[[Drama 2023] Arthdal Chronicles 2, 아스달 연대기 2]

Overall, great first two episodes and I hope the pacing, editing, and writing stays consistent throughout the series even with netizen's complaints. 

Despite people constantly pitting this show as "budget-low-quality" GoT, I see this show having more resemblance to Chinese wuxia/xianxia dramas instead with the whole "prophesied one" plot line.
I remember being surprised that a Korean drama was going to delve into traditional fantasy with world-building, something never seen before. I hope this at least encourages other writers and directors to attempt more heavy fantasy genres as there's so much you can do with it. 

[[Mainland Chinese Drama 2018] Heavy Sweetness Ash-like Frost 香蜜沉沉烬如霜]

On 5/21/2019 at 4:54 PM, CornishxPixie said:

Hey everyone!

I fell completely in love with this story from the perspectives of all characters. I stumbled upon this forum and have tried to read as much as possible getting new takes on things and finding out about scenes that I didnt completely understand.

One thing I didnt understand and couldn't find an answer for: in episode 55 when Xefung stops Jinmi from hurting Suihe by force. Its obvious he is very conflicted about hurting her in general. My question is, did he summon the pheonix feather in his hand purposely because he knew it would protect Jinmi? Was it a new reconstructed one since coming back alive? It seemed like he was waiting for it to work before shooting at her. Would really love to hear thoughts and possible explanations! 

If I recall correctly, yes he purposely did that to both spite and also protect Jinmi. He explains it eventually once they both reconcile. 

[[Mainland Chinese Drama 2019] Goodbye My Princess 东宫]

I feel so conflicted about the ending, which I can only attribute to butchered editing. While I got the gist that LCY ended up going back to Xi to repent for his sins/search for the River of Oblivion (?) it ended so abruptly that it feels like there was no proper closure on karmic cycle. 

 

It's a pity because the last few episodes really highlighted the dismal editing with the rushed political plotlines of the Gao/Emperor intrigue. This was only brought on by the (imo) bad writing of the attempted rebellion in the final episode to  'patch everything up in one go' (Though reading how the novel actually ended I think the drama fared much better with the closure of LCY's and XF's relationship.) 

 

Overall I liked the drama for what it tried to be. I really liked how a core part of the story was the moral complexity of characters, even those that seemed good, in the face of motivations and circumstances. XF's cousin, for example, was a cruel and sadistic scum towards slaves (heck he was basically a human trafficker) but was loyal, kind, and loving towards XF and his family. Even supposedly 'evil' characters like the Empress deeply cared for both the Emperor and LCY (in her own way) while simultaneously doing everything wrong/evil to maintain her political power. LCY's multifaceted character was really a breath of fresh air in the midst of all the same, mundane, straightforward ''good' romantic interest out there. Normally shows balance the moral compass of the cast by making the second male lead a 'better option' but the show acknowledged that GJ was just every bit as much of a hypocrite and manipulative as LCY was for his own interest.

 

On the other hand, despite my praise of LCY's overall idea of a multidimensional character, the writing of his motivations fell short. Following another user's comment, I felt that his turnover to anger and jealousy didn't quite hit the mark realistically for me because their (LCY and XF's) relationship beforehand did not establish a love that was equally as passionate. (This can be both attributed to editing and writing really) Take another series, Ashes of Love, as an example of how a similar set up was done better to show the degrees to which the lead would take to get the girl. Spoiler incoming for Ashes of Love (read on if you're interested in the parallels)

Spoiler

With AoL when Run Yu found out that Jin Mi wanted to go back to Xu Feng's side again he displayed roughly the same amount of anger and jealousy that was never seen before (when he was previously always calm and collected), however the transition to him getting into that similar mental depravity made more sense because they had already shown beforehand the stakes Ru Yun would take just to get Jin Mi. (added on by his deteriorating mental state over Jinmi's sadness and the the loneliness of getting the crown)

While I wouldn't say I was surprised really of the drastic consequences XF's memories would have on an ignorant LCY, I thought that having more substance behind their relationship/circumstances would have made all the subsequent scenes more impactful and heartbreaking. 

 

Basically, to sum it up it had the potential to be a truly amazing story with a cast of very interesting characters but fell short because of bad writing and editing decisions. Some of them never really amounted to anything (Mi Luo, as much as I loved her, she could have easily been replaced with another unknown character), had the potential but failed to expand on (Gao PM),  or were in XF's case unfortunately for a large part of the story, stuck as the 'innocent, simple, good-hearted' character to juxtapose the scheming environment that she was placed in. (I'll admit that this is largely personal preference on my part.) On one hand, I understand the original author's intention on writing XF as the counterpart to LCY/the palace (which ties back to the larger theme of the story of how circumstances can work against your best interest at heart) On the other hand I also wished that XF matured and grew from all the various circumstances she was put under and to understand the weight her words and actions could have. I felt like it wasn't until the end that she had finally gained the insight on the sacrifices and responsibilities that comes with being a princess, when it could have been done earlier.