[Weekly Update] I went on a crazy research journey.

It's lightning and thunder outside. And here I was thinking I might go to the movies tomorrow. I think the heavens above want me to save my 9 bucks.

CHANNEL UPDATE

After a long and gruelling process made worse by my seasonal allergies, I have finally finished editing our next video covering the history and aesthetic of Tang and Song dynasty. Normally these videos take two to three days to finish. This one took almost a week. The reason will be discussed in the media talk section.

Anyway, work on the Planet of the Apes trilogy review has begun. I'm working somewhat slowly because I'm still holding out hope that I might be able to see it tomorrow if the weather isn't abysmal.

Edit for our eclipse video is also in the back burner, slowly being done over time. I'll be uploading the script soon as long as I don't forget. The preview will also include copies of the eclipse photos I took.

Finally, writing for our Ah Girl Go Army video has... sort of begun. I just can't think of a good way to start the video so I'm stuck on line one. You see, normally with these bad movies, I open with something weird and funny. But there's nothing weird nor funny about Ah Girl Go Army... Except maybe the Tactical Movement joke, but that joke isn't snappy enough for a cold opening either. God this movie is hard to digest.

Finally, after consideration, I have concluded that there's no priority need for a Journey to the West Adaptations video. While it is still possible to make one (and my opinion is going to be very spicy), it'll not be as useful as the Three Kingdoms video, for the fact that JttW adaptations are rarely good. Just read the book, it's super easy to get into. The tier list video will just be me ranting about their quality anyway.

MEDIA TALK

So, editing delay, what happened?

Well, our Dynasties series brought us to the Medieval period, which is recent enough to have a lot of written and illustrated records, but still over a thousand years old. A lot of these records require interpretation. Whenever one historian interprets something, the other historian will instinctively smack them in the mouth and call them stupid. Because of that, I've been running around in circles during the editing process, trying to fact check myself over and over.

For example, Song dynasty porcelain pillows. Yes, pillows made out of freaking ceramics. These objects were originally found in tombs. China has a history of burying decorative statues of real objects as gifts to the dead. So, historians originally thought these were just rich people burial objects.

But then they found written records of them being used, and realizes that pillows are just personal objects that were buried with their owner. And now there's a debate on wether or not these pillows were used with a cushion on top. There are paintings displaying covers and cushions for pillows as early as the Song dynasty. But there are also literatures describing how they help cool you down in the summer. So now it's just anyone's guest if people actually raw dog these things with their neck. I ended up avoiding talking about pillows in the video.

These sort of disagreements among scholars is everywhere. When was gunpowder invented? The earliest confirmed reference is from the Tang dynasty, but the formula wasn't written down until the Song dynasty. However, the word Firecracker had already existed since the Han dynasty. Some scholar suspect that gunpowder had existed in some form even back then, while others believe firecrackers were merely tiny bamboo pieces being tossed into the fire, giving out a delightful pop. Was fireworks invented in Song dynasty? Or does Song dynasty only has firecrackers? It's extremely difficult to verify, and I have to skip that part, too.

Oh boy, An Lushan Rebellion, don't get me started. In the western world, it is often described as one of the bloodiest conflict in human history. Census data from before and after the Rebellion showed China's population had wen from 52 million to just 16 million. However, this factoid was never taught in my school (although admittedly I wasn't paying much attention in history classes). Other historians suggest the difference came from the changing of census collecting method. The rebellion itself was a prolong conflict happening regionally, and shouldn't have this massive of an effect. But again, everything number suggested is controversial, and I have to skim over this detail in the video as well.

As you can see, every time I take a step, I have to check if the floor I'm standing on is actually solid. And that's why I have to choose my visuals and phrasings very carefully and deliberately. Hopefully it'll be up to everyone's standard when released.

Anyway, that's the update for this week. Have you seen Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? What do you think about it? Do you agree that the series have some of the most annoying movie titles? Why not just call it "Planet of the Apes: Rise" "Planet of the Apes: War" "Planet of the Apes: Kingdoms". I don't know maybe I'll rant about movie titles next week.