cygwyn

yup, i know. it’s just for me, i’ll only be able to truly believe it when we get an actual airing date 😭

as far as i know, each member of the cast has an assigned PD. the job of these PDs is to share the stories, experiences and thoughts of their assigned cast (they talk about it here: https://youtu.be/iHt6c9PYlyk?si=IDfe8--WSF3rtcq5)

as for the end of 6-2, i don’t think it was that the mishaps were bad. i think it was because for the first time ever, after going through so much stress and issues and actually solving them, after proving himself to be so reliable and stable, after always being so logical and calm, for the first time ever hou minghao looked incredibly troubled hahaha and so, lol of course they’ll highlight the moment and probably made it look more serious than what it is.

and i agree haha someone must have really bad luck cause they just keep on experiencing issues every single time they need to move to a different location 😅

since the subs are so bad i could be wrong hahaha but, for me, it didn’t really look like hou minghao got scolded. the PD actually came off as being concerned to me. interviewing the casts about the things that happened is the PDs job, and even tho it’s her work, when neo couldn’t answer, i thought she was kind because instead of insisting they complete the interview, she told hou minghao to rest up instead and even accompanied him outside.

when he came back, he only told yutong he was done with the interview but since they’re close friends, i think she realized he wasn’t feeling well huhuhu it was very nice of her because it allowed neo to open up! he must have been stressing out over his perceived shortcomings so much!

i really really hope this airs within october!! i love found family stories so i hope the drama focuses on that theme!

i wonder how many variety shows the cast will participate in before the drama actually airs 😅

what’s sad is that this agency is actually better than his previous one. i still can’t forgive his last agency for giving him outfits that didn’t fit him, make-up that hid his natural handsomeness, and a hairstyle that made fans question if he was having hair problems 😅 plus there was that rumor among ckiwis that his agency was favoring zsx/joseph by giving him better and bigger projects.

agree. i just saw that he won on twitter and was looking forward to watching him win and how they celebrate him being the champion but when i actually watched it, aside from pang bo teasing hmh to treat them all a meal, none of that happened 😅 what a bummer!

thinking about it though, i might be wrong but i don’t remember that they said there was going to be one winner? only that they need to survive in ten days? if that’s the case then the way to play and to win is just to avoid getting eliminated.

dang i was looking forward to more neo content 🥲 so i guess the countdown to the next episode is fake, right?

i thought tomorrow was going to be the final game but since there are still 6 episodes left, i guess it isn’t the final one yet. if it is though, i hope the last four episodes won’t be just fillers. i hope they bring all the contestants back and just celebrate their time together!

and oh let me add one more: while ji bozai was promiscuous, he treated all the women he was with relatively well. never abused any of them, and in fact, he was generous and would give them expensive gifts. he was great at being a flirt so much that some girls actually fall in love with him because they believe his words when it’s all just for show haha

it sounded pretty cool in the novel hahaha

yup! it is a weapon! and it does function like a wand haha it gets power from a person’s qi and then does whatever the weapon maker designed it to be (in this case, it was ming yi who crafted the weapon)

i’m only relying on google translate so i may be wrong but, mostly it’s the same. the novel isn’t as fantastical though. there was no “fairyland” in the novel at least.

the history of the land is a bit different. in the novel, there was just a mention about how all the cities were one whole kingdom but that it broke up into six (i forgot why hahaha). on the other hand in the description, it said the lands broke because of the lack of aura, or qi i suppose. so again a bit more fantastical than the novel.

“but this year he lost to Ji Bozai in the first battle” — in the novel, ming xian (aka mingyi in disguise as a man) never fought ji bozai. they were going to fight but before they did ming xian vanished. ji bozai didn’t win either cause he’s bad at communication and couldn’t properly fight with his team. in fact, their city has never won so everyone treats ji bozai well cause he’s their only hope of winning. in the novel, winning means getting taxed less so it’s a huge benefit for everyone.

“He was free and drank and had fun all day, but these were his disguises. Only in this way could the god who feared him let go of his guard and dispel the idea of marriage of the family.” — in the novel, you don’t get the feeling that he’s pretending, but he was very good at politicking and bootlicking 😅 he’s called cunning and clever because he’s good at manipulating others.

“As a prisoner, he has a bigger goal: to rescue all prisoners and make them no longer bullied.” — in the novel, you don’t really get the sense that he’s a prisoner, since he’s pretty free to roam and party. BUT that part about rescuing prisoners is new!

“Ji Bozai, who pretended to be a flirtator, happened to meet a dancer, Mingyi” — in the novel, ji bozai wasn’t just pretending, he really was pretty promiscuous haha so much that nobles would gift him women in order to get favor from him 😅 also, the only reason why he was interested in mingyi was because she chose his friend over him to hurt his pride, so that ji bozai would surely take her

“He was tortured by torture and drug testing since he was a child.” — this is the same in the novel!

“Later, he grew from a private revenge to a fighter for the people.” — this one wasn’t in the novel

surprisingly, mingyi’s character description seems pretty accurate. i would argue about her having a “saint’s heart” in the novel though hahaha cause she was pretty bad to ji bozai!

i hope they do stay true to this version of ji bozai though!! it sounds promising!

well, he was in a slave farm. and he did get revenge because the one who saved him was murdered. BUT he wasn’t a prisoner. he was an abandoned child who was thrown in the slave farm.

what’s funny is that mingyi felt bad about that, but ji bozai didn’t care about it at all. he didn’t care why he was abandoned or why he suffered so much. he only really cared about giving justice for his savior cause he was grateful for the life she gave him 🥹

as for a second female lead, there’s none in the novel. there were a lot of women throwing themselves to him tho hahaha

after reading the novel… it actually is a magic wand 🤣

agree 1000%! i also hated how he was punished so bad but she never was even though she did exactly the same things he did!

i also read the novel cause of those comments hating ji bozai. because i couldn’t believe it! i don’t believe that hou minghao would choose to play such a character. and i was right! there was more to ji bozai than the playboy character the summary portrayed him to be. and him leaving mingyi makes perfect sense to me actually! she was from an enemy nation and she had NEVER told him the truth, so why then does she expect him to be nice to her?!? she’s actually lucky that he allowed her to live!

the second time that ji bozai “betrayed” her was justified too! he needed to “marry” that other girl because he needed an army to win the war, because winning the war was the only way to make her safe and be truly free. but again, that reason is ignored, and only the fact that he “cheated” on her is highlighted.

ji bozai is such a misunderstood guy 🥲

same here! if the drama follows the novel closely, i’d probably end up skipping to the few parts where she actually showed him some concern. like seriously, (fyi this is a spoiler but since you’ve read the thread i’m assuming you don’t mind? XD) there was a part where she said to herself that she’d already forgiven him but that she WOULDN’T ADMIT it cause it FELT NICE to see him look worried she’d leave him again. so while she was staying with him, she was meeting men that SHE KNEW ji bozai was jealous of and kept on making him feel guilty if he did something she didn’t like. she was so immersed having power over him that she didn’t even realize that he was ill and still recovering from injuries until he actually fainted from it! it was only THEN that she finally showed concern, and not even to his face too!

and so yes, hopefully they wouldn’t follow the novel too closely!! 😭

i am hoping that they would be able to make a good work too! mostly, i am hoping that ji bozai in the drama would have more use other than a tool to show that mingyi is superior. the message of the novel should be that men and women are equal, and yet even though ji bozai is the strongest physically, his interactions with mingyi says otherwise—he always loses to her after all, and she’s always right; when she does something wrong, she’s forgiven very easily but when he does something wrong, he has to beg and beg and beg for forgiveness to the point that he gets sick from it 😔 i wish that this at least could be changed and that the writers make them truly equal!

well, a social commentary is basically giving thoughts on social issues. in this case, the issue the author was commenting on was the issue about women not being given the same opportunities as men.

i wholeheartedly agree with the author’s points (for example: that women shouldn’t be restricted to the house, that women should be able to work any job so long as she has the capability, etc.) but, i read to be entertained and to forget about the real world for a while, not be reminded of real life issues hahaha

if only the author was more subtle about it!

i skipped some parts in the novel but idk, i felt it was too mingyi centric? but since one of the novel’s recurring themes is women empowerment, i guess it makes sense. the message is nice but tbh it felt too current that it jarred my reading experience. there were times i was wondering if this was actually a social commentary rather than a romance novel 😅