Bowties are cool

My advice, give it a try and make up your own mind. ML is amazing and I liked how smart the FL was all the way through. It was like watching to smart people try to outwit the other. Sometimes she won and sometimes he won so it was fun. Together they are unstoppable.

I just caught the first 10 episodes on netflix. This was such a good intro to the story. I was in a bad mood and those quick episodes fixed that immediately. I am liking this way more than the Kdrama.

She is such a joy, definitely my favorite character in this drama

The makeup artist for this drama leaves a lot to be desired. Dylan's face does not need to be caked in whatever that powder stuff is. Somebody who knows more about makeup will probably be able to describe it better, I just know that it looks WRONG!

That was my feeling too when I first started this drama. The idea of a palace drama with no scheming seemed farfetched to say the least.

I think a large reason why there is on overt powerful tensions in court is because the power is firmly in the emperor's hands. There are no clans that are so powerful that the emperor has to keep them happy like in the case of concubine Gao. Also here, the empress is firmly in charge of the harem even if she is sickly.
I think it was very telling that the grand emperor had always harbored resentment to the emperor and the empress for the death of his son's. Which is why he spoils that little shit Liang so much. It speaks to a bloody time before the era currently shown.

We haven't seen a lot of evil scheme's yet because none of the princes were going out of their way to fight for the throne. Its actually more a case of them being surrounded by incompetent evil minions that twist everything to their disadvantages.
I suspect that all of that will change if Zhou finally starts to make real moves. He has been playing defense but I think if should start playing offense he is certainly more adept than the crown prince.

On a separate note, I like that the schemes are down played in this drama. They seem more human and like real people.

Yes, the trailer show quite the number of dead females. Even the crown princess's sister is lying lifeless in the youngest Sheng family's son's arms. Sorry, I haven't learnt their names and I probably wont before this story is over.

Its funny, I thought that the crown prince is the one who set that up so that he could clear himself of the suspicions since he was sending letters to Zhao. I actually think that the Crown prince has taken a turn for the worse and wants to kill all of his brothers so that he's position is secured.

Now am sure that Zhou has his own shenanigans going on but I think he may be innocent in this particular case.

I don't feel bad for Zhao because it was obvious that he was played by his brother and he helped himself along that path. In what universe did he think that raising an army and rebelling was a good idea. As the saying goes, show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.

I like that the emperor is strong and a dedicated leader but I don't like him.
He maybe what his country needs for peace and development but he is not a good father or son or husband for that matter.

lol, plagiarism is probably not a serious offense there.

Probably the crown princess! That pair of imbeciles deserve each other.

He had her marry a chicken!! Dude is cold!!!

She is sooooooooo stupid, I only hope her stupidity doesn't get her killed. She's a true friend but a dim one for sure.

This one will be released on May 11th.

The trailer has given me reservations, I kinda feel that actress playing the FL is not cut out to be the main fl in a drama. She doesn't command the stage so to speak.
Or am I just to used to seeing her as the character she played in TMOPBs?
I'll just wait and see when the show drops

I so agree with you. We don't often get good proper female villians. Like the kind you HATE! She was just as bad as that lil psycho and at least he has an excuse - biology. Kudos to the writer for giving us a female villan who is just as ruthless, vicious and thorough.

Ok, what is with those kiss scenes? Either do it properly or skip it all together. This cringefest middle ground is a no no!

Prince Zhou- ahhh, you continue to disappoint me. Little shit!

The only reason he is still allowed to run amok is because his father is still alive and spoils him rotten. He is a detestable excuse for a human being.
You can bet that when his father passes away, there will only be so much of that rubbish that the emperor can take.

LOL! So true!
To be fair, the bad guys don't have any winning personality traits, they stumble into their victories which makes it so much more frustrating.

Yes, me too. I used to be so excited to watch it but then it seemed like the good guys were losing more than the bad guys and I wasn't happy with that. But that's all changed today. Ep 54 was so satisfying!!