arpar

100 percent I agree, no drama is perfect but as long as enjoy the drama that is what's important

I understand for sure what you mean, I think it just depends what they do with him in the end. I like him being complex, I think the drama is full of complex characters so I think it fits the theme of the drama if that makes sense, ml, fl, empress dowager, consort dowager all complex so I enjoy that he is as well, but for sure I understand why some may like if he was more straight forward, especially since I can understand not wanting to sympathies with something chasing a married woman etc,

I think though in the end just depends what they with him, if they make him the tragic hero we think then I agree its a bad move, but this drama has given us so many good surprises so who knows I still have hope his end is something different. Regardless, still enjoying the drama either way.

One thing I enjoy is they are offering us proper insights into other characters thoughts and actions by showing us their perspective. They showed us ml's perspective in like ep 4/5 and today in ep 12 we got 2ml's perspective. I know a lot of people don't like 2ml but I still liked seeing his perspective on things, I hope they keep this up now and then, I enjoy seeing the different perspectives and thoughts of different characters. Something we honestly don't see much. Makes the characters and plot feel more complex.

I disagree a little bit, I think because you guys read the novel and so did I, we expect him to be as bad the novel and so he seems toned down here, but if we look at him like a whole new character, I like his backstory here. I think it makes him more complex then a straightforward total bad guy, you can see he's not a bad person but possibly may be forced to become one. Plus we don't know how things will go, we know he plans revenge on empress dowager so I look forward to how he may work with fl and ml. But again for sure, I understand he wasn't how some might have expected, I hope they keep him complex in the future rather then a straight forward villain turn with a tragic end so we'll see. I feel like by giving us the backstory now we know his motives behind his actions, and I'm sure w'ell find out more about his past, rather then just him being bad for no reason if that makes sense.

I watched it here
https://wetv.vip/en/play/wpl6nyn3iifw70h/z4102a22yf6-Teaser_EP15%3A_The_First_Jasmine

https://wetv.vip/en/play/wpl6nyn3iifw70h/r41028443da-Teaser_EP16%3A_The_First_Jasmine

100 perfect so cute can't wait

Hahaha I can't wait

I couldn't help myself and checked out the previews for ep 15 and 16 and oh my days those two episodes look amazing, the previews are insane, mega spoilers if you decide to check them out but both eps looks crazy good, can't wait

I think we'll learn much more about him especially once his legs get healed, like he has his own revenge to get and we see he's working with he emperor it seems, so I think we'll definitely learn more about him and his true personality will come out the more time he spends with fl.

Like right now he's like in a state of depression and closing himself off but we've seen the more time he spends with fl the more he's slowly opening up, and once his legs heal I think we'll see a bit shift in his personality.

yeh definitely I agree, hard to tell which is her true personality

I love how complex Ye Li, normally I feel like a lot of ml and fl's can be one dimensional, the character we see is who they are but here there's mystery and questions surrounding her. Like who is the real Ye Li.

We see from ep 11, she saved herself with her sword skills but she thought it was master Zhu, so does she actually know she is skillful with the sword or was it just instinct in some kind of fugue state and she imagined it was master Zhu, how well does she actually know herself, so many questions regarding her true self I love it.

Yeh hurts to see it go down then we have to do it all over again tomorrow

Haha ikr I keep thinking we're done for the night and it's going down then next minute goes up again.

27k heat babyyyyyy

This heat index a damn joke going up and down playing with people emotions

On wetv/tencnet svip 2 eps come out at the same time, its just for pirate sites like the one most people use the second ep seems to be coming out slower, not sure why hope it can come out quicker in the next few days, but the actual eps do release at the same time on wetv

I have to say this drama does a great job of building tension and showing emotion through the music, actors performances and the camera, without needing to throw stuff in your face or say things out loud, I really appreciate it. We can see the feelings between ml and fl growing subtly without the drama needing them to be hot and heavy or too obvious about it, also the stare between fl and her sister during 2ml's tantrum was so telling.

Also I love the saying fl said about 2ml regarding the cicada, not sure if thats already a saying or if the writer came up with that but its so poignant and just overall the writing is so good, I loved fl's blank stare the whole time 2ml was throwing a tantrum, like she was really just watching a child put on a show.

At the same time they also keeping dropping clues that make me so engaged, like ml's brother knew fl's mother or something in the past, 2ml is pretending to be a playboy to survive from the empress dowager and wants revenge , so much to unravel slowly I love it. They keep slowly revealing a deeper story, really good story telling so far instead of just making everything too obvious. I feel like some cdramas feel like they have to make everything obvious and make things happen quickly all the time otherwise viewers get bored and leave and maybe some will but those who enjoy a good story and slowly revealing different layers will stay, and so far I believe the word of mouth is pretty good due to how well its written, acted and shot, I hope it keeps it up.

We see a lot of hints that her maid Qing Shuang is a hallucination. When she slept with fl, we zoom out and only see one pair of shoes instead of two, when fl talks to her helper brother from lishan academy near the water, the one that helped her get revenge on he Lv dude by exposing his identity, they mentions Qing shuang and we see theres no one next to fl even though fl says that Qing shuang is next to her. And when we swap to ml's perspective we see that he says fl is constantly talking to herself, when in fact she thinks she is talking to Qing Shuang. Also form previews of ep 8, it gets even more clear Qing shuang is a hallucination.

I bit the pill and bought svip cause I couldn't wait need ep 7 and damn the later half of the ep, I love the quick shift in tone, one minute its happiness and comedy then next takes a dark and strange turn then kind of a sad but like eerie/confusing tone, I love the tone shifts so good. This is how you keep a drama engaging without needing a bunch of misunderstandings and forced angst. I can't wait for more reveals and answers to come

Here to mention the cdrama dazzling, 30 eps. It’s a youth romance drama that was pretty well done in my opinion. Story wise nothing new, out of town rich girls falls on hard times because her father goes through some company troubles, she moves in with ml’s family in a small town. Ml the typical bad boy that has a good heart/is a genius. Start off not liking each other, then slowly fall for each other, story is nothing new, pretty predictable but like I’ve said before, thats not a bad thing when its done well, and here it was done very well. It’s overall a sweet youthful romance, with a nice friendship group and family, with technically no break up and a HE, I’ll explain the technical no break up below.

First though want to clear something, saw some people in the comments of the drama also confused, in ep 1 ml’s mother refers to ml and fl as cousins, to be clear they are not actual cousins, not blood related, not family at all, first time they meet is in ep 1 when they are like 17 years oldish. The reason she refers to them as cousins is because fl’s mother took care/helped ml’s mother ages ago when she went through hard times, so because of that she considers fl’s mother a sister and thus sees fl as family so refers to her as ml’s cousin, fl’s mother passed away two years before. So yeh she refers to them as cousins but they are not, it's just a respectful/symbolic type of thing.

What I really enjoyed in this drama is there was no toxic 2ml or 2fl. There was a 2ml but he gets very little screen time and fl is clear with him she doesn’t see him that way, and he is respectful of her, so absolutely no issues with him. Theres also a 2fl but again she’s kind and friendly, not toxic, so overall 2ml barely gets screen time and neither 2ml or 2fl are toxic which I really enjoyed.

I do want to mention though the fl and ml get together very late, in ep 29 out of 30, this is because the majority of this drama is when fl and ml are high school age, and I believe in china the regulations prohibit cdrama’s from showing high schoolers in official relationships. I could be wrong but I think thats why in high school/youth romance cdramas it’s always once they are out of high school that the official relationship begins, so thats why they get together late in the drama. But still it's very clear they like each other for quite a while before so I didn’t mind too much and pretty much confess to each other indirectly around ep 25ish. However even way before then it’s clear they like each other. Their chemistry was pretty good and what I enjoyed was how supportive they are of each other way before they get together officially. When fl first moves there ml is very helpful and caring of her, even though at first he doesn’t show it and comes off as a rebel type guy, and fl herself is not that nice when she first arrives, pretty snobbish as she's from a rich family. But soon Fl starts helping ml and his family a lot, helping their hair saloon business, helping encourage ml to return to school and stuff like that. They also go through a lot of drama but pretty much all of it is outside of their relationship which I enjoyed, the angst and cdrama is around fl getting used to the small town, her high school life, ml dealing with debt collectors and stuff, nothing effects their relationship except for one thing I’ll mention below. But besides that, they are very supportive of each other, and help each other through the difficulties they faced. I enjoyed how strong their relationship/friendship was even before they got together and how most offthe drama did not effect their relationship at all.

Now technically there is no break up but there is a separation that happens before they get together officially. Around ep 25 fl’s father returns and tells her his problem are solved and comes to take her away. This lead to a seperation that lasts 5 years in the drama which is like 1 and a half-ish eps. I would have preferred no seperation obviously, however in youth dramas I don’t mind it as I think in youth dramas it makes more sense that both characters need to grow up, attend university, becomes adults, so I didn’t mind this seperation as it made sense story wise. Also the way it happened I think was nicely done, ml pushes her to go, he tells her to go and don’t look back, he says he’ll chase after her, and fl tells him she will attend a university in china instead of going abroad like she planned initially, so she tells him she cut the distance between them half way, now the rest is up to you. I like how they did this, neither one sacrificed everything for the other, instead they both agreed to sacrifice half/meet each other half way. I find this sweet but also realistic. Now I do wish they got together sooner, in the novel they reunite when ml works hard and enters the same university a her just a year or two behind, I wish they followed that here but instead after they seperate in ep 25 or 26, there’s a timeskip of 5 years and we see fl now working. She still misses ml, hasn’t dated and is waiting for him to catch up, and to ml’s credit he puts in the work and does. They meet again in ep 28 and kiss and make it official in ep 29. Thus, why I said technically no break up as they weren’t together officially when she left, but it was a seperation. One thing that was a little weird is when they seperated fl deleted her contact number on his phone in front of him and told him that they won’t talk again until he’s caught up to her, she explained it after the timeskip to her friend that she did it as motivation for him and was scared he would fall behind. A little silly that they had no communication for 5 years but I’m ok with it as it is really a small detail and overall their relationship was very sweet, supportive and wholesome so I don’t really mind this, just a small nitpick no big deal really.

So while I always prefer no separation, here I feel like it made sense and was necessary, in high school ml was behind anyway, so fl needed to go to university and I appreciate how she didn’t sacrifice that for ml, but she did meet him halfway by not going abroad, and ml in turn worked hard to catch up in school, graduate and finally move to work in Beijing with her. So overall, I didn’t mind this separation and beside this little bit of angst, the rest of the drama/challenges ml and fl face are all outside o their relationship, while they remain supportive and united together.

Like I mentioned their relationship throughout the whole drama from first meeting to friendship to having feelings for each other was very sweet. They start out at odds with each other, first 4 eon may take getting sued to as fl is snobbish as first, but slowly they become very supportive towards each other helping each other overcome their troubles. I enjoyed how they faced their troubles together and helped each other through difficult times. The chemistry was pretty sweet, they had a nice innocent and sweet romance, with a lot of kisses once they became official. Like I mentioned, its slow burn and they never really confess directly and get together late, but you can see their feelings for each other through their support, chemistry and their actions, somethings don’t really need to be said.

The side characters also were all mostly likable, ml’s family that became fl’s family was all very sweet and their friendship group was nice as well. I enjoyed the main core of characters, all very likable. Also like once fl’s father found out of her relationship with ml in ep 29/30, he wasn’t against it, I was afraid he would be a toxic father especially after he took fl away when he returned, but I appreciate he accepted their relationship.

Overall, story wise is nothing new, but it was done well and thus became a pretty enjoyable youthful romance cdrama. A nice cast and collection of characters, and the supportive relationship between ml and fl was very sweet throughout. I enjoyed their chemistry and I enjoyed how they faced difficulties and challenges together. The happy ending was nice as well, as we got 2 eps of seeing them in a happy relationship. Overall, while a little slow burn, I can understand some people may not like them getting together so late, for me it was a pretty enjoyable and light hearted youthful romance.

When ye li said in ep 6, troublemakers will always find a pretext to cause trouble, because trouble is all they are, damn that hit home regarding everything going on now in c-ent world, so true but like she said in ep 6, don't get tangled with them, they aren't worth your time, she's speaking facts.

Gotta say I enjoy the mature feel and pace of this drama, I feel like some cdramas now days throw so much at you because they feel like they need to do that to keep audiences engaged, but here the drama lets the story carry itself. Feels like a proper story, setting the scene, giving some clues and crumbs while slowly building up rather than just throwing everything at you at once.