TDevil

So 相生相克 just means to counteract right? Nothing in the passage means Qing Ci will have to sacrifice his life?

Did anyone catch what was written in the medical manuscript that Qing Ci read in Episode 23 after the wedding scene? My crappy Chinese isn't good enough to understand it. All I got was the gist that Qing Ci needs to die to save Yun Luo's master.

I have a question on the airing schedule. Since the plan is to air 6 episodes a week, how is it that they can finish airing on the 8th after just 5 weeks? Also, since there’s 43 episodes, does that mean they’ll air 7 episodes on the final week?

There are only two emperors, Ai and Shi Ming. Shi Ming is the current emperor, and although he's a weak king, he constantly opposes Marquis Wei Ning in court. Emperor Ai was Wei Ning's obedient pawn, which is why he wants to use him to overthrow the current emperor.

It was a pointless sacrifice too. The current emperor immediately seized the throne after the battle, which left Emperor (now the former) Ai as a nobody. Not to mention, Emperor Ai was the evil marquis's pawn. So why would Qin Ci's father want to save Ai at all?

I totally agree with you on Qing Ci being way too quick to fall in love with Yun Luo. I get that she inspired him to start living again, but falling madly in love with someone after spending a single night with them (at the age of 10, not to mention) is a bit too much for a stretch for a drama that's otherwise been very logical and grounded. I believe it was hinted that he had Wen Si Yuan recruit Yun Luo for the map quest too, and added on with the fact that he was talking marriage with Yun Luo after less than a month together, Yun Luo is just WAY too obsessive for my taste.

I will add that other than that bit, this drama has otherwise been absolutely flawless. The second couple's slowly-developing romantic arc in particular is very charming to watch.

Joy of Life has arguably the best written plot out of any Chinese drama produced this decade besides Nirvana in Fire. It wouldn't be very fair to compare Ancient Detective to it, even if it was produced by the same team. For an under-the-radar low-budget production though, Ancient Detective is a very solid drama. It punches way above his budget, especially when it comes to production quality. Lot of stans here like me are sticklers for wuxia, and this drama provides plenty of the old-school vibes that's been greatly underrepresented in a declining genre.

@wuxiagod Lead guy is a good actor, it's just a pity the character he portrays isn't very interestingly written.

But jeez man, what are you even saying? Maybe try lay off of it some.

Agree every bit with you. Zhao Wuhan is such a fascinating character. He’s loyal and brave, but also flawed, an insecure young man who hides his conflict behind a smile. You rarely see a hero in C-dramas with such complexity, and that’s what makes him feel so human and relatable. Compared to Jian Bu Zhi who’s entire character arc can be summed up by “but muh investigation!”, the whole drama is being carried by the side characters who just happen to revolve around a soulless main lead like he’s the sun

Lead guy is a typical Clark Kent hero with no personality and he’s boring as hell. I personally find the second male lead to be a much more interesting character. His backstory is much more relatable and motivations and insecurities make him feel like an actual person. It’s a pity that he gets reduced to a comic relief every time he shares the screen with the main lead, because he absolutely owns every standalone scene

Agreed. That plot line made literally no sense. With all the evidence gathered, they could've just revealed to the people that the Queen's son was actually Muyeong, and there'd be no resulting struggle for the throne. Seemed like a botched cover up for straying to far from actual history.

Ever Night's action cinematography isn't even close to as good as Joy of Life's. The latter had probably the best wuxia cinematography since 2017's Legend of Condor Heroes.

Yep

She looks 12 and it throws off the entire romance angle for me. No idea why so many people are obsessed with her when it looks like some college student is hitting on a middle-schooler for 50 episodes.

QS giving the entire crowd an essay on why SS is daughter of darkness made no sense whatsoever considering how protective he was of her. If he wanted her to survive, pretty much the absolute worst thing he could've done was given the entire world an explanation of why every bit of evidence points to her being the daughter of darkness. It was like the writers couldn't think of any way to show the audience the cues leading up to the festival and decided to resort to having QS completely break character. That was just mind-numbing.

As for the CGI parts, I'm okay with that since NQ had reached high cultivation status as of Episode 5. Back in the desert scene during Season 1, he hadn't yet learned any cultivation skills and had to resort to fighting their pure physicality and brute.

Fan Jian, Chen Ping Ping, and the second prince all know that Fan Xian is the emperor's son. Chen Ping Ping isn't Fan Xian's biological uncle, but treats him as such

Wait until you get to Episode 27. The action scenes were absolutely insane, giving me Crouching Tiger and Hidden Dragon / Longest Day in Changan vibes

Unfortunately, that means you'd have to wait two weeks then

https://qdramas.org/cn191126/27.html

No english subs though

I agree that slow-mo was a major problem early on. I flat-out dropped the drama after the first two episodes because the fight scenes were becoming unbearable, before skipping forward to the adult scenes because of curiosity. The director seems to have shortened the number of slow-mo fight scenes, so thank God for that.

I actually agree with most of your points (especially the last one, come on director, no one wants to see Yang Xiao spitting blood while spitting for an entire episode) except for the part about the casting. Every HSDS that I've seen so far does the same thing with "cloning" individual members, and I don't see any issue with it. After all, they're all the same gender from the same sect, so naturally, it'd be expected that they carry degrees of similarity. Also, when you consider that China's beautiful standards are rigid and unwavering throughout the whole country, you're going to get a lot of actresses that have the same pale skin tone with oval faces and sharp chins. Methinks you're nitpicking too much over minute details that most viewers don't even bother giving a second glance over.