kswl

lmao on the basis of their appearance, it makes sense for sure. otherwise, not so much.

i agree. i have no doubt in my mind that there's more going on than a father-son relationship. it's entirely possible that scorpion king is also putting on an act to slowly gain a bit of zj's genuine trust (ahaha mostly lust 0.0).
i read the scriptwriter's interview, and she seems like a really clearheaded and dedicated person. perhaps this strange cp was, after all, intended, considering it wasn't even touched on in the novel? hmmm i think that we'll need to see the next episodes to determine that.

i watched ep 16 and 17 and reasons why they're "shipped" (people agree that they're "不对劲" (something feels weird, since there's more to them than meets the eye)):
- there's a post on douban that reads the scorpion king's lips, and while the official dub is "[for us] to do great things, only one person, myself, is enough". the lips don't really match up. what he says before the official dub is "by zhao jing's side, only one person, myself, is enough". haha it's strange.
- the scorpion king's attitude changes completely when he's around zhao jing. he usually has a cold, sickly, and murderous attitude, but when he's with zhao jing, he acts spoiled and cute (ex. pouty face, childish way of speaking, jealous of others being around zhao jing). in fact, he reminds me of the concubines vying for the emperor's favor in court drama shows.
- while speaking relatively tenderly to each other, there are many small touches between the scorpion king and zhao jing (like holding hands facing each other, scorpion king fixing zhao jing's clothing), which isn't typical between these types of characters.
- what makes it even funnier is that zhao jing's actor explicitly commented on weibo that "word of honor" is a respectable wuxia drama and not to ship random couples. however, he's caught up in his own little pairing that wasn't even mentioned in the book. :0
i actually ship this pairing casually because of the palpable but weird chemistry btwn the two characters, but it's a relationship where they exploit each other to fulfill their own ambitions.

https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1vf4y147Jj?from=search&seid=5396949565875766896

not a "his", but seriously, you must be a little dense in real life? i'm sorry, but i had to say it.

by the way, if you watched https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1xh411k7Jp/?spm_id_from=333.788.videocard.0 where the "real" script is used, would you believe that they have a relationship beyond a friendship?

i just find it quite strange.

oh lol i thought that the vibe was more like a spoiled concubine trying to monopolize the emperor's attention. there was even a video dubbing the voices of hua fei and the emperor (from "zhen huan zhuan") onto the video hahahaha. either way, it's definitely one of the weirdest ships.

hahaha it's definitely not meant to be a bl couple, but somehow the vibes were not right btwn them.

ahaha i can't keep quiet about this...

there's going to be a lot of strange chemistry between two people (bl) in ep 16. tbh, it's the most random couple ever (between the scorpion king and someone else, but the couple is not in the original book). i've been watching videos on bilibili and there are so many funny comments about it!

haha it's not only friendship though?

May I ask why you think their relationship is merely a friendship? This is very obviously a drama adapted from a BL novel, so why would you deny the original wishes of the author?

I'm a bit confused by your comment. I've gone on Bilibili (Chinese vid sharing website) several times for Word of Honor content, and there is no shortage of reactions and fanmade videos on the BL couple. Many of the comments also mention their chemistry and relationship (beyond the good communist brotherhood), and there are even videos that dub the original (and more scandalous hehe) script onto the current one with such similar voices that even I couldn't tell that it wasn't the original (for example: mention of selling Wen Kexing to a brothel, A-Xiang saying that Zhou Zishu was a seducer, etc.). My point is that this talk of BL overseas will most likely not impact anything. Even if everyone stops now, what good can it do? There are already countless comments and videos about BL on both Chinese websites and overseas.