Leileizi

Just remembered SMC is ALSO intent on rescuing XQS from the boat explosion, so that scene is actually great foreshadowing of the ending and how the two of them band together to save XQS from his own noble idiocy. If they really do change ZYH’s arc that much so he’s not even around and SMC lets his friend die like that… then this isn’t the same story at all and those aren’t the characters I know and love. I’m gonna hold out hope they have more sense until it airs.

As a side note, XQS in the novel, doesn’t have hope, but he isn’t suicidal. A scene that made me want to cry was when he’s about to blow up the ships and he realizes he DOES want to live. It’s something like “for his family, his friends, his lover, and even for himself.”

And then ZYH comes along and saves him hilariously, in classic ZYH manner 😂 One thing I loved was how whenever XQS got TOO noble, ZYH would pop up to take him down a peg, like “oh come on, no one can be THAT noble!” Loved ZYH’s character and dynamic with XQS. The way ZYH decided to rescue him in the end (against XQS’s noble-idiot will yet again! 😂) made perfect sense to me and it’s gonna be so disappointing if they ruin that.

Yeah, I’m having a hard time with it. Basically, this was how I saw the dynamic in the novel:

XQS: There’s no light, no hope, I don’t expect to survive and I’m not going to try.
Nan Yi: There is light, there is hope, we should try to survive

Over and over. I read the whole thing hoping Nan Yi would be proven right, and in the end, to his surprise, she was. Bittersweet bc of the loss and his “XQS/XCE” identity officially died so he has to live undercover from now on, but there’s still some light and hope. I don’t want a story where XQS is proven right and in the novel, ZYH didn’t either.

I loved ZYH’s and SMC’s characters and arcs. They have to totally change them to force a sad ending, when so much of the story is already sad. If they really change it this way, it’s just pessimistic and untrue to the source material.

Yeah he always planned to die, which was why him living in the end was a surprise even to him. I really like ZYH’s arc and ultimate decision to save him. It also doesn’t make any sense for SMC’s character to abandon him, unless like you said, they’ve completely changed the characters. If they’ve changed it this much, sadly I’m probably not gonna watch.

Also the argument that he shouldn’t live bc of so much loss doesn’t make any sense to me either. By that logic, no character in a historical drama with war should live - they ALL lose people. He might have ptsd or grief if he lives? Yeah, that’s part of what makes it bittersweet. It’s still sad, but having grief for people’s sacrifices is not a reason to kill him off too. I think it’s better for him to go on living for those people.

If they really turn it into loss, loss, loss, and then he loses in the end, why even bother. Butchering all the characters to make it a pain fest.

I guess I feel the opposite way most people do about this story. The more he loses, the more I want him to win in the end.

Nah, I still think he should survive. Just because other people died doesn’t mean he has to. ZYH gave such a powerful argument in the book for why he should be rescued. It would butcher ZYH’s arc, and SMC’s character too, if they abandon him to an unjust death after all he went through. It would just be bleak, no hope at all. Ofc with all the changes, they may have already butchered both their arcs and characters, but I hope not

Adding that while his speaking voice is deep, he has a really wide range as a singer. I believe he's a natural tenor, but he can go down deep to baritone and very high as well. This performance is a good example of his range: starts out so deep and then he goes high and smooth at the end. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrkoHXbRMKM. Btw, this is Tan Jianci's official channel which doesn't have English subs, but you can find this performance elsewhere on YT with subs if you want them.

Looking forward to his OST for this drama too! And I agree, it looks like LYX will be great in this role.

Same! I love this collection of him reading poetry and prose, his voice is gorgeous and relaxing. Plus it has English subs for those, like me, who are still beginners at Chinese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8mFARbAofE

It is surprising how deep his voice is. There's a funny clip of the director for the Three Kingdoms movie, where Tan Jianci voiced Cao Cao, talking about how he originally didn't want to hire TJC because he only saw his photo and thought his face looked too young and delicate. But then he listened to the audio file with TJC's deep, raspy voice, and was shocked by the contrast!

I see, thanks. I haven't seen any of those although I've been considering watching Advisor's Alliance. I guess it makes sense he didn't do the voice since it was so early in his career.

Love the music choice, one of my fave Tan Jianci songs!

He has an incredible voice, both speaking and singing, and is an excellent voice actor. I can't imagine him being dubbed by someone else! What did he film during the pandemic that wasn't his voice? I've never watched anything without his real voice, and I would miss it so much.

Obsessed with this clip: https://m.youtube.com/shorts/O7YBz3yOW4M?ra=m

Oh my, I was not prepared for that intense eye contact and eyebrow flick!

This is making me thankful I'm mostly off social media and out of the loop. I usually just look at fan accounts on YouTube for updates and I haven't seen any of this kind of behavior there. But I don't get why his fans would attack his studio? Isn't he the boss of his own studio so he has final say what it does or doesn't do?

I've managed people's social media in the past and do some PR-related work in my current job as well. Things like social media posts or public statements are usually not written by the people whose names are attached, especially if they're some kind of leader. Depending on how busy they are, they might not even review the posts themselves but appoint someone to do that. I'd be surprised if Tan Jianci writes his own posts. Maybe sometimes, but he doesn't have time to do that regularly.

It could just be a precaution referring to starting rumors in general, not any specific ones. With all rumor-spreading that's been going around, I wouldn't be surprised if some crazy person even tried to blame LYX for this somehow!

Oof. I've fallen off horses before and can tell you it HURTS. The ground is farther away than you think! I can't imagine falling off with all that armor on, poor guy. Thankfully the horse had slowed down and he was able to cling on enough to fall off the side. It obviously hurts a lot more if you fall from on top of the horse or if it's going fast.

In fact, I've experienced almost the same thing that happened to him here. It looks like the horse slowed suddenly, which threw him off-balance. He could have recovered from there, but then it started spinning. When you're on a horse spinning like that it's scary, disorienting and throws you off-center immediately. If you're already off-balance like he was, it's nearly impossible to save. He did a good job trying - better than I could have!

Also, when a horse starts spinning, I've been told to jump clear if possible because there's a chance the horse is about to roll or it could trample on you in its turning. So thankful this wasn't worse!

Haha we’re opposites. I thought Filter was one of the funniest shows I’ve seen. The alpaca episode is iconic to me (the use of Vivaldi killed me!) and I liked the “dumb” song so much I’ve tried to memorize it as part of my Chinese learning.

Go East, on the other hand, I found amusing but not all that funny. Like how you felt about Filter, I would’ve dropped it if it weren’t for him.

It’s great that he’s so versatile and has all these different kinds of shows. There’s something for everybody!

But in this case a fully sad ending would be a forced change, because in the novel he does get rescued. It’s bittersweet because he can’t return to life as himself. His identity as “Xie Queshan/Chao’en” is officially dead and he has to live as an ordinary man hidden in the spy network. For me, it bothers me when dramas change the ending from how it is in the book. If it’s sad in the book, fine. But if it’s bittersweet or HE in the novel, don’t make it sad in the show.

Love that song!

Go East is a fun show overall! The flaw for me was the FL, but like I said, not everyone felt the same way about her. Other than her, I thought it was a decent show.