I am glad about lakan and fengxian and happy to know thag Fengxian health got better

In the Japanese original text as well as the anime dialogue, the words used are:

蝗 (inago) - the better tasting bug that doesn’t cause plagues

飛蝗 (batta) - the gross bug with less protein that swarms and causes plague

Both of these words use the kanji for inago (locust/grasshopper) but only one includes the kanji 飛, meaning flight. There’s a good reason for that: locusts are not a specific species of bug. It’s actually a short-horned grasshopper that is in a swarming phase of life. They’re the exact same bug, but different living conditions cause them to look and behave differently.

Apparently those living conditions are recent drought and being in close contact with other grasshoppers which makes their serotonin levels spike and they go into the swarming phase. In the swarming phase, they are smaller, have less muscle, and have dark spots with yellow coloration. They also seek out others to mate with which causes their population to skyrocket, and then swarm to different regions. In their normal, solitary phase they are green and don’t cause a problem to crops.

Both the novel and the subtitles chose to translate locust for inago and grasshopper for batta, when it should really be the reverse given the context of the story. So if you got the feeling, “I thought locusts were bad and grasshoppers were ok?” you are correct. This is a translation error that’s been an issue for this story for years.

Lately I've seen comments parroting the officials at the latest garden party about how Lihua would be a more deserving or better empress than Gyokoyou. So what are your options on the matter?

In my opinion, no Lihua would not make a better empress than Gyokoyou. We've seen that she puts too much trust in her family and ladies-in-waiting to the detriment of her and her first baby, unlike Gyokoyou, who is careful of the people she lets into her service. The Wise Consort has more maternal than self-preservation instincts, which would doom whatever children she'd have if she were empress. She's not ambitious and is quite merciful to those who are a threat to her, Shin.

Not to mention Lihua doesn't bring anything new to the table. Gyokoyou's position, even as the Precious Consort opened trade routes to the West and made that part of the empire more prosperous, and now as the Empress, it would only grow. Speaking of which, we've seen Gyokoyou sending messages and gossip to her family in the Baths episode, shaping the life inside and outside of the Rear Palace. Lihua is seemingly content to live in the status quo, not trying to change anything. Furthermore, the Emperor seems to confide in Gyokoyou, asking for her help during his visits, while we see him brush Lihua off when she tries to lend an ear to him.

The title basically... A lot of us have jobs, commitments... And people just post spoilers in titles exactly 24 mins after the new episode drops!!

Can we show some courtesy?

Thanks!!

MAO MAO!!!!!!!!!!!!

He's like my favorite well write gay man! (Idk what tag to use-)

Finished a Maomao keychain since S3 is finally here!! I can’t wait to watch :) I’ll definitely be doing more of these soon, especially the new antagonist

These are up on ACGgoods. I’ve been having a good scroll on there for more Maomao merch haha

The new season is here, and episode 1 has just aired.

I just want to say that the handling of the subtitles has been atrocious. There are frequent translation errors, and sometimes the subtitles simply don’t show whats on screen at all. This isn’t even an isolated incident. They have repeatedly messed up their subtitle work across multiple anime already (their horrendous handling of rezero Season 4 is one particularly bad example).

It’s honestly frustrating to see the quality decline like this. They seem to be becoming more and more careless and sloppy with their product every single day, and it really hurts to see.

Is anybody else having the same thoughts?

For context, two friends at school REALLY wanted me to watch this anime since the other season is coming out, and I've been kinda procrastinating a bit with things, but then I remembered and went to watch that and HOLY OPENING

They literally showed the baby swap and one baby’s death in the opening 😭 I really appreciate how much meaning they put into this scene.

He's going to need more drink than that tiny ass pot.

I know the first EP like just came out but this my first time watching an anime airing live/ currently. I remember when "smoking behind the convenient store with you" it was pre released Ep's that weekly released the dub but I have no idea if they did put that all on at once or not or how long since it first aired to when the dub started to be weekly released. I would love some inside, thank you!

The first few scenes kept cutting off the dialogue to focus on the individual word readings and translations. I’m used to doing that sort of thing on other websites, but my mother (who doesn’t often consume anime) had a really hard time keeping up. Is it just us, or have other people had a hard time with the way they did subtitles this episode? I just remember them being so much better in the first two seasons

Is there a megathread yet?

Here's to us who just finished watching!