Aramintai

Obviously it was a covid bat😅

Yea, if it wasn't for her mental trauma she'd definitely fall into Mary Sue category.

Well, I'm not sure about a 9, but it definitely is better than Pursuit of Jade plot wise. And that mid drama got 9+. MDL is biased af as always.

Plot armor.

Yea, Mo Jing Li.

😂

Lol, superspreader. Yea, that physician was a hack.

The marquis is simply not the sharpest tool in the shed here. And it was completely unnecessary, he could have sent some of his cronies to do it.

As for the consort, she hid it as potential leverage and gave the marquis the fake one. She was smart not to trust the dowager or marquis blindly. So nobody knew the marquis destroyed the fake one and real one still existed.

Yea, don't force yourself. If I started watching this drama mainly for the romance, I'd have dropped it even earlier, I think. Just too lackluster. That separation was egregiously poorly written as well, just for the sake of angsty drama and moving the plot to the mountain.

There were a few annoying episodes in the beginning about SML being delulu over FL, but she never gave him a second look because of his fkup in the past. Then it was revealed he's not as dumb as he looked and got mildly interesting to watch.
And then there was another annoying evil bish who was ML's fiancee in the past, but it was ages ago and she was unable to hook him either, FL also quickly let her know there's nothing to fish for there.

At some point it just becomes regurgitated AI slop, especially if you've seen quite a number of these dramas. Even great visuals aren't that hooking anymore, just like how it happened with CGI years back.
To make a product stand out and be successfull you gotta think out of the box and look for fresh ideas. Recycled plots are like an old chewing gum you no longer feel the taste of.

It was mentioned that marriage cancellation was SML's idea, or rather, his advisors'. And FL's mother wasn't her sister, but a best friend. The dowager really liked her. If anything, the dowager did good for once here by not leaving FL without a husband.

Somebody got bitten by a covid bat😂

Yea. I like the actress, but she really needs to be more active in choosing better, more varied scripts. Some of her old dramas were just plain cringe. Thankfully this year she's on the right track.

Btw, I've posted the edict timeline compilation in the discussions, it's understandably confusing. Will update if they show something extra about it.
And I've already seen ep33.

She'd be your typical Mary Sue with how impressive she is all around, if not for her mental trauma. If they didn't add this to her character with that whole Lishan plot, she'd definitely look like someone's self-insert.

2. SML gets summoned back after the coup and gets locked up in the palace for years and forced to act like a hedonistic clown so that nobody'd sus him.
3. He did. Main question is why didn't he show the edict publicly right at the gates?
6. FL's sick mother and FL were returning to the mountain when evil grandma killed her at one of the stopping points.
7. This happens even before the emperor dies. It was when she was travelling with her mother to some location. This could be point 1.
8. This is also before all the coup events.
10. FL doesn't randomly do this. Her mother while being mistreated at her husband's mansion tells FL to visit ML's brother at the execution block. Then she waits for ML being delivered for his own trial to give him that food. FL already knew all about their situation from her mother.
12. Can be combined with 6.
15. The cause of this, btw, is that SML refused to marry her on his advisors' orders. They've been goading him on the path of revenge and taking the throne, and FL would be detrimantal to his goals because she's connected to the tarnished Lishan faction. So the dowager married him off to her step-sister, because step-sister had no blood relationship to Lishan. And so as not to leave FL without a husband married her off to ML.

It was shown. He wanted a guy from prison, the funny gnome who works in his prefecture.

Very understandable. Besides FL's schemes and mysterious tragedy at mount Lishan, there's nothing new here indeed. Though there are lots of characters, the plot is quite predictable, to a point where you can start seeing separate arcs. Even that edict plot device was obvious from the start will create a conflict between the leads at some point.
This drama mostly is riding on the emotional deep dive into FL's psychological trauma.

If she was taught under him, it was no more than around 3 years, none of it was shown though. After the plague - self taught. And still doesn't compare to somebody practicing for years. They also always bang on in other cdramas that to master acupuncture you have to practice for years. But she's a genius here, I suppose.