galactics

Right tho?! Wishing us all strength to get through these dark episode-less days lol

This is valid too. Sometimes we need to see how people who have been abused make the choice to walk away from those who have hurt them.

I also think the mom will change and am looking forward to that storyline. There is good promise for some real deep character growth, for Shaoshang and all the people around her. Drama patterns of tragic endings got me nervous and I'm a lil worried about bad things happening to beloved characters (haven't read the book), but I'm holding out hope that we will get to see this family love up on each other.

nah this is too much lol. I haven't really rewatched episodes of airing dramas in the past but I'm over here rewatching scenes all over the place. Same eps as you mentioned, plus CSS's victory laugh after the bridge collaps has been a fave. the struggle is real out here waiting for Tuesday to come.

@Lily Lam this is a very good way of describing the mom's approach. I think it's also coming from the mom's feelings of shame for leaving SS behind and letting her experience the abuse that she did. Fixing SS's flaws like you said is the mom's way of rectifying her own mistakes as well. A very sad way of parenting. I worry about what we will see for Yuan Yi in the future. Dramas love their tales of karma and sacrifice. I hope instead we get to see SS and YY coming to love and care for each other openly, and for a long time to come.

Deeply agree. I very much enjoyed the first few episodes in that it established a complicated, fleshed out family dynamic that gave meaningful insight into the various characters and their personalities. Also very much agree that Niaoniao's mom's (Yuan Yi) actions are heavily influenced with guilt. As someone who is extremely disciplined and strategic, leaving Niaoniao behind, and Nianioa then being abused, seems to have causeed Yuan Yi deep shame, so she seeks to fix Niaoniao as way of rectifying what Yuan Yi may consider to be her own biggest mistake. It is so sad and angering to watch, and also feels real to so many mother-daughter dynamics. Although I do suspect that there is more than meets the eye with some of the theories floating around that Niaonioa may have some other identity. I also worry about what may happen to Yuan Yi in the future.

yea, LBY likes to observe from high, distant vantage points. I read it as a visualization of his military inclinations, but also of how disconnected he is from everyone and anything that's not his job and whatever personal history he is investigating.

I think you hit it on the nail. I truly believe the mom loves and cares for SS, and worries about what SS will experience as she gets older and is more exposed to the world. I also think that the mom believes in following orders and just doesn't like the way SS disobeys/acts out. A bigger part of the mom's displicining is out of care, but its not in small part out of anger and the need to dominate.

Haven't watched the previews but that seems very promising!

That surprised me as well. I had assumed the soldiers chosen for the trip would be used to taking action themselves. Niao Niao's commanding presence perhaps, lol

not sure why the tagging function doesn't seem to be working on my end for some reason

Ok so just rewatched the scene in ep 9 at 40 min mark where Ling Buyi and co are looking at the map and talking about heading west to get ahead of the Shu rebellion, so you're def onto something @Levitate14. I also think you're right @Cutenobita, since they say in that same scene that there might be some people who will not be sufficiently discouraged by the show of Lu Bingyi's military force to stop rebelling, so they wanted to flush out and catch the ones who might attack first (by raiding whatshisface Prince Xiao's place). Tragically, I think Lu Bingy miscalculated the cost of that initial Shu attack. Or he thought it was a necessary cost, but I'm hoping against that version of the story. It would make for good story development to explore this choice but I don't think we're going to get that.

Also Niaoniao shifts into general mode real quick. Very much looking forward to future developments in this area, but nervous about the tragedy we might have to go through to get there

so let me get this straight: Ling Buyi and the emperor believed that Shu was finna rebel with all the weapons they been supposedly buying, so they said let's take a trip toward Shu to see what they will do/incite them to do something, and Shu then did exactly that and killed so many people?? WTF, was there really no better plan???

Not even another mention of it! Was still fun while it lasted tho

really liking this twist where Yong Fu has maybe been playing everyone all along, including the all-knowing Liu Xie?? I don't know that I believe her story about tricking her way out of being a spy in the palace. I will admit, didn't see her spy storyline coming! Curious to see where they take this, and almost sad they left this thread to the very end.

agreed, her character was rather cold in that scene. I would like to think that she wanted him to leave asap for his safety, but damn that was cold

He really is fine as hell lol. And maybe the most interesting character in the show, if the Queen's mom doesn't take that spot. I don't think he's the bad guy tho. We shall see!

I am reminded by random dramaland posts that I am still mad about Han Pu

@bri73 No, for real, that ep 14 scene was too much. They did a good job of making Black's character actually seem badass and could fight but they were out of pocket showing like he could take out swat lmao