my moral standing is lying down

Love Like The Galaxy

A 56-episode, v. popular period drama from 2022.


The premise

When Niaoniao (played by Zhao Lusi)'s a baby, her parents leave her with her paternal grandmother and aunt. Her parents are generals who have been ordered by the emperor to go fight elsewhere. FIFTEEN YEARS GO BY before they return. In all this time, Niaoniao has not only been neglected by her parents (who never visited her), but her grandmother and aunt mistreated her, and she doesn't have a real education.

Now that they're back, her parents try to help Niaoniao become a more socially acceptable person. The reunion doesn't go as smoothly as either party hoped it'd be.

Niaoniao keeps running into Ling Buyi | Zisheng (played by Wu Lei), the emperor's foster son AND one of the most powerful generals in the entire nation despite his youth. He's cold yet fair.

All the while, there's a growing conspiracy brewing…


The acting is pretty good. Zhao Lusi is v. expressive (from her voice to her body). She has a playfulness that has an undercurrent of manipulation. I like that she's not a bookworm BUT she does have smarts. Particularly when it comes to construction, woodworking, solving puzzles, and general creativity. She's curious abt all kinds of things DESPITE her mother wanting to crush all of Niaoniao's wonderment.

Wu Lei's Zisheng is handsome and has a definite PRESENCE. At times, he's a bit stiff while possibly trying to project the aloof vibe.

Another good thing is that the show gives both MCs the space they need to figure out what they want to do with their lives. Other shows would've probably rushed to get them to the next stage of the drama.

Good costuming and set design. Speaking of, kudos on how the good job the show does with using Niaoniao's style is used to show the passage of time. The bits abt domestic life are fun.

I gotta tip my hat at the many different kinds of women in this drama. There's a gamut from warrior/soldier women, to silly women who love all of the frippery, scheming female characters, and soft ones (who know how to navigate society) too. Extra yays to Consort Yue (played by Cao Xiwen); she's my fave female character in the show. Kudos to the dynamic between consort Yue and the empress. What an unexpected but comforting bond!




Do I have any criticisms?

DO I? BEHOLD MY COMPLAINT-A-THON. XD

* Old Madame Cheng (Xu Di) as the grandmother is a character that irritated me for the first 5 eps. I'm aware that this actor is v. popular. In this show, she plays an OTT, slightly crass character who tends to scream a lot and play the DRAMATIQUE card to the point that my eyes almost rolled out of their sockets. She yells a lot while pretending to be crying. I get that it's meant to be comedic,but I kept getting more and more upset at her antics.

Just as bad is Lady Ge (Chen Sisi), Niaoniao's aunt, who encourages that kind of behavior.


* Speaking of family, I'm v. much on the fence abt Niaoniao's relationship with her mom, Xiao Yuanyi (played by Zeng Li). It's a super antagonistic series of interactions that will piss you offf. What made it super erratic is that the show tries to reassure the audience abt Yuanyi truly loving her daughter. Whenever the two of them are in the same room, though, they react in a combative way that EVERY CHARACTER REMARKED ABT. In part, it's cuz they have similar personalities. The problem is that the mom would dole out punishments until she almost crosses the line in a bad way. Things do get smoother in the last third of the drama, but I wasn't convinced abt their reconciliation.


* Another negative is that the editing is off. Per what I know, the show had filmed around 60-65 eps but, per present time guidelines, the production team edited it down to 56 eps. This means that the storytelling suffered cuz things that would be important end up only being show. IIRC, I first noticed this around eps 45-47.

* The show does tries to smooth out the shift from the domestic stories (at Niaoniao's family home) to the Imperial Court. With the focus moving to the Imperial Family, specifically the emperor's offspring. Niaoniao ends up getting immersed in their lives due to her connection to Zisheng.

OTOH, I got why that had to happen as some of their minor plotlines tie directly to the fight for the throne thing. OTOH, a LOT of it felt like filler to me. I truly didn't care abt, like, 97% of the royals, LOL. One consequence of the royals taking up screentime is that the characters from the domestic plotline, i.e. Niaoniao's family and friends, are pretty much not shown for large swaths of time. To the point that important stuff (like weddings and pregnancies) are barely mentioned. I WANT TO SEE MORE ABT THE HOUSEHOLD, Niaoniao's families, ANYTHING BUT THE FUCKING ROYALS!

Adding to this is that there are 2 instances of different royals characters having the SAME STORYLINE beat by beat pretty much back-to-back. With the storylines being "character hates Niaoniao for no reason, so they try to get her in real trouble (if not kill her)".


* One thing I picked up on and ended up lessening my enjoyment of the drama was how EVERY. MALE. CHARACTER who is single and not related to NiaoNiao either has a crush on her OR wants to marry her.

Consequently, nearly EVERY. FEMALE. CHARACTER who is single and not related to NiaoNiao* automatically hates her. Like, Niaoniao walks into a room and every female character present wants to scratch her eyes out/tries to humiliate her/tries to 'put her in her place'. It's so fucking weird; I'm talking abt 6 different characters who wish the worst on Niaoniao ON SIGHT for no reason other than Buyi being openly interested in Niaoniao. IDEK.
(NB: * there is one (1) female character (who is single for most of the story and isn't a family member) who is a Ride or Die for Niaoniao.)


* I wanted to move past my overall cool feelings abt the CP, but that became an impossibility for me.

Zisheng and Niaoniao are deffo, 100% FREAK4FREAK. Like, that's not even up for argument. It is because they see and accept each other for who they are. They had a great simpatico going on. Had certain things been different, I'd have LOVED this CP head to toe.

The problem is that Niaoniao is 15 years old for abt TWO-THIRDS of the drama. Meanwhile, Zisheng is around 21. Not a terrible age gap (6 yrs), but her age is something that the drama brings up A LOT. Making it virtually impossible to forget it. 😬

I was v. uncomfortable with the show's insistence that this couple deserved a grand romance and whatever. Especially when it came to Zisheng. He makes it v. fucking clear that, if he doesn't marry her, he'll remain single for the rest of his life. From the SECOND he sees her from afar, he's like "omg, that's the woman I'm gonna marry! She's so beautiful!!"

Me watching this: SHE'S 15, WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?! (I know that this was considered marriageable age back in the day. However, I live in 2025 and I just don't roll with the idea of a grown adult romancing a teenager. IJS.)

I kept watching in the hopes that the show would jump forward (which it did at some point) so that Niaoniao would be a little bit older. Unfortch, that didn't happen until the last third of the drama. FML.

Nevermind the fact that both characters have some deep emotional and psychological traumas (for different reasons). Thankfully, both characters get the chance to (separately) work their own shit out before getting together for good. Small mercies, I guess.

ON TOP OF THAT, there's something that Zisheng does which leads to a betrayal (NOT CHEATING) that hurts Niaoniao to the point that she swears she'll never forgive him. Because I knew this was gonna have an HEA, I did wondered how things were gonna get resolved.

SADLY, he didn't do nearly enough groveling as he should've.

Le Spoiler Abt This

The show works super hard to get them back together (probably due to there are under 10 eps left.) Rather than having the two characters hash it out and Zisheng GROVEL, the drama drops a loophole into the story that automatically gets her to forgive him. I really didn't like that. IJS.

.


* Lou Yao (played by Yu Cheng'en) who is a sweet but v. naive male character whose raging crush on Niaoniao rubbed me the wrong way from the beginning. He tells her that he wants them to get married. She turns him down. He decides to woo her all the same?


* For whatever reason, the show has 3 characters doing heel turns wayyy late in the story. It was all so random, NGL.


What's the FMC's plot armor level?

HIGH.

Niaoniao will always come on top SOMEHOW. It's not as blatant as with The Double, but it's close.


How does the show handle the inevitable "Oh noes, the emperor's in danger of losing his throne!" storyline?

It's the same story (ppl want to take over the throne) with a slight twist. That whole fight for the crown begins roughly 15 yrs before the show begins. So I found it interesting on how the show keeps the animosity going on for almost 20 yrs between the factions.

I'm of 2 minds when it comes to emperor Wen (played by Bao Jianfeng). He's the founding emperor of his dynasty (I've heard it's one of the Han ones; don't ask me cuz IDK a lot of history and even less abt Chinese history.) We know this dynasty is young cuz, per the show itself, the emperor has been ruling for a little over 10 yrs when the drama kicks off. He's a fair ruler who believes in keeping things balanced; v. likable too. HOWEVAH, he's kind of too benevolent (and that's something his enemies are v. aware of.) Him being merciful makes things a bit weird when he tries to pull rank since he IS soft-hearted.

The OTHER ??? is that he's way too concerned in getting Zisheng and Niaoniao together. It's played for laughs, I guess, but I was thrown off by his interest or the emperor being THE shipper of all shippers, hahaha.


How does it address/works with the trope?

So-so.

Unlike Fangfei (The Double) and Dou Zhao (Blossom), the wrongs done to Niaoniao are less specific. Yes, she was done dirty by her parents, but the drama shows plenty of scenes where the parents make amends. Her revenge plots are mostly abt Niaoniao getting back at present time!bullies. Also, and despite being smart and v. observant, she's not as savvy as the other two characters I mentioned. Not only is she a 15-y.o., but she also lacks life experience. This last thing meant I couldn't believe the scenes in which adult characters would seek Niaoniao's counsel.

Meanwhile, Zisheng is a GOAT in the Cold General department. He's imposing and fierce both in the field (the action scenes are really good) and in civilian life. In a scale of Somewhat Threatening (1) to Having MURDER FACE 24/7/365 (10), I'm giving a 9.5, i.e. HE'S V. STABBITY (in the Touch Her and DIE way when it comes to anyone doing Niaoniao wrong) and a SCARY MOTHERFUCKER (in general) who is also a total goober with Niaoniao, her family, and some of his relatives. I want to see other stuff he's done after this show.


Do I recommend it?

I kinda do DESPITE ALL OF MY BITCHING, hahah. It was quite the fun drama (ort least the first half had a couple of ongoing plotlines that I was v. interested in. I liked some of the characters and Niaoniao is quite charming.

OTOH, the romance was NOT it for me and I
😒 how the royals overtook the plot. Settling in giving it a 2 out of 5. Watched this on YT, but I know it's also on Viki.


Queerness level

It's low-to-moderate. I can see Niaoniao/Wan Qiqi as a cute F/F ship. Also Zisheng/Yuan Shen (as enemies to lovers) and a surprise Zisheng/Male character I can't reveal cuz that's a big spoiler. Oh, and also Niaoniao/Zisheng/Yuan Shen for funsies, heheh.


Le Trailer

Watch on YouTube

Which emphasizes the romance, downplays the fact that they are both freaks (of different kinds), and doesn't even bring up the imperial family stuff. IDEK, y'all.