Dabosil

Ackk lol I didn’t know they updated on Sunday and skipped yesterday, so with today there are six, what-

Just finished 34. and-
I wanted to point out that the Yong King and Baili Queen's set up is actually a really nice turn. This because the show sets up their relationship history (they actually loved each other, forbidden romance), but as the two of them settled into their roles, they evolved into caricatures of each of their own roles, both a making from the rules of the palace but also of their own choices. This ended up making their love for each other at times an act for each other as well. I feel like you could easily imagine their affection for each other and their past (especially with the scene in 34 where they talk about good memories in the past) which is interesting because they could be how many beloved male and female leads of shows become, unable to go against political power and lose track of moral compass or withhold/become indifferent to emotions.

But all that comes down to one thing-that in other dramas, the emperor has some concubines/consorts/queens that they favor, which may just be about favoring or because of the strong, impressive background of the woman's family. Either way, the reason they're brought up is to scheme against our leads. However, this makes it so that when it is time to get rid of/kill them, we as an audience laugh gleefully because who cares?

But the element of the emperor asking her to die is so much impactful to me. Even though most emperors in these dramas also try to balance power and not show overt favouritism, making it a game, it's a lot more depressing knowing there's something at STAKE for the emperor here, which is more than losing his sons.

He killed the love of his life?!!

The thing is, he didn't visit her, go in, and his trusted aide did not give any sort of message to her either, but turned stone-cold in delivery when giving her the white cloth. He didn't ask her to drink poison wine but to HANG herself. (technically, it's better than a public execution). The very next day, you see him beckoning FLX with only slight reference to how he lost sleep.

It's very chilling if you think about it. I'm not talking about who deserved what, but there's a lot more emotional impact here-to the extent where I liked this scene a lot more than the main lead's storyline. It's a tragedy, even if it's deserving. I also think there's such an irony to her death because she was found guilty of killing the Yong King's empress, who he did not LIKE, from her plot against her. I don't want to say I feel bad, it just feels twisted.

To be honest, I think Huang Chao deserves to be emperor, for several reasons:

1. The guy exudes charisma, has the stance and charm, greed, and means to be an emperor
2. He is willing to take a harem (This is actually important because even though I respect all the male leads who only take one wife, with several cases in Ancient China following this precedent, it's SO difficult. Courtiers will want to marry their daughters to the ruler and you need political support)
3. He's good at martial arts (He can lead war. Yes, FLX, BFX can too)
4. Being ruler is his top priority-this is again important because even though his current marriage is one of convenience and political support, I think they're actually a good pair and can see eye to eye on many matters. He also doesn't have to face the question of love versus career/kingdom and doesn't have too strong an emotional attachment.
5. He's already a prince, and the CROWN prince of his state (he has the background)
6. He appears to be sane/cool enough to also consider the wellbeing of civilians even if it isn't his top priority (For this one, FLX wins though, tbh)

and this is mainly why he's more suitable than FLX, as in the chess scene (other than love)
7. He does things directly, quickly, and is confident.

FLX on the other hand is slower, defends himself, is careful of all obstacles, etc, but less daring and straightforward. Huang Chao is confident but has the means to be (he's not stupidly confident). Of course, in this case, FLX is smarter. But as an emperor, I think Huang Chao's personality and way of handling things is better in the long run.

But this is kind of a rationalization for --> Huang Chao just looks like a King. Period.

Violence level definitely has a censorship threshold in China, which kinda varies (I don't know much about the details). Of course, that comes down with what is deemed societally inappropriate, but I think blood usually isn't the issue unless it's like gutteral, flowing, excess blood (I'm also pretty sure movies have a lower threshold but the trailers promoting said movie will blur out the 'inappropriate' parts if shown). Usually inappropriateness comes with cigarettes (encouraging viewers to smoke) or you know, drugs-societal devils. I think you're mixing the two though. To my knowledge, the reason why time-travel isn't strictly allowed has to do with the crackdown on historical fiction in the recent years, as dramas (stemming from time travel dramas to the Qing dynasty) rewrite history, but vaguely. I could totally be wrong though.

But this is why I think it was such an uproar for dramas like 'The Long Ballad' to not butcher or make explicit reference to the emperor ACTUALLY being Li Shiming (famous emperor dude) and emphasize the 'historical fiction' aspect. In that regard, many recent historical dramas coming out have changed certain names/terms of ranks for people to demonstrate historical fiction as to not face criticism about historical inaccuracies/or encouraging/promoting historical falsehoods.

But you never know, they might change the rules, since the NRTA kinda puts stuff out unexpectedly every month lmao. Of course, the trajectory seems to be negative here.

A lot out there! I for one can never watch one country's dramas consecutively for too long, so I watch two Chinese Dramas, two Western Dramas, one KDrama, and so on-, something like that. It helps with perspective and gets you more excited/less wiped out with palette and stories when you come back.
If you're looking for something similar, the female lead actually does a lot of this genre and Tencent still has a bunch slated later on the year with other actors and such. But RIGHT after? I was going to say Legend of Fuyao (ish_ but then I noticed you've watched it already, and you've actually watched a lot from this genre, so I have no idea for once. So back to the original idea, skip around perhaps.

If this was just a side comment type of post, sorry for the long comment lol.

Childish as in-they both clearly talk about wanting to win the world.
And when it comes to owning, as in being the ruler of land, of a state, of the states plural, it's no joke-it wouldn't be a compromise or some chess game/intellect type of duel (if they do, that's disappointing). Or else it's a downer, because being a ruler is serious stuff, not some discussion based outcome imo.
I'm not sure what you mean by not like their fathers? I think we're on different tangents lol.

More accurately, why is Tencent still producing dramas from novels from the last decade is the real confusion? Just to use up all the IPs they have on hand? Not only Tencent-but either way, the issue is with traditional/dated plot that don't fit the updated/modern perspective of audiences (mostly).

The thing is, amicable settlement would be highly unrealistic and kinda childish if they did so. I more so expect Huang Chao to lose by like falling off a cliff or something)\, because I don't think he'll get stabbed (by the leads), as they represent the audience and Huang Chao couldn't be dealt with by the leads. The other possibility is his death by Yu Wuyuan, because it makes sense for our leads to kill him.

The emperor of Yongzhou probably gets stabbed by Yu Wuyuan as well, idk-or he lets his throne to our ML and kinda suddenly becomes this nice grandfatherly dude.
It depends, because I'm not sure if the ML actually ends up 'winning the world' or in the process of almost getting there, since I haven't read the novel.

Mooood. TO BE FAIR the childhood stuff creates a good introduction to ML’s admiration for FL (and an inside joke for the FL) and they DID NOT drag on the whole childhood past thing or make it important to the story. Phew. Looking at you, other C-Dramas and K-Dramas.

I know this is a sarcastic post but mostly it’s-
#38 Have a smart ML? Parrot a bunch of info the audience does not know beforehand that solves the mystery/plot

Or for the messy timeline of events (time intervals)

#39 want to get from Yongzhou to Jizhou/Youzhou/Qingzhou? Have no fear, teleportation exists, the distance between two states can be half a day or several days!

??? episode 40 trailer, BFX throws a sword into a cannon to stop it from explodingand bam?! What is this plot lmao I can’t—

Okay you know I almost rather they don’t show the battle scenes anymore, there’s so much excess green screen for battle scenes in the trailer. The voice actress dubbed ZLS super well most of the time (as in sounding like her) but the dubbing sounds hoarse and not very commanding when trying to yell at the troops to march.

Tbh with this sort of background, the show can do much better. But the scriptwriters keep doing tell, not show, but when they show, the budget or whatever it is is just…? Like the first couple episodes had decent martial arts guys, at least fun sequences! Why does it pale so much in the final war stuff?

Well, you don’t see the dubbing problem (of dubbing for real actors in live production) in other countries. But obviously steps towards another direction will taking away something. maybe there will be a surplus of Chinese animation for these dubbing actors? Either way this practice technically encourages an incorrect definition for actors but `I don’t see it goofing away so quickly; maybe low budget productions will still need dubbing-and I think this may expose certain actors, so some will still use dubbing.

Oh my god Yesssssssss we need this, thanks for sharing. YES
Ugh time to meet professional standards people, `I know some actors are willing to dub and productions don’t want to spend the money so SHOW ME YOUR SKILLS
Also hopefully this will promote live audio-the quality of sound just hits different and the immersion just isn’t the same.

Oh my lorddddd the outdoor Green Screen backdrop in the second last recent episode is…um
At least their faces are clear, I guess?

I can never understand why these different sects have their own special martial arts/sword style that they use when taking care of business (people) WHEN you don’t want to attract attention that you did it-like people are going to look into it. If you kill someone with like a butcher knife and make it seem like some random swipe they will know someone is pretending but won’t know WHO pretends? Or like some other plot just copy the knife style of another sect and put the blame on them or something (which to be fair, is a storyline I’ve seen). Agh.

And Langhua- girl, I don’t like you but I know you’re the product of lazy writing.

Plus those ink drawings should seriously identify at least like two hundred people who look about the same to the drawing, these people have x-ray vision I swear.

Anyways episode 34 to go, saving up

But there isn’t really a memorable OST so far, `I think? I can’t even remember the starting theme well until the first bar or so.

One funny thing-the prime minister’s mom seems to be in awesome health!

I don’t know if this is completely related but people , I think the fourty episode limit is a pretty good thing. Chinese dramas should learn to get to the point more quickly, condense, and grip the audiences more quickly/get rid of (useless) filler. You don’t see other shows having this problem, and it isn’t like there’s a restriction to making a second season if so-that’s literally such an easy way to get around the rules.

On the other hand I feel like the plot for this show is really going to be under pressure to wrap up quickly, because we are almost at the thirty mark and the development with the plot so far hasn’t gone super wide out. As I said, based on someone who hasn’t read the novel, I also wish I could know more about the actual current overarching empire and what they’re doing incorrectly-because everyone can want a piece of land but don’t just do it randomly, even if you say/think you can do better-like how, how though?

So far this is a pretty good dinner drama and it’s a fun watch but hasn’t done anything spectacular. It doesn’t have to, just that it’s done fine (imo). But maybe the last ten will be out of the box or something. I also am definitely sad the costumes that are more heavy in colour (like ML’s dark turquoise robe) is seen less, love those richer colours. Excited to see the dark blue-light blue tunic FL has in trailers for like…35 I think?

As a side note I really think Ji Zhou Prince (I keep forgetting the guy’s name sorry) and the emperor are my favourite characters thus far. (and first prince too, hey, they avoided a trope there! But did they forget about the dude? He went, poof-)
Prince Chunran is pretty interesting too but overall the acting levels on this show could go up to further emphasise each of the character traits. for example, the third prince could seem smarter (honestly this dude never came across as smart, just self-righteous and arrogant) if with a better actor, etc. The casts looks great, just that the acting isn’t completely on par.
I suppose also that a lot of the dialogue is quite predictable ; it’s tropey and not super original and some people love that , cool, but I’d like to see something new (also has to do with similar plotlines).That said, I will say I like how Yu Wuyuan is such a chill-seeming guy outside of his own scenes (mostly meditating in a room lol), he just seems super chill and gets along well with everyone, that’s different. He doesn’t make weird side-eyes at the camera, yay. BUT he also could act better on the offhand.

So we’ll see.

No, but prevalent no matter the length of the series-it’s a problem. Just based on personal observation drama scriptwriters second guess the amount of content they like to cover-they do slow burns well but getting to the meat of the characters or story usually isn’t covered well, like the detail is later thinly spread towards the conclusion. To that i’ll say that growth is generally presented well but plot lacking behind. Also because putting in fillers and a slower pacing is the norm, and because not sure, but I’m guessing the climax, like big battle scenes and whatnot cover more budget and not designed for many episodes of content, but that’s just my take.

So I read it through and so many typos, woah, but too lazy to change it

Halfway Review

Thing is with this drama I keep getting contrasting vibes from their setup. It’s trying to do politics and power play, add in romance (which is fine btw), and Wuxia.

While the background set up for the six statues is interesting (solely from the drama) and it’s nice to see glimpses of other rulers and their offspring, I feel like everything is rushing, or maybe that the pace for this drama (and usually drama romcoms) is one foot after a another. I don’t mean the actual plot pacing because that is sure fast. However, some of the actual power play or intelligence we see isn’t actually very intelligent? But characters have to reiterate how smart someone else is, when I’m fact in the recital for how they outsmarted the other they essentially repeat what the previous dude was saying except,”I knew he would because my third brother, that’s how he is, and he definitely would do this careless thing’ (for example)
You know?

I love politics and power play too. And I think the wuxia backplot is so interesting, but I really dislike it when dramas split their dramas into like one phase, second phase, different backgrounds (as far as growth isn’t present in status). If they capitalised a bit more on the surrounding world and wuxia, I think that would give it leverage to e more interesting (because dramas usually just stay in their respective genre). The throng is that it just does both in two phases, but having it interconnected and having stories seen from a different worldview (like from jianghu vs from the courts view) would make it a lot more interesting imo. Of course I get that this is an adaptation and idk how much got changed, but regardless, that is how I feel about the drama itself, and I judge solely on that (which I think makes sense for one to judge a piece of work on its own).

As for romance I agree that it isn’t heavy. But I don’t have a problem with it it because I always thought it was a subgenre anywhere. However, while the plot pacing is fast, o mentioned that it feels one step after another because there’s not much change happening, just constant court issues. Relationship between the leads stay relatively similar as well, and I feel that as we’re past the halfway point and just have hints on the introduction of the female leads background and war and world ruling-it has potential to be messy.

I know people are talking about the forth episode limits but tbh I think this drama could fit that length (and be shorter in general, as well as others) if the kind of beat by beat pace was faster. There’s always a lot of…air and like slow shots or someone turning around and having the shot liger for half a minute with not heavy artistic or meaningful value; that’s pretty prevalent in cdramas. Perhaps you could say that it’s a cdrama personal style, but if so, the drama definitely needs to pan out much longer because of twenty some episode is the set up for some trouble and background for female lead and the villain and adding in an extra princess at random (interesting and strong personality traits but not a lot of development) oh and, the fact that they hardly show the main ruler of the six states-I think they need like sixty. As far as the comments say there’s supposed to be a war after all.

And not talking about the book here, but the message has been pretty unclear so far in the drama a bout why people are trying to rule the world. FLX always says he wants everyone to live a better life etc etc, and Leon Lai’s princely character as well, but for what good purpose? Is there a lot of war, or do they just want control, because that’s how it looks like. I haven’t felt a painted picture of empirical instability from the actual emperor of the six states; what is with the fight, and it’s fine if they just all want to be kings, but it’s been shown that FLX supposedly wants to help the normal citizens (there’s a passing line about things shouldn’t be this way, but I don’t know HOW man, or what)

In general I also feel like the costume budget and lighting is fine;common-bit that feels so regular and boring. I’ve said I love the red and green sets which are interesting, but there’s some very obvious cgi as well. Fight scenes are cool as long as you aren’t pívot about the long cloth cgi, but I’m not super picky about martial arts and it’s done better than other dramas.

As a side note I do love the third prince’s mother, the yongzhou king, and the first prince. But as for Yu Wuyuan, his actual backstory and plot line is pretty reminded me of other dramas and his demeanour and such doesn’t really make me feel excited fo see him (regardless of his backstory or as a villain or whatever).

The leads are doing alright too, the plot is for me there but not overly exciting. It hasn’t escalated in a while and I feel it coming, but I don’t know how they want to wrap this up.

In conclusion, it’s a nice drama with some good themes but not particularly ingenious or fresh as it could be, not something I would recommend to someone as some representative of Chinese drama top tier stuff, but I know most people don’t need to to be a classic and life changing or that great, though I get that some people will think it’s awesome too and that’s fine. Sorry if this was kind of long.

Random (and late) comment about episode 20 but like...am I the only one who thought, FL wasn't that smart when she was like,' or maybe it was several people piling on top of each other'-
Obviously? You're not going to be seeing giants, as they said. I get it, wuxia, weird stuff, and creatures, maybe it's hidden-but that's a super slight pass.

Fine to say it but why do characters have to praise them after, it really takes me out of the drama-and this is something SO many dramas do, not just this one.

And as a side note- is the drama only focused on Yong zhou and Ji zhou (in recent episodes also the one with the secretly smart princess?), they're legit the only two states mentioned (apart from seeing the princes in congregation in the Ji zhou banquet).

-Yep, excited for next two.

Alright people, so-Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday-go watch other show and come back and don’t be too stressed lol.

(haven’t watched the latest two episodes yet so Mwahahaha)

Probably cancelled? I saw some news going around on the Chinese forums about how she was affiliated with the director/producer/someone but then cut out, not sure though, so I’d take my words with a grain of salt obviously. Otherwise, what a weird set up lol-strange artistic…direction indeed.