Saffy88

All his half brothers were executed after they launched an assassination attempt against him and his father during his wedding with BFX. FLX knew they would do it but allowed it to happen so he could get them implicated and eliminated. The king was also injured and died after that. As for the queen, I don't think it was specifically mentioned cos the family plays a much smaller role in the novel, but one can assume she was either disposed of, sent to moulder in the cold palace or shipped off to a monastery.

In the novel they all tried and she chose FLX.

should be

40 eps: 2 eps on wetv vip every Mon/Tues/Wednesday - finale on May 24. it's also starting on netflix on thursday but not sure how many eps they are releasing per day/per week.

I don't think we should take what the king says at face value. Rather it is FLX's analysis that is more accurate - that his father will use anyone as a pawn as long he thinks it allows him to balance and juggle power and keep himself securely on the throne. He knows what they are all up to and he plays them each against the other - in that sense he's pretty narrow-minded, mainly concerned with maintaining status quo with himself as top dog. He's kinda smart and vicious but in a dog-eat-dog way.

The family set up isn't the same in the novel - in fact FLX engineers a clean sweep of his troublesome siblings and there isn't much background info before that. In the novel, he's also much colder and calculative due to the usual vicious palace feuds and vendettas and he knowingly allows his father to get injured during an assassination attempt so that his way to the throne is facilitated.

In the novel, he was near death and HFX didn't have enough medicine to save both him and BFX so he left him one petal of the lotus and used the rest on BFX. Then he left YYZ at the bottom of the mountain to live or die according to his fate. I think he was then found by HC. But then HC deployed him in the battle against BFX/FXY I suppose thinking she wouldn't kill him. He wore a mask when facing BFX in battle and she wasn't aware it was him until she struck him. YYZ wasn't bad - he was just following HC's orders and he went into battle knowing he would be killed by BFX. The novel has more shades of grey than the drama.

She killed him on the battlefield right after she became the ruler of qingzhou.

He’s pretending as well. He knows full well what she is up to but as HFX/FLX says he is happy to use all of them as pawns in his game of balancing power and ensuring that he stays on top.

Bad parenting - the root of so many problems in cdramas……

They already knew/suspected each other’s identity so there was no surprise reveal.

In the novel, they've already known/suspected each other's identity for a long time which makes sense given they've been interacting with each other for 10 years. Looks like they won't follow that in the drama - in upcoming trailers we see BFX wondering about the link between FLX and HFX.

Yes her eyebrows suddenly stand out because of the weird shade they chose. Really have to wonder where they find these makeup artists sometimes.

Same thought - his bio says he graduated from the Dance Dept in the PLA Arts college so he can definitely move and has more of an appropriate background for wuxia than a lot of other stars. There’s a BTS of him doing pretty impressive kicks while balancing perfectly.

There's probably too much slow motion in the fighting scenes and yes the general greenish tint is a bit off, but the story is very good, especially the interaction between the ML and his father, and the ending is fantastic. There was a general virtual standing ovation from viewers in the MDL comment section right after the finale aired. It's adapted by the same scriptwriter as Joy of Life and with Zhang Ruoyun playing both MLs, there's a certain similar enjoyable vibe. In fact I don't think I've been actively commenting on any cdrama since SSS ended.........

It's the first decent wuxia drama this year since Sword Snow Stride ended in early Jan! That's why am watching avidly 😂.

The producer removed the director's name from the credits according to Avenue X - soooo much real-life drama.

About 23? He set up his own establishment outside the palace at 15 and the story takes place 8 years after that.

Apparently the producer and the director got together on the set of Ancient Love Poetry and that was hugely promoted..............

Probably around 22+? She's been wandering the jianghu since she was 12 and been famous for about a decade.