Better Understanding of the Female and Male Lead Characters of "A Dream Within A Dream".

I decided to take a closer look at the Female Lead and Male Lead characters (Song Xiao Yu/Song Yi Meng and Nan Heng/Li Shi Liu) to provide better understanding because of the prevalent misconceptions about both characters, and the negative comments and reviews about this drama, particularly those directed at the FL.

ADWAD entails two fictional worlds – one is an ancient world and the other a modern world, but the ancient world is the focus of the drama.

The ancient world is a fictional script written by a screenwriter in the modern world for actors to play out. Song Yi Meng is the FL character in the ancient script world meant to be played by Song Xiao Yu, a low-level actress in the modern world. Unknown to the screenwriter, Song Xiao Yu, the actress, is inexplicably transmigrated from the modern world into Song Yi Meng’s body in the ancient script world. This made Song Xiao Yu and Song Yi Meng become one person as the FL and protagonist in the drama.

Nan Heng is the ML and the original antagonist in the ancient script world. But he, too, inexplicably develops a second identity as Li Shi Liu and becomes a protagonist, again, unknown to the screenwriter in the modern world. Nan Heng/Li Shi Liu is meant to be played by Nan Feng, a celebrity actor in the modern world. The celebrity actor did not feature much in the drama as he stayed in the modern world.

Below is a breakdown of the FL and ML characters:

Song Xiao Yu/Song Yi Meng (SXY/SYM)

Nan Heng (who is also Li Shi Liu), has rich character traits due to the rant about his traits from the agent of the celebrity actor (Nan Feng) who is meant to play the character. On the other hand, Song Yi Meng, pales in comparison to Nan Heng. She is designed to be a dull character, and the screenwriter in the modern world did not change this because Song Xiao Yu, who is to play the character, had no one to speak up for her being a nobody, Z-list actress. However, when the actress, Song Xiao Yu, transmigrates into Song Yi Meng's body in the ancient script world, the character evolves. Song Xiao Yu made Song Yi Meng into a delightful character. 

Song Xiao Yu in Song Yi Meng (SXY/SYM) is a down-to-earth and level-headed person with no airs and graces about her. She understands herself so well that she calls herself a slacker. She does not overestimate herself, has no grandiose ambition, and tries to avoid any troubles in her life. Yes, she is no Mary Sue and desires to live in wealth and enjoy her life. Luckily, she finds this gifted to her in the ancient script world.

Added to her good traits, SXY/SYM is in no way dull or slow-witted. She is smart, sensible, rational, cautious, very pragmatic, and very brave, given how she handles her inexplicable transmigration, and is soon thrust into the hands of the person, Nan Heng (NH), whom she knows is eventually going to kill her, according to the script. She goes from being afraid and a victim to gaining confidence, negotiating with NH, fighting back, and even threatening him after her discovery that he could not kill her. Episodes 4 and 5 were two of my favourites. She takes on the fate she is given and seeks ways to change it to survive starting with making allies. But this is when her human flaws start to show and at some point she gets frustrated and just wants to kill NH, or better yet spare him and run away. Totally human and very relatable!

SXY/SYM's attitude and response to her situation is like how the average normal girl would respond to the same situation. But many were expecting the typical clichéd super smart, super woman character that does not reflect who most of us are in our daily lives.

SXY/SYM does get angry at times. However, she is much better than NH who is quick-tempered and could attack you at the drop of a hat. The times she hit NH that come across as harsh were simply emotional outbursts. There was only one time that she pushed him harshly due to the anger and pain she was feeling towards him (episode 26). But this gave a cringe, and her feelings did not resonate due to the following reasons: 

- her point of view (POV) had been poorly conveyed in some episodes earlier;

-a mix up of the sequence of some scenes prior to the scene when she pushed him harshly; and,

- issues with the dialogue between her and NH, as well as that between her and her father. (Especially the first scene in episode 26 when her father could have told her details of what NH had given up in court, and the lashing he took for his wrongs, as well as to save her, Song Yiting, and the Nightwalkers. Her father was clear with Chu Guihong towards the end of episode 25 and could have done the same with her to implore her to forgive NH. If this had happened, it would have enabled her to be gentler in how she treated him in that first scene of episode 26, even if she was still going to leave.)

Anyway, at all the other times that SXY/SYM hit NH from episode 26 onwards, her outbursts were out of her love for him.

SXY/SYM’s strongest traits, however, are that she cares for people – her family, the Nightwalkers, and just about everyone, (I can't believe how people missed this). The only person she does not want to care about because she was afraid of him at first was NH (in his real identity). She trusts and falls for Li Shi Liu (NH’s second identity/persona) so fast and starts to defend him even though he is a martial artist (episodes 8, 10, and 11). She erroneously causes a chemical explosion that endangers her, all in an effort to help solve the equation for forging weapons (episode 13). She is the first to defend Quanyi army, a part of their country’s military force, when Fugui foolishly mocks them (episode 14). She risks her life on two occasions to save the Nightwalkers (episodes 10 and 25), and to defend even her supposed “enemy” NH in front of his father and everyone else (episodes 15, 26, and 29). Her trust is what NH longs for and why he keeps pursuing her and will neither give up nor let her go.

Also, SXY/SYM has good moral principles. In the modern world, her principles come up when the subject of dressing is discussed. She dislikes the attitude of her celebrity co-star, Nan Feng, especially his smugness, and does not want to ride on his fame. 

In the ancient script world, the moment she realizes that Chu Guihong is pursuing a personal vendetta she speaks up against it. And even with some of her irreverence in the ancient world, owing to coming from the modern world, she is still way better morally than her sister, Song Yi Ting, who lives in the ancient time, is very knowledgeable about propriety and etiquette, and yet sexually assaults a man and attempts to rape him. (No matter what Song Yi Ting’s reasons were or what she was being put through, what she did was inexcusable. I’m glad the writers of ADWAD did not punish her with something horrible. But she should have received some strict corrections rather than let her brazenly bargain with her victim almost immediately after what she did to him. In any case, it's good she still somehow made up for her lapse in judgment through all the good she contributed later on.)

Although NH has some wonderful traits, most of it have to do with his intelligence and being quick-witted. SXY/SYM is not the super-intelligent person who, frankly, we don’t get to meet every day. But she is the embodiment of a very NORMAL, very REAL, and very RELATABLE person. Like your average girl next door with a beautiful heart. What’s not to love about her, or what’s there to hate about her?

One can think of SXY/SYM as the force of free will sent by a higher power into a horrible, ancient script world where fate has been used to trap, control, and force its characters to have tragic ends. Her mission is to help the characters own their free will and develop faith to break free from their fates. Also, more importantly, she is to help NH, the ML, to channel his free will towards selflessness and just purposes or causes. Unaware of her mission at first, she thought to take out only the supposed villain, NH, and all would be well in the script world. But then, she realizes that he is also a victim of fate and is already resisting the fate he has been given. And that she is meant to work with and not against him to defeat their fates, as well as those of all the other characters in the script world. Together, they discover that the one who created and is controlling their fates is the real villain and enemy.

Nan Heng (NH)

I like to call Nan Heng the great gambler who majors in calling bluffs and negotiating. He is the definition of a “bad, good guy”, because he is a potential antagonist who changes into a protagonist. NH is a type A personality with a conscience; intelligent, clever, and sharp-witted. He knows all (thank goodness it’s only the information and knowledge in the ancient script world), and he can remember all. Even his father who is very cruel to him ends up acknowledging that he is exceptional, talented, and excels in everything he does. Not the average guy you meet everyday!

NH has two identities in the ancient script world – one as himself, NH, and the second as his persona, Li Shi Liu (LSL). NH’s second identity/persona is who he really is in his heart. Under the guise of his LSL identity, NH is a kind and caring man who longs to be trusted, is naive in matters of love, and wants to help his people and country.

However, his main identity as NH, which he prefers to wear, is a menacing facade that everyone believes according to the original plot for the ancient script world. In the original plot, NH is wrongfully accused from his childhood to his adult years as a ruthless, heartless person who commits all kinds of wicked deeds. A sinister villain who only cares about power and schemes, and people’s lives mean nothing to him. 

Due to his childhood experiences which were life-threatening and his need to survive, NH wears his facade so his enemies would be afraid of him. He also believes the key to his survival is ultimately taking the throne. All these create his character flaws, as he grows up to become arrogant, pompous, quick-tempered, competitive, and vengeful. And in his pursuit of the throne, he becomes self-centred and ruthless, deploying crafty, deceitful, and manipulative means to succeed. He doesn’t just don the cloak of the “God of Death”, he would literally eliminate anyone who gets in the way of his ambition.

At the beginning of the drama, in episodes 3 and 4, NH does not threaten SXY/SYM and Chu Guihong (CG) just to put fear in them. He is cruel to them and literally wants to kill them. And if not for the script repeatedly stopping him, he would have. Granted, NH initially thinks SXY/SYM is using sorcery to control him, and he also wants to settle a score with CG for betraying him in their childhood. So, he has valid reasons for his actions. And he does state much later that he has never killed the innocent. (This makes him at least better than so-called Male Leads and protagonists in other dramas, whom writers push to the extreme of attempted murder of helpless, innocent people who the MLs know have done them absolutely NO wrong).

But still on NH’s flaws. He always threatens even those close to him, like Shangguan He, reminding him of his place. He talks down to just about everyone in a lower position to him, especially the Nightwalkers who are loyal to him and revere him. Nan Rui does the exact opposite of this in his interactions with those close to him, yet is the crown prince.

NH is also a hopeless liar, like a hopeless romantic. And I do not mean this in a good way because he does this to the end of the drama, when he wears a winter cloak on a hot afternoon and claims he is ill just to deceive his wife! 

NH's father (the Emperor) has received the worst of comments about how he treated NH. Although I do not condone his father’s actions, but if you think of it, NH was almost like his father in the way he, too, treated SXY/SYM in the first few episodes.

However, NH's many flaws were not so obvious because they were drowned in Liu Yu Ning’s innate charisma and charm, as well as his compelling emotional expressions whenever NH was on the receiving end of anything hurtful.

NH does fall for SXY/SYM first, but this happens because he sees how she truly cares for people. He sees how she defends Li Shi Liu (LSL) and the Nightwalkers, and how she quickly owns up to her wrongs (episodes 10 and 11). On the flip side, Chi Guihong (CH) betrays her, LSL, and the Nightwalkers, and this reminds NH of the same thing CH did to him in their childhood.

Put simply, NH’s character traits are paradoxical which is reflected in his two identities. He is a kind and caring man at heart. But he is also a tiger like his father is until SXY/SYM comes into his life.

Yes, almost everyone is prejudiced against him, including SXY/SYM. But hers is due to what she has read about him in the script, and more importantly, his embodiment of those things by attacking her when she first arrives in the script world. It’s hard to get over what he put her through at the beginning, even with his persuasions in later episodes.

Being prejudiced means having a preconceived opinion that is NOT BASED ON REASON OR ACTUAL EXPERIENCE. SXY/SYM, however, experienced NH’s attempt to kill her severally, (though it was because he thought she was using sorcery to control him). Added to this, she then witnessed NH’s grudge with CG, and the attempt to kill the latter, too, wrongfully.

Hence, the natural and absolutely necessary slow burn in their romance that played out from episodes 16 to 28. Then there were some twists and turns that occurred during this period, (Shangguan He's arrest, the forced iconic scene involving Song Yi Ting and NH, and then the disbandment of the Nightwalkers and NH needing to reveal himself as LSL to everyone), all of which complicated things further and added to the delay in resolving the conflict in their relationship. In view of all these, their romance followed a very natural and plausible process. 

No normal human being in their right mind will just quickly cozy up to someone who attempted to murder them on several occasions. And then as though that was not bad enough, while trying to make peace, they discover that the person had also been lying to them, secretly manipulating them, using them, and taking advantage of their emotions all along. You don't get over such extreme situations in a short period. The resolution requires considerable time for it to be realistic, and I believe letting it play out over 10 episodes ( from episode 18 to 28) was very appropriate.

Taking an objective look at all the wrong things NH did, really, it is clear that he is no martyr. He is a hypocrite who operates with the policy of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend”. It does not matter if the "friend" (that is, his Uncle) is worse and does more evil than his enemy. As long as he and the friend share the same enemy, he keeps them as a political chess piece even when it is to the detriment of the lives of innocent people.

NH needed some self-reflection. He also needed to be broken. His punishments were deserved, and even he knew it. He did have a rough childhood, but during the early episodes of the drama, he was living the fate the script had given him until SXY/SYM came into the script world and started to urge him, through his LSL identity, towards a different direction. If not for her and the trust and love she gave him in his LSL identity, something he had longed for all his life, he probably would have become a villain just as written in the script. She was the one who helped him to completely break free from his fate of going down the dark path.

...........

I believe the explanation above sheds more light on the well-fleshed out, complex, and very relatable Female Lead and Male Lead characters of ADWAD.

You could also read my review of the whole drama, in which I provided an in-depth analysis that proves why ADWAD is an authentic creative work that truly stands out from the crowd in the cdrama industry. Although it is not perfect, as it has its few flaws, nevertheless, ADWAD really is a creative masterpiece. 

 Deci16:

I genuinely couldn’t have written this better myself. You’ve articulated exactly what so many casual viewers overlook, the subtle nuances that define these characters. Thank you for laying it out with such clarity and insight. 

You are welcome. I'm glad we share the same thoughts about the drama and the lead characters. Many thanks!