Dabosil

It did actually say her father was (though yes, the background is vague), but I think it more or less makes sense right now that most people think she's the offspring of a fallen family (fallen court official); she's an unrelated and innocent result of whatever her father did (that was probably untrue; he was probably plotted against idk, knowing the trajectory of dramas). That's fine and it's not senseless for them to have a prior engagement; but this sort of 'previous connection' trope is overused and doesn't actually bring anything to their current relationship; in fact it hinders the idea that they purely met and sparked a romance. (In the sense that oh, and look, they had an engagement previously)-it's not necessary at all, they're cool. They're fine. Why is there the need for some sort of engagement behind it all?

(But anyways, it seems like the ML said that it was random arranged engagement that was broke off)

Also, as we saw from the two most recent episodes, his engagement thing was broken off, so it's cool haha

It's because it's cliche-I'd rather just have them meet each other out of circumstance. it's seriously overused and some sort of connection doesn't actually strengthen their relationship; and it also bears a risk of undermining her current struggles (as an ex-brothel-worker)

Dear ADOS, please don't insert some untimely bad tropes with the whole 'had an engagement' thing-we don't need them to have some sort of connection before meeting; this sort of relationship of discovering each other from their own journeys is much more realistic and sensible. Please don't make her a long-lost princess or some random thing, please don't add jealous females, and I really hope the story quality keeps up.

Normally of course I want more people to watch dramas I love that I'm watching for it to be a big hit, but here I REALLY WANT more people to be watching this drama; it really sets a standard and no matter what dramas I like personally, this one has the cinematography, colour palette, beauty, and all-around plot that just works so well. As in-I love other dramas the other dramas may do better in certain areas but I think this visual feast of a drama just itself really shows how other dramas could improve/if you imagine them really trying to visually stimulate you; what are the bounds of set design or visual presentation?
This post is less about plot; but usually I may skip five seconds or so in slower scenes because there's nothing to miss, and here I can't even bear to or take my eyes away because of the visuals. Imagine all the Xianxia in glorious colours and material and that sort of feeling-like you're actually there. We can do so much better; don't just accept the current quality. This is a standard.

ohhh. WHAT??? I stared at both of them for so long and I couldn't tell at all! I swear the mouth was different-
My bad, my bad,
Also a hella unresponsible mother to encourage this whole charade lol.

Hahahah, yep-
maybe it should just be
'The Youngest Son'
for dramatic effect, but I guess that title could pass for slice-of-life as well, so idk hahah. We'll see!

ONE DAY, one day? Why-
This is from someone who didn't have to wait the full week either as I was a later catch-upper, if that's a thing.
All the reason to sleep early tonight, obviously.

About the same reaction for me-mostly I felt YWY as a villain wasn't a great actor and fell into some cliches. Some suspension of reality bits, and I think (cinematography, costume design) wins here. I also thought the whole joke about how it should be 'Who rules YongZhou' was actually pretty valid towards the end.
Also some clashing of genres from one part to the next, but overall mashed okay. It was a very fun watch, but didn't give me much insight.

eh..probs not. I think the mother-in-law and her are in the whole thing, and her husband's innocent (or it doesn't explain how they fake it all over lunch at home). But chilling to think the mother-in-law willingly let her son (who thinks he's in a perfectly loving relationship on both sides) be the sacrificial lamb for someone she's working with...? The mother probably has some sort of cool job that's related with undercover/government stuff, idk. If the son knows-I'm so confused, are they just acting it out in front of their daughter? Not to mention, she brought in a daughter in the world for her revenge plot?

Um.

First of all, I again applaud your effort in producing several paragraphs in answer. As to the credits, I have watched them and some of my points have to do with the credits in mind as well. Whether red, passion, blood, pricking, thorns-these are all very very common motifs regardless of inversion and I suppose it does have a win in not needing to be deeply deciphered; I think it's pretty easy to understand why there are roses and thorns. I think many things can represent those as well (you mentioned that the abstract is more present in more recent dramas, which are less decipherable, but I think in a sense it's a little overdramatic even for a drama and quite obvious). I think it's true there are more outright symbols and abstract inputs, and I don't dislike abstract inputs in general; I mean that in this case I think the specific example of roses and thorns have been used in about everything. For example, even in fmvs you see people put shots of inked roses or something like that, or water rushing and whatnot, and it's so common place (I guess with the credit's colouring and music as well) that it just feels a bit over the top or too in-your face, like over-showing and displaying to you. The episode 1 scene I actually didn't like so much for just pure logic. I can understand her dizziness and fright, as well slight bleeding, but dang, that blood was gushing. I'm not trying to go against these symbolisms so plainly, just that I think that it's common and doesn't need to be used so expressively and out there.

For example, a more subtle way to do the first episode scene is to have her hand still gripping the siderail tight with her dizziness and all, but not show the bleeding. To follow, a scene where all standing in front of the door go into the kindergarten as the man in question she has fear of gestures in a deep bow inside, and then show her calming herself down and so (because this is a rarer scene where we see her composed grown-up self get into a disarray, and we can see her coping mechanisms and ground it more in reality, or kinda sets a contrast). Then we see her remove her hand from the rail, but not directly, just see her arm moving, and then her fixing her hair and combing down her skirt or something like that (I think there'a a greta colour contrast in the scene as she's wearing all white, and as you say, red and white; very direct motifs). Then she gets back into her car, but maybe you hear the door slam shut (or if she's supposed to be an outwardly VERY composed person, she could smile at her daughter from the front seat and say like some random thing, or maybe nothing at all, just titbits). But as we see the traffic guy wave the baton and the cars moving onwards, a camera shot at the rail with blood. (Instead of the scene at the toilet). She can still be standing out of the kindergarten after say, bringing her daughter in through the door and turning around. I think that's a more subtle way which I think motifs are better used.

Sorry for the long reply, but thanks for all the points you bring up as well.

Edit: just looked at your bio and I'm an absolute fan of Inception too (my favourite movie) and Nolan's work in general. Woo!

I totally get that; I just mean that these meanings in itself are inherently overused and understandable; as in, not special. But thank you for explaining the symbolism behind the rose and thorns motif.

Ah tysm- I think the label for Sun's memory said 10 years ago, though. But thank you for the background info.

I think...everyone in this show needs therapy. But the Han patriarch also needs jail time and an indefinite sentence at least. Uh.
Yeah, psychological counseling. Always; parents messing up their kids and those kids messing up their kids again. Whew.
The drama level is so high; it would be nice if they toned it down for even some scenes for a balance; a hint of comedy, maybe.

If I didn't see Ra-el's childhood scenes, I would have sworn she was a psychopath; but she's internally very damaged (and logically, so is any revenge drama protagonist) to hold on to this and plan revenge for ten years.
For a little logic hole here: If ten years ago Sun helped Ra-el, and now she is 28, shouldn't she have been 18? But she looks like she's in middle school, so it should be about 15 at least.

Obviously if they all went to therapy the show wouldn't exist though.

SIDENOTE: there are also way too many slow scenes in the show-I mean slow pauses in between things, dragged out motions, etc.

I had the same question; the makeup team probably just forgot, eh. But a big blunder it is.

I agree. I think it's efficient though; it's all games and funnily all the characters aren't actually going after sex (except ML, maybe), but the control they have around other things FROM sex, so I didn't actually mind. It's a tool, so so far, no emotional attachments much.

Well I actually just watched the first episode; pretty dramatic lol.
Speaking of which, why do Korean dramas that cater to the 'glamour' always have dramatic motifs that are pretty common (e.g. I've seen the roses and rose petals stuff a lotttttt)

It seems interesting but I'm confused; isn't she targeting the wrong person (or is she just using him to target his married-into family)
To be fair the old man would be harder to trick; I suppose she's looking for the utter political and financial ruin of the family (and idk, jailtime maybe?)

Also all the character crying and loud dialogue got me so stressed in this episode lol. Will watch second to see but I hope it isn't just a random drama again about the assemblymen rich (messy politics, literal gang-styled torture and rich, fraudulent, and superficial relationships) without anything new to the table. I love revenge dramas but this also seems like a common theme among KDramas and I hope there's a little something in the sea of cliches.

As a light sidenote: Sun (guy that helped Ra-el as a kid) lives in such a 'common modern' type of home; not cozy and surrounding itself in blue-purple-gray tones. Might be the artistic direction, but man, after that speech about the book you better go find a brighter house; it's all doom and gloom and looks so un-live-in. The art behind him is really random. (just saying for laughs)

Wow, I didn't know the drama came out already, which is perfect timing while I'm waiting for other dramas tbh. The synopsis looked pretty interesting, but the rating seems disheartening, especially knowing how MDL is quite generous with its scoring system. Anyone leave light feedback?

Comment of the day

LMAO what is up with all the fast-paced walking from place to place in episode 9

(and speaking of which, how is this relevant to the plot, Chi and those people, slight drag in the last two episodes)

But really awesome, blew my expectations out of the water completely, wow. Didn't expect Tencent to bring up their game; this is a great drama to follow.