TDevil

Again, to each their own.

While you might admire the realism in the feel of swords whacking each other back and forth, others might admire the beauty conveyed by modern wuxia fight scenes. As a martial arts practitioner myself, I can tell you that even the so called old school fight scenes have nothing to do with realistic sword fighting. Realistic martial arts would be an absolute bore to watch on screen and I'd much rather see unrealistic depictions if that means my visual appreciation will be piqued. It's just that your branch of preferred of wuxia fights give off the lie of realism while mine drops realism altogether and focuses instead artistry.

There's no need to get on a high horse like you're the one true wuxia purist lamenting the fall of the genre. Everyone has their different preferences.

Oh no, it'd definitely still the best costume drama of 2020 IMO. I'm just a little disappointed because my expectations for this drama were unfairly high after the first 20-30 episodes. I personally felt that it could've been competing with Nirvana in Fire for the best wuxia/political drama ever had it not devolved into some annoying tropes. But 3 episodes don't change the fact that this is still an amazing drama.

To each their own.

I'm personally a fan of wirework when done well since I grew up with the late 1990's/early 2000's depictions of sword-fighting in wuxia. Heroes in wuxia literature are meant to have superhuman capabilities anyways, so shooting fight scenes to depict fighters moving with incomprehensible speed and using wires to have them transcend gravity (as long as it's not something utterly ridiculous like levitating or reversing directions midair) is completely reasonable.

Sure, technical and grounded fight scenes like in Ip Man are awesome, but in historical dramas that emphasize conveying artistry and poetry through their film, I find that unrealistic but eloquent fight scenes are the most compatible. I thought the fight at the end of episode 1 was amazing, with an added added element of uncharacteristic but appreciated viciousness that is often sorely missing in wuxia dramas.

Agreed. Female assassins are an extremely popular trope, and Li Qin and Li Yi Tong's characters are literal polar opposites. Comparing anything about the first few episodes to Bloody Romance seems like a bit of a stretch to me.

Well, it was a different kind of slipping. Beforehand, the main problem with the romance was with Qing Ci being overly clingy and obsessive. That was at least explainable by his turbulent childhood. Plus, I was personally fine with Qing Ci being depicted as a troubled and flawed teenager. I liked that the drama tried to be unique by not having a perfect and unrealistic ML, and that Qing Ci was bold and forthright (though a bit too much at times) in going after his girl. But turning him now into some unselfish noble idiot who suddenly can't communicate to save his life is just a complete 180 for his character and super frustrating to watch. Oh well, at least they're back to the wuxia story again (which like you said, is very strong).

Yeah, it was like they completely switched directors after episode 30. Those three episodes were really hard to watch and the direction was nearly unrecognizable from the rest of the drama. Good thing episode 34 seems to put the show back on track with plot building and suspense. Hopefully, they've left behind the tortured romance for good

What in the world happened to this great show from episodes 31-33? What was once a mature and deep plot-driven show with intricate relationships between the couples has completely devolved into an angsty teen romance drama. The plot has completely been thrown into the background so that they can focus on making the romance as "edgy" as possible. They've pulled out every single one of the most tired romance drama tropes over the last 3 episodes, from misunderstandings caused by couples not communicating to the typical "noble hero" doing stupid shit because he thinks he knows what best for his partner without even bothering to ask. Yun Luo, who's been written amazingly as a strong-willed and lovable FL all the way to up to this point, has suddenly been turned into wuss who's cried more in the past 3 episodes than the past 30 combined. This would've been easily the best historical drama of the last two years had it ended on episode 30. What an absolute disappointment.

Ohhh, that makes a lot of sense. I thought the key in the plan was to figure where the ingredients where going. Thanks for bearing with me lol

You're not getting what I'm saying. Official Shen could've sent the entourage to pick up the ingredients instead of having the ingredients delivered to the headquarters. If he sent the entourage to do the job, then Wen Si Yuan wouldn't have followed them (to avoid getting caught) and then there'd be no lead to to where Su Xuan was being held.

However, because Official Shen placed an order instead of having his second in command personally go and buy the ingredients, the good guys were able to track where the ingredients were being sent to.

Hell, had Official Shen even just placed an order to a fake location, then had his men go and pick up the ingredients at that location, then the good guys wouldn't have found Su Xuan. Qing Ci got incredibly lucky that Official Shen did none of that. It's a pretty big plot hole.

But why would it matter if there's witnesses or not? To the 12 Lang Wei, the danger isn't in being seen in town, it's in being followed back to where Su Xuan is being hidden. Wen Si Yuan wasn't willing to follow them from the remote place where they delivered Qing Ci; he just as wouldn't risk following them back from the town. Unless you're insinuating that some random villager would follow the entourage all the way out of the village.

Yep. That Qing Ci is still a very sympathetic character in spite of all that is very telling. Honestly, all the leads in this show really knock it out of the park in terms of their acting chops and charisma. The director put together quite the impressive young cast and gave them an amazing script to work with.

1. But they already exposed themselves by sending the entire entourage the first time to pick up Qing Ci. It doesn't matter if they do it a second time. If Wen Si Yuan wasn't willing to risk following them the first time, he wouldn't the second either.

1. Couldn't Official Shen just send the entire entourage originally sent to receive Qing Ci to pick up the ingredients?

2. Couldn't they just locate the shops receiving orders with those measurements and then wait to see which of those are being picked up by Official Shen's men?

Agreed. MC's a bit of a wacko by Chinese drama standards, but it's pretty realistic when you consider the context and everything he had to go through.

Ah, makes sense. Thanks for the clarification.

He suspected that she was the girl he was searching for, which is why he requested for her to join his quest.

I do agree though that Qin Ci is way too obsessed with her. But thinking about it, Qin Ci was on the brink of suicide, only to be inspired by Yun Luo to start living again. He was young, disillusioned, and depressed. Yun Luo was the one who gave him hope. It does make a bit of sense for him to be bewitched and obsessed with her afterwards.

Honestly, this drama did a very realistic job of portraying the dark sides (possessiveness and manipulativeness) of a young teenager fanatically in love. Unfortunately, it doesn't make the the MC very likable to us (at least romantically wise), since we're all used to flawless MC's who seldom exist in reality

But after Su Xuan bit him, Qing Ci muttered to himself “果然有效”. Didn't that indicate he recognized his blood can be used as a cure?

1. Couldn't Official Shen just send the original entourage to get the ingredients? Considering how smart he's demonstrated himself to be throughout the drama, it'd make sense for him to be extra cautious.

2. They'd just need to find one ingredient lead and track it back. There's no need to find all of them because they'll all lead back to the same place.

3. The wedding was already in plans to happen without Wen Si Yuan though. Are they trying to delay Jin Xu by crashing the wedding? Does Wen Si Yuan need Yun Luo to crash the wedding, or is he rescuing her for the sake of saving her life?

Didn't he let Su Xuan bite his arm and draw blood in Episode 23? Also, after that happened, he told himself, "so it works". So then why did he tell Su Yun Luo that he can't save her master afterwards? Was he lying to her because he wasn't quite ready to face death just yet at that moment?

Couple of questions on the good guys' plans in Episode 24 to save Yun Luo's master.

So Qing Ci allows himself to be taken into hostage by the 12 Lang Wei. However, Wen Si Yuan can't have his people follow Qing Ci with the risk of being discovered and never finding where Su Xuan is being held. Qing Ci is going to give Official Shen a list of ingredients he needs to save Su Xuan. That way, Wen Si Yuan can track which medical shops are given the list of those ingredients and follow the packages back to the 12 Lang Wei's headquarters, where they'll storm it and save Su Xuan.

1. What's the point of not following Qing Ci back to their hidden headquarters and following the ingredients instead? Wouldn't there be an equal risk of being discovered either way?

2. Why is it a problem in the next episode when they realize Official Shen has placed separate orders for each ingredient to different medical shops? Wouldn't that just give the good guys more trails to follow?

3. What's the point of Wen Si Yuan infiltrating the Mu Manor during the plan to save Su Yun Luo? Do they need her to storm the headquarters and save her master?