PeachBlossomGoddess

Yeah at this rate when they finally kill him off I am going to be so relieved I may have to pop champagne. Sadists.

YM is super lazy she just mouths her lines bc she knows its gonna be dubbed. Then she makes a movie and she finds she is so rusty she can only squeak!
LOL my friends are all perfectly bilingual they are super hard to please and make fun of me because my Chinese is the worst. But ignorance is bliss, I am more easily entertained :).
Hear you on Longest Day - I thought of it as edu-drama and I watched it very slowly... I enjoyed it nonetheless.

Don't get me wrong, I think Ni Ni is one of the best c-drama actresses and she is overall awesome (so far) in this show. But one of the key elements of her relationship with NIng Yi is they can go toe to toe and he doesn't always win. This is where she falls down. She is not innately an intense, ruthless or complex person whereas Chen Kun is. And she has light brown eyes, she seems a mild personality in real life. Contrast that with Yang Mi who is a very mediocre actress IMHO - yet she has this screen presence, vitality and intensity that is undeniable and it carries her. Maybe it is her eyes that are fierce and flash - if you put her toe to toe with anyone she can hold her own even though she can't act as well. Its not obvious with Ni Ni unless she is challenging or clashing with Ning Yi/Chen Kun. But in all those scenes she comes across as weak. With all the other characters this is not that obvious. All that said, I am a huge fan of Ni Ni.

I tried to get my friends who live in Beijing to watch Longest Day in Changan with me when they were visiting me this summer. They bailed after 3 episodes because they were bothered by the variation in the accents. I think the variation in that show was much more obvious than ROP where it is very subtle and you have to listen hard. I regularly meet people from all over China for work and I can hear Chengdu, Shanghai, GZ, Fujian, Wuhan etc so the dubbing was odd and the natural recording always is better for me.

Interesting. My friend told me the book is sad and boring so I didn't read it and didn't understand that CP had that much power but if that is the case then emperor is less of a deranged and paranoid lunatic. In terms of the drama itself, I know its still playing out but for me anyway, this part doesn't completely make that much sense. Yet (?) At this point though (and to your point of why you are angry at emperor), they are really in danger of going too far in terms of torturing CP. Some dramas overdo CGI, some overdo slow-mo action scenes... this drama is in high danger now of overdoing the sadness and the scheaming. Its too much and now to the point it don't make sense and is getting repetitive in terms of torturing the CP. Next stop = boring. I am a happy person I resent being made to cry for no reason.. I still like this for many many reasons but I have no words to encourage anyone getting off the bus here because I get it why they would. This show is losing momentum for me for the first time.

How does making Zhao empress stop the investigation? You mean the empress is above the law even though the emperor is not? What stops the investigation on Zhao is scapegoating WX - that is independent of whether he promotes Zhao. This is the only logic hole I am trying to point out. Agreed on all the rest.

NP - its just a minority, speculative and probably ultimately incorrect theory. Btw book readers are adamant that he doesn't know her. If I were adapting or rewriting it however, I would have done it this way or at least teased viewers with this possibility.

From memory, the two words were 貞(loyal, true, incorruptible, chaste) and 繆 (false, erroneous). In the context of his teacher, the second character implies he was complicit in the student revolt either through negligence, incompetence or outright deception. The emperor argued that if Lu Ying was not the instigator then the teacher must be to blame even if indirectly.. That is why shifu killed himself - to take responsibility. Of course CP was not going to allow his teacher to be disgraced like that so he could not save Lu Ying's family. This was my read but as a result of laziness and neglect, I am not as well versed in the deeper meanings in Chinese characters and literature as many other viewers so I am happy to be corrected in this.

He can stop the investigation on Zhao without promoting her. It just seems extreme paranoia against CP and puts Qi equally eligible to be CP. I know the plot is still unfolding but so far it seems a flimsy and poorly reasoned development in the plot.

What the emperor did is in character for him - he is utilitarian and is willing to bide his time when dealing with his enemies. What I don't understand is how promoting Zhao balances power against Gu other than it makesr Qi and 5th prince elgible to succeed him? It feels like he is once more actually balancing power against CP? I do think letting Gu Fengen go was a mistake on CP part and validates some of the father's criticism of the son.

Nope

You are probably right. Yours is the popular and much more widely held opinion. Btw - you should spoiler tag that.

The main lead is definitely ruthless, badass and not perfect. There definitely is a triangle as in three men love her and vie for her affections but she is never that into anyone other than the main lead..

I dozed off mid-38 last night, I probably have to re-watch it. You can make both cases very strongly - this drama deliberately teases you with both possibilities. Its not clear exactly when but once he realized who she was and what she had done, I think he was angry at her audacity - he once observed that she was too daring and would certainly be a troublemaker. He cannot confront her without busting her so he shows her through his actions that he means to honor his bargain, that she must be a stranger to him. Since she plays along, he accepts her presence realizing their interests are aligned wrt Lu Ying and understands her motive. He clearly doesn't treat her like an ordinary servant and he is so smart and naturally suspicious it no longer makes sense that he didn't put two and two together. Most of the time when he is speaking to his wife, I feel he is talking to her. They are soulmates it is even obvious to his wife. And as CP, he is raised to expect to have many wives it would be out of character for him to have such monogamous inhibitions (yups gives me rashes also).

It is still a guess, especially exactly what moment he figured it out. But if you watch it from the point of view that he pretty much knew all along then this show and all their interactions are so much more painful. I was a mess the whole way I mostly wished I was wrong.

I am only at 38 and I don't watch trailers/spoilers so not sure what exactly you are asking but if you open spoiler above I wrote my best guess of what is happening.

This drama leaves some things deliberately ambiguous and I wonder if it will answer that particular question. I am in the minority camp that believes that he recognized her almost right away but cannot acknowledge her or at the very least is unwilling to admit who she is even to himself. What is key (episodes 17-19) is that he traded their relationship for his teacher's posthumous reputation and Lu Ying and son's lives. It was the only way to protect WX and he did it because he loved her but it cost them their relationship. She finally understood his sacrifice when she promised that from now on they would be strangers, meaning she also intends to honor his bargain. I think they both know they know each other but pretend to be strangers. They had both already agreed to move on and give up on their relationship. When they meet again she is there to save her family and he has to make the best of his new marriage and finally win his father's approval. He is genuinely quite enamored with his new wife but I was always of the view that when he made the comment that there are many beautiful women in the palace but he only has eyes for one it was directed at WX. There is of course the possibly stronger consensus view he doesn't know who she is and hence the big surprise reunion that everyone is anticipating.
Once she had infiltrated the palace, it is also impossible for the CP to ever acknowledge her as Lu Wenxi - he would probably have to send her home and he has come to see her a possible ally in a palace where he is surrounded by enemies. And now that Lu Ying is dead and WX is out for revenge it better suits her purpose to be Gu A' Bao. That is also why he beat her - she is an obvious suspect in the murder of his wife and child - in particular if he knows she is WX she has motive, means and opportunity. All reasons why I am not exactly holding my breathe that he finally recognizes or acknowledges her anytime soon. Anyway its just my guess because I think they are both too smart to not know but I could be wrong.

You are definitely not alone.

Heheh the face hair at the end was just terrible (I sneaked a peak).
I love Ni Ni's acting in general but she lacks intensity and there is nothing much she can do about it. I feel it was the wrong pairing with someone as dominating onscreen as Chen Kun. She did a good job just wrong pairing. She was perfectly cast in L&D though.
I like the sound a lot it seems more natural and I can hear slight different accents and not the official perfect Mandarin which no one I meet in real life speaks...:)

I have a feeling you are one of the ones that will like this one (so am I). I am watching with a friend who got halfway through the book. She claims the drama has changed many things and is more interesting. She abandoned the book and I won't even try. My Chinese reading is as slow as my English reading is fast and it is a self reinforcing problem... LOL!

The CP marries Zhang Luzheng's daughter. He is quite pleased with her. New crown princess is aware of and seems to encourage his interest in WX. Hence triangle that almost becomes threesome. Arrghhs! I feel I got conned into a palace harem - my top avoid genre!!!

It is quite different from NIF, which is also my favorite. That said I liked it anyway -its definitely not filled with cliche tropes. The second half of the drama was more enjoyable for me. Its is also not something to binge - I watched it slowly.