PeachBlossomGoddess

I doubt she is in love with him:
https://mydramalist.com/680797-chun-hua-yan#comment-19228254

I only watched it recently. And I liked it but I didn't love it although I understand why it was a big hit.

Yes I agree that LCZ mistreats LYS bc what happened to him in today values would be considered rape.
As for the Duke, I think the writers are trying to overplay his love for Gu. Truth is he has super high status and no legitimate heirs. It would be normal and quite common for him to at least elevate the maid to a concubine.

Cool - ZLY was in almost every scene it was all about her. So I just assume anyone that watched it associates it with her.

I missed that part but then maybe he had a child with a maid, just like LCZ had LSY. Bc it seems to be his son, no? He's just a better guy than Luo and recognized and raised him as his own and seemingly quite indulgently too.

Ci Sha's villain really makes me fear for the good guys. Its a true talent to be able to do that! I certainly wouldn't mind him being the guy whose throat is grabbed for a change.😅😂

I think that the MDL audience is less familiar with or doesn't like this kind of family soap opera genre. Besides Story of Minglan there have been many other dramas like this but they are really not as popular on MDL. I think many came here for ZWY and they also watched Blossoms in Adversity for the leads but there were many others like Song of Youth, Court Lady, Sword and Brocade that weren't as popular. And the ones that do watch them had similar complaints... why other couples get so much screen time??? If you recall it even happened in dramas like New Life Begins, which also features multiple storylines. These kinds of stories are much more popular with Chinese audiences bc classical books of this genre like Dream of the Red Chamber are part of their core education.

But you are right about how there is this trend of idol watching viewers who only want to see the main leads bc that is who they come to watch and spend a ridiculous amount of time documenting and complaining about who gets how much screen time. This is not a good trend and is one of the reasons for so many dreadful dramas these days. Every character should only get the amount of screentime that makes sense for the plot and character and not because they are top billed.

I wouldn't be surprised bc in the book she marries Qingyan but its a fake marriage. And then she dies, disappears for awhile and returns all recovered and they lived HEA. It was strange.

All of these stories are family soap operas. They have been massively popular type of stories in China since Dream of the Red Chamber was written in the 18th century. They are all about the family, told through the eyes of a main protagonist but it is about everyone and not just one ML and FL. In fact I would argue the main couple here already get more screen-time than you would expect for this kind of story. Song of Youth for example moved on from the main CP well before the mid-point and it became all about the other members of the family. That's how this genre is typically written.

I assumed you didn't watch Minglan bc you didn't know who ZLY was and that was the drama that made her famous.

Never for even one nanosecond thought LM was in the CP's camp so I am not surprised at all.

Sure, if you didn't watch Story of Minglan, which is one of the most popular c-dramas of all time, you would have no basis for comparison. I am just pointing out that the rating may reflect that lots of people did watch it and comparisons are inevitable. And I say this as someone who didn't even think Minglan was that great. It propelled ZLY to massive and lasting popularity. Suffice to say this will not have anywhere near that kind of impact on Ren Min's career. Minglan is rated 8.8 on MDL and 7.9 on Douban so an 8.2 for this on MDL doesn't strike me as hugely unfair.

I think the first 50 episodes were the best. After that it was just her married life where she moved into her husband's household and had run ins with the 2.0 version of the same nasty biatches in her hubby's household.

It is a recurring and at this point fast becoming overused and unrealistic feminist theme. This looks like Song dynasty, which was quite restrictive towards woman, especially among the noble and official class. It would be implausible if not impossible for this to happen. Pearl Girl which should be up next is at least more realistic bc it was Tang dynasty, where women were very free even among the nobility.

To each their own. I haven't rated it yet but its really not very original and Ren Min is doing alright but is not strong enough IMHO to carry a titular role in a compelling way. She is very far short of ZLY for example in a remarkably similar role and to anyone who watched both dramas its super obvious. I personally am enjoying it but wouldn't rate it that high.

Ah that's interesting. I didn't understand what the complaining was all about in the first place... have seen too many times FLs getting fished out of water looking like a drowned rat that I was frankly relieved they skipped it. What ended up in the subsequent cut is as you point out a better way to show that. Sometimes you just have to roll your eyes at netizens who think they know better than the pros...

The problem is they were all the same jealous, social climbing, vindictive, bitchy, murderous archetype so it pretty much didn't matter who's who!😅😂

It is not uncommon for a drama to have 3 or 4 screenwriters. The problem with just having only one is it can take them years to finish a script. That would most famously be Wang Juan who wrote JOL, SSS and others. But what is super important is that the main writer knows how to allocate portions of the script to the other writers and is clear about the character and plot development and keeps a close rein on the output. This one did a bad job or they simply didn't have a main writer and the director just divided the script out. That made a mess of things, esp since the book only has 24 chapters so to make it 32 episodes there had to be a lot of creative input.

He has already well explained his reasons for not sleeping with her. It doesn't seem that illogical to me considering he is a benevolent emperor. There are giant holes in this story. That doesn't strike me as one of them.

I think even China is not immune from the woke wave that has taken over the world so any historically realistic depiction of women and their role in society are not popular anywhere anymore. That said I don't think Zigu needs to sleep with the emperor for the show to be realistic - most women in the harem don't ever get to see the emperor, much less sleep with him.

Most of the characterizations are not consistently written. Its clear the lead screenwriter lost control over their co-writers.