Mixed Media Doll Out Of Air-dry Clay. Made With The Help Of Tutorial By Chertoh.

Thoughts on TtEotM

Well... I didn't like it. LYX was marvelous, CGI, too, plot elements were pretty good changed to tie the story up (and the part with Ming Ye was better tied to the main plot than in the book), but still... I didn't like it. In the book it was the story about man without abilities to feel something, his "love" in the first part of the story was wicked and twisted, so the contrast with the second part was huge and palpable. TTJ was a monster and became a man, he turned from egoist who only wanted to survive no matter what to person who was ready to give away the most precious thing for him (his life) to make his beloved happy (it happened that saving the world was the thing that could make his beloved happy, so he sacrificed himself to do it). And his heroic deed was rewarded with resurrection and a normal life with his family and new-found home. The story in the drama has nothing to do with that. There is a poor boy (no monster at all!!!) who constantly suffers and wants to die, falls in love with the first person who treated him well and sacrifices himself for the world that was so unkind to him. It`s awful! I know that Chinese people love the idea that you should die for the greater good, but this philosophy is as far from my heart as Jupiter from the Earth. Maybe DFQC will remain the only one drama "villain" who's got the happy end. And that drama will stay my favorite.

Withered and abandoned

Close-ups:

I wanted to honor Li Lun so much that I started drawing in digital. This is my first digital work (not bad for the first work, huh?). I have started it even before drama was over and finished it yesterday. The hommage to Li Lun/Zhao Yuanzhou is in two intertwined trunks of Li Lun's true form tree. My favorite part of the picture is the rattle drum, though.

The video is a fic trailer to a canon complained AO3-story about requited unrequited hyunlix love. Beware: the fic is E-rated, the video is M-rated for some еrотiс elements.

Li Lun, a villain I feel for (Pt. 1/4)

Li Lun was the only character of FoF who stole my heart. From the very beginning it was obvious that Li Lun supposed to be a scapegoat of the narrative. The final plot twist was supposed to be a cherry on the top of the final battle, so GJM needed to bring LL there no matter what. LL's fate is in his very name: 离仑 (lí lún). The character 离 means “to be separated”, “to stay apart”; “to keep distance”; “to be alone”, “to break up”, “to become in opposition”; “to turn away” and also “to break into pairs”.  The character 仑 is used only in the name of the mountain Kunlun (昆仑), which is, as we know, a cradle of demons and a gate to the Great Wilderness. All of these meanings match Li Lun perfectly: he is deeply tied to his demonic homeland, yet is separated from the man who used to be his soulmate and opposites him now in loneliness.

Li Lun also was the only character whose story was shown to us not  as a strange flashback after the main events happened (as it was with any other story-within-a-story in this drama) but was fed to us with small portions (as it should actually have been worked out for each of side stories). It was, firstly, the main reason I was emotionally involved in Li Lun’s story – I genuinely tried to guess what happened between LL and the main hero in the past, it caught my attention. And secondly – reshuffling the pieces of LL’s backstory and spreading them across the narrative were the only ways to conjure the illusion that LL’s part of the plot works at all.

"Zhao Yuanzhou, do you still remember your old friend? Whom of your new friends should I kill first?"

When we see Li Lun for the first time in ep 3, he seems like a real villain of the story: he is in chains, looks insanely hot and hotly insane. We find out very quickly that he is absolutely obsessed with his former friend, the main hero, and wants to take revenge on him so badly as if the main hero killed the whole LL’s family and ate LL’s cutie puppy for breakfast. In the first part of the story he looks really intimidating: it is scary when your enemy could literary be anyone around you because Li Lun can possess any body. (And later we find out that there is absolutely no villain in this story, because LL is a Byronic hero and Big Bad in Mask is just a piece of furniture, because no one of the mains remembers of him and gives a single flying heck about him for the most of the story.)

But to look through their story soberly, let me recap it for you in the chronological order.

Once upon a time, something like 30 000+ years ago, two demons were born in Great Wilderness, a sophora tree spirit and a white ape spirit. They were equals in their powers, were friends for many millennias and finally became Great Demons. Hundreds of years ago they anonymously saved the Great Wilderness from destruction and swore to protect their homeland at any cost.

You all know what a hairpin means in Chinese dramas , don't you? 🌚

LL works his magic to make ZYZ happy. Although they had different mindsets, they genuinely care for each other: the main hero (ZYZ) tried to show his rigid wooden friend things he never even thought about, and LL, in return, tried to learn from ZYZ and to make him happy, too.

LL wanted to silent a kid with magic, but ZYZ taught him that no magic needed to chase someone's megrim away. The kid's as well as LL's. ZYZ loved humans and their world and LL was irritated by them and cautious about them, so ZYZ was teaching him how to treat humans right.

They exchanged gifts, a rattle drum and an umbrella. And it was so important for both LL and ZYZ that each turned mate’s gift into a spiritual weapon.

But they exchanged even more valuable gifts, too: ZYZ gifted LL his unique magic ability – Truth Eye, the ability to see the true essence of everything. Not having it anymore, he could rely now only on his heart to see LL’s heart, so giving it away was the brightest expression of his trust and love for LL. And LL gifted him a root of sophora  – a part of his true body, which was… pretty much the same expression of love and trust.

ZYZ gifts LL his Truth Eye. But one day, 8 years ago, when they both were on a date in the mortal world, they accidently found a dungeon where their fellow demons were kept captive and tortured by humans. Li Lun, who swore to protect his homeland and its habitants and was prejudiced against humans, went to berserk rage and killed not only those who tortured demons, but also everyone in a building where this dungeon was located.

He also set free all the demons in the dungeon, included Ao Ying, the demoness who can change her appearance and will serve him later.

Trying to stop LL from killing even more people, ZYZ accidently mortally wounded LL with the power of Everburning Wood he just got. It was unintentional but fatal anyway.

For his crimes LL was immediately caught and sealed in the place of his birth (a dark and lifeless cave). Although the seal could stop him from dying, it took his freedom away for eternity, which was very painful for a creature who cultivated really hard to get ability to move (he is a tree, after all). ZYZ was somewhat upset with it. OK, being upset because of your former friend’s loss of freedom is a good thing, but what happened between the sealing of LL and the current events of the drama?

So, you were friends for literally millenias, you were very close, maybe in BL way, so close, that each of you literally gave a part of his body to other. One of you flew into a rage (fairly speaking, he had a reason to be enraged) and killed people in the heat of passion. And you accidently killed him trying to stop him. Is he a criminal? Yes, obviously. Should you be surprised by your mate’s behavior and not think of it as of something typical for him? Yes, otherwise why were you still friends for so many thousands of years? Would you try to persuade him or to bring him back into his sanity? Yeah, I think. Would you feel guilt because of unintentional killing him off? Yes, of course. But ZYZ didn’t do and feel any of that.

OK, maybe he is too righteous and any unjustified deed put his relationship with a sinner to its and. Oh, no? He eagerly forgives a spy who works for Big Bad in Mask, he forgives a man who hurt him badly and intentionally sent him into diabolic rage which could lead to numerous victims. He even understands and is nice to other demons who kill people. (And, as I remember, in ep 1 ZYZ killed by himself one of demon hunter’s bureau warriors in order to intimidate ZYC. I watched it only once, so I’m not sure if I didn’t notice some trick there, but still). He only despises LL. Also, he didn’t give a flying heck about who tortured all these demons and why (spoiler: it was Big Bad in Mask, and everything would be much easier, if ZYZ cared about it). And later, he regrets that he unintentionally killed his friend and a family of his current boyfriend, but he never regretted he killed Li Lun.

In the beginning of the drama ZYZ obviously despises him and calls him "a scumbag who has to stay in shadows", although LL has to stay in shadows partly because of a mortal wound caused by ZYZ, and can't be counted as scumbag because all the wrongs he did were caused by desire to protect people of his own kind and not because he liked human sufferings or such evil stuff. LL obviously tries to speak to ZYZ and to find out what happened between them (and honestly, I still want to get this answer, too), and ZYZ, for reason unknown, has absolutely no desire to talk about their problems with LL.

It all feels strange. And not fair to LL. Here is Part 2 Here is Part 3 Here is Part 4

I love how here his subtle embarrassment is shown. Btw in the next ep his mom covers him with the cloak the same way. So he could recognize this gesture as some sign of affection.

Blossom 九重紫 (2024) Dir. Zeng Qing Jie – Ep. 8

Let me rumble in your ask box. First of all, your Li Lun series is what made me stop from being a total ZYZ lover and THINK, and OH BOY, how wrong I was in my first assessment of the characters, so THANK YOU.

I now find Li Lun a much more compelling character than ZYZ. ZYZ suffers from both internalized inferiority complex (stemming, probably, from him being the vessel of malicious energy and blaming it on himself being a demon) and superiority complex (humans are better than demons, and everyone who disagrees is a loser). He has a borderline split personality where his inner demon ZHu Yan is in direct conflict with his humanized version, Zhao Yanzhou (the name btw is Baize Goddesses' dead brother's). The whole fallout with Li Lun is not as much because Li Lun murdered a bunch of humans, but because Li Lun represents everything that ZYZ hates about himself (being a demon, being wild, wanting freedom and lack of control, etc) and is trying to suppress.

ZYZ is very hypocritical. He pretends to be broad-minded, poised, and noble but has no problem killing a random human to prove his point or demons (like a little Pagoda demon). He is very condescending to Li Lun even though every single thing Li Lun says ZYZ is (liar, betrayer, etc) is true.

What's even more interesting, instead of trying to sort it out with the friend he had for 30k years, he spends his time trying to prevent Li Lun from establishing a connection with ZYC. Why? Because, as he said once, "I have everything and you have nothing, and you're a loser" - this is his attempt to prove Li Lun and what LL represents is the "losing" side and his own choice of becoming a human is the right one.

Now, back to Li Lun- he is wild, untamed, betrayed multiple times by ZYZ , And yet. Even though he is positioned as a villain, all it takes to bring him back to the good side is a talk with ZYZ/ZYC. Which, BY THE WAY, could've happened much earlier, and could've been handled much better. He constantly talks about wanting to kill ZYZ's friends but in the end only kills one, and only when cornered. He also inadvertently HELPS them to grow and face their worst fears.

Just imagine if ZYZ doesn't let his petty anger win and tells Li Lun that the plan is to put him back into his root and let him re-cultivate? That would prevent Ying Lei from getting killed, pull LL firmly on the good side, and potentially prevent Bai Ju from getting killed too (because now they would have 3 demons and a mountain god fighting the big bad).

Also, in the whole story, it is Li Lun who drives the changes and makes Zhuo Yichen evolve. (This is by the way why I prefer LLxZYC to LLxZYZ or ZYZxZYC). It is violent, it is painful, but in the end, it is LL who pushes ZYC out of his comfort zone, makes him confront his fear, and lose control only to regain control and autonomy, and "beat" the destiny later. And, in return, it is ZYC who, through being human and compassionate, pulls LL from the brink and shows him there's another way to deal with his emotions. They save each other, even though neither originally plans to do so.

I think, the redemption arc for LL is so convoluted because by that time he let go of ZYZ and shifted his focus on ZYC. ZYC is the character who showed him compassion and understanding. I Know ZYC said he doesn't understand LL in that alley talk- but I think he did. He was also the one who cleaned up ZYZ's mess and sorted it out with LL and the root.

I think, in the end, the two characters who experience growth and profound change are Li Lun and ZYC, and NOT ZYZ. He remains frozen/stagnant in his self-hate even though he stops being suicidal at some point. His inner conflict between the demon Zhu Yan and the humanized demon ZYZ is not resolved even in the very end.

This is also the reason why we are not allowed to see the natural progression of a situationship between ZYC and LL- because if it were given more time, we would see them drawn to each other, and ZYC realizing LL was right about ZYZ. And, of course, from the storytelling perspective, you can't let the beast steal the love of the prince away from the princess he is supposed to save.

It would also put into question the whole "destined soulmates for the win" narrative. No matter how much the show tells me that the destined ones are the true love, it shows quite the opposite- the original Baize goddess and her demon, Zhu Yan and Li Lun, ZYZ and Wen Xiao- they all were, to some extent, destined- and they all ended up in a tragedy. And they want me to believe ZYZxZYC will be any different? Even though their ending is somewhat optimistic, ZYZ did not overcome his internal strife, which would put him on a collision course with ZYC just like it put him against Li Lun decades earlier. ZYC and Li Lun are similar in that they accept themselves for what they are - and this is something ZYZ is innately against. This isn't bound to end well.

I honestly wish the show handled Li Lun's story much better. We had so many wasted opportunities- from the hilarity of the chaos LL, ZYC, and Ying Lei would've caused (just remember the episode where LL goes on a bro trip to the brothel in Bai Ju's body), to ZYZ maybe getting off his high horse and admitting his mistakes - and growing through it, to Wen Xiao realizing that just because she has hots for ZYZ doesn't mean ZYZ is blameless and always in the right, to ZYC developing even further with the push from Li Lun, to Li Lun himself dropping his disdain for humans and realizing there are bad ones on both sides. Then, maybe, his sacrifice would've been much more meaningful. Or, maybe, it wouldn't have been needed at all.

But, alas, we got what we got, and now we are reduced to writing fix-it fics )))

Welcome to the Li Lun club! After my metas, I can't ship LLxZYZ anymore, too... While I discussed the plot with my friend, we agreed that ZYZ has inner homodemonphobia, that's why he hates LL so much for no reason. As for "ZYC pushes LL towards redemption because he shows him some other way" - it doesn't work. Humiliation is not the way of showing understanding or another way out. But I agree there was a lot more potential of developing good relationship than between LL and ZYZ. And I disagree there ultimately was a single character who gets character development. ZYC began loving ZYZ almost immediately, I didn't see him overcoming his painful past (but he was the closest to the character development). LL stayed the same - he wanted ZYZ and did everything to have ZYZ by his side, his mindset stayed the same. ZYZ was stagnant, indeed. LL and Ying Lei exist in this show just to be humiliated, maybe it somehow should make us see ZYZ and ZYC in a good light, but for me it doesn't work, because I'm not interested in ZYZ's and ZYC' characters and feel narrative injustice towards LL and YL sharply.

New moon, would you open the gates

And take me away, away from this night... 

This is one of my favourite moments where I adore the voice actor who has dubbed Wang Hedi. I'm in love with iconic Qingcang's "Leeeeet's gooooo"! I can do nothing with myself, just rewatch this scene like hundred times to hear it once more. The second favourite thing of mine is "Dooon't cryyyy" in episode with burnt flower soup.

Fun facts about MJTY

The surnames of those who are in the Back Hill build together an idiom 风花雪月, «four opposites of love». Although hieroglyph 锋 in word "Wufeng" is different from one in this idiom (​风), they are homophones that equally sound fēng (and as we all remember, Wufeng is the mastermind of the last three saber techniques out of twelve used by the Back Hill, sooooo...🐱‍👤).

2. The names of Wufeng ranks build together an idiom 魑魅魍魉, «demons and monsters of the Martial World». These hieroglyphs actually mean three types of mythological Chinese monsters, not four: chī, mèi, and wǎngliǎng. In the last word a syllable wǎng (魍) sounds like wáng (王), which means "prince", so there are four princes of cardinal directions in Wufeng. The hieroglyph 魉 (liǎng) includes the phonetic key 两 (liǎng) as one of its elements, which means "a pair". And, as we know, Wufeng has got two bosses of the highest rank 🐱‍👤.

3. The names of those who live in the Front Hill are 宫商角徵羽, the pre-Tang dynasty names of tones in the pentatonic musical scale. The pentatonic scale is famous among musicians as something good for improvisation because all of these tones sound harmonically in any combination. Also, in the Confucian tradition these five tones were credited with a magical effect on society, at which gōng corresponded to the emperor, shāng - to ministers, jué - to the people, zhǐ - to affairs, and yǔ to material resources.

Maybe it all supposed to have a deep meaning and to symbolize something. Maybe it didn`t. Anyway, there are just fun facts.

Some thoughts about DFQC after ep. 30

It`s very very painful to see Dongfang Qingcang suffering. I adore this character so much. Despite his demon origin he is rightfull, noble and has a heart of gold. His whole life was unending sufferings: first his father tortured him in order to make a weapon out of him, then he and his tribe were defeated by "good guys" because of their race and his spirit was trying to destroy the seal during 30 000 years to break free and avenge his people. And now he is willingly going through Hell again and again. He punishes himself for those things, that shouldn`t be punishable. He is just a human (OK, demon, but in this universe it`s the same), humans are allowed to love and to make mistakes. He doesn`t need to bear all the weight of the world on his shoulders. Fighting against seduction of Ancient Evil he choses to sacrifice not the Moon Tribe or Xiao Lanhua, but himself. Poor, idiot cinnamon roll! With his feelings and loved one or without them, his life is horrible and I feel sorry for him so much! He doesn`t deserve this.