The Key To Never Getting Your Ass Beat?ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (2021-)

The key to never getting your ass beat? ABBOTT ELEMENTARY (2021-)

Bonus:

New York City ballet production of Midsummer Nights Dream

shen yurong and the princess is the real freak4freak ship in the drama.

I'm so glad you brought up this observation about Duke Su's "hands-off" policy @sadviper because to me it symbolizes an aspect of his character that was suggested in the visual storytelling but not explored in the narrative itself.

In Duke Su's scenes, we see a subtle change in composition and framing as the show progresses.

His earlier scenes have a lot of wide shots where he's the main point of visual interest but removed from the action and we often see him shot from the back as well as close-ups of the props he uses for his theatrics. He's a spectator to his master plan unfolding.

But as he becomes more entangled with Fangfei, the camera language changes. He often shares the frame with her in two-shots and we see the more medium and close-up shots that help us clearly see the (emotional) impact she has on him.

Originally, I had thought this convergence in their revenge plans would be used to spark conflict between the characters with his issue being too removed from the situation and not being able to risk everything for his love while hers being too emotionally involved and sacrificing justice and healing for revenge. Finding the right balance would have concluded their romance arc.

Side Note: I was actually kind of disappointed that Fangfei never had a mini corruption arc. Her immediate foil was Princess Wanning in that both characters symbolize how women process and respond to the trauma they've suffered at the hands of the men. I don't think it's an accident that both are represented by the visual of dancing and how continuing to dance after experiencing trauma is essentially them taking back control over their lives.

I would have loved seeing Fangfei become ruthless in her revenge to the point of cruelty as a setback to her healing. (I actually thought the pregnancy fakeout scheme was an absolutely brutal use Wanning's suffering given Fangfei's usual sympathy towards other fallen women--I wanted more exploration of that!)

I am intrigued by how non-lethal Duke Su has been so far. He has a mission and he needs to question people, so it makes sense that his main weapon is a fancy shield (his gold fan). He tries to incapacitate and block, but very rarely do he or his cronies try to kill someone. It's interesting because so many characters like him are lethal even if they are trying not to be.

Now there is a bit of a problem because Li is bloodthirsty. It's going to have to be about balance...

The face of a man calculating exactly how many stabs his crush can squeeze in before he really has to stop the bleeding

The ship dynamic of "I love you but I will always choose the world over you. I love you but my conscience binds me to the greater good in a way I can never escape. I love you but I would sacrifice you to save the world if I had to, even though it would kill me and I would never forgive myself. I love you and a part of me wishes that I could be the kind of person who would sacrifice everything for you. But I'm not, and I never will be, and if you're going to love me I need you to understand that."

Too red flag to like; too pretty to hate on 🥲