demithinks

Another stellar write-up by you! Thank you so much on your reflections on episodes 35 and 36. I know it is inevitable and an important part of the story but the impending heartache and separation has me anxious. I feel silly feeling this anxious for a fictional couple. I guess it is all thanks to a job well done by the actors and crew of LLTG.

Strange but when I clicked the link, it took me to Chapter 40 of Blazing Sunlight and I could not find any reference to LLTG. Maybe I am just completely missing it somehow.

I had no interest in watching Sound of Desert mainly because it looked a bit dated to me but after your hilarious description, I am certainly not going to watch it. Thank you for the very funny comment. It made me laugh real hard.😂

Thank you so much! I had to go back and watch all the General Wan scenes again and can't believe its AI technology!

That link did not work. I was so curious. Maybe it's blocked in my country 😥Is there any other link I can look at or a link for the bridge bts? I did a search for it on both YouTube and Google but couldn't find it? If you have such a link, can you please share it? Many thanks!

Totally! I've said the same thing in the LLTG Part 1 comment section and will say it again: I so want a spin-off about the Third Prince and his adventures and grand romance with an FL who can go toe to toe with him.

Once again wonderfully written and some great insights. Thank you so much!

Thank you so much for the video. Very informative indeed! Loved it so much! ❤️

I appreciate your point of view and understand where you are coming from. The source novel seems very rich. I have watched many novel to screen adaptations and some have been of some of my favorite novels. I've learned that no matter how faithful the screen adaptation, any comparison to the novel will mostly cause the screen adaptation to suffer. The written words have an access to our imagination in the best possible way by having us enter a rich world with often unbridled access to a character's inner thoughts and reasoning whether with the help of internal dialog or by vividly describing the environment, small gestures and general mood of the characters. While providing all this, it also creates the framework for us to paint our own scenes as we read them with the help of our own creative imagination. So well-written novels just transport us into a world which we ourselves help create in our minds. Whereas screen adaptations box us a lot more and we are pretty much stuck with the director/screen writer's interpretations.
Also, I feel that books have a long time to tell what happens whereas screen adaptations are limited by time/number of episodes. A novel can use an entire page describing the room but on screen it can be just a shot of the room lasting a few seconds. Additionally, they often have to modify and adapt things jeopardizing the slow but more complete character development present in novels. And then, especially for Chinese dramas, there's the added onus of following various rules and regulations surrounding the dramas.
So all in all, I agree that the tone is a bit incongruous at times of LLTG but I also understand why it's happening. And seeing many people complain about the romance being too slow or it is too "slice of life," I can see the dilemma the makers face constantly. I feel they have done a wonderful job nonetheless and with CSS and LBY, they have given us a more nuanced FL and ML than I have seen a long time in C-dramas.

Oh yes indeed. I didn't remember that part. I don't speak Mandarin but have watched Chinese historical dramas for a long time. Should have thought of that. Thank you so much for pointing that out. Actually, my friend who is Chinese and a fluent Mandarin speaker raised in Beijing even thought that the aunt was the blood relative. I am going to discuss this with her tomorrow. We are good friends and have a watch party going for this drama with four other friends. We watch it on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays every evening after work and it has brought us much joy. I think we will have fun discussing this point tomorrow.😂

Thanks. Strangely enough, it makes me happy knowing that the Emperor doesn't have such a rotten blood relative. 😂

Thanks. That makes sense.

I had a character question. I was under the impression that Old Princess Ruyang is the actual aunt of the Emperor and her husband, the old Marquis Ruyang, is the Emperor's uncle by marriage. Am I correct or is the old Marquis the actual blood relative and the Old Princess Ruyang is the Emperor's aunt by virtue of being married to his uncle?

He seems like a good man but what he is doing also amounts to cronyism in some ways. He is endangering the country and ultimately also the very family he wants to protect by putting incompetent people in charge just because they are his relatives.

Yes, she is totally not anything like what I thought she'd be like. She seems so childish which is so incongruous to what she looks like. She is beautiful but doesn't suit playing an immature and somewhat dumb FL.

You're right. I had high hopes for this drama but it is boring me to death so far. I will keep trying but I don't know for how much longer.

Wonderfully written. I loved your thoughts on the trust issues and could not agree more. Please do write your thoughts whenever you have some time. They are a delight to read!❤️

I completely agree with you. I see a lot of posts supporting CSS and her actions in episode 32 but I felt she held some blame. I think the fact that she is so young can excuse it because what she did was very naive. She has been repeatedly told that the palace is a very complicated place and she needs to be careful. Yet, she draws attention to herself at all times and seems to think she can fix things easily that others have struggled with for so long. Her not understanding even the basics of what being a Crown Prince entails and what qualities are needed to be the heir of an empire shows her utter naivete.
One of the comments by DramaAjumma yesterday (linking to her blog about episodes 29 and 30) explained trust issues very well. CSS has double standards when it comes to giving help to others and how she views receiving help from LBY. Hence, she doesn't trust him enough to even tell him what she did, leave alone ask his opinion on what he thinks about the current political affairs and crisis in the palace. I understand she has trust issues due to abandonment by her parents but she lacks the quality of seeing things from someone else's point of view. Her default mode is self-pity probably due to her lack of self-esteem. However, I do like how her character is written very much and find her believable and endearing despite all her flaws. She is strong, flawed and relatable and I really look forward to watching her character growth. I would take CSS any day over those overly sweet, dutiful, cutesy and perfect FLs.

Thanks for explaining how to do it. I just gave a rating of 10 for all the episodes individually on part 1. I also rated the two episodes of part 2 but saw that some people have rated episodes that haven't even aired yet. How does MDL let that happen? Episodes 4 and 5 of part 2 are rated 8.5 and 8.2 even before they have aired. Some subsequent episodes are rated 10 or 9. Do fans and anti-fans just go in and rate stuff before its even aired?

Thank you so much for all the information you posted. I hope they follow the events as you described. Can't wait to watch it all!