WM

This x100

How many episodes (more or less) are typically needed for Douban to have a rating published?

One more thing - how does the Drama compare to the Web Novel?

90% shows would be better without Romance :).

So, typically, I enjoy watching Bai Lu stuff, and Wang Xing Yue almost made "The Double" unwatchable for me.

I will have to check what happens with this kind of mix here :)

Also, a rather low MDL rating and quite high at Douban for its standards make it look very appealing.

Actually, emphasising it over and over again made it look very weak and forced - it has a much higher impact when it's done by example.
Talk is cheap.

"I became the cannon fodder who died early, and I angrily married the villain" - featuring the most capable Female Lead ever. Not much romance, but ML is definitely above average as well. And it has happy ending as well.

One disclaimer - it's very, very long.

No Big Drama made out of it yet, but there are S1 and S2 Micro Dramas done, with more hopefully to come later this year - https://mydramalist.com/797412-huan-qin-hou-wo-shun-bian-huan-le-jiang-shan-hen-he-li-ba

That's a very disappointing review; I initially thought the synopsis sounded very promising as well :(

Based on the two excellent reviews above, it seems the Novel is a much better choice if I like following strong/competent female leads.

I like Ruyi's calmness and composure, but I don't like her naivety, passivity, and lack of foreshadowing.
I guess with a million episodes, they had to make her lose a lot to fill a story, but since going through Lu Songli's adventures (Novel + Micro Drama), I'm tough to please regarding the strength of the female lead characters.

Youtube is an amazing source in this case - mostly because there are extremely interesting comments underneath about some drama and historic details seen there.

"Yanxi" is far more entertaining compared to "Ruyi"; I consider it the best ever Idol Drama :)

"Ruyi" has a much more serious tone (I withdrew when Ruyi became Empress, but now Consort Ling's evil deeds kind of intrigue me to resume it), but compared to Dramas in the same genre, it's IMO nowhere close to "Empresses in the Palace". Watching "Ruyi" seems quite dull despite the high rankings and praises.

Also, somewhere in my C-Drama adventures, I have learnt to dislike female leads who are passive, and unfortunately, Ruyi is a classic example of this.

Nice to see I am not the only one having grudges with things like that. To be fair, it happens in the big production dramas as well.

"As a general, FL is weak. She keeps getting rescued by ML and there is barely any fight scenes," - thanks for the skippomendation :).

Not sure, if it's still needed 6 months later, but Xie Zhan is played by Liu Bo Wei - https://mydramalist.com/people/144681-liu-bo-wei

I'm not a fan of cultivation dramas, but this one was easily watchable.

This sounds like every-Drama crap - the female lead can fight, but not when it's needed for the ML to save her to forward some shitty Romance.

美人谋略 aka "Beauty Strategy" - this is an excellent Drama with her playing a very capable Merchant Daughter who leaves her fiancé after learning he wants to downgrade her to a concubine.

Unfortunately, YouTube recently deleted links with it, so at the moment only Raw versions are available - https://www.qssteelcasting.com/vodplay/198265/5/1.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPBlV1plko0

Not sure what;s going on regarding the last link, but it's definitely not Zhao Huinan playing the FL here.
She actually looks a bit like Zhang Chu Xuan.

It could be this one:
Title:"Female bandit's soul travels to the modern era to snatch a husband and is adored by the whole family." | 女土匪魂穿现代抢亲后，被全家宠上天

Is this the one - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bxi7T-vBkS0