grapejuice

This isn't true though. He's obviously in her circle of love and caring. She risked her life to save his and she forgave his actions against her. She just doesn't show it the way that he does. Our girl values calm and stillness. She's worked hard to let go of the chaos that has plagued her life and develop that kind of quiet acceptance. It's an achievement but it doesn't mean that she is emotionless or cold or has no love for him. it's just how she has learned to survive.

The problem was that LJQ bypassed the parent approval process and went straight to an Imperial decree.

there are a couple of things that you have to remember about LX.

She recognizes and agrees with the custom where parents decide marriage (especially in her own case where she believes that they will choose in her best interests rather than their own, and she trusts their judgement and she knows that they will change their minds if she says no.)

She believes in a woman's right to a divorce.

She absolutely despises Imperial power.

So Scholar Han's plan looks bad to us but it doesn't offend LX while LJQs plan offends all three things that LX believes in.

Also, what had LJQ done for her? He gave her her freedom ... and then took it away from her again.

I totally agree that Scholar Han was being opportunistic and equally as sleezy as LJQ but it would have looked very different to LX.

I love this review because, in all these comments, I think you are the first to ask the question that is the crux of the story. What does it actually mean to live well?

The characters, themselves, don't ask or answer the question explicitly but LX talks to JQ about her way and his way being too fundamentally different for them to really share one life together.

Judging by her approach to life and the things she does, I think its safe to say that LX is trying to live by the Taoist way and the Buddhist way.The Taoist way is the right, harmonious way of nature; nature that we are a part of and should not try to fight against. Why? Because (a) it won't work and (b) it will break you to keep trying. Change is a part of 'The Way' but it happens when and how it should. Think of a river current that changes direction as it must in order to keep flowing. We're in the current so to go against it we must understand and work with it in a gradual process.

You can see that LX accepts this in the way that she tries to go against the current to address the violence done to her family, herself and others around her. She works within the rules and laws that already exist. She learns what they are and acts to have them enforced as they should be. And for the long run, she writes operas that will help people see things more clearly. Shes out to change minds gradually over time. She plays that very gradual, very long game to accomplish what she believes is right.

JQs way has been to align himself with the power of King's who put themselves over and above nature's way at a peak where they can exercise cruel violence in their own interests alone. He didn't intend to get so close to this power and has contradicted it when he buried her family and helped the deposed crown prince to escape ... because they had done nothing wrong. So LX sees eventually that they could share the same way eventually.

So back to how we should live a good life. The Buddhist way involves a lot of things but I think we can think of acceptance, compassion, kindness and right action as being keys for LX and this drama. We have to accept that there is suffering in life and have compassion for all beings that suffer (including our selves and even our enemies) so we live in a way that accepts but minimizes that suffering.

We try to feed, clothe and shelter ourselves. We work and save so that we can live freely and without fear given that there are some necessary rules to maintain order (examples being finial piety and just laws). But we don't cling to anything so hard that we cause ourselves unnecessary suffering. Greed, grasping, stealing and hurting others (especially for personal gain) are not the right way to live. Kindness and compassion are the way. Our thoughts and actions determine our karma, create our fate and this we must accept.

So, basically, our FL is learning and demonstrating how to live a good life. She accepts the good and the bad in her own fate, carries compassion in her heart, shows kindness to others and works within law and order to make sure that everyone can escape unnecessary and/or unfair pain and suffering in the short run and in the long run she is changing minds and hearts through her writing. Eventually she hopes there will be a better world and she will have done what she could do to make it happen. So the way to live a good lifeis to work for what you love, do what you love as best you can, accept your losses without fighting them and not hurt anyone else in the process.

At least that's what I got from it. Everyone including the poor and women should be able to live a good life with its privileges and its responsibilities as is the Taoist and Buddhist way.

It isn't a romance or a revenge drama. it's a life story; a story of surviving so that you can go on to live a good life. within those parameters, it is extremely good. extremely. if you think you can watch it for what it is .. if you wont get frustrated and end up judging it for what it isn't. then give it a go. It's different.

the emotional toil of his relationship with the FL contributed to his death? haha. this is funny. Their relationship and family life became quite idyllic at the end especially ... perhaps you are practicing sarcasm ... let's see... explosion from an armaments depository, numerous other wounds vs she doesn't love me enough?

You'll see. The love triangle doesn't last long and it's kind of funny but it's also important to the story.

And a 'just life' ending? It's what happens in life. This is a life story where the FL is the main character. She outlives everyone else so you see her remembering the people who died.

LJQ's death comes first because of his major war injuries and, I think, it's a rather beautiful death (although a lot of people have misinterpreted it as her saying she doesn't want to meet him in a future life when really she's telling him that he no longer owes her anything because of the things that he did in this life. She's saying that this life they're sharing has been good .

Anyway, we see her die at the end. And all of this plays out over half an episode so there's tears but they're soft "that's just life" tears.

At the end she's lived a good life and a long one. She survived like her mother told her to do. She lived for her entire family and has done work that will eventually get her grandfather exonerated. So, I, personally, didn't find it sad. We should all survive and live so well. It's quite lovely.

Anyway that's quite a detailed spoiler and I hope its not too much. If you remember that it's the FLs story and the ML is one part of it you'll do fine with the love story. It's not just slow burn. It's hard earned because he makes some huge mistakes and because she is an unusual person who would never get lost in some great passion. She's trying to live a good life that has less chaos than that. So her love is quiet and deep rather than splashy or as big looking as his love is.

inside is the message that her mother wrote to her, using her blood, all those years ago

Is Sword Snow Stride even finished yet? I thought it was a multiple part drama that doesn't even have part 2 yet because part 1 happened so long ago and the ML actor is too busy.

this really needs a spoiler tag ... so many plot points disclosed

also the FL doesn't feel betrayed by the Lin family. She never did. It's just that she wouldn't have chosen to be their slave or to marry into the family after being freed

it really isn't a romance drama

The ratings for each episode make a lovely line at about 9.5 despite the fact that there were people who rated them all at one before they even aired.

By the end she has learned to read and write. Her family's policy was that their women shouldn't be allowed to learn. So she makes do with her maid helping her until she really decides to do it later on. Btw. Learning Chinese characters is a lot harder than learning an alphabet. It's almost all visual with almost no sound clues. So, it takes more focus and more time with 1000 characters being what makes you literate. After that there's many more to make you highly literate. The writing is on a whole other level ... Give it a try some time. It's exhausting.

She does love him but apparently not as much as the audience wants her too. Or she isn't showing it enough. Or she isn't showing it in the ways that people want to see.

But let me ask you a question. What if she didn't. What if someone falls in love with YOU but you don't love them back? Are you obliged to love them just because they love you?

Are you obliged to love someone else and show it in exactly the same way that they show you? What if you're a quiet introvert who is uncomfortable with big displays of affection. What if you feel that you shouldn't be forced into a situation where you must love and show love in ways decided by someone else? Should you be like "this woman" receiving so much disdain for not showing love the way that he does. He's the classic lover and he has to be because he forced her to marry him. He's well aware that this wasn't the best way to her heart and he has to work to win her over. But everyone decides that she should fall into exactly the same kind of love that he shows her and is impatient with her when she doesn't.

It should be obvious that this isn't a romance drama with all of the usual romance tropes attached. So, you'll enjoy her life story more (because it is her life story) if you recognize that he is just one part of it and maybe not the biggest part either. She's going to go on living no matter what. She isn't going to throw herself off a cliff if he dies.

Loving him was a decision and an achievement given the circumstances. And he, the character, is very happy with that so I would have thought that the audience would be pleased for them both because of that. Not every C-drama follows the same romance plot and if that's not ok with people they really should go and watch one of the others instead of getting upset with this one for being different.

This isn't an enemies to lovers drama.

Grandfather Lin didn't want his grandson to be seen or get caught up in what was going to happen at the Shen residence because the raid was imminent. His going there would have implicated the Lin family and not helped the Shen family. It was already too late.

Grandfather Shen and Grandmother were expecting to die. They were ready. Grandfather had been accused. He had been given the same survival option as his friend the Lin patriarch had received. And, knowing the consequences, he didn't take it. He stuck to his morals and integrity instead of saving his family.

So the grandparents and men knew what was about to happen when the doors crashed in. They should have told all the women to expect it as well but I guess they had their reasons not to.

Anyway, the Lin were not responsible and couldn't have saved anyone but themselves. Grandfather Lin and LJQ suffered from survivors guilt and the feeling that maybe they should have stuck to their morals and integrity too. So they grieved the decision that saved them ... for the rest of their lives. They felt bad, but it was the Emperor who was responsible for all of it.

And the FL knew that it was the Emperor. She never believed anything other than that. She never blamed the Lin family. She cried during LJQs first wedding because it made her think of what could have been not because she hated the Lin for saving themselves when her grandfather took a different route.

The Emperor is the villain and the enemy. The Emperor. The position of Emperor. The absolute power of the Emperor.

There are a thousand warnings in these comments that it's best to pay attention to the story as a whole and keep your romance expectations in check because it's not the focus. Having said that the SML is an important secondary character and the ML is the ML.

Must be PST. Me too. And now we can sleep through the night again. :-)

JiaLan had to become LanXiang in order to survive the Chen family tragedy. But the fragrance of JiaLan never left her. She could never be JiaLan again but everything that she learned as JiaLan (an incredible education) together with who she really is inside ... that never leaves her. The fragrance remains.

And so with the experience of the noblewoman JiaLan and the experiences of slave LanXiang , she can see the world differently and do all the things that she does in the drama. She can see the world from an extremely well educated wealthy woman 's POV and she can see it through the eyes of a slave and then a commoner ... so she is truly one of a kind in the world at large. Her cumulative experience makes her unusually wise.

Also. Both of her names refer, in part, to the orchid which has a lovely and distinct fragrance that is unlike other flowers; some even being most fragrant under cover of darkness.

hmmmm. I'm going to take this as a recommendation and have a look. TY !!! :-)

haha. He retired to his study, didn't fight in the wars ... and we didn't see it because he only ever did it off camera ... but he cultivated for 20 of every 24 hours in order to reach that immortality.

Or he was close. Except that his hair thinned when the full immortals always get a thick mass of flowing silver hair ...

There are plenty of dramas where it's the ML's story or its about a band of brothers on some kind of a mission. Try any wuxia/xania. Try Joy of Life. If you haven't seen it, it's perfectly male centric. And exceptionally good.