Tantai Jin Apologist

When Destiny Brings the Demon - final thoughts

2025-09-04T20:57:57Z

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

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When Destiny Brings the Demon / Mistakenly Saving the Villain

2025-08-23T13:20:24Z

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.)

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Blossoms in Adversity thoughts

2024-10-22T18:46:25Z

Finally got around to watching this & fuck this might be my fave cdrama. Everything about it was perfect. Signed up for 2 Broke Girls: Ancient China Edition, got 2 Broke Girls Crossed With Game of Thrones.

- Wow there was a *lot* going on here. Like they kept throwing new calamities & you wonder how the family will get through this one & they find a way super easy barely an inconvenience & then something else. Said like that, it sounds shit but fucking hell it was so stressful to watch. The panik-kalm-panik meme constantly. Speaking of good choices in narrative structure I love how they didn't drag Gu Yanxi's identity out for the sake of a late game shock twist. This gets revealed between the main couple pretty early on & they don't keep secrets (CHARACTERS COMMUNICATING WITH & TRUSTING EACH OTHER???? WHAT IS THIS?) & it's not treated as that big a deal. Oh you're a Commander of the Security Bureau & a prince? OK sure whatever not the wildest thing that's happened this week.

- Yay for female solidarity & the power of friendship & how so many of Hua Zhi's solutions to stuff involve working together with other people. Meanwhile the royal family are murdering each other in the background.

- Needed 3 pages of notes trying to keep the characters straight & it still took me till episode 10 to figure out Boli & Bolin were two different characters.

- Tensest cooking competition ever.

- The Hua mansion becoming the Home For Wayward Royals.

- Shaoyao stabbing *&* poisoning Shen Huan & he immediately decides she is The One. 10/10

- The women of the family all getting some kind of development & depth, all growing in confidence & going from thinking they can't possibly manage without the men in the family around to bossing them around when they come back & not taking any shit.

- Unironically love the scene where they're travelling & go 'Oh no it's getting windy!' but the wind itself & the associated debris has clearly been added in later because nobody's hair & clothes are being blown about & it's so goofy & I love it. Like the effects aren't bad & everyone is doing a good job of trying to convince the audience it's really windy but it's clearly not. A+ for effort guys.

- Wished we got more of Haoyue but I loved the way we got glimpses of the person underneath. In different circumstances she & Hua Zhi could have been good friends.

- Love the Emperor being like 'Wait, you acted to save my life even after I've tormented you & your family & ruined your lives?', & instead of trying to persuade him to free her she just goes, 'Nah fuck that it's just the assassination method involved a lot of collateral damage. Wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire actually'. Like girl gave away the last fuck she had to give. Just throw the old dynasty out & make her Empress cos that's some queen shit right there.

- New Emperor has customer service experience. I approve.

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