Aramintai

Give me the title, I'll check it out.

Sure, why not, it can have romance. Just no dumb soap, please. Genres can be whatever, just no stupid costumed high fantasy. Wuxia is fine.
Endings mainly have to make sense, but I dislike cop out open endings.

Decided to give it a try, but can't help but laugh out loud at the cringe premise - the lameass mask, the clearly not a man's body, or gait, or face, or voice, or strength, or demeanor...

What is this? Some sort of "I got kicked from the party and I reincarnated into Mulan", lmao? She wasn't even isekai-ed or reborn, but was spouting that tropey "this time I'm gonna do it right!" like a sad hikki hero starting a new life. She even suddenly changed her personality from a sulky shadowy general into a perky girly (but trying to pose as man) fresh recruit with (of course) max level skills. This is so cliche, I can't even...😂

Can you, guys, give me recommendations for good cdramas like this one? I rarely watch cdramas, so dunno what's been good lately. The preferred criteria:
-something not very old;
-no xianxia bs with fairies and immortals; something grounded, wuxia elements are fine;
-no reincarnation or transmigration into books/other worlds/the past (I'm fkn bored to tears with isekai genre);
-good acting and high quality sets & costumes;
-little to no dumbassery or cringe in the plot, has to be something mature like in this drama;
-not a soap opera with outlandish tearjerker plots just for the sake of it.

Not good? Why low rating?

There's more weight to lose on her? Jeez, these anorexic beauty standarts really do a number on people's perception what is actually healthy.

The right chancellor was corrupt, he was embezzling money from army funds and treasury. FL's father got wind of his schemes and so the chancellor plotted to kill him.

There is romance here, and it's not even slight, more like medium sized and plays an important part in the main plot. I dunno why the mods aren't updating the correct tags.

Her being allowed to execute the villain in the end is both contradictory and proves the point of this whole drama.

Why add that divisive emotional ML's argument in episode 29 only to still allow FL to do it? Sure, there were also other arguments that she had no evidence back then and wouldn't be able to restore her father's name, maybe even get severly punished. But that point about turning into a monster and having more nightmares really got everyone's attention. Then they showed that little boy in whom she saw herself and understood that revenge is not the right path to live for. But then when the villain royally fked up and the emperor gave a decree to execute him, it was FL who went to do the deed. I mean, where's the public execution? You may hate the emperor, but he coddled FL even here. And sure, the villain should have died for FL to move on with her life, but did it have to be her hand that executed him? I guess the script writers got lost in the sauce somewhere down the line. At least they added lines with FL telling ML about a dream she had later with her parents sort of saying farewells to her, so here's hoping her nightmares will end too.

As for the point of this whole drama - there's no justice to be found in the palace, the emperor upholds the law on a whim when it's beneficial to him, nobody gets justice when they should. So yeah, it was just right when FL threw these accusations at the emperor and quit. However, him coddling her by not properly punishing her either for poisoning the nobles, or trying to kill the chancellor the first time, and then allowing her to execute him in the end in private just again proves this point. And she herself was often bending laws when it suited her to seek her revenge and solve cases. Lots of self-righteous people here with flawed logic. I guess, it's what makes this drama a charming memorable mess.

The one about the cult babies and father's revenge - Auspicious Time Secret. Absolutely fked up what that family did to his daughter. The crazy cult exploiting people for money is also so so relevant today, reminds me of scientologists and the like.
The girl in the wall is the runner up - the case started small, but blew up into a whole other big case with a devastating follow-up resolution.
And while the White Asura case wasn't as interesting as some other cases, the crazy ghost woman was very memorable. She fked up her health to an absolutely devastating result. It's good that she got a nice closure ending at the end, with other concubines starting visiting her lonely house.

Just like all the rest of those cliche arrogant megalomaniac villains...he's gonna get served.

If you mean the main villain, I guess it's ok now that she's got evidence and the emperor's permission. Either way he should have been killed for FL to move on, but her doing it herself it did look contradictory to the point made in episode 29. The villain should have just gotten a public execution.

He wasn't, it was all the main villain's work back then. At least, nowhere in the drama is it stated that he was involved. He also looks to young to have been involved. He's only involved in the last case and unknowingly played into FL's hands with his schemes.

The leads got criminally short closure scenes in the last episode.
Where's the normal reconcilliation talk? Apologies? ML commenting on FL killing the chancellor? He had very strong opinion about that in episode 29. Saying farewells to ML's family? Implied wedding? Where are they going in those frilly costumes and no baggage?

There's a thought 🤔.

Different leads is, like, an immediate epic fail, lol. Most of this drama's success rode on FL's charisma and cool character concept.

They can perhaps drag FL into this again if she won't have to fight, but they'll have to invent something story wise as to why. Or make heavy use of doubles.

I'm fine with role reversal and FL having a more dominant role. But I think he should have been less stiff here, I don't know if his character was supposed to be like that or he's got acting problems, but it just felt off at times.

If both leads won't be in it I ain't watching.

Exactly. Just pretend that extra scene isn't canon and put it to rest for now.
Also, what a shitty way from the showrunners to sour a happy ending...

I dunno, how fast do they film dramas there in China? Gotta cook it while it's hot. Nobody would care a few years later. So I think either they'll confirm season 2 soon, or it ain't gonna happen at all.