shiofmedea

Well, are they really his friends? They are guys he drinks with, who he before slept with, checked the box and ditched. Why would they be loyal to him? One of them summarized it well, his way of dealing with people is disaster waiting to happens.

Even if there seems to something off with the show, it is strangely addictive. Probably because the song title, Red Flags, make you suspicious of every action and the motives behind it. What normally could be dismissed as immaturity or lack of experience in relationship, here I start to (over)analyze and part of the reason I am looking forward to the next episodes is to see if I guessed right (I would really be interested in spoilers!). Plus the main pair is so charming.
So far I see the problems in all 4 guys and honestly whole gang of Dean friends, if you can really call them this, especially after the trailer of next episode. It may seems cynical but for me they will be looking forward to sabotage his potential with Moth just because they could not be the winners or they never considered they may be somebody who could keep his attention. It may be totally conscious, it may be disguised as friendly advice to keep clear from playboy, still, it will be there. Dean itself seems to me to be toned down or it is just that I have nothing against casual sex, if you are clear enough about boundaries? Anyway, depending on personal attitude his normal behavior is not that critical, still I can imagine a lot of bad blood around from jaded lovers. But! His casual acceptance of challenge, his cold blooded and dismissive comments after birthday date, disregard of possible consequences, immaturity is the nicest interpretation I can come with if not the presence of birthday gift. This is professional level of seduction, I admire this whole play and detest it the same. What I see later are the cracks in his play, not from catching feelings, not really, but from having to go against the person that do not follow the script. Moth seems to have feelings but he issues the tests, he push and pull, he has his own agenda. And Dean is not used to it so he drops act from time to time like in gallery. Yes, he kept sweet act and waited 3h but when he was annoyed enough true feelings spilled out. And it is not even about sophistication as not everybody need to like art, but about verbally abusing partner by attacking essential part of his life, his passion and plainly his job. He may be hurt being called stupid but he deserved it for more that obvious reasons. Additionally his ideas of dates are so unimaginative or even insulting. The dinner/parting with friends? It is not about introducing to his world, it is not bothering with date at all, it is locking time of other party to keep the deal with his friend and not wanting to give up his usual habits. Doing your job on the date??? When this job require to pay attention to others not the date? And then he has the cheek to say that Moth is the one ignoring him. So.. yeah, I would kick him to the curb fast.. and, I give it to the show, people, his so called friends, are doing exactly this, they may drink with him but they don't take him serious. As Moth already said, he is alone, exploited which is, in all, well deserved. Now Moth, not that much better, even if I have way more sympathy and understanding to him. He seems more intelligent, more jaded, cynical and guarded. And probably due to actor projection, older and mature. He is playing his own selfish game to shake off his friend feelings, which is not much better that Dean scheme. He prefer his comfort zone over sparing his friend, only friend, feelings. On plus he finds perfect partner/target in Dean, bit simpleton, sleeping around and easily changing his pray, if the first attempt do not work. No feelings to be broken, clean game. Moth is not catching feelings on surface as well, he is forcing the game, he is frustrated but he needs to keep it up so he negotiate. In his case we have it easy as the authors got us exposition for his character (why? do we look stupid?) as it was not obvious enough that Moth is self centered, controlling with clear manipulative impulses and rather low empathy level. His dates (again, why they needed to strictly tell us that?) are as selfish as Dean's, only they are actually interesting. And serving actual purpose of 21 days' deal when Deans are just lazy and neglectful.
Would I have the same opinion if tittle song was not Red Flags? Probably not, as I am used to simple plots and people falling for each other just because, ignoring questionable behavior and seeing world in black and white. So it is fun to let myself hope that for once they are not just simple but their actions have second and third and even more layers that you only find in good spy shows... and the actors are fun, charming and hot together (well, yes, I can be simple as well)

From books perspective previous version was more accurate to not giving that information away at this stage. But it had other issues like additional redundant characters and ridiculous time jump in The Lost Tomb second part. So no perfect version. But I quite liked Lost Tomb 2.

They resembled each other so people confused them often. To the point that there is confusion about who is on the picture from the ship part. And they faked death of one to be able to move easier for The Plan. Plus Xie had the skill to use life like masks, which make it probably easier to pose as Wu. But WX (and us, readers, with him) learns about it much later.

They did not have the same face, but they looked similar enough for people to confuse them, they knew each other and they had some family connection (cousins?) to explain it. Which, in my opinion, was always plot hole as it is difficult to believe family members did not saw difference. I always thought that Wus (second brother) pretended to not know as part of The Plan. And Xie family members died shortly after that time (with Xie Yu Chen taking over as clan leader as still child) so that side was covered too. Difference is, this information is shared much later, which make sense as books are written as WX diary, so if he does not know, we do not have the info either.

But the end was already showed in the first drama, so what is the point to repeat it? Plus it is not happy ending, if they show beginning of experiments. It is tragic. Anyway, it is just how I would do it. I have no idea what they decide (but I must admit I would like to see the showdown again with the cool sword formations, as the main reason I am watching the show are fights.).
What can the rest of show be? The whole process that led to events that resulted in Xiao Ruo Feng death, I hope. This show should focus on politics. It fits with assassin theme.

Personally, I would finish at the point that looks like them winning, taking over and starting to rebuild organization but with hint of SC downfall (start of experiments on zombie he is sponsoring seems like good place, or just collaboration with court fractions).

Not only he is not funny here, he is useless. He is comedy relief originally but he is an expert too. Here he is just irritating waste of space, triggering all the traps and complaining.

It seems I am in minority here but I don't like this version much in comparison with previous two covering the same material.
For the first part, Lost Tomb, yes, it is closer to novel and does not have annoying additional characters as the first one but at the same time it is kind of boring. A lot of running around, not much of fight and when they show them the are based on effects not straightforward skills of actor. Zero chemistry from my perspective between WX and ZQ. The only good thing is Uncle, way more rough and fitting for what come next.
But uncle part later comes with big chunk of information that spoils the story and in books comes a lot, lot later! The point of books is that we go on the journey with WX, we learn when he learns, so why, why show us something now that he will be chasing after for years?
And WX, he is not experienced from beginning but he has character in the books and it is showed in the previous adaptations. Here, I just do not see it, he is so bland.
I am huge fan of whole universe I read all the books and watched all the shows and I am disappointed.

but it is implied that the crimes of the Emperor were kept quiet for greater good and his blood is going to rule so again law was ignored anway. To be very strict, the twins mother was guilty of covering the crimes from begining as well as her lack of action resulted in all this pile of dead royal family members (and other people more or less directly). Provided solution is understandable but have nothinig to do with justice.
I skipped through end of novel after reading comments and I think I would prefer that end.

On ep36 and being objective Li Mu Yun was right, QW father did cancel the crime so he was guilty, disregarding the reason. Law is the low. Of course that means that drama have no internal logic on case solving side as they have to compromise principles for greater good and against all they preached before. At the end, what a irony, Li Mu Yun would be only one to follow the law to the letter. I don't think the writers intended it but I find it kind of funny.

do you have link to the webtoon that you can share? who is the author?

In Lost Tomb for sure, I don't remember if lamp lights it in Ultimate Note, or it just hang there during fight>

well yes, obviously, but I wonder who is after it besides the guys who murdered ZH household members. His teachers are interested too, I think. Are the connected to Zhangs somehow?

The setup is different, ML with different backround and stakes, the MC was older too, with youth spent as worrior and understanding of court from his time before tragedy. Here we have child trained but with training not finished and with no life experience to back him up before stepping out into whole revenge scheme to test learned theories in real world. It takes time to master the game.

I wonder if the masters are helping ZH only for court related reasons or they play long game for ghost seal as well.

it is so much fun to look out for those small bits of references to the lore. In ep3 there is the lamp hanging rule that brings so man memories.

that camera shot looked like the wanted to hint something but it was a bit too obvious maybe? And a bit not logical: he wanted to leave with whole household so why have it buried on the grounds? And during the attack there was no time to do it.

I would not say nemesis as he is long gone but he is builder (or rebuilder) of the tombs Wu Xie visited. And rumored founder of Wangs organisation.

That is way more rewarding that simple stab with sword, we need another epic drama like Nirvana in Fire, Let's hope it will be that one.