BearFightingFanBackAgain

She’s a cameo, so she won’t play many scenes. She plays the young version of the Empress Dowager and I think she probably shows up towards the end because there’s been no promo from her side other than the starting announcements for the show. If you saw her spy drama from last year, Unshakeable Faith, the actor who plays the emperor played the captain.

She plays the younger version of Zhou Yu, the Empress Dowager, in the past. No one knows when she will appear or for how long but here’s a fan edited video of some of her clips so far:
https://m.bilibili.com/video/BV14AsTeHEZo

I feel like maybe the character settings/tropes of this drama aren’t clear to all viewers and that’s causing frustration. The “suffering” of Shen Du is part of his setting and is the point. It is to charm viewers. Strong, beautiful, and miserable characters are quite popular, though his storyline doesn’t seem to be the extreme of this trope. The problem is that this tropes often uses the love interest as a tool to cause “suffering” which has the unfortunate effect of bringing animosity.
Another common trope at play is to make one part of the couple “cold, cruel, or bad” to the other at first (the reasoning or whether it’s for show doesn’t matter) then they fall in love, but they have to “pay” for their earlier behaviour. The standard is usually to make their feelings unrequited until the writer feels they have “earned” the love they seek. In some dramas this never happens but again, CLQ is not the extreme end of this trope either. Unfortunately this can also cause animosity if viewers feel the love has been earned before the screenwriter does.
In dramas with a romantic focus these two tropes often feed into each other.

The kiss scene is pretty textbook. She’s a bit caught off guard and overwhelmed in the beginning. It suits the situation- she has the feeling of being inexperienced.
Her reaction logically shouldn’t be on the same level as someone with 10 years more life experience than her. I also saw her being compared to a modern role… but where is an ancient girl going to learn to kiss? Some viewers were ready to tear her apart for having male peers. They’d probably have a rage stroke if they found out she kissed someone else😂
Plus I don’t know if the rules relaxed but it used to be that kisses with moving mouths had a risk of being cut due to censorship. That’s where the dead fish kisses evolved from. And they only occurred in shows where the directors didn’t have enough ingenuity.

Honestly, tiers don’t mean much anymore. It’s better to look at the team producing the drama. Their previous work can give some hint of their ability.

He’s a legendary red flag in Cdramaland. He’s basically a benchmark at this point.

Can some of y’all go touch some grass or at the very least take the "He-Man Womun Haters Club" rhetoric to a discussion? Opinions are fine, and it’s okay to dislike the FL, but the derogatory language and shaming is really starting to affect the atmosphere of this page.

Sorry it’s been a long time since I watched this so I don’t remember.

I think if they give her a western inspired updo or leave the hair mostly down with a little braiding/circlet/crown, the look will pull together. It’s the standard fairytale look for a powerful character in western fantasy (since the costuming seems to be western leaning) but that look doesn’t tend to have half updo hair. She will have an ageless and yet domineering air which seems to fit the character setting and the makeup can go lighter. I think the makeup today is good. Reba really doesn’t need dramatic makeup to set up the character. Her own temperament is quite queenly and she’s at the best age for playing a powerful and domineering character naturally. If they want to add Chinese elements, it can be done in the details with accessories/fabric choices / certain silhouettes and cuts but the team needs to understand what will translate so it fits together well.

Yeah, it’s a nice vibe. (A bit like a big guard dog and little rabbit which suits the brother/sister relationship they have) and it also definitely shows SMY can have a good platonic atmosphere with people who aren’t romantic interests. The same should hold true for SCH.

People can ship whoever they like but they may get disappointed expecting anything official or especially overt from this show. SMY and SCH have a deep friendship but - and I say this as someone who used to watch BL- it’s never given me romantic vibes despite hearing similar things long ago. SMY’s official match is a woman (who he seems to love very much from the donghua) so there won’t be falling in love with a sworn brother. SCH also seems to have a crush on a female character too. Tbh, while they feel interesting together because of their long history and opposing personalities, they feel platonic. And, I don’t know about other platforms or shows but his videos on Bstation and Weibo with the FL (even though they’re not official) gathered a decent amount of views.

Some of the comments higher up are even more disturbing 😬 I’ll probably still get a Viki membership to watch one of the cameos I want to see, but I kinda hope the FL hate chills out a bit.

I’ve been on the fence about watching this show fully so have been checking the feedback but some of these comments against the FL are making me wonder what century we live in😬

“Xiao Huan, I will take care of the country for you, but don't forget that I once had a smile as bright as a spring flower.”

Found this clip and from the opening shot, to the look back, to the Empress of China bgm, it just has all the right ingredients for the character and the prototype so I thought I would share🥹:
https://m.bilibili.com/video/BV14AsTeHEZo

For the PXR fans, snippets of her cameo appearance as Zhou Yu in the link below.

Was it the international version?

The closing trailer? Here’s the one from the show but each actor has their own personal trailer too:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5053078418490723

His modern love line is said to be really funny and cute. Here’s a clip of the two:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5053912839358099

PXR studio photos:
https://m.weibo.cn/detail/5068087197961997

Yeah, I really like it too. The bright green stands out so much against all the other posters because most have dark backgrounds. The overall brightest also feels youthful and catching them in movement gives a sense of story.