#bc I have such scattered quality among my works

[lucy-the-cat]

me accidentally convincing one of my classics mutuals to read red queen by my sheer amount of posting

[thosch3i]

Hi hi! So the lost tombs and chronology all super confuse me. So tlt2 ended on a cliffhanger that was not resolved by tlt3 which is ultimate note, but now there is another tlt3 that I am guessing is made by the same studio as tlt2 (but not UN) that actually follows tlt2? And it has the same WPZ as tlt2 (but sadly different WX, ZQL though I’m sure these guys are great). You seem to know what you’re talking about so I’m hoping you can help!

UN also ended on a cliff hanger so I’m wondering if they’ll get a sequel from their studio that comes before tomb of the sea.

ahhh hello anon! yes ahaha the dmbj dramas are certainly very confusing--because they keep switching the screenwriters/entire production team between dramas. huanrui did tlt1 (2015), tlt2 (2019), and the sequel to tlt2 (2021). they're also technically the production company for un (2020), but linghe did like all the directing/casting/writing so its significantly different in tone and quality from the other dramas huanrui produced. npss (dmbj author) did sha hai (2018) and tltr (2020), with sha hai being in collab with linghe, so you can see lots of parallels with un and shared cast. (gonna add that i dont know much about the m9 because that’s not what im personally interested in, so i’m only going by stories with wu xie & the iron triangle.)

unfortunately, the dramas pretty have no continuity as a result of all the weird shit and multiple studios doing different dramas and messy stuff going on behind the scenes. the author's production company currently has all the rights back for filming future dramas, which is......imo, a good thing for book fans who love the author but a 😬 thing for book fans who like the original story more than what the author is now doing with it. I'll uh avoid saying too much opinion stuff though so no more on that 😅

that aside! yes 云顶天宫 “explore with the note” part 2......is the direct sequel to tlt2 and done by the same studio. unfortunately the writers are different and im not sure how much of the production team is the same either. idk how much you know about the novels so brief summary here--for the chinese version, the main story has 9 parts split among 8 books (though the official eng tls have each part being a different book) with some important content being as follows:

official eng title “cavern of blood zombies” (first time wx goes into a tomb, first t3j meeting)

official eng title “angry sea, hidden sands” (xisha seabed tomb, introduce a-ning)

official eng title “bronze tree of death” (bronze tree in qinling, wx & lao yang solo adventure)

official eng title “palace of doom” (heavenly palace on the clouds, introduce bronze gate)

official eng title “deadly desert winds” (golmud, introduce hei xiazi, desert, rainforest, tamutuo)

official eng title “graveyard of a queen” (the rest of that arc, wu sanxing & xie lianhuan reveal, jade meteorite, amnesiac xiaoge and escape, sanshu vanishes for good--also i think the official eng tl covers a couple chapters of the beginning of the next part too)

阴山古楼 (searching for xiaoge’s memories in banai, miluotuo cave, i think introduction of wu erbai)

邛笼石影 (auction/hotel iron triangle fight, introduce xiao hua & xiuxiu, wx & xh on the mountains alone while pz & xg go with granny huo)

finale (rescue from zhang family mansion, changbai mountain goodbye, 10 years promise)

after the main story are the main sequels:

zang hai hua (tibetan sea flower; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie a few years after xiaoge has entered the gate, searching to understand xiaoge’s past

sha hai (tomb of the sea; unfinished & abandoned) covers wu xie’s plan to wipe out the wang family, after zhh

chongqi (reunion: the sound of the providence) covers wu xie’s lung disease and how he recovers from that, set after they pick up xiaoge again from the bronze gate. thunder city and everything.

灯海寻尸&万山极夜 (still updating on wechat) don’t worry about this one since it’s still a WIP lol

btw between sha hai and chongqi there’s also ten years later (a short story) that covers how wu xie and pangzi pick up xiaoge from the bronze gate and take him home

the dramas Do Not Connect To Each Other At All, which the exception of tlt2 & tlt2 pt2 somewhat, but they go in this order:

盗���笔记 / the lost tomb 1 (2015): covers part 1 but with major OCs and filler, and includes the auction scene from part 8 for some reason, so introduces xiao hua early.

怒海潜沙&秦岭神树 / the lost tomb 2 (2019) technically “explore with the note”: covers parts 2 & 3 but with major OCs and filler, introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu (and hei xiazi briefly) early. last couple episodes also cover the beginning of part 4. not a direct sequel to tlt1 despite being done by the same studio.

云顶天宫 / heavenly palace on the clouds (2021) technically also “explore with the note”: covers part 4 with major OCs and filler (and the same changes carrying over from tlt2). some episodes are identical to the last couple episodes of tlt2. works as a direct sequel only if you ignore the last couple episodes of tlt2 that take place in the snowy mountains. (those episodes of tlt2 were filmed after this drama was filmed, and im still not sure why they dragged the wu xie and xiaoge from tlt2 back to changbai mountain to film those episodes.)

终极笔记 / ultimate note (2020): covers parts 5-8 with minor OCs and minimal filler, also introduces xiao hua & xiuxiu early. the only adaptation that resembles its source material most of the time.

沙海 / tomb of the sea (2018): covers the second sequel with major OCs and filler. includes some bits from zhh and the short story “three days of silence”.

重启之极海听雷 / the lost tomb reboot (2020): covers third sequel with major OCs and filler.

in addition there is the prequel series mystic nine (2016) and side movies for the dramas that the author produced. there is also a single standalone movie--time raiders (2016) that is....well it’s. very strange. it’s fully subbed on youtube if you’re interested?

the best way to watch the dramas is to assume each one is its own self-contained AU set along different points of the dmbj timeline because even the dramas the author himself worked on don’t have continuity LOL (and with the exception of ultimate note & sha hai most of the time, also assume most characters are pretty OOC from the novels).

i uh regret to inform you though, that ultimate note will not be getting a sequel unless the author magically decides to not care about making money anymore and sells the rights to film the finale to linghe or something ^^;;;; it’s....unfortunate bc un is the most highly-rated dmbj adaptation on douban by A Lot, but it’s an adaptation that the author had literally nothing to do with whatsoever.

more information on some of the side movies/stage plays/manhua/donghua here.

summaries of the main novel stories (currently through zhh) here.

edited mtl (some of which has apparently been looked over by native cn speakers) of the novels following where official eng tls end here. (there are many scattered extras as well.)

you can get the official eng tl books/ebooks on amazon or elsewhere(?), but if you have problems purchasing them or like you just dont wanna support amazon or something, dm me off anon. (also i dont want to be mean but frankly the official tls are kinda bad too ^^;;;)

a rough timeline (spoilers galore) for the dmbj novels here. (fair warning im not 100% sure how accurate all of this is--they put three days of silence as 1991 but looking at the info in zhh, it seems like it should have been before the 1950s...but it’s more than fine as a general overview.)

anyway i hope that was helpful in some way? dmbj is a Very Confusing thing to get into ahahaha, one of my twitter mutuals has made a few carrds if you think they might be helpful: book, dramas (slightly out of date bc it says heavenly palace hasn’t aired yet), ultimate note (got its own carrd by virtue of being the only adaptation aside from sha hai sometimes that most og book fans acknowledge lol ^^;;;)

also anon if anything wasn’t clear or if you had more questions feel free to ask again sorry ahahaha im kinda tired rn @.@ 

[shisanchi]

I was tagged by @reminnii!! idk why it took me this long sorry sldkfjslk also i talk too much so i put a read more here!

Rules:

Answer the 11 questions you’ve been asked

Nominate 11 other bloggers

Ask your nominees 11 questions

Let them know you’ve nominated them!

1. If you could live in any video game world, which world would it be?

World 5-5 in New Super Mario Bros Wii because of the cute penguin suit you can wear... 🐧

or if I think about it more, maybe the 1bitheart universe bc that game has a friend making mechanic so I’d like to make friends...and the town is nice...lovely places there, would want to go to CocoAlley and go to that cafe there!!

2. What’s your favorite kind of aesthetic?

Oh um....hm.... I guess cute soft pink stuff? But my tastes are scattered, I like all kinds of looks!

3. What is your favorite memory?

Haha, it’s a childish one, but I was like 7 or so when it happened so fair enough

I was playing around with my two friends at the time and we were pretending we had super powers! And one of my friends shouted “wind poweeeeer!!” While aiming her hands at this huge pile of leaves and!!! A whirlwind came at that instant and blew the leaves everywhere!!! Everyone including me thought it was so cool we spent the rest of the days practicing our powers and hyping each other up like “did it just get hot really fast?? Your sun power is working!!” And stuff like that, it was a fun time!!

4. What’s your favorite oc? Tell me a bit about them!!

Dkdjsksj i have multiple favorites... i fixate on one for a bit....... then it switches........... she’s only my favorite bc she’s fun to draw lsdfks

it’s my girl, maybelline… or just may skjdksj. she’s a senior in high school who loves ribbons. One of the popular kids. Notice how there’s like 5 on her right now. That’s the minimum requirement of ribbons/bows necessary for her to leave the house 🎀

Skdjks she seems super sweet but in a nutshell, she’s a bully who uses her looks to manipulate weak-willed people to do her bidding. she has a story but i don’t want to type too much haha;;

5. If you’re upset, what’s a good way to cheer you up?

Any animal memes are great! I am a simple fruit.

6. What’s your favorite flower?

Carnations!! Too many beautiful flowers in this world skjflsdjals.... tulips are pretty nice too...

7. Current favorite song/one you’re playing nonstop on repeat?

this one... but also this one (they’re both covers dlsfkdj) oh also “mellow at 3 a.m.” by keisei is such a good song!!! i would replay that song over and over, it has so much replay value to me... but i don’t want to get sick of it if that makes sense? so i take breaks from it haha but also please stan keisei i love his music...

8. What’s the last thing you googled?

“triangle alignment”... i wanted to find the mcdonalds one (and i did) among others 

9. What’s a character (from any media!) that makes you happy when you see them?

Aoki Lapis... she’s so adorable. I don’t see her much around here but when I do I go “!!!” (Ooka Miko too) (and also literally any character from 1bitheart)

10. Favorite quote?

“Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.” - a wise person

had to search through some bc the only one that popped up in my mind was that “...I will face God and walk backwards into hell” excerpt from that one dril tweet h

11. Do you know that I love you so much and you mean the world to me? 

aksldjflska I love you too!!!!! And I do, hope you know I feel the same! (sparkle emoji)

-----

Wait now I gotta make questions up sljfslj apologies if they are lame!

What’s your favorite snack?

Opinion on penguins?

Do you have a favorite reaction image? feel like sharing if you do? 

Would you ever go hang gliding if given the opportunity?

What is your lucky charm?

What topic gets you really excited to talk about?

What do you think is your best quality? 

Morning person or night owl?

City or countryside?

What image is stuck in your head forever?

Movies or TV?

I tag: @tomatetoro @otoma-chi @yourlocallosernamedgreenookie @thinkanamelater @bash-the-molegirl @echovoice713 ( y’all don’t have to do this if you don’t wanna btw <3 )

[commedias]

“ none of this gets easier, we simply become stronger. ” (( for any of your muses!!

❛  none of this gets easier, we simply become stronger.  ❜  —  from wooyoung )

            hello askd;lskjd;fjd i don't think this belongs to any meme but that's irrelevant ! speaking of that, i still have the meme for sunghyun sitting in my inbox bc i feel like i have to write my most elegant, lengthy prose for you even though that's not the case ? like yutae's threads with bay are pretty chill and i could probably imitate the same length of those without all the Stress but yes, sorry i let your submissions to my inbox go slept on for so long ;-; i am just scared to give you my mediocre ass writing tbh... anyways i have a feeling this will get long but i don't want to overestimate myself lmao so let's see how it goes !

            strength — the word holds no personal significance to park wooyoung. he associated strength with the exceptionalists of the worlds, the dreamers, movers, and shakers — everyone but him. he was ordinary in every respect of the word, boasting no merit to distinguish him from the rest. perhaps the only redeeming quality of his mediocrity was his recognition of it, not fencing himself in a facade of boosted esteem. he saw his worth as it was, perhaps even underestimating it at times, for despite his shortcomings he possessed a remarkable amount of tenacity. but it wasn't attributed to strength by any means. in fact, it derived from weakness. he lived each day with lifted spirits not because of strength, but because he was too afraid to contemplate the alternative. his cowardice prevented him from probing into the true misery of his life. from the stale odor of the bar to the chilly nights on his drunken stumbles back home, nothing in his life represented any gleam of hope. yet he seemed infinitely hopeful, though for what he never knew.

            love perhaps ? until recently, he had been so adamantly chasing relationships that he never had time to focus on his own development. he pursued love relentlessly not because he was brave enough to face the heartache, but that he was too weak to retain solitude without a trembling hand and a clutched bottle. he drank not because the world hurt him, but because the world hurt each other. although he was lousy at times and tossed aside ethics when it came to the sake of survival, wooyoung contained a nobility to him not often found in many. he had a celestial faith in a handful of good people somewhere out there in the vast landscape, scattered among the world for him to find. however, his searches at the bar always ended up unsuccessful, turning up with only full glasses and empty hearts. at this rate, he had no business investing his hopes into love, but helplessly, hopelessly did so nonetheless.

            the cosmos compelled him with romantic notions, promising him one day that he might find a heart as whole as his. he didn't possess the strength to convince himself otherwise. to resign himself to accepting his parents' divorce as testimony of love torn asunder to reveal nothing more than a void from where an illusion had once been. after bearing witness to countless superficial interactions both in his home and at the bar, he needed a force as evocative as love to be REAL. he craved for something to induce the same satisfaction as the liquor lacing his tongue. despite the emptiness of hearts which separated lovers as soon as sobriety settled in, at least the bottle was a constant companion. whenever opening his heart to another, he was always met with the apathy of a temporary fling, not a permanent partner.

           but the bottle was warm, endearing. the laughs became more melodic, the carresses more enveloping, the kisses more languid — and in that drunken daze, he could convince himself that this was ENOUGH, that he was enough for now, even if it was doomed to end by dayttime. he doesn't have the strength to consider what more he could want. for all his life, no strong convictions came over him. he applied himself to academics half-heartedly, at times excelling, and more frequently (especially as he progressed to higher grades), failing. he felt no deep connection towards his family members, jaded towards their constant bickering and scrutiny over appearance. come time for university, he dropped out within the first semester before landing a position as a bartender making abominably low pay. none of this he had wanted, but obliged to because he had nothing else to cling onto.

           it's hard to strip a man of his will to live when he's never lived to begin with. up until this point, his life had been a series of passing motions, as inconspicuous as a flurry of snow whirling in the winter wind. wooyoung's only chance at feeling alive. and now the bottle has been shelved in lieu of REHABILITATION, the alcoholic reluctantly heeding the advice of his close confidant. for the first time in years, the enigmatic glint in his eyes has been replaced with a marbled expression. he appears statuesque with posture rigid, eyes fixed on a vacant spot on the wall. his sensational wit has become enveloped by an overwhelming melancholy, withdrawals dramatically affecting his mood. yutae's words drown out under the volume of his incoming thoughts, sobriety provoking him to think more than he had in the past twenty-four years.

           he thinks of the disappointment brought to his family from his subpar performance in life, not amounting to the same level of success as his brother, jitae, and sister, nayeon. he reproaches himself for his addiction, pinning the blame on no one other than himself. aside from his parents' divorce, his upbringing had been standard with no room for complaint. he drove himself to the abyss of addiction out of caprice, no rough circumstances driving him against his will. all of his financial burden had been his own doing, his parents disowning him after his deliberate departure from university. his funds went towards supplying his booze, emptying his bottles at the same rate which he emptied his wallet. the cycle repeated endlessly, wooyoung comforted by the routine. the rift in pattern places him on edge, knees firmly tucked to his chest. he craves the alcohol, the reprieve from the mundane nature of daily life. was this how sobriety felt ? to hear the condolence of a friend, but feel so emotionally distant that it could have came from a stranger ?

            yutae had been nothing but forthcoming. he had no reason not to trust him. in fact, wooyoung had indiscriminately handed out his trust to individuals several times before without batting an eye. but he did so with the security that they wouldn't care, as illogical as it sounded. investing his trust in someone who he projected to genuinely care proved much more dangerous. he didn't perceive himself as adequate enough for care, to be redeemed from the dreadful condition he had placed himself into. what was he to yutae to be worth saving ? tears swell up in his eyes as wooyoung's been deprived of his faithful vice only to find himself without virtue. ❛ i'm not strong enough to do this. i NEED easy, it's what i'm used to. it's easy to work at the bar. it's easy to pick up people, fall for them, and then do it all over again the next day. it's easy to wake up and already know how the hangover will feel like. it's easy to live in my shitty apartment complex and barely be able to pay rent. it's easy because it's what i'm used to. it's easy to just talk or laugh my way out of everything. but here, alone, by myself without a bottle to rely on, i'm fucking scared as shit and i'm too WEAK to keep going if you tell me it doesn't get any easier. ❜