tine

many here seem unfamiliar with that word lol

"this is how the characters were written"

I'm so tired of reading this.

Again I find myself asking, is this series for novel readers and novel readers only? Because chasing one very specific audience is a sure fire way of ensuring that series is a fail. I don't care what the source material is, a properly written adaptation will make an unfamiliar audience aware of what's going on without having to seek out the source material to fill-in the blanks. And if a large part of your audience is lost or baffled by the story and/or characters being depicted onscreen because they don't have the background advantage novel readers possess then the writers have done a horrible job. Period. But again, if this series was strictly for novel readers then by all means just say that.

More importantly though, your statement is true, they were written poorly in the novel, but what kind of excuse is that?! Are we supposed to celebrate a botched job twice? The creatives behind this were essentially given a second lease on life if you will for their story and characters and opted to change nothing? Had they not done their homework? Because most novel writers in their position would've (and have - see revenged love and the author's many interviews on this subject!) throughly utilized the opportunity of a live adaptation as a second chance to give their story and ALL of their characters proper justice. Fact of the matter is, the writers here had a golden opportunity to self-correct and better the script every which way for the live adaptation and for whatever reason elected to not do so.

Objectivity has fallen out the window here because there are many comments saying the series is a 10/10 while noting the unsatisfactory writing and plot holes (so how is it a 10/10?) and comments like yours which offer criticism and even acknowledge the poor writing of the source material yet still defend the poorly written depiction because it was a near 1:1 copy from page to screen with the mains still maining.

From what I recall the author of the Pit Babe novels switched up on the mpreg part of the original story - something along the lines of adult her was no longer about it - and at some point after the S1 finale she publicly expressed that regret and her hope for the series to abandon the plot line altogether in their S2 plans. Could be why they didn't go that route.

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which is fine! you should be free to openly state as much without being attacked as that is your opinion and characters are fair game and open to individual interpretation... and OP should've been free to state what they did without getting ganged up on for being "wrong"

an opinion is an opinion. one can think another opinion is foolish or ridiculous or whatever, but factually neither opinion is right or wrong or better than the other so why fight?!

also Hua Yong himself would've been entirely unphased by OP's remark so the fierce defense of his character kinda runs counter to his brand 😭

"they don’t seem to realize that absolutely nothing they post here, Twitter/X, Instagram, Tumblr, nor Reddit has had an effect to what has already been released. "

I'm sorry, what?! Why the heck would it? The series is FILMED. There is no changing anything. How is this a real conclusion? Are you speaking from experience or something because I'm sure most of the viewers who were venting on social media about those particular characters were not doing so to instigate some kind of change. They weren't complaining about promo - which in general could likely be adjusted as necessary and if early enough - but a fully completed series that called "cut" more than a year ago if not more. To suggest that those who were voicing their respective frustrations were doing anything more than innocently venting (have you never? are you immune?) is off-putting as your assumption is boldly painting those people as deluded and unintelligent.

Yeah, they are doing it a disservice by hyping it up like that because they're creating and overstating expectations. People who see the series being touted as 'Domundi's BEST' or whatever may then watch only to end up feeling disappointedly underwhelmed on account of that overhyping. Had they not been sold on it being the best and greatest series to ever series they likely would've dove into the series free of expectations and found it to be worthwhile. But now most new viewers stumbling across the over praise will go into the series under the guise of it being nothing short of AMAZING which is an expectation put forth by the super fans. I'm sure they believe they are doing the series good but really they're just setting this series up for failure.

I can only assume they weren't around for TNP because it was the SAME EXACT play there with the incessant overhyping and exaggerations of how AMAZING it all was down to the lines (honestly feels like they're all working the same script from the same orchestrated hype train playbook. perhaps the writer these two series share authored that too) and while that series had definitely been popular and did numbers throughout its airing it was inevitably and rightfully recognized as the colossal disappointment and flop it truly was.

The only discernible difference between the hard launch of this series and TNP is the latter had a far bigger budget and was overhyped big time prior to launch by Domundi who then seemingly abandoned most marketing efforts for the series while it was still airing. I've seen ZNN super fans speculate the marketing budget was probably diverted to this series and honestly I'm inclined to believe there is truth to that because TNP floundering hard towards the end of its run makes a real return on the investment in producing that series highly unlikely. If anything it's more plausible that series left them in the red. Thus this series kinda needs to be the hit TNP series wasn't. And let's be real... TNP series had ZNN, Domundi's bread and butter. Their involvement alone should've guaranteed that series a hit so it flopping was likely an unexpected travesty. Meanwhile the leads of this series are newbies and did not have ZNN's level of fame nor their sizable fanbase yet the marketing resources devoted to this series and pairing early on suggests otherwise.

So yeah, it's all feeling a bit more like an orchestrated push for this pair and series to happen IMO. Though I'm not saying they wouldn't have or haven't generated honest buzz nor am I suggesting they are without genuine fans... I just suspect there may be a financial motivator behind their push and if true that's entirely on and led by Domundi, not the actors. If anything I feel sympathetic towards the actors because there is probably a lot of pressure on them right now regardless of whether or not anything I suspect is even true. I could very well be totally off-base and Domundi is swimming in cash. Even though they seem to be unable to release more than one OST at a time without weeks in-between releases.

But as with all things, time will tell if this series maintains its seemingly manufactured 'hit' status after it's concluded, effectively beating the allegations of such, OR if this comment section will mirror that of a deserted island which is what TNP's once lively page here has since become.

And I'm sure I will be attacked to high heavens for these observations of mine by the 'best series ever' lot of super fans so let me reiterate one last time that I'm not saying the hype for this series isn't organic but given the similarities to and subsequent fallout of TNP it's at the very least justifiably questionable so no need to be mad or take my opinions and theories to heart 🫠

I didn't care for Barcode prior to this series but he won me over with Ciar. Sure it sucks that his debut series with the company will likely be regarded as a flop but in a way it worked in his favor because he's without a doubt the standout here. Had the series been better his work may have gone unnoticed,

Exactly. It's wild to me because if I were a super fan of an actor or ship I'd want to see them in genuinely good projects, not churning out garbage! Like don't get me wrong I am primarily anti-fixed ships but I'd be lying if I said there weren't a handful of pairs I love(d) and check-in on every now and then, but with those few I likely wouldn't watch a follow-up project if the trailer was of no interest to me and/or it looked bad and I certainly wouldn't rate said series a 10 if I did watch and found it was awful solely because I liked the pair. That's just crazy to me.

A lot of these actors sit through episodes to film reaction content so I'm sure most have an inkling about how good or not good the series they filmed actually turned out. And 95% of the time whatever issues plague the series are beyond their control and no fault of their own. Those actors can do no more than promote their series with confidence regardless of how they truly feel about it so if the series is terrible it's really up to the fans at that point to signal the alarm to showrunners and studio heads.

It sucks because these super fans really do wield all the power and instead of using that power for betterment they keep ensuring we get more and more mediocrity 😭

I think so too. I'm sure capitalizing on these ships and everything that can be done with them outside of a series is probably good for business short term but I can't imagine it being a very sustainable strategy. Eventually the portion of their viewership who has long tuned in for good STORY will tune out indefinitely and go elsewhere for scripted entertainment.

144p 😭😭😭

So camp! Almost everything about it was terrible yet in a way that worked in its favor because it was very much a 'so bad it's good' kind of fun watch!

Ha, the trashiest for sure! It kept showing up in my Prime recs after I watched a film with two of the actors in it. Genuinely thought it was a parody at first. those messy himbos had me invested though so I had to see it thru 'til the end 🤣

The comedic bits are so well-played they feel natural. Than hitting his hand and then head on the machine in that warehouse fight scene was hysterical and so Daou. I love it.

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best comment

what is sis plotting?!
that intervention of hers caught me off guard

I think she meant she liked it and thought it was good from the start and likely still thinks as much but that there’s since been a noticeable exaggeration in the way people have been singing its praises lately that in her opinion doesn’t quite match what she’s seeing on screen. That’s not to say the series isn’t good or that praise is undeserved but rather the incessant overhyping of it (which IS happening) is unnecessary and working against it. That’s how I understood the comment anyway.

Understood, but he brought the Prince to the club while the girls' "wedding" party or whatever was playing out so it would seem he knew of their existence and was relatively unphased by it.

I do keep forgetting what time period this is though lol. The amount of times I've already caught myself thinking "could he not just send a text or call?" is a few too many 🤣

My thoughts exactly. MGB was disappointing and not good but this series now has thinking I was too harsh on it lol. For all of its many faults the build up to their romance and declaration of love was conceivably paced. Whereas with this series the build up to their "love" was woefully underdeveloped to the point of nonexistence.

Aside from being a vampire and vampire hunter what else do we know about these characters? Virtually nothing! The writing has given us no reason(s) to care about them individually so I feel indifferent to them even getting together.

Maybe I'm delusional but I'm beginning to think something weird is going on with these newer series because I swear the lead characters seem to be getting less character/romance development than the side couples. It's as if the writers are relying heavily on the pre-established fanfare and popularity of the actors that make up the main pair to sell their mediocre story for them rather than actually writing and developing their characters properly. Like I shouldn't feel like I have a better understanding of the brother and vamp doctor and whatever is brewing there over the main characters yet I do.

I only ever tried to watch the UK version from the beginning but never got far. I've probably seen more of both iterations through random YT compilation videos than I have actual episodes. But yeah, it was depressing! The guys could never catch a break! 😭

Haha, I haven't watched many supernatural series of this nature so I guess my frame of reference is limited to Dante's Cove 🤣