ASmith

I think no one would win— one or both of every pair is a communication king, they’d start with “why are we fighting at all” and then end up having a civil pot of wine or tea. 😂

this is so true lol 😂

This one is not a BL/censored BL, no.

It's high as it's good. (Good mix of serious elements & humor, character relationships/growth, mysteries, fight scenes, three very likable & cool main characters.)

(If you're wondering what about it is good enough to be rated so highly, maybe check out a few eps on iQIYI? First few are available free without premium, and it pretty much starts with the same momentum that it goes on with for the whole show. If just idly wondering, then the above is why I think it scores well.)

we are all confused what the writers were thinking after 13 (actually post-12 for me— that arc was so good 🤩) but all that’s just random gossip and speculation.

We will never know but given RMP was produced and written by the same guys, it’s more likely it’s just the writers’ or producer’s stylistic preference (to follow the leads a bit at the start, then focus a lot on the side romances, then remember the leads again at the end only to kill most of them.)

Recycling of souls via reincarnation, basically. So everyone does die it’s just death isn’t particularly permanent, QT wasn’t just speaking idly when she said to QC she hoped they’d be siblings in their next life; she fully expects them both to get a next life.

Which makes sense with the Chinese title being Heart of Sword, and the first 13 eps being about Fugui finding his sword heart, and another 6 being about his dad redescovering his own heart of sword, but why they had to randomly side-bar the plot and chuck in 12 eps of QC filler instead of actual character development and world building or giving QT meaningful scenes as a character is anyone’s guess. Writer is to blame indeed 😪

Yup, I mean given everyone else in the plot is obsessed with either love or hate and unable to overcome it, I think they would have lost miserably had that happened but yeah the writers really did QT dirty. At min if they were going to add a seed she didn’t have in canon, make her able to refine it despite not having those powers in canon, and kill her even though she doesn’t die in canon, they should have had her pull the seed out and offer it herself, as opposed to having her order Fugui to murder her at his parents’ pavilion. Writers really did her dirty.

I think none are spin offs especially — the team making them filmed all 3 series before the first (Red Moon Pact) aired 👀 (Agree the visuals throughout in this are sooo good. The budget clearly didn’t scrimp when it came to costumes and CGI!)

Well said. 👏

Not quite every way— he got a brilliant 1-12 and a decent 14-17 & 31-32, and I’d take limited screen time over the butchering of character poor QT got post 18 and the styling & outfits and fight scenes were absolutely 💯. (Blond Fugui was so fun to watch too for 33-36 even if the plot and writing made zero sense at all.)

But yeah the writing post 18 is a mess 🤢🤒 Brilliantly acted though but the writers of the Western Regions and onwards arcs should be banned 😪

He becomes a main character again around ep31, and starts getting more screen time from 29+. but yeah they do spend 19-29 basically on side character focused filler.

29 he dies, QT does have some fond flashbacks of him in ep30 (just when I thought I’d finally escaped him lol) but post ep31 I think he gets no speaking lines.

💯 exactly this!

TJOL was indeed beautiful.

And like, as the co-author of the game/interactive novel you fell into, there are massive ethical issues having any kind of romance anyway with the NPCs, regardless of what situations and emotions the System is making happen, because we already know from the 8 Masters and from the editor OC and even the hilarious "Do you feel an internal spontaneous urge upon seeing me to do anything for me and be my ride or die sidekick dudebro" "Nope, not really" that the System is controlling people's emotions to align them with the plot, and that XMM is fully aware of this, though his awareness is less and less as he forgets more and more of the real world post EP20. XQS' death there is so peaceful and warm, surrounded by friends, having fleshed out the world he created so sloppily in Ep1 to be a place that is strong enough to stand on its own two feet now rather than relying on him to save it, and that the System can't force to align with its "plot" anymore b/c the story book has ended, it's now up to the characters to choose for themselves what they do next in this world. *hugs it*

S&B indeed, it's hard to buy a love. I don't feel resentment myself beyond what I feel towards her for her arc as a viewer (Fugui doesn't do grudges and QT doesn't either; I buy they're both at peace), but I feel they're just not really suited to each other. All throughout, Fugui's been like "Your goal can't only be to help other people achieve their goals, there must be something you actually want." and QT is more like "My greatest happiness is when you're not feeding yourself properly or are helpless and in a coma and I can tend to you and be needed." They're just not on the same page, she is super duper codependent and he's very independent, so she'd probably be better off with someone who clung to her and said their life wasn't complete unless she was in it, bonus points for having some recurring illness that meant they couldn't get by without her for a few months of the year or something, and he'd probably be happier meeting a woman like LCZ's wife lol.

Tang Zhou should be CY's character in the human realm arc of Immortal Samsara I think.

;-; I emotionally invested in them so hard from 1-12 is my trouble, and then the Jiejie arc happened and I took it wayyyyy more personally than I would have if I never cared that much about either of them at all ;-;

ty for the reminder & the encouragement, I console myself that 15 Days to the Capital will hopefully land next year to console me 😂

Yesssssss jiejie arc was the worrrrst.
Compounded by Qingtong's drastically lowered IQ which dropped from:
> Would love to find Fugui, but can't get free. (not a ally, bro is trapping me.)
> Now have power to beat bro, but he told me Fugui's dead, so.
> Now I found Fugui but I can't stay with him b/c I wouldn't want to put him in danger, he is on 30% and damaged organs but that's clearly just what the alliance did to him and means he's not up to fighting anymore, he's been doing nothing all this time.
>Now I'm literally working with him but I can't be with him b/c it'll hurt my bro's feelings.
>Now my bro's literally trying to start a Demon/Human war but I still can't go with you b/c you are trying to get the black fox out of him and that will definitely be lethal.
>Now I've just tried to get it out myself despite saying 10 mins ago how lethal it was but I can't, but I still won't go find you and ask for your help because that would be sensible.
>Now my bro's trying to ahniliate the world but you go deal with the harrowstorm rip off, I will handle my bro.
>Now he's dead, let me have some teary flashbacks remembering him fondly since he redeemed himself in my eyes by saying all those murders and stuff were just so I'd give him attention and love him.
>Okay, it's been a whole day since your dad died and I tagged along because why, I swear I'll stay by your side forever but metaphorically because I need to go run my city that I never did anything with ever.

>Now you're telling me scram and sure, i guess you can have the city and rip out evil demon souls if you want and I guess I'll step down as ruler but NOOOOOOO how could I possibly ever leave you? Don't you remember my promise to be my your side forrrevvver????

Like I was so not shipping them by the end. ;-;
I wasn't even sad when she died, the writers totally ruined her in that arc.
And then ruined x2 when HY was like "Thanks for what you've done for my boy all this time" meaning he has not even kept tabs on FG to know that it is a fat lot of nothing lol.

Can well believe LiP was better, cuz from the flashbacks you could like both the ML and the FL in that one and actually ship them the whole way through XD

I reckon you are onto something lol

(Though tbf this isn't bad-- just a massive letdown of a second half after the heights of the first half.)

Continue till ep12 absolutely!

After that, make the call depending on your tolerance for filler and the level of enjoyment in your chest, always remembering the FFWD button for unwanted arcs is your BFF ❣️

(If it's Cheng Yi you are watching for, he's a main character till Ep18, a side/support character from 19-28, and then a main character again from Ep29-36 :D He does get some scenes in the middle, but generally the focus is some other character's story arc for this bit.)

It's basically the IMDB for China.

Like any site, it's going to be susceptible to attacks by haters, but it's useful in that it tells you what % the stars are layered at (so you can see where the consensus stars are + gauge how heavy the hater attacks on it are) as well as the number of *raters (soft measure of how many cared enough about the show to score it.) It's tied to mobile phone numbers, so each rater needs to have a Chinese phone number, and they can only vote once.