Swooning Over A Secondary Character (again), Pt. 3/3

Asian dramas and Love tropes

There are my favorite characters and their love stories as a list. Enemies to lovers

Drama: Her Royal Highness/长公主在上 Characters: Gu Xuanqing x Li Yunzhen Screentime: Main A boy is sent to be a servant in the unruly princess`s palace in order to find some dirt about her and to help his master to overthrown her, but something goes wrong... The HE is attached.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan x Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main A leader of a demonic sect died trying to get a demonic sword. Her soul returns to the world full of wish to get revenge on the current leader of her sect, who, as she thinks, killed her in the past. Found the way to be close to him, she learns that he wasn't the reason of her death and, moreover, desperately in love with her for many-many years. This is an adaptation of the novel "Ostentatious Zhaoyao", which I love more than a drama, but it's a good story in both variants. The HE is attached (although it`s a little bit obscure in the drama).

Drama: Till the End of the Moon/ 长月烬明 Characters: Tantai Jin x Li Susu Screentime: Main A boy who is destined to become a Demon God and to destroy the World tries to fight his doom. In a process, he falls in love with a transmigrator, who was sent 500 years back in the past to prevent his transformation into a Demon God. The irony is,making him falling in love is the only way to kill him for good... It`s an adaptation of the novel "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", which I like way-way-way more than the drama, not the least because the drama has BE and the novel has HE. I just watched it as a visually beautiful fanfic to the novel.

Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil /苍兰诀 Characters: Dongfang Qingcang x Xiao Lanhua Screentime: Main My favorite drama of all times! Trying to save her love, a girl accidently falls into a secret prison for immortal criminals, revives the most fearsome demon of all times and heals his ability to feel. Later, forced to spend his time together with the girl from the enemy camp, the demon finds out that he actually likes her... The HE is attached. I wrote A LOT about them and made recap of the whole drama from the point of their relationship development in these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue x Shangguan Qian Screentime: Secondary In order to destroy the martial artist's clan, a female assassin was sent in there. While she is trying to seduce one of clan's young masters, he tries to expose her lies, but, eventually, falls in love with her. Unrequited. Maybe. This story has an open ending. My analysis of their relationship is here.

Drama: Butterflied lover /风月变 Characters: Ling Changjin x Bao Zhu Screentime: Secondary A wicked nobleman marries a princess because of her miraculous blood: it`s able to bring his zombie sister back to life. The princess allows him to treat her bad because she has been in love with him for a long time and believes he is a good person. Bit by bit he starts believe in it himself and begins to cherish his wife more... The ending is obscure (in a traditional Chinese way).

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Characters: Fu Ling x Chong Zhao Screentime: Secondary The most wildest version of the trope. The story starts with the confrontation between an absolutely ruthless demon girl general and a righteous boy from immortal clan. Then the girl falls for him, turns him into her side (kind of) and they become a villain power couple! After that they both change their side and enjoy a bit of normal life as good guys! And the last twist: the righteous guy turns to be a Demon God, as ruthless as the demon girl at the beginnings but the girl stays the same righteous. Yes, it all happens in one single cdrama. And of course there is no HE for these guys, but the philosophy behind this particular type of BE is beautiful. The full recap of their relationship is here and here.

Drama: The Blue Whisper /与君初相识 Characters: Li Shu x Xue Sanyue Screentime: Minor A cat demon prince infiltrates the valley of demon hunters in order to set free the great demoness, but falls in love with one of demon hunters. Mutually. The ending is traditionally Chinese - they met again in another life. Т_Т

Drama: Immortal Samsara / 沉香如屑 Characters: Xuan Ye x Ran Qing Screentime: Minor An Asura king infiltrates the Heavenly Realm in order to steal the artifact that can help him conquering the world. The keeper of this artefact is a brave and honest goddess and he can't help but fall in love with her. After, he needs to choose: to be with his lover or to rule the world. He wants all at once, but there is no way to get it all. No HE for this pair. Pride and Prejudice

Drama: Lighter and Princess / 点燃我 Characters: Li Xun x Zhu Yun Screentime: Main A girl from a rich family with an anxious type of attachment falls in love with her classmate from a poor family with an avoidant type of attachment and tries to win his heart. It`s a problematic ship in a full meaning of these words and I like it this way. Yummy! The HE is attached.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian x Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main A boy accidently meets his school sweetheart after many years of radio silence and understands that something is wrong with her. It turns out that her body is occupied by a transmigrator from a parallel world. At first he hates transmigrator for replacing his lover, but bit by bit he learns, that a transmigrator has not only the same appearance but the same habits and way of thinking, and falls in love with this new personality again... The story ends with HE but not in a way that you may think it would.

Drama: The Love by Hypnotic /明月照我心 Characters: Li Qian x Li Mingyue Screentime: Main In order to build relationship between two countries an emperor arranges marriage for his son. His fiancée is from a barbaric tribe: she is good at horse riding and archery, but knows nothing about palace etiquette and ladies stuff. It`s a light and sweet story about finding a path to each other's heart. The HE is attached.

Drama: The Long Ballad /长歌行 Characters: Hao Du x Li Leyan Screentime: Secondary A tsundere of a low background with a poker face does his ruthless job in a court, that's why a young princess thinks he is an awful man and is scared of him. But in reality he is a loyal servant and son and, moreover, secretly in love with the princess, who can't stand him... The HE is attached.

Drama: Miss the Dragon /遇龙 Characters: Xue Qianxun x Qingqing Screentime: Secondary A very naïve bird demon girl accidently meets a tsundere god of netherworld and turns his well ordered life into havoc. He starts liking it, though. The HE is attached. Forbidden love

Drama: A Frozen Flower /쌍화점 Characters: Hong Rim x No Guk Screentime: Main A gay king needs a heir, so he forces his lover to conceive a child with a queen. In a process, a boy, who was groomed as a king's lover from his childhood, finds out that he likes women much more than men. A traditional Korean tragedy. Very beautiful and full of feelings, though. (No GIFs because they all would be erotic ones).

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Characters: Moo-yeon x Kim So-hye Screentime: Secondary An assassin who is working for a wicked court official is secretly in love with a wife of a crown prince, who happens to be a daughter of the killer of his parents. Forbidden love doubles! But it's mutual, unfortunately for him. It's a very beautiful and full of desperation and feelings story. No HE, we die like Koreans. More detailed story of their relationship is available here, here and here.

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/晴雅集 Characters: He Shouye x Zhang Ping Screentime: Secondary A woman, who is destined to restrain the undying evil within her body for eternity in solitude, falls in love with Yin-Yang master. Her love is mutual, but her lover can't be with her forever, so he leaves with her his guardian demon to brighten her loneliness. Protecting her for ever starts being the only goal of demon's life... A tragedy, but a beautiful one.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Gu Hanguang x Shen Qianjin Screentime: Minor "The Legends" once more! The main doctor of a demonic sect is in love with a leader of a righteous sect. A girl is not allowed to love anyone, otherwise she will suffer from the poison, so he anonymously sends her packages of medicinal herbs. She is curious about anonymous sender, too. But nothing can be kept in secret forever... Unfortunately, no HE for these two. In the novel he is safe and sound, but he has no love plotline at all. So is a price of love Т_Т.

I will talk about my other favorite characters and tropes in the next post.

Also you can see: Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

Two days till I will devour a bucket of broken glass.

I strongly dislike the trope when someone who is in love with one person is forced by fate or circumstances to be with another. Hate it so much. And I have to watch it for 12 series in a row.

I'm afraid that those romance pieces that we could see in OST trailer but havent seen in drama yet are from dreams of DFQC and never happen in reality. And I`m also afraid that one of them will die, because problem of Romeo and Juliette can hardly be solved in another way.

I know that novel has HE but the drama plot has plenty of differences by now and Chinese people like to film BEs. Besides, DFQC killed his father, it`s an unredeemable crime in Oriental cultures.

Please talk to me, I want to share my love and fear with someone.

*It`s me sitting under my tree of love for this drama and trying to brace myself*

Withered and abandoned

Close-ups:

I wanted to honor Li Lun so much that I started drawing in digital. This is my first digital work (not bad for the first work, huh?). I have started it even before drama was over and finished it yesterday. The hommage to Li Lun/Zhao Yuanzhou is in two intertwined trunks of Li Lun's true form tree. My favorite part of the picture is the rattle drum, though.

Some characters portraited by Adam Driver

Li Lun, a villain I feel for (Pt. 4/4)

Since we know that LL’s redemption is not the point, and the main purpose of him being in this story is a̶ b̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶v̶i̶s̶u̶a̶l̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶i̶n̶a̶l̶ ̶b̶a̶t̶t̶l̶e̶ a bunch of plot twists to be sacrificed, everything what happens next is pretty logical. After that conversation with ZYZ’s boyfriend LL moves to the last two stages of acceptance: depression and, actually, acceptance. He got his answer to the question “why do you treat me like this?” but he can’t turn back time and be of superior attitude as current ZYZ’s boyfriend is, so he understands that he will never be able to get ZYZ back. And since he is insanely obsessed with ZYZ, losing hope to reunite means for him losing the meaning of his existence. So, he doesn’t try to possess any other healthy body. He doesn’t even try to find a remedy for the current one, or to notify ZYZ’s squad that their friend’s body is dying in hope they will save Little Traitor (as far as he knows they can do literally impossible things). Of course they can! GJM’s sleeves are full of aces for them! He just waits for his body to die.

This scene in the cave is very beautiful yet meaningless. Li Lun’s lifeless and dark birthplace is now in intense blooming! It’s so beautiful, it means… What is it supposed to mean?🤷🏻‍♀️ There is no redemption, no reason to bloom if only sophoras aren’t trees that bloom only before their death. The only thing that changed in LL’s mind is his acceptance, both of irreversibility of their break-up with ZYZ and of his inevitable death.

Then we have a super strange monologue, in which LL says that he has no place in this world and no home (But darling, why? In this drama there wasn't a single scene where LL was denied by someone except for ZYZ and his friends, they are not the whole world! He is still a part of demon society, no one can take it away from him!). Throughout the drama there was also no sign of him searching for his place in this world! Not a single scene about it! He just wanted to talk to his ex and that’s it! Hearing him speaking of an absence of home while watching his home all over blossoming was really weird.

Although I found it very nice to see Li Lun treating Ao Ying well (It’s so rare for villains, especially obsessed ones, to treat their servants well!), I didn’t understand what this scene was for. To show us that LL is good now and is able to do good deeds? But I already had no doubt he is, because he saved those demons from the dungeon, and saved Great Wilderness centuries ago together with ZYZ, and all that jazz. He never treated Ao Ying bad in frame, so this scene doesn’t work as a contrast to his previous behavior neither. It’s here just to show us dying, miserable LL and to prepare us for feeling for him a little bit more while he will be sacrificed.

In the end of his monologue LL says that he is ready to die but wants to have a great stage to die on and someone to take with him into nothingness, and goes to… ZYZ! So, since he has no hope to get him back, he wants to die trying to take ZYZ with him, I suppose. It’s so within his obsession plot line, although is hella pathetic.

But Ao Ying disturbs his plans and shows him what end should meet every obsessed person in a Chinese drama. She transfers the poison out of Little Traitor’s body into herself and dies for a person she was obsessed with. So now Li Lun knows what to do.

He passes out at the threshold of ZYZ’s residence, and no one of the main characters uses this opportunity to pull his soul out of Little Traitor’s body! Not dying anymore, he talks to ZYZ again and says that he regrets they broke up and wants to return those times. And ZYZ says once more that LL should leave Little Traitor’s body and die. Why doesn’t ZYZ say by this very conversation that he doesn’t want Li Lun to die and has a way to keep his soul alive? Just because. LL is not convinced by ZYZ’s generous offer, so he fights the whole bunch of ZYZ’s friends, loses this fight and gets expelled from Little Traitor’s body. But SUDDENLY ZYZ asks his friends to spare LL’s life and to return his primordial spirit into his own sophora root that once was a love token between them. So LL could chill in his birthplace for a hundred years cultivating himself a new body and would stay alive. Why didn’t ZYZ offer it to LL before, when LL asked him multiple times to spare him? 🤷🏻‍♀️ No idea!

LL’s behavior oddly swings from his willingness to die to his willingness to survive, but Ao Ying paved him the only way obsessed characters could follow, so if he can’t be with ZYZ anyway, he dies saving him. His act of dying is the last part of break-up acceptance: he regifts ex’s gift to his current boyfriend and symbolically hands him over the burden of caring about ZYZ. And lastly has a tantric threesome sex with both ZYZ and his new boyfriend.

"Zhao Yuanzhou, I can't bear seeing you this weak."

I discussed my unhappiness with LL’s plot with my fellow @i-selina and she voiced the thought that there is some sort of Chinese cultural pattern in dramas saying: “your misery is your own weakness and a reason others will try to make you even more miserable”. My cultural pattern says that one should be merciful to other’s misery, that’s why I would like to see Li Lun’s inner fracture get healed and his true redemption arch happen, letting him stay alive. But GJM didn’t seem to bother even developing the main characters, so I shouldn’t expect that much of him here. He was busy making FoF insanely beautiful. No one can be equally good at each aspect of cinematography. Still love Li Lun, though.

Here is Part 1 Here is Part 2 Here is Part 3

Thoughts on Moonlight Mystique

It was my most anticipated drama: demon x goddess relationship is absolutely my jam, Bai Lu is my favorite c-actress and I find Ao Ruipeng super handsome. What could possibly go wrong? Everything 😞 It turned out to be the biggest drama-disappointment ever! I honestly tried to watch it properly, but a plot bunny-like lazy screenwriting, an eye-bleeding color adjustment and theatrical-flat set designs were too much for me. The only things I liked were costumes, make ups and Fu Ling x Chong Zhao pairing.

Ao Ruipeng's looks are amazing, but I couldn't care less about his pristine-white "demon" character, and his main activity throughout the drama was like this (I am a whump lover, but the amount of his attempts to die was too much even for me):

I liked Bai Lu's looks, too, and her character was a little bit more interesting, but still...

But I didn't drop it and even did finish it because of Dai Luwa's and Chang Huasen's characters.

Dai Luwa is sooooooo hot in there! At first, I was just slightly interested by their dynamics because it was almost what I wanted to see of the main characters. But then it turned out to be much more interesting than I thought: a medley of everything that can happen to a pair of characters within the trope "enemies to lovers": Good guy x bad girl? Yeah, sure. Bad guy x bad girl? Yeah, why not? Good guy x good girl? Sure, for variety. Bad guy x good girl? Of course, as soon as you were here from the start precisely for it... It's insanity, but it IS how their relationship unfolds! Relationship of the same two characters! In the same drama! I wish Chinese men stop bleaching main characters to pristine whiteness, so they would remain as interesting and deep as secondary leads... Anyway, I was so impressed by Fu Ling x Chong Zhao dynamics, that it was the first fast-forwarded by me drama that was cut into plenty of GIFs. Two posts about them are coming soon, stay tuned =)

Living & Dead Whose 墓碑 is there?

Hot GIFs to get your attention

I still can't cope with the ending of TtEotM, so I want to read something similar to "Black Moonlight holds the BE script": a bad guy, a good girl, love and then the happy end. (Or maybe watch something like LbFaD). Can you guys advice me something? It`s not necessary should be something Chinese, I enjoyed "Cruel Prince" by Holly Black although the dynamics was quite different.

How to fight your doom (Pt.1)

Episodes 1-7 I LOVE how this story starts (because the beginning circles up with the end like Ouroboros)! The Girl breaks the Heavenly rules to save her beloved one and changes his fate, so he wouldn`t die from Devil`s shattered primordial spirit attack. Because of that she falls right into the arms (and onto the lips) of the Worst Monster in Three Realms. And CURES him.

She gathers his shattered in 7 pieces soul (it`s very Chinese thing, I often see in novels that immortal beings have 7 souls and 9 spirits or something like that), puts it back into his body and heals even those injuries that were caused by his father long before his "death". This beginning feels right. Their journey starts with curing and IS about curing each other in different ways.

Devil is allpowerful and fearsome but also feral and broken, so the only way for him to accept his chance to be cured is to put him into the situation when he is forced to behave in another, unfamiliar way. So there is a curse that helps him to understand feelings that he`s gonna be able to feel for the first time in 38 thousand years and prevents him from his standart way to solve problems (such as to kill the girl).

(Btw I LOVE how this show is accurate to the details: if she is injured, the same bruises we can see the whole day on her as on him.)

Forced to take care of Girl`s safety and mood, he (with the great killing intent) learns how to do nice things to others and to be empathic.

But he is not thrown out into the endless sea of feelings without lifebelt, Girl guides him, explains to him what`s going on with him (and he can`t even kill her for that, LOL). And some feelings he needs to learn by his own. (Later we will see that he is an exellent student and embraces his ability to feel and to love fully).

I like how entangled the most part of their relationship look like: he is forced to do nice things to Girl and in process starts to ask himself, why does she feel what she feels and why does he feel something about it. Why does he care if she is happy not to see him again ever in her life? Why does she blush when she speaks about her dream beloved? Why does she drink his flower soup when it tastes awful? We can see even tiny green sprouts of jelousy start to grow in his heart little by little (it`s not so much about romance, but about his warrior`s fame at first). Only by force he could begin to think about it and the curse helps him with that a lot.

On the other hand, Girl is very naïve, she doesn`t understand that Devil is Devil indeed and that he forced to be nice to her, so she supposes that he really likes her. Her soul is injured too: she has been bullied by other fairies, she lives all alone, no one takes her words seriosly, she is quite ordinary, quite invisible. And Devil gives her (against his will at first) opportunity to feel how it is when someone cares. It could be wicked cheating of fate if Devil would not be so fluffy and soft in his soul. But he is. Episode 8 Episodes 9-13 Episodes 13-19 Episodes 20-26 Episodes 27-34