MadelineMaureen

There will be critiquing of the show in this comment. If you don't want to read that, just close this back up and have a good rest of your day/night. This is currently the only of the popular on air shows that I am watching aka please know that I make these comments in good faith, and don't have any agenda against anyone involved in this production.

Okay...um...how do I say this...were there multiple writers on this project?

I can see that there were two directors...I'm very interested to see the exact episode breakdown of who directed which episode or if this is a case of one is just the second unit or stunt/fight scene director.

I ask and point out these things for a reason. I have enjoyed this show, don't get me wrong, but you cannot tell me with a straight face that there isn't a bit of disconnect at times when it comes to overall tone of the show. I know this is a somewhat common occurrence on longer shows, but I'm getting a bit of whiplash.

I just am really starting to see the cracks in the overall project now that we are at the midway point and I have enough data to look back on past episodes. There are some really strong scenes in this show, but now the meh or down right "what was that?" moments are less few and far between and more like multiple an episode.

It just...doesn't really have a strong identity as a production. Do you know what I mean? I can almost guaranty that within a month this project will have been long forgotten, barring a great back-half turnaround. The film language is a bit all over the place. There are moments where I'm like...oh good coverage of the people in the room/scene noticing what's happening. Or...we love a good hand shot...but there isn't really anything sticking out as an actual style that would be unique to a specific director. It feels like either too many cooks in the kitchen or lack of a distinct voice/leader. Maybe I'm asking too much.

I need someone else who watches crap tones of media to understand what I'm talking about when I say this production lacks a distinct voice. The vibes are just off, and it's not just one department that is struggling to lock-in.

It's very hard to type when I also talk/think with my hands. Lots of Brittany Broski facial expressions as I think about the different aspects of this show. So it's not so ranting and yelling...more like a mental breakdown as I try to articulate my actual feelings/thoughts. Which is hard to do in written format, at least for me.

I enjoyed seeing all the senior actors/actress taking care of AiMi on set. She's a great up and coming young actress. Getting the opportunity to lead a production like this so early on could be overwhelming, but all of the bts footage she seems very relaxed & cared for.

Do I still have some reservations about the age gap, yes. But it's also nice to see an actress playing a character who is the same age. It definitely brings a perspective that gets kind of glossed over when the 15-20 year old characters are all played by people in their 20s & 30s.
I'm hopeful that she had on set advocates to help empower her to say no to anything she may have been uncomfortable with, but I dont know the Chinese television industry as well as I do the current US policies.

The Wei's have command over the bureau that the plans came out of as they hold the title of Marquis of Zhenguo. It's why she goes to Wei Jun in the first place. because the investigation needs to remain a secret she presented it in the guise of a proposal. When the Wei family's honor & line are in danger she joins them to insure that she'll still have access to the fish tally that belongs to the Marquis title & commands the bureau.
if they lose the title the bureau not only switches hands but there would be major personal changes that would muddy the waters/trail even more.
Saving the Wei family honor is also saving her from having to wait for the next person to take the title & trying to get close to them.

no. I think she's concerned with the future of her son's family & doing the duty of both older sister & matriarch. She's very observant & notices how Yun looks at Yu when they are in the hall with all the other women. She noticed how he deferred to Yu before doing anything, and how secretive they've been lately. She may have brushed off her suspensions for the time being because of Yun & Yu working to get Yao Jue back into the safety of the Wei house. But she's intelligent both intellectually & emotionally. so, what you're seeing is her obversing others and taking notes.

3 of the 4 had small children, and the 4th was pregnant the last time the men went to war, which could explain not going with them to the front. The 5th sister-in-law preferred music, but was still trained by her husband.

Most had been married into the family for at least 5 years by the time the brothers died. So normal marriage age being around 15-20 for the woman that's anywhere from 5-15 years of daily spear/weapons training.(though I'm thinking the characters ages are actually younger than the actress' ages so maybe less than 15 years) Also, the "never underestimate someone who wants revenge/to avenge a fallen loved one" trope seems to be at play.

Was it a little unbelievable, sure. But so are the gravity defying spins every other episode. So I personally didn't think too hard on it until you pointed out the lack of actual build up.

Production should have foreshadowed this ability more in episodes 1 and 2. There should have been a scene of family training or one of the women speaking up about being able to hold their own so why can't I go with you this time....type of conversations happening. Hell even throwing in a line about keeping up the kids training while the husbands are away.
There are definitely better ways to plant the seeds of 'even when you marry into the Wei family they never leave you defenseless for long'.

Production left a single breadcrumb to follow instead of really laying a foundation that would make them taking on hidden troops more believable, even if they had back up.

The taboo love story isn't going to really kick up until the midway point. It's 40 episodes. There are going to be lots of mini arcs before they can really get to the meat and potatoes of the show. They've laid the ground work for his interest in her and will build on her interest in the next episodes. Ep18, 19, 20 they'll be on the run together away from their families. 21 will really start the, but WHY can't we be together...having to hide what happened during their time in hiding storyline.

Not the mamas and the papa coming in clutch to take out the back up forces. I giggled with glee when papa Song came out. TuanTuan definitely snitched either on purpose or on accident, either way Papa to the rescue.

he has two names in the cast list...that should give you a big hint.

I was trying to figure out why I keep thinking of Xu Kai when Zhou Da Wei is talking. It's because I'm pretty sure he played the nephew of Xu Kai's character in As Beautiful as You. But it's also the way his face moves(his facial expressions) and his body movements are similar. I would need to rewatch parts of ABaY again to better assess, but something about face/body structure and how they form their facial expressions seem similar/familiar. please, someone telling me I'm not crazy for thinking this.

I think it's her first one in almost a decade, but i'm not 100 on that.

Loved 'Are You the One?'...so good.
Highly recommend the best recent enemies to lovers who choose each other over and over 'Fated Hearts' it's more action based but I enjoyed how easily they trusted the other to have their own back when they were in battle/fight situations together. It was tit-for-tat, got-you-back enemies to lovers that save each other.

'Prisoner of Beauty': Top tier enemies to lovers story. Strong FL without her needing to pick up a weapon. Funny and serious. Great chemistry. No memory loss that i can remember, but there are many times where their trust of each other is tested. He respects her intelligence and ability to protect his people when he is at war.

'Si Jin': same lead actor as 'Are You the One?'...finally switching up the wigs a bit. This one is a bit of a rebirth story/dream that I forgot about when recommending rebirths in my first comment. 40 episode so my main issues were with the multi cam lighting and other technical aspects of the production. This one is the weakest of the 3 i've listed so far.

'Love of Nirvana': Hidden identity ML, unknown origins FL, prince of foreign nation/not going to tell you because spoiler. Sad/bittersweet ending, but the story/performances were worth it. This one has Allen Ren as the lead so very chaste romance, and he do be liking those sad endings, but I enjoy his character portrayals so, what's a girl gonna do.

'The Rise of Ning': another of Zhang Wang Yi's shows. I believe he filmed this at the same time as 'Are You the One?' That's the only reason I recommend it because it doesn't really fit the enemies to lovers or rebirth or anything you've mentioned. I just think the performances from the leads was good. Also as an aside the 2ml will be teaming up with the FL on an upcoming project with Winwin in the cast as well. They had really great acting chemistry together in this so something to look into if you're interested. It is a morally gray area for some people because it's....a siblings to lovers trope....now hear me out. They aren't actually siblings...but dear lord did they drag out her finding out. ML knows early on, but some viewers really really couldn't get past that, which is very understandable.

You've got me pulling out all my journals. Why use the easily accessible lists on MLD when I can comb through 4 journals of drama notes and write out an essay?

PS: I normally go through someone's watchlist to get an idea of what they've already seen, but girlie pop...you only have this show listed...go add your past show watches. the app/website will also help recommend shows to you based on your watchlist/ratings.

I don't think this is an S tier budget production. so that could also play into the same families over and over.

Yes...actually I do. There will be some that are more implied rebirth as the censorship board has shadow banned this type of drama. So the versions of redo will all vary. in spoiler tag because long comment also if people don't want to know anything about a show before going into it this will save them from my ramblings.

Blossom(2024): Personal favorite. First episode is the future that then becomes the FL's dream/a book in the next episodes to get around censorship. Honestly one of the better shows when explaining why certain things can't change. Great chemistry and amazing director. It was his first standard format drama, beautifully shot. Seriously he thinks of how he wants the shot to look before filming...he is a godsend.

The Double(2024): a little extra with the wind edits, as it's the directors style. This one is a slow burn and you wont see a non0married couple actually kiss on screen just implied or camera angle cheat...so if that is going to be frustrating for you, you might want to skip as it's 40 episodes plus a special episode that you need to watch or else you will question why i would even recommend that journey to you.

Story of Kunning Palace(2023): Dramatic and over the top. Told as though it is an author rewriting her book after not liking the ending. This director's style is a hit or miss with me, but the overall story and cast are great. Bit of a yellow flag ML and FL...so the morally gray is cool.

The Princess Royal(2024): Not my favorite as i think they let the 2nd ML have too much airtime over the ML(it was something the novel readers pointed out) but this one has a married couple who are on the outs at the end of their lives who get reborn into their teenage selves before they are married. A lot of people really loved this one...I still lowkey struggle with little sickly-Victorian-child-Wormtongue-esk 2nd ML...sorry not sorry.

Scent of Time(2023): only watch this one if you want to cry...they did NOT i repeat NOT have the best version of the shadow ban work around. If you like the actors I would give it a go, but you have been warned, it ends in heartache for the viewers. the performances were great, but those writers can....fill in expletive of choice.

EDIT: Forgot one
Legend of the Female General(2025): They work around the born into another person's body by just having FL recover from blindness, being stabbed in the chest, and yeeted off a cliff.(suspend your disbelief) Great chemistry from the leads. Very Mulan like story. I had forgotten that technically speaking it is a rebirth genre. They had to do a lot of post edits on this one, so it's not as "clean" a story flow as it could have been. (an actor was banned and they had to digitally replace him so the show could air)

Based on your favorites list I think you could enjoy this one. It's not a 10/10 in my opinion, but it's a solid 8 at the moment...just waiting to see how the writers develop the story as there are always a lot of subplots happening in 40 episode dramas.
Definitely more of a slow burn romance. Not until ep11 that the gloves, so to speak, come off for the ML. She's still focused on other things/oblivious to romance as of episode 13.

I will say that Huang Ri Ying, who plays TuanTuan, is adorable and I enjoy watching her character's interactions with Chu Lin Yang. So I like their little side bits.

So in conclusion...if you have the time I would at the very least checkout episodes 1-4. There is a slight tone shift back to lighter moments after ep7. So if you think it's too sad...it will swing back.

Brother was never interested in FL. He clocked his little brother's crush on her and teased him about it. Even implied that there was another person he had feelings for who is NOT the FL. He just wanted to get justice for Chu Yu's family/army because it happened under his family's nose. They(Wei) are in charge of the Arsenal bureau that the blueprints of the crossbow leaked from. He never had any interest in her romantically....he even left a letter if he didn't comeback from war that whomever finds the letter should help her. He is a gentleman and worried about her reputation, but outside of a sense of duty, no, Wei Jun had no attachment to Chu Yu. And Chu Yu was only looking for an in to the Wei family to gain access to the Arsenal Bureau and seeking an ally to investigate. She knows Jun's reputation and character and seeks his aid. When he dies, she knows that if his family falls the bureau will go into another family's hands so she does everything to protect the Wei family and make sure that Yun inherits the Marquis of Zhenguo title.
So they were more like co-workers...not actually ever seriously thinking about marriage. She told him she would think of a way to get out of the engagement and save his reputation as she didn't care about her own anymore.

Question.
In the novel is the age gap between the Princess and Hanmei as big as the one between the actors?(16 years)

Hanmei was a bad ruler or the Princess's husband was a bad ruler?

most likely. I'm not sure she uses her own voice for period dramas, she might not have the diction for it. Apparently it's the most common reason someone is dubbed outside of schedule/time restraints.

Youthful and playful, but cunning and intelligent. He's the 7th son of a general who was very very loved and sheltered by his family when it comes to certain things outside of fighting and strategy. So he's naive when it comes to women and romance, but not about politics, battle, education, court dynamics etc. He was focused on winning battles not on getting a leg up in society or wooing the ladies of the court. Having so many older brothers already married that was the last thing on his mind until FL showed up.

Jiang Chun, 2nd brother Wei Shu's wife. She is the mother of the eldest nephew and the new matriarch(?) of the family...Old Madame Wei gave her the keys to the house which is a big deal, so she runs the household. She's also now in charge of the care of the two other Wei children.
Wang Lan the youngest of the wives was married to 6th brother Wei Rong. She is currently pregnant and couldn't bring herself to leave the Wei family. She choses to guard her husband.

Xie Jiu was married to the 5th brother, Wei Ya. They had a strained relationship. Not exactly sure what was wrong. but her family are the Xie family(grand tutor) and seems to be getting a LOT of family pressure. I think she respected her husband and his family, but felt very trapped. I think theirs was more a political/arranged marriage, not a love match. I think she knows some things that we haven't been clue in on just yet.