WM

Glad you loved the drama. It's a fantastic journey, and it seems to age very gracefully too.

Empress Xian killed multiple consorts, instigated one of them to kill the Empress and organise a Rebellion.
She should be killed and have her body dismembered.
"But she helped me when I was beaten on the ground" - this made absolutely no sense.

Her rise to prominence was also IMO written rather weakly. People often complain about Ying Luo's Mary Sueism; here we had a doormat Consort, who suddenly became a master manipulator and killer, and without even one misstep, he rose to become an Empress.

The evil eunuch definitely was meant to be a criticism, lol :).

"That whole role honestly made me a WXY fan."

Heh, the whole role made me avoid him like the plague :).
Until now, he stopped me from watching "Unveil: Jadewind" only (but I love Bai Lu in kick-ass mode, so maybe one day...), but I'm sure as his career develops, the list will get longer and longer...

Cheers.

For me, The Double was a combination of ADHD editing and camera work, out-of-place comedy and fantasy elements, the female lead getting progressively less capable (which unfortunately is typical for female leads in C-drama land; exceptions are very rare), and the terrible ML, bothering the female lead like a creep (either by himself or sending his two thugs) and with a facial expression worthy of evil Eunuch (this one I stolen from Douban comments section, but it fits so perfect).
I barely went through the opening 10-15 episodes; later it got a bit easier to stomach, but it's like a 3/10 on my scale (like a real 1-10 scale, not the MDL version; where nothing is 10/10 and Nirvana in Fire is the only show rated 9/10).
Different tastes, I guess ;).

On the other side, Yanxi Palace is amazing; the best Idol drama I ever completed, with so many re-watching moments and memorable quotes (where The Double has a big, fat zero of them), but Wu Jin often plays very similar roles, so watching it ahead of The Double would have a bigger impact.

Yes, but in typical way, she gets more and more useless as the story progresses, getting bailed out by the ML like gazillion times.

I didn't watch "SOKP", and I love "Blossom", so that's that.

I didn't know "The Double" was low budget/expectations. I judged it only by its popularity versus watchability for me; in theory, I like female-centric revenge stories, but I struggled big time with this one for multiple reasons.

Cheers.

Trying to predict what your rivals could do against you is a part of human nature and should be a bread-and-butter way for the intelligent CP in this kind of environment.

It's disappointing to read how the perception of the female lead changed since the opening episodes.

There is a vertical drama titled "Taming My Duke Husband/高门主母的驯夫手册" where the main CP's pillow talk consists mostly of sharing intel and strategising against their opponents.
They even had a similar status split like a CP here.

I guess, I would love to one day watch a Big drama where the leads win all the time :).

I always thought a big part of "Nirvana in Fire" success was the ability level Mei Chang Su showcased against evil forces.

How? Normally, lol.

I like "Story of Minglan" bit more, but not only I think they are actually quite close:
MDL rating: 8.7-8.6
Douban rating: 8.0-7.8

If I had to guess, you are all diehard Zhao Ly Ying's girlfriends :)

Ooooh, "Song of Glory" is also a decent choice; I had a late review of it somewhere in the comments section.

There are some things I hated there, though, but there were also some memorable moments.
The fighting scenes and the music were absolutely top-notch, for example; it also had a kind of romance I enjoyed (which is rare).

It's very interesting that you mentioned "Blossom", as I have always been told the novel is actually average to terrible and it was a miracle that the drama turned out to be so good.

"Are you the One?" definitely isn't so dark; even the colours are quite light :).
And even with all the politics, wars and killings, there are a lot of sweet moments between couples and plenty of humour.
"Kill My Sins" is like one or two Tiers darker.

I third "Blossom", also "Are You the One?", but I assume (as I didn't start TRTS, yet?) it's a bit more light-hearted.

Not sure if you watched it before, but among the ones I watched recently, I can vouch for "Kill My Sins" (2025).
It's a serious revenge drama with a fantastic female lead with the most difficult backstory ever (visible in flashbacks) and some seriously smart antagonists.
Zero romance, though, but a high dosage of friendship.
Almost zero humour, too.

I know what Mary Sue is, and Fan Chang Yu definitely shouldn't qualify, as she could only butcher pigs and fight, while the ML was much better at fighting than she was.

Also, I appreciate you admitting so openly about the status of C-drama ML Mary Sues on average. Didn't expect this one.

Cheers.

Lol :).

Well, I'm sick and tired of female-centred plots where the supposedly capable FL needs to be rescued constantly by the ML (and other love interests, if they exist) to stay alive.

I feel like we are possibly talking about the same dramas, but you don't see what I'm seeing :).

Different priorities, I guess.

Thanks. Now I know I would hate it if giving it a shot.

Btw, you should try "Kill My Sins" if you are looking for a female lead who fits your description and you still haven't watched it.

Well, isn't this typical of a female lead in C-dramas?

You rarely get exceptions, as almost all of them are either overrated from the beginning or dumbed down to some extent as the drama progresses.

Not sure if I am right, but this gives me a "Parallel World" vibes, with an equally pretty female lead.
And on top of it, I actually like Ryan Cheng.

I wanted to try it because, based on the pictures (newer watched her in anything), the actress looks in the same rare tier of beauty as Wang Chu Ran, but the synopsis sounds horrible and I can already see it having zero likeable characters.

Let's hope not.

"Chang Yu is even a better fighter and strategist than him"

They literally had a sparring fight, when the ML was easily able to stop her using only one hand.

People really are dumb these days with their attempts to push their opinion against reality and failing big time...

And she was pretty limited regarding strategy; there's no way a highly educated and intelligent Marty Sue ML would be worse...