#thingamabob

the whole rented apartment sequence, give me ten thousand episodes of em just in there pls. in the novel too, one thing chusan never abandons is their rented apartment. it's basically their home, the home he bought to live in w liuyi. altho shabby and worn, much of their daily life (scarce and almost always interrupted) and intimacy unfolds there. the sequence of hcs bringing xly there for the first time plays out way differently (ahem-) but this is also great. there are some discrepancies obv but in what i think is the novel parallel of the bed scene, right before they kiss (except in the novel their first kiss is not here) there's a scene in the novel where xly sees the shadow of hcs's arm raising on the wall, as if to embrace him from behind (/caress the scars, we never know) and our much tougher novel xly braces himself for hcs to lay a finger so that he can call him out on his act and hand out a good beating. but beloved and cunning actor hcs never does touch him and goes on to act as calmly as always. lool. xly's frustration at hcs's unbroken placid streak is one of the best parts of their dynamic in the early stages.

1 hour went by like a breeze. devastated. i need to see the rest of the kabedon. like. now.

waiting and waiting and I guess we finally get hcs calling him 'liuyi ge' next ep. im sorry but this simply cannot be erased. that call. it's pivotal to their relationship, I hope they don't just remove it once they're together the way characters lose their glasses in shows😭

i am always aggrieved when characters are not let to do things they would. i imagine it's because show makers or actors are trying to follow a theme or template with the portrayal of them instead of feeling it out. i often go 'oh he would so cry here' or 'they certainly would've gone berserk with the affection there'. It is waiting for a drop to fall from welled up eyes cause no he way this character is holding it in like that after this happens to them. and for some reason it never does? They never do shed those tears? In the case of physical affection, it especially feels like shows tend to follow a template. It's like they got a set of actions on a roulette and each archetype gets 1 or 2 max. this is where dwy's beauty breaks boundaries. Qin throws out the teddy and states he chooses him without leaving any room for doubt: duang breaks into tears and begins rubbing his eyes. it's only natural and almost obvious, he'd been stewing in that insecurity for a while now, the confirmation is shattering and relieving in the bestest of ways possible. Especially to someone like duang. Who loves and loves without conditions or expectations. Cut to any number of their happy times. duang goes crazy mode with the affections and there's almost nothing scripted or choreographed about it, it's his utmost adoration for qin flowing unbridled through his entire body. In qin's case, it's in the turn of his head (cue for duang to continue w the ministrations) and the blooming quirk of his lips. their feelings show up in the way they reach out towards each other, and it's got their trademark on it. watching them be together, just the two of them, is just so delightful for this very reason. They unfold the show rather than vice verca. with each ep that comes out and as the 'talking stage' unfurls, i could just blast off into stratosphere from cuteness aggression before they're even official.

duang biting everywhere he can get his mouth on qin is such an excellent piece of characterization i weep