Raymond Ardin

Does the comic end where the drama ends, or can we expect a second season?

The premise is rather similar to Dong Lan Xue, which was an excellent micro-drama. Both are about a FL who uses the support of an illegitimate prince to avenge her family, who were wrongfully convicted of crimes, and they join hands against an evil crown prince. But this is much longer (10 minutes per episode as opposed to TikTok-style shorts), and the FL isn't as badass and domineering. The approach taken by the two dramas is also quite different, and this one isn't nearly as clean, concise, and straightforward (some aspects can be a bit confusing), but overall it was still a very enjoyable watch if you have reasonable expectations.

Is there going to be a second season? The ending is open and a bit of a cliffhanger. Will she win the war? Are they going to be together officially, or is she going to be a general forever?

I think I'm going to skip tomorrow's episode and watch it on Monday!

Ling Xiao is torn because he cares about YH but he has to obey his master and destroy the scale. He has no idea that his master was already controlled by Fu Yin 20 years ago. If xianxia dramas have taught us anything, it's to never absorb an evil being into your body in order to contain/control it, unless you plan on killing yourself immediately afterwards, because it will control you instead! But everything is going according to Dark Phantom's plan.

Ling Fei makes me so angry lol. But she's also a very one-dimensional villain, not very interesting compared to SY and FY, who at least have depth and complex motivations for their evil. This is the first time I've seen her play an evil character. I'm used to seeing her in very likeable roles (The Flame's Daughter, The Song of Glory). She was so beautiful in TFD, but she's been aging poorly compared to other actresses, considering she's only 29.

Anyone else think FY would've been the perfect role for Liu Duan Duan (villain from Sword Snow Stride and Joy of Life)? When I first saw Dark Phantom but couldn't see his face clearly, I actually thought it was him because the aura/mood/vibe is so similar.

I anticipate that both YH and TY will get killed at the same time in the next episode, but of course YH won't actually die because she has TY's stars. He will die in her stead, but that works out because he'd die in the fire anyways. Then when everyone thinks she's dead, she can escape and go revive him.

That's an open question: what happens to the characters of a story once the story is over? Do they and their world cease to exist? And what if the characters somehow had a consciousness of their own, independent from that of the actor playing the role? In other words, after the story is over and she leaves, does he "stay" or does he just not exist anymore?

Anyways, the point is, they can't be together because the ML is just a fictional character, and the FL is an actress from the real world playing a fictional role in his fictional world. (Which is literally true if you think about it.)

Now you might say, yeah but the ML is also played by an actor from the real world! And that's true, but even though the ML's character is in love with the FL, presumably the actor playing him is not actually in love with the actress playing her, so they're not going to be together in real life either. Although that's not impossible, so if you want to ship them as actor/actress go ahead :)

She is from reality. lol. She is an actress and the story is just a drama that she's playing in. But imagine that the other characters in her drama were somehow conscious, and they think they and their world are real, but in reality they are just fictional. That's one way to think about it.

Well I don't really want to spoil it because it's actually the biggest plot twist in the story! But I can say that the scheming b!tches meet fitting ends.

See my post above for my interpretation.

Her real identity is... she's an actress playing the protagonist. That's why she said she doesn't really belong in their world, because she's just there to play her part, and when the story's over she has to go back to her own world (the real world), so they can't be together because he's just a fictional character. That's something that even if she explained, the MLs wouldn't be able to understand.

Throughout the drama, she was actually very self-aware. She makes constant references to acting and scripts, and she always complains, very explicitly, that the screenplay is giving her villain character such a hard time. When she opened the box containing her real identity, she smiled because she realized she's actually the main character for a change, and not a small villain role like she thought.

The wuxia story was pretty good, but I hate this kind of meta/postmodern/self-aware/avant-garde/4th-wall-breaking ending. It would've been a lot better if they told the story seriously.

For those confused about the ending, here's my interpretation:

When you watch to the end you will eat your words about the chief hahaha

lol why? It's not like they're real siblings.

It's weird, he seemed to dislike her right up to the scene in the cave, and suddenly he's fantasizing about her and calling her name when he has a fever lol

It's not bad but it's very low energy and bland. It doesn't convey the power of martial arts, nor the passion of romance.

I feel like when he asked her if she heard of the Shanhai Secret Manual, he was testing her intentions to see whether she's a spy who's targetting the manual like virtually everyone else. I can't tell if her response ("Really, I can learn it too?") is the correct one or not. I think a real spy would pretend to be disinterested to avoid suspicion, right?

Another funny and fluffy drama with this ML, but this is much less weird compared to Love Is Written in the Stars.

Interestingly, the drama is called Wanru's Journey (her real/original name) but the novel title is The Story/Legend of Zhuwan (her fake identity name).

Not explicitly, but for some (yet) unexplained reason, she seems to have modern knowledge and vocabulary.

She was the friend with the short hair in LO2O. She was supposed to be "ugly" somehow but seriously she had the most adorable face ever.

She was a villain in Princess Weiyoung, so cute and innocent on the outside but completely insane on the inside.

They are almost all seasoned actors, and the main leads are in their 30s, while most dramas cast young idols who are known more for their looks than their acting. That's not to say that there aren't excellent young actors, but ahem*ChongZi*ahem...

The Empress offered Liu peerage (a nobility title) but he refused.