LOL I will never dislike Ming Tan. Her crucification really highlights either male lead bias and audience’s…
So far, up until episode 24, Ming Tan’s reactions to all of the “misunderstandings” have been pretty on par with how a normal human being would react. She is not an omniscient female lead who magically knows and guesses everything correctly because plot armor. No one has told her anything, including her husband. She hasn’t overreacted or purposely foiled anything for anyone. She is simply reacting how someone would react in these stressful situations at the age of 16-18. Ming Tan explains why she was upset with Jiang Xu in episode 19 clearly and understandably, so let the character of Ming Tan try her best to navigate a family tragedy and continue to develop and grow as a character. I think audiences have been trained to love and accept crazy smart, strategic, and all-knowing female leads so much, there seems to be short supply of patience to allow characters to make mistakes and grow. There is no “perfect” female lead in real life, and I like that this show is honoring the imperfect young woman that Ming Tan is — she is kind, loyal, and protective, but can also be naive, bratty, and vain. These are human traits and I love her more for it. I really want to challenge the audience to put themselves in her shoes and ask yourself how you would react if you went through everything she did not knowing anything that Jiang Xu did. I dare to say most of us would NOT handle it well whereas this 16-18 year old girl did not lose her shit. She was grieving, but remained composed and clearheaded on why she was upset with the male lead. If I were her, I would have divorced my partner. It’s that egregious to me what he hid. Again, I also LOVE Jiang Xu, but he also needs character development, yet no one wants to talk about that. They just want to hate on Ming Tan for not being understanding enough or unconditionally trust someone who has told her nothing.
LOL I will never dislike Ming Tan. Her crucification really highlights either male lead bias and audience’s tendency to empathize with flawed male characters over female characters, and/or just zero patience for an imperfect, human character to grow and change. She is one of the realest female characters I have seen in cdramas, so it’s been so interesting to read all the discourse regarding Ming Tan. Seems you either love her or hate her. There’s no in between. I am obviously in the “I love Ming Tan” camp.
Why can’t they just give us long-awaited fluffy and wholesome moments, haha? Like, we are moving towards the…
Oh funny you mentioned New Life Begins. I’m on ep 35, and have felt that most of the cast and side characters have had way more romance and screening than the main couple whereas I thought the opposite of Youthful Glory, where focus on the main couple has been pretty consistent over plot and cast. I think I am in the minority when I say I am enjoying the Lingzhou arc and how they are dividing and conquering 2 separate investigations. I also love jealous men so that may be why haha
Love love love these last few eps. Song Weilong martial arts skills really bring Jiang Xu’s screen presence to life. It is all honey, full stop. Although our prince is tasting more vinegar than wine. Can’t wait for the next episodes, but I really don’t want this drama to end haha
SPOILERS BELOWI don’t think I will ever agree with the Ming Tan hate. I do think that the release schedule of…
TLDR; I love Ming Tan and she is experiencing life-changing events that will help her and Jiang Xu continue to grow. The hate for Ming Tan is baffling and the above are my reasons for defending her through episode 19.
SPOILERS BELOWI don’t think I will ever agree with the Ming Tan hate. I do think that the release schedule of…
I also posted about the 2 month time skip earlier, but wanted to share again in case anyone hated Ming Tan for it.
In my opinion, it helps me with 3 purposes:
1. Jiang Xu’s dedication to Ming Tan. She’s been mad at him for 2 months and he still tries his best to win her back while also giving her the room she needs.
2. Gives Ming Tan enough time to grieve and slowly go back to “normal” after the death of her father. It’d be weird to move the plot along and get back to comedy when she just lost her dad.
3. Gives Ming Tan’s father's “crimes” and arc to settle. Right after his death, there could still be suspicions and heat on their trails. When you give this situation a little time to breathe, the villains won’t be as “on it” and so we know the dad is at least a little safe for the time being.
I don’t think I will ever agree with the Ming Tan hate. I do think that the release schedule of this drama really ruined the momentum of some of the plotlines and it was clearly seen here with how the audience has reacted to Ming Tan. Had they released 17-19 in tandem, a lot of this hate and anger towards Ming Tan would be quelled.
From my perspective, Ming Tan does not have a “god’s eye view” like the audience does. She has no idea how hard Jiang Xu is working to help her father and he hasn’t communicated any of it to her. He only asks her to implicitly trust him, and yes, we as the audience absolutely do, but if we hadn’t seen the events play out from his perspective, we are like Ming Tan who is left with a husband we’ve only known for maybe a few months at most? Would you put your father’s livelihood and entrust it in someone else more than your own self especially if you’ve been hyper independent your entire life like Ming Tan? I don’t know. I do feel like I am very similar to Ming Tan and have related to her reactions across all of their misunderstandings so far.
Take the Gu family case where she stood up for her friend when Jiang Xu was interrogating Gu lady (can’t recall her name) about her father’s death. That girl was a blubbering mess and he is very intimidating so Ming Tan stepped in to help her friend. Was she overstepping? Yes, but we’ve seen time and again that Ming Tan is extremely protective of everyone around her. She put her body up as a shield to protective the pregnant Zhu Er, and then again put herself in front of her maids and the Gu lady when the Spectre Sect attacked them. She will do it again in ep 21 with zero hesitation. I admire her protective nature so I don’t fault her for standing up for Gu lady instinctively; Ming Tan loves hard and she will do everything she can to protect those she loves. This incident also helped our male lead pause and take an introspective look at how he’s treated people over the years, which adds a layer of Ming Tan helping Jiang Xu be a more caring and thoughtful person. That’s character development on both their parts.
Then with the concubine situation, I would have been PISSED if my husband brought a new wife home and didn’t tell me. Like how else was she supposed to react? If she cried, audiences would have still blamed her for being weak. She did confront him, albeit passive aggressively, but I’m telling you if we were in her shoes, we would have probably reacted much worse. She even gave him the calming incense despite still being mad at him. I find her reaction justifiable here and she immediately apologized and made up with him when he finally told her the truth. His timing was just crap for introducing Yunyi before he had a chance to explain. Lastly, she even mentioned that she thought he took a new wife because of what happened to her with GAO Chen. That’s heartbreaking, but Ming Tan is a proud person so she would try to push that down and not confront such a vulnerability to him, especially if she thought he no longer wanted her.
Thirdly, with her father’s death, I think there’s a combination of reasons why she would be upset with Jiang Xu, which she expressed directly and clearly in ep 19. I fully agree with her. 1) Jiang Xu prevented her from seeing her father one last time before he “died” and she has a host of last words and regrets she wanted to share with him. In that moment, her devastation was directed at JX for blocking her. I would be absolutely livid and leave my partner if they did not have a good reason for this. Again, he did not tell her anything up to this point and continues to not until two months later. 2) Their marriage contract was for him to always protect the Ming family. That’s probably the #1 reason she even agreed to marry him in the first place. There is no longer a Ming family to protect, so agreement is void and null. Out of her loss and devastation, she can’t see past this. She even has “evidence” from JX’s friend that he may be distancing himself politically. Reminder again that JX has not shared anything with her. 3) Grieving is an absolutely brutal and personal process, and if Ming Tan needed time to herself or lashes out, she 10000% has that right; if that was our friend, we would try to be understanding of her reactions. I think her reasons for being mad at him are valid especially when she does eventually tell him why. That’s not to say that I blame everything on Jiang Xu, who is my absolutely favorite character, but him laying out the second marriage contract indicates that he’s learned from this experience to not hold anymore secrets and to communicate clearly with his wife, who is willing to be there and share all the ups and downs of life with him. I think the audience may empathize with him more because we’ve seen a lot of the story from his perspective and many of his most loving moments towards Ming Tan were without her knowledge and only we as the audience got to see it.
The only thing I for sure fault our two leads on is their lack of/inexperience in communication with their partners, but knowing their upbringing and personalities, it makes perfect sense and makes for an interesting relationship arc; it should then only lead to improvements and character development (or so I hope this is where the writers will take us).
Eps 19-21 have been so fun and sweet to watch and I’m actually so excited for the Lingzhou arc! Ming Tan and Jiang Xu are going to have so many lovely and fun moments again. Can’t wait!
Yes, Episode 19 was so heartwarming with how they resolved the conflict, but did they really have to insert that…
In my opinion, it helps me with 3 purposes:
1. Jiang Xu’s dedication to Ming Tan. She’s been mad at him for 2 months and he still tries his best to win her back while also giving her the room she needs.
2. Gives Ming Tan enough time to grieve and slowly go back to “normal” after the death of her father. It’d be weird to move the plot along and get back to comedy when she just lost her dad.
3. Gives Ming Tan’s father's “crimes” and arc to settle. Right after his death, there could still be suspicions and heat on their trails. When you give this situation a little time to breathe, the villains won’t be as “on it” and so we know the dad is at least a little safe for the time being.
SPOILERS: Jiang Xu finally stops acting like everything is fine and dandy and/or overcompensating for his heartbreak and guilt, and asks Ming Tan if she’s still mad (duh), and she immediately tells him the three reasons why she was mad, clearly and understandably. She doesn’t blame him for her father’s death, but he never told her anything that was going on. I’m glad he finally put his foot down and took her to her “heart’s medicine”. The scene afterwards in the carriage where he wants to write a new contract was absolutely adorable. They could only last 2 eps being in conflict, and their communication better improve from here. Now we have our sweet couple back!
So I realized Jiang Xu is a courtesy name while he has a given name that I can’t catch (Jiang KaiZhi or something. I’m not Chinese so sorry!).
The subtitles only show “Jiang Xu” whether Ming Tan calls him by his courtesy or given name. She uses his given name when she’s pissed at him and I am here for it haha.
The subs are kinda bad lately... I have to put this on-hold. Are the viki subs better? Is it worth waiting?
Viki subs are great. And yes, totally worth watching! Better if you binge bc waiting daily for new eps cuts into the pace of the show and also is making me go crazy with waiting lol
In my opinion, it helps me with 3 purposes:
1. Jiang Xu’s dedication to Ming Tan. She’s been mad at him for 2 months and he still tries his best to win her back while also giving her the room she needs.
2. Gives Ming Tan enough time to grieve and slowly go back to “normal” after the death of her father. It’d be weird to move the plot along and get back to comedy when she just lost her dad.
3. Gives Ming Tan’s father's “crimes” and arc to settle. Right after his death, there could still be suspicions and heat on their trails. When you give this situation a little time to breathe, the villains won’t be as “on it” and so we know the dad is at least a little safe for the time being.
I don’t think I will ever agree with the Ming Tan hate. I do think that the release schedule of this drama really ruined the momentum of some of the plotlines and it was clearly seen here with how the audience has reacted to Ming Tan. Had they released 17-19 in tandem, a lot of this hate and anger towards Ming Tan would be quelled.
From my perspective, Ming Tan does not have a “god’s eye view” like the audience does. She has no idea how hard Jiang Xu is working to help her father and he hasn’t communicated any of it to her. He only asks her to implicitly trust him, and yes, we as the audience absolutely do, but if we hadn’t seen the events play out from his perspective, we are like Ming Tan who is left with a husband we’ve only known for maybe a few months at most? Would you put your father’s livelihood and entrust it in someone else more than your own self especially if you’ve been hyper independent your entire life like Ming Tan? I don’t know. I do feel like I am very similar to Ming Tan and have related to her reactions across all of their misunderstandings so far.
Take the Gu family case where she stood up for her friend when Jiang Xu was interrogating Gu lady (can’t recall her name) about her father’s death. That girl was a blubbering mess and he is very intimidating so Ming Tan stepped in to help her friend. Was she overstepping? Yes, but we’ve seen time and again that Ming Tan is extremely protective of everyone around her. She put her body up as a shield to protective the pregnant Zhu Er, and then again put herself in front of her maids and the Gu lady when the Spectre Sect attacked them. She will do it again in ep 21 with zero hesitation. I admire her protective nature so I don’t fault her for standing up for Gu lady instinctively; Ming Tan loves hard and she will do everything she can to protect those she loves. This incident also helped our male lead pause and take an introspective look at how he’s treated people over the years, which adds a layer of Ming Tan helping Jiang Xu be a more caring and thoughtful person. That’s character development on both their parts.
Then with the concubine situation, I would have been PISSED if my husband brought a new wife home and didn’t tell me. Like how else was she supposed to react? If she cried, audiences would have still blamed her for being weak. She did confront him, albeit passive aggressively, but I’m telling you if we were in her shoes, we would have probably reacted much worse. She even gave him the calming incense despite still being mad at him. I find her reaction justifiable here and she immediately apologized and made up with him when he finally told her the truth. His timing was just crap for introducing Yunyi before he had a chance to explain. Lastly, she even mentioned that she thought he took a new wife because of what happened to her with GAO Chen. That’s heartbreaking, but Ming Tan is a proud person so she would try to push that down and not confront such a vulnerability to him, especially if she thought he no longer wanted her.
Thirdly, with her father’s death, I think there’s a combination of reasons why she would be upset with Jiang Xu, which she expressed directly and clearly in ep 19. I fully agree with her. 1) Jiang Xu prevented her from seeing her father one last time before he “died” and she has a host of last words and regrets she wanted to share with him. In that moment, her devastation was directed at JX for blocking her. I would be absolutely livid and leave my partner if they did not have a good reason for this. Again, he did not tell her anything up to this point and continues to not until two months later. 2) Their marriage contract was for him to always protect the Ming family. That’s probably the #1 reason she even agreed to marry him in the first place. There is no longer a Ming family to protect, so agreement is void and null. Out of her loss and devastation, she can’t see past this. She even has “evidence” from JX’s friend that he may be distancing himself politically. Reminder again that JX has not shared anything with her. 3) Grieving is an absolutely brutal and personal process, and if Ming Tan needed time to herself or lashes out, she 10000% has that right; if that was our friend, we would try to be understanding of her reactions. I think her reasons for being mad at him are valid especially when she does eventually tell him why. That’s not to say that I blame everything on Jiang Xu, who is my absolutely favorite character, but him laying out the second marriage contract indicates that he’s learned from this experience to not hold anymore secrets and to communicate clearly with his wife, who is willing to be there and share all the ups and downs of life with him. I think the audience may empathize with him more because we’ve seen a lot of the story from his perspective and many of his most loving moments towards Ming Tan were without her knowledge and only we as the audience got to see it.
The only thing I for sure fault our two leads on is their lack of/inexperience in communication with their partners, but knowing their upbringing and personalities, it makes perfect sense and makes for an interesting relationship arc; it should then only lead to improvements and character development (or so I hope this is where the writers will take us).
Eps 19-21 have been so fun and sweet to watch and I’m actually so excited for the Lingzhou arc! Ming Tan and Jiang Xu are going to have so many lovely and fun moments again. Can’t wait!
1. Jiang Xu’s dedication to Ming Tan. She’s been mad at him for 2 months and he still tries his best to win her back while also giving her the room she needs.
2. Gives Ming Tan enough time to grieve and slowly go back to “normal” after the death of her father. It’d be weird to move the plot along and get back to comedy when she just lost her dad.
3. Gives Ming Tan’s father's “crimes” and arc to settle. Right after his death, there could still be suspicions and heat on their trails. When you give this situation a little time to breathe, the villains won’t be as “on it” and so we know the dad is at least a little safe for the time being.
SPOILERS:
Jiang Xu finally stops acting like everything is fine and dandy and/or overcompensating for his heartbreak and guilt, and asks Ming Tan if she’s still mad (duh), and she immediately tells him the three reasons why she was mad, clearly and understandably. She doesn’t blame him for her father’s death, but he never told her anything that was going on. I’m glad he finally put his foot down and took her to her “heart’s medicine”. The scene afterwards in the carriage where he wants to write a new contract was absolutely adorable. They could only last 2 eps being in conflict, and their communication better improve from here. Now we have our sweet couple back!
The subtitles only show “Jiang Xu” whether Ming Tan calls him by his courtesy or given name. She uses his given name when she’s pissed at him and I am here for it haha.