OneLuffy

The emperor believes the Ma Clan is to powerful on his own - and that the army only listens to him and not the emperor directly. Therefore, the Ma clan is a threat to him. So he decided to have him killed, therefore, he could also get his army (who loves the Ma clan) to get furious and want to get revenge for him. That is why he put the blame on the neighboring kingdom - now he can start a war with the Ma clan's army behind him (who will listen to only him & will do anything to get revenge). I know this was explained before he killed him, that was why the Ma clan general wanted to retire & give up his army power - so the emperor would not think he was a threat. But he still killed him.

Thank you janec. I feel like we can always rely on you to give some positive points on the current situation for Xiao Zhan :D. The situation is definitely better especially, like you said, how great of a hit the Wolf is. And it is not just being aired on one platform but on all 3 (Tencent, iQiyi, & Youku) & let's not even get to the other platforms that is airing this show. I guess we can finally put a close to the narrative of his dramas being taken off the shelves & no one wants to air it. And to the whole douban stuff - I feel that stuff will get resolved by XZ's team & the courts. So, we just need to concentrate on his upcoming dramas. Ji Chong is absolutely great, I know Xiao Zhan was a new actor but his facial expressions are just so perfect. I just hope to get more episodes soon!

I watched upto Episode 12 - so the review upto then:
Pros:
-I absolutely love the soundtrack for this drama, especially the song they play when a romantic scene comes up (don't know the exact name). It is perfection!
-The cinematography is amazing, it definitely looks like they filmed the scenes on site, which I know they did.
-The story started off a bit slow (but most do), but around episode 9 it definitely picks up
-I actually liked the way Darren Wang (Prince Bo) sometimes flirts with Li Qin, it felt quite cute. Especially the part where Zha Xing gets jealous.
-The CGI is actually really good for a drama that was shot in 2017, to be honest you can't even tell it was filmed 3 years ago with how well it was made. The CGI animals looked ferocious. Especially in episode 3 when Prince Bo just rides in like a BOSS with 2 wolves at his beckon.
-Ji Chong: From the little bit I have seen Xiao Zhan has done a great job expressing himself & his facial expressions are absoltely perfect. Especially at the end of episode 12, we knew he is lying so you just smile at the way he acts all innocent about the kidnapping plot.

Cons:
-I think the voice dubbing for some people is a bit off putting, I really wished they would just let the actors/actresses just dub their own voices especially since some are such great actors
-Ma Jing, sheesh she is annoying with her acting all cute and bubbly. Isn't she part of the army, then why exactly is she acting like that.

Agreed. The writers were absolutely perfect with the crime portion of the story but when it came to the romance it was heavily flawed. They probably should have just ignored that romantic element in general - and kept them as friends. But they did what they did. I am just really amazed by the whole case though - they made you believe it was 1 person in the beginning but then switched it so hard that you got whiplash. They consistently kept adding twists that you didn't even know was possible. The best one, for me, was when at the end they believed that maybe Joon was still alive. I was like please do not use the troupe where "the person was alive the whole time" - I felt that would have killed the whole story. But instead they flipped it & just made the one person you couldn't believe would kill him actually be the killer (female lead, smh). Then they made his ending even more tragic by having his surrogate mother butcher him. Your completely right - the story definitely showed the corruption of society & even how far ordinary people (like a mother) would go. All in all it was a great thriller/crime story but as a romance story it is just bad. I am just going to ignore episode 18 and remove it from my existence.

I just finished this series - and all the way upto episode 17 I loved the drama. It was brilliantly done with some of the best twists you could imagine. If you are into suspense/crime dramas then this one is definitely the best choice. Even when the female lead was annoying at times you kind of brushed her aside because the male lead was so absolutely brilliant. He acted perfectly - and when he constantly called the old police detective "short legged grandpa" I always laughed lol. Best part was of course how they constantly kept on unraveling each part of the crime - things you would not have guessed were connected some how are. If I could rate each episode separately I would definitely give episodes 1 - 17 a 9.5 (the female lead sometimes got on my last nerves so I took .5 points off). I honestly feel like the female leads actions just made the male leads life 10000x times harder. Now, coming to the last dredged episode 18 - what made them think that was a good ending. This drama was perfection until you come to that disaster. That episode deserves a 1 - especially since they used the "it was all a dream" troupe. You made so many people invest in to 17 episodes of brilliance just so they could come to the end & be like wow it all just got erased huh? However, even though I despise the ending - I still honestly think people should watch it since the crime aspect is so intriguing. Just try to have a selective memory when it comes to the last episode.

I can't wait when episode 11 airs and we can finally see Ji Chong :D.

If anyone has Viki (paid version), they are releasing the episodes earlier than it is scheduled for the free edition. The bottom link has the schedule for the episodes - I don't know how fast they will dub it in English though.

https://mobile.twitter.com/Viki/status/1331079912401162241

Being international - I haven't come across Ji Chong's part yet. But from clips, when this man is flirtatious - omg he looks absolutely beautiful. I can totally understand it playing in your mind lol.

To be honest, I was a bit iffy on the short hair concept. But when the studio released those birthday pics - I officially fell in love with it. He has duality in general - he can be cute in some situations or hot in others.

No, but don't worry. It is a default notification that iphone users get, it does not mean they are actually monitoring or filtering you. It is just notifying you to be careful when using the VPN.

You can also use Viki (https://www.viki.com/tv/35890c-the-wolf) - they are also working on the subs. It will take a while since they have only subbed the first episode and still working on the 2nd one.

You might have to use a VPN - since it might be blocked in your country.

The youtube channel, MZTV, has stated they will have 4 episodes subbed by tonight at 8 (so episodes 1 - 4).

Did anyone else see that the Wolf got unleashed - and was like "yes, now we can get more Xiao Zhan appearances for when they promote the show." Or am I the only greedy one lol?

Yes wetv and tencent are the same thing, it just depends on your area.

Np - to be honest just get the monthly subscription & do not pay for the yearly. Because there might be months when you don't want to watch any new dramas & tencent & iqiyi do allow you to watch their content for free (however you have to watch ads).

So I have VIP for iQiyi and it's basically like Netflix or any other video platform. You pay & receive all the content on that site for a month (I believe there is a yearly subscription but that is upto you to receive it).

If you get iQiyi - first time subscribers get the first month free but after that it is 6.99.
If you prefer Tencent - it is 3.99 for the first month & 5.99 afterwards

From what I read - people say it is best to watch the free episode first of the drama, in full, and then buy the VIP so that the platform knows you are buying VIP in order to watch that drama.

Yup! I am trying to avoid clips (even though it is very difficult) so I don't get anything spoiled. Sadly, though, I have already received several spoilers - the negatives of being international.

This account translated it
https://twitter.com/wangtaluarchive/status/1329348517865746434

I hope that helps :)

Someone on twitter emailed the youtube channel (https://mobile.twitter.com/xzhan1005/status/1329426709196775424) & they state that English subs will be released 24 hours after the release of the episode - for the first week. After that, they should coincide with the actual release date & time with no actual delay. This is only for the youtube channel - no idea about iqiyi or tencent :/. Hope that helps.