I got into Word of Honour （山河令）about two months ago right after Heaven Official’s Blessing （天官赐福）and The Untamed （陈情令）. Honestly, I like the plot of Word of Honour a bit more than The Untamed (although episode 35 killed me) but that’s just a personal preference. For a good while I just stared at Gongjun/Wen Kexing’s visuals, he just looked so good.
I know about Zhang Zhehan’s current scandal and truthfully when I first heard of it I was quite disappointed (as a person with a full Korean ethnic background). Although after I did more of my own research I’ve come to my own conclusion to continue to support him with caution. I feel like there is not enough information for me to dislike him, I do hope he’s taking good care of himself and his mom.
While making this poster I took great care with every small detail. Considering that this is my first time making a portrait with multiple people, I do believe I did really well; I may even call it my best work. It’s a shame that my phone camera can’t capture just how good it looks in person. I know pride is a sin, but great pride every once and a while could do no harm right?
The calligraphy might be one of my favourite parts. I was unsure whether to go with the original logo or an easier block logo, I’m glad I went with the former. I used a fine tip felt pen to create its details to copy paint brush strokes; it came out much better than I expected.
If I were to fix up a part of this piece it would probably be Chengling. For some reason, I think it may be his eyes, but every time I look at him it feels like something is off. I don’t believe I captured his child-like innocence well unlike with Cao Weining who looks slightly off but still holds his love for A-Xiang in his eyes.
Recently I found out that 12B pencils exist, my darkest pencil as of now is a 6B so I’d like to find a 12B to improve my shading for the future. My next poster definitely won’t be another BL, maybe Kuroko no Basket or Tower Of God, I’m not too sure yet.
The fact that it’s an actress from the actual show who plays the role of a ghost in charge of ghost weddings that posted this video will never not be funny and absolutely amazing.
I’m not even gonna lie, I start laughing uncontrollably every single time I watch this goddamn video.
So backstory to this video (this is only half of it, I’ll post the second half too), Chen Zihan, the actress for Xi Sang Ghost, posted this video on her Weibo and has since deleted it. The thing is, if you recall, Xi Sang Ghost is in charge of officiating weddings for ghosts and since her first appearance with Wen Kexing, netizens have been joking that the reason Wen Kexing gives her so much leeway and respect is because he’s expecting her to host his wedding with Zhou Zishu.
I think you get what I’m implying here.
So anyways, a few days after the finale on Saturday, Chen Zihan posts this video on her official Weibo account and she edits it in a way that shows WenZhou’s proposal, Zhou Zishu preparing to get married to Wen Kexing, with her as host for their wedding.
The fact that she starts with the whole hairpin giving scene is just (remember, hairpin is a token of love). I swear no one in that entire cast and crew is normal. They’re all shippers and she’s actually insane for this because “Chen Zihan hosts Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu’s wedding” reached number 1 trending on Weibo after this video dropped.
btw, I hope y’all are aware that Chen Zihan (the actress who plays Xi Sang Ghost) posted (and deleted) a video of her officiating Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu’s wedding
they are literally married and I’m ready to take is as canon (I’ll try to post the video after, it’s just very long and I get annoyed with tumblr’s 100MB size limit )
By the way, I’ve been posting a lot more SHL updates, interview translations of Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun on my Twitter (@manggaetteok96) so if you’re interested in faster and smaller updates about Word of Honor, you can go check my account out.
It’s mainly because Twitter allows longer videos to be posted whereas Tumblr is constrained by the 100mb limit. I still use Tumblr because there’s no word limit here so all of the massive word barf posts will continue to be done here
So I haven’t made any posts yet today but I’m here with something very good this time.
Namely, further proof that the Word of Honor team really did film a happy ending, they just couldn’t fully show it. Fans noticed that Chengling’s explanation of what happened to Wen Kexing and Zhou Zishu as they practiced the LiuHe skill did not match his lips at all (honestly any Chinese speaking person can tell, the dubbing is pretty obvious).
The video below is actually a fan’s re-dub of Chengling’s explanation which, compared to the mess of dubbing in the aired version, pretty perfectly matches his lip movements. Can’t blame the original dub though, the explanation is way too different to match his lips ;)
There are two sets of subtitles: the set on top is what was aired in the finale and the set below is what Chengling is supposed to have originally said (pre-dub over).
I have translated both:
Broadcast version:
Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, there must be a person who wholeheartedly accepts turning their body into a furnace which they use to turn their own hard-earned cultivation into energy that is passed on to the practitioner. No matter how good your cultivation is, even if death is not immediate, the veins will still be cut off eventually.
Kid: So… did they master it?
What should have been the original script (and basically what is said in the video above):
Chengling: To master the LiuHe skill, the two must share the same heart/feelings, watching over and protecting each other. They must also whole-heatedly recognize the other as their soulmate, for only by maintaining their love can they pass the most critical stage by transmitting their internal qi (energy) to the other, thereby getting through the difficulty. Once the skill is mastered, the two will then become each other’s immortal protector.
Kid: So… they both survived?
-
So.
I dunno if that makes it obvious now but from Chengling’s original explanation, nowhere does it say that a sacrifice is needed to master the LiuHe skill. The two people just have to wholeheartedly love each other and be willing to give to each other completely, which would allow them to transmit the necessary energy to push pass the critical stage without holding anything back. In the end, they become immortal and protect each other forever.
This “theory” (I really should use “fact” but whatever) is completely supported by Ye Baiyi’s words as well. In a flashback, he tells Wen Kexing that he has a method to save A-Xu, but it would cost him his life and asked if he would still be willing. Wen Kexing didn’t even hesitate before agreeing, to which Ye Baiyi let out a pleased smile and replied with “You’ve answered well.”
According to my “theory”, this was merely a test to ensure that Wen Kexing would not have any doubts because if he did, he’ll hold back during the LiuHe cultivation process which could cost both of them their lives. It’s only by being wholeheartedly devoted to each other and willing to give each other their all that they can pass the critical stage.
Also yes, I know he said a bunch of stuff in voice over while the camera panned over WenZhou mid-cultivation but because I didn’t actually see his lips say that (meaning, I don’t have video proof of his lips actually uttering those words), I’m more inclined to believe what I do see. A voice over can be recorded at any time to fit broadcasting needs so ♀️
Anyways, all this just to reiterate what I’ve been saying this entire time: WenZhou have a happy ending where they both become immortal and are each other’s forever for eternity. No, they did not die. No, I don’t think it’s a bad end and no one can convince me otherwise
Translation: (clip explaining how the “Is it beautiful?” and “It’s perfect.” was born from an adlib)
Zhang Zhehan: For example, that scene with the old fisherman. They kept saying that I was a “beauty beauty beauty”, eventually I couldn’t hold it in anymore so I turned my head around and asked him, “Is it beautiful?”
I just thought, you see me looking like this, how can you keep saying that I look beautiful? In reality, I was asking it in a very sarcastic way, purposefully trying to probe [him out with] “Am I beautiful?”
Unexpectedly, very quickly, Gong Jun was able to answer, he said “Perfect.”
Oftentimes, it’s these small details that pushes a role towards a certain direction, towards a certain character development. I feel like this is, when everybody sees it, they will find out—
Gong Jun: It’s interesting.
Zhang Zhehan: —Yes, there are many interesting parts.
//end
So the producer specifically asked for actors for the leads (as opposed to idols) and you can really see how that decision paid off with these two.
I’m honestly amazed by Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun. If you didn’t know, they actually filmed the scenes mostly chronologically (all the beggar scenes filmed first). It worked very well in their case because they weren’t quite familiar with each other back then just yet, so any heavily emotional scenes wouldn’t have had as much of an impact given the underlying awkwardness.
That being said, despite their unfamiliarity, they already had enough chemistry between them to come up with legendary adlibs like “Is it beautiful?” “It’s perfect.”
Honestly, I haven’t been this affected by a pair of actors as I have been by these two.
