Hagrid

I am having profound sense of deja-vu watching this drama. I am usually keeping careful track of watched drama, so I thought this was a new drama, but I have barely just started and several scenes already evoked a strong sense of familiarity... either I have watched this drama in the past and forgot about it, or some other drama had very similar scenes. 😅

Welcome to C-dramas!

The traditional dress differs based on dynasty according to my knowledge - Han, Tang, Song, Ming dynasties all had a bit difference in clothing style so it's possible the drama you watched before was following a plot in different time period than this one. But I am not that well acquainted with Chinese history to recognize in which time period each drama takes place, so I am just enjoying the costumes without further knowledge whether they are historically correct, or just an artistic expression.

I am not sure what you mean with a fantasy element? Chinese drama with fantasy elements are called XianXia, it's a whole genre, in those you have usually human, demon and heavenly realms. Then there are WuXia, that are usually taking place in typical human realm, but heroes can have some special ability. Besides these two genres, I am not aware of any fantasy elements in Chinese drama, however there are some cultural differences - for example Chinese kung-fu has a theory of such advanced control over your body, you can master the skill of making your body lighter - so if you see a warrior flying in Chinese drama it's not considered a fantasy element, it's simply to demonstrate his kung-fu mastery. Also china has a huge folklore around souls of deceased, paying respects to the deceased several generations back, and this sometimes reflects in people in c-drama seeing or communicating with ghost, especially when they are avenged or in time of upcoming death, also not considered a fantasy element. Was this what you had in mind, or am I misunderstanding your question?

I haven't seen SZE in any drama yet, also know almost all Lusi dramas.

I thought they look similar in their way of acting very subtly, like almost not mooving a muscle, keeping a straight face, and still being able to express a wide range of emotions. I am even not sure myself why I thought of Lusi watching SZE, funny how percenptions differ. 😄

I am now in episode 12 and getting slightly bored by lack of some crucial plotline. It feels like the characters are sort of just running around and interacting and the love-hate ended way too soon, turning Wei Shao into lovesick puppy all of a sudden. I will stick around for few more episodes in case it gets better.

Was it a happy ending, or just an open one? When they meet again in the last scene, the scene looks all dreamy, like they are only meeting in her imagination and he's still unconscious - I don't remember there being a cherry tree in a sand anywhere in the drama? Was it even a real place?

Please someone help me undestand the ending - more in spoiler-sealed comment below.

Same, I thought I already got to recognise one chineese from another, and then this drama ruines my confidence 😆

I am just beginning this drama, but FL gives me major Zhao Lusi vibes, both in voice intonation and facial expressions. 😱 I am looking forward to the rest of this drama.

Hello love! 😍 You know I couldn't even remember, if I finished this? I had to check the last episode to find out. 😆 The ending is according to your best likings, go ahead. ❤️And let me know how you liked it, if you decide to watch.

Oh I totally meant bossy. She perfectly turned a big bad President into her personal bellboy, dressed him in pink deer pyjamas, and when she learned who he was she didn't look embarrased one bit and immediately made him their dinner buddy, without giving any room for objections... If that's not bossy I don't know what is... 😄

Ji Xings mother is one of the best parent side characters I have seen. She's bossy, sweet, funny, but also empathetic and caring. I am so enjoying her being in the drama.

🤣🤣🤣

Sadly, I agree. The harassment scene was totally unnecessary. Only a hint would suffice, as you told, but I think even without the harassment all together the emperor character was twisted and crazy enough already and the harassment scene haven't change anything for his character perception.

So it was totally unnecessary for the whole plot, only there for I don't know what purpose, it didn't make any sense, didn’t change anything in how all characters behaved, wasn’t mentioned further in the plot… 🤷

And the ending was also interesting. I was happy the main couple got to run with each other, but it was very anticlimactic. I expected to see some epilogue where they have settled, what happened to second couple, what happened with the empire… But no, we only got two running figures in the dark and emperor having a stroke or what… 😅

So someone poisons water in FL bowl, other contestants use her bowl before her and end up with injured faces. What follows up can’t be described in other words than utterly stupid.

FL is immediately accused of committing the crime - what the hell? The poison was in her own bowl and she didn’t have any means to poison it? Anyways, she is forced to face fathers of those injured contestants, who wants her death for committing this crime. No proves secured, no investigation done. Pretty harsh punishment for few scarred faces, given there's no evidence against her... 🙄

FL states her case and pleads not guilty, on which account she is asked to determine the culprit and present an evidence, otherwise those poor officials will have no other choice, then to punish her… What the actual hell? So you are telling me, there is no investigation burrow, that would examine the case, nobody bothers to secure any evidence and nobody is obviously able to present any common sense, but the FL who is the least unlikely suspect must provide evidence and even point out the culprit to safe herself? 🥴

Oh but wait, the absurdity doesn’t end here. Upon seeing she is going to be punished because she can’t provide evidence, she tries to run with help of her brother/lover (didn’t really paid attention who he was, and what the hell was he even doing there?), on which account the brother is accused of attempted assassination and sentenced to death - what the…?! He literally just grabbed FLs hand and run, where’s the assassination? 😵😵

To this FL reacts in absolutely unique way by pleading guilty… Ehhh… okay, how does her pleading guilty help his case? 🤐

We still aren’t finishing yet… The maid of the late concubine appears, repeats the FL is not guilty and commits suicide to bear the punishment in her stead… 😳😳

And that's about the moment I was done for. This drama doesn’t deserve any further attention, because if the directior/screenwriter allowed a stupidity of such scale, I don't believe the rest of the drama can be any better... 🤷‍♀️

PS: have I mentioned ML didn't make any appearance in the plot, or he was so insignificant I didn't notice him at all? Several weak and uninteresting men made an appearance, none of which seemed to be the ML and I was just confused why are they even in the plot instead of the ML...

The hell is this? Why are characters in this drama so unreasonable and don’t make any sense? I wasn’t much impressed with the first two episodes, but most Chinese dramas have a slow start, so I just continued, waiting for the plot to start. But what did me for good was the „trial“ in third episode… I will describe this utterly frustrating scene in the spoiler below:

Oh, I didn't, is it worth it? Holy moly, it has 50 episodes? What the actual... 😂😂😂😂

Oh please don't call him 2ML, he was barely a human much less a leading character... 😂 One hell of a crazy creep, I haven't seen character this crazy in a drama for a long while.

But he was still a well scripted character, slowly falling from harmless weirdo into a tyrant, once given the power. He actually reminded me of Scott Peck book People of the Lie, where he polemics about the roots of evil in people and describes his theory, that people that are normally harmless and maybe little foolish can turn into true tyrants if they are given power over other humans.

Taking someone's disapproval of your favorite drama as a personal offence, huh? Tastes differs, just because you loved the drama doesn't mean everybody has to love everything about it. Do not detract from the actual facts, that however much we love something, everything has it's strong and weak sides and everybody is allowed to express their observations about both the former and the letter. If you have different opinion, politely join the discussion, instead of just leaking emotions all over the place.

And if I was supposed to be that "one other person" you are referring to, since only my comment starts with a polite "you are not wrong", you evidently can't even read. I absolutely loved the drama and given it full 10, and if you bothered to read my comment past the first sentence, you would know it.

But she didn't really target him did she? She was suspecting him, yes, but she was also meticulously searching for proofs and she hasn't done anything malicious towards him, nor did she wrong him in any way – how is that targeting him?

And I sort of understand she was suspecting him. As a child she believed he cut his losses with her and was growing up to only rely on herself with the conviction he abandoned her. When he found her years later and suddenly wanted to renew the marriage contract, despite explaining things to her, they didn't really spend much time getting know each other again. How would she overcome years of growing up convinced about something and learned to trust him again in just those few weeks before they got married? How would she know he hasn’t change since they were kids?

I like this assessment of yours, I didn’t think about it this way before, because Chinese dramas are usually overflowing with shallow characters, so it comes as a surprise, when there are more strong characters besides the lead couple.

But I would like to add, despite LLTG indeed being lacking in deep characters, especially among female population, it still broke one very important and annoying stereotype, that being a supporting emperor. Most dramas, including BIA have this stereotype of an unjust despotic emperor who commands nonsense just because he can and by his side is usually a resentful bitter scheming empress, both of them trying hard to ruin the country and the lead couple. LLTG broke this stereotype in every turn and sense and that was actually so refreshing, it outweighed the annoying parade of hateful ladies. BIA has an opposite problem. It has many strong wonderful ladies, but lacks strong charismatic men.

Only in ep. 12, but how does ML not stand for the FL? Up to my understanding, he was already suspecting the emperor is plotting against him and therefore can't be trusted, despite showing friendly face. Therefore, he took over the security bureau to appease the emperor and lay low until he finds out what is the emperor up to, and as leader of this institute, he has to follow emperor’s orders, therefore seize the Hua family property and exile them.

That doesn't mean he didn't stand for FL thou, from that moment onwards he's literary on her heels protecting her on every turn, his only red flag is, he doesn't confess his identity. But how is he spineless otherwise?

And since the emperor has some hidden agenda, I suspect he had reason why he needed to get rid of the Hua family, otherwise I will also be very disappointed, if it shows up later the emperor really just exiled them on a whim.

Or is it just I am not far enough and ML will betray FL later?