Boadicea

Bai Jue = Di Juan
Shang Gu = Yi He

They are not in this drama, and even if they were, pretty sure the actors would be different.

No.

Leads only interested in each other.

However, the second leads have unrequited love for them, so the scheming tropes still apply.

As a Xu Kai fan myself, there was nothing wrong with what you said at the time. I hate when fellow fans react like everything said is something hateful when it's not. There are a couple of his dramas that have been a miss. Nothing to do with him but the production.

Don't feel deterred from ever saying your opinion. Because I do somewhat agree with you.

I'm not sure if they are in deep denial or just want to bypass it, but the problem is not the fact that they strategize against each other as much as the behavior in how they go about it.

Li Ni having her father help him with his army was more between him and the father as generals. Li Ni didn't play around, used, or attack Cui Lin's feelings.

If you can bypass the FL, you'll enjoy it I think.

I love Lu Si Cheng and the supporting characters, and the story is easy to digest without over complications and melodrama. But if it isn't for you, it isn't for you.

I think it's popular because it gives off a K-drama vibe and it's kind of an idol-ish drama.

"Ancient God" (上古)

I'm sorry, I don't know what that has to do with what I said, lol.

[sees Xu Kai and Jing Tian interactions at the Tencent All Star]

[jumps off cliff proudly with a smile to join official Delusional CP Land]

No regrets, I will steer and sail the seven seas.

That's the vindictive part, yes. I think that deserves criticism regardless of my thoughts on the matter. She was outta pocket for that.

I like Cui Lin though ^-^. I'm just not going to die on a hill where I believe she was wrong.

You mean a war where they...want the same goal at the end of the day and save the same grandson? 😒

Real "love and war" there.

Also, one thing does not correlate to another. "Love and war" and "being on the same IQ level" have nothing to do with each other at all. She can play her emotional, manipulative viper games all she wants while viewers think what they want, but she automatically
renounces she's at his level as a result. If you're scared of losing out on a negotiation just for a person's head to gain one city and food provisions, to the point where you have to "distract" the opposite party via hurting their feelings to achieve anything instead of relying on your ability, then it is undoubtedly weaker and lower than his. Otherwise you wouldn't be afraid of the result if the confidence was there, no? It's that simple. She knows she can't win on fair, leveled grounds.

What's worse, is that Li Ni ends up getting what he ACTUALLY wants because his aim wasn't Jianzhou, or really the army provisions; he clearly came up with a way to get his army food. He wants to save his father and keep the grandson alive, then get back to Laolan pass to chill. He's aware Cui Lin isn't a threat, so giving her goodies to pacify her along the way isn't an issue. So much so he got her to help his army. I would say his oversight in this arc was Gao Han's character unfortunately.

You can spout all the arbitrarily love and war debacles, but "matching" his intellect she does not. So yeah, agree to disagree. Although they are better together than apart.

The whole tiger tally thing was fine. They were mutually playing around.

It's what happens after when it came to the negotiation that loses respect and makes her dislikable to others. Typical manipulative woman using feelings and being callous. I don't think it's clever, just shows she would lose to him otherwise. Respect as an equal would be going into that meeting and going head to head with him with him having a clear mind, and still getting her way. She didn't do that. She knew better because she CAN'T match him on intellect. He's fine with her demands because he's already ten steps ahead and aims higher.

I disagree that she isn't an ally yet by that point. Li Ni isn't worried about her personally because despite her bs, she's on his side. He's looking at the bigger picture all the time and predicted the end of Ep. 9 for instance.

Yet viewers are not that perceptive. They see her as annoyingly conniving and vile. And she did come off that way. A lot. That's not my problem but I'm not going to defend her honor considering how she acted either 🤷🏻‍♀️.

To be honest, I don't consider A Ying to be his equal in tactics as a female equivalent to him unfortunately. She's good and has talent, more than most of the men in the series and generals. So she's worthy. However, her actions from Ep. 8 and onwards in continuously using his feelings as manipulation just confirms and shows she does not match his intellect and needs to rely on other more underhanded emotional means for leverage against him. She admits these things herself directly or indirectly (like in Ep. 8 in needing him to be distracted in order for her negotiation to go her way). Li Ni has since long stopped worrying about her cause he knows she's on his lane (at the time). She wasn't even the one that ultimately betrayed him and what caused the big rift. Although her reaction to his clap back might be divisive.

The viewers though, just see it from the surface and think he gives into her demands and is a victim (cause he gets hurt) when in reality he's playing the long game. Just in the next episode he says "what a pity" for the one old General because he already knows how things are gonna go ahead of the end result. He got food for his army without needing to steal from Cui Lin. Etcetera. Would watchers pick on that thooough? More than likely not :|. Not all of them.

Her behavior instead makes them believe she's devious and shouldn't be trusted. So now it's up to the script and the narrative to gain back audience trust. But again, her being likable depends if her being frustrating/annoying is lower than her good points.

I'm just saying I don't blame some viewers for not liking her. Those types of traits are not endearing whatsoever, and what she does and what she says are too mean. Compared to the ML, she's restricted and cold. People root for the poor crying puppy. Not the fox. If it was the ML doing this, I'm pretty sure he would have gotten flack too. But he isn't the one doing it. So....

I replied to Draco about it, which more or less encapsulates the problem if you would like to read. If you haven't I mean, lol.

Whether or not she was jealous isn't the determining factor on how likable she is. It was her words and actions from the middle onwards. My point is that she was wrong + awful in this episode and there is just no defending that. And if those watching felt like they couldn't get past that, so be it. We are discussing why others find the FL a mixed bag.

She's not like "other girls" yet can't defeat a man on fair grounds with intelligence and wit, so she resorts to being hurtful, callous, and manipulative to willingly hurt him, aware of how he feels, puts salt in the wound with him watching during the meeting, and then acts arrogant afterwards like she actually achieved something grand by doing that. It just proved that she can't win against Li Ni unless he's distracted and not thinking with a clear head. He's definitely a once in a century genius, she's not. She had to rely on other means (i.e. his emotions) to get leverage. To be honest, I think she lost a bit of the viewers' respect.

And this was only Ep. 8. This means that, unfortunately, she rubbed off some watchers the wrong way. Meaning...she's not going to be treated kindly thereafter :/. She's gonna have to prove herself in the remaining episodes from here on out. I know it's a light hearted drama than most c-dramas, but when it comes to romance, you want the other partner not to act in a manner that's no different than Wunniang, you know? People get invested.

I don't know if this was directed at me, lol, but I did a reply to Draco about the core issue.

I don't know why you're mentioning the identity issue when that's not the crux of the actual problem.

Reading the reactions from viewers, what they found too callous was from the moment he playfully approached her all happy (because he thought she gifted him the arm guards), only for her to overstep the boundary of them joking around and going too low by saying she's SML's concubine. He doesn't play nasty like that the way she does (and HAS done so far), so he ends up looking like the good guy and the victim while she's the horrible one of the two. Going for the heart was terrible. Mind you, Li Ni never resorts to that with the SFL^_^.

Her purpose was to HURT him so she can use that hurt and distraction for her own ends. She knows he likes her.

She didn't stop there either, which MIGHT have given her some grace to those watching.

She FURTHER aggravated it by blatantly throwing it in his face in that meeting, again, on PURPOSE, knowing what it does to him. While the screen writer can bypass her leading the SML on by being clueless, it doesn't change the fact that she fed his hopeful delusions simultaneously. All for what? Han Li and food provisions? What, she couldn't go head to head with Li Ni in negotiations when his mind is clear? If so, she's not as smart as him. It's an indirect admittance on her part. She had to play dirty to get her way. That's not equality.

There is really no defending her here, sorry. Even if she was jealous, which some comments did note, it was still too vindictive. Then we have her boast and be smug about her actions when talking to the SML. Again, dislikable. Then she gets mad when the ML is prying into her business (when she does the same), telling Taozi to abandon the pinwheel he gave her as the neat little bow to the end of that episode. Frankly, I would've hated her guts too.

And Li Ni certainly looked hurt, fragile, and was rattled, let's not pretend he wasn't. He also looked soft for being a military marshal.

This is what the viewers see.

Personally, I was disappointed in him that she let her get to him that badly when he's supposed to be the leader of an army. I already concluded he didn't care that much about Jinzhao or the food as much as she did. He has two cities under him and I thought at the time he would figure out the food situation. His plan is more of looking into the bigger picture. But not everyone follows the drama the same. Still, he should have held himself better.

For me when I first watched the episode, it was difficult for me to like A Ying. She came off full on awful. So that's why I'm not going to excuse her decisions and actions. She was unbearable that episode, period. I don't blame the viewers at all.

Now if they still dislike her afterwards, that's on them, yet as a primary impression? It was bad (and her rep wasn't that good before this either, so this made it worse). This was not gonna gain her favors. People support strong, independent women, not manipulative, cruel vipers. There's a difference that needs to be understood. In fact, she gave women a bad rep here if you ask me. Because OF COURSE a woman would use emotions of a man to get their way and to achieve anything. That's what we are apparently good at 🙄. I've seen remarks that she's not really on the same standing as him. She's not a genius, she's just sneaky.

And like I mentioned above, she practically agreed to that herself via doing what she did.

All you are saying is that he got cruelly hurt and punished for something the SFL did instead of himself though. This isn't an argument in Cui Lin's favor.

I don't blame people actually. There's a way to do things, but she goes way too far compared to the ML and in a pretty detestable, unlikable way that incites hate. You're supposed to root for her yet what she does can be a turn off. Like, why would anyone want her to be with the ML? She was absolutely dreadful and awful and ugly in Ep. 8, for example.

She leads on SML on top of saying something cruel to ML to distract him (which HE hasn't done despite being conniving, sneaky, and disloyal, cause he doesn't go that low) , purposely adding salt to the wound. She basically embodied the generalization of women being manipulative, cunning vipers towards men, which means that she lost respect to the watchers cause they know she's THAT type and she can only achieve what she does by being THAT type. How is she any different from the SFL here? When you think about it.

While you can blame ignorance, it's her actions that bring about certain consequences. That's already an impression on the viewers (and on Li Ni, because in this episode he got that, one, she WILL stoop that low cause she's that kind of person, no questions asked, and two, that she's not worthy of his trust, yet still gets mad when he doesn't believe her and/or suspects her even when her past behavior was utterly vindictive, lol, like what did she expect). It's not going to get better, because she's going to do more frustrating things.

Maybe if the ML here was equally as toxic then it wouldn't be so one sided, but he isn't. That's a fact.

The screen writer dropped the ball there early imo. So while I love the actors' chemistry to death, I'm not going to defend her from the criticism. I'm not sure if the opinions will hold after watching the whole thing, but Ep. 8, especially for a still beginning episode for watchers, was admittedly a baaaad look. Not only for her but for Li Ni too (hence, the simp and doormat accusations). And it's true. He lets her off a lot for what she does.

Beginning episodes may be boring to some, interesting to others, but it is very crucial on setting the tone for the characters and how the viewers feel about them from here on. Put it into perspective: FL definitely got a bad rep after this, igniting volatile emotions from the viewers unto her. Now with this negative feeling vividly cemented, how do you think what she says or what she does will be taken in the future?

No problem!

Keep in mind that the HE happens at the last seconds though, lol, but it's still a HE.

And Ep. 16 onwards is where the story really kicks in. The eps before are more introductory in the God Realm but I feel like it's needed to fully get the characters' motivations imo.

I'm not sure why they called it The Last Immortal, but no, the son is not the "last" remaining anything ("The Hidden God" as the alternate title makes more sense). I mean he...it's spoilers, so you're gonna have to keep watching his journey here. But immortals, [ancient] True Gods, Gods, and whatnot are still around. The gate to the God Realm is just closed.

Although this drama's story takes place 100 years after Bai Jue's temporary death (keep in mind it takes 500 years for him to come back). In fact, Bai Jue returns to life in the middle of this story/drama in the original novel, but I'm not sure if they will mention that in The Last Immortal or not. I'm assuming they will.

Yes.