themarchioness

Try this trailer instead then. Some of the trailers came across as very intense but I like this one as it highlights their playful, romantic side while also giving viewers an idea of what they’ll encounter in the story: https://youtu.be/SV0Z-_XmINc?si=5AlZ0BAA_9K8M6wo

It's also the only place where he can truly be free. I did not envy him for the difficult choice that he had to make, as neither options were ideal.

I'd say love/relationship while they're fighting and sorting out political stuff. ;)

"I had previously said that Viki subtitles were the best. But I guess I should have put a Terms and Conditions apply mark there lol. Indeed, Viki subs for this drama were the best... until around episode 20. After that, the subs, although were still good, but not as good as the WeTV subs. In the first 20 episodes, we had Shiqi Lang subbed as Seventeenth Young Master, which was very good. After that, it turned into Mr. Seventeen. Er Dou was Er Dou until episode 20, but it became Ear after that. Taozi was Taozi until episode 20, but it became Peach after that. All these I could forgive. But Li Ni changed into Li Yi, and also there were some grammatical mistakes in sentence formation too. So, for those who were planning to watch WOL on Viki, this is a reminder that not all episodes subs are great."

That means they haven't yet had a chance to edit beyond the first 20 episodes because what you observed beyond ep 20 is how Viki originally translated those names (as I mentioned in a post below). They appear to be going back and editing earlier episodes to bring their naming conventions in line with the other streaming platforms.

The Li Yi versus Li Ni, however, was always an error. I think I explained already, but if I did not, it's because the second character in his name is a "po-yin character," meaning it can be pronounced two different ways Yi or Ni (depending on the context). Here, it was Ni, but the translators may have been going off of the character without hearing what they were saying in the drama at first and chose Yi. For example, Jiu Yi Mountain in Chinese is 九嶷山. But the 嶷 is the Ni in Li Ni's name.

Kinda hard to say. There's never really one defining moment. Theirs is one of those - they're in a relationship before they even realize it. But it's safe to say the mutual interest is shown pretty early on. Really, from their first meeting, you knew there were sparks and they were into each other.

Yes!

As others have suggested, it depends on perspective. I agree with most of what's already been said but I'd also add that it helps to look at the background of both the ML and FL's characters, as I really do think it informs their respective behaviors.

Li Ni's mother passed away at his birth, he was teased and bullied by his brothers, and cast aside by his father who always took his brothers' sides. The only love Li Ni received was from a nanny who was also taken from him while he was young. Labeled a troublemaker, he was then cast away to the border lands -- it was to the point where most people (in and outside of the family) didn't know anything about him and probably didn't even recall his existence. (It's why the FL was so convinced at the beginning that there was nobody worthwhile in the royal family until she met Li Ni.)

Given that upbringing, it's no wonder that Li Ni now craves a family and needs a lot of love. In some ways that does make him clingy. But at the same time, it's not ever to the point where he would compromise his values and belief. Rather, I just think for him love equates being with the person he loves -- which, is generally the conclusion for most people in that regard.

Cui Lin, in contrast, was born and raised with a lot of love. For her love comes in a lot of forms and iterations and I truly think the circumstances of her mother's death serves as a backbone for how she now operates as an adult. When they were being attacked, Cui Lin asked her mother to leave with her, but her mother sent her away to hide on her own and told her that she had to stay behind to protect the fort as best she could, even if that meant giving her own life for it. If we consider her mother's decisions, it can be viewed in two ways: I don't love you enough to leave with you, or I love you so much that I'm sending you away and sacrificing myself for the greater good. Obviously, we are to understand that her mother's decision falls into the second category, as she definitely loved Cui Lin. Cui Lin understands her mother's decision, too, and thus hasn't grown up resenting her mother for making that choice. But I do think that's why she can sometimes be more objective, even if that has an air of making her seem cold/indifferent, when it comes to big decisions in their lives.

For example, I really do think that if it came down to Li Ni needing to do his own thing in the palace while she stayed with the Cui Army because that's what made sense and was going to benefit the entire country, she'd have done it. And in choosing to stay with the Cui Army, it wouldn't have been because she didn't love Li Ni or love Li Ni enough, but because she did love him and that love transcended the need to actually be with him, if that makes any sense.

Finally, as a quick note, I think Cui Lin gets of a lot of criticism because she's a female and we have preconceived notions of how a female should be or how one should behave. But those are gender biases speaking and if we stepped outside of those, we'd see her for who she is - someone strong, independent, and a person who values her country and the common people. These are all the qualities that made LN love her so much, and why I think we as viewers should as well.

Okay, I'll get off my soapbox now. :)

Taozi happened to be named after a noun, a peach, and Chang Er's nickname was Er Duo, which means ear - derived from the Er in his name and the fact that he's got super sensitive hearing. Which is why Viki originally translated those names to Peach and Ear, respectively. But in using the pinyin spelling (the phonetic pronunciation of their names in Chinese), there's nothing not "true" about that.

If there was any impact, it came in discussions with others, e.g., when I referred to Peach as such on MDL and someone asked who I was talking about as they were watching on WeTV and knew her by Taozi.

Viki's use of Li Yi for Li Ni, on the other hand, absolutely was an error - it happened because the second character in his name is a "po yin" character, meaning it can be pronounced two different ways. Viki chose the other way (Yi) initially when based on what they're calling him in the drama, they're clearly saying Ni. And that's why that drove me nuts - because the ear was hearing one thing and the eye was reading something else (and again, because Viki was wrong - although now they've gone back and fixed it).

In terms of their translations generally, it was mostly good. As always happens with subbing, things sometimes get summarized/short-changed and are less detailed than what's actually being said, which does have a little bit of impact, but I don't recall there ever being anything outright wrong (other than Li Yi instead of Li Ni ;)).

I went back to watch the drama on Viki yesterday and I was so glad they FINALLY edited their subs to refer to the ML as Li Ni. It was driving me nuts that for the entirety of its original run, they were using Li Yi.

They've also made other changes, like referring to Taozi and Erduo by their pinyin spellings rather than a translation of their names, Peach and Ear, respectively. In this way, I think Viki moved to be consistent with the naming conventions of other streaming platforms.

That was the one thing in the drama that I found uncharacteristic for the FL. For someone who was so good at anticipating chess moves, it felt like she should've been able to see it coming from a mile away, but it provided the conflict the drama needed to keep things on its toes, I suppose...

Ms Gu did have a lot of qualities to recommend herself - she was smart, she knew how to be diplomatic, and she could navigate tricky matters. I often thought that she could've been a heroine of her own story, in a different drama, and that she'd make a great court official's wife. But here, in this drama, Ms Gu also had a duplicitous side and that prevented her from being the good person she could've otherwise been.

I don't feel bad for her, nor do I feel regret for her character, because the choices she made were entirely her own. Don't blame Li Ni for that. He never asked for or sought her love. He only ever treated her with the polite decorum that was expected of society at that time.

Similarly, you suggest he should've just divorced her. Given his position as the Crown Prince, I don't think it was as simple as that back then nor were divorces easily obtained generally (even for common folks). That's why he told her if she did eventually fall in love with someone else, he'd find a way to funnel her out of the palace, help her change her name, or something like that so that she could marry someone else - I can't remember the exact details. But the point was made clear, even though it would not have been an easy matter to complete, he would've done that much for her.

Very happy ending

I don't know how you would have wanted Li Ni to refuse Ms Gu any more than he already did. From the beginning, he made it clear to her that he was not interested and never would be. He never wavered from that.

In terms of her becoming one of his concubines, she sought that out by colluding with her father and his dad. Li Ni wasn't given a choice. He wasn't even around for it. He was away attending to other business matters and when he returned, it was like, "Congrats, we've brought Ms. Gu into the palace for you!" Stuck and nowhere to go with that, he nevertheless told her, that he'd let her live peacefully in the palace and would do his duty in visiting her from time to time to give her face. He also told her that if she did ever find someone else to marry, she should let him know and he would help arrange matters to make that happen. Honestly, he couldn't have treated her more fairly in that regard. It was she who nevertheless kept challenging his bottom line until he had no more room to give.

In short, Li Ni never led her on. It was Ms Gu who wouldn't give up.

At the time of her initial anger, she didn't know that LCF was responsible for the attack on the Zhenxi Army. Yes, the Zhenxi Army accused him directly in front of her, but she didn't believe it because up until that point, she had no reason to believe that LCF would do something like that. LCF was someone she viewed as an adoptive brother and someone she trusted. Unlike us, the viewers, who have the benefit of seeing everything from a 360 degree angle at all times, the FL didn't know that LCF had already turned devious and spiteful out of jealousy and feelings of rejection.

Eventually, she did learn of LCF's role in that attack and she was angry about that, but at the time it wasn't just the "blame" that she was upset about, but also the fact that the ML was accusing her and as she had nothing to do with the attack, she felt betrayed that he would think her capable of something like that.

In short, there were a lot of hot emotions going on in that time... nobody was really thinking or acting rationally. Even later the FL admitted she had no reason to be as mad as she was, but she couldn't help but still feel betrayed - and ultimately, we are all humans and we can't help feeling some of the feelings that we do, and that's what made these characters so real and genuine for me.

But if the drama's not working for you, it's not working for you, and that's fine. Personally, I loved it and found it well-written with the characters multi-faceted and consistent throughout.

Here’s a link for the Laolan Pass song: https://youtu.be/RCyKoD8fXe8?si=LX7o_3MdK9VNt5Ur

As for the remainder of the soundtrack, just search for Wonderland of Love OST playlist and you’ll get lots of hits.

Blame COVID for the CGI. Apparently they were going to film on location for the Wonderland plain, but when the second wave hit, they had to film in a warehouse instead.

It's not that the Chinese audience didn't like the gaming aspect. Gaming is a big industry in China. The Chinese audience didn't like FIYS because of all the controversies surrounding that book/drama (see below for my longer explanation).

FIYS is controversial because of the book it's based on. The author is believed to have plagiarized both from another piece of work and on real people/incidents. The Chinese audience didn't support the drama adaptation of the book, and the drama production itself was later hit with plagiarism allegations regarding logos used in the drama and whatnot. In short, it was a mess. For the international audience, who would be less familiar with these 'internal matters,' of course they watched without such concerns and for that reason, FIYS is more of an international success as compared to its domestic consumption.

All of which is to say, its low Douban rating is probably less about the drama per se and all the controversy that follows that drama.

https://dramapanda.com/2020/11/falling-into-your-smile-continues-to-be-dogged-by-talks-of-plagiarism-in-the-e-sports-world.html

He was already the Crown Prince, so what you saw was Li Ni getting crowned as the emperor after his father abdicated. About ten years later, consistent with Li Ni's long held desires, he abdicated the thrown in favor of his cousin - and the original Crown Grandson. He, Cui Lin, and their two kids then returned to guarding the border at Laolan Pass (along with Chang Er/Ear and TaoZi/Peach).

I don’t think it’s been released?