Kochase

Yup. I avoid CCP propaganda like the plague and it's extremely obvious at first glance this is not like that at all. You can sense it from just the poster alone lol. There's a certain... lack of true drama appeal that comes with those dramas too. It's all 'glory to China' and 'for our motherland' cringe and all. It's ear-cringing lol. As we say in Chinese, even your ear would develop calluses.

Tbf that's like all police / military action drama anywhere. The main characters are big heroes and a bit glorified.

CCP propaganda is like way more in your face... there's riling up of nationalistic fervor against the Japanese, total deference to the central government, lots of remarks about national pride and identity, etc. This is nothing like that.

omg I watched this anime AGES ago and it was like one of the best hidden / surprise bromance EVER. So excited. Hope it goes well

These songs:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00PDnA6Lvfg&list=PLLaG0k-PXfnd2jSwSUgGt28IU7_zzHRdH&index=4
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Xog1FzWw1k&list=PLLaG0k-PXfnd2jSwSUgGt28IU7_zzHRdH&index=6
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyH6wiANjvA&list=PLLaG0k-PXfnd2jSwSUgGt28IU7_zzHRdH&index=9

I swear they just played them non-stop on repeat lol. The other songs did come up now and then but it feels like it was always these three played endlessly when something angsty was happening, which was like 80% of the drama.

They're lovely songs, but got way over-played lol.

Haha I definitely caved in and started fast forwarding through all the slow mo

I enjoyed the story and loved all the characters but holy hells did they abuse the slo-mo effect. Clearly they prioritized making it 'look pretty and poetic' over having a well-paced narrative. I wanted to get swept up in the emotions, but they abused the dramatic effects so much and had a 'sad' tone for so long that I no longer felt much of anything by the time the real tragic stuff came around.

This was such an odd drama to watch. I really did like all the characters and how they all fit together as a whole group. It was a proper group dynamic (rather than just everything revolving around one true main CP), so that was really refreshing to see. But they really could have toned down the slo-mo and dramatic angst by about 80%. I feel like this drama could be 10x better with a different edit.

Towards the end, I started playing a guessing game of 'which of the 3 sad songs are they going to play next on the shuffle repeat 🤣'

Lmao don't bother with it. It's one person who thinks they're profound or prophetic or something... not too different from the random doomsayer who's on the corner of the street all day.

The more engagement of any kind, they more they feel validated. The only reason I don't think they're a bot is how badly the wording is at times. Otherwise, I'd swear they're a troll bot.

Probably too shameful / unnecessary threat to transition of power. Leaders live a lonely life. There's a lot of knowledge and burden of choice that cannot be shared. He was probably indeed hoping his friend can convince him of a different path.

We'll never really know. Maybe it was gory details like his father beating him or otherwise humiliating him. Maybe it was conspiracy theories his father spouted that would (self-fulfilling prophecy like) undermine the legitimacy of the power transition. Maybe it was some cruel or unspeakable act that would cause people to wonder if his son has the same disease and be unnecessarily judgmental. But given that one minister was like 'you found a path forward for us all'... seems like some political play.

Rewriting / erasing history unfortunately *does* work... you see it a lot with China. Even if the truth never fully disappears, its significance decreases enough that the impact is achieved.

I think the friendship was portrayed heartbreakingly and frustratingly realistic. The prince did want someone to counter him... but never anticipated it would get to that point of making it 'public'. I think he hoped to keep their disagreements private and have counsel that way. But at the point where it all became public... he basically had to make a choice. Kill his friend, or entirely handicap his own rule, since his declaration had already been made.

Re. your other comment... not sure what you mean? Only certain details and elements were deleted. He wasn't rewritten to be his grandpa's kid?

He didn't do this to purely to absolve his grandpa's guilt... I think it served political purposes too. He knew of the risks he was taking, because yeah normally it's a pretty atrocious and corrupt thing to do to revise history like that. That debate was this whole movie.

You know this is real history right? You can probably look into more of what happened around Crown Prince Sado... he's quite popular of a subject in kdrama world. I've read about him a bit before but hadn't known about the deletion of records till this special. But in any case.. either the prince was 'right' and / or it worked, because he went on to have a pretty respected reign.

Even the most 'good' things in history were paved with darker moments were probably left unmentioned.

Quiet beautiful... but I really should have learned my lesson from last year's special lol

Lol yeah it's all moot anyway since we're never getting either 🥲

Hmm I do agree there's more merch / advertisement for TGCF in China, but that's because it's got an animation released this year. Funny you mention it because I totally forgot... you kinda start to filter out all animation advertisement while in Asia if you're not actively into animation lol. Which I used to be, but now I've also fallen behind on recognizing the works so they all kinda blur...

Anyway, there's probably some Weibo / jjwxc stats you can look up that I'm too lazy / don't care enough to do to determine the actual 'rankings'. But it just felt like 2ha made a bigger splash than tgcf at the time based on novel impact? If 2ha had an animation too (which, oof no idea how that would go), it'd probably continue its popularity more.

In any case, the drama definitely has more popularity / hype due also to the casting.

Lol right that's why everyone was disappointed with the casting... it's unfair to ZXW, but yeah. I'm rooting for him though.

And that's why Immortality was such a stunning surprise. No one really expected Luo Yunxi to agree since so far BL had been a thing for idol actors to step into fame, not something already established actors looked to take on.

Oh yeah I misunderstood that. Favorite danmei? Hard to say. Boring answer, but I still might love MDZS the most because of the exploration of morals and depth given to the whole ensemble cast of characters, which is quite rare in webnovels. The vast majority of webnovels are quite simplistic in nature in terms of relationship dynamics, even if the plots might be complex and interesting.

I will say though.... part of my mind still has Lu Han as XL haha. He was the fan favorite after his role in Fighter of the Destiny, but I think he turned down the role.

(No offense to ZXW, but man these visuals just... sigh https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1Hp4y1x72a/?spm_id_from=333.337.search-card.all.click&vd_source=62861f3fd0ab2f7f25adcea082dc392f)

Really? I think LWJ is a harder character to act because he's more stoic and you'd need to rely on micro-expressions to convey emotions. HC is more mischievous, naughty, petty, and overall more emotive, making it a bit easier to act.

While I think WYB did amazing for a novice actor, and he made a fantastic LWJ, I do think a more seasoned actor would have killed it more. (Before it aired, I thought Zhu Yilong would have been great at that.) But now I can't imagine anyone else as LWJ.

Of course, I do think HC has more air time than LWJ, so in that sense I think it could be more of a challenge.

Hua Cheng *is* soft though! For XL at least. And most of the time we're around XL. I never saw HC as super stoic / menacing. Felt like a running joke through the novel, that he had this menacing reputation but the boy was just a simp at the end of the day lol

I think people are fine with Zhang Linghe. It's Zhai Xiaowen's visual that doesn't quite fit the image... though I'm certainly hoping they surprise everyone and completely upend expectations like XZ did with The Untamed. The initial visuals for The Untamed were also a bit questionable... I remember thinking the same thing and was sooooo happy to be proven wrong. XZ's acting just destroyed any ounce of potential disappointment.

Hmm no? Pretty sure 2ha is more popular than TGCF (definitely in China at least). But that aside... Immortality has Luo Yunxi. He was THE fan favorite to play CWN so it's like a dream come true. Plus Chen Feiyu is also pretty famous. So it's not your standard BL where they cast relatively unknown idol actors.

I think this whole thing doesn't see them together, as it's more unravelling some mysteries of the past? At least if it follows the books at all, timeline wise this should be when ZQL is... away.