Thread by @6differentkinds

SEVERAL YEARS? SEVERAL? It's gotta be less than TEN, surely. We've just established it must be less than ten? It can't be TWENTY.

I know, I know, this is Whose Tomb Is It Anyway, where everyone's ages are made up and the casting doesn't matter, but this is preposterous!

Anyway, good things about Tibetan Sea Flower / Adventure Behind The Bronze Door / The One Between Ultimate Note and Sha Hai so far:

1) Xiaoge
2) flashback Wu Xie & Pangzi
2) That Scene
3) Xiao Hua
5) Xiaoge

6) the song over the end credits

I wanted to rearrange some things in that list (put Xiaoge first) and I can see now that did NOT work out. Good Lord. Pretend I know how lists work.

(that song seriously slaps tho)

WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS

Lying down on the floor with my Xiaoge feelings

There's been this tenderness to the first two episodes that I really appreciate. Obviously a lot can happen in the next 30 eps, but it sets up the whole thing as an adventure story about love, and very openly so. There's tomb critters and humor and wire work, but also. The love.

(Just gonna assume this whole part will wreck me.)

Devastated right now.

Oh so it's been five years. Five years! They could just have just kept the baby actor!

Except of course you can't pair him with CMH 👦🏻👨🏻, and CMH was in Sha Hai, so that's mostly fine, age-wise. Plus, it's CMH! I see the problem, I just don't think Zhang Luyi was the solution.

Apart from that, gosh it's all so tender. You can really feel the affection and trust between Pangzi and Wu Xie, and how much Wu Xie feels for Xiaoge. The love, the love!

Also, skin mask nonsense. I missed this silly franchise. 🥹

He's so delighted by Pangzi, he's having the time of his liiiiife 😁

This evil white guy's lip movements match the audio, I'm so confused.

Episode 6 is bringing the murder bugs and hallucinations and Iron Triangle feels! We're so back, baby. 🥰

What if I spend today just crying about Zhang Qiling.

God, he loves him so much, so much.

That's it, that's the show.

Done with ep 9 and enjoying this all so much. All the Xiaoge backstory! All the silly tomb stuff, gosh I missed the stupid traps and the evil bugs and the blood flinging, and also THE LOVE. 🥹 The writing seems really tight? To me? I'm not an expert, but it has been fun so far.

Episode 10 just did so much psychological damage to me.

Zhang Haike is still being catty at Wu Xie, like, "I just want to know why the Zhang Qiling chose you," and I'm like, you don't even know! You have no idea! That they invented love!!!

https://twitter.com/6differentkinds/status/1671903013890301960

The group chat was talking about some other people the Zhang Qiling must have known for 3+ years, so like, maybe there were less annoying options for the Zhangs to seek out than Xiao Sanye, bane of everyone's existence? Surely those """tests""" weren't for real for real.

Obviously they were dicks at him first and Wu Xie is just getting his revenge now, but I feel at this point Zhang "I want to kiss the Patriarch on the mouth" Haike would be justified in stabbing Wu Xie in the face a bit. (CHEMISTRY.)

Also, I can't think too long about this scene or I just lose it.

I will die on this hill, btw. My boy has done NOTHING WRONG.

(This tweet brought to you by Pangzi lighting an ancient wick attached to an ancient unknown device because it was A BIT DARK in the CREEPY TOMB.)

https://twitter.com/6differentkinds/status/1700837027623719365

Checks out.

Finished watching ep 14! I am now completely caught up with the available material for a DMBJ drama, WITH MORE TO COME. WHICH NOBODY ELSE HAS SEEN BEFORE EITHER. Very excited about this. 😀

I think it's interesting that Wu Xie is meeting/hearing about all these people who have been part of Xiaoge's life, and it's like. Bullied him. Used him. Turned evil and blamed him. Turned evil and blamed him. Used him. Lived to serve him, then died.

Obviously he identifies most with Wang Jinyuan, but also, like, Xiaoge is his friend? Like, have any of these people tried being NORMAL about the Zhang Qiling? Can't even bring himself to call him that. It's just Xiaoge. He loses his memory sometimes. He's loved, we love him.

I had to stop watching episode 17, because I was hoping for a nice little treat after a shitty work thing and now there's a raging fire and I want to cry. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the fuck. What the actual fuck.

Okay I'm bravely returning to episode 17, because it's just a silly little show about silly little tombs and cannot actually hurt me, MY HEART IS NOT LITERALLY BREAKING ABOUT A FICTIONAL CHARACTER'S FICTIONAL MEMORIES, EVERYTHING'S FINE. I'm fine.

I'm fine. This is fine.

Wide-eyed "Xiaoge" with that unhinged grin is really some stellar work by Zhang Kangle, but also why must the Zhang clan always be so EXTRA, Jesus Christ. Can you do anything normally? Surely this 🎆🎆🎆 could have been an email. Or like, a group text. Phone call? Carrier pigeon?

This was both incredibly stupid (HOW???) and also the most touching thing since the statue scene. Also, the "he remembered one time"? My god. Nobody does it like the tomb franchise.

"I won."

He's so beautiful it's upsetting. (Bunny!!!)

Feeling normal about this.

Just gonna live here for the foreseeable future.

If you don't miss her, blink once.

How much did that beverage company pay them to be featured in EVERY SINGLE SCENE, oh my god. Is this the only available beer brand in this universe? Are they just taking the piss at this point by shoving a can into CMH's hand whenever he's on screen? IS THIS FUNNY TO YOU GUYS

Wu Xie just having a full-on mope session because his emotional support immortal isn't there and he's useless without Xiaoge 😞 is yet another instance where the casting is just really not working. He should not look 45 for this scene. Not at this point in time. It's WEIRD.

Pangzi is berating Zhang Haike to be nicer to this sad little baby boy, and like, this is technically correct, yes, Zhang Haike is definitely older than 45. But I did snicker a BIT.

I was NOT prepared for the tooth stuff in episode 25 and I would rate it about minus one hundred on my personal enjoyment scale. The last four eps in general have been a bit of a slog, but that's just the way of the tomb shows. All must love them and despair! \o/

By the way, I'm so baffled by the Feng character. He was introduced as an unhinged villain, frequently looked like he wanted to cry, has a PhD in zoology? Didn't really have a redemption arc but now isn't a villain anymore. Friend-shaped. Incongruously hot. WHAT is he doing here?

(Made it all the way to ep 28. Zhang Luyi and Chen Minghao clearly had a lot of fun creating their own little old man yaoi moments, and I'm happy for them, but man I'm ready for another extended Xiaoge flashback. Maybe he can have another smol animal living in his coat pocket!)

Many times, we don't just perform a particular deed just because it's meaningful—

The same show, five minutes earlier: we have to stop the giant carnivorous monster spores from wreaking havoc on the world, and our last best hope is going nuclear on the cyclone we've watched approaching for the last week or so.

Nobody does it like the tomb franchise.

Girl, what.

I keep saying I'm not ready for the Bai Ma feels, but I guess at some point one has to rip the bandaid off and watch episode 30. So I will do that now. 🧍🏻

(I have several thoughts about the ending of ep 29, but let's not talk about the Zhang siblings arc now. Maybe later!)

Well. This was all a lot.

Gotta Sha Hai our way to Reunion, I GUESS.

Things continue to be a lot.

(Also fuck the Jiumen, man.)

"Zhang Qiling has friends now. I thought he would never make friends."

Waiting until the second to last episode to be like, "found some more scrolls" and then having those scrolls contain all the information we just spent 30 episodes looking for is honestly such an iconic NPSS move. GO OFF KING. BUGS FROM OUTER SPACE, WHY NOT. LET'S DO THIS.

🥺

Well, guess I don't have to watch Sha Hai anymore. ✅

🥹

I finished Tibetan Sea Flower! I enjoyed large parts of it, didn't enjoy others (mostly to do with casting), definitely fell in love with Zhang Kangle's Xiaoge, and thought it did a good job getting us from smiley puppy Wu Xie to ruthless mob widow. I give it 7.5 stars!