- 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.)

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.

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.

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.

Fandom: Avatar: The Last Airbender

Relationship(s): Ozai/Ursa, Ozai & his family, Ozai & his issues

Summary: This fic is about two things:

1) Treating Ozai as an actual character with motivations beyond simply Being Evil For The Sake Of Evilness, & dealing with his relationship with his family.
2) Making him suffer.

OR:

Ozai makes a deal with a spirit. It does not go well for him.

Chapter 1: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

Chapter 2: Things Go Very Wrong

Chapter 3: Ozai Cries in This One

Chapter 4: Azula Gets to Bully Her Father (As a Treat)

Chapter 5: Ozai Gives His Son A Hug (Out of SPITE, But Still...)

Chapter 6: Azulon's A+ Grandparenting

Chapter 7: [insert that gif of the guy walking in with pizza & there's fire everywhere, but it's Iroh]

Chapter 8 - Knife Wife

Chapter 9 - Ozai Goes On A Life-Changing Field Trip

Extract:

"So, what's the coolest firebending move you know?" he asked eagerly.

Hoping it would shut him up (and also make it clear that he was not going to be easily intimidated by that boomerang), he moved his arms, calling the energies to him and unleashing a bolt of lightning at a randomly-selected target.

The Water Tribe boy stared at the smoking tree. "That's a thing? That's an actual thing that Firebenders can do?"

Ozai raised his chin. "Only the very best ones."

"Well, it's good to know you haven't been sending your best!" There was a note of hysteria in the boy's voice. "Super reassuring!"

[ tip jar ]

(Especially confusing as I have the sound set as my text message notification tone on my phone, so it was like, oh I got a tex- wait hold on the sound isn't coming from the phone?)

Confused but delighted. The Win11 one was boring. I'm on an Insider build so no idea if this will stick around. Fingers crossed it does.

Now if they'd bring the *scrunch* sound when you empty the recycle bin back, that'd be great.

EDIT: Apparently it's a bug & they're planning on 'fixing' it. ;_;