dizzeedollee

No, he's not the crown prince - he's the heir to his father's title.

Considering YC calls the Grand Princess 姑祖母 (father's aunt), plus the Grand Princess is the Emperor's aunt, plus YC is Jin Wang's 堂弟 (cousin on his father's side) and Jin Wang is (I think) the Emperor's son, then YC's father should be the Emperor's brother and YC = Emperor's nephew... but Chinese relative names get confusing, so I need to double check with my parents haha

Edit: Oh yes, I just watched today's episodes and indeed Jin Wang is the Emperor's son, so YC should indeed be the Emperor's nephew

As my mum jokes in Cantonese, if characters don't do this sort of thing there would be no show 😂

Yan Chi is a 世子 (shizi), which indicates he is the heir to his father's (a prince) title. Yan Chi's father is the Rui Prince who I'm guessing is the Emperor's brother, but I need to go back and rewatch a couple of scenes to double check. If you can pick it out the words in the dialogue, they mention the actual crown prince (太子, taizi) a couple of times.

I like that he respectfully turned away when QW lifted the cloth on the bottom half of SR's body. It's great that the actors and director thought about these details even when the camera is focused on different characters

The moment he gave her those water resistant coroner's gloves I thought this must be love. 10 points to YC for giving QW such a considerate gift 👍 I'm not a romance fan at all, but if there must be romance, I like this mature, considerate, and sometimes (a bit) adorably goofy kind of romance.

It seems like they're setting her up to be in a couple with MWX, but every time I see her, I wonder: how is such a person going to be Empress one day? Maybe she's going to end up being fridged instead for MWX's sake? 😅

Completely agree. For me, part of the problem is the poor execution of mixing parody scenes amongst the serious scenes. If they really exaggerated the parody parts like they did with the forced kiss right at the beginning when we first heard the keyboard sounds (i.e., exaggerated lighting, camera angles, etc), it wouldn't feel so tiring because we would know when to mentally relax. But currently, it's not completely clear what's parody and what we as the audience are meant to take seriously.

What also frustrates me is (sort of) what SYT said; SYM doesn't treat their world like the real world - except she does, she treats everyone as real exacept for NH. NH is the only one she treats like a paper person. She's noted over and over that the plot deviates and that even the iconic scenes don't play out exactly like in the original script (e.g., she was told it was NR not NH who caused the fire at the Lantern Festival), but her attitude towards NH hasn't changed at all. It's understandable that she doesn't want to die and I have no issue with her not wanting to die, the issue for me is that we're now over halfway and there has been close to zero character development. Where is the start of her (even if it's small) change in attitude? What are her conflicting emotions? I use The Princess' Gambit as an example because I'm watching it at the same time - there are lots of writing flaws in TPG, but you can clearly see SZY (LXY's character, the ML) development and, *crucially*, his conflicting emotions. He has some feelings for FL and wants to believe her, and he sort of does, but he's also got a job to do and he keeps finding her in compromising situations that make it difficult for him to spare her.

Maybe I am just biased because I love character-driven stories, but having such a flat character is soooo frustrating. Is she even a character or just a plot device forcing the misunderstanding plots to happen (like pseudo-fridging), because she doesn't feel like a real human to me? I'm hoping at some point she learns to treat NH like a human and not just paper person in a script, but I have a horrible feeling it will just end with SYM/her real life character falling in love with NH/NF and not learning anything.

I completely agree with SYT. Of course it's understandable that SYM wants to live, but she can so casually talk about killing NH because she doesn't treat him like a living human but a paper person.

I think it's meant to be a parody, but the issue (for me at least) is that the distinction between the parody sections and the "serious" sections is not distinct enough so it's coming across as a mediocre (and sometimes ridiculous) script sadly.

Reading the synopsis I was really hoping this was going to be like Cheng He Ti Tong/How Dare You, which balanced the humour with the transmigration and palace intrigue elements so well. I'm hoping now that SYM learns the truth in the next episode, the script will get into the meat of the serious portion.

I think you're misunderstanding my post, because it's not about who is "right" or "wrong", and it certainly wasnt directed at you, but at people generally. Because it's not just Prisoner of Beauty, but I see this growing trend of people slinging insults at characters and getting quite aggressive towards people who don't have the popular/majority opinion. I've never said that people aren't allowed to have different opinions (I'm fact I love discussing different POVs) , I'm merely saying that even though these characters are not real people, I don't like to see people in general (not you personally) being mean full stop, so I will always defend that person (even though they're a fictional character) .

I have to hand it to her, I really appreciate that SZE cries in a way that's appropriate to the situation rather than doing that "pretty idol" crying face that some idol actresses do. This is my first SZE drama and I'm impress with her acting

I agree with you. Whether or not you agree with or disagree with a character's actions I personally believe it's important to at least try to understand why they make the decisions they do - because why would you not want to develop empathy? It's so easy to judge from the safety of being a viewer who has a bird's eye view of the situation and as people with modern day opinions, but when you consider Da Qiao's upbringing and her lack of schooling in strategy, her reaction makes complete sense. To play devil's advocate here, you could also argue that Xiao Qiao indeed helped Da Qiao and Bi Zhi, but she also put them in constant danger by having them defend against Bianzhou and (at the time) Wei Guo. I try not to get too deeply involved in emotional exchanges on MDL, but when I see people slinging personal insults at characters who make questionable, but ultimately understandable, decisions I can't help but defend them lol

That's why I specifically said I was being biased.

Logically, if all things are considered objectively, I can understand Xiao Qiao's POV. But emotionally and instinctively I can also understand Da Xiao's POV, i.e., now that Manman's all settled and smoothed things over with Wei Shao, she's forgotten about her sister and the next time she hears from her, she's asking Bi Zhi to risk his life, so of course I can understand Da Qiao's POV too.

I suspect I will be in the minority for thinking this way, but based on the trailer alone and without any other context, I agree with Da Qiao in this case! I can't stand it when characters throw away their family members and/or closest friends after falling in love - what, Bi Zhi is dispensible because he has no ambitions to unify the Central Plains?! I will admit I am definitely biased in that I value ride or die family ties and friendship more than romantic relationships, so this sort of thing really riles me up haha

It used to be Monday but it recently switched to Sunday. It broadcasts live on their Youtube channel at 12PM - I'm assuming it's the Chinese timezone, but I'm not 100% sure. If you're a VIP member on Youtube you get access to it on Saturday around the time it airs in China

For those missing their Cheng Yi fix, he is on Hi6 next week! In the trailer he's still adorably a bit "meng", but I'm loving how he's channeling all his "da xia" energy into the hide-and-seek/catching game haha. Remember to watch everyone, I'm not sure if it's region locked but the Hi6! YT channel always uploads the videos :)

Wow, so many unexpected (to me) aspects in this trailer - transmigration AND a system AND and another possible transmigrator (?!), a cameo from our Shan Gudao (haha), and the level of comedy. Of course, with this being a Cheng Yi project the comedy can't last forever. This is already my most anticipated drama for 2025, but the plot details and character arc revealed in the trailer has skyrocketed my excitement. Hope this airs soon 😊

I completely agree with what your points bailang, bibi, and meoware. There seems to be a trend of people increasingly judging art - whether that's C-dramas or novels or other art forms - purely through the lens of their personal values rather than evaluating a work on the quality of story craft, emotional depth, and narrative complexity. Not all stories are supposed to be fluffy escapism - some stories explore what it means to be human and lay bear the ugliest and most uncomfortable parts of the human experience. Past dynasties were patriarchal, are we supposed to ignore this just because it makes some people uncomfortable? How can we understand the others, how can we develop compassion, how can we avoid past failings if we don't interrogate the past and dissect human flaws? There are many things that Hanyan has done that I don't agree with, but a) I can at least understand how and why she got to this point, and b) her actions don't diminish my overall enjoyment because these flaws and the logical progression of her mental state makes for a compelling story (for my tastes).

My personal feeling is that there has been a decline in media literacy and critical thinking skills in the past few years for whatever reason, and society as a whole has become less tolerant - differences in opinion immediately escalate to name-calling and personal attacks. There is no nuance anymore - everything is taken to extreme (e.g., "I don't like this one thing, therefore the entire drama, the production crew, all the actors and actress and their families are 100% shi*t." Me: Are you ok, who hurt you?). You can dislike something, but why be so awful and uncivilised when you communicate this?

I rarely post on MDL because of how quickly people can become horrible - the only page I've properly engaged in discussions with in the past was the very peaceful and civilised Mysterious Lotus Casebook page - but some of these comments really compelled me to come out of lurking.

I preferred her characters to Ye Xiwu haha. My personal view is that she was at least consistent, but some of Ye Xiwu's behaviour didn't align with her character, but that could have been a directing issue. In any case, I'm happy to see Chen Duling in more leading roles :)

I totally agree. She was unfortunate to have been cast in some poorly written and widely considered irritating secondary female roles in the past few years, so I'm so, so glad that she's being cast in leading lady roles that have a bit more meat and nuance to them :) The only thing I wish is that they would let her dub herself some more, I think she did a really great job in Fangs of Fortune.