ShortCircuit

Song Ji Yang. Yes, he has a certain look - delicate but strong, beautiful poise. I really, really liked him. He could be a great Xie Lian, even if he's a bit young.

...Now you made me want the series to happen, and happen soon, lol.

They even let the freaking roosters in, LOL. And they put in the three bows (instead of two, as in the novel)! They're officially married, and nobody can convince me otherwise.

And oh, the part where the audio drama is voiced by the same voice actors is where we're reaching stratoshphere! I mean, hearing WWX tell LZ "I'll let you do anything you want to me, everyday, from now on", lol, and getting to "Everyday means everyday!" in LZ's own voice. I was floored.

I don't know how franchises work in China, but MXTX should be reigning queen in Wuxia/Xiaxia BL lit. And the crew & cast, for the drama, the audio drama, the donghua and the chibi donghua should get awards heaped on them - because it's all worth it lol.

You're right, I mixed up 2HA and HOB/TGCF (must be that plotline where the TGCF heroes visit the underworld or whatever it can be called, which reminded me of Shizun's time in a circle of hell (after the stairs bit). My bad! (you can't see me, but I'm being embarassed here, lol).

I read MXTX's SVSSS (because after TGMODC, how could I not?!) and I watched the ten eps of the donghua. They're ending the season at 10 right? And I was kind of disappointed because they never even got precisely to the part where SQQ throws LBH in the abyss. So... painfully... close to it! But not... :( It didn't grab me as hard as TGMODC, maybe because there are a few more problematic spins on that tale than I'm comfortable with, but the donghua was good despite the 3D animation (SQQ was simply beautiful, lol, a lot more than LBH :D) Then again... TGMODC set a very high standard.

I've yet to read MXTX's TGCF through, because the TL is kind of complicated to access. But I AM very invested in the story, even if Hua Cheng isn't much in view yet (he comes and goes, as is his habit.) Xie Lian, on the other hand, is a treasure and I can't wait to find out more about him. The part I loved best, so far, is him establishing his new temple out of a broken down house. I wanted to take him home, hug him and call him George LOL. He's way too cute. The donghua, despite being classically animated, somehow seems a bit flat to me. I think they've been stretching the Brides tale too long, and I fear they'll only put in bits of the novel in the first season, however long it is. But I have hope for it :)

MXTX sure loves her horror stuff, though, doesn't she?!... I am not much for horror, and if I thought there were a few too graphic tales in TGMODC, there's plenty more in the other two, too. Yeesh.

For 2HA, I'm also stuck in TL hell. I got as far as their escape from hell (?) because... the stairs. When I was trying to decide if I would read it, I accidentally happened on the stairs chapter. Shizun killed me, he just killed me. I don't quite like Mo Ran, he reminds me of Luo BingHe (maybe that's why I mixed the stories up, lol), but Shizun is the best. But for Shizun's story, I'll read it all, even if I have to go through lots of GDrive chapters and MTL chapters and whatnot.

Can't wait to see Luo YunXi playing Shizun, he's an incredibly beautiful man, and a good actor. Not certain yet about Chen FeiYu, but he was pretty good in Ever Night (didn't watch Legend of Awakening yet, and maybe I won't, just in case he's not good. I don't want to have too high or too low expectations for him). He seems to look the part - up to and including that dangerous smirk.

What I'm hoping for from Immortality is that they find that balance to portray a BL story and make it pass censorship, like TU/CQL did.

Though to be honest... Seriously, how DID they ever get it past the censors?! All those looks and touches, all that was missing were the actual declarations, and they weren't even needed in the end. And even the rest of the characters reacted to the relationship just as they would had it been in the open, lol.

Perfect. Just perfect. No wonder it only gets better on repeated watches, when you're able to catch the small details you might have missed, and go a-HA! over again. It's been a pretty long while since I've been so captivated in a story.

& @SuibianX: I was mentioned here in this discussion that seems to be turning towards a spat, and I just want to clarify one thing.

@ponnu: I did say WWX is clueless, in context of him being oblivious to LZ's obvious interest and pretty glaring jealousy from time to time. I did not say - or mean - that he's clueless in general, and I did actually argue that he is quite thoughtful and protecting other people at all times. I hope that settles that part of the topic.

Also, I myself was impressed with WYB's acting, as I already mentioned. I have seen him in dramas he made even younger, and you can tell that he's grown as an actor. He and XZ spark off each other and that makes the drama even better. I have rarely seen actors who have such a great chemistry. It just so happens that they're both male, that this is a thinly disguised BL story, and I - like many others, probably - kept wondering throughout, "how did they manage to squeeze THIS past the censors?!"

The drama betters the novel in terms of female characters, and yes they are few, but they are most important and you couldn't take any of them out and not miss them. I feel that's impressive in a drama that is mostly about men. My personal favourite is Madam Yu, whom I love and kind of hate with the same passion. I blame most of JC's shortcomings on her.

I also said before, all stories and their presentation are a matter of taste. If this one didn't impress you, then it didn't impress you. And just as you're intitled to your opinion, so are fans of the drama, be they hardcore or not :)

Not speaking for anyone else, but this drama is one of my personal favourites of all times, and I'm pretty sure there won't be anything soon to surpass it (well, I have yet to see "Immortality". But I'll reserve judgement until I've seen it.)

Who is WWX, literally? His father is a lower-rank Jiang Clan member, his mother is a Wanderer (no clan) - and to boot, she was rumoured to have gotten WWX through an amorous relationship with Jiang FengMian (it's obvious WWX doesn't believe it, but Madam Yu did and made his life harder because of it.) Despite having been ranked 4th before the Burial Mounds period, he has no actual political power - and when he needs it most, he doesn't even have much physical power. He can't fight everybody.

What CAN he practically do in order to convince ALL the clans (the Jins are the richest and most powerful, which is why they got elected as rulers over the other clans, which were in process of trying to rebuild; it has no relation to ethics and righteousness) that the Wen people are not all guilty?

He couldn't even convince JC, who, alongside him, owes them his life and sanity. And JC is his brother. The hatred ran so deep, that despite JC knowing WWX did right by the Wens, he could NOT be seen as agreeing to any of it, or risk becoming a pariah himself.

As for why he didn't look for WQ and WN before she came looking for help - he's not their keeper. He owed them, and paid back that debt in spades, but no one is required to keep track of people they owe debts too. WQ is pretty resourceful, he might have imagined she would do without him. And he had his own problems - the Sunshot Campaign was over, but Lotus Pier was still derelict, and he had no more power to actually help JC rebuild it as he had promised. Add to that his rift with LZ, the fact that people feared him but he had no more actual friends to turn to, AND he couldn't speak up against bad things happening around him, in order to protect JC, JYL and the promise of a future Jiang Clan revival...

He is an awesome, bounce-back scrappy fighter but not a god.

And it goes further to prove that he's actually pretty calculated when needs be - and can restrain himself for other people's sake. When he's risking life and limb, he does so by himself, and that's why he's a hero. When facing such adversity, most would cling to safety and family and comfort - WWX gets in alone and comes out a victor, even if his standing in the world is destroyed by it.

JGY did NOT guilt WWX into anything - nobody ever did. Except himself, in a memorable chapter close to the end of the novel, when he realizes what he has been doing to LZ in his second life. JGY was needling JC, and succeeding, because JC is an insecure person who (at that time) KNOWS the huge debt he owes WWX, while at the same time carrying a life-time envy and even hate for very good reasons (I mean, WWX did unintentionally kill off JZ and JYL and the whole Jiang Clan.)

Nobody respected WWX for his demonic powers either - but they did fear him a lot, and his Tyger Amulet most of all. The ones who were irked by his attitude were the Jins, but they aimed at replacing the Wens and didn't want any problem while doing it. The Jin leader is a scumbag, and his end well deserved, and Jin Zixuan aside, pretty much everybody around him were no better. WWX could not risk asking them politely anything - don't you remember, the Wen had burned down Cloud Recesses, where all the clans sent their sons to be educated for YEARS but the Jins, the only clan powerful enough to counter them, didn't raise a finger UNTIL the Lans and the Jiangs and the Nies already mounted up a resistance. Why would they have allowed WWX to save people who in their eyes are guilty of massacres, despite these particular Wens having no part in it? They - all of them, not just the Jin Clan - would have destroyed the Jiang Clan, nobody would have ever joined them again.

So WWX took it on himself to do the right thing and even pretended JC's actions did not influence him, so he - JC - could save face. He did it so that all the blame didn't taint the Jiang Clan, and never claimed any other way. Those who could see it for what it was, did, for the rest, he didn't care anyway.

There WAS no peaceful way... And he didn't have time to try and gain favour because WN was dying right then.

Err... no. Wei WuXian IS clueless. And he's actually pretty thoughtful considering his upbringing and age (except where it concerns romance and romantic feelings, where he's a wrecking ball).

Just consider - he takes every precaution to not involve anyone innocent in his misdeeds, he tries to shelter JC and JYL from anything dangerous, up to and including rumours, he shoulders all the responsibility for his choice on aiding the Wen Clan (WQ's side of them at least) exactly because he knows JC can't get involved, him being the leader of the Jiang Clan and having the duty of building back the clan. (I mean - WN saved JC from the Wen clan at great risk to himself, he and WQ sheltered the Jiang kids while the rest of the clan was actively hunting them down, WQ basically saved the rest of JC's life with the operation she did - I'm not saying what it is, because I can't tell how much you got from watching the drama and I don't want to spoil in case you want to re-watch.) JC is body-and-soul indebted to her and her brother, but he can't be acting to help them out. So WWX does it instead and won't even tell him so he's spared any side-tainting from it.

The MianMian thing is a joke - but before and after that, remember the medicine he saved particularly for LZ's wound, and keeping him company while LZ is mourning for his family and Cloud Recesses, and the care he's showing him in LZ's drunken bouts. The care he takes in trying to keep LZ from his problems in his second life, even ready to pretend to have tricked him in order to spare his reputation.

It's the small gestures that matter - and LZ has also plenty of them. And some grand gestures, too, lol.

It's an epic love story, what can I say. I like both of them, but WWX is my favourite - he's like mercury, always moving, always bright, addicting. They make the perfect opposites-attract kind of couple :)

Well, he's not the POV MC, so to speak. We watch the story unfold from WWX's POV, so most of what LZ does, thinks or feels is hidden (in the novel, too, except for the last few, more romantic-inclined, chapters. And the extras to the novel - there are a few chapters that shed a lot of light on WHY he did what he did as a teen or young man, and about his unspoken dedication to WWX even in his first life.)

And, I don't know if you caught on... but WWX is CLUELESS. Mind-blowing, face-palming, rage-inducting clueless, LOL. (Yes, even in the novel. That, "You like MianMian!" didn't happen in a vacuum, lol. And he's guilty of far worse acts in front of LZ's infatuation with him. )

The novel clarifies things a bit (I read it after watching the drama, but to be honest, I didn't need the extra explanations, it was pretty clear who loved whom better and longer but then again, I am used to tsundere characters.) As a tsundere charater, LZ is pretty obvious - and he does have a lot of things to do, and grows as a character immensely from the first flashback note to the last scene.

But, it's a thing of taste and / or personal inclination, honestly. I find LZ (as portrayed by WYB, or in the donghua, or in the novel) fascinating, though obviously WWX is the most interesting character there. But the drama does a better job at fleshing out side-charas than even the novel did - like Wen Qing, Jiang Cheng, Jiang YangLi, even Jin Zixuan. And I have a fascination with Ouyang Zizhen who is basically invisible in the novel, lol.

The novel is clearer than that. WWX's death happened 13 years ago, the first flashback is from 16 years ago, so all the rest of the story in the flashback took about 3 years to happen.

Why they changed it in the drama, I can't tell you. Maybe they were trying not to confuse people with different timelines (in the novel there are more than one flashback, the whole story in the past is told in more pieces while the present story is ongoing.) If you ever get interested in the donghua or the novel, they follow the novel timeline and might be clearer if you don't like the drama one. The donghua also involves a lot - and I mean, a LOT - more of the gore and blood things from the novel, though not all. Definitely includes the freaking undead attacking people (which aren't there all that much in the drama) and more gruesome deaths of certain villain characters. WWX is also greyer in the donghua (more similar to the novel, again) than the shiny hero he appears as in the drama. Still one of the best charas ever, though.

Personally, I prefer the drama timeline, because it packs a bigger punch than the pieced-timeline of the novel. I also am not much for gore and zombies and whatnot, so I also appreciated the lack of them in the drama too (love the donghua, but I'd rather see less horror stuff than more).

I read your review on TU - so sad you found WYB's portrayal of LZ so lacking. I wasn't convinced he could do it, in the beginning (particularly in the first two eps, before the flashback starts) but then I was amazed by his ability to show emotions through the smallest change in his eyes and face. Xiao Zhan's WWX was an ebulient, mischievous, ten-thousand-watt-smile character you CAN'T help but fall for, even when he's doing something bad, but LZ was the cool, distanced, quiet person so whenever he shows any hint of emotion, you know he is deeply affected. By then end of TU, I could "guess" his feelings from his microemotions, and felt he was always easy to read, if you knew how. We should make a Read-Lan-WangJi's-Emotions club and select Lan Xichen (Lan Huan) as club leader :D

I didn't catch that - she might have given him her name for various reasons, that made him not be too interested in his father (being told the father neglected/rejected him, for example, would play some games with a boy's mind if he grew up fatherless.) He knows his father was a soldier and nothing more, I think.

I'd rather not have any surprise dads involved in here, but after HDS' visit to mom's restaurant, I kind of expect it.

The NK child is SYR, the doctor confirmed it somewhere in ep 2 or 3.

YDJ might not be the son of any of the soldiers involved in the incident. And JMG beside, there was another wounded SK soldier that Lee Hyuk executed, I think he was carrying the phone/radio? In the recorded images, he's trying to crawl away after LH executes JMG and LH shoots him in the back too.

He's so under the radar, he might be YDJ's father, if any, lol.

Yes, YDJ said so... But it was kind of out of the blue. They've known for a while that the rabies mutated virus was canine-born and spread, and it didn't occur to them that the smell sensitivity might transfer. And the antidote syringes, too, that might have not worked but did (or did they?)

Problem is - for me - that if the virus that mutated and infected the NK deserter was the rabies virus, why would he not abhorr water too? It's one of the easiest to recognize signs of rabies in animals. But while he got sensitive to smells, he had no problem with water, even using it as an entry corridor into the village.

I'm hoping there's a good explanation, or at least a good try.

He might have saved the memory stick or whatever it was saving the record on, but I don't have much hope.

TBH, I didn't notice much love interest. Other than the fact they were ex lovers or something, he doesn't pay her more attention than to the rest of his colleagues. The way the drama set it up, there's much more banter and friendship between him and his small group of friends than closeness with SYR. And she's the only (young) woman acting as a main character (the ex-Special Forces woman is even more present than her, and has a stronger role, IMHO), so we're probably supposed to feel some romantic tension between the leads - but again, I just don't see it.

Re: the camcorder video... He has no context for it. Nobody seems to know much about the incident other that it made the survivors "heroes" and they built careers on it. But why would random soldiers in a DMZ area know many details about it? The one who could know more would be the ex-SF woman, and they haven't yet had time to talk about it.

After all, we the viewers saw the scene clearly and in HD. He's supposed to have seen some fragments of it, and that in the middle of a stressful mission (his mind would probably be taken with killing the mutant, not with what appeared in a random video from a random camcorder a kid gave him).

If he doesn't know the name of his father - maybe his mother changed their names, if his dad is Jo Min-Gook, so that the stigma of him having "defected" to NK wouldn't cling to them. I don't know. I mean, if JMG is his father, his name would also be Jo, right? But he is Yong. I guess he 1. is not his son or 2. his name did get changed.

If I were in the army and had only days until discharge, you bet it would be the only thing in my mind, too :D

He got infected while defecting, and he probably only vaguely remembered he was supposed to go to the SK army outpost/village in order to surrender. And he attacked the soldiers because he wasn't actually reasoning any more, just reacting to their uniforms probably. (I initially thought he was SK, as his uniform was a different colour than the NK ones. But I guess if he were, he'd be posted missing and people would know he was supposed to have become lost/captured along the area?... I don't know enough about uniforms to really tell, though.)

He only moved along the canal because the vegetation around it is too pungent (so said YDJ) and it was the only way in where he could go around it and not through it. The virus that infected him makes him have certain symptoms, one of which (also according to instant expert YDJ) would be being too sensible to olfactory signals.

In other words, he took the canal way because everything else stank too strongly and he couldn't stand it. LOL.

Strangest French I ever heard, but it's enough to make me happy, thanks! :)

"We'll never disagree" - those are Famous Last Words worthy material.

What language were those random hotel strangers speaking? It sounded a bit like Japanese, but they looked European, so I'm confused. Was that a recognizable language?

Also, I am now a bit underwhelmed with the buddy-buddy slapstick humour. I get it, the guys are bros, could they grow up a bit now they're in the serious world?...

With the RZW looking so mutated, I believed he was actually Jo Min-Gook resurrected. But he's one of the newer RZWs.

Is there a daddy RZW? Where did the dogs get infected? Dogs don't live all that long, so there's bound to be some reproduction between the mutant gene carriers, or an infection site somewhere.

I had SO much trust in LJS's conscience! He seemed such an upright and caring person, and even initially seemed to stand up to his traitor and killer dad but I guess not. At this point, the scheming captain seems a better prospect to bring all the old traitors and killers down, LOL. I want him to do it, for all the wrong reasons :D

That little girl better not have the radiation disease. Her arms seemed sunburned, which would cause a slight fever... but she also carried the damned camcorder and if it were radioactive, she'd be exposed (and she didn't have any clothing to get in the way, like YDJ did). The fact that the CC still worked and the images weren't spotty would tell that it shouldn't have been irradiated... but this is a drama and anything is possible. They'd better not try it though.

And now we have the half of the series left for YDJ to get away from prospective killers, the initial exposure site to be found, the secret to the FL's birth to come to light and for JMG and the other soldier's killers to be served some justice.

I'm actually starting to like this way more than I thought I would.

So I have to say this... It's becoming rather hard to start the episode - I love it once I get it going, but I don't find it in me to start it up (LOL). I don't care for the main romance (what we've seen of it), I'm in this only for the mother-son relationship between HJP and Grandma.

If it weren't for them, I'd rather think I'd give this one a pass. Not that it isn't funny, not that I don't like NJH (because I actually do, a lot), but I can already see a lot of tropes coming my way, and I don't really like office-type tropes. Or romance tropes that aren't all that hard to predict.

I mean seriously - this won't be a spoiler, because nobody's watched the whole drama yet - how much does anyone want to bet that the script came out true because one of the twin programmers used a real script and not a composite? Or that WIJ will use her sister's story of the sanded lot to get in the better view of the Sandbox CEO? (Which isn't actually very hard to be a true memory, either, after all, she was her father's daughter too.) Or that WIJ's step-dad will throw some twigs in the wheels to make his step-daughter win and get her back or something?

The good thing that happened this ep was that HJP is less Cyrano-ish, which is a good thing IMHO. He shoud get Grandma her store back and they should live happily ever after like mother and son, the end. I hope he doesn't fall for the FL, because that would really spoil the sweet relationship with Grandma, and I like him too much for that.

Also, his ears are really strange, aren't they? After "Good Detective" and Jang Seung-jo's boxer ears, I tend to notice actors' ears, LOL. Kim Seon-ho really has strange ears, too.

He gets to see some part of the recorded moments 20 years ago, where the SK party messed up and started the gunfire - and maybe even more, if the thing recorded well until the explosion, he may see/have seen the part where the SK soldiers who survived started covering their asses and executing the rest.

As for the rest - the villagers are tracking down the thing, while unsure what it is but believing it's a thieving NK defector, and the soldiers catch them in the attempt. I suspect people are going to start dying pretty soon. After all, the thing is back in the village, after attacking the HQ. It might have tried to attack soldiers, it might have followed YDJ back after the meeting with the NK party in the previous eps, it might be looking for the camcorder (probably not). So far, it had a chance to attack ordinary villagers and it didn't, so it's either focusing on soldiers, or reasoning enough to pick its time and place.

We'll have to wait and see.