AleksandraSucur

Ep. 6. I've truly never ever expected to see the old Yugoslav partisan movie "Walter defends Sarajevo" (transliterated in pinjin as "Waerte baowei Saralevo") and never knew the movie had such a huge impact on Chinese audience and filmmakers.
"It was seen by upward of a billion people as it toured the land, playing to entire factories and villages in makeshift screenings. Fifty years after its debut, many in China can still recite entire scenes line for line."
https://www.sixthtone.com/news/1010236
Amazing!

Right. Going on at this rate, he should check on his glycemic index, cholesterol and tryglicerids, LOL. She literally endangers his heart 😂😂😂

Only she can make him crave for boiled pork entrails he'd otherwise find nauseating🤮

His characterial traits are the same, but the plotline regarding him differs, as the drama doesn't focus on the Li-Wei conflict as much as the novel

Indeed. I was also amazed by this care for details and ought to rewatch many awesome scenes and shots

Yes, it's easy to mix because her involvement in the plot happened in later chapters. Polo match was also in those ordinary chapters, not in extra ones.

No, those scenes were in ordinary chapters. The princess was recalling her meetings with GSY.
She appears seldom, but she was a key player in saving the ML when the emperor tried to frame him passing the message to Changyu in the palace. And it was thanks to her, the truth connected with the former emperor and Wei was revealed.

Gongsun's family suffered from their officialdom in the past and made the rule that no member of their family will enter the court. They are renowned scholars, but because of this rule, Gongsun thinks he cannot give any kind of marital/political support to the Princess.

In the novel, Gongsun is also a member of the academy, although it is his father (or grandfather) who is the headmaster, while he is some sort of senior bro/junior teacher there. It's his family's private school. The princess entered that school disguising herself as her maternal cousin, but was discovered later when her cousin, who was supposed to be at school, made a mess elsewhere.
Gongsun and Princess met at the academy (the scene with the falcon, the scene with a go game when they've recognised each other as players of the game at the monastery and the scene in which he gives her a special go manual he copied for her, all happened in the novel as well)

Having read the novel, I don't share your view of his "looking down on her", while in the drama is impressed by her. He is certainly more prone to think, is more experienced and skilled and ofc more knowledgable - both in the drama and in the novel.
The drama indeed (and totally naturally) left out certain things from the novel - I agree with you on that and among these things is his interior assessing of the situation in which he was after she rescued him, along with the persons around. His reserved attitude was expressed both in the novel and in the drama but through different tools (and that's also normal, they are different media): the drama was more focused on ML's expressions and actions/dialogues, while the novel also followed his "inner thoughts". And this thing can be applied to his other characterial traits: protectivness, a sense of family he longs for but achieves only through her, curiosity about her parents' story, physical attraction, shared values to protect the weak and find out the truth, immediate resentment (and punishment) of arrogant, bullies etc.
The core things (plotline and characters) are present and the same in both, while the differences in the story are marginal and due to their medium differences.

Her "need to grow" could be a pro argument to tell her the truth but with so many "cons", to me it seems more logical not to. At least, not before he deals with more pressing issues.
And it is not that he doesn't trust her capabilities at all, he still left her with Lord Li once assured she is ok.

I've read the novel, .
I agree this aspect (=hiding his identity from her) is better explained in the novel, but still think it was sufficiently explained in the drama. Drama cannot be extensive as novels (otherwise, they'll be terribly draggy) and I still think, this drama gave an excellent simplified version of the story in the novel. Eg., the dialogue between ML and FL on how they imagine their future spouses occurred in the drama, too (when they were sitting near a beacon) and I think there was no need to show us what he was thinking in that moment, as it happened in the book.
I agree the added Tao-FL dialogue in the drama which compared Tao's disciple and Yan Zheng was unnecessary. It was added for fun, as well as her buddies from Lin'an.
Anyways, those slight changes still doesn't affect the drama tells the same story from the novel and that in this precise moment of the narrative, FL and ML are... unequally matched and that the FL, for how the drama showed her "more self-aware", as you've said, she still needs a long path to go in terms of knowledge, experience and skills (as well as to find out the truth about her own parents).

I've noticed many commentators here don't like and criticize XZ for not having revealed his true identity to the FL yet. They seem to neglect very good reasons to continue with this lie:
1. There's an abyss in status between the two of them. The moment he tells her who he is, he'll estrange her, bc. they cannot be together... at most, he can take someone so low in status like her as his concubine, ie. degrading her (which neither he nor she would ever agree on).
2. By lying to her, he still maintains their emotional bond which will be shattered the moment she discovers the truth. Any other person would suspect the identity of a wounded person, with excellent martial skills and education, but in her straightforward naivety, FL believes (or wants to believe) he is just a transportation escort who, after being wounded by bandits, is willing to be her matrilocal husband to repay her for saving him. She isn't smart but isn't completely dumb either, deep down she knows he must have another identity - that's why she gave him the divorce agreement. Truth to be said, they BOTH clinge to his Yan Zgeng's identity bc neither of them wants to cut the bond between them.
3. She is also impulsive. If she learns about the huge difference in status, she'll run away and hastily marry someone else trying to forget him. He doesn't want that, he doesn't want to lose her. In his mind, after he defeats his enemies, he'll marry her nevertheless, he'll find the way. But it also means he mustn't lose her in the meantime.
For all these reasons, he must keep the lie going on

Yup, it's her husband. When she concieved Bao'er, QM (aka Sui Juanhai) wore a mask and had terrible scars of burning (from a fire occurred in the Eastern Palace). He underwent some sort of terribly painful plastic surgery which replaced his skin later to remove that mask.

Yup, I've noticed that too. Translations often make people confused.
And even the title "prince" for Changxin is wrong, it should be either Duke (a noble appointed by the emperor to supervise or govern certain territory) or even a King (to indicate the decisional autonomy under his territorial competence but with vasal position towards the emperor).

In English and generally in European languages, "prince" is a son of the highest autonomous ruler (king or emperor), the only exception is the "prince of Monaco", but that's a micro-state and Grimaldi ruling family started styling themselves as "princes" only in 17th century with Monaco first becoming Spanish and then French protectorate. There's also another case of micro-state (Liechtenstein) which was elevated from "county" to "Fürstentum" (principality in English) in the moment when it became part of the Holy Roman Empire in 18th century. The very term "principality" is often translated as "county" (territory governed by a count) or "marquisate" or "dukedom" in other European languages.

Changxin isn't a member of the imperial family, so it is inappropriate to translate his title as "prince" (with the 1st meaning above). The fictional state (Chengzhou) he rules is a part of the fictional empire of Yin indipendently from the fact that the noble who governs it rebelled. Its size doesn't justify exceptional use of term principality either, it isn't a micro-state and protectorate.

No. He is the 2nd son of the rebelled Lord Changxin (referred to as "Prince" in translation - but he isn't a member of the imperial family which is surnamed Qi, not Sui like him).

1. He doesn't want XZ to discover the truth behind the events connected with his father's death
2. Qi Min wasn't adopted, he was swapped as a kid with Lord Changxin's son. With his face burnt, nobody could notice the difference

Qi Min told him the truth, bc Qi Min is a biological son of the Crown Prince (and not of Prince Changxin although the latter doesn't know that while Qi Min knows his true origin) who was assassinated together with XZ's father after their defeat 16 y ago. The reasons why they were defeated and killed are a bit convoluted, but in substance, the late emperor wanted to get rid of the CP and Wei Yan (who is XZ's maternal uncle) left them to battle and die without support and then shifted the blame on other people (among which, Changyu's maternal grandfather, gen. Meng), concealing the truth since then.
Changyu's father was carrying a military tally with a request for help from Prince Changxin, who refused to help CP and Zheng's father and established his own rebel power. And unknowingly raised CP's surviving son, Qi Min, aka Sui Yuanhuai

In Tang, Li was family name of the imperial family. Wei was a maiden family name of Empress Wei and her cousin, plenipotentiary pm Wei Wen who tried to seize the power after emp. Zhongzong's death (and it was speculated they've killed the emperor as well), but were blocked by Princess Taiping and Li Longji. Familiar names for those who followed Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty😁
In this drama, two opposing political factions are headed by one Li and one Wei, although it takes place in fictional dynasty inspired by the Song.

Ti02 wrote who is Wei Xuan. The arrogant and dumb Wei Yuan's son. When heard what was going on in Lin'an, the prime minister Wei Yuan ordered his assistant to tie his son up and bring him back to the capital.