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

[lovehuche]

1 hour ago, angel318 said:

Spoiler alert 

  Hide contents

I think they changed the pill story  it seems to be that instead of JM giving up her essence RY does it for her for the sake of protecting her ... 

 

I don't get it.  RY used JM to get his revenge.  He killed his family for what they did to him and now he also revived his enemy.  That doesn't make sense.

[paperwishes]

7 minutes ago, lovehuche said:

I don't get it.  RY used JM to get his revenge.  He killed his family for what they did to him and now he also revived his enemy.  That doesn't make sense.

I just think that RY is a very conflicting and contradicting person. He wants to be seen as good but his insecurities and inferior complex drove him to no end. 

Surprisingly, I'm actually fine with today's changes. Probably because I'm a sucker for plotlines where by the situation turns ironic. Like how RY plot XF's demise but JM she sacrifice herself to revive XF and the irony which is the fact that RY ended up having to sacrifice himself to save JM. The classic "早知如今, 何必当初" .

Which seems to be a reoccurring theme that's happening in this drama.  It seems like every character is just repaying debts (their own or for others). 

[Nudafu]

OTP Poetic Moment [episode 44 and 45]

 

It's sweet and sad because while the words are touching, it is not from the heart. Jin Mi is saying what Xu Feng wishes to hear so that he lowers his guard; setting him up to kill him later on. I think Xu Feng is convinced. If only that this is the first time he hears such words from Jin Mi.

 

 

 

Jin Mi notices Xu Feng is interested in her calligraphy and offers to give him a few pages of it. He ignores this, but says Jin Mi's poem is good. He recites:  

"Unwritten words of love, 
An unwritten poem.
A plain piece of cloth bears my yearning.
The heart knows to embrace chaos
Seeing horizontal threads here, vertical threads there,
Who knows, what lies in my heart."

A short interlude between Jin Mi and Xu Feng.

"Such frankness. I wander who is it you yearn for."
"I see that I haven't been frank enough."
"Not enough."

Jin Mi takes over in response, half in reflection, half in question. 

"Not only does a piece of cloth bear threads, this Xuan paper too reveals threads in the light. Unfortunately I offered these to you before, but you did not want them."

"Ebony tresses,
Love's locks,
I bestow this small token of ebony locks
To bear my love
Hoping that your heart mirrors my heart."
 

 

 

Xuan paper is a well known type of high quality paper used for Chinese ink brush calligraphy. Some types of paper do actually have threads of material in it. 

 

"A plain piece of cloth" means handkerchief. I swear, handkerchief is one of the most unromantic sounding words in English. In Chinese, it can be a symbol for romance, because a noblewoman would convey her feelings by leaving her handkerchief with the gentleman of interest. 

When Jin Mi says she offered "these" to Xu Feng before, she not only means the poem, but the yearning contained in them. Whether in jest or seriousness, Jin Mi is reprimanding Xu Feng for his refusal of her poem and implied feelings.

The literal translation should be black instead of ebony. Ebony is a better poetic reference to hair than black. Black sounds dead boring. Tresses and locks can both be used to refer to hair. 

Jin Mi makes use of alliteration commonly used in Chinese love poems. The characters for love and ebony sound similar (情/qing) - emphasis on love. The characters for yearning, poem, threads, tresses, locks, mirror all sound the same (思/si) - emphasis on yearning. The character for know (知/zhi) sounds the same as branch. This connection infers a union, as the branch comes from an interlocking tree (a Chinese metaphor for union).

 

 

Ugh, too much lovey dovey stuff. Need to balance it with some fighting.

 

[Mau_Cherry]

3 hours ago, angel318 said:

Spoiler alert 

  Hide contents

I think they changed the pill story  it seems to be that instead of JM giving up her essence RY does it for her for the sake of protecting her ... 

 

 

 

Hello Everyone - as far as I can remember this is my fist time to comment for a C Drama.

 

But I still need to ask - why do you think that? I need solide evidence for that - and I only will complain when I have that. Don´t like to trouble myself for something what will not happen later.

 

As someone who loves spoiler and has no big patience - I read parts of the book. Okay - I wanted to know what happen on the wedding - and I ended up reading all from that part on. I still need to read the earlier parts.

 

 

[jehnnny99]

You know, earlier on fans were complaining about excessive screen time for RY - it was explained that he is also a main character in the novel as well i.e. had almost as much interactions with JM as XF, and is a key figure for the  progression of the story from the heaven arc to demon arc. Some back story doesn't hurt right? Esp for non-novel readers that would sympathise with him as they don't have the bias  towards XF like novel readers do. Novel readers seem to absolutely DETEST the fact that RY has such a sad backstory - but the thing is that isn't forcing anyone to sympathise with him. People will choose to do so on their own - the backstory is there to make RY a more three-dimensional character rather than a lame 2D villain that just wants revenge because of something that happened in the past ( like how the novel described ).

 

Now, it's about the character changes/'development', primarily for XF. What I don't understand is that, what exactly is the 'character development' you want from him before he revives in the demon realm? The dialogue changes did not impact on any character development because pre-stabbing, the only development he needed was from not loving JM to being totally head over heels for her. The fact that he didn't ' shield'JM from his mother ( which he did, it's just that he chose to protect his mother as well ) or the fact that he's less domineering isn't really considered character development, that's just his current personality / how the drama is portraying him. There are differences, yes, but really it doesn't impact on the progression of the drama at all. It makes it smoother even, as we see a clear transition from righteous God of War to 'evil' Dark lord of the underworld as we move on to the demon realm arc. Now that is character development, because something needs to happen in order to trigger a character to change or 'develop'.

 

i actually prefer the drama XF - he's shown to be loyal to his mother whatever faults she has ( when he shields her from Water God ), which is wrong from an outsider's view but we all know about that kind of blind love towards our own mothers. He's even shown to be on friendly terms with the unfavoured illegitimate older brother, unlike in the novel. There is a kind of gentleness, kindness and innocence that wasn't expressed in the novel, making him the perfect match for JM and making the transition from celestial to demom even more impactful.

 

So really, there are different opinions even within novel readers. Dissatisfaction can be expressed but I think it's going too far to tell non-readers that the show is so bad and discouraging people from viewing it just because it doesn't strictly follow the novel. Thanks for reading another one of my rants 

[paperwishes]

Honestly, the reason why book/drama fans are upset is because of iQiyi/Youku's floating comments (those that are like viki). You have people calling out JM/XF 'adultry' and how JM doesn't deserve RY etc and it's quite overwhelming.

 

Everything started because fans were being called out for their moral values for shipping otp. 

 

And the reason why there're people flooding adultry comments is because of the character changes. In the book, RY & XF do not have strong brotherhood. They were pretty cold to each other and RY calculated from the very beginning. In the book, he's the one that allowed JM & XF their rendezvous meetings because right from the beginning, he plotted to use JM against XF.

 

Do note that the drama only grew popular through the word of mouth (books fans were crazily recommending it to everyone around them because of how close it is to the book) / Yangzi pretty much use up her celeb friends connection to advertise the drama etc. The production crew was actually so poor that they did not have budget for marketing and getting it to trend on weibo was so hard back then because they put restriction onto the actors name/drama. So in a way, fans felt betrayed when the characters they love and supported gets changed and twisted.

 

All I can say is... the hate stems from the love they have for the series. Even right now, the club is split between RY supporters vs otp supporters. I have seen a fair amount of RY supporters tearing the otp apart, calling them names and bringing up moral values etc. After which, book fans/drama otp fans started refuting and now this is what have become of it.

Incase you guys didn't know. The actress that act as FH's mom deactivated her weibo due to overwhelming hate from people that's watching the drama.

 

So a gentle reminder. Characters are characters, don't relate your dislike for the characters to the actors. For myself, I just dislike how hypocrite Night has become and he's very much similar to his dad.  But at the same time, I enjoy seeing him being emotionally tortured by his love for JM.

 

and some questionable plotlines... Like how XF (who's suppose to be well verse in all pills/medical stuff) /Fox deity have never heard of the unfeeling pill while RY found it out in the library. ???

[sirena82]

5 hours ago, thehumantree said:

Hating a character and projecting it on the actor is as ridiculous as hating the fans and projecting it on to the actor.

 

And from your previous comment... I've been meaning to ask.... Do you even know what porn is? What the leads are doing is considered child's play at most so No. I cannot say for the others that favors otp but for myself, I am not in this for the porn!!

 

 

When exiactly did I say I m hating the actor! Please don't try to talk my comment out context. I said, when I see him I'm reminded with the bullying his fan has inflicted against others. The fact that people can hide behind a screen a write many offinsive thing, is certainly NOT ok with me. If fans respectfully pointed out that they needed to see more of their favorites actor, it's not a problem. But, to attack other actors and people is just not right. No wonder more celebrities and people commit suicide most particularly in Asian countries.

yes I know what porn is and it appears to me, reading many comments of people claiming to be fan of the novel that they were bothered mostly for not seeing enough OTP between XF and JM. That seems they want more like love actions in the drama and not following a story. 

What made this novel unique was the ability of the writer to write an amazing story centers around the 3 main character JM, XF and RY. Real fans of the novel know that the 3 of them were leads in the novel. Yet, the drama spend the first 30 episodes  about to love and romance beteen XF and JM. That Was NEVER original to the novel. In the novel, while XF was dying for JM love, she did not care one inch about it. She goes as far as saying she is happy to discover she is engaged to RY who is nice and calm guy unlike XF. If, the novel was really authentic to the novel. Then, RY will be in almost all scenes and it won't have romance between JM and XF until  toward to end of the drama. 

This drama, since the start diverted from the originality set in the novel of the 3 way relationship between the 3 leads and was made into just normal love story between a girl and a guy. That's a thing found in hundreds if not thousands of Asian dramas. Since the first several episodes, I could see that it is this year imitation of ten miles of peach blossom not what was original in the novel. Many people dropped this drama for that reason. I kept watching in hopes it will give something else. But, it just did not deliver. But, I'm going to watch to the end as I already invested a lot of time for it.

Edited August 28, 2018 by sirena82

[gleek49]

1 hour ago, jehnnny99 said:

You know, earlier on fans were complaining about excessive screen time for RY - it was explained that he is also a main character in the novel as well i.e. had almost as much interactions with JM as XF, and is a key figure for the  progression of the story from the heaven arc to demon arc. Some back story doesn't hurt right? Esp for non-novel readers that would sympathise with him as they don't have the bias  towards XF like novel readers do. Novel readers seem to absolutely DETEST the fact that RY has such a sad backstory - but the thing is that isn't forcing anyone to sympathise with him. People will choose to do so on their own - the backstory is there to make RY a more three-dimensional character rather than a lame 2D villain that just wants revenge because of something that happened in the past ( like how the novel described ).

 

Now, it's about the character changes/'development', primarily for XF. What I don't understand is that, what exactly is the 'character development' you want from him before he revives in the demon realm? The dialogue changes did not impact on any character development because pre-stabbing, the only development he needed was from not loving JM to being totally head over heels for her. The fact that he didn't ' shield'JM from his mother ( which he did, it's just that he chose to protect his mother as well ) or the fact that he's less domineering isn't really considered character development, that's just his current personality / how the drama is portraying him. There are differences, yes, but really it doesn't impact on the progression of the drama at all. It makes it smoother even, as we see a clear transition from righteous God of War to 'evil' Dark lord of the underworld as we move on to the demon realm arc. Now that is character development, because something needs to happen in order to trigger a character to change or 'develop'.

 

i actually prefer the drama XF - he's shown to be loyal to his mother whatever faults she has ( when he shields her from Water God ), which is wrong from an outsider's view but we all know about that kind of blind love towards our own mothers. He's even shown to be on friendly terms with the unfavoured illegitimate older brother, unlike in the novel. There is a kind of gentleness, kindness and innocence that wasn't expressed in the novel, making him the perfect match for JM and making the transition from celestial to demom even more impactful.

 

So really, there are different opinions even within novel readers. Dissatisfaction can be expressed but I think it's going too far to tell non-readers that the show is so bad and discouraging people from viewing it just because it doesn't strictly follow the novel. Thanks for reading another one of my rants 

Thank you for your opinion, it seems to me like you haven't read the novel, so you probably don't understand my criticisms. I would love to explain in details for you how the second set of writers twisted the original material and script in favor of RY. However, I get the impression that my posts bring negative energy to the thread, so I'm not sure if you would want to read my explanation. If you are interested, I will try to post it tomorrow, if not, then we can only agree to disagree.

I don't know if you have read this post of mine, I explained some of my criticisms in it:

 

[mrsyooknit]

@jehnnny99

 

Just wanted to say that fans have always been upset over both things. And that they are relatable. The fact that there is a lack of screen time and that actions/lines were taken from XF relates to his lack of character development. You can't develop a character if you don't have him appear on screen and you take away actions that defined him as a character. I think if it was just screen time, it wouldn't have become such a big deal. And at this point it is not only XF who was hurt, but JM too. Both are suffering from a lack of characterization needed to tell their story. 

 

Honestly, it is not book fans nitpicking it. They wanted this adaptation to work. They were excited about it and hyping the drama up everywhere at first. That is how the drama got such good word of mouth from book fans saying that they finally got a drama that was doing the book right.  Now you see them before an episode like "cheer up it will be better today" only to be followed with "what was that?". At the end of the day, this will follow the drama.

[thehumantree]

1 hour ago, sirena82 said:

 

When exiactly did I say I m hating the actor! Please don't try to talk my comment out context. I said, when I see him I'm reminded with the bullying his fan has inflicted against others. The fact that people can hide behind a screen a write many offinsive thing, is certainly NOT ok with me. If fans respectfully pointed out that they needed to see more of their favorites actor, it's not a problem. But, to attack other actors and people is just not right. No wonder more celebrities and people commit suicide most particularly in Asian countries.

yes I know what porn is and it appears to me, reading many comments of people claiming to be fan of the novel that they were bothered mostly for not seeing enough OTP between XF and JM. That seems they want more like love actions in the drama and not following a story. 

What made this novel unique was the ability of the writer to write an amazing story centers around the 3 main character JM, XF and RY. Real fans of the novel know that the 3 of them were leads in the novel. Yet, the drama spend the first 30 episodes  about to love and romance beteen XF and JM. That Was NEVER original to the novel. In the novel, while XF was dying for JM love, she did not care one inch about it. She goes as far as saying she is happy to discover she is engaged to RY who is nice and calm guy unlike XF. If, the novel was really authentic to the novel. Then, RY will be in almost all scenes and it won't have romance between JM and XF until  toward to end of the drama. 

This drama, since the start diverted from the originality set in the novel of the 3 way relationship between the 3 leads and was made into just normal love story between a girl and a guy. That's a thing found in hundreds if not thousands of Asian dramas. Since the first several episodes, I could see that it is this year imitation of ten miles of peach blossom not what was original in the novel. Many people dropped this drama for that reason. I kept watching in hopes it will give something else. But, it just did not deliver. But, I'm going to watch to the end as I already invested a lot of time for it.

 

"to attack other actors and people is just not right."  

 

On this we agreed.   

 

"they were bothered mostly for not seeing enough OTP between XF and JM. That seems they want more like love actions in the drama and not following a story."  

 

Excuse the crassness but that's a ridiculous assumption! ! No one here wants them to screw each other 24/7!! Fans wants fleshed out character development ala Runyu!!  

 

"Real fans of the novel know that the 3 of them were leads in the novel."   

 

That is true, but as we move forward into the story line we can see that one lead gets bloated, another gets sideline, and the last is just there!! It's no wonder fans are discontent!! 

[thehumantree]

Did they really change Jinmi's redemption? How is she going to redeem herself? How am I suppose to forgive her?

 

Hopefully they change it so she can do something even more redeemable?

 

Maybe...

 

Jinmi, I'm counting on you!!

 

[ForgottenSoulx]

13 hours ago, gleek49 said:

 

 

One character being changed while everything else is adapted is still a good adaption and you said you see it from solely from a drama fan perspective but if you read the book your always going to be biased for the book.

 

The "drama" has not really screwed up because it decided to change stuff around . 

 

2 hours ago, jehnnny99 said:

 

 

agree with everything you said you make alot of sense./ 

 

 

I think ill unfollow this thread until the drama is fully subbed . 

 

[Mau_Cherry]

3 hours ago, jehnnny99 said:

You know, earlier on fans were complaining about excessive screen time for RY - it was explained that he is also a main character in the novel as well i.e. had almost as much interactions with JM as XF, and is a key figure for the  progression of the story from the heaven arc to demon arc. Some back story doesn't hurt right? Esp for non-novel readers that would sympathise with him as they don't have the bias  towards XF like novel readers do. Novel readers seem to absolutely DETEST the fact that RY has such a sad backstory - but the thing is that isn't forcing anyone to sympathise with him. People will choose to do so on their own - the backstory is there to make RY a more three-dimensional character rather than a lame 2D villain that just wants revenge because of something that happened in the past ( like how the novel described ).

 

 

 

 

Sorry to cut your post - I just wanted to say : THANK YOU! Agree on everything. I just hope that not all readers hate the changes. I don´t. Yes - I had one or two moments i asked myself why the god of war and fire became an only reading and writing guy following the girl around. And yes - I suffered to see him caring so much for a woman who could not understand his true heart. But thats all from my side. I loved the Human World Story. I loved that they made there lovestory even deeper when she was near to feel everything and knowing that she had fall for him.

 

For me a really good story needs a lot more than just an OTP. I just really hope the writer is okay with the changes.

Its good to love and hate Night. Its good to know his Backstory - and therefor Snakes too - and on top of it to know how evil the empress really is. It all fits well for me. And that story showed us too how wonderful JM Father was.

From my side - I like a lot of characters - and yes - I like the second love story too.

I guess when in the book it was only mentioned that Phönix took over the demon realm in such a short time - they can now give us more. I missed something in the book - because it was all just from her side and I wanted to know more about the other sides - so for me - I am happy with the Drama. STill - it would be nice to let Phönix act more like a warrior sometimes. But - what can I do - i loved his Character - I still love him - and I loved Deng Lun and I love him even more as the Phönix. So - I am happy. I don´t need all the filler material - but thats always the same for me - more than 60 Episodes can only work with fillers and I normally like a shorter Drama. But still - I am head over heals for Ashes of Love.

 

 

[turtle0217]

I sort of get what is going on and I'm sort of lost, but aside from the whole production crew and stuff going on, the drama is dragging to me. I mean they wasted a lot of time on useless stuff and now, there's like 10 episodes left and you barely see what's going on with Phoenix, but you see Night a lot trying to keep JM. Then there's JM crying and trying to find ways to Phoenix. I feel like can't I just fast forward all that and jump straight to Phoenix being the demon lord..? 

 

Anyways, I like how they put in the scene where she went into the demon world and chased after Phoenix and she got all the scars on her legs. Also when she was drawing him. I understand she did him wrong, but those scenes were very well done of her pain heartbroken that she loved him, but she also killed him in the first place. 

[clawedzip]

2 hours ago, jehnnny99 said:

You know, earlier on fans were complaining about excessive screen time for RY - it was explained that he is also a main character in the novel as well i.e. had almost as much interactions with JM as XF, and is a key figure for the  progression of the story from the heaven arc to demon arc. Some back story doesn't hurt right? Esp for non-novel readers that would sympathise with him as they don't have the bias  towards XF like novel readers do. Novel readers seem to absolutely DETEST the fact that RY has such a sad backstory - but the thing is that isn't forcing anyone to sympathise with him. People will choose to do so on their own - the backstory is there to make RY a more three-dimensional character rather than a lame 2D villain that just wants revenge because of something that happened in the past ( like how the novel described ). 

  

Now, it's about the character changes/'development', primarily for XF. What I don't understand is that, what exactly is the 'character development' you want from him before he revives in the demon realm? The dialogue changes did not impact on any character development because pre-stabbing, the only development he needed was from not loving JM to being totally head over heels for her. The fact that he didn't ' shield'JM from his mother ( which he did, it's just that he chose to protect his mother as well ) or the fact that he's less domineering isn't really considered character development, that's just his current personality / how the drama is portraying him. There are differences, yes, but really it doesn't impact on the progression of the drama at all. It makes it smoother even, as we see a clear transition from righteous God of War to 'evil' Dark lord of the underworld as we move on to the demon realm arc. Now that is character development, because something needs to happen in order to trigger a character to change or 'develop'. 

 

i actually prefer the drama XF - he's shown to be loyal to his mother whatever faults she has ( when he shields her from Water God ), which is wrong from an outsider's view but we all know about that kind of blind love towards our own mothers. He's even shown to be on friendly terms with the unfavoured illegitimate older brother, unlike in the novel. There is a kind of gentleness, kindness and innocence that wasn't expressed in the novel, making him the perfect match for JM and making the transition from celestial to demom even more impactful. 

 

So really, there are different opinions even within novel readers. Dissatisfaction can be expressed but I think it's going too far to tell non-readers that the show is so bad and discouraging people from viewing it just because it doesn't strictly follow the novel. Thanks for reading another one of my rants 

 

I think you're misunderstanding the reason novel readers are upset. The fact that RY has a sad backstory itself is not the issue, because his backstory is essentially the same in the novel. The difference is that the novel doesn't spend a lot of time telling his backstory (since it all happens before the start of the novel), while the drama spends an ENORMOUS amount of time on it. I personally like his backstory because I find three-dimensional villains more interesting to watch than one-dimensional villains (like the Heavenly Empress). But I think the amount of time spent on his backstory is excessive and came at the expense of the other main characters. Another reason people are upset is because they changed certain important scenes in order to give RY a bigger role, taking away certain lines/actions away from XF. It's one thing to spend time developing a character, but it's another thing entirely to develop a character by cannibalizing another important character's role in the story.

 

As an aside, XF protects his mother from the Water God's attack in the novel too, so that's not a difference between the novel and drama.

 

[Kimchi Sweet Potato]

Does anyone have a link to the preview for eps 51-52?

[turtle0217]

59 minutes ago, Kimchi Sweet Potato said:

Does anyone have a link to the preview for eps 51-52?

 

Couldn't find it on Youtube, but I got this from instgram

 

Credit to instgram owner novyponggele

[jehnnny99]

On 8/27/2018 at 6:28 AM, gleek49 said:

This is going to be VERY long, I rarely post on Soompi so I don't know if this is appropriate or not. Please bear with me 

 

Why are the book fans angry?

 

1.      It’s not because the drama changed Phoenix’s personality. I think all of us know how good the first 20 episodes were. Book fans couldn’t care less about that, we were satisfied enough with Deng Lun portrayal of the character, some toned down aspect of his personality didn’t really matter. But ever since the latter half of the mortal trial arc, the problems started to arise, it suddenly moved its focus toward the second male lead and secondary couple. They said it was because they wanted to fleshed out RY’s character, showed how he become evil. Fine, we accepted that, because according to the novel, the focus should have shifted back to the main leads when they finish the trial. But guess what happened? Phoenix’s screen time just kept getting less and less after each episode. Even worse, they started to CUT Phoenix’s scenes and lines, AND GIVE IT TO NIGHT!!!  That wedding scene was such an insult to both the original book and its fans. They have crossed the line SO FAR. Please, anyone, can any of you tell me, WHAT could possibly be the reason for doing that??? HOW could you make sense with the fact that the drama purposefully watered down the MALE LEAD’s character for the sake of the SECOND MALE LEAD??? Most book fans are Phoenix’s fan, we’re not just angry, WE’RE FURIOUS!!!

 

2.      As I mentioned before, the first 1/3 of the drama were so good. Do you have any idea how happy us book fans were? We actually thought we’re lucky to have such a good adaptation   What did we get in return? A huge slap in the face! I’m not sure what the production/writing team were trying to pull there. But we, as the fan of the original, felt like we were used. They baited us with a wonderful pack of episodes, made us invested and then turned back and bite us from behind. Ruining our favorite character and trying to manipulate us into feeling sorry for the second male lead. I can’t tell you how to feel, but can you guys honestly blame us for being pissed?

 

Why drama fans are angry?

 

1.      Because many of drama fans, who never read the book, fell for this drama mainly because of Deng Lun and Yang Zi, their amazing acting ability and chemistry. Of course we’re expecting to watch THEIR epic and tragic love story, right? But what did we get? We got to see the SECOND MALE LEAD epic and tragic life journey, the detailed story of how HIS life got destroyed and how HE became evil. We saw how the key events in his life played out, how he reacted to them and his emotional responses afterwards.

What about the male lead that we fell in love with at the beginning of the drama? Oh well, he barely existed at this point, moping somewhere in the background doing absolutely nothing! How the hell did we get to know everything about the second male lead when we knew almost nothing about the male lead other than the fact that he loved a girl???

 

2.      Case in point:

Exhibit A: the mothers’ demises. We saw how Night’s mother died, we saw how he reacted to her dying, we saw him crying afterwards, we even saw him freaking preparing her bleeping SHRINE!!! Do you remember how Phoenix reacted to his mother’s downfall? DO YOU? Because I barely remember it happened at all! The scene where the Empress got busted is much shorter than the scene where Night’s mother died. Phoenix passed out after taking the hit for his mother and that was IT! NO REACTION, NO EMOTIONAL RESPONSE WHATSOEVER!!! We only got to see him talking to her because he was framed, it’s like if it wasn’t for JM accusing him of murder, we wouldn’t be able to see him dealing with the aftermath of his mother’s downfall AT ALL.

 

Exhibit B: episode 46. You guys remember that this is a female lead centric drama, right? Jin Mi, said female lead, has just murdered the man she loved with her own two hands in ep 45. You would expect to see how SHE dealt with this tragic event. There are marvelous scenes in the novel which depicted HER heartbreak, pain and regret (she asked why Phoenix hadn’t come visit her, she frantically searching for her missing heart, etc.). Did that happened in the drama?? NO. Instead we got to see how Night performed as the new Emperor, how concerned he was over Jin Mi, how conflicted he was about Phoenix’ death (which was a load of BS, btw)! We even got to see HIM getting his revenge, how his smug behind went and rubbed the fact that his poor, innocent brother has evaporated to the Empress’s face!! If that’s not a lead character’s complete arc, then I don’t know what is?!

I doubt Phoenix will ever has the chance to rub anything in anyone’s face because we’re all know that he still has plenty of richard simmons waiting for him in the future .

 

Night has not only trumped the male lead, he’s now also sit on the FEMALE LEAD’s head, IN A FEMALE LEAD CENTRIC DRAMA!!! 

 

At this point, I’m seriously questioning the production team’s judgment, did they actually know who the leads in their own drama was??

The drama makes more sense than the book? Are you kidding me??

 

3.      Look, I don’t want to get political here. But let’s look at the problem from the production POV. Deng Lun’s XF was credited as the Male lead/Second billed after Yang Zi; Leo Luo’s Night was credited as Second male lead/Forth billed after Chen Yu Qi. Isn’t it common sense that XF was supposed to have more screen time than Night? LOL, NO! Case in point: let’s look at the table below:

*Notes:

- 1st line: because fans agreed that Night’s screen time got much higher since ep 29, so counting started at ep 29.

- 2nd line: counted by minutes, to be fair, the screen time in which dedicated to Night’s mother, story about his origin (35 minutes in total) but he didn’t actually appear was not counted.

*Credit: FB/ChuyenLuatLe

 

 

As you can see, from ep 29 to ep 41, Phoenix’s screen time was only accounted for 2/3 of Night. Is this how it normally is for the male lead to have significantly less screen time than the second lead? Since when do the male lead’s fans have to fight for his screen time compared to HIS SECOND LEAD??

 

Some of you said that Deng Lun fans themselves wanted to let this go. Do you know why? Because they are a small fan base who don’t have much power to shake things up, they worry that if they do something rashed, it will hurt Deng Lun’s career so they stay silent. However, if this was Yang Yang or Luhan’s fan base, for example, do you honestly think that they would let this fly? That’s why book fans and drama fans alike have to speak up and make this a big deal, because both the lead actors and the audience cannot be disrespected like this.

 

Even the author herself said that she had “lingering feelings” about Night. I don’t know about you, but it was pretty obvious to me that she and her writing team was using Deng Lun and Yang Zi to roped the audience in, made us invested in the drama and then started to shove Night’s character down our throat, purposefully wanted us to love Night more than Phoenix and even Jin Mi. What they didn’t expect was that most fans have already loved Deng Lun’s Phoenix too much to turn on him, leading to the whole thing blow up to this degree. In short, they’re trying to create their own Chil Bong/Jungpal but ended up create a Baek In Ho and a CITT type of mess.

 

But judging on some of the replies in this thread, I guess their plan does works on some level. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

There’s also some shady stuff regarding the shooting schedule; and the drama character of Night is even more horrible in my eyes, so the fact that there are still people who sympathize with him is beyond me, but I’m don’t have the energy to get into those right now. I’m writing this because I hope you can understand Cnet’s frustration.

 

This is the post where u explained your reasons for dislike yes? Sorry to be blunt, but this whole post was just you crying and complaining about the 5 or so filler episodes RY had out of 60 for his backstory. You know why XF didn't have a 5 episodes emotional backstory like RY? Because the only trauma he ever experiences is when JM suddenly decides she doesn't want to marry him after she uses her brain and figures out how wrong it would be to marry the man whose mother killed your family. You proved my point in your post as well, at how XF fans are mad that the second male lead is getting screen time ( which is nothing compared to XF in the first 30 episodes ) and he doesn't get any affectionate or lovey-dovey scenes with JM either. The shift in relationship between XF and JM was because of the engagement with RY- that was a plot device planted even BEFORE JM was born. Naturally, RY would then begin to have more screentime and interactions with our main female lead.

 

i have read the novel, a few times actually, and only by watching the drama and seeing how each stage progresses to another, did I understand the imperfections of the novel, which had some unexplainable moments or seemed to skip a few things which created some disconnection.

 

i think we should just agree to disagree, because this is not going to go anywhere. Your opinion is yours and my opinion is mine, we can only share each other's opinion and not force each other to agree. 

[jehnnny99]

Please don't get me wrong, I do acknowledge that the drama is imperfect too and there are many things it can be improved on, ( for ex. The long-winded love story of the demon princess ) but the fact that RY is getting screen time and getting his character developed after going through such a traumatic experience is not something fans should be complaining about. Yes, many scenes and dialogues were changed but many were also added ( e.g. XF protecting JM from that ancient demonic beast not once but TWICE ). 

 

Now that RY's character has been developed and he caused this catastrophe to happen, we move on to JM and XF's character development, which is fair right? They have a whole 10 episodes to go for that. Although I think JM had decent and slow character development throughout the show when we see her become more aware and mature of her surroundings about her own feelings. 

[viktormani]

As someone who has read the novel a few times, i gotta admit i'm a little upset that they changed the redeeming arc for Jin Mi and how they gave Night some of Phoenix's crucial lines but oh well what can you do. This would definitely make it into my top 5 C dramas. i'm not proud to admit this but i skipped almost every scene Night was in (sorry Night lovers don't hate on me), the reason for that is because every time he's on the screen i feel like punching him (i have anger issues), i could tolerate him a little in the novel but in this drama he makes me furious.

Spoiler

How can you manipulate the person you claim to "love" to kill the love of her life just so you could get the "throne" and the "girl". And then have the audacity to mourn his death and make her stay by your side. And people who try to defend his actions are beyond ridiculous.