aisling | she/they | ML - MDZS - TGCF - ATLA - TTEOTM - LBFAD | as of december 2022 this is a multi fandom blog and i blame you bushy | icon by @jayceart, header by @no1rubbish
Silliness aside, I love the little touches about class issues in Pursuit of Jade. It is very clear that the magistrate doesn't usually deal with people who know the law. He is used to doing whatever he wants because no one is literate enough to oppose him. And it royally pisses Xie Zheng off but only because he knows better.
Also the magistrate immediately turning nice when he sees someone in silk. All the rich people look so extremely out of place in Fan Changyu's neighborhood.
The pawn shop owner knew Fan Chengyu couldn't read that contract when she pawned her hairpin and took advantage of that.
It's funny that Xie Zheng has no idea what things cost and how little people live on but it's also terrifying that Xie Zheng has no idea what things cost and how little people live on because he is part of the ruling class. Money means almost nothing to him and it takes up most of Fan Changyu's mental energy.
Xie Zheng clearly has access to much better medicine than Fan Changyu and the money to pay for it. The thugs who cannot find jobs because of war. Everyone around Fan Changyu being excited to eat pig offal and tails while Xie Zheng cannot bring himself to eat it because he would never be offered such a labour intensive piece of an animal and it's gross to him. He has the luxury to find calories gross. It goes on and on
it's been said but i'll say it again: top tier bit of this show is whenever changyu is being given the slightest offense and it pans to yan zheng VERY LOUDLY lefty-looseying the screws on his hinges in the background
We've known each other for so long but I still don't know when your birthday is.
My birthday is easy to remember. It's 2 days after the lantern festival. The holiday is still strong then. It is very lively.
What do you want?
I want my family all together, safe and sound. And if in the spring, I could keep another litter of piglets, that would be even better.
Seeing you reblog two of my lgief posts activated a part of my brain that just said “WE GOT ANOTHER ONE BOYS” and I can imagine somewhere the other like 5 accounts that post about lgief obsessively hear alarms ringing
Ty for your kind words 🫶🏻
I had no idea how small the fandom was until I took to tumblr to do the whole “I just finished this crazy piece of media and I need to crash out about it and make it my personality for the next few days”. I was so skeptical of the show at first but it really got me!
I’m super into media and character analysis so i really appreciate so much when people take the time to actually write it and put it out there - especially when there’s not a huge audience! So thank YOU 🤗
永夜星河 | Love Game in Eastern Fantasy E24 ° I thought you were introverted since childhood because you were immature and willful. I thought you didn't have any friends because you didn't like to make friends. But I just realized today, for all these years, what kind of life you've been living.
#i am going! to gnaw my arms off!!!!#in the og reveal of his demon self jiejie did not accept him because gasp!! he is a monster!!#she must put him down like a dog for being a monster and then tricking her into loving him by lying to her for all those years!#how dare he!!#but in this softer kinder rewrite (instigated by miaomiao no less!!!) jiejie loves him!#she realizes he did not choose to be like this and comforts him and realizes the previous limits of her own understanding#and how her unaware dismissal of him because ~that’s just how he is~ was dehumanizing for him and v hurtful!!!#now look me in the eyes and tell me that ziqi’s half-demon condition is not the in-story analogue for his irl disability YOU CAN’T#and so angry bby writes a story from isolation and pain that has his self-insert being isolated and unloved when he is at his lowest point#and now as an adult returning to it with a small sliver of hope that he will live the story!! changes to show his own!! self-acceptance!!!#IN THIS ESSAY I WILL#i’m so unwell abt this#lgief - @ouaismongars
nothing sadder than watching ziqi having to put his own demon-binding hair tie back BY HIMSELF
but it truly is a testament to miaomiao and her genuine feelings towards ziqi (and her need to comfort him) that even with the bracelet on she started to falter and it had to double down not once but twice within the span of a few seconds
no magic can really properly conceal her faith and love and trust when it comes to ziqi
LETS TALK ABOUT ZIQI FOLKS. Or rather let's talk about the DIVISON of Ziqi. Let's talk about Mu Sheng and Fu Zhou. I'm not gonna use this post to talk about Ziqi and Miaomiao or Ziqi's internal battle of falling in love with her. NO THOSE WILL GET OTHER POSTS!!! (and some episode specific posts about my favorite scenes most likely)
Chasing Demons, the story Fu Zhou's First Story is the EPITOME of a middle schoolers first story. I have pages upon pages of self depreciating lines about my own existence and the trials and tribulations of living.
Mu Sheng the character, is an isolated character with no past and no future. He has little people around him and only one that he truly cares about (I would say in the original novel he merely tolerates Lu Fuyi). He is destined to hide the truth of his existence, of which even he doesn't know the full scope of, until it is inevitably revealed and he looses the one person he cares about. His love life in the original novel is nonexistent, and the 'marriage' he is in is a venting of all the pain and anger he holds inside of him. A hopeless character, but even more than that he's hopeless Twice. Why?
Mu Sheng Could have everything, his parents loved each other once, his sister loves him now. But it's all out of reach for him. (We don't know how much he learns about his past in the original Chasing Demons so I won't delve much into that).
The reason that Mu Sheng can have nothing and must live his life chasing after happiness, knowing that he will never hold more than the coattails of it in his palm for seconds. Is because Fu Zhou wrote this story at his lowest. It is the representation of all the grief and that he was currently experincing at that time.
Mu Sheng's family is torn apart (father dead, mother's heart unknowingly destroyed by him, the Mu family dealing with the fallout of his own mistakes) because all Fu Zhou knows is the crashing and burning of his own family. Happiness exists just out of reach for both Mu Sheng and Fu Zhou. Without Mu Sheng in the picture, could his parents have stayed together and in love? If he wasn't sick would Fu Zhou's parents not fight? Not scream? Not cry?
We occasionally see hints of 'The End Cannot Be Changed' scattered throughout the show, earliest with Miaomiao having to constantly redo tasks because the outcome must be certain ways. The Story itself as a concept is extremely rigid because that was the thinking of Fu Zhou when he wrote it. Rigid in the belief that his past holds nothing (no friends, no great memories) and his future is set in stone (alone, abandoned, uncared for and dead). A bleak and grim outlook from a boy who is dying.
The true First Story with a cringefail self insert OC to help cope with that young teenage depression.
It speaks great depths that when Fu Zhou found a bit of light in his life, with meeting Miaomiao for the first time, he insists that she saved him. But she is not the savior of Chasing Demons. BECAUSE FU ZHOU IS RIGID IN HIS THINKING!!! He adds Miaomiao as a Prologue. She stopped the catastrophe of heavens once before, it's possible for it to be done. But the person who had stopped it before (with her weapon that literally looks like her fountain pen from real life SCREAMING) is Gone and so Mu Sheng's end is set in stone.
Mu Sheng's story changes when he becomes Ziqi, when he meets someone who starts to change his rigid thinking and allows him to be able to grasp the happiness just out of his reach.
Fu Zhou's stories start changing, from rigid cold and unfeeling, to more hopeful and healing when he meets someone who shines in his darkness and allows him to believe that happiness can happen even if it is currently out of his reach.
This is long af already so I'll make an entierly seperate post about Ziqi and him being the combination of Mu Sheng (a younger Fu Zhou) and the older Fu Zhou later.
Why Inuyasha fans should watch hit Chinese fantasy drama Love Game in Eastern Fantasy.
This wonderful art was created by Sparky! You can find her twt account here, and if you're interested in commissioning something yourself, her vgen account here.
I promised I'd make this post, and I also promised I'd commission some chibis of the lead pairs from both shows swapping outfits as to entice you, so here we go. If the adorable art isn't enough to convince you, read this way!
Love Game in Eastern Fantasy is a 2024 Chinese fantasy drama starring Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi. It's thirty-two episodes long. The show has been a big hit in China due to its charming storyline, hilarious meta-humor, strong performances, beautiful costumes and sets, and well crafted characters. Let me get this out of the way first; yes, that is the English title of the series, and yes it's a pretty bad and unappealing sounding title. It's not uncommon for English titles of Chinese dramas to be kind of terrible. I promise it does not reflect the quality of the series itself. The original Chinese title is 永夜星河 (Yong Ye Xing He: Eternal Night of Starry River). This, although pretty, doesn't have much to do with the series either. For the rest of the post, I will be abbreviating the title to LGIEF.
Let's start with an introduction of our lead characters, then we'll go into why I think Inuyasha fans specifically will enjoy this series, although it should become quite obvious along the way.
Ling Miaomiao
Funny, compassionate, and clever, Ling Miaomiao is a young woman from the twenty-first century who is transmigrated out of her boring every day work life and into the novel Catching Demons. Once inside, she retains her memories of the real world and is given two main tasks by 'the system', the mysterious force that governs her stay in this parallel world; the first one is to stop the catastrophe of heaven, a potentially world ending event, and the second... is to make the second male lead of the original novel, a standoffish, suspicious young man named Mu Sheng, fall in love with her.
The problem is that she hasn't been transmigrated as Ling Miaomiao, but is instead in the body of the character of Lin Yu, the second female lead of the original novel, as well as an antagonist. Well, Ling Miaomiao doesn't have it in her to be a villain, and besides how can she capture the affection of Mu Sheng that way? It turns out that the best way to do so is by being herself. But of course, as goes in these stories, she didn't expect to fall in love along the way.
Miaomiao is, in addition to having one of the best wardrobes I've ever seen, so charming, so cute, so amusing, and such a sunshine of a character. She's not pliant. She sticks to her guns and doesn't take shit, but she's also kind, tolerant, accepting, and borderline fearless at times. Esther Yu has wonderful comic timing. She is a delight.
Mu Sheng
Courtesy name 'Ziqi', and what I'll be referring to him as in this post. Ziqi is the second male lead in the novel Catching Demons and the adopted younger brother of the novel's protagonist, Mu Yao. He's very close to his sister, and his self esteem is debilitatingly low, to the point he sees protecting her as the only reason for his existence. In the original novel, he becomes an antagonist at a later point.
Ziqi and his sister, Mu Yao, are demon catchers. They're both powerful cultivators (magic users) and warriors. Her family (and his adopted family--- sort of) were all killed by a powerful demon called the Resentful Woman about a decade before, and Mu Yao is on a quest to find her and defeat her, with Ziqi tagging along. But Ziqi has a secret, and it's one that he is terrified of his sister, who abhors demons, finding out. He is half demon himself. A gold ribbon he wears in his hair at all times protects him, keeping his true identity hidden unless it's removed.
He loathes his heritage and sees it as shameful-- until Ling Miaomiao comes along. Ziqi is brusque, angry, and bitter. He has a front of bravado, but is DEEPLY insecure. He starts out very rude. He's love starved but shirks away from love. He's jaded, but extremely innocent. He's a tsundere (even described as such in official material, which I found funny). His actor pulls off the best sad kitten eyes any man ever has, and your heart will break for him.
To clarify, although in the original novel Catching Demons, Ziqi and Miaomiao are not the leads, in the drama Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, they 300% are! This is a story about what happens when the second leads... become the leads.
Other Major Characters
Mu Yao- Ziqi's adopted older sister. He is extremely close to and protective of her, but her hatred of demons due to her past makes it so revealing his secret seems impossible. Mu Yao is a demon catcher from the famous Mu clan, which has been the most prominent demon catching clan for nine hundred years. She is friendly and no-nonsense, and as the story continues, she grows and matures in her views. She is very close to Ling Miaomiao, and she is in love with the original male lead of the novel, Liu Fuyi.
Liu Fuyi- The original male lead of the novel. He starts out quite 'wooden', which I think is deliberate because Ling Miaomiao even commented on him being a badly written character as she read the original novel. However, as the story goes on and he becomes more of a real person, he fills out and ends up likable. Stalwart, calm, and noble, he is in love with Mu Yao but dares not say it. He has a more nuanced, less prejudiced view of demons than Mu Yao does.
Cuicui- The last member of our group of demon catching travelers. Cuicui is a young bamboo demon who quickly bonds with Ling Miaomiao, sneaking along by turning himself into a bamboo hair pin she wears. He is very Shippou in that he adores LMM and bickers with Ziqi, but I actually do like him a lot better than his Inuyasha counterpart. He's quite useful, and he forms a pretty sweet bond with Ziqi over time.
You can very much see even from here how the main cast really fills those Inuyasha roles! Together, they are the Four Bamboo Masters.
(Actual art of the Four Bamboo Masters+Cuicui by artist extraordinaire Ling Miaomiao)
The World
The universe of Catching Demons is a fantasy ancient China filled with yao which is the Mandarin Chinese word for demons of the variety featured in the series. If you understand youkai, you somewhat understand yao.
Japanese "yokai" is the Japanese transliteration or pronunciation of the Chinese term "yaoguai" and involves similarly strange creatures, with both languages using the same Chinese characters to describe them. ( x )
Yao in this world are for the most part, morally neutral, but are generally viewed as evil by humans. Those that are evil often ended up going that direction because of humanity's actions toward them. They can form from aspects of nature; bamboo, foxes, water, cats, birds, etc. There are also object based yao based on mirrors, paintbrushes, etc. Inuyasha fans will definitely see some similarities in the folklore between the series.
As with many high budget Chinese dramas, the settings are beautiful and atmospheric, capturing both the gorgeous architecture, clothing, etc. of a fantasy ancient China, as well as the nature and magic of this specific world. The effects are quality for a tv production, and the costumes, makeup, and wigs are next level. There's so much rich detail in them. Ling Miaomiao's hair ornaments alone deserve an entire post praising them.
Since this is also a transmigration story, the mechanics of 'the system' often come into play. This results in some of the best humor in the series. Ling Miaomiao's battle with the system is hilarious and clever. It's rendered as if it is a video game, with LMM in the early episodes 'dying' and having to respawn... many, many times. In order to clear her mission, Ling Miaomiao must get Mu Sheng to 100% favorability toward her, which is calculated adorably by little mushroom shaped demons.
One of the biggest appeals of the series is Miaomiao's modern mind set in this ancient world, and the fact that since she believes this to be just a novel at first, she is hysterically meta, often commenting on the quality of the story and well...
The Love Story
This love story is like crack to Inuyasha/Kagome fans (aka me). You should have gotten the vibe of the obvious character similarities from above, but their romance plays with so many of the tropes that made InuKag great and pulls them off so well. It doesn't feel like a rehash, it just happens to use similar tropes to great impact.
Look, this scene is spoiler-y for episode eleven, but I just think that if anything is going to sell you on this show, it's probably going to be this scene, so watch it.
In it, Ziqi has been forced to remove his hair ribbon to battle a demon, because he's not near strong enough without doing so. The rest is self explanatory from the video.
This is a really gentle love story. It has a lot of what I love about InuKag, which is a casual intimacy, a soft, sometimes unspoken affection, and a chemistry between the characters that speaks of a deep connection that goes far beyond just their romantic attraction. These are two people that click, and it's beautiful to watch the way they impact each other. It's about support, belief, trust, and acceptance. They start off very much on the wrong foot, as our intrepid lovers in IY do, but when they come together, it's all of that and more, plus a level of playful bickering.
I, Mu Ziqi, swear to the heavens that if I lose you somehow, I'll come back to find you. No matter how far it is, no matter how hard it is, I will bring you back.
And I am not the only one who has noticed the similarities to Inuyasha:
1, 2
Plus all the likes and reblogs on this post.
What else does the show have to offer?
I don't really want to go further into spoilers, but I love the themes of this story. It's about learning to love yourself, trust, and compassion of course, but it also ends up being a super uplifting commentary on the power of storytelling, memory, the impact fiction can have on us, the way love is laced into everything we create, and the power simple acts of kindness can have. The value of this series goes far beyond just being similar to Inuyasha, although that's definitely a plus.
Famous last words from early series Ling Miaomiao. Girl, you have no idea.
Does it have a happy ending?
Yes. I will leave it at that.
But I've never watched a Chinese drama...
This is a great place to start. There's little to nothing that should confuse you as a first time watcher. It's a perfect introduction.
Where can I watch it?
Luckily, unlike a lot of Cdramas, LGIEF is extremely accessible and available on several streaming sites. It's on Netflix, Viki, Youtube (up to ep twenty-three), and WeTV. If you have a Netflix account, it's there right now!! Audio is Mandarin Chinese of course, but subtitles are available in several languages.
If you do watch it, let me know! And make sure to share this post of course.
I watched LGIEF and I loved it (of course). What should I watch next?
Here's a few Chinese dramas that are readily available streaming, that I think LGIEF fans would enjoy:
Love Between Fairy and Devil (thirty-six episodes, streaming on Netflix, Viki, and IQIYI): When a low-ranked fairy accidentally resurrects a powerful demon, their fates become cosmically entangled as the world is thrown into turmoil.
For me, not just my favorite fantasy drama of all time, but my favorite drama period. Like LGIEF, this drama stars Esther Yu in the role of the heroine. One of the screenwriters is also the same as LGIEF, and much of the production team is similar.
This is a gorgeous story of the redemptive power of love of all kinds, of breaking the cycle of war, and of defying fate no matter the cost. A fantastic cast, stunning costumes, and the best soundtrack ever. If you're like me and are wary of the 'good girl changes the bad boy' trope, don't be. Dongfang Qingcang (the male lead) is an amazing character; he's deep and layered and complex, and he is never actually a villain. His trauma is convincing, and everything about him is so, so good. Xiao Lanhua is the heroine. Her character arc is so lovingly done. The two leads don't change for each other, they change because of each other. It's simultaneously one of the funniest dramas I've ever seen and devastatingly heartbreaking. You will laugh, you will cry. Happy ending though, I promise.
The Romance of Tiger and Rose (twenty-four episodes, streaming on Amazon Prime, WeTV, and Viki): A young screenwriter falls ill while working on a script and wakes up as one of her characters.
Confession that I am still working on watching this one, but it's quite popular and the first episodes are charming. It's mainly on here because it stars Ding Yuxi (Ziqi) as the love interest in another transmigration story. It's also not as long as a lot of other dramas, so it's a bit less of a commitment. It's a well known drama that is highly rated in most places.
Destined (forty episodes, streaming on IQIYI): Liu Yuru has suffered in her family; her only hope is to marry her crush, but fateful events force her to marry a rumored playboy from a rich family.
This is not the most appealing summary, but I promise it's misleading. This show is good. The main couple is ride or die, and they become best friends long before they become a couple. The heroine is extremely smart, capable, and business savvy. The hero is charming, funny, and so charismatic. It's the most fun you will ever have watching people do business (I kid; there is business, but there is so much more to the plot). The supporting cast is fantastic, and the relationships!! Wonderful friendships between women, wonderful friendships between men, and wonderful platonic friendships between men and women. SUPER good at subverting tropes. This is a costume drama, not a fantasy, but you won't miss the magic. Oh and did I mention this is by the screenwriter behind LGIEF and LBFAD?
Love You Seven Times (thirty-eight episodes, streaming on IQIYI): It tells the story of Xiang Yun, a fairy from Marriage Pavilion who becomes entangled with the ancient God of War, Chu Kong. Because of this encounter, they must go through tribulations in the human world seven times.
Stars Ding Yuxi (Ziqi) in the role of the hero. An ultimately flawed, but still fun fantasy drama. Gorgeous costumes, wigs, sets, etc., and a lot of heart. Don't expect writing as slick as some of the other dramas here, but do expect to enjoy yourself watching these two immortals discover each other while fumbling throughout seven very different lifetimes. Each lifetime has its own very unique vibes and aesthetic, and seeing how they all pan out if half the fun. Plus, if you like Inuyasha, you absolutely must see the arc where Chu Kong becomes a cat demon.
Moonlight (thirty-six episodes, streaming on Amazon Prime, Viki, IQIYI): After graduating university with a major in financing, Chu Li successfully enters her dream company, Yuan Yue Publishing House. There she meets author Zhou Chuan, who is said to be gentle as a jade when he's really not.
I can’t believe I forgot this at first! I haven’t seen it yet, but it’s a previous collaboration between Esther Yu and Ding Yuxi from 2021. If you enjoy their chemistry and the way they play off each other in LGIEF, you may want to check it out. It’s a modern romance drama, which isn’t as much my thing, but it’s deeply loved by a lot of drama fans and has great reviews.
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