YouToon

Maybe they’ll say the field counted?

Im just starting that episode. Its kind of a fool me once scenario shame on you but fool me twice shame on me. He did a lot of good things for her to begin with so she gave him her sincere trust and friendship. Then he tricked and used her. Now no matter how many good things he does, she can’t pretend that he wont use and betray her trust if he thinks the goal achieved is more important than her feelings or goals. So doing good things is meaningless cause it doesnt mean he’ll never do it again. The only thing that will solve the problem is time and her acceptance of that part of him. She might even convince herself he’ll never do it again. But I hope that doesn’t happen. It would feel OOC for both of them if he was suddenly to abandon his principles or she was suddenly to abandon rationale thought.

An original historical adventure with some inspiration from shows like The Beauty Inside. How did I miss this till now?

I think if the rules had limited them to 40 episodes or if theyd split it up into two parts an episode count of 50-60 would have served those later acs better.

True

It was kind of satisfying that even though she destroyed her life to do it, she did succeed at her goal and the world was actually a better place for it.

Fully support and agree except for the implication woke is somehow bad. It’s the new “PC.” Somehow trying to do or be better but not always succeeding is derided as worse than not trying at all and allowing horrible behavior go by without comment. Misogyny is way worse than woke and yet I see people actually saying that far less often.

Personal semantics aside, you are right. This did a great job of showing different expressions of woman being strong in different and truly overwhelming circumstances.

Hahahahahahahahahhaahhahah, given his performance I would watch that. Here is hoping someone takes all his scenes and for fun edits them into a mini drama starring only him and what happens to whoever he’s most recently plotted against.

Short of abandoning his position to run away it rebelling and killing the emperor he did everything he could do. It equally brilliant and frustrating that this show chose to demonstrate such an insurmountable challenge: when a person with godlike authority who can harm as many as it takes to break you tries to manipulate you, what choice is there? The fact it was his “father” doing it to him just made it even sadder and more miserable.

Haha we don't see the marriage happen but its really cute how the proposal is shown.

I think the difference is his formative understanding of his father was already negative. They weren’t close and Ling didn’t protect the ML’s mother or sister well. Learning the dad hurt the mother and manipulated the step mother was in line with the bad character he already saw and despised in his father. Whereas the emperor raised him like a beloved child and never let him down until what happened with the FL. Even manipulating him into being the commander of the security bureau was acceptable because he trusted the emperor’s reasons. The crappy Ling daddy was right: the ML treated the emperor like a father and treated him like nothing. And thats cause the emperor did kind of steal his son.

They didnt really spend enough time building this arc but her letter and the scene where she cried after being hit by the evil father-in-law apologizing to hou zhi explain it.

Tell that to the Shen family. :)

It doesnt follow any of those tropes. Its more like a real breakup. Without making the effort to see each other, they dont. Both are sad. And she was always firm with the SML that they are only friends. He always respects that.

Despair that her beloved husband was dead and she thought her sister who was her support had died too. All because of her evil in-laws. She couldnt see a future for herself or her baby so she killed herself.

If it helps she’s super tough and funny but not outwardly feisty like the FL in New Life Begins because she’s learned to repress and shape herself into the “perfct” woman so she could marry into her best friends family and escape her awful home. Her whole character arc is learning to be herself which by the end of the show is a total badass. She’s more like Yuan Yuan or the best friend who married the awful first prince in New Life Begins

It remains Romcom through out but starts to get heavier as their country descends into a civil ear

Hahaha, the crying is definitely a choice and its a nice joke to punctuate heavy moments. And yes there are better more serious crying scenes later down the line.

yeah, they were all mini villains. Even Shen Qi’s mom had a mini arc from rejecting Hua Zhi to admiring her when she came to end the engagement. But none of those dad’s did.

He was to powerful and screwed up to change. But he died knowing the one person he desperately needed to be able to trust still loved him. Thats a happier endng for him than if he’d stayed alive to destroy that.