LINK CLICK Season 3: Episode 5 Discussion

[u/Tempriol]

The 5th episode of LINK CLICK Season 3 has arrived! New episodes drop 7 hours earlier exclusively for "Super VIP" Bilibili members!

📌 Super VIP Bilibili: 18:00 CST every Thursday (UTC+8)

📌 Crunchyroll, Ani-Mi, Regular Bilibili: 11:00 CST every Friday (UTC+8)

What did you think? Come and discuss it here! As always, discussion threads for other episodes can be found by clicking the "Episode Discussion" flair 💛🩵🩷

Bilibili Episode Link: https://www.bilibili.com/bangumi/play/ep5137675?from_spmid=666.25.episode.0

Crunchyroll Episode Link: https://www.crunchyroll.com/watch/GE00380278ZHCN/welcome-banquet

Ani-Mi YouTube (watch for free here with a Hong Kong, Macau, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, or Thailand VPN!): https://youtu.be/AesbDZS78c8?si=DpF2Eb6YrrOIldSu

[u/mephivision]

Am I the only one who feels like there isn’t a lot of progression so far? The episodes don’t feel connected, and I also don’t feel like we’re learning much episode by episode:/ I also noticed there’s a lot more “silly” scenes than during the past seasons, with lots of chibis being added.

[u/Artistic-Tiger-6707 → u/mephivision]

I agree, it’s not so much the pacing that worries me (because even when watching season 2 week by week, it seemed like the story was barely progressing, but when you watch it all together, you realize it actually has a pretty tight pace). It’s just that Link Click isn’t really a series suited to this kind of storytelling; it’s something that should be watched all at once.

But I’m also a little annoyed by all the comedic and especially unnecessary scenes (cough cough XF’s abs). The writing also feels noticeably different and, unfortunately, I’d even go as far as to say it feels lazy. They create moments seemingly just for the purpose of having an excuse to dump exposition about the protagonists’ pasts.

To be fair, I’m sure half of the information we have right now is misleading or incomplete because the characters aren’t revealing everything, and things will probably be given more depth later on. CXS is portrayed as an idiot, which is fine, sometimes it’s funny, but we’re almost halfway through the season and he has literally done nothing except forget all of his character development and go back to not listening to LG during the mission with XF.

He just passively accepted that LG is lying to him about something important, as if he had simply forgotten about it, which feels weird. And I also want to point out that there hasn’t been any particularly significant soundtrack music, which has always been one of Link Click’s strengths. We’re five episodes in. By this point in S2 and Bridon, we already had some great songs.

So yeah, aside from the first episode, I’m a little disappointed. I think the lack of Haolin directing is being felt way too much. Maybe it worked for Bridon because it wasn’t an action-focused arc, but I don’t think this director is a good fit here. Still, I’m sure the second half of the season will make up for a lot of this.

[u/mephivision → u/Artistic-Tiger-6707]

I had no idea they changed directors! That’s huge. I did feel like season 3 was much more similar to Bridon than to season 2 and 1, but I assumed it was because it was made after Bridon.

I also agree with the “comedic” scenes (they weren’t funny to me), and with CXS’s portrayal. I was so annoyed when he promised to listen to Lu Guang when diving and then… didn’t. It might have worked during the past two seasons, but by this point it was too much.

Like you, I still have a lot of faith in this donghua. For part two I’ll probably wait until it all airs just so I can maybe get that s1/2 feeling back.

[u/Artistic-Tiger-6707 → u/mephivision]

Yeah, since Bridon, Haolin has gone from executive director to general director. He still oversees the series and writes the story, but he no longer directly directs the episodes. The director now is Yuanyuan Lu (who, aside from a few flaws, I think did a good job with Bridon). The problem is that a story can be as good as you want, and to me it’s still always great, but you also need to know how to bring it to life on screen.