#shadow love

Cheng Lei, serving cunt since FOREVER (yes I’m finally watching this 😅)

Didn't you say our lives are bound together? How could I leave you behind?

What would happen if, during a war between two kingdoms, one army's general acquires super strength but loses his memory, and falls in love with and becomes his rival general's devoted protector...against his own army?

What SHADOW LOVE is really about:

Man. Hot man. ShirtIess hot man with a pretty face and muscles. ShirtIess hot man with a pretty face and muscles, and lips and shoulders, and pecs, and arms in a spiky tight suit that magically vanishes off of him. And he becomes a loyal and addicted Vampire For One (1) Person (TM @ginsoakedgirl80 ).

What they'd like you to think SHADOW LOVE is about: Or maybe they know exactly what they're doing:

The Director: "Okay, but he has a fight scene right before this- he's in full armor, why is he shirtless?"

Writer: "He uh, *thinks for a moment* ....gets punched out of his clothes?"

Director: "......"

Director: "sure why not"

We had a lot this year and I feel like making a post (yes, we are likely to have more later in the year but whatever.) I am calling them fantasy instead of xianxia, xuanxuan or whatever else because I am too lazy to do subcategories.

THE GOOD:

The Blossoming Love - atheism was never so sexy. Starts as cultivation boy scout x demon temptress, progresses (or does it) into demon lord x same and emperor x goddess, this is one of the most solidly written, both story, theme, character and romance wise dramas out there. If you didn't want ML to murder the Gods, not once but twice, you are doing life wrong.

The Demon Hunter's Romance - I didn't even dislike the ending but the rest of this drama was on another level in both logic and character consistency. So very good.

Eternal Brotherhood 2 - this is barely a fantasy but as far as war and politics epics centering on three sworn brothers go, this is tops.

Love in Pavilion - one of the grimmest and most tragic dramas this year. A great example of how you can take deep colors, beautiful clothes, romance cliches and somehow make it into a narrative that makes you want to curl up into a ball and cry.

Love of the Divine Tree - someone saw TTEOTM and went "here is how it should have gone!" Not really but is sure feels that way. A BAMF heroine heals future demon destroyer of the worlds by making him enjoy a petting zoo. Great pacing and characters and fun.

A Moment But Forever - blunt engineering PhD heroine meets an atheist philosophy PhD with mental illness. Fantasy style. This has been on the shelf for a bit, so it looks a little older but the narrative and OTP are solid and adult.

Moonlit Reunion - my favorite on this list. She's a demon by night, princess by day, he's a disciple of the sect that fights demons and who wants to avenge his parents' deaths. Together they are fire, but not as fire as the cinematography.

When Destiny Brings the Demon - like the best evil overlord crack fanfic of your dreams. Office drone ends up in cannibalistic high fantasy realm and all she wants is naps and snacks but the supposed evil overlord decides she'd make a great underling. The story is epic but not as epic as the make-outs.

THE BAD:

Feud - there were a number of dramas I did not like this year. This was the sole one I genuinely hated. If you took everything I loathe in characters, ships, tropes, narratives and wrapped it into truly horrific writing with a side of insane fans, you'd get this drama. Usually, when someone loves something I didn't, I just assume "oh different tastes" and move on. But if you genuinely thought this was a masterpiece, I am judging you.

Love Never Fails - except when it does. This drama sat on the shelf forever due to Yuan Bingyun scandal and ultimately got released with a different actress CGIed in. That is a hurdle but not as much as the fact that the sole person who bothered to act in the whole drama was Liu Xueyi and the plot, which was never inventive but entertaining enough for the first dozen episodes, just got stuck and devoured itself over and over like a pastel ouroboros. Honorary mention to FL's hair - not sure why she looked like Shirley Temple struck by lightning but it's a look I guess.

THE UGLY:

Destiny and Saving - it may have perhaps eventually gotten to a coherent story but I will never know because the brightness was cranked up so high on the first episodes that this drama should be considered banned by the Geneva Convention.

Moonlight Mystique - this drama had some interesting points and characters tho the mains and main narrative bored me to death, but visually it was one of the ugliest shows from anywhere it's been my un-privilege to watch. It's like someone barfed pepto-bismol all over set and then imitated an acid trip. I get that pastels common in xianxia can get a little monotonous but I'd take that any day over the assault on my eyeballs. Also, Ao Ruipeng cosplaying as male Elvira Queen of the Dark was...an acquired taste.

SUI GENERIS

aries you turn into a soldier for a war that nobody asked you to fight. the person who usually values their own time suddenly starts burning through every bit of energy just to keep the chase alive. you mistake the adrenaline of a conflict for actual intimacy plus you find yourself picking fights just to see if the other person is still awake. you end up exhausted because you think that to be loved you have to be the one who never runs out of fire. you are setting yourself on fire to keep someone else warm while you slowly turn to ash.

taurus you turn into a museum curator for a relationship that might already be dead. you cling to the physical presence of the other person and the comfort of the routine until the air in the room becomes heavy plus stagnant. you refuse to see the red flags because acknowledging them would mean having to move your feet. you trade your own growth for a sense of safety that is actually just a prison made of old habits. you stay in the rot because you are terrified that if you let go you will have nothing left to hold onto.

gemini you turn into a ghost who has a thousand different faces but zero heartbeat. you become so obsessed with being interesting plus keeping the conversation moving that you forget to actually show up as a human with needs. you use your wit as a shield to hide the fact that you are terrified of the silence that comes when the talking stops. you adapt so completely to what they want that you wake up one day and realize you have no idea whose life you are actually living. you are treating your own heart like a story that belongs to someone else.

cancer you turn into an emotional debt collector. you mother the other person until they feel suffocated plus you use your own self sacrifice as a hook to keep them from ever leaving. you pick up on every milimetric shift in their mood and you take it as a personal failure. you build a sanctuary that is actually a trap because nobody can ever pay you back for the amount of care you have forced upon them. you are drowning in a sea of your own nurturing plus you wonder why you feel so lonely in a house full of people.

leo you turn into a performer who is terrified of the lights going out. you give so much warmth plus pride to the connection that you become a slave to the applause. you start hiding your bad days plus your messy human parts because you think your only value is in being the sun. you spend all your energy curating a grand romance for the audience while your internal room is pitch black. you are burning your own spirit just to make sure nobody see the shadows you are hiding behind your smile.

virgo you turn into a forensic scientist for the other person’s flaws. you show your love by trying to fix every tiny error in their life plus you convince yourself that this is devotion. in reality you are using your competence as a way to maintain control plus keep yourself safe from being judged. you obsess over the unwashed dishes plus the typos because the mess in your own chest is too big to organize. you are spending your life trying to polish a stone that was never meant to be a diamond just to prove you are useful.

libra you turn into a hollow mirror. you spend so much energy keeping the scales from tipping plus making sure the other person is happy that you completely disappear from the room. you say yes when your soul is screaming no plus you agree with things you hate just to avoid the friction of an honest fight. you are building a bridge to a place you never actually wanted to visit. you find yourself resentful in the middle of the night because you’ve traded your own voice for a fake peace that is starting to feel like a cage.

scorpio you turn into an investigator of a crime that hasn't happened yet. you don’t do intimacy; you do a total psychological autopsy. you test their loyalty by pushing them into the dark just to see if they will blink. you confuse the intensity of the pain with the depth of the connection plus you find a weird satisfaction in the total destruction of a bond just to prove you were right about it being fake. you are living in a bunker of your own making plus you wonder why the world feels so cold plus indifferent to your heart.

sagittarius you turn into a runaway with a blindfold on. you use your big ideas plus your optimism to ignore the wreckage you are leaving behind in the current moment. you tell yourself that the answer is always in the next city or the next big adventure because you are terrified that if you ever stay still you will find out there is no magic solution to your own boredom. you are running away while standing perfectly still plus you use your blunt honesty as a way to push people away before they get a chance to know how small you actually feel.

capricorn you turn into a cold business deal. you treat the relationship like an investment that requires a solid return plus you repress every "inefficient" feeling just to keep the goals moving. you work eighteen hours a day to prove you are capable because you think love is something you earn through responsibility rather than something you deserve for existing. you are climbing a mountain made of sand plus you are terrified that if you ever stop moving the other person will realize you were just a tired child all along.

aquarius you turn into a scientist watching their own heart through a microscope. you detach so completely from your own feelings that you treat human intimacy like a glitch in a system you are trying to debug. you look at the other person from the ceiling plus you use your logic as a survival suit because you are afraid that if you actually let them touch you then you will shatter. you find your peace in the alienation plus you wonder why you feel like a guest in your own relationships. you are a revolutionary with no home.