Ahjummai

I can't say it's "struggling" internationally. It's a top drama on Viki. But MGTV subs are pretty bad and it's not available on other legit apps. How can you conclude that it's struggling?

one thing i appreciate is how they show hints of something and resolve it in a few episodes. like the master wu ambush and shengyi's betrayal and the emperor (not gonna spoil it).
i dislike things that audience already figures out but the drama draws it out for weeks

he explained it to mudan as she asked him

i've seen the ep21 teaser so after the kite date, i stopped last night and decided to wait it out since i also saw the ep22 teaser showing jcy rushing to her so i knew i only needed to wait a day.

One thing with Douban, everyone knows 7.5 up is a very good rating. There's an acceptable balance between real rating and downvoters. The have enough amount of raters to find a certain average.
Meanwhile on MDL, people still think the ratings mean anything that they look at the rating and anything below 8.5 must be a bad show lol coz some bad shows still end up with 8.5+. I don't see any balance on ratings on this site.

Because I know ep21 is a bit hard to watch, I decided to wait for tonight's episode so I will have JCY returning for MD as salve. hahaha
I don't hate Shengyi but she definitely did something stupid by allowing herself to be tricked. The real villains are still Wang Qing, the Liu family, and the princess.

it's because she considers mudan as someone who appreciates her. with how her life was, she needs that constant validation. and seeing mudan appreciating others, she thinks she might be cast aside. it's like being the eldest daughter and new daughters come in being all cute and attention grabbing.

harsh!

She needs to get suitors hahaha coz right now she's thinking "who else will want to marry me?" and she wants a family.
Also, it's hard for her not to still feel inferior being low born and now even if she's a co-owner of the shop she is still not as skilled as the females around her.

Bet is who marries first is a dog. Well, they marry each other so both win and both lose.

ML is strong and powerful... but FL is also good that she doesn't need the ML to save her often. Flourished Peony highlights an FL who is self-reliant. ML is the right kind of partner for such an FL.

I see this question all the time in different dramas.
As for Flourished Peony, just watch it and you'll see for yourself. It's a slow burn romance and you can see the changes in how he looks at her and opens up to her.

Mudan not recognizing LC in a mask while easily even from afar knew JCY with a mask and cloak.
What a great way to show MD's acute awareness of JCY.
This after showing JCY knew little details about MD even without her telling him about them.

This is great storytelling!

Not Chuanyu watching the (soon-to-be) lovers from afar representing all of us

I don't even mind the Tang Dynasty Flourished Peony themed ads interrupting my viewing hahaha

to have him literally descend from the heaven hahahahaha

it felt like a kick in the shin too with LC looking like they were just called dogs themselves

Everyone and their mothers saying he's talented and likely to make good contribution to the country, yet his head is in the clouds without backing it up with reality or actions. I honestly don't believe he's got any smarts (even book smart) at this point.

MDL Ratings are super flawed and untrustworthy. I only go here for drama info and comments section (their news section isn't even as up-to-date)

I don't think shengyi is sus. She's been living her entire life for someone else and lacks self-confidence and needing to be reminded/assured of her worth. She's super cautious about not inconveniencing others as she sees herself at the bottomest bottom of human hierarchy.
But she's totally the type that could get tricked into doing something that might put mudan in a tight situation.