PeachBlossomGoddess

Who would expect to learn new English words in a Chinese drama???

Heh, well if I try it again I will ignore the bgm...

Hihi - Yeah.... finally found something I want to watch! You are right it has a JOL feel but it is different. I dropped JOL after 5 episodes, the humor did not at all work for me. This one I like a lot better, to the point I may have to think about revisiting JOL. Idk re the bgm I don't remember what it was in JOL...

This really makes the case for non-idol dramas where the leads can actually act and the story is really fresh.

This is hilarious - they recycled some of the costumes from Qing Qing Zi Jin and possibly even from In A Class of Her Own.

They are advertising for Pinduoduo within the storyline! That is brilliant and hilarious!!!

Finally... a much more balanced first impression:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-rKKMNcmt0&t=197s

LMAO - "fanfic written by a 10 years old" - that's insulting to 10 year olds... :)

I don't like it either. The FL is like some crazy-ass energizer rabbit on steroids. But I am passing time with this waiting for other stuff to air.

I am surprised he hasn’t already....

He still has Xie clan and other ambitious allies behind him and that was always the risk of keeping him alive. He snuck away from the mausoleum to plot not only with Helen Zhen.

I don’t need subs but I see that YouTube China Zone channel is subbing it quite fast.

Its all good except she often out-dresses the empress and the dowager... And poor Xiao Qi he looks so spartan and impoverished by comparison... A few yards less will feed Xiao Qi's army and make it easier for her to escape these dicey situations she finds herself in... just saying...

That was a very cold conversation between A'wu and Helan Zhen. I think she suspects he killed/tried to kill Xiao Qi.

I wish you would disappear forever. Ouch.

That was a great conversation but it was complicated. At that moment Huaien thinks that Xiao Qi is dead already and one of his conditions for helping Wang Su is that they investigate and clear the names of Xiao Qi and the Ningshou army. And the second condition is that they find Wang Xuan. And you can see from the calculating look on Wang Su's face that he knows Huaien has the hots for his sister. So it is hard to exactly say he has betrayed Xiao Qi and Awu. It was just that he had an epiphany then and there that for all the righteous principles they fought for, they were all chess pieces and they serve at the mercy of fickle and ungrateful masters. In the end Xiao Qi could not protect him and his Ningshou army. So I think that is when he decides to be ruthless and throw his lot with someone with the ultimate power to protect him.

So brilliantly cast.... they look increasingly alike.

Zilv is Jian Ning wang's illegitimate son. They are allied with the Huan family, another aristocrat family - Wang Su's wife's family.

Yes for the most part it is between the Wangs and the Xies. The Wens and the Gus also occasionally take sides as suits their own interests, usually against Wang Lin because he is too powerful. They are usually involved in sub-plots and are not that important in the grand scheme of things.
Re second prince major spoiler don't open if you don't want to be spoiled.

There are four aristocrat families that vie for power behind the throne - the Wangs, the Xies, the Gus and the Wens. The Wangs who have some military power and the Xies who control food supplies are the most powerful. The Wangs gained the upper hand when Wang Lin helped emperor Ma secure the throne over his brother Jian Ning Wang. They have a power sharing agreement and the emperor always makes a Wang clan woman the empress. Both Wang Lin and the emperor are discontented with this arrangement - Wang Lin is the smartest and most dangerous contender for the throne. Then there are emperor Ma's own sons - Zilong (the eldest crown prince, son of Wang Lin's sister); the unfavored second prince Zilv who is allied with emperor Ma's brother Jian Ning wang and finally Zidan the favourite son by the emperor's favourite consort Gui (from Xie family). You can see why A'wu's refusal to marry the crown prince caused the existing power balance to shift. The emperor was secretly hoping to unseat the crown prince and replace him with Zidan (which is why he was willing to allow Awu to marry Zidan). Wang Lin and his sister obviously did not like that turn of events as the Xie clan would be more powerful than the Wang clan. Wang Lin is also personally ambitious as he thinks the emperor's heirs are all weak and unworthy. So initially there are 4 parties in the power struggle - Wang Lin and the 3 princes.