Suliabryon

I agree with so many others - the Qimin and Princess pairing COULD have been done so much better. Like...the seeds were there, if only they'd let her act less like a spoiled brat and more like the survivor she would HAVE to be after that background and having such a mother. We should have seen hints that her spoiled brat persona was a guise to fool her cruel and controlling mother and paranoid brother of a King. We should have seen Qimin - who is smart and perceptive - seeing through her guise and slowly respecting and admiring her. We should have seen him empathize over her truly horrific childhood trauma. Instead, it's just "mine, mine, mine" from the Princess and Qimin barely tolerating her as he continues to pine for Qilou, even knowing how she feels about Xuan Lie.

And I am also FED UP with the lack of communication between our lead couple for the Sake of the Plot. COME ON. These two are master strategists who hatched plots together to bring down Xuan Lie's enemies and expose them. Then, suddenly for the sake of the plot, we have the ML just NOT TELL the FL about his grand plan to get her back home and to marry her - meanwhile he takes ten steps outside the room and shares his plan in detail with his subordinates. And NOW we have HER refusing to share her plans and troubles with him, and just coldly turning him away. Really? These characters are both smarter than this. If they communicate and work together, they can solve any problem. But no. For the sake of unnecessary conflict, we're just going to take turns hiding our plans and troubles to create misunderstandings.

Sigh. I'm still watching, but man I hope they turn this around.

Also, every SINGLE problem in this drama could be solved by just getting rid of both of these Kings, who are paranoid, selfish nut jobs who create more problems than they solve.

Picked this up as a light palette cleanser after the heavy emotion of Moonlight Mystique and am really enjoying it. Of course, I loved WXY in The Double and love him here, too. But I also really like the slice of life type dramas, and I love that we are getting multiple couples here. That said, looking for recs of similar shows that have with the same feel and theme - ie, multiple couples, slice of life, some humor, but not too over the top. Perfect Match is great but I'd like to watch something I'm not waiting for new episodes to drop, too!

Seriously, I need another drama with this man playing a VERY similar character as the lead. I would 10/10 watch it. I have no idea how many people are talking about his character, though, especially in China where it probably actually matters.

I'm still 90% sure we're going to get a self-sacrifice moment or something and that will be when her feelings are acknowledged. It just has that feel.

WOW, I actually never expected the show to BLATANTLY show us that she's in love with him, but I'm SO happy it did! And he clearly knows. (I mean...like you said, the lie was SO obvious.) Him saying "Good. Then I'll pretend I never asked you that question today." Is really him saying "Good, then I'll pretend to believe you."

And yes, when he walked toward her and she backed up it was definitely hot. I'm not going to hold out hope for a kiss before the end, but it would be nice.

OMG, I've also been busy and am behind but I'm going to go watch that scene RIGHT NOW.

Right? If you don't like Angelababy's acting, why are you even watching it? It's like people that diss Top Gun because Tom Cruise is in it. Me: ....if you hate him, why did you watch it??

Came here for the comments to see what everyone else thinks and WOW people are critical. Do y'all take any consideration in the fact that for the first several episodes the FL is supposed to be pretending to be a business savvy man?? She's literally spent the past several years of her life doing this, OF COURSE she's not showing lots of emotion, but I certainly could tell just fine when she was scared, calculating, admiring, etc. People are overly critical and to be honest, mean! As the episodes go on and she relaxes more around ML's character, she shows more emotion and expression. Angelababy is doing just fine, and she and Song Weilong have great chemistry. IN FACT, BOTH of them really do a great job with SUBTLE expressions, like the first time he sees her dressed as a woman, SWL does a fantastic job of portraying his character being completely stunned but also doing his best to hide the fact. It's subtle, and IMO more powerful emotionally because of it. BOTH characters are very reserved, calculating, strategic people who do everything for a reason and with a plan in mind, and they're doing their best most of the time to manipulate one another into revealing more than they each want to.

ANYWAY, moving on, I am really enjoying this drama. But I have a thing for really smart characters falling for each other because of how smart and strategic they are. I've watched up through episode 8 and I'm going to keep watching. I also like the princess with the guard. I hope they are the secondary couple and it actually goes somewhere. I hope we see the Princess grow and mature and the guard get over (my opinion) his obsessive thing for the FL. I don't know what to think about our third "couple"?? Seems like things there are going to end up tragically, but we'll see.

I mean....they're supposed to make her look believable as a young man. (even though it's super obvious she's not, lol. FL is just too feminine and pretty to pull it off, but that's okay - suspension of disbelief!) As the show goes on she dresses as a woman, and goes back and forth.

Awesome, thanks for the rec! Honestly I have a thing for anti heroes or villain redemption arcs anyway, so even though it's been obvious from the first few eps he was in that that was NOT the direction for his character in this drama, I kept wishing it could be.

That said, I am very much enjoying the story for Fu Leng and Chong Zhao in this one.

Does anyone else find it distracting how handsome the actor playing Chen Yi is? Just me?

Like...the last time this happened to me was with Deng Wei in TTEOTM, and at the time I thought "This guy has lead roles in his future, my gosh". And now he plays the ML in dramas. I think the same thing is going to happen here. Liang Xue Feng is just gorgeous.

Okay, the spoilers filled post. First of all....the SISTER. I mean, we saw it coming, right? But man is that going to suck for EVERYONE. CZ is right, those girls are going to have a really hard time getting past what FL has done. And can I just say Dai LuWa is killing it in that role??

Long Ling and Rong Xian. Even knowing their story ended tragically going into that whole resentment didn't make a difference. I still cried watching it unfold. I get why RX went crazy and killed his sect. (Also, are all of the Eternal sects just arrogant a**hats or what? WOW. One group here is full of evil and spoiler alert, it's not the demons or the humans. Okay, okay, well SOME demons are definitely evil...*looks at Zhen Yu*).

Then we go from there to the Fox Clan and the whole thing there with My Jiu, Tian Hou and Wu and HER whole deal, and I spent the last part of that story crying into my tissue.

THEN we find out Chen Ye is actually Fan Yu's long lost BFF??? I did NOT see that coming!

So....is Zhen Yu like collecting all of the "special" kids in this universe, corrupting them and turning them into demons for a purpose?? I guess we'll see.

MEANWHILE, the number of sad ending love stories we have seen so far is NOT filling me with confidence about the ending for this drama being happy. But I'm in too deep now. I'll have to watch it to the end.

I didn't pick up this show when it first started because the trailers didn't really grab me and some other dramas that started around the same time did. But I thought, I have a free day, I'll give it a shot.

Um. I'm trying to remember the last time a drama made me mainline it and left me with an emotional hangover the way this one has. The main couple is great and I'm loving watching their story unfold, and all. But OMG the side stories?? The TWISTS and TURNS?! The soundtrack? Wow does this show know how to make you get up to find the tissue with some of these stories, and the actors they have doing them are really good. I am remaining spoiler free for this comment, but I'm going to make a spoiler filled one below it, because I am INVESTED. Also, the song Flowers Fall with No Trace (ie the opening theme song?) WOW, do I need a high res version of that to listen to in my life.

Also, I saw a comment breeze by complaining about the acting. Why even leave a comment like that? If you hate it so much, why are you even watching?

Seriously, that feels like a troll comment to me. Bai Lu is always great, and Ao Ruipeng is doing a fantastic job playing the various sides of Fan Yue. And don't even get me started on the second lead couple and supporting actors, who are, if anything, even more excellent. This show is full of solid acting.

OMG I have caught up through episode 27. No one will EVER convince me that FY does not love NXY with her entire being. I think she knows him very, very well, though, and understands that he does not actually understand love, and that's why she hides her feelings from him. But dude, the EFFORT she expended to save him. She would have given her everything to keep him alive. (SERIOUSLY this the kind of devotion NXY has spent his whole life searching for and yet he is SO BLIND to it being right next to him the whole time! Such a tragedy.)

I don't think I am going to get to ep 28 tonight, but I will for sure watch it tomorrow. (I'm also enjoying the main story, to be clear, but I"m just OBSESSED with this tiny possible side love story??? Okay, in my head it's not tiny and it's not just possible but very real. I will be upset if the writers don't confirm this for us. And FATE better give NXY back his body in the end.)

Okay, okay....I am MORE CONVINCED THAN EVER that FY is in love with NXY. And I feel like the show wants us to know that. IDK, the way she was waiting for him outside after his talk with MX and asked him about how it went?

And I totally agree, I don't think she expects anything from him because he's always acted indifferent toward her. But her insane loyalty to a him, the way she worries about him. I have a feeling this is headed for tragedy, though. Like maybe she ends up sacrificing herself for him, and he only realizes at the end that she loved him. I'm also not done with the new eps yet. I had to come post this after their scene.

Right?? I guess having a romance there would not fit in with their plans to make him a sad villain later, but maybe a one sided one where she loves him but knows he doesn't love her so that's why she didn't tell him? IDK. I just want someone to love him. Also, if it was ME writing it I would have him finally notice that she loves him and have the implication in the end that this changes his perspective and he might grow feelings of his own. IDK, something. He's just too cool of a character to basically only exist for the plot of the ML and FL.

Okay, I'm not done with the episode yet, but did you get a VIBE between NXY and Feng Yao?! Did she lie when she told him she didn't love him? Is there hope for a ship here?

Oh, yeah! I really don't like the whole "immaculate birth" storyline for MXL. I would have strongly preferred it in SQ was the girls' father. they could even have kept it mostly the same, but had her already be pregnant and because she's the divine maiden or whatever, her body nurtures the babies anyway, and then the pearl could have went into the babies, and that could be why Quimin has nine spiritual apertures and why MXL is special. But the whole "the pearl becomes her and then creates a whole second baby for no reason" storyline just feels kind of pointless and less believable.

The sword moment also came out of nowhere. There was no foreshadowing or set up for it, so it felt completely unearned and just "necessary for the plot".

OMG and NXY did the right thing and told the truth and said he didn't want to become a hateful person! Ack. My heart. 😭 He's too good to become a villain.

Okay, I've only watched episode 19 so far, but..

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The way I freaking CHEERED when my man Nan XuYue came in for the heroic moment! IDK what he might do now that he has Mu Xuanling to himself for a short time, but I'm going to hold out hope that they keep his character consistent and he doesn't try anything too horrible to split her from Xie Xuechen.

Yes. Twins, apparently. There is more to the story we don't know yet.