Sol1056

*spits tea* OH THANKS FOR THAT VISUAL. 😂😂😂 you cruel cruel person.

But I also see it as a means to learn/analyze what's crafting a story vs breaking it, although I'm probably alone in that. Like, what would I have done to make this scene tighter? What clues could I have laid beforehand to make this reveal feel inevitable (and thus way worse)? Or: instead of making the main chars go stupid so the antags can follow them, how can I make the antags smarter to outwit the smart main chars? And so on.

I mean, it's whatever gets you through the night, eh.

(yeah, but I figured, better safe than angry fist-shaking!)

Then a well-written story would've had someone notice pretty quickly that ZY's radar isn't alerting any more. Even if they didn't realize *what* was wrong, knowing someone snuck up on Radar Demon would've told them *something* was wrong. (And that'd be when to throw in some good red herrings so they don't figure it out until it's too late.) Then we'd know the characters are fallible (ie ZY) but also smart enough to pay attention and catch details.

I feel like we're watching a rough draft, instead of something edited like you'd expect a production of this much investment to be.

It's in the editing that you re-read, realize the plot holes, and fill them. And it's also in the editing that you realize you've had character X say basically the same damn thing three times... like ep27, where swear to dog by the 3/4 mark I wanted to throttle the dragon/voice/whatever it was. That was a hell of a lot of repetition from a disembodied voice, on top of a hell of lot of long shots and slow dialogue that repeated or replayed stuff we'd either already figured out or had already been told.

A good solid edit would've caught all that, along with all the breaking of the world's rules -- *and* all the times the main characters had to be hit with stupid sticks for scenes or twists to work. (Not to mention, I thought the shapeshifter and LL/BJ were waiting at the gate for them? Did they get bored and go home? What's happening? I don't know and with each extended view of a character posed prettily while nothing happens, I'm having more and more trouble caring.

/writer rant

That might've been possible if not for WX basically saying, all demons lie, it's in their nature, etc. It was treated very much like a feature (or a bug?) of demons, so when ZY walked into the picture not long after, I was totally expecting ZYC to take "I want you to kill me" to actually mean "I want to kill you" or some such. I kept waiting for someone to at least lampshade why suddenly what demons said could be taken at face value, but it never happened.

(At least a lampshade would've been something, instead of just ignoring that rule within minutes of making it.)

Guo isn't very good at observing his own story's/world's rules. He breaks them regularly.

The story opened with the firm rule that demons aren't capable of _ever_ telling the truth, except for in the last few seconds before they die. Since then, we've had demons saying all kinds of things and not once has anyone said, "don't trust that, demons can only lie!" (Altho it would've been funny if that rule had stayed: ZY says, "here, we go left," and everyone's like, "okay, go right!"

In the very first arc with the water demon, we were told his lover will die b/c she'd been possessed by LL for too long. Like, a human could make it a day, maybe two, and LL in their body would make their innards boil and rot, something like that. But now there've been several other people possessed who survived, and sure, the rabbit may have traces of godhood in him and be part demon, but you'd think that'd give him three days, then. It feels like it's been closer to two weeks, or more, and everyone's betting he'll be fine.

So for sometimes a character to go, "hey! I can scan my surroundings!" and then never do it again... welp, not surprised, really. I mean, the alternate is our heroes went terminally stupid and no longer scans their surroundings to make sure they're not overheard... or the story just forgot that detail in favor of allowing the bad guys to keep one up on the heroes.

I'm sure there's more, but I've been working hard to pretend like there aren't. Sigh.

Any estimate on possible airing month/quarter? If dubbing ends in February 2025, what's the usual time frame for post-editing/CGI, then licensing, etc? A year? More?

She's got solid dubbing skills and a flexible voice, so she uses her voice (like ZL does) to indicate age and maturity along with emotion. In LFBAD she starts out with the honest-to-betsy most irritating baby voice ever... but over the course of the story, that cutesy fades as her naivete does, and her overall pitch drops, too. Speaking of pitch drop, try watching some of MJTY, where she speaks almost an octave lower.

In LGiEF, she switches back and forth pretty fluently, from super-high/super-baby when she's doing the super-obvious flirting thing, to mid-range friendly voice, to lower when the situation's serious. I've come to enjoy her voicework, since she (again, like ZL) uses it to good effect, compared to many many other actresses who keep the same general range, tone, and speed through an entire story, instead of using it to reflect the character's growth (or regression).

Sheesh. The second half of ep16 and the entire of ep17 felt like a real slog, like nothing was happening, so we'd just stop the story for an extended montage or something. When really, it's just a relative thing: from basically ep1 to middle of ep16, the story hasn't paused more than maybe 5min at a time. There's always something -- and the spaces between (frex 'going from here to there') are mostly skipped -- so it's like it's constantly out of the frying pan and into a completely new frying pan, with some mild to severe singes along the way.

I guess it's a matter of doing 80mph on the highway, and then abruptly slowing to 30mph for traffic -- it's like you practically came to a standstill. Fingers crossed the next episodes return the story to that well-paced, always-something, kind of gallop. Few plotlines can really manage that, and this one's done a really good job, so far.

End of ep21, did anyone else get flashbacks to "And I would've gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" ??

lol that's why I laughed so hard during New Life Begins, every time the FL just pulled various food things -- dumplings, stuffed buns, cookies -- from out of completely hidden interior pockets. It felt like a total poke of fun at that wuxia trope of spandex space/doraemon pockets.

omg we really dodged a bullet. whew!

The instant I get even the remotest hint of him dying, I'm quitting. All y'all can just let me know when he reincarnates, and I'll watch and catch up. I'm just so tired of him always dying for some reason or another.

Found this description in an article about TSoPG vs LGiEF rankings being neck-and-neck:

"The Story of Pearl Girl is adapted from Tan Tian Yin's novel "Kun Shan Yu Qian Zhuan" and tells the story of a pearl diver named Duan Wu (Zhao Lu Si), who escapes from her pearl farm to be free from humiliation. The C-drama portrays how Duan overcomes struggles, including the loss of her beloved and betrayal by those she trusted, and how she, with her intelligence and courage, ultimately becomes a prominent businesswoman."

wait wait wait "loss of her beloved"??? don't tell me this is yet ANOTHER drama where LYN doesn't survive to the end!? AAAAAUUUUGHHH.

Anyone have a link to the trailer that doesn't have a messed-up sound? The two I could find on YT both seem like the soundtrack was put on an old tape, stretched to almost breaking point, and then played -- and both claim english subs, but none show up. Help?

Any word on possible release month?

I've learned from kdramas and cdramas that if a character is the happiest they've been in (a) a long time or (b) forever, and (c) it's not the final episode... buckle up, kids, the other celestial shoe will be falling on our heads shortly.

It's also likely that with his extensive history of plagiarism, people are now constantly on guard. He no longer gets the benefit of the doubt, and instead is scrutinized to see if he's doing it again. (Which I can't blame anyone for doing, given his history.)

Inuyasha? Okay, wow, that was not the direction I was expecting, at all!