ASmith

Basically the show commits 2 crimes:

1) it is really really really good for the first 12 eps, still solid till 17, then jumps the shark 18+, but if other viewers were like me they were so attached to nearly everyone by 18 that instead of handwaving it as “switch your brain off watch for the fight scenes” it was like 🤬 writtters whyyyy I feel personally betrayed by all characters but Fugui either due to OOC or lowered IQ

2) They benched CY for a bit, he was a support character and support characters were main characters from eps 19-30, and while that’s not a problem intrinsically the support characters had absolutely no plot. (There was an arc baked in with no buildup and post 31 it’s never referenced again and everyone acts like it never happened.)

So if you weren’t watching for CY you’re peeved the plot goes off the rails and most characters except Fugui are OOC by the end.

If you are then you’re peeved he’s got ~3-5 mins of screen time for eps 19-28-ish, and that even when you can see him he’s been blurred sometimes as if a stand in was doing those scenes not him.

If you don’t mind filler though and you’re okay with some characters being OOC sometimes (eg “I’ll never leave you!” *10 mins into the ep later * “So yeah I’ll be leaving tomorrow to get back to my day job.” type stuff) then the visuals, the acting, and the music are great. It’s a beautiful show except for the writing, that’s the only thing the rating is dropping for and the pain of it is only because it was so good for the first 12. Without attachment to the characters it wouldn’t hurt nearly as much what they did to them 😂😂

But yeah, solely writing bellyflop half way through basically. (Fights are 🔥 and eps 1-12 are really good though!)

Come December, time to get a Youku subscription 😂

Each country will have good and bad people in their entertainment industries, so I wouldn't go this far exactly. But the bad ones indeed, hope he can avoid them and stay doing what he does well, without being hurt. 🙏

hope so too, I know the BTS from Jackie Chan's movies during the closing credits were always packed with accidents and incidents. Action is very risky by nature even with no malice from anyone & teams handpicked for experience. Hope all can be safe here till the end too. We are so lucky as viewers to have such fluid action scenes in his series thanks to the hard work he is willing to put in. Next level respect for anyone who does their own stunts in movies🙏🙏

I don’t think they would be trying to kill him, but could be that because the set is new the crew would also not have worked with it before, hence things maybe aren’t performing with full consistency? That’s what I’m telling myself. Hope he completes the filming safely 🙏

Praying for his safety 🙏

Whaaa ;-; From 7.9/rank 2742 with 2348 users this morning, to 7.8/rank 3571 with 2,349 users this afternoon. idk how the ratings work but that is a massive drop for so few extra voters. I was getting so happy for it creeping up towards the rank ~2600 it needs to be to hit 8 again.

I guess I shouldn't be too surprised given the reports that just came out listing the show's financial performance as doing well on the Q3 results for the platforms, reports on it doing well financially always coincided with the downvoting & extra attacks on it while it was airing, but I wish the haters would leave this show alone ;-;

Whose fault it is depends how far back you take it. In some ways you could say the real fault lies with the original author for writing such a sad ending for their book, and the wider public for only being entertained by conflict and violence hence why LN established his modern world in the first place and invested in producing the kinds of novels he did.

Blame and cause and effect will always be cyclical things.

For me what struck home was that the good and bad both die in the end, and the happy and the wretched both die too, and the world keeps spinning on without them because new trees grow in a forest when one falls; others will rise up to carry responsibility or do evil, it’s not like it ever had to be one person. Since that’s the case, the one who is happiest both alive and dead is the one who strives for what they want to achieve while they can and holds on to their principles even when it’s tough, as no matter what those principles or goals are, they’re the ones with no regrets when dead vs those who never accept responsibility and spend their whole time taking moral compromises they then hate themselves for taking, or blaming others for everything wrong or that they’re dissatisfied with about their life, who whether living or dead are miserable. 🥰🤒

Maybe add a spoiler tag? 🙏

Trolling & blocked.

It's okay to not be able to get into a show if it's just not you. This one's probably my favorite C-drama ever, but from your profile/watch history, you (maybe? i could read it wrong) like stuff with more of a darker/edgier vibe and with maybe more morally ambiguous people, in which case maybe a series more like Warrior Baek Dong Soo or Hello Monster or Bad Guys or Liar Game may be more your vibe?

Hope so, at least we don’t have the S&B screen writer here, phewwwww! 😂 (I’m in the same boat of enjoying TJOL but the ‘you fell into a plot you didn’t write properly bc you just signposted some quest markers and then AI generated this world off someone else’s source material and like any half decent GM it IS gonna force its plot, all roads lead to the next quest marker’ baseline led me to forgive a lot of hallucinations as satire/intentional that may have bothered me if I’d taken them seriously or hadn’t had experienced GMs forcing the plot with equal dedication to attempts to digress as a player 😂 Loved that show.

There’s no transmitigation or AI plot in VoA so let’s hope that VoA is good!! 🙏😃

Dramawiki seems to list a different director so maybe MDL is just wrong?

https://wiki.d-addicts.com/The_Vendetta_of_An

I read Youku wants series to target being 16 eps eventually, so at least we still get 28 for this one 🙏🙏

I feel like this is typical black marketing behaviour; pretending to be a fan while actively sabotaging a show by saying no one who didn’t enjoy it is valid or gets to score it, so that people who were neutral are then more likely to downrate it.

Blocked. 😪

(I do love the pfp though, merchandise for this series is so cute 🥰)

What makes or breaks a drama for you, generally?

Are you a “happy to skip the boring filler arcs, love a show as long as the visuals and fight scenes are good, I’m mainly here for actor X” type viewer, or are you more a “visuals and acting are important of course, but the plot & writing are what make or break a drama for me, I don’t want to skip, I watch every scene, and I expect everyone getting screen time to make narrative sense” type viewer?

If the former and if X is CY, then the show is enjoyable; CY 100% delivers on the acting, visuals, and fight scenes (at least in the episodes where he’s the main character and not just a support role; he doesn’t always get fight scenes.) If the latter then 1-12 can still be watched and enjoyed as a self complete arc (13 optional for a 100% fluff and filler happy ending), but post 18 you’ll probably find the writing a hot mess. There is a lot of character inconsistency and filler arcs and the FL goes from being a smart, loyal, loving person to being emo, not that bright, and making up every excuse she can think of to not rejoin the male lead once he’s been banished and they separate, opting to stay with her gaslighting clingy bro who kidnapped her (briefly; she obtained the power needed to free herself after a couple of eps, though still opted to stay with him) instead who she still somehow thinks only platonically likes her despite him stroking her hands and spamming dialog like “You’re so selfish only loving that guy, can’t you love me too? You’re so selfish jeijie” almost constantly 12 eps, which is a shame given how smart and likeable her character was for the first half 😭😪

It's a shame b/c while it's prooooobably a fair rating, it'd be nice if viewers knew CY was a 10 in this, and that most of the other actors do great with what they're given as well, it's solely the writing that lets down the viewers ;-; Costume department and music are also pure 10s. ;-;

It is not too expensive for a monthly trial, in my region they offer a discount so it's 1.99 a month for the first month for VIP, so not too bad?

I think someone earlier in a comment said the Chinese OL title is "Heart of Sword" and then the localizers got a bit too Google Translatey when doing the English title... 😅

Lui Yuningggggg pls do the opening song 🙏🤩