Reviews

Tropes, tropes and more tropes.

On one hand, this episode did have some nice moments including by far the most 'action' we've had in quite a while. And the very start carried over some nice 'coupleness' from the end of the prior episode. But otherwise this episode was just a mash-up of stereotypical drama tropes. We get, smashed together in fairly short order: (1) A quiet journey through the woods interrupted by bandits/assassins attacking. (2) We get a chase that ends in a carriage tipping over. (3) We get our heroin falling over a cliff (yes, she survives, of course). (4) We get the assassin hired to kill her ... recognizing her as someone who saved her years ago! (5) the creepy psycho unrequited love a**hole is re-inserted into the plot and (6) she's suddenly blind and so isn't aware of said psycho being near her. That 6 classic cheap drama tropes all crammed into this episode, Come on, writers! Let this just be a case of quickly getting them out of your system and over with! Please don't end up relying on cheap stereotypical plot tropes going forward!

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Mindfu**ingly Good!

I'm still processing my reaction to Moonshadow Ep 1.... I still can't get over Key's declaration that Chan's her 1st love. But Chan can't remember anything about Key! 🤔🫨🤯😵‍💫And now, I watched Episode 2 .... Still, I can't wrap my brain about what's going on haha haha 😂😆 What da frick did Jay do to Chan?!! Chan seems drowning in so much pain and yearning, but rejects Jay who wants to come back into her life. And Sun's blood boils about Jay's existence. Why?!!? Meanwhile, Key has so many dark skeletons from her past and many more mysterious intentions and motivations now. Even Simba seems as stressed as I am about this show hahaha 🤣😂 But it's a good stress, like the mind-fu** I got from watching Christopher Nolan's "Memento"! Watching MOONSHADOW feels like one exceptionally long - and good! - f**eplay session....

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Ep 10 - THE BEST IN THIS SERIES, thus far...

Fearless Forecast: ORM will get all the acting awards next year! She's an amaaaaaaaaazing actress (and this is me talking as a Lingling stan!) and ILF ep 10 proved this again and again. Episode 10 is the BEST in the entire series, thus far. As for insane Kingkongmol and small-dick angstsy Utt, I wish the law would put them away for good: One for assault and battery, the other for slander and malicious intent. Or they can both turn into a stinky puff of stale air and disappear into oblivion FOREVER, never to bother Runch and Neen ever again.... P.S. Is there a contest about who's the most vile and nefarious evil meddling hag this GL season? It's a toss-up between Kingkongmol in IN LOVE FOREVER and Pan(g)ee(t) from 4ELEMENTS:FIRE! Choose your beeyatch bias....

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Sadly, the show did not avoid adding one of the most annoying plot tropes.

This episode formally establishes the pathetic Prince Li as an obsessed, pathetic, unrequited love interest who makes an utter fool of himself trying to entrap and pursue Ye Li. Fortunately Ye Li flat out rejects him but just the very existence of this trope is always a disappointment because it just feels like a lazy crutch for writers to fill episodes with the same stereotypical events and scenes that we get in so many c-dramas. Plus, the rendering of this trope is just poorly done. The idea that Prince Li has any sort of fully-formed romantic interest in Ye Li is just weak because she was a child way back when she left the capital to go to the mountains and he hasn't seen her in over 8 years. And the bit where he accuses her of killing Lu Chang on behalf of him (Prince Li) , saying he knew it was her because he, "knows her methods" is just really bad writing and makes no logical sense. How on earth would Prince Li, "know her methods" since she was a child back when he last knew her and her current methods would almost certainly have been formed during her training at the Li Academy during the years she was away. This is a pretty dumb plot hole. It was an also just weirdly dumb for her to outright admit she killed Lu, though not for Prince Li. The whole scene was just a car wreck after so much good writing in this show up until now. I really hope they don't wast tons of screen time on this stupid subplot as I went from absolutely loving this show to suddenly having a lot of doubts.

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The T-shirt is still wet.

I was ready to drop this series because it was so freaking slow, slower than a slow burn. Then Episode 6 happened.The script is amazingly intelligent. In the most painfully slow way, it has somehow managed to get my emotions boiling like water. Mitsuru’s guilt over Mrs. Sonoda’s death finally brings everything to the surface, and what fascinates me most is how the story shows the cowardice people can have when confronting their own guilt. Sometimes we don’t run from the truth because we don’t know it. We run because we know exactly what it means.And you know this isn’t going to be taken well. Japanese people can be incredibly calm and restrained, but even I’m thinking: “You won’t like me when I’m angry.”So is this series really just about guilt? I doubt it. There has to be something much bigger underneath all of this. At this point, I feel like the writer’s creative juices are in overdrive or at least I’m hoping they are.The mystery is slowly unraveling, but somehow, more questions keep appearing. On the bright side we find our two protagonist finding comfort and love from each other. It looks like the T-shirt is still wet. It looks like the T-shirt is still wet at this point.

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Rumours, truth and accusations

That was super satisfying to watch Madam Wei and Yake's clash! Coordinated or not, Tingyun, Miss Wu, and Madam Wei did well to save Miss Wu from that unwanted marriage. Well done! 👏And I just love Grand Secretary Tian. He's so funny, always bringing up his health issues and old age at the most convenient times. The Emperor used that very well to stall the decision on Zhao Ling and his post. 😅 "Wasn't I asleep just now? How did I help you? You were all making such a commotion. What were you arguing about?" 😂 (I don't care if he pretended or not, but this was definitely funny!)But I don't like what Fifth Master Fu is doing to his daughter and Zhao Ling, and actually to his whole family. Like locking his wife in her room so she wouldn't tell the truth in court? He's been mostly absent from family affairs for the last seven years "mourning" his mother and not even acknowledging his daughter, like ever, and yet he makes himself out to be such an authority figure. 😒😤And Yake, as a bitter woman who has finally learned she lost her husband's affection to Tingyun, of course revels in those rumours caused by the Fu family's old maid. 🙄

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