This is where Liana Brooks sometimes hides out when not writing or parenting. www.lianabrooks.com BlueSky: @LianaBrooks.bsky.social Instagram: /byLianaBrooks Facebook: @byLianaBrooks
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Meet Iris Muhly, American star of the hit international TV show Shattered.
Just kidding. Ingenue Iris definitely acts in the show, but the vibe? Less ‘star’ and more ‘character the fans hate most’. Bad enough on a normal show. But on a show where fans literally vote to control the plot? A disaster bad enough to potentially kick her all the way out of Korea: her work visa expires the moment her contract does.
Arriving home on a freezing December night to find her agent in the process of moving a Jpop star into her apartment? Hardly a vote of confidence. And that’s before a package explodes on Iris, literally showering her in death threats.
If only the fans loved her enough to vote for her to stay. Heck, right now she’d settle for a place to stay tonight.
Or a vote (of confidence) from, say, Max Kang, hotter-than-hot lead villain in the cast of Shattered…
A dark, flirty paranormal romance full of forced proximity and fake relationships: the perfect read to chase away holiday blues.
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Anya is live and ready to show you everything. Watch her strip, dance, and perform exclusive shows just for you. Interact in real-time and make your fantasies come true.
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Free to watch • No registration required • HD streaming
every drama i watched (or tried to) in the first half of 2026
an extremely lackluster start to the year. i am only including dramas that i watched at least 3 episodes of.
dropped
rebirth: i lasted five episodes before i gave up on this flaming trash heap. awful casting, awful writing, awful concept. and it’s particularly bitter because for all its flaws, original princess agents has compelling characters and good actors and everyone is of the age of consent.
seeds of scarlet longing: umm. eek? thought i would be in for a fun sexy mini romp and was totally creeped out by it instead.
ashes to crown: i heard this got better by the end, but i don’t have time to suffer through a crappy first half.
swords into plowshares: devastated to have dropped this because at the time i was so excited for a proper historical after a drought. but it was wayyyy too much work to understand, even for someone like me who doesn’t mind doing extra research. it’s a chaotic time period to tackle in drama format but you have to give some sort of anchor/focus for the story and it was taking too long to do that.
the first jasmine: this one is currently more on pause than officially dropped while i wait to see if it irons itself out after the weird uninteresting middle bit. it started out so good and compelling, but in the 20s i started having to force myself to get through eps on 2x speed because i got so bored. it looks like it might return to the angsty gothic vibes for the final arc so we’ll see if i end up finishing it.
completed
8. veil of shadows: what do you get when you take the spirit of a con movie and combine it with angsty body horror? this drama, i guess. i struggled to emotionally invest because what i thought i knew about character motivation kept getting upended and i failed to comprehend the rules of the universe (were there rules?). i think it's a well done drama but i just couldn't connect.
7. idol i: first 10 eps were gold with classic romcom vibes and bold things to say about idol/fan culture and justice and all sorts of things. then the last two episodes came along and it equivocated on all of it, which was such a letdown it colored my view of the whole drama.
6. chasing jade: i personally liked this and while i agree with critics that the first 1/2 to 2/3 was way stronger than the latter part, its flaws did not dampen my overall enjoyment. it's visually beautiful, i found the mains to have insane chemistry, i enjoyed the secondary characters, and i just had a great time with it.
5. light of dawn: i wasn't sure what to think after the first few super confusing artsy fartsy episodes, but it really all came together expertly to tell a horrifying story. absolutely powerhouse performance from zhang ruoyun, backed up by a near flawless cast who really delivered on what their characters needed for the narrative. definitely worth the watch if dark depressing prestige is your thing.
4. love beyond the grave: soooooo close to being excellent but the final third fell apart so much it kind of overshadows the rest. and i love the novel so much that i hold a grudge. it shined when it stuck to the source material and suffered when it tried to build out original story. but the good stuff is really, really good. i just wish they had stuck with the novel ending instead of writing a tragedy that undermines the central theme of the story.
3. how dare you: this one was so much fun! i have not read the novel so i experienced it purely as a drama, but regardless it is so well-paced with a perfect balance of humor, sweetness, darkness, and unhingedness for the bloodthirsty among us. it's not #1 because for some reason it just didn't linger in my heart and mind as much as other dramas, but from a quality perspective it's definitely the overall best of the idol cdramas this year.
2. generation to generation: objectively i don’t know that i should be ranking this so close to the top of the list. it certainly has a lot of problems. but those are my murder babies! i love them! as long as i get to see cai zhao throw herself in front of every threat to mu qingyan, and mu qingyan's tiny smiles about it, i’m happy. plus the ending made sense and was satisfying!! the bar is currently low enough that qualifies it for a top spot automatically.
1. my royal nemesis: far and away the winner so far this year. is it perfect with zero plot holes? no! was i squealing and kicking my feet and swooning and sighing like i used to watching kdramas of old? yes!!! considering my limited experience with ijy (glory) and hnj (when the phone rings) i was delighted by how well they paired as romantic leads! tour de forces, both of them, and whoever cast them here is a genius. i loved this.
older stuff
5. love me if you dare: fun if you're nostalgic for the crime solving duos of the 2000s/early 2010s. i did have moments of the nostalgia wearing off but overall good times. other than the, you know. dark serial killer stuff.
4. sound of the desert: holy wow this one was so hot! with an unabashedly feral otp that only got hotter the more committed they became. the love triangle dragged on far too long for my taste, but i could ff through most of that to get to the good stuff. totally worth digging around forgotten corners of the internet to find all the episodes.
3. legend of fuyao: super long with uneven pacing, but the first half is fire and the otp is like catnip to me! they make the draggy and confusing parts worth it. fl gets the glow up of the century (cinderella-like but saves herself with her own sword) and ml gets the breakdown of the century. catnip, i tell you!
2. the rise of phoenixes: okay technically i'm only like halfway done with this and i've been told things get questionable by the end, but the 40 episodes i've watched are sooooooooooooooooooooooo good. the leads haven't even actually done anything truly romantic together and i go rabid every time they're on screen together.
1. the story of minglan: everyone's favorite for a reason. i laughed, i cried, i screamed, i swooned, i googled a lot of questions about this period of chinese history. it's one that gets better as it goes on, imo. also the perfect example of how quiet storytelling can still be addictive viewing.
Peeling off the broken breastplate of a stoic knight who only fights and never speaks, just to realize there’s nothing in there. Not metaphorically—the armor is literally empty. It doesn’t appear to affect him. If the armor stays mostly in the shape of a knight, he just gets back up to keep fighting. But with the chest plate off he just sits there, equally impervious to curiosity as I reach up into the cavity where his body might’ve gone. Stubbornly, no answers are found anywhere in there.
So I forge him a new breastplate and on the inside, because I know he has plenty of room, I put a little pocket. Not big enough to hold anything functional of course. Just a little extra piece to see what he’ll do with it.
He comes back next time with some grievous injury to his nothing, presumably from the massive shredded gash across his thigh plates. He sits and waits. I fix it for him. He is still nothing in there. I decide to add a drawing on the inside, of the type of beast I imagine could rend metal into scraps with a single blow. He puts it back on. He no longer moves as if he is injured.
Over time the interior of the knight becomes decorated with whatever odds and ends I could think to attach to the inside of a guy who’s got room to carry it. What really gets me is that he never removes any of it. Never requests a change. Not even when I installed a curtain rod for a small tapestry, or a bud vase to carry roses for his beloved, or an accordion folder for letters. He didn’t say a word for any of the many, many drawings of mythical beasts that now fight forever inside of his shell.
There are plenty of other forges. I’m not entirely sure why he keeps coming back here anyway. We’re pretty popular, but he could get his armor fixed a lot quicker (and with fewer ridiculous modifications) literally anywhere else. I asked him if I could get a look at his nothing again. He flipped up his visor and nodded his head so I could take a look. It was the same as it had been, filled with drawings and trinkets and weird little fixtures I’d put in there. I asked if he was annoyed by it, or liked it, or felt anything at all, but he literally only ever says nothing, so I’m not sure why I asked.
There’s not much room left in his nothing now. When he comes back for repairs I’ve had to fix my own foolish additions. Some of these pieces are intricate and irritating to repair, but I fix them anyway. It feels wrong to take any of it away from him now, even though I’ve been rudely encroaching on his nothingness to the point where it’s barely even there. How he squeezes his nothing back into a body so full, I’ll never understand. But it’s a game to me now, finding a spot not yet filled and putting something there. A dark part of me wonders if he ever gets filled up completely, if whatever sorcery holds the nothing-knight together may break, and it will all clatter unceremoniously to the floor.
When he hands me his breastplate yet again, it is so shockingly disfigured that I wonder if being made of nothing has somehow kept him alive. No ordinary knight could sustain such injuries. So I fix it. And he waits, unmoving, in a quiet corner of the forge. It’s like he’s watching, even though I know the reading glasses I put inside his helmet were just for fun. I’m careful to put it all back exactly the way it was when he last left. There’s no room to add more this time.
He examines the breastplate, and pauses before putting it back on, like he’s looking for something. Is he worried about the fit? But it suits him just as it always did. He calmly points to a little space, about an inch, between a miniature shelf and one of many pockets. There’s nothing there. I ask him what’s wrong, and again he points. It’s the most emotion I’ve ever seen from him, and it’s barely anything at all. I take it to mean he wants something there.
I spend some time engraving a little snail in the gap. He watches, as much as nothing can watch. When I’m finished he holds the breastplate, but he doesn’t put it on right away. I ask him if something’s still wrong. He says nothing, and puts it on. I tell him I can’t add anything else. Even if he could ask, there’s no room left.
Next time he comes back, there’s nothing wrong with his armor—he lets me check to make sure. I ask him what he’s doing here. Out from one of many pockets, he retrieves a tiny rusted knife. It’s in miserable condition, barely worth saving. I tell him I could make him a nice new one, but I’ll fix it if he likes. He puts it away and reaches around to find something else, a needle and thread. Better condition, but I’m not a sewist and I tell him as much. He puts them away. He then retrieves a little twisted piece of wax paper. I open it. It’s candy. I ask if I can eat it. He says nothing. I eat it. It’s flavored with cinnamon. I’m surprised he let me take it.
He keeps bringing me candy now. His armor is the most laborious to repair out of every client my forge serves, but it’s my own fault so I can’t complain. Sometimes he keeps me company while I work. I wonder if he is trying to tell me something when he hands me mints. I wonder again at the lemon lozenges. He stares at me when I eat, as much as nothing can stare.
One day he brings me a little jar of honey. I thank him, I tell him I’ll save it for dinner. He watches me work, he puts his repaired armor back on, and he stays. My shift passes slowly, and when I finally pack up to leave it’s dark outside. He follows me out of the forge. I ask him where he’s going. He points to the jar in my hand. I ask him if he wants to watch me eat it. He says nothing, but the nothing-knight clearly wants something, so I open the lid and dunk my finger in the honey. I try not to get any on my chin. He stands there, inches away, watching me try to consume this jar of honey without a utensil. It tastes like clovers. About half the jar is left when I’ve finally had enough of pretending to be a bear, but he doesn’t move to leave.
I ask if he’s going to follow me home. He says nothing. I tell him he can if he wants to. Again, nothing. I start walking, and he follows at my side. I know he’s not going to say anything ever, so I fill the silence. I tell him I’m grateful for the sweets, I tell him about how his various components are made, I tell him I’ve never met anyone made of nothing before. I tell him it’s a rare opportunity for a smith to work so much on the inside of something. He says nothing. I tell him again how much I like the candy.
It occurs to me that maybe filling me with sugar is as close as he can get to filling someone else’s empty armor with trinkets. I’m not sure if that’s really why he does it. I tell him I don’t have room to be filled with anything on the inside, not like him. I’m not a container for much besides food. He offers me another piece of candy. Maybe he likes containing something, the way I like to feel full. Maybe it’s nothing at all.
—
I didn’t edit this even a little bit. Thanks for reading!
I came across a really interesting post on Xiaohongshu and thought it would be fun to share here because a lot of us have been obsessing over Ashes to Crown.
The original poster pointed out that the huge necklace worn by the female lead in the promotional posters might not just be fantasy jewelry.
The setting of Ashes to Crown is fictional, but she said that judging from the clothing styles, it seems to draw inspiration from the pre-imperial period, especially the State of Chu during the pre-Qin period.
What caught her attention was this incredibly long necklace that hangs almost all the way to the ground.
According to her, it looks very similar to a 玉组佩 (yù zǔ pèi), usually translated as a jade pendant set.
She said the first thing that came to mind was a famous jade pendant set belonging to the wife of Marquis Mu of Jin from the Western Zhou period, which is preserved in the Shanxi Museum.
Apparently this particular set consists of more than 200 individual pieces of jade, beads, agate, and other ornaments linked together into a single ceremonial piece. Looking at the reconstruction, it's easy to see why she made the connection.
The post also explained that jade pendant sets have a very long history. Their origins can be traced back to the Neolithic period, and by the Zhou dynasty they had become important symbols of rank and status.
One thing I found especially interesting was that these weren't just decorative accessories.
The poster quoted ancient ritual texts which describe how the jade pieces would chime as the wearer walked.
The Book of Rites states:
"A gentleman of old always wore jade... When advancing, he would bow; when retreating, he would compose himself, and only then would the jade chime pleasantly."
If someone walked too quickly or moved too abruptly, the jade pieces would collide noisily and create an unpleasant clatter.
Only by walking calmly and maintaining a steady rhythm could the jade produce a clear and harmonious sound.
Your movements were literally judged by the sound of your jewelry.
The post also mentioned that, according to ancient ritual traditions, details such as the length of the pendant set, the number of jade pieces, and even the color of the jade could indicate a person's social rank.
The most elaborate examples were reserved for the highest levels of the aristocracy.
The Zhou people associated jade with the five virtues of benevolence, righteousness, wisdom, courage, and purity. Wearing jade served as a reminder that one's character should be as gentle and steadfast as jade itself.
According to the Rites of Zhou:
The Son of Heaven wore white jade.
Dukes and marquises wore dark mountain jade.
Senior officials wore blue-green water jade.
The length of the pendant set, the number of components, and even the color of the jade all served as indicators of rank.
High-ranking nobles
Multiple jade crescents (three or more)
Tooth-shaped pendants
Elaborate strings of beads
Lower-ranking nobles
A single jade crescent or only a few
Simpler designs
Which makes the necklace in Ashes of Crown even more interesting. If the costume designers were inspired by historical jade pendant sets, then it isn't just a beautiful accessory—it's a visual way of telling the audience that this character belongs to the highest ranks of society.
Anyway, I thought this was such a cool detail and wanted to share it here. It's fascinating to see how much historical culture can be reflected in costume design.
(Original information summarized from a Xiaohongshu post by a Chinese history enthusiast.)
THE STORY OF MINGLAN: YES, THIS MIGHT BE THE BEST CDRAMA TO EVER EXIST
I usually start these posts with “I’m not ashamed to admit” and then confess some ridiculous-but-not-actually-shameful thing about a drama. This time… I’M ASHAMED TO ADMIT that I actually started The Story of Minglan ages ago and stopped at episode 4. In my defense - it’s mostly their childhood, and apparently I was too dense to realize what kind of a masterpiece I was watching, the kind that commits FOUR WHOLE EPISODES to weaving such a wide net you need the childhood to understand the adults.
IT IS THAT GOOD.
I now fully understand why this is everyone’s favorite Cdrama. It is perfection. Production, storylines, characters, ACTING… everything you’d ever want in a series. And you get SEVENTY-THREE EPISODES of greatness - which honestly feels 73 episodes too short. I could rewatch it right now (and probably will) and still enjoy EVERY SECOND. That’s saying a lot for a drama that runs about 55 hours.
The Story of Minglan is one of those rare dramas that blends meticulous historical detail, sharp social commentary, and deeply human storytelling. On the surface it’s about family politics, inheritance struggles, and court intrigue - but at its core, it’s about survival, growth, and partnership.
At the heart of it all is Sheng Minglan, played brilliantly by Zhao Liying. Minglan begins as the quiet, overlooked daughter in a household where status is everything. She learns early that silence and observation are her best shields, but over time, she grows into a woman who cannot only protect herself but command respect. Zhao Liying captures every layer - Minglan’s restraint, her intelligence, her occasional flashes of vulnerability, her endless strength - and watching her transformation into a capable matriarch is one of the drama’s greatest rewards.
And then… there’s Gu Tingye. Feng Shaofeng brings him to life with so much charisma it’s unreal. His delivery is sharp, his laughter fills every scene, and his mischievous, calculating personality makes him endlessly watchable. He’s infuriating, endearing, cunning, bold, shameless, and clever all at once. You never know what he’ll pull next, but you do know that once he sets his eyes on Minglan, he’s ALL IN. Beneath all the bravado, he is loyal, steadfast, and deeply in love. His persistence cuts through every layer of Minglan’s defenses, and their relationship becomes one of mutual respect, strategy, and genuine affection. Together they sparkle - sometimes quarrelsome, sometimes soft, always magnetic.
Finally we come to… Qi Heng. Sigh. Handsome, gentle, well-meaning… but ultimately a disappointment. He’s the definition of the “what could have been” trope: the perfect young lord on paper who turns out to be finicky, indecisive, and too bound by family to stand tall when it matters. Watching him shrink while Gu Tingye rises only makes the choice clearer: Minglan deserves someone who fights for her.
And OH BOY does Gu Tingye fight for her. I swear, no man in dramaland has ever WORKED as hard for a wife. This wasn’t a proposal - it was a MILITARY CAMPAIGN disguised as romance:
Sabotage He Hongwen (who was to be engaged to Minglan) by dragging out the exiled female cousin who clings to Hongwen💀
Bait the Sheng family by pretending to propose to Rulan (they were READY to sacrifice Rulan to a “degenerate” Marquis lol)
Investigate Rulan’s secret lover like Sherlock Petty Holmes
Ask the Emperor for a marriage to a “legitimate” Sheng daughter (no need to name names, heh)
Casually wait for Rulan to self-destruct (as predicted) by meeting her lover
Switch target to Minglan (who is juuust legitimate enough as she’s under the main house)
EXPOSE EVERYTHING to Minglan because he is SO IN LOVE and wants her to know HE KNOWS HER 😭
Drag Qi Heng for filth by pointing out his incompetence and indecisiveness (ALSO: “how DARE you think I’m marrying Minglan just to marry. I ONLY WANT HER”)
Be shameless until she says yes
AND THEN BE SO GIDDY ABOUT IT at every step
Tell me that isn’t the most insane, audacious marriage net in history. Gu Tingye didn’t propose, he deployed a battle plan, and Minglan? She didn’t “fall” for him - she got outmaneuvered, cornered, AND cherished.
Together, Minglan and Gu Tingye create a dynamic that feels both realistic and larger-than-life. They scheme, they quarrel, they protect one another, they laugh together. And through it all, the chemistry is subtle but undeniable.
This isn’t just romance - it’s survival turned into partnership, strategy turned into love. And honestly? It might be one of the best marriages ever written on screen.
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fucking sobbing, her(Xiaowen) watch broke and it was the last thing that she was able to use to listen to her grandma's voice after her passing and he(Sanmei) used all means to fix it at first but it didn't work so at the end he finally managed to at least save the audio of her grandma's voice and then put it into her fav toy/plush that her grandma made for her
Don't take them away from each other pleas, it's not only Xiaowen who found a place to call home and people to call family with affection and love but also Sanmei, please don't separate them I will cry
I was not expecting to actually cry during this movie
I think his(Sanmei) dad would be proud
Lighting up the stars was a great movie, at the end they've found home in one place and watching the stars in the sky.
writing is a fantastic hobby but the kicker is it's a lot harder to show your friends as it's progressing. with a sketch i can show someone and they'll be like oh that's an apple. you can't do that with words until you get a lot of them down. so i'll just be like damn fuckin. uhh. check this out
that's right. and that's just one of the several words i know
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