Skibbies

idk why you'd take MDL's 60 ep as it was planned for that many though, MDL's sourcing isn't exactly always accurate, its rumour casting is literally all over the place at times.

I don't think it was affected by 40 ep rules because even its 40 episodes weren't fully utilised (lot of episodes were less than 40mins long). It's clear its directing, scripting, and pacing have plenty of issues without the limit.

I wouldn't call Huang Chao villain, he's an antagonist yeah, but the book had always portrayed him to do things differently but not evil. They do still give the throne to HC, because he's genuinely a good ruler who care about his subjects. He's ruthless but so is HFX in the book.

The novel was pretty much BFX's journey, HFX is around quite a bit, but it's definitely BFX front and center. Cut out ML's family and Tianshuang arc and most of the romance, add in more one sided crushes from supporting characters, you basically have the novel plot. The wars make up about half the book.

Young Blood was super fun and I loved the FL. Modern dramas I really liked We Are All Alone (about chinese entertainment industry), Rational Life (on netflix), Remembrance of Things Past (starts out rather heavy but it's generallly uplifting, slice of life, not romance focused), Delicious Romance (slice of life as well and the three FLs have two choices)

Ohh you blitz through AA really fast. Yeah I'm not huge on whitewashing either? Like why bother building up his wife to be his one and only and he really fears his wife, but oh this girl is his soulmate, it'd be a tragedy if they don't get marry! Like if he and his new true love doesn't get married, then it's cos his tiger wife sucks? How about no? That's the only blemish for first half for me I think.

Yeah I get you I like US's scifi dramas a lot, it's why modern cdramas I like are mostly limited to stuff that brings up nostalgia or more down to earth.

The Li Yifeng and Song Yi light on drama is airing on 22nd! Hope it's decent. ZRY's police drama (idk if you are going to watch it) is rumour to be May 27th, cctv 1 so daily.

Oh i forgot WoH, that's filed under BL for me, I think my fav was My Heroic Husband but I rated Imperial Coroner higher? Oh SSS, i listened to the audio book, up till drama's s1's ending, I think I like Mao Ni (JoL and Ever Night's author) writing style more, anyways SSS's book is more xuanhuan-y, like there's more marital arts bit.

Modern cdramas I like the coming of age youth dramas and slice of life FL-centric dramas and occasionally suspense dramas.

even longxi didn't work for me, i think my high ratings for last year were bunch of modern slice of life FL-centric dramas and......flag waving dramas......lol. The costume drama gaping hole is dire.

this drama didn't do well unlike its front end viewcount indicates, I'm worried that instead of considering "oh maybe we shouldn't add so much dumb plot and balance it bit more", it's "let's just go back to silly fluffy romance" or "let's skip all the awesome fl centric-dramas". in 2020, i genuinely felt that cdrama had variety of dramas that were great, even if not all of them did super well, last year and this year not so much?

i expected it to be male-centric but they could have made it less boring, spice it up with other elements/arcs, pace it so FL didn't seem like a supporting character and it would have came out pretty nice, since I do like the power couple that doesn't have much misunderstanding, alas.

I think I'd love the drama more if they cut out ML's family and tianshuang sect LOL. I don't mind ML's family at first, so if they kept it to like 5 ep, it's ok too, he could spend more time gathering army, or going on adventure with female lead, or more flashback to jianghu times, it'd make this way less lopsided.

I actually rather like the book even though I have fair amount of complaints (so very mary sue, so op), mostly cos FL is genuinely awesome, and antagonists have sound logic and depth, just different ideaologies, the tragedy of living in chaotic times is much more pronounced in the novel.

Like FL really doesn't like being a Queen but she shoulders it because she has to. Langhua is a princess in the novel, one of the states that's not really relevant in much of the novel, her country was destroyed and she went through hell, she wants to be awesome like BFX but she can't, but she still struggles to live, to do something (I forgot what her goal was lmao)

You actually don't miss much in the book, the book was like 20% wuxia, the bits you saw in the beginning, then like 50% war and politics (the politics aren't really scheming, more the main few characters doing stuff in their respective kingdoms). The wars are in the last 6 ep, it's shadow of what they were but it's technically here. the remaining bits are her meeting all these awesome people. (like strolling into hua churan's palace or accidentally meeting huang chao, oh yeah and the various one sided crushes)

The female friendship is there, I like the variety of female characters there are in the novel, even the minor characters, they all try their best. (there's more ladies that's considered weak cos they don't know martial arts). You do miss the awesome generals that xiyun and huang chao has, they are in the drama as like cameos mostly, but I really liked them in the novel.

HFX and BFX relationship are drastically different, so I think most drama watchers would dislike it cos the romance are barely there, and they spent much of their time being wary of each other, and having trust issues (for very good reasons, as respective countries' rulers)

I found the writing style and characters very op, very over the top, but the author said she was going for larger than life legend-like storytelling so I can accept that. It does make more sense than the drama I think.

I wonder why that is mhmm, i don't remember any other HK RoTK adaptation besides Red Cliff, it's so hard to say.

Oh oh you just reminded me, the equivalent to speak of the devil is "talk about Cao Cao, Cao Cao arrives" LOL, RoTK runs deep in the culture. I never really thought of Cao Cao as the bad guy, even though I know he's the antagonist in the novels, I know some adaptations paint him into one dimensional villain, but there are a lot that explore his depth too, there's so many interesting people and stories about him!

As for history is written by the victors, technically aren't they both losers? If anything, Jin is more like extension of Wei so Wei should have more legitimacy! Although I guess Wei did get overthrown instead of fading into oblivion. iirc, wasn't Shu set as protagonist because the novel was written in early Ming to reinforce the Han-centric rule of Ming? Well okay, it sort of gathers lot of folk tales and puts it together, so some could be from late Yuan which would be stories to encourage uprising (?) and hope for reunification under Han rule (?). I have no idea why Wei was an antagonist, maybe cos Cao Cao is too awesome, so he's great as antagonist, Shu is the underdog you root for, and it has all the brotherly bond and genius strategists and......stuff, oh yeah and benelovent overlord.

I think the setting is interesting choice, and acting is of course phenomenal, characters are pretty interesting analytically speaking, but for some reason I just wasn't really into them. Maybe I opened the drama with wrong mindset so I didn't get fully immersed in and couldn't care about the plot. Wait, maybe i'm just a staunch Wei supporter hahahaha.

Maybe you are a fusion of Sun Yi and Ni Ni ;D

cdrama is slowly getting more popular, hopefully people will notice the non romantic cdramas more :)

Oh wow super high praises! I'm glad this drama wrapped up so nicely, unlike the other adaptations *coughs*

I was rather bored half the time in first two thirds though, even though I enjoyed most actors' performances. I love Mi Chong and Guo Gang so much, so much props to Wang Xiao and Dong Zijian! I liked both in Ni Ni's last drama My Best Friend's Story too, even though the plot was kind of a mess, and their characters had limited time/weren't the greatest, but they absolutely killed it like this time, so much chemistry with co-stars!

I love their face off, one of my favourite sequence of the whole drama. Zhang Xiaochen looking awesome here is a bonus.

Too many bearded men, lot of organisation names and unfamiliar backgrounds + serious with political and non-fancy kind of spy work make it bit higher hurdle for most I think.