NNN

I think she thinks he's gay but he said he's not, he just doesn't want to get married. But I still don't understand why she was marveling at the performance and the bar? And he said he now knows marriage has to involve love etc so the logic doesn't se to flow from there to "I just want to be friends with you"??

Could someone explain the conversation between Fang Xing and the Huang CEO (the "Chen Bolin" lookalike) in ep 13 or 14? More in reply to hide spoiler!

I think you meant Maria not Helen - Helen is Hong Mei.

One true pairing, our main couple

For all those who are getting frustrated with the drama, I'd advise watching all scenes in 3x speed😂 and go back to normal speed for OTP scenes. I'm grateful they're giving us back time to go watch other dramas ;) And things in this drama happen so randomly, people just show up out of nowhere, and subplots contribute nothing to the main plot...but also there's no real plot, so in a way there's no way to predict what they're gonna do next...which is kinda exciting? 😂 I'm increasingly amused by the level of randomness of this show; will keep watching for the 2 min per episode extremely sweet and chemistry-filled scenes of our OTP and the 10 min (30 min but on 3x speed) of random people coming and going!

Agree. I had to double che k the synopsis to make sure Im watching the right drama. I hope this whole backstory will add to, and not detract from, the OTP.

I agree it is kinda fast but to me it wasn't without reason. He mistakenly thought she liked him and being the lovable idiot that he was, started paying attention to her because of that, and grew to like her once he saw how kind and hardworking she was.

I think they fixed a lot of the things I didn't like about the k-version: ML is much less harsh, FL is not thoughtless or extremely sloppy, less unnecessary angst (at least at the halfway mark), less over the top slapstick comedy (but still very funny!), and looots more fluff.

that's Shen Yue's real voice, though.

It's a joke...45 = final episode= well wait forever.

Ming Lan the show took time with things because the focus is heavy on family relationships. Ming Lan the person's goals were to survive, find out about her mom's death, and revenge. I wouldn't say it's random. The schemes/plotting in ML is very much about relationship manipulation and social maneuveurs, due to the strict social conventions at the time. Think of it like Regency era dramas with all the weird restrictions on women. She wasn't involved in the political plotting - that was Gu Ting Ye. And it is a completely different kind of pacing and drama from Yanxi. I like both for very different reasons. I think Rebel draws comparisons to these two dramas due to the focus on the female lead. And up until now we don't see a lot of WX's personal drive like these other two (as of 51, I'd say she finally found a goal).

Lol nah Ming Lan is much more humane than YingLuo.

I don't like the way they killed her off simply because that sword appeared out of nowhere and literally among the 100 people around her no one stopped her :)
The editing is getting worse. One minute the PM is inside the Crown prince's residence,, the next he's outside. Similarly, one minute Xiao Qi is forced to retreat from the Crown prince's residence, the next he surrounds the Prime Minister and the Crown prince. Sigh.

major events are still there but the order might be jumbled up or events are combined. Characterization changed quite drastically for some characters. I'd just treat it as its own thing, separate from the novel

It's not at all explained, pretty sure they will hold back this info for suspense.

Yeah totally agree!

Also the info about the caliber of the crew was informative, and her view on ZZY being an arrow-type of actress resonated with me, having seen her other works. I think it's fair if you disagree with her (I do, many times) but calling it pointless seems like a really strong blanket statement?

I thought she listed out the mary sue quality quite clearly though? And I don't think what she said about English reviewer (I don't remember that part but I'll take your word for it) is that deep, let's not assume bad intents if it wasn't explicitly stated.

This! Our enjoyment is greatly affected by our expectations. Historical "serious" dramas have a different level of expectations from idol dramas. High value production and talented crew also set up different expectations. She did give the drama one gold mind so I don't know why people reacted so negatively to her very smart and we'll articulated (and subjective) review :/ I too am disappointed by the drama for certain reasons but I am enjoying and watching it - those are not mutually exclusive (and Avenuex said she would continue as well!)

Great explanation! I don't think people who point out the Mary-Sueness of the characters necessarily hate them (I don't!) It just seems like these immensely talented cast could do a whole lot more - more complexity. So rather than hate, it's a feeling of "if only". And modern fiction sensibilities have turned to more morally gray and complex characters, even in period drama (Yingluo in Yanxi, Ming Lan - she's not morally gray but she's definitely complex). I think as viewers we are entitled to hoping for more, and some viewers like myself like to consider what they watch a bit more critically. All in all, I think they're still enjoyable characters, with a lost opportunity to be great characters.