I really enjoyed this season, I hope they keep the same Captains for season 5 (assuming it's happening, do we know yet?), I really enjoy their chemistry together and with the competitors. Though I hope that next season they have less 'big names' competing, seeing the same people in every battle got stale after a while. It was great to see people like ACKY and the GoGo Brothers perform, but knowing that EVERY battle was going to be them got old fast. I went back and watched season 3 after completing this one, and it felt a lot more balanced in terms of WHO you would see performing. Though having the big names back as special judges or to give challenges would be great! I also really enjoyed all the fun touches, things like having the Captains buy gifts and write letters to the contestants to convince them to join their teams, the impromptu dances where everyone got involved, the party game/talent show episode that I don't remember affecting anything but it was amazing all the same. The whole atmosphere of the show was just cozy af
I really love this drama, and the relationship between Yingluo and the Emperor, but I was a little disappointed…
Wait I have to talk more about this: The scene in the finale episode where Yingluo explains that she won the Emperor's love by """not telling him she loved him""" doesn't make sense to me, he loved her because she didn't treat him like the Emperor, she treated him like a man, and was unapologetically herself around him, totally shameless in both her schemes and her childish nature. The idea that she tricked him into loving her by withholding her love just doesn't make sense. Their entire relationship is built on them both knowing each other really well, the Emperor is definitely a few steps behind her in knowing what she's scheming, but he always knows what she was doing in the end (and trusts that she did it for the right reason, at least once he's totally on board with her), and they both know each other's personalities so well, there's no pretence between them, they're not going through the motions of rank and how they *should* treat each other based on title (unlike SOME people), Yingluo won't allow that, she's always been herself around him (to a certain degree, it was obviously too dangerous to get TOO familiar for a long time) and won't allow him to pull rank when they're alone together.
How many of the other concubines would have told the Emperor that they didn't like his poems? They're taught to carefully try to please him at every step, they HAVE to because it's literally their jobs, but Yingluo didn't even pretend to like them BEFORE she was a concubine. This is part of the reason why Xian never won his love, she was ALL ABOUT being proper and doing exactly what she was supposed to, she bent over backwards to be the model Concubine and Empress, but could never win his love. If she'd let go of some of that rigidity he probably would have liked her more, that's why she's so tragic. Similar thing with the previous Empress, she was definitely more comfortable around the Emperor, but she's so trapped by the rules and expectations set upon her, that's it destroys her in the end.
An underlying theme of the show is about being yourself and honest in what you think/who you are/what you want, and I think it does itself a disservice to try and say that Yingluo tricked the Emperor into loving her by just not SAYING 'I love you', I really think that in the finale scene she should have told Xian that she won him over by being herself, by treating him as a man and not like the Emperor, I think that would have fit better and hurt Xian more, it's way more impactful to say, "hey you've been wrong your whole life" rather than, "I had this one ~SPECIAL~ trick"
I really love this drama, and the relationship between Yingluo and the Emperor, but I was a little disappointed at the end when she explained that she won his love by never admitting her feelings. Like looking back I could MAYBE see that I guess, but I really felt like it was just that she treated him like a person and not "the emperor", and that she was always herself around him. I felt like it would have worked a bit better if she explained that to Xian, since Xian was SO by the book and all about rules and how people should be treated. Knowing that she could have had the love she wanted if she bent a bit would have been a bigger blow. Plus, while Yingluo didn't love the emperor for a long time, I think he realizing that she DID love him, and telling him/showing him that would have been a great moment of growth and acceptance for her.
Am I correct in thinking that there was another period drama that Betty Sun was attached to (I think due to come out next year), I'm sure I first read about it on this page but it seems to have vanished
Though I hope that next season they have less 'big names' competing, seeing the same people in every battle got stale after a while. It was great to see people like ACKY and the GoGo Brothers perform, but knowing that EVERY battle was going to be them got old fast. I went back and watched season 3 after completing this one, and it felt a lot more balanced in terms of WHO you would see performing. Though having the big names back as special judges or to give challenges would be great!
I also really enjoyed all the fun touches, things like having the Captains buy gifts and write letters to the contestants to convince them to join their teams, the impromptu dances where everyone got involved, the party game/talent show episode that I don't remember affecting anything but it was amazing all the same. The whole atmosphere of the show was just cozy af
The scene in the finale episode where Yingluo explains that she won the Emperor's love by """not telling him she loved him""" doesn't make sense to me, he loved her because she didn't treat him like the Emperor, she treated him like a man, and was unapologetically herself around him, totally shameless in both her schemes and her childish nature. The idea that she tricked him into loving her by withholding her love just doesn't make sense. Their entire relationship is built on them both knowing each other really well, the Emperor is definitely a few steps behind her in knowing what she's scheming, but he always knows what she was doing in the end (and trusts that she did it for the right reason, at least once he's totally on board with her), and they both know each other's personalities so well, there's no pretence between them, they're not going through the motions of rank and how they *should* treat each other based on title (unlike SOME people), Yingluo won't allow that, she's always been herself around him (to a certain degree, it was obviously too dangerous to get TOO familiar for a long time) and won't allow him to pull rank when they're alone together.
How many of the other concubines would have told the Emperor that they didn't like his poems? They're taught to carefully try to please him at every step, they HAVE to because it's literally their jobs, but Yingluo didn't even pretend to like them BEFORE she was a concubine. This is part of the reason why Xian never won his love, she was ALL ABOUT being proper and doing exactly what she was supposed to, she bent over backwards to be the model Concubine and Empress, but could never win his love. If she'd let go of some of that rigidity he probably would have liked her more, that's why she's so tragic. Similar thing with the previous Empress, she was definitely more comfortable around the Emperor, but she's so trapped by the rules and expectations set upon her, that's it destroys her in the end.
An underlying theme of the show is about being yourself and honest in what you think/who you are/what you want, and I think it does itself a disservice to try and say that Yingluo tricked the Emperor into loving her by just not SAYING 'I love you', I really think that in the finale scene she should have told Xian that she won him over by being herself, by treating him as a man and not like the Emperor, I think that would have fit better and hurt Xian more, it's way more impactful to say, "hey you've been wrong your whole life" rather than, "I had this one ~SPECIAL~ trick"
I felt like it would have worked a bit better if she explained that to Xian, since Xian was SO by the book and all about rules and how people should be treated. Knowing that she could have had the love she wanted if she bent a bit would have been a bigger blow.
Plus, while Yingluo didn't love the emperor for a long time, I think he realizing that she DID love him, and telling him/showing him that would have been a great moment of growth and acceptance for her.