WM

LOL, nice rebuttal.
And to think I actually agree with him/her in principle (on BoP and other similar shows), but 6,5 for Nirvana in Fire is inexcusable. Especially for someone who is all about "Douban this" and "Douban that".

Well, "my" novel has the female lead running the whole show and people joining her because they believe she will succeed and bring them up along on her way; she is firm, calculating and smart, way above "BoP" lady level (and doesn't need to sniff things like a dog to achieve it), just MOSTLY does it without bitchy exterior; she definitely feels more approachable.

To be fair, she had some decent deductions (at least in the episodes I've watched), but as always, the supposedly smart female lead was there only to make ML look smarter, more cunning, brilliant, etc...
The same generic stuff as always.

Lu Songli is not heartless, though, at least not in her new life...unless somebody crosses her.
But in general, she doesn't have a bitchy exterior that the female lead in "BoP" had.
She is also smarter, more ambitious and more successful :).

There is also a vertical drama about her, where I really like the actress portraying her - https://kisskh.at/797412-huan-qin-hou-wo-shun-bian-huan-le-jiang-shan-hen-he-li-ba

However, I don't think it will ever be made into a Big-production drama, as the novel is too atypical (no misunderstanding between leads or their families, no 2nd and 3rd couples, the female lead is by far the most capable person in the novel, no other love interest for the leads, etc...)

Whoa, a rare Drama with a higher Douban score vs MDL; will definitely have to check it out.

Synopsis sounds great, but Weibo's trailer looks mostly nonsensical.
Hopefully the drama will somehow make it work.

I recommend you read Lu Songli's adventures in "I became the cannon fodder who died early, and I angrily married the villain" - the title is horrible, but the novel itself is great.

" In real life, if someone persisted like that, I'd try to get a restraining order, regardless of whether they were handsome or not. "

Someone with common sense on MDL? What? Are you lost?

Thanks. Since I'm a sucker for intelligent female leads (before I get terribly disappointed), I will add it to my list.

ML in the Pursuit of Jade was a much better person towards the female lead there (and overall as well) than the ML in Blossoms of Power.

I was curious about it, so I just checked one version, and it actually has the "Ling Long's scene with the kid" you mentioned.

Btw, she looks quite cool in it; it made me hope for a decent female-centric Wuxia drama (where the female lead wouldn't have to be saved every 5 minutes, lol).

I wasn't here at that time, but when I took a serious look going back a few months in the comments section, it was barely visible.
Like, 10 "passionate lover" against 1 "trash ML" comment kind of ratio.

" that one also has a for real intelligent fl who's absolutely dominating the story."

Could you clarify which one has this kind of the fl ? Thnx,

As good as it is (and it has been excellent so far), the clearly visible wires during the ML and 2ML fight in Episode 10 are hugely disappointing.

I read in the comments section below that they were edited out in some versions, but they were clearly there when I watched it now.

Thanks, although I totally forgot about this one and was wondering "what the hell is this weird title" when opening the notification :).

13, I think. Maybe the latter in 14?

Thanks for your recommendations. Some are really good (Story of Minglan and Flourished Peony), some are not (The Double, where I wanted to strangle the ML and the director every 5 minutes), and I will consider the ones I didn't watch yet.

And "Journey of Love" is a typical example of supposedly equal leads, where I don't think they were equals - the supposedly elusive and mysterious female assassin got injured in the 1st episode by some soldier schmucks, losing half of her power for half of the drama, so the ML could keep helping and saving her.
She had some great kills and moments, but in my book, the writers screwed it up by presenting ML as stronger, when she was the one the story was supposed to be built around.

In general, watching dramas, it's very difficult to run away from thoughts like "how did this FL survive and even thrive in her field before meeting ML, since he is helping her every step of the way".

Last year, I dropped "Shadow Love" after 2 episodes and watching how the supposedly highly-ranked female general had to be saved by the ML in both of them after storming the opposite camp alone using the front entrance.

Well, the FL told the ML to stay away from her after she learnt about his manipulations and lying, but when she was saved from the fire by the other prince, he was sitting next to her bed when she woke up; officially to give her medicine, unofficially to threaten her that he could get to her whenever he wanted in the name of (his) love.

Please, call the trash equally.
Thank you.

Well, I hoped this drama would be like that; just too bad that the ML (and army of other Princes) ruined the vibe.

It's very difficult to find a drama where the ML and FL shine equally. "Are you the One?" is a good example; also "Who Rules the World" somehow fits, even if the Marty Sue ML was clearly stronger/smarter between the leads.

It's even more difficult to find a female-centric drama where the romance isn't the focus, so the FLs can do their thing without some terrible ML pestering her.
I pretty much only know "Kill my sins" in this group, which I'm really enjoying at the moment. Maybe there are more?

Well, it's not a surprise - female leads thrive the most when the ML isn't around.
That's why I hope that one day non-ML dramas will get popular...