QuixPhix

They meant tomorrow's episode.

She's a shameless princess. It's that simple. She does what she wants when she wants it. She likes who she likes and doesn't like who she doesn't like. If she likes you she takes liberties with you.

THAT is her character. It's not something that wasn't done well or something to be disappointed about. You're watching a character who has a shameless nature, even if that's just her public front. The drama does not need to do any romance buildup because her character doesn't give a shit about that. She just wants to get drunk or touch, kiss and play with her male favorite. It's that simple.

Now, if you don't like such a character then fair enough, you can say you don't like such a character. But you cannot criticize a drama simply because it isn't moving how you want it to move. The way the drama is moving is a way that fits the character Ziyi plays here.

In the novel they weren't connected. Both houses faced each other across the street.

In the drama I guess you have to fill in that she probably got the water connection made for his sake.

True. You're right. He wouldn't have wanted to drag her into the mess.

Well, he wanted to prove that what the princess can do he can do better 😁

I think your perspective is the stronger possibility.

There's a difference between an unconventional character and plain bad behavior. I don't think you should conflate both things. A lot of people were put off by how she invaded those people's home in episode 1 I think. You shouldn't expect people to not criticize that.

His direct enemy is dead already after episode 8. Everything that comes after that is not personal revenge but idealistic "do it for the common people" stuff. So no, it's not similar to LoZH.

I actually suspect Yan Shang told her about that place intentionally, perhaps hoping she'd remember and come there to save him. After all, he's admitted he's not a gentleman.

After the admittedly slow worldbuilding and introducing the majority of the main players and their motivations, shit is now getting real.

No worries, I was a newbie at some point too. But the main thing is that it depends on the dynasty.

Those kind of things were rampant in the earlier ones before Confucianist hypocrisy completely took over in the Song, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Starting from the Song, extreme gender segregation and the cult of female chastity basically became state policy. Royal princesses lost their power and their autonomy then.

(ATC was set in the Ming dynasty. Blossom and The Road to Splendor too. Hence all the talk of chastity arches) .

A lot of princess had male favorites. They controlled their own residences and could do whatever they wanted. Remember the spoiled princess in Love Like the Galaxy?

It's hard to translate the early part of that book into drama form because much of it was boring setup, just the princess being annoying and ordering the poor guy around.

If you've watched Stand By Me the imperial setup is similar. Basically king lost his power to powerful eunuch who's just keeping king alive as puppet and emasculating the crown prince. Crown prince is resentful and secretly planning revenge. Princess pretends to be carefree but wants to join the undercover war against the eunuch. That's pretty much it.

Yeah. Consort Hua Fei finished her off early.

No you're wrong. If she had married Scholar Han it wouldn't have been her choice. It would have been the choice of her parents (and Scholar Li or what's his name). She was just going to accept it to make everyone happy and because she'd be closer to her parents. Or let me put it this way: If LJQ had gone to her parents and they'd accepted, she'd have agreed to marry him just like she agreed to marry scholar Han.

And yes she was freer with Han than with Jinqi because their statuses were closer (and because they interacted every day). I believe JQ was also aware of that, hence why he kept visiting her, rather than inviting her to visit Lin residence or something like that. With time he might have found a way to bridge that gap in her mind but there was no time. Politics called and he had to answer the call.

So yes, he did something shameful and nuked her plans but it's important to clarify his motivations.

Seems you forgot Lan Xiang would have married Scholar Han if not Jin Qi. Han was gonna go to the capital, be a scholar, then a minister. Eventually she'd have had to walk, on tenterhooks as a minister's wife. The only difference is she wouldn't have dealt with as a large a family as the Lin's. But she wouldn't have been free either way.

You made it sound like if Jin Qi didn't bring the marriage decree she'd have been a free bird able to do whatever she wanted without restrictions. This wasn't the case. Her choices were a big cage or a lesser one.

And also, Jin Qi didn't marry her by force because he thought she wouldn't accept a direct proposal. He did it to prevent Scholar Han from marrying her instead. He was away with the crown prince in the capital trying to secure the throne. He didn't have time to be wooing her in person. He wasn't even in Jinling when the marriage decree came.

Don't think so.

He's just paranoid because she seems to care about her divine constables like Meng Rui. He wants her to be a robot that only cares about the orders he gives no matter who's hurt in the process.

Not to argue but "so many stupid dramas get a rating of 9". Isn't that a bit overstated?

Just searched MDL for Chinese costume dramas and only 7 have a score of 8.9 or above. That is an exclusive list, and rarefied air given there's more than a thousand costume dramas out there.

It's like this.

Founder of the Kingdom (Hongwu) > Has several children including 4th Prince (Yongle) > Hongwu first son (Yiwen) who was Crown Prince died > His first son's son (Jianwen) became the new king after Hongwu died > Yongle rebelled, dethroned Jianwen, and became king > Yongle's son Hongxi is the current king right now.

ML helped Jianwen's son (who was the CP during his father's reign) to escape overseas, which is treason.