CKDramaddicts

Yes, exactly this!!

Yes, the crown prince is the second prince, but he is the first son of the first wife, so I think he has a more prestigious status. But I've only heard people call him second brother or "di zhang zhu" (di zhang = eldest son of the first wife, zhu = master/lord). Edit: I did hear him being called "da ge" which just means older brother and not necessarily eldest brother.

Really enjoying this drama so far -- so refreshing to have such a wonderful cast of women exercising their agency as much as possible in impossible circumstances and being so supportive of each other, instead of stereotypically catty and annoying or playing backstabbing games of jealousy (well, except for the adopted/god sister, who is more a petulant, immature child than a scheming competitor). So far a delightful and funny slice of life costume drama that takes a rather heavy subject (forced marriages, etc) and infuses it with heart and warmth. Hopefully it doesn't derail half or 3/4 of the way. 😅😜😬

That's fair! But I get where you are coming from -- I am a sucker for angst as well, so I would feel disatisfied if I felt that the emotions being portrayed in the aftermath did not match the level of grief expected.

Yu Shuxin dubbed her own voice... but she kind of talks like that in real life too. But I do agree, she becomes more tolerable as the story continues, and even though the drama could have been infinitely better with a different FL, DFQC and the story arc alone is still absolutely worth it. I almost did not get past the first episode, but so glad I stuck it out.

I actually found the dream emotional and heartbreaking because he essentially was so devastated by her death that he put himself in a dream state to create a life with her because he could not cope with reality, and he was willing to maintain that delusion/dream, even if it was draining his life force, since it would be better than living without her. I wouldn't really characterize it as a suicide dream, since he just wanted to live out the life he never had with her. Not sure he was really aware of the fact that maintaining that dream state was killing him, or if he was, it was a sacrifice he was willing to make. But once that illusion was shattered, he couldnt deceive himself anymore, so he came back to reality.

Taecyeon is quite unsettling with the way he melded both the goofy teddy bear persona with the unhinged psychopath. Maybe he is playing to stereotype and tropes somewhat, and is exagerated, but I still found his portrayal effectively disturbing. I really was not expecting him to play the villain, but the cast details above made me suspicious from Ep. 1. Even then, however, I did not expect him to be that scary.

I normally prefer shows where there are clearcut protagonists, but I'm about half way through this drama and quite enjoying it. Still, it's hard to say I "love" it because the main characters are varying degrees of anti-heros...but as the father said, you need monsters to win against monsters.

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone comment about OK Taecyeon's performance, which I found fascinating, given I've only seen him play the ML in Save Me and Bring It On, Ghost. (More thoughts below under the spoiler tag.) I'm also impressed by Yang Kyungwon, who has played radically different supporting characters in every drama I've seen him in (Crash Landing, Big Mouth). (Edit: Adding Kwak Dongyeon, who started off at a bland character and really started to stand out in the back half.)

It's also interesting reading people's reviews/reaction/feelings about the comedic elements and comments about how it doesn't "mix" with the drama and themes. One of the things I love about K-dramas is actually how you often can't pigeon-hole them into one or two genres as they are frequently a wonderful blend of everything -- kind of like real life, there can be laughter and humour even amid tragedy (even if Vincenzo is pretty over the top).

Thanks everyone! ❤️

(and the swaps do not drag for too long either if that is a concern)

In case anyone is interested in the voice actor for Dongfang Qingcang, Wang Baoshun, I wrote a post about him for non-Chinese speakers, based on an interview he did. https://www.solarina.ca/dramaddicts/dramaddicts-blog/2022/10/24/wang-baoshun-the-voice-behind-dongfang-qingcang

Pretty sure it's another actress with the same name, as I didn't see her in the drama, and the Baidu entry for this drama does not link the actress "Zhao Wei" to Baidu's profile for Vicki. I've submitted an edit to MDL to remove her name from this cast list.

For those who love the theme song, the singer (Faye) just performed it as a duet on Singing with Legends (S4 E4): https://youtu.be/-ieuxFMV7eE

No, it's his voice. This drama is not dubbed. There may be some scenes with some dubbing, but those would be dubbed by the actors themselves. My understanding is that Dylan's accent has also soften over time. (Baidu will usually list the name of the voice actor alongside the cast names, for dramas that are dubbed by someone else.)

This summed up my feelings exactly! This drama was so ridiculous, filled with dog's blood clichés, some corny dialogue -- and how in the world am I supposed to look past all those really terrible consent issues??!! AND YET.

This was the most ridiculous over-the-top thing ever from start to finish! (They could do a drinking game with the number of times someone threaten to kill someone, lol.) And YET. The OTP had pretty serious chemistry and I could not stop watching. 🫣 It's a really easy binge.

At the same time, there were soooo many consent issues, so I think those tags need to be upvoted so potential viewers are aware. This is also the first C-drama I can think of where they went that far with the main FL in ep. 25/26, which seemed very unnecessary. It feels too serious of an issue to be handled like another plot "device" just to make the storytelling melodramatic...

I struggle with how to rate this one...

if you like the FL, you might like Decreed by Fate. A pretty entertaining short drama.

Yeah, it doesn't say, so just updating the total every few new episodes!

Ooooh, this makes sense too!

Either 1/ the "other" (glasses) one was the surviving personality and he was faking it, only pretending to be the serious one in order to be with the FL, and those were his real memories flashing as the serious one tried to break out, or 2/ the reverse was happening, where the glasses personality was trying to break through. Definitely one of the better modern short dramas I've seen, despite the ambiguous ending.