#The Long Ballad

[nemainofthewater]

I've not been super consistant between titles and personal names, but i've tried to use whatever they're better known as.

Write-ins, propaganda, and images are welcome!

EDIT - Xiaoyanzi is actually from My Fair Princess I just made a mistake when making a poll

[sombredancer]

Asian dramas and Love tropes

There are my favorite characters and their love stories as a list. Enemies to lovers

Drama: Her Royal Highness/长公主在上 Characters: Gu Xuanqing x Li YunzhenScreentime: Main A boy is sent to be a servant in the unruly princess`s palace in order to find some dirt about her and to help his master to overthrown her, but something goes wrong... The HE is attached.

Drama: The Legends/招摇Characters: Li Chenlan x Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main A leader of a demonic sect died trying to get a demonic sword. Her soul returns to the world full of wish to get revenge on the current leader of her sect, who, as she thinks, killed her in the past. Found the way to be close to him, she learns that he wasn't the reason of her death and, moreover, desperately in love with her for many-many years. This is an adaptation of the novel "Ostentatious Zhaoyao", which I love more than a drama, but it's a good story in both variants. The HE is attached (although it`s a little bit obscure in the drama).

Drama: Till the End of the Moon/ 长月烬明 Characters: Tantai Jin x Li SusuScreentime: Main A boy who is destined to become a Demon God and to destroy the World tries to fight his doom. In a process, he falls in love with a transmigrator, who was sent 500 years back in the past to prevent his transformation into a Demon God. The irony is,making him falling in love is the only way to kill him for good... It`s an adaptation of the novel "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", which I like way-way-way more than the drama, not the least because the drama has BE and the novel has HE. I just watched it as a visually beautiful fanfic to the novel.

Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil /苍兰诀 Characters: Dongfang Qingcang x Xiao Lanhua Screentime: Main My favorite drama of all times! Trying to save her love, a girl accidently falls into a secret prison for immortal criminals, revives the most fearsome demon of all times and heals his ability to feel. Later, forced to spend his time together with the girl from the enemy camp, the demon finds out that he actually likes her... The HE is attached. I wrote A LOT about them and made recap of the whole drama from the point of their relationship development in these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽Characters: Gong Shangjue x Shangguan Qian Screentime: Secondary In order to destroy the martial artist's clan, a female assassin was sent in there. While she is trying to seduce one of clan's young masters, he tries to expose her lies, but, eventually, falls in love with her. Unrequited. Maybe. This story has an open ending. My analysis of their relationship is here.

Drama: Butterflied lover /风月变 Characters: Ling Changjin x Bao Zhu Screentime: Secondary A wicked nobleman marries a princess because of her miraculous blood: it`s able to bring his zombie sister back to life. The princess allows him to treat her bad because she has been in love with him for a long time and believes he is a good person. Bit by bit he starts believe in it himself and begins to cherish his wife more... The ending is obscure (in a traditional Chinese way).

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Characters: Fu Ling x Chong Zhao Screentime: Secondary The most wildest version of the trope. The story starts with the confrontation between an absolutely ruthless demon girl general and a righteous boy from immortal clan. Then the girl falls for him, turns him into her side (kind of) and they become a villain power couple! After that they both change their side and enjoy a bit of normal life as good guys! And the last twist: the righteous guy turns to be a Demon God, as ruthless as the demon girl at the beginnings but the girl stays the same righteous. Yes, it all happens in one single cdrama. And of course there is no HE for these guys, but the philosophy behind this particular type of BE is beautiful. The full recap of their relationship is here and here.

Drama: The Blue Whisper /与君初相识 Characters: Li Shu x Xue Sanyue Screentime: Minor A cat demon prince infiltrates the valley of demon hunters in order to set free the great demoness, but falls in love with one of demon hunters. Mutually. The ending is traditionally Chinese - they met again in another life. Т_Т

Drama: Immortal Samsara / 沉香如屑 Characters: Xuan Ye x Ran Qing Screentime: Minor An Asura king infiltrates the Heavenly Realm in order to steal the artifact that can help him conquering the world. The keeper of this artefact is a brave and honest goddess and he can't help but fall in love with her. After, he needs to choose: to be with his lover or to rule the world. He wants all at once, but there is no way to get it all. No HE for this pair. Pride and Prejudice

Drama: Lighter and Princess / 点燃我 Characters: Li Xun x Zhu Yun Screentime: Main A girl from a rich family with an anxious type of attachment falls in love with her classmate from a poor family with an avoidant type of attachment and tries to win his heart. It`s a problematic ship in a full meaning of these words and I like it this way. Yummy! The HE is attached.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian x Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main A boy accidently meets his school sweetheart after many years of radio silence and understands that something is wrong with her. It turns out that her body is occupied by a transmigrator from a parallel world. At first he hates transmigrator for replacing his lover, but bit by bit he learns, that a transmigrator has not only the same appearance but the same habits and way of thinking, and falls in love with this new personality again... The story ends with HE but not in a way that you may think it would.

Drama: The Love by Hypnotic /明月照我心 Characters: Li Qian x Li Mingyue Screentime: Main In order to build relationship between two countries an emperor arranges marriage for his son. His fiancée is from a barbaric tribe: she is good at horse riding and archery, but knows nothing about palace etiquette and ladies stuff. It`s a light and sweet story about finding a path to each other's heart. The HE is attached.

Drama: The Long Ballad /长歌行Characters: Hao Du x Li Leyan Screentime: Secondary A tsundere of a low background with a poker face does his ruthless job in a court, that's why a young princess thinks he is an awful man and is scared of him. But in reality he is a loyal servant and son and, moreover, secretly in love with the princess, who can't stand him... The HE is attached.

Drama: Miss the Dragon /遇龙Characters: Xue Qianxun x Qingqing Screentime: Secondary A very naïve bird demon girl accidently meets a tsundere god of netherworld and turns his well ordered life into havoc. He starts liking it, though. The HE is attached. Forbidden love

Drama: A Frozen Flower /쌍화점Characters: Hong Rim x No Guk Screentime: Main A gay king needs a heir, so he forces his lover to conceive a child with a queen. In a process, a boy, who was groomed as a king's lover from his childhood, finds out that he likes women much more than men. A traditional Korean tragedy. Very beautiful and full of feelings, though. (No GIFs because they all would be erotic ones).

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님Characters: Moo-yeon x Kim So-hye Screentime: Secondary An assassin who is working for a wicked court official is secretly in love with a wife of a crown prince, who happens to be a daughter of the killer of his parents. Forbidden love doubles! But it's mutual, unfortunately for him. It's a very beautiful and full of desperation and feelings story. No HE, we die like Koreans. More detailed story of their relationship is available here, here and here.

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/晴雅集 Characters: He Shouye x Zhang Ping Screentime: Secondary A woman, who is destined to restrain the undying evil within her body for eternity in solitude, falls in love with Yin-Yang master. Her love is mutual, but her lover can't be with her forever, so he leaves with her his guardian demon to brighten her loneliness. Protecting her for ever starts being the only goal of demon's life... A tragedy, but a beautiful one.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Gu Hanguang x Shen Qianjin Screentime: Minor "The Legends" once more! The main doctor of a demonic sect is in love with a leader of a righteous sect. A girl is not allowed to love anyone, otherwise she will suffer from the poison, so he anonymously sends her packages of medicinal herbs. She is curious about anonymous sender, too. But nothing can be kept in secret forever... Unfortunately, no HE for these two. In the novel he is safe and sound, but he has no love plotline at all. So is a price of love Т_Т.

I will talk about my other favorite characters and tropes in the next post.

Also you can see: Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

[melodious-tear]

Hao Du, can't you see it with your eyes?

长歌行 The Long Ballad ep. 17 + 32

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Liú HâiKuan 劉海寬

Wb update 2024.02.14

Another piece he composed, Kingdom.

KuanKuan also shared the music score in the comments!

[minolongheyr]

Chang Ge Xing donghua is OUT!

[electricsoul-rpg]

Liu Haikuan (刘海宽) - Han Chinese

as Situ Langlang in The Long Ballad (长歌行)

[dangermousie]

Because The Story of Pearl Girl is possibly airing soon and bringing us Zhao Lusi x Liu Yuning reunion, I am getting all !!! about remembering The Long Ballad which I sat through only for them. It also remains the sole LYN drama I watched where he survived - it was my first drama of his (and his first foray into battle beast who’s a total wife guy repertoire he’s made his since) so I didn’t realize it was gonna be a rarity 😂

[palehorsemen]

Some illustrations to the Love like galaxy and The Long ballad

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

Original title: Chang Ge Xing | 长歌行.

[labseraph]

I just realised that in most the dramas I've seen featuring Wu Lei, his characters give such wonderful heart eyes to the FL. Those soulful stares are so effective and knee-melting.

Then I realised it's just that his characters are handsome men who have basically zero rizz and are socially awkward.

To wit:

Lin Yiyang playing nice with the girl he met in a snowstorm.

Ling Buyi at breakfast, freaking out all his in-laws. Except for Grandma Cheng since she's practically Teflon.

Ashile Sun trying to figure out how to treat a wounded maiden without outraging her modesty. Which is pretty sweet for a barbarian warlord, no?

He does these roles so well and I am in awe of his talent.

[marlo-noni]

Massive props to @krispyllamasweets for sharing the YouTube playlist of the Hao Du/Leyan cut of The Long Ballad with me! This is what I really wanted all along, and I'm clearly not the only one!

I've pretty much watched the entire drama now, although I got really impatient after episode 40 or so and skipped most of the non-Hao Du/Leyan scenes.

Even though I'd seen some clips of their story on YouTube before, I still legit teared up in episode 42 when he fights for her and they finally get together. Those scenes were totally earned - they went through so much, changed, and grew. Honestly, they're the only interesting thing about this drama. I totally get why Liu Yuning became more popular because of this role, and why people are so stoked to see him and Zhao Lusi film another drama. She's not my favourite actress out there, but their chemistry is undeniably off the charts. I hope they can pull it off again in their new project.

[sebfreak]

New Romance Donghua | 2025.2.23 | Chang Ge Xing | The Legend of Princess...

[tansu-bomb]

Zhao Lusi is the sole reason I watch and rewatch (nearly) all the major dramas she starred in. She’s so damn convincing in all her roles. Not to mention she’s charming and utterly adorable.

[melodious-tear]

Liu Yuning as Hao Du in 长歌行 The Long Ballad

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Huáng Yáng TiánTián 黃楊鈿甜

WB post 2022.02.04

[minolongheyr]

Chang Ge Xing donghua character visuals