At the rate things are going, I will need a Sleuth icon

[sholio]

Edit: I now have Sleuth icons thanks to sheron! ♥ ♥ ♥

We have now watched up to Sleuth ep. 31, and I have met THE GREATEST CHARACTER TO EVER EXIST (except for all the others, of course).

Please do not spoil me for future episodes!


I am speaking of course of Jin San, the sympathetic bandit leader who I now ship with LITERALLY EVERYONE ON THIS SHOW.

I'm not sure what pronouns to use, honestly, because in the world of the show Jin San is viewed by the protagonists as a woman dressing as a man, but I feel that by modern standards, considering how they present and clearly think of themselves, it would be more accurate to think of them as a trans man or genderqueer, and at the same time I think Mandarin doesn't have gendered pronouns anyhow? So I'm tentatively going with "they"?

.... anyway, I was actually sort of - braced for things that didn't happen, and really pleased at how this part of the storyline was handled! I was fully expecting The Big Reveal to be more of a thing (it wasn't - it was honestly dealt with pretty respectfully imho) and for Jin San to take on a more feminine role/clothing/mannerisms when it was discovered by the other characters that they were AFAB, and hahahah, no, basically a whole world of no.

I have now launched a new ship in my head, which is the SS Jin San/Everyone, sailing along in a tiny flotilla. (But especially Sui Zhou, because that FIGHT, my HEART.) Anyway, the Jin San flotilla sails alongside my other primary ships for this show, which are:

Tang Fan/Wang Zhi OTP *____*
Duo'erla/Tang Yu I DON'T KNOW WHY THEY'RE JUST SUPER CUTE???

And I continue to love the ... everything, basically, from the found-family-ness to the vaguely steampunk-esque technology, which is not at all unrealistic for the setting but also - I was talking to Sheron about this a little earlier - it reminds me of Turn somewhat in that area, which really embraced the FRANKLY BONKERS technology of the late 1700s; in this case it's the mid-1600s (I think?) but same hat, basically, where historical media doesn't all that often deal in too much depth with how honestly weird, fantastic, and cutting-edge the tech of the past was but THIS DOES, and while I know that this is not a ~true and accurate historical depiction~ any more than Turn was, I really like that aspect of the show, the way that the characters' sciencey bent and the interesting tech gives it a rich historical-on-the-cusp-of-modern feeling. I also like recognizing historical events I've heard of, like the Beijing maybe-ammo-depot explosion that's a big part of the plot in this story arc! (Which to be fair I know about mainly because it was talked about a great deal in the context of the Syria explosion last year.)

So basically this show continues to be super neat and I'm really enjoying it!

Comments

[goss]

Yay, Sleuth! The found family aspect is my favourite thing. I love all the kitchen prep and family dinner sequences so much. <333

[sholio]

The found-family/domesticity aspect is so lovely! I also appreciate the food porn. :D

[naye]

Yay! Glad you're enjoying it!

Mandarin doesn't have gendered pronouns
It does: 他 for he/him and 她 for she/her. However! These are both pronounced ta1, so in spoken Mandarin you have no idea which is being used. (It/its is also ta1, 它. I've seen gender-neutral Mandarin use the letters TA to replace any gendered character.)

(Standard disclaimer: I don't actually speak Chinese, I just know a little bit!)

[silverflight8]

This is correct for modern Mandarin, yes - it's three separate characters for female, male, and neuter, but they are spoken the same way and indistinguishable in verbal speech.

[sholio]

Ah, thank you so much for the info!! ♥

[sheron]

*laughing at everything*

I love this. Wang Zhi unable to keep his composure laughing at Tang Fan was the cutest! ♥

And you're absolutely right, for some reason on this rewatch Duo'erla and Tang Yu are really hitting my ship feels, although I didn't really ship them before. But they're just so supportive of one another!

ETA: extremely relevant to your interests! (There's more but...spoilers)

[sholio]

*reblogs* :D That scene was so fun. I appreciate that Tang Fan continues to be completely useless for actual fighting. XD (No seriously, I do appreciate it; it's nice that not every character is a physical badass, and still have things they're good at anyway.)

[sovay]

and for Jin San to take on a more feminine role/clothing/mannerisms when it was discovered by the other characters that they were AFAB, and hahahah, no, basically a whole world of no.

I love when that doesn't happen.

(There is a cross-dressed character in Wild Boys of the Road (1933) who is definitely a girl, but never seen in anything but boy's clothes and I was fully braced for a dress scene and it just never happened.)

and while I know that this is not a ~true and accurate historical depiction~ any more than Turn was, I really like that aspect of the show, the way that the characters' sciencey bent and the interesting tech gives it a rich historical-on-the-cusp-of-modern feeling.

Also nice!

[sholio]

(There is a cross-dressed character in Wild Boys of the Road (1933) who is definitely a girl, but never seen in anything but boy's clothes and I was fully braced for a dress scene and it just never happened.)

Oh, that's really nice to know! Yeah, I was fully expecting something along those lines and was pleasantly surprised that there was not.

[thawrecka]

Jin San is so great!

Based on the emperor and Consort Wan (who are loosely based on real historical figures), it has to be set some time between 1464 and 1487, but I don't know enough about that time period to know anything about the level of historical accuracy in the show.