Noway

I see that for some viewers they seemed to be close buddies, and parrot kiss and confessions made in her mother's tomb didn't persude them, that it was more than that. For me it was ok, cause not every pair has to be the same, and different couples can have different dynamics, but I guess gesun could have talked more about this in drama, like, Changge could say that she never felt anything like this before and was unsure how to behave, etc. Without that, it just sometimes felt awkward, but each viewer made their own conclustion about why it was like that.

I am on episode 5, and it's quite nice! I like that it's plot-oriented, has solid investigations, and main couple + ML's friends are cute. And I don't mind slow burn romance at all, there are a lot of fan service moments anyway 😀

Now when you said it, I thought that gesun indeed were shown in drama a bit like a BL couple 😀 I mean, all these long looks and slow motions, which are beautiful to watch but result in nothing (well, in this case we at least had a parrot kiss and forehead kisses) - it's what they usually do in BL dramas, don't they? 😁

For me it's just that this moment is too insignificant in comparison with everything else, what happened between Changge and A'Sun, and which was about them being extraodinary man and woman. It would be easier for me to accept that during their chat on the roof she said something that pushed him closer to loving her, but falling... if you have ever fell, and somebody cought you, you would know, that in reality it's not romantic at all, and you don't really feel anything but "ouch, I could break something, thanks god it didn't happen" :D

I think the exact moment when someone falls for another person, can not be identified. Sometimes it's more instinctive ("at first sight") like maybe Mu Jin fell for Mimi. For other characters in TLB it was more complicated. I don't think that when someone falls into your arms, it's a great moment to fall in love, it's just a scene they have in every chinese drama 😁
All the times when A'Sun saw Changge being strong, loyal to her country, caring about people who were not even on her side, throwing away her pride for the sake of greater good - all those moments made him love her, but for me there is no exact moment, when liking became loving. His feelings were growing all the time, and even after he already loved her - they continued to grow 🙂

Ah, I saw Hao Du on the main MDL page, and was so pleased just by the fact he was there, but reading the article made me feel even more pleased 😌 🖤🖤🖤

She is an original character, and I think not the only one? My assumption is that they wanted to expand Hao Du's part and give him a love story, so that there would be more romance in general, and also as this couple would not be from manhua, creators could give them whatever ending they wanted.
And then someone came up with an idea to make Leyan's story a story of growth too, and quite a nice one, I enjoyed it a lot.

But at the same time, her story didn't really have much connection to Changge's, although they had one of the nicest relationships in this drama, imo.

Well, you know it well, cause you are actually the person who comments a lot, and repeats many things as if copying them from some "gesun protection file" :p

Why does everyone here writes that Leyan declared her love to Hao Du after the fight if she never did that? :D
She liked him and she agreed to marry him, because those were the rules of competition and because she understood they will actually have a good marriage, because she feels great in this man's company, she cares about him much more than she was aware of, she likes physical contact with him, etc.

And that would be the only thing I wanted to point out :)

Well, first of all, who said that love needs some longer time to be born from liking if you already know the person, respect, feel great in his company , etc? Is there a book where it's written, how many days exactly are needed for that? :D
Second, Leyan never declared love to Hao Du, they all the time use the word like in this series, and as I said several times already, there is nothing wrong if she agreed to marry him, when she just liked him. She understood he was the best partner for her. Then they spent a lot of time together, and in all scenes before wedding you can see her growing affection and that she was happy with her decision.

Also, if you remove Shuyu from this story, it would work, right? HD and Leyan were friends, he fell in love, but she didn't notice it, until some extreme events happened, and she was so scared for his life, that inderstood she loved him. Now, I think that this doesn't work for some people with Shuyu being there too, just because of our prejudices and stereotypes about what characters should or should not feel :P

Yeah, but there are like 10 ministers, all looking the same. I am so confused, who is who :D

At least to say again, how great it is :D Really, when I try to watch something, I feel like I should lower my expectations, otherwise I'm gonna feel very dissapointed.

I saw some promotional things. Wu Lei looks very cute, and he is such a gentlemen!

I saw some scenes from Eternal Love just out of curiosity, and it seems fun, but... three seasons? :D And poor Alen seems to be third wheeling again :D
I envy this series so much, that they can have 3 seasons!!! With mostly the same cast! Ah, I wish.

(life after TLB)
I think I am moving on :D
I finished "Miss the dragon", it was terrible, especially in comparison with TLB, but second couple!!!... fire! And I've got a new favourite actor out of that generally awful experience. It was nice to see some people in comments section there, whom I first met here :D
Now starting "The Imperial Coroner", because it has nice reviews, and I checked the last episode and it has a happy ending, and I am in need of clear and absolute happy ending afjdkflf.
Also planning to finally watch "Cross fire" this summer...

Is there something that for sure will air this summer with TLB cast? I am well aware only of Liu Haikuan schedule *_*

Why? Number of comments is growing, and isn't it nice? :D
Until everyone is polite, I don't mind talking about the same things again and again :D

Yet again, I don't see any problem, if her love was born out of friendship. I even find it... great?

Yes, there are scenes, like the one in the field, when they clear up things about Changge, and he talks much more than ever before, and she was touched and excited by that, When he brought her cape and they talked about Shuyu and her troubles, and she looked at him with absolute trust and confidence. When their eyes met during meeting with Emperor and Ministers, and both of them just shine and understand each other with just looking at each other. Or long before, when she was angry at him, and he helped with that little girl, and she left him to take care of her, when she was leaving, she was smiling, it was tiny moment, but very nice.

Well, for me while I could see Changge's love towards A'Sun, I also felt that she was kind of holding back her physical attraction to him till very last episode. So I could understand viewers who mentioned that gesun felt like a brOTP for them. I actually think it's nice and something new - to show that not all women are quick to develop physical attraction, but I would also like to see gesun speaking about that openly (probably as you would like haoyan to speak about certain issues openly), so that I would not have to ask myself if it was initial concept, or if it happened because of weird issues like Wu Lei contract or age difference.
In contrast, Leyan and Hao Du were always more eager to touch, and after engagement she was very... excited when he took care of her wound, for example. And in another scene they were standing very close, as a couple, hugging, and it felt very natural. So I could tell, they would have no issues on their wedding night *coughs*

I am arguing that it's not a problem if she just liked Hao Du when competition happened. I don't see any problem with that, I think it's enough for a start of relationships :) Yes, at that start she already knows she is going to marry that man, and when she asks herself, how does she feel about it, the answer is: great. Maybe she also asks herself, but why she feels great if recently she wanted to start relationships with another man, and maybe she doesn't have answer for that, but I think it's ok to not have answers for everything :)

It's like some people demand her to fall in love with Hao Du in some proper way after some proper time, but there is no proper way and time. A'Sun fell in love with Changge soon after he got aware she was a girl, it happened really fast and nobody questioned that. Why seeing another person, whom you already like, nearly dying in not enough? I think it is enough.

But why should she realize?.. It's like you assume, that every person in every moment of life is well aware what one wants and feels towards all people around, but I don't think it's always like that? We might have mixed feelings, or we might be stubborn to believe we feel something and hold to it until it's totally gone or until we get smacked in the face with the truth. We might friendzone someone, and then after some time, looking back, think: I wish I tried to have closer relations with that person, cause I think he was good for me, and we could be together. For me, that's what Leyan realized about Hao Du during the fight, not many years later when it would be too late.

Yes, if Shuyu fought, probably they would get married, but would he love her as a woman? The feelings might have never developed, and then a few months or years later she would be miserable again. And yes, she might have never realized she could be happy with Hao Du, but so what? What happened - happened. Our life consists of small choices, changing everything at every moment.

Then, you write " her maid could have commented why she was so hurt and upset" - but why should she commented if you realized this anyway? :D Should all the things be explained and said out load? If there would be no scenes when other characters (Mu Jin, Li Jing) talk about A'Sun's feeling to Changge, would you still doubt if he loved her long before he confessed?

I agree that the story with Shuyu was dragged a bit too long, and some scenes could be better or there could be some additional scenes, but for me it's obvious she couldn't be happy with Shuyu anyway, and quite obvious she was just holding to this childhood affection until competition happened, and then she could see other people's feelings more clearly and her own desires too. And it's ok for me if when she agreed to be with Hao Du it was a rational decision to be with a great man to whom she felt a lot of warmth and with whom she was comfortable, rather than out of understanding clearly that she loved him. In the following episodes, I could see that love was there, growing, as well as passion. I don't think it makes their lovestory less epic or less believable, vice versa.

I also like one of the stories, which I read in Chinese with translator so didn't understand like 100%, but anyway. Another princess (yep, one more daughter) had a very good and long marriage, and her husband was a man raised by noble family after his own family died, and he achieved a high rank during wars and then was a successful governor of some city. I like to think they were Leyan and Hao Du :)

As for Shuyu, when drama started, I read speculations about his storyline, and it was more tragic but also more impressive. Something like at the end his father was supposed to die and afterwards was accused of betrayal, so Shuyu went to some tribe to clean his father's name and succeeded but was executed by the tribe.