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murderbee:
it’s truly an RR icon - for the ML at least
I'm gonna be 100% honest here and say he's the only reason I kept watching. An RR ML to outrank all others ever. No one does it like Yan Shang does it and it makes me feel very conflicted about the drama... It's so weird to me when a drama will make one part of the OTP extremely nonconforming RR and then the other as tradslop conforming person as they possibly can 💀 I'll even go as far as to say that I actually don't ship the OTP at all and ship the Mu Wanyao with Yang Si and Yan Shang, the angel baby that he is, can transmigrate into another drama and end up with a better, more dominant and mean FL. Even FL from Moonlit Reunion would be a better fit.
I just can’t with how much slow-mo they’re putting in this drama 😭 also the ost playing every 5 seconds (especially in the slow-mo scenes).
Oh, I started muting the OST when it comes on 😂😂😂😂 The only song that I let play is YS's theme. So grand, impactful, well-timed and also not used to DEATH. My God, their love themes play 150 times per episode, I'm so fucking sick of it 😭 Objectively good songs, but please, some mercy on my nervous system. And the slow-mo scenes... yeah... they get SO old, especially because MZY's acting is so mediocre that those scenes do literally nothing and drag on forever.
Also Mu Wanyao running in slo mo in a massive dress every few episodes bc of Yan Shang is taking me out 🤣🤣
So criiiiiiiiiiiinnngeeeeeeee 😭😭😭😭 And where are all the scenes of him running in slow mo to her, huh? Not very role reversal of them... 😭
I’m so mad at episode 35. Once again, they had to make Yan Shang take control in an intimate scene. Trigger warning: he shoves her against a wall and kisses her after she kisses him UGHHHHHHHHHHH
THANK YOU!!! GOD, I HATED THAT!!!! Like, he's even literally completely blind... that's so dangerous 😭 He needs help to get around pretty much everywhere but he can perfectly pin her against a wall without effort? I would've even taken her guiding him to pin her down at this point... this was just flat out embarrassing 💀
WANYAO WAS literally being domineering and cold to him but as soon as they get physical she becomes a blushing maiden 🥲
She was.... slightly better in this episode than in the middle of the drama, but.... it was..... scraps at best. She keeps giving me irritating mouthy brat vibes, which is not RR at all. I've said it before and I'll say it again, him being submissive and RR, does not make her dominant and RR. But yeah, I was hoping that with her being at least bitchier to him in these eps, we'd get something a bit better, but it continued to be the same as it was throughout the entire drama. Which is such a shame, because the kiss scene was hot, but I just felt slightly disgusted. Not to mention that by the end, he once again initiated... Ugh... I'm just so tired... YS was born to be dommed, not to be forced to do this (ep 35 kiss)
The only scene she took control was when they were in bed and she made him call her jiejie (truly beautiful)
This was definitely of the better scenes in the drama, but I couldn't help but notice that even in that scene, he's the one to pull her down on top of him (a consistency I noticed in the drama of him submitting to her, but her forcing him to dominate) and then by the end as the camera zooms out, they end with him on top :/ So even that didn't hit for me quite as much. ML throughout all of it was to die for, tho. That "jiejie" was lethal. (ep 20 kiss)
I'll probably try and write a better conclusive 'review' for this drama at some point, but my feelings are very conflicted and my disappointment with not just the role reversal, but a lot of things about the drama started overpowering the positives... even though I did enjoy quite a bit of it.
@potatocouch: I also hope the ML from Shadows of Desire gets better. I’m loving the FL so far, though!
I love her too! I feel very protective of her, which is why I'm upset with the ML for adding to her problems. Oooh, I hope she doms him good once she gets her hands on him LOL.
What chapter are you on?
Li Yunrui could have been the most perfect subbiest man to ever go down in RR history but you’re right, WE WERE ROBBED
He's now my favorite ML of all time. I just watched ep 20 and saw him call WY "jiejie" for the first time, and it triggered an existential crisis 😂
Usually when a character is gentle and kind, but is involved in murder and political intrigue, the gentleness and kindness is an act. They're a green tea at best and a psychopath at worst. But when it comes to YS, he's actually kind and gentle. He started down this path of revenge, as well as bringing down the current regime, first for his family, then WY, and then he felt compelled by the chancellor. If it were up to him, he'd be a teacher somewhere and make WY new rogues on the weekends.
I'm about to start ep 23, and overall I like the drama, but I have been disappointed by how different they made WY vs the novel, and how thin the politics/revenge turned out to be. Remember when WY showed YS that tapestry with all the different fish that represented the people she wanted to bring down, all the way to the evil eunuch? I thought the drama was setting up them becoming a team, and slowly taking out those people one by one, but that hasn't happened. They're not actually pursuing their revenge, they're more so waiting for stuff to happen, then reacting. And I get that they're being patient just like that snake story YS told, but...there's a difference between patient and passive, and I fear that both characters have fallen into the latter. Especially WY. We also barely see the people represented in the tapestry aside from the eunuch (sometimes). So yeah, I was let down by that as well, but again, overall I can't say I'm not enjoying myself. It's only the second full-length historical drama that's managed to get me invested and keep me watching.
Just imagine: If the CCP didn’t exist China’s society would be a lot like Taiwan 😔
Taiwanese dramas were what got me into Asian dramas in the first place, so I can definitely imagine T . T We'd be getting fed so good. We'd be FAT off of RR.
After I got interested in LYR I watched a little of his appearances on the Running Man (a Chinese variety show) and he does seem actually seem quite similar to how he acts in the show; gentle, sweet, etc. And you’re right, I’d seen him in other dramas but he does RR SO WELL!! He should totally stay in this genre (please I’m begging 🙏)
Can you link me the episode? I wanna see something... >.>
You and @potatocouch are right, I should just avoid it. It pisses me off how many emotionally immature and misogynistic people there are in these places 😔
If you see me arguing in the comment section in a few days, just ignore me LOLLLLLL. I finally got to the episodes with Meng Zai Shi, and I immediately hated him and I wanted to jump through the screen and knee him in the NECK when he decided to announce you know what to the entire court! That piece of CRAP! (Spoiler tags weren't working for this for some reason, so I had to be vague).
Arclei:
I like my men looking like elegant candles
LOLLLLLL! LOVE THIS DESCRIPTION! (It was also accompanied by imagery of you leering at candles in a shop)
I feel like Chinese fans LOVE taboo and different topics than what’s considered “normal” because we’ve been so oppressed in what we’re allowed to watch 😭
YES! I just had to comment on this because China has such unique stories. I think them and Japan are head-to-head when it comes to niche topics, but Japan's execution (besides a couple of exceptions) is....😬 They disappoint me so much. I'll never understand how their anime has so much heart, but their live actions feel like sea foam. It's like they can't translate the magic over.
ElanneH:
me and murderbee we just went through war in TSTR comment section
Was it a battle with the Meng Zai Shi lovers? They're so SICK. Or was it Wanyao bashers?
You've been a WONDERFUL addition to the club! Don't feel bad just because you can't reply to everything right away. It takes me some time as well.
I wish Wanyao was more forward with him, because when she is, it's beautiful. I think the bar is just so low, when a drama rises to it, even crosses it, I'm clapping like a seal.
Yeah, sadly we're all in the same boat :-/ But at least we have each other.
'You Have My Heart'?
And yeah, I watched You Have My Heart while it was airing. I loved it so much!!
Okay, so I remember when this was airing, and I thought about watching it, but I'm a scaredy cat 😂 Supernatural shit often scares me, so how bad is it in this drama? Is the vibe eerie? Can a person who is easily scared stomach it? Are there any scary-looking spirits/creatures?
ML is a concubine married to FL's dad(???)
THE WAY THIS WAS TAILOR MADE FOR YOU LOLLLLLL.
The premise of this kind of reminds me of the manhwa ‘Lady Crystal is a Man’ lol
I started this manhwa, then got sidetracked. Is it actually RR? Is it good?
I found such a good RR drama!!! I haven’t finished watching yet, but so far, the FL is possessive, obsessive, and a crazy red flag ahhhhhh
I watched half of this the other night and it was so YUMMMMMYYYYY! You found a good one, murderbee!
sayratial:
Would love to join 🙋
Welcome! 😊
I can't believe you actually came up with any, I thought this is just my hopes and dreams speaking, thank you so much, I'll check them out!
Just wanted to vouch for Love to Hate You! It was a fun romcom, and I can't remember the last time I saw one of those. I LOVED the FL, and her dynamic with the ML was hilarious. She doesn't trust men and he doesn't trust women. I was wary the drama would be all about how FL was mostly wrong, but it's light-hearted, and from what I remember they both learned to be more trusting. Their relationship was egal, which fit nicely with the whole plot.
The FL starts off as his entertainment lawyer, and she even becomes a stuntwoman at some point because she's really strong and knows martial arts. It was quite refreshing.
I’m not even that far into Shadows of Desire, only chapter 14 lol
Same, I'm on chapter 12.
Like I said above, you and @Arclei are so good at putting thoughts into words
You're sweet <3 It's just word vomit most of the time hahaha. I'm glad it's at least entertaining.
The fish tapestry/painting (I forgot what it was) would have made such a great motif,
Yeah, that's really where I thought they were going with it. I was so excited to learn more about each bad guy's life and corruption, and slowly watch WY and YS take them down until they got to the eunuch. But nope...instead we got unnecessarily long flashbacks and slow-mo running. Lots of slow-mo running.
If Yan Shang wasn’t written as well as he is, I miiiiiighhhht have dropped it.
I really enjoyed the beginning, but with every new episode I watch the more I’m inclined to agree. YS truly is the drama's crown jewel, and the reason why it’s holding my attention.
I can’t remember the exact clips of li yunrui I watched, but I’ll try my best (also some of these will be shorts:
Can't wait to watch these! His smile is so stunning in the first video.
They all to seem follow the same archetype of FL and they’re just lacking something I can’t put my finger on
Well, the FLs are usually lacking a personality, and it's so confusing to me when there are FLs like Mao Mao (The Apothecary Diaries), Iwakura (Skip and Loafer), Yona (Yona of the Dawn), and so many of the Studio Ghibli women in anime. It's like they put a camera on a real person, and they become robots.
The other thing they might be lacking that you can't put your finger on is relatable conflicts, whether they be internal or external? Sometimes I'll read the summary for a J-drama that sounds interesting or relatable (even if it's niche), and I'll start it and the execution will be so bizarre I'm just like "You know what...this is my fault" and close my laptop LOL.
can’t do Thai straight
I've gotten through two movies (technically straight, I guess? But not romance) and one drama (linked to nostalgia). That's it lol. I've dropped every other attempt.
I dropped Lady Crystal is a Man because it got too boring to me. Also I read somewhere that later on the man grows out of his female identity (like becomes bulky and stuff) and it’s just kind of an egal relationship with two gender fluid people?
Oh, wow. An egal relationship with two gender fluid people is unique, but it's a shame the RR had to suffer. It would've only helped the dynamic, not hurt it.
I'll take it off my reading list then. I was easily sidetracked because the beginning was already kind of slow 😅
Have you ever read the webtoon Roxana? I read it a while ago before it changed publishers (there was a lot of drama, and the creator went through some triggering stuff, but I'm glad she's back) and it was super interesting and refreshing. It also started out RR since the FL is from an evil, murderous family and the ML is from a good, heroic family. Fl's father initially kidnaps him, so she takes him as her pet. She does eventually help him escape because she knows in the future her family will be brought to ruin, so she's trying to make a way out for herself. It's very much a vertical drama plot (hahaha), but so far the execution is good, and the art is GORGEOUS. It's ongoing. I hope it stays RR, but I have a feeling it'll become egal T . T It's really interesting though!
jay:
Can't quote your post but @potatocouch I'm also hoping the same for FL of Shadows of Desire! Tigers kind of went off the rails for me lol and I'm crossing my fingers the FL from SoD delivers!! 🤞
I hope she delivers too, but now I'm nervous!
I had to delete and repost my comment because the formatting was all messed up >.<
OMG THAT WEBTOON LOOKS SO GOOD. Will be looking into that, thank you
It’s really entertaining, and there are a lot of psychological games at play. I read the whole thing in one sitting.
Let me know what you think once you've started.
This is an idol drama specialty, where they focus on making the shots look good rather than making them make sense and contribute to the story, so in order to fill the run time of 40 long eps, we’ve been served a LOT of long ass shots of the leads just staring and shots of aesthetic running and whatnot.
I struggle. When it comes to historical dramas, the idol ones have low quality storytelling, but the non-idol ones are a slog (and still sometimes have the same issues, like not actually developing the characters' interpersonal relationships and inconsistent pacing). I don't know what to do, man.
But bc Meng Ziyi especially is very mediocre at acting in my opinion, there’s just a bunch of scenes that don’t make you feel anything for the character.
MZY is…..not good at all 😭 Imagine being the weakest actress in the cast when you’re one of the leads? Everyone else is acting circles around her. Chun Hua and Wen Ji’s acting has gotten me emotional several times (and of course Yan Shang’s), but in all of MZY’s heavy scenes, her face is neutral. I agree that her eye acting isn’t good either. It’s virtually non-existent. I saw what I thought were glimmers of improvement in the early episodes, but those glimmers were stamped out.
At the same time, I feel for her because the entertainment industry is brutal. You can tell she’s definitely become a prisoner to the beauty standards to the point where her priority is looking pretty in every frame—and that’s not what acting is.
I actually had the problem with Colourful Love because the FL and ML were too similar (I loved the ML). I just felt like she was the copy-and-paste of every other FL I’d seen from Japan ever but without the dom ML kabe-don-ing her every few minutes lol
Yeah, Arclei warned me about the FL even though she loves the drama. I still plan to watch it, but again, it’s a shame J-dramas can’t write their FLs with much of a personality. To this day, the only Japanese live action FL I’ve seen with any kind of aura was Kuroki Mesa's character in “Jiu”. And it was just a SHRED.
also if you want an RR manhwa rec with a little smut, there’s:
Toy Daddy - morally grey, red flag FL
One Night Only - omegaverse hehe
GIRL!!!! TOY DADDY IS CRAZYYYYYY 🤣🤣🤣🤣 I was frothing at the mouth reading some of those early chapters. I see what the creator’s trying to do, and I applaud her for even having the guts because these hypocritical webtoon readers keep coming at her about Rosa’s personality when she’s an ANGEL compared to some of the webtoon MLs that are out there, but I struggled with the later chapters. I can feel the creator wanting it to be RR, and trying to explore some interesting themes and dynamics, but I can also tell she's having a hard time extending the RR beyond sex and humiliating the ML (and sure, those can be aspects of RR, but not the entire point).
I stopped reading after Rosa and the ML’s second time (I think? I considered their first time during her mom's wild party). I was so excited for it because the build up was good, but the whole "Was it a dream?" thing was an annoying cliche I wasn’t expecting since the rest of the webtoon was cliche-free. So I waited for their second time and that was even more disappointing. I think my problem with the webtoon is despite wanting a cruel, insane yandere like Rosa, I still want her to have other feelings and emotions, but I feel like she doesn’t. Her characterization is quite flat. Aside from wanting to dom her stepdad, it doesn’t feel like there’s much to her. I wish she had other interests and goals as well. Shockingly enough, the best crazy yandere FL I’ve seen is still from Yue Bang Jiu Xiao. She was 3-dimensional, at times relatable, and you could feel her genuine care for the ML underneath her desire to possess him (another thing I don't get from Rosa).
How far along are you in the webtoon? Has the characterization gotten better? I'd be willing to pick it back up since the art was really pretty and Yeonwoo's design was beyond beautiful!
I tried to read One Night Only a while ago, but it’s not my preference as far as omegaverses go (unless written by a particular author).
