WK1

Linh, let me reaffirm. If you are here to discuss your love for this drama and with fellow lovers of TLB, there is no need to quit this page. She is not to keep us in check, but merely to make sure we abide be certain ground rules in MDL, which is not play games here in the comments section, but to do it in the Recent Discussion section above.

We share the same taste for historical dramas and it is really sad to lose a good pal.

You would not be disappointed by this adaptation. This drama adaptation was done with the full blessing and in consultation with the author of the manhua.

By and large, the drama kept to the underlying storyline concerning Li Changge and Ashile Sun. Her character in the drama will be very similar to the one in the manhua, and likewise Ashile Sun.

But, there were adapations. Quite a bit. Many viewers in this forum were like you. They read the manhua and then watched the drama. And they were not disappointed with those adaptations.

Please watch. I do not wish to spoil your fun. When done, please come back this forum, to share with us your feelings, opinions, etc. We will happy to exchange views with you.

Although it does not have the 50th ep, it ends very nicely 49th episode.

I think Rao Jun does not have a good track record. If you click on his name here on this page, and just look at all the dramas that he wrote, a huge number of them do not do well. May reflect on his poor skill in adapting a novel into a drama.

But having a good producer can mitigate that. If producer is not happy, he/she can always ask Rao Jun to consult with the author of the novel. That is what happened with The Long Ballad. Producer was not happy with initial script and they consulted with the manhua author.

I do feel this is the chain of authority in movie making in China. Producer has overall authority. He/she has the right to tell the screenwriter to re-write, if the script is not good.

But, do we know who is the producer for this drama? Not stated anywhere on this page

In the drama, she is older than Leyan.

We cannot really tell how much influence her father had on her personality, because he was extremely cold toward her. If by strong headed, you mean a person who refuses to take advice from others, she may not be very similar to Lisimin. Lisimin would often listen to Minister Du or Minister Fang. Her father Li Jiancheng, would listen to Minister Wei Zheng.

Her strong headedness could be due to her intelligence. Sometimes, people who think that they are very intelligent would often refuse to listen to others, because they think that they are smarter than others.

Her early impulsiveness could be due to her young age and strong desire to take revenge.

Later on, Changge will also change. Over time, she will be less strong headed and be willing to listen to others. She will also be less impulsive, but be more thoughtful, before she takes any action. All this will be part of her character growth, when we move from Episode 1 to Episode 49.

Yes, there is a link showing Li Sinmin not to believe in superstition. So, very likely he did not believe in astrology, or that things are fated. Always believed in taking actions.

How much of this sort of thinking affected Changge, we do not know. Changge only mentioned that he taught her horse riding, martial art and military strategy. But Changge has a similar mindset. She was also a person who does not believe this fate, but in taking actions to make things happen. We can see this at the Liuyun temple. Even though she stood in front of that big "Do Nothing' sign, she did not really follow that sign, but instead took actions. For example, she took actions to save Du Ruhui, took action to go to Mobei to find the grass as an antidote to cure the plague at the Eagle's divions. Took action to broker peace between the desert tribes and Tang.

Yes, very happy ending. The main couple did not die at the end, if that is what you mean. They did live happily after. Please watch. This is a great drama. If you do not understand any episode or any scene, please drop by in this section and someone will explain to you.

Thanks so much! Very beautifully done. So well done, I wish whoever who did it could have done a longer one. This is like Li Changge before and after the Xuanwu Gate Incident?? By now, we all know, no one could have played this role better than Dilraba. I remember seeing one BTS which showed her reading the script on hand and having the manhua next to her, trying to make sure all of her mannerisms would be as similar to the one in the manhua as were possible, with the added dialogue provided by the screenwriters.

That was how serious she took this role, and how much she wants her portrayal to be faithful to the Li Changge in the manhua

I think lots of credit must go to the two screenwriters. They wrote such a unique character in Li Changge, a role model for lots of women everywhere. And then Ashile Sun, a role model for men everywhere. And then, the GeSun relationship, a model for married couple everywhere.

I felt that the screenwriters were doing more than trying to entertain us. They wrote these two characters and their relationship to educate to us, to show what an ideal woman and man is like, what an ideal man-woman relationship look like; and then challenge us, can we be like them?

And I totally agree with your description of the kind of love they have. Very deep. Far deeper than the kind usually portrayed in hollywood. Lots of kisses and even sex. Very physical, but is often shallow and crumbles at the first instance of trouble. Theirs is the kind of bond that will withstand the test of time. Their relationship can be a real model for many real couples out there.

Same here. Their amazing chemistry made me wanted to wait for episode after episode, when this drama was first aired.

I think another effect of not having those kisses is that it gave this drama a higher focus on Changge's character development. If there were lots of those kisses between Leo Wu and Dilraba, they will also have to show kisses between Zhao Lusi and Liu Yu Ning. It will turn TLB into a romance drama, rather than one about Li Changge's journey.

What they gave us what just nice. There is enough romance between Li Changge and Ashile Sun, yet we are left without any doubt that this drama is about her journey, from an impulsive young girl dead set on taking revenge to one who learned to put her country first ahead of her self-interests.

Once we know this, the lack of kisses becomes less painful and even less important.

I think previously, you also did some GeSun fanarts? Are you aware that you can post all your fanarts in the section above called 'Photos'? This way, all the work you did will not be wasted. You see HappyBirdEgg below? She just joined us after you left and did not see all your previous works.

And our best wishes for your thesis!!

That is great! There is a bunch of 4-5 people here, who have been here for the past 2 months. All loving this drama so much, we are still here. If you wish to discuss something, anything at all that is related to this drama, go the top of this Comments section. And just start a new post. Hide your post with the spoiler, so that newcomers who have yet to watch this drama will not be 'spoiled'. I think you know what I mean

And the screenwriters deliberately wrote the story such that Changge only found out that Li Si Min did not kill her mother till E40. If she did find out in E3, her hatred for Li Si Min would have been much less. She was never all that close to her dad. And she also knew her dad was never close to Li Si Min and could have guessed why he had to kill her dad.

I think not even a translation. Just the sound (sounds like 鸽). If simple translation, the last word of her name, Li Chang Ge should be 'song'.

Just wanted you to know, in the early days, when I was still new to this page, I had the same thinking like you. I thought they chose pigeon, because dove is similar to pigeon and dove is often used as a symbol of peace. And CG was always fighting for peace, in some ways. Peace between Ashile and Tang, peace between the desert tribes and Tang.

And then some of the old timers who were well connected to the fans in China, and they explained that fans there called them the GeSun couple because last part of her name sounded like 'pigeon' in Mandarin. Hence those symbols were always used in promoting them as a couple.

Age was never an issue, because male actors as young as 20 have ben kissing their female leads. Even before I joined this TLB page, I read all the people here discussing about this issue, how come no mouth-to-mouth kiss. So, most of the people concluded that age was never an issue.

Just as an illustration. Consider this guy: https://kisskh.at/people/12634-zeng-joseph

He is just 23 this year. When this series https://kisskh.at/22656-heavenly-sword-and-dragon-saber was aired, he was just 21. Quite a few regulars in TLB actually watched that series. I watched it too. So, I remember the kiss scene.

And that series, the filming ended on 13 June 2018, after about 5 months of shooting, meaning the male lead was only 20 plus during the filming. Hence, pretty much about the same age as Leo Wu when he filmed TLB.

Joseph Zheng, the male lead, kissed the female lead (Yukee Chen). I remember that scene very well, even though it was more than 2 years ago.

So, by process of elimination, we said it cannot be due to age, but suspected that he must have no-kiss clause in his contract. To this day, we could find no other better explanation, because Dilraba has already done lots of kiss scenes with her many male leads.

Have you already finished watching the drama? If you have, we can discuss those moments when the director or screenwriters of this drama did try to inject humour into a serious drama like this. If you have yet to finish, please continue to watch and come back here to comment. See you can detect more of those humourous scenes in this serious drama. If you are referring to a specific scene or scenes from certain episode (s), do use the spoiler function, so that those who have yet to watch this drama will not have their fun "spoiled".

If you need to post something, please go to the top of page and start a new post. Because this portion here is already many days old. Not many people will scroll so far down to read.

You said you could not see any character development in Li Changge. We have responded to your comment and answers in the comments above. Have you read them??? And if you have, do you understand what we wrote??