i hope this paves the road to higher production historical BLs. the plot is entertaining, and the actors are doing a very good job, but it's so low-budget that the poor quality of the wigs and costumes does throw me off a bit. i'll never not support a historical BL, but just a little observation.
Ohk can someone please help me with this?? Ik it'd be a trouble but if you can please 😭I've been watching this…
Will try my best to answer your questions!
1. Correct, mostly. In the original timeline, A’Qi believed Yanzhi betrayed him because of the forged letter and because Yanzhi appeared deeply involved with the political conspiracy. The tragedy is that A’Qi never got the chance to fully understand Yanzhi’s motives before everything collapsed. However, even in the future timeline, we can see A’Qi subconsciously doubts Yanzhi is on the 'wrong side', because Yanzhi repeatedly protects him and shows hesitation whenever A’Qi is involved.
2. Su He is Yanzhi’s uncle, yes. He’s one of the major political antagonists and is connected to the coup in the opening timeline. Yin Zhou wants an alliance with him because Su He controls military/political influence and is useful for seizing power. Su He pressures Yanzhi partly through family obligation and partly by using A’Qi as leverage -- both Su He and the First Prince clearly realise that Yanzhi’s biggest weakness is A’Qi and aren't afraid to use this against him.
3. My guess is that Yanzhi is basically playing a double game. He pretends to cooperate with Su He while hiding his true intentions. At this point in the story, we still don’t know his full plan yet, but it’s very obvious he does NOT fully trust his uncle. yet has his people's interest in mind. He seems to be feeding Su He only enough information to maintain appearances while secretly trying to protect both A’Qi and the people affected by the political struggle. Getting A’Qi safely away from the palace/power struggle definitely seems to be part of his plan.
4. No -- the family trip is new to this altered timeline. In the original future timeline, A’Qi was sent to the border during the unrest and survived there for 3 years. Later, he was lured back by the forged letter and walked directly into the conspiracy/trap after the coup had already begun. So this trip did not happen before; it’s one of the signs that the timeline is already changing because of A’Qi’s return to the past.
my estimates are: Shouhua: 27–29 Du Yangxi: 20–22 Fuhui: 22–24 Fan Lianghan: 23–25 Kangning: 18–19 Qiongnu: 18–20 Chai An: 24–26 Haode: 16–17 Shen Huizhao: 25–29 Leshan: 15–16 Yang Xian: 20–24 ofc, at the end + 3 years on each character :)
i'm on ep 5 and the drama is soo much more intense and stressful than i expected. can someone spoil me if the lius get what they deserve at the end? to my understanding, she has to leave w/o any of her dowry at the end, even her precious peonies, so i feel so bad they managed to ruin her family and rob her like that! not sure if can keep watching if i don't spoil myself 😭
i loved the final arc, which seems to have the lowest-rated eps. i'm so surprised, those were the best imo. in general, i really liked this series. though i have to say, even though he's really handsome, the ML's acting was a bit weak. it worked while it was all cold staring, but the moment we had to get a bit more of an emotional impact from him, it fell really short.
i'm at ep 13, and there is one thing i don't understand yet -- why is dou zhao hiding the fact that she was the girl with the fox mask? that doesn't really expose her identity.
it's pretty good for a high school BL! the acting is solid and there is some pretty good yearning. perhaps too many side-characters that i didn't necessarily care about, but otherwise, it's good! if you don't mind a hs plot, then it's not a bad choice.
i see a lot of complaints about the lack of kissing, and i totally do get that the actors' ages had a play in this, but i wonder why they didn't do a fade-to-black kiss with the camera moving away or one of those angles that only makes it /look/ like a kiss? with sooo many almosts, it would have made sense.
i loved this show! what an emotional rollercoaster that last ep was. made me cry 😭 can't wait to see pavel and pooh in more series, a more serious plot really suits them.
and i have to say, michael and toptep *truly* delivered. these two deserve main roles in their own series for sure.
victor was another perfect casting, he's such an excellent actor and really top tier for more villainous roles.
It seems like I'm in the minority here, but I'm not the biggest fan of Kim and Mon. It's really just a personal preference, but I really dislike insta-love, and I dislike clinginess even more, so it's a double no. But the rest are real cute, especially Shane and Kit, so I'll continue with the series for them!
even since i finished this series, i haven't been able to stop thinking about it, and decided to put my feelings into a post-canon fic. if anyone is interested, you can read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/77624151 truly, the ultimate comfort show and characters! 😭❤️
1. Correct, mostly. In the original timeline, A’Qi believed Yanzhi betrayed him because of the forged letter and because Yanzhi appeared deeply involved with the political conspiracy. The tragedy is that A’Qi never got the chance to fully understand Yanzhi’s motives before everything collapsed. However, even in the future timeline, we can see A’Qi subconsciously doubts Yanzhi is on the 'wrong side', because Yanzhi repeatedly protects him and shows hesitation whenever A’Qi is involved.
2. Su He is Yanzhi’s uncle, yes. He’s one of the major political antagonists and is connected to the coup in the opening timeline. Yin Zhou wants an alliance with him because Su He controls military/political influence and is useful for seizing power. Su He pressures Yanzhi partly through family obligation and partly by using A’Qi as leverage -- both Su He and the First Prince clearly realise that Yanzhi’s biggest weakness is A’Qi and aren't afraid to use this against him.
3. My guess is that Yanzhi is basically playing a double game. He pretends to cooperate with Su He while hiding his true intentions. At this point in the story, we still don’t know his full plan yet, but it’s very obvious he does NOT fully trust his uncle. yet has his people's interest in mind. He seems to be feeding Su He only enough information to maintain appearances while secretly trying to protect both A’Qi and the people affected by the political struggle. Getting A’Qi safely away from the palace/power struggle definitely seems to be part of his plan.
4. No -- the family trip is new to this altered timeline. In the original future timeline, A’Qi was sent to the border during the unrest and survived there for 3 years. Later, he was lured back by the forged letter and walked directly into the conspiracy/trap after the coup had already begun. So this trip did not happen before; it’s one of the signs that the timeline is already changing because of A’Qi’s return to the past.
Shouhua: 27–29
Du Yangxi: 20–22
Fuhui: 22–24
Fan Lianghan: 23–25
Kangning: 18–19
Qiongnu: 18–20
Chai An: 24–26
Haode: 16–17
Shen Huizhao: 25–29
Leshan: 15–16
Yang Xian: 20–24
ofc, at the end + 3 years on each character :)
and i have to say, michael and toptep *truly* delivered. these two deserve main roles in their own series for sure.
victor was another perfect casting, he's such an excellent actor and really top tier for more villainous roles.
But the rest are real cute, especially Shane and Kit, so I'll continue with the series for them!