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Love this! He's so mature for such a young actor. And a great public speaker too! First "TED talk" with fangirls heart-eyeing in the audience If anyones interested I can translate it into English later. But basically he's really brave in facing criticism about his acting head on (even the dumb big eyes comments), discussing his insecurities, advocating for following your dreams by being really prepared and working really hard, and revealing that he's a super nerd who spent 4 months during the audition period doing nothing but reading the source novel, watching multiple HSDS versions, and reading online comments and analyses to prepare for his role lol he's so adorable!!!

I'm subbing ep 27 now, it's so much fun to look back at what happened before all the melo stuff! Oh good innocent times! This is my first time subbing on youtube and it's quite easy! (thankfully there are already folks who helped put in the time stamps!) If you don't speak Chinese, please help with putting in the time stamps, we can then put in translation! If you don't have time, please do a review and edit/fix mistakes/typos (e.g. I saw a line that says "when did you tell my father" (from Bu Hui) but it was supposed to be "when will you tell my father", etc.) Everything and anything helps!

I can help! Just messaged you through wuxiarocks!

Ok so since I can't get over this drama, I started reading the novel (which was fully translated in my native language, Vietnamese). The last chapter was very satisfying; it really explained why Gu Tingye and Minglan are the way they are. Since the English translation for the novel is only up to chapter 78 (there are 219 in total), I translated key excerpts from the last chapter here, hopefully it gives you some closure/entertainment as it did me The full doc has translation footnotes etc., but I'll put here the very last conversation that they had (it'll be more impactful if you read from the beginning! But if you're pressed for time, this convo will suffice). See under spoiler tag:

I only watched a bit of the 94 version and it was so long ago I can't remember, but based on the clips it would seem that it has the same melodramatic flair lol it's the same writer. I think the director is key here - he showed the same deft handle of the materials with LOCH 17.

I noticed this! (From watching interviews and bts). Yukee and Joseph have really nice voices though. Is it because they have an accent?

This scene was really nice in the novel too. You can't tell here but the "voiceover" in WJ's head was saying how the lipstick mark was a light shade of pink, with a hint of fragrance, and he was moved (meaning he was moved by her femininity/presence). It was quite romantic! (I'm too lazy to find the whole quote here )

I actually highly recommend LOCH '17. It's quite loyal to the book, and is very fresh and youthful. One of the better versions of this story.

Can someone translate what was written on each of their lanterns? Thank you! Also I was thinking...WJ's passion for saving the people, while fitting with his personality, seems a bit out of nowhere given that we didn't really see him thinking about that until he was forced into the Ming sect leader role. If he was someone truly passionate about this issue, it would make more sense why he didn't want to leave with MM. In the novel the war wasn't emphasized as much, and WJ also didn't constantly talk about the importance of saving Han people from Yuan.

They did! It's canon and a key classic scene.

I wish they cut more of the beginning. There was like 15 eps of background and childhood story, while it fleshes out a lot of characters most of them end up dead early anyway so....

I agree with everyone here about the payoff. All this drama would only be worth it if WJ dramatically left everything even when the war was still going - it would be a huge gesture from him since we know how guilt-trippable he is, and how he insists on keeping even the most stupid promise (marrying girls he didn't love, twice). I think the writer struggles with having an ending that feels epic enough. In the novel, the climax seems to be the Shaolin arc, after that it just kinda meanders for a while with not much going on. The reason why WJ left Ming sect in the novel also seems random (Zhu Yuan Zhang pretended to poison him, he got disappointed). In a way upping ZYZ's scheming level makes WJ's final decision to leave more compelling, but at the same time like you all said, we were robbed of that actual decision process. He was gonna leave after the war was done anyway, what did ZYZ's plot of killing ZM's dad even add? Maybe in this way, with all the most important people in their lives gone, they can truly be together unburdened. I don't dislike the concept of this ending, it's the execution that leaves much to be desired. Re: kiss and whatnot, I've always thought him drawing her eyebrows was the most romantic gesture. The simplicity of her request, the intimacy, and the implication that he'd be by her side forever to do this, is what does it for me I'm of the probably controversial school of thought that marriage is just a social contract to protect people, and having kids was an economic necessity (more labor, back when we didn't have machines), so I'm perfectly happy with no wedding and no kid. Commitment is more important, and we know that they're committed. Re: YX, ommmggg where was YX in all of this?! I'm happy he wasn't involved in the s***ty plotting so he could remain Top Boss in terms of being Hot & Perfect, but I need YX on my screen! Re: YX & JXF, I think he knew how stubborn she was, and how committed she was to Er Mei, so if he had tried to find her, she'd probably kill herself or something like that. He also knew that being together would make JXF truly miserable. So I'm happy he respected her wish. As for WJ and ZM, she's free and unburdened from everything, and already has the tendency to tell WJ to "go away" without ever really meaning it, so I think in this case WJ has better grounds to ignore her request and go find her.

Re: why Ming sect wants him to stay: He's the Katniss of this District 12 revolution!

Here you go! What's the site that TVB showed LOCH?

The intro is out on YouTube today and they already have a different opening song! I too would be curious about the differences. Also want to know where to stream since a friend of mine speaks Cantonese but not Mandarin, and eng sub has been slow so far for her.