Handsome Siblings eps 3-5
The bulk of these episodes have been about the origin of Little Leaf and Flawless Flower, and about Little Leaf's childhood. Their father was a swordsman named Jiang who was poisoned by enemies but rescued by the ruler of Floral Palace, who decided she wanted him for herself(she talked like as her lover, but I got more of a "as a pet" vibe) Howver, he fell in love with a maid from the palace and they ran away together(smart man, wise choice) Unfortunately, they were found and killed on the day their twin sons were born. The lovers were killed, but the lady of Floral Palace's flunky saved the babies by proposing that instead of killing them, they punish their parents by making the twins be enemies...they leave one baby for Jiang's friend Yan to find, knowing he'll rase the baby to be a hero, and they take the other baby themselves, vowing to raise them to be evil.
Unfortunately, the people who poisoned Jiang before were still hunting Yan and Jiang and they poisoned Yan, and the baby he had-Little Fish-ended up being raised by...uhm...some unorthodox "villains" with interesting methods of training and upbringing. (See, Flawless Flower...his line about being raised in a place ruled by women where every other man was in a cage really explains everything you need to know about him...Little Fish needed a bit more explanation)
Now, here's something that interests me about Flawless Flower and Little Fish. People refer to Little Fish as wicked because of his pranks, but the truth is, he's about the nicest guy you could meet. He's incapable of ignoring anyone who mildly resembles an "in distress," immediately befriends Flawless Flower because he can tell he's a decent guy under it all, and even though he can tell Orchid prefers Flawless Flower to him, he continues to help her look for her father and never even considers NOT helping(something Flawless Flower can't be bothered to do yet) In contrast, Flawless Flower-while I don't think he's "evil" or anything like it as was intended by his masters-is far less nice and less heroic. When he saved Orchid, it was just a side effect of saving Little Fish. If it'd been just her, he probably wouldn't have botherd. Of course, by the time of the tournament, and the hunt for Bee, it was different, but unlike Little Fish, he isn't about to drop everything just to help her. Boss said to do something and hey, he A) doesn't want to be put in a cage and B) doesn't really have any reason to. The whole "helping people" concept seems to be pretty alien to him.
This is a bit of a (good) change from the other cdramas I've seen in that usually, the hero-especially the uber-fighter who'll get the main girl in the end-is all stalwart and steadfast and "help everyone." Even Xiao Yao in Chinese Paladin, while something of a brat, was a true-blue hero, he just had to grow up some(and did) Which is cool and I love that, but I like that here, that character ISN'T like that-though he's starting to show small signs of it-while the one who IS is the one who all but he and the girl think is a worthless prankster.
And on the subject of Orchid...I like her, a lot. Yeah, it's clear she's going to spend a lot of time in "damsel in distress" mode, but she's pretty capable-against your normal guy, she'll probably be ok, but the people she's facing are levels and levels above her. What really makes me like her, though, is that she understands appreciates everything that Little Fish does for her. It drives me CRAZY when a character doesn't appreciate what's being done for them, especially when it's used as an example of the character having spirit or guts. It especially drives me crazy when you have one character doing EVERYTHING for them, but because someone else is their OTP, it gets ignored while the other gets praised and thanked for a little thing. Granted, Yue Ru, my favorite character in Chinese Paladin, had that problem, but a large part of why I like her is because she grew up and came to appreciate what people did for her, and she especially came to appreciate and be thankfully to Jin Juan and realize how much he meant to her, even if she was never going to be able to care for him the way he wanted. Here, Orchid likes and appreciates Little Fish a lot, even though there's no romantic feelings on her part(though there probably could have been if she hadn't met Flawless Flower) and she values his frienship. Actually, I think a part of why I like cdramas so much is because there is so much appreciation for the things people do for you. Maybe it's a cultural thing?
Also, I "met" the other main female character in the last scene of ep 5(haven't caught her name yet) and I quite like her. From the openning and closing themes, it looks like she gets paired with Little Fish. Based on this scene, I approve. While I ike Orchid, Little Fish could completely trample and manipulate her if he wanted, but this woman seems the sort who could keep a tight rein on him, which would be what he needs at times.