1. "Is there any romance?"2. "The pairings or romance in this show feel forced." (Often said about…
Yeah. To SMY, BHH was more like an emotional projection — a reflection of his longing for the simple, ordinary happiness of common people. It is his dark life as an assassin had never been able to give him.
I wouldn’t define the 'romance' between them as love. Love is a deeper form of understanding and connection — a resonance and bond on a spiritual level. But from many of their conversations, it's obvious that BHH doesn’t truly understand SMY. Their conversations feel like they come from two completely different worlds.
❤️To future viewers — if you’re hesitating because of the low ratings on MDL, I want to tell you that this is one of the best wuxia dramas in recent years. Whether it’s the martial arts design, the visual effects, or the storytelling, this drama is widely recognized in China as a major hit of the year. It has attracted not only female audiences but also many male viewers and people of wide age groups.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama doesn't have main role FL like other dramas, all the female characters are support roles in terns of screentime. It's a story about two male leads (brotherhood, not BL).
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.” This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
I quite liked the start, and some parts of the following episodes. However, I don't enjoy the pairing up/romance…
This is a wuxia drama with the least romance I've watched so far 😂, and many viewers complaining the little romance gave this drama low rating. Please continue, at least 95% of the plots are full of great actions and political intrigues. 😊
❤️To future viewers — if you’re hesitating because of the low ratings on MDL, I want to tell you that this is one of the best wuxia dramas in recent years. Whether it’s the martial arts design, the visual effects, or the storytelling, this drama is widely recognized in China as a major hit of the year. It has attracted not only female audiences but also many male viewers and people of wide age groups.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama doesn't have main role FL like other dramas, all the female characters are support roles in terns of screentime. It's a story about two male leads (brotherhood, not BL).
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.” This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
❤️To future viewers — if you’re hesitating because of the low ratings on MDL, I want to tell you that this is one of the best wuxia dramas in recent years. Whether it’s the martial arts design, the visual effects, or the storytelling, this drama is widely recognized in China as a major hit of the year. It has attracted not only female audiences but also many male viewers and people of wide age groups.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama has no FL, all the female characters are support roles in regard of screentime. It's a story about between two male leads.
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.” This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
Can someone change the name of FL? It should be Fan Chang Yu, not Fan Zhang Yu. The chinese word 长 has two pronounciations. Here should be 'Chang'. Thank you!
Has anyone read the novel version? Is the story exactly like the drama? I really love the characters, especially…
Yes, it's 99% stick to the novel. The screenwriter is also the novel author, he just deleted some draggy plots. The novel author mentioned that while writing The Blood of Youth, he became very fond of the “villainous” assassin Su Mu Yu from the Dark River organization, so later he wrote Blood River as a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect his characters to develop free soul that they seemed to “decide their own fates.”
He admitted that he regretted giving Su Mu Yu and Su Chang He a sad ending too early in The Blood of Youth, and therefore suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Gong Jun also mentioned in a livestream that, in his opinion, this story is an independent narrative and should NOT be directly connected to The Blood of Youth. SMY and SCH are closest brothers forever.
1
I wouldn’t define the 'romance' between them as love. Love is a deeper form of understanding and connection — a resonance and bond on a spiritual level. But from many of their conversations, it's obvious that BHH doesn’t truly understand SMY. Their conversations feel like they come from two completely different worlds.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama doesn't have main role FL like other dramas, all the female characters are support roles in terns of screentime. It's a story about two male leads (brotherhood, not BL).
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.”
This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama doesn't have main role FL like other dramas, all the female characters are support roles in terns of screentime. It's a story about two male leads (brotherhood, not BL).
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.”
This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end.
Many of the low MDL ratings came from viewers who disliked the fact that the leads of this drama were villains in the other two series. In addition, this drama contains very little romance; instead, it focuses on action scenes and brotherhood, which may not appeal to some viewers’ personal tastes. And this drama has no FL, all the female characters are support roles in regard of screentime. It's a story about between two male leads.
As for this drama’s relationship with The Blood of Youth and Dashing Youth, the author has already clarified it:
When writing the novel The Blood of Youth, he was particularly fond of Su Mu Yu, a “villain” from the assassin organization Dark River, so he decided to create a standalone story for him. However, he didn’t expect the characters to “grow a free soul of their own” and choose their own fate. He later admitted that he regretted giving SMY and SCH a tragic ending too early in The Blood of Youth.
Therefore, he suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Actor Gong Jun also mentioned during a livestream that this is an independent story and should not be linked to The Blood of Youth. In this timeline, SMY and SCH will never become enemies.
So please don’t skip this drama just because someone said “they’ll end up killing each other anyway.”
This drama has a happy ending.
Finally, I truly hope viewers who are interested won’t miss this masterpiece, and won’t be misled by the unfair ratings on MDL. In my view, it should be at least 8.8. The ratings in China are very high.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end.
He admitted that he regretted giving Su Mu Yu and Su Chang He a sad ending too early in The Blood of Youth, and therefore suggested readers treat Blood River as a parallel timeline. Gong Jun also mentioned in a livestream that, in his opinion, this story is an independent narrative and should NOT be directly connected to The Blood of Youth. SMY and SCH are closest brothers forever.