SD1D Enthusiast

I don't care whatever reason he had, he should have involved SH in his plans and let her consent to what he was doing. He made her decision for her, he never gave her a chance to choose. He's the same as SYR, the only difference is that he was actually SH's husband and owed her honesty and trust. Considering he didn't even give SH a chance to choose, he didn't even give her a chance to refuse. There's an added layer of betrayal of trust there that makes things so much worse....*to me.* Like I said I don't care about this couple any more and was not planning on arguing about it, but since you commented on it, here you go.

We're just gonna have to agree to disagree.

I just don't like DYX at all personally. SYR wanting to be with her even though she didn't want to marry him is not so different from DYX going behind his wife's back and plotting and humiliating her etc etc all in the name of thinking he knew what was best for her. DYX certainly didn't care for whether for what she was willing to do. At least SYR wasn't actually beholden by any vows or ties to 1st sister; he's just a love struck guy, and DYX had told him to take care of her, so you could argue he just wanted to do what was right. DYX though was her husband; he owed her trust and communication, and not to dupe her into his plans without letting her know what was going on. There's also a matter of consent there.

As for Chai An, once he's married, he's not so insufferable and has grown on me. Turns out he was the lesser evil among most of the husbands. Comparison really does wonders.

You're right though, would have been better for 1st sister to find someone better than both DYX and SYR. But oh well, I don't care at this point. I'm just ignoring their story and skipping their scenes if they come up during 4th sister's story.

So I didn't care much for 3rd sister's romance and skipped 1st sister's story for the most part bc the Du guy pissed me off and I think she should have ditched him and chosen the Yang guy instead! BUT I'm back to watching for the 4th sister's story and I think it's the best one so far. I really like how she's cute and honest, and has her own brand of bravery and stubbornness, even if she's not as smart or as good with words or as fierce as her other sisters. I also like the ML for this couple a lot better than the others. He's strict but he has a reason to be. He has all rights to ignore the FL and his father and grandma are the reason she got caught in their ploy, but he recognizes she's a victim and treats her well, offering compensation, seeing her home.

I'm going to be honest it's a tiktok edit where he bent down and wrapped her foot neatly with the handkerchief that hooked me to skip some eps and come back to this show. So far, he reminds me a little of Zhang Zhe from SOKP: stern and straight laced and stubborn, but with compassion and a good heart. I'm like the dynamic so far.

seen some good tiktok edits for the 1st sister (i like the gentle but strong aura she gives). what do ppl think of her couple story so far?

physically? no. emotionally? i'd say so. most damning is that he tried to get a concubine and would have gone through with it if not for kang ning's scheming, so it's still cheating in my books. 2nd sister would have a concubine to deal with rn if not for KN.

but according to other viewers, he becomes more bearable in the later eps and he's not central to the later plot so YMMV

he is too talented to be limited like that pls i need him to rise

Wei Yingluo is a character that has yet to be beat for me in terms of sheer fortitude and calculations. WJY was def a huge factor to it, but her character's writing was another factor. The Double for ex was good but still not on the level of Yanxi for me.

tried to @ u in an above comment but doesn't seem like it worked. i do agree with your points

@SerenityShimikaBlack does have a point about the generational divide when it comes to humor and how the writing undermines serious situations which don't land well with modern audiences. someone mentioned that the scriptwriter was alive in a time when concubinage was still legal in china. kind of mind boggling to realize just how backwards things were for women not so long ago, even just in china.

if i think back to yanxi, i have to admit despite it being one of my favorites, there were times the humor was off in yanxi too. for example, moments played for laughs with the emperor being jealous of ying luo and fuheng, and then fast forward to ying luo being abused and being sent off to be tortured gave crazy whiplash (I watched this w my parents and my mom was always going wtf the emperor was just smiling 2 minutes ago, why is she abt to die again! lmao).

i think the reason it worked in yanxi was because the dissonance btwn the rare moments of humor and the awful things happening made the drama that much more tense and unpredictable. yanxi wasn't meant to be lighthearted, so even the lighthearted moments felt like they had a dangerous edge to it and so it didn't fall into the same pitfall as this drama which has regressive humor in its writing but is aiming for a more lighthearted show.

the thing is, this scriptwriter also wrote yanxi palace, which imo, was done very VERY well and resulted in one of the best female centric cdramas ever. however, yanxi was great for how it told a story of resilience and a girl who fought for vengeance. humor wasn't really a big part of yanxi so it didn't fall into the same pitfalls as this drama. on the other hand, i've heard the drama royal feast did have similar critiques as this one, but i don't know how true that is.

I think lowkey it's bc a character's worst flaw in terms of entertainment isn't being evil or crazy but annoying and frustrating.

Exactly, the comparisons to Pride and Prejudice have me thinking that Austen would roll in her grave. Darcy was prideful yes, but he was never so callous to women and there Elizabeth didn't have to suffer to change him. He changed himself and for himself. If Elizabeth was kidnapped or even if Miss Bingley (who Darcy doesn't like) was kidnapped, there was no way in hell that Darcy would have stood by for an entire night waiting for them to feel fear so that they could learn a lesson. There is something so condescending about the kind of attitude taken by the men here, and what is even more alarming is how the casual cruelty is brushed aside so easily by the storytelling.

Like I said, I can understand if he wants to protect his own business but even his servant says that it's unnecessary for them to care so much bc the Lis business targets a very different demographic than theirs. What I find off putting is the arrogance and the condescending manner in which he deals with the Li family. The real reason he does what he does is because he feels like he's being challenged/mocked, and he wants them to come crawling on their knees for his help. He lacks empathy too. This man is super rich and powerful, with ties to the emperor and tons of businesses. The Li family business doesn't even count as a day's worth of pocket change for him. Yet, him meddling to ruin the Li family means that they would have become destitute and homeless.

I can respect him being a cutthroat and a ruthless businessman, but that's not where his actions stemmed from. His actions stemmed from a ridiculous sense of superiority.

I disagree this is a fandom and bias realm thing bc if you check douban forum and bilibili reviews, casual chinese viewers are saying the exact same criticism even though they are already very familiar with red flag MLs and "realistic" historical dramas

i completely agree and it was basically confirmed that zhang zhe was the love of her life, in the novel she even thinks that her heart was barren and cold and yet the only part uncovered by dust was the part zhang zhe held, she says he was the warm brazier in the cold to her, poetic shit like he was the boat that helped her cross the river. girl was in love literally 95% of the novel and although they changed the drama at least 80% of the drama

i did some research and apparently turns out the novel had a pay to vote system where u cud vote for ur male lead and near the end xie wei started winning so the author pivoted and cut off zhang zhe and made XW the male lead instead. would explain how nonsensical the break up was

you are the one here assuming that the same people criticizing the MLs in this drama were fawning over the MLs in those other dramas. Meanwhile, I was criticizing the MLs in all those other dramas you mention too!

no need to make false generalizations over a difference of opinion

I think the second sister's situation fits the definition of "reactive abuse" very well.

https://www.charliehealth.com/post/what-is-reactive-abuse

the brother in law of the emperor tried to force 3rd girl into marriage, which if it had succeeded would have resulted in martial rape. just forcibly taking her as a concubine was actually bad enough. as bad as the lives of women were back then, men were NOT allowed to seize civilian women as concubines against their will. if an official had used this to file a complaint to the emperor, it would be so serious that he would have no choice but to punish both the boy and the consort who he favoured for allowing him to run rampant.

as for abuse, it's in the teaser of future episodes. physical abuse: the husband of the first sister beats her so hard her clothing is soaked in blood. there will likely be an "explanation" or "misunderstanding" for this, they'll say that the sister was protecting someone and got in the way or make some excuse, but the scene is clear. his hand moving is very slow and deliberate, he could have easily stopped when she got near, but he kept going. there's no excuse for that.

emotional abuse: cheating is a form of emotional abuse and the 2nd sister's husband has been doing that to her in spades. she literally got to the point that she had to chew pebbles and make her mouth bloody in order to stay sane. this would have been a really interesting angle beyond surface level to explore but it's quickly forgotten by the scriptwriter.

i think it's insulting to imply that people don't like the male leads because they prefer bad boys with 1D personalities. the male leads in this aren't even that complex or well written. it is perfectly reasonable for viewers to be turned off by narratives and characters that make light of serious topics (emotional abuse, abuse, cheating, martial rape, forced marriage) and which could even be triggering to them personally. It's not even the MLs that are the main problem but the writing which treats their actions lightheartedly and offers a clumsy message that feels regressive. I checked douban and over there people have made similar criticisms already.

It's really frustrating when people make generalized statements like this towards people just because they have critical opinions over a show.

ah so the thing abt yan lin is that he raped her in her previous life and xie wei knew abt it and turned a blind eye until finally guilt got to him and he went to give her the knife to protect herself (rather than actually stop yan lin from going to her room every night). they both suck and understandably she's traumatized from yan lin. the drama couldn't explicitly portray this from the novel so they were more subtle abt it, but i can understand if it flew over some ppls heads.

zhang zhe remained the only person who was ever there for her at her lowest and who loved her even when she was reviled. the screenwriter for the drama completely shat on his arc in the drama tho bc in the novel she never stops loving him and it only ends bc HE turns her down, bc he's reborn and once she finds out he doesn't want her to be burdened by guilt or feel like she owes him (he and his mom died bc of her in the past life). so she doesn't really choose xei wei. one is yan lin, her past life rapist who is different in this life but she cant get over the memories. the other is zhang zhe, who the author makes reject her in the most poetic and tragic speech which i think is the climax of their story. and then in the last 20 chs she sort of just ends up with xie wei bc she realizes he was gonna kill himself and she would feel guilty if that happened, i feel like she took it as a form of atonement for her past life. in the drama, it's more like xie wei just wears her down and she stops fighting rather than truly choosing.