Skibbies

drop the episode and do nothing else, it looks like a low budget drama, the drama was actually filmed in 2017....

cdramas used to only have epic dramas at 40+ ep, your average drama are 30+ ep (some are 20ish), the long drama issue is a last decade thing, and episodes are getting trimmed down now. I think it's completely possible to finish and pace well at 36 ep.

historically he's probably bi, most dramas featuring this crown prince will have cheng xin (chen ji here?) as a plot point (even the srs political ones i watch), sometimes the character is played by women or the character is turned into a woman though.

rumour has it that some minor rebellion plot was cut, but it's mostly a rumour. 69 ep is def too long for story like this imo.

Rumour has it that this was originally a youku project (the early casting calls state so), at some point tencent came in and wanted to do a joint production tying it to "Game for Peace" which is basically a mobile version of PUBG, but that didn't happen for some reason. (I personally suspect maybe the CS:Go having to pull out of GGS incisdent scared them off. but that was a tv drama and this should have been webdrama? I suppose pre-production could have aimed for tv drama, ah idk) It end up being an iqiyi webdrama, but tencent joined in after it finished filming.

On the gaming bits, if you scroll down, a lot of people don't care for the gaming parts, and that's just how general public feel towards gaming dramas. So I think to ensure its reasonable success, they shifted the focus to romance-centric, thus all the almost met/almost recognise scenes that I find overdone. Initial casting for DJY is 32 years old, I think the actor they casted is bit too old, and they are playing up his interference + slight creepiness that I'm not a fan of.

I actually expected more esport novel tropes than mmo novel tropes before starting this lol, but i like mmo ones better anyways :D

GGS's douban rating is only smidge higher than Long Ballad, so it's really not that much difference. GGS is also a modern romance/esport drama, so that's what it's rated on, your issue with FL's characterisation is my issue with it too, but some people can handwave it, and that's fine.

Long Ballad has politics in it, and cnetizens will definitely criticise your drama over politics, Nirvana in Fire gets criticise for its simple politics, Qin Dynasty Epic got criticise for its portrayal of politics and it stuck reasonably close to history. The premise of the story doesn't actually help, I still think they should have dumped the story to a made up dynasty and would have save them lot of grief. By using Li Shimin and setting him + his advisors up as antagonists, it makes it hard for most Chinese to emphasis with the story from the get go. Li Shimin specifically won a lot of battles that gained Tang its landmasses, to most Chinese, Li Jiancheng was only crown prince because he was born first, and that's it. So couple that with kill or be killed scenario that the drama set this up to be, FL's initial revenge plot seem real silly.

Scathing reviews also talk about miscast of otp which affects chemistry of otp, again Leo being a child actor didn't help here, neither did the fact Changge was meant to be 15 and slight built with Han features, minor stuff to fans but big hurdle to non-fans and affect first impression a lot. (yes misogynism, ageism and ethnic discrimination is a thing amongst cnetizens, but I do think their criticism were valid here. Fans keep bringing up other actresses but they were criticise too, as were actors, so this is not just a hate on Reba thing) cnetizens are just scathing in general, so handwave it if it's your favourite drama. I like them because they filter out stuff for me, and lower my expectation for lot of dramas.

AvenueX said she's been surviving on 5 hour sleep for a whole month and she started dreaming it LOL, she just lives and breaths it.

yeah I'd assume the second round is different from first round, so promo content sounds about right.

I think the concrete number I saw from Huace's was 120mil? It's partial investment though, not sure they added in more later and there's no way to tell how much the other 3 put in (one of them is penguin film, wetv's subsidiary) It sounds too little to be tencent's S+, esp considering Huace's investment in Legend of Fei is 280mil, but.....all those manhua scenes.....mhmmmmmm.

yeah I'd assume the second round is different from first round, so promo content sounds about right.

I think the concrete number I saw from Huace's was 120mil? It's partial investment though, not sure they added in more later and there's no way to tell how much the other 3 put in (one of them is penguin film, wetv's subsidiary) It sounds too little to be tencent's S+, esp considering Huace's investment in Legend of Fei is 280mil, but.....all those manhua scenes.....mhmmmmmm.

The rumour mill is that for banner promo (the big header you see on front page), you need second round, and that's what Immortality failed (Winner is King failed the first time rip). A lot of Immortality's limited time products were slated for a spring release, but it didn't work out. WoH specifically gave it up apparently.

Sort of tangent rumour, supposingly if you are a TV drama, you submit to local NRTA for first round, and you can air on local channels (like Hunan finance or something) + air online, to air on provincial channels, you need second round and you submit to the head office. Legend of Fei, Rebel Princess and Long Ballad have all been noted to air on local channels because that bypass submitting to head office. BUT this conflict with the banner promo needing second round, maybe that's just for webdramas?

Long Ballad isn't doing too well tbh (considering its investment level + expectation), its schedule is regular tencent schedule isn't it? 3 days a week, it's been like that since 2019 summer (?) but they have a lot of historical dramas to air as well, Court Lady is slated for 15th, Zhou Dongyu and Xu Kai's xianxia +Yang Zi & Kris Wu's historical are supposingly on the list too, but again, just rumour mill. Long Ballad had been in rumour mill since Feb too so lol.

Re: new bl guideline, it's just rumour that they are tightening it, but they said that at the start of the year and they said it last year too. I'm not surprised at the possibility (youku is reeeeally toeing that line sometime) but the rumour come really often. (NRTA have a great knack of cracking down popular genres, that or they are responding to people reporting stuff, after all, people report kids cartoon for having colourful hair, it's wild)

7.8, highest it was 8.1 i think? it's really good for modern romcom on douban.

While Tian Ya Ke is a small ip compared to other priest's novels, but she's still a high profile author, she can easily be top 3 when it comes to BL author, esp since she already had two popular adaptations (Legend of Fei and Guardian, they bombed in other aspects but they are certainly popular) So TYK was actually part of BL 101. I legit didn't know KaH existed till it came out, because it's I think original script? BL dramas actually work better if you don't use big name actors lol, because people are less likely to have certain image of you, i do think WoH's actors are smidge more well known, but that's just me.

Mango as a platform is about 1/2 of youku, 1/4 of iqiyi/wetv, and heavily relies on variety shows for subscriptions rather than dramas. Last year they got lot of members for a WILDLY popular variety show (jiejie) so that might have helped last year's dramas too. Republican dramas aren't as popular domestically either, but at least they are watched pretty frequently, while internationally you are lucky to get 1/10 to watch it. International audience's preference is historical >>> modern >>>>>>>> republican or something. With Immortality and Winner is King are likely delayed (rumour mill), BL fans will probably discover KaH, a lot of people like watching dramas when they finish subbing after all.

If you are up for it, another republican drama Winter Begonia might be right up your ally. Based on a BL novel, and the drama isn't really romance oriented since one of the ML has a wife (she exists in the novel too! it was an arranged marriage for a purpose), but the two ML share a bond I genuinely would call soulmate. The cinematography, writing, acting and editing were all top notch, so see if you can get into it :)

it's airing tomorrow so you won't be able to find it. there' Ace vs Ace next week too. This week they've been busy doing hour long interviews and promotion at various platforms which got livestreamed but I don't think those get eng subbed.

not blood related great grandson. it's convoluted.

Domestically, i'm pretty sure it's a mangotv issue. For a mangotv drama to be popular, you have to be exceptionally good and hit it off with large group of people, I only remember a timetravelling school drama that did last year. All the other popular dramas I know are either primtime hunan tv dramas or they broadcast on other platforms too. BL dramas, esp one set in republican times where things are painful and likely end badly, is niche amongst a niche. You can be undderrated gem without promotion, but you usually can't be wildly popular without promotion. I just looked on douban to see its score that came out fairly late, and it's not that good, esp if you consider BL dramas are rated smidge higher generally, so it's just not hitting cnetizens' palate.

it has happened before, usually from influx of ratings, esp from new accounts. even if it unlocks, i doubt it'll drop below 8 so good regardless.

As for Long Ballad, that's an expected score, I wouldn't be surprised to see it lower honestly. 6 is just really normal score for your average dramas lol.

there's no episodes today. it started airing last week on thursday, so it was thurs & fri, then there was a break, the regular schedule is mon - wed.

she's his manager, because he's a child actor so yeah everything goes through her. It doesn't mean he won't do kiss scenes, can we not extrapolate? It just explains why he hasn't had kiss scenes before? He hasn't really starred in romance dramas much.

She has non dubbed modern dramas I think? HK actors almost all speak cantonese, I know because every single time I'm distracted by their lip movements being totally off LOL.

If you don't practice your lines, you just get mocked endlessly by fandom lol. Also more importantly it's part of their job to do so? Saying the lines with the right diction and emotion is part of the performance and usually help everyone get into the scene.