Deirdre19

Well, who can tell when exactly a friendship starts... it doesn't work like that in life, I wouldn't expect it to happen at one precise moment in the drama either.
Yeah, the endgame was a bit disappointing. In the novel Bai Yaxing is a much more interesting villain and his death had a much better twist, but in the drama version they probably had to conform to the Confucian moral code of the censors.

Yes, I understand what you mean. I guess the problem is that they took a standard detective story and tried to turn it into something different. In the end the story is neither fish nor flesh...
They kept Luo Fei's personality pretty much like it is in the book which is ok for a detective story, but really disappointing in a story about friendship. I was very frustrated by the way he acted in the drama.
For me the main point that makes this drama outstanding is the way it was filmed, the colours, the atmospheric shots of architecture make it really worth watching.

Very true. The number of episodes isn't really an indicator of quality. There are some 30 episode dramas that are still choke-full of fillers and there are others where 40 episodes just aren't enough.
Despite the limitation of episodes we still have the old problem that so much time is wasted in the beginning and then the rushed ending is blamed on the episode limit when in fact it is just bad planning/editing.
One classic example of this is LLTG. The beginning was so repetitive and draggy and despite having 56-episodes, the ending was still a miserable rush-job.

That's another typical C-drama trope. An important person dies and suddenly all the fighting stops and everyone just stands around to watch.

It's like a rite of initiation 😂😂😂

I doubt that. There were kissing scenes in her previous dramas.

I don't get it. They are the actors in this scene. Why do they react like they are surprised by any of this? They must have rehearsed those scenes dozens of times. Even if they haven't seen the final cut, they would know what is happening.

See scientific article in the link below which confirms that
a) already grown out hair is not affected by the change of colour
b) the effect is reversible in some cases
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/06/210622154339.htm

Han Ye rescued Wen Shou as a child and then later arranged for him to move to his palace, so it was not necessary for him to recognise him. He knew the family as a child so he didn't need to guess his identity.
Di Ziyuan hasn't seen her brother for ten years (since they were children). It would be normal not to recognise a person as an adult when you've only known them as a child. Even if he reminds her of her brother, she wouldn't make the connection since she "knows" that her brother is dead.

Ohoh, that's a lot of responsibility 🫣
Tbh, I'm only watching this because I saw a clip with one of Jeremy's scenes and he was so incredibly charming in it that I had to check this out.
The rest of it is sort of ok, but I find it rather draggy. I'm to fast-forwarding a lot of the couple scenes with their endless romantic staring to music, which is something I hardly ever do.

Funny to see you here, too 😂
Well, I'm on ep. 23 and still waiting for the steamy kiss... FYI, JT makes his appearance in ep. 12. For me it is the absolute highlight of the whole drama!

Yeah, the fake gallop is standard C-drama fare. I've seen BTS footage of the actors sitting on some kind of hobby horse. Not every actor feels comfortable on a horse and galloping in full costume is more difficult than it looks. I'm a horse rider myself so I may have a different perspective on some of the stunts.
At least in this drama the movements of the "riders" are coherent with the supposed gait of the horse (and the hoof sounds that we hear). I've seen far far worse in other dramas.

I think there was a tiny WKX moment when HY killed the Left Chancellor. The crazy eyes gave me flashbacks.
But you're right. I am mightily impressed by his acting. It proves that WoH wasn't a fluke.

Why doesn't this make sense? It is quite possible for people to have white hair due to a traumatic experience. It's a known medical condition (and I know someone who got this due to being in a war...)
The only thing that doesn't make sense is all of her hair turning white. Usually it would only be the hair that grows after the event and the tips would still remain black. But I guess that wouldn't be so visible as the hair is slow to grow.

That would indeed have been nice to see... I would swap a few bathing scenes for this!

Noooo, they can't kill off LMX - he is the most intriguing character in the drama!! His acting is so intense that it is a pleasure to watch him whatever he does.

So we've got a trailer and now it's radio-silence again 😟
Looks like I still have ample time to start reading the novel...

In my opinion they tried to promote the drama by hinting at some bromance to get people interested (as the BL-genre has a large following), but in the end it is just a normal friendship between two guy who manage to overcome their differences and learn to respect each other. In the olden days these things were just called friendship or brotherhood, nowadays this may be called a bromance but in essence this changes nothing.
Some people who have watched it seem to interpret more into it than there is, because that's what they want to see.
Of course my view is influenced by reading (the 1st volume) of the book series where the hypnotist is Ling Mingding. He and Luo Fei share quite a few very blokish conversations about women. Their relationship isn't that close, other than sharing a few drinks they don't spent any time together (Ling Mingding has the hots for Xia Mengyao). Maybe in the 3rd volume the relationship between Luo Fei and Lu Fengping will be a bit different, but I couldn't say until I've read all of it.

Maybe it's their way of expressing sibling rivalry 😂 "If you have arrows, I want them, too! I don't care if they're bad for my health..." 😂😂😂😂

That option sounds unnecessarily cruel and even if they did that, it would have been no guarantee of future compliance (on the contrary once the girl finds out they ruined her face on purpose). I think the crucial point is that if you pick up a starving beggar they would agree (or pretend to agree) to a lot of things. Once they are save and well-fed, they might change their mind. For me that seems like a natural development and it actually adds some tension to the plot.