ShortCircuit

I am so very sorry for your loss. It never goes away, but in time it starts hurting less. Most of the time. Here's a virtual hug, be well.

IMHO, JC's problem with WWX wasn't that he kept comparing himself to WWX and coming up short (though that too was true before he became the clan leader), but that he saw how loyal WWX was to LWJ and even Wen Qing and Wen Ning, and felt cheated. Because he's actually right - he doesn't know all the details, and WWX did leave the Jiang Clan for the sake of two renegades and some remnants of a traitorous clan, and he can't compensate the major loss caused by the Wen Clan even with his (JC's) life being saved by the two Wen siblings. It's a major betrayal no matter how you look at it.

And even more, JC lost his core because he was sacrificing himself for WWX and giving himself up so that WWX escaped. After the SunShot Campaign, given he didn't know anything about the core swap, he just couldn't rationalize what the heck was WWX doing, defecting to the conquered clan's side...

I still think he - JC - would hurt all demonic cultivators he caught because they were NOT WWX, not because he was hunting down WWX while he was gone for all those years. And that's true (brotherly) love right there.

JC is one of my favourites there :) (though nobody comes close to WWX, naturally :) )

Jiang Cheng, the vastly misunderstood brother. Not that he isn't a bit extra tsundere at times, LOL. (But wouldn't you be, too, if YOUR brother was WWX and he was dug out and eaten by LWJ? :D)*

*I've been reading a lot of Chinese webnovels these past few years, and they have lots of idioms, one of which is the precious cabbage being dug out by a pig (a patiently-raised son or daughter is taking up with someone the parents wouldn't approve of, LOL).

Take the trailer and multiply it with 35-40-mins long episodes (29 of them). The drama is very much delivering what the trailer promised. This is going to be a good one :)

Yes, they are worth the wait. I am on the verge of watching 5-10 raw just because I'm curious. I mean, I won't understand anything, buuuut...

Is it any chance Zhang Ping is Lan Jue's half brother? They already mentioned the exotic woman, and then there's Xiao Ping wandering around in a maze with some really exotic hair plaits, would a 20-year lap be enough for them to be siblings?

Because I can definitely deal with that.

The quality is amazing, yes please, may I have some more!

I think I like Peizhi, the venomous little snake with PTSD. And I kind of think Zhang Ping's past isn't so simple either.

I'm fine with the simple bromance (TBH, first four eps are selling WangJue way harder than anything, which makes me definitely suspect Wang Yan of being another snake in the grass.) I'm fine with polite enmity too, if it comes to that. I like Zhang Ping's stubborness, LOL, he's going to be SUCH a PITA for everybody. Can't wait.

I'm still absolutely amazed at the quality. The art director - and basically the whole tech team outdid themselves. Every episode feels really polished. Even the OST is pretty good (the first ep had the creepiest songs LOL, loved it.)

Can someone who read the novel help me figure something out, please?

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!!!!!! THIS IS AIRING RIGHT NOW??!!!!!! WHEN, HOW, WHY - NEVERMIND!!

AAAAAAARGH

Ahem. Excuse me while I go and freak out in real life, LOL. OMG I thought I'd never see the day.

(I hope this bodes well for 2ha. Please please please!)

She's not looking for the truth, but revenge, she's one of the victims. And they are all of them conspiring on something.

1. Probably not (though it's heavily implied in the movie that the King is very interested, and Gong Gil is not a virgin in that sense either.) There was an actual Gong Gil in the times of King Yeonsangun, but there's no more information than that, so there's no way to tell if the king and his favourite clown actually had such a relationship. The king did have at least 4 sons, who were all executed in childhood, after their father was deposed, so even if he did like his clown, he liked his harem too.

2. Well, he finally had a fortune and a safe haven, and probably thought the king was just a misunderstood person (his mother had been killed like that, and he was obviously still hung up on it.) And while Jang Seng and the others would have thought a life on the road and out of the kingly cone of attention was better, their previous life meant stealing and prostituting himself for Gong Gil. He was barely literate, had no actual education, and aside from his relationship with Jang Seng, he had nobody. Why would he leave the place where he was fed, clothed, praised, etc, just to go back to that?

3. Any of the king's counsellors could have ordered that paper written, to accuse Gong Gil. All of the counsellors - maybe not CheonShin - wanted him dead. Jang Seng takes the blame to save Gong Gil, not because he's the author.

With gratitude comes great responsibility, so to speak. I like it when the trope of doing something kind once in a while becomes a pleasant duty for the one doing it, even if they're pretending it's a chore.

Like SooHyun pretending that being around Yeo Joon is the worst, but dropping everything and running out to find him because he calls when almost suicidal (At A Distance, Spring Is Green).

And then there's the regular tsundere breaking his heart over his foster-brother having to sacrifice for him, the outsider (I Don't Want to Be Brothers With You). (Applause for the whole small city people, though, they all made him feel it, LOL).

Or going to prison just because you want to save your best friend who had the worst life because of something you had no control over, but still feel guilty for, in which case you've taken it a bit too far, but still, he's grateful and at the same time, mad at you over it (The Silence of the Monster).

Or finding ways to express what they mean to you when they manage to move the clouds that threatened you your whole life and finally make you king (Mr. Queen).

And definitely going way too far, and too fast, and leaving you behind just when you finally managed to get on the same page with them, so that you never can repay that gratitude - so you pay it forward instead (Nirvana in Fire).

Or being grateful for your chance at being included, but becoming the gatekeeper, until nobody else is allowed in your circle and you destroy everything because you don't want to lose that feeling (Weak Hero Class 1).

(TU is already mentioned, and nobody does redemption / sacrifice so efortlessly as WWX. Though JC deserves a hi5 too, for keeping his own side of the story to himself, in the end.)

The Bride of Habaek
Black
Faith (it kept annoying me that the FL reminds me of someone - it's Kim HeeSun's character of doctor EunSoo being a klutz in 14th century Goryeo, LOL).

(Only watched half an hour of ep1 though,)

Just the wikipedia article (and the linked pages) are enough to give a pretty thorough impression on them. (You don't know but I just wrote and deleted a whole novel on why the prion diseases are so scary, LOL).

Anyway, the idea is that 1. prions are not alive and they're basically indestructible (the only way to get rid of them is to turn the contaminated meat into ash, and even so the temps needed are very, very high). 2. Most animals (and definitely most mammals) can get them, I think of the tested species, only rabbits and horses (maybe dogs) seem to have some kind of resistance, 3. They contaminate the ground and it can (or should not) ever be used for anything related to plants or animal husbandry destined for consumption... 4. Some TSE are highly contagious (now since ritual cannibalism is mostly unheard of, kuru disease is very rare, but it hasn't been that long since it wasn't rare at all...)

What scares me is that you could do everything right (be careful about food sources, contamination, keep clear of everything dangerous etc) and STILL get a spontaneous prion disease, and then you're basically dead, just waiting to see how long and how painful it'll be until you're gone.

So I'll just nope out of everything reminding me of that group of diseases, LOL.

That group of diseases are scary as nothing else, there's nothing to be even tried but wait for a gruesome death, *aaaargh*. (So yeah, no brain-eating anything dramas for me :D)

I don't go for rom-coms necessarily, but I don't say no if some come my way :D

I dropped Goong so hard, LOL, and I was one to sit through Kingdom of the Winds and Jumong (can't remember a thing, I was also busy watching doramas and still keeping up with anime at the time).

There have been ups and downs throughout the twenty-some years I've been watching kdramas (TOO, because it's been even longer for anime and doramas :D), and the worst time to watch kdramas is right now, at the beginning of the year, when almost NO good dramas are released... and the best is in the last part of the year (particularly in vacation). So maybe it's not that the dramas are worse than usual, but also it's just not the right time of the year for you?

In which case, I recommend a good book and also good chocolate, or good wine (depending on age and customs). And a cuddling cat or little dog.

But some pick-me-up suggestions (I went to look at your list, I hope I'm not recc'ing something you already dropped or put aside)... You don't seem averse to BL stories - how about To My Star? (there are two seasons, they're short - very short eps), and they're pretty cute. I promise you a HEA.

And NOT a kdrama (but I don't usually watch rom-coms or other guaranteed HEA kdramas, so I have not a lot to choose from)... How about giving Lighter&Princess a chance? It's a Chinese drama, but it really took me by surprise, it's my favourite at this time (the MCs have very good chemistry, the ML is a tsundere, but they're SO cute together even when he's grumpy, and the drama has a very good soundtrack - Xueran Chen's OP is living rent-free in my head at any moment of the day LOL).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTiffc8_BLA

Unfortunately, I (also, not a doctor) know way too much about the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), and its larger and scarier brothers, like the kuru disease, that used to happen among cannibal populations quite a lot. I have developed a rather big anxiety-born fear of any TSEs and generally any prion diseases, so I can't make myself watch anything involving the ingestion of brain matter (including zombie dramas or movies, LOL). Even if it's just a plot device and nothing eventually happens or everything is offscreen.

Can't help it. I am quite a scaredy cat, too, LOL, and can't take much horror of any kind, and a cannibal story seems to be pretty horror.

Thank you for the rec, though, I guess we'll have to wait for the good upcoming dramas to finally air :)

First ep is pretty good, IMHO. I can see there's probably going to be SOME regular tropey material in it, and I'm expecting it in every SK detective drama TBH, but it's such a desert in dramaland right now, I'll take it.

For people waiting on first impressions - it feels very much like The Good Detective (first season), and I'm going to make a rec based on that first impression, LOL.

PS Lots of dark-room filming, pretty amazing opening scene, very interesting ED theme, I am pretty sure the detective is not so squeaky clean either. I have some hope for this.

First five minutes, I keep breaking out off the immersion LOL. I mean...

I would have followed you, my brother, my captain, my king. Hehehe. (Well, not quite but you know what that reminds me of).

Gonna keep trying, but for some reason I really had hoped for something more serious. And better acted (not going to judge it by the first 5 mins, but still...)

Edit: half an hour in, nope, not this time. Maybe when it's finished and there are some actual reviews on it. This half hour feels like a revisited Bride of Habaek, and I didn't like that one either. Soft pass for now.

And it started so strongly :(

WTH was it with the waterworks this ep?! A teary-eyed confession where someone decided more is always better - not it's not! - and then the faucets let loose. I kept getting distracted thinking about if they stopped from time to time to add more eye drops.

Everybody seems to have forgotten how to act and the pauses between question-reply-more-talk etc seem to keep getting longer. I know they could do better, because they DID in the beginning. WTH is this half-assed ending?!

No wonder the novel went nowhere fast - it looks like there wasn't much heat under it aside the amazing chemistry between the leads, and the author didn't really feel like making it a round new story. (No seriously, so they both confess and have some - awkward - make-up sex, then next morning they decide commenting on DeanPharm is the best way to spend their first official couple day?! LOL right. ANYthing would be better, even just looking at each other for way too long.)

And then the WaanTul thing - nope. Just nope.

I'm so sad about so much great chemistry being wasted...

The story seems to have ran out of content at about the 4-5 ep mark...

I rewatched a few scenes - I keep thinking about how ZZT absolutely kills the Gu Nan death scene. I mean, he wakes up groggy after being on drugs and having fought with Gu Nan and Gu Nan is lying there with his head crushed or his neck broken or something, and unmoving.

And then follows an actual masterpiece - Luo Bin keeps looking away and back at the body basically every three seconds or so, in shock, considering what to do and what the hell happened. It's so natural - he's in horror of it, but can't look away, again and again and again. I'd expect that level of acting from someone who's been an actor for very long, but not really from a beginner. Awesome. I think it's the best scene, IMHO.

And the songs - the one playing when HCF confronts him about it, the one with the "dancing with the flames" verse, that's so awesome. I so so so so much want that OST!!