Calla

this is very sound advice. there are some novels / dramas that i had to drop because i got spoiled on certain characters' fate and couldn't bear to continue even though i was enjoying the stories up until that point. sometimes, it's okay to let go for our own mental well-being.

as for this drama - it is so heavy. when i read spoilers on mu wanyao's heartbreaking backstory the other night, i felt physically ill. a part of me wanted to step away, but then that thought made me feel a bit guilty. it was like i was turning a blind eye to her traumas. it's ridiculous to care about fictional characters to this extent, i know, but i do anyway lol.

i want to believe that after everything our characters have gone through, crawling their way through this darkness - there is light at the end of the tunnel. there has to be... right? i'm determined to be there when justice is served, even if the journey there hurts.

i heard the budget for this drama was $42 million USD. watching the trailer, it makes sense because everything and everyone looks expensiveee. drop-dead gorgeous cinematography. 👏

definitely going to keep my eye out for this one!

actually, there are only a total of 235 chapters, and that's including the side stories. there is a fair amount of repetitive writing in the novel, so imo, the actual plot is even shorter than that.

having a director or screenwriter rush the pacing and strip out the heart of the story is always a valid fear, because that has happened to us so many times before, BUT as far as i can tell... the trailer seems quite faithful to the novel and it looks pretty damn fantastic. maybe it will amaze us?

all we can do is stay optimistic lol.

thank you for sharing these links! i plan to read this novel soon, so i will bookmark these chapters for future reference. :)

and i know... i wish people would try to be more understanding towards broken / flawed women instead of judging them so harshly. it's almost as if they hate these women (who are survivors!) more than they hate the actual men who inflicted all of this pain and suffering.

you're 100% right about how her prickly personality is just a mask for protection. if she was truly as evil as people claim she is, she wouldn't have been so overwhelmed with empathy and done all the things she did in ep14. the more i learn of mu wanyao, the more i love her, admire her, and want to protect her. i hope everyone watching this drama will give her more grace. she's trying her best. 😭

LOL. thank you for this comment, i had a nice chuckle.

to people who don't watch c-dramas, it will sound like you're joking, but everything you're saying is completely correct. 😅

i literally sobbed throughout those scenes. too heartbreaking. 😭

i would've never guessed. based on her performance at the beginning of ep14, i assumed she'd been acting for a while. so talented!

this episode was a hard watch. even though chunhua woke up fully clothed, it was obvious what happened, and like you, i couldn't stop crying for her. shen jiayu is such a good actress - there was so much raw pain in her screams.

i hated the stupid comedic music that played whenever mu ti was on screen. it's a bit tone deaf for an arc this traumatic and heavy, i don't know why the drama thought it was a good idea. hopefully this POS dies soon.

i remember that scene with princess consort jin, and it made me wonder the same.

the comment i read last night answers your question if you don't mind spoilers:

https://kisskh.at/760879-shang-gong-zhu#comment-28030944

omg. that is very complicated then... i hope the drama is kind to us. these characters have suffered enough in the novel - at least let a few of them escape death in this alternative universe.

i'm gonna be praying for my favorite supporting characters. 😅

thank you for your thoughtful response. i appreciate it!

dammit.

i'm not attached to wenji, so if he takes the wrong path and gets himself killed like the vague spoilers i've read of him suggested - that is entirely on him. so be it.

but i really don't want chunhua to die. i was hoping that the director and screenwriter have taken enough creative liberties with the story so far that the chances of them altering the ending might give chunhua a way out.

still hoping for the best, but i will proceed with caution lol. thank you for responding!

thank you for citing the exact chapter and quote from yan shang and chunhua's conversation. it really helps give concrete context to wanyao's backstory. our girl has gone through so much...

if you don't mind, i do have a question. i haven't watched ep13-14 yet, but based on what we've seen so far in the drama, do you think that the supporting characters will have the same fate they did in the novel? or do you think the director and screenwriter will soften the blow and give them a better ending? take chunhua as an example - do you think she will also die in the drama?

i admire her selflessness so much. that quote only further proves that she is a good person who cares about the bigger picture and doesn't mind sharing the best person she knows with the rest of the world. i love it. hopefully they will keep this line in the drama!

i agree, and i'm with you. let's see how it plays out. :)

thank you for elaborating on your previous comment! i read it last night and i was a mess afterwards lol.

i don't know the exact details, but the number of abusers doesn't change the fact that she was abused and suffered greatly. she was a child, powerless, and alone. how could she have fought back? you are completely right about the damage her experiences have caused her - and for several years? i feel for her.

it makes sense why she would struggle to have genuine intimate connections with men - a very realistic response to trauma. but i believe yan shang is patient enough to meet her where she needs him.

i am invested in her healing journey as well as her revenge arc!

i haven't read the novel, so i don't know the exact details of what happened to mu wanyao during her first marriage. that's why when i read that comment last night, it disturbed me to my core.

hearing that it wasn't to that level of abuse, but she still experienced r*pe and abuse by one "man" instead of many is still horrifying. i still feel everything i felt in my original post, but i genuinely appreciate the clarification. thank you!

btw, if you don't mind, please put a spoiler tag on your comment. it would suck if other viewers stumble across this novel spoiler and it ruins their watch experience.

yan shang is more of a gentleman than i expected, but omg wanyao is a menace lol.

btw - off-topic, but i've been reading your plot summaries of the novel, and they are very interesting. that comment you posted yesterday about wanyao's tragic past gave me nightmares. 😭

thank you for sharing your insights as a reader!

i peeped that too! it made me chuckled lol.

the post said that in the novel, wanyao was forced to marry a barbaric man at 15. she was abused and passed around to many men, and that was what broke her... my heart. i know she has a difficult past, we see glimpses of it during her flashbacks, but i didn't expect what she went through to be so much worse than my imagination. no wonder she is who she is today - because how does anyone survive all of that and still remain the same naive person they once were?

wanyao is just a fictional character, but she represents the reality so many women have experienced irl, and it makes me so incredibly heartbroken for her. while reflecting on this, i can't help but think that when women in abusive relationships meet tragic ends, society always says, "that sucks, why didn't she leave?" yet when a few of these women do escape, only to be too broken to fit back into society perfectly, the same people also say, "what she went through is horrible, but it doesn't excuse a bad attitude." we want survivors, we celebrate them, but we don't have the patience to show them grace during their healing journey and we don't allow them to reclaim their agency on their own terms. i don't think society means to be cruel, but it is anyway, sigh.

tbh, i am a bit hesitant to watch the rest of the drama unfold because of how traumatic her backstory is. i wonder if the drama will stay true to the novel or if it will sanitize her first marriage for the viewers. i feel like glossing over what happened to her would be an injustice to what she went through, but keeping it might be too dark for tv? are the director and screenwriter bold enough to go there?

regardless of the direction the drama decides to settle on, wanyao has every right to be cruel, cold, overbearing - and whatever the hell else she wants to be. she is a fighter. a survivor. and most of all, a woman worthy of more than the scraps this shit world is offering her. may all her enemies - anyone and everyone who has ever played a part in harming her - die a painful death.

mu wanyao WILL come out on top as victor in the end.

i will need to scroll through the comments to find it again, but i read a post last night right before dozing off in bed, too tired to immediately respond, and it gave me actual nightmares. i feel so devastated and sick to my stomach for wanyao.