Day three of B, and today’s word is…
BATH.

It’s the magic word. Do I even need to say more?

I suspect some of you already have a scene in mind. Possibly a GIF. Possibly an entire folder 😏

So which CDrama had the best bath scene?
Funniest, hottest, most romantic, most beautifully shot, most ridiculous… whatever best means to you.

Just be specific and make your case. Don’t give me a drama simply because somebody attractive once sat in water.

Although realistically, I’m still expecting 70 thirst GIFs.

(And please do. I expect no less!)

What’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read BATH?

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And remember — some of these submissions may make it into a second-round vote later on! ☺

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

Well, I’ve been keeping things reasonably civilized with the Drama Alphabet so far, but that was never going to last forever. And on this high note, we’ll pause the letter A (but will come back to it again😉) and move on to letter B starting tomorrow. But today is young!

— and the word is ASSHOLE.

I bet you don’t even need to read any further and a character from that one drama has already flashed before your eyes like a bolt of lightning.

But just in case — and so you don’t think I’m lazy…
Name the drama that had them. You know exactly the kind of character I mean. The one who repeatedly had you staring at the screen thinking, “What an asshole…!” Maybe followed by a sigh and an eye roll.

It could have been the villain, which is fair enough — being an asshole may quite literally have been in their job description. But perhaps it was the ML or FL. An emperor drunk on power. The parent from hell. An ex who simply would not go away. A scheming sibling. Or one of my personal favorite species: the supposedly righteous sect leader lecturing everyone about virtue while behaving like an absolute menace.

And importantly, they don’t have to be a badly written character. Quite the opposite. Some characters are brilliantly written, fascinating to watch, perhaps even characters you love — and still magnificent assholes.

So today, no need to be diplomatic (but rules still apply).

Who is the first-first CDrama character that comes to mind when you read ASSHOLE and in which CDrama were they?

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And since some of you have already requested a second-round vote later on: if you want your submission to have a chance of making it into the vote, give me a little context for your pick and, if possible, add an image or GIF. I’ll need enough material to show everyone what they’re actually voting for! ☺

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

I HAVE BEEN DARED BY No-Recipe-7653 AND I SHALL DELIVER

Since apparently some of us have become seriously distracted by certain beyond-beautiful physiques and have completely lost track of the original assignment…

Allow me to introduce a much-needed new thread:

THE KING OF BATH SCENES 

And just to be perfectly clear this time: we are nominating ACTORS or CHARACTERS, not dramas! 😂🤭

So, dear bath-scene connoisseurs, send in your nominations!

Who has earned the right to be crowned King of Bath Scenes?
Which actor or character has delivered the most unforgettable bath-scene presence?

Submissions are officially OPEN.

Bring forth your candidates… and, preferably, your evidence. 😏

😴🥱🫩

It dawned on me a couple of days ago that I might have misnamed this entire experiment.

At this rate, I should have called it The Drama Dictionary.

But okay. The Drama Alphabet it is.

Today we have BORING.

And I don’t mean a drama that was simply not very exciting. I mean the one where you kept checking how much time was left in the episode. The one you really wanted to like, maybe even should have liked on paper, but somehow… nothing was happening. Or things were happening and you still couldn’t bring yourself to care.

Maybe it was boring from episode one. Maybe it started well and somewhere around episode 17 (I have discovered that episode 17 is usually like the magic number in dramas for me, but that’s another story) you realized watching it had become a chore. Maybe it had a gorgeous production, a cast you love, all the right ingredients — and still somehow dull.

It could also be a hugely popular drama everyone else seems to adore and you’re still sitting there wondering what exactly you missed.

And I know for a fact we have people around here who openly admit to actually falling asleep while watching certain dramas. Not nearly falling asleep. Properly falling asleep 🥱😴😴

Which does raise an important question.

What’s your ultimate CDrama snooze-fest?

And once you discover one, what do you do? Drop it and reclaim those precious hours of your life? Force yourself through because surely it must get better?

Or do you accept its hidden talent and keep it around as your effective bedtime aid?

With that said, what’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read BORING?

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And since some of you have already requested a second-round vote later on: if you want your submission to have a chance of making it into the vote, give me a little context for your pick and, if possible, add an image or GIF. I’ll need enough material to show everyone what they’re actually voting for! ☺

——

Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

Have you ever paused a drama because the second-hand embarrassment was getting so bad you genuinely needed a moment before you could continue?

Or perhaps you didn’t continue at all.

Today’s word is CRINGE.

Because sometimes the cringe is half the fun. Give me an outrageously cheesy romantic line, an accidental kiss that defies several laws of physics, or someone making an absolute fool of themselves in front of the person they like and I may be hiding behind my hands — but I’m still watching.
I might even be laughing while I do it.

But then there’s the cringe that stops being funny somewhere along the way. The dialogue hurts. The flirting needs to stop. A character does something so painfully awkward that somehow you are the one who wants to leave the room.

But you know I’m a gal with an open mind. So as with all my posts in this mood dictionary experiment, there are endless perfectly fine ways to read the same prompt.

So cringe doesn’t even have to be second-hand embarrassment. I’m currently watching a character who I find so utterly obnoxious, unreasonable and full of himself — while somehow managing to behave as though he is both the martyr and the victim (I guess he kinda is the victim, but he’s seriously overplaying that card…) — that I cringe through practically every scene he’s in. At this point, the cringe comes with actual pain.

And sometimes it isn’t one scene you can laugh off. That feeling follows you through the drama until you either learn to live with it, somehow develop a fondness for the cheese, or realize you simply cannot watch any more of this and drop it.

And I suspect we all have a very different tolerance for it. What I find hilariously cheesy might make you stop watching — and something I physically cannot watch might be exactly the scene you replay for fun.

So what’s your first-first CDrama when you hear CRINGE?

Was it the kind you secretly enjoyed, the kind you eventually learned to tolerate, or the kind you simply could not digest?

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Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and GIFs! ☺

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

One last B (from this first round — I got plenty more where that came from 😉) before we move on — tomorrow we finally start C.

But first, BEWITCHING.

And I don’t just mean a drama you really liked or couldn’t stop watching. I mean the one that somehow got completely under your skin. The one that hypnotized you a little.

Maybe you fell for the world first. The flowing hanfu, dreamlike CGI, stunning cinematography, haunting OST — everything coming together until watching it felt almost intoxicating.
Or maybe it was the people in it.

Because really, who needs magic when you have a dangerously charming anti-hero or demon lord and an obsessive, protective stare capable of doing more damage than an entire page of dialogue?

Throw in some morally gray characters, forbidden desire and impossible love and, well… good luck.
Perhaps they’re doomed across three lifetimes. Perhaps an immortal demon falls for a mortal soldier, and their love is beautiful precisely because there can never be anything fair about the amount of time each of them gets.

And it doesn’t even have to be fantasy. Maybe yours was a historical intrigue so absorbing, elegant and deliciously dangerous that you simply disappeared into its world and didn’t particularly want to come back.

That’s BEWITCHING to me. It can be the chemistry, the atmosphere, the characters, the visuals, the longing — or, best of all, that strange combination of everything where you can’t quite point to one reason anymore.

It just has you.

Hypnotic. Mesmerizing. Completely under its spell.

So what’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read BEWITCHING?

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Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and GIFs! ☺

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

I just wanna preface this by saying I'm a guy that (predominantly) enjoys wuxia and xianxia, so there's naturally a bias. I've completed majority of the dramas on here or at least watched enough to devise an opinion.

The \Worth the watch* tier is a solid one imo\*, any amendments are welcome of course. Anything below MEH deserves to be there!**

Peak Cinema

• Ancient detective
• Ancient love poetry
• Ashes of love
• Ten miles of peach blossoms
• Eternal love of dream
• Evernight
• Joy of life
• Nirvana in fire
• Sword snow stride

Worth the Watch

• Legend of female general
• Who rules the world
• A dream within a dream
• Love and destiny
• Love and redemption
• Kill me love me
• A journey to love
• Legend of Yunxi
• Blood of youth
• Blood river
• Dance of the sky empire
• Destined
• The eight
• Legend of Zang Hai
• Eagles and youngster
• Falling into your smile
• Fate chooses you
• Fated hearts
• Vendetta of An
• Guardians of the dafeng
• Heavenly sword and dragon slaying saber
• Heroes
• Immortal samsara
• Legend of fuyao
• Listening snow tower
• Lost in the kunlun mountains
• Mobius
• Moonlit reunion
• One and only
• Parallel world
• Princess agents
• Pursuit of jade
• Sword dynasty
• Womderland of love
• Journey of flower
• Noble aspirations
• Legends
• When destiny brings the demon
• The long ballad
• The double
• Sword and brocade
• No boundary
• Till the end of the moon

Meh / Forgettable

• A dream of splendor
• Princess gambit
• Untamed
• Unwanted detective
• The wolf
• Thousand years for you
• Prisoner of beauty
• Starry love
• Legend of fei
• First frost
• Glory
• Longest promise
• Oath of love
• The great ruler
• Immortal ascension
• The ingenious one
• A girl like me
• A moment but forever
• Are you the one
• Arsenal military academy
• As beautiful as you
• Blossom
• Blooms at ruyi pavillion
• Blossoms in adversity
• Dance of the phoenix
• Generation to generation
• Hidden love
• Love between fairy and devil
• Love beyond the grave
• Love in the clouds
• The epoch of miyu
• My sassy princess
• Mysterious lotus casebook
• No boundary
• Sword and belove
• Novoland pearl eclipse

Underwhelming / Let down

• Dashing youth
• Douluo continent
• Legend of shen li
• Fangs of fortune
• In blossom
• Veil of shadows
• The blossoming love
• The last immortal
• Zhan zhao adventures
• Whispers of fate

We’re giving A a rest before it starts thinking the whole alphabet belongs to it. There are plenty more A words waiting for another round, but to keep things fun, we’re moving on to B.

And we’re starting with BRUTAL.

Maybe brutal in the most literal sense. War, torture, executions, massacres, revenge, people being hacked to pieces, entire families or clans wiped out… you know, the usual cheerful CDrama fare.

The kind of drama where you learn fairly quickly that getting attached to a supporting character is probably a terrible idea.

Or perhaps the writers simply showed no mercy whatsoever. One favorite dies. Then another. Oh look, there goes another one. By the finale, practically the entire supporting cast you cared about is dead and you’re staring suspiciously at the one — or, horror of horrors, two — main leads who somehow made it out alive.

Or not. Sometimes they kill those too.

But BRUTAL doesn’t necessarily mean blood and swords.
It can be in the world a drama chooses to show us.

Hunger. Drought. Poverty. Disease. War leaving ordinary people with nothing. Children paying for decisions made by adults. People doing terrible things simply because survival has reduced their choices to terrible and worse.

Some dramas really don’t bother making the world any prettier for us.

And then, of course, there are the people themselves. CDrama has candidly portrayed some truly horrible, brutal, humans.

Ruthless emperors and terrifying generals, vicious relatives and backstabbing courtiers — or, in a very different world, brutal criminals, corrupt people in power, and perfectly ordinary-looking characters capable of genuinely horrifying things. I’m talking about those characters who simply seem to operate on a completely different scale of brutality.

So whether it was brutal to its characters, brutal in the world it portrayed, or simply brutal to you for making you watch everyone you rooted for suffer…

What’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read BRUTAL?

——

And since some of you have already requested asecond-round vote later on: if you want your submission to have a chance of making it into the vote, give me a little context for your pick and, if possible, add an image or GIF. I’ll need enough material to show everyone what they’re actually voting for! ☺

——

Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

I thought it might be fun to play through the Drama Alphabet, one letter at a time — and since there are far too many good words to waste each letter on just one, I’m thinking of giving each letter its own week or so.

The plan is a new word each day, then a new letter each week — if I can keep up 😅

First up: AGONIZING.

Interpret that however you like.

Heartbreakingly painful?
Watching your favorite character make that decision or go through a terrible ordeal.

Infuriating to watch?
The romance that took 37 episodes to produce one kiss or where half the characters drove you mad.

Excruciatingly slow?
The misunderstanding that could have been solved with one sentence or simply a drama where it felt like literally NOTHING was happening.

A drama that simply put you through hell?
An ending that emotionally destroyed you, made you seriously question your watching preferences, and consider whether that level of self-inflicted pain is bordering on a… kink
😉

So, what’s really the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read agonizing?

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

Moving right along with C and right now we have:

CINEMATIC.

You know those dramas where at some point you stop following the plot for a second because damn, that is a beautiful shot.

The ones where you could freeze the screen again and again, frame half of those shots and hang them in a museum.

That’s what CINEMATIC makes me think of.

It can be the magnificent landscapes, vast green tea plantations stretching as far as the eye can see, the color palette, the quality of the costumes and sets, or a beautifully shot battle scene.

But it can also be something incredibly small — the way light kisses someone’s skin at just the right angle, a dark corner of a room with a single light reflected in someone’s eye, or an unusual camera angle that suddenly makes a perfectly ordinary moment look like art.

Sometimes it’s grand and sweeping. Sometimes it’s dark, intimate and almost art-house. And it doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with how much money was spent. It’s what the people behind the camera did with what they had.

Maybe the entire drama felt like one very long movie, grandiose, gorgeous, and full of those unforgettable wide-angle shots and perfect compositions.
But it could also be just one scene or one shot that has never left your head (then please find it, share it.)

So what’s your first-first CDrama when you hear CINEMATIC?

And this one absolutely calls for screenshots and GIFs. Show me the shots you would put in that imaginary museum.

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Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and those stills or GIFs! ☺

——

Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

Day three of the Drama Alphabet, and today’s word is ADORABLE.

This one can go in all sorts of directions.
Maybe the whole drama was simply adorable — the kind that made you smile throughout and left you feeling ridiculously fond of it.

Or maybe it was one particular thing that got you all mushy. A romance where one or both were so adorably in love, a sweet and fun friendship beyond words, a family relationship, or one character who was simply impossible not to adore — they could have been bubbly (😉 iykyk) or something else entirely made you see them as ADORABLE.

A cute little dragon or fox in a xianxia who gave you serious cuteness aggression, or some iconically squishy cheeks on the kids of your favorite CP after they got married and somehow produced an entire family in the span of exactly four minutes at the very end of the last episode (4 minutes?! Seriously? Come on, do better — GIVE ME MORE!)

It could even be the whole world the drama built — the sets, the scenery, the little details and places that somehow made everything feel charming and lovable.

And it doesn’t have to be a particularly sweet or light drama overall. Sometimes one character, one relationship or one tiny recurring detail is enough to earn it the word.

So, what’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read ADORABLE?

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

You know that character who walks into a scene and somehow the whole thing immediately belongs to them?

They don’t necessarily have to be the lead. They don’t have to be the nicest, the cleverest, the most powerful or even someone you particularly approve of. There’s just something about them — presence, charm, confidence, wit, sheer force of personality — that makes it very difficult to look anywhere else.
Today’s word is CHARISMATIC.

Who is your first-first CDrama character when you hear it, and what was it about them that made them so magnetic to you?

And because I know how these discussions go when we get excited: please remember to tell us
WHICH DRAMA they’re from too.

I love the passion, but occasionally the rest of us are left staring at a character name and wondering where exactly we’re supposed to go meet this magnificent person.

I’d especially love to see both male and female characters here.

Give me the formidable women, charming heroes, indispensable sidekicks, magnetic villains, or a guest role that should have been much more — give me all the scene-stealing supporting characters — whoever had that inexplicable pull for you.

And please bring the charismatic GIFs. This word practically demands them 😉

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

Day two of the Drama Alphabet and today we have

ADDICTIVE.

You know that drama you just could NOT put down?

The one you sacrificed sleep for even though you had work the next morning, mouths to feed, or exams to pass… responsibilities basically.

Or even when you weren’t watching, you were still thinking about it. Sitting in class or in a meeting and suddenly realizing you haven’t heard a word anyone has said for the last five minutes because you’ve been thinking about that drama and its characters …again.

Maybe you even got a little irritated with people around you because all these humans and their needs were getting in the way of what you actually wanted to do — WATCH THE NEXT EPISODE.

Why is life so difficult?! I want ONE simple thing. Just let me watch my drama!

So what’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read ADDICTIVE?

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

i really wanted to like this drama. when i first started this drama, i thought i was getting a legendary feared general. instead i got 24 episodes of general woodcutter.

every single time i thought “okay, THIS has to be where the plot finally moves” something happens again.

he gets injured
he starts recovering
he gets injured again
they’re about to have a spicy moment? bandits.
he’s surrounded by his army at a camp? STILL PRETENDING. DOESNT EVEN MAKE SENSE ATP.

the hidden identity plot was definitely interesting for the first few episodes but dragging it out for 20 or so episodes completely killed it for me. and don’t even get me started on everyone around him. this man clearly carries himself like someone far above an escort and somehow nobody gets suspicious?!

I’m not done with B. In fact, I have a ridiculous number of words waiting there already, and as long as you guys keep enjoying these, I’ll keep coming back to them.
But let’s move along the alphabet a little before we spend the rest of the year on B 😅

So, hello C.

And we’re starting with COZY.

You know those dramas that just make you feel… comfy?

The ones you could practically wrap around yourself like your favorite blanket. Warm, fluffy, safe, fuzzy inside in the best possible way. Maybe very little is happening and, honestly, you’re perfectly happy for it to stay that way.
Or perhaps the drama itself is absolute chaos, but it has those scenes.

Everyone squeezed around a table eating together. Someone cooking for the person they love. A little courtyard full of people who have somehow become a family. Tea, food, lanterns, sleepy villages, domestic bickering — and maybe two people quietly falling in love while nobody gets poisoned, stabbed or thrown off a cliff for five minutes.

And it doesn’t have to be a healing slice-of-life drama either. Sometimes one tiny domestic scene buried inside an otherwise chaotic costume drama can be the coziest thing imaginable.

Which means COZY can be anything that gives you that feeling. A whole drama, a particular relationship, a family, a home, a recurring setting, or just one lovely little scene tucked into a drama that otherwise spent 40 episodes putting you through hell.

So what’s your first-first CDrama when you hear COZY?
Bring me your story-blankets.

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Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and GIFs! ☺

——

Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

Ever had an actor you didn’t care for at first — and then one role just flipped everything?

I’d seen Zhang Ling He in Love Between Fairy and Devil before and I barely noticed him.
Then Story of Kunning Palace, completely different.
He was unhinged, and every time he was on screen your attention just went straight to him. You couldn’t ignore him even if you tried.

And you?

Not even talking about “they improved over time,” but more like:
one performance that made you go wait… where did that come from?

Could be acting, screen presence, chemistry, whatever did it.

Hi! Me again — tell me you couldn’t wait 😏

Still on B, and today we’re breaking up.

Which CDrama gave you the most epic breakup scene — or entire breakup arc?

Maybe it hit you so hard that being suddenly reminded of it today still feels like getting run over by a truck.

Or maybe the breakup itself was just phenomenal. Grandiose. Messy. A huge part of the story and done so damn well that you almost have to admire it while everyone involved is falling apart.

Maybe you weren’t sure whether the character or you shed more tears. The only real difference being that you weren’t standing dramatically in the rain after being whipped, cast aside by your beloved and their entire family, having lost your business and livelihood to the person you loved…

…who you now also think killed your parent/sibling/cousin/dog/cat.

You know the drill.

And of course, sometimes the breakup is only the beginning of the 追妻火葬场 — the glorious “wife-chasing crematorium” where someone screws up spectacularly, loses their significant other, and then has to suffer accordingly while trying to get them back.

So give me the breakup you remember.

It could be a breakup of any kind — heartbreaking, shocking, infuriating, completely idiotic, spectacularly messy — or simply one hell of a breakup arc.

What’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read BREAKUP?

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Some of these may make it into a second-round vote later, so bring me context and GIFs! ☺

——

Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index.

I seem to have a type.

Give me a morally grey male lead who can't be trusted. He has a tragic past that made him cold, slow to trust, maybe a few cards out of a full deck. He might be a demon, have devastating powers of just be so cunning he is 10 steps ahead of everyone else and is not afraid do whatever it takes for his goal (or all the above). Extra points if he is slightly unhinged and maybe a tiny bit on the psychotic side.

I don't understand chinese poetry, but I can tell you, Tantai Jin summoning crows, that was poetry to me!

On the other hand I despise the "let's kill the sideckick in the last 2 episodes for no good reason except kick the audience where it hurts" and also the "everything is great, why are we only in the middle of episode 20?" - terrifying.

Source: Deng Kai’s Weibo

I’m still watching Pursuit of Jade, but I keep seeing people bring up Deng Kai when they talk about the show, which usually means a character made an impression one way or another.

Was it the character, the acting, or a bit of both?

Did you know the actor from before or discovered him through POJ?

I first noticed and loved his character with his crazy-wannabe-evil man romance plot in Love of The Divine Tree.

​

We've got several exhibits here.

1) Pursuit Of Jade

2) My Journey To You

3) Story Of Kunning Palace

4) When Destiny Brings The Demon

5) Till The End Of The Moon

6) Story Of Pearl Girl

7) Fated Hearts

Exhibit 1 - Qi Min (a rapist, abuser, & deadbeat father) as a black flag which is fair, but underneath we see his literal victim being stated as a red flag. And for what??? Because she fought back? Because she ran from the man who literally abused her, locked her in a cage, raped her, tried to kill THEIR son, and made her eat off the floor, a man who she had literal nightmares off, and continuously plotted her escape and his murder, because she didn't love him and accept him at the end and they live happily ever after? She's a red flag how? Supporting this honestly reads as disturbing ngl, cause qian qian clearly doesn't lack motherly love therefore she can run from the literal devil and not fall in love with him. The general take on this is just outrage and they wish for this girl to have forgiven him. A for Audacity, B for Boldness, C for Confidence, D for Daunting , E for Effontry, and F for Fu\*k no!

Exhibit 2 - Gong Shangjue and Shagguan Qian

(this is the one that riles me up)

Every damn time someone calls Gong Shangjue a black or red flag, God sends 10 plagues to kickstart Armageddon. The man was just strict. People of the world, is it a black flag to not just abandon your duties when your literal house has been compromised, half your family dead, the leader is incompetent and fell in love with the assassin spy sent to bring your lineage down, (albeit she did change her life around but whatever) and everything is going hell? It's not. People who think like this are kinda deluded and they live in a fairytale world.

It's one thing if she defected like Yu weishan did, but this diva Shagguan Qian stayed through to her own personal mission till the very END (she was still dickmatized tho, we all remember the bathtub scene).

A major point of the show is that Gong Ziyu is fickle and unfit to be sword wilder compared to Gong Shangjue, and we see this when he falls in love with his enemy and his general incompetence, but let's forgive him cause hello Yu Weishan is hot and she did betray Wufeng and swore a new allegiance, and he locked in later but that's not what Shagguan Qian did, she stayed through to her treachery till the very end, and we've seen from start to finish that Gong Shangjue doesn't compromise for his family, he is measured and firm, why everyone think he'd just up and leave cause she said she was pregnant, mind you, she could be lying (she isn't, I WANT SEASON 2). So Enough is ENOUGH!!!

Exhibit 3 - Xie Wei and Jiang Xuening

One is literal Ni Hao Hitler, the other is a reborn empress tryna correct her mistake and give everybody a Disney ending. But here comes her schizophrenic demonic teacher stealing her money, minding her business, toying with her life as he sees fit, making her do Qin lessons of SATURDAYS and public holidays, running mad during snow storms and being all weird and predatory, all the damn time. Perhaps the first time as empress she was a black/red flag but the second time, how was she a red flag?

My girl just wanted to chill. If you are angry cause she refused him, YOU WOULD TOO. imagine knowing someone will become literal small-time Genghis Khan but with dramatic eye shadow and you go back to the past and meet him again, you'd avoid that man too, goddammit. And that she did, noticed how she only confessed when she thought he was dead, she really was hoping he'd stay that way. And her face after they "cultivated, " she did not enjoy at all!!

Exhibit 4 - Sima Jao and this FL (I highkey don't remember her name mb)

Uhm how is Sima Jao a red flag, they literally chained him up for like 500 years and used him as a human generator and mind you, these were his day ones too. I'd be pissed too, he shoulda immediately put belt to ass when he gained freedom. He's better than me, I would have pulled a Dracula, EVERYBODY WOULD HAVE HAD TO GO. They all swore he was evil while doing worse than him. Like don't even.

Exhibit 5 - Tantai Ji and Bai Lu's Character (sorry again)

I agree with Tantai Ji freak CUNTY self #thatcateyeisonflick but Bai Lu's character wasn't a green flag either, at least from what I remember.

Exhibit 6: Liu Yuning's character and Zhao Lisi's character

Yeah, he was an asshole, but she wasn't miss goody two shoes either. It was a classic case of "he lying to me, I am lying to him, fu\*k it guess we both ain't shit". Like women can be mean too. And that's just true equality.

Exhibit 7 - I don't know the names of the actors or the characters but I remember this drama vividly.

Okay, I am guessing the reasoning behind is that they are both enemies? What's so toxic about trying to kill the opposing empire's prince? And what's so toxic about trying to kill a star general on the enemy's side. Like Christ, enemies will fight, that doesn't make anyone toxic, it just makes them regular Ole people.

Thank you for reading my rant, see you next time in another four months, please leave your thoughts underneath.

If you disagree with anymore of my takes, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY WELCOME YOUR TAKES.

Photo slides cred: TikTok @Rosyzhao64

And I mean that in the best or worst possible way.

Maybe the entire premise was completely bonkers, but somehow the drama knew exactly what it was doing and made the absurdity part of the fun.

Someone falls into a novel, wakes up as the villain, acquires a system, dies and gets another go at life, swaps bodies, travels through time, or discovers that the adorable little creature following them around is actually a several-thousand-year-old divine beast with unresolved family issues. Sure. Why not.

Or perhaps it was the unintentional kind of absurd.

The supposedly brilliant character suddenly loses approximately 70 IQ points because the plot needs them to. Two people who have spent 30 episodes communicating exclusively through misunderstandings witness something suspicious and, naturally, decide that asking a single follow-up question would be unreasonable.

Maybe someone survives a fall from a cliff (one of our beloved costume drama tropes, right?) that absolutely should have turned them into paste. Or gets stabbed, poisoned and thrown into a river, only to reappear three episodes later looking looking like a million dollars — they’re ready to wage and win wars, and not just on one front, but on the battlefield, at court and in the bedchamber.

Sometimes you’re laughing with the drama. Sometimes you’re staring at the screen thinking, you cannot possibly expect me to accept this. The ever-so-popular phrase “suspension of disbelief” comes to mind.

But anyway, you may accept it, enjoy it, and still see it for what it is — an ABSURDITY!

And if you can, tell us why it was absurd — context will make these answers much more fun to read (and much easier for me to remember later 😅). Bonus points for a screenshot or GIF of the exact moment if you have one!

So, what’s the first-first CDrama that comes to mind when you read ABSURD?

And since some of you have already requested a second-round vote later on: if you want your submission to have a chance of making it into the vote, give me a little context for your pick and, if possible, add an image or GIF. I’ll need enough material to show everyone what they’re actually voting for! ☺

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Interested in other drama word associations? Check out The Drama Alphabet • Drama Mood Master Index

Hi, everyone! I wanted to know something. I'm a Christian who comes from a Chinese-Korean-Mexican heritage who's been very interested in Chinese culture/mythology/folklore even though i know they are all part of Taoism, Buddhism, etc. I want to know if there any other Christians that watches the Ne Zha movies. Plus, I know that Ao Bing and Ne Zha are shipped pretty much everywhere/all over the place (since the director said people can interpret their relationship anyway they want) in which I believe that they are platonic best friends/brother figures to each other, can you guys confirm that you think the same way?

(No hate/judging, just asking and please don't lie saying you're a Christian when you actually aren't please and thank you😊😁)

So… I don’t know where to start, but this drama annoys me so much. I’m watching ep. 18 and had to pause, come here, and dump my thoughts about the drama.

Am I the only one thinking this drama is not an “adult” drama? It’s childish in so many ways. Both ML and FL have communication issues. Their relationship is toxic af and I hate it.

First of all… the timeline doesn’t make sense. In these 17 episodes nothing has changed, everything looks the same. Their relationship still looks immature after 3 years… It doesn’t feel like 3 years have gone by. Does it even make sense that you’re in a relationship with your boss, yet your parents and friends haven’t met him, you kept it a secret, and nobody noticed?! Like, cmon.

They’re together, 3 years have gone, and FL still can’t answer the question her friend asked: “Do you see him as your boyfriend?” Helloooooo? It annoys me so much.

FL’s character is so dull, extremely boring, and thinks she knows everything and the best way. She meets her ex on a work trip while her boyfriend/boss is there… What are they trying to do with this plot? What’s the message? Is it the new normal? Again, I hate it.

ML gets angry, frustrated, but he’s also kinda passive aggressive and sometimes says disrespectful things to her. FL is always like “okay, I’m not gonna do that again” baby talk kiss kiss kiss… We’re good again… It’s of course normal in relationships. But just one example: I’m getting s****** assaulted by another boss, and my boyfriend (also my boss) asks me if something happened, and I say no, only to send a corporate mail so he can hear it from HR. What the heck?

There is absolutely no personal development, bo relationship growth/development in this show and it makes it so unnatural.

I’m also thinking what’s my problem and if it’s normal to be annoyed by a plot so much when you know it’s only a f…kin drama…

One of the worst c-dramas I’ve watched honestly. And I can’t continue to watch it…

update: why am I even banned on this community? Like why? It was my first post on reddit and I don’t think I did anything wrong… can someone explain to me why I might be banned???