Word of Honor: Watch It Already
Yeah it’s time to do a rec post for real. Because seriously, y’all, join me.
NOTE: All gifs in this post were made by @jingyans, who very graciously allowed me to use them. Please do not repost and go see her blog for all the gorgeousness!
Word of Honor/ Shan He Ling/ 山河令 is a Chinese drama series with 36 episodes currently in the process of airing. It is based on a danmei/BL webnovel by Priest called 天涯客/ Tian Ye Ke/ Faraway Wanderers. (Which I have not yet read, so everything in this post will be based solely on the show as aired up to ep 11.)
It’s set in Fantasy Ancient China, much like previous popular series The Untamed and is part of the same general genre.
Okay. So Zhou Zishu was the leader of the Window of Heaven/Tian Chuang, an organization of spies and assassins who worked for a prince.
He saw basically everyone he cared about/his entire sect killed for the organization, and he decides he wants out, but there’s no leaving alive. He essentially manages to find a loophole by using a cruel fantasy method to basically slow poison himself, guaranteeing his death in three years. But he’s free.
Cut to six months later, when he’s living his best life being completely drunk in a gutter, disguised with a fake tan, terrible beard and general squalor. He draws the attention of a mysterious gentleman, our love interest Wen Kexing.
Wen Kexing completely fixates on Zhou Zishu (or Zhou Xu, as he introduces himself), declaring him incredibly beautiful, despite his rough state, and starts a bit of light stalking.
These two have a lot of humorous bantering around, before eventually stumbling into the plot in the form of a young teen boy who is the only surviving member of his brutally murdered clan. They are tasked with taking him to someone trustworthy and thus the two equally mysterious warriors now have an adopted son together.
That’s the basic set-up, and the show is pretty much evenly split between really adorable flirting, wacky hijinks, and operatic political drama plot. All of these typically involve fight scene choreography. Though, to be fair, I’ve seen less than a third of the show at this point, though I have something of a feel for what is coming from people watching it without English subs.
Look, there’s no beating around the bush here, I really can’t imagine being into this show if you’re not into the idea of a prominent romance between two male characters. The novel, being danmei, is blatantly a queer romance, but this is China, which means censorship.
**And I’m only saying this because this is tumblr, and no one cares what we think here, but, look, it’s a freaking miracle this show passed censorship because it is NOT subtle at all in its gayness. The plot…really doesn’t make sense without a romantic aspect, and it’s really hard to miss. It’s so blatant, that it’s hard to watch without remarking on it, which means a lot of people are afraid of the show being pulled or edited by the government before it’s done airing. There’s precedence for that happening. Seemingly even the makers are concerned, hence them releasing 9 episodes a week, up from the original 4. So please, if you do watch it, don’t go yelling in the comments or on twitter or wherever about how it’s showing up the Chinese government’s censorship or whatever because that’s putting people’s careers in real danger, not to mention harming the show.**
ANYWAY. The romance involves a HUGE amount of flirting, mostly initially from WKX to ZZS, but fairly soon they start throwing around the word “zhiji” aka “soulmate” to describe what they mean to each other. If this seems very blatantly romantic, it IS, but it can also describe a platonic connection, which is how they manage to get away with this. Still, it’s swoon-worthy honestly. The mood for me is a very good period romance, because I’m wildly flailing about their sleeves touching or hands brushing over here, so if that’s your jam, please join us.
I’m going to get into slightly more spoilers under a cut, because I think it’s very fun to watch the show without knowing ANYTHING about it, but if you need further convincing/specifics please follow me.
