Love Like the Galaxy: Part 2

This story had potential - the screenwriting & directing ruined it

Another drama I wanted to love and place firmly on my 'rewatch' list. I adore Wu Lei. Zhao Lusi, not so much, but when she finds a role that suits her, she does a fine job. The ensemble cast is the reason (and especially Wu Lei) that I rated this drama as highly as I did. For once, even the absence of smoking hot chemistry between the main leads didn't deter me.

There were aspects of Part I which were slightly better than the disorganized mess that was Part II - but the second part also underwhelmed and disappointed.

I had trouble keeping track of who was who - so many princes, so many princesses, so many ministers, evil and not evil, so many random characters popping up when a plot needed justification... it became tedious trying to remember them all and what their story was. Hence, the holes in the stories. So much time was wasted on slow-motion shots, repetitious angle shots, and pushing the revenge and petty spitefulness to the max. I get that FL was wronged in her childhood. I get that ML was traumatized and also suffered. Those points were played out so much that it got tiresome to watch it. So much so, that when it came to wrapping up the storylines, in that last episode, the viewers really got sold out. Even mid-stream, in the years FL was in the palace - one group scene with everybody in red was supposed to indicate the couples and marriages. Press 'pause' to see who got married to who... disappointing! And that last scene in the last episode - supremely disappointing!

We waited so long for this series and so much hype went into it. Fans of the ML & FL watched, and many may praise it because of their loyalty to these two actors. My opinion might not be popular, but it is just that - my opinion. I was disappointed and underwhelmed with the way the story was told and with the performance of the screen writers and the director. They ruined the piece.

Can I just add my admiration for the great job that Tong Lei did as the Empress? She evoked the only tears I shed in this drama. Her gentle, generous spirit was truly brought out in this actor's performance. I really loved so many of the characters in this series because they did such a great job of bringing their roles to life, and that is the reason I could give this show the rating I did. I also have to mention Wu Lei's fight scenes - and how magnificent he looks on a horse! I look forward to his next historical drama.

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Best historical costume drama I ever watch

I rewatch this drama for each episode more than twice, special for epusode 22, 23 24 until season 2 (episode 36/or 9 for seasion 2) I rewatched uncountable. All cast give their best acting skill, a lot of episode but not make me boring and no skip sceen when I watched. The plot is reasonable, the setting, is good , the CGi is smooth, Lusi and wu lei have a good chemistry, and I think they reach the best acting skill in this drama. This drama make me laugh cry, touched and hate.
Wu Lei is all out doing excercise to get the best body shape and strength so he can carry zhao lusi just with one hand.
Lusi that already have great acting skil, in this drama has the best acting, so natural and so cute.
Also all supporting role, like cheng grandma that make me laugh every time, saosang father that very hilarious, ss mother that very fit portrayed an asian mom, ha ha ha ha .

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Should Be Called The Grand Saga of Cheng Shao Shang's Stupidity feat Palace Version

It is even a miracle that I managed to endure and finish this elaborate grand shitshow. The story pacing is too slow. Why were 56 episodes in total required for such a basic drama with this low-caliber storyline? The excellent cinematography was the only saving grace. There was no proper character progression and growth for any of the characters. The romance was not that good either. There was no proper communication between the couple, and both acted independently. Why was such an elaborate separation phase even required if the FL eventually forgave the ML for his mistakes?

Key Features of Dumb Yet Proud of Her Dumbness Type FL Called Cheng Shao Shang
1. The most infuriating character here is the FL. I have hardly seen such FL who is so proud of her uselessness (somewhat narcissistic even). There was no change in her character throughout. Moreover, so many episodes got wasted but there was not even a single scene of the wedding ceremony. Part 2 is all about the dumb FL spreading her foolishness in the palace. She is hardly 15 and does not know many things as she claims, but will not agree that she can be wrong sometimes. She even dares to give her self righterious speech to the royal family. If she were not the FL, she would have cost the heads of her entire family because of her reckless manner of speaking.
2. Writers are expecting me to believe this fool has any characteristics that the princesses of the palace would be jealous of. It is odd that they are behaving like street women and bullying the FL just because this foolish FL looks smart, cute, and miserable to the viewers. She jumps into palace politics just because she is there, despite the warning from her fiancé. She has to give her self righterious 2 cents here also.
3. Takes everything for face value. Just because someone spoke nicely to her, she goes all out to help them without thinking about anything. This is not being smart and caring, but rather idiotic, as she will implicate her entire family and her fiancé.
This girl is too straightforward for my liking. Straightforwardness is good, but to a certain extent. If you exceed it you will be called disrespectful and arrogant in my opinion. This FL lacks manner to speak with anybody. I am not telling her to listen all the bogus comments but rushing headfirst to fight like a bull every time you don't like someone is plain stupidity.
4. The audacity of the FL to forge a fake tiger seal that could cause catastrophe in the battle just because she likes the empress and wants to save the crown prince on behalf of her mother, despite the warning from her fiancé. She needs to be slapped day and night by her mother so that she develops some brain. She grew even more foolish after staying with the overlenient empress. She clearly needed a real-life disaster that would harm her for real, so that she finally thinks before doing anything. A little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing.
5. This fool, out of her love for the empress and the injustice of the world, has now turned murder investigator, somehow. Interfere in other people's matters with the bare minimum knowledge. Came to the crime scene and gave the 2ML big speeches about her own relationship and praised how excellent lady she herself is. Then looks for things by locking the door so that she can get kidnapped, and ML can come to her rescue. Now she is boasting about who would have solved the case if not her, as if no one in the world could have found out that hidden room.
6. Oh, she also loves to have an engagement once in a while just to spite her mother. Donated the first one in the name of doing service for the country. Hated the 2nd one for saving her and her entire family's lives. Though I understand her somewhat, I hated her actions after the breakup. Instead of focusing on her career, as she bragged earlier, she went to become the caretaker of the ex-empress. Gave the 3rd one some hope after years and got engaged with him, but broke it again after she saw the 2nd one, whom she could not forget. Then rants all about how ill-fated she is.
7. Knows nothing about swords and any self-defence tactics, but like an idiot, she went to stand in front to pose with a sword in the name of military defence. If she were not the FL, she would have died 10 times over already due to her stupidity.
She is extremely arrogant and rude, who loves to run her big mouth in front of all. As if none of the problems would ever be solved without her 2cents about justice and bla bla bla, despite not having enough knowledge about the matter. If all the young female characters were not written deliberately as jealous, brainless, blindly bullying the FL due to their obsession with the ML, then this stupid FL would have been absolutely hated by viewers.
8. She loves to blame the ML for losing her identity as Cheng Shaoshang. But honestly, did she have any self-made identity ever? Did she make any effort to make one ever? Does she even have the capability to make one? She won't listen to her fiancé, mother, or father or anyone, as she is always right, and she even claims that she is not the one to follow her husband blindly. Does this fool have enough brain to do things properly except for that self-righteous, arrogant attitude of hers? The writer is the main culprit here for writing such a dumb yet narcissistic FL.

Overall, if you like such a FL you can give it a try. I absolutely loathe this type of adult baby type FL who won't ever accept her mistake, nor will she put any effort to improve herself, and will do dumb things that can bring serious problems for other but then will rebel if she is spoken harshly. A FL who self-praises all day without contributing much for real (due to her dumbness), is not really my cup of tea. I absolutely hope to forget this horror show.

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Great Drama

Finally, Love Like The Galaxy has released all of its 56 episodes. I was praying that it will give me a good ending and waited with abated breath until I watched the final episodes. I am glad it hasn't disappointed! It has a good ending!!! Technically speaking the drama ended in episode 48, but because they want to play out the romance bit, they dragged the drama on for a reconciliation of ending... It may have worked really well in the novel, but it's not quite effective for a drama it should have just ended with 50 episodes. But like I said before it's still a good ending and has made the drama that much more enjoyable to watch, On the whole, it's one of the best Dramas I have seen this year so far and also in a long time.

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Came watching this thinking it's gonna be a romance...T.T still fun to watch though

The first 15 to 20 episodes were pretty fun and interesting; however, as cheng shaoshang enters the palace, i just started to lose interest. I liked seeing the mother's character growth--she is probably one of the most three-dimensional characters in this show--but I wished her change in character towards niao niao was a bit more obvious before the five year time jump.
Also, WHY DIDN'T THEY EVEN SHOW THE WEDDING T.T 56 episodes and all for nothing TTT.TTT It's alright though...The show was still enjoyable, and I think the lack of kiss/intimate scenes made me cherish the main couple's relationship even more. :)

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Dumpster fire

Season 1 left off on a positive note with a promise of a lot of future character development. Unfortunately, season 2 did not develop said development.

Niao Niao (NN) was portrayed as an abused and neglected teenager who learned how to navigate life with her intelligence and ingenuity. Unfortunately, this intelligence and ingenuity was left in season 1. In season 2, we didn't actually see the thought process behind her ingenuity. She liked to build things. But we never saw her build anything. We only saw the finished product. On look, she built a small cross bow. Oh look, she can do a deep tissue massage. Oh look, she can improve farming equipment. What? How? We never saw her learn how to do anything. For someone who did not actually enjoy learning, it remains a mystery how NN achieved these tremendous heights.

When it came to character development, there was no character development moving forward. We knew NN was an intelligent and independent free thinker. But, there was nothing intelligent about her in this season. She was actually quite self-absorbed. Ling Buyi was a total package. He had the power and influence. He was a warrior general in charge of an army. And he was head over heels in love with her. She was previously concerned about missing out on a good husband, yet her bitching about him supposedly "oppressing" her because he cared too much was legendary. He was a bit too over-protective but he did nothing in bad faith. She agreed to marry him and then told him to his face that she wanted him out because he kept giving her unsolicited advice. Apparently, for someone who cared about boundaries, having a conversation about setting boundaries was out of the question. I didn't even know why he was in love with her at that point. In season 1 she was intelligent, courageous, quick-thinking. In this season, she was stubborn, unreasonable, and self-absorbed. All the qualities that made her interesting were gone.

Instead of giving her the transformation she needed, the writers arbitrarily decided to give NN unearned princess treatment. She quickly became the new palace darling who could do no wrong. Everything she said was gold. Everything she cooked was delicious. Everything she made was awesome. Everything was handed to her without her making any effort to earn it. The most ridiculous thing was that her teenage wisdom was completely unquestioned. Basically NN: I am only 15, but let me teach you about life.

She stuck her nose into everything and always had something to say, which quickly became very annoying. When Ling Buyi asked her not to interfere in palace politics because it was literally bad for her health, she made it all about him trying to control her for the Nth time. The emperor and empress seemed to have replaced her parents, which was a stupid plot development because her entire character rested on the premise of her parents abandoning her. There were so many scenes where NN could reconcile with her parents, particularly her mother. For example, mom bringing her a blanket could've led to an honest heart-to-heart conversation. Instead, we got the usual scene where NN asked mom an uncomfortable question, mom looked away, NN walked off. Later on, the writers made her parents virtually non-existent. Her entire time at the palace was spent cozying up to the empress as her new mom, instead of receiving lessons and moving on with her life. Even the lessons were just a pretext to create more drama for the sake of drama, which contributed nothing to NN's character development. It would've been way more interesting to have her learn to navigate through conflict using her intelligence to outsmart her enemies, making friends and allies, and then winning using her brain. Instead, she either went to the emperor to complain or poured dirt on someone because she was "vindictive". Her vindictiveness made her look just as bitchy as those spoiled brats who bullied her in the first place.

NN's relationship with Ling Buyi was also very confusing. There was a very sweet moment at the empress' birthday party where she drank from the same cup as him because the wine tasted "better" that way, and then she gave him a kiss. They looked very much in love. But, as soon as he found out she was pushed into a lake, we were back to square one how he was oppressing her and how she was "afraid" of him ... because he wanted her to confide in him? The writers never made it clear why NN was afraid of him. He was always nice to her. And now apparently every bad thing that happened to her in the palace was his fault. Huh? "I've always been like this! Why must you force me to change?" How dare he ask her questions about being bullied. Seriously, who decided this was good character development? She was absolutely insufferable.

Yet, everyone loved her and she could do no wrong. The writers couldn't have made her more mary sue level boring together with her perpetually constipated looking fiancé with no personality. (And there was still no wedding date!) Even the freaken canning of Ling Buyi was instigated by the emperor to make NN finally act on her feelings for him. *barf* Everyone literally became an NN simp. Speaking of Ling Buyi, he had a whole of two expressions in the entire drama - constipated and more constipated. This was some of the worst acting I've seen in a c-drama. Even for a stoic, no nonsense character, there should've been times for him to inadvertently show emotion for a person he cared about.

This show had such tremendous potential, and it was completely wasted on martyrization of the main character, turning her into a perfect princess, while making everyone else continuously kiss her princessey arse without her actually deserving it. What a waste of time.

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Good show!

If you're looking for a fast paste romance or a wuxia/xianxia type of of drama, then this show is not for you. This drama has nothing to do with magic, gods/goddess, forbidden love, curse, and reincarnation (multiples of lifetime love). It's pretty much a historical drama where you'll see regular fighting, family problems, politics, and of course romance. Not going to lie, this IS a slow burn romance drama and if slow burn romance drama is not your type, don't force yourself to watch it and waste your time. My opinion on this drama, it's a decent drama. Something I'll re-watch again after it's completely aired. It has it's own unique style of writing and storyline. I don't really care much about music so I don't mind the lack of music. Every actors/actresses has portry their part of the characters really well. I'm really glad that the director and script writer decided to stick to the original novel as much as possible. You don't see people doing that in today's entertainment. Usually the story has changed completely or there's too many changes that it becomes even more confusing than the original. I've seen many video clips of the bts and I'm very impressed by how hard the lead couple have work. They might come off as stiff for some of you but, remember that's how the characters itself is like in the original. I have nothing bad to say about this drama. The only bad part about it is the long wait for it's aired episodes. Anyway, we all have our own taste in dramas so please don't be mean and respect each others opinions and respect the drama and crew members, everyone has worked very hard. Thank you for reading my review! Happy drama!

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This one is set in the palace where Niao Niao has to deal with bratty princesses.

I can't help but rant about all the bratty characters, which include princesses that have no sense & get off bullying people who aren't royalty. Eck.

Love the dynamics between the emperor, empress and Consort Yue. I am not into polygamous relationships, but once in a while I see a few (fictional ones) where the all involved respect and value each other. I do feel like the empress is a bit meek but at the same time, she is also a gentle queen who has treated Niao Niao with kindness her mother didn't have.

I don't want to get started with the mother. Distance from Niao Niao is the only good thing she could do for her, for she sure as a hell isn't a good mother to Niao. Always choosing her own pride over her daughter's feelings, the poor girl grew up so well even with all the emotional damage.

The two scenes that attracted me to the series are:
One: When in part 1 Niao gets drunk and Bu Yi has to carry her home. I loved that one. Hoped we could have seen more of drunk Niao and Bu Yi moments.
Two: When in part 2 they break up and he says he won't regret it. I hate that kind of stuff in my dramas, they make me curse at the character who is responsible for the breakup. I hate it that it is Bu Yi and it happens to Niao Niao who has only had people abandon her. One more person to abandon her. (Yeah yeah, it is for her own good). This part attracted me not because of how Niao Niao suffered but I wanted to see what Bu Yi does to make up for it.

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The BEST i've seen so far!!!

Im an avid fan of Kdrama, Thai, Turkish, Pinoy and i even tried watching Japanese and Taiwanese series before. But not interested on CDrama until i saw Lusi in Oh! My Emperor ( i accidentally saw a clip on YT while searching for new kdrama). Now im addicted to LLTG and i love slowburn romance...all i think about is this drama series, even at work. This is a masterpiece.., actors are really good if not great. LLTG is a complete treat..romance, comedy, action, family, politics, etc. ...everything about this drama is wonderful and the chemistry of WULU is INSANE. WL and ZLS are match made in heaven. Plus the three ML's are awesomely goodlooking( LY follows her, YS annoys her and LBY/HWS protects her..hahaha)..Im for LBY all the way. Gosh, he's over protective, inlove and crazy just about anything and everything about CSS...It's a delight watching them together.
Im not like this before, i don't watch drama unless it's finished..but this one is an exception. I even subscribed on WeTV just for this. Can't wait to be Tuesday all the time for new episodes. Manifesting for this drama series to win awards and thankful to all who made this drama possible. Enjoy watching!!! xoxo

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Coming of age

This is a story of a girl becoming a woman, and of the man who was the catalyst to her awakening. Insightful scriptwriting, incredible directing and highly competent acting. I’ve gone back to the first episode 3 times now, and still discovering insights into the characters which give us a profound understanding of their actions in later episode. I’m glad I didn’t binge watch on this but was able to experience the story telling.

I must say the support characters are so good, their treatment in the script and direction so well done that we see a story unfold not just a show. No one outshone anyone; they were all moving in sync that it flows naturally.

You can see the careful way they director created the drama. The eye for details, the change in pace when it’s romantic, the colours and views!

The music added to the emotions and never distracted. The costumes and settings helped create the mood but did steal the focus from the characters.

This is one drama I wish would have 100 episodes. I want to see not just the leads’ story but the supporting cast as well.

I love the leads- the changes in their expressions, the subtle acting… it’s wasn’t just their faces or voices that were emoting but also their body language.

The only think I had a hard time with was having to read the subs while trying to see the emotions and everything.

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