KingC

Your point no 3. just justified the reason why so many people are dissatisfied with this drama. There was no proper growth for their relationship. It was misunderstanding after misunderstanding. The pacing and writing of the last episodes is off, whatever the case might be. And like I said, we can justify Xiaoju's actions whatever way we want. And, wow! Bold of you to assume that I have no boys as best friends. Not everyone are you. If someone thought that it was better if they ended up separate, they must have their reasons. They pushed and pulled the story waay too much for a proper wrapping up and maybe they got tired with all of that.
As much as I enjoy your love for this drama and this discourse, I hope you learn to agree to disagree with such posts, including mine, instead of coming to assumptions. Thanks for your time. :)

People are different and view things through varying perspectives. There is a comment below mine about how people never communicated well and it is clearly reflected in the drama. One example:
1) After their 'breakup', she visited Shiyi twice to find out about Cheng Lang. Had she been more bright, she'd have stayed away from both of them.
2. Shiyi mistook this, whatever her intentions were.
3. She still used Cheng Lang as a cover to rid Shiyi off his feelings.
4. She felt extremely uncomfortable when Shiyi pretended to be her boyfriend to save her face- Cheng Lang and Lin You clearly knew they faked it.
4. She never spoke about her feelings till the very end. Shiyi once again mistook that she still liked CL and used him as a cover.
5. Both of them never cleared up anything regarding the whole fiasco. We were given a very overused tropey ending to satisfy our wishes. The writing in the last few episodes left a lot to be desired.
Of course, we viewers can come up with several reasons to justify her, but what we see in the drama is the final product. And everyone perceives things differently. So, this is the way I perceived it. But, I don't expect everyone to do the same.

It's not just 'that' person. In Douban, the Chinese rating website, the rating is out of five stars - which means there is a tight line between the good and the bad. ARRTI had several four and five stars, but then it dipped. While there are still several positive reviews enough to cover the bad ones, I've seen a review of 2/5 cause of how the crew tried too much to make a perfect ending and ruined the last bit of a good story. Half the people dropped the drama cause of how they dragged on the plot. There was room for development and execution had the script been a bit more careful. It wasn't convincing enough
for everyone. Particularly the last few episodes for me. And from my point of view, Xiaoju literally did everything (whether intentional or not) that guaranteed she was going to lose Shiyi. Half of the misunderstandings could've been avoided and spent on actual development of their relationship. (I've written a detailed review about it.)

I'll suggest considering this drama as a story of five people as a whole - that way we get to enjoy their individual stories. Don't skip it! I'm dissatisfied with a lot of stuff but the friendships and warmth that this one gave is really memorable. (But, have to warn you. FML cries for the SML upto EP27. Then there are like some not so nice stuff happening from EP 34-36. The usual stuff that literally all Cdramas use. )

Nope, I didn't intend to ask you that since despite being a strong supporter of this show, you yourselves have the same issues that many of us have with this drama. Thanks for your input, though. The difference is that some of us take the issue as a serious one. I've seen this "cope out" way too many times before. It's lazy writing as someone mentioned.

We know that, but we are never shown that. It's not about who deserves whom. (The story already has every thing clearly implied.) The entire final two or three episodes were just like any other Youth drama. Xiaoju and Tao Tao had more communication about their relationship than Shiyi and Xiaoju themselves. I'm talking from a critical point of view - the misunderstandings and whatnot were stuffed into the final few scenes when the drama had reached a pinnacle and went with the flow of every other drama out there. I've seen people who dislike the separation and reunion trope for the way it is used as a tool (almost lways without any originality) for a getaway to happy ending. ARRTI is more of a slice of life drama than a regular romance drama. It's natural that people expected it to stay with the same quality and got disappointed. ( I do think this drama deserves atleast an 8.5/10 on MDL.)

Exactly! I think many people loved this show, but since it took such a turn, they rated it more critically. Fluffy dramas are the only ones I've seen that get rated high.

I've seen certain dramas get praised and rated high for the actors alone. But, I know many MDLers, including my sister, who literally rates anything she liked a 9 or 10. I myself rated Flower of Evil a whooping 9.5 without watching any of the leads' previous works, but there are several users who have said that it's a simple, basic story. But, I've never watched many of the same genre, so my rating is purely from an "enjoyable/emotional" point of view.
Even Strong Woman Bong Soon, is just plain fluffy to me. Enjoyable? Yep! 10 stars? Nope.
MDL is after all not an official site with official critics, so it's fair. There are exceptions that I noticed - JDramas, watched by less number of users, are rated quite different. So, the number of people rating counts too.

Unfortunately, no. But, there were summaries posted on a Chinese rating site Douban. Plus, a scene that I'd seen in a BTS got completely cut, which sort of made a difference in a character's action.
- I have to say, it did not affect my overall score much because the end result would still be 36 episodes with the rush. But, there were two clips in particular that I felt took a few precious character insights out.
- I already rewatched several episodes with my sister. I do think it's rewatch worthy, but I got emotionally attached to many of them. So, I might not be rewatching some of the painful ones for sure. (The turbulent/inconsistent stuff starts from around EP34 from my point of view.)

Thanks. :)
The story focussed on the life of all the characters who made it to the same college, so some arcs concluded well, but the others were really, really rushed. What stands out in this drama was the realistic approach, but that got lost during the final episodes and turned into literally every other Chinese Youth Dramas out there. I personally felt that there should've been some more scenes focussing on the gradual and slow realization from the Female lead's side. They had to hastily stuff everything into the final 5 or 4 episodes. Which finally felt pretty half baked to me. But, you might feel okay with it. :)
I expected too much cause this drama is a real gem from all other fluff dramas I've seen. (I knew it was going to happen - 36 episodes means that something goes awry at the end. It was disappointing, nevertheless.)
But, the first 30 episodes were really, really good. I'll still recommend it to anyone.

Thanks! Didn't find what I wanted, but it still helps. :)

Above 7 for a historical drama is considered good. (It's rare for many dramas to get a score above 8. Most of the historicals start with 6.)
In douban, from my view:
5+ watchable.
6+ Okay/Good
7+ Very Good.
8+ Excellent.
9+ Outstanding.

Most of the people who rate on MDL are not really critical - many rate cause they actually enjoyed the drama a lot and not for how deep or special the content was. Which is why so many shows with basic storyline are top rated. Many of the emotional pullers are pretty high rated. (I have to say, Goblin had a really good plot, but it was too slow for my taste.)

I'm really late, but can someone summarise the Gao conspiracy thingy involving the Cuis and the Empresses for me? I thought I'd get it after a few episodes, but now I'm on EP16 and at a total loss.

GreenSamurai was referencing a post of mine when they mentioned that fans of the drama assumed that CL explained the situation. (It's not your fault that you weren't aware of it.)
And if you are critically watching a drama or have watched many youth dramas - they all follow the exact same plot. Go abroad and come back. The OP mentioned that the way it was written wasn't satisfying enough. The first half of the drama were top quality, so the stark drop in the writing is blatantly visible. It made XJ appear meek and indecisive even at some major turning points in the drama, which is a huge difference from how she relentlessly pursued CL despite knowing that he never liked her. OP expected some sort of such behaviour from her part, or better well written development from her side. We time skipped to the future. It's not that you are saying wrong. I understand that you are happy with the ending, but many of us are not happy with the "way" it was given to us. Which can only be blamed on the rushed out lazy writing. We spent 27 episodes with XJ's crush line, then only around 5 episodes building up the leads' relationship. That was literally one road block after another and one pile of misunderstandings that could've been 100% avoided. Hence, why OP is not convinced that XJ deserves Shiyi. Everything happened cause XJ was lucky enough to have someone like SY - otherwise she would have ended up like CL 2.0.

No problem! :)

That's what the original poster said. Youth dramas have all the cliches and the writer chose the same path. Nothing new or different that makes it seem believable. Shiyi is giving her the treatment she indirectly made him go through. Which is good. But, nobody talks much with each other even in two episodes (except XJ dreaming about their reunion) and voila! Happy ending! As Mooberry mentioned, Xiaoju was stupid. Her character is written that way. She never communicated her fears. It would've been a lost game for her, if it had been anyone else. Which is why the OP used the word lazy writing.

I love this drama. But, the last episodes were indeed just rushed. Particularly for SY and XJ. And I'm not seeing this drama through rose tinted glasses just because they gave a happy ending. There was no direct communication between the FL and ML. I don't know if anyone noticed, but Huang Jun tells Shiyi in EP19 that she'll only understand his worth if he stays away from her.
If anyone watched Word of Honor (which has a solid 8.6 on Douban of all sites), you can still see so many people love it, but no one denies the fact that the last few episodes were crappy and unnecessary. Which is a result of writers taking routes to make the viewers emotional. ARRTI did the same. We see XJ kind of go through extreme emotional distress and that was it. Shiyi is gone - XJ is sad - Graduation- time skip - return - bicker - the end.
The way they got together and how the story just ended is highly unsatisfactory. Unless we imagine that they talk things out after it. But as GreenSamurai said, we never see it.

Tuesday - Friday. (One episode per day.)

Thanks a lot!! :D