MadelineMaureen

She shows up in episode 23 not interacting with any of the leads and she'll be back in episode 25 just in time to blow FL's cover very loudly to everyone.

That last death was the fastest delivered "oh btw so & so is the lord now" I have ever seen. Though Wei Yan's arch was one of the better ones in the whole show.
I just wish that the show could have been 40 episodes to flesh some side things out. I understand why it was 36, but there was definitely enough story told in dialog that could have been shown to pad some runtime. But the story didn't overstay it's welcome so a win is a win in my book.

you have awoken the tism side of me so apologies for the essay below.

'Are You the One' was a good one. They could have fleshed out a bit more with her time in the mountains but smallest of nitpicks.
I swear they better give us a season 2 or movie length finale for 'The Demon Hunter's Romance' we were robbed I tell you ROBBED. But I still loved it to bits.

I liked 'Blossom' s use of how an Emperor can get his hands tied and still move in the shadows with commands. How imperial eunuchs did actually have a lot of power like depicted in the show. The FL was logical and still hesitant to fully trust the ML as she had only heard rumors and then knew him for less than 12 hours prior to dying together and waking up in her 9 year old body. I liked that because she didn't know specifics she could only influence so much ahead of time. And the river/water analogies when it came to changing the past. As this was a second chance at life situation that was edited to pass censorship. Also the fact both the ML and FL have a pair of identical twins as their bodyguards....cherry on top. But the royal/court dynamics and coverups made sense and were later explained in a way that didn't have me going "huh?"

'Love Like the Galaxy' had pretty rich world building and showed consequences of choices made earlier in the show much later. Also realistic and valid response from FL toward the end imo. Like she told him....she told him what her hard line was and he crossed it. She stood on business & I liked that. Also, the court and royal family dynamics were well done. One gripe that I will have with any show that does this....FL was a twin...her twin was a boy and they never really got close at all. Maybe it's more of a western thing to be close to your twin even if they aren't the same gender, but yeah twin hits different than just "sibling" and it wasn't focused on at all. So i think it just must not have been a thing.

'Flourished Peony' so far as there is a part 2 coming soon was really good. Layered and messy, but in a good way. Also the hair and make-up changing depending on her social statue and occupation was a nice change from the "beat to the gods" even though I'm poor FL make-up we usually get. The princess acting like how a spoiled princess would actually behave...no notes.

There were a few others that ended up falling a bit flat in the end.
'The Princess Royal' 2ML was given scenes that originally belonged to the ML in the story thus having him on screen with the FL more often than her ML. It through the whole story off kilter imo. The SML's logic just never made any sense.
'In Blossom' spent about 30minutes on the death of another character in the finally episode and 5minutes(I counted) on the main pairing in the final episode only for it to end on a cliffhanger. Oh, you thought the Leads would be able to ride off into their happily ever after, surprise bitch, the big baddy wasn't actually caught. 🙃
'Love of Nirvana'(he could have survived...damn you Allen and your tragic endings), speaking of Allen...'One and Only' was actually really good, but goddamn they did not pull a single punch....not one.
'Kill Me Love Me'....they literally set up a whole thing about a flower being able to grow and survive no matter what blah blah blah the FL was the flower in the allegory and then they just kill her....it was dumb. Some of the best shot fight scenes though.

3. The only logical reason I could come up with what the writers killed him is because they needed to show Bi Zhi becoming a weapon used by Liu Yan. Liu Yan literally takes his hand and thrusts Bi Zhi's sword into him breaking Bi Zhi's last bit of hope, and no way to truly and fully reconcile with the Weis. Because even though none of the Weis know Bi Zhi was the one holding the sword that killed Wei Liang, HE knows what happened.
But we all knew that with four sidekicks one had to die. I just didn't think it would be him. Also didn't love the fact that Wie Xiao was ready to just straight stab Qiao Ci to death the second he learn of Wei Liang's death. I get it, he still mistrusted the Qiaos, but after his time protecting ManMan, I wanted a bit more hesitation on his part.

4. I really wish she would have had all those flashbacks while trying to run still and gotten trampled by the horses or something. She killed her people and the one sent to protect her...I just think her character was too selfish and self-absorbed to kill herself.
Or been running away with a knife and trip and fall onto the blade. I wanted her death to be an accident because she's an idiot who constantly backstabbed people who loved and cared for her. I didn't want her to have any power left and that includes being able to take her own life on her own terms.

5. If you're talking about Zheng Chu Yu the cousin of Wei Shao....I just didn't like that she died off screen same with Zhen Shi(Xindu's mayor) because they were only present for cameos/guest roles they just didn't have the actors to shoot those scenes. So the whole time I'm waiting for them to pop back up like "surprise false information I'm actually alive!"

Yeah...It was the fact we were finding out he was arrested before we found out about any of the evidence that got him arrested. We were only given hearsay by random alleged refuges from that area, but no proof of who THEY are to back that up. That was why I wrote the comment.

The fact that no one even thought to combat what those people were saying with slander of an official was...odd. I don't mean lock the people up but at least interrogate them. But by that time there were people the bad guys had paid off to lie about how the volunteers were acquired.

I also find it extremely odd that her father had no trusted servants or seconds(commanders) that would have gotten back to the capital or to the FL to warn her. These type of generals generally have at least 5-10 men under them that then command different sections of the army. The fact he has no loyal men come with him to the capital with his family nor are any still living or mentioned with the exception of like 2 foot soldiers was just weird. The only person that was under his command that is given a name turns on him to work for the bad guys.

For someone who has been with this army for decades....it's just bad writing. There are a lot of "we need this person to be here so we are going to make it happen no matter how illogical it is that they would be able to get here." style writing. He was this big bad general that everyone wanted to be able to influence through the marriage of his daughter, but he was undone in like 2 weeks after the Emperor married his daughter off to the prince. He should have never sent the father in the first place. The Emperor KNEW people would be wanting to take him off the board, and he just let it happen.
The poor writing of logic when it comes to the characters' choices just constantly throws me out of the story. When it's the main couple being all cute and all Nancy Drew, it's fine, but the second the writers try to do politics or military anything my brain goes...."huh?"
I've seen so many of the period dramas at this point that the ones that do the "world building" poorly stick out a bit.
Everything else is enjoyable about the show, but the writing(and possibly editing) out of order doesn't work for the tone of the show imo.

He left on horseback with his son cradled in his arm. It is implied but not outright stated that he went back to Boya to raise their son and protect him. The remaining Qiao family members saw him off.

If you are coming to the comments now that the show is over and seeing how it's being received to decide whether or not to start it, this comment is for you.

Start the show already. What are you waiting for? I don't believe you'll be disappointed in anyone's performance. The director understood tension and the push and pull that is sooooo needed for this type of show.
Spoiler Liu Yu Ning makes it till the very very end....no violent/vague death for him this time. He wasn't even poisoned ONCE. Let us all collectively cheer our good fortune...and his.

I did give her credit. I was dogging on the writers not the actors.

Sorry to point this out, but you are misusing the word cinematography. Given the context of the sentence I believe you meant to type cinema. So I'm assuming auto correct took over.
I watch a LOT of film, movies, tv shows and dramas. It's my niche interest(Cinematography specifically...aka the camera work, framing, lens choices etc.) and I watch content from any country as long as I can find a link to a English subbed version. I watch low budget to highest of budgets....but going rouge on your on established logic is where no matter how turned off my brain is it comes back on in full force. If I'm watching a Telegu movie I know that physics just isn't a thing. No matter what you, as a viewer might think, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang could still make an appearance at any moment.

I just don't like it when shows go against previously established parameters within a show. The show has established that she is not strong or fast....the shows has continuously reenforced ML's speed and strength as well as the speed and strength of those who work under him. He is shown to have the ability to silence someone with two touches so fast they barely noticed they've been touched. The fact they didn't just have him knock her out and get sent off with the uncle and cousin is an odd choice.
They wanted a shot of her crying over the dead body of her father, but they didn't come up with a better way to get her into the room. If they can take the time to have her sitting in silent mourning for her father they had the time to establish a better contrivance to get her in the cell. (Also shout out to the editing team who let those mourning moments really breathe.)
example: Sneaking past the guards as they were too busy dealing with calming down other prisoners or carrying out an order. They could have had the cousin act as a distraction. Have her(FL) go along with ML and make him think she's going back home and then circle back.
Even just simply having the timing of ML's information being too slow so that she was already inside the prison when her father's death is reported. It's more believable that the chain of telephone was too slow rather than him being too weak to stop his pocket sized wife.

Okay so glad I've picked up more Mandarin over the past year or so because I would be missing the title calling as it's just being translated as a name instead of "brother-in-law" CONTEXT MATTERS subbers please stop being lazy and translate what phrase they are actually saying.

So the math in episode episode 31 is either mistranslated or just plain wrong. Said they started with 100,000. The lost(dead) 56,938. 4,276 are injured. 18,052 ran away and they said they have 36,934 left....is MY math wrong? They should only have 25,010 including the injured....so they really should only have 20,734 mobile troops left in the context of the conversation.....where are the other 16,200 people coming from?

Help me out with some math in episode 31 pretty please.

Marking as spoiler because DUH episode 31. So please continue to mark replies as spoilers as well, as a lot of new people will be joining the chat now that the show is finished.

(edit: for context when it comes to the tone of voice to read this in....i was laughing the whole time. by face did the golden retriever head tilt & then i couldn't stop laughing at the writers choices. i feel a lot of people are reading this comment in bad faith, instead of the jokie joke that it was meant to be. end of edit)
I just need to know how a 5foot 1 95lbs soaking wet girl bodied past not one, not two, but THREE grown ass men to get into a cell? That's not even mentioning the OTHER guards that should have been able to block their entrance. All so she could be in that scene.....that is just stupid writing imo. Her husband has picked her up one handed MULTIPLE times, but all of a sudden he can only grab her wrist and she can easily twist out of it? Okay, uh huh, sure Jan.
Writers, please do better. If it doesn't make sense for a character to be in a scene DO NOT PUT THEM IN THE SCENE. It's that simple. Great performances, but illogical excision.

All the women's clothes are tailored to the high heavens, but the men's clothes look like they were made fore someone with extra shoulder span. I know that that was a style at some point, but I believe it was at a much later time than depicted. Though this isn't really set in a particular era imo.

The fact people get convicted by hearsay before even being able to defend themselves or show any evidence is actually wild. So you can be a trusted general one minute and your whole family killed the next just because 3 strangers from nowhere said you failed at your job. There are no actual reports of what was going on.....this is so stupid and dumb.

Oh bless your heart, darlin. Someone needs a hug.

wow, actual death threats in a comment section of a drama page....that was...a choice.

(Edit after writing the body of the comment: The other people are making me go full auntie mode. So any comment that might sound harsh is not towards YOU Klio but the others who need to go outside and touch some grass. )

She's a good actress though....like....what are people on about? I would understand more if she couldn't act, but literally everything I've seen her in she stole(no pun intended) the scene from the more senior actors. I understand needing to investigate her parents further, as that ties into things I can't understand and implications far reaching.

But she was a MINOR when she originally played this part(there is a whole other story about this that I'm sure most are aware of...if not, google is free)....She has since grown(mind you STILL a MINOR) into a fine(talent not meaning appearance) young actress. She holds her own against seasoned veterans in the industry.

I can understand most of the discourse, but people who are calling her a bad actress are either making comments in poor faith & have never seen her work a day in their life, or wouldn't know good acting if it hit them in the face.

Why did iQiyi suddenly stop having proper subtitles after episode 12? They were fast and at the same time as release just a few days ago and now it's over 24hours and STILL episode 12-15 only have AI subtitles? I know the platform overall is in a tailspin and possibly changing hands soon, but can we get some sort of clarification as to why yall suck this week?

People in the comment section really don't like to have free things huh? Seriously are yall dumb? Use the damn spoiler tag or edit the name of the site.

How many sites have to go the way of the dodo before you realize YOU ARE THE PROBLEM? Bring back gatekeeping. RIP to all our former favs that died too early because of idiots who can't keep their trap shut.