#link click analysis

[chubphoe-linkclick]

These parallel shots of Tianchen and Tianxi running as they each throw away everything that ever mattered to them are killing me

The fact that they use lighting to say 'Tianxi dies and goes to heaven while Tianchen descends into further into a living hell' is killing me

Like fuck man, I just wanted to watch some noodle lesbians.

[anulithots]

We as a society need more Qiao LIng analysis. So here I am.

Qiao Ling and how she represents the present day in a time travel show

In terms of the trio in a time travel show, Qiao Ling represents the present day. She deals with clients to bring to the time photo studio (I hope I got the name right), comforts Li Tianxi (in comparison to CXS empathizing with her through diving into the past), and overall (especially in season two) is best with interacting with people in the present day, and remains the most levelheaded

(Lu Guang’s too overprotective to be the logical one here)

And this slotted nicely with each member of the trio representing past present and future (what they are most comfortable with/find comfort in)…

until this (s1ep7):

Which makes her seem like her internal conflict revolves around the past, yes?

Okay now partially because I want to draw attention to this screenshot:

(CXS is soooo sad here and Lu Guang can’t even look. I sob I cri)

Okay so part of the reason CXS looks like this is because it’s post episode 5 and more than anything else he UNDERSTANDS regretting the past

But here Qiao Ling isn’t regretting her life, she isn’t searching for some way to fix it and relive herself of the pain of the past like CXS does, she’s trying to escape it

THEREFORE! Qiao Ling is still ‘present day focused’. She shuns the past, attempts to avoid it, so that she can stay content in the present day.

Which directly parallels CXS (so siblings of them) in how they view the past and the pain that comes with it. CXS actively tries to fix it and give himself/those he possesses the solace and love he lost, whereas Qiao Ling tries to avoid her regret through keeping away the reminders of the past, so that she may be more useful/happier in the present day.

IN FACT! (see boba tea screenshots above) Qiao Ling does tend to look at any issues (usually resulting from the past) and look to present comforts and pleasures to keep everyone happy.

(Again paralleling both CXS and Lu Guang, who do this with the past and future respectively)

(also how CXS has Qiao Ling to comfort him and keep him going in both season two and here in episodes six and seven when she talks about Doudou

They are so siblings I can’ttttttt)

[rainibao]

So while I was putting this together, I noticed something that mightt be worth mentioning. Could just be a style/lighting thing, or something I've been out of the loop of, but I'd still like to point it out! (Basically, something that caught my eye in the flashback of cxs handing the basketball to Lu Guang)(If you're short on time just read till you see red-coloured text under some screenshots, almost everything after that is no longer an merely an observation, and is up to interpretation. Or just rambling tbh)

(video here since it can't be inserted into Google docs)

(trust me I tried posting it directly onto Tumblr so many times. So much stuff kept getting undone. Help. It wasn't supposed to take this long)

Edit: sigh the view of the pics from the link isn't that great so here they are

[just-prime]

So yeah...about that Link Click hyperfixation...

I've done my best to map out the entire timeline of Season 1 (or as far as we understand it in s1)

PLEASE let me know if I've missed anything or forgotten any plot points! I made this in like two days so there might be mistakes. :P

FIND IT HERE

If you want to see it with massacred resolution it's below

[ammiya]

Analysing every Link Click song's lyrics!! (MAJOR LINK CLICK SPOILERS!!!)

Part 1 | Dive Back in Time

Here are the full lyrics, since I won't be including them all:

(I'll be saying random theories while analysing some lines, so don't take this too seriously)

"It didn't take too long to realize, something has changed in the back of my mind, your eyes"

A theory: what if, at the very first timeline, Lu Guang didn't go back in time immediately. He tried to stick to his own rules, but eventually he started forgetting what Cheng Xiaoshi looks like, therefore why his eyes were covered with the film in the MV

"Time no longer flew like it was, when the flash froze everything before"

Lu Guang being frozen in time after Cheng Xiaoshi's death?

"Without you, I don't know if I could take this road"

I don't think this needs to be analysed...

"Chase you into the end of the world, just to say your name once more. If I had only got it right before."

"Chase you" as in follow you? Does Lu Guang have suicidal thoughts?

"Every minute that I dialed back in time, every since existance rewinds"

Is it about being stuck in a time loop? Or that no matter what he does, Cheng Xiaoshi will ALWAYS die?

"Something secretive hidden inside your mind"

I have no idea how to analyze this except for the possibility that it might refer to that theory that Cheng Xiaoshi hung himself in one of the timelines.

"All the heartaches and the smiles never faded, I know you'll be by my side when we make it, come back from the dive"

The way Lu Guang CANNOT imagine a future without Cheng Xiaoshi...

"Come back from the dive, dive back in time"

The way both sentences are the exact opposite, and each one of them belong to a character..

"Here's to all the mistakes I never made, all the twists and turns, I'm always late to my fate"

Is this about what happens in the current timeline after Lu Guang dives? Like, what his absense would resault in.

"If it ain't for your misguided taste, I'd turn out so ordinary"

I'm struggling to analyze this but I KNOW it's somehow important. "So ordinary" as in without special abilities? Or without the need to go back?

"Well, don't you feel sorry. I'll love where I'm going now"

Lu Guang likes doing what he does, probabky because of the hope he hold onto in the beginning of every timeline. "Maybe this time I can prevent _", "Maybe this time I can save him"

"'Cause I'm about to lose my mind"

Seeing your dearest person die in front of you over and over, while having to accept the fact that you can't save him...

I'm not sure if this was done on purpose or not, but I noticed that in the "Dive back in time" part in the end (of the full version), if you focus on it, "Time" and "Dive" will sound so similar. It'll seem as if they're saying "Dive back in- Dive back in time", also the way it's possibke that "Time" and "Dive" are the same for Lu Guang now.

I'm not that much of an analyst, so this entire post might not make any sense, but I hope that some of it did <3!!

[nacrelysis]

linguistics isn't my thing, disclaimer.

but cheng xiaoshi's name, 程小时, might translate to "the regulation of time/hours." see,

程, chéng, is a common surname. but it also means "rule, orders, or regulations."

小时, xiǎoshí, quite literally means "hours."

(this post arises from a thought i had as to whether cheng xiaoshi's first name, xiaoshi, is a play on the phrase, 消失 [xiāoshī], "to disappear." and whether or not that foreshadowed anything in link click's upcoming plot. probably not as the phonetic pronunciation is not the same.)

[cupcakesmoothie]

Just finished Season 2 of the emotional damage show, also known as Link Click!

Spoilers (And a lot of screaming (That means full caps) ahead)(Also swearing)

WHAT THE FUCK. WHAT THE FUCK. THIS STILL APPLIES

HEY SHOW? HEY (Pause to look up who the fuck made this give me a sec) LI HAOLING? WHAT DOES THIS MEAN. WHAT THE FUCK DOES THIS MEAN. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH

Anyway. That was. An experience.

New powers got explored, which was cool. They can be transferred and Qiao Ling got an ability, which was also cool.

The whole thing with the siblings was. Oh my god. I can't believe they would do this to me. WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE FUCKING SPOKE. WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE DIED RIGHT AFTER. YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME.

AND LU GUANG???????? HELLO????? WHAT? WHJAT? WAHT? Bro fuck this show for putting a whole ass funeral in their trailer and fuck this show FOR STILL HAVING A CHANCE TO DO SO.

Ok so actual notes (<- Probably a lie): It's very obvious they're setting up for a Season 3 (If they don't get a Season 3 I will simply cease to exist), because we get a lot of build up for a bunch of things.

They STILL don't really explain how they got these powers in the first place, although they do have the scene with Qiao Ling (I mean, I guess they don't have to, it would be cool, but not very necessary. What IS very needed however-). And there was pretty much no development on Xiaoshi's parents. It's kinda understandable with how they ended the last season but a little bit disappointing considering it is one of his character motivations. Besides, of course-

Xiaoshi cares about people. A lot. The THINGS that happened last season made that very hard, but he still cares about people. But also and however, Lu Guang cares about him. They are so "I would sacrifice myself for the world" vs "I would sacrifice the world for you" and OUGH. Taking damage. Crying. No joke there are tears in my eyes. THEY CAN'T DO THIS TO ME????????????

There are. Consequences. In this show. Unfortunately. They explore time travel quite well in my opinion, and they put quite a lot of emphasis on how important it is that Xiaoshi doesn't let his heart take over (It is a kind heart which can't bear to see bad things happen to people). WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN THREE PEOPLE DIED. HUH? HUHHHH???? I'M SHAKING YOU LAN STUDIO WHAT DO YOU MEAN LU GUANG SAW HIM DIE. OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-

A collection of reactions and memes that best describe me rn:

[chubphoe-linkclick]

Knowing that Lu Guang is trying to change the past, knowing that he likely can’t change the death node, he’s the one who’s really forced to dwell on what was the point of delivering all those messages even if the recipients still die.

Even if Cheng Xiaoshi understands the suffering of losing those people, it’s Lu Guang who is the one who has to live with the loss itself.

„What was the point of delivering all those messages if we didn’t end up saving anyone?”

Some angst for you all

[chubphoe-linkclick]

Reminder that 'Lu Guang will literally break the rules of time and space just to comfort his best boy' has been an established fact since the first episode

[blackwhiteanddoomed]

dying to know who Lu Guang was before repeatedly time traveling. we've seen several times that him, cheng xiaoshi, and qiao ling like to dance and play video games together, what other hobbies and such do you think he gave up while trying to save cheng xiaoshi? was his hair always white or did it turn due to stress? did he use to smile more? who did he use to be?

[chubphoe-linkclick]

I love the parallels in how the empathetic one of the pair ironically ends up being hurt by the analytical one because of their very attempts to protect them

the things they do for family

[anulithots]

Okay so the moment where Cheng Xiaoshi decides not to dive into the past because Lu Guang would’ve disapproved of it. Amazing moment.

Also would not have happened if Cheng Xiaoshi didn’t witness Emma getting strangled in episode 9.

Why? Because Cheng Xiaoshi lost some faith in his ability to fix the past and Lu Guang during the earthquake arc.

This led him to try to do something on his own for Emma, hence he dived on his own, hence he witnessed her getting strangled, and realized that his every action, his every intention to fix the past (as a way to vicariously fix his own pain regarding the past.)

but in this moment, he realizes he can’t fix the past, shouldn’t have dived on his own, and he asks Lu Guang to tell him what he should do, how to make things end well, because he was never able to.

And this is when he accepts the whole ‘fool, don’t change the past, because of us, the future will surely change’, because it’s what Lu Guang would’ve said to make everything to end okay.

Cheng Xiaoshi applies his strategic abilities to change the future instead in episode 10 and 11, which works out well…

… annndd hence why Cheng Xiaoshi believed in Lu Guang to the point where he wouldn’t dive back in time to save him.

WHich is driving me insanneeeeee THE WRITING IN THIS SHOOOOWWWW

___

will start linking the link click masterpost because society must gaze at my collection.

[catguangcorner]

la!cxs telling lu guang that his 'rules' (past or future mantra) never existed to begin with, demeaning himself saying that lu guang only ever wanted an obedient thing to do his bidding and put cxs through all these missions to manipulate him into being pliant, nothing more than a means to an end rather than a friend.....wow.

it's fascinating because in the donghua lu guang does have this selfish quality (as well as being a massive hypocrite), only it manifests in his breaking of the rules for cheng xiaoshi's sake. in the live action lu guang still lacks the inability to Let It Go, but here we see the effects of his reckless tunnel vision and contradictory convictions on the person he's come to care for, 'his only friend,' and it's heartbreaking to watch.

it truly does feel like we're watching shiguang's growing pains, before they settle into their relationship, before lu guang is so fiercely devoted to cxs that he'll sacrifice anything to save him.

[kurigohan0909]

Rewatching Link Click: Easter eggs in your noodle soup?

So I've just finished watching both seasons of Link Click/Shíguāng Dàilǐ-rén, which means that obviously I'm watching it all over again. What did you expect me to do, sit around waiting for Bridon arc while the Bilibili official account taunts us with replays??

Besides, Link Click is one of those dishes that is best served twice. The early episodes are packed with hints and foreshadowing that only become clear once you've gotten up to date, so I've made it my mission to catch 'em all.

You don't say.

It's well known that certain early mini-arcs (for instance Chen Xiao's basketball match, and Doudou's kidnapping) have implications for the larger plotline or at least contain important exposition/character insights that the story would not feel complete without. There are also several that get written off as filler, or are generally considered to not have any purpose beyond familiarising the audience with the characters and setup, and lulling you into a false sense of comfort before everything goes to shit. Episode 2: Secret Recipe, AKA the Noodle Lesbians episode, beloved as it is, tends to fall into the second category.

Or does it?

On a rewatch, I still don't think it does anything to advance the main plot. We don't even really know where it fits into the timeline, because we're never told what day it is and Lu Guang's watch is never shown on screen (I'll get around to a longer analysis of this another day). However, I'm instead inclined to believe that it's one of the most important episodes in the show - if not THE most important - because it's essentially an allegory for the story of Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang, and gives you a bird's eye view of how the relationship between them is going to develop - which, as you know, is what the show is all about. And the fact that it's not situated in a specific time, in a show that cares heavily about timeline construction, makes it better.

The episode starts with this quote from German photographer August Sander, who believed that, through photography, he could reveal the characteristic traits of people. "The portrait is your mirror. It's you." It's pretty explicit, when you think about it. This episode is a mirror of the entire series, specifically of its protagonists.

Moving on. The episode's storyline is quite simple: two college "roommates" start a noodle shop together, and as time passes, they drift apart and eventually fall out as their priorities change. Yu Xia, the business-oriented one between them, wants to get hold of the secret ingredient used by Lin Zhen, to whose cooking the shop attributes its success. Does Yu Xia really want to steal the secret recipe? Or is it just one of the many things that the quieter Lin Zhen keeps hidden from her that she desperately wants to know, along with everything that went wrong between them? Your guess is as good as mine. Either way, there are lots of indirect parallels between Xialin of the noodle shop and Shiguang of the photo studio, even if for now they're very distinct individuals with their own personalities and struggles. It does, however, give some indication of what's to come.

This question isn't purely rhetorical, as we find out in the very next arc, where Cheng Xiaoshi has a fight with Lu Guang over letting his client's loved ones perish in the Wenchuan earthquake. Even if they eventually come to a consensus, they have fundamentally different life philosophies and approach their missions in very different ways. Cheng Xiaoshi is a hyperempathetic idealist who keeps trying to use his forays back into the past to fix his clients' personal problems, while Lu Guang remains utterly indifferent and staunchly against interfering, even in life-or-death situations. Which turns out to be a facade, because we later learn that he's just as much of a meddler as Cheng Xiaoshi - except he's focused on a singular, selfish goal, which is to keep Cheng Xiaoshi alive at any cost.

Let's go back to the noodle shop. After ten years of running the business together, it becomes clear that the ladies' aspirations are no longer compatible. Yu Xia has big plans for the shop. She wants to broaden their customer base - for profit, of course, but also so that more people can be made happy by the chance to taste their noodles. Lin Zhen's dreams, however, are on a smaller scale - perhaps only on a personal scale. Throughout the episode, it seems that she only really cares about making noodles for one person.

Sound familiar?

At the risk of digressing, it needs to be said that Yu Xia and Lin Zhen are absolutely very much a WLW couple. This isn't bait, it's elegant and really quite unsubtle queercoding that says 'to hell with censorship' loud and clear. Honeymoon jokes, the taxi driver assuming Lin Zhen had fought with her husband, and Lin Zhen's very bold attempts at flirting... we see you.

More to the point of this post, I think it's important to point out that Lin Zhen does not actually care for too many people other than Yu Xia. She's all worn out from making noodles for customers, but she forgets all about that when it's time to make a bowl for Yu Xia. She also keeps her special ingredient - which is one of the secrets she shares with Yu Xia, as we find out - highly guarded. She's never going to let these pesky reporters in on something so intimate.

Why is this important? Because, as it turns out, the episode's storyline - and Lin Zhen's motives - are all about saving Yu Xia.

We learn that the secret ingredient is a local specialty from Yu Xia's hometown. Lin Zhen has been using it for years, keeping the taste of home alive while Yu Xia's drifted further and further from home to the point where she can no longer remember where the ingredient came from. At the end of it all, when Yu Xia returns home, she finds Lin Zhen there waiting for her. Lin Zhen, mind you, does not hail from the same town. The girls met in college. It's home to her simply because it's Yu Xia's home.

This comes directly after a pilot episode that establishes the contrast between urban isolation and rural/familial warmth, through Emma's eyes, and in a show that continually reinforces the concept of longing for home and loved ones. By forcing Yu Xia to reevaluate her priorities, Lin Zhen manages to bring her back home - which is a place that includes herself.

Perhaps it's too early to say. But to me, it's a pretty neat thematic parallel of Lu Guang's solo quest to save Cheng Xiaoshi from death; which is intertwined with a greater goal of giving Cheng Xiaoshi a home, one that is safe and secure and surrounds him with those that love him and are there to stay.

But in the process of achieving this, one of his biggest obstacles is Cheng Xiaoshi himself - his insistence on interfering with the timeline so that Lu Guang can't predict events with certainty, his objections to the way Lu Guang does things, and the definite resistance Lu Guang will come up against if Cheng Xiaoshi learns about his plan. Pretty much every minor mission they undertake is a rehash of the same argument; Cheng Xiaoshi wants to use their combined powers to make a difference to other people's lives, and Lu Guang just has one goal in mind which means that he's going to ignore absolutely everyone else.

Notice how Yu Xia's looking to the future, while Lin Zhen's dream is to go back to a point in the past? Neat.

And when they finally part ways because it's clear Yu Xia is not going to support Lin Zhen's goal? Yu Xia asks her where she's going to go after they part ways, and Lin Zhen says:

I wonder where we've heard that before.

And if you need any more proof that this episode is in fact intended to be a mirror, do consider:

Their seating positions are mirrored too. Yeeeeaaaaaahhhh.

In conclusion: if this allegory is to be believed, then trust that Lu Guang will eventually succeed in his mission and Cheng Xiaoshi will find his way home to him. It'll happen, guys. In the meantime, at least our beloved noodle ladies will be living a peaceful life out in the countryside.

Since I don't know how to shut up and this website seems to be giving me infinite space to yap, let me include some more details about this episode that I found cool. There are so many.

Lin Zhen and Lu Guang are both shown while this line is being said. What with all that the fragrant flowers represent, it makes you think about what these characters' best memories might be and how much they treasure them.

This is such a tiny detail that you'd almost definitely miss it on the first watch, and it seems insignificant - until it isn't. When Cheng Xiaoshi hops into the girls' picture taken during their college days, he screws up and suggests they'd be better off dabbling in tech stuff like apps or intelligent management than running a noodle shop. Lu Guang makes him quickly eat his words, but they seem to have still struck a chord with Yu Xia - because later we see that she works over years to integrate an intelligent supply chain management system into their business. In fact, one of the reasons for Lin Zhen to alienate herself from the business is because she feels like it's gotten too techy and lost its human touch. Not really fair considering it was her own idea, is it?

I mean. This is probably a stretch. Digitization is pretty inevitable for big businesses nowadays, so Yu Xia, being as enterprising as she is, might have gone for it whether Lin Zhen suggested it or not. But it's interesting to think that it might be Cheng Xiaoshi's tiny alteration of the past that unfurled outwards like a hurricane from the beating of a butterfly's wing and catalysed their falling out. Especially because these kinds of bootstrap phenomena very much occur in later episodes and are a core feature of Link Click's time travel model.

Some suspicious behaviour on Lu Guang's part. He's quite certain there are no useful clues in the last picture Yu Xia and Lin Zhen took in front of their shop, despite it being the only one taken by Lin Zhen (seriously! you could go to her house, look through her phone, the possibilities are endless!) and the fact that this is the photo Cheng Xiaoshi did end up solving the mystery in, thanks to the ticket stubs he found in her purse (see?) Secondly, they outright miss a picture in the envelope - the most important picture of all which would have given them the answer right away, since this was when the fragrant flowers were first used. Not your best work, Lu Guang.

...or is it? Lu Guang is pretty meticulous, and it's unlike him to slip up in such obvious ways. He's also skilled at slipping things back into envelopes when he doesn't want them to be seen, as we know. Could it be that he didn't want Cheng Xiaoshi to solve the mystery? But why? Maybe it's metaphorical, like so much else of this episode: he doesn't want Cheng Xiaoshi to uncover his true intentions. The fact that all this is ultimately for his sake.

Interestingly, Lu Guang was very dejected at the idea of them seemingly being out of luck - they'd tried so many times and failed to fulfill the mission. Was he, perhaps, thinking about another mission he'd hate to fail? Anyway, it falls to Cheng Xiaoshi to cheer him up and give him hope for another try, which he accepts, with a small but genuine smile. My heart.

If you've scrolled this far, I'm glad you enjoyed my ramblings! I must say I don't know much about how Tumblr works so apologies if I mess up on formatting or tags, but I'll probably get the hang of it soon enough. I'll also probably end up enjoying Tumblr more than Twitter since it allows me unfettered yap space and won't feed my writing to the machine (yet). It's late and I should probably stop stop thinking bout it around now... but look forward to more random ramblings and thank you for reading!

[chubphoe-linkclick]

This seemed like such a cool catch until I rewatched the episode and it's actually much more like a blink than a moment of emotional processing

Now I don't know what to think of this.

The way he's looking straight ahead and then moves back, has to close his eyes and look down to recollect himself. He can't bear what just came out of his own mouth. God. I think he hurt himself with that one. and us too

[falling-star-cygnus]

cheng xiaoshi shouting "he's my family" while being in raw pain hurts something in me oml especially considering his situation regarding his parents

bc, think about it:

he thinks Lu Guang is either already dead or about to die, about to leave him; almost exactly like with his parents

the only difference is- he thinks Lu Guang's not going to come back

Cheng Xiaoshi still somewhat holds onto his hope of his parents returning to him, but once he hears that Lu Guang is dead and that the rescue failed; he genuinely thinks he's lost yet another person that he loves

to the hands of someone he loves

and he's utterly inconsolable until he sees Lu Guang alive and breathing