Lighter & Princess (2022)

Huh... well I actually really liked this

I know I typically enjoy non-problematic tropes. Seeing a bad boy x good girl sort of trope with a multitude of side characters who hurt and create obstacles in their relationship would usually never appeal to me.

I guess it's just because I never saw it done well... until now.

Lighter and Princess is a must watch, with a compelling storyline (it's very thorough) and well thought-out character arcs. Characters truly have their own distinct personalities, and there's a lot of realism in their development. They all have their strengths and their flaws, and the drama does make you question what's really good or bad or in the gray zone. It doesn't hurt that the cast is absolutely eye candy, including Jenny Zeng, Arthur Chen, and Zhang Jingyi.

I was one of the people putting off watching it because I thought it'd be one of those stories where a female lead revolves and orbits around a toxic male lead. I found instead that the female lead, Zhu Yun, really found her independence, identity, and goals in life after working with Li Xun, something she didn't have before. Li Xun received care and learned love from Zhu Yun. It was a complementary relationship that I enjoyed watching. Of course, no sane girl should go after a Li Xun like character in real life; however, I really thought this relationship was one of my favorites watching the show. I don't see the anti-feminist or misogynist implications that a lot of people try to place here.

The storyline is a great revenge/strategy plot like you'd see in a Wuxia drama seamlessly woven into a sweet romance. I really enjoyed it and binged watched this whole thing in three days (yeah, definitely not good). It is melancholy, it can be dark, and it does explore themes such as depression, monopolization, jealousy, etc.

Overall, a masterpiece. I think 2022 was a really good year, yielding both Reset and this.

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Simple and short Opinion

I just watched some short in youtube and read some comments and i felt like to watch.. and that's what i did.. the things i felt really good in this drama are..
1. How a girl should be.. competitive, trustful, confidence.
2. Male lead character is a little too arrogant but the confidence on his skills is the thing the youth wants..
3. Ofcourse not many of us will watch dramas to learn something.. just to entertain ourselves.. so coming to that it's a youth drama so as we think romance, small fights between friends everything is there..
4. The important thing that watchers will found in this drama is trust..

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My first drama of 2023!

Well, I started it in 2022 but towards the end obviously lol. I immediately saw a trailer of this and from then I was kind of hooked, but even though it was like your typical fresh youth drama but the twist is they grow up, duh. Lol. But overall, it was good. Smartest boy around and smartest girl around click and what could go wrong? Well everything tbh. Because they're completely opposite, family wise, relationship wise, just experience in the world but truly? If you really love someone, sometimes, it kind of is enough. Like they go through the ringer, I had to take some breaks in between but this show was kind of a fresh breath of air? Great acting, great OST, great storyline, my first time seeing some of these young rookies and I adored it. I adored the chemistry; I adored how innocent the relationships were until they weren't. I even liked the extra trash drama that costed on by. Lol. But truly, it was a beautifully written story, shot in wonderful angles, way too much make up on our ML but they all truly were adorable.

I may watch this again one day, some day. But right now, was just the perfect amount for me tbh.

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enemies to lovers plot

i love ml and fl acting and how their relationship deepened when they went through good and bad times. honestly, some parts of this show was confusing to me and the characters of the ml and fl seemed like red flags sometimes. i thought ml was wearing wigs but apparently he dyed his hair blonde and even got it cut into a buzz cut just for this show. he really sacrifices his hair for this show lol. fl's acting was quite okay. my first time seeing both of them acting in a drama and their acting is quite on point. the plot was quite interesting and i really liked the start of the show! iost is soooo good, esp the theme song "Falling You"! this drama was overall worth my time bingewatching! :)

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RECOMMEND! Beautiful romance and story

This was my first ever drama, and it was phenomenal. 10/10 recommend

I do like the computer coding aspect. There is the case of travelling back to the past and present continuously, however I did not mind it and it was good adding to the plot progression. There was a few times where I skipped ahead as I felt bored but I think the good parts outweighs it. The plot overall is pretty good and the drama was good.
The romance aspect is the best part. Fei yu and Jing yi were amazing choices and they delivered the roles of Li Xun and Zhu Yun spectacularly. I love Jing yi's big eyes that always were filled with love and they have a beautiful story and are extremely cute together, they also look great together LOL. The amount of chemistry these two have is astronomical... The other actors were great as well.
MUSICC. I am a HUGE fan of Zhou Shen, so when I found out he sang the main OST 'Firework' / '焰火' I SCREAMED. The vocals, lyrics and atmosphere is SO PRETTY I LOVE IT SM. I also really love 'Falling You' and '恋爱循环' these 3 are my favourites and they are so beautiful and perfect for the drama.
OVERALL. definitely recommend for the adorable fluff romance, story, casting and music. I binged this tbh and rlly enjoyed it !!
CUZ I BELIEVE I LOVE UUU TRUE LOVE WILL TAKEEE ITTSS COURSEE

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SOOO GOOOD, BUT FELL FLAT A LITTLE AT THE LAST FEW EPISODES

You know the drama is good when you're a few episodes in, but they're still cooking and you're liking it. This is the first c-drama that I thought to myself "Oh my god, is this gonna be my first 10/10 cdrama?"

I was kinda worried when I finished episode 1, cuz I thought this would be one of those shows that I would watch at 1.5 speed so I could move on right away, but I decided to push thru ep 2 and by the end of it I was like "Hmmmm... this might have a chance", so I watched the next episode and MY. GOD. I was finally hooked.

The story was SLOOOOOOW AF, but I didn't mind it, because it's good, heck even the side characters are well fleshed out. Also, since the back story was them at college being an IT student, I was kinda interested in that part, since I also took an IT course in college. So it was really fun to see them coding and the way the writers wrote it is that they kinda put good vanilla romance cutesy crumbs here and there to keep you hooked. So you'll be there sitting watching episode to episode waiting for the payoff like "JUST CONFESS ALREADY!!!"...

I think if the series didn't start at the part where they are all adult and started at the university part, I think it would've been a good start. Cuz you're watching ep 1 & 2 and you're so lost like wtf is happening then suddenly at episode 3 you're now watching a backstory??? and then they should've cut the series into 2 seasons. Episode 3 is where they should've started then ended it around episode 17/18 where the romance payoff is and that would've been a perfect 10/10 College Romance Drama because, I was worried when the ML and FL confessed to each other like "Well, they're basically together? how could you go more from this??" cuz after the confession there was a time skip, so they're are now 4th yr college, who are about to graduate and enter the world of adults. And story from there slowly started to fell off a little hence I couldn't give it a full 10/10(well, at least for me).

The transition from University to them being adults was kinda fast paced a little and then some sprinkle of bullshit and then when we got back to where the story from episodes 1 & 2 left off, that's when the drama started turning into a Business Revenge Series.

The business side was fun like them entering the Professional world of the IT Industry, specifically the Game Dev Industry, I think it's really fun. I think even if they stretch the series to 50 to even 100 episodes turning it into a Slife of Life of just them and their daily lives as Game Developers, I think I would still eat the shit out of it. But the Revenge side is where they fell flat, in the beginning, it was good, but then it's kinda getting fast paced, knowing they'll have to end it by episode 36. And then there are so much convenience, just because this character is this, so he could always do this, like no! that's bullshit. and it was not even a satisfactory revenge, because they started pulling all these cards that they didn't even hinted early on.

The acting was good, I didn't pay much attention to it since it was not that "OH MY GOD TOP TIER ACTING" it was good and that's it.

Minor nitpick criticism, even though I thought this is on par with korean dramas, like the overall product is very well presented, they still don't know how to end an episode. Like there will be an important conversation or scene and then the episode would just suddenly end.

The soundtracks are top tier, but sometimes maybe occasionally they can't time it when to play the soundtrack, or like sometimes they would play it a little late, I might download them later, so I can listen to it over and over.

Overall, this was a good c-drama and I would highly recommend it if you can sit through 20 episodes of build up.

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Very fun drama to watch throughout. I didn't find the FL attractive which really urged me to drop the series in the first episode but I forced myself due to the rating here and it was good.

Great support cast with back stories and real involvement. The programming scene is spicily presented, not true to purpose but good enough for general consumption.

For once a villain was born from ML's mistakes, his grievances were not wrong frankly. An unaware giant swallows its own without regard which was the exact case here as well. Just because of the futility of the situation created by the author he went the evil route, in reality, he would have many options to separate himself and be successful.

Romance well lacks passion for majority of the series and they don't act their age, its more like innocent high school style first love. Kisses are a rare breed. There is tension but its not enough to cause anything. This stays true for 33/36 episodes! Total disappointment.

Overall a good one time watch.

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Not feeling good about the male lead

Plot of this show is pretty good, pace was great, each character stood out on it's own. I am not the biggest fan of revenge shows but some of them can good. This show gives abit of the Itaewon Class vibes if you have watched.

However, out of all the characters in this show, I don't vibe with male lead the most. I have to say I am never into male leads that are arrogant just because they are good at one thing/ is deemed as super good-looking/ the fact that people have to "worship" him for nothing about the personality. While i did enjoyed Li Xun and Zhu Yun's love story, i didn't like how Li Xun treated other people (including Zhu Yun at times too!!). Ofcourse he was always the best at coding and have his own family issues (the so called perfect typical male lead with issues), however, he doesn't treat other people like his team mates or ZY's parents the best either. I wouldn't say he deserved the hate but i just think that how he was treated was an effect from his own attitude in the first place. His family issues should not an excuse for him to project it on other people.

One thing that kept me going was the female lead - one of the strongest and actually smart female lead I have seen in a long while. She never doubted Li Xun and always loved and supported him throughout the entire show. I would say for Li Xun, he wouldn't be able to grow as a person if not for Zhu Yun by his side/ he wouldn't be that bit of a likable person if not for Zhu Yun. While Zhu Yun always allow Li Xun to shine, he doesn't bring the best out of her in their relationship.
u can watch for the plot, romance is pretty cute and sweet, OSTs are good. I did enjoy the show but wouldn't rewatch it again. Ofcourse if you're the same as me where u are not into male leads like li xun character, then u dont have to worry about suffering from male lead syndrome.

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I Just want to say go for it it's one of the bestest drama of 2022❤️.

I won't give you spoilers because this drama is a rollercoaster of emotions you will feel like u r not seeing any imagination type drama because this drama from starting to its ending always makes me feel like yes this is the harsh reality but please don't get confused by my word using harsh because it doesn't mean that it had a sad ending no because I too can't take sad ending dramas. I will not gonna tell you how does this drama end because I don't want u guys already know what's gonna happen in the end because being in suspense about this drama will make you happiest only. It has a most beautiful ending ❤️

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MALE LEAD IS A CONDESCENDING ASSHOLE THAT NO DECENT PERSON COULD POSSIBLY ROOT FOR

Male lead is an arrogant condescending piece of sh*t. He is unnecessarily antagonistic towards everyone he meet. The only person he has treated with a modicum of respect is their old teacher and the rocker chick. He publicly abuse and humiliates his friends and classmates and somehow everyone just accepts it because he's an all knowing genius. He does not apologise, the people he mistreats just accepts it and move on. The drama in no ways attempt to explore the fact that this is not an appropriate way to treat colleagues. The message seems to be, he's a genius that's right and taught them a valuable lesson by being a cunt, so they should just suck it up and continue to learn from such a master.

I have never taken an intense dislike to a main character this early in a drama and I'm someone that's very partial to flawed main characters in dramas. However, only when dramas are intelligent enough not to brush their character's flaw aside, excusing it as the unconventional behaviour of a genius.

Here's how it goes:

- Genius male lead notice an error by another character, instead of highlighting it and speaking to them respectfully, he publicly berates and humiliates that person.
- Female lead calls him out and he doubles down.
- The other person, unhappy with how they've been treated, storms out.
- Female follows and talk to the person.
- Person says that genius male lead was right about the error and they'll continue to learn and grow under tutelage of genius male lead.
- Conflict resolved.

In the 7 episodes I've watched, this circle repeats itself about 2-3 times and its very likely to continue to do so throughout most of the drama because the source of the conflict (his mistreatment of others) is actually never dealt with. Therefore the male lead does not face any consequence for his actions, never has to reflect and learn from his shortcomings to be a better person. The drama instead seems to be banking on the female lead love softening him up and making him a better person as the drama progress. And judging by his condescending attitude in episode 1, her love does not seem to have succeed in changing him for the better.

Even the female lead was starting to disgust me because by episode 6 and 7, she becomes an enabler of his abhorrent behaviour. She cannot convince him to apologise or acknowledge his mistreatment of others, so she places the emotional burden of making things right on those he's mistreated. That she is falling for someone she saw publicly humiliate not just his friend but also her friend, is just mind-boggling. Every-time he invades her personal space, backed her to a wall/gets in her face (which is this drama's attempt at creating an intense moment of chemistry between the leads ), I just roll my eyes at the absurdity. Like, "gurrrrrl, is this really doing it for you?"

These are not characters you're rooting for to end up together and you may find yourself at some point, like I did, rooting for the male lead to fail just to see him knocked down a peg. That honestly, for me, is the only acceptable reason to continue watching this drama.

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Boring plot and toxic characters

I am not against backstories if a backstory is on point. In this drama, the backstory went on for multiple episodes showing every interaction between the main and secondary characters, most of which were irrelevant to Li Xun and Zhu Yun's relationship and the reason why he went to prison. All I wanted was to see how we got to where the story started in episode 1. Episode 13, and there was still no explanation why ML went to prison and why he was such an asshole. It was just a mind-numbing trauma rollercoaster. In addition to that, none of the characters were likable. ML was just a stereotypical asshole because reasons. Even if there was a reason, it's still not a justifiable excuse to be toxic and treat people badly. He was just an asshole for the sake of being an asshole. And, FL fell in love with him just because the writers decided so. Toxic people and toxic relationships, pass.

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Stop Romanticizing Toxic Behavior

This glorification of men who treat women like garbage needs to stop.

How can the FL be an educated, bright person if she falls for him?

He is not cool or aloof .. he's arrogant, rude, narcissistic, and very self absorbed.

I don't care what hairstyle or color they give him, he's not attractive due to his personality.

I thought this would be a cute albeit somewhat angsty watch.

It was a hot mess of abuse in varying forms and I only watched 4 episodes.

The FL is belittled, ridiculed, humiliated, physically kicked, called names more than once, and then he destroyed her school laptop by installing a virus.

Oooooh, he's so talented.

It wiped out all of her systems (core included) and all of her work, saved and current, is gone.

Do you know how infuriating that would be to a real student?

Instead everyone is gloating and praising him, all the while the FL is wandering around behind him like a puppy with a broke laptop.

He continues to be snide and insult her, as if he was in the right.

Sheer stupidity.

I feel nothing but disgust for the ML and can not imagine he can redeem himself enough for me to root for him.

Especially as other comments made seem to indicate he gets even worse as the show progresses.

The drama world needs a revamp.

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