Alysha Johnson

Same I actually don't skipped anymore. Watching 53-54 i notice how good it is... This is what I was missing when all the filler story got thrown in. My emotions got thrown out.

I must be the odd one here but I love all this emotional abuse, angst. As long as there a happy ending I'm ready for it. I've been waiting for this final arc since the beginning. Poor XF, my stupid bird. Sighs~

Is he double playing SH or just fighting himself?

I think both. Poor XF, he's suffering as much as JM.

Initially I didn't like that she find out he's not her father killer. I like to see her deal with that guilt, but only to satisfied me. I want her to suffer.

However, when I rewatched it, you have to remember that JM is a lot more devoted to her father in the drama than in the book. In the book she didn't even cry when he died. In the drama, she made gift for him, she said he will always be there to protect her. She totally act like a daddy little girl. Since the drama also changed her, it only make sense that she did what she did. It would make no sense either for her to save him thinking he's her father killer when previously she hated him so much enough to kill him. It make no sense to drama-watcher who never read the book.

Whether she find out or not, she need to deal with the guilt, which she did. She has a slightly different redemption arc, but I don't think "finding out" actually take away anything. Yes, different, but not less.

Beside the part you said about XF's relationship with his parents. In JM's perspective she obviously does not know how well XF is with his parent. In the drama, it just look like XF is a dutiful son. He love them as he should, but not closer.

In the book, didn't XF never forgive her until she "died"? If you think about it, it make no sense in Chinese filial duty to fall in love with your parent's murderer's child, which XF since his mom killed JM's mother.
JM indirectly killed XF's parents, but XF's parents also indirectly killed her mom. In a way I think it's poetic justice. JM killed XF which is in line of taking "revenge" for her parent in a twisted way. JM also end up dying because of XF.
Albeit XF did not killed JM's father. In a way I find that all these "deaths" canceled themselves. Some of the aspects of the book need to be changed to be brought onto the drama. The part where JM find out he's not her father killer BEFORE helping revive him.

I feel sorry for both XF and JM because I feel like they are suffering from their parents' past. If JM get together with XF without the wedding scene and without the death of the Empress, I don't think it will sit well with the drama audience.

are you talking about ep 49-50?
I don't know what the hell is going on anymore.

lmao no. keep on watching

Demon Princess
Yes in the beginning I understand they may want to add her for that reason. But I still find her romance too drag out. Yeah I know he a guy she love and he went rouge. But all this back and forth with him ~ Idc. He's not the lead, I don't feel the angst. Don't know, don't care. And he's not cute. Yeah I said it.

The reason I said 95% is included is I only remember 1-2 scenes that are not in the drama. BUT the drama did included stuff that's not in the book, which is perfectly fine to me.

Book and drama are two different medium. The book is from JM's POV, and is very limited. There are so many jump in logic that we must do to understand the story. The drama is from an omnipresent POV, so certain things need to be given definite answer. I think that's the main reason why book will always win drama. Because in book, there are a lot of gray area that as readers, we can make up to fit our own narrative on how the story is. In drama, not so much. We are seeing the story based on the POV of the director. And in many way he is just ONE out of many readers.

Honestly I find most of the changes benefit JM as well.
Example 1: Rourou give more depth to JM character
Example 2: Qiong Qi, if it wasnt because of Rourou then honestly JM character is really dumb and greedy in this scene. Btw, they totally demoted Lingzhi, and add Night Rentetta(?)
Yan You: I appreciate the changes to his character too, but it's a good use of his character.
Night: Some of the scenes had changed, although they the same as the book. Like the scene in the mortal realm before the Empress banquet, the scene where JM was attacked. I actually was a little pissed they got Night to block that for JM. They did so much to make us think Night love JM, but funny enough I find the more they changed, the more I find Night love JM less.
XuFeng: I agree they watered down his character, but at the same time I think it's because of the actor Deng Lun. He act as a love-struck boy very well. To us in the book, XF is just moody and mean. But in the drama, XF is cute because we get to see him as him and not in JM's eyes. I think that's the main reason why we feel he very watered down. And tbh, XF is too rough in the novel, not exactly role-model material.

*Talking about Night, I saw the behind the scene and the actor playing Night doesn't seem to have good chemistry with Yang Zi. He seem shy and serious. Yang Zi asked him to introduced himself and he went on to explain Night's complex character then Yang Zi was like, "you forgot to say you chased me". Then Night reluctantly say, "oh, oh yeah, but you totally don't like me. You reject me." Which make Yang Zi embarrassed, and was like, "Yeah that's true." I don't know it's kinda awkward and funny to me. But that scene make me think this actor is really invested in the other part of Night character more than the romance part, and it showed in his acting.

Yes Mirae, you tell her.
I'm so sick of the trope "I like him, can you help me?" and if you don't they make you to be the bad person. So glad Mirae told that b*tch off. Psttt. You do your own work, he's mine.

I am fine with the changes too. Actually 95% of the novel is already included in the drama. I see them changing the timing of some of the scene, and minor things are altered. But overall it stayed very faithful to the book.

However, for me I was frustrated with the extra storyline of the demon princess because she doesn't exist at all in the book. At first I understand they want to give more background story to side character, but the demon princess story is play parallel with the human realm arc. It got annoying to me because I feel like the build up for the wedding scene got drag out because of this plot line, and it fizzle the tension that lead to the wedding scene. The human realm arc end up taking 14 episodes, at least 1/2 of it is the demon princes scene already. To be frank, I don't care about her love life. I was fine if it's 3-4 episode max, but longer than that I was pretty annoyed.

Having said that, I am quite pleased with Night character. I think he's the only "grey" character in this series, whereas the others are clearly good or bad, he's in-between. I'm glad the drama fleshed out his story more, and also make JM a little bit less naive. The only thing I was disappointed about is Night chemistry with JM. I love angst and reading the book I feel Night did fall in love with JM. In the drama, these two have no chemistry so it's actually uncomfortable to watch tbh.

Yes Run Yu is more calm and calculating, which make him a better leader. One of the earlier instances is when they went to the Demon Realm to talk to the Demon Lord to catch Qiong Qi. Even before they meet, RY already told XY to be careful of his words. During the meeting, XF offended the Demon Lord couple times, RY had to step in and appease. XF did not say anything wrong, but he's too straightforward. Meanwhile RY grew up having to fend for himself, so he's better at reading people and know how to act.
One of the reason why the Empress hated RY so much because RY is actually a very capable leader. He's the first born, and his natural self is a DRAGON, while XF is only a Phoenix. They both great creature, but the fact that RY natural self is a dragon mean he inherit great power. Not only that, RY is great at politics so much that Empress couldn't get him no matter how much she try to scheme. Compare to RY, XF is just like a little boy.
The Emperor actually has a soft spot for RY, he knew he has a capable son and yet he cannot groom him as well. But at the same time, he knew that RY's situation is actually a good opportunity to shape him. If you watch the latest episode, before he died the Emperor said of RY, "My good boy!" The demon lords who learned of the Emperor's death commented on RY, saying he actually very similar to the Emperor when he was younger. The Emperor was the 2nd prince, we never given the story, but from the pieces we were told, I bet the Emperor also usurp the throne or snatch it from his older brother. Since we know that the Emperor teamed up with the Empress in order to gain the power.
The Emperor's power is not absolute. That is why even the Empress is a handful to him. Even when he tried to rescue Jin Mi, he has to find a round about way to stop the Empress. Everybody around know that RY is a capable leader, but they also see his biggest weakness: his lack of army. You can't rule if you don't have an army. XF has one, because he has the backing of the bird tribe.
I think it is obvious to everyone: the empress, emperor, water god, and even the little soldier that work for RY. She said he is a dragon that is in undesirable circumstances.

yeah i see she's a good actress but at the same time i think she's overdoing it. the character is hateful enough, no need to overdo the expression. i hate her enough already no need to make my blood boil to the point i want to skipped everytime she's on.

I agree. The actress that play the empress, I feel like she trying to make the empress as hate-able as possible. Like the way her mouth move when she talk I feel like she trying to provoke me to punch her.

True. But there's nothing stopping bird clan from taking Flower Realm by force, if it come to the point where they need to.

JM would have the same position but the position also depend on the person. Yes the position has prestige, like RY position has prestige but not power. The reason why Water God was powerful is because he has the ability to lead other Gods in Heaven Realm in court. One time the Emperor said he can't afford to anger Water God because a lot of Heaven Realm look up to Water God. So if JM take over the position, people who were loyal to Water God obviously would support JM, but what about others who just respect Water God? It's hard to say because JM haven't established her reputation.

It's easier to explain it this way: Usually the emperor always prep his crown prince, have him participate and go to war so that he earn reputations among followers, so later the crown prince can easily step in the position to lead. Similarly, JM don't inherit the entirety of the power when she stepped into position, she needed to build that reputation first. Otherwise even when she stepped into the position of Water God, she will get some support from loyalty, but not support from respect/admiration.

The other realm don't mess with the Flower Realm is because they don't want to upset the balance. The Flower realm dont mess with other realm so there no need for other realm to mess with them. Even though the heaven realm is the ruler, but the power is delicate. when one realm get into a fight with another, there is no way other realm don't get involved. since flower god die and the emperor mourn her, that signal to other realm that the heaven realm respect flower realm, and hence other realm don't attack them.

I kind of skipped Empress' scene so thank you for reminding me. I think the Emperor said that because he needed the Empress bird clan to solidify his power. As Emperor, XF will obviously control the Heaven Realm, so having Sui He mean he get the bird clan too.

The Empress is not wrong, the gods in Heaven Realm respected the Water God, that's where the power come from. Without him, it definitely weakened the position.

As I said before, Bird Realm is stronger the Flower, because Flower used to be part of the Heaven Realm. The conflict between Heaven and Flower didn't damage the Heaven Realm much simply because Flower Realm is not that strong to begin with.

i don't see anyone saying marrying suihe is better? But technically, you are right. Marrying JM give more power than marrying Sui He. Marrying Sui He just meant keeping the power in the clan, since XF's mother is bird clan. But when XF marry JM, bird clan will support him way less. Flower Realm is not as powerful as bird clan looking at how Empress easily kill the Flower God. Flower Realm is more on the healer side because they can grow rare exotic herbs. Bird Clan is better for fighting.

I have to disagree with you a bit.
It's not NIGHT character arc that take up time, it's the Princess X Demon arc. I don't even know why it's in there and it's unnecessary long.
Night story arc is needed because we need to know why he, who started as non-scheming, would go to such length to scheme against XF and JM. The book never quite explain why Night suddenly would use JM so hard when he "supposedly" love her. It never went into the depth to which Night hate the Empress. The drama need to deliver that. Because with his position, it's illogical that he think he deserve more than XF except if something trigger him that bad.

The OTP character development wasn't stolen, their relationship is more clear by using the human realm arc. However, I do think they switch away the 3 years and put most of the sweet moment in front. Now they are just making JM killing XF as an emotional reaction, whereas in the book, it was a calculative move.

Anyway I'm kind of sick of waiting for the wedding scene, and I'm super pissed at the Demon Princess story arc. Please just kill it.

she doesn't love him. she's the type that love him because she was told that way, because of clan and status relationship.

he always knew that JM revived him. He only marry Sui He because he still bitter about JM killing him.

OMG People called JM naive but it is XF that is more naive. JM is just simply being manipulated, but XF is oblivious. Two innocent idiots love each other while the world scheme around them. I just want to punch my monitor.