Kaihua

these are the important parts nobody is talking about

There are various alternatives, like giving cities tax exemptions in exchange for things; but generally they are just a gilded disaster of a dysfunctional country atm LOL

It makes sense to me, in the way that it's consistent with people who use motivations like that as an excuse to justify their actions when deep down, they're just narcissists/power hungry/entitled. Tale as old as time

Personally I'm enjoying this drama, but if you want one that doesn'treally need to explain itself, is full of symbolism & attention to details, with a majority of the acting happening in what characters don't say/when they aren't speaking, I recommend Empresses in the Palace (aka Legend of Zhen Huan). It's widely regarded as a classic for a reason. Even if you're binging it, you might still miss details from several episodes or even many episodes ago that are brought back again unless you're paying total attention even down to the patterns in the dresses characters wear. I love shows like that!

Should we lament this, or the fact that despite this there are still people in the comments who are confused

literally i watched her die with stone cold indifference only wishing she suffered even more LMAO
especially now knowing she even contributed to the SA plot. BLEGh ( ´～｀)

I'm so sick of our grassroots reformists dying for the cause T_T if anything happens to anyone else i will be beside myself, especially if its li yun xi i will 0/10 this show i swear to GOD

I feel like he knows she has soemthing to do with it? In one of the flashbacks when he witnessed her killing the previous empress dowager, they were holding granny down while she was in so much pain and from what I could see the pain was in her head. Then after he swears fielty to the new empress dowager, as she leaves the room her personal aide hands him a bowl (preusmably of 'medicine' or soup) that he takes and downs on the spot because he has no choice. I'm sure that was the start

Yeah he even said he'd have some secret guards to protect her or whatever - her stony expression implies she knows better than to believe those aren't just glorified spies to watch her now. Once, the two of them embraced in the greenhouse with smiles, but at the end of this scene the both of them hold each other with faces like ice

I have come to dread the cute diary graphic at the end of every episode because it ironically gets darker and darker LOLLL

same!! Even though it's also a bit funny as a lampshade hahaha

Wow the second Youku trailer is so much better, it highlighted the cinematography and let the show speak for itself

My favourite part is FSG pulling off political stunts while pissing off his dad, and then every time he leaves his dad is like: "thats my son <3 im so proud of him" HAHHAH

YOU'RE RIGHT.. my desire has just waned 💀 there's really nothing wrong w cheerful fls individually but it gets a bit exasperating after a while to see the same type. MQG was different from the usual type of cheerful, and so charming aahh I'm so disappointed
Ty for letting me know ♡

To start with, if you're not familiar with cultivation settings then this is not the drama to start with for that because it just jumps right in assuming the viewer is already familiar with how cultivation settings and tropes work. I can also leave links to some glossaries of concepts and terms used in cultivation settings.

After a short narration the show opens in media res to where our mc, Mu Qingge, is teamed up against by the other sects and immortals, and her own disciple (the ml, Su Yishui). Everyone appears to be working to defeat her, as she is the demon's child mentioned by the narrator, the only one who can open the Spirit Well (just think of it as infinite storage pot of bad evil things for the moment). When she's finally defeated, she places a curse on her disciple and the entire Wester Sect that she created.
After this you see the title card for episode 1, and the show goes back to the story's proper beginning, so the scenes that are taking place are before the fight with MQG happens.
There is something to note about that opening scene however: the events as they play out in the scene defeating MQG, as you will shortly discover, are the events AS TOLD to and understood by everyone else. This is the official story that everyone believes happened. Beyond that, you'll understand by episode 7 or so.

The rest of the episode can tldr as such:
The ml SYS is the son of Prince Ping (who is the emperor's brother). He is his father's pawn to carry out his evil schemes to take over the throne - and the world - using the Spirit Well. Only the devil's child can find the Spirit Well, and thru various means SYS is for all intents and purposes the devil's child who is working on finding the Spirit Well for his father. His life sucks and he hates everyone, so he's planning on using the Sprit Well to take over the world himself when the time comes.

MQG steps in when SYS is being harassed by bullies. She's an independent cultivator in that she doesn't really conform to the standards that the rest of the world's cultivation sects adhere to, so she's regarded as controversial. She's in the area because she's looking for disciples to take in to her sect.

She has a longstanding aquaintanceship with SYS's royal half brother Su Yu, but she isn't helping him or getting herself involved in any of the palace's political intrigue, because the cultivation sphere is meant to stay out of such affairs. Su Yu is down bad for her.

MQG's sister is Mu Ranwu. MRW isn't a cultivator, just a normal girl, and she hangs around Su Yu all the time because she's down bad for him.

Su Yishui can finally sense where the Spirit Well is, but in order to get to it he needs a plot mcguffin cultivation technique that's a secret to the Eternal Sect. Prince Ping is like okay so we'll just kill the whole sect and take the technique scroll easy peasy; but SYS stops his dad and says he has a better way to do it by infiltrating the sect as a disciple. In reality, this is the first step in SYS's secret plan to be able to cultivate his powers so that he can basically get to a point where he can resist the evil Spirit Well bs magic that his dad uses to control him. A royal involved in power struggle shouldn't be joining any sect, so he using a cultivation technique to disguise himself as a completely different, unrecognizable person by adding a small beard.

MQG's dad also gave him an evil plan to-do list to complete while he's out there, which involves killing Su Yu's baby brother.
Since Su Yu's baby bro was kidnapped, he's worried and asks Mu Qingge to save his brother for him. MQG manages to find the place where he was 'kidnapped' and basically realizes there's some magic shenanigans going on which can be traced back to the Eternal Sect (since SYS joined the sect, he altered the scene using techniques he learned in the sect).

She's heading to the Eternal Sect when she finds SYS, the two fight and she realizes he has 5 spirit threads for all the elements (Aang is that you?) just like her, which is what she's been looking for in a disciple since it means he's powerful enough to learn all her techniques. She insists on making him her disciple no matter what, but he manages to evade her for a while. Finally, he breaks into the Eternal Sect's secret library to steal the mcguffin technique he needs to retrieve the Spirit Well, only for Mu Qingge to pop in like heyyyyyy and undoes his disguise, confirming he is Su Yishui.

Because she made a bet about this, by the rules of the bet he should become her disciple, but since he doesn't honour the bet she tries to take him back by force. He gets her to stop by offering her the location of the kidnapped baby brother, but tries to kill her while she's leaving. She thinks killing people is pretty bad and rude actually so he should learn a lesson. She exposes the fact that someone has broken into the library to the entire sect so that he can't complete what he came there to do.
MQG then leaves to where the baby bro is supposed to be and finds him alive, meaning SYS isn't completely ruthless and didn't follow through on his dad's orders to kill him.

the whole show?? T_T does she not get her memories back and return to how she was before at any point

Yeah, agree to disagree 👍 Dw I like hearing your thoughts, it's fun to talk about. The thing I do share some sentiments on are that the last 6 episodes were so plot focused yet not enough screentime went towards their relationship and sorting their feelings, or even giving more shipping fanservice screentime. Most of LJL's screentime was him literally mindblasted on fumes wth 😭 I know he isn't familiar with household intrigue the way LJL is but damn cut him some slack I don't want to spend the last chunk of the show watching him act so out of character without any break from it. Smth was obviously wrong but we had to wait too many episodes for that part to resolve, and the tradeoff was not getting to see LJL do anything else with his screentime. I wanna see him flex his skills! It only happened at the last second and even then it was still more about the plot reveal itself (for its themes) than RSB or LJL working together

I feel like the comment I just responded to elsewhere was also yours and was this same question lol so I won't repeat myself

god I already don't remember exactly which two plans this is referring to after the remaining eps but I'll try. The tribute gift dilemma was very risky and she said so herself. Even though she did rely on him for help she didn't completely tell him everything because if it all went wrong and he was in on what she was trying to do he would also be implicated. It would also retroactively put the validity Wei case outcome into question when a powerful family and a powerful official are so obviously working together with entangled interests. His shifu's daughter also points this issue out to him as a reason why him immediately marrying into the Rong family could bring bad consequences, since the Wei case was so critical and everything else that happened was also tied to the truth of the Wei case. It could all come undone if handled poorly.

I'm gonna die, first people complain RSB is too cold and should have shown more obviously that she loves him, but also now she's not cold and clear enough in drawing a line. this woman cannot win. cold mls in other dramas don't get anywhere near this amount of shit for their antics even when their behaviour is objectively worse