momo

An extra episode with NH in the 21st century would be gold 😭

Thank you so much!

I actually heard an interesting thing about cdrama female leads. That recently it's been very hard to write them - the audience expects a "strong female lead" so if she shows even an ounce of hesitation or if she apologizes for her actions, the screenwriter starts to get attacked online for making the FL too weak. The ML does not get nearly the same amount of hate, no matter whether he's written as a strong character or a simp... this is actually very bad cause the FL has to be perfect, and any flaw is causing audience's rage. But if she's perfect, she is too boring. So there is no way to win...

I'm also of the same mind as you are. If the ML does most of the pursue, and FL rejects him, thrn she should pursue him later. And the other way around. But here it didn't bother me as much, cause it's a very special drama, unlike most I've seen before.

The "white head same heart" actually came from FL translating the chinese sentence character-by-character, not taking into consideration the overall meaning 😅 it's like Polish "dziękuję z góry" which word by word would translate to "thank you from the mountain" in English but actually means "thank you in advance" 🤣

No problem, I understand you completely! Well, the ML does do a lot to get the FL... To be exact the background is like this:
- the FL hates the ML cause he tries to kill her (brutally) a few times, and can't succeed only because of the script rules, and also because in the script that she read, he cheated on her, hurt her physically, killed her family, abandoned her, and tortured... so she has a very valid reason to resent him, even though he changes from the script.
- at the same time, she completely falls in love with his alter ego. In this relationship, she actively pursues him, trusts him and protects him.

So when she learns the truth in ep 23, that the man she loves is actually her enemy, she is very upset about him hiding his identity and distances herself from him because she believes that their ill fate is unavoidable when they are together. Her main reason is that she doesn't want to lose her family. She says some cruel words to the ML, but it is more to distance herself from him. But she actually cares about him, and after he ensures her through his action that her family is safe, she finally accepts him.

It lasts about 7 eps, but to me it felt alright and understandable. But there are many people who were upset how long it took. However, us viewers could see what the FL couldn't, so we noticed the ML's change way earlier than FL.

Overall, this is not a standard xianxia drama, going from misunderstanding to misunderstanding and characters hurting each other all the time.

This must be a trend with cdramas, I especially hate that a lot of them also include such important parts in the opening 😭

Yes there is a 2ML who is FL's childhood fiancee, but due to the fact that the FL transmigrates, he actually loves the version of her before the transmigration and not our FL. The FL considers him her friend in the beginning, but he quickly turns into the enemy.

Actually the FL hurting the ML has a deeper background - he tried to kill her in the beginning, and she believes that he will kill her family in the end (because she read the script of the story and it said so). This is why she tried to push him away. Once he made sure that she and her family will be safe from him no matter what, she accepted him. I personally thought it made a lot of sense, and wasn't unnecesarily hurtful to him, and I usually hate this trope in dramas.

No love triangle really (FL never has feelings for 2ML), leads have feelings for each other by ep 10-12 but get together in ep 32. But there are many romantic scenes before that, I myself wouldn't call it slow burn but some have.

Guys, do you have any idea how and where to get merch for ADWAD (if there is any) or at least some high quality posters. I'm not usually a collector, but I loved the show so much I want to get something 😭

Yes, I love it too! Very well done.

I felt like she was gonna go all the way, when NH said that she shouldn't lose virginity in such a way she said she has no other choice, not that it's all supposed to be fake. Besides, she didn't call for anyone to find her and see that scene. So I have no reason to believe it was fake unfortunately...

ADWAD main producer also was a producer on this one ~

I also really have to point out how FL just embraced the transmigration. We could have spent 4 eps on her trying to get back to present, and then get a sobby ending where she has to choose whether to stay in the script or go back to reality. But instead they went for "what if the real world is a script too" and her straight up telling the scriptwriter that she wants to stay in the story cause she feels happy. So we got 2 happy endings, one in the story and one in the "reality"! Loved it, no unnecesary drama! Best possible way for this trope.

Beautifully said. Also it delivers a message about not judging others before you get to know them, and how mindless hate and prejudice brings nothing but despair... and all that on top of being a comment on current drama landscape. I have no idea how they managed to put all those messages so tactfully in this drama.

I wouldn't count on it, cause of the leaked iqiyi management meeting or sth from a few months ago, where they stated that giving dramas sad endings leads to more audience engagement 😭

100% agree with this theory. I only wonder whether NF actually had the mole, but under his other eye. I looked at other poster when he came out to his fans in ep 1 and there was a hint of the mole under his right eye. Not left like NH. But other than that everything fits!

The ML has a cute bickering relationship with his brothers-in-arms, who appear from ep 6-7ish. Pretty similar to squad from AJTL if you watched it.

My main fault with the show is the second pair of leads. I couldn't look the same at YT after the creepy assault scene. She never apologized, but demanded apologies from NH and SGH instead...

I actually love how the character development for YM was slow. It allowed to focus the first part of the show solely on NH's loneliness, trauma, and him slowly falling in love and showing trust to people around him. And then when his journey as a character was nearly finished, we could focus on YM's development. And it was very believable, she faced her traumas, thought hard about her worries, and then when she was completely comfortable with her decision, she went for it.

That's the thing I appreciate cdramas for - with 40 eps, it has the time to show the characters grow, fall in love, face any obstacles. If the ending was rushed, then maybe I would agree that the pacing should have been quicker at some parts, but the ending was perfectly paced for a cdrama! It was neither fast paced or sluggish just to fill 40 eps.

Also we got so much romance in the first part of the show, that I wouldn't say I missed it a lot in the middle part. I mean it wasn't the case of the Story of the Kunning Palace, when the FL was longer in love with 2ML that 1ML. We were well fed.

For anyone who is looking for transmigration to ancient times with hilarious comedy and ACTUAL happy ending, I recommend A Dream Within a Dream (cdrama). It actually healed my Mr Queen trauma after so many years.