noor1234

No he explains himself when he takes her to the graves of 20 people, & she realizes it is her family. Touched by his actions, she then becomes his 'wife'. She only tells him who she is after she has had their 1st child, a daughter.

She is angry not just because he took her against her choice, but because he is LIN. She is traumatized by the Lin connection. And his connection with previous women is important, because that's the only version of him she knows, she only opens herself to him when he takes her to the graves, not before, before that she doesn't let him touch her. So the fact that he did not abandon her or her family because he had followed his elders, & did the best for his dead family he could, gave them respect in death, is important to her. Right now she thinks he is a LIN, he takes what he can take, he rejects what he can reject, he abandons who he can abandon. That's why she will stay reserved from him as a 'wife' for 10 episodes.

Ep. 28: I know it's a contrived trope to keep non-communication between a couple stretched to the limit, but FL is clearly PTSD & unable to forgive ML or his family for their past association with Shens. So why didn't FL even once say to ML, that 'you are untrustworthy & unreliable because you dumped your 1st fiancee when they were accused of treason, didn't get along with your 1st wife & dumped her in a way that secured you & ruined her, & now have snatched me against my will, whose to say you won't find a way to get rid of me?'

I think normally FL would bring out the facts to get a real answer. Surely, ML would've clarified Shen matters immediately. But for prolonging the drama tension & their 'non-consummation' (which only occurs after Shen grave reveal & ML's role in preserving it - probably Ep. 42-44!!!), her approach is to be quiet, stay out of ML's way & ignore his entire elders (who were complicit in cutting off from Shens without even apologizing / warning). This is passive-aggressive behavior & unlike FL. She is usually very straightforward. I'm not saying she should reveal who she is, but she could've asked ML to clarify himself, especially since every moment in that house as his wife, she's reminded of past connection.

There are spoiler scenes filmed on twitter. It's recorded.

She'll tell him after their 1st baby - a daughter - is born. I think she'll name her on her biological Shen mom, & will explain her reason to do so to ML. I don't think it's possible for him to love her anymore than he does, he had no emotional connection to Shen girl, he had never seen her, she died with her fam, & he felt guilty that he couldn't stop their deaths or do something for them, so he collected their bodies & got 2 Shen servants to take care of unmarked graves.

If you want to know why Shen graves are important, it is because FL will only 'bed' him after knowing all this, even though she won't disclose her real connection to Shens at that time.

Because then it won't be a feminist tale. This is her story, about her survival, about her using her privilege to do good (for women) because she has seen both sides of the coin - nobility & poverty, slavery & common status.

He's 45/50, depending on which twitter spoiler you watch. And his kids are very young (boy was 13) teenagers, but in drama boy is probably 5 when he dies. He doesn't get to see daughter & son grow up. He got injured in a battle and was 'never the same again' was ill all the time and then dies by 'slipping away'. She lives on to be 80 as matriarch of the entire household.

I did not like the aspect that the only person from Lin household who took care of everyone's needs didn't get to raise his & FL's kids, dying before any major event of their life.

Yeah, he dies when kids are teenagers, boy is 13, but maybe in the drama he dies when boy is 5. Which is worse, because that means the guy who led his entire family will not get to see his own kids grow up.

They won't.

Yup. I was disappointed to know this via a twitter spoiler (he dies at 45-50). You are forgetting by this time, FL is in love with ML. She'll be sad but will be okay because her personality is to move ahead. And what did ML do to deserve an early death? He was used by his parents 3 times for advantageous marriages. He chose his own path & married a former maid. He produced 2 kids, fought in a battle, got injured & died. He was either at war at home or for king. The only good time he had was with FL- & she hid that she was Shen for a very long time from him. 50 is too young to die. If he had died at 65, it would've been better.

But ML has always been a filler for this drama to show FL's progress in life & all the women she came across & saved. I also understand why FL HAS to have a grandma arc - because grandmas in C-dramas are usually good-for-nothing angry monsters who uphold 'honor' & arrange marriages that no one is happy with. FL will actually do something substantial as an elderly. She's not the same as Shens, Zhengs or Lins or Zhao women who all crib & quarrel with each other. In fact, FL has always tried to help people along the way. She was born a noble, became a slave & commoner & then back being a noble. She knows what poverty is, what humanity is & what real goodness is. Unlike all these elitist families shown in the drama.

My only problem with this drama will always be that it went down the same route that ALL C-dramas go - making women martyrs & victims of men. And that is extremely unfair & untrue. And they showed both privileged women & poverty-stricken women, whining. Poverty does not know a gender, neither does rigid class barriers. I don't know what kind of female viewership likes that kind of fake feminism.

He had zero emotional connection to his 1st wife (who was rude as hell throughout) - he actually is satisfied with this marriage even tho he ended up on the couch / side chamber. his smile said everything - everyone else was miserable that day, except him. And the night ended the same way.

Depends on what you mean by a HE. This is a female-centric drama, focussed on FL's journey through 80 years of her life, showing how many women she met & saved. Women are miserable & men are the culprits, rich influential women have problems, poverty-stricken women have problems, men are the problem. FL & ML have a sort of complicated past. They do get married. He will die at 45-50 years of age. She'll be the female matriarch holding his & extended family together.

You have written a very well crafted & articulated stuff. The only thing I will say is that nobody knows what ML's plan 6 months ago was when he 1st saw FL & Scholar singing in a courtyard, because crown prince situation presented itself 6 months later when king was on death bed, navy cmndr was getting married & CP was going to attend it & Zheng was going to kill him there. That's when ML's mom was arranging his marriage, that's when FL's kidnapping happened, & that's when ML found out that Scholar is going to send a proposal. This kingly plan is ML's second plan. We never saw his original plan. And I agree with you that from his perspective, it is foolproof for both him & FL - imperial decree shows the respect & dignity he wants her to have - she becomes legal wife - but it also ensures no one in his family can override his choice or mistreat her. So he chose what the best possible outcome was for himself & her given that it is a marriage of unequals, going against filial piety, that is not benefitting him in any material way.

I disagree with you that FL didn't think she had a choice - or that neither man gave her a choice. She absolutely had a choice & she had chosen Scholar - to please her parents, yes, but it was HER choice. It doesn't matter whether she was thinking of ML or not. It doesn't natter whether she was in love with Scholar or not. No matter how grand ML's gesture may seem on hindsight, the FACT is FL was silently crying in a courtyard all by herself traumatized once again. Ep. 26 was a hard watch. It's not about love. It's about having a choice. And that choice was arbitrarily taken away from her by ML. Her adoptive parents are unhappy, she is unhappy. She WAS going to marry Scholar. She had planned her life a certain way & was content & happy with it. It was taken away. Hence the slap had all the PTSD of Shen massacre, Lin abandonment & it also shows ML how equal she really thinks she is, that she did it the instant she became his wife & knew he couldn't even get angry at her - because getting angry at her would be getting angry at king's decree. She cannot be divorced either. So as soon as she had the power to teach him what she thought of his 'grand gesture', she slapped him.

And there is no earthly reason why ML did not approach or explain the decree once it was done. He could've spoken to FL later on, he didn't. He knew what type of self-willed & proud woman she was, & knew she wouldn't approve, but he did it because he wanted her & had the power to get her. He also knows FL adjusts to situations remarkably well & she'll adjust to life with him, & thrive, because she makes every situation work in her favor. He knows her better than she does, it's just that he never anticipated the slap!

Since I've seen spoilers, frankly this story is not about survival or ML or their short-lived romance. It's the life journey of a woman who was born noble, lived as a slave & commoner before becoming noble through marriage again & ALL the women who she saved or came across. ML is a carrot, I've said this before, a carrot dangled in front of us, the viewers, to get us to watch this drama, and this drama is not about ML.

The drama is not about women 'surviving,' it has fake feminism, it's about women crying about how cruel the world is to them, how bad men are - even privileged women whining about unfairness - privileged women who have more power than most men, are crying over idiotic self-made crisis in this drama & blaming husbands, fathers, sons. None of the women crying have done an iota of work in their lives. Most privileged women are having cat fights with other women.

I also have a problem when poverty-stricken women are shown as helpless - as if poverty knows a gender - men have as hard a time as women when they have no status & no money. These kinds of dramas are usually propagandist.

Yup, and I don't think nunnery teaches those!

He's the butt of jokes here....

👍

Of course he did. It was the best scene from Ep. 25.

Frankly, I'm more unhappy about the fact that ML is going to be dead after some war at 48 or 50yo when their kids are not even teenagers, & FL will live to be 80 & be the grandma matriarch for new generation.

I think she should've told him when he took her to the graves, but this is FL's story, as well as of all the women she met along the way, not the men's or ML's.

Ep. 26: I have a question: why didn't ML come & meet FL after the decree? Surely, it would have been polite & courteous to do so, after giving her the surprise of a lifetime. And considering he knows he snatched her from someone else, he should've come explain himself. The drama also didn't show the gifts from ML for her family & their reaction on receiving the gifts. Who brought the gifts? ML's sidekicks or Luchan. That was an important moment that drama missed.

Also, I've noticed that the slap is not just about not giving her choice. FL has been remembering & meeting all the people who lost family members because of former king. And she also was remembering what happened to her own family & how the original betrothal was broken off by Lins & the irony of it all. To end up with the same man, when she was rejected at her hour of need. So I feel all the PTSD, all the loss of last 6 years is in that slap - he probably will think she slapped because she always retaliates against unfairness against her, he'll let it slide because he knows he's got her & knows she'll adapt quickly, but there's a lot more going on in her mind than just some former employer getting her through imperial decree.

What I didn't like in this episode, is something I've continued to dislike in most episodes: unhinged men are shown as cowards, unhinged women are shown as fearless - as some kind of feminist retelling. Zheng was a military man, he & his sons were making ridiculous non-winnable arguments when even I knew the order was of execution, while the daughter bit the dust in grand style like some Jesse James. Same has been shown with unhinged woman no.1 (the 1st wife) - her lover was a coward, even though they did the same thing, she had more guts - her dad & bro are shown as cowards, while she will reappear to give new nasty lectures to FL soon. In Lin household, no man is worth the time, including grandpa. ML is the only stable, responsible person but he is shown as grey. Every woman is being mistreated by some man (except for ML who was mistreated by both genders). FL has tears in her eyes every 2 seconds over some misfortune that has befallen a woman. This is weird to me. There should be a balance in storytelling.

Trust me, no one expects to be slapped in front of everyone on their wedding day whether forced or not. Also, ML most def. knows she won't like to be 'ordered' to marry him, esp. since she was singing with Scholar every other day & they were getting betrothed in no time. He knows he has snatched her from another man. In fact he'll take that slap in his stride, because he knows FL pays what she gets, and she wouldn't like someone imposing their will on her. But of course, he didn't expect a slap. He probably thought she'll say a few words in chambers.