Group Watch MDL'ers From Feed

 mengosteen:

Being a logical and impatient person*

If you have troubles remembering characters, just assign them some key words like Yujin - the funny man, Fei Liu - monkey boy etc. Or ask here.

Impatient is the key word!!! Ahahaha I will try the nicknames thing

So I've done an Estelll-style-transcript from Eps 1/2, mostly for me actually so I can consolidate/keep up w/ the politics... I feel I understand it now (after a rewatch)?!:

-An army is massacred, some guy falls of a cliff who is the nephew to the King in a battle that seems a bit set up- ??revenge to follow??

-Prince Yu; (dude with serious side burns)- is gaining respect from the King, and is bumped up to **Prince of the Second Rank (what does this mean??)**, cue political jealousy and power-play particularly amongst the mothers :)

-Main dude, Mei Changsu has engineered it so someone has become Crown Prince in another country; Northern Yan. Now he's a hot commodity- Prince Yu/Crown P (avec Marquis ) wants him on their side.

-Main dude Mei Changsu is ill

-Mu Nihuang is now up for grabs, a Princess but NOT genetically related to emperor. He needs to marry her off (to get her out of Yannan so the people won't end up loving her more than the emperor and also to transfer her power to her brother). Was/is engaged to Lin family (killed in opening scenes woohoo), but I feel like Mei Changsu might be her guy.

-FBI lady blames deceased Lin guy for husbands death.

-The Emperor's a b*tch (his GRANDmother's nice though)

 Misunderst0_od:

I think I'm gonna call Prince Yu Side Burn prince from now on. XD

They look like they're about to fly away XD... but no hate, we love everyone's individuality :)

Hahaha you know it... its a trend now :) aaand that's the only way I'm going to understand this- bullet points XD

Thank you for explaining it... I though it was a rank thing, maybe he's just like the second in line??

Also, I think it's because no-one calls him by his name, I feel like to call the emperor by his first name would be treason (in the drama obv) :) (also, I changed it to grandmother... but you know what I was talking about hehe)

 MusicalVeggies:

Hope it helps clarify things a little! :)

It does for me, THANK YOU!!! ^_^ 

I WILL make sure to pay special attention to their hair accessories from now on, by the way!!

I welcome you all to my rant. Damn, I'm on the verge on dropping it, again... so here's my problems. Hope someone will convince me to keep watching. 

1. I dislike the directing here a lot. I just don't understand some choice. Why is everything told, and almost nothing is shown? Watching the show is barely different from reading recaps. In both I just read either a summary of episode, or the subs for all the long as talks about everything that happened, but was never shown. Feels like I'm reading a book, but with visual distraction lol
2. The fighting scenes are killing me. By now I'm more dead than the dudes fighting in them. The show is on the serious note, but the fights are such a ridiculous choreography I cannot stop laughing when I watch them, They are not believable in the universe they are presenting. By now, I just want to skip any glimpses of people fighting. 
3. I hate Chang Su, and because of that I don't root for him, so what's the point watching? I dislike how he does not work with people, but he manipulates people to work for him. The whole "keeping things from you coz I protect you but WHAT IS MORE IMPORTANT if you know you will most likely ruin my plan" bullshit. If you are soooooooo smart, you should be able to convince people your plan is perfect, it's gonna work, it;s worth it. Make people want to follow you, and not just make them follow you coz thet have no other options. No to mention his "innocent people my die, but whatever" attitude. As I said, I hate the "doing bad things for greater good" coz this makes you no better than people you work with. Great leader makes people want to sacrifice their lives for the plan, not get innocent people killed to get there. And sure, maybe nothing of that will happened, does not change the fact Chang Su has this mentality, and I strongly disagree. He has no trust in people he is working with and for. Ain't my type of a person.

These are my 3 major problems. The biggest one is honestly the 1st one. I can easily finish a show even if I dislike the main character is the story is good and the sides are awesome, but when I can;t get into the story coz of the way they present it... It's hard for me.

Ps. Don;t try to change my mind with 3rd one. I disliked him my first watch, but now that I rewatch it, I dislike him more. There's not way I will be changing my mind hahahaha 

 Kate:

I dislike the directing here a lot. I just don't understand some choice. Why is everything told, and almost nothing is shown? Watching the show is barely different from reading recaps. In both I just read either a summary of episode, or the subs for all the long as talks about everything that happened, but was never shown. Feels like I'm reading a book, but with visual distraction lol

I actually think it gets better with each episode. Most of the talk is about what happened in the past, which I think is kind of difficult to "show" without giving a spoiler. I admit it's on the heavier side, though. 

 Kate:

I dislike the directing here a lot. I just don't understand some choice. Why is everything told, and almost nothing is shown? Watching the show is barely different from reading recaps. In both I just read either a summary of episode, or the subs for all the long as talks about everything that happened, but was never shown. Feels like I'm reading a book, but with visual distraction lol

LOL. If this is the biggest problem, I think we probably won't have much of a chance left to convince you to keep watching because, as you rightly observe, a lot of things get told and not always shown. It's definitely a directorial style but I also think there are other reasons for it.

1) If the production team were to show every event that was being discussed, we wouldn't have a 54 episode drama but maybe a 85 or 100 episode one because those events are often varied, both in content and in number of characters, and it would definitely stretch the drama out a great deal if the drama had to show them all.

2) The drama is already rather confusing for viewers who feel that they're struggling to keep up with characters and events so if even more events and characters are shown, I think most people will probably throw in the towel in confusion and frustration.

3) My personal impression of the drama is that it tries, in some way, to take the viewer on a journey with our main protagonist (Mei Changsu) as he tries to carry out his Big Plan. In the way a lot of us feel when we first get introduced to a group of people in real life, we don't always have a view on the events happening in their lives and we often hear about it in conversations, either with them or among their friends. We often have to piece together a person's life or situation from these bits and pieces, and draw our own conclusions. Sometimes, we get a front-row seat to certain events in their lives but those times are not that often or common but that doesn't stop us from still wanting to know them and to accompany them at certain times of their lives, no? So, for me, half the fun is trying to piece together the other characters' lives and circumstance from the bits of information dropped by the characters, just like in real life with a mixed group of friends. 

I don't know but I do find this level of ambiguity and mystery to be fascinating so I actually don't mind but can even enjoy it in this show. But I can understand how it can also be frustrating for others too. :)