#do i need a liveblog tag.

[livvyofthelake]

on couch. lost time. also coloring book time. also this british dude is annoying what is he doing here. i’m realizing that i don’t actually know what lost is about outside of. Plane Crash. me when i totally research the shows i watch and don’t just start things based on vibes. i literally promise i know what all the other shows i have watched have been about though it’s just this one where i was like yeah eddie and adam did that i’ll watch it. like ok girl that’s awesome… anyway. what the fuck is up with the weird growling noises? don’t even tell me actually. i’ll find out eventually who cares when.

[nandermoenthusiast]

not them having a fucking showdown about which one of them was more devoted to the other………… not them making it a fucking competition and a fucking argument which one of them is more down bad horrendous for the other and STILL they havent had their realisation in the dead of night/day while lying in their bed/coffin that the other has feelings for them

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Well I got to the part that explains why everyone ships marcille with falin, but what about that kabru guy, why does everyone ship him with laios????

And then

Immediately followed by:

And

Yeah okay I get it now.

[secondhandgasstove]

doctor disco's nip slip save me

[psychopomp-namine]

yingdu episode 5 spoilers

ohhh my god this is everything I want from cheng xiaoshi. yes. perfect. sorry, but I'm a cheng xiaoshi whump liker and link click always brings out the best of them in episode 5 of each season.

there's just something cathartic about how when cheng xiaoshi becomes an emotional mess, it's also when he's most disconnected with the people he knows (physically, as he's diving in a photo and his only link to his home timeframe is a disembodied lu guang in his head) but it's also when he's most connected with strangers (when their own personal trauma lines up with his). to me, it's a showcase of empathy and a strange manifestation of his own agency. something about how the disconnect gives him the space to blow up, and the connection heightens it and grants him permission, almost, to express his anger more freely for his own sake and for another person's behalf.

like. listen, okay, I'm gonna ramble now because cheng xiaoshi is my favorite character in this entire show, but listen. sometimes some fans will conflate adjectives to his character that are usually associated with his character archetype, but they aren't necessarily true about him as a character. and I don't mean it in a, "he's not like that because he grows out of those traits" kind of way. I mean it in a, "he was never like that" kind of way.

one of those adjectives, for me, is when people call him immature. he isn't! to me! imo! he's got big emotions, yes, but I personally don't think the presence of big emotions indicates anything about maturity. because you know what? as long as his primary trauma (feelings of abandonment) isn't touched, he is very good at handling interpersonal conflicts, and that's what's interesting to me.

qiao ling hides relevant information from him? he removes himself from the situation to give himself space and sort out his feelings. he tells her he's fine and that he'll be back.

post-earthquake arc? I'll just copy paste what I already said in a previous ask:

what initially got me was when I was first watching S1, I thought the earthquake arc would have devastating effects on [shiguang's] relationship. listen, I didn’t know what I was getting into with link click, but I thought that was expected. it’s ripe for drama! but how do they handle the fight? they put their side business on hold but they still keep being roommates. they still do their day job. they still talk. they’re still upset but they give each other space but not to the point where they can’t stand existing in each other’s spaces. that’s when I realized that oh, they really trust each other. they have a very solid foundation for their relationship that not even the earthquake arc can break. they’re pretty level-headed about this, actually, all things considered? all the doomed yaoi stuff came later, but that’s just the cherry on top. it’s the way they handled conflict and disappointment in S1 that got me.

okay, protect-namine, why go through that whole tangent? BECAUSE! circling back to yingdu episode 5, we finally, finally get to see cheng xiaoshi let out some of his anger. and it's precisely because his primary trauma point was on the table. he can forgive a friend lying, and he can forgive being told not to change the past. because at the end of the day, qiao ling and lu guang stayed. they never left him.

but he cannot handle abandonment. he cannot understand why people leave. he cannot understand why he's been clinging on to false hope this entire time. and more importantly, he cannot understand how someone can be such a hypocrite about it. "a man who'd rather be kind to strangers than face his own son" like fuck man. cheng weimin you fucked up so bad.

it's the disconnect/connect thing again too. thematically, it makes sense. when does cheng xiaoshi blow up? when he's alone, far away from the people that ground him. alone, the feeling he hates the most. he's not even in his own body. he blows up when he's inhabiting a stranger's. he doesn't even get to be angry as cheng xiaoshi.

how fucked up is that. man. I love him so much.

also I'm going crazyyyy over the family themes going on in link click. much to say about the show itself across all seasons (the twins, qiao ling and cheng xiaoshi, even the liu siblings), but for this episode... god. okay this is slight speculation territory now and I'll try to keep this very short, because this is only tangential to the post. but. imagine xia fei getting the good parent figure in cheng weimin that cheng xiaoshi never had. and he doesn't know!! he's bitter inside about his dad and he's having hotpot with xia fei and he doesn't know he was in that school!! fuck that's so good. that's so juicy.

okay, sorry, I have a lot of feelings about cheng xiaoshi. he's my link click blorbo of all time, and I love when he experiences The Horrors™ because it's also when other sides of him gets to shine.

on a brighter note:

VEIN AND CHENG XIAOSHI MEETING AGAIN!!! their greeting was so cute. also omg does xia fei know? that his boss is maybe possibly a cannibal? actually, wait, I don't think I'd be surprised if he does know.

ah and finally. finally:

I've been having many thoughts on how yingdu approaches "friendships" and their transactional nature (mostly with regards to liu xiao) but I mostly thought they're headcanon stuff. but now. I'm so so happy that episode 5 is bringing out more of the quid pro quo theme. liu xiao with the gift giving. wang qing's "friends" (bullies) demanding her to cheat on the exam for them. and now, vein and cheng xiaoshi having a friendly greeting but also exchanging favors. so good. so good. it goes along with how there's so much handshakes and handholding this season (not just with lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, but with cheng xiaoshi and the the antagonist trio too, who have all met him by "helping" him in some way). something something trust and favors. probably something that deserves its own post though, but I wanted to point this out because I am soooo here for that. it's goes hand in hand (ha!) with the whole fraud/lies vs innocence/honesty theme this season, and deals/contracts being an equalizer to the two. very good. very tasty.

edit: ooh they also point to this in the YE6 trailer too. nice, nice. if you knew someone's true colors, would you still be their friend?

man, I love episode 5. it just hits all the stuff I personally wanted to see. the only flaw is that we still haven't seen the older version of wang qing, but yeah I kinda expected that they'll hide her until episode 6. they're giving her the liu xiao treatment from season 2. sigh. really wish she'd keep showing up in S3, we need more female characters in this show 🙏

[sparring-spirals]

ah, siblings

[turnaboutstar]

this was so silly

[justgallifreyanthings]

The Discord is going nuts lol, I’ll report back when we’ve reached a consensus. Loren Sherman (creator of Sherman’s Circular Gallifreyan) has been pinged and is weighing in as well.

[spookierz]

alright we doing this shit again!!! cleaning my room!! wish me luck!!!

[nemesis-is-my-middle-name]

[mamawasatesttube]

superboy (1994) #8

"It, uh... it kinda goes on forever, doesn't it?"

[mulders-too-large-shirt]

i've been trying to come out with between one and three posts a week, but i'm not sure if i'll be able to continue that pattern for a little while - work and life have me really burned out.

feel free to tag me in any fics, gifsets, art, etc, that don't spoil beyond 5x16, and i'd absolutely love to check it out! and for those who are familiar: is there a specific/conventional AO3 tag for "no spoilers past *insert episode or season here*"? because i'd love to dive into that

or go ahead and send in asks! i have anons off, but i can put them back on for a bit if anyone is interested and there are no hate blogs on the loose

but yeah, i might need a little time away from the writeups <3

[nandermoenthusiast]

okay im not gonna say it was the most gutting moment of the episode, but tell me yall noticed in one of the very first scenes THE WAY NANDORS FACE SEEMS TO FALL A LITTLE IN THE BG AFTER GUILLERMO OFFERS HIS HAND TO HIS BOSS TO HELP HIM DOWN THE CHAIR.

THE VERY SAME WAY HE USED TO HELP HIM OUT THE COFFIN EVERY EVENING. my man is hurting so much he misses his guillermo so much god i cant do this

[jefferythejelly]

something about death in this digital age kind of gets to me because it's like. there's all these little pieces of someone left behind saved forever in bits of code, floating around on the internet or between different peoples' harddrives, and it's as eternal as it is impermanent; completely unchanging, it's forever a snapshot of some moment or action or thought or creation, and yet at the same time so easy to lose or delete or corrupt. and it's intangible right, like it's data, it's not like it's the same solid thing every time someone looks at it but it was still caused by someone who isn't here anymore, and it doesn't matter how much time has passed since they've been gone, as long as it's able to be preserved this little piece of them will always be the same as it was as if they had left it there 5 minutes ago. and something about that just makes me feel big things

[rakkuntoast]

really hoping for the last debate to let the international members to be able to talk in their mother language cuz admit it or not, its a HUGE handicap that they're not able to get themselves across as they'd like to cuz of the language barrier. they're trying their best and im glad the team is working to better the translator but my god, even if its more convenient for them to talk english its def affecting some of the candidates

this is mostly directed @ insaneduo cuz holy shit im so tired of people that keep missinterpreting them, they wont start a dictatorship go and actually watch their povs

[babsaros]

this is my favorite author's note/comment from Worm so far it's the first time i've seen Wildbow use an emote at all and i love the placement here