mims

i guffawed when he said that. poor guy is trying so hard to make them comfortable.

it's doubly funny bc he's a decorated general himself. 🤣

wait they filmed and completed postproduction in less than a year?!?

he definitely meant to destroy himself in the process of destroying his targets, but shaoshang threw a wrench in that plan. now he needs to somehow preserve himself while pursuing this lifelong goal. initially, he was ready to jump into the fire and go out in a blaze, now he needs to avenge his family working around the fire.

that's the point though. his life is entirely devoid of any color or joy. but hopefully that'll now change with css.

what does being a court lady mean? is it someone who attends to the empress or other royal family members? can she hold this role while being betrothed to a high ranking official/royalty by adoption (if that's a thing) like lby?

hzj's father the general who died already? i'm glad they changed that then and the he family are being seen as heroes. what happened to them was devastating, so being blamed for not recognizing the machinations of the people who destroyed them would be pouring salt onto a very, very deep wound like it'd be really cruel and counterintuitive.

three? weren't there two?

literally counting down to see more moments between lby and css tomorrow. we've been starved for too long and the promised feast is right around the corner! ahhhh!

css and lby are so good together. i love their slow burn development and am looking forward to watching them get closer and for css to fall in love with him, and actually recognize her feelings for what they are. i think this drama handles relationships and interpersonal dynamics in the context of the time and socio-economic hierarchy really well, but i wish the writing paid a little bit more attention to the nitty gritty specifics of the politics. i can't believe i find myself saying this about politics in a period drama but this drama needs more of it.

hzj beheading her "husband" was a powerful moment, and the actress knocked it out of the park, but i couldn't help but be bothered by how we BARELY saw this guy be the monster that he is. seeing him tied up, about to be killed for his heinous crimes, didn't elicit the same catharsis that watching css and her mom slap the living crap out of the lou matriarch and her daughter did. likewise for hzj, her whole world has collapsed on itself and she's understandably irreparably scarred, but we only spent a handful of moments with her before she went off to marry the prince so it's difficult to fully appreciate what is clearly supposed to be a major shift in her character. there's this clear divide between the female lead's struggles in society and the male lead's quest for revenge, and the writer focuses on the former significantly more. that's not a problem in itself but the stakes are always higher with the male lead's storyline bc it's literally life or death for him, whereas css's stakes are marrying into the wrong noble family. the dissonance between the two sides of the story is jarring, especially when they collide like they did with what happened to hzj's family, and her reappearance to mete out justice on the man who wiped almost her entire family out.

i liked the way hzj's father's last wish is playing into the main story though. it has created a natural and very believable conflict for the female lead, and i can see now how she will decide to let go of ly. i hope the writing develops the villains/politics/ml's background more so that the two sides of the story can also seamlessly come together with the main storyline, which is the love story between css and lby. they need to put in the grunt work for the payoffs to be as impactful as they are supposed to be.