L13

Don't want to pit two queens against each other etc etc, but Dilraba pulls off her youthful character more convincingly than Yang Mi, who definitely looks her age in Eternal Love, even when she's supposed to be an adolescent fox spirit or whatever it is. Dilraba looks like she could be anywhere between 20 and 30 to me, at least with the styling and lighting she gets in The Long Ballad, so I've never once thought her pairing with Leo Wu looks weird.

Liu Yu Ning has a bigger age gap with Zhao Lu Si, yet no one seems bothered by it, which is yet more proof there's usually some misogyny at play in complaints like this.

I actually think there's a lot of misogyny at play whenever people say they don't like the face or acting style of a famous female actress, which Dilraba also gets a lot. Leo Wu is much more wooden than her, yet everyone is praising his performance for some reason. (The reason being that they want to fuck him and don't like seeing women succeed.) But that's a whole other conversation...

Esom only had a couple of scenes in the first episode, but she stole them! I can already tell she'll turn what could otherwise be a typical gritty prosecutor role into a lively and distinctive character. Just one thing, though: I can't wait for her and Lee Jehoon's characters to meet and interact with each other!

It's really weird to hear of the popularity of the second couple among Chinese viewers when the second couple has barely interacted. So far, Hao Du has had more charged interactions with Changge than with Leyan and doesn't seem to care about LY at all. I'm sure that will change and am looking forward to the development of their relationship, but there's simply no good reason to care so much about it at this point IMO.

I have the opposite reaction in that I really like that Sun found out Changge is a woman early on. I am really tired of how historical dramas execute the crossdressing trope; the ML always treats the FL like a woman and has reactions to her that he doesn’t have to any other man (e.g. she brings out his ~protective instincts~ even though he’s mean to everyone else), yet he doesn’t realise what she is, even when it’s completely obvious. That’s not even queerbaiting as much as it is a way to lean into annoying gender stereotypes with plausible deniability because see, the FL is “not like other girls,” trust us! She's INTERESTING and SELF-SUFFICIENT because she can pass as a MAN, i.e. a strong character! Never mind that her ankles break more easily than wet cardboard and she can't stand in the rain and needs the ML to blow on her booboos. This dynamic is dumb on so many levels and I’m glad we’ve avoided it here. I think Sun's feelings toward Changge--respect and interest while he thought she was a guy and growing fascination after he found out the truth--are pretty realistic. (Although Changge successfully passing as a man to everyone else is still laughable to me, especially after she got shot in the chest for the tenth time and was bandaged by a doctor while she was unconscious.)

Leyan is a good person, so I feel kinda bad for finding her boring, but she really isn't particularly arresting as a character at this point. Hao Du by contrast is intense and moody, with lots of potential for angst, so there's a mismatch between them. It feels like his love interest should be a little more remarkable. Not necessarily the same type of character as Changge, but like... she should be doing something?

I watched the MV everyone is citing as evidence that the drama is headed for a sad ending, but the moment when Sun gets suplexed through a table and shot in the chest doesn't seem like a death scene to me. Changge isn't even looking at him when he falls and she only turns around when she realises he's hurt. If he were to die for real, it wouldn't be so random and quick IMO; it would be a huge production with lots of self-sacrificial bullshit and meaningful eye contact. As for the fact he coughs up blood, well, how many times did the ML in Love and Redemption cough up blood? Probably 30+, and he survived until the end! We've already seen Sun, Changge and that good-for-nothing Wei Shuyu recover within days after sustaining injuries that should have killed them, so I'm not too worried.

I get the feeling the kiss in the forest with the stupid parrots will be the final scene of the drama. Hope I’m right!

Anyway, Hao Du hot and sexy...

Wei Shuyu is so fucking useless! I want to slap him whenever he's on the screen.

She knows what happened to her family? And she didn't create any trouble by stealing the seal, which she sees as her father's, that she wasn't already in.

It's true that she wasn't aware of the undercurrents of political intrigue swirling under her nose in the palace, or the tension between her father and her uncle specifically, but I don't think anything she's done since going on the run has been particularly stupid. Reckless and self-destructive, sure, maybe, given her mental state, but she hasn't made any huge mistakes IMO.

I'm loving this drama. It's super melodramatic and high-stakes from the get-go; there's no time wasted setting up the story or ramping up the dramatic tension. It makes me wonder how much crazier things can even get from here on.

Darren Chen kind of reminds me of a younger Wallace Huo (c. the Perfect Couple era) in this, though WH's character there was both stupider and more charismatic than DC's.

I'm on episode 25 and I'm losing my mind at how the drama is trying to get me to sympathise with Yi Qian??? Bitch gaslit an amnesiac into thinking he was in love with her when he had a child with another woman and I'm supposed to feel sorry for her when he finds out the truth and dumps her? COME ON! Every scene where she cries and justifies herself to Guang Xi to the tune of some dramatic music pushes me deeper into insanity. She stole six years of his life to play pretend with a guy who didn’t like her! I have no patience for any claims that there are two sides to this issue, or that it’s somehow morally complicated.

Also GX's anger is completely justified? I get that we're supposed to be in the off-the-rails-abusive-ML arc of the story, but all of his emotional responses seem completely understandable to me and it's the manipulative crybabies around him who are the real abusers?

Don't get me wrong, I'm loving this crazy ride. Just can't believe the drama is giving YQ (and Mu Cheng!) a pass here.

Thanks for the info! That's disappointing as I've been looking forward to this drama. I hope we get to see it before the end of the year at least.

That’s not something a fan can judge as well as the actual people involved and also it’s none of their business.

I like that instead of watering down the main romance with needless love triangle drama, this show has multiple secondary couples/romantic subplots. It's a much nicer way to fill up screentime!

I'm still on episode 16, but I feel like Lu Feng and the new female police officer may cross paths after Xia and Shu Wenbo figure things out between them and put LF's interest in Xia to rest.

I also like Dr Shao and Xing Keyao as the angsty, grown-up couple. Dr Shao is an interesting character in general.

Does anyone (Mandarin speakers who read Chinese news sources perhaps?) know if shooting has resumed and this drama is on track to air in August as scheduled?

Exactly! I hate it when the leads don’t actively choose each other but only fall in together because other people have let them go, and if it takes them until the last ten minutes of the entire drama to get their shit together, well, by that point I just don’t care!

I wish dramas wouldn’t use these tropes.

Please be true.

Yes, I was really relieved that they went in a different direction with her character and ended up liking her as well.

That's not an excuse for murder.

I want to believe, but it does not appear on the TV schedule for Feb 1 (click on the CALENDAR tab on top of the page and set the filter to Chinese dramas only to see for yourself), so I'm afraid the date is wrong.