PeachBlossomGoddess

I think 10. She just popped up.

No cliffhanger in JOL2 but it’s definitely TBC. Feel free to DM me re: anything on the list.

Yes the crown prince's story is later on, it begins around the time she enters the palace as a court lady. I can't remember which episode but it is the dominant story for most of the second half of the drama.

And I agree completely NIF2 would have been terrific if Xiao Yuanqi were better cast and better acted.

I have ranking lists by year of the dramas I have watched on my profile page. This year I think Heroes (2024) was really good and under appreciated.

I am going to wait to find out how many episodes of Huazheng I am going to have to suffer through before I continue.

If you haven't watched Court Lady you can check it out focusing on the crown prince's story. It is an entirely different character from SYR but also so well played he stole the show. But I would FF all the FL scenes in that.

😅😂 Its a total shameless scam!

I am hoping AI will eventually get good enough to eventually digitally enhance and upgrade the 1980s TVB versions of Jin Yong bc I have given up on the mainland adaptations.

If this follows its current trajectory of brilliantly failing I doubt anyone will think of making LOCH again for a long time.

The FL in Court Lady was so boring. YZ wanted to make a drama about Tang Taizong's gay eldest son and his bad karma for killing his own brothers. And that is what Court Lady is really about. I really enjoyed that arc of it. But the romance was meh and not at all the story YZ wanted to tell.

SYR is why I like YZ despite all his controversy. He focuses on the more interesting characters in a story and makes them the de facto lead. Bc China has this hero complex like the lead characters are always heroes. But YZ rejects that and makes interesting characters the main focus.

Couldn't agree more. Tbh, I got bored already by ep 30. They really should have strictly kept to the episode limit guidelines. This would have been much tighter and better that way.

Omg that's terrible! They really shouldn't do that bc the extra episode was kind of boring tbh. My subscription is SVIP so I get everything already including the express so I can't see what they are charging for it.

I think there is of course some level of that bc he spends a lot of time and money developing talent and then when they bc famous and start to make real money they try to reset terms or leave to form their own companies. So he tries to hold them back a bit. I am not defending him but I can understand his commercial motivations. I also don't think he is the only one in the business that does that but he is more vocal and more vindictive.

Yeah I actually didn't really pay attention to the last arc bc as far as I was concerned the story was over and it was wrap up all the loose ends time. I was so confused he rode off to war! I was like huh? What war???

I don't think YZ is targeting WXY. But I noticed YZ is usually more interested in exploring themes that have nothing to do with romance in his dramas. Both Court Lady and Song of Youth are like that too, the main couple's story gets side lined. That is bc he knows romance sells but he himself finds it boring and so he packages it like a romance and then shoots the story he really wanted to shoot and makes the romance a side story.

Yeah - I would kind of respect him more if he decided to do that and kept it that way. The truth is he could have ended this at the wedding and it would have been the perfect ending.

That's even worse. Its an arc that comes out of nowhere - no one starts a final arc into the last half of the last episode! From what I could see, the Duke was outnumbered and alone. No way to survive that even though they killed him offscreen. And that tree took years to grow that big and to bloom. She just went back to see if against all hope he keeps his promise and comes back when it blooms. If this were a xianxia and he miraculously appears, fine I can accept that. But it is not. This was meant to be at best an open ending but it is actually a BE if you pay attention to the details. The special was just shot as a desperate and lame attempt to reverse the ending bc YZ didn't want to be scolded by netizens.

Once King Cheng was taken down, there is no reason for Chu Ran to continue the rebellion bc he has no one to put on the throne anymore. They just gratuitously shot an unnecessary and bloody war scene to gratuitously kil of the ML.

They added the nonsensical last arc so they could shoot a special that makes them a bunch of extra $$$. Not cool.

The ending is extra super stupid. Two thumbs down.
Where are the goddamn censors when you need them? This should have ended half way mid point through 40.