Amy

Next week's trailers were brutal. Poor Wen Zi... what she's suffering from is worse than death.

Applying our concept of morality to a fictional immortal world where people are thousands of years old might not be the most accurate thing to do. Whether something is immoral or not depends on the world building of the story itself.

Re-posting this again:
You're talking about the convention, but the world building of this drama diverges from its source novel. In the drama, nobody said anything about master-disciple relationship being taboo. When protector Yin eloped with his shifu's corpse/soul, people only criticized her for becoming a demon, but not for romancing with her shifu. The drama eliminated the taboo aspect of the master-disciple relationship while enhancing the psycho part of the ML, and this actually made the drama more popular. I'm a regular on Douban, so I know that while everyone there is calling the ML a psycho, they are also very intrigued by his characterization and are continuing to watch the drama just to see how crazy he can get. This contributed to the success of the drama in China.

Ikr they're being very contradictory here. When the leads have no romance, they're like "hey how come they don't have chemistry", but when they do have romance, people be like "hey why the heck are they so intimate"? WHAT...

You're talking about the convention, but the world building of this drama diverges from its source novel. In the drama, nobody said anything about master-disciple relationship being taboo. When protector Yin eloped with his shifu's corpse/soul, people only criticized her for becoming a demon, but not for romancing with her shifu. The drama eliminated the taboo aspect of the master-disciple relationship while enhancing the psycho part of the ML, and this actually made the drama more popular. I'm a regular on Douban, so I know that while everyone there is calling the ML a psycho, they are also very intrigued by his characterization and are continuing to watch the drama just to see how crazy he can get. This contributed to the success of the drama in China.

Yunji is a huge hypocrite. She pretends to be nice and all, but everything she does is for her own benefit. She didn't even stand up for Chong Zi during the face reveal on ep.20 UNTIL after the ML came.

Yeah I don't understand why people who have already dropped the drama keep coming back just to repeatedly comment on how much they don't like the drama. They already made their point before.

Qin Ke is underrated. He might be a bit boring, but at least he has a clear moral code and is the only person atm who treats Wen Zi as a separate person and respects her. I appreciate what he said to her at the end of ep.20. He's the only normal person in the story and I hope we get to see more of him, although I doubt things are gonna end well for him.

I'm glad you do :)

I'm also in US and I can still access the wetv website. The trailers are free to watch without subscription.

I think the funny part is when Luo Yin Fan threatened to quit his job, they all did a 180 and said "let's celebrate, bring your disciple too"
It was hilarious and shows how awful these people are.

I can't help but notice when they ate the stick candy, Luo Yin Fan only bit half of the candy and Wen Zi ate the rest of it. An indirect kiss moment! Sly fox Yin Fan...

I discussed this same issue with a friend of mine and he had a similar suggestion as yours. To start the story from the second arc and tell the first arc as a flashback. I share your sentiment that it might cause even more confusion to the audience and downplay the tragedy in the first arc. All in all, this is a tricky story to tell and while they didn't do the perfect job, I'm struggling to come up with a better way. Maybe this is really the kind of story that requires more patience from the audience, since a lot of it is on the build up.

If he were at the scene, he would definitely protect her. I'm afraid Yunzhong purposefully chose a time when he was away to harm his disciple.

Yes, I was surprised when he said he wouldn't even give face to their master. It shows he is willing to go against the entire immortal clan for his dear Chong Zi.

Out of all the c-fantasy dramas I've watched, this one is definitely different. For starters, people were expecting a simple warm and caring immortal ML, but were taken by surprise when he did the unexpected. That's because you don't see this kind of ML in a pop drama often. People were looking for chemistry between the leads and were put off when they found none, when the intent of the story was to save the chemistry to a later stage. They also could not bear a childish FL, although the story is about a confined child turning into an autonomous woman. Before this drama came out, people already had doubts about the story because it sounded too similar to Journey of Flower and they were worried that the story would be too old-fashioned. It turned out to have innovative strong points, but not apparent enough to make casual watchers stay.

I think what's throwing people off is their initial expectation going into the drama VS what the drama really is about. I don't mind watching the story unfold since I know what I'm getting into as a novel reader, but not everyone has the patience to sit through 15+ episodes for it to start unraveling. They want it to get straight to the point.

The director and screenwriter have the responsibility to sustain the audience's attention and give them assurance that the drama is worth their time. Judging from the leaks and my understanding of the story, the third arc is very strong and compelling, while the first arc is the weakest. This kind of storytelling puts the drama at a huge disadvantage. If people cannot sit through the first arc, they will not be able to see the good stuff that comes after.

Yeah I agree with you. Wen Zi is also possessive of his shifu and it goes both ways now. Possessiveness is what we would see in human love, and Wen Zi is more human and worldly than Chong Zi. Yin Fan also becoming human for her.

Oh yeah I saw the latest trailer too. Sad that shifu is not there to save the day this time. I guess we'll learn why later on.

They should both become demon to get back at those awful immortals, really.

I totally get your frustration. The source material was really well written, with a lot more depth in character motivations and narrative. You still get hints of that in the drama because they kept most of the dialogue, but a lot of the subtext is lost. The director does not do a good job translating the material on to the screen, and like you said, I find myself having to fill in important gaps that were not properly communicated across to the audience.

Wen Zi may seem a little bland in the recent episodes, but I don't see her as that simple of a person. For starters, she's not as naive and innocent as Chong Zi. "The constellation staff is mine." "Shifu only has one disciple now and that's me." "I'm not like that Chong Zi. I'm better than her." You can tell she has a pretty strong ego and a sense of superiority from how she reacts when being compared to Chong Zi. She may seem gentle and composed at the surface, but she has a strong will. Chong Zi in her first life would not turn evil even after learning the truth. She will just accept her fate and free herself through death. But Wen Zi is different. Wen Zi grew up as an heiress of a businessman's family and has gone through scheming and in-family competition. Her upbringing makes her more stubborn, competitive and calculative, so if she is bullied in any way, she will not easily forgive those people. This explains why she would turn evil later, once she gains Chong Zi's memories but still has Wen Zi's personality.

Pretty much. Protector Yin and her master is the other master-disciple relationship in the story, paralleling the leads. Oh yes, it's kind of like Rong Hao and Chidi. Obsession towards a dead master.

It's a shame cuz the show is just starting to get better and if they cut it there they will lose the opportunity to generate more buzz. Drama fans in China are disappointed with the schedule and are trying to request them to air more frequently.