AleksandraSucur

No, she doesn't remember that part, at least not in a way it happened. Her brain rescripts traumatic things that happen to her.
But she remembers who has the edict, bc she staged the show to extort the confession from her father to whom he gave it, and at the second attempt, she succeeded.

Yeeee, glad to see you, babe ❤️❤️❤️

This last closer zoom over the Ye family makes me think that Ye Li started to develop her PTSD already in that madhouse. After witnessing how they've treated her mother and her maid in order to get the edict, ganging up with criminals and condemning an innocent person, anybody's brain would start to erase or rescript such memories. Besides, her PTSD compared to psichological and/or personality disorders of the Yes looks like a mild cold compared to a bubonic plague.
Starting from her father and his heavy dependent personality disorder (DPD), depression and psychosis, the superiority complex of the bully uncle, demential violent (passive-aggressive?) grandma, sociopath step mother... I am still figuring out the lecherous uncle... Half-bro looks ok, but he is still just a kid, while half-sister (step-sister?) is just plain dumb.
Surviving this insane flock is not an easy deal!
Does "Mo Li" actually stands for a Chinese abbreviation of DSM-5, lol? Bc. I somehow feel the original intention of the scriptwriter was to make us re-brouse a bit that manual 😅.

How can it be called healthy? If I'd manage to fall asleep on that rock, I'll have a headache for at least three days 😂😂😂

I don't think so, he is way too cold towards Muyang's son.
He might be Muyang's illegitimate son grown up maybe with consort's relatives - that would explain the surname

Yes, the consort dowager is a pure evil. We were slightly hinted there was some sort of sismance triangle when she, empress dowager and FL's mom were young: consort Qin looked envious of the friendship between ED and FL's mom, which goes back when the two were studying together at the Lishan and were still unmarried, hiding her jealousy and showing a fake concern when the ED talks about her or FL. For sure, she manipulated ED to believe Lishan scholars who were killed by Lu Chengfu were conspiring against her.
At this point, we do not know if she had other motives, bc of the number of stakes that were on the table at the time of the former emperor's death and why the emperor convoked ML's bro to the capital. My guess is: ML's bro discovered Muyang's gang was smuggling weapons to Cangbei (and/or a conspiracy against the emperor that somehow may connect to that treason - selling arms to the enemy during the war is treason) and wanted to report directly about it. Fearing he might be detained before he meets the emperor and the convokation edict might get destroyed (maybe the news of the emperor's death already reached him), he entrusted the edict to the FL's mom as she can show it before he gets convicted for abandoning his military station in the middle of the war. She failed in that mission bc. her husband stole the edict, probably trading it in change of the Ye's family security directly with the evil consort who is btw. a friend with his brother with whom he is at the odds. FL's uncle told FL he was absent from the capital at the time and that all that mess connected with FL's mom's death wouldn't have happened if he was in the capital. He said he was "roaming jianhu" at the time, but I don't believe him, he would have been more specific if he was truly sorry. Imo, the uncle could have been directly involved in consort's and Muyang gang's shady dealings.

Hi, so good to see you, and yes, I felt the same. Happy watching!

I agree with your latest arguments and there's certainly a bigger picture we do not know at this point of drama.
But based on WHAT WE KNOW till now, it's hard to believe ED was just a passive spectator, allowing Muyang to manipulate her. She has that snake, the consort dowager, always around, who evidently likes (and manages) to manipulate her, but the ED is not an illiterate fool, she was a Lishan student at her time, as well. Such an educated person - if she was truly a legitimate widow of the former emperor and his empress - would have thoroughly investigated the fire in which CP died and punished the responsibles, if not for other things, to preserve her own reputation and the legitimacy of succession of her son, removing suspicions it was all her own doing. We'll see if she had done that. 🙂

even in that case, the former emperor never changed the crown prince. The empress is not a ruler and can't act against the will of the ruler, whose edicts are laws even after he dies, and who clearly designated MJL's father to succeed him.
So, even if she was an empress at the moment of the emperor's death she violated the law (murdering a legitimate successor) and orchestrated the coup d'etat.
In real history, empress dowager Cixi orchestrated two coups d'etat every historian call with such a name, for minor things bc. they fit the definition: the first one, when she eliminated regency council which was supposed to assist her son (by edict of the former emperor) and the second when she put under the lifelong house arrest that same son of hers.

The definition of coup d'etat in Merriam Webster: "a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics; especially : the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group" (actually, this is a simplification of its scientifical definition but it gives the major traits - I am a political scientist, so you can trust me on this).
You've said: "There's no longer a crown prince", but the reason why there's no longer a legitimate successor is because one of the emperor's concubines killed him burning down his entire family and palace and then proclaimed herself empress dowager and installed her son. Assassination of a legitimate successor invalidates the legitimacy of the rule of the current king, who was - yes - a son of the emperor, but from a non-legitimate line, his mother was a consort/concubine and that mother killed a legitimate heir and successor.
There's no political philosophy or current in the world which doesn't consider such a rule as an usurpation. Li Shimin of Tang has also been considered "a usurper", despite being one of the most capable rulers in Chinese history

I think they killed Xiuwen bc he discovered Muyang's smuggling of weapons. Why else would the emperor asked him to come to the capital in the middle of the war?
Muyang gang was ready to starve to death Mo Yao, too, but Duke Hua (the one who never speaks in the court) interceded for him and praised him as a hero who bravely fought in the army he led, thus forcing them to release him.

Nope. The empress was the CP's mom - a woman who ordered Guo Jin's tree to be cut (after Lv Cheng, then Ly Buoyang) divined it spread negativity to the palace. She was only a concubine/consort, and even an unfavoured one after those "divinations". And it's understandable why the emperor avoided her place: it contained no shadows and was hot as an oven, bc. it was prohibited to plant another tree there

the fluffy stuff is probably the reason I've boycoted the rating, lol

This is not completely correct. We know the setting is inspired to Tang dynasty when the Confucian principles prioritized the legitimate eldest (living) son of the Empress. The rule of primogeniture (dizhangzi jicheng) from the legitimate line was broken twice: when Li Shimin murdered his elder brother (Xuanwu incident) and when Gaozong was designated as CP, after his elder brothers faught each other, causing chaos and rebellion. After that, the rule was broken only by Wu Zetian, when she removed her eldest son (two eldest were already dead) from the throne and put the younger one. But the removed emperor was selected CP according to the same rule, as an eldest legitimate son of an empress. Ofc., as she didn't care of Confucian rules and fought against them, she finally placed herself on the throne. But this rule was greatly observed in dynasties where Confucianism had greater influence

But even if we neglect these historical details, MJL's claim is legit if we observe the attitude of the dowager towards him. He must play a fool as not to appear interested in politics and ruling. The throne fears him. Beside, his dad was killed by the people who usurped the throne preventing him to legitimately ascend to it. What they've done was a coup-d'-etat and just for that reason, his ascension, as the only surviving son from the legitimate line, would restore the legitimacy of succession, broken by these people.

I am contemporarily re-watching that drama bc I've noticed I've never rated it meanwhile forgetting its content.

Imo, they aren't similar. Minglan is calculative and cautious bc. of what happened to her mom, but she received a lot of love from her grandma and is very stable and mentally healthy. They are both well written characters: which one is better probably depends on taste. I prefer Minglan, maybe bc. I'd probably be scared of Ye Li if I were to meet such a person in reality. She is too deranged and for how much her condition is understandable, her moves, thoughts and decisions are too unpredictable to handle. Ye Li is similar to another memorable (although less well written when compared to Minglan and Ye LI) FL: Shaoshang from LLTG, who suffered from the abandonment syndrome and was also cunning, manipulative and unpredictable and just like Ye Li, never shared her intentions and plans with other persons, carrying out her revenges relying only on her own.

the scriptwriter has a diabolic mind, I hope she donates her brain after death, as the experts can look a bit into it, lol.

Omg, so the ML's brother gave the edict to FL's mom and FL's father took it from her and gave it to the Qin consort, so as the Muyang gang can easily condemn ML's bro to the death. And this thing costed the loss of three cities raided by an enemy country (Cangbei) where Muyang smuggled the weapons. Meanwhile, the old emperor died, CP was killed and the gang helped empress dowager to install a kid as an emperor, committing all sorts of crimes in the process (like Lishan people who were escorting MJL) and even after that (7 Lishan scholars who were out before their isolation).
Heh, it's interesting ED reprimanded Muyang he doesn't know to choose honorable persons, but she should tell such a thing watching herself in the mirror first.

Poor A'Yao, feeling guilt towards his bro for all these years bc. he abandoned that pass after a quarrel with his bro for saving Ye Li, convinced he would have blocked the enemy forces if he stayed there.
And now that girl he saved, daughter of that wretched man, is his wife, with her infinitely deep bag of lies of all sorts, including those "for his own good"! He'll be really angry when he finds out about the sorts of that edict... poor man.

You're too kind ❤️
It's me who misunderstood your intention. But in direction of what you've intended, there were better precedents outside China that led coups d'état in order to seize the imperial power: Irene of Athens (Byzantine empress), Elisabeth of Russia and later her niece Catherine the Great who militarily deposed her husband, lol.
In Chinese history, the one whose actions resembles Guo Jin's the most is Cixi. She even led two coups (one wasn't enough): Xinyou Coup (when she allied with prince Gong, stole the seal and executed members of the regency council) and 1898 coup, when she stormed the Forbidden City with military units, placed the emperor (her own son) under house arrest for the rest of his life, and executed his top reformist advisors. Then she ruled through a puppet boy.

Ah, ok, sorry, I was misdirected by the verb "based" or "inspired", interpreting it too literally.