grapejuice

Yes she is an opportunist and she should be. You want her to be a romantic. But she's been honest about her intentions. She's learned that it's disasterous not to think about your personal power and ability to survive. She comes from a family that was slaughtered by the very family that she now has to marry into a second time ... because her second family is relying on her to do it for their survival and the prosperity of their country. So she has few choices but she's bound and determined to have enough power this second time that she and her second family will never be so vulnerable to annihilation. Can you blame her? And in the end she goes thru with it because she finds out that the CP isn't a fraudster even though it looked, for a minute like he was one. Her first husband and she herself didn't have the power to save her family so she isn't going to make the same mistake twice. Survival is more important than romance.

She should have backed out when she did, imho. She wanted to marry him because he wouldn't be around for long. She told him exactly that. And he agreed. That was the deal. But then she finds out that he's a master liar and manipulator who has been acting the weakling for years, fooling everyone ... when he's actually quite strong, and physically skilled and fully, intellectually crafty and calculating ... which causes her to take a step back from the deal for a while. But, I mean, wouldn't you take a minute to think, if you found out that you'd been lied to at every turn? You probably shouldn't enter into this particular agreement if you find out that there's a good chance that he isn't for real. A deal with a liar isn't likely to be a good deal. She doesn't know why he's done it or how much of what is actually true. I would certainly have taken a second look in those circumstances. There's an imperial decree to defy and she doesn't know at that time ... that he's a really good guy who has his reasons. A sticky situation. followed by another sticky situation. Because ... well, would you run into a marriage with a great guy who's dying? That takes a bit of thinking too.

You're awfully hard on her. She's going to marry him because he's dying but don't you think it's a monumental risk that she's taking? She shows signs of liking him from the beginning even though people make a big deal of her not showing it enough. And we know she will end up loving him cuz ... you know ... it's a cdrama. So she's voluntarily stepping into a world of hurt and grief and that's hard enough even in theory that many or even most people wouldn't go there. So are you sure that you would take it on? When you didn't have to? The fact that he's the nicest guy in the world is only going to make the eventual pain much worse.

it was just a joke :-)

he won't die ... at least he better not die ... :-)

hmmmmmm were you, maybe, doing ten other things while watching without subtitles?

You could think of it as a popular sentiment repeated in many historical c-dramas. You'll hear it again and again. 'It's been a treat but let's never ever do this again in our next lives.' It's pretty potent isn't it?

Good laughter is kinda hard to come by ... :-)

haha. Sorry i missed the 2.0 and thought you were trying to place the li mao actor. But now that I get your comment ... Situ Ling was an absolutely horrible character !!!!!!!!! Really hated him !!!

lol. yes. Love in the Clouds was much bigger and better than Back from the Brink ... but the latter was watchable too. He's actually been in a few of Neo's dramas. Fangs of Fortune as well.

I remember him being in Back from the Brink.

There are a few characters who are villain-ish but at this point we don't know who the ultimate villain is. You might have to watch and find out cuz, for now, the only people who probably know are the best guessers and the book readers.

Am I the only person who doesn't have a problem with the FL or the ML? I don't think she's too cold or rude or anything particularly negative and I don't think he's too shameless or pitiful or anything particularly negative. I do have a slight problem with the 2ML. He's going a bit too far into annoyingly selfish, not quite defensible territory because he's not considering the fallout that could come from his efforts. Other than that I kinda like everyone. They're all interesting at the very least. The premise is original. It's a little bit thin and it's a bit slow but I find myself laughing quite a lot. So ... that'll do for me. I'm quite enjoying this one !!!

Did I understand the whole thing wrong? It's been a while since I saw it but I thought he had changed destiny. He grasped the situation. He became self aware and changed himself for love. And in the end he saw and pursued the only possible solution so that he could save everyone even though the overall situation was impossible. He sacrificed himself so that everyone else would live. So, he couldn't change peoples expectations of him. They thoroughly believed that he was evil. He couldn't change what they did to him and the position that put him into. But he could change where he took it and that's what he ended up doing for love. The tragedy is that, in the end, he had to die in order to prevent the 'apparently' inevitable outcome that people had pushed him to. So he definitely changes his destiny and as a kind of linchpin player, he changes everyone else's destiny too. Which meant, for me, that the story was about the way that people's treatment of others ... their prejudices ... their low expectations ... their cruelty ... create terrible situations where someone will end up doing bad stuff in response, even though that need not have happened. We can help others to become villains or heroes depending on the situations we make for them. The person they all expected to be a villain could end up being one ... or not ... depending on whether just one person showed him love. Love redeemed him. It changed him. But it didn't save him because he couldn't change the beliefs that other people had about him. Even the FL, who loved him, couldn't get beyond what she expected him to become. She didn't fully see that the perception was wrong and the end result was not inevitable. She didn't fully see that he was essentially good until he was sacrificing himself at the end. At least that's how I remember it. Now I'm going to have to do a rewatch and spill all those tears again. LoL. See what you've done to me? omg :-)

LoL. Shakespeare seemed to get the balance right in his day I guess. But isn't it the basic problem of all creatives? To suit themselves and/or do original things that don't make money and may even alienate the audience or make money by giving the people exactly what they want even though it's already been done to death by others? Or put a different way ... be a free but starving artist or be a sell out with money? I'm afraid I've gotten to the point where I'm leaning more towards favoring things I may not like but haven't seen before.

Haha. I can root for the FL getting what she wants and not getting hurt. And if the writers change her feelings I can root for that too. It's not you writing the story. So you can go write fan fic to make the story exactly the way that you want it to be or you can sit back to see what happens. Not every audience member wants to see exactly what you want to see. There is no one right way to write it. So, I'm content to root for the FL as well as the ML and recognize that the characters wishes may not always align with each other. That might end up being more interesting or at least more unique. So, in the end, if only the FL gets what she thinks she wants, I'm ok with that. Chances are that, if you're patient, the story will change her motivations and desires. Just relax and see what happens or how it happens or switch to another drama that moves faster. I never understand why viewers don't get the reality of dramas ... that we aren't writing them ... we're watching ... and we aren't the only one. You may not end up liking it. Like I said, there is no one way. So, watch another where the writer is writing exactly what you want to see.

Why not marry him for her own reasons? He agreed with full knowledge.

So I get that this is your opinion and you have a right to it ...but you know its not the only one right? People in real life don't have to conform to your wishes and values and the writers don't either. The writer is telling their story and it doesn't have to be the one that you want to see.

She married him because the marriage wouldn't last long but you're expecting her to change the deal and fully invest herself in a love that will end. Why would she change? And why would she decide to take on the hurt that would come with his death if she stopped putting distance between them. She's maintaining the deal and her promises. And it's self preservation too. It would be just as fair to ask why he would want it to change and why we would want her to change? He wants love. We want it for him. But if he and we really loved her, we wouldn't want her to suffer more than she already will. No?

I don't think coldness and a business attitude or warmth and love should be a gender thing in marriage. If someone makes you an offer or a promise and you accept it, you then have a deal and you shouldn't expect more. So many people in the comments are expecting more from the FL than she promised. Hoping for more is a human failing but it's not fair to ask of people more than they promised to deliver. Marriage is a deal between two people and every couple's balance is their own. That's life. The two leads made a deal that may change over time. It might change to include more demonstrable love. But it might not. If it does, then it's a new deal. Real life works this way too. We may judge other people's marriage deals but we don't have enough information to really understand them and we ultimately don't have the right to pass judgement on them if they're different than what we expect to see. So, I don't think we should be so hard on the FL in this drama. Expecting women to always be the warm and more loving partner isn't fair or realistic. This FL knows what she needs and wants and has been fully honest about it from the beginning.

I think you aren't somebody who can get past sloppy, absolutist, immature thinking so I'm not going to spend any more time trying to help you understand that the world in your imagination isn't what we call reality. Good luck with your life's learning curve. Maybe you'll even get a job, understand the work world and make it to the ripe old age of 28 some day.