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alternate plot *SPOILERS*

bibi

DON'T READ IF YOU HAVENT WATCHED IT.!!!

I loved this drama and I was satisfied with It. But I also thought the plot was going to take another direction. Disclaimer this is not a critique, I just really thought the storyline would take another direction, so I’m writing why I feel like I was catfished.

To make my explanation simple, W1: current world (2022) W2: second world (2011)

Part 1: It was just a dream???

As a watcher we’re led to believe for the first half of the drama that the FL transmigrated. She died or is in a coma and is experiencing an alternate reality. So as the story unfolds we experience with her various hardships and emotions. But then everything comes to an end when one day ML discovers her secret and starts doubting that her love is rivalry and not real love so they fight, she chases after him and *boom* she wakes up and we’re informed the transmigration wasn’t a transmigration but a dream. That’s it. Pretty basic plot resolution in my opinion. And the conclusion we get at the end of the drama? Reality is better than dreams, don’t live in the past. Don’t get me wrong that’s a fine trope, but I really thought it was going to take another direction.


Part 2: Bamboozeled

In part one I explained how I felt like I was catfished because I was convinced the plot would take another turn. Why? Because I got attached to ML in W2 too much for him to be just a dream. W2 was way too complex and detailed to just be thrown out like that. To me W2 didn’t tie well with the second part of the drama when she comes back to W1. They missed out on the obvious superior plot resolution where we end up learning that: the W1 ML is actually also W2 ML, and that this time around he was the one to transmigrate after her accident in the elevator. But he couldn’t tell her anything because it would change the timeline, so he waited 11 years in the sidelines for her. So here we have it, a perfect transmigration circle.  

There were so many hints and clues that pointed to this being the actual plot, like the scene where he tells the boss that he doesn’t want to confess to her because he doesn’t want her to love him because he helped her, aka the same exact reason ML from W2 broke up with her. If he was the same guy from the past his 11 year celibacy would make even more sense. 

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Janani Menon

I agree. He gives her the exact same gifts too. Like the gold pigs in the end credits scene. 

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bibi
 Yocheved Pereira:

I agree. He gives her the exact same gifts too. Like the gold pigs in the end credits scene. 

sometimes they start filming a drama before the ending is decided, I think this time it might be the case, because there were just too many hints pointing towards that

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guttlebeast

Okay i have some thoughts about the way they wrote the whole dream situation, i knew it was a dream while i was watching the drama and as i was watching i was thinking about how if it is a dream shouldnt we not be seeing scenes that the fl isnt in? Does that make sense? I think they played it too much like she actually went back in time. In the dream she is the main character so the whole world in a sense is built around her, so we technically should only be seeing scenes that she is in. If they include scenes that her character is not a part of isnt it implying that she is viewing them in a similar way to the auidence, so she like us woudl be an invisible third party watching other characters act out their roles but if that was the case then she shouldnt she know that she hasnt gone back in time. That probably didnt make any sense. I get why they did it the way they did, the plot needed for there to be scenes within the dream world that the fl wasnt a part of, im just nit picking. I actually really enjoyed the drama, this was just a point of interest for me that had the cogs in my head turning.

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bibi

wait really?? I didn’t notice that. So in the whole dream world we only see her pov? If so then the dream plot was actually premeditated from the start. I was really under the impression that they chose to go with a dream and not transmigration because of censorship and that decision was taken while they were filming, hence why there are many clues that ML is from world 2. 

But honestly now that I think about it the ending of the messaging at the end of the drama (about reality being better than dreams) might also be the writers trying to please the censors.

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reinesse

This drama actually has a fully fan translated book. After FL's accident, she goes back to her 19 yo self. She falls to the same pit and wakes up, turns out the ML used his connections to acquire a new experimental medicine to stimulate FL's brain to wake her up from coma. Things that happened to her inside the dream was due to ML talking to her while she's in coma. The side effects of the medicine is that she gets to remember some small details subconsciously stashed by her brain to the back of her head because they were unnecessary and it merged perfectly with ML's narrations while she was in coma. So it probably has nothing to do with censorship.

I'm just starting this drama and I'm wondering why they didn't stick to the original plot since all they had to do was remove the smut. At the same time, it's also reasonable since the novel had no drama or anything. Most of it was fluff.

If you're wondering what the original plot is like, ML never liked Mo Zixin, the latter purposedly schemed to let FL hear ML confessing to him when he never even confessed to her. MZX even cheated on FL's brother. As for Li Chongwen, he was not FL's ex or enemy. Before coma, FL heard that LCW got stomach cancer, partly because he used to skip meals in college because he was poor, so in her dream, she tried to feed him as much as he could. Also, FL's father is alive and well. ML fell for FL in the original timeline when her brother chased after MZX. He thought that Lu Xun was his biggest rival, so he bribed his sister to guard Lu Xun on his behalf and prevent the latter from having a solo moment with MZX. Lu Xun thought FL was chasing after him... and stuff.

There's a lot of other differences, which I assume they added in the drama to add drama.

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bibi

wow that’s interesting thanks for that 

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reinesse

The title of the book is "Don't Fall In Love With The Boss"

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guttlebeast

i didnt expect the book to be so different. also to clarify what i said early because i feel like i didnt make any sense, i intended to say that if it was a dream we should have only seen her pov but that wasnt the case the writers included other scenes where she wasnt present giving it the impression that she had actually gone back in time. The way i explained before to made more sense in my head, sorry for the confusion. I would have loved to see a true to the book version of the drama but i guess ill just have to settle with reading it instead

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bibi

humm that’s even more suspicious then. I don’t know still, I feel like they set up a lot of the script to make it seem like it would come full circle..

Its really good as it is but with the full transmigration loop added to it, it would have been on another level imo

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