Lizzy

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.

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.

Agreed! The intimate scenes were wonderful, but they were wonderful because of the chemistry and bond between the leads.

Isn’t Manman amazing 😍 ❤️ I may be about due for a rewatch

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.

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.

Thanks! I will circle back to this when I finish the show today

Yeah but it’s used for humor and not for angsty drama, so I see it differently. :)

Through mutual respect :) The violence towards each other ends after like episode 3 I think.

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’s a lot better.

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.

I loved how they shot the intimacy scene! Beautiful 😍(I know it’s an unpopular opinion). And the sweet buildup to that scene was wonderful ❤️

And then the sister got hit so Nevermind lol

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?

I am into episode 24.

The ratings went up! 👏🏻

This is my Mr. Ma appreciation post.

Makes me wanna throw up a little 🙃

Never during the course of this show has she considered how her actions would affect his feelings, and if she did then she never cared enough about them to be honest with him. She has just been focused on her own agenda and her own feelings.

She was dying, and never decided to tell the man she claims to love who also loves her. Has she considered how her death would affect him? How his feelings would be affected if she died and he realized that she’s been dying all along and didn’t tell him? Has she thought about how her ongoing lies and deceit would hurt his feelings? Has she thought about how he would feel when he finds out she stole the GMD? Has she considered that if she did steal the GMD, was she planning on leaving him anyway to go back to her kingdom? Or was she planning on stealing the GMD and staying with him… continuing to lie and hope he never found out? Did she consider how he would feel about that?

No, let’s hurt his feelings by telling him that you are Ming Xian’s betrothed after he got hit by lighting carving your fake name for the ritual. Let’s continue to lie to him and “wait until he calms down and joins forces with us” so we can steal the GMD because “her plan worked, he has fallen for her”. (episode 13).

Like she’s jerking him around, keeping him in the dark because her feelings and agenda are more important than anything else.

Also, I am not gonna get into back and forths with others. I’ve heard all the arguments defending MY, I get that she has had a shitty past, but at the end of the day trauma doesn’t excuse treating someone else like shit. Maybe it would make it more understandable, but understanding someone can only go so far, and it should never be taken so far as to condone someone’s crappy behavior. There is no problem with some of us here holding MY accountable for her decisions.