Kate

pretty sure episode 3 he made the account? And in thhe same episode we can check the nickname in the grocery shop - Gi U chats with Full Moon, and then we see the message set to Hyeon Jae's phone.

The one the teacher chats with at the first 2 episodes is not Hyeon Jae. Hyeon Jae made a new account on that app after seeing Gi U's chat with someone else and his nickname there.

Regret - Gi U
Full Moon - Hyeon Jae
Sunflower - ? tho I place my bests on the new bad guy 🤣

That might at the end lead to 20 pages story and characters analysis, like I did with Secret Relationships 🤡

I'm a professional overanalyzer 🤡🤣

Lee Hyeon Jae is so sneaky tho. Creating a profile on that anonymous chat after seeing Han Gi U uses it and what his nickname is. Also... did Han Gi U just stopped talking to Sunflower, and switched to chat with Full moon aka Lee Hyeon? Also what if Sunflower is the new villain asshole? So many possibilities lol

*playing Britney Spears' Toxic in the background* 🔥🙂🔥

did you see them veins in the arms? 🤣 Also he is so much taller than poor Han Gi U, who also survives on ramyeon only 🤣🤣🤣🤣

This is how you write interesting toxic dynamic 🔥 The ending scene of episode 4 was just perfection. It made me feel so uncomfortable I wanted to throw the laptop out of the window, rewatched it 3 times, amazing 🤣

A student forcing a kiss on his teacher, as the teacher's wife is behind the door - what a combination 🔥🔥 What I find the most interesting is the fact I am honestly not 100% sure what was Han Gi U thinking and wanting during that kiss. If I was to analyze, interpret and guess - I'd say he was not against the kiss, but he knew he should be against the kiss.

The first moment Lee Hyeon Jae kisses him, he does not try to push him away at all. He is surprised and not responsive sure, but I think he just did not expect for Hyeon Jae to cross the line. The moment he starts to push him away is the moment he hears his wife behind the door - that brought him back to reality and he panicked. But then Hyeon Jae tells him he wants to be the most important person to him, like Gi U is to him and he gives in, but does he? He is kissing him back, but the open eyes and overall lack of enthusiasm is just 😐 But then I saw the preview and he is leading there so I'm like 🙃 My man, how should I read you?

Anyway that "mutual" kiss fade to black, with eyes opened and wife behind the door was just so fucking uncomfortable I love it 🤣🤣🤣

Gi U obviously has some past trauma, he is terrified to seem odd and "special", he wants to blend well so bad, he literally forgot how to give honest reactions and how to be himself.

Hyeon Jae not only has past trauma coz of father's abuse, he is also still getting more and more trauma and abuse on top of that. This trauma filled relationship is going to be a trainwreck to watch, cannot wait.

And then the other trauma filled pairing Kim Jeong Ha and Park Seong Won. Poor baby Jeong Ha... is he gonna literally bay the dept with his body? 😭

They all existed only in the context of women, without individual path. All their plots were the reaction to women's stories. That's the whole point - it was focus on the women, it was uninterested in its male characters. There is a reason by the end they chose to show only women, and they would rather show a woman standing next to horse and not her husband.

For me majority of men in the drama were well written props, not necessarily well written characters. And I don't think we are going to agree on that aspect 🥲

As I said, you can focus on women while also having interesting and complex men to support them. But that was not the case here. For me they were completely not interested in men.

And it's not about showing good men, but well written characters with depth, which this drama lacked. They can be villains as far as I know, but they have to give me something.

over cheap melodrama, refusing to lean on lazy tropes or excessive flashbacks < honestly, only now reading your review it hits me how close to zero flashbacks we have in this drama. Which si kind of amazing? I think too often directors and writers use flashbacks as the easiest way to establish facts, set up and character backgrounds, when there are more interesting ways to do that.

The identity switch is much more meaningful than a simple disguise. < this. Because it was NOT disguise at all, it became who she is, it became her new identity, and she never planned to get back to her old self. I loved it tbh. I loved that even though she could technically at least with people close to her be honest and explain her passed, she chose not to.

where dramatic time jumps occasionally skip vital developmental moments that I would have liked to actually see < this was my biggest issue. I still cannot comprehend what happened during the production of episode 39 🥲

AMAZING REVIEEW! 🔥🔥🔥

oh wow, your review seems even longer than mine 🤣

Honestly, I'm gonna miss this show a lot 🥲

thank you so much 🔥

So much to love about the show. Even with a few flaws it had, it's still a solid 9/10 for me 🔥

💘It’s a story about how often women have no say in making decisions, but also need to face the consequences of the decisions men made. How not only do they survive, but learn how to thrive in any environment. A story about adaptation of oneself to the environment, but also their environment to their own goals. Women are neither good nor bad, as people are neither good nor bad. A person’s nature is complex and has to be judged individually.

✒️ Lan Xiang and her role as a storyteller. She might have been more stoic and reserved, but she was not a stagnant and passive character. She observed her surroundings and acted according to what's best for her survival. She is the person that teaches by example, that stands by her morals. She was the heart and brains of the story, but what’s more important, she was the storyteller. She was not really a central character, but rather a central storyteller.

🔥 Amazing supporting characters, some of my favorites: Lin Xiu Ru, Lin Xiu Wan, Zhao Xing Tang, Ji'er and surprisingly Grandpa Lin, that exceeded my expectations of where their story will go and how they will develop.

😍 I really like Lin Jin Qi. I loved how he did have actual flaws, how he was at times extremely selfish and impulsive. How he always wanted to gain first and deal with potential consequences later. That led to realistic and slow paced development with him learning how and when to give up his desires and ideals, how to focus on what truly matters, how to be patient.

🦋 Nanke and his comedic timing.

🙂 Not sure how I feel about the romance, because till the end it felt too one sided. On one hand I actually appreciate that a lot, since logically it makes far more sense. Sadly, in the drama the set up made me anticipate something more grand.

⌛LOVE how the fates of certain characters and generation were connected and repeated based on their choices and what they found to be more important in their lives.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 For the schemes, the focus was on the smaller politics between social classes - on how lower class lives and how the nobles’ decisions impact them. Even if the story dived more into court politics, it was still all mostly contained in how it affects the characters we follow in a local area.

🎥 The production had many amazing touches that enhanced the quality of viewing. One aspect I truly loved was how they kept highlighting the contrast between different character’s environments and their current situation. A good example of it was the wedding between Lin Jin Qi and Zhao Xing Tang, while Lan Xiang was suffering alone (episode 2, so not really a spoiler). Mixing scenes that emotionally have contrasting messages was an extremely effective way to emphasize the impact they are supposed to have on the viewer.

🖼️ I also liked how they didn’t verbalize everything that was happening and every decision that was made by the characters. They showed details and assumed you would get it from the context. Or how they framed the characters with architecture, which made the scenes feel fuller.

🎭 Tan Song Yun has a more stoic and grounded character, over the more hype one she often plays, which was an amazing choice for her career development. And did Liu Xue Yi graduate from toxic male lead into soft potato? Because that role fits him so much more than anything he has played (or at least anything I watched with him).

On the tiny complaints:
🥲 I heard some sentiments in comments that this drama is anti-men, but for me it’s completely uninterested in men, which might be actually worse writing wise. The men were by all means just props to tell women’s stories and I’m not sure how I feel about it. You can have a drama that centers around womanhood, and still have well written and interesting male characters.
🥲 I also truly believe Lan Xiang was too perfect of a character. I truly wished to watch her make at least one major mistake that would lead her to deal with the consequences, whether internal or external.
🥲 What’s more, I think they ended the show with the weakest villain out of all they presented throughout the drama. She was the most flat in both writing and delivery, her motivations were the most obvious and stereotypical and she did not have the presence to give us the high stakes ending.
🥲 The biggest flaw that was actually infuriating in one of the episodes - time jumps. Episode 39 was a whole ass math exercise to keep track of how much time passed.
🥲I think they were a little bit too ambitious with the timeframe of the story. The period of the time they wanted to cover just did not work, whenever we talk about transitions between certain eras, or the casting. I see these young actresses that have baby faces making them look like they are in their teen years, but the characters tell me they are in their mid thirties.
🥲Last few episodes were completely unnecessary. I think they were so hyperfocused on that touching ending, they kind of lost the plot, or rather the idea of how to tell it and how to get that dreamed ending scene and conclusion.

Overall, it’s still an amazing watch. Might be a bit overly ambitious and that’s where the majority of the issues come from, but emotionally it had such a strong impact on me, and I was so impressed with how well connected the motivations and events were from different periods of the story, I just cannot care too much about the flaws I saw. Highly recommended for sure.

And if anyone wants to read the "full of spoilers" review that is ridiculously long, link below 🤡
https://kisskh.at/profile/theKate/review/613340

I think the point is what Lan Xiang and Jin Qi at the end thought honoring family is - prioritizing your loved ones and their safety, and what Scholar Han and Shen family thought honoring family was - prioritizing family name and the honor it hold, even if it leads to their death...

So I think it was the difference between honoring the family vs honoring the family name

Cannot believe Scholar Han froze to death and 🐍 Lady blew up 🤣

Also I think now we can all agree Scholar Han was in fact NOT the correct choice for Lan Xiang as his fate was exactly the same fate Shen family faced, and exactly what Lan Xiang did not want to happen in her current life. Actully, I think her principles are more fitting for Lin family than Shen family. The past and present mirrored each other. Lin Jin Qi did not care for the grand morals and political integrity, he made choices that let him come back to his family. Scholar Han could not abandon his principals and would rather die, leaving his family alone to deal with the consequences. Isn't that exactly what happened with the Shen and Lin families in the opening of the drama? Isn’t that just amazing writing?

Random thoughts after finishing the drama in the comment under spoiler, I am exhausted after writing 5 pages review. But I just have to talk about one I found hilarious and one that I found extremely impressive writing wise.

Bada literally passed coz of sentimental pity vote because "she did something she never did before" aka wore a dress 🙄 It was such a ridiculous bias choice they could have at least written better script for judges to justify it.

rant, I am mad lol
Also, not Min Jun's performance on YouTube having twice as many views and 3x the number of upvotes compared to other performances from the episode lol