completely objective ranking of prince jing's outfits

8. just a day at the office chic

i'm sorry, i have to say it - i don't like this look. the colors are beautiful but the contrast is too stark. the rich, warm tone of the sash and headpiece clash with the crisp elegance of the overcoat and the whole thing looks kind of tacky. the embroidery is not cohesive and leaves the bottom half of his body comparatively bare. this looks like 3 separate outfits put on top of one another. pass. 1/5

7. crown prince is in da house

i admit i'm prejudiced because we just watched prince yu wear this robe for like 30 episodes straight, and i don't like the association. still, this man was born to wear warm tones. this is an outfit with a purpose and it achieves that purpose - makes jingyan look like the crown prince. nothing much to say here. 3/5

6. the emperor's robes

what can i say about this outfit? very ceremonial and absolutely mandatory. only appears for, like, 10 seconds. same as above, i can take it or leave it, mostly because it's just an outfit that does its job. needless to say he pulls this off better than his dad ever did. 3/5

5. dilf o'clock

something about this getup screams "father" to me. maybe it's the lighting in this particular photo, maybe it's the thick material. overall, i'm into it. love the deep wine color of the over robe and the perfectly coordinated color inversion of the embroidery and fabric of the layer just underneath. very cohesive, very well put together, and very stern. makes me want to put my feminist card on hold while i slip the robe form his shoulders and ask him, "how was your day, honey? dinner's in the oven" 4.69/5

4. "royal father, i have no idea what you're talking about" court getup

automatically better than the scarlet crown prince getup because we are in the emperor's colors babey! this outfit is the equivalent of a ghost hovering in the emperor's rearview mirror, getting closer and closer no matter how desperately he runs. this outfit screams, "your days are numbered, old man" this outfit is also such a beautiful balance of gold, black and cream that i am on the verge of tears as i type this. wish i could wear something like it to sit on my porch with a glass of sparkling wine so that the neighbors can see me. 4/5

3. "just spent a decade on military campaigns stewing in my sad backstory and it only made me hotter" armor

i know i was just disparaging the other standardized outfits, and it's not like this armor is significantly different from armor worn by other characters, but it's gorgeous. if you've never seen a photo of wang kai in modern clothes, i recommend it just so you can see the amount of work that this design is doing to make him look so princely and solid. this man's shoulders are not nearly this broad and he does not take up as much space as this whole vibe suggests. it's like an optical illusion. and it looks so good on him. i want to kiss the costume department on the mouth. 5/5

2. picture perfect prince

objectively i feel like there's kind of a lot going on here but i'm super into this outfit. it's very regal without submitting to the standard crown prince regalia, and the dark blue underlayer with a lighter overlayer is a nice throwback to his original outfit without being too stark. mostly i just love the cut of this robe on his shoulders. it manages to be both casual and imposing. you can't really see it here but the embroidery on the sash is beautiful, and i love the little red underrobe peeking through to make it a cohesive look. this outfit calms me. 5/5

1. "lots of honor, zero brains" fit

look me in the eyes - this is the hottest he's ever been. this scene is an emotional rollercoaster and it's the perfect outfit for it. it's the first look where we see traces of red and gold sneak into his color scheme in earnest, and i love it. the black fur with the golden clasps that perfectly match his headpiece and the embroidery along the hem...the dark brown of the cape in contrast to the snow around him...this is THE look. mwah. 100000000/5

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snapshots

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vardasvapors

love a show that’s like [extremely intricate politics] [emotional yeti reunion] [definitely totally completely realistic and scientifically accurate fire-blizzard-bug illness] [very realistic unsubtle modern domestic political commentary] [yeti now has neatly combed fur & lil blue bow]

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acesgroupchat

i-inviktus asked:

Help I'm having NIF feelings. I'm rewatching the series and Jingrui's birthday party has just finished. All through the show, MCS is angsting over doing wicked things and how Jingyan won't like them. And I'd argue that hurting Jingrui is one of those things that MCS is feeling the most guilt over. BUT. Jingyan's reaction to it is basically "life sucks sometimes, Jingrui's gotta be a big boy about it". JY's more upset about Nanchu seeing the conflict! So like. JY is capable of being practical and ruthless just fine! And I'm not saying MCS could have told JY about being LS, but he could have told JY about being LS!

acesgroupchat answered:

Hiiii! Oh man you and me both. Just all the time. NIF Feelings for daaays.

I agree that in terms of things that MCS decides to hate himself for, what happens to Jingrui is probably the heaviest in terms of the self-recrimination. He is SO upset about it. He is pre-emptively upset and he’s upset during and he’s upset after.

Honestly though I’m kind of with Jingyan on this one. Yeah it’s a SUPER rough birthday party, but like… it’s a birthday party. Also given how badly things were starting to go with the Zhuo’s before the party, I think there’s a good chance that something even worse would have happened had MCS not intervened.

I honestly think MCS’s level of self-loathing about Jingrui’s birthday probably has more to do with MCS being very determined to hate himself and this being a major milestone in his whole plan, which he is celebrating by hating himself extra. Trauma is weird that way. (Is trauma weird that way? It feels right to me but also I have never had my whole family murdered and then been skinned about it so who knows). This also probably is, out of all the things he did for this plan, the thing that is farthest from who he would have been had he not needed to become MCS. Loyalty is the backbone and currency both of this show and of MCS’s life, and in spite of that he betrays Jingrui, who is both Lin Shu’s cousin and MCS’s friend.

So this is a fairly controversial take, but I suspect that of the two of them, Jingyan is probably the more well-adjusted when it comes to needing to be practical and ruthless, even though MCS sets himself up as a 100% dirty-work kind of dude. Jingyan has lived as a member of the court, ostracized though he may be, for all twelve of the post Chiyan years. He has DEFINITELY had to make an ugly pragmatic choice or two in that time and I’m sure he HATED it, but I doubt he internalized it quite the way MCS does. MCS is willing to do a million ugly things for Jingyan, but every time he does, those ugly things get rolled into the larger trauma of his lost home and lost self like a horrible katamari damacy of trauma, which means he both blames himself for things that are 100% other people’s fault, and feels disproportionately guilty about things that are, within the scope of this narrative, only a little terrible.

He COULD have told Jingyan about being Lin Shu! Honestly I am a little bit of two minds about this because Jingyan would 100% have shown his hand at some point by like… idk committing politically inconvenient treason over it? But also Jingyan did that anyway so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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canary3d-obsessed

Restless Rewatch: Nirvana in Fire - A Primer

Warning: Mild spoilers for the first 5 or 6 episodes

I have injected all 54 episodes of Nirvana in Fire (The TOS/first series, not the TNG/second series) directly into my neck vein in the past week, having initially bounced off the first episode the three previous times I tried to watch it. I thought a primer might be useful for people who are undecided about watching it, or who are finding the first episode as confusing as I initially did.

This will be followed by Episode recap posts, although not (I hope) at the pace or word count of my Untamed recaps (which are ongoing!).

I watched it on Viki but I think it’s on Youtube as well.

What is Nirvana in Fire and Why Should I Watch It?

Nirvana in Fire (aka Langya Bang) is about this guy, Mei Changsu.

He goes by various names in the drama but we’re just going to call him Mei Changsu for simplicity. He’s looking for justice and he’s very very clever. He’s also sickly and ~~obviously dying~~ possibly doesn’t have very long to live.

He’s secretly a member of the royal family, and all of his old friends think he’s dead. He had a medical trauma that turned him into a different actor, so most of his friends can’t recognize him. In order to get justice, he needs to shake some things up in the capital, so he goes there and starts manipulating people.

The Pugilist World

He’s also, conveniently, the head of a Wuxia (“pugilist” in most subs) society that’s like the CIA of the Warring States Period. This gives him a good supply of friendly minions.

His main people from the Pugilist side of things are:

Sarcastic Kung Fu doctor. He’s important in the first episode and then we don’t see him for like 40 episodes and then he’s important again.

Sullen/adorable Kung Fu adolescent, who is nearly unbeatable and is played by the kid from Tomb of the Sea & Fights Break Sphere. He is with Mei Changsu throughout the story as his bodyguard and ~~reminder that MCS has a soft heart~~ sidekick.

(more after the cut!)

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