KDramaFanatica

Love the show, love the acting and storyline but saw some preview clips that made me roll my eyes (where you can tell writers just created conflict without regard to whether or not it made sense given character personalities or motivations). But I’m going to stick it out because I love the actors and characters so much.

It’s a testament to Jo Bo Ah and Ro Woon’s acting that this show was so special and enjoyable. They sold the love, longing, yearning and angst in scenes depicting their tragic past and the sweetness and longing to connect with others (her) and hilarious confusion and eventual puppy dog adoration (him) in the present. And that one scene where all of the separation and longing exploded into unbridled passion (those who have watched it know what I’m talking about)? I don’t think I’ve ever seen as 🔥 a love scene in a K-Drama as that one (I gasped and practically clutched my pearls).

Things I could have done without: the stalker subplot, the FL never showing common sense or awareness of safety and surroundings, thus unnecessarily being in danger and needing saving fifty-leven times (writes did such a sweet character dirty by dumbing her down), ML being such a jerk at the beginning and this being as close to borderline cheating in a K-Drama as I’ve seen (think One Spring Night).

Overall, I’m glad I watched it and this’ll definitely go on my list of romcoms to watch every couple of years.

Will watch it because I love Li Yitong (she was excellent in ADWD) but am sad it looks like a voice actress dubbed her voice. I love her natural voice.

Sure, but that’s exactly the point I was trying to make. The writers made this usual tired ML character trope interesting and nuanced and gave CXX good material to work with (and he is talented enough to have elevated it even more). I doubt he was bored, at least when it came to this role. But to your point, I do see him switching up the types of roles he takes on in the future, like he did with the Dilraba drama (LotTI).

True, but this has been his most nuanced, layered performance with great writing, directing and overall characterization of this character type.

OMG, XG’s gut-wrenching monologue in ep 33 to her father after he blamed her for calling the police about the scam. “Do you really love me like you say you do? Or are you lying to me and yourself?” SOB. ZJM, the amazing actress you are!

He literally asked RSB ahead of time to promise to forgive him, not stop talking to him etc. regarding whatever he might do in the future before doing what he did. That doesn’t sound like a man who was ready to go all in on his duties at the expense of the relationship. In fact, he was planning so that he could do what he knew he needed to do without losing her.

Having said that, for all I know next eps will reveal that RSB isn’t mad and won’t make him “pay” (even if it’s just for show) for the humiliation she had to endure and the crow she had to eat with her grandmother, but I’m looking forward to see how it plays out.

My curiosity is piqued. Expound upon “blaming” ML for FL wrongdoings. Also, I’m realizing that some here on MDL take comments too personally. Like, bruh, agree/disagree but it’s an opinion. And, as audience members, given our genders, life experiences and worldviews we can only be so “unbiased.” Lol.

I don’t like them together either…yet. But the chemistry is there and the writers set the stage well for them to be the power couple of the show once all the deceit, witholding of information and wariness is out of the way. I’m ok with cakey as long as it’s not pasty white (looking at you, Shine on Me). Wen Can is the most annoying of all.

Yes, so much room for the message being intercepted and/or disrupted. We definitely are. To be fair, I don’t know if it’s coming across in my comments but I love how both the ML and FL are written as characters, how the storyline is playing out and how cunning, perceptive and clever they are. And this show is definitely going on my top 10 list for sure.

Oh, I do think RSB will understand. That doesn’t mean he won’t have “to pay” (I.e. make up for) the humiliation she had to suffer. I don’t think the two are mutually exclusive.

Not at all, as an audience member I can see why he made the decision he made but also why she may (writers may subvert my assumption about how the plot will go) end up taking offence and make him work at winning her back. I could also see how she fulfills the promises she made to him earlier (about not being mad and forgiving him) but will forcefully have to put on a show about hating him and cutting ties for Madam Rong and the rest of her family before they can be together.

Someone further down in the comments described Wen Can as representative of the “Nice Guy” archetype and they hit the nail on the head.

This grandma is the equivalent of Abuela in “Encanto.” Although we understand her and can see that the vulnerability of women in her times and the desperation to survive drove her to make harsh, critical decisions as a matriarch, it still doesn’t abscond her from the pain, trauma and damage those decisions caused. She is still living out of her pwn disappointment and trauma, thereby blocking the growth of her grandchildren and creating and feeding into the divisiveness and strife.

Because we are dealing with two very flawed and cunning characters, a prideful FL who values her family above all else and there had been so far the lack of fullness of honesty and communication between them. There was enough trust between them to not get in each other’s way and to protect one another but we know that was being held together by a shoestring because neither is being completely truthful with the other.

Also, such is the way dramas usually go when this kind of event happens. I, for one love it because I like the drama and tension between our leads and it makes it interesting before a fulfilling reconciliation. And to be fair, if a FL did it she would have been iced out and abandoned by the ML (think Love in the Clouds where JBZ cast her aside at least 2 times intentionally and a 3rd due to noble idiocy) who is willing to see her suffer just enough (but not too much) in a heartbeat until he eventually found out the truth about the circumstances of the “betrayal”.

And we know RSB is going to make him work for it.

Interesting developments. At the end of the day, LJL wanted to have his cake and eat it too. Meanwhile, for justice (but more immediately out if concern for Lang), he made RSB go through the trifecta of being humiliated by being “left at the altar,” the betrayal of his storming into the hideout where YW and Madam Yang were thereby revealing the Rongs had harbored a “criminal” and had faked YW’s death, and watching as her sister went through the trauma of forced separation from her beloved nanny. I, for one, am ready to see RSB make LJL pay before any reunion takes place. Let the REAL games begin!

Edited to add: No one expected him to shirk his duties as an Imperial Investigator but the point is, he COULDN’T have his cake and eat it too. He had to choose on or the other and he (probably rightly) chose his duty to his office but that means he has to be willing to let RSB be humiliated, seemingly be caught off guard and make her wait. She’s within her right to still feel a type of way and respond accordingly.

On ep 19 and OMG grandma being a bitter Betty storing Grandpa away in the ancestral hall like he’s Quasimodo was NOT on my Bingo card!

OMG. Episode 15. RSB 10 steps ahead putting on a performance in front of Yanwan’s “grave” in order to throw LJL off track. Full well knowing he was somewhere nearby lurking. LOVE this show!

This show is so clever and layered.

Yes, our main couple is keeping secrets from the other and, as of recent eps, are both weary of one another.

But make no mistake, when push comes to shove, they will quickly align with and protect one another.

Like, we know that LJL will not compromise his morals or ethics as he continues to investigate, but RSB, as written, probably would never ask that of him. She’d just rather conceal information (i.e. what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him) and stay 10 steps ahead of him in order to protect the Rong family.

LJL, in the meantime, knows RSB well enough at this point to know the weight that’s on her shoulders and her loyalty to her family but also her mercy, honor and kindness (as he experienced through her willingness to take on and nurse back to health someone who was her family’s perceived enemy at the time). So he’s going to do his investigating with confidence KNOWING RSB will be working to outwit and outsmart the system and throw monkey wrenches along the way to protect her family because she’s not constrained by ethics the way she is (I.e. the methods in which RSB does all of the above may be questionable but within her own personal moral code).

They’re both cats trying to catch a mouse while getting in the other’s way. And we, the audience, get to enjoy watching every moment of it.

Having said that, she fell first but he fell harder.