Ha ha! Tiny, subtle, best part of this was near the beginning, when pathetic Li Haui'An runs up to talk to Changyu, so she sends her squad forward to wait for her. Watch the expressions of the Pig Slaughter Squad members as the stare disdainfully at Li! They are SO protective of their Captain and Li Haui'An just doesn't measure up. Love how she then promptly puts him firmly in the 'brother' zone. We later find out that he's not deserving of even that honor. But Xie Zheng shows that he's able to sniff out rats.
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Changyu full of doubts and insecurities at figuring out that her father was the "Infamous Traitor" Wei Qilin. This leads her to impose some very cold distance between herself and Xi Zheng (because she feels he probably hates the man who is blamed for the death of his father). This is obviously a tired drama trope to once again separate our lovers so they can go through the journey to come back together. Sigh .... the one flaw in this whole series is just how much the writers have leaned into such obvious tropes, dragging them out for episode after episode. Otherwise, this show is awesome in every other aspect. More on this episode: Li Huai'An is really and truly cementing himself on the, "pathetic and annoying" side of the fence. What a big baby he is and I'm so glad Changyu puts him at arm's length firmly in the 'friend zone'. Xie Zheng is dead on right about him being a pawn. And I love how the Pig-Slaughter Squad has sized him up immediately. Here 'brothers' are there for her.So glad the writers allowed Yu QIan Qian to make back to reunite with Bao and Ning. I've been certain that she would get way-laid and recaptured by psycho-boy on the way back. Of course, we know that he will somehow show up to terrorize her again at some point.
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Man, the scene with Changyu's father's "ghost" adding strength to her over her shoulder in battle - that was sweet! This episode was loaded with action and mostly very satisfying.
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We got some real progress on multiple plot threads and Fan Changyu finally comes to terms with her fate as a warrior.
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This episode is a giant pile of stupid drama tropes. The writers are just throwing 'others' at the ML & FL to fill time and distract from the main romance plot. The 'funny' parts of this are not funny. Most of this episode is just cringe. And most of what happens in this episode will probably not matter at all for the larger story. Skip the whole thing and just know that they've introduced a couple of characters to try to create some sort of romantic drama with.
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Same complaint as before. Everything about this show is great ... except there is way too much screen time given to Chenghuan's mother, who has shown no character growth at all and is just painful to watch now.
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I would rate this episode a LOT higher except the Mom character is just totally dragging the show down now. They need to resolve things with her - either have her experience some sort of, "Ah-ha!", moment where she realizes what an awful, destructive mom she has been and turns over a new leaf or maybe just don't give her very much screen time or ... have her get hit by a bus. At this point, I don't care. She's just become insanely stupid to go along with her overbearing stubbornness and pettiness and it's just not pleasant to watch when she is on screen. This is not a knock on the actress. He Sai Fei is knocking it out of the park playing this character. It's just the character is just not someone I want to see so much of, especially since she is not growing or changing as a character.
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This episode was good in many respects. It had a nice kick off for Chenghuan's tenure as manager of Xing'Anli, gaining the trust and respect of her staff. And it also featured a "I like you" confession from Zhiming! The negatives were (a) he immediately chickened out and pulled it back awkwardly and (b) Zhang is setting up to be a stereotypical scheming c-drama villain who behaves irrationally. It would be nice if the writers used a little more creativity for the 2nd-half conflict for the show.
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Is the show ever going to give Lu Wainyu (the FL's mother) a moment of enlightenment? A moment of personal growth where she finally - finally - actually comes to understand how wrong and destructive she is? Or is she going to be this painfully awful and annoying all the way through the series?
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It was nice to see the stronger bonds being formed between first Changyu and Grand Tutor, who formally become an adoptive daughter - father pair, and second the bond of close friendship between Changyu and the disguised Princess Qi Shu (the Physician). These two share a common struggle of loving men who they are separated from by social standing - though in opposite ways. Ultimately, these two relationships will probably become important as part of elevating Changyu's social status in the capital later on. These social connections are of course, just as important as her inevitable military merits. So those parts of this episode are quiet but more important than they might seem. Beyond that, the plot, as predicted, contrives to separate the FL & ML as they pursue separate agendas and Changyu continues to have doubts about the vast social standing gap between Xie Zheng.and herself. After dragging out the lie hiding Zheng's true identity for some, 26 episodes, I fear the show is now going to lean into keeping them separated by social standing for another long, long, annoying stretch before finally resolving things - probably with some reveal about her parent's true identities. On side stories, I love how Zhou Xun so heroically guarded and guided young Bao to safety (with a little assist from Ning Ning's whistle) and into the arms of 'Uncle Yan'. And the mental strength of Yu QianQian, given her circumstances, has to be mentioned. Her ability to hold it together and still play mind games with her psychotic captor Qin Min, is impressive.
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This episode was good for closing up a lot of the many different 'misunderstandings' floating through the plot including, of course, the biggest one in that Fan Changyu finally learns that her husband is the Marquis of Wu'an. This reveal is greeted with rightful upset by Changyu over having been deceived for so long but also more significant to her, the realization of the vastness of the social gap between them. So while it resolves the misunderstanding / lie /deception between them, it still leaves a tension pulling them apart. Aside from that, this episode also resolves identity confusion between Changyu and the Grand Tutor in a nice adoptive father-daughter scene. So all that sounds nice, but by the end of this, I'm kind of left with a bad taste in my mouth over just how much the script relies on dragging 'misunderstanding tropes' out. Even with the resolution of the above, it's clear the script is going to continue to lean into separate agendas that are not explained to each other to keep separating the leads. It's just starting to feel like a lot of the storytelling in this series could be compressed if not for the script simply dragging things out again and again in well-executed, but nevertheless contrived ways.
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This episode deserves a 10 purely because of cheap gratuitous emotional satisfaction. It's more than a bit artificially contrived and it's definitely over dramatic, but this episode brings everything to a climactic final reckoning between Chenghuan and her overbearing mother, as the latter not only crosses the line again, but this time crosses it to the point of no return for Chenghuan. So the latter finally realizes that she has to cut herself loose, since her mother will not let her loose. To free herself, she gathers her strength and rises like a boss queen to take ownership of her life. The acting performances by both Yang Zi and He Shei Fei (her mother) in the climactic confrontation scene were fantastic. Yang Zi's steely determination, despite tears coming down her face, gave me chills to watch. This episode also sees Chenghuan (and her father, for that matter) declare with about as much clarity and finality as they can muster that they will no longer have anything to do with the Xin family. So this is a major character development moment for Chenghuan. And it is the threshold of growth that her Grandmother has been waiting for her to reach because she wants Chenghuan to ignore the meaning of her name and to begin to live for herself. To value herself.
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This episode has the ML consistently being a really awful person. First he tries to get pushy with Grandma in his effort to get control of Xing’anli. Then he totally ignores her when she's giving him critical, cautionary advice. Then he spends most of the rest of the episode alternating between arrogant, cruel and ignorant. We are 12 episodes in now. Is it time for him to start to magically transform into someone we can believe that the FL would have a relationship with?
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In this episode, after perhaps feeling like his hand was caught in the cookie jar for so coldly and cruelly abusing Mai Chenghuan's personal life and tossing her reputation in the scrapper, Yao Zhi Ming goes running to see Grandma Chen Zhu Shen, obviously hoping to preempt being ratted out by anyone for his misbehavior. But he's a fool because even though FL did NOT come crying to grandma and did NOT rat him out, it is painfully clear that Grandma knows all about the naughty crap that he did. She reads her grandson like an open book. He tries to justify it with some truly arrogant bulls--t lines such as, "Mai Chenghuan hasn't been through thick and thin." and "Her integrity may be questionable." and most laughable, "I guess I taught her a lesson today." Each such unbelievably stupid line just digs his grave deeper though Granny stays cool as a cucumber as she very gently corrects and scolds him, with the only remotely harsh thing she says being a very soft but ominous, "You'll suffer for how you have treated her." Wow. That line should give him serious pause.
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This episode brings a lot of the current threads to a climax and aside from many other things that happen, it's made clear to the FL, Mai Chenghuan, that the ML, Yao Zhi Ming, is a lying, manipulative schemer who has been cruelly exploiting her personal life and willing to ruin her reputation in order to carry out his schemes. I guess this is a popular drama trope in a lot of c-dramas, to have the ML start out as a total a--hole who magically is transformed into a great, lovable romantic partner later on. So unrealistic. In the real world, if someone is so clearly lacking in morals as to act like this ML has so far, he isn't likely to change.
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