This thing is still really bad in my opinion. Writers had no idea what they were doing.
The problem was not the parallel worlds and it's funny to read people talking like they understood and others didn't because they had an open mind. If you think the problem critics had with it was the parallel worlds I'm not sure you understood this show despite watching it.
There was another sci-fi component to this drama and that was the source of most of the problems.
For anyone still on the fence: if you can use your imagination to explain away loose end after loose end then you'll have no issue with this show. If you believe it's the job of the writers to tell a compelling story and not leave dozens of loose ends then I'd recommend against it.
The basis of the story is complex. The writers and director were not up to the task of taking the themes of this show and making a compelling story. Period.
This is a tough one for me. It's going in circles by episode 12.
The male lead hasn't grown at all. He's still hot-cold and has no idea what he wants to do besides avoiding returning to the capital. The female lead has regressed. She started as a character with a clear goal in mind. Now she's like the male lead with the hot-cold. She constantly keeps secrets for reasons I don't understand. Why not tell him some of this stuff so you don't get caught in a lie?
The credits do have me slightly optimistic there will be character growth but so far I haven't seen any (and yes, that includes the ridiculous Rocky-like montage of the female lead training and learning polo with her classmates).
Can anyone explain to me why ML is forcing FL to be his concubine? I mean, the back story (political stuff involved?)
The emperor had no kids.
He adopted the male lead and his older brother as his heirs because they were his closest relatives. Older brother died.
The emperor finally had biological children after this happened. His biological kid becomes the heir (Crown Prince). The emperor sends away the male lead but keeps his mother in the palace.
The male lead's mother wants him to return and marry the Shen(?) family daughter. The Shen's are a powerful clan and that would bring them better under control of the emperor.
The male lead does not want to return because he was cast aside by the emperor as soon as the emperor had kids. Chances are when the Crown Prince becomes emperor he will try to kill off any rivals (like the male lead). He wants to avoid marrying the Shen family's daughter.
The Shen family is powerful and traditional. Tradition means a man must marry his wife first and then eventually 'marry' concubines.
The Shen family son does not like the male lead and does not want his sister or family-relative marrying the male lead. He tries to set up the male lead and female lead to be caught together. This would be a scandal that might lead to the Shen family calling off the marriage or the male lead proposing marriage to the female lead and that announcement would cause the Shen family to break off the marriage talks.
Now the male lead's friend Ziyan sees the night spent alone as an opportunity. He coerces or convinces the male lead into marrying the female lead as a concubine. The hope is that the Shen family will see this and the marriage will be cancelled. The Shen family is traditional and believes you should marry an official wife first and then marry concubines after an acceptable period of time.
The male lead marries the female lead and does not have to return to the capital city and palace. For now he has avoided being dragged into the politics, the power struggles for the throne.
Well first, I want to say that I see no problem with an old actress playing a younger role, it didn't even last…
The age thing was ridiculous in those first few episodes where she's "coming of age" but at best the actress looks like she's in her 30s. I really enjoyed the first say 20-30 episodes but the back half left a lot to be desired.
I agree, everyone was so mopey in this drama especially the female lead. In the first bit of the drama you see her coming out of her shell but then she immediately goes back into when she's in the capital. It's character regression and not development.
I wanted to discourage such association in the article but of course because my own 'detox' was around that particular…
Yeah I get what you mean. Some things can be good or bad for different people but I think labelling something as broad as an entire media of a region or even individual country is unfair. If you don't enjoy it, you don't enjoy it. If it's something that causes self consciousness or alienation that's understandable but I don't think labelling it toxic is fair. Toxic for your circumstances? Sure.
I'm not a fan of labelling things in such a binary 'toxic' and 'not toxic' frame of mind. If you can't see the damaging tropes in non-Western media and the massive corporate interests behind it more power to you but framing it as "western media bad, Asian media good" is simplistic, unhelpful and naive.
I don't really have a diet. Sometimes I'm in the mood for action, romance and I'll watch that but I guess if I had a favorite it would be historical drama/TV.
When she discovers who her master/teacher used to be... things get really dumb, really fast for the female lead.
I mean damn. At best the organization was involved in massacring innocent civilians. At best. Prince An coerced Liu Ru Yi into providing the materials to blow up the mountain. Ok fine, she was coerced. But she worked with Prince Cheng and corrupt officials for years. We're supposed to pretend nobody was hurt or killed as part of those deals? And after her 'I'm an idiot and my organization kills innocent people' moment Liu Ru Yi writes in multiple last testament letters "Fu Rong, you don't have to keep Ruyi Pavilion running".
And what's the take away for the female lead? "My husband is lying to me. The accounting books are lying to me. Everyone and everything I have seen is lying to me. My master is good. Ruyi Pavilion is good. I have to keep it running." What??
It's really too bad the male lead doesn't end up with the whiny Princess. At least she's not trying to get people killed in exchange for money like Ruyi Pavilion. Seriously. The way they gloss over this is absurd. A few Ruyi Pavilion members save Prince Su at the end of the show and all is forgiven... it's absurd. And then Prince Su becomes an idiot and decides to pressure the Emperor into forgiving Ruyi Pavilion. And I get it will be dismantled and turned into a ministry in the empire but still. What good was done at any point by them to justify not executing/jailing them all or disbanding them?
I understand the leads were in another drama together but I forget the details so I don't want to compare. I just feel like things kind of fell apart towards the end. If you can ignore Ruyi Pavilion being evil then you'll probably really like this. I just don't remember them doing anything 'good' or having a specific purpose that would make them useful to have exist. They traded secrets for money and that got people killed. That's it. That's the organization. There's a reason the female lead was kept out by her master. It's dirty work, evil work.
The female lead's character didn't match her actions with Ruyi Pavilion. She's not a ruthless achiever so I didn't understand her obsession. And Ruyi Pavilion should have been explained more. Maybe they did have some goals that weren't purely money for secrets/murder but it sure didn't seem like that. An 'innocent' female lead and a ruthless profiteering organization is not a convincing combination.
What’s wrong with casting a “half white chick”? There’s nothing wrong with that. Mai divika did a great…
We all see the point you're trying to make. You were bullied for being mixed race and now random people are terrible and supposedly hate black people for not feeling the exact same way as you.
I get there's an order that people have listed out here but super confusing and a ton of episodes. I liked some of the characters but I started watching out of order and I think I'll give up.
Not really a fan of the male lead character. It's not an actor thing but the character itself and how it is written/portrayed. Otherwise so far so good.
Edit: Yeah, the clash of styles is too much and the male lead looks out of place in the group so I'm done.
8 episodes, 22 minutes makes this something watchable for me. A bit raunchy/sexual so if you don't like that, I wouldn't watch.
And like a lot of Japanese TV often times the characters and scenes feel disconnected, disjointed and jarring which makes it hard to get as invested as you might get for characters in other shows from other regions.
That being said it was interesting and a different take on the whole 'body swap' situation.
Honestly, I like it. I love Nana and the fact they portray an elderly parent with dementia is huge. I've experienced something similar and it's heartbreaking to watch your loved one ask the same question every few minutes in a conversation and get basic things about your life wrong because they don't remember the last several years at minimum.
Sure there's no greater overarching plot yet and it's not a typical romantic comedy. I think it falls closer to a slice of life and it does a really good job at least a couple episodes in.
I liked the female lead, she pulled off pretending to be a man better than most. It was a short simple story for the most part. Nothing too dramatic. I enjoyed it. Unlike others, I wasn't a fan of the second male lead, too mopey and clingy. The drama isn't great but it was an easy watch for me.
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1 
The problem was not the parallel worlds and it's funny to read people talking like they understood and others didn't because they had an open mind. If you think the problem critics had with it was the parallel worlds I'm not sure you understood this show despite watching it.
There was another sci-fi component to this drama and that was the source of most of the problems.
For anyone still on the fence: if you can use your imagination to explain away loose end after loose end then you'll have no issue with this show. If you believe it's the job of the writers to tell a compelling story and not leave dozens of loose ends then I'd recommend against it.
The basis of the story is complex. The writers and director were not up to the task of taking the themes of this show and making a compelling story. Period.
The male lead hasn't grown at all. He's still hot-cold and has no idea what he wants to do besides avoiding returning to the capital.
The female lead has regressed. She started as a character with a clear goal in mind. Now she's like the male lead with the hot-cold. She constantly keeps secrets for reasons I don't understand. Why not tell him some of this stuff so you don't get caught in a lie?
The credits do have me slightly optimistic there will be character growth but so far I haven't seen any (and yes, that includes the ridiculous Rocky-like montage of the female lead training and learning polo with her classmates).
He adopted the male lead and his older brother as his heirs because they were his closest relatives. Older brother died.
The emperor finally had biological children after this happened. His biological kid becomes the heir (Crown Prince). The emperor sends away the male lead but keeps his mother in the palace.
The male lead's mother wants him to return and marry the Shen(?) family daughter. The Shen's are a powerful clan and that would bring them better under control of the emperor.
The male lead does not want to return because he was cast aside by the emperor as soon as the emperor had kids. Chances are when the Crown Prince becomes emperor he will try to kill off any rivals (like the male lead). He wants to avoid marrying the Shen family's daughter.
The Shen family is powerful and traditional. Tradition means a man must marry his wife first and then eventually 'marry' concubines.
The Shen family son does not like the male lead and does not want his sister or family-relative marrying the male lead. He tries to set up the male lead and female lead to be caught together. This would be a scandal that might lead to the Shen family calling off the marriage or the male lead proposing marriage to the female lead and that announcement would cause the Shen family to break off the marriage talks.
Now the male lead's friend Ziyan sees the night spent alone as an opportunity. He coerces or convinces the male lead into marrying the female lead as a concubine. The hope is that the Shen family will see this and the marriage will be cancelled. The Shen family is traditional and believes you should marry an official wife first and then marry concubines after an acceptable period of time.
The male lead marries the female lead and does not have to return to the capital city and palace. For now he has avoided being dragged into the politics, the power struggles for the throne.
I agree, everyone was so mopey in this drama especially the female lead. In the first bit of the drama you see her coming out of her shell but then she immediately goes back into when she's in the capital. It's character regression and not development.
I ended up giving up at episode 46.
I just thought the first half was much, much better than the second half. It's a good historical show and I would recommend it.
I don't really have a diet. Sometimes I'm in the mood for action, romance and I'll watch that but I guess if I had a favorite it would be historical drama/TV.
Cast was good. First half of the show was good.
I mean damn. At best the organization was involved in massacring innocent civilians. At best. Prince An coerced Liu Ru Yi into providing the materials to blow up the mountain. Ok fine, she was coerced. But she worked with Prince Cheng and corrupt officials for years. We're supposed to pretend nobody was hurt or killed as part of those deals? And after her 'I'm an idiot and my organization kills innocent people' moment Liu Ru Yi writes in multiple last testament letters "Fu Rong, you don't have to keep Ruyi Pavilion running".
And what's the take away for the female lead? "My husband is lying to me. The accounting books are lying to me. Everyone and everything I have seen is lying to me. My master is good. Ruyi Pavilion is good. I have to keep it running." What??
It's really too bad the male lead doesn't end up with the whiny Princess. At least she's not trying to get people killed in exchange for money like Ruyi Pavilion. Seriously. The way they gloss over this is absurd. A few Ruyi Pavilion members save Prince Su at the end of the show and all is forgiven... it's absurd. And then Prince Su becomes an idiot and decides to pressure the Emperor into forgiving Ruyi Pavilion. And I get it will be dismantled and turned into a ministry in the empire but still. What good was done at any point by them to justify not executing/jailing them all or disbanding them?
I understand the leads were in another drama together but I forget the details so I don't want to compare. I just feel like things kind of fell apart towards the end. If you can ignore Ruyi Pavilion being evil then you'll probably really like this. I just don't remember them doing anything 'good' or having a specific purpose that would make them useful to have exist. They traded secrets for money and that got people killed. That's it. That's the organization. There's a reason the female lead was kept out by her master. It's dirty work, evil work.
The female lead's character didn't match her actions with Ruyi Pavilion. She's not a ruthless achiever so I didn't understand her obsession. And Ruyi Pavilion should have been explained more. Maybe they did have some goals that weren't purely money for secrets/murder but it sure didn't seem like that. An 'innocent' female lead and a ruthless profiteering organization is not a convincing combination.
Got it.
Edit: Yeah, the clash of styles is too much and the male lead looks out of place in the group so I'm done.
And like a lot of Japanese TV often times the characters and scenes feel disconnected, disjointed and jarring which makes it hard to get as invested as you might get for characters in other shows from other regions.
That being said it was interesting and a different take on the whole 'body swap' situation.
Sure there's no greater overarching plot yet and it's not a typical romantic comedy. I think it falls closer to a slice of life and it does a really good job at least a couple episodes in.