ShortCircuit

Let's just skip InuYasha completely and totally go for the Sesshomaru spin-off.

The harem belongs to the old Emperor. He doesn't care anymore for those things. But each of the harem women - consorts and Empress - have a pawn in the game (their own sons, by blood or adopted) that they are trying to make Crown Prince, because that definitely would change their whole lives, too. And for a mother's love, presumably.

Most of the romance is actually bromance (no sexual tension, just brothers-in-arms, remembered friendship, actual male bonding, etc). There are a few bits of current romance... but the plot is focusing on the revenge, power games, and punishment of all involved in the initial conflict.

The scale is huge - the whole Empire. It's a palace drama mainly, though, not many battle scenes (they're not completely lacking), mostly mind games and genius-level planning and counter-planning. Everybody's playing dice with their lives. The tension keeps getting higher and higher with each episode.

I've watched a lot of dramas, but there are very few that comes close to this one in regard to plot tightness, level of acting (Consort Jing is still one of my favourite characters ever, it's rare to see a woman with pretty little power that is so cunning, level-headed and a great match for MCS's strategies, playing along without ever once meeting him - until close to the end) and general satisfaction about the ending.

So, highly recommended (coming from someone who doesn't really appreciate romance other than in rom-coms, LOL.)

Anyone who wants MORE romance in the story - Nirvana in Fire 2 has got them covered :)

There are many women who play power games along with the men - the Empress, the Noble Consort, the Consort Jing, the Commandery Princess Ni Huang, the spies (many, many female spies), the strategist - yes, a woman - and then those just wanting to save their families and maybe revenge an evil act done to them, like Princess Li.

There are at least three stages being played at the same time - the harem politics, the strategists' game and then the army's straightforward game.

There is not a lot of romance, indeed, because it's not about a romance but about revenge. But not-female centric?! Half the battles are being waged in the concubines' palaces! (Maybe even more than half, considering who's influencing the outcome most of all.)

So yeah, who's in it for the romance will be disappointed, since there's almost none. But there are many strong female characters, and they're just as bad (or good) as the men.

Same feeling here, I could only watch basically the first three minutes - and that's because I was trying to figure out if NF put The HU in it (couldn't stay til the end or try to look it up later though. Anyway, those killing those instruments were either The HU or some look-alikes trying to grab on to a similar look).

But I decided that if I feel I want to FFD the whole first ep beginning from minute 4 it's a definite sign this one is NOT for me.

She's not evil... just a total narcissist who doesn't even trust the results of her own selfish actions.

But she becomes very, very easy to hate.

Oh, he was in his most looking-like-WWX phase, LOL. Of course he'd be tall - or she's just tiny :)

EDIT LOL, he's 1.83m tall, almost the same as XZ. (wiki doesn't go into decimals, but XZ as SY in SBMS keeps saying he's 183.6cm tall, LOL. So there's a half-centimeter advantage for the home team hahaha).

Triplets, OMG!!! Congratulations! (also, you have my sympathy for the next few years of no sleep. They'll be your pride and joy when they get past the age of 7 or thereabouts, just hang on, it won't be that long :D)

But consider this - watching TTEOTM will give you plenty of excuses for emotional outbursts when you feel like crying because the sky is blue or the babies start smiling in their sleep :) Just say it's because ADG being lonely, or TTJ being awesome or LSS being confused yet again :D Nobody will bat an eye - we know these guys, we know what they're capable of :D

TTJ and LSS and everybody else. Even ADG. I just miss them - and a drama to catch and keep me as TTEOTM did.

*sigh*

Re-watch time it is.

*just checking*

...Yup, still missing them.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, XIAO ZHAN! Here's to many new dramas and many new fans to discover a great (and handsome, too) actor!

When WWX summoned Wen Ning, he made him a bit too fierce and dangerous for the juniors. So he instinctively tried to calm him and used a song he barely remembered - it was the song LWJ played for him in the cave of the Tortoise of Slaughter (WuJi theme in the drama, WangXian theme everywhere else).

LWJ never played that song for anyone else, only WWX got to listen to it. So when WWX used it, with a flute, while controlling a fierce corpse (well, in the drama Wen Ning isn't, but that's what's happening, LOL), there was pretty much little doubt who could he be.

Around the end of the drama, WWX tells LWJ he figured it out too (when they're strolling about, LWJ leading Lil' Apple the donkey, and WWX riding it, LOL).

And, that aside - NOBODY else dares call LWJ "LAN ZHAN!!!" quite like that, LOL, not even Lan XiChen :D

Cats are lazy but extremely beautiful, graceful - and efficient when going for the kill.

The man knows best, I'd say we believe him :D

Things start to go very, very wrong around episodes 15 - 17. And then they go extremely wrong, with a vengeance, until WWX dies in episode 33 and is resurrected - not a spoiler, because that's the first scene in the drama.

So the flashback ends in 33 and present time resumes. Don't skip it, though, it gets epically dark before things change.

AGAIN, what does this have ANYthing to do with same-sex relationships or BL?! There is NO link. There is NOTHING same-sex partners or gay persons have to take responsibility for. It's all on the guilty persons' back.

I mean, seriously, are we going to discuss it in this tone? I feel a need to repeat myself here, and not under a spoiler tag - kids watch romantic movies (and famous TV dramas) that involve intimate scenes (some of them extremely graphic) and DO NOT become rapists anyway. It's not about being curious. It's ALWAYS about power over someone. There's nothing in it about "monkey sees, monkey does". Some children are unhinged, and the police will very probably find the roots of their evil actions in their families or entourages. NOT in some drama - that in China they dilute so much that can't be called BL anyway. NOT in the existence of gay people around them. This is a false narrative and nobody has to accept any responsibility over what two unhinged children did - over a period of time, there's no "impulsive action motivated by curiosity" in this. THEY did this, THEY are guilty. It's not something that was imposed on them.

This is all I have to say on this. /end rant.

I don't understand what that atrocity has to do with same-sex relationships and BL. I mean, rape sadly happens a lot more in the hetero world (if only going by the huge numbers difference between straight and gay people), and we don't go around saying, ooooh, this will ban romance movies!!

I don't know who owns that account, but pairing bullying and rape with the general idea of BL and even specific BL-inspired titles (let's not pretend they're not going to censor everything they think might hint of BL) is extremely far-fetched and maybe just throwing a rock in the lake to see how many people start trying to take it out.

She started out believing he is - or is definitely going to be - the devil incarnate, because that was who he became in the world he never fell in love with YXW. She had to inch slowly, ever so slowly into loving him, and her belief in him is easily shattered because it's only based on love and him showing her he could be good, from time to time.

All things considered, WE saw him show affection and caring for everyone way more than she did - we knew he cared for her, we knew he never intended to kill Xiao Lin and had let the other army make a retreat in order to let them all survive, we knew he was always yearning for her love.

Whereas she saw him being calculated, she saw him becoming the mighty king who would lord it all over her, she saw him chasing down Xiao Lin and his army (as total enemies), she did stab Xiao Lin because of TTJ's influence, and he seemed to her to be more interested in YBC than her, to the point she'd rather just not have hope.

She did sacrifice instead of him, though, that shows how much faith she does have in him living on cleanly, without her. I don't think it's a lack of trust - more like others have said, it's a lack of choices. She just can't risk the world for his love (HE would, instead, for her love.) How does that saying go, he fell last but he fell hardest? :)

You just have to love him for it, in the end :D

Because of first impressions (she saw him killing her parent and her whole sect when he was DG in their actual first meeting) and she knows no matter how good he actually might be, the Devil Bone won't be turned to the good guys' side no matter what.

She's on a mission and has to lie to herself it's all justified, even if it breaks both their hears.

Also, novel readers assure us he's not that likable in it till the end, so maybe her actions are easier to comprehend considering the original story.

I felt the same (started watching - after actually dropping it after ep1 - after it ended airing). If you're like me, you're going to love the parents. That part of the drama makes up and then some for the start.

Also prepare for some gore in the later eps. Quite a lot of it.

It gets way better (IMHO) after ep7 or thereabouts (when they tell the stories of the parents). The kids are pretty same-old, same-old awkward school romance (with extra superpowers) but the parents are heavy guns and make the whole drama very much worth it.

I meant she replaced him as final boss / strategist of the whole superpowered "test-and-replace-the-old-ones" thing. Throughout the whole S1, Min was the obvious boss and evil mastermind and then oops, she becomes the boss.

If someone didn't read the webtoon (like myself) that comes through as a cheap switch for the value of shock and diminishes DooSik's choice to come get rid of the planner - while JuWon gets rid of the sniffer. If they had managed to separatedly destroy the head and chain of command in that institution, that would have warranted some applauses, but instead DS only removes a figurehead that betrayed him and that's that.

Oh well, they have a chance to make it clear in the second season, when it happens.