susuworld

I love the entire wedding proposal to the double wedding ceremonies. It's comparable to the extended wedding sequence in Ming Lan. I genuinely forgot this is a drama wedding and not a real one but still feel the CP's chemistry and love.

She's royally angry at him throwing a wrench into her one time opportunity in the assassination so throwing him back up north with the one person who equally wants to see him dead and tortured is her way of punishing him.

I'm at episode 9, I'm really struggling. I'm finding the story very disjointed and it's not flowing well from one plot to another. I really like Leo Luo but I'm finding it hard to understand the storyline and where its going. I'm close to dropping it as there are many dramas I am waiting to watch but I'm at a point where I can drop it and not feel the need to keep going for closure given it's 40 episodes long. Can someone tell me if it gets better and where it does?

Having now completed the drama- I still say that Victoria Song was greatly miscast for this role. When I learned about it, I was already skeptical having seen her in Ice Fantasy and with Leo Luo (period and modern drama). In contrast for finding FL annoying - she wasn't annoying - she was just meh. I felt nothing from her character. My fave scenes which no one can take away are her dancing with the sword, but beyond that, her portrayal of a strong female character felt flat for me. I stayed for Ryan Ding. Honestly, everyone else seem to have done better with their character but her.

People really need to stop comparing Blood River to BOY. It's a shared universe and the focus is so very different in each story. I personally love Blood River in their quest to change decades reputation as an elite and feared assassin group to something worthy of walking in the same light. Politics is much lighter here. While romance is light here, it's no more than what was portrayed in BOY. I personally love the interactions between SMY and BHH - they are glimpses of an ordinary life - buy groceries, open a business, go shopping, cook even. I personally love seeing how SMY is only showing his tender side to her - he's different around SCH and his closest of friends.

Correct but seeing how he actually has no brain, it's not a surprise he isn't even a contender for the throne in BOY because he's probably 'eliminated' here

Anyone notice the actor who plays SMY's father plays his older self in Blood of Youth? I started to notice he looked familiar and checked out the actor.

Schedule- this is one of the oddest ones to follow and definitely milking our anticipation/heat levels. It's every other day as 1 episode, every other day is 2 episodes this week. Today is 1, tomorrow is 2, Wednesday is 1, etc.

I am as addicted to this series as Blood of Youth (not Dashing Youth though). Gong Jun is amazing as SMY and his bromance with SCH is one of the best this year. Their flashbacks of them in the past are few but even then, you can tell how strong their friendship was over the years. Love this!

It's interesting because they cast the very same actress for this role in Blood River and Blood of Youth - despite a gap in age due to the timeline. She looks older (naturally), I still find her beautiful.

She is important. She was in the Dashing Youth as a young girl. By Blood River, she is very skilled swordswoman..and by Blood of Youth, she is of the highest level she can attain. In Blood of Youth - there is a brief mention that her and SMY worked together to fight a common enemy. It looks like the upcoming episodes will focus on that cooperation.

She actually didn't fall for it. But she couldn't risk the off chance it was real and would cause a real trouble for ML if a foreign dignitary dies on their lands. If she fell for a trap, she alone would be in danger and had lesser ramifications.

His father.

It was ML's idea for her to be adopted by the Grand Princess' family - to prevent FL from being a political pawn in an arranged marriage by Qin family. ML can count on the Grand Princess to object to any arranged marriage against her will. It's not a power play - ML is shown he wouldn't use FL in this way - he only wants to protect her.

I've never felt so sorry for the ML's assistant in these C-dramas. Bai Feng is literally running around doing everything the ML can't do because of his higher status and he's constantly having to make sure he doesn't interrupt ML at the wrong time (he does anyways!) and he takes in all the social cues from ML to do stuff for him. He's so busy that he doesn't even get time off for sleep. Poor boy. haha

So refreshing to watch romance blossom in a natural progression - not forced and we aren't spending episodes of misunderstandings, manipulating and calculating each other to get there. The simple romance of working together, sharing minds, being each other's moral support when needed. Pair that with a good mystery case here and there. Goes to show you don't need a complex character power dynamic to drive a drama.

All very useful and practical gifts. Not just jewelry and paintings. Love him for it!

I love seeing him angry which is rare for such a character- it means he cares a lot about these injustices despite being raised in the army and enduring the harshness of securing borders.

I really like this drama. None of that childhood sweethearts, forced marriage to turn into real love, the common troupes. I love how it's a natural pace of deepening love as they work together to solve crimes and essentially fight for injustice. I especially love how perceptive ML is and when given the chance, he knows how to maneuver around politics which is rare for a character of his age and experience (growing up in the army and a strict father of a general). There is so much depth here that ARP is doing an excellent job - straddling the firm authority and tender treatment of FL.

He's not a crown prince - he is the Emperor's nephew but it's already hinted that he and his father are attracting enemies because of their esteemed reputation. In c-dramaland, a royal brother/son having highly regarded military accomplishments can be seen as a threat to the Emperor for potential usurp.