#lg lc

[catguangcorner]

still can't believe there's that gayass scene where lu guang reaches across space and time to comfort cxs that's crazy

[aryabrier]

One day I'll finish them i swear...

[curapicas]

Oh look, the donghua is doing the heavy lifting for me and juxtaposing them on its own volition. (kind of a continuation of this)

Plot-wise, Li Tianchen's relationship with Lu Guang hinges basically on trying to manipulate and hurt Cheng Xiaoshi to do his bidding through hurting LG (worth noting this implies an understanding of such attachments, and the viciousness stems from a certain resentment of it + his twisted personality). I don't even remember if he's aware LG also has powers.

but tbh the funniest thing coming out of LTC vs CXS&LG is that, in a weird way, he was actually letting off his anger on the "right target", kinda? Technically? Of course I'm not saying LG deserves it nor that LTC was being anything but unhinged. But I do believe there's more than meets the eye (and probably informs the ways Lu Guang can be confronted on the narrative, more on that by the end)

Bc this show is competent, many characters have parallels with each protagonist, and LTC-LG are no different. There's a post I couldn't find that went on their reactions to their most precious people dying in front of them: whereas LTC loses all hope, LG has the means to go back, and thus doesn't even try to let go. Alas, they're both tacticians who, despiste meaning well for LTX and CXS, end up manipulating them into inaction/ignorance;

And they do so bc both feel adrift and out of options - but the show focus a lot on how powerless LTC feels about his life for it to not be a big factor. LTC fights so hard for a modicum of control that I don't even think it registers how he impacts LTX, meanwhile LG has so many variables stacked against him and his empathetic partner that he ends up prioritizing CXS' survival, even above their connection (he keeps to himself Emma's death, for example)

In the twins past, LG was the one that guided CXS into staying on task. And before that, he hid the photo even from the police. Tbh he'd never see it that way, but isn't this accidentally the best revenge for his stabbing? lol

Either way, LTC loses his hope, blames CXS and believes him to be what LTC hates the most, a nice guy who's secretly a jerk. Except. Who is actually closer to this description? A guy who can be polite but will stay passive if that affects CXS too much, to the point of lying about saving Chen Xiao's mom?

Curious to me he was also pretty straight forward in calling LG a jerk, and maybe it's just because LG botched his kidnapping attempt. But maybe he has pretty good instincts bc I don't think he even knows why he hates the man so much, lol. After all, for all Li Tianchen knows, everyone is a jerk who stands by and watch.

And maybe it makes him even angrier because he finally met someone who also has powers and is willing to call him "friend" and "play" with him. Considering his one friendship was with Liu Xiao, someone he's aware has plans, he might've even considered to have his own pet project on CXS. But the thing is, this person already seems to have a way more genuine friendship, and it's with LG.

Summary: LTC, if only he knew, would hate LG for not changing his past + being a guy who's very much capable of standing by and watch + having an actual friendship with CXS

DISCLAIMER: I think on his own right, Lu Guang values kindness in general. But LTC's vision is too black and white to even account for that.

While I'm on the topic of LG: while his passivity keeps him from being of any effective help to the twins, he's also keenly aware of the butterfly effect and that he could possibly make things worse instead, something CXS has been confronting throughought the story.

And yet. His objective is what ultimately makes us see this approach as instead of wise, more akin to the desperation of a grieving man - not unlike LTC who by the end of s2, gives up altogether of hope and follows the Big Bad. Besides, it somewhat clashes with the fact CXS actually does make a difference for the clients, be it by making the past more tender (Chen Bin's wife has sweeter memories, Dou Dou's life was actively made less worse) or the present better (lesbian noodles make up, Dou Dou's father and Qiao Ling reconcile), which is also something LG is aware of, since he agreed to deliver Chen Xiao's messages. So far I don't personally see a clean, objectively correct approach, thus I'm willing to bet it'll be whatever is diametrically opposite of Liu Xiao's, lmao

-kinda unrelated, but I've seen people mentioning an interview where Li Haoling-laoshi (aka the director) said he tweaked a little with Li Tianchen before s2, and he was meant to be (even more) obsessed with Cheng Xiaoshi, making this whole post even more hilarious

[nigesakis]

its interesting that people seem to think lu guang is smarter than cheng xiaoshi. theyre the same amount of dense in different ways. stupid x stupid

[sgdlr-asdfghjkl]

Link Click Musical contents??

Someone wrote a non-spoiler review of the musical on weibo. They seemed to enjoy it a lot despite not seeing the anime. (I've used DeepL Translator for their post)

The plot uhh I'm taking a guess they cover the episodic stories from s1 (noodle lesbians and earthquake arc for sure).

The set appears to have some sort of carousel mechanism. They also use a projector for additional animation/lighting effects. Transl quote: the carousel itself has the intention of the clock, the scenery also has the elements of the clock hand. (which sounds pretty neat ngl)

The person described main trio characters and praised the chemistry between them. It sounded very in character for CXS, LG and QL we know from anime. So it's safe to assume musical did a great job at characterisation. There seems to be a theme of conflict between CXS's and LG's way of doing things. Transl quote: Under the unchangeable important trajectory, friendship, love, family, destiny, regrets, and in the midst of a destiny that can't be changed, Cheng Xiaoshi will never give up his fight. CXC's never-ending struggle, Lu Guang's silence, the weight of knowing where he's going, and the loss of one life after another, and the immense grief that follows, are the tests of their bond..... So like, yeah they got it all right it seems 👌

Ok and for the wildest part that confused me the most and is probably a mistranslation >> I quote: There's a funny part in this scene when Cheng thought he had changed his destiny and made Lu Guang disappear, and when he sang a big solo and confessed his remorse, I thought he was about to lose it. The chemistry of this group is unique.

😶And I-......... Whatever they mean by 'funny', I won't rest until we get to see it. Subbed. PLEASsdfghjkl;'

[muninnhuginn]

Writers tag game

Prompt: share some writing

Thanks for the tag, @miyamiwu!

So, I'll be honest, I don't actually have any WIPs I'm intending to do anything with, but I have some oldish abandoned stuff I managed to relocate. It's back from 2021 so in my Untamed era and this bit was specifically set during Fatal Journey*:

Nie Huaisang woke blearily, cold seeping into his clothes from the floor. It was dark and it took several seconds to remember where he was. He could hear the muffled sounds of clanging and voices. As he lifted his head off the ground, they slowly resolved themselves into the clash of swords and yelling. [...] He didn't know what to do. What would his brother do? Xichen-ge? San-ge? He had his flute with him– he could try Cleansing. This was what it was for, right? Before he could doubt himself further, he started playing, pouring all the qi he could muster into the tune. He'd practised for hours the night before, long after San-ge had left, but despite that, he hadn't truly thought then that he'd need to play so soon. Was that so naïve of him? As he watched, Da-ge began to slow in his movements and Nie Huaisang felt himself start to relax. He kept his lips to the flute, trying not to let his relief fool him into making mistakes. Still, he knew he only had to play a little longer and then they could all escape. Him, his brother, his cousin. They could flee far away from the darkness that haunted these halls. And then Nie Zonghui's head hit the floor. He stopped playing.

And then I had this other bit:

He'd messed up. He must have played a wrong note. Maybe he'd misremembered the entire thing? And now Nie Zonghui was dead and his brother - what looked like his brother - was stood, Baxia dripping blood to the floor. [...] The sword was pointed at him. He tried to hold himself steady as he looked down the blade. Tried to blink away the tears that kept escaping without his permission. He could tell he was failing, unable to stop the trembling, but he forced himself to meet the eyes at the other end of the sword. He couldn't die here. He refused to die here. After all, he was the only family his brother had left.

*(it was meant to be part of a short time travel fic where post-canon characters went back not long before NMJ died. It would've had flashbacks to Fatal Journey interspersed with the "present" up until the point at which future NHS tipped off past NHS about the poisoned music. I actually got as far as figuring out where I wanted all the characters to be at the end of it, but I ran out of motivation pretty quickly so there's only this WIP stuff and the intro part written in the end.)

Ahh not sure who to tag when it comes to writing stuff. I know @roseofcards90 and @floofiestboy write some stuff? And anyone else who sees this who writes, feel free to consider yourself tagged ^^

[matchacreamlatte]

one thing i’m stuck on is why did ltx draw lg here? seems like a such an odd detail to add if there’s no importance. I guess it can be chen bin, but even the hair shape is more like lu guangs. Plus she drew her father with brown hair so i don’t see why she wouldn’t for cb.

It’s kinda tricky if ltx has even seen lg before… this is before they ask her to look into how he’s doing. did she only become aware of what ltc is truly doing during the chen bin possession? if not she would have seen lg when ql was possessed. but why not use the actual person who got possessed as the example? ql only received memories of ltx, cb and lg too. (but she said she got the memories of many people so it could have been off screen). In the fairytale sequence she wakes up and finds him hunting in the night (the rabbit family) but she also sees him hunting during the day. I can see the hunts during the nights being the ones symbolizing his killings to keep her in the dark. Honestly i’m leaning towards her only becoming aware during chen bins possession. I feel like she wouldn’t react well to him killing the other innocents either?

Then why would they even possess lg? if it was related to the whole qian jin/liu min plotline i’m sure that would have been shown. liu xiao was in contact with ltc to get liu mins phone so maybe he also had him snoop in on lg….. (so does ltc know lg memories… i feel like he would definitely use that as a jab towards lg, but maybe he was instructed not to look into lg memories by lx and only look at the present studio?)

or maybe i’m over reading it and they just decided to use him as easy representation for her powers. cxs or ql didn’t react to it being lg so.. still seems like a weird detail to add but it can be a red herring.

[tivea]

0909Shiguang stuff

Yes they're supposed to be married.

It's surprising to me how much i think about them

[elibean]

ok so people are saying how the pv is misleading us (and it is) bc qj is wearing his bulletproof vest when he shoots cxs, but not in the beginning of the pv; thus, cxs is fine. and like, ofc cxs is fine, they'd never kill off a main character, buuuuut the scene distinctly cuts in the pv after they show him with the vest. there's no guarantee that those scenes take place one after another...

[daily-linkclick]

daily link click: 2/12/23

ta-da!

[asherasgayagenda]

oopsie link click angst thoughts hit me. my apologies for the rest of this ask 🙏

do you ever think about a potential ending where lu guang is dead and cheng xiaoshi goes through all the photos they have together just to feel like he's not gone. to spend just a few more moments together. but each photo can only be entered once and eventually there's none left and he has to accept that lu guang is Gone.

or what if they never had any photos together. what if that was an unspoken rule between them. so when lu guang is gone cheng xiaoshi can do nothing.

and they had bunkbeds. it's always strange losing someone when you're so used to having them sleeping in the same room as you. everything feels quiet. too empty. too big of a space for just cheng xiaoshi and qiao ling.

apologizing in advance bc im no fandom theorist i just kinda go woag. feelings

thats like. chefs kiss angst level. cause I think cxs would obviously try to preserve the memories that he has and gain more in the remaining ones, if any, that he has. that kind of ties to a paradox theory—what if cheng xiaoshi took photos in the photo and then preserved them? and then jumped back in time [in a photo in a photo]—would that work? I keep thinking about that one lc comic I saw a while ago that begins with shiguang having a normal day, and lg is oblivious to the odd way cxs is acting.. and his golden eyes. yet he's not really There he's only catching glimpses of his memory and even that is a ticking clock. I think he'd be gripped by that fear and desperation, knowing that he's selfishly using up whatever he has left just for one more moment of peace? calmness? normalcy? with the one that he feels connected to. but I think it'd be character of cheng xiaoshi to fight with whatever he has, tooth and nail, whatever it takes to bring lu guang back to him. disregard lg's rules because he just cannot accept that he's beyong the realm of saving.

I think they would have a few photos since cheng xiaoshi has (canonically? atleast in the shorts... but that's not exactly canon) taken photos of lg before but. I like the way you think. imagining cxs absolutely hopeless., knowing that nothing he can do in the present world can change the fate of lu guang's death. ough. because it's always worst when theres nothing to do. there's nothing more hopeless than knowing a definite fact and having the knowledge that there was AND IS nothing that could alter it. maybe he could convince himself that "it's for the better" if he acted (no matter how rashly) on the small glimmer of hope to restoring lu guang, to restore his memory, to restore the person that he knew. maybe, he could tell himself enough times that lu guang isn't completely gone, there was still some way to capture the "lu guang" he knew, and then do something about it. but all he can do it to settle with his own futile memories , that crack as time goes on.

your last line holy shit that was poetic as hell. thinking about that... how cheng xiaoshi would need to get himself used to the way that it used to be Before Lu Guang. and finding himself absolutely unused to dealing with a silence beside him. because there's a blankness where the 'silence' used to be, you know? it might've been fine with ql in the past, but then again, there's something missing that even his childhood friend can't fill.

[catguangcorner]

earthquake arc in the live action actually ruining my life MORE than the donghua for the sheer amount of post-dive emotional angst between lu guang and cheng xiaoshi, and the fact cheng xiaoshi had full on trauma flashbacks to the point where he can't run the shop properly. i feel. so unwell. biting my fist

[thatoneweirdo14]

that is the look of a man who just saw his dead friend living and breathing again.

[curapicas]

Hadn't noticed that bigger design chair on the side before, but makes sense each has their own space in the table, and this spot must be Lu Guang's-

... Right? Hold on, let me look at other references from season 1:

Well, apparently. No.

he was, quite literally, in Cheng Xiaoshi's place.

[75-6312511213735335]

Is the Entity trying to, like, reap our souls or something? Absorb our essence and make us cease to be?

Close enough.

[mithidria]

so like. hypothetically. if cxs dove into a photo and took a photo while there, could he dive into that photo too and effectively live in the past forever? could he make his own time loop