So... I just finished Bu Bu Jing Xin like literally just a couple of hours ago. And I just need to say that it was AWESOME. I went into this drama not expecting much, I had seen that a lot of people had watched it and liked it and my dad had also finished the whole thing (which now looking at the drama as a whole... doesn't really seem like this thing but ehh) so with nothing much to do I decided I would give it a try. Frankly I'm not one for period dramas... (disregard the fact that I was a crazy raving fangirl during the time TMTETS was airing >.>) and the last Chinese period drama I watched was ... okay so I can't even remember the title since it was too long ago. All I remember is having fond memories of being in Hong Kong and getting up really early in the morning so that I could go to the library and watch it with two of my friends that summer. All I remember about it now is there was that gu gu who could fly? I'm pretty sure it's one of those classic dramas, so if anyone actually knows the title of it I hope that they kindly point me in that direction.
But anyway, back to BBJX. Like I said, didn't expect to like the drama at all. But after getting through the second episode, I was hooked. I marathoned the drama like crazy and finished it in about 4 days. I would have finished it had I not started in the middle of the night on monday and then after watching episode 32... I had a feeling that things were going to go downhill from there so I abstained from watching it for like half of today until I finally gave in. So before I get into the spoilery goodness here's a synopsis of the drama.
A girl from the 21st century, Zhang Xiao, gets into a car accident (this scene actually almost turned me off of the drama. Like seriously she just gets bumped by the car but goes FLYING into the billboard??) and finds herself in the body of Maertai Ruoxi a daughter of a general during the early Qing Dynasty. For whatever reason (I think she was a drama addict) Zhang Xiao has an extensive knowledge of the time period that she has landed in and knows how everything will end for the people that she has gotten to know as Ruoxi. Even knowing how everything ends, Ruoxi becomes entangled in the lives of the princes vying for the position of King and finds herself at the center of many political plots and struggles the the feelings that she develops for two of the princes.
**And I know that it's an Emperor that they have but... I want to call it a King so I will x3**
(MAJOR SPOILER AREA BEGINS HERE.)
Okay, so the moment Ruoxi saw 4th and called him a iceblock... I knew that he would be the second half of our OTP. Like after watching a number of dramas, you can tell what's going to happen and the moment she laid eyes on him you just knew that they would be endgame.... well at least as endgame as you get in this drama. This was another one of the reasons I almost stopped watching this drama. I saw Nicky Wu's face and was basically like "NO NO NO NO. NOT HIM. WHY HIM?" but his character seriously won me over. I swoon whenever I think about the 4th prince and all the things he did for Ruoxi.
I'm sorry Nicky... I love you now and you're a phenomenal actor and all... but almost everyone else in the drama was hotter than you.
I loved the early episodes to bits though, they were filled with fun happy times and she seemed to develop relationships with everyone so naturally. Even knowing that Ruoxi was going to end up with 4th when I saw her interactions with 10th in the beginning, I was totally on their non-existent ship. 10th was just SO. FREAKING. CUTE. I find myself always falling for the bumbling idiot types, and this drama was no different.
And maybe this is just me... but I never actually boarded the Ruoxi-8th prince ship. I'm not sure why... but something just seemed off about them. I couldn't get invested into their relationship, it just didn't seem like it was something that was going to work out. Now this is without thinking about how 4th was going to be endgame. Their relationship just seemed shallow to me, I kept asking myself HOW and WHY the even fell in love.
Okay dude. I know you're hot and I'm usually super vain and fall for the hot guy no matter what... but by the second half of the drama I couldn't stand seeing your face. Every time you appeared on my screen I actually yelled out "BEGONE YOU DEVIL MAN" like a freak. So yea I hope I never have to hear anything about the 8th prince... like ever again.
Like I get the whole love at first sight thing (as 8th described it... except shouldn't that mean that he was in love with her even before the drama started? The actual Maertai Ruoxi had already been at his estate for a few months before Zhang Xiao came in a snatched that body... ) This is a problem for me in many dramas. All of a sudden a couple (and sometimes even the OTP) will just be "HEY VIEWERS. WE'RE IN LOVE. YOU HAVE TO BELIEVE IT BECAUSE WE SAY IT'S TRUE." It doesn't even seem to matter that there was no buildup to the relationship. I don't care how many scenes you guys have in the snow, or frolicking in fields (which by the way she totally did that with 4th first). I just don't and never will buy that they had real feelings for each other.
But put Ruoxi, 4th prince and a horse in any place together and I'm sold. Who wants rolling kisses in the grass when you can have moonlit forced kisses? (Okay that came out kinda wrong bu you get my point).
YUM.
The relationship that Ruoxi and 4th had made me swoon left right and center. Their love was just so right and beautiful. I can't even really find the words to describe the relationship that occurred between Ruoxi and 4th. He fits into the archetype of cold guy with a warm and snuggly center but I'm not sure what it is, but Nicky Wu made him so much more.
I'm already here so lets do some character breakdowns:
What better place to start then with the main character? So Ruoxi... or Zhang Xiao... whatever you feel like calling her, was a pretty complex character. She dealt with the problems that all of our time travelling heroes so far have, trying to live in the time that she has been sent to without making any changes to history. Ruoxi also had to deal with the same dilemma that Boong Do from QIHM did once he returned to his time from the future "should you still live in a time where you already know how everything will happen? When you already know how all you're loved ones are going to die?" and though Ruoxi didn't really have the choice of going back to 2011, she could probably could have just spent her time in the palace without gaining any attention and not making the ties that she did with the doomed princes.
That's one of the things that about Rouxi that confuses me. She resigns herself to fate again and again saying how she can't change what has already happened, but then she goes ahead and does whatever she wants. But then one could argue that whole time is a circle thing, so the future that Zhang Xiao lived in was due to the decisions that she as Ruoxi had made so no matter what she was always meant to go into the time and make the decisions that she did.
But lets put away the mechanisms of her time travel and I found that this was way more like a regular traditional drama compared to anything else. Ruoxi is able to fit into the life in the Qing Dynasty so well that many times I would forget that she was from 2011. One of her biggest assets was her ability to conform with the time frame and then live accordingly. Sure she fought for what she thought was right and got into trouble for it, but she was also able to act in a way that gained her respect by being orderly and acting in a way that was acceptable according to the palace rules.
I love her because of her loyalty. Ruoxi was one of those people who would fight fiercely and even sacrifice herself for her loved ones.
And then there's my darling 4th prince. Oh how much I love you. Some people said he was cold and uncaring... which frankly speaking is true. Unless you're in his inner circle of trusted people, which actually only consisted of Ruoxi and 13th prince... you'll probably never know what he's thinking. I actually felt really bad for his wife whenever she appeared.... cause like yea she ended up as queen and everything, but he never really felt anything towards her. Bless her for being so kindhearted and sweet.
Once you get past hat cold-hearted exterior you find an adorable guy who will call the girls he likes a fluffy white puppy and then make her a snuff box with that picture. So what if he's actually a secret creeper during the night? When he does it, he does it well! (Okay this is kinda an aside... but how was Ruoxi not surprised whenever one of the princes would suddenly appear behind her? I mean she's from the present... people don't usually just creep behind you and stand there. If it were me I would've been killed for seriously damaging one of the princes that creeped behind me.)
He loved Ruoxi so much and was willing to share so much of himself with her. He even showed her his special place in the lake: the place he went when he didn't want to see anyone else, but he shared it with her. He also made that pact that they would always tell each other truth which meant that he didn't have anything that he wanted to hide from her. (Though that kinda flew out of the window once he became King....)
The only problem with his character was his inferiority complex which led to his greed to become the King. His mother loved 14th prince more and made it well known to just about everyone she could. He had thought that once he became King, his mother would finally see him instead of his brother, but that didn't happen. What resulted was him becoming corrupted by the power that he had gained from the crown and the eventual change in his actions that destroyed the relationship between him and Ruoxi. But even though his actions changed, I don't think that 4th as a person did, as Ruoxi had said, even though he had become the King, she was still the 4th prince that she had always known and I feel the same way.
Ahh Lao Ba... would you kindly get off my screen? No? And I have to talk about you? Well fine then, but it's not going to be pretty.
8th prince was the character that I hated the most in this drama. I've already talked about how i never thought that he really loved Ruoxi and to extrapolate on this, he was basically a really horny guy who would chase whoever happened to pass him by. I'm positive that he never truly loved anyone during the course of his life. He wanted Ruolan because she was the thing that he couldn't have, he didn't want his Difujin because she was the one person who was wholly devoted to him, and he wanted Ruoxi because she was just so different from everyone else.
The fact that 8th was able to make Ming Hui into such a sympathetic character speaks volumes about his own character. By the end I felt myself hurting for Ming Hui because she just fell in love with the wrong person. All she wanted was to be loved by her husband, and when she couldn't get that, she lashed out against the person who did get his affections. I'm not happy about what she did, but I understand it.
Sure sure, he learned his lesson by the end of the show and 'redeemed' himself by helping Ruoxi get out of the palace by revealing their past relationship and he finally realized how lucky he had to have had someone like his wife by his side and he wanted to be buried with her and blah blah blah.... too little too late dude. I don't even want to waste any more words on you.
Okay so now onto my favourite characters (apart from the OTP that is) the 10th, 13th and 14th princes. Even though they were on different sides of the battle for the crown, they did everything they could to help Ruoxi and I absolutely love them for that, and for just being the people that they were.
I've already said how much I love 10th prince. He was just like a little kid and his crush on Ruoxi was absolutely adorable. I kind of feel that he got shafted for the rest of the series though, once he had his arc and got married to Ming Yu he just faded away. He was the comedic relief in the drama and would show up whenever needed but I feel like there could have been so much more done with his character if he had stayed in the palace once 4th had come into power. But I get it, his character was a typical side character and he played his part and then ended up making happy babies with his wife. I just feel sad thinking about how much he could have done for Ruoxi when she was going through everything that she did (especially after the miscarriage).
'Death-seeking' 13th prince, I loved whenever you were with you're 'Death-seeking sister'. I just said that I had hoped that 10th could have stayed in the palace as Ruoxi's ally, and I feel the exact same way with 13. The relationship that Ruoxi and 13th had was like they were really siblings, they would bicker and fight, but they were always there for each other. They drowned their sorrows together with wine and were able to tell each other everything no matter how big or small the news was. It makes sense that Ruoxi felt so horrible once she realized that it was partly her fault that 13 had ended up having to serve 10 years in isolation. Here was someone that she loved like a brother, who had been forced to face a decade that left him losing the love of his life and with a weakened body that would never heal. But even after everything, he never blamed her for anything. He just loved her like a sister and was always there to try and protect her.
14th prince... you made me love you by the end, but I would be lying if I said that it wasn't a long and hard road to get to that point of loving you. Let's admit it, you were a total asshole during the days when all you would do was run around Ruoxi telling her how she didn't understand how much 8th loved her and how if she knew anything she should just get married to him. And you weren't nice about it. At All. But then you went to that excursion dressed as a mongol and realized what all the hype about Ruoxi truly started getting to know her. Even when 14th was feeling wronged for having the throne stolen from him by 4th, he didn't really blame Ruoxi and still wanted to help and protect her when something went wrong. I'm not even sure at what point he fell in love with her but his love grew the most organically compared to all the other brothers who had a crush on Ruoxi (even 4th!). But even though he did love her, he never forced her to love him, even when he married her it was for the right reasons and that kind of self sacrificing love gets me every time.
Oddly enough, it felt so right that she died in his arms. And it completely killed me. 14th said that he realized he loved Ruoxi during the days that they were married and he was the one who was willing to sacrifice everything to be with her, so it fit that she died while with him. The way he was grasping to her ashes and talking to her as if she was still there made me turn into a blubbering pile of tears... actually just thinking about it now is making me kind of teary too. DAMN YOU 14! HOW DID YOU MAKE ME LOVE YOU SO MUCH EVEN THOUGH I HATED YOU IN THE BEGINNING?!?!? He was just so broken by her death and his reaction made her death so much worse.
About the rumours that BBJX2 is going to be about Ruo Xi and 14th's second chance at love... made me scratch my head. Like the fully showed modern Nicky at the end of the show, what are they gonna do? Get that trolley that hit Ruo Xi at the beginning of the show to make a comeback and then hit Nicky so that he's out of the way? I mean BBJX was so obviously Ruoxi and 4th's story so I don't see why 14 and Ruoxi would get a second chance when Ruoxi didn't even get her happy ending with 4. If BBJX2 actually ends up happening I'll probably watch it because hey, I love 14th too, but the OTP in my heart will always be Ruoxi and 4th. (I'm just REALLY REALLY happy that Kevin Cheng won't be rearing his ugly [okay that's a lie he's not but his character is still horrible] to come out and ruin another couple)
But yea... I loved this drama. So. Much. Even though it turned me into a crying mess from 33 on. I didn't think that Ruo Xi was going to die in 34 but that just made everything worse because we had to see what she left behind. That scene where 4th is looking out onto his palace after 13th's death saying that he's now lost everything was just... yea... something worse than horrible.
So if you've stayed with me though this entire post about BBJX but haven't watched it yet, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? GO GO GO!
I'll sign off with some cute OTP screen shots <3
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