Hunter2022

It's not just the score but the number of votes (S3 will be lucky to break 120K votes ultimately) while S1 had like close to 400K votes. It means S3 is only less than 1/3 as well received as S1.

I suspect this franchise is nearing its end run. There will be at most a Season 5 before:

1. Ying Tao actress approaches 40. Women actresses tend not to look beautiful anymore past their prime of 33.
2. The number of votes continue to dwindle down to 5-15% of the S1. No sane investor will want to fork money for a franchise that continues to see significant reductions in votes count.

Why would S2 have or feel the need to recast Nangong Wan? I've watched up to EP124 of the donghua. From 64 to 124 is almost the length of the amount of episodes they adapted for S1. Nangong Wan never re-appeared once in EP64-124.

Unless they want to take advantage of the new rule where a drama can have over 40 episodes again.

Anyone have any idea when the supposedly already filmed S4 will release?

I'm confused. S1 had like 400K ratings on Douban but the S3 only 80K so far. That's like only 20% of those who bothered to rate the S1 on Douban stuck around to rate the S3. Did that many ppl lose interest in the series between the airing of S1 and S3?

https://movie.douban.com/subject/35235151/

Ep1 of S3 was easily the best first episode of all the previous seasons. I was hooked right away by the clever plot of transporting a hidden map (S2 made it seem like they were transporting nothing peaches but turned out ain't so). The very first line spoken was also outright too funny (someone wanted Xi Jun to take the blame for taking a break).

There is no ageless makeup. It's called a CGI beauty filter. Apparently producers of TV dramas think you CANNOT stand a person's real appearance for 40 episodes/40 hrs long. So every drama that gets produced is first passed thru a beauty filter that makes people appear younger and more beautiful than they actually are.

Movies on the other hand don't mind showing ppl's real faces complete with wrinkles and blemishes. People tend to look older/closer to their real appearance in movies becoz it's only 2hrs long so the producer don't care to put it thru a CGI beauty filter at all.

I see this a lot. Too many ppl don't know most C-ent companies have an official presence on YouTube. They have their own official channel on YT, and most of the time the contents are FREE to watch.

Just go to BiliBili's official YT channel if you want to watch the donghua (I've indexed the link to EP64 below for you where the story from S1 Immortal Ascension continues):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDsI4ZD1mV8&list=PLBakWosU0sfhr6k1-ldCYx05AYZ8HwslC&index=112

"So that your giving (of your life to save others) may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Matthew 6:4)

Would you rather TLC gave his life for others and have his actions imprinted into their memories for eternity? This kind of giving is selfish only serves to elevate the ego of the giver.

The most beautiful kind of giving is where the receiver (those who died and then brought back to life) don't even know the identity of their benefactor (TLC). This is the most supreme form of giving.

Imagine two scenarios: (A) You approach a beggar on the street and personally hand him a $20 bill complete with a gleeful smile. Or (B) the beggar on the street looks around and suddenly finds a $20 bill next to him. He looks around for clues to his benefactor, but there are too many people around, he cannot discern who just helped him buy his next meal. Which scenario touched your heart the most?

So, if we compare S1 of Immortal Ascension to S1 of Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty:

https://movie.douban.com/subject/35861087/

8/10 (397K ratings) <- Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty S1
7.5/10 (125K ratings) <- Immortal Ascension S1

even Strange Tales (which was 3X as popular as Immortal Ascension) suffered a crushing defeat in viewership by the time S3 aired, we can expect worse performance for Immortal Ascension in the later seasons as well...

BTW, I went into the drama with low expectations and this is easily my #1 Drama of the Year of 2025 with Immortal Ascension taking #2 spot.

BUT yeah, I can feel how some viewers may feel "cheated" by the drama's title and marketing hype...

TWO POINTS WHICH MAY JUSTIFY THE DRAMA'S LOW SCORES (MDL and Douban):

1. Water Dragon's Roar? Where exactly is the water dragon and when did it "roar"? I'm on EP27 and not once did I witness some "Water Dragon". That's misleading advertisement!

2. Drama was being hyped as a Wuxia, but watches like Xianxia. What kind of Wuxia features making magical formations (casting spells) and celestial beings? I thought Wuxia only deals with kungfu fighting mortals and no magic besides some qigong moves? Again false advertising.

Is anyone watching Renegade Immortal donghua anime? I couldn't help but notice how the ML+FL in that 3D CGI anime produced by Tencent is so similar to Tang Lici and Miss A Shui.

I even made a threaded post here:

https://kisskh.at/discussions/755725-shui-long-yin/146464-whispers-of-fate-is-too-similar-to-renegade-immortal

I've read from Gnosticism that when mortals (people) die in real life I mean, their life rewinds backward from the moment of death to birth. They basically relive their entire life again but in reverse time. This drama (or the ending) is an eerie reflection of that...

Only on EP 25, but I just want to say (after being spoiled by various episode summaries found online of later episodes) Immortals don't really have a love life. They become mortals to experience love but then leave everything behind when they "go back home" to the celestial realm.

May explain the ML's love life and the letting go of A Shui in the end...

Just a word of caution, I wouldn't put too much hope into S2, otherwise disappointment could seep in.

Take a look at how super-popular Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty S1/S2/S3 performed:

https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/35235151
https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/36188849
https://www.douban.com/doubanapp/dispatch?uri=/tv/36318037

S1 - 8/10 (397K ratings)
S2 - 8.6/10 (306K ratings)
S3 - 8.1/10 (53K ratings -- it's aired 75% of episodes so far, which means end result may not differ significantly)

Basically, you can see viewer interest dropped precipitously for S3 (less than 20% of those who watched S1 stuck around till S3).

Immortal Ascension S2 may be good and highly rated, but its viewership may suffer.

Best to go into S2 with very low expectations!

Basically what I'm trying to say:

Immortal Ascension

is like

Renegade Immortal

BUT, since there is no live action drama of the latter (yet)...

Whispers of Fate

( https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin )

is like

Renegade Immortal

!

Tang Lici makes wood carvings of people as a hobby. I LMAO. Wood carving is such an essential part of Wang Lin,s root.

Whispers of Fate couldn't be a more shoe-in replacement for Renegade Immortal than this!

Finally, I often find myself transposing Li Muwan,s character over Miss A Shui in Whispers of Fate. There were too many instances where I find myself thinking, that's NOT Miss A Shui, that's Wan,Er!

I love how much attention to details they paid to the overall theme of Whispers of Fate to resemble Return of the Condor Heroes (the only Jin Yong work that I like):

Tang Lici got long strands of grey hair (while the majority of his hair still black) running down to his chest like Yang Guo.

Miss A Shui is seen riding on a giant goose (instead of Condor) in some scenes.

When I heard the ending credits song for the 1st time, my initial reaction was it,s that duet song from RoCH 1995 starring Louis Koo and Carman Lee, but in Mandarin and modern tempo:

1995 RoCH OST

https://youtu.be/dQy9Oax7ZRw?si=iFBdtquFbmLDR_wd

Whispers of Fate ending duet song

https://youtu.be/0QvRWd5GXss?si=qyO_XBlZa--aWtUC&t=2647

Like seriously it,s rare to hear a duet song composed for the opening or ending credits of a C-drama, unless it suits the (love) theme of the drama exactly. It also costs more to hire two singers instead of one. This is the money well spent on Whispers of Fate.

I love how Tang Lici got a human servant sidekick like in Renegade Immortal.

CGI is super good too. Maybe the only downside some CGI scenes look like cartoony painting. But then that's what happened in Renegade Immortal too when you're in Wang Lin's life and death domain.

Tang Lici is known as the (cursed) Yin Yang verse. OMG isn't that Wang Lin's duality ruthless life and death domain?

And Miss A Shui (at first) is not the typical strong FL heroine fighter you find in C-dramas like Immortal Ascension. She's a weak beauty like Li Muwan.

In short, rather than waiting for aeons for some studio to produce Renegade Immortal live action drama, Whispers of Fate is already a perfectly adapted "Renegade Immortal".

Not to mention romance too. Whispers of Fate already had a kiss scene 1/4th into the drama where the FL tried to wake the ML up with a kiss. Immortal Ascension S1 almost had no romance.

Speaking of which Whispers of Fate is devoid of any kind of love triangles like in Renegade Immortal. There isn't a character like Mo Caihuan to annoy the viewers...

I'm only posting here becoz Renegade Immortal is an almost parallel story to Fanren Xiu Xian Chuan (poor village mortal boy joins sect to begin his cultivation journey, he haphazardly stumbles upon many opportunities to gather artifacts from mysterious places/domains/worlds, he gets transported to a place/new world (or planet) where he has to leave all his previous acquaintances behind (so it comes with an exagerated/melodramatic goodbye scene), and there is even an arc where he relives the life of a mortal in order to gain insight to evolve to the next level, etc.)

Anyways, Renegade Immortal has quickly overtaken Faren to be my favorite, but only in donghua (they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action drama yet). Here is where I am deeply disappointed the most... Until

OMG, is anyone watching Whispers of Fate (Shui Long Yin aka Water Dragon's Roar)? I can't believe they got Jelly LIn (of the Mermaid movie fame) to play the FL and her character is almost EXACTLY the same as the FL of Renegade Immortal story. Also ML of Whispers of Fate is the same ruthless character as the ML of Renegade Immortal.

Though they haven't made a Renegade Immortal live action yet, I can certainly live with Whispers of Fate as a shoe in replacement. The resemblances of the ML + FL to Wang LIn and Li MuWan are just too striking!

While you guys wait for S2 of Immmortal Ascension live action, I dare say Whispers of Fate is the same kind of Xianxia drama, if not better!

https://kisskh.at/755725-shui-long-yin

Basically, I no longer care whether they eventually make a Renegade Immortal live action drama. I am already watching Wang LIn (as Tang LIci) and Li Muwan (as Miss A Shui) look/be-alikes. I can't believe the FL of Whispers of Fate not only looks like Wan'Er from Renegade Immortal but her character and personality matches too!