Sol1056

Yes! okay that makes sense (in terms of what she says). It just doubled the irksome for me that the one time she raised her voice, she didn't get subtitles. thank you!

that was the minute mark according to the streamed version I'm watching.

Help! In ep 14, around the 38-minute mark, XQ yells something, too fast for me to catch, and naturally that's the one line they decided to skip when subtitling. Does anyone know what she said?

For day shots, possibly, if it's a surface that would show footprints very easily. It real value is in night shots, because it's a very old and very cheap cinematic way to increase the amount of light in an otherwise dark scene. All the watery/wet surfaces reflect the light, so it's like having two torches instead of one.

I felt like the only way she'd go over-the-top in her defense was if he went over-the-top in his offense. If he'd been like, yeah, well, don't touch it ever! She'd be de-fanged in her own defense, because clearly it's not that big a deal. His actual reaction, though -- in real life? I'd be packing my bags. In a fictional story? It makes total sense that it takes him escalating dramatically for her to have reason to come back with the same amount of fury.

It's some pretty efficient characterization, too. He tried to dominate using his greater physical height/strength, and she fought back using her greater knowledge and intelligence. She won that one. The whole scenario underlines their fracture points. He's got the strength, so even when his actions are ill-thought, hot-headed, jumping to conclusions, his might can make it right. She's got the smarts to strategize but also to read the room, and it's her intellect he distrusts the most (no small part of which, I suspect, is him realizing she's so much smarter than him, and kind of resenting it.)

And the biggest plus: she didn't just convince him she wouldn't stoop to learning his secrets, she also got him now doubting his own family instead of her. Major score!

Opening of ep6, all I can say: You have a horse. Use the horse. The horse would be a lot faster.

It's up at the top of the page. Click the button that says "watch trailer".

Really close to an actual title (of an anime) from a while back: The Legend of the Legendary Heroes. I mean, I would've thought when the subject is "legend" that would automatically make the object "legendary" but I guess that particular studio decide they were taking no chances.

Bad endings? or boring endings?

Episode 17 gave me whiplash.

The entire point was to drive the daughter away, since the only thing waiting for her in that household is misery (assuming she survives). This is one of the very few cases where that opening monologue said clearly something is very, very off. When we got to the part about expelling FL from the household, WZR's delivery went from angry to almost desperate.

That made me start doubting a lot of the appearances, because who'd react like that to their own child? Either she had to be the cruelest (in which case, why hadn't she just offed that concubine already) or she had a very good reason to want the FL to be anywhere else. What really drove it home was when she offered the FL a whole lot of money to leave. If you hate someone, you just beat them to death. You don't offer what's basically an incredibly generous bribe to get them to go away.

Frankly, much of the story hits the same notes as plenty of others. What sets this apart is the FL's cunning ruthlessness, the intellectual cat-and-mouse tension between the FL and the ML, and the mother's incredibly complex and unreadable character. Those three pieces are what's keeping me glued to the screen.

I wasn't aware you needed to read Chinese to be able to click on the first video link in the row. Try this link instead.

https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E6%B8%A9%E5%B3%A5%E5%B5%98

Have to say, when the ML warns about playing with fire in ep8, the FL's response was utterly savage.

Not dubbed. Check out her speaking straight to the camera, same distinctive voice. First video on the page.

https://baike.baidu.com/item/温峥嵘

First, Jiang Si was right that it'd put a target on them even bigger than the one already on them. If you hit Yu Qi with any kind of parental kindness, he'll do anything for more of it. That's his greatest weakness. But the two had already figured out that Princess Royal put the empress in that position, and the empress seems fully aware she doesn't have the power to protect YQ/JS to the degree they'll need. I didn't sense she was insulted or hurt, so much as a little let down. Partly because clearly she likes YQ, but also because even an adopted son would raise her status immensely.

But by politely refusing it in front of Xian, now Xian's got skin in the game thanks to her pride. I think in the past, Xian tried to protect herself by distancing herself from an ill-fated child (just think of her fate if they'd decided his bad fate was *her* fault!), and her actions since have been someone who desperately does not want her fragile boat rocked in any way. She's probably as powerless as the empress, really, but Xian's can at least screech at high volume, and sometimes making noise is a power in its own right.

As for going to the emperor? It's all a matter of timing. If the ex-husband had waited 24 hours, they could've struck then, while it was still fresh in the emperor's mind that his sister knew a little too much about a distant massacre. But once MY was gone, now the royal sister is getting all the emperor's sympathy for her loss, etc etc. If they strike now, the emperor will automatically rise to his (poor meow meow) sister's defense. Either they wait for the princess to screw up, or they create a situation that'll force her to.

I'm pretty sure FL's mom wasn't dubbed (unless we're counting the actress doing her own dubbing). Her voice is wonderfully distinctive, and she can wield it like a knife.

I've seen Wen Zheng Rong in many shows, but I can't recall one that demanded such an incredible range in only one scene. That takes some immense skill, to believably slip from absolute zero disdain to hot fury to an almost helpless kind of rage, where you're so angry all you can do is laugh, and didn't chew the scenery once. She made the character hateful, but also kind of pitiable, and that takes serious chops.

Has anyone identified who's playing the Princess Royal? I keep thinking it's Qi Wei, but it seems like she hasn't done anything since Under the Microscope.

I was waiting (or hoping, at least) for someone to point out to MY there was no quarter given Yu Qi when he refused to marry her, so why should she expect any different when it was her turn?

She manages to pull off what's actually a really difficult maneuver: going from being a blunt instrument of evil to a spoiled princess with zero concept of how things work and all of it resting on a foundation of just not being very bright. The role is rather broad and could've been cartoonish if the actress wasn't up to giving MY a little bit more complexity. The actress makes it possible to see how MY might've actually been a sweet person -- if a little daft -- had she been raised by someone who wasn't a monster.