u/NoodleSquared

Does anyone else start a rewatch/re-read of the series, get to the >!siege of lotus pier !<part where all the bad stuff is about to happen and stop?

I decided to finally listen to the audio drama. I got to the middle of season 2, all happy and smiling and thinking "wow, this is so well done! I forgot how great this story was. Maybe I should read the books again."

And then, WWX wakes up in lotus pier post-tortoise-incident and I suddenly remember what comes next... Yeah, I haven't listened to another episode since. I want to finish it, but I'm waiting for a good day to be SAD. You get me?

This is just a bit of a vent. I just started a new job that I'm excited about, and I'm making the rounds getting to know everyone and introducing myself to the people I'll work with. There is one other new hire who is going to these intro meetings with me.

Folks are asking and sharing the usual details (where do you live, what's your work background like, etc.) and for some reason the number one thing people want to blab about is their kids. "Oh I have an 8 year old, I have twin teenagers, they're so cute, they're gonna be a doctor when they grow up, they're at such a fun age, I'm pregant with my third one, bla bla bla bla." It doesn't help that my supervisor went on parental leave the day before I started.

No one has asked about my hobbies, interests, spouse, etc. They start talking about their own kids or the other new hire's kid and kind of just ignore me while I sit quietly. The few people who asked about my pets get a bonus point I guess.

Luckily, no one has asked me if I have any kids yet. If anyone does ask I'm about ready to go full "traumatize-them-back" and say "I am unable to have children and dealing with infertility grief."

I remember reading two critiques that did a good job analyzing themes in mdzs, but I can't find them anywhere! I've checked reddit, a bunch of search engines, and my browsing history, but they seem lost forever.

1. One was on someone's personal blog, maybe Tumblr? It was a summary of major themes in MDZS and analysis of how they play a part in the story. Some of the themes were filial piety, doaism, right vs. wrong, etc. It was a pretty simple page with not a lot of pictures and with about a paragraph or two written for each theme.

2. The other was an article on a media review website like Reactormag (fka Tor.com), or The Mary Sue, but it wasn't either of those sites. It had a picture from the donghua on top and it was called something like "I'm obsessed with this gay Chinese fantasy." Even though the name was silly, I really liked its analysis of mdzs from a queer lense. It compared WWX's relationship to the Wen survivors to how many queer folks create their own found or chosen family, and compared the Burial Ground settlement to creating a queer safe space or utopia. It talked about the importance of fantasy as a way for us to not only escape the current world problems but to imagine what a better world might look like. It may have also touched on disability themes, but I can't remember.

Do either of these ring a bell for anyone? I'd like to save a copy of them for the next time I recommend MDZS to someone.

Thank you in advance!

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UPDATE: Found the link for #1 and confirmed both the post and the Tumblr blog has been deleted. No luck finding it through the wayback machine. Oh well, crossing my fingers someone has info on #2.