Meari21

The June 8 airing seems to be confirmed now.

🤣🤣🤣 I completely understand. He became my most favorite Korean actor all of a sudden. I really enjoyed Love and Leashes. I read many BDSM novels when I was much younger so I had fun watching it. Brave Citizen I didn’t really like because of how farfetched the idea of a woman beating the crap out of a man double her weight. lol It could’ve been handled better imho. But I did like Junyoung’s performance. I have yet to see Mask Girl, I’ve only heard good things about it.

I already watched those. 🤣 I did enjoy Dreaming of a Freaking Fairy Tale and I liked it because it reminded me of J-dramas. I have yet to watch his latest drama and Melo Movie and When Life Gives You Tangerines. I think I need to be in the right mindset to watch those last two.

Is it good? I didn't start it yet. I'm waiting for it to finish so I can binge it.

Rumors say that this will be released some time next week. I guess it will be after The Legend of Zanghai.

Sure, there will be some sort of redemption. That is expected. But it won't be easy or close to realistic considering how her character was written. She would have to do a complete 180. Unless there's a timeskip and she's given time to change her ways and become a completely different person. People don't mature or change overnight. My other complaint is that we're only told that they've fallen in love but I personally cannot see it. It's easy for someone who's into romance to ship characters and see chemistry, but for me, it's not so easy. Of course he likes her, they wrote him to like her despite everything. But is it believable? No, not really. Considering what Zanghai had gone through, he would've wanted stability, a person he can go home to and someone who can support him. Not someone who only adds chaos to his already chaotic life.

I would've preferred a slowburn romance that develops over time the more they work and support each other. But at this point, they've only collaborated once or twice and she had hurt him several times already, put him in serious danger twice. That scene with the knife and her wounding him every time she didn't like his answer while they were tricking the minions of the eunuch was disturbing to me. What sane person would do that? She strikes me as sadistic, especially with that whip of hers. I wouldn't have minded it if this was a bdsm story where she's the dom and Zang hai is the sub. I would've understood it. But I doubt that would pass censorship. lol

Because idol dramas are for the masses, international fans are especially more into that. But this was promoted as a serious male-centric drama in the same vein as Nirvana in Fire, so needless to say, I am disappointed with how they're handling the romance subplot. The actress is not bad, I've seen her do better and she deserves better. Xiao Zhan is already in his mid-30's and he's starting to pick his roles more carefully. So I expected him to shy away from idol dramas. I wouldn't be as disappointed if they had packaged this as an idol drama with a revenge theme. I don't mind watching historical romances, I do enjoy them too. But when a drama has the potential to rival some of the more well-known male-centric dramas with excellent production and they start using the same idol drama tropes, I can't help but feel cheated. More serious dramas usually garner more attention in China and that's the audience that matters the most.

It's a culture thing, I suppose. Perhaps these types of infantile women are more appealing to the male gaze in China or Asia. The truth is most male writers don't know how to write female characters at all. They simply lack the insight, perhaps because they don't really know women. But female writers are no better either. They tend to feminize their male characters to the point that they're unreasonably perfect and could not possibly exist in real life, only writing their dream men to fulfill their fantasies. Some of them also write female characters that are either immature and needy, or annoyingly bossy and bitchy.

The thing is, they could've followed the example of those dramas I mentioned above. A woman doesn't need to be a warrior to be powerful and strong, and she certainly doesn't need to be written to be clingy and selfish to act cute. Yes, these characters are young but people at this age were often married already in ancient times. Many of these women married as soon as they menstruated even, so an 18 or 20 year old was considered a full-grown adult already. She shouldn't be acting this way, especially after she has been through. Unfortunately, they're following the idol drama formula with the love story subplot and it's grinding my gears. lol

Not you directly but that has been the common response of those who defend the characterization of the FL. They dismiss these complaints by saying it’s typical for female characters to be hated on in these male-centric dramas because of misogyny. Yes, they’re hated on mainly because of the way they’re written. They don’t contribute much to the story in most of these types of dramas.

When people hate on female characters it's immediately called misogyny but nobody calls it misandry when people hate on a male character. It's just that I (and perhaps others as well) expected this drama to be beyond the typical idol drama tropes because of the way it was promoted and how it began. I wanted a partnership between the two that naturally develops into romance over time and a female lead that actually supports the male lead instead of being a hindrance. Male-centric dramas have done that before, Nirvana in Fire, Under the Microscope, and Joy of Life, just to name a few, have great female characters. So, it is possible to do. But from the get-go, this FL is just not likable and keeps on acting childish and entitled, thus many have found her to be quite the irritating troublemaker. And from a writing stand point, her redemption would have to be written in a way that would be convincing because otherwise, the eventual romance will appear forced and underdeveloped. Also, the way her character is written seems out of place in a drama of this story and caliber. I don't get why they couldn't just write a truly compelling female character that would match Zanghai.

Agreed! From the first episode I knew I wasn’t going to like the female lead because she was the girl who whipped young Zhinu simply because she felt offended by his behavior. Despite being a hostage princess, she had the audacity to whip the son of an official and cause the accident of the marquis’ son and with no consequences too! I understand she was devastated and perhaps angry but that’s not an excuse to act high and mighty and be a jerk. After today’s episodes, I dislike her even more. For now, she’s not adding to the story, she’s just a nuisance. I don’t know how they’ll redeem, though.

No, he saw the flowers when he approached the grave. He was about to kill Zhixing until he saw the flowers and formulated a plan right then and there. You can actually see realization dawn on his face when he saw the flowers and it stopped him from killing Zhixing because he thought of a much better plan to get him on his side. Kudos to XZ's acting as I immediately knew what he was thinking when he lowered his weapon. I gotta hand it to Zanghai, though. He thinks on his feet and that is his main strength. He's not really a master strategist like other characters in revenge stories, but he's resourceful, observant, manipulative, and one hell of a risk taker. Those traits make up a formidable but very human character.

It was sheer dumb luck that he saw those poisonous flowers on the grave of Zhixing's mother and deduced that she was poisoned. That was the key that helped him convince the latter to join forces with him. If it hadn't been for those flowers, Zhixing could've outed him. The foiled assassination attempt was also by sheer dumb luck that he wasn't caught because someone was protecting him. And the tomb door closing could've ended disastrously if the timing was just a little bit off. It was luck that saved him as well. Yes, he plans and he calculates but luck is also on his side.

This may be a hot take but I actually like that they made Zanghai more vulnerable and careless than he should be because that makes him more relatable and human. Some of his triumphs were brought about by sheer dumb luck, and even though that can be considered plot armor, I actually think it adds suspense to the drama. He can't be brilliant all the time. On a lighter note, I am absolutely loving Master Gao Ming. He is the ultimate spy! He's shaping up to be my favorite character in this drama.

It's possible because Netflix could just acquire the streaming rights for specific regions. But global rights, not so sure.

If they ever fall in love later on, I will always remember that she was the one who chased him down and brandished her whip against him, and also caused the carriage of the Marquis' second son to tumble, injuring him, which led to Zanghai getting into trouble. So far she has caused him more harm than good. FLs in male-centric dramas are almost always useless or just trouble. I would've been happier if there were no female love interests or even notable female roles in these types of dramas, tbh.

I believe she’s the one who whipped him as a kid and I’m pretty sure she’s there to create conflict. She endangered him twice already. She also strikes me as bratty and arrogant so the fact that she whipped Zanghai simply because he offended her makes me dislike her. Not fond of this character. Of course this might change later on but for now I think she’s just a menace.

People complained about the FL not getting enough screen time because of how she was promoted alongside Dylan Wang. They shouldn’t have done that and just promoted the drama as strictly male-centric because it was. It was all about Dylan’s character and the FL was practically a footnote. She didn’t even appear until ep 6 if I’m not mistaken and disappeared for several episodes.

It probably will. As far as I know, he plays three characters and it’s a male-centric drama. Like Legend of Zanghai, it was heavily promoted with Cheng Yi at the forefront, we also didn’t know who the other cast members were until later. Both Cheng Yi and Xiao Zhan have proven that they can carry dramas all by themselves so the rest of their cast members are just there to support. Their female leads will probably play key roles but I doubt they’ll get a lot of screen time or focus.

This drama was promoted heavily with Xiao Zhan at the forefront, though. For months, we didn't even know who the other cast members were. The poster itself only features Xiao Zhan. I guess the main role title is just a formality because there has always been a female lead in all C-dramas, but some of them don't play huge roles in fact. This happened with Dylan Wang's Guardians of the Dafeng. Their mistake was to actually promote Tian Xiwei and even feature her on the official poster when the drama was centered around Dylan Wang and she had very little screen time. I suppose this is a similar case. I'm also assuming that Cheng Yi's upcoming drama, The Journey of Legend, will be the same. I doubt Gulnezer will have a major role in it even though she's technically the female lead.