WK1

These are two rather unconventional individuals, with an unconventional relationship, an unconventional marriage. That ending was totally in character: Unconventional. They were indeed in the grasslands. We know they are together. Each said to the other, I will go wherever you go.

In that final shot, they were very close by to each other. Watch the flight of the hawk or eagle carefully (in my opinion, it is too big to be a falcon). The bird made a short round trip, circled around Changge and flew back to its master, as to tell him, Don't worry. She is ok.

If the final frame puts them side by side, next to each other. it will make the ending far too conventional. It will be out of character with this rather unconventional individuals

Why those parrots or, should I say, parrotlets, in episode 40. The scene that brought so much distress to some and puzzle to others

I did a little bit of research. The parrots in that scene were the smaller species of parrots. They are likely to be a species known as parrotlets. There is another species called lovebirds, but lovebirds have red colourings on their feathers, and the ones in the drama did not have any red on them. I watched that scene a few times, to make sure I did not see any red. Parrotlet is a better match. There is variety of all green Parrotlet, just like the ones we saw.

Why parrots in the first place? Why not use some other animals? There were plenty they could have used. For instance, why not show two hamsters? They love making babies, particularly male hamsters. That will surely convey romance (for viewers who love to equate love and romance with baby making).

So I googled a bit more. And found that parrots are monogamous. Each parrot mate for life, with the same life partner. And they are extremely affectionate toward their life partners and are very defensive about their life partner. How very human, I thought (in general of course; there is still polygamy in some parts of the world).

Wu Lei very very likely does have a no-kiss clause in his contract (for TLB and other dramas he acted in). Dilraba does not. She has done kissing scenes before. And the director, judging from ELOD which he directed, is not a kiss-aversive director. In fact, after the filming of ELOD, it was revealed that he had wanted Vengo and Dilraba to do even more, but the two of them decided, enough was enough. That kissing scene in the cave; and the bathtub scene. What more do you want? Anything more will surely make that drama X rated.

So, if you are the director for TLB, and you wish to convey love and affection between the first two leads, which animal would you choose? He chose parrotlets. They mate for life, are very affectionate toward each other, and are very defensive of their mate. They will symbolise and represent the relationship between Li Changge and Ashile Sun extremely well: mate for life, affectionate; protect your partner

Besides, parrots are naturally affectionate toward each other. Filming wise, it will not be too difficult to get two parrotlets to kiss

Try watching this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RdcH251KV9k&ab_channel=ARTGER

It is a more recent Mongolian wedding. Mongols and Turks share many cultural traits. Cultures like theirs hardly ever change. Changge will be dressed in a very traditional Eastern Turk wedding dress, probably very similar to the one in the video. Hers will be more grand, of course, because he is aTegin.

Friends will be coming from all over. Like Enigma commented, there will be music, feasting and great joy

All your videos are wonderful! Absolutely wonderful

Awesome list! Let me try to add value or context to what you wrote. Changge had to be saved many times by Ahsun precisely because of what we admire about her: courageous, fearless, and intelligent, yet trusting, forgiving. Let me cite some examples.

She disguised as a soldier from the wolf division to save Li Simin. Without her arrow to save Li Simin, the next arrow will be from Ashile Sun, and you can be sure, unlike Changge, he was not aiming for those cups. He will not miss and there will be no more Li Simin. And she was smart enough to dress in wolf division attire, so when caught, the Ah'sun's division will not be blamed. What she did here was consistent with her risk-taking, fearless trait, coupled with high intelligence. At this point of the drama, her own life meant very little to her. She was prepared to save even the man who slaughtered her family (she will later know, he only killed her father but not her mother), because she felt, the Tang Dynasty needed him. For the sake of the greater good, she put her own life on the line.

Second example. She was deceived by that fake playmate of the crown prince, because she was trusting. Too trusting in those two tokens, perhaps. She already doubted him along the walk to that house. That kid could sense it and so he quickened his pace. And so she was deceived. Yet, even in that incident, at the rescue scene, she still asked Ah'sun not to kill the little kid. Without her plead, if he had 20 arrows with him, the look in his eyes tells me, he would have shot all 20 arrows into that little kid, for having the audacity to put the one he loved in harm's way.

Third example. The final scene. Ah'sun had to save her again. Because she went to that building to offer the final opportunity to the Khatun to forget about the past and come back to Tang. She held up her arm of forgiveness, but was rejected by that wicked ladybug who planned the fire and wanted to bring Changge along to her death. And once again she had to be rescued Ah'sun

All the examples above, and there are more, her behaviour was consistent with her character.

Make no mistake about it. I loved your list. Just wanted to add some context

Good question! Even if they don't give it to him, he can afford to buy one and put at home. Everytime he catches TLB fever, he can put it on and stroke it

Yup, when he found out all her dirty tricks, whatever prior respect he had for her went down the drain.

I think at that point in time, he had no idea Changge was planning to rescue him. All he wanted to do was to prevent her from killing another Khan, the Khan most precious to him. He was well prepared to die after that. But our dear honey badger would not allow her beloved to be killed by that ladybug

Indeed. In the wild, honey badgers have been known to take on leopards who are more than double their size.

In our beloved drama, our lady honey badger was more than willing to take on Ashile commanders who are physically much bigger and stronger than her. What she lacked in size, she more than compensated through her courage and her intelligence

I saw this too, and Reba was simply teasing him for stroking his long hair. Just another example of their off screen chemistry that led to the great on screen chemistry

This drama is titled after Li Changge, the main protagonist. It is about her advertures, after losing her parents. So, naturally, she has the most screen time. And then her interactions with the many people she comes across, during her adventures, their relationships. As such, her screen time with the male lead will be higher than the screen time of the 2nd couple (Hao Du and Leyan)

There are those who feel more romance between Hao Du and Le Yan, and there are those who feel more romance between Li Changge and Ashile Sun (the ML).

However, romance is not the main emphasis of this drama. It takes second seat to the character development of Li Changge, Le Yan, Hao Du and Ashile Sun.

So, if you watch this drama looking for lots of kisses and bodily contacts, you will be disappointed. On the other hand, if you are willing to invest your time in a drama that places lots of emphasis on what human beings can learn when they go through life experiences, you will not be disappointed.

This drama has great music, great action sequences, great acting by the entire cast. And a very unique ending.

I googled. Honey Badger. So the lady bug was defeated by the lady honey badger (Li Changge)

True. Which animal would you think of, when you think of a fearless animal, despite its small size??

So true! As the super villain of the show, all of us are so glad she deserved the ending that she did

Well said. Given what she has done to everybody, Ashun must have felt that she is as good as a bug. Lots of venom in that statement.

Got a feeling he will say that to anybody, except for we know who

The snow walk scene is one of the most iconic scenes for this drama. Changge changed the way she spoke, as if to make the surrender more formal.

You can see her bravery, coming out alone, to plead or negotiate for the lives of the ordinarty citizens of that city. She could have been killed. All the Eagle's division's commanders wanted her dead. But not Ashile Sun.

For me, this was another romantic or loving gesture from Ahsun, even if it was still one-sided during this scene. Nobody else in the Eagles division knew that Changge was actually a she, but Ahsun did. And he was never going to kill her, because way back in episode 5, he was already smitten by her during the pulling-out arrow scene. "Here is a person, so much like me. So brave, so determined, so intelligent. I thought he was boy; he could be my friend. Now that I know he is actually a she, she can my life partner."

He just needed a cover to keep her alive, and she gave him the perfect cover. And then, the snow fall miraculously stopped, once he succeeded in securing her survival.

This was a very emotional scene, extremely well crafted by the director, well executed by Leo and Dilraba and well filmed by the camera crew.

If I am not wrong, it was used in the official trailers

I would agree. For me, the way the director wanted her to behave was like a 15 year old who do not know what romance is all about.

The way her father behaved toward her mother, she wouldn't know what romance is all about. We don't have many scenes of them together, but the little that we had hardly show any romance between the two.

So CG was totally ignorant about all his gestures. Give me stone? What is this for? Brought me to see fireflies, wow, the view is great, so what.

I think she grew alot, at Liuyuin Sanctaury or monastary. She had time to think, over all her actions. And also Ahsun's actions toward her, and what those actions meant. Very likely, her romantic feelings for him started at Liuyuin Quan; she started to miss him and wrote his names mulitple times on those paper. Love came to her a bit slower. But when it came, it came like a torrent that had broken through a dam. She grew not just in terms of her character, but as a woman

100% agree with you! We don't really how Han Chinese look way back then. People judge an actress by their own subjective standards and then form unfair biases

One thing I am sure. After TLB, directors will not be bothered with Dilraba's look anymore. They know she can act and she will get many great new projects.

For us, we are just happy that she took the role of Li Changge and gave a wonderful performance to make so many people happy

The director is telling us, if Leo had been a little older, if there wasn't any no-kiss term in his contract, Leo and Dilraba would have kissed, the way those birds kissed

Dear DramaPostGrad, see if you can just ignore all those chatter about the other projects. Focus on how Ashile Sun and how Li Changge have blessed you with their one-of-a-kind relationship