PeachBlossomGoddess

The worst part is that SZE hasn't made anything in 2 years. So its gonna be a long time before we see her again in another period costume drama.

I love her nose and the fact that it sometimes awkwardly gets in the way. Its what gives her face character.

Wow Qiao Yue is really the kind of dad even a daughter can't love!!!

To each their own. I had to prop my eyelids open with toothpicks for Zanghai and dropped at ep 3. I did find the middling episodes of TPOB a bit draggy and lacking in plot. I don't think its the best drama ever or even this year but at least it didn't bore me from the start.

Zhonglin is the ML's style or courtesy name, which is the name given to him at his coming of age which should be around age 20. From then, outside of his parents and the emperor/superiors, no one can address him by his given name. Even his wife is cannot use his given name, it is considered disrespectful. She can use his style name but more often, she will just use 夫君 (fūjūn). That's why his hair nearly all fell off when she had the audacity to call him Wei Shao in that one episode.

That would be the Guo Jing prototype to a T.

Indeed in the drama the wheat cooking and replacement arc made no sense at all but nonetheless realistic or not, Lady Yulou was indicted for it. I can't really comment about the novel bc I didn't read it. I am simply judging and commenting on the characters in the drama. But from what I heard, the novel was just a tawdry bodice ripper also not great on plot so I think there was probably nothing lost there.

Yeah I was almost certain they had a fling during filming! 😅😂

Believe it or not, I still think Cheng Yi did the hottest kiss scenes by far with Yuan Bingyan in Love and Redemption. Zhang Linghe is pretty good too. But the most shocking ones are Darren Wang and Li Qin's in The Wolf. I couldn't stop laughing when she described as being sucked by a vacuum cleaner.

In history, the states were well matched and they fought for 60 years. WS who is loosely based on Cao Cao did not succeed in the end, he was defeated at the battle of Red Cliffs when his enemies joined forces against him. But they didn't want to write a real political/war plot bc those are just not that popular and don't leave much room for romance. But I agree with you, they dumbed down the political/war aspect a bit too much.

Yeah it suddenly dawned on her WS could die or be seriously maimed.

I feel WS was very dumb to let her go bc he is the leader of Wei state and he endangered his citizens for the sake of a promise to a dead man. She was not only found guilty of harming Manman, she also destroyed the wheat meant for famine relief for his people. As Wei Liang point out, her punishment should have been execution. He should have judged her by the letter of the law rather than to bend it for her. If he didn't know about the 50k troops I wouldn't be so mad at him.

As for Daqiao she holds a grudge bc her family never accepted back into Yanzhou, where they'd be safe. They have no household registration anywhere and had to settle in a wild place like Boya where they had to defend themselves. I would have to think hard whether its worth risking so much to save this kind of family that cared so little for my survival, esp if I had a child coming along. Even Manman understands her POV even though it made her sad. Daqiao is realistically written and portrayed as a woman of her times. I don't judge her by modern standards. Whereas Manman's knowledge of war strategies etc is not that believable for an ancient Han woman.

Oh excellent - are you watching the Yang Yang version?

Well strictly speaking gege is an older male relative like a brother or a cousin, especially in ancient setting. But in modern times, its also been used a lot more casually as a respectful form of address to an older dude who may not be related - like I sometimes call male colleagues, contractors, taxi drivers or waiter "ge". One of my besties loves to address our waiters as "shaui ge" or hey handsome to get better service. And during my parents time women frequently addressed their husbands with a ge after their name.

Yes indeed - hence the huge controversy over the fact that the FL addressed the ML as gege in Hidden Love (which I didn't watch). But in Jin Yong's famous Condor Heroes series the FL calls the ML Jing gege. Now you rarely see that in c-dramas anymore. My mom used to attach the word ge to my dad's name when I was a kid (now she only calls him old rascal). And most of my aunts addressed their husbands that way too and we had no marrying cousins in our family. All of this went out of fashion along with marrying cousins.

I believe throughout Chinese history táng cousins are not allowed to marry. Maybe some ethnic minority tribes allowed it but not Han Chinese.
CP = character pairing.

Chinese have always differentiated between paternal cousins (堂/táng and maternal cousins (表/biǎo). Feudal Chinese were very patriarchal and women marry into their husbands family and the entire extended family lives together. All the paternal cousins share the same surname and the same generation name - they are considered almost siblings and much closer than maternal cousins. Maternal cousins are rarely raised together and they all have different surnames so they were allowed and in fact encouraged to marry each other to keep the assets in the family. The Chinese classic novel Hongluomeng or Dream of the Red Chambers is all about a guy who is in love with one cousin but had to marry another cousin - both maternal of course. It wasn't so bad in feudal times bc men often had many wives so often siblings are really half siblings/have different mothers. So when their their kids marry it didn't result in as many genetic issues.

Until the 1980s when it became established that maternal and paternal cousins should NOT marry, there were tons of biǎo ge and biǎo mei love stories. In fact the CP excessively addressed each other like to that to emphasize they can date and like each other. In fact during my parents time, Chin Han and Brigitte Lin were the hottest Taiwanese superstar couple that must have made a hundred biǎo ge and biǎo mei romance movies together. So much so they got married for awhile in real life but it didn't work out. Now no one watches those old movies anymore bc of the ewww factor. My folks know quite a few couples who were maternal cousins that married. It is fairly common in their time.

Its a lost cause dude. Both the novelist and the screenwriter are women.😂

Lol - my bro and I grew up in and out of each others homes with my 7th uncle's kids. So I refer to his daughter as my sister bc I don't have one but my bro calls her is cousin. And I call her two brothers my cousins bc my own bro doesn't like me to call them my brothers AND bc they were naughty boys at school so I just told our schoolmates they were my cousins. It confused the hell out of everyone bc we all have the same surname and went to the same school.

Oh yes video leaks should be spoiler tagged.

Tang cousins cannot marry. Biao cousins can and often did until the 1980s when it was established scientifically that cousins regardless of tang or biao shouldn’t marry. So during ancient extended family time when they all live together tang cousins always refer to each other as brothers or sisters they drop the tang. But biao cousins don’t and they are less close bc they rarely live together.