Now, that is what I call a friendship!

[dangermousie]

Am on ep 12 of Schemes of a Beauty and predominant emotion is WANTING TO STAB THE HEROINE IN THE FACE OVER AND OVER!!!!!

Let's see - I don't give a bleeping bleep if you want to spy for Empress Dowager, the way you were supposed to, or instead to become a genuine supporter of your hubby. That's between you and your conscience.

But how about this? You and your husband are meeting some barbarian to buy his horses and the disgusting-looking barbarian about whom you know zip is all "ooooh, I like Mainland girls. Your servant is hot, can I have her?" The servant in question is supposedly a friend of yours, not to mention a human being. Is your reaction "no, I don't know this guy, should I get my friend's input?" or even "this sucks but husband really really needs these horses. I'll ask her as a favor." As if. No, your reaction is "ooooh, goody, the watch their women closely, so I won't have to worry about her reporting to our employer I'm remiss in spying."

Fuck you and your supposedly moral high horse, bitch! You are going to gleefully give away your supposed friend to a disgusting barbarian into sexual slavery, to make your life a smidge easier?

Ugh, die die die die die pig. The thing that drives me most nuts is that we are supposed to view the heroine as kind and root for her and we are not supposed to find this utterly disgusting and appalling. I don't have a problem with Empress Dowager doing this and much worse because she doesn't view herself as nice and neither does the maker. But we are supposed to view the heroine as a positive character - in what universe? She's a despicable, selfish pig and what drives me nuts is that show doesn't share my view. This is the 'best friend' for whom assassin is willing to die? I bet you wouldn't be willing to die so fast if you knew she was going to sell you off like a pair of old shoes. That's what drives me crazy - everyone lurves and is devoted to heroine but they shouldn't be - she's betraying her best friend who is super-loyal, she's spying on her husband who loves her etc. She's scum and I want her dead.

I have a major weird relationship with this drama. I am interested in and/or like secondaries but I cannot stand the heroine one bit. Die die die die please.

ETA: Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat???? You gave her some slow poison so she won't be able to fight off the 'husband' on her wedding night, get raped and be stuck there forever? She was going to kill him and run away back to Empress Dowager so she wasn't going to be a threat to you anyway, you frelling frelling rape-enabling bitch, I hope you roast in hell.

ETA2: Bwahahahahahahahah in your face, bitch! General went a little nuts and went and rescued Lady Assassin. I just love the reaction of the Bitch (sorry, that is how I am referring to heroine from now on - she's literally the most loathsome drama protagonist I've ever seen). "Oh no, all my hard work will go to waste!" I weep for you - I mean, the man foiled your lovely plan to have lady assassin raped, poor you! Just die, you fucking pig. I am seriously blind with rage. I am this close to dumping this drama because much as I dig Lady Assassin/General, like some other characters, enjoy the plotting, and am waiting for FSF/Myolie, I can't even look at the heroine without getting murderous and she's always on screen. I'll try to get through a couple more eps but I don't know, I am hanging by my fingernails here. If I could have a cut of just Yang Mi/Mikey He scenes, I'd just watch them and never look back.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I think she did it knowing that the servant has awesome kung-fu chops and can escape from the Huns with ease. Also, they're not friends at this point. All main character knows is that servant is a spy for Dowager Empress and can be her enemy. She doesn't know the servant is "little ugly" from the palace.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

a. Is she blind and not able to tell it's the same person? I know in drama world people often get confused by see-through masks and similar but still...
b. My problem is that we are supposed to view her as a good person but she isn't. It's the disparity of how I view her and how the drama views her that drives me nuts.

ETA

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Also, she didn't expect her to escape with kungfu skills. She made sure to srug her so she'd be weak and get raped by her 'husband' and stay there forever.

Ugh. I hate her.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

I think at this point she felt that she had to choose between her husband (who she loved, despite everything) and a servant who spied for Lu Zhi. There was no way for her to know that it was the same girl she'd tried to befriend in the palace, and even so, she knows the empress has her aunt under control so there's no way the protagonist can trust her servant.

After the entire drama, I can say that the most idealistic characters are FSF/Myolie, but in this world they're in the minority. Unfortunately for you. :P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Do I find her actions understandable? Yes. Actions of a good person? Heck no.

And what bothers me is that the drama wants me to root for her and, even worse, to see her as a good person and I cannot do so. I am enjoying watching Lu Zhi to bits and she's way more evil than anyone else but that drama doesn't expect me to think she's saintly. It's the dissonance between my own moral judgment and drama's expectations that drives me nuts. I enjoy Boardwalk Empire and Sons of Anarchy and their characters and those men and women are mobsters and murderers. But the key difference is those shows don't expect me to view them as good people. (ETA: or to use a cdrama equivalent to be closer - my fave character in 3 Kingdoms 2010 is Cao Cao and the man is a monster. But the drama doesn't expect us to see him as a woobie).

Also, I am sorry, enabling her to be raped is just gratuitous. Even without it, assassin wasn't going to come back to Dai - she was just going to run off and go back to Lu Zhi so she wasn't going to be a threat in either event. That was just unnecessary and evil.

I can't believe Yang Mi is still all "I'll stick by you, my bestie" after this. WTF? I would have jumped onto the general or anyone else like mice on a piece of cheese just to get far away from the heroine. What kind of insane logic is that?

The list of characters I actively like in this drama (am about to start ep 15) are:

* general
* Lady Assassin - sort of

Neutral - Prince of Dai.

Hate - everyone else.

I am rooting for the heroine to fail and all her lies to be exposed and that's not the greatest frame of mind to watch this in.

[hollyxu.livejournal.com]

Ah. I never expected to see her as the good character, but only the least, well, evil of the bunch, so I didn't have to deal with disappointment. I like how nuanced the characters are here, and we're just going to have to disagree on the degree of enjoyment we derive from them, yeah?

(Though you really will love the FSF/Myolie bits. They're written with Yu's usual romanticism.)

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I didn't expect anything of her at all (I am not familiar with the actress or the character), my problem is that I think Yu Zheng wanted us to see her as the good one and I do not. I was rooting for Lu Zhi against her or FSF's character or any other opponent they have, which isn't a good thing.

But I know MMV.

[(Anonymous)]

Judging from your hate over the Ruby's character, you'll probably hate how it ends for lady-assassin and the general then. I don't know if the ex-emperor has returned yet on your watch schedule, but he's great, although his actions become meaningless and ludicrous for an audience that does not favor Ruby's character.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Eh, I knew it ended badly going in. I am pretty much hoping she bites it soon so I can move on to another drama :)

[calixa.livejournal.com]

My parents watched this one a few weeks ago and I caught glimpses of it, but I didn't know Ruby Lin's character was this awful. I mostly only hung around for the FSF/Myolie bits, which were lovely. Thank god I watched them out of context.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really liked FSF/Myolie bits (and Yang Mi/Mikey He ones) but overall, this drama is so not working for me. It's Yu Zheng trying to do a Three Kingdoms-type epic but ummmm - no.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, there's no need to get so worked up over a drama. Take a deep breath and tell yourself: it's only a drama.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

But I like getting worked up over a drama.

[karened.livejournal.com]

HAHA.

This is the first time I see you reacting so violently to a drama!

Er, I do find the reaction amusing. =P

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Glad to please :)

[kitkat-cat.livejournal.com]

i think people really liked the ruby lin character calling her clever and loyal, blah blah blah...

lol, me, i was rooting for the Empress!

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Team Lu Zhi :P

[karened.livejournal.com]

I've just started watching this, and have reached this particular horse-transaction scene you've mentioned.

Actually, I can totally see why Ruby (gonna call them all by the name of the person in that role) did what she did. In the first place, I never saw her and Yang Mi as friends. She used to treat her as one, back in the main palace, but it ended badly, leading to the deaths of many palace servants. I think that incident has been hanging over them (or maybe just Ruby, seeing how Yang Mi said that she can't bear to part with Ruby, after Sammul gave her to the horse-sellers) since then. We never saw Ruby treating Yang Mi as warmly as she used to after that incident.

They're only fellow spies, and other than the basic trust she needs to put in Yang Mi to get their esponiage mission going, I don't think Ruby trusts her at all. She's always trying not to divulge her true feelings (eg her falling from Sammual genuinely) to Yang Mi, and worrying that Yang Mi will send secret reports back to the Empress Dowager that are contrary to what she has been reporting.

I don't think Ruby has been trying to pretend to be friends with Yang Mi, so I have no issues with her guarding against Yang Mi.

Having said that, although as basic human moral, she shouldn't have given Yang Mi to the guy, and spiked her tea to make sure she can't escape, I appreciated that act because it made her more human. She was mainly motivated by two things:

1) To get rid of Yang Mi so that Yang Mi won't be able to interfere with her goal of protecting both Sammual and her sister (more on that later).
2) To help Sammual obtain the war horses he needs to use against the Empress Dowager.

She's selfish in sacrificing another for her own goals, but that made her more human. The life of the two most important people in her life is more important than the life of the one person who betrayed her. Heck, she can't even be sure if Yang Mi's display of affection and friendship is genuine, or just an act so she'll lower her guard!

As for her working against Sammul despite him really loving her, I think she does love Sammul, as can be seen from her reaction to his marriage to another woman. But the thing is, she has her sister to think of. Having indirectly caused the deaths of her parents, I think Ruby feels indebted and hence wants to protect her. However, she wants to protect her husband too. Hence, she has to pretend to be spying on Sammul and send fake information back to the Empress Dowager. To make her plan more successful, she needs to get rid of the other spy beside her.

[karened.livejournal.com]

Oh, anyway, I loved this scene, because it has Micky He looking so so so jealous and angry. =P

[karened.livejournal.com]

Oh...upon watching further, seems like Ruby didn't know Yang Mi was that ulgy palace maid! My bad, my bad.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yes, but why drug her? She was going to escape that guy anyway and go to Dowager, she wasn't going to be a threat any more.