Not Enjoying A Record Of A Mortal's Journey To Immortality :(
Not enjoying A Record of a Mortal's Journey to Immortality :(
For the record, I'm somewhere around 25 episodes into the donghua. I don't know anything about the webnovel; this post is about the donghua.
First off, the writing is weird. The beginning was ok, Han Li gets put in classic main character situations and does main character stuff. It was predictable but enough to get me a little hooked. It however continues being predictable later on and the story is simply linear and uninteresting - often boring. This isn't even the biggest problem - which is the straight up weird and problematic stuff like after Han Li saves her from being raped Chen sexually assaults him??? Hello??? Worst of all, why isn't this painted as a horrible thing to do??? (Fine, I'm exaggerating my own surprise, but that's only because I'm desensitised to Chinese shows doing this by now.) Also when him and that woman (forget her name) are trapped with the monster which they manage to defeat together which magically coerces them - both shown to be unwilling and only into it because of the magic - into having sex??? YES I'VE SEEN THIS STUFF BEFORE TOO BUT IT DOESN'T GET ANY LESS MESSED UP EACH TIME IT HAPPENS! These might be the worst cases but there's also lowkey ableist subtext, hugs without asking consent... the list goes on, and I'm not even far through this donghua.
Not only is the story boring - the characters are too. Characters other than Han Li don't get much of personalities or development, and the few character traits they are shown to have are vague and shallow. They rarely get scenes just by themselves, and when they do, it's not because it's necessary or expected for the plot, or it's used very simply to show their very vague and shallow (and often singular) character trait. There's lots of characters but each only gets their little bit of screentime when Han Li is around - partially due to the linear structure of the story. In particular, the female characters feel poorly written - there aren't that many of them but in addition to my previous complaints about characters in general, they either have no personality or an unrealistic one, they don't have agency and constantly require saving by Han Li (not to mention I think it's clear enought that this is turning out to be a harem donghua, which I just dislike).
Han Li himself is also boring. He has strengths - such as his gardening skills, quick wits and generic carefulness. He's shown to be humble, and also shown to be uninterested in anything romantic or sexual - this is often shown as a positive trait in Chinese media, particularly the latter (which is weird in its own right but I'm not getting into that now... headcanon they're all aspec though). Han Li isn't shown to have any weaknesses, and while he isn't amazing at everything, he's shown to have a large variety of strengths and ultimately he feels very much like a Mary Sue. He doesn't have a personality and everything revolves around him trying to get stronger. He does a lot of helping of other people along the way, making him a moral and agreeable character without any other outstanding traits. He doesn't have particularly strong emotional attachments to anyone, which is fair because it's the natural result of his characterisation, but with the blandness of everything else he's a very boring character. He's a nice guy who's very clever and wants to get more powerful - and that's it.
The animation is alright, mouth movement and occasionally generic movement feels off though. Plus a lot of faces look really similar and facial expressions aren't great - not even with Han Li. The rest of it is fine but nothing mindblowing. The aesthetics and visual designs don't stand out in any way from any other cultivation setting.
The worldbuilding is simple, a very generic cultivation genre world and magic system, but it means with all the above there's really nothing exciting going on with this show.
The two cardinal sins of this show is that it's boring and problematic, and unfortunately both of those are unforgiveable. Maybe watching an animated show simultaneously with your third watch of Arcane isn't the best idea.
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All amazing points and so important to take in. I think I have done a couple of these, but not habitually or intensely. But it's good awareness for me.
Wait guys so you know at the start of woh wkx is constantly flirting like 'nice sword' and more sword related euphemisms? And we see obviously zzs the men from the righteous sects etc mainly use swords? Our girl gu xiang uses a whip (often associated with female wuxia characters) and tragicomic ghost and beauty ghost don't seem to use weapons?
WKX USES NOT A SWORD BUT A FAN (which can be seen as 'feminine')
Come to think of it the traditional bad guys (ghosts and scorpion kings gang) don't use swords so much? I was going to say could wkx be a trans man but now I don't know where I'm going with this
Anyway this was probably incredibly obvious to everyone except me so
To all acespec knights, this week belongs to you! I want you to know that you deserve to take space, to be recognized, and you deserve to be seen. This week is the ideal time to remember that asexuality is a valid and wonderful part of our world - shout it loud and clear! And, above all, stay proud ⚔️💪
oh 12.65 litres of blood clinging to the outside of my body, we're really in it now
my kitty cat has the biggest prettyest most big beautoful wet eyes i’ve ever seen….. but i know it’s alljust a trick. shes going to bite me
Finally watched Nimona!!!
It was so good!!!
However I am here to say one specific thing
It is so sad that it is so realistic that Nimona had to die (well 'die') for people to see her differently. Ultimately either you relate, or you love them enough to change yourself for them (we like to think of Ballister very positively but he benefited from both of these things), or you must make great risks and sacrifices for the mere chance for some to change. And it is very sad that this is realistic.
The fairest maiden is sitting
So marvelous up there,
Her golden jewels are shining,
She combs her golden hair.
With a golden comb she combs it
And sings a song as well
Whose melody binds a wondrous
And overpowering spell
Heinrich Heine "Lorelei", eng by A. Z. Foreman
A lot of people around me are having kids and every day it becomes more apparent that hitting your children to punish them is insane because literally everything can be a horrible punishment in their eyes if you frame it as such.
Like, one family makes their toddler sit on the stairs for three minutes when he hits his brother or whatever. The stairs are well lit and he can see his family the whole time, he’s just not allowed to get up and leave the stairs or the timer starts over. He fucking hates it just because it’s framed as a punishment.
Another family use a baseball cap. It’s just a plain blue cap with nothing on it. When their toddler needs discipline he gets a timeout on a chair and has to put the cap on. When they’re out and about he just has to wear the cap but it gets the same reaction. Nobody around them can tell he’s being punished because it’s in no way an embarrassing cap, but HE knows and just the threat of having to wear it is enough.
And there isn’t the same contempt afterwards I’ve seen with kids whose parents hit them. One time the kid swung a stick at my dog, his mother immediately made him sit on the stairs, he screamed but stayed put, then he came over to my dog and gently said “Sorry Ellie” and went back to playing like nothing happened, but this time without swinging sticks at the nearby animals.
I rewatched Nimona today
I rewatched Nimona today during work cause it's slow, I have all my homework done and there's still time left during my shift.
Well, yesterday, my mom and I watched a documentary about the LGBTQ+ movement and how it skyrocketed after the death of Matthew Sheppard, a gay man killed for being gay and it warned us about the slurs and the potentially triggering images of his injuries.
When I saw them, I went "I've seen worse in television" except those injuries killed him. I paused at that thought because I live in a world where it is scary to be a female who can't get reproductive care. I live in a world where I am a gay female who can't get reproductive care. I live in a world where I am a gay female who is proud and scared to be proud of myself who can't get reproductive care and it's because of people who have hurt people like Matthew.
I was watching the documentary and hearing his friends recount how much of a good person Matthew is, after he passed away, I almost cried. Looking at his wounds, that he died from, I almost cried today.
What does this have to do with Nimona?
I have watched that movie over ten times, and not once have I almost cried from that story. I didn't cry over the comic story line, I didn't cry during the movie. I almost cried during this run because I got some fucking insight into what we as a society have faced. And it made me realize how sheltered I am. Not was, but am.
My mom doesn't have a straight kid to her name (biological kid mind you, her nephew and my cousin is still figuring things out but I do believe he is straight (which is not wrong)) and she is so lucky because she has proud kids who are proud of being who they are and there is that fear as a parent I would assume that is "will there be someone who is going to hurt my babies?" cause she's a mom. That is her job to worry.
My mom is lucky because she hasn't needed to bury any of her kids for being themselves. My mom is lucky that she hasn't needed to bury any of her daughters due to rape, or any assault. My mom is lucky she hasn't lost any of her daughters because the world is full of shit.
I'm still sheltered, but the Matthew Sheppard story opened my eyes a little bit that he died for being himself and he isn't alone in the slightest. Not for gays, lesbians, transgenders, bisexuals, asexuals, or all of the above. My mom is lucky, my two sisters are lucky, I'm lucky, but we live in a world where if you don't face it, you tend to be sheltered.
At least that's what my experience is, and it's scary.
Sorry for the mindless rant but it's been running amok since yesterday and then soon after rewatching Nimona and it's just... a lot to think about and how we are reverting to being a bigoted society and it's scary to think about.
