Chinese fantasy media has some common tropes I am enchanted by.
+the emperor is not a good person
In a rare case, the emperor is not a complete piece of sh* but he will still have a glaring flaw or take actions that are impure
+ there is a villain behind the villain, and often another layer of villain behind that
Any ot all of these villains have justification of some kind
+society is always the Ultimate Villain and it will not be fully defeated by the end
+someone has died and been reborn
This might be my bias of what I like to watch, but so far I've seen literal rebirth, rebirth with time travel, rebirth via a new life and true nature forgotten, rebirth in the sense of life altering trauma, and immortals experiencing tribulations in the mortal realm.
Characters might be humans striving toward immortality, spirits upgrading to a human-appearing form, or they may be simply playing the role of martial arts masters. In any case, cultivation builds up spiritual strength that enables superhuman abilities.
+cultivators travel by light-step leaping (qigong) and by riding on their swords (standing on flying swords) much more often than on horseback or in a carriage. Transportation spells and portals are far more rare than they are in European-setting fantasy.
+somebody plays the qin in an important scene
Something that's not a trope, but I really love to see in c-drama is how many women have significant and varied roles! The imbalance in American shows and movies looks even worse now.
dededos
theartofmadeline
turnnoffyourmind
janainaart
stormborns
origamiaround
ellievsbear
