ibisfeather

up through 32 as a general he is the planner, and only does so far the one inperson vanguard battle at lucheng. His arc is a long falling in love and getting used to being with a very independent woman. His previous persona where he was defined by grim vengeance and bad temper is described by others but not seen in the dramaexcept through a few regressions to that behavior.

There was a final scene like that at the end of The Glory 2025 (the one with Chen Du Ling not the HouMingHao show.

Yes, if you notice all the master-student of martial arts relationships have been dependably positive -- the old wuxia romanticism. So that would indicate Li Huai'an will keep the faith with General He as much as possible.

I mean, what is there to talk about? its not real. Its not worth the energy to fuss about it.

agree

Why talk about the preview? It isnt the actual show at all.

Their interior state is showing on the outside!

I am just watching Blossom to avoid the angst of waiting...It has the usual rom-com rhythm rather than the POJ ambitious compressions and slomos. So the characters go out in the garden, shoot arrows, try to kill each other in a leisurely way. The water images, the female-centric done with class and taste, I can see the choices and/or the team assembled by the director ZQJ. But the whole amazingness of the POJ narrative storytelling with layered thematic movement, I dont see that. Different source writer and different scriptwriter? maybe. But perhaps ZQJ is one of those great collaborators who executes the vision from the script and further amplifies it.

That would be brilliant! I like that idea!

The 108 lashes are in an episode which has not yet been releaased? as of 22/3/2026

ChangYu is just not made for traditional Confucian teaching tactics. They are designed to produce an elite of scholar-bureaucrats to run the state. Technically meritocratic they produce as cozy a bunch of elitist academies as you would expect.

The humor is that she just breezes past it all. Mispronunciations, misunderstandings, doesnt know enough basic characters, cant sit still, but after all that SINCERE AS HECK. And the teachers always shake their heads at her interpretations and say...well, that is not entirely wrong...

Within this drama's fiction the only thing I could think of was that WeiYan forced the Emperor to do something stupid, which was possible for some legalistic reason to do with a lack of finalization of the GPrincess and Li Huai'an's marriage plans -- that 2yr waiting period?
And for motivation, the GPrincess' rebellion and the public look of her running off to a beseiged army camp to be with Gongsun Yin. Forcing the old marriage back on the table at least contains that scandal.

Yes the combination of battlefield scenes from an infantryman's point of view and essentially a comic opera military camp was a little hard to digest.

There is an air of unreality about this whole section -- On Beigu Mountain 800plus troops belonging to the Jizhou army of General He are beseiged, shut off from the outside world. Their commanders are from another unit and from the imperial court's world, and as silly as anything in romantic comedy. It is a little weird.

I bet learning to read chinese is hard if you didnt start as a child -- all those characters,

The illiteracy has been bugging me since the beginning, but I guess it is like the magical strength, part of being who she is: an original personage, innocent, instinctive, willful and fun. She is kind but not sensitive to others input.

Also, I have said this before but I like the critical look at the whole neo-confucian scholar-public official ideal. Does reading Mencius really make a person a better administrator or military leader? Does it actually giard against corruption. No and No. It certainly makes for a lot of creepy prigs like Song Yan.

So in a way the whole character of ChangYu is like a Roussean talking point. Not that we are all born good, but that strength of character which she has cannot be taught by traditional study methods.

I hear @Marleycove saying that the novel sort of makes a claim against traditional education for modern methods?

I am happy to hear QiMin will be around for the Battle for the Throne.

yes

same

Just in general about the darker novel's character. I think that altho the director/scriptwriter chose a steadfast lover version of him after he met CY, this could be a nod for the readers to his original sexy/cold/masterful character. For me the actor's (ZLH's) facework/expressions during the screen scene in 31 really gave his character an edge that I hadnt seen before. A nice falcon-ey glare.

I felt the Marquis was in a dark place. Mainly I was worried abt the consequences of him defying the emperor, rather than the cruelty of cutting off the ear. Because of the novel readers I wasnt as shocked as I should have been? There are so many things I want to check on a binge later to see how they are meant to fall.

ep31
oh my lord the unteachable ChangYu!
I had to stop watching or stop eating breakfast! Not enough was going to its proper destination!!!! I havent laughed so hard for at least a couple of episodes!