absurd

I'm sure there are technicalities that they can use to get around it, like episode length or calling it two seasons.
But anyway the number of episodes in the license is probably the maximum footage that they have, that is submitted and then cut to the intended length after it has been censored.
I do agree with you about the length, but in this drama in particular nothing has been dragged out so far, it's the ones that have nothing but romance that really need a cut.

It isn't. It's just that they implemented it only a year or so ago, so older dramas are longer.
https://www.hotpot.tv/news/china-puts-episode-limit-on-chinese-dramas

It is worth it. There are definitely some editing and writing problems, they are not very noticeable in the first half of the drama, but it does feel like there's a huge chunk of character and relationship development missing after the time skip in the second half. But it still doesn't prevent you from getting invested in the characters.

The question was because the drama was licensed for 48 episodes. But you are right that it's unlikely that they were planning to do more that 40, because the drama was announced to air on TV before they even finished post production

You know what I just thought about... how much better it would have been if instead of this outdated sacrifice trope, they would have shown GYY and A Xiu slowly getting closer, while supporting each other after Zhang Fei's death (because they both lost him). They wouldn't even need them to meet, just letters would work. All the while he and JNZ would drift apart because she can't understand his grief and is just waiting for him to get over it. And JNZ and GL would get closer in the mean time. Damn, that would have worked so well, while still being realistic. They should have hired me as a screen writer LOL
But seriously, there's nothing original about that idea, I've seen it done a lot, but nope we're getting enormous plot gaps instead. It feels like they just got veeery lazy by the time they got to the second half of the drama.

TV limit for c-dramas is 40 episodes. If they were just a web drama they could do more, but with tv broadcast 40 is the max

I would not expect anything more than what we got between A Xiu and Zhang Fei. Have there even been any kissing between any of the characters? Because I don't think so.

I was honestly expecting that by now we will get more of the army reforming and their career in it. But there's so much "romance all around" in the last episode, that the whole army reform feels more like a backdrop. Here's hoping we're caught up with everyone who's marrying and dating now, and ready to move on.

No, sorry for confusing you. I meant all the episodes that are available (27) are vip only (except the first 4, those are on youtube for free).
Yes, post production definitely f-up some things, it also swings between romance all around and army centric a lot. I would have preferred if they kept the focus more on the army, (but that's me).
It's a little bit uneven, as we get a lot a relationship development in the beginning, but then skip a lot later on. I mean it's the general c-drama problem, because of the censorship, but I think it was exacerbated here by two things: TV limit of 40 eps max and attempts to shift the focus back and forth between two leads. Idk if all the talk about XZ's scenes being cut excessively is true, so I'm not going that direction, but they really should have made their storylines more intertwined to keep it an even two lead story.

Yes, exactly. People not ending up with their first love is totally fine, if they'd actually show me how it happened. But they are just expecting people to use their imagination here and if you are not invested in a couple (like some people really root for A Xiu and Gu Yiye, unlike me) how can you do that and why do you have to even.
Yeah, I'm still into it too. Just praying that they don't destroy it with the last episodes, like some dramas do. There's so little GYY in 26-27, I'm kind of sick of this Gao Liang rainbow parade. How is he suddenly a tactical genius?

I was facepalming so hard there. It's like now they are just making up the difficulties for the sake of dragging it out.

Well, I guess we disagree here. Because I don't think JNZ would have continued to insist if said that he already made his decision. At first, she would have, but she does not seem like someone who would discard her own pride that much. Maybe he was more afraid that she would be able to talk him out of it, because he barely convinced himself to do it.
But at this point I might be reading too much into something, that isn't that deep LOL writers probably just thought that this dialog would be too rational and boring, and that's it

It's everyone at this point, people just go from 0 to 100 without anything to show for it. The funny thing is, the only couples we've seen relationship development for are those that did not work out in the end. GYY and JNZ, GL and Hun Chuyu, Qin Hanyong and "what's her name, JNZ ex commander", well they are married, but apparently she got abortion and hates him now. It's like they want people to get invested and then disappointed LOL

But that's the same as saying "sorry guys, we don't know how to explain how those two characters got together, so... it's been 10 years, use your imagination". Well, thanks.

At this point I am on the fence about this drama. On one hand while watching I got really invested in the characters, even the ones that I find annoying (yes, even Gao Liang) and I do think, that overall it is a good story about the army and friendship, that surprisingly is not too heavy on propaganda (there are speeches, mind you, but they are easily skippable). On the other hand, the more I watch, the more it feels like it was written by two different people, that were taking turns for two or three episodes each and then someone went at it with the butcher knife. The story has a lot of inconsistencies. It also does a lot of talking at you, rather than showing and letting you make your own decision. But it's funny and very dynamic, it also has several episodes where I cried so much, my head hurt.
To conclude all my senseless rumbling, I can dissect and criticize all I want, but at the end of the day the most important thing is that it did manage to get me invested in the characters lives, get me crying, laughing and anticipating every next episode. They can still manage to spoil it all with ending, but so far, I think it's very much worth watching.
It's already all vip though, so it won't make any difference if you wait until it ends and see what people think then.

I don't think it's just the editing problem. There are a lot of places where it's inconsistent between what characters say and what they actually do

Wtf is going on. Is this drama allergic to relationship development? Zheng Yuan and Jiang Nanzheng argue all the time and then all of sudden she is the most obedient daughter in the world. GYY and A Xiu are getting married and he looks happy, when the last time we saw them together he was calling himself a sacrifice. And now it turns out JNZ is in love with GL (have been for many years, I might add) even though she thought of him as a brother like two episodes ago. And that's not to mention the supporting characters, Xie Lin and Hun Chuyu, anyone? He read her mail and acted like an arrogant jerk, wouldn't you know, they are getting married. Where's everything that was supposed to lead up to it? Things just happen. No explanation, not basis. 🤦‍♀️🤷‍♂️

I don't get the writing in this drama. It's like their motto is "words over actions". Characters do sh*tty things, then give "tear jerking" speeches and I'm supposed to be touched? What a mess.
(btw, this is not about GL, this applies to basically everyone).

Don't take this the wrong way, but are we watching the same drama? Or did you miss all the instances where Gao Liang tried to break them up and insert himself into their relationship, actually said to GYY's face that he was going to steal JNZ? His internal monologues were always right and self sacrificing, but his actions (except for the most recent episodes) never matched his words. Mind you, it's the writing problem that GL is so inconsistent, but I really wonder how you managed to get the impression that GL was "guiding them together".

It's the Friday-Saturday thing, only one episode. Unlike this suddenly turning into vip only, even though they promised one free episode a day, less episodes on weekends were in the schedule from the get go.
Supposedly the 9th cheated in the exercise, so GL decided that winning would be unfair and also to teach 720 a lesson. I was kind of confused about what the actual cheating consisted of too, because they only explained the training cheating (though that was not very clear also). Supposedly they'll explain it today, haven't seen the episode yet.
It was a bit annoying that Gao Liang suddenly turned into a tactical genius, even though in the beginning he could not string even the most basic concepts together. I understand that he now has education and experience, but people don't just grow a different brain. This drama really likes to just abandon logic and pretend that we're supposed to accept that this is as it's supposed to be (and it's not just about Gao Liang).