WK1

You are in good company. There is an army of people here who feel the same way as you do. that this drama deserves higher rating than 8.6

If there is anything in the drama that was even remotely puzzling to you, please do not feel bad to express it here. There will be lots of people who can explain just about everything related to this drama, because there are many of us, and we have spent lots of time watching and re-watching this drama.

Changge's character was incredibly complex. Not only her relationship with Leyan was complex, her relationship with Li Si Min was complex. He was not just someone who kill her father. He was also the Tang emperor, which means killing him in revenge would carry consequences, consequences she would initially fail to understand, because she was too consumed by revenge. Not only that, she was very close to him from young. He had played with her, taught her martial art, very likely taught her war strategies as well. You can that they were on etremely good terms.

She had a similar ambivalent relationship with Leyan, after the event in E2. On one hand, they were cousins, close since young. On the other Leyan's father killed her family.

It was only later that Changge would understand what Li Si Min did had nothing to do with Leyan, in that she should not be held accountable for her father's action.

But a 15 year old girl does need time to come to terms with her parents' death at the hands of her beloved uncle.

Viewers who do not understand why CG was cold intially toward Leyan just do not understand that Reba had to display two different feelings, one pushing her away from Leyan, the other would want to make her hug Leyan. They just see the surface, so Leyan was warm, and CG was cold (hence Reba was cold and without emotion).

They completely ignored the fact that in later scenes, when CG has overcome her initial feeling of hate for Li Si Min, CG and Leyan will once again have a very nice sisterly relationship and their scenes together will be very sweet.

Who are these people who said Reba is lack of emotion and display poor acting? I have long suspected that these are just Zhao Lusi fans. They have long wanted their idol to play the role of Li Changge, and when that didn't happen, they will criticise Reba's performance without any valid reason. And because they do not like Reba, they naturally do not like scenes where Reba is with Wu Lei. That is why they skipped all these scenes.This is the only logical reason.

But I cannot say that ALL Zhao Lusi fans behave like this. Only a subset. There will still be some Lusi fans who might appreciate still good acting from Reba and would admit that she did a good job portraying Li Changge

Good idea. Some people saw it, put it aside to do other stuff. When they come back, they cannot find the link anymore. Good to remind.

For today, we need another 100 comments to continue at the same pace as we did. But we need not worry. People are buys. Once they clear their work or studies, they will be back

Oh, by the way, not sure you read the comments of some, who said they did not really mind those animations. I am somewhat in between. I wil not go as far so to say remove ALL animation, but maybe quite a bit of it. 1-2 animated scenes will be ok. They probably overdid it, and caused quite a few viewers to be unhappy

I watched this before, and it really showed how much attention they paid to using music to make every scene great in TLB. Not just the OSTs, even all the background music, they spare no resources at all, to make it great

Even if staff are volunteers, there should be way for them to get suggestions from viewers? Maybe they do receive suggestions and are just not interested in those, or somehow feel that they are not good enough? We will never know how these people make their decisions

No where is the holding back of emotions more important than in that snow walk scene in E15. There, Reba had to show control of emotions of sadness, pain, disappointment, and maybe even shock. She did not cry at all, when one would perhaps expect her to, because she was holding on to the head of a person she respected very much. And was handing over a Chinese city to the enemy.

And she should also express fear, as there were many Ashile troops there.

Yet, Reba acted so well, as a person who could back all those emotions. Her facial expression was one of dignity, as if to show that even in surrender, she can hold back all those negative emotions to make sure that the surrender is a dignified occasion and not done with tears all streaming down her face like a cry baby.

She also showed no fear at all, even when she was totally unarmed, facing thousands of fully armed enemy troops.

And the voice she used was very well controlled. Very dignfied.

This scene, it takes a great actress to be able to pull it, and she did. Pain in her face, but no tears, no fear. Exactly like the one in the manhua

Oh, the director actually said that it was not a money issue. That they did not really save that much by using the cartoons. Not sure if he said in an interview, or in an article. Someone once pointed it out, some time back

So, if money is not the issue, time could be an issue. If they have enough money, they could still have used CGI to do many of the scenes. But many of those scenes were quite complicated. So, using CGI would have taken much time.

Which led me to the conclusion, time saving is a likely reason. Oh, the director also said, the animation was a tribute to the manhua author. If tribute was the reason, they really need to do it once. But they used animation like easily 6-7 times

I heard that Reba's next drama will be out very very soon.

You are my glory. And the ML is a very big star in China.

Based on a very good novel. Drama could be out as early as end June or maybe in July

Good. I wanted to make sure we are talking about the same part. Did you read the manhua?

Oh dear. That is quite long a medical leave. Do take care

We can wait for her next drama, You are My Glory. I am told that drama will be out soon

And just for the record, it was not always her who got injured. Quite a few times, the male lead was also injured. Are you sure you have watched the entire drama? Because, if you did, you could not have missed those times when the male lead was injured.

This drama is based on a manhua (a Chinese comic). and in the manhua, she was the main character - not the male lead. The English title is literal translation of her name in Chinese, but in if you look the title of the manhua in Chinese, you will know that Changge is her name and this story is about her adventures, and not even the male lead

As such, she must be keep alive. The drama will be meaningless, if she dies early.

She was impulsive but certainly not dumb. And she was impulsive because she was only 15 years old, in Episode 1. Please do not look at the actress who portray her and think that she was already 25 or 26, in episode 1.

She was hardly a damsel in constant distress. You have watched the entire drama? If you do, you must have witnessed many times when she was the one who saved the male lead. And there were many times when she was quite able to save herself or get out of difficult situations.

At the defence of that city, it was her intelligence that helped to delay its consquest by the Eastern Turks. And it was her intelligence that helped her survive in the graasslands. And it was her intelligence that convinced him to keep her as his military advisers. So, she was hardly dumb.

When you were watching the drama, did you not witness all this?

They needed those animation to save production time. And they were quite strategic about it. I think they used animation or cartoons for the most difficult and time consuming scenes. Like those epic battles, particularly the one that showed horses eating grass with hidden barbed wires. Or Reba in the river. They would have had to use underwater photography.

If time and budget permit, and they used live action sequences for those scenes, TLB would surely be one of the top 10 Cdrama of all times.

From what I call tell, she will be a big drama/movie star in the very near futue. She is only 19, still a student, but she is already getting so much attention. She must be one those rare ones, who can act well, even before attending an acting academy.

But, this also means she can only act in modern dramas. To act in historical dramas, it is more difficult. Will need to learn classical Chinese dances, and the way Chinese behave in ancient times. Modern dramas will be very easy for her

Sorry MooBerry, too many threads here. Which portion are you referring? Do you mean the part where she was talking to Mimi during her 1st period?

She was hardly a damsel in constant distress. But before I respond to that, I just need to know, how much of the historical context are you aware of. And are you aware how old she was in Episode 1. This will help our discussion to be more useful

If they made her tougher, she would indeed appear even more immortal. That would have been even more unbelieveable.

Yes, you cannot compare a movie of this genre with CSI or something. Those kinds of drama take place in the 21st century.

TLB took place more than 1000 year ago. Yet, the drama team took great pains to make it believeable. People need to apply medicine to wounds; they did not just heal miraculously. When there was a virus, a cure needed to be found and people had to go miles away to find a cure.

This is not a fantasy drama where we have a god in the midst of humans. If this drama were to continue, eventually the male and female leads will both die. They chose to end it where they did, so both of them lived.

Oh? Things must be different where you study. I did my Phd. disseration some 30 years ago, in the US, and I could write my dissertation from home, even during the summer.

There is nothing wrong to approach each drama with an open mind. And going to the comment section to read comments before you start is just a smart move. Too many dramas out there, and you do not want to spend time watching rubbish.

Like MooBerry explained, this is a work of fiction. So, yes, there will be times when we need to suspend our beliefs, so that the drama can move on.

Concerning the times she was shot by the arrow, stabbed, etc. what you said is quite true. First time, she was shot at the bridge, she was not wearing any protection. But she was shot only at the shoulder area. And she was rescued and she did have the time to recover. They could have shown that it took a while to recover. But this a drama. They cannot take 2-3 episodes just to show her slow and natural recovery. Or else this drama will stretch to maybe 60 episodes.

Likewise for the stab wound. You were saying, it was about the same spot. That stab was already planned before hand. So, maybe she planned with the guy and asked him to stab her at the same spot. rather than stabbing her at the other shoulder. At least, one shoulder is ok and she can still move around.

The 2nd time she was shot by an arrow, when she was at the wall, she was wearing an armour protection. During the Tang Dynasty, they had very good armour, called lamellar armour. This armour was made of either leather or metal plates. If you look closely at all the soldiers' armour, you would have noticed it. They were made of small shiny metal pieces.

The one that the female lead was wearing is very likely lamellar armour made of leather, which was particular suited to prevent serious injuries from arrow shot.

Was she an immortal? Hardly. If she was, she would not have needed the male lead to save her so many times. In fact, if you look at the episode where the male lead shot her, he had to deliberately lower his aim, so that he will shoot her at the shoulder and not her heart

And during one of the battles, the male lead had to use an arrow to shoot someone who was about to kill her. So, she was hardly an immortal.

If your point is, was it a coincidence that she got to live while so many died in the drama, it probably is. But, we need to remember, this is a work of fiction. This is just a drama. And she was the main character in the drama. If died died by Episode 5, when she was first shot, she would not have been the main character. And this would have been a very different drama.

In all works of fiction, we do need to suspend our beliefs. Even movies from Hollywood like spiderman and so on. Who wold believe that getting bitten by a spider can give a person superpower? Or the movie Towering inferno, where one person can rescue so many others from a burning building?

But we do suspend our beliefs, just watch those movies and enjoy ourselves.

Here it is the same. If she was shot in her heart right through, it would indeed have made her an immortal. So, the screenwriters wrote the story that she was shot at the shoulder, so she survived.

Here, in this drama, we are only asked to believe that she sustained many injuries, but those injuries were non life threathening. Far less than what Hollywood ask of us, when we step into a movie theatre to watch a Marvel movie or any other movie where people lived despite sustaining heavy injuries.