littleberry09

There can be a female lead and male lead even without romance 😬

Yeh I agree that if he wanted to love her maturely he should have stopped calling her Jiejie 😭. But maybe East Asian culture sees this differently, Jiejie could be used for any lady older than him, not specifically sister. Similarly in Korean they use Noona even if not biological older sister

From a normal standpoint his character definitely had attachment issues. He didn't want to go away from her even for University, hated seeing her with male co-workers eventhough they were her peers whilst he wasn't, and seemed like he refused to form a life outside of her in general.

The ML might have had obsessive romantic love, he loves her to an extreme because she was the first person to be nice to him ever. If this becomes yearning then sure. I agree that Daniel did it so convincingly and as if you could believe he loved her like his life depended on it

I thought he had great chemistry with Michelle Chen in Sniper Butterfly despite 19 year age difference. He totally killed it in that role and as the ML so perfectly. He can kiss and act intimately very well, even when he was in his early 20's at the time.

I thought so at first too, but then it doesn't explain why the ML is still perfectly fine with no weaknesses that we see. Someone else said the imperfections could be that they don't have immortality, they could still die. Which I think makes sense.

This makes sense - It could be that their imperfection was not having immortality, and not Pal Ho's arm or both the ladies having a disability. Similarly the FL was also physically weak but unlike the others, could not die.
I wish they addressed this in this part 1 though. It just made it a bit harder to put together because you needed the explanation in the moment of the story

Yes his character's both have the same Xie name in PoJ and Story of Kunning Palace. His character in Kunning Palace is so different though, proof he is a good actor IMO

Same, it altered my brain chemistry fr 🙈

Sorry I should have clarified in my comment - Xie Wei is his ML character from Story of Kunning Palace

Gave slight Xie Wei vibes there for a minute 😂

This is how it is in the original story from the novel. Both the leads are meant to be red flagged, and they portray that this is why she doesn't end up with the nicer, good guy 2ML. Eventhough she wants to be with him, she can't help herself by deceiving him. So she ends up with the ML eventhough he's a scary and toxic bastard

8.5/10 - Surprisingly really enjoyed most of this drama apart from the last 10 episodes which concentrated much more on the politics, battles and certain other characters dying or going unhinged. I wished the whole whole drama was actually about "A Splendid Match" between the FL and ML.

It could have also been much better with clarifying the timeline at times, and not rauhing the last 2 episodes in particular. Felt like they needed 5 more episodes.

Saw a comment saying this drama should have been called "Ye Xian and all his friends" - Which I feel is apt. It did feel like a lot of characters revolved back to him. Not that I'm complaining entirely, Winwin also did a fantastic job 👏

I also need to find time to watch Eastern Palace. And so many other new dramas this year, can't get on top of all of them.

Thanks for the award too 😁

You're welcome :)
For what it's worth I haven't read the novel, but from what others have said FL is more assertive and braver in the drama. They also say the ML is also more 'alpha' dominant in the novel, whereas he isn't like that in the drama at all (he seems like a softie and always lets FL get her way, etc)

I really liked/enjoyed this drama until around Ep 30, if it carried on like that till the end I would have loved it. It's really only when the drama gets to the 30's which is where it gets more frustrating.
So I reckon if you didn't like the first 10 eps or the FL, then you might not like the rest of the drama either tbf.

I wouldn't say it's bad, just very abrupt. They definitely ran out of time so couldn't fit in everything they needed to. If you expect a drama where you find out what happens to every single secondary character, then this isn't it. You will only get a closure for the ML and FL.

1. Wedding in Ep 28...but carry on watching till the first part of Ep 29 for the best part 🔥
2. The last episode is very rushed, they definitely didn't have time so were rushing to fit everything in. They focus so much on battle and the villain in Ep 39 & 40 that the drama just aprubtly ends by the end of Ep 40.
3. She does not get pregnant in the drama. She is required to be very active so they must have written the pregnancy out, as it wouldn't have worked for the plot they were rushing through at the end.
4. We don't see any of the side characters who remain alive in the last episode. In this regard the ending was disappointing because we don't see what happens to anyone besides the ML, FL, 2ML and main villain. In general out of the last 5 episodes or so they stop showing a lot of the side characters (like FL's sister for example)

This really helped me make sense of the characters so thank you - along with your comment and by scrolling Wikipedia I figured out that most the cast in Emperesses in the Palace, Ruyi's Royal Love in the Palace, Story of Yanxi Palace, are all loosely based on the same historical royal family in China. Emperor Qinglong is still a Prince in Emperesses of the Palace, but is the Emperor in the dramas for Ruyi and Yanxi.

I intend to watch them all one day but it's been daunting knowing the length of each of them, plus that I might get confused. But reading up more on them has helped.

Seen him in both Perfect Match and A Splendid Match. He's so good and believable, want to see him as the ML in a historical preferably

Best child actor in a Cdrama I've seen of his role in Splendid Match! An excellent young emperor!

Ep 31 - I'm frustrated Jin Zhao doesn't tell Chen Yan Yun everything about her past with Xuan Qing. Especially because by this Episode he has even gifted earrings to her 🙄. Just ignoring it isn't enough. FL has been a clever and straight forward character all this time, but this is another example of miscommunication trope which is annoying.

I hope it doesn't lead to anything bad between her and Chen Yan Yun 😭😬