PeachBlossomGoddess

Sigh! He is slow whenever its convenient for the plot.

There are quite a few but they are dated - Three Kingdoms, the Qin dynasty series, Yongzheng Dynasty, Towards the Republic, Emperor Wu of Han, Ming Dynasty 1566, Kangxi Dynasty etc.

Well China has 5000 years of history for dramas to draw inspiration from. Most of these plots are fictional, with varying degrees of historical influence and accuracy. POB for example is highly fictionalised based on Three Kingdoms period. All the characters, wars, states etc is pure fiction and even the costumes are only quite accurate in design - during that period they didn't have such fine silk or embroidery. But its fine to enjoy it for what it is, a highly fictionalised work. As for how to fix problematic plots, that's way above my pay grade. I would say just drop them and move on.

Nothing to be sorry about, you didn't spoil anything.

👍I am not there yet.😅

Surely he must have some smart friends.

Well during that period, warlords who made his dumb friends his generals tend to have very very short lives.

Yes I kind of expected them to do that as this isn't a serious political drama but I hope it at least kind of holds together enough so that stakes between the leads feel real.

Yeah its fine for them to be funny as long as its not at the cost of their smarts.

Yes it would hint that Da Qiao's choice is accepted by the Qiao family and they now hold a strategic territory.
I didn't read the novel or watch Sijin but I hope the strategy plot here doesn't get dumbed down too much.

That's good color - ty for confirming it is a drama plot and not a book plot.

Yes, sneaking in an episode or two here and there so I don't fall too far behind. I am enjoying it still but mildly disappointed the plot is being thrown under the bus for the romance.

The Qiao flag plot is quite ridiculous. I just can't believe a top general like Wei Qu would be so stupid that he would allow them to raise a flag there with the Qiao name on it. I get they are trying to setup Manman's smarts and her divided loyalties but that sub-plot just feels very lazily written and contrived.

Yeah it got really ridiculous to the point that many lead actors were gauging so much of the budget as pay and then evading taxes (50pct tax rate in China) that the government cracked down on it in 2018. They capped total actor pay at 40pct of the budget, which has resulted in better sets, costumes, screenwriters and directors. They also capped lead roles at the lesser of RMB 1mm/episode/actor and RMB 50mm total for all leads. This is why you see many dramas where the "expensive" lead actor gets paired with a lesser known one so that they can pay them RMB40mm and their co-lead RMB 10mm. But the real serious actors don't demand that much bc they know to make a good drama they need a strong supporting cast which they can't get if they took all the pay. So I don't really care that much whether something is S or S+, I just look at the overall cast list and I kind of know what I am gonna get. This one was "low budget" for sure but there was enough money to hire a pretty strong cast overall, which is more important to me than something headlined by some super expensive S+ idol actor with a crappy supporting cast.

The single biggest budget item in any drama is lead actor pay. So this is a "low-budget" drama bc both leads don't command very high rates. Usually when the leads are not big actors, there is plenty of $$$ leftover for sets and costumes and it shows. Legend of Fei is the perfect example of a crappy looking S+ drama where 80-90pct of the money went to pay the two lead actors, leaving practically nothing left for everything else.

Really? Didn't notice.

Yes clearly it was unclear to you.

Well your comment was "very breathy not very clear"". I am just saying it is very clear even when its breathy. And it seemed to me appropriate for the moment but we don't have to agree on that. Hope you continue to enjoy it.

I hear what you are saying I have not been a fan of his acting either. It’s not the worst but it has clearly been a work in progress with his facial expressions sometimes out of place or his mouth just agape or the lethargic slouch. But he seems to have fixed most of those issues in this drama so far and the role suits him. So he has clearly made good progress.

No she has one of the clearest line deliveries among Chinese actresses. Even when she is breathy or sobs or puts other emotions into her lines , I can hear exactly what she is saying. Even Yang Zi who is already really good occasionally mispronounces her words. While I respect your opinion on her acting though I don’t agree with it, I just roll my eyes and shake my head when non native speakers start commenting on line delivery as if they know what they are talking about.