ASmith

I loved it too, it was so beautiful and warming for me to see not just the enemies lose, but also the difference between the start and the end in terms of the martial world's stance on standing against what's wrong vs right, and XQS being the central character (original ep1 outline) vs the world standing up for itself and growing to being able to go on without him, thanks to how he inspired the martial world and how the martial world first inspired him. Even though LCZ and XQS are both gone, the difference they made remains, including their impact on XMM. Whether he lived in the real world or died, he grew so much through his journey and did in such a heartwarming way.

It totally is, but it'll climb in time. The fights and the OST are soooooo good too 🔥🔥🔥

Honestly though for me this ending made sense and was foreshadowed way ahead by the narrative 😂😆 It was beautiful for all three of him.

😂😂 he really must, right? 😂

Crazy Yan’s younger brother dies, we never find out who he was just that when he rescued General Wu in the past, he had to pick between following a lead on his missing brother or saving Gen Wu and choose the latter, so by the time he found him, his younger brother had died. It sent him a bit crazy.

His sister is revealed to be XQS’s sister Xueyu, and yes, they died due to the villain towards the end at around ep38-39, SE for them 🥺 They do reunite first though.

pls dont wish that on them even as a joke 🙏

But agree it totally is a great show. 🥰

he really does 😆

maybe they didn’t watch the show? 👀👀 he’s definitely not one 😂😆

Based on observing comments over the airing, the ratings are mainly due to a mixed reception of the humor/editing/writing, plus a small minority of haters who 1-starred even the unaired eps just because wayyyyy back on day 1 just to be trolls rather than the ending.

I love the show so I'm biased, mind, but I agree the ratings currently don't reflect how fun it is and how easy the characters are to be attached to, even if it (putting my fair hat on) probablyyyy does reflect the continuity issues of outfit changes and wigs between scenes, so maybe depends what weighting people give to various areas of a show when voting on a score XD

MDL's not so bad though! On IMDB the poor show was 3.3 stars outta 10 for a while there with 400-ish 1-star votes from people who'd 'completed' the show on day 2-3 of its run, so at least here it's not been dragged down by the trolls as much as some other sites XD

💯 I’m still looping the opening theme song OST and that swordsman theme 😂

It is implied— though never spelled out— that LCZ is the other option XMM could have switched to to complete the System’s quest in, since the quest (redeem LSF) is completed by both, their values (though not methods) are similar, and LCZ’s final line is the “lonely as snow” line. But that’s just my assumption, it’s not spelled out in the narrative as XQS destroyed the System’s GUI and thus lost the ability to ask it questions about it.

She does 😃

Literally 🤣

I’ve not read the novel, but given Crazy Yan is not royalty himself, more likely that LCZ is a half brother from a concubine/wife of the previous emperor and illegitimate, is my guess, ala the monk in Blood of Youth. (just guessing though).

Trolls trying to start fan wars, basically. Block and ignore is the way to go, both actors did a good job 🥰

💯

Hmm, just my two cents on a couple of the questions are:

1) LCZ looks like XMM because was the other optional character XMM could have transferred into when he instead destroyed the System. (My logic: not only do they share values-- though not methods-- but Mission 3 was 'redeem LSF, which LCZ and XQS jointly do, after which XQS is immediately returned to his body, albeit possibly dead, suggesting the System's alive and well, only its GUI ever died.)
2) Crazy Yan was ganked because he's susceptible to sneak attacks. The dart got him in the original battle because he is susceptible to them in the past too. And while he is strong, he is also shown bleeding at the end of that fight where that guy whacks him with the wood stick, so he's strong but his meridians are a mess from the soul dart so he can't keep up his max power levels for extended periods. Once Kaiyan absorbs your power, he absorbs your inner force and skills, so we can assume after he absorbed anything he immediately rose to a similar power level himself to Crazy Yan.
3) The script and direction changed abruptly after XQS destroyed the System because now his actions and the plot around him are no longer being directly scripted by it. It's clearly still there at some level because the world it generated is still there, but it's no longer directly forcing and dictating the plot.
4) Gen Wu would never have disobeyed an order from the emperor except to rebel and crown himself ruler of the nation. The token could save his life and made martial artists support him in that fight, but Yan could never have made him do that because he was too loyal to the nation.
5) The emperor we saw leaving the capital at the start 15 years back, and Crazy Yan broke into the enemy camp, rescued Gen Wu, who then reclaimed the land and restored the capital, and enabled the emperor to return. But it's the same emperor as the kid on the seat at the start who is on the throne as an adult now.

I feel like I must be the only person in the comments thread thinking what a beautiful ending it was to a beautiful journey.

I actually like the fact that it wasn't a HE. Rather than saying XQS is right and others are wrong on either a character or a narrative level (by linking right choices to profitable/happy outcomes for the person making those choices), it asks the question of what makes a meaningful life well-lived, and the answer is that everyone has their own answer.

Yiren, Kaiyan, and the Emperor ultimately were trapped by their inner demons of jealousy, greed, hate, resentment, and mistrust, and were ultimately miserable both living and dead. Whether they lived or died, their lives ultimately brought no one joy, not even themselves.

LSF was heading down that path, but he's in a better place now.

LCZ and his wife died as they'd both wish; together, and meaningfully not because of what they achieved, but because of the tenderness both had towards each other. Ultimately, LCZ knew the emperor was an insecure and petty person, easily led by anyone around him and hating those he perceives as rivals despite pretending to like them. He also knows that you can't just kill and replace the emperor since then the whole "mandate of heaven" as justification for emperorhood falls apart. For national stability, LCZ had to go, and LCZ made that sacrifice knowingly every time he drank that wine, while simultaneously weeding out the terrible advisors around his super weak bro while sparing the people who strengthened the nation. I couldn't like his death beetle-esque methods, but he lived and died for the kingdom and the people. His life was meaningful and he died with dignity.

XQS went the full circle from being a kind but timid and tired person worn down by a crap boss who just (like most of us) honestly just wants a comfortable and stress-free life not hurting others and no one being hurt around him to someone who got the spark of chivalry lit in him by his sword bros and ultimately spread that fire across the martial world in a way that will last long past his death. He went from not wanting to be hurt or die > not thinking he would die as he'd just wake up so it's 100% okay to risk his life a ton more than he would if he actually thought he was gonna die there > being genuinely willing to put his life behind his principles and the people. Even when fighting the people who hurt him he never lost the warmth and care he had for other human beings and I respect that so much. My heart is so warm and soft for this dude.

Imma think of this show fondly for a long, long time. 🥰

Angst-wise, most emotional moment for me in 1-6 woulda been the way his hands shook after killing Shan Gudao, like, that realisation of "I just killed another human being" that was written in his face and in his eyes and the sudden realization that this whole world is so much more real than he imagined it when he just wanted to quit the story and get back to Real Life.

Humor-wise, I'm a player who looks up the cheat codes with great dedication when I play a game (I consult Google before I'll bother trying to solve the in-game puzzle, and I'll look up where the hidden ~10Kgp ring is in Baldur's Gate rather than toil saving funds if I possibly can, I definitely kill the basilisks for bonus levels to get power boosts. So I 100% appreciated XQS/XMM's dedication to finding the drops without actually earning them, that would also 200% be me lol.

Humor-wise x2, I loved LSF having to pretend to not be evil because this giant ball of clueless sunshine that has bowled into his life is just assuming he's gonna be a sidekick ala Sancai and the sword bros who's just gonna spontaneously adore him and be his own personal Wang Qi Nian cuz that's how his creator wrote him and that's how the plot's meant to make the side NPCs feel about the golden halo lead. From having to give his fan up to having to not murder XQS in his sleep, I coulda watched LSF stuck pretending not to be a terrible human being for 20 episodes and not gotten tired of it. The only thing I could have wished is that somewhere inbetween pretending to be a decent human being, LSF took a step closer to becoming one, but his arc makes more sense later on than it did at the time XD

as of ep39, no. 😂

Not just you, I loved them too XD