Nepeta 22

The higher rating was due to the support actors and the details about college/university life and the programming industry. There are other subtle stories surrounding the FL for instance her childhood artist friend who stood by her and never lost patience. It showed a more realistic look at humans and not all are short tempered or self centred. The colour grading and lighting is better than average, so this is why I cannot mark it down just because of the main leads' story-line, that would be unprofessional. I see a lot of emotional style ratings and other rate high regardless because there is a ML they like. I feel 8/10 is a fair score and looking past the leads, the rest of the drama is not all that bad.

Do you mean it's officially shelved or are you just guessing?

Thanks for replying...I have done this now.

I must be more tolerant than you! I dropped SSS with less than 10 episodes to go! Was actually only watching it for Zhang Tian Ai. Glad I can watch her here, and as stated, was pleasantly surprised.

Fair enough. For me personally, if there was too much of the battles/war elements, it'll put me off. So I guess we are looking for different things. For the time being, I'm looking forward to how it will end.

I get you, it happens to other dramas too. You probably feel a bit short changed. Personally, I went into this without any strong expectations, and was quite surprised. Not a masterpiece but I think the drama is told well without some of the usual dragginess. The comedic parts mixed with the more serious parts feel quite natural. I guess we're all different. I dropped Sword Snow Stride because I felt the comedy elements weren't right, but I know it was well received.

Regarding original script I cannot comment and I know some dramas have been disappointing to some book fans, and these issues arise a lot in C-dramas, and no doubt will continue for the foreseeable future if there is an over-reliance on these novel adaptations. Maybe I'm more simplistic, I think the balance between court and battle stuff is well balanced and judging by the novel, I fear it might be too slow, staid & long for it to be palatable for a drama. Just my opinion.

I disagree, the drama is getting better. From someone that is just a passerby without all the baggage of "story book" and being all about A Mai, it's better than a lot of the stuff out there. I understand those that feel upset of the story-line veering off her character, but perhaps I'm not here to see certain characters or expecting the classic knight and shining armour style man, it's just a very watchable drama and much better than I expected.

I give this an 8 out of 10 which is highly generous. Mainly for the overall production quality. But overall, a very problematic drama which in essence glamourizes toxic behaviour and puts narcissistic behaviour firmly on the map. For watchers like me, it's not an issue, as it's just a drama, but for younger audiences, quite damaging to see and think normal and even acceptable.

Yet again, we are treated to "band-aid" relationships where usually the woman is lowering herself to accommodate the man under the guise of being gallant and changing him for the good. Reality is, these types of relationships end in disaster and this story tries to paint over that fact. Even to the very end, the ML "buys" a property (a big life decision) without consulting her. This is classic controlling narcissistic behaviour with very little in way of seeing him change. The only change is the fact is he finally accepts the FL and end up in a relationship, again...

The acting is good, although I feel CFY is more or less acting like his real life character and not a far stretch to play a part like this, so it suits him down to the ground. JJY is the work-horse of the drama. Even how annoying she is to still hang in such a toxic relationship, she told the story well through countless scenes of humiliation and curiosity.

There were parts that dragged on. To get to the point, some episodes really did not need to be. The so-called baddie character played by ZZW was a bit weak, especially towards the latter stages when he was going off the rails were some of the most awful gurning and over-the-top nodding going on. You know something is wrong when you're giggling instead of concentrating on the actor's emotions.

Nonetheless, it's a decent drama, but the subject is not new and re-hashes that same old "only I can change this man's behaviour" trope to make female audiences feel more personal and special. I think that's more imaginary rather than reality.

WD has been unlucky. He had a 4 year gap in dramas due to other people's cancellations. The movie that he did was "Yin Yang Master, Dream of Eternity", which was a hit, but it was pulled after 2 weeks due to GJM's cancellation at the time. WD is a good actor with range, but dramas like "Night Traveller" are still being held.

Out of the 4 ZUI actors, WD is the one that works outside the most. "Bloody Romance" was not GJM, it was by "The Knockout-Out" director.

Agreed. The original title from the book states clearly the FL's journey. I understand the story may have been altered, but we'll see. So far, I like the dynamics of all the characters. A Mai will probably not end up with any of the so-called love lines, but we'll see. The altered title is possibly to incorporate the more entertaining aspect of her journey with cheeky side interest to keep viewers reasonably engaged. I wouldn't take any of the "chemistry" too seriously.

True they may have, but for me, I think the ML's antics is a breath of fresh air and whether some like it or not, there is nothing actually wrong with that. Those with an issue are still in that classic fairy-tale mode. When I say that, I mean, they are busy day-dreaming about their ideal man that is less likely to happen in real life so they need to live this through a drama. Sadly, looks like this type of drama will annoy that brigade. For me, the overall drama is easy going and mixes the sublime to the ridiculous quite well. Not a masterpiece but certainly not draggy and fillery.

I wouldn't worry about MDL ratings. Those in the know will tell you, those with the highest ratings tend to be (not all but majority) safe run-of-mill dramas with big fandoms, that take over with ratings and artificially inflate. Most of the decent dramas on MDL have more realistic ratings of 7.5 to 7.8. This to my mind is more real and I think this drama will have a more realistic rating which will probably be lower.

I suspect a fair few do, but they then demand more like how the so-called reverse harem is supposed to look and behave. That sort of cancels out the message by resorting to the more basic and superficial!

I never even knew it went out of the norm until I saw what what was written by some. But I agree, sometimes, people really need to accept a story that doesn't pander to their personal fantasies, it's not as if there's not enough of that already.

That's because most viewers are female and they want the drama to cater to their desires and as you point out, when it's reversed, they can't see issue much because to some (not all) women characters are even invisible. You see this often on comments sections where the women characters are brushed aside. But when it suits, the same female viewers want and even demand strong female characters especially in historic/costume dramas, knowing full well, it's not totally realistic. This is why some dramas end up the way they are with mis-castings and unrealistic storylines.

@Eko, force feeding us to like certain leads happens often in dramas, and in this drama no different. Personally, I see nothing wrong with a ML acting this way, and it's not to everyone's cup of tea, I get that, but this idea of growth and making him seem like a "proper" ML seems odd for me as the drama has been odd from beginning to now. I think it's very much in tone with the rest of the drama in which they mix the sublime with the ridiculous. That to me has been consistent. I actually hope ML doesn't change drastically as that would not fit in with the mood of this drama.

Hey, maybe I didn't make it clear in my last post. The comment about down-voting was not to you but examples I have seen happening when the ending does not match with a "fairy-tale" end. A journey to Love anyone?

As for the title, there is much speculation of why such a generic title. Perhaps drama makers think inserting anything with the word love gets more watchers. I think the title is a play with A Mai's journey which was motivated by revenge but ended with love. But not classic love story love, but absorbing others' care and love. ML may well be the obvious linking but I think she doesn't end with anyone. She will find out what really happened on the night her parents were killed and the person she's going after is not going to be her true target.

All good. My comment was more about many other comments bemoaning about lack of chemistry. The drama may not follow the path of the original story. The title may be two reasons. They think adding the words love in any drama might attract more lookers, but as seen, the over saturation of the word has led to an opposite effect.

BL dominates too much in dramaland and because most dramas are catering to females too much, the fantasy element has tilted to demand for "more" unrealistic dreamy fairy-tales. Your second comment is quite stereo-typical. Not all old people behave the way of "old married" couple, yet not all younger people behave shy or fixated.

Finally, has anyone thought that the title fighting for love is not about the type of love many are talking about? It could be, they know there are too many classic revenge stories and want to turn it on its head and the ultimate fight was in the end about love not hate. The story is probably A Mai's journey from hate to love.