#advisor's alliance

[nemainofthewater]

They are 10 moves ahead of you. You trip on a loose cobblestone - somehow this is part of their 25-step plan that ends with the destruction of their enemies (some collatoral damage included). You should never attend a party with them (unless that's what they want you to think...)

I didn't say a name, but you thought it, right?

[deng-yi-deng]

I love hate when historical dramas kill loyal servants and kind women.

[popfishjr]

My gallery is normal.

[grand-theft-carbohydrates]

come watch my director's cut of Advisor's Alliance where i am painfully faithful to the historical record. season 1 will consist entirely of 40 minute episodes where sima yi spends all day in bed pretending to be paralysed. every few months, cao cao half-heartedly sends a spy over to check if he's still faking. it's basically just a formality at this point, he's lowkey getting a kick out of reading sima yi's increasingly improbably list of illnesses. this goes on for 10 years.

[afeiandhisdao]

You lost me at this ↓

I'm gonna watch this series anyway but this was perfect. Thank you.

I've been staring at this for 6 hours and I've had enough so please read it and be amused and/or persuaded 🥺😭

 

tl;dr please watch 😭😭

[pastara-cell]

Omg guys look!!! Its qibr and late autumn!!!!!

[dangermousie]

If someone were to ask what my favorite historical cdrama is (ie not fantasy, real historical place etc) - the answer would be The Advisors' Alliance, a two-season masterpiece that follows the rise of Sima Yi as he and eventually his sons navigate through the rule of Cao Cao, Cao Pi, Cao Rui and Cao Fang and eventually establish the Sima Dynasty.

The first season covers only up until Cao Pi's ascension and the second season the rest.

This drama is smart and beautifully filmed and incredibly acted. There are politics and fights and interpersonal relationships that are very very complex. Romance is deeply tertiary (though Cao Pi x Guo Nuwang are one of my all time fave secondary OTPs of all time) and this really is not the drama to watch for traditional eye candy. Cao Pi is my jam to a ridic degree but he's vvvv much an adult warlord, not a pretty young dude; even those you normally think of in terms of idol looks, like Tan Jianci, look suitably historical and non-idoly:

And oh, this drama would never ever ever in a million years pass censorship nowadays even if they changed their names to fictional ones. There are no good guys here - there are different flavor of monsters, monsters than can love and compose poetry and joke but monsters nonetheless (because they are feudal warlords and their women) and yet from the safe confines of the screen you end up loving some of them a lot - it really is pick which monster team are you.

It feels realistic about the uniform horribleness of those in power and their motivations the way no cdrama past 2019 is allowed to truly be (Eternal Brotherhood and JoL2 are about the only exception and I think it's because in further parts they will walk some of it back or just sidestep it, leaving it implied - it does not confront it head on the way TAA does.) And yet and yet and YET God, I loved some of those characters so so so much!

I mean, my favorite scene in the entire first season is Cao Cao's last sword dance. The aging warlord is a monster - murderous to seize power, terrible father, terrible friend etc etc and yet I love him. He is so magnetic, so smart, so larger than life that you believe this is a man who could establish his rule and bring down a dynasty. I watch his last sword dance and shiver because this is a relic of a bygone era - a man who outlived all his rivals and friends and he's on top of the world but he mourns his lost world and his lost youth - all his achievements legendary but behind him, him about to join the past with all the people he loved and hated the soldiers watching him not even born when he did all his feats. This scene conveys the end of an era very few things do.

[andwhatnot1]

Mengde,,,,, use the power of hand holding!

[lyselkatzfandomluvs]

Liú Tao 劉濤

For the variety show 王牌對王牌

Bringing back my Nirvana in Fire 瑯琊榜 FEELS! Mù NíHuáng 穆霓凰 !!!

(Which reminds me that her character in the Advisors' Alliance is the mother of both Xiao ShùnYáo and Tán JìanCì's characters!)

[certifiedcoffeeaddict]

decided to catch up w tcf and honestly why did i decide to take a break mid-wuxia arc. out of all the possible arcs and moments

[jianghushenanigans]

The advisors alliance episodes 1-9, a summary feat me, @nemainofthewater and @luzzeagain

[nemainofthewater]

I love decorative plate robes guy Yang Xiu too :D

He's so great!! And so recognisable. I bet you anything he practises those dramaric bows in front of a reflective surface.

Did @zhoudadudugongjin tell you about our name for him? Even after we learn his name properly, he will remain decorative plate robes guy to @thebansacredbanned, @luzzeagain, and me...

Also, I love the art! Are you the one who drew it?

[deng-yi-deng]

Josie was excited at first but she's already gotten tired of me saying 'oh, oh, it's that guy! From that show!'

[popfishjr]

[zhoudadudugongjin]

If I had a penny for every time Liu Tao played a hot girlboss wife/gf to a flimsy gremlin of a scholar-strategist malewife, who also has a deeply homoerotic friendship with a sad little man he's trying to help become the crown prince I would have two pennies. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice.

Oh and there's also Guy played by Wang Jinsong who has a long and complicated history with the aforementioned asshole father:

Anyway the point of this post is that if you have seen either Nirvana in Fire or The Advisor's Alliance you should definitely check out the other because you would definitely probably enjoy it very much.

[kakmem]

i need to make content of this drama before i explode