#link click crack

[qpjianghu]

i'm sorry but this is SO MUCH FUNNIER than "there was only one bed." obviously the big bad censors were like "no siree" and the link click fam was like FINE... NOW THERE ARE TECHNICALLY TWO BEDS BECAUSE WE ADDED A MILLIMETER OF SPACE BETWEEN THEM OKAY?? GO AWAY MOM

[imsosocold]

The Liu siblings really are my favorite characters! And despite all their differences I think in the end they really are similar to each other ♥

[lenateliier]

You think the memory of it ever just hits him on a random Tuesday?

[liccy]

So, I figured... I can post something with Quality.... or I could make myself giggle.

[xinyuehui]

S2EP12 x S3EP01

Take my power and live on...

[aurieeeeeenyx]

time travel mechanics in link click — intentional inconsistencies? closed loops and parallel timelines (theory)

Back in 2021 or so, I wanted to make a post about the time travel mechanics in Season 1, and how they seemed to be inconsistent in certain episodes. I never ended up making that post, and the idea slowly faded from my mind, but I want to make that post now (armed with all the new information we've received since then) before Bridon/Yingdu arc episode 4 comes out because of the episode preview when Lu Guang says this:

In Season 1, the time travel seems to operate on the principle of a closed loop. This is especially evident in the Doudou arc, when Cheng Xiaoshi sees himself in the past (while he's in Doudou's body) and realizes that he was always there; the "changes" he inflicted weren't really changes, because by the time he dives back from the future his actions in the past have already happened. This is also demonstrated when Xu Shanshan walks into the photo studio and interacts with Cheng Xiaoshi in S1E8, and we later find out that it was in fact Cheng Xiaoshi in Xu Shanshan's body interacting with himself. And again, with the ploy to use Xu Shanshan in order to lure Liu Min/Red Eyes to the photo studio. We also see this closed loop phenomenon happen in Season 2, for example when Cheng Xiaoshi possesses Lu Guang's body to go save himself in the past.

So I've always been a little bothered by the earthquake arc in Season 1. If the dives into the past have already happened, why does Chen Xiao come to the photo studio in the first place? If Cheng Xiaoshi (in Chen Xiao's body) won the basketball game and gave those kind words to Chen Xiao's loved ones, why does Chen Xiao remember otherwise?

I've wondered before what happens to the clients when Cheng Xiaoshi is possessing them—do they just not remember anything? Are they even aware of themselves being possessed? Why is no one concerned about missing memories for hours at a time or not being in control of their own body? Emma sort of skirts around this when she tells Cheng Xiaoshi, "So you were the one who sent that message" in S1E11, implying she's aware it wasn't her who sent it. For the sake of argument, though, I'm going to pass the general non-reaction of the clients to being possessed as a handwavey "the brain justifies it somehow later" thing and ignore it.**

That brings us again to the question: Why does Chen Xiao remember the past differently to the one Cheng Xiaoshi experienced/changed? Maybe the past isn't set in stone after all? Maybe, instead of just being a closed loop, the time travel in Link Click is operating on multiple systems?

In 2021, right after I watched Season 1, I was going to dismiss this as just an error. The writers slipped up and bungled their time travel mechanics a bit, and therefore the earthquake arc is different on accident. But we've learned since then that nothing is unintentional in this show, so why is that arc different from the others? (Also, I want to note, there is that moment in S1E4 where Lu Guang's face does that weird warping thing; coincidence? Maybe, but maybe not...)

My theory is: the time travel abilities that Cheng Xiaoshi and Lu Guang have operate differently.

DISCLAIMER: My knowledge of photography and film is extremely limited, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

There's always been a lot of film imagery in this show—obviously, since the whole premise is based in photography—but as early as the Season 1 OP, "Dive Back In Time," we can see the repeated use of rewinding film rolls as a metaphor for going back in time.

Note also: Lu Guang dropping the photo and it transitioning into a film roll, and Cheng Xiaoshi being tangled up in film rolls and being "inside" the film in the background/trapped in the frame. I'll get to this later.

The thing is, once you record something on film, you can't change it; you can only rewind and play it again. This tracks with the closed loop theory: no real changes can be made, because they have already happened. So how is it possible that "changes are still happening," as Lu Guang says in the YE4 preview? It's likely that Vein (and Liu Xiao and Xia Fei) are involved, but I don't believe that's the root of the issue. And, I don't think it's just the ever-nebulous "butterfly effect," because in YE1 Lu Guang says this:

I used to think that even a flap of a butterfly might cause a hurricane strong enough to ruin the world. I was wrong. The power of time is still far beyond our imagination. The future may not change due to a ripple of the past. Not at all...

(Yes, Lu Guang is a notoriously unreliable narrator, but I've decided to trust him on this one. Not to mention, butterfly effect shouldn't exist in a closed loop system.)

I've seen lots of excellent analyses illustrating the discrepancies this season, from the very first scene of YE1 (different furniture positioning, cracks in photo frame glass, bloodstains, presence of curtain, etc) to the changing positions of clothing, buildings, time of day, food, and so on in YE2 (go check out hyperfaexation's excellent YouTube video on their Shattered Memories theory for more details). The fandom is constantly theorizing about how many timelines there are. But while we've been asking ourselves how many timelines exist (five, ten, more?), we forgot to stop and ask: why do they exist?

The existence of multiple timelines doesn't fit into Season 1's time travel premise. In Season 1, it was always Cheng Xiaoshi that we were watching. Whereas Cheng Xiaoshi could be said to live "in" the film when he dives, perhaps Lu Guang is cutting the roll short at the point which he dives back to and splicing a new roll onto it. This could explain the scene from "Dive Back In Time" that I referenced earlier, with Lu Guang outside the film and Cheng Xiaoshi in it. It's not exactly that Lu Guang is diving back in time; it's more like he's diving out of time, into a parallel timeline and leaving this one behind. Maybe this season, we'll get to see more complicated time travel mechanics that result from the intersection of different powers. (And, while we're at it, maybe we can get an answer to why Cheng Xiaoshi has golden eyes for a few frames in YE1 when they're running away, because seriously what's up with that?)

**Another explanation for the non-reaction to the clients' possession could be the interaction of different timelines, but I'm not really sure how this would pan out so I'm not going to elaborate too much.

What does this have to do with the earthquake arc? Why would Lu Guang have a (slightly) different power than Cheng Xiaoshi, if he inherited it from Cheng Xiaoshi as we are led to believe? What happens to the discarded film, the abandoned timelines, when Lu Guang casts them away? Can Cheng Xiaoshi ever be saved? I don't have answers to any of these questions, and maybe I'm overthinking (ha) all of this and it really is just a writing inconsistency after all, but I want to believe Link Click's writers know what they're doing with this and all we can do is wait for the reveal.

[yingdu-lover]

I know what they wanted to mean but that unfertilised eggs remind me of PCOD 😭 lu guang, my babygirl, let's schedule an appointment to a gynaecologist pls, timeline messes with our hormones and pheromones

[nuctua-larc]

When they're doomed by the narrative

[veifei]

face of a man with allegedly no skills <3 he said im cultivating my ability to be truly proficient at absolutely nothing in particular <3

[elibean]

i admire yall for pointing out lc animation inconsistencies and insisting this is timeline related or secret hints but uh

we've done this before

[yeeted-into-the-multiverse]

lowkey i have a theory on xia fei & vein’s powers, esp after this episode’s reveal of liu xiao’s ability(?) but it’s kinda delusional i js wanna get it out there anyway..

if liu xiao’s ability is actually being able to hear people’s heartbeats, it’s a pretty weak ability in comparison to all the other ones introduced in the series so far (literal time travel, limited omniscience, possession, seeing people’s memories…) assuming he doesn’t have any other abilities

but it actually lines up with a theory i had a while ago when watching the “house of hot-headed” mv

so a lot of people know by now but there’s a section where they display everyone’s names, and there are card suits on the bottom left-ish assigned to each character

xia fei - spades, liu xiao - clover, vein - diamond

according to wikipedia, china’s ranking of suits from lowest to highest is clover, hearts, diamond then spades

so maybe the suits are referring to how powerful each of their abilities are as well? i don’t think it refers to the characters themselves since it seems like liu xiao is gonna have the most impact on the series as a whole out of the 3 antagonists this season but yeah.

[miyamiwu]

I meant this as a joke, but going by the theory that their character PVs are actually set post-Yingdu, it would explain why Vein wasn’t portrayed actually eating someone. He wasn’t really a cannibal then. Just a little freaky, that’s all

But now that he’s died once, his inner cannibal is unleashed...

Lu Guang, what have you done 😭

[just-a-little-kreature]

MDZS/Link Click fans how we feeling after this??

[notcarasuma]

If there's an icing to the cake that could doom Lu Guang futher, it would be Cheng Weimin = Liu Xiao because killing him or his wife could erase Cheng Xiaoshi's existence. It would make him practically unkillable. With Lu Guang's stubbornness the doom of non-existence practically falls onto him.

There are signs that Lu Guang's existence has been slowly erased since season 1 ep 4.

"What does basketball mean for you?"

"How precious it is to be with trustworthy partners in our life."

Memories of Lu Guang was almost overshadowed by memories of Lu Hongbin. In Bridon arc, whenever the "trustworthy partners" quote coming up, it's always from Lu Guang's memories and never from Cheng Xiaoshi's mouth unlike in S1. And I have a feeling the conversation between cxs and syy (about "as long as we are in the same time") is similar, no matter how unintentional it might be from syy's end.

Lu Guang, intentionally or not, has furthered his own doom.

"to make it happen more completely," he said.

Maybe it's supposed to be about vein, but at that point, did he know?

[ev7nescent]

I believe I can fly✨

[g1ngerbeer]

what kind of sauce are they putting in the link click audio drama. HELLO? THE LITERAL LAST SCENE OF THE LAST EPISODE?

程小时: 说起来，我们第一次见面，也是在篮球场吧。 陆光: 是啊。 程小时: 你我本无缘，全靠一颗球。 陆光: 我就不该答应你比那场。

cheng xiaoshi: speaking of which, the first time we met was also on a basketball court, wasn't it? lu guang: it was. cheng xiaoshi: (half-jokingly) you and i weren't meant to be [lit. "originally have no fate"?]. this is all because of one basketball. lu guang: i really shouldn't have agreed to play that match.

(the important bits are from google translate because i am bad at mandarin. also i did transcribe this off just the audio + i don't have access to captions or know where to find official transcripts. so i hope i got this right 🙏)