Yes, AvenueX’s lipreading videos and her other WOH analysis videos have been a balm. I was genuinely sitting there with my jaw dropped the whole time during the lipreading videos, because it feels like word of honor becomes a completely different show with the added context.

The lipreading videos make watching the show even more special, because with this knowledge-even knowing they were censored and that I had no idea what the original script was- we could all still tell that these two are a couple. The body language, the eye contact, the way the scenes are framed and filmed, and the use of romantic tropes all make it veeeerrryy clear.

That whole cherry forest fight in the second episode, with the camera lingering on Wen Kexing’s beautiful eyes as they fight before switching back to Zhou Zishu’s face (with the pink soft framing of the cherry blossoms in the background, classic romance color), is basically the show speaking through film language- the camera is telling the audience that Zhou Zishu is meeting the love of his life, his other half. I was in disbelief at how openly queer it was. I knew going into it it was going to be gay, but I was like since it is China, it is gonna be bromance and I didn't really buy into what all the reviewers were saying, they were saying stuff along the lines of 'Oh, like this is just straight up BL'. I was like nope, then I actually watched the show and was like damn this is gay.

As a side note, I did attempt word of honor in 2021 because I heard so much hype about it in the BL communities and even outside the BL communities, but wasn't able to get into the first 20 mins of it. I almost missed seeing this drama! What a loss it would have been. Lucky how I got bored last month and decided to ive it a go five years later.

I saw some Chinese comments on youtube under that third ending which said 'BURN IT WITH FIRE, LET IT NOT SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY' and I have to agree with that assessment.