caffeinatedDreams

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I'm still holding off giving my overall thoughts on "A Splendid Match" as, despite being totally spoiled for the ending (and even the "bonus episode"), I haven't seen episodes 36 to 40 in their entirety.

However, I've watched up until episode 35 and all I can say is that I now understand better why so many viewers who already finished all the episodes are terribly disappointed over the way the drama was handled.

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My ultimate CDrama OTPs. Of all CDrama couples I've watched, they're the only ones that literally made my heart flutter every time I saw them onscreen together. Even now.

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I know Laufey has a version of this song. This happens to be one of my favorite American standard songs. This is a version by Keely Smith, which was the version I first heard and loved.

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I can be really weird. I got myself a SVIP subscription with MangoTV, despite knowing how atrocious their subs are, just so I can watch the episodes of "A Splendid Match" earlier than others. Yet now that they released all 40 episodes since last week, I still refuse to watch them, but I'm already spoiled up to my eyeballs from X posts and Tiktok edits. 😆

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What a lovely commentary on why Chen Yanyun and Gu Jinchao's romance is so genuine and why viewers became emotionally invested in them.

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Psychology says people who are kind but have no close friends often spent decades as the one everyone called in a crisis, and the loneliness they carry now isn't about having no one to talk to, it's about having no one who calls back

Psychology says people who are kind but have no close friends often spent decades as the one everyone called in a crisis, and the loneliness they carry now isn't about having no one to talk to, it's about having no one who calls back https://share.google/T1RdREtr4lQH0RG49

Psychology says people who are kind but have no close friends often spent decades as the one everyone called in a crisis, and the loneliness

The friend everyone calls in a crisis has a thought they don't say out loud: if this were happening to me, who would I be calling right now?

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I truly find it incomprehensible that some viewers actually want Gu Jingzhao to end up with Ye Xian. This, despite everything they've seen him do. From the onset, he has shown how capable he is of violence. He even hurt her because he couldn't control his anger. Clearly, he has a big problem and it often makes him spiral out of control. This was demonstrated when he became the commander of the Xuanfeng Guards. He found an outlet for all his pent-up anger and resentment.

While it is true that his parents were largely at fault for the way they caused him childhood trauma that he never recovered from, it still doesn't mean he'll get cured from it if he gets Jinzhao.

Ye Xian isn't a case of a tsundere second male lead who has a soft heart and can be changed when the female lead falls in love with him. His is a case of a person with psychological issues, someone who grew up without having really known love and care. I think Jinzhao knew that somehow. And she also knew that, with her own temperament and trauma of having been rejected by her own family, she could have ended up like him. The only difference was that she had a strong and loving grandmother and cousin who loved her and sheltered her and made up for the family that she lacked. That's why she showed him compassion and sympathy and became her friend. Yet she was intelligent and sensible enough to know that he wouldn't be a good partner in life for her.

Not to say that Jinzhao deliberately restrained romantic feelings for Ye Xian. There were no romantic feelings from her part at all but she cared for him.

Some viewers think it would be cute for them to have a relationship coz they have a bad-boy-turning-a-new-leaf-for-a-girl type of dynamic. I don't think so.

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I think one of the reasons why some viewers get confused as to why Ye Xian seems to be getting more exposure for "A Splendid Match" is coz the actor's supporters are very active on social media. They're really all out in promoting his role. I see their posts everywhere on X.

If one hadn't started watching it yet and had no idea what it was all about, one would assume that Ye Xian is the main lead.

It's a lack on the part of the drama's promo team. I think they didn't push Chen Yanyun (Ci Sha) enough.

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Ci Sha's looks seem better suited for a global audience. He's not handsome as most CDrama actors are handsome. Most CDrama leads I see have delicate, almost effeminate features. They have an androgynous kind of beauty. The kind that's perfectly suited to play immortals and deities in wuxias and xanxias.

Whereas in Ci Sha's case, he has true masculine beauty. Even if he's still just in his 20's, he already exudes a powerful, confident and mature charisma. That made him perfect as Lord Chen Yanyun who's supposed to be young but not so young that he hasn't had enough experience to become a grand secretary and the head of a large powerful family.

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You're already married to me, and you still like sneaking looks at me?

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They're so adorable together. They make me feel giddy and fluttery inside. 🥰🥰🥰

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Chen Yanyun joining the ranks of dramatic cdrama men. Wife says she wants a divorce, guess I'll die. Or in his case, get shot with arrow in a bad spot, bleed a lot, so as to be extra pitiful to the wife.

And then she hits him on his wound, lol.

And that little smile. Plan accomplished , lol. Dude, next time try just talking to her. I kinda loved this scene though. I rewatched it a few times.

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Man is too used to drastic measures like KILL.

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spoiler-free-ISH thoughts on a splendid match's finale: deeply unsatisfying across the board, from jinzhao's "grand plan" to go up against fu hailin (why set up intelligent characters when they don't show a shred of it when it matters most?) to the abrupt ending (which makes me resent the screentime egregiously wasted on ye xian, because you're telling me in a full 40 ep show they couldn't give us an ending that doesn't feel like a broadcasting glitch with footage lost?). on the flip side, it would work well as a season ending as opposed to a series ending, and honestly i would happily watch a second season now that certain, ahem, events have transpired... actually i definitely need a second season just so we get some backstory on chen yanyun's time in/brushes with the JIANGHU??? did anyone else catch that stray mention? i forget which episode it was because it's all blurred together in my MIND :/

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Agree 💯. So many loose ends. So many things waiting to be explored. I want to see Chen Yanyun become the Prime Minister.

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https://m.weibo.cn/status/5301359336489912?jumpfrom=weibocom

Look at Ci Sha. These images just beg for another historical drama for this actor. He has the looks and the acting skills to pull it off.

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I need another season of "A Splendid Match", or at least maybe 4 or 5 special episodes that show Chen Yanyun's back story. I'm very much intrigued by a few things about him:

1) His family's connection with the Ji family - from the looks of it, the Jis treat him as their master. They obey his orders. Is the Ji family some sort of vassal clan to the Chens? Do the Chens - or Yanyun personally - have considerable investment in the Ji family businesses? Did the Chens' investment actually helped the Jis become the wealthy family that they are now? What are their connections politically? Why does Chen Yanyun seem to hold sway over them?

2) Yanyun was described as a scholar; he was the top of his batch of examinees. He's considered as one of the most brilliant members of the Secretariat and the Senior Grand Secretary's best pupil. He is also the head of the Crown Prince's household.

Yanyun is a career court official and a political strategist, so why does he have excellent fighting skills? He's an expert horseman and archer and has the skills of a seasoned battlefield commander.

His sister mentioned something about him once serving at the yamen but a yamen post doesn't seem to require archery skills from its senior officials.

Of course, I would want a separate 2nd season that would show him and Jinzhao further dealing with the emerging crisis in the empire, and Yanyun becoming the young Emperor's support and most trusted ally. I want to see him rise to Prime Minister and Jinzhao becoming an influential imperial lady who is her husband's strength and heart.

I want Ci Sha and Ren Min back on my screens, d@mm!t.

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Lord Chen Yanyun and his wife, Lady Gu Jinzhao, in modern era. 🙂

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They were practically in their undergarments when they ran around the streets after curfew and Jinchao danced for Yanyun. It would have been scandalous if they were caught.

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Ci Sha is a CDrama actor who looks nothing like most CDrama actors I've seen. Despite his young age, he has the mien of a mature and sensible man. There's no iota of flower boy about him and I mean this in a good way. To add to that, he has topnotch acting and physical skills (he really knows horseback riding and martial arts). He can act with only his eyes or a slight movement of his face. Very nuanced yet very effective.

I doubt if he's a "traffic actor" in the sense that he was only given the lead role because of his fanbase. Judging from his portfolio of work, most of them aren't even dramas but film projects. He played mainly supporting or character roles in the dramas that he did. In fact, in his two previous projects with actress Ren Min, he did a supporting role in the first (her fiance, I think, whom she rejected) and a villain in the second (Lu Jiaxue, the Marquis of Ningyuan). In "The Rise of Ning", viewers found him so compelling, his portrayal so sensitive and layered, and his chemistry with Ren Min so intense. That probably prompted producers to reunite them in "A Splendid Match".

I checked out his profile and it turns out he's of Yi or Nousu ethnicity. I think they look like a cross between East Asian and European features.

Anyway, I hope the drama "A Splendid Match" opens up a lot of doors for him and catapult him to the A-list group of actors. But I hope he doesn't get cast in idol dramas with lightweight plots. Ci Sha's acting skills are for heavy drama or dramas that require subtlety.

New CDrama bias unlocked. 🙂