#qian jin

[neo--queen--serenity]

@centofu created this fantastic timeline on twitter, which very helpfully lines up the order of events through the most recent Link Click episodes. Any corrections to this timeline can be found on their original thread.

A big thank you to @shantechni for pointing this out on their longer post detailing many of the new juicy details fans have learned since the release of the Bridon Arc finale.

[shizukais]

Link Click Official Art by Studio Lan.

[fizzyaki]

ummm. them.

[corxoran]

Li siblings posting hours

[softly-xiafei]

I LOVE QIAOXI!!!!

[haejjoon]

hes hot to me im sorry

[chengfagshi]

[chubphoe-linkclick]

Hey so S2E9 'Three Stroires' was fucking bonkers

LETS TALK ABOUT IT

The episode is DENSE AS ALL HELL with things to talk about, the three main things being

The titles

The art style and style of storytelling

The dialogue (or lack thereof)

Lets speedrun some analysis notes of our three favourite members of the worst found family ever!!

Storytelling Styles

All three stories are emotionally driven and told in dramatic styles without realism, though all for differing reasons.

QJ mimics the over-the-top Shakespearean reminiscent of his wife, believing himself to be the main character of a tragedy. Though this style of story telling is obviously campy and corny, it's also presented in a way where it's not immediately clear to the viewers that this isn't actually real -- it's a fabrication of the canon within the canon as a reflection of QJ's delusions.

LTC mimics QJ, however, his disposition leads to him seeing everything as a Greek Comedy as opposed to perma-victim QJ's Greek Tragedy. It also reflects LTC ultimately leaning into and revelling in killing other people as part of his hunter ethos and evolution. LTC's style does not need to be realistic because LTC isn't looking for meaning in his story, but for an experience that's enjoyable and satisfying.

QJ and LTC's style complement each other with both being able to come together to tell a more cohesive narrative overall, although each does so by focusing on themselves more than anyone else.

LTX is a silent cartoon telling of her life story, quite literally the story that's gone untold, bar the words of the gossiping crows (people with frivolous and passing interest in her life writing their own stories about the events she goes through). Her story telling style is a reflection of her mindset and being trapped cognitively as a child for all time, and is further indication that her personhood wasn't allowed to independently grow since becoming an orphan.

LTX's story is outside of QJ and LTC's narrative because she cannot speak, and thus her story does not matter. No dramatisation of reality to paint a certain picture is needed, nor is her story seen or understood in either of theirs. Her story is insular and disconnected from theirs because her personhood is disconnected from theirs.

LTX's story is told through the lens of LTC and LX's worldview: that the world is made up of beasts and hunters. There is only ever one human character (likely LX himself rather than QJ, based on how visually loyal everyone else's designs are) while LTX watches LTC straddle the line between animal (his nature) and human (his will).

Story Titles

QJ's part being called the "Inevitable Tragedy" is a reference to how he is the creator of his own misfortune as it was never based in reality but his own unchecked paranoia.

LTC's part is called the Fortuitous Comedy is because it was fortuitous for QJ to find out about the twins' powers before anyone else via Tianchen's confession and subsequent laughter. It could also be due to LTC reaching his perceived hunter-status by the fortuitous case of Deng being Liu Min's first requested kill (for the same reason LTC hates Deng, no less).

LTX's title being the "Sibling's Fairy Tale" is rather self explanatory, much like the character herself if you took the damn time to talk to her. It's childish, stuck in the past (trauma), focused on her brother and the other light of her life: their late-mother. Another piece of insight that I remembered hearing is that fairy tales don't always have happy endings, but they always have a moral to learn from. In this sense, Xixi's story is thematically the most important because no character has put that moral into practice (confronting the worst aspects of those you love, refusing to look away from the secrets they hide while you stay in a peaceful dream with their softness).

Additional Notes

QJ caring for the twins in Part II is a reflection of LTC being gaslit about reality (reinforced by QJ's fatherly love being absent in LTX's story), as well as a reflection of his sense of self and human autonomy only beginning and flourishing due to the circumstances QJ provided

LTX's story suggests that most of the time she spends with LTC involves her napping in some form, or that most of her time in general was slept away as if she was trapped in some strange dream.

The only betrayal even hinted at is LTC's betrayal of LTX's morality, a twist that literally shatters LTX's childlike world and forces her hurdling into reality. This is the only betrayal because the twins are the only two who have trust in one another among the three.

Someone else made a point about how even when the foxboy picks up the bow and arrow, he remains a fox. In LTX's eyes, her brother can act as a hunter but he's still a beast and that's not a bad thing.

The fact that most people are 'beasts' and there's only one human in all of LTX's worldview really is some solid symbolism and messaging, especially considering LTX is socially classified as an undesirable a la her disabilities. It's peak reclamation and pride in Oneself.

[chodzacaparodia]

♡ Link Click's Valentine's Cards ♡

Blue Lock's Valentine's cards

[snakesong]

Random Link Click Details: The Gun & The Vest

I hyperfixated on this show a while back and this cool little detail has been kicking around in my brain since then.

(Season 2 spoilers ahead)

So it's the final fight in the subway tunnel. We get to the point when Lu Guang goes feral because you-know why.

Qian Jin goes on the defensive and soon realizes he's out of bullets. The gun is cast aside, out of play.

This means that unless someone else shows up and brings another gun to the scene, his bulletproof vest is useless.

It's actually worse than useless, because it serves as a handle for opponents to grab onto, which Lu Guang eventually does.

Mere seconds after this, Qian Jin chooses to remove the vest.

While CXS and LG are fighting more erratically/instinctively in this scene (understandable given the circumstances), Qian Jin is clear-headed and capable of calculated decisions. That demonstrates that he is a formidable opponent, and also legitimizes his backstory as a former police officer.

This, combined with his posture, shape language, and the fact that he was wiping the floor with our protagonists made me genuinely worried about the outcome of this fight.

Gotta love it when the fight choreography creates tension while also corroborating backstory/characterization.

[jelloia]

bought a few more link click blind boxes!

i’ll get the rest one day…

[mytragedyperson]

Warning for spoilers for Link Click.

Also Link Clicks timeline drives me insane. Because they're in the present, going to the past and changing things, but at the same time, in a lot of cases they already went back. Like they can't change anything in the past, but at the same time, he already had. Like in the child trafficking episode. CXS can't change anything in the past but at the same time he's already been in the past and was seen by Xiao Ling and that distracts her and stops her asking questions.

Like there's a certain inevitability there. No matter what CXS did Emma was always going to die, unless possibly he stops the Li siblings' mother dying. But the only way to really do that is kill the dad for the mum, and there's every chance the sister then dies instead I feel like. Like the way he can only change things that, in the end, aren't overly important?

Like a lot of stuff is inevitable. It's already happened. And yet, at the same time, because they haven't gone back in time yet, none of it has happened. There's a million identical timelines all with a couple small changes and yet, season 2 doesn't feel preventable. Qian Jin is always going to think his wife cheated and murder her. The Li siblings' dad is always gonna be abusive and think his wife is cheating. I feel like Li Tianchen losing one of his loved families is another inevitability, unless he physically himself in his own body kills his dad. The only other thing is if he controlled the dad instead and got him to kill himself. Either way he's gonna be the one to kill his dad. But that's not really something CXS can control since he's not Li Tianchen and, as far as I know, can't use their abilities. And Li Tianchen sends him out of his sister's body when he covers her eyes anyway, so after that point there is nothing he can do.

It's a complete spiral. Like the earthquake episode. Nothing he does is going to stop the earthquake. He's not gonna convince everyone to leave. Even if he said he's from the future they wouldn't believe him.

He always goes to look for answers about Emma and who killed her. At least as long as they take that job, but he doesn't control what job they take. He simultaneously holds all the cards and none of them. He has the power to change everything but at the same time can't change anything that actually matters, that would actually change things, for better or for worse

Get this man some therapy

[yzy-dragon]

I absolutely ADORED S2E9 "Three Stories" of Link Click and was a bit surprised to see the discontent here on Tumblr, and I totally understand the reasons why people didn't like it, especially in the context of the pacing of the rest of S2 (which I also have some opinions on but I won't talk about that here), but I also felt the need to just get my heart out why I love it so much. A bit of background, I'm Chinese American but have lived in and visited China numerous times.

Music and theater. As a western classical musician and an amateur Chinese opera singer enthusiast (I saw someone else post about the possible inspo this episode got from Chinese opera), I VIBED with the artistic direction of this episode SO much. The three-part structure was almost like a sonata/symphony (and remember that one scene where Qian Jin was air-conducting in a previous episode!!) or scene changes in a Chinese opera. Nothing needs to be said about the animation style that hasn't been said already, but I like how scenes from the three individual "stories" were interwoven and reused like leitmotifs. Especially that crazy, tortured laughter. Idk if any of the parallels were intentional on the part of the director, but it's what I got from it due to my personal experiences. I know that's a highly subjective takeaway though, which brings me to my next point....

Qian Jin's "tragic" backstory. I know a lot of people were upset that the extent of Qian Jin's tragic backstory was "oh his wife cheated on him", but I think the "basicness" of his struggles was the whole point (by the way, this segment displayed various attitudes towards work, family, marriage, individual pride, and life in mainland China so subtly but so well!). I also don't think sympathy was the main thing we were supposed to feel for him, although of course there is some. The whole "tragicomedy" aspect of Qian Jin's story is that it's not some horrible, terrible, rare thing that happened to him, but a common problem faced by so many hardworking but busy married men trying to provide for their families: infidelity. But Qian Jin sees himself as the main character of an elaborate play that rivals the great dramatic classics (which, funnily enough, often depicted very DRAMATIZED versions of a rather basic series of events). And his viewpoint is validated when....

Qian Jin meets the twins. That segment is still largely from Qian Jin's perspective, because we still don't really know how LTC and LTX even feel about him. But for Qian Jin, it's a stroke of fate and fortune that could only possibly happen in theater. He's very far removed from reality at this point. Reality is that a cop whose job it is to investigate violent crime comes across two kids who are the victims of a violent crime. Again, nothing particularly special or even coincidential. It's comical like that.

The fairy tale section.  Unlike the first two, I think this segment is from Xixi’s perspective, which not only justifies the cartoony artstyle but also makes it heartbreaking, due to her childlike innocence.  Like Qian Jin, she also perceives her reality as something it’s not, but unlike him, she doesn’t have delusions of grandeur of being a tragic protagonist.  It’s just a little fox trying to survive in a forest full of predators and hunters.  

All that tortured laughter. I’ve actually noticed in a lot of Chinese media that they like to use laughter as a way of signifying a person’s complete mental breakdown due to the tragedies they’ve suffered.  It’s a very internal thing that has people on the outside going, “WTF?”  In this episode we have a lot of characters crazily laughing together at the same time and it seems like they’re relating to each other, but in reality they’re all trapped in their own nightmarish hells and motivated by selfish purposes. 

Back to the topic of Qian Jin, even though he (innaccurately) may see himself as the hero of his own story, it's not enough for him. He wants to use Cheng Xiaoshi to change the past. He wants to become the director of the play.

I know a lot of people were disappointed this episode didn't advance the plot, especially in regard to Cheng Xioashi and Lu Guang's storylines, but I was actually prepared for a backstory episode and couldn't have been more satisfied. Again, I have other opinions on the rest of S2 but at least standalone, I think this episode was nearly perfect. And I really wasn't expecting this, but it's really elevated Qian Jin to one of my top characters.

[dampfloks]

Frischer Anstrich für die Dampflokomotive 2655 Qian Jin (Fortschritt) im Technikmuseum Speyer.

A fresh coat of paint for the steam locomotive 2655 Qian Jin (Progress) in the Speyer Museum of Technology.

Peinture fraîche pour la locomotive à vapeur 2655 Qian Jin (progrès) au musée technique de Spire.

施派尔技术博物馆中的 2655 黔锦号蒸汽机车（进步号）焕然一新。

[wrathyforest]

Day 24

[raddestrose]

I think this is the last episode

its like bro WANTS his family to be messed up

poor girl, her life been nothing but awful then this

YOU MORON

XIAOSHI NOOOOO

now look, you’ve got an angered his boyfriend and this is what happens

you get tag teamed in the subway lines

oh god everything is going so so wrong

shes saying shes scared, my heart

NOOO LI TIANXI

YEAHHHH CAPTAIN XIAO LETS GOOOO

noo she’s saying thank you she’s dead dead

DID SHE JUST GIVE QIAO LING HER POWER

never mind just her super sad memories

OH SHOOT, THE BROTHER DID IT

oh that’s just SAD

BRO I CANT DO THIS

talking about his daughter

I WILL CRY

WHAT

THEMMM

THOSE GUYS, THEY’RE GREAT

this whole sequence is just BRUTAL

who’s this cat with the fancy hat?

OH MY GOD ITS MYSTERY KID ISNT IT

where’d they get that random picture of Lu Guang?

WHAAAAAAAAAT

WHAT WHAT WHAT HE DIED

theres an alternate timeline where Cheng Xiaoshi DIES

WAIT, so does that mean Lu Guang..

WHAT DO YOU MEAN

LETS GOOOOO WANG JUANG’S NOT DEAD

I thought she was cool

SHOOT, we have an evil duo now

WHAAAT

OH I SEE, I WAS RIGHT

YOU HYPOCRITE

BROOOOOOOOO

I AM SO NOT READY

ohh this new song is a VIBE

hey, we ever learn about those numbers, his phone password

im just curious