-Aprillen-

This is a story about red flags. Everyone is problematic. Nobody is a pure, nice person. But that scene is there to set up Chi Cheng as the coldest, most vicious and dangerous person in the series, the one person that you'd be extremely stupid to try and cross. Whis is eactly what Wu Suowei is planning to do. That's the setup.

At the start of the series Chi Cheng basically doesn't care about anyone or anything apart from his snakes. They are his children, his one source of comfort and joy. And that guy betrayed him and allowed the snakes to be stolen from him. Was the punishment in proportion to the crime? Was it necessary? Yeah, I would have preferred them to just beat him up instead of how it was played out. Was it offputting? Yes, to say the least. But I think it was intended to be shocking and scary.

There's a lot of character development later on. But it's totally understandable if you can't get past this and enjoy the rest of the series.

That date is not on the poster or the official account so I wonder where they got it from? I can't find it on iQiyi either so cannot confirm

I'm sorry if I repeated things that others had already said. I didn't see any other replies to your comment when I posted so there was no indication that you had already been told that before.

I never defended it, I even said that I wished they had rewritten the beginning entirely. It's very unfortunate that this kind of trope is extremely common in older (and still remains in some newer) BL manga, and it really doesn't feel like it belongs in this day and age.

As for the rest of the drama, I do agree about the plot points. I think this is a common problem with adapting BL manga to live action. Manga generally focusses more on visuals than on layered storytelling, and whatever plot there is tends to be on the soap opera level, to keep readers coming back for the next instalment. (I'm sure there are good manga with complex, layered storytelling, but either they don't pick those for adaptation, or it gets lost in the transition.)

I mean I've bashed dramas on this platform once or twice when I thought they deserved it, but they have to *really* be total train wrecks for me to do that. If something simply isn't my thing, I'll just shrug and move on. And I'd never tell anyone else who said they liked it that they are wrong or stupid for liking it. Because taste is taste and we're all coming from different places when it comes to what we enjoy.

LOL
It's still a very strange comparison

Yes, I'm also a fan of both series, and even though I may prefer one over the other, it's not to the point where I'd go and bash the other series and compare it unfavourably. I'm still enjoying it. I really don't understand where this partisan split comes from ...

There you go again. You're not questioning the series, you're questioning people's opinions and evaluation of the series, as if your opinion and evaluation is the only one that's valid. I can accept (and discuss) criticism of the series, but that's not what you are doing.

Yes, it's fine to have a different opinion, we can't all like the same things, but they were implying that their opinion was the only valid one.

I could say the same to you, that I don't get how you can DISlike this drama. Except that I understand that everyone will have different tastes, and questioning someone else's taste (and the validity of the ratings) simply because it doesn't align with yours is kind of immature, ngl. That's not expressing your opinion, that's saying that your opinion is the only valid one.
As for how sensitive some people get when others question their preferences, that could be because this comment section has been visited over and over by people who keep spewing hate and are very confrontational about it, and there comes a point when it just gets too much. Some people are open to a genuine discussion about the drama, and those exchanges can be very fruitful even if opinions differ. But some people just want to be trolls, and then there's no point in any kind of discussion.

I've seen several comments over there that when someone says they don't like Desire, people will immediately claim they are RL fans, as if it's impossible to like both series... And I've seen similar comments here that say the reverse. I don't get it, we so rarely get uncensored BL out of China, and they're not even similar stories, how are they competing? Why does it have to be a war, can't we just enjoy and support both?

It's in the synopsis above

What? Those two dramas have absolutely nothing in common

Different platforms for different regions. If you can't see it on iQiyi, try Gaga or WeTV

The beginning is super weird and seems kind of disconnected from the rest of the series. It's taken directly from the manga (but very much toned down, manga is MUCH worse). If you can get past the first episode or two, it will turn into a completely different story.
I wish they hadn't just toned down the beginning but actually rewritten it completely, because it's like two different storylines that shouldn't belong together.

Yeah the beginning is questionable, and believe me, they toned it down A LOT from the source manga. But they pretty soon leave that behind and it changes to a really super wholesome story.

Gaga, iQiyi and WeTV have licensed it for different regions. If you can't watch it on one of the platforms because you're not in the correct region, it will be available on one of the others. Or just use a VPN.

I agree that they dragged out the angst/separation far too long. It screwed up the pacing and was just frustrating.

I agree, they should either commit to the kiss or just leave it out. We don't need grown men long out of middle school to do chaste dead fish lip touches. I'm really happy that they went for a real kiss! (Unlike that other recently finished JBL, smh)

That sucks, being forced to watch stuff you don't even like just to do research. Can you switch topics? To something that doesn't annoy you, at least?

Except he called them Huginn and Moomin, LMAOOOO