dangermousie

[dangermousie]

We are less than half an ep in and the FL and her equally upper class sister are already moving a body.

Low budget dramas are where it’s at!

#cdrama #lady revenger returns from the fire

[dangermousie]

The way he swans into her awful father's residence and plops himself and her onto the seats belonging to PM and wifey ahahaha

And he's totally doing it for her, he keeps watching her through the entire scene.

EPIC:

I love themmmm!

Get you a man who will avenge you!

#cdrama #dylan kuo #zhang miao yi #the substitute princess' love

[dangermousie]

Look at the size of his hand on her face!

And they are so in love and adorable!

We are 12 eps in only and they even banged, so we knoooooow angst is gonna hit!

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love #zhang miao yi #dylan kuo

[dangermousie]

This is sooooo sensual. Mmmmm. The fact that his hand is still bandaged from when he grabbed the sword to save her is extra YUM!

And then:

Poor girl, love her being so forthright:

Screaming into hands...

Dude, don't be an idiot tell her it's not charity, it's being into her. But I don't think he's figured it out himself.

#zhang miao yi #cdrama #dylan kuo #the substitute princess' love

[dangermousie]

This is AMAZING!

If he's not willing to court sepsis for you, does he even love you?

Also, it's perhaps because of the length, but I love how misunderstandings don't linger but get timely resolved.

#cdrama #dylan kuo #the substitute princess' love #zhang miao yi

[dangermousie]

This is web novel crack of my dreams!!!

Like a short drama in narrative but a proper length.

AAAAA!

PS Finally a period royal who has zero problem flogging, selling and offing his servants/infiltrators/whoever crosses him. The way he ran the reign of terror on the maids who mistreated her was YUM.

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love #dylan kuo #zhang miao yi

[dangermousie]

Have the Eternal Brotherhood OST. It may still change (we are only a third into the year), but EB isn’t just my favorite drama of 2024 so far, it also has my favorite OST.

(I am also wondering if Yang Xuwen is a terrible singer - they have a track by LYN (of course; casting him and not having him sing at least a track is insane) but also by ZME. YXW is the sole one of the three bros who does not sing an OST song. Heh. Not that I care since his character is by far my favorite and just aaaaa!! Sunshine trauma is the fictional type that makes me feral.)

#cdrama #eternal brotherhood #Youtube

[dangermousie]

Exactly!

Also the deliciousness of ML being an idiot and thinking he only likes MC for being a stand in when it’s actually always been MC and he was too dense to realize aaaa the best (even the reason he thought he liked who he liked was MC mmm.)

Heheheh this is the toxic set up I like!

I mean, if he's only banging/dating you because you look like his unobtainable crush, nothing good is gonna happen.

Finished first ep and so far it's vvvv close to the novel, yay!!!

#my stand in #thai shows

[dangermousie]

This is very much web novel crack as a story, but what I really loved is this little bit, which is frankly a more realistic take on what makes a successful period marriage than a lot of recent "proper" dramas. This is after she took an arrow for him and she is so frank it is not driven by love but by the desire to be useful/trusted and because he's the freaking paterfamilias and the fount of all her potential future well-being as her husband.

And I love that he gets it and is not "hur dur how dare you" but is actually amused and a little moved.

This is MY FAVORITE TROPE!!!

This is vvvv much an age gap romance (and is explicitly set up as such - in the opener they talk about how Prince Jin is FINALLY getting married in his 30s; she's clearly supposed to be a teen girl - they are both playing about a decade off their real age) and I honestly love that you can tell even by their attitudes, hers bright and naive and optimistic and his liking that brightness even if not yet romantically and the fact that you can tell he's been around the block in life at least.

I do love his amusement.

This is another point in this drama's favor. She's not a ridiculously OP heroine so beloved in recent dramas - she's not sheltered (due to her tough life) but she's not a genius fighter or a strategic planner. She's not offering to help him devise battle strategy or win over PM in court or w/e, she's just gonna be domestic.

Honestly, I continue to find them both immensely likeable. Sure, she's naive (she couldn't see through the jade plaque thing her evil fam wants her to do, though they set it up as a mcguffin of a reason for her to initially cling) but she's nice and she's a little hyper but not in an annoying way. And he's a dude with some issues (love that even in his fancy mansion he insists on sleeping in a tent with barely any fire because he clearly has war PTSD) but he's a reasonable dude open to changing his mind and not in the least psychotic.

#cdrama #dylan kuo #the substitute princess' love

[dangermousie]

This is what I watch dramas for!

She's being forced to die at his tomb and then he shows up, ACTUALLY ALIVE and cuts the noose MMMMMM

I can't wait for the awful "legit" fam to freak out when they see their hated member is now a princess ahahahaha

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love #dylan kuo

[dangermousie]

Heheheh this is the toxic set up I like!

I mean, if he's only banging/dating you because you look like his unobtainable crush, nothing good is gonna happen.

Finished first ep and so far it's vvvv close to the novel, yay!!!

#thai shows #my stand in

[dangermousie]

My Stand-In, let's gooooooooo!!!!

#my stand in #thai shows

[dangermousie]

This drama knows which side its chest bread is buttered on :P

The first ep was mad fun and is totally web novel vibe (PM's unloved illegitimate daughter is made to marry the supposedly dead general prince instead of the legitimate daughter, and then she's supposed to be killed to accompany him in the other world. Only oops, the general prince ain't dead after all. Suck it, evil family (PM is a traitor to boot) and Dylan Kuo is still hot and got it.

Honestly, both mains are genuinely likeable and this is so so so fun.

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love #dylan kuo

[dangermousie]

I love him!

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love #dylan kuo

[dangermousie]

This is my favorite set up!!!

#cdrama #the substitute princess' love

[dangermousie]

Something that struck me extra on this LLTG rewatch - how subtle yet unmistakable the narrative is about the fact that being sheltered and spoiled as a woman is a recipe for disaster.

NN, ill-educated STEM feral child, gets how important marriage partner choice is more than all the rest of them, properly brought up in womanly virtues.

No, I don't mean she yearns for true love (she gets it, eventually, but that is not what she hopes or looks for) - but what she gets and a lot of the rest of the young women we see do not, is that you want a husband you can like and get along with, who can let you be yourself (and who is also acceptable socially because she's pragmatic.)

That is why her first choice, until it's OBE, is Yao - he's sweet and he's a friend and she knows she'd be the boss in that marriage. All the ladies in the capital swoon for Ling Buyi but she is never consciously swayed. She doesn't realize he likes her and she's not someone to build fantasies/pine for someone she can't have (in a way, knowing the man likes her is a necessary precondition for her to be even able to open her heart - she's spent too much of her childhood fruitlessly yearning for familial love to want to repeat that in her marriage.) Yao openly adores her so this allows her to consider him as a partner (that is why Scholar dude never had a chance btw, his courtship style is negging and NN is the last person that would work for.)

In fact, even after she knows Ling Buyi likes her, she is NOT excited to marry him because she doesn't want someone too high a status compared to her and someone as strong-willed as him because what she sees, and a lot of the rest of women looking for husbands in this story do not, that if there is a huge status disparity and a man is used to getting his own way, there is a risk of having yourself subsumed. A lot of the latter half is the two awkward, scarred by various trauma young people navigating boundaries of their relationship and what is OK for them and what is not (Ling Buyi IS used to barking orders, NN is overly defensive about even the slightest suggestions - they eventually meet in the middle and it's lovely but it's even more lovely that the drama shows it takes work and conversations and compromises.)

The thing that she gets, perhaps because she's a pragmatic survivor, is how the choice of a husband is the most important thing for a woman in that society. Her life fully depends on that, even more than of e.g., an Austen heroine, because in addition to those hurdles, this is a polygamous society (so how many other women brought in and how husband treats the legal wife versus concubines etc also is an issue) AND a society where if your husband goes down, you and your kids will be executed/enslaved along with him. We see how badly wrong marriages can go - Yao's eventual wife's first marriage is a great example, where she marries a man who abuses her and kills her family. Or even that one woman who marries a general who dotes on her and is a great husband, but commits treason and is executed (and she's only spared by the grace of the emperor.)

And the fact that all those women swoon for Ling Buyi and want to marry him SHOWS how the sheltered/spoiled thing has fucked them up. Remember princess whatever? She is dead set on marrying Ling Buyi and it's insane to me. Yes, he's good-looking and quasi-son of the emperor who dotes on him (since it's safe to do so, he's outside the dynastic fight) but that's great for about three minutes and boasting at parties. She is so sheltered from reality, she does not think what it would be like to be married to him. I don't mean his revenge quest since nobody knows. I mean if he was exactly who he appears with no other goals. Ling Buyi dislikes her and makes it known. He's rude to her (he's rude in general. Hell, he's rude to his parental family, openly! And emperor lets him get away with it), he clearly looks down on her and at a couple of points he genuinely threatens her and her family with murder. He's not charming or gentle or considerate. THIS IS NOT A MAN YOU WANT TO MARRY OMG!!! It has clearly not occurred to her to think past being carried into this house, envy of all her girlfriends - day in, day out with a rude, violent man who is the emperor's favorite (so you can't really seek help from your family if he doesn't treat you well), who dislikes you and who is entitled to take other wives.

Anyway, I love NN and her pragmatic mind and that she makes Ling Buyi EARN her consent and her loyalty and her love. (But then she is ride or die for him, isn't she?)

#cdrama #love like the galaxy

[dangermousie]

Get you a man who figured out your plan to lure all these ladies on the bridge after you destabilized it so it would collapse under their weight - and figured it out without any words - and his reaction is to assist you in implementing it by luring them out. NN has no idea but I am swooning.

Get you a man who sees the Murdery Chaos Gremlin in you and goes “this woman is MINE!”

#cdrama #love like the galaxy