Armaniiie

I think the reason I give him best emperor is because I found him to be very intimidating, he had his eyes and ears everywhere. He was literally what an emperor should be like, what makes him even scarier is that he comes across very friendly/approachable, wears very loose clothing like he gives you a comfy feeling. I remember once he asked one of his old officials to literally sit on the same table as him and drink wine, imagine sitting together with the emperor. He first lectured him on the law and how an official is supposed to act. As this is going on, the official was nervous thinking it was poisoned, when he discovered it was not, he sighed and then the emperor was like I still value our bond just resign and go home to enjoy your last years. Then when the official left, he asked one of his men to have him killed and staged as an accident. I was like wahhh just happened. But if like you mean good emperor as in, is he a benevolent, kind and caring emperor then I don't think so.

In ep31 I was expecting Jier to be curious as to how XLX became Lin family's young madam and I was hoping she would tell her what the ML did for her. But anyway, the focus wasn't there, it was about her and the other girls redemption so I'm not mad at it.

Yesss I might have to add the Joy of Life emperor, that man made you understand what the saying serving an emperor is like serving a tiger really means.

True, he did indeed choose integrity over safety that I can agree with but at the same time I don't see the patriarch of Lin family as a man of integrity, nor does Mister Lu, as when he first meets Jinqi he says, "Oh that's your grandfather?Our Dao is different so of course our life path will be different."Most importantly he's not a good friend or someone you can entrust your life too.

She knew everything because she is the one who narrates the story for us ,the audience, as at that point, we also don't know what happened. She explains everything to the women in her family and encourages them that their father in law did nothing wrong. Also it was the Shen family teaching, that women read books and are knowledgeable about the law that's why XLX is so well versed in the law, in contrast, the Zhao family restricts women from being literate as they see that as a virtue and think women should only focus on inner court issues and not read books.

Me too

You're right. He is still not getting it 😭. When he said he already wrote the letter and sent it I was like dudeee atleast ask her first, you can see she likes to get things done on her own, just patiently wait for her to ask for your help. Being husband and wife is about being each other's support like Jinqi said, but what he does not get is that XLX does not want to completely rely on him for everything. That era forced women to rely on men as Zhao Xingtang said and XLX's response was, I see you and what you are saying and I agree. XLX is the kind of woman who doesn't want to rely on a man for everything, even if that man adores her to death, she still wants to have autonomy.

Personally for me, her falling in love with Jinqi will be a character development. Because if you think about it, as much as it wasn't the Lin's family's fault the emperor punished her family but they did cut ties in a cold manner and so, falling for him in a sense feels like forbidden love. Back then filial piety was exalted, for someone else, they might think marrying into Lin family is betraying their deceased family members and ancestors given the fateful ties between the two. I also think its part of the reason that while she didn't have feelings for Han Scholar she was still willing to marry him, but Jinqi, on the other hand, on top of not having feelings for him, marrying him brings back past trauma because she was supposed to be his wife, that is why when she meets the elders for the first time she's zoned out and experiencing PTSD.

The Shen family Matriarch says that she only prepared poison for herself because she as well knew what was going to happen but they thought the emperor would only execute her husband and her being old would follow him in death, they never expected that the emperor would be so cruel to target the entire family. So technically the Lin family grandfather was saving himself if he also assumed the emperor was gonna target him, unless he knew that the emperor was going to place his wrath on his entire family, then I think he should have atleast warned the Shen grandfather, a warning at least, we are not asking for lending a hand, but a warning at least for someone you considered a friend and was ready to form family relations with.

Yesssss, the story of Minglan is so hard to live up to and Against the current is going a great job. A lot of great dramas are from the pre-2020 era, although the cinematography is not as good as it is now, but the story telling, the diversity in actors and actresses as well as their ages was prominent then. Now with idol dramas we have the same actors/actresses playing lead over and over again, you'll find the next upcoming xianxia is this actor, also the next upcoming wuxia or modern or historical drama is them.

Episode 31 was such a tearjerker, I cried so much with the girls. I know their story is not part of the main story but I'm interested to know how they pave a way for themselves. And Go XLX show our Young Master that there's many alternative ways to get things done.

I did actually finish the drama but what I didn't like about the ML not the actor Liu Yuning, his character, was that he first tried to literally kill the FL, destroyed his so called best friend's sword that he thought his father left for him as a legacy just to get the method to make weapons he did many more things to achieve his goals. But those behaviours were overshadowed by his painful upbringing. Of course I don't support what he went through and how the emperor treated him but choosing not to hold him accountable for those things and then colouring him in this new light, like look what he does for the common people in his disguise, he's such a good guy, and I'm like, so he tried to kill you in the first episodes but because of his painful past, his secret identity, and the fact that he is now in love with you he is excused for that behaviour? You might say it was the script writer that was controlling him and making him behave that way, but if that's the case, how did he manage to create an identity where he does good things because I think this was one of the things the drama used to highlight the difference between him and the SML and was definitive in the FL falling in love with him. I would love to know your opinion.

Story of Minglan, Dream of Splendor, Nothing Gold Can Stay, Lost Track of Time, Scent of Time, Love like the Galaxy, Sword and Brocade, Blossom, Blossoms in Adversity follows a similar situation to FL but they don't get executed, Song of Youth, Marvelous Women, Weaving a Tale of Love, Princess Rebel, Joy of Life 1, Flourished Peony, The Heir, Legend of Haolan, General's Lady and Winter Begonia: Royal Nirvana, Serenade of Peaceful Joy, Rise of the Phoenixes, The Imperial Age, Stand By Me and Ming Dynasty are more political. But this is what is coming at the top of my head right now, like dramas that include family dynamics and marriage and are not the typical idol drama otherwise the list would be lonnnng.

And tbh, even though grandfather's advice to protect his family and think twice before acting was good, I think Jinqi does a better job at protecting his family, friends etc. He is always trying to find a better way to remedy situations and like XLX said, he has a good heart. That's why he buried the Shen family and was the first to suggest atleast notifying them, buried his "friend" Du Zheng and allowed Cuique to pay her respects, tried to save Xiuwan from possible death and saved the deposed crown prince's life even though it would have given him even more merit to hand him over to the current crown prince. I bet if it was his grandfather, who turns his back on friends/family with a quickness, he would have definitely sent the deposed crown prince's location ASAP.

Absolutely, and I think what is great about this drama or the current adaptation is that Jinqi seems to truly love and care for XLX so I'm hoping her defiance towards him will teach him how to go about loving her the right way afterall she's not the typical woman. She's strong, resilient, intelligent and very much respectful to others, all she asks is that he does the same.

So well said. I hope he gets a teaching moment from his wife. There is a drama called Weaving a Tale of Love that I absolutely like, and in season 2 when the leads are married, he learns a lot from his wife even though he is portrayed as the typical very intelligent ML. She teaches him, how some situations can be dealt with rather than going about it a certain way and everytime he is about to do something impulsive and his wife offers him advice, he will bow his head and thanks his wife for teaching him.

Oh my gosh yes, and remember when her mom cried, "Why why do you have to go back to that place."

Ohhh nooo, they can't do that😭

Ahhhh whyyy 😭Today our leads got married so we are in for romance💞.

I see you must like a dream within a dream. I personally liked only aspects of it, like the support characters, the comedy, and the cinematography, absolutely splendid. But I didn't like how they excused the ML's bad behaviour. But to each their own.

If anyone knows Etta James All I could do was cry, or rather the Beyonce version, it literally encapsulates what happened to XLX in the beginning but modern version. And really all she did was cry in her mother's arms.