pureggold

i think you're extremely confused right now. you said the leads are still the same as they were 10 years ago and mentioned how fl loves him but is using him for her motives. so, my question is how is she using the male lead in the present?

"she loves him too but doesn't mind using his feelings for her motives" is what you said.

i agree completely. she has been independent her whole life so being completely dependent on a'xiao would feel so... out of character for her. and financial stability was the one thing she desperately wanted and worked so hard for, i would be genuinely pissed at the writers if they make her lose the one thing she actually managed to achieve after all these years.

why does she have to go through a horrible experience just for their reunion to mean something? she doesn't need to be completely dependent on him or suffer for lxx to realize he doesn't resent her. what they actually need is zhou wan sitting down and telling him everything, the truth, all of it. that's what would actually fix things between them, not her going through more pain as some kind of catalyst for his realisation

she is literally keeping her distance from him so that he won't be involved in the process of her "revenge" against his family. care to explain how she is using his feelings for her motives this time?

i've been seeing a lot of negative comments about meng ziyi lately so i'm definitely going to follow her upcoming works more closely. the more people unfairly hate on an actress, the more it makes me want to support them :) i loved her in blossom but didn't really watch much of her work before or after that, but all her upcoming dramas look really interesting so i'm excited to see what she does next

i think viewers have a very rigid definition of love sometimes. people show and feel love in completely different ways and there's no single right or wrong way to love someone, minus the abusive kind for obvious reasons. i actually love that the male lead is so expressive and full of emotions despite everything he's been through his whole life. if anything it makes complete sense that he's still in love with her because she was the only person who ever brought him any real solace. when someone has lived through that much trauma, holding onto the one person who made them feel safe isn't weakness or delusion, it's just so human :)

did you not see her wipe her tears before turning towards him? okay maybe that small detail slipped past you but the scene where she walked away crying is hard to miss, it was literally in slow motion...💀

idol dramas mostly get treated differently on douban. there's this whole group of users who see the genre as basically an insult to chinese drama as an art form, the argument being that light glossy romances made primarily for commercial appeal drag down the overall quality and reputation of the industry. douban's user base tends to take this stuff really seriously and anything that feels too feel good or formulaic automatically gets side eyed from the start. first frost is sitting at 5.4, hidden love and poj at 6.4 on douban despite both being massive international hits, so its more like an audience mismatch on the platform. political, historical epics are what users tends to score highly. it feels unfair but it is what it is

"i'm only 18, what am i supposed to do?" — zhou wan

i think a lot of people are forgetting that both leads are just teenagers who grew up facing hurdle after hurdle. both of them barely had real paternal love growing up and that obviously shaped who they are and how they handle things, you can't hold them to the standards of fully formed adults when they never really had the chance to become one.

zhou wan didn't abandon him out of selfishness, she was emotionally manipulated into it by his grandfather who held all the power in that situation. she had little to no real choice and that context matters.

and yes, lxx accepting that date on impulse wasn't great and that girl didn't deserve to be treated like that, but he ended it just as fast as it started. he's a teenager acting out of hurt and confusion. cut them both some slack, they're kids doing their best with what they have.

and lastly, don't imagine yourself in zhou wan or xixiao's place and hold them to the standard of what you personally would have done. we haven't lived through what shaped them as people, we haven't experienced the events that made them who they are. we're not here to insert ourselves into their story, we're here to observe it

the breakup scene wasn't as sad as i expected it to be honestly, ke yu's acting didn't quite live up to what i was hoping for in that moment either. i don't know if the setting threw him off or made it harder to fully sink into the emotions but it just didn't land the way it should have. the phone call scene on the other hand was genuinely heartbreaking, you could feel the sadness from both leads so clearly. it makes me wish they had executed the breakup scene differently because the emotion was clearly there, it just didn't translate on screen the way it needed to

i really like the discussion space here. everyone feels free to share their opinions whether good or bad about the drama without a bunch of people hounding you for it. i think it's majorly bc neither of the leads are traffic stars yet and they don't have a dedicated hardcore fandom breathing down everyone's necks.

as much as i genuinely wish both actors a lot of success, i lowkey want the discussion spaces to stay like this. viewers should be able to criticize or praise a drama freely without 10 people jumping on you for it lmao. that kind of environment is honestly rare in discussion pages nowadays

oh god the booktok community reading this novel with haunting adeline expectations is actually sending me. of course it won't seem extreme to you guys, you're literally desensitized to unhinged content, but outside of that bubble his behavior was genuinely questionable. and the double standard is so real, if an unattractive man asked a girl to repay him with her body that would be called harassment immediately, no debate. just because he's a fictional pretty boy doesn't suddenly make it acceptable. he was written as a typical toxic male lead who gets redeemed by the female lead's love and that's fine, it's a trope, but you can acknowledge that while still enjoying it. admitting a male character did problematic things is not a personal attack on you, it won't kill you to be honest about it