*Spoilers Alert — Major reveals ahead* It’s done. I braced myself for the impact of the last 7 episodes with some vague sense that tragedy was afoot and finding the final act not as objectionable as I was led to believe. Not perfect of course but acceptable. Oh believe me, I shed tears. Sobbed like a baby in parts but apart from the last couple of episodes, most of the main cast got a decent send-off consistent with who they are. Truth be told the narrative had been foreshadowing character deaths as early as the set-up of the story so no one can say that the audience wasn’t fairly warned.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I definitely had major issues with the last 6 eps. in comparison to you. I definitely hated the last 6 eps, and felt they the tune and vibe had changed, along with a propaganda-feel of characters suddenly dying for one's country. And Li Tong Guang, I felt he could have had a redemption arc the way Zuko did, but it was just ridiculous at the end for me. AJTL is still the best drama to me of 2023, but it had so much potential for more, and that end hurt me. Hope you're doing well and finding something new to watch soon.
My biggest problem was really with the last two. Those were definitely a mess. The last five minutes were completely unnecessary. The five before that were okay and at least two deaths were prefigured so it wasn't too much of a leap for me.. I wish we had more Yu Shisan and Chu Yue though.
TBH, a lot C dramas especially ones dealing with law enforcement and armed services are often overtly propaganda. This one is not quite as bad as some others in terms of how they delivered the message.
I really wish we had more Yu Shisan and Chu Yue too. They gave us such great glimpses of what that could have been, only to really make it so tragic. As for the last 5 min. trueeee! I felt they wanted to confuse us, because everyone had this big debate on if NYZ and RRY were still alive and that was their kid. Me thinking, 'absolutely not.' Everyone is deadddd.
That is true about Cdramas and their propaganda. I guess it felt so weird here to me because the characters wanted so badly to retired and be away from politics, but in the end, the story was still spun to where they gave up everything to die for the country.
I forgot to mention in my post, I did not know about the "mommy issues" being a common theme happening in Cdramas with second male leads. *faceplants*
Maybe they thought they would console parts of the audience with this kind of concession -- a kind of "what if". It's pretty half-hearted if you asked me and quite unnecessary. Except as a talking point. If you are going to kill people, they should stay dead and at least pay tribute to the characters.
I didn't expect them to kill off the leads truth be told but I knew that Yuan Lu and Shisan would be likely contenders. Still broke my heart though.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I definitely had major issues with the last 6 eps. in comparison to you. I definitely hated the last 6 eps, and felt they the tune and vibe had changed, along with a propaganda-feel of characters suddenly dying for one's country. And Li Tong Guang, I felt he could have had a redemption arc the way Zuko did, but it was just ridiculous at the end for me. AJTL is still the best drama to me of 2023, but it had so much potential for more, and that end hurt me. Hope you're doing well and finding something new to watch soon.
My biggest problem was really with the last two. Those were definitely a mess. The last five minutes were completely unnecessary. The five before that were okay and at least two deaths were prefigured so it wasn't too much of a leap for me.. I wish we had more Yu Shisan and Chu Yue though.
TBH, a lot C dramas especially ones dealing with law enforcement and armed services are often overtly propaganda. This one is not quite as bad as some others in terms of how they delivered the message.
I really wish we had more Yu Shisan and Chu Yue too. They gave us such great glimpses of what that could have been, only to really make it so tragic. As for the last 5 min. trueeee! I felt they wanted to confuse us, because everyone had this big debate on if NYZ and RRY were still alive and that was their kid. Me thinking, 'absolutely not.' Everyone is deadddd.
That is true about Cdramas and their propaganda. I guess it felt so weird here to me because the characters wanted so badly to retired and be away from politics, but in the end, the story was still spun to where they gave up everything to die for the country.
I forgot to mention in my post, I did not know about the "mommy issues" being a common theme happening in Cdramas with second male leads. *faceplants*
Maybe they thought they would console parts of the audience with this kind of concession -- a kind of "what if". It's pretty half-hearted if you asked me and quite unnecessary. Except as a talking point. If you are going to kill people, they should stay dead and at least pay tribute to the characters.
I didn't expect them to kill off the leads truth be told but I knew that Yuan Lu and Shisan would be likely contenders. Still broke my heart though.
Ugh, they should have stuck with their guns indeed. Both Yuan Lu's and Shisan's death hurt me too. But I bawled for sure with Yuan Lu's.