mione

unfortunately, people weren't so hyped about this drama because at the time, it was competing against "the untamed" (which pretty much became many people's 'drama of the year' lol), and people had already became sort of bored with xianxia dramas like "love and destiny". i guess this is why we shouldn't always rely on ratings haha

it better be good lmao cause i'm waiting for the drama to complete before i binge through it. it's going to take lots of patience lol

i go on this page daily to read comments and spoilers though HAHAHAH which is really tempting me to start the drama ...but i really don't want to go through the pain of waiting for new eps :p seeing your comment makes me feel that i have made a wise decision to wait! xD

i'm going to elaborate on what saffy said, for people to easier understand how women "belonged" to men.

back in those times, women were not really considered 'human', but they were considered 'objects'. this was how people created the phrase of "women are just decorations in the household". they have no say and can only abide by society's rules imposed on them. in the ancient chinese culture, a good woman would meet the criteria of "the four virtues and three obediences" —which are basically principles that define how a woman is a 'good daughter and wife'.

in the drama, the kidnapping would not have only ruined shiyi's virtuousness, but if this were to happen in reality —sexually assaulted or not —the woman would've likely committed suicide to protect/prove her virtue. those times were very harsh for women :( and like what saffy mentioned, we still have this problem in today's society, except it's happening from a different perspective and there are more people willing to speak up about it. i think for this reason, shiyi can be considered as a strong character (EQ-wise).

spoil plssss. what happened?

this remake is actually really good though (probs the best one to date since the 1983 adaptation). and it has the special appearance of michael miu, who played yang kang in the 1983 version. the story is more faithful to the novel too.

i'm curious, what was her ending in the novel?

if i remember correctly, someone said that in the novel, qiao becomes pregnant but has a miscarriage afterwards. i have a feeling the drama won't follow the novel since they made a lot of changes from the way they're developing the characters (e.g. ml does not have a daughter in the drama, but in the novel he has a daughter.)

CGI was lousy and they used stunt doubles a lot, esp for FL cause she was pregnant at the time of filming. chemistry between lead was 200/10 though <3

they used to list voice actors on wikiaddict, but i don't think they do that anymore. you will have to go to a chinese website for that.

it could be another case of shiyi giving courage to danyang during labor. like how in minglan, she helped lady zhang with her difficult birth ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

what was the daughter's storyline like?

i see. that's a big change from the novel. because didn't xu lingyi have a daughter birthed by aunt wen in the novel?

so in the series, he only has two children (so far) with aunt wen and yuan niang? cause in the novel, didn't he at least one have child with each concubine?

this drama has so much potential and i was actually looking forward to finishing it. but after ep 21 i just couldn't bring myself to continue. the scheming plots are very dumb, like a game between 10-year-olds —except this is between immature adults :/

such a brilliant cast list wasted by a messy storyline, immature and hypocritical characters...
...and nothing about the FL screams "rebel". whoever thought of the English title should be fired, lol.

can i know more specifically who birthed which child? i'm still so confused lol

so in the series, xu si yu was birth by madame wen. later on, shiyi births jin.

who birthed chen and jie respectively?

i also see no aunt/madame tong in the cast list...does she have another name?

and apologies for bombarding you with so many questions haha

in the cast list, the names of the child actors are: xu si zhun, xu si cheng / feng qing and xu si yu. so i'm confused now...who's son is who's?

because i see no chen, jie or jin :/

it's definitely not seven haha. timestamp: 6:07

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mygu-t4rW5U&ab_channel=%E8%85%BE%E8%AE%AF%E8%A7%86%E9%A2%91

talking about pregnancy, i saw a giving birth scene from one of the trailers. who is that? i couldn't tell who because she had her face scrunched up from pain haha

i understand your frustrations, and i agree. but thinking about it from another perspective, the women in this drama was raised in noble/wealthy families so the idea of having to get married has already been instilled in their head since birth. the only purpose and goal set for them since birth was to marry off well (that new netflix show, bridgerton depicted this very well).

i think the drama gives emphasis on this to give some audiences a (obvious) reason why those women behave they behave and think the way they think. believe or not, some viewers might think the characters are stupid if the must-get-married idea is not emphasised. there's been occasions where i've read people criticising the character is blah blah for thinking or doing this and that —those criticisms would fit perfectly with a drama set in the 21st century, but not from the ancient times. this is to say that even though some viewers know this is a period drama, they still bring in their 21st century mindset when they judge a character.

i have not watched the released eps, but seeing all the comments about the concubines, i do have a question.

will ML ever favour qian lian fang? or will he ever get intimate with her? (although I know there has been changes from the novel, pls still spoil what you know pls :D) as she will be an antagonist, i want to save myself from bunching my screen lol (if ML ever does get intimate with her).

I'm okay with the other two concubines since his intimacy with them was before he met FL. And he is a grown-ass man, so it's understandable for a man of his time to have sexual experiences. this type of story is not something like yanxi palace, so the harem stuff can be annoying (as most of the viewers have already established the CP), so qian lian feng's character is really getting on my nerves from the trailers...

thanks for the detailed response!

in the drama trailer, i saw two kids. i'm assuming they're respectively the first wife's son and concubine qin's son?

with aunt qiao, are you referring to madam qiao or qiao lian feng? cause they're both surnamed qiao...