#anyway i think this adaptation is kind fo amazing there's so many points where they tease out book themes and threads

[shiegra]

super brief thoughts on Li Su Su

I feel like I ragged a little on her in the last post and I want to clarify - I find both her book and show counterparts fascinating. While I do love the uneasy-frenemy banter in the books between Li Su Su and Tantai Jin, where they always know the other is up to something and all their repartee has the edge of a knife even as they grow to have a strange understanding and twisted fascination of the other deeper than anyone else’s -

The narrative as it stood, this serial oft-travelogue in that subgenre of batshit action and over the top characters, would have been harder to sell on screen. I think they made an excellent choice to focus on Tantai Jin as a more complex, nuanced character and build up his personal journey. While the webnovel’s fast pace and action could carry the roadtrip adventures as they meandered back to main plot, both budget and the need for consistent overarching story structure complicate that for show.

(I also think this politely avoided some incredibly Unfortunate Implications regarding people with antisocial personality disorders due to the in-your-face allegory lol.)

In doing so they had to change up her character, and possibly played it safe due to genre conventions leaned into her directness to keep the plot moving. (Given the care and energy with which they fleshed out the two biggest secondary female characters.) But it’s also fascinating to me because even her lighter show characterization feels like it’s calling back to book characterization - but book characterization from the second dream, of her younger mischievous fairy self before the weight of apocalypse crushed her into what she is in the opening of the book.

(Plus on just a personal level maybe partly due to early fandoms I had and neglected female characters there, female characters with somewhat messy writing but who are so fascinating to explore the implications and potential layers of are like catnip to me.)

[the-sprog]

EPISODE 4

-i jsut realized the paradox prism is probably what they're calling the broken parts, while paradox emerald is for the whole thing. still don't know what the difference between a chaos and paradox one is.

-OOH purple girls is here again? No it's Big nvm. Does Shadow just never exist in these universes? is it because he found a chaos emerald just in time? why WAS HE looking for those? does he just do that every once in a while? was that for the fight with eggman? he didn't even do anything with that.

-niiiice the shoes and gloves adapt to the universe

-I love you Knuckles. I believe you. trees talk. I can see that. what's on his knuckles? i fully thoght the spikes were part of his body. are they not?

-God sonic is so stupid.is he not wondering where the shard is? should've called them shards btw instead of prisms

-WOAH wolverine moment!

-they fully don't have robots? does tails not exist in this universe? they have no tech, absolutely none?

-NEW YOKE? WAS IT NEW YOLK THIS ENTIRE TIME AND THE SUBTITLES LIKED TO ME?? TWICE?? WHY NEW YOKE

-Ok now sonic is callinf them shards. see he's smart afterall.

-I like mangey tails omg hes feral this is amazing omg

-i love this universe so much omg

-How many times am I going to call sonic an idiot? too many probably. its deserved. it comes from a place of love.

-ok backstory. bark is edible though right. also i havent specukated on what the monster is.

-I really fucking love mangey

-I feel like sonic would've helped regardless. prim didn't need to lie to him like that

-ooh loop-de-loop comeback

-I fully believe Gnarly can talk to plants

-oh no that's so sad cmon not the frog sob

-is.. is amy the monster? shes the only missing. but laos shadow is missing. and i know theres someone called sticks or something in some canons and shes kinda feral?

-it's some kind of harpy? a chocobo? ostrich?

-"enough running" never thought I'd hear that from sonic the hedgehog

-A FLICKY?

-OH. CMON PRIM YOU COULD0VE SAID THAT EARLIER

-"i hate spikes" bru you HAVE spikes. also that hammer? totally Amy.

-Ok she looks cool as shit. she's got a mohawk. nice.

-Sonic does not get the concept of alternate universes does he

-Are amy and sonic siblings?

-Thorn Rose. Of course. wait is she Amy Rose in the... Prime verse?

-HUH? HIS KIND?

-She knows the shard thing! The great green though?

-ok not really a mohawk but i like it anyways.

-they're starving, thorn. what do you eat? that you're so much better?

-oooh that's why the trees ar eso big! theyre feeding on the prism

-why does she want it? nvm probably to fic the forest

ok another "alternate amy is about to kill sonic" cliffhanger

EPISODE 5

-aww flashback to them being friends again!! I love those!

-WHO THE FUCK IS THAT GUY! he keeps dhowing up! who is Big???

-i think it's the right amount of sentimental but yeah ofc he doesn't get it

-truly feels like a boss battle

-did he just get his head stuck in the cage bars?

-the chase scene is really fun. really seems like a video game level

-gosh gnarly never change

-BIG IS A CAT? BUT ROUGE ISN'T?

-ok so they were disfiguring the place lol they weren't following gatherers rules

-bless him he's trying

-GODDAMMIT YOU GUYS IT WAS WORKING

-Thorn if going for the kill

-he's getting the tree thing. nice.

-no no no he's got a point. humans are part of the ecosystem, and taking them out would seriously damage it. and also taking the light yeah.

-birdie is the actual name of that... flicky?

-IS HE TALKING TO THE TREE? WAS GNARLY RIGHT? I always believed in him.

-OFC birdie can fly dude.

-I mean... I'm on thorn's side though, they WERE destrying the jungle

-birdie's the same thingy as in the flashback!!

-Mangey kearned to fly he's gonna be a manace

-are the shape of the eyes indicative fo the species? like some of them have two eyeballs, while amy and sonic have one like a unibrow. I didn't pay attention to shadow in this regard but. does he have only one as well?

-oooooh the frog!

-hes gotta say "gotta go fast" at least once per episode it seems

-ah fuck it's a back to the future mechanic. Shadow i s in the nothing and sonic needs to... well, go fast.

-hey back in new yolk!! and the revolution started huh?

I'm watching Sonic prime because you can't give me multiverse and unlikely allies and think I won't watch it.

But this is the first piece of Sonic media I've ever consumed (sonic underground doesn't count cause I remember nothing of it, and neither do the films) so. Live blog lmao.

-"Shadow is... Complicated. More on that later" can't wait bro

-Ok rouge the bat is a good guy? I thought she was vaguely anti hero ish.

-what the fuck is a paradox emerald. I stopped at chaos emeralds. What's the difference? How are they created? This one was just... In a cave???

-"sonic boom of a headache" ah ah I see what you did there.

-whats with the knuckles slander!!!

-THATS NEW YORK??????

-so they're not allowed to talk to other people I guess?

-why are they making it seem like it's his shoes that make him fast????

-are rings currency? I was under the impression they were currency. Why is he looking for cash rn

-fickeis???

-he knows what smog is. How does he know what smog is. He lives in a forest.

.

.

Does he live in a forest? It's like... All green.

OH ITS WHAT EGGMAN WANTED! A WORLD RESEMBLING HIM AND NOT SONIC.

-What is the prism shatter??? Do they mean the paradox emerald? So sure they called it the paradox emerald and not the paradox prism.

-WHATS WITH THE TAILS SLANDER!!!

-Yes I know he insulted sonic as well but I think sonic deserved it in that moment.

-ok shadow was just. There. Dudes not even helping. You live here you asshole! Do your part!

-"Tails never gets upset" that's unhealthy!

-is 1992 the year the first sonic game came out? Something tells me that's the year Sonic's first game came out.

-...what's the difference between a trap and a trick?

-why Rouge! The only thing I know is that you're a cat!

-WHY ARE THEY CALLINF IT A PARADOX PRISM NOW?

-the fact the place IS called "the loop-de-loop" and it's not just what Sonic calls it is. Priceless.

-ngl I thought sonic was gonna be more... Sassy? Clever? WITTY! but no. He's a lot more like how I imagined Knuckles to be. Knuckles is my favorite btw. I know nothing of him other than he's vaguely mean and dumb. But not like Shadow's angsty edgy mean. More like a jock kinda mean.

-also no one explained why it's called the paradox prism. Or why Rouge knows what it is/that that's what Eggman was looking for.

-oh there you go end of flashback. Also where the FUCK is shadow. How later sonic? How much later?

-Rusty Rose?? That's Amy isn't it? Like Evil alternate universe Amy.

-i don't know who Babbles is.

-IS THAT A BOP IT?

-Ok no it isn't.

- I don't understand what the shoes malfunctioning means. Is his speed artificial??? Are they like Spider-man's web-shooters?

-EGGMAN IS A FATHER? WHO'S THE MOM???

-Also Rose said there were other rebels. Wonder if it's the same squad- oh they answered my question. Rouge is not Rebel. And I guess Knuckles is also a rebel. Don't know if Tails is gonna be good or not. Cause I remember seeing something about a Tails with robot... Tails.

-YOURE IN AN ALTERNATIVE UNIVERSE! WHY WOULD YOU THINK THINGS WOULD BE THE SAME.

-ok I was right. His name is... Nine? Also these episodes are really long.

-oh he still has the regular tails. It's more of a doc oc situation. I thought they were prosthetics.

-GEEZ "I was trained by the misery of life and this dark and heartless city" GEEZ

-gonna assume he's gonna be like "why'd you save me??? Why would you do this for me??"

-oh lord game footage that's cool as shit.

-sonic is not gonna pierce this together is he? And Nine is not gonna be like "yeah alright this guy is insane"

-MR.DR.EGGMAN. that's... Too much.

-Aww they're doing a little Tails bragging moment. Talking about how they're friends that's sweet.

-CHAOS COUNCIL? We're back to the chaos nomenclature??? what happened to the paradox shit? the hardest part of this is not that I don't have any sonic knowledge, it's that I have SOME sonic lore knowledge gained through osmosis and it's clashing with the lore that they're trying to establish in this cartoon.

-Nine is going for the full spider aesthetic huh?

-yeah. the tails are cool. I've always liked tails too, he's just too smart for me and i feel awkward when i don't understand him.

-COOL SHOES UPGRADE. Ok so the shoes are like... making it so that he doesn't explode due to the natural energy in his body, which i assume is what makes him fast. and that he'd be faster if he didn't have them, but also... more explode-y.

-HE ISN'T MISSING MEMORIES YOU IDIOT

-Oh the baby is back. I don't know how to feel about the baby.

-BLUE STREAK lol

-Ok that's an pixar's incredibles looking trap.

-OH SHIT SHE'S A ROBOT? oh not a robot. Rose is a cyborg and the way she talks about it amkes me sad.

-Nine??? is good or?? confused about his alliances.

-What. who. what. there's a whole family??? is... eggman their dad or?? who's the mom?

-of course he has hair in this "perfect" universe.

-are they like the chaos emeralds that can fuse to become the master emerald? and part of a whole??

-what's with casual dehumanization

-gosh he's such a dumbass but like an annoying one but also like indearingly so?

-I'm never gonna remember which eggaman is which. except babbles cause. yknow. toddler.

-omg the lasers effect is so ucking cool!! thay's a real nice scene ahhhh-

-they're like video games levels. alright. for now I'm really enying the visuals and the storytelling methods. on the story itself i'll see when it really gets going.

-oh no.

-ok I like the baby.

-OH THE PLOT THICKENS! the same energy as what powers the city? is the city powered by the emeralds? or by like- SHADOW??? IS THAT YOU-

-oh flashback 2. I don't know why but somethign about Tails' design looked... off. he felt naked. does he usually have like a scarf? goggles?

-Knuckled is just... hanging on the plane oh lord i'm dying.

-WHAT DO THE RINGS DO??? "in case eggeman gers in a lucky shot: rings" what??

-DOES SHADOW HAVE ROLLERBLADES?? ok he's raising on my list of favourite characters.