WK1

It will be a pity if you do not watch at least a few episodes of TOOL. It is one of the most anticipated dramas for 2nd half of 2021 (along with YAMG). I am not a fan of either of the leads, but I am fully prepared to have a go at it, at least give the 1st few episodes a shot, see if the story is good, the acting is good. The ML is very good for historical dramas. Just not sure about his performance for a modern drama.

If he did, he must have known that Reba is a very good on-screen kisser. Did not read the novel, but since the drama tracks the novel very closely, I guess there must be lots of kisses in the novel.

Great! Lots of us love this drama and are still hanging around here for the last 3 months. If you do love it so much, and have yet to rate this drama, do give it a 10. In the early days, the rating suffered from some 'haters' who rated it really low.

No, they are not running total. I took the numbers from this article, so the cut off date should be May 26, 2021.

https://www.jaynestars.com/news/top-10-chinese-dramas-for-first-half-of-2021/

Not sure how the author did her viewership count. Could be the viewership count when these series ended. I think these are viewership counts for all the streaming platforms. They do not include any viewership numbers from TV dramas (even if some of these dramas could be shown on TV in China).

There is a lady called MK916. She wrote a post on how to import substitle from another soure. The post is entitled 'Subtitle Browser Extension'. You can find it in the Recent Discussion section above. See if that helps you

If you have already watched it all the way up to E12, you have really given it your best shot. Actually, only 1 more episode and them playing the game itself is all but gone. E14 is the game competition itself, and that episode is quite fun. By E15, no more game stuff.

Oh wow! I do need to caution you somewhat, because here in this drama Zhao Lusi plays a secondary character and not the central character. So, her air time is not all that much and her character is not central to the plot at all.

Dilraba plays the central character and she plays it really well. You do not need to be fan of hers, but if you do enjoy anything historical/wuxia, and enjoy a drama with thick plot, and good acting, then, you will enjoy this. Both Dilraba and Wu Lei acted really well, in playing the main couple. And Zhao Lusi acted well too, just not as the main female lead.

Once you can accept that, you will find this drama extremely watchable.

It is part of the plot that they are playing that game at the beginning few episodes. She is an ambassador for the game and will need to take part in a competition involving that game, but is not good at playing it. He, on the other hand has taken a month off from work, to think about his future. They were ex classmates and when she approached him to coach him in playing game, he agreed.

So, the game is nothing more than a plot device to bring them together. If you do find the scenes involving the game somewhat boring, you can fast forward some of those scenes. Particularly those that show them playing, without any meaningful interactions.

They will take part in a game competition by E14, and thereafter will no longer play that game but move on to explore their relationship. The story will get really interesting by E19.

It does have great OST and not just one, but many good OSTs. What sort of drama are you looking for?

Would like to commend you on the positive way of looking at things. For all the cast members, etc. they already put in the hardwork and got paid for it. Product advertisers and producers got all their money back plus some profits. The viewership count in China may not be as high as one had hope, but it does show that millons of people in China enjoyed the show. And many of us, international viewers, we enjoyed this drama. This is definitely a success and not a failure.

I love watching her visual with that white cap. I think both the cap and the scarf look very good on her. Makes her look very sweet.

I see! No wonder you got confused. In your country, do you have this streaming platform called Viu? Because Viu has very good English subtitles, and you will not get confused again.

Yes, right till the very end, when she was given a chance by Li Changge to turnaround, and come back to the Tang Dynasty, and Changge assured her that the Emperor will forgive her, she chose death. And tried to bring Changge along. This drama needed a villain like her, to contrast with the character of Li Changge. They both had rather difficult lives. One chose the right path and lived happily ever after with the one she loved; the other perished in that terrible fire.

Then, you can try Eternal Love of dream, if you have yet to watch it. She can fight, in that drama.

They do know that now. They have a volunteer staff to look at our comments here and that staff would surely know that there is very little spamming that is going here. Vast majority of the people come here to share views, and they do so with deep insights, often spending hours to compose their posts.

And yes, very little fan wars here. Initially, there could have been some, but those kind of stuff disappeared long ago, leaving this place for all TLB lovers to share insights from the drama.

I also wish MDL could have given us a prize. Not in direct monetary terms, but perhaps just a note to announce that this is the forum page with the highest count. I suspect they do not want to do that, because it might make commentators from other pages to increase theirs, thus resulting in some kind of competition for highest number of comments. For now, we can be sure that the MDL admin people know full well that this forum has the highest number of comments.

Oh dear! I am actually a retired grandmother with two young grand daughters

Yeah! Keep going!

Changge's father was the Crown Prince, so they referred to Changge as a Princess. The two Princes who were killed were Changge's father and a younger brother of Changge's father. You can actually read more about the killing of Changge's father in an incident called Xuanwu Gate Incident in the Recent Discussion section above. There are two posts which talk about the Xuanwu Gate Incident, which was a real historical event in Chinese history. So Changge's father, Changge's uncle Li Si Min, and another uncle are all real historical figures. But the Changge herself is a fictional character created by Xia Da, the artist of the manhua from which this drama was adapted

If we are considering 1st half of 2021 alone, here are dramas will finish ahead of YAMG, assuming YAMG finishes its run at about 3B:

Douluo Continent - 5.446 billion.
Legend of Fei - 5.408 billion.
My Heroic Husband - 4.356 billion.
The Sword and the Brocade - 4.79 billion.
Rattan - 3.95 billion.
You Are My Hero - 3.585 billion.

Besides the above, 2nd half of 2021 will have TOOL, Mirror Twin Cities, Immortality, maybe also Novoland Pearl Eclipse. Any of these can be big hits as well, garnering 4 to 5B views. And there maybe other monster modern Chinese dramas as well.

Yup. Totally agree with you. As much as we love YAMG, we have to admit, going by viewership number in China, this is not close to among the very best in 2021. At least 6 other dramas are ahead. And we are not even into the last quarters of 2021, where some blockbusters are coming up. We have to call a spade a spade.