I am LIVING for the head cannon going around that Xie Lian has actually lost it centuries ago and his beautiful husband, Hua Cheng the Crimson Rain Sought Flower Ghost King himself, is actually a putrefied abomination/horrific creature of the night and he just doesn't see it.

BUT! Why leave the other calamity ghosts out of this fun filled horror fest??

🤩

lol

Qi Rong: Hi I’m Night Touring Green Lantern but most people refer to me as “the fuck is that?”

This is very much an essay. Consider this my praise for s2ep9. I'll fangirl in another post.

Xie Lian acknowledged that he's never seen Hua Cheng angry, but he approached him without any fear or worry. Even after he was unexpectedly paralysed, he still didn't doubt the fact that HC would never hurt. While he was confused and nervous, he still trusted HC with his life, despite having been out into a paralysis, and doesn't doubt HC's intentions for even a second.

Hua Cheng is angrier than we've ever seen him. He wasn't fazed at all by anything in season 1 except when XL mentioned being hurt or was hurt. He had, in the previous episodes, watched as the love of his existence discredit himself and hold back his tears. Even earlier, HC had accidently hurt him. Now, he gets to vent the anger at himself for his helplessness, anger at the Lang Qianqiu for his ignorance and anger at Qi Rong for his schemes. He is angry and one of the many people who hurt and mocked XL was in front of him. With every insult against XL, HC only gets angrier.

For the next part, I'd like to mention that LQQ in his daruma form is adorable and I laughed when he jumped out like a pokeball.

Onto the more serious look, LQQ is angry as well, but a lot more confused and the donghua team did a great job at expressing. He shifted between denial, confusion, reassurance and anger as he battles the words between XL and QR, and the donghua team did brilliantly to express this. The music was appropriately dramatic. It feels sharp, more like battle music, and paused and played at the right moments to increase the drama. He'd rather trust the man he thinks murdered his whole family rather than face the possibility that he condemned the wrong person and he lived a large portion of his life based on a lie, hating a person who might not have deserved and letting the men who did commit the murder get away with it (to some extent). Even Prince Anle was honoured as a friend of the king in death rather than a traitor to the nation.

Speaking of XL's words to LQQ, the fact that he yelled against QR's words the moment he could talk was a testament to his nerves and desperation and a shock to both LQQ and QR. It is an absolutely absurd situation from LQQ's view. He's watching a man argue that he was the guilty party behind the murders when normally, people would be trying to blame each other and prove themselves innocent. It's very obvious the XL is hiding something but LQQ chooses not to chase the answers and settles with XL's story because if it isn't true, then he would have to reevaluate the past few centuries and face the reality that his personal feelings blinded him to the facts, not that anyone can quite blame him for it. Meanwhile, Qi Rong is shocked because, from his view, a random man showed up and called him a liar, despite him very much telling the truth, or what he believes to be the truth.

When Xie Lian is talking about his second demotion, I love how they cut to HC, softer now that he was looking XL. HC knows exactly why his 'heart was uncertain' but he is also clearly hoping that part of it was because XL missed Wu Ming and he mourned him. The implications is something that novel readers can see and cry about; XL's second shackle was his own punishment for getting Wu Ming killed and it was sign that he did care for Wu Ming, the nameless ghost, his last believer. However, HC doesn't know that. He can only hope that he occupied a modicum of XL's heart but never think of asking because he's afraid of the answer. His love may be unconditional, but rejection would hurt and meaning nothing to XL would be a painful existence for him. In a single frame, I see the love, hope and adoration that HC has for XL.

There are a lot of good Hualian scenes in this episode. There is a lot more casual touches, where Xie Lian is trying to calm HC down and HC is too angry to be panicking about it. The irony is absolutely not lost when QR asks about who'd worship XL and make statues of him while HC, XL's most devoted follower who carved thousands of statues of him, was standing right there.

XL takes every one of QR's insults with a smile because he genuinely isn't offended. It's hard to be insulted by children's jabs after everything he went through. To him, it isn't a big deal, while HC was only getting progressively angrier at QR for insulting him. The moment QR insulted HC, however, was when XL instantly turned to violence, striking before he could fully finish. It wasn't that big of an insult, calling HC blind, but it was enough of a transgression that XL slapped him like a fly. To XL, HC quickly became someone he cared for, respected and wanted by his side, for what was probably the first time in forever. It only makes sense for XL to be viciously protective of the first person that he cared for on a personal level rather than 'the world should be protected' stance. Meanwhile, HC was genuinely surprised by XL's actions. While he would protect XL against everything, he was never expecting that protection returned but HC, in his insecurity and devotion, does not fully understand the fact that, while true devotion can be one-sided, true love can't be. XL does care deeply for HC, a fact that he hasn't comprehended yet.

Even when Hua Cheng blocks Feng Xin with E-Ming, he is extremely gentle. He knows that all of this is going to hurt XL but it needed to happen and Hua Cheng was there to catch. It was also fascinating to see Lang Qianqiu realise that he won't be able to stop Xie Lian from killing Qi Rong if it came down to it and there was a true worry that he might never find out the truth if Xie Lian got through him. On the other hand, Xie Lian was truly desperate; this was a secret he buried, and faced 100 years in a coffin to ensure that it stayed buried. Now, without much of a warning, all of it was coming out and Xie Lian is panicking.

One of my favourite parts in this episode is Qi Rong himself. His voice actor did a brilliant job at portraying the wild, manic and immature personality of Qi Rong. He is somewhat intelligent; you can't survive 800 years without some serious planning, and he did plot the gilded banquet along with other skirmishes everywhere else. However, he is childish and arrogant in a way that the other ghosts aren't. He's powerful enough to stand above other ghosts and too weak to stand as equals with the calamities, so despite his attempt to escape his mediocrity compared to certain others (e.g., Xie Lian and Hua Cheng) failed. His immaturity shines through in the animation. He is the most animated and restless character so far, moving constantly and expressing himself in his limbs a lot more than others. It makes him feel a lot less composed than the others, and his actions cement that. He crawls around, he holds his knees, and he gets red in the face when people don't respond to his riling. It gives a much more maniachal yet silly vision of him. While it doesn't make him a completely terrifying presence like White No-Face, he does make people weary with his antics. He is definitely one of the characters that I hate as people but love as character. I think Qi Rong was the part where the entire donghua team truly and absolutely outdid themselves, even though I do think they do an amazing job every day.

my beautiful baby boy who eats people

Some Qi Rong sketches that i might finish but I might not

The way Qi Rong reacts to Xie Lian's praise is my Roman Empire.

Look how happy it made him

Then how mad he got when he realized how he reacted

The unpacked trauma is crazy

Qi Rong: People are terrified of me due to my forests of hanging corpses and cannibalism. He Xuan: People are scared of me because I drown them. Xie Lian: That's all? Qi Rong: What do you do, dear cousin? Step on an ant every so often? *He Xuan, backing away already* Xie Lian: I sleep. Qi Rong: You sleep- Xie Lian: I sleep with the Crimson Rain Sought Flower. Qi Rong: Oh shit.

Watching Heaven Official's Blessing with my Mom - season 2

For the record, she's 70, I'm 40. I introduced her to the Donghua because I knew she'd love it.

"I think your husband* has a few screws loose." (About Shi Qingxuan trying to turn Xie Lian into a woman.)

"Be nicer to him. I'd drop you at once." (About the Earth Master being rescued, then carried.)

"Are you sure this is your husband?" I confirmed this. "Oh honey, I think your husband is gay." (Same as above, pretty much only a blink later.)

She had an eye-rolling contest with Mu Qing when he and Feng Xin fought while Xie Lian was under arrest. She would have won.

"Oh, but he's whipped." (About Hua Cheng helping to free the prisoners in Qi Rong's lair. She believes he might not have bothered. I'm a bit on the fence about this, knowing how he made Eming - and more to the point, how he did not. But I can hardly tell her that.)

There was no verbal response to Qi Rong aside from an exhausted "Pitiful." She observed him with the same expression she might use on a particularly slow dog.

"Now there's a guy you know never got laid." (She said this when Shi Qingxuan threw her breasts at Feng Xin. I was howling with laughter, she thinks it was in agreement, but it was obviously a bit more hysteria-tinged.) She also noted my husband is a brat. I can't argue with that.

She asked me if Xie Lian killed that guy at the end. I told her if she wants to know that she'll either have to be VERY patient until season 3 comes - or be moderately patient and read the books where that answer doesn't come at once, either.

*I told her that on the fuck - marry - kill list Shi Qingxuan is number two. I told her that fuck is Pei Ming because that man has experience. The way Xuan Ji clings to him, he must have some skill, too. Kill is Shi Wudu, but I did not say that to her, just that it's a character she hasn't met. She knows I dislike the Water Master, but she doesn't know how much. I didn't give that answer lightly, in my defence. There are very few characters I resent enough in TGCF, if any, but I had to name someone.)

“Night-Touring Green Lantern”

ITS QI RONG DAY! THE STINKY GOT BEAT UP! :D

Okay, I have this head canon where QR is actually pretty normal around anyone who he doesn't consider annoying af, or around people he doesn't have to keep up his persona with (specifically Guzi). And the only reason he acts crazy is so the 'annoying af' people gtfo of his cave.

AU where when wei wuxian dies, instead of staying dead for thirteen years and then transmigrating into someone else’s body thanks to a fucked up ritual, he’s immediately reincarnated as none other than qi rong.

Qi Rong enjoyers, tag yourself