ASmith

I can believe it, loved his scenes in this so much

Here is good, there’s no weighting as far as I know, 10s are 10s on MDL, it’s just pure maths (eg 1 1 and 4 10 = 8.2), but yeah on imdb I’d try putting 9 and see if the numbers improve more with more spread at the top.

imdb ratings are crazy though, like 4k 10-star, 1k 1-star and still it’s a 3.8 there. I think you need to have an even weighting of 8-9-10 to get a higher number with whatever “weighting” system they use. (That or you’ve got to be Disney’s little mermaid, who scores 7s with 22k 8+ and 48k 1’s lol.)

💯I can see that working too! Ao3 functions pretty well with that kind of system too. I hope some dev sets up a fan site like that in the future so fans will have somewhere to go to get real ratings for assessing shows 🤩

Heh, that’s not a bad idea — some site should set up a fan site that only offers 2-5 star ratings, with the extra special 6 stars out of 5 for shows better than 100%. Or better yet, some site that splits ratings into “how much I enjoyed” vs “quality of script” vs “quality of editing” etc so that there was a clearer breakdown of what it was getting the stars for. There’s definitely room for sites to improve their ratings beyond just stars, and let viewers sort by more than just flat stars imo, so that the people who care mostly about writing could sort on that, vs acting to sort on that etc. there could even be fluff or angst out of 5 ratings so that the stuff people sort on could actually filter for enjoyment. Hope some site rises to do it one day to save the data from being swamped by bots🙏😔

Hopefully in 20-30 years, some better site than Douban will rise for rating dramas if it keeps going downhill like IMDb. 🙏

They’re going to fail to stop him being popular as long as MLC exists I think, so it’s a losing battle for them no matter what they vote because regardless of rating, if a viewer liked MLC then they will probably end up working through everything else he’s been in they can find and realise the 1-star ratings are a joke 😂 He’s not only amazing with a good script, but he can carry a bad one. A lot of actors can do the first, but less can do the second for me. Especially anything involving suffering or fight scenes, he’s beautiful to watch.

Hope the haters are being paid overtime for their hard work by whoever is marketing, hard to imagine anyone would waste their life spreading poison instead of just watching what they do like for free.

At this point, my head canon is that YFS has been slaughtering and oppressing for years because he is a bored guy and just wants to produce a good opponent to relieve his boredom of being the cleverest guy around to play a decent battle of wits chess against him. He has too much charisma, I could watch him and XHA do mental chess and drink tea all day 😂

Or is he?
Because I thought deposed emperor was an axe murderer deep down but it seems like actually he’s not completely terrible (???)

This show is very good at showing that normal people have crazy living inside of them and it comes out if they’re pushed hard enough but what you do when you snap isn’t all you are as a human being, so at what point do good and bad balance out, or can you never atone?

It’s hip to be a critic I guess 😂. From comments here I read she wasn’t a fan of Mysterious Lotus Casebook either iirc, so probably just CY she’s not a fan of which would spill over to anything she saw him in, but that just tells me her reviews probably aren’t worth watching for me as her tastes are so unaligned with what I enjoy lol.

I think even telling her the truth wouldn’t have helped. She’s known his family is being hunted and targeted by that general for ages, and seen firsthand from her mentor and that guy she tried to warn died how dangerous the H army is and how they’re everywhere even people she trusts. Yet she still blurted out her true parentage to random strangers. She alas was probably just not very scheming minded even when aware how dangerous the enemy, so knowing probably wouldn’t have helped her. 😅

The general seems weirdly tolerant of XHA though. And protective of the girl’s grave even after murdering her. wonder what his real connection with XHA’s family is, he has a very fond uncle air when he talks about him.

He is pretty strong though. I know narratively he’s not a martial artist like the generals & can’t solo mobs, but I can tell you I couldn’t pole vault over enemies and onto a horse or side ride one, and stabbing “without precision but with force” still leaves his enemies dead 😂

Same 😭😭

Maybe add a spoiler tag?

I remember XHA saying in their academy days, the deposed emperor slipped a snake into his stuff and then not only pretended it didn’t happen but offered the antidote after. His pattern of harming under pressure and then making up for it is consistent, but wanting that guy to eat like a dog makes it unclear to me how much he’s genuinely repenting and how much he’s just smart enough to see what will ingratiate himself with his captors. If he’s ever not under their thumb it will be interesting to see how he treats them. (I do like him though, I can respect a weasel who’ll do anything to live and isn’t hypocritical about it.)

You will get your answer really early in Ep7 :D

I think basically he said the little kid was chewing bamboo starving, and he’d had mercy on this family, so my impression was he’d tried to feed some enemy family only to have them try to kill him while his guard was down, leaving him with no capacity after to see weak or helpless people as not a threat, he strongly feared all threats to himself.

I think he was going to be booted out of the army and the family, so to him it made more sense to kill his bro so he could stay in the army and stay in a good position. (The army continued to exist, just the leader changed.)

As for why he bothered to spare his nephew instead of just knifing him when he showed up with that cart, that is an excellent question. Someone as professional as himself failed to kill his nephew via stabbing his throat as well as let him be kicked out of the carriage and not murdered, and also he petted the family dog instead of killing it. He either had a soft spot for family back then and was hoping his nephew would just die in the streets so he wouldn’t have to personally kill the kid he gave his first dagger to and looked out for, or else there is some deeper reason why he didn’t do it. (is where I am so far.)

Maybe watch a couple of eps to see if it’s your thing or not? For me it’s yes but I’m biased bc the cast is packed with pros I have loved in other stuff (in terms of support actors, especially Uncle Wu in Joy of Life.)

I would say there’s fighting, but it’s more about battles or ambushes style fights, and less about elegant swordplay. You get soldiers and generals swinging and people collapsing but so far not wuxia-style martial masters dueling.

What I got was 2 reasons:

1) He was set upon by civilians he was nice to during a war, so as a result he now kills threats before threats can kill him.

2) At some point with this line of thought, he killed some civilians before they did anything, and his very not happy older bro booted him from the family because of it. He then perceived his bro as another threat to himself hence dealt with him in advance is how I read it.

Suspend that disbelief 😂 I’m just assuming at this point that the dad’s family has that medicine for reducing blood from injuries and that maybe all the upper army members took it at some point too 😂