Dextran77

I find more cdramas have far more balanced relationships than kdramas. I tried a few popular kdramas last year and every single one of them had the ml basically providing 99.9% of the "love" in the relationship. Kdrama MLs are just left with no dignity at all when pursuing the fl

Admittedly this one is also extremely lopsided but a lot usually aren't this lopsided from my experience. I honestly wish we got to see more of them scheming/guarding against each other after the ml regained his memories instead of him just being head over heals for her.

Not a fan of it either but there are 4 guys who were/are literally obsessed with the fl

That's actually somewhat common. I remember in new life begins, the ml was made the "whetstone" for the crown prince by their father. The leaders don't view their family as actual family, the only one that matters is the heir and they will do everything to make them a worthy heir. I wouldn't be surprised is the grandmother is the one who made almost all the fl's sisters isolate her to try and make the fl a stronger heir. She's the one keeping the "potential" husbands around despite some of them having committed serious crimes against the Rong family and the fl having already chosen a husband. It's all because she believes the Yan guy will bring more benefits and be a better support for the fl.

Another recent one is Fated hearts. The emperor puts the ml through hell and does nothing to help him, all because he thinks it makes the ml a better heir/ruler.

First episode was great. I'll still keep my expectations in check, too many kdramas in 2025 had great 1-3 episodes followed by disaster.

I just don't understand how the He guy was still allowed to stay after his deception and attempt to poison was revealed. Like how??

"Also, what if he regains his memory back and doesn't recognize Shan Bao or remembers nothing during his stay at Rong Mansion?" That's one of the dumbest and most frustrating parts of the amnesia trope. It makes 0 sense that someone regaining their memories means they lose the memories of when they had amnesia. I really hope they don't go that route

I think it was supposed to be today or tomorrow's eps if they continued following the novel but it seems starting episode 14, they are no longer following the novel closely. iirc, it's right before she goes home for the holidays and before they start dating

Was a bit surprised because so far it has been an almost 1 to 1 adaptation with the novel including the dialogue. Ep 14 and 15 are very different though. I guess they didn't want them to start dating this early, honestly a bit of a bummer.

I was honestly in disbelief. People will give the excuse that she prioritized finding her sister but the entire drama has just been excuses for fl to not prioritize the ml. It got annoying real quick.

Kdrama FLs seem like they aren't allowed to take a step towards the ml until he takes a thousand steps towards her and even after those thousand steps, he still has to pull her for her to take that one singular step towards him. That isn't romance, that ain't love.

The entire drama we're just told she loves him but they never show it. Why not do a mini compilation of that month to show that she cares?

As soon as he called her pathetic I started hating him lol. He was just a rude prick to the fl on their first 2 interactions that I just started half skipping his scenes. Not her fault that she's well off

Is the novel mostly a love triangle?

Why did he agree to go on the date with the fl specifically? It seems like he hasn't cared about dating but was suddenly interested when he found out it was the fl. How did he know her before?

It's a kdrama lol, he'll fall first and he'll fall harder.

Everytime I wanna rewatch this drama, 2 scenes/arcs always stop me. The stupid misunderstanding in ep17-19 and the confession from sml, especially the FL's reaction to that confession. Someone else put it perfectly, "her reaction makes it seem like she's almost regretful that she can't say yes to him because she's dating the ml". The drama frames it like, if the sml had just confessed before fl reconciled with ml, she would have accepted him even though she was the one sorely in the wrong for that dumb misunderstanding.

It's such a shame for me because this could have been one of my favourite dramas but instead it's just one of many good dramas I've watched because of 2 scenes.

A bit confused, is she still in high school or first year university?

I agree with most of what you said but can't you say it in a better way? "Shagging around, pure virgin" make it a lil difficult to agree/support your point. Idk, maybe it's just me.

I do agree though. I think the general problem is that the ml in kdramas always seem to love the fl much more. It's as if they are afraid to make fl show unconditional affection while the ml's default is unconditional affection. Its the reason I gave up on kdramas for cdramas. The relationships there for most recent dramas feel more "balanced" compared to kdramas. I gave up on dynamite kiss because of this as well.

I think that's the issue. It's a trope that's been done a lot and people just don't like it as much anymore.

If he kept it professional, he would fire her instantly with the possibility of even worse consequences for fraud since the requirements for the job was for mothers.

I agree with all that but FL is also married with a child in ML's mind for 8 episodes yet he's clearly madly in love with her. It's just how the story is setup, he falls hard for her and they "dynamite kiss" only applies to his side. If they wanted, the tension of liking the other party but not being able to act on it could have been a 2-way thing since there are reasons stopping both of them on acting on their feelings