ClaudiaHiu

there is only so many ways the audience can keep saying the main leads are sweet or cute and have great chemistry. that is good for them being actors.

on another aspect of this drama I personally cannot wrap my head around is why does a king or lord of a state (as there are 6 in this drama being ruled under the imperial family) pick the dumbass/yes sir no sir (3 bags full) son as his heir? (yes, am referring to lord of yongzhou & his play against lanxi all the time).
from what I have read on ancient history (which is not much) the current king would always play their heirs against each other and pick the strongest / cruel or evil one to take over. That makes the kingdom stronger so that other kingdoms or the common people will never think of rebelling.

just my thoughts on the story direction.

heard oath of love is good or the wind blows from longxi (currently airing)

I hope so that I won't be left hanging but looking at the trailers eps 31-32 just released, explains why lanxi's hair is white (bts available on yt).
I can make assumptions however that leaves the main leads 8 episodes to settle all their matters before the finale. :-)

my guess is the token keepers most probably do keep watch over the token maybe by turns?
Yes, I very much think so about the martial arts sect being additional assistance to the imperial family. The sects can openly practice martial arts, are integrated in the community (so they are the imperial family eyes/ears in the outside world), they can kill or be killed which will be of no loss to anyone directly.
this the reason why yu wuyuan wanted to destroy the martial arts sects first before targeting the imperial family.

why do I feel that eps 23-26 was very (dare I say) dull?

took barely a minute to handle minister ying mu and take over liang chang? had barely any fight scenes before slicing ying mu's throat.
the meeting between Lanxi and his future brother in law was just that? no sparring? no action? Just standing at a guest hall and talking?

another note : as a general where is xiao xuekong? who accompanied Huang Chao on expeditions but is never with him in the palace?

people can call me a hater but am telling what I am observing.

from my understanding, the imperial family or whoever rules that certain dynasty owns the empyrean token (the seal that asserts the throne).
the dynasties before assigned token keepers to guard the token and to limit imperial family's control on the entire of China.
this keeps the balance my guess so that in case any of the 6 kingdoms or rogue army wants to start a civil war to overthrow imperial family the token keepers (mostly martial arts sects) can assist the imperial army to stop the war / protect the imperial family / eliminate the rogue army / bandits.
The martial arts sect are considered like underground army or can I say the chinese mafia connected to the imperial family.

at the end of the day, those that walked out either by force or choice this matter will definitely leave a stain on their reputation.

I am going to watch the series as well because I started so am going to finish it. :-)

The reason many consider such comments as hate when mentioned sub par or mediocre is because this director produced love & redemption also ancient love poetry. With the brady bunch leaving the sponsor should not display their pics/profiles or give them credit for WRTW then the more hard core audience will understand why the presentation is different and will not critique the series so harshly.
This director is very much sought after and can command high budgets because of the quality of his work so I for one was completely taken aback after watching the first 10 eps of WRTW as there was obviously something off.

I am doubtful about the freedom of the royal family the fury of the emperor finding out Lanxi is Hei Fengxi & the mother/son plotting to destroy Lanxi has not been revealed yet and currently we going into eps 25-26.
hard to tell if the last 10 eps are going to drag, skip or just cut to the end. :-)

Yes, from what I have been reading respective director and male producer had their own affairs and the screenwriter left because she was actually part of the same team (one for all, all for one).
when the affairs were exposed, filming was underway so I guess half of the budget had been already been spent on (building) sets, some costumes & CGI on the fight scenes.
the last remaining female producer had to take over and she finished the filming hiring an extra martial artist for remaining fighting scenes then sat on the reels for almost a year trying to piece them together before presenting to the sponsor, applying for license then actual airing.

I never said that the script was horrid (this is for the haters) or that there is anything political just that as a keen observer I noticed a vast difference in presentation from first 5 episodes to the following episodes. The actors brought what they could to the table but the script took a 180 suddenly the episodes started to drag (royal family bickering) there were less elaborate fighting scenes plus the make up (actors only had make up from the face up not even on the neck showing poor lighting skills too - the actors looked like 3 coloured beings running around) and costumes were starting to show signs of frugality (in the sense that as a royal Lanxi wore the same costume over and over again) & Bai Fengxi costumes got noticeably simpler and thinner in quality when by right her costumes should get more elaborate as she grows into character.

I also hope that the future episodes will be great to watch but I think the quality of the presentation might just remain the same.

this is called building up steam (exactly like torture) to get audience attention till the grand finale. More viewers the better :-)

the family bickering scene will continue to drag but with latest trailers released I want to believe things will look up from ep 30 onwards.

that was the first thing I noticed as well (as in presentation, costumes, make up, fight scenes and script) but from the more serious bloggers here I found out it was because the director, producer and screenwriter left the series suddenly.
leaving only 1 other producer to handle the balance of the drama which was promised so it had to be delivered thus the reason why the production of WRTW is quite frankly mediocre and sub par.

I watch marcus but not avenue x she does not have the same mind set as me.

I understand about the director/screenwriter fall outs - sensational or not does not matter because they left after filming the first maybe quarter of the series.
different people interpret movies differently, most of the 'younger' audience just fan girl their way through a series at the main leads never paying attention to mistakes or the support roles who contribute to either a rise of fall of the leads.

I noticed a great deal of difference between the first 5 episodes (fight scenes and presentation) to the eps after and they were totally different from there I can more or less guess something happened to the production company just as they started filming the series.

eitherway thank you for the heads up.

comes down to the same thing. torture / building up our interest for the grand finale. :-)

this is called building up steam.

worst is that we are being tempted right now with wetv releasing all these trailers and us having to wait till next week to be able to watch till ep 30. :-)

was thinking in the same direction. :-)

another note, besides conjuring up small boxes of gifts in their robes or cloaks (what ever they are called) does everyone seem to carry a random needle with them to test their food/drink for poison?
will be pretty uncomfortable to just stick it on a dress sleeve until needed especially when riding a horse or carriage even running. :-)

with trailers 29 & 30 released, things will start to heat up for the last 10 eps it seems.