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Agreed lmao, I am on bilibili watching FMVs of other dramas and all my recommendations would be TTEOTM related. 💀 Even on weibo when I am watching clips unrelated to it, that drama would pop up eventually.

Yes! Wenren is the romantic love/sensitivity that YT never experienced before. LM and MYQ later on were all pretty straightforward but Wenren allowed YT to experience a gentle/mature romance. It wasn't life and death and YT needed that. A romance that wasn't accelerated due to life threatening situations. She also experienced jealousy for the first time with Wenren due to his past romantic affairs. She didn't really have a chance to experience that emotion before with LM's focus being only on her and MYQ only really loved money (not a living being) besides her.

What are some callbacks and parallels you guys noticed in TSL? Here are a few:

1) The scenes between YT and YQ that eventually created the three shards

2) YT in the beginning watching the fireworks the emperor always set for QK and LM later setting fireworks only for YT

3) YQ in the beginning gave YT the holy fabric which YT then gave to LM to control the fire

4) YQ's poem/speech for YT and YT repeated the same poem/speech to LM

5) LM threw rocks at YT to try to wake her up and YT later did the same to him

6) YT in the beginning dragging YQ to buy her a flute (fail) and MYQ later buying YT the flute.

7) YT's and MYQ's wedding and then later YT's and YQ's wedding in the same outfit to make it up to her

8) YT in the beginning gave YQ the hair pin as "payment" for their night (YQ burned it) and MR later had that hair pin in his hair during his arc.

9) Scenes of YT "helping" YQ write by grinding the ink and YT later doing the same with WR

10) The sword dance sequence of course and the method to cancel YQ's spell.

11) YT in the beginning walking to the prison saying she knows how to get there and YQ doing the same thing when heavenly emperor wanted to lock him up for not wanting to erase his memories of YT

12) "I am your Youqin, your Lamu, your Wenren, and your Mei Youqing"
"I am your Niangzi, your Yuexa, your Qian-er"

13) YT telling YQ that she loves him so much she did die for him and she did

14) Their first meeting: YT wanted to push YQ to his death and YQ said "I will protect you/don't be scared" and YQ said the same thing when GX opened up again but this time, YT pushed YQ away to save him

The whole "I picked up..." and "Swipe to..." phrases he took from LLD too. His own fans at a loss too lmao,

It becomes extra annoying when you have watched other dramas that solved it quickly or don't let it build up to that. 😩

I enjoyed ZZH's acting so much in WoH. 😔 The drama was his breakthrough yet... also his character in the drama deserved better IMO in terms of character writing. You can tell the script writer didn't invest enough in his character's past but he made it work regardless.

Maybe he lifted his kissing ban for that drama. 😂

Oh definitely, even in the dream sequence part of the drama now, his dream character is kind of irrelevant and basically had no tie to his supposed partner. The 2nd FL has way more tie/connection to the 1st ML than she does to the 2nd ML.

An audio book/drama 😂

I remembered enjoying RJL and TSY in "Under the Power" but always lmao at their "kiss" scenes. The way they had to film it because he wasn't doing kissing scenes back then so you have fade to black and angle changes to show behind the head. I rather they didn't even try for kissing scenes if they were going to do that lol. Sometimes romantic scenes of glances and hand touching are even sweeter than the actual kissing so if they don't want to kiss/kiss scenes aren't good, don't even bother lol.

I think they were in such a hurry for FL to jump to the past that they neglected to let the audience know her as a character first especially for those who never read the novel (this might work in a novel because we get more inner monologues and flashbacks but not in a drama). FL was introduced and her family/clan was also massacred in the same episode lmao. They were just introducing one character after another in rapid succession that I don't even have time to feel bad for them dying. I think they should had the first 1-2 episodes on FL/family/clan and introducing the lore of ML as an incoming threat. Because the "past" now is basically about ML so we don't get anything more from FL.

Yup, and it is like once you experience A+++ chemistry between leads in a drama, it is so hard to get invested in another drama that doesn't have that same level of chemistry because you KNOW what it was like to see amazing chemistry. You end up expecting that same level for all other dramas but sadly, that doesn't happen often.

Yup, also I don't remember if BL started dating ZLH while she filmed this drama or not so that might have some effect on it. That if she was dating already during this drama filming and that potentially hindered her chemistry with LYX.

If not, then yeah, they probably just don't have that same level of chemistry anymore. This drama is also more focused on the action from the jump so I think it neglected some of the emotional bonding needed between the main leads for the audience to feel anything for them as a couple and the angst they will be going through.

Yes! They use a lot inner monologues to tell instead of show. It is a waste opportunity since the romance is so important to the drama as a whole but the focus is so much on the action that the sudden romantic scenes here and there actually takes you out from the drama. The character introduction/set up is also poor IMO. We barely know anything about FL as an individual other than oh she want to save her family/world before her meeting with the ML. While with TSL, we have a sense of who both FL AND ML are as individuals before their path crossed each other.

Yup, maybe they got too comfortable with each other so there is no tension anymore. You can tell they are "acting" so it is hard for me to immerse myself in the story and feel for their characters. Plus the transition is kind of all over the place so the shift in their emotions are so rapid that it is hard for me to feel bad in one moment and then go oh FL is "okay" now.

Same, I feel like on the baseline level, I should be liking TTEOTM with ohhh ML evil and FL is strong and will save the world/him at the same time. BUT I am just not feeling their chemistry. Like there are moments where you know this is supposed to be romantic and ML is becoming curious about FL/falling in love but there is nothing there for me to really feel it in my heart that I believe these two will have an earth shattering love.

Yeah, you can tell Youku invested in TTEOTM a lot more than TSL with the set designs and costumes alone. Not to mention the promotion for TTEOTM is everywhere right now on the C-side.

Still hanging around here. I gave TTEOTM a chance and sigh, something is just not hitting. You can tell that drama got budget with the way it was promoted plus the cast list. But the romance/chemistry aspect is so lacking for me compared to TSL. Idk why but LYX and BL had better chemistry in "Love Is Sweet" than this current drama. I also think TSL is so fresh in the xianxia genre that having TTEOTM right after with the usual hidden agenda, betrayal trope, and misunderstanding trope kind of dimmed its shine. I guess I really still got TSL brain rot and it is affecting my other drama viewing experience lol.

I watched on Youtube! But I also watched on Youku because I can understand without the subtitles. Maybe try dramacool, I know they have subtitles?

CMC is under Liu Ning's company (producer of TSL, "Guardians of the Lands", and other dramas). He is still considered a rookie I would say, "Guardians of the Lands" is his first main role (not aired yet).

LLD is under the company called Tangren Media, she is signed to them for a few years now however it is said the end of her contract with them is coming up. CXX is independent from what I know, meaning he runs his own studio and doesn't report to a company (this allows for more freedom and he doesn't have to attend events/do projects he doesn't want to).