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after Love Game in Eastern Fantasy I went looking for something similar. The Love Duel mini drama has similar concept and rom com humor parts, available on YouTube. FL and ML both modern people inserted into a bad novel and have to follow system missions. It's more humorous and very low budget, not on the same level, but their happy ending in the real world is satisfying. It was a nice after-meal desert.

it's not like that, it's just that sometimes in transmigration dramas there is a strong ending where we see them embracing together in the modern world. this one doesn't have one of the better endings. but it's not sad and tragic! you don't need to stop earlier.

he goes unconscious during surgery and enters the novel world. miaomiao enters together with him in her sleep so they experience it together. (because... spiritual magic stuff. because they're soulmates etc..) she "saves" him again and they wake with him determined to live with new purpose, ready to find her and love her because he's healed enough to love himself

The thing about this "enter and then exit a novel" plot arc is that we spent all this time with the second pairing (the novel protagonists) and and then MiaoMiao is like LOL so ok, guys? none of this is real and it's all ending! hope you enjoyed your lil romance and your kisses, because you're imaginary. k thx bye! and then MiaoMiao and Ziqi have their romantic revelation about how middle school angst caused him to end his first web novel with an apocalypse. Also, every book is about her. and they wake up to be together. the end (I'm just saying, from the perspective of the 2nd pairing this is NOT GREAT lmaoooooooooo)

what I keep thinking about now it's over...

Love You Seven Times is so underrated! He is great in that drama and with his real voice you can truly appreciate his acting abilities.

but isn't he like chronically ill?? that's not the same as sitting around at leisure 😆

Choosing not to show his face at the end and see them on the screen together and hugging is not forced by censors. other dramas with transmigration (like romance of tiger and rose) don't do this. the show chose to do it this way. The censorship requirement that it's clear in the end that everything in the book world was a story and not real.

It's different but imo the novel is definitely worth reading.

Dissatisfied with the ending. I don't personally buy anymore that it's all censorship's fault when we get these half-baked endings. It's a choice! They're not forced to make it exactly like this. Other dramas with time travel and insert into a story have managed to give a more complete ending. For example, "Supervisor Husband" also is a reader insert story and FL and ML reunite in the real world, we get them actually talking face to face and it feels resolved. Same with "Romance of Tiger and Rose". Regrettably, it was set up for me to like it much better than Romance of Tiger and Rose, because here the real world connection is deeper. The rl people have more depth in this drama and I could more believe in their rl love potential. So it becomes doubly disappointing that we're robbed of a full reunion and a solid finale.

edit: to be clear, yes there are restrictions on how this topic can be portrayed. I'm not denying that. However, I am pretty confident that does not mean creators are forced to do things like not show his face in the last frame or allowing the leads to hug again in the real world. Because different dramas have their own take on the story wrap-up. (Fateful Love just aired recently - lots of us complained on that rl reunion but at least FL gets to run up and hug the ML. There's a live embrace and they speak to each other.)

Great costume drama to binge. The misunderstandings feel like a lot from ep 3-11 but I feel it makes up for it in end of 11 thru 17, where the viewer feels confident that the couple share mutual affection and will triumph in the end.

I've rarely seen a ML written with low self-esteem in this way but it's done well... The actor truly portrays it in his expressions and mannerisms how he had feelings for the FL almost immediately !! but constantly denies it to himself and represses it because he is 100% sure that FL is a perfect and special girl, and far beyond his reach. When you realize how much he never says he doesn't want her, but always reasoning that she deserves the best and just discounts himself. 😭

Try these from this year... all very solid HE.
Rise of Ning
Are You The One
Blossoms in Adversity
Melody of Golden Age
In Blossom
Princess Royal

I can't disagree with waiting to check the ending... but a pattern of SE this year is bad luck :( I watched all these with happy ending this year:
Legend of Shen Li
In Blossom
Blossoms in Adversity
Fragments of Kylin
Melody of Golden Age
Follow Your Heart
Princess Royal
Are You The One
Rise of Ning

this is why 90% of the time I won't watch travel into a game/book/comic c-dramas. the ending is always incredibly frustrating to me. The writer won't add 5 more minutes to it, to give the romance full closure. :(

This is a REALLY good drama but it's not a romance-heavy drama. Don't watch it looking for a subplot of "2 characters fall in love, increase in physical intimacy, confess, become an official couple, end up together in the final episode". It's not that genre. It's focus is friendships and growing bonds between people. Forming a team who care and sacrifice for each other and the world. It won't give you a romantic happyily ever after ending for ML and FL because it's not that style of show.

Love Scenery

It's hard to explain but... most viewers like resolution. Not open endings. If there is a romance plot, it doesn't feel 100% achieved and resolved if there's zero kiss. It's this nagging, distracting gap in the romance subplot. Because we KNOW that (if they're not canonically asexual) these characters will kiss and have intimacy with their partner. Thus... if they aren't giving even 1 evidence of that... it doesn't feel resolved that they are Together. It's like a blatant plot hole!

This world they're in is a novel and supposed to be exaggerated and fake. Miaomiao has risen and over the perfect female protagonist role in the Story-within-a-Story. When she inevitably returns to the real world in the end, she'll just be a regular girl. (that's not a spoiler, it's that all dramas like this always end with the character back in the real world)

I think the difference is... did the story make it clear from the beginning? Is the ending meaningful, highlighting the themes of the whole story? Or is it tacked on at the end because the writer is lazy? As you say, here we have an explanation and it wasn't a surprise switch on viewers. We weren't promised something and received a different thing.

as of around ep 22 or 23 they're actively putting themselves at risk to save him, even though he's a danger to them and potentially the world. that was the big turning point for me. It's not for like 3 ep later that Zhu Yun is directly told to his face, please don't die. but the team's actions were clear when they made rescuing him the priority.