Nepeta 22

He's not angry because he feels immensely guilty and embarrassed that he walked straight into the killer's trap and in his eyes caused the death of his master/father-in-law. It wasn't his fault is your own opinion, but in his eyes, he feels it is his fault. His cockiness and arrogance was his downfall.

The writing is sloppy because you have seen to many poisoned story-lines. But in the character, he thinks he probably deserved it. The poison was a mistake by Feng Qing Zhuo.

OK, I don't read comments on dramas that have aired already to avoid spoilers.

I'll definitely add it on. Will have to be after Legend of the female general! Don't have enough time to watch more than 2 dramas on the go right now 😉.

Regards to Deng Lun, he had been ordered to pay back the amount but he didn't. This was even before this was made public. He had been given 2 chances, but it's clear, he couldn't pay due to mismanagement of his finances. The others paid back. This could be a combination of late filing of missed information.

As for Jin Chen's relationship with Deng Lun, that's not a secret. There's multiple photos of them together. At that time, she was more famous than him. We all know how just one drama can catapult someone from obscurity to being chased around. Current examples are Li Yunrui & Zi Yu.

Thanks for the recommendation. I'll look into that one. I really like Wang Churan. Just too many dramas for me to complete!

I agree. I have said similar on here. All this convoluted storyline is just to eek out more angsty stuff from the main couple. I cannot fault the actors because they all did a great job. Just sad they had to act out all this mess.

I hope this will be the last of those stretched out broken in two type dramas. Yang Zi really needs to stay away from this stuff. I know she's the darling in China, but she's really ready for short 12 episode dramas that normally pacts a punch.

I cannot fault your comment there. You more or less summed up the issues. I honestly feel they tried too much and messed up. They dug themselves into a hole. Sadly quite a few historical romance fall into this issue because they cannot decide whether to go with realism or the saintly FL which often causes further issues because they usually try to make it seem like she's the benchmark of how a woman should be in ancient times. But reality is, she can in this instance because of her family background.

The plants do well in China, but only in the northern areas. Just like the UK, they share similar climates. I was just speculating on that part of the drama where she was fussing over the water. I suspect it was a rare type of peony and had very specific requirements like the amount of water. But it's a guess as peonies in general need water and they are not ruined by excess amounts of water either.

They will not do well in places like California because it's not cold enough during the winter time. They need a long period of cold and frost to start their cycle. Plus, the rainfall there is too low for them to grow well!

Hope that happens. I saw similar feelings towards Li Landi's character in Filter and Li Yi Tong's character with A dream within a Dream. It was a journey, although I liked Li Landi's character throughout, but audiences cannot see the FL's point of view.

Here, Julia Xiang's character needs to have more depth, and I think there will be more sympathy with her character.

I don't know how it will go but I agree with you. I wasn't expecting this at all. When I saw the cast list and the story set up, I thought she was just part of a team working together. Now seeing this storyline at the beginning, it will have some bearing to how group dynamics work and also how the ML behaves throughout the drama. As for her, let's see how they write her. I'm not even on episode 4 yet so cannot pass judgment.

As for the hate, I think it's a bit ironic. They are in a way behaving exactly like our FL! Shouldn't they also not be so hot headed and emotional so quickly?

I have seen similar FL characters in Chinese dramas. Perhaps some writers find this type of FL character endearing. They want her child-like, highly emotional and easily swayed? Then that paves way for misunderstandings, her making grave mistakes that needs correcting along the way, or for her to finally get growth? But I get this is not nice to see whilst ML always looks smart and keeps needing to prove himself or fight her corner even if she's so-called hating him and thinking he's not to be trusted.

Personally, this type of character is quite old-hat and if they're still doing stories like this when this was happening 20-30 years ago in Chinese dramas, it's either a tried and tested trope that works and people just can't get enough of it, or it's just a safe type of story line that cannot fail. Who knows...

I was told that this storyline was not inside the original novel. So a bit weird this was added in. It feels like a filler part OR to make the ML look great in a roundabout way. If you think about it, her father would actually keep something like this from her for much of her life? Considering his relationship with his latest wife seemed distant. That part of the family dynamics was not natural and didn't match with their characterisation. I almost felt sorry for the actor who was suddenly supposed to have killed her mother. He didn't even look convincing!

Personally, I think this was a clunky way to steer her into using plants in a healing and medicinal way. I feel it didn't need that as she was going in that direction anyway. It's just going into the Mary Sue phase where it's not just beauty of peonies but her knowledge of herbs and plants she wanted to give to the general public rather than just to the nobles. This is where I felt was jarring, this forced socialist ideal against a Tang Dynasty system that the general viewing public love, but cannot help push modern ideals in.

This brings me to feminism. It's fine to pluck one out of thousands of females at the time of Tang that had to live in a world where women didn't have the same rights as men. But the themes in the second section seemed more performative than actually write about the difference between peasants' women's rights against someone like the FL who is rolling with fine educated people and she herself being given a bunk up with education from her own family background. Basically, she can afford to be the way she is even how they tried to paint her as suffering within her own family's traditions.

It may be a specific type that may not be popular today. I suspect it's a rare species with very exacting needs. I think they're not detailed in those scenes. They didn't want them excessively wet rather than not wet at all, but they didn't explain that well.

There are two types of peonies, the tree which is what I think a large portion of their plants are and if you remembered they then started selling a particularly smaller version on their stalls to the success. She managed to pluck from the wild that meant it was more easily accessible to the general public rather than the nobles. I think those were the herbaceous ones which is also the more popular ones grown today. They die down completely in winter and you will not even see a twig above ground.

There is also the intersectional peonies which I doubt they featured as this is a relatively new hybrid which incorporates both herbaceous and tree peonies. Peonies was loved by the Tang Dynasty, which I suspect is why this story came about, but this plant is not just native just to China.

The stuff you listed are tame. Wait till you get onto the last few episodes, you will need to let more slide...

To be honest, how she moved from stall to shop seemed too easy. How plants grow year round in her shop also defies logic since Peonies only flower for 8 weeks max and you're left with leaves for rest of the growing season. Let's not even mention that from the winter months, it's bare for 4 months if they're tree peonies, herbaceous ones, you see nothing for nearly half a year! Note how they sneakily added in roses and Hydrangeas to plug the gaps in her garden and in her shop. Totally unrealistic with Peonies stored indoors whilst still in their pots.

Fair enough with your point of view. I know my view is not popular, We'll just have to agree to disagree.

I have finished this. Whilst I liked the story, I felt the execution could have been better. So strange they left many of Zheng Ya Ping's background a blank. Her role in this was almost reduced to a mere side character, almost like a school headmistress. ML was a strange one, his character flitted from Mr Bean persona to being an upright & honest jobs-worth. Apart from these niggles, the drama holds up because the story and characters were all complex and interwoven to the point of making each one unaware of the bigger picture and the consequences it brings.

Anyone liking this sort of theme, I recommend watching Chasing The Undercurrent, which is now in the process of making a season 2 right now.

I just want to point out a bit of mis-information that has been repeated again and again regards to The Demon Hunter's Romance. It is the screen writer that has given the interviews but the 'original novel' was not written by her.

The original novel was un-finished. Therefore the screen writer was making the ending up regardless. But it was not her original creation in the first place. Whether the ending was AI (rumoured) or motivated by (I don't believe this reasoning about budget, makes no sense as it wouldn't blow budgets for a HE) budgets, it was very respectful to the drama's beginning and middle parts, making it very coherent rather than force something just to please audiences.

This is my opinion, the ending is the correct one, and in the spirit of the 'original' story. If it had been a happy ending, it would not make sense with many of the stories and cases that were presented in a way with a very strong message about relationships between demons and humans and how they collided. The ending was very fitting. I also understand your views, but don't agree about a change in character or momentum.

I might be in the minority. I think the ending was right. The tone of the drama, the music were already subtle hints of a romance that is too good to be true. I liked how towards the last 5 episodes, the FL was already accepting and dealing with something that she herself knows might happen but also respecting the ML's duties and choice, because ultimately, she already knew he may risk his life for her and she would rather suffer alone or withhold things from him to protect him.

The ending paves a way for hope, even how sad it may be. We must remember it's a fantasy with other worlds so the possibilities are there and possible second season too.

I'm afraid I have not read the novel, but someone on this forum told me more about the novel. I was told in the novel Liu Chang's character was not written as heinous as this drama makes out and he gives up obsessing over the FL unlike in this drama. so I think maybe it must be based on the novel.

In the second part, they seem to amp up this obsession to the point it's just too hard to watch. It's like a switch, he just abandons all his ambitions to just play good son-in-law and be under the control of Prince Ning. I did not like this cardboard cut-out character. Princess also does not go out of that love-brain mode. These characters are simply there to be the total opposite to the leads, but written in such a clunky way it lets the whole drama down.

It's basically a romance novel trying to pad out bits and the interest is not anything else (including plants) other than the main leads' tussle and all the chemistry with their misunderstandings under a Tang dynasty setting.

The issue is, this was a novel adaptation. Trying to go against that novel may well ruffle a few feathers. I totally agree with you. One of the main reasons I was watching this is for Miles Wei's character and County Princess's roles.

Unfortunately, I quickly found out they are just a foil for the ML and FL's character. The novel must be quite dated, and you can see this in how it's put together. First parts started well, but they soon reverted back to classic Mary Sue style storylines and ML turning into no more than a meat head that needs help on his own fight. The second couple are just left in the background of playing caricature villains. I agree with you, a waste of talent.