AleksandraSucur

yes, I find the entire bacground story very interesting, too, despite the difficulty to understand it thoroughly through translations.
But on the other hand, I think there are some flaws in the present day story: I find Lejun's motivation to kill Yunzhou weak under the aspect of logic and behavioural contraddictions of certain characters (Grand Tutor, the queen dowager, the Qin QD...) stretched to unnatural extremes

Yup, but PGB explained it in discussion section https://mydramalist.com/790870-que-gu/discussions/153476-who-are-li-mao-and-li-lejun-and-how-are-they-related-to-the-imperial-family?page=1#p3553338

His mom was consort An from An family (An and Lu were rebels 25 years ago) and tutor was his father. He was probably given as a baby to the Qizhou landlords (prince Li, an imperial relative and his wife princess Qi) who treated him like his own. That fief was lost in a war and his non biological mother was abducted or given to some bandits, while the orphaned children were brought to the capital and neglected until the grand tutor helped them

Thank you. It was me who have asked.

Did you get where the Li siblings were when they were ousted from the palace?

I didn't get to whom Li Mao and Li Lejun were "entrusted" by this minister/censor Cui as they've lived in such a poverty afterwards. And how the grand tutor Xie allowed such a thing for his biological son, how long they were far away before the tutor brough them to his mansion/school or whatever.
Btw., do you also have impression the Eagle King has feelings for Li Lejun, it isn't just to humiliate Ye kingdom/empire?

No, the boy's father was Ruisheng's husband and one of his generals., who died. She was a military doctor, abducted by the enemy at the time, HWY married her later and claimed the paternity to protect her reputation

First 6 eps felt good. The plot nicely balances between a funny development of the leads' relationship and an interesting political intrigue the leads are subject to. I like it so far. 👍

Totally unexpectedly, this drama will remain for a long in my heart. I've never been a fan of Bai Lu (actually, this is an understatement, I deeply disliked her interpretations), but her interpretation of Ye Li totally conquered me, she literally embodied the character which will stay in my heart forever to the fullest! I've also liked Cheng Lei's interpretation of MXY, less complex but requiring as well...
Despite having a few flaws, the plot was overall interesting and well narrated, exchanging different narrative tools to create suspence, mystery, estrangement, time lapse etc. or to convey different kind of feelings and sensations. Even more importantly, the story had truly original and EXTREMELY BOLD objectives: to realistically depict a person affected by a severe PTSD through a (basically) idol-fiction genre and make us fall in love with that character. If it wasn't superbly performed and directed, it could have failed thousand times on thousand issues. Just for this courage and success in achieving our complete empathy with Ye Li, this drama would deserve 10/10, also bc. the music and bgm were always on spot. But the story contained those (very) few logical issues, so, for me, it's 9/10

hardly believable dialogues and behavior, felt as only meant to create a rift subplot.

So true

forging an edict has always been a big deal, special fabrics, woven words, not to mention the imperial seal certainly well guarded by the ED at the time. So, the answer is not that obvious and what she had done exactly should have been shown

ehm

Actualy, that's a good Q. I have to think about a bit. Tnx

I can agree with everything you wrote, but everything you wrote only adds to what I've written, it doesn't contraddict the fact the edict plot is stranded, flawed, and requires an effort in suspension of disbelief.

Ehm, I must say again an unpopular thing about the edict plot. We saw it burnt, but again, consort Qin saved it somehow and we are left to guess how is it possible.

But at least, my reconstruction of the events happened 8 y ago was correct. ML's bro, summoned by the edict - arrived with his cavalry in the capital or somewhere near when the old emperor died. Fearing someone could have take and destroy that edict, he hid it somewhere and was imprisoned, revealing the location to the FL's mom. But the fire swallowed the Eastern palace and consort Qin's astronomer friend was imprisoned as well and she visited him immediately, learning from him about the edict (and how the hell did he know about it?). Meanwhile, Ye bros, assessing the ED is the last (wo)man standing, took the edict giving it to consort Qin, who was returning from the prison.
So, it is proven she could have saved at least one man with that edict, by presenting it at the court. But, she have chosen to follow her friend's advice, per inertia so to say, as his "follower", and somehow (we still don't know precisely how) kept the edict for her "own safeguard" against the ED, unaware how to use. And committing a crime of culpable omission bc. that edict could have saved at least one person (ML's bro), beside betraying her friend (FL's mom), who died bc of that edict.
Now, aware her beloved idol was a charlatan who tricked her into a blind loyalty towards a person who treats everybody as her pawns, she burnt his collected works. Thank you, Mars in Antares and all the stars above! I may have been wrong in judging her smart at the beginning and smart persons don't believe in crap, but now she acts smart and burns the crap she believed in so much, so, bye, bye, rotten capital, I am heading to my vacation in Lignan, not feeling guilty at all. Hm.
And the FL somehow figured out everything in advance. The author asks me for a big suspension of disbelief here.
Bc. I've felt right even before: the edict plotline is STRANDED, now we know a great part of it, it presents significant flaws, while it will still be exploited to create a misunderstanding between the leads.
Btw, FL just stashed that edict under a blanket in a room where foreign princess was killed? And nobody thoroughly searched that room? I hope the script won't put us in other suspensions of disbelief in last 10 eps. bc I really like this drama.

yes, I also think he'll be furious at Sui witch for having framed Ye Li.

It's hard to recommend a specific drama, bc she evidently haven't got enough time to meticulously break and prepare every single scene as she did here. Also, how good shots will finally appear to the audience, depends greatly on the technicians, editors and money available for the effects. But above all, it depends on our personal taste and immersion into a specific story, and on the convincing performance.
She directed some of the most iconic xianxia dramas ever: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms, The Journey of Flower and Love And Destiny. I gave up watching her more recent xianxias, the plot in those dramas didn't catch me. She also directed one of the most beloved "Legend of Condor Heroes" with Hu Ge (I personally do not see as the best adaptation and I'm a great fan of Jin Yong and his trilogy), as well as several seasons of Chinese Paladin, that's why she is so well versed in scenes involving martial arts. I loved her Scarlet Heart and Sound of the Desert, although the leading actress in both (Liu Shishi) was too young to fully express characters she played. But I liked the stories and this director's ability to create the mood in them: poetic, melancholic... constantly playing between tension and... well, not precisely distension, but erosion, decadence, sifting of the sand... as if the yin and yang contrasting forces were always present and interacting with each other.
For many years we are awaiting for The Golden Hairpin, she directed with Guo Hu (another great director) with Yang Zi in the main role. Just by watching the trailer, you'll notice the scenes are organised, crafted and shot as if it was a movie, paying homage to a few iconic scenes of the greatest Chinese movie directors: Zhang Yimou, John Woo and Wong Kar Wai, all "grandmasters" of visuals and of guiding the mood of the audience in the direction they want.
So, just start to watch anything and see if you like the story. If you do, you'll certainly enjoy it

It's always nice to converge on smth after exchanging povs. 🙂

yeah, I've attentively read your opinion on this issue and how you initially perceived her as not that smart as I did. My initial impression of her may be wrong and she could indeed just be overly confident while overly trusting crap FL exposed in the latest ep.

No, she probaly couldn't save her master. Before, without knowing she met with her astronomer in prison and what exactly he told her, I've thought she could blackmail Muyang and ED: the life of my friend in exchange of the edict (which would attenuate her culpable omission: by not presenting the edict, she tried to save another innocent man's life). But, after hearing what the friend told her, it wasn't viable or at least the friend tought it wasn't viable and we can take that at the face value, not a big deal. I was referring to the ML's bro: if she couldn't protect her friend's life, she could still present the edict to the court to save the ML's bro from the execution. With the edict in her hands, she had the possibility to save at least one person's life.
Culpable omission is a crime, but if one commits that crime in order to prevent other crime to be committed, the guilt isn't the same