jvinhpham0912

one thing I will say though I very much enjoy Lu Si acting in this show. I always love her but she does get type cast into the cute peppy silly girl role a lot. When she does go out of that box and take on a character with a bit more depth, her acting does feel a little awkward in some places. Here, i think Niao Niao is a character that has some silly traits of her usual roles but there's a complicated side to her. Lu Si is balancing that very well so far. The aura of a smart and resilient woman who suffered lots of pain growing up and is also fragile and crave stability and love. She brings the young girl vibe to the character without losing the depth which i like.. I hope as the series progress we can see more of her acting evolving with the character. I'm happy to see her challenging herself a little more with each role she takes. I'm a casual drama viewer but I have watcher her since her first silly low budget teen rom com til now. It's very nice to see her maturing as an actress.

Oh I cried buckets bc of how pissed I was watching her mom... I get she's the "tough love" parent but there's a limit and a balance to it. She freaking pushed it too much. At some point it stopped being "wanting what is best" but it becomes her just hating the fact that her daughter is so similar to her that it triggered her to be borderline cruel to her daughter. I cry for Niao Niao every time. Instead of at least try to understand her and find a way to connect with her so she can actually understand the lesson you're trying to teach, she insists on basically breaking her spirit to make her into the kind of demure daughter she wants her to be. I get that she just think that type of girls have an easier time in the world bc it was probably very hard for her but she's going the wrong way. All she does is making her daughter feels more alone and isolated and fight her more. The hypocrite is top notch with this woman. This woman who legit is a war general and married twice, basically break every social norms in that time, is telling her daughter to stay docile and manage the household.... I really tried to understnad her but there's just no excuse for the extend she goes to with her daughter.

ok but also the scene where the ML threw the spear through the leader of the rebel?? top notch action/slight gore scene LOL very well shot and choreograph. So satisfying to watch. These war scenes are no joke. I love it

idk about Cheng Yang. It's clear that she is genuinely a nice girl but she also seem to will fall for the Yuan guy who is already into our FL, so idk how that triangle going to turn out. They can go the evil jealous sister route which is a bit cliche, or they can do the silent admirer and hopeless lover but still nice route for her. Who knows. I don't think she will become completely hateeful though. 3rd uncle... idk. We haven't learned that much about him as a person and the fact that they specifically pointed out the fact that he's so "lucky" multiple times that he kept missing calamity... is very sussy. I mean I hope not I'm wrong LOL bc I love him & his wife and his wife would be crushed if it was a conspiracy and her husband left her to die LOL. Cdrma got me paranoid.

3rd uncle is hella sus..... hmmm He just happened to not get attacked the whole way and then just happen to faint multiple times and delay them getting reinforcements in time..... Hate to say it bc he and his wife are so cute but .... The fact thye keep referencing how "lucky" he is cannot be a coincidence

the thing is every ep is a new revelation. THey're not just delaying the reveal just for the sake of it. You find out a more interesting angle with every ep so the plot is progressing nicely without spoiling the end game too early. I think that's what makes the pacing perfect for me!

I'm on ep 9 but honestly the directing made everyone in this whole neighborhood look sus LOL it's so hard to guess. Definitely a conspiracy with more than one person involved though. or at least 1 killer iwht a few who looked away instead of helping. But I think the FL likely witness something or she was taken along with his sister and somehow got away and she forgot out of guilt and shock? All the "don't turn around" talk just got me guessing. I can also see mom and grandma did smt that ended up with his sister getting taken instead of her. I'm very interested to sit back and see how things unfold though. Pretty well written mystery so far.

Idk i saw that comment as to say she's sheltered from the world in lots of ways but I mean I guess you can interpret it that way. Again not "blaming" anyone, there's a lot that go into creating a relationship dynamic. Pan Er play her part but it's just one piece of the full picture of her character. At the end of the day of course it's all her own thinking and decision. It's not Pan Er's fault. I'm merely analyzing her as a character. I personally just think her "narcissistic" exterior is to mask massive insecurity. Most clinically narcissistic people actually just ppl with vey very low self esteem. She's definitely not an easy to love character. Like I said I don't love her character but I find it to show an interesting foil to the other strong women in the show. Out of 100 women born in that time, there's very few who doesn't succumb to the society's expectation. Sometime when your life feels so miserable (at least in her perspective), you just want to choose an easy way out. I think she will suffer plenty for her decisions and eventually find her way out. She's a frustrating character like I said, but I do pity her. Because you can see her destroying herself further with every step she takes. She never did anything evil to deserve a fraction of the suffering she got. I just want to show the character some sympathy.

YZ obviously has her own fault. I wouldn't use the word self absorbed to describe YZ. Her lofty attitude is over compensating major self hatred and very low self esteem. Because of her status, because of the way the men in her life treated her. That is not to say she shouldn't be responsible for her action. It's just to understand and pity her complex. She felt the consequences of her action when she was chained up and beaten and treated worse than a dog by her ex husband. Everyone manifest their self esteem issue differently. Some ended up like PanEr where she work hard to create a stronger exterior. Others become desperate and look for shelter in men, constantly reach for better status hoping they don't feel cheap and despise themselves anymore, that's YZ. I'm not blaming Pan Er for YZ's choices. I'm just saying it added to her profile as a character. The constant protection from the reality of society in combination with also feeling cheap and hate yourself bc of the way your patrons made you feel as a performer. It all added how her personality is manifest. She's not an inherently cruel person. She's spoiled and blind to Pan Er's sacrifice and I'm just pointing out all the reasons that could happen. I think a character like hers is quite interesting to analyze. Running to men for YZ is more than just being weak or ego. It's how their society framed their women. Not everyone has the conviction Pan Er does to go against it comstantly. Some just succumb to the expectation that men wield the power and they;re the only one who can get you help. When you try to fight and time and time again get painful consequences, I can't blame her for trying to find an easier option. Add to everything else in her life. It paint a picture of a much more complex character. A very tragic and pitiful one. her choices are foolish bc it doesn't address the real problem within her but I can understand her. That's all

It's so understandable for her to have a crush on QF too. Given how much her character needed love and validation, after so much abuse, someone saved her and was kind to her. It's normal to develop feelings. I think she's just trying to do wev it takes to get out of her situation but she'll come to realize her status or occupation will not change how she feels about herself. She has to learn how to love and respect herself in order to heal. I think the way she's written is quite an interesting journey

100%. She's a well written character. She's so deeply insecure and that's why she's so desperate to get out of her status and find validation by being unreachable but those surface level things doesn't change how she sees herself so no matter what she does she still feel cheap and deeply insecure. Lots of attachment issues with this girl too. Add to that she was abused and treated like an animal by someone she loved so I'm sure that added to her self hatred and make her despise her status even more. I find her course of action quite logical for her character. The deep insecurity, need for constant approval, immaturity don't just go away after a couple set back. It's honestly sad to watch but very realistic

Exactly.

I agree. I look at it like you know how kids when they're immature they can't see their parents sacrifice and take it for granted and the parents don't tell them so they don't know either and then they grew distant to their parents bc they can't understand each other? I feel like she's like that. Except that she's not a child and Pan Er is not her mom. Both of them need to snap out of that dynamic. Pan Er needs to let her into her pain and her world and treat her more like an equal as she does with San Niang. And YinZhang needs to learn to get out of her esteem issue about her status and stand on her own without a man's protection. Her attachment issue is very clear from the get go. She so desperate for someone to save her. Sadly it's not the kind of thing that can change in a moment. It takes a few tumble for the lesson to stick. She was also very pampered prior to her 1st husband, so she still have the ego yet also still look down on herself. I hope she'll figure it out. For me, she's annoying but also pitiful.

i don't love YinZhang character but I can understand her. I mean the girl was always shielded way too much by Pan er and then, brutally abused.. She also clearly have a tendency to seek for security in men bc of her low self esteem. Of course she would have a crush on the first kind person that she came across in such a vulnerable state. She didn't even do anything bad. She realized he's taken and decided to move away bc she's disappointed and needed space. She doesn't seem to hold mean thoughts about Pan Er, just heart broken and acted out the way a kid act out when her mom didn't give her waht she wants. That's how Pan Er is to her, like a mother, and bc of that she overlooked Pan Er's sacrifice like most immature kids do. The real fault is to keep running to the men in her life. In a way, by being overly protective of her, Pan Er ended up enabling her to be immature and also create a distance in their relationship by not being vulnerable and honest with her. I think she just went through so much trauma but also doesn't have the maturity to process it, so she ran into the first source of security she found. I think this time she will learn and come back better. They should have let her choose her own path long ago. I find her pitiful. I don't believe she intentionally covet Pan Er's man or jealous of Pan Er, which I feel like it's many ppl sentiment. I love our couple too but let's not forget the hell Yinzhang went through. She got a lot of flaws but I think ppl forget how badly she was abused. Given that, i can see why she fall for GQF but it's a light crush at most. I think she find it more hurtful that she was kept in the dark all the time and obviously just too immature to understand her sister. She got a lot of flaws and a bit frustrating but she's not a mean person. She's just flawed like everyone else in this show.

Hopefully they will raise the stake in the second half. I feel like they're setting up the piece for the 3rd act. So far it's mostly to get the two of them together and really build their love connection and individual character growth. Then usually around this last 10-15 ep they will ramp up the stakes and bring everything that seems like side stories into play. If it's a good plot that is. Hopefully it won't disappoint!

ah good to know. I love learning about this stuff. I don't know the history too well so I wasn't sure. Thank you!

okay that makes more sense. That's probably what they're trying to do

ok can someone who knows how to play pipa tell me why Yin Zhang playing pipa side way? I always thought you have to hold pipa upright... I feel like asking Two Set to react LOL . The show seems to pay attention to lots of details and LYF acted so natural in every movement when she's making tea, prepping, walking, etc. She literally made it feel like we're really watching someone who does these activities daily without thinking. Her character show through every little movement she makes. For a show like this, I was surprise to see someone hold pipa like it's a guitar... It's such a glaring mistake to make? Is it just a different kind of pipa?

LOL he's there for comedic relief and he does the job. He's childish and silly but he's not malicious. He ended up helping Pan Er by accident all the time

truly a hidden gem. Even with bad sub , this show still touched my heart.