Tantai Jin Apologist

The ending aired on Monday but I put off watching the last few episodes because I couldn't bring myself to let it end. (And because I got into replaying Horizon Zero Dawn again. But mostly about the not being ready thing.)

Ah, so good! But...

HOW DARE THEY PLAY WITH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THAT IN THE LAST FEW MINUTES?! Go to jail for 1,000 years!

That thank you message was pretty cute. :D

So, I played the demo &... *sigh*. I've been waiting for this one for years. Out of this new wave of big Chinese games, this was the one I was really excited for, as the combat in the gameplay they were showing off was pretty shameless in how much it was inspired by Devil May Cry, & as a longtime enjoyer of that series, I was absolutely down for another game offering that type of stylish action. (There were also comparisons being made with Final Fantasy, but I'm not familiar enough with that series to comment on any gameplay similarities there might be.) But taking heavy inspiration from something else is risky - if it's good then it's an easy sell ('if you like x then you'll love y!'), but it does mean that any deficiencies are noticeable, & wow does this game have plenty of those.

The demo offers 3 modes, combat, boss challenge, & adventure, & I went with the 3rd to get a general sense of the game. First off, the dialogue I was launched into seemed to have been written by someone who had never had any conversations in their life. I don't want to make accusations of AI but... well. Exploration seemed fine, though I didn't get too far before having enough, though the camera bugged me & I got mildly nauseous (in the game's defence I am really sensitive to that sort of thing & IIRC there were options to adjust camera sensitivity in the settings. If I'd been enjoying the game otherwise I'd have probably made adjustments & tried again).

Combat was just bad all round. I had no real idea what I was doing so I was basically button mashing to figure out what worked, but I wasn't getting a sense that I was doing anything (someone on youtube said it 'feels like you're whacking enemies with a wiffle bat' which tracks with my experience & sums it up well). Topped off with how it wasn't clear when enemies died. Like I was fighting & then suddenly it was over & I was really confused.

Also whose idea was it to make R3 the lock-on button? Really awkward to press while you're busy fighting for your damn life without accidentally shifting the camera. There was no option to change this.

Do not recommend this.

Watching When Destiny Brings the Demon & holy shit it's is amazing! If you're not watching this, I highly recommend it! To entice you, here are some random things that happen:

- A significant portion of the budget has gone on dry ice.

- ML holds FL to him, declaring that she will not die so long as he wishes her to remain alive, his face spattered with the blood of his enemies, as buildings burn around him & epic music plays. She is concerned about whether he's eating enough.

- ML shows up to a sparring display, throws an apple (well, a flower petal) of discord into the ring, & watches everyone biting each other's dicks off.

- FL receives a mysterious letter (that is clearly not from ML) inviting her to a midnight meeting & is like 'nah'. Common sense in a cdrama FL!

- ML needs to feed FL his blood (because it's magic) but she is unconscious & won't open her mouth. Clearly the only thing to do is to suck some of his blood into his own mouth & feed her mouth to mouth. There is simply no other way to achieve this.

- ML turns FL into an otter (because reasons) & is constantly petting her & carries her around everywhere & snuggles with her in bed. You could say the whole thing is... otterly adorable.

These things all happen within the first 10 episodes. It's not quite Till the End of the Moon levels of intense batshit, but damn it's close. I gotta say though, my favourite thing here might just be how it's shot. There's actual thought put into how scenes are blocked out & shots are framed. A couple of particular standouts that spring to mind: A shot where the ML draws a dagger while holding it in front of him, so his face is framed by the blade & his sleeve. And another is a scene where the 2FL is having a talk with the main antagonist & it's blocked & framed in such a way that they spend part of the scene back to back, which absolutely should not work & breaks basic rules of filmmaking, but works perfectly & underlines what is going on in that scene.

I withdraw everything I said about Mistakenly Saving the Villain. Got to about 25% & the story just started spinning its wheels. Main character fell into a coma for a decade so we got a timeskip, but it didn't feel as if anything had really changed aside from his personality disappearing. His drive to do medical research & help the love interest (to the point of torturing the guy who trafficked him & giving his soul to the LI as a birthday gift because death was too good for him!) sort of evaporates & he's just kind of there being useless. It's all so... meh.

I might have pushed through if it was just that but... An Long. He shows up, causes enormous damage breaking into the MC's home & bites a chunk out of the MC(!), who then APOLOGISES TO HIM for making him worry! Even though he wrote to him as soon as he was out of his coma, telling him he was fine & to stop trying to break in. But apparently it's all the MC's fault he did so anyway. Ignoring boundaries is fine! And he & the LI have an awkward rivalry over stuff that happened over the 10 year timeskip, but don't do anything about it for no other reason than to drag out what is almost certainly the most boring reveal in the history of literature when the MC finds out. That's okay though because he's not sticking around, righ- Oh, we're going on an awkward road trip because the MC wants them all to be a squad or something. No thanks. (And the author leaves an author's note reassuring the readers that don't worry he was going to get a good ending! I don't want him to have a good ending - I want him to die immediately.)

Threw in the towel at chapter 42 (33% of the way through).

I would have liked to have immediately leapt into the official translation of My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin, but no bookshop in the UK is able to get their hands on a copy, it seems.

I've started on The White Cat's Divine Scratching Post. I'm liking what I've read so far, though I've only just started so I've yet to form any real opinion. (I was planning on starting The Beauty's Blade next, as it's next up in the publication order of the novels I'm checking out, but TBH I'll probably take one for the team & buy it regardless, as this is clearly 7S testing the waters regarding baihe.)

( let's dance )

I'm trying to do a clear out of my kitchen. It just occurred to me a few days ago that I barely use my microwave. I have a perfectly good rice cooker & use that instead. If I'm feeling super lazy I'll have instant noodles, which only require a kettle. Sometimes I'll buy something microwavable, but I could just as easily use the cooker, either in the oven or heated on the hob. It's not worth the amount of counter space it takes up.

So I've packed it up in its box, & will leave it for a month or so. If I don't have any desperate urge to get it back out within that time, it goes.

That also made me realise how much kitchen utensils & bowls I have when I haven't bothered cooking owt from scratch in a few years. I just got out of the habit. I also have a bunch of recipes I've wanted to try that are cluttering up my notes app. So I've chucked all the stuff I don't use in a box, & I'm going to go through those untried recipes (as well as a bunch I've tried before). I'll make stuff & remove items from the box as I need stuff (though if I end up hating that particular recipe or see no reason to make it again, then the item will go back in the box). Anything left at the end goes. I've already made bread, & the large mixing bowl, loaf tin, & a wooden spoon have been deemed worthy of retrieval from Box Purgatory.

Checking out some cnovels that have been licenced by Seven Seas to figure out if they're worth buying, because those things are nearly 20 quid per volume & I got burned by 2ha, which I bought since it sounded right up my alley but I ended up hating.

First up is My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin (the online translations are called I & My Husband Sleep in a Coffin, but someone at 7S understands how English grammar works & I'm going with the correct version). Only a couple of chapters in & really liking it so far. The LI is delightfully deranged. The first volume comes out in a few weeks, so I probably won't read all of it. Just enough to be sure I like it, then I'll wait for the book, read that, & then read the rest of the unofficial translation.

I wanted so bad to like this, but I'm just not. And what's frustrating it that I feel as if there is a really good drama there, but they're rushing by so fast that none of it is getting a chance to actually land, & a lot of stuff doesn't make sense.

For instance his dead master leaves a letter telling him how to cure the poison & I guess provides a letter of introduction (I assumed Han Li forged it but there's a secret letter hidden within it so unless he knew what paper Han Li was going write on this makes no sense) but hides a letter in it telling them Han Li is bad. The family also knew he was dead somehow but Han Li seems to act like he isn't at first. The wives plot his death but then forget all about that & want to keep him around because it's cool he killed their husband seeing as he's honest about it, & have him kill a bunch of random people & make out like the jade isn't something they can get their hands on like that. And then one of the daughters gives him it, he uses it, & then gives it back again & that's it. And that all happens in one episode (plus a few minutes of the next so they can have a cliffhanger). I have a feeling like this would all make a lot more sense given proper time to play out & with characters having a chance to react to stuff.

Or when he shows his new buddy the cultivation book he was given & asks him about the token. Not only does the guy have no info, but he apparently can't read the words on the page right in front of him, even though you'd think he's be interested in a golden ticket into one of the sects. And instead of just going 'Oh well I thought it sounded interesting' & moving on, Han Li feeds him info, just so the guy can blurt it out in front of someone else (& then be killed off). Again, I wonder if this is something where the bad guys suspecting he had a token would have been more organic if allowed time to play out.

These might still have been fine - the benefit of them rushing through the master's family part meant I didn't have to deal with them for too long, & I'm fine with some handwaving to move a plot along.

But the real problem is that I didn't feel invested in any of the characters or their interactions/relationships. Li Feiyu goes from sneering at Han Li to declaring eternal brotherhood within a couple of episodes with only a few short scenes between them. I don't need every little thing spelled out & can infer a lot, but I don't get any sense of them forming a bond at all. And that lack of emotional investment includes Han Li himself. I can push through a terrible plot or too slow/fast pacing or bad comedy or a thousand other drama sins IF YOU JUST MAKE ME CARE ABOUT THE MAIN CHARACTER(S). And I don't, because of the way stuff just seems to happen & he doesn't get a chance to react to or process stuff (aside from the death of his master & finding out what happened to his friend, & even those pass way too quickly).

I'm bored, even though there's a lot happening, because I don't care about any of it. I should have figured it was a bad sign when the episode count was reduced twice, from 38 to 34 & then to 30.

There's a chance I might try again & check out some spoilers towards the end of its run, just to see if things improve once it's found its footing (though I gave it 6 episode & normally even the slowest burning of dramas have hooked me by then).

Luckily The Wanted Detective/Calming Waves (they've gone back & forth so many times) is airing on Friday, so hopefully that'll fill the void.

Climbed up Roseberry Topping Roseberry Topping, a hill in North Yorkshire with an interesting shape.

( to the top )

The weather was warmer than those clouds make it look, but there was a nice breeze at the top & I sat up there was about an hour before going back down.

I took a bunch of photos with the film camerafilm camera too, but they haven't been developed yet.

Restarted computer & the startup sound has gone back to the normal Windows 11 sound.

:(

This drama sounded like it should be right up my alley. Transmigration story that (according to the description), involved some meta elements on storytelling? Yes please!

But in order to fuck around the narrative, you have to tell people what it is. We got a few random disjointed scenes with no context or idea of how the fit into any kind of wider plot (I think the problem here is the drama is more concerned with roasting cdrama cliches than telling an interesting story that *happens* to be a parody. It doesn't help that one of those scenes invites comparisons with TTEOTM & the ML is not TTJ.). Then the FL gets drawn into the story, but things are already off-script, & she keeps dying & reliving a scene that is apparently not in the script. But instead of either surviving long enough in one of the loops to fix anything, or refusing to engage with a wedding to the 2ML (which is presumably what she's meant to do to clear the way for the ML), the loop just arbitrarily ends & she finds herself waking up on a day 6 months earlier. Like, why is any of this happening.

That might still be fun to watch play out if I liked the characters, but I don't. The FL is annoying. The ML is a charisma vacuum & his character doesn't feel like the protagonist he's meant to be in this story.

Getting into real nitpicking territory here, but I hated the music choices. The score/instrumental pieces were fine, but the more contemporary style stuff was all obnoxious.

I'll just go & rewatch Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. It did this way better.