Tibbs

Watching the previews makes me want to strangle YS. He’s sour grapes. Because he can’t get the girl, and she doesn’t like him, he should destroy her reputation? What a nasty man !

Tomay-toes Tomah-toes. Does Naksu love either guy at this point? Not really. It’s open to the viewer’s interpretation until she declares herself. Do the lead male and lead female end up together in most kdramas regardless of chemistry?. In most cases, YES because the script says so. LOL.

Ikr? In my eyes the Naksu x Yul connection is just so compatible, they feel like lovers, while the Naksu x Jang Uk connection feels like close buddies. Of course the latter couple are going to end up together because the script says so, but I feel it’s a disservice to Yul to write off his character like that.

My theory is that Naksu is in Buyeon’s body, a.k.a Mudeok. I’m thinking that Buyeon didn’t truly die when Jin Mu tried to kill her several years ago. That the ice crystal for some reason kept her body alive even though her soul was gone, which might explain why Mudeok’s body is so compatible with Naksu’s soul to the point that there is no blue mark on her body, the main indication of soul shifting. And only appears as specks in her eyes. It also explains how Mudeok calmly opened the door and walked into the chamber of horrors as only people with Jin blood can do. It might also explain why the irritating new arrival (thief) has the sash with the Jin family seal. I wonder how this complication will work to the benefit of Naksu? Interesting times ahead!

Love the dynamics between QiQi and NN’s 2nd brother. Their scenes together are simply hilarious. She does a good job of pretending not to see what’s right under her nose. Lol.

Dude can’t hide it. Even her parents know but she is in denial. Plus she doesn’t want to marry a soldier. Though she would make an excellent military wife.

Also I wish YS would stop being mean to NN just because she got engaged to another guy. It’s not winning him any points in my book. He’s petty and annoying. I much rather prefer Ling Buyi’s reaction on finding out that the love of his life got engaged to another man, he still treats both of them with courtesy and respect. A class act!

Have you noticed that CSS has never once referred to her parents’ marriage as the epitome of marital bliss? To her, the ideal marriage is her Third Aunt and Uncle. This is because her mother has never once been openly affectionate with her father and doesn’t understand the concept of ‘play’ between a couple. When her mom was asking her dad why LY and NN were playing around with food, I truly felt sorry for her but loved her husband’s response. Little wonder that NN doesn’t take her mother’s marital advice seriously. Her mother understands the concept of loyalty, strength and power play between in laws. But not caring and affection for her immediate family. It’s not that she is incapable of it, as she dotes on Yangyang often enough.

I know right? Whoever cast that actress must be blind. She’s far from plain, she’s gorgeous. One other reason why I love this drama is the lack of visible makeup in the actresses. You know they are wearing makeup but it is so subtle. Whoever’s in charge of their makeup should win an award!

For all intents and purposes, a Lou Yao- Cheng Shaoshao match might not be a bad thing. There is affection, respect and regard between them which can grow into love and a strong bond. He respects her opinions, is considerate of her needs and is cognizant of her strengths. She in turn values his opinions of her and is willing to please him. She inspires him to be better than his current self, gives him ambition, drive and helps him dream. Like CSS said, a lot of marriages have been built on a lot less. And there are many marriages where the individuals claim to love each other but have no regard for each other and do not respect each other and such marriages crumble with time. If she ends up with LY, I’ll be satisfied that she’ll be content in the marriage. I understand her mother’s concern about the marriage and agree with some of her points, but what I really can’t stand with her mom is how she disrespects NiaoNiao at every turn and belittles her accomplishments, just because her daughter doesn’t fit into her mold. No wonder NN is so starved for affection and values LY’s sincere regard. On the other hand, she might also be eager to get away from her obnoxious mother’s company, by marrying into another family. I know her mother loves her but she has a really funny way of expressing it. Instead of humiliating LY, NN and her husband in front of the servants, why not spend sometime studying and observing the couple to see if they are truly compatible or not? And calmly explaining her fears to NN instead of making her daughter defensive?

Your comment makes me understand why CSS grandmother dislikes her daughter in law so much. In the beginning, episode 1, I thought CSS grandma was just being jealous. Now I see that CSS mother can be so controlling and no one likes to see their son being controlled by his wife like that. She probably took out her frustrations with her daughter in law on her granddaughter.

CSS mother’s approach is just mind boggling. It’s not even the constant berating, fault finding and punishments. It’s that she isn’t even supplying her daughter’s basic needs. When she found out that her daughter was neglected and illiterate, she couldn’t even find her daughter a tutor. Which is such a basic thing any parent can provide. Instead she piles her daughter with complex books and expects her to teach herself. Who does that? Isn’t that counterproductive and counterintuitive? That just showed me that CSS mother was genuinely not interested in her development or her learning progress. She was just using learning as another tool to humiliate her daughter. Especially after she learned about how badly Niao Niao was treated by her aunt. Also, the mother never bothered to find out if she had the right tools for learning. It took her brother to realize that CSS was writing on a child’s desk!. When Niao Niao was arguing with her mother about her lack in proper materials I almost cried! That woman doesn’t deserve to be her mother!

Still, it’s not an excuse. Parents adjust to their children’s personalities. There’s no excuse for the mother to be so rigid and always believe the worst of her daughter in every situation. However unjustified. Funny thing is, no matter how good one is to another’s child, they still prefer their bio parent. I hope her niece doesn’t make her regret prioritizing her over her own daughter.

I disagree that her mother has tried every other way to discipline her. Sometimes a loving conversation can go a long way where physical punishment cannot. CSS mother has never tried to hug her child, or express love to her child. So why does she expect her daughter to confide in her, or expect the child she abandoned to listen to her? It’s obvious to everyone else that what CSS is hungering for is motherly love. CSS is not unreasonable. If her mother sincerely and lovingly asked her to stop because such actions break her heart, I’m sure CSS would listen and comply. Her mother’s antics are only making CSS more independent and self reliant. I pity her mother because she’s losing out on a crucial time to develop a mother/daughter bond. Soon CSS would be married and her priority would be her husband and his family and not her own.

One of the most icky part of this drama is the incestuous relationship that exists in the royal family. A’wu’s father and the Crown Prince’s mother are siblings, likewise A’wu’s mother and the Emperor are also siblings. That would make A’wu and the Crown Prince ‘double cousins’ or genetic half-siblings. Which means their off-spring would most likely have some defect or other. She would have been much better off marrying Zi-Dan with whom she shared one set of genes on her mother’s side, or even the second prince who was technically her second cousin. I don’t even want to think of the centuries of inbreeding that had taken place in that era. Thankfully, she married a commoner who shared no genetic lineage with her. I understand it was the practice in those days, but for my modern sensibilities, these facts were hard to overcome for me to thoroughly enjoy the drama.

I did!

It took a long time for me to get into this drama. Couldn’t get past the first episode in like forever, I finally did because I heard about the spectacular chemistry between the main leads. I must say that their romance doesn’t disappoint, but considering that they spent most of their time apart in this drama, that’s saying a lot. Some of the most exceptional performances were given by the actors playing Wang Lin and Xiao Qi. Other than those many of the other performances bordered from good to mediocre. My biggest gripe with this drama is the plot. This drama didn’t have to be 63 episodes long. Too many episodes were spent on irrelevant things, and some episodes became repetitive and cyclical. The drama would have been better served with tighter editing, a more concise plot and fewer episodes. On a positive note, the drama was certainly a very lavish production. On the flip side, many of the characters were unidimensional and I couldn’t buy the motivations for many of the characters actions. Irrational actions just to move the plot forward were rife in this drama.

The ratings on Viki are brought down by people requesting subs in their own languages instead of rating the drama on its own merits. So I won’t put any credibility in Viki’s ratings. In my opinion, I think Viki is prejudiced against C-dramas whose qualities are progressively improving with time. Compared to other countries, the audience there tends to be harsher in their criticisms of Cdramas. To be fair, Cdramas should learn to have tighter plots with better endings to capture international audiences. As a large majority of their productions fall apart by the second half. Also, just a question, why do C-romcoms typically feature a secondary, or even tertiary romance line? It’s not always necessary. I often hunger for more dramas like ‘You Are My Glory’ that focused on the lead couple and no one else.

I’m modifying my former verdict. The first half of the drama is definitely stronger than the second half, and the plot started to pall after episode 18. I’ve reviewed my former rating to reflect this. And the ending was rather bizarre, though I can see what the writers were trying to do. My advice, 24 episodes are not enough to layer this villain, better to leave him as a bad guy and not try to redeem him at the last second. And the ending lacked the sweetness that characterized the first half of the drama.

Really, really sweet leads with unbelievable chemistry. I had an instinct about it when I read the synopsis, and loved it from the first episode.