RubyBloom

I’m curious who the original option was too.

Watch The Starry Love instead.

Eternal Love of Dream is one of my favorite xianxia.

Such excellent chemistry!

The Starry Love is another of my faves.

I want to see more xianxia like these.

The Starry Love is superior to both AOL & L&R in my opinion.

The endless misunderstanding and sheer stupidity of FL in L&R drove me crazy!

SiFeng was incredible…but at some point his willingness to keep being tortured/suffer for FL made me feel a bit sick.

I liked AOL better,
But again, the toxicity of the main romance really diminished my enjoyment of the drama.

Not a fan of childish, baby brain FLs so I wasn’t really loving Jin Mi’s character at first.

Still,
Yang Zi was much funnier and less annoying as Jin Mi and her acting was much better.

I don’t mind some misunderstandings and i even like a bit of angst. But xianxia with abusive, toxic, frustrating & stupid constant misunderstandings easily cleared with a tiny bit of communication/dialogue make me want to scream and break things.

They remind me of terrible relationships I’ve been in…probably just too triggering for me!

I loved beginning of TTEOTM, but I had to drop it towards last arc.

The Starry Love gave me everything I was missing in xianxias.

I hope more like it come out.

Shen Li wasn’t bad, but a bit slow & not as fulfilling as TSL for me.

Currently watching The Double….LOVE IT!

I felt that way too the first few times i saw her this season,
but I feel like she started looking more like herself in later eps.

Perhaps it’s just aging with weight loss?
Either way she still doing a good job so far
imo.

Shao Yao’ s
hand fluttering, avoidance of eye contact,
initial confusion between
romantic/platonic/familial love,
special interest in medicine,
impulsive & awkward behavior in social situations,
instinctive trust and lack of fear towards others
(sometimes potentially dangerous),
animated body language & expressiveness
of emotions (esp joy),
concern/worry for others,
awareness people treat her differently & underestimate many of her capabilities/unknowingly deny her agency,
her wish to be treated like everyone else/not infantilized,
excitement when learning & playing,
sense of Justice & empathy,
and so many other things
are highly relatable & familiar to me.
I was more like her when I was younger before
I learned to mask
and to not trust people so unreservedly.

I understand not many people
might know those things can be autistic traits.
Super common in many autistic women/AFAB
folks tho.
Same for AuDHD people (autism & adhd)
like me.

Lastly, you’d think if she only had CPTSD,
she would likely fear
strangers/unknown situations much more
& be socially anxious/withdrawn
around most people
due to being treated so poorly & isolated
her whole life.
But that wasn’t the case.

Sorry i wrote so much.
Just bought it might help people understand why she’s seen as Autistically-coded by people
and why it makes sense that the writers intended that on some level.

Thanks for reading my ramble😅

That’s entirely possible.
Though after finishing the show, I can confidently say I’ve never seen any other CDrama character
who was as clearly autistically-coded as Shao Yao
or one who I related to so deeply
as an autistic person (especially a female character who i, an autistic woman, relate with).

But like I said above,
all autistic people are unique,
different from each other,
and may or may not share the same exact set of traits/behaviors.

We exist on a spectrum like a color wheel, not a line or rigid set of particular traits.

Lots of autistics also have CPTSD/ptsd.
I do.

It can be hard to tell what things stem from trauma or being autistic since they’re so often comorbid & usually both begin/start showing at a very young age.

Def an interesting question & area
to explore with further studies& research.

That’s understandable.
But it is a spectrum.

Each of us is different individually.

Some of us may share and exhibit the same or similar traits, and others may not have any traits or behaviors in common.

It’s really fascinating how brains can vary so much.

If you ever want to learn more, Embrace Autism is a good resource.

But not Autism Speaks.
Many autistics view it as a hate group.

Hope you have a wonderful day.

Because she is extremely autistic coded, at least from my perspective. The way she covers her ears, avoids eye contact with many people, is extremely passionate and focused on medical book’s & pharmacology, and probably more.

These are all common for many autistic people, though they don’t represent all of us…of course.

Some people don’t have any of the above traits and are autistic.

I’m only on ep 5 so I def don’t have the full picture or knowledge of her history yet.
But as an autistic person, I see a lot of myself and other austistics in her.

Perhaps it’s not canon that her character is autistic, but I completely understand why people would think she is or embrace her as an autistic coded character.

Just my opinion tho!

Ty for your kind reply btw💜

Autistic people can also be alert and smart.

I am autistic myself.

There’s a very accurate saying:
if you’ve met one autistic person,
you’ve met one autistic person.

Apologies if it wasnt your intention to imply autistic people are incapable of those things/having those
traits.

This isn’t an attack on you at all.

I just like to nip misinformation in the bud whenever possible.

California, US

I tried and tried to get into ALP, but it never clicked for me.
I couldn’t fell any chemistry between th leads.
The ML was so not my cup of tea.
Strange too since I usually love Xu Cai.

TLI is a bit trope-laden,
but I liked the characters and story much more than ALP.

Can you please mark this as spoiler? Thanks.

I just started LYF. Immediately noticed how much his acting has improved since Chong Zi and TTEOTM.
He looks much more relaxed and as you said, natural.

I’m looking forward to watching his skills grow.

Did you watch Royal Rumors? It has SFL as rival of sorts who slowly starts befriending FL.
It’s not anywhere as close or deep as the sister’s relationship in TSL.
But it’s still cute.

The Eternal Love 1,2, & 3
Not traditional xianxia but very sweet, funny, & interesting story with fantasy & multiverse/transmigration elements.

Eternal Love of Dream: Three Lives, Three Worlds, The Pillow Book
Love Better Than Immortality
Douluo Continent
Once Upon A Time in Linjian Mountain
Legend of Fuyao

Nope. I wanted them to end up together too!

I personally don’t like that either.
i adore dramas like The Starry Love or Who Rules The World.
where the partners respect each other and communicate.
I hate cruel treatment of romantic interests, regardless of gender.

Sure she had her reasons,
but I never felt she really loved TTJ.
Imo, she wasn’t much better than him aside from scale of destruction.

I understand some people love angst and toxicity in their drama relationships.
But I am not one of them.

I haven’t read the novel,
but I could see why her actions would be more justified TTJ was much worse like the other version of him.

You succinctly said exactly what I think.
You hit the nail on the head with the gaslighting.

It wasn’t love at all.
Just toxicity and tragedy.

I can handle some angst and sorrow,
but I can’t stand when the MCs relationship is toxic through and through.

Her “love” didn’t feel on par with his.

I empathize with her reasoning and feelings of distrust/anger towards him,
but I can’t stand wishy washy characters who don’t properly communicate or fully invest in their love of another.

I liked the characters individually, but the “love” story fell totally flat for me.