SUPER OVERRATED. This drama should not have been as popular/well reviewed as it is

Probably like many of you, I found this drama when I was new to C-Dramas and wanted to find recommendations. Thankfully I watched a couple other dramas before this one, or this would've turned me away from C-Dramas completely. I felt like this drama is older (probs male) producers trying to pander to teenage girls by incorporating the not-mainstream/stereotypically male component which is RPG gaming and IT. Basically, it's the producers using the 'I'm not like other girls' and 'rich cool smart guy falls in love with ordinary but smart girl' tropes until they drive it off a damn cliff or something.

First some positives:
1. I think the secondary characters were super interesting when they weren't used as devices to uplift and showcase the main characters' competence. I didn't mind the roommates' interactions and
2. The gaming and tech elements are unique. It had potential to become super interesting had it been fleshed out or been about the differences we interact in-game and in real life; how in-game romances transcend into a real, meaningful relationship.
3. Music was okay. It didn't stand out, but it wasn't bad either.

What I didn't like:
1. As much as the drama wanted to tell us 'girls can do gaming too!' and 'girls can do computer science and IT too!' what it showed was a whole other story. Throughout gaming events, Wei Wei was constantly sidelined or delegated to fight mostly the weak females. The game/competition elements made her rely so much on Xiao Nai. Putting the low-key sexism aside, wouldn't that make the event super boring for one half of the players? Why on earth would I want to watch my partner complete the event meant for two people to work together? I'd wanna play too dammit. And Wei Wei is praised more as this beautiful-looking person rather than a highly intelligent one. I felt that the show is telling me Wei Wei is the only female with brains and intellect that can live up to her appearance, which is the exception. All the other females were lacking either intelligence or beauty. Xiao Nai too. He's a rich, genius, handsome, and stoic guy from the get-go and remains that way throughout the whole series; while his roommates are portrayed as inferior to him (they even said they'll just blindly follow Xiao Nai. tf?) this aint it man.

2. There was no plot. First of all, online romance does not immediately equal real life romance (I feel like the producers were so out of touch with this one). This led me to not being able to buy into their romance. The series didn't really progress or develop their relationship much once they got together shortly after meeting irl for the first time, which is why I dropped this drama.

3. This resulted in acting that was so flat, lacked any chemistry, and dragging & repetitive scenes.

All in all, I think this drama backed themselves into a corner when they decided that their main leads were going to be perfect unrealistic human beings and that they were to be constantly portrayed as such. There was no room for them to grow, and no room to show how they love each other other than PDA. This drama prioritised superficiality above all else and I am kinda disappointed in humanity bcs we all just fell for it.

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