Aramintai

Yea, it's all very disappointing. I've watched this drama very attentively, because it's "blink and you miss something" here, and this unexplained plot hole about the edict irks me the most.
Another would be how exactly the marriage edict was delivered to FL without anybody discovering that the mountain is desolated, but it's not major enough to get annoyed.

As if the Lishan headmaster and the duke are the only ones who could have authenticated the edict in the realm.
And I think it's you who wants to force your thoughts on this to be the only correct option. And again, I didn't say anything about laying siege, killing civilians, etc.

In any case, unless they clearly show his reasoning in the last episodes (doubtful), it's all speculation. Really disappointing how convoluted this plot device is, with such a crucial thing ommited from being explained.

One. He already had allies, 30k people in the army allies. Nobody'd dare fight him over this in open military conflict, it's just stupid. Especially if the edict turns out to be genuine. Imperial guards never had such numbers in the city and the empress's position was still shaky. Staging an accident by burning down the palace is different from having an army at her beck and call.

Second and third - it's unclear when it actually happened and he could have gotten to SML in time.

Either she thinks ML will stay for the baby, or that he'd at least have an heir and FL some consolation with a child if he dies. Both reasons - very dumb, tbh, and she should mind her own business. That nanny is super annoying and has detrimental effect with her constant hovering.

That first one is easily solvable by showing the edict in public. We're going in circles here.

The second one - that's right. SML was next in line as the rightful heir. ML's brother should have gone to safeguard him immediately instead of getting arrested.

Third - exactly. So anything goes at that time, the dowager faction couldn't claim legitimacy either. If ML's brother was smarter, he should have gone to help SML.

I think it's SML who's gonna kill her. I hope they kill each other off, tbh.

The empress tricked the consort to become her ally by getting her enamored with that charlatan master. FL showed the consort that he was a charlatan and that he had a romantic relationship with the empress, and that he was only with the consort because the empress ordered him to. So, feeling betrayed, the consort gave FL the edict.

First off, there was no rightful heir at that moment.
Second, I didn't say anything about killing civilians. Since he wasn't with the dowager faction, why did he decide to aknowledge her coup? She even wanted to sit on the throne herself at first, which was rebuked by the people.
Retreating his army from the capital was the safest option to get backup and help the crown prince's faction.
He also could have gone to the Lishan mountain to get SML and protect him, and consolidate the crown prince's faction around him.

But what he did was both aknowledgement of the legitimacy of her claim to the throne, guaranteed execution for treason because of lack of edict and loss of 30k people's lives.

She was a power hungry bish who manipulated her friends. She even wanted to sit on the throne herself after the coup, but people wanted the emperor, so she had to place her son on the throne.

It's 10% romance, 40% revenge, 50% trauma.

Lots of shoulda, woulda, coulda that was never clearly stated in the drama. For such an important plot device in the story, that drives the conflict, they should have shown everything clearly about it.

The guy had an army with him - he could have just shown it right at the gates before witnesses or demanded an official who could authenticate it to come, nobody'd dare snatch it from him there. Waiting for duke Hua might be the only reasonable reach of logic, but it was never mentioned in the drama. And also, since he had an army to protect him, he could have retreated outside the city to wait for the duke, instead of having everybody arrested like dumbasses. He let down so many people in his army. Lots of strategic military decisions he could have done, but looks like he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed here.

I still to the present episode can't figure out why ML's brother decided to stash the edict instead of showing it publicly when he and his army entered the city. He even reasonably got arrested because he didn't have it on him. I've even rewatched some earlier episodes and there was nothing. This one is looking like a serious plot hole, tbh.

Still unclear. Tomorrow we'll know for sure when all episodes air with express.

They are this form because of their hair buns - notice how they nicely go behind the pillow? If those pillows were big, those buns'd be ruined. Basically lazy people pillows, for those who don't want to redo the hairdo every morning.

Same logic with Japanese woodblocks. I've seen somewhere those geishas sleeping with giant wigs just like that on those blocks. And Japanese swear by those woodblocks that they're good for the neck.

The square ones are still plushy, they're not Japanese wood blocks.

ML is being overly protective and obsessive over FL, jealous of every shadow too.
ML's brother's widow overhears that ML is going to war and panicking decided the leads need a baby asap. She orders an annoying nanny to watch over FL. Next thing upcoming is tricking ML to ingest an aphrodisiac. The woman needs to mind her own problems, tbh.

Episode 35 is another one of those slice of life, silly filler episodes, with a bit of cringe from ML and his brother's widow. One thing of note is they want ML to go to war and replace that official killed recently by SML's faction.

This one didn't age well, lol.

It got scorebombed by low int romance lovers who got confused by the genre, fast paced elaborate plot and non-frontloaded characters. As well as by haters as part of that ongoing smear campaign going on against the actress since the start of the year. This drama is one the best she's been in overall quality wise.