Mysterious Lotus Casebook 5/?

shl/tyk sketches from twitter. guess who my favourite character is lol

I'm seeing mysterious lotus casebook being hyped so much because it's queer coded and so similar yet so different to nirvana in fire (which I love) and it's even rated 9.0 on mdl?

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, Rain Wang/Wang Herun was so good as the saintess, the main trio was amazing, choreography also was on point

However I do feel its been a bit overhyped and overrated and it has plenty of room for improvement so this post will focus on the negative points of what was a great c drama

(mild spoilers ahead, read at your own risk but this post is late so most of you might have seen it already?)

One of the things I (and my sister who I watched it with) really disliked was how the saintess got people to do things for her purely because she's hot? Like I get it fits the unrealistic and exaggerated nature of the wuxia genre but also? It's just a terrible trope? Maybe I'm biased because ace spec but it feels so cheap and wrong? It just doesn't make sense to me at all

Another thing was the entire character of Di Feisheng was so slept on? His personality and motivations were explored only on a surface level and despite his and Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi's relationship dynamics being arguably the most interesting it was pushed aside in favour on focusing on the relationship between Fang Duobing and Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi (which I must admit I loved their dynamic but still)

I also felt the characters of Qiao Wanmian and Xiao Zijin were boring and off putting, I felt the way they were written was so horribly predictable and unoriginal, like of course girl can't properly get over the MC despite it being 10 years? And of course the 'love rival' of the MC has to be a bad guy? Ugh

And then to the plot - the murder cases were interesting but didn't invite the audience to join in at all as Li Lianhua/Li Xiangyi always spouts out another random obscure martial art technique that does weird things to put the pieces together, also the entire treasure hunt type thing didn't exactly help the plot stand out from any other wuxia

The main villains were again one dimensional and not given the chance for development, the saintess in particular I disliked at the start because it seemed it was all out of her 'love' (obsession) with Di Feisheng (may I mention no reason is given for the obsession part? she's just crazy for no reason?), although she got better when she became power hungry as well so at least it's not her only motive?

Also I do wish we got to see more of the trio found family dynamics and more of how the trio as a whole develops but that might just be because I'm a sucker for the found family trope?

Anyway for these reasons I feel like it wasn't exactly deserving of all the hype I felt it was getting, maybe an 8.5 on mdl fits better? Of course this is just my personal subjective opinion so yeah

Feel free to ask me any questions :)

So I watched the Chinese dub of Arcane for the first time...

Unsurprisingly, lines like 'what will it be, man or woman?' were tweaked to remove any gay implications.

What's funny is Caitlyn's brothel girl is straight up flirting with her now? And the audio is loud and clear unlike in English where its hard to tell what they're talking about???

My translation: I've been here several times now, and couldn't find anyone decent*... so when I saw you, it was as if I'd came across treasure!

*or 'good enough' or 'adequate'? hard to translate but you get the gist

original post from changlinarmy.tumblr.com which has been deleted

kitties in watercolours from January, which I wasn't able to properly scan until now :')

{art print}

Cheng Yi in wedding dresses

(Immortal Samsara 2022)

(Mysterious Lotus Casebook 2023)

+bonus

(Deep Lurk - not released yet)

(At this point i think there's a clause in his contract that determines at least one scene dressed as a woman, and we like it)

has been lately watching

HAPPY 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY TO GAY PEOPLE !!!🚂♾💥💥💥💥

Every day I think about Li Xiangyi and his two swords and go a little more insane. The unbendable, unyielding Shaoshi that carried Li Xiangyi to the top of the world, and was found and lost and found again. The flexible but equally lethal Wenjing that remained with him in his life as a ghost, looking for the brother that gave it to him. Shaoshi, which his master gave him, which he left behind for so long in favour of his master's wine gourd instead. Wenjing, the blade that had always been soaked in blood and betrayal, undoing the meaning of the decade he had spent with it. Wenjing, abandoned after he realised it was a mark of everything broken and bitter in his past. Shaoshi, which he took up and carried again till he could, and shattered the moment he decided to run once again. Shaoshi, whose shards Di Feisheng found and kept. A swordsman shouldn't have weaknesses, Di Feisheng told him long, long ago. What does it mean, then, when a swordsman carries a sword that is broken and nothing more than a memory?

PSA