I found out yesterday that legionseagle died earlier this week and I am not ok.

Hers was the first full-length, well-plotted and amazingly written and characterized Harry Potter fanfic I ever read. I'm pretty sure I read it before I read Philosopher's Stone, and to me it's one of those fics which surpasses the source material (and already points out, even back then, that there's something morally and ethically wrong with the Potterverse).

I loved the way it combined the history of the Lancashire witches with Draco and Neville, and made Narcissa a character who was so much more interesting than she is in canon - the sly references to Narcissa being a much more politically savvy Potterverse version of Princess Diana weren't lost on me either.

Lust Over Pendle is a masterpiece. But it's not the only thing she wrote. She caught the c-drama and k-drama bug around the same time I did, and wrote some excellent stories therein: her AO3 site has these and more: AJ Hall AO3

I don't know what to say.

 So, here's the thing: New Zombie K-Drama dropped and it's fricking amazing.



It's 12 episodes, the whole thing dropped in one day, and it's got some amazing cinematography and art direction which, wow - money was spent on this.

So, it's set mainly in a SK high school which has some serious problems with next-level bullying and violence, and that's before the zombie virus becomes a thing.

Even though the 2014 Sewol Ferry disaster has been cited as inspiration for various forms of media, without saying it outright, this here is officially the most inspired. Sure, the original webtoon (Here in our school) was published a decade before that, but various visual and thematic callbacks refer to that particular dark event in SK's recent history. And the social disparity and corruption which gave rise to Parasite are front and centre here, too.

Have I mentioned the acting? I have not. These young actors are pretty amazing, and the group dynamics are really something. 

I might go through the series episode by episode, because I'm really interested how the sense of who's the main character changes from one episode to the other.

For those repelled by Train to Busan type zombie horror - yes, this is full of that. But if you don't let it put you off, there's a lot to get out of this show.

 So, I suddenly realised that I've watched so many of them, and rarely say anything about them - I've reviewed one or two on dramalist, but there you run the risk of getting attacked by fans of actors.

So, I will begin.

Rewatched a few episodes of Nirvana in Fire 2, mostly to settle Pingjing cravings. See, it's still great, and has one of the most shocking WTF moments I've seen so far in one of these. But I still find it difficult to not scrub through all the evil High Priest moments. It's such a cliche - the villains are those not us, who are not from around here. Even what happened to Meng Xianxue was in a way, related to 'those foreigners and their evil ways' and it bugged me.

Also, it's really obvious how bad Pingzhang and his father are at politicking - they have Pingjing, who should be married at his age, but isn't because Tingsheng is still holding onto a marriage promise made when  Pingjing and Lin Xi were babies.

Also, the Emperor is good at this shit - he should have arranged a marriage between Pingjing and Xun An Ru (Prime Minister's niece) once he realised how much the PM hated the Changlin people.

Since watching the first time, I had an idea for an AU of what if that happened - depending on my mood at the time, it either ends up with a new power couple, or with An Ru betraying Ping Jing (or being persuaded to do so: the way she was portrayed did not suggest a whole lot of brains).

Also on a rewatch of The Story of Yanxi Palace, as well as the random snippet of Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, which are mirror images of each other (i.e. everything is the other way round).

The Story of Yanxi Palace:

Basically, Nie Yuan is the best Emperor Qianlong I've seen in one of these - think Yul Brynner in The King and I (which I am 100% convinced the production team watched and made the actor watch too - among many other similarities, he and Wei Ying Luo dance a waltz together . . . in the 1750s. Yeah, right).

Wu Jin Yan is an amazing Wei Ying Luo / Concubine Ling as hilarious trickster spirit, who catches the Emperor's eye (without wanting to - she entered the palace as a maid for a completely different reason) and it seems he can't rest until he has her or kills her. Yes, he does some pretty heinous shit to her before he realises that he doesn't really hate her . . . it's the other thing.

But it's mainly a comedy: in the c-drama sense, where you can have tonal dissonance up the wazoo, and it would still be a comedy. One of the funniest moments is their first meeting, where she's punching a tree out of frustration, unaware that it's a 'spiritual cypress'. Just watch for the look on Hongli's face when he realises Wei Ying Luo just spun him some bullshit, and then sends the head eunuch on a month-long investigation to find the maid who committed such a crime, not realising that the cheeky palace maid who's serving his Empress (Fuca) is one and the same!

I'll have more to say about the counterpart, Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, later on - but be warned. Without spoiling, even though the alliterative title makes it sound like a happy romp through the Qianlong era . . . it is not. It is a harrowing tragedy in slow-motion, and the only worthwhile thing about it, besides some minor roles, is the stunning performance by Zhou Xun, in the title role. 

They are both Qing Dynasty dramas, which was a massive hurdle for me to overcome (also probably the reason they were both banned after airing - some bullshit about the corruptive influence of luxury etc was given - but Qing dynasty drama is always on the edge of being banned, even if they end miserably), because I hate:

• the hair - both on men and women. The half-bald look is ghastly (though Nie Yuan has such arresting features, he actually looks better here) and the women's dos are just urgh. Ruyi's best look was when she was Empress and wore a sort of flower crown extended pill-box hat. Her worst was what I like to call the "hammerhead shark look". It's exactly what it sounds like.
• the clothes. "Hey, do you like wearing shapeless tents? Well, have I got news for you!" for men and women, though the men were allowed belts, occasionally. Also shoes for women. Google 'flower-pot heels' - they are ugly AND dangerous! Hooray! The only good thing is that Kangxi (I think) outlawed foot-binding; but none of the Tang/Song/Ming etc etc dramas I've seen even mention foot-binding, so it has been rightfully excised from escapist drama.
• the interiors - how much useless stuff can we cram into a room? YES.
• This only counts for Palace dramas, and it can happen in any era, but I'm not a fan of the concubine feeding frenzy storylines.

So, credit to both these dramas that I persisted in spite of all of the above.

Welcome to the sanest character in Mo Dao Zu Shi / The Untamed: lol, kidding! This is a Yi City trio centric story.

The background, full of spoilers for Mo Dao Zu Shi and Chen Qing Ling (The Untamed).

Xue Yang, a sixteen-year -old psychopath of at first mysterious origin has perpetrated a clan massacre and has been detained and send for execution by Xiao Xingchen and Song Lan, rogue cultivators who have a lot of Daoist iconography (one is in white and one in black, they both carry the horsetail whisk ( www.jinli.com.au/blog/the-fuchen-horsetail-whisk-a-taiji-study-in-the-yin-and-yang) etc. Xue Yang is not best pleased by this and once he manages to get away (as he does), he plans his revenge on them.

At first he attacks Song Lan, blinding him. Xiao Xingchen (who was once the student of an Immortal, Baoshan Sanren) goes back to the mountain (it's always a mountain) to cure his friend. But the only way of doing so is by giving his own eyes away, which he does.

Some time later, Xiao Xingchen is doing his wandering blind cultivator schtick and meets a young girl who is pretending to be blind, and comes across a badly beaten Xue Yang (who's been double-crossed). Never realising who he's rescuing, XXC saves Xue Yang, and a friendship ensues - a friendship based on lies and deception, with Xue Yang tricking XXC into doing very bad things.

Things come to a head, and Xiao Xingchen ends up committing suicide, making Xue Yang lose it for real, and spend ten years trying to bring him back to life.

In the meantime (yeah, this is just a side-plot in the bigger Mo Dao Zu Shi story), the main character has also died and is in the process of being resurrected.

And that's where I begin (read the warning tags - even though I always use choose not to warn, there's still a few tags.:







A Missing Branch (4313 words) by lisbei
Chapters: 1/?
Fandom: 陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Xiǎo Xīngchén & Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi, Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén
Characters: Xuē Yáng | Xuē Chéngměi, Xiǎo Xīngchén, Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn, Wèi Yīng | Wèi Wúxiàn, Lán Zhàn | Lán Wàngjī, Mèng Yáo | Jīn Guāngyáo, Sū Shè | Sū Mǐnshàn, Ā-Qìng (Módào Zǔshī)
Additional Tags: background Wei Wuxian/Lan Wangji - Freeform, Xue Yang redemption arc, xue yang is his own warning, xue yang is not a nice guy, Asexual Character
Summary:

Xue Yang has been trying for ten years to get Xiao Xingchen back. Ten years, without any result, positive or negative. So, Jin Guangyao's bullshit errand to a village at the ass-end of the world isn't high on his list of priorities.

Little does he suspect that what he'll find there will change his life - forever.

 Starting with the maze that is mydramalist.com: basically, once you have an account you can give your own rating, which will show up both on your list page: mydramalist.com/dramalist/gwenniecall as well as the show description page, but only for you. If you're browsing without an account, or not having rated the show, you will see what all the other viewers rated it.

For example, on my list page I gave The Romance of Tiger and Rose a 5/10 (THEY KNOW WHAT THEY DID) while if you go to the show description page mydramalist.com/38907-the-third-princess-from-the-rumors you will find that it has an overall rating of 8.7/10.

People can only see your personal rating if they go to your list page - which is a good thing - there are some rabid actor fans which will unleash the hounds on you if you dare criticize their idol.

Ok, back to Nirvana in Fire. 

First of all, call me a snob, but I'd have preferred it if they'd have just translated the Chinese title: The Langya List makes sense to me, more than Nirvana in Fire!

I've also just realised that an English- DUBBED version exists - I don't know if I dare, lol! Although it's ironic, and I don't know if you were aware of this, but most c-dramas are dubbed anyway. Basically, 99% of them are in Mandarin, not all of the actors speak Mandarin with the kind of accent that is expected in a drama of this kind (think heavy regional accents), also the sets are apparently noisy or something so they rely on ADR all the time? IDK. In some of the most recent shows, actors are starting to be allowed to do their own dialogue, but it's a very gradual thing. Though I don't know if NiF was dubbed.

ANYWAY - I love the Count of Monte Cristo-ish storyline, I love the characters, and I also love how the revelation of the real villain of the piece is kind of gradual - I also wonder if you agree with me on who the real villain is, haha!

Have now moved this journal to DW - all the posts which were on LJ are now here, and the LJ version only has one post. I'm keeping it for the communities on my friends page, though if they move to DW, I'll delete it.

Since my last post in my writing journal, I moved to another fandom or two - Game of Thrones and Criminal Minds. Arrow hasn't been inspiring lately, especially following the Sprog O'Doom / Baby Mama Drama of Season 4b.

As always, AO3 has all my most recent works.

to build a wall between us (don't let them win) (49247 words) by lisbei
Chapters: 5/6
Fandom: Arrow (TV 2012)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Characters: Oliver Queen, Felicity Smoak, Ra's al Ghul, Al Sah-him - Character, John Diggle, Thea Queen, Al Saher (Malcolm Merlyn), Nyssa al Ghul
Additional Tags: AU - after S3E20, Rape Recovery, see title, Suicide Attempt
Summary:

Oliver Queen is alive only in the past. He is forgotten. I am al Sah-Him

R'as al Ghul is successful in erasing Oliver Queen's past to create Al Sah-Him, an assassin who will obey him without a moment's hesitation. And there is one tie which has not yet been severed.

got game by the pound (2802 words) by lisbei
Chapters: 1/3
Fandom: Arrow (TV 2012)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Oliver Queen/Felicity Smoak
Characters: Oliver Queen, Al Sahim, Felicity Smoak
Additional Tags: Shameless Smut, felicity loves it when a plan comes together, don't expect this to happen in the show, post s3e20
Summary:

or, three times Felicity Smoak tried to sex the assassin out of the Arrow.

Felicity has a cunning plan.

My first het fic!

ceiling of amber, pavement of pearl (7111 words) by lisbei
Chapters: 3/?
Fandom: Greek and Roman Mythology, Immortals (2011)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Author Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Lysander/Poseidon (Immortals)
Characters: Lysander (Immortals), Poseidon, Original Human Characters
Additional Tags: Don't Have to Know Canon, Canon gets Greek Mythology so wrong, But I like Joseph Morgan, Past Rape/Non-con
Summary:

Poseidon has been really, really patient, for a god.

---

So, new chapter for this is up on AO3 - I'm not going to be posting it on lj anymore as no-one's reading it here, and posting to fanfiction.net is as much of a pain in the ass as I'm gonna put up with for a story that maybe 5 people are following.

The only problem is that I have to censor it on ffn (apparently I'm incapable of fading to black), so the full sexxing is on AO3.

Spoilers for Immortals (2011, Tarsem Singh).

( Read more... )