I would say 8. I actually enjoyed them and their scenes. I did feel some kiss scenes were a bit lackluster and not so emotional, but overall, it was good.
Really like Deng Kai a lot after he won me over with his performance in Pursuit of Jade. Honestly his someone I'm really rooting for. I feel like he really is good male lead material and deserves a lead role in an S+ drama with a kickass script and beautiful female lead!
Just like I didn’t expect to love Cdrama men with long hair in costume dramas, silver hair included, I also didn’t expect to love generals and men in armor. And yes, even the younger looking ones, because honestly some of them did a fantastic job interms of acting and really brought the aura.
The first time I was wowed by a general, especially their intro, was Leo Wu in Love Like the Galaxy. I think he really tried to tap into that angry, tragic, ruthless general energy and made it work.
As someone who actually enjoys both, the constant comparisons and wild takes on X and TikTok have gone from funny to just plain tiring. Some act like C-dramas suddenly got good overnight, which is not true at all. They have always been good. What really happened is that more people started noticing them, especially viewers who were already into K-dramas and wanted something different.
A lot of international viewers also seem to think that whatever is trending or constantly recommended is all that exists for cdramas, which is not the case. There is way more variety out there. I am an international viewer too, and I only realized that once I stopped sticking to the same popular titles and started digging a bit deeper. At this point I wonder if people actually believe the things they say (like the above) or it's just bait for convo.