#idc i'll lower my choices down to 200 if i have to

[introspectivememories]

my loyalty to talia is so strong that i will not hear a word against this woman. i am her defender, first and foremost. i refuse to even read fics with talia slander in it. oh you tagged your fic, "talia al ghul is a bad parent"? i'm not reading it. blah, blah, blah, you don't get her character and i hope dami shows up in your room in the middle of the night with a sword for talking shit about his mom

[silverloreley]

Watching till the end of the moon is just making me appreciate LBFAD so much more, the conflict between those two made so much sense and xiao lan hua struggled with it but stood by DFQC and understood him and loved him. The way YXW is acting is driving me insane, it doesn't make sense in the context of the show, idc about the novel,things should make sense in the context of the drama on it's own,this is supposedly an epic love story but one half is constantly betraying the other

LBFAD is amazing and I don't think I would have started TTEOTM if the first had not stolen my whole heart. But they're completely different on so many levels: one is a fairytale, the other is a high fantasy bloody drama, one is a cheerful love story that has some heavy moments and deep themes at the heart, the other is a tragic romance that starts with blood and will probably end the same way, they are not the same at all, I can't compare the two.

Don't get me wrong, I love both in their own way, but they start from different standpoints and their FLs are deeply different too. We don't quite know much about LSS before she became YXW, while we have the whole life and backstory of XLH unraveled for us, their differences are in character also.

I still think TTEOTM is a love story, but a twisted one, the kind where love isn't enough alone, where there is no right thing to do, where one must lose more than the self to win because there is too much at stake. LSS is ready to give up her everything for the greater good, her identity, her love, her life... noble, sure, but the right thing would be for her to fight for her love and the world all the same, to communicate more (and wasn't that the same mistake MY and SJ made?), to try and find a middle ground and she doesn't. Which is probably due to her upbringing, we can't forget she was the daughter of a sect leader, the values they must have instilled in her since childhood are radicated deep down. We did see XLH grow from her prejudices and I really wish LSS will do the same, but I can't see it happening anytime soon and I worry there won't be the chance for her to, if the spoilers I found around are true.

But you're right about some things making no sense without the novel being involved, as someone who didn't read it either I was very confused when LSS went to XL, why would she do that? I can understand LSS jumping to the worst conclusions about TTJ's actions over and over again because she saw him at his worst and most powerful and she's constantly waiting, terrified, for the other shoe to drop and him going full on the dark side, I get it and don't blame her, yet I can't see why would she root for the Shang royal family when she knows they are scum (in the drama, again, which is the only thing that truly matters, the story must make sense on its own!).

In this respect, Qingyu is way more reasonable, he switched sides to save his men and is watching for proof of having made the right choice (and gets them, time and time again), while LSS is slowly starting to look at what's going on with more objectivity... but too slowly! While the time constraint she has (the 300 days that must be less than 200 by now, more or less) makes her antsy! I don't know if the demons being free en masse will mean the Evil Bone will react to them and activate or what (this is the only explanation I could imagine for it) but she's in a rush and that's never good when in delicate situations (that's what tragedies are made of, that's why I can't see a happy ending here, although I hope I'm wrong and there will be one).

Anyway, I still like the show with all its flaws (I liked way lower-quality stuff over time and I'll never deny it) and will follow it until the end, hoping the mistakes so far will be explained/fixed later on. Otherwise, I'll just do what I did before, fics and fandom support.

;)