Kate

Yeah but she became good BEFORE the bomb in the orphanage.
She started to do volunteering job and not seeing Song as some evil competitor and became more nice BEFORE it happened. Literally between episodes. She was literally a dick one episode, and nice and understanding another episode.

It was never confirmed if she deleted the comment - basically never truly explained nor mentioned what happened with anything, if she even apologized to Jiang Yu 🙄

I completely understand that the story focuses on Li Zan and Song Ran since they are THE main characters, but the fact we get practically speaking ZERO scenes from supporting characters is just bad planning for the story. They become less developed, we connect to them way less, they start to feel like props for leads, not individuals. Keeping the balance is important and I think the drama completely fails at it, examples:

1. They have spent 2 full episodes on the bullying story, and they did not give it any closure. NONE. It was there just for the leads to get closer and admit they are hurting, but the plot that was developed during that period was just dropped the moment it was not serving the leads. Song Ran did not apologize to Jiang Yu, they did not show the article she was supposed to write in the first place about that bullying accident. By all means, the whole country would still think the teen is a nasty bully. Her saying "it was settled" is not a proper closure. How was it settled?

2. In even earlier episodes, Shen Bei's whole character development literally happened between episodes. She was an egocentric asshole at the end of one episode, and was an empathic journalist in the next episode. We saw NONE of the process of her change. Nothing.

I understand, the mains are the most important, but if you FAIL to develop and showcase everything around them, the story start to seem flat coz it happenes in bubble that does not feel real.

Yeah I assumed it was botox or some other work done. The skin on her face was... tight.

You are talking about a completely different issue than my comment was directed at. People ship characters for different reasons no matter what the source material is. Somehow in straight shipping it's never an issue. No one says people are disgusting when they ship female character with male character when their relationship never crosses a platonic line.

quick short-cut to gain viewers and often storylines were poor and had no artistic value. < yeah that might be the oficial version for people to read. Somehow there is no stop on vertical toxic male lead dramas that quality wise are iterally the lowest of anything that can be produced. If the reasoning given does not apply to all the contect, it says a lot about the real reason it was implemented.

Have I ever said anything about other countries? No. So what's your point?

I am aware majority if not all countries have various level of homophobia in them. This has nothing to do with this specific case of gay relationships being cansored in Chinese media. This is a Chinese drama produced in China hence I am commenting how it is in China.

Do not assume what is my opinion on anything else except things I wrote myself.

Yeah your comment does not make them less of a gay ship 👍

I am honestly surprised how well they are handling the topic. It's rare to see in dramas.

about some psychological aspects of the drama

On the general note, I appreciate the direcity of the diagnosis going on. Traumatic experience does not always only lead to PTSD. Sometimes you might end up with anxiety, depression etc. So them not labeling every character with PTSD is great.

What's more, I do appreciate how with Li Zan case, they show psychological issues can heavily impact your recovery from physical injuries too. What's more, how scary the process of recovery is. How while taking the first step is the key, it's not end all be all. Even after seeing the psychiatrist he is still hesitant. He did not do follow up. He claims to be better. You do not get better from severe PTSD after one meeting. But recovery is fucking scary. So sometimes it's easier to convince yourself you are getting better and you can push through it by yourself.

Then we have Song Ran - what a great portrayal of depression and anxiety. How from the outside she might seem fine, but we as viewer see how she is not, how she is honestly barely holding up at times. I love how they don't show depression as this 1:0 shit - you either completely disfuncional, or fine. With depression you can also have good days, you can be happy, smile.

And then we have pretending to be fine in front of each other, because they do not want to burden the other 😭 When if honest about their state they could be such a massive emotional support for each other on that healing process. But that's also so fitting, because the last person you want to show your pain is the person you love.

Ben is on a whole murder mission. While we do not have (and probably won't get any since he is still in active service) diagnosis, he obviously has issues himself. Blaming himself for Rina's death is a sure thing. So now he just pushes forward, no matter the risk, no matter the injury.

Sa Xin joining the military is also a symptom of his grief and psychological struggle, because by all means he is not cut for military. But he wants and need to do something. But now with Ben locking him up... he cannot even do that. It must feel so awful, suffocating.

I honestly love how they present various psychological issues and trauma and how differently people deal with it and what kind of effect it might have on their daily lives 😭

About the psychiatrist I like her too. I appreciate how she does not life to her patients pretending as if their issues are not severe, but makes sure to let them know they can get better. It will be hard, but it is possible. I think that's so important with mental health. Giving patients false hope for recovery can literally break a person when they don't see the instant improvement. What's more, how she does not tell them what they need to do. She tells them possible consequences of their choices, might add her professional opinion, but at the end it;s their choice to do it or not.

There is a reason we are using the word "ship" not "couple" most of the time. Coz it;s the prefer pairing, not canon. So people being so fucking pressed about it is so hilarious. world is burning with shity global economy, wars, global warming, but fictional ships is the hill people want to die on 🤡🤣 how unserious of them.

One of the thing I find the most funny is how truly they just sandwitch Doctor between Ben and Sa Xin 🤣
He interacts and teases/borderline flirts with Sa Xin, we get a scene right away with the doc. Then we back with scene between Ben and Sa Xin right away. Sa Xin is one way or another always present when Ben in concerned hahahaha

We know this ship ain't sailing as a canon coz China is trash in terms of their treamtemt of lgbtq folks.
We just do not give a fuck and enjoying the ship anyway 🤣

Reasons why Ben and Sa Xin are THE headcanon ship people love:

1. PERFECT setup for soft enemies to lovers because the initial dislike they had for each other did not come from them actually disliking each other, but the idea they had about each other in their heads (that was then proven wrong as the drama progressed).

2. Even when Ben was annoyed at Sa Xin, he was still protecting him.

3. The way their dynamic works follows far more the typical "straight" love lines than "male friendship" IN ASIAN MEDIA, example: Ben being protective over Sa Xin, instead of them being "us two against the world" seeking revenge together. ML manipulating and keeping FL out of danger against her will is literally a trope.

4. The fact their scenes together have more depth and emotional impact to both character than any scene Ben had with Doctor so far. The devil is in the details. For the doc he bought a generic drink, for Sa Xin he made his special date drink with full on magic trick.

5. Majority of scenes he has with a doc happen in context of Sa Xin reacting to them, him being the cause it happened, or him being mentioned in them by Ben. The way he was dancing with the Doc while also keeping his eyes on Sa Xin for the majority of the time.

6. The fact the whole intro does not have ONCE scene between Ben and the Doc. Guess what it has tho - bar scene between Ben and Sa Xin.

7. How their bar scene borderline mirrored the composition of the lead couple bar scene:
https://i.mydramalist.com/yWODwR_3f.jpg

8. Truth to be told, his "love line" with Doctor is so shallow so far it feels like a way to pass censorship. Like when they tried to give Wuxian female love in in The Untamed drama version 🙂 The way their scenes are always sandwiched between scenes liking him with Sa Xin is literally a full on circus.

9. The chemistry is there 🔥

Now, I am 100% aware it will never be a canon, coz China is HOMOPHOBIC in a legal sense. They censor gay relationships in art and media. But that's also exactly why this pairing makes so many people excited, because this goes further than your typical queer-biting bromance things we see from China. I love a good dose of male-male friendship and brotherhood. This ain't that. You know what felt like brotherhood? Li Zan and Jiang Lin.

Anyway, I'm here to kill two birds with one stone: find my people, and piss of people who hate this ship for no fucking reason 🤣

Ps. I do not hate the female doctor, I think she is a great character, love her scenes and want to see more (they are painfully underusing her potential as a character). I just like Ben's dynamics with Sa Xin more 🙂

I get it now. By all means you are emotionally a child. No thought in your brain, it's all emotions you don't know how to explain, justify nor deal with. That's why you do not want to engage in actual conversation, instead act like a hormonal edgy teen with all the excessive !!!! "byes" and mediocre jokes, thinking they make you look good. They do, to other children. As an adult, I just feel bad for you.

And if by age you are also an adult, that's even sadder.

Do you usually also scream at people all the time when you talk to them in real life? All the !!! kind of ridiculous. No offence, but maybe you have some issues with emotional regulation. It's worth checking out.

Romantic relationship are based (or at least long term) should be based on friendship. Liking the chemistry between two male characters and wishing there would be a romantic love line between them is not disgusting. It has nothing to do with BL, since lgbtq relationships do not exist in a bubble of BL content. There are gay relationships in "regular" shows.

We are all aware that China is homophobic and this ship will never be a canon. China would rather keep an already produced dramas in basement to never release than let people view a content that might even hint gay relationships. We are aware. That's the sad reality. Which does not change the fact that many people do enjoy the chemistry between Ben and Sa Xin and think they could have romantic potential and it is not disgusting.

By that logic, everyone who ever shipped FL with SML is also disgusting, because from the start we know who the FL will end up with and wanting her with someone else is "disgusting".

I honestly wish you all the best. Seeing you get this moved and affected by random people's opinion about fictional characters that by all means should mean nothing to you is sad.

The amount of anger and passive agressive bravado - honestly pitiful. Find happiness. Focus on the positive 👍🏻

"no offense" but then calling other's preferred ship disgusting 🤡 some people live outside of reality.

of course you don't. Silly me thinking you might want actual proper discuss of the subject. Some people just want to talk shit and not take accountability for their words I guess 🙂