grapejuice

Anybody know the significance of the crickets?

link? you are so cruel to describe it without a link :-) trouble finding it again? I have that trouble with IG accounts

We don't know the moments? I think we do. When he saved her from a knife to the throat. When he valued the things she had done so well. When he drank from her cup. When they talked about orchids and when he gave her one that had been a part of his. When he said she shouldn't be a maid. When he gave her her freedom. When he helped Ji'er fulfill her dream. When he almost died. When she found out about his treasons.

I have a feeling that the writer will give us a retrospective and/or a conversation to spell it out at some point but even if she doesn't, it was all there if we had been paying attention.

Anyway I share your initial reaction. But watching the k-drama 2521 fixed this phenomenon for me a few years ago. At the beginning of that drama the audience is shown that the FL very probably is not going to marry the ML. And we're shown the trauma of her youth which has something to do with why. But as we, the audience, were watching this amazing first love story, we just didn't register the facts and at the end, the outrage and feelings of betrayal were truly a thing to see. OMG we did not get what we expected and wanted so much ... but we didn't look at ourselves for willfully missing the facts, we blamed the author. Only I watched it again a few times and you know, it's a brilliant nostalgic story of first love lost... just what we were told to expect in the first episode ... but didn't accept.

And this is the same. Right at the beginning, we are hit in the face with the FLs trauma, we learn why it happened, We find out what Grandfather Lin learned about avoiding it and then we watch as the ML tries to reverse the bad fallout from what happened ... only to fall back into the same trap again. Wrong path JQ. Wrong path for life and for love.

So, the love story has been happening while we're expecting it to end and/or we're hoping to see it flourish into something that we're more used to seeing. But all the ML had to do to make it happen ... was to get out of the situation that surrounded the FLs trauma. She had learned the key to a good life. She had learned what to fear ... but he hadn't. They walked two separate paths in life until she saw that she actually wanted to walk the same path with him and told him exactly what to do to earn her love and a better life.

And that's all it took. All that he had to do was made ever so clear so he knew that the reward was waiting but ... it wasn't such an easy thing to do. He's lucky, actually, to get out with his life in only a few years. Nonetheless, he deserves the wedding night he's been hoping for all this time. And it's no wonder that it just happens when he gets home. He finally did the only thing that he had to do. Action. Reward :-)

It all fits perfectly except that we wanted to see something else. And I'll admit that I will be incredibly disappointed if the author stays in family issue mode for the next eight episodes but I rather doubt that she will let it all die on the vine without some more drama.

Anyway, let's admire the beauty of what's she's done up to now and have faith that she'll finish it well. It's actually a pretty epic love story woven through some big lessons about how to live a good life.

It made sense, of course. The final hurdle was the largest, highest possible barrier. He had taken the wrong route - in life - when he got close to the crown.

He just wanted to correct some of the things his grandfather had done. He wanted to get the family out of a bad alliance and get himself out of a terrible marriage with the Zhao. But getting out laid new traps.

The Marquis is a great man. It was obvious that he would be a lasting friend. But the hidden trap is that he was related to the CP and it was saving the CP that put a red robe on LJQ at court.

And isn't it ironic that he could only marry the woman he loved by asking for a royal favor that put him in a world of personal debt to the crown.

So, he lands right back into the kind of situation that grandfather had barely escaped with all of their lives. Only this time, the (hidden) Shen beside him isn't having it. The Shen girl learned the appropriate lesson very well. And loving LJQ, or not, was never the issue.

My god, he put her right back into the peril that killed her entire family. No wonder she couldn't accept him. She couldn't accept him because she couldn't accept the situation that he put himself in; the situation that he put her in ... again.

So, when he quits the capital and extracts himself from court ... the barrier is cleared and two paths can instantly become one. Because the long pause was never about love. It was about survival.

Finally, she found a way to communicate that fact. But she had to trust him first.

Finally, he found a way to fix it. He really hears her for the first time. And then getting out of court took time.

But ... you can't live a good life if you get into bed with power. Simple.

https://kisskh.at/people/28985-he-peng

he's listed in the guest roles about halfway through the list

I can't quite tell where you are in the drama and which episode/events you are talking about.

haha. TY !!! Wouldn't it be nice to find out for sure?

Swallowed a dictionary huh? So pretentious. But you should have read it first.

I started rewatching from the beginning and something hit me that I never really noticed before despite watching dozens of historical dramas.

I don't think I could ever have servants the way that these big wealthy families do. Even if I won billions in a lottery.

Masters enter a room and the curtains are held open for them. They just part. People are everywhere but they're not noticed. Master waves a hand and servants leave. Madam waves a hand and servants appear. Sometimes everyone must leave so the family can talk but more often than not they have serious conversations without really remembering that there are servants standing all around them ... listening or, as we've learned, trying not to listen. Nobody makes eye contact unless they're a seriously high ranking servant. And everything, everything, everything, is all done for the madams and masters. They don't dress or undress, eat, bathe or even pick things up without someone else doing most of the work. It's absolutely phenomenal how many people are around doing how many things.

But the one thing that gets me the most ... is the go/come hand-waving and never calling anyone by name. I mean these are people all around but you'd never know it.

And that's the bit I don't think I could do. You'll know from this that there have never been servants in my life and there never will be. Maybe wealthy people now are just the same but ... I would find it so very very ... uncomfortable ... They just live and breathe it all and I would just find it too unbearably embarrassing.

did they take the story away from them because they had poor chemistry or something? sometimes they make last minute changes to try to cover problems ... or hype a more popular actor or something

Ahhhh. Even with such a likeable cast? kk. Will take off of my to watchlist. TY !

what was it that left a bad taste in your mouth?

I tried to find info about their algorithm online and wasn't able to get much ... just that episode ratings play some part but ... they haven't released the details

there was never any possibility of there being a s2. they might have split the 47 ep into 2 airing schedules but they didn't need to because the max number of allowed episodes has been increased beyond 40

everyone here has rated this 8.9 and all episodes above 9 ... i bet you can figure out what we'll say? if you want blockbuster fights every other scene and you only care about tropey magical, glam kisses and sex scenes then ... no ... if you care about great writing ... great acting ... stunning cinematography ... history ... women's issues ... family ... edge of your seat situations ... and true emotional depth ... then ... yes

yes.

Your second paragraph there is about perfectly written. Darn you said what I said in about half the words and better words. Though I will try not to hold it against you :-)

OMG I thought the name was familiar. He's done many many ost for cdramas and this one is really great (among the best for sure) but my favorite is the closing song for Joy of Life season 2. Such a banger. Soo incredible. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyPrFg2xMLI ... it's a rock song with an edge so his voice is more recognizably male in that one.

I think your analysis is entirely correct but I have just one thing to add.

I can't remember all the instances where she was rotten and cruel but her worst moments of cruelty were payback of a similar nature to what was done to her.

When the Lin family needs saving, and wants to marry into her family for protection, her family sells her over to them for a son in law who will be useful to them at court. They make her abandon her lover and they force her to have an abortion. She loses the life she wanted and never forgives.

So, she refuses to sleep with JQ and cuckolds him. Thus the Lin survive but not with an heir by JQ. No baby for her, no baby for them. And the Lin get to keep their wealth but she starts to siphon it off into her own pockets over time. They steal her life from her. She steals their money from them.

And what she does to Ji'er wasn't unprovoked either. Madam Lin sells her friend/servant/only support (probably into prostitution) so ZXT takes Ji'er from them as payment. ZxT lost the only person she trusts in life, a very big part of her life. So she's prepared to take a life in return as payback and as a warning not to cross her again. And in the end she sells Je'er into prostitution.

So, its tit for tat and that thing where nobles attack each other by attacking or stealing the other parties servant/property.

It's not right by any means at all, but as ZXT saw it, there was probably an even kind of justice in it. Of course, I'm probably forgetting some thing that would redefine this. And I'm not trying to whitewash a woman who was in many ways spoiled, petty and vindictive. Her everyday cruelties were just as you describe them. "I've been hurt and I feel bad so I will hurt somebody else to make me feel better."

She gets that life is unfair. She feels that it shouldn't be. But she doesn't see that unfairness as applying to the lives of servants and slaves.

I asked one of my bosses once how she handled the pressure of her position and she said ... "I just take it out on other people". haha. same principle.

I'm sure that they eat together. Maybe play the odd parlor game with the family. Visit with the Marquis and other friends. Say goodnight and probably talk a bit since they share a room if not a bed.