Deirdre19

That would make sense! Many cooks spoil the broth... and we have to eat it now 🤪

I don't know what was her reason for doing this. I don't think that jealousy because her husband had the hots for one of the Di women is a good enough reason.
My theory is that she was led to believe that the Di family was a threat to her son, the emperor. Maybe by red-umbrella-man...

I think that's a standard punishment for treason. The judgement for this would have come from the emperor, not the empress dowager.
Anle's family gave up the crown initially, but the way her father was set up made it look like he wanted to start a rebellion to reverse that decision.

The Empress Dowager is everywhere? I'm looking forward to her beatification!
Does she also get to take a bath?
I'm starting to think that all the people who I don't see bathing must be a little bit dirty... 😈

No, that's not what I meant with female-centric. She isn't the physically or intellectually dominating protagonist - both guys are much stronger than her... but she is the central figure and the novel is told from her perspective. We get to know her thoughts and feelings, not those of the guys.
I can understand that the author got a lot of backlash over the way the story is going, nobody likes a bait-and-switch 😂
If she is part of the production team, hopefully her ideas will carry some weight to keep the overall tone and the characters true to the novel.

I think it's because the writers/directors have more creative freedom. There aren't so many vested interests fighting to put "their star" in the best possible light and censorship seems also to be a lot more relaxed.

The the Di family was accused of rebellion and associating with the enemy because Anle's father moved the Di army without imperial order.
Anning saw her grandmother give the instruction to send a secret letter (imitating the emperor's handwriting) to the head of Di army to order him to make this move. So in other words he was set up to make a mistake that would get him killed.

I hope they kept this in the drama!

Yes, there is a tendency to white-wash the leads to suit public tastes/censorship, but it would be a bit too easy to use censorship as an excuse for the bad writing/editing.
In my opinion they tried to cater to a younger audience who might get bored by all the palace politics and scheming. They slowed and dumbed everything down so that even the people watching this in FF-mode won't get lost.

Yes, that's the way I see it.
I guess it would be harder for him to go through with this choice while Anle stares at him. And for her it would be heart-breaking not to be his chosen woman. The look on Anle's face when he makes his choice kind of confirms this theory. She really looked hurt

Yes, I know. I just think they could have made all the scheming a bit brainier.

Yes, I prefer him in the darker colours, too. Hopefully there will be some other good outfits. He's just the prime minister, so not royalty.

Don't get me wrong, I loved Nirvana in Fire! What I meant to say was that it didn't need to rely on any eye-candy (I didn't find any of the guys particularly appealing) or swooshy romance because there was a gripping plot and stellar acting and I deplore the fact that we just don't get dramas like that anymore.
Nowadays we seem to get eye-candy instead of plot and cliched romance instead of good acting. There seems to be a real hesitation to make people's brains work too much so all the plotting is dumbed down.
And yes, the love-story was beautiful but it didn't follow the standard "romance formula" that most script-writers apply.

From what I've heard he has complexity in the novel... 😁In the drama version Wen Shou would be the smarter CP...

Yeah, I'm confused about this, too. So far I can only see 16 episodes online...

Yes, you see things because you KNOW they should be there.
For the rest of us, who have to rely on what we are seeing/hearing on screen there isn't even the slightest hint at some complexity in, for example Han Ye's character. He just comes across as naive and bland (and slightly obsessed with the past).
Strangely, we get to hear the fake beauty's thoughts while bathing, but not what the ML or FL are truly thinking.
The only moments that allow us to make some guesses are when LMX or Wen Shuo are asking questions.

I wouldn't call it love-obsessed, more nostalgic for someone he used to know...

Yep, I was thinking the same thing. I've got to read that book! Just need to finish at least one of the other three that I'm currently reading, otherwise my little brain gets confused 🤯

It's a copying mechanism 😈

Right. Usually you get one bathing scene in a whole 40-episode drama, either for romantic purposes or for the ML to show off his work in the gym.