there's no outrageous conflicts between main characters, no misunderstandings, no memory loss, etc. it's refreshing to see a drama with HEALTHY relationship building and interaction from start to finish. some people might find a drama where the main characters are always a step ahead and never do anything wrong a bit boring, but I think the plot had good continuity and the interactions between people felt natural. this drama explored a lot of themes from women with aspirations, brains vs brawn, trust and communication, CONSENT, filial piety, coroner being an honorable occupation, respect for the dead, etc. it's not just a story about blind, love-at-first-sight romance and the world doesn't revolve around that romance. the characters are well incorporated into this world and their actions affect the world as a whole.
Ok so that evil old eunuch looks like Grima Wormtongue and sounds like Gollum. And what's up with his mustache…
his mustache fetish is because he is an eunuch and doesn't have the hormones (testosterone/DHEA) to grow a beard due to the castration process. a mustache/beard is a symbol of manhood and something he lost when he became an eunuch, and he tries to compensate by seeking power and feeling in control.
This is why I love these specific dramas. The female leads are not only strong and resilient but also true to themselves. I agree with the suggested dramas in the comments: Xiao Feng (Goodbye My Princess), Lu Zhao Yao (The Legends), Wan Mei (Bloody Romance), Fu Yao (Legend of Fu Yao), Lu Zhen (Legend of Lu Zhen), Chu Qiao (Princess Agents) , and much more but these are my favorites.
Fuyuan (Rong Qi's mother) was a princess from the Kingdom of Chen (the 10yr king's kingdom) and married King of…
No problem! I actually have a slight correction based on later episodes.
Fuyuan actually gives birth to her son at Northern Lin and sneakily sends the infant (Rong Qi) to Western Qi. Then she steals Fu Chou from Consort Yun when the consort gives birth to twins and makes him into her "son". She physically skins off his dragon birthmark so that even though the King of Northern Lin suspects, Fu Chou doesn't have the identifying birthmark anymore. Then Fuyuan raises Fu Chou as if he were the unloved and unwanted child. Fu Chou is then taken from her and she is "burned" to death but probably flees to Western Qi. Then Fu Chou spends 5years running away from the palace and joins Fuyuan's Tian Ming sect where he is brainwashed to get revenge for the mother that was burned to death and against his unloving father.
The rest is basically the same as I wrote before. The ending is that Rong Qi does a blood transfusion and gives all his blood to Qin Man to clear her blood of the poison since Fuyuan had been feeding Rong Qi all kinds of expensive medicine to prolong his life, so his blood is basically a miracle drug at this point. Fuyuan kills herself by jumping into a fire after she realizes her son is just a shell and had died saving Qin Man.
Read my reply for a chronological plot summary. The story is super convoluted so in case anyone is super lost.
Fuyuan (Rong Qi's mother) was a princess from the Kingdom of Chen (the 10yr king's kingdom) and married King of Northern Lin (Wu You's father) through alliance. The King of Northern Lin still loved Consort Yun (Wu You & Wu Chou's birth mother) and put Fuyuan into the Cold Palace after marrying her. Consort Yun and Qin Yong, former prime minister of Northern Lin (Qin Xiang & Qin Man's father and also Wu You's teacher) were close because they created the book "Shan He Zhi" (Of Mountain & River) together that discusses how to rule a country (everyone thinks having this book will allow them to take over the world).
During the alliances, King of Western Qi comes to visit Northern Lin and asks to marry Fuyuan who is in the Cold Palace. In order to secure the alliance, King of Northern Lin drugs Fuyuan with Tian Ming ("Heaven's Destiny", same one she ends up giving to Rong Le) and allows King of Western Qi rape her. She gets pregnant with Rong Qi, and she eventually passes her poison on to him at birth. The King of Northern Lin then tries to burn her alive to erase his mistake. Fuyuan escapes with the help of her eunuch, Lin Chen, letting everyone else think she died. She goes to Western Qi, somehow killing her rapist, and makes Rong Qi the new king, thus becoming Dowager of Western Qi.
In order to get revenge on everyone, she creates her own assassin group called Tian Chou Men (Heaven's Revenge sect). She steals one of Consort Yun's twins at birth and makes him into Fu Chou (birth name Wu Chou), telling him that he's actually Fuyuan's son, who was ignored by the King and then chased for 5yrs because the King of Northern Lin wanted to murder him after burning his mother. She poisons King of Northern Lin which causes him to accidentally kill Consort Yun. She then frames Prime Minister Qin Yong as plotting to takeover and gets the whole Qin Family executed. She saves the two sisters (Qin Xiang and Qin Man) from the Qin Family but keeps them separate. Both of them are trained as assassins and told that their entire Qin Family, including their sister, was wrongly executed because of Prince Li (Wu You) getting revenge for his mother's death. Qin Man was a servant for the real Princess Rong Le, who was always locked away in the Cold Palace. Qin Xiang, renamed Hen Xiang, grew up with Fu Chou in the assassin training camp.
Hen Xiang & Fu Chou (plus Xiang Ying, servant who likes Hen Xiang) were all sent to Northern Lin to be spies. Fu Chou's plot is to rise up in the army ranks and then take his "rightful" place as heir Northern Lin, as Fuyuan & King of Northern Lin's son. Fu Chou wanted to stop his revenge plan after marrying Rong Le, but Lin Chen kept plotting things behind his back for Fuyuan, causing many misunderstandings between him and Rong Le.
Qin Man meets Rong Qi in the palace of Western Qi and become close friends/lovers. Fuyuan tells Qin Man a lie about how her family died, breaks up her trust in Rong Qi, and persuades her to pretend to be Princess Rong Le and marry Wu You to get revenge for killing her family. Rong Qi tries free her by telling her to run. She gets recaptured and drugged with Tian Ming (Heaven's Destiny). She loses all her memories and ends up agreeing to marry to Northern Lin. She doesn't want to become a chess piece and tries to pave her own destiny but there are too many other plots at play.
During all this time, Rong Qi is trying to figure out how to cure his love, Qin Man, of the Tian Ming poison, but keeps getting threatened by his mother because he also needs medicine to live since he has the same poison passed down from his mother.
this was a wonderful find. amazing cast. the opening scenes of each eps before the opening song was always sort of random. the last episode was super confusing tho - like they had too many ideas of alternative endings and just flashed clips of them one after another
also agree.1. the acting is very cringe worthy. i'm confused by the male lead's expressions - like they randomly…
The character of the girl seems like it's supposed to be smart but I don't think it's well portrayed. Like compare her with the lead in Legend of Ming Lan and she seems really naive
She seems so nice in real life, but I've only seen her recent dramas where she's the evil mother or evil teacher. Now every time I see her in drama, my first reaction is "she's going to be evil".
Love the casting! So many familiar faces haha. I would recommend Joe Xu (Xu Hai Qiao), Leo Wu (Wu Lei), or Wei Da Xun for Yoo Deok Hwa - just feel like the actor needs less of a resting bitch face and a more youthful presence than haha. I like Victoria but if we need alternates Cao Xi Wen has a mature vibe and has done both modern and historical dramas.
Also does anyone know if dylan has ocd or something bc in Meteor Garden his hands always looked a lil *too* pink…
i think when they filmed it was probably during winter cuz even when they went to the beach they had jackets on. almost every scene they were wearing coats and generally 3 layers (collar shirt, sweater, trench coat).
After 5 episodes, this is my verdict:1. Bad acting, especially by the main male lead, Jeremy Xu.2. Bad logic.3.…
also agree. 1. the acting is very cringe worthy. i'm confused by the male lead's expressions - like they randomly pan to him and he makes this devilish face as if he's the villain. the female lead exaggerates all her expressions, there's no subtlety in her acting. 2. Instead of eloping together, they both go back to the palace. The female lead is labeled "smart" for getting away with a lot of stupid & thoughtless actions - that's not smart, that's just lucky. 3. There's just a lot of people doing confusing and thoughtless things The only pros are: 1. trust and communication between the main couple 2. main lead character is a badass who is good at scheming and fighting 3. The outfits are really aesthetically pleasing
Fuyuan actually gives birth to her son at Northern Lin and sneakily sends the infant (Rong Qi) to Western Qi. Then she steals Fu Chou from Consort Yun when the consort gives birth to twins and makes him into her "son". She physically skins off his dragon birthmark so that even though the King of Northern Lin suspects, Fu Chou doesn't have the identifying birthmark anymore. Then Fuyuan raises Fu Chou as if he were the unloved and unwanted child. Fu Chou is then taken from her and she is "burned" to death but probably flees to Western Qi. Then Fu Chou spends 5years running away from the palace and joins Fuyuan's Tian Ming sect where he is brainwashed to get revenge for the mother that was burned to death and against his unloving father.
The rest is basically the same as I wrote before. The ending is that Rong Qi does a blood transfusion and gives all his blood to Qin Man to clear her blood of the poison since Fuyuan had been feeding Rong Qi all kinds of expensive medicine to prolong his life, so his blood is basically a miracle drug at this point. Fuyuan kills herself by jumping into a fire after she realizes her son is just a shell and had died saving Qin Man.
During the alliances, King of Western Qi comes to visit Northern Lin and asks to marry Fuyuan who is in the Cold Palace. In order to secure the alliance, King of Northern Lin drugs Fuyuan with Tian Ming ("Heaven's Destiny", same one she ends up giving to Rong Le) and allows King of Western Qi rape her. She gets pregnant with Rong Qi, and she eventually passes her poison on to him at birth. The King of Northern Lin then tries to burn her alive to erase his mistake. Fuyuan escapes with the help of her eunuch, Lin Chen, letting everyone else think she died. She goes to Western Qi, somehow killing her rapist, and makes Rong Qi the new king, thus becoming Dowager of Western Qi.
In order to get revenge on everyone, she creates her own assassin group called Tian Chou Men (Heaven's Revenge sect). She steals one of Consort Yun's twins at birth and makes him into Fu Chou (birth name Wu Chou), telling him that he's actually Fuyuan's son, who was ignored by the King and then chased for 5yrs because the King of Northern Lin wanted to murder him after burning his mother. She poisons King of Northern Lin which causes him to accidentally kill Consort Yun. She then frames Prime Minister Qin Yong as plotting to takeover and gets the whole Qin Family executed. She saves the two sisters (Qin Xiang and Qin Man) from the Qin Family but keeps them separate. Both of them are trained as assassins and told that their entire Qin Family, including their sister, was wrongly executed because of Prince Li (Wu You) getting revenge for his mother's death. Qin Man was a servant for the real Princess Rong Le, who was always locked away in the Cold Palace. Qin Xiang, renamed Hen Xiang, grew up with Fu Chou in the assassin training camp.
Hen Xiang & Fu Chou (plus Xiang Ying, servant who likes Hen Xiang) were all sent to Northern Lin to be spies. Fu Chou's plot is to rise up in the army ranks and then take his "rightful" place as heir Northern Lin, as Fuyuan & King of Northern Lin's son. Fu Chou wanted to stop his revenge plan after marrying Rong Le, but Lin Chen kept plotting things behind his back for Fuyuan, causing many misunderstandings between him and Rong Le.
Qin Man meets Rong Qi in the palace of Western Qi and become close friends/lovers. Fuyuan tells Qin Man a lie about how her family died, breaks up her trust in Rong Qi, and persuades her to pretend to be Princess Rong Le and marry Wu You to get revenge for killing her family. Rong Qi tries free her by telling her to run. She gets recaptured and drugged with Tian Ming (Heaven's Destiny). She loses all her memories and ends up agreeing to marry to Northern Lin. She doesn't want to become a chess piece and tries to pave her own destiny but there are too many other plots at play.
During all this time, Rong Qi is trying to figure out how to cure his love, Qin Man, of the Tian Ming poison, but keeps getting threatened by his mother because he also needs medicine to live since he has the same poison passed down from his mother.
it looks more like a movie trailer haha. i'll probably wait for all 3 seasons to finish airing before starting
1. the acting is very cringe worthy. i'm confused by the male lead's expressions - like they randomly pan to him and he makes this devilish face as if he's the villain. the female lead exaggerates all her expressions, there's no subtlety in her acting.
2. Instead of eloping together, they both go back to the palace. The female lead is labeled "smart" for getting away with a lot of stupid & thoughtless actions - that's not smart, that's just lucky.
3. There's just a lot of people doing confusing and thoughtless things
The only pros are:
1. trust and communication between the main couple
2. main lead character is a badass who is good at scheming and fighting
3. The outfits are really aesthetically pleasing