reganpurple

I agree with your assessment. I was blown away by the sheer beauty of this drama but the ML and FL never won me over. “Frostbite” indeed. The ML, to me, was morally gray with not much of a redemption arc — and very little empathy for his partner. Five years of separation, then coldness? I never felt like he acknowledged the pain he caused her. Gobbling dumplings instead of holding her? Even in the final scene his comments were admiring rather than loving, IMO. I wanted to be swept away by this. But unlike Blossoms of Power, which captivated me start to finish, I kept watching this mainly to see if it got better (also for the stunning visuals).

Me too! And the cat…. he really did have a tender side.

Right there with you on the Ci Sha appreciation! Gorgeous man of the world who’s a master at conveying complex emotions with very subtle expressions. Ooooh and I really liked him in the Barbarian outfit (loved the final scene in the bonus episode). I liked a lot of things about this show (FL and SML were great, too) but yeah I paid a lot more attention to the scenes with Ci Sha. Am I a little obsessed? Probably. But it’s not just his looks. He’s sensitive, artistic and scholarly but a total bad-ass when he needs to be. Calm, articulate, and logical but you can see him slipping, slowly, into an unexpected and all-encompassing love that he never thought he’d find. When he smiles, it really means something. The slow burn was exquisite!