Michelle Topham

Ratings are not a measure of quality, especially on MDL, as you will see those dramas starring popular young idol stars get ridiculously high ratings, while those with an older male star, which is better written and much better acted, don't. In the case of this one, the ratings will likely drop as the idol star did not get the outcome his fans wanted for him.

Which is such a stupid way of rating a drama, as Winwin took the part knowing what the outcome of his character was, so these so-called "fans" downrating it because of that are actually helping potentially damage his career by downvoting his work.

The final five episodes are available on Express if you pay extra for them (almost all Chinese dramas have this function when their episode release nears its end). Otherwise, if you don't pay, those episode will be dropped at a rate of 1 per day for the next few days.

Personally, I think it's greedy of the streaming companies to do this, as subscribers have already paid to watch the drama without being forced to pay more if they want to see the final episodes at the same time as others.

Exactly.

I think the screenwriter has done an incredible job not only showing the emotions and motivations of the main characters, but of every supporting and minor character. Even if some of them did not behave in a moral way, they did sometimes have good reasons for feeling the way they did. It was just the poor way they responded to those feelings that got them in trouble -- the nanny, the concubine, the mother, the aunties, the nephew, Ye Xian, and on and on -- all had valid complaints. Just maybe not always with the person they went after because of those complaints.

Holy Sheeyut, somebody on the production team liked that horse scene, it's back again - hahahaha. (It was weird the first time the first half of that final scene showed up, as it was so out of place with the rest of the episode). Thanks for the heads up, I'd missed that :)

Just started The Legend of Zhuohua because someone said the relationship between the ML and FL was similar to this. Can't decide though (I'm 5 eps in) whether the ML was horrendously miscast as it's 45 year old Feng Shao Feng playing a 30-ish man. I wouldn't mind but he looks his age, and seems to have had some plastic surgery, which makes him look even more miscast :)

Plot is okay so far, and the FL is decent (Jing Tian), so I'm sticking with it to see how their relationship develops and if I'll eventually find him less creepy :)

Oh, and waiting for Against the Current to drop. How about you?

Oh wow, good for you noticing that. I had never even thought of that. Well thought out :)

And disagree with you on the 20 more episodes. I'd been fine with another 40 :)

Ming Dynasty (the costumes are amazing), and it's a HE for the two leads :) But not for some others.

Happy ending for Ci Sha and Ren Min :)

Couldn't get over how good Winwin was as a dead Ye Xian trapped in place with a spear. Still so very lifelike but also as though his soul had already left his body. Really beautifully acted.

And hell, CYY was grief stricken for his atrociously awful nephew, even after the horrible things he did to both him and GJZ.

Because, he remembered him as a child, and how innocent and quiet he was, but also what potential he had.

And now all that promise is gone forever.

You see similar comments that are obviously from people who have never been in a serious relationship and will say "that's not how someone in a relationship would behave" when anyone who has been in one knows that it generally is. I excuse it as I think a fair number of people who comment are young, and don't have the life experiences yet that the rest of us do.

But yes, that scene was entirely understandable. Even CYY's scene with him on the battlefield was understandable as he held him and then carried him back to camp on his back, because, to some extent, he loved him too, even if he was beyond exasperated by him half the time.

Oh, sure I agree with you to some extent. But then I would have been happy with another 40 episodes of their story :), but I'm still happy with what we got. At least it was an HE, I was bloody dreading watching all that only to have CYY get killed off :) It's happened before :)

Yawn. :)

I avoided them completely from Episodes 34 onwards. I recommend anyone who doesn't want the drama's ending episodes spoiled for them do the same thing :)

Yep. They got screwed more than any other family. Even GJZ's awful father just got banned to the countryside.

Can I also just add, that battle scene in Episode 38/39 -- HOLY SHEEYUT, that's one of the best close battle scenes I've ever seen in a C-drama!!! Spectacularly filmed and acted.

With Ci Sha really shining with his martial arts training, and Winwin spectacular as Ye Xian finally bringing glory to his family :)

10/10 for me. Very close to the perfect drama. And I tried to read the novel, but it's all over the place, so I gave up about 40 chapters in. Far worse written than the script, which the screenwriter did a spectacular job creating out of that mess :)

Do NOT read spoilers or comments until you've finished it. You'll enjoy it so much more if you don't :)

Loved it. 10/10 for the entire drama, director, writer and cast, with my complaints being so tiny they're not even worth being bothered over :)

Loved the ending. Everything that was important was wrapped up, and there's hope for a decent future for the ML and FL, their families, the Emperor, and the empire.

Sure, there could have been a few closure minutes of happy ever after beyond that final scene, but I'm fine with it. It showed exactly what it needed to show, and what the drama said about the relationship between CYY and GJZ right from when they first got together - they are both lesser than without the other, and they will both do everything they can to make sure the other never comes to any harm.

Loved everything about the drama. Including its ending. :)