Heather Branson

no no no, that show destroyed me! 😭😭😭

Ah yes, 38 episodes of sadness....sign me up!

They got Tang Xiao Tian playing a bad guy?!? Can't wait to hate his guts, his character, not him, of course :)

hopefully we'll get a synopsis soon

I really liked it, but it was much more fantasy than historical and I think that the second season was a bit confusing.

Oh my Emperor had an eventual happy ending, but her ending in their land was traumatic for me as well...I cried like a baby for a loooong time!

I really appreciated was that Shen Li was the hardened warrior from start to finish and she didn't become some fainting wimp that needs a man to complete her, rather the ML was the one that really needed her to give him an experience and a life beyond what he was created for. I love his softness and how they balance each other out.
I really enjoyed this series, one of the better ones out there in this genre.

I felt he looks a lot like Ryan Ding, especially in the eyebrows and eyes. Saw him in The Legend of Shen Li briefly as the young version of Mofang. Tian Ren in long hair and fantasy clothes, to me really resembled Ryan Ding in his role in The Romance of Tiger and Rose.

I watched that one :)

That does make it better!

For a drama called When a Snail Falls in Love, there sure wasn't much loving going on...it really is a slow burn. He falls for her quickly, she takes 3/4 of the series to figure things out. Lots of crimes going on, honestly the focus of the series was more on them being cops than it was on them being lovers. Good show, but it's not a romance one.

I've seen a few over the years where the SFL does give up peacefully and go her own way to search for her own happiness, but it's super rare.

Usually writers just find it easier to make them very one dimensional and have the SFL basically live and breathe only for the hope of winning the love of the ML, no matter whatever other good qualities she might have that could lead her to live an independent and fulfilling life as a single...no she HAS to have the man even if he's uninterested.

Also to answer your question of why do FL get to have platonic friendships with opposite gender and the audience understands, where as the ML hangs around a toxic scheming pos and gets crucified in the comment section, that's pretty obvious.
IF the SFL was written as a platonic friend who had no schemes and was generally just wanting the ML to be happy, then there would be no issues with him hanging out with her....but they never are written that way, there's a nefarious purpose for her to linger around him at all times.

There are two parts to answer here, the first part is why is the SML and SFL written differently.
The secondary male is written to appeal to the sensibilities and desires of the women in the audience, he is supposed to be everything a woman could want in a partner but he's also written so he's not unattainable. Generally SMLs are not CEO's or Princes ect, they are usually someone in a high position of status/wealth but not out of reach of the average female's imagination.
The secondary female character on the other hand is written to draw the wrath of the viewers. She's usually sly and wicked, using every means necessary to gain what she wants. There are two fold reasons for this as well, one is to show how a woman with power, intelligence, wealth, or sex appeal is evil, the other is to show how noble and amazing the ML is for resisting the advances of this "vixen" and staying true to his "pure and innocent" FL.
The 2nd reason the SML and SFL are written differently is not just to move the story along, but also because of gender biases in different cultures. Woman bad, Man good, in the most basic form. There's a LOT more to it than just that, but when you strip away everything that's the baseline.

The vibe of a SML chasing a FL vs a SFL chasing a ML are usually completely opposite. A SML will pursue with kindness, helpfulness, and generally doing good things in an attempt to get the attention of the FL.
A SFL on the other hand will do everything possible to destroy the relationship between the leads, usually by blaming the FL for things she hasn't done, sabotaging work, or drugging and setting the FL up to be r@ped and then saying FL is being unfaithful.
If a SML acted the way a SFL did, I would absolutely hate him too.

This one is still up, the other links have the video been deleted

He was sooooo hot in that one! omg! I've seen him a few other short format dramas, I swear he's got the market corned when it comes to the good ones.

I like to think that eventually Mai and Maquis Chang ride off into the sunset together, he's the only one that's worthy of her.
The emperor never learned that she had a personal code that she thought they both shared, and once he betrayed it, there was no going back for them. She may have given up the rage and hatred, but she'll never forgive him for the unnecessary deaths of so many of their brothers.
I don't think the betrayal by the ML made much sense, kind of came out of left field. He was a little incompetent, silly, stupidly jealous, but he wasn't that ruthless...saying that he'd kill all the concubines and the Empress in order to get Mai to stay by his side, killing so many of his fellow soldiers as some kind of compromise for a few years of peace...none of it made sense for his character to flip like that in the last few episodes.
Overall though, I'd say 95% of the drama is worth the watch. The FL in my opinion stayed true to who she was from start to finish and I really appreciated her badass nature that wasn't watered down like many strong women are in Cdramas .

It was pretty good and then it just fizzled out, the last 6 episodes felt like an obligation to finish the series rather than something I was looking forward to. Went from an 8 to a 6.5-7 for me. :/

That was such a good show, no angst, no fake drama...just easy peasy lovey dovey! I've already watched it twice and I'm tempted to start it again!