JJJ

I think the He dad will be more of a problem tbh. The He son is horrible and did so many bad things to the women but what he did to Ayan was also part of him being calculative. He thought him doing that to Ayan = Ayan would run away or end up tied to him so she can't make the military equipment fire case any bigger. He did also say he will do anything to protect the He family/his dad. Now He dad still got something on the Pei family so I am sure he will probably still be around to cause problems.

This drama honestly has pretty quick pacing. I think back to the past 18 episodes and sooooo much happened. There is so much plot AND character development. I am so used to some of these drama having filler episodes where nothing major happens for 5+ episodes except for ship moments but there is literally something happening in every episode here.

Lmao Jiang Ci was raised in the mountains after all and loved/protected by her master for years, so she doesn't really have "fears". Her contact with death before coming down the mountains was just her cat, so she is very blank slanted in a way. Good thing she is flexible though and willing to change/adjust with new info.

Her boldness enabled her survival because had it been some regular person... yeah, they did die already. And like her master said, she is like a loach who can survive anywhere and a cat with 9 lives.

Yup!! I dislike it when people are so harsh on female characters because I feel like a lot of it are projection. And these same people then forgive the male characters easily or aren't as harsh on them.

At the end of the day, I am not in this story, and I am not the character. I can shake my head at some decisions but also recognize it is because I know more as a viewer while the character in the story don't have the same insight. Had Jiang Ci known her revealing the Teng Rui incident might have led to the butterfly effect of these deaths, I don't think it is likely she would had made the same choice (probably would try to find other ways). Just as Wei Zhao probably won't be stabbing Jiang Ci in the first episode if he knew he did fall for her LMAO.

I think they don't want to focus on the trauma for too long. I think a lot of drama sometimes when it comes to these topics drag it on to the point it almost feels like trauma entertainment.

I am the opposite because I actually liked that they didn't focus on the aftermath as much. We all know what happens and what the aftermath usually is (especially as women) and sometimes, people just want to see the "victory" (even though it might be unrealistic especially for this being historical time). They just want to see the women coming together and being able to win.

Your point is valid though, and I can see why you would want it to be explored more, but I also get that this is not a drama that is meant to focus on this for more than 2 episodes when they got a whole war plot to get to. 😂

Also we gotta remember there are also censorship rules.

I think the only people who don't get Jiang Ci's character or her POV are those who are too in Wei Zhao's POV. Because as viewers who can see perspectives of all the characters, it is easy to get their motives and actions.

As someone on C-side has commented before, FL might seem "annoying" when you are standing in ML's position, but ML is terrifying in the beginning when you are standing in FL's position.

Jiang Ci only survived mainly because it is said she had a super healthy body to begin with when as she was living up in the mountains with the fresh air + variety of herbs/plants. She could had easily died if she was any physically weaker in the beginning and Pei Yan didn't decide to save her to use her. I give grace to all characters in the drama since I try to get their POV but Jiang Ci for me is above all the other characters. She didn't ask to be involved in any of these political fights to begin with.

Also just in general as a woman, I will also put the female characters first LOL.

Yes, and it was said Li Landi was chosen for the Jiang Ci role because they saw her role as Yetan from The Starry Love.

LSTT is a pretty old novel (2009) so it could had been adapted way earlier. But it seems like all the pieces came together and they got the cast they wanted for this drama.

CRYING, sharing a funny comment. In the beginning of the drama, Pei Yan has his hair up while Wei Zhao's hair was down. As the drama progresses, Pei Yan tends to have his hair down more while Wei Zhao has his hair up more in a bun. C-netz are cracking jokes that they each thought Jiang Ci liked each other's hairstyle more, so they swapped. 😂

Their turning point. 😞

Hehe, they are SO CUTE. Glad we moved on from the enemies phase.

I feel like that highlights the difference between him and PY so well. PY straight up said "I treated you well so you should trust me" like JC is some fool who should just follow his orders blindly. At least JC definitely knows the good/sweet things WZ has done for her (and purely due to affection), she is observant after all. 😊

Yes haha, she got shy. 🤭

I hate that they translated that line wrong too!! JC actually said, "You squashed me to death". It sounds more playful. 😂

It was a whole plot to blame Liang state for the death of Teng Rui. Remember Teng Rui gave JC that jade gourd? The jade gourd was stolen and then used by the Wei state general to put the blame on JC and PY to say they caused Teng Rui's death as it was found by his fake corpse (so it did be Liang state's fault). PY can't deny anything because he is trying to hide the fact that the emperor visited his mother during the birthday banquet (since he did humiliate the emperor, and the emperor will make sure he would never ever be a court official again if exposed). That's why both PY and JC ended up in prison even though JC did nothing (well, except revealing that Teng Rui was actually alive all along which IMO she was right to do because it did cause a war, but it hurt WZ's plan).

Wei Zhao actually blamed himself. When JC was trying to comfort him, she was saying it wasn't his fault. He then said "Is it your fault then? Right, I should have killed you from the start". He thinks because he didn't kill her, and she unintentionally ruined his plans regarding Teng Rui, that his people died due to that butterfly effect. So in a way, he thought it was his fault that this all happened.

The English sub I was watching didn't translate it correctly when Jiang Ci said, "Give me your hand" (for his hand injury), she actually said close to "Give me your cat paw" and I squealed, their banter is so cute.

They cast him with all these baby actresses in typical idol dramas and a lot of them are not good actresses + terrible script so not much he can do.

Wished he could had gone for non-idol dramas but those are probably hard to get too when you have so many great actors who have been in those genres for awhile and bring in an audience.

It is regrettable but it is also the current state of C-drama industry. Look at the so called "top" traffic stars we have right now, not many are actually known for their acting skills (or eventually their acting worsen as their name brand becomes too powerful and they focus more on acting to make themselves look better, not acting with the character's and script's logic in mind).

I think so, he came back to promote with the other two leads for this drama with the livestreams and their conference (even posting on Weibo to promote this drama). This is also probably one of his more complicated roles, so I hope he had a great time with it. He did really well as Pei Yan.

Yes, Pei Yan is using her as a bait to draw out the assassin aka Wei Zhao. But he is also falling for her and doesn't want to let her go.

Yes, and it is obvious Madam Rong/Pei has her agenda. She seems angry at the emperor and perhaps even blame him for the death of her husband. She is probably out for revenge too and her son seems like a good pawn to use for that. There is actually quite a bit of comments about her on C-side saying if she was a man, she did probably had climbed up herself to become the emperor herself.

After the case was closed, all the women were leaving, and their family were waiting for them by the stairs. They were all supportive, from parents to husbands. It was just so nice to see.