#it’s so fucking. augh. aggrhgh

[yea-baiyi]

Hi again...... How are you? I love reading your answers and your blog.....Make me want to re-read the book TGCF (again) and re-watch CQL (again)....😄

If you don't mind me asking, can I ask your top 5 (or top 3) favorite characters from Word of Honor? And your top 5 favorite moments from the drama? Sorry if you've answered this question before....Thanks....

HI MY BELOVED yes please keep asking me things i love coming up with answers!!!

ngl i’ve not watched WOH/SHL in a while, i’ve been planning to rewatch soon but i’ll do my best here!! let’s see how long this post gets :^)

top 5 favourite characters:

1. zhou zishu. i am so weak for zhang zhehan and his pretty face and his glorious side profile and all the little details that he put into this character. his slow smiles of wonderment as he’s falling in love. god. i’ll admit, it took me a while to like him as much as i liked wen kexing, but ultimately zzs is THE backbone of the show, it’s his story of finding love, regaining the desire to live, and finding meaning in having someone that you want to spend your life with. after reading qi ye i also appreciate zzs’s backstory more and i’m rooting for him!!! to find love and be free from the world of politics and corruption!!!

2. wen kexing. MY BOY HE WAS MY FAVE THE MOMENT HE STEPPED OUT ON SCREEN. ok ngl rewatching is kinda hard bc i keep noticing all the ways gong jun is a less experienced actor, but god when i first saw him. i thought he was SO beautiful it was such a perfect casting. i love his stupid pretentious flirting and his corny attitude and his fake fake smiles that only barely hide his feelings. the way he simply does not process emotions. what a ridiculous man. i want 20 of him

3. ye baiyi YOOOOOOO INSTANT CLASSIC. BEST CHARACTER EVER WRITTEN FOR TELEVISION. seriously though i am obsessed with this horrible little man??? the important thing to understand, ye baiyi in the novel is an 80 year old man stuck in a 20 year old body. that’s funny on its own, but ye baiyi in the show is a 20 year old guy who has lived for 80 years. imaging being gay and in your twenties forever. fuck. i too would be petty, exhausted, constantly pissed, and constantly roasting the shit out of baby gays. he’s just so funny oh my god. what a legend

4. gu xiang. my girlbossssssss i am very partial to the colour purple and so she gets points for that. also i love her outfits. i love that zhou ye added so much more dimension to ah xiang in her portrayal. gu xiang is someone who grew up around trauma and violence, yet she chooses to be good and kind and optimistic in her own way. i love the sibling/master dynamic with wkx, her relationships with the other members of ghost valley, her entire romance with cao weining. god that romance—the awful vulnerability of that scene when he saw her kill the beggar (who turned out to be an assassin). the fear of showing someone what you had to become to survive. you’re not proud of it, but you’re not the least bit ashamed, and yet it’s terrifying that they could reject you for it. god. god. god. they. her. ahuggh

5. gao xiaolian. maybe a surprising one but this girl just stuck in my head so much. this show really did so well with its women??? gao xiaolian initially exemplifies a sort of “ideal” weak, pure, feminine stereotype, a first in contrast to the many dangerous and colourful women of ghost valley and the scorpions. and yet her strength stands out immediately — her care for her father, her sense of duty, her no-nonsense approach to things. she’s remarkably clearheaded, and i love that she chose mercy over revenge in the end; it’s not necessarily what the show agrees is right, but because it’s her stance. and she’s sticking to it.

honorarable mentions: shen shen, xie’er, chengling, jby and wu xi because i’m BIASED, also helian yi deserved better <3

top 3 scenes:

1. wenzhou saying each other’s names three times — will anything ever match this moment. i still get chills thinking about that scene holy shit. i watch it over and over it haunts my dreams how could they even come up with this scene let alone film it and show it to the world. something shl drives home is the simplicity of real happiness (“only when i met you did i discover what a simple thing it is to be happy” screaming crying choking) and this scene says it all. “to be able to sit here, in the daylight. have someone call my name like that. that would be good.” and zzh’s line delivery. drives me nuts

2. the confrontation with ye baiyi. another iconic scene for the ages. the way they had the exact same plan because they’re zhiji. the way wen kexing runs because he’s feeling too much and he’s scared. this scene is zhou zishu grabbing him by the shoulders and saying—it doesn’t matter to me. it doesn’t matter. i knew all along and i loved you anyway. i love you and i am with you; your fate will be my fate now. my favourite thing about the scene has to be after the confrontation, when the tension is gone. and they go right back to bickering and teasing each other. zhou zishus exasperated “what do you think i was gonna do”. the bitching and complaining. yeah i’d die with u. but i’m gonna remind u that you’re a lotta work. chefs kiss perfection

3. gu xiang going apeshit after cao weinings death. zhou ye’s florence pugh Acting moment. god. so good. holy shit. u simply don’t get that in historical dramas especially from female characters. jesus fucking christ holy shit. i was sobbing. the grief and shock and rage and outrage; like, she loved cao weining and cao weining was such a good boy, but it just boils down to. how could they do that??? how could they just do that???? they just came in and destroyed something that was good, that was their plan all along and that’s it and his life is just over and now there’s just nothing???? and gu xiang just rages and rages and it’s about revenge but it’s barely even about that, she doesn’t even get to make the murderer pay, it’s just lashing out against the absolute senseless violence that just happened here. catharsis, my literature teacher might say. oh god i am tearing up

honourable mention: that scene where wen kexing goes apeshit and monologues over someone’s grave. i cannot for the life of me remember when that happened but i remember watching that when the episodes were coming out and being THRILLED bc that kind of scene has to be a theatre kid’s DREAM to perform. anyway i need to rewatch shl