JJJ

I agree, she is great!!! It has been a while since I really liked a Chinese actress for just acting alone. Her roles have all been quite different from each other too. From Yetan to Li Mujia to An Zhique and now to Jiang Ci, she really is able to present these characters in their best light. And she just has really great ship chemistry with her co-stars, even with Wang Yang who is 20+ years older than her in "All the Way to the Sun" (that ship got really popular with C-netz).

Yeah, this drama didn't really full-on start promoting until a week before it air and only confirmed air date the day before it aired. Bilibili usually have ppl introducing upcoming dramas and most didn't even mention this one because there weren't enough clips + they had no idea it would drop soon.

I adored Seven Tan in "Go Ahead" and I was able to finish TSATB but I could see why so many ppl criticized the ML in TSATB lol. The production wanted to push a "pure" ML whose true love is FL while he already has many wives and kids lmao.

Points of conflicts as of the current 5 episodes just so I can keep track because it is a lot:

Jiang Ci vs Wei Zhao vs Pei Yan
Wei State vs Liang state
Pei family vs imperial family
Yue Luo vs Liang state
Teng Rui (his past identity) vs Wei Zhao
Jiang Ci's master (Yan Qiao Shuang) vs the king/internal court
Andddd more to come...

Yup, a lot of them are also fans of other actors/actresses and it is just part of the C-industry to keep each other in checks like this so I wasn't surprised (having others do better is bad for them since it means more ppl competing for good gigs). I do think this is a pretty decent drama with engaging plotlines so just leave it up to time for more neutral ppl to check out this drama and make their own decisions.

This team behind this drama isn't really hardcore selling this drama either (barely buying hot trends either) so a lot of ppl didn't even know this drama existed or would be airing. To promote on places like Douyin, drama production usually hires professionals to make edits that would attract viewers, but this production team was lacking in that area.

Haha sometimes you can forgive a drama production decision when you eat up everything else about the drama. One of my favorite RJL drama is "Under the Power" and lord knows that CGI with that drama is horrendous (low budget). But it /was/ the drama that led him up to rise up and deservingly so.

I have seen better budget dramas but so many failed with the script and acting, so it ended up becoming a waste.

Li Landi is like less than 90 pounds in this drama. And she is someone who has already been harassed extensively since she was a minor for her weight to the point it impacted her a lot so let's not make comment like this. She might not read comments here but there are people here who struggle with things like this who will have to read your comment. People just want to have a good time discussing dramas.

I don't agree. I think she is witty and has good observation skills. She clocked Wei Zhao and Lian were working together (and thus also makes Wei Zhao realize she will be a risk since she already knows too much just by simply observing Lian once). She knows Pei Yan is using her as a bait during the outing but it was her only chance of potentially seeing other escape routes. Jiang Ci has only been able to survive so far because she knows things about Wei Zhao by observing him which makes Pei Yan want to keep her alive. Jiang Ci is a young girl that just barely came down from the mountains and she is doing her best to survive. Her boldness is also the reason why she is even alive now because has she been any weaker mentally, both MLs would have destroyed her already due to her not being able to withstand that kind of pressure (+ if she is weak mentally, it did be easier for her to betray others and both would had kill her way earlier seeing this, but Wei Zhao acknowledged that Jiang Ci is someone who is righteous so will do what is right).

She is stuck between a rock and hard place as both MLs are using her against each other. She can't side with either side totally as she doesn't know the entirety of the story. One side will eventually not let her leave regardless of her wish, and the other side is using her master against her.

I actually like the color grading, but it could also be because I have been following news of this drama for a year and the past teasers use those horrific white filters that made everything looked colorless so I am happy with the way it currently looks (aka you can see the colors).

I think we can see a bit of Wei Zhao's softness here and there (having the bodies turned into ashes instead so it is easier to send them back to Yue Luo, carving names of his fallen comrades, etc.) but it won't really be full force until we get more into the romance aspect, and he opens up to Jiang Ci.

For now, yes, but she will eventually join with ML and head to Yue Luo. She is mainly in the residence now since 2nd ML is still trying to figure out the assassin and ML is now using her to find more info about Teng Rui.

He is special like that. Kidding but it is because he is pretty highly ranked. He is the leader of the Dawn Guards (aka guards the imperial palace + clean up those that threatens the king) and his sister was one of the king's favored consorts. He basically gets more freedom of power to do things and that include his clothes compared to other court officials.

Poisoned her too (especially as they developed trust) and attempted sexual assault when rejected in the novel. I don't know if they will go that far in the drama though.

I think a lot of them are straight up haters, there are already ppl on Douban rating this drama as 1 star, this drama for sure doesn't deserve a 1 star so you know a lot of them are just hating to hate.

RJL is a traffic star so he always attracts hate + his last 1-2 drama haven't done well so they don't want him to "get up" again. LLD has been getting attacked left and right since she is a rising flower, and they don't want her to attract more fans from this drama. Of course, some ppl can dislike the drama for valid reasons (such as not liking FL being tortured especially with the current events), but a lot of the current ones are doing so for non-neutral reasons.

Most ppl unless invested really don't go out of their way to hate on a drama heavily so I would say as of now, just based on 5-6 episodes being released, they are just trying to bury this drama rn.

CRYING, saw some comments on C-side saying poor Jiang Ci spent half of 5 episodes basically in the ICU. 😭

Jiang Ci is a visual stan lol, she did say she likes to look at beauties (be it women or men).

LOVE the herb/plant guessing game between Wei Zhao and Jiang Ci in the birthday banquet, filmed so beautifully and probably the first time they have ever been "equal" against each other.

Yes, Li Landi pretty much dubbed herself for pretty much all her dramas now (except some of the ones when she was a teen). She is able to change her tone/pace of speaking to match her characters. Of the current 1995-1999 gen actresses, she has the strongest voice acting (+ acting too IMO). Strong enough for productions to allow her to use her own voice.

Yupppp, at this moment in time, it has only been Cui Liang who questioned Pei Yan that he is involving Jiang Ci who isn't even a court official into this and risking her life. Girl has been in coma like half the time at this point with all her injuries.

iQiyi for English sub is terrible, I don't know about WeTV. I am watching on a 3rd party site so wherever they pulled the videos from had pretty decent subs compared to iQiyi.

Jeremy and RJL were dubbed by voice actors. Li Landi used her own voice.

Probably depends on RJL's kissing contract for this drama. 😂