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dangermousie · 5 months

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2023 End of Year Post - cdrama edition

Yes, we have a lot of December left, but I don't think anything else I want to check out will air before 2024 hits (it's cdrama so caveat is - you never know.)

This is only going to cover cdramas that aired in 2023; if I watched it but it was made in a different year, it's not on the list. This was a pretty good cdrama year, all in all.

DRAMAS WATCHED

(In order of liking from least to most as opposed to pure quality; I am including if I’ve seen enough to make up my mind; yes I realize that’s inaccurate, but that’s my list)

30 legend of twin flower - Not dignifying that drama with capital letters, as the only capital that should be associated with this is capital punishment - which is what watching this feels like.

29 Dominator of Martial Gods - sounds like a bdsm gay porn title. Would probably be better acted and written if it was.

28 Beauty of Resilience - you'd need a lot of said resilience to sit through this incoherent, barely acted mess. The thing that I remember the most other than my annoyance is all the jingly-jangly head gear on JJY. Perhaps they could have sold some of them and spent the money on a better script.

27 Divine Destiny - if you think you have too many brain cells and want to get rid of some, boy do I have a drama for you!

26 Wanru’s Journey - honestly it's probably tied with SEL - I mean it's worse but it has actors who are nowhere as well known and a fraction of SEL's budget. Still, this is a big fat nope. I will not say what I think of Aoi Rupeng's "acting" or I'd have to put money in the curse jar.

25 Snow Eagle Lord - Gulinazha's stone face, nonsense plot, terrible CGI. Take your pick as to why this is terrible.

24 Scent of Time - it was uneven but fun but then that ending was dumb enough to destroy the whole thing. Show me on the doll where common sense hurt you, makers!

23 Royal Rumors - Jeremy Tsui and Meng Ziyi are utterly wasted in this nothing trifle of a drama.

22 Legend of Anle - I had high expectations but alas. This is the drama version of color beige. There is nothing offensive about it but nothing good either. Mediocre actors are mediocre, good actors become mediocre, this is just a waste of our finite time on planet earth.

21 Romance on the Farm - it's not you, it's me in action. I can see why people would like this wholesome slice of farming family life, but it's tailored to trigger every one of my "nope" opinions.

20 Back from the Brink - if I were 12, it would be my favorite thing. I am not 12.

19 Journey of Chong Zi - objectively a terrible drama with plot holes the size of Mars and a leading lady whose face has apparently frozen when the wind changed. But I am a total sucker for the trope of upright shizun falling for his demonic disciple and going mental so here we are. Objectively, garbage, subjectively my precious!

18 Love you Seven Times - just call poor Ding Yuxi "Atlas," he carried this mess so hard.

17 Blooming Days - trashy dogblood harem fight fun throwback. It's not that great (and the fact that it was shredded doesn't help) but it's probably the last gasp of that genre for the foreseeable future, so I am grading on a curve.

16 The Starry Love - a fun fantasy where the secondary OTP stole the thunder but overall a really solid fantasy xianxia romance.

15 The Longest Promise - it could have been better - the secondaries were unbearable and there was too much of them and what they did with Alen Fang's character still gives me rage fits, but the main couple was impeccable and lovely and I rooted so hard for them.

14 Chang Feng Du/Destined - visually gorgeous, solidly acted, impeccable first half. Bland as hell second half. Win some, lose some.

13 Circle of Love - this drama is a nonsense trash heap on fire. After a typhoon hit it. It was also the most entertaining, addicting drama on this whole list.

12 Hidden Love - the sole modern on this list, this story has barely any plot but it made me care about the young, decent lovers so hard.

11 Choice Husband - starts out wacky, continues with angst and blood and happy ending. I loved it, but I've always had a soft spot for melo and schemers turning devoted.

10 Pledge of Allegiance - bromance, super solid acting, visuals, a really dark take on officials and the world. Insanely underrated.

9 Provoke - a truly fun Republican revenge and love tale, showing that short format can be wonderful.

8 Gone with the Rain - some of the secondary characters are rage-inducing (hi there, cardboard boy!) but the scheming, ruthless, vulgar FL is amazing and her slowburn with her age gap general who is delighted by her out-there-ness is great!

7 Wonderland of Love - Fei Wo Si Cun goes wholesome and the result is surprisingly entertaining. Battle couple, glorious visuals, a fast paced plot. It's the first Xu Kai drama I enjoyed in years (and he plays a rare cdrama ML it would be pretty neat to pair up with in rl.)

6 My Journey to You - that ending is infuriating (and I am OK with open endings if done properly) but what a visual feast, probably the most gloriously shot drama on this list, and that's a tough competition. Also it packs a hell of a lot of couples and familial and adversarial relationships into its slim running time; assassin lady won over by a gentle man is my favorite trope and so this is extra great.

5. Till the End of the Moon - the ending is a rage-inducing disaster for me, but this drama was the most incredibly emotionally intense, visually eye popping experience. It was deeply flawed but when it was amazing, it was like nothing else in its visuals, its characters and its narratives. It took insane risks; some paid off and some did not, but it was glorious.

4. Story of Kunning Palace - I don't often care for reverse harem stories but this one was such fun - the main OTP was glorious (strong FL, unhinged ML) but honestly everything about this was just so excellently done.

3. The Ingenious One - the most adult drama on this list. Smart protagonists, intelligent plot, emotions that felt true, this is a revenge and a mystery and found family and goes into so many directions you do not expect (Su Mengyu's PTSD after his first kill - that is something you never see in dramas, definitely not prolonged and profound - not like this.) If I was to say which drama was objectively the best on this list, as opposed to favorite, it would be this.

1 (tie) Lost You Forever 1 - this is an exquisite emotional jewel of a story about damaged people moving forward, with damage always present - their past informs their present and always will. The narrative about Xiao Yao and three very different men in her life makes me think that it's an equivalent of a neutron bomb going off right before the main narrative starts and now we are watching the survivors wander in the wreckage. This is very high fantasy setting but it's one of the most emotionally human narratives out there.

1 A Journey to Love - everything I ever wanted - assassins, ride or die adult OTP with genuine believable conflicts, great and complex secondaries, beautiful fights. Oh, and yeah Liu Shi Shi domming the hell out of every man in a ten mile radius, as she should.

FAVORITE DRAMA

It's a tie between Lost You Forever Part 1 and A Journey to Love. LYF1 is a bona fide art piece but it's only part 1 and who knows if part 2 will be any good (seeing the huge ep number cut, I have my doubts) and so it's incomplete. AJTL is an old school wuxia romance with incredibly competent, adult people in love and great cast of secondaries. I can't pick.

WORST DRAMA

romance of twin flower - this is a drama that should not exist. If I could hex everyone involved with it, I would. It's a terrible, stupid, shrill, badly acted drama to start with, but where it really is catapulted into stratosphere of horror is that is took my very favorite non-danmei web novel of all time, a smart and complicated tale with incredible protagonists and turned it into that barftastic abomination. Peng Xiao Ran kept making horrible drama after horrible drama but I kept giving her a chance because of Goodbye My Princess but after this disaster, I've had to accept GMP was a fluke and she is on my "if she's in it, I am out” list. Ding Yuxi is not that far yet (his performance in Seven Lifetimes was the one thing carrying that mess afloat) but he's on freaking thin ice. Anyway, I like to pretend this drama does not exist.

FAVORITE MALE CHARACTER

It was hard because there were so many I loved this year - Deng Wei's traumatized, gentle Seventeen from LYF1 (if someone told me I'd swoon and weep for a character played by Deng Wei, I'd have told them to examine their brains asap), Liu Yuning's incredibly capable, deadly, contained Ning Yuanzhou from AJTL, Zhang Linghe's unhinged Xie Wei from SoKP, Chen Xiao's schemer with a heart Yun Xiang from TIO.

But ultimately, it couldn't be anyone else but Luo Yunxi as Tantai Jin/Demon God/Ming Ye/Cang Jiumin in Till the End of the Moon. He was everything - a demon, a saint, a martyr, a monster, a tormented abuse victim, a savior, joyful, unhinged, smart, pitiable. It was the cdrama performance of the year for me. Luo Yunxi even in a mediocre role is impressive but in a complex (series of) role(s) designed for his strengths, he is a force of nature.

FAVORITE FEMALE CHARACTER

Xiao Yao (Lost You Forever Part 1). Once again, there were runner ups - Bai Lu's smart a little evil FL in Kunning, the gloriously unhinged assassin domme Liu Shi Shi in AJTL, Esther Yu's assassin longing for a different life in MJTY etc etc etc. But Xiao Yao's damaged, difficult, very self-aware woman stole my heart. I was skeptical going in because I haven't enjoyed a Yang Zi performance in a long time, but she was the wounded beating soul of this incredible drama.

NEEDS TO BE MURDERED

Where do we start? How about all of Seventeen's (LYF1) monster family? His brother, who tortured him for years physically and emotionally to such a degree his body is a horror map and his personality is permanently altered because "mommy liked you better." Psycho mother who created a situation where the kids were going to turn on each other and "let's get my grandson raped" grandma. Where is a well-placed meteorite when you need one.

FAVORITE SHIP

Xiao Yao/Seventeen, LYF1. Yes, a ship of characters played by Yang Zi and Deng Wei is my favorite. Leave me alone, I am on my tenth helping of crow already. They are both incredibly damaged, barely functioning survivors who find what they need in the other - he finds a savior and someone who sees him as a man and rebuilds himself around her and she finds someone who will always put her first and only, and subsume himself in her. Is it healthy? No. Does it make sense for them and is it making them slowly functional? Yes.

Runner up: Ren Ruyi/Ning Yuanzhou, AJTL - two adults, so competent, so chemistry full. She has so much damage and so little normalcy but is so strong and he is oddly gentle (in between murders) and incredibly self-reflective. They are each other's mirrors and I love them.

FAVORITE SECONDARY OTP

Su Mingyu/Ke Menglan, The Ingenious One - the idealistic merchant who wants to join jianghu until he sees its horrors firsthand and a slave entertainer who wants security but decides she wants him more. They are gorgeous and glorious and wholesome and I adore them.

Runner up: Liu Gong Quan/Ming Zhu, The Ingenious One - that drama was a shippy gift, especially impressive considering it wasn't even romance-centric. He's the officer who has to bring down her treasonous father but loves her. Delicious.

Another runner up is Chao Feng/Qian Kui, the angelic good girl and the scheming bad boy in The Starry Love. They stole the drama from the main OTP for me.

NOTP

Scent of Time endgame. What the hell was even that. It made NO sense.

FAVORITE SCENE

So many good scenes this year - Tantai Jin taking apart Li Susu in prison in TTEOTM, the OTP fighting in perfect sync and insane rhythm in the gorge battle in AJTL, Chen Ruoxuan's character stopping the execution in Pledge, Yan Lin's coming of age in Kunning, the poison/antidote "gamble" in MJTY, Cang Xuan detoxing in LYF1. But I think ultimately, me being who I am, my favorite scene is Xiao Yao kissing Seventeen's damaged, scarred knee to show he is in no way inferior for her. AAAAA!

In terms of pure jaw dropping visuals tho nothing will ever beat Ming Ye’s battle against the Devil God in TTEOTM.

BIGGEST CRUSH

Ning Yuanzhou, AJTL. He's sexy as hell (that height, that way he moves in battle) but he's also so incredibly competent, so adult, so self-reflective and so attracted to a woman for her strength. He also gets whumped on the reg. Anyway, my hormones are ready.

BEST SCENE STEALER CHARACTER

Gong Yuanzhi (My Journey to You) - I loved the unhinged, brocon poison boy. He was everything. Also Yan Lin (Kunning) - talk about sunshine; I totally got why all these people felt they needed to save him.

NEEDS A SEQUEL

My Journey to You - what the HELL was that ending?

NEEDS SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

legend of twin flower - that is, stab it with scissors like it stabbed the novel until it's dead.

TOO MANY SCISSORS TAKEN TO IT

Till the End of the Moon - they clearly cut stuff to fit into the new regs about runtime and it made the last 1/5 rather abrupt. Gimme!

TROPE THAT NEEDS TO DIE

The emperor cannot be irredeemable. WTF, China, you are a communist country!

FAVORITE TROPE WE’VE SEEN A LOT OF

This is the year of a ML who yearns to be dommed by his FL. Long may it continue.

BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT

The Legend of Anle - the novel had a great plot, the cast were all actors I either enjoy a lot or somewhat and we got - whatever that soggy piece of wonderbread toast was.

BIGGEST GOOD SURPRISE

LYF1 - I only checked out to mock because nobody could explain the story to me and nobody in the cast did anything I like either ever or in years. And then I fell utterly and completely in love and had to eat so much delicious crow.

2023 DRAMAS I HAVEN’T SEEN THAT I MOST WANT TO WATCH

Ancient Love Song is the only one on that list. It looks really good, I just need to brace myself.

BEST NON-2023 DRAMA I’VE WATCHED IN 2023

The Imperial Doctoress - best slowburn and pining and glorious character development and adult leads.

MOST ANTICIPATED

Anticipating any nonaired cdrama is a mug's game but if they air, I will definitely check out all the Fox Matchmaker dramas, LYF2, JoL2 and The Last Immortal. If Prisoner of Beauty ever is allowed out of the vault (dubious), it goes on the list too.

#cdrama #lost you forever #a journey to love #till the end of the moon #my journey to you #choice husband #provoke #the starry love #the ingenious one #wonderland of love #story of kunning palace #gone with the rain

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shijiujun · 8 months

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KISEKI Dear to Me: 3.5 CPs + GANGSTER/MOB + SALT DEATH PTSD

Alright guys, temporarily bursting out of hiatus to talk about this show because DAMN if there's anything we know works in BL-land, it's like underworld AU (hello History3: Trapped and KP lmao), and even better if this underworld AU has like DILFs and two familiar actors who WERE FORCED APART in their previous roles and who knows if that'll happen again BUT!

Without further ado...

Title: Kiseki Dear to Me, based on novel Dear to Me by Lin Peiyu Beginning: Aug. 22, 2023, 7PM (GTM+8) Episodes: 13 Total No. of CPs: THREE CONFIRMED + "childhood friends" DILFs

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CP 1: BAD BOY + GOOD STUDENT

Fan Zherui x Bai Zongyi: Fan Zherui, 25 years old, is a gang member who turned to the gangs due to family problems, and one day when he's injured, Bai Zongyi saves him, he falls in love with him and decides to leave the gang, but things go awry when his enemy Zhang Teng (played by Wayne, see CP 3) comes after for revenge. Bai Zongyi is a good student, your cutest boy next door, who is independent and has some PTSD from when he was beaten up in the rain - meets Fan Zherui and for once realises what it means to be loved, to have someone to care for him and more. TWO MEOW MEOWS?! Anyway, Bai Zongyi, according to MDL, will take the rap for some fight for Zherui, and then end up in jail, but then very weirdly the official description says that CP 2's Eddie ends up in jail for Bai Zongyi, I'm a tad confused but WHATEVER we will find out when we watch the damn show.

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CP 2: ADOPTED SON OF GANG BOSS + CHILDHOOD "YOUNGER BROTHER" PUPPY

Chen Yi x Eddie (Ai Di): They both grew up together with Eddie as the younger 'brother', with Chen Yi being 'adopted' by gang boss Chen Dongyang after his parents, also gang members die to protect the boss. Eddie has been chasing after him for the longest time, and has a sad family background as his parents are druggies and he was only able to grow up well under the protection of Chen Dongyang, and he only listens to Chen Yi. UNREQUITED-REQUITED love, but Eddie sees how Chen Yi feels deeply about Chen Dongyang (I don't know what that means from the description LMAO like??) and decides to leave Chen Yi, and somehow get embroiled in something and ends up in jail for Bai Zongyi. Chen Yi is only just understanding his own feelings for Eddie when Eddie literally goes to jail DOGBLOOD MUCH?! Anyway they will reunite 4 years later.

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CP 3: MY BAOBEIS?!?!?! MY LOVELIES WHO MADE US GET PTSD OVER SALT?! WILL THESE TWO GANG MEMBERS GET THEIR HAPPILY EVER AFTERS THEY BETTER FUCKING DO

Zhang Teng x A-Jun: BOTH GANG MEMBERS if you couldn't tell from their loud af shirts and thick ass accessories LMAO omg I cannot believe how happy I am to see these two again. A-Jun is Zhang Teng's like follower??? Has been following him since he joined the gang and both fears and reveres him, and Zhang Teng is just angry ball of angst and revenge and vengeance, if you couldn't tell from Wayne's face. I cannot believe they're in a setting! WHERE THEY MIGHT NOT GET GOOD ENDINGS WAS SALT SEPARATION NOT ENOUGH TELL ME YALL

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CP 3.5: DILFS? "CHILDHOOD FRIENDS" DADS???

Friends yall do not understand how I feel about these two uncles. IF you've ever watched Taiwan family dramas, these two, especially the one on the left Xie Chengjun, is a fucking LEGEND, he's in EVERY SINGLE FAMILY DRAMA all hundreds of episodes of them, he's literally like THE dude to idolise he's been paired up with EVERY SINGLE POPULAR GODDESS ACTRESS in Taiwan - I KID YOU NOT I GREW UP WATCHING HIM on OUR CHANNELS EVERY SINGLE DAY ACROSS 5-7 POPULAR FAM DRAMAS it's been like 20 years ISTG.

Anyway I'm NOT SURE if they are actually going to be a CP at all BUT (1) at press conference this week, these two made kissy faces at each other sooooo...?

Zhou Minglei grew up with Chen Dongyang protecting him as he was a weak and sickly child, so they're childhood friends, and he becomes super unhappy and upset that Chen Dongyang begins to protect and pays attention to Chen Yi ;-; LIKE WHAT IS THIS DESCRIPTION? Okay we could think of this professionally as like two bosses of a gang with their interests at stake BUT THE DESCRIPTION?! And ok Chen Dongyang on the right, he's obviously gang boss, and he relies on Zhou Minglei a lot to fix his problems for him. EXCUSE ME?!

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The main CPs (1 & 2) are torn apart in a particular fight, and they will reunite 4 years later LET'S SEE HOW THAT GOES THANK YOU.

500% I'll be watching this you bet your damn ass because they better give me happy ending Wayne and Junzhi THIS TIME otherwise they're seriously cursed?!?!?!? No more salt accidents fuck you writer for that ;-; AND IF THE DILF PAIRING COMES TRUE even if just bromance and meaningful side eyes, this bitch will take it.

#kiseki dear to me #奇迹 dear to me #bl drama #huang junzhi #wayne song #history 3: modc #modc cast #i weep #hsu kai #taro lin #nat chen #jiang dian

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endlessburningdarkness · 2 months

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the other aspect of svsss that appeals is of course the idea of a story being a set course and the role characters and readers have in that course. shen yuan generally acts like he's a reader. he assumes the story must follow word of god what the author wrote. he upholds all the tropes that he thinks a stallion dogblood novel would hold. he's shocked it's turning into a bl because of him and then assumes bl tropes are the rule and insists on upholding them. he continuously disregards or dismisses his own role as an actor in and influencer of the story.

what shen yuan is experiencing is what fanfic author's experience, trying to balance definitive canon with changes they want to make while not making the characters too ooc. shen yuan thinks its too ooc for binghe to bottom so insists that he do it instead. but he fails to fully assimilate himself as the character he's supposed to be acting as. it never occurs to him, for example, if it's too ooc for shen qingjiu to bottom. even though canonically, shen jiu is so afraid of men he could only sleep surrounded by women. shen yuan fails to separate himself from the character role he's supposed to be play. we say that shen yuan became shen qingjiu, but it's more accurate to say that shen qingjiu becomes shen yuan.

#svsss #shen yuan

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rarepears · 2 years

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Who are Shen Jiu's biological parents?

Imagine a dogblood drama where when Shen Jiu becomes Shen Qingqiu, the peak lord of Qing Jing, various rich and noble families come out of the woodworks claiming he's their long lost son.

Somehow, somewhat, a rumor came out that Shen Qingqiu, the new peak lord, is an orphan and does not know of his family origins. Seeing an opportunity to build a stronger connection to the world's most powerful sect and get their hands on cultivation materials and priceless artifacts, various families scheme up ways to try to convince this young cultivator that he's their relative... a very loved child at that. There's a lot of finger pointing about how this child got lost, of how the other families must be lying for their own game, of jealous servants switching babies at birth...

There's so many families going out to claim this that it's clear most are lying... but what if one of them isn't? Shen Jiu doesn't know.

The other peak lords are shocked at the discovery that Shen Jiu did not, in fact, grow up with his rich and noble family, so now they are interested in digging out Shen Jiu's past.

It's a shit show... but at least Cang Qiong has a slightly better impression of Shen Jiu? (But just barely because even they are annoyed at the constant stream of high profile families coming to the sect to plead their case... especially all those royal families and their snobbish servants.)

(And then when it gets revealed that Yue Qingyuan, the sect leader, was the one to raise Shen Qingqiu... this whole shitshow gets even more complicated because how the fuck does a 4 year old raise a baby on his own? The answer is that both are orphans... and oh look! Another opportunity!)

[More in #the hunt for shen jiu's biological family au]

#svsss ideas #svsss #svsss au #scumbag self saving system #shen jiu #shen qingqiu #the hunt for shen jiu's biological family au #mxtx #yue qingyuan #scumbag villain

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web-novel-polls · 9 days

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Web Novel Sapient Animal Bracket

["Anti-Propaganda" is NOT allowed. Please be courteous and only give reasons to vote FOR a character.]

Da Qing from Guardian

Fat black cat rights

Li Yu from The Disabled Tyrant's Pet Palm Fish

Type of Animal: fish

Submission: The main character. What do you do when you transmigrate into a dogblood novel as a FISH, and the System tells you to get cozy with the tyrannical (not rly) mute prince or else die a miserable fishy death, but you're not sure how to do that because you're a FLOPPY FISH, and then the prince treats you so well, always feeds you the best fish-feed pellets, so you fall in love with him fr, and you just wanna kiss him with your fishy fishy lips but you're a FISH. Is this bestiality?? Does this count as you having a bestiality kink if you're the beast in question???

#da qing #guardian #li yu #the disabled tyrant's beloved pet fish #the disabled tyrant's pet palm fish #polls #sapient round 2 #sapient wn animal bracket #webnovel animal tournament #queue

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supanuts · 21 days

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i saw that you're currently reading my stand-in novel but you're not really spoiling anything. how are you finding it so far if i may ask? is it as angsty as people say it is?

(i waited until the end of the day to answer this because as i thought i've already finished the novel, so much for self-restraint lol also sorry this got a bit long... oops?)

i enjoyed it a lot! and it made me get over my reading slump, so i will even excuse it getting into some tropes i'm not particularly fond of at the end. it got cheesy…er, and not even in a way i like. amazingly, that didn't make me like it any less.

from the synopsis of the series and the tags in novel updates (and i only skimmed those because i didn't want to get spoiled) i had a pretty good idea of what the novel was going to be like, which is why i decided not to really liveblog since, transmigration aside, i'd say it's a pretty straightforward story. i could be persuaded to make a recap if there's interest though, since there's still over three weeks left until the series starts airing and i'm probably going to go over everything again and take notes anyway...

and oh, is it angsty! the whole thing hinges on zhou xiang (joe) being a sweet angel baby and yan mingxiu (ming) being a fucking idiot, and it's pretty much what you can expect from any dogblood/makjang with the scum ml, misunderstandings, heartbreak, regrets, etc. i have to say i'm not usually a fan of the misunderstanding trope bc i tend to find it annoying, but as with most tropes i don't particularly enjoy it's because of the way i often see it done. here it was painful for everyone involved, so i really liked it. also, please keep in mind that i'm a huge fan of big character development and characters redeeming themselves, so. there's that. wink wonk. (i've been reading some reviews and think for some people it may be best to know what kind of story this is before going in, other than because of triggers–which, very important if you need them, at least in the novel–because of the whole. scum ml more than anything lol even though yan mingxiu is not that scummy really!)

i love my stories character-driven, so having them being this well fleshed out and compelling was a joy, and being able to see so clearly what both zhou xiang and yan mingxiu were thinking and feeling, sometimes a lot earlier than they themselves could (please bl gods keep at least some of the internal monologue in the series, i am begging), was soooooo ugh. you're supposed to hate yan mingxiu allegedly but i just couldn't, not even in his scum era, because he was so obvious and so oblivious and so set in his own ideas he kept gaslighting himself into not noticing things. this could have gotten frustrating pretty easily, but again, everything feed into the delicious, delicious suffering. that being said, and because it doesn't seem to be a popular opinion... i think it's important to empathise with both of them, or at least sympathise, for maximum enjoyment of all that angst. you cannot cry over yan mingxiu's pain if you want him to get hit by a bus.

oh and the relationships (not only the cp's, though their progression is really good) are very important in this story, which is something i hope we get to see more of in the series because i ended up missing certain side characters in the later chapters. not tan yin though, i hope that fuck ass didn't make it into the series. how is a character so annoying while being in maybe six scenes total.

i can't say if it's good or not but it was extremely enjoyable, zhou xiang is my sweet darling angel baby, yan mingxiu is okay too (if you see me in the trenches defending him in about a month…), and i can't believe i am now, somehow, even more excited for my stand-in.

#professional body double #my stand in #my stand in the series #my stand-in #my stand-in the series #asks #anon #didn't get into any specifics bc everything i would have said is a spoiler yippee #so yeah i didn't want to spoil anything so this is kinda . but feel free to ask anything!#my fav character is zhou xiang my fav character development is also zhou xiang's #again not to spoil but: aaaa #tan yin can come if he gets reworked to hell and back and kisses lan xirong btw #i have a weirdly specific wishlist for him now #and by 'him' i mean lan xirong

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danmeiarchive · 2 months

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Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know by Cyan Wings -- a brief review (no spoilers)

80 chapters + 2 extras

My Rating: ★★★★★ / 5

I went into this story fairly blind / un-spoiled as to the plot and characters and I really enjoyed it. If you like The Scum Villain's Self-Saving System I think you'll like this one. It's a pretty quick read (I read it over the course of 2½ weeks) and it also feels a bit lighter of a read -- in the sense that there's not a bunch of twists and turns or faceslapping going around. There's still narrative weight to the characters' choices but it feels more focused on the emotions of the characters than on making a dogblood drama.

I also really enjoyed the cultivation meta in this book -- there were sections where we would get insight into why the main character did a certain thing and how he belived that would / could impact the universe / world / dao.

Check for content warnings under the cut.

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What kind of story is Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know?

This is a story that really breaks the fourth wall and doesn't take itself too seriously. Like Cyan Wings' other stories that I've read it is really funny and the characters are fantastic. If you like transmigration novels but dislike the trope of an all-powerful manipulative "System" that keeps that transmigrator in check then try this one! The main character is NOT a transmigrator but he does gain knowledge that breaks the fourth wall and there are times when he considers the people around them as if they were characters in a novel. Several of the main characters can also be read as asexual and / or aromantic which is really nice too.

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Throughout the story the main characters are growing and learning more about themselves and each other -- there's several times when a character reflects on how they had misunderstood another character or not known what was really in their hearts. This leads to the story feeling very emotional and tender as you slowly get to know the characters. This is mainly in regard to the main character and his love interest but its true for some of the supporting cast as well.

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Ultimately it feels like a story of two people (who whole-heartedly trust each other with their lives) slowly opening up and allowing themselves to be vulnerable with the other. There's also a good portion of the story that talks about heart demons and how that affects one of the characters -- it becomes a plot point even. It certainly takes the main pair a lot of work but once they are finally on the same page (ha) and treat each other as equals... it's very sweet and intimate.

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Who are the main characters?

Without going into details here's a little bit about our main squad:

WenRen E - Our main character. WRE is the leader of the XuanYuan demonic sect and an absolute badass. He somehow reminds me of both Yan Wushi from Thousand Autumns and Wei Wuxian from Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation. He is arrogant and prideful but also cares SO MUCH about the commonfolk in the world. He is absolutely ruthless when he needs to be but he has a line that he does not cross and he forbids his minions from crossing it either. There's also a lot of times where he's sussing out why or how something works a certain way and his understanding of the dao and the universe felt profound.

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Yin HanJiang - Our love interest. There's a specific post I've seen that is coming to mind but I can't remember how it's phrased... YHJ is loyal to WRE and ONLY WRE. He is submissive in the way a guard dog is -- he would follow WRE's every order and do everything in his power to protect him but at the same time he would not hesitate for a moment to attack anyone he viewed as a threat to WRE. At the beginning of the story he keeps a certain distance between himself and WRE but as the plot develops that distance becomes smaller and smaller.

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BaiLi QingMiao - the protagonist of the book that appears in WRE's hand which serves as the impetus for the story. WRE finds himself frustrated and confused at her actions a fair amount of time but over the course of the story she too grows up and gains a new outlook on life.

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Shu YanYan - a seductress demonic cultivator. She only dual cultivates with consenting partners and uses her cleverness to manipulate people. She also seems fairly uninterested in romance -- I think she alludes to not wanting to get her heart broken but she also seems very happy as things are with her various lovers.

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Qiu CongXue - hands down my favorite character in the story. I liked everyone but QCX is always speaking her mind and stirring up trouble. She has strong himbo energy and I don't want to spoil anything about her, just know that anytime she comes up it's going to be great.

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What is the plot of Devil Venerable Also Wants to Know?

One day a book suddenly appears in WenRen E's hand. This is notable because he is a very strong demonic cultivator and he didn't sense anything before the book appeared. So he looks at the book and decides to take it very seriously. He reads it. And he discovers that he is a character in a trashy romance novel, as is his most trusted subbordinate Yin HanJiang. He becomes very curious to find out if the other characters are real and if the events that happen in the book are destined to come true or if they can be changed. So he sets off and meets the protagonists of the novel and begins experimenting. Without spoiling things he is especially concerned about what happens to Yin HanJiang in the book. He also wants to know more about the novel's protagonists and their motivations.

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Click 'keep reading' to see trigger warnings.

ptsd, depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, violence, manipulation and abuse, mention of torture, war, survivor's guilt, etc. The characters have some tragic backstories and there's some things in the novel that WRE reads that are disturbing -- but ultimately there's not "on screen" torture that the characters go through, the novel instead focuses on what's going on in the characters' psyche.

#devil venerable also wants to know #dvawtk #cyan wings #cyan wings novels #danmei recs #danmei reviews #danmei webnovels #danmei reading #ila reads #danmei #xianxia

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shysublimecoffee · 3 months

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Tsuna Sawada will always be a loser and even towards the end of the manga he still is one and I will always love him for not changing. Face it all those reunion fics I used to read back in the day really be enjoying giving every person who bullied or were mean to him give everyone face slaps as if i'm reading a chinese revenge dogblood danmei novel lol. This is pre-2017 I belive when I binged a lot of fics in the previous years of that particular KHR era lol. So take it in mind my knowledge was from back then.

Hell this shit is even applied to his parents especially Nana like maybe I can go more indepth if I have time in another post but like this women certainly loves her child. I know the infamous chapter really got me heated not gonna lie I don't think the way she treats her kid is fine but damn sometimes I feel she be villainzed too much. From the way I see their relationship it's one of love but I don't think Tsuna could rely on his mom when it comes to emotions and feelings hell he avoid it together it's kinda why he was a little shit if I remember correctly in the beginning of the manga but what 13 year old isn't. Like their relationship is more she wants her child to be like his manly father and hopes he can grow out of his ugly ducking dame tsuna phase but he can't because it's more than that the dude whole school normalizes calling him dame tsuna instead of his actual birth name and the way the faculty treat him and his peers who go back and forth in their treatment of him if he surpasss their expectations they acknowledge him if he doesn't he goes back to being just lame old tsuna. So tsuna gives right up at the start then even try because he's afraid at the attempt he'll just fail. Iemitsu I get 100% because he prioritzes work over family and expects his son to be like his mother and be fine he shows up out of nowhere. I'd be pissed too. Ironic he's the 1 shounen protagnsit with 2 parents that just aren't that great as role models or when it comes to teaching him but they do love him certainly. It's why when it comes to the basis of how their characters are written yes there are defintlly problametic things going on because of how dysfuncitional they are as a family but they do love each other so I really dislike it a lot back in the past since a lot of the times writers really try to up and take it to a 100 to make both of them more hurtful or cruel in fics than they are in canon just to really give them faceslaps X double. And the result is Tsuna being a depressed sucidal kid to really get it and the fic writer just blackening the parents even more lol. Like please a little nuance would be appreatied in their family dynamic would be nice.

Tsuna no matter what anyone says is a strong kid. He really doesn't get bothered like I don't recall him talking shit about the students in his school who bully him like yamamato and him are straight parells in their treatment because I'm damn sure yamamato has to be aware of others treatment of Tsuna because it's a refelection of how he could end up if he becomes a failure too. One tries their hardest to be the best and tries to jump because he can't handle it no more. But Tsuna the other isn't even bother by his mistreatment wtf he's just Tsuna he's normalized it but he isn't a sucidal depressed mess he's just accepts he can't do it and says welp whatever and he's fine. My boi is strong.

I know some can't accept how the ending is. But, You're reading KHR so many weird things are in the manga that make 0 logical sense and I just go through with the motions accepting it. A baby for a tutor, oh Mukuro went through literal hell, oh what do you mean fucking time travel is involved. You really expect me to care that much how the ending went lol. KHR is a legit a parody telling of a shonen manga, which evolved into a real shonen later on.

I get the appeal but Tsuna is Tsuna. I think he's a normal boy who doesn't fit the shounen mold and himnot fiting the package kinda fit the bill because he doesn't suit the audience fantasy on how they want their MC's to be. They want him to be a Naruto how everyone who hurt him apologize or acknwledge his awesomeness but nah Akira Amano really just sticked to this dude core character from start to finish. Tsuna grew when it comes to areas he lacked but he never changed about his personhood because that sorta what makes him define the story. Tsuna being himself got him allies and people who rely and look towards him and what made Reborn impressed with his student. He defines the genre he's like is a Deku from BNHA reversed when it comes to their development.

#katekyo hitman reborn #sawada tsunayoshi

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mxtxfanatic · 12 days

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Book of the Week: The Times Spent in Pretense

Author: Butterfly's Shadow Beneath the Moon/Yue Xia Die Ying (月下蝶影)

Genre: ancient setting, court politics, josei

Rating: T

My Synopsis: Hua Liuli, only daughter of two famed generals, wants to be known as the most beautiful sickly beauty in the empire. Crown Prince Ji Yuansu wants to put off working himself to death on the throne for a few more years. Emperor Changlong just wants people to stop treating him like he's stupid while he celebrates the return of his two closest friends and their family to the capital. When you have your priorities straight, who cares about the petty schemes of those convinced they live in a dogblood drama?

My Actual Review: Unlike a lot of the other books under this author, this novel is not a revenge fantasy and, as such, it is actually lighter than the others on suspense and drama (lighter, not completely absent, as this still involves court politics.) The fact that this book satirizes the genre by subverting expectations (no, the emperor isn't paranoid enough to betray his most loyal subjects, no the crown prince won't be dethroned, no the famous general won't be sent to his death) is a breath of fresh air. And the comedy is fantastic, I found myself smiling and laughing almost every chapter, which made the parts where the story gets unexpectedly somber all the more poignant. The characters in all their different positions and goals work so well together. I never really felt like the cast was too big or that anyone was extraneous. Also on that note, pretty sure like half the princes are autistic but present in completely different ways. Wild. As per this author's MO, there are content warnings for the usual underage marriage, age gap, and such.

Translation: complete

#human promotes #the times spent in pretense #this novel is like 95% comedy #but those somber moments? they be hitting #this is something i’d maybe liveblog at some point idk #i just read it so if i did it would be like next year or something #sometime far off when I’ve forgotten chunks of the text #so i can get a nice little surprise on a reread

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cowboy-robooty · 2 years

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welcome to my twisted ankle. im pleased OHHH SOO (matsu) PLEASED that you have chosen to join us on this blog today. heres a little rundown of le robooty nation

- before anything else, i am its always sunny in philadelphias strongest warrior

- after that i am an incel who likes yaoi so much i decided to become apart of it

- does anyone like shimoneta

WHAT ARE ROBOOTY REVIEWS?

- my casual manga reviews lol. Maybe one day I'll bother to make all my reviews proper fleshed out ones, but if I did I'd probs put that on another blog dedicated to reviewing manga

- do not think just because I read 100 chapters of something that means i secretly liked it deep down. I will hurt you. I will kill you. Look man i will literally read fuckin' anything and sometimes a series is so bad that it's like watching a terrible anime where you're kinda hooked because you wanna see how bad it can get. I'm like a goldfish okay what tf else am i going to do to blow off steam i need a healthy dose of garbage to survive. Anyways doing this is the equivalent to showing my penis on the internet so dont start thinking I like the garbage i read if i call it garbage. If i liked it i'll be honest and say that I liked it but I dont want it getting twisted and people thinking I read 300 chapter dogblood chinese manhwa for genuine pleasure.

- take everything i say with a grain of salt i have brain damage

- manga review requests are open! Write in your ask if you'd like to be cited as the person who requested a review, if you don't say anything then I wont cite you. teehee!

^ me when i get my one dollar fry once a week

HAITUS ON FRIES RN. because i hate genocide very much significantly more than i like french fries

#robooty kun #save

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convenientalias · 2 months

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Which is my favorite Kdrama network?

When I'm bored I like to list and categorize things. Today I've decided to discover, statistically, which Korean drama network is my favorite based on shows I've watched.

Including both shows I've completed and shows I've dropped bc in this case, the shows I don't like are relevant.

Using my ratings from MyDramaList :) which means however I felt the first time I finished watching a show, basically. Not including networks where I've only watched one show (e.g., Disney+, Wavve, Channel A).

JTBC:

Agency--Dropped

Beyond Evil--6

Itaewon Class--Dropped

My Country the New Age--10

Private Lives--Dropped

Reflection of You--Dropped

Sisyphus: The Myth--Dropped

I can't believe this network produced My Country the New Age when everything else I've watched by them has been a flop for me. Beyond Evil came the closest to breaking the curse but even then. Itaewon Class is one of my least favorite shows I've ever tried to watch; I've forgotten most of the details now but a bad taste lingers.

KBS:

White Christmas--10

Mad Dog--8

The King's Affection--10

River Where the Moon Rises--Dropped

Should I have given River Where the Moon Rises more of a chance? Bc apparently this network only makes bangers.

MBC:

Extraordinary You--7

Rookie Historian Goo Hae-ryung--9

The Veil--7

Idk what to say about this one. RHGH is pretty damn good but I think I would probs like it less watching it now than I did in 2019, newish to kdramas and ready to love anything. But it's a fave regardless, and Extraordinary You and The Veil are both fairly watchable. A serviceable network.

MBN:

Perfect Marriage Revenge--Dropped

Sponsor--Dropped

A network to watch a few episodes with the desire to see dogblood plots, and then leave.

Netflix:

Bloodhounds--8

My Holo Love--Dropped

Gyeongseong Creature--Dropped

Song of Bandits--8

The Silent Sea--7

It's Netflix. I don't know that they're ever going to make a real favorite for me but they're fairly competent.

OCN:

Save Me--8

Duel--Dropped

A Superior Day--Dropped

Apparently it takes Seo Ye-ji and Woo Do-hwan's powers combined to make me finish a show by this network. You'd think it would be easier bc they seem to enjoy angst and whump, but I think they pour it on a little too thick.

SBS:

Doctor Stranger--Dropped

Lovers of the Red Sky--8

Revenant--9

The King: Eternal Monarch--7

The Killing Vote--Dropped

Remember: War of the Son--Dropped

Honestly I might come back to at least one of these dropped shows. Their track record on plots is okay, but their actors are really good.

TVN:

100 Days My Prince--Dropped

Alchemy of Souls--9

Bad and Crazy--Dropped

Circle: Two Worlds Connected--9

Confession--6

Devil Judge--9

Eve--8

Flower of Evil--10

Hotel del Luna--Dropped

It's Okay to Not Be Okay--8

Mine--8

Mr. Sunshine--8

Our Blooming Youth--Dropped

Pandora: Beneath the Paradise--Dropped

Psychopath Diary--9

Tale of the Nine-Tailed--Dropped

Clearly I just start the most show by them. Do they make the most shows? I don't know. Good concepts and good cinematic quality on most of these shows, with just a few exceptions. Pretty solid network.

Viki:

Color Rush--8

I Picked Up a Star On the Road--6

Where Your Eyes Linger--8

You Make Me Dance--6

Mixed bag.

The takeaways:

I should probably watch more KBS. On my to-watch list, that translates to Youth of May, the Bridal Mask, Hwarang, the Bloody Heart, and Orange Marmalade. So mostly historical dramas, which is a pity bc apparently I also like their thrillers.

Really, though, my to-watch list at this point has a ton of SBS and MBC on it for some reason, at least with shows that have already come out. According to my stats so far, my odds are pretty mixed on liking them or not.

Somehow, one feels, I will actually end up watching more TVN instead... but that has yet to materialize. (except the one kdrama I'm currently watching is a TVN drama. so.)

Did I really learn anything? No. and on that note, good night.

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dangermousie · 11 months

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Welcome to the Circle of Love ep 1, better titled as Warlord Amnesia BDSM aka thank you for the present, youku!

Youku once again proves that its short dramas are where it’s at. I will be very sad once the censors inevitably wake up to the craziness going on in short dramas but until that day, welcome to Republican warlords the way they should be done - violent and sex having! Ep 1 packs a lot in its short 11 minute runtime. And not an innocent ingenue or wholesome male lead in sight!

We open on a woman in a bridal outfit who is having a very hot wedding night but not the way she imagined.

Our poor heroine has just seen her whole family, including dad, massacred and flambeed.

I especially appreciate the shot of the pocket watch she drops because nobody will convince me it’s not a little nod to Too Late to Say I Love You, the last time a proper length cdrama had an appropriately unhinged and murderous warlord ML.

Anyway, two years later, meet our scrumptious ML aka Warlord McWhorington. He is known for three things (a) murdering heroine’s family aka richest family in wherever and thus earning bigwig’s approbation (b) sleeping his way to the top by banging bigwig’s daughter (no, the gossipers make it explicit he earned his rank in bed. They are wrong, it’s clearly bed and murder) and (c ) being a violent sexy headcase.

He is there to chill with his girlfriend/sugar mama (who is rocking the possessive unhinged secondary girl vibe like a 2002 kdrama secondary girl, I am all for it!) but his attention is drawn by a pretty, masked singer. By his girlfriend’s reaction, not the first time either. Do they have oats in China? Because that man is clearly sowing his.

Anyway, everyone dances and the singer deliberately swaps partners to dance with sexy warlord. His gun IS big and very hard after all.

Bwahaha secondary girl, same!

Masked dancer lady makes small chitchat like asking him if he prefers to bury his enemies’ bodies whole or chopped into pieces and what he likes to do with his women. “If she is an enemy, make her submit” replies the hero in case we didn’t get before what kind of kink we are catering to here!

Then he gropes her in public! But it’s OK, everything nothing pervy, because he’s just disarming her from the gun and knife she somehow hid under her slinky clothes. Ooooh boy, pls censors, don’t come for short dramas for years, I need my unwholesome fun.

There is clearly no covid social distancing in the 1930s.

It’s OK, she steals the gun back and prepares to end him with the cliche but pithy “go to hell.”

Unfortunately for her but fortunately for this not becoming the world’s shortest drama, he’s removed the bullets. Oops.

“Chivalry is dead,” quoth the warlord as he knocks her out.

The mask is removed and shocker!!! It’s the wedding dress lady from the opening/the surviving daughter of family warlord offed. How he could not tell it was her with the few little beads covering her face is beyond me. I know he’s around weapons a lot but gun noises damage hearing not eyesight.

We go back to the opening scene or shortly after, during which we see her confront him after the flaming hot wedding night and he informs her that yes he offed her fam but fair is fair, his fam murdered 10 people in his, made his father starve to death and made him watch his mother be raped and then commit suicide. I’d say “otherwise known as Thursday in cdramaland,” but let’s face it, this hasn’t been a thing in proper length cdramas in a decade and I feel like someone who’s been seeking the grail of dogblood melo for so long and finally found a whole store’s worth of said grails.

I used you to get close to your family explains the hero, and poor heroine, born too early for Goodbye My Princess to exist, is stunned.

She attempts to murder him (as one does), misses him and falls into the water and as she’s getting soaked and rinsed, we get a flashback in a flashback (flashback squared?) to their happy times.

Now we are back in the present and she wakes up chained in his room. There are worse fates tbh.

And then, in a twist that surprises utterly nobody, she goes “who are you?” because the Lord is kind and good to me and has time-traveled this drama to 2005 and we have AMNESIA!!!!!

Anyway, ep ends and I am hooked hooked hooked! This is like someone putting every Fei Wo Si Cun novel into a blender, and I cannot resist. Take a bit of Goodbye My Princess, stir in a large portion of Too Late to Say I Love You and some Siege in Fog; from previews later even a touch of Sealed with a Kiss. And we are ready!

I approve of all these people being dark and unhinged and murderhappy and not wholesome role models proper dramas keep giving us. I approve of the hero looking hot AND like he eats. I approve of the heroine being all about slaughter. Etc.

This is not as cracktastic as Maid’s Revenge - after all ML’s clothes stayed completely on the whole ep, and not as good as A Familiar Stranger or as atmospheric as Provoke but it further cements my feeling that short dramas are where it’s at for me.

PS ML of Too Late to Say I Love You says hi!

#circle of love #cdrama #too late to say i love you #suo ai san sheng

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