Msfi

That's the entire point of his story arc though once he no longer needed the power after solving his brother's murder.

When the army chief finally turned against the Emperor and lied about BYL that was *chef's kiss* seeing him all alone, abandoned, on the verge of complete collapse. I thought that was the perfect way to close out the Emperor's story.

I like endings where not everything is wrapped up. Respects the audience's intelligence and ability to imagine what has happened. In the end everyone seemed to get their just desserts. Peter Ho was magnificent in the final episodes. Some great twists and a relief to have a laugh after many heavy episodes. Although it was XD who said, "what if I go crazy for once", BYL's take on that was brilliant.

Censorship, kisses, tons of stuff blurred out in background in later episodes yes, well. I am not too sad. Just glad about the endless BTS leaks to fill in some of the gaps for us. Honestly I am actually more amazed at the narrative that has been allowed to remain - it's edgy - adultery, rebellion, what is justice etc. So curious what else beside skinship got left on the cutting room floor. I'm so engrossed in this show. And both leads are just epic.

It seemed deliberate to me, like she wanted them to be caught. She just seemed to regret the trail she left when XD said they were going to leave the next day.

no Wonder Maybelline signed Dylan up! LOL

I have laughed so much. It’s so good. Dark funny good!

Excellent work. So here for it!

Also my head is spinning since I would have thought the character pretending to be the princess’s maid in ep 10 was far more troublesome than a few meals and kisses. 😂

I think you are right that there are two things at play: two trials to pass the censors sure, but yes also seems to be a new trend to attract clicks and traffic (and VIP?) via cut scenes. We saw that with Yu Shuxin’s last show. Not a good trend.

The only cut scenes I’ve seen on billibilli etc so far look like rehearsals? It seems a little unclear exactly what was cut, editing is choppy. I am enjoying the show but what gets cut and what doesn’t changes constantly and what might have been ok 3-4 years ago isn’t now. I remember people commenting on Dylan’s ‘disappearing’ earrings in MG. They didn’t disappear, they were blurred as the rules changed between filming and airing.

Plenty of articles elsewhere about how they want the industry to focus more on modern ‘realistic’ dramas. Maybe they think butchering historical and fantasy works instead will kill the genre. Sad.

Yes, extremely bad edit there

Such a tiny thing I noticed but… there’s a lot of deleted scenes and blurring going on… was one of the dishes in ep 10 blurred out? Why? Looked like deep fried prawns.

Unexpected black comedy which I am enjoying immensely. And enough suspense to keep the story moving.

I feel like this style of character is common in this type of drama, but the thing with the incense and a few other moments were like her saying, not sure I can’t trust you yet, I’m testing you… I just have this feeling maybe she will deceive him later on?! Surely she has secrets too? I like FL so far, she’s very spunky

Every Chinese drama I have ever watched, the main plotline is always a mirror of the tactics between the first and second couples in terms of what they did to get the girl/boy, which is pretty clever in terms of how you emotionally respond to the setups but the framing of the second couple in every drama is usually so blah that it doesn't work.

Absolutely dying how cringe the dubbed English language conversations are in episode 21. Dude is at "Cologne Y University". The scientific conference was like a rockstar concert, like no academic conference I've ever seen. So bad it is hilarious. Sad because it started out so good, loved the research plot!

It started off so cute but ugh 😩 still persisting until the end holding out hope for our main couple

100% agree with your assessment.