JJJ

Yes! Yetan is still passionate about wanting to learn and be educated. Youqin is in love but he remains alert/careful in front of his father because he knows his father is lowkey out to get him and he has to make sure Yetan's identity doesn't get exposed.

From the novel spoilers I have read under bilibili videos, YT couldn't trust YQ to fight the world for her. There was one scene where she stabbed him too apparently. She was proven wrong when YQ sacrificed himself to protect YT and revive QK. YT apparently didn't find this out until later on. QK and CF got their happy ending. Hence the title of this drama: 星落凝成糖

星落 = star falls = YQ falls/dies
凝成糖 = become sugar = 2nd CP got their happy ending

But apparently the author released an epilogue chapter recently and it was happy ending for YQ and YT too.

And at this point, the drama has changed several things already from the novel so can't really rely on the novel anymore to know the drama ending.

In my feels so I just want to write an appreciation post for Youqin and Yetan. I love them as a CP but I adore them as individual characters so much.

Youqin: For once, there is a normal male character in C-drama land. Youqin is someone who is sincere and kind and not just the typical cold male main lead. His character setting is supposed to be cold/unfeeling but he managed to give his character depth with the way he was hesitate with others touching him and not knowing the best words to say after being isolated for so long. At the same time, he is respectful to everyone. Even with the arranged marriage, his kindness shined through with not wanting to marry as he knows his partner would be a widow soon. Even the way he rescued Yetan in their first meeting was very respectful VS dramas usually using these rescue moment scenes to force romance by having the ML and FL hug/touch/accidentally kiss right away. In the beginning, he might be flabbergasted by Yetan's very existence and get miffed, but he would always reflect on himself if maybe he went too far with his annoyance. He would take the punishments meant for Yetan because at the end of the day, he knows Yetan didn't want to be in this position either as his marriage partner so he tried his best to make it up to her in anyway possible. He is a thoughtful character that put the world and his family before himself and hid away his own fear because he was not only raised to be a hero but he was also born one in terms of his personality and temperament. Another great thing about Youqin that C-netizens have been praising him for that I also agree with, he got a mouth LOL. Meaning instead of letting misunderstandings build up, he went to Yetan right after pretending to forget whatever happened in the human realm to explain why he did what he did and that he loves her. It is just so nice to see a male lead character who has such depth and is straightforward with his affection. HE is someone who actual men should strive to be like.

Yetan: Underneath her mischievousness lies her desire to be accepted, tons of love to give, desire for knowledge, and open-mindedness. I am so happy LLD played this role because I think Yetan is a character that many actresses could had accidentally played into the typical FL trope of "tomboy who is disrespectful to everyone for the greater good". Her mischievousness were never to show "oh she is so different from other female characters so that makes her so special". Her mischievousness had reason and logic. For example, she ate the cow to steal the pass to go meet Qing Kui. And despite her childhood, Yetan stayed strong enough to not let her past twisted her into someone resentful when she had all the rights to. She was able to see Qing Kui not as the enemy/rival in their father's affection but a sister who loves her. This is something very hard to do because it takes a lot of vulnerability/strength to be able to accept your sister was loved more but you can also love that same sister because that sister wasn't at fault. Because of the discrimination Yetan faced since she was young, she became someone who is able to look past others' surface levels. She didn't want to marry Youqin but could acknowledge that he is a good person who cared about the world more than his own self. She is fierce in her love for those she cares about like Qing Kui but is also willing to apology when Man Man scolded her for not being more sensitive about Qing Kui's heartbreak.

Both are characters that continue to grow not just as individuals but as partners together. They found not only love in each other but someone who can actually see who they are underneath it all. I just love slow burn romances like theirs because they didn't /change/ because of each other, both characters were already good people, but they /influenced/ each other to be even better, to be more open, to love, and to live outside of people's expectations for them. 💕

No problem! 🤗

Yes! CXX and LLD in an interview mentioned that a lot of the funny moments in the beginning of the drama that seems out of nowhere are actually double meaning/important and ties into moments later in the drama. There are no coincidences.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Yup! ZXC also has a drama right now too so it was an attempt of one stone on two birds 💀 Anytime a drama with a CP starts getting popular, dating rumors follow to break up drama CP to make them lose popularity. Just sad that irl dating even has an impact on CPs in dramas just because of the shipping culture in C-ent.

I won't be surprised if it is both. Both to get people talking and to push his own artists. It is so common now in C-entertainment. You got all these investors/producers/directors with their own people in these dramas and everyone trying to make sure their own people get more or stand out just a bit more.

Definitely! CXX's acting in GMP was amazing and people have been hoping he did get another good drama but unfortunately those dramas usually aren't up to par with the cinematography of GMP so even if the plot/acting is decent, people would keep on comparing him to his role in GMP. Even when TSL first started, people were making comments about his voice and how he looked. I am glad his acting came through and it is a good script overall. Same with LLD. I need more of these artists who actually trained in acting to get more of these main character gigs.

🙏 But then these streaming platforms love drumming up controversies for clicks so they might not even care as long as people keep talking about the drama in some ways and get it to trending. At least all the actresses/actors in this drama got some extra boost in terms of attention = potential access to better and better scripts/opportunities.

I don't mind the 2nd CP at all and understand they are important part of the story with YT and QK being twin sisters/twins flowers. However, it is definitely a low blow if the producer is trying to cut more obvious romantic scenes from the main CP to push his own artists. Because at the end of the day, these CPs are done by the time the drama is done, most of the hype don't transfer to the actual actors/actresses themselves long-term so there really is no point in doing things like this when all it does is make viewers upset and hurt the watching experience. And we know these moments are being cut because we have seen these clips already so it is not like they can even say they never filmed those scenes to begin with. People are complaining already on Weibo and Bilibili so let's see if this stops.

Some interesting analysis from bilibili user about the 3 shards:
https://www.bilibili.com/video/BV1yN411F7nJ/

La Mu: His shard was protected in the tree and represented the child/fear/innocence that Youqin "cut" off when he was younger. This means in a way, Yetan already met and "saved" La Mu when she was the one who said it was okay to be scared even before the shards went to human realm. Another hint was when the "small Youqin" first appeared, it didn't want to hurt Youqin and Yetan, same as La Mu who didn't want to hurt others. His baseline kindness came from Youqin but part of his strength came from Yetan who "saved" him back in the heaven realm. In a way, this makes La Mu extra special because he was the shard that existed for hundreds of years already even before Yetan arrived but he was also the shard that Yetan saved back in the heaven realm and again in the human realm.

Mei You Qing: His first scene showed him picking up a coin from poop water. Is it just because he is that greedy for money? Remember the scene where Youqin basically traded her food for all those treasures, Yetan accidentally spit on him with rice on the same location where MYQ wiped the poop water on lol. How is this related? Youqin is someone who is sensitive to people touching him/likes being clean, but at that moment, he didn't yell at Yetan and that gave birth to the feeling of "Fine, this is fine, Yetan spit out rice on me but that's fine". This adds to MYQ being someone who doesn't mind being "dirty" due that single interaction with Yetan. Another moment that also added to MYQ's existence was the scene where Youqin didn't have money to buy the bone flute Yetan wanted in their first meeting. Basically the thought of "I need to have money to buy the things my partner wants".

Wenren: The original thought is that he is the Youqin who got influenced by that fruit and just copied whatever Yetan said to Youqin at the time ("You have a nice face" and "I can't wait"). However! The main point was that Yetan said those words to Youqin BEFORE Youqin got affected by the fruit. He was clear-headed at the time so he was already feeling things with thoughts like "Oh she thinks I look nice" which he then "cut" off. So in a way, Wenren is the shard that clear-headed Youqin birthed because he was already feeling something then for Yetan and the things she was saying to him.

I love the main CP so if it is true that the producer is again pulling strings to push his own artists, I hope he stops. I hate when producers/directors/script writers get involved like this to push their own agenda. There was another drama I watched where the 2nd ML is an artist under the producer's company and the script writer really liked the actor so they kept on adding in scenes for him and ended up cutting scenes from the main CP which affected the flow of the drama. C-ent in general pushes CP shipping so if the reason is to somehow make the 2nd CP more popular, it is just going to turn people more off from them. Netizens are also not stupid so they see what is happening. There has been side CPs like Hao Du x Li Leyan (The Long Ballad) that got REALLY popular but their CP scenes didn't take away from the main CP scenes. Main CP and second CP can co-exist but people behind the scene need to stop getting involved when it leads to scene deletion and narrative changes just to push whoever they want to push.