WK1

We are likely to get it. Dilraba next two historical projects, The Blue Whispers and The Legend of Anle, will have female leads as strong and smart as the male leads.

Now this, I do not find, no matter how many dramas I watch. Only Li Changge is brave and smart enough to do it to save her man

Or Li Changge brave enough to walk out on her own, completely unarmed (except for that smart brain of hers), wearing nothing more than her mourning clothes in the cold winter, facing thousand upon thousand of fully armed enemies soldiers all out for her blood, fully prepared to put her life on line to protect the lives of thousands of Tang civilians and soldiers

She is. She was here in this forum before I joined

Previously, some commentators here mentioned that Yan Bei, the producer of TLB may bring them together for a modern drama, if TLB does well. Since TLB did very well, there is a high chance they may pair up for a modern drama next year

Yes, I do note that in some of these historical dramas, the FL will start out strong, smart and brave. Maybe the first half of the drama. And then somehow, miraculously, their IQ just disappeared, and instead of experiencing character growth, they experienced character degeneration during the 2nd half. And it is back to the same old story of waiting for the ML to save the day.

Especially for all the historical wuxia genre or those that involve some kind of fighting or scheming. Too few novel authors and screenwriters are brave enough go against the norm and write FLs who are fully capable of taking care of themselves without help from the MLs. Hopefully, TLB can lead the way, and we see more and more historical dramas with FL that as strong and as smart as Li Changge.

I am patiently waiting for more of our regulars to be back.

You are saying you would like to see Leo and Reba act in a modern romantic drama soon? Many of us here share the same hope

A lot of it has to do with the director of TLB. He is really good with directing wuxia kind of dramas. He is from Hong Kong. Many directors from Hong Kong are very good with wuxia dramas.

Director Chiu, who directed TLB, also directs Xianxia type of dramas. When he does so, the fight scenes are also very well done. He is also the director of The Blue Whisper, which is Dilraba's next historical Xianxia drama. We can look out for that next year.

The answer is a clear no. I will develop my answer as we go along. This story took place during the Tang Dynasty During that period Confucianism had become very popular and had influence over many things, including the definition of roles of men and women.

That is why Li Changge was so atypical of a Tang Princess. From the very first episode, you see her playing Cuju ball, when her mother clearly see that this was not the right thing for her to do (Episode 2). She retorted, why can't she do stuff that boys do?? She never felt trapped into any gender roles, hence learning martial arts from her uncle and military strategies, horse riding (E2). I suspect, shooting arrows as well. These were all stuff that a Tang Prince would do, preparing them for war. Instead, a Tang Princess would have been prepared to get married off by the time they were 15, very likely learning skills like embroidary, playing musical instruments, taking care of kids, etc.

She was also very atypical, in that being a woman, she was very outspoken and assertive, when a woman of that period was supposed to be relatively more quiet. We can see that in her interactions with Ashile Sun, she never felt that she was inferior to him. This was the case in the drama, as well as in the manhua (where even when interacting with her uncle Pusa, the Uyghur leader, she would be rather assertive).

Leyan would have more of typical woman during that period. We can see that although she was a Tang Princess, she was still afraid of speaking to Hao Du and Shuyu, and only gathered courage to stand up to Hao Du after her own character change that took place when she was lost. She became more assertive after that.

This does make Li Changge a very unique protaganist in CDrama or even Kdrama and JDrama, because Confucianism was very influential in Korea and Japan was well. Li Changge would dare to be equal with Ashile Sun, would not be shy to articulate her views, ideas, plans, etc. She would be confident enough to approach Ashile Sun and said she wanted to be his military strategist, and not wait for him to take the initiative.

You would not see this sort of behaviour in many other historical dramas. Even their so-called Strong Female Lead would be nothing compared to Li Changge. No matter how strong, they would be standing behind a man. Not our Changge. She would be strong enough, brave enough, smart enough to even lead Ashile Sun.

Is she a good role model for modern well educated and multi-talented women? Very much so. For women who do not wish to be likewise trapped in typical gender roles. That would mean women will be brave enough to stand for political positions (we can think of the Prime Minister of New Zealand or Chancellor of Germany), to lead in family businesses (think of Pansy Ho of Macau, who took over her father's vast business empire), or women who might even be willing to be sole breadwinner in a family if her husband is willing to be a house husband.

Which makes the Li Changge character truly an inspiration for the 21st century women who dare to be different. It does not mean that being a woman is good enough, that things will be served on a plate for us. But it does mean that if we are willing to fight for what we want, we can realise our full potential and not be stuck being full time housewives.

Was it 'normal' for Li Changge to do the stuff that she did in TLB?

Honestly? After watching the slick martial arts in TLB, I have to lower my standards, or I will not be able to watch another drama that involves fighting scenes.

Thanks so much! I knew you would.

I cannot believe it, but I did manage to finish two rom-coms. Mainly because they do not require any sort of 'thinking'. But even in rom-com, you can see most times they make the female leads very weak. Nothing really come close to our Li Changge. No choice but to lower my standard and endure those dramas

And then come back here and see if any of our regulars has started any discussion threads or if someone had continued with labelling all the episodes.

But past many days it has been really quiet. Have we reached the state where we have totally exhausted our ideas on how to analyse/discuss TLB?? Or maybe all of you are still busy with other stuff??

Same here. I watched quite a few others. Mainly rom-com that does not require one to think too much. Thin plots, simple characters, with little or no growth. Just to pass time. Still come back here to see anyone is doing any kind of analysis of TLB. Waiting for YAMG to start

Hang around for a while. Someone here knows how to get around that issue and still allow you to watch using official channels.

MK916, you can help her??

They may also show it in Viu, which is another official streaming platform, similar to Wetv and Tencent.

Great! There are a number of us lurking around. You cannot see them. If you wish to discuss anything about the drama, e.g, the plot, the two main characters (Li Changge and Ashile Sun) and their very special relationship, etc., you can just start a post and discuss. Remember to hide it with spoiler, so that those yet to watch this drama will be 'spoiled' in their viewing.

Or, you may have queries or certain things still puzzled you. You can also start a topic asking us, and some of us will respond.

Glad that you enjoyed it. Lots of us enjoyed this drama tremedously. So much we ended up watching it multiple times. You already rated it in MDL?

That may well be the case now. I am over at the MDL page of Legend of Anle. Someone claimed that Reba will start filming that series on 18 July. You are on that page too.

If that is true, there is not much time between now and 18 July. Variety show appearance is now very unlikely, if nothing was planned beforehand. But photoshoots can still be arranged in a matter of days. If YAMG is indeed aired on 18 July, without any kind of promotion. Tencent is really relying on Reba and Yang Yang's star power to power this drama. We have the trailer. Not sure if there will be a longer MV before this drama airs.

Singapore version of Return of the Condo Heroes (1996). Christopher Lee (Yang Guo) and Fann Wong (Xiao Long Nu) married in real life in 2009.

Could well be. And when it does happen, it will prove her great acting versatility, having transitted from an historical drama that she did so well in.