Vaidehi

Back here again coz I can't move on and no drama will ever compare to the death grip this show has on me.

He never pretended to be anything. In the original work he comes to see himself as the Queen and has a gender identity and sexuality crisis which he resolves with great effort. In the original work, his husband knows he's a man from the future. The Korean adaptation removed all this coz they wanted to het-wash a gay story. Let's say some mixture of bong hwan and soyoung was the one who loved the King and who the king loved and it wasn't just bong hwan alone. This would still mean that bong hwan did love the king coz he was there all along too. He experienced everything too. I mean, he'd been in a coma for months his leg muscles must have been beyond atrophied but the first thing he still did was run to the book store is check if he lived. He loved the king too. He started as a protagonist but was eventually ended up as just a plot device to facilitate a heterosexual relationship which is more upsetting coz this is originally a gay story. Asian LGBT are allowed to feel this way about the ending coz this is a conscientious erasure. We've so little content as it is but big productions continue to het wash originally LGBT works. we are allowed to call out what we see.

Bong hwan is obviously the one who experienced everything. If soyoung was the one experiencing it or initiating it bong hwan wouldn't be having a sexuality crisis at all. He'd just write it off as soyoung and not agonize over it like he did in the show. Soyoung doesn't even come up in the arc towards the end when they're scheming & the queen leaves the Palace to look for the king. Its bong hwan that's worried for the king, the baby, Hong yeon, lady Choi. You're implying that soyoung was the one doing everything as if it's not crystal clear that bong hwan is the dominant soul. Soyoung becomes a voyeur in her own body. Not once did she contribute anything as herself. She's not capable of controlling her own body to do what she wants. She only gains control of it after bong hwan leaves. She's a pitiable character but pity is not the same as rooting for someone. It all comes down to compulsory heterosexuality. At the end of the day this is fully derived from a gay book and even the cdrama adaptation is very much gay. We can't write off this man's entire journey that made not only him but also everyone around him a better person coz he's a human being too. his experiences deserve respect and acknowledgement. If u want to het-wash the show go ahead but to anyone that's actually watching the show its very obvious they didn't do a very good job of de-gaying it.

Yes coz homophobia. They tried to censor the fact that they adapted an explicitly homosexual book but they didn't do a good job of making anyone believe it was a heterosexual love story. The memories were soyoung's but every thought and action was bong hwan's coz u can still hear the internal monologue in his bold tone and his words. Every time he kissed the king that was bong hwan, when he wrote letters to his unborn child he wrote it as himself. The tone is the important thing here. He did everything as he would have himself. Even the first time they really kiss, the Queen kind of is dominant in the beginning pushing the king against the wall and stuff coz as a man that's the stuff he used to do. There is also a scene in ep 14 where bong hwan remarks that the king is the best sex he's had even. Soyoung and bong hwan have major tonal differences its not hard to tell who's who. Even the king fell in love with bong hwan not soyoung (in the extras its shown that they did have a spark but it can't compare to an entire season worth of him falling for bong hwan) after bong hwan has left the body he feels an inexplicable sense of loss. If the director wanted us to root for soyoung instead of bong hwan they should have introduced her before the nth second. In trying to maintain what they believe is an ambiguous sense of identity they've failed to make most viewers truly love soyoung the way they love bong hwan.

U do realize that was bong hwan's initial reasoning for his feelings right? By the end he deeply cares about the Prince enough to risk his own life for him. When he gets shot in the end, his only thought is that he doesn't want to go back right now even though that was his goal all throughout the drama. There is of course the small matter that this entire story is based off of a gay Chinese novel.

Just came back to check if there's a link to the book but the comment box is full of negative comments. Most complaints being the excessive angst..... If u don't wanna watch intense angst why even pick up a xianxia drama with a reincarnation trope. If you want fluff just watch a modern romance drama 🤷🏽‍♀️

GUYS THE TRAILER IS OUT

Back here. Nine months later I'm still unable to move on.. Nothing will compare to this drama. Ever.

Oh yeah I did see that part but I wasn't sure. Thanks!

I'm confused. Did they have children and then get married or are they both pregnant during the wedding?

Idk why the ratings dropped this is definitely one of the best modern rom coms from the past few years along w ones like love is sweet and pyhoms

Omg I didn't know the novel was so weird but I vaguely remember hearing about the rape scene. I agree they shouldn't have given runyu so much screen time if they wanted us to root for the main characters but because they did, the writing for runyu's character was better. Also yunxi is a much better actor which made him more likeable than the main leads. I'm glad they gave him that much screen time coz he's been my #1 actor since 2017. He's an actor that continuously gives great performances and I too am impatiently waiting for hyx and have even read the book in preparation. He's a sublime actor and I hope he gets great fame in the future

I totally agree. Also if runyu is doing bad things it makes sense coz he's the "villain" but xufeng does the same things he does but he's the "hero"? It's ridiculous. Just because the female lead likes one of them and doesn't like the other we're supposed to root for xufeng? The writing is lazy. I feel like they put in no effort to make him likeable at all.

My favorite review coz I keep saying xufeng is a bad character. He never questions his evil parents and is happy being their son and enjoying his privileged life, not caring about runyu. Also he tried to steal his own brother's fiancee ? ik atp everyone will be like jinmi liked xufeng not runyu but even before that he pursues her with no respect for runyu.

I love reading negative reviews of ashes of love it's a fun pastime.

I'm very confused as to what his dark secret past was supposed to be. I watched the entire thing but there was nothing?

Is fujisaki aromantic/asexual?

Wishing for a season 2

Binged the whole thing in a under a day. It's worthy of being a classic

3-4 years later still my #1 kdrama