Nepeta 22

You are entitled to your opinion regarding the property purchase, but this is another example of unrealistic storyline. As if you just buy a property without informing your (new) wife. Your answer tells me you're sold on the whole relationship being unpredictable and fiery just like throughout the drama. That is classic romanticising/glorifying unhealthy toxic, controlling relationships. In real-life, very few relationships work like this. As for the FL, speaking back, yes she did, but easily outweighed by his demanding & bullying behaviour towards her and the constant setting the standards. She may have rose to the challenge, but all of this was just to get his approval. He made sure she had to be the way he wanted her to be. In the end it is her who sacrificed the most and changed the most. His only change was to finally let her be in a relationship with him. That to me is not healthy. That is how I saw it. Of course, if you feel it's a healthy relationship, good for you.

The villain was emotional throughout and I'm not disputing that. However, that was meant to set up the end so we get the usual moody ML suddenly changing his ways. Make no mistake, these story lines are made up to set up for the finale, and unfortunately, they're just not believable or realistic. The author also fails to "correct" his secretive and controlling behaviour in the final part where he just happens to "buy" FL a property without even consulting with her (isn't this some life decision?). This is typically glossed over as something romantic. I cringed. This happened in the last part. Has he really learnt anything? BTW, being alone or not having the best start to life happens to many people around the world, but it's not an excuse for being disrespectful. He consistently humiliated the FL in front of others throughout the drama. He manipulated her to the point where she was bending over backwards to "meet" his demands in work/study. Again, this is seen as good work ethic when we all know in real life this is not acceptable behaviour, yet young impressionable women watching this may think in the name of obsession it's all worth it. If this is not lowering one's self, I don't know what is. Not only is this not empowering for anyone least the FL, it glorifies toxic relations, re-packaging problematic behaviour under the banner of being mis-understood.

The character is arrogant throughout the drama. Don't think that the story throws little stray bits like what you write means he's a saint. In reality these people tend drive people away and they don't get very far. Here, the author tries to glamourise such behaviour using the "saintly" FL to do the the leg work. Gao was a stock villain character to help soften the ML's arrogance.

Guessing if it's on the optimistic side it could be this winter.

When you say added to the list do you mean MDL? It's on the list here: Qian Duo Tao Hua Yi Shi Kai.

Yes, that exterior cold, interior soft is classic and not just seen in this drama. The writer (created) an illness that hints at karma which is a lame way to make the ML look saintly. Reality is, by that many parts, his saintly status will have diminished in real-life. But this drama hitches onto this to help make him look slightly nicer. This part of the story about a rival student is created to show the ML and FL's journey and a convoluted way to show how goodness prevails. It doesn't feel convincing to me. His last act of buying a property without even consulting her shows he still has not sorted himself out (keeping things from her). Scary ending TBH.

That is not disputed, but never loving someone does not constitute a reason for anything. For instance, murderers have claimed that when they axed their wives and their kids, or some deranged obsessive ex partner when they squirt acid all over their former partner's face, they say they never stopped loving their partners. Very often, the partner has left them over years of psychological abuse. This drama gives licence to glorify toxic behaviour under the guise as "passion" or ML is misguided, but in reality, only a tiny portion might be, but why choose this over-saturated market to do another one?

Regarding lowering one's self, you might have been sold this over a long drip drip effect of what that actually means. Example, her staying up all night, working all hours of the day was just trying to win over his "approval". Time and time again this has been packaged as her being diligent and smart. But it's not smart when he "bats" her down time and time again, humiliating her in front of others including her own family.

Second example is her lowering herself by trying to get him a job behind his back and working for nothing in the beginning. Obsession is not healthy in general, but story tellers hide it well by making it coming from a female, and this is why these types of story lines are unhelpful & glorify toxic relationships.

The higher rating was due to the support actors and the details about college/university life and the programming industry. There are other subtle stories surrounding the FL for instance her childhood artist friend who stood by her and never lost patience. It showed a more realistic look at humans and not all are short tempered or self centred. The colour grading and lighting is better than average, so this is why I cannot mark it down just because of the main leads' story-line, that would be unprofessional. I see a lot of emotional style ratings and other rate high regardless because there is a ML they like. I feel 8/10 is a fair score and looking past the leads, the rest of the drama is not all that bad.

Do you mean it's officially shelved or are you just guessing?

Thanks for replying...I have done this now.

I must be more tolerant than you! I dropped SSS with less than 10 episodes to go! Was actually only watching it for Zhang Tian Ai. Glad I can watch her here, and as stated, was pleasantly surprised.

Fair enough. For me personally, if there was too much of the battles/war elements, it'll put me off. So I guess we are looking for different things. For the time being, I'm looking forward to how it will end.

I get you, it happens to other dramas too. You probably feel a bit short changed. Personally, I went into this without any strong expectations, and was quite surprised. Not a masterpiece but I think the drama is told well without some of the usual dragginess. The comedic parts mixed with the more serious parts feel quite natural. I guess we're all different. I dropped Sword Snow Stride because I felt the comedy elements weren't right, but I know it was well received.

Regarding original script I cannot comment and I know some dramas have been disappointing to some book fans, and these issues arise a lot in C-dramas, and no doubt will continue for the foreseeable future if there is an over-reliance on these novel adaptations. Maybe I'm more simplistic, I think the balance between court and battle stuff is well balanced and judging by the novel, I fear it might be too slow, staid & long for it to be palatable for a drama. Just my opinion.

I disagree, the drama is getting better. From someone that is just a passerby without all the baggage of "story book" and being all about A Mai, it's better than a lot of the stuff out there. I understand those that feel upset of the story-line veering off her character, but perhaps I'm not here to see certain characters or expecting the classic knight and shining armour style man, it's just a very watchable drama and much better than I expected.

I give this an 8 out of 10 which is highly generous. Mainly for the overall production quality. But overall, a very problematic drama which in essence glamourizes toxic behaviour and puts narcissistic behaviour firmly on the map. For watchers like me, it's not an issue, as it's just a drama, but for younger audiences, quite damaging to see and think normal and even acceptable.

Yet again, we are treated to "band-aid" relationships where usually the woman is lowering herself to accommodate the man under the guise of being gallant and changing him for the good. Reality is, these types of relationships end in disaster and this story tries to paint over that fact. Even to the very end, the ML "buys" a property (a big life decision) without consulting her. This is classic controlling narcissistic behaviour with very little in way of seeing him change. The only change is the fact is he finally accepts the FL and end up in a relationship, again...

The acting is good, although I feel CFY is more or less acting like his real life character and not a far stretch to play a part like this, so it suits him down to the ground. JJY is the work-horse of the drama. Even how annoying she is to still hang in such a toxic relationship, she told the story well through countless scenes of humiliation and curiosity.

There were parts that dragged on. To get to the point, some episodes really did not need to be. The so-called baddie character played by ZZW was a bit weak, especially towards the latter stages when he was going off the rails were some of the most awful gurning and over-the-top nodding going on. You know something is wrong when you're giggling instead of concentrating on the actor's emotions.

Nonetheless, it's a decent drama, but the subject is not new and re-hashes that same old "only I can change this man's behaviour" trope to make female audiences feel more personal and special. I think that's more imaginary rather than reality.

WD has been unlucky. He had a 4 year gap in dramas due to other people's cancellations. The movie that he did was "Yin Yang Master, Dream of Eternity", which was a hit, but it was pulled after 2 weeks due to GJM's cancellation at the time. WD is a good actor with range, but dramas like "Night Traveller" are still being held.

Out of the 4 ZUI actors, WD is the one that works outside the most. "Bloody Romance" was not GJM, it was by "The Knockout-Out" director.

Agreed. The original title from the book states clearly the FL's journey. I understand the story may have been altered, but we'll see. So far, I like the dynamics of all the characters. A Mai will probably not end up with any of the so-called love lines, but we'll see. The altered title is possibly to incorporate the more entertaining aspect of her journey with cheeky side interest to keep viewers reasonably engaged. I wouldn't take any of the "chemistry" too seriously.

True they may have, but for me, I think the ML's antics is a breath of fresh air and whether some like it or not, there is nothing actually wrong with that. Those with an issue are still in that classic fairy-tale mode. When I say that, I mean, they are busy day-dreaming about their ideal man that is less likely to happen in real life so they need to live this through a drama. Sadly, looks like this type of drama will annoy that brigade. For me, the overall drama is easy going and mixes the sublime to the ridiculous quite well. Not a masterpiece but certainly not draggy and fillery.

I wouldn't worry about MDL ratings. Those in the know will tell you, those with the highest ratings tend to be (not all but majority) safe run-of-mill dramas with big fandoms, that take over with ratings and artificially inflate. Most of the decent dramas on MDL have more realistic ratings of 7.5 to 7.8. This to my mind is more real and I think this drama will have a more realistic rating which will probably be lower.