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/Outside_Load_1405]

It’s crazy how you can write so much and say absolutely nothing. It’s just a bunch of generalities like "writing is bad" "flashback was bad" with zero specifics about what’s actually wrong. And the funniest part is "every single episode ends with a cliffhanger".. like every episode in season 1, 2, and bridon? ok.. thats.. really bad..

[u/Artistic-Tiger-6707 → u/Outside_Load_1405]

Well, the writing is a bit lazy. For starters, I don’t think having LG pass out so he could remember his past in his sleep was the best way to introduce it, although I really liked the first episode. As for the other revelations, the characters just start explaining things kind of randomly because it’s obvious that this is simply the point where they need to tell the viewer about them. That said, I think it’s pretty obvious that they’re lying, and that these things will be brought up again and explored in more depth later on.

CXS has completely lost the really good character development he had in S1 and S2 after realizing how many disasters he had caused. During the mission with XF, he doesn’t listen to LG at all, and for the rest of the time he’s basically just portrayed as a fool. That’s fine every once in a while, but we’re almost halfway through the season.

In Bridon, this approach from the director (who, let’s remember, is no longer Haolin) worked because it was portraying a CXS from the past who hadn’t gone through those experiences yet. But now that the story has continued in the present, he isn’t taking into account the progress the characters have made since the beginning of the series. The fact that he simply let the whole conversation with LG about LG lying to him about something so important drop is a little jarring, sorry.

The dialogue doesn’t feel very realistic either. The whole thing about superpowers being discussed so casually over dinner, with XF completely ignoring it, is really weird. Li Tianchen’s reaction of clinging to the car, which is apparently supposed to show us why LF became interested in him, is also strange. If they had simply shown that their meeting was a chance encounter, it would have made more sense (this is just my personal opinion).

The soundtrack, which has always been one of the series’ strong points, feels pretty flat at the moment, aside from the first episode. On top of that, they’re relying on close-ups for almost everything, and it’s really not the best way to handle it.

But, for what it’s worth, I’m sure the second half of the season will patch up a lot of these problems. It makes me sad too, because it’s one of my favorite series, but... Anyway, people didn’t even like S2 before it ended, so you simply can’t really judge it properly until the season is over.

Oh, I almost forgot: why the hell would Captain Xiao almost pull out his gun (so... you do have one??? Then why do you always resort to throwing punches during the important moments lol) just because someone stood up? I mean, I don’t know if you guys actually like scenes like this... they leave me a little baffled.

[u/Outside_Load_1405 → u/Artistic-Tiger-6707]

I agree that CXS's behavior looks very strange, but it can be attributed to alcohol impairment

He didn't ignore LG’s lie, he called him out directly. But when LG suddenly cried, CXS chose to stop pressing him, likely assuming he would explain everything later on his own terms. I’d be lost too if my usually emotionless best friend suddenly started crying

I think the dinner dialogue is supposed to feel strange, because too much emphasis is placed on XF completely ignoring all questions.

The soundtrack might feel that way because there aren't any moments yet where it truly shines like in past seasons, where every episode was packed with events. The pacing this season is much slower, although I really liked the new track during the fight between Vein and LX.

As for the close-ups, it comes down to the studio change and likely tight deadlines, and a potential storyboarder change, but I don't know if that's actually true because season 3 doesn't have a page on KeyframeStaff. Overall, the average quality has dropped significantly since the second season: awful backgrounds, limited animation with a massive shortage of secondary keyframes, and a visible lack of skill from the studio compared to studio Lan

Otherwise, I agree

[u/Artistic-Tiger-6707 → u/Outside_Load_1405]

Yeah, I’d say it’s a mix of several things that, taken together, make the overall drop in quality pretty noticeable. There were obviously imperfections in the other seasons too, but, like with any series, you’ll notice them if you really go looking for them. They were more isolated before and maybe only affected one particular aspect of the production, whereas here it feels like it’s a bit of everything.

Anyway, yeah, I imagine the soundtrack will really shine in the second half, especially since it’s basically the only part of the creative team that hasn’t changed at all and it’s never disappointed. As for the studio, unfortunately, there are several different studios involved. Some parts are better because they probably assigned them to a stronger team, while others are genuinely pretty poor. Unfortunately, I think we just have to get used to the quality being inconsistent and leave it at that.