Tantai Jin Apologist

How Dare You!? final thoughts

Sat, 21 Feb 2026 21:35:33 GMT

Been a busy week & I've barely managed time for anything, but I've finished How Dare You!? & loved it.

It was pretty much everything I'd been hoping it'd be. Fun & hilarious, & totally nailed the vibe & tone of the novel, & took excellent advantage of the ridiculousness of the scenario for comedic purposes. I was absolutely dying at the scene where Xiahou Dan is marching through the palace grounds while the team of eunuchs carrying the palanquin that he's supposed to be riding in scuttle along behind him, desperately trying to keep up. And the scene where they're 'texting' each other where Mr Bei is running to & fro carrying the messages between them was another highlight. The fight choreography was also way better than expected for a comedy that wasn't especially action-focused.

Particularly loved the Empress Dowager. She was deliciously evil & charismatic & must have been wearing her teeth down with all the scenery chewing she was doing. She stole every scene she was in & the actress was clearly having a fantastic time with that role.

I have a few thoughts on the ending...

( SPOILERS! Detailed summary of how the novel's ending compares to the drama's, & my thoughts on it. )

I still loved it, don't get me wrong. Absolute 11/10 drama, no question. Do not skip this because I'm being a little nitpicky. But considering how insanely faithful it'd been, & how funny & cute the novel version of the ending was, it felt like a weird choice, & I can't help comparing the two. If the drama was an original work & not an adaptation, or I'd watched the drama before reading the book, I'd be 100% fine but as it is, it's inevitable I'll compare the two versions & be a little 'aw c'mon!'.

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Whispers of Fate (first impressions)

Tue, 28 Oct 2025 09:25:19 GMT

Absolutely loving Whispers of Fate so far. The story is interesting with plenty of twists & turns, the action sequences are epic, stunning visuals, the comedic moments are used sparingly & are actually funny.

That opening theme is bloody awful though.

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When Destiny Brings the Demon - final thoughts

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 20:57:57 GMT

The ending aired on Monday but I put off watching the last few episodes because I couldn't bring myself to let it end. (And because I got into replaying Horizon Zero Dawn again. But mostly about the not being ready thing.)

Ah, so good! But...

HOW DARE THEY PLAY WITH MY EMOTIONS LIKE THAT IN THE LAST FEW MINUTES?! Go to jail for 1,000 years!

That thank you message was pretty cute. :D

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When Destiny Brings the Demon / Mistakenly Saving the Villain

Sat, 23 Aug 2025 13:20:24 GMT

Watching When Destiny Brings the Demon & holy shit it's is amazing! If you're not watching this, I highly recommend it! To entice you, here are some random things that happen:

- A significant portion of the budget has gone on dry ice.

- ML holds FL to him, declaring that she will not die so long as he wishes her to remain alive, his face spattered with the blood of his enemies, as buildings burn around him & epic music plays. She is concerned about whether he's eating enough.

- ML shows up to a sparring display, throws an apple (well, a flower petal) of discord into the ring, & watches everyone biting each other's dicks off.

- FL receives a mysterious letter (that is clearly not from ML) inviting her to a midnight meeting & is like 'nah'. Common sense in a cdrama FL!

- ML needs to feed FL his blood (because it's magic) but she is unconscious & won't open her mouth. Clearly the only thing to do is to suck some of his blood into his own mouth & feed her mouth to mouth. There is simply no other way to achieve this.

- ML turns FL into an otter (because reasons) & is constantly petting her & carries her around everywhere & snuggles with her in bed. You could say the whole thing is... otterly adorable.

These things all happen within the first 10 episodes. It's not quite Till the End of the Moon levels of intense batshit, but damn it's close. I gotta say though, my favourite thing here might just be how it's shot. There's actual thought put into how scenes are blocked out & shots are framed. A couple of particular standouts that spring to mind: A shot where the ML draws a dagger while holding it in front of him, so his face is framed by the blade & his sleeve. And another is a scene where the 2FL is having a talk with the main antagonist & it's blocked & framed in such a way that they spend part of the scene back to back, which absolutely should not work & breaks basic rules of filmmaking, but works perfectly & underlines what is going on in that scene.

I withdraw everything I said about Mistakenly Saving the Villain. Got to about 25% & the story just started spinning its wheels. Main character fell into a coma for a decade so we got a timeskip, but it didn't feel as if anything had really changed aside from his personality disappearing. His drive to do medical research & help the love interest (to the point of torturing the guy who trafficked him & giving his soul to the LI as a birthday gift because death was too good for him!) sort of evaporates & he's just kind of there being useless. It's all so... meh.

I might have pushed through if it was just that but... An Long. He shows up, causes enormous damage breaking into the MC's home & bites a chunk out of the MC(!), who then APOLOGISES TO HIM for making him worry! Even though he wrote to him as soon as he was out of his coma, telling him he was fine & to stop trying to break in. But apparently it's all the MC's fault he did so anyway. Ignoring boundaries is fine! And he & the LI have an awkward rivalry over stuff that happened over the 10 year timeskip, but don't do anything about it for no other reason than to drag out what is almost certainly the most boring reveal in the history of literature when the MC finds out. That's okay though because he's not sticking around, righ- Oh, we're going on an awkward road trip because the MC wants them all to be a squad or something. No thanks. (And the author leaves an author's note reassuring the readers that don't worry he was going to get a good ending! I don't want him to have a good ending - I want him to die immediately.)

Threw in the towel at chapter 42 (33% of the way through).

I would have liked to have immediately leapt into the official translation of My Husband & I Sleep in a Coffin, but no bookshop in the UK is able to get their hands on a copy, it seems.

I've started on The White Cat's Divine Scratching Post. I'm liking what I've read so far, though I've only just started so I've yet to form any real opinion. (I was planning on starting The Beauty's Blade next, as it's next up in the publication order of the novels I'm checking out, but TBH I'll probably take one for the team & buy it regardless, as this is clearly 7S testing the waters regarding baihe.)

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Cdrama Roundup

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 20:37:29 GMT

Jade's Fateful Love

Someone on c_ent recommended a drama called Fateful Love & when I went to look it up on MDL I found 2 dramas called that, plus this one, all of which released in 2024. I suppose we should be lucky nobody released one called Fateful Love of Blossom, for the ultimate 2024 cliché title.

I checked this one out to investigate & was immediately intrigued because it had a time loop/do-over element, where the main pairing had a magic pendant that would rewind time if they died. I love me some time travel tropes so I was like O_O YES PLEASE! And it was a relatively short drama, but not too short, with 24 episodes of 40 mins each (& several of them were 35 mins).

Sadly I ended up bailing 10 episodes in because even with that fairly snappy runtime, the plot still dragged, & after the first 2 episodes they barely died & needed to rewind (episodes 3-10 they died twice). Everything just seemed to screech to a halt as soon as they arrived in the capitol. Things sort of happen with no real impact. FL runs away & replaces her sister in the marriage, assuming her identity so her sister can marry her true love, & her brother is with her, & then we find her sister has settled in some random town after her escape. This means the country of Dongyu has lost 2 princesses, 1 prince, & the sister's lover is a diplomat, & the marriage is meant to seal a peace deal between the 2 countries after years of war, but this is fine I guess? ML seems to die in a confrontation but is quickly revealed to be alive & there is so further mention, even though he got stabbed in the chest. FL knows the marriage is important & has no particular reason not to marry considering the consequences, but wants to find a way out because... reasons. The ML's cousin is in love with him & sees herself as entitled to him, gets the FL & ML killed (obviously they get better), so he's obviously pissed & kicks her out of his mansion (presumably having her punished more severely would cause political issues so fair enough), & then a few episodes later she's visiting him & while he's not exactly friendly, he's weirdly chill about it. There's a stolen ledger that's apparently important only not really. FL encounters someone from her country being abused & intervenes, gets arrested over it & finds out her people are treated as slaves & the woman she helped has to go back to her master even though she apparently bought her freedom, & is just kind of, 'oh, well that sucks'. Stuff like that. Everything is just, oh okay I guess. There's supposedly political scheming going on but there's no tension.

They also did that thing where they make the FL incompetent in ways she should be competent. We're shown in episode 1 that she loves cooking, but later an etiquette teacher shows up & she struggles to pour tea (I don't doubt she'd struggle with the fiddlier aspects of a tea ceremony, but a cook being unable to pour liquid without spilling it? Come on. She's from a country of grassy plains with a tribal/Mongolian vibe & there is no way someone like that isn't an experienced rider, & when she & the ML go out riding, after initially riding super well & shooting with a bow from horseback, she falls off the horse when it gets startled & is immediately helpless & has to be carried by the ML & her sprained ankle is treated as a grievous injury.

2ML is a contender from Most Annoying 2ML in a Cdrama.

On the plus side the ML had such a cute baby face yet still had Lan Wangji levels of resting bitch face, & I love the contrast. I also love the South Prince, who should by all rights have been a super annoying character, but managed to be hilarious & endearing. Sadly neither of these characters was enough to make up for the boredom.

Fateful Love

The actual drama I was recommended. Made it 2 episodes in. Seemed promising at first. FL transmigrates from the modern world & immediately beats a bunch of people up & gives zero fucks it was awesome & hilarious watching her humiliate her shitty family. But then she seems to just let them walk over her. And she goes to the consort selection to piss off her sister, but then doesn't really try & is surprised at being chosen. Like are you trying to spite her or not? And why commission nunchucks if you can't fight effectively with them? It also looks like they'd doing the 'every other female character is a jealous bitch who wants the ML & hates the FL' & omg fuck that shiiiiit.

Especially as the ML is ugly (not helped by an atrocious wig). Like girl you can have him.

Even beyond his looks I had no interest in his story.

Legend of the Female General

I didn't even manage 5 minutes. Noped out as soon as I saw the character was forced to wear a mask. I know the MDL description mentioned that but I thought they were being metaphorical! I get they needed the character to not be recognised when she assumed her new identity after being betrayed. But it makes zero sense that her father would force her to wear it from childhood to disguise her as a boy. Just have her wear boy clothes! There'll be no obvious indicators otherwise until puberty hits & it's not like her face is what's going to give things away at that point. It just draws attention to the fact that something shady is going on. And we see her still wearing a mask when fighting, & you can't tell me everyone was fine with that.

According to the description the ML is suspicious & convinced she's a spy... after she returns post-betrayal, without her mask! So he was not remotely suspicious of someone constantly wearing a mask, but this random person is clearly up to something.

They obviously need to have the ML not recognise her, but idk just have a different actress play her in flashbacks, or do something with makeup, or say the ML has really bad face blindness or something!

I guess that's a petty thing to be bothered by, but I can only handwave so much. I'm pretty sure I'm dodging a bullet here as well. It took so long to get to air & that's rarely a good sign. Plus there were comments on the MDL page about how the pacing felt rushed, which didn't necessarily seem like a big deal (& people were defending the pacing by saying the novel had a lot going on) until I saw that the 4 episodes available on that first day were all 35 minutes. So you have a busy plot, & not only are you only using 36 episodes out of the maximum of 40, but the run time is shorter than it could be. Yeah, red flaaaaaags.

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The Immortal Ascension

Wed, 30 Jul 2025 14:27:08 GMT

I wanted so bad to like this, but I'm just not. And what's frustrating it that I feel as if there is a really good drama there, but they're rushing by so fast that none of it is getting a chance to actually land, & a lot of stuff doesn't make sense.

For instance his dead master leaves a letter telling him how to cure the poison & I guess provides a letter of introduction (I assumed Han Li forged it but there's a secret letter hidden within it so unless he knew what paper Han Li was going write on this makes no sense) but hides a letter in it telling them Han Li is bad. The family also knew he was dead somehow but Han Li seems to act like he isn't at first. The wives plot his death but then forget all about that & want to keep him around because it's cool he killed their husband seeing as he's honest about it, & have him kill a bunch of random people & make out like the jade isn't something they can get their hands on like that. And then one of the daughters gives him it, he uses it, & then gives it back again & that's it. And that all happens in one episode (plus a few minutes of the next so they can have a cliffhanger). I have a feeling like this would all make a lot more sense given proper time to play out & with characters having a chance to react to stuff.

Or when he shows his new buddy the cultivation book he was given & asks him about the token. Not only does the guy have no info, but he apparently can't read the words on the page right in front of him, even though you'd think he's be interested in a golden ticket into one of the sects. And instead of just going 'Oh well I thought it sounded interesting' & moving on, Han Li feeds him info, just so the guy can blurt it out in front of someone else (& then be killed off). Again, I wonder if this is something where the bad guys suspecting he had a token would have been more organic if allowed time to play out.

These might still have been fine - the benefit of them rushing through the master's family part meant I didn't have to deal with them for too long, & I'm fine with some handwaving to move a plot along.

But the real problem is that I didn't feel invested in any of the characters or their interactions/relationships. Li Feiyu goes from sneering at Han Li to declaring eternal brotherhood within a couple of episodes with only a few short scenes between them. I don't need every little thing spelled out & can infer a lot, but I don't get any sense of them forming a bond at all. And that lack of emotional investment includes Han Li himself. I can push through a terrible plot or too slow/fast pacing or bad comedy or a thousand other drama sins IF YOU JUST MAKE ME CARE ABOUT THE MAIN CHARACTER(S). And I don't, because of the way stuff just seems to happen & he doesn't get a chance to react to or process stuff (aside from the death of his master & finding out what happened to his friend, & even those pass way too quickly).

I'm bored, even though there's a lot happening, because I don't care about any of it. I should have figured it was a bad sign when the episode count was reduced twice, from 38 to 34 & then to 30.

There's a chance I might try again & check out some spoilers towards the end of its run, just to see if things improve once it's found its footing (though I gave it 6 episode & normally even the slowest burning of dramas have hooked me by then).

Luckily The Wanted Detective/Calming Waves (they've gone back & forth so many times) is airing on Friday, so hopefully that'll fill the void.

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A Dream Within A Dream

Sun, 29 Jun 2025 08:47:20 GMT

This drama sounded like it should be right up my alley. Transmigration story that (according to the description), involved some meta elements on storytelling? Yes please!

But in order to fuck around the narrative, you have to tell people what it is. We got a few random disjointed scenes with no context or idea of how the fit into any kind of wider plot (I think the problem here is the drama is more concerned with roasting cdrama cliches than telling an interesting story that *happens* to be a parody. It doesn't help that one of those scenes invites comparisons with TTEOTM & the ML is not TTJ.). Then the FL gets drawn into the story, but things are already off-script, & she keeps dying & reliving a scene that is apparently not in the script. But instead of either surviving long enough in one of the loops to fix anything, or refusing to engage with a wedding to the 2ML (which is presumably what she's meant to do to clear the way for the ML), the loop just arbitrarily ends & she finds herself waking up on a day 6 months earlier. Like, why is any of this happening.

That might still be fun to watch play out if I liked the characters, but I don't. The FL is annoying. The ML is a charisma vacuum & his character doesn't feel like the protagonist he's meant to be in this story.

Getting into real nitpicking territory here, but I hated the music choices. The score/instrumental pieces were fine, but the more contemporary style stuff was all obnoxious.

I'll just go & rewatch Love Game in Eastern Fantasy. It did this way better.

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Love Game in Eastern Fantasy

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 22:09:26 GMT

This drama is a delight! Going into this, I didn't have high expectations. It seemed like the sort of drama where there was an extremely high chance of both obnoxious 'comedy' & an excruciatingly cutesy performance from the FL. I'm also a huge Scum Villain's Self-Saving System fan, & that sets the bar high for transmigration narratives. At best I was hoping for something decent, with tolerable characters & a cute main CP.

Talk about exceeding expectations! I love the characters & how they all play off against each other. Especially like how other forms of love are represented - the main 'love triangle' is a romantic couple (eventually anyway), a pair of siblings & female friendship, meanwhile 2ML is just kinda there lol. The comedy is actually funny & not overdone. FL for sure has exhibited some stupidity so far (girl, why would you constantly be wailing about how you don't want your dad to get in trouble for being up to shady shit? All you're doing is confirming it for anyone who is suspicious), but nowt too egregious & I'll give it a pass for her simply panicking. The aesthetic of all the promo materials is nice too - gives me vaguely synthwave vibes.

Who would have expected that Fangs of Fortune, which looked insane & I've been anticipating for months, would be as interesting as watching paint dry with zero character chemistry & awful comedy (seriously, so many times when there was just an awkward pause & a quirky sound effect & I was like '...wait, was that supposed to be funny?' & don't even get me started on the annoying child character), while the fluffy-looking drama I added to my watchlist thinking 'eh, looks like it could be ok' has given me compelling characters with interesting interactions.

(Also as a fanfic writer who loves SVSSS let me tell you I was taking notes during episode 4 where LY's dad was showing her all these magical devices that were basically magical versions of modern appliances because SQH would absolutely come out with a ~~refrigerator~~ Cold-Jade Cabinet. Also imagine SY cursing the System & it just flattens him with a meteor.)

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Blossoms in Adversity thoughts

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 18:46:25 GMT

Finally got around to watching this & fuck this might be my fave cdrama. Everything about it was perfect. Signed up for 2 Broke Girls: Ancient China Edition, got 2 Broke Girls Crossed With Game of Thrones.

- Wow there was a *lot* going on here. Like they kept throwing new calamities & you wonder how the family will get through this one & they find a way super easy barely an inconvenience & then something else. Said like that, it sounds shit but fucking hell it was so stressful to watch. The panik-kalm-panik meme constantly. Speaking of good choices in narrative structure I love how they didn't drag Gu Yanxi's identity out for the sake of a late game shock twist. This gets revealed between the main couple pretty early on & they don't keep secrets (CHARACTERS COMMUNICATING WITH & TRUSTING EACH OTHER???? WHAT IS THIS?) & it's not treated as that big a deal. Oh you're a Commander of the Security Bureau & a prince? OK sure whatever not the wildest thing that's happened this week.

- Yay for female solidarity & the power of friendship & how so many of Hua Zhi's solutions to stuff involve working together with other people. Meanwhile the royal family are murdering each other in the background.

- Needed 3 pages of notes trying to keep the characters straight & it still took me till episode 10 to figure out Boli & Bolin were two different characters.

- Tensest cooking competition ever.

- The Hua mansion becoming the Home For Wayward Royals.

- Shaoyao stabbing *&* poisoning Shen Huan & he immediately decides she is The One. 10/10

- The women of the family all getting some kind of development & depth, all growing in confidence & going from thinking they can't possibly manage without the men in the family around to bossing them around when they come back & not taking any shit.

- Unironically love the scene where they're travelling & go 'Oh no it's getting windy!' but the wind itself & the associated debris has clearly been added in later because nobody's hair & clothes are being blown about & it's so goofy & I love it. Like the effects aren't bad & everyone is doing a good job of trying to convince the audience it's really windy but it's clearly not. A+ for effort guys.

- Wished we got more of Haoyue but I loved the way we got glimpses of the person underneath. In different circumstances she & Hua Zhi could have been good friends.

- Love the Emperor being like 'Wait, you acted to save my life even after I've tormented you & your family & ruined your lives?', & instead of trying to persuade him to free her she just goes, 'Nah fuck that it's just the assassination method involved a lot of collateral damage. Wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire actually'. Like girl gave away the last fuck she had to give. Just throw the old dynasty out & make her Empress cos that's some queen shit right there.

- New Emperor has customer service experience. I approve.

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