TDevil

I'm talking about his upbringing in the palace for the past 8 years. It was a very hostile environment with threats all around him. Every day, either he was manipulating or being manipulated. It's not a surprise he no longer really values honest communication anymore.

Can't blame him with his upbringing honestly. Honesty has probably been a foreign concept in his life since the day he left the wolf mountain.

Yeah! That's exactly the kinda scenes I was talking about. I'm pretty sure Bo Wang killed him because of the head in the box, so it felt like they were building up him to be some brutal executioner. Yao Ji even alluded to it by telling Zhai Xing that Bo Wang has a dark past and has done terrible things, even if he has redeemable qualities. Then the drama completely flipped its tune and turned Bo Wang into some perfect saint who apparently has never harmed an innocent being in his life. But like, did you not just show him kill an innocent in like the fourth episode? It just feels really inconsistent.

And because of that killing scene, I'm pretty sure that the original script had Bo Wang actually take part in the massacre of Zhai Xing's family. It would make no sense for emperor to give the go-ahead without him fearing that he's too soft-hearted when he's been his executioner this whole time. My hypothesis is that the censors saw the script and didn't like how dark the ML was written out to be and the directors were forced to try make him more redeemable. It's too bad, because Bo Wang's actions towards Zhai Xing afterwards would've made a TON of sense if he had actually done the killing. Their love would've been so much more tragic and it would've been star-crossed lovers taken to a whole next level.

Lol, this so much. Bo Wang chose pretty much the hardest way out for literally every obstacle he and Zhai Xing came across. This drama could've been so much simpler and less angsty if he just bothered to communicate even once. But hey, it wouldn't be called a Chinese drama if there was no drama.

I thought Mo Yan and Yao Ji were very interesting characters to follow. Both were very deep and nuanced characters with bright heads on their shoulders.

And honestly, outside of a few scenes, I really love the idea of Bo Wang's character. C-drama's always love to have their ML's be goody two-shoes who sing kumbaya with their enemies and I find that trope to incredibly tiresome. I like ML's who are flawed, like actual human being, who are willing to the dirty work sometimes because they have an edge to them. For the first 14 or so episodes, I thought they were going to go this route with Bo Wang and make him into this dark anti-hero and I was so excited for it. Then they completely changed their tune and started trying to turn him into a boy scout. Like the fact that they built him up to be this ruthless killer and we didn't see him kill a single person in this entire drama was a bit disappointing.

It's a pity because I'm pretty sure they cut out a bunch of scenes that would've paint him in a much different picture and given us a fresh take on a historical drama ML. Instead, the version of the drama that was released just looks like they were trying to go the dark ML route, but then got cold feet and backed out of it. I could tell where they were trying to go with Bo Wang though, so I love the idea behind him, just the execution was left wanting.

No need to, because I don't get traumatized by people disagreeing with me.

And no one ever said anything about having a "role" or being an "arbiter", but if putting words in other people's mouths and attacking a straw man brings comfort to you, then be my guest by all means.

He's really somewhat of a veteran when it comes to portraying despicable emperors, with this drama and Nirvana in Fire under his belt.

Bo Wang is a Night Fury and is the leader of their squad. To an outsider, there is no difference between whether the leader or the subordinate does the killing. His mission is their mission, and vice versa because of a chain of command. You might as well claim that the president of the US is innocent if America nukes another country.

My apologies if you consider it "traumatic" that someone is confronting you about potentially being wrong and willing to point out parts of the drama that you might have missed. Since you harbor such an aversion to disagreeing takes, then perhaps you should stay away from making controversial statements and inviting disagreements that are apparently traumatizing to receive. I understand that diversity in opinions can be scary for some people, while listening to people agree with you all the time can be so soothing.

You make a very underrated point about his subordinates. They slaughtered Zhai Xing's entirely family but didn't show any remorse over it. Strangely, they started warming up to Zhai Xing when she became Bo Wang consort and even started shipping her and Bo Wang together. Yet as soon as she left for Jin, they started suggesting to Bo Wang that they murder her and cut off loose ends.

Like sheesh, Bo Wang is an asshole himself, but at least he's still human. His subordinates are straight up ruthless. They hold allegiance to no one except for Bo Wang and were willing to kill off someone they knew well enough to call a friend without even blinking an eye.

He can see wind currents thanks to his superhuman hearing and predict the flow- not quite fully commanding the wind.

1. The Night Furies arrived covertly at the city the night before the massacre, and disappeared immediately the night after it.
2. The Night Furies suspiciously tried to keep their presence in the city as a secret, opting to hide at a nearby inn instead of alerting the city lord of their arrival as what would be the social norm time.
3. The Night Furies happened to conveniently arrive just in time to save Zhai Xing. Moreover, they claimed to not have gotten to the city in time to prevent the massacre, which Ji Chong knew was a lie after finding out their arrival date.
4. The final and most damning piece of the evidence was that Bo Wang supposedly found Jin's military seal on Zhai Xing's kidnapper's body. There was no possible way he could've obtained the military seal, because it was in the emperor's possession at the time after his minions exposed a Jin spy.
5. Everyone knows that Bo Wong operates as the emperor's lapdog and executes all his missions. And it just happened that he was the one who "found" the military seal.

It's not my fault you decided not to listen when Ji Chong listed out all the evidences. Every single one of them pointed to Bo Wang and the Night Furies being the culprit. Moreover, his deduction was 100% correct. The Night Furies were indeed the guilty party and were sloppy enough to leave all those clues behind. The only caveat was that they operated without Bo Wang, which again, was a point written purely for plot convenience.

Every single shred at evidence indicated that Bo Wang is implicated in the Ma Manor massacre. No one would've considered the perfect stroke of luck that the emperor had secretly sent out the order to the Night Furies without Bo Wang's knowledge, especially considering that he literally led them into the city. Honestly, the entire plot point was just completely written for plot convenience. It made no sense for the ruthless leader of the Night Furies to not be included in the massacre, and it was entirely written this way so that the writer could try to make Bo Wang into a more redeemable character. Ji Chong was perfectly justified in his accusation, and honestly, it wouldn't have mattered because Bo Wang would've eventually told Zhai Xing the exact same story anyways.

Zhai Xing's defection to Jin was a good thing. It put her out of danger and gave her a temporary home to stay after she lost her old one. If Ji Chong hadn't engineered that himself, Bo Wang would've probably manipulated that into reality anyways because he wouldn't wanted to have her left in the palace. Again, Bo Wang WANTED Zhai Xing to be with Ji Chong, because he understood that where he was would also be where it's safest for here. Not to mention, it made absolutely no difference that Ji Chong's actions separated the two "lovers". Bo Wang was prepared to go to the grave without giving Zhai Xing another chance anyways.

Social norms don't define morality. It isn't moral to sexually assault a girl regardless of what times you live in. No one is denying that such atrocities occurred in history, but that's completely irrelevant to pointing out that Bo Wang is an asshole for what he did.

What great wrong did he do?

The first 12 episodes are the best part of this drama. Perfect blend of action, thriller, and romance.

We see him carry her away

Oh no, I fully agree with you. Ji Chong's choice made perfect choice to me. He was suffering as well, being reminded everyday that the woman he loves doesn't reciprocate his feelings, yet being bounded by his marriage and unable to move on because of it.

Because she has an unhealthy obsession with Bo Wang and has psychological problems of her own. Regardless, do you seriously think it's okay to assault someone just because they love you and might continue to care for you afterwards?

Completely agree. The only problem is that Ji Chong valued Zhai Xing's happiness over everything, and Zhai Xing would've never truly been happy in their marriage. Which is why he let her go.

Because she was hoping he wasn't the asshole he presented himself as that night and that he still actually cared.