ChineseDramaFan

I know what you mean with Eternal Love. I had a hard time even watching through the 1st episode and wanted to drop it. I knew nothing about Mark Chao and thought he was, er, not my taste. Then I heard so many fav reviews and stuff, so I thought I was missing something. I restarted and pressed on even when the first few episodes were unbearable, and then all of a sudden, BAM! Mark Chao stole my heart! Anyway, just sharing my thoughts :D

Try:
- Eternal Love (Be patient with the first few episodes)
- Love In Between
- Under The Power
- The Song of Glory

If you haven't, I would recommend Go Ahead on your watch list :)

From the tone of the drama so far, it doesn't feel like a tragedy.

All these would be cleared up by episode 9.

........ and dead.

No, this drama doesn't have much mushy type of romance like L&R. Its focus is very different. It is very cleverly written, funny and the plot is deep and multi-layered. For me, it's one of the best dramas. You may want to check Go Ahead out. This is a very heart-warming drama you may like.

I guess that's why we love watching dramas - almost everything is unreal and dramatic. We love watching them so that we can fantasize and forget temporarily any unpleasant things happening around us. The romance is usually exaggerated out of proportion, but we love it to fill our own void: think about this, how many viewers actually have perfect marital lives, or have devoted spouses who would do anything for them? I guess very few. We love devotion but in real life, it's hard to come by, or simply not realistic at all :)

Love & Redemption purposely makes Sifeng vomit blood in every episode to stab at viewers' hearts. Both Sifeng and Xuanji are powerful, so there's always hope. In Goodbye My Princess, it's been hopelessness and helplessness from the start. This type of pain is totally different. Therefore in terms of tragic level, Goodbye My Princess wins hands down.

The make-up was indeed ugly by today's standard; she looked like a fish.

Youtube, WeTV

And I can see how it's going to be a tragedy - ML falls in love with FL who is not what she is, and he loves her old self who loves him too, and now, they love each other but are not supposed to, oh well, it's complicated, you'd need to watch it yourself.

Very intriguing drama. Don't care about the tragedy tag for now. The acting is good, the plot is thick, the fighting scenes are amazing, the main characters are lovable, and I'm only done watching episode 1.

8 episodes are released. How is it so far?

You stay safe too. Like you, I'm binge watching everything to keep myself away from the crazy news everyday.

For heads up, after watching Sleepless Princess, do watch the alternative ending (1 episode only). Otherwise, it's another one of those "what???" moments. Love and Redemption is a good watch despite all the blood vomiting which tickles me. So many new dramas releasing everyday. I need 48 hours a day to catch up :D

Yes, the word "soon" is indeed the pivotal word. It at first sounded cryptic to me, then it misled me into thinking he would join her in death soon. But this scenario didn't fit well with everything happened in the episode, like, where was her body, why was the chime missing, why weren't anyone mourning? etc. Then I realized the "soon" meant he could join her and live happily ever after. With this scenario, everything is clear and obvious.

Hmm, from the synopsis, sounds tropey: falling off cliff, memory loss, into another body etc. By the way, it's also tagged as "tragedy".

This is how I would have interpreted "... seemed not to include her in conversations during the 3 years ...":

Even though it's not shown, I strongly believe he sought her out and knew exactly where she was, just that, officially he continued with his work, and perhaps she didn't want to go back with him to live in the palace anymore because of her precarious position (she was an assassin). In any case, everyone seemed to know she's fine and they got on with their lives. Since she's still a controversy, no one wanted to remind anybody just in case someone might bring it up again against her - people could still appeal to the decision for her pardon. All Liu Yikang needed to do was to complete his reforms as fast as possible so that he could join her and away from all these politics and controversies.

Look at all the hints given in the episodes, then you'd realize there's no love triangle because their relationship is totally different.

This is a good drama. Do watch it. Many viewers jump to the wrong conclusion because the ending is not blatant; you'd need to look at all the hints to realize it's a brilliant ending.