They ran out of things to do in the last episode. The editing messed up big time too - yeah I get it, we want some mystery blah blah but that's definitely not the way to go about it.
I could care less about the soap-opera redemption of their "Master" (what, wasn't he the same genocidal maniac from seconds ago? He had done things for years, way before he almost completed the final stage so that he could officially go crazy. And he had just murdered his wife a few minutes back. Like, DRAMA, SERIOUSLY?! Eff that).
PingShu must've been the one single best woman in the Jianghu ever, all the men were in love with her, going to battle with her, trying to save her, trying to get revenge for her, and so on and so forth. It got boring after the few 5 or 10 or so.
And what about the "sneaky" does-he-die-is-he-alive montage?! Whatever for all those dramatic goodbyes if he's going to come back all alive and hale just because almost dying magically saves you from a poison you've had all your life?! Could they have not found a better editor or at least do it so that there's some real emotion behind it?! Why did he appear out of the blue in that patch of flowers, when she already knew he was okay (given the flashback to learning he had expelled all the poison) and she was acting like he respawned from some flower seed or something?! That was... a bit (or more than a bit) cringy.
If they really had no more to say or show, I'd have preferred they shortened it by one episode or something. Like this... TBH, the final ep (or the final 4 eps rather) is a bit underwhelming.
Oh well. MQY as a character was finally one who could plan by using his loved ones for once LOL, and while the ending is weak, it's not completely bad. Zhao was... initially cute and lively, eventually kind of a revolving door type of character - hot and cold whenever the door turned.
So there's that. Could have been better, but then a lot of them usually are like this.
PS I seriously missed Song the father these last few eps. I'd have liked to see him recovered enough, even if with no cultivation. He was a good wingman to his son.
Which also reminds me - is it me or did we see a lot more of the SML than the ML in the freaking final ep?! Like... why?! I still blame the editor.
1. In the flashback from the clinic cellar, where LiLun and ZhuYan fall apart, it was 8 years ago, right? Why…
I don't think it's coincidence. He's supposedly thousands of years old, maybe born immediately after Cheng Huang fell out with the original Baize Avatar because of his supposed cure for the plague. All the avatars are mortal, they don't get immortality from being chosen. They even have to apprentice to learn how to use the Baize Token. Wan'er couldn't have been only the second one, and Wen Xiao isn't only the third Avatar. So all the others Baize Avatars must've known the power held by the strongest Wilderness demon - and there's no mention of any other Da Yao other than Zhu Yan (and before, Cheng Huang).
They waltzed over the explanations, but it only makes sense like this - Zhu Yan was there for almost all the other Avatars and got along with them just fine, including Wan'er. Wan'er must've apprenticed with the previous Avatar, too, like Wen Xiao was with her. Zhu Yan likes humans anyway, he might've tried to make friends with every one of them who was decent, LOL.
And after all, the Mountain Gods are almost as old as the original goddesses, and they were keeping the gate closed when the plague came the first time. They have to know things. I can't imagine they'd keep something as important as the balance from half the balance-making entities.
Zhu Yan is sneaky, he won't tell anyone (and particularly his dearest and closest friends) things that might hurt them in the long run. Especially since they wouldn't be able to change any single thing about it. I mean - it was common knowledge he had killed YiChen's brother and father. Being friends with him hurt YiChen, because he also loved his family and wanted revenge. What if they all knew from the beginning that Zhu Yao had killed Wan'er (even if it was out of his control)? And when they do learn, it hurts them all and hurts the bond between them. So whatever dark secrets Zhu Yan has, he'd keep them all instead and suffer by himself (it's obvious he's very much affected).
Same director. He loves good cinematography and snow fights in slow-motion. (I highly approve). And handsome leads. And a pretty good plot. And best of all, that one's already bingeable.
He's doing a BL series, and they're probably doing a CYA in front of the censors.
TL;DR China doesn't allow BL dramas to air in their own country (some dramas get produced and aired outside China but not in the mainland.) Actors involved in BL dramas can expect career problems and it usually spreads to everything they're in, no matter how big or small their part.
Long version: China used to allow heavily censored danmei (Chinese BL) dramas. But the big ones were hurricane-level of huge successes (The Untamed made an immense hit for Tencent and it allowed it to become what it is today - not on its own obviously, but it had a large impact). So production teams took on more danmei, and Word of Honor was even less censored and also a huge success, and the party (and therefore censors) didn't like that. So now we don't have any more danmei directly from mainland China. (Sad noises)
He ChangXi (original Song Yan) is ML in a danmei adaptation that is co-produced with Thailand (they started using this work-around for danmei because it's INSANELY popular). (Sammy's Children's Day is the one). And that too is frowned upon. So in order to cover their asses in front of the censors and not land this drama in trouble, the production team decided to just use AI-editing to replace Song Yan's face in the drama whenever he appears LOL. (And it's more hilarious they swapped it with the face of Zhu ZanJin, who played one of the villains in The Untamed :D)
SCD is not airing yet, so I guess they just wanted to make sure there's no controversy about this character's actor.
PS There are plenty of Chinese-language danmei either made in Taiwan, or labeled as produced in Hong Kong, or supposedly made in Thailand. And there are already-huge-budget dramas MADE that they won't ever air because they're danmei, even censored. Including one based on Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF), called Eternal Faith, by the same author of The Untamed, where the ML was Zhang LingHe himself. (More sad noises).
1. In the flashback from the clinic cellar, where LiLun and ZhuYan fall apart, it was 8 years ago, right? Why…
1. They fell apart when Li Lun started killing humans. IIRC, when Wan'er seals Li Lun, Zhu Yan's hair is black. Some time had passed in between. Though it's true he has a "true" self and a "mortal world" mask.
2. ZY is much older than Wan'er. She's the Baize Avatar, he's a demon (more in the daimon Greek sense of the word, like an elemental, than in the Christian sense of the word). And the Baize Avatar and the strongest demon in the Wilds are supposed to balance each other and keep the world at peace. They WOULD have been in constant contact since she was chosen. Add to that the Mountain Gods who are visiting with both of them (and Li Lun before he got twisted).
3-4. He used to love the mortal world and he was always a vessel for evil power. But since he got the Ever-burning wood in him, he can't control it every year at the Blood Moon. So it's only been happening for the past 8 years and he's already caused a massacre. He's definitely unhappy about it. And he killed Wan'er, lost Wen Xiao (since he had to send her to her foster dad), and it's just that he's not a murderous unhinged killer. He can't cope with losing control and killing innocents.
5. Li Lun doesn't like humans. He thinks demons are better - being more powerful. He's not one to have patience with noisy kids. It's not that he's bothered, he's being annoyed and maybe considering how to deal with the nuisance LOL.
So I'm going to name them because why not. Sui the Elder is Maddog Sui. Sui the Younger is SpicyKitten Sui. The…
I thought she would find out this ep, still not. They were SO CUTE breaking up while forcedly kissing each other and his bruise didn't fade over days. I guess it's only SpicyKitten who gets to ignore physics and realities of healing.
AND HEY!!! I just realised they used MengYao's actor's face to replace Song Yan's original actor's face with!! He was maddeningly familiar while at the same time a stranger. No wonder he already looks despicable, MengYao is imprinted hahaha~
Awww, Yan Zheng made her special wrist guards!! Why so thoughtful while unable to woo a girl properly? LOL she seriously hit him hahaha~ He's a fool to believe SpicyKitten's taunt for a second. If he had touched her, she'd have rearranged his face hahaha~
The preview seems to imply they'll be reunited, but I've been burned before. And what, does SpicyKitten burn down her house?! Are they all crazy in that family or what?
Sui the Elder is Maddog Sui. Sui the Younger is SpicyKitten Sui.
The Emperor is Cheerleadinghusky.
ATM, Yan Zheng is SadPuppy. GongSun is CuriousKitten (he's going to get it one of these days if he gets his nose in it more, see if he doesn't). ChangYu is ConfusedBee.
And who the HECK decided to do a draft?! I don't think it came from SadPuppy, he wouldn't dare!!!
PS Li HuaiAn is HandsomeIcicle. And is it me or does that Wei Sheng guy seem VERY intelligent and definitely a better choice for anything important than PM's Wei Xuan son?'
PPS Yan Zheng, totally oblivious: You pick the WORST men!!!! ChangYu, also totally oblivious about the number of men she's supposed to have picked: I picked YOU, didn't I?!
After 16th, listen up drama, new rule: if extremely handsome, cannot be villain. Because dayum. I thought they…
The magistrate should meet a untimely and undignified death soonest. He's scum.
Also WOW Lil'Bro, he goes from "let's pretend we're a lecher" right to "wow, claiming her for myself!!" to "halp lemme go I'll be a good kitten - haha- PSYCH!!! NOT!!!" to "Bye~ my love, we'll meet again". Why so serious, lil'kitten? :D She should give him some sweets and find him the right way of life. With head hits hahaha~.
So now the (real) cat's out of the bag. Going from the preview pics, she won't take it nicely. I almost don't want to go watch that ep.
And HEY!!!! NEW BATTLE MUSIC!!! Good!!! It sounded like The Hu and it can't be The Hu, right? 'cause no Mongols in the story so far. If ever.
PS Newest spicy kitten isn't dead, obviously. Even if physics doesn't work for him, he's falling and the arrow is chasing, even if it hits it'll just give him a bit more of a momentum and not penetrate too much. And Yan Zheng fell from a similar height and didn't die either. In dramaland this means he survived. Let's see if reality works for him as in time to heal or not.
After 16th, listen up drama, new rule: if extremely handsome, cannot be villain.
Because dayum. I thought they got Dylan Wang for the role LOL. Who's the actor? I can't find Sui the younger in the cast.
Also LOL he's the only one so far that eludes physics - gravitynotfound.exe is in play. It turned right back for Yan Zheng though. I guess he's a more down-to-earth character LOL (yeah I'm the heart of every party hahaha~)
This is the first chinese drama that I've seen reach 9.1 pretty surprised ngl and it's not even half way done…
Nirvana in Fire and The Untamed used to sit at 9.4 or thereabouts. About three years back people started fiddling with the rating system so that no other Chinese drama ever got over 9 (not commenting on biases, I don't care, I like what I like and TBH ratings don't hamper me except when it's something terribly obvious...). We'll have to wait and see how Zhu Yu does in the long term.
My only peeve with this bit of news is - how do you get to say "upcoming blockbuster" so easily?! I mean, let's hope it does well and becomes a blockbuster BUT when did the meaning of the word shift from "record audiences, phenomenal box office" to "big budget, very hyped"?! It's like freaking putting a curse on it.
Idk about you but i myself finished it a few months ago and i started enjoying it once the flashbacks began around…
She's the best wingwoman :D I knew she'd read the novel and was delighted to get to play YanLi, and she did it perfectly.
As for XZ... hahaha, he's too cute and easily flustered :D There are some cast interviews I can't dig up right now, where they were teasing each other and WYB was his impish self, LOL, XZ was also giving it right back for once and it was FIRE! I wish I had thought to save them all at the time :D
If they could have left all the danmei parts in the drama, that would have brought upon the apocalypse by drama-binging LOL
3 
I could care less about the soap-opera redemption of their "Master" (what, wasn't he the same genocidal maniac from seconds ago? He had done things for years, way before he almost completed the final stage so that he could officially go crazy. And he had just murdered his wife a few minutes back. Like, DRAMA, SERIOUSLY?! Eff that).
PingShu must've been the one single best woman in the Jianghu ever, all the men were in love with her, going to battle with her, trying to save her, trying to get revenge for her, and so on and so forth. It got boring after the few 5 or 10 or so.
And what about the "sneaky" does-he-die-is-he-alive montage?! Whatever for all those dramatic goodbyes if he's going to come back all alive and hale just because almost dying magically saves you from a poison you've had all your life?! Could they have not found a better editor or at least do it so that there's some real emotion behind it?! Why did he appear out of the blue in that patch of flowers, when she already knew he was okay (given the flashback to learning he had expelled all the poison) and she was acting like he respawned from some flower seed or something?! That was... a bit (or more than a bit) cringy.
If they really had no more to say or show, I'd have preferred they shortened it by one episode or something. Like this... TBH, the final ep (or the final 4 eps rather) is a bit underwhelming.
Oh well. MQY as a character was finally one who could plan by using his loved ones for once LOL, and while the ending is weak, it's not completely bad. Zhao was... initially cute and lively, eventually kind of a revolving door type of character - hot and cold whenever the door turned.
So there's that. Could have been better, but then a lot of them usually are like this.
PS I seriously missed Song the father these last few eps. I'd have liked to see him recovered enough, even if with no cultivation. He was a good wingman to his son.
Which also reminds me - is it me or did we see a lot more of the SML than the ML in the freaking final ep?! Like... why?! I still blame the editor.
They waltzed over the explanations, but it only makes sense like this - Zhu Yan was there for almost all the other Avatars and got along with them just fine, including Wan'er. Wan'er must've apprenticed with the previous Avatar, too, like Wen Xiao was with her. Zhu Yan likes humans anyway, he might've tried to make friends with every one of them who was decent, LOL.
And after all, the Mountain Gods are almost as old as the original goddesses, and they were keeping the gate closed when the plague came the first time. They have to know things. I can't imagine they'd keep something as important as the balance from half the balance-making entities.
Zhu Yan is sneaky, he won't tell anyone (and particularly his dearest and closest friends) things that might hurt them in the long run. Especially since they wouldn't be able to change any single thing about it. I mean - it was common knowledge he had killed YiChen's brother and father. Being friends with him hurt YiChen, because he also loved his family and wanted revenge. What if they all knew from the beginning that Zhu Yao had killed Wan'er (even if it was out of his control)? And when they do learn, it hurts them all and hurts the bond between them. So whatever dark secrets Zhu Yan has, he'd keep them all instead and suffer by himself (it's obvious he's very much affected).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb_-FGcNthM
Same director. He loves good cinematography and snow fights in slow-motion. (I highly approve). And handsome leads. And a pretty good plot. And best of all, that one's already bingeable.
Don't worry. I am pretty sure he'll get a multipass with her soon enough.
Long version: China used to allow heavily censored danmei (Chinese BL) dramas. But the big ones were hurricane-level of huge successes (The Untamed made an immense hit for Tencent and it allowed it to become what it is today - not on its own obviously, but it had a large impact). So production teams took on more danmei, and Word of Honor was even less censored and also a huge success, and the party (and therefore censors) didn't like that. So now we don't have any more danmei directly from mainland China. (Sad noises)
He ChangXi (original Song Yan) is ML in a danmei adaptation that is co-produced with Thailand (they started using this work-around for danmei because it's INSANELY popular). (Sammy's Children's Day is the one). And that too is frowned upon. So in order to cover their asses in front of the censors and not land this drama in trouble, the production team decided to just use AI-editing to replace Song Yan's face in the drama whenever he appears LOL. (And it's more hilarious they swapped it with the face of Zhu ZanJin, who played one of the villains in The Untamed :D)
SCD is not airing yet, so I guess they just wanted to make sure there's no controversy about this character's actor.
PS There are plenty of Chinese-language danmei either made in Taiwan, or labeled as produced in Hong Kong, or supposedly made in Thailand. And there are already-huge-budget dramas MADE that they won't ever air because they're danmei, even censored. Including one based on Heaven Official's Blessing (TGCF), called Eternal Faith, by the same author of The Untamed, where the ML was Zhang LingHe himself. (More sad noises).
2. ZY is much older than Wan'er. She's the Baize Avatar, he's a demon (more in the daimon Greek sense of the word, like an elemental, than in the Christian sense of the word). And the Baize Avatar and the strongest demon in the Wilds are supposed to balance each other and keep the world at peace. They WOULD have been in constant contact since she was chosen. Add to that the Mountain Gods who are visiting with both of them (and Li Lun before he got twisted).
3-4. He used to love the mortal world and he was always a vessel for evil power. But since he got the Ever-burning wood in him, he can't control it every year at the Blood Moon. So it's only been happening for the past 8 years and he's already caused a massacre. He's definitely unhappy about it. And he killed Wan'er, lost Wen Xiao (since he had to send her to her foster dad), and it's just that he's not a murderous unhinged killer. He can't cope with losing control and killing innocents.
5. Li Lun doesn't like humans. He thinks demons are better - being more powerful. He's not one to have patience with noisy kids. It's not that he's bothered, he's being annoyed and maybe considering how to deal with the nuisance LOL.
AND HEY!!! I just realised they used MengYao's actor's face to replace Song Yan's original actor's face with!! He was maddeningly familiar while at the same time a stranger. No wonder he already looks despicable, MengYao is imprinted hahaha~
Awww, Yan Zheng made her special wrist guards!! Why so thoughtful while unable to woo a girl properly? LOL she seriously hit him hahaha~ He's a fool to believe SpicyKitten's taunt for a second. If he had touched her, she'd have rearranged his face hahaha~
The preview seems to imply they'll be reunited, but I've been burned before. And what, does SpicyKitten burn down her house?! Are they all crazy in that family or what?
Sui the Elder is Maddog Sui. Sui the Younger is SpicyKitten Sui.
The Emperor is Cheerleadinghusky.
ATM, Yan Zheng is SadPuppy. GongSun is CuriousKitten (he's going to get it one of these days if he gets his nose in it more, see if he doesn't). ChangYu is ConfusedBee.
And who the HECK decided to do a draft?! I don't think it came from SadPuppy, he wouldn't dare!!!
PS Li HuaiAn is HandsomeIcicle. And is it me or does that Wei Sheng guy seem VERY intelligent and definitely a better choice for anything important than PM's Wei Xuan son?'
PPS Yan Zheng, totally oblivious: You pick the WORST men!!!!
ChangYu, also totally oblivious about the number of men she's supposed to have picked: I picked YOU, didn't I?!
Also WOW Lil'Bro, he goes from "let's pretend we're a lecher" right to "wow, claiming her for myself!!" to "halp lemme go I'll be a good kitten - haha- PSYCH!!! NOT!!!" to "Bye~ my love, we'll meet again". Why so serious, lil'kitten? :D She should give him some sweets and find him the right way of life. With head hits hahaha~.
So now the (real) cat's out of the bag. Going from the preview pics, she won't take it nicely. I almost don't want to go watch that ep.
And HEY!!!! NEW BATTLE MUSIC!!! Good!!! It sounded like The Hu and it can't be The Hu, right? 'cause no Mongols in the story so far. If ever.
PS Newest spicy kitten isn't dead, obviously. Even if physics doesn't work for him, he's falling and the arrow is chasing, even if it hits it'll just give him a bit more of a momentum and not penetrate too much. And Yan Zheng fell from a similar height and didn't die either. In dramaland this means he survived. Let's see if reality works for him as in time to heal or not.
Because dayum. I thought they got Dylan Wang for the role LOL. Who's the actor? I can't find Sui the younger in the cast.
Also LOL he's the only one so far that eludes physics - gravitynotfound.exe is in play. It turned right back for Yan Zheng though. I guess he's a more down-to-earth character LOL (yeah I'm the heart of every party hahaha~)
As for XZ... hahaha, he's too cute and easily flustered :D There are some cast interviews I can't dig up right now, where they were teasing each other and WYB was his impish self, LOL, XZ was also giving it right back for once and it was FIRE! I wish I had thought to save them all at the time :D
If they could have left all the danmei parts in the drama, that would have brought upon the apocalypse by drama-binging LOL
Yeah it's obviously a well considered choice and it works wonders.