Novel Fans and Donghua Fans Sanctuary

 Major:

They can call us haters/trolls all they want, but at the end of the day I've yet to see anyone offer compelling rebuttals to our arguments

totally agree. 

My first biggest issue with this drama is that all the characters were butchered to a weird inaccurate verion of themselves.

My first issue is how much Tang San is nerfed. He is such an Op character that if they reduced his prowess just by a little then it could have been okay not turning him into a fucking invalid. If they took away his knowledge of poison they should have left his other expertise and thought of another way to make it work. He is so clueless and helpless, it grates me the wrong way. I get that they want to highlight his growth by working hard but donghua tang san also went through a lot of growth but at no time did he ever go into any situation without a plan or a backup. He was the heart  and soul of their group, they can always count on him to get them out of a cinch or think up a plan whenever they re in trouble.  Also  tang san goes berserk when xiao wu gets hurt not whiny. It just grates me the wrong way, I keep watching it for xiao zhan but the tang san character was butchered. There is so much more wrong with his character but I don't have the strength nor brain capacity   or patience to point them all out. Also if they were trying to keep this comedic as they seem to be doing, then they should have left in the part where tang sans dad beats up the teacher for bullying his son during the shrek academy tests. I always found that part hilarious. 

Okay lets move on to the next number and my second most hated butchering of a character; Dai mu bai. I just  sigh when I think of what they did to his character.  They turned him into a stuck up, goody too shoes, tsundere almost asssshole who is obsessed with getting stronger for clear reason yet. And his constant distrust of tang san and the way he looks down at the master because he is weaker is so disrespectful and out of character.  Mu bai was a laid back guy most of the time, who became great friends with tang san and the rest of the shrek academy people. He was never stuck up nor thought himself better than them. The creative liberty they took made him annoying and not pleasant to watch.

3. the original fatty ma Hong ju was not an insecure out of control boy. He was as flamboyant as the Phoenix he is. Flirty, fun and the sunshine in the group especially when he and oscar are together. He was mischievous and borderline perverted  but he was also searching for love in his own way. I know in the book he lost weight and became handsome and all but I like how im the donghua, they still kept him on the heavy side even though he was also handsome. First, it shows variety,  secondly it shows talent and beauty come in all sizes, no body shaming, no need to loose weight to look good or be happy with yourself, Donghua fatty is happy just the way he is, it helps overweight people like me who are watching feel great about themselves that  we are so beautiful the way we are .I  also like the way he wasn't stunningly beautiful as tang san or charming as mu bai. Or even mysterious as oska (with the scars and all after he got stronger and came back) makes him  relatable because his is attractive in his own right without  being like the rest of them, they also jad their specific charm and the thing that made them attractive So the fact that they took all that bundle of energy and personality and turned it into some skinny kid with control issues and self esteem issue just irks me so bad and no offense  to the actor  but where is the flare, where is spark that makes ma Hong  jun such an interesting and fun character  to watch. I really didn't like what they did with that.

4. The guy playing oska is a little better cuz he is a tad bit funny which and erratic makes him a lot similar to the donghua ma hong jun a lot but oska was also a fun character in the donghua and although he liked rong rong, he wasn't  as obsessed as the guy in the drama and he wasn't above letting  her know what she was doing  wrong at times, which was one of the reasons  why she fell for him. Although this was not the perfect oska character, I can live with it since he is such a funny guy here too.

Tang Sans master here was also turned into almost a caricature of himself character. He doesn't seem like a master but more like a equally  clueless older brother who is almost as confused as tang san is. All he does is observe and write in a journal  and guess what he thinks is happening. But although in the donghua he is not as strong as the masters, lets not forget he is part of the golden traingle with fe lan  der and his girl. He is not some simple weakling that can be disregarded  by just  anyone, he was well respected  every where even in the first school  he taught. He was never relegated  to some ancient  time janitor  character, He even had a pass ro the vip section  of the dining hall  where only special  people  were allowed. So for him to be treated  the way he is treated  in the drama makes no sense whatsoever. So its seems  he was nerfed too, he may not have been as strong as the power  houses but he was not weak enough to be less strong than mu bai, atleast not at this stage, so once again another nerfed character. It doesn't help that Calvin  chen the actor  playing him , his acting is a little awkward which makes the character feel awkward.

Fe lan der is the one character that seems to resemble the donghua character the most which makes me wonder if it is because he is an older veteran actor which is why he could showcase the characteristics of the character in his own special way. He is money hungry, a tad bit lazy  a tad bit crazy but he loves his student and he would do anything to protect them and help them grow. The actor did a great job portraying him, no complaints here.

Now lets move on to the females.

Don't  even get me started on he lie na, I just pretend she doesn't  exist. 

Mu bais girl is more  or less obsessed  with getting stronger  and beating mu bai, so she can break an engagement  that he is not even interested in keeping, wow solid thinking. Her whole intention/ arch  is to get stronger  so she will not be forced  to marry  to a guy who has no intention of  forcing  her to marry him. Yeah cuz that makes sense...

Xiao wu is way too innocent, donghua  xiao wu may have been naive  but she was  no where near that innocent without knowing how the world works. 

Funny enough  the female I m most okay with her portrayal of the character  is rong rong, she is a tad bit bitchy but you can sometimes see she is just trying  to helpir doi g what she thinks is right. She has been a sheltered princess her whole life, so its reasonable it would take a while for her get used to the way things worked and realize that she was not the center of the world.

Now that said, I understand that this was filmed 3 or 4 years back probably  before the donghua  got to these parts so they were going mainly from the novel but come on, this was  not just mis interpreted, it was butchered,. i m mot even sure they researched the material  before they filmed this. It's  like someone  gave them an outline  of what the characters  seemed like  and they wrote a script based on what they thought  the character  should be. I m so disappointed in this show. I m only  watching for xiao zhan but he alone with such a flawed character change cannot  save this drama in my eye. So pissed.

First it was Legend of  fei, with the weird voice dubbing  for yibo that didnt  suit  his character and now it's xiao zhan with a ruined version of tang san character. Now  theres two drama with my favorite actors that I m dropping  for reasons that have nothing  to do with them. Its so frustrating  cuz I waited for  a xiao zhan come back for so long and now I get this...so frustrating. 

Hu Liena is not Hu Liena ?

She appears to be Qian Renxue, but definitely not Hu Liena. 

So Hu Liena is Qian, Bibi gave her an illusion spirit to make her imitate her and the real Hu Liena supposedly died two years ago. 

On another front Xiao Wu, the main hero of the show apparently, is valiantly playing a martyr. Tang San is around. 

Wang Juan, the guy who gave us this trash, said there might be a second season. The problem is that even those who like the show are starting to grumble about the direction. The author is finally peeping his head out with some lame this is a spin off basically explanation. Too bad they tried milking the original fans first and when it blew up I their faces they are trying to cover themselves. 

so we got another Xu Lei, *round of applause*

why cant he just distance himself from the adaptation? then he wont be implicated 

 Major:

That's what I wonder about. The only natural breaks possible I see are either the CE Tournament at SH, or the Sacrifice, both of which are gonna have the most loyal drama fans salivating for more.

I watched a little of episode 23 and 24 for the team battle scene. Based on that, I am not sure of the quality of any tournament arc in this drama. The choreography is ugly and the logic behind is messed up. How could they not protecting both Oscar and Ning Rong Rong during team battle?? I felt uncomfortable while watching and could not see any "excitement".

Sacrifice ...... so far I see that Xiao Zhan and Wu Xuan Yi don't have CP feeling. The loveline felt flat. I doubt the sacrifice arc will be good in the drama.

You are presuming that it will be like in the book. But Wang Juan has clearly said that he wrote a twist for the ending of the story. If you look at his previous work, he left Joy of Life with a cliffhanger. So I am willing to bet this will have one too. This guy has a huge ego.