mooc

It does not matter if it's even a girl and multiple guys or vice versa.
It needs to make sense.
Characters need to make sense.
Continuity needs to make sense.

A love triangle I absolutely loved is 'Love and Redemption'. It was simply riveting & it made complete sense why it was there.
A love triangle that absolutely made no sense was Binary Love. That killed characters of ML and FL completely.
the worst of the lot are the CEO & Cinderella trope ones. To be honest, the first few I watched, i was hooked by how good they were. I did not realize that they have been doing the same trope for years without an iota of change to the characters of ML and FL.

it is all about mix and match. I don't want to see the same type of ML and FL played in every romance drama. The story needs to make sense, the characters need to make sense. And because the characters lack variety, they start coming off as fake and boring.

I am not against love triangles.
I am against the same triangle being repeated in every drama that has a love triangle.

You are right, will keep posting in similar dramas.

I will bet anything about every love triangle in cdramas this year will be about FL and her dildos..
I Want to be surprised by the writers and directors of cdramas by showing some variety in love triangles
BUT
we all know it will always be the FL and her dildos.

Oh please, this is nothing like the Chinese fantasy dramas.
in fact this drama has more similarities with western fantasy tropes than the Chinese ones.

Probably something like Zombies + Magic + sword.

If the drama Kingdom has magic and fantastical elements in it, this might be it.

I think the betrayal trope will come back to play in Season 2, at least for few initial episodes.

This is a new genre on it's own. I thought it would be a copy of Chinese Wuxia or Fantasy but it was not.

This surely is top 5 Kdrama/Cdrama this year.
The most fun part of trying to figure out the genre of this drama. Dare say the makers have created a whole new world with it's own set of rules that future drama creators can play with.
This drama was part horor, part fantasy, part sword & sandles and part adventure with right amount of romance sprinkled in.

Some of the romance tropes did slow down the pace in few places, would have liked the makers to trim down a episode or two to remove some of the slow pacing and continuity aspects, which frankly were not needed.

Can't want for season 2.

My point is less about fairness and more about variety.

If you start watching a new drama and you can easily predict how the premise of main characters, it becomes boring.
the ML and FL you see in this drama is pretty much the norm in most Cdramas now a days. the leads in this drama are the same as the leads in 90% of Cdramas released in last year.

in my limited viewing experience of Cdramas and Kdramas, the love triangle is almost always the FL and multiple men around her. The converse almost never happens.
Once as viewer I can predict this at the start of the drama, you are not that interested since you know the basic journey of FL & ML.

When was the last drama any of us watched where towards the end you are not sure if ML will end up with FL or 2FL?
In fact I don't remember watching a drama where 2FL has romantic interactions with ML and is genuinely a nice person who you can root for. Most 2FL are manipulative and horrible women. There is no variety in 2FL, they are almost always bad.

So, it's not about fairness. It's all about variety, which sadly Cdrama are lacking.

read my original post please.

I did not trash it.

For those who like this kind of storyline, this is a perfect drama.
To me though, it seemed repetitive.

Whether the 2ML is a red flag or not is not the point. This is just another variation of that formulae. The base of the story is centered around three people, the FL and the two men in her life. Everyone else is the supporting cast,
This premise & it's variations form the core of most Xianxia dramas.

Not that it's wrong but personally finding the base very repetitive and boring.

So, the 2ML who is in love with the FL does not spend extended amount of time with her?
Watched a dozen episodes but it is apparent the 2ML is here to stay with FL until the last episode.

Dropped it,

Offers nothing special than the other Xianxia dramas.

Same trope, 1 FL & multiple men surrounding her in a fantasy setting.

Second that.
ML was absolutely unnecessary.
Apart from being a loyal doggy type romantic partner to the FL, he has nothing to do in the drama.

It should have been pure rvenge drama minus the ML.

I enjoy variety.
When there is no variety and all you are getting is the same ML and FL, it gets predictable and boring.

Fight breaks sphere was fun mostly because there was little romance and it concentrated on what it needed to tell.
Even in that the ML remains, how should I put it, devoid of sexual attraction to the girls around him and he is a teenager in the drama.

Modern dramas, especially CEO Cdramas are hit and miss for me.
Some of them are appealing and some are not, same as period pieces and Wuxia.

pretty much tilting towards watching dramas with little romance. The recent ones with heavy romance started feeling cringy and corny & predictably boring.

Currently watching 'Listening Snow Tower', few episodes in and it's absolutely riveting.

There is NO 2FL in Cdramas,
ML are shown to never even look at them or even think about about them even for a second.

On contrary you have 2ML, 3ML and in some even 4th and the FL has nice rounded interactions with all of them.

Case in point - this very drama.

If this drama was remotely 'real life', per the time period, the ML would have been married to few women by the time he became a general. Since that would be disastrous to sell to audiences, I can understand why the dramas don't do it.

But showing that these successful and powerful men have completely sworn off women until the FL enters their life is ridiculous and frankly insulting viewers intelligence.

This is fiction, made up world by the writer.
Most Chinese writers seems to have a fixed pattern for their ML...a man who never dated, never interacted with women except FL, should never have liked other women than FL, should never touch other women, shows zero sexual interest in girls....the list goes on.
basically they want a man who only ever loved the FL in his life and never looked at other women.
The whole theory of 'growing up' by dating multiple people never applies to Cdrama ML, that seems to be unique to FL, who has multiple men close to her for her 'growth'.

I really don't remember watching a Cdrama in last 2 years where as viewer I genuinely felt the ML could end with 2FL. In fact I don't remember any drama in last couple of years where the ML is shown to be romancing or even looking at 2FL.
On contrary, every other drama has FL is shown crying over other men in front of ML or being in love with other men & the ML works hard to win FL over. If nothing, there has to be just men surrounding her.

Have not watched martial universe, looks like it was made few years back.
less than 2 years into asian dramas and it's very very rare to find a drama that has ML having any meaningful interactions with opposite sex.

In fact you having to go that far back to show a ML having interactions with multiple women pretty much proves what I am saying.
It's not about ex boyfriends or ex girlfriends. I am talking about the leads having interactions with other people in the drama.
Probably in the last year or so of my Cdrama experiences, it's always the FL with rounded character, the ML is pretty much alien.

Isn't that every ML in almost every Cdrama?

These men have some sort of trauma or important thing that for some inexplicable reason curtails their interactions with girls.
On contrary, no matter the FL trauma or situation, she still has good interactions with multiple guys.

ML not having time is BS. It's convenient plot armor to deny him any interactions with other women.
And it's not like romance or interactions would take 24 hours a day for any busy person.
Look around the world, the busiest leaders to people fighting wars have fallen in love and had families.
It's not that he does not have romances with other women, he does not even look at other women or have normal friendly interactions with them.

The FL journey makes sense.
The ML is pretty much fake, like most other cdrama ML.

My point was that most Cdramas have the same theme.

FL would have nice and healthy interactions with multiple men
whereas ML is pretty much shown to have never glanced at other women except the FL.

that's where 'it's a real life story' theory fails.

If you get a ML like this one in few Cdramas mixed with other variations, it's sustainable but having ML have zero interactions with other women in every Cdrama makes for piss poor writing.

this drama is good though, once you accept the ML being some what unrealistic.....

Agree on your points.

but in Cdramas, it's always the FL who is shown with options, the ML almost never has any.
Even in this drama, ML could have dated someone else, could have considered some other girl as his wife like the FL does. Or at worse have some interactions with other girls for his growth.

While we do see FL having this growth through other men, the ML growth is more often than not limited to FL.

This is where 'it's a real life story' analogy falls flat.
it is only realistic when it comes to the FL,
the ML, well, his story is as fake as it gets, at least the romance part.

A good start, strong finish but a bit draggy middle.
Probably should have chopped down couple of episodes.

Best thing about this drama is the ML, 2ML and the Villian.
ML and his dynamic with his sister was pretty silly in a nice way.

FL was meh, the role was neither good nor bad but pretty average.

Supporting cast was very good, the roles fit in with the narrative providing enough comedic moments.
Shout out to the lady who is a bit crazy about the ML, she was a scene stealer.

only thing that bothered me was the amount of beatings the girls gave their guys & how it shown as funny. One or two in the drama would be palpable with all the gender dynamics of modern times but having it as a running theme through out the drama sends a wrong message.
Violence is never funny, showing it as funny is doing disservice to millions of people who go through it daily.

Nothing to do with agreeing or disagreeing.

If one is married or in relationship and is 'teaming' up with other men or women, it is called cheating.
Now, whether that cheating is justified or not is a different topic.

but,

it is called as cheating. In fact that is text book definition of cheating.

Another Asian drama with harem,
Color me surprised.