MarokoJin

If we talk only about fame and whatnot, we can nominate the Kardashians for the Oscars.

It's not that I'm biased for Jeremy, I watched Allen Ren and no, he's extremely limited. Another case is Dylan Wang. Get them a bit out of some specific roles and they're mediocre, they will cut the chase in a "unique" type of characters and that's not "good acting anymore", basically just watching Allen or Dylan cosplaying each time. Another one (actress) who's "first tier" but I never succeeded to watch a whole series with her, depsite all my goodwill: Dilreba. She's a mediocre actress and God knows how much I wish I could watch her. Adding another (yes a "first tier" apparently): Wang Yibo. Did I like him in the untamed? Yes. Then I watched other things and same... he got lucky with a character matching his "aura", it doesn't make him an actor. So I'm definitely not targeting Allen, I don't care since each time it was a total disappointment and if it weren't for Jeremy, also Li Landi who's good, I'd never bother. Oh Yang Yang, another mediocre one.

Now their fans will bring me their "résumés" and I'll still disregard it because having proper back-ups and proper good scenarios is playing in their favor. Other elements do play into it like marketing, which increases the likelihood of investing on mediocre actors. Give Jeremy the same resources, bro would have ended in international festivals, not just be a first tier Chinese actor (he does have first-tier talent, he tragically lacks back up). Yes he's extremely sexy and handsome but so is Yang Yang who's also very handsome (isn't that sexy though, different physical shape lol) . Yet I'd refuse to watch another single episode when YY is playing.

Other Chinese actors are good though, I can give a whole list of them like Nini, Liu Min, Tan Jianci, Yin Zheng, Liu Yunxi, Liu Duan Duan, Lai Yi, Yang Zi (yes, I know many criticize her but she's good),etc. So many good actors that I'd have defended as well and I know for sure that they'll overshadow Allen in a few seconds of them standing beside him on set.

Jeremy's expressiveness in one episode equals in skills what Allen had displayed in his whole career and I'm being generous. Now, let's take another actor: Zheng Yecheng. If you want to talk about "subtle expressions" who might OVERSHADOW Jeremy, then yes, I'll accept it because Zheng is a MASTER of that craft, he studied Chinese Opera, no wonder he has full mastery of his facial expressions, his eyes alone speak volumes.
Another case for subtle acting done amazingly well: Liu Xueyi. Tell me that he might overshadow Jeremy and I'll also accept it if I witness it without any issue.
We're talking here about talent, I'm personally not into idol cults, if I cheer for Jeremy here, it's because he's a good actor and yes, he's acting better as Pei Yan.

It wasn't Jeremy's fans. They weren't even aware of that. When the series aired and saw many bad reviews for Allen's performance, his fans were the ones to ask more for screen time and reduce Pei Yan's because "it's not relevant".

That's because of the bad marketing by tencent. The story is too heavy to be labelled as a romance only and "love triangle".

Articles on different Chinese platforms are actually praising Jeremy and his range of emotions, his delivery was good. Some even said that he overshadowed AR in their scenes together.

However, this seems to have stirred some toxic fans who wanted him to get "more screen time".

EDIT: By toxic fans, I was referring to cult idol followers of Allen. They were the ones asking for more screen time for Wei Zhao and reducing Pei Yan's. The issue is that Pei Yan is a central character in this story, reducing his screen time won't help save the criticism that Allen received, only to make this series a flop.

Why, for what purpose? How would that help this story that was already wasting precious screen time on useless scenes? I guess we won't have a logical answer.

Yes, his limitations are obvious when acting in front of a good actor, no wonder fans and water armies are pissed. 😂

Funny, I did skip the whole episode, except for Pei Yan's scenes with his mother because I like to see good acting. The character playing lady Rong was also in my journey to you.

I stopped skipping only to hear some details. Ren Jialun's acting was also criticized in douban, baidu and soho.

Pei Yan will save the mediocrity by making the story move on to their collaboration because.new details will be revealed. And of course, when Jeremy is on screen, I cheer because good acting is back.

He needs to stop being friends with "someone" because he was clearly cheated out financially in this project. He did the same for Flames.

Knowing that agencies take a big cut and they're taxed 46% on their revenus as actors in China, he's left with nothing. Maybe still a lot for many of us but not for an actor.

Yes, they're not compatible this is why I'm not even bothered (as a viewer) by any development of that relationship, it's more like a crush from his side and that could be understandable. So we're left with the intrigue and up until the recent episodes, the scenarists have made a bad job not keeping the real character of Pei Yan, making the story a bit dull. The slow burn romance can't hold on the series by itself, some might want to drop it because of the nonsense that was aired before, especially the "passerbys", who aren't hardcore fans (I'm patient because I'm a Jeremy Fan and others are following because they're Ren's fans).

Thank you so much!!

Can you share the source?

You do have an amazing taste and you can recognize talent. Yes the early change was in episode 14, when Pei Yan started dealing with his clan, the character became closer to the depiction from the novel, it was a ray of hope for me.

Episodes 18 and 19 brought my hopes UP again, there's still some advantage for Wei Zhao but it's less maddening than before. We finally get to see some real scheming and Pei Yan awakened by the fact that some people have used his "weakness" (as his mother said before) to distract him.
I just hope that pathetic simping will end and we'll see some good plotting by Pei Yan.

The current series is more like a fanfic of Wei Zhao...

Yes, he was amazing there and defiant because the Emperor was a weakling and Yuwen Hu never bothered showing contempt. here, Pei Yan is dealing with a minefield as an Emperor, there was a scene in the novel where he was clearly about to beat the Emperor in chess (in the series, ML "lets him win", basically a load of bullshit to please God knows who and make his character look weak) and his forehead was pearled with sweat because of it. The Emperor saw his dilemma very well. So he won't be defiant or anything of that sort, he's hell bent on keeping the Glory of his clan, not sparing anything to make it happen in a very strategic way. ANother character was "deleted" from the series and it was the best "Master" in fighting, Pei Yan used psychology to win over him AND he let him in the city, playing around with him as the novel describes "like a cat playing with a mouse". None of that is shown in the series, only him simping for FL and having his judgment clouded.

Don't read the novel now, you'll end up bitter like me hahahah. Enjoy the show, trust me, better for your mental health. 🤣🤣

They're just adamant on making Pei Yan, a key character in the original novel, act like a dumb 2ML with a one digit IQ and whose pee pee is doing the major part of the thinking. There I said it.

OK, watched up to episode 17... the only episode where Pei Yan being Pei Yan from the novel is episode 14, finally being all sassy, smiling, cunning, and faking warmness. My boy Jeremy, I don't know why they did you dirty but they missed a golden opportunity to create a Yuwen Hu on steroids in this series. I hope they'll stop with this nonsensical trend of making one "ML" the only one with a triple-digit IQ. Let's see where this mess would lead (not rating because I'm mad at how they butchered the original story and I don't want to sanction Xu Zhengxi).

It's seems it isn't over with them yet, still not a single idea about when that contract will end. Even during his hiatus, it was clear that the contract didn't end, his studio account stayed active, the contact email on his page linked to them and they made ajob announcements using his image as well. If it ended as people suspected in Summer, they wouldn't have used his image and his account (studio) would have been closed.

It was a brief hiatus afterall, there has been too much drama lately but it seems they reached some kind of arrangement. He's back now from his hiatus.