monstersnroses

It's a place to discuss. We're discussing how the drama relates to the novel, you're discussing your feelings. Those two convs can co-exist. I don't know who attacked you or why you feel gatekept, but I'm sorry you feel that way.

Although I have to say, that my thoughts on that matter come from a total opposite pov.... if I don't like a drama I'll often watch it to the end, number one to say I watched it b/c I'm just that kind of person, and number two, shows deserve a fair shot all the way to the end. So I'll often be in a comments section venting my dissatisfaction with this or that about a show, and IM the one who gets viciously attacked and often verbally abused by FANS of a show when I don't share their opinion. Which is also super mega toxic.

So you feel like the critical viewers are toxic, but the fans are equally toxic on MDL. I can say that I do know how you feel just because I've been attacked so hard on here so many times for various reasons. And by attacked I don't mean attacking my ideas or opinions (although that happens too), I mean personal attacks like namecalling and abusive comments.

If you let a bunch of randos on a public platform influence what shows you will start, that's just giving people who don't deserve your attention too much power.

Maybe you could try these:

Eternal Love of Dream

and does it really have to be a wuxia/xianxia, because

A Dream of Splendor
Blossom

were both good imo

I thought the story when taken as a whole was just "above average", but the experience of watching it once for the first time was admittedly awesome, if for nothing else than the comedy and the cameos.

I used to be kind of a fan of that FL but I think her schtick is getting a little old, and what was she doing with her chicken lipstick, that was so so so distracting...

It didnt blow me away or anything but I had a lot of fun watching it.

ikr

I think for me at least, it's less abt that, and more about the fact that the feels you get in the novel at this point, diverge a lot from the feels you get at this point in the story in the drama. In the novel, everything is very understated, sweet, poignant as the 2nd arc turns into the 3rd.... and they changed it so dramatically, to the point that instead of a sweet and sad transition, you get a chaotic, violent sudden transition. You also get this added layer of guilt that the FL must be going through that to me is just not as good as how the novel laid it out.

I'm on track to give it a 10 still, but that will def depend on how they decided to play out the 3rd arc. Now that they've diverged so significantly from the original story it's like ok what will the writers pull next lol

Dude I heard they don't even start getting together till ep 18 in that one. And they're 45 min episodes.

I think if you just want a quick fix of spice that Dangerous Love is not bad. Not great, but not bad. Gao Min Cheng is super hot. The plot is boilerplate stupid republican era plot, but Han Le Yao is in it, and she's always fun to watch act. I tried to watch Luminosity Behind the Palace because I adore Fan Zhi Xin, but the FL is ruining it for me totally, I can't even finish it.

They should have done this part as written in the novel. Not happy. All that shit was so not necessary. Now this makes me wonder if the 3rd arc is even going to go the way it's supposed to at all or if theyre just gonna make a bunch of shit up.

I really generally can't stand green-flag ML's. But I love this one. It's because he has a sub-personality who's like a barely contained psychopath that simmers under the surface. My fave stories are vampire stories, and SimaJiao is very vampire-adjacent, especially the way Arthur Chen plays him.

Please god no.... i hate 'strong independent female' stories where the man is cucked. One of the things i like abt the ml here is he doesnt go spineless after they get together.

The way i view it, theres 2 reasons for it to be a practical move...
One = if they follow the book there would be lots of confused viewers abt why hong ruo is born with her memories and sima jiao isnt, when they both underwent soul transfer. In this version hong ruo foesnt have memories at first. This will foreshadow what happens to sima jiao to prepare the audience.
Two, in novel, sima jiao and tingyan meet when sima jiao is sixteen. By portraying hong ruos accelerated growth as happening in 2 days instead of slower like renesmee from twilight, then when its sima jiaos turn, they can conveniently skip how they got together when the 2nd incarnation of sima jiao isnt actually of legal age.

It does make sense why they're in the story, but honestly that's besides the point. Straight up, if she was cuter, and he was hotter, this conv would never be happening in the first place. Both of them have what I'd call a unique look or maybe a quirky look, and that's just not hot enough for them to get a Hot Pass to be taking up screentime in this show.

If the snake was Yu Ning or Ling He, and Ru Ling was Lusi or Bai Lu, no one would care about whether they were useless to the plot or not.

omg that's hilarous and accurate.....

"Hey snake, which robe do you think she'd think looks better on me. The black one.... or the black one?"

blessings my friend 🌺

Now you have an equally good looking substitute-Wu you can fawn all over guilt-free because Arthur Chen isn't a r**ist. Yet this does not make you happy.

It does add to the story, but not in an obviously understandable way to the viewer. I think they add that side-plot for a reason that if I said it outright would be a really big plot spoiler.

The bright side is that the novel is very good, so if they screw up the ending on this show, you can always go back and read the novel, and know that is the REAL ending. Which is an HE.

yes this is a DOUBLE AMNESIA story.

since they basically share a soul palace, it's fitting really. What happens to one happens to the other.

in the novel, he actually fully regains his memories before she does. people keep asking when does she regain her memories, but at the end of the novel she still has only partially regained them.

I'm pissed off people are saying they're gonna kill FL at end of third arc and then have a modern-day thing. In novel they just wander happily off into the sunset or whatever. I hope they make it fast and hokey just to slap something on there for the ccp censors, so that the spirit of the end of the novel is upheld. We can't be having 3rd arc FL die in the end, that's not how this shit is supposed to work. aigoo....

They changed a little bit about how Ru Ling soul-transferred, and gave her a completely invented (not in novel) romance with the snake, and I think they're doing it all this way, so that when Sima Jiao enters the 3rd arc and gets his amnesia, audience has already seen "soul transfer effects" in how they worked with Ru Ling.

They also sped up the growth of Ru Ling from baby to adult in 2 days to skirt around the difficulties of sticking with the novel, when in the novel the 'mortal' sima Jiao was 16 when he met Ting Yan again.

imo the reason why they messed with snake and ru ling's characters from the novel:

GOOD JOB, GIRL!!!!! You don't have to compromise who you are as an actress to make a role great. You just have to be willing to be vulnerable to your audience, to your acting partner, and just be yourself. You and Arthur look so good together and brought your characters to life. Congratulations on making such an amazing drama, we LOVED IT.