AleksandraSucur

Sorry, I completely disagree with this opinion. I am a parent and was in love several times in my life, remaining always the same person (obviously growing my knowledge and evolving through experiences, acquired with or without my love partners). Yes, when you are a couple or a parent, your priorities may differ, you won't hang out with friends in the evening, you'll adapt your daily agenda to persons you love, you'll dedicate to develop life projects together (thing that HZ did, she actually hired him and treats his sister as a family), but you don't change your character or temperament because of love. On the contrary, couples fail for three reasons: 1) one of the partners pretend to change you (and that means he/she doesn't love you at all as you are), 2) a partner changes (for whatever reason) and he/she is not any more the one we fell for and 3) you overly adapt, and you loose who you are.
When reciprocated and you get the support of your partner, what love does - at the most is - to bring out the best of you. And HZ already showed what she can do for her man, during their trip back from the North.

The Minglan's character didn't change because "she stopped pretending", she is always the same person and btw., we saw her in "non-pretending" version when she fiercly (ie., without caution) fought for the mutual divorce arrangment of her cousin in Sheng's native town. It was way before she fell in love with GTY, she was actually "getting over" the other guy.

You may not remember...
Minglan's father best described her personality, the quote (in one of the latest episodes) is more or less: "I wondered how my obedient daughter became like this, shouting for people to be beaten or killed without blinking a bit? I've figured it out. You didn't become like this, you were always like this, you've only been too good in pretending otherwise". And then she replies to him: "I'm a person who remembers forever good things done to me. Even if I have to risk my life, I'll repay them." And we know that she repayed those who wronged her people, as well. That's Minglan before and after falling in love, she never changed, before marriage she wasn't "overly cautious", she was just pretending to be somebody else, someone who must not outstand, but she was smart, brave, sensible, revengefull and undertaking even before her marriage with GTY, his status (not his love) only gave her more options, because the courage was there even before and without him.
Besides, why someone must change after falling in love?

Minglan is one of the most memorable female characters in dramaworld in general (in the world), she is Chinese Elisabeth Bennet in even more "ensamble" drama compared to Pride and Prejudice: more characters bring more plots and complexity. The Story of ML is a classics, and although it is not "my N°1 drama", it is the drama I've rewatched the most.
Compared to the SOML, the production of BiA didn't put that much money and heart, the main plot is also less ambitious. BiA is also an ensamble drama with female-empowerment as Leitmotiv, so the two heroines can actually be compared.
I disagree Minglan showed more affection to her husband. With the exception of her hearthbraking "beating the drums" while struggling to free her husband from prison, she always showed a significant level of disattachment to Gu Ting Ye (she wasn't jealous, she didn't daydream about him, before marriage, her "reputation" always came first and so on). Compared to her, HZ is a super-romantic girl, while ML is an ice-cube. Besides, this drama isn't over yet, I'm pretty confident the authors balanced well her emotional display but we still have to see those scenes. I'm confident about because till this point, the plot followed a perfect cause-effect logics and the dialogues are really well-written. The only thing that doesn't make sense to me is how the two scriptwriters could possibly be the same persons who wrote the plot and dialogues of the messy and badly written TTEOM and only this fact makes me fear they might mess up smth towards the end

no doubt about that and one of the reasons of my high (90%) droppability rate of C-dramas (and I rarely click on romances in general). That trope is so boring...

You are right it isn't either/or situation. She feels for him, too, it is shown (with unexpressed lantern desire, flashbacks) but the feelings occupied less time, because she truly has some important business to do first. She doesn't know he is around while he is aware, he's following what she's doing, it's normal he thinks more being just behind her (being so constantly reminded of her).

I agree, too.

It is not. They have different priorities/responsibilites. HZ is a food provider for her family, customers and homeless they feed with their excess food. She can't waste her time on longing when there's an imminent peril to her business and so many people she takes care of. Btw., she is the food provider for YX's sister and the emperor's 6th son (his cousin), too. Her care for them is a concrete proof she cares about him, too. He may repeat to the emperor "they severed their ties" as much as he wants, but we all know where his sister lives.
On the other hand, YX's job is all about the emperor, his uncle, who is the sole responsible for their separation btw.. Being on the same route, it's normal for him to suffer more and to secretely protect her. I don't find anything strange about it.

The imperial level of hypocrisy: first be mean (ie. separate them), then feign compassionate understanding. "Yanxi, I was also young once. With time, romance will naturally fade away... Take this chance to relax". How GYX could remain so composed? I could bear with his malicious selfishness, but couldn't stand his hypocrisy. The scene deserved some ironic reply like "really, will it?" or a significant silence with tightened lips...

The Shens (senior generation, except grandma) are opportunists, totally different from the two of the youngest generation. Opportunists are not weak, they are just easy to manipulate, bc they are easily swayed according to the power wind

I agree, but although not the emperor, imho, he was even stronger power-thirsty psycho in TRoP, The Rise of Phoenixes, this veteran actor truly knows how to deliever that.
But if we speak about the imperial demeanor in general, nobody beats Chen Daoming, possessing the power of that kind naturally brings controversial aspect, it is never black&white, the actors who can perfectly portrait this aspect are rare, but this Chinese actors tops all the others I've seen.

I agree but would add that he was not the only one to create this situation. GYX "added the fuel" by "taking time to investigate properly" in obvious defence of the Shen's.

But imao when read your: "I mean dude, next time you find a needle in the hair of a sleeping despot, just let it be!!!" Exactly what I've thought 😂👍

But I like the coherence of this character. He was naive, idealistic and akward from the beginning. The actor delivers that vibe perfectly, btw.

I will, tnx, but I must be "in a mood" to watch a romcom.

TTEOM es Till The End of the Moon y LIS es Love is Sweet. A veces ni yo entiendo abreviaturas 😁

@Naizaa, now I see, Love is Sweet, I didn't see it, but in the trailer they indeed look very much normal, not messy makeup at all 😁👌

Help me remember what was LIS?

Not all of them, but yes, the fact he directed several good dramas (Starry Love, Ahes of Love, The Long Balad...) makes us check out each new one.
Actually, I don't like his weird use of light, camera spinnings (that's why I've dropped Kunning Palace), he uses a lot of melo and slo-mo in romantic scenes, but fortunately in BiA he abstained from all those annoying things.

This drama's plot is based on well-written dialogues. It's completely different from Shen Li. The pace isn't boring, many things happen to many persons and they happen pretty fast, with minimum of violence, CGI, blood-spitting etc. It is an ensamble drama, with many characters entangled with the CP, actually the main leads miraculously go together well, without misunderstandings and melo typical for Cdramaland.
It isn't a masterpiece, there are elements of unlikeliness in it, but it's very refereshing and enjoyable to watch

I continue to be impressed by subtle details in dialogues. The encounter of the emperor with HZ was sooo well written, I can't believe the screenwriters are the same persons who wrote TTEOM (which I've dropped because of horrible dialogues, excess of screaming, blood-spitting, confusion, lack of elementary logics...). The plot, the pace, characters... everything here is a complete opposite.

The entire scene was carefully built up in a way to create a sense of ackwardness, of tension but... smoothly. No voice-raising, no open threats, no blackmails. The sense of sinister in psycho-despot's demeanor was conveyed progressively by: deception she was invited by the empress dowager -> double sense of the phrase "you are bringing your business to my palace" (implying her friendship with Shen's not her pastries) -> "I don't mind YX is with you (if that means) he'll work better for me" -> the sinister story of his youthful love -> all that culminating with a word "insignificant", while intending "expendable". People who don't retreat in front of his will are all expendable. He left her no choices but to retreat and this single scene in ep. 32 perfectly announced what followed in ep.33.
Chapeau to the screenwriters!

I've appreciated a double-sense in the 6th Prince's lines (during the kitchen competition), answering to Yan Xi's question "Are you happy watching this game, cousin?"
- If the father (intending also his own father) loses, I'll be happy. If he wins, that would be uninteresting".
It helped to build up the tension, resolved by a good fight.

Although the plot is often "unlikely" in terms of realism, the storyline is continously enriched with these subtle details in dialogues which actually makes the drama very enjoyable to watch.