qilingxiong

from what i can tell, the last third of the show went through some major changes. the wedding and timeskip were originally pushed up to episode 22, and there was more happening post-timeskip. more scenes between important characters (including ones between gu yizhong and haimo which i REALLY would've appreciated), an altered plot, and some character deaths were changed (both the circumstances and whether or not they died at all). a lot of existing scenes had more to them that would've changed details or tone of the story, and they were left out. i'd say from episode 20-something up until episode 34, it's most markedly different between the script and the finished show. the stuff left out and weird pacing really is baffling to me, especially since the original script was also 36 episodes and it's not like they initially wrote 40 but were forced to cut it down

honestly i think everything post-two year timeskip didn't have the same quality as the first half to two thirds of the show. what's disappointing is that i read some of the scripts that people posted online, and the story in that was more coherent than the finished show. something went wrong in the editors' room i think