the heavy contrast between the semi-realistic art style for maomao's pov vs the cutesy softer art style for xiaolan's pov. something something about the art style represents how they view the world.
Mizi calls Sua "My God, My Universe" and she struggles with "Religion and Music" as a subject to the point it became Sua's best subject because she used to help Mizi with it.
Sacred Light cover art really did have Luka with his burn scars under operation, just like i feared. Also using the surgery light to eclipse his face was definitely a choice.
So now you can join me as I scream about the fact that Luka's burn scars were so bad that it took Heperu and peak of seigyen technology 7 years, 7 WHOLE YEARS to fix him or atleast that face alone and they were trying to use tissue implants for atleast 4 years.
This song is so upbeat, like if you tune out the words it's almost a love song esque, a love song which is a plea for help in a way.
I've always been trapped inside my fears.
In a spotless night, lost in your sight.
Beating in your gaze- the trace of me, I can't erase.
Unfolding you, our eyes collide.
Like inferred, Luka is cowardly man. He's afraid of losing because of all Heperu has done to him and hence, the strategy exists of breaking others down mentally to give himself an edge.
Part of this was also stopping Luka's heart and in his interview, he talked about how important it was to keep your heartbeat level yet when he sees Hyuna, his microphone is red and you can hear that his heartbeat is so loud. He regresses to a more childlike innocent part of him that he (or rather Heperu) can't erase.
The eyes colliding is definitely a reference to the "this is my revenge" panel in the comics before Hyuna dies and I'm not listening otherwise.
Eyes on me, so easy, right?
Even if we drift through at the same time, I can’t spot
Every glance feels like a spark,
A fuse tell me, what's the truth?
In the breath, in mist,
You disappear.
This is just speculative but I feel like the start is about how famous Luka is and guarded Heperu keeps him to the point that most information on his character sheet is unknown.
That's why even if Hyuna and Luka are in the same place like pre-ALNST Season 49, they still can't do much but only steal glances. As we know Hyuna didn’t push away Luka while they were in the garden, even after Hyunwoo's death.
The last part I think is meant to both show how little time they have together but also Hyuna disappearing after her stage blew up aka joining the rebels and her eventual death ofc.
Teach me
What's the love
Under sacred light
We’re lifeless star
Shining cold towards the end
Use your sacred eyes
You're my only sight.
Beg you, Take my hand
Woo-woo-woo, (you said love)
Woo-woo-you could spare a piece.
Luka doesn't understand love, so he tries to learn from Hyuna by taking a piece of her world and her love, trying to spend as much time as he can with her.
Also didn't catch this until I wrote down the lyrics but "Take my hand" is Hyuna's last sub song. That's definitely intentional.
You've always understood me.
A breathless chase, a restless mind.
We can return to our fleeting moment - let’s visualize it.
"Let's visualise it" -> I'm sorry that was so much like a teacher telling me to use graphs or charts to understand stats or something 😭
Hyuna definitely understands how their environment of being human pets under seigyens, she has always been the one give him the most grace despite the kind of person he is. And, Luka holds onto the small moments when they interact, he holds on to the posters he sees of her in the absence of her physically.
Side tangent, imo Hyuna's acceptance and understanding of why Luka is the way he is, hinders her ability to grieve her brother properly and come to terms with it. She can't blame Luka because he didn't know any better but she can’t not help but feel betrayed that he is the reason her brother is no more.
Yet, she still can't stop loving him or push him away, which adds to her guilt. She clings onto him even though she shouldn't because like Luka only has her, after Hyunwoo's death, she only has him now, even her guardian (Phan) doesn't care enough to remember her.
Every glance feels like a spark
A fuse can see, what's the truth
Under sacred night,
You’re aimless nova
shining cold towards the end,
Use your scared eyes.
After Hyuna joins the rebellion, Luka believes that she is just avoiding the truth and one day, she will have to open her eyes and accept her place as a pet just like Luka has already. He thinks the only way to keep her safe is with him, the rebels are never going to win against seigyens. She is aimless in the way she can't accept this "truth".
You're my only night
Just let this fall into the light.
Under sacred light,
We’re lifeless star.
Only this fall will cradle me.
Within holy light,
I will hold this tight
Only Take my hand.
Only this fall will cradle me as a reference to that one "your existence is my cradle" art. Again, "take my hand" reference. Hyuna's really every good thing in Luka's life. She's his fire, his sun, his light, his cradle, his saviour, the ruler of his heart and everything.
[Edit: "weige" means cradle?? How am i finding this out so late??]
Woo-woo-woo (We made love)
Woo-woo we whispered peace.
So do we mean they made love as in they were both in love with each other or you know the more obvious thing because I really didn't think Anakt Garden had a concept of sexuality and all that. You wouldn’t want these mostly unsupervised adults pre-ALNST season trying to reproduce, right?
[Edit: I saw someone say these two lines are a Love&Peace reference and even though it's more far-fetched than others, these lines felt a bit off to me so this would make them more in theme.]
As usual, this was such a beautiful song like all the other BL8M songs. This is also the first time that I did the entire song because there's so much to think about. (Is it obvious I have a hyuluka bias?)
I hope the Mizi subsong is Mizi meeting up with Till and learning how to live and move on like Sua would want because that's the end end of Alien Stage and acc to Vivimeng, it has to end on a hopeful note, right? I don't want my girl to suffer anymore.
Welcome back folks to part 2 of talking about the spinoff because I love Xiaolan and there's not enough people talking about it on here. Now we're onto Princess Fuyo's story!
Xiaolan being a cutie as usual, singing songs and Maomao having a shoujo filter in her vision, ahh they're so cute <3
I wonder if the wise tidbit about working in moderation comes from Xiaolan's friend (that was looking out for her in Ch1) or she's just becoming more independent now that Maomao's not around as much and she's learning to read numbers.
Also I love how Xiaolan's pov mentions so many little incidents in the servants' life that can only be assumed in the main story due to the setting. I think it does a really subtle way of setting up Xiaolan's ability to socialise/show she's a gossip and that despite being "not smart", she's still very observant. Her potrayal (and honestly every character in KnH) is so human and realistic to me.
References to the crown prince (face powder incident) and aphrodisiacs (Jade palace ladies eating the chocolates), I might love this too much actually.
First time, I read Xiaolan questioning if the dancing girl could climb that wall, I thought it meant Maomao's presence and "nothing's a curse" mentality made her more critical but I'm glad that Xiaolan just wants her favourite type supernatural to get the credit with thinking about beautiful nymphs instead.
Idk if anyone would agree here but I like that even though Xiaolan knows that dreaming of money and nymphs is unrealistic, she continues to fantasize and romantise her life. It's such a pure thing constrasted by the fact that her life is the consequence of being sold after years of malnourishment.
Xiaolan grew up poor, hungry and envious of the things others would have. Yet she doesn't wish to take away those things from others, she doesn't blame them for her misfortune, she just hopes for herself and the people around her. Her optimistic hopeful outlook on life is something I so dearly admire.
Another thing, I like how Xiaolan's using the experiences around to actually try to analyse now. She thinks about how Fuyo would have a good life, she's be fed and clothed well and never have to worry about being beaten till deaf (very naive of her to assume that last part tho).
To me, Xiaolan seems to be a naturally curious person like Maomao too. But unlike Maomao, her skills, especially for observations weren't nurtured due to her life conditions but her willingness to learn (from the original) is definitely there. I can't wait for her to go to the school for maidservants later on.
I just sometimes wish Lihua's hairpin had served a greater purpose in the story. How could a hairpin (symbol of favour) to the poison taster of a consort by a rival not be important??
Out of the three hairpins Maomao gets during the garden party, it's the only one that isn’t plot relevant. Lihaku's hairpin? She uses to call a favour and visit back home. Jinshi's hairpin? She gives it away to Shisui and it saves her life.
Even though I know the hairpin is mainly supposed to symbolise being in someone's good graces yet I can't help but think receiving a hairpin from any man has slightly romantical implications. (Lihaku did worry that Maomao had assumed his hairpins meant he wanted her when she had called upon him.)
So it would have been interesting for me as a viewer to see how Lihua would be used in this way, plus I just like the hairpins thing a lot. I've tried to read up hairpin etiquette/culture in Chinese history and been disappointed with how few and far resources are in english. Also, everything I did find was for a couple and not between ladies so I wonder if that part was one of the creative liberties Natsu Hyuga took or something I just can't find.
It's important to me that people don't call Maomao pretty or think that she believes she is ugly, because she doesn’t. She knows she isn't ugly, she's just average and if she tried she could be beautiful too. She isn't a goddess with ethereal beauty stopping the hearts of anyone she meets, but she isn't ugly either.
It's important to me that people don't focus on calling Jinmao attractive or expecting they'd compliment each other's appearances because Jinshi's beauty despite being useful sometimes is also his prison. It undermines his talents, it makes him believe that it's his only skill and it makes him vunerable to assault. To Jinmao, beauty despite being charming, is still a danger.
It's important to me that people see Jinmao loving eachother not because they are beautiful but because of their personality. Both of them judge character, not looks, so it's important to me that people see they'd still love eachother, ugly or beautiful.
Talking about my bby Xiaolan because she's underrated. Plus I love having another perspective of the same story to see the difference in character's perception and what they focus on. So I'm also constantly comparing both Maomao and Xiaolan here.
It's so jarring to see how thin and malnourished Xiaolan looks with her sunken hollow features before the palace and her rounder baby face after entering the palace. Now, don't curse me out but you know even though Maomao asserts that she is commoner and is under the mercy of other people, Xiaolan is truly that person. Maomao despite not accepting it, still has a lot of advantages compared to the common man.
Not because Maomao wouldn't be mistreated because of her background, it's because of the people in the court (at least the ones in power, Jinshi, Emperor, consorts, etc.) are very reasonable and the ones on her level can't push her around because Maomao herself won't let herself be stepped over by others.
But Xiaolan is an innocent naive village girl, she isn't well educated like Maomao, she doesn't understand she's being used unfairly because her idea of repaying debt is one to one exchange instead of accessing the situations separately and seeing if they are of equal worth/effort.
To Xiaolan, having someone read for her is enough to do all the work they ask of her. To Maomao, getting a seamstress to fix her dress isn't worth the additional hard labour but she also doesn't like undue favours so she will make poultice for her. (Additionally this fixes a plot hole of why would Maomao use such an obviously mismatched thread to mend her dress.) Xiaolan accepts her conditions, Maomao modifies her situation to best suit her.
But this doesn't mean Xiaolan is a useless idiot, she's sweet and naive but she is observant. She might not make connections or understand much, but she takes note of what she sees (doctor going to Lihua), she listens to others telling her how unfair situation is, she thinks about others and she cares, she cares a lot.
Arguably Xiaolan's upbringing in a (preassumed) big family as an older sibling, deprived of most things in life except the people around her, has made her more emotionally intelligent and Maomao's upbringing in brothel which sells the idea of "love" and with a very reserved man like Loumen has made her more practical natured compared to the sensitive Xiaolan.
Ch1 is about face powder incident but in Maomao's pov, the focus was on when Xiaolan told Maomao about the rumor but Xiaolan focuses on when Maomao helps her "read" after the drama is over. Maomao cares about the mystery of children dying because she's a natural thinker and a curious person but Xiaolan is an emotional person, she focuses on the loss of the child, something very personal to her (despite having no real connections to the child) rather than the consort’s fighting or the question of "why".
Additionally, I love how Maomao isn't the one to point out how Xiaolan is being used, it's a brand new character because it establishes that despite being a spinoff, Xiaolan and Maomao's friendship isn't the centre of her world. Xiaolan is her own person with her own opinions, thoughts and people around her.
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