PeachBlossomGoddess

Hmmm.... I am not sure I like this opening line. Foreshadowing?

Tyvm

reach nascent stage? I couldn't really tell.

Question - at the end, does Han Li

It is! Compellingly written.

I can't watch this but your review made me decide to make sure to hug a tree on my hike tomorrow.

Ah... yes! I kind of remember this one but not so much the plot anymore. It was pretty gory. And this feels like it kind of still happens these days...
"when scripts were written on the fly and the actual dialogue was dubbed in later,"

It is true that such a big portion of the military power of the country should not be held by two generals who are married to each other. But it is also true that the chancellor should absolutely NEVER, EVER, EVER have access to military power. By his own logic Chu Zhao more than even Xiao Jue cannot be allowed to marry He Yan either. He could have easily checkmated Chu Zhao in front of the emperor. He Yan is the only one who got it when she told Chu Zhao his bid to marry her was self serving.

My dear Xiao Jue, you may be a fantastic general. But on the chess board, Chu Zhao still is way ahead of you. His logic to the emperor never bears close scrutiny to begin with:

Tyvm 🌸. I have watched and read so much of this kind of genre that I am rarely surprised anymore. It makes me sad - I'd much rather be surprised, that's where the real pleasure in this genre comes from. This one did keep me guessing for some time and doubting my theories, which is why I liked it so much.

Chemistry is very subjective. I find the chemistry here a bit better than PoB.

I have shared my thoughts on the ending a few times in this comment section and also wrote about it at the bottom of my review.

Well to each their own. Nianci is irrelevant not sure why you are so hung up on her - she is not what LOCH is about and would not be in any arc about Duel on Mount Hua regardless.

Lots of reasons - she is American and her acting is quite Western and modern. She also doesn't fit the stick thin Chinese beauty standard. I don't mind, I like there to be diversity in the actress pool.

Yeah it is up to the platform to decide when to open the rating. They try to do it when they think the score is stable/satisfactory/as good as it gets. Usually when they open the score somewhere in the middle, I know its gonna crash at the end. But if they open after it finishes, it means they have confidence the ending will pull the rating up. That said, I personally would have ended it a bit differently so IMHO the ending was good enough but could have been better.

Glad to see you enjoyed this - it really does deserve more love. Julia Xiang's fight scenes were great. I thought her performance was pretty good too I can't believe the hate she got.

Douban always has quite diverse views but on balance the comments were consistently better than Coroner’s Diary which is something I think was panned throughout.

Yes it’s a formula they should stick to.

Sadly it’s gonna take more than 2 hits for them to turn around their business.

Yes that’s what I tell iqiyi IR every time I meet them. They actually know but it’s actually the ad model that is the problem. The advertisers decision to buy slot s is very driven by traffic actors bc they know that’s what draws broad viewership over content quality.