Meteor Coffee Startling Prince
Sometimes my suspension of disbelief is pretty solid. I can watch scarf-wearing dragons dance by singing folk songs in Finnish and be all "Okay, I can see how that would happen in this story." But then a human character will behave in a way that I just can't understand and I'm suddenly thrown out of that world. I realize that I often have trouble understanding human behavior, so sometimes it's just me.
So I'm making my way through Meteor Garden enjoying the randomness and tension, and letting the Taiwan Mandarin flow over me. But lately I'm having trouble understanding Shan Cai's motivations. I get that she can be as contradictory as any human. She allows no nonsense around her, yet she's firmly in denial about her feelings for Dao Ming Si. She wants to be herself with some dignity, yet has to sacrifice that pride because of her family's situation.
Actually I don't know what's bothering me. Something about her character in the last few episodes just seems puzzling.
In contrast, Ruoxi of Bu Bu Jing Xin is making perfect sense to me. Over the last several years she's gone from seeing her situation in a dreamlike haze, to panicking, to hopelessness, to resolve. She's accepted that she has feelings for the Eighth Prince, and for that reason she will try to change history through force of will. Hopeful, futile, and utterly believable.
Needing some comfort food, I've been rewatching a few episodes of Coffee Prince. It's like relaxing with a cup of hot chocolate and just a bit of Bailey's.