Deirdre19

i'm sure they could've squeezed everything into the 39 episodes and kept the essence of the characters, if they had dropped some of the totally pointless (bathing) scenes and trivial dialogue. A few brief flashbacks could have helped to provide more context (instead of relying on novel readers to explain things).
It's again the Chinese obsession with whitewashing the main leads that ruins much of this drama. To quote a famous French comedian: when you wash whiter than white, it becomes transparent. For me, this is one of the reasons why the HY character comes across as so bland, especially when compared to LMX.

Yeah, the Anning character is disappointing, very one-dimensional by now.
When she first appeared, sparring with Anle was such a firework! I had high hopes for a drama filled with strong female figures, but I guess I was expecting too much 🥲

Welcome to the club! If you read up a bit further down you will see that people have been mocking her ever since she's turned up.

I had the same problem with Di Shengtian and when I asked the question somewhere further down, someone explained that she had left (or was made to leave) the empire because the previous emperor had the hots for her and thus she escaped the extermination of her clan.

They must have heard us... that purple gown is 😍😍😍

Same here - I'm always looking forward to new episodes for this one, whereas for the other dramas I can very easily not watch all available episodes.😁 It must be that I'm addicted to bathing scenes...😂😂😂

Overall, Destined probably has a better production and writing (even though there were also some cringe-worthy plot turns and scenes). The acting here is on equal level with Destined, I would say and the story really is captivating.
I know I rant a lot about the ridiculous writing etc., but comparing LoA with better produced recent dramas that I'm also watching (like Destined or Mysterious Lotus Casebook) I still find it more compelling despite all its flaws.

It's not fully translated yet!

Yes, what would do without the novel readers to help us understand this drama? I think the production team (who did such a lousy job) should give them half their salary!

Ah, I see... she's the one behind the Empress Dowager's jealousy. I must have missed that bit, thanks!

I thought the whole clan was exterminated... how come she's still alive??

They might even come back trying to convince everyone that they are someone completely different without bothering to wear a mask or change their clothes and hairstyle 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hopefully LoA will spare us such a suspension of disbelief....

I doubt that this is what will happen. The ML is the lead actor so it would be unusual not to have him around in all the episodes. This is the reason why I was questioning the choice to turn the ML into the lead rather than the FL who has a continuous presence in the story.
I would assume that they probably start the story at the point when the ML becomes more involved and then tell the part of the story before that in a series of flashbacks.

Yeah, in some scenes she looks like she's an escapee from Journey of Chong zi where everyone got gifted clown make-up.

It's not so much the plot that is bad but the way it is presented and (not) driven forward. You call it a well-planned revenge plot, but we didn't really get see anyone being busy planning/organising any of this. It must have been the elves who did it while everyone else sat around chatting and drinking. It would have been so much more compelling to show the viewers some bits and pieces here and there to intrigue them and then let it all come together in the big scene during the birthday banquet.

I didn't read the novel (yet) but in the drama he is my favourite character. He is the only one who has realised that you cannot make an omlette without breaking some eggs.

The excessive white-washing of both the ML and FL is really ruining a good story. Somehow the only one who's got any bite is LMX.

That's one of the reasons why I like LMX so much. He isn't one of those boring goody-two-shoes.

Same on LoA - some clowns even down-rated episodes that haven't aired yet.

It's not that he's stupid, but he is so beige! How can he ask the women who he supposedly loves to deny her identity forever and drop her life's purpose just for the sake of not stirring the waters. That just shows he doesn't know her at all!