DefyingDestiny

I only realised the director worked on both projects after typing these😅. I was more focused on the other director and the screenwriter and WXY that had followed each other on multiple works.
Go Princess Go is a gem but was so chaotic; I'm glad he collaborated with directors that helped him refine his style. I hope to see more of his works being this effective.

The shows have nothing to do with each other is the point. How you came to the conclusion that Duke Su is written to poke fun at LBY is surprising.
No serious director would "parody" another show with a serious show. That would be self career assassination. None of the directors or screenwriters worked on LLTG. Other shows one of the screenwriter and director did with the same archetype: Scent of Time with WXY. Another show that has the artistic, lighthearted storytelling even with a serious theme: Go Princess Go.
They aren’t attempting to "double" LLTG in any way, they are doing their own thing.
Being a general, drinking tea, having two guards, liking to torture: are not character traits, they are setting traits of era and station.
By the end of Story Of Minglan, she was leading her private army with two guards and drinking tea; in The Princess Royal its the same thing; are you going to say it's the reverse gender of LBY?


Summary: You can't see a different character and story tone and storyline and call it a parody. That's not what that word means.

These are my specific grievances with Who Rules the world and Immortal Samsara- the privileged noble children fighting wars to show which of them deserve to lead.
Finish the show thinking "I don't like any of you!"

If she is the unrepentant angry child, then they can continue living in their bubble but everytime she shows that she has changed their consciences and defenses go up

Oh I get you there. Its stupid of them but my thoughts on it was that because she was supposed to be hot tempered when she was younger, they were all wishing she stayed the same so their abandonment of her would be justified and for the villains so she would easily fall into their traps. No one wanted to face reality because then they'd have problems!

He might be a POS but Shen Yu Rong organised a pretty decent funeral for Fang Fei😅. That one dancer or whatever was top notch and that was an expensive looking coffin too😜

LLTG's Ling Bu Yi is closer to Xie Wei from SOKP than Duke Su. LBY is angry and living with a hidden identity and manipulating the government and emperor to achieve his goals exactly the same with Xie Wei; their only difference is Xie Wei is a civil officer and LBY is in military. Duke Su doesn't have a hidden identity, didn't lose his clan and isn't keeping secrets from the Emperor and his mental health is exceedingly stable unlike those two.

The "tea torture" scene in LLTG is not even a "torture scene" its extrajudicial punishment and tea is the 2nd or 3rd most drank liquid after water and wine.
The characters in LLTG and TD are so different; The similarities lie in being set in the same era and you can draw the line of similarities across: The Story of Ming Lan, Story of Kunning Palace, Scent of Time, The Princess Royal, The Long Ballad, Blossoms in Adversity, In Blossom etc

If Jiang Li wasn't motherless and defamed, had survived and gotten back to the Jiang house then she and Shao Shang may have had similar trajectories but that wasn't the case.
I suppose the similarities is more in the male leads archetype: general with two guards, very friendly with the emperor. But this archetype appears in: Story of Kunning Palace, Blossoms in Adversity and Scent of Time. It's just a recent gimmick used to express the emotions of the male lead while keeping him cool 😎.

They had thrown her to a "temple" with no education and systematic bullying for 10 years. It wouldn't have been unexpected if she came back illiterate and infantile at best as they hoped she would just die there.

The male leads of Malicious Empress and Di Daughter novels are very similar actually so it's not a surprise you can see him as the character

My favourite Xinxia:
*Love between fairy and demon
*Back from the brink
*Blue Whisper.
These 3 have high production value and the love stories really do it for me.

Then we have:
*The legend of Shen Li
*Legend of Fei
*The Last Immortal
They are also really good but I don't rate them as highly since the love stories don't reach the top for me but Shen Li and and Fei have great fight scenes and TLI has Zhao Lusi😁.
There's also
*The Legends
It's a great watch but the editing and production value is in the basement.

For Wuxia:
*The Story of Ming Lan: is arguably the best show but its 73 episodes, so prepare to be useless for sometime😅. But fair warning even though it has a gripping story it is a slow paced show.

Other top dramas with high production and great story and love story:
*The Story of Kunning Palace
*Scent of Time
*Blossoms in Adversity

*Story of Yanxi Palace
*The Rebel Princess
-are classics but they aren't any of my personal favourites even though they are genuinely good shows.

*The romance of Tiger and Rose
*Royal Rumours
- they have somewhat poor production value but are great and entertaining shows and my personal favourites.

Then finally, there is "Go Princess Go": a terribly messy production but has the same dramatic and theatrical style of The Double and the storyline, under alot of foolishness, is pretty solid. If you need something watchable in between better shows for contrast or hate watching, this is a good option 😁😅.

Good luck and happy watching

There are not alot of similarities storywise between LLTG and TD. Their similarities lie in them both being really good shows as per production value and story; strong female leads; the male leads have similar motivations and are both generals but they have different styles. The female leads are strong characters but in different ways and that also impacts the pattern of the lovestories.
LLTG is not as dramatic as The Double, so it might feel slow in comparison but it is alot of fun and the pacing isn't actually slow; and the character development and journey of the female lead is heartwarming and inspiring.

7 days to rewatch 73 episodes.
Rating remains 10/10

I'm finally done😭🙂😁😊😍🤗
It took me a little while to watch the final arc because the tension was still so tense I couldn't just binge it😂.

I finally got a new enlightened view of the father: he was a concubine son that was oppressed growing up, he didn't really have grand ambition to lead the family but when the other sons died and Grand Madam Sheng adopted him, he became the head of the family. His attitude is to avoid troubles and go with the flow because that is who he always wanted to be and is. Concubine Lin may cause trouble, Big Madam Sheng may quarrel and thunder, but as long as he looks away it doesn't have to be his business and so he looks away. All he wanted was for everything to go smoothly and enjoy the love of the mistress he chose for himself. He lacks the courage or desire to fight for more, so he'll be diligent at work and won't join factions, and at home he'll enforce don't rock the boat policies. Concubine Lin understood this and used it to her advantage, Grand Madam Sheng understood this and avoided forcing him to clean up his harem, Big Madam Sheng could never understand this and was constantly the only one that was "in the wrong"... Ming Lan understood this and forced him to see that their boat was now bigger than the waves, so they could afford to throw away the "bad loads".
I was able to finally empathise with him: Growing old and taking on responsibilities simply because you are there can be daunting, he found solace in Concubine Lin only to find that he had reintroduced destruction into his house by marrying her and "protecting" her from the rules and discipline.

The Gu Ting Ye- Ming Lan romance still does it for me. He wanted desperately to be the one to shield her and make her stand proud and he achieved that. He had hoped or may be imagined she would enjoy the wealth and honor of the marquis house and cause as much scandal as he did when he was young and he would go around defending her. However, for the love and honour he gave her, Ming Lan felt indebted and returned the care by rehabilitating his image and building the prestige of their home. She worked hard and lived a strict life out of gratitude and that in turn made him feel guilt like he had further burdened her.
I enjoyed this conflict; it's a perfect plot to show that even happily married, in-tune couples have issues: it doesn't have to be anything negative but people of different minds looking at the same situation will react differently.
I absolutely loved the final story conflict and its twist. All the deaths, redemption and forgiveness to the relevant characters were perfect and satisfying.

Good bye once again The Story of Ming Lan. Until the next rewatch.

Now to rewatch The Double.

So I'm rewatching Story of Ming Lan and there's a mirror scene with The Double. Ji Shuran trying to bad mouth Jiang Li at the dinner party (Ep25) and everyone keeps making excuses for JL and no longer taking the bait to hate on her. In Story of Ming Lan, at the polo match (ep 55), Gu Madam tries to throw dirt on Ming Lan and the people keep defending ML and advising Gu Madam to take a chill pill 😅😂.
These stepmothers are used to slandering defenseless children but now the babies are all grown up and making their own names. When the reputation is good the slander doesn't stick as easy.

Wow! I didn't know I could hate this man more but thanks for this: the idea that he had to kill her because she was sullied! Yep that'll do it

*coughs*🙈🙊

He's one of the best portrayed worst characters you'll ever see. He'll frustrate and anger you till the very end but you'll enjoy it 😅😂

Yeah it was crazy. It was particularly sad that her maternal family also cut off ties with her. But it was more like open lies: everyone knows motherless children under a stepmother is defenseless and basically waiting for death. No one will fight for truth or justice since cutting her off will bring peace all around.
The Ye's could have come back for her or checked on her from time to time but since Jiang Li claimed to love her new stepmother they couldn't pry her away and since their inferiority complex was pricked they also didn't want to. After all their daughter was dead and this snobbish grand daughter wouldn't bring her back.
Jiang father didn't love his 1st wife and was happy to be hid of her even though he didn't hate her. Now her daughter was a spare without a place: if she really had developed hate for the stepmother it was rational, so it was right to send her away. If she was set up, that means peace has been broken "somewhere" and he didn't care to figure out where as peace would be restored if she was sent away all the same.
Sending her away freed everyone's minds and hurt no one. In her absence her name was dragged through the mud and to justify her abandonment everyone would have to turn their disappointment or shame into anger and hate.
What she did was not a big deal but who she was :unprotected, uncared for and unwanted DI daughter, was a big deal.

😅😅🤣😆😆🤣this is hilarious