#love game in eastern fantasy ramblings

[lynne-monstr]

this love rival arc is physically painful. I might have to fast forward through it

[disconnected-from-reality]

Ding Yuxi and his micro expressions

Lately, Ding Yuxi has trended in weibo for his phenomenal acting in Love Game in Eastern Fantasy and people have started calling it "jinjiang style acting" for being able to portray the fancy and wordy description or narration jinjiang (JJWXC) novel authors use. For context, jjwxc is a chinese website for publishing novels.

Someone in weibo has created a compilation of his micro expressions and let me tell you, if you appreciate good acting, watch this.

Link to the original post here.

NOTE: All subtitles were MTL'd! I only added subtitles so that when I rewatch it I don't have to rely on my notes for the translations. It's all really for ease of watching. I apologize if there are mistranslations within the video.

FUN FACT: xiaoding's expression in yyxh was used as a lecture material in a film school in China! This also got trending in weibo.

[terapsina]

Reasons to watch Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (永夜星河)

An 'Ordinary Girl from Our World' drop kicked into her least favorite novel with a stupid ending and needing to deal with tasks such as 'Switch the Medicine for Her Favorite Character Without Getting Murdered by Her Favorite Character's Mean Paranoid Brother' (task failed *rewind* task failed *rewind* task failed *rewind* task f-) because of COURSE she's dropped into the villainous side character.

As conveyed by 'Extremely Expressive Physical Comedy Acting'.

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'Badass Demon Hunter' surrounded by a previously 'World's Most Introverted Brother' and 'Her New BFF a.k.a. Brother's New MorTaL EneMy' turning into LITERAL CHILDREN once a day and twice before breakfast.

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'The Complicated Relationship between a Woman Whose Entire Family was massacred by a Demon and her Adoptive Brother Who She Doesn't Know is Half-Demon and Has So Unintentionally Given a Bajillion Self-Image Self-Worth issues to'.

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Miss 'Winner of the Most Adorable' award and Mr. 'Grumpy Angsty Wet Cat' parenting the little 'Sunshine Bamboo Child'.

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The Coolness Factor of the Magical Girl Transformation Scene.

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Slowly building romance between 'Secretly a Demon' and the 'Only Person Who Did Not Fear The Real Him and Instead Saw and Valued and Protected Him'.

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A Little Breaking and Entering, a Little Arson, a Little Prison Break and the Cinematography of BOOM!

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The 'Bi-weekly Shenanigans Interrupted For the Obligatory Rip-Thy-Heart-to-Threads Hurt/Comfort Angst Storyline' as conveyed by 'The Most Expressive Micro-expressions Face Acting Around'.

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'Incredibly Sweet and Soft Secondary Romance' a.k.a. 'Miao Miao's OTP'.

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And finally... 'Eternal OTP Bait Galore'.

[extraordinarilyextreme]

on 妖 yao (and 慕声 Mu Sheng) in 永夜星河 Love Game in Eastern Fantasy (2024)

crossposted from a twitter thread!

there are SO many things i love about YYXH, but something i really appreciate is their portrayal of 妖 yao.

in ep. 10, Mu Sheng says, “人心有七窍，妖心只有一窍。所以大多数妖物的品行都简单执拗。” / "Human hearts have seven apertures [are complex and calculating]; but yao hearts have only one [are simple]. That's why the conduct of most yao creatures is uncomplicated and obstinate."

窍 / apertures (openings; orifices) are where the human body is connected to the outside world. as such, 七窍 seven orifices usually refers to the eyes (2), nose (2 nostrils), ears (2), and mouth (1). BUT...

in the context of the heart, it more often alludes to the virtuous character of 比干 Prince Bigan from the Ming dynasty novel 《封神演义》 Investiture of the Gods.

there, it was said that 圣人之心有七窍 / the hearts of saints [good men] have seven apertures...

...so, of course, the righteous and smart Bigan was rumored to possess a 七窍玲珑心 / lit. delicate seven aperture heart.

Bigan's story didn't end well (his heart was cut out by order of the infamous King Zhou of Shang), but 七窍玲珑 still means "clever and quick-witted."

now... 窍 can mean "opening"—but another way to say so could be 眼 / eye (or, "hole"). that is, we can draw a near-equivalency between 七窍玲珑心 / lit. seven-chambered heart and 多心眼 / lit. many heart's eyes; an overabundance of concern...

in particular, 多心眼 (or to say that someone 心眼多) not only implies wit and sharpness (i.e., "having a lot of thoughts"), but also some level of cunning and shrewdness. that is, to be "mindful of many things" means one is "considering of many things" and "calculating."

hence, returning to Mu Sheng's explanation: humans are crafty, always thinking of a hundred other variables and planning another hundred steps ahead. (that's why humans betray and deceive and hurt one another...)

but yao are simple.

yao don't have so many of these excess considerations. if they are hungry, they will seek to feed. if they are hurt, they will fight back. if they are scared, they will hide. if they are cared for, they will respond with equal gentleness.

in other words: yao are not human.

and this distinction is what made so many classic xianxias and yao-centric stories so compelling (think 白素贞 Bai Suzhen from the romance folktale 白蛇传 White Snake Legend).

to discuss our beloved 慕声 Mu Sheng as an example: it can be easy to say he has a jiejie-complex or is almost yandere-like about 慕瑶 Mu Yao, but we have to remember that as half-yao, he doesn't operate on the same frame of reference as humans. Mu Yao is the one person who has been consistently kind to him since he was young, and so he will reciprocate that kindness to (human standards of) extremity. likewise, when our cutie-pie 凌妙妙 Ling Miaomiao regards him with kindness, Mu Sheng will feel inclined to answer that with affections a hundred or a thousand times stronger.

though he grew up among humans, Mu Sheng's yao half should not be forgotten. humans may be fickle in their feelings; but yao (in general) will not be. once they have found someone worth their affections, they will love fiercely and to a terrifying degree. you can also understand it as yao not necessarily posessing the same understanding of 分寸 / "propriety" that humans do.

so, again, yao are not human—and that is why their stories have always been so compelling to us. we place limits on our conduct and behavior for a variety of socially-imposed and learned reasons, but yao as an imperfect reflection of our human selves allow us to live out our "fantasies" of extremity.

i think the new era of xianxias have largely traded that yao-human distinction for other things, like eye-catching CGI, flowy costumes, and the three lives, three worlds formula—which are, of course, not inherently bad.

YYXH itself is part of this new chapter of storytelling/the genre of xianxias after all (esp. given its existence as a 古偶), but that is ultimately precisely why it stands out so much to me.

is it the first or only xianxia in recent years to show that yao are nuanced? that yao are neither all good nor all bad? — of course not!

but i think it is undoubtedly among the very, very few in recent years that has successfully portrayed just what it is that makes yao so uniquely compelling. and that is due in large part to both strong writers (who also did 《苍兰诀》 Love Between Fairy and Devil) and strong actors.

in short, YYXH feels like a labor of love. love for the original 《黑莲花攻略手册》 novel; love for the xianxia genre; love for storytelling, in an era driven by capitalistic cash-grabs and the ruthlessness of c-ent.

the reality of that is up for debate, but as one individual viewer, i want to say that this drama has made me very happy. it is both respectful of and pays homage to the yao of classic xianxias.

and to be able to share and enjoy that cultural artefact—something that is so uniquely and immutably Chinese—with others, is something that brings me a lot of joy. ✨

[shijiujun]

GUYS I BEG YOU PLEASE WATCH LOVE GAME IN EASTERN FANTASY IT IS SO FUCKING FUNNYYYYYY!!!!!!

humour is so damn on point!!!!

the CGI is amazing omg there are so many scene shots

the OST too!!!!!

the two male leads are so damn dumb i cannot

THE TWO FEMALE LEADS ARE SO CUTE TGT!!!

kinship, friendship, found family +++++

pretty and hilariously adorable demons

normal funny romance AND a MAJOR sister complex

female lead keeps dying i think her dying and reset game count is at like 100 or something she keeps getting killed LMAO

she's a little cute rabbit trying to scheme her way out who can do a 绿茶婊 so damn well omg

[nocteacakes]

Over the past month I've become absolutely irrevocably completely insanely obsessed with love game in eastern fantasy and thus ding yuxi and .... I've fallen and I can't get up someone help.

I made a XHS account just to look at edits and fanart....I've watched him running to help Esther off the stage like 50 different times....

Currently watching Moonlight bc I need more of the two of them HELP

one of my friends said probly the reason I've gotten so obsessed is because he feels like a man written by a woman and IT FITS TBH. HOW DOES THIS MAN EXIST?!

[dingyuxi]

we are truly so blessed by the styling departments of both fangs of fortune and love game in eastern fantasy

[notacatdown]

Ramblings about Mu Yao's character

Emotionally, Mu Yao at the beginning of the drama is where she is at the end of the novel. She's secure and can see past Mu Sheng's lies. The early episodes were so promising. I thought she already knew Mu Sheng's secret and was giving him space and time until he was ready to tell her.

In the novel, her equal friendship period with MiaoMiao doesn't last for long. After Mu Sheng and MiaoMiao are married, Mu Yao's sense of duty keeps her from confiding in Miaomiao or joking around with Miaomiao the way that Liu Fuyi does. Mu Yao promised Lin Yu's family that she will be a responsible elder to MiaoMiao after she marries Mu Sheng, and she upholds it.

And so, those early episodes where Mu Yao has fun dressing up and treating Miaomiao as her friend (instead of her brother's friend and then his wife) were so fun to watch. I felt so happy for Mu Yao. Ep 6 to 8 were amazing without question, but it would have been nice to see more of Mu Yao and Miaomiao's friendship and for it to be more than MiaoMiao glomping onto Mu Yao. 

(In the novel, because Mu Sheng lies and messes with MiaoMiao a lot early on - she pranks him back when he goes too far, so I feel it isn't too unbalanced - she'll default to asking Mu Yao and Liu Fuyi questions about the Demon Hunters world, which makes him jealous. I like that he reaps the consequences of his behavior.)

Back to my original point, Mu Yao's character in the novel might be harder to like at the beginning. She's in the process of becoming the Mu Yao that we see at the beginning of the drama. The Mu siblings' childhood is worse in the novel, so at the start, they're like two rolled up hedgehogs that reach out to each other with good intentions, but it can't go well.

It's not just Mu Sheng that needs to go to therapy, Mu Yao needs it too. When Mu Yao laments that Mu Sheng is still a child (even though he's only two years younger than her) in the early chapters, it's because she's longing for a moment when she can put down her strong heroine persona. She loves Liu Fuyi, but she doesn't want to show weakness in front of him, and Liu Fuyi knows that. It's only Mu Sheng, the closest person to her, that she can consider exposing this vulnerability.

Part of what makes Mu Yao harder to like is that we see her words always unintentionally cause Mu Sheng pain. When she tells Mu Sheng that he is the hope and future of the Mu clan, he views it as her valuing the Mu Clan that treated him so terribly. From her perspective… there's so much to write. I'll just leave it as Mu Yao can probably imagine her father rolling over in his grave every time she says this to Mu Sheng. 

If the novel were set in a non-magical modern-day world, Mu Yao's dad would be a public figure that's famous for his justice and fairness and a shitty person in his private life. For Mu Yao to grow up in that environment and still be able to see that Mu Sheng was treated terribly by her parents is already impressive, especially when she can't see that her own childhood is also messed up.

I think the drama tried to touch on this subject (with the part about Mu Yao finding out that her dad wasn't the hero she thought he was), but didn't follow through.

[psalm40speakstome]

Love Game In Eastern Fantasy

I know there has been much talk about the micro expressions but my absolute fave was like in the very first few episodes where he LITERALLY BLINKED and changed his eyes.

[dramatothethirdpower]

35%?! After the ring? The fireworks? The confession? Protecting him and his secret?! THIRTY FIVE?!

[lotvslightning]

finally finished lgief & while i was crying A Lot during ep31, i think ep32 left me too heartbroken & numb to cry hdjsjfks 😭

[lynne-monstr]

I finished love game in eastern fantasy and i have a lot of thoughts. spoilers ahead!

let's start with the good.

it's a fun cute show with lovable characters and it's easy to watch. also the opening theme song is a banger. i had a great time with it! the love story was cute and the visuals were fun (well except for the swimming through space scene that i giggled the whole way through because yeah.)

i enjoyed the main romance. the actor who plays mu sheng has so many great facial expressions and was a joy to watch. also i'm a sucker for a grumpy man falling in love with a sunshine lady and this show delivers on that trope. also, I want to wrap liu fuyi up in blankets because i love a stoic dude with a kind heart.

the kneeling and hair tying scenes made me go absolutely feral. yeah yeah that's the good stuff. it's about the tenderness it's about the intimacy it's about the fledging growing trust of a very prickly dude with mommy issues.

(bonus for the half demon sexy man look, they really knocked it out of the park with that one!)

omg the drunk scene between mu sheng and fuyi was one of my favorite things ever. in my heart they are bff now.

my main critique of the show was the the characters were basically swept from plot to plot with little consideration given to how the plot impacted them as characters. I wish the show had dug deeper.

miao miao declares her love for another man to the marquis and then in the next breath gets love whammied and absolutely no one thinks that's strange. (okay yes mu sheng did his frantic search for curses which was chefs kiss, but then that line of thinking just gets dropped.) and then the bracelet curse is broken and it's like the whole arc never happened. did any of her friends ever find out what actually happened to her???

mu yao plans not one but two suicide missions and no one says anything to her. even after the fox demon arc where she experienced her man dying in her arms, it's like having that experience just rolls off her.

the two antagonists (trash demon mom friend who tells kids it's their fault for being born and old reclusive master who solves problems with genocide) have a quick moment of oops I did a bad thing sorry and get immediately forgvien by the narrative.

okay anyway, getting to the part that made me want to write up this post in the first place. The Ending.

i really enjoyed the author plot twist and how it tied in to a bunch of little hints dropped throughout the story. (and I did kind of see it coming because of that! how satisfying!) but the actual ending left me a little frustrated.

in my ideal LGIEF ending, miao miao would "wake up" from her martial arts dream and instead of continuing to live a sad life where she's unhappy and has a job that walks all over her, she takes the experiences she had in the novel and stands up for herself. tbh having her not remember (is this the THIRD amnesia plot in the show, oh my) is a bit overdone at this point, so i'd have her keep her memories of her time in the novel. we know from her backstory that she's never had a problem standing up for others, but now she's learned to stand up for herself. give my girl some character growth as a result of her adventure! she stands up to her shitty boss and attends the book signing not just because she's supporting her favorite author but because she's determined to get back her man.

and then i would extend the ending by ten freaking seconds and GIVE US THE REACTION SHOT WE DESERVE. i cannot believe they ended it like that, betrayal betrayal! jail for show for one hundred years!

also i would include a shot of mu yao and fuyi in the real world because i love them and they are part of the bff polycule and deserve to be in the epilogue. what's the point of hammering home that they are an inseparable team of besties for life and then breaking them up.

anyway, all of this maybe makes it seems like i didn't enjoy the show, and that's not true. it's because i enjoyed it so much that i lament a lot of its lost potential.

if you're looking for a fun romp of a drama, I highly recommend this!

[lightning-bug13]

Midnight ramblings of a sleep-deprived soul has me theorizing that the reason the 2 lead characters from Fu Zhou's novel don't turn up in the real world after she returns is because just Lin YU and Mu Sheng were aspects of their personalities that they disliked, the other two characters also embody the characteristics that they wish to embody or hope to be..

[styrmwb]

Favorite Final Fantasy Music (FFXI - Treasures of Aht Urhgan)

What do you do after you kill god? You go have an unrelated adventure! And then you get horribly abused by a terrible cat lady. (If Dawntrail really wants to be Aht Urhgan 2 they gotta have Naja in it) Anyways, this is the 3rd FFXI expansion! The whole thing takes place in a middle eastern type setting (or more like the fantastical arabian nights type) which I really liked cause I feel like you just don't see it often? At least in FF it isn't common at all. Also, unlike CoP, I think the soundtrack excels in both battle and world music, which I absolutely love.

5. Delve This is just one of those songs that is the epitome of the XI sound to me. The snare backing, the horns and strings, and also whatever instrument you'd like to call the main melody (it's like a weird wind horn or something but I like it). Not much else to say cause overall it's very similar to the base game Battle Theme but I like it for a lot of the same reasons.

4. Mercenaries' Delight Song That Plays As You Kill 1,000,000 Colibri. This is the other party group battle theme, but unlike Delve for dungeons, this is outdoors. I love the bass track sounding like a fun arcade-like hit, giving the song a unique sound with the rest of the instruments also being very classic XI. The flute trilling high at the top of the song is very addictive to listen to, and the fact that I'm not sick of it after several hours of grinding speaks volumes.

3. Rapid Onslaught -Assault- Speaking of addictive songs, this is absolutely one. I wish I was good at calling out what tempos are, cause I absolutely love this song's; it feels like constant triplets. The percussion and bass, as usual, is absolutely killer, then you throw in the main synth melody, and I could listen to this shit for hours. The piano in the middle is a beautiful little interlude, before going back into the synth again for a triumphant finale.

2. Bustle of the Capital Main city theme! I think a lot of the reason I love this song is because it reminds me of World of Warcraft, the drums being the same sound as the music in Zangarmarsh there. But this is perfect for where it takes place, sounding a lot different from the other city themes you've encountered so far, which makes sense! You're far away from all of them, engrossed in a different culture now. I love how on the second "loop" of the song it gets more upbeat, bringing in that bustle the title talks about, using more strange sounds for the melody that I can't quite describe cause I don't know words.

1. Eastward Bound... This is the song that plays when you're on the ship heading to Aht Urhgan. It sounds like... it sounds like you're riding an airplane. I get a picture in my mind of one of those really big fancy international planes with the 3 columns of seats and there's a tv for everyone and there's like two sets of stewards/stewardesses on each side, and then like the camera zooms out and shows the sky while the announcer for the commercial tells you to come fly with this specific brand of flight. Sorry, ramble, but hopefully you get what I'm saying??? Love the midi ass piano/guitar that starts the song, and the bwoo bwooooo sound used for the main instrument. This song ls literally perfect for international travel, which is what it's used for! So they killed it. Actually perfect sound, and I loved hearing this to start out the expansion.

Honorable mentions go to: Illusions in the Mist, Jeweled Boughs, Ululations from Beyond, and Run Chocobo Run!

[shijiujun]

YYXH FAN WTS SOME FAN IS MAKING AND SELLING MUSHROOM DEMON PLUSHIES I AM SCREAMING

[youngster-monster]

everytime i look back at my own anon asks they get longer and i feel like im writing an essay except the essay is hyperfixation fueled rambling . does that mean anything i WILL get my wow lore from you i HAVE been getting my wow lore from you and there is nothing that any gamer alive can do to stop me because i have more free time than i should be allowed to have and an obsession for two dead gay elves. i think about them every single day and i think that this can be accredited to you, ELVES???? IN MY MULTI-MASSIVELY ONLINE ROLEPLAYING GAME???????? MANY OF THEM??? AND THEYRE COMPETENT TOO?????? oh man oh god i (i am shoveling everything on my desk into a suitcase) i dunno if i (i am hauling my computer and monitors into a comically enormous suitcase that is far larger than the contents would require) dunno if i can (searching "FINAL FANTASY XIV DOWNLOAD") i dont know if i can play that g- okay for real though i May In Fact Download FFXIV . i am scared of games i know nothing about because Uh brain sucks but youve convinced me by setting up one of those stick and box animal traps with promise of elves as the bait. i now get to message my sister who has also been hitting me with ffxiv copypasta and tell her i am interested PLEASE please please i would literally do anything to see subs tank so that they have no choice but to kick illidan out of space hell and by extension kael and vashj too so they can be mean to eachother and have the banter i so crave. to me their banter is what mana addiction is to the high elves. i miss them every single day my brother actually found out about the gay elves when i left wow open on my computer ("what relevance does that have?" you know how you can name your wow character almost anything? yeah so i have this thing where i physically cannot stop myself from testing if ship names are available for use on any game i play and uhm. youll never guess what i was testing on wow right then and there) which is tragically positioned in such a way that it is visible to the entire room and when he saw it he looked so disappointed but in no way surprised whatsoever

the time that i have to message you approaches very quickly because the ask length is getting Worse. it is getting So Bad. my deepest condolences that you have to sift through this whole thing i just have so many things to say at any given time

frankly this reminds me of my old forums days. did y'all ever do that thing where you made a friend on a forum and instead of exchanging numbers (no mobile phone) or skype contacts you'd just exchange novel-length private messages? emails with extra steps.

i am so sorry for the dead elves brainrot. it will get worse.

me 🤝 your sister Come Play FFXIV. They Are Extending The Free Trial In October. You Cannot Escape The Elves

it's actually a good game too especially once you make it past base game! as a wow player i found it pretty easy to get into after a quick period of adaptation ( < forged in the crucible of wotlk-era wow)

i just KNOW the outland trio has some incredibly comedic AND tragic potential with their banter and blizzard is KEEPING IT FROM US.

everyday hapless brothers are subjected to their sibling's dead gay elves obsession.... and it will happen again. when we're in the same room i often ask my brother random wow lore questions and he answers me immediately before going (extremely suspicious) "why. is this for a fanfic." yes it is now tell me more about coastal cities in the eastern kingdom for this throwaway line im trying to write

i also cannot shut the fuck up and i love attention and friendship so i'm having a blast personally 😌 everyday i log on and go "ah :) got a new message from my Secret Connection" like we're two spies in the 17th century corresponding through letters folded under a rock