snazzy

Snazzy the Dragon

@snazzy

Diaper dragon who likes diapers

Just a friendly dragon that wants you to relax a little. NSFW, 18+. He/Him. Asexual/diapersexual.

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I am halfway through Ancient Detective and holy shit y'all, this is SUCH a fun show!! Also the whole thing is on YouTube for free.

snazzy
@snazzy

I finally finished Ancient Detective! It took me a long time since I got distracted with other stuff.

I highly recommend it! The episodes are available on a youtube playlist for easy viewing.

Basically, this is a wuxia mystery drama about an amnesiac detective in a wuxia/martial arts setting in China. The detective solves murders despite having zero martial arts ability himself. The cases tend to be closed circle where there's a limited pool of suspects and tensions mount as people start turning on each other and accusing people. And while all this happens, a larger plot develops as the detective becomes involved in intrigue and schemes of the martial world!

I am a die-hard mystery fan. I love mystery movies and shows and games. I love twists and big reveals and the "a-ha!" moments. I especially love it when the media actually gives you the clues in advance, letting the audience try to piece things together themselves. I would say that the show does a decent job of this! Even if you don't have context for everything, the solutions for the mysteries avoid the common pitfall of Poirot or Murder, She Wrote episodes that hinge on a single clue revealed 5 minutes before the end.

The problem, as I see it, is that the show stops being about murder mysteries about 15 episodes in and starts becoming about a larger plot. And I really missed the mysteries! The larger plot is fine, but if you watch the first three closed-circle murder mysteries and peace out and don't finish it, I think you'll be fine. But if you stick around, the show DOES have a satisfying conclusion! The final character introduced (a cross-dressing, sassy physician) was one of my favorites.

The acting was pretty good, although the romance plots were kind of boring to me (but, look, I'm asexual; I'm used to putting up with boring romance in media). I really REALLY liked the chemistry between the detective main character and his sworn brother himbo friend. The action scenes were relatively brief for the wuxia genre but still good! A lot of effort went into the costume and set designs. It's a pretty show! It also has some genuinely funny moments, which I was not expecting.

So at the end of the day, I would definitely recommend giving this show a watch!

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snazzy
@snazzy

I have you to thank for introducing me to the show!

I don't really know how TV seasons work in Chinese television, so I just kind of take whatever happens and comes out as a fun surprise and reward.

And outside of the final stinger at the very, very tail-end of the last episode, it really doesn't have much left unexplored! It felt like the wrapped up nicely.

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JanPospisil
@JanPospisil

That last second twist was done in editing, btw, the script was different and iirc even what the characters are saying in the very last scene was dubbed over and changed. (people could still read their lips)
There was some tension between the script writer and the director on the show - the director would make some really odd choices, disregard the writer's notes and change stuff randomly.
Yeah, cdramas typically don't seem to get more than one season. Maybe that's why they're all so friggin' long, 50 episodes is normal.
There are a few popular exceptions that did get more seasons, like Nirvana in Fire or the currently hotly anticipated Joy of Life.
The story here was wrapped up ok, I just wanted more in general. :D

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snazzy
@snazzy

Huh! I find that kind of behind the scenes production stuff fascinating. I'm used to these kinds of situations from my days of watching Kamen Rider, which are PLAGUED with bad writing or directors disregarding good writing or studio meddling.

I count myself as lucky to be a newcomer to the wuxia genre. I'm fortunate to have a huge backlog of content available to me. And I haven't even started looking into xianxia stuff yet!

BTW I don't know if you have checked it out or not, but I just started playing Mohism, which is basically wuxia Phoenix Wright. It's a little janky but it really does a good job filling that "wuxia mystery solving" hole haha

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JanPospisil
@JanPospisil

I haven't played that, though it was on my wishlist.
"Tale of Immortal" is my next wuxia game to play, though it sounds daunting.
Also I hear "The Matchless Kungfu" is surprisingly excellent. (at least judging based on the demo)

With xianxia...there's just too much trash to wade through for me - it's had years of massive popularity and it all looks and feels exactly the same to me. I'm sure there's good ones, so maybe one day I'll give it a chance. (for me I guess I'd stick with older titles - not sure if something like Chinese Ghost Story belongs there..)

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