Da-mimi

nah , after ep23 , i have to say Ruyin will end up causing her only child's death - she had a great opportunity to free herself of a certain end. she chose the worst path to thread. yushan will rue the day she said yes to this marriage.

he is willing to sacrifice all his children to survive and for his ambitions. but what made ruyin sacrifice her only living child. she cant be selfish like her husband where her daughters welfare is concerned

Whay a wield world , just because yinxi's aunt was worried for her position in the family after the new wife has arrived she tried to check mate her with talk of concubine snd chambermaid. Any other person may have accepted the aunts proposal , good that yinxi put a stop to that discussion

i thought ruyin will become wiser after her son's death , she showed slight improvement after ep18 only to slide into dark mode after yuchi's death - surprised it is yunshan , who become enlightened after yuchi's death and rightfully places the responsibility of her brothers death on herself and her mother and refuses to become a pawn in her mothers hands - it would be interesting to watch for her character development, if any, post this.

there are so many foolish characters in this series - fu yunxi's aunt is one of them. what was the necessity to start a fight with a new bride ? her nephew married after refusing to marry ,for a very long time - she picked a fight just like that , talking of concubine and chamber maid not even a day after the marriage , how disrespectful to the new wife. if hanyan married for love, and came to live as a wife only , this would precisely the reason to make aunt;s worries come true. wierd lady! creating chaos in a peaceful household over silly reasons

ep20

By ep 18 , Zhou Ruyin realised there is more to life than the narrow tunnel she has been travelling through, with meaness and ruthlessness, thanks to xiwens generous lecture. Her response to yushan's request to stop hanyan -yunxi wedding is unlike what she did before . In her previous avatar she would have tried something our of spite, now she has started seeing and understanding more than she has seen or understood before. But yushan's taunt that he is a useless person got Ruyins only son indulge in a foolishness that proved costly to the Zhaungs .. they lost their precious and only heir .. Will it open Ruyins eyes and make her take a different path from now on and save her only living child? She had already lost jer elder daughter and only son inadvertently due to schemes played by her husband . Will she look at her husband with new eyes or burn with hatred for Hanyan. What decision she takes will deceide if she and Yushan will survive this drama or kick the bucket like rest caught in the revenge.
As for zhuang shiyang , his monologue with xiwen - why he fell in love with her and his resplution to protect her in his twisted way highlights he is incapable of loving purely or understanding it. A son's death is not going change it
He will weep shallow tears , that about it. His focus has always been his sole survival .

this is the first drama where the villain is such a coward stooping so so low , taking out much smarter people - his teacher (xiwens father) , xiwen , yuwen , pei mafia head, the chief minister who got fu yunxi to infiltrate pei gang as spy- all brilliantly smart- all fell in the hands of such a lowly person, who plays in the shadows , crawling before them in the light and stabbing them in the darkness. very unlikely villain

the yuwen - xiwen arc is so tragic! for someone with such brilliance /cleverness , to die so powerlessly makes it more gut wrentching.

this is the 1st time am liking the wedding attire in a period drama, simple design but the deep marron attire with contrasting shiny embroidery patch work (or is it a shiny cloth material ?) is really making both of them glow..

why is it always snowing during this entire series? did all the events happen within a month or 2 during the snowing period? very difficult to pin down the timeline

Xiwen and Consort Miao - such talented noble beauties, and such tragic lives.

Xiwen was clearly the better of the two , she was so clever to have dodged that 'polo match' bullet, while Consort Miao focused only on defeating Xiwen. I don't think miao figured what the actual prize of that polo match was and simply focused on winning. Do I think if she is a kind consort , may be not- having clearly seen a very painful life full of thorns and traps, she must have turned as much a mad hatter as xiwen did. . she couldn't figure whether she loved or hated Xiwen when they met after a long time. but still "noble" enough to give xiwen a chance to escape her gilded cage. she is perhaps kind in a very complicated way

nevertheless , even such a clever xiwen couldn't see through the scheme to keep her a cripple.

their talent and beauty is not a blessing, but a big curse. it seems the lesser talented and beautiful ones had a much easier , peaceful lives.

Because she said she is not looking for love and romance in marriage, and talked of practical things, he assumed best way to propose is offer practical things she wishes for.. he didnt know FL has started catching feels and have been lectured by her mom about love and its importance in life.. that caused all the trouble..

Still a very engaging drama, not a big a fan of M&A theme, but they bought me over with some interesting drama played around in this series ..

They always operate without a plan B.. they are such a lean team that there is no one to support them on possible alternatives incase something fails.. they are succeeding by a whisker every single time.. not that smart, just lucking out

is this true , i didnt notice. i was so immersed in the story to realise it was made with less budget- kudos to the team for making such a beautiful series where it still looked rich despite made on lesser budget

they could have fleshed it out to season 2 with the amount of meat this drama has.. surprisingly they arent milking it

ML always knew there FL was the one engaged to marry him. FL didnt know anything , about her family , its members , her supposed bethrotal , and the betrothed. from his side, she is the one he was supposed to wed ( and may have hold special place in his heart and mind though he ended up wedding her sister) , for her , other than her mom, i dont think she feels family with the rest - more so with a dead elder sister... so fu yunxis previous marriage to a stranger whom she didnt see, meet or have any emotional connect with - why would it matter .. he is the only male she knows somewhat, who helped her more than once in her plots , her survival and her familys survival and in saving her female friend .. and has capacity to help her avenge in future as well... is this not reason enough to like and form an emotional basis ..

it takes sometime to get used to ancient customs. many seem crude, but our ancients had their own logic in involving in these practices . it seems they had serious survival issues , and they went to great lengths to survive successfully

if you notice they havent been spending much time in flashbacks , they could have streched xiwen's backstory.. they told it very crisply.. am thinking that would be the approach.. no fluff , only meat ..