Sol1056

good heart > good looking, but cdramas seem to be certain that good looking must equal good person.

(which on the flip side means old, ugly, plain, or overweight is all bad looking ergo bad person. so, so, so done on that trope.)

I think it's because if she took them off, we wouldn't remember she's the main character and/or might not recognize her. The rare dramas (like Are You The One or Lost You Forever) where the heroine actually dresses down to fit the circumstance are the exceptions that prove the rule.

It's significant because once you realize what butterflies mean, it's very clearly signalling LR as reincarnated... and then does the same for SRQ, and that's at least a half-dozen episodes before the actual reveal. Point is, there seem to be multiple places where the director was adding hints, knowing we'd never notice until rewatch -- and that means a story crafted with the intention you'd notice new things on rewatch... unlike stories where rewatching only makes you realize just how many holes there were in the plot.

And another hint: in ep7, around the 28-minute mark, LR sits behind a screen reading, while SRQ is painting her portrait. When the camera looks at her through the screen, there's a butterfly on the screen that seems to hover behind her shoulder. There's another butterfly to the lower left that's out of focus... until the camera looks from her side of the screen, towards SRQ -- and that's when, very intentionally, the camera focuses for just a second on the painted butterfly before refocusing on SRQ's hand.

I never even noticed the butterflies when I was watching the show during its run, and now I can't stop noticing them!

I'm side-eyeing strongly the "smoking marijuana in the United States", because last time I checked, South Korea is not the US. If his actions were a crime in the US, he'd have to be caught in the US (or extradited to the US) to stand trial for that. I'd be curious to hear why South Korea considers itself able to prosecute for something outside its jurisdiction, or maybe that's just part of their extra bit of shaming a person.

Totally agree on ep40. The story's underlying conflict was always between LR+PWX vs SRQ, so naturally, the director/writer/producer felt an explanation was necessary for closure. And since SRQ was the antagonist (even when playing an ally), that made him more 'interesting' to the creative team (and to many, many viewers). PWX and LR working towards agreement and unity just isn't as intense a conflict in comparison. All that said, I still feel maybe 3 minutes would've been sufficient to settle and set aside SRQ's role in the story. Nearly an entire episode? That's way too much for a supporting role, imo.

Ultimately, SRQ wasn't really *that* interesting of a character, because he refused to change, and that meant you knew what he'd do based on what he did before. The willingness to do something different this time is what really made LR and PWX an interesting couple. SRQ was the thunder, but LR and PWX were the lightning, and as everyone knows, thunder's impressive but it's lightning that does the work.

Butterflies commonly represent souls/spirits of the dead. At the very start of the opening, there's one main butterfly that's quickly joined by two more. One of those butterflies joins the first and they both fly into the lantern, becoming part of the design on the lantern's shade. The third butterfly flies around behind the lantern, and is hidden from view. Three souls, two in the light, one in the dark. Durnitall, the hint was there all along!

Rewatching the series, and normally I skip the opening credits/song. (There are a few exceptions, like maybe 4 shows out of the hundreds I've watched.) Today, though, I didn't bother, and realized it holds clues that every one of us seemed to have missed. MAJOR spoilers, so putting the rest undercover. You've been warned.

Not even fifteen minutes in. Jeremy opens his mouth and all I can think is, that voice does not go with that face. Le sigh. Some dubbing voices work, some... don't.

So the trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxFkJuuJupQ) makes it look like some super high-intensity martial arts/political/intrigue drama. And the story description (above) makes it sound like another cheerful dimwit with good intentions who learns how to fulfill her ambitions and finds love along the way, or something to that effect. Talk about two completely different presentations, tonally.

I keep seeing mentions of a teaser-trailer, but I can't find a link to it. Can anyone point me in the right direction?

I feel like someone else wrote the first 2 episodes. The ones where 2FL is just a walking disaster area, getting in the way while loudly proclaiming she helped, refusing to cooperate or even share information, and then suddenly around ep3 she became a competent person capable of cooperating when needed, and not even so rash.

Hell, she's not even wearing the same fancy black/red getup as before. Honestly, I spent a lot of ep3 and ep4 trying to figure out if this was even the same character! I've seen character mid-story rewrites, but this one was especially obvious.

Probably because if he were older, it'd make more sense for him to have gathered more power/loyalty to him, a faction or two, not to mention a wife and several concubines to tie other families to him. A child has very little of that (if at all), which makes him sadly a puppet, and puppets usually have short lives unless they exist to the benefit of someone powerful enough to protect them.

This is true (or at least should be, that any significant characters develop). The problem isn't where they start, it's that female characters usually only get a limited set of starting points. They're a physically-strong but lacks-EQ cold fish, the demure and helpless debutante, or the utter dimwit.

And if the story starts with the FL already capable, it is a cdrama truth universally acknowledged that a single woman in possession of good sense and competence must be in want of a husband who can rein her in.

everyone I know who loves them has been eating them since a kid. try to introduce them to an adult and it's like (but not quite as bad as) trying to introduce someone to natsu or durian. the recoil can be instantaneous!

Near the end of ep15, I swear CXZ put out huamei. In all my years of watching cdramas, I think that's only the 3rd or 4th time I've seen it shown or been mentioned, and definitely the first time I've seen it in a (quasi) historical drama. Talk about an acquired taste!

The PtB expect him to go into battle (which he wouldn't survive, being outnumbered), but instead he's keeping it at a stalemate. He's basically digging in for the long-term, and in siege situations, it's a whole lotta hurry up and wait. Checking on her regularly makes sense when he (if not also his army) have so much time on their hands.

You know it's a well-written, well-acted, and well-directed show when you can feel the walls closing in around the characters and you. How long until we get the catharsis of the truth coming out!?

I suppose as typecasting goes, CHS could do worse than "younger man pining severely for woman who doesn't see him romantically* while entertaining plans of kidnapping her and being mental around her until she falls for him".

* or in this case, "doesn't see him at all"

The description has one set of character names, the actual characters another. Does anyone have a simple list of which name matches which character?