AleksandraSucur

Oh, now I see.
After watching this, my guts feeling is: this was not an "acting", the emperor was truly furious.
So, we can rule him out now as a masked man, too, because the masked man knew about ZX's plan to steel the seal.

If we are talking about shipping, I root for BaiChuan as before, the only woman who can keep in check and see through a guy using such an unorthodox means.
There are no sparks with her, but this is not a romance and I don't see sparks with Ning either, just some brother-sister attachment from their childhood

To which trailer are you referring to?

I still have no clue. The hints pointed to someone connected with Dongxia interests

the emperor can only be the masked man, no way he is the third killer.
The third killer knew the ring consisting of three fish and taken from ZX's father after killing him was the key to activate Gui Seal. As an emperor, he could have easily eliminated them both and keep both the box and all three fish. So, the third person is definitely not the emperor

No.
3 fish were split among the eunuch, marquis and the third enemy.
ZX's father had three fish ring on him when he was killed. Indeed, he wanted to hand it over to the Dongxia Queen, so we can only presume he wanted to flee to Dongxia with his family.

Yes. I suppose he thought it would be the best to keep the seal and its activation key (=fish ring) separated in order to avoid to be used against each other, but his killers took and split the ring and ZX has 1 fish (from the marquis)

It's strange the third man haven't ever shown up to this point... As if he/she is not after the Gui Seal at all, or... maybe knows about ZH's plans aforehand

Yesterday I've binged last 8 eps I've put on hold last year, that's probably why I can't stand her, it's too fresh. Now I am just watching ep 3/S2, handkerchief tearing scene... there are still some dumb infantile overractions, the only improvement I see is a less childish hair style... I'll try to catch up with the rest

he appeared only in last two eps. I watched them yesterday. Lord Zichuan presented him to Ning as an "advisor". He is from a rich family, doing business everywhere, lot of connections. Ning is his childhood crash. I hope he takes Ning from Xiu... and far away from the screen 😁

It is exactly as Megumi-H said, Lord Zichuan is all about maintaining/defending his power, hiding it by playing dumb. He doesn't trust anybody, very creepy person.
As for the quick black n white scenes, it is a director's choice to insert them to express what is going on in the head of the character related to the scene. It may be a flashback but it can also be an expectation. It's basically a technique to explain a certain action, given the choice of this director not to use dialogues or narrative, but only and exclusively "actions" to "tell the story". It is very hard, almost impossible, to tell the story just by using actions, almost no hints are given, that's why the S1 ended with such an unexpected cliffhanger and no prediction for what will happen in the next season.

Tnx a lot. ❤️

great comparison 👌, it instantly reminded me both of them and how similarly irritating they were in very different dramas 🤦‍♀️

That bad? You don't recommend watching?

Maybe, our ZH is not a villain either and yet, his schemes knocked down all the villains we've seen till now, who said only villains can be dark and deadly?🙃

If I have to chose who is darker and deadlier between the Marquis and the Eunuch, I'd chose Marquis's wife, she is truly scary...
Now, we can only hope the Queen of Dongxia will live up to their combined "darkness & deadliness"...

I agree with you about the masked man, if not him, somebody really high in status.
As for the 3rd killer, some1 from DX

yeah, I'll miss them both, espc. the singing and drumming 👌of the psycho eunuch 😁😁😁😁I wonder who'll entertain us now?

my review (and rant) https://mydramalist.com/profile/11598319/review/459384

It is the poor screen adaptation. In the novel, her goal was to become an empress (and she became one, marrying a sort of Cao Cao, in the novel this character obviously had a different name, an old man who controlled a young puppet emperor and later usurped his throne). She was never after love (as it is presented in the drama), she was entirely after the supreme power, working on it diligently, whatever it takes, using smarter political schemes and her charmes, manipulating a larger pool of political actors, Liu Yan (who also proclaimed himself as an emperor, after Wei Shao killed the previous one) was the last one in a series...
In the novel, she didn't have a handian but believed strongly in her empress fate, in the end, it is LY who kills her... and such an ending is more logical

Totally agree. The first 6 eps were good because the scriptwriters greatly followed the novel which isn't great in its narrative but it is well structured in plots, actions and political intrigues. Far from ever turning into a fluffy romance and - very differently from the drama - the novel MADE SENSE ALL THE TIME, characters and their decisions, plots and motivations were realistic, both on the protagonists' and the antagonists' side. Things we didn't see in the screen adaptation which displayed - beside a completely unnecessary exaggeration and twist of original characters - a great deal of nonsense, episode after episode, culminating in a super-rushed finale.
Last but not least, the drama adaptation failed to maintain the atmosphere, the geist of its time, in many episodes