sakie

@biao Your map works great because it delineates the Turks and the Han (Tang dynasty) better than today's google map. Locations of the above mentioned cities remain unchanged, with the exception of YouZhou renaming to Beijing. The true location of historical YouZhou was actually about 40 miles west of modern day Beijing.

AS was informed in chapter 26 by Mr. Qin, but he didn't see her with his own eyes as a girl until chapter 34.

So in term of timeline, CG's family was killed on July 2, 626. This incident went down in history as Xuanwu Gate. She then went to from Chang'An to YouZhou (Beijing in modern day), about 700 miles.

Then she and Ah Dou traveled ~250 miles west to Shuozhou. She spent July/August here as General Li.

After the fall of ShuoZhou, Ah Sun took her back to his Eagle camp that is close to YunZhou (about 100 miles northeast). She spent August/September here. This was indicated because she spent Mid-Autumn Festival (August 15th on a lunar calendar) here; the day AS gave her the moonstone. On the Gregorian calendar, Mid-Autumn Festival normally falls on anywhere between first week of Sept to first week of Oct, and it changes every year.

After she and AS had the big fight, she got injured and was saved by her martial arts master and the doctor, and they all traveled about ~450 miles south to Luoyang.

Here's another map link for reference:
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Chang'an,+Xi'an,+Shaanxi,+China/Beijing,+China/Shuozhou,+Shanxi,+China/Yunzhou+District,+Datong,+Shanxi,+China/Luoyang,+Henan,+China/@37.3427088,103.6811621,5z/data=!4m33!4m32!1m5!1m1!1s0x36630cc316952783:0xaced93be10f892c6!2m2!1d108.906994!2d34.158997!1m5!1m1!1s0x35f05296e7142cb9:0xb9625620af0fa98a!2m2!1d116.4073963!2d39.9041999!1m5!1m1!1s0x35e286bc3322fc6d:0x845e6768a056b4a8!2m2!1d112.432825!2d39.331595!1m5!1m1!1s0x35e332f00648b3f9:0x536fab216bbdfbed!2m2!1d113.61244!2d40.040294!1m5!1m1!1s0x36786f68f2d04437:0x61f85ae8c6c72215!2m2!1d112.453926!2d34.620202!3e0!4e1

Excellent MV's on TLB! I particularly enjoy the solo piece on Ah Sun, but all your TLB MV's are great! Born Ready was the perfect selection to showcase Sun's BadAssNess. I saved it to my library -- which is rare.

According to history, he died at 26 as a commoner. He had a failed coup d'etat against his father and wasn't highly regarded in history. That's why his character in TLB is presented with some negative tone to us viewers.

I just submitted a request for them to pick up the show.

You all can, too!

Here's the link:

https://help.netflix.com/en/titlerequest

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Add-on: Campaign for Netflix to pick up TLB

May I suggest fellow TLB fans visit the link above to make an official request to Netflix. Then "heart/like" the master thread so that we have an idea on submission count. Repost Netflix
link/request every 2 days over next week or so that it stays afresh for those who missed it amidst the quick scrolling feed.

I only have eyes for Ah Sun and Li Jing. I do like Mujin in the manhwa though.

@676Ryn You can try the kdrama titled "W". It has webtoon integrated into the story and very different from the typical kdrama. It was the first of its kind when I first watched it in term of marrying webtoon with reality.

Ah Sun's eagle tribe is most likely part of the Eastern Turkic Khaganate and they lived north of China, inner Mongolia. For Ah Sun's tribe specifically and in TLB story, Khan and Ashile tribe probably spanned around up to 200 north/northeast of Shuozhou. For geographic point of reference, you can look up Shuozhou, China on google map. A little north/northeast of Shuozhou is land where the Eastern Turks roamed circa 620's.

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Shuozhou,+Shanxi,+China/@39.3358892,103.5262023,5z/data=!4m5!3m4!1s0x35e286bc3322fc6d:0x845e6768a056b4a8!8m2!3d39.331595!4d112.432825

Other interesting point to share is that CG traveled northeast from Chang'an (Xian, China) to Shuozhou, and that's about 500 miles.

Hahahah, good one! May the 4th be with you, too 'cuz the Force is strong with this young one.

Hahahaa, I laughed out loud too when Mujin teased his buddy’s “creepy” smile.

In total agreement! I'm glad to see that you appreciate the manhwa inserts as I do, too. I love that the director/production team pays homage to the manhwa creation. There were some posts that viewers criticized the drama for being cheapened with manhwa, but I beg to differ. The director also shot some live scenes with a manhwa feel, like close up on face, eyes, objects, scenery, to have a closer connection with its manhwa root of TLB.

I also love the sisterhood theme here. None of those toxic back-stabbing-boyfriend-stealing fake sister.

Yes, the sound effect team did a great job here. It's not just the music, but all background sound used that heightened the experience of watching TLB.

I noticed right away the first time I watched some scenes like when Ah Sun was about to pull the arrow out of CG by the river, and discovered he's a she. The sound effect goes from a heavy drum of suspense follows by a quick succession of piano notes and ends with soft violin - all on less than one minute to show concern, surprise, then realization.

Another scene that came to mind was when Muji and Ah Sun were discussing about approving girls to learn riding and shooting. Ah Sun softly gazed at the piece of blue cloth that CG used to bind his wound. We hear soft piano notes again, a reminder of CG and her femininity. At this point, we know Ah Sun is smitten because why else would he keep a dirty, bloody cloth tucked away at his rest area? (Oh yes, we all can clap and grin here! Poor Ah Sun..)

Strangely enough, I also remember the "swooshing" sound when AS activates the crossbow when he was chasing after A Sher in ep. 25. I was like, wow, the sound effect team didn't leave anything out for sure.

All I can say is that it's a POWER TEAM for everyone involved in this project. The producer(s) got the best of the best to come together - behind and in front of the camera.

... Or to re-live all the awesome scenes and moments that you enjoyed during the first time watching. I got plenty of those!

Ashile Sun is definitely unforgettable. I doubt AS would be this charismatic if Leo hadn't breathe life into the character so perfectly well.

I simply can't imagine another actor playing this role. Although Leo wasn't the production team's first choice, I sure am glad as hell that the first choice actor didn't work out.

Are the voices of the 4 main leads theirs or dubbed in TLB?

I’ll be looking out for the Blue Whisper for sure because I enjoy both the director’s and Allen Ren’s works. Allen got me sold on Under the Power.

She sure did! I can't get over how amazing the choreography is for the game.

Over and over, she just outwitted him - from stepping on his shoulder as boosting leverage to get to the ball first, evading his block nicely, purposely knocking him over to her team's advantage, to hand-signaling to her two teammates to block him.

What makes the winning outcome of this game so fantastic is that we ALL know he's been beaten by a girl which he didn't know yet, so that we can all look forward to the moment when her gender is revealed to him, and THAT makes the realization so much more impactful to his psyche - that he's been bested by a female.

The Long Ballad drama series is sooooooo impressively magnificent that I'm compelled to create a MDL account to join in the discussion. I first came across the series on Youtube while looking for new Chinese dramas to watch. The first episode got me hooked with the cuju game. It totally reminded me of Harry Potter quidditch. The directing/cinematography for the game alone was such high-quality, the field sparring was so entertaining with arial moves, and the sound/music was paired appropriately to create a sense of suspense and mood -- like when the ML first walked onto field and the angle of the moving camera capturing the ML/MF exchanging side glances. The second scene that got me totally intrigue with this drama (all in episode 1) was when after the game, the ML walked behind the Ashile Tribe envoy, entered a room with us seeing the ML closing the door, and turned around to face each other, and the envoy went on one knee to greet the ML as tegin. The introduction of the ML was just too mysteriously cool while the intro of the MF was nicely matched with wow-ness for having the upper hand over the ML in the cuju game.

When I found out that the director also directed Ashes of Love, I knew that TLB couldn't be that bad. I've watched a lot of Chinese dramas, but never a complete series of any of the 4 main leads individually; although I've watched some episodes here and there of Dilireba and Rosy (Dating in the Kitchen - but I was there for Lin Yu Shen) separately. I do remember Leo Wu's character in Nirvana in Fire, but didn't realized he's the ML in TLB until later. I'm now up to episode 37-sub, and 42 raw, and I am blown away by Leo's fantastic performance and the out-of-this-world flaming chemistry between Ah Sun and Changge. Yes, the script is great, the music is enchanting, the directing is top-notch, the costume is beautiful, but I strongly feel that had it not been for Leo Wu's and Dilireba's outstanding performance in connecting their characters on screen, we wouldn't be this crazy over TLB. Since I wasn't a fan of any of the 4 main casts prior to watching this drama , I feel that my judgement is more neutral/impartial. They are all award winning actors (with the exception of Liu Yu Ning who just came onto the acting scene), so obviously they can act; However, to me, I feel that Leo's performance is what makes TLB so captivating and memorable to us.

There's just so much to praise about this drama. But this post is getting long, so I'll just end it here.

I'm very glad that there's an active platform for us to share and discuss this wonderful epic drama with sheer delight!