Skibbies

李添诺 Li Tian Nuo. He did an incredibly good job for what amounts to a guest role. I saw people wishing he played Jin SiYu or 4th prince. https://weibo.com/tiannuo https://movie.douban.com/celebrity/1334556/

More of a general comment. Our protagonists in this drama tend to screw up more than you expect, in this case, Headmaster Xin was trying to damage control the entire time, and turn the situation to be more favourable towards Ning Yi even when it got out of hand. I really like multiple parties with different priorities here clashing tbh, even on "our side", Xin and Ning Yi and mum and Zhiwei all have their own agendas.

Yeah, He Lei is right, he's pretty new to the industry and is managed by Chen Kun's company. No one made a page for him yet I guess. This is his weibo: https://www.weibo.com/u/1087757850

The book is constantly referred as mary sue book on Chinese internet. It pops up a fair bit in drama discussion when people mention the book. I mostly poke around douban and weibo. If you are talking about where you can read the novel, just look up 凰权, there's txt and read online sites floating around.

Zhiwei actually studied for years but yeah she's intelligent and have values that's not really from her time period. She does look like a young boy while crossdressing though so I have little qualms with that, especially when I think her teacher just teach her. She did some dumb stuff in the beginning. Some of it is from the book (she's more overpowered in the book so it's just a thing). She only has two love interest in the drama, Ning Yi and Helian Zheng, the other people all have their own agenda and aren't love interests?

Ahhh it's just a common arcetype because that's what gets past SARFT. especially his characterisations as an emperor near the end. It's not that he's so good at revenge, let's go for the throne. It's more power is a means for revenge (as it was in the book), and he was pushed onto the path for the throne because of people that worked for him. It's also the only way to ensure Zhiwei is safe. (this isn't really clear in the drama but it's his motivation in the book and Ning Yi does want both power and love around ep 50).

It was slated for 50 then expanded for 70 episodes. They shoot that much content because they don't know what would pass. I honestly think they have to take quite a bit of responsibility on how the drama came out.

@appleeye: Novels go through different authorities from dramas. Movies are subjected to different restrictions too. Prime time and historical dramas are the strictest, and they gotten stricter this year, it's a miracle this drama even aired. Both Yanxi and Ruyi were shooting for tv slot, but neither could get past the restrictions so they aired online. Also it was originally a web novel, from 2010, less restrictions then, less restrictions online.

Your description of Ning Yi fits novel Ning Yi to a tee. He is more defined as the drama goes, he didn't actually want the the throne in the beginning, he just wanted revenge. He's pretty consistent throughout the drama, he probably kept the most out of everyone from the book, but a more toned down version with added weakness.

As for Zhiwei, she is an entirely different person from the book one. I actually think it was interesting they decided she could see past revenge, and it fits her more, she's not ruthless like in the book and she never felt like she was part of Dacheng. More importantly, this OTP had trust for the most of the drama, the book OTP only had trust in Minhai and it was promptly broken via unfortunate circumstances. I have gazillion gripes about the last 10 episodes so I'll leave it. She's basically powerless though (because they couldn't let her revive her kingdom. ugh), and even then she's not passive. she saved herself in Dayue. She's less consistently written than Ning Yi, for sure but I think her characterisation holds till uhh idk ep 65? The effects of all those people dying just gradually take their hold on her instead of immediate which is how that ending happened. She take deaths lot harder than book Zhiwei and blame herself more.

idk why you call this Zhiwei Mary Sue tbh. Is it because she's smart but naive? splunky and daring doesn't really go against that, it's part of being young. I mean, it's a common archetype but it's not...sue-ish. It's just little funny because I've had to consistently defend the novel for being mary sue (lots of love interest, OP, too pretty she has to cover her face, lots of descriptions about apperances and flowery language)

The comparison to NiF is largely because the initial arc had similarities. It's also a rare political drama that semi appeal to younger audience, thus the comparison. That and because NiF have become the recent year historical drama standards. Its themes are pretty different though.

Apologies. the nope is meant to mean it's a sad ending. Some people think it's ambiguous but I think that's wishful thinking. The drama uses the about half the novel as framework with sprinkles of the 3rd arc, the characterisations are also pretty different.

Nope. The novel have a happy ending though so people have been using that to smooth over things.

The synopsis is actually kind of misleading because it's novel synopsis, and the drama focus is on Ning Yi. You are definitely going to get that arc in next 3 episode though.

Ni Ni (female lead) debuted in Zhang YiMou's 2011 film, which is probably why you find she has similar aura as Zhang ZiYi. The director is good at picking his actresses. It's first time Ni Ni starring in a drama, and Chen Kun (male lead) had been focusing on movies in recent years too. He has acted in number of dramas before but they were pre-2010 and probably not subbed.

He has gotten hotter over the years, must be a better stylist lol. iirc he had pimples while playing as Doumyoji and he wasn't tall enough so he always had to walk first when they did group entrance. I think I went on to watch quite a number of Matsujun dramas just because how much I loved him in HYD though.

No. I'm indicating which version the videos are, I can't get the subs to show up lol so I don't know what subs they are. If they are completely different then someone have been subbing the tv version, but I think it's more likely one version is mistimed or something?

Kseries is DVD/netflix version at the moment. The easiest way to tell is they are usually consistently 45mins per episode, whereas the TV version will vary from 16, 2x, 3x, 4x, 5xmins with about half the episodes settling around 50mins episodes. The initial few episodes cut aren't too noticeable but sometimes they swap around order of the scenes.

I don't remember too well tbh because the situation is different in the book. I think he did wish at some point she'd just give up her plans but knew she wouldn't. She was Queen of her own country for awhile before they hit stalemate and she surrendered on condition that he'd treat her friends well. She made him think she poisoned him and "died".

That's actually true to her character even in the book. she did similar thing in the book, got everyone settled and planned for, and died to end all the ambition. She was really really tired at that point, since she found out she did lot of things due to a lie. it's just that was a fake death. The happy ending is actually slightly forced in the book, I largely just didn't care at that point. But I totally can see why the drama decide to go with tragedy because themes + characterisation wouldn't pop out as much with a happy end.

Ahhh HYD. I think MG worked because it was the start of idol dramas for TWdramas, the manga popularity helped a bit. HYD worked because of its production values + popularity of manga, again (it's best selling shoujo manga for a reason), then BoF was due to production values. It's the kind of story that's easy to draw in new fans, especially younger ones. Rich hot guys as love interest is perfect, but Tsukushi being a no nonsense protagonist definitely help to keep the audience engaged. I'm pretty sure that's how it stood out from its 90s shoujo peers anyways.

I first stumble upon its anime as an 8? year old, and I really liked its premise, but I only ever saw the beginning, while she was still crushing on Rui. I was reasonably excited about MG but weren't around to catch it (and made the mistake f watching the sequel in full), and later I never really liked Da S's Shan Cai, so I never watched it in full. I have no idea why I don't like her but it seems like she doesn't like the character much either so whatever.

HYD's jdrama was a damn godsend though, it was rapidly paced which made a lot of the bullshit the original plot had lot more tolerateable. (I had watched the anime in full by then and despite all my love for the characters, definitely sorely tempted to drop the series few times.) Matsujun have enough acting chops for me to overlook his image doesn't necessarily fit Doumyoji that well or the fact he isn't hot (I swear I'm a Matsujun fan!), but the original manga isn't necessarily pretty either, and that damn hair.

I love it a ton and would recommend it but I also feel like I have to list all of its faults that might put off a lot of people, which is...a lot. I could never fault it for a lot of the gimmicks because it helped popularised those tropes, but I get it when people say they don't want to watch old tropes.

BoF I was super angry about because I liked F4's looks, but I absolutely detested JanDee (character + acting). I can't handle this story when I hate the protagonist because she the soul of the story for me. I think I got through due to uhh best friend's romance subplot. I don't have the heart to try Chinese version anymore, since there's more changes and it's too long for my taste.

Unrelated mumble, I hate Itazura na Kiss's premise. It took me several tries and multitasking to get through It Started with a Kiss and that was because I loved the main actor/actress a hell lot. I can handle not book-smart protagonist, but I can't handle utterly dumb one, ok? I think it's popular because it's relateable-ish and nice to dream about smart guy that would love you and help you no matter what, even if he's tsundere about it.

The novel end is happy end, Ning Yi's brother ends up as the emperor and they were advisors for awhile, then later ran off to travel.

i don't know if the novel end would help you.......? because the drama only used part of the book as framework. I'd say you should try few episodes and see if you like it tbh.

The book is indeed pretty fast paced because that's how WN are written, zhi wei was also kickass and amazing from the get go and had all kinds of luck. the drama toned that down a lot and made her different so yeah. not to mention they only used half the book as framework for most part. It's just most people severely overestimate ratio of novel fans and general audience.

Yeah it's the DVD version.