Skibbies

there's a suspected deleted scene in ep 11

oh I have a whole list somewhere.

movie highly rec: deep sea 深海, xiong shi shao nian 雄狮少年, feng yu zhou 风语咒, xiao men shen 小门神, white snake II: qing she jie qi 白蛇2: 青蛇劫起, ne zha zhi mo tong jiang shi 哪吒之魔童降世
rec: xin shen bang: nezha reborn 新神榜：哪吒重生, bai she yuan qi 白蛇缘起, xin shen bang: yang jian 新神榜：杨戬

highly rec: beanie's daily life 请吃红小豆吧 (2mins), inhuman 非人哉(5mins), if history were bunch of cats 如果历史是一群喵 (5mins), god troubles me 汉化日记 (13mins), shen jian xin 剑网3侠肝义胆沈剑心 (17mins), you yao 有药, king's avatar 全职高手, link click 时光代理人, uncharted walker 迷域行者, wings of the world 万国志, hei men 黑门, killer seven 刺客五六七, ravages of time 火凤燎原
rec: yi ren zhi xia 一人之下 (s2 + s4 + s5 are highly rec), qin's moon 秦时明月 + its spin off 天行九歌, hill of five elements 雾山五行, strange tales of china 中国奇谭, legend of hei 罗小黑战记, incantation 灵笼, to be hero 凸变英雄, raksha street 镇魂街, juan si liang 眷思量, ai you's mi shi 爱幽的密室, fox spirit matchmaker 狐妖小红娘, beryl and sapphire 小绿和小蓝, blade of guardians 镖人, bai yao pu 百妖谱, no choice but to betray earth 只好背叛地球了, 我家大师兄脑子有坑

there are lot of diff genres with the series recs, if there's something specific she like, I could pick out recs from those too.

It's not zombies actually, that's just the very start (like 10mins) + minor char's ability.

I was going to rec it to you actually! It's sort of like modern wuxia? All these people with diff abilities based on taoist/folk, ok kinda like chinese ver of x-men. The vibe is chuuni 中二 and bit over the top, but it's a fantastic ensemble cast with more depth than the synopsis or first ep might indicate. The FL is one of the most powerful char in the series and very different from most FLs.

I'm a huge fan of the donghua, but I didn't like s1 for pacing/joke (some of it is chinese-japanese anime production issue, s2 onwards is better) but I liked the setup. The drama was lot faster in pacing and shifted some contents around, and tone down stuff I didn't like. I've had fair few drama fans that rather like it.

Do you mean other dramas with FL like Ye Liuxi? If so, maybe try same author's adaptation Rattan, it's pretty different story but still urban fantasy + powerful FL. I think Candle in the Tomb's FL fits too, but that series' is more focused on ML, still a gang on adventure though.

Her role is actually guest role, she doesn't have as many scenes as you think but her role is vital, she'll likely appear half way through the show?

YAY you are here too :D

the chinese mangotv, idk if they'll upload it to the english ver mhmm

30 ep is just hunan tv cutting it differently due to tv schedule. they were labelled as 番外 on the chinese mangotv app, Idk if they are on the english app, maybe wait a bit and see?

extra 1 (33mins)
1. extended ver of Yuang Zhongxin talking to Bei He Xing, why he was picked
2. extended ver of Zhao Jian being a "bandit"
3. Xiao Jing's first day as doctor and Wang Kuan talking to his cousin + s1 flashback of cp
4. Ya Nei gets beaten up and Xue Ying is super worried about him + they talk about their cp
5. Chu Niao when she first lost her eye, she gave candy to Ya Nei cos she wants him to have something to soothe the pain, but hopes he never needs it
6. Xue Ying fights with Liang Maixiang
7. Section 7 discuss whether to trust Liang Maixiang
extra 2 (30mins)
1. Section 8's first meeting
2. Section 8's plan in Xi Xia & their continuous fight over section leader (flags x2)
3. Wang Kuan dreams everything is fake (they are filming a drama) + says bye to dad
4. The actual final scene in the script + song that Chu Niao's actress Wang Ke created for section 8
5. Yuan Zhongxin's first meeting with Wang Kuan, Wang Kuan ties his hair up for him

Heads up, there's two extras 番外, each about 30mins that have scenes that's been taken out of the drama, some of them I think are pretty good characterisations.

Heads up, there's two extras, each about 30mins that have scenes that's been taken out of the drama, some of them I think are pretty good characterisations.

To prevent wars they keep having with Western Xia.

Oh I never thought of section 7 might feel like they'd "owe" YTG if he died mhmmm, that's true. I just narratively he'd serve more purpose than beat up Yuan Zhongxin, and fill in bit of s1's plot. bleh.

Wang Fei was actually part of s1's five directors, I think he was second of five, first was Yin Zheng, who also directed Love Between Fairy and Devil. I saw some talk of Zhou Nan sort of roundaboutly saying he got kicked to the curb while filming the drama, which is a shame. I'm guessing mangotv just wanted to get this sequel out asap on minimum budget for quick cash grab, shame, esp considering they got lot of the cast + scriptwriter back. If they actually put in reasonable amount of effort (not 100%, but at least 60%), their merchandise and knick knacks would probably sell more.

Wang Yang's character is more memorable this way though :P He's been immortalised!!

oh yeah even s1's directors were praised in retrospective. I clearly recall people slamming the directors (cos of badly shot fight scenes and such) and filter, but I saw lot of s1 fans looking back at it with fondness lol. I guess director went from 50 -> 30 points lol.

I think that sounds like a sorry ass excuse LOL.

Yeah same. I guess if section 7 did all the hard stuff, they are more likely to be killed. I feel like the drama was trying to appease a lot of different kind of audience, and it came out underwhelming with section 7 + main plot? Whereas with new supporting characters, you could do whatever you want with them.

Wang Juan wasn't afraid to kill off his main characters, he has done that before in his older dramas, to the point his fans expect them. Perhaps mango reigned him in a little, or he's gotten more of a heart in his old age :P

Oh I really hated Yuan Tianguan, I thought he'd die in the end to save them, which is tropey, but right now, he just felt kinda useless and terrible for no reason?

It's hilarious that all the drama fans were saying "if Wang Fei still get new gigs after this, there's no justice in this world!" lmao. The costume was an upgrade, it could have looked amazing, sob. idk why it was even necessary to put in the close up shot of them when it's so badly done? Have the long shot scenes and we'd be fine too? There was weird shot in first ep where, in long shot, it's clear they shot outside, but close-up, the background is blurry and look green screened so I got really confused there.

I'm so annoyed that they didn't let Zhou Nan (Dear Diary's director, who directed some scenes here, but Wang Fei is the main director I think) be the main director, cos I think we would have been given a better show. I've seen people complain that interactions between section 7's members were deleted, likely cos it wasn't central to the point, but I feel maybe with those scenes, section 7 would feel more alive/memorable.

Wang Juan replied on weibo that he hid places where each of section 7 could die, but he felt bad so he took it back LOL. Considering I like all the deaths in this drama, I actually really want to see those, even though I think it'd stop newer audience (or older audience that don't want angst) to watch it. I've seen quite a few people saying it's too somber/serious/heavy for them from trailer or initial episodes lol.

can we talk about the horrific horse riding scenes, what a terrible way to make an impression in your first ep?!?! I'm happy you enjoyed it despite all its flaws though, hooray for Wang Juan!

Chu Niao's actress Wang Ke wrote mini fics on her school life and time in xi xia. https://weibo.com/5263925621?refer_flag=1001030103_ she labelled all of them as chu niao's diary. There are heavy spoilers though.

That was totally heavy handed, I think it was on purpose though, for the non suspense audience. The middle bit about ML being a gambling addict with debts made it very suspicious too.

I went in with vague spoilers about Ni Ni being bestie, and Zhu Yilong being 渣男 XD I did think fake wife was bestie for a bit, and I thought wife was staging it for awhile too. The whole fake plot about some crime syndicate kidnapped his wife was kinda plausible too, I did follow ML's line of thought that they'll totally grab him and murder him in cold blood.

The whole dramatic flair/over the top-ness of fake wife was hysterical, I know some people found it takes them out of the scene, but it make sense with the final reveal too hahaha. Oh yeah, I was like "I know you are bigshot lawyer, Ni Ni, but how is it you have people everywhere? and managed to not be killed against some crime syndicate too", but it worked out in the end XD