ninan

If ML had past memories. The drama will end at ep2 or maybe ep3 before he even met the FL. With the regret and anger from the last time, he will just kill. :-D

Also i don't really trust Emporor untill he really gave up his throne to his CP. They are the most egoistic creature. If he was really fond of CP, he'd do a lot more and a lot early to limit the power of the empress. From his dialogue with CP and his entrusted eunuch afterwards, i never thought he was that satisfying about his CP. He was still hesitating. He wanted to see how his CP handle his competitors. When he realized that CP was on the downside, in this case, way too late, he decided to give Duke of Ding to CP. Believe me, if Prince Qin was on the down side, he will give the Duke to him. Only the two sons were on a balanced fight, he could hold his throne to the last minute. This was the mindset of most Emporors. In short, he just wanted to play the controlled power fight as other Emporors did before his death but got heavily backfired.

Yes, I merely want to say this plot is logical from historical point of the view. The drama has more. This drama indicated from the beginning that Duke of Ding at the time was no longer the loyal subordinate in the eyes of the Emporor. The fear over the threat from his powerful general plus some manipulation from the empress side let him make the wrong judgment. He also underestimated the power, maybe also the boldness of his empress. His original plan was just to let him suffer a bit on the way to the capital to show his authority. After they met, scolded him then kept him alive in the prison for the CP. His feeling towards the Duke of Ding was definitely the complex one here. Trust while doubt. Only his plan was totally skewed. Too much ego and missjudgment on his side. Thats why he was so guilty after the death of Duke of Ding and easily guilty tricked by SM.

It was a common practice for an Emporor in the chinese history to do things like putting capable officers and generals into prison for his heir before his death. Especially when CP has strong competitors. Confining those subordinates to reduce the cost of the power fights. For some Emporors, they'd rather see them die in the prison than see them fighting each other under different power groups. They actually prefered, even encouraged the fighting among their heirs. The best won. They just needed to control the degree of the power fighting. Unfortunately a lot of things went out of control in the end, especially when the Emporor got old and weak.

Yes, the story will push the ML and FL to the valley bottom till ep 29, then all the way back up to the climax and the ending. It is a good wrap up for all characters including villains. No loose end for all the plots from early episodes. Very satisfying.

As female, Dou Zhao has no courtesy name. Shou Gu is her nickname. Shou is longevity. Gu is girl, miss, or lady.

Till early twenty century, courtesy names are still widely used in China. Now very rare.

The courtesy names are names given after man reach his adulthood by his elderly or teacher or a higher position holder. Generally used among the higher class and more educated group of people. The labour class hardly own any courtesy names. As the name suggest, it is used in socializing to show respect. The birth name will be limited to be used among the close family and friends and in the case of official documents.

If you watch historical cdramas, it is very common to see the male characters are addressed with their courtesy names.

Song Mo -->Song Yan Tang
Wu Shan --> Wu De Zhen

If you watched The Untamed
Wei Ying --> Wei Wu Xian
Lan Zhan -->Lan Wang Ji

The meaning of the courtesy names are normally the expectation and sometime judgment of the personality of this name holder from the name giver. At the old time, the adulthood day was a big deal. People tent to look for respected scholars or officers as the name giver in the ceremony. A good courtesy name added weights in the future socializing life.

Wu's courtesy name is De Zhen. De is virtuous, Zhen is sincere. Fits his characters totally. I don't know the meaning of SM's courtesy name, but it definitely contains some cultural reference which i have no knowledge of. My rough guess is as strong and hard as the inkstone and upright.

Not everything is to do with politics. A lot of restriction and banning is due to some reports from certain people. There is no rating system in the dramas and movies in China. Some people especially some parents report whenever they see any plots or set up are away from their expectation or knowledge. The reason is always it's not good for their children. Th easiest and laziest solution for government is to ban this topic. This problem was mentioned again and again in the industry and a lot of people has been asking for the rating system but years past, no news at all. I doubt if a rating system really could help. Especially there are also competitors pretending parents to report in oder to drag other drama down.

Time travel was banned largely because of some tragical incidents. In 2011 after two time travel dramas became national hit dramas (Bu Bu Jing Xing by Liu Shi Shi and Palace by Yang Mi), two school girls committed suicide together, leaving notes to say they will go back to the ancient time and find their ideal lives. This incident caused a huge discussion in China and shortly after, the government banned the time travel genra.

Well, when FL officially met ML in this life, MLs uncle was already in the hand of of his enemies. She had no idea of the details of ML family matters in her last life and the book only vaguely mentioned that sth bad will happen in his family. No details, no envidence and no trust between FL and ML at the time. The death of his uncle is inevitable. It was mentioned multiply times in the drama. You can't change the flow of a river easily. But FL and ML managed to change the fate of a lot of other people, even the country in the end.

She was reborn to the time point, when all things which drove her mother to the death had already happened. She got zero chance to do anything.

She did already. Remember the PowerPoint presentation in the wedding night? They are basically a copy of her book.

Feels like you jump watching too much. :-D This drama is very fast paced and has tons of information hidden.

Nope. I'm even not so sure if he is SML since they two never have any affection involved talking, not like Wu Shan and FL. JY popping around her household is because they are not only childhood friends but also relatives. JY is pretty much the same position as the two girlfriends of FL in her household. The two girls pop around. As a remote cousin, so does JY.

FL never wanted to be involved with ML in her second life. She is not reborn to save the ML. The drama tells us again and again, she just wanted to have a peaceful life in her second chance from the beginning. When she came to the thought that maybe she could pull him away from the old path, ML uncle was already doomed to death.

Besides, what do you expect FL to do? Run to ML, who she barely knew in both lives at the time and say, hey, look, your uncle will die soon? Then comes to the questions: where, when and who is the enemy behind, why (all details that FL had little idea and zero evidences) and how do you know it? Are you then expecting ML immediately to take it seriously and actually really do sth? Maybe ML freaked out and hold FL for interrogation is then more logical.

There are no details. In her first life, she only heard rumors about SM. She was also not aware of the details of the court politics. The book never has any details, just riddle poems for each character. Not to mention things changed a lot in this life. For example, according to the book, Wu Shan should die of that allergy and PM Wu retired afterwards. In this life WS survived from the powder attack but was still nearly killed for other reasons with PM Wu stepping down. Similar direction but totally different details. So FL only knew how the big picture would roughly be, but never the details. For SM, the book only hints that something bad among his close family will happen, but nothing more. So the book is just like this: look, this might happen. When, where, who, why, how, you have to figure it out.

hahaha, you missed the word idol. From her review, I thought for her normal taste, the best Period drama this year could be Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty 2. Yeap, so many categories. :-D But it is possible that she is so happy to finally see a nice period idol drama at the end of this year that she put this drama to the top of her period drama list. Let's see!

A small correction, she said best period idol cdrama not best cdrama. Quite some differences here. And this year there are some serious, realistc, good, non romance, popular cdramas.

Well, think about the weapon SM used. With one blade in each hand, then think about Mantis. Ji Yong does have talent in making names.

Yes, but interesting is very subjective. For me, her storyline is intriguing. I just merely want to say the story is in logic, her story together with her daughter is a full circle. There is no need to pin actress for the lack of the flavor you like.

And she is also the teacher in the famous girl crush case in the Under The Skin 1 series. Three totally, even polar opposite characters and I could not tell it was from the same actress. There are so many hidden gem actors and actress there. They just need more opportunity to shine.

But all her story makes sense. She got away easily is because Dou 5, this bigger antagonist needed her. All her deeds benifited him greatly. Her poisoning WTY ended Wu Shan which could lead to the death of WS, which might make PM Wu heartbroken and went to retirement. It was the original story on that prophecy book. Her framing to DZ which was manipulated into a trap to Wu Shan. It worked with PM Wu stepped down. And do u really think Dou 5 was not aware of the illegal loan thing? How can a domestic women has no fear messing this kind thing? The answer is simply. She knew she has backing. Dou 5 hidden behind and enjoyed the benifit. Why till ep23, he finally showed atitude is because it's time for him to harvest. WXY is the guilty one and her father, his strong competitor for the PM position has to step down. It's the end of her usage. The story of WXY is very logical and sound in my opinion. Nothing streched for her story.

Besides thd boss is already on thd top of the pyramid of the industry. It is pointless to promote herself. And i saw nobody complain about it on Chinese social media as well. Normally cnets is very sensitive about these things.