Acrobit12

Out of the entire trilogy (Dashing Youth, Blood River, The Blood of Youth), I liked this one the best. Maybe I just prefer darker characters/plots. And I liked that this one did not over-rely on CGI and did not suffer from overabundance of minor characters and side plots.

Seriously

In fairness, I was giving it a chance - I wanted to see how they would handle all the politics and the angst that came in the second half of the novel. And so far they are not meeting the high bar they themselves set in the first half of the drama. I am not saying it's bad. It's just... not great. I am still watching and enjoying it, but there are things that could have been done better. Just my opinion, of course.

The actor did a great job. I look forward to seeing more of his work.

Seriously. It was one of the parts of the novel that I was really looking forward too. But with how much they defanged the ML, I am not surprised.

Well, they should have done better by the story.

Generation to Generation, which just finished airing, did better by the ML.

The actors are doing a great job and I would totally watch a drama with them as the main CP.... Unfortunately, here they are so good that it detracts from the rest of the story.

Generation to Generation

I don't rate until I have seen everything, but I suspect mine will be the same.

This about sums it up. The writers of this drama had perfectly good source material and they seem to have dropped the ball in the second half.

Seriously, it feels like they sunk all of the budget into the cast and the camera work and just didn't have the $ left for decent fight scenes for the ML. And they spent too much time on the second CP - the actors are doing great, but this story is becoming a distraction to the main CP.

Ugh

Yes, exactly, totally agree.

"last" few episodes

Thanks, interesting, I am not there yet. I just can't imagine that they can fit all that much into the lar few episodes.

As per the drama I am not really sure, I think he is really conflicted between duty to his family and duty to his country, for the most part. He likes her, yes, but probably realizes that he has no chance.

I also wish they showed more of the blood feud/separation arc and how the ML dealt with that, but given the changes they made to the character of the ML, it doesn't really surprise me.

I do agree that they are spending a lot of time on the Qi Min love story, and while the actors are doing an excellent job, it distracts from the main plot (even more so for the novel readers who know how that particular story will end).

It's a bit inevitable I think given how much time they spent on the Lin'An plot in the novel vs. the drama. There just isn't the bandwidth left to develop the other plots properly, which is unfortunate.