In fact, it wasn't just Jiang Ling; the screenwriter who wrote the drama "The Heavenly Sword Heroes" in her previous life had also considered this.
The male and female leads of a drama are like the two ends of a scale.
Too much of anything is bad; if the male lead is too outstanding, the female lead will inevitably be overshadowed.
To balance the character settings of the male and female leads, the screenwriter arranged for Tang Ruoxuan to block the Heavenly Sword with her own body in the finale, perishing with Xiao Ting.
This arrangement had three benefits.
The first was to break the deadlock completely. Not killing Xiao Ting would be a disservice to her parents who died unjustly, but killing him would make her seem too ruthless, an unfeeling and unjust woman.
Since that was the case, she would let Xiao Ting stab her first, and then drag the man to death with her.
While avenging her parents, she would also be true to her own heart.
The second was in contrast to traditional artistic aesthetics; Xiao Ting killed Tang Ruoxuan's entire family in the first episode, and Tang Ruoxuan killed Xiao Ting's entire family in the last episode.
It had a beginning and an end, a back and forth; the beginning and end both involved the death of the entire family – what a great contrast!
The third was to make the ending unforgettable for the audience who watched it.
Before this, in martial arts dramas, no matter how tragic, either the male lead died and the female lead became a nun, or the female lead died and the male lead lived out his days alone.
There had never been an ending where the male lead first killed the female lead's entire clan, then the female lead retaliated by annihilating the male lead's entire family, and finally died with the male lead.
Such a setup was enough to make every audience member who watched the entire drama from beginning to end remember it for a lifetime.
The editor had racked his brains and exhausted his talent to arrange the perfect ending for the female lead.
However, he never expected that the drama's makeup artist would be a bad teammate, giving the female lead an incredibly lousy makeup and styling that made her look old and ugly, leading to the female lead being severely criticized after the finale.
It wasn't until many years later, when a wave of "anti-Qiong Yao" and "anti-brainless, love-is-everything" sentiments swept across the internet, that the pitiable Tang Ruoxuan was vindicated by netizens, who recognized her as "the female lead with the most upright values in history."
Jiang Ling summarized the failed experience of this drama in her previous life. On one hand, she asked Guan Suyin to alter some of Tang Ruoxuan's scenes. On the other hand, she instructed the makeup artist to create the best makeup and styling, using her absolute beauty to firmly control the values of the brainless audience who only cared about looks.
Therefore, An Qiuyan and others had no chance of using this to attack her; the doors and windows were sealed shut.
Furthermore, the senior management of Liuyun Media also sensed the crisis.
Ge Ying preemptively called Jiang Ling to warn her: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered. Someone has their eye on you. Be careful lately. I'll have people keep an eye out, and as soon as there's any movement, we'll immediately organize a counter-attack with the online trolls."
When Jiang Ling heard her say this, she was stunned for a moment. Then, with a shift of her thoughts, she guessed what was happening and said with a cold laugh, "Don't worry. They're still a long way from dealing with me. 'The Heavenly Sword Heroes' not only has a unique male lead, but its ending is also unexpected. There's absolutely no point they can attack."
Since this drama was the last one Jiang Ling filmed independently after joining Liuyun Media, Ge Ying, as the company's vice president, also didn't know the ending. She couldn't help but be curious, "What's the ending? Give me a hint."
Jiang Ling initially wanted to keep it a secret, but then she thought that she and Liuyun Media were in the same boat. It would be better to let her know in advance so that any issues could be handled more easily.
Jiang Ling then carefully explained the ending.
Upon hearing it, Ge Ying's mind was struck by lightning, and she murmured, "It's like this... Brilliant, brilliant, truly brilliant."