#than the donghua

[squaloropera]

My favourite thing about the Xianle trio is just how sickeningly codependent close they are. Like, what do you mean you haven’t been friends in 800 years, your friend group fell out in the most painful and traumatic way it possibly could have, and you all have the absolute most reason to hate each other- but in The Cave Of 10,000 gods Mu Qing and Feng Xin were absolutely appalled at the disrespect to their prince. They were fiercely protective, refusing to let Xie Lian bear witness to what they thought was an incredibly perverted insult to his honour. They went toe-to-toe with one of the most terrifying ghosts who ever lived, all in defence of him, and did so without ever thinking twice. They dragged him through that cave system with desperately protective determination, caring for him fiercely despite being misinformed about the situation, and even though they had no obligation to. I’m biting people. Mu Qing and Feng Xin never stopped caring about Xie Lian. He’s no longer their prince, he’s no longer their employer nor even their friend, but they would still put their lives in peril for him. Even when they thought he was a violent criminal (Lang Qianqiu ily but pls kys) they visited his palace to give him medicine for his arm (something about Mu Qing brushing off his injury and saying it isn’t that bad cause all martial gods get injured, then being the first in line to go heal him is so sickening and vile I love him) and make sure he’s alright, then physically fought over the implications from each other about the other having been a bad friend. All of the bullshit trauma, all of the heartache, all of the reason they could have to not give a shit about him, and they were throwing hands over who was a better friend. I hate them. (I love them.)

[shijiujun]

SAN LANG ONLY WANTS GEGE'S KUMQUATS LMFAO

Second and newly released instalment to the original 统一 Tong Yi advertisement for their sour plum juice here

Can I please add that:

San Lang was MAD because if it ain't Gege's kumquats he no like them normal kumquats

A KUMQUAT JUICE BOTTLE is enough to send him back 800 years and reminisce about his first meeting with Gege so if you wanna have flashbacks of Hualian buy this juice

THAT BOTTLE !!!!!

[emotionaldisaster909]

HEY WHAT IS THIS

WHAT IS THIS ADD????

WHY IS IT SO BEAUTIFUL?????

SUDDENLY MORE OFFICIAL DONGHUA CONTENT??????

THANK YOU??????

LOOK AT FAFA

HE LOOKS SAD, YOU KNOW WHY???

BECAUSE HE IS

JEALOUS

BC APPARENTLY????

EATING LIME IN CHINESE MEANS

BEING JEALOUS

ALO I CAN’T TAKE THIS AMOUNT OF HUA CHENG’S MOUTH SHOTS

I AM UNWELL

AND XIE LIAN????????

LOOKING SO RADIANT????

LRKDKKDKDKJD I WOULD EAT ANYTHING FROM THOSE HANDS

WHAT IS THIS SHOT SUPPOSED TO MEAN????

ANS XIE LIAN BLUSHES AGAIN

WHAT ARE THOSE ADDS

WHY ARE THEY SO BEAUTIFUL

WHY ARE THEY GAYER THAN THE SHOW ITSELF???? HELLO??????!?!?!

THANK YOU DONGHUA?????!?!

[patheticlogic]

yan wushi's betrayal is necessary, his cruelty is the point!!! much like the audience, shen qiao believes that there's kindness in yan wushi, and with time spent together, it will eventually show, no matter how small. that although they walk different paths, shen qiao's is the ultimate truth.

shen qiao's character flaw is not his kindness. it's his ignorance. and he doesn't truly accept (we, the audience, don't truly understand) this until yan wushi betrays him.

[justheblueberry]

home

[briebysabs]

Lu Guang is a hypocrite and that’s okay (great even)

I must stand ten toes for this man because I’m noticing the slander that went on in September and I cannot allow it. I know I’m six months late but just bear with me. We are introduced to Lu Guang as a rational, stoic, sort of wise protagonist. The brains of the operation if you will (although Cheng is clever in his own right but that’s a whole other discussion). Qiao Ling and Captain Xiao describe him as more mature. Shiguang’s relationship is strong but it’s structured, especially for their work, to where Cheng has to depend on Lu Guang. Should only do as he says and not do anything impulsive.

And it gets to a point where Cheng doesn’t know what to do without him and when LG isn’t there he relies on his past words to guide him. The thing is, we’ve seen that CXS can come up with great plans and make good decisions without Lu Guang’s voice in his head. Like how he caught Min Liu or planning how save Lu Guang from Li Tianchen. But the story has built LG up so much to be a reliable character so it can’t be untrue. But then the s2 finale happens, Cheng gets shot and Lu Guang loses his mind.

And then the ending basically tells you that he’s been winging it and gambling this whole time. Experimenting with god knows how many timelines, simply using his knowledge from the previous one to see if he’ll get lucky this time. Lu Guang has been playing a crane game. So in a story that is all about mistakes, guilt and regrets. Of showing the imperfections of people. Of showing the struggles of moving forward, of being satisfied with the present. Of sacrificing your sanity, your voice, your desires, and happiness for the people you love. How is this bad writing?

Link click has been tricking the audience to believe Lu Guang is an infallible character.

But Link Click was never about perfect people.

What he’s trying to do is no different from Li Tianchen, one of our antagonists. And I love CXS to fucking pieces but this show raises the question of a life’s value. LG is trying to save Cheng and so refuses to change the past for anyone else. Bc it may alter things and doom CXS in the process and ruin all he’s worked towards. But then you ask yourself, is CXS’s life worth more than the twins' mother? Is it worth more than Chen’s mother? Is it worth more than Emma?

It doesn’t matter because it is to Lu Guang. It’s like the question if your sibling and a mailman are trapped in a burning building but you can only try to save one. Unless they’re the absolute scum of the earth, chances are and possibly even despite that, you’re going to pick your sibling. That don’t mean it’s objectively more valuable than the mailman or you didn’t have sympathy for that person, they have loved ones, hopes and joys too. “Lu Guang is a hypocrite, selfish, unreliable, and a liar” yes he is. Because there is something called ‘flawed characters’. It’s okay for your protagonist to not be the best person. It’s okay to write a protagonist whose trauma has defined some of their actions.

If you’ve been forced to have someone you love die in your arms over and over, why is it surprising that you would lie to them? How is it surprising that you’d try to keep secrets? That you’d set things up to be in a position to control the situation? That’ll force you to plan better so maybe, just maybe things will be different? You think Lu Guang lacks self awareness and doesn’t know what this makes him? Of all things you can call LG, he’s not delusional. He knows the weight of his actions.

Link Click has and always will be a story about people. Where our emotions and choices take us. Lu Guang isn’t a robot so why would he be an exception?

Plus everyone should’ve been knew Lu Guang was sus anyway. Idk how that’s mischaracterization, there’s proof of him lying and keeping secrets from CXS in s1. It doesn’t ruin anything it recontextualizes what we were shown back then.

[hualian]

tgcf spoilers but the donghua team including this was really such a punch in the gut, especially knowing the full backstory to the second image - it made today's episode even more painful (literally within the first 6 minutes !!! they knew what they were doing) these small nuggets of future spoilers make the episodes even more interesting but DAMN I was NOT ready for this one

[yudidoodles]

The audio drama really went for the heartstrings with the Wen remnants like holy shit really just had to show this mans forming connections with these people even more huh

This is one of the other lines that has killed me each time I am a SUCKER for repeated phrases gaining new meaning

[xinyuehui]

She's EVERYTHING (❁´◡`❁) and he's just some guy (ﾟ∇ﾟ；)

[artingstarvist]

y'all mind if I uuuhh start work on somethin real sad?? (btw this is only 12 of like 24 frames and they're cropped. The theme here is 'touch' I think.)

[xielianlover2]

The reason we never see Hua Cheng's POV. It's just this:

[nekoning]

even after all this time...he's so careful and gentle with him i- please that's love right there you can't convince me otherwise

[always-a-joyful-note]

Welp. Tag tagged by @justplaggin for the game

rules: spell out your name or url with songs

I couldn't resist, and thank you very much for it, Jay/Plagg!

To challenge myself, I'm gonna see if I can stick to songs from anime East Asian shows/stories

A - All-in (Alien Stage)

L - Last Dimension (TRIGGER)

W - wi(l)d-screen baroque (Revue Starlight)

A - Artistic Partisan (ALKALOID x Valkyrie)

Y - Yumemiru Architecture (Kagehira Mika; Enstars)

S - STRONGER & STRONGER (Zool)

A - Ame (MEZZO)

J - Joker Flag (IDOLiSH7)

O - OMEGA (STEREO DRIVE FOUNDATION; Yuukoku no Moriarty)

Y - Yume Shizuku (Re:vale)

F - Forever Note (MEZZO)

U - Until it Dies (覃云; Link Click)

L - Lily (Luck Life; Bungo Stray Dogs)

N - Now and Then (Re:vale)

O - Or the Beautiful Golden Drop (Knights; complete version out on May 22, so have the game version)

T - THE POLiCY (IDOLiSH7)

E - Eccentric Party Night!! (Five Eccentrics)

19 songs...and I tried to find ones that I genuinely enjoy right now (RIP to me making this challenge harder), so hence, the above mostly-Japanese-dominated list.

No pressure tags: @bobisnolongerhere @lizzieonka @rosencrantzsguildenstern @msperfectsheep-posts @mahounonbinary @praise-the-lord-im-dead @nitunio @akitchenknife @teslathelame @koi0boi @mihai-florescu @forebodinglight @imissthembutitwasntadisaster and anyone else seeing this because i am now incredibly curious about what songs you will choose (im so sorry if I forgot someone)

[morethanwonderful]

Okay this topic has been haunting me for a while, because I feel like I have a wildly different perception of the Yin Tiger Tally's effects on Wei Wuxian than some other MDZS fans. Specifically, I've seen some takes that include the idea of the Yin Tiger Tally as some degree of corrupting force and/or supernatural drain on Wei Wuxian's mental health within the canon of the novel.

I really wonder if the different understandings stem from being influenced by which version of the story first sticks in your head. So! Indulge my curiosity:

Reblogs are helpful here, as I figure the answers from within my personal circle vs from the fandom as a whole will be pretty different :)

[marquisguyun]

A Xianle person hiding their identity for five years. Five whole years. Father honored him as the Imperial Preceptor. I respected him as my master, even after the Golden Feast, despite the courtiers' advice. But I stubbornly insisted on saving the lives of all the Xianle people!

Guoshi! Are you intentionally fooling us, fooling me? That day... It was my birthday! Just because your seventeenth year was a hurdle, you wanted to turn my seventeenth year into a hurdle as well?

If that's what you intended... I won't comply with your wishes! If you want me to become full of resentment like you... I won't! If you want to force me into self-destruction like you, I absolutely won't! No matter how you treat me, I will never become like you!

(Good. Well said. Remember the words you just said today. You will never become like me.)

[mxtxfanatic]

@transparent-internet-maker I feel bad about going back and forth on op’s post, especially since I can’t comment in the notes, so I’m just gonna make a new one. It’s come to my attention that idek if we’re discussing the same source material, so just to put it out there: I am discussing resentful energy as presented in the novel.

With that said: Wei Wuxian couldn’t have survived 3 months without food while heavily injured, but the Burial Mounds is never described as a land where no life can live. In fact, we at least know it’s wooded area. He very likely scavenged whatever edible (or at least non-fatal) plants he could find and hunted whatever meager animals may have wandered in. What he most definitely could not do, however, is survive off of resentful energy. In the novel, it is not conscious. It is not sentient. It’s not “deciding” to preserve him, and it’s not making any sort of contract with him like this is jjk, whether Wei Wuxian knows it or not. The overwhelming presence of resentment in the Burial Mounds would only have the power to make him feel terrible, and Wei Wuxian’s survival can be solely attributed to his life’s goal of living and living well without holding on to resentment, thus preventing the resentful energy from breaking him as it had likely done to others before him who may have initially survived their entrance into the cursed place. Resentful energy does not in any way, shape, or form benefit living beings when residing in them. That’s both the moral of the story and the physical mechanics of the world.