Amarina

Short and full of OTT drama but highly watchable without any major plot holes that I saw. Hope to see Li Pei En in more things in the future because he was amazing in this show.

I'm in the camp that he's not dead. People just don't pay attention to details. BUT, even if "you" think he's dead I still wouldn't consider it a bad ending necessarily. In fact, less so for Nan Chu than say Milan and Miaomiao with Yu's death because she has stated multiple times that she is fully aware of the risks and knows that if she does get that call she CAN survive alone and happy.

Honestly, I don't think he's dead based on the fact that the scene before the dance had Lin showing up "last" with Yang, who was clearing sitting in the dance audience, already there before-hand along with Yu and Dangang.

So then why would there be an empty seat for such an important performance and why was everyone sad? Well they were emotional because the dance was supposed to BE emotional. It was a tribute to their firefighting, especially, it looked like the forest fire that they had all fought viciously. Of course it's emotional, some of them probably saw people die during the fire, sacrificing their life trying to stop it from spreading. Look back and there were definitely scenes of firefighters catching on fire head to toe while others could only continue to fight the fire as their uniform was in tatters from burns.

Lin meanwhile, the head of that station, he can't just take leave whenever he wants now that he has dedicated himself to it. He has given himself a mission so while he is there with Nan Chu in spirit, he can't actually come to her performance. (If anything it's u realialistic that as many of them as DID attend would have been able to attend but that's not what the scriptwriter/director was trying to convey I don't think so it gets a pass).

Honestly though, even if the whole thing were to say that nope, he did actually die and just forget the scene before the dance as meaningless, it wouldn't matter. The entire story has stated from basically the beginning that they are aware of the risks and Nan Chu is capable of living her life without his physical presence.

To the end I stand by my rating of a 10/10.

I was initially interested in SWK but seeing all the comments around "filial piety" and such being a huge factor Idk if I have the emotional capacity for Fireworks In My Heart 2.0 mommy issues.

I was considering Alliance or maybe even switching things up a bit and going non-romance main plot with the new Truth of Scent or and older one like The Ferryman or The Bureau of Transformers 🤯😵‍💫🤯

I know that feeling all too well 😭 Every time I manage to cross a show off my CW list it feels like one more pops up there and three more (at least) on PTW

If you set your expectations right then it absolutely won't. While this is 100% a romance I would honestly categorize it as romance secondary to the everyday lives of the firefighters with Lin and Nan Chu's romance as the "highlight" of the story but not the main focus if that makes sense. That being said, there is a LOT of romance between the two of them including kisses and implied other things lol.

I'm pretty sure it was. It's probably going to be a combination of his intense guilt over Yu vs his friend amd then seeing Milan and MiaoMiao at the funeral and knowing that he has a wife and son roughly around her age that's going to put the final nail in the coffin so to speak is my guess.

Here I was all prepared for relationship drama and a possible break-up because of the fire/paparazzi and instead they spring THIS on us instead. Way to focus on what we might be really interested in with the previews. Guess the question now is... stronger through it together or will this be the straw to drive them apart?

I think it's going to be Dagong. He's not going to be able to handle the mixture of seeing the family torn apart and daughter fatherless knowing it was "his" fault while ALSO having a wife and son around the same age is my guess.

me too but somehow it still shocked me that it was today

Yeah I definitely caught that in the end It wasn't just about being a firefighter. I have a feeling if he'd never joined they would have divorced years ago because their issues would have had time to be present and in their face day to day.
As for the saving up, it didn't really make sense to me either but there were lines thrown out here and there about how he only ever took days off to see them and that he saved his normal scheduled ones up. Probably it was just hand wavy writers stuff but I'd assume they get a day or maybe 1 1/2 day a week off and he made an arrangement to take those days all in a single row at one time so he'd save them for a month or two.

You know that's at the core what I took from the conversation. That even if he had never joined the firefighters and moved away, that by seeing how other people interact with their spouses who have issues but who don't divorce and by seeing Nan Chu interact with Lin, that she realized that they would have still divorced, it probably just would have been sooner since they would have been in the same house all the time and the issues would have been more readily apparent.

He ended up at that station because during episode 1 he was on a trip and at the epicenter of the earthquake. Since he was a structural engineer he offered his expertise to the firefighters to help them dig through the rubble to save people. Then, in either episode 2 or 3's opening scene it showed Lin coming to his and Milan's house afterwards and offering him a job as a firefighter with their team.

What I personally just didn't ever understand was why in all those years she and the daughter didn't visit HIM more like we see in those last episodes. I get that she didn't want to move because of family I assume, but to take advantage of his short breaks why did he have to save up so long because of the tacking on of the travel days.

🤣 it's a typo - they probably meant "enigmatic" as in "mysterious" or difficult to interpret the meaning of.

I've watched all three and in terms of strictly the firefighter daily work and stress aspect it's by far the best by a long shot.

I've honestly thought that a couple times... like with the hikers shouldn't 1 truck for 3 people be enough? Or take a smaller truck even since it's not a fire?

So there was a specific reason for why Yu's family lives so far away. His entire family and his wife's family live there in the city with his wife. He was traveling at the time to the area of the earthquake and then after the earthquake was recruited specifically by Lin for their team. So in their case it does make sense. If you notice as the show goes along they don't portray any of the other families AS stressed as his family is. Lei Dagang for instance regularly talks about is family in a MUCH less stressed out manner and there's a flashback scene later on where Lin talks about running out lunch to the firehouse for his dad as a kid.

I get why you don't like him but I do understand him as a character. Both he and Lin went through hell during the earthquake and it changed them based on their individual experiences. They were both being shaped by the first scene with the school saving the boys (and others) due to having someone with knowledge of structural engineering, his gadgets, and well-placed teamwork.

Then, I don't know if you were paying close enough attention during episode one but before the failed kid rescue there was an accident that showed several firefighters getting injured (36 hour mark). The next scene was the failed kid rescue (38 hr mark). Then at 42 hr mark I'm pretty sure it was Lou who was the one that woke up in the hospital tent in the micro-scene directly between when Lin couldn't save the kid and when it was raining and everyone was taking a break and Lin's mentor was introduced and came to talk to him and give everyone a peptalk.

After the earthquake Lin stayed on the Frontline and continued his duties and was able to, for the most part, work through his trauma while Lou decided he wanted to find ways to prevent accidents and so took his trauma, tried to pretend it didn't exist, and left to study abroad.

So basically, the way I see it, Lou has let his fear of people getting hurt hamper his ability to utilize the teamwork aspect because he is instead using the technology as a crutch. He's not wrong in wanting to help them get better skills, it's just that he left the front lines directly after the earthquake and hasn't been back since.

Ep 23's opening scene was so good. Yang getting to read one last box of "complaints and suggestions" before he transfers out 😢

🤣 To be fair... in FOMH he plays a firefighter who runs into his ex ten years after she dumped him and went abroad. This is the same woman he still secretly loves and obsesses over and who's family caused him to be expelled from the military rather than receiving a medal after being wounded in combat. They are "complicated" so he scowls a lot the first half of the show. 🤣