#tscg

Like The Rise of Phoenixes (2018) is just. So incredibly good okay it’s about trying to please someone who can never be pleased. It’s about trying your best and failing. It’s about seeking justice and causing injustice in the process. It’s about being unable to forgive yourself for falling in love, or the things you did for love, or would do. It’s about falling in love with someone you’re not supposed to. It’s about the expectations placed on gender, it’s about power and corruption, it’s about conflicts between personal feelings and political ideals. It’s about love in the dark. It’s about devotion, even when that devotion goes unrewarded. It is the story of a noble prince meeting and losing the love of his life. It is the story of a young person being unable to justify the harm they cause, to let go of guilt, and be happy. It is about how much power fucks with your brain. It’s about how your parents ask things from you and you have to do your best because they are your parent, even if it leaves you hollowed out and in hell. It is about kinslaying. It is about being a weapon, being a pawn. It is about the art of the trick fuck. The rise of a phoenix is presaged by a bloody trail of bodies— enemies and friends alike. If no one in this story were royal, they could all be happy.

I think one of the most interesting things The Rise of Phoenixes does is show how growing up in a situation where you and your siblings have to compete for your dad’s approval and attention (that is, an abusive situation) really erodes the fundamental sibling relationship (another example of this in media being Nebula and Gamora from Guardians of The Galaxy, sorry to use a Marvel example but it’s right there). This even goes far enough that although Ning Yi clearly rationally thinks he doesn’t want to kill most of his siblings and he knows it’s all because of how they’ve grown up, he still doesn’t feel significant remorse for killing them. This is partly because most of them have personally killed maimed or manipulated someone he loves, but it’s also because he tends to place the blame for their deaths squarely with his father and not himself. (He is the executioner of his father’s will when he kills Ning Chuan, not a power hungry fratricidal maniac) Shaoning, Ning Yan, Ning Chuan, and Ning Sheng are not his fault, even when he does think he bears responsibility (as in the case of Shaoning). Contrastingly, Feng Zhiwei, who grew up in a comparatively happier household, is absolutely unwilling to accept the deaths of her siblings (sworn and actual) as the natural consequence of their environment, even when that death is basically suicide by cop and literally not her fault whatsoever. Zhiwei self-blames, Ning Yi externalizes.

When Ni Ni does that 1 particular smile after the changing-clothes-in-the-dark scene and it’s like “well of course Ning Yi fell in love with her. that’s literally the most beautiful woman in the world. Next question.”

Okay just a general warning— apparently The Rise of Phoenixes is leaving Netflix on October 13th which, whyyyyyy, but yeah just so people know

My god. It’s taken FORTY SEVEN EPISODES for them to ADMIT OUT LOUD that they LIKE EACH OTHER and WANNA GET MARRIED (Ning Yi, I am calling bullshit on you “realizing while you were sick” btw. You aren’t THAT un-self-aware. Surely.) and be HAPPY. And it’s all gonna get RUINED because SOMEBODY isn’t BURNING THE EVIDENCE/SHUTTING UP FENG HAO.