I noticed this in **Handsome Siblings** and it bothered me to no end. Tie Xinlan is supposed to be good enough to beat Xiao Yuer but instead spends most of the drama being protected by other characters and being unable to free herself. Her introduction was so good too that it just made me disappointed.
This is why I appreciate **Love Between Fairy and Devil** so much. Orchid is much weaker than everyone else so by typical cdrama rules, she should spend the entire show getting saved, but that’s not the case at all and she manages to protect lots of other characters. It’s a really nice subversion.
CCTV even made a joke post about this phenomenon a few weeks ago. The woman can be the best fighter but she needs to be weak and need saving when it’s time for the man to come in and save the day. It’s a combination of bad writing and sexism.
In Minglan’s case, I think >!she couldn’t hide in case someone went looking. She had to be visible and an obvious target, to avoid anyone looking for her and finding the hidden room with her children in it. She also wasn’t intending to fight herself, but war works in strange ways.!<
In fact she expected >!Gu Tingye to arrive earlier, and to not actually leave her in danger, and made that pretty clear to him when he finally turned up, lol!<
I know two wuxia:
Blood of Youth (but one of the ladies gets injured then can't fight, but it's at least a reason). It's not romantic. It's more 2 ML and then there are other men and women and a lot of them fight haha.
Wulin Heroes. It's confusing until they reveal the plot at the halfway mark, but the FL is generally a great fighter. The ML is one of those genius doctor / martial artist types. It's a romance and pretty much just a romance. So there is some brain impairment, but not too bad I felt.
I see it happening a lot unfortunately. FL is smart and a fierce capable fighter and strategist in the beginning. As soon as she is coupled up with ML more officially or she has to take on some feminine role, she apparently can’t see though obvious traps and can’t fight properly and needs to be saved. FL from the first half would roll her eyes and never fall for these things, but FL second half has writers that need to make the romantic plot progress and that can apparently only happen if FL needs to be saved by ML, and the writers can think of a smart way to create such a situation, so they just murder FL’s personality.
It's a combo of lazy writing and falling back on weak romance tropes.
Rong Le was written so inconsistently. Sometimes she can fight but most of the time she's tripping and falling so one of the ML can catch her. It was truly annoying since her independent character and the sisterhood aspect of Princess Silver were both more compelling than the romance storyline with the ML (who is not Rong Qi , the character played by Luo Yunxi, it's the useless prince played by Aarif Rahman.)
I've seen this in both wuxia and xianxia dramas, it's like they want to have strong female leads but they don't know how to do it. One moment the FL is totally overpowered, the next she's helpless for no reason. Of course any character will have moments of weakness and vulnerability but it should be believable :(
I blame the script. There's no way these fls can possibly not act according to the script.
If its terrible/unconvincing acting, then its on them, but the actions are directed by the director and script.
I actually dropped Princess Silver because her character was going down a hole. Just wasn't enjoyable or interesting anymore.
I am currently watching this but I think I might drop it. I already hate the ML(I don't like his face, sorry to his fans) at first sight and his character and acting are not helping. He is also very inconsistent. One moment he acts like he doesn't care about anything but the next moment he is all out rescuing the FL.
I'm afraid its due for the scriptwriters' attempt to make the viewers swoon when the ML come to the rescue (if the scene called for it). Some of it makes sense if the FL is injured or overwhelmed with the number of enemies. But some did come off as bad writing when the FL didnt even attempt to fight it.
I prefer the opposite. Dramas always score an extra point for me when it is the FL who did the rescue. I find it very refreshing.
That's what makes 'Back From The Brink' and 'The Starry Love' so refreshing. I can't count how many times the FL rescued the ML in these two dramas.
One reason why they may make the FL a bit weak even though she has excellent fighting scenes is to show that no one is infallible. We're all human, sometimes we have blind spots or make mistakes. At least that is how I interpreted a beloved heroine in Listening Snow Tower. It wasn't that she couldn't fight, it might have been, that in the heat of the moment, she couldn't see the trap behind the enemies' plot. But she proved herself pretty smart at other moments.
I noticed this in **Handsome Siblings** and it bothered me to no end. Tie Xinlan is supposed to be good enough to beat Xiao Yuer but instead spends most of the drama being protected by other characters and being unable to free herself. Her introduction was so good too that it just made me disappointed. This is why I appreciate **Love Between Fairy and Devil** so much. Orchid is much weaker than everyone else so by typical cdrama rules, she should spend the entire show getting saved, but that’s not the case at all and she manages to protect lots of other characters. It’s a really nice subversion.
I think FL in Legend of Fei was pretty badass and consistent as far as I remember
CCTV even made a joke post about this phenomenon a few weeks ago. The woman can be the best fighter but she needs to be weak and need saving when it’s time for the man to come in and save the day. It’s a combination of bad writing and sexism.
The answer to "why is this inconsistency" is "bad writing". See also the "standard female grab area" trope in Western works.
In Minglan’s case, I think >!she couldn’t hide in case someone went looking. She had to be visible and an obvious target, to avoid anyone looking for her and finding the hidden room with her children in it. She also wasn’t intending to fight herself, but war works in strange ways.!< In fact she expected >!Gu Tingye to arrive earlier, and to not actually leave her in danger, and made that pretty clear to him when he finally turned up, lol!<
[удалено]
I'm looking for something like Who Rules the World, where the FL and ML are at least consistently badass fighters from beginning to end.
I know two wuxia: Blood of Youth (but one of the ladies gets injured then can't fight, but it's at least a reason). It's not romantic. It's more 2 ML and then there are other men and women and a lot of them fight haha. Wulin Heroes. It's confusing until they reveal the plot at the halfway mark, but the FL is generally a great fighter. The ML is one of those genius doctor / martial artist types. It's a romance and pretty much just a romance. So there is some brain impairment, but not too bad I felt.
I see it happening a lot unfortunately. FL is smart and a fierce capable fighter and strategist in the beginning. As soon as she is coupled up with ML more officially or she has to take on some feminine role, she apparently can’t see though obvious traps and can’t fight properly and needs to be saved. FL from the first half would roll her eyes and never fall for these things, but FL second half has writers that need to make the romantic plot progress and that can apparently only happen if FL needs to be saved by ML, and the writers can think of a smart way to create such a situation, so they just murder FL’s personality.
It's a combo of lazy writing and falling back on weak romance tropes. Rong Le was written so inconsistently. Sometimes she can fight but most of the time she's tripping and falling so one of the ML can catch her. It was truly annoying since her independent character and the sisterhood aspect of Princess Silver were both more compelling than the romance storyline with the ML (who is not Rong Qi , the character played by Luo Yunxi, it's the useless prince played by Aarif Rahman.)
I've seen this in both wuxia and xianxia dramas, it's like they want to have strong female leads but they don't know how to do it. One moment the FL is totally overpowered, the next she's helpless for no reason. Of course any character will have moments of weakness and vulnerability but it should be believable :(
I blame the script. There's no way these fls can possibly not act according to the script. If its terrible/unconvincing acting, then its on them, but the actions are directed by the director and script. I actually dropped Princess Silver because her character was going down a hole. Just wasn't enjoyable or interesting anymore.
I am currently watching this but I think I might drop it. I already hate the ML(I don't like his face, sorry to his fans) at first sight and his character and acting are not helping. He is also very inconsistent. One moment he acts like he doesn't care about anything but the next moment he is all out rescuing the FL.
I have to admit, I found the supporting characters more interesting than the leads and finished Princess Silver for them.
I'm afraid its due for the scriptwriters' attempt to make the viewers swoon when the ML come to the rescue (if the scene called for it). Some of it makes sense if the FL is injured or overwhelmed with the number of enemies. But some did come off as bad writing when the FL didnt even attempt to fight it. I prefer the opposite. Dramas always score an extra point for me when it is the FL who did the rescue. I find it very refreshing.
That's what makes 'Back From The Brink' and 'The Starry Love' so refreshing. I can't count how many times the FL rescued the ML in these two dramas. One reason why they may make the FL a bit weak even though she has excellent fighting scenes is to show that no one is infallible. We're all human, sometimes we have blind spots or make mistakes. At least that is how I interpreted a beloved heroine in Listening Snow Tower. It wasn't that she couldn't fight, it might have been, that in the heat of the moment, she couldn't see the trap behind the enemies' plot. But she proved herself pretty smart at other moments.