VictorL

I don’t know how closely they will follow the novel, but, yes she was married before—it was a “peace” marriage to the king of a Mongolian(?) tribe that lasted two years till he was killed in a rebellion and she managed to flee with her people. She went through hell while there so it drastically changed her personality.
ML: he is calculating but morally good and wants to improve the lives of the people
Novel has a HE

His feelings: agree that she was clueless prior to the imperial edict, and possibly for a while after that. I would say that her joy at finally being outside the control of the Lin family and frustration at being embroiled with that family again contributed to her cluelessness (and her anger at him). It wasn’t till he took her to the graves of the Shen family that she trusted him enough to let him understand the fundamental problem with their relationship

Excellent review, especially on the storytelling aspect.

Ending: I took his death as the ending of “their story” and the rest as an epilogue. At a certain point I assumed the story would play out till both of their deaths (similar to the K-Drama *The Red Sleeve*)

I took the tableau of women close to the end as something comparable to the bows to the audience after a play where each group of actors get their own bows with applause. It also highlighted the “stories” of these women.

Excellent review—totally agree with the other 2 commentators

Coincidences: they remind me of a saying “without coincidence there is no story”. The coincidences involving the poor family were a clever way of transforming what was a transmigration of souls in the original novel.

Ending: At a certain point I assumed the story would carry through to their deaths (similar to the K-Drama *The Red Sleeve*) I took the tableau of women close to the end as something comparable to the bows to the audience after a play where each group of actors get their own bows with applause. It also highlighted what “live well” meant for each of these women.

Also available with subtitles here:
https://youtu.be/SRs5_HJwqZ0?is=2ZY4uwCEQPjUxwDQ

Love at first sight. Her lack of interest also motivates him initially

Agree! FWIW, she did not have a good ending in the novel

Depends. On the plus side, I felt the actors did a great job portraying their characters and there are some great scenes; especially in some of the episodes you haven’t gotten to. On the negative, some scenes simply didn’t work. To me it has some similarities to a lakorn or, in a stretch, to *Monty Python and the Holy Grail* which had some truly iconic scenes and some totally forgettable ones

Agree. It seems like what the director did was take individual incidents from novel and upscale them—e.g. the events around their first kiss were rather tame in novel

Agree that supporting cast really doing a great job
Also agree on SR/XK: always the “boss” when he shows up in the novel, but doesn’t have nearly as many pages as fl

At least he doesn’t disappear till the last episode like in other dramas!

My guess is that the director wanted the screenwriter to put time into making the drama more intense/action packed than creating a backstory that wasn’t in the novel—his revenge takes up one a page or two in the novel. Though we’ll see if they add anything once the express drops tomorrow

Thanks.

Question: I’m partway through ep. 21–should I wait till rest drop on 30th or keep up with daily updates; thoughts?

All those listed above and
Legend of Fei (fl has a lot of good fight scenes and takes on main bad guy at end—rare in dramas)
The Hidden Fox (movie) has some good fight scenes

Rereading novel now; it was first madam that orchestrated the event (revealed in ch 12 in translation)

I’ve read the novel, but it’s been too long to remember some details, but I think it’s correct that she was involved. I do remember that both she and the grandmother knew Qingyuan’s mother was innocent, so that is why she wasn’t killed but only kicked out. But they’ve changed enough things in the drama, e.g. her father killing her mother or Qingyuan creating the “unfortunate” events that precipitated her return, that I wouldn’t take what happens in the novel as a guarantee of what will happen in the drama

Flower of Evil
Two Weeks
While you are sleeping
Strange Tales of the Tang Dynasty (3 seasons)
In addition to the ones previously mentioned

I’m currently reading the novel, about 1/3 way through—it is long, 761 chapters at Readthedrama. At this point his goal is to get a position in the Heavenly Court and wait out the Great Calamity. At some later point he takes a more proactive stance. At the moment, no demon lord or mystery about Ling’e origin. Yes to harem, but no romance for him at 1/3rd point though he is friends with all 3

A question for those who have finished the novel (I’m 1/5 the way through):

Is YX in the novel?

Never mind, she’s now shown up. : )