mione

now that you’ve mentioned it, i feel like i’ve seen a drama with that description too. don’t remember the name though 😆 although i do remember in story of minglan, gu tingye removed minglan’s heavy headpiece on their wedding night. they were just casually chatting too, and i really liked that scene because it felt so ordinary and natural.

as for mr and mrs smith lvl…i dont think we have any cdrama with such a ML/FL before! would be so interesting haha. i think the closest we have in recent dramas would be “are you the one” 🤔 i havent been up to date much tbh 😆

i could be wrong since i didn’t read the novel thoroughly, but from the snippets i’ve read, i think her reaction had more to do with family politics, like inheritance and power within the household. when the FL became pregnant in the novel, she didn’t seem genuinely happy and instead came across as feeling threatened. this seemed to be further implied when gu jinzhao successfully gave birth to a son for chen yanyun.

someone who’ve read the novel properly should correct me on this though 😅

this has been done before actually. waaaay back in the days when TVB dramas were popular, there have been a few that shows this kind of scene 😄 it’s often seen as a romantic gesture, something like a ML helping FL draw her eyebrows 👀

i think a lot of this is also due to the idolising culture we have nowadays. aside from the politics, people can be very easily influenced, so censorship becomes one way of placing restrictions on what is portrayed. unfortunately, some viewers do become obsessive and take things to extremes trying to imitate fictional characters. we’ve literally seen cases of people attempting suicide because they believed they could time travel back to ancient times, and others trying to jump off roofs in the name of practising martial arts.

in that sense, portraying a ‘good’ ML becomes a way of signalling, “this is the ideal man” —understandable, because a majority of viewers are females. BUT, also because of this, many women now have unrealistic expectations in relationships in real life (but this is an entirely diff issue ig haha) 🥲 we’ve definitely reached a point where some people struggle to separate real life from fictional entertainment 🫠 it’s lowkey kind of sad 🙃

are we getting express on the 21st? 👀 i might wait for it!

the story of minglan’s wedding night is pretty good too in comparison haha

best examples i can think of for men as they were in their time would be bu bu jing xin (scarlet heart). the ML is deeply devoted, but even love cannot outweigh his desire for power and control. he was ultimately disgusted to find out that the FL and the 8th prince once shared a kiss, treating it as an unforgivable sin that lingered until her death. even his brother, the 13th prince, continued to bed his concubines despite his heart belonging to someone else, because life simply continues, even after the one you love dies.

the story of minglan’s ML is somewhat similar too, though not portrayed as harshly. he doesn’t have that overly clean image that most MLs these days are written with (no wife, no past relationships, a virgin, etc). before getting together with the FL, he had a mistress and two children from that relationship.

another example would probably be too late to say i love you (republican era). that drama was a hard watch because the ML was incredibly toxic, but his personality and actions did feel reflective of the time. the way he treated the FL throughout the drama was often demeaning.

minglan’s family is more likeable than jinzhao’s though 🥲 keep watching! her father is not so bad (at least not a greedy and corrupted official), and his wife will come around haha 😆 it’s super satisfying to see the downfall of the other bitchy and villainy characters later on!

agree!

tbh, even with him being violent… had the writer(s) given us more backstory between them, or created something similar to what minglan and qi heng shared in the story of minglan, then her reaction would’ve felt more understandable 🤷🏻‍♀️😅

i had to look up her dramalist after seeing your comment haha 😆 she has a pretty face, but definitely not very memorable as an actress. …although, had she debuted back in the 80s or 90s, i think she would have potential. she reminds me of cecilia cheung!

100% haha

i think one of the strongest aspects of this drama is how well they reflect a character’s personality through their family and upbringing. you can really tell who grew up being spoilt, and who had to face hardships that forced them to mature 🥲

qinglan still has a long way i feel because her family has her back, compared to ye xian who is slowly progressing (i hope) without much support from his own family members. these two characters mirror each other at a different pace haha

nope, still doesn’t convince me 🥲 had it been a female friend, it would’ve made more sense. but for someone of her time, crying over a male friend is just..out of place 😬

like i’ve pointed out earlier, she hasn’t even cried like that for our ML yet. if i were the ML, i would suspect she and ye xian had an affair in the past 🫠 this is simply poor script writing 🤷🏻‍♀️

edit: i’m enjoying everything else of the drama though. just that particular scene was very odd.

it was very one-sided from ye xian’s side, so gu jinzhao’s cry didn’t make any sense to me. sure, she might’ve been disappointed in losing a friend…but it doesn’t justify that kind of heartbreak that was portrayed on the screen 😬 and why the hell did her grandmother of all people was the one trying to offer her comfort? it wasn’t like they shared a deep bond or anything 🫠 everything felt a bit chaotic and out of place in that scene…

just my opinion 🤷🏻‍♀️

gu jinzhao’s reaction in ep26 was a bit too much imo. i dont think she’s ever cried like that even for chen yanyun lmao 🥲

one ep per day is torture 🫩

it’s favouritism because she is from the main branch of gu family 🥲 infuriating indeed!

i wonder if they will stick to the novel and have a pregnancy arc for the FL. she was pregnant 3 months after marrying chen yanyun 😂 they moved so fast!

he might have at least one or two brother/sister somewhere since he’s ranked third.

but more generally, in chinese historical dramas and novels, familial rankings can sometimes follow overall birth order among members of the same generation within a household, rather than only immediate siblings in the modern sense. so “third brother” does not automatically mean there must be two older brothers (or sisters) currently present in the story. it’s been clearly shown in a splendid match that members of the same generation, including cousins, have numbered titles, which suggests the drama is following broader household hierarchy conventions. for example, FL’s father is fourth in his generation, while FL is known as the eldest miss in hers, showing that the numbering resets by generation rather than being tied only to one direct branch.

it could get a bit more complicated than this depending on whether the child is legitimate or born of a concubine. but the above is a more simplified explanation haha 😅 the drama seem to make it pretty simple too.

i noticed it too and felt so annoyed! like that scene when chen yanyun saved gu jinzhao from the cliff took me right out because of the music 😒

wish they could’ve gone for something like the OST in minglan. would’ve been more suitable and more enticing.