Hidden details in character intro promos. Spoiler warning.

Tang Lici

The hero stands amidst gingko trees while playing his flute, seeking cause and effect (adventure or karma). The gingko tree symbolizes peace, hope, and vitality. The fox’s dance is alluring, arrogant, and admirable, but it hides a monstrous secret. From the original source, Tang Lici is strong but he is not necessarily healthy. His hair is silver ombre; black hair signifying his mortality while the white represents his past identity.

In the promo video, he plays the flute and zither, a reflection of his genuine feelings (usually sadness) as well as his lethal weapons of choice. From the original source, he can also play the pipa. He survives and gets ahead through strategy (chess). He is extremely cunning, like a fox, yet is lonely in his cold desolate heart. He is everyone’s savior and shoulders the burden of love and hate in the martial arts world. From the outside, he has everything that anyone could want, yet he has nothing at all. He experiences the seven attachments before the turbulence in the world calls for him.

In another poster, he rides the dragon dressed in black dragon scale hanfu with silver hair while playing a blue flute. Unlike past posters, the dragon has scales and spikes with less fur. Also, there are no white fur feathers flying in the wind. The hero’s crown is also blue with spikes. The blue may indicate turbulent water while black and spikes portrays a transformed state from his past self. Maybe a reflection of his heart or karma? How can it be like this? Looking forward to the story!

It’s interesting how so many character on the posters have a connection to a specific plant/flower.

I see maple, cherry blossom, jasmine, wisteria and, of course, peonies. 

Zhong Chunji

She appears in light shades of lavender while peering up in aspiration at the hanging leaves of the maple tree. The maple tree symbolizes protection from negative energy. Her hair is adorned with purple butterflies and parted in a way that appears to depict the feminine. In the video, she wields the sword arrogantly, her youthful face exuding confidence and sassiness. The colors of the maple leaves are a vibrant orange red, giving off an energy that reflects Zhong Chunji’s dynamic character, one part chivalrous and one part something else.

In another poster, she is dressed in luxury and her sword is unsheathed with traces of blood. Unlike her weapon from the original source, a dagger that can cut through anything, the sword here appears pink and cute. But she is not cute. She stands on a sea of red while blue butterflies flutter about her and the red ones appear like splatters of blood in the background as she looks onward. What has she seen? From other materials, her significance to the male hero is one of redemption or salvation. This is quite interesting, curious about her story.

Xi Fang Tao

Hiding in pink, XFT flirts with the peach blossom branch, “whip it out” and around, twirling prettily under a rain of peach blossom leaves. Peach blossoms topple the hair, peeking out along the pink hanfu, blooming on masked skin. Peach blossoms in the tree, peach blossoms in the hand, peach blossoms to smell, peach blossoms flying in the air, peach blossoms everywhere!

The peach blossom tree signifies prosperity or an admirer, possibly drawing one in to behold its beauty. From the original novel, the most magnificently beautiful woman . . . is a man disguised as a woman. Because beauty is to be coveted, beauty is to be stolen, and beauty is to deceive.

In a different poster XFT is sideways with flowing pink fur, giving the impression of perversion, hiding the peach blossom's secret. The pink robe appears peculiar at the waist, as if undone in the front. XFT’s greatest weapon is pointy and sharp, like the hairpin, and the way to prosperity is through calculation and ruthlessness. The peach blossom character’s significance to the male hero is conspiracy. To what end is the scheming cruelty? To what abominable lengths will the peach blossom go?