭐⭐⭐⭐ for all of you who made it through my rambling here! How does one give short answers? Someone, please teach me how!! 😭😭

[clairificusrex]

ok so I have no idea how to tag the anonymous but here you go!

so there are great Y novels (known as m/m romance in western writing and danmei in china, not sure about korea) and there are terrible ones.

There are a few key things to look for:

1. When and where was it written - early chinese danmei, before censorship got hardcore can be VERY dodgy and full of non consensual or dubious consensual sex as well as really harmful tropes for example... in contrast later censored danmei may not have enough smut for you - it all depends on your tastes! If it was written on a fanfic site or wattpad then it could be good or really really terrible!!

2. Is it a self published web novel (or kindle)? If yes, then there is no way of knowing if it is any good. Some self published authors are wonderful, despite having no editor or publisher. Usually working or studying full time while writing, they produce amazing content. Priest, Meatbun, Mo Xiang Tong Xiu, Chai Jidan and Wu Zhe are prime example of this from China. If no, then there has probably been some editing and proof reading but the book could still be bad!

3. Who translated it? So if the novel is not officially translated, and you did not pay for the translation then the book could be amazing and what you read might suck anyway. Some authors will give fan translators permission to translate but there is no guarantee of quality. If you want high quality translations of Thai Y novels where the author actually gets money for their efforts you should be buying these things on Meb. There are also some great translation sites where you can pay a patreon or other subscription cost to read a decently translated version but the author may not get anything from that and since they are still usually fan translations there will always be a possibility of quality issues.

But to answer your real question are all Y novels bad... definitely not.

Are Thai Y novels worse than Japanese, Korean, Chinese or western m/m fiction? Nope, there are heaps of good and bad in all... it’s just that when the original was not written in English you risk a great book being a poor translation, so they have two chances to be a bad read not just one. This is true for all us non Thai/Korean/Japanese or Mandarin readers. But i can tell you now I have read a lot of English language m/m content published on Kindle (which has reasonably high standards for editing etc) and some of those books are badly written too!

Next we have the issue of taste. Like BL shows, you end up with the same issues where some really great novels almost everyone will love, but others are divisive. Some people do not like smut in their novels, others will stop reading a  book if it doesn't have enough smut! There are plenty of tropes and conventions used in western m/m novels as well, they are just different from yaoi/danmei tropes and conventions. Western m/m content is less likely to have dub con stuff unless the book is specifically written in the bully trope but they can cover all sorts of sexual interests and tastes that some people really don’t like such as age play, hardcore bdsm including blood and knife play etc.

The bottom line...

Only you know what you like and don't like and the only way to know for sure is to try it and read. 

I am perfectly willing and able to give recommendations, but because i have read 100s of translated novels and many 1000s of m/m western novels you have to give me some likes and dislikes to help shape my answer!

I say dive in, there are so many WONDERFUL stories out there...

this might be a hot take but I haven't read any Y novels mostly because I've gotten the impression most of them are kind of.... awful? Or at the very least employ a lot tropes I'm uncomfortable with.

I cannot really comment on this. I tried to read a few and what I found is that the way written Thai translates into written English doesn't work for my taste in books and writing style. I can't comment on tropes or anything else.

But I try not to judge an entire genre by any one specific metric. There could be tons of good ones in there that I don't know about and there could be tons of toxic ones that I do (see: Mame Cinematic Universe also available in Y novel form!)

I just don't know anything about this side of the fandom.