valleyofthelost

we're going to witness the heat death of the universe before we see this drama air at this rate...

LBFAD's issue is that it needed at least 1 more episode to let the finale breathe properly. The writers managed to close the most important plot points but it all happens so fast you don't have time to absorb it properly. Also its absolutely criminal they had DFQC promise XLH the grandest wedding and we DONT END ON THAT???

I haven't watched WrtW (again with fatigue) so I'll take your word for it, but also honestly I just want youku to release this thing from fucking purgatory already regardless X__X

Tl;dr under the cut: I explain why I keep saying Yan Hui and Gu Xiang are similar characters, but with examples from the drama and the text, so spoilers beware.

Okay let me explain why I keep saying WoH! Gu Xiang and Yan Hui are similar characters. Not really an argument, but an elaboration, since I've seen fit to repeat this.

These two are very similar because they share the same base personality type. The loud, outspoken, blunt, aggressive, emotional, impulsive character type specifically.

First off, both Yan Hui and Gu Xiang are temperamental people. In the first chapter, Yan Hui intimidates Zi Yue with her power and pins her to the wall with a sword. Gu Xiang also attacks Zhou Zishu the first time they meet just because he made her lose a bet. Yan Hui's reasoning for doing what she did is more justifiable considering the whole context of why she did that to Zi Yue, but while Yan Hui is less likely to fly off the handle for smaller things like Gu Xiang is, Yan Hui is WAY more vicious imo.

Speaking of vicious, both of them are aggressive people. Again, Gu Xiang attacks ZZS the first time they meet over a minor matter and threatens Chengling when he tries to talk her down. She also attacks the drunk guys that were harassing the musician's daughter and threatens Cao Weining with a beating too when she catches him staring. Yan Hui threatens to cut out Zi Yue's tongue the next time they meet and does maim her lips, and also beats down a disciple for calling her a thief.

But on that last one, I STRONGLY disagree that Yan Hui wasn't immature. She grew out of it because of Character Development, but this is Yan Hui, the girl who flung back a clod of mud with force at some idiot kids because they got her in the face once. Yan Hui, who, again, beat down a fellow disciple for calling her a thief (false accusation, but whipping their ass still isn't the mature response). Granted, this is early in the novel before the heavier character development in the second half where she grows out of it, but still. With the mud one, even Tian Yao was like "Seriously? You're stooping to their level?" The main difference between them in this regard is that Gu Xiang's immaturity is more of a childish strain (using a plaintive voice when talking to WKX, fake-crying so he'll give in to what she wants) while Yan Hui's is more of a "I have poor emotional regulation" strain.

Which in turn plays into they're both headstrong and impulsive. Yan Hui killed some chickens just because they annoyed her, without thinking that family might need them until afterwards. She did compensate them for it once she realized, but still, after. She also attacked Ling Fei to save Bai Xiaolu, which while morally right was still impulsive to do. As for being headstrong, Yan Hui initially was persistent in trying to divorce herself from helping Tian Yao, from accepting that Ling Xiao was doing something shady, and from alienating herself from the xian sects, all up until critical points in the novel where she often had to be forced into the point of no return. Gu Xiang, again her whole thing attacking ZZS and the drunk guys + attacking Mo Huaiyang even though he very obviously outclasses her, and she is headstrong in that when CWN was horrified she instinctively killed the begger that grabbed Chengling she wasn't having it and refused to be apologetic for it.

This all being said, these shared traits only form their BASE character type. They have different things stacked on top of it that makes me say they're "similar" and not "the same", such as Yan Hui being a troubled prodigy student and largely money/food focused while Gu Xiang is the kickass younger sister to WKX who wants to live a normal life and not as a ghost anymore.

But you also might notice I used a lot of overlapping examples and they weren't always the same quantity of examples for both girls. This is because 1. Yan Hui is a main character and Gu Xiang is a side character, so by sheer virtue of that, Yan Hui just has more screentime to draw examples from and 2. I'm doing this off of memory, I rewatch bits and pieces of WoH occasionally but haven't had the time for a full rewatch and I reread Hu Xin most recently to prep for when the drama drops, so Yan Hui's character is freshest in my mind. I tried to be accurate but I just don't have the time to be exhaustive, unfortunately.

All this to say in conclusion: please don't mistake this as me favoring Yan Hui or Gu Xiang over one another, simply why I believe they share the same base character type hence why I believe Zhou Ye will be good for playing Yan Hui. IIrc she also said somewhat that she was purposefully over-acting when playing Gu Xiang to portray that Gu Xiang wasn't super adjusted to interacting with human society outside of Ghost Valley so I have reason to expect she won't be as over-the-top that some people found offputting or annoying in WoH.

I wish we'd gotten the fight with Lei Wujie against Wushuang that was sort of teased in the opening. Maybe in Season 2?

Gu Xiang and Yan Hui are very similar characters, so there likely won't be an issue.

:3c

Gu Xiang = the girl in Word of Honor that Zhou Ye also played, she has a similar personality and background to Yan Hui.
I'm hedging more towards Yan Hui lying about not having spiritual power, because there ARE parts of the novel where a lie like that would be appropriate, but also if she doesn't then the whole premise of the story starts to unravel. Like if she doesn't have spiritual power, how she's supposed to protect Tian Yao? Be a meat shield?

She'd be so OOC if they did, Yan hui's novel personality is more gu xiang-adjacent

I'm not gonna spoil lol I'll just say Yan Hui's character is someone I see zhou ye playing really well

Search "Heart Protection" on novelupdates and a translation should be the first option that pops up. As for why Su Ying betrayed Tian Yao, she seduced him with the ulterior motive to get him to trust her so she could strip him of his dragon scales. She wanted his scales because they are powerful and armor made of them would protect the guy she actually loved.

It tells a complete story without cliffhangers so it can be enjoyed by itself but apparently there are plans for a season 2

FINALLYYY

1. She's in eternal sleep/coma because she used up all her allowances to use her powers. Though if you want to go further, the whole plot is a story the guy from the beginning was telling his sleeping wife in the wheelchair and the kids, using everyone he'd seen at the market as characters.
2. We don't know, it's implied he walked off the cliff with her lowkey?
3. She couldn't stay awake and eventually succumbed to her coma.

I say yes, even if you just wanna watch the action scenes.

Unlikely we'll get anything else if/until the OST drops this week

imo she did pretty good as Qianluo but Vico is right, Blood of Youth didn't give her a chance to show how good her acting range is.

It's not too bad to rewatch, but imo doing so makes it more obvious that its structured into "seasons" which can cause some odd impressions when the drama essentially chains them together into an unbroken timeline

Yeah lol they act like the people watching Starry or Chong Zi are anti-Brink or something, when those people are also waiting for Brink but are watching whats airing in the meantime too.