Sol1056

But An King's reaction is so overboard that it could be the tipping point for his own council and/or generals. His son was clearly killed by someone who's not from Wu, but he wants Wu to cough up more money & suffer for the crime despite Wu having nothing to do with it? He doesn't have much leg to stand on. More like no leg to stand on!

The country's almost broke (hence the need for Wu money), and now he wants to incite war on two fronts: domestically with the (framed) tribe and externally with the Wu (again). Pushing him to make such crazy charges could be the first step in making him look like a king who absolutely needs to be deposed.

I absolutely want more dramas where ML sticks the obsessive SML's head (or the secondary antagonist's head) in a bucket of ice water. Many dramas could benefit from having a savvy and mature ML (or FL) stick someone's head in a bucket of ice water.

at least CY wasn't *completely* gone, even if no one expressed what I figured was kind of obvious: so if he's in a good mood, he's suddenly nice? and what happens when he's not in a good mood, he's back to being mr cruelty? that's a recipe for walking on eggshells in your relationship, so I'm glad she remains skeptical and ultimately still uninterested.

middle of ep27, is anyone else thinking the scene has the makings of subplot where the staff try to figure out if the Marquis has been replaced with an identical (and much nicer) twin?

Rewatching and I can't recall if the story ever gave an explanation for why the ML's parents were on the island (eps 2-3). It seemed like it was mentioned and never came up again. Did I miss the explanation (or even an implied one), somewhere?

I think part of the reason it felt draggy to me was the amount of setup: introducing multiple characters and their conflicts, laying out the politics, setting up several misunderstandings, FL being born and promptly dying, ML being blamed for it, an interlude of raising an egg, and finally the FL back as a person.

A love story's start is when the leads meet, and for whatever reason, it just felt like slogging through a whole lot of setup before that point. Or maybe that I've developed a preference for stories that start in media res and you find out setup/backstory as the story unrolls.

All that aside, some stories start fast only to settle into a slog, while others start slow then the story breaks into a gallop. It's hard to tell the story's true pacing from only four episodes, and it's really the overall pacing that matters in the end, imo.

I thought that was already resolved, with the reveal that he worked as an official? We're meant to take that as "worked in the government", y/n?

Four episodes in, but it took some effort to get through the first two episodes, which felt strangely slow. I just can't put my finger on why, but they felt draggy to me. Or maybe it's that the director relied on audience excitement for ZLS's latest role to carry them over the slow opening.

Less impressed tho by how the story (so far) has handed several big power-ups to a character who describes himself as (and actually is) lazy, passive, and mostly here for the alcohol. Or maybe I've been lulled into contentment by cdramas with incredibly competent and-aware-of-it MLs and SMLs (LBFAD, MJTY, AJTL, LLTG, etc) -- and going back to "slacker who can't match the FL so the story has to ramp him up really fast with extra bonus points" is a bit of a letdown*.

Overall, though, ZLS is good at physical comedy, and brings life to even the most trite of storylines, so of course she's fine here. It just seems like (so far) the story hasn't brought anything new to the genre.

* A good story can break this trope, frex Alchemy of Souls. That show opens with a ML with zero power, but that never stops him from working his ass off anyway. it takes almost half the show for him to gain powers, but that's not from lack of trying.

If I turn the story around and make the king of wu the real center of the story, then it actually makes sense for him to be paranoid and suspicious. It's probably how most monarchs stayed alive, regardless of country. There's always someone in the wings waiting for your guard to drop long enough to depose you.

What I find particularly interesting in the past few episodes is seeing how Ying has been tested and passed, which story-wise makes sense; it's time for her to prove her mettle after 18 or so episodes of training and practice. And her meeting with the king was another test, this time of her conviction in the system she's doing her part to protect (returning this king to power).

But it also made for a powerful comparison, too: when the king hears about who's running things, he panics, and his panic is very much like Ying's panic when she's trapped in the courtyard between the two locked gates. But where the king wouldn't snap out of it until Ying grabbed him and called his name sharply, Ying got *herself* out of her panic by forcing herself to slow down, take a breath, and think about what An wanted to get out of the situation. You can see they're similar in panicking, but he spirals while she gets herself upright again.

Which is excellent case of show-not-tell in terms of both characterizations, but now I'm worried as to the rest of the episodes. Will the story keep up this pace and keep up this quality? Please don't let it fall apart in the last dozen episodes, please don't let it fall apart in the last dozen episodes...

Q: "How did you know I was here?"
I was totally expecting (or at least hoping) the answer would be, "I just followed the trail of dead bodies."

that entire scene was golden, and showed how/why anyone (starting with but not limited to LTG) should be very, very worried about NYZ in their midst. it's not just that he can fight but that he's got an astute and analytical brain that can take all the little hints and allegations, figure out what they really mean, and hold onto that insight until the right time to use it to his best advantage. truly killer.

I was thinking something more ridiculous for his personality, like "kindergarten teacher" or "makeup artist" ... altho come to think of it, him as a white sparrow is probably the height of ridiculous.

Hey, does anyone know the meaning of the idiom used in ep22, "Let's go put nails in the courtyard"?

that depends! it could be a euphemism in the original, or that the translator (or their AI helper) thought 'eccentric' was broad enough. it's a word with a lot of connotations & nuance, after all -- anything from 'always did his own thing' to 'refused to follow instructions' to 'unpredictable'.

would probably help if we could find someone with a good grasp of mandarin to tell us the actual word she said.

Cripes, LTG just finds more and more ways to be utterly unpleasant. I'm not sure I could really say he's coming unglued, since I suspect he was never glued down all that securely in the first place.

so yesterday I drove past a cemetery and the cemetery name caught my eye, because who would name a cemetery after a horse-mounted troop? only to get home, check, and realize that "calvary" is a place outside Jerusalm where christians say Jesus was crucified, and it's "cavalry" that means a moving body of a military force (horses, chariots, or tanks in modern times).

so apparently I've been saying what amounts to "but fortunately some place outside Jerusalem came riding to the rescue!" all this time. whoops.

handy tip I just learned: "cavalry" comes from "chivalry" so if you remember that both end with "-valry" then you can avoid my error!

My issue isn't that a story can't reveal more layers to a seeming villain, but that this story hasn't done it very well. There was no groundwork laid, just this abrupt backstory, so my sympathy feels unearned.

However, that's not really the fault of the character (and certainly not the actor). The real fault imo is weak direction (not showing outside of dialogue) and a weak script (not getting us primed for a deeper reveal). And really, the reason those weak points stand out so much is because the rest of the direction and script are so sure-footed.

Until this point, LTG's been shown to be arrogant, smug, and generally dismissive of everyone, including actual or potential allies. (How to NOT get your bride's tribe's support: make it clear you hate your bride and would gladly stomp on her, oh, wait, already be doing that. I mean, that's just politically asinine.)

Other than the seemingly lip service "I want to end wars" bit, until ep 17, LTG's never shown other characterization. He's been consistently a jerk with a smirk -- until bam, he gets this extended montage of his sad and pitiful backstory. It's like we're supposed to suddenly now see him revealed as actually this woobified puppy and empathize, and forget that up to this point he's been thoroughly unpleasant to pretty much everyone.

I'm not saying you *can't* do that, but you have to start laying hints and clues for the viewers, from the very beginning. Show a character being arrogant and cruel, but as they turn away, the character shows a glimpse of some other emotion. (Could it be? Is that a flash of regret?) If you do it subtly but just enough, by the time it's revealed the so-called Villain is actually Just Misunderstood, it will feel like a natural reveal.

Here, though, I just feel a bit of whiplash. And also annoyance. LTG has been (again, except that sole "no more war" thing) consistently arrogant, high-handed, smug, downright cruel. Having a tragic backstory doesn't change that. To quote B99: "cool motive, still murder." Or in this case, sad backstory, still a jerk.

I feel like that entire flashback (half an episode? more than half?) is really the writer trying to pull a switcheroo on us , characterization-wise, for LTG. Worse, it's not subtle. (see reply for what I mean.)

and he's honest about it, too. he's really a very self-aware ML, who thinks deeply about things and acknowledges where he's strong and where he's weak.