WK1

Yes, in E16, just before Changge wanted to stab Sun, Sun told Changge that her life belongs to him. This is because she had already agreed to become his slave.

In E39, when Sun was on the bed, she told him she will never leave him. implying she will always stay with him, always be with him.

I know where is your stance on this drama and the GeSun couple. So, I don't really have any big issue even if we have differences in small little things here and there. All part of us being different people, looking at things a big differently, even if we do agree on the big picture.

I am just so delighted that you are back! And I do know you are a very thoughtful person who do not express your opinions without thinking about them deeply.

Yeah. I thought was like our LC. Small but fearless. Especially in E15, standing in front of thousands of Ashile Troops, all by herself, completely unarmed. Except for her brain, that is.

Got you! So many cats around and so many mice. Nice title

Both their parents were dead. Having a traditional wedding may not make much sense, especially since they have decided to go to the grasslands. If you are game to hang around, lots of us are here. All lurking around. All willing to join in wonderful discussions about this drama. And about the GeSun couple and all the other characters. You views are totally in line with ours

Hi Manya, welcome to this place! Really happy that you loved this drama. Many of us here feel that same way you do.

Regarding GeSun couple, they were indeed married. You can check the link above. If you look at the Recent Discussion above, you will see a link that says whether they were married or not. I created that link. See if you can find it?

I know why you titled E3 A game of cat and mouse. You are looking at Du Ruhui trying to catch Changge

Before I thought of it, I googled to read up on Honey Badger. The word that caught my eye was 'fearless'. And wikipedia mentioned it would be fearless even in attacking a lion or hyena, when it cannot escape from them. I even watched a video of how a honey badger fight off a leopard in order to protect its young: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLG_Q8FJda0&ab_channel=LatestSightings

Excellent summary of E3. I only have one single item to add. Changge stole the crown prince's seal because she was already thinking one step ahead. At this momenet, she did not quite know what she would do with it, but still felt it was important to take it. In later episodes we will be told what she did with it.

Viu labelled this episode; The Seal

I would call this episode: "Failed revenge" or Assassination, emphaising Changge failed attempt kill Li Si Min

I see! No, you did not miss anything at all. The screenwriters did not do anything out of his childhood, other than to imply from the statement that Yanli Khan which you mentioned. I think he must have been orphaned from a very very young age, so he could not recall much of it and it did not mean very much to him, if he was indeed from the central plains. He had no desire to be part of Tang. All he wanted was to go back to the grasslands.

The thing is, Changge did verbalise lots of stuff in front of her mother in the 2nd scene before her mother's body. If she had kept quiet all the way, yes, we could use her eyes and all that to infer her regrets. But in the nearly 20-30 seconds (sorry I did not really time it) before her mother. she said a whole bunch of stuff, but did not say she regretted not calling her 'Ah Niang' one last time.

But, this is a very small matter to me. Like I said, the director or screenwriters missed the opportunity to intensify her grief. Or, they left us feeling that Changge is a bit 'cold'. It was just a few seconds here and there, and lots of people may not even noticed what I noticed, and even if they did, they may not even feel the way that I do.

And I merely say this, because the 'cold' Changge would run counter to the Changge that we know, who is very loving toward her mother. When she returned to Changge, in E40, one of the first places she went to was her mother's memorial tablet.

Haha! I tried this with Biri Biri a while back. And I was searching for an animal that might be associated with Changge. And I came up with honey badger because of courage.

I was thinkig of those battle scenes between Tang troops and and Ashile Troops and then thinking she is so small, and yet she is not afraid of them. That is what a honey badger is, just full of courage and not afraid of pitting itself against larger opponents.

This is put into greater focus in the manhua as compared to the drama, because Dilraba is not all that small in size. In the manhua, Changge is really small. And so when Ashile Sun and Mujin finally saw her at the surrender scene, they were both shocked that they were pitting themselves against this little kid.

So, if the soldier who rushed in and went after Changge was a traitor. Thanks for that info.

Why was the dagger on the floor? This will be explained in E46. I do not want to spoil your fun. After you have watched E46, you might understand why the dagger was on the floor.

Oh, the escaping from the fire? That is not in E2. In a later episode.

About the antidote, your interpretation could be correct. I followed from the manhua. Manhua said she poisoned all the cakes but hid the antidote between her fingers or something like that. So, I thought maybe she did the same here, hiding the antidote underneath her fingernails.

Your last para, I don't have problem with that. That is the usual trope lots of directors use, of someone regreting not saying the last goodbye before their loved ones died. I tried to listen for that, during her crying scenes before her mother's body. There were two. Shorter one just before the soldier came. And longer one in the big coffin where her mother was placed in. But none of those scenes did she expressed any regret for not saying a final goodbye. In the longer crying scene in E2, she was expressing more hate for the people who killed her parents, rather than any regret for not calling her mother 'Ah Niang' one more time.

So, the director should have one of two things:
1, If they want to her stomping off in anger, but regretting it, they should have made Changge utter those words of regrets when she cried before her mother's body. That would have been really impactful.
2. If not, they should just have made her utter 'Ah Niang' one more time when her mother asked her to do it.

But they did neither of the above, hence the impact of regret was not leveraged to make the crying scene more impact, and secondly, it might leave some viewers with the impression that she was rather cold when she just turned from her mother and walked to the carriage.

I see. If The Long Ballad is not licensed in the UAE, how will you be able to watch it then? Viki or YouTube??

I just checked. Viu covers UAE. You are in UAE, are you not? So, you should have Viu and be able to watch The Long Balled in Viu

In that case, no point knocking ourselves crazy over this. Let's wait till third week of July before we should even bother coming to this page. Getting frustrated will not help us one bit.

But in general, in the drama, he has never been really interested to find out his roots. He must been to the central plains many times, to spy on the Tang. But there is not a single scene in the entire drama which shows us that he is interested to find out his roots.

This is very different from the manhua, where he really wanted to find out his Khitan roots. But, in the drama, they completely downplayed the fact that his parents could have been from the central plains. Like you have noted, he was not interested in being a Tang citizen. He feels that he belongs to the grasslands.

Are you referring to E18? About 10 mins 38 sec into the video? That is the scene where Mujin told Ashile Sun people from the central plains cannot be trusted

It really does look like we need to wait till third week of July, or even beginning of August.

You asked an interesting question concerning whether Ah Sun know he's from the central plains. There is nothing from the drama which indicates that he know. But, if he were to think about it, he should. I would imagine that a person from the Eastern Turk is likely to have facial features that are different from someone who is from the central plains. If you look at Yan Li Khan and She'er. They have facial features that more resemble the Turks. AS have facial features are closer to people from the central plains. Since AS goes in and out of the central plains to spy for the Turks, he would have noticed that he has facial features that are similar to them. He might also have noticed why no one asked if he is Turk, and could have suspected that both his parents were from the central plains.

In any case, unlike the manhua, here in the drama, Ah Sun was never keen to know about who his true birth parents were. There was not a single scene where he asked his An Na or Yanli Khan who his birth parents were.

Do you have a reason for asking this interesting question? I have been in this forum close to 2 months, and this is the first time I come across someone who asked this question, whether Ah Sun knows he is from the central plains