noor1234

Thanks for the trivia!

I don't think she ever 'betrayed' him. She very clearly tells him she can't marry him because he isn't powerful enough. The problem (& angst) comes from ML's complete devotion & obsession with her & her refusal to acknowledge even the slightest of affection or warmth for him. He fights actual wars for her. He asks her to marry him or run away with him again and again. He is constantly written as 'wolf like' 'wild' 'crimson eyes full of pain' to show his obsession for her & hurt at her rejections. She marries a weak king just to have a powerful alliance, then she has a one-night stand with ML after telling him she likes him. Then they don't see each other for 2 years or so - she has a daughter by him, who is known as the king's daughter. She doesn't tell ML the baby is his (he finds out on his own). He is made a general in her army (but not by imperial decree so he is an independent general), and she sends him women for pleasure - who he doesn't touch. He gets jealous that she is 'spending time with the weak man king' & she gets jealous that he is with 'beauties' - both have only had each other as s*xual partners but they verbally torture & goad each other. He continues to touch her & makeout with her whenever he gets the chance (even in prison btw), whether she resists or not (she does - there's a 'gold chain' sequence around Chap. 227 which I doubt will be included in the drama in its entirety). There is zero warmth in her & she never spells out how much or if she loves him. He finds out that she loved him all along in the most obscure of ways: she has kept the wood carvings he made for her, she sings the Southern Territory's song to their daughter that he sang for her, she doesn't get him executed, etc. etc. - these bread crumbs lead him to again propose marriage when he's ruler of a territory & is a renowned general who has won wars & killed their mutual enemy Pei Song. It is only then, when he is powerful & she has no excuse left to deny him his place by her side (& in the daughter's life), that she accepts him.

So technically she never accepted him for love. She only accepts him when he reaches zenith of power.

A long-suffering guy gets the girl he wanted after 3 years of longing in which she kept rejecting him (despite being in love with him). You will suffer with him. If you think that's a HE, it is. The leads don't die, they end up together.

She's more like a non-committal person because as a princess her goal is to avenge the deaths of her male family members (dad & bro) & rule over 2 territories - she cannot do that with a man of no consequence, she needs to align with a powerbroker, either a prince or a general, and ML is none of that. So she marries a feckless 'king' that she never sleeps with, she gets the ML 'beauties' so that he spends his days with them (he doesn't), both are jealous of the other's presumed paramours. He keeps prodding her to accept him & she keeps going round in circles unable to commit to him because she wants power. So he becomes powerful so that she accepts him - and even then, the way FL accepts him is very very cold (she's almost like 'okay you are powerful now & baby daddy so you'll do'). There is no overt passion or warmth from her. Infuriatingly non-communicative. You are just supposed to understand her feelings in hints & wooden carvings made by ML that she doesn't throw away.

:) :)

@atsukoM it's supposed to be a whimsical reply to 'how did they get the plague' query. The deaths-by-plague is an illogical anti-climactic setup. Dramas don't usually explain illogical stuff. They got a plague that never left the mountain nor has anyone heard of it. And the only survivor of deadly virus has been roaming the streets of Dachu & even now, no one has thought of separating her from the rest of population, she'll come back to Dachu with ML & continue her life. Very selective plague, frankly.

Fei Bai & shop manager have never mentioned mountain getting a plague, in fact the martial artist Fei was shocked to learn that everyone had died. / disappeared on that mountain.

Because FL is an all-encompassing deity-like figure avenging wrongs, she gets to decide right & wrong in this drama, she knows everything, whether it is about stars, medicine, business, history of court officials & politics or martial arts - if she can know all those things in 8 short years, where everyone around her is dying of a plague, why can't she be the sole survivor of a plague? She just is better than everyone else in everything, even immunity! That's why!

Since 'Blossom' (2024) there's a trend in Chinese historicals to turn ML's hair white on one pretext or another. The ML in Blossom's Ep. 1 nailed the look so well it has been copied ever since then. That's why there's an influx of white haired generals / courtiers in last 2 years.

An intelligence agency experimented on animals & created a biological weapon that was then unleashed on an isolated set of people to test its potency & whether it would spread beyond them or not......if it were real life, a 'vaccine' would be developed & sent out to billions to make profits off this 'virus'. In the drama, however, the 'plague' never left the mountain or infected the soldiers serving down below......

Ye Li & Prince Mo Li also make Mo Li..... just saying.....

Prince Ding/MXY is uncle to both current kid emperor and Prince Li. All are part of Royal Household.

- The crown prince was from 'empress' & Prince Li is their descendant. Current kid emperor is from concubine - the empress dowager who sits alongside him in court. So he is son of former emperor while Prince Li is son of crown prince (& grandson of late emperor), who was originally going to get the throne after emperor's death. Concubine carried out killings of crown prince & his supporters & turned Prince Li into a court jester with the help of Marquis & consort to get the throne.

- Prince Ding/MXY's brother-general guarded the border on behalf of late emperor. When that emperor was on death bed, he sent an edict to him to come back to capital because of brewing tussle for crown. Brother came back & was arrested by concubine's right-hand man Marquis on charges of treason for leaving the border WITHOUT imperial edict. Brother could not show edict because he had given it to FL's mom & it was snatched from her by her husband's family who sided with concubine in tussle for power.

- Prince Ding/MXY's brother was allied with late emperor & definitely the crown prince - that's why his removal as a powerful support system for crown prince was essential to concubine's plans for throne. That's why he got killed.

- Prince Ding/MXY most certainly has favored the kid emperor over Prince Li. And will continue to crush Prince Li. Ideally, empress dowager should be executed & kid emperor should be exiled & Prince Li should fight his way back to throne. But I don't think this drama will show that. Dowager & that kid emperor - both of whom have blood on their hands, will survive & thrive, because Prince Ding & FL support them.

This drama's sense of justice is limited to whims of the leads.

This is the story of an FL who wants to have ultimate power as queen (to bring peace to the region) and will do anything that gets her there - even marry some suspicious 'king'. ML is a vagabond assassin / traveller who helps her during her travels & falls really badly for her, so much so that he works for her for years, watching her ignore him / dismiss him (she doesn't tell ML that she loves him because she has bigger goals & he doesn't have the power she needs in a man). They have a one-night stand & she pretends the child is the king's, not ML's. He is turned into one of her 'independent' Generals (i.e. not titled through imperial decree). That scene in the trailer where she shoots an arrow at him during one of his rebellions is infamous. For those who want to see how weirdly FL treats him for the entirety of the novel, Chap. 225 is maddening enough - too much of mental torture of a man totally devoted and a woman who is armed with indifference & won't show her true feelings. He remains emotionally tortured till I think Chap. 250 in a 260 chapter novel! It is only after he becomes ruler of one territory - Northern Wei - and becomes a leader of renown due to his military achievements that FL accepts him. It's very anti-climactic. The End.

As for 'passionate (or forced makeout) scenes' I have no idea how they will ever get the 'golden chain' scene from Chap. 227 in the drama (it's bound to get censored anyways.) Her reciprocation in Chap. 234 of his proposal 'Let's Get Married' is so cold, it sent shivers down my spine.

There are a lot of battle sequences in the novel. I'm skipping this one - because there's Overdo & Tigers Sniff etc. that have more of a well-rounded story than just one battle after another with star-crossed 'lovers.' But ZLH fans will probably love the emotional roller coaster/ torture his character goes through just to get accepted by the woman he loves.

I just finished the novel. The real synopsis is as follows.....

No.

Yeah, his work in Provoke, Blossom & PoJ is top notch. He knows how to film & project romance between men and women subtly.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNsT4jiPT9s

Ok, I get what you're saying.

Ok, I understand your perspective.

Thanks for the analysis!