in all these types of dramas to me a concubine is just a fancy way of saying the female is the side hoe or mistress…
Having heirs and connections were very important. So some marriages were happening simply because the man got a woman pregnant, she could have been an entertainer or servant of some kind. Some concubines were daughters of other noble households' concubines, so getting multiple connections to different noble households while the primary wife position was left for legitimate daughters of families.
Many children died young, and many women died in childbirth so think of it as hedging your bets so that your household could remain strong/powerful.
Daughters were used to make deals between families. Sons were generally the only ones who could run a business or hold a position in court so being able to produce heirs to take over those family roles were extremely important for the survival of the family.
BTW: I'm not saying this is a GOOD way to have a "stable" family...haha stable...stable of wives...sounded better in my head. Anyway, I've never been a huge fan of using family members as bargaining chips in the power ladder of life, but not my culture, not my problem. (many cultures/classes today see marriage as a business deal of some kind...even in my own country. Women in my country couldn't even have their own bank account until the 70s)
Spoilers for the OG story below. I might have to pause this until we at least get a little past the time jump to adulthood. Cause I've paused it in episode 4 b4 Hae Jun's bio-father starts messing with his life because I know what's coming. Well I at least know that a whole bunch of frustrating misundrstandings are about to happen back to back to back and I want to be able to follow it up with a reunion as quickly as possible. Cause this show was always going to be on the heavy side of "light" because of just the general ups and downs of what the characters go through. But I really really really need this adaptation to never forgive San Ha's mother for her behavior and for San Ha to go to therapy as an adult once he escapes her again. I don't know if they are just going to have him move to Seoul or if they are going to make it so he's out of the country as well, but the main reason he never went to Ju Won in the years they were apart was because his mother hid his passport so he was unable to leave Singapore and go back to China. I remember thinking that his relationship with the FL was toxic because it was very much rooted in an obsessive behavior and codependency because of all the trauma his mother inflected on him. My boy needed so THE.RO.PHY bad bad. Don't get me wrong Go Ahead is one of my comfort shows, but I needed more solid visuals/mentions that he was seeking help for his panic disorder.
I feel like we are winding down the first act/arch of the show. I don't know the novel, so I don't know what may or may not be down the road to comment on pacing out specific plot points. But we are now 1/3 of the way through and it feels about right to me.
2/3 should be her living in his mansion and continuing finding evidence against the Crown Prince by getting the witness out of the mines, concluding most likely the reveal that ML was the head of the Shadow Works the whole time. Final 3rd could be wrapping up and making amends. I have no clue how the other main characters stories will play out but I feel like we still have a lot of story and relationship development to cover.
I feel like Kevin Hart after looking up the age of the actor playing the Crown Prince..."Damn." I was watching the archery scene and it has a lot of daytime close-ups of the ML, 3ML and 2FL back to back, and I was like, why does he look so much older than them when they are all supposed to be a few years or even months apart in age? Well at the time of filming....ML & FL were 33, 2ML & 2FL were 25/26 and Crown Prince aka 3ML...45.
Don't get me wrong he looks good for 45, but when the younger actors playing the leads in flashbacks are so close in age it throws me off. I don't have a clue how old any of the characters are supposed to be as adults. As marriageable age is like 16 and no one is married yet...I'm like...very confused.
Seriously, how old are the dame characters supposed to be in this thing? Cause in what universe would the princes not already have concubines at their grown ass age?
"I wish for her to remain forever innocent" - the Emperor talking about Zi Gu to her brother Yue Qin. Man pretty much said that he's more adopted Yue Qin's sister as a daughter and not a wife and that he will never have intimate relations with her, and will keep her safe and away from conflict within the court. Kind of love that the other wives of the emperor that I've seen so far seem to like Zi Gu like a daughter/sister and not competition for the emperor's attention/affection.
Does anyone find the scene time for Shumo’s death a bit excessive? Maybe if he’s the trusted sidekick of the…
I feel like it more plays into the 2ML's story than anything. It's showing how close of a friend he lost and how that loss will color his moves/decisions from now on. Yeah, it was a bit on the longer side for a death, but after watching The Long Ballad, extended side-character deaths became par for the course in the revenge/hidden motive anti-hero stories for me.
Me too. Furthermore, the changes (in the drama) made this happy ending acceptable and plausible.
From what I've read in the comments I love that they changed it for the live action adaptation. Making people think you are evil, while actually just working in the shadows to get revenge/justice works so much better imo if a happy ending is what is going to happen. It's like going based off of "historical" documents that actually are just what the victor wanted you to know about the loser...so falsehoods, rumors, and lies incorporated to paint the victor's version of events. But now we are seeing what "actually" happened. (This is how I'm interpreting the differences in novel vs show) If you know anything about royal history from any nation, rumors were used to wipeout potential threats all the time. It's one of my favorite plays on history that artists use in film/television. (Not the Menendez Brothers though...Ryan Murphy seriously what the actual hell are you doing over at Netflix? sit down and stop it; get some help.) I think it's dark enough with him secretly training her for ten years and poisoning her so that she could be used as evidence is enough to show his moral grey anti-hero side. If someone is already willing to die, he kinda just says 'bet' and uses them for his own means.
Yo, what's good?, a viewer commented that lead's gone from Kill Me to Love Me in a heartbeat. I'm over here crying,…
The romance hasn't so much started as the building of trust/understanding is building. The very first..."well, I might actually care if you died." kind of feelings, not "I live and breathe for you" feelings.
With how unreliable the narrators have been with regards to past events I'm always questioning the new information we receive. ML's origins are even in question. Did his mother seduce his father or was his father so "drunk" that he raped a servant and then blamed the servant so his concubine wouldn't be mad at him. The servant, ML's mother, died in childbirth. Though common at this time sus as fuck in this family with Concubine lurking in the shadows. FL's mother died from complications due to childbirth a few years after giving birth to FL. The servant the ML found says she was kidnapped & assaulted, thus resulting in her pregnancy with the FL. She says the mother took drugs to make the birth come early on purpose. Was this to end the pregnancy altogether or was it to make FL's birth not line up with her abduction date? aka hide how she got pregnant. Why was FL's mother throwing out medicine & why was that medicine killing the plants? so many ways to interpret the same information.
Although I'm looking forward to the romance side, I just feel sad that she is eventually going to have to grapple with her true birth story. I didn't read the novel so I don't know if there is another twist, but yeah as of now her origins are a bit traumatic. And if true they both come from non-consensual relations. Honestly don't know why I'm editing my language so much like I'm making a youtube video.
Spending the night together is putting it kindly. He's using her to satisfy his lust as she was disposable and…
That response wasn't present at the time. I was responding to "So you’re saying that they did get intimate whereas the poster above your response said it didn’t happen. Interesting. I’m more on the “yeah, she spent the night with him” theory. 😝" comment.
Spending the night together is putting it kindly. He's using her to satisfy his lust as she was disposable and…
she stayed in his room so that people would THINK something happened, when it didn't. he actively spreads rumors about himself so he can work in the shadows & be disregarded by people as a hedonist & lunatic that murderers anyone he wants. yes, he's using the FL, but she was already on a death mission the moment she entered his home 10 years ago. so he figures her life is forfeit & would better serve the dead(her city & his army) as a martyr. As his army would not harm civilians, the army was killed by the surviving civilians of the city massacre. he barely made it out alive.
So, my question is: Episode 1, he made her stay in his palace for the night. Does that mean they spent the night…
nothing happened between them other than the kiss. He lets outsiders believe that he is lustful & a murderer. She let's people believe she is his so she can be close to him or use that as a reason to cause harm. He wants people to think that he's "taken" her against her will. She wants some people to believe that & others to think she seduced him. She wants to investigate him herself before acting on orders as she doesn't kill the innocent.
I responded to the person above you with the link. Didn't want to spam the feed with really long links. But the WeTV site has a whole bunch of videos up and teasers for upcoming episodes.
Sorry for the late reply. Went to bed right after this then went to work and only just got back to my laptop. Couldn't find the share button so long link it is.
2 
Many children died young, and many women died in childbirth so think of it as hedging your bets so that your household could remain strong/powerful.
Daughters were used to make deals between families. Sons were generally the only ones who could run a business or hold a position in court so being able to produce heirs to take over those family roles were extremely important for the survival of the family.
BTW: I'm not saying this is a GOOD way to have a "stable" family...haha stable...stable of wives...sounded better in my head. Anyway, I've never been a huge fan of using family members as bargaining chips in the power ladder of life, but not my culture, not my problem. (many cultures/classes today see marriage as a business deal of some kind...even in my own country. Women in my country couldn't even have their own bank account until the 70s)
I might have to pause this until we at least get a little past the time jump to adulthood. Cause I've paused it in episode 4 b4 Hae Jun's bio-father starts messing with his life because I know what's coming. Well I at least know that a whole bunch of frustrating misundrstandings are about to happen back to back to back and I want to be able to follow it up with a reunion as quickly as possible. Cause this show was always going to be on the heavy side of "light" because of just the general ups and downs of what the characters go through.
But I really really really need this adaptation to never forgive San Ha's mother for her behavior and for San Ha to go to therapy as an adult once he escapes her again. I don't know if they are just going to have him move to Seoul or if they are going to make it so he's out of the country as well, but the main reason he never went to Ju Won in the years they were apart was because his mother hid his passport so he was unable to leave Singapore and go back to China.
I remember thinking that his relationship with the FL was toxic because it was very much rooted in an obsessive behavior and codependency because of all the trauma his mother inflected on him. My boy needed so THE.RO.PHY bad bad. Don't get me wrong Go Ahead is one of my comfort shows, but I needed more solid visuals/mentions that he was seeking help for his panic disorder.
I feel like we are winding down the first act/arch of the show. I don't know the novel, so I don't know what may or may not be down the road to comment on pacing out specific plot points. But we are now 1/3 of the way through and it feels about right to me.
2/3 should be her living in his mansion and continuing finding evidence against the Crown Prince by getting the witness out of the mines, concluding most likely the reveal that ML was the head of the Shadow Works the whole time. Final 3rd could be wrapping up and making amends. I have no clue how the other main characters stories will play out but I feel like we still have a lot of story and relationship development to cover.
I was watching the archery scene and it has a lot of daytime close-ups of the ML, 3ML and 2FL back to back, and I was like, why does he look so much older than them when they are all supposed to be a few years or even months apart in age? Well at the time of filming....ML & FL were 33, 2ML & 2FL were 25/26 and Crown Prince aka 3ML...45.
Don't get me wrong he looks good for 45, but when the younger actors playing the leads in flashbacks are so close in age it throws me off. I don't have a clue how old any of the characters are supposed to be as adults. As marriageable age is like 16 and no one is married yet...I'm like...very confused.
Seriously, how old are the dame characters supposed to be in this thing? Cause in what universe would the princes not already have concubines at their grown ass age?
Man pretty much said that he's more adopted Yue Qin's sister as a daughter and not a wife and that he will never have intimate relations with her, and will keep her safe and away from conflict within the court. Kind of love that the other wives of the emperor that I've seen so far seem to like Zi Gu like a daughter/sister and not competition for the emperor's attention/affection.
It's like going based off of "historical" documents that actually are just what the victor wanted you to know about the loser...so falsehoods, rumors, and lies incorporated to paint the victor's version of events. But now we are seeing what "actually" happened. (This is how I'm interpreting the differences in novel vs show)
If you know anything about royal history from any nation, rumors were used to wipeout potential threats all the time. It's one of my favorite plays on history that artists use in film/television. (Not the Menendez Brothers though...Ryan Murphy seriously what the actual hell are you doing over at Netflix? sit down and stop it; get some help.)
I think it's dark enough with him secretly training her for ten years and poisoning her so that she could be used as evidence is enough to show his moral grey anti-hero side. If someone is already willing to die, he kinda just says 'bet' and uses them for his own means.
FL's mother died from complications due to childbirth a few years after giving birth to FL. The servant the ML found says she was kidnapped & assaulted, thus resulting in her pregnancy with the FL. She says the mother took drugs to make the birth come early on purpose. Was this to end the pregnancy altogether or was it to make FL's birth not line up with her abduction date? aka hide how she got pregnant. Why was FL's mother throwing out medicine & why was that medicine killing the plants? so many ways to interpret the same information.
Honestly don't know why I'm editing my language so much like I'm making a youtube video.
yes, he's using the FL, but she was already on a death mission the moment she entered his home 10 years ago. so he figures her life is forfeit & would better serve the dead(her city & his army) as a martyr. As his army would not harm civilians, the army was killed by the surviving civilians of the city massacre. he barely made it out alive.
https://wetv.vip/en/play/iwf554loilcazjm-The%20Rise%20of%20Ning/d0046i2tvk7-A%20Wrap%20Special%3A%20Zhang%20Wanyi%2C%20Ren%20Min%20Dancing%20In%20The%20Snow.%20So%20sweet!%20%7C%20The%20Rise%20of%20Ning