Aramintai

His other son acts like he's five. A typical spoiled brat, even worse than SFL. At least with her some glimpses of potential are happening.
I'm thinking they're showing these brothers now as they're connected to the next FL's scheme. If that other brother is dowager consort's son, she can get to her through him maybe.

And here you go defending it blindly. Just a matter of pov, I think. The more you watched these dramas, the less confidence in good plot you have. And I already wrote that I'm reserving final judgement. But this plot point is already on my list of potential fk ups.

Well, I'm down for it when it's done right. But I feel it ain't right here at the moment. But I get that a drama has to sell, otherwise ratings will drop. And we all know what most drama viewers want. Even if it's a detective thriller genre, they'd still come and ask for it 😂.

Btw, does she have an illegitimate son with Marquis? That guard Qin guy?

Was there ever a drama when she wasn't lol?

They're in cohoots.

I'm asking legit questions here. So far it looks questionable.
I'm not taking anything in this drama at face value and sure as hell ain't gonna blindly defend it if they fk up the plot.

We'll see if they give any. Hopefully they will, at least to show where he hid it for FL's mother to find it.
Still, what you wrote here yourself - he had and army, he had an edict, with it he had the right to enter the city with an army. Yet he didn't have it on him when he entered the city. So that's treason, plus as you wrote, without it it meant he got no good reason to abandon the battlefield.
You all also write they could have taken it from him by force, which I don't get how when he had his army. They def didn't have a bigger army to fight him over it.
And again, even if he feared they'd claim the edict was fake, there was no reason to hide it either since the emperor died and nobody'd vouch for him either way. So why hide it? To show to whom?
The only explanation I can come up with is that maybe somebody stole it from under him and he knew who it was, so FL's mother could still get it somehow.

The guy had an army at his call. If he had an edict at hand, nobody'd gang up on him. The crux of his downfall was exactly he didn't have it at that moment to present it as proof.
So what really happened there? If you don't have any reasonable arguments, think about it some more. Or let's wait for more episodes, maybe they'll explain it better later.

Seriously? A general offically entering a city with an army? On what order or pretences? Without an edict that'd just look dumb af. And it did.

That's what I've been thinking as well. They shouldn't have pushed suggestive romantic scenes here, it just doesn't look right atm. Neither character is ready for it, FL doubly so.

And I've seen too many dramas to tell you that they often forget any further explanations and leave it at that. But let's how it goes here.

No, he entered the capital with an army, which is considered treason, that was his crime. It's often a plot device in cdamas that generals with their armies cannot enter the capital on suspicion of revolt.
He didn't have the edict allowing him to do that, so he was tried and executed. It's implausible that the edict could have been taken from him by force. And if he feared nobody could verify the legitimacy of the edict, there was no point in hiding it either way.
Just either missed information here, or written poorly.

I get all that, but it's not selling it for me. They've skipped a few steps with these characters from newlyweds to stright acting like an old married couple. There was no inbetween and FL's overly cheerful behavior feels very fake. She's way more believable when she's acting all cold and calculating. I'm giving a benefit of the doubt that it's on purpse, as I've seen her acting differently in other dramas.
I'm not holding my breath for ML though, his face always looks like he just woke up from a hangover with eyebags and is glaring dully.

The romance is kinda meh here, tbh. ML should emote more and FL emotes too much, but it looks fake. Not sure what can be done in ML's case, that actor always has samey face. And FL's doing that on purpose judging by her character's story.

Also, FL's is not right in the head, a big turn down for those who want to watch perfect FLs. So yea, lots of people prob dropped it. That's how MDL is.

So what, you think a general with an army at his side to protect him and the edict in his hands, he would have still been imprisoned? Sounds rather implausible. I'm reserving judgement so far. But if that's all there is to it, it's written rather poorly.

Can somebody explain to me why ML's brother got imprisoned because he had no edict, but then told FL's mother where it was and she got it no problem? Why didn't he have it on him in the first place?

Yea, looks calculated. But then again, what's the point? And she's been doing that even when there's no audience.

FL also blackmailed her step-mother well, she was helping all along, even pretending to be possessed, lol.

I dunno, that scene with her acting all shocked and teary eyed before the elders, accusing them of drowning the maid and then looking all stone faced when nobody's looking just screamed that she had planned everything that night. Did she really have no idea that the grandma was sus? I just can't be sure of anything with this FL. She's scheming and plotting multilayered plots with such precision, it's hard not to suspect her staging an accident for grandma as well. Like planting a lightning rod on top of it when nobody was looking, lol.