ASmith

Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty I think

She always planned to give him her fire as the Soldier program was before he was even conceived, but because of some battles and stuff she was really low on power when he was born so she ended up having to give her life to do it (I think). So it wasn’t initially planned to be lethal but did end up being so to her.

Love and Redemption

plural. Cuz this should also be about 19-30, lol.

His mom passed on her own power to him, giving him the last of her inner energy & flame before dying. That's why his dad always reminds him that his mom gave her life so that he could walk that path and he's ungrateful for that sacrifice if he doesn't live up to it.

And re. the other, it indeed does, he is filial and has never known any other values than Soldier ones since his dad never lets him interact with other people, so he never really questions stuff like "is it fair I'm raised on a frozen lake like this" but from the cricket he befriends as a kid to anyone who sneaks in to hang out with him, he embraces any kind of connection with anyone who reaches out to him (and isn't evil-- he can tell who's evil based on their inner energy + swordplay path) all while having no real idea how to reach out and actually form them himself since his dad is quick to step on any kind of attachment he detects. His dad is lucky his kid grew up so well given this crappy parenting.

It is the path of the Soldier, basically. Anyone who's training up to have enough power that they can literally take on any opponent they face and win can't be allowed to have ambitions of their own or their own thoughts (or how could that crappy alliance control them if they went rogue?). So both his mom and his dad's idea, though his Mom does say "But if he wants to quit, let him" and his dad does express regret that he raised him this way when he sees that his kid isn't corrupted by the bonds he forges with other people (once he actually does that.)

Basically, ML is a eugenics experiment.

They took the strongest member of his dad's family + the strongest member of his mom's family to breed an heir with great fighting ability. (His mom's idea, but her and his dad did love each other, this wasn't the only reason they were together.)

ML is strong because of constant cultivation training, he's been training 16 hours a day since he was a little kid and being sent out into the field to fight demons since he was 12. But on top of being strong he has his mother's fire bloodline inside him, which if he can activate it would also let him access his mom's fire abilities, granting him powers like poison immunity and purging evil influences and controlling flames, etc.

The "Soldier" path they refer to is a particular training method and career. A "Soldier" is someone whose only purpose in life is to be a blade pointed at demons, and the goal is to have them be the strongest swordsman so they can kill every demon effectively, and not be tricked or swayed by them. But you don't want your strongest swordsman suffering from inner demons and going demonic themselves (because they're way better at fighting than you) so you need to make sure they have no inner demons, AKA no hate, jealousy, rage, fear, and greed, and the way to make sure they don't have those is to give them nothing and no one to be attached to, and teach them that the purpose of their life is sacrifice so that they accept that their own feelings and pain do not matter at all.

^is what I understood.

Prisoner of Beauty has good chemistry between the leads.
Starry Love also had good chemistry & a good plot through to the end.
Story of Kunning Palace is another one that stayed good to the end.

yeah the blood spitting is an absolute must for that list XD

The writing should indeed be.

I'm gonna purge it from my system with a rewatch of Mysterious Lotus Casebook, lol.

Chang Hua Sen enters around Ep23 and lives through to the end, along with his general love interest. He is a cute and pure fox puppy who just wants to marry his girl and live with her happily while being devoted to his friends and teachers.

In terms of hate/disappointed viewers, it's as the trouble is that you basically go from focusing on a high-fantasy high-stakes romance in which there's overt racism against demons, people are being tortured and taking swords for their loved ones, and being forced to leave the sects if they want to even hang out with them and not murder them....

To fluffy filler arcs where the plot slows to a crawl, we see all 101 "Marry me?" "Not interested." "Please?" *female punts suitor into the sky with a spear* "I'll be back tomorrow." < romance attempts, plus "My dad murdered your mum torturously slowly and in agony, I've brought him here so you can finally kill him and get justice." "...I actually feel too bad to do that b/c he fed me an unconvincing sob story about how bad he feels." "...Cool. How about a cute date then, you did promise me you'd always make snowflakes for my birthday." arcs plus < "I think that the lady boss whose base we're infiltrating might be planning on pressing unwanted advances against us, hmm. Hey lady, my friend would be so much better at bedtime duties than me." "No no, I'm totally incapable, you should definitely choose him." Meanwhile, the female lead has dialog like "I'll forever be by your side, Fugui, because you gave 10 years of your life." (without me even asking you to, and which you have already told me you would have done for anyone.) << then, come ep18 she is kidnapped by her little bro who'd like to marry her, but who she continues to think only sees her as a sister despite dialogues like "Do you only love him? Can't you spare a little love for me?" She spends 3 episodes saying "I'd like to go back to the ML, but I can't because I'm trapped." Then she spends 2 episodes saying, "I now have enough power to beat Bro and I'd like to go back to the ML, but my bro has told me he's dead and some other people did too so I guess I'll accept it rather than, say, asking Rumu where he lives and going to visit." Then she takes another 3 episodes saying "I do know the ML is alive, but I won't rejoin him because I might put him in danger by doing that because I have an evil seed I'm refining in me." And a final 2 episodes saying, "All right, we're literally working together, but I'll hide it and pretend not to know you because I wouldn't want to hurt my brother's feelings when he's so sensitive about me being with you." << After which her bro finally FINALLY after these 12 episodes and some mass murder and attempted world annihilation dies, after which she spends approx. 1.5 eps mourning him, and then sends misty eyes at Fugui again and says "Just like we promised back in Ep13, I'll always stay by your side and support you." (And by the way, all racism against demons is magically gone now. We're now chill and friendly with them.)

^so basically the actors do well with what they are given, the hate is that for 18.5-30 what they are given is inconsistent or not a lot. By the end only Fugui is spared character OOC-ness, in that his actions are at least consistent with his beliefs and goals through to the end, and he's efficient enough that he manages to achieve them. Everyone else has episodes or moments of "Cute, but pls writers, whyyyy am I watching this instead actual plot? Couldn't this have been 1 ep not 4?" or else "MANNNN you are going to spare that villain AGAINNN so he can get out AGAIN and kill people AGAIN???? Come onnnnnnn." (Compounded by the fact that the ML, the Soldier, does by default go for killing his enemies if they're evil, so they actively /stop/ him from dealing with the villains who then go out and re-offend.)

(Despite the ranting, it wasn't a bad show by the way. It's just it promised to be SO MUCH more after ep12 and just.... never delivered.)

Fox Prince isn't guilty of that and gets no hate though. He's cute and fluffy for his whole arc, just sometimes sacrifices his in-character points for laughs and some scenes are filler.

Hehe my problem was I started with the anime LBFAD and went to the live action version because I wanted to see the story continue and missed the leads.

But they chopped off all meaningful relationships with the female lead so that she only had the male lead, no attachment to her master for example, added an obsessive SML who wasn't in the anime, and removed the plucky determination with which the FL viewed life and her perpetual positive outlook in favor of angst.

Was all right till ep14, then I dropped ;-;

But it probably wasn't the show's fault, mine for watching the anime first so different expectations.

I dropped that one, so yeah that producer is out for me. May he never work with CY again. 🙏

I’m not sure he did? I thought the point was to lure the black fox into thinking he had succumbed to hate so she would try to possess him at which point he would dual suicide with her, as once she possesses you she also dies with you if she can’t get out of you before you die (was my reading?)

They should have kept the Chinese title “FSMM: Wangquan Arc”.

😂 Shame it’s on Youku, I only have an iQIYI subscription. May need to subscribe for a month when that one drops 😂

He’s beautiful at fighting himself 😂🥰

👏💯 Love him.

It was like the “tick of the cultural promotion box to get that Heartbeat Theatre qualification outta the way” for me, lol. One giant add thrust into the middle of the show. Beautiful costuming though, QT and FG were gorgeous. 😂

It’s good up till ep12, then up to 17 it’s probably more meaningful if you’ve seen LiP as it’s about Fei and HY and YA power games, mainly, and post 18 it jumps the shark and never recovers. CY more or less is a support role only from 19-30. He becomes a main character again from 31-36 but by then the only thing keeping me invested was the aesthetic, music, and CY’s fight scenes.

Definitely worth watching up to the end of ep12 in my book!

You could just watch to ep12 and tell yourself it ended there 😂