TGCF donghua Episode 10 Thoughts (SPOILERS for episode and novel!)
The donghua sometimes does this interesting thing with context in that it provides none for certain scenes so they come across differently from how they were originally intended in the source material. Sometimes the end result is better than the original text. Take the scene above for example, out of context it looks like Xie Lian was perhaps getting a little worked up from just staring at the back of San Lang's neck, especially as he was remembering the way his hands felt on his back and knees. When in fact, in the novel, the scene was played off rather innocnetly: he was mostly trying to determine in the dimness of the pit if San Lang was now different, since he seemed taller, his chin more defined. It was simply an attempt at confirming his suspicions on San Lang's true identity, but bless the donghua team for turning that moment into something more romantic and even mildly spicey.
And yet sometimes, some context probably should have been given so the end result wouldn't be so unpleasant. Take the scene where Ke Mo was beating the crap out of Ban Yue. First of all it went on for an unnecessarily long time, imo, valuable time that could have been spent on other people (like HuaLian), but more importantly, despite the fact that Ban Yue technically is no longer a human being, visually, we're still basically watching a big gigantic monster of a man punching, kicking, and strangling a little girl. In the middle of it I actually wondered why no one was stopping him since it got to be a bit much, and that's where some reiteration of context would've helped since in the novel, the reason why Xie Lian let the beating go on for a while is because he recognized that Ke Mo's hatred was justified. Therefore he essentially allowed Ke Mo to vent his anger...until the gratuitous violence became unbearable. In the show though, without that context, the whole sequence just felt really weird and wrong, definitely very uncomfortable to watch.
Especially since Ban Yue is just too adorable. God they could not have made her more sweet looking. Even her voice tugs at my heart string. Looking at her it's really hard to take Ke Mo's side at all. The fact that she had an existing relationship with Dianxia just made it that much harder to feel anything but sympathy for her, even though Ke Mo's anger isn't unreasonable at all.
I mean, just look at that cuteness. Made my heart ache for her, for all the hardships she went through before meeting Xie Lian, and all that she suffered afterwards, even after her death.
Even more cuteness: I loved how Xie Lian looked in that armor. The fact that he kept his usual hairstyle just made the whole look that much more adorable.
My favorite moment of the episode because first of all, Dianxia trying to only remember the good things in life just makes me love him even more, I just want to hug him. Secondly, the difference between San Lang and Fu Yao's reactions was perfection: basically the difference between a man who's in love with Dianxia and one who's not....at least not in the same worshipful way.
But Dianxia's history in Ban Yue..another heartache. How much will this man make my heart hurt for him before all this is over???
Loved this moment too. I gasped when I first read about it--Hua Xie, Hua Cheng--watching it just warmed my heart all over again. I seriously cannot wait for when Dianxia finally finds out how much of Hua Cheng's existence is for him. I'm sure I will cry buckets when I get to that point in the novel, and then cry buckets all over again when we finally get to see it brought to life on screen...which, God, I really hope we do one day. I can't believe next week is already the season finale. I don't even know how they're going to wrap up the Ban Yue arc in just one more episode... they'll definitely have to pack a lot into just less than 20 minutes of runtime (not counting OP/ED). Feels like they could've covered more ground in this episode if they just edited down the Ke Mo beating scene and also the snakes sequence at the end of the episode which also felt on the long side too.
Novel Reading Progress...still in the Yong'an famine...holidays, couldn't get much reading done. But Dianxia just got his straw hat so yayy for that! I doubt I can finish the novel before the season finale next week, so my new goal is to finish it before the special HuaLian episode airs on February 16th. Wish me luck!
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