Tantai Jin Apologist

I gave The Wrong Way to a Demon Sect Leader a go, but unfortunately it proved a disappointment. It was very short (82 chapters plus 47 extras, with the epub I was reading coming in at around 200 pages), which is absolutely enough for writing a satisfying story if the author keeps the story tight & has a knack for characterisation even with minimalist prose. But the author here couldn't pick a struggle. The first part was funny while being light on plot (no time for that between the humour), & the rest tried to add a plot, which mean no time for jokes, & the plot itself had no foundation so it was just... stuff happens I guess. And none of the characters felt interesting because the characterisation was so bare bones, which left the couple with no chemistry & not feeling like a couple (they just... sort of got together at the end? I guess?). I finished the main story, but couldn't get too far into the extras. The translation that's actually good only did the main story, & the translation that covered the story + extras is... less good. It didn't feel worth pushing through as the extras seemed to be wanting to deal with loose ends, but the plot was so much nothing that I couldn't bring myself to care ('hey this character has gone mysteriously missing!' Uh you mean the random side character that had one line of dialogue in the main story? okay) enough to push through.

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

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.

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.

As if to be helpful though, those two that have started are not proving interesting to me. Moonlight Mystique apparently took one look at how Fangs of Fortune turned an exciting trailer into the most boring drama ever & went 'Hold my beer!'. Hey, did you know that 60,000 years ago there was a war where all the gods died??? Well there was a war 60,000 years ago where all the gods died! Don't worry if you miss the information that 60,000 years ago there was a war where all the gods died, because someone will mention that 60,000 years ago there was a war where all the gods died. Same with saying how the FL has absorbed the McGuffin Stone & wondering how can that be possible. Like idk dude, you didn't know last time you had this conversation & there's been no new developments since then. So much talking in circles. And to make it worse, they're doing the worst type of miscommunication plot. The sort where they're stretching the FL's ignorance out as long as possible even though it gets in the way because any time a confrontation happens & the FL, ML, & 2ML are all in the same scene together & it looks like things are going anywhere, the 2ML has to escort her away, completely killing any momentum & preventing the plot from advancing in any way so the plot is just spinning its wheels. And this. Keeps. Happening. Also that obnoxious pink haired thing needs to die in a fire.

I managed 3 episodes & I just couldn't take it any more.

The Blossoming Love seemed more promising initially. Very pretty, & episode 1 seemed to launch us right into the action... And then it's just the leads going back & forth about whether or not they're travelling together. Haven't you guys got, like, shit to do? The drama is expecting me to care about this couple but is so busy wasting my time with the same argument to give them anything to do that might make them interesting. It also forgot to give the ML a personality. The FL technically has one at least, but unfortunately she's playing basically the same character as she was in Till the End of the Moon, but unlike Pian Ran she doesn't have anyone interesting to play off against, so it falls flat. Bailed on this one after 3 eps as well.

Still enjoying Money is Coming though.

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.)

Nope. Even he cannot save this mess.