Heather Branson

This drama really was a small clip of a year in the life of these people, feel like we were a part of their friend group by the end of the series. Very well done and I really enjoyed it. I'm not usually drawn to slice of life dramas, but this one was so well done and resonated so much with me that I was hooked by the first 5 minutes. Each episode is about an hour and 15 minutes long, but to me they sped past incredibly fast, so much that I needed to pause and take it all in instead of bingeing it rapidly like I normally do.
Highly recommend this one.

I forgot to mention, i don't know why but I had a really hard time taking Dai Yun Fan seriously, his character was supposed to be menacing and vile...but I just never felt scared of him, I don't know if it was just me or what? Maybe it was because he just appeared to be too young for the role? I might have felt more fear if he was bigger or older?

I put off watching this one despite really enjoying Lusi's other dramas because I'd been told it had a sad ending and I want to avoid bawling my eyes out if I have the heads up already...but then I was told that the ending was happy and I was like, is it really? So I gave in and watched it.

I have to say it's a really well done story, the ending is open to interpretation...it could be a sad ending or it could be a happy ending depending on what you make of it. It is never spelled out to the viewers and it's a confusing final episode, but I understand why the writer chose to go that route. If you don't like ambiguous endings, I'd skip this one...but for everyone else I'd highly recommend it.

I liked a lot of the characters who I didn't like in the beginning and several of them did surprise me dramatically on multiple incidents, some for the good, some for the bad, and some for the temporarily bad and then surprisingly also really did it for the good. It will make sense if you watch, I swear!

I really felt a lot of viewers misinterpreted Xuan Zhu as a character, I felt she was the most complex and realistic type...she wasn't one dimensional which a lot of people seemed to want her to be. They wanted her to be vain and selfish and that be her only motivation, and it's not, it is a LOT more complicated than that. You have a young girl who is ever in the shadow of her cousin, her cousin that has it all without even trying it seems...FL has the love from her parents that Xuan Zhu didn't get from her mother, FL has the love of the guy that Xuan Zhu fell for first and FL never even had to try to attract his attention...his eyes only saw her. Everything that Xuan Zhu wanted and even fought for, was never hers, while FL just existed and things fell in her lap....or so Xuan Zhu thought. During the course of the series, there is a lot of growth on XZ's part and I feel that her choice at the end was done for the right reasons, though there were still viewers calling her selfish and attention seeking, and I'm left wondering if those particular viewers are 12 years old or what?

I can't go too much into it or I'll spoil the whole show but I really enjoyed the acting of
Zheng Ye Cheng too, in this drama he was so polar opposite of some of his other roles but he was very believable. He was softer, sillier, more honest with feelings, just everything about this character was so different from his other roles and yet Zhen Ye Cheng made you believe he was an ancient immortal helplessly in love with a soul that he followed for a thousand years. You also at the same time absolutely believed he was a flamboyant flirty playboy of the worst type at the beginning of the series, this character also was very much not one dimensional. He has a secret and a reason for the way he acts along the way...but first you have to watch deeper in to the series to discover it all.

For a drama that has 30 episodes, it still managed to keep me connected and aching for more. I never got bored or felt it was repetitive for more than half an episode before we moved onto something new and bigger looming adventures. I felt this is what those 60 episode fantasy dramas could and should be like, cut it down to 30-35 episodes, get rid of the filler and concentrate on world building, character building, and real story telling. It gripped my heart and made me cry when I tried to describe important moments to someone else...if I'm not actively watching a show and I'm just remembering a character or a scene and I can still feel the emotions, then that marks it as a good drama in my heart.
I wish the ending had been a little more clear, so I'd give this a 9-9.5/10 but really other than the ending, it was a pretty dang good drama and I'll probably watch it again!

I'm watching it on youtube so I'm a few episodes behind you all, but I just finished episode 8 and I'm really loving the whole vibe of this series. <3 Their interactions are at times hilarious, then heartwarming, and seeing real sparks flying already...can't wait to keep going!

Right?!? And they kept calling her "Beauty" and I was like really? are you sure about that?
Same with another drama I just finished, they called the FL there "ugly lady" for 36 episodes and I was like how is she ugly?!?

He's in a support role, will he be the brother that just comes in for an episode and gets killed off early on? Or is the synopsis wrong and his brother is a villain. The trailer showed Ryan Cheng in a very HOT but villianesque looking outfit.

Ending C, includes the proposal scene from Ending A, and does a fake out of almost exactly the same as Ending B...but she's just fooling him and goes back to being her normal self thank goodness!!

Ending B in my opinion is the sad and worst version, as the consequences of the big witch battle has caused QiQi to lose her mind and revert back to a drooling idiot. ML still marries her and will take care of her forever, even though they can never be together as a real couple as she's now basically a grown woman body with the mind of a baby.
I have to give major credit to Hu Yi Xuan the actress for being able to do that so convincingly. It's tragic and made me bawl!!!

the first ending is A which makes the least sense. The brother is killed in the early part of the episode and yet somehow he steals FL from the bridal chamber on her wedding night leaving just a fan with a written message telling ML that he's "borrowed" QiQi and he'll return her at some unknown date.
This ending episode though does include a cute proposal scene after the final witch battle and before the wedding event.

I always forget which ending is which, so I'll watch them all in a few and then put the endings in a spoiler comment. I will do each ending in order, if you want to watch all 3 endings, don't read my spoiler comments. You have to search for the other endings on youtube under My Dear Destiny 36-A, 36-B, 36-C (the only one that comes up automatically is the A version)
Also the main difference between the 3 endings occurs in the final 7 minutes, so watch A and then skip ahead to in the 22 minute mark of B, ect.

There's a full version now on Youtube that puts all the episodes together into one video, it's 4 hours long, so take a break from time to time, but it's nice to have it all in one video.

Considering how old this drama is, it still held up against some of the more recent revamps of the series and I connected a lot with it. I was able to find it fully subbed on youtube under the name Startling By Each Step.

Just finished it. I had put this on the backburner for a long time because I saw clips of how the Emperor treated Tilan and I just didn't want her to fall in love with him after that...but if that's what is holding you back from watching this...I'd say the rest of the stories in the show make up for it. I still think the Emperor's beginning was super toxic and won't excuse his behavior, but it's a small part of the 48 episodes, so there's that.

as long as the ancient dramas are very historical in nature or present things in a negative daily life ie lots of corruption, lots of killings ect, then they don't have a problem with it. If however the historical drama is seen to be too rosy then they feel that their people will like that time better than the current era.

She passed away

Even after I was done watching I still had teary eyes and I was like...come on stop leaking ! I know it as a good show when the emotions are still there after the credits roll

How and when will we find the 3 special episode? Will they just randomly be dropped on the app or what?
Also, omg my poor heart...I cried for almost the entire 50 minutes of this finale

It's so repetitive, FL has a plot against her...escapes by wit and skin of teeth, rinse and repeat. By episode 10 I as bored and dropped it. Characters are just not as engaging as some of the other sweeping epics out there.

I just don't understand why they gave us half an episode of happy ending with our leads that felt more like filler/ fan service but failed to wrap up the plot with the gisaeng and the big confrontation between the princes?

Kind of confused why they did the ending the way they did, but other than that pretty happy with the series overall