I am fully vibing with Fate Chooses You. Marriage of convenience that turns out to be actually pretty inconvenient, but you're still glad it happened. A thread of star-crossed lovers in there. A discussion on how the pursuits of the ruling class for immortality are detrimental for the common people. (And to be clear, I do mean the "pursuit of immortality." It may be an allegory, but it's almost exactly what the ruling class wants. Either they're tech bros trying to figure out how to never die, or they're the wealthy trying to build and build money they'll never use for anything good in the world, but they're money will exist even after they die).
More discussion on class, and how the ruling class doesn't want the common people to be educated, because then they'll know they have no need of the ruling class.
In case it wasn't clear, I appreciate critiques of class and classism.
A romance that has its angsty moments, but doesn't wallow in them. A ML that protects the FL at all costs even as he is actively getting weaker. A FL who thought she was too weak in her morals to progress in her cultivation until she realizes her morals are strong, it's the rules that don't make sense, and then—boom!—she's able to progress two levels on the spot. She's now getting stronger, while he gets weaker, but they're still going to fight by each other's side. An FL who fights against injustice whether or not it seems a reasonable task.
I'm pretty sure Sheng is going to become a divinity. I haven't finished the latest episodes, but I have a feeling Jin Lun is alive somehow (I mean, he is one of the four characters getting the most promotion) and as much as he thought Sheng was his trial or tribulation or whatever, I do believe he is hers, and I'm interested to see that story.
We've already seen Lin Muhan having character development toward someone who doesn't treat mortals as cruelly as he has been raised to. It's slow going, but it's going. To me, he's the representation of someone realizing, largely on their own, that what they've always been taught and the privilege they've been afforded is not the way things should be.
Where Lin Muhan has been stepping out of the cruelty, Bai Zongying has been acknowledging it and all of the absurd violence and not stepping out at all. To me, so far, Bai Zongying is the example of someone who believes that while some people who benefit from the system may be evil, the system itself is not (or like, the people who say they understand the reason for a boycott, but don't participate in it.)
I appreciate allegory for real world problems told in such a way that no one could pretend it's an allegory for anything else. I appreciate the romance of just wanting to be around each other. I appreciate several supporting characters having actual character arcs that contribute to the allegory.
I like that, so far at least, most of the conflict the leads get involved in started with protecting each other and then end up with them involved in whatever it is they got involved in. I'm sure there is some overarching plot, but I like that much of the plot so far has not centered on it. Or maybe it has, but they're doing it I'm a way that you don't get kinda exhuasted with the villain by 12 episodes in, when you still have 25 to go.
EDIT: I also forgot one of my favorite relationship dynamics- married couple and the younger sibling that goes everywhere with them.