S.C.I Mystery Series Chapter v159 Discussion

5/5 to the translators! Especially Lilies are Flowers and Nighthawk Works

5/5 to the pacing of the story. Similar to the pacing of a drama (aka no dead spots)

3/5 to the characters. Zhan Zhao and Bai Yutang are consistent (even if I don't really feel like they have chemistry as romantic partners). However, Gongsun Ce was set up to be a sadistic and morbid weirdo in the beginning but later, it seemed like the author changed their mind about him--now he's just a classic tsundere. If you're into that, I guess... Bai Jingtang is more interesting, but the other characters make too many excuses for him.

Spoiler

For instance, he r*ped Gongsun. BYT's reaction is to tell GS not to give up on his brother because it's apparently an aftereffect of BJT's past brain damage. And yet, if BJT really could not control his impulses, could he smoothly be as successful alone as he is? I doubt it. Also what is BYT saying??? Are you an officer of the law or not??? In any case, it's clear that the author is just using brain damage as a plot point without actually researching what brain damage is. And that even though this is a police procedural, the author plays fast and loose with the law in her story.

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3/5 to the actual "science" the author tries to use. As a person who has learned psychology at a university level, it's a little cringy to read. Sure these are existing theories in the field, but the author is really taking it to be magic in some parts of the story. Spoiler

Namely, Zhao Jue's entire existence. The whole Killer Academy case. The info about DID is off; the reason Multiple Personality Disorder was renamed Dissociative Identity Disorder is because the leading theory is no longer that there are multiple "personalities" residing in one person. Instead, it is more of a person dissociating from certain memories and experiences and letting different facets of their emotional/mental states link to those dissociated memories/experiences. Maybe because it was written in 2005?

[collapse] Anyway, it's easy to tell that the author has done some surface level research, but not enough to understand the field. Which is like, I get it, this is supposed to be a fun piece of fiction that is written mostly for the enjoyment of the author. I just feel like if you're going to write psychology wrong, why even make psychology such an integral part of your story???? Why not just write a supernatural mystery instead of pretending it's a normal police procedural.

Overall, a shallow story with shallow characters. Pretty fun for a light read! Just don't care too much about the inconsistencies.