Did ML foresee the rebellion because if he did then he is equally to blame as that damn enunuch who cause that…
Oh he knew!
He knows the Emperor cannot kill him and that there is only one thing that can trigger death, which is treason.
He knows that by revealing himself he is pretty much giving an ace to the Marquis. The Marquis can then contact either of the two fishes and he does indeed contact Cao where he is ready to make the switch.
He knows Cao can't kill the Marquis because everyone will know it was him but Cao also knows what Zanghai knows, that treason is a sure killer. Cue fake letter to the camp.
So yes, he knew. And yes, all those dead are on his conscience too. This is why I wrote that post below. Moral dilemma all right.
Yes, he is getting personal revenge but he is also clearing the court of the worst corruption that is already costing who knows how many innocent lives. These soldiers died now so that in the future innocent people don't keep dying to Marquis and Cao.
But is that really a good enough justification?
We can all only find our own answers here. Zanghai will have to find his. Whether it's good enough not to break him as a person is the big question.
Ah, Zheng Xiaolong. The true puppet master of the Legend of Zanghai, that is pulling both our and Zanghai's strings.
There is a moment in episode 28 that just won't leave my mind. Zanghai is shown from the back and he is looking straight at the carnage in front of him, just as the truly big, first part of revenge is complete.
Stories of revenge are pretty universal. We see depictions of struggling for justice, for setting things right against often corrupt people and social structures, and all of that like here, with a background of politics, plotting and violence. But the really good stories don't leave it at that surface; they weave the more important question of what is the price of such revenge on both the surrounding and on the individual and the oh so difficult moral quandaries that they bring.
Zanghai has achieved the first big step but before him lay hundreds of bodies. Zanghai being a gray character, admittedly the initial draw for me, is thus very blatantly presented to us because we see who is paying the price for his success.
Zheng Xiaolong didn't start there, he started with the notion of the commoners being the one to pay the price of these games way back in episode 1 when not just Zanghai's family is slaughtered but the servants and apprentices too. Throughout his journey he is surrounded by bodies, little people who end up paving his walk towards revenge. We see the toll it is all taking on him quite clearly at the ending of 26 and much more subtly, at that scene with XAT in 27. For what is the price of such a revenge.
It's certainly been covered in many works before, including cdrama and I think we can already answer a part of that question because the answer is always, always universal. The first victim of revenge was little Zhinu, for that boy will never be alive again, except in some scattered memories Zanghai still holds. The first victim of revenge is always the person doing it.
What Zheng Xiaolong is now doing, quite obviously from this moment in 28 but actually right from the start, is giving us the answer of the price of revenge, it's consequences on human pscyche, the question of how justified this all is when the price is hundreds of lives that never asked to be involved.
The key question of this drama isn't whether Zanghai is going to succeed in his revenge. The key question being very obviously asked is perhaps the simplest question possible or the most difficult question imaginable when it comes to an individual human being. Often the most frightening question that so often we dare not ask of ourselves. We often don't know that answer even if we do ask it or we fool ourselves when answering because it is absolutely everything that we are, that we have been through, all our choices, all our decisions, all their consequences that have forged us and broken us and helped us survive. It's an absolutely horrible answer as in the case of Marquis Ping Jin, whose path was paved by the lives he butchered or a much better one, hopefully in the case of Zhixing, the boy who ended up choosing well in that one crucial moment.
Zheng Xiaolong is actually going to give us this answer to this simple and not so simple question at the end, that is the very core of this drama and I can't wait.
The Marquis didn't care for Zanghai. It's just that the writing and the acting leads you to this conclusion on purpose because that picture is the picture the Marquis wants the public within the narrative to have and it is being projected outward, into the audience outside of the narrative, in order to draw you into the story so that you are "living" it alongside the real protagonists.
But what is hiding beneath the veneer of care and that you must push back is the very simple truth that the Marquis Ping Jin only cares and has only ever cared about one person - himself.
Everyone in his life is just a tool in order to elevate himself and ultimately, to secure his legacy. Zanghai was no exception. How could he be? After all, his own flesh and blood were and are no exception. They are an extension of himself and the way to secure and continue his own legacy but that is all they are, just another tool, only for a different purpose than the one Zanghai the tool has. You can see that in how he discards Zhifu and switches to Zhixing as soon as the tool called Zhifu is broken. Same for his wife.
Marquis Ping Jin is in the end, still a man, as we see it and it is a testament to the writer and director and the actor that throughout the arc of his story, they have managed to make us the audience still feel something for that man, such as he was. A highly complex character that tugs at the strings of your heart and plays you, the audience, until the very end, just like he played the protagonists in the drama. What skill! From both within and outside of the Zanghai universe.
That scene where XAT is sitting next to Zanghai, when he tells her the first big part of revenge will be completed that night, I think she realises she is sitting next to a man that is broken in some crucial ways.
Even if everything works out and they get a he somehow, he isn't magically going to be fixed. Some wounds never go away.
I have had enough bad and open endings of dramas.
And that little video xz and jgy did was so cute!
Just remember to breathe, breathe 😁
He knows the Emperor cannot kill him and that there is only one thing that can trigger death, which is treason.
He knows that by revealing himself he is pretty much giving an ace to the Marquis. The Marquis can then contact either of the two fishes and he does indeed contact Cao where he is ready to make the switch.
He knows Cao can't kill the Marquis because everyone will know it was him but Cao also knows what Zanghai knows, that treason is a sure killer. Cue fake letter to the camp.
So yes, he knew. And yes, all those dead are on his conscience too. This is why I wrote that post below. Moral dilemma all right.
Yes, he is getting personal revenge but he is also clearing the court of the worst corruption that is already costing who knows how many innocent lives. These soldiers died now so that in the future innocent people don't keep dying to Marquis and Cao.
But is that really a good enough justification?
We can all only find our own answers here. Zanghai will have to find his. Whether it's good enough not to break him as a person is the big question.
There is a moment in episode 28 that just won't leave my mind. Zanghai is shown from the back and he is looking straight at the carnage in front of him, just as the truly big, first part of revenge is complete.
Stories of revenge are pretty universal. We see depictions of struggling for justice, for setting things right against often corrupt people and social structures, and all of that like here, with a background of politics, plotting and violence. But the really good stories don't leave it at that surface; they weave the more important question of what is the price of such revenge on both the surrounding and on the individual and the oh so difficult moral quandaries that they bring.
Zanghai has achieved the first big step but before him lay hundreds of bodies. Zanghai being a gray character, admittedly the initial draw for me, is thus very blatantly presented to us because we see who is paying the price for his success.
Zheng Xiaolong didn't start there, he started with the notion of the commoners being the one to pay the price of these games way back in episode 1 when not just Zanghai's family is slaughtered but the servants and apprentices too. Throughout his journey he is surrounded by bodies, little people who end up paving his walk towards revenge. We see the toll it is all taking on him quite clearly at the ending of 26 and much more subtly, at that scene with XAT in 27. For what is the price of such a revenge.
It's certainly been covered in many works before, including cdrama and I think we can already answer a part of that question because the answer is always, always universal. The first victim of revenge was little Zhinu, for that boy will never be alive again, except in some scattered memories Zanghai still holds. The first victim of revenge is always the person doing it.
What Zheng Xiaolong is now doing, quite obviously from this moment in 28 but actually right from the start, is giving us the answer of the price of revenge, it's consequences on human pscyche, the question of how justified this all is when the price is hundreds of lives that never asked to be involved.
The key question of this drama isn't whether Zanghai is going to succeed in his revenge. The key question being very obviously asked is perhaps the simplest question possible or the most difficult question imaginable when it comes to an individual human being. Often the most frightening question that so often we dare not ask of ourselves. We often don't know that answer even if we do ask it or we fool ourselves when answering because it is absolutely everything that we are, that we have been through, all our choices, all our decisions, all their consequences that have forged us and broken us and helped us survive. It's an absolutely horrible answer as in the case of Marquis Ping Jin, whose path was paved by the lives he butchered or a much better one, hopefully in the case of Zhixing, the boy who ended up choosing well in that one crucial moment.
Zheng Xiaolong is actually going to give us this answer to this simple and not so simple question at the end, that is the very core of this drama and I can't wait.
Who is Zanghai?
If he had given up the seal, they would have killed them all anyway.
But what is hiding beneath the veneer of care and that you must push back is the very simple truth that the Marquis Ping Jin only cares and has only ever cared about one person - himself.
Everyone in his life is just a tool in order to elevate himself and ultimately, to secure his legacy. Zanghai was no exception. How could he be? After all, his own flesh and blood were and are no exception. They are an extension of himself and the way to secure and continue his own legacy but that is all they are, just another tool, only for a different purpose than the one Zanghai the tool has. You can see that in how he discards Zhifu and switches to Zhixing as soon as the tool called Zhifu is broken. Same for his wife.
Marquis Ping Jin is in the end, still a man, as we see it and it is a testament to the writer and director and the actor that throughout the arc of his story, they have managed to make us the audience still feel something for that man, such as he was. A highly complex character that tugs at the strings of your heart and plays you, the audience, until the very end, just like he played the protagonists in the drama. What skill! From both within and outside of the Zanghai universe.
And MDL doesn't want to deal with them.
Second episode high was 2.2750
Market share over 11%
I don't know what to say 😭
Even if everything works out and they get a he somehow, he isn't magically going to be fixed. Some wounds never go away.
Third man Zhou Bingwen.