Xiang Liu and Xiao Yao’s Story and Romance

 plor20:

Ah... this got pretty long. Haha. Sorry for the rant.

Rant away :-). I've done my fair share throughout this thread :-)

 plor20:

The two characters where my opinions changed are XY and TSJ. My frustrations in the story have less to do with any of the love lines and more with XY's lack of courage, low self-awareness, and cowardice. I guess as a character-driven story, I was very unhappy with a lot of XY's decisions as they became dependent on how the men around made their decisions,

My opinion on Jing and XY took a massive nose-dive this time around.  It took a little longer with XY, but I've also reached the point where I find it hard to sustain sympathy for her when she spent the entire novel playing Denial is Not Just A River in Egypt and How Far Can I Bury My Head In the Sand? 

I have the same problem with her as you do. She's far too passive for my liking. I like someone who propelled the story forward - XY drifted and reacted more than anything else. The one choice that she made was clinging on to her obsession with someone who would never leave her.  But this was her "psychological deficiencies" and she never got out of this mindset - girl continued to run back into that prison when she could have gotten away and ultimately got shackled in. If it had been someone worthy, it wouldn't have been as big of an issue.  But as long as she remained tied to Jing, I can never sees her as overcoming her issues 'cause in my opinions no one with sense or good judgement would choose this man to spend their life with. Maybe once she runs off to the ocean, she'll wise up and divorce Jing. Now that would be character growth for her :-). But I'm not hopeful. Old habits died hard :-).

 plor20:

This will be my forever Roman Empire for XY's character in LYF: How can you tell someone you wished to have been the one to save them, and then do NOTHING to try to save them from themselves? Blargh... nothing, not even her psychological deficiencies can excuse this kind of character devolving.

Hmm! I have a few thoughts on XY's wish that she could have been the one to save XL so that he could have just been FFB. On one hand, I do think she has good intention, but on the other it is a reflection of her inability and/or her unwillingness to deal with the hands that fate had dealed their relationship and played it to the best of her ability. There is no "if" in this world. There is only reality. A wise person knows to deal with the reality of the situation instead of wishing and hoping on the "if only". This is in character for her isn't it? Taking the safer options when it comes to matter of the hearts. 

While I don't think XY could shift XL from the path that he'd chosen (he ain't Jing and he's not going to throw asides his responsiblilty and convictions), my thing with XY is that: does not being with that person means you will love them less or that their death won't devastated you just as much?  Where's was her courage and grit? Maybe we're meant to think that it was all XL doing; that he made a unilateral decision. I don't think this is particularly convincing since so much of XL's actions were about teaching her to stand on her own two feet and fight for what she wants. Her "psychological deficiencies" are reasons, but not excuses. Particularly as the story progress and her growth was barely existence.

 plor20:

I know some women found XY to be someone to look up to, and I just couldn't bring myself to do the same. In the end, there are two types of women who enjoyed LYF: those who aspire to be someone like XY and those who understand someone like XY

XY does have some good points. Unfortnately, she also messy in the way that she manage her romantic entanglement - with a streak of selfishness and cowardliness in the matter of the heart. XY's biggest strength is her survival instinct - honed from all those years wandering the wilderness. You put her in a life-threatening situation and she shined - a lot of physical courage, but lacking emotional courage. She's in many ways an emotionally stunted child/adolescent who actions focused on survival/security. She's not someone I would described as wise. Like an adolescent, she thinks she knows it all, but wisdom required self-knowledge, self-honesty and self-acceptance and XY is no where close to achieving these things.  Definately not someone I admired or want to emulate.

 plor20:

whereas in the drama, a more courageous XY is portrayed.

I'm not a huge fan of drama XY.  Perhaps due to the changes in the script so YZ chose to play XY in a different way, but I find drama's XY brittle. She lacks novel's XY sense of vulnerability and young-ness. Novel's XY comes across like she knows she fronting, whereas drama's XY comes across like she have zero self-awareness so her confident/courage appeared to be hubris. To me, the changes that they are looking to make with this character makes her quite one note.

 plor20:

When I saw the banners in WeTV, the only person that caught my eye was XL

TJC's XL was also what caught my eyes and got me intrigued to give the series a go. Read the books a few years ago, loved XL but wasn't planning on watching. Until I watched a Youtube video of XL's fight scenes. while I was on a bus in Budapest (I even remembered the moment :-)). The styling, the bad ass attitude and mannerisms. I'm shallow, a hot man will get my attention :-). Thankfully, TJC also delivered on the acting front.

I admit that TJC's XL was the primary reason I slogged through the series since the plot is not the best. Poor CX, despite being the official ml, I feel like the author didn't write him and his story strong enough to stand on their own and the adaptation didn't improve on these aspects. The less that is said about the other two characters, the better :-). 

The series does have other merits, but my interest in idol romance dramas have wanned during the past few years and it's getting rarer for me to finish a series. Often liberal used of the fast forwards button is how I complete a series these days. For whatever reasons, these series no longer appeal to me much. Just like how I used to read copious amount of romance novels, but haven't touched one in years. It makes me a bit sad, since I used to derive a lot of enjoyment from them. 

So despite its flaws, I'm grateful that LYF gave me TJC's XL and reignited my love for this character. It has been a long while since I got so emotionally invested in a fictional character and it's nice to experience the emotional up and downs that goes with it.

@HeadInTheClouds

A bit off topic, but is The Legend of Shen Li worth watching? 

 blabla100:

@HeadInTheClouds

A bit off topic, but is The Legend of Shen Li worth watching? 

I can't give you a solid answer since I'm only a few episodes in so it could go either way. It has been fun so far. ZYL and I Can't Remember His Name have some good chemistry and the female lead is more mature than your typical idol fantasy romance. It's nice to see that. 

I would say that it's worth a shot.

 liddi:

Pomegranate is an auspicious symbol that means "abundance in all things", particularly sons. This is normally a blessing given to couples on their wedding, for them to have many children. As such, in my opinion, it makes sense to have the symbol of a pomegranate on a boy doll as a wedding gift.

So this has nothing to do with whether it was a boy doll or dudou, but I could have sworn that I read somewhere that putting the bib with the pomegranate on the doll somehow sounds like saying "It is Liu", i.e. that the doll comes from Xiang Liu. Was it not on this thread?

 liddi:

Xiang Liu as a man, and the way he loved Xiao Yao - we rail at him for refusing to say anything, yet I love him exactly because he is a man of integrity, who would never offer up a promise he could never keep, and would give his all to fulfil what he has pledged. How his love empowers her, rather than coddles, because he is practical and wants her to go on to have a good life when the time comes and he has to leave.

Yes. What is it about this character that for the readers/viewers who loved him, it's so difficult to let go? It's a mixture of admiration and a deep sadness that makes your heart ache for him. And it's him as an individual, not just as part of YaoLiu. I've come across quite a number of readers who are just his fans and don't really care about the relationship. To the point that they bought and named a star after him.

 liddi:

But time and again, I feel the need to walk away for a while, because the novel still manages to elicit pain, just when I think that I have moved way past it, even though I have accepted what cannot be changed.

Sometimes I feel like a nut, thinking about something from the novel and getting teary. It's hormones :-).

 windiaaa041293:

And did you know, they blamed TH for being too biased. They said as a writer, even if you have a favorite character, don't be biased & write a story that supports everyone, but luckily Deng Wei brought Jing's character to life, which impressed many people.SMH..

They shouldn't be too greedy. TH let Jing live to sail the oceans with XY at the end, in exchange he gets to be a spineless/depowered doormat with zero character growth. Did they expect her to make him as wonderful as XL and let him live? Come on now, TH isn't happy unless she's torturing her characters in some way. Plus, she likes things to be realistic. Selfish cowards tend to live longer than selfless, honourable people :-).

 HeadInTheClouds:

This reminded me of The Legend of Shen Li where the female lead (in her "chicken" form) interprets the ML saying he sells ginseng as he sells his body :-). The homonym in the language gave rise to some funny misunderstandings and play on meaning.

Nice! My sister-in-law recommended The Legend of Shen Li to me. I'll have to check it out. 

 HeadInTheClouds:

And didn't we talk about how XL wish for XY to have a happy and worry-free life when said out loud sounds like "I love you"?

Are you referring to when XL said this in the epilogue?

"愿你一世安乐无忧！"
"Yuàn nǐ yīshì ānlè wú yōu!"
"Wishing you a lifetime of peace and happiness without worries!"

I don't see any obvious pun, but my Chinese language skills are not the best. The various names and nicknames for XY and XL do sound alike though:

• 小夭 (Xiao Yao) and 玖瑶 (Jiu Yao), Xiao Yao's formal name, sounds similar to Xiang Liu's nickname, 九头妖 (Jiu Tou Yao), meaning nine-headed demon.
• 小六 (Xiao Liu) and 相柳 (Xiang Liu) sound somewhat similar.

"If it had been someone worthy, it wouldn't have been as big of an issue.  But as long as she remained tied to Jing, I can never sees her as overcoming her issues 'cause in my opinions no one with sense or good judgement would choose this man to spend their life with. "

That's my main issue with XY. Jing is just not worthy. If TH would have build Jing as someone who is able to keep and fight for his promises, than honestly no matter how much I love XL, I would have sided with XY in chosing Jing, even though he's not my type. What does XY likes în Jing besides the fact that he loves her is beyond me. Or maybe as Xing Yue said it, most women will eventually choose to live a long life next to someone who's like water, rather than going after the fire to burn them up. As WXL she would have probably chose the one she loves, as XY she went after the one who loves her. Not saying XL loved her less than Jing, but personally I am still not certain of how much XY did or didn't know about his feelings.