Meari21

Wasn't he a K-pop idol at some point? I'm not sure if he debuted in Korea but he was an SM entertainment trainee. I do believe he can speak Korean because he spent some time in South Korea before coming back to China and joining an idol group with Joseph Zeng.

Right! With each side story, the writers specifically draw parallels between the side characters and the leads, and it all comes down to one thing - choice. The great mountain god himself said that the greatest wish of every demon is to have a choice, something he made sure his grandson had because demons are usually born without one. They are nothing but slaves to their nature and fate. Like Fei, Zhu Yan has no control over his own nature. They both didn't want to harm humans but ended up doing it unintentionally anyway because of who they are. Fei is a calamity demon who ironically fell in love with the mortal world and would never wish ill will towards another, and Zhu Yan is a vessel of powerful malicious energy that urges him to destroy and wreak havoc, but he is probably the kindest and gentlest of demons who would rather die than hurt others. Ran Yi fell in love with a mortal woman whom he believed he never would've met if he wasn't chased and injured by demon hunters that day. But their fates are in fact intertwined, and in a way, he didn't have a choice but to do everything in his power for that woman and even die when she could no longer stay with him. Zhu Yan fell in love with a mortal woman too and he might share Ran Yi's fate if he doesn't find a way to change it. Cheng Huang and the first goddess had a similar dynamic as well. Their cursed love could also be how things will end for Zhu Yan and Wen Xiao if they're not careful.

Thank you! The drama actually has a lot of depth if you care to listen to the dialogues. But some are quick to dismiss it as shallow because of the pretty visuals and drop it because they get bored watching people talk. I read similar comments from people who didn't like the first season of Game of Thrones because the plot progression was slow and all the characters did was talk or have sex. But that series went on to achieve phenomenal critical and commercial success despite its disastrous final season. Don't get me wrong, I'm not comparing Fangs of Fortune to Game of Thrones, I'm simply saying that people tend to complain and find things dull when you try to tell a story that delves deeper into philosophical topics and human nature. Some people prefer conventional storytelling styles with exciting plots and epic romances. And I get that because I sometimes just want to watch something light and fluffy so I don't have to use my brain too much. 😄 But there are times when I want dramas that force me to contemplate my own existence. This drama does that to a certain extent.

Bai Ju! 😅

Only his second drama?! Seriously? My god, that boy is going places! And he reminds me of Cheng Yi for some reason.

I give dramas I find lacking low ratings too. I think that's alright as long as you have legit criticisms. But I don't go to fan pages or forums dedicated to those dramas to spread hate. I would probably express my honest opinion with those who ask for it or with friends who also enjoy C-dramas, but openly criticizing something I didn't even bother to finish and try to convince others to think the same way is not my style. You can like what you like and I can like what I like. After all, nobody is forcing me to like something I don't.

When I first started watching C-dramas, I used to wonder why the fandoms could be so toxic, more toxic than the other fandoms I've joined before. But I've long learned that when a drama or movie attracts as many haters as fans, it typically means that it has actually succeeded in getting the attention of a significant number of people and some do not like that one bit, so they're hell-bent on making others feel dumb for liking something they don't and choose not to like.

You hate non-linear storytelling then.

It's not the pretty actors that got me hooked but the human element to it. As I've mentioned in my other post, the dialogue-heavy scenes where the characters simply talk and ponder about life are the ones that drew me in. It's a kind of slice of life type of drama with a straightforward overarching plot. Others have made the same observation. That kind of depth is never present in any of Snyder's works no matter how hard he tries to make his stories "dark and complex". 300 was a good popcorn flick and that was his best work. Not to mention it was a panel for panel adaptation of Frank Miller's classic comic, his original works are turds embellished with gold plating. He does better with adaptations. Guo Jingming, based on this drama alone, is better in my opinion. I'm not a fan of his, but I find this drama enjoyable from the camaraderie to the thought-provoking lines. But like I said, for some people, this is a waste of time. Not to me. You don't need an elaborate tale of scheming characters, epic fights and romance that's full of twists and turns to make something worth watching.

IKR? I'm not saying they look physically similar but they seem to have a certain charisma and screen presence that I don't often see in other actors.

Funny, that long flashback in The Untamed was the thing that irked me the most about that drama. I thought that was just plain lazy writing. Why go on a long flashback when you can start from zero and just tell the story in a linear fashion if you want to do it the easy way? And there are ways to tell the story using flashbacks that parallel the present situation so the audience can slowly uncover certain plot points as the series progresses without using exposition dumps or dumping all the past information in one long flashback. Flashbacks like these are not that uncommon in Japanese anime/manga or even Hollywood dramas. The anime Frieren does this in every single episode, and that's one of the reasons why many anime fans found it boring. But many found it engaging as well, so to each his own. These flashbacks do push the story forward because they give you more context on what happened and what might potentially happen. It's just that in this drama's case, there isn't much of a story to tell, so there isn't much that can fall apart by let's say episode 4. Like Frieren, this drama is not story-driven but character-driven, hence the flashbacks work to its advantage. As for the tonal-shifts, yes, they can be off-putting if you're not used to that and it also depends on individual sense of humor. What you might find funny may not be funny to me and vice versa. Just like many enjoy the quips and one-liners in MCU films and many find them cringe. I don't know much about Guo Jingming or his other dramas so I can't say much about it. But this is what I have observed, he's like the Zack Snyder of China, very talented when it comes to creating jaw-dropping visuals and stylistic fight choreography, but not a very capable writer or even storyteller. Both like to take inspiration from popular IPs and incorporate elements from those stories into their own works. I think he's a tad better than Snyder, though. Snyder is pure style no substance.

Maybe it's too early for me to say as they can still botch the ending, but so far, it actually exceeded my expectations. I went into this blind. I had no idea about the plot or even the cast except Hou Minghao. I just remember putting this on my to-watch list when I saw it among iQIYI's upcoming dramas because I found the first official poster interesting. I was actually looking forward to Kill Me Love Me more but I was disappointed. I just watched it for Liu Xueyi. But this (so far) is one of the most enjoyable dramas I've seen to date.

Maybe it's just me but he's giving me Cheng Yi vibes. And I love Cheng Yi so...

By chance, I read a comment yesterday about why Zhu Yin and Li Lun were just standing around and not attacking while the others were in a formation to merge the Baize token. I couldn't reply to the comment because I was working, but by the time I got back to this page, I couldn't find the comment anymore and eventually forgot about it until now. But I digress, the reason why they were just standing there doing nothing was because they didn't need to attack. They were waiting for the blood moon to come and Zhu Yan to become possessed by malicious energy. Their plan was to have him destroy everyone, that's it. That would've been a sweeter revenge for Li Lun because he knew how much it would break Zhu Yan if he ended up killing his friends. Some things are more painful than death.

It has consumed all of us fans. lol

Because he means to die and he knows Wen Xiao wouldn't agree so he wouldn't dare tell her. Bai Ju and Pei Si Jing are suspected to be spies so I wouldn't tell them the plan either. As for Li Lun, we don't really know his motivations yet because his past relationship Zhu Yan wasn't completely shown yet. We don't really know why they fell out. I'm guessing he is jealous of Zhu Yan's relationships with mortals because the latter seem to prefer the mortal world to the wilderness, but Li Lun has no love for mortals or the mortal world.

At this point, his "I will kill you" statements are just empty threats. He's not looking forward to killing him even though he knows he might have to. He doesn't really hate him anymore. But he's human and the loss of his loved ones was caused by Zhu Yan so any normal human being wouldn't be able to let that go so easily. He told Zhu Yan to make things right instead of dying by his sword to properly atone for his transgressions because he doesn't want to kill him.

Now we know why the great demon Zhu Yan offered to join the demon hunting bureau and asked the one person with the ability to destroy him to end his misery. Ngl, I cried the most when Zhuo Yichen confronted Zhu Yan as the latter was breaking down. He still can't bring himself to forgive the demon for his transgressions but he also couldn't help but feel sorry for him. A part of him wants to comfort him but could only offer his cape and look on as the other continued to cry. Hats off to Hou Minghao and Tian Jiarui for that scene!

That's what I've been saying! But some are quick to dismiss the dialogue-heavy scenes because they get bored listening to people talk. These scenes are actually quite moving and thought-provoking.

These days, people like to throw the word plagiarism around when they see the slightest bit of similarity but some may misunderstand what it actually means. Plagiarism is when you use an existing story or text and copy a huge chunk of it, only changing a few parts to make it slightly different. Even the accusation of Disney copying Osamu Tezuka's Kimba the White Lion when they made the Lion King didn't stick. This is because both stories are loosely based on Shakespeare's Hamlet and Disney didn't completely copy Kimba even though you can definitely see the glaring similarities. Everyone is inspired by everyone and everyone copies from someone without giving proper credit. The only way this accusation will stick is if he directly copied lines and plot points from the donghua without any alterations. Not sure about the previous accusation because they didn't release enough details about that but I'm guessing the copying was so obvious he couldn't deny the plagiarism done. Guo Jingming is like the Zack Snyder of China (but I think he actually has an ounce of talent unlike the latter lol). They both like to take bits and pieces from popular IPs that they find cool and incorporate them into their works. Like Zack, he has a penchant for creating spectacular visuals and loves to use slow motion.