AleksandraSucur

methane gases... I'm dying... 😂😂😂

No. We only know Dowager has the key of the weapon box. We don't know how she entered in possession of that key. The fragmented Wu Zhu's memory hinted the key could be at the Dowager's place, but he could't remember was she entrusted by Qingmei with it, or was it taken, stolen...

If we disagree on conclusion the best thing to do is to re-analyse the premises we agree upon.
1. You've said: "Fan Xian in the novel is quick witted person but in this S2 drama Fan Xian looks like a careful person..." Which one is more credible as a person with memory of our time, the cautious one or the quick one? His hastiness made him to commit crimes (eg. cleaning up the mess behind his bro Si Zhe), and this detail may be a problem for the C-censorship, yes, but moreover and above all it will be a problem for the audience to root for him. At least this detail was repaired by the scriptwriter.
2. @Kateoz pointed out the hugeness of the novel as a big problem here. You must take into account that the number of chapters in this novel is more than double than those in War and Peace, which is considered "a monumental novel". It's insanely big. But it is not War and Peace, which treats real historical events, with real historical persons and many more fictionalized dealing with difficulties which really existed at the time and in that setting - making War and Peace hardly adaptable for the screen, every effort to adapt it was criticised for "truncating the important parts", because all parts are somehow important (because they were important for understanding the course of real historical events). The events in JoL novel are set in a fictional time and fictional space. The settings of the events are pretty common in Chinese narrative, we have palace stories, court (corruption, embazzlement, upright officials, censors...), two brothel stories, murders to be solved, flower admiration (and other similar entertainment), banquets, hidden identity stories, smuggling, decentrated-local power story, bandits, pirates, mission in foreign country, spy agency story, imperial examination and so on. It's not a masterpiece, it's a supermarket of stories loosely tied together, ready to be cherry-picked or dropped, copied & pasted into a new patchwork that will do on screen. I'm sorry to say that, I know you love the novel and I respect that, but the course of the events in the novel serve as patterns which can be easily rearranged and remodelled. And the drama patchwork is very well tied together, with inevitable inserts that didn't exist in the original

2nd prince henchman who poisoned himself in prison

Emperor's goals are "unfanthomable", lol. He keep all his sons in check, balance their power by using one against another, but in a way, he also trains them. He is a ruthless autocrat, no doubt, but we still have to know him better as to grasp his entire personality

If you like GoT, I can remind you of one of its highest point, present in both the drama and the novel, which happened before her invasion of Westeros, she conquered a slave-regime city, deciding to stay and rule it: "I'm a queen and I'll do what the queens do, I will rule".
In that lucid moment, even Danaerys understood that ruling (=politcs) is harder than conquering (and how many people you've killed in the process).
You see Mao Ni as GRR Martin (I don't like either the latter, but must admit he created a totally new world), well, he isn't

Ok, now you've made yourself more clear, too. Tnx for your effort. Anyways, one doesn't need to read the novel to appreciate the drama, or understand in which genre to put it. According to darwinism, humans are "the most intelligent creatures because they are tending to adapt to whatever setting (or genre, in our case, lol) they are put in." Missducky88 is so right about it.

Don't worry, it wasn't your fault, next time I'll use a funny emoji to make my words clear. Besides, you're right: I was "venting" smth, but what I was venting has nothing to do with the right to a different opinion. I'm this reactive only if I feel some injustice, arrogance or smth similar. Don't worry, I gladly read - good or bad - comments. They help to form mine, too. 😊

Bravo!

I doubt that, because Lin was ready to offer himself as a scapegoat for the investigation on previous years' imperial examination. PM Lin trusts FX a lot, he seems he will be glad to sacrifice his position if that allows FX to rise. It was the emperor's doing, through his chief eunuch. FX can't take over Neiku having a PM as father-in-law, along with CPP and FJ backing. Too much power, from the emperor's pov, and he already shown to FX (by killing the chief censor) that he is destined to a "lonely position". Which position is the loneliest?

yes. And this is not a "minor difference". The whole "course of action" was changed and - imo - repaired by scriptwriting which changed the order of the events, making the story more thrilling

I think that, too. Very curious how it will be developed in the drama

another thing. We both have a "positive view" on S2, but do you know this will be your opinion till the very end? Do you know what kind of votes will you assign if you decide to write a review? Because I have no idea, I must first watch it all to have an idea

wise words 👍

I'll repeat it again: I'm not against their critics AT ALL and I am totally fine with people who dropped this drama or this season. I myself dropped more than 90% of c-dramas I've started (I'm picky, remember?). How could I blame people who dropped smth they don't like?
But if a person continues to watch smth he/she doesn't like, while already reviewed and assigned votes to different compartments of the drama after only a few episodes, don't you think something is not ok?

Returning to why your logic is not validated: 1. most people who have positive opinion on JoL2 haven't read the novel. To this I'll add 2. I've read (although not recently) negative comments, too, expressed by people who have read the novel: they'd preferred scriptwriting stayed stick to the novel, following the order and plots of the novel. So, "not reading the novel" can't be the reason of negative opinions on this drama.

comparing them to the emperor's disorder, I've thought it was an obvious joke, not a judgment. We all have the right to an opinion yes, and the freedom of speech, on condition our speech is not offensive or nonsensic. If they are out of the norms, we can't blame other people reacting against it. Few days ago, I've reacted to an offensive comment towards you, as I've couldn't stand it...

you've said: "(...) those people who watched S2 expect the same kind of story line or plot like S1 because they never read the novel." But most of the people discussing the drama here are people who never read the novel, and most of that people (who never read the novel) LIKE or view positively the drama (whatever they've expected), so your logic above is not validated by the fact it isn't necessary to read the novel to have a positive opinion (or a realistic expectation) on the drama.

he didn't want to let other people know he was a person from an exterminated clan. Other people may be wary of persons like Hong/Chen, supposing they may hold grudges.

Yeah, all-knowing brains... 😂

I respect everyone's right to criticise (or praise) and you know that. This is not about the right to like or criticise, it's also useful when we share and discuss our different opinions, because that's the right way to have a better insight and to objectify our reasoning... it's about when and why we (all) should REVIEW a drama. How can anybody review and assign votes to different compartments of a drama if he/she watched less than a third? What kind of review is that? And why they continue to watch (chosing "ongoing" and not "dropped" status)? How can they be so confident of their overall opinion, when they've never discussed what exactly they dislike or don't understand (like scriptwriting) with other viewers?
Don't judge all the people through your lenses: you've read the novel, I've read parts of it and did so only recently, but most of the people discussing here haven't read it at all and they still like it as an independent dramatic form, discussing normally, without arrogance and intention to form their final opinion till the very end?