haah, i spoke too son. suddenly the throw a bunch of typical cdrama tropes 😑
Idk, i was really engrossed in it, and lost patience around ep 30-32. It started off so strong, but the back half imo just failed to deliver. Ending was weaksauce.
Started off SO good, begins to lose steam about halfway through, and then just fell off a cliff at about ep 30 and devolves into a bunch of cliche nonsense with a very dissappointing ending. In the end it was barely worth wasting so much time on, and gets a 7/10 from me.
After ZiXian's last drama, I picked this one up and after a few episodesi thought it would be tje perfect fluff drama to heal my mind after that absolute mindf*ck his last drama was. But it got kinda heavy towards the middle/end and wasnt all that.
I was eating rice chex and just watching the episode and the mouth to mouth happened and I just tossed my spoon on the table and facepalmed and went "what the hell is *that*!"
She looked like she was trying to play the panflute on his lips.
Bitch, ya gotta tip his chin back, pinch his nose shut and BLOW HARD, are you fekkin stupid or somethin?
Disturbingly good?!!!!!!!!!! OK, i've no description for it, it's quite interesting, and the ML was written in…
They just kept ratcheting up the horribleness till by the time i got to the last 2 episodes I was so uncomfortable I didnt want to watch, but I found that I just could not put it down til it was over because I was just dying of curiosity about 'how are they going to end this insanity?'
Well I think it's a good drama despite the fact that the male lead is an awful human being. The production is…
I can think of a mountain of classic stories that have horrible things happen to the protagonist, but theyre still considered classics. Like The Handmaidens Tale, or Sophie's Choice, or White Oleander, or Disgraced, or Deliverance, or Red Badge of Courage, or Candide.... Moll Flanders, Madame Bovary, Daisy Miller, Tess of the d'Urbervilles...
Some stories are designed to make you think, not to make you happy. But that doesn't make them BAD.
**************** MEGASPOILER WARNING. ***************IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED TURN BACK NOW! DO NOT READ!I can't…
Now thats exactly the kind of thought provoking answer I like.... those are good points, Ill probably spend a day thinking about it.
I do think "hot" matters. Because if he did all that shit but was a troll with corn spittle in his beard and smelled like a dumpster, what he did would have been far far worse.... I think?
**************** MEGASPOILER WARNING. ***************IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED TURN BACK NOW! DO NOT READ!I can't…
I didn't enumerate his flaws because I thought they were all obvious and self explanatory.
I see the side of it where that episode between them was despicable and wrong, yeah.
But if an incredibly hot ultra powerful man who you loved and found attractive (note the past tense) raped you once, and was weirdly apologetic about it.... would you be willing to work through it for the sake of thousands of your countrymens lives, and to hold your country together? Would you suicide yourself in order to get even about it? Would you kill the only man holding the future of your nation together?
Shes trapped, with only three choices: 1) Murder suicide 2) Become a spirit- broken woman, give up on life, and turn emotionally dead or crazy 3) Work through it. What would you pick?
IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED TURN BACK NOW! DO NOT READ!
I can't decide which of the two of them was more sympathetic. Maybe they both completely deserved eachother. Or maybe each of them deserved better.
HIS faults are obvious, clearly. But SHE has her own faults and they are less overt, but still there. I just thought I might start a discussion thats more thought out and less reactionary, about their respective flaws... and how that plays into the story.
When FLs family was killed, she wanted ultimate revenge. She approached the ML in the very beginning in a disingenuous way, just to use him. So she was playing with fire by lying her way into the highest eschelons of power and attempting to use a PRINCE to get her revenge on someone. Did she really think she could outsmart a PRINCE and not get burned? Was she so upset and rageful that she had turned suicidal or kamikaze? She walked into her own demise.
He knew this, and his thought was that if he didnt "ally" himself with her, she would just go approach his brother, which would shift the balance of power they had going on, as she'd end up turning against him.
As soon as he saw that tattoo, he knew who she was ultimately looking to seek revenge on ---> HIM.
So if he was so evil, why did he not kill her immediately? Because of the deep guilt he felt towards her and her family. A guilt he allowed to weigh on him heavily, even though he later said he tried to stop the massacre from happening once he'd realized that his own private martial arts forces had gotten entirely out of hand.
But SHE was so quick to convince by just one outsider's testimony, that he was an evil piece of shit. She never genuinely sought out his side of the story. After all the things theyd been through together. Why? Because in her own psyche and in her heart, the hatred inside her outweighed the love. It was EASIER for her to jump immediately to hatred, than it would be to hold onto the love they shared and allow herself to be overwhelmed and confused by just not knowing what to believe. She jumped to a conclusion about him. And continued to let her anger drive her behavior.
Just before FL's friend commits suicide, she was reaching out to the FL for a reason to live. But FL was so wrapped up in her own pain that she didn't register that. She said some offhanded shit to her friend, and her friend didn't feel comforted at all. I feel like this is a pattern of the FL, that she is in too much pain to be self aware and her heart is shut off from the trauma of losing her family. She is completely self-absorbed. Think about how she treated her own unborn child, even....
The only one who can revive her heart, for even just brief periods of time, is the ML. He brings out her grief and forces her to face it when he takes away her martial arts, so she can no longer FIGHT her way through her feelings, but has to learn to accept and process them. He lets her take out all her feelings on him without ever turning his back on her no matter how she acts out.
He could just walk away from her. But if you were one of the most dangerous and capable men in the world, would you trust that she would be safe if you totally leave her life? He feels like her life - because of what he's done - is his responsibility. He would no more leave her than a parent would leave their own child. But he doesnt know what to be to her, or how to protect her.
FL never stops to self reflect about the fact that he is technically her savior. Not once. She never stops to question her rage or vindictiveness at him. Shes just blind with overwhelming pain.
Another thing she never stops to consider, is that they are - because of her actions - spiralling toward the death of AN ENTIRE DYNASTY. The social upheval they dont show after their deaths, costs the people thousands of lives, no matter what happens next. FL is perfectly willing to let all that be ML's fault. But she never thinks about if she could rescue the situation, or save the empire. She thinks only of HER OWN feelings. Is it REALLY justified? She never takes any responsibility for her role in how things turn out.
I don't blame her. The way she acts is understandable. But its also dissappointingly typical and simple. I wish that she had had an epiphany of self-understanding, and learned to grow BEFORE "The Kiss" ended them both. It wasnt until it was too late that she finally experienced release and healing. What a bummer😢❤. But also a very fitting end.
In the end, I felt more sorry for him than I did for her. Kind of.
I legitimately can’t figure out if I hated or loved this show. I’m so confused. It was pure suffering for…
When i was watching it, I was thinking about like.... in what kind of reality COULD she forgive him? And I thought about Jesus and forgiveness in terms of religion. I remembered an Oprah show where they had on a lady who forgave her son's killer, and the killer was on the show with her and they cried together. Then I thought about the movie Natural Born Killers where the romance starts out with him killing her whole family. Maybe her family were a bunch of shits, who knows. I thought about Romeo and Juliet. And vampires.
In fact I didn't STOP thinking the entire time. And the end was GORGEOUS. That kiss was..... like so much wow. His acting and her acting.... I think this drama was just damn near perfect really.
The most critical scene is when she sends back the bunny lantern. Up till then, they havent really established where her heart is at. But when they show you whats really in her heart, the whole story just begins locking into place so perfectly.
I feel like my brain was just smashed by a very very sexy two ton wrecking ball.
1 
1 
1 
1 
7/10
I was eating rice chex and just watching the episode and the mouth to mouth happened and I just tossed my spoon on the table and facepalmed and went "what the hell is *that*!"
She looked like she was trying to play the panflute on his lips.
Bitch, ya gotta tip his chin back, pinch his nose shut and BLOW HARD, are you fekkin stupid or somethin?
Moll Flanders, Madame Bovary, Daisy Miller, Tess of the d'Urbervilles...
Some stories are designed to make you think, not to make you happy. But that doesn't make them BAD.
I do think "hot" matters. Because if he did all that shit but was a troll with corn spittle in his beard and smelled like a dumpster, what he did would have been far far worse.... I think?
Loved your response. Omg.
I see the side of it where that episode between them was despicable and wrong, yeah.
But if an incredibly hot ultra powerful man who you loved and found attractive (note the past tense) raped you once, and was weirdly apologetic about it.... would you be willing to work through it for the sake of thousands of your countrymens lives, and to hold your country together? Would you suicide yourself in order to get even about it? Would you kill the only man holding the future of your nation together?
Shes trapped, with only three choices: 1) Murder suicide 2) Become a spirit- broken woman, give up on life, and turn emotionally dead or crazy 3) Work through it. What would you pick?
IF YOU HAVE NOT FINISHED TURN BACK NOW! DO NOT READ!
I can't decide which of the two of them was more sympathetic. Maybe they both completely deserved eachother. Or maybe each of them deserved better.
HIS faults are obvious, clearly. But SHE has her own faults and they are less overt, but still there. I just thought I might start a discussion thats more thought out and less reactionary, about their respective flaws... and how that plays into the story.
When FLs family was killed, she wanted ultimate revenge. She approached the ML in the very beginning in a disingenuous way, just to use him. So she was playing with fire by lying her way into the highest eschelons of power and attempting to use a PRINCE to get her revenge on someone. Did she really think she could outsmart a PRINCE and not get burned? Was she so upset and rageful that she had turned suicidal or kamikaze? She walked into her own demise.
He knew this, and his thought was that if he didnt "ally" himself with her, she would just go approach his brother, which would shift the balance of power they had going on, as she'd end up turning against him.
As soon as he saw that tattoo, he knew who she was ultimately looking to seek revenge on ---> HIM.
So if he was so evil, why did he not kill her immediately? Because of the deep guilt he felt towards her and her family. A guilt he allowed to weigh on him heavily, even though he later said he tried to stop the massacre from happening once he'd realized that his own private martial arts forces had gotten entirely out of hand.
But SHE was so quick to convince by just one outsider's testimony, that he was an evil piece of shit. She never genuinely sought out his side of the story. After all the things theyd been through together. Why? Because in her own psyche and in her heart, the hatred inside her outweighed the love. It was EASIER for her to jump immediately to hatred, than it would be to hold onto the love they shared and allow herself to be overwhelmed and confused by just not knowing what to believe. She jumped to a conclusion about him. And continued to let her anger drive her behavior.
Just before FL's friend commits suicide, she was reaching out to the FL for a reason to live. But FL was so wrapped up in her own pain that she didn't register that. She said some offhanded shit to her friend, and her friend didn't feel comforted at all. I feel like this is a pattern of the FL, that she is in too much pain to be self aware and her heart is shut off from the trauma of losing her family. She is completely self-absorbed. Think about how she treated her own unborn child, even....
The only one who can revive her heart, for even just brief periods of time, is the ML. He brings out her grief and forces her to face it when he takes away her martial arts, so she can no longer FIGHT her way through her feelings, but has to learn to accept and process them. He lets her take out all her feelings on him without ever turning his back on her no matter how she acts out.
He could just walk away from her. But if you were one of the most dangerous and capable men in the world, would you trust that she would be safe if you totally leave her life? He feels like her life - because of what he's done - is his responsibility. He would no more leave her than a parent would leave their own child. But he doesnt know what to be to her, or how to protect her.
FL never stops to self reflect about the fact that he is technically her savior. Not once. She never stops to question her rage or vindictiveness at him. Shes just blind with overwhelming pain.
Another thing she never stops to consider, is that they are - because of her actions - spiralling toward the death of AN ENTIRE DYNASTY. The social upheval they dont show after their deaths, costs the people thousands of lives, no matter what happens next. FL is perfectly willing to let all that be ML's fault. But she never thinks about if she could rescue the situation, or save the empire. She thinks only of HER OWN feelings. Is it REALLY justified? She never takes any responsibility for her role in how things turn out.
I don't blame her. The way she acts is understandable. But its also dissappointingly typical and simple. I wish that she had had an epiphany of self-understanding, and learned to grow BEFORE "The Kiss" ended them both. It wasnt until it was too late that she finally experienced release and healing. What a bummer😢❤. But also a very fitting end.
In the end, I felt more sorry for him than I did for her. Kind of.
Not sure, but I think maybe FL, and I'll spoiler why below.....
Theres even eating disorder triggers in it. It has ALL the triggers!
>If you are going to watch this, you'd better get a silly no-brainer fluffy romance ready to watch in between.
Amen, you said it sister.
Have your next show and a gallon of ice cream lined up for when you finish this bad boy cuz dayum.
In fact I didn't STOP thinking the entire time. And the end was GORGEOUS. That kiss was..... like so much wow. His acting and her acting.... I think this drama was just damn near perfect really.
The most critical scene is when she sends back the bunny lantern. Up till then, they havent really established where her heart is at. But when they show you whats really in her heart, the whole story just begins locking into place so perfectly.
I feel like my brain was just smashed by a very very sexy two ton wrecking ball.
I have no words for how insanely good it was.
9.5/10
Holy shit.