the guy who crashed out against dex, the poker player who died too early, mr dirty politics himself, and the winner nobody cared about vs. sangmin/taegyun + jinho/xitsuh + yoohyun/kyunghoon? good luck
Okay - I know nothing about the next season. Dropping some totally uninformed thoughts here.
- The basketball player guy, ughghghg. I hated this guy so much, so freaking obnoxious, and with none of the fun. Why? Outside of being large, what does he have to offer? Especially when the games seem to increasingly move away from athletic ability having any bearing on the outcome of the game as the seasons went on
- The poker player... is that Steven Yea? He seemed technically competent, but he also had such poor social play. Though he made it to the semis which isn't really dying early. Actually, maybe there was another poker player that I'm forgetting about, but a cursory DDG search didn't turn up anything
- Mr. Dirty Politics... Hm. not sure about this one either
- Jinhyeong (the winner no one cared about?): Eh, I'm mixed on this one. I really could not stand him, but he did seem the most technically skilled. I suppose there is hope that he took his early humblings to heart and improved. I guess there's a reality where that happens and he matured, leveled up in the interim and could at least cause some trouble
Yeah... that's... a rough lineup to put it mildly. I hope the game developers have something in mind for this not to be a complete steamroll
wordle in 1: joyless. it is statistically inevitable that your go-to starting word will be the solution one day, and this is no more of an accomplishment than running a random number generator once a day until it gives you "1"
wordle in 2: misleading. you may think that this is the highest achievement, but it suffers from the same disappointment of a lucky guess that wordle in 1 causes. your second guess is a strategic choice, but ending the game this early just isn't interesting
wordle in 3: the peak. your starting word gave you some information and then your second guess contextualized that information into a solvable position. your sharp intuition and restraint is what truly separates you as above average.
wordle in 4: statistically average, par for the course, the baseline against which all other wordles are compared.
wordle in 5: you're sweating. you made a mistake at some point, or your starting word was effectively useless, and it took an extra guess above average to close things out. wordle in 5 comes as a relief.
wordle in 6: crushing humiliation. you have technically succeeded but at what cost. your thirty square grid will stare back at you like barrels of a firing squad. a failure in all but name.
wordle failure: never your fault. what kind of stupid word even was that like come on
far too old to care about fandom opinions i am an adult with a *sees a take* hm. never mind actually. i am in fact so blessed to have a huge brain and correct inconsequential opinions on fictional characters. there but for the grace of god go i
ANYWAYS, Another magical girl (gender neutral) au thing in which passerby Shen Yuan walks home late at night (coming back from a convention) and he's cornered by a demon (not the sexy kind, like the bad guys magical girls fight) and is saved by magical girl Shen Jiu (qingqiu)
SQQ doesn't know he's there and is honestly just blowing some steam. So he literally beats the demons to death with his bare fists, looking feral and hostile. SY is horrified and ends up like knocking something over as he tries to sneak away--watching as Shen Jiu--who has his bloodied fist reeled back--'s eyes snap up and lock onto him.
The tension is thick enough to cut with a knife as Shen Jiu stands there with his arm poised to punch the already limp demon to again, looking pretty in his frilly dress (he hates the uniform, it makes him feel objectified and oversexualized--so he hates transforming in public), standing there with the demon's clothes clenched in one hand (lifting the demon closer for better hits). Shen Jiu's eyes are literally black as he stares at Shen Yuan.
The silence stretches out until Shen Jiu drops the demon and pulls out his unique magical girl weapon, deciding to just kill the witness. He's like "Let's get this over with..." when his little magical girl mascot is like "you can't do that lol" and gives SJ a penalty... which happens to be protecting SY... so now SY is stuck with a guy that is on his back 24/7 to make sure SY doesn't say anything.
(SJ is looking for a way to wipe his mind actually)
I love this, but all of Shen Jiu's protection is just him intruding into random slice of life stuff for a guy who has seemingly ridiculously bad luck (at least until the actual plot starts maybe 😅)
Shen Jiu is entirely unwilling to let Shen Yuan know he has a (extremely reluctant and annoyed about it) guardian "angel". However, now whenever Shen Yuan is in imminent danger SJ hears a blaring alarm that just, won't be silent, until the threat is eliminated. He is very put upon and naturally takes his annoyance out on the cause (SY, but only because he can't fight his tiny magical girl mascot - not for lack of trying though). Eventually he figures, how much danger could such a mundane guy get into anyway?
Cue a few happenings:
At 3AM, he's jolted out of a rare bout of sleeping and has to hurry into Shen Yuan's apartment, expecting a demon fight. Just to find SY… about to eat a dumpling? The offending dumpling is disposed of with extreme prejudice (and no explanation)
In an almost identical circumstance, SJ gets alerted in the middle of the night again only to find that SY has left his oven turned on. He turns it off, but somehow against all odds to the contrary, the beeping of the oven is enough to wake SY, who is staring at him from his bedroom doorway
Due to the stress of seemingly being stalked by a demon hunting SJ, SY has had little time to catch up on his favorite web serial. He's hastily typing out his response to the latest chapter on his phone, when he gets yanked out of the way of an incoming vehicle and harshly scolded by an annoyed SJ
While Shen Yuan has a very contentious relationship with his guardian "angel" he can very reluctantly acknowledge a bit of appreciation when the guy randomly shows up to kill a spider in his apartment for him. He is much less appreciative of all of the collateral damage. Would renter's insurance even cover so many stab markings???
i know it's very out of character for me to not talk abt this immediately but it legitimately took me 3 days to completely internalize dongmin's show getting a netflix deal. this man has been working on this forever. and it's going to be on a netflix budget! a show by mr. genius himself! i can't even think about it too much because i don't want to jinx it
Okay, mini rant with Bloody Game and The Society spoilers below cut.
OMG, okay - so I watched Bloody Game from your rec and I was surprised when JDM showed up for season 3. And like, from the start but *especially* by the end, I was like oh shit, JDM is a whole ass supervillain now. Like he fits the Magnificent Bastard trope to a T.
From the first episode where he burns all of the money, to the whole stunt with Yurisa (which side-rant, I adored Yurisa in S2 (I mean I still do, but I used to as well) so I was so ticked off when I saw Yurisa looking all sad and crying despite being best girl.... Dude! The entire emotional rollercoaster when it showed the reveal. I mean I was stunned, cuz damnnnn that was a cold calculating move.) Anyway, every single time they show JDM just casually predicting everyone's moves in advance, and then shift to the other players doing exactly as he predicted... Whew.
I knew we were in trouble when he had the 3-way memory match up, and the later death matches just confirmed it. He doesn't have any weaknesses anymore. I remember back in TG he had that whole spiel about how he hates losing and after a loss he would go back and drill whatever skill he needed, and it definitely showed. Mad respect, and if there was any doubt the finale 100% definitively proved it. Being the first one to realize the strategy with the paintings (lowkey, I had to facepalm a bit at Jinho getting caught unawares but oh, well), and then destroying at the final number finding game. (Just realized I forgot to mention the semi-final memory game. But yeah, literally just steamrolls all over the competition).
I was wondering like.., what happened to JDM to make him this way (lol). So I looked to see if he was on other game shows between TG and BG, and landed on Society Game... But tbh, he was definitely strong there (and did win) but like he had moments of struggle and getting blindsided. Though, with his hatred of losing, maybe he went into secluded cultivation and trained until he shedded all weaknesses.
Anyway - I had this thought after TG but now I'm like quadrupling down is that JDM is way too OP! He's a game breaking character! Devs please nerf! But since he obviously can't be nerfed, I was thinking maybe something like being a game master that everyone else would have to compete against? Like The Chase but for puzzle-y type games. Though being the host of a show also has a lot of compelling options too. So anyway, thanks for letting me yap. I am very excited for this show.
I've been bingeing watching a couple of others (Just moved and unboxing is super tedious so been watching more TV while I work) so hopefully they will tide me over until then. Feels like I should aggregate a list at some point.
i'm so glad you enjoyed it!! yes, dongmin is just way too op. but i also blame a lot of the bg3 cast for this one, i feel like the dongmin alliance was wayyy too complacent for him even when team jinho was begging them to not let dongmin to the final. like, even when sungbum mentions to mj that dongmin might not have their best interests in heart they go back to being his yes-men anyways LOL.
(which is why i'm really interested if the betting on fact contestents end up doing the 1v7 alliance against dongmin that was teased at—unfortunately this one is ongoing & doesn't have subs).
the yurisa/jinho debacle literally broke me and most likely jinho too.... i was so hoping it was real because yurisa had so much chemistry w/ jinho and xitsuh early on before turning into a double agent but instead we get yurisa being absolutely INSANE. and then she goes into her interview like what? like fake crying is hard?
all in all dongmin playing everyone like a fortune teller and getting like 3 questions wrong max throughout the whole season and then going "oh man i'm getting old... :( i shouldn't have smoked or drank :(" like excuse me sir you are still the most terrifying man i have ever met. 25 y/o dongmin could probably swindle a whole country. at once. godgodgodgod indeed 🫡
Yeah, the Yurisa reveal was a bit heartbreaking too, because I was literally plotting out how the rest of the season could go, if there was an effective coalition to challenge the A-Team. Like literally, trying to simulate the internal team dynamics if we had Jinho, Xitsuh, Steve and Yurisa on the same team and how they could counter balance each other, and give God!Dongmin a run for his money. Like, I was already rooting for them dammit 🥲 I literally paused the video to take a break after - and her evil smile too! Ah, it still hurts~
And yeah, Jinho is such a chill guy. Can't help but love the guy. The S2 semi-finals was so frustrating with him and Xitsuh, who I was kinda hoping would be the final 2. I was honestly wondering if Jinho chose his final contestant line-up specifically to make it happen, only for them both to fumble. Oof, that hurt. Though, while I was cheering for DEX in the finale I will admit, that Jinhyung did *really* well in those last games.
(Slightly related - I started watching Time Hotel (literally on ep 1) but comments on BG S2 mentioned he had similar fumbles there? So ig I gotta prepare for that now, lol.)
I like JDM too (and tbh he's typically the character archetype I would cheer for, like I did for most of TG) but yeah, I have to root for the person opposing him now. Like how can I not cheer on the person facing such odds to try to topple a mountain?
i know it's very out of character for me to not talk abt this immediately but it legitimately took me 3 days to completely internalize dongmin's show getting a netflix deal. this man has been working on this forever. and it's going to be on a netflix budget! a show by mr. genius himself! i can't even think about it too much because i don't want to jinx it
Okay, mini rant with Bloody Game and The Society spoilers below cut.
OMG, okay - so I watched Bloody Game from your rec and I was surprised when JDM showed up for season 3. And like, from the start but *especially* by the end, I was like oh shit, JDM is a whole ass supervillain now. Like he fits the Magnificent Bastard trope to a T.
From the first episode where he burns all of the money, to the whole stunt with Yurisa (which side-rant, I adored Yurisa in S2 (I mean I still do, but I used to as well) so I was so ticked off when I saw Yurisa looking all sad and crying despite being best girl.... Dude! The entire emotional rollercoaster when it showed the reveal. I mean I was stunned, cuz damnnnn that was a cold calculating move.) Anyway, every single time they show JDM just casually predicting everyone's moves in advance, and then shift to the other players doing exactly as he predicted... Whew.
I knew we were in trouble when he had the 3-way memory match up, and the later death matches just confirmed it. He doesn't have any weaknesses anymore. I remember back in TG he had that whole spiel about how he hates losing and after a loss he would go back and drill whatever skill he needed, and it definitely showed. Mad respect, and if there was any doubt the finale 100% definitively proved it. Being the first one to realize the strategy with the paintings (lowkey, I had to facepalm a bit at Jinho getting caught unawares but oh, well), and then destroying at the final number finding game. (Just realized I forgot to mention the semi-final memory game. But yeah, literally just steamrolls all over the competition).
I was wondering like.., what happened to JDM to make him this way (lol). So I looked to see if he was on other game shows between TG and BG, and landed on Society Game... But tbh, he was definitely strong there (and did win) but like he had moments of struggle and getting blindsided. Though, with his hatred of losing, maybe he went into secluded cultivation and trained until he shedded all weaknesses.
Anyway - I had this thought after TG but now I'm like quadrupling down is that JDM is way too OP! He's a game breaking character! Devs please nerf! But since he obviously can't be nerfed, I was thinking maybe something like being a game master that everyone else would have to compete against? Like The Chase but for puzzle-y type games instead of trivia. Though being the host of a show also has a lot of compelling options too. So anyway, thanks for letting me yap. I am very excited for this show.
I've been bingeing watching a couple of others (Just moved and unboxing is super tedious so been watching more TV while I work) so hopefully they will tide me over until then. Feels like I should aggregate a list at some point.
Calling out the individual cops too! Lemon Pound Cake has been stuck in my head for the week. + The court recordings are literally better than any sketch comedy.
Especially bc the cops are whole villains. Like, wdym he got fired for stealing prescription drugs from people and then rehired in a different county?
Especially that one guy saying Afroman caused the guy's divorce, but then the ex-wife testifies and reveals it's because the damn COP was using his badge to coerce people into sex. Literally the WORST sort of people are going to raid this man's house steal his money on bogus charges, then sue for "emotional distress"
hello beautiful people following this blog have you watched the genius? are you watching the genius? will you watch the genius? when will you watch the genius?
I finally watched (binged) The Genius after hearing so much about it from The Devil's Plan watchers. And, I gotta say the gambit pileups in that one episode from S2 and pretty much all of season 4 were 🤌 peak!
I thing Sangmin is still my favorite overall, but Kyunghoon who I hated at first definitely did an *almost* 180 for me by the end. And Dongmin is awesome but way too OP! How did he get such unbalanced stats??
yay i'm so glad you liked it!!! i have to say dongmin's arc as a player is so satisfying to watch because you can see him become invincible in real time. he does get his plans foiled multiple times in s3 so him realizing people have free will and won't always be predictable pawns for him (until he perfects his art of manipulation of course) is one of my favorite character arcs in the show.
kyunghoon i feel like is a walking Become Ungovernable meme. nothing is scarier than the unknown and also kyunghoon. what goes on in that man's head? scientists still have no idea.
there's a lot more to enjoy too! time hotel & bloody game are both pretty good although i am very biased as a jinho & xitsuh fan.
Thanks for the recs! Jinho was my fav for S1 (that Open Pass ep had me hooked) and for his S3 episode appearance, so I'm def going to take a look at these!
hello beautiful people following this blog have you watched the genius? are you watching the genius? will you watch the genius? when will you watch the genius?
I finally watched (binged) The Genius after hearing so much about it from The Devil's Plan watchers. And, I gotta say the gambit pileups in that one episode from S2 and pretty much all of season 4 were 🤌 peak!
I thing Sangmin is still my favorite overall, but Kyunghoon who I hated at first definitely did an *almost* 180 for me by the end. And Dongmin is awesome but way too OP! How did he get such unbalanced stats??
“‘The only thing that will end the pregnancy is water from Abortion-Spring, inside Child-Destroying Cave on Dissolving-Maleness Mountain,’ the old woman continued.”
Reached the part of Monkey King where our male heroes accidentally get pregnant then immediately go into labor, which leads to this sentence, and lemme say. that Ming Dynasty machine gunfire of proper nouns right there has been my whole evening. Every book should be this
The reveal of Yue Qingyuan's dependence on Xuan Su usually remain between him and a handful of people or less in fandom, but I do have to wonder sometimes what would happen if it was very publicly revealed instead.
Like how "unnatural path" are we talking about here.
Is it "lol yikes, REALLY embarrassing for CQMS🥴anyway..." bad, or are we talking "removed from leadership of his orthodox sect and ending up in the Water Prison waiting for trial" bad.
Okay, I started this idea in the comments, but it's been percolating in my head so need to type this all out.
So the idea is OPM targeting Yue Qingyuan for a public trial, in an effort to undermine CQMS. I do like the idea somewhere else where SJ inadvertently causes this whole thing to happen.
When I started thinking about it, it genuinely would be difficult for YQY to get out of it, if the OPM was motivated to take him down with this. Yue Qingyuan being so absurdly OP actually makes it easier for the claims against him to have even more weight. And it's something they could just verify by checking his health before and after drawing his sword. Combined with the fact that YQY has mysterious origins as well - he has no family to back him up or lineage to boast of, so it would be very easy for OPM to play on the disbelief that a "nobody" could become the world's foremost cultivator and leader in the Jianghu - of course he had to have cheated his way into power through such an unnatural practice! To think he'd burn through his own life force for power? How far away is that from demonic cultivation truly? Not to mention deceiving the prev CQMS generation as well… Who knew such a viper managed to climb to such a powerful position! Cang Qiong being on the back foot would flounder in response. Especially because I don't think YQY would volunteer the fact that it was his Shizun who did it to him.
I think SJ, who had been sure that whatever claims against YQY would get rebuffed not confirmed, would use whatever influence, blackmail, or bribery he needs to get a private audience with YQY while he's being held in prison. Though, maybe knowing of their bad relationship, and the fact that SJ is the 2nd ranked peak lord (and the person who would take over), it wouldn't be that difficult for SJ to get his way into getting a private meeting with YQY.
Anyway, SJ is appearing calm and composed but is internally freaking the fuck out. Because reputation damage is one thing, but OPM is alleging that YQY deceived the prev sect leader using taboo cultivation practices - and cultivation methods involving "mutilating" one's life force, are among the most taboo only a step below using souls. Qi-ge could be in really big trouble this time! SJ meets with YQY, and YQY is resigned and at least at first refuses to explain anything, just looking down in shame.
(I'm of two minds, here? I think YQY would fall on the sword to protect the sect and his shizun's image, but would he confess to at least SJ here, maybe after some badgering? Or would he keep it to himself no matter what? I mean for my plot bunny SJ does find out one way or another, but I'm not sure what YQY would do here. They're not dying, so would he still fess up in private?)
Anyway, SJ meets with the rest of the Peak Lords, who have varying responses. It's been proven in court that at the most charitable YQY has some strange cultivation thing going on, that is powerful but dangerous to himself. Which sure seems like some of the claims may be true and they don't know anything about this. (Maybe Wei Qingwei or Mu Qingfang look a bit shifty here?). I think Liu Qingge would be distinctly upset - one for staunchly defending YQY before and during most of the trial, only to fall silent when it's proven that Xuan Su draws upon YQY's life force. And that YQY's vaunted strength comes at least in part from such a malignant cultivation practice. Still, he and the other peak lords aren't so willing to turn their backs just like that. They like Yue Qingyuan. Plus the idea of SJ being the new CQMS Sect Leader is a bit….
Well. They'd just wait and see what the man found out during the private meeting. Perhaps a few of the more calculating also wonder if their ambitious shixiong might use this whole situation to his advantage. SJ finally calls a peak lord meeting, and instead of explaining anything he immediately starts barking out demands for records and testimony and anything else that could help YQY get out of prison. There is some back and forth, but I think either here is where SJ would be like, we're pinning this shit on the prev sect leader. Or after the first steps of the investigation and some key info reveals from WQW and/or MQF if he couldn't get YQY to confess.
Even with the truth though… It'd be pretty difficult to convince the Jianghu that such a long-tenured public figure (who is conveniently out of the picture and can't be held to account) is the one who is actually at fault here. They'd really have to show that YQY didn't do this to himself for power, someone else did it to him and that the Prev Sect Leader is a person who would do such a thing. I think the more strategic heads of CQMS would have to do some plotting. I like the idea of them not being able to turn up anything more concrete than circumstantial evidence, and having to do a frame-up through planting evidence shedding doubt on the Prev Sect Leader's past and strong-arming some of the sect elders of the previous generation into cooperating. I like the idea of the peak lords collaborating on this to get evidence, out of a mix of preserving what remains of the sect's image and/or their personal affections for Yue Qingyuan, which I think works if they are convinced about the prev sect leader's guilt even if they don't have comprehensive evidence against the guy.
This all plays out during the trial with YQY not having any idea that the PLs had really gone all out in throwing the prev sect leader under the bus, in order to save him. He is touched by it but also horrified because this would have such long lasting repercussions for the sect! He really was such a curse on everyone he came in contact with (cue YQY quietly spiraling on the inside with a placid expression). Anyway, I think the OPM tries to persist, but CQMS manages to muddy the waters enough to get them to release YQY especially with nothing else against the guy. And though they definitely took a reputational hit, at least their shixiong is free. YQY is very much not okay with how things turned out, but he did reconnect with SJ throughout all of this, sort-of. SJ is alternating between looking sick at the sight of him, and being entirely unwilling to not have YQY by his side as if Yue Qingyuan was in danger of falling into a qi deviation if SJ took his eyes off of him for too long. So much time in each others presence after so long estranged was nice though privately YQY would admit it was a bit… stressful to be honest. Actual communication while not in an active crisis will take some time.
Who will take the position of CQMS leader would still be up in air. I think, SJ and YQY are playing reverse tug of war, with YQY wanting SJ to take over (especially now that YQY has reached new levels of self-loathing and guilt that now extends to the entire sect) and SJ wanting the exact opposite (who is also feeling and thinking the same). I think they eventually agree on SJ taking on the position as at this point he still has a decent reputation to the wider Jianghu and SJ agrees as long as YQY stays in some sort of advisory/leadership-adjacent position. Still, even that plan would get dashed by QQQ - who would very somberly take SJ aside and ask if he has anything scandal level worthy in his background. Because surviving one major scandal is one thing, but two? Yeah, obviously not happening. I think that could go back to SJ and QQQ plotting a way to securely put YQY back in the position and also trying to get the stubbon man to agree to the idea somehow. (And QQQ maybe secretly working against SJ to get ahead of whatever scandal SJ might have, that could be a problem later)
After taking such a huge reputation hit things are a bit tense in terms of inter-sect relations. I think YQY would have to be a bit public and show that even without Xuan Su (which is staying firmly strapped to SJ's side) he is still a force to be reckoned with, and Cang Qiong is a bit more active mission-wise for the time being. Maybe there's some legendary feats the Peak Lords try to take on as a part of re-establishing their reputation which leads to the peak lords bonding (Also thinking LQG and YQY could do some high profile/risky missions while bonding/making up).
Ironically, in the interim the sect ends up taking in even more disciples albeit from poorer backgrounds due to the reveal that the (former?) Sect Leader came from a poor background. Meanwhile, as part of the effort for the Peak Lords to improve their image, a few of them (particularly SJ and QQQ) have been on the lookout for a way to get revenge on OPM and/or stir up a different scandal to direct the Jianghu's attention to. They dig into OPM but the man's background is airtight. Plus, with the Cang Qiong's recent scandal, Huan Hua cultivators really aren't willing to divulge any dirt. Things start to change when a new disciple shows up to the selection trials who looks unerringly like the former Huan Hua Head Disciple, Su Xiyan. Maybe it's because they were just investigating OPM and ofc the TLJ business came up, but the resemblance is uncanny…
I came across the factoid that for bonded cats, grooming your partner can be a display of dominance, while for bonded bunnies being the one to get groomed indicates dominance.
I haven't really connected this in anyway, but for some reason my mind keeps fiddling with this idea for a JiuYuan fic. Or maybe a scumplane?
Today in Occupied Minneapolis, it was -22F/-30C with the windchill. In spite of that, we had a thaw.
How?
Minnesotans showed up in the tens of thousands to protest the occupation. In that bitter cold, they marched in the streets of downtown Minneapolis or, rather, they didn't march. The plan was to march but there were too many people out there. All people could do was stand and shout because there were too many protestors to move. Downtown was shut down.
Over 100 members of the clergy were arrested after effectively shutting down Minneapolis-St Paul airport by sitting in and praying in the lanes leading up to the arrivals/departures area at Terminal 1. As they knelt praying, they were arrested by Bloomington police, zip tied, and loaded onto school buses. They prayed for the children stolen by ICE. Many were arrested while actively saying the Lord's Prayer.
Roughly 300 businesses closed to form an economic blackout and send a message right to the government's pocketbooks. We will not tolerate the Occupation.
Most importantly to me, after helping to lead those tens of thousands in chants at the big protest, my wife came home cold, but safe and whole. She came home proud of our city, proud of our state and committed to an end to the occupation. Today she is safe, though we know that every day is a new and dangerous day.
This is our home and today the occupation feels a little less hopeless as we know that tens of thousands of people stand against the Regime.
