absurd

Oh, I thought you already finished, because you had the advanced VIP.
I don't see anything wrong with him doing season 2, a lot of very talented actors do this kind of things for fun and money, in between more serious projects. They also might have pulled a "marvel" on him and made him sign a contract for at last two seasons (he was a newbie at the time), who knows. We certainly don't and no one will tell us :)) I don't know about replacing one or two actors, but if they'll get whole new cast, even with XZ it would be weird.
They probably would have focused on him more if he was the big star at the time, but we might have gotten one-dimensional supporting characters, so idk if it would have been better.
The Master thing was absolutely unnecessary, but very much appreciated LOL
I liked last five episodes, not going to elaborate, so as not to spoil :) I still stand by my preference that they leave romance out as much as possible, it feels forced in this drama.

It's very well written and I admire him for doing that. But at the same time it appalling that this is the world we live in today, where the person who did nothing wrong has to apologize to the people who attack him.

I think it's better not to react to comments like that. The person is obviously venting or just plain writing to get a reaction. I'm not saying you're wrong, because comments about someone's appearance are just nasty and have nothing to do with the drama, but it's better to just ignore.

You're right. What he said basically translates as "beloved person" or something similar (not a native English speaker, sorry). But it can be translated as lover, so wetv probably just went with the easiest one.

It hasn't ended though, only for VIP's and people watching on TV in China. Just like they waited to release DC until Legend of Fei ended for free users, they would probably wait to release this until DC ends for free users. So middle of March.

Yes, I think they really tried to make it for anyone, rather than relying on novel fans. Not sure if it would have worked without XZ's popularity, but it's possible. Though I think CCTV thing came later, but the "wholesomeness" probably was a big factor for that to happen :)

I found an explanation on douban in discussion:
It calculates the drama's network-wide discussion degree, netizens interaction, media exposure, Internet word-of-mouth and other factors.
There's no explanation how exactly it's counted, but basically it's the hype level. My guess is they take all the above about all the dramas and then calculate the share of each drama.

Wait I thought it was a drama's own idea that she's a Soul beast (god, that sounds so weird... "my mom is a beast"). So it's actually in the book?

Yeah, I hope so too. Maybe they will look at the feedback too (not ours of course, but you know, in China). It's obvious that they put a lot of effort into it, maybe fighting was just low priority.

I can :) While I love this drama, they really f up the fight scenes. There's just not enough action in them and a lot of standing around. I liked the one in the last episode though.

The production is not actually bad here. Does it need some improvements? Sure, see my comment above. But, IMO , overall it looks like there's a lot of work and thought put into it. And I don't like to use budget as an excuse, but this was not a big budget drama initially. They got the money in the post production stage and spent it on CGI, it seems.

What kind of question is that and what does it have to do with what I wrote?

I saw people curse the screenwriter for changes, but honestly, my biggest beef is with the director (directors?). The editing and fight sequences are the weakest points of this drama. They don't suck that badly, that it takes away from the story, it is still perfectly enjoyable thanks to the interesting storyline and characters, but some scenes would really benefit from better editing. So, even though it's a mean thing to say, I hope for S2 (if there is one) they will hire someone else to do the final cut and fight choreo.

They did announce the second season, but they didn't start filming yet or say anything about the cast, so no one actually knows anything other than "it was announced". It's likely that it's no further than the script writing stage now, if that. IMO, they won't have the budget to make it if they change the lead - he brings more than half the viewers - but that's just my opinion, based on statistics in China.
I think the first season was intended to be introductory and, if we get the S2, then there will be a more focused story.

The spoiler part. The ending. I don't know actually. I think it was a good moment to finish on, but feels a little lacking in explanation and action. The fight between SLK and MSH teams was great, but then we get to the Tang Hao interfering part and... cut. WTF? At first I thought it was time constraint, but we get a sh*t ton of flashbacks in the end, so definitely not that.
Also. What was the point of TS hiding his hummer? Literally NO ONE was surprised. Such "big" secret for absolutely no value.
The TS mother being a Soul Beast is a good plot twist. The explanation we got from TH about SB being human after they turn was probably for censorship's sake. But XW... absolutely no expression. At all. She's like "Oh, ok then". Maybe it's the actress inexperience, but it's also direction. I expected more of a surprise here.
And then TS's mother voice says "Wake up" at the end, I'm kind of missing the impact here. It would have been much better if it ended on a close up of TS's face with him abruptly opening his eyes. We would come full circle and the ending would be more... idk, forceful? impactful? Not sure if it's a good word, sorry, English is not my native language. Still, a pretty good idea, coming full circle with the beginning of episode 1.

I was planning on just leaving a comment here, but ended up writing a review, because my comment got too long *facepalm*, if you're bored check it out, there are no spoilers there.
But I do still want to leave a comment. I've finished the drama, and though there are some parts that could be improved, overall it's really good. Kept me interested from the very beginning to the end. The production quality is pretty high and, finally, a good screenwriting. The parts that I didn't like were minor and don't spoil the overall impression.

I don't think they specified age anywhere, but you are right, since it's a magical world who knows what their average lifespan is and what is considered young

I think it's an elder thing in China. "Shao nian" basically means "young" and people use it relatively. I saw a host call Xiao Zhan "shao nian" and he's 29.

I feel like it's unfair to put all the responsibility on one person, when there's a whole creative team working on the drama, not to mention producers and executives, that probably have a lot of say in the direction the drama takes. At least Wang Juan is a good writer, even if he didn't do a good job in terms of following the source material. Changing the writer might make it worse, because then we might get a bad script on top of deviations from the novel.

I feel like you are overreacting to something that is easily explained. He told Hu Lie Na that it's 10 years ago, because he didn't want her to check what he's looking for. And in the library records might just be stored by the decade, so that's what he asked for. He maybe also didn't want the guy to know and report to Hu Lie Na. His mother obviously didn't die "at birth" like his father said, she was killed. And being a child he might not remember if he was even a year old.