Peya

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.

Well, than ppl r weird here :) We can praise, we can criticize, but to sht on them?
Tbh, if any, YL and PSJ are not among my favs, but not because I didn't like these chars: for me they felt underdeveloped, 1sided. They were good, PSJ had many badass fight scenes, YL was a cutie, but these 2 felt just a bit empty, too little backstory I guess.

I think I watched another version of Ying Lei's death, where it wasn't some pointless dramatic flare.
ZYZ was powerless, WX poisoned, PSJ is LL's doormat at the most, ZYC was afraid of hurting his body, but YL pulled an ultimate spell from his sleeve and pinned LL down, so ZYC could point his sword with surgical precision, threatening to destroy LL's inner core, thus forcing him into the twig.
For me it happened like this, clear as daylight, but as I said, maybe I watched through some shader, from a diff angle or sg :)

I'm the same, can't take the w8ing pain, so I'll binge it.
However, I've been here from day1, popping in daily to read some comments here and there - to know what to expect - and by the looks of things, it's gonna deliver everything I hope for: lols, great story, romance, drama, ost (don't know about crazy, badass fightscenes, but since DYX is in it, I'm pretty sure we'll get those, too).
Getting ready for the ending with piles of tissues and buckets, we will surely get some heartshattering drama before happy ending (plsplspls, be HE).

Depends on individual taste. Maybe check out some shorts on yt, their trailers, which peaks your interest? But why the 'or'? Both ongoing, so watch both, problem solved ;)

Thank you! I will def. watch it. Since LYST, he's already a cat in my eyes, and a very cute 1 at that.
Also, I love crazy fight scenes, he's just a master of them (MOGA and LYST, in both he was just jaw-dropping), so far from reality, yet so damn amazing and hot as hell. :D