dizzeedollee

Wow, so many unexpected (to me) aspects in this trailer - transmigration AND a system AND and another possible transmigrator (?!), a cameo from our Shan Gudao (haha), and the level of comedy. Of course, with this being a Cheng Yi project the comedy can't last forever. This is already my most anticipated drama for 2025, but the plot details and character arc revealed in the trailer has skyrocketed my excitement. Hope this airs soon 😊

I completely agree with what your points bailang, bibi, and meoware. There seems to be a trend of people increasingly judging art - whether that's C-dramas or novels or other art forms - purely through the lens of their personal values rather than evaluating a work on the quality of story craft, emotional depth, and narrative complexity. Not all stories are supposed to be fluffy escapism - some stories explore what it means to be human and lay bear the ugliest and most uncomfortable parts of the human experience. Past dynasties were patriarchal, are we supposed to ignore this just because it makes some people uncomfortable? How can we understand the others, how can we develop compassion, how can we avoid past failings if we don't interrogate the past and dissect human flaws? There are many things that Hanyan has done that I don't agree with, but a) I can at least understand how and why she got to this point, and b) her actions don't diminish my overall enjoyment because these flaws and the logical progression of her mental state makes for a compelling story (for my tastes).

My personal feeling is that there has been a decline in media literacy and critical thinking skills in the past few years for whatever reason, and society as a whole has become less tolerant - differences in opinion immediately escalate to name-calling and personal attacks. There is no nuance anymore - everything is taken to extreme (e.g., "I don't like this one thing, therefore the entire drama, the production crew, all the actors and actress and their families are 100% shi*t." Me: Are you ok, who hurt you?). You can dislike something, but why be so awful and uncivilised when you communicate this?

I rarely post on MDL because of how quickly people can become horrible - the only page I've properly engaged in discussions with in the past was the very peaceful and civilised Mysterious Lotus Casebook page - but some of these comments really compelled me to come out of lurking.

I preferred her characters to Ye Xiwu haha. My personal view is that she was at least consistent, but some of Ye Xiwu's behaviour didn't align with her character, but that could have been a directing issue. In any case, I'm happy to see Chen Duling in more leading roles :)

I totally agree. She was unfortunate to have been cast in some poorly written and widely considered irritating secondary female roles in the past few years, so I'm so, so glad that she's being cast in leading lady roles that have a bit more meat and nuance to them :) The only thing I wish is that they would let her dub herself some more, I think she did a really great job in Fangs of Fortune.

Adding to the other responses, you can hear him speaking Sichuan dialect with one of his colleagues at around 4:47 in EP1.

I wouldn't be surprised if this was true. If they air it now, they'll be competing with Lost You Forever, and Neo Hou's other drama (Dashing Youth) is rumoured to be airing at the end of July once The Grand Princess finishes airing, so they'll likely want to avoid that clash too. End of August / early September sounds about right to me :)

I would also add that the romance (so far) isn't the sweet, fluffy kind either (at least it's not what I would consider fluffy). The ML is 30 and the FL is approaching 30, and they both act like it. Their romance is the more mature kind and involves talking openly and looking after each other. It reminds me more of the relationship in Parallel World than typical wuxia.

A Pot of Lotus Wine has always been my favourite OST song, it makes me so sad every time I listen to it. I can't help but get emotional hearing LLH sing it, how beautiful but sad 😭😭😭

Another factor is that concubines (and Imperial marriages in general) help them gain or restrict powers (e.g., if she's from a military family) 😊

Looool that fake dropping the congyoubing on the floor made me laugh so much. He's my favourite kind of side character/sidekick 😂😂

Nian Bai Yu, which is the name of Li Jia Hao's (playing Fang Ming Fan here) character in Till the End of the Moon, which also starred LYX :)

Dahuang is indeed adorable 🥰 I'm not sure if it's the same thing you posted, but they also invited her to Joseph's birthday event and CY dressed in his LLH costume to wish him a happy birthday (via video). I love that the MLC family are so close and supportive 😊

FYI, they're not the same word, they're just pronounced the same 😊 If you're interested it's pronouced ‘tā’ (他/她/它, you can also use 牠 for animals if you're using Trad vs Simplified)

I saw this too, I love the artist's style! The art is so gorgeous 😍😍

If it helps, the bromance/friendship builds up whilst they're solving cases. For example, there are interludes where they sit down together to eat/bicker and they bond over discussing their common pasts whilst solving cases, and so it's not purely cases throughout, if that makes sense? 😊

(P.S. I only put '/friendship' because I'm not sure if you're after friendship or romance. I didn't realise bromance means BL/romance to some people lol, I always thought it meant friendship only)

I love the chemistry between TJR, Cheng Lei and Lester - no wonder the latter 3 are cast together again. Neo seems to have great chemistry with the two didi as well 👍

I do wonder what the relationship between TJR and Neo's characters will be. It almost looks like it will be friends to enemies (which I /love/ the idea of)?

Aww I loved Miss Manzhu, she was a great character. I'm glad the female characters are getting love 😊

I still obsessively return to the MLC MDL page for more news, the brain rot is real 😭🤣

Wow, what can I say. This drama was a roller coaster that took me in all kinds of unexpected directions.

After scratching my head for the first 15 or so episodes, I think overall we had a solid plot that became more engaging once we made it past the first half. It made sense and there were some surprises, but it was hampered by odd pacing. The first 5 or so episodes were strong, then EP6 to EP15-ish felt slow, with the plot only really taking off from EP16-ish onwards. I was a total mess from EP21 onwards - I was not prepared for such intense and emotional moments. When they were done well, they were done very well indeed.

The premise of the twin primordial souls was interesting and I wish we had spent more time exploring this. Personally, I thought Yan was a more interesting character than Qian and some of my favourite pieces of ZLH's acting were when he was playing Yan. It was sad that Yan was basically reduced a plot device rather than being a fully fleshed out character.

If there was one thing they got right it was the casting of the 4 friends. Their on-screen and off-screen chemistry was excellent. I really liked that the writers gave each character time to shine. Oftentimes, I find that bromance and friendship dramas usually have the friends support the MC's ambitions/arc at the expense of having their own journeys. This aspect wasn't always handled well here and it did feel like we lost focus at times because of this. Overall, I really enjoyed the friends' dynamic. Jiang Long is not an actor I was familiar with prior to watching this, but I very much enjoyed his acting - great crying, which isn't always easy!

In terms of the ending - I really liked it! I can't find the original comment, but I agree with the user who said that the ending is hopeful. For my tastes, I feel like we got closure; the most important characters + the side characters (I kind of love A-Ya and CJN together, WLD I half forgive you now, and Yi Mei truly had the most tragic ending - props to the actress) had endings that rounded off their characters arcs well and the door is open for us to imagine the future - including Huzi and QXX seeing each other again. Of course it's sad that our friends aren't together, but if we viewers are upset at the death of characters then it means the actors and the writers did a great job of endearing the characters to us. A major theme that runs through wuxia, xianxia and, to some extent, xuanhuan works is upholding justice and suppressing evil (see 'xia' 侠). Inevitably that means our MCs will face off with villains in life and death situations and sometimes not even 'main character armour' can save you - and that's ok, that's part of the 'xia' life. These characters, although they don't exactly want to die, they're willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good.

That's why I firmly believe that just because the viewer is sad it doesn't automatically mean the ending is 'bad'. A MC or beloved character dying can in its own way be beautiful. For example, Xin Tong died defending the world from QWJ/Demon Emperor, probably the most honourable way a commander-in-chief could die, and gained her wish of becoming a tree. 'Brick' also died saving his friends and the world from QWJ/Demon Emperor, plus he was not shackled by the responsibilities of being the Emperor of Qianyu and got his wish of travelling the world as a bee (methinks). Please also remember that, although we didn't really see it here, guys, reincarnation is very much embedded in Chinese culture. If people are fated to meet each other, they will meet again even if they are thousands of li (or lifetimes) apart ;)

Those are my thoughts (sorry for the essay lol). I think I'll give this 8/10

Sorry this is nothing to do with your comment but I just had to say I /love/ your profile pic - I'm 100% a DFS fan😍