mukkanna

She's not an innocent, though.

The bodyguard doesn't exist in the novel. Or rather, he exists, but he's Anle's bodyguard.

Luo Mingxi's family was a vassal of the Di family before the country was created. That's why Han Ye keeps saying he's the only one he can talk to about Di Ziyuan...mentioning the Di family is taboo.

Yes, and no. It appears they may have corresponded by letter. Anle did a lot of the faction-building and scouting work on her own, however.

ML is dubbed.

ML is playing a reserved character with a poker face. I think his acting is actually louder than the novel character would have been...but since we don't get the inner thoughts like we would reading a novel, he sort of has to act them out (while still staying in character...which again, is a reserved person who's successfully been hiding a lot for 10 years).

ML is dubbed.

Han Ye's expressions are subtle and hard to read. That's the character setting. In the novel, even FL has no idea what he's thinking a lot of the time.

Han Ye is a character who's very reserved and hides his emotions. Gong Jun is an actor playing a character who's very reserved and hides his emotions. You'll have to pick up on the subtle cues. If his acting was any louder, he wouldn't be Han Ye :)

I would like to submit that in many of these situations, doing nothing is exactly what an extremely smart person would do. We have to remember that his father the emperor is pretty sharp but also quite paranoid. Like other emperors, he wants to check and balance the power of his courtiers...he knows some ministers are corrupt, but he uses them to check his crown prince so that neither of them gain too much power in court.

If Han Ye is too awesome, his father will find ways to make him less awesome. As they say, "the nail that sticks out will get hammered down" and "a clever eagle hides its claws." Han Ye, other than his insistence on marrying Di Ziyuan, obeys his father in everything. He's the very image of a righteous, rule-following crown prince and filial son. That's how he's been getting away with all the deeds you mention (any of which should have resulted in his being stripped of the title of crown prince, or in his head rolling) for 10 years. What you're seeing is Han Ye's 10 years of forbearance and patience and his ability to continue hiding the truth and proceeding with whatever his plan is even when people think less of him for it (I'm honestly not sure he cares, as long as the concrete outcomes are to his liking).

But I mean...if my husband made it so I could never visit his grave but his "friend" could, and let his "friend" inscribe his gravestone instead of me, I would be permanently furious.

Unclear? But the key is that they're 30,000 navy. Dongqian has a strong navy, but Jing doesn't. That's why the emperor values these 30,000 navy more.

Hair turning white overnight is a classic wuxia event. Also falling off cliffs. This drama is a politics/wuxia romance :)

ML is a character who prefers to control everything from behind the scenes. He'll only show his true strength when he has to. The more harmless he looks, the less people think he's capable of doing the things he does.

No, Ren Anle never becomes crown princess in the novel.

I'm only up to episode 11, but it tracks pretty well except:
- Han Ye never went to take care of the Dongqian pirates. They met for the first time as adults at the hunt. Everything before that is completely written by the screenwriters.
- Linlang's part is extremely expanded. In the novel she's an informant but only peripherally involved and no evidence of martial arts.
- Luo Mingxi in the novel has not been living in the capitol, and only arrives there as an escort for his sister who attended the crown princess selection. He had not met with either Ren Anle nor Han Ye since childhood.
- Luo Mingxi's parts are expanded, and his personality is darker. In the novel he's calm, cool, and unruffled. He's highly intelligent and refined and is well-respected by the court.
- Ren Anle's flirting is much more pronounced in the drama.
- Novel Han Ye only gets drunk once and doesn't have a problem with alcohol
- Novel Wen Shuo admires Yuan Qin but doesn't pester her like drama Wen Shuo
- Novel Han Ye has multiple other siblings not depicted in the drama so far (The eldest prince, whose attempts to take the title of crown prince resulted in the Mu Tianfu events; the 5th prince, who mostly just tries to stay out of the way; the 9th prince, whose family's attempts to take the title of crown prince resulted in...later events; and a princess whose function seems to be to get spoiled and show Anle sass and embarrass herself). There's also a 5th sibling but not sure whether that one will show up, as he doesn't appear until nearly the end of the novel.

That's all the differences I can think of right off the top of my head.

I doubt she dies in the drama since leaked images from filming exist that wouldn't make sense if she were dead. She didn't die in the novel.

I'm not being illogical...I'm pointing out that there's an entire astrology chart that should be taken into account if you're parsing people entirely based on one sign. Both eastern and western astrology have that. I think you're simplifying things too much.

Like the scene where Anle is stripping Han Ye in the Mu Tian arc, you can tell he's uncomfortable but playing along until she mentions Di Ziyuan. His smile slips just a bit, his eyes are disturbed. You know he's no longer in the moment and he doesn't truly think the ten years of longing are over, and he's upset she brought it up, but he knows this moment is important so he continues to play along.

I actually suspect that people who have a hard time deciphering the emotions of other people in real life also have a hard time deciphering the emotions depicted by actors and actresses (it's hard to turn off the doctor brain even for dramas...haha).

For example...Luo Mingxi's acting is very obvious; his entire face changes to match the emotion he's depicting. Gong Jun and Reba are more experienced actors, and the way they depict emotions is a lot more subtle. Sometimes what changes is only their eyes or a quirk of the mouth. This is much more true-to-life. I mean, who would want to convey to everyone around their true emotions when they're characters who have something to hide? It's like if you don't like your boss, do you wear a sour lemon face every time you see them? No, you even do a fake smile to "keep the peace."

In the novel? She leaves the capitol to start a new life somewhere. Not sure Di Ziyuan even notices her around, but Han Ye takes no chances.

I'm not sure why you think either of them are dumb?