Peya

Now I get it. We interpreted the whole thing differently.
For me, FL wasn't a star general, because she was dominating men's world. She became a star general despite her difficult circumstances, and - as ML pointed out - because of her unparalleled stubbornness.
She was forced to take her stepbrother's place, lived as a boy, but she was very stubborn, wanted to escape and fight for her country, thus she ran away into the military, at the age of 15, because she felt, it was her calling.

In my eyes, it had nothing to do with genders, it was about a true calling and the stubbornness to fulfill it. Yes, she had to live in a male dominated world, yet she achieved something, that even men had to work very hard to get, because she felt, it was her calling and never gave up. Her tenacity was seen through the whole series. Maybe she had to w8, stumbled again and again, but she never stopped, once she set a goal.

At that day and age most women - even of rich families - were treated like tradable items, even in the most advanced countries. Hardly any had choices, they were forced to do whatever their families wanted them to do. You can't expect a historical drama - even if its fiction - to totally change the way women were treated in the past, they can only take some liberties. Sad, but that's the way it was.
I didn't feel like it was mocking women, when she dressed up for the role. It was part of the story, it had a natural flow. She was never allowed to behave like a girl, thus had to be taught, and yes, at that time and place, women had to excel in those things. Yet again, in my view, it's history, not mockery.

Don't get me started on FL's speeches... ;) So misplaced, so off.

If you've seen LOTFG, don't get your hopes up, not terrible, but far from that.
Esp. the arrows, the archers' shots, the FL's shots go straight into the ridiculous category.
However, CL makes up for it all with his performance. His fight scenes are something else.

My best advice is, don't try to find some earth-shattering message or life-changing revelation in these series, just take it for what it is: entertainment.
It was far from perfect, but it perfectly entertained me, and most ppl are watching these for only that purpose: to get away from the daily grind a little.

Not sure where you mean stunt doubles, but I don't think they used many, if any. In c-dramas stunt doubles are not common. If you watch BTS, many actors and actresses do their own stunts, you can see many bruises on them, because of spinning on ropes, working in freezing water, painstakingly practicing for who knows how long, - not like Hollywood actors and actresses. Don't belittle their hard work pls.

However, if you need something groundbreaking to watch, you should read professional critics' reviews to find those gems. Here the reviews are very biased.

Women's empowerment? I don't need that, we have enough power in my country, and don't feel the need to rise above men, each have their own values.

Instead, as a woman, I find it appalling how manly men are reduced to lovesick, subservient puppies lately. Many Chinese series are written by women, and It's sickening to see how they turn men into these slave-puppies, doing everything for their master's approval, thus sending a really bad message to women.
House chores are not demeaning, and can be shared, but to push it all on men living now, because previously women were oppressed by other men? Isn't it the same oppression of a kind, the other way around?
I prefer manly men, not these love-slaves.
However, you write about brainwashed female authors, so I guess we don't usually watch the same series. Go and take a look at CL's other new series, Shadow Love. (Worse than this one btw.) Even though CL's performance is stellar, he is turned into one of those lovesick slave-puppies, so you'll see what I'm talking about. Sickening, really.
However, the lady of the house is not expected to fulfill any traditional female roles, so you might like it. (There's the marriage thing, but it was the same for men at that time, emperor could decide anybody's fate, so don't read into it.)

Back to this one: FL was never expected to fulfill any trad. female role here either. What she did, she wanted to do to surprise ML (the sewing and noodle), and it's the same in real life, we like to surprise our other half every now and than, don't we? And she was pretending to be half a proper lady at that time. The marriage thing is the same, as above.
So what do you mean
'All it's done is piled on more pressure for women to think they must dominate in men's domain as well as excelling in traditional female roles.'
by this? I don't see any indication in this series. There's no 'as well as', just 'either...or...'
Sry, it became very long. The thing is, don't try to read too much into these, but if you do, than watch female empowerment movies and series praised by professional critics.
glhfbb

We don't see things the same way they do, just accept it.
Most ppl here are somehow blinded to the fact, that she's grown up training among men, without women's influence on her, which would obviously result in a much stronger, manlier woman, with a very strong, commanding presence. Instead, we got an extremely thin, weak-looking proper lady, with high voice, which can't even start to carry those war speeches, and breaks mid-speech! (Yes, even her voice should be stronger from all the previous shouting, and the harsh living conditions.) It hurts my ear every time, when she raises her voice, but the problem is not her, it's our eyes, ears and brain, because most ppl here are just perfectly fine with the above. ;)
(Not the actress's fault, nor the character's, she was a total miscast for the role.)
No magic will happen later, or if any, she actually turns into a full proper little lady.
However, CL's performance is worth the watch. He is absolutely amazing, made me watch it till the end, even though I'm fed up with the 'strong, manly man turned into little servant puppy dog by love' bull* by now.

1. The most important reason: the acting. Main leads have done an amazing job. I can get lost in micro-expressions, look for little details, that can change the way I look at certain events, ppl, plot developments. The way they can convey their characters' emotions is uncanny.
Eg. many complain, that FL is all cheerful and bubbly. Can't they see - even though it's made perfectly clear by certain scenes, when she visibly 'puts on' her bubbly mask - that it's all an act? She had to act since childhood, she is a pro by now.

2. Yepp, shallow as a kiddie pool: Cheng Lei, ofc. I mean, which girl couldn't and wouldn't look at that guy for hours :D And it's magnified by his pristine acting: his eyes... those evil little smiles... etc.

3. The 'why'-s. I'm always fascinated by them. What makes them act that way? Why did that happen?... Not always getting an answer, though :)

4. To hell with physics, I love Chinese fight scenes, the visuals are just mind-blowing. And to think, that there were some, that they cut, such a shame.

Btw, many has beef with last few eps, but I don't know why. It's pretty obvious, if someone has seen some palace intrigues.
Emperors are snakes, when it comes to military. Ofc. he wouldn't allow them to get married, merging two great armies into a huge one, and yes, the emperor is an ass, wanting to make sure those two armies wouldn't merge, thus 'granting' the marriage with another guy. It surprised me a lot more, that he let them get married in the end.
It had nothing to do with being male or female, just palace politics.
My only beef is with the fact, that I haven't seen signs of 2ML getting close to snapping, he just blew, but I might have missed sg.
The story isn't perfect, but it was worth the watch for me.
I don't mind watching the same tropes a gazillion times, as long as it's well done, and the acting,+/directing,+/editing adds some xtra, making me want to watch it. :)

Her brother was confined in a temple since childhood, not much parenting I guess, sick, living alone, ofc he was not the most sane person in the whole wide world ;)

Funny how I see it the other way around :)
Exactly because of her background, it makes perfect sense. Ever since she was little, she had to act, was never allowed to be herself, or show her real feelings, and haven't had a single person in her life she could trust, making her a truly seasoned actress.
Btw, there were some scenes, where you could tell, her bubbly persona was just an act.
Once, when she was standing before her old sword, commander came in, said something, and before she turned around, you could see, as she 'put on' her bubbly mask, it was a very visible change.
Few times, chatting, than commander caught her saying a lie, or something she shouldn't know, called her out on it, bamm, came bubbly.
This series has flaws, mainly on the story side, but the acting is top notch (esp. CL with his micro-expressions), not to mention the breathtaking fight scenes.

I was about to let go, but you put such words in my mouth, that I would never utter.
It's rather surreal, how I write something, and than you make something else out of it.

I didn't write a single word about being objective, because I don't believe anybody can be truly objective, only wrote 'as unbiased as possible'.
Pls, don't put words in my mouth I would never utter.

Even though Lovely Runner is terrible, I didn't forget to mention it's only positive, the eyecandy.
Although I liked LOTFG, I saw its flaws, and wrote about them in my review.
Nothing is perfect, I never believe the 'true masterpiece' reviews, but if I were to come here today the first time, seeing the 'most helpful' reviews, I might not give it a try, and that would be a shame, because I liked it, with all of its flaws, and that's a problem.

About the negative comments, my main problem is still the math of it (the content is just secondary): the probability of suddenly a lot of ppl deciding to write negative reviews, one after another, in a very-very short period of time.
Among them the funniest ones: 'why the romance? would have been a lot better without it.'
I mean lol, romance is the 2nd tag in genre, what do ppl expect? :D

The contradiction between the flood of 'helpful' negative comments and the 8.6 rating from ~25k viewers... something doesn't add up here either. When the math is not mathing something is wrong.

Oh, well, as b4, let's agree to disagree.
Off you go, little baloon, I let go.
Have fun in life, bb.

Best ones make you use your brains.
Some things might not make sense on the spot, but it all comes full circle by the end.
Btw, since it's your fav genre, the flaws might bother you more, so, just in case, don't put your expectations too high, but it's definitely worth a try.

I agree about the dislike-hate-criticism blur, and originally I wanted to write 'it all boils down to personal preferences' for a reason.
I would even agree with
'some were just downvotes for the sake of it, but a lot of them actually felt valid, like people who were genuinely disappointed in the drama.'
if a huge amount of negative reviews didn't just appear in a very short period of time, suddenly dominating the review pages.

Sry if I misunderstood when you wrote
'Honestly my disappointment isn’t random. It’s from the fact that I waited over a year for this drama. I was hyped, counting days and when it finally dropped… it just wasn’t what I promised in trailer and posted. That’s why I am disappointed.'
it sounded like you belonged to the sky-high expectations group. Best not to have expectations at all, than you can be pleasantly surprised.

I can't agree about reviews being opinions. Reviews should be as unbiased as possible, because those are supposed to help newcomers make an easier decision whether to watch a series or not. Comment section should be the place for opinions, I think.
However, MDL's are not some pro critics reviews, maybe I'm too strict with it.
Let's just agree to disagree on some things, we are different ppl anyway. :D
I hope you enjoy your next series a lot more!

I think you wouldn't be disappointed with ATCY, especially with the way it's built up to the finish. Not the type that you can watch with 1 eye, no FF button recommended, have to pay attention to details and remember them (that might be the reason why many ppl found it confusing in the end, I guess), but I was really pleasantly surprised by the whole, despite its flaws.

Hi, I'm sry, I tried to make my comment as short as possible, and made it ambiguous. Yours might be voted the top most helpful, and I don't agree with you, but what I tried to point out was, that all of a sudden a lot of negative reviews came on top overnight.
Btw, in my review, I wrote just that
'if you've awaited for this one to air for a long time, putting your expectation bar above the galaxy by now, you'll be disappointed,'
thus I totally get your side, I just think, that exactly because of this reason, your review is highly biased against this series, making it a very prejudiced opinion.
I don't think it's some masterpiece, either, but it was really good in its own right, especially considering, that many scenes had to be cut, making it only a patchwork of the original.

I stumbled on your review, and it was really close to my opinion, only I gave up on making excuses for the badly written, illogical characters, events, decisions... after a while, and just dropped it.

Now, the reason why I wrote is A Time Called You. Can't even mention that on the same day with this 1. That's totally different, and I think you could give it a try. Far more logical, with good twists and turns, characters etc. That is not perfect either, have some flaws, but a pretty good 1. The way the story goes is really interesting, can't always guess what's next. It's the type where you go 'So that's why...' later in the series.
I highly recommend giving it a try.

Not some pro reviewer, and can't call the stupid brilliant, can't say the bad is good, or the brainless intelligent, but if you like Lovely Runner, I'm sorry. ☺️

You mistake criticism for hate. Lovely Runner is very badly written, truly the worst series I've ever seen. Thx to the high rating I kept watching, w8ing 4 it to get better, only to see more and more sheer stupidity. I felt really bad for FL for playing such a brainless character. However, I would never want to hurt anybody's feelings, I didn't go there to downrate it, and haven't written a single bad word about it on its page, just like with any other series I didn't like, I leave it to the pros.

Oh, I see. Never read those comments, but I definitely prefer this series to that1. :)

I just chose 2 high-rated dramas I've tried to watch for a quick comparison :) Zero similarities, purely picked for the rating.

My best advice to newcomers:
DON'T READ ANY REVIEWS, JUST JUMP IN, AND SEE FOR YOURSELF!

I was gonna write, it all boils down to personal preferences, than I saw the reviews, full of hate-fest, deemed the most helpful, lol. Some ppl are really trying to push this1 into the mud, for who knows why.
Not the most perfect cdrama I ever watched, but it was really good, despite all of its little flaws. (And many of those flaws might have come from the cut scenes, since ~1/4 had to be cut.)
Just a little comparison:
- If The Prisoner of Beauty deserves a ~9 rating, this deserves at least that much. All the unnecessary drama-drama-drama, misunderstanding, can't open their mouth to tell the truth idiocy burned me out so much, I couldn't even finish that, despite ML being LYN.
- If Lovely Runner (by far the worst drama I ever watched, full of mistakes, mindless decisions, I couldn't watch it till halfway before dropping, it was such a brainless-fest, the eyecandy couldn't redeem that much of bad writing) deserves a 9 rating, than this deserves a 1000.
I wrote a review with a bit of an upvote, seeing all the hate it got for no reason, but by now I'm not even sure I watched the same series as the haters.
Some of them I would even like to ask, if they actually watched it...

It was a hidden gem of the highest order. No bursts of laugh, but it was very very amusing. Once I started, I couldn't stop till the end, gonna watch again (and again...).I can't recall the last time I was so much entertained by a whole series. I loved it, apart from a single 'What? How? What?!' at the end.
I'm the type who doesn't mind the so called plotholes, most of the time my brain can fill them up automatically, but there are these sometimes, that leave me with a 'Hmm.. . '
However, it ended with tbc, so I hope it gets clearer in s2.
Especially loved ML, but no wonder, I loved him in MOGA, too. There's something so captivating, endearing, and very amusing about his acting.

Sry-sry, forgot, mb, corrected.