Between The Lines

I'm not questioning DZY conflicting emotions at all they are are completely understandable., but it was inconsistent from what she has portrayed previously and her emotions/anger was misdirected. If these emotions were only about being able to love or be with HY then that makes sense. If its more than that she needs to direct her emotions towards the right people. HY has not committed any crime. "HY is technically not a murderer" - you kind of lost me a little here. His only "crime" is to be his fathers son. I have no problem with punishments being delivered to those actually responsible i.e the ED and the emperor but you can't punish HY for their sins. If you do, how is that any better than what was done to the Di family and the 80,000 soldiers? When the events of 10 years ago took place he only had enough power to save DZY and secretly her brother. I don't think he even agreed that she should be sent to the mountain, I think this was decision he had no say in. Anning is far more guilty than HY but i don't recall DZY repeatedly attacking her over what she did. DZY has every right not to want to be with HY because of what his family did, but possibly because of the script she went from understanding to anger and back again and this is a problem in story telling not the emotions. If these emotions had been delivered over more time and maybe in a slightly different order/way we could have still got the conflicting emotions without some of the inconsistencies.
LMX said very clearly that he wants the Di family to regain at least half the empire if not it all. The only way this is likely to happen is through some kind of rebellion. During a rebellion innocent people get hurt. LMX is smart enough to know this. He seems prepared to sacrifice those innocents for the Di family.
What was done to Di family was indeed cruel and unjust, however IMO that doesn't give anyone a free pass to hurt whomever they like in the name of justice. LMX is talking about blowing up the entire empire. Punish those who deserve it, but not at the cost of innocent people.

Thanks for sharing your point of view - To be clear, Anle erratic emotions make sense, but they are completely misdirected. She has previously recognised HY is not to blame but she then unloads on him. If this was naturally covered over a few episodes it may have worked better. Instead the scenes were isolated from each other. It was - I like you, I don't you I like you, i don't like you ........ I agree with the premise of Anle emotions just not how they have been executed. So the emotions are natural but drama didn't deliver them in the way i expected.

HY is all about the big picture not just his personal feelings but i think if he had admitted to The Emperor that he still had feelings for Anle this would put her in harms way. HY is surrounded by bad choices he will hurt someone whichever choice he makes. By his actions, the person he hurts the most is actually himself. IMO HY hasn't hurt Anle, he has tried to protect her and support her. Maybe its simply they don't agree on how he has chosen to support her?

LMX is the most compelling character in this drama, but my interpretation has always been that his motivation is more revenge than justice in the drama. He doesn't see any difference between HY and the emperor. He is prepared to make morally questionable choices if he believes they help Anle. He is prepared to sacrifice people who would be considered innocent if he feels it benefits Anle and the Di family. Depending on your point of view he could be considered both good and bad.
I don't have any problems with the emotions in themselves but this drama and this episode in particular treated them in isolation from scene to scene which actually lessoned the emotional impact that they could have delivered. Just my opinion though..

Thanks for sharing this, this drama has only made fleeting references to her better qualities and focused more on what would be considered her negatives. This maybe be intentional or just restrictions in screen time. Sadly, I think in the drama she comes across as rather weak, that's without even considering the pending betrayal storyline.

We simply don't punish the people who deserve it, that would actually make sense, this was probably HY fault, because everything else is apparently! I'm waiting for someone to blame him for global warming......

Agree completely, Anning is in part responsible for some of what happened 10 years ago, or at least the mess that unfolded afterwards. She is now just sitting around waiting to be betrayed! She is just weak. How she ever became a general of anything is beyond me. HY was a punching bag for everyone in this entire ep, i already felt bad for the guy but this was way harsh

Not totally sure what I just watched, it felt like it combined multipole storylines into 1 episode. This might be the most gripping, intriguing and in some ways inconsistent ep so far. I don't even know if i like this episode or not right now.

Anle - her reactions to HY were all over the place, some times seemingly blaming him, others times praising him all in the space of 30 mins. This was at odds to some of the previous ep where she seemed to understand HY situation more.

LMX - maybe the most realistic character in this entire drama. No one could doubt his first loyalty is to Anle/DZY with his initial goal is obtaining justice for the Di family. However it seems like this is only cog in a greater plan of vengeance and the removal of the Han family from the world is his real aim. I fear he is going to be disappointed as this doesn't seem to be part of Anle plan. Again we got some inconsistent behaviour from LMX though, between thanking HY in one scene and ripping him apart in another.

HY - He just can't catch a break - the guy is obviously heartbroken, yet he seemingly has to take responsibility for everything what happened 10 years ago. To make it worse through, during this entire ep, between Anle and LMX he was to take punch after punch after punch. It was like watching death by 1000 cuts. I don't think he deserves a lot of what I watched today. Should he pay for the sin's of his family?

This episode is exactly what you want in a 39 ep drama, there was so much to take in, yet this is where I think the drama has created issues for itself. Todays episode could have been covered across 2/3 episodes, but because so much time was wasted previously I feel that they crammed in too much into this ep.

If this drama some how manages to continue at this level, I will run out of superlatives. Just going to go with epic for now!

The crazy good thing is , that outside of the opening scenes in the first episode there's yet to be a episode dominated by martial arts/action yet. There's been moments, the odd scene but that's it.

We have yet to really unwrap any of these elements yet

Its all been character/plot driven.

These characters, the intriguing crimes, the humour, the underlining plot and hopefully some awesome action still to come!

Sign me up for more please!

Indeed... that is something to be aspired too!

Agree completely!!! I can't remember the last drama that I watched, where after 16 episodes there hadn't been at least 1 episode that was a straight up filler. This is just smashing it out of the park so far.

Agree completely, there's a clear difference between this and HL. This isn't awful, it just didn't do anything me. Totally get what you mean i had some withdrawal symptoms this morning without my dose of FOMH.

I could talk at length about the many qualities of LLH and FDB, but I'm just going to go with this -

Everyone should have a friend like LLH

Everyone wants a friend like FDB

If your lucky enough to have both, you are truly blessed.

I will say no more...

Really found this a hard watch, mainly because there wasn't anything remotely original in it. I also thought the leads were carbon copies from other dramas with there performances been pretty limited. This was at best harmless fun with some cute moments, but given the amount similar themed drama's out there, this was pretty forgettable. to me.

Errr... sorry another guess, at face value Anle and HY can't be together as things stand. This might be both a gift to Anle from HY (whilst keeping Wen Shou safe) and also a way for him to stay connected to Anle vicariously through Wen Shou. Alternatively, it could just have been a giant tease from the scriptwriters i suppose!!!

Agreed, and in focusing on those traits you mentioned, it gets missed that he is funny, loyal and smarter than maybe he first appears. I like him so far..

I don't think this has anything to do with forgiveness, Her offensives as you rightly point out would be pretty hard to forgive! Personally I wouldn't forgive her, but I also believe no one should be punished in isolation of all the facts. Maybe my point is she should punished but judged fairly?

If I had to guess, is this because of the unrest that is building, both internally and externally? Revealing his identity now to anyone might put him Wen Shou in danger. Also in that moment there is the possibility in saving Wen Shou this would be a crime of deceiving The Emperor. I'm speculating only.....

More people need to watch this show! Its got to be right up there in terms of best drama's being screened right now, yet it hasn't seemed to get the same attention or hype as others.

If for no other reason this needs to be watched for the crazy good chemistry between LLH and FDB. Other drama's could learn how to develop chemistry between its leads by watching this drama.

LMQ you managed to surprise me and not surprise me at the same time. That's pretty impressive in half an episode! Always knew that he would do anything for Anle but he really fell on his sword for her this time. I assumed he would have some cunning plan, not this time, he just marched right in and took responsibility.

I do wish they had spent more time exploring the fallout between HY and Anle rather than so much of ep 26 being spent on the matriarchs. Perhaps the matriarchs scene was more novel driven rather than being helpful to the drama.

I would of preferred them to really ramp up HY and Anle's heartbreak to make the reconciliation much sweater when it arrives. They did at least manage to touch on why they are divided and give some context to this.

Overall ep 27 felt like it was re-building the tension after the slower paced ep 26. Looking forward to seeing what happens next.

Yes, there was a definite change of pace from ep 24 and 25 into ep 26. I agree about the "battle" between the matriarchs, I imagine this has more importance in the novel, where as in the drama neither character has featured heavily so it was more difficult to be invested emotionally in there face off.

I think anything she received from the CP is a separate issue. If we agree that this was a business transaction, did LMX ever explain - This is what i will give you and in return this is what you must do. I think this is unlikely, he has no reason to. but even if he did, she was a child and with her background she would not be equipped to make a fully thought out decision. My overall point is, she has made some terrible choices but to paint her as solely responsible for those choices is incorrect. LMX set her on this path to self-destruction and whilst in the end she might have done this willing, at the start I don't think that would have been the case.