nephie

Well...its interesting that the adaptation made things more serious. with the way things have been shown in the drama, it's definitely going to be an issue. sigh

oh :/

the episodes went up from 33 to 40? not complaining but why

arthur chen really nails the heartbroken expressions. on the one hand i want the characters to be back to being happy quickly on the other hand i'm like....let's keep this man as miserable as possible!!!

when i started watching this i was surprised to see a rebirth story that was very clearly rebirth. i had thought maybe the rules had been relaxed a bit at least for modern dramas... but based on the comments the kicker comes at the end after all.
maybe i'll just drop at ep 16. i don't feel like i need to see much more anyway

I personally usually only rate when i've seen at least 2/3rds of a drama, however I think it's a little a ridiculous to tell people not to rate things they dislike. What would be the point of a rating system if people only rated dramas they like? the ratings would all be 9.5+ and pointless

if a drama and/or it's cast interests you, there is nothing stopping you from checking it out even if it has a "low" rating. and imo, people need to stop seeing a 7-8 rating as a terrible rating

Tian Xiwei is really good at doing the cat-like mannerisms.

I've been thinking a bit since finishing this.

I wish we had seen more of her rise in the army the first time around. She showcased her skills just fine I suppose, but I felt pretty unconvinced by her leadership. And I had a hard time connecting with her because we only told and not shown most things.

It didn't need to be 10 episodes long or anything, but a quick arc of her backstory showing her rise in the army originally and how she came to lead and stuff would have made it easier to connect to her desire of wanting to get her title back and protect what she built. And would have made certain losses more emotionally impactful.

ep 19 //
oh no amnesia plotline... this is why i struggle to finish xanxia dramas- the genre is built on so many tropes i dislike.
but the romance is good and i'm really enjoying this so far, so i'll try to stick it out... i just really hope there will be no major betrayal between the leads or stupid misunderstandings i can't take it

Despite it's flaws, it was an easy binge watch.

I enjoyed this one a lot despite it having a few tropes I find annoying. It felt like there were some loose threads at the end but otherwise very enjoyable.

If you liked dramas like New Life Begins, Blossoms In Adversity, and Flourished Peony you will likely enjoy this.

the drama flows really well

i've been binge watching a lot of these vertical/mirco cdramas and most are a rinse and repeat of the same 3 plots.

the story beats of this one still wasn't super unique, but the setting definitely was (or at least, i havent seen any other with this setting)

i really would have liked more back story expansion on the lead's previous encounters. would have given the "enemies" part of enemies to lovers more oomf.

what the HELL are they talking about? "theyre saying this is Little Xin" broooo what is "this"?! the camera isn't showing anything and the characters aren't describing what the corpse(? is it a corpse? a pile of organs? WHAT IS IT?) other than the foul oder.

i thought the body of the other guy completely disappeared but the little boys death made it seem like something was left behind?? its so hard to feel emotionally invested in the death when everything is so vague and i have no idea what the characters are talking about

ep 25/26

xie xiao is soooo annoying

Ep 6 //

so like... the ML is definitely lying/pretending about having feelings for the FL right? like he's just doing that so the old advisors/court people won't pester him about getting a concubine yeah?

that's how it seems to me bc he may be having some feelings deep down but this is all definitely for show and its soooo painful watching the FL actually catching feelings already bc of this 🥲

I assume that is the case, it's just a very odd translation decision lol

Even if this was the only short drama I'd seen (and it is only one of the ones I have actually finished), I would still have the same feelings about the plot.

I think this is a little overhyped- it's definitely beautiful and looks way better than most short dramas I've seen, and all the actors do a pretty good job, but the plot is still pretty typical for a short drama- overloaded and all over the place.

The general's mansion gotta be one of the least secure places in dramaland lmao.