PeachBlossomGoddess

ZZ is not in his own jurisdiction and doesn’t have any support on this mission. He has been able to get some support from imperial troops to send some of the criminals back to the capital to be tried later on but he can’t exactly arrest people left and right bc he doesn’t have logistical support. Kaifeng Court’s jurisdiction is over the capital. He is in Xiangzhou which is away from the capital and where the ancient Chu dynasty from Spring and Autumn period used to be. Local yamen officials have shown themselves to be corrupt so they can’t be relied upon. This is a very dangerous mission for him because the mountains are high and the emperor is far away. The local fief lords and authorities are doing as they like, as has been the case throughout Chinese history across many dynasties.

Yeah I am surprised by how bloodthirsty this audience is as well. But I also kind of understand bc this is a bit unusual for a wuxia bc jianghu is usually a law unto itself. The key point is Zhan Zhao is not part of jianghu he cannot live by their code of conduct. But yes I agree that it’s baffling how high rated so many idol dramas with nonsensical scripts are.

Yes but I kind of think that in this drama adaptation that puts her squarely at odds with Zhan Zhao in terms of world view. I am going to guess this version won't see them get together.

Yes the main villain Xiangyang Wang should be a remnant of the ancient Chu kingdom from Spring and Autumn period. The names of the 4 divine lords come from the Chu ci the Nine Songs, which was Chu kingdom's most famous literary work.

No, I don't think so. But there are lots of palm techniques in wuxia - maybe you are thinking of Shaolin's 大悲掌?
Or Kill Bill's Five Point-Palm Exploding Heart technique???

Zhan Zhao is the lead constable of the Kaifeng Court. He absolutely cannot take justice into his own hands. He has to bring him back to face the formal justice process. During Justice Bao's time, the Kaifeng Court was legendary for dispensing justice and challenging the highest level of corruption. If you were paying attention, the Chief Justice of the Dali Court or the Supreme Court is corrupt and somehow involved in this conspiracy. So Zhan Zhao is trying to uncover corruption that has seeped into the highest level of government. This is not just about sex slaves its far more wide reaching and destabilizing than that as enemy kingdom Western Xia is also involved. If Zhan Zhao were to dispense vigilante justice, he can be court martialed or even executed and his boss Justice Bao would be the one to do that to him. People keep whining about this without at all understanding the power structure and dynamics of the system Zhan Zhao has to work within.

We can just agree to disagree.

But I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them is Linglong’s father.

ZZ still doesn’t know who the mastermind is even though we the audience know. And we all still don’t know who Dong Jun and Shan Gui, the other two Divine Lord are.

I think it’s obvious at this point BYT is helping ZZ arrest the bad guys and smoke out their leader. Killing them would just be helping the mastermind silence his minions and evade justice which would make BYT a bad guy. I don’t think that makes any sense. Don’t mistake jianghu heroes as just people who run around killing off bad guys. That is a fundamental misunderstanding of the genre.

I think tonight's episodes suggest BYT is helping ZZ figure out everyone involved in the conspiracy.

To put this on terms we can all understand, one of the reasons Zhan Zhao is not randomly killing bad guys left and right is - 1. he needs to know who Epstein is and 2. he need's Epsteins client list.

But isn't Zhihua holding onto Chang Hongbi? Chang Hongbi's blood can cure his brothers no?

The drama is based on an alternate universe written by a famous fanfiction writer minifish. I didn't read the fanfic novel, just the original classic years ago.

Yes exactly - this audience is a bloodthirsty lot - they just want to see lots of bad guys being mowed down. But dead men tell no tales - so how do you smoke out all the main villains?

So far I have only enjoyed Yang Yang's acting in 2 dramas - this one and Immortal Ascension. He used to be a really good actor when he was kind of young and chubby in Dream of the Red Mansions. In WRTW he was too obsessed with his most flattering camera angles he looked like he had a frozen shoulder.

This should be an alternate universe to the original novel. Even the timeline doesn't match anymore. In the novel, he met and fought Yuehua in a duel and they got engaged after that. They exchanged swords as engagement gifts to each other - thus Zhan Zhao's Zhanlu sword was form her and she fights with his Juque sword.

It should be bc Zhihua allegedly has the antidote to the poison that BYT's two rat bros need.

I think Linglong's skill level is not so high that she can restrain herself in emergency situations. ZZ's problem is most of the time he can so if he kills someone, its a conscious decision to do so.

Most of the time, they are disappointing - TINY and emaciated- there is a lot of lying going on about height. Many of them look much better on camera than in real life. I am not a fan of his acting at all but Xiao Zhan actually looks much better in person, the camera doesn't flatter him. Michelle Yeoh also looks terrific but she is super petite. Yang Mi also looks very stunning in real life.