Rachel

This drama was the highlight of my holidays. I'm quite sad that it ended. Thank you to all the cast and staff for producing this quality drama! It's certainly not perfect and has some flaws but overall, I love how most characters (including the antagonists) were written and how the plot played out. From the start, I knew it wasn't a simple revenge drama because otherwise it wouldn't be able to air on CCTV-8. I have learnt many life lessons from this drama.

My most favourite part of this drama has to be the characters. Some of the characters are so unique that I don't typically see them in other cdramas. There's probably not a male lead/protagonist like Xie Huai An in cdrama history or a warrior emperor like Xiao Wuyang or a deposed emperor like Xiao Wenjing. I also really like Gu Yu, Han Ziling, Bai Wan, and Pu Nichuan. Even the antagonists like Wu Zhongheng, Yan Fengshan, Su Changlin, Wang Pu all have different stories. Fantastic job to all the actors who really put in the effort to portray their characters well!

My only regret is that there are so few episodes for a plot like this. I'm not sure why the script was condensed into 32 episodes and then further shortened to 28 episodes due to censorship. I do think that there are definitely some aspects of this show (e.g., Wu Zhongheng's past) that could be fleshed out more if we had more episodes!

Nowadays where 90% of cdramas are adapted from novels, The Vendetta of An is truly a rare gem. If the screenwriter decides to polish up the script a bit more and include the stuff that were removed into the novel, I'll definitely read it! I'm already planning on rewatching the drama to see if I missed any details.

EDIT: If this drama were to be adapted to a novel, I definitely want to see how Huben Army was formed by Liu Ziwen. Like a prequel or something! I think Liu Ziwen's story would be quite interesting too.

Yes, you got it right.

You're very welcome LOL

I love the scene between the Xiao brothers even though Xiao Wenjing stabbed his brother. Xiao Wuyang is too good, even after being stabbed once, he couldn't bear to retaliate against his younger brother which led to him being stabbed another time 😭. He also understood Xiao Wenjing's difficulties, gave him advice, and not blame him. To Xiao Wenjing, it was either the Tiemo people forcefully invading with the country and people getting destroyed in the process or surrendering to the Tiemo people as a puppet emperor. Both ways are terrible but Xiao Wenjing chose the one that may be less physically damaging to the country/people. But I hope that there's a bigger plan behind his actions.

Also, I can't help but wonder if Xiao Wuyang and Xiao Wenjing weren't born into the royal family, would they be able to live like normal brothers in a happy family? The scene where Xiao Wuyang stared at the happy family eating and smiled at the little baby made me think that he does really want to be in a normal, happy family 🥺. The baby probably reminded him of Xiao Wenjing since the brothers have a big age gap.

I thought the shopkeeper was very sus when he kept staring at Xiao Wuyang nervously and didn't eat the food that he prepared for Xiao Wuyang. There was no logical reasoning for my suspicion but I got trauma from the other betrayals 😅. Glad that the shopkeeper is a good guy after all. He respected Xiao Wuyang (the emperor) too much and didn't know how to act around him.

He and Zhang Mo (the real one) are so kind...

Uncle Long's actor (Cheng Taishen) and Xiaobing's actor (Cheng Haoyu) are irl father and son :0 We have two irl father and son pairs in this drama 😂

Regarding YFS's death, I thought it was really well done because it showed that XHA ended up killing him using psychological tactics and schemes, rather than a glorious battle or some grand plan. Probably nobody expected YFS to die like this, not even YFS himself. XHA understood YFS very well. He knew that YFS won't kill him immediately because he liked control and liked XHA submitting to him. He knew that Wang Pu's death was a regret of YFS. His conversations with YFS were all to make YFS lower his guard and actually believe (for a moment) that he was really seeing Wang Pu.

Although sort of anticlimatic, I ended up appreciating how YFS's death was executed. He deserved dying to a scheme that he never expected.

Love his character! I don't think I ever seen a warrior/general Emperor who is also quite intelligent before. An Emperor who usurped the throne but doesn't actually want the throne.

I think another person already replied you but the logic in that is he had to kill Wang Xing if not Xie Huai An would be exposed when Wang Xing manage to run to Hidden Soldier Valley. That is the logic and not a justification, once again. This show is filled with morally grey characters and morally grey decisions but this does not mean that all (or most) characters were born evil/bad.

Ikrrr 😭 One interesting fact about this dialogue. I saw people posting that scene's original script on weibo. Originally, Huai An was supposed to say "I know" in reply to that but Cheng Yi changed it to "I owe him nothing."

They have so much money to spend on buying black trending searches and smear campaigns too. If they really are who I'm thinking of, I can only say that these people are too obsessed and absorbed in their sick fan culture that they're losing their lives.

Yes!! He's so cool in this drama 🤩

What?? I can't believe people would do this just to sabotage a drama. Genuinely, do people not have lives? Is it so important for them to ruin a drama...

It was a moment of impulse which was caused by built up frustration and jealousy that Zhang Mo can be free while he, Xiao Wenjing, cannot. XWJ for most of his life have been living in a cage, controlled by Yan Fengshan in the past and then now under the control of Xie Huai An. At that moment when he killed Zhang Mo, he was mentally unstable. Imagine being kidnapped and forced to change your face and before that, he was starved. Even before that, the palace was under attack and we also don't know how YFS treated him all these years. Also, growing up as a royal and under the control of YFS, he was probably not taught to value the lives of people of status lower than him. So when he (XWJ) hears Zhang Mo saying that he (ZM) gets to go home and be free, it may have triggered him.

NOT giving a justification for his actions but this is what I understood about him. He committed a very terrible wrong (no excuses for it) but I don't believe he is inherently evil/bad.

He's alive.

Emperor Wuyang is not killing the four commanders just to stay on the throne. He wants to prevent them from partnering with Yan Fengshan or giving their military power to Yan Fengshan. And this is not because Xiao Wuyang cares for the throne or power. It's because under Yan Fengshan's rule (through Xiao Wenjing), the country was not prospering and the people were not living well. The four commanders may have built the country with the founding emperor years ago but they seem to put their interests before the people/country.

Haha no worries, we'll see if the show will come up with a timeline in future!

I get your point. But greed is part of human nature. Look at our world's history. How many countries started war because of wanting more (e.g., land, resources, oil etc.)? Why should the Tiemo King stop now when he can get Chang An's land and resources for his own country and people to prosper? The Tiemo King is a good and caring leader to his people, yes. But probably only to his people.

We know that the General is not a good person. But a person's gratitude is not necessarily given to a good person, but a person who is good to them. Why should she care whether General Yan was a bad person who betrayed Liu Ziwen? Does it concern her? If General Yan had treated her well, why should she care if he treats others badly or kills others? Like you said, General Yan isn't a good person, then do you think Chen Zhiying is a good person? She's not going to think like a good person.

Actually it may not even be half a year. I was browsing through some fanmade videos on bilibili and cnetz were saying that it's less than half a year since Xie Huai An entered Chang An and there were already three emperors 😂I'm Chinese myself so I went to rewatch the scenes + use Chinese subtitles to verify if I'm hearing and reading correctly. I think HZL has been in Hidden Soldier Alley for maybe a month or less. It's possible to form a friendship with Di Lu because he's friendly and he's the one in charge of taking care of newcomers! HZL and Huai An also form a friendship despite interacting for only a brief period. But yes I agree that the timeline is kind of confusing 😅

I'm guessing now it's time to unite against the foreign enemy. Chang An can be taken by Yan Fengshan but it must never fall to invaders. Old enemies may (temporarily) work together with Huai An hopefully.