I have so much mad respect for Liu Xue Yi, to take on this role of a deeply flawed character and play the part…
copy pasting my reply but this reminds me of the barbie movie. barbie was the main lead and the title was even about her, but arguably ken took the spotlight even though he had a relatively minor role compared to hers because he actually had a character arc where he changed and grew, so his character simply more complex and interesting to analyze.
Liu Xue Yi is really a wasted potential, he's basically nothing more than a side character now. I really thought…
honestly if you look at both chinese and international discussion, all the main discussion and controversy seem to be about the male lead. people can't stop discussing and debating over him. this reminds me of the barbie movie. barbie was the main lead and the title was even about her, but arguably ken took the spotlight even though he had a relatively minor role compared to hers because he actually had a character arc where he changed and grew, so his character simply more complex and interesting to analyze.
We can all yell and criticize ml, but he is an awesome brother. Typical men during that period, idk if Ming era…
He always offers them great advice too! He takes their problems seriously, is willing to build them up.
For Xiuwan, his analogy about turning yourself into a ship strong enough that you don't capsize from life's turbulent waves was very empowering. Other brothers would have told her to just be more obedient, go read the books on women's virtues etc. He instead gave her his own books so she could broaden her mind and mindset.
For Xiuru, he helped bring her to the grandfather, encouraged her to fight for herself, spoke to the marquis about it.
All the sisters trust him and love him dearly, and it makes sense why.
Some people are taking what LJQ did too personally. "He's a red flag, how could you ever want the FL to be with him!" I like him because he's an interesting character! He's very flawed but complex, he's nowhere near black and white. Yeah, he forced her hand and obviously that's not the morally squeaky clean thing to do. But he is still a pretty good person, with a lot of compassion in his heart. The FL herself tells him so when she's drunk and he confides his guilt about the Du siblings to her. He cares for his men. He helps the elderly when he's passing them on the street. He rescued Yuchan from her husband that she was forced upon by his ex wife, even though many masters would have considered her disposable at that point. He is battle hardened and has been on the battlefield for 6 years, but he still feels saddened for the Du siblings even after they tried to kill him. He genuinely loves his siblings and cousins, and helps them, especially his female cousins; he gives them genuine advice and helps them choose their own future.
He is also the one who risked his life to bury the Shen family (the emperor would have had his head if he'd found out). He is the FL's benefactor, with a deed that she once bowed and prayed to the heavens for, hoping that she could dedicate her life to said benefactor. She doesn't know it yet, but once she finds out, she'll probably think " of course it was him."
Him going for the imperial decree was in his own self interest; he doesn't have an excuse or noral justification for it, he wanted the FL and knew that this was the only way he could be with her, so he did it. He has always lived for others and this is probably the most selfish thing he's done in his life. He's aware he was wrong, and that he doesn't have an excuse. He even tells her that if he was in her shoes, he would also hate him, want to kill him. But he weighed his options and decided. that if being a villain was the only way to be with her, so be it. He's accepting those consequences. He didn't try to defend himself. He took the beatings. He takes the FL's coldness (which she 100% has a right to) with a smiling face and patience. Here, you can truly tell that he's both a scholar and a general, because he's out here making chess moves by overturning the whole board and playing the long game, slowly earning back the FL's trust and slowly winning her heart.
" I would never fall in love with him after what he did."
Okay, cool. Good thing you're not the FL and this isn't a self insert otome game. It's a historical drama. Has some good realism in it, but ultimately it's still a drama with its own narrative flair. The wedding is meant to be one of the big climaxes of the drama, and meant to be entertaining.
And I was entertained! A character's worst crime to me isn't his morality, but whether he's boring. LJQ is far from that, so I will sit here cheering his delulu, furen obsessed self on haha.
That slap was for that year when the edict dissolved his engagement with the Shen family. From the words of Jialan’s…
No, that's not why. Jialan’s mother at the time was in the dark, but they all found out later that both the grandma and grandpa shen knew about the emperor targeting them. The Lins broke it off to save themselves and their own children. Grandpa Shen was too stubborn and refused to bend his principles to say anything bad about the deposed emperor. That led his entire family dying from adults to babies. The Lin family are NOT wrong for trying to save themselves, and FL herself knows it.
The slap is because LJQ did not ask her for her opinion, and especially her parents' opinion; thus, he didn't give them the respect she felt they deserve and that she deserves. He didn't give her a choice. It has nothing to do with the past, although it's likely she still has her own mixed feelings about that.
I saw some spoilers for future eps on twitter that have cemented my dislike for Han scholar, and also my love…
haha it's crazy that I held back from spoilers all this time but now they're everywhere on twitter and rednote. can't avoid them, so I'm just grabbing my popcorn and reading the analysis. the debates between cnetizens has been very fun to read too.
Finally, Lan Xiang learns the truth that Lin Jin Qi saved her—it was Lu Jier who told Lan Xiang the truth.
Later, when Lan Xiang comes to the capital, she manages to get Lu Jier out. In return, Lu Jier tells Lan Xiang about how Lin Jin Qi had come to save her back then.
In that moment, Lan Xiang realizes that Lin Jin Qi has been silently devoting himself to her all along.
It is then that Lan Xiang finally wakes up to the fact that Han Liang has been deceiving her the whole time. As for Han Liang's trip to Yangzhou to "rescue" her, it was truly a case of "the orange falling right into his lap" (meaning incredibly lucky beyond belief).
When he went to Yangzhou, he just sat on the boat plucking away at his sanxian, making a mess of it. In the end, it was Lan Xiang herself who heard the sound and came to find him. Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Jin Qi had practically turned Yangzhou upside down searching for her across the entire city. Even if Han Liang might not have known everything Lin Jin Qi did, he couldn't possibly have been unaware that Lin Jin Qi was relentlessly searching for Lan Xiang—because it was Lin Jin Qi himself who told Han Liang back then that the people who abducted Lan Xiang had already taken her out of Jinling. What's more, Lin Jin Qi had specially emphasized to Han Liang that he would bring Lan Xiang back no matter what. But for all that Lin Jin Qi did, Han Liang turned a blind eye.
And what did Han Liang say to Lan Xiang? He told her that Lin Jin Qi didn't dare to overstep with the people who kidnapped her and had already given up on rescuing her. Han Liang seized all the credit for saving Lan Xiang's life and claimed it as his own.
Later, Lan Xiang travels to the capital and manages to get Lu Jier out. Lu Jier then tells Lan Xiang that, back then, in order to find her, Lin Jin Qi had nearly torn down the Qingyan Tower.
Furthermore, later on, when Lin Jin Qi was gravely injured outside the capital, Lan Xiang met Zhao Xing Tang in order to find medicine to reduce his fever.
At that time, Zhao Xing Tang had just escaped from the Dai family in the capital. After Prince Han's rebellion failed, the Zhao and Dai families, as his accomplices, were completely wiped out. As a woman of both families, she faced the fate of being sent to the Royal Music Bureau as a pleasure slave (to become a royal courtesan). Unwilling to live a life of deprivation in the Royal Music Bureau, she had no choice but to flee.
But on the way while escaping, Zhao Xing Tang encountered soldier bandits. The soldier bandits abused and violated her. In resisting, Zhao Xing Tang was stabbed by the soldier bandits with a knife and badly injured. Lan Xiang happened upon Zhao Xing Tang being assaulted, so she used a short gun to kill the soldier bandits and saved Zhao Xing Tang's life.
Knowing she wouldn't survive much longer, Zhao Xing Tang, to repay Lan Xiang for saving her life, hands over the evidence that Lin Jin Qi released the former crown prince to Lan Xiang. Zhao Xing Tang had this evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince because she stole it from her father.
In truth, when Lin Jin Qi released the former crown prince, people from the Zhao family had been tailing him the whole time. Originally, the Zhao family planned to wait for Prince Han's rebellion to succeed, then present this evidence for their own advancement. But they never expected Prince Han to fail. Since the Zhao and Dai families were involved in the rebellion, all the men in the families were executed, and the women were sent to the Royal Music Bureau as pleasure slaves.
The father and son of the Zhao family hurriedly took Zhao Xing Tang and fled the capital to save their lives. But along the way, the father and son of the Zhao family despised Zhao Xing Tang for running too slowly and abandoned her midway. When she was abandoned, Zhao Xing Tang secretly stole the evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince from the father and son of the Zhao family. On one hand, it was to give it to Lan Xiang to use as leverage to control Lin Jin Qi—because in Zhao Xing Tang's eyes, Lin Jin Qi was just a cold, ungrateful man unworthy of Lan Xiang.
Lan Xiang connects this to the time when Lin Jin Qi came to save her at the Qingyan Tower, as Lu Jier had mentioned before. Combined with the timeline of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince from Zhao Xing Tang's account, Lan Xiang immediately deduces that one of the reasons Lin Jin Qi let the former crown prince go was to save her life.
At this point, Lan Xiang fully understands that Han Liang's words on the boat—claiming Lin Jin Qi had given up on helping her—were all complete lies. Lan Xiang no longer holds resentment or grudges over Han Liang deceiving her, because she has already married Lin Jin Qi. After obtaining the evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince, Lan Xiang immediately burns that piece of evidence.
Later, Lin Jin Qi resigns from the court and takes Lan Xiang back to Jinling to start a quiet life together. Lin Jin Qi chooses to live with Lan Xiang at the Zichun Residence, because the Zichun Residence is where he first met Lan Xiang, and the first place where he fell in love with her. And at this time, Lan Xiang has also fallen completely in love with Lin Jin Qi with all her heart.
shocker: mydramalist viewers find a nuance, flawed ML and label him a red flag snob!yeah him forcing the hand…
The ex wife also deserves nuance! She suffers abuse from her father and didn't have a choice in her marriage. However, she also committed crimes and cruelty. Jinqi for all his faults, never tried to kill an innocent. Ex wife would have murdered Ji ' er in cold blood if FL hadn't found a way to threaten her with the law. Even though her life was saved, Ji er was sold into a brothel where she was raped by countless men over 2 years. Ex wife also sold Luchan away like a cow to be abused by a mentally ill man in marriage. She engaged in insane loans where the intent was to get rich by bankrupting families and destroying them through power imbalance and illegal means. She has blood and women's torture on her hands. Her hurt does not give her the right to abuse other people, and that is what a lot of people miss when they describe her as a pure victim. She suffered because of misogyny but she is no proponent of women's rights.
shocker: mydramalist viewers find a nuance, flawed ML and label him a red flag snob!yeah him forcing the hand…
most people here are watching the drama knowing that it's a historical romance and the leads are morally grey. no one here is calling him a green flag.
K-Drama 
1 
1 
"You are without doubt the worst pirate I've ever heard of"
"But you have heard of me"
For Xiuwan, his analogy about turning yourself into a ship strong enough that you don't capsize from life's turbulent waves was very empowering. Other brothers would have told her to just be more obedient, go read the books on women's virtues etc. He instead gave her his own books so she could broaden her mind and mindset.
For Xiuru, he helped bring her to the grandfather, encouraged her to fight for herself, spoke to the marquis about it.
All the sisters trust him and love him dearly, and it makes sense why.
"Before: Literally 0 people cared about the male lead
Now: The ML cares for 0 people"
They're all laughing at the uno reverso hahaha. LJQ doesn't care what others think, he's playing his own game in his own little world.
Checkmate.
He is also the one who risked his life to bury the Shen family (the emperor would have had his head if he'd found out). He is the FL's benefactor, with a deed that she once bowed and prayed to the heavens for, hoping that she could dedicate her life to said benefactor. She doesn't know it yet, but once she finds out, she'll probably think " of course it was him."
Him going for the imperial decree was in his own self interest; he doesn't have an excuse or noral justification for it, he wanted the FL and knew that this was the only way he could be with her, so he did it. He has always lived for others and this is probably the most selfish thing he's done in his life. He's aware he was wrong, and that he doesn't have an excuse. He even tells her that if he was in her shoes, he would also hate him, want to kill him. But he weighed his options and decided. that if being a villain was the only way to be with her, so be it. He's accepting those consequences. He didn't try to defend himself. He took the beatings. He takes the FL's coldness (which she 100% has a right to) with a smiling face and patience. Here, you can truly tell that he's both a scholar and a general, because he's out here making chess moves by overturning the whole board and playing the long game, slowly earning back the FL's trust and slowly winning her heart.
" I would never fall in love with him after what he did."
Okay, cool. Good thing you're not the FL and this isn't a self insert otome game. It's a historical drama. Has some good realism in it, but ultimately it's still a drama with its own narrative flair. The wedding is meant to be one of the big climaxes of the drama, and meant to be entertaining.
And I was entertained! A character's worst crime to me isn't his morality, but whether he's boring. LJQ is far from that, so I will sit here cheering his delulu, furen obsessed self on haha.
The slap is because LJQ did not ask her for her opinion, and especially her parents' opinion; thus, he didn't give them the respect she felt they deserve and that she deserves. He didn't give her a choice. It has nothing to do with the past, although it's likely she still has her own mixed feelings about that.
Finally, Lan Xiang learns the truth that Lin Jin Qi saved her—it was Lu Jier who told Lan Xiang the truth.
Later, when Lan Xiang comes to the capital, she manages to get Lu Jier out. In return, Lu Jier tells Lan Xiang about how Lin Jin Qi had come to save her back then.
In that moment, Lan Xiang realizes that Lin Jin Qi has been silently devoting himself to her all along.
It is then that Lan Xiang finally wakes up to the fact that Han Liang has been deceiving her the whole time. As for Han Liang's trip to Yangzhou to "rescue" her, it was truly a case of "the orange falling right into his lap" (meaning incredibly lucky beyond belief).
When he went to Yangzhou, he just sat on the boat plucking away at his sanxian, making a mess of it. In the end, it was Lan Xiang herself who heard the sound and came to find him. Meanwhile, on the other side, Lin Jin Qi had practically turned Yangzhou upside down searching for her across the entire city. Even if Han Liang might not have known everything Lin Jin Qi did, he couldn't possibly have been unaware that Lin Jin Qi was relentlessly searching for Lan Xiang—because it was Lin Jin Qi himself who told Han Liang back then that the people who abducted Lan Xiang had already taken her out of Jinling. What's more, Lin Jin Qi had specially emphasized to Han Liang that he would bring Lan Xiang back no matter what. But for all that Lin Jin Qi did, Han Liang turned a blind eye.
And what did Han Liang say to Lan Xiang? He told her that Lin Jin Qi didn't dare to overstep with the people who kidnapped her and had already given up on rescuing her. Han Liang seized all the credit for saving Lan Xiang's life and claimed it as his own.
Later, Lan Xiang travels to the capital and manages to get Lu Jier out. Lu Jier then tells Lan Xiang that, back then, in order to find her, Lin Jin Qi had nearly torn down the Qingyan Tower.
Furthermore, later on, when Lin Jin Qi was gravely injured outside the capital, Lan Xiang met Zhao Xing Tang in order to find medicine to reduce his fever.
At that time, Zhao Xing Tang had just escaped from the Dai family in the capital. After Prince Han's rebellion failed, the Zhao and Dai families, as his accomplices, were completely wiped out. As a woman of both families, she faced the fate of being sent to the Royal Music Bureau as a pleasure slave (to become a royal courtesan). Unwilling to live a life of deprivation in the Royal Music Bureau, she had no choice but to flee.
But on the way while escaping, Zhao Xing Tang encountered soldier bandits. The soldier bandits abused and violated her. In resisting, Zhao Xing Tang was stabbed by the soldier bandits with a knife and badly injured. Lan Xiang happened upon Zhao Xing Tang being assaulted, so she used a short gun to kill the soldier bandits and saved Zhao Xing Tang's life.
Knowing she wouldn't survive much longer, Zhao Xing Tang, to repay Lan Xiang for saving her life, hands over the evidence that Lin Jin Qi released the former crown prince to Lan Xiang. Zhao Xing Tang had this evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince because she stole it from her father.
In truth, when Lin Jin Qi released the former crown prince, people from the Zhao family had been tailing him the whole time. Originally, the Zhao family planned to wait for Prince Han's rebellion to succeed, then present this evidence for their own advancement. But they never expected Prince Han to fail. Since the Zhao and Dai families were involved in the rebellion, all the men in the families were executed, and the women were sent to the Royal Music Bureau as pleasure slaves.
The father and son of the Zhao family hurriedly took Zhao Xing Tang and fled the capital to save their lives. But along the way, the father and son of the Zhao family despised Zhao Xing Tang for running too slowly and abandoned her midway. When she was abandoned, Zhao Xing Tang secretly stole the evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince from the father and son of the Zhao family. On one hand, it was to give it to Lan Xiang to use as leverage to control Lin Jin Qi—because in Zhao Xing Tang's eyes, Lin Jin Qi was just a cold, ungrateful man unworthy of Lan Xiang.
Lan Xiang connects this to the time when Lin Jin Qi came to save her at the Qingyan Tower, as Lu Jier had mentioned before. Combined with the timeline of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince from Zhao Xing Tang's account, Lan Xiang immediately deduces that one of the reasons Lin Jin Qi let the former crown prince go was to save her life.
At this point, Lan Xiang fully understands that Han Liang's words on the boat—claiming Lin Jin Qi had given up on helping her—were all complete lies. Lan Xiang no longer holds resentment or grudges over Han Liang deceiving her, because she has already married Lin Jin Qi. After obtaining the evidence of Lin Jin Qi releasing the former crown prince, Lan Xiang immediately burns that piece of evidence.
Later, Lin Jin Qi resigns from the court and takes Lan Xiang back to Jinling to start a quiet life together. Lin Jin Qi chooses to live with Lan Xiang at the Zichun Residence, because the Zichun Residence is where he first met Lan Xiang, and the first place where he fell in love with her. And at this time, Lan Xiang has also fallen completely in love with Lin Jin Qi with all her heart.
that never happened. lin family is not responsible at all for any of what happened to shen family. blame shen's grandpa and the emperor.