Novella

To clarify, I actually enjoyed watching LBFAD. If you set aside the source material, it's a pretty solid drama. It's just an utterly unfaithful adaptation. I mean, where is my a**h*** DFQC? I want my unlikeable ML back, please.

I know that novel fans of Love You Seven Times were really disappointed with the drama. I wasn't as disappointed as it was airing (I like the novel a lot but it's not my favorite so I guess I was open to some changes) but, after it finished airing, it just sort of hit me how lackluster much of the drama was and I couldn't help but wonder how they managed to miss what should have been a slam-dunk. Of all JLFX novels I've read, I thought that one would be the easiest to adapt. Just let them bicker! Let them be childish little snots! Lean into the humor! I'd rather watch an, at times, unlikeable FL than one without any personality at all.

Setting aside the source material, I was able to enjoy LBFAD quite a bit. I just think of the drama and novel as two separate stories. (I just really hate how they completely changed DFQC character!)

I think I'm one of the few who hasn't seen LYF! My excuse is that I'm waiting for S2 to come out. I forgot that Tong Hua wrote the novel. I think I'll check it out.

I love this drama a lot.

I've read translations of, I think, six Jiu Lu Fei Xiang novels and I've watched almost all the adaptations to date (I haven't read The Blue Whisperer or watched the adaptation). To be honest, as a novel reader, every adaptation has been a disappointment in one way or the other and to varying degrees (LBFD being the worst offender. I do not expect an adaptation to be exactly like the novel but I'd like it to at least bear more than a passing resemblance).

I feel like ZYL (and the rest of the production team, cast, and crew) put a lot of love into TLSL and it shows through in the final product. I appreciate everything about this drama including how the script respects and enhances the source material.

And, having said this, I hope I didn't jinx it and they fumble the ball in the last quarter...)

Considering he's playing a character that's literally older than dirt, I think he looks pretty fantastic.

Despite being "immortal," these characters slowly age and eventually die. Someone who was created by the Heavenly Tao a zillion years ago should not be played by someone in his early twenties. That's just absurd.

I think all the twenty-something CEOs in idol dramas has begun to rot peoples' brains.

As someone who is older than ZLY and LGX, I'm happy to be watching a drama with "mature" actors.

64-65. You might want to read 63 first for context.

I hope he's not already late in his career! Do you expect the dude to retire at 35 or something?

I think if the drama is reasonably faithful to the novel, this will not happen. In the novel, under normal circumstances (this includes battles as the FL is a more than competent soldier), the FL does not need to be rescued by the ML. From the reuters, I think the drama will include at least one scene from the novel where the ML rescues the FL but there is a reason for it (which I guess is a little spoilery) and it's not because she suddenly becomes a damsel in distress.

I'm really looking forward to this drama, too, and I have high hopes/expectations but I'm assuming that the adaptation will be reasonably faithful to the source material and I've definitely been burned in that regard before. Some drama screenwriters have a unique capacity for ruining characters.

Yes, he eventually realizes that she was reborn.

As I recall, they spend most of the book together so I think they'll have a lot of scenes together in the drama. For most of the book, she's cross-dressing as a man but he finds out that she's a woman pretty early on. I imagine that the drama will heighten up the romantic aspect of certain scenes (in one story arc, they pretend to be a married couple) but they don't really get together until near the end of the book. However, there are about 20 chapters in the book after they get married and if drama Xiao Jue is the same as book Xiao Jue there is definitely potential for skin ship toward the end of the drama.

Who knows? Earliest at the end of the year. Probably in 2025.

I think that after He Yan rejoins the military, the drama will more or less follow the book. If you've read the book, you can match up a lot of the reuters to book scenes. But, yes, the drama will be different from the beginning of the book because the rebirth trope is a no go right now.

Ah, I hadn't considered how her blindness would be cured.

I agree. No death in the pond and no rebirth. No marriage, either. She'll probably switch places with her cousin right before the emperor makes her a general like in the book. Her family will blind her in order to confine and control her but just as she's almost lost all hope, she'll meet Xiao Jue at the temple and he'll help to restore her hope and will to live. Then somehow she escapes her family, cures her blindness, and joins the military.

A lot has to happen in the first episode!

I think the 17th or 18th.

Yes, the novel has a happy ending.

From what I understand, He Yunsheng is not going to be in it. I don't think that He Yan will die and transmigrate in the drama,

Isn't it Zhao Yuan Zhou and Li Lun?

To be honest, they look more like red chrysanthemums to me. (Specifically, red spider mums.) But it's hard to tell. Before I zoomed in on the poster, I actually thought they were giant strawberries...lol

I read a fan speculating that the dances will be used as end credits a looooong time ago (this drama has been filming since the ice age) and that has been my assumption ever since. Judging by the edited clip of the snowball fight dance GJM shared, I can see the vision. Usually, I might watch the end credits once and then skip them for the rest of the episodes when I watch a drama but I'll probably watch all the end credits for this drama if each one features a new dance.

Can he impersonate people or does he have a way to influence/control the people themselves? I do suspect that he is behind whatever is happening here.

I'm not used to seeing this much leg in a costume drama or (looking respectfully at ZYZ and Li Lun) that much chest. I wonder how much skin will actually make it into the final broadcast?