Phaeton

I finished watching S.C.I.谜案集 - and I'm so confused about my feelings. That show is so dumb! But it's also really awesome. The logic, the psychology, and the science...all of it makes very little sense. There are plot holes as big as China! Most of the action scenes are super over the top, but they're also aesthetically pleasing. Bai Yutongs spectacular aerial acrobatics when he flies in to the rescue are hilariously dramatic, but someone paid attention to make them look very, very beautiful.

And the characters and their relationships are so lovely! There's so much tropey goodness that made me squee out loud enough to scare my cats. The characters (especially the two male leads) are so pretty, even the bad guys lust after them. And many locations, costumes, cars, etc are really stylish.

If you're in the market for a new pairing or just curious, take a look under the cut.

( SPOILERS - so many cute relationship tropes! )

Really, it's all super ridiculous. But Gao Hanyu and Ji Xiaobing are both very very pretty and have so much chemistry, it's a delight to watch them together. I'll definitely watch again, and am also really looking forward to season two. *g*

Uhm, hi. I know I said I probably wouldn't make a picspam this month, but then the Smiling Proud Wanderer game released some new promotional stuff, and...well. Here are sixteen images I want to share with you. Some are promo pictures for the game, some are behind the scenes photos of Xiao Zhan on set.

I'm not a gamer, but for this one? I might actually consider trying it. *g*


( Follow me! )

Also, just because I've been talking about several other c-dramas recently there's no reason to worry. I'm still very much in love with The Untamed and Xiao Zhan. *g*

Just for fun, here's my personal ranking of the c-dramas I've watched. Not divided by genre, because I actually haven't watched that many yet. Also, entirely subjective, of course. Based less on overall quality (story, production values) and more on how I connected to the show emotionally.


01. The Untamed / 陈情令 / Chén Qíng Lìng
02. Nirvana in Fire / 琅琊榜 / Lángyá Bǎng
03. Joy of Life / 庆余年 / Qìng Yúnián
04. The King's Avatar / 全职高手 / Quánzhí Gāoshǒu
05. Guardian / 镇魂 / Zhèn Hún - (35 episodes)
06. The Rise of Phoenixes / 天盛长歌 / Tiānshèng Cháng Gē
07. Oh! My Emperor / 哦！我的皇帝陛下 / Ó! Wǒ de huángdì bìxià - (18 episodes)
08. Battle through the Heavens/Fight Break Sphere / 斗破苍穹 / Dòupò Cāngqióng - (6 episodes)
09. Winter Begonia / 鬓边不是海棠红 / Bìn biān bùshì hǎitáng hóng - (2 episodes)
10. The Sleuth of Ming Dynasty / 成化十四年 / Chéng huà shísì nián - (1 episode)


In brackets the number of episodes I've watched so far, so those ranks may change when I watch more. Also, yes, that means that I've finished watching The King's Avatar yesterday. *g* And as you can see from the ranking, I loved it a lot!

On Day Four of snowflake_challenge I set myself some goals for 2020, and here's what I did last month:


• Post to one DW community I follow at least once a month.

Definitely a success! I posted:
- One entry in theuntamed_mdzs, linking back to the picspam I posted on my own journal.
- One entry in dragoncavers, alerting to the new Birthday Release.
- One entry in nirvana_in_fire, asking for recs.


• Make some (fannish) posts to my own journal at least once a month.

Another success! This month I posted:
- Surprise! Surprise! (Not.) A picspam of Xiao Zhan in red (and black). *g*
- Media Stuff #23, short notes on all the media I consumed recently.
- An entry asking for Nirvana in Fire recs.
- A couple of other (personal), access locked entries.

• Go to the gym or get some other exercise at least once a week.
Nothing on that front, even though the gyms have re-opened here, and the pollen have quited down a bit.
I don't have enough energy to feel bad about it.

• Try to save up money for that awesome 20 day China round trip.
Yes to this one! I managed to save up my usual amount, and still had money for a few frivolous purchases, like a new perfume and a Viki Pass for a year.

Here's the stuff I watched since I posted my previous list.


Movies and TV:

What a Girl Wants (2003) - After the news I got from my dad, I needed something fluffy and ridiculous. This movie delivered exactly that. It was funny, Colin Firth was very pretty, and I could just switch off my brain for a while.

The Help (2011) - I'm not a fan of Emma Stone, but I love Octavia Spencer and Bryce Dallas Howard, so I rented that movie on Prime. I thought it was a good movie. Will definitely have to buy it for my collection!

Jupiter Ascending (2015) - This was a re-watch, and not the first one. I still love this movie, no matter what the critics say.

Gods of Egypt (2016) - I watched it mainly for Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, and I didn't expect much of it except some eye candy. But it was actually very entertaining, and really pretty. Ra's sun-ship and the fight against Apophis looked gorgeous and very impressive.

The Dragon Prince (2018 - ) - I re-watched seasons two and three last weekend. I really love this show, and I'm looking forward to the next season. Also, if magic was a thing and I could have the same skin like Aaravos has (especially that universe full of stars on his arms and hands)? I would want that so bad! *sigh*

All About Me (2018) - In Germany it's called Der Junge muss an die frische Luft - The boy needs (to get) some fresh air - and it's about Hape Kerkeling's childhood. I liked it a lot! Julius Weckauf, the child actor who played Hape Kerkeling, was really good.

The Aeronauts (2019) - I mainly watched because of Eddie Redmayne, but it was entertaining and visually very beautiful.


♥ Also, I'm 42 episodes into a Joy of Life re-watch. The show holds up really well on second watch, and paying attention to all the little puzzle pieces that get thrown into the mix in the early episodes was a lot of fun.

And last but not least, I'm already half way trough Nirvana in Fire, on episode 31 to be exact. This one is a new show for me, and I like it enough to keep watching. I'm not overly invested emotionally, but that could change at any moment. There are lots of characters that I like, the costumes are gorgeous, and some of the music has been stuck in my head for days now! Many familiar faces among the cast, which is always a delight for me. *g*

On Day Four of snowflake_challenge I set myself some goals for 2020, and here's what I did last month:


• Post to one DW community I follow at least once a month.
I made two entries in theuntamed_mdzs, linking back to stuff I posted on my own journal, so that was definitely a success.

• Make some (fannish) posts to my own journal at least once a month.

As long as I'm still head over heels for Xiao Zhan, that will work out fine, I believe. This month I posted:
- Yet another picspam of Xiao Zhan. *g*
- A picspam of Xiao Zhan and Wang Yibo from the set of The Untamed.
- A different take on AO3 stats, beyond comments, hit counts, or Kudos.
- Another semi-fannish, access locked entry, in which I ask you to show me your desktops.

• Go to the gym or get some other exercise at least once a week.
Well. The gyms are closed, nature is trying to murder me with pollen, so again I mostly stayed in front of the TV or the computer. *g*

• Try to save up money for that awesome 20 day China round trip.
Nope. In fact, I spent quite a bit of money. Mostly on clothes, jewellery, and alcohol. The guy who usually sells mead on the big festivals and medieval markets was pretty desperate, because everything's cancelled and he's fully stocked. I'm still working full time and get full pay, so I told myself that was a great excuse to buy a few (six) bottles of mead. *g*

This is not the usual kind of AO3 stats meme, nothing about Kudos and hit counts and all the stuff that I don't care about. *g* This is about those Top Ten lists on my dashboard, which both amuse and annoy me, because while they are representative of my reading habits, they often don't correspond with my taste.

So, first of all I should say that I have currently 1,438 works bookmarked. 202 of those are marked as recs, but only 195 show up as such publicly. Which means that seven works are access locked by the author, and the rest are on my private bookmark list. Anyway, those 1,438 works currently generate the following Top Ten lists:

( Read more: )

All right, that's it! *g* I'm just going with those four categories and skip the rest. In my opinion, they are the most interesting ones, anyway. I hope you had a bit of fun reading this, and maybe post your Top Ten lists, too. I would totally read those!

On Day Four of snowflake_challenge I set myself some goals for 2020, and here's what I did last month:


• Post to one DW community I follow at least once a month.
I made one entry in theuntamed_mdzs, linking back to yet another picspam I posted to my own journal.

• Make some (fannish) posts to my own journal at least once a month.
I've been mostly quiet this month, though. Still, I managed to post a few entries and didn't vanish from the net entirely, so I'm calling it a success.
- A picspam of Xiao Zhan as Beitang Moran from Oh! My Emperor.
- Media Stuff #22, in which I talk a little bit about the things I've watched or read.
- Two more access locked entries I'm not linking here.

• Go to the gym or get some other exercise at least once a week.
I've been taking advantage of #stay(thefuck)athome and parked myself in front of the computer or the tv every day once I got back from work. Nothing really different from usual, really, except now I'm doing it without feeling guilty. *g*

• Try to save up money for that awesome 20 day China round trip.
Nothing to show here, but then, nobody knows when traveling will be an option again. Instead of saving my usual amount of money, I spent it on some pieces from Gudrun Sjöden's new collection.

*cough* I know I said the next one would be of Lan Wangji and Wei Wuxian together, but in light of recent events I felt like doing another Xiao Zhan picspam. This time it's fourteen images of Xiao Zhan as Beitang Moran from Oh! My Emperor.

Again, the image quality differs a lot. It's all screenshots and promo pics, I resisted the urge to include some of the BTS images. Like the one of Xiao Zhan in full Beitang Moran regalia on the set, reading something on his phone. *g*

It's all what I consider non-spoilery portrait pics, even the Vision one. All the characters from the "other" world get introduced with their name, title, rank, and superpower, and Beitang Moran has that vision within five minutes of his first appearance.


( Here you are: )

So I felt like doing another Xiao Zhan picspam, and if you thought I'd already moved on from The Untamed because I keep posting about other cdramas, you couldn't be more wrong. *g* Here are eleven images of Wei Wuxian from various moments in the show.

The image quality differs a lot, and yes, it's only images of Wei Wuxian. Well, this time. Going through my folders I've already decided that the next one will be all Lan Wangji & Wei Wuxian couple pics. *g*

( Enjoy! )