Jaden

I knew they were going to end ep. 20 like that, why must they torture us like this..

Underrated on MDL, this has a higher rating on chinese website, which usually has low ratings.

It's actually less ridiculous than it seems that the main character believes the Aji 3 he sees is a robot.

I mean the beginning was really good so it's not completely unreasonable that I set my expectations very high, but you're right.

I put Battle of Changsha on the same league as NIF as the only drama masterpieces, for different reasons. BoC touches the soul whereas NIF was more about the ingenuity.

To showbiz, popularity is more important, but that's not us, we're the audience and we want to watch good shows. Not to mention, a popular show that is also good is better off than a popular show that sucks.

That's not the point of what I said though, I'm just trying to make sense of what I find to be a decline in quality of this drama and referencing the drop in ratings. To me, this is a drama with much potential that wasn't realized.

Let me just explain it this way: judging by the beginning alone, I was expecting something on the level of NIF, but it's not even close at this point.

Keep in mind I'm not saying the rating is low, I'm saying the rating dropped.

Princess Agents and Eternal Love are not very good imo so that doesn't really say anything, but I agree Douban ratings are harsh.
Even Battle Of Changsha is much higher rated than this and it's very unpopular here for some reason.

I'm judging this as a drama that's trying to compete with the best, it's still clearly one of the best drama out there but it's been declining and I think there's a good reason, even the MDL rating dropped slightly. The beginning and all the setup was, quite frankly, nearly perfect, and ever since it hasn't been leaving the same impression as it initially did.

Merry Christmas bro! I don't live in Toronto anymore either, because of school and work, but come back from time to time on holidays to visit family/friends. Don't tell me you also work in the Bay Area?

I'm of the same opinion as you actually, you're not worried about NIF2 being worse than NIF1, neither am I.

What I meant was that I'm worried about it trying to be similar to NIF to meet people's expectations, but then ending up being a strictly weaker version of it. I would rather it try something new and fail than do the same thing as NIF and be worse.

I feel the same Han Jiang's story has the opposite problem, good characters, good story, lots of potential, but actors don't seem to fit or are just bad, to me at least.

fyi, pretty sure you're not in the minority, I am.

If whoever wrote the synopsis could not find a better way to describe the story without referencing NIF and "how that happened", it can't be a good thing. They really didn't need to make this another story about an army falling to a trap setup by corrupt officials.

It sounds like this is trying to live up to the expectations due to the 1st NIF, but that's the wrong approach. With this approach it can only be a worse version. Instead, it should've tried to innovate and become truly the next best thing.

Chinese rating has dropped, and frankly, even though it's still good, the story hasn't lived up to its premise, not necessarily a comparison between child and adult story.

Being aloof, is not the middle ground between spoiled and barbaric. I don't know what happened I thought Han Jiang was supposed to be the determined/calculated type, but they turned him into an aloof/talkative/charming character, which doesn't fit as well.

I wonder why the chinese community prefers this over "A love so beautiful", I would have to assume because this is more realistic.

Me neither, I'm concerned about it becoming a strictly worse version of NIF1.

i mean at least it's not just copying NIF, but NIF started slow for a good reason, we all know that.

just read the synopsis, it seems awfully boring and unoriginal.

These are the drama I could not get into and now I see why.

(older) Su Yuning has ruined Han Jiang's story for me but still a lot to look forward to.

I have no problem with the young version. The older one, it's not so much that she's not interesting, but rather that she doesn't fit.