#like its so subtle but its so clearly desperate panic

jockvillagersonly:

Do you ever think about how the parasitic mushroom incident brought out some of the most intense physical and behavioral expressions of fear we have ever seen from Zhang Qiling? It’s one of the only times we ever see Zhang Qiling indecisive — he reads as utterly plagued with fear at the potential ramifications of his choices.

Or about how establishing Zhang Qiling as the arbiter of when / how Wu Xie’s infection would be healed forced Zhang Qiling to really sit with his feelings about Wu Xie and Wu Xie’s mortality (in a way that his previous rescues - which were often discrete moments - did not always)?

Or about how afterwards, we see that this incident (and all the reckoning that came with it) shook him to the core? It was hard to get the timing right for a screenshot, but he is clearly losingit and barely keeping it hidden when Wu Xie wakes up.

Or about how Wu Xie neverknew about any of this? And continued forward in this nebulous space of knowing he is important (?) to Xiaoge (?) but also feeling confused by Xiaoge’s mixed signals? And how we see that tension continue to play out in many of their interactions in the rainforest even as we, the audience, have had a moment to glance into the heart of Zhang Qiling?