noor1234

Yup. Very good ep.

Yup. I've never seen an ML - a hero of a drama so to speak - be this clumsy!!! It was LOL.It's very interesting that such small details are still shown that enhance our knowledge of characters.

I think these 2 actors look very good together. Sizzling. And their scenes have been directed well here to show the undercurrent passion, warmth & understanding between them - ultimately he IS a kept man of sorts, a nominal scholar with ordinary job that he got because of the princess & she's calling the shots in the relationship, not he, & she cannot marry him since he's not powerful. But he's utterly devoted to her. I don't think drama has shown his motivations & goals YET as to what he wants to do in life or be or have. He's not shown as particularly independent or ambitious, but maybe his easygoing nature hides ambition - ambition for what? That's unclear.

FL from Where the Mask Ends & Pursuit of Jade had had a very good year & acted the hell out of the role in WTME. ML from the Early Spring had a bit of a career-defining break (with a LOT of help from the styling, hair & makeup team! He looked the part, & season 2 has been greenlighted too).

Everyone else has also done well. I've voted for Top 13.

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I think once the drama is finished you'll understand why it was important to spend soooooo much time in that village, with an FL who didn't want to leave the place & knew ML was playing games to gain favor, & an ML who didn't want her to stay but was flabbergasted at her bold audacious behavior.

Actually there was a scene where ML says to Wenji that 'what happened to Chunhua is the fault of Prince Jin & Yu Changan' so we can infer Wenji knows HOW Chunhua ended up married so dramatically in royal household (i.e. drugged rape by Jin & Yu's ultimatum that the maid should be beaten to death - he already knows Chunhua was married off by Princess, & he didn't like that aspect either, even though it was done to save her life). Wenji wants power so that he can 'protect the people he loves' BUT I think he'll like Lord Yu & accept & sympathize with him & like power for the sake of power.

Yup.

Ep. 23: I knew Meng Jr. had no good intentions towards FL - she was always going to be just a tool & god knows what new way he'd have humiliated her if she'd ended up in North Jing again - because we all saw a snippet of it during that state banquet. I see some commenters regretting drooooooooling over Meng Jr. yesterday.....the scene right after that, where dancing girls are performing & everyone knows FL is in the pits drinking, & ML looks sinisterly at how Meng Jr. is enjoying her discomfort. Good scene. Everyone acted well.

I will still choose to believe that FL can have kids despite injuries & near-death during abortion / miscarriage or whatever she believes her body cannot do. Maybe she'll get pregnant when she & ML are in a good place & not in the middle of surviving coups & killings & forced marriages.

I love this ML & FL's dynamic. This use of sound of 'breathing' without BGM to denote desire between the leads, kisses, etc. is unique - I haven't seen it used in other dramas.

Wenji, Chunhua & Lord Yu are interesting characters....so is Prince Jin, unfortunately. I don't think Jin's first wife is going to be nice to Chunhua post-baby-production, she probably will snatch the kid & make Chunhua's life hell. Thank God Wenji got out of that cuisine gig & is now so on his way to becoming Lord Yu, it's not even foreshadowed anymore. Lord Yu is a grey character who wants ultimate power because eunuchs traditionally have none - & his backstory revealed him to be a stable boy, maybe born as a biological male too, & now the power behind the throne with his own army in love with a woman he can never have. That looks like Wenji's future.

Btw, why one ep. only today? Does anyone know?

I think her thing is that she had to keep an upper hand over men so that they don't use or abuse her, but since she's also a living breathing woman AND a princess, she took delight in playing with a humble village boy who go flustered at her every move. I don't think ML was ever her punching bag.

She was 13/14 when sent off for peace marriage with a 50 yo. She hasn't lived as a kid at all, that's why she's childish at times, but it's also a foil - she acts immaturely so that men don't see her true desires / needs / plans. And she lets go of people before they have a chance to hurt her or use her.

And yes, she did suffer horrific marital rapes & abuse. That's why the contrast of her bedroom scene with ML stood out more, because of flashback of the humiliation & near-death she had experienced in 1st marriage.

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No. Though the actor playing Meng Jr. is attractive - he was in Ashes to crown too.

I thought he was doing it as a power play - who knows what he'll do to her once she goes back to HIS land.

And in an otherwise calm, serenely visualized drama, full of bright color, & well-directed, we see so much violence - if the drama had a darker palette, browns/ greys / blues / night-time shooting / everything set in the Barbarian land for e.g., all the time, the violence wouldn't have had this kind of impact. The fact that ML's village was beautiful, people are beautiful, costumes & architecture of the capital is beautiful, but no one bats an eye when a maid gets drugged for sexual services, no one questions why a princess was treated this horribly in a 'peace' marriage, why a soldier was not investigated for marking rewards for killing civilians, how easy it was for a rich well-connected guy to dismember a scholar! That macabre occurring within rich colorful Tang sets makes it stand out more.

Absolutely. If they had made this Ep.1, FL's craziness & brusque manner in earlier episodes would be easily explained away. But NOW, we can not only empathize, but see why she is aggressive & impatient & moody & distrusting of men & romance.

First, The Double.

Then, Road to Splendor - just to get a break from all the generals given in Blossom & Prisoner of Beauty & The Double!

This better be good! Sky-high expectations because of the director of Familiar Stranger, Provoke, Blossom & Pursuit of Jade. The guy knows how to film, especially atmospheric depictions of relationships. Trailer looks boring but like I said, this should be a good drama because of the director. It better be good!

I've only seen a Chinese version of the webnovel: https://book.qq.com/book-detail/46110481 If someone has done an English-language translation, do let know.

Ep. 19-20: I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but Ep.20 started out with a very serene, consensual, love-making scene where both FL & ML had shy smiles on the next morning - & the episode ended with the flashback of marital rape & beating of the same FL on her without-rituals wedding night 3 years ago - In fact that image of her being dragged by the leg!!!! For such a proud, capable woman & that too a princess, to be treated in this awful way in a marriage done for peace & to reward North Jing for their loyalty to king!!!!

I'm not getting good feels from Wen Ji, the way he looked at FL & looks at ML, he seems to me to be a taker, a selfish guy who wants power to be above everyone else, because that's the role he's used to in village. And I think he will backstab ML. That's my read of him now. Plus, the foreshadowing with Lord Yu & Princess Luling seems like they were once Wenji & Chunhua too. I won't be shocked to know Lord Yu was sold, castrated & forced into eunuch servitude & had an unrequited thing for Luling, who was also alone on New Year's night, despite a dozen men to choose from.

Rebellion - the elder Wei (right-hand man of Lord Yu) gave a message to Wei-quiety that indicated he was part of Lord Yu's goal of taking over the kingdom & overthrowing the actual emperor & his heir/CP. He indicated it when he gave example of how 'nbody remembers Lord of the West's rebellion but everyone remembers the cruel king of Shance who was removed by Lord of West'. That's what I made of it.

Never mind, got the answer at the start of Ep.20.....