SerenityShimikaBlack

Yup he used her to save face after not getting punished for being part of the revolt as having Yan Xi's mother as his main wife was the continued reminder of his treason

I disagree. I think, HZ knows that by staying with YX, she and her entire family and anyone in relation to her will become someone that the emperor can use against YX. It's most evident in his treatment of the Shen family, the emperor wants to isolate and make YX entirely beholden to him as it's once he finds out that YX and HZ broke up that he lets up and releases the family, this means he feels that he can totally control/trust YX again. Also when he ask HZ as she's leaving from her audience with him to make sure to bring her desserts to him whenever she brings them for the dowager empress, I felt like he was threatening her ('stay in line or else'). Furthermore, it's not as though YX can simply walk away. HZ knows this and understands that as the circumstances stand, any relationship she has with YX will be one that means he will continue to have to make harder and harder choices as the emperor will continue to test YX and never be satisfied with YX finding anyone else to be loyal/loving to. The emperor expects YX to place him first always and anyone else is a distraction to him or an impediment to YX remaining totally loyal to him. So to me, HZ's choose to leave him was out of love for him as it's an impossible situations that they're in as long as that emperor is alive.

I doubt she'll become Hua Jing 2.0 cause the circumstances of her birth and status in the Hua family is very different from Hua Jing. She's never been spoiled rotten or half as arrogant as her aunt. I don't think she didn't listen to their advice, it's more like she knows her family want the best for her, but she, by choosing the plump man, is acknowledging and accepting the limitations of her own intelligence and circumstances of her own birth and is choosing her own destiny.

ep 32-33 trailer, my reaction: that F*** emperor 😡😡😡

It's that supernatural/fantasy element that I absolutely adore about this show. It's that line between reality and something else that makes the mystery so much more enjoyable and suspenseful to watch. Reminds me of the series True Detective, which is also another show I'm enjoying currently (although season 2 was a let down compared to season 1).

I'm loving how the show is being so multicultural with showing characters speaking in languages other than just mandarin, alibi somewhat inaccurately, cause this was what Chang'an would have actually been like back then!

It's not just you, incompetence is not a good look for anyone dressed up or down
This emperor is like a pale ghost of the one in JOL
Gosh I loved how crafty, manipulative, and morally ambiguous the emperor is in JOL. Honestly I find it hard to choose between him and Fan Xian too. The second season has a lot to live up too and all I can do is pray they don't muck it up.

To true! This might be way all those old imperial paintings show them all with such strained expressions

episode 18

lol I wouldn't say he gets better, but you do get to see another side to him in ep 18 and judging by the trailers he will show some softness with the fl in future episodes.

This is such a refreshing feeling. It's been so long since I've felt this way, but I'm having such bad 2nd male lead syndrome!!! 🤭

https://kisskh.at/photos/WPrzlm_3

Love is Sweet has a pretty passionate kiss/make out scene, alibi it only lasts like 30 seconds 😂 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OiDsfY_ZW4
Love Designer also is suppose to have a pretty hot scene as well.
The kissing in cdramas, I find, are very dependent upon the setting, if it's modern cdramas they're becoming more natural and less artificial/mechanical. Historical cdramas generally are all about getting the beautiful shot of them kissing so it's terribly artificial and BTS show that the actors tend to be stuck in one pose with their lips touching and not moving at all as the camera pans around them from different angles. Story of Kunning Palace, however, did a rather good scene that wasn't cold at all. I do find that certain pairings of actors and actresses of course have better chemistry and produce better more natural kisses, so it is also highly dependent upon each individual case/pair.

Yes interesting thing about the dubbing is that in some scenes during filming Cantonese actors/actresses will speaking Cantonese instead of Mandarin because the shows will get dubbed in Cantonese too. So if you look closely and know the mouth movements for the words, you will find that certain scenes the mouth movements don't match the dubbing. Originally dubbing was a way to eliminating a actor or actresses natural regional accent from affecting the audiences ability to understand their speech, however due to the recent tax implemented on dubbing some actors/actresses are choosing to dub their own work, instead of finding another voice actor/actress. The best dubbing in recent dramas for me is definitely Dylan Wang's character in Love Between Fairy and Devil. Dylan has such a higher pitched natural voice that honestly would have ruined his character in LBFD.

Lol what is with that kiss, it's so awkward 🤣🤣🤣
It's fits into what I understand of the characters. She's caught off guard by his care and kindness as it's been such a long time since she's had a person to do such things for her with her families death and betrayel. She's emotionally moved by his actions and in return kisses him, but lol it doesn't make me any more invested in the two as a couple....yet lol

Yes, I've been waiting to watch a historical drama! I was expecting more to come out around this year's Lunar New Years, but have only seen this one airing currently. This drama isn't what I expected, but it's certainly entertaining. I'm not sure the show is doing a good balance between the comedy/lightheartedness and seriousness, but it's moving along fast enough that I find it easy to overlook the silliness. Just got to episode 12 and all I have to say is 'stupid prince!'.

Lol considering how many times throughout the drama that Ruyi and Ning have seemed to not died or stayed dead, I can believe that they are alive in the end. It's just the CGI background is so laughably bad

That's exactly it! Thank you! I am so glad it's not just me. The cut between the different parties in different locations is so chopped up that the timeline of events no longer is coherent. Also with a great many events towards the end it feels like we are being given bullet points of what the most important events are instead of a more natural flow to the story. I can understand the issue might be because there all split up and in so many locations but things like what happen in Wu with the traitor prince wraps up so quickly and becomes a footnote in the end with the character explaining in under like 5 minutes how they figured everything out and basically this is all suppose to have happened under a day or two? Counting in time of travel I find that really hard to believe considering it took like 17(?) episodes for Yang Ying to even reach the An Capital. Lol common sense was completely thrown out the window in the end to wrap this all up into a messy ending that honestly the more I think about is just such a pity. This drama definitely should have been longer if they wanted so much to happen.

lol just a clip of what I mean 🤭: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-OiDsfY_ZW4

Yup that's exactly why I don't watch modern dramas a lot. Everything is too predictable and slice of life to make the story interesting. The mediocre reasons for conflicts, stupid misunderstandings, and the romanticisation of highly questionable behaviour, such as stalking, just puts me off. Most modern dramas unfortunately suffer from the same plot that's just rinsed and repeated over and over again with slight modifications. Also in modern dramas, I feel the chemistry between the main characters is so much more essential as you don't have a completely different setting to distract from the chemistry. So if it's lacking in that department, it's even more obvious. One of the best drama's with some great chemistry between the leads it Love is Sweet. I admit I am biased though as Bai Lu and Luo Yun Xi are probably in my top ten favourites as a drama couple. I can make no promises about the plot being perfect, but the chemistry was just spot on.

I know the reason is because he wanted to keep them safe as he was worried due to their injuries, but it feels like such a slap dash set up and conveniently the emperor gets off by his guard thus paving the way for him to be able to go to war. Also RRY and NYZ confronting the emperor again in front of the officials, was too repetitive for me. The wedding scene was his attempt to say good bye and let go of his shifu in his mad way, but I agree the execution of it in the end made no sense and didn't add anything but a damsel in distress saved by the hero moment.
The pacing of the last few episodes really frustrated me. We have so many different locations where things are happening and everything just gets resolved too neatly without any show of the struggle or planning. The show could have done with more episodes to flesh out the characters and give the plot more meat to it, but no everything was just too rushed and as a result become simply too predictable.