Ice Fantasy 幻城 - Episode 4 (Recap)
Kasuo and Li Luo finally meet face-to-face in this episode and it's very, very cute. He should be grateful for such a bodyguard, because without her, he'd be a bit lost in the mortal realm. Oh, he also gets a different hair color, I don't like it, it doesn't go well with his skin. And can we at least get the side-braids back?
SakiVI: Actually, I like his new look. I found the white hair rather gloomy. Or maybe that was his mildly emo personality?
JoAnne: I was watching, he had white hair; I looked away for a second, he had black hair. I don't much care either way but I don't think he looks bad with the dark hair. And no to side braids, since they show off the glue to his wig so well.
I really don't like the Ice King. At least the Fire King seems to care what happens to his kids. And I like his passion.
He's an enormous tool, Saki.
Kasuo and Shi survive the fall - duh, they're gods! - but they're both unconscious after they hit the river below. Kasuo "dreams" of calamity and fire; the whole beautiful Snowmist Forest is burning. Granny finds him and tells him not to be sad. All the people he lost so recently are waiting for him somewhere - they will meet again. "Will I die as well?" he asks. But she tells him he's the future king, why would he die? (that's from the first chapter in the booooook!)
I've now started reading the book and I recognized that line.
I don't think I like this enough to both watch and read.
In the meantime, Li Luo has made her way from wherever she was to the Infinity Bridge. She finds the badly hurt General there. He passes the duty to protect Prince Kasuo onto her and ... dies? I'm not sure. He doesn't dissolve, so that's good, I guess. She cries though.
Maybe he'll return like some Bempire.
Where ever a puddle lingers, there he is.
Kasuo is awake now and so is his brother, but the little one is hot, then cold, then hot, then cold ... oh, this sounds like Poison of the Bitter Flame!!! Anyway, he's not well. Kasuo carries him to a village, to find a "magical healer". Dear Prince, you're now in the mortal world. We have no such things. Also, their white hair and royal clothes are causing a lot of attention. That's not good, given how there's a reward on their heads by now.
They're basically aristos walking into peasantville.
Before he goes on searing for a healer, Kasuo dyes their hair black and their eyes brown. Don't ask, he's a god, so I'm sure he can give his eyes a different color? Just go with it. He also removes his pretty crown and the braids! Oh no, I really liked them. He probably needed a break. Anyway, he looks normal now and also finds a doctor willing to help. There's a dude there looking like this though:
This guy looks like Constantin Maroulis. Fans of American Idol will know who I mean.
The doctor does not know how to help Prince Shi, but he tells Prince Kasuo that the Healers might be able to help. The Healers, dear readers, are one of the mortal tribes that Kasuo is looking for as well, but it seems it's very hard to find them. Suspicious looking guy hears all that and lo and behold! He claims that he knows where the Healers can be found, but Kasuo needs to pay them 50 taels.
That's a tenth of what Ya Tou cost, I think.
So they probably don't come with noodles, then?
It's 50 silver taels. Yatou was 150 gold ones. Somebody miscalculated, I think - or maybe we just don't know the exchange rate?
The mention of money reminds Kasuo of one of his conversations with Li Luo. One of the owl-conversations, mind you. She told him that human beings have to work to earn money, which they can then use to purchase things. So he goes and makes ice sculptures that do not melt and sells them in the market. It's a hit!
Adaptable emo, I like it.
It's not emo if you have a REASON to be miserable.
He's got the necessary taels now and that suspicious guy gets the "Healers"... not healers at all, of course, but bandits, who want the secret to the non-melting sculptures. Oh Kasuo, you fool ... They're fools too though, because they think they can threaten his brother's life. They die quickly. But! Remember the rule? If a god kills/harms a mortal, he loses his power for a while. Kasuo almost collapses. He remembers that Li Luo also told him not to use his powers in the mortal world because it will give him away immediately - the messenger owls can sniff it out.
Oopsies.
You are supposed to remember advice before you need it, Kasuo.
His self-explosion was weird.
Puberty hits like a bitch when it's a 100 years coming.
This show isn't as pretty anymore since we have left the Ice World and that's a bit sad. But at least it's not boring. No, this show isn't boring for 5 seconds and that is its biggest asset.
It keeps moving along really fast! In some ways that leaves us wondering what just happened like Shi exploding, but it's so engaging that the plot-holes don't matter much.
*pointed silence*
Another asset is Kasuo's happy-shyness at meeting the woman he has been conversing for for a while. That is clearly one of my favorite scenes in the drama so far. The whole "trying to be godlike and manly" thing when he gives her money, at the same time clearly hoping to be praised for her. Then being praised and grinning sheepishly... HE IS SO CUTE!
On this, we can agree.
SakiVI: Actually, I like his new look. I found the white hair rather gloomy. Or maybe that was his mildly emo personality?
JoAnne: I was watching, he had white hair; I looked away for a second, he had black hair. I don't much care either way but I don't think he looks bad with the dark hair. And no to side braids, since they show off the glue to his wig so well.
Episode 4
The Fire King, Queen and the Mermaid Concubine are the Fire King's prisoners now. He comes to them, with Shi and Kasuo in tow... wait a second. No, that's not them! No, it's evil trickery, but the prisoners don't know yet. He demands to know where the Ice Crystal is or else. It's the Ice Queen who cracks first and spills the secret (it's been divided among the mortal tribes, in case you've forgotten). Oh well, the Ice King forgives her quickly, it's only one of his sons in danger, no big deal.I really don't like the Ice King. At least the Fire King seems to care what happens to his kids. And I like his passion.
He's an enormous tool, Saki.
Kasuo, Shi and the Guardian General are escaping on horses - they have left the ice and snow behind them but are being chased by Fire Soldiers. Shi falls off the horse he is sharing with Kasuo and for reasons unclear to me, they continue on foot. They get to the Infinity Bridge (is that a bridge between the immortal and the mortal realm?), but just when they're about to cross it, the Fire Brats arrive.
One is a brat, and the other is just fighting the glass ceiling. (Sidebar: Bias, what bias?)
I hate the prince. I have mixed emotions about her, so far.
Ketou urges the Majesties to leave and attempts to fight, but about 5 seconds later, he's lifeless on the ground. And duh, Yan Da has already jumped ahead and is fighting with Kasuo. (She's the smartest and go-gettingest of the Fire Brats. Darn it, you've got me calling them that.) To make matters much worse, stupid Fire Prince gets involved and destroys the bridge. What an idiot. I hate him so much, and my hate gets deeper and stronger each episode.
I'm sure he'll get his.
I've now started reading the book and I recognized that line.
I don't think I like this enough to both watch and read.
Maybe he'll return like some Bempire.
Where ever a puddle lingers, there he is.
They're basically aristos walking into peasantville.
This guy looks like Constantin Maroulis. Fans of American Idol will know who I mean.
 |
| Dodgy Dude. |
That's a tenth of what Ya Tou cost, I think.
So they probably don't come with noodles, then?
It's 50 silver taels. Yatou was 150 gold ones. Somebody miscalculated, I think - or maybe we just don't know the exchange rate?
Adaptable emo, I like it.
It's not emo if you have a REASON to be miserable.
Oopsies.
You are supposed to remember advice before you need it, Kasuo.
Yeah, oh shit. He makes a run for it, well, he walks, he's too weak to run, but doesn't get far until the Fire Princess finds them. And beats them.
Easily. Seriously, the Ice Tribe are punks.
 |
| Hee, she makes me laugh. |
Some very weird editing later, Li Luo has snatched the two princes away from under the Fire Princess' nose, defeated an army of Fire soldiers and rides away with the Princes on her Turnip. Turnips are healthy. They save lives. But! At the last minute, the Fire Princess manages to drag Shi off the horse with her whip. Oh no, how tragic! All Kasuo can save is a bit of cloth from his brother's garment.
A keepsake.
Later when he has amnesia and suffers from a disease which alters his facial features, they can use it to confirm his identity.
Of course, a very weak Kasuo wants to go and get his little brother back immediately, but Li Luo prevents him from doing anything stupid by knocking him out. I already ship them.
This was funny.
Did she give him the Vulcan karate chop?
When he wakes up again his first thought belongs to his brother, and he checks whether his powers have returned. They have. And he uses them up to test it? Idiot. Li Luo appears behind him with an armful of flowers - she introduces herself as the one who has to guard him and says her name is Li Luo. That makes him smile - it's his owl-pal! There's a lot of slow mo and moving cameras and romantic music, but I really love the photobombing unicorn the most.
Cannot stop laughing at Photobomb Unicorn.
He's the best, but I'm also laughing at the grocery store bouquet.
I think those flowers are plastic. And they make a re-appearance about 10 episodes later.
She thinks he must be hungry and that's why she brought him the flowers. Not to eat, no! To sniff. Gods can feed on the fragrance of flowers. Awwwww. He sniffs them happily, then remembers his manners and asks in turn whether she has eaten. Since she hasn't, he offers her some of the money he earned. OMG this is killing me. He is even more happy when she praises him for being so clever. And sad when he realizes she got hurt during the skirmish earlier.
He's a bit dorky, too, and that makes him cute.
He's very cute. My ship of them has commenced, which makes me wonder: where were the mermaids while all that crap was going on up on Ice Mountain?
They're "neutral", remember?
They go to another village, where he forbids her to call him "Prince" and she forbids him to use his magic. That also means she has to get really close to him to sew a ripped collar or rather, to bite the thread.
He suddenly has snagged threads everywhere.
While Big Bro feels the stirring of love, Little Bro is kept in a cage in the Fire Camp. Kasuo gets rudely reminded of that by the Fire Princess, who plays some movie of his siblings dying in the clouds. He storms off towards the Fire Camp and when Li Luo tries to stop him again, he binds her with ice chains (cool) that melt in six hours - and sacks her.
He misread the directions; he was supposed to get IN the sack with her, but oh well. We have 58 more episodes. *glares*
Prince She in his cage fumbles for his brother's flute (oh, Kasuo's playing the leaf!) - but as soon as he has it in his hands, he drops it again. He seems to be burning up. He screeeeeams - so much agony! And then... he kinda explodes.
I cannot understand why this happened.
"Prince She fumbles his brother's flute"-that is a very different drama, Kakashi. As for what happened, I think this might be the culmination of what was making him sick. Or else (I've wondered this before, but how to explain the white hair?) he's really the Fire King's kid. *everyone gasps and turns to stare at the Mermaid Concubine*
Comments
Damn, what just happened!? What's going on with our sweet little Prince?! This isn't going in directions I was expecting this to go.His self-explosion was weird.
Puberty hits like a bitch when it's a 100 years coming.
This show isn't as pretty anymore since we have left the Ice World and that's a bit sad. But at least it's not boring. No, this show isn't boring for 5 seconds and that is its biggest asset.
It keeps moving along really fast! In some ways that leaves us wondering what just happened like Shi exploding, but it's so engaging that the plot-holes don't matter much.
*pointed silence*
Another asset is Kasuo's happy-shyness at meeting the woman he has been conversing for for a while. That is clearly one of my favorite scenes in the drama so far. The whole "trying to be godlike and manly" thing when he gives her money, at the same time clearly hoping to be praised for her. Then being praised and grinning sheepishly... HE IS SO CUTE!
On this, we can agree.
However, I'm not sure I'll survive this romance. Don't ask me why, but I know things.
It's a drama, so you never know!
Wasn't there someone named Shadow? The Shadow knows.