The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion makes me feel two very contradictory feelings. On one hand, it was very enjoyable watch with many satisfying romantic moments - thanks to Ju Jing Yi and Zhang Zhe Han as well as the second couple. On the other hand, the storytelling and editing was just problematic at times and as much i am trying to accept it as something that was necessary to happen for this drama to be even released, it crossed a certain line at some point and it became annoying.

= CHARACTERS =
Fu Rong is a clumsy naiive lead with some moments of brilliance, while Xu Jin is that typical cool stone-faced ml. What i appreciate on their dynamics is that (as opposed to Legend of Yun Xi) male lead showed his emotions and love for female lead a lot and oh boy! he really did love her a lot!! ZZH did amazing job with portraying Xu Jin.
Anyways, it actually does not really matter what kind of characters the main lead were, as long as they were played by Ju Jing Yi and Zhang Zhe Han. Their chemistry is just… unparalleled.
Fu Xuan and Wu Bai Qi as a couple were very charming and fun to watch and enhanced the mood of the drama to a more classy level.
Side characters, although not very well fleshed-out, were quite enjoyable including characters that were infuriating on purpose like Cui Wan and other side-side kicks.
Character-wise, the worst one is definitely the villain. Quite honestly, it’s been a long time since i’ve seen a villain so pathetic. His origin story was pathetic, his schemes were desperate, and just overall all his manipulations were despicable.

= STORY =
This is an idol drama, and i think it’s unfair to expect some super deep and unique plot. Actually, the premise and the storylines that were hinted at/attempted at are in general okay. At times, it was very engaging, and although i feel like some storylines could have gone a different route at times to be more interesting (or! at least not dropped halfway!), i found the story itself still quite satisfying. There are several plot holes but i guess i am willing to overlook them for the sake of my own sanity and the fact that i enjoyed the drama. In my opinion, the plot comes secondary as this whole drama is mostly character-driven, and it proved to be fun to watch despite its various weaknessess.

Based on all those abrupt and unusual cuts, missing side-character storylines that you just know must have been there /somewhere/ as well as lack of scenes that would usually seamlessly connect two different scenes together, i am guessing that the production had to cut the drama shorter and im just glad that this drama was released and i guess we just have to accept that.

= GUILTY PLEASURES =
So… i know that based on what i wrote until now, it might seem like the drama is “so so” at best but i had actually amazing time watching this show! It hits all the right spots for me: visually stunning set and beautiful costumes, cute female lead, dreamy male lead who loves female lead infinitely, good humor, amazing soundtrack, my favourite tropes, some good action scenes and enjoyable “shocking” plot twists, lovable side characters characters, several fun callbacks to Legend of Yun Xi, and many many sweet soft romantic moments between main leads. Like… seriously, each and every single episode had a /moment/ between main leads that made me more or less swoon.

= REWATCH VALUE =
I’ve already rewatched it at least once and i actually see myself rewatching it again in the future. so… yeah. The amount of tender moments Fu Rong and Xu Jin share together is almost impossible to count and it’s so satisfying to watch (especially if you felt like Legend of Yun Xi just was not very generous in this area). JJY and ZZH are /that/ good together.

Overall, this is probably a 8/10 or even 7,5/10 drama, but i had such a good time watching BARP, despite some hiccups, that i am willing to rate it 8,5/10 while admitting that in my heart, it’s rated more like 9/10 but i dont want my rating to be too outrageous.