MindfulWanderings

Xu Mother-in-Law has the rare talent of making everyone around her suffer because she refuses to use ANY critical thinking. Truly, no one clings to pride like this mother in law (MIL). Heaven itself could descend and show her the truth and she’d still say, ‘I remain unconvinced.’

Discovering everything Lianfang did under her roof should’ve humbled her into SILENCE — but nope. She just kept embarrassing herself on a loop. Getting proven wrong every five minutes and STILL doubling down! The humility? “Never heard of her!”

My God she is INFURIATING. She even caused the concubine’s miscarriage and then cried like she was so well meaning about it. The way her family tree is full of corrupt women suddenly makes sense — Lianfang didn’t fall far from that delusional branch. 🙄

Imagine being this proudly wrong for this many episodes. MIL watched evidence pile up like laundry and STILL folded nothing. Lianfang was literally rotting the household from the inside for ages and MIL was like: ‘She’s such a sweet girl.’ Ma’am… blink twice if your common sense was kidnapped. Clearly her sons logic and discernment came from their dad…

I adored this drama, even with the MIL trying her best to ruin my blood pressure. 😡The leads and side couples are utter perfection 💖✨. Thankfully MIL managed to completely arc in the very last episodes, but my God…talk about insufferable. Still a 10/10 series—karma came through beautifully ALL around. 👏🏼

you were smart to stay away!

LOL that makes so much sense now — Twilight is great. Very underrated.

LOL well said 👏🏼

At this point it really does feel less like “creative freedom” and more like “creative spite.” The plot was already wobbling, but that final choice was so aggressively pointless it almost feels intentional — like someone behind the scenes said, “If we’re going down, we’re taking the audience with us.”

Ren Jialun and Peng Xiaoran deserved better. The author and original source material deserved better. We ALL deserved better. 😭

BTS tea: turns out the actors were out here filming Love and Crown with three pages of script and a prayer. Entire episodes were being rewritten mid-shoot, with daily rewrites literally printed out of their bodyguards vans 😳LMAO. No wonder the plot crumbled into dust — the crew was basically building the plane while flying it. Actors deserve hazard pay for this.

It starts off terrible, briefly pretends it might improve, and then literally swan-dives into catastrophe. The script is unsalvageable — a total narrative collapse. It’s so bad it should come with a warning label. The poor actors put up a heroic fight, but nothing could save this. Honestly, a five-year-old with crayons could write tighter plot. Worst thing I’ve ever seen.

The ending is catastrophic — not tragic, but ruinous. Great actors wasted on a script that crumbles into pure nonsense. Avoid at all costs.

10x worse than O&O

makes it so much worse that the novel had a HE, for SHAME

No, honestly, giving it 1 star is generous. The ending isn’t just sad — it’s hollow, abrupt, and ultimately pointless. Let’s please spare potential viewers the utter disappointment.

Nope, sad and stupid

True!!

THIS — YESSssssss. Can we PLEASE petition for 1-2 episodes per day to become the global standard?

I am not built for K-drama starvation cycles. Feed me daily or watch me wither. 😭

so true!! 😢🙌🏼

Her character is written so poorly at this point. The inconsistency is wild — she treats XH with nothing but disdain for over half the drama, yet forgives literally everyone else who lied to her or used her as a pawn within seconds. Such a waste, because the actress is phenomenal. Honestly, if anyone else played the FL I doubt I could have tolerated it this far. The writing is awful and the character is a mess, but PXR keeps reeling me back in with her performance and endearing personality — which just proves the script is the real weak link. So much wasted talent and potential!! It’s disappointing.

This is one of those dramas that works both because of its strengths and in spite of its flaws. The setup is heavy, morally gray, and sometimes uncomfortably dark — especially in the way the romance begins. I’m not a big fan of angsty enemies-to-lovers plotlines, and this one definitely leans toxic at the start. The early dynamic feels more like betrayal, fear, and trauma than anything resembling chemistry, and that almost made me stop watching. Even though it eventually becomes healthy, the level of violence and hostility at the beginning just isn’t something I find realistic or easy to move past.

That said, I love love LOVE a truly smart heroine, and the FL is exactly that. She refuses to be anything but intelligent, capable, and decisive — easily one of the strongest elements of the entire series IMO. She’s sharp, strategic, emotionally aware, and never a passive piece on anyone’s chessboard. This makes the story not only interesting in general, but makes the romance workable even when its foundation felt shaky.

Acting was great and the story DID recover well halfway thru. Overall, there are flaws but it’s a compelling drama, and despite the issues I have with the way the ML & romance begins, I’d still give it a solid 8/10.

apparently they filmed two endings, one happy and a different end so its really up in the air

It gets better, ep 21/22 on all misunderstandings between main leads are cleared fully but from ep 19 on its still positive and amicable

I think it’s a rumor/speculation and hasn’t been confirmed by actor’s management team or drama production team at all so not officially true … but industry insiders say Ren Jialun agreed to participate in Love and Crown without payment to end his relationship with H&R Century Pictures amicably. Once filming wrapped, his contract concluded, and he left the agency. As a result, many describe the drama as serving as Ren Jialun’s “severance payment” with his former agency.

Ah darn, well if it’s good I will still check it out - thanks for the recc!