Originally Posted by
PrinceKrillo
I think Google automatically translated that (or tried to, at least).
Anyway, they uploaded Episode 51 ... and the Lady Earth Flow story continues for the first 3/4 of the episode. While I'm glad that that storyline took a good 2.5 episodes ...
... it also boggles the mind how unbalanced the series is in terms of length. Some of the stories are given plenty of time to develop, while others (like the Spider Demons storyline, which only covered less than an episode and a half) are far shorter than they SHOULD be.
No Buddhist Monks Allowed should continue at least to the end of the next episode.
The two storylines that I've been concerned as to whether ZJZ might have skipped over are coming up next.
King of Southern Mountains and Feng-Xian Prefecture (Land without Rain). Whether these two storylines were adapted (and the latter had better have been) will determine if the series is going to last longer than sixty episodes.
Assuming they were both adapted to the screen, the two storylines should take the series all the way to the middle of Episode 55, at least.
From there, I would expect the Saint of Nine Spirits story to cover a good 2.5 episodes, taking it to the beginning of Episode 58. The Rhino Trio of Heat, Cold, and Dust Protection should last until the middle of Episode 59. The Jade Rabbit in India, I'm guessing, will get some focus ... probably take up a good 2.5 episodes at least. So starting with Episode 62, the second-to-last storyline (where they get framed for burglary and murder) will probably take up a good three episodes, and the final storyline will probably finish out the last two episodes, so 66 episodes is definitely still a possibility.
These are, of course, just estimations .... God knows how much time was actually spent on these different stories.
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I recently thought about the entire novel ... and honestly, I enjoy most of the storylines ... with only TWO exceptions:
1. Gold Horn and Silver Horn Kings
2. Demon Trio of the Lion, Elephant, and Great Peng/Roc
Those two are probably my least favorite, most boring and repetitive stories in the novel ... I would have gladly traded either one of them to have the Gator-Dragon of the Black Water River story adapted instead.
The really ironic thing is, everytime those two storylines get adapted, they always spend FAR too much time on them. The original CCTV version spent too much time on the lion/elephant/peng ... as did the Zhejiang adaptation ... to the point of it almost being unbearable.
I hate those three idiots, and the story is completely bland and pointless. Surprisingly, ZJZ's adaptation only spent about 2.5 episodes on it, which is the shortest so far of any live action adaptation.
In addition, the ZJZ version can boast having by FAR the most stunning CGI of those three demon kings in their majestic, gigantic beast forms ... and they are featured prominently in the trailers. The CGI and the design of those three demons is probaby the only redeeming quality here.
The Gold Horn and Silver Horn Kings storyline is the other of the two worst storylines in the novel. Both the Zhejiang and ZJZ adaptations spent FAR too long on this story ... it's so f***** stupid it's unbelievable.
It's just Sun Wu Kong and the two idiot disciples of Lao Zi basically stealing Lao Zi's fabled treasures from one another, over and over again. Bleh.
And these two piss stories were adapted instead of the ones that ended up being skipped? Puh.
While I can see why ZJZ may have skipped over the Gator-Dragon story ... I still don't understand how he can skip over Xuan Zang's backstory. Xuan Zang is obviously one of the two most central characters in the novel ... why the hell wouldn't he cover his origin story? Ridiculous. Also, why not adapt the story of the Dragon King disobeying the Jade Emperor in an attempt to thwart the prophet/fisherman? That was one of the most clever storylines in the novel, and ZJZ skips it. BULL.