Jae

The points you mentioned are not the way I interpreted the actions and to me is a far fetched conclusion. But that's how it is with two different minds and perspectives.

Agree to disagree. We have two different interpretations for the same result. We both agree about the result being horrible but the process of our thoughts are vastly different. You can choose to believe all fruits are the same because in the end they are fruits so factors don't matter to you. While I agree they are all fruits but to me all fruits are not the same.

That is still not an apple to apples comparison. You're using more of an orange to apple comparison just cause they are both fruits. Although what occurred was wrong in the novel, the intent is fully different than Maxwells. SM was giving back what is given to her, a sick twisted form of karma, yes. However, the girl in question did know something was about to go down/ was partaking in the downfall of SM so she wasn't fully innocent. Though I agree no girl deserves for that to happen to them. Now put a different aspect of what would have occurred. If she didn't have someone in place of her, she would likely have been hunted down that very night without escape. You honestly think that sleazebag would just go " oh the girl isn't here? oh well let me go home" Especially when the entire temple was in on it. Because of what happened, the aunt wasn't in any mindset to continue hurting SM for the time being. She was focused on going home asap for her daughter.

However in Maxwell's case. the victims all are innocent and targeted without rhyme of reason other than satisfying the sadistic old men. Maxell wasn't giving back what is given to her. She is actively seeking, assisting and instigating horrible things to people that have no relation and have done no harm. She is helping those sleazebags that do harm. Both are not great actions but they don't have the same intent and reason. This making one all the more worse. They cannot be comparable.

Comparing her to sounding like Maxwell's mentor is not an apples to apples comparison though.

lol I personally liked the FL's vicious nature when I read the book though not to the the extent that they have to or should transfer every little detail from the book into the movie (like the R scene in the temple). I don't forsee them doing a 1 to 1 comparison simply cause of censorship. As cruel as the scene was, I hope they keep that plot point for the sake of the story flow. That or they manage to reinvent the scene while keeping the core storyline moving. I simply want the storyline, characters personality, strength and intellect to remain there.

Now with adaptations, there's always going to be people that are upset. One cannot satisfy them all that's the reality of it... Unfortunately. Although not my dream cast, I'm not bothered enough to hate on this cause of it. I am aware of the casts acting abilities. However with the storyline and direction... That's a separate issue. I expect changes since no novel can be perfectly adapted to visual media without it. Cause while reading is a telling source, a good visual media is showing not telling. For those reasons alone I'm more than fine with showing more of the ml or any other character to add visual context that otherwise won't be easily portrayed if the focus was only on the female. I'm sure most people are fine with that. If that is what you mean by neutral then okay. But I think what people would have issues with is if the FL was starting to take a back seat in all her actions to allow the ML to shine more (male centric). I wouldn't mind seeing the ML more honestly. I always welcome the sight of MLs. Especially their interactions with the FL but not at the expense of lessening the bada** character of the FL and the display of intellect she has. I can only hope but I doubt it 😅 I normally settle with as long as the characters personality isn't completely butchered and the FL isn't completely useless.

Definitely not the casting choice I preferred. Would be lying to say I wasn't mildly disappointed/dramatically devastated at the results... Well then again I wasn't delulu enough to believe my dream casting would happen to begin with LOL.

That isn't going to stop me from watching the drama. I don't particularly hate the casting choice anyways. Tho I can only hope they keep the plotline "female centric" and don't mess up the storyline. I can expect a work around to avoid the "rebirth" aspect of the novel but if they make too many changes they might as well not call it an adaptation and make this an original work in my opinion.

Hey! Nicholas Tse is 45 years old! Where did the extra 7 years come from!? Tho yes, he still looks very fine!

Though in a serious note, how did you manage to add this movie to your complete list? It won't let me do that.

I mean quite a valid take! While I was watching the drama I couldn't help but feel a bit bad for the 2nd ML he is a textbook good guy. But honestly after the ML showed up I also couldn't help but think to the 2nd ml " you really had it coming for you for doing absolutely nothing." Though the fun part is in these instances this drama's ML is the 2nd ML we see in most dramas. The one where people always say they have 2nd male lead syndrome over for being there for the FL. There is a reason people get 2nd lead syndrome in those type of dramas and prefer the 2nd male lead over the ML. This drama is essentially what happens when the ML no longer got plot armer and a FL that knows her own worth going for a guy that actually puts in the effort LOL

I am not interested in any relationships at all but to me this falls under a grey area. I personally am on the boat of tell someone your feeling rather than never over this greater cause or fear of rejection. Now what I do after is entirely on how worthy the person is to me, who they are as a person and if there are plans to interact with that person in the future. I would honestly go about my day as usual after free from any what ifs cause I don't like to assume it would have ended poorly or good. Also am assuming said person is honest enough to tell me they have a lingering unrequited love then they are honest enough to tell me when they actually like me back. This is also under the assumption a person I like is worthy of my love to begin with. Similar to how they have the time to sort out their feelings and come to like me back in this ideal scenario because it's their own choice. I also equally have the time to move on and no longer love said person between the time of me confessing and them liking me back. It's all just timing to me at the end of the day.

Well to be fair every friendship dynamic could be different. I once did a mini and definitely not scientific social experiment with my friend at that time during my HS days. We held hands walking from our shared class to the next one before separating for a week. This was because this one girl we didn't know was rumored to to be a lesbian just cause she was seen holding hands with another girl. Which to us is not quite something that we felt was a big deal to be rumored about and we question why it was even a rumor to start with. Result ended no stares of sorts when we stopped. Our mutual guy classmate who told us the original rumor stated our situation was "different' from the girls. According to him " no one is batting an eye at you guys because you both are Asian so you just look like best friends" this had us both side eyeing him. Tangent aside, it does show everyone's standard of "normal" is warped and all just perspective.

Yeah... Especially since the other adaptations from the author did fairly well. This being the most popular novel and taking the longest to adapt. The struggle is real for this drama

Oh man she would have been a solid pick 😂 she did cross my mind at one point too for the role. Alas... I can only pray the drama ends up well plotwise with whatever casting

I mean they will probably age the entire cast up like they always do for all the dramas but I do hope for a more youthful FL... Though I worry mostly if they change the story to be more ml centric

Sadly I don't know if I would like it to be male centric even though he is my dream casting lol. I really liked the ruthless nature of Shen Miao. I wouldn't mind seeing more of the ML but I would want the drama to be still focused on the FL and how clever she is. Though knowing the Chinese censorship they will rewrite the story a lot... But I do hope they make positive changes where the FL can still shine.

Lol he is one of my wishful thinking casting for ml too 😂 but I don't have high hopes for the overall casting. The problems with reading the novel first is that I have this built up expectation that I know will inevitably be crushed. Moments I wish I didn't read the novel years ago so I am able to enjoy it like the double and female general.

LOL I knew that ending was going to be questionable so I didn't start the drama when it first aired and waited to confirm if I was right 😂

LOL that is so real. I was skipping his scenes earlier then remembering I should let it run and use the time he's on the screen to continue gridding my cross stitch

Honestly I'd be extremely shocked if we got a sad ending. Most of the time you can kind of foresee if you're going to get a sad or happy type of ending based on who are the main leads and the vibe of the storyline/drama.

The open ending that leans on happy are the ones that piss me off though. Like I don't wanna waste my time watching a drama to have a vague " oh they are maybe going to get together but you don't get to see it cause we like to let you interpret it".... Like if I wanna imagine that stuff then I can come up with my own story instead of wasting 20+ hours of my time

Well honestly... different strokes for different folks. This clearly wasn't ever going to be the type of drama you would like to begin with. It's nice you even gave it a try and great you confirmed you didn't like it.
Though to put everyone who would like this drama under the same bubble is quite an extreme take and a large assumption. But it is an opinion so it is what it is.

Are they not the same character? The guy from Hidden Love and here are the same character in the novel I've heard. Also it appears a lot of her novels take place in the same universe... meaning characters from the other novels will have some form of appearances in other novels.