BlauBlume

Yes they did. In the novel, Ning Yi left the throne to his brother and went into hiding with Zhiwei and lived happily ever after.

I think they did sleep together in the last episode. Single man and woman, in love with each other, spends time together in a room overnight without doing that? Come on.

It's because it is not. The theme and overall story are different.

It is another situation similar to episode 15. Xin Ziyan tried to plot against the 7th prince to save everyone but unpredictable things happened contrary to his plan, plus the 7th prince not being an idiot as well, and everything snowballed into an unsalvageable situation. From this point on the story heads straight to tragedy route.

From what I've heard, the movie script was confirmed, multiple times, to be changed a lot compared to the novel from the get-go. The title itself was also changed, which further reflected how loose an adaptation it is. Imo I think the characters should be evaluated independent of how they are portrayed or how their plot lines were developed in the novel, not to mention expectations may cloud your objective evaluation. For example, I can say decidedly that Ning Yi, in the drama version, does NOT want the throne. It's a consistent POV of his that was reiterated multiple times throughout the series, and was highly emphasized by episode 61-62.

I also disagree with the comparison between this show and NiF or GoT, which might have surfaced due to the impression of the first few episodes when the direction of the plot remains unclear to a lot of viewers, but for a different reason. If anything , TRoP is the antithesis of these shows. NiF shows the triumph of a man coming back from death and bringing about justice and vengeance, GoT is about political players overcoming each other to reach the throne - while TRoP, at the end, shows how vengeance wrecks the lives of innocents and the destruction to love and family relationship resulted from a power struggle.

You should probably watch it to get a full view of the situation unraveling in the final episodes. To sum it up, on the side of Tiansheng court, Ning Yi was stubborn about marrying her, but the court officials would probably not agree with him and his political rivals would exploit it against him (what with her being the princess of the former court, and the rebels having caused so much troubles in the final arcs). On the side of her supporters, when she asked if they were willing to let go of their ambition to restore the former dynasty and live in peace, they outright refused. And then between her and NY there are a lot of personal issues at this point, and both of them have grown out of the innocent and loving couple phase they had before.
It was a real deadlock at that point for FZW, so she chose a way out to 1) end the ambition of the rebels once and for all and 2) cut all loose ends that might threaten NY. I don't think it is a good choice (I wanted her to at least run away), but I wouldn't call it irrational.

I watched the ending. Tbh the situation was pretty complex at that point. There was more intergenerational bad blood and grudges carrying over from the old dynasty than they could have reasonably solved. A happy ending could not be expected, but I wish she hadn't died though.

Thank you! <3

Personally I think the DVD will just get released normally (that’s what I get from the discussion in viewer forum in China). Hunan TV cut the show due to ratings but what is the point of Iqiyi cutting the DVD version as well? DVD version was already released independently of the TV version (no cuts, slower release, no edits,...) anyway.

That's too bad; this series got enough trouble in its production and marketing as we knew it already. But I got the news today that Netflix purchased the uncut version, so we might hope to see the full series yet.

iQIYI broadcast both version , you can use the search term tian sheng chang ge DVD or 天盛长歌 DVD to find the DVD version. And the link above still works fine for me though? I have no idea it wouldn't work elsewhere.
I'm sorry you don't like it but what can we do? The problem it that Netflix got hold of it and we won't get English subs for it until their release, and that is that. Personally I hope Netflix got the uncut version and we can get this over with.

Goodness, this couple is tearing my heart apart.....

TV ratings was OK, acceptable I guess, for its time slot.
Viewer reception in my opinion was mostly lukewarm. They expected a spy thriller or something more sensational, but it mostly played out like a family/romcom drama until the characters started getting involved deeper into the communist/kuomintang plot.

I still recommend you to watch the DVD. The editing indeed has gotten way too outrageous at this point. I hope we can get the Eng sub when Netflix comes.

DVD version was released the same time as TV version. It is the full uncut version of the drama. TV version is the one being broadcast on Hunan TV, this version was heavily edited and left out a lot of scenes.
I have no idea where you watch the series, but the DVD version was released on many streaming sites (without subs). I usually watch it on this site: https://taxiasian.com/the-rise-of-phoenixes-f880/