mooc

Why is the onus of 'love' on ML alone?

The FL had no issues enjoying herself with another man & the drama still wants us to believe she loves the ML. Which part of shagging another man showed FL love for the ML? At least we don't see ML shagging other women while trying to control FL's interactions with other men.
The FL was a voilent & abusive control freak. At least thats what the drama is showing.

These dramas make every kind of excuse for FL's shitty character.
It is as if the men around her owe her something.

ML did not even try to communicate with her is just an excuse....as such it is a two way street. If the FL was oblivious to what she was doing to her husband, what does that say about her?

If it was the FL in that kind of shitty relationship, pretty sure this same drama would have justified her leaving the ML or even cheating on him with other man.

Just look at how in earlier episodes where the FL defends her female friend who was cheating on her husband because he had health problems and cant have sex.
The FL had no problem with her friend cheating and does not even get angry.

Sorry but these dramas are so shitty and the 2-3 central female characters don't deserve the men around them. They neither have respect nor love for these men. In fact the FL friend treats her colleague like a sex toy. If this is what these dramas want to show modern women as......don't these writers get that the women in their dramas are basically the worst kind of men?

Thats typical Kdrama and Cdrama modern women.
Loud, violent and horny.

The modern male leads in these dramas though are very subservient to the FL, often getting thrashed and abused.
Most importantly, the ML will be very pure, body and mind only for the FL. They would never sexually objectify any women ever.

The supposed 'good modern men' from these dramas are those who let the women in their life walk all over them.

It depends,

The FL acting is top notch but the age shows at a lot of times.
She is playing a character 15 years younger than her. It would not matter if a 35 year is playing a 20 year old because at 35 with correct make up etc etc you can cover up.
but a 50 year old playing 35 year old....it kind of becomes obvious.

the actress nails the FL character but at times it is pretty obvious that what we are seeing on screen is not a 35 year old.

There are numerous female centric Kdramas and Cdramas I absolutely adore and none of them are romance ones.
More than Cdramas, it is Kdramas that shine in female centric ones, as long as there is no romance or romance is a sub plot.

female centric romance dramas are the worst kind of Cdrama and kdramas.
it just is impossible to overlook the character inconsistencies and cringe ML who is barely a supporting character.

In fact I stopped watching the Cdramas romance fantasies completely. It is always the same plot.
The FL will have ML and 2ML around her for most of the drama. The love triangle will be there for most of the drama. The story and characters are so predictable and boring with nothing left to look forward to.

ML should run from FL,
instead of faking, he should just shag some other woman and get his ex out of his system and mind.

FL does not deserve anyone in her life.
A narcissist and self centered human & people like that rarely change. They believe everyone and the world owes them something.

It was pretty apparent in her abuse of ML right at the start of the drama. it's always me, me, me and more me.

The man should run and should not look back.

I did watch ALP, it is really good. One of the best Cdramas last year.
Through out ALP, you could see ML and FL at various instances showing how they cared for each other.
Probably why I liked it.

Romance dramas should not be female centric since it takes 2 people for romance. Unless the dramas balance out, the ML in these dramas will continue to come across as fake and idiots.

There are a lot of female centric dramas where romance is sub-plot. That is perfectly fine by me. In fact, Eternal Love is a female centric drama with romance as a sub plot. Problem with this drama was not keeping romance as a sub plot. It caused lot of character inconsistencies and ML coming across as wimp.

In fact compare Xu Kai's roles in ALP and She and her perfect husband. In ALP he shines because the drama takes a lot of time to grow his character. Towards the end when we learn what his final plan was, we are hit in the gut. That drama took great care of both the central characters since romance is a central theme.

And this is where Eternal Love and She and her husband fails. The drama wants to keep romance as central plot but the ML who forms the central half of the central plot, which is romance, is never fully fleshed out.
Xu Kai in this drama is not main lead, he is at best a supporting character. In a romance story that's a fatal mistake.
Same in Eternal Love, the ML is not even a main supporting character. In many episodes he is barely there. That's why the whole love story plot felt awkward, out of place and fake.

You are right on that ML felt immensely guilty about what happened to his wife.
He was so in love with her that he was willing to follow her to death.

His character was perfectly fine until that point, a doting and loving lover and husband.

May be door mat thing was little excessive but he was more or less that way.
He never stood up for himself. In any relationship, if one party is not willing to stand up for themselves, it's a failed relationship. Through out the latter half of the drama, the ML had many chances to stand up and tell the FL how she screwed up but that never happens.

Anyway, for me what threw me off was the fact that FL never does anything for the ML. It was one way street from ML to the FL.

May be my biases of watching way too many Cdramas with similar ML's who are so love in the FL that nothing else is visible to them apart from the FL
&
in these same dramas the FL's towards the ML are like...meh, I love him but I have many other important things and people.

This is one clever show.

the ML who is searching to map a psycho's brain meets a genuinely nice person who is the cop.
It's a contrast for the ML, psycho vs truly good person.

The very reasons you gave is why the love story does not work for me,

The ML is completely invested in FL and basically simps her.
The FL is barely invested in ML and by the end it seems like she is emotionally abusing a man who is desperately in love with her.

I can post 100 things ML did for FL
I can't recall a single thing FL did for ML.

A one way love is not an ideal romance story. At some point, both the persons involved in the romance need to show their love for each other. While ML whole existence in the drama is to simp for the FL, she barely cared for ML.
I completely understand how the target audiences are females and a simping man is ideal but the fact still remains the FL, though awesome in her own right is an awful lover, wife and mother.
She is a colossal failure and the only reason their so called love story works for females is because of how much of a door mat the ML is.

For me the litmus test in any story is applying the golden rule.
If their roles were reversed, I would be saying the same things about the ML.

regarding the master, he was way more interesting than the ML.
the whole existence of ML in this drama is make FL better and do things for her. We never see him do things for himself. perhaps a running tragedy of most Cdramas when it comes to ML.
It's hard to take seriously of character whose whole existence in a drama is to make someone else look better.

about her power, what you said is partially true.

She had power, as part of her trial, she loses her power becomes mortal.
Once the trial ends, she becomes way more powerful than what she had before the trial.

In fact, for latter half of the series, this is a running theme, where the characters acknowledge her power and how it increased after the trial.
The ML never has a trial.
He becomes involved in her trial and suffers.

In the last 3 episodes, the ML's mother has a talk with the FL after the death of ML. I suggest to watch the episode, some of the things are clarified from a different perspective.

I have no problems with the central plot of the drama, which is the FL saving her master.
the love story and the ML was totally unnecessary to the plot and caused very obvious character inconsistencies.
The ML was so unappealing with absolutely no backbone to speak of.
the masters character was a lot better. He should have had much greater time in the drama.

Her suffering was real,
but it was not of ML doing it.

Like all Cdramas, we never the ML perspective even in that one.
All we see if FL perspective and how she suffered.

For some one who suffered, she sure grabbed the power that came out of the suffering gladly. On flip side, she discarded the people who looked after her as best as they could when she was suffering.

When I watched the drama for first time, the ML perspective was absent and all see how much the FL suffered.
The drama never once shows how ML suffered with the FL on her trial to become powerful.

The way I understood it, she was destined to suffer, with or without the ML. That was the whole point of her becoming mortal and suffering to gain power.

I asked myself these questions -
Would the FL have suffered if not for the ML during her trial? Assuredly yes, she would have suffered and probably much worse.
Did the ML suffer during FL trial? Most assuredly yes. His suffering was as great as the FL and he takes brutal punishment for her.
Did the FL suffer post the trial? NO, she gained power and started doing her own thing?
Did the ML suffer post the trial? Yes, he remembers her and through little crumbs thrown in the drama you can see how hurt he was.

The drama like most Cdramas, turned the ML into a guest role and never shows what he went through.
but when you analyze dispassionately, the ML was always the victim.

The FL becomes a godess due to her suffering
Just what did the ML get after brutally suffering for the FL trial? Nothing. While FL got incredible power, ML gets nothing but pain and suffering.
The whole thing where FL abandons ML and their kid is nothing short of a gut punch. Imagine if a man abandons his wife and new born for any reason what so ever....especially if he abandons them for to go and save some other woman...
That's exactly what the FL does.
If we are to hold ML for his actions no matter how helpful he was, then we should FL for her actions as well.
She can't enjoy the fruits of her suffering and then cry on others for the same suffering. That's duplicitous, especially since as goddess she sure knows it was her trial.
Even the ML's mother says the same to her after his death.

The whole drama would have worked fine without the love story. It did not need to there in the drama.
The central story of the drama was always the FL and her journey to save her master.

in Eternal love, what ever the ML did was to protect the FL right until the end.
he takes brutal punishment for her repeatedly, even goes as far to save her until the last moment.

but, that's misleading logic. The FL was never the victim, again the drama shows it like that but in fact the victim in that relationship was always the ML and the FL until the last moment took sickening advantage of a man in love with her.

The fact always was that what ever happened to the FL was destined to happen to her. She had to go through that suffering to gain power. It was her journey where she was mandated to suffer so that she can become a powerful deity. With the ML, the suffering became a little less because he joined her and protected her as much as he could.
When she dies and ascends, she willingly abandons her husband and child. Did she suffer? Yes, but not because of ML. It was because it was a journey she had to take irrespective of the ML to gain power. And she needed that power to save...get this, another man in her life who is more important to her than the ML.

While FL gained incredible power because of what happened to her, what did ML gain? Suffering, heart-break and ignonimity of realizing his wife cared more about another dude than him. He had to raise their child while she was waltzing around to do her thing.
right until the end, it was always the ML making the sacrifices for FL, repeatedly, at incredible cost.
The FL could not care less about this man. He was just a sex buddy who did her favors when she needed them desperately.

Their love story was so pathetic, you actually felt for the ML at the end while he was kneeling for days. It should have been her crawling on her bum to make peace with him.

Don't get me wrong, the drama was absolutely incredible.
Just that the love story between FL and ML was .....meh.

Some of these moms are terrifyingly disturbing.

Can't imagine the psychological as well behavioral impact these kinds of parents have on their children.
Win at any cost....exactly what kind of adults would they become with that kind of upbringing?

The abuse is implied.

Agreed though that it is speculation & why I think the drama suffers.
It does not dare to take time to show in detail the central conflict of the drama.

at this point, as viewers we should not be interpreting what happened.

In fact going into details of what happened would have more interesting than anything the drama showed for 8 episodes.

It's my opinion,

You are free to have your opinion & are free to express them. Please don't post asking someone not to share their opinion. If you don't like my opinion, rebut it or ignore it.

Hardwork has no bearing on end product.
In fact I would be surprised if hardwork was done on something so shitty. It seems to have been written by the new age netflix idiots.

that 1 episode was enough to tell that this is straight up garbage of typical netflix kind.
wow..it was a stinker.

What a shit show, got head ache after watching 1 episode.
Can't believe some one actually made this and believed it would be appealing to humans.

This one has likable leads, the characters are genuinely likable.
Unlike most dramas, here the ML gets a perspective showing viewers a first hand insight into him.
FL is bright and positive and has a kind streak going on about her, unlike quite a few FL's who are 'let's beat the guy first and ask questions later' in recent dramas.

In most countries, you don't need a reason to get out of marriage.
Just wanting to separate is enough.

having said that, I do respect institutions trying to save marriage as much as possible.

but, it is widely recognized that abuse in a relationship does not need to be physical. So, from a ML perspective, he was under an abusive relationship, which he legally could not get away from.
At that point it's a flight instinct, at least thats what the drama is showing.

His prevarication hurting her is banal argument.
it's like an abusive husband claiming to be hurt when the wife leaves him.

The drama doing a piss poor and confusing job in the central dispute of the drama does not help.
but from what ever the drama has shown, ML was in an abusive relationship which suffocated him (her being oblivious does not mean it's not).
Again, the drama should have taken an episode to go into detail of what happened instead of throwing few crumbs at viewers.

The story does not leave any scope for chemistry between them,
By now you would think they would show ML & FL journey where they dated and were happily married for a time before problems started.
That would have established their chemistry.

If only she was not enjoying herself with the other guy, the desperation would have made sense.

In fact, the ML, who was supposed to have moved on is not shown in the drama enjoying himself with other women. It's not like he did not have other women in his life to start a relationship but we know how Kdramas want to preserve ML's purity.

the drama is not even pretending to keep the ML pure as show for the FL, while slyly mixing FL desperation and her adventures with the other guy to make a incoherent premise.

The drama is stupidly predictable, The ML who hates FL is also deeply in love with her to the point he won;t even look at other women.
And the FL who is supposed to be desperate for ML is happily having fun with another man.

By the end, it will be the same old BS drama where the ML was always dedicated to the FL, body and soul.