monkeylover

Goshh! I loved that variety show!! I hope HMH will get a chance to explore more music genres in S3!!! He got 2 really good songs from it! I support more please!!

it gets better after a rewatch with this new perspective. the only drawback of this drama is that they left a lot of things unsaid but needs a certain level of understanding of court politics and filling in the blank. but once you know it, it feels beautiful and has great rewatch value! try being like a detective and guess each character’s motives. sometimes they lie so their lines don’t match their heart. RSB and 2nd miss both said they wanted docile husbands, but they both ended up choosing men who can stand up for what they want. That’s the beauty of this drama, don’t take everything at face value.

I heard they’re hoping they can do a second season if it gets popular enough. It seems like they’ve deliberately left it that way so people want more

I somehow felt she was like the domineering CEO trope. The reason she felt controlling was because she had to protect herself too, she’s the boss of a large company. The reason you feel uncomfortable would be you feeling the double standard not making sense. But she was literally betrayed by a man in the 1st episode and given her grandma traumatizing her with all those heartbreaking stories, it’s only natural that she keeps testing him. and he’s also scheming. so her testing him was normal, for her own sake. So they’re both grey area people, the ML also killed a man in the first episode and pretended it was self defense. hahahaa they both live in complicated worlds where they need to be politically smart

Let this be a lesson for others to be a rational fan. Don’t be disruptive and disrespectful to artists, they should also have the right for their personal lives. We only have 1 HMH in this world, let’s not stress him out like this 😭

I think we were at a loss because they did not explicitly state a lot of things. For once they only stated that the timing was off. But people who understood the political undercurrents understood that it was emperor vs empress dowager, and it was her ploy of getting the ML to be stuck in the Duke's mansion. and that RSB's birthday gift was not only a book, but saying "look, your official is corrupted, and he schemed another family's downfall just so that he could keep this book for himself, even though you love books" That sort of thing wasn't really mentioned properly and I only got it after reading people's analysis and rewatching it again. The ML is a great tactician, but the FL is a better strategist, she has been there longer and she knows the political climate well. It also wasn't explicitly stated but the age of the actors and characters are supposedly in line, he's younger than her, so they do want her to be smarter and more experienced than him.

if you're talking about episode 33, he was drugged hahaa! and because this was sort of like a gender reversed sort of thing, it was like as if he was a girl having an emotional breakdown! Did you see she was smiling the entire time he was whining? She was clearly in love with him, and finding it very cute because she knows it was just him being drugged. She was enjoying it and saying "promise you have to be the LJL I know tomorrow"

if you like watching capable female leads, you should watch both and decide which is better for you. Because taste is subjective. Because both dramas were well executed. It just depends on what dynamics and pacing and sometimes even the actors you like. I personally like this one.

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

She used to be a good person but she got really bad luck in love and was betrayed multiple times, she became really ruthless and toxic against men. That's why RSB's speech "you've wandered way too far from the stories you used to tell us" was a slap in her face. Sometimes if you want to be a leader that with certain moral values, you need to break free from customs that are not your style. even if that means fighting your own grandma.

This was a case of Cinderella but reversed gender. Does he need a "princess charming" to rescue him? All this time the narrative has been changed to "girls don't need a prince charming to rescue us, we have to save ourselves". At the end of the day RSB gave him the freedom to "choose", whether he wanted to throw a really strong position away for the sake of being with her. But yes, the way she told him was poetic in an olden day sense; it wasn't like modern day communication. So it was pretty vague. But lucky LJL is smart enough to understand that her intention was like "if you want to be with me, then you can't be the duke's son"

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't full of filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

The screenwriter is actually from Yanxi Palace. She said it was such a pity that she created so many strong characters there, but they couldn't get their happy endings, so she wrote this to emancipate these women in an olden-day setting.

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't full of filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

I actually thought the Duke's Mansion arc was good; it was full of veteran actors, but they sort of rushed it, I think. For some, it's great because it wasn't full of filler, but a lot of people didn't understand because it wasn't explicitly stated; it was basically a feud between the emperor and the empress dowager. The empress dowager pushed for the Duke to reclaim LJL as his son so he could stop meddling in her business. The last arc was more like a contrast to the beginning, because instead of the matriarchal family of RSB, this was patriarchal but a toxic one where the females were all suffering. and it posed a question. If he could be in a stronger position, will he be willing to give that up to be in a lower position to be with RSB?

HMH's range is too broad! He can play different types of characters so well their characters don't overlap. So it's really okay if it's not your cup of tea hahaha! I read somewhere for some people, it makes more sense if you imagine their genders reversed, or if you imagine LJL as a cat picked up by RSB.

Depends on your stress tolerance tbh hahaha! But I'd say the pace is pretty fast, people have their own hidden agendas, and the payoff is quite worth it! Both the Female Lead & Male Lead is strong so the push and pull dynamic is intriguing! Just try a bit and it should be worth it if it's your cup of tea!! (Tea pun there haha)

they changed a lot of content so I don’t think that scene was based on the novel at all