AleksandraSucur

He inherited the title after his brother was executed and after he was declared not guilty and freed from prison. As we never seen the father and his elder brother held the title, we can reasonably deem he was already dead.

8 y ago she was 12, MJL was 14. In drama, we don't know the exact age of the MXY, we've only seen there was a gap when he saved her

It isn't just the cliff, hair combing, being together in the pool with some muscle show off, helping with (un)dressing, saving a damsel in distress, kite flying, exaggerated skills of the leads... which may appear marginally even in other types of dramas and in this one the use of tropes was certainly limited in terms of time and good taste... but there are certain recognizible patterns in the romantic relationship between the leads and in the overall setting we've all seen many times as one commentator exhaustively listed recently, pointing out how - despite those patterns - the story still feels original and fresh and I agree with that opinion. Besides, if the story is good and is executed well, why would we care if it is an idol drama or not? What's important is our feeling while watching, what it gives us, what we learn from it and how we emphatize with the characters.

I see.
I think it isn't the age of the leading actors to define one drama as "idol", but the type of roles and drama production leading actors were usually into. With drama products not really interested in telling good stories but in creating fandoms.

Bc, the lead actors usually appear in traffic idol dramas. And while the drama deals with very original and even heavy issues, the authors still decided to maintain certain "idol drama tropes" (like fall from the cliff) although never abused them.
It's fine, I have nothing against idol dramas, on the contrary. It required courage to put such a story in this kind of setting. I'm not disappointed, but still fear I may be... I've explained above

❤️

😂😂😂👌

I don't mind at all. Yes, my origins are from the Balkans. That's probably the reason why I've met and talked to so men and women suffering from PTSD and later deepened the knowledge through scientific reading

maybe even with alcohol, which is another form of sugar

I was so delighted seeing how the ML handled (or better, how the SCRIPT tackled) her mental issue. I simply must break the scene in details:
1. after the initial shock, he doesn't contradict his wife by saying the truth (not even politely: "look, you are imagining things, there's no person other than us here"). An expert would advise: if you ever get in such a situation - that's the RIGHT APPROACH!
2. Worried, he quickly calls for a physician and consults him.
3. The doctor's diagnosis - she suffers from a HEARTBREAK - truly made me transmigrate in that room and in that time. "Heartbreak" is the word I've seen/read/heard in so many Classical dramas (Edgar in King Lear, the Sophocles's Ajax, Aeschylus's Oristheia thrilogy), read about it in ancient folktales, examples often quoted in manuals dealing with PTSD as examples from "ancient wisdom" on behaviour and symptoms of traumatised persons. Symptoms we would all experience if we lived experiences a normal brain can't process or handle, because they are too harsh, too injust, too absurd to consider real... Then the brain activates its defensive mechanisms, erasing, rescribing, reelaborating the memory and the behaviour...

To deal with such an important and delicate issue (in an idol drama!) is already 10/10, just for the courage! Do not want to repeat what many other commentators pointed out: cinematography, music, care for details, superb performance (while I've seen a great potential in Cheng Lei even before and he certianly didn't disappoint me in this drama, I was never a fan of Bai Lu, but she totally won me over with her Ye Lu: every expression is spot on: I relate and love Ye Lu with all my heart). This is a great story, a great script.

Why the rating isn't soaring as it would deserve? It is gradually climbing, right, but at the point we are watching, it deserves at least 9. Eg., the story is definitely more intriguing and better told than certain dramas rated 8.9 (I won't name to avoid futile debates). I think we fear, at least, I fear, the story will falter. Personally, the story of a diviner condemned for having set the fire to the CP's palace (in the last ep) is unsettling me. I'll be disappointed if the reason consort Qin didn't save ML's bro with the edict was some sinister divination... It's already strange such a calculative and well grounded person can believe in a divination that ED's is her fortune ascendant, but it'll be intollerable if they use divination to justify eventual criminal actions or inactions
So, it's the kind of narrative that suspends our judgment and it is ok it does. 🙂

No, but it is highly unhealthy, for teeth and intestines and causes glicemic peaks. Glicemic peaks (ups and downs) may alterate the mood. A prolonged uncontrolled consumption of sugar will cause addiction to sugar, obesity, diabetes II and a series of other problems connected with last two factors.
Unaware people should definitely avoid to follow FL's diet.

It's very easy to say "I know what ptsd, schizophrenia and DID look like in patients" without providing arguments to support your statement and without counter-argumenting mine which prove her "symptoms" are all in PTSD range, bc you don't read "alladat". Concluding with a "lets agree to disagree", a statement nobody can argue while it's a nice way to call for an easy draw. 😏

Well, you've listed many PTSD symptoms she IS experiencing and that's already a good start. It isn't true she sees Qing Shuang without any stress. She sees her when she needs to assess a problem or to fight loneliness or simply to talk to. It may look a bit dramatic, but we are watching a drama, a work of fiction and artistic creation, a "lie that tells the truth" to say it poetically, not a documentary on PTSD.
Who says her seeing master Zhu fighting snakes is outside the PTSD range? Dissociative fugue and identity alteration are among (many symptoms) of PTSD, treated even in classical literature: in King Lear, Edgar (who suffers from trauma caused by his murderous father) sees himself as another person, "poor Tom", a beggar possessed by demons, thing often quoted in manuals. while Ajax (both in Sophocles tragedy, based on the story told in Odissey but without specific preceeding PTSD details) storms sheep and cows imagining they are Greeks who took Achilles's weapons, torturing them for many days without ever realising they were not even humans but animals. These both examples from literature are so much quoted in scientific texts on PTSD.
Finally, to be diagnosed with PTSD, a person doesn't need to show ALL the symptoms (which may also appear in other mental disturbs), but a certain number of them on the list of generic symptoms. A person develops those symptoms accordingly to the specific trauma and to the specific trigger on the memory. Based on what we've seen and what was hinted till now in the drama, every person - with a normal brain - would show Ye Li's symptoms, bc normal brain protects person's life and survival against an unacceptable reality

She is neither schizophrenic nor has a multiple personality disorder. She lived/survived through important traumatic events no normal brain could have accept as a reality, so the brain either erased or rescripted such memories, but they are triggered when a person is exposed to stress or pressure and than creates alternative reality and imagery which supports it to contrast and suppress them again from re-emerging. In modern psychiatric science, it is called PTSD

Hm, it shouldn't. She and her mother tried everything to protect his bro and he knows the relations between his wife and Ye family are not good, he only just doesn't know why how and why her mom died. If he finds out she died bc of the edict, he won't blame her or her mother.
But there's another problem connected with the edict. It was given to consort Qin, meaning she could have save but she didn't. The story of a diviner condemned for having set the fire to the CP's palace is unsettling me. I'll be disappointed if the reason she didn't save ML's bro with the edict was some sinister divination...
It's already strange such a calculative and well grounded person can believe in a divination that ED's is her fortune ascendant, but it'll be intollerable if they use divination to justify eventual criminal actions or inactions

No, he does not

Well, he spoke in favour of Lishan scholars framed by Muyang and Ye Li said they would have been liberated if prince Li didn't sign that confession. He also supported MXY's nomination for prefect and was his superior in the army, so he is definitely against the Muyang's gang which is - ED like it or not - her greatest support in the court and ultimately the material force/source of the power which enables her to have such ambitions... I too expect Hua to play a role in taking her down, just found unnatural the absence of maternal and grandmaternal relatives of prince Li in this drama.

In Ye Li's story, he was sent to Lishan "to recuperate" after being ill as a kid. In his story, everybody at Lishan excessively revered him, only she treated him as a friend, helping him to learn things. So, I'm not sure that he was sent there to receive particularly good education but what you've said about the "legitimity" of his brothers stands and we have no clue about these issues.
And yes, it's true that HD Xu sent him to Hua for safety. I've read a comment of a novel reader saying Duke Hua was the father of the former empress (or maybe CP's wife, can't remember precisely, but they were blood related in the novel). I wonder if such a thing will come later on in the drama. It's strange how all the stars lined up with ED eith years ago, as there were no former empress's or crown princess's relatives - people certainly interested to put their blood relative on the throne - at all. Did you notice this thing, too?

Heh, what's the "best" is always debatable in politics. Li Shimin's father passed the throne onto his elder son (and CP) when he was still pretty healthy indeed, but Li Shimin nevertheless orchestrated a military coup, killed his bro and forced his emeritus father to validate his coup. If he weren't a very successful emperor later, we would have talked about this method as "the worse", bc the existence of a living emperor emeritus allows to legally validate what is illegal (rebellions, coups etc) in substance. Ottomans argued that their empire was strong and "healthy" untill the succession system in which one son of the dead sultan kills all his other brother together with their mothers (to "confort them in death") was legally in place. So, lets' avoid valutations on legal-political questions and return to the drama.
Imo, prince Li could have stayed at Lishan, he had other bros who lived with his father (he mentioned that he hated them) and could have eventually be summoned back for his father's ascension. If CP or the former emperor feared certain political factions or ED would not respect CP's succession, leaving one son outside the capital would be only a reason to keep him outside and not to summon him. But, we will certainly see the reason why prince Ding was called back. There's even a slight possibility that someone else faked the imperial edict and orchestrated the whole set up in interest of Cangbei, which gained 4 cities lost by Chu.

It was CP who called his back to the capital. And when it was mentioned, I've had a feeling that summon was falsified by Muyang gang in order to capture Prince Li while the people inside the palace (Qin consort or ED) would deal with CP and his family inside imperial gates.

But ofc., ours are all only suppositions and guessings, like you've said