Grading The Dramatic Entrances Of The Untamed, In No Particular Order

So true, so true.

Be sure to read all the comments, too.

whenever people in fandom refer to lan wangji as “lan zhan” there is an instinctive part of me that reacts like “how dare you be so informal, that is ‘lan wangji’ or ‘hanguang-jun’ to you” which is, frankly, absurd

(but also. how dare you be so informal)

Nezha reborn ☓ text posts

Linktree

@purpletophat | Linktree

Linktree. Make your link do more.

And now I figure out where to hang my mermen and unicorn-man…

病案本。Case File Compendium. 😢😢😭😭😭😭😭

There are still 60-some chapters left. Meatbun can’t just do this to her characters and then just… just… lead the crying fest for 60+ chapters, right? It has to get better eventually, right?

Right?!?

😭

Stars of Chaos 杀破狼

Volume 3, Notes 4/5, Pages 267 - 350

I had to look up this poem and its meaning. In essence, the poem is about revolution. Kicking out the old aristocracy and installing a new regime. Via nice, sweet poetry about birds flying away from Wang and Xie's homes (the "noble halls") into the homes of ordinary folk.

The nice Chinese 5-word version of "heads up their asses" is a much more elegant "顾头不顾腚" = attend to the head an forget the buttocks, as in "can only handle things coming from one direction".

Croaker is a type of small fish. 小黄鱼。

“若非烂到根里，恐怕也不会养出这种滚刀肉一样胆大包天的地方官。”

The "stubborn as cheap jerky" phrase is the translation of 滚刀肉, which is, broken apart, "rolling""knife""meat", like meat that is so sinewy and hard that it turns your knife instead of just letting itself be cut.

The "in their crooked ways" phrase is, I think, just an extra little modifier to help you understand that these difficult officials are not just stubborn, (and definitely not righteous,) but also crooked.

Pg 304: When I read this in English, it felt to me like the emperor was questioning if he himself still held power; in Chinese, it sounds to me more like he is stating that someone is trying to hide a really big secret, and he is questioning who that wrong-doer is.

"朕倒不知道这朝中是谁一手遮天了。"

Bad translation: "We (royal) do not know who in this court is using his hand to cover the sky." (一手遮天 One hand cover sky = "to hide the truth from the masses" mdbg.net)

Here is another place where the English confused me a little bit. Because, of course, it's really hard to translate.

方钦心里暗叹一声“扶不起来的东西”

Bad translation: Fang Qin sighed in his heart (he did the sigh entirely in his head, so no one actually saw him sigh), "hold him up and he still can't stand, that less-than-human thing."

Fang Qin is majorly disparaging Assistant Minister Lv here.

It's customary for older, retired men to put their bird in a carry-able size cage and then take it out on a walk to a local park or into the local wilderness, swinging the cage all the while so that the little bird can exercise its perching muscles and enjoy some fresh air. It's called 遛鸟, just like walking your dog is 遛狗。

The verb used here is 讹 é = error / false / to extort （mdbg.net), and where I have found elsewhere as "blackmail" or "cheat".

Sassy bird, yes?

"White Cut Chicken" is 白斩鸡 which is an amazing dish that we used to have every time we had banquet-style dinners at any Cantonese restaurant. It's super good. The only way I like to eat chicken. Very tender boiled chicken, served with a side of green-onion oil. Oh I'm getting hungry.

Top: Chang Geng is limping. His leg was hurt in the crash-landing.

Bottom: A 肚兜 is a cute hanky-sized bit of cloth with ties that go around the neck and the waist. It's meant to keep the belly warm. I usually only see little kids (like, babies and toddlers) in period movies wear them (and that's all they wear if it's warm enough).

If you watch the animated masterpiece Nezha 1979, a dudou is the only thing that Nezha wears from the time he emerges / is born until he kills his first dragon prince. You have to prove yourself as a dragon-killer before you get to wear pants.

They come in adult (woman) sizes, too, but that's for another day.

My DanMei Literary Adventure Masterpost

Stars of Chaos - All Notes Links

The portraits of Yiling Laozu

Do you all know 杨可爱Yang Ke’ai yet?

She does lots of popular covers and mash-ups and “how to memorize 5-50 Chinese poems via music” songs in a Classical Chinese style (chinoiserie?) with a UKULELE. If you’re not watching her beautiful videos of her singing and playing music in full hanfu, you’d think she was playing a Pipa or a Guzheng or even a Guqin, but, no — that’s a Ukulele.

Anyway, have you all heard her Mo Dao Zu Shi mashup yet? 14 songs from Audio Drama, Donghua, and Fan Music (a lot of the creators of which were also part of the Audio Drama and Donghua).

It’s awesome and deserves many many views. Enjoy!

https://youtu.be/plf5KFqvUhg

Saturday, August 7, 2021. That’s the release date for Mo Dao Zu Shi season 3!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!!

Excuse me while I go schedule my Season 1 and 2 marathon so that my memories will be perfectly fresh and ready for Season 3 on August 7!!!!!!!!!

(Sources: https://youtu.be/YzvNsFSw0RY and https://www.yualexius.com/2021/01/mo-dao-zu-shi-season-3.html. I really really hope that they’re right!!!!!!)

Yu Alexius

Grandmaster Of Demonic Cultivation / Mo Dao Zu Shi Season 3 Release And Updates | Yu Alexius

Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji are coming back in 2021 for Mo Dao Zu Shi Season 3 and I am sure that I am not the only one who is excited to see

So, I think I’m done annotating my copy of First Edition MDZS, Volume 1.

Thanks to Suibian Subs and Scans and @baobeibuns’ Twitter thread (https://twitter.com/baobeibuns/status/1495228005026648067), I penciled in missing lines and corrected a bunch of little mis-translations.

I also re-translated a bunch of words that I felt weren’t conveying the correct feeling, and added a few explanatory notes in places that I remember being super confused.

Here is Part 1, through page 65: