Haven't seen S1 yet because not really gonna be interested in the romance ( No hate please!) and I I'm still looking…
that's totally fine— i don't really like the romance here and for me it's the drama's weakest aspect. but the charming point would be the cunningness and intelligence of the characters. not a single one of them is easy to read and right when you thought this character is simple and won't really have a role in turning the plot upside down— it turns out that they actually have a lot of secrets and hidden plans. another one would be the consistent comedy all throughout the drama which makes this really easy to watch despite being heavily focused on politics. JOL is definitely not for everyone, but you should give it a try in case you'll be missing out on something you might like.
What is good about JOL s2 that this drama has to compete with it? 🤔 JOL series are not my cup of tea so I know…
basically joy of life is all about mind games. the characters there are really smart and always scheming against each other. there are a lot of secrets and twists. overall it's a good drama though the romance is bad. it's definitely not for everyone because it's mainly politics, but the reason why it has so much reservations is because s1 ends on a cliffhanger that leaves the most interesting parts for the next seasons. i think JOL and FSM will have different audiences (in which i belong to both lol) and won't necessarily clash with each other despite airing at the same time.
it's a pity xiao zhan wasn't be able to play yan bing yun right when his character would start to become interesting and have more screentime. i heard the writer will make him join fan xian's team and i'm looking forward to that.
Rewatching this and "chicken girl" aka Lin Wan er is still my least favorite part of the series, especially the…
i agree. normally i would like a good romance subplot, but fan xian and wan'er's scenes were surprisingly the most boring part of the series. i think this was partly because they fell in love too fast so i never got to immerse myself in their story. there just wasn't any development at all- suddenly they were just "in love" with each other.
im just at ep 21, and i dont get how everyone made it seem like fan xian would be the worst person on earth if he indeed killed lin gong while completely ignoring the fact that lin gong TRIED TO ASSASSINATE FAN XIAN and killed his guard. even wan'er seemed to not mind her brother being the culprit all along and was just focused on whether fan xian killed lin gong or not. "It'd be too much for me to bear if it were you. I'd kill myself to keep Lin Gong company." like damn your brother literally tried to assassinate your so-called love of your life and you know it very well yourself that his guard's death was a big blow to him. i get that he's your brother but at the very least you shouldn't have said those insensitive words to fan xian because it seems that you're belittling your brother's crimes.
regardless of the unending frustration this drama caused me, i'd still say it was worth to watch (i still have…
the word "unending" was used as a figure of speech to express how the misunderstandings were "countless" or to emphasize that they were so many. besides, a drama can have a good ending but that doesn't erase the flaws it had along the way. i still stand by my opinion that at least half of the misunderstandings were stupid and unnecessary.
i've seen people comment that they love how the writer changed furong and youlan's character in the drama. im curious how were they like or how they turned out in the novel can somebody give a brief?
long rant ahead. i wish i stopped reading youtube comments when i got to the biggest part. it actually infuriated…
regardless of the unending frustration this drama caused me, i'd still say it was worth to watch (i still have a few eps tho). i wish i could rewatch it but only the lovey dovey scenes of sifeng and xuanji, as well as scenes involving tengshe and the fox. there were instances wherein i got so frustrated and wanted to drop it because i was so tired of it all, but then some amazing scenes would follow and i'd be like "ah... this is exactly why i'm still watching. everything will pay off in the end."
overall, this still wouldn't be part of my "cdrama to recommend to others" list. there are tons of other cdramas that have better written conflicts yet did not resort to the lazy route of making (almost) every character stupid.
long rant ahead. i wish i stopped reading youtube comments when i got to the biggest part.
it actually infuriated me that xuanji got an insane amount of hate and many viewers wanted her to suffer awfully so that she and sifeng will be "equal". that is such a toxic mindset. why do love and pain need to measured and balanced everytime? i thought by the end of the major conflict i would be able to understand why she was so hated, but all her emotions and reactions seem justifiable to me. i feel like many viewers failed to put themselves in her shoes. yes, she can be quite naive and easy to manipulate, but you can't really blame her. the whole sect in which she grew up in, including her own family, as well as the "senior she admired the most" who had a very fine reputation, all led her to a direction she could not possibly avoid. she did try to trust him and kept asking for an explanation- those viewers who say otherwise are lying to themselves and are extremely biased, but even sifeng himself made her believe he's the evil one at some instances. how could she continue to trust sifeng just because she loves him? the whole situation was set up so well that it's almost impossible to not get swayed from her perspective unless you're someone as obsessed as sifeng.
while i do agree that sifeng deserves better and he obviously did so much for xuanji than she did for him, i do not agree with those who wished xuanji would never come back to him. isn't that more painful on his part? having sacrificed your all but still not being with the one you love? besides, i kind of hate the writer for so obviously favoring sifeng. yes, even if they made him suffer a lot, his character was clearly made to acquire the most love and sympathy from viewers. they made sifeng's character almost perfect and too pitiful, as well as gave him the best script lines while making xuanji call "sifeng!" a hundred times per episode. as sifeng is the one always silently suffering to protect her and having no choice but to lie to her, everyone's hate was directed towards xuanji who was kept in the dark and deprived of all the necessary information. what viewers failed to realize is that sifeng has his own flaws too because oh well he is the one silently suffering to protect and not xuanji! it was also utterly absurd of him to expect xuanji to trust him after manipulating her and breaking that trust himself (regardless of his good intentions), but of course viewers will still put all the blame on xuanji because sifeng is too pitiful.
to add, i also think most misunderstandings were poorly written- the writer making almost every character so dumb and unreasonable without a hint of logic in their heads. those sect leaders, especially xuanji's father, are so lazily written that their characters just don't make sense at all. although i hate haochen the most, at least the writer made up some motives for him. everyone else was just there to look stupid. meanwhile those from sifeng's side are likeable and smart, and again, it's obviously because the writer favors sifeng the most. this si why tengshe is my favorite character in the whole series, he's the only who was truly there for xuanji and actually led her to the right direction. everyone else should fuck off.
am i the only one who prefers sajo hyun lmao i love the "enemies pretending to be lovers who secretly tries to kill each other" kind of vibe they give me. ak hee is fun and so head over heels for gyera which is something we really want to see but i really enjoy the tension between sajo hyun and gyera
obviously the production is kinda cheap and the editing and sequence of scenes seem off sometimes bc the pacing is too fast and unnatural but idk im still really enjoying this one 😭 it was bothering at first but now i dont rlly care anymore it's entertaining me the way i want it to be and kinda took away my kdrama slump. the endings of each episode never failed to take my breath away. you know how it's technically kinda not giving but at the same time IT'S GIVING SO MUCHHHHH it's keeping you on your toes in a way u cant understand how when there are noticeable flaws
is it just me it felt like some of the dialogues were kinda unnatural (idk how to explain it the scriptwriting…
not satisfied with fl's acting too. some of her scenes just made me scratch my head 😭 like the way she fell into jihoon's arms in the ending lmao hopefully it will improve in the next eps tho
overall, this still wouldn't be part of my "cdrama to recommend to others" list. there are tons of other cdramas that have better written conflicts yet did not resort to the lazy route of making (almost) every character stupid.
it actually infuriated me that xuanji got an insane amount of hate and many viewers wanted her to suffer awfully so that she and sifeng will be "equal". that is such a toxic mindset. why do love and pain need to measured and balanced everytime? i thought by the end of the major conflict i would be able to understand why she was so hated, but all her emotions and reactions seem justifiable to me. i feel like many viewers failed to put themselves in her shoes. yes, she can be quite naive and easy to manipulate, but you can't really blame her. the whole sect in which she grew up in, including her own family, as well as the "senior she admired the most" who had a very fine reputation, all led her to a direction she could not possibly avoid. she did try to trust him and kept asking for an explanation- those viewers who say otherwise are lying to themselves and are extremely biased, but even sifeng himself made her believe he's the evil one at some instances. how could she continue to trust sifeng just because she loves him? the whole situation was set up so well that it's almost impossible to not get swayed from her perspective unless you're someone as obsessed as sifeng.
while i do agree that sifeng deserves better and he obviously did so much for xuanji than she did for him, i do not agree with those who wished xuanji would never come back to him. isn't that more painful on his part? having sacrificed your all but still not being with the one you love? besides, i kind of hate the writer for so obviously favoring sifeng. yes, even if they made him suffer a lot, his character was clearly made to acquire the most love and sympathy from viewers. they made sifeng's character almost perfect and too pitiful, as well as gave him the best script lines while making xuanji call "sifeng!" a hundred times per episode. as sifeng is the one always silently suffering to protect her and having no choice but to lie to her, everyone's hate was directed towards xuanji who was kept in the dark and deprived of all the necessary information. what viewers failed to realize is that sifeng has his own flaws too because oh well he is the one silently suffering to protect and not xuanji! it was also utterly absurd of him to expect xuanji to trust him after manipulating her and breaking that trust himself (regardless of his good intentions), but of course viewers will still put all the blame on xuanji because sifeng is too pitiful.
to add, i also think most misunderstandings were poorly written- the writer making almost every character so dumb and unreasonable without a hint of logic in their heads. those sect leaders, especially xuanji's father, are so lazily written that their characters just don't make sense at all. although i hate haochen the most, at least the writer made up some motives for him. everyone else was just there to look stupid. meanwhile those from sifeng's side are likeable and smart, and again, it's obviously because the writer favors sifeng the most. this si why tengshe is my favorite character in the whole series, he's the only who was truly there for xuanji and actually led her to the right direction. everyone else should fuck off.