In the novel she is selectively mute from the age of 9. She is physically unable to speak in most situations, but because her inability to speak is due to psychological causes (not a brain injury from her childhood car crash, as her mother forced her to pretend) there are sometimes circumstances where she is able to speak or even scream.
The drama seems to mostly be similar to the novel so far, except that the FL in the drama sometimes speaks out loud to herself (when she is alone) and I don't recall that happening in the novel.
Interesting take, but I'd disagree given most of season 2 was about CX trying to get with XY. Plus I think it…
"As for the characters' morality, in the series XL says he works as an assassin from time to time, and he kills people for money, or in exchange of a reward. CX has never done that."
---
XL was born with nothing. He never met his parents and doesn't know who they are. Out of loyalty to the man who saved his life and became his adoptive father (and his brothers-in-arms), XL spent ~400 years fighting with a rag-tag remnant army that was constantly struggling to obtain enough supplies to ensure that its soldiers were fed, armed and had sufficient medicine to stay alive between battles.
XL does occasionally carry out assassinations in exchange for money... and then he uses that money to buy things like supplies for his men, medicine to heal Wen Xiao Liu, or a specially commissioned bow that XY can use to defend herself. Although the drama did not show it, XY was only able to survive Xing Yue's assassins in chapter 44 of the novel because of her archery skills and the extraordinary bow and arrows that XL commissioned for her.
CX never takes on assassin jobs in exchange for money because he never has a need to. He is a prince (the grandson of one king and a disciple to another) who hangs out with the wealthiest deities in the realm. When he has money problems before he gains the throne, he goes into debt (building up an army) until Tushan Jing wakes up from his coma and then immediately asks TSJ to bail him out. After he takes the throne, he can rely on taxes and the spoils of war to meet all his financial needs.
In QS Town, CX sends numerous assassins to try to kill XL and also tries to kill WXL (before he finds out that WXL is XY). CX also has no qualms about using his personal spy network to kill people when he thinks its warranted, such as when he kills everyone involved with the attempted assassination against XY.
CX raised a treasonous personal army. Although he did not preemptively use that army, he was prepared to stage a coup against his grandfather and uncle if his grandfather had named his uncle as his heir instead of CX. A coup like that could lead to an extremely high death toll, especially if the coup sparked a civil war or an inter-kingdom war.
In a time when Xiyan and Haoling were at peace, CX chose to order his army to invade Haoling unprovoked so that he could rule the whole world. No matter how much effort he might have put into trying to minimize civilian casualties, innocent people would have inevitably died as a result of that invasion. That is the nature of war. And of course many soldiers definitely died in 10+ years of battle. Including soldiers that CX would have been friends with on both sides (since he lived in Haoling and trained under the King of Haoling for hundreds of years).
CX also escalated and ended the fight against the Chenrong remnant army, which had remained a stalemate for 350+ years. In the end, his army wiped out the entire Chenrong remnant army, including XL.
In the novel, CX orchestrated TSJ's death and in the drama the former King of Xiyan makes it clear that CX was secretly pleased that TSJ had been killed and that he had planned to take action against TSJ but got lucky because Xing Yue beat him to it, and the King of Xiyan used divine tea to force CX to confront the consequences he would face if CX continued down the path that he was on. Although TSJ ended up not dying (thanks to interventions from XY and XL) in the novel or the drama, all of TSJ's guards, all of TSH's men, TSH himself, and FFYY died as a result of that incident. XY also tried to kill herself because of that incident and only failed thanks to XL's intervention.
Even when you add up the number of people that XL killed in the slave death match arena (when he had to kill or be killed), on the battlefield, and as an assassin, it would likely still be less than the number of people that died as a result of CX's orders.
The list of potential moral comparison points goes well beyond their respective financial situations and death tolls, but this is getting a bit long. ^^
Im not planning on watching this whatsoever because reverse harem is a headache for me but even to this day, I…
In the "harem" part of this reverse harem drama, there are four main male characters.
The author considers Cang Xuan to be the first male lead of this story, but he does not end up with the female lead and also does not die. However, due to his choices, he loses the female lead forever and the leads are left éżç¸ć (eternally yearning for each other), hence the original Chinese title of the novel and drama.
The author considers Tushan Jing / Ye Shi Qi to be the second male lead of the story and he does end up with the female lead in the end. The female lead loses him temporarily.
And of course the other two main male lead characters (Xiang Liu / Fangfeng Bei and Feng Long) also have important roles to play before their deaths, when those who love them lose them forever.
It largely depends on which characters and ships you like and which characters and ships you don't like. Some…
This drama is a reverse-harem drama with a clear female lead. There are also four male characters who are in love with the FL, want to marry the FL, or both.
Unlike most romance dramas, this drama doesnât have a clear main couple comprised of the FL and a clear ML and the character that the author refers to as the ML of the story does not end up with the FL. But the FL does end up married to one of the main male characters.
It largely depends on which characters and ships you like and which characters and ships you don't like. Some fans of one of the characters / ships will say that this drama has a happy ending. Some fans of another character / ship will say that the ending is tragic. Some fans will call the ending bittersweet.
Personally, I would say the ending feels mixed. Not 100% tragic with no reprieve but also definitely not 100% happy across the board. Each of the main characters gets something they wanted / chose for themselves in the end, but to different extents they also each had some kind of extreme loss or disappointment.
In the case of the novel, I felt like the ending was bittersweet but satisfying in its own way. In the case of the drama, I felt like the ending was less satisfying.
The concoctions that the nine-tailed fox forced young XY to eat after capturing her caused most of her spiritual power to seep into her blood where she could no longer access it.
XY never regains the ability to access and use the level of spiritual power that she was able to access and use as a child before she was captured by the nine-tailed fox. However, she becomes better able to defend herself over time. She improves her mastery of poisons (and her medical skills) and she also becomes a highly proficient archer.
There is a point in the story where XY is offered the opportunity to try to regain her previous level of power, but she decides against it.
-----
Chapter 13 of the novel:
The Royal Mother grabbed Xiao Liuâs arm and examined her body. She let go and said coolly, âIf you stay in Jade Mountain, I might be able to help you regain your lost powers. My remaining life span is at most one to two hundred years. If you want, you can be the next Royal Mother and control Jade Mountain.â
Perhaps controlling Jade Mountain was the greatest dream of many people in the vast wilderness, but Xiao Liu knew exactly what being chained to this mountain was like. She didnât hesitate and said, âI would rather remain this way. Knowing what tomorrow will bring but not knowing what next year will bring. Not too exciting, not too boring.â
The Royal Mother merely nodded her head but her expression never changed, as if nothing in the world or time could ever affect her.
-----
Episode 18 of the drama includes a similar conversation.
I read a lot about censorship but I don't think that's the case here. I mean I've watched dramas with plenty of…
Episode 35 of LBFaD had a kiss that wasnât super long and Dylan Wang was doing most of the work, but it was extremely emotional and pretty passionate. Itâs one of my favourite C Drama kisses and I definitely wouldnât describe it as a peck. If weâd gotten something like that kiss in this drama Iâd have been thrilled.
Episode 6 - 17 had me thinking this was going to be my favourite drama of the year. Unfortunately the rest of the drama did not live up to that potential.
Self-love is a fine message for a drama to have, but honestly I don't think this drama conveyed it all that well. Even if it had, a good message is not enough to equate to a good drama.
I loved the leads and the development of their relationship (and their relationships with Mu Yao and Cui Cui) when the story actually focused on them, but the rest of the time I was so, so bored. Bits and pieces were delivered that kept me watching all the way through the finale, but nowhere near enough for me to feel satisfied, especially after so much screen time was dedicated to lingering on uninteresting plot lines or story arcs with choppy momentum and contradictory themes.
And the kind of satisfaction I was looking for didn't need to come in the form of a million kisses or a wedding followed by two kids and a white picket fence ending. More than anything, I wanted the leads to have more proper heart-to-heart conversations. When the writers actually wrote in a line where Ziqi complained about the fact that he and Miao Miao hadn't had a proper conversation in ages, I was beside myself with frustration. The writers were well aware of the lack of communication and decided that was how they wanted to write it, and to me it felt like that led to a huge amount of potential emotional satisfaction being squandered.
This drama had fantastic visuals, a great premise, a good OST, and loads of chemistry between its leads, which all added up to huge potential... that ultimately wasn't fulfilled. The second half of this drama could have been worse, but it also could have been so much better. Now that the drama is over, part of me already misses the leads and part of me is relieved because I've been missing the joy of watching the first half of the drama for a while.
Someone please explain me. Did cuicui made miaomiao wrote that letter or miaomiao unconsciously wrote that she…
When Miao Miao wrote the letter to her father in episode 19, she used a dark brown brush and wrote the contents of the letter without looking at what she was writing (and in episode 20 we find out that message did not match what Ruoshi told her to write in episode 19). When she finished writing the letter, Miao Miao put the brush down in a brush holder that had two slots. She put her dark brown brush in the slot to her right, and the slot to her left was already occupied by a bamboo-green brush, which turned out to be Cui Cui. So Cui Cui was not the brush that Miao Miao used to write the letter.
As beedym3 noted, Miao Miao managed to write the truth that was weighing on her heart and mind in spite of the influence of the bracelet's spell.
Either she wasn't thinking about what she was writing and somehow that allowed her hand to subconsciously write the words that matched her true feelings (without the bracelet interfering), or she intentionally didn't look at the words that she was writing in a conscious effort to hide the true message she was writing from the bracelet in order to avoid the bracelet's interference.
Also, even though Cui Cui told Ziqi that he knew it was wrong to read others' letters and that he couldn't help it (which made it seem like Cui Cui read what Miao Miao had written), it seemed like Cui Cui actually didn't know what Miao Miao had written. After Ziqi read the letter in episode 20, Cui Cui asked Ziqi if Miao Miao had written to her father to say that she was going to marry Ruoshi. That's what Cui Cui expected the letter to say based on the conversation that Cui Cui couldn't help but overhear between Miao Miao and Ruoshi before Miao Miao wrote the letter and also the conversation that Cui Cui had with Miao Miao after she wrote the letter in episode 19.
Good that miaomiao and ziqi reunited but we could barely see them in these last two episodes. Did ziqi even find…
THIS! How could they not show us their conversation after their reunion? Does Ziqi understand what happened? Did they talk about the old assassination attempt?!? And the two of them had what, two minutes of real screen time in episode 21? That's basically a lost episode for me.
It's tagged with "love square" Can someone explain that one for me? Which characters are involved, who likes whom,…
This glosses over a lot of important details, but should give you a general idea. It includes heavy spoilers.
Xiyan Cang Xuan - He's referred to as the ML and the story starts with him and the FL (Xiao Yao / Wen Xiao Liu) together as children. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but his ambition for power (partly driven by a desire to have the ability to protect Xiao Yao) leads to him having to marry many other women for political reasons (including Ah Nian and Xing Yue), despite knowing that Xiao Yao does not want to marry a man with other wives. Xiao Yao loves him back as her "brother" but does not end up with him.
Haoling Ah Nian - Xiao Yao's half sister (sort ofâŚ). She loves CX and eventually marries him. CX loves her back as his "sister".
Chenrong Xing Yue - Feng Long's twin sister (she took their father's family name and Feng Long took their mother's family name as Feng Long is the eldest and will become the next Chishui clan leader). Xing Yue loves CX (in a sense, but certainly not unselfishly) and eventually marries him. CX does not love her back.
Chishui Feng Long - He's referred to as the Fourth ML. Xing Yue's twin brother, TSJ's friend, and CX's political ally. He wants to marry Xiao Yao for political reasons, including convincing his clan to make him clan leader sooner so he can better support CX's bid for the throne. He also likes XY and thinks she would be a good match for him. XY doesn't love Feng Long, but agrees to marry him due to... circumstances. The wedding is not completed and XY and Feng Long do not end up married to each other.
Tushan Jing / Ye Shi Qi - He's referred to as the Second ML. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but he was engaged to FFYY (who he hadn't met yet) before meeting XY and is the heir to a very prominent and rich family, which comes with responsibilities. TSJ confesses his feelings to XY and asks her to wait for him to break the engagement. XY agrees. Later, they start a secret relationship, which XY ends when TSJ falls into a trap and is forced to marry his fiancee. After their separation, they later reconcile and deal with TSJ's marriage situation. At the end of the drama, XY and TSJ marry each other.
Fangfeng Yi Yang - TSJ's fiancee. She is in love with TSJ's half brother, Tushan Hou, and has been having an affair with him for years. She marries TSJ and later dies.
Tushan Hou - TSJ's half brother. He was a good brother to TSJ for 400 years until their grandmother revealed the truth about TSH's birth. TSH then came to hate TSJ and seduced FFYY / started an affair with her knowing that she was TSJ's fiancee.
Xiang Liu / Fangfeng Bei - He's referred to as the Third ML. He loves XY and XY loves him (IMO, we know this because XY was able to transfer her poisonous bug from CX to XL, and in XL it became a Lovers Bug, among other evidence - but I'll note that some fans have different interpretations and feel that XY's feelings for XL were platonic) but XY either isn't aware of her own feelings or refuses to acknowledge or accept them for most of the story. XL fights with the Chengrong remnant army against the Xiyan army. XY's mother died fighting for the Xiyan army against the Chenrong army. XY also treats the King of Xiyan as her grandfather and she supports CX's aims to become the next King of Xiyan. This means that XL and XY have ties of loyalty that put them on opposite sides of a war. XL and XY provide each other with help and companionship over the years, but XL also pushes XY away (for her own sake) and eventually dies on the battlefield. Before he dies, he makes sure that XY can protect herself and that she won't be alone / she can reunite with TSJ.
3 
1 
1 
The drama seems to mostly be similar to the novel so far, except that the FL in the drama sometimes speaks out loud to herself (when she is alone) and I don't recall that happening in the novel.
---
XL was born with nothing. He never met his parents and doesn't know who they are. Out of loyalty to the man who saved his life and became his adoptive father (and his brothers-in-arms), XL spent ~400 years fighting with a rag-tag remnant army that was constantly struggling to obtain enough supplies to ensure that its soldiers were fed, armed and had sufficient medicine to stay alive between battles.
XL does occasionally carry out assassinations in exchange for money... and then he uses that money to buy things like supplies for his men, medicine to heal Wen Xiao Liu, or a specially commissioned bow that XY can use to defend herself. Although the drama did not show it, XY was only able to survive Xing Yue's assassins in chapter 44 of the novel because of her archery skills and the extraordinary bow and arrows that XL commissioned for her.
CX never takes on assassin jobs in exchange for money because he never has a need to. He is a prince (the grandson of one king and a disciple to another) who hangs out with the wealthiest deities in the realm. When he has money problems before he gains the throne, he goes into debt (building up an army) until Tushan Jing wakes up from his coma and then immediately asks TSJ to bail him out. After he takes the throne, he can rely on taxes and the spoils of war to meet all his financial needs.
In QS Town, CX sends numerous assassins to try to kill XL and also tries to kill WXL (before he finds out that WXL is XY). CX also has no qualms about using his personal spy network to kill people when he thinks its warranted, such as when he kills everyone involved with the attempted assassination against XY.
CX raised a treasonous personal army. Although he did not preemptively use that army, he was prepared to stage a coup against his grandfather and uncle if his grandfather had named his uncle as his heir instead of CX. A coup like that could lead to an extremely high death toll, especially if the coup sparked a civil war or an inter-kingdom war.
In a time when Xiyan and Haoling were at peace, CX chose to order his army to invade Haoling unprovoked so that he could rule the whole world. No matter how much effort he might have put into trying to minimize civilian casualties, innocent people would have inevitably died as a result of that invasion. That is the nature of war. And of course many soldiers definitely died in 10+ years of battle. Including soldiers that CX would have been friends with on both sides (since he lived in Haoling and trained under the King of Haoling for hundreds of years).
CX also escalated and ended the fight against the Chenrong remnant army, which had remained a stalemate for 350+ years. In the end, his army wiped out the entire Chenrong remnant army, including XL.
In the novel, CX orchestrated TSJ's death and in the drama the former King of Xiyan makes it clear that CX was secretly pleased that TSJ had been killed and that he had planned to take action against TSJ but got lucky because Xing Yue beat him to it, and the King of Xiyan used divine tea to force CX to confront the consequences he would face if CX continued down the path that he was on. Although TSJ ended up not dying (thanks to interventions from XY and XL) in the novel or the drama, all of TSJ's guards, all of TSH's men, TSH himself, and FFYY died as a result of that incident. XY also tried to kill herself because of that incident and only failed thanks to XL's intervention.
Even when you add up the number of people that XL killed in the slave death match arena (when he had to kill or be killed), on the battlefield, and as an assassin, it would likely still be less than the number of people that died as a result of CX's orders.
The list of potential moral comparison points goes well beyond their respective financial situations and death tolls, but this is getting a bit long. ^^
The author considers Cang Xuan to be the first male lead of this story, but he does not end up with the female lead and also does not die. However, due to his choices, he loses the female lead forever and the leads are left éżç¸ć (eternally yearning for each other), hence the original Chinese title of the novel and drama.
The author considers Tushan Jing / Ye Shi Qi to be the second male lead of the story and he does end up with the female lead in the end. The female lead loses him temporarily.
And of course the other two main male lead characters (Xiang Liu / Fangfeng Bei and Feng Long) also have important roles to play before their deaths, when those who love them lose them forever.
Unlike most romance dramas, this drama doesnât have a clear main couple comprised of the FL and a clear ML and the character that the author refers to as the ML of the story does not end up with the FL. But the FL does end up married to one of the main male characters.
Personally, I would say the ending feels mixed. Not 100% tragic with no reprieve but also definitely not 100% happy across the board. Each of the main characters gets something they wanted / chose for themselves in the end, but to different extents they also each had some kind of extreme loss or disappointment.
In the case of the novel, I felt like the ending was bittersweet but satisfying in its own way. In the case of the drama, I felt like the ending was less satisfying.
The concoctions that the nine-tailed fox forced young XY to eat after capturing her caused most of her spiritual power to seep into her blood where she could no longer access it.
XY never regains the ability to access and use the level of spiritual power that she was able to access and use as a child before she was captured by the nine-tailed fox. However, she becomes better able to defend herself over time. She improves her mastery of poisons (and her medical skills) and she also becomes a highly proficient archer.
There is a point in the story where XY is offered the opportunity to try to regain her previous level of power, but she decides against it.
-----
Chapter 13 of the novel:
The Royal Mother grabbed Xiao Liuâs arm and examined her body. She let go and said coolly, âIf you stay in Jade Mountain, I might be able to help you regain your lost powers. My remaining life span is at most one to two hundred years. If you want, you can be the next Royal Mother and control Jade Mountain.â
Perhaps controlling Jade Mountain was the greatest dream of many people in the vast wilderness, but Xiao Liu knew exactly what being chained to this mountain was like. She didnât hesitate and said, âI would rather remain this way. Knowing what tomorrow will bring but not knowing what next year will bring. Not too exciting, not too boring.â
The Royal Mother merely nodded her head but her expression never changed, as if nothing in the world or time could ever affect her.
-----
Episode 18 of the drama includes a similar conversation.
https://www.tumblr.com/escapetojoseon/730006968462426112/dingyuxi-yu-shuxin-wang-hedi-as-xiao-lanhua
https://www.tumblr.com/escapetojoseon/730656019689193472/janghyuns-but-its-my-mission-to-save-you-love
Self-love is a fine message for a drama to have, but honestly I don't think this drama conveyed it all that well. Even if it had, a good message is not enough to equate to a good drama.
I loved the leads and the development of their relationship (and their relationships with Mu Yao and Cui Cui) when the story actually focused on them, but the rest of the time I was so, so bored. Bits and pieces were delivered that kept me watching all the way through the finale, but nowhere near enough for me to feel satisfied, especially after so much screen time was dedicated to lingering on uninteresting plot lines or story arcs with choppy momentum and contradictory themes.
And the kind of satisfaction I was looking for didn't need to come in the form of a million kisses or a wedding followed by two kids and a white picket fence ending. More than anything, I wanted the leads to have more proper heart-to-heart conversations. When the writers actually wrote in a line where Ziqi complained about the fact that he and Miao Miao hadn't had a proper conversation in ages, I was beside myself with frustration. The writers were well aware of the lack of communication and decided that was how they wanted to write it, and to me it felt like that led to a huge amount of potential emotional satisfaction being squandered.
This drama had fantastic visuals, a great premise, a good OST, and loads of chemistry between its leads, which all added up to huge potential... that ultimately wasn't fulfilled. The second half of this drama could have been worse, but it also could have been so much better. Now that the drama is over, part of me already misses the leads and part of me is relieved because I've been missing the joy of watching the first half of the drama for a while.
As beedym3 noted, Miao Miao managed to write the truth that was weighing on her heart and mind in spite of the influence of the bracelet's spell.
Either she wasn't thinking about what she was writing and somehow that allowed her hand to subconsciously write the words that matched her true feelings (without the bracelet interfering), or she intentionally didn't look at the words that she was writing in a conscious effort to hide the true message she was writing from the bracelet in order to avoid the bracelet's interference.
Also, even though Cui Cui told Ziqi that he knew it was wrong to read others' letters and that he couldn't help it (which made it seem like Cui Cui read what Miao Miao had written), it seemed like Cui Cui actually didn't know what Miao Miao had written. After Ziqi read the letter in episode 20, Cui Cui asked Ziqi if Miao Miao had written to her father to say that she was going to marry Ruoshi. That's what Cui Cui expected the letter to say based on the conversation that Cui Cui couldn't help but overhear between Miao Miao and Ruoshi before Miao Miao wrote the letter and also the conversation that Cui Cui had with Miao Miao after she wrote the letter in episode 19.
Xiyan Cang Xuan - He's referred to as the ML and the story starts with him and the FL (Xiao Yao / Wen Xiao Liu) together as children. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but his ambition for power (partly driven by a desire to have the ability to protect Xiao Yao) leads to him having to marry many other women for political reasons (including Ah Nian and Xing Yue), despite knowing that Xiao Yao does not want to marry a man with other wives. Xiao Yao loves him back as her "brother" but does not end up with him.
Haoling Ah Nian - Xiao Yao's half sister (sort ofâŚ). She loves CX and eventually marries him. CX loves her back as his "sister".
Chenrong Xing Yue - Feng Long's twin sister (she took their father's family name and Feng Long took their mother's family name as Feng Long is the eldest and will become the next Chishui clan leader). Xing Yue loves CX (in a sense, but certainly not unselfishly) and eventually marries him. CX does not love her back.
Chishui Feng Long - He's referred to as the Fourth ML. Xing Yue's twin brother, TSJ's friend, and CX's political ally. He wants to marry Xiao Yao for political reasons, including convincing his clan to make him clan leader sooner so he can better support CX's bid for the throne. He also likes XY and thinks she would be a good match for him. XY doesn't love Feng Long, but agrees to marry him due to... circumstances. The wedding is not completed and XY and Feng Long do not end up married to each other.
Tushan Jing / Ye Shi Qi - He's referred to as the Second ML. He loves Xiao Yao and wants to marry her, but he was engaged to FFYY (who he hadn't met yet) before meeting XY and is the heir to a very prominent and rich family, which comes with responsibilities. TSJ confesses his feelings to XY and asks her to wait for him to break the engagement. XY agrees. Later, they start a secret relationship, which XY ends when TSJ falls into a trap and is forced to marry his fiancee. After their separation, they later reconcile and deal with TSJ's marriage situation. At the end of the drama, XY and TSJ marry each other.
Fangfeng Yi Yang - TSJ's fiancee. She is in love with TSJ's half brother, Tushan Hou, and has been having an affair with him for years. She marries TSJ and later dies.
Tushan Hou - TSJ's half brother. He was a good brother to TSJ for 400 years until their grandmother revealed the truth about TSH's birth. TSH then came to hate TSJ and seduced FFYY / started an affair with her knowing that she was TSJ's fiancee.
Xiang Liu / Fangfeng Bei - He's referred to as the Third ML. He loves XY and XY loves him (IMO, we know this because XY was able to transfer her poisonous bug from CX to XL, and in XL it became a Lovers Bug, among other evidence - but I'll note that some fans have different interpretations and feel that XY's feelings for XL were platonic) but XY either isn't aware of her own feelings or refuses to acknowledge or accept them for most of the story. XL fights with the Chengrong remnant army against the Xiyan army. XY's mother died fighting for the Xiyan army against the Chenrong army. XY also treats the King of Xiyan as her grandfather and she supports CX's aims to become the next King of Xiyan. This means that XL and XY have ties of loyalty that put them on opposite sides of a war. XL and XY provide each other with help and companionship over the years, but XL also pushes XY away (for her own sake) and eventually dies on the battlefield. Before he dies, he makes sure that XY can protect herself and that she won't be alone / she can reunite with TSJ.