WM

Shadow Love had a supposedly famous female general who had to be saved in both Episodes 1-2 by the ML - how in the hell she stayed alive until then without him around, and how it was believable?

26/27.

It already dropped to 6.6 there.

Micro Dramas.

So, we are approaching April and nothing indicates that the Season 3 will be produced.
What a pity :(

Okay, it seems I missed the early Grand Tutor Li and Qi Min connection, this indeed changes things a bit.

I recommend watching the initial 10 episodes of "Prisoner of Beauty", as the FL absolutely kills it there, especially under such perilous circumstances.

Later, the show turns into standard Idol drama tropes, but the beginning is spectacular from the FL-centric perspective.

Also, "Blossom" (the same director as "PoJ" I think) and "Flourished Peony" are a good choice as a whole.

Deposing someone works much better and easier when the replacement is lined up.

Also, with so many conflicting factions, I'm surprised the Emperor couldn't find a way to create more tension between them.

Was he really so dumb? No decent advisors available? No smart Empress around?

Oooooh, my imagination already runs wild - the Emperor gets Empress in the mould of the female lead from "Prisoner of Beauty" (Or Minglan), and she probably quickly finds a way to build him up politically (or she gets killed by the Prime Minister first).

Some food for thought - what would happen if the Emperor, on his own, started to refuse the Prime Minister and tried to become more independent?

The latter would obviously have the means to kill him, but then what...?

Very good post.

It reminded me of a "Story of Minglan", when the 2ML (and the initial husband candidate) didn't want to take a risk to fight against his family for Minglan, which later allowed the ML to step in.

I didn't check it, but I had the same impression regarding actor playing Prince Chengde in "PoJ"/Crown Prince in Blossom.

It's really surprisingly good, but without Season 2, the ending of Season 1 is just a terrible disappointment. Ugh.

The double-timeline in episodes 1-3 was done so well.

I re-watched the QM talking to Grand Tutor scene in the episode 38.

"This is just an appetizer. The main show is yet to come" - this made me curious. The Grand Tutor seemed suprised and I don't think it should be about the rebellion, as it was so close to the start of it that he for sure knew what the plan was.
QM said the move is against Wei Yan, but maybe I got confused when he said, "I prepared a big git for this butcher girl" - I thought the "gift" would have a double-meaning, like it could backfire for the Changyu (and his intonation suggested it), but maybe it has to be taken literally.

Btw, thanks for your answers.

I understand this principle. I'm sure there is a valid name for it in the "36 stratagems" (maybe it's under a "sowing discord" skillset), and I even considered this one a moment after a previous post.
But I still don't really get it. The wedge between uncle and nephew was already huge. Changyu was hunted by assassins sent by the uncle, Marquis suspected him heavily, Changyu was already searching for the Tiger Tally, and Marquis was helping her with it, etc...

And yet Qin Mi presented it as some kind of master plan.

This beat music was amazing. I think they also used it when the Changyu was beating the drums to be granted an appeal.

Well, for me, Marquis is clearly inferior to Song Mo.
I even think the ML from the "Romance of the female general" was better/more imposing, despite the "PoJ" being clearly a superior show.

How a supposedly smart female lead could have such a noisy, dumb maid? Ugh.

How about banning 10 as well? :)

"Blossom" is clearly the best show I've watched during the last 12 months, IMO it's worth trying at least.

Yeah, I get this one. Thank you.

I just don't get why Qing Mi expected his half to work against Changyu as some kind of master setup?
It was a reason why he allowed Qianqian to steal it.
And yet, during the confrontation in the Court, nothing seemed to happen with it the way he expected.