wolf from tropics blogs fandom things

as always, thank you Sam for making the perfect gifsets to bait ppl with XD

And then there's also this "wedding video" ahem....

bonus: 默读, a summary:

extra bonus: outtake

And then you realize it was made by your equally obsessed fandom buddies...

Fragrantica: perfume enthusiast site that has a long list of scents. v helpful when you’re writing your guilty pleasure abo fics

Just One Cookbook: recipe site that centers on Japanese cuisine. Lots of different recipes to browse, plenty of inspiration so you’re not just “ramen and sushi” 

This comparing heights page: gives you a visual on height differences between characters

A page on the colors of bruises+healing stages: well just that. there you go. describe your bruises properly

McCormick Science Institute: yes this is a real thing. the site shows off research on spices and gives the history on them. be historically accurate or just indulge in mindless fascination. boost your restaurant au with it

Canine Body Language

Cocktail Flow: a site with a variety of cocktails that’s pretty easy to navigate and offers photos of the drinks. You can sort by themes, strengths, type and base. My only real annoyance with this site is that the drinks are sometimes sorted into ~masculine~ and ~feminine~ but ehhhh. It’s great otherwise.

Types of High Heels: A page describing twenty five different types of high heels. It gives a description and pictures. Shake it up from just “stilettos and kitten heels”

Random Job Generator: Exactly as it says. The site offer more generators like characters, plots, or town names.

Glossary of Hosiery Terms: Figure out what is what on a pair of stockings.

Men’s Dress Shoe Guide: A quick guide describing the eight most common types of men’s dress shoes. Pics included.

If you wanna read 'em flirt, biker, kiss, flirt, biker, push down and do more~ Gotta read Mo Du!

I have to preface this by stating a PSA:

At this point I would be really glad if people help in voicing these concerns to Seven Seas in a civil and respectful manner

(Artists and TLers are not the decision makers, they are not the ones at fault and should not be bothered about things seven seas do)

It has been 10 months since I very excitedly made this post about my fav Priest book of all time and one of my top fav Thrillers of all time, which is a thing coming out of a thriller nerd who has been obsessed with the genre for decades. This will be important later on.

It has been 10 months, we saw Seven Seas publish updates about other series, we saw them release other series, we saw them work with the fandom on other series and give us wonderful covers and apt translations. There has been slip ups here and there, (like at start with the MDZS translations) but they worked to correct and address those concerns.

It has been 10 months, and all the updates about Mo Du has been negative in some sense or other. We saw the total volume number decrease from 6 to 5, a cause of concern since even though there are 5 arcs, the last arc is massive enough to warrant 2 volumes along with the extras. Which meant, the publishers will possibly not keep the original 1 arc per book distribution. which is NOT GREAT because once again, Mo Du is a Psychological Thriller. Arc distributions are fairly important for those. But maybe 5 volumes work better with the new TLs and the publishers do know what is best? Then came the news that Mo Du would be delayed. From fall, the release changed to December. And after that announcement there was complete silence till a few hours earlier when the published THIS....

To say I was disappointed and heartbroken would be an understatement. This cover is the anti-thesis of what a cover for this novel, let alone the opening cover should look like. Completely out of character on SEVERAL POINTS and completely not matching the gritty theme of the book. Which lead me to make this post. Because I do not think Seven Seas was at all prepared to handle and treat this book with the attitude it deserved.

Seven Seas, in their danmei ventures, have ALWAYS done Character Covers. Which is not the right approach at all times. But what is worse than a Character Cover is a Character Cover that is out of character (OOC) on multiple levels. Let me summarize in bullets which points went out of character in this cover;-

Height

Physique

Age

Attire

Let's talk the POV character Captain Sergeant Luo Wenzhou. Luo Wenzhou is 29 years old, has been in the police force for nearly a decade, heads the Criminal Investigation team that deals with the most brutal and dark cases happening in the city (several of which needs trigger warnings for the readers). His experience on the job has affected his appearance and bearing immensely, in contrast with his youthful face. To quote the novel;-

His features were very handsome, handsome almost to the point of giving the impression of extreme youth, but from his bearing and manners it could be seen that he was a mature man. (Chapter 2 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Luo Wenzhou in the released cover looks as young as a student in both his appearance and bearing, which is even more apparent when contrasted with the fact that he is SEVEN YEARS OLDER than the other character also on the cover (who I will discuss in the next reblog). This age gap is IMMENSELY IMPORTANT in both the mystery and the romance this plot revolves around. And to this cop who constantly refers to himself as 'this uncle' and feels too old to keep up with the shenanigans of the younger gen, this cover would probably be an insult. (crylaugh.jpg)

LWZ is also canonly VERY TALL second only to the one character who is 'too tall to function properly'. So much so, his long legs reach the ground when he's sitting on his old-fashioned bicycle. So much so, the other character on the cover constantly needs to look up when talking to him. If we go by the exact height given in manhua and donghua promos, he is 188 cm tall. And if we go by the novel, this is how his mother describes his height;-

My son is already as tall as an electricity pole! (Chapter 90 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Let's talk his physique. No, as the cover may lead you to believe he is NOT the lean and pretty type. He played basketball in his youth and took up boxing in his cop era. He is a fitness fanatic who constructed a home gym in his basement. He is 85 kg of pure muscle who can win in a brawl and reign in a mob empty handed even when vastly outnumbered. (weight from donghua promos) His rippling abs are often the focal point in the novel.

His attire in the cover is the only thing that's novel accurate.

HUGE SPOILERS for Mo Du, so read at your own discretion

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THIS BABIEST BLORBO 🥳

Today is 31st of July, birthday of the character who can be called the PLOT of this novel, Fei Du. Let's talk where they went wrong with visualizing this character, and how, an adaptation with real life people strived to keep in character.

We start the novel by a description of this character,

The customer was a tall and slender young man with hair almost down to his shoulders. He was dressed in sedate and solemn business attire, wearing glasses with metal frames. The thin frames sat on the high, straight bridge of his nose. (Chapter 1 fan TL by E. Danglers)

As is apparent from this line, Seven Seas cover art missed a crucial piece of this character's identity, his glasses. While it may seem insignificant to a passer by, the old Mo Duists and Priest fans know that THIS in fact is the author's signature style. When a character is wearing a pair of glasses, it's most likely that the glasses are not there just for aesthetic purposes, they are there to tell a story. Either the character almost treats the glasses as a mask to hide their true self, or they express a part of their true self with it. Over the course of the novel, Fei Du takes of his glasses willingly only a few times. Either to 'play' a different side of his persona (like, in his student attire he would wear contacts) or to be completely and utterly vulnerable. His mental state might even be reflected in how he treats his glasses such as wiping them repeatedly as a nervous tic. So to miss that crucial piece of his attire on the first cover of the novel is an utter misstep in interpreting the character.

Now comes the question of age. Fei Du looks far more mature and older than LWZ in the cover where in fact, he is SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER. At the start of the novel he is just 21 years old, falling short of the age of marriage of 22 years which leads to various hilarious situations. As I've talked about before this age gap between the leads is extremely important since LWZ and his best friend met Fei Du for the first time when he was 14 years old. In their eyes at the start of the novel Fei Du is just a kid and not this big CEO everyone (including the official blurb) talks about. As the novel progresses, we see LWZ struggling with the idea of Fei Du actually being an adult of the same generation as him, hence being dateable. Having the cover look like it does now actually subverts this equation which is a disservice to the dynamics and plotline in question.

Physique of Fei Du is possibly the most jarring change that happened in the cover. He looks broad, muscly, beefy, like he actually works out and has a six pack. Which is going OOC to the extreme as Fei Du leads an extremely unhealthy lifestyle with no proper eating and sleeping habits. Years of abuse and self harm has left his body fragile, he falls sick easily, breaks bones even more easily. The only thing he has for strength are his determination and his youth. He is lean and slender looking even after everything is over because he refuses to work out even in post canon and has no intention of building any sort of muscly physique despite the constant nagging from his significant other. TBH if this cover was canon in the slightest, LWZ would've been happiest man on earth.

(I would also like to mention here that not to compare it to the adaptation, but a real living human did crash diet and lost pounds of weight just for character accuracy, but same care and affection for source material could not be observed from the art of it. @sevenseasentertainment really should have done better.)

Height of him is part of the problem we have with his physique. As I've talked about before, he is shorter than the tall as a pole LWZ. He always needs to look up when speaking to him. Don't get me wrong, Fei Du IS tall when considering the average, he is 180 cm (from donghua and manhua promos), but not when compared to LWZ. This is my personal pet peeve with the cover as 8 cm height gap imo is the PERFECT HEIGHT GAP FOR A FOREHEAD KISS, which is extremely important in canon as Fei Du needs and deserves loads and loads of it.

(I end my meta/rant about characterization in the cover by stating I am the last person on earth who is worried about or who wants to stick to gong-shou stereotypes. It's all about how significant the choices made in canon are and how this cover jeopardize that to a very heartbreaking level. I would write more about what my preferred idea for a cover of this novel is, and how it'd differ from the popular choice of the 'danmei' branding on a later part.)

part 1, part 2

I think by now EVERYONE has noticed that Seven Seas has made some very subtle but very significant changes in the cover design of the volume 1. When the changes were made my friends and I even went over it privately for quite a few times, comparing the covers side by side and being delighted over every noticed change. Despite planning to I had not posted about that cover yet because I later on thought it'd be better to do that after I got my hands on the actual book, so that I can also post about the interior art.

HOWEVER, @sevenseasentertainment went and dropped the most magnificent cover for Volume 2 on us yesterday, which deserves an in depth analysis of it's own.

So, here's to the upcoming Redemption Arc meta series~ prepare for gushing

a fun game to play with your Mo Du loving friends

Before starting the meta on Vol. 2 cover, let's take a look back on the tiny changes @sevenseasentertainment did on Vol. 1 cover and sneakily uploaded it on their site. Back then tried to do a side by side collage to check if it was just optical illusion or not, and it became a fun Spot-the-difference game to play with the Mo Du gang.

(left is the new cover, right is the old cover)

Here's what we found back then;-

Glasses: Our emo boy Fei Du was finally given his glasses! My previous post had a lot of rant about the significance of those for this character. (There is a very interesting observation to be made on the live action adaptation and how their choice of glasses for each scene syncs with the storyline. Our fellow Mo Du nerd @lunarriviera shared a very apt meta on it, written by @luxhesperus : read here )

Shoulder width: We were over it with tape measures and pixel counters, and at the end it was concluded that Fei Du is indeed a little less wide with a sharper suit line (though not thin, but hey! suits have paddings!) and Luo Wenzhou is a tiny bit thicker.

Badge: This is visible plain as day! Rather than a flimsy plastic one, Captain China now has a proper leather and metal badge! One hopes this change indicates he is no longer TLd as a sergeant (why you gotta demote him QAQ).

Jawline and nose: This was the most interesting part! From his jawline, to his nose, to his eyes and eyebrows, every part of LWZ's face shape got sharper and more angular. Which was possibly done to age him up a bit. Though it still retains that initial feeling of youth, it sure is a significant improvement from the previous one!

Have you spotted any more differences? If you did, let's talk about it!

Mo Du Cover 1 Rant meta: part 1, part 2, part 3

If you wanna read 'em flirt, biker, kiss, flirt, biker, push down and do more~ Gotta read Mo Du!

I have to preface this by stating a PSA:

At this point I would be really glad if people help in voicing these concerns to Seven Seas in a civil and respectful manner

(Artists and TLers are not the decision makers, they are not the ones at fault and should not be bothered about things seven seas do)

It has been 10 months since I very excitedly made this post about my fav Priest book of all time and one of my top fav Thrillers of all time, which is a thing coming out of a thriller nerd who has been obsessed with the genre for decades. This will be important later on.

It has been 10 months, we saw Seven Seas publish updates about other series, we saw them release other series, we saw them work with the fandom on other series and give us wonderful covers and apt translations. There has been slip ups here and there, (like at start with the MDZS translations) but they worked to correct and address those concerns.

It has been 10 months, and all the updates about Mo Du has been negative in some sense or other. We saw the total volume number decrease from 6 to 5, a cause of concern since even though there are 5 arcs, the last arc is massive enough to warrant 2 volumes along with the extras. Which meant, the publishers will possibly not keep the original 1 arc per book distribution. which is NOT GREAT because once again, Mo Du is a Psychological Thriller. Arc distributions are fairly important for those. But maybe 5 volumes work better with the new TLs and the publishers do know what is best? Then came the news that Mo Du would be delayed. From fall, the release changed to December. And after that announcement there was complete silence till a few hours earlier when the published THIS....

To say I was disappointed and heartbroken would be an understatement. This cover is the anti-thesis of what a cover for this novel, let alone the opening cover should look like. Completely out of character on SEVERAL POINTS and completely not matching the gritty theme of the book. Which lead me to make this post. Because I do not think Seven Seas was at all prepared to handle and treat this book with the attitude it deserved.

Seven Seas, in their danmei ventures, have ALWAYS done Character Covers. Which is not the right approach at all times. But what is worse than a Character Cover is a Character Cover that is out of character (OOC) on multiple levels. Let me summarize in bullets which points went out of character in this cover;-

Height

Physique

Age

Attire

Let's talk the POV character Captain Sergeant Luo Wenzhou. Luo Wenzhou is 29 years old, has been in the police force for nearly a decade, heads the Criminal Investigation team that deals with the most brutal and dark cases happening in the city (several of which needs trigger warnings for the readers). His experience on the job has affected his appearance and bearing immensely, in contrast with his youthful face. To quote the novel;-

His features were very handsome, handsome almost to the point of giving the impression of extreme youth, but from his bearing and manners it could be seen that he was a mature man. (Chapter 2 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Luo Wenzhou in the released cover looks as young as a student in both his appearance and bearing, which is even more apparent when contrasted with the fact that he is SEVEN YEARS OLDER than the other character also on the cover (who I will discuss in the next reblog). This age gap is IMMENSELY IMPORTANT in both the mystery and the romance this plot revolves around. And to this cop who constantly refers to himself as 'this uncle' and feels too old to keep up with the shenanigans of the younger gen, this cover would probably be an insult. (crylaugh.jpg)

LWZ is also canonly VERY TALL second only to the one character who is 'too tall to function properly'. So much so, his long legs reach the ground when he's sitting on his old-fashioned bicycle. So much so, the other character on the cover constantly needs to look up when talking to him. If we go by the exact height given in manhua and donghua promos, he is 188 cm tall. And if we go by the novel, this is how his mother describes his height;-

My son is already as tall as an electricity pole! (Chapter 90 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Let's talk his physique. No, as the cover may lead you to believe he is NOT the lean and pretty type. He played basketball in his youth and took up boxing in his cop era. He is a fitness fanatic who constructed a home gym in his basement. He is 85 kg of pure muscle who can win in a brawl and reign in a mob empty handed even when vastly outnumbered. (weight from donghua promos) His rippling abs are often the focal point in the novel.

His attire in the cover is the only thing that's novel accurate.

HUGE SPOILERS for Mo Du, so read at your own discretion

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THIS BABIEST BLORBO 🥳

Today is 31st of July, birthday of the character who can be called the PLOT of this novel, Fei Du. Let's talk where they went wrong with visualizing this character, and how, an adaptation with real life people strived to keep in character.

We start the novel by a description of this character,

The customer was a tall and slender young man with hair almost down to his shoulders. He was dressed in sedate and solemn business attire, wearing glasses with metal frames. The thin frames sat on the high, straight bridge of his nose. (Chapter 1 fan TL by E. Danglers)

As is apparent from this line, Seven Seas cover art missed a crucial piece of this character's identity, his glasses. While it may seem insignificant to a passer by, the old Mo Duists and Priest fans know that THIS in fact is the author's signature style. When a character is wearing a pair of glasses, it's most likely that the glasses are not there just for aesthetic purposes, they are there to tell a story. Either the character almost treats the glasses as a mask to hide their true self, or they express a part of their true self with it. Over the course of the novel, Fei Du takes of his glasses willingly only a few times. Either to 'play' a different side of his persona (like, in his student attire he would wear contacts) or to be completely and utterly vulnerable. His mental state might even be reflected in how he treats his glasses such as wiping them repeatedly as a nervous tic. So to miss that crucial piece of his attire on the first cover of the novel is an utter misstep in interpreting the character.

Now comes the question of age. Fei Du looks far more mature and older than LWZ in the cover where in fact, he is SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER. At the start of the novel he is just 21 years old, falling short of the age of marriage of 22 years which leads to various hilarious situations. As I've talked about before this age gap between the leads is extremely important since LWZ and his best friend met Fei Du for the first time when he was 14 years old. In their eyes at the start of the novel Fei Du is just a kid and not this big CEO everyone (including the official blurb) talks about. As the novel progresses, we see LWZ struggling with the idea of Fei Du actually being an adult of the same generation as him, hence being dateable. Having the cover look like it does now actually subverts this equation which is a disservice to the dynamics and plotline in question.

Physique of Fei Du is possibly the most jarring change that happened in the cover. He looks broad, muscly, beefy, like he actually works out and has a six pack. Which is going OOC to the extreme as Fei Du leads an extremely unhealthy lifestyle with no proper eating and sleeping habits. Years of abuse and self harm has left his body fragile, he falls sick easily, breaks bones even more easily. The only thing he has for strength are his determination and his youth. He is lean and slender looking even after everything is over because he refuses to work out even in post canon and has no intention of building any sort of muscly physique despite the constant nagging from his significant other. TBH if this cover was canon in the slightest, LWZ would've been happiest man on earth.

(I would also like to mention here that not to compare it to the adaptation, but a real living human did crash diet and lost pounds of weight just for character accuracy, but same care and affection for source material could not be observed from the art of it. @sevenseasentertainment really should have done better.)

Height of him is part of the problem we have with his physique. As I've talked about before, he is shorter than the tall as a pole LWZ. He always needs to look up when speaking to him. Don't get me wrong, Fei Du IS tall when considering the average, he is 180 cm (from donghua and manhua promos), but not when compared to LWZ. This is my personal pet peeve with the cover as 8 cm height gap imo is the PERFECT HEIGHT GAP FOR A FOREHEAD KISS, which is extremely important in canon as Fei Du needs and deserves loads and loads of it.

(I end my meta/rant about characterization in the cover by stating I am the last person on earth who is worried about or who wants to stick to gong-shou stereotypes. It's all about how significant the choices made in canon are and how this cover jeopardize that to a very heartbreaking level. I would write more about what my preferred idea for a cover of this novel is, and how it'd differ from the popular choice of the 'danmei' branding on a later part.)

part 1, part 2

I think by now EVERYONE has noticed that Seven Seas has made some very subtle but very significant changes in the cover design of the volume 1. When the changes were made my friends and I even went over it privately for quite a few times, comparing the covers side by side and being delighted over every noticed change. Despite planning to I had not posted about that cover yet because I later on thought it'd be better to do that after I got my hands on the actual book, so that I can also post about the interior art.

HOWEVER, @sevenseasentertainment went and dropped the most magnificent cover for Volume 2 on us yesterday, which deserves an in depth analysis of it's own.

So, here's to the upcoming Redemption Arc meta series~ prepare for gushing

If you wanna read 'em flirt, biker, kiss, flirt, biker, push down and do more~ Gotta read Mo Du!

I have to preface this by stating a PSA:

At this point I would be really glad if people help in voicing these concerns to Seven Seas in a civil and respectful manner

(Artists and TLers are not the decision makers, they are not the ones at fault and should not be bothered about things seven seas do)

It has been 10 months since I very excitedly made this post about my fav Priest book of all time and one of my top fav Thrillers of all time, which is a thing coming out of a thriller nerd who has been obsessed with the genre for decades. This will be important later on.

It has been 10 months, we saw Seven Seas publish updates about other series, we saw them release other series, we saw them work with the fandom on other series and give us wonderful covers and apt translations. There has been slip ups here and there, (like at start with the MDZS translations) but they worked to correct and address those concerns.

It has been 10 months, and all the updates about Mo Du has been negative in some sense or other. We saw the total volume number decrease from 6 to 5, a cause of concern since even though there are 5 arcs, the last arc is massive enough to warrant 2 volumes along with the extras. Which meant, the publishers will possibly not keep the original 1 arc per book distribution. which is NOT GREAT because once again, Mo Du is a Psychological Thriller. Arc distributions are fairly important for those. But maybe 5 volumes work better with the new TLs and the publishers do know what is best? Then came the news that Mo Du would be delayed. From fall, the release changed to December. And after that announcement there was complete silence till a few hours earlier when the published THIS....

To say I was disappointed and heartbroken would be an understatement. This cover is the anti-thesis of what a cover for this novel, let alone the opening cover should look like. Completely out of character on SEVERAL POINTS and completely not matching the gritty theme of the book. Which lead me to make this post. Because I do not think Seven Seas was at all prepared to handle and treat this book with the attitude it deserved.

Seven Seas, in their danmei ventures, have ALWAYS done Character Covers. Which is not the right approach at all times. But what is worse than a Character Cover is a Character Cover that is out of character (OOC) on multiple levels. Let me summarize in bullets which points went out of character in this cover;-

Height

Physique

Age

Attire

Let's talk the POV character Captain Sergeant Luo Wenzhou. Luo Wenzhou is 29 years old, has been in the police force for nearly a decade, heads the Criminal Investigation team that deals with the most brutal and dark cases happening in the city (several of which needs trigger warnings for the readers). His experience on the job has affected his appearance and bearing immensely, in contrast with his youthful face. To quote the novel;-

His features were very handsome, handsome almost to the point of giving the impression of extreme youth, but from his bearing and manners it could be seen that he was a mature man. (Chapter 2 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Luo Wenzhou in the released cover looks as young as a student in both his appearance and bearing, which is even more apparent when contrasted with the fact that he is SEVEN YEARS OLDER than the other character also on the cover (who I will discuss in the next reblog). This age gap is IMMENSELY IMPORTANT in both the mystery and the romance this plot revolves around. And to this cop who constantly refers to himself as 'this uncle' and feels too old to keep up with the shenanigans of the younger gen, this cover would probably be an insult. (crylaugh.jpg)

LWZ is also canonly VERY TALL second only to the one character who is 'too tall to function properly'. So much so, his long legs reach the ground when he's sitting on his old-fashioned bicycle. So much so, the other character on the cover constantly needs to look up when talking to him. If we go by the exact height given in manhua and donghua promos, he is 188 cm tall. And if we go by the novel, this is how his mother describes his height;-

My son is already as tall as an electricity pole! (Chapter 90 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Let's talk his physique. No, as the cover may lead you to believe he is NOT the lean and pretty type. He played basketball in his youth and took up boxing in his cop era. He is a fitness fanatic who constructed a home gym in his basement. He is 85 kg of pure muscle who can win in a brawl and reign in a mob empty handed even when vastly outnumbered. (weight from donghua promos) His rippling abs are often the focal point in the novel.

His attire in the cover is the only thing that's novel accurate.

HUGE SPOILERS for Mo Du, so read at your own discretion

Also, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO THIS BABIEST BLORBO 🥳

Today is 31st of July, birthday of the character who can be called the PLOT of this novel, Fei Du. Let's talk where they went wrong with visualizing this character, and how, an adaptation with real life people strived to keep in character.

We start the novel by a description of this character,

The customer was a tall and slender young man with hair almost down to his shoulders. He was dressed in sedate and solemn business attire, wearing glasses with metal frames. The thin frames sat on the high, straight bridge of his nose. (Chapter 1 fan TL by E. Danglers)

As is apparent from this line, Seven Seas cover art missed a crucial piece of this character's identity, his glasses. While it may seem insignificant to a passer by, the old Mo Duists and Priest fans know that THIS in fact is the author's signature style. When a character is wearing a pair of glasses, it's most likely that the glasses are not there just for aesthetic purposes, they are there to tell a story. Either the character almost treats the glasses as a mask to hide their true self, or they express a part of their true self with it. Over the course of the novel, Fei Du takes of his glasses willingly only a few times. Either to 'play' a different side of his persona (like, in his student attire he would wear contacts) or to be completely and utterly vulnerable. His mental state might even be reflected in how he treats his glasses such as wiping them repeatedly as a nervous tic. So to miss that crucial piece of his attire on the first cover of the novel is an utter misstep in interpreting the character.

Now comes the question of age. Fei Du looks far more mature and older than LWZ in the cover where in fact, he is SEVEN YEARS YOUNGER. At the start of the novel he is just 21 years old, falling short of the age of marriage of 22 years which leads to various hilarious situations. As I've talked about before this age gap between the leads is extremely important since LWZ and his best friend met Fei Du for the first time when he was 14 years old. In their eyes at the start of the novel Fei Du is just a kid and not this big CEO everyone (including the official blurb) talks about. As the novel progresses, we see LWZ struggling with the idea of Fei Du actually being an adult of the same generation as him, hence being dateable. Having the cover look like it does now actually subverts this equation which is a disservice to the dynamics and plotline in question.

Physique of Fei Du is possibly the most jarring change that happened in the cover. He looks broad, muscly, beefy, like he actually works out and has a six pack. Which is going OOC to the extreme as Fei Du leads an extremely unhealthy lifestyle with no proper eating and sleeping habits. Years of abuse and self harm has left his body fragile, he falls sick easily, breaks bones even more easily. The only thing he has for strength are his determination and his youth. He is lean and slender looking even after everything is over because he refuses to work out even in post canon and has no intention of building any sort of muscly physique despite the constant nagging from his significant other. TBH if this cover was canon in the slightest, LWZ would've been happiest man on earth.

(I would also like to mention here that not to compare it to the adaptation, but a real living human did crash diet and lost pounds of weight just for character accuracy, but same care and affection for source material could not be observed from the art of it. @sevenseasentertainment really should have done better.)

Height of him is part of the problem we have with his physique. As I've talked about before, he is shorter than the tall as a pole LWZ. He always needs to look up when speaking to him. Don't get me wrong, Fei Du IS tall when considering the average, he is 180 cm (from donghua and manhua promos), but not when compared to LWZ. This is my personal pet peeve with the cover as 8 cm height gap imo is the PERFECT HEIGHT GAP FOR A FOREHEAD KISS, which is extremely important in canon as Fei Du needs and deserves loads and loads of it.

(I end my meta/rant about characterization in the cover by stating I am the last person on earth who is worried about or who wants to stick to gong-shou stereotypes. It's all about how significant the choices made in canon are and how this cover jeopardize that to a very heartbreaking level. I would write more about what my preferred idea for a cover of this novel is, and how it'd differ from the popular choice of the 'danmei' branding on a later part.)

part 1, part 2

If you wanna read 'em flirt, biker, kiss, flirt, biker, push down and do more~ Gotta read Mo Du!

I have to preface this by stating a PSA:

At this point I would be really glad if people help in voicing these concerns to Seven Seas in a civil and respectful manner

(Artists and TLers are not the decision makers, they are not the ones at fault and should not be bothered about things seven seas do)

It has been 10 months since I very excitedly made this post about my fav Priest book of all time and one of my top fav Thrillers of all time, which is a thing coming out of a thriller nerd who has been obsessed with the genre for decades. This will be important later on.

It has been 10 months, we saw Seven Seas publish updates about other series, we saw them release other series, we saw them work with the fandom on other series and give us wonderful covers and apt translations. There has been slip ups here and there, (like at start with the MDZS translations) but they worked to correct and address those concerns.

It has been 10 months, and all the updates about Mo Du has been negative in some sense or other. We saw the total volume number decrease from 6 to 5, a cause of concern since even though there are 5 arcs, the last arc is massive enough to warrant 2 volumes along with the extras. Which meant, the publishers will possibly not keep the original 1 arc per book distribution. which is NOT GREAT because once again, Mo Du is a Psychological Thriller. Arc distributions are fairly important for those. But maybe 5 volumes work better with the new TLs and the publishers do know what is best? Then came the news that Mo Du would be delayed. From fall, the release changed to December. And after that announcement there was complete silence till a few hours earlier when the published THIS....

To say I was disappointed and heartbroken would be an understatement. This cover is the anti-thesis of what a cover for this novel, let alone the opening cover should look like. Completely out of character on SEVERAL POINTS and completely not matching the gritty theme of the book. Which lead me to make this post. Because I do not think Seven Seas was at all prepared to handle and treat this book with the attitude it deserved.

Seven Seas, in their danmei ventures, have ALWAYS done Character Covers. Which is not the right approach at all times. But what is worse than a Character Cover is a Character Cover that is out of character (OOC) on multiple levels. Let me summarize in bullets which points went out of character in this cover;-

Height

Physique

Age

Attire

Let's talk the POV character Captain Sergeant Luo Wenzhou. Luo Wenzhou is 29 years old, has been in the police force for nearly a decade, heads the Criminal Investigation team that deals with the most brutal and dark cases happening in the city (several of which needs trigger warnings for the readers). His experience on the job has affected his appearance and bearing immensely, in contrast with his youthful face. To quote the novel;-

His features were very handsome, handsome almost to the point of giving the impression of extreme youth, but from his bearing and manners it could be seen that he was a mature man. (Chapter 2 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Luo Wenzhou in the released cover looks as young as a student in both his appearance and bearing, which is even more apparent when contrasted with the fact that he is SEVEN YEARS OLDER than the other character also on the cover (who I will discuss in the next reblog). This age gap is IMMENSELY IMPORTANT in both the mystery and the romance this plot revolves around. And to this cop who constantly refers to himself as 'this uncle' and feels too old to keep up with the shenanigans of the younger gen, this cover would probably be an insult. (crylaugh.jpg)

LWZ is also canonly VERY TALL second only to the one character who is 'too tall to function properly'. So much so, his long legs reach the ground when he's sitting on his old-fashioned bicycle. So much so, the other character on the cover constantly needs to look up when talking to him. If we go by the exact height given in manhua and donghua promos, he is 188 cm tall. And if we go by the novel, this is how his mother describes his height;-

My son is already as tall as an electricity pole! (Chapter 90 fan TL by E. Danglers)

Let's talk his physique. No, as the cover may lead you to believe he is NOT the lean and pretty type. He played basketball in his youth and took up boxing in his cop era. He is a fitness fanatic who constructed a home gym in his basement. He is 85 kg of pure muscle who can win in a brawl and reign in a mob empty handed even when vastly outnumbered. (weight from donghua promos) His rippling abs are often the focal point in the novel.

His attire in the cover is the only thing that's novel accurate.

If you wanna read 'em flirt, biker, kiss, flirt, biker, push down and do more~ Gotta read Mo Du!

I have to preface this by stating a PSA:

At this point I would be really glad if people help in voicing these concerns to Seven Seas in a civil and respectful manner

(Artists and TLers are not the decision makers, they are not the ones at fault and should not be bothered about things seven seas do)

It has been 10 months since I very excitedly made this post about my fav Priest book of all time and one of my top fav Thrillers of all time, which is a thing coming out of a thriller nerd who has been obsessed with the genre for decades. This will be important later on.

It has been 10 months, we saw Seven Seas publish updates about other series, we saw them release other series, we saw them work with the fandom on other series and give us wonderful covers and apt translations. There has been slip ups here and there, (like at start with the MDZS translations) but they worked to correct and address those concerns.

It has been 10 months, and all the updates about Mo Du has been negative in some sense or other. We saw the total volume number decrease from 6 to 5, a cause of concern since even though there are 5 arcs, the last arc is massive enough to warrant 2 volumes along with the extras. Which meant, the publishers will possibly not keep the original 1 arc per book distribution. which is NOT GREAT because once again, Mo Du is a Psychological Thriller. Arc distributions are fairly important for those. But maybe 5 volumes work better with the new TLs and the publishers do know what is best? Then came the news that Mo Du would be delayed. From fall, the release changed to December. And after that announcement there was complete silence till a few hours earlier when they published THIS....

To say I was disappointed and heartbroken would be an understatement. This cover is the anti-thesis of what a cover for this novel, let alone the opening cover should look like. Completely out of character on SEVERAL POINTS and completely not matching the gritty theme of the book. Which lead me to make this post. Because I do not think Seven Seas was at all prepared to handle and treat this book with the attitude it deserved.

JUST LOOKING PRETTY IS NOT ENOUGH

From there, go Settings > Gemini > Digital Assistants > Switch to Google Assistant. This disables Gemini, google's AI assistant, and switches you back to the old one. We aren't done yet.

Go back to Settings. From there, we go Settings > Google Assistant > scroll to find General > Google Assitant on/off > turn it off

They really tried their best to make it a pain, but you can eventually disable it. Holding the power button on your phone still pulls up a menu and asks you to turn it back on, but this is the least intrusive you can make it.

Applies to all non-apple phones afaik. For sure Samsungs and Pixels but idrk about others

meanwhile Taotao is so over all the PDA (≧ヮ≦)

I've been mostly burying myself in the material rather than reading what anyone is saying on social media but @lunarriviera said I should share this, so here goes.

I really like the way the creators of Justice in the Dark worked really hard to translate emotional beats and preemptively plan for censorship, and I think it does something interesting because it moves parallel moments around to where they need to be given the exercise in translation that an adaptation must perform.

Spoilers for both Modu and Justice in the Dark versions below!

So, even in book canon, it has mostly always been Fei Du who initiates and loves to perform variations of "Kabedon" (car-seat don, sofa don, bed don and what have you) on Captain China (who actually is very weak to it) EXCEPT this one instant of textbook kabedon at the crime scene.