Skibbies

It's incomplete, 10 years and ongoing. (dude updates slow lmao. the other writers complete 5mil char novel in about 2 or 3 years usually)

youku is hilariously slow as a platform, I suggest people keep tweeting at them or dming them at twitter to let them know. They are known to change update schedule for vip members domestically, so I think it's very possible to at least get them to go back to 4 days sub episodes if they can't quite keep up with daily updates. I don't have much expectation for them to push for international platform, but I'm happy to see they at least have a twitter presence now!

The idea for the 3 days schedule sort of make sense for chinese audience, it's for you to get used to using a platform, subsequently watch their other shows OR get impatient and pay for vip. But since sub episodes follow the chinese non-vip schedule, you are just stuck waiting for the episodes. (to be fair, i think everyone else does it like this too? iqiyi and wetv, it's only if it gets licensed on viki it might be different) Mhmm maybe they want to milk the drama for all its worth? It's a great way for international audience to get to know youku, and with longer airing time, there's more time for buzz build up.

cdramas have always been consumed by massive amount of female audience, massively popular dramas tend to have to break out of that target audience (joy of life have a lot of male audience), OR you capture most of it (yanxi palace). you are correct that BL dramas are sought after due to its popularity with female audience, but it's actually a subset of them. A subset that's rather fanatical and willing to spend a lot of money on merchandising and events closely tied to BL series they love. Some of them then turn into fans of actors through series of semi guided fanwars and other fandom bs that's too long to get into.

As for how WoH got pass NRTA, it's basically what you said, but I want to add that previous BL dramas all got passed it, but were subsequently reported by competitors (or really easily offended homophobes). It's more unlikely for WoH simply because the stack of BL dramas waiting to be released, they all have investments from the online platforms (tencent, iqiyi, youku and mangotv). If they report WoH, their own dramas will suffer.

Side note on how flimsy NRTA can be, last year's popular thriller Bad Kids managed to get pass NRTA with its rather dark story. Likely due to its producer being a very prominent one that likely have some connections. Subsequently the rest of the thrillers from the same slot had to go through another round of checks which was real rough. It's unclear if the series was reported or if the infamous meme "taking you to climb mountains" (euphemism for murder) alarmed them, afraid that someone might do copycat murder.

Chinese government kind of overworry itself sometimes, but its citizens also blame the government for stuff you wouldn't in US. I mean transmigration/time travel drama caused someone to copycat suicide, it's probably "oh damn that sucks :(" whereas China is "ban transmigration dramas". Then there's also those really bored parents that report a donghua/anime for "the girls have orange hair! that's unrealistic!" so they had to change it, like maybe you could explain to your kid that stuff in tv aren't real? There's no age restriction system for media in China, so stuff are often done in the name of "protect the kids". When kids in 90s and 00s watched much more scandalous dramas with little issues.

it's a harem in the novel and it's far more serious in tone, the novel is very different from the drama.

it's all to cash out actually, it tends to lower popularity of dramas because people watch it at different pace and pirated videos are everywhere. Under the announcement of the new update schedule, the fans are all screaming at them, saying merchandising would be much much better way to cash out, which is totally true. Youku is much more likely to succumb to yelling (per experience with Rebel Princess and other dramas), but there's only two weeks for it to change, and it's not like it can just go i'm not doing on demand anymore! lol

As for the original concern, I wouldn't worry too much about this getting taken down, all three big platforms have upcoming bl dramas so them reporting this would just cause their investment go down the drain.

oh yeah 2021 is impossible. it'd be almost impossible for a modern drama too tbh.

they could be backups or trainees? I definitely think they could have used the extras in more scenes, even if they aren't developed.

JoL s1 took a year and half to air, and s2 hasn't started filming yet. while MHH is a far smaller budget and I don't think they expected it to succeed, it took 4 months to air. It's unclear when the script of s1 started, I do get the impression that the casting was done after JoL s1's success, but not necessarily the script. If the script was done after JoL s1, that would mean from penning the script to finishing airing, MHH took just a year-ish, that's incredibly fast for a historical drama. In comparison, JoL s1 took 3 years minimum (might be 3 and half), s2 is looking at 2 years minimum.

Anyways, Qin Wen gets a lot of projects too but I think she has a team of writers so she get through scripts lot faster than Wang Juan. Wang Juan just have a bunch of s2 lined up at this point. Considering the success of s1, MHH s2 is fairly likely at this point but it's hard to say how long it would take.

she's a complete drama original character, her connection to the core group is through Tong Nian who was barely here. I assume they couldn't get the actress to reprise her role and there weren't further more story to tell so she wasn't around.

You can stop at first half of ep 26 or just 45 for a good arc ending. It was planned for three seasons to begin with. s1 was a huge success, s2 haven't started filming yet though due to the script taking a while I think

It covers the first 39 years of his life, ends with unification.

It covers the first 39 years of his life, ends with unification.

it's not really recent, it's a modern thing though, it's a given part of any wedding. I can't actually remember cdramas off top of my head since i don't watch enough modern romance cdramas but I swear I've seen it in 90s and early 00s hk dramas.

his father is a very well known comedian, xiangsheng comedian (sort of traidtional chinese stand up comedy i guess?)

Yeah it takes away the otp's shining moment, and you are right, XQ is a champion of common soldier just like Longbo. I don't think killing Zitan would have trigger NRTA, even if it did, you could totally write a plot where he's forced to answer for death of his army, kind of like NiF did? There's just so many ways you could have worked around it even if it's an issue. *sigh*

oh yeah definitely, NRTA is always super vague and nonspecific so you have to keep guessing, it's really annoying and gross.

Are you talking about Yanxi being pulled? It + Ruyi got pulled for its subgenre (gong dou? palace fighting?) Maybe it's all the poisoning people and abortions??? LOL. but Legend of Zhenhuan survived? It's kind of mystifying. idk how this kind of bitch fighting is more toxic than the bitch fighting on cctv (national tv) dramas, sometimes those dramas have really terrible plot (not writing, just underlying values), I think cctv doesn't have to go through NRTA though, so maybe it's that.

The novel had Xiao Qi overthrow the Ma family at the end, and they weren't as incompetent as they seem in the drama since they don't get much screentime. Most importantly, Zitan isn't as annoying, he's just a tragic figure, born into the wrong family at the wrong time. He's more suited to be a son of minister rather than a prince, by the time he ascended the throne, XQ had effective control of most of the court, so he was just a puppet. XQ didn't change much except for less ambition.

Awu was rather different, she was innocent and naive at the start, but few chapters in, she finds out she was traded away by her family, and she vows to help XQ because he cares for her and his interest aligns with hers. She ends up arranging other people's marriages and plot against other people for her/XQ's interest, just like her family did. She became rather good at the game that she once detested. She's not ruthless though, and she still have soft spot for family and Zitan so it's pretty human.

It's not really a novel I love, but I could still appreciate its themes at the end of day, power corrupts + sacrifices and tragedy while vying for power + power couple that manage to steady their country in tumult times. There's a lot of tragic undertone in the novel, it simply mentions but doesn't elaborate on Wang Lin's first love and forced marriage or Empress' first love, powerlessness of Zitan, Wanru's self sacrifice, Emperor's negligence of Zilv, Yuxiu's affection that's never returned, General Song's death etc. The drama kept most of it, but it's amongst bunch of boring plot I've seen before so it's not popped out most of the time.

I totally understand they can't just overthrow the dynasty. I did fully expect the otp to be regents though, maybe reluctant regents since they lost all their ambition. I guess Wang Su sort of works here, but it doesn't feel the same. It's perfectly okay for Awu to reluctantly scheme and plot things and just let Zitan die and still be a good person, it wouldn't trigger NRTA. Maybe the writers simply over self-censor, or this is the only kind of FL they know how to write, I wouldn't be surprised considering all the familiar tropes they liked to employ. Honestly, I think they could have given us start on some reform or showing that there's some changes in court that means the future is hopeful, rather than this.

Oh yeah, the novel also had way better female supporting characters, I'm pretty annoyed with how much they set up Empress + Wanru + Wang Qian + Su Jiner to be absolutely awful. I know they needed more meat to the plot and some bits are from the novel, but there's just too many shitty plot and too much time focused on them!

Because both of those arcs are drama original lol. The first half had original scenes and characterisations/setups but the story trajectory still sort of followed the novel more or less, Wang Lin is the best part of the drama and I'm glad he stuck around or it would have been unsalvageable.

They really should have just kept Ode to Shangyang as a title. I can't believe I finished this drama.