mukkanna

What do you suggest they do about it?

I'm personally enjoying it, but just curious what solution you would have written in this setting :)

Yeah, my usual problem with C dramas is that characters are supposed to be smart but actually act stupidly (even though other characters continue to say they're so smart...). Except in the very first ep, Han Ye hasn't had any further episodes of brain failure. The part that I found jarring was where he fell asleep on the boat in the middle of a mission...that whole episode was so out of character. I need to rewatch episode 1 to see if I can make any more sense of it now that we have a better grasp of Han Ye's personality.

There are only two C drama characters that I can say never develop brain failure:
- Mei Changsu from Nirvana in Fire
- some drama versions of Xiao Yu'er (from adaptations of Gu Long's novel Juedai Shuangjiao)

Book Han Ye never has any brain failures, but it remains to be seen whether drama Han Ye does (outside of that falling-asleep-on-boat thing).

I'm enjoying it so far :)

1. I think by the end of episode 19 he has strong suspicions already and we'll get confirmation in the next couple of episodes.
2. Yes
3. Not really. Up till now (19 eps) he's only really liked FL. He feels obligated towards the fake but doesn't have any feelings towards her.
4. Some people do like SML more than ML (not me, personally). I don't think anyone likes the fake.
5. FL does have feelings for ML. But her professed algorithm is revenge>ML. We'll have to see whether that changes after the next couple of episodes...

It's 30,000 navy, not army. Jing has a strong army, but a weak navy. That's why the Dongqian navy was a problem in the beginning, and why the court kept saying how valuable these 30,000 troops are to Jing. They're an experienced navy already equipped with ships and a fearsome reputation :)


POSSIBLE SPOILER:


Also we find this out later, but in the novel the emperor was not responsible for the slaughter of the soldiers. His original plan was to destroy the Di family but preserve their soldiers and divide them up among loyal regiments until they were fully integrated into the Jing army. It was someone else's plan that resulted in the slaughter of the 80,000 army.

In episode 19 we get 100% confirmation that Han Ye knows the fake is fake, so at least we're done with DCE causing him confusion.

The emperor prefers Ren Anle to DCE and that's why she even got his personal invitation to the crown princess selection. I mean, who wouldn't? He's hoping Anle can change Han Ye's mind about marrying DCE.

Anning (both novel and drama) is of average intelligence. She tends to take things at face value, and she also may be someone who prefers to continue living in ignorance to knowing the dark truth...if so, then even if she suspects her bodyguard, she may happily buy any excuse to not have to look further.

The dowager empress doesn't seem to have hired any of the assassins depicted in the episode. The ones that showed up were sent by the left minister/Mo Bei faction. As you recall, DCE met with the left minister, and she seemed to expect that she would be crown princess once the night was over. She knew the assassins would be there, and her plan was to take a blow for the emperor so that she could become crown princess. You can also see that when the physician tells Han Ye that she was seriously hurt but her life wasn't in danger, his eyes were not relieved or worried, but thoughtful and somewhat troubled. He realized immediately what her plan was and wasn't happy when the emperor followed through with the outcome she wanted.

The left and right ministers are the most powerful officials in court. I assume they each have people inside the palace, so it wouldn't be difficult for the left minister to arrange assassins. It's hard to guard against your own people!

Maybe I'm alone in finding the dialogue interesting? Like when the emperor tells Han Ye not to risk his life because he doesn't want him to die before he does, Han Ye only says "I'm sorry." As a parent I can tell he clearly he has no intention of doing what his father is asking...haha! But the emperor loves him so much...you can even tell everyone knows that because as soon as Gu Yunnian realized the crown prince was at the fire in Wuliu, he knew he was finished; there was no way the emperor would let anyone get away with touching his crown prince!

Anle's 30,000 soldiers is her entry ticket and excuse to enter the court without suspicion (because why else would a bandit randomly do that, and what other reason could the court have to not block her out of sheer suspicion), so of course she reminds everyone of it constantly to reinforce her love-struck airhead routine.

I totally agree about Chengen. And her bodyguard.

I think Simon/Gong Jun is actually doing a great job. His acting is layered and nuanced here, but I think many people are just taking things at face value and then don't reconsider their conclusions when new information comes to light later in the drama. I think a lot of people think Han Ye's being completely fooled but discount (or maybe skip over) the parts where he says something later on that suddenly makes you realize that he's just been playing along.

Now that I'm caught up I'm going to start watching again from the beginning to see what clues or foreshadowing I could have missed :)

The dowager is a member of the royal family, so typically those don't get beheaded so they can die with an intact body...but yes, she ends up having to commit suicide.

As of episode 18, Han Ye already knows the fake is fake (not just suspicions...he's pretty much confirmed that he knows). He also suspects Anle's identity. I suspect we'll get confirmation on that one soon.

I suspect we'll get confirmation soon. Finally caught up through episode 19, and Han Ye has already confirmed for the audience that he knows the fake is fake in episode 18.

I suspect he may already know that Anle is DZY, too. He has enough dots put together.

Her role should be pretty small once her identity (or lack of) is revealed, though. I mean, it's hard for her to squeeze in edgewise once Han Ye comes to the conclusion that (1) not only does he not like her as a person, he doesn't have to pity her or take responsibility for her because she's not even Di Ziyuan and (2) she has no value as a cover for the real Di Ziyuan

I think if that were the case, DCE would have been a footnote. She's boring, boring, boring, all palace scheming and no substance. There's no reason to expand her role at all in my opinion. I see no added value in her presence, only minuses!

Actually, in the novel he already knows her true identity before the cliff. But he doesn't tell her he knows.

Just to clarify for the OP:


SPOILERS:



- DZY was prepared to stop short until she found evidence that the Queen Mother was not the mastermind behind the massacre. After that was when she told HY that the current emperor was unworthy and therefore she wanted to be the emperor or die trying.

- HY's point was that if he (the beloved and popular rightful crown prince who has the support of the courtiers and the army) is alive, she can't be emperor:
"Ziyuan, have you ever thought that I am the Han family’s crown prince, and if you want to seize the Han’s world, you must step on my bones? If I am not dead, you cannot be the emperor." He approached Di Ziyuan step by step and leaned over. His eyes were deep, his pupils seemingly blood-red, and he slowly said, "Ziyuan, let's not speak of the enmity between Di and Han, or the people of the world, let alone the ten years of separation. Ziyuan, you…want me to die?"

It's a possibility. I don't think their particular brand of ruthlessness would get censored. They're ruthless, but always keep the country at the forefront (and I suspect China is completely okay with ruthlessness in the name of the country's greater good...).

But also, there are rumors that the production company? or someone was trying to promote the new actors/actresses, and that youku didn't agree with that, resulting in some fighting and the weirdly scheduled release and calendar.

Not sure if true, but that would certainly explain why the CGI is good in some scenes with support characters but terrible in other scenes with just the main leads...why wouldn't they prioritize scenes with the leads in it otherwise?? And I agree, Di Chengen's role is extremely expanded for no apparent reason. No one wants to see her...it's like they decided to gamble on Gong Jun and Dilireba's and Liu Yuning's fans still pushing through to watch it even if they have less screen time. Maybe I'll see the light and feel differently at the end of her little arc...should hopefully be quick now that we've reached the fire.

The only new actress I'm feeling like I might watch more of is the one who plays Linlang. Not because she's a great actress (so far), but because I like her dancing skills!

What led up to it:

He thought DCE was all wrong from the beginning because her character had completely changed. For example:
- she agreed to change her name (same as drama)
- she was happy to see him when they met again, and he expected her to sort of hate his guts (same as drama)
- she said she didn't blame him for not taking care of her brother, and with her personality he thought she would never try to guilt him for that
- her preferences hadn't changed a single bit in 10 years
- her handwriting hadn't changed in 10 years
- she didn't have a scar on her foot from an injury that happened in front of him
At the same time, he was suspicious of Ren Anle, and the clincher was:
- her martial arts has the same basis as his, but he knows his master only takes disciples from the Han and Di families. During the fire on Wuliu street, Anle used a martial arts skill that clearly identified her as a student of his master.
- his only reaction was to give her a deep look and frown silently...because he's Han Ye.
- he later asks her where she learned her martial arts; she lies, and to all appearances he believes her...
- but we later find out he sent people to investigate Anle Abode and finds out that Anle was raised by the chief and has no siblings; but he remembers Anle had told him she had a brother who was Wen Shuo's age who had died. At this point his suspicions are as good as confirmed for him.

What happened after it:
- He hides the fact that he knows until she tries to reveal her identity to him to stop him from marrying Di Chengen (which he had decided to do even knowing she was a fake to divert his father's suspicion from the real Ziyuan). That particular scene is in the "snippets" discussion above if you want to read a cleaned up machine-translated version.
- This accelerates Anle's decision to take back her identity as Di Ziyuan...basically to stop Han Ye from getting married to the fake, though of course she claims it was just because it was time to do that anyway...

Is he? I need to catch up on the drama this weekend :)

In the novel Han Ye is notorious for hiding pretty much everything. What he's done, what he's doing, what he's thinking, what he's planning...he's capable of hiding things for months, years, probably forever. He also manipulates everyone, including the people he loves. If anything about his character was changed for the drama, it's probably that...but given that he's shown playing chess with Di Ziyuan as a chess piece in the opening, I'm not really sure that's changed. It all comes down to how well the drama pulls it off!

Apparently whatever it was, it was worthy of your saving a really blurry photo and spending time uploading it?

I think novel readers just interpret things differently because they already know what the novel character would do in that scene, and maybe even why. Drama watchers are just putting everything together for the first time and may miss some details or be perplexed at whatever emotion they're picking up.

Or, it could be that both characters were changed so they can be more "likeable," and this really is all there is to them. It remains to be seen :)

Another thought...he knows LMX would never do anything to endanger Di Ziyuan. So no matter what he suspects and whatever he thinks LMX's reasons are for wanting him to treat the fake one as the real one, he'll go along with it.

A few options:
(1) Han Ye really is that slow, and the drama/LMX/everyone is gaslighting us that he's actually smart. We already know this is probably not the case, since we already see that he's suspicious about DCE and also suspicious about LMX and Anle within one episode of meeting them.
(2) Han Ye suspects LMX and Anle are hiding/plotting something, and he's playing dumb to get more info (you can see him doing this in the first few episodes already, actually...if you look at his face/eyes when he's asking LMX, he looks pretty suspicious).
(3) Han Ye already knows or strongly suspects they're hiding or plotting something, but he doesn't really care (either because he doesn't mind being potentially used, because he thinks he can out-plot them if it's something that's too terrible, or because he finds their plot in line with his own plans)