WK1

And welcome back, after your short break from this forum

Yicheng was a real character in history. Jinse, fictional. Jinse totally loyal to Yicheng, as Yicheng was a Princess. Not born as one perhaps, but still technically one. In history, it was true that she was passed from on Khan to another, but it was fictitional that she killed one Khan after another. They needed a villain, so they wrote her character this way.

You are right. Both were loyal to the Sui Dynasty, and Yicheng was delusional enough to think that she could revive the Sui Dynasty through her one-woman effort. And she was prepared to do anything to make it happen. Killing off her husbands one by one. Holding other people hostage. She was led by blind loyalty, to do evil, as if reviving Sui would justify her to do anything, including plotting to kill other people.

Du Ruhui as well. Very loyal to Tang Dynasty, to the extent that when he knew Li Sim Min wanted to keep Changge alive, he secretly still wanted to arrest her and surely wanted Hao Du to kill her. And of course, Hao Du himself was very loyal to Du, because Du had adopted him and brought him up since young, treated him well. It would only be in the later stage, when he realised that it was not right to be blindly loyal to Du.

A'Sun was loyal to Khan. Khan adopted him and made him who he was, a Prince in the Eastern Turkic Khaganate. He would be fiercely loyal, and be willing to assassinate Li Simin. AS would be fierely loyal to the Ashile tribe, to the Eagles' division. But, he found love and, for that he would be willing to give up his desire to be the next Khan. In the end, he was still wearing the Eagles' battle gear. Maybe he went back to settle to the division to officially hand over leadership to Mujin and he and Changge then went off on their adventures.

Changge was loyal to Tang. Right till the very end. Because of that, she was willing to forgo her personal desire to take reveange on Li Si Min. But, in the end, she was willing to give up being a Tang princess, or even a Tang citizen, because she found AS and together they would 'retire' to the grasslands. But her loyalty to Tang did not permit her to do evil things. She killed only when it was right to kill (e.g., to protect the city of Shouzhou). She did not even want to kill the evil Yicheng. She went unarmed, to office peace to Yicheng.

From an ethical viewpoint, it is right to be loyal. But in life, we have many loyalties.

Take Changge for example. She want to be loyal to Tang, because she was a Tang princess, a Tang citizen. But, she also needed to show loyalty to her parents. At one stage, she thought Li Simin had killed both her parents. So, she really wanted to kill Li Simin. Even toward the end, she realised that Li Simin did not kill her mother but did kill her father, she was willing to forgive him, because she loved Tang more than her personal loyalty to her dad. She knew that Li Simin will make a very good emperor and killing him off will only lead to chaos in Tang.

Du Ruhui chose loyalty to Tang above loyalty to Li Simin and hence even went against his desire to keep Changge alive.

This drama demonstrates our real life dilemma. We often face muliple loyalties. And sometimes, loyalty to one entity means we have to betray or give up our loyalty to another entity. We need to make the right decisions, so that we do not allow our loyal to one particular entity to do evil (like the case of Yicheng or even Du who went against his emperor's expressed desire to keep Changge alive). In contrast to Yicheng and Du, Changge made the right ethical decision. Loyalty to Tang was more important than her personal loyalty or gratefulness to her father. In ethics, her decision was led by the desire to do the greater good.

That would be true. They are a money making machine. They will want to see how they can make money from E50. If there is very little money in it, they will not air it, even if Yan Bei is willing to do it.

Says a lot, about the kind of impact she has on her fans

Wu Lei is very young. He can afford a few misses here and there. Reba is not exactly old, but still, much older. At this point in time, 7 years is still a big gap.

So, if I were her, I will be very careful. If this thing is true, and then it does not work out well (like in a marriage), she might end up suffering more. So, she will need to be 100% convinced that Wu Lei is serious about it, if indeed they are both keen to start a relationship.

I will just wait for an annoucement from them, to see if this is indeed true, that they are in a relationship.

Well, her bday come and gone for 2 days already. So, she definitely chose not to reveal if he has wished her happy bday

And ZLY is a well loved actress because of her humble background. And, of course, she is a really good actress. Dilraba is getting there, in terms of acting. I think it is a matter of roles and scripts. She will surely get better and better ones after TLB. And off screen, Reba has a very humble personality, no scandal. In time, she will be as well loved as ZLY. I wonder, if she is a Han Chinese and not an Ugyhur, would she have been far more popular than she already is?

Would have been great!

Especially all her fans in Shanghai. I think they just put her face all over the place. Just unbelieveable! There cannot be anyone in Shanghai who does not know who she is

Ah, you have more knowledge of what goes on during that period than I do.

This drama was an educational trip for me. Long before, I knew about political marriage. They do that everywhere during historical times. In Korea, Japan, all over Asia. But they keep using older actresses to portray all these young princesses, I never thought about their real age in history. Until TLB.

This drama gave me the incentive to find out Changge's age in the drama and manhua, and I then found out, once the princesses can bear children, off and away they went to the grasslands to become baby making machines. All those grasslands rulers and generals want these princesses to bear as many children as they possibly can, and getting them early was a step in the right direction.

From the manhua, I also gathered that many of the grassland generals do not even trust their own women. Especially women taken from tribes that they had conquered. So many times I read, 'use' them once, and then kill them. They really had no respect for women.

Which, of course made me respect AS even more. Once he set his eyes on CG, he would think of no other woman. And he didn't think of CG as a sex object, but would respect her and honour her and protect her.

It is weird. Especially when we all know that Reba was already 28 when she filmed this. That is a gap of 14 years! So during filming, the director and his team must have constantly reminded her how a 15-year old girl with no romantic experience would behave. We saw this in one of the BTS. The fact that she did well shows that she managed to take 15 years off her real age through her acting ability

Good pain-coping strategy. Over relying on chemicals is no good. I try to do the same. Stay off taking painskillers, unless the pain is simply unbearable.

He started off as a singer. And then "wandered" into acting. Many singers do that.

They must have tested him out, before giving him the role. And the must have convinced them during some kind of audition, that he can give them exactly that look, that cold killer look

Walking out together on the red carpet will indeed spark a rumour. Unless, of course, it is the intended message they wish to communicate to everyone. But some sort of casual interaction would be likely. It will be totally strange, if no interaction at all.

Thanks for the video. More importantly, the comment that CG would have AS to accompany her throughout her whole journey. From E5 onward, they were pretty much inseparable.

For 5 episodes, from E26 to E30, they will be separated, but those were necessary for her to grow. And later from tail end of E35 to E37, they would be separated again. but again for a good purpose.

By the end of the drama, CG was no longer young. She was much better able to read people's character, to decide who she can trust, and who cannot be trusted. She has been to the grasslands. She can speak their languages, dialects, etc. And AS can pretty much leave her on her own for several days at a time, though always connected by the eagle, always not too far away. Short separations will just make their reunions even sweeter.

Such a unique couple in Cdramaland. I doubt we will be able to find another couple like this.

After Reba's performance as Li Changge, very few should doubt her acting talents. A beautiful actress who can act really well is a lethal combination that is hard to beat. Now, she may need do something about her endorsement contract with that cosmetic company. Many are finding her bright red lipstick a distraction. Some can block it out. Yet many can't.

Next year would be even better. Her big 30! A big milestone in her life. You are my Glory would definitely have been shown by then. And we know she will ace her role as Qiao Jing Jing. If the production people for The Blue Whisper could be as efficient as those for TLB, she will ace her role as Princess Shunde. Just going to be a big year for her.

I will say this. Leo is definitely a better AS than the other guy. I did watch Bloody Romance. And I could imagine how he would have portrayed AS. It would be a 'colder' and harsher version of AS than Leo's portrayal. Leo's portayal is perfect. Leo's eyes projected more affection and love than the other guy.

We have to keep in mind. TLB was adapted from a manhua. Just some drawings, so there are just so many ways to interpret his character. Though Xia Da made it very clear that AS loved CG, that still leaves room for multiple ways to write and direct AS in the drama. All depends on who finally got the role as AS.

Wu Lei has gentler eyes than the other guy. And a 'softer' facial feature and fairer complexion. Visually, Leo is a perfect match for Reba. And acting wise, Leo pulled it off as a harsh and ruthless grassland general. He does not kill unless he had to, but he was a soldier. And killing the enemy was his job. Yet, he was also a fearless protector, as far as CG is concerned. For her, he would kick a woman (Lady Jinse), kill a little kid (the fake playmate of the crown prince), and boomerang all those people at the Liuyan Temple that were holding CG captive and gave up the desire to be the next Khan.

Yes, fate or destiny would have it, that Leo landed this role. After watching TLB, many of us were left without a doubt. No one could have done it better.

Definitely. I feel the same way. If Chang Ge did not meet Sun, her life would have been absolutely miserable after Episode 2. These two were just made for each other. They would so enrich each other's lives that no other person would. Absolutely agree with you