caffeinatedDreams

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.