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Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt.2)

There are my favorite familial and (supposedly) non-romantical dynamics as a list.

Brotherly love

Drama: The Untamed / 陈情令 Characters: Wei Wuxian & Jiang Wanyin Screentime: Secondary

My favorite brother couple! They tore my heart into million pieces and it's still broken. There is jealousy and love and difficult moral choices between them. Wei Wuxian is an extraordinary man, as the main hero should be. He is brave enough to go against the rules if he feels it's right thing to do, also he is ready to sacrifice himself for the greater good and hides all of his pain tightly inside. Jiang Cheng is a mere person. He is not strong (or insane) enough to put everything on the line, because he shoulders responsibilities for his sect. Although they love each other, Wei Wuxian is ready to die for the truth and chooses to fight if fight is inevitable. Jiang Cheng tries to go the path of "minor evil" and sacrifice his sense of justice in order to save as much as possible. The both views are OK and each goes the chosen by himself path and bears consequences of this choice. Consequences are awful. They are traumatizing. And, what is the biggest pain of mine, they never discussed it. They never found out about sacrifices they both made for each other. They never found out that they still love each other as brothers.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue & Gong Yuanzhi Screentime: Secondary About these two I wrote two posts here and here . In a nutshell: one is carrying the responsibilities for everything and anything, strictly follows the rules and teaches his younger cousin how to live this life. The little cousin is yandere, who is obsessed with his older cousin, has no conscience and does his best to make his cousin's life better. I like this unusual dynamics: they both love each other and care for each other on the same level, even if one of them is yandere.

Master-servant relationship

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Gu Xiang & Wen Kexing Screentime: Secondary I like this type of dynamics when servants become someone more than just servants to their masters. Chinese drama makers love it and use it a lot, but this scene was so powerful that made me cry. Beautiful transformation from a servant to a family member (unfortunately, post mortem).

Seeking out love

Drama: Fangs of Fortune / 大梦归离 Characters: Li Lun & Zhao Yuanzhou Screentime: Secondary

Once Li Lun and Zhao Yuanzhou used to be boyfriends. Then they broke up for reason not really understandable (at least for Li Lun), but Li Lun can't get over it and tries to get attention of his ex friend back with pretty villainous means. Him not being able to leave this situation and to move on will be the main reason he will die in the end.

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Xie Wang & Zhao Jing Screentime: Secondary

Zhao Jing adopted a very skillful and absolutely ruthless killer as his son. The killer is self-confident and does his job playfully, but his weakness is his passionate desire to be loved by his adoptive father. He feels that Zhao Jing just uses him for his skills and will throw him away as soon as his adoptive father will not need his skills anymore, so he even paralyze his adoptive father to force him being always near. He ends up not being capable to choose his life over his father's and dies with him. A very sad type of addiction with "A little mermaid" type of moral: you can bring the whole world upside down, but if one doesn't love you, one will not, no matter what.

Drama: Painted Skin 2020 /画皮 Characters: Wang Sheng & Xiao Wei Screentime: Main In this B̶L̶ version of Painted Skin Chinese legend the fox demon is male and wants to get one of the humans that brought him home. But humans love each other, no one is interested in a fox demon, so he makes them pay for their previous kindness with blood, sweat and tears. In the end the demon gets a human heart, feels something (e.g. how hard it is to be a human) and makes up one more lie, giving to the soul of the man he wanted for himself a strand of his own hair instead of human's wife's hair in order to meet him in another life. The same moral as in the previous drama. The same sadness.

Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe

Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt.1)

There are my favorite relationship dynamics as a list. Opposites attract + power couple

Drama: I Am Nobody /  异人之下 Characters: Zhuge Qing & Wang Ye Screentime: Minor I like it when characters are different in a way they could complement one another, but at the same time they are similar in terms of what is important for people to stay stuck together. Zhuge Qing is public, easy-going and wants to be friends with Wang Ye. Wang Ye is mysterious, reflexive and doesn't want to be bothered by other people. But no one can beat extrovert if he decided to be friends with you =) Plus, they are united by their superpowers: they are both powerful sorcerers and their sorcery is very similar in its nature. So they can compete and learn from each other and, if necessary, kick enemy's ass together. ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶i̶r̶ ̶d̶y̶n̶a̶m̶i̶c̶s̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶g̶o̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶c̶k̶ ̶B̶L̶ ̶v̶i̶b̶e̶s.̶ By the end of season 1 they are OK and together.

Drama: Mysterious Lotus Casebook / 莲花楼 Characters: Di Feisheng & Li Lianhua Screentime: Secondary Di Feisheng is a leader of a demonic sect, a former slave and a very straightforward man. Li Lianhua is a former leader of a righteous sect and an extremely sly man with not-so-bad background. But both of them are the best martial artists in Jianghu and went through a lot together. One wants everyone to leave him alone, another wants to be with him together forever. Both of them don't give a damn about everything that happens in the world but they care for each other. B̶L̶-̶v̶i̶b̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶a̶t̶t̶a̶c̶h̶e̶d̶.̶ The ending of the drama is obscure but I'd like to think they both are alive and happy together.

Drama: The Blood of Youth / 少年歌行 Characters: Xiao Se & Ye Anshi Screentime: Secondary A leader of a demonic sect who has an ultimate martial knowledge and a former best righteous martial artist, who is suffering from decease and can't fight anymore. What can unite them? The answer is: the similar mindset. They both had a great power and lost it, they both are shouldering great responsibilities which don't make them happy. Despite the fact that they should be on the opposite sides in Jianghu world, they are still good friends. M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶B̶L̶-̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶,̶ ̶a̶l̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶X̶i̶a̶o̶ ̶S̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶g̶i̶r̶l̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶.̶ There is a small extra ep at the end of drama, when they meet each other again in a very romantic way. Just search for it.

Drama: The Legends / 招摇 Characters: Lu Shiqi & Qin Qianxian Screentime: Minor She is from a demonic sect. He is from a righteous one. She is immune to the impact of spiritual power. He is the one of the most powerful people in terms of spiritual power. She is dumb, straightforward and pure-hearted. He is blissed yet sensible and burdened with difficult moral choices. They could be an ideal Yin-Yang couple. But they have BE, because it's "The Legends", everyone should die in here Т_Т.

Pride and Prejudice + power couple

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity / 晴雅集 Characters: Bo Ya & Qing Ming Screentime: Main This dynanics is similar with the previous one, but here we are focused on how they ended up together. Bo Ya has prejudice against demons-yao and believes all of them should be executed. He meets half-demon-sorcerer Qing Ming who helps him to overcome his prejudice. Finally, they become friends (or̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶o̶n̶l̶y̶ ̶f̶r̶i̶e̶n̶d̶s̶) and together they win over the evil forces. At the end they are separated but there is a hope they meet again.

Drama: Wuliang / 无量 Characters: Po Xiao & Feng Ren Screentime: Main People of different social status both seek to get a magical sutra. During a road trip they exchange opinions on the sutra and how to use it and change each other's mind. In the end it turns out that they together saved the world and can be finally together. As friends, of course.

Drama: Oh No! Here Comes Trouble / 不良執念清除師 Characters: Pu Yiyong & Cao Guangyan Screentime: Main Pu Yiyong looks like lowlife, studies very bad and hates Cao Guangyan, who is self-confident, smart and thinks low of Pu Yiyong. But a mysterious case with ghosts forces them to interact and they find out, that together they are a perfect team. Honestly speaking, this little series couldn't develop this topic as good as I hoped, but it's a really interesting story, so you can watch it for the ghost detective plot and get this type of relationship in addition. It's a Taiwanese drama, so BL-jokes and dalliance with a viewer were huge, but it didn`t help much. Still a nice dynamics and a good drama. Us vs the World

Drama: The Untamed / 陈情令 Characters: Wei Wuxian & Lan Wangji Screentime: Main I don`t like the novel, but I like drama exactly because here I can see this dynamics. In the past life of Wei Wuxiang Lan Wangji was not strong enough to go against the whole world to protect his friend (well, in the novel they are lovers, but it kills the main idea of this dynamics by turning it into "I do it all just to get into your bed", which is meh), and his friend died. Suddenly, 16 years later, he gets a chance to choose once more: to be a part of society and watch once more his friend dying or to be with him against everyone this time. The moment he chooses to be with Wei Wuxian against the whole world I felt cathartic pleasure. The drama ends up on a little bit obscure but positive note.

Drama: Word of Honor / 山河令 Characters: Zhou Zishu & Wen Kexing Screentime: Main A former king's assassin who is at the brink of death and just wants to live the time left in silence and a birdy master of the most skillful criminals find each other, find out that they are brothers-in-teachings and decide to fight against the world together just to live in silence and enjoy each other's company. When one thinks it's his last second of life, the other comes to help him even if they both can't beat the greater number of enemies and will die for sure. Catharsis! The drama has a small extra ep where they are together and all right.

Drama: The Legends / 招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan & Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main Them, again! The first half of the drama they have enemies-to-lovers dynamics, but then, when they find out the truth about Zhao Yao's death and about feelings for each other, they turn into Bonny and Clyde and go annihilate the righteous guys who are in fact not-so-righteous. And it makes me feel cathartic, too. A very catharsis-causing dynamics, indeed! It's little obscure, but they will be fine at the end of the drama.

Drama: Dong Lan Xue / 东栏雪 Characters: Shen Yan & Chu Ningyuan Screentime: Main Two bad guys work together to get power in the palace. And get involved in romantic relationship during their power gaining. Nice story with an open ending.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian & Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main It's a little story inside a big one about transmigrators that you can read in another of my posts. It lasts something like 1,5 eps of the drama but is a nice story itself. A lonely bellicose boy from a rich family runs away from home where no one cares for him and lives on the street. A lonely girl from an extremely poor family and being bullied by classmates tries to survive in this world. They meet each other and understand that it's easier to fight their fate together. Nice story, it's a pity that this one is too short and not a main plot of the drama.

Descent

Drama: The Spirealm / 致命游戏 Characters: Ruan Lanzhu & Ling Jiushi Screentime: Main

It's a really rare but interesting dynamics (and it is a huge spoiler to this drama itself, so beware): the god-like creature (a monster of the 12th door in the novel "Kaleidoscope of death" and a VR-virus in its adaptation, "The Spirealm") has to keep company to a mere person. During their journey, a god-like creature finds out that said mere person is not really mere, and unexpectantly develops feelings for him, which cause his "descent" and allow him to be a little bit less ethereal and a little bit more human. I like the drama more than the novel, but the lore and the story are great in both of them. The novel has HE and the drama ending is controversial: you can consider it as BE or as delayed HE, but it's heart-wrenching, powerful and logical. Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe

Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

There are my favorite types of characters as a list. A villain with a fatal weakness

Drama: The Scholar Who Walks the Night /밤을 걷는 선비 Character: Gwi Screentime: Secondary Gwi is an ancient vampire and a master of puppets (and Joseon's king is the main of them). He is merciless, invincible and scheming all the drama long, until he accidentally kills a girl, who was his hostage and recalcitrant puppet from her childhood on and was the only one who could scold him and deny him. Nothing about it is said directly in the drama, but after her death he goes insane, kills all of his puppets and this way causes his own death. So, I suppose, she was his only weakness, and I like this type of a personal drama for a villain.

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Character: Mo Li Screentime: Minor The shell of Devil lord Mo Li (which has got his own consciousness) falls in love with the demon girl (and has a very complex enemies-to-lovers relationship with her). Later, Devil lord occupies his shell, cornering shell's consciousness into the darkest corner of his mind, and treats his shell's girlfriend with no particular interest (but better than he could). However, he ends up unintentionally killing her off, and it becomes his doom, because her death releases the ancient weapon, the only thing that can kill him, and the main heroes use it to destroy him. So, she was his only weakness, literally.

Punch-Clock Villain / the Dragon

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Character: Moo-yeon Screentime: Secondary Moo-yeon works as an assassin for the killer of his father, who is constantly threatening him with the life of his sister. Moo-yeon is a man of a very ill fate: his family was accused of a treason and executed, his sister became a fugitive, he was forced to sell his conscience for his and sister's lives and, as a cherry on the top of this cake, fell in love with the daughter of his captor. And died trying to save her... His story is sooooo sad, but it makes me feel for this character fully. Also, he is the king of whump because the half of the drama he is injured and suffers from his wounds. The whole sad story of this guy is analyzed by me here, here and here.

Drama: The King Loves /왕은 사랑한다 Character: Moo-suk Screentime: Minor Koreans, obviously, like this type of characters, too, so there is another Dragon of the main villain, Moo-suk. In his free from dirty deeds time he h̶e̶l̶p̶s̶ ̶o̶l̶d̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶r̶o̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶r̶o̶a̶d̶ literally saves cute children and restores self-confidence of young ladies. And then he falls in love, rethinks his life and dies from the hand of his master. Predictable and sad. Still a memorable guy, though.

Drama: The Legend of Shen Li /与凤行 Character: Mo Fang Screentime: Minor A son of the main villain has been groomed from his infancy to plot against the main heroes to avenge his father. Later, he falls in love with the main heroine and rethinks things he was taught about. His resistance, however, doesn't help him much - his body ends up being possessed by the evil spirit without even an opportunity to kill himself in order to break free... No HE, as you understand. 50 shades of a Byronic Hero

Drama: The Wolf / 狼殿下 Character: Chu Youwen Screentime: Main A Mowgli boy was adopted by a wicked emperor, brought up like a cruel beast and was forced to do some dirty stuff for the emperor. He is mysterious, severe and you never know what's on his mind. As a true Byronic hero. He is some kind of Dragon, too, but it's a Chinese drama and he is a main hero in it, that's why he doesn't really do anything bad during the series. His soul is kind and his heart is pure, but he hides it from his love and deals with all of his problems on his own. It's the reason why all of this drama is a masochistic tango between him and his love. Whump lovers will be happy, too, because he is constantly in chains, pierced by arrows like a hedgehog or works as a slave in mines. As any other Dragon, he has a BE.

Drama: Lost You Forever /长相思 第一季 Character: Xiang Liu Screentime: Secondary A mysterious demon general, whose name makes everyone shake in fear. A former demon slave, who is true to his word enough to fight for his benefactor even if he knows crystal clearly that it's hopeless and he and his army will die in the end. A man who has huge problems with expression of his emotions in a socially approved way. Edward Cullen of Chinese dramaland. He is enigmatic, with thick vibes of a bad guy, yet very loyal to his benefactor as well as his love and very selfless. Because of this loyalty he will die and the love of his life will never-ever find out about anything he has done for her during the story.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Character: Gong Shangjue Screentime: Secondary A guy was through trauma in his childhood and it made him look intimidating and unfeeling. A tsundere is born! He coped with his trauma by taking extra responsibilities for everything and everyone and turned to be a walking killing machine instead of a man. But an enemy assassin comes to his life and teaches him how to be a human once more. It's a painful experience, but it`s necessary in order to grow up as a character and is beautifully fulfilled. It was a great joy to know that he survives at the end of the story, it's a rare thing for this type of characters, so even if there is season 2 someday, I will not watch it in order not to spoil my impression of the first one. I wrote about him detailed here, here, here and here.

Drama: Princess Agents / 特工皇妃楚乔传 Character: Yan Xun Screentime: Secondary It's the transformation story, too, like a previous one, but this time it's transformation from an ordinary man to a villain. Prince Yan Xun is a hostage colony prince in a metropolis empire, but he enjoys a noble life along with other nobility youth. The society around him is awful, each of these noble youths is a psycho who appreciate human hunt and so on, but cheerful and easy-going Yan Xun doesn't think their bloodthirstiness could turn against him. When relationship between the metropolis and the colony become tense, though, Yan Xun's friends of yesterday are happy to drink his blood. He loses his whole family and, insanely longing for revenge, slowly turns to one of those monsters himself.

Drama: Fangs of Fortune / 大梦归离 Characters: Li Lun Screentime: Secondary The Great Demon was dumped by his boyfriend because of his aggressive ways of protecting people of his own species and still can't get over their break-up. He goes through all five stages of acceptance of their break-up while being a villain of the story. In the end his obsession brings him to his doom, because he loves his ex-friend too much. He is morally grey yet a versatile and interesting character. I wrote about him here: 1 , 2, 3 and 4.

Drama: A Journey to Love / 一念关山 Character: Li Tongguang Screentime: Minor This guy has got a very realistic personality and background: he is a bastard who was deprived of mother's love since he was a child. The first circumstance made him power-hungry, scheming and outwardly emotionless, the second one made him longing for mother's love on insanely level. So he is invincible outwardly, but turns into a teary mess when it's about his female tutor, who is a mother figure for him. The contrast between these two personalities is enormous and makes this character very alive and interesting. During the drama he will not cope with his Oedipus complex but circumstances will solve this problem for him.

A pure-hearted hero

Drama: Creation of the Gods Ⅰ / 封神三部曲 Character: Ji Fa Screentime: Main It's maybe strange to find this type of characters in the list of my favorite types, but morality and selflessness of a character is very important for me, too. This story is some kind of King Arthur's legend, but in a Chinese way. The emperor is bewitched by a demon and is bringing the kingdom to it's downfall, the Gods are here to find the savior with the help of a magic scroll that can be opened only by a true king. Ji Fa, a hero of this story, doesn't care about scrolls, but his heart is loyal to his kingdom and to his family (in this very order). He genuinely wants to help his friend-prince to be a king his kingdom deserves and, despite awful things that were done to him and his family, doesn`t harden his soul and betray his ideals. And, I suppose, although he isn't aware of this, he IS the future King Arthur of China.

Interesting character decisions

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Jiang Wu Screentime: Minor This character is something like a rival of the male lead. He is a xinmo - an inner demon of some other character and represents the darkest features of a human's soul. He is a ruthless killer, a dark sorcerer without conscience, but what was very unique, being literary the worst part of a human personality, he values his assistants a lot and genuinely cares for them. A villain is usually a lone wolf. He doesn't trust anyone and doesn't value anyone, his loneliness is usually his weakness and a key to his downfall. So I was pleasantly surprised that sometimes a villain is capable of building healthy relationships with his subordinates.

Drama: Sh**ting Stars / 별똥별 Characters: Do Soo-hyuk Screentime: Minor

This guy truly surprised me. Firstly, he is supposed to be something like a third wheel in relationships of the main couple, but he just calmly got a refusal from the female lead, said "OK" and, absolutely relaxed, proceeded to live his life further. It's something unbelievable for me, because I used to see the insanity caused by an unrequited love to be the plot engine of a lot of dramas. Secondly, he is well-written as a character, straightforward, principled and has tsundere-ish or Byronic vibes - all the character features that I like =) Also you can see: Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and Love tropes Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe

Asian dramas and Love tropes

There are my favorite characters and their love stories as a list. Enemies to lovers

Drama: Her Royal Highness/长公主在上 Characters: Gu Xuanqing x Li Yunzhen Screentime: Main A boy is sent to be a servant in the unruly princess`s palace in order to find some dirt about her and to help his master to overthrown her, but something goes wrong... The HE is attached.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Li Chenlan x Lu Zhaoyao Screentime: Main A leader of a demonic sect died trying to get a demonic sword. Her soul returns to the world full of wish to get revenge on the current leader of her sect, who, as she thinks, killed her in the past. Found the way to be close to him, she learns that he wasn't the reason of her death and, moreover, desperately in love with her for many-many years. This is an adaptation of the novel "Ostentatious Zhaoyao", which I love more than a drama, but it's a good story in both variants. The HE is attached (although it`s a little bit obscure in the drama).

Drama: Till the End of the Moon/ 长月烬明 Characters: Tantai Jin x Li Susu Screentime: Main A boy who is destined to become a Demon God and to destroy the World tries to fight his doom. In a process, he falls in love with a transmigrator, who was sent 500 years back in the past to prevent his transformation into a Demon God. The irony is,making him falling in love is the only way to kill him for good... It`s an adaptation of the novel "Black Moonlight Holds the BE Script", which I like way-way-way more than the drama, not the least because the drama has BE and the novel has HE. I just watched it as a visually beautiful fanfic to the novel.

Drama: Love Between Fairy and Devil /苍兰诀 Characters: Dongfang Qingcang x Xiao Lanhua Screentime: Main My favorite drama of all times! Trying to save her love, a girl accidently falls into a secret prison for immortal criminals, revives the most fearsome demon of all times and heals his ability to feel. Later, forced to spend his time together with the girl from the enemy camp, the demon finds out that he actually likes her... The HE is attached. I wrote A LOT about them and made recap of the whole drama from the point of their relationship development in these posts: one, two, three, four, five and six.

Drama: My Journey to You /云之羽 Characters: Gong Shangjue x Shangguan Qian Screentime: Secondary In order to destroy the martial artist's clan, a female assassin was sent in there. While she is trying to seduce one of clan's young masters, he tries to expose her lies, but, eventually, falls in love with her. Unrequited. Maybe. This story has an open ending. My analysis of their relationship is here.

Drama: Butterflied lover /风月变 Characters: Ling Changjin x Bao Zhu Screentime: Secondary A wicked nobleman marries a princess because of her miraculous blood: it`s able to bring his zombie sister back to life. The princess allows him to treat her bad because she has been in love with him for a long time and believes he is a good person. Bit by bit he starts believe in it himself and begins to cherish his wife more... The ending is obscure (in a traditional Chinese way).

Drama: Moonlight Mystique /白月梵星 Characters: Fu Ling x Chong Zhao Screentime: Secondary The most wildest version of the trope. The story starts with the confrontation between an absolutely ruthless demon girl general and a righteous boy from immortal clan. Then the girl falls for him, turns him into her side (kind of) and they become a villain power couple! After that they both change their side and enjoy a bit of normal life as good guys! And the last twist: the righteous guy turns to be a Demon God, as ruthless as the demon girl at the beginnings but the girl stays the same righteous. Yes, it all happens in one single cdrama. And of course there is no HE for these guys, but the philosophy behind this particular type of BE is beautiful. The full recap of their relationship is here and here.

Drama: The Blue Whisper /与君初相识 Characters: Li Shu x Xue Sanyue Screentime: Minor A cat demon prince infiltrates the valley of demon hunters in order to set free the great demoness, but falls in love with one of demon hunters. Mutually. The ending is traditionally Chinese - they met again in another life. Т_Т

Drama: Immortal Samsara / 沉香如屑 Characters: Xuan Ye x Ran Qing Screentime: Minor An Asura king infiltrates the Heavenly Realm in order to steal the artifact that can help him conquering the world. The keeper of this artefact is a brave and honest goddess and he can't help but fall in love with her. After, he needs to choose: to be with his lover or to rule the world. He wants all at once, but there is no way to get it all. No HE for this pair. Pride and Prejudice

Drama: Lighter and Princess / 点燃我 Characters: Li Xun x Zhu Yun Screentime: Main A girl from a rich family with an anxious type of attachment falls in love with her classmate from a poor family with an avoidant type of attachment and tries to win his heart. It`s a problematic ship in a full meaning of these words and I like it this way. Yummy! The HE is attached.

Drama: Derailment /脱轨 Characters: Qi Lian x Jiang Xiaoyuan Screentime: Main A boy accidently meets his school sweetheart after many years of radio silence and understands that something is wrong with her. It turns out that her body is occupied by a transmigrator from a parallel world. At first he hates transmigrator for replacing his lover, but bit by bit he learns, that a transmigrator has not only the same appearance but the same habits and way of thinking, and falls in love with this new personality again... The story ends with HE but not in a way that you may think it would.

Drama: The Love by Hypnotic /明月照我心 Characters: Li Qian x Li Mingyue Screentime: Main In order to build relationship between two countries an emperor arranges marriage for his son. His fiancée is from a barbaric tribe: she is good at horse riding and archery, but knows nothing about palace etiquette and ladies stuff. It`s a light and sweet story about finding a path to each other's heart. The HE is attached.

Drama: The Long Ballad /长歌行 Characters: Hao Du x Li Leyan Screentime: Secondary A tsundere of a low background with a poker face does his ruthless job in a court, that's why a young princess thinks he is an awful man and is scared of him. But in reality he is a loyal servant and son and, moreover, secretly in love with the princess, who can't stand him... The HE is attached.

Drama: Miss the Dragon /遇龙 Characters: Xue Qianxun x Qingqing Screentime: Secondary A very naïve bird demon girl accidently meets a tsundere god of netherworld and turns his well ordered life into havoc. He starts liking it, though. The HE is attached. Forbidden love

Drama: A Frozen Flower /쌍화점 Characters: Hong Rim x No Guk Screentime: Main A gay king needs a heir, so he forces his lover to conceive a child with a queen. In a process, a boy, who was groomed as a king's lover from his childhood, finds out that he likes women much more than men. A traditional Korean tragedy. Very beautiful and full of feelings, though. (No GIFs because they all would be erotic ones).

Drama: 100 Days My Prince /백일의 낭군님 Characters: Moo-yeon x Kim So-hye Screentime: Secondary An assassin who is working for a wicked court official is secretly in love with a wife of a crown prince, who happens to be a daughter of the killer of his parents. Forbidden love doubles! But it's mutual, unfortunately for him. It's a very beautiful and full of desperation and feelings story. No HE, we die like Koreans. More detailed story of their relationship is available here, here and here.

Drama: The Yin-Yang Master: Dream of Eternity/晴雅集 Characters: He Shouye x Zhang Ping Screentime: Secondary A woman, who is destined to restrain the undying evil within her body for eternity in solitude, falls in love with Yin-Yang master. Her love is mutual, but her lover can't be with her forever, so he leaves with her his guardian demon to brighten her loneliness. Protecting her for ever starts being the only goal of demon's life... A tragedy, but a beautiful one.

Drama: The Legends/招摇 Characters: Gu Hanguang x Shen Qianjin Screentime: Minor "The Legends" once more! The main doctor of a demonic sect is in love with a leader of a righteous sect. A girl is not allowed to love anyone, otherwise she will suffer from the poison, so he anonymously sends her packages of medicinal herbs. She is curious about anonymous sender, too. But nothing can be kept in secret forever... Unfortunately, no HE for these two. In the novel he is safe and sound, but he has no love plotline at all. So is a price of love Т_Т.

I will talk about my other favorite characters and tropes in the next post.

Also you can see: Enemies to Rivals/Lovers recipe Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2) Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters

Enemies/Rivals to Lovers recipe

(with the mild version aka Pride and Prejudice and the tragic version aka Romeo and Juliet) Step 1: The main heroes are on the opposite sides of any scale (the grumpy one vs a cheerful one, a kind and stupid one vs a cunning and vile one, a demon vs a god, a master vs a servant, people of enemy states or absolutely different cultures etc.).

A cheerful and funny little bird demon-yao Qing Qing and a grumpy and stone-faced deity of Netherworld Xue Qianxun Step 2: They are forced to communicate with each other without a chance to avoid it (e.g. an arranged marriage, being trapped somewhere together, working as a mole in the enemy camp etc.).

Asura King Xuan Ye plays out damsel in distress to get undercover into Heavenly Realm and his future lover Ran Qing is the one who "rescues" him.

Step 3: One party get impressed by unique character features of other (e.g. the person is the only one who isn't terrified by other's scary reputation, the only one who treats other party well etc.).

Even kings and princes are in absolute terror seeing Gwi - an immortal all-powerful vampire, and only Hye Ryung hates him so much that dares to bicker, scold and deny him. Step 4: One of the parties takes the first step towards another and that melts another`s heart.

Even if Hou Ling Changjin hurt Princess Bao Zhu for her miraculous blood, she still cares for him and doesn`t hold a grudge.

"You are injured!"

Step 5: Here come mutual pining, UST and moral sufferings "what is more important: to fulfil the mission / to be accepted by the society / whatsoever or to love?"

Gong Shangjue doubts if he can indulge himself being gentle with the girl he likes if she is an assassin from the enemy clan.

Shangguan Qian adds Shangjue`s favorite flowers into her tea and thinks about her mission of taking him down.

Step 6: It`s time to confess the feelings.

Leader of a diabolic sect Li Chenlan comes to save his beloved who hated him and tried to kill him and promises her to be her sword and shield. So romantic!

Step 7: The parties try to solve the problem that keeps them apart. If the problem is internal (it has something to do with beliefs and prejudice of a person), here it will be solved and «happily ever after» begins.

Despite of his low social status Hao Du ventures to participate in the competition, wins the right to marry the princess (who he is in love with) and dares to be honest explaining that he did it not only in order to save her from a Barbarian prince but because he truly wants to be with her. Step 8: If the problem is external (there is a large-scale conflict and the parties are just some insignificant participants of it), one of the parties sacrifices themselves to solve the problem.

Before saving the world by the cost of his life Demon God Tantai Jin engraves his name on his own tombstone placed next to his beloved wife's one, so in the future she could mourn him in a suitable place.

Step 9: In a satisfying story there is a magical reward of party's brave deed, which is a happy end.

Demon Lord Dongfang Qingcang sacrificed himself in order to save the girl he loved and died but his girlfriend (who happens to be a Goddess with abilities to resurrect the dead) nurtured a piece of his primordial spirit for 500 years and brought him back to life. Side note: If you want to add some chili pepper into your story, you can break this scheme any step from Step 4 on: pining could be one-sided, UST could never ever be resolved, characters could prefer their goals to love or maybe death or other circumstances would do them apart against their will.

The Wolf and Ma Zhaixing finally got together but the cruel world couldn`t allow it to last anytime long.

Bon Appétit! Your Enemies to Lovers story is well-baked!

Also you can see: Asian dramas and Love tropes Asian dramas and my favorite types of characters Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 1) Asian dramas and relationship dynamics (Pt. 2)