DefyingDestiny

I hear you but are you saying you don't see those dynamics in Shen Li and The Double? I'll give you Amidst and Interpreter and I really can't say what exactly was going on In Blossom but really? You didn't feel like Shen Li and Fang Fei would do anything their MLs? Duke Su fell first but A Li fell right after him; Shen Li fell first and Yun was the one that backed off.

These stories are showing the difficulty of relationships with women that want power. They typically have to ignore "falling in love" or their careers would be derailed. They can only have "non- conventional" relationships with men willing to carry the emotional load. Usually we see alot of dramas with women chasing the ml and forgetting their initial purpose or families for the ml. In these shows the sfl is shown as "bad" because she tries to maintain her career and power along with getting the ml.
The shows you mentioned: Shen Li- the ml was "dying" and chose Shen Li and an earlier death. Shen Li refused him not because she wasn't also carry the emotional load but because she didn't want to see him lose himself for love.
Amidst: there was an age imbalance (he was quite older than her) and he used her as an excuse(a source of courage) to regain his life. He carried the relationship because he was the man as he should be.
The Double: I don't think this fits into this category at all. It fits more the category you want to see, imo.
Interpreter: She is a stereotypical cold character. If he didn't do the work, she would die alone.
I don't have much to say about In Blossom and I didn't watch the rest but as a trend I will say: it's not very realistic that women can have it all from the start. Female characters struggle with love vs family vs career vs power. Unlike a male character that naturally should get these things all at once (because patriarchy), the female character has to choose. If they have chosen one side and then someone- the ml, offers something else they will struggle and that's what we the audience can watch and enjoy as "the hero's journey".

Wanning was so annoying but I wouldn't cut a single spin from her shots to save screen time. Everytime she twirled my blood pressure would rise a degree: and that's the point of the villain. When the showed her suffering in exile people wanted to linch Jaing Li and the comment section went crazy with people in different camps.
But this... they don't show him be smart or crazy or evil.. they just show SRQ look sallow but why am I watching that? I understood why, when they show SYR but what is the point of SRQ?
The direction on this show is just not clear!

Good observation. I never understood what they did with he character; he just seemed to be floating. QZZ also didn't want to enter the palace, so his disinterest has even more reasons.
What's unfortunate about their lives and is the failing of the "parents", rather than the in-fighting the should have groomed Prince Su for the throne and Chuan as a general. If Prince Su wasn't raised with an inferiority complex and with ctual love and affection from his parents and siblings.... wishful thinking 🤍🤍🤍

All the nobles sided with SRQ. LR/PWX had the Qin, SG, and Peis. The Sus were "unaware" and didn't agree but SRQ took the family token and led their army on his own. When the other noble families realised the Sus were not technically involved the alliance became shaky.

It's about SRQ planning a rebellion. If SRG was in charge or cared at all, the Su family wouldn't be going down this road.

Her most majestic was her tirade at the Pei Fu. The lack of aura has been scratching my eyes especially when she walks through the crowd of courtiers before morning court. THE grand princess is passing by and it doesn't shake onlookers. Even in her ceremonial court wear, she just walks around like nothing.
I love Jin Mai, so I don't want to blame her but I'm struggling because Li Chuan has been throwing the regal aura for sometime now. Although in Jin Mai's defence apart from Li Chuan, no other character has the grand noble or regal aura- the emperor, empress, the Shaungguans and Sus; everybody is somewhat limpid. Like are these really the most powerful people in your country?

The past life the father did try to depose the CP. And it was life and death then as well. LR and LC were imprisoned and PWX saved the day. This time the father is set on killing LR because she has the inspectorate and the respect of the nobles.
The emperor fails to consider LR or LC as his children. He never wants them to hold power because he never considers they could also be on his side if they hold power. He only ever sides with his weakest relative.

It's still a good watch. It might be better for people who haven't read the novel and have little expectation. There is alot to love in the show. It's just that there are obvious and avoidable points of complaints

The king doesn't know that the CP is against the nobles. The CP is not yet really against them either. The king is paranoid and very isolated from everyone. The closest people to him benefit from the system that he is trying to change. I don't think he's trying to change the system because he's a nice benevolent guy either. He wants to make a name for himself as an Emperor that conquered the north but the nobles don't want to "waste" money and manpower for a war. He has anger issues and is a wife beater but the Empress is too powerful for him to bully because of her family. He hates the nobles even more because professionally and at home they emasculate him.

SRQ I feel is actually not as smart as everyone says. He's a privileged kid- pretty privilege, family privilege and wealth privilege. His whole life was planned out for him and success was always easy for him by virtue of who he was. In the 2nd life, I believe he is trauma responding as LR and PWX start the meddling in his plans. They weren't bad plans but they lack creativity and resilience.
First of all he feels the only problem is that Li Chuan becomes the Emperor. Before this Li Chuan will be deposed but LR and PWX save him- if he can stop his then, Li Chuan doesn't become Emperor, and so won't have the power or will be too dead to exterminate the Su Clan.
I am assuming he goes about this by
1. Instigating the Wangs to be more aggressive and partner with Li Chuan: hence the Wang marriage kidnapping plot; also the reason why he didn't notice anything strange about Li Rong' spring party because he had tried to change things already.
2. Putting a wedge between Li Rong and Li Chuan. He kept trying to get in Li Rong's camp. He wanted to stay by her side to manipulate her against Li Chuan.
3. Preventing PWX from getting promoted. He believed the LR-PWX marriage was destined to end so he keptmaking snide remarks and wasn't worried. His goal was to stop young PWX's rise, so he would never become the threat later and in life and be powerless to help Li Chuan during his depositiion.

This is his idea and plan(my guess), but i doesn't take into consideration that Li Chuan was never the problem. The chaos was always going to come because the nobles were too "rampant". In fact a Prince Su as Emperor would probably have been more deadly, since he grew up with the nobles' disdain for his birth and the reason for hia father's love and affection was his hating of the nobles. The fact that SRQ could not and would not see that or the fault and crime of the Shuangguan and Su Clans even with the benefit of 2 lifetimes is....
He's not very smart😐

No. After she found out she just wanted to leave everyone and go to her fief with her husband.

But they aren't even doing a good job of glorifying SRQ. He hasn't done a single smart or charismatic thing. The actor is also deadpan for most scenes so there's nothing to watch either. If they showed us better how brilliant his plans would be if not of our leads meddling, it would be bearable. Like PW and SYR from The Double, they stole screentime but it was worth it.

Her mind can't comprehend how he couldn't want to be Emperor and she sees no other way as it would cause her to lose power and endanger their lives if Prince Su becomes Crown prince

Secret of her death: it wasn't SRQ that killed her; it was Li Chuan. SRQ and SGY knew Li Chuan was poisoning her and they let her die

1. They grew up together and appeared to hve had childhood crushes for each other. Under normal circumstances they would probably have been betrothed to each other as the class, status and ages aligned.
2. They tainted the royal bloodline: SRH and SGY had a love child that could become the crown prince. It was a scheme by the Shuangguan and Su Clans as Emperor Li Chuan was only sleeping with QZZ and so the next Emperor would notbe from the top noble family. The Shaungguans were spared because of Li Rong and the empress dowager.
3. Simple character flaw- she could not understand her brother doesn’t want and is incapable of handling and enjoying being the Emperor. She enjoys the power and politics so it was hard for her to see and understand his disinterest.
4. The nobles are not good people. They are extremely self serving to the detriment of the country and the lives of commoners. Till she died Li Rong could not see this fact and she also could not see that she was as dangerous and detrimental to the country as the "bad" nobles. Her father was trying to loosen the grip the nobles had on the country; he recognised his son's disinterest and incapability and refused to make him crown prince and was vilified by Li Rong and the Empress! Both of whom were being manipulated by the nobles for their selfish reasons. SRQ tries to save his family by attacking the outcome of their wrongdoing and not preventing or correcting their wrongdoing.

The story has characters that are neither right or wrong, evil or good...everyone is aiming for the "greater good" and that looks different rom which side you are standing on. Li Rong grows as a character when she starts looking at things from other people's perspective and showing empathy.

Rant Summary: I'm not loving the decision making in the storytelling and I didn't love it in the novel either.

I'm going to eat some cake; maybe I'm just hangry!!

I was surprised the adaptation still chose to keep the "is SRQ back or not plot". It's pointless for the story and less entertaining to watch. Why not just show him moving with his plan long before our leads notice it. As the audience we would have been anxious from the start for them and thereby entertained. By the time tthey are playing catch-up and effectively countering him, we could then feel gratified and have even more affinity and pride for the leads.

I feel the novel and the drama both don't understand what the most interesting thing about the story is: Two Lifetimes. They need to keep showing us how
1. Li Rong, Pei WenXuan and Su Rongqing; keep using what they know is going to happen: the who, the what and when; to their advantage, especially against each other. We need to notice their 6th sense prickle when the sense each other's manipulation.
2. The fact they are more matured and cunning than everybody else in court because they had reached the pinnacle of success against the tide of their origins.
3. Their antagonism for each other and the complexities of being the only people who truly understand each other but all have different ideals, goals and skill set.
Episodes 25(ending) to 29 did this alot and they were the best episodes. But to make the viewers wait till ep25 to be riveted when you have such n explosive source material is unbelievably shocking.

The source material: The Grand Princess is originally a problematic piece with it's murky pacing and morally gray self-righteous characters for a tv adaptation. It needed a better production team than this to do it justice. I'm predicting the ending rating to fall between a 7.9- 8.3. If they don't handle the assassinations plot properly it might end below 7.5- since so many people already dislike Li Rong.