BearFightingFanBackAgain

The original storyline was enemies to lovers so the heroine’s feelings take a long time to develop into full blown love despite the massive edits. Before that, there’s a lot of back and forth as the heroine struggles with falling in love with the hero.
Episode 20 is when she reciprocates the emperor’s affection for the first time but Episode 23 is when she loves the emperor with no regrets.

I can’t remember if she’s his only wife at the end but she’s definitely the only wife he pays attention to.The rest die off to be honest. It’s a bit sad.
In the book, she is the principal wife but is demoted because of the bad behaviour of the woman who inhabited the body originally. Her behaviour is one of the reasons the male lead doesn’t like her. The original owner is supposed to be a villainous 2nd FML in the story within the story but the FML changes her fate even though the other wives are constantly plotting against her.
Yeah, FML doesn’t really like the ML until the end but he’s really is terrible to her in the beginning and he does some shady things in the middle of the book too so it makes sense that she doesn’t like him for a long time.

I went to have a look at the Chief Producer for this drama and I’m even more confused over everything going on with this show. The Chief Producer is behind quite a few hit dramas (like really famous hit dramas not the “fan famous” dramas) and the non hit dramas have really good ratings on Douban due to their quality.

Yeah, the book is more harem than reverse harem. I think there’s like 5-6 wives in the beginning. Not sure how many wives will be in the drama though I saw at least 3.

And the dudes in love with her were low-key scumbags in the book so there wasn’t really any angst over them 😂

If it follows the book, it’ll be like Jun Jiu Ling with some of them in love with the fml but the fml is pretty much only into the male lead.

I think it wouldn’t have been so bad with the original version but because the edited version had so little of the main couple, they became made the focal point even though it was unbearable lol.

Oh you meant add the tag? Yeah, they should add the tag. Maybe there’s a way to suggest it.

I think Starry Love is popular more because it’s a xianxia and part of the AoL trilogy. Its twin are also part of the original plot I think. The twin roles in RoaTF are a departure from the book so it’s not a plus to publicise it because book fans hate when dramas make changes in the show and it could turn them off. RoaTF’s marketing has been sparse but I think they’ve done the right thing so far focusing on the chemistry/humour. There’s a lot unfortunately going against it so they have to play their cards right to succeed.

The editing and post production definitely killed this show. I think it would have been better to just leave the show in its original sequence even with all of the censorship cuts.

I think the rating only happens if enough people rate it. This show might not have enough people willing to rate it.

Lol, it backfired. I feel like I’ve never disliked a vice pairing as much as I disliked this pair. I actually liked the actress from her other roles but this role… I remember watching the live broadcast with them and it was one of the worst live broadcasts I’ve ever seen. It was so dry and boring just like the couple in the show😩.

Tencent has definitely started to ramp up the marketing (but they won’t give us a trailer 😩). Apparently they intend it to take over for Chongzi, so it should air soon after Chongzi finishes if the rumors are true.

Just submitted lol. I’m really not sure why this didn’t get released internationally considering it was the official drama of the Olympics and other tribute dramas have gotten subtitles/international releases.

Li Chengyin was the antagonist/villain in the book the drama is based on, and while the drama cleans him up a lot, it’s hard to lose that essence. It’s actually hard to feel sorry for book Li Chengyin unless you read the side stories. The side stories take the sense of tragedy to the next level.

The original author is actually really famous for writing gut wrenching stories. I think she’s nicknamed “The Stepmother “ because of it lol. The first arc gets a lot of complaints about being slow but I’ve always felt like the first arc is absolutely perfect. 10/10.
I agree that the second and third arc don’t do as well but I guess that’s because the original book is not a political drama, it’s a pure romantic tragedy from Xiao Feng’s perspective. The politics were added in the drama to give Li Chengyin more depth but even domestically, the politics plot line isn’t thought to be very strong by most passerby. The platform mostly ranks it as a romance or a tragedy.
Also in an answer to one of your early posts about the amnesia, the amnesia is actually supposed to be a plot twist. The drama is actually aired out of sequence from the book. The book starts in the drama’s second arc, then it’s the Xizhou arc, then it’s the final arc up until the jump from the tower.

So many good actors seem to be pushed to the side or given terrible productions right now. It’s made it really hard to find anything to watch lately.

It would be nice if it could be a dark horse. Peng Xiao Ran and Ding Yuxi are stars that deserve more popularity. They’re both hardworking and seem really good natured.

It’s also opened an official TikTok.

This show has made it to No. 2 on this week’s Expected List of Works to be Broadcast🎊🎊 I don’t think I’ve ever seen it so high up the list.
Also, I saw another Tencent drama without a proper trailer so this drama may not be such an oddball to not have one.