#s2 is bonkers so far but I'm enjoying it

[geek-png]

Geek is drawing Silco again, stop them immediately Can't believe it's already been 3 years,, I wanted to go back to my roots and try drawing this guy again to see if I've improved at all (I refuse to go back and look so we're just going to say, maybe).

Colored version below the cut since I'm not that fond of it

[ajaxbell]

Learn The Truth 😂

Please enjoy my completely unhinged thoughts on The Truth S2, in which I use the word 'fun' way too many times.

So I'm kind of obsessed with this show (my mini recap of the ep 0 pilot here). I described it to non-drama watching friend as like being at a murder mystery house party but with some of your fave Chinese celebrities instead of your friends. It's just fun. The Truth S2 (aka 开始推理吧 第二季, aka Start Reasoning 2) is a Chinese comedy variety show about investigating murders.  An overview on how it works:

Each set of episodes is set in certain time period. The six cast members are given details about their character in that time period (but the other cast seem to only know the info about their own character and are surprised by everyone else's reveals), a preset story plays out and an NPC is murdered. Then two characters deemed free of suspicion (I'm actually not sure how this is determined) become investigators and the other four are the suspects.

The investigators check the scene and body for clues, then all six sit in a room while those clues are presented, and then each suspect has a box of gathered clues about each other. Like Suspect A will say 'here is what was found in Suspect C's room' and then  show the incriminating evidence, while Suspect C tries to explain using their backstory notes and everyone else teases and mocks them. Then there's a some sort of mysterious test and if the murderer passes it then they can make one of the investigators an 'X' meaning the investigator will help them escape discovery. Then once they've all shared their evidence and backstories, they go out into the sets (a huge building of different rooms) and try and solve the mystery by finding more clues.

This season stars Bai Yu (yes from Guardian), Liu Yuning, Dilraba Dilmurat, Zhang Linghe, Zhou Keyu (who is apparently American???), and Wang Xun (who has more credentials than the rest of the cast combined). It's an interesting mix of ages and backgrounds that seems to be working, mostly because they are all eventually revealed to be chaos gremlins. Also LYN, BY, and ZKY were on The Truth S1, so they are the 'seniors' here.

Episodes 1 & 2 are set in the 1920s in a cabaret club. Same characters, location, etc. but a different murder in each ep, with an over arcing separate (non-murder) mystery with its own clues going on simultaneously. Episodes 3 & 4 are in 1988 in trading company office.  I've seen some incredible costumes that might or might not be from ep 4. They don't seem to fit what I've seen so far (through ep 3) but ep 2 goes so far off the rails from where it starts that I'm willing to accept anything might fit in these bonkers storylines.

We're only 3 eps in and am unable to count the number of times I've shouted "wait, what!?" at the screen. To be fair some of this is because it's only available to me (in the US) with terrible machine translated subtitles. It's almost like a whole separate game just to parse these out. And some of it is nonsensical and confusing, and some is utterly delightful, like Liu Yuning telling a story that starts "when I was young girl..." But mostly there's a lot of weird direct translation of names that is simply so confusing that you have to just guess what they are saying in context.

Despite that it's a joy to watch. To see who is really picking up clues, to watch them all constantly eat snacks (seriously so many snacks in this show), to see how they play the story lines they are given,  and to see them interact with each other. Things I didn't know I needed to see, like how pleased with himself ZLH is Every time he solves a problem but especially a math problem (he was an engineering student before he was an actor). And LYN's ability to instantly solve puzzle boxes (maybe because he does magic tricks sometimes?) Dilraba's incredible ability to spot clues in weird places that no one else seems to notice.

So I've said this is fun and it is, all on its own. But I am absolutely obsessed with this show so far because the actors keep making it gay when they really don't have to. Like just for fun. Even if none of the actors are queer (unlikely) at least two of the actors have been in bl drama adaptations, and at least two more have been in shows with Gong Jun, so I assume they all at least know from gay, you know?  Some of it feels like the good old days of TV in my youth (in the last century) when we had to ship folks to make our own gay, which the restrictions of Chinese are making increasingly necessary. Some of it is probably just like my own wishful thinking. And because of the terrible subtitles a lot of it is me just saying "wait did that just actually happen, or did I just think it did?" (Nothing says fun like gaslighting yourself about whether something is gay, lol.)

There are also a lot of good running jokes developing. At some point in Ep 1 Bai Yu called everyone 'little killers' (xiao shashou) and it really caught on. And now every time a suspect is defending themself against evidence someone will say, laden with sarcasm, the equivalent of "sure you're innocent, little killer."  Everyone keeps calling Zhang Linghe "Handsome He" and I literally cannot figure out if this is in the script or just them teasing him (because there seems to be a lot of teasing of ZLH). In addition to this the cast is making a lot of gay jokes and it's lovely because it's clearly not mean-spirited or cruel. Some seem to be just obvious and fun. But others I can easily interpret as the cast simply being like "hey, there is no gay here, let's put some gay here! It's fun!" In ep two there's a conversation that went something like this (I'm paraphrasing the subtitles)

ZKY *in character reading from I think another character's journal?*: Young Marshal He [ZLH's character] lifted his head and looked towards Young Marshal Ning [LYN's character] with a complicated emotion in his eyes. ZKY *out of character*: "What emotion?" Dilraba: What type of story is this? (omg the look on her face, she knows) ZLH *starts laughing and looking shy* LYN: *singing to ZLH* I've finally learned how to love… ❣️‼️ Dilraba *looking overjoyed*: This is so messy! (ZLH's character is supposed to be in love with her character, and LYN's character is her character's brother) ZLH (continues to laugh while simultaneously looking pleased and shy)

Then as they go on around the sets looking for clues and solving thing they just keep referencing this joke of ZLH's character and LYN's character being the ones in a romance in the story. But like I guess subtly enough that it gets past censorship? But like obvious enough I got it even with the terrible subtitles. And after this it's like all I can not to analyze every scene for good gay joke content.

There's several scenes while they are searching for clues and the lights go out and something scary happens. These presumably leave the cast unable to see in pitch black, but are filmed with some kind of night vision (nice to see who is dying their hair by how it comes out weird in the night scope, lol). So I'm bopping along wondering if I'm feeling creepy for how I'm kind of starting to ship LYN and ZLH and then the lights go out and I'm forced to frantically text by friend: "OMG the lights just went off on The Truth and LYN plastered himself, chest to back, on ZLH, then they grabbed Dilraba and pulled her in and now this is some kind of perfect bisexual triad that I didn't know I wanted?" And I'm sitting there, having watched it three times, asking myself if that's what really happened. Then the show's official Weibo posts it with the caption "After the lights go out, Liu Yuning became Zhang Linghe’s backpack." I mean, c'mon!!

the subtitles here are something like- LYN "let's sing to make ourselves brave" ZKY *sings the alphabet song and everyone joins in* LYN "what no, not this song."

And the scene carries on, the new bisexual triad of my dreams with arms linked and everyone being so cute that I can't stop thinking about for days. And then later the show decided to get a certain clue ZLH and LYN had to stand face to face and get wrapped like a mummy. Because why not? 😅😂 I was already being ridiculous about this, why not just SPOON FEED IT TO ME? And then. And then... Remember in ep 2 when LYN starts singing "I finally learned how to love" to ZLH? Welp then LYN posts the most theater kid emo gay boy video imaginable with song on his Weibo. A video that just screams, "I'm so deep, and cannot ever share my deep, meaningful conflicted feelings." And which point I'm forced to text my friend, "OMG is THIS the show that's finally going to turn me in to a delusional shipper? Of LYN and ZLH? This was not on my bingo card. Like totally out of left field." And yet here we are. I'm not proud of what this show has done to me. But obviously I'm not embarrassed enough to not post about either.🤡

Now I've written this entire rambling mess just so I could share that with you all my unhinged obsession with the gay subtext and gay jokes in this show. Like eagerly watching with popcorn looking for that next little single line or physical touch that I can make something huge out of. A week later and I'm still thinking about a moment when ZLH casually called LYN 'ge' while touching his shoulder because it felt so real and out of character for the scene. Because seriously, what is even happening in this show? Is this all happening, is it actually on screen, or am I finally really having a reality break? I think the point of this post was to convince you to watch this beautifully bonkers show, but I got really distracted by the gay. But like maybe that too will convince you to watch these absolute chaos gremlins?

[edoro]

☕ + Huntlow?

i am very fond of it! honestly though, i really wasn't at first?

rest of this under a cut bc it's long!

like in the first half of s2, i was aware of it as a thing, and it struck me as very like... well pretty much just the het version of Goldric, tbh. the art and fic and posts i saw for it felt, to me, like people just kind of reaching for a way to pair Hunter up with a girl who wasn't Luz (due to the variety of frankly bonkers Opinions And Takes about Lunter lmao) and it all just felt very cishet in a way that was profoundly uninteresting to me.

i spent a lot of s2b gradually considering it more and more while also being absolutely terrified that every single episode was going to confirm it in a way that i would hate. which did not happen!

i know opinions are very divided and some people feel like if it does become canon, it'll be really rushed. it's definitely not going to get the same amount of screentime as the lead-up to Lumity did, but honestly, like... i'm still not sure it IS going to become canon, but if it does, then at this point i think there will be... a pretty decent amount of build-up and foundation for it.

not as much as i'd prefer, but they had their entire third season amputated. Lumity, imo, is kind of a rarity among cartoon ships; they often DON'T get that amount of build-up or development or feel that organic, but i actually personally do think that the hints we've gotten of Huntlow suggest an organically developing relationship.

they're all relatively small, background things, because more important stuff is going on, but they do a good job of communicating that 1) Hunter at least definitely has a crush or at least gets very flustered by Willow and 2) Willow also cares about him a lot

(and, honestly? yeah, sure, getting together after knowing each other for a couple of weeks or a month or two is pretty quick. they're teenagers. plenty of kids develop crushes and attractions to people based just on Thinking They're Really Neat after knowing them for a short amount of time at that age, and impulsively get into relationships. so, Shrug Emoji, i don't really think the argument that it's super unrealistic holds water, and at this point i think they've done a pretty decent amount of build-up for the idea that the two of them might have a mutual crush. it's not like they're gonna get married on-screen.)

the sheer amount of discourse about Huntlow is honestly bewildering to me, and i say this as a person who initially really disliked it and felt like, genuine anxiety watching episodes being worried that it was going to suddenly be confirmed.

(you will notice that despite having this intense emotional reaction to the idea that a cartoon i enjoy might make a decision i don't like, i didn't go around taking it out on people, lmao)

like. it's so inoffensive. what we've been shown so far has been cute. it has cute potential. if it happens it'll probably be good, bc TOH is pretty solid about character development and relationships and has so far shown a refreshing lack of Shipping For The Sake Of Shipping. i totally get being worried about it or disliking it but i also think that there's kind of a tendency to just assume the worst and take what we've been given so far in bizarrely bad faith among some people, and i'm kind of overall tired of this trend of like, treating media creators like they're hostile enemies when they have absolutely NOT earned that kind of treatment. also, the argument that "Hunter can't be in a romantic relationship because he's traumatized" annoys me. Hunter's trauma is going to affect every single type of relationship he has with anyone, ever, for his entire life, romantic or otherwise. i'd love to see an in-depth exploration of how Hunter's trauma causes problems for him in dating Willow, and those problems don't just magically disappear because they love each other - how he has this very paranoid and insecure style of attachment, feels the need to constantly prove himself, is afraid of being punished with withdrawal of affection or replaced, etc etc - instead of having it just be used as a gotcha to try to prove how the ship is wrong.

like, people with trauma get into relationships. being in healthy, functional relationships is a great way to recover FROM trauma. it's ridiculous and infantilizing to say that someone who's traumatized just can't be in a relationship until they're 'better', especially because healing from the severity and duration of abuse Hunter's been through is probably going to be a lifelong project for him. sometimes someone's trauma CAN prevent them from being in a healthy relationship or make it so it would be better if they weren't, and tbh i'd also be interested in an exploration of Huntlow where they end up breaking up/not getting together because Hunter just can't handle the demands of an intimate partnership without spiraling and behaving in unhealthy and self-destructive ways, but, again, i find it insulting for it to be used as a gotcha rather than an actual topic of conversation.

but anyway! i have been thoroughly convinced re: Huntlow. i think they're super cute. i think Hunter is an adorable boytoy sub and that Willow would make an excellent loving domme for him and they should get together, be precious, and end up having a ton of mentally-healing kinky sex.