#that you're reading a

[a-fantasy-lover-surfing-the-net]

Modern Cdramas I watched in 2023

This was my first year in Dramaland (both Chinese and Korean). And I have to say that for the most part I have enjoyed my journey in discovering the dramas. This list includes dramas that were released before 2023 as well.

9. Love of Replica

This one of those dramas with lookalikes where the female lead impersonates her lookalike and solves the mystery about her backstory. Also, it's a bodyguard romance so I definitely expected some things going in. It's full of cliches and tropes some enjoyable and some irritating. I have to praise Yu Yue (actress portraying the female lead), she really made me believe that lookalikes were two completely different people. The chemistry between the main couple is fire. I did not enjoy the secondary characters' romance. However the overall squad energy and their team dynamic was great. I kinda guessed the twist but was surprised by how dark the drama went. Overall, I liked most of it and I was disappointed how some of the characters ended up. If you want a bodyguard romance with kinda obvious twists with very good cast chemistry then you'll probably like it.

8. Parallel Love

This is a time travel drama (you'll see more of these in this list) where Lin Miao, the female lead travels from 2020 to 2010 and she must help Jiao Yang, who is the Vice President of Hong Yu, become the president of the company within 3 months otherwise she will disappear forever. What I liked most about is that Lin Miao is very competant and smart, even if she is not experienced for the task she will still try her best and give it her all. I enjoyed the romance and the dynamic of the main leads. It definitely has plot holes regarding time travel and the rules were not properly explained. They also did not really focus much on the time travel part and did use the potential things that they could do with time travel. However, the interaction between the present and the future Lin Miao was very well done and something that many people would be able to relate to. The business plot was medium and not very interesting. The main leads' personalities and character arcs was the reason why I enjoyed the drama. However, they left the ending ambiguous so if you don't mind open endings then you'll enjoy this time travel/corporate romance drama.

7. Love under the Full Moon

Another time travel drama with a twist that Lei Chu Xia (female lead), who has time travelled 10 years into the future can't leave Xu Xiao Dong side beyond a certain distance. Together they work to recover her memory to unravel the mysteries of the past decade. This drama has great romance, unique time travel premises further in the series, good character development for the main and secondary cast, an antagonist that seems like a real person which makes it seem like we could meet someone like them in real life and a plot with unexpected paths. However, it does have a bittersweet open ending which could make some people hate the drama. Despite that I really liked the drama.

6. Mr. Bad

One day, Nan Xing, an online novel writer makes a wish for an "unforgettable love" in a wishing pool. Then, Xiao Wu Di, the villain of her story, suddenly appears before her! She tries to avoid him, but Xiao Wu Di finds her and threatens her into taking care of him. Unfortunately for him, Nan Xing's wish comes with a special power: whenever she needs help, Xiao Wu Di teleports next to her to fulfill her wish. It's fun, fluffy and sweet with not much angst. The romance is cute and the dynamic with the secondary cast is enjoyable. The ending frustrated me but I assume they did it to pass the censors so I just pretend the last 7 mins don't exist. This is one of those shows you can watch when you just want to turn your brain off and watch a sweet story.

5. My Lethal Man

It's premise is similar to Love of Replica however here Shen Man Ning, an art student takes the place of Zhuang Xin Yan, granddaughter of a business tycoon. Yan Xing Cheng, the mysterious male lead is ruthless in pursuing the mastermind behind the threats and is not really sympathetic to Xin Yan but as they face the difficulties together they fall in love. The romance is so good and their dynamic is very different from typical ones. I found the secondary characters' romance weird and poorly done. The plot was really good and the pace kept moving along nicely. Except for the secondary romance, I had a great time watching it, I really recommend this one if you want a drama that balances mystery/thriller and romance and does a good job at both aspects.

4. Love in Time

A time travel drama again ! This is the last one though. This one is unique because the appartment in which He Zhen Yu has recently moved into merges with it's past one. This is how he meets a rookie reporter Chen Jia Lan who is a former tenant from four months ago, and through some miracle, they are able to see each other. When they attempt to prevent future misfortunes by changing the past together, their romance blossoms. Their romance was so good that I really ended up hardcore rooting for them to get their happy ending. I don't want to give away too much so all I'll say is that the time travel and its consequences were handled very well for the most part and the plot was interesting and took surprising turns. He Zhen Yu's character arc was very well portrayed on the other hand while in the beginning I related to Chen Jia Lan, in the latter part of the drama I was frustrated with her choices and how she didn't have a character growth moment. All the actors did a good job but I have to say that the main leads' acting was very good and made me very immersed in their story. All in all, I had a very good time watching it as the ending brought it all together for me.

3. Lucky's First Love

It's one of those office romances which has a light tone for the most part. Xing Yun is competent and hardworking who was there with Xia Ke when he started the company. They have been working together for years and have deep understanding of each other and work well together. Thankfully, Xia Ke is not one of those CEOs who are jerks and cold hearted. He may be reserved but he is quite caring (not in an overt way) not only towards Xing Yun but also his employees. Xing Yun does go out with someone else in the start but it doesn't last long and love triangle shenanigans are not long drawn out. The main leads' romance is sweet and depicts their daily interactions and they have great kiss scenes. The secondary couples are also great. This drama has character development for main and secondary characters, wholesome workplace and family dynamics, no over the top melodrama, lifelike workplace and relationship issues, slice of life interactions and very little angst. This is a great watch for when you need something short and sweet that's not too heavy.

2. Ordinary Greatness

The show mainly focuses on novice police officers that are starting their one year long mentorship. They soon discover that the grass-roots work is different from what they imagined, and, after some struggles, they're gradually moved by the sense of achievement and honour gained in their work. Throughout the show we explore their characters, their comraderie with each other, with their mentors and with other police officers at their station. We also get to know their mentors and other police officers at the station which immerses the audience in the show deeply. It is a slice of life type drama, where most of the cases are not major crimes. All actors knock it out of the park with their emotional as well as subtle portrayals. This show depicts how even small acts and seemingly tedious and insignificant work really have great impact on people's lives and that the people doing such grassroots work contribute just as much and are just as important to the society if not more as the people doing big acts like taking down criminal gangs. While some situations and cases are specific to China, everyone will be able to relate to majority of them. I must say this is a must watch drama.

1. Arsenal Military Academy

This is a Republican era drama in which Xie Xiang assumes her brother's identity to join the Chinese army and is accepted in the Arsenal Military Academy. While she is the main lead the story also follows Gu Yan Zheng(main lead) - a spoilt quarrelsome rich kid, the gentle and introverted Shen Jun San, Qu Man Ting - a famous actress and singer and secondarily other cadets, their teachers and other locals. It has great comedy, really good romance (including their hilarious bickering), enjoyable action and entertaining dynamic of the cast. All the actors did an excellent job here, the standouts being Bai Lu, for portraying being able to convincingly play the female role and the female disguised as male role all while knocking out her emotional and comedic scenes and Xu Kai, who can forget his electrifying performance as a lovable troublemaker. I have to warn you that the story gets serious in the last 10ish episodes and that the love triangle does drag out a little bit longer than it should but it's resolution is still good. To me the drama didn't seem overly patriotic so I didn't have a problem rooting for the characters and their goals of protecting and improving their country. This ranked first because it's romance, characters and their comraderie won me over completely.

You can also check out my costumed cdrama rankings.

As I'm still a newbie to cdramas and kdramas, I welcome your recommendations.

[kiryuing]

[batcavescolony]

Katniss is such an unreliable narrator. She says "Then something unexpected happens. At least, I don't expect it because I don't think of District 12 as a place that cares about me" girl you deliver strawberries to the Mayor, you hunt and trade for the district, when you fell at Prim being chosen someone caught you, when you went to Prim people parted for you, when you volunteered EVERYONE stopped. Idk how to tell you but I think you're a pillar of the community.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Penelope's final gambit, you will always be famous, no matter the subtext.

[ohcorny]

calling your representative is way less scary than you think it is. you're going to get some tired 22 year old with a scratch pad taking a tally at their desk. takes fifteen seconds and you're done

[ulyuxe]

In the past fifty years, fantasy’s greatest sin might be its creation of a bland, invariant, faux-Medieval European backdrop. The problem isn’t that every fantasy novel is set in the same place: pick a given book, and it probably deviates somehow. The problem is that the texture of this place gets everywhere.

What’s texture, specifically? Exactly what Elliot says: material culture. Social space. The textiles people use, the jobs they perform, the crops they harvest, the seasons they expect, even the way they construct their names. Fantasy writing doesn’t usually care much about these details, because it doesn’t usually care much about the little people – laborers, full-time mothers, sharecroppers, so on. (The last two books of Earthsea represent LeGuin’s remarkable attack on this tendency in her own writing.) So the fantasy writer defaults – fills in the tough details with the easiest available solution, and moves back to the world-saving, vengeance-seeking, intrigue-knotting narrative. Availability heuristics kick in, and we get another world of feudal serfs hunting deer and eating grains, of Western name constructions and Western social assumptions. (Husband and wife is not the universal historical norm for family structure, for instance.)

Defaulting is the root of a great many evils. Defaulting happens when we don’t think too much about something we write – a character description, a gender dynamic, a textile on display, the weave of the rug. Absent much thought, automaticity, the brain’s subsconscious autopilot, invokes the easiest available prototype – in the case of a gender dynamic, dad will read the paper, and mom will cut the protagonist’s hair. Or, in the case of worldbuilding, we default to the bland fantasy backdrop we know, and thereby reinforce it. It’s not done out of malice, but it’s still done.

The only way to fight this is by thinking about the little stuff. So: I was quite wrong. You do need to worldbuild pretty hard. Worldbuild against the grain, and worldbuild to challenge. Think about the little stuff. You don’t need to position every rain shadow and align every tectonic plate before you start your short story. But you do need to build a base of historical information that disrupts and overturns your implicit assumptions about how societies ‘ordinarily’ work, what they ‘ordinarily’ eat, who they ‘ordinarily’ sleep with. Remember that your slice of life experience is deeply atypical and selective, filtered through a particular culture with particular norms. If you stick to your easy automatic tendencies, you’ll produce sexist, racist writing – because our culture still has sexist, racist tendencies, tendencies we internalize, tendencies we can now even measure and quantify in a laboratory. And you’ll produce narrow writing, writing that generalizes a particular historical moment, its flavors and tongues, to a fantasy world that should be much broader and more varied. Don’t assume that the world you see around you, its structures and systems, is inevitable.

We... need worldbuilding by Seth Dickinson

[fallen-goldfishcracker]

Wyll is so fucking funny and no amount of acknowledgement about this could ever be enough. He's literally walking around being so casually hilarious completely under-the-radar. He calls Halsin a "thick hunk of an elf". He once accidently implied that he was fucking an ogre instead of killing it and then proceeded to absolutely stumble his way through explaining. He gets excited by Lae'zel talking about carnal pleasures. He canonically tells his pessimistic thoughts to shut the hell up. He volunteers to babysit Shadowheart's hypothetical werewolf babies as long as she gets him gloves. He tries to give Gale a hero moniker like his own. He jokes that his father, the Grand Duke of Baldur's Gate, can't spell. He calls Astarion "Mister Fangs". He makes up storybook chapter names for his own fucking adventures. As a child he got chased by the Flaming Fist for stealing fruit, nearly drowned trying to find mermaids in the harbor, and almost successfully broke into the Counting House. He reads monster erotica, and is not ashamed to tell you about it. He ranks eating pudding among life's greatest moments. He will, without shame and completely unprompted, meow at you. He is 24 years old.

[inkskinned]

this is just my opinion but i think any good media needs obsession behind it. it needs passion, the kind of passion that's no longer "gentle scented candle" and is now "oh shit the house caught on fire". it needs a creator that's biting the floorboards and gnawing the story off their skin. creators are supposed to be wild animals. they are supposed to want to tell a story with the ferocity of eating a good stone fruit while standing over the sink. the same protective, strange instinct as being 7 and making mud potions in pink teacups: you gotta get weird with it.

good media needs unhinged, googling-at-midnight kind of energy. it needs "what kind of seams are invented on this planet" energy and "im just gonna trust the audience to roll with me about this" energy. it needs one person (at least) screaming into the void with so much drive and energy that it forces the story to be real.

sometimes people are baffled when fanfic has some stunning jaw-dropping tattoo-it-on-you lines. and i'm like - well, i don't go here, but that makes sense to me. of fucking course people who have this amount of passion are going to create something good. they moved from a place of genuine love and enjoyment.

so yeah, duh! saturday cartoons have banger lines. random street art is sometimes the most precious heart-wrenching shit you've ever seen. someone singing on tiktok ends up creating your next favorite song. youtubers are giving us 5 hours of carefully researched content. all of this is the impossible equation to latestage capitalism. like, you can't force something to be good. AI cannot make it good. no amount of focus-group testing or market research. what makes a story worth listening to is that someone cares so much about telling it - through dance, art, music, whatever it takes - that they are just a little unhinged about it.

one time my friend told me he stayed up all night researching how many ways there are to peel an orange. he wrote me a poem that made me cry on public transportation. the love came through it like pith, you know? the words all came apart in my hands. it tasted like breakfast.

[shitty-check-please-aus]

What we need to do is convince all the disney adults in america that high speed rail would be a preferable way of getting to disneyworld compared to driving or flying. We could maybe harness their fondness for the monorail or something, but this is a group of people that has time, income, and passion that we could leverage. If we could direct 5% of the enthusiasm they have for limited edition popcorn buckets into calling their representatives and demanding high-speed interstate rail, we could get it by 2030

[throesofincreasingwonder]

"A story doesn't need a theme in order to be good" I'm only saying this once but a theme isn't some secret coded message an author weaves into a piece so that your English teacher can talk about Death or Family. A theme is a summary of an idea in the work. If the story is "Susan went grocery shopping and saw a weird bird" then it might have themes like 'birds don't belong in grocery stores' or 'nature is interesting and worth paying attention to' or 'small things can be worth hearing about.' Those could be the themes of the work. It doesn't matter if the author intended them or not, because reading is collaborative and the text gets its meaning from the reader (this is what "death of the author" means).

Every work has themes in it, and not just the ones your teachers made you read in high school. Stories that are bad or clearly not intended to have deep messages still have themes. It is inherent in being a story. All stories have themes, even if those themes are shallow, because stories are sentences connected together for the purpose of expressing ideas, and ideas are all that themes are.

[uglynavel]

I wanna know where people have lately gotten the audacity to leave comments on fanfics talking about how much the fanfic sucked and negatively critiquing an author's fic like it's a published book review.

It pisses me off cause I've seen authors abandoned or delete their fics because of this.

You're getting fanfics for FREE! No one asked for your opinion.

I hope y'all know as authors we get email notifications when you comment so we see EVERY comment that's been left.

We also can see the negative reviews you leave when you bookmark our fics

[a-fantasy-lover-surfing-the-net]

Costume Cdramas I watched in 2023

This was my first year in Dramaland (both Chinese and Korean). And I have to say that for the most part I have enjoyed my journey in discovering the dramas. This list includes dramas that were released before 2023 as well.

7. Starry Love

It is a story of twin sisters - the gentle and kind Liguang Qing Kui and the smart and cunning Liguang Ye Tan. Qing Kui is betrothed to the heveanly prince and Ye Tan is betrothed to the demon prince however mistakenly they switch places and have to navigate the heavenly realm and demon realm alone relying on their wits. For me the strongest aspect of the drama was the bond between the sisters. It focuses more on the romance of Ye Tan and Xuan Shang and the heavenly realm which I was not much interested in so I skipped through a lot of it. However, I did enjoy the romance of Qing Kui and Chao Feng and the demon realm story which was unfortunately not given enough screen time. As the heavenly realm part of the drama failed to get me invested in both its characters and story, I didn't enjoy this drama a lot.

6. Love you Seven Times

Xiang Yun, a fairy working in the marriage pavilion and Chu Kong, the God of War are accidentally entangled by the red thread of fate and go through love tribulations. I enjoyed their romance and the story was also good. However, I feel it would have turned out better if the drama had more episodes so that the tribulations could be more immersive and impactful. Also, it had less action than I expected from a Xianxia. It was still a fun watch for me.

5. Ancient Love Poetry

This is an epic story of gods and love spanning thousands of years. I will not even attempt to give a primer for its story. The romance, story, action everything is great and it also has really good secondary romances and friendships are also good. The problem I had with this drama is that I enjoyed the first God realm arc a lot however in the second arc I couldn't get fully invested in Houchi and Qing Mu. Also, as a novice to xianxias I had some trouble following the story from the second arc onwards which meant I couldn't enjoy it as much. I still consider it a must watch for xianxia fans but its not for newbies that's for sure.

P.S.- I was devastated with Yue Mi's death so I'm happy that we'll be getting the continuation of her story with Moonlight Mystique.

4. Love between Fairy and Devil

It is a drama about Orchid, a low ranking fairy and Dongfang Qing Cang, the Moon Supreme of the Moon Tribe who are enemies of the immortal fairies, and their forbidden romance. The romance (of both the main and second couple) is really good, the story is compelling and the dynamic between the main and secondary cast is enjoyable. I found the action somewhat lacking. This is a really enjoyable drama especially for those getting into xianxias as the story while not simple, is easy to follow.

3. Romance between Tiger and Rose

In this drama, Chen Xiao Qian, a screenwriter transported into her own story, becoming the Third Princess Chen Qian Qian, a side character. Armed with the knowledge of her own script in which her character is soon to be killed in the third episode by Prince Han Shuo, the male lead, Xiao Qian is determined to stay alive and return to her own world. It is an excellent romcom with great chemistry and fun bickering between the main leads. While the story is straight forward for the most part, it does offer some commentary on gender discrimination and gender norms. It is a really fun and a must watch and has great rewatch value.

2. Story of Kunning Palace

Jiang Xuening is the selfish and ambitious daughter of a court official who ruthlessly uses her charm and cunning for becoming empress. Her schemes lead to the downfall of the royal family and the ruin of both her childhood sweetheart Yan Lin and the once incorruptible Zhang Zhe. Desperate and full of regret, she pleads to exchange her life for the freedom of Zhang Zhe. She awakens in her 18-year old self, who has yet to enter the palace with a chance to do better this time. Even though she vows to steer clear of the palace and its court intrigues, she becomes entangled in them anyways. Apart from Jiang Xue Ning the main cast includes : Xie Wei - JXN's teacher and a ruthless political mastermind, Zhang Zhe - an upright and dedicated officer in the Ministry of Justice, Yan Lin - loyal heir of the Yan family who is in love with JXN, Shen Zhi Yi - the optimistic and resilient princess. It’s so rare for a drama to combine so many great things - a competent and smart female lead, gripping script, top tier looks, chemistry (with the male lead and the secondary leads), steady pace, no childishness, very happy ending. All the actors did an amazing job, in particular Bai Lu who embodied JXN and depicted her thoughts and feelings in a way that the audience could connect with JXN and root for her. The character arcs for the entire main cast were satisfying and done beautifully. I only wished that they showed the past life in one go and with some more scenes for JXN's character growth to be more impactful and that they removed the bright spotlight aimed directly at the camera which took me out of those scenes. This is definitely a must watch for costumed cdrama lovers.

1. Till the end of the moon

Li Susu, an immortal time travels 500 years into the past to prevent the ascension of the Devil god, who goes on to destroy the world in the future. It's a story of love and hate, good and evil, redemption and damnation. The characters are very well conceptualized and depicted beautifully by talented actors, stunning costumes, really good hair and makeup, and great cinematography. The amazing production and set design along with impressive visual effects and CGI really immerse the audience in the world of TTEOTM. Their romance is my ultimate enemies to lovers pairing. It has just the right amount of fighting, messiness, animosity and angst for me. Their visuals, their chemistry, their acting and the story everything was so great. Who else has three epic weddings in one drama? For the most part the story was gripping, progressed at a good pace and conveyed many themes that become apparent on rewatches. While some were disappointed by the ending to me it was clear that they reunite once again and live happily. I am still not able to move on from this couple and drama.

Full Review of Till the end of the moon here.

You can also check out my modern cdrama rankings.

As I'm still a newbie to cdramas, I welcome your recommendations.

[stil-lindigo]

lighthearted.

if this comic resonated with you, please consider donating to this palestinian escape fund (vetted by @/nabulsi and @/el-shab-hussein) as it is less than $7,000 away from it's goal.

i turn 24 today. To celebrate, I made this comic to be a spiritual successor to lead balloon, a comic in which I talked about the darkest period of my life so far.

A lot has changed since my 23rd birthday and this one. My priorities have shifted a lot, in ways that I think are mostly good. But i think the best part about today is that suicide has gone back to being a far away notion. I'm really lucky, and I'm grateful for that.

[embraceyourdestiny]

to any americans who feel "paralyzed" and "dont know what to do" to help with gaza:

reading a fucking book. i beg of you.

in a time of knowledge suppression is it your duty to arm yourself with knowledge.

read about americas occupations in the middle east.

read about 9/11 from outside of america and see how they inflicted senseless harm and violence to countless amounts of people and have been suppressing your rights for the past 2 fucking decades.

read about any of the countless wars from the past 30 years. especially from a civilian's. and the victims and survivors' perspective. listen to the horror stories and do not plug your fucking ears as to what your country is doing.

and read about fucking gaza and palestine and keep up with what is happening no matter how "sad" or "uncountable" you might get.

dont look away from this.

you dont have the right to be comfortable during countless active genocides.

if you're knowledgeable, you're powerful, and our current state doesnt fucking want that.

you have the power to change things if you open your eyes and scream to the world.

wake the fuck up.

Edit: please check the reblogs there are readings and ways to help

[bitchofdarkness]

I hate how fandom has become "if you haven't created anything in this very specific time frame after the release of the show/movie, everyone will have moved on"

And call me old fashioned, but that's just not me. I sometimes take ages to create and publish. And I will love a show or movie for such a long time (years, babes, years) that I just can't relate to the fast consumerism that's going on.

Because, let's be real, it can get really lonely in a fandom if most have simply moved on to the next shiny thing. Is what's created less worth, just because it was created outside the hype? Why is it such a taboo for this new fandom generation to love an old or "late" fic or art?

It's so tiring and I'm too old for the 30-seconds-hype-tiktok-shit. Just tired. So, so tired.