JeA

No it's not.

I liked FL's acting, her blank face and dead eyes showed how meaningless her life had been and also her ruthlessness.

It starts good with unreliable narrative, misdirection and confusing the viewer as what's really happened but then it kind of slags. I guess if it was a 12 ep. format instead of 16, it would be much better. Also I don't like the murder patterns, that guy was stabbed more than a dozen times, moved while bleeding out and yet he was quite conscious, recognizing and taunting the person he saw in the dark. Very unbelievable...

I was going through 36 Stratagems the other day and I could recognize several of them being used in the story but I didn't read deep enough to see all 24. Someone said in Weibo they're writing them down as drama went on. Wish we did it here too now we're rapidly forgetting the details.

Yeah. Truly a brilliant plot but I was very angry by its early time, his absence affected the plot and he turned out to be alive but still that first death was done very tastefully.

Since I watch the episodes on the next day I try to avoid comment sections when I mind being spoiled. Some people get excited and rapidly comment spoilers, ruining the surprise... And once or twice I've seen in express releases some people fast forward through the last episode and get everything wrong.😆😆

Better be busy and efficient than wasting one's life imo.

Thank you. Actually I celebrate Persian Solar Calendar and our new year is 3 months away but one can always use new year good wishe! 😅

I watched it out of boredom but it had a lot of disappointments for me and spoilery comments made me lose interest in finishing it so I haven't watched the last quarter yet. You did well dropping.

I don't think I'm familiar with the director but I thought he left the granary before that explosion and what we saw wasn't real. Still they have to explian it clearly. 😆

First was Bai Wan, I didn't care for her but killing her by usuing XHA's own plot was a nasty yet brilliant move.


Second one was YFS's first death. Another brilliant plot played in layers. XHA used psychology to make a formidable enemy vulnerable so he could hit him. I really liked how it was done yet it was too early but he returned alive.

Between all the deaths in the drama 2 were sad for me...

Happy your new year, I hope it will be better than 2025 for you... I missed reading your deep and detailed reviews so it was a nice surprise to see one when I came to rate.

This year I watched 2 similar revenge dramas, Zang Hai and Vendetta of An, and between them I think the later is better and I like it more. Zang Hai was too luck driven but XHA had his miscalculations and failures so it was more interesting. Still they went too far with the spies and infiltrators, I'm afraid if it continued for 2 more episodes Even XHA's father turn out to be a Tiemo spy...

And the Syndrome of Ambiguous endings, I don't know why they're afraid to show the ML's death. It paved way for S2 but they have a hard time explaining his survive.

What was XHA given by Cei at the end? Was it poison?

There's a strong possibility for it to turn iut to be a scheme by HXA like what happened with Commandar Wang, Yang Chong and some others.

As a matter of fact I loved the manner of his death, it's the timing I don't approve, too soon for my tatse.

As you say, XHA understood him quite well. Both about his controlling nature that would buy him time and his deep feelings for Wang Pu.

After intense mental and indirect physical torture by Tiemos and killing and eating his former soldiers, he was practically half crazed. He said himself that probably for years he still felt he was there killing for a meal. But in that state he found a baby and not only didn't kill him but adopted him and probably showed as much as care a man such as him was capable of. XHA (who lives and breathes with the memory of his loved ones) knew this to be a weakness for him and preyed on this fact, first by making Wang Pu killing himself instead of YFS and then speaking to him about seeing his family, putting the idea of seeing Wang Pu in his mind. He knew YSF wouldn't cry or wail like him but still is sad deep in his heart so provoked him to prepare his grand show.

All in all I loved how some random servant killed The great General YFS just with a little trick but still I'm bitter it happend this fast and we have 10 eps. without him. Maybe because the actor is my favourite and I wanted to see more of him.😅🤦🏻‍♀️

Yeah, acting and camera work is excellent but as you said editing a but falls behind. In the unlinear narrative and plot twist sense, it's very good suddenly showing another time but in the normal manner not as good.

Actually I don't mind death as long as they aren't there only to make the main characters suffer or add a spoonful of tragedy. I should rewatch ep. 20 but between Wu coming out of the prison and defeating him and killing him happened too fast.

I can't believe they spend all these efforts to save Gu Yu only for him to have such a random death. He survived all those horrible situations... if they wanted to kill him they should have done a better job. 😭😭

This counts for YFS too. They raised such a tension for his arrival and then he was killed before the main course had started. I'm on Episode 20 but I think we're going to feel the effect of removing two strong and interesting characters.

Cheng Yi's dead stare here is awfully similar to Huang Xuan's. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing his eyes looking ahead emotionlessly.

No more than 6...

I'm convinced it was concealed in her fan. 😆