Skibbies

oh yeah 2021 is impossible. it'd be almost impossible for a modern drama too tbh.

they could be backups or trainees? I definitely think they could have used the extras in more scenes, even if they aren't developed.

JoL s1 took a year and half to air, and s2 hasn't started filming yet. while MHH is a far smaller budget and I don't think they expected it to succeed, it took 4 months to air. It's unclear when the script of s1 started, I do get the impression that the casting was done after JoL s1's success, but not necessarily the script. If the script was done after JoL s1, that would mean from penning the script to finishing airing, MHH took just a year-ish, that's incredibly fast for a historical drama. In comparison, JoL s1 took 3 years minimum (might be 3 and half), s2 is looking at 2 years minimum.

Anyways, Qin Wen gets a lot of projects too but I think she has a team of writers so she get through scripts lot faster than Wang Juan. Wang Juan just have a bunch of s2 lined up at this point. Considering the success of s1, MHH s2 is fairly likely at this point but it's hard to say how long it would take.

she's a complete drama original character, her connection to the core group is through Tong Nian who was barely here. I assume they couldn't get the actress to reprise her role and there weren't further more story to tell so she wasn't around.

You can stop at first half of ep 26 or just 45 for a good arc ending. It was planned for three seasons to begin with. s1 was a huge success, s2 haven't started filming yet though due to the script taking a while I think

It covers the first 39 years of his life, ends with unification.

It covers the first 39 years of his life, ends with unification.

it's not really recent, it's a modern thing though, it's a given part of any wedding. I can't actually remember cdramas off top of my head since i don't watch enough modern romance cdramas but I swear I've seen it in 90s and early 00s hk dramas.

his father is a very well known comedian, xiangsheng comedian (sort of traidtional chinese stand up comedy i guess?)

Yeah it takes away the otp's shining moment, and you are right, XQ is a champion of common soldier just like Longbo. I don't think killing Zitan would have trigger NRTA, even if it did, you could totally write a plot where he's forced to answer for death of his army, kind of like NiF did? There's just so many ways you could have worked around it even if it's an issue. *sigh*

oh yeah definitely, NRTA is always super vague and nonspecific so you have to keep guessing, it's really annoying and gross.

Are you talking about Yanxi being pulled? It + Ruyi got pulled for its subgenre (gong dou? palace fighting?) Maybe it's all the poisoning people and abortions??? LOL. but Legend of Zhenhuan survived? It's kind of mystifying. idk how this kind of bitch fighting is more toxic than the bitch fighting on cctv (national tv) dramas, sometimes those dramas have really terrible plot (not writing, just underlying values), I think cctv doesn't have to go through NRTA though, so maybe it's that.

The novel had Xiao Qi overthrow the Ma family at the end, and they weren't as incompetent as they seem in the drama since they don't get much screentime. Most importantly, Zitan isn't as annoying, he's just a tragic figure, born into the wrong family at the wrong time. He's more suited to be a son of minister rather than a prince, by the time he ascended the throne, XQ had effective control of most of the court, so he was just a puppet. XQ didn't change much except for less ambition.

Awu was rather different, she was innocent and naive at the start, but few chapters in, she finds out she was traded away by her family, and she vows to help XQ because he cares for her and his interest aligns with hers. She ends up arranging other people's marriages and plot against other people for her/XQ's interest, just like her family did. She became rather good at the game that she once detested. She's not ruthless though, and she still have soft spot for family and Zitan so it's pretty human.

It's not really a novel I love, but I could still appreciate its themes at the end of day, power corrupts + sacrifices and tragedy while vying for power + power couple that manage to steady their country in tumult times. There's a lot of tragic undertone in the novel, it simply mentions but doesn't elaborate on Wang Lin's first love and forced marriage or Empress' first love, powerlessness of Zitan, Wanru's self sacrifice, Emperor's negligence of Zilv, Yuxiu's affection that's never returned, General Song's death etc. The drama kept most of it, but it's amongst bunch of boring plot I've seen before so it's not popped out most of the time.

I totally understand they can't just overthrow the dynasty. I did fully expect the otp to be regents though, maybe reluctant regents since they lost all their ambition. I guess Wang Su sort of works here, but it doesn't feel the same. It's perfectly okay for Awu to reluctantly scheme and plot things and just let Zitan die and still be a good person, it wouldn't trigger NRTA. Maybe the writers simply over self-censor, or this is the only kind of FL they know how to write, I wouldn't be surprised considering all the familiar tropes they liked to employ. Honestly, I think they could have given us start on some reform or showing that there's some changes in court that means the future is hopeful, rather than this.

Oh yeah, the novel also had way better female supporting characters, I'm pretty annoyed with how much they set up Empress + Wanru + Wang Qian + Su Jiner to be absolutely awful. I know they needed more meat to the plot and some bits are from the novel, but there's just too many shitty plot and too much time focused on them!

Because both of those arcs are drama original lol. The first half had original scenes and characterisations/setups but the story trajectory still sort of followed the novel more or less, Wang Lin is the best part of the drama and I'm glad he stuck around or it would have been unsalvageable.

They really should have just kept Ode to Shangyang as a title. I can't believe I finished this drama.

The chinese title have nothing with to do with ggs1, the english title is probably in case people miss this spinoff.

As for this drama. treat it as an unrelated drama with same names will be for the best. (treat it like JoL and My Heroic Husband maybe) The career is different so team dynamic is bit different, the characterisations are bit different too, since some of the characters retain their novel personality (Ai Qing/appledog and Shen Zhe/grunt for example) compared to GGS. The timeline also doesn't quite match up even if I can vaguely trace it.

GGS the novel is technically the romance spinoff of Gun/HSY. This one's source novel is the main story, but its core plot (all the gaming bits and flashback) was taken and fused into GGS. So this drama adapted the remaining bits they didn't adapt + its prequel + romance, and added some original bits. So a lot of people have hard time reconciling the two and expecting something fairly different from what the drama is.

they are out for vvip/on demand.

yeah it's mostly due to comparison and there's significant characterisation and cast change, when some of the characterisation + events are straight from the novel that s1 ommitted, ah well. I haven't seen the ending yet, but i rather like the otp to be honest, little iffy on the slow start (too much romance for me honestly LOL)

the drama was filmed last year, same time as SSS, it's by the same production company, thus some of the familiar supporting characters.

they dropped 8 ep on the first day, 2 eps after, then they added wednesday to the update schedule, so that's why you have 20.