QueSeraSera

Yes, exactly! So far she's had star eyes for ZZ but every time that happens, we see a flashback of him saving her or her using him. And I think this is the writers way of subtly implying that because this happened in the past, she's like this now. And she didn't really love anyone before either. To her, they were either useful or not. Simple.

100% with you!
I'm really enjoying them both trying to understand and one-up each other. Here's hoping it all works out well!

So her profile's still up on the IQIYI international website. So is her drama with Allen. And it's actually in the upcoming list, open for reservations too. So maybe there is hope?

Links if someone wants: https://www.iq.com/actor-info/lareina-song-zu-er-231639905?lang=en_us
https://www.iq.com/actor-info/lareina-song-zu-er-231639905?lang=en_us

Thank you! ^^

Oh yeah, forgot his brain's fried for the while.
But nevertheless, peeps are mostly going around blaming JXN when she's was completely out of the loop. However, given the amount of JXN-minded XW has become, he at least should've asked one of his men to shadow her around while YL is still in the capital. Especially considering she almost offended the Xue fam at the coming of age ceremony to save the Yan fam.

One thing I'll say after reading all the comments is that we as drama watchers need to understand that the information that we're getting first handed might not be available to the said drama's character's. So we really shouldn't be getting mad at them for doing something, especially when they actually have no knowledge of the other things. Though in certain situation, doing this might be a hard task *cries in Cdrama land* ಥ‿ಥ

When does he not lol. At this rate man is going to burst capillary or something

I'm actually really digging SOKP cauz despite the whole "going back to change things" plot, Ning'er is only, like 5-10% cleverer than her previous previous iteration. Why? Because she's someone who was clever to begin with. Otherwise how would a girl, who grew up in a literal exile with her fake mum, be able to scheme her way into the freaking empress's palace.
And the only reason it ended in a tragedy is because she burned through most of her bridges to reach her goal, not realizing there was a separate conspiracy afoot.

I agree she needs to stop being impulsive and start calmly reacting to situations but most of it is because of what she went through previously and how it impacted the people around her.
She said she's paid her dues with YL but she actually still feels guilty about using him and then throwing him away when it was her turn to be there for him. This manifests into her actions to save the Yan fam.
Same goes for ZZ, the uptight man led astray. She's not actually in love with him but more infatuated by all that he's done for her in the past. From what we've seen so far, he was probably the one who protected her when her own people turned their backs. This led to a weird fascination for this guy who claims to be uptight (something she's probs not seen much of in the court) and yet still so willing to help her. That too without wanting anything in return. I have a feeling that even if they do get together, they might not last long cauz ZZ is very much a stickler for rules and Ning'er is all about bending them when needed.

And as for XW, she literally thought he was in the empress's palace to k-word her. Do you honestly believe she will fall for the person who wanted to take her life away the first time? Especially since she's personally seen his unhinged sight and know he might get rid of her when required?

Do I like XW as a character? Absolutely. He's all shades of gray and very interesting to see. It's a nice change from the usual moral police.

But will I use this to unnecessarily bash JXN who is using her wits and knowledge to literally just survive? Absolutely NOT. Because it's not warranted. Because she still does not know XW's secrets and is judging the situation to the best of HER knowledge and adapting accordingly.

Is JXY a little stupid at times? Of course she is. And I honestly don't mind. Why? Cauz she's reborn not attained immortality. Expecting her to know about everything and everyone's business is plain stupid and would make her a total know-it-all who is doing this for the sake of the plot, thus ruining literally the whole foundation of the story.

Okay, rant over. Back to drama watching ^^

Also, Ning'er had strong reason to assume XW would kill ZZ cauz that man is sharp and knows too much. If ZZ was killed on the battlefield, it could be attributed to a casualty. Sealing away XW's secrets and dealing with ZZ at the same time. And she literally saw him lose his shit and kill someone a few days ago (her as well). Give her some credit.

Y'all need to be stop being mad at Ning'er cauz girly didn't know shit about XW's plan. Why? Cauz HE DIDN'T TELL HER!!!
I'm so annoyed at how people are constantly judging her when it's actually all XW's fault. He's seen first handed how attached she is to Yan Lin and how impulsive she is when it's stuff concerning him. You can't tell me that he didn't think that there was a .0001% that she'd want to say goodbye to him? Especially since he's going on a whole-ass exile and might not be back in one piece *smh* And he's supposed to be the smart one.

Also, he literally just agreed on telling her about his plans for the Yan's and you're telling me he somehow missed telling her about such an important detail on the night of YL's transfer?
XW is built to be this guy who can read people well, understand their motivations to manipulate them. But all this while he's been withholding crucial info, is constantly after Ning'er even when she's not given any visible sign of reciprocation for his feelings, and mad when she spoils things due to her lack of knowledge.
She literally led him by the nose during the whole missing letter arc and he's still treating her like some naughty child who is acting above their station.
It's not she but he who needs to grow up and smell the coffee.

I know right! Still can't believe it's been 3 years... Feels like yesterday TT

I understand that, but at the moment he's just a soul in an empty vessel. He needs parts of his body back to function properly again. He's in denial because he knows this feeling is love, but until he's forced to face it, i.e get his emotions back through his heart (that's how it works here apparently), he'll always hesitate to take that last step. Like when he clearly wanted to hug her but stopped at the last moment.
His memories of love are all accompanied by betrayal, pain, suffering and guilt. Heart is just an organ but I think for him it might be the last straw to finally break out from this shell.

Give Tian Yao his heart back cauz mine clearly can't take this anymore TT

Once he find his heart, I do want to watch him being on his knees and begging for forgiveness... It also makes sense that in one of the teasers YH has a black aura and stabs TY, but he holds the sword and stabs himself deeper!!! It's because he knows that's the consequence of his actions and that's the only way to bring her back omg they really planned this out

You know, I just realized that Tian Yao still doesn't have his heart! That means that everything he's been feeling for Yan Hui is more of a surface feeling. Like yes he's defo in love, probably from the first time she saved him, but he just can't understand it because he still DOESN'T HAVE HIS FREAKING HEART!!!
He has guilt, pain, anger, resentment and the feeling of betrayal from when he had his heart but the feeling of love let him down so he's been ignoring it as we can see. So his empty gaze when he stabs YH is more of a defense mechanism that's numbed him to any and everything but the feeling of guilt, pain, anger, resentment and a more than healthy dose of fear cauz they're the only surviving descendants of the elves that died because of him

The way they made TTJ more human but then dumbed down LSS. And I'm just like, why?
Sure, TTJ being more human makes it even more worth when he eventually goes off the rails but LSS was a smartass who literally saw YBC as a side character and observed and found out her evil intentions beforehand.
Here, she's literally taking her out and in her home, that too on the day that shit's supposed to go down!!! And I'm just screaming at her WHYYYYYY
YBC could've been fine inside 1 more day but NOPE

And what is with her obsession to save XL and be all up in arms the moment TTJ does even the slightest wrong. I get it, she's experiencing flashbacks and to her even the slightest evil from TTJ means he's more likely to turn bad but because of this she's completely blind to everything else. TTJ is the best choice for a ruler because he has no strings attached. XL will eventually bow to the pressure from his fam but TTJ has no one to answer too. And he's being benevolent but it seems like LSS is actually the one who is determined to test him to the extreme until he has no choice but to turn bad.

The downfall of TTJ was fascinating to watch because LSS ALWAYS saw this as her mission. She was living this life as if she were a bystander. Here they mellowed her down to someone who cares for everyone around her BUT TTJ, when in the novel she really only cared about the people who had shown her kindness and no more. And this drove TTJ mad because he knew that he has nothing to hold on to her. If she wants, she can walk away and NEVER come back.

I think someone answered that in the comments below. XHY wasn't meant to be in the loop but was pulled, so it wasn't infinite, which was said on the show too. They cut a big chunk of the story where even the delivery driver (that almost crashes into the bus when it collided with the oil tanker) was in a loop of his own and had to deliver a parcel to XHY.

I think they were in the loop in the first place because MM didn't want anyone to die on her account. She tried to warn her father in his dreams (he said she visited him and said live a good life when the garage explosion happened) but he didn't listen. So in a last ditch attempt, she put them in a loop and LSQ gained consciousness (idk why, maybe cauz she's similar to her?). The loop only stops when everyone makes it out alive. Every time someone, even 1 person died, the loop restarted. It only ended when everyone made it out alive. Hence MM standing on the bridge, shining brightly, saying goodbye to her parents.

The orig novel is still being translated, so I'm holding off until it's done then reading marathon! I'll add stuff below if I find something else later :)

Right, that does make sense. I'm glad they where able to pass censorship at all especially with all the recent crackdown that's been happening :/

They did try to explain why Lu Di wasn't pulled in. Just felt a little random why neither of the two tried to find out how she got in the first place. But I guess after finally getting out, they really didn't want to go back and revisit it in case they got pulled in again lol

I do feel like I want to read the novel, but on the other hand, I kinda don't because I just want to remember it as it is. It's so weird hehe

Thank you so much for explaining it! :)

True. I did feel that if they decided to flesh out the parent's stories, they needed to atleast show Meng Meng's side too. Maybe offer a bit more perspective? Increasing the ep count to 16 could've given them some extra time to wrap everything up nicely too without a 20 min ending and done. They did skip time to 6 months? after the incident and then snippets until the current 5 years later, so they sorta tried to flesh them out, but yeah, I do agree it wasn't as on point as I would've liked. It did get repetitive after a while.

Agreed with that. I guess she forgot about the stop in her panic? *sigh* since we never really saw MM outside of the accident, I guess all we can do is speculate. I do wish there'd be a season 2 but I don't want XHY and LSQ to go back into another time loop, especially after they barely got out of this one ^^

Yo, can someone please tell me why Li ShiQing got into the loop in the first place? Or like how did she gain consciousness? And was Xiao HeYuen only pulled into the loop because LSQ got him off the bus in the middle of it, thus disrupting him??

I just finished watching episode 15 and I have SO MANY QUESTIONS >.<