Orithian

Most Korean and Chinese BL series tend to be pretty "safe" if explicit scenes make you uncomfortable. Chinese BL, it's all implied due to China's censorship issues. Korea's slightly better, but still tends towards fairly chaste kisses and not much else.
Thai & Taiwanese drama's get much steamier and more explicit.

Ep 10 and the plot is moving along nicely. Solid story, with decent characters and surprisingly intelligent choices *usually* made by the good guys. Baad guys are still dumb.
Visuals and SFX are pretty, but the soundtracks is what occasionally blows me away.

Could really use a decent editor however. Scenes sometimes cut into one another in a very choppy and jarring way.

From what I've seen, this isn't Wuxia, this is just a period romantic comedy with a bit of political drama.

Urrrgh...Yeah.
ML should have let her drown. She's a completely useless, brain dead, selfish, spoilt brat!
She's consistantly believing that her own, uninformed, opinions matter in things she obviously has no clue about. Why the ML doesn't just order her put under house arrest, or pack her up and send her home is beyond me.

ML's more concerned with stopping her from committing unpardonable acts of lunacy thats likely to get everyone killed, or destroys the moral of his entire army and undermines his *military* authority, while she has a temper tantrum every 5 minutes...and I'm just up to Ep 6...
Does this get any better?

I've noticed this with a few actors. I think its the way they do the hair and make up in period shows. The wigs all tend to have the exact same hairline, and they also shape the eyebrows to a specific styalised way, not to mention the makeup.
This helps make actors who are playing 'cold' characters appear even more so. I'm sure its a deliberate styalised effect. I suspect you see these actors in different roles and they suddenly will appear much more human...
Also his chin isn't nearly as distracting as Liu Hai Kuan's... }:D

I could watch an entire movie "Fish out of water" + Roadtrip movie, with Mark Chao and Ni Ni's characters being sarcastic as all Hell about the modern world and entitled clueless white dudes!
Which is what should happen after the Princess dumps the boring whitebois arse and realises warrior Zhao's *way* more interesting! };D

..Do they have James Hong subbing as the Wizards voice? Cause it sure as hell sounds like him.
Also man, this plot? White saviour trope, the exotic Oriental Other, mystic old Master, "wise" ancient proverbs ... these tropes were worn out in the 80's, let alone in the 2010's!...
Would have been interesting if the kid had actually gone back to a semi realistic historical China, or even a less glaringly western "version" of something vaguely Chinese...

Mark Chao and Ni Ni are *so* under utelised in this... However I'm enjoying listening to them speak english

This really was a lot better than I was expecting given the 90's vibe it gave off and the occasional awkward dialouge. What starts as poloar opposite personalities trying to survive being partnered together, then gathers steam as an action/thriller as a million threads start to come together. The stakes keep raising, the plot keeps twisting, people keep dying and up until the credits rolled I still wasn't entirely sure who was going to survive.
Mark Chao and Vic Zhou pull out some major angsty scenes through this as their characters are put through several emotional gauntlets.

It was Rape.
Recognition is not consent.
Arousal is not consent.
*Not* yelling, "Get off me!" is not consent.
A person can be aroused, feel safe, and naked in bed with you and *STILL* not want to have sex!

Consent needs to be enthusiastic and informed, and given while *not* in an altered mental state.

Personally, that entire scene was pretty damn hot for me, but no way in Hell am I going to try to justify it as anything other than Deeply Problematic!!!

Nope, the iQiyi subs are profoundly horrendous!!!

Initially I was all about Yin Chen Mr Sexy "stone faced ice bitch", but You Ming, Mr Sadistic, "spilling someone elses blood is the most fun ever!" is growing on me.
Also Qi Ling and Yang Ze, being in turns adorable, confused and determined puppies!!

I watched Tomb of the Sea before this...and the difference between the characters Zhang Ming En &
Ji Chen are playing keeps breaking my brain. Might explain some of the stupidly fun chemistry they're showing in this tho. 22 eps in and I'm enjoying this as stupid fun, with some great character moments and chemistry...and moderately terrible translation.
I suspect the story itself wouldn't be so terrible if there was better translations available.

Damn, Glad to see this man getting more recognition. He was brilliant in Song of Glory and so far my favourite Wu Xie in Tomb of the Sea. He *needs* to be in more fantasy drama's.

I've just recently finished Sword Snow Stride, which has Zhang Ruo Yun replaying a very similar character to Fan Xian, which makes sense since its the same director/writer I think.
Also The Wolf Princess. Jason Gu's Yan Qing is one of the truly *good* and supportive ML's I've seen in a while. Comes of initially as a bit of a shallow, insensitive twit, but you quickly find there's much, much more to him.

27 eps in and it got much better. I'm just hoping they're going to resolve at least some of the twisty plot devices they've been waving around the place.

Great series, up until that last episode.
My take on the last ep, is that LiGe kills herself and leaves a letter asking Yi Kang to continue their dream of safeguarding the Song Dynasty. Not knowing that Yi Kang managed to get a pardon for her at the very last minute.
After 3 years he manages to complete this and the government is now stable enough, and the army built up enough to manage in case of a sudden vacany at the very top.
IE when he commits suicide and joins his wife.

Again, if you're going to make it a sad ending, COMMIT TO IT!!!!
Give us a sad ending, don't try and do this wishy washy, both ways Bullshit!

I've seen Wang Yibo in 3 previous series where he was definitely playing the characters with Autism spectrum habits, with the full on stoic, quiet, withdrawn, and highly intelligent stereotypes.
Now watching this character and it feels a bit like watching Wany Yibo playing a version of Wei WuXian...and not in a bad way. I think the first couple of eps alone had him saying more than I've heard him say across Untamed & Luoyang both. He's so chatty and adorable in this!

I was really surprised watching this, at how good it ended up being.
I don't *need* romance, what I need are good characters and plot, and this had it.
ML is also the rare character of an actual decent human being who learns from his mistakes, doesn't keep trying to wrap the FL in cotton wool, but acknowledges her as a person with her own opinions and skills, and trusts in her, And her abilities, and is willing to back her up.
FL is an actual strong FL, she doesn't need to be able to fight, and she's *every* bit as competent and capable as ML.
Part of the fun is watching these two fight, bicker, and scheme around and with, each other.

I've sometimes found just skipping past annoying bits and the episode and character beats seem to settle down and become less annoying... The ML in Su Yu ... does get a little more bearable, but his annoying personality is also kinda a whole plot point by itself. the FF button is sometimes my *very* good friend. :D