whoissilmoy

Neither Cui Lin nor Li Ni is wrong. I can understand why they both think differently. Cui Lin operates independent of the royal family. It is no wonder the throne would feel threaten by Cui family's military might. She only serves the people. When the people suffer, there will be uprisings and never-ending wars. Li Ni just simply has no ambition, and even if he does, he will never overthrow his father or the rightful heir. So, I have no qualms about his decision either. If Cui Lin had never run into Li Ni, and did not know his character, she would have fought him on the battlefield, and one of them would die in battle, because her loyalty is to the people, and his loyalty as a commander is to the royal family. Knowing her character, she would die fighting for the people. When she met Li Ni, she discovered he was the solution. Cui Lin was more ambitious than her father. I think it was her idea to lead an army to intervene in the rebellion. I don't recall which episode, her father seemed to just want to return to his prefecture, and asked why she wants to continue to meddle in these wars. Also, if Li Ni hadn't persuade Cui Yi to give up Luoyang the Eastern Capital, LI Ni and Cui Lin would have to fight each other on battlefield. Li Ni is someone who can find conflict resolution without resorting to fighting.

Cui Yi, Ying's father, was ahead of his time too wanting his daughter to inherit everything and only having one wife despite he didn't have a son.

LCF had two personal guards in Cui army. Chen Xing died in ambush setup by Cui Li in episode 12. LCF was distraught by his death and seemed to really care for him.
A Shu is the other remaining personal guard. The two guards were orphans taken in by LCF and Commandant He (Ying). They swore to keep LCF safe because he took them in and gave them a home in the Cui army.

I've always viewed the Li Ni father and brothers as comedy act. The three has chemistry and hilarious to me and I find the acting superb. They are funny without being overtly comical, insead subtle and hidden.

Crying can reduce stress but repeated exposure to negative emotions can lead to depression. I suggest you balance it with a happy scene afterwards.

not your cup of tea

i agree with you. thanks for pointing it out.

General Sun Jing was an ambitious tyrant, really smart man, and he loved Crown Princess very much. Crown Princess loved him too. Actually, these two have the reverse conflict of LI Ni and Ying. The acting was on point. Did Sun Jin never consider that Crown Princess would betray him?

thanks for your insights

It is a tug of war. Cui Lin should not push Li Ni but she feels he is the only hope for the people, and she sees his greatness. Li Ni, simply has no desire to rule and even if he did, he is too noble to usurp the throne. Tragedies will force his hands.

Cui Lin is a character who is not afraid to take risks and make difficult decisions when necessary, and is resourceful, ingenious, witty, intelligent, decisive, cunning, and pragmatic. It is difficult to say her true motivations. Did she save Li Ni because she cared deeply for him and does not want to see him die or was altruistic and selfless to betray him and risk her relationship with Li Ni for the greater good of her country because she firmly believes Li Ni is the only hope for the people. She prioritizes his life over the life of the rightful heir, betrays his trust resorting to tricks again by creating a ruse. Her actions ruined Li Ni's plan to save the boy. She is very ambitious, even ruthless in her own way but always for good and will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals.

Li Ni, on the other hand, is a true hero, selfless and courageous, a person of great character and integrity, whose actions are honorable and noble, and who is willing to give his own life to save another, do what is right, keep his promise to crown princess to return the boy to his rightful place as the heir to the throne. It may seem naive, stupid, and reckless of him to offer to kill himself on the spot, but the willingness to sacrifice oneself for a cause or another person is driven by a sense of duty, honor, or love. While it is difficult to imagine being willing to die without knowing how things may turn out (his brothers and other factions may kill the boy later to usurp throne), Li Ni was willing to take this risk given his sense of duty and responsibility. People are capable of great acts of courage and selflessness when faced with difficult situations. Some may argue that he is too idealistic, and his actions have unintended consequences. Others may argue that he is doing what is right and that his actions are a reflection of his character and integrity. He has no ambitions in life except to return to Laolan Pass.

In summary, Li Ni and Cui Lin's relationship is complex and muti-faceted, with both characters sharing the same vision for the country but having different goals and motivations that conflict with each other. However, they are also drawn to each other and share a deep connection that transcends their differences. Some might sympathize with Li Ni and view him as a hero who is willing to sacrifice himself for what he thinks is right. Others might sympathize with Cui Lin selfless willingness to betray Li Ni in order to do what she thinks is right.

Ep24/25 sets the stage for the pivotal conflict that is central to the plot and that everything else revolves around it, raises questions about love, loyalty, sacrifice, and whether it is possible to reconcile seemingly incompatible goals and desires. They are at a crossroads, each facing different paths. It is a pivotal moment in their relationship where they must choose between their own goals and desires or their love for each other. The two are like Yin and Yang trying to pull each other in opposite directions and the paths they choose will determine their fate. The story is compelling, and conflict is thought-provoking, highlighting the complexity of their relationship and the challenges they face to navigate the political turmoil.

fake cuilin or LCF somehow decided that Cui Yi was never sincere toward him and used him as the fake cuilin, in other words, took advantage of him. I don't recall what triggered him to think like this. I'm not excusing or condoning his deranged behaviors, but it explains part of why his mind is spiraling out of control.

It is possible for him to misunderstand Ying's brotherly love toward him as something more. They were inseparable growing up, doing everything together, and she dearly loved him and showed much affection toward him. From the deep grief for him when she thought he had died, it showed she loved him so much for all that they had gone through together since kids and in battles. Like LCF had said, because they were siblings, he could never express his love for her, so he kept it bottled up for so long and became obsessive when LI Ni showed up. Why did the writer revealed that Cui Yi had hoped that LCF or even Cui Li (yuck) would make good future husbands to accompany his daughter. Is that how LCF got the idea that he and Ying would always be together for life?

I just finished ep 23 and still not finding the pace slowing down for me. I appreciate and enjoy each episode as it consistently moves the plot along, never digresses from the main plot, diving deeper into the characters, their relationships, their past, and foreshadowing troubles to come, making the movie easy to follow and leisurely to watch. Each episode is leading up to the ultimate confrontation between Li Ni and Ying, or the climax of the movie, and the choices they will have to make.

Additional thoughts:
Bao is a thoughtful, kind, perceptive, sweet, adorable, loveable teddy bear of a man (also loyal) who deserves a loving wife and a family of his own. Perhaps the writer wanted the audience to love him so much that if he dies a horrific and heroic death later on, the audience will be overcome with emotions for him.

The low IQ emperor seems to have a highly intelligent wife by his side.
The low IQ emperor has always been biased toward LI Ni because of the brothers, that is why he never trusts in Li Ni. When emperor says of Li Ni going to Tong Pass "he likes to fight, then let him fight then", I think was in reference to him growing up embroiled in many fights especially with his brothers who blamed him.

LCF has a lot of deep emotional and mental issues besides his infatuation with Ying, he also has an identity crisis, having lived his whole life as someone's shadow. These things have now been shattered, and also, he now feels his father was never sincere in adopting him but was taking advantage of him, rendering him unable to cope with the real world anymore. At this point, it feels like LCF is the cat with nine lives and not die easily. His character is needed to provide twists and turns in the plot.

General Cui is a rare man ahead of his times. He is committed only to his one and only wife. He loves his daughter no less than a son and wanted her to inherit everything. But he was also shortsighted and actually thought that LCF or Cui Li would make a good husband to accompany Ying one day. Perhaps that's where LCF got the idea from growing up with Ying, that he and she would always be together.

Prime Minister Wu (and daughter) seems to help Li Ni but have ulterior motives., and the emperor seems to listen to Wu more than other ministers.

Ying character is multidimensional, possessing both masculine (Commandant He) and feminine (Lady Cui) qualities, and her emotional arc is complex.

It seems to me that if Cui army did not combine with West Pacifying army to take back Tong Pass from Sun Jing, one day, Cui Lin and Li Ni would have to fight each other to their deaths to take back Cui occupation of Luoyang, the Eastern Capital. LI NI proposal for Cui to give up Luoyang will help avoid this situation.

I suspect the movie is popular and rated highly due to the popularity of the leads.

the currently watched and completed are finally in sync at 8.68 and 8.7, respectively for WoL. These two should not be that far off, yet they were since I've been following it Nov. 25. when currently watched was 8.79 and completed was at a low 8.27. (unfavorable differential of -.52). I don't believe that the overall people who were enjoying the movie, then was disappointed with it when completed. So finally, the pattern makes more sense to me. Following the other movie, their patterns were always favorable in very aspect. Their currently watched is 8.71 but the completed is 9.02 (favorable differential of +0.31).
Their pattern was consistently favorable by that much.

The verified/stars rating since it became unstuck at 8.14 has continued to change every day. It is now at 8.26. Both movies I'm following show a verified that is significantly lower than watching and completed so the lower rating is probably correct for whatever reason. But I just wonder since WoL was stuck at 8.14 for a while, if the 8.26 should be tad higher.

Another pattern that I was watching is making more sense starting this week, now that the movies are done releasing all the episodes, is the ratio of users to watchers. WoL ratio always made sense that the day to day changes I saw the change in # users were always less than the change in # of watchers. The other movie was consistently opposite pattern and significantly different. But starting this week, that other movie, the pattern is reversed so that the users are less than watchers, like WoL has been (I'm just talking about the daily changes. The overall pattern has been always fine).

Also, the total # of users to total # of watchers have increased from 10% to 17%, hopefully, it will continue to rise, and the ratings are impactful enough to raise the overall above 8.5.

in ep 30 where their faces are sunk into the muddy puddle, Xu Kai said the horses were nearby peeing. I think he said the pee may have mixed into the puddles. In the wet scenes, he was soaked all the way through his clothes as long as it took to shoot the scenes.

I read the comments below the article and found this poetic description of his crying:
" ... he cried beautifully, and tears would drip like pearls."

Who can cry and still maintain the handsomeness?

I saw a clip of Li Ni singing in episode 31 as described in this article. It sounds exactly like Xu Kai's voice. Does anyone know?

the scene where Li Ni on his horse turned around to propose to Ying, it was Xu Kai who did not follow script that said just say I will marry you then leave. Xu Kai put his own interpretation of the lovestruck and emotional Li Ni to cry out at least 3 times that he wants to marry her. I watched bts and the horse was being difficult, yet Xu Kai wanted it to be passionate and emotional because that is the way he sees Li Ni. In the bts, I could hear Xu Kai real voice too and it was pretty good.