arpar

I'm so intrigued by consort dowager I can't lie, I thought she was evil but today finding out empress dowager was behind the eastern palace fire years ago, she seemed genuinely shocked and looked a little hurt. In the mean time I feel like slowly but surely empress dowager is showing her true colors a bit, trying to be the benevolent ruler but behind she's truly ruthless and power hungry. The flashback scene I feel gave us a proper glimpse of her true self.

Haha no problem, yeh fire in east palace was in the past, empress dowager used it to take the throne. If you remember it was mentioned when we got mo lingji's perspective of his childhood and stuff in ep 12 I think it was.

Also besides the other comments don’t worry in the book ml and fl mess with her bad, she thinks she’s smart but gets totally outplayed and toyed with by ml and fl. She doesn’t effect them much in the novel so I think same will happen in the drama.

Mo Jingli set the fire to cover his escape, but they also there’s a flashback of a fire years ago in the east palace that empress dowager had set to take the throne, that’s why you may be confused, two fires. The one we see Mjl set to escape, but they show a quick flashback and marquis talks about the fire he set for empress years ago.

True that I forgot about that, but yeh even those he’s an obsessed crazy dude, when it comes to scheming they’re both pretty smart and know each other pretty well. I appreciate details like this that have a foundation and make sense

100%, like you said the foundation for reading his movies is so well established especially cause it’s interesting when you think since he studied at lishan academy as well, I think likely he thought up the escape plan the same as her, since they both have the same foundation of studying at lishan acadney and fl used that knowledge to pretty much read what he did

Love when we get to see fl putting her smarts to use and damn ep 19 was so good for that, the way fl figured everything out was so good.

Yeh I read the novel but a while ago so don't remember all the details but yeh I remember ml disliked her and pretty much let fl deal with her and fln ever got jealous, I think cause she realized there was nothing to be jealous over at all, from memory even though they were engaged when young, ml never had feelings for her. Anyway, yeh I hope they recreate some fun scenes of ml and fl fooling her.

What I appreciate though is in the previews the ml seems to tell fl who she is quickly and the way fl told him to take that food to her, just tells me fl is going to mess with her so bad. I can already see it, Sui Zuidie is gonna think she's the smart one when ml and fl are gonna mess with her so bad, hopefully at least haha

The person who has the edict as of now from the info we have is consort dowager, and we're unsure what side she's on. She seems loyal to the empress dowager but maybe not she seems more complex than that, so if she has the edict she has some insurance against empress dowager. Plus it doesn't really implicate her, she can just say she was recently given the edict bt someone unknown or something, she can easily explain it away. So obviously if the empress dowager had it she would destroy it, but since it's in the hands of consort dowager as far as we know and we don't really know what side she's on, it's good insurance for her.

As of right now it's very very good, if you scroll down a little bit you'll see comments on a similar question saying the same thing. The acting, cinematography, ost, directing and storyline are all top notch right now. It's one of the best recent historical cdramas, the fl is so unique with her hallucinations and ptsd or something similar, the storyline is layered, keeping you engaged while slowly revealing details and the pacing is really good. It doesn't throw everything at you too quickly, keeps a steady pace that makes you want more. Very different from your normal historical cdrama. Have a scroll in the comments and you'll see similar thoughts on the drama. Just hoping it keeps it up.

You're right here, imagine he gets ordered back. He returns and finds out, emperor is dead, princes are dead, new empress dowager in charge obviously he would feel super suspicious. He wouldn't trust anyone. Mean time at the battlefield the enemy has taken advantage and broken through, immediately my first thought would be I got set up, as soon as I leave the enemy capitalizes. The only thing that can prove his innocent for leaving the battlefield is the edict.

In that situation I wouldn't trust anybody, I would hide the edict and try to find someone I trust to reveal it, someone with power and a voice as well like lishan academy. He thought, let me be imprisoned, I'll have lishan academy who I trust expose the truth as I don't know who else to trust. Unfortunately went wrong.

His crime like pap said above, wasn't that he entered the city with his army, it was that he left the battlefield causing a great loss. What else could he do, he returns, battlefield goes to hell, the people and court blame him immediately, maybe he has the edict on him maybe he doesn't we will find out, but either way if he trusts the wrong person he's done for. Only options would be to rebel or wait for the right time and use the edict. He believed the right time was when he was approached by fl's mother.

But again, we don't know the whole story, that is why this drama is so good so far, the story telling is like peeling back an onion, we find out the whole story slowly not all at once. So lets not judge before we even know the whole story.

100 percent exactly

I think also like you kind of mentioned, it's who he could trust. If he presented the edict to the wrong person he would be screwed, they would just take it and cover it up and pretended it never existed, so when fl's mother approached him and mentioned her father, he believed she was trustworthy thus told her.

No problem

No normally goes down on weekdays again, highest was a little over 28k yesterday, today reached 27.9k, which is actually impressive to be so steady on a Monday after the weekend, for 29k and hopefully 30k best chance is this coming weekend. But if it catches fire who knows could get during the weekdays.

For sure I do think she seems like a villain but also looking at her backstory today and what happened with her master who she seems to care a lot about makes me think that possibly her and fl could become allies for a little bit against the empress dowager. I agree thats what makes it so fun, everyone is complex and a little hard to read about what plans they have. But yeh if she does intend to go against the empress dowager I think the decree will be useful. But I totally get what you mean, I dislike when theres some hugely impotent decree and the villains don't destroy it but keep it for some reason. I just hope here it will actually make sense why she kept the decree, but I guess we just gotta wait and find out.

I agree she definitely doesn't get a pass, but also everyone in my opinion deserves a second chance if they realize their wrong doings, and seems like she did. Obviously, doesn't mean you forget and I'm sure fl doesn't trust her, but also forgiving people and moving on is healthy in my opinion. So for sure fl will always remember and step mother doesn't get a pass like she's a good person all of a sudden, but I do think everyone deserves a second chance and forgiveness if they realize their mistakes. Like you mentioned and fl said, she got back what's hers and embarrassed her back, so in her mind they're even so no need to continue a grudge that may only hurt them both in the future.

Also I think the relationship between father and daughter was long over without her input due to what happened with her mother and edict, But for sure I agree she doesn't get a pass, but I think forgiveness was a good move by fl and also step mother realising her mistakes was a nice touch rather then keeping her as a vindictive villain the whole time

I think it's also worth pointing out right now we don't know if consort dowager is an actual villain or not, she hasn't proven herself to be a villain or a good person yet, so I think theres a reason she didn't destroy it, which we'll hopefully found out as we find out more about consort dowager. Plus it doesn't implicate her, from what it seems like she has it as insurance against the empress dowager, so it's actually beneficial to her that it's not destroyed.

Yeh so true, she used her brains to get what's her but also while not being consumed by hate towards them, she knows how too focus on the right things