The ending explained according to the book " The Art Of War"

 unbeliebubble:

You are very much welcome ^__^

The era of depiction of the events is important and the millitary codes aswell.

 At a time when losing your honor could get you killed, I couldn't believe the narrative some viewers had  disregarding the ethic and codes making them believe that ordinary soldiers could take command and decide to kill an enemy when their ruler is dead on field. 

Soldiers obey orders they don't rebel or show insubordination. 

I felt compelled to make this point because a lot of people were fighting  over this topic. 

wow, you know a lot about the ancient Chinese military! So my complain is to the producer for not explaining that and doing this goofy ending

Yes , *smile*. In 2024, we women know (at least a bit) about ancient chinese millitary codes. He He He. 

You know that aspect now aswell. So next time they script a ludacrious ending that makes no sens, your critical thinking will be more sharp about those tropes.

This is why I knew Duke Su couldn't die. I never fell for the open ending that a lot of people tried to convince me with. BIG NO NO

Bravo, you have very good arguments about the scheming characters. I guess Duke Su's role is less developed because in the novel, it seems that he had a minor part. Some viewers were surprised to see him popping up so often in the drama. 

I personnally like him popping up, because everytime he did, he stole the show *__*

 TaliaToo:

Also, we know the drama likes to mirror its scenes with good vs bad. For example, SYR "killed" XFF in the beginning and hurt her where she was best at (her head/talents) and left her to die without looking at her. The mirror-scene is XFF "killed" SYR at the end and hurt him where he was best at (his hands/scholarly writing--that poetry on the wall, his art) and left him to die without looking at him.

So, there is a scene of Duke Su's father in armor fighting to the death because he had no hope. In the final mirroring scene, Duke Su fought to live because he had his wife to return to (pendant)

There are other mirroring scenes--the Crazy Princess taking away the "innocence" of SYR lost the most innocent thing she thought the Heavens had granted her--a baby Also, she was killed by the very thing she had corrupted.

The mirroring scenes of Jiang Li under her pear tree (her Li is pear) and finally, of XFF with her own tree, now back with her own identity.

So many more!

It's so much fun reading your analysis. 

This is why this show is so good. They really put in alot of effort in storytelling and that is the main reason I know it’s not a sad ending because they would have told it better. They wouldn't have ended such a pivotal death off camera without a million forwarnings and callbacks also it didn't tie in with the novel and they had been committed in staying true to the novel even with many changes.

 TaliaToo:

Also, we know the drama likes to mirror its scenes with good vs bad. For example, SYR "killed" XFF in the beginning and hurt her where she was best at (her head/talents) and left her to die without looking at her. The mirror-scene is XFF "killed" SYR at the end and hurt him where he was best at (his hands/scholarly writing--that poetry on the wall, his art) and left him to die without looking at him.

So, there is a scene of Duke Su's father in armor fighting to the death because he had no hope. In the final mirroring scene, Duke Su fought to live because he had his wife to return to (pendant)

There are other mirroring scenes--the Crazy Princess taking away the "innocence" of SYR lost the most innocent thing she thought the Heavens had granted her--a baby Also, she was killed by the very thing she had corrupted.

The mirroring scenes of Jiang Li under her pear tree (her Li is pear) and finally, of XFF with her own tree, now back with her own identity.

So many more!

This drama is so poetic. Thank you, so much for your analysis. It is so accurate. 

You are right there are a lot of mirroring scenes like :

The scene when Xue Fang Fei receives Jiang Li's hair pin ( who was abandonned , like dead to her family) : she take the identity of Jiang Li. (she is like a dead woman)

Mirroring the scene when Duke Su gives her back her mother's pendant ( that she had pawned, before being killed and officially buried by her husband SYR ): she takes back the identity of  Xue Fang Fei (she is back to life)

It couldn't be a sad ending.

To prevent such misunderstanding I am pasting those comments

Terra1000     4 hours ago 

I don't think by the (medieval)period of this drama, there were any rules except to win. Any chivalric rules were gone by the Warring States period. In ancient set piece battles, the loss of the commander usually resulted in moral collapse of the army, it's like the head has been severed from the army. One of the most famous example was when Alexander charged into the Persian center at Gaugamela. The Persian king, Darius fled and the whole army collapse even thought they were much more numerous that the Greek army.

unbeliebubble     26 minutes ago
 @Terra1000 I don't kown about that. This is not Persia but China.  General Sun Tzu reported facts in "the art of war". I don't base my understanding on conjectures ( probabilities or appearances). I am sorry.

unbeliebubble     8 minutes ago
 Same periode:
=>  The art of war : 500 BCE
"The Art of War is traditionally attributed to an ancient Chinese military general known as Sun Tzu meaning "Master Sun". Sun Tzu is usually linked with existing in the 6th century BC; the earliest sections of The Art of War, however, most likely date to at least 100 years after him."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_War

=> Warring states periode : 475 BCE to 221 BCE
The period of the Warring States (Zhanguo or Chan-Kuo) refers to the era of about 475 BCE to 221 BCE. It commenced at a time of when the numerous petty city-state kingdoms of the Spring and Autumn period had been consolidated into seven major contenders and a few minor enclaves.
https://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/warringstates.htm  : San José State University

 TaliaToo:

I'm not sure about the chivalric rules of warfare during the period, but let's just say, from costumes such as pearls adorned on faces, the drama was supposedly set in the Song Dynasty, and this dynasty was around 960-1279 AD, quite a ways from the the Warring States period. They might have followed the chivalric rules of warfare at that time  :).   Many of these C-dramas tended to mostly follow this rule of commander dead, the battle was done, and all subordinates surrendered.

Thank you so much, 

I always prefer facts over speculations. I understand that some people are used to sad endings. But this is not a reason for them  to give misinformations. 

Thank you so much for this enlightenment ^^

 TaliaToo:

YW.  OT, you know what is the most interesting thing? Machiavelli, medieval dude (ahem), read Sun Tzu and wrote his own Art of War, in which he adopted and argued for the opposite of many of ST's strategies.

For example, Sun Tzu's #1 principle is Know your enemy. Machiavelli's is more Destroy your enemy (scorch earth would be his extreme). Anyway, not to go too deep, I think a cool thing to do would be to compare XFF's and Duke Su's Sun Tzu's Art of War strategy (always finding the weakness of the enemy) to SYR's Machiavellan style (be ruthless, the enemy of my enemy is my friend, kill them all). But that's a whole essay, haha.  Fun to think about, nonetheless.

Yes, really fun :

Princess Wanning : 

Investigate your enemy, pervert the object of your desire and keep thinking that, this object will still be pure and untouched. You never know, you could catch some innocence out of it. ^^