Tomochi

I think I also suspected her a little bit in the beginning for the same reasons, but I just assumed that the writers wanted to give us a false alarm suspicion. Usually, those who are suspected of a crime early on (like the Qian Manager who found the skull) are actually not truly involved. I actually didn't realize about the different bra sizes tho but that's such a small detail. Some people are so good at this lmao. I still don't get how the plot twist of her knowing Xu Meng is "predictable" tho. It took me out of left field *cries* And to be fair, most plot twists tend to be "predictable" especially if we are expecting the worst possible outcome. I just sort of assumed that QSQ was fine because she was so involved with RFX :(

I don't think I thought much about QSQ's involvement in the Wu Shanlong death case, tho I do think it was too sudden when he slipped and died like that. During her final dinner with him, I was also wondering why she looked so conflicted. But I guess I was so invested in their "love" that I chalked it up to her feeling emotional about being accepted into his family. It felt like they were one step closer to finally becoming bf/gf.

It is sad tho that XM killed him :( And him finding out that the girl he was fighting so hard to find ended up being the one to murder him. I do think tho that at that very moment, seeing XM alive in front of him looking like QSQ, he likely figured out what happened.

All in all, the one good part of the show ended up in so much sorrow and tragedy for me. The one good part was their star-crossed relationship. It was so bittersweet for me to discover that they never ended up dating because RFX died so young. But it was even more heartbreaking to think that she might've been the one to silence him and that her feelings for him had all been a sham. Even worse was discovering that her feelings for him *were* real (and him also having feelings for her, too but I also wonder why they never ended up dating sooner). But it wouldn't have mattered if they liked each other because at the end of the day, she was still involved in the case. She was still going to go to jail--either taking the fall for the "murder" of XM and her father, or for covering up the whole thing. They were never meant to be together.

I just felt so bad for QSQ because she was never given much of a chance in life. :( She worked so hard to pass adult college entrance exams and get her current job. She had to suffer so much after her mother's death. But everyone she was surrounded by drove her further into the dark. The one good thing to happen to her (RFX) would've also driven her further into the dark because he was bound to find out :(

I just finished the show. I watch quite a bit of true crime but even then the plot twist came out of nowhere for me rip. I really wished that they hadn't made Qiao Suqing one of the villains :( But ig their explanations for everything made sense. It's just that they had to put a bunch of ridiculous things into the show to make the plan extremely convoluted, which bothered me. Still didn't stop me from bawling my eyes out tho ; v ;

I'm on episode 24 right now and wtf is going on. Where is this even coming from????? It's like the writers are pulling shet out of their ass and making stuff up for more screentime.

Why did they dumb down Xiaohe (the daughter) so much??? She used to be a rebel as a kid and I get that she grew out of her rebellious phase. But she should still be a badass. She literally worked in an illegal cyber cafe for a few days, so how did she not know how to identify one in 2015? And why was she surprised when her dad discovered the cyber cafe? Why isn't she more sus about stuff in 2015? She was so street smart in 2002 and was clearly an incredibly intelligent and observant kid in 1997, too. She was very cautious and discovered the human trafficker really quickly. None of those traits should've gone away by 2015.

Also, just the pacing of her kidnapping and everything felt really unrealistic lol

I was enjoying this show, but man, around episode 15-16, things just went downhill.

The second male lead played by Zhang Kangle can NOT act even if his life depended on it. The character he played was also extremely inconsistent and all over the place. His motivations were half-assed to such an extent, it felt like he was only written because they "needed" a second male lead to conveniently be there when needed.

My understanding is that the screenwriters were aiming for a character with a lot of depth and heavy baggage. He was supposed to be someone who believed in justice and trying to make the world a better place (because of how his mother and himself were mistreated). However, to "seek justice" he had to gain power, which is why he curried favor with the main villain, his teacher. He was supposed to give off "genuinely a good person but sold his soul to the devil" vibes while also being a cunning wolf in sheep's clothing. But what do we get? An actor with the face and emotions of a ROCK.

WHAT was the director and/or screenwriter thinking when they wrote the last 3-4 episodes???? I don't understand WHY they needed to make the second male lead a scapegoat just so they could milk some emotions from the viewers (through the death of his servant and General Yan He). They had the second male lead go through a psychotic break and become "possessive" over the female lead, which resulted in him indirectly causing General Yan He's death.

The servant's death? Poorly done. How could the spoiled rich girl possibly kill her just by stabbing her back??? The servant was also supposed to be highly skilled at combat as evidenced by her fight with male lead's personal bodyguard (literally his right-hand man who is an army veteran). You're telling me she couldn't have easily disarmed the spoiled rich girl????

General Yan He's death was also super cheap and unnecessary. They literally had no reason to kill him off. It was like they needed someone to die, so they chose him as the sacrificial lamb. *eyerolls*

The last 3-4 episodes were completely unnecessary. The screenwriters wanted to add way too many things and rushed everything with very little prior build up. It felt super cheap and ruined the entire show for me.

I'm actually shocked that Li Hanyi is only 4 years younger than Sikong Changfeng O o O I deadass thought he was 10 years older than her. (In the prequel, she was still a kid while he was like 14 or something.)

The funny thing is that in the new cdrama "Unveil: Jadewind" she actually *IS* his daughter lmao (He plays the emperor and she plays the 15th princess) haha

Sorry for the late reply. I understand the nature of a prequel is that things are already set in stone. I think because I watched the prequels first made me feel emotionally tied to the main characters in the prequels. So when I watched the main story (set a decade or so after the prequels) and seeing the "main characters" I was so invested in not get their happy endings was sad.

1) In Blood River, I LOVED the friendship and dynamic between Su Changhe and Su Muyu. While Su Changhe is still portrayed as unruly and cunning, his bond with Su Muyu was unbreakable. They were truly brothers who had crawled through Hell and fought their way to the top. Seeing that Su Changhe in TBoY end up getting killed by Su Muyu was a little bit heartbreaking :( It took away the depth of their relationship that was explored in Blood River.

2) I don't know why they changed the storyline between Baili Dongjun and his girlfriend/wife in the prequel. But man, finding out she was gone in TBoY threw me off so hard.

I can see what you mean about the prequels. I think the unfortunate thing with the prequels is that a lot of things were already set through TBoY. Honestly was so disappointed by how things ended for Dark River members in TBoY after watching Blood River :(

Because TBoY is so highly rated while the other prequels weren't, I watched TBoY last in hopes of it being a "highlight." I do think the writers had to change up a lot of the details in order to have a full storyline though. The changes they made for some of the backstories gave certain characters their own main character story like Baili Dongjun and Su Muyu's stories. I honestly preferred the prequel rewrites more :')

The MOST confusing thing to me is Dark River.

In BR (which I watched first), Su Muyu is portrayed as a really powerful swordsman, but in TBOY, his powers are significantly weakened. The dynamic between Su Muyu and Su Changhe is also VERY different in TBOY. In Blood River, it seemed like Su Muyu was supposed to be the Patriarch, but he gave that position to Su Changh. In TBOY, there's a stricter hierarchy between the two of the,m so it feels less like they're equals/friends and more so superior (Su Changhe) vs their subordinate (Su Muyu).

Also, it seems like they tried to add a romance between Tang Lianyue and Mu Yumo in BR, which wasn't the case in TBOY. That threw me off a bit because I thought they were friends ?-? Mu Yumo and Su Muyu even save Tang Lianyue and Tang Lian in BR, which apparently never happened in TBOY's timeline.

In BR, Dark River/Su Muyu was the one who took down the Shadow Sect (Wuxin/Ye Anshi's grandpa was the leader of the sect). But in TBOY, they said it was Prince Langya who took care of the Shadow Sect. (Though I guess you can explain it away as what actually happened vs. the "official" explanation.)

Su Muyu wanted to revive his father's sect and also change the name of Dark River as "assassins" so my understanding is that they would've stopped operating as Dark River. Or at least not tried to involve themselves too much with the princes (especially in light of the fact that Su Muyu murders the first prince in BR, which meant that Dark River would be persecuted by the imperial family).

In DY, Baili Dongjun is the main character while Sikong Changfeng takes a backseat for most of the drama. In TBOY, Baili Dongjun barely appears (albeit, I'm only on episode 19 atm so maybe he has more relevance later on) but Sikong Changfeng is a major character. Even at episode 23 when Baili Dongjun reappears, I'm confused by Mo Yi's appearance. He seems completely different in DY (no mention of his sister) and he genuinely feels more like an immortal who helps Baili Dongjun. But in TBOY, he's more of an antagonist figure. I'm also confused about Yue Yao's death in TBOYS. They changed that in DY.

I noticed that Li Hanyi is also a little bit different. She's portrayed as a happy and cute little girl in DY but when she appears later on, she's very cold and distant (like in TBOY). I was also confused by the portrayal of the Scholar Deity in DY, which contrasts greatly with his portrayal in TBOY and BR. The Scholar Deity's dynamic with Li Hanyi really threw me off in BR and TBOY, especially because of the age gap, but also because the Scholar Deity was portrayed as this nerdy, introverted young boy who only cares about his books. Whereas when he is around Li Hanyi, he's always trying to run off because there is a playful cat and mouse dynamic, which suggests the Scholar Diety is more cheeky rather than introverted.

I'm also confused by the relationship between Tang Clan and Lei Clan. I don't recall if it was ever explained in DY because Baili Dongjun does go to the Tang Clan with his uncle (along with Sikong Changfeng) at some point. In this arc, it seems like the Tang elder is a friend rather than a foe (in DY)? But in TBOY, he betrays Xueyue City and tries to kill everyone.

I watched Dashing Youth and Blood River in sequence before watching The Blood of Youth and felt so confused. It looks like there are a lot of conflicting details between TBOY which happens years, if not, decades after DY and BR. It makes TBOY less of an enjoyable watch because I can't help but focus on the discrepancies with the characters. It almost feels like DY and BR (which were supposed to be prequels and give backstories to TBOY characters) are different, more likeable retellings of the characters, especially those from Dark River.

The casting for the characters also threw me off. I understand that they can't hire young kids who actually fit the ages of the characters, but I can't tell how old anyone is supposed to be. When I first saw Tang Lian, I thought he was one of the uncles lmaooo But turns out he's portraying a 23 year old. His girlfriend is supposed to be quite young too, but sis looks 40 *sobs* It really threw me off.

Baili Dongjun and Sikong Changfeng can't be that old, right? But they look like they're in their 50s or 60s--

I am sad that Chen Duo never ended up meeting Chen Junyan again :(

She even named the village dog after him. I wonder where he went.

At first, this season was very confusing because it seemed like a different storyline than season 1. This is mainly because they focus this season on Chen Duo. After doing some cursory research, it appears that Chen Duo is part of the Biyou Village arc in the webcomic/manhua storyline. The last episode sort of connects everything a bit better to the main storyline. I am impressed that despite a 2 year gap, it feels like almost no time has passed because Zhang Chulan, Feng Baobao and Wang Ye are still the same.

The show starts out with an eerie premise focused on solving gruesome murders, but the latter half of the show ends up becoming heavily focused on palace intrigue. The entire plot becomes extremely convoluted with a major fuq it all and I'm not sure how I feel about it.

1. Why did they make Lin Xirou out to be the FINAL BOSS but then she's killed off in a single second? She didn't do anything. Her death happened so fast, I didn't even have time to process it.
2. Why didn't Lin Xirou just go to A Luo's home to look for Lin Ling??? It shouldn't have been hard for her to send men to camp out at her house or at least destroy the place? ?-? (I understand it would probably have been too expensive for the filming crew to add this lol but this was a major plot hole for me)
3. Why is it that the female lead is the "Mad Blade" who is supposed to be an incredibly strong fighter, but then she's overpowered by Lin Xirou's henchmen (Xiong Hei and the guy with the metal fan)???? Why did she let them get away when they came to take Lin Ling at the dumpling shop? ?-?
4. Locust is assumed to be Lin Xirou's son (which is probably why she was so obsessed with Yan Tuo since she assumed her son was killed by the hunters). Why did he never make an appearance again? Why did they just send him off to a team of biologists? ?-?
5. The entire Twilight Chasm/Golden Gate arc was a hot mess. We never found out how they even got her back.
6. How come Xing Shen summoned a bunch of the demonified hunters when he played the ocarina but Yan Tuo was able to summon only A Luo's mom?
7. The inconsistency of how many hunters there are. It looked like there were many hunters but by the end, the team dwindled to like barely even 10 people???? I know some people were shown to have left after Xing Shen took over but come on.
8. If they could find A Luo underground, why couldn't they look for Xing Shen and any others who fell down? ?-?
9. Very small thing but I thought the hunters healed really fast, so why was auntie Hua out of commission for so long? ?-? She's one of the whip-wielding hunters from the beginning who got beat up really badly by Xiong Hei.

It really feels like the film production ran out of budget halfway through and had to scrape something half-assed together. It was so messy :( What a shame

At first, I couldn't understand why the ratings for this drama were so long. The story and plot were quite promising and it seemed like, production-wise, this drama was quite good.

But man, the last couple episodes completely derailed the entire storyline. It took the main plot and threw it in the trash. There was a lead-up to an epic showdown that never happened. I was genuinely shocked by how fast everything ended despite the build-up. Did they run out of budget???So many things were left unexplained (check spoilers). So many plot holes.

Later on, Xing Shen finds the old chronicles and pieces this information together with one of the other characters who appears to be on the spectrum. It seems like the fiends may have once been human but after consuming or having their DNA mixed with "Yuwang Meat" (which is from the soil of the mysterious Turquoise Land), these humans became something grotesque due to Yuwang Meat being a mix of DNA from various animals and beasts.

I think Lin Xirou has been trying to perfect the process of changing the fiends back to humans. The hunters suspect that her transformation was purely an accident, but the fiends have been trying to create more Yuwang Meat. They've been cultivating the Yuwang Meat by putting it in some type of vessel that they sunk in the water in the mines where Yan Tuo was locked inside (and where Lin Xirou first appeared after eating that one miner).

A lot of stuff was never fully explained though which is annoying. I believe they hinted at the Twilight Chasm which the Golden Gate leads to as the belly of Yuwang Meat.