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dramavixen · 9 months

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are producers the clowns for approving subpar endings or am i the clown for expecting more

**Spoilers for:

Love Like the Galaxy (China, 2022)

The Red Sleeve (South Korea, 2021)

Late as I am to every bandwagon, I at last completed my first watch-through of Love Like the Galaxy a few days ago. For the past couple of weeks, I have done nothing but think about, consume, and breathe this story. At last, a show that was ticking all the boxes! I could tear myself free from this drama slump of mine!

This celebration lasted until I sat down with my parents to observe that thing the producers might call an "ending," but which sparked a frustration in me so severe that it triggered a post-COVID coughing fit, which in turn almost made me throw up. I couldn't comprehend it: was this the same show? Did I accidentally click on a parallel universe version where everyone's intelligence was operating 20% capacity?

Since I'd like to avoid making myself physically ill again, I'm not going to focus too much on how logic abruptly becomes an imaginary concept throughout the last two episodes. At least all that did was make me angry. What I can't accept is that they use that lack of logic to curse our leads with the most careless of reconciliations.

To alleviate my distress, we're going to perform an investigation. A deduction, if you will, of precisely what the ending was lacking, and utilizing a case study of how to conclude a story in both a fitting and compelling manner.

An unresolved misery

In recent years, my tolerance for male leads' misbehavior has plummeted down into the core of the earth. You could say that after years of being brainwashed by media into excusing male characters' questionable actions due to how much they "love" their partners, I'm taking back my common sense. So when faced with Zisheng's killing spree while armed with the knowledge that a "happy ending" was endgame, I anticipated how the writers would close such an abyssal rift in the leads' relationship. And the result was...well, not all that worth it.

If you need a memory refresh or you're reading this without fear of spoilers (godspeed), the conclusion of LLTG sees Shaoshang being kidnapped multiple times by people who she knows don't hold good intentions, but she goes along with them anyway. Don't ask why (the answer is so Zisheng can swoop in to rescue her). Some needlessly dramatic things lead to Shaoshang assuming for a few seconds that Zisheng has died in an explosion. But lo and behold! Here he comes, emerging unscathed from the ordeal. She flies into his arms and forgives him. Then they run off and save China, because it's not a historical C-drama until they do.

By the time we got to the fire/explosion scene, my mental state had already been reduced to a pulp. Therefore, to write this piece, I had to rewatch that part and make sure I was getting all the details right. It shocked me into a second round of holding my head to prevent my brain from ejecting itself as it sought to escape this reality.

(Also, I have to take a moment here to demand justice for He Zhaojun. They leave a pregnant woman on the floor after dragging her out of a fire, while she's having contractions, so they can instead take the time to hold a premature mourning session for Zisheng. Guys, it's not the end of the world if you don't have a brain. But please don't throw away your conscience.)

However the writers did it, it still counts as a happy ending. Such a conclusion should come as a relief, so why do I find it so hard to come to terms with? Let's rewind a tad.

Both Shaoshang and Zisheng grew up under grim circumstances, their identities subjecting them to emotional and social turmoil. But while they share a similar internal struggle, they must deal with it in opposing ways. Shaoshang opens herself up to anyone who shows her true kindness, desperate for someone to accept her for who she is. On the other hand, Zisheng can only isolate himself from everyone, unable to reveal his true self due to both political and personal interests.

Their eventual parting is unavoidable. Shaoshang is moved by Zisheng's unwavering love for her. Can't blame her all that much; just look at him. But the closer she gets, the more Zisheng fears dragging her into his mess of a life, and the more he pulls away. When Zisheng chooses vengeance over love, he's already crossed Shaoshang's bottom line several times by refusing to share his troubles whenever she asked—the irony being that he once scolded her for keeping things to herself.

ZS: If, one day, they really intend to kill you, would you not tell me then, either? Shaoshang, exactly who do you take me for? Why must you always act on your own, and not trust me? SS: It is not that I do not want to trust you. I simply— ZS: You simply do not care about me. After betrothing you, I would frequently think about how great it would be if I could become your confidant and anchor. You could tell me about all of your fears and loneliness. I do not wish to control you. All I hope is that you can be honest with me. But how is it that your heart never warms toward me?

I see that Zisheng is a loyal believer of the "do as I say, not as I do" doctrine.

While it's initially funny to look back on the above scene in context, it's quite sad once you mull over it more. Zisheng's desire to know Shaoshang's troubles is rooted in a concern for her safety that is both emotional and practical in nature. When Shaoshang later applies that same thinking on him, the tables have turned completely. Zisheng is now aware that few situations are simple enough to be resolved just by being honest with someone else. And if the problem is severe enough, doing so may only aggravate it further.

From his perspective, telling Shaoshang would mean ruining her and her family's lives by association. Not to mention, she herself swore that she would stay with him through everything. So if he dies as a result of carrying out his revenge, the possibility of her dying solidifies itself as an inevitability. Leaving her behind is the one method he has to ensure that he alone would suffer the consequences.

Like it or not, it's hard to blame either of them for the end of their relationship. Is Zisheng wrong to keep Shaoshang in the dark? Arguably yes, arguably no. But is Shaoshang justified in her anger about being kept in the dark? Absolutely.

While we can be reasonably upset that post-timeskip Shaoshang possesses none of the outspoken nature of her teenage self, her lingering depression is the most realistic result of everything that happens. She has tried repeatedly to find her place in the world, yet arrives at nothing but failure every time. Not to mention, she suffers from an inferiority complex that intensifies the ache of each and every rejection. She isn't unfamiliar with being abandoned, but Zisheng doing it to her is the final straw that breaks her. The coffin her family was preparing for her didn't go to waste—the moment that Zisheng turned his back on her, he killed a part of her. Meanwhile, Zisheng becomes a corpse with a pulse, someone who only continues to breathe so he can regret what he has done.

When you delve into how much Zisheng hurt Shaoshang and himself, it becomes clear that a Michael Bay explosion shouldn't have been the answer to their problem. After the timeskip, the issue at hand should be less about her forgiving him than it is about each of them needing to redeem parts of themselves that they lost to the circumstances. That's why their interactions at this point are so painful to watch. Every word, every look, every movement brims with love for the other person, but they are both shells of their former selves that cannot move on.

No words for the above; too busy sobbing as they each individually accept that they'll never experience true happiness again.

As a viewer, you know that Shaoshang accepting him at this point would be an objectively bad idea. But it's also hell to watch two people, both overly accustomed to suffering, walk away from the person who brought them the greatest joy in their life. That's the art of tragedy, flourishing before us in a quiet, leaden fog. And they killed it in a bloom of gunpowder, of all things?

The beauty in tragedy

To say that a tragic ending is inherently superior to a happy one would be a pretentious fallacy. At the same time, a forced happy ending will feel unstable enough that the slightest of questions will cast it into doubt. The genre of an ending is irrelevant. It only matters that the ending is the right one.

So should LLTG have ended with the leads parting ways for good? To find the answer, I want to first dig into a successful example of tragedy. For that, let's look to our dearest, our legendary, our precious: The Red Sleeve.

Similar in premise to LLTG, TRS features a female lead with independent thinking and a dream for freedom, faced with a man of high social status who goes about chasing her in a way that flaunts his power. The stakes are higher in TRS since the man in question will one day be king, but the highlight of the show is the same as in LLTG: you bounce back and forth between hoping that she ends up with him and praying to any god that exists that she runs far, far away from him. You can't really win.

One day I'd love to write a thorough analysis on the amazing character that is Sung Deok-Im, but for our current purposes I'll focus on the nature of her ending. TRS is roughly based on history, and a quick Google search when you begin the drama will inform you that our female lead is fated to die at 33 years old—only a few years after she is "promoted" from gungnyeo to Yi San's consort. As a result, you spend much of the drama battling the lurking dread of how her death comes about.

A few months after her young son passes away, Deok-Im falls ill and dies. The unborn child in her womb follows her. Yi San is beside her as Deok-Im slips away, and her dying wish is cruel but fair: should they meet again in another life, she begs Yi San to pass her by. Only then can she choose to live a free life, full of choices, which was all she had wanted until she fell in love with him.

While watching LLTG, my emotions mirrored those I endured through TRS. Both dramas force you to get to know the female lead as someone who wants to be herself, a baffling idea in the face of a society where women's primary identities are those associating them with someone else: daughters, wives, sisters, mothers. Yet she continues to harbor hope that she can control her own life, even as she falls in love with a man whose station will certainly snuff out that possibility. The saving grace in LLTG is that Zisheng is not a part of the royal family, and even then Shaoshang goes through her fair share of frustration. TRS on the other hand...even if you haven't seen it, you can likely guess what happens.

The biggest tragedy in TRS is not that Deok-Im dies young. It's the despair that trickles through every part of you as she transforms from a free-spirited, boisterous young woman into an obedient consort whose every word and movement is straight out of the books of etiquette, who isn't permitted her own feelings or thoughts in the face of the country's interests. History may not share the specifics behind how the consort actually died, but the drama all but tells you that depression played a major role. By the end of the drama, Deok-Im hasn't existed for a while. She dies as Royal Noble Consort Ui.

I wonder what I have gained by being in this place, and what I have lost.

I cry inconsolably whenever I see this expression of acceptance and resignation on her face as she sends off her friends and her former self, knowing full well that she has caged herself into a life of sadness so she can be with the one she loves—a man whose first priority can never be her.

But oh, no; our suffering doesn't end there. Yi San lives on after her, looking after his country while carrying the lingering pain of Deok-Im's death. At one point, he retrieves her belongings and appears stunned by her gungnyeo clothing:

It is so small. Were you always so small? Yet, I loved you.

In Yi San’s memory, Deok-Im was a person of great stature. What she may have lacked in social position, she more than made up for in personality. Her tenacity made her appear so strong that only in hindsight does Yi San understand just how vulnerable she was.

Yi San is also someone to be pitied. When we watch palace dramas, it's easy to say that the king's consorts have it far worse than the king. They fight over a man in order to survive, and arguably their sacrifices are greater in number and magnitude. But it's egregious to host a competition of suffering, and you can't deny that Yi San himself leads an unfortunate life. In the cold isolation of the palace, Deok-Im gives him warmth and company. It's no wonder that he wishes to have her by his side, but he is still willing to let her go when she pushes him away.

Almost every other palace drama would have you turning up your nose at the king or emperor's so-called "love" for one of the women in his harem. TRS leaves no room for such doubt. The throne takes away Yi San's ability to choose, and ultimately his ability to wholeheartedly love someone. Even so, Yi San holds Deok-Im so dear that you might want to blame him for how she ends up, but it's hard. Really, really hard. (For anyone interested and who hasn't already, I highly recommend reading the actual history behind this drama. Dude was so in love that it physically hurts.)

In the final scene, he reunites with Deok-Im in the afterlife. At last, they are together and without all the frills and chains of royalty tying them down.

Many years have passed, and at times, I was not certain myself. Do I truly miss you, or do I simply glorify the past? Now I know. I missed you, and I missed the time that I spent with you. [...] Now I understand that we do not have much time. And we do not have the luxury to wait. So, love me. Please. Love me.

I'm always scared to watch the last episode because I just spend the full hour and a half bawling until I can't breathe. Taking these few screenshots was truly a test of my entire being.

So what makes a good tragedy? Tragedy is not "bad things happen." It's "bad things may have happened, but I wouldn't have chosen any differently." When Deok-Im becomes Yi San's consort, it isn't because he keeps her there. She chooses to stay. She loves the prospect of freedom, but she just loves Yi San more. It's awful, it hurts, and it's perfect.

What could have been

We've taken a slight detour, but have at last arrived back at the topic of: how should LLTG have ended?

If given the choice between Shaoshang and Zisheng being together and them not being together, I would obviously choose the former while beating the latter into a permanent nonexistence. With any degree of empathy, you can't watch two people suffer as Shaoshang and Zisheng do, then turn around and wish for their continued misfortune and loneliness. So although I'll concede that it would have easily made for a fantastic tragedy like TRS, I can't bear to say that it should have been one. But if the writers want to go for the non-obvious happy ending, it still has to follow the progression of things.

The current problem is this: Zisheng abandoned Shaoshang and scorned her trust in him. We're now in a position where Shaoshang has the decisive say in whether the relationship can be revived.

LLTG's primary focus has always been Shaoshang. Though multifaceted, her personality and motivations are pretty straightforward. Each time she suffers is a result of her lack of agency. She had no choice in her parents leaving her as an infant, no choice in her poor upbringing, no choice in agreeing to marry Zisheng. Even when she gave up Lou Yao, was that truly a result of her volition alone? For someone whose greatest enemy is helplessness, what matters most is maintaining her own free will.

Through this lens, each time Shaoshang asks Zisheng if he has something to tell her, not only is she asking him to trust in her as his equal, she wants him to let her decide to stay with him. Zisheng turning her away scars her so deeply because it's the same thing as telling her, "I don't care what you want to do." He's drawing a line while taking away from her the power to choose—the one thing she's told him repeatedly matters to her.

SS: I used to hate you for abandoning me. I hated that you acted on your own. I hated that you would rather leap from a cliff than walk alongside me. I hated that I loved you so truly, whereas you told me lie after lie. It has been five years. It was not easy to let go of all of this. I can no longer give away my heart or trust again. ZS: I am sorry. Regardless of what choice you make, I will respect it. These last few years in the Northwest, not a day went by where I was not filled with remorse. I know you. I knew completely that you feared being abandoned. Yet I still chose to harm you in the way that would hurt you the most. In the first twenty years of my life, I lived in hatred. And for the rest of my life, I will live in remorse. If I could, I would tear my heart from my chest to show you. But I know I no longer have that right.

"A married couple exists as one entity." Such is what the drama emphasizes time and again, but what does that mean? Not that one party is in automatic agreement with the other. It's about learning to reach compromises and understanding what's important to the other person. When you don't give your partner their say in that conversation, then what relationship is there to be had?

That is why Shaoshang's unwavering desire for individual opinion matters even more after entering a relationship, and why she still struggles to come to terms with what Zisheng has done. She doesn't blame him. She doesn't want him to beg for forgiveness. After everything she's been through, she just can't put herself in the same vulnerable position again. And he's learned to fully respect her opinion, which means that he has to let her go.

TRS's ending works for the simple reason that it remains true to the characters and their motivations. The tragedy isn't there to make us sad, it's just where the story was always going to find itself. This is why we as viewers hate the ending, but we wouldn't have wanted it written any other way—to do so would be betraying Deok-Im and Yi San.

But when you look LLTG, it gives you a very weak argument for Shaoshang and Zisheng's reconciliation. In front of you are two people whose love for one another could not run any deeper, yet there are legitimate obstacles to their relationship. Shaoshang needs to relearn trust and feel respected. Zisheng's conflict mimics that of Yi San's; as much as he may regret the past, there is nothing about it that can be changed. That regret is something that has to be addressed. (Of course, in Yi San's case, that was addressed through his death. So maybe not that for Zisheng, if you please.)

I can see where the writers attempt to cure Zisheng's remorse, but come on now. They stage a bizarre speech for him where he denounces his previous actions, like a child being punished by his parents and being forced to write a 200-word essay reflecting on his wrongdoings, and while they're being held in the most asinine hostage situation ever known to man. He seriously proclaims that he should have walked the honorable path instead of opting for vigilante justice.

This entire scene was a nauseating roller coaster, but that last part threw me for a major loop. Sir, the only reason you can say that so shamelessly is because your soon-to-be wife found evidence after you killed the guy. Are you really going to stand there with a straight face as you tell me that you regret how you killed the man who you watched murder your father, and who brought about the horrific deaths of your entire family? There was no other option at the time. Of course you had to kill him. It was as much a personal vendetta as it was political. No one likes what happened after that, but those are consequences that should be dealt with separately. Also, Shaoshang's qualms aren't rooted in you killing the guy, they're rooted in you killing him and then trying to kill yourself, all without taking her desires into consideration.

And just as I was thinking the above, the next thing that happened on-screen: Shaoshang turns to him with an expression that says, ah, so he's learned his lesson! Oh...my goodness.

Hi, ma'am? Question. What exactly is more emotionally persuasive about this weird declaration now than when he laid his heart out that night when you wished one another well and said goodbye? Is it because he almost explodes afterward? In the five years he spent out on the battlefield, was he not always in danger of exploding, or being stabbed, or being tortured to death, etc.? Did he not almost die saving you from falling off a cliff two days prior? Why didn't you waver then, especially since it should remind you of, you know, the other time that he jumped off a cliff?

During the scene where she runs to him after discovering he miraculously is not dead, a severe suspicion came over me that perhaps they inhaled so much smoke that they were no longer thinking straight.

A solid happy ending was clearly a possibility. Even if they wanted to go with the above nonsense, could we not also have had a moment where they admit to one another that while overcoming their pain will be difficult at first, being apart from one another for eternity would be much more painful? That nothing in life is easy, but it will be easier with each other? That that commitment is what makes a married couple a single entity, and they just want to commit to each other? Then they can go off and save China, whatever.

They deserved an ending that had me rejoicing that these two are finally, finally, finally on the same wavelength. It should have been more introspective and more considerate of Shaoshang's hurt and Zisheng's regret. Their psychological wounds are instead dismissed through an absurd monologue in a basement and the arbitrary realization that death is lurking around every corner.

The hilarious part is that in the last two episodes, even the actors are noticeably less enthusiastic. In their performances, I see essences of how I feel when a client requests edits to a design that will make it significantly uglier. You gotta do what you gotta do to pay the bills.

Sigh. I could forever grieve what could have been, but this is still one of my favorite dramas. Characters that feel like real people, relationships that make your heart hurt. Those should be common sense in media but are hard to come by in reality, and I'll continue to appreciate what LLTG gave me.

All I really want from the drama industry is for it to please, for the love of our collective sanities, stop thinking that "happy" endings are a valid shortcut to satiating an audience. Good tragic endings are difficult to write, yes, but good happy endings are not any easier. To underestimate that is to let down the story and characters that were so painstakingly brought to life in the first place.

#星汉灿烂 #love like the galaxy #scribbles*#i had to get this out of my system before i created a reco graphic #otherwise it would have haunted me the entire time #anyways now onto rewatching nif to relive baby wu lei #lltg

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raine-kai · 1 year

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Novel Wen Ziduan Has Issues

As you might know if you have seen anything I have posted here or written lately or talked about in the past month or so, I like Third Prince, or Wen Ziduan, from Love Like the Galaxy quite a lot.

What you might not know is that even though I liked him before I read the book, based on the drama alone, I like him even more that I read the book.

Let me be clear: novel Ziduan is a disaster.

For one thing, Yuan Shanjian's tendency to neg Shaoshang at every possible opportunity? That was Ziduan in the book. YSJ is a lot less directly offensive in his behavior toward Shaoshang, which makes him a lot more likable in the book. They still argue a lot, but he doesn't go out of his way to try to make her feel bad about herself. Meanwhlie, Ziduan only goes through one scene where he outright starts negging Shaoshang in the drama—and to be fair, this is episode 49 and he was having a really bad day that day, after having had a terrible day the day before as well—and she tells him off pretty well for it. He has a reason to talk to her that day, but otherwise he seems to mostly ignore her, or roll with whatever else is going on in the scene. Ziduan in the drama comes off as a foil of sorts to Shaoshang. They both care deeply for Huo Buyi, but while Ziduan has power in theory, he can do nothing to help Huo Buyi and is losing his mind (he behaves more erratically, more angrily and snappishly in that episode than we ever see him before or after) after the revenge. Shaoshang might not have power, but she has the keys to exonerating Huo Buyi, and she is exceedingly quiet and calm as she makes her case—both to Ziduan for her right to personhood, and to the court for Huo Buyi. By the end of this scene, we see Shaoshang share a warning with Ziduan, who bows to her and promises to bring Zisheng back, and make him apologize to her.

This is a far cry from the behavior of novel Ziduan, who takes every possible opportunity to point out how inferior Shaoshang is, especially relative to Zisheng.

He does eventually come to terms with the fact that Shaoshang and Zisheng are going to be together, in his own way... But not before being absolutely delighted to betroth Shaoshang to Yuan Shanjian, only to be deeply upset when Zisheng returns and wants her back. There's a whole scene where he demands to know why nobody told him that he would want her back, and rants about how poor of a match Shaoshang is for Zisheng, who deserves the best...even though he is just as dumb as she is, he admits toward the end.

I cannot articulate enough how much novel Ziduan comes across like a comphet gay boy trying to justify why he's mad that his best friend is dating someone by making it the girl's fault. Somehow.

I ship OT3 in the world of the drama, but I don't see how that could work in the novel world unless ZIduan does one hell of a lot of soulsearching.

The other day, I found the novel extras, and there was one for Ziduan, and OH BOY, I did not think this shit could get even funnier.

First off, this man is a misogynistic mess from the moment we get into his head. He says there are two kinds of women: virtuous and unvirtuous. And then he proceeds to list all the women in his life as various shades of unvirtuous. Empress Xuan? Very unvirtuous. His mother, Consort Yue? Extremely unvirtuous. His aunts and sisters? Never heard of the word virtue in their lives—except Second Sister, she's ok. (I have to assume this assessment is pre-time skip, because post time-skip Second Princess had apparently become less ladylike or something.) Xiao Yuanyi is also ok. Cheng Shaoshang is just the absolute worst.

So he sort of...has to approve of their betrothal (again) because it's what will make Huo Buyi happy and as we know, Ziduan really just wants Huo Buyi to be happy. (Although in this universe it's buried underneath so much negative vibes directed at Shaoshang that it can be easy to forget that.)

Shaoshang comes to talk to him, and she uses flattery over his dedication to justice over family (a love language between all 3 of them, I swear) to undercut his usual pattern of berating her. It works, until she's about to leave.

And then this happens:

The prince was very moved, and his tone could not help softening: "I am not afraid of being criticized by others, but only hope that the people of the world will live and work in peace and contentment, free from natural disasters and man-made disasters, so I will live up to the trust of the ancestors."

Originally, he wanted to scold the girl, but at this moment, the crown prince could not swear much, so he simply waved his hand: "Forget it, you can go back, take a good rest, and serve Zisheng carefully after marriage. Sigh, Over the years, Zisheng has really suffered a lot, you, you should treat him better."

Shaoshang agreed sincerely, and hurried out of the door. When she reached the courtyard, the prince suddenly called her to stop. Shaoshang looked back in a daze, and saw the prince raised his right hand, and then her shoulder hurt slightly, and when she looked down, it turned out to be a small stone. She was tongue-tied, and looked at the prince in disbelief—he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he actually threw stones at herself! The majestic crown prince actually threw stones at her!

The prince's brows and eyes are firm and resolute, and the perennial solemnity is swept away, as if he is ten years younger and suddenly returned to his naughty and troubled boyhood. He laughed heartily: "Okay, let's settle the matter now, you can go back and happily prepare for marriage!"

Shaoshang stamped her feet angrily, turned her head and left.

HE THREW A ROCK AT HER.

HE THREW A ROCK AT HER AND WAS HAPPY ABOUT IT.

And then after this scene, Ziduan's immediately thinking to himself about how he has to double their wedding gifts and hope they have a daughter he can marry to a son of his own.

THE AMOUNT OF DISASTER GAY ENERGY HERE IS STAGGERING.

Oh, about his wife--he does have a concubine. A cousin of his, selected by his uncle. He agreed to marry her because his uncle said so, and then the moment he stopped and thought about it, he realized how unvirtuous his wife is. She actually wants him to LIKE her, the gall of her!

Anyway, this man is a complete trainwreck and I adore it.

Mostly because the drama version exists as essentially a fix-it.

Speaking of which, who was it who decided to take Ziduan's "you-stole-the-man-I-am-not-aware-I'm-in-love-with-and-I'm-mad-about-it" energy and dropped it onto Yuan Shanjian, of all people? He's actually supposed to like Shaoshang... That might be the strangest adaptation decision, imo 😂😂😂

#love like the galaxy #third prince #wen ziduan #disaster gay #is this another meta #idk #im supposed to be sleeping btw #yes I love this misguided idiot #i want to put him in therapy

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mirageofadesert · 10 months

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Rating cdramas I watched as a newbie pt.4

!!Spoiler Warning!!

Mysterious Lotus Casebook 7+1/10

Acting: 8/10 World-building: 6/10 Production: 6/10 Storytelling: 6/10 Re-watch Value: 8/10 Pacing: 9/10 Bonus: +1 for the absence of a major romantic plot line!

Focusing on the character growth and the dynamic between the three male leads, the show is a joy to watch from start to finish. The pacing contributes to this, by building up new arcs of suspense every couple of episodes that find satisfying release, even through some story elements are a bit over the top at times. The plot is very continent and shouldn't be taken too serious at times. It relies on very convenient coincidences or magical mechanism to make the character look smart and capable. However, since the show is carried by the interpersonal relationship and secrets between the cast, the many plot holes and overly convenient twist and turns didn't bother me that much. I really liked the show, because it's more on the comedic side and doesn't really have a major romance - which is always a plus for me.

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Love Like The Galaxy 6/10

Acting: 8/10 World-building: 7/10 Production: 9/10 Storytelling: 6/10 Re-watch Value: 5/10 Pacing: 5/10 Bonus: For making engineering a special interest of the FL

I started to watch the shows based on the recommendation of a friend - and If it wasn't for her, I might have dropped it. The good things first: I really appreciated the acting from the whole cast, the characters were interesting and the story well done. I did like the love story, it felt mature and realistic and not overly trope-y. While I think she would have been better suited for her first finance, they did manage to make the love between the two leads feel realistic later on. My favorite relationship dynamic was between the empress, the emperor and his consort. I also loved Cheng Shaoshang parent's and brother.

As someone who isn't the biggest fan of romances it was refreshing to see their story about shared life goals, duty to family and country, rather than a conflict about one's true love. However, it was a bit to convoluted with too many side characters and story elements, that all repeated the same motive of women bickering. This led to me losing track of who is who and who hate who because of what. In the end, when the final villains were revealed I had no idea who they were and why there wanted revenge again. I think the drama would have been even better, if they had a stronger meta plot and less episodes. I think the biggest weakness is the lack of suspense in each episodes.

My unpopular take is, that I don't get Zhao Lusi appeal. In the first part of the show I kept wondering why that man was interested in this child. It got a bit better later on, but she failed to awe me with her performance. And it's not even that her acting wasn't good or the chemistry was lacking ... it's hard to pinpoint what thews me off, but after Hidden Love and now this, I think I will avoid her going forwards.

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Princess Silver 7/10

Acting: 9/10 World-building: 8/10 Production: 7/10 Story-telling: 8/10 Re-watch Value: 8/10 Pacing: 6/10 Bonus: for the final twist that made my cry my eyes out

I wrote a separate review about this show, which you can find here:

This is part 4 of on ongoing series. However, I'm starting to wonder when I no longer will be able to call myself a newbie? I'm stating to recognize supporting actors, sets and filming locations now. I understand certain terms in Chinese and have a better understanding of reoccurring plot points and world elements, from sects, to court culture and consort marriage. I'm not sure which show I'm going to start next, so it will probably be a while, before I post some reviews again!

#cdrama review #princess silver #love like the galaxy #mysterious lotus casebook

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chiveburger · 2 years

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there’s a lot of scenes from love like the galaxy between shaoshang and buyi I would consider coma inducing, but I don’t think anybody survived the scene where niaoniao cries in zisheng’s arms after being mistreated in the palace. It was sooooo mf good officer!!!!! I think the build up of emotion from zhao lusi really sold it like, she felt hurt but she couldn’t bring herself to reveal everything in front of zisheng. rather than her not trusting him, that’s just how she was raised for the last 15 years of her life... before she met ah yao or zisheng, there was rarely anybody on her side other than her maid. she had to handle all her problems alone and bottle up her emotions because she didn’t have anybody to rely on, let alone someone who had the power to actually help her. she slowly began developing feelings for zisheng, but I always saw so many comments saying that shaoshang wasn’t being open enough in the relationship when in reality, why should she be? If anything, her character was much more rational and realistic for being the way she was, compared to if she just suddenly became heads over heels over a man. she never even willfully accepted ling buyi’s proposal, or had any romantic feelings towards him UNTIL the marriage was in place. even though at the time of this “bed” scene they were much closer, that wouldn’t really justify her feeling comfortable sharing everything with zisheng. all she could do was cry and ask for him to hold her, which in itself was in my opinion, much more intimate and shaoshang-esque. that scene followed up with her asking zisheng to teach her self-defense skills was so romantic and nicely scripted. I especially loved it when zisheng said “as long as I am here, no one will ever hurt you” and she interrupts him and says “what if you’re not here?” LIKE... It’s such a little thing but at the very core that is who cheng shaoshang is written to be. she is headstrong, stubborn and rebellious but she was always open to love and adoration. she just never had it, and she had to learn how to accept it.

#love like the galaxy #borger diary #borger watch

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leia-lee-k · 1 year

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Dumb musings about Buyi ahead, probably obvious to a lot of people, but something I just finally understood. Me doing some fandom meta'ing about our boy below:

What does someone do when they have a problem they can’t solve? Where they thought of everything, where they went through all possibilities? They usually ask someone else for help right? Two heads are always better than one. It’s typically common knowledge, intelligent people tend to ask peers for help when necessary.

So the fact that Mr. Smarter Than Most didn't ask for help when he thought there was no way other than his way, really shows just how young he is. It shows just how narrow-thinking and inexperienced he actually was at the time. He is only 21 years old and spent probably a quarter of that in the military fighting. It's so easy to forget how young he is because he is so competent in what he does and usually acts mature for his age.

Now that I think about it there are other reminders of how young he is in the show. The man is extra af, right? He is flashy and showy when he does things, and he does it because he can. It's ridiculous, right? The way he does it also tends to be over the top too. Then there is his inexperience with social situations that aren't military-related/reporting to a higher authority. He has no idea how to woo a girl (didn't even consider the fact that others might be interested in her too until the Emperor reminded him), no idea how to talk casually, and no idea how to get people to like him. All signs of his age (and trauma), imo.

But I digress, my point was that he didn't talk to anyone when he needed help the most. He thought to tell Shaoshang but didn't want to implicate her (after the bite scene, he thought about how she told him time and again she would be by his side and help him so he knows she would be down for murder), and he probably didn't want to implicate anyone else. But he had other people he could have turned to but didn't. Which is why SS was so mad at him. He didn't think that someone else could come up with a different plan or perspective. He arrogantly thought all his ideas were the only ideas that could exist.

That is why in the very last episode Shaoshang told him that the fact he shared his burden was enough for her. It wasn't just his rejection of togetherness (of couples acting as one) or his abandoning her that made her break up with him, it was also his inability to seek help from others when it was most needed that really pissed her off. She had learned that lesson at this point, not just by Buyi's caning scene, but because of the Empress, A'yao, her brothers, and the rest. He didn't come to her for help! That was a big part of why she was so mad at him.

I think that was a big part of the show, or at least another side or theme they were going for. You are not alone, you don't have to go about the hard and difficult things in life by yourself. The many people of the world, all of them who shine brightly like the many stars in the sky, are full of love, ready to give it out should you seek it.

Our boy didn't and paid the price. :(

#love like the galaxy #lltg #ling buyi #huo buyi #and when I remember #that him paying a price #wasn't for getting revenge #the show straight up says by word of Emperor #You killed the dude he deserved it #but because he didn't talk to people #I laugh gleefully #I love this show so much omg #I just find this part of the show so fascinating

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gizkasparadise · 2 years

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If you don't mind another language-tounge in cheeks within a drama scene here's another nugget that you might like: The scene in LLTG in epi 27? where Shaoshang drunkenly horse-ride (ahem) BY, she screams Jia jia jia! (驾) which is similar to giddy up; but it's sounded similar to Jià (嫁) which means marry- so she might as well shout marry marry marry! all night

OMG that makes that scene like 100x better!!! it was already ridiculous but that's amazing. thank you for sharing!

#love like the galaxy #cdrama #asks!

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itsmoonpeaches · 1 year

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my 2022 writing year in review!

Thank you @chocomd , @northerngoshawk, and @flameohotwife for the tag!

1. Number of stories posted to Ao3: 1 Rurouni Kenshin oneshot, 5 ATLA/LOK oneshots, 1 ATLA multichapter WIP, 2 ATLA/LOK multichapters, 1 Harry Potter oneshot, 1 Love Like the Galaxy oneshot, 1 River Where the Moon Rises oneshot, 5 Extraordinary Attorney Woo oneshots, 7 ATLA/LOK ficlets in Little Moments

2. Word count this year: 103,694

3. Fandoms I wrote for: Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Legend of Korra, Rurouni Kenshin, Harry Potter, Love Like the Galaxy, River Where the Moon Rises, Extraordinary Attorney Woo

4. Pairings: Aang/Katara, Hakoda/Kya, Kenshin/Kaoru, Woo Young-woo/Lee Jun-ho, Cheng Shaoshang/Ling Buyi, Princess Pyeongang/On Dal

5. Stories with the most:

Kudos: Ocean Waves, an Extraordinary Attorney Woo oneshot

Bookmarks: same as above

Comment threads: Reprise, an ATLA/LOK multichapter

Word count: The Wisps Sing, an ATLA/LOK multichapter

6. Work I’m most proud of (and why): Monarch. Even Though it's a WIP still and will be continuing on in 2023 and finishing, it is by far the most complicated fic I've ever attempted. It's essentially an original story with original characters even though it has a few characters from canon (namely Azulon and Sozin) who are involved. Since we barely know anything about either of them, I've had to come up with nearly everything while still sticking to ATLA canon. The amount of strings I've had to keep track of is crazy too, what with all the plotting within the court and intrigue.

7. Work I’m least proud of (and why): Probably Moon River, which is a River Where the Moon Rises oneshot. In hindsight, it might be kind of boring. It was born out of all the feelings I had after finishing that kdrama, but in a way, it was fun to write because at the time I had never written for a kdrama before.

8. Share or describe a favorite review you received: Ok honestly 2022 was such a blur to me. I didn't really pay attention to reviews in a way that I probably should have. I guess the most memorable feedback would be from @benwvatt who I noticed was a newer person who more consistently appeared reading my things and I was so very excited to have a new person.

9. A time when writing was really, really hard: To be honest, 2022 was very hard for me in general. So, the whole year. There were times I couldn't focus on one fic or the other and jumped around a lot, hence the fandom jumping and the lack of Monarch completion or fics I was supposed to finish but couldn't. In order to combat this, I ended up writing short things like 1k oneshots or ficlets.

10. A scene or character you wrote that surprised you: Azula. I know that this fic is not yet posted and it's still in progress, but writing from her POV is like a wake-up call because I need to delve into places I don't understand. This is one of those fics that has yet to be finished but that I wrote much of in 2022.

11. A favorite excerpt of your writing:

This scene from The Blue Morning of Jeju Island, an Extraordinary Attorney Woo oneshot. It's from a fic that is one of my favorites from 2022. I feel like this scene feels very them (Woo Young-woo/Lee Jun-ho) in a way that I cannot explain, and it felt so sweet writing this:

When they reached the end of the boardwalk where a few steps led down to the sand, he paused. She stopped next to him. He glanced over at her.

"I'm going to take off my shoes," he remarked. His lips were quirked upward on one side. He had not stopped looking so content. At least, that's the expression she thought it was.

She tried to imagine the pictures of the faces her dad made that were taped to her closet door. Calm eyes, a steady demeanor, always on the edge of a smile. Yes, Jun-ho had to be expressing contentment.

"Why would you do that?" she asked. "The sand will get stuck in between your toes and your feet will get dirty."

He laughed. "You're right," he agreed, "but it would be nice to feel the sand. It's soft and comforting."

She watched him slip each foot out of his sneakers, then he pulled off his socks. He swiveled around to face her, holding out a hand.

"Ready?" he asked.

She stared at his proffered hand. He must have known she might not take it.

12. How did you grow as a writer this year: I think I stepped out of my comfort zone a lot. There was a blessing in disguise in my stepping away from writing exclusively ATLA/LOK fics. I got to experiment with different settings and characters and cultural experiences I was not so used to and that allowed me to become more well-versed in descriptions and research.

13. How do you hope to grow next year: I want to keep writing for other fandoms. I want to write more family fics and found family fics. I've written way too much for pairings. I also want to continue to stretch my legs when I write for court intrigue because that's always complicated.

14. Who was your greatest positive influence this year as a writer (could be another writer or beta or cheerleader or muse etc etc):

@chocomd for sure. (Shout out to her wonderful now COMPLETE multichapter Kataang fic, Drag You Down!) We got to talk a lot this past year and I feel like asking her for advice here and there had pushed me further, and even reading her own stuff I had the privilege of being beta for allowed me to explore other styles of writing. I got to see how she wrote on a deeper level, and in turn that influenced how I might decide on writing things.

15. Anything from your real life show up in your writing this year:

Liquid Courage was concieved because of a dumb drunk text I wrote when I said "fruneshop" instead of "friendship" on Discord.

Snow Drifts was influenced somewhat by some real-life experiences.

Additionally, the ficlets Horizon Line, Night Line, and Dawn Line had a lot of real-life aspects.

16. Any new wisdom you can share with other writers:

I'm just going to quote what @chocomd also said:

Show, don’t tell! If your writing doesn’t feel as compelling as it should, you’re probably doing too much telling and not enough showing. Describing actions, emotions, dialogue, even introspection and exposition, is far, far more interesting and effective than telling. Telling has its place, usually to clarify an idea, provide a summary, or invoke resonance - but only AFTER showing, and it should be done sparingly.

Now something just from me:

Don't be afraid to break out of your comfort zone. You will never grow as a writer if you continue to write the same things over and over again. If you have an idea for something very different, go for it! It takes a lot of effort and time to do something you don't normally do, but you will end up being better after it.

17. Any projects you’re looking forward to starting (or finishing) in the new year: Monarch for sure. Plus all the oneshots that I said I was going to finish but couldn't. I also want to finally jump into those found family Naruto fics.

18. Tag some writers whose answers you’d like to read:

It's already 2023 so I hope this still counts? I'm tagging whoever I think wasn't tagged or who hasn't done it before.

@shameaboutthedilettantism, @kataangisforlovers, @nyamadermont, @invaderk, @coyotelemon and anyone else who would like to answer!

#tag game #late 2022 in review #2022 in reivew

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leileixixi · 2 years

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[Love Like The Galaxy novel snippet]

Shaoshang moved her eyes, met his Adam's apple, and moved on his neck. She slowly touched his face. His skin is slightly rough. Ling Buyi's body trembled with her tender fingers, he pressed and caressed her little hands hard, and lifted one of them to kiss her palm.

“Actually, I don't care about Lou Jing and Wang Chun at all, and I don't care whether the prince's life in the court is good or not.”

Shaoshang felt her whole body go limp, she was short of breath, her palms were hot from being kissed, and from those intense eyes, she saw that her cheeks were flushed.

“I just want to know what kind of person you are, how can you pretend nothing happened in front of the prince and empress, but secretly count everyone in.” Her voice was trembling, full of fear and resentment.

Ling Buji buried his face into her warm and delicate neck, and whispered: “You used to say that you didn't understand me, but you never cared. Shaoshang held his face out, looked straight at it, and begged: “But now I want to understand you, I want to know what kind of person I will share the same bed and have children with in the future.”

Ling Buyi hesitated for a moment, looking her eyes, as if the past was like a dream. “That night you stood on the lantern market, all alone. I was thinking, whose little girl is so beautiful, if she has no family, I will take her home.”

Shaoshang suddenly burst into tears, and then kissed his slightly cold lips heavily, licking and sucking passionately, like a drowning man grabbing driftwood with all his strength. This is the first time in her life that she has no choice but to accept her fate. Ling Buyi is her injustice that she cannot escape no matter what.

Ling Buyi seemed to wake up from a dream,and just about to respond, he suddenly felt a sharp pain on his lips, and a strong smell of rust welled up on the tip of his tongue.

Shaoshang pushed him away forcefully, her face was covered with tears, and lips were stained with blood. Her eyes were fierce and angry.

Ling Buyi felt as if his whole body was being burned by the flames, his heart was burning, his lips were cracked and bleeding, the pain was mixed with sweetness, an indescribably touching and soul-stirring feeling.

At some point, the carriage stopped.

Shaoshang glanced at him arrogantly, kicked the door and jumped down. Ling Buyi was a little slow and hurried to follow. As soon as he got out, he was surrounded by the guards rushing up from all directions.

Shaoshang ran with all her strength.

#love like the galaxy #星汉灿烂 #星汉灿烂幸甚至哉

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raine-kai · 1 year

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Several times now, I have tried to write fics with Third Prince (Ziduan) as related--by blood--to Zisheng or Shaoshang. All of them have ended up taking on some flavor of OT3, which is awkward for me since I didn't intend to stray into pseudo-incest territory, until I have had to find a workaround or scrap them.

I feel like the fact that this keeps happening is testament to how much, no matter how the show tells us that Zisheng and Ziduan are "secretly best friends", once you start unpacking that relationship in enough detail to try to write it, it becomes harder and harder to take it as strictly friendship.

Zisheng is extremely feral. He never masks his feelings. His crush on Shaoshang is self-evident from the moment they meet in episode 1, and once he sees her at the lantern festival in episode 6, the deal is sealed. Every single time that he and Shaoshang are in the same space, Zisheng's entire body is oriented toward her...with the exceptions being times when he's pretending to be scolded by the Emperor, or when he was carrying out his revenge and determined to abandon her (but accepted her help anyway, until they got stranded on that cliff).

Honestly, the number of women on this show who try to attract this man's attention when he just projects zero interest in anybody but Shaoshang—even is known to attack women who pursue him relentlessly—is...pretty astonishing and probably my biggest complaint with the story. 😂 (I feel like the women who want him are there to show us what a desirable man he is for Shaoshang, but...honestly, I think the show works just as well even without that element. That said, I do have a deep appreciation for the way that once we enter the second season, most of the "romantic rivals" are explicitly shown to only be interested in Zisheng because of his power and status.)

But even when it comes to pretending, despite all the lies and secrets, Zisheng doesn't actually lie about his feelings for the people around him--with Ziduan being the one and only exception. The reason why we are told he hates Ling Yi for most of the run of the show is a lie—not only a lie, but in fact Ling Yi's cruel divorce and abandonment of Junhua was probably a blessing for him and Junhua, because this gives them an excuse to not play nice with the man without getting suspicious.

Because Zisheng doesn't really have friends other than Ziduan, we don't really have a template for what their relationship will look like now that it can be out in the open, either. The show gives us not one single scene where they just...talk and interact naturally. Post-reveal, most of their scenes together include the emperor, who is the one leading the conversation. The exception to this is the damsel in distress rescue scene in episodes 55 and 56, where Ziduan panics over the notion that Zisheng will be dumped by Shaoshang again for wasting time saving him, and Zisheng responds by insisting he trusts Shaoshang to handle herself. (I have so many feelings about this, too many to unpack just yet which is why I haven't gif'd it yet.)

Zisheng's closest relationships other than with Shaoshang and Ziduan, are probably the following: A'Fei and A'Qi (his subordinates), Junhua and Uncle Cui (his trauma-sharing family), and the Emperor (his parental figure and sovereign). We see how gentle and caring he is with Junhua, as well as with A'Fei and A'Qi. With Uncle Cui and the Emperor, we see a far less emotive side of him, defiant and decisive and always loyal.

What is fascinating about Zisheng's relationship with Ziduan is that it matches up with none of the other relationships we see. Zisheng is never gentle in the way he handles Ziduan. Zisheng betrays Ziduan at least once to protect Shaoshang. In principle, probably we could look at his relationship to Ziduan as closest to what he shares with the Emperor, if without the same level of deference. But above all, this is the one relationship where Zisheng is able to convince everyone that he dislikes someone that, in fact, he likes very much.

The show doesn't even allow for an interpretation that by choosing to prioritize Shaoshang over that friendship, the friendship fell apart. Even though we don't see the scenes of them together, they clearly spend time together. Ziduan is with Zisheng already when we see him arrive to reunite with the Emperor. Ziduan has kept up to date with the gossip about Zisheng during his exile, and clearly has feelings about it.

The show told us they were secret best friends, so on the surface, it seems like in an AU setting Ziduan could be Zisheng's cousin, or brother, or something. But, ahem, as a person who has tried and failed to do this several times I advise going about it with care, because the more I have written them the less I am able to read it as a fully platonic friendship. Even if it is one-sided on the part of Ziduan—and here I struggle to fully expand my thoughts because I love him so much that it hurts to imagine his devotion to a friend who is entirely indifferent, and maybe only sees him as the most suitable future sovereign—there is an undercurrent of something in the way that Zisheng treats him. Maybe it's the trying to hold at arm's length a friend whose crush on him he doesn't want to unpack. Maybe it's affection of his own that is deeper than he knows what to do with.

For some reason the show couldn't even give us a shot of Zisheng really looking at Ziduan, though there are signs that he is far more at ease when Ziduan is around. The scene in episode 51, where Ziduan comes into the court to reveal the treachery of the Zuo family, for example. Zisheng has not reacted to anybody else the way he reacts to Ziduan's presence. The same goes for the proposal scene in episode 24 and the caning scene in episode 38. Ziduan's presence is part of what allows Zisheng to be as audacious as he is in these scenes--because Ziduan is secretly backing him up, though it doesn't look like this at the time.

Also, before I close out this ramble, I would like to highlight the fact that the only reason Zisheng did anything about the Luo Jitong situation was because it was upsetting Ziduan. He's known she's a problem for years. He's been perfectly happy to ignore her and let her make a fool of herself. But Ziduan gets cranky about it, and instantly Zisheng is drawing the line and making sure Luo Jitong knows it.

Add to this Ziduan's sheer meanness to Shaoshang in the book that reads as jealousy, and you get...a mess.

#love like the galaxy #third prince #wen ziduan #ling buyi #huo buyi #cheng shaoshang #ot3 #another rant that turned into a meta #meta #spoilers

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