Peya

Allow me to correct you, incest is a sexual relationship between close blood relatives, not between some random strangers thrown together by their parents' marriage.
Yes, it is really weird when they grow up together since childhood, treating eo like siblings, but still not incest, since there's no blood relation.
I know, some cultures treat it as almost the same, but it's not.
The big NO comes from the psychological trauma and the possible birth defects of a child that is born from such a relationship, which is not valid for stepsiblings.

If you're looking for some flawless masterpiece, earth-shattering revelations etc. than look elsewhere.
If you want to be entertained, give it a try, you might enjoy the ride.

DY was on in the massacre of their sister and the crown prince - also his nephew, if they succeeded -, thus, even though XYF might have offered alliance a few times to DY (I don't believe he would have stuck with it, since their ambitions were very much the same, he had to 'take care' of DY on the long run), and not that he cared abt anybody, but his priority was to keep his nephew safely on the throne, so he can control him, and at that time he still believed he can manipulate his brother and CZ, too.
Also, if he did anything to really hurt his brother and/or CZ - knowing how the little boy felt abt them - he would have lost any influence over him and the boy might have turned to DY, falling into XX's hands and get killed very soon, and than he would have lost his one justified chance to rule through his nephew.
Instead, XYF used that time to get closer to him, and the only way to gain his trust was if he protected his loved ones. At that time he didn't feel the need nor had the power to use force to scare him into submission yet, he believed he could manipulate his nephew with a little care, and that's what his brother and CZ was counting on, thus giving him the token wasn't a big risk, unless XYF was going against his own interests, and that he would never do.
Y, acting was good, esp ZYR, I love his nuanced acting, the only reason I lasted till the end, but the series wanted to be so clever, and it wasn't, esp due to rushed events. Turncoat raised to a whole new lvl too, and some of it totally lacked logic. Such a shame, could have been so much better with better writing. Or maybe it's another brutally chopped one.
2 bad.
Sry for the long post, I like to analyze things :)

Ofc not, it was time travel. 😉

U didn't pay attention. The token had 1 important function, to veto DY, and the only possibility was his brother, even princess agreed that there was no other suitable choice.
I can't say it's a perfect drama, there r problems with it, but not here.

It started off with 8.3, stayed that way 4 a week at least, went down to 8.2, again, held it there, than in the past few days it went to 8.0, than 7.9.
I haven't watched it yet, but I can't imagine a reason 4 this sharp drop after a steady 8.3. However, it happens to dramas here, even with those that I would say r far better than average, or with very popular leads like ZLS.

Eng armies never set foot in our country, I only learnt it at school, but thx 4 the compliment. 😉😘

🤣Nvm. GLHF, bb.

Oh, and btw, on my 'best actors 25 and under' list ZYR gets 1st place easy, with 0 contenders on his lvl. xo

Dear, u totally misunderstood what I wrote.

GtG's low ratings had nothing to do with ZYR. He is magnificent. Just mentioned the 1st low-rated pretty good cdrama that popped into my mind for reference, and it happened to be his, since I was checking his new drama site. Like many others, I love TL and Reborn, 2. (WIFTY I leave 4 younger gen to love.)
Also, I really liked GtG's story. It is well written, acting - esp ZYR's - is stellar, but has a few little probs, like the villain is 2 obvious from the get-go and so obviously crazy, FL's acting could have been more versatile, her char's double standards, but even some of these r understandable...
However, I'm truly sad that many won't get to see ZYR's amazing acting and an overall really well written and executed story due to low ratings.

In addition, I wasn't talking abt this or that cdrama, but c-s in general. Many high rated 1s have many flaws, but a few just get xtra h8, who knows why, while others' huge plotholes, crappy chars, editing, directing or overall bad writing just slips right through the h8-net.
I mean talk abt PoJ FL's double standards (my biggest beef with dramas in general) and her doormat husband. Most ppl r perfectly fine with it, even happy abt it, but I can't.

Yes, again, I wrote exactly what u did, just with diff wording, and u don't understand it. Maybe my writing is 2 plain 4 u. Pls, just open Merriam-Webster, that might hlp. Learn the average ppl's language.

'ratings r given by fans and anti-fans, not by pro critics, so it's always gonna be biased'

Have fun in life and try to be more positive. xoxo

Sadly, I'm not that surprised anymore.

Just take a look at ZYR's prev series, GtG. Hardly started and it was flooded with low ratings, never since recovered, even though it's not bad. Has many flaws, sure, but so does many 8.6 rated cdramas. His MQY alone deserves a watch, such a multi-faceted char, and his delivery was stellar - as usual - but many won't get to see it due to the biased ratings.

I mean if PoJ deserves a 9.1, HL a 9.0, TPoB a 8.9 - just to mention some of the highest rated flawed cdramas - GtG easily deserved a 8.6+, but than, ratings r given by fans and anti-fans, not by pro critics, so it's always gonna be biased.
It's the same with this1 I guess. (I'm a binge-watcher, so no idea yet, just here to pick up a few opinion-crumbs till I can see it.)

However, every bad has it's benefit: before GtG I drew the line at 8.0+ ratings, now I'm more flexible. :)

Reviews ought be more objective than a comment, since those r supposed to hlp ppl to decide whether they should watch a series or not. Unfortunately on mdl most reviews r extremely biased, thus not very helpful.

Lol, calling Yang Yang average is like calling the Sun lukewarm.
Thx! I had a good laugh. :D

Highly recommend giving it a try. The rating seems off, h8rs gonna h8 I guess, but Zhou Yi Ran's Mu Qing Yan alone deserves a try. He's so scheming, clever, cunning, cheeky, manipulative, obsessive, morally grey, but tortured, broken and lonely at the same time, and the way ZYR delivers, it's spectacular.
Yepp, they tried to cram a lot into this amount of eps, there r a gazillion chars, so u have to remember more names than usual, bad guy is rather obvious from early on, the climax is a bit anticlimactic, FL has some obvious flaws etc. However, I can just as easily make an even longer list about many 8.5+ cdramas. It deserves more than 7.9 for sure, but don't expect some abyss-deep, thought-provoking, flawless masterpiece.
Apart from some flaws, it was well written and entertaining, I enjoyed the ride.

Have u watched Under the Power? It's a good1 and HE! Unbelievable but true.

Reviews r overly biased here, SoKP is much better than PoJ.
Not every ML char has to be written a prince on a white horse, some r actually shaped as a human being, with their flaws.

It won't be draggy, way better actionwise, than PoJ, ML is just WOW, but there r a few things abt it: FL has annoying double standards (just like here, so u might not mind), makes weird decisions sometimes, and villain is pretty obv. from the beginning. Many also had prob with his reasons, I get them, though. Overall a good watch.

A few I would recommend:
- Love Like the Galaxy S1&2
- Coroner's Diary
- Wonderland of Love
- Legend of the Female General
- Are You the One?
- Echoes of the Self
- How Dare You?! (the 1 with CL&WCR ofc)
- The Princess Royal
- Legend of Zang Hai
- Melody of Golden Age
- Fated Hearts
- Youthful Glory
Some has flaws, mostly storywise, or u have to suspend disbelief, but all of them have their charms.

Just a few, that pops into mind, that r way overhyped: Hidden Love (an ode to 2nd hand embarrassments, and the whole thing just felt off), Lovely Runner (terrible script, FL's might be the dumbest char written I've seen to this date), The Prisoner of Beauty (annoying FL, stupid choices).
Btw, I'm in the same boat with PoJ. Started it with high expectations, only to see them run around in circles in the village for half the series. I paused many times already. I don't usually complain about pacing, as long as the story moves forward, but here hardly anything new happened for half the series, only rinse-repeat.
And they almost lost me with that slap. I mean come on, she did the same before, but since it's the guy doing it, how dare he?! I'm so fed up with double standards by now. Doing sg, than expect the other to not do it, since he's a guy? Also, she decides everything abt their relationship, the guy should just nod, period. It's not empowerment, it's entitlement. I prefer equal treatment. And the guy apologized 2 or 3 times? When did she ever apologize for doing the same?
I'm a human of the female variety, I like ZLH as an actor, don't care about stupid articles, and I really wanted to like it, but I'm not sure I can stomach her entitlement any longer.

I like both ZYR and ZLH, among many, and I love nuanced acting.
Saying he can't act, based on the fact, that u didn't like him in GtG, is absolute bias. I like nuanced acting and he's gr8 at it. Yes, his facial expressions r not exaggerated, he can convey emotions with his eyes. It might make him a bad actor in your eyes, but it makes him an exceptional 1 in mine, esp. considering his age.
Whatever I watched with him (GtG, Reborn, TL), his acting is outstanding, detail-oriented. Not a 100% perfect ofc., there's no such thing as total perfection.