Meari21

I read somewhere that she's the Helen of Troy of this story. I am inclined to agree. She caused so much chaos simply because she refused to accept her fate. If she really didn't want to marry Ruojin, she could've killed herself way before the wedding. But no, she wanted to be saved by a knight in shining armor so she waited for him even though she knew he would die trying. If she really cared for Dingzhi, she wouldn't have encouraged him, she would've sacrificed herself for his safety. Some say her father was in the wrong for setting up that marriage alliance, but there was a legit reason for that alliance and Ruofeng explained that to Dingzhi. Political alliances were the norm. In fact, noble people very rarely married for love in those days. They just refused to understand the validity of that marriage because they wanted to be together and couldn't care less about the consequences and the lives they would destroy. Ah, the carelessness and stupidity of youth. lol

I'm glad there are other people who can't stand her character. I thought I was the only one stressing out because of her. lol There are so many who ship her with Dingzhi and think she made the right decision by leaving Xiao Yu and her duties behind. And then after living with Dingzhi for a time, she decides to go back to her husband and eldest son whom she abandoned, abandoning Wuxin and Dingzhi in the process. What a horrible horrible woman!

She destroyed four lives including her own. Xiao Yu grew up to be a real dirtbag because she abandoned him and he felt unloved by her, while Wuxin grew up thinking he was abandoned by his own mother because she left him in the care of someone else. I think at some point he suspected her of causing his father's death. Yes, she was raped, but then again most women who married for political alliances at that time were raped because they were forced into marriage. That is the fate that most women had at that time. She could've been happy if she had doted on Xiao Yu and allowed herself to be loved by Ruojin instead. He's a complete prick but he genuinely cared for her, she was his favorite consort, after all. Dingzhi could've lived to old age if she had let him go. He would've found someone else and could've been happy if she had told him to move on. Xiao Yu could've grown up to become a decent human being if she had been there for him since the beginning. But these things needed to happen in order for Wuxin to be born. I just can't condone her behavior.

Any chance of this getting re-released on iQIYI any time soon?

I actually just thought about this! I guess I'm not the only one who want to see them in a drama together. But I'm not sure if I'll like their pairing as much as I like her pairing with Hou Minghao. I fell in love with them in Back From The Brink. They had such a palpable chemistry and I rarely say that about CPs.

That's just how they do it. Only Netflix releases all episodes for the season at once. Prime Video, Disney+, Hulu, Apple TV, and a host of other streaming services release episodes weekly. Chinese streaming platforms like Youku, iQIYI, and WeTV typically release two episodes per day. But even Netflix does not release all the episodes at once anymore, they sometimes divide them into two parts.

Oh for sure! But I've read a lot of complaints from non-fans of TBOY that they have a hard time keeping up with the number of characters being introduced in Dashing Youth and getting bored with the plot progression, and that is a valid criticism imho. Baili Dongjun was my favorite among the older characters in TBOY, though. He was this cool drunken master type who could wipe the floor with anyone. Everything he did in TBOY makes so much more sense now. I was looking forward to Dashing Youth because he's the protagonist and his relationships with the other martial arts masters when they were young is going to be explored in the drama.

Maybe most of them don't really read manga/manhua or watch anime/donghua? I'm an avid manga and anime fan myself so it's easy for me to see the tropes, familiar story beats, and how story arcs typically unfold and progress. But maybe some are not as familiar and they are more used to typical storytelling from dramas so they're finding it difficult to follow. Some people complain about the lack of fight choreography in this drama but although I wish to see more fight scenes similar to those in TBOY, I am also enjoying the CGI-heavy fight scenes in this because it gives me an idea what proper live action adaptations of my favorite shonen manga would look like. I imagine that if they make a really good live action adaptation of Demon Slayer, the fight scenes would look similar.

Dashing Youth introduces far more characters, though and many of them have significant roles in The Blood of Youth. So if you have seen TBOY, you will have a better understanding of those characters. If you haven't, you'll most likely dismiss them as insignificant and even forget them. TBOY at least made a real effort to build up the main characters first so you become attached to them more.

Probably because you don't have specific expectations and you have nothing to compare it with. Most of those who criticize the drama are those who went into this expecting it to be like The Blood of Youth. But some of the criticisms are valid, too. The Blood of Youth's plot progression is much faster and you can tell from the get-go that it's politically driven, whereas Dashing Youth doesn't really start to pick up until several episodes in. But it's a different drama, it's more lighthearted in tone and the main character has a more boyish and cheerful personality. Also, if you've seen TBOY first, you'd more likely to pay more attention to the characters in Dashing Youth because you know they'll play significant roles in the sequel. That's why I would recommend watching the sequel first. It's like the OG Star Wars or The Lord of the Rings, you know. You watch them before the prequels.

I understand that The Blood of Youth is the standard and that many fans of the drama are comparing it to its prequel. I also get the tendency to compare the two. But the truth is nothing will ever beat TBOY, not the prequel or even its future sequel. Recreating that magic is not easy or even possible sometimes. How many sequels/prequels have you seen that are actually as good or even better than the original? Just few and far between. I think the reason I'm enjoying this prequel is I came into it not expecting it to be like The Blood of Youth but to find out what happened to the older generation and what started the whole mess. My only real complaint is that the writers of this show wrote it expecting the viewers to already know these characters. So, I wouldn't recommend this show if you haven't seen TBOY yet. That should come first even though it's a sequel.

And Dashing Youth's director is basically a newbie. He hasn't done anything notable yet. This is his biggest break if I'm not mistaken.

Finally, proper subs!

Nah, the English subs are the same ones from the Youku app. Just machine generated. I'm guessing they couldn't find proper subbers this time.

Still waiting for proper English subtitles for episode 14. They still haven't fixed it!

It's not available in other regions, though. That's why I hope they'd release these shows globally so more people can access them. I think these shows will become more popular if they were more accessible.

I hope they also release this and The Blood of Youth globally on Netflix so it can be more accessible worldwide.

For real?! I love that song! I can't wait to watch the episode!

That's what I said when I first saw him.

I actually don't understand the criticism. This is supposed to be a fun and youthful drama about a bunch of teens who know nothing but cause trouble. Their goal is to become famous in the martial arts world but they know very little of this world. The politics and drama will come later and they will learn what Jianghu is really like. I agree that there's a huge disparity between the direction and acting, but that's because many of the cast members in The Blood of Youth are already established actors. You can't compare Hou Minghao's acting to Liu Xueyi's for example, they have vastly different calibers. Xueyi, in my opinion, is one of the best actors in China, period. Li Xinze is also of a similar caliber. Dashing Youth, however, has a much younger cast consisting of mostly up and coming actors. The Blood of Youth's director, Yin Tao, has an impressive resume so he's a veteran in this industry, whereas Dashing Youth's director is practically a newbie. Xiao Se is a strategist who is seasoned in politics with genius-level martial arts prowess, while Baili Dongjun is a sheltered spoiled brat who barely learned martial arts. They are practically opposites! Dashing Youth is more of a coming-of-age story, whereas The Blood of Youth is more about the older generation giving way to the new and the new generation righting the wrongs of the old. To those who have watched The Blood of Youth, we all know how things will turn out so we expect to see major character development from these youngsters. I, for one, appreciate that they're giving these newbies a shot at fame. Among the main cast, only Hou Minghao has been in the business for years but he started as an idol and only began acting some years back so he's not exactly a seasoned actor either.