John Smith

I think the bigger question might be why is there a photo of He Biao and Chu Feng Ling at Ding Yun Qi's work desk, and it is the only photo. Maybe their recovery (hers emotional, and his physical) is part of what was edited out.

Finally, the idea that they might need to work together to defeat a bigger baddie has crossed their minds. Feelings are still sore at this point, but at least I can start to envision a scenario where peace might be possible. It has always struck me odd that both realms thought extermination was the only way. The fate of the three realms is on you, Little Orchid. (I know it is more complicated than that.)

That was probably the most idle adventuring I have ever seen in a drama that lacked just about everything except for talking. The drama had its moments, but moments do not make for 36 episodes of expected action and drama. I liked it, but felt misled by previews, genre, and tags. Boring would be too harsh of a description. I would probably say lacking is a better term. Not in the cast, ambiance, or even storytelling. It seemed to rely more on storytelling than story-doing. I know there has been reports of censorship and heavy editing, but a drama is not rated based on what might have been. The good news is that if you go in to it knowing it is censored/edited, knowing that the actual adventure and romance is toned down, then it is worth watching a few episodes and seeing if you want to continue.

100% agree. I was asking the question "why?" much too often. I just could not take the drama as seriously as it seemed to want me to take it. I viewed it as one of those 24 episode Chinese romantic comedies to watch, forget, and queue up the next one. I thought it was pretty good in that context. I might have also liked seeing Deng Jia Jia.

He was supposed to be a rich brilliant investment big shot. It looked like something someone's mother would put together at the last minute to go trick-or-treating. Then they were all holding hands at one point. I just did not get the "knight protecting the princess/ little prince" vibe at all. Especially contrasted with the visual of her running in white with her long hair flowing looking like a fairy tale princess. She was breathtaking. The dark knight looked like he was ready to binge watch Power Rangers. It seemed like such a big theme for the drama, and I wonder why choose to cut corners there?

But the "dark knight" costume...

I think it is almost impossible to know how someone will react to that situation, especially with the bond of a single mother and son. I do not think the drama went into too much detail about the incident itself, but perhaps An Yu visiting (being healthy) was a harsh reminder of how her son was in a coma. She also showed up as a coworker and probably brought it back up to the surface again. I do think that Fang Li was wrong and went way overboard, but then again, I did not have to live with her thoughts for years and visit and watch my son laying in a hospital bed all the while giving any hope of happiness up because of the depression. I can imagine anyone around her made themselves a target (knowingly or not) since the accident.

I was shocked that she was able to still do her stressful job given her mental state, and all that was going on in her life. The drama did itself no favors by also giving her love interest problems with depression as well. I would have much rather her be going to therapy, and perhaps meeting someone, even if it happens to be the same guy from work who also seemed to be needing some therapy.

This drama is like a tragic story that someone passed through a fluffinator. Do you not know what a fulffinator is? It is a secret (well not so secret now) device used by writers when they are writing a romance drama and get writer's block after a few episodes. Any action becomes drawn out and romantic, while the focus is all about love and only love. It has really worked for some dramas, but when you try to turn a tragic story into a fluffy one, things do not always add up. It made the story too easy to digest. A lot of sweetness and any angry, bitter, or sad feelings lacked the punch they might have gotten in a melodrama. I really like it though. I am not a fan of melodrama, love triangles, or leads refusing to admit their feelings and this avoided most of that. I would file this drama under safe because you never really got high highs or low lows, yet I found myself binging episodes at a time.
If you are a fan of fluffy romances, this has plenty of sweetness. If you like work romances that actually have work and romance, and not just work for the sake of romance, this has that as well. This drama also had some consistently questionable decisions made by characters that seemed to want to add some depth and layers to the drama, but just seemed silly. I was not a fan of that. And in a case of being both good and bad, plenty of time was left for the ending as the dust was starting to settle on all that had been happening, but it seemed oddly paced and somewhat lacking.
On a closing note, Deng Jia Jia did a really good job as An Yu even if the drama did not always do justice to her complicated character. This is my first drama I have seen her in, and will check out more of her works. She is also has a beauty and charm that makes her stand out in her scenes. I think that Chen Ya An was either totally miscast as the misguided, yet wicked Mi Jie. Or maybe she was perfectly cast because she looks nice and sweet, even when acting totally different.

This. I said this earlier. You can watch all the previews, MV, BTS, and cryptic posts you want, but this is part of the Sweet On collection. The Sweet On intro is two pink flowers coming together following two pink ice cream bars doing the same. Then there is a heart in the O of On.

I would not be worried about a happy ending, but more how they are going to get to it. Will it be all tied up neat with plenty of time to enjoy the happiness, or will it be a rush in the last half episode? For everything else that is going on with the various plots, the drama has focused on the love story of Little Orchid and DFQC. As long as that remains the focus, this will continue to be a really good drama. I would watch another drama if I wanted to see a prolonged battle between realms or one to catch a big baddie. Undoubtedly that still needs to happen here, but that should really take place in relation to their story.

With three realms, reincarnations, flashbacks, dreams, and the fact that different people can address the same person by different names, and subtitles, it can be pretty confusing even if you have a chart. There is a chart in the section of recent discussions that I looked at to get an idea of who is who and what is their general relation. I am not sure if it spoils too much, but it is helpful to keep pace with the drama while watching it.

Another plot twist... what if RH appears as DFQC, and DFQC appears in the form of CH/XR.

I thought it was scenes from her past life, which with everything else going on, is making her question who she really is.

I think the more that is revealed about the characters and their stories, the more the viewer will go "ah, that is the reason for this/that in a previous episode".
There are a lot of questions that need answering, with plenty of I's to dot and t's to cross which make me wonder how neat of an ending we will get. I guess it is part of what keeps viewers who are enjoying it hooked waiting for the next episode.

I think your opinion might be misinformed because you seem to have watched up to the latest episodes, but do not seem to know what is going on. I really do not like to spoil the stories because there is such pleasure in seeing them bloom (pun intended) yourself.

Being a SML without another love line must be bitter, especially if you are nice. They might accept their fate, and even help their beloved FL with the ML, but I often imagine a lot of crying goes on seen and unseen to viewers. lol

It reminds me of the Hallmark holiday movies (or any Hallmark romance movie). Cut and paste different names, towns, and cast and you got another movie. Viewers love love, they love hope, heroes winning, and bad guys getting their just deserts. There is probably a tiny part of me that also enjoys the anguish of a breakup or broken heart. Plus drama casts are usually easy on the eyes.
I also can go to cruise control on a lot of the 24 episode Chinese romantic comedies. I think there are just so many that the quality can get diluted, and it is hard to find the right one when you have to watch so many. Despite that, I like them. I watch them and I will probably continue to.

Begin Again was really good. Zhou Yu Tong looked amazing, and her acting was worthy of being the main main. It did one thing right that I wish more dramas would do. When there is something that is hard to understand or explain, just skip it and move on (I think you know what I am talking about). Many dramas try deal with complicated issues or situations and end up making a draggy mess out of the rest of the drama.

If I asked if you saw that drama with the arrogant, rich ML and the poor, weak FL who hated each other, but later fell in love, which of the thousands would you name. Let me get more specific. The leads have best friends who give terrible romance advice, nosy parents, and each has someone that is obsessively in love with them, but they do not have any idea about it. Still seems like thousands? Okay, one more time. Noble idiocy, breakup, and happy ending. Did I even narrow it down? It does not mean all of the dramas like this are bad, but it does make it harder for them to stand out.

The first swap had me thinking how this drama would have been had the roles been reversed with Esther Lu as the baddie and Dylan Wang as the fairy. I thought that is what made a drama like Begin Again so interesting in that it took the usual roles and swapped them. It has other hiccups, but that is for another time.

I think that watching dramas is like a relationship. Viewers share emotions while they are watching and them become close to the story, the characters, or become fans of the cast themselves. I am never really surprised by how emotionally invested commenters can be.

I do not think it is perspective since we all have the same view of the characters. It is more our own comprehension and understanding. I do think that she has a passive personality, but she is currently in the process of trying to change that. I think some commenters mistook passive for inaction, when passive also can mean yielding or submissive as well. I think Chinese (and Asian dramas in general) need to do a better job of expanding the default setting on characters in rom-coms, not just the female leads. I guess the formula works and that is what gets views and pays the bills. It probably will not change anytime soon.

I have not seen it, but it is available on Viki, so I might give it a chance when I finish my "already too many started" dramas I am watching now. I am pretty sure I have seen both leads before, and they have a decade of more experience, so my hopes are up that it will be really good. And if it is not... I will... I will probably forget to even come back and tell you so.

It was really impressive seeing as that was the main focus of the story. It happened several times, and they were in sync the entire time while telling their story.

I would not say the way YSJ acts is slow. More like a jerk. In dramaland, it is hard to act like a jerk and win the heart of FLs if you are not the ML. That is Drama 101. I do think SMLs are always either overbearing in their love that is smothers their chances or hide it so deep that the FL never notices it. You also cannot be a noble idiot and be the SML and hope to win the heart of the FL either. I think that is the SML here. The weird thing is that she still thinks she likes him (as of the end of episode 12), so technically he still has a chance.