AtsukoM

I'm planning to read it after finishing the drama. This one I wanted to watch the drama first because of TXW. And she's looking so fire in the drama. 😍😍

Let me touch those cat ears!!! So Cute 😍😍😍

I didn't expect I would enjoy it this much. This drama deserves way higher than 8.2. Speical effects were just so so, but that's not the focus of this drama either. It's the story, how it was presented, and the stellar performance of the leads that really stood out.

I watched this show for Bailu and Hua Ruyue is easily one of her top performances. I was not expecting to cry when I started this drama, and my gosh, I cried along with Bailu till my eyes puff.

To top it off, in the novel, He Yan was transmigrated into a different girl's body after her death. So, when she reunited with Xiao Jue after she enlisted into his army, she's of total different apperance, voice, and everything. It took Xiao Jue tons of clues to figure out who He Yan really is.

These rebirth plots are such a pain for adaptation tbh. You are basically taking apart a well linked plot and rebuild it just to fit with the censorship. Just like this drama, what originally worked in the source material no longer works that well.

May be they wanted to evoke those scenes from other movies and dramas where some generals or MC playing qin atop the city wall while facing the enemy army.

But, Chu Zhao's felt totally out of place without any rhyme or reason to what's happening down below...

Chu Zhao's monologue and playing flute is actually longer than He Yan's sword fight in Rundu battle. Nice indeed👍

I don't mind the plot changes at all. What I mind is the drama seems to not have enough room to properly flesh out the characters.

For me,

Novel 10
Drama 7

Too much were lost in the adaptation process. I'm not talking about the changes the drama made, I'm cool with those. More like the characters are not flesh out at all in the drama, like the drama just didn't have enough space at all for proper character building.

Yan He is a major character for the final arc, so he'll be there. But, I guess they may not go into details about his family due to episode constraint.. even right now the drama is cutting out a lot of things and speeding through the main story.

Oh, don't look far. I dread the day Malicious Empress (another novel of same author as this one) is finally adapted into drama. It will be hell everywhere the day it airs.

The drama skim through how Xiao Jue reclaimed the glory for the Xiao army.

Remember how Xiao Jue was given no soilder to fight the war? It was briefly mentioned that Xiao Jue flood a whole city to wipe out the entire enemy army and won that war. His prestige was recovered after that and now Xu Jingfu is very wary of Xiao Jue, trying to sabotage the Xiao army again.

Without those achievements and a good standing with the Emperor, how would he regain the capability to conscript and raise an army.

Yes, Yan He is their classmates and also a General at current point of the story.

If I recall correctly, Yan He loves his wife a lot, basically henpecked. At the final arc of the story, wars broke out at the border at multiple locations. All the available generals had to set out to different places, and Yan He was leading one of those armies. He got poisoned during one of the clashes but led his army despite it, which worsen his condition and ultimately succumbed.

At the same time at the capital, Yan He's wife was diagnosed as pregnant. But, once the war settled, what awaited her was the news of her husband death. Afterwards, she didn't remarry and raise their son alone. Until her death bed in her old age, she's still reminiscing of her husband.

The extra chapter of their story is just so poignant and broke the readers heart.

I bawled at Yan He and his wife's story...

But, I don't think we'll see much of that portion of the story in the drama.

I totally forgot about author's note. haha

It makes sense. I guess Jiyang battle took reference from the Battle of Red Cliffs?

To climb her career ladder. For a soilder from commoner background like her to move up, she needs to accumulate merits in real battles. To participate in real battles, she needs to be in an army. She chose Xiao Jue's army because the prospect there is good. And she happend to get close to the commander himself, so there's no reason not to stuck to him. A recommendation from a renowned general like Xiao Jue could go miles for her.

I started reading c-novels only after watching cdramas for quite a while. At least to me, a drama otherwise would have been judged as 'perfect' before, now feels 'it's good but could be better here and there'. And of course, when the drama script is not up to par, the feeling is even worse. But, I like both reading and watching, so it's not that big of an issue to me.

Though, there are some novels I intentionally haven't touched because I watched their drama counterparts first and found them perfect as it is. So, I won't go lift a rock only to drop it on one's own feet. 😂

Nowadays, whenever a new drama was listed, the first thing I check is the episode count especially if it's adapted from novels.

Now I unconsciously equate 'less than 40 episodes' as 'potential bad' lol. Not the universal case of course, but the stigma is just so strong haha

The misunderstanding is drama only plot. So, novel readers don't know either when exactly it'll be cleared up. But, after Rundu arc (ep 25 is Rundu battle), we are already entering the preparation stage for the last arc, so I suspect misunderstanding will be cleared up within Rundu arc.

It's not a flashback.

I really wish the script can portrary the essence of the character He Yan well in the remaining episodes. What's happening right now was the script is trying to portray He Yan mainly through her speeches only, while the source material does majorily through her actions.. about who she is and what she is capable of.