Just finished this. I dropped Blossom whose IP was written by the same chick as this one was more substantial and relies less on glitz and glamour which Blossom was guilty of, and is powered by excellent acting from the ladies!! The story was nothing original but the character development was done well for several female characters and the slowburn made sense.
My biggest 'shallow' takeaway would be that I'd love to have Shiyi's bedroom, the Western Lateral Court 🤣 The woodwork was just so stunning.
The reviews made it seem like the mother in law was the biggest villain but she hella wasn't lol
Absolutly worth it. There are a lot of twists and turns and the mother in law from hell, but given your concerns,…
So I gave it a try again cause my officemate told me to pick it back up and reach at least the part where they were talking about sweet and sour fish and I was like 'wut lol'. I binged it on ×2 to lessen my agony and I'm pretty glad I finished it.
My stress levels were at their highest when Dongqing and Linbo got involved 😭 I was screaminggg haha
So I binge watched this over the weekend till Monday and finished it. As someone who came from an anime-watching background growing up, this feels very much like a good, classic shounen. Not something I'd rewatch but it was definitely worth the watch.
The ensemble cast really, really held this thing down. Since I watched this pretty late, I recognised some actors based on their later works I've seen. I can't imagine watching S2 if they don't retain the cast (and yes I am #TeamJiangNi and thought Teresa Li's portrayal of a tsundere was so accurate lmao. Screw the backlash she got.) The story would have fallen flat on its face for being just another 'i wanna be the very best' typa shounen (or wuxia, to be more precise) if the cast hadn't been perfectly eccentric and unyielding.
Actually, even the production tried its best to deliver the 'fantasy' elements. The filming locations and sets also felt convincing and vast.
I'm glad about one thing in particular: the fact that they lessened the harem tone in the drama adaptation. I have such a distaste for harem anime but was kinda forced (by myself for not knowing any better since I was young then) to watch multiple fantasy shounen with harems cause there's just so few shows that are good shounen/wuxia that manage to make the romance respectful and not an author's self insert. Had this been more harem-y than it was, I would not have given this the time of day as an adult in 2025 who knows not to tolerate themes/tropes that I don't find entertaining anyways.
As far as the story goes for S2 though I won't keep my hopes up. Who knows how they'll adapt such a long story for the second season and what they'd want to focus on and if they could keep the cast, particularly the important oldies (Like Xu Xiao and Li Chungang).
The antagonist in the season was miscast completely. They took an actor who was young and has done primarily protagonist…
I took a little peek at its Douban last week. Just basing it off the first page of ratings, a significant amount of 1 star ratings were given on Jan 15-16. That's just Days 1-2 of airing. Lmao it's like giving Swords Into Plowshares a 1 star cause you didn't understand eps 1-2. I never used Douban as a meter to determine if a drama is good or not but even now I might as well censor the dang word.
I didn't want to reply to any of Baozi Buns' comments cause obvious ragebaiter camping on a comment section without having watched S2 but tracking Douban scores is gonna waste my time with chatgpt-ed complaints but damn it I have to set the record straight somewhere.
How did Prince Peacock die? I’ll be watching soon!
Agree on both points! My headcanon for a special episode/epilogue would have been Xiao Jinyu and Chu Chu trying to solve a simple "crime" (smth like who ate the lotus pods Xiao Jinyu was gonna give to Chu Chu) then BAM! pans to their twin children as culprits. Idk I think they had twins in the novel.
How did Prince Peacock die? I’ll be watching soon!
It's his baby face, I think 🤣 I am of the opinion that a little facial hair would've benefited his evil image by a long shot 🤣
I was 99% sure the director/scripwriters wanted him to kill himself and I wasn't really averse to that idea. Though yes, the speech could have been omitted.
Ending-wise, it ended the same way as S1 did, except S1's decree was just about Chu Chu. Here, it was for the four of them so I found it cute. 😅 A special episode for an epilogue would be very much welcome, though.
Ep 25 - Agree with Xiao Jinyu - You Chen An has lost his humanity. He’s killed yet another one who was truly…
I pity him, too. At some point in the series, he started to remind me of MCU Erik Killmonger and made me feel like the story can handle him any way it wants to and I wouldn't be mad at it.
I kinda wished CC would’ve at least stabbed the guy when she had the chance. He went from fake being a nice…
I'm not mad at all that they gave a second wedding to Jing Yi and Leng Yue—they deserved their sweet scenes, too 🥹 And it was like only 30 seconds 😅
Though I really wanted to see Chu Chu and Xiao Jinyu with kids 😭😭 We just can't have it all, can we? I hope they give us that in a special episode cause they had a lot of kids in the novel 🤣 and the ending scene with them looking at a couple of kids running by was such a tease
My biggest 'shallow' takeaway would be that I'd love to have Shiyi's bedroom, the Western Lateral Court 🤣 The woodwork was just so stunning.
The reviews made it seem like the mother in law was the biggest villain but she hella wasn't lol
My stress levels were at
their highest when Dongqing and Linbo got involved 😭 I was screaminggg haha
The ensemble cast really, really held this thing down. Since I watched this pretty late, I recognised some actors based on their later works I've seen. I can't imagine watching S2 if they don't retain the cast (and yes I am #TeamJiangNi and thought Teresa Li's portrayal of a tsundere was so accurate lmao. Screw the backlash she got.) The story would have fallen flat on its face for being just another 'i wanna be the very best' typa shounen (or wuxia, to be more precise) if the cast hadn't been perfectly eccentric and unyielding.
Actually, even the production tried its best to deliver the 'fantasy' elements. The filming locations and sets also felt convincing and vast.
I'm glad about one thing in particular: the fact that they lessened the harem tone in the drama adaptation. I have such a distaste for harem anime but was kinda forced (by myself for not knowing any better since I was young then) to watch multiple fantasy shounen with harems cause there's just so few shows that are good shounen/wuxia that manage to make the romance respectful and not an author's self insert. Had this been more harem-y than it was, I would not have given this the time of day as an adult in 2025 who knows not to tolerate themes/tropes that I don't find entertaining anyways.
As far as the story goes for S2 though I won't keep my hopes up. Who knows how they'll adapt such a long story for the second season and what they'd want to focus on and if they could keep the cast, particularly the important oldies (Like Xu Xiao and Li Chungang).
I didn't want to reply to any of Baozi Buns' comments cause obvious ragebaiter camping on a comment section without having watched S2 but tracking Douban scores is gonna waste my time with chatgpt-ed complaints but damn it I have to set the record straight somewhere.
Fatso 🤣🤣🤣
I was 99% sure the director/scripwriters wanted him to kill himself and I wasn't really averse to that idea.
Though yes, the speech could have been omitted.
Ending-wise, it ended the same way as S1 did, except S1's decree
was just about Chu Chu. Here, it was for the four of them so I found it cute. 😅 A special episode for an epilogue would be very much welcome, though.
Though I really wanted to see Chu Chu and Xiao Jinyu with kids 😭😭 We just can't have it all, can we? I hope they give us that in a special episode cause they had a lot of kids in the novel 🤣 and the ending scene with them looking at a couple of kids running by was such a tease