My Bratty Princess

My Bratty Princess

Cast of Characters in My Bratty Princess

 Situ Jing is a young girl, who along with her companion, A-lian, dresses as a man in order to more freely move around the town. While dressed as a man she is known as Xiao Long Xiao.

That is all I really can say about the summary of the story that would not get into more detail.  The blurb created for the story which intrigued me into checking it out, I think points the story in one particular direction which I discovered was not really where the story went in my point of view.  I believed the Chinese title for this series is Diao Man Gong Zhu, which in many places has been translates as "My Bratty Princess".  A few other places translated as Mischievous Princess. Now there are many things that play into translating things from the dictionary definition, to connotations to what the author may have intended. 

Bratty is defined as having the characteristics of a brat.  A brat being defined as a child especially annoying, ill-mannered, unruly spoiled and/or impolite. The child often whines, throws tantrums and often wants thins their way. 

Mischievous is defined as causing or tending to cause annoyance, minor harm or damage. Showing a playful desire to cause trouble.

The reason I gave those definition is because one seems to fit more closely to what the series turned out to be more than the other. 

I came to the show never having heard of it or knowing anyone or anything attached to it. Except it was on the same site as Princess Returning Pearl and available to watch.  After reading the blurb, I had a very vague idea of what it might be about but the idea I did get was interesting.  But I have to confess the series was not that good.  The blurb in short said that Situ Jing was free-thinking, mischievous and dressed as a man becoming Xiao Long xia to protect her family's reputation. In truth, Situ Jing is the Princess of the last monarchy that was destroyed by the currents king's father.  With whom, she and the prince of a neighboring kingdom become sworn brothers.  

I was attracted by the idea of a seemingly smart and mischievous main female character since I like Huang Rong from Condor Heroes.  Also in the same vein Zhao Wei from Princess Returning Pearl, who had potential but turned out not to be a character I liked all that much.  To me, mischievous tends to mean someone with a playful sense of fun and pranks. They like pranks but these only ever cause minor damage, they have charm and are kind, understanding and respectful otherwise. On the other hand, a brat whines, throws tantrums, wants things their way, are unruly and often cause more than just a little harm.  

There was a lot of things that just did not seem to work for me in My Bratty Princess.  First, the music.  I really did not like any of the songs.  Also during the show there were times when the music would transition a long time before the scene had even began to move. There was a scene where nothing was happening, and I believe it was suppose to be a quiet reflective moment but then the music was suddenly strong,  completely off that it took me out of it.

I didn't really love the costumes, but it never really bothered me too much.

I think the worst part of the series for me, was some of the characters, the story and how it seemed to be all executed.

Our main character is Situ Jing or Xiao Long Xia. I came in not knowing anything but the blurb I had read and hoped to at least like the character.  One of the problems I had with the character of Xiao Long Xia (Situ Jing) was that so much time was spent telling us through character after character of just how great she was and if anyone was of a different opinion they were the bad guy.  This is one element that seems quite prevalent in characters (mostly female) have this false appearance of doing good and people love them anyway because they are so attracted to what is being said more than the actual meaning of the action (Princess Returning Pearl, Hunger Games among others).  So much time is spent having the Sifu, Situ Jian Nan (Borther), Bai Yun Fei and others tell us how kind, smart, selfless, goodhearted and bringer of joy and happiness Situ Jing is and yet very little real evidence to support it. When you do look closely at the things she does they work to actually aggravate the problems then solved them. There was more evidence to show that she was not what everyone said she was.

Xiao Long Xia

Xiao Long Xia knows kung fu but from what we see, she is not that powerful, and yet she continuously get into fights and hardly takes any of them seriously. The constant jokes and faces that she made grew tiring and annoying. They did not seem to make much sense in the situation or were they all that funny.

Xiao Long Xia/ Situ Jing seemed at times quite uncaring and selfish.  When the series starts of she has established a rigged gambling match for which she takes the money and hand it out to the refugees just outside the town.  For one, I saw problems with her doing this. One, the refugees are not being allowed into the city and interaction with them is discouraged.  So, what good is handing them coins when they can not exchange it for any of the things they need? But I'll leave all the questions.  This also made me think that Xiao Long Xia had not been doing this for long and it was not a natural progression from something else that she was already doing.  The her Sifu says that she had guided Xiao Long Xia along that path.  She help to further solidify for me that her Sifu mostly likely brought the idea for the situation and encouraged Xiao long Xia on it. And we find out that she did this so that when they reveal themselves in order to reclaim the throne, Situ Jing would have the support of a portion of the population.

Situ Jing making some face. Again.

I am usually behind the Robin Hood idea of still from those that have too much and aid those that have none. However, here Xiao Long Xia never seemed to know or care too much about who she was stealing from.  When she meets Emperor Zhu Yun and Bai Yun Fei (not yet knowing their identity) she quickly asks them to be sworn brothers.  Once it was done the first thing on her mind was to ask them for money.  When Zhu Yun states that he does not have money.  She starts to call him names and try to guilt him. How come he is so wealthy and yet doesn't want to help the poor?  All she wants for them is money and if they don't have it available then they are selfish and greedy.  He knows nothing about their situation and never asks. Plus they offer to help her in other ways.

Scene where Xiao Long Xia dragged Zhu Yun into a fight

Xiao Long Xia aggravates problems and puts others lives in danger. Also when her Sifu in disguise is trying to kill Bai Yun Fei, she drags Zhu Yun into the situation.  To them at that point her Sifu was a real threat to Bai Yun Fei and Zhu Yun, but the Sifu didn't know about Zhu Yun presence until Xiao Long Xia gave it away. It's like falling into a pit with snakes and instead of stopping your friend from falling in or letting them go get help, instead you pull them into the pit with you.

She causes her brother to get sent to jail and is almost killed just because she could not stay home for a few days but had to go out and have fun.  She also says that it's fun only when people are talking about and giving her praise. In one episode her brother asks her to stay home but she lies right to his face and does it anyway despite saying that she understood the risks. When her brother gets arrested covering for her, again she is aware that to help solve the problem she needs to lay low for a while but she does thing that attract more problem.  Her brother was in jail yet going out and having fun were more important to her. We know early on that Situ Jian Nan and Wen Qiang love each other but her father Minister Wen doesn't like the Situ family.   Situ Jing is suppose to dress as a man to move more freely and also make sure that nothing she does can bring her family trouble, especially since the father is a General.  But at one point she starts offering up her family's wealth, power and influence to Qi Guo Gong (who also wanted to marry Wen Qiang).  One, it wasn't her place to use those things as bargaining chips and second, she never informed to those that situation concerned and would effect.  Not even mentioning it.  Situ Jing is suppose to be smart and good at solving problem but episode after episode even when she found out that Zhu Yun was Emperor and even storm the castle without getting in trouble. At that point, I had hoped she would ask Zhu Yun to help her brother marry Wen Qiang. So that they could not be separated and Minister Wen would think twice before starting trouble. but episode after episode her smartest ideas were secret, switched brides or elopement which only made things worst.   The problem was finally solved, by Zhu Yun and his sister An Ning and Situ Jing was in no way involved.

Princess An Ning

I liked An Ning and found her interesting. Many times I wanted her to be the main character through whom the story was told. Being the Emperor sister An Ning grew up spoiled, naive, straight forward and brash.  Because she's a princess she's always gotten what she wanted but is a bit lonely since she was raised away from her mother and brother. Zhu Yun betrothed her to Bai Yun Fei to make sure no future war would start. And since he heard good things of Bai Yun Fei, he thought An Ning would be taken care of.  An Ning first encounter with Xiao Long Xia was seeing her beating up a man, in which she interfered.  An Ning is straight forward in that she won't hide her feelings and will say what she thinks.  she can read people but with little experience she's not always aware that even when caught some people would still try to lie, deceive, manipulate or even play victim like with Mei er.

Princess An Ning

I liked An Ning sense of justice and understanding.  Even when Bai Yun Fei rejected her, she never attacked Situ Jing because of it. She only did something on occasional when Mei er was manipulating her or she had a direct argument with Situ Jing.  Also she helps Situ Jian Nan and Wen Qiang because she saw the injustice against them and wanted to do something about it.

When An Ning helping Situ Jian Nan is a prime example of where Xiao Long Xia plays victim a lot.  Xiao Long Xia claims she owes An Ning for saving her brother, but An Ning says she did not to it for her and doesn't want anything.  But Xiao Long Xia continues to insist that she is indebted to her.  When An Ning bring her to the palace, Xiao Long Xia is the one that says she will do anything that An Ning wants but then she goes on to be indignant and self righteous that she never wants to owe someone because they will take advantage of her. I know Xiao Long Xia is spoiled but why couldn't her companion A-Lian just get her another bucket of water instead of her going to find someone, beat them up and then claim vengeance that she was the one being bullied.  She claims to understand the plight of the  refugees.

Prince Bai Yun Fei

At first I though I liked Bai Yun Fei until his brain got sucked out and eyes sewn shut and everything was Situ Jing.  Bai Yun Fei, came to the city to marry Princess An Ning and give her the bracelet but Xiao Long Xia stole it.  Bai Yun Fei had a duty to come marry Princess An Ning and secure the safety of his kingdom. A top that An Ning is a good person, beautiful and they are compatible.  Bai Yun Fe is a Prince, he was raised and grew up understanding the politics that goes into the ruling of a kingdom.  I was quite upset that all that went out the window for suppose love of Situ Jing.  He claims to admire that Xiao Long Xia wants to help refugees but he breaks his promise about marrying An Ning.  What if , Zhu Yun had taken great offense and started a war?  What would happen to all his people? It doesn't matter that thousands, if not millions would die and the rest would be left in worst situations the the ones Xiao Long Xia was trying to help?  What if, Zhu Yun had allow his mother to execute him and his kingdom started a war.  What would happen to his suppose sworn brother, Xiao Long Xia and millions of others? 

Even through Bai Yun Fei, we see how Xiao Long Xia can be a hypocrite.  At one point Xiao Long Xia says that she would never marry someone she didn't like  and when Zhu Yun says he likes her and wants her to be with him in the palace.  She gets angry, she claims she would never go against her feelings yet following that she goes and asks Bai Yun Fei to marry An Ning so that Zhu Yun would help her. She is well aware that Bai Yun Fei likes her and doesn't want to marry An Ning. When he refuses she calls him selfish, that others are only worried about their ambition. When he says something along the lines that he too doesn't compromise his feelings.  She says but it's for a good cause.  Then why didn't she go with Zhu Yun? She would never compromise but other should because it's for something that's going to help her.

Emperor Zhu Yun

I liked Zhu Yun. He's smart, kind, trying to do good and was actually funny. Except that like Bai Yun Fei to him all joy and happiness was Situ Jing.  I think, especially through him and An Ning was where I saw just how much of an annoying character among others that Situ Jing was.  One thing that quite angered me was that Situ Jing is suppose to be aware and care deeply about the plight of those less fortunate which was supposed to be illustrated by her schemes that would help the refugees.  Yet in one particular scene after her brother is arrested (I believe) she tries to storm the palace again.  Chen Lin (Zhu Yun guard) tries to tell her that he could not see her because he was being watched by those looking to harm them and that he had many problems that needed his immediate attention.  Situ Jing says "What problem could be bigger than mine?" (loose quote) and goes on to insult Zhu Yun.   Claiming that he had no integrity.  She also threaten to break their relationship. This is someone who is suppose to understand and have an awareness of the problems affecting others. So, trying to prevent war, helping refugees and dozens of other country wide issues all take second place to her problems.  She does things like the above multiple times.  On occasion, Zhu Yun really looked as if he would not put up with it and understood that there are more important things that need his help than being at Situ Jing beck and call but then things would change again.

Mei er, Zhu Yun's Cousin  and Concubine

I wished that Xiao Long Xia was allowed to be a spoiled child which is befitting of her background but throughout the story she would learn and grow. Instead we just had a broken record of how great and wonderful Xiao Long Xia was to begin with but each new episode just when to fight against what the record was saying.

Many found the show funny but for me it was just annoying and I had a hard time getting through each episode. I have never heard of Jang Nara but the cute act seems from what I read to be her staple. Jang Nara is good looking but, it didn't work for me. I didn't find her faces fun or funny, the exaggerated faces and sticking out of the tongue just got on my nerves.  I saw very little chemistry between her and the two men that I don't see either falling for her, let alone that hard.  I could never adjust to there being a serious moment and then something ridiculous being rushed at it the next second.  The tone seemed to move too jarringly and did not match in my opinion.