#zhuo yichen

[kandadze]

The loneliness of what we did; the loneliness/ of what was done to us.

Tony Hoagland, Application for Release from the Dream: Poems, The Complex Sentence

Fangs of Fortune, ep 16/ ep 9/ ep 25

PSH coming to with blood on his hands made me flash back to the other two similar scenes in the show, the main difference being, PSH is the only one who, indirectly and unknowingly, but still, had a hand in his own tragedy, whereas ZYZ and ZYC had no say in what happened to them.

PSH ran and was eventually hunted and killed; ZYZ ran, if metaphorically, hunted by his own conscience and the fact that if he died, someone else would take his place; ZYC stayed to face the consequences and his imminent death - which at that point of the story was quite certain.

Knowing what we know about these characters - especially ZYZ and ZYC - their responses to this horrifying awakening make sense; I also think that out of all three, ZYC was the most fortunate. He didn't actually murder anyone; he wasn't alone; he had someone with an intimate understanding of what he was going through; and, maybe the most importantly, he had options. There were still things that he could do to influence his fate. The initial change was forced upon him, but he took full responsibility for what he was going to do about it.

[phantom248]

Behold!

The son of Lord Bing Yi and Ying Long, The prince of wilderness.

He looks like royalty here.

Seriously the shape of these ornaments is so similar to Ying Long, it is hard to ignore the resemblence.

[dandanmeimei]

So many of the FOF costumes are absolutely gorgeous but this one always makes me laugh tbh

Like it's giving

[phantom248]

I can confirm! I can confirm! It was the most heartwrenching scene that I kept on playing repeatedly.

Zhuo Yixuan did indeed awaken the sword at the very last moment, even if it was too late by that point.

Another theory could be that the sword sensed a lot of demonic energy or sensed it's weilder in excruciating pain, but I discarded both theories upon rewatch for very simple reasons: it still had to be awakened for the later and at the time of death, many people remember the thing they regret the most.

This sword was made from pain and love, and Zhuo Yixuan, even if it was from the memories of his didi, is literally an embodiment of love. Love for the brother, the child he raised, love for his small family. (I know I know, it does not paints a complete picture of his character, but even demons had nothing bad to say about him, and the way he talked to his didi, ensured that his didi would be the one to wake the sword... it stank of either eldest daughter syndrome or lack of belief in himself) I am pretty sure that even at the last moments, he must have thought of his father and brother and must have regretted letting one die and leaving the other behind (even if it was in no way his fault)

I just wish this gege had more time to live🥺🥺🥺

(Zhu Yan literally treats Zhao Yichen differently in addition to Zhao Yuanzhou and this is not the first time. When they were stuck in Ran Yi's dream, Zhao Yuanzhou stabbed Wen Xiao to bring her out of the dream. With Zhuo Yichen? What's with that favouritisim you feral demon😭😭)

This sword glowed right before the death of Zhuo Yichen's older brother.

I think he managed to awaken the sword at the last moment. So he's another one on the list of "became what he always wanted to be at the last moment before death" heroes.

And it makes me wonder if this sword, in addition to the half of the goddess's relic, played a role in the fact that the mad Zhao Yuanzhou, after this massacre, did not go to the human world to continue his atrocities, but went to the stone and came to his senses.

Another one to the list of parallels between Ying Lei and Zhao Yuanzhou - Ying Lei is the only one besides Zhao Yuanzhou who also imbued Zhuo Yichen's sword with his blood.

And about this shot:

I am deeply convinced that every good boy at some point in story should get a pat on the head from a big glowing monster. It is vital.

[renshengs]

what if you were a thousand year old demon lord cursed to be a literal walking vessel for all the world's horrors and i was a young upstanding swordsman who lost my family to your uncontrollable violence. what if i inherited the only weapon in the universe that could kill you and you came to me one day and told me you'd help me learn how to do it. what if i promised you, in all my grief and rage, that i'd be the one to kill you someday. what if you were gentle with me despite my hatred for you. what if you looked out for me, cut yourself on my sword to save me from my nightmares, held my hand and healed the bleeding wound and asked for nothing in return. what if you never asked for anything from anyone and loved the world anyway. what if you wanted to die because you thought the world would be better off without you because the only thing you see in yourself is violence. what if they dragged me through the mud and you stood by me and protected me and looked me in the eyes like you'd always done because you understood how it felt.

what if one day i looked at you and realized i didn't want you to die and it tore me apart. what if i'd rather walk into fire, freeze myself for eternity. what if your death by my hand was written in the stars by our ancestors. what if i know how this story ends, know it can't be rewritten. what if i try anyway. what if i try anyway because i love you.

[mutantfactor]

Fangs of Fortune 𓆩𓆪 Zhuo Yichen & Zhao Yuanzhou

[his-catness-tchalla]

Fangs of Fortune + text posts

[littlestarpjm]

This fic was inspired by TJR's look in Veil of Shadows and @phantom248 's tags:

#in a world where no one dies Zhuo Yichen actually started dressing up as this #as an homage to Ying Long #cause why not

this is so Ying Long coded, maybe there would be a time where Bing Yi would begin to dress in his boyfriend's clothes dress like his boyfriend because there's that belief that couples begin to pick up on each other's habits and styles etc

[zhoufeis]

BREAKING NEWS: 24-year-old demon hunter meeting 34,000-year-old demon at the playground

大梦归离 FANGS OF FORTUNE dir. Edward Guo, Luo Luo, Wei Nan China, 2024.

[yichens]

— you can love him, but you can't keep him (j.p.)

"Zhao Yuanzhou. I'll definitely find the shred of your soul that I extracted myself. I'll search every mountain and sea in both the mortal world and the Wilderness."

insp. [✦✧✦]

[kandadze]

The sheer intimacy in this little moment. Hope this is what you had in mind, @no-sh1t-sherly

[zishuge]

Just now at the Demon Hunting Bureau, you tried to strangle Wen Xiao. Then you hurt Ying Lei, ran outside, and attacked a night watchman. Fangs of Fortune 大梦归离 (2024) | Ep. 25

[haifoct]

I simply wanted to share this hilarious moment of Yan An (Li Lun) dunking on Li Lun, while Chen Duling (Wen Xiao) and Tian Jiarui (Zhuo Yichen) look visibly confused and offended by it.

[lost-sheep]

I would burn the world to bring some heat to you

[ajaxbell]

Fangs of Fortune (Bai Ze Ling): perfect on pure aesthetics alone, but also it will tear your heart out while being very gay.

I was lured in to this show by Tumblr gifsets and friends on Bluesky talking about how queer and poly this show is. I'm old and I've been in fandom more than half my life. I know how to read queer subtext. I'm also pretty well versed in cdramas, so again, I know how to read subtext. So I went into this ready to, well, read the subtext.

But no this show is just puts the queer it right there in the text. The vague information we have about Chinese censorship repeatedly left me asking, 'wait how are they getting away with this?' Like some of these jokes and implications are just so blatant it seems incredible this show ever made it to being broadcast. It just feels very much like queer media made for queer people even if t's more subtle than something western like Queer as Folk.

Even without the heavy coloring of gay this show is incredible and so much more than I expected from the title and the promo. The premise is essentially the death of the goddess, who governed relations between humans and demons, leads to an influx of demons in the human world. This brings together the goddess's disciple, Wen Xiao--seeking to restore the goddess's power. WX's childhood sweetheart, Zhuo Yichen--seeking to restore the demon-hunting bureau after the powerful demon Zhu Yan killed his father and brother. It opens on Zhu Yan, in human disguise as as Zhao Yuanzhou, volunteering to help the imperial court restore the demon-hunting bureau to quell the chaos. They are joined by Pei Sijing, a retired female general from the rival demon hunting sect, and a very young doctor (and comic relief) named Bai Jiu. It starts off as a sort of monster-of-the-week with a grim Scooby gang doing detective work and fighting monsters. Each major demon has a mini arc that relates to the larger case (restoring the power of the goddess to balance the realms), and they are repeatedly blocked by either the demons or the rival demon hunting sect. Each mini arc also acts as a mirror or parallel story to slowly revealed backstory of all the main characters as well. In true cdrama fashion it's a mix of adventure, intense emotional drama, romance, and comedy. And queer and poly jokes and romance. It also has a kind of manga vibe in the way the comedy is woven into the more serious story, and in the fantastical depiction of the characters and how the story unfolds.

It is also just insanely beautiful. Every single shot is lovely. The costumes, make up, and hair are incredible. The casting director made all the major demons inhumanly beautiful. The sets are spectacular. The effects are nicely done. Every bit of has the vague surreality of a fairytale. The perfection of each shot ads to the manga vibe, as if we're seeing each critical storytelling panel come alive. There's recurring water-based special effects that are just gorgeous. Based on aesthetics alone this show would be worth watching to me. That it is combined with a complex, very emotional story is a spectacular gift to the watcher. A lot of the negative reviews of this complain about the staginess or that it's overly contrived in how each scene is shot. But I think it's gorgeous, works perfectly with the storytelling, and if we criticize art on whether it achieves the goal it intended then this show is doing exactly and perfectly what it means to do and doing it beautifully.

Additionally the acting is also very good, but Neo Hou is the stand out for sure. I enjoyed him in Back from the Brink, especially the later part of the story, but in Fangs of Fortune he's transformed, utterly embodying the role, the way Dylan Wang is Dongfang Qingcang in Love Between Fairy and Devil. Neo Hou has the right look, a slightly uncanny beauty perfect for a gorgeous immortal not of this world. The show does incredible things with his styling between the various looks and personas the role requires. But in acting he somehow manages to utterly transform his face and demeanor to manifest each aspect of the character as story demands changes from him.

There is a lot of crying in this drama. Like early on I joked that there was going to be a character crying a single perfect tear in every ep. Lol nope. Multiple single perfect tears per ep and many outright full on sobbing scenes. This show is just waiting to rip your heart out and you see it right from the beginning. But it was such sweet pain all the way through. Just a truly engaging and utterly wrenching set of intertwined stories.

My only criticism is that the pacing falls apart in the last 3 episodes. But overall the story is solid through the end, though like so many cdramas, it's saved by the epilogue.

You should absolutely watch it if you want the chaotic bi polycule (it's her, her girlfriend, her boyfriend, her boyfriend's boyfriend who is also her boyfriend, their two idiot sons, and her boyfriend's ex-who is also eventually sort of his boyfriend again), or if you want your heart torn out and stomped on. Or even if you just like really gorgeous cinematic things. Also if you watch, please don't skip the ending credits, as they change as the arcs change, and the radiant joy Tian Jiarui has as he dances is an excellent antidote to the emotions of each episode.

[la-muerta]

Wen Xiao x Zhao Yuanzhou x Zhuo Yichen + Text posts