now @ chenqingxu!

Aaah, I wish we could’ve gotten more of their dynamic and interactions…If only to see more displays of Yu Shi Huang making Heaven’s resident Casanova all awkward by effortlessly outdoing him in everything with nothing but quick wits and her trusty old ox 😜

Okay but on a more serious note, given Pei Ming’s generally problematic attitude and relations with women, it was inevitable that someone like Yu Shi Huang would eventually appear in the story to, in a way, challenge that side of him while also directly foiling the antagonistic characters who share a history with Pei Ming, particularly Xuan Ji, to reinforce the overarching themes of the story. 

To begin, rather than a deep-seated misogyny specifically, the womanizing Pei Ming’s central flaws arguably revolves more around his excessive pride and egocentrism that make him struggle to empathize and accept responsibility for those he wronged in the past. His male chauvinism that make him embarrassed to be saved by Yu Shi Huang and unable to stand being with strong women like Xuan Ji for long, can be viewed as a consequence of his pride that has been inflated through his countless conquests in war and romance. So with that, it makes sense as to why the main conflicts he has to deal, with Xuan Ji and Rong Guang, stem from the consequences of his past actions in love and war. 

Now given everything that Xuan Ji and Rong Guang have done before and after their deaths, they’re obviously not woobies deserving of endless sympathies and it’s not hard to understand where Pei Ming himself was coming from in his decision to cut ties with them. But it is clear that Xuan Ji and Rong Guang’s obsessive resentments are mainly because of how hurt they were by Pei Ming turning his back on them. While they were still attached to him (in very twisted ways), he abandoned them and continued to live a self-indulgent life as a god. 

So with all of this said in establishing Pei Ming’s flaws and problems with the ghosts of his past, where does the Rain Master come in within this picture? 

Well, as mentioned already Yu Shi Huang foils all three of them, and in her dynamic with Pei Ming, we see how her innate humility and selflessness contrasts and challenges his flaws. Such qualities might lead some, like Xuan Ji, to believe that she’s “easy to bully”, but in reality, it is precisely because those traits are so rare in the harsh, corrupt societies of TGCF that YSH manages to stun and catch her opponents off-guard while saving those she cares for. 

This is giving me life, you have no idea.

- -

Nie Mingjue is everyone’s Da-Ge!

For Nie Huaisang, Lan Xichen, and Jin Guangyao, it’s not anything to think about. He’s Da-Ge, it’s just how it is with his brothers. He supposes that Jin Zixuan also technically falls under that category now, so he takes it in stride when the term starts making its way into his addresses as well. Even some of his closer disciples can get away with it, given the trust they have with each other.

However- he’s not really sure why it seems to have started... spreading?

Some of them he understands- Wei Wuxian, the little gremlin that he is, calls him Da-Ge just to see Huaisang sputter into his tea. There’s an indignant cry of “you can’t call him that! He’s my Da-Ge not yours!” and then his little brother is attempting to catch the wily Jiang disciple and beat him with his fan. It persists, as Wei Wuxian is an agent of chaos no matter who’s sect he’s invading.

And then he comes to visit Cloud Recesses, and Lan Wangji says “welcome back, Da-Ge” when he’s done escorting him to the hanshi like a good little host, and he looks so much like Lan Xichen it takes a second for his brain to catch on. Lan Wangji has vanished back down the path by the time Nie Mingjue connects that it was strange. Later when Lan Xichen escorts him back to the gates, both Jades bow and say “safe travels, Da-Ge” and he’s not quite sure how to feel about that. Lan Wangji doesn’t even call his own brother so casually. So... why him? Does Lan Wangji even like him??

He accepts it from Jiang YanLi, as her husband calls him that (and apparently half of the Jin Sect as well), so it’s a small stretch. It’s Jiang Cheng who throws him for a loop, dropping a “don’t you think so, Da-Ge?” during a small discussion after a conference where Sect Leader Yao had been particularly insufferable. He’s caught off guard and ends up agreeing, although he hadn’t quite been listening as much as he should have.

And it doesn’t stop there. In formal settings, everyone is quite respectful as they bow with a “Sect Leader Nie” but after a while once it’s transitioned to a more casual atmosphere, it’s “Da-Ge this” and “Da-Ge that”, “Da-Ge can you give me your opinion?” and he’s not even sure he knows half the people from Nie Huaisang’s social circles that come up to him, but they definitely know him and ask after his Sect’s well-being and wish him prosperity before wandering on to their next conversation.

By the time he rides out to the cheers of “Da-Ge! Da-Ge!” at the next big multi-sect hunt, he’s come to expect it once the wine starts flowing. It grows on him though. It’s nice to be viewed by the younger cultivators as a big brother and mentor as opposed to an angry and harsh brute.

And down the line when he finds some Mo kid sitting on the side of the road back from Lanling, crying about how he’s been kicked out of the sect for something about punching a Jin advisor’s rude, entitled son and liking men, it settles on like a mantle.

“You really mean I can come back to Nie Sect with you, Sect Leader Nie?”

1) Xie Lian shows up in heaven and absolutely 100% fails to even recognize him

2) Mu Qing sees Xie Lian try to eat food, like, right off the floor

Feng Xun is lamenting about how many rules Junwu Academy has. 134!!! How unfair. How is he going to remember that many rules?! Worse still, there might even be rules about what you can and can’t eat, and how much food you can consume! It’s barbaric! At that exact same moment, in another universe far away, Lan Jingyi keels over in uncontrollable hysterical laughter right in middle of one of Lan Qiren’s lectures. He’s laughing so hard he can’t breathe and tears are streaming down his face. Lan Sizhui is concerned as he tries to calm his friend. He swears at one point he hears Lan Jingyi say “only 134 rules!” between laughing fits. Lan Sizhui trues to calculate if that’s the amount of rules Lan Jingyi has broken by having this hysterical breakdown mid-class.

In part 20, Yu Mingye wears a terrible disguise

After the explosion… my family and neighboring families got together, trying to understand what had happened and how in a second we had lost everything… Now I am writing to you on behalf of these five families, I don’t know if this weird and small post will work or if we’ll get any help, but it is the only thing I can do right now: this is my paypal account that I created a couple of days ago, tbh I have no idea how to use this, so a Tumblr friend helped me create it (thx Ali!), if any of you can donate $1 or whatever comes from your heart, it would help us i n f i n i t e l y, basically we would use this to get water, medicine, food and some clothes, which urges us.

Thank you for those who read all of this and intend to help, whether they can or not. I thank you deeply, keep praying for us, thank you!

You can donate to the red cross here too! Thank you so much!! 🙏

Hello, hope all of you are safe and doing well.

You may have heard of what happened in Lebanon today and if not, basically, there was a big explosion in Beirut that affected many cities, destroyed shops, homes, cars, caused many injuries and deaths. The cause is uncertain.

As a fellow lebanese myself (that also lives there), today was absolutely terrifying, probably the scariest moments of my life. We heard a deafening sound as the floors were shaking. Some of us thought it was an attack, others thought it was an earthquake. As soon as it ended many expected a second one, which luckily never happened.

Here’s a video of what happened that was sent to me, there are also many others that you can find online.

Windows were broken, doors wrecked, cars flipped over, buildings collapsed, people hit by flying or falling objects, and unfortunately, many didn’t make it out alive.

We were one of the lucky ones, our families and friends were all safe and our homes were fine.

Some people couldn’t even get out of the crumbling builings, so we saw corpses being pulled out, although some people survived the crash. But wherever we looked, there was blood, poeple were half covered in it, their shirts, pants, hair, everything. And that sight was traumatizing.

We watched the news with elders severely injured, children with blood-spattered shirts and people in pain that couldn’t get in the hospitals because they were full.

Some people are missing. Just try to imagine the pain and fear their families and friends are feeling.

Articles about what happened, there are a lot more

Not only are we in the middle of a pandemic, but Lebanon is also going through a very serious economical crisis. To give you an example, before, $1 equaled 1 500 lebanese pounds. Nowadays, $1 equals more than 7 000 lebanese pounds. Not to mention that we obviously don’t have any dollars at disposition, so yeah we’re fucked.

People are hungry, homeless, unemployed. And even if they are getting paid, it’ll be useless since the prices of everything went up because they were affected by the economical fiasco.

Important additional information

Today, I heard my 7 year old cousins scream in fear that they were going to die. I saw my aunt shaking, worried that her children won’t survive. I saw my dad freak out while trying to reassure us when we both knew that we were uncertain about the next minutes of our lives. I heard the panic in the trembling voices of my family and friends as they couldn’t believe what had just happened. I thought my loved ones and I were going to die in the next seconds.

I’m never forgetting those moments and feelings.

I don’t think signing petitions will help, i don’t even know if the following links will help either, I just know Lebanon and it’s people are desperate for anything because the future of this country is extremely uncertain.

https://helplebanonnow.carrd.co/

https://lebanoncrisis.carrd.co/

https://www.gofundme.com/f/lebanonneedsorg?utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link

https://helplebanon.carrd.co/

http://redcross.org.lb/SubPage.aspx?pageid=1370&PID=158

http://www.caritas.org.lb/get_involved/donate

https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/lebanon-relief?utm_term=PYp7gXzyD

I think donating to the red cross would be the most helpful, so if you are considering it, it’d be great.

Li Bowen released a single《曾经》”miss”

Listen to it: iTunes | Spotify | YouTube music (MV coming soon) | KKBox | friday |  MyMusic |  music.163

Rewatching ep 50 of The Untamed and there’s something I need to get off my chest.

When Wei Wuxian realizes that Lan Wangji saved Wen Yuan (Sizhui) I can only imagine the gratitude he must have felt in that moment. Allow me to explain:

In Wei Wuxian’s previous life, his biggest sacrifices,the reason why so much of his life went to hell was in order to save what was important to him–the innocent who couldn’t protect themselves. For this he broke promises to his family, destroyed his relationship with his brother, destroyed his reputation, turned to crafty tricks, couldn’t see his friends or Lan Zhan, missed pivotal milestones in his dear sister’s life–all this for that purpose. Wei Wuxian bonds with the remaining dregs of the Wens, forming a brother-sister relationship with Wen Qing, resurrecting Wen Ning (in a manner of speaking), and keeping a special eye on the only child with them–Wen Yuan. The child becomes practically his son–Wei Wuxian dotes on Wen Yuan, tries to make him happy, tries to eek out something of a normal childhood for him, playing with him and taking him to town. 

In the end, the Wens give themselves up to try and save Wei Wuxian. He goes after them in a move of utter desperation, leaving behind Wen Yuan who doesn’t belong on the battlegrounds. And Wei Wuxian doesn’t make it back. All is lost.

Wei Wuxian wakes up sixteen years later, and none of the things he sacrificed for are still there, or preserved or at all survived. All those years of torture and suffering and loneliness, and he has nothing to show for it. It’s still worth it, but it must leave a hollow ache.

And he meets Wen Ning. Weng Ning who he thought was dead, but had instead been essentially imprisoned in his own body, forced to do some villain’s dirty work. It’s great to see him again, but Wei Wuxian realizes the double edged sword he created with his goodwill. At this point, he has to wonder–would it have been better had Wen Ning been allowed to die a natural death instead of living as a weapon in the hands of whoever wields him? What if he’d never gotten involved? He will now protect Wen Ning with all the power he has, but he realizes that by turning Wen Ning into the ghost general, he’s placed a large burden on him. Wen Qing awaits in another world with the rest of the deceased Wen clan, and Wen Ning cannot join them.

As Wei Wuxian walks around the world in his second life, he bumps into all the trappings and memories of his childhood, all the had-beens and could-have-beens, learning the consequences of his actions to him and others. And what has he to show for it? Nothing. Everyone he sought to protect is dead or forever alone and at risk because of him. He has no legacy except as the Yiling Patriarch, who kills and manipulates corpses for fun. He sees the futures his contemporaries have carved out for themselves while he was absent–both while in the Burial Mounds and dead–and his hands are empty of anything but stuff–tricks and inventions. 

But there’s little time to dwell. Someone has taken hold of his inventions, his tricks, his amulet, and is using it to their own ends. Wei Wuxian is not one to dwell too much if he can help it, and jumps forward to solve the case with the one man who believes in him–of all poeple, Lan Wangji, who it seemed had no patience for him as a fellow student, yet became his friend, and later a witness to what he had built in the Burial Mounds. Lan Wangji who built the beginnings of a connection with Wen Yuan. 

The mystery is solved, the villain defeated. Wei Wuxian can move forward with Lan Wangji at his side, his tragic past laid to rest. All his efforts, all his sacrifices, and the best he can say for them is that they are finally neatly tied up where they can’t hurt people anymore. Wen Ning is ready to live whatever life a fierce corpse can pull together, and Wei Wuxian looks to a future that is haunted by the ghosts of the people he failed to save and a child that never grew up. All he had done, rendered to little more than damage he had to clean.

But Sizhui has been having a journey of self discovery. His long forgotten childhood memories stirred by the presence of the recently resurrected Wei Wuxian and the eerily familiar Wen Ning. The one he could ask all these questions to–Lan Wangji, his father and brother figure–is busy with said resurrected troublemaker solving a case. It takes time for him to ascerain what it is he’s forgotten, and he picks up the clues he needs as he goes along, with help from Wen Ning, who sees the truth. As soon as the ashes of Jin Guangyao’s last fight settle, he runs after Wei Wuxian to confirm.

And what is Wei Wuxian to do except be shocked? What else can he do except sweep Lan Sizhui into a hug and cry at everything he has lost and found? And when he realizes that it’s the love of his life who saved Sizhui–who remembered a small child left behind in Burial Mounds who would need looking after once Wei Wuxian couldn’t do it any longer–his heart must have been full. His sacrifices, his new bonds in the fragile existence of the Burial Mounds, his seemingly reckless severing of all connection, all respect, his life as one of the finest cultivators… It meant something. The little boy who would have died without anyone to notice had he chosen not to act was now a young man in his arms, thanking him for going to the trouble, for making the effort, for suffering so that he could live through childhood… And Wen Ning wasn’t alone anymore, he now had a family to protect, and the small defenseless child that Wei Wuxian had taken time to play puppets with was now a capable, trained, kind cultivator, ready to redeem his family name. 

In saving Sizhui, Lan Wangji didn’t just save the closest thing Wei Wuxian had to a son, he saved his legacy.

Okay so BL novel “The Husky and His White Cat Shizun” (chinese title: “二哈和他的白猫师尊”) aka 2HA is getting a live adaption which will be called “Immortality” (“皓衣行”). I know that usually, fans of original works are less than excited about this kinds of news and with good reasons. The issue is that those who buy the IP rights to a novel simply see its popularity and think that they can profit off of it without actually trying to understand the reason behind its popularity. Too often, BL fans see themselves forced to endure any of the following: 1) sex change of one of the male leads, 2) creation of a random female love interest, 3) turning a happy end into a bad end, 4) adding a bunch of scenes unrelated to our main pair that ends up dragging the series, 5) turning romance into brotherly affection… the list goes on and on. Sometimes, companies think that as long as they film any two guys together and sell a bit of physical touching here and there, fans will jump on it like rabid dogs which… is kinda stupid because, y’know, we have eyes (and standards) too.

So obviously, with the unprecedented popularity that came with the release of The Untamed, even more producers are starting to see the potential of danmei (BL) novels and with it came an onslaught of IP rights being bought and adapted. The list is pretty extensive, with some big names that I’m sure anyone who’s even slightly in the Chinese BL novel community has heard of before. Of course, included in that list, with the casting for the leads done and filming underway, is 2HA.

Quick overview of the story for those of you that don’t know: the story is set in the POV of the “gong” (top), a character named Mo Ran (also known as Mo Weiyu) who is the disciple of Chu Wanning, the “shou” (bottom) of our story. In his original life, Mo Ran had become the Emperor of the cultivation world through slaughter and tyranny, with the only one ever coming close to stopping him being his shizun, Chu Wanning, who eventually lost his life trying to stop him. After achieving the top by committing pretty much all crimes and sins known to men, weary and tired, Mo Ran decides to take his own life and ends it all. Unexpectedly, instead of dying and going to Hell, he transmigrated to the first year he became a disciple. As a thirty-something man in the body of a teen, he decides to do things right this time around and save the one he couldn’t save the first time around. As he goes through life a second time, truth after truths reveal themselves, with the biggest surprise being that the Shizun he hated so much in his previous life, and who Mo Ran thought hated/scorned him, actually turned out to be protecting him the entire time. 

Mo Ran, in his past life, was powerful, cruel, merciless and arrogant. There was nothing he could not obtain and he knew it. He was cynical, had a very jaded view of the world and was kind of unstable (lots of mood swings and temper tantrums). After his rebirth, he still maintained some of the arrogance and cynicism, but is more mischievous, confident and cheeky. He is very much like a husky, looks kind of scary and big, but can be extremely loyal to the ones he recognizes and can be a bit dumb sometimes. Chu Wanning on the other hand, is an unflappable person with a frost-like exterior, but a heart of gold. Basically, he cares a lot but it’s easier for him to look like he doesn’t than to voice his feelings. He gets embarrassed easily and covers his embarrassment using anger. He is extremely strong, likes peace and quiet, and always abides by the rules. 

Their relationship is kind of complicated. Initially, Mo Ran was in love with a fellow disciple called Shi Mei (despite the word meaning junior female disciple in Chinese, it’s actually the name of a male character). In the original timeline, Shi Mei died and that was the start of Mo Ran’s decline. After his rebirth, Mo Ran decides that he will do everything in his power to prevent Shi Mei from dying again. Don’t be mistaken though, Shi Mei is NOT the male lead. You’ll see as you read more that despite being in love with Shi Mei, Mo Ran is pretty obsessed with Chu Wanning because their relationship was kind of… complicated in the original timeline.

This is pretty much the premise for the story, but do be warned that it goes much deeper and darker than what you might expect (it’s rated R-18 for a reason). So why exactly am I writing all of this? To put it simply, I just kind of want to hype up the series and its adaptation a little, or at least, pique enough interest to give the live action adaptation a chance. Not gonna lie, when I heard 2HA was getting adapted, I was pretty skeptical because how. Mo Ran and Chu Wanning had a pretty physical relationship in the pre-rebirth timeline and that’s partially where the obsession that Mo Ran feels towards Chu Wanning stems from. There’s just basically a lot of unresolved sexual tension between them throughout the novel that I simply couldn’t see getting adapted. However, after thinking about it and reevaluating things from a low-expectations-standpoint, I think it might actually be possible to film something close enough to the original work. Here are some of the factors that influenced my opinion:

First, the series is set to air for 50 episodes (just like The Untamed). Why is the number of episodes important? Because it will determine how closely the adaptation will follow the original story and how much random stuff they can fit into it. Let’s take a step back and evaluate: 2HA’s novel has 311 chapters + extras while MDZS has 113 + extras. Obviously, people might have an issue with the number of episodes (”How are you going to air the same amount of episodes for a series that’s thrice as long??”) but I think it’s a good amount. Why? Because it pretty much guarantees a solid pacing that’ll keep the story moving forward without stagnating. I don’t think there is too much to worry in terms of too much source material being cut because quite a few chapters are R-18/romantic lining scenes that would not have gotten adapted anyways. Once those get deleted, I think 50 episodes is an acceptable amount.

Second, the entire production seems to be solid. The rights were actually bought by Tencent who, if you forgot, was also responsible for The Untamed. With prior success, I believe that they now have a pretty solid idea of how things should be run. Also, the CGI and world-design team is the same one as for Ashes of Love, which has me pretty stoked because while CG in chinese dramas has always been a hit or miss, Ashes of Love is definitely amongst some of the best I’ve seen (see below for examples). (P.S. there are also rumours that Lin Hai, the one responsible for The Untamed’s OST, might be working on 2HA but this is mere speculation at this point.) Overall, 2HA is looking to be like the most high-profile and expensive BL adaption yet.

Third and finally, the casting.

Holy.

Okay.

This is what has me the most hyped. 

Let’s start with Shi Mei, who will be portrayed by actress Chen Yao (or Sebrina Chen).

I know I’ve said that despite the name, Shi Mei is a male. As it turns out, likely for censorship reasons, “Immortality” could not escape from the clutches of the dreaded sex change so they went ahead and turned him into a girl. While not ideal, in my opinion, it actually works out pretty nicely here. In this case, it means that Mo Ran is in love with a female character which would further draw censorship’s attention away from the fact that Mo Ran really has a thing for his beautiful shizun. While it would have been perfect if everything could go according to source material, the fact that it’s Shi Mei that went through a sex change actually works pretty favourably in the grand scheme of things. Not to mention the actress set to play Shi Mei has some good experience acting similar roles so overall, I say that I trust her.

Next, we have Chu Wanning who will be played by Luo Yunxi (or Leo Luo).

For this character, I have no worries whatsoever. If you’re unfamiliar with this actor, I highly recommend you give Ashes of Love a try. He played the 2nd lead and ugh. He’s so good at playing beautiful and elegant characters that are forced to undergo a ton of suffering and pain. Luo Yunxi used to be a professional ballet dancer so he moves with grace and his fight scenes are amazing to watch. Also, he has great control over his facial expressions. He’s able to act out characters that suffer a lot without making them seem weak or powerless. Even the way he cries can be considered both beautiful and heartbreaking.

Finally, we have Mo Ran who will be portrayed by Chen Feiyu (or Arthur Chen).

Mo Ran is an extremely complex character. From pre-rebirth’s insanity and arrogance, to post-rebirth’s hope and reservation, to post-revelation’s love and devotion, the actor’s going to have a lot on his plate. Originally, when I first googled him, I thought that while he’d manage to pull off post-rebirth teen!Mo Ran fairly well given how clean and refreshing his face looks, he’d have a harder time pulling off pre-rebirth’s arrogance, craziness and general “hardness”. However, after seeing some costume designs and makeup edits, I think that the boy might just pull it off. Also, while the actor is nowhere near as solid as Luo Yunxi is, it seems that he’s willing to put in extra time and effort (as seen by his Weibo post about how he’d been studying the source material) to make up for it. I think that with enough dedication, he might just be able to pull it off.

(Psssst! By the way, keeping this strictly between you and me, another reason why I’m such a fan of this pair is because of the height difference. I mean just look at this?? Their height difference is pretty much bang on with the novel height difference after Mo Ran grew past Chu Wanning’s height. Not to mention, don’t tell me you see this and don’t automatically picture a the big dorky puppy following his reserved and cool master around?)

!!!!!!!!