Lizzy

If you prioritize plot and don’t mind less romance, you can also check out Rebel Princess. Arranged Marriage trope and a very sexy, older masculine ML who actually looks like a battle-worn General. Wish he had more screen time because he was one of my favorite MLs of all time. I mean there’s a bit of a love triangle, but it’s not bad. She gets married to the ML early on but the SML hangs onto the crush. Once the FL recognizes that her husband is a good man, she doesn’t waver outside of some internal conflict later on in the drama if I remember correctly.

A lot of people loved the first half of the drama, but don’t like the last 3rd of it nearly as much

It was a flashback to earlier that episode when she was asking the princess for help.

* The Prisoner of Beauty
* Blossom (same director as PoJ)
* Blossoms in Adversity (VERY female-centric)
* Coroner’s Diary (Green flag ML and FL, same screenwriter as PoJ)
* Fated Hearts (true enemies to lovers romance)
* How Dare You!? (the one with Ryan Cheng / Cheng Li)
* Legend of the Female General
* Shadow Love
* The Double

I don’t have an x account, and am struggling to find part 2 😅

Oh I 💯agree. I think some dramas strike a great balance with the male and female leads, namely Fated Hearts, The Prisoner of Beauty, Legend of Shen Li and Legend of the Female General. But I have never been a fan of boosting up one gender by putting down the other. The stupid insults that PoJ and some other dramas make towards men are annoying 🙄

Mmhmm and I share those criticisms. While I understand why they deviated from the novel as I said in my OP, it also creates the issues that you mentioned. I was not a fan of the “I stand behind no one” comment 🙄and it was also kind of ridiculous that she was given the power to pick who she wanted to kill. I have never been a fan of themes that push the “strong woman” propaganda to an extreme - especially if it is at the expense of the quality of writing. Sadly, these things that you mentioned are common themes in dramas by this director and screenwriter. All of their dramas I have seen were fairly heavy on the uber feminism propaganda. Like you, I’m not a fan.

Yeah. I read bits and pieces of the novel and I prefer the route that they took in the drama. They kinda set the foundation from the beginning for XZ to become her matrilocal husband, so it’s pretty consistent that they’re moving towards an end where XZ and FCY retire in Lin’an. I haven’t watched any of the leaked episodes, but I am assuming that’s how the ending will be. I also wish that they could have broken up this drama into two parts and fleshed out parts of the story more. Sadly 😞they did not go that route.

fekking tag your spoilers omg

It makes sense that she didn’t properly earn her military merit because she actually didn’t… She was promoted as a political move by a certain character who hopes to control her. That was the whole point. Lihuai manipulated the situation by praising her merits to the Court, and then it seems like Wei Yan pushed to have her promoted to further his own agenda. The drama never meant to convey that she was actually promoted because she earned it, which is where they deviated from the novel. I see the frustration for the novel readers, but in my opinion I don’t think that they could have followed the book in that regard and done that arc justice in a 40 episode drama. I think it would have messed up the pacing even more if she separated from XZ, joined a different army and raised her ranks by herself. They would have either had to do a bunch of time jumps to make it work or break the rules and extend the drama past 40 episodes 😂

I also wouldn’t call her arrogant. I think the drama has also made it clear that she has no desire to be in power and would much rather go back to her hometown to rebuild and live her old life. She doesn’t give any f*cks, not because she’s arrogant but because she actually doesn’t want to be there lol. At least that’s how I interpret it. She’s going along with it to investigate her father / clear his name. Her military exploits right now are a means to an end and to put her in a position where she and XZ can investigate what happened 17 years ago.

It is very different from the novel as others have said, but I think the direction they took makes sense. She has always wanted to go home. She has asked XZ several times to “come home with her”. When she first realized he was leaving earlier, she said, “You won’t be gone forever, right?” implying that she knew all along that he would leave and she would stay behind (and hope that he comes back). She hesitated being with him after she discovered his identity, and only softened towards him AFTER he said he wanted to rebuild Lin’an with her and integrate into her life. She never wanted to join the army, and even this recent episode made it clear that she is not happy in the capital. Again, it’s different from the novel, but it’s consistent with the drama’s narrative.

I added it to my watchlist (had to make sure it had a HE first lol). It looks good! Been a while since I’ve watched a Kdrama. I will probably start it either tonight or tomorrow

If it wasn’t for the lies, betrayal and secret keeping. I tried to bear with it and still followed the drama after I stopped watching. GIFs of JBZ’s face when he discovered the FL betrayed him and stole from him still haunts me 🙈

Eh, Manman doing stuff behind Wei Shao’s back made complete sense in the beginning because he hadn’t given her any concrete reasons to trust him
not to attack her people. The ML in LitC gave her all the reasons in the world to trust him and she kept lying. There’s a difference there. TPoB is my all time favorite drama so I WILL die on my hill of defending its perfection don’t fight me on it 🤣😂

Stooooooop nooo I refuse to believe it 🙈🙉!!!

I dunno. I followed the show and it sounds like the lies went on and on and on until like the late 20s. I know she eventually steals from him and gets caught, and then I also think she lies about her identity for a while or something. Or maybe he lies to her about more stuff. Idk, lying and keeping secrets are my most HATED tropes if it’s the center of the plot. I probably won’t go back to litc, I have too many other shows that I would be more interested in 🤷🏼‍♀️

This optimism is keeping me going don’t poo on it LOL 😂🙉

I’ll check out “River Where the Moon Rises” 😊I think I made it to episode 13 of LitC and rage quit after they signed the marriage stone, he got shocked a lot, and then immediately after that the FL was plotting to use him and steal from him. I was angry at the show for a while, but that sequence of events was the last straw lol 😂

Yeah… I’m still managing to accept it with some optimism even though I am also noticing his lack of presence. Maybe I am still hoping that he will get more screen time in the last six episodes lol.

I heard the subtitles are sh*t, so I wouldn’t recommend watching the leaked episodes. Like they are really bad.

I don’t mind the pacing either and am one of the few people who appreciate that the leads didn’t break up again as they did in the novel. I think it could have probably worked if the drama could have been more than 40 episodes. But seeing as they were separated for 8 episodes and then sort of reconciled after the identity reveal… don’t think I would have liked them cramming in a second breakup before the end. I think that would have created more pacing issues in a 40 ep drama.

I haven’t seen that one, but I don’t think the synopsis was interesting enough to me when I looked into it a while ago. Thanks for the Kdrama rec. I didn’t get through LiTC because the lying and secret keeping made me really mad in that one 😅Other dramas that did strike a good balance was Legend of Shen Li, Alchemy of Souls, How Dare You and The Story of Ming Lan.