Not Arial

Ci Sha is a CDrama actor who looks nothing like most CDrama actors I've seen. Despite his young age, he has the mien of a mature and sensible man. There's no iota of flower boy about him and I mean this in a good way. To add to that, he has topnotch acting and physical skills (he really knows horseback riding and martial arts). He can act with only his eyes or a slight movement of his face. Very nuanced yet very effective.

I doubt if he's a "traffic actor" in the sense that he was only given the lead role because of his fanbase. Judging from his portfolio of work, most of them aren't even dramas but film projects. He played mainly supporting or character roles in the dramas that he did. In fact, in his two previous projects with actress Ren Min, he did a supporting role in the first (her fiance, I think, whom she rejected) and a villain in the second (Lu Jiaxue, the Marquis of Ningyuan). In "The Rise of Ning", viewers found him so compelling, his portrayal so sensitive and layered, and his chemistry with Ren Min so intense. That probably prompted producers to reunite them in "A Splendid Match".

I checked out his profile and it turns out he's of Yi or Nousu ethnicity. I think they look like a cross between East Asian and European features.

Anyway, I hope the drama "A Splendid Match" opens up a lot of doors for him and catapult him to the A-list group of actors. But I hope he doesn't get cast in idol dramas with lightweight plots. Ci Sha's acting skills are for heavy drama or dramas that require subtlety.

My fella the photographer and I are lowkey obsessed with this guy. The Marquis in Rise of Ning is what started it, but his Guo Jing (from the Jin Yong Condor Heroes adaptation) is what cemented it. What range!

I do feel his skill and subtlety are almost criminally underutilized in A Splendid Match (as are a lot of things. It's a decent but unremarkable cdrama for me so far), but that's likely a director issue. He's still fun to watch, and the little microexpressions sneak in despite the editor's attempts to excise them.

That was NOT a problem in Rise of Ning, where the cinematographer/director were clearly infatuated with him. They openly allowed him to vamp and steal every scene he was in and even used different lenses and lighting to shoot him half the time. The close-ups, varied angles, coloration...everything just dripped worship. Avail yourselves of a hotel's finest accommodations, people.

*changes into a cat*

*changes into a cat*

*changes into a cat*

*realizes I have to clean my toes and butt with my own tongue several times a day *

There is a character named Robert Thomson.

At work, he's known as Robert by his coworkers and Thomson by his boss. At home, the people in his neighborhood call him Rob. His parents, spouse, and closest friends call him Robbie. His best friend from childhood calls him Robbie and also sometimes calls him Roberto. The children in his neighborhood call him Mr. Rob but when he does volunteer work at the library the kids there call him Mr. Thomson. Children in the wild who don't know him personally call him sir. When he goes to anywhere with reception, he's typically addressed as Thomson.

The absolute MISERY that is modern translation localization is partly why I have been struggling through teaching myself enough Korean, Japanese, and Mandarin to understand various levels of formality of address in their respective cultures (Cantonese, while a simultaneously badass and poetic language, is utterly beyond my limited skills so far). It's gotten to the point where I can fume quietly and only occasionally pause a show or movie to rant to my very patient male domestic counterpart about how the subtitles are just murdering the nuance and subtext of the scene.

em dash

“not x, not y, but z”

short sentence stacking as a stylistic choice

none of these belong to ai. these are all what human writers have been writing since day one, way before ai was invented. ai was trained to mimic how human writers write — so em dash, not x not y but z and short sentence stacking would never have been used by ai at all if ai hadn’t learned and mimicked them from human writers.

no, you are not “fighting against ai” by accusing every work that has em dash, not x not y but z or short sentence stacking in it as ai-generated, you are helping ai harm the writing community by engaging in witch hunt and scaring human writers away from creating/sharing their works for fear of being wrongly accused of using ai.

Also while we are at it, I really do not think that Changyu was wishy-washy about Xie Zheng. She loves that man, for who he is. It is not like she disrespects him as the Marquis of Wu’an or loves him any less?! Xie Zheng without those burdensome titles is Yan Zheng at his core (heck that's something he wants for himself too. He loves being her matrilocal husband — safe to say this man is secure in his masculinity). While he crafted that identity during his time of misfortune he bloomed into it. She was ready to marry Xie Zheng because she loves her man regardless of his identity or title. It just took her a while and in Episode 36 she accepted him entirely for himself (no turning back from that moment onward).

I also do not agree with doormat Xie Zheng allegations, the man is as ruthless as ever everywhere else minus when with Changyu (as it is repeatedly stated she is the sheath to his sword, where he relaxes and rejuvenates.) He still did cut off the Eunuch’s ear defying the royal decree to marry the Princess Royal Qi Shu, he still valiantly fought and escaped the trap despite being dr*gged and k!lling the Eunuch in one strike in the still inebriated state. The show did not have to explicitly show us him in war scenes to establish how skilled of an warrior he is. His precision, his skill spoke on his behalf. It is in the way he conducts himself, the way he walks, and talks that you know he is the Marquis of Wu’an. The only reason he tolerates Jin crossing line is because his wife is fond of her Squad, trust me he would not have tolerated it otherwise. The wine glass breaking scene was telling enough when he put Jin in his place without even touching his neck or killing him. By crushing the wine glass he let it be known that he is the Marquis of Wu’an and Fan Changyu is his wife and they should tread extremely carefully. He wielded his power and aura with subtlety in the show and that was killer in its effectiveness.

The drama also chose to focus on the emotional aspect of Xie Zheng and his love for Fan Changyu, who is his sun, warmth, home, hope and joy and I think it is beautiful how he never played when it came to his wife since day 1 until the very end.

Again all of this is entirely my perspective and my takeaway from the drama.

There is an op who talked yesterday about how that screen separator was important because it was the separation between the private sphere and the public one.

In yesterday's episode we saw that he was with her. Comforting her in her bed. She was allowing him in a private sphere, as you know they are married.

But now she is keeping him away.

As op said, that screen protector is both a pratical separation for day to day life but it is also a symbol of Changyu's distance and how she is implementing it.

The fact she is calling him Your Lordship for the first time is a great way of showing the distance between them. She is completely stepping back from their relationship, once again to protect herself.

She does not want him to know about her father because she is ashamed of it. Even if there is a part of her that knows her father is innocent. She does not to make Xie Zheng suffer. And possibly make him choose between appeasing his father spirit and not associating with her anymore or lliving with a burden on his shoulders.

Changyu saw how the Xie generals were ready to violently turn on her just for stopping them from burning an effigy of her father in the family ancestral hall during the annual memorial rites. If they found out she was Wei Qilin's daughter, they would, at best, ban her upon pain of death from ever entering the family compound again. At worst, well...

But even more critically, if they ever found out the heir and head of the family had MARRIED her, even if neither Zheng nor Changyu knew the truth at the time, who knows what might happen. Changyu might be imagining that Xie Zheng would lose all of his authority in the family and over the armies, all of whom would be filled with rage at Zheng's "betrayal" by marrying his own father's murderer's daughter. (We know that's probably not the case at this point, but no-one else does.) That would be terrible for the country, and she doesn't want to risk it.

So she distances herself, both to protect herself but even more to protect Xie Zheng. At least that's how I read it. It's emotionally complex, but these are complex characters — which is I think one of the best aspects of this series. Just look at the complicated mess of the Sui brothers/not brothers. My god are they conflicted. That death scene is wrenching, even if you think they're terrible people. Which, for me, is what makes them feel like real humans, not just characters moving through plot points.

☽ Sometimes “writer’s block” is actually just your story being broken and your brain knowing before you do. Respect the vibes, go back. Something stinks.

☽ If you’re stuck in the middle, skip to the part you’re excited to write. Chronological writing is a suggestion, not a law.

☽ “Kill your darlings” is not about deleting every cool thing you love. It’s about not hoarding scenes like a dragon with dialogue you wrote in 2017 that doesn’t even make sense anymore.

☽ You do not need to write like your favorite author. You need to write like you, caffeinated and slightly unstable.

☽ Talking to yourself in the mirror as your character is not weird. It’s called method writing. You’re not unhinged, you’re dedicated.

☽ Aesthetic Pinterest boards and playlists are writing progress if they make you feel like a god again.

☽ You can write the climax before you finish Act 1. You can rewrite Chapter 1 thirty times and then delete it anyway. You’re not behind, you’re in hell with the rest of us.

You’re allowed to write stuff that’s not “marketable.” You’re allowed to be weird. Write the story that would make you feel seen. The niche finds its freaks.

Here, have six youngsters. The other four are trying out their wings and will be back soon.

The new magic stops working after three days and every spell uses proprietary runes.