That's a pretty good way to look at it. Honestly, when the ML had her waterboarded and whipped, I saw that as…
Yeah it didn’t bother me when he captured her and beat her - that made sense to me because she cost him a war and almost killed him. I wrestled a bit more with her retaliation until looked at how it would have looked if she did NOT beat him back in the woods. When I recognized that it was because of the power differential, it all changed for me.
Your explanation made me want to watch it. Thank you!
Sure! It’s rough the first three episodes or so, but there is a mutual respect between the leads that develops fairly quickly. I would even say that the respect is there even in the midst of the violence. They did become one of my favorite TV couples.
Depends on what your personal tastes are. A lot of people loved it, some didn’t. If you like romance with good communication and mutual respect, and pretty graphics and OST, you would probably like this one.
So I’m about to wrap up the show and have been glancing through the discussion. I wanted to share some thoughts about the first few episodes as some people struggled a bit with the lead’s mutual violence towards each other. I was one of them and had the hardest time viewing the beatings just as “petty revenge” or “tit for tat”. After talking with my partner about it, I realized that it was a lot more than just “tit for tat”. It was about the FL voiding out the imbalance of power in episode 3. If she had not “settled the score” with him, then there would have been a very large differential of power. He would have captured her, beat / water boarded her, taken her captive in his city and then made demands that she join forces with him to discover who wanted her dead. And she hadn’t recovered her memories. Talk about a big power imbalance. I saw her retaliation in the woods not as “petty revenge”, but as away to put herself back on equal footing with the ML by getting rid of that unequal balance of power and putting them on the same level. Just my two cents.
Personally, other than saving the ML I think it’s served the purpose of making him understand that family isn’t…
Interesting. I’ll think about this. I plan on doing a rewatch when it’s all over, I think the sudden change in pacing and this supposed raid plot caught me off guard. Obviously I remembered the Storm Alliance being referred to early on, but I didn’t remember there being much else said about it prior to when they got there.
Here is my take on the necessity of the Storm Alliance arc, but read it only after you have finished all episodes:https://kisskh.at/768987-wan-xin-ji#comment-23851132
Thanks! I will circle back to this when I finish the show today
Okay sooo would some people who didn’t mind the Storm Alliance arc tell me why you liked it? It felt like it came out of nowhere, introduced a bunch if new characters aaaaand created this new plot that was largely unrelated to the main one. It felt like it went from this FANTASTIC buildup to what went down in the capital… and then turned into a completely new show for a handful of episodes. How come you guys liked it? How did you guys see it fitting into the overall story? I am still midway through 34, so I have not made it to the end yet. I’ll probably be finishing it tomorrow 😊
It took me quite a bit of time to process the first few episodes with the beatings and water boarding. I got into a conversation with my partner about it, as he didn’t have any issues at all with those scenes. He said that he interpreted her “settling the score” with him as her way of evening the playing field and putting them back on equal footing. I thought about it, and thought about what it would have been like if she didn’t beat him back in episode 3. She would have done her job as a general in a war by shooting him, but then him torturing her after she lost her memories created a very big power differential between them. Then he took her captive in his city and then demanded that she join forces with him to help find out who tried to kill her. There was a very large imbalance of power, so I now see her beating him back in episode 3 as her way of voiding that power imbalance rather than it being “petty revenge”. Seeing it like that helped me see the first few episodes in a totally different light.
Still working my way through this AMAZING, amazing show. You don’t know how much I have been yelling and cheering at my TV screen today. Yixiao and Suige continue to exceed my expectations with their connection, their communication, and their total respect for each other. I LOVED the kiss at his residence, it was so beautifully shot with the lighting and the shadows, and the two chairs. I’m so glad that she was honest with him about what she knew, and how she considered his right to know the most important thing. AND IT IS SO GREAT seeing her back with her bow, protecting Suige’s back and marching with him down the city streets like she belongs beside him. And Suige telling his men that whatever Yixiao commands is a “representation of his will”, giving her basically the freedom to command his men. I’m totally smitten with everything about them.
And no, I still don’t hate his sister. I compare her to the younger, romantic, naive sister in Jane Austen’s “Sense & Sensibilty” - Marianne, who was a hopeless romantic, got swept off her feet by a Prince Charming she she hardly knew, and then got set up for monumental heartbreak and consequent depression when he chose to end their relationship and marry someone else for money. If anything, I feel sad for Xiyang because she is young and impulsive, with romanticized expectations of love. She is going to become acquainted with the darkness of the world, and I don’t wish to see someone innocent, pure and naive become jaded. A quote from “Sense and Sensibility”— “The sooner she becomes better acquainted with the ways of the world, the better.” “I knew a lady very like your sister--the same impulsive sweetness of temper--who was forced into, as you put it, a better acquaintance with the world. The result was only ruination and despair. Do not desire it.”
I fully expect there to be conflict with her brother, as she likely will get caught between the loyalty towards Suige and her family, and then to her husband.
Speaking of… I have so many questions about XJS. It’s jarring hearing the bombshell of who he is, but then followed by episodes and episodes depicting horrible abuse at the hands of his brother. Like it’s weird feeling bad for someone who… has done some very awful shit. Maybe there is more that will unfold. I’m feeling a bit of a whiplash with that, and then also finding myself shipping Xiyang and XJS?
1 
5 
1 
1 
2 
2 
And no, I still don’t hate his sister. I compare her to the younger, romantic, naive sister in Jane Austen’s “Sense & Sensibilty” - Marianne, who was a hopeless romantic, got swept off her feet by a Prince Charming she she hardly knew, and then got set up for monumental heartbreak and consequent depression when he chose to end their relationship and marry someone else for money. If anything, I feel sad for Xiyang because she is young and impulsive, with romanticized expectations of love. She is going to become acquainted with the darkness of the world, and I don’t wish to see someone innocent, pure and naive become jaded.
A quote from “Sense and Sensibility”—
“The sooner she becomes better acquainted with the ways of the world, the better.”
“I knew a lady very like your sister--the same impulsive sweetness of temper--who was forced into, as you put it, a better acquaintance with the world. The result was only ruination and despair. Do not desire it.”
I fully expect there to be conflict with her brother, as she likely will get caught between the loyalty towards Suige and her family, and then to her husband.
Speaking of… I have so many questions about XJS. It’s jarring hearing the bombshell of who he is, but then followed by episodes and episodes depicting horrible abuse at the hands of his brother. Like it’s weird feeling bad for someone who… has done some very awful shit. Maybe there is more that will unfold. I’m feeling a bit of a whiplash with that, and then also finding myself shipping Xiyang and XJS?
I am into episode 24.