DefyingDestiny

But this is episode 20 and he has only managed to overturn 1 of 5 charges😅 and Chui Chui is dumb af and in a secret "romance" with the villain 😅😅 and the are still so many episodes to go, so he might not be "THE VILLIAN" 😅😅😅
I'm definitely not going to watch this episode to episode; I don't like stress😄; I'll be back next week

I'm caught up. Started yesterday and I'm caught up already.
I'm enjoying binging so I'm going to wait for atleast 5 episodes to watch to build up to continue.😁

This is like a much better plotted "In Blossom".

Yep. There were alot of things that rubbed me the wrong way about this drama. None of the characters reacted realistically but that was what made this clichéd drama "unique" however it makes me unsatisfied with the story.
She didn't call him after having his child and he didn't call her after finishing the programme for 6years even though neither one of them changed numbers or "stopped loving each other" 🙄!
Yiyao and Siyu are still going back and forth after an ulmost one night stand 6 years later.
Gao Erfan took over the company and ousted their family and he and the father had zero bad blood or resolution with Lu Yue's death over them.
Ting stayed single and pointles till Fang Ning came back🤷
I supposedly enjoyed this but 🤦 there's just too much foolishness.

Finished my rewatch! Upped my rating from an 8 to an 8.5.

I got to understand the royal family drama better this time around and I still love Changge and Sun and Hao Du and Leyan.

For a final arc, they did justice to the Ashile Tribe drama: they gave the villain and storyline depth and relevance.

I still can't stand Mimi and her drama just makes me: 🤨🙄😒😐😑; so I still ended up skipping quite a bit of the final arc.

All in all, I had a great time rewatching The Long Ballad

I take it back: Mimi! 😐

Two "because the screenwriter wanted it" deaths in The Long Ballad, that actually make sense storywise and make you cry. Story of Kunning Palace and The Double can't relate😅

It's a fun watch but you might end up skipping alot because of the length and somewhat complicated political plotline; so it's easy to lose the plot.
If you want something similar but easier to follow: Blossoms in Adversity; or Story of Kunning Palace.
They are interesting but straightforward stories. They are highly rated and give you a good understanding of the genre.
But I hope you stick with "The Long Ballad", it's a lovely drama.

When I first watched this, after I finished I became a fan of Hao Du and Leyan cp and I absolutely devoured their fan edits on YT but I just started rewatching and I've remembered just how much I loved Chang Ge and Ashile Sun's cp.

The Long Ballad rewatch party.... Let's go!!!

Marrying cousins was pretty common and would only be frowned upon but still not forbidden, if they lived together like she and Jiang Jing Rui

What was Qi Yu's expectations? That she would cut ties with her father? Would he also cut ties with his parents? Never take up responsibility or debts for them as she never takes up responsibility or inheritance from her father?
She started living off her salary and her only ask was not to live in a small apartment outside the city while she had a house inside the city!
If one of his parents fell sick and needed money, would he let them die while she kept her "father's money" untouched?
He was very weird and disappointing.

He loved Su Tian as a puppy love but developed romantic feelings for Min Hui as "Su Tian". That is: attraction to her physically and intellectually as an adult. He wanted to love his childhood "Su Tian" and Min Hui made it easy. Whether he would have developed romantic feelings for the real Su Tian and whether he would have fallen for Min Hui without first believing she was his childhood puppy love will never be known.
That was why they needed time to get to know each other again and why it was difficult to stabilise the relationship even though they still were attracted to each other and had a child.

1. Hao Du and Li Le Yan from The Long Ballad
2. Ah Reum and Eun Tak from Dr. Romantic 2
3. Kim Pil Sook and Jason from Dream High
4. Cha Hyun and Seol Ji Hwan from Search: WWW
5. Ha I Chan and Yun Cheong A from Twinkling Watermelon
6. Sui An and Wei Lei in My Girl (2020)

All of these have full story arc lovestories happening just outside but entangled with the main plot. This is my list of best 2nd lead couples. ; include RJ and ZFG

A good side couple should be able to live out their full lovestory with minimal time that either feeds the main couples plot, improves the vibe of the main couples plot or at the very least does not detract from the main couples plot.
Rao Jing and Zhao Fang Gang enjoyed all the positives of being a side couple: straightforward relationship, sweet cp moments, stable and easy to resolve plots and conflicts; that improved the vibe of the show and provided sweet tension for the final office drama arc.
Qi Yu and Ling Wei Yi suffered all the negatives: complicated start, no time to resolve their drama, and serving as negative contrast to the main couple, to highlight how nice a couple they are in comparison.

Rao Jing and Zhao Fang Gang might be my favourite 2nd lead couple ever (I'll think about it).

When she kept saying the speed dating had failed because she met an old school mate and he was there like: You really can't see me right? I'm utterly invisible to you?

With TYH, I think she thought more of her connections than everybody else. They considered it a very useful resource but she considered it the most essential basic resource. She believed that JYH would marry her for it and RJ would mentor her for it. She felt TXN should be ostracised for her lack of connections. She failed to see her self worth within herself and similarly couldn't recognise other's worth without "status".
It's the way rich people casually bully each other and poor people. Like that one scene Fang Xiao overhead her talk about a party and asked to attend with her she said only important people will be there.

It's insane to have dated for so long and never thought about her inheritance. She's the only child of a wealthy man; was her father supposed to give everything to charity? The way she bent immediately to live on her salary showed that she had thought about his financial situation and I was surprised to find she was the matured one.

Whatever they were looking at at the end I hope it was not each other because that would be a complete waste of their lives. I thank the director for not showing us anymore either way 😅

21. Hidden Love
22. When I Fly Towards You
23. My Sunshine
24. A Journey to Love
25. All I want for Love is You
26. King2Hearts
27. Another Ms. Oh
28. My Love From the Stars
29. Flower of Evil
30. See you in my 19th Life
31. The Producers
32. Itaewon Class
33. Personal Taste
34. The Last Immortal
35. Cinderella and her four knights
36. Healer
37. Playful Kiss
38. Handsome Siblings
39. Back From The Brink
40. You're Beautiful

Most of these fl chases but a few are unrequited love till ml notices after he falls too.

Its hilarious to me that him on the other hand shamelessly recommended himself on that basis.

I'm the last to blame wealth inequality for infidelity because people will cheat in poverty and wealth but to let someone slum it with you for your ego, is wild to me.
Why can't you have the best of both worlds? Take the two places? Live in wealth on even months and poverty on odd months! He just wouldn't bend at all! Even if he met his parents dream DIL he would have still stressed her.
I swear I couldn't believe the father would be fine with an entry level police and the drama was him and his parents refusing anything from her own life.

This is not the drama to have this opinion.