One person certainly must meet a terrible death, that super efficient CP's sidekick, think his name is Wang. Although the make up artist made Baron Chen's face almost unrecognisable, he is still too pretty for me to wish to crush his face with a big stone, but such an impulse could be easily vent out on the evil cunning face of his sidekick (kudos to the actor, of course, for making the character so dislikeable)
They were never lovers, that seems a far stretch. More like she was a neighbor that he fell for, but no sign yet…
Be sure I am enjoying our exchanges, too, to be honest, far more than I enjoy the drama :))) 1. I didn't try to avoid the answer, my counter-question was directed to her character-analysis (ie. how it was built-up, how consistently it was written), but you've already understood my intention and acknowledged the two questions are connected. 2. You did well to put your coment under a spoiler, but I actually didn't expect your extensive recap answer, we've seen the same drama and I certainly know her mother's death investigation served the purpose to lay out the plot. I've only wanted the acknowledgment as above (point 1) in order to direct your attention on what I see as lacking in this drama: a proper character building which is not limited just to FL, all characters are flat. If only the side characters were flat, it wouldn't disturb me, we are watching a c-drama (I mean nothing offensive, just referring to all kind of limitation Chinese writers have to respect, but despite these limitations some writers were able to produce very enjoyable dramas, even in this costume family genre, like The Story of Minglan, Blossoms in Adversity etc., and beside an interesting plot, what all nice dramas have in common is at least proper main characters building, the effort put in explaining their background/formation in a way that their motivations and decisions result comprehensible and coherent to the audience. You can't say this effort was put in this drama). 3. "What purpose would Yi Ning clarifying her past with LJX serve for this drama? In other words, what direction do you want the story to move in?" Clarifying things doesn't only serve to move the plot in a certain direction, there's also a necessity to build the characters. Concretely, it would serve to better explain her character and the audience wouldn't be abandoned in this huge space of guessing what are her thoughts and motivations. It would also make FL's attitude towards truth-seeking coherent. The viewers are not authors, it is not our job to imagine, fill the void spaces and solve the contradictions in characters' behaviour, we are here to enjoy and appreciate THEIR work and how well they (the authors) have done their job. I have no preferences regarding the direction of the plot, just asking for consistent (main, at least) characters and a plot that makes sense. 4. I am not among persons who are "jumping to make conclusions and passing judgment based only previews and whatnot" or impatient regarding "the secrets to unfold" but I don't entirely agree with your statement "It's also hard to judge a script when the drama's not even done." In general, I never give a vote or review a drama or its components untill it's over and I am not doing it now. But at this point, with more than 2 thirds of episodes already aired, every drama worth watching already displayed FORMED characters in terms of their background, attitude, motivations, thoughts and decision-making, the audience can say in which psychological type the protagonists can be classified. We don't have these things here. And this is not only the case of FL, whose attitude appears consistent only if we think she is affected by a double-personality disorder, even for the apparently more consistent ML, we don't truly get the reasons of his risoluteness in backing FL. Their childhood experience? Their childhood relationship would logically indicate he should be wary of her, he even broke his leg because of her willfulness, should we classify him as a masochist in search of more pain? I'm intentionally exaggerating being confident you'll get what I mean 5. I agree with you about the purpose of the second couple for the plot, I've only pointed out they seem to belong to some other drama... Thank you again
They were never lovers, that seems a far stretch. More like she was a neighbor that he fell for, but no sign yet…
Thank you for this kind and exhaustive reply, I'll do my best to reciprocate. 👍 I can also agree with your statement: "you only can't move on when something still matters to you". But then my question is: why she cares about her mother's death? She never met her, that person died soon after her birth, has no legacy with her, never knew her and, paradoxically, she has less connection with her own mother than with LJX, a living person she knew and had connection with.
Lets' suppose (again, we need to speculate here in search of minimum logics but based on WHAT WE'VE actually SEEN in the drama) that she started to dig out the truth because she was in danger herself, Mrs Qiao was (objectively) after her. She threw her down, Qiao is punished, and she is punished too, by her grandma, because she used herself as a bait (the only interesting thing in writing this character), but she continues to dig out? WHY?
So the answer on your question: "What do you think LYN clarifying the circumstances surrounding her 'attempted murder' would achieve?" is "WhatLYN claryfying her mother's murder is supposed to achieve?"
The inconsistency in writing this character is... total.
And this is not the only inconsistency btw., most of the characters are badly written and the very plotline is inconsistent, dragged till the ep 27/40 to "reveal the secret of her birth" in oreder to create a bit of suspence.Here are the other issues: 1. pretty derranged (Luo) family, but with all characters flattened to be really understood in a family ensamble drama 2. we have an upright duke/general (and uncle of LNX) who ignores the identity of the woman he slept with, but he will never remarry after that affair 3. a FL's mother who slept with another person and then made her best effort to pass the result of that affair as the legitimate discendant of Luo family. The script relating to these three points are written by sick writers, they should immediately stop taking the drugs they are taking, they damage their brain 4. second leads who seem escaped from another and completely different drama, partially together with Mrs Lin, interpreted by a very good actress. In that plot, obviously written by another screenwriter (not heavily brain-damaged), I sincerily feared fot the goose-actor, not so much it will finish slauthered but because it felt so uncomfortable wearing that blue scarf around his neck.
I'll spare you all other inocìnsistent issues I've noticed, I'll only invite you to reflect on these ones...
As for the C-censorship issue, I'm against censorship, but I understand why did they limit that popular motif in web-novels such as trasmigration. I'm a "Westerner", by no way such a messy and brain-damaging content would be allowed to +13 as it is in China
They were never lovers, that seems a far stretch. More like she was a neighbor that he fell for, but no sign yet…
I respect your opinion (as well as of other people here), but it is based on a guess, we SPECULATE here her thoughts and feelings (embarrassment, fear etc), they are not shown in the drama. What is shown instead is a smart and brave girl who knows how to see through other people. She is not a person who easily "move on", as you've said, otherwise she would have "moved on" from her mother's death, too.
Instead, her character shows she can't move on, she must knows the truth and continues her investigation against all the odds. She wants to know the truth about her mother's murder and refuses to know about her own (attempted) murder? Come on, folks, it is such a huge inconsistency in writing this character, that it makes NO SENSE AT ALL.
They were never lovers, that seems a far stretch. More like she was a neighbor that he fell for, but no sign yet…
she didn't hear "it doesn't matter if she fell, it's just a girl" because LJX came to the cliff when she was already fallen down. As for his dealings with her brother, she still had several chances to clear the problem with her ex. I simply don't understand, why some of people deny such HUGE flows in this plot?
They were never lovers, that seems a far stretch. More like she was a neighbor that he fell for, but no sign yet…
why would he seek for her? To murder her again? Or because she knows he never tried to murder her but doesn't want to have anything to deal with him? Btw, how she knew he's a ruthless murderer, you've seen that in the drama?
no doubt about what you've said right now But some knowledge on the subject of discussion makes a difference between subjectivness and objectivness, right, don't we all engage in discussions on MDL in search of fair and objective pov?
well, the references to The Story of Minglan are many and far too obvious to not be seen as a clear homage to that (very successful, successful for a reason) drama to be missed by persons who have seen it.
If other debaters compare the drama to the novel why can't I compare it to the drama which clearly inspired both the novel and this drama?
We've started this exchange of povs from twinty's coment "It is frustrating for me as a viewer that it is taking too long for the FL to find out as I cannot start seeing them as a romantic couple until she does."
This is not only her/his opinion, I hope we could all agree this is a fact, and those who've read the novel state the truth came out much earlier, you seem to have read it, you've said that in your opinion, the screenwriting is better than the original, implying you've read it, right?
Imo, the plotline (I refer only to the drama) is problematic EXACTLY because it is too much focused on "revealing the truth" about her real parents, they are dragging it too long in order to obtain suspence effect, while forgetting... practically all the rest. In particular the authors (lets call them jointly this way, both the original writer, although the story is not that much original, and the screenwriters) as if they've forgotten to build up characters and their relationships, motivation of their actions (the structure of any story is the sum of the actions displayed in a novel or a drama, nothing else!), ie. the psychological background of the actions, which is truly necessary for this genre (some other don't need it). If the whole plot is pending on the suspence of revealing the secret of her birth, which basing on the trailers, will happen soon, ep 27, everything after that climax will simply be anticlimatic.
As for the rest, I have nothing against acting in comfort zones or the productions in search of success, on condition that the plot is satisfying.
the writing lacks in many aspects but the biggest problem is the lack of coherent characterisation and it is not…
And regarding "confusing choices" of the writers, well, the major attachment/worry I've felt till now was that goose Fugui, I really fear smth bad can happen to him. 😁 That means only one thing: the characters are not developed sufficiently to make me relate with them
the writing lacks in many aspects but the biggest problem is the lack of coherent characterisation and it is not…
She can be ashamed to tell about LJX and the audience can be left guessing, but the shame should not stop such a person to discover the truth why (and if really) her ex tried to kill her - this is the problem I've wanted to point out
I haven't read the novel, so I can't judge what's better or if it's the original novel storyline the problem I see in the drama, which I'd identify in overall lack of characterisation, which is the key for every family ensamble drama in historical setting to be watched. The audience must understand their motives and see how their relationships develop. This drama tries to homage The Story of Minglan in so many ways, starting from the basic plot structure (investigation of her mother's death) to open references (FL's mother's name is Minglan), but it lacks to deliver all the key relations: 1. the deep and touching affection between grandmother and the FL from Minglan is totally flattened, in this drama there are no wise teachings accompanying FL's growth, there are no apparent reasons for their attachment at all, we still wonder if Mrs Luo knows FL is not a Luo child. 2. FL's relationship with her "old flame" is so incoherent: why would such a brave person (different from young Minglan) feel such a terror in front of LJX and be unwilling to tell about him to a person she believes is her brother? Why would such a suspicious, smart and scheming girl believe LJX ordered her death? It makes no sense she is all in investigation of her mother's murder while she is totally unwilling to know anything about the attempted murder on herself. I've read many people here dissatisfied with Ren Min's acting and voice... but the problem is not the actress, it's the script, the actress only delievers what is written and how this character was imagined. 3. All side characters are flattened, FL's father is a caricature of Minglan's father, we truly felt as a narciss beguiled by concubine's flatterings but truly moved only when his reputation came into question. 4. Women villains' characters here also fall far behind the concubine of Shen, Gu's mother or Minglan's "aunt". Here we simply don't understand why are they acting as they're acting, we have no clue of their backgrounds, of the psychological aspect that moves them in wrong direction. Even the sister - who constantly repeats the same errors - is just dumb, she lacks sophistication in simblings' competition games of Minglan's sister... 5. ML. I agree the actor is doing well, but as I've explained above, the problem is not with the actors. Besides, ZWY is totally playing in his comfort zone with this role, it's a replica of his role in Lost You Forever, we've seen that, moved ahead and want smth different now.
Im confused at this writer. One moment wanting us to go soft on Dad with him having crush on Hairu, but then be…
the writing lacks in many aspects but the biggest problem is the lack of coherent characterisation and it is not just with reference to her father, who is more or less a side character, even the main leads are incoherent. Why would such a suspicious, smart and scheming girl avoid to tell her brother her background story with LJX, why would she believe LJX ordered her death in the first place? It's unconvincing to investigate her mother's murder while she is totally disinterested in the attempted murder on herself. Not to mention the villains here, not only we don't understand their way of thinking or motives to be villains but their execution of crimes is a mess. When FL's mother was killed, she showed for months prolonged health symptoms, while Mrs Qiao was killed in a night (in reality, pufferfish toxin kills in seconds), the same poison cannot be manifested in a different way... and so on.
4 
1 
1. I didn't try to avoid the answer, my counter-question was directed to her character-analysis (ie. how it was built-up, how consistently it was written), but you've already understood my intention and acknowledged the two questions are connected.
2. You did well to put your coment under a spoiler, but I actually didn't expect your extensive recap answer, we've seen the same drama and I certainly know her mother's death investigation served the purpose to lay out the plot. I've only wanted the acknowledgment as above (point 1) in order to direct your attention on what I see as lacking in this drama: a proper character building which is not limited just to FL, all characters are flat. If only the side characters were flat, it wouldn't disturb me, we are watching a c-drama (I mean nothing offensive, just referring to all kind of limitation Chinese writers have to respect, but despite these limitations some writers were able to produce very enjoyable dramas, even in this costume family genre, like The Story of Minglan, Blossoms in Adversity etc., and beside an interesting plot, what all nice dramas have in common is at least proper main characters building, the effort put in explaining their background/formation in a way that their motivations and decisions result comprehensible and coherent to the audience. You can't say this effort was put in this drama).
3. "What purpose would Yi Ning clarifying her past with LJX serve for this drama? In other words, what direction do you want the story to move in?" Clarifying things doesn't only serve to move the plot in a certain direction, there's also a necessity to build the characters. Concretely, it would serve to better explain her character and the audience wouldn't be abandoned in this huge space of guessing what are her thoughts and motivations. It would also make FL's attitude towards truth-seeking coherent. The viewers are not authors, it is not our job to imagine, fill the void spaces and solve the contradictions in characters' behaviour, we are here to enjoy and appreciate THEIR work and how well they (the authors) have done their job. I have no preferences regarding the direction of the plot, just asking for consistent (main, at least) characters and a plot that makes sense.
4. I am not among persons who are "jumping to make conclusions and passing judgment based only previews and whatnot" or impatient regarding "the secrets to unfold" but I don't entirely agree with your statement "It's also hard to judge a script when the drama's not even done." In general, I never give a vote or review a drama or its components untill it's over and I am not doing it now. But at this point, with more than 2 thirds of episodes already aired, every drama worth watching already displayed FORMED characters in terms of their background, attitude, motivations, thoughts and decision-making, the audience can say in which psychological type the protagonists can be classified. We don't have these things here. And this is not only the case of FL, whose attitude appears consistent only if we think she is affected by a double-personality disorder, even for the apparently more consistent ML, we don't truly get the reasons of his risoluteness in backing FL. Their childhood experience? Their childhood relationship would logically indicate he should be wary of her, he even broke his leg because of her willfulness, should we classify him as a masochist in search of more pain? I'm intentionally exaggerating being confident you'll get what I mean
5. I agree with you about the purpose of the second couple for the plot, I've only pointed out they seem to belong to some other drama...
Thank you again
I can also agree with your statement: "you only can't move on when something still matters to you". But then my question is: why she cares about her mother's death? She never met her, that person died soon after her birth, has no legacy with her, never knew her and, paradoxically, she has less connection with her own mother than with LJX, a living person she knew and had connection with.
Lets' suppose (again, we need to speculate here in search of minimum logics but based on WHAT WE'VE actually SEEN in the drama) that she started to dig out the truth because she was in danger herself, Mrs Qiao was (objectively) after her. She threw her down, Qiao is punished, and she is punished too, by her grandma, because she used herself as a bait (the only interesting thing in writing this character), but she continues to dig out? WHY?
So the answer on your question: "What do you think LYN clarifying the circumstances surrounding her 'attempted murder' would achieve?" is "WhatLYN claryfying her mother's murder is supposed to achieve?"
The inconsistency in writing this character is... total.
And this is not the only inconsistency btw., most of the characters are badly written and the very plotline is inconsistent, dragged till the ep 27/40 to "reveal the secret of her birth" in oreder to create a bit of suspence.Here are the other issues:
1. pretty derranged (Luo) family, but with all characters flattened to be really understood in a family ensamble drama
2. we have an upright duke/general (and uncle of LNX) who ignores the identity of the woman he slept with, but he will never remarry after that affair
3. a FL's mother who slept with another person and then made her best effort to pass the result of that affair as the legitimate discendant of Luo family. The script relating to these three points are written by sick writers, they should immediately stop taking the drugs they are taking, they damage their brain
4. second leads who seem escaped from another and completely different drama, partially together with Mrs Lin, interpreted by a very good actress. In that plot, obviously written by another screenwriter (not heavily brain-damaged), I sincerily feared fot the goose-actor, not so much it will finish slauthered but because it felt so uncomfortable wearing that blue scarf around his neck.
I'll spare you all other inocìnsistent issues I've noticed, I'll only invite you to reflect on these ones...
As for the C-censorship issue, I'm against censorship, but I understand why did they limit that popular motif in web-novels such as trasmigration. I'm a "Westerner", by no way such a messy and brain-damaging content would be allowed to +13 as it is in China
What is shown instead is a smart and brave girl who knows how to see through other people. She is not a person who easily "move on", as you've said, otherwise she would have "moved on" from her mother's death, too.
Instead, her character shows she can't move on, she must knows the truth and continues her investigation against all the odds. She wants to know the truth about her mother's murder and refuses to know about her own (attempted) murder? Come on, folks, it is such a huge inconsistency in writing this character, that it makes NO SENSE AT ALL.
As for his dealings with her brother, she still had several chances to clear the problem with her ex.
I simply don't understand, why some of people deny such HUGE flows in this plot?
Or because she knows he never tried to murder her but doesn't want to have anything to deal with him? Btw, how she knew he's a ruthless murderer, you've seen that in the drama?
But some knowledge on the subject of discussion makes a difference between subjectivness and objectivness, right, don't we all engage in discussions on MDL in search of fair and objective pov?
If other debaters compare the drama to the novel why can't I compare it to the drama which clearly inspired both the novel and this drama?
This is not only her/his opinion, I hope we could all agree this is a fact, and those who've read the novel state the truth came out much earlier, you seem to have read it, you've said that in your opinion, the screenwriting is better than the original, implying you've read it, right?
Imo, the plotline (I refer only to the drama) is problematic EXACTLY because it is too much focused on "revealing the truth" about her real parents, they are dragging it too long in order to obtain suspence effect, while forgetting... practically all the rest. In particular the authors (lets call them jointly this way, both the original writer, although the story is not that much original, and the screenwriters) as if they've forgotten to build up characters and their relationships, motivation of their actions (the structure of any story is the sum of the actions displayed in a novel or a drama, nothing else!), ie. the psychological background of the actions, which is truly necessary for this genre (some other don't need it). If the whole plot is pending on the suspence of revealing the secret of her birth, which basing on the trailers, will happen soon, ep 27, everything after that climax will simply be anticlimatic.
As for the rest, I have nothing against acting in comfort zones or the productions in search of success, on condition that the plot is satisfying.
That means only one thing: the characters are not developed sufficiently to make me relate with them
1. the deep and touching affection between grandmother and the FL from Minglan is totally flattened, in this drama there are no wise teachings accompanying FL's growth, there are no apparent reasons for their attachment at all, we still wonder if Mrs Luo knows FL is not a Luo child.
2. FL's relationship with her "old flame" is so incoherent: why would such a brave person (different from young Minglan) feel such a terror in front of LJX and be unwilling to tell about him to a person she believes is her brother? Why would such a suspicious, smart and scheming girl believe LJX ordered her death? It makes no sense she is all in investigation of her mother's murder while she is totally unwilling to know anything about the attempted murder on herself. I've read many people here dissatisfied with Ren Min's acting and voice... but the problem is not the actress, it's the script, the actress only delievers what is written and how this character was imagined.
3. All side characters are flattened, FL's father is a caricature of Minglan's father, we truly felt as a narciss beguiled by concubine's flatterings but truly moved only when his reputation came into question.
4. Women villains' characters here also fall far behind the concubine of Shen, Gu's mother or Minglan's "aunt". Here we simply don't understand why are they acting as they're acting, we have no clue of their backgrounds, of the psychological aspect that moves them in wrong direction. Even the sister - who constantly repeats the same errors - is just dumb, she lacks sophistication in simblings' competition games of Minglan's sister...
5. ML. I agree the actor is doing well, but as I've explained above, the problem is not with the actors. Besides, ZWY is totally playing in his comfort zone with this role, it's a replica of his role in Lost You Forever, we've seen that, moved ahead and want smth different now.
Not to mention the villains here, not only we don't understand their way of thinking or motives to be villains but their execution of crimes is a mess. When FL's mother was killed, she showed for months prolonged health symptoms, while Mrs Qiao was killed in a night (in reality, pufferfish toxin kills in seconds), the same poison cannot be manifested in a different way... and so on.