Reviews

After last episode's pleasant couple time…

After last episode's pleasant couple time moments, this episode starts off immediately with brutal torturing and murder of Chu Xiaoyu by Li Li Lou. Begs lots of questions such as: Why aren't the good guys doing more to protect Xiaoyu? Why didn't they send someone (using the invisibility cloak) along to protect her when she was summoned? This was too obviously a trap she was heading into. And why didn't she just climb along the side rail to avoid the hot coals? And then, when Zhi Lou go to get Xiaoyu's body, why did she go alone? Why didn't Mo Shang go with her? And then how did she get the body all the way back to their safe place? Oh, and don't overlook the stupidity of Li Yan confronting his evil sister. How absurdly stupid his character has to be! I get it. The writers wanted to add a little tragedy to increase the motivation of the good guys and our hate for the bad guys. But the way the tragedy unfolded was just too stupid. This episode is just not well scripted and the events in it are awkwardly rendered.

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Their actions spoke for themselves.

Everything they both did spoke of how much they love each other... 🥰 I hoped they would return to her borrowing his senses, but oh, I had forgotten she loses her powers in the meantime... But now it's back to the main arc we had in the beginning, and I am quite excited about that! 🤗And we all know the name the little spirit boy is forbidden to say was Yan Ke... right? So, does he have something to do with Simu's father's death? Maybe he has been manipulating and orchestrating way more things in the spirit world than I imagined. Also, could the boy be able to say Yan Ke's name if Simu asked him what the name of her Right Hand is? Because that could easily make her understand without the boy saying anything, really. 🤔

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Kanbei won against an army five times larger than his.

Nobunaga strove for unification, which alarmed the 15th Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, after being driven out of Kyoto by Nobunaga. He turned to the Mouri clan to help him reclaim his position. The Mouri would become the military backbone of the anti-Nobunaga alliance. They joined hands with the Hongan-ji temple to form an iron ring around Nobunaga. In 1576, Nobunaga personally led his army in Settsu in battle against the Hongan-ji temple. This battle would continue endlessly. Meanwhile, the Mouri came to Himeji to start a battle, with an army of 5,000 troops while the Kodera only had nearly 1,000. They encamped at Aga–mido, a temple of the Ikko Sect. Many Buddhists gathered nearby and supported them, including some of the Kuroda’s former maids who left the clan in the previous episode. The aid from Nobunaga or the Bessho and Akamatsu would not come because they were scared of the Mouri’s huge force. That would be the first time the Kuroda had ever fought against 5,000 troops. Tahe told his fellows that he would kill 1,000 out of 5,000 alone, while Zensuke was spying on the enemy in their camp. He later informed the Kodera that the Mouri would likely attack in the next morning. They took the Kodera lightly because they were confident in their large army. Kanbei came up with a brilliant plan to attack them from the forest at the crack of dawn and used the thick fog to trick their enemy. They gathered the remaining old men in the village and let them hoist the flags, beat the drums, blow the horns and raise their voices loudly to pretend the aid was coming to join hands with the Kuroda army. Kanbei’s strategy worked and they merely chased their enemy away this time. However, they had to be prepared for their next attack at any time. It served their purpose as a threat to Harima Province. The real battle would start soon. Probably even a much larger army might attack the Kuroda. They couldn’t rely on the Bessho or Akamatsu either. Anyway, the Kuroda won the battle against 5,000 troops, and Kanbei was praised by his Lord. Nobunaga was also impressed and sent a letter to praise Kanbei for the victory. Kanbei said the victory was thanks to everyone. In the battle, not only villagers but the Kuroda clan’s women and kids also helped to sew flags and prepare food for the army. Only after his victory, Kanbei showed his vulnerability with his wife, Teru. He confided to her that he couldn’t stop trembling because he was scared of the huge army and thought he would have died in the battle. Teru comforted him and told him that he succeeded in protecting Himeji despite his fear. After the battle, the Kuroda’s former maids returned to the castle for help because they got hurt and had nowhere to go. Kanbei and Teru forgave them and helped them treat their injuries. One maid didn’t survive, while the other two maids were injured. Zensuke was thankful to one of the maids, Omichi, as she saw him but didn’t point him out when he was spying on the Mouri in the battle. Inoue Kurouemon told Zensuke to be careful as he didn’t trust Omichi and figured out Zensuke had fallen for her. Meanwhile, Hideyoshi’s wife got pissed off because of his womanizing habits. She visited Lord Nobunaga in Azuchi to complain about it with Nobunaga and his wife. Nobunaga praised her as a perfect wife and that she was too good for Hideyoshi. Then she asked him to write his praise words in a letter to show her husband. Nobunaga was impressed by her boldness and told her to sit proudly as Hideyoshi’s wife.Teru’s old maid misunderstood that Kanbei and the other injured maid had an affair and told Teru to confront Kanbei. In fact, he was just applying medicine to the maid. Although Teru said she wouldn’t mind if Kanbei took a concubine to give birth to another boy, she felt relieved when she heard Kanbei said it was all a misunderstanding. In July of 1576, the Oda navy lost a battle against the Mouri and their allies at the mouth of Kizu River. Their defeat would trigger another crisis for the Kuroda.

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“Speed is the essence in war.”

For now, I feel a bit lacking if I don’t write down a few notes after I have watched each episode of this taiga drama, so I guess it will take a while for me to finish it. ^^An important note about Lord Nobunaga is that he wanted everyone to keep busy. Slackers were either ousted or beheaded.Takenaka Hanbei and Kuroda Kanbei finally met. Hanbei tested Kanbei and provoked him. He made Kanbei enraged, which was a rare thing. That was fun to witness lol.Kanbei promised Hanbei to persuade the major clans in Harima to side with the Oda, then the smaller clans would follow them and support the Oda. Those major clans included the Kodera, which was the clan the Kuroda was serving, Bessho and Akamatsu. This task wouldn’t be easy, because the Akamatsu were the Kodera’s mortal enemy. At first, The Lord of Kodera agreed with Kanbei to go meet Lord Nobunaga if Kanbei could persuade both the Bessho and Akamatsu to go, which everyone thought was impossible. But Kanbei succeeded, and that also impressed Hanbei.This is the first lesson in episode 9, coming from Kanbei: “Thou shall not allow his vassals to govern.” Lords should not lend the power of governance. Kanbei wrote a letter to the young Lord of Bessho and convinced him to stop letting his two uncles interfere with the governance in the clan. The young Lord realized it was time to fully take responsibility as a Lord and as I mentioned above, he agreed to side with the Oda. After Kanbei had succeeded in persuading the other two Lords, his Lord changed his mind and refused to go meet Lord Nobunaga. He even lied to Kanbei that his wife didn’t let him go. It turned out that he got pissed off because Kanbei was so fast in arranging the meeting with Lord Nobunaga, and got jealous just like a kid. He took it as the Oda was more important to Kanbei than the Koreda. When Kanbei still hadn’t figured out how to deal with this issue, a huge army led by Lord Araki Murashige who was Kanbei’s friend and he was serving Lord Nobunaga, came to Gochaku Castle. Hanbei begged Lord Nobunaga to send him to help Kanbei scare and threaten his Lord a bit, after hearing that he was reluctant to meet Nobunaga.Araki Murashige told Kanbei that he had to keep on fighting to have Lord Nobunaga acknowledge him, because he wasn’t as clever as Hideyoshi. He was heading to Ishiyama Hongan-ji temple to fight against the Echizen uprising (Echizen Ikko-ikki). The temple’s central figure was the 11th generation Abbot Kennyo. With the Mouri’s support, they would start a battle against the Oda to get revenge for Nagasima and Echizen riots. The thing is, this temple had many disciples, including some of Teru’s maids. They decided to leave the Kuroda clan when Kanbei chose to side with the Oda. There was nothing that they could have done because they had put their stakes on Oda Nobunaga for the sake of survival. In October of 1575, the three great powers of Harima Province including the Kodera, Bessho, and Akamatsu met Nobunaga in Kyoto. The Lord of Kodera got pissed off again because he considered Nobunaga as an arrogant upstart. As Kanbei predicted, the meeting between Nobunaga and the three major clans in Harima Province influenced most clans there to side with the Oda. Nobunaga now acknowledged Kanbei as a useful tool. Anyway, after the brief meeting, Kanbei and Hanbei met again. Kanbei seemed upset and said he wanted to persuade his Lord on his own if he had a little more time. Hanbei used Sun Tzu's words from “The Art of War” to tell Kanbei: “Speed is the essence in war”. This is the second lesson in this episode, coming from Hanbei towards Kanbei. In battle, one must be swift in order to win against their enemy. The next episode would be the start of a battle between the Oda and the Mouri.

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Incredible

Episode 21 of Where the Mask Ends is a ruthless, high-stakes hour that forces Wei Rao into the fight of her life, and finally gives viewers the partnership they've been waiting for.Han Liao's escalation is the episode's engine. Having failed to force Wei Rao into marriage, he pivots to outright destruction, accusing her before the emperor of embezzling disaster relief grain and even tacking on the capital charge of treason . The accusation is transparently fabricated, but its audacity is the point: Han Liao no longer bothers with subtlety. Wei Rao's defiant response, calmly declaring that what she loves most is gold, , is pure, unapologetic defiance .The episode's turning point is Lu Zhuo's brazen proposition. Driven by jealousy over Qi Zhongkai's marriage suit, he storms into Wei Rao's chambers at night, pulls her into his arms, and argues the only logical path forward: Han is their shared enemy, and only he can help her destroy him . It's possessive, messy, and entirely in character and Wei Rao, recognizing the cold arithmetic of the offer, agrees.The emotional cost is steep. Queen's public humiliation of Wei Rao culminates in Bitao's death by arrow, a loss that transforms Wei Rao's political calculation into something far more personal: a blood debt against the queen herself . The hour closes with Wei Rao no longer fighting merely to survive, she's fighting to avenge.

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Scents that linger and send a message...

Slowly getting better, but the breaks I had definitely are ruining the experience. 😔 I particularly enjoyed the Duan-Yan fight, and all the jealousy acts our main trio did there. 😌Her making a scented satchel with his scent, even if she can't smell it, was an incredibly beautiful detail... Just knowing she's wrapped in his scent probably makes her feel closer to him. And now she is about to gift him that for the wedding... 🥹And I do wonder what surprises the wedding will bring... 🤔😏P.S. I think I theorized before that maybe she would gradually gain the senses she borrows and he would eventually lose, or something similar, but either way that's a plotline I am looking forward to.

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