The big crux of the issue is that Heart Protection is a VERY tightly written story. You can't fuck around too…
The only time she's really protected Tian Yao so far is for the iconic jian scene where she rescues him from being attacked but as soon as they stop following the novel tian yao is suddenly the one doing the legwork in rescuing...
POV you create a plot hole in episode 3 by nerfing the female lead bc now we don't know how she escaped the dragon bones cave (are we supposed to assume she SWAM???)
They're not really letting her step into her protector role, as soon as the drama starts to deviate from the novel…
the first episode is the roughest, it'll get easier to sit through after that, but man for the premise of the story Yan Hui only seems to be "protecting" when the novel's writing shines through 💀💀💀
i read the book and the trailer feels a bit underwhelming to me. could anyone tell me is it worth watching or…
The big crux of the issue is that Heart Protection is a VERY tightly written story. You can't fuck around too much with the plot otherwise you're going to at best suck the emotional impact out of scenes or you're going to cause impending theme and structure issues later in the story.
Guess what they're doing.
So far the drama was at its worst in the first episode, it was actively grating me almost the entire time. Granted, I know this isn't uncommon for first eps of Xianxia dramas but my god they put the "dump" in exposition dump. It was like the scriptwriters had a deathly allergy to letting the audience be intrigued or leaving some information for later.
It's also showing symptoms of the scriptwriters not understanding why the scenes they lifted from the novel worked. You probably saw me complaining about how Yan Hui's scene with Zi Yue was gutted of its emotional impact and narrative logic. At some times its fine but other times it feels like the writers want to write a different xianxia but had to pay lip service to Hu Xin.
The pace is borderline breakneck. JLFX said she split Hu Xin into 4 major arcs. We're in the second arc and its episode FIVE. Of Forty.
Yan Hui is also suffering as a character so far. She's already fully sympathetic to the demons/spirits so far so thats an entire arc of hers basically out of the window. She's also been nerfed into being unable to use any significant cultivation... unless its through Tian Yao. Obviously its setting up an arc where she'll grow to use it on her own but the decision messes with a lot of her agency like how she got expelled from Chen Xing Mountain in the first place. She's also not really being allowed to step into her role as protector because they have Tian Yao doing a lot of that himself, along with the fact she can't even use her cultivation unless its through him thus far.
So, do you remember how I said Hu Xin is a tightly written story? Where you can't mess with too much otherwise the story starts to unravel? Well, they dropped the neidan plot. Which explained a lot of character motivations and actions and without it just guts the story and sucks away important relationship development moments from Yan Hui and Tian Yao. Also poses logic issues for elements of the drama? Like why are the xian cultivators capturing demons then instead of just killing them?
Tldr: Its watchable, but honestly they're wasting good casting in Zhou Ye and Hou Minghao.
Had a quick look at the first episode... Well, it started with a bang, right a one of the most crucial scenes…
They're not really letting her step into her protector role, as soon as the drama starts to deviate from the novel suddenly we have the male lead doing everything
God no, she was actually a prodigy disciple of Chen Xing Mountain. She lost them for a period of time because of the snake demon's venom but that tied her interests to Tian Yao's temporarily.
I hope they wont ruin the novel even though author works with screen writer we all know how they can manage tı…
They're also editing some scenes really strangely together, like the scene where Tian Yao stabs Yan Hui as he's telling his story comes off as super jarring and not in the intended way it was supposed to be. More of a "how did you teleport into this position" than "OMG HE STABBED HER!!"
hey, know you are so keen on this novel....sorry to hear that it's not giving you the feel goods. I think they…
That's why I'm not bitching about the larger changes they made (yet), but unless they can subvert the incoming structural issues it's not going to be a fun time for me unfortunately.
I might drop this if I don't warm up to it in a few episodes. The changes they've made so far to the story are…
I'm giving it a fair chance! And I promise I'll keep salt out of here or at least put it under a spoiler with a warning so I won't bring the mood down. But, yeah.
Guess what they're doing.
So far the drama was at its worst in the first episode, it was actively grating me almost the entire time. Granted, I know this isn't uncommon for first eps of Xianxia dramas but my god they put the "dump" in exposition dump. It was like the scriptwriters had a deathly allergy to letting the audience be intrigued or leaving some information for later.
It's also showing symptoms of the scriptwriters not understanding why the scenes they lifted from the novel worked. You probably saw me complaining about how Yan Hui's scene with Zi Yue was gutted of its emotional impact and narrative logic. At some times its fine but other times it feels like the writers want to write a different xianxia but had to pay lip service to Hu Xin.
The pace is borderline breakneck. JLFX said she split Hu Xin into 4 major arcs. We're in the second arc and its episode FIVE. Of Forty.
Yan Hui is also suffering as a character so far. She's already fully sympathetic to the demons/spirits so far so thats an entire arc of hers basically out of the window. She's also been nerfed into being unable to use any significant cultivation... unless its through Tian Yao. Obviously its setting up an arc where she'll grow to use it on her own but the decision messes with a lot of her agency like how she got expelled from Chen Xing Mountain in the first place. She's also not really being allowed to step into her role as protector because they have Tian Yao doing a lot of that himself, along with the fact she can't even use her cultivation unless its through him thus far.
So, do you remember how I said Hu Xin is a tightly written story? Where you can't mess with too much otherwise the story starts to unravel? Well, they dropped the neidan plot. Which explained a lot of character motivations and actions and without it just guts the story and sucks away important relationship development moments from Yan Hui and Tian Yao. Also poses logic issues for elements of the drama? Like why are the xian cultivators capturing demons then instead of just killing them?
Tldr: Its watchable, but honestly they're wasting good casting in Zhou Ye and Hou Minghao.
Huan Xiaoyan and Zhuli