shiofmedea

isn't he this white hair guy at the begining of TBOY who came for Wuxin? so he will survive

I would not mind some spoilers, I read whole novel during TBOY time but that one was translated. It did not make any difference for me, I still enjoyed the show.

When young she was used as a pawn in her father game, she is just desperate to escape and she was not fighter so she used any means available to her. I can't really blame her. She just seems not very bright and following emotions rather that think, even when she was much older.

I wonder, the novel, when does it end? I think it should be only after war with that fallen kingdom and YD? So if they die they may die in that war. They rather did not make it till Prince Langya case as there is no mention of them in TBOY when telling his story.

All those emperors are evil in the end but to be fair Head Eunuh is the worst here. And if I remember well in the book he was the one who started whole mess in TBOY, too.

Better to keep away from the court, some of them learned the lesson in the end, some died before, as Master Li predicted

No academy and martial masters keep out of capital in next season so..

one of those romances is what escalates the events so it is necessery (even if I am not big fan of those as well)

Seems to run in family as his son, the one in TBOY, is the same, power hungry and letting princes and fractions rivaly run wild and hurt people.

not translated

I would say the true villain of those stories is imperial familly in one way or another (even if some members are exceptions) or rather ugly side of human nature they seems to be the most prominent representation

After rewatching the series I start to think if changing the setup did not backfired on it. Yes, BL source did not helped but at least original outcome was chosing reality, even if harsh, over ilusionary setup where people who died are alive (which is kind of another, gods controled, universe). By making it a game in VR what outcome we have? After spending time in game (and breaking it), main character spent rest of his life developing the technology so he can restore his friends/family/lover from the game. We can assume that he did not made any new human connection for the rest of his life (as it was not shown anwhere) only focusing on going back to VR. As much as I understand the original meaning (so romantic, bla, bla, bla) I would not want it promoted to audience which seems to less and less be able to distinguish between reality and well, media. This is why suppling any supernatural setup by VR is a trap, you need to be carefull not to twist outcome even more.

if you are asking about novel Cheng brothers are more complicated, dark and tragic. In novel killing directly or causing death of player is punishable inside the door (by the killed person) but there are ways to work around this restriction. Additionally if you are the last alive in the doors you get the key and special bonus note. It is not common knowledge but they are those who use it to gain advantage. Yixie is one of them finding about this roule by being the last alive once. Ruan is not happy about it but even if he disapprove (and he eliminated people like this before) he just ignore it as Yixie is doing it to improve his brother chances (and child himself) and thinking that universe will punish him for his wrongdoings. But the Door World is twisted and during high level doors challenge they miscallculated and it was the cute brother that died willingl to let Yixie be the last alive and pass the door (in novel brothers go through the doors alone due to the fact that Ruan is against Yixie being in fact murderer). After that he left Obsidian and started to pass doors b himself or with other character that was not part of tv show. At the end, when passing 11/12 doors he chose "imaginary world" where people that died in the Door Reality are alive but do not remember those who are still alive. So it can be somehow interpreted he died for "real world.
I may add that in novel the players are forced to participate in the door passing as they are all on borrowed time (the players are dying people who were given second chance to prolong life by participating in some kind of death race in alternative universe supervised by door .god(s). So both brothers in novel are from childhood sick and destined to die around being 10. Yixie is first who was given the ability to go through the doors and his health improved before second brother started to do it and survived first door by chance. So he is very protective to the point of resolving to murder other players and refusing to reconsider as he wants to give his brother chance to live healthy and happy life and see the world.

if you are asking about novel Cheng brothers are more complicated, dark and tragic. In novel killing directly or causing death of player is punishable inside the door (by the killed person) but there are ways to work around this restriction. Additionally if you are the last alive in the doors you get the key and special bonus note. It is not common knowledge but they are those who use it to gain advantage. Yixie is one of them finding about this roule by being the last alive once. Ruan is not happy about it but even if he disapprove (and he eliminated people like this before) he just ignore it as Yixie is doing it to improve his brother chances (and child himself) and thinking that universe will punish him for his wrongdoings. But the Door World is twisted and during high level doors challenge they miscallculated and it was the cute brother that died willingl to let Yixie be the last alive and pass the door (in novel brothers go through the doors alone due to the fact that Ruan is against Yixie being in fact murderer). After that he left Obsidian and started to pass doors b himself or with other character that was not part of tv show. At the end, when passing 11/12 doors he chose "imaginary world" where people that died in the Door Reality are alive but do not remember those who are still alive. So it can be somehow interpreted he died for "real world.
I may add that in novel the players are forced to participate in the door passing as they are all on borrowed time (the players are dying people who were given second chance to prolong life by participating in some kind of death race in alternative universe supervised by door .god(s). So both brothers in novel are from childhood sick and destined to die around being 10. Yixie is first who was given the ability to go through the doors and his health improved before second brother started to do it and survived first door by chance. So he is very protective to the point of resolving to murder other players and refusing to reconsider as he wants to give his brother chance to live healthy and happy life and see the world.

I have rather mixed feelings about her reviews but for TS I think the issue was that honestly the first few episodes were, well.. not the best? I almost dropped it myself. But it got better, chemistry between the leads improved, the dialoges as well, and it got more interested with the story line as well. So sometimes you just have to give the show more time to develope.

Well, in novel it is more complicated as there is no virtual game but kind of paralel universe where god(s) play their game of survival where people who are dying can win new life. The novel have happy ending for two main leads but the dead people stay dead. Or, depending on interpretation, there is another "imaginary" universe that those who died are alive but those who survived never existed. Part of 11/12 gate's challenge is to decide which world you want to live in: true or false (but with your beloved alive). And for the two leads thay had to guess (to coplicate things) what the world the other choose.
In the most aspects novel is better and the universe is more logical. The series did what it could with this computer game the same way as Guardian did before with aliens.

To add, the whole relationship makes more sense in novel as the novel's time line is a lot longer (the higher door, the longer time between entry) so they had years to know each other.

In novel the concept is kind of the game as well, the game that gods play giving some dying people chance to survive in real life by taking part in survival game in Doors Universe. The more doors the player goes through the stronger he becomes but if he dies inside the doors the death catch up. So 12 Doors is like new life.
The novel is more cruel and the players are less symphatetic. But it makes more logical sense that virtual game concept inside the novel universe. Some people even kind of hack the Doors Universe by "stealing" other players doors, the most interesting concept in the novel.

Thank you, now I have reason to continue. I hoped the will not go for such "the last expected" hero turned evil plot but still it is the best one. I just wish the there was not so much plot holes. Still the parts in the game are fun.

today theory: CY's father had been the person behind the game implementation (how it connects with players' brains). He is the person who GX is talking on the chat and the person the doctor J was looking for.
It could be interesting if cafeteria guy was said father (and explain how he is in the game).
The obvious plot hole: why did not try to film themselves when playing as the prooth? Take sacond phone to record conversation with company (very lousy security btw), that obviously broke the low, investigate more at hospital, etc. What is source of those "waves"? Can the go somewhere isolated to check if they fall into the game? Or it is game inside the game and the are already kept in some reasearch facility?