AleksandraSucur

I still think the main problem is the writing. MDL often doesn't list all the writers, because there are also well written scenes, even among those not present in the original novel. There were many unnecessary push and pulls between side couples (lets remember the novel princess never practised as doctor in a military camp, the drama Qian Qian escaped many more times from the freak etc). Those scenes took a lot of time and transformed PoJ in an idol drama, with "more of the same" kind of story.
Drama cut off certain less important scenes from the novel (and that's ok), but it also left out its important focus on political and military strategy (eg. XZ's planning of the battles) and the underlying power conflict which were the only relatively original aspect of the entire story.

think the same. The writing quality dropped with the dam explosion subplot, as the screenwriters forced her Lin'an pig squad and tutor Tao in it, changing the track in a way that didn't make sense.
The direction however remained great all along, it's a feast for the eyes. If you watch the trailers, a scene in the bath is so well shot, the leads wear white and black and their push and pull in circle forms a spectacular yin and yang symbol with their wet clothes☯️I can only imagine how much effort they've put to shoot that scene

You are welcome, I only wanted to confirm you've detected very well the flaws. Ofc., neither do I would ask myself how the princess knew so much about the medicine, if the scriptwriters asked the audience for the suspension of disbelief just on that: there were several scenes in the novel requiring our suspension of disbelief, too, but the storyline was consistent, with clear cause-effect relations and movements of all characters. Although it contained a lot of stereotypes as well, its main value (and originality) was in HZ's strategic reasoning before the battles (and generally on politics and power conflicts), which is almost completely absent in the drama.

Idk, after adding the pig squad, the princess's medical practice, 2-3 side couples' push&pulls etc, I feel as the drama scriptwriters have messed with the main plot and on who was where and how he/she got there having no time or intentionally avoiding to put some light on the backstory of the track they've changed.
Someone said here the production changed the scriptwriter(s) midway... Idk, but the drama storytelling was ok until the dam blowing up - that was the first big loophole. In order to give more importance to her squad and tutor Tao in that sloppily written scene, the scriptwriters resorted to an insane idea of "let them pick the lots" to divide people who would be sacrificed with the dam in the explosion from those who can return home. And it was tutor Tao - a captive and a corvée till that moment - who decided on it, not the Commander in Chief and a person who had the idea of flooding the enemy's army, ie. XZ.

The flows actually started prior to the battle, already in ep. 29 (or maybe even earlier), the drama didn't make clear why it was Marquis Wu'an to rescue Bao'er from the shadow guards sent by Qi Min after his son in order to kill him. In the novel, beside the fact Sui Yuanqing remained Xie Zheng's captive all the time, XZ was "in the right place in the right moment" to save the kid only bc. he was besieging the capital of the rebelled province (and also found Zhao Xun separately from Bao'er), while in the drama it looks like he is constantly somewhere near Lucheng (defended by the old general He) as if he was awaiting THERE the rebel lord to attack and casually found out the fleeing boy with Mr. Zhao. It isn't only unconvincing but it cut out the reason why general He was killed: the rebel lord attacked the city with all his forces, leaving his capital undefended. With the help of Li family (including Li Huaian), Qi Min escaped (after killing Sui YQ's mother and the rest of the family and leaving clues to frame Wei Yan's faction for the escape of the "Lord Changxin's elder son")

In order to give more screentime to certain side characters, the drama changed, left out or introduced certain subplots, eg. the princess acting as an "imperial doctor" or combining two characters, like Li Huaian, who embodies both LH from the novel and junior general Tang, general He's disciple (who was the one FCY knocked off in the novel, when he charged like crazy), but opened important loopholes (why would a princess know so much about the medicine? Why would Li tutor have send his grandson to be a disciple of a general from the Wei's faction?) failing to make these characters and the connected plot fully believable.

Ep. 6. I've truly never ever expected to see the old Yugoslav partisan movie "Walter defends Sarajevo" (transliterated in pinjin as "Waerte baowei Saralevo") and never knew the movie had such a huge impact on Chinese audience and filmmakers.
"It was seen by upward of a billion people as it toured the land, playing to entire factories and villages in makeshift screenings. Fifty years after its debut, many in China can still recite entire scenes line for line."
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010236
Amazing!

Right. Going on at this rate, he should check on his glycemic index, cholesterol and tryglicerids, LOL. She literally endangers his heart 😂😂😂

Only she can make him crave for boiled pork entrails he'd otherwise find nauseating🤮

His characterial traits are the same, but the plotline regarding him differs, as the drama doesn't focus on the Li-Wei conflict as much as the novel

Indeed. I was also amazed by this care for details and ought to rewatch many awesome scenes and shots

Yes, it's easy to mix because her involvement in the plot happened in later chapters. Polo match was also in those ordinary chapters, not in extra ones.

No, those scenes were in ordinary chapters. The princess was recalling her meetings with GSY.
She appears seldom, but she was a key player in saving the ML when the emperor tried to frame him passing the message to Changyu in the palace. And it was thanks to her, the truth connected with the former emperor and Wei was revealed.

Gongsun's family suffered from their officialdom in the past and made the rule that no member of their family will enter the court. They are renowned scholars, but because of this rule, Gongsun thinks he cannot give any kind of marital/political support to the Princess.

In the novel, Gongsun is also a member of the academy, although it is his father (or grandfather) who is the headmaster, while he is some sort of senior bro/junior teacher there. It's his family's private school. The princess entered that school disguising herself as her maternal cousin, but was discovered later when her cousin, who was supposed to be at school, made a mess elsewhere.
Gongsun and Princess met at the academy (the scene with the falcon, the scene with a go game when they've recognised each other as players of the game at the monastery and the scene in which he gives her a special go manual he copied for her, all happened in the novel as well)

Having read the novel, I don't share your view of his "looking down on her", while in the drama is impressed by her. He is certainly more prone to think, is more experienced and skilled and ofc more knowledgable - both in the drama and in the novel.
The drama indeed (and totally naturally) left out certain things from the novel - I agree with you on that and among these things is his interior assessing of the situation in which he was after she rescued him, along with the persons around. His reserved attitude was expressed both in the novel and in the drama but through different tools (and that's also normal, they are different media): the drama was more focused on ML's expressions and actions/dialogues, while the novel also followed his "inner thoughts". And this thing can be applied to his other characterial traits: protectivness, a sense of family he longs for but achieves only through her, curiosity about her parents' story, physical attraction, shared values to protect the weak and find out the truth, immediate resentment (and punishment) of arrogant, bullies etc.
The core things (plotline and characters) are present and the same in both, while the differences in the story are marginal and due to their medium differences.

Her "need to grow" could be a pro argument to tell her the truth but with so many "cons", to me it seems more logical not to. At least, not before he deals with more pressing issues.
And it is not that he doesn't trust her capabilities at all, he still left her with Lord Li once assured she is ok.

I've read the novel, .
I agree this aspect (=hiding his identity from her) is better explained in the novel, but still think it was sufficiently explained in the drama. Drama cannot be extensive as novels (otherwise, they'll be terribly draggy) and I still think, this drama gave an excellent simplified version of the story in the novel. Eg., the dialogue between ML and FL on how they imagine their future spouses occurred in the drama, too (when they were sitting near a beacon) and I think there was no need to show us what he was thinking in that moment, as it happened in the book.
I agree the added Tao-FL dialogue in the drama which compared Tao's disciple and Yan Zheng was unnecessary. It was added for fun, as well as her buddies from Lin'an.
Anyways, those slight changes still doesn't affect the drama tells the same story from the novel and that in this precise moment of the narrative, FL and ML are... unequally matched and that the FL, for how the drama showed her "more self-aware", as you've said, she still needs a long path to go in terms of knowledge, experience and skills (as well as to find out the truth about her own parents).

I've noticed many commentators here don't like and criticize XZ for not having revealed his true identity to the FL yet. They seem to neglect very good reasons to continue with this lie:
1. There's an abyss in status between the two of them. The moment he tells her who he is, he'll estrange her, bc. they cannot be together... at most, he can take someone so low in status like her as his concubine, ie. degrading her (which neither he nor she would ever agree on).
2. By lying to her, he still maintains their emotional bond which will be shattered the moment she discovers the truth. Any other person would suspect the identity of a wounded person, with excellent martial skills and education, but in her straightforward naivety, FL believes (or wants to believe) he is just a transportation escort who, after being wounded by bandits, is willing to be her matrilocal husband to repay her for saving him. She isn't smart but isn't completely dumb either, deep down she knows he must have another identity - that's why she gave him the divorce agreement. Truth to be said, they BOTH clinge to his Yan Zgeng's identity bc neither of them wants to cut the bond between them.
3. She is also impulsive. If she learns about the huge difference in status, she'll run away and hastily marry someone else trying to forget him. He doesn't want that, he doesn't want to lose her. In his mind, after he defeats his enemies, he'll marry her nevertheless, he'll find the way. But it also means he mustn't lose her in the meantime.
For all these reasons, he must keep the lie going on

Yup, it's her husband. When she concieved Bao'er, QM (aka Sui Juanhai) wore a mask and had terrible scars of burning (from a fire occurred in the Eastern Palace). He underwent some sort of terribly painful plastic surgery which replaced his skin later to remove that mask.

Yup, I've noticed that too. Translations often make people confused.
And even the title "prince" for Changxin is wrong, it should be either Duke (a noble appointed by the emperor to supervise or govern certain territory) or even a King (to indicate the decisional autonomy under his territorial competence but with vasal position towards the emperor).

In English and generally in European languages, "prince" is a son of the highest autonomous ruler (king or emperor), the only exception is the "prince of Monaco", but that's a micro-state and Grimaldi ruling family started styling themselves as "princes" only in 17th century with Monaco first becoming Spanish and then French protectorate. There's also another case of micro-state (Liechtenstein) which was elevated from "county" to "Fürstentum" (principality in English) in the moment when it became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 18th century. The very term "principality" is often translated as "county" (territory governed by a count) or "marquisate" or "dukedom" in other European languages.

Changxin isn't a member of the imperial family, so it is inappropriate to translate his title as "prince" (with the 1st meaning above). The fictional state (Chengzhou) he rules is a part of the fictional empire of Yin indipendently from the fact that the noble who governs it rebelled. Its size doesn't justify exceptional use of term principality either, it isn't a micro-state and protectorate.

No. He is the 2nd son of the rebelled Lord Changxin (referred to as "Prince" in translation - but he isn't a member of the imperial family which is surnamed Qi, not Sui like him).