Group Watch MDL'ers From Feed

Notes, Reactions, and Recap

[*My Vocabulary: MCS=Mei ChangSu, (Dirty) Old Man=The Emperor of Da Liang, Princess=Mu Nihuang, gege=endearing "older brother", jiejie=endearing "older sister", qinggong=light body skill, Best Boy/Our Boy=Fei Liu, jianghu=pugilist world/world of martial artists/underworld, CP=Crown Prince, xiong=brother/comrade, often said among peers/friends.]

EPISODE 2, PART 2

-Princess's suitor tournament begins. Everyone's looking at the audience instead of the stage. MCS & co. are late, they have to find the most becoming ribbon for Fei Liu! :D

- Ok, that was funny as hell, a guy in the arena eliminated himself! XD Someone doesn't find this funny at all, but insulting that they allowed guys like these to be suitors in the first place. This someone is introduced as MU QING, Young Prince Mu, inheritor of the throne of Yunnan. He's the younger brother of Mu Nihuang.

- The Princes lose their patience & at last go to meet with the famous “Divine Talent”.

First meeting with the princes

- CP gives MCS a token to be able to go through the Palace whenever he wants to visit the grounds, he accept it but gives it to Fei Liu (who's delighted)! :D Prince Yu offers him some rare scrolls by some famous scholar, CP (who's very unrefined about it) intervenes, and they end up quarreling instead. But then the Grand Empress summons them...

- GRAND EMPRESS DOWAGER, Grandmother of the Emperor is surrounded by her granddaughters-in-law, her grandchildren, and (after she summons them) her great-grandchildren. MCS admittedly makes me cry by speaking to Fei Liu about the old grandmother...

She's the best grandma in the world!

- Nihuang sees MCS for the very first time, and she looks surprised. Grandma is very old, and it's hard for her to remember everyone.

- “Xiao-Shu (=little Shu), come here!” :'( “Xiao-Shu, you've gotten skinnier." :'''( 

- And then...!

- “When are you two getting married?” MCS seems to try hard not to cry. Nihuang is stunned. Grandma puts their hands together!

Hand

- After she leaves their hands, MCS keeps Nihuang's hand from leaving his!!! :'| They're both absorbed into it, until it's time to leave. 

- Nihuang, for the first time, allows herself to hope...

Hope

- Yujin is the not-a-care-in-the-world relief from that heavy moment we didn't know we needed. But Nihuang meets them again. Yujin, it turns out, gets some kind of innuendos better than the others, and he grabs them away to leave the lovebirds alone.

- MCS mutters some excuses, he doesn't admit anything. They stroll together, and Princess continues testing him. Some minor flirting starts, but then they get interrupted by the sight of a eunuch beating a little boy servant. 

...And the episode ends, see you next week! :)

END OF EPISODE 2, PART 2

 mengosteen:

I absolutely agree! I noticed so many important things! Mostly Mei Chang Su's expressions. I know it sounds like a small detail, but sometimes it's hard to determine whether he did something on purpose (and planned it so well it looks like a coincidence, i.e Fei Liu going to play) or was it truly a mistake/coincidence

I'm trying to pay attention to him the most, but sometimes /most of the time/ I can't figure out what's on in his mind, that's why I find him so interesting hahah

@Estelll, your recaps are fantastic! That's some serious dedication there, and very very useful for first time viewers and also for oldies who've forgotten a lot of the show. Thanks for your hard work in doing all this.

There's just one tiiiiny little feedback I'd like to helpfully add, if you don't mind. The 'Langya List', or the Rankings of Langya actually has a few lists. Mei Changsu's #1 ranking is actually for the Gentleman's List, while Nihuang and Meng Zhi's ranking is for the Martial Artists' List. 

I'll copy-and-paste more detailed information from this site (https://chubbycheeksthoughts.com/2016/03/04/nva-nirvana-in-fire/) here:

"Another thing that could be better was the elaboration of Rankings of Lang Ya. The English title of the book and drama is Nirvana in Fire but the Chinese title is Lang Ya Bang, which direct translation is the Rankings of Lang Ya. I felt that the entire 54 episodes, the drama mentioned it so many times but I was disappointed that it did not elaborate how it come about.

The drama mention that Lang Ya Hall is in the business of answering questions and how does the process works. There is no question they cannot answer, it is the matter of if the person who pose the question can afford to pay for the answer. Thus when the then crown prince and Jing Huan went to ask the question of how to attain the throne, the answer was to enlist the help of Mei Chang Su.

On a yearly basis, Lang Ya Hall will do a service to the entire Jiang Hu by disclosing lists of top tens, its like a give back to Jiang Hu after earning their money. It’s like the modern day top ten lists from Forbes.

Top 10 Beauties (must be single) : [Novel] Yun Piao Meng (Was ranked since she was 18 years old to almost 30 years old, One sided love of Jing Rui, who then married Wei Zheng on that year of the story started)

Top 10 Gentlemen (must be single) : [Novel] Rank 1 – Mei Chang Su; Rank 2 – Xiao Jing Rui; Rank 10 – Yan Yu Jin (he was only ranked at no. 10 on the year the story started)

Top 10 ranks of people with high levels of Martial Arts : [Novel] Rank 2 – Meng Zi; [Drama] Rank 4 Zhou Ding Feng (one of Jing Rui’s father); If I am not wrong, Ni Huang is the only female that is ranked inside but I am not sure of her actual rank

Top 10 Richest and most Powerful : [Drama] Rank 7 – King of Medicine Su Tian Su (adopted father of Wei Zheng)

Top 10 Pugilist Sect : [Novel] Jiang Zuo Alliance which was lead by Mei Chang Su has been ranked no. 1 for numerous years

Of these 5 lists, people tend to focus on the list of beauties and best martial arts and no one really bothered about the gentlemen list at all. [Novel] Yan Yu Jin was upset because its his first time being ranked and Xie Bi poked fun of him saying that most probably the next year he will be dropped off the list.

The list is consolidated by Lang Ya Hall’s masters and it only covers people that they seen or skills that they have witness. This meant that if there is someone with very high martial arts that were practised but he or she  never showed the skills off or participated in a competition then they will not be included at all.

Having this up will help educate the audience what is it all the ranking of Lang Ya about since it is referred so many times in the drama… It is even the title of the show for goodness sake! I had to briefly explain to those who watched it upon my recommendation." 

 Vya van Velaris:

LOL. That was exactly my thought. 

Like, Su Zhe --> Su She ? (ugh!) Jinling -> Jin Ling? And then there's Mu Qing from Heaven Official's Blessing?

Btw, for some reasons Princess Mu Nihuang is stuck in my head as Mulan. :D

ROFL I'm glad I'm not the only one that's ALWAYS thinking of the Untamed/MoDaoZuShi, no matter how inappropriate!! :D

And as for Nihuang, when I first watched it, I was always remembering her family name/house as the House of Cows (Muuuu->Cows) :P (Sorry not sorry :D )

 Estelll:

Btw, can you please tell me (with spoiler mark) which one is the 1st in the Martial Arts list if you know? 'Cause I don't think the drama mentions this at all. Is there a chance that the book canon is different than the drama canon, so in the drama there's only one list?

You're welcome! Always happy to help clarify things if I can. Concerning your question, the answer is not a spoiler because it's in the 2nd episode. 

Yan Yujin: "Commander General Meng: A first-class general who is in charge of over 50,000 imperial guards. On the Langya List, only Xuan Bu from Da Yu can beat him." --> This means that on the Langya List of Martial Artists, Meng Zhi is #2 with Xuan Bu being #1. Drama canon is the same as book canon. 

Mei Changsu can't be #1 on the Fighters List, he can't do martial arts. 

EDIT: Ok, I found it. Episode 1. Qin Banruo: "A volume of discord and disarray, the Langya List records the unimaginable talents of the world. Any kind of person would be honoured to be named on the Langya List. This person [Mei Changsu] is the first on the Langya List of Gifted Scholars." So Mei Changsu is, as per book, #1 on the Gentlemen's List.

(The problem is that the drama and the novel casually refer to the whole setup as 'Langya List' without always clarifying which Langya List. I guess that's because it's the characters themselves who are speaking so they would casually mention it the way we might casually mention e.g. "Yeah, Wang Yibo's also on the Forbes List" but only the listeners would be able to put that into context i.e. Wang Yibo's on the Forbes '30 Under 30' List, and not, say, the Forbes 'World's Richest Men' List, LOL. But now that we all have some context as to what each of the 5 Langya Lists are, hopefully you can put them in the right buckets when you hear them further on in the drama.)

EDIT 2: Estelll, you also mentioned this in your recap: "Shady businesses are about to be conducted, but the victim(s) is trying to escape into... guess where? Jiangzuo Alliance. They must be first in Langya List for a reason. NOBODY messes with Jiangzuo Alliance!" So you see, there's definitely more than 1 Langya List. :)

The fact that the recap is longer than the episodes scares me a bit. 

I don’t mind them, is just that I feel stupid. I barely catch up with names lol maybe I need more episodes to get into it.