mukkanna

In the book, and according to the drama opening, there's a war with North Qin. Then after the war there's stabilizing the war-torn country, the fallout of the events of the war in the court, and I assume more drama between Han Ye and Di Ziyuan. For example, does Di Ziyuan take the chance to rebel and lead her troops to defeat the weakened imperial army? Or does she decide that her revenge has gone far enough...? Not sure which route the drama will go.

The Chinese internet says it was spent on scenes with supporting characters that the production is trying to promote. Like Linlang's dance scenes. They also apparently built a set for Linxiang Lou (the dance house where Linlang works). Or like DCE's seriously unnecessary screentime.

Yes, in the novel they're both alive and find someone to spend their lives with happily.

You have to really pay attention to pick up the cues. Han Ye is really subtle and hard to read (that's the character setting), and you may not realize what you're seeing until you think back on it later. It may just be a flicker of his eyes that tells you he's not really buying what they're saying.

1. Both of them have a lot of antis. There are a few who post on this page, actually. (Or at least, I assume they're antis because otherwise their analysis of events, acting, and characters wouldn't make any sense... Although there are people with disorders who can't recognize emotions in other people. Those same people would have difficulty figuring out whether actors can show emotion or not.)
2. The CGI is not awesome for a S+ drama
3. There's a lot of screentime given for a very unlikeable side character for a couple episodes (these scenes can be skipped because they're irrelevant
4. Some people said the pace is too slow (I actually like it just fine the way it is)

That being said, there's some great acting in this. Some of the actors are getting a lot of well-deserved praise. Gong Jun, Reba, and some of the older support actors (not the young ones...) have some very eye-catching emotional scenes that are really well done. I make a living telling people life-altering bad news (resulting in a lot of heartfelt anger, sadness, denial, etc.), and a lot of what I'm seeing these actors do is very believable. I'm really impressed!

The development of the relationship between Han Ye and Anle is also very realistic...I hate dramas where the leads just seem to randomly fall in love one day for no apparent reason. This isn't so at all. It's not just love, it's mutual respect, admiration, and adoration. Their relationship would be very wholesome if not for the whole "I'm getting revenge on your entire family" theme...

For those two reasons alone, this is probably my favorite drama in years, despite its flaws.

They're childhood friends who grew up together.

This is why I'm wondering if we're watching the same drama here...

Han Ye already knows the truth, there's no gaslighting going on. When you know someone is lying but you don't call them out on it, is it the same as believing the lie?

Han Ye has multiple goals in mind. For example: cleansing the court, ensuring prosperity for the people, ensuring justice for commoners. In addition to this he wants to marry Di Ziyuan and rehabilitate the Di family...because he believes what happened was a miscarriage of justice, and because he likes Ziyuan's personality. You seem to be simplifying him to just one aspect so you can say he's one-dimensional. You talk about complex characters and how they have different characteristics, but you overlook everything about this character and flatten him into a caricature. Don't you find that a bit ironic?

Also, he for sure knows she wants justice for her family. He's just hoping (because he's an idealist) that he can somehow broker peace.

The explanation in the drama is that he presented Di Shengtian's sword (apparently a famous sword) to the emperor. It seems to be the sword on display when the emperor starts talking about sharp swords being dangerous but also useful. LMX mentions several times that this is how he is the minister of justice today...he proved his "disloyalty" to the Di family.

Not clearly shown in the drama so far, and may have been changed: the Luo family is a military family in control of a large portion of the southern army (the south being where the Di family's seat of power was). Luo Mingxi is the son, but his parents were still in control of the army down south.

When Han Ye returns from meeting Anle in episode 1, the left minister is there when Han Ye reports to the emperor. The only officials there are the high-ranking ones. He's not hidden; in fact Han Ye and the right minister are in the opposite faction and have been opposing him for a long time. The emperor doesn't want either the right nor the left to become too powerful, so he makes them check and balance each other.

Actually, yes. In the source novel people all felt Anle should have no difficulty surviving from jumping off this particular cliff...it's a very fanciful wuxia where people can basically fly up mountains and travel 1000 li a day if their martial arts is good enough.

Han Ye's not a flashy character. It'd be out of character if he had a big reaction. Thankfully Gong Jun seems to understand this role pretty well.

Luo Mingxi's parts are not as big as either Anle or Han Ye (if that's what you mean by "Lou Minxi").

I'm not disappointed, I'm enjoying it a lot :)

Luo Mingxi
Possibly Linlang
Yuan Qin
It's not clear whether Yuan Shu knows or not

Yes. The note she received saying "the east wind rises" is a reference to Han Ye, the prince of the east palace. It's her men that she claims are the Dongqian spies that chase her and Han Ye to the pier where she knocks him into the boat. She then "saves him" and uses that as a pretext to enter the court.

Not in the novel, and so far not in the drama, either.

I wonder if "bodyguard" is a misnomer, here. Maybe they meant "retainer" in that he accompanied her to the capitol as a companion.

Mmmm...to start...are we watching the same drama?

- Are you saying that if Anle and LMX didn't exist, that the left minister would have still sacrificed his pawn? We know these two officials plot together in the drama, until the left minister decided to set up Gu Yunnian as the "fall guy."
- By "Zhao" you mean "Zhong"? Zhong Hai is the guy who's the owner of the Di family's coin.
- You think Han Ye's character is 1-D...sorry, I can't even guess where you're coming from on that one, unless you haven't even been watching this drama at all. His character is actually a bit contradictory in that he's simultaneously smart and wise to political maneuvers, but at the same time idealistic enough that he can say things like "if you don't trust someone, then don't use them." He's ruthless to corrupt officials and criminals but will literally give the shirt off his back to a stranger. He's helpless against flirty women but can beat down a famous swordsman 1 vs 1. So...I don't get what you're saying about his being a 1-D character unless you're (1) completely biased and blind yourself so you can't actually observe anything or (2) don't know what 1-D means.
- Please explain what "complex" means to you. I don't know what you're trying to say when you say things can't be "complex" until "the girl you love is killing your family."

I have the same opinion actually! The pace is just right, so long as we delete DCE's solo scenes/scenes with just Mu Qing.

To be fair, both of them are pretty abnormal in terms of their personalities.
- Anle wants revenge not out of hatred, but contempt, and because she wants to clear people's names and reveal the truth. She's not going to be the usual person who will do anything for revenge, and she's been clear she wants to limit collateral damage. She wants to spare Anning, for example, and she can already see that Anning would stay out of it. The issue with Han Ye is that, with his personality, he wants to protect everyone. Even if his father is wrong, he still wants to protect him.
- Han Ye isn't a person who panics on the outside. As crown prince since childhood, he's conditioned to always appear in control. He calculates, he plans, he acts...the more dire the situation is, the more calm and take-control he becomes. He's like this in the novel, and so far also in the drama. Family banquet crashed by assassins? He's assessing the battlefield, giving orders, and planning their retreat. Just like in the novel, though, it appears his one brain-fail item is when Di Ziyuan is in danger. He often prioritizes her at the expense of pretty much everything and everyone else. His reaction to the fire is in line with expectations: he's calm, but he's calculating Anle first. He doesn't know how bad the injury is, the doorway he came through is on fire, and he needs to figure out how to get her out without getting burned. But if she bleeds to death from getting crushed he probably sees any further steps as pointless. A truly logical, detached person would escape first, but Han Ye isn't always logical when it comes to her.
- Han Ye already felt DCE wasn't acting as expected as soon as he knew she came down the mountain, because he thought for sure that DZY would never change her name to Chengen--it's basically a slap in the face. So he falls back on his usual behavior: he's cautious and trying to figure out where she stands before making any moves.
- Anning I don't know (haven't watched the new eps yet)...but Han Ye already has some suspicions about Anle from previous episodes. For example, his face was contemplative when he found out that Anle had visited the Marquis of Jing'an's residence before Anning arrived. He also found Anle's sword skills similar to DZY from childhood, and thought her eyes looked similar to what he remembered. Any new information is just confirming what he already suspects to be true.

Surprising no one, I think there was some poor advertisement on Youku's part...the source novel is an "epic romance set in a background of revenge" kind of story.

Having read the novel, I already know what he picked...

But what Han Ye told her was that he'd need to be dead for her to be emperor. The context being that, politically speaking, he's an extremely popular and beloved crown prince with the support of the army. If she rebels and the imperial army wins, as crown prince he has no way to protect her from execution. And in reverse, if she wins, she has no choice but to execute the prince of the former dynasty to prevent future rebellion.

Deceiving for a good reason is still deceiving, though? Maybe the Han family deserves her vengeance, but Han Ye doesn't. There still hasn't been a reveal on the things drama Han Ye has been up to these past 10 years, but we already know he's committed capital treason for the Di family. Even if she's right to get revenge, Han Ye never did anything bad to her and instead has always done everything he could to protect her, including playing along when he already knows they're deceiving him.

I'm also giving her a pass because she doesn't know that even if she told him the truth from the beginning, Han Ye would protect her.