LissaJones

To be fair, he's realised he's accidentally stumbled on the one person in the world who can legitimately challenge him mentally AND physically, and given his musings about the tournament, quite possibly actually beat him (mentally she has actually already beaten him). She also legitimately loves under under the lies and has given up a lot, even lied a lot, just for him. It's all likely a big turn on (and maybe slight kink).

And it's so easy to do it too, despite the emotional agony. Once you have the mindset ingrained, it's default. Protection for others and yourself becomes interwined too innately to untangle, no matter the damage.

For MY it's worse since her entire life has been moulded completely around her effectively being a useful protector to her people, and if she did that, she was (mostly) safe from mummy's wrath and discovery of her actual sex.

Definitely. It can happen in any show, or decent one anyoway. Fact of the matter is, people are inherently annoying, it's just we all have our tolerance for certain kinds for certain reasons. MY bugs me for being a mirror, and cliche repetition, but I still like her. JBZ bugs me for not recognising hypocrisy in himself and being less curious than he ought to be in his situation. Still like him though.

I really just want to savour the trailer for 26, because...
The big bad dragon guardian of the Bo clan that's been keeping the evil emperor (SL's dad) and his minions away is a cute widdle girlie! 😅🤣😂
On a serious note, wonder how this new info will hit the couple, both separately and together.

Take it from someone who has been in a similar mentality as MY/MX, it sucks. Particularly if you see that everyone around you is also suffering in some way, so you won't burden them more with your own sh*t, just keep it locked up so you can deal with theirs. It's not healthy, honestly, but even with therapy, it doesn't really leave. You just learn more honesty, but on many occasions you still default to "protect everyone" mode because facing your own problems is harder.

She's got a very real life issue. It's frustrating, and sure it's being strung out narratively for drama, but there isn't a quick fix, and if you add the stress of dying to it, I really get her just going "screw it, nobody will ever hate me more than I hate myself, so, in for a penny..."

That's what I thought. To divorce you have to remove or break it or something. But I feel like it'd be harder for them since JBZ forced her name onto the rock in the first place

Does JBZ actually sever the bond or just block it? I forget what they said about the whole rock marriage thing. It feels like that's something he may subconsciously want to keep, and would help keep track of her. He shows up in town afterall when SL is carrying her away but there's no reason he'd know she's there unless the connection still exists in some way. He also found her pretty fast in the forest.

Which begs the question, if BY had JBZ in her custody as an infant, did she put him in the abyss out of revenge at MX's treatment by the empress? Is that why she asked JBZ if he'd regret being her student?

I knew SL would start a family Hunger Games. Not crazy about his obsession, but I'm up for his family annihilator era.

Also, what's the bet MY can walk right into that shield around the Bo clan home? Dragon guard will likely be "hey, I know you".

Get mildly annoyed, spit blood. Yeah. Either that stuff tastes amazing or the actors need hazard pay.
I think Till the End of the Moon was the worst I've seen. Seemed like someone was hurling up melted organs every episode.

I thought it was a bit cruel for her to do that, but she clearly planned for force him to a) hate her, and b) destroy the GMD temptation. Both purposes of which protects him in her eyes: if he stops loving her, he won't be upset when she dies, and won't feel it through the heartbond, and nobody can come for the medicine now it doe's exist.
I don't blame either.
Outside the story however, I blame the angst-fetish writer(s).

What gets me is that they hurl blood all over the floor, and minutes later someone comes in and it's like: a) "you okay?", "yeah, fine", or b) the blood-hurler is missing and the visitor thinks "oh, missed them". And yet in either scenario the person visiting never notices the pool of blood vomit which should be clearly visible on the floor. It seems like magical self-cleaning blood (which honestly would be great in real life).

I thought the note was to her master/shifu?

To be fair, with how stuff goes down in shows like this, not trusting what I see has been ingrained by this point lol

Question: in trailer 24, is that actually JBZ finding her? Or is it SL in a guise somehow? Feels iffy...

That's definitely part of it, agreed. It's another condition too. She's crown prince because she's useful. She's there because she's a better choice than her brother. Her people literally turned on her the moment she lost, despite her actually caring for them. Her good intentions still don't net her any permanent respect let alone affection. She has to be the perfect heir, warrior, or else literally one wants her. And in Jixing Abyss, that still stands because if they find out who she is, she's screwed whatever good she's done (as far as she knows).
(And yes, even 27 and her master have a certain transactional relationship with her in her eyes. 27 has been conditioned for loyalty given what he is, and as far as she's aware, her master is more or less employed to be there, at least at first.)
As much as JBZ was traumatised by his life, he saw love without reason in the mother in the pit, and even in his master, BY. That's why he can break down his barriers better than MY.

I am also irritated with MY, but that's largely due to angst backfiring and hitting a bugbear I have over this cliche (it got me in The Blue Whisper too). I do however understand why she keeps lying at those stages. This relationship with JBZ isn’t just built on lies, it's built on her worst fear and trauma: usefulness.

As they worked together, JBZ literally only continued to keep her around at first because she was useful to him. Even when he does start getting feelings, they are still connected to the fact she's being useful - helping his revenge, saving him, etc, it's all a transaction in her eyes. The more she helps, the more he likes her. When she shows a hint of her own plan, or a lie, he gets cold, upset, withdraws affection. Just like her mother.

Even if she can feel sincerity over time, and the bridege, stone, array, all prove that, something tends to remind her of the undercurrent of conditionality. JBZ literally tells her to her face he trusts her because she isn’t after the GMD: that's a condition. I love you as long as you don't do this thing. She's damned if she tries in some way to get him to agree, she's damned if she doesn't, and damned if she does go for the medicine. There is no scenario in her mind where he likes her afterwards, whatever 27 says. And her mother kicked her out once she wasn't useful, withdrew any love she had. A threat JBZ already fulfilled once.

So from her POV, I get exactly why she's terrified, and tongue tied. Her mother was her only source of love, and that screwed her up immensely, since it was such a transactional relationship. Whenever she tried for truth with her mother, she got punished with the threat of no love. Deliberately or unintentionally, JBZ isn’t different in MY's eyes at the end of the day. We know he's sincere (or very much trying), but their interactions can definitely be seen as conditional from her POV.

I definitely can't wait for him to figure it out, and for them to actually talk. It is extremely frustrating. But, I do definitely get why MY isn't truthful.

Maybe it's the future serial killer vibes and the fact I watch too many docos...

As much as SML going bad with obsession is cliche, I kinda wanna see what SL does with it. I mean, I'm kinda all for him slaughtering his way up his family tree since they seen super wonderful and all.

They're like Lannisters - not as clever as they think, and blind to the obvious thing staring them in the face.